#245 What's Your Big Picture? (with Mike Simms)

by Stephen Michael White

Author

June 1, 2021

Last Updated

Podcast

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

If you want to join in on Mike’s weekly accountability program feel free to email Eric (at) rent-prep

You can also grab a copy of Mike’s book “I am, I can, I will” at Amazon with this link.

Show Transcription:

Eric Worral: 00:04 Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of RentPrep for landlords. This is episode number 245. I’m your host Eric Worral and I’m really excited we have a special guest on the podcast today. You guys might be familiar with them if you caught them an episode 220 that was titled Motivation. Mike, I’m here with Michael Simms. How you doing Mike?

Mike Simms: 00:18 Good morning, young man. How are you?

Eric Worral: 00:20 I am excellent. You know what though I am looking out the window and right now we’ve got a crazy storm about to hit in Buffalo. My wife just texted me that the schools are already closed for the next day, which very rarely happens. So I think we’re in for it. We’re in for a treat.

Mike Simms: 00:39 Well it’s one way of looking at it. I like your positive mental attitude. Anyway.

Eric Worral: 00:42 Yeah, well that’s a good segue because that’s what we’re going to be talking about on the podcast today. If you guys haven’t had the chance to check out episode 220 with Mike there’s a little bit of backstory in there. We won’t go into it quite as much, but Mike and I met on a bike ride called the empire state ride. Seven days, 540 plus miles. It goes from New York City, Niagara Falls. Awesome. Awesome event proceeds go towards cancer research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. And I met Mike on the first day and I think I was more so from a distance and I was like, this guy is kind of nuts and by 7 hours I was like, this guy’s awesome.

Mike Simms: 01:24 I love that introduction. That is very very funny.

Eric Worral: 01:24 How about right after this intro we get to talking about motivation and…

Mike Simms: 01:29 Sure

Eric Worral: 01:29 I’m going to be using you, Mike. I’m going to be using you to fire me up. So that’s what….

Mike Simms: 01:34 Good, so that’s what I’m here for, man. That’s my life goal. That’s what I’m here for.

Music: 01:47 1,2,3,4 ya ya ya…. Welcome to the RentPrep for landlords podcast. And now your host, Steven White and Eric Worral.

Eric Worral: 01:47 You guys got Eric Worral and Mike Simms this week? No. You go by Mike or Michael? Which one do you prefer?

Mike Simms: 01:53 Either one is fine. Either one is fine. Both works I assure you.

Eric Worral: 01:57 My problem is I’m kind of lazy and I’m going to go with Mike, but you know, that’s what we’re gonna be talking today about. Uh, sometimes we feel kind of lazy and you’re looking for motivation. And Mike, you and I were talking, was it yesterday, right?

Mike Simms: 02:09 Yes

Eric Worral: 02:09 We were talking yesterday and we are trying to figure out what we want to do because for you guys listening, Mike is Awesome. He has this gift for tapping into people and making them like just feel lit up and like you want to run through a wall after talking to Mike and he has this natural gift that you have for just being able to figure out what makes people tick and really be able to dial them in.

Mike Simms: 02:35 That’s very nice

Eric Worral: 02:35 Yeah, and I mean 100 percent. I got the, it was a privilege to listen to you speak in the evening. The one night they asked if anybody wanted to stand up at this bike event that we went to and you stood up and you just gave this speech about kicking cancer’s ass and we’re going to kill those hills tomorrow and all this stuff. And by the end of it I was like, holy crap, like I want to get back on my bike today and start riding.

Mike Simms: 02:55 And we did

Eric Worral: 02:57 Yeah, yeah. It was a long week, but it was, it was an awesome, awesome ride. And what I’m interested in is we’ve got this audience here at Rentprep and we’re in a few different places, right? We’ve got the people who listened to the podcast here. We’ve got a really active facebook group called Rentprep for landlords. We’ve got our email newsletter and then we had the people that use our service for background checks. What I want to do is be able to kind of pull you into the fold and have you kind of be a voice within the group especially, but also on the podcast and making appearances there and really filling a void that people have. And I think we kind of started to touch on this yesterday. Avoid that people have where they just kind of feel like, I think you said, it feels like you’re in neutral sometimes you’re driving around a neutral, right?

Mike Simms: 03:43 Yeah. Let’s look at it this way. If anybody is feeling the way you just described as far as far as feeling of neutral, take this to heart. Congratulations. You’re normal. That is a big part of a progress. There are times when you’re going to be like, you know, dropping the shoulder through the wall and there are times where you feel like you’re a little overwhelmed. Congratulations. You’re normal. The other thing I think everybody should take from this that’s a natural progression for anybody that is really creating something great in their life is going to be ebbs and flows and that’s all there is to it. When you’re cranking, enjoyed when you are not come back to this and we will find a way to get that guest back in the tank, but don’t sit back any of them. Anybody listening, don’t sit back and say, oh, I’m having a bad day. Okay! Congratulations. You’re normal. Don’t worry about it. We’re going to get you back into the position mentally where you’re ready to just take on life and and beat it and when and it can happen and it’s going to happen. By doing this, you know, take, take into account. It’s part of the natural progression towards your goals.

Eric Worral: 04:46 So for you, I know that you kinda just have a natural energy about you is clearly helped you as far as like the fact that you’ve wrote across New York state twice so far. I mean most people aren’t doing that alone or no, most people aren’t doing that at my age. And your what? And your fifties?

Mike Simms: 05:02 I am 56

Eric Worral: 05:03 and you put it well like 5-6,000 miles on your bike a year?

Mike Simms: 05:07 Uh, last year I put just over 9,000.

Eric Worral: 05:10 Oh my goodness.

Mike Simms: 05:13 I never claimed. I never claimed to be normal.

Eric Worral: 05:16 I’m friends with Mike on facebook and there’ll be photos where it’s just like, it’s like 10 degrees out in New York City, Long Island area. And Mike’s out riding his bike and I’m like, he’s out of his mind. I’m like…

Mike Simms: 05:26 I love it though

Eric Worral: 05:28 My bike outside. I’m, you know, in the garage or something. But you had this natural intensity about you, this natural energy that a lot of people don’t have. Um, what about people who say they’re just like, you know, I’m just low energy or I’m in a funk right now. I mean, how do you like, is there something that you see in people because I feel like you have a very innate ability to… You are good perceiver, like you’re able to perceive what somebody might be doing or where they’re at right now in life. What do you do with somebody like that? If just a, they’re saying, I’m in a funk right now. Like what would you do.

Mike Simms: 06:00 Listen to what you just said. You said if somebody would have come to me and say, Michael, I’m in a funk right now. Okay. I’d take them to say, okay, just repeat what you just said to me. I’m in a funk right now. Right now means this is not permanent. This is temporary. I’d go back and say, okay, congratulations. You’re normal. This is gonna happen. The way to get out of it is to… What I would do is just ask them a lot of questions and I need to find out when I talked to them, what’s their motivation? Why are they in that position they’re in? It’s kinda hard to do it without really without you and I addressing what’s bothering you at the moment. You take them aside and ask them a lot of questions. I need to find out. I need for them to tell me where they are so I know how to get them out of where they are, where they are, where they need to be. If it sounds a little big, but I can be a funk right now. Okay, let’s sit down and discuss. Let’s go back through your motivation. Let’s go back through your goals. It’s readdressing this. Realign your mind. What are these? You want that a life. I’ll get them to go there, but I need to talk to them. And one of the things that I’m hoping that we do through this podcast is if people are listening to it or watching it and they start to comment, I want to, I want to read their comments. I want to address them after the fact or during the podcast itself. I need to find out what to do for them. And a lot of times it’s just in conversation, we had touched on empire state ride and I had talked to, um, I won’t mention her name just because I don’t know if there’s a legality issue here, but I had talked to her young lady probably about a year older than my oldest son and we were talking and she had told me what her motivation was for doing the empire state ride. And one particular day when you and I had touched on this actually in the, uh, the first podcast and I saw her coming up what was a brutal hill and it was at the end of 91 miles and we were riding in 95 to 97 degree weather and humidity in New York. And I could see the look on her face and I tapped into what she told me what was in her heart. And I had said something to her and she got out of the saddle and literally accelerated up the hill. So I need to find out where that person is, what those trigger points are. And after talking to them for a little while, I know what they are and you know how to get it out of them. I don’t know if that’s a vague answer or…

Eric Worral: 08:15 Well, I think there is tough things some time knowing, you know, there’s people that are goal oriented where they write it down and they know, you know, here’s my one month plan, six months, one year, five years, 20 years. You know, I’m, one of the things that we were talking about recently is having like a, a bigger goal that’s just outside of money. Uh, I think that’s kind of the default goal that a lot of people land on and especially listeners of this podcast, because people who are landlords, right? You’re doing something because you’re investing in your future. You’re right, most people aren’t doing it just because they want to be a landlord. It’s the money component of it. So there’s probably goals that are associated with money. And what are your thoughts on that as far as like when somebody kind of chasing a dollar or chasing a buck and that’s what they’re using for their motivation.

Mike Simms: 08:57 That concerns me a little bit. I think that’s a strong enough motivator to keep you locked and loaded in the game for an extended period of time. You’d be a lot deeper than that. We have touched on it when you, and Steve and I were talking yesterday about the altruistic goals, about the real not the wallet felt motivation for doing what you’re doing. Let’s me take it a step back and look at it this way and this is what I want to say to your clientele. You look at what you’re doing as far as being a landlord. First of all, I applaud you for a myriad of reasons and I’ll share a couple of them with you. Real estate accounts for, I think it’s between 16 and 18 percent of the gross domestic product of the US economy, so right then and there they are enormous contributors to what runs the damn country and they need to go into the understanding that you are a big player in a very big game and for that I applaud you because for you to have the wherewithal to get involved in something as tenuous as being a landlord can be, I applaud you. I think that that shows an enormous amount of strength of character and I’m in what you are providing for or for these people is a clean, reasonable place to live. That’s huge.

New Speaker: 10:09 You’re giving somebody the opportunity to have a roof over their head. I don’t think some of the landlords look at it that way and I think they should. What they’re doing is a tremendous service to these people and they should be a proud. They should be proud of what they’re accomplishing for it. The other thing is the less altruistic they are providing for their own families, they’re providing for their own, their own longterm growth. That’s huge. You understand? The mindset that you have to have to go into something like this, most people don’t have the backbone, the wherewithal, the strength of character to take on something as big as this. And this is huge. This is enormous. This is again, a tremendous part of the economy. I think they should be applauded for what they do. And I had tapped into the rent prep landlord site not long ago and I said, listen, you know, and I just started a thread and it took off and I was Kinda cool. I think there’s litigation that should be in place to protect the landlords because of what they endure, what they provide to the economy, what they provide to their local areas. It’s enormous.

Eric Worral: 11:08 Well, you know either it is not. I always said it is a David and Goliath type story.

Mike Simms: 11:13 That’s nonsense, That’s absolutely nonsense. Common

Eric Worral: 11:17 Well, this is my opinion, is that the reason, and trust me, I go through every week and I look up recent news stories and I searched the keyword landlord and 9 out of 10, 19 out of 20 are the stories are negative. And the preconceived notion of a landlord is these people are greedy. They are money hungry.

Mike Simms: 11:37 Right, Right! Money hungry.. Sure

Eric Worral: 11:38 And it’s a little bit harder to back the landlord with legislation and all that when you have somebody who is most likely in a lower social economical standpoint from that landlord. But um, it’s just reality of it, you know, it’s a little bit easier to fight for the smaller guys.

Mike Simms: 11:56 Yes the smaller guys. so let me tell you something based on what I’m reading on Rentprep for Landlord, you just lit the fire now. Now I’m starting to get a little twisted. You’re going to tell me that these people are wealthy. I read a story. One guy with a guy had left his house, took him two and a half hours to get to his rental property to fix the burners, stayed in the house overnight and kept lighting the burner in order to make sure that his tenants have heat. This guy’s wealthy. Really? This guy is rolling in $20 bills. Are you kidding me? So let’s do this thing. Then let’s have a real landlords sell all your properties tell everybody you are out. What do you think the government’s going to do that? Now all of a sudden we’re the bad guy. Really? Okay, no problem. You know what, now you’ve got nothing. Now you’ve got state subsidized housing. You think that’s going to be good? That’s the alternative. But these guys are alive? Really let me take a landlord outside and beat him with a stick. He took destroyed property in the neighborhood, upgraded it, put a nice family in there to give them a roof over their head. He’s the bad guy. I just want to make sure I understand what you’re talking about. That what we’re saying here.

Eric Worral: 13:00 I am saying a perceived notion. Yeah,

Mike Simms: 13:03 I know. I know you’re not. And I’m being sarcastic. Perceived as the operative word.

Eric Worral: 13:07 And you know what the guy that you mentioned, his name’s Dan. I saw that same thread and I was like, man, this guy is awesome. And I know Dan a little bit.

Mike Simms: 13:14 That’s Unbelievable. Yeah. I have never had the pleasure of meeting that man. I am dying to shake his hand. You gotta to be kidding me.

Eric Worral: 13:21 Yeah. He’s um, he’s downstate closer to New York City. Uh, but yeah, he’s um, he’s retired. His rental properties are his income, but you can tell he’s a landlord that cares a tremendous amount about his tenants and them being in a good situation and like you’re saying, that care and that motivation and understanding that he’s having an impact on their lives and the place that they live. It’s pretty incredible when you’re seeing that amount of dedication coming through and making sure that they have, you know, a warm place to live.

Mike Simms: 13:50 I think that guy defines commitment, the word commitment. You’ve got to be kidding. You drove two and a half. He and his wife drove 2.5 hours, If i remember clearly they got there around midnight burner like five times. Then went to the store and found the parts necessary for him to climb in there and get it fixed to make sure that his tenants had heat. Now and I’m being sarcastic and I’m not being confrontational with you, but more with a situation that I’m seeing on rentprep for landlord. You gotta tell me in good conscience that this is a bad guy, this guy, this guy’s a wealthy, you know, slum Lord. Seriously? Let me ask you a stupid question. Do you think a local area government official would have been there at midnight helping this person makes sure they have heat in the house? Answer my question. Don’t get me on a roll. I’ve had three cups of coffee this morning. I can go.

Eric Worral: 14:41 No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

Mike Simms: 14:44 Good Tell me in good conscience, Eric, that these people are greedy landlords and they’re all out for themselves and not for the betterment of the people are renting their properties. Tell me that in good conscience. I dare you.

Eric Worral: 14:54 I won’t

Mike Simms: 14:57 Okay!

Eric Worral: 14:57 You are like miles away from me and I’m still little intimidated.

Mike Simms: 14:59 Well, it won’t take me long to get there. You know, I could run if I need to. But this is you know perceived. The sad thing is that this gentleman that we’re talking about wouldn’t get, wouldn’t get the recognition that he so richly deserves for having the heart that he did. And I’ll tell you something else and I haven’t read them yet, but I guarantee you that I will. This is not the only story that the rentprep for landlords clientele could tell. Is that correct? Okay. You know, and I think the attitude that they should have is they are providing a tremendous service. They are providing a service to their tendency or providing a service to the general area instead of having it as a lap dated property that brings down values. They’re providing a service to the local economy because they have to hire people to get in there and get these properties fixed so the contractor should thank them, the local area government should thank them because these people are not living on the street and knocking on the assembly men’s or the congressman’s door looking for housing. But this guy’s a bad guy. Don’t get me. Don’t get me going. That’s what I have. That’s what I have as far as your rentprep for landlord clientele and I’ll defend them to the hills.

Eric Worral: 16:08 For anybody listening at this point you probably learned that Mike is like Kinda like one of those wind up toys, but instead like 10 revolutions, just give it about an eighth of a turn and it goes.

Mike Simms: 16:21 But just put him on the ground and let him run.

Eric Worral: 16:24 In that situation now we are talking about Dan there. Hopefully it doesn’t mind us talking on the podcast. He’s a great guy. Like, he actually messaged me and asked if he could be a moderator in the group. I said, yeah, sure. Like, can we donate to a charity for you? Whatever you want. He goes, no, I just want to help. That’s all I want to do.

Mike Simms: 16:41 So the guy just wants to help.

Eric Worral: 16:44 Yeah

Mike Simms: 16:44 Okay, So again proving my point and you just turned in an another 8th of a turn. He just wants to help. Right. Okay. I just want to make sure that we understand this and you know I’m not being sarcastic with you and this is more of about a situation and then you use the word perception. These people, these people are heroes and I’m not blowing sunshine up your ass. I’m not that nice a guy, but what you are providing, again, for a local economy, for the contractors that do the work on the house, Hey, you know what? They should have a couple of the neighbors that live around their rental properties. Knock on the door. Saying than you for making sure that this place has kept up, kept clean because it makes the neighborhood look better. But I’m the Goliath really jackass. Is that what you’re telling me? Okay. You know what? Why don’t I do this? Why don’t I have the tenants move out, let the place go to hell. Then tell me what kind of a problem you have with people breaking in or burning it down. I think local government should just come to your tenants and landlords is. Hey guys. Thank you. You’re welcome. Because you haven’t got the wherewithal to do it. You’re a government official. You don’t work for living. These guys do midnight. This guy’s like a, um, a burner in somebody in a tenants house in a tenants residence. Yeah. Okay. Go. Yes. Jerk. Stupid ass. And this is as clean as it can be.

Eric Worral: 18:03 So for the landlords listening, let’s say they’re not in dance position, right? Danza got the time right now because he has worked hard. He’s built up this rental portfolio and that’s the main thing that he takes care of, but you know that there’s days we see it all the time in the facebook group, especially where people you can tell are burned out. They’re ready to sell the farm because they’ve just had it with their situation.

Mike Simms: 18:25 Sure

Eric Worral: 18:25 And those people, you’re talking about that or just having a bad day or maybe it’s a week, a month, whatever it may be. Um, how do you help somebody, I know you said you would ask questions, but we can’t really do that with somebody as far as, you know, a hypothetical, but how would you help somebody find their motivation? Like you know, their why, why they’re doing it?

Mike Simms: 18:43 I think first of all, and you know, it may or may not be possible. I’d love to talk to them. I would love to talk to them because I believe if I get a a nice conversation, a cup of coffee. And by the way, I love caffeine. Caffeine loves me. If I could get them into a conversation, I believe I could tap into what’s already there. They’re just kind of missing it. How do you get them into it? Like anything else you had said about people writing down their goals? I think if you go back, first of all, one of the reasons why I ride the bike as much as I do because it gives me the opportunity to disconnect. Riding my bike also helps me calm down. Do you think I should ride it a little more? Possibly.

Eric Worral: 19:18 I think you should run over 10,000

Mike Simms: 19:24 Listen, wise guy that’s a challenge. Don’t think. I can’t do it, will try it. Sometimes and you are odd this because as a landlord, and I’m not speaking from experience, I do not do that just yet, but as a landlord, you are basically a 24/7/365 and there’s no buddy in your clientele that’s going to disagree with me. You need to find a way to disconnect your old debt and you should have that for your own mental wellbeing and your physical wellbeing. I think what you should do is find a place. Find a way, just completely disconnect. Go back over your motivation, go back over your goals. Even better go back to maybe a journal that you made up. You may have had, let’s say five years ago when you first got into this end of the business and look and see what you’ve accomplished and sit back and Eric, you’ve heard this. You’re somewhat in sales. It’s called ABC. Always be closing. What I prefer I’ve used it differently to my advantages. ABC, not arrogant or boastful, but confident. Go back and look at what you’ve accomplished. Go back as if I’m seeing your landlords. Now that’s having a difficult time. Go back and look at what you’ve accomplished. Go back and look at the difference whether or not they ever told you the difference that you made in somebody’s life. Maybe there’s a family that had a child in that rental property and maybe that kid was, you know, had a warm place to say, you have to understand that what you’re accomplishing and giving, providing these people is critically important for their mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and their financial wellbeing. If you look at it that way and look at what you have already accomplished and you’ve accomplished something enormous as a landlord whether you choose to believe it or not, it’s true and I will defend it and I can defend it. Again, economy, physicality, emotional stability of the family that you’re providing for. Go back and look at that again, not arrogantly or boastfully but confidently say, listen, I’ve done a great thing. I’ve provided a great service for these people. That’s huge and that has nothing to do with the wallet. Has nothing to do with the wallet. It has to do with being with being a decent, caring, successful entrepreneur, successful human being, and I think you need to take a step away from the nuts and bolts of the business and really understand what you’ve provided for a family.

Eric Worral: 21:46 Very well said!

Mike Simms: 21:46 I appreciate it, but it’s true. It is absolutely true and I’d like to think, and I say this with love and things of professional love and respect that I have for your clientele. I think a lot of times they don’t do it enough and I think they should celebrate their own success and so you don’t want to get arrogantly or boastfully, but confidently. I’ve provided a great thing for a family because what’s the other option? They will live in a shelter and we’ve heard the stories about what happens in those places. You know, you don’t need any part of that. You as a landlord have made it certain that this family will never endure that terror or that hardship by living in a shelter or that, that emotional distress of living in a shelter. What does that do? Let’s say an eight year old kid you know is living in a shelter with his parents. What does that do to his self esteem? What does that say about him? He feels inferior. If he feels inferior, he acts inferior. If he acts inferior, he lives inferior. And what does that do to him? You’re providing an enormous service whether you choose to believe it or not, for your tenants and that for that, I think you should be applauded, absolutely applauded. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Ever, ever, ever, ever lose sight of that.

Eric Worral: 23:05 My point on the things you mentioned to that’s worth repeating is celebrating the successes because I know this is something that I did become guilty of is sometimes success feels like a topless mountain that you’re trying to climb and you feel like you’re never really getting where you want to be because you’re putting this pressure on yourself of like, well, you know, I thought I’d be further along or I thought we’d be at this or whatever it may be. And sometimes when you look back, you’re like, no, actually we’ve accomplished quite a bit in the last year, five years, ten years, and it’s so easy depending on your mindset to kind of bury some of those accomplishments. And maybe it is because what you’re saying, how like people are worried about having a boastful, arrogant attitude and they don’t want to do that. But, uh, I think it’s definitely worth repeating that, you know, celebrate the wins.

Mike Simms: 23:54 You have to and why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you be entitled to that? You have to. That’s a fair thing to do. And yet on the other side of the coin, I think it has to. I love the fact that, you know, your clientele constantly looking, okay, CANI right? Constant and never ending improvement. And they’re always looking for another deal. They’re looking for this. And I love that mindset I would have loved that attitude. But the sad thing is that attitude is in the minority of most people, but for the people like your clientele that, that, that is adhering to that way of living. I think that’s. I think that’s phenomenal. But I do think it needs to be tempered with. Let’s take a step back a second, let’s assess where we are, let’s assess where we’re going. And again, to celebrate those accomplishments because your accomplishments are making life better for other people and how much better a life could you live when you go in with that kind of an attitude?

Eric Worral: 24:50 So much about mindset.

Mike Simms: 24:53 It’s all mindset. It’s all mindset. It’s all mindset.

Eric Worral: 24:57 Well, for you it’s a different kind of grind, grind, being a landlord, but you’re a real estate agent, a top one percent earner for your company in Long Island, which I hear a lot of people live on that small island. Right? So for you, uh, what are the things that you keep in the forefront of your mind? I know you said you have naturally, you have a lot of energy and a go, but I’m sure there’s things that you kind of, um, keeping your mindset as you’re trying to accomplish your goals and move forward.

Mike Simms: 25:28 Elaborate a little more. I’m not sure. I’m not sure I followed your line of thinking.

Eric Worral: 25:33 I’m wondering for you, if you don’t mind sharing, like what is it for you that as far as your motivation that pulls you forward, that really gives you that energy? Like the thing that kind of acts as a magnet for you to pull you forward and really push things forward with what you’re trying to put a life. I mean, what is it for you?

Mike Simms: 25:55 I think it’s just, I get a tremendous sense of satisfaction out of lighting a fire under somebody and tapping and having them come to the realization even in a small way that they are. They are, and I use the two analogies. Either an iceberg or an acorn. Okay. An iceberg. I think 90 percent of, of the mass of that iceberg is below the surface. I think 90 percent of what people are capable of accomplishing is below the surface. My goal is to get what is in there innately in there, and you were given it, you know, at the, at the moment of conception, you were given greatness at the moment of conception. My, my goal is to get that out and have you look at life and go, wow, this is, this is for me to enjoy not to me to drudge through. This is for me to make a tremendous difference in the life of people that I come in contact with and for the life of my family and the community around you have the effect that I can change. If I were to hand you an Acorn, what are you? Six, four, six, five. You’re like a telephone pole. If I will. You know, you’re six, so six, five x amount of pounds. Okay. If I handed you an Acorn, put it in the palm of your hand. What does it weigh? Okay. All right. If I told you that that acorn was 50 million tons, what would you tell me?

Eric Worral: 27:20 I’d say you are fooling it.

Mike Simms: 27:20 Yeah, you want to square off with me and tell me that sunshine. I know it’ll take me a couple of hours to get to you

Eric Worral: 27:31 I don’t know about that Mike may be its a little bit less than that. You know

Mike Simms: 27:35 Okay! you know what weighs 50 million tons.

Eric Worral: 27:42 Okay

Mike Simms: 27:42 Tell me how?

Eric Worral: 27:42 Is it because you’ve been holding it for too long? I’m not sure.

Mike Simms: 27:48 No within an acorn is the potential of $50 million tons of Oak.

Eric Worral: 27:59 So, I am assuming that more than one tree. So you plant one oak tree.

Mike Simms: 27:59 One acorn contains within it the potential of $50 million tons of Oak.

Eric Worral: 28:06 No kidding

Mike Simms: 28:06 It’s true. First of all, I will never tell you anything that I cannot prove and I’ve done the research prior to me articulating this. In that acorn. Okay, and as small as it is, I have one here on my desk. I have it in my hand now as I’m talking to you, if I put it in my pants pocket, I don’t even know it’s there. It’s $50, million tons of Oak. As small as it is. Look the difference between the size of that acorn and let’s say the size of a human head within it, a brain. So if that acorn has 50 million tons of potential, what’s within you infinitely more than you are displaying right now, and the whole goal of you and I doing this is to get that potential out. I think is as successful as the Rentprep for landlords site is. I still think we’re touching the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. If your dreams don’t scare the living crap out of you, then you’re not dreaming big enough because you know the old, the old saying is, you know, if you shoot for the moon and miss you are still land among the stars. I love that, but here’s the deal. The people that we’re talking to, the Rentprep for landlords or already in the mindset of they’re looking for something next. They’re looking for something bigger. They’re looking for that. Next thing you understand how great indomitable the human spirit is and the Rentprep for landlord clientele is full of it. I read the sites all the time. I look at the things that they’re discussing. I look at the help that they’re offering to other people. Again, the altruistic part of it of, Hey, listen, I had a situation like this. This is how I handled it, and there’s the sharing of that great information. That’s tremendous, and then I need to be a part of that because I just think that is absolutely atavistic to the n’s degree and people should be a part of that. They should be in immersing themselves in that because ultimately what you come in contact with repeatedly, what you tell yourself repeatedly is ultimately what you become. That’s why I’ve told you respectfully and politely watch the words you use because your subconscious mind is listening and it will take everything you say. It will accept that as Gospel truth. It will bring about the very tangible thing in life that it was told was true.

Mike Simms: 30:12 You Steve and I were talking yesterday and you had said something about what we were talking about, putting the mindset, the mind, excuse me, the mastermind group together and you said the possibility and the probability I would take the possibility out of it. It’s the probability. There’s no way in God’s green earth that if you get these people together, we start firing ideas, start sharing ideas, start shooting back comments back and forth. Once you get four or five people and there is a larger, a larger mindset that comes into play and all of a sudden you exponentially expand your mind because now you’re firing off ideas on other people. We had talked about the book that you’re reading. That book is going to mean something differently to you. It’s going to mean something differently to Steve. It’s going to mean something differently for to Dan, the gentleman we mentioned before, because all it’s doing is tapping into the mind that you already have. You coming up with an idea and all of a sudden you’re like, Hey, wait a minute. So what’s written on page 56 might mean something differently to me than it does to you than it does to Dan that it does to Steve. We are coauthoring the book yourself because now all of a sudden that book has taken your mind and in a different direction that you had not been in before and it’s tapping into something. You’re like, wait a minute, I didn’t think of that, and then all of a sudden the mind starts to go and the ideas start to come and that’s the whole thing. Everything starts with the idea starts with a decision to go in the direction that you need to and that’s exactly what rentprep for landlords is doing. They’re immersing themselves in this mindset, but these are the bad guys. These are the guys that had taken that taking advantage of the poor downtrodden. Get the hell out of my face. You out of your mind. You’re providing a tremendous service to these people and they need to be reminded of it. And I’m just the guy loud enough and stupid enough to do it.

Eric Worral: 32:00 Right, As you’re talking about you told me before, as far as your where you’re saying the words that are coming out of your mouth, the thinking it becomes a part of you. And I’ve got your book in front of me right now. I am. I can, I will. And I open it out to a random page and it says, speak to yourself nicely. It says, your mind listens constantly to what you tell it. Other things like how senseless you are or how little money you have as reality.

Mike Simms: 32:25 And it makes me crazy. There are people all the time.

Eric Worral: 32:31 And then I just finished it up here. It says you won’t accept a saying something derogatory about you. So why would you say something derogatory to yourself? Right? That’s well said. That’s something that I’ve struggled with over the years. I think as a kid, I kinda had a, a self deprecating sense of humor that I use to kind of have people like me and it kind of morphed into just being like, oh, I’ll make fun of me before you can make fun of me. Almost is weird. Like, this is how I survived the school bus ride. You know.

Mike Simms: 32:57 It’s a defense mechanism.

Eric Worral: 32:58 Yeah, absolutely. And I do catch myself saying that stuff where I think because of that, because of that mindset and that identity that you create for yourself, that’s why the words like, well, possibly or maybe or it might,

Mike Simms: 33:13 I am starting to shake. I hate it. I hate it because there’s no teeth to it there’s nothing in that statement that’s going to serve you as a human being.

Eric Worral: 33:22 There’s no commitment

Mike Simms: 33:25 No. It’s not gonna serve you. Well, I might do that. You might do that. I might get hit by a bus. I’d rather not. It doesn’t serve you and if it doesn’t serve you again, not arrogantly or boastfully but confidently. If it doesn’t serve you, why are you doing that? It’s also called memetics. It’s Kinda like what you were, how you were, you know, with all due respect to our parents and teachers, how were you programmed. What were you trained to expect for yourself? You know, I look back now with what the teachers told me in Catholic school. You can go eat dirt because I am not what you told me I was and I will go to my grave proving you wrong. So, you know my mom. I’m born and raised in Ireland. Not necessarily a, you know, mom’s attitude was, you know, don’t rock the boat. My attitude is let’s create something. Let’s have fun. You’re not getting out of the life alive. So why not get out of life what you want. So long as it doesn’t violate the laws of Man Laws of God. Why not? Why shouldn’t you? Why shouldn’t you have 15 properties? Why shouldn’t you have 25 properties? Why shouldn’t you have, you know, 10, 15, 25 properties that are providing something very, very critically important to the wellbeing of a family. And that’s the way I think you should go into it. Not arrogantly or boastfully but confidently. This is what you’re providing to these people. I think it should be applauded. I don’t think you should be maligned by local government, by the media, by even, by the tenants. Always a money hungry landlord. Really know what that is perception and it’s a wrong perception. Dead wrong perception. Don’t start me. I just keep going.

Eric Worral: 35:16 I love it. I feel like this is something that we need to focus on it as far as just kind of establishing our goals and motivation for the coming years. We’ve been doing great growing the business and it’s been great, but I do feel like that little bit of complacency kicking in some times where we’re like, okay, we’re doing the things we’re supposed to be doing. Like what’s the, what’s the big picture here?

Mike Simms: 35:45 How would we do them better?

Eric Worral: 35:45 Yeah I would love to sit down with Steve really kind of hammer out some ideas on where we want to take things in, like real big picture goal is not just say, hey, we want to hit this number or this, you know, this amount per year, but what’s a, you know, a more community driven goal that we can kind of that we can go after and achieve.

Mike Simms: 36:05 Haven’t you tapped that already?

Eric Worral: 36:09 We’ve beat around the bush with it, but I feel like based on the audience that we have, the size, the amount of people that you can reach, I believe that there’s something more, um, I don’t know if it’s, you know, down the line if it’s creating housing through the business and maybe it’s for a certain, you know, I’m part of town or I’ve had ideas as far as like homeless veterans. Like could we create a charity for that or at least donate to a charity for that and bring a percentage of the profits of the business towards that. And then use that number as that goal. You know. So then it’s not just about like, hey, we’re trying to grow the business to x million or whatever, it’s about helping people and making a change, a positive impact in people’s lives.

Mike Simms: 36:52 So it’s about making a positive impact in people’s lives. So you’re looking to change the world within you in your particular area and you’re looking to exponentially grow that attitude among your rentprep for landlord clientele that is across the United States am I correct?

Eric Worral: 37:06 100 percent.

Mike Simms: 37:08 Okay? So if we, when we adopt that attitude and when we start implement that as we are today, and hopefully as we go in the future and the attitude of your rentprep for landlord clientele is to make life better around for themselves, which they deserve to do. What’s a livelihood and for the people around them, are you effectively changing the world by doing that?

Eric Worral: 37:26 Yeah.

Mike Simms: 37:27 Yes.

Eric Worral: 37:29 Yes

Mike Simms: 37:29 Okay. So then you are telling me then that the perception of these people being money hungry, greedy, slum lords is completely dead wrong. Is that right?

Eric Worral: 37:38 I would say it’s probably a case by case basis.

Mike Simms: 37:42 No it’s not by case basis. It’s emphatically wrong.

Eric Worral: 37:45 Okay

Mike Simms: 37:45 That attitude, that attitude on the part of the American public is completely dead wrong. It’s wrong, it is absolutely wrong. They are not that way and I will defend these people to the hills. I’m in the business I’ve seen with these poor souls who have dealt with. I’ve looked at the rentprep for landlord facebook page. I’ve looked at it. You know what? These people are busting their asses day in and day out. Twenty four/seven/365, eric providing for another human being. Don’t you dare stand there or sit there, whatever you’re doing and tell me that these people are money hungry, greedy people that’s crap. Now to that end, let’s let’s grow this exponentially, not about money, but about affecting a change. When we get the mastermind group together and all of a sudden these ideas start firing and we get a little energy going on and this just starts to steam roll. Respectfully. Do you have any idea the impact it will have?

Eric Worral: 38:44 No, I don’t at this point.

Mike Simms: 38:45 Okay, let’s. Let’s liken it this way. Henry Ford, at one point in time, all he wanted was a work bench in his parent’s kitchen with which could take watches apart and play with the mystique around how they worked. Okay. The company, the company was instituted in 1903. Okay. And we effectively expect that what we’re doing could grow exponentially and habit have even a more profound effect than we’re discussing right now.

Eric Worral: 39:09 Yes 100%

Mike Simms: 39:13 Emphatically, you may get five years down the road when we’re doing this and I pray to God that I’m blessed to be involved with you as my, as my friend, my brother, my son. Really? you’re old enough to be one of my kids, that we sit back, we had told you, we get asked your clientele told to do, take a step back and look at what you’ve accomplished maybe five years from now you and I sit down, you know, maybe on a bike ride cruising through the, uh, the state of New York and we take a look back and we look and see what we’ve accomplished. And we celebrate that. And then we move on. Incremental growth. We look at what we’ve done, we looked the direction where we need to go. We looked at what we learned from the, the maybe the errors that we made and we grow from there. It exponentially five years from now, we’re having a very different conversation. What are your clientele in rentprep for landlord’s going to be saying five years from now, you know, we got involved with Michael and Eric on these podcasts and we’ve grown exponentially. We’ve picked up 10 extra properties we’ve provided for, um, you know, x amount more families. We’ve contributed to a different altruistic causes, different charities. Come on, man.

Mike Simms: 40:18 You talk about making a difference. How do you not get jazzed about doing something like that? How do you not want to be a part of that? Getting back to empire state ride, I had people that would say to me, you know, Mike, you’re in your mid fifties, you know, not that you’re not physically or at least, you know, mentally psycho capable of doing and empire state ride, but why would you do that? I’m like, are you kidding? My question to them is, why wouldn’t you? Why do you want to be putting a box one day and not feel like, you know what I shined my shoe in life. ass? Life did, but I told it to do. It didn’t dictate to me and it won’t dictate to me. I dictate to life. Life goes according to my plan, not it’s by adopting that attitude. Life takes a step back and says, you know what? I better get the hell out of this guy’s way because he’s crazy enough to do this.

Eric Worral: 41:03 You’re the first and probably only gospel ever had that said he signed his shoes in life’s ass. I’ve never heard that one before. That’s a great one. I love it.

Mike Simms: 41:16 But I think you need to adopt that attitude and I think you have that attitude. I think you rentprep landlord clientele has that attitude and we’re going to grow that attitude because your attitude to picture altitude, great attitude, great attitude, great accomplishments, mediocre attitude gets richer, got lousy attitude. Congratulations. It’s yours. One of the, one of the entries in the book. You think what you are, you know or, or the question was, who do you think you are? I know what I think I am good, bad or indifferent, and I am what I am as popa used to say, um, but I’ve created my own life just based on my attitude. I’m happy with it and yet I’m not happy enough that I have to make this work even more. And I can infuse a little bit of, you know, off the wall attitude to somebody for their betterment. I’m in Bro. Let’s go. Well, I’d like to. I’d like to square off life everyday. I get up in the morning, go, guess what? Bad News. I’m awake, I’m back. They have a bad day because I’m about to have a great day.

Eric Worral: 42:14 Yeah. Well Mike, what I want to do, we’ve kind of been brainstorming it. I think whatever it ends up being will be different than what we’re saying it is now. And this will evolve and change. But to start off, we’re going to start doing these live facebook interviews and it will be a weekly thing where people can kind of tune in and I’m going to be using you to keep my motivation, keep my compass in the right direction and I know I’m going to…

Mike Simms: 42:43 You have no choice

Eric Worral: 42:43 Well, yeah, it’s great to have that accountability partner

Mike Simms: 42:46 You will not scrape. I’m like gum on the shoe. You will not scrape me off brother. I am not going anywhere.

Eric Worral: 42:52 Well, I feel like there’s those accountability partners where you could say like, well, the kid got sick and you know, this happened were like, oh, I get it. Yeah, no, no, no. Don’t worry about it. No problem. Then you’d be like, that’s crap . You can do this, you can do this. Like, what are we doing here? You know? So I feel like you’d be a great accountability partner. And what we want to do is to start things off, is to see if we can get other people to join the program with us. So, you know, if anybody listening interested, feel free to email me at eric@rent-prep and we’re just gonna do like a weekly check in. Uh, we don’t have to make everything public for you, you know, you can go as far with that as you want, but um, it’s an opportunity to, uh, Mike will be on the live video with me if you guys want to check in, see how he’s doing, see what’s going on. Uh, I think it will be a really cool experience and I’m interested to see where it grows and what it turns into.

Mike Simms: 43:49 I think it’s going to scare the daylights out of you.

Eric Worral: 43:51 I’m fine with that.

Mike Simms: 43:53 I really do! I am too it has no choice but to do that because the attitude and the motivation behind doing it. And the reason we’re doing it is the right reason. It’s for the betterment of people. It’s not for anybody. It’s not for anybody on this phone call right now, making money, nothing to do with it. And we never mentioned. That has nothing to do with. It. Has nothing to do with it. I would consider it a great compliment if somebody, either I had the pleasure of meeting or texted me or made an entry on the, um, on the thread, you know, Michael, you know, you’re not wrapped too tight but I gained a lot of motivation. I gained a lot of better insight onto me by listening to you. Great. That’s my life’s goal, man. That’s why I’m here. And I had my mom is 80, almost 89 years of age and she says, Michael came into this world screaming and I haven’t stopped and I won’t. My wife says, I talk in my sleep. You can’t stop me and you can’t shut me up. So might as well get on the bus and go along for the ride

Eric Worral: 45:01 Alright! Well, everybody listening again. Feel free to reach out eric@rent-prep. I can all coordinate that and we’ll get it set up and Mike and I will discuss the weekly, a show of whether we want to do that. I don’t know if a Sunday, Monday, I’m thinking earlier in the week, Mike, but something that kind of creates that accountability early on and I know I’m going to have to answer to a and I’m just spit balling here, but for me, I think the, um, the, the, it’s gonna be about creating a larger goal. Like what’s the community goal that four or five years. I like what you were saying about being on a bike ride five years from now, looking back and being like, wow, like we did it.

Mike Simms: 45:38 You and I talked about it ya! You talking about it say we did it and said, okay, now what’s next? Next is one of my favorite four letter words. okay, what’s next? What can we do better? How can we do this more? How can we grow this exponentially? Who else can I get to? Who else can I help? Because that gives you a good feeling, man. I mean, you know, you know, tapping into the ESR experience, you know, we got to the end of seven days of 546 miles and I got to tell you something. I had enough gas in the tank. I could have gone another seven days because we just touched on the emotional connection that everybody had. We started out literally. I mean, as Cliche as it sounds is complete strangers and seven days later it was like, you know, I’m hugging people that seven days ago I wouldn’t have known that brothers and sisters to me, they’re family to me and I want that same thing for rentprep for landlord. I want the energy and that rent prep for landlord facebook page to go, holy crap, these guys are crazy yet, but we’re crazy for you. We are crazy If you’re successful, we are crazy for the difference you’re making in life, how do you not get jacked up about that? I feel like I need to go ride my bicycle now. I feel like I could just put a groove in the road to ride my bike. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of that? Why wouldn’t you want to be part of something that is just a tremendous effect on society. Not about putting a diamond anybody’s pocket. Nobody gives a rat’s ass. Nobody cares. It’s not about money. About affecting a change.

#245 What’s Your Big Picture? (with Mike Simms)

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