Clarity or Confusion, that has been a huge question that I have spent the last month and a half trying to answer.  After our extremely successful Exponential Wealth Conference, K and I took the month of May off to just slow down and evaluate our business(es), our life directions, our clients, and ultimately if the various projects we were involved with were able to pass one question…Clarity or Confusion?

(Ok, we have also been questioning on a business level if our projects, JV’s, etc were actually making Profit vs. Time but more on that in a few days)

Let me ask you a question, have you ever been involved in a project where you go to meeting after meeting yet have no true results?  You may feel AWESOME afterwards, but in hindsight nothing was really accomplished nor did you actually get anything bountiful out of the meeting?  That is a form of confusion.  That is bad.

I see this ALL the time with folks who are involved in real estate (Trust me, Real Estate is by far not alone in folks spreading confusion to steal your dollars!  But it is dear to my heart, so it frustrates me immensely!).  You see I’m going to let you in on a secret…

There are a LOT of dishonest people in Real Estate who look to PREY upon your HOPES and DREAMS…all for a price, of course.

Now don’t get me wrong by any means, there are also a LOT of great, honest people out there who are interested in helping folks realize their dreams…and guess what, they will charge you a price for that knowledge.

So how are you suppose to know the difference?

Well there are a couple of ways…

1. Trust your gut instincts or intuition.

If the promises of wealth and success sound too good to be true…they probably are!

2. Get references. (Not Testimonials!)

This one is tough…if you ask the person for a reference, they will either give you a selection of names/numbers of people they know will only speak highly of them, OR they will simply give you a bunch of testimonials.

The truth about a lot of testimonials are that they are

a: written by the person who they are refering to…ie the speaker/mentor/coach (and sometimes but not always signed off by the person)

b: very old and technically outdated (some speakers/presenters use testimonials years old

c: Totally fake…works of fiction…aka Not Real.

The best testimonials are video testimonials…but even these are often questionable due to the simple fact that many are given right after an event when people are excited, hopeful, and fully confused (of course they are gonna talk highly about the course, right?) OR and this one is a bit more insidious…the video testimonials are paid actors.

3.  Trust your Supporters.

Trust those who support you in your endeavors.  Before paying out thousands of dollars on this program or another, ask your supporters what they think.  Often this will cause you to pause, relax (come off the sales pitch emotional high), and allow your intelligence come into the decision making process.  Also by having to “sell” your supporters on the program, you will essentially have to point out the true benefits to yourself (often it is during this process that I most often talk myself out of buying a product!)

4.  Ask your coach or mentor.

A coach or mentor is your best asset.  Hopefully you have aligned yourself with a person of integrity who has your best interest in mind (there are coach’s and mentors who fit the confusion bill above so beware!).  Many of the benefits of mentor are the same as those of number 3.  The difference is you are paying this person for their unbiased  knowledge and experience, so they are often the best source to go to.

So what does this all mean?  At the end of the day you must realize that in any industry or facet of life there are people out there who have your best interest in mind and there are folks out there who have their own best interest in mind.  I can’t teach you how to determine the difference, but hopefully you will trust your instincts and it won’t cost you a lot of money or cause you a lot of trouble.

Until next time, keep on moving forward!