Hello, my friends. And welcome to another episode of Passive Real Estate Investing. I’m your host Marco Santarelli. Well, we have a very, very colorful and entertaining guest today. Someone who is very interesting person as you’ll discover why, but one of those people who let’s just face it, if you were walking down an alley and you saw him coming at you, you definitely wouldn’t want to make eye contact, but you know, there’s that saying? You can’t judge a book by its cover. And Steve Sims is definitely one of those people, but he really is a guy that is very honest and genuine. What you see is what you get. He is pretty raw, but you know, again, you know, you can’t judge a book by its cover. He’s a guy he’s got a shaved head, Harley Davidson garb on body piercings on a five-foot 11 frame. He’s 240 pounds and his image doesn’t scream. Hey, let’s be friends, but that’s the irony of it all because despite his exterior looks, he’s a remarkably open, honest, engaging, generous, insightful, intuitive, and competent person. He’s had some very amazing experiences all around the world and has shared many of those with other people. And he’s leveraged all of this to build a remarkable and successful entrepreneurial career. He’s got a great book out that I think is well worth picking up and reading, cuz it can help you in many areas of your life. It’s a great personal development book at all levels, from investing to entrepreneurship and whatnot. The book is been out for a number of years to be, you know, honest about it. It’s not a new book, but he does have a new book in the works this year that I know about, but he will not talk about. Anyway with that, I hope you’ll enjoy today’s episode and let’s get right to the interview with Steve.
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Well, it is my great pleasure to welcome a great guy to the show. I’m very excited to, to have this person on today. His name is Steve Sims and Steve is the visionary founder of the world’s first luxury concierge, a company called Bluefish and there a service that delivers the highest level of personalized travel transportation and cutting edge entertainment services to people like executive celebrities, professional athletes, and other discerning individuals interested in living life to its fullest. And he’s gonna tell you a lot more about that today. He’s also the author of a great book you should pick up called Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen. And I love that title. And we’re gonna talk about that today too. So with that, Steve, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Well, it’s an honor to have you on and in full disclosure for my audience, you are a relatively new member of one of my mastermind groups. You’re a great and funny speaker and you are definitely an inspiration to many, many people. And as they learn a little bit more about you today, they’re gonna find out why. So, Hey, let’s start with you. Who’s Steve Sims?
Well, apparently I’m great and funny. So as, as you just explained, I’m just an aggravated kid like everybody else, it’s amazing how many, it’s amazing how many poor people are so aggravated that they become rich. How so many dumb people are so aggravated? They become smart. So I was an east London brick layer and every one I knew was Paul. So I quite simply went out in the planet to quite simply have conversations with rich people now for those people out there that aren’t blessed enough yet to see this on video. Don’t exactly look like Hugh Grant. And so, you know, if you see me walking down a corridor at 11 o’clock at night, usually people run away, you know, sad, absolutely the look that God built me with, but I just wanted to converse with wealthy people and go, hey, in the early stages, how come you are rich and I’m not, and that’s all it was.
And I ended up becoming a party promoter, throwing some of the biggest parties in the planet and then ended up working for everyone from Ferrari – Formula 1 to the Grammy’s to Kentucky Derby, New York Fashion week from Elton John’s Oscar party. The list is massive. Basically. There’s not a major reward show or social event in the planet. I haven’t had my fingertips in. And then it turned into the marks in and branding around that and turning out some amazing one-on-one experiences. Like we were asked to get a couple married in Vatican by send people down to see the record, the Titanic on the sea bed. And so the more I did it was only ever to converse with wealthy people and to get the tips and tricks. You know, I look after you here, Hey, let’s have a coffee and I’m gonna grill you for all of your intelligence along the way. I launched a book. And now I’m very proud to say that I take each I train and I literally, for some spook strange reason, speak all over the planet, educate people on how to do things differently. And as I call it, go for stupid, go for what’s ridiculous. And have that goal up there rather than this pathetic, let’s go for the impossible, which is a double end is ridiculous. How can you go for then that you’ve already stated is impossible. So that’s what I teach and coach and train on now.
Well, in the last two minutes, you literally summarize what you would probably expand to about two hours of stories and content. I mean, you just glossed over so much before I ask you about your company Bluefish. Yep. I want to ask you, cuz you mentioned you’re invited to speak in different places all the time. You went to the Pentagon, not once but twice and they invited you. What, what was that all about?
I did wonder there was a, it was kind of weird and it was a lot of effect. There’s this old thing out there that says you never know, who’s watching. I remember speaking to a friend of mine, Dan Fleishman that said for everyone that likes one of your postings, there’s like a hundred people that have just seen it. Maybe liked it, but have not just have just not commented. See, you never knew. Who’s watching. I got asked to give a speech to people leaving the military within a 12 month period from that date. And it was at Fort Hood and I was asked to go along and just present on the world of entrepreneurism and things like that. And I did that with a whole bunch of really, really cool cats. We had Tim Ferris, Lion Holiday there, Charlie Hoehn, Tucker Max on a recorder, you know, real great group of people.
d I did this speech to the military that were then gonna leave. What I wasn’t aware of was that they did that on like about 20 camps around America. They all got watched by generals up in the Pentagon. And then the generals picked our top 10 that to speak in the Pentagon. And so I got asked to speak in Pentagon and when I was phoned up and someone said, Hey, you know, three star generals have actually requested your attendance to speak in the Pentagon. When the guy told me that my answer was a bit colorful, I thought he was yanking my chain. I was like, eh, get along a shut up. And he’s like, no, seriously, can you make this date? Oh, how did they find then he explained. So that was it. I actually got taken up to the Pentagon. They gave us an incredible tour of a lot of the area, some of it public, most of it private. And then we went downstairs down from the ground floor. We went downstairs and I don’t know how many floors we went down, but I don’t know how deep that thing goes into the ground to basically this massive auditorium where we actually presented the three star generals, very intimidating coming out onto a stage where everyone in the room can push a button and you don’t exist. It’s was very strange time.
Yeah. Very interesting story too. So before we get into the meat and potatoes of what I want to talk about, and certainly our audience wants to hear about, I want to just touch on bluefish because it’s a very interesting business concept, but let me prelude that with this Forbes. And I believe it was entrepreneur magazine called you The Real Life Wizard of Oz, which I think is a very colorful, entertaining title and ties into Bluefish. So why were you dubbed the real life wizard of Oz and then tell us about bluefish.
So first of all, you’ve got, again, this is those we all plan for perfection and never meet it. I remember I was interviewed by Forbes to do a quote in one of their posts. Okay. I was just gonna be a highlighted contributor to that, that article. And I didn’t get in the article and then they came back to me and they went, your story is so good. We’d like to do. They ended up doing an eight page article in me. And you can actually Google, if you just Google Steve Sims and Forbes, I ended up doing a whole of articles with him, but that really big one. And it’s called The Man with The Coolest Job is where they deemed me as the real life wizard of Oz. Now I did that article with him and a friend of mine phoned me up and they went, Hey whiz! And I was like, what do you want about? And he’s like, you’re the real life wizard. The was. And I was like, again, what do you want about? He said, Forbes, have you not seen the article? And before I saw the article, my heart dropped because if anyone’s ever seen the wizard of the Oz, it was a dirty old Ford that hung behind the curtain know. And I was like, why am I being called a 30 year old Ford behind a curtain? But obviously when you read the article and they called me the real life wizard of Oz, it was because people came to me with dreams and aspirations and you can never get fired if you exceed what someone asked and in today’s world. And it’s more valid. Although I was doing it in the mid nineties, take what someone wants and give them what they lust and desire for.
That was always my key. I hear what you’re saying, but I wanna understand what you want. And it is like a hidden message that’s going on. How many people are actually embarrassed about telling you what they really want that quite often tell you what makes them sound good? But I would listen and understand. We jokingly call it our inner Sherlock, trying to delve into what it was you really want. And then the world we’re in today and is getting worse. We are transactional today. We are so used to can orders at Siri at Alexa, Amazon, good Willer, Siri, do this. Alexa do this. And we are in a transactional society. Instacart. All of these companies are blossoming that do what we ask ’em to do and know more. What that’s the transaction. If you do with your clients is transactional. You are outta business. You just don’t know it yet.
So what I do with all my clients, whether it be my coaching clients, whether it be with bluefish, whether it be a, an onstage presentation, whatever I go, Hey, you’ve booked me to speak an hour at your gig. Great. I’m gonna do an hour and I’m gonna do a VIP cocktail, or I’m gonna give 20 people in the audience, a signed book for free, you know, just something let’s be honest. How much does 20 books cost me? Right. You know, but to give them away, they’re like, oh my God, he eat, sign these buddies. You give them extra. And so what I did within bluefish was, Hey, you wanna meet the rock band journey? That’s great. Let me see what I can do. I get the client pulled out of stage and he sang three tunes live with the rock band journey on stage in San Diego. Hey, you’re a fan of the Titanic. Great. Lemme see what I can do to give you an experience. I stick him in a sub and I physically send him down and see it. So I take, what did he you want? And then chip away to give you what you lust and desire for. And I think that’s why people call me because of that creativeness behind it. That’s why they deemed me as the real life wizard of Oz.
Well, I think that’s taking the concept of delivering what you promise on and overdelivering is it not, I mean, that’s what you’re doing,
But you have to!
Times ten.
Again, if I give you what you ask for, I enter into a competitive environment. You know, if I wanna buy a blue wheel, just Google blue wheels and buy a blue. But if you buy a blue wheel for me and you get a matching blue, t-shirt, you know, again, we’re being very basic, but Hey, aren’t we giving you something a little bit more,
Right? Yeah. You can’t lose that way. I mean, you essentially eliminate your competition just by making that shift.every time, a hundred percent,
Every time, a hundred percent! Every time, you know, I buy bike parts and I end up favoring the bike part, I end up buying and they send me a free t-shirt and a cleaning kit. You know, let’s be serious. Those other extra things probably cost no more than 20 bucks. Build it into your pricing in any case. But boy, I was over the moon with it.
Right. Well, that’s a good segue to one of the things you talk about in your book, you said, you know, people don’t want what they can afford, but they want what they, it can’t get. Yeah. And correct me if I’m wrong, but this is kind of the, one of the seeds that allowed you to create your business bluefish. Is it not?
Yeah, it was it’s kind of weird. It I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta premise this. I learned all of this huge intelligence from working on the door for dodgy nightclub in Ranch Shy Hong Kong. So it wasn’t exactly can I learn in this from Oxford and Harvard. As entrepreneurs, no matter what situation we’re in, we look for the better part of it. We look to see how we can, you know, monetize or opportunitize our environment on a rainy day, selling umbrella. You know, that kind of thing. I was on the door of a nightclub because I couldn’t get a job, but knew I wanted to speak to wealthy people, but hey, where do wealthy people go at night? They go to nightclubs. So I had a natural environment to be able to start talking to them and conversing with them and making sure they had the best tables.
And I got all my education from there. And I noticed so many traits. The more exclusive, if it is like, how many times do you see on the TV? There’s this exclusive handbag that only the celebrities can buy. You can’t buy it. Well, if it was so exclusive and they weren’t gonna sell it, why tell you about it? So desire is a manufactured product today. Today in marketing, you’re either a solution or your desire. That’s how it is. You know, quite simply, if you’ve gotta get to work, what discipline does it matter if you’re driving a Ferrari or a Kia? In fact, a Kia has way better support and service and warranty than a bloody Ferrari does, but you buy because it’s more desirable. So as I was working, I was trying to understand what do these people want? Do they want a transactional?
Do they want the exclusivity that unachievable the the unimaginable, the, I can’t get that. And that’s what they wanted. So I just try to find a way of just massaging it, manufacturing it and manipulating it to provide you something above and beyond that gave you the wow. And whenever I was doing things, I would always try to say to myself is what I’m gonna do. Gonna wake you up at two o’clock in the morning, one day in the future. And have you go, I can’t believe I did that. And that’s what I always pushed for. I pushed for that trigger because if I can do that for you and I’m gonna charge you, but if I can do that for you, when you at a party and you are talking to someone about, Hey, I did this with John, I did this with Andre Bocelli, that story, your story, you telling it as a paid person, that’s all the marketing I ever need
A hundred percent. That is strong, powerful word of mouth. So, you know, that’s a deep dive into one part of your book. So let’s back up and just talk about the book for one second. So it’s called Bluefishing and I’d like you to define what Bluefishing means, but the book is Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen. And I love that title because back in 2002, I think it was, I adopted a phrase that I got from one of my mentors and it was MCH, which is an acronym to, that means “makes crap happen.” And I’ve never forgot that because I always see myself as the guy who makes crap happen. So I just live by that, you know? And your book is the art of making things happen. So what is bluefishing?
So there’s a few things there, funny, and I’m giggling because the book was going to be called the art of making happen. So it’s funny that you say about the crap, but they did some studies and I got overruled. And, and that’s why it became the making things happen. So I’ve gotta tell you the whole point of the book. I’ve always believed that you are a combination of the room you are in.
If you are in a great room, only great things can happen. Okay. I remember as a lad in east London, and I’ve always been a biker, I was hanging out in like a bar and everyone in the room was broke. And so I was a combination of that room. I was a broke biker. So I realized very early on that you need to change the room you’re in to change your environment, to change your future. We were talking about this earlier with the mastermind that we’re in. You want to challenge yourself. So I was in a, I was literally in a party in New York, ended up chatting with someone and they said and it’s funny, cause I was talking this girl telling her a story. She ran away at such speed, that the guy next to her at the bar saw her move and looked at me to kind of go, what did you do, buddy? Cause she bolted now. Thankfully my wife was next to me. Okay. And I was holding my old fashion going. Did I say something wrong Claire? And Claire was like, no, I, I, I, I dunno what you did. She came back dragging this older woman. And it turns out that she was one of the heads of Simon & Schuster. And she came money back me and she went, tell that story again, tell that story. And so I told the story and she went, you’ve gotta do a book. And a week later I got the the contract to write a book. So four of those people out there that had been trying to write a book for years, I’m sorry. I had a blank contract with a a number on it that they were gonna pay me as a retainer. I went down to see a friend of mine, Jay Abraham.
The first thing he did yeah. Was say, go, (he’s a good guy) Oh, he’s a wonderful guy. The first thing he did was say, go back to him and ask for five times that I did. They turned me down, but they paid me four times what they had offered. And then we went into writing the book. I didn’t expect it to be anything and I was wrong. It was the single pivot that transformed things into what we do now. I don’t work much for bluefish. Now it’s really focusing on this teaching training and speaking. But when we first started throwing the parties and this is what came down to my doorman days, and I want everyone out there to think hard about this next story. Okay. As a doorman, my job description was basically to punch people and throw em outta the club. And even as a young lad, I didn’t want to do that.
You know you always get caught and the guy’s drunk and he can’t feel you’re punching him in the head and he’s gonna swing a ball. Something’s gonna hedge it. Ain’t fun. You know, it’s not like the movies where you come out with just a little cut on your cheek. It doesn’t look like that. So you always wanna avoid these. The easiest way to avoid it is who comes through your front door. If you are very selective on who comes through your front door, you’ve removed 99% of the problems on the inside. Now transform that to your business today. If you are selective with the clear on tell that you take into your business, you remove 99% of the headaches inside. So even today, protect your front door, take on a client, never take on that credit card. Okay? Focus on the client, not the money coming in.
So I would always say to people, Hey, I’m throwing this private party. It’s $500. My parties went from $500 to $5,000 a ticket for one night and I was selling out. And here’s what I would do. I would charge you. And this was back in the days of PayPal, I would charge you. And then I would say, Hey, a few days before the event, I’m gonna tell you where it is. I’ll fax you. This was back in the days of faxing. I’ll fax you where it is and I’ll fax you the password. So this is what would happen. You would turn up at the location, the bar freight ships. We had the most weird locations because as long as they won those kind of those locations, you didn’t have a food and beverage cost. If you threw the party in a hotel or in a club or a restaurant, you got an F and B charge, but if you took it outside, you could cater it however you liked. You could have McDonald’s cater it. It didn’t matter. But here’s what I would do is I would give of the people a ridiculous password to get it. And one of the passwords I used to give was finish this sentence. One fish, Two fish, Redfish. So people would walk up to the club. They’d lean in and they’d go, Hey, we’re here for the party – Bluefish. We’d be like, indigo mate, have a good time. And it was a silly and it’s doing what you in now it would make you smile. How would you feel if everyone that walked through the door you are inside, but everyone that walks through that door walks in with a smile. How would you feel inside that event? You know, you go to a restaurant now and look at the front door. You go to a nightclub, a bar, you look at the front door, everyone walks through that front door, apprehensive, checking out the environment, looking cold and sturdy and like, oh the hell’s this gonna don’t they, you check out your environment.
You imagine what it’s like when everyone walking through the door, smiling that inside of that room is hugely happy. I, and I remember one time we had this party in Hong Kong, it was on a yacht. And there was a big queue, 50 people trying to get into this to this party. And this guy walks up to us and there, me and my fellow, me ed stood at the gang clank and we would let him in and then they would get checked off the list behind us, by one of the girls at the top of the gang plank. And they up, and the guy goes, I’m here for the party. Now bear in that mind behind me, it’s like 130 foot yacht, three story yacht, kicking off music, people all over it. And I said to him, oh really? And he says, yeah, I’m here for the party.
What party would that be? This party. And I look at my hello, meet ed. And I went, do you know about this party Cole? And he’s like, no, I don’t. I don’t know. Don’t know if there’s a party. I think there’s one just down the road. What party you you looking for? And we blank this guy, you know, we are literally making, he refused to say the password and he’s start to get I right. That party. You don’t let me into that party. You’ll regret. Ooh. Now I’m scared. If you just wait yourself, Colin, I’ve wet myself. Oh my God, we’ve wet ourselves. We don’t know how we’re gonna sleep. I’m not gonna be able to sleep tonight. Colin, can you sleep? We’re doing this band backwards and forward this guy’s getting more and more irate. And he storms off. Everyone behind him is laughing.
The next person that comes up, leans in and goes…Bluefish. And you go have a good sign. That guy actually reported us to a newspaper and actually got his mate in the newspaper to write this scathing article on how we have turned away this billionaire by refusing to say the password and to make himself stupid by saying this little password. How many times do you think it multiplied our request to be in that guest list? But it is like a dating site. It’s a guy on the dating site goes. Now we only have pretty women on our dating site. We won’t allow uglies to join how many more people are gonna join that dating site. So we got overloaded. So because of this standard we had by using the word bluefish, people started letting us know, Hey, I’m throwing a party and I’m gonna bluefish it I’m gonna have standards.
I’m gonna have a supplies. Cuz we would always have surprises at our parties. And people started using it as a adjective. They were going, oh you are bluefish in that party. Aren’t you, you’ve got the bluefish standard. You’ve got the bluefish mentality. So people used to contact us going, Hey, I did a birthday party and I decided a bluefish in. So I painted the dog pink and had him running around the garden and all of a sudden bluefish and bluefishing became a mentality of how do I take it to the next level? And so it, it gained legs and people would literally tell us how that bluefish themselves backstage to meet up with Taylor Swift or that bluefish their way to a private a party or how that bluefish their own party. So when the book came out, it had to be Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen.
Wow, that’s an amazing story. So I think what I got from what you just said, your story, and I think a takeaway for everybody listening is that you could bluefish virtually anything. Yeah. It doesn’t have to be just your own business. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur. You could bluefish, your life. You could bluefish, your interactions with friends, the parties you throw the investments you make. And with all of our listeners being interested in real estate investing, how do you bluefish, your investment properties? What can you do to improve and stand out from all the other rentals in that community or neighborhood? And I have a great example of that right now, just to share a quick story. I’m kind of the guinea pig in my own venture into short term rentals. I’ve never done an Airbnb or anything like that. I’ve stated them. But I have a particular Airbnb that I picked up last July and I themed not just the front entrance, but the entire house. I spent $220,000 to theme a six bedroom, six bath home. And there’s nothing else out there like it. And so it’s booking up quickly. I charge a premium. I’ve not just one up to everybody else. I’ve 10 uped, to everybody else.
And here’s the key. There’s the key you outthought. But now you’re getting it compensated. You charge a premium, for this. So you’ve out. They have outsourced the requirement for creativity to you. So when people came to my event, they knew they were gonna get more and more and more. I run an event now called a speakeasy and I don’t even tell people who it’s gonna be. Do you know, I don’t even tell in the location. I tell them the city, the date and there’s the purchase button because they know full well, I’m creative enough to make it worth that while and to get ’em uncomfortable and get ’em to grow. So when you’ve actually got that reputation, you can do are much more with it, but congratulations. It’s a perfect example.
Yeah, it works. Well. I think more people should apply it in more things, their life, their business and their investments. And I think they would just do something incredible. I mean, they’d get much further ahead.
I’d like you to think about it with your family. How can you bluefish your relationship? You know, if you are taking your wife out every Saturday night, take you out a Tuesday, disrupt it, you know, change it up a bit like Fargo say we never celebrate Valentine’s or any of those days. We never do. I don’t need hallmark to tell me when I should tell my wife when I love her. So we jokley have happy Monday.
We say that all the time.
Yeah! We have happy Monday thrill and thirst. I took her out for a happy Monday this past Monday. And she was like, you do know its Valentine’s and honestly I didn’t and I had no idea. And I was like, oh my God. And we joked, I went, should I have got you a card? And she was like, I’d split up with you if you did. And so, you know, it’s just funny. We always just disrupt the way we wanna live our life. We’ve bluefished our life.
So let me transition to another great point that you talk about and you make, and, and that is the whole thing about being afraid of standing still. And I think this is tactical for everybody listening here because I know like I like to make sure my audience will walks away with tips, advice, tactics, and stuff they could use. So, you know, the whole concept of being afraid of standing still essentially means that you gotta be afraid of being stuck. I’m paraphrasing what you, you know, what you talk about, but you don’t wanna be afraid of change. You don’t wanna be scared of being stuck. So why should someone be fearful of standing still? I’ll let you explain it.
Well, a lot of fear exists. It’s a reaction that keeps us alive. You don’t wanna remove it. It’s what makes us move. When something comes to us is make what makes us dodge things is what makes us run out of a burning building. Cuz we can smell a bit of smoke. You don’t wanna kill it, but you wanna harness it and you wanna learn how to react to it. Now I live very well. I’m up here in the hills, just outside of Malibu, got loads of motorcycles, plenty of whiskey. I’m happy. Okay. But I don’t wanna be this person in six months. Okay. Life is for us to learn and grow and we grow nine times out of 10 by things going well, you know, you try something. Mm. You know, I do this marketing or that didn’t gimme the other why I wanted, you know, like you, you made sure your property, you took a stance, you took a chance and it cost you $220,000.
Now you took that chance. I guarantee you. If you replicate that for another property, you may be able to do it for 180 grand or you may be able to tweak the promotion area. You’ve learned lessons through that 220 grand that you could maybe implement smoother on the next project, the next property. So we grow by things. Not always going to plan. I want to push myself. I want to have a conversation with someone. I want to challenge myself to market differently. I wanna maybe put myself on a stage that pushes my boundaries a little bit, but I use fear to push me. I’m remember a friend of mine, Joe Polish. He said to me, “the definition of hell is to meet the man or woman you could have been.” And that’s always stuck with me. I never wanna be the same person that I am in six months time, if you are, that means you become stationary, stagnant, which will cause you distinct and die. I don’t wanna be stagnant. I don’t wanna be stationary. I constantly wanna push myself. I constantly wanna develop. I constantly wanna challenge myself to grow. And I’m scared now of being the same person that I am in six months time.
Yeah, I agree. Joe Polish is a good buddy. He’s an amazing individual. I love Joe.
Yeah. Don’t tell him that. It’ll get a big head.
I know.
I heed it at his annual event with Jim Kwik, last Friday, actually in Arizona. Oh yeah. And of course spent the whole two days just, you know, aggravating and, and throwing insults at him. But that’s, that’s what you do with Joe.
Yeah, no that’s cool. Yeah, Jim actually, Jim Kwik is, is pretty amazing too. I had him on the show a couple years ago. He’s a super good guy. He is. So the whole concept of Laing fear propel you. How do you use that to your advantage? How should a push person look at? I mean the concept of trying and failing, there’s nothing wrong with failing and I love one of your quotes. It’s something about not being stuck in the water, falling in the water that causes you to drown. It’s staying there. Ah,
Ah, my dad’s quote, just to give it the, the, the true grace that it deserves. My dad actually said “No one ever drowned by falling in the water. They drowned by staying there.”
That’s it? Yes. That’s it.
You are gonna have fear once. You know, you’re gonna have fear. It’s how you force yourself to react to it. Us failing, It’s only a failure. If you then decide to make it fall, if you decide to do something with it, that failure now becomes an education. And we all want to be educated.
A lot of people, they see something that’s scared of it. They avoid it. But how many times have we ever done something that we’ve been scared of and gone, actually that wasn’t too screwy, you know, or yeah. Oh, I actually, he grew from that or actually someone in the audience saw me and I got a contract from it or I tried something a bit different. How scared were you when you decided to sink 220 grand into a perfectly good Airbnb that was already making money, otherwise you wouldn’t have bought it, but you took a chance. Did you ever get scared you were in that 220 grand beef it?
I don’t know if I would label it scared. I probably was a little bit, but I looked at it as a calculated risk. I did put a lot of thought into it and it didn’t start at 220,000 either. It started off in the low hundred thousand dollars range. It just mushroom to that, you know? So, but you know, in hindsight I’ve learned a lot from it, you know, that fear, whatever it was that I used to push myself to do it, to propel me forward, allowed me to learn a new skill, have a new experience and maybe a new model that I can now replicate and be more successful. So, yep. It pays off tenfold, a hundredfold. You just gotta take that quote unquote risk. And a lot of people label risk inappropriately because it’s really just, you know, taking a calculated risk or a chance or jumping into the unknown and paving a new trail in order to achieve something new. And now when you look back and our clients do this all the time, they buy their first in turnkey investment property. And they’re scared, you know, it’s, it’s, they’ve never invested in real estate before, but then they look back and say that wasn’t so bad and now I’ve kind of hooked. And now I want my second one and my third one, but now you’re not fearful anymore. Now it it’s just a new muscle that you’re flexing and you’re just doing more.
Everytime a failure becomes an experience. An experience becomes education. Education becomes credibility. It works in that. You can’t, you can’t order credibility off of Amazon. You get it from the, you say about a calculated risk because you had done it so many times. You understood some of the hurdles. There was only a few elements within you splashing out a hundred. Well, just over a hundred thousand dollars that you thought, okay, I’m willing to take that small bridge because those other elements I’ve already competed with. But again, even there, as you said, it ballooned into something, but, but all of that education you got out of it, you become far more educated, have less unknowns because you tried them. You only get more comfortable by trying things. And again, I’ll quote, Joe, “You gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable.” And the more you do it, there’s more, less unknowns.
There are because you are way more experienced. I can take a cow risk now with working with a Vatican, working with a Titanic, working with a Hollywood movie, speaking on stage at a Pentagon because I’ve done all these things. And so you’ve gotta push yourself in order to grow. And as you say, it is a muscle that needs to be grown. If you give fuel and attention to a fear, it grows beyond it actually magnifies to the point where you go. I could never overcome that because you’ve allowed it to grow. That’s the muscle you don’t wanna allow to grow.
Right? Right. Yeah. Well, to borrow from, you know, what you talk about, you can allow those experiences to either define you or they can allow you to grow. They’ll grow you or define you one or the two.
Yeah. We always say that you don’t wanna allow a mistake to define you. You want to allow it to refine you.
That’s good. We could talk for hours and, and about a billion things, but I’m gonna wrap things up today with one last topic. And it’s the whole thing about sponge mode. You talk about entering the sponge mode and you say you should enter it as often as possible. But what do you mean by the sponge mode? I mean, I understand what it is before our audience.
I got these stupid little sayings that I I’ve made up over the years and it just, they just seem to work. I remembered that I would get bored if I was talking to someone that I knew the subject and I thought of myself when two people are as equally qualified, how can there be any growth? So what I always wanted to do was if I wanted to do something, I needed to get into a room where the conversation were far above my pay grade. I wanted to be the, and they always say, be the dumbest person in the room. If you’re the smartest person in the room, get into another room. So I would always try and find groups where people were having conversations well above my education so that I had the most there’s these people going well, Sims doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
You’re right. But gimme a couple of months and I’ll be in that conversation. So go into a room where you are uncomfortable, where these people are superior, where these people are. Know it alls way above your pay grade and sponge from that. And it will be very quick. I can shortcut learning how to up my Airbnb. By speaking to you, you spent 220 grand on becoming hugely educated. I bet you, I could replicate what you did with maybe only 150 grand, because I’d have your audio experience from it. Yeah. If I spoke to my buddy at the blake power about doing this at Airbnb, hell would spend half a million dollars. It probably wouldn’t be as good as you. So being in the smart room allows you to become smarter, faster, be willing to be the dumbest person in the room. In fact, find those rooms where you are the dumbest person.
Yeah. In that situation, you’re just forced to go row. You can’t help. But to through osmosis gain knowledge from other people who know more about something than you do. And you know, that’s one thing I admire about Robert Kiyosaki, you know, I’ve been on a few cruises with him. He’s a perpetual student. He could be in a room where he, you know, is far more successful than everybody else, but he’s got his notebook out and he’ll sit at the back of the room and he’s got his head down, taking notes when someone’s speaking at the front. Oh yeah, because he’s a perpetual student and I really believe that’s how everybody should be. You know, whether it’s books, audio books, going to mastermind groups like you. And I do whatever the case is. If you put yourself in a situation or environment where you’re forced to learn, you can’t help but grow unless you’re just, you know, completely covering your eyes and covering your ears. And, you know, playing dumb and deaf.
I was on a stage once with this guy that was like, well, above me, I won’t mention his name, but very famous billionaire. And after he did his speech, I went on and did mine. And I came off the stage back into the green room and he was watching the monitor and making notes. And I said to him, oh, you are still here. And he went, yeah, I’ll be here all afternoon. I just wanna learn. And I said, really, what are you gonna learn? He said, and he said to me, he said, Sims, you can learn from anybody, even you. I, he said to me, so I took it as a kind of a compliment. But when you see someone like that, who’s realized that they are a student and not an expert. Then you can’t fail. If you’re always the student.
Yeah. I like the way you explained it with what I’m calling, the 1% growth rule. That’s kind of the label I gave it. But essentially what you’re saying is put yourself in any environment or room as you call it and make it your goal to you. You might have to help me on this, but just basically gain 1% knowledge or just come out 1% better.
This has been a routine of me. I always ask myself on a Friday night, on a Friday night, I pour an old fashion. Okay. And I always ask myself, been my head as I’m pouring that old fashioned, do I deserve it this week? You know, I, I, it’s just a silly little thing. I’ve got it in front of me. Do I deserve this? You know, did I really put stuff into that weight? And do you know the funny thing is it was a stupid question that I used to ask myself in the early stages. Now, every, every Sunday and Monday. And let’s be honest before we start work on a Monday, we plan what we’re gonna do on this Sunday. So entrepreneurs, we never stop thinking, but during the week, I always think to myself, I’ve gotta do it. I’ve gotta push myself cuz I gotta learn that old fashioned Friday.
Yeah. That’s cool. I like that. I maybe I’ll have to borrow that.
Take it. It’s yours.
Here’s the last thing as we wrap up Steve, and this is, you know, kind of that last tactic that I think I want people to walk away with, cuz this is a big one because people always say I don’t have enough time or I, my life’s too busy. I, you know, I, I just can’t make time. You know, you talk about the more that you bring into your life, the more you dilute, what you can possibly do well, and obviously what your priorities are, are what you need to focus on in doing well. And one of those things can be investing regardless of whether it’s real estate investing or otherwise could be your business. So you need to master the courage to say no to more things I’d like to wrap up with asking you, what advice can you give my audience here to help them do that? How can they gain more courage and the ability to say no to more things? So they don”t dilute their life into things that they shouldn’t be spending time on.
Very easy three things at the top of the list. And I want you to do a list at the top of the list. I want you to put down your unicorns. What are you phenomenal at negotiating? Seeing an opportunity, planning out a building, being creative, put all of the things that you are absolutely Olympic gold standard app. Then in the middle block of this page, I want you to put the things that you are really good at. I can really do a, an Excel spreadsheet. I’m I’m good at doing the it’s the stuff that you’re really good at, but it’s not your unicorn. And then the stuff at the bottom that you do, that’s just aggravating dropping off the post, handling the stationary, putting up with the contract, reading this, following up with that promotional stuff, all of that kind of stuff. And then those two blocks and your unicorn focus on outsourcing.
There were VAs out there that are exceptional at doing what you are good at and will charge you 200 bucks a month for it. It’s a tough thing for an entrepreneur, but that was the first thing that I ever did. I decided I’m only gonna work a week of what my unicorn is. I outsource everything else. I don’t go down to the post office. I don’t focus on the stationary. I don’t focus on my tax returns. I don’t focus on my banking. I don’t focus on my invoicing. You see good entrepreneurs go broke by ending up having to do stuff that they shouldn’t be doing. Focus on. What makes you brilliant. If you are, are brilliant, are looking for the deals, then find those people that can then fulfill ’em and actually can run it through. But do that get used to saying no, I guarantee you, you are busy by doing a load of the shit you shouldn’t be doing guarantee it. If I went into your business for a day, we will be able to free you up with probably three quarters of air by outsourcing the crap you shouldn’t even be looking at. And that’s what we do now. And that’s my tip for the day.
I love it. That’s sage sage advice. I love it. Thank you. And I wanna add one thing to that, not to change anything, but as it applies to real estate investors, almost everything, almost everything, a real estate investor does, can be outsourced. There’s nothing that I do with my real estate investing that I need to do. I can have everything from the bookkeeping to the property management, to the asset protection and the taxes done by somebody else. I don’t need to do it. Yep. So that’s how you free yourself. Steve. You’re brilliant. I can’t wait to see you again at our next meeting. Tell our listeners how they can find you and learn more about you and the things you offer and things you do.
I’m very easy. I am Steve D Sims. There’s only one M in Sims and don’t forget the D for dashing. So Steve D Sims anywhere stevedsims.com. Steve D Sims on Twitter. Instagram, probably my biggest following is on Instagram, but I’m Steve D Sims anywhere. And if you go to stevedsims.com register there you get on my list. You get on my text alert system. You get to hear about everything I’m up to.
Cool. Well, Steve, thanks for being generous with your time and coming on the show today. I appreciate it. Just hang tight.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. That will be a wrap for today. Remember to subscribe if you haven’t done so already, if you have questions about real estate, be sure to let me know what they are. Click Ask Marco on the passiverealestateinvesting.com website, share the show with your friends. Let other people share experience that you have with the show. I appreciate all the great feedback in the five star reviews. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening and we will see you all on our next episode.
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