Linda Liberatore: Absolutely, John.

John Lee Dumas: Yes! Linda is founder and president of My Landlord Helper. She’s a highly energetic professional with drive and commitment to her clients’ success. Linda has published two books that inspire real estate investors to streamline process and achieve explosive growth.

Linda, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro, and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Linda Liberatore: Well, John, let me start by saying, first, I have to thank you because I really love your podcast. It’s definitely a daily for me.

John Lee Dumas: Awesome!

Linda Liberatore: It’s become part of the daily routine, and both journals.

I am just outside of the Chicago area. I have a husband and three grown daughters. And my gift/curse would probably be your mention of that endless energy. I’m not sure exactly how they’d comment on that, but I always have the ability and the willingness to help people as much as I can.

I’ve taught technology classes for large companies. And, basically, so many people, still, to this day – it’s kind of shocking – can be intimidated by a new software or a new application, and so, I try to just embrace that, combine that with their passion for real estate, and get everybody moving forward.

John Lee Dumas: Love all of that. And, Fire Nation, we’re gonna keep this energy high throughout the entire interview. What else could we do? You have two energetic people behind the mike right now. Linda, what would you say is your area of expertise specifically, and, within that area, give us something that we probably don’t know as entrepreneurs that would help us if we did?

Linda Liberatore: I really think it’s the communication. If I take you back a little bit to when I was teaching, those were professionals. Those were engineers, software engineers, etc., and here they were having to learn, let’s say, a Windows-based application, report-writing tools, things that they would consider, I’d almost say, below them. So, the communication is empowering people. So, I use that word, but I really mean that. They need to know they control that operation and not feel intimidated by it.

And too many times, people kind of write off a certain thing, and, generally, if you’re going through a certain step and you’re having trouble, so is everybody else, and, usually, whoever produced that software is more than willing to listen to that feedback.

You think about the Microsoft products when they came out so long ago, people would say, “Well, they have these bugs in them.” Well, the idea was to get it out to market, as you and I both believe, like take that first step. And so, then, people have to understand that they can work through that, and by their communication, you’ll just get so much further.

John Lee Dumas: So much further. And, Fire Nation, again, this energy is not going to be dwindling, but the reality is this. Even with Linda’s boundless energy and my boundless energy, guess what? We still have struggles, obstacles, challenges. We still have a lot of failures in our lives. It’s just part of what it means to be an entrepreneur and to try a lot of things. And that energy just gives us the opportunity to try more things, which gives us the opportunity to fail at more things.

So, Linda, take us to one of those things that you really have failed at and, specifically, what you would consider your worst entrepreneurial moment. What is that story? Take us there. Tell us that story.

Linda Liberatore: Well, John, this, to be honest, was probably my hardest question because I’d say that I fail a lot. We all fail a lot. So, when you kept saying “the worst,” I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, what was the worst failing?” And I try to bounce back. You just try to move on. But I guess I really think I’d have to take you to when I first started this company.

So, remember that I really had the mindset that you work hard and you work through everything, so I did a very lot of what I’ll call pre-homework. I did interviews with companies that were already managing properties. We went out and put together the business plan. I spoke to a lawyer. And this was all about 2007, 8, when I’m doing all this research. In the meantime, the whole world’s kinda crashing, and I’m not seeing it, and he’s like, “Take it easy.”

So, I’m doing all this stuff. I go out, and I take SBDC SCORE classes, all kinds of small-business classes. So, I feel I’m ready. And then, I top it off with a WBE certification, thinking – I don’t know what I’m thinking, but I’m just using that energy.

And now, I’m ready, right? The business is open, and – I have to borrow from your expression – crickets. Talk about putting your head on the table and going, “How could this be?” I did everything I thought that I should have done. So, I was just shocked. I mean, I was more than shocked. And I was doing cold calls, stuff like that.

But what I would say to anybody starting is the reason it was the worst moment – it didn’t need to be – is I should have signed people up for free before I opened the doors because your testimonials take you so much further, but what can I say? Live and learn. It was a very humiliating moment, I’ll say.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, I love the phrase “Do things that don’t scale.” And a lot of people will say, “Well, I never want to have these one-on-one conversations,” or, “I’m never gonna give things away that are for free because I invested time, energy, and money into this,” but, Fire Nation, when you’re getting going, you have to do things that don’t scale. You have to give things away, have one-on-one conversations, because you will learn so much value from people going through that course or that product or that service, where actually checking out that community, you will learn so much from those one-on-one conversations that – guess what – you can take information, that knowledge and then create things that do scale.

You can have things like Linda said she was missing – testimonials that would have been so amazing, that would have put trust and faith and just excitement into her clients or her potential clients that weren’t converting at the time because she didn’t have these things. She didn’t understand exactly what the biggest pain points were. She didn’t have proof of concept to convert those potential customers into clients, etc.

So, Linda, that’s my biggest takeaway from your worst moment and what, if you were to do it all over again, what you would do. What do you wanna make sure our listeners really get?

Linda Liberatore: I think that in my particular case and, certainly, many of your listeners’, my product centered around moving cash for people. So, when you talk about that testimonial being the most important thing, it was the trust factor that I needed because it became a snowball then. Once one person was on the system, you’re moving, literally, hundreds of thousands of dollars of other people. They definitely need to know, like, and trust you. So, starting out with one testimonial would have been huge.

John Lee Dumas: Let’s talk about another story, Linda. This is gonna be one of your greatest aha moments. And by the way, Fire Nation, this is kinda why it’s exciting and good. Maybe exciting is not the right word, but why it’s good to have worst moments because you have aha moments from those worst moments. You have great ideas because of how bad your initial idea was or the execution of that idea was.

So, of course, Linda, you’ve had lots of bad ideas and failures. You’ve also had a lot of great ideas and aha moments from them, but what’s one of the greatest that you can tell a story of for us today? What would be that aha moment? Take us there. Tell us that story.

Linda Liberatore: What I did was I like people, I’m comfortable with people, so I joined every group I could. I’m a very well-networked person. So, anywhere I could give information, share information, I was happy. I was more than willing to share. But then, when it came down to – I’ll say – closing the sale, it really was from one of my clients that I said to him, “I’m still struggling with closing the sale.” And he’s like, “What do you mean, closing the sale? You’re not selling anything. You’re providing a service for a pain point.” He said, “Do people like what you do?” and of course I was almost insulted. I was like, “Like it? They love it!” and he’s like, “Then you’re not selling.”

It was really that moment that I kinda stood back and said, “Isn’t that the truth? We all get so hung up with, ‘Oh, I can’t sell.’ Well, we’re not selling. We’re delivering a service that’s really helping people.” And we had emails, we had phone calls of people telling us how much we were helping them, yet I was struggling with that concept.

John Lee Dumas: We’re not selling. What a mindset shift, Fire Nation, because so many listeners right now – and, by the way, myself, too – we don’t necessarily just love the “selling,” the cold calls, and just putting people out there, and saying, “Hey, this is something you need to buy right now,” sell, sell, sell. That’s just not something that’s really comfortable for most people, rightfully so, but when you have that mindset shift, and you just say, “Hey, I’m just gonna provide incredibly valuable service for people,” that replaces that mindset of sell, sell, sell.

So, Linda, what do you really want to make sure that our listeners get from that mindset shift that you had that we can all use to apply to our businesses?

Linda Liberatore: I’d say definitely look inside yourself and realize that if you have people out there that are telling you what you’re doing is invaluable to them, then you just have to realize it’s almost the service that you need to continue to provide. You’re not selling. You’re not self-promoting. That was something that I really felt stuck on, that I was self-promoting, and I wasn’t self-promoting. I was delivering, really, an incredible value.

John Lee Dumas: And by the way, Fire Nation, if you’re not quite there yet, where you don’t have people raving about a service or a value that you’re providing, that’s because you’re not asking the right questions. You’re not saying to your potential clients, customers, and avatars, “What is your biggest struggle right now?” and then listen to what those obstacles, challenges, pain points are so that you can provide the solution and that massive value that will start that momentum wheel that Linda was just talking about.

Now, Linda, today, 2017, what are you most fired up about?

Linda Liberatore: Well, I’d say that now we’re into it a few years, and I’ve put out these books. I feel like we’re touching lives. I’ve had people I’m working with – young students, college graduates – and just trying to empower them to realize how much value they have to offer. So, we go around. We speak. We talk about what they can do in real estate, but I need them to also see, just maybe through webinars – we’re trying to reach more people, and so, we’re thinking maybe webinars are our next step to get out there and just kind of give the people the confidence they need to – whether it be real estate investing, which of course that’s our primary focus is helping real estate investors because sometimes that’s really a struggle, John.

I know recently, or through a few of your podcasts, I know you’ve brought that up. Investors, it’s scary for them to go one on one, and they need a little support, but it’s also that same feeling an entrepreneur gets when they’re just starting. So, we kind of feel like we’re out there trying to help both.

John Lee Dumas: I’m a huge believer in the phrase that sales happen on live webinars because it’s something that we’ve just talked about earlier, Fire Nation, not because you’re necessarily selling on these webinars, but because, in a live arena, you’re providing value. You’re answering questions. You’re removing barriers. You’re doing all the things that are going to help your clients, your potential avatar, even more than you’re currently able to do in a non-live environment.

So, webinars are amazing for all of those things, Linda. Definitely fired up for you to get into that in the rest of 2017 and beyond. And, Fire Nation, we are going to be dropping some value bombs in the Lightning Round as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors.

Linda, are you ready to rock the Lightning Round?

Linda Liberatore: I sure am.

John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Linda Liberatore: I would definitely have to say fear of rejection.

John Lee Dumas: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Linda Liberatore: Just that Givers Gain. Continue to do things for others, and don’t worry about what you’ll get back. The universe takes care of that, right?

John Lee Dumas: Bob Burg, Givers Gain – love it. What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Linda Liberatore: Definitely the Miracle Morning. I’m an up-early riser. The exercise, reading, learning, practicing those journals from JLD, affirmations. Definitely, it has all made a huge difference.

John Lee Dumas: Can you share an Internet resource, like Evernote, with Fire Nation?

Linda Liberatore: I’m a Zoom person. I love to, with my clients, with anybody, we just throw on the software. It’s conference software, and it allows you to record and share screens, and we can get through any trouble they’re having, and it just eliminates a lot of back-and-forth via email.

John Lee Dumas: Zoom.us, love it! If you could recommend one book, Linda, what would it be and why?

Linda Liberatore: This was also a really tough one. I do so much reading, John, but I went really back in time, and I thought about one that I’ve given out a lot for gifts, and it’s that The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I think that that really sums up a lot about just you never know when you’re crossing someone’s path just how it might change your life or theirs.

John Lee Dumas: It’s a really emotional book. Actually, the audio book I’ve listened to multiple times while driving. It’s an incredible story. And, Linda, why don’t we give a shout-out to the two of your books? What are their titles?

Linda Liberatore: Well, we definitely have Daily Real Estate Investing. That’s an inspirational book. It’s kind of modeled after, I’ll say, a Joel Osteen. It’s a little passage each day about real estate with a quote. And then, we have My Landlord Helper that gives people ideas of how they can seek assistance without going fully into property management.

John Lee Dumas: Linda, let’s end today on fire with you giving us a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say good-bye.

Linda Liberatore: John, I’m gonna say that my parting piece of advice I’m gonna borrow from Les Brown, and I think it’s really kind of helped those of us with a lot of energy feel that I don’t want to die today with my dreams, whatever it is I want to do. I want to die empty. And I just think everybody should follow that. Put everything into every day.

The best way they can reach me is a little bit long. It’s LindaL@SecurePayOne.com, and I’ll spell that out, or you’ll put it in the Show Notes, right?

John Lee Dumas: It’ll be in the Show Notes.

Linda Liberatore: So, it’s LindaL@SecurePayOne.com. And then, I’d like to offer your listeners, if they are interested in a quote of the day, I would be happy to email them a quote of the day or something to get them started each day with just a little thought or something to get them off in the positive direction.

John Lee Dumas: Amazing. Awesome, awesome stuff. And, Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you’ve been hanging out with LL and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com. Type “Linda” in the search bar. Her Show Notes page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today – timestamps, links galore. Of course, directly to her website, Linda will put a link in there as well for how they can get those daily emails of a great quote.

And anything else you want to share, Linda, before we say goodbye?

Linda Liberatore: No. Just what an honor, and, again, you’ve done a lot to keep me going, and I thank you and your audience and all the past interviews.

John Lee Dumas: Thank you, Linda, for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flipside.

Linda Liberatore: Thank you.