Shes a bit of a goer though.....know what I mean nudge nudge wink wink say no more....
This is hilarious. My husband just called me into his office and said ' What are you teaching in your courses - check out this comment'. After I read the thread picked myself off the floor I pointed to the picture of Cherie. Only then did he realised the comment was not about me
My thoughts on $5k courses.
After attending many free or $49 courses we forked out for the first course where we paid $2.5k for a weekend. From that course we took the information, studied it, manipulated it, made it own and honestly from that we made our first mill from property. Essentially it just expanded our brains.
After having so many workmates then ask how we do it at work ( similar to Rob’s story in last mths YIP - kudos to you!) I started telling them. At one point when I was running 'tool box' talks in mine sites around Australia ( as a consultant explosives expert and mining engineer… I got to visit all the exciting mining towns) I started to wonder about legal protection for my info sessions.
My thought was well this has worked so well for us - and we are really low risk ( as an explosive engineer you can imagine there is no better risk assessment student out there) - why shouldn’t everyone get this knowledge for free. So I thought what career would let me educate people on property where they don't have to pay?
At that stage my mortgage broker said check out this career - you get to speak to people every day about property and the banks will pay you to do it! Hence in 2005 I did that. So I thought now lets educate people - meanwhile to assist my portfolio I kept going to courses to see if I could pick anything else up to assist me.
So with my new database I offered free courses, and some people came. I then thought this is too hard and I spoke to some of the community colleges in Sydney and they said, we will take 50-60% of the course fee which is about $150, and we will promote the course you do nothing. I wanted somewhere that my clients could get a great working start to investing and learn how to repeat that process. So I thought cool I just turn up - some people came -including mja by the looks of it.
The feedback was these courses were equivalent to content received at the courses people attend worth thousands - but because the price point was so low that no-one would come as it could not be that high a calibre of education. Talk about catch 22.
So a friend of mine (also a MB) was running her own courses and finding the same thing. So we thought let’s put together a 2 day course pitch the price at at least half all the other courses but enough so people feel that to pay that much they will be getting value. We then decided that the absolute purpose was not to generate business for our MB business' we wanted other mortgage brokers and professional with financial arrangements to be able to recommend their clients without fear - so we started an independent brand.
It was really important to us that there was no ra-ra music or upselling to a real estate deal, essentially we take 20 people for 2 days through a journey of exactly how to use free information to assist them in the their search for property, share a process that they then practice at the course and then can do themselves, as well as some reno stuff ( fancy at promotion aren't I?). But the most important thing to us - dealing with the hundreds of investors we see every year, was that we clearly saw that those we worked with that were more successful than others had goals set and front of mind. So that’s where we start - where you should start - with the end in mind and then develop the steps to get there.
We have promoters who see the course and want to 'package us' to put 200 people in the room - develop something to sell on the back end and they pretty much guarantee bums on seats - you know what that would be easy - BUT the experience of those involved is so important to us that we only wanted a max of 20 people to attend. Not enough money in it for promoters with that many people. That is not to say the first course I went to, with the 500 in the room taught me nothing - it did!
So this year we have been running our course - and you know what it is still hard to get people to come along - why? Maybe there is a thousand courses out there saying trust me, we will help you - we care about you blah blah.
One guy rang me last week and said ‘why would I pay $1500 for your course? Can’t I learn it all in books.’ And the answer was YES YES YES and on SS. It took me 8 years to learn it in books and go and try stuff and see what failed and you can do it too. But if you want to learn about my mistakes (recognising you will also make some of your own along the way) and learn a process then you can do that in 2 days your choice.
So from the other side that is my experience, and you know what I can see why people go for the big promoters - because without the 20,000 on your database or the huge advertising budget it is really hard to organise these events yourself. So when 5-10 people turn up to our next course, then good for them. They have paid for the information that I hope will help them make their first million in property – not to mention have much better access to the presenters – be they hot nor not. And for those who choose to spend the $5k on a course or an actual reno, taking the step for action means they have a better chance to get where they want to be at the end - it just comes down to a timing issue.
And the reason I don’t have a blatant – click here to the website link – is for the same reason that I don’t post in the finance section ( unless I think the pt is missed) that is because SS, in my opinion, is a site dedicated to property education and there is enough people hanging out their shingle. I have learnt a lot from SS and will continue to do so.
Hope this helps
Jane
(PS Mental note maybe I need a glamour shot to promote the course…mmm)
Edit PSS just noticed my signature has the blatant click - so much for that comment
