Welcome to “Tarl's Weekly Insights," my take on real estate today. 

Hey there,

Welcome to Tarl’s Weekly Insights, my take on real estate today.

In these newsletters, we'll dive deep into the real estate world, share valuable investment strategies, and explore the craziness that life has thrown my way. Whether it's my struggle and journey of overcoming flipping, deciphering the insanity of the market, successful strategies being used in REI, or just me making fun of social media real estate investors.

I can't wait to share it all with you...

New Year New Me! Now that I am done with 2023, I can finally make the changes in my life that I always intended to! WRONG!

(What I am about to write all applies to us real estate investors, no matter your experience level, so keep reading and hopefully, it helps in some way.)

I am the same person I was yesterday, what changed since the clock struck midnight? Probably nothing. How many times have I decided that on X date I am going to all of a sudden make massive changes in my life, and I actually do those things...and it sticks!? 

How many goals did I have that were SO BIG that when I didn't accomplish them, I gave myself an 'out' because they were huge goals anyways that I wasn't likely to achieve (like going from 50k a year to $1 Million a year in 12 months...).

I want to help everyone NOT do what I did for many years in my life early on, which was trying to create massive habit changes in my life all at once alongside big goals that deep down inside I never really believed I could achieve.

I have been in business for myself since I dropped out of college at age 20. That means for nearly the last 20 years, I have been working for myself in some shape or form. In those 20 years of goal setting and attempting to change habits of mine, I have found that the following works best in order to help get to success:

1. I must believe I can actually achieve the goal. Shoot for the moon and hit an eagle is BS in my opinion. Most of us just hit a rock. In my early 20's I wanted to make 7 figures a year so freaking bad, yet I could barely make $50k a year at best. And each year, when I was nowhere near on track, I would give myself an 'out' and give up altogether. It wasn't until I made my goal $100k, that I finally achieved a goal. Why? MY BELIEF! I believed I could make $100k, I never believed I could make 7 figures. Once I made $100k, it was easy to do it again, and also increase my goal to $350k. Once I got to $350k, it was WAY Easier for me to believe I could get to $1,000,000! It wasn't even a doubt in my mind anymore.
2. Small goals lead to big goals. Similar to creating more belief in myself every time I hit a goal, I also found that small goals lead to big goals as well as create compounding results, especially in my habits. Working out is the simplest example. If I currently work out ZERO days a week, then setting a goal for 5x a week for 2 hours a day will be very hard to maintain and even start. Instead, I can start with 3x a week for 20 minutes. What do I do for the 20 minutes? Maybe I am just walking, or doing simple bodyweight exercises. Over time, I can increase the length of time, add more resistance to the exercises, and possibly more frequency. The small goal creates the habit, which can lead to the bigger goals.
3. Take the first step, always, and do it now. If you are like me, you like to procrastinate. Or "work under pressure." Many times, I don't want to start something unless I can finish it all at the same time. This has prevented me from completing so many things in my life. What I have found, is that it is best to start at the first step no matter what. If I need to make a PowerPoint, make the first slide. If I have to write a newsletter, come up with the title of the first section. Buying a property? Figure out my buying criteria. The Pomodoro technique has worked wonders for me in this regard (Google it).
4. Track progress and make it visible. The things that do not get measured, will never get done. This is true in business and very true when it comes to managing a staff/team. My team focuses the most on actions/results that are measured and especially the things they are being measured on. This is true for ourselves as well. Track the progress, put it in a place that you see every day, force your self to look at it. For working out, I have a BIG white board in my garage that I have to see every time I go outside (our garage is our usual exit to go out to our property), it is also where my gym is.
5. Re-evaluate regularly.  Sometimes the goals I set, end up being things I really don't want to achieve later on. Is this an out? Sometimes, but typically when this is the case, it is because I didn't realize that this goal is no longer a priority in my life any more OR its not something I want after I started to achieve it. For instance, I thought I wanted to flip 100 houses a year every year...but later after increasing overhead, increasing my time, and my risk, and my headaches...I realized that this is not something I actually wanted, just something that sounded cool at the time. What I really wanted was more profit and more income, with less stress. I can do a lot of other things to achieve those outcomes, without losing years off my life from flipping 100 houses in a year...!

 There are more things I have done over the years to help me set and achieve my goals in business and in my personal life. The biggest lesson out of all of them though, is that it means NOTHING what the date on the calendar says. I have today, right now, and that's all I have. Nothing else is guaranteed.

Flippers Anonymous has officially launched this week. This is the ONLY support group for investors struggling with a house flipping addiction. 

We're a group of real estate investors who are ACTUALLY working on getting out of the day to day. No more fixing toilets, dealing with contractors, and worrying about what deal is next. If that sounds like something you're interested in, welcome to Flippers Anonymous.

Let's stay connected! Find me on social media at @tarlyarber and stay updated with additional videos and content.

That's it for this edition of Tarl's Weekly Insights! Stay tuned for more each week!

Talk Soon,

Tarl Yarber