Overcome Limiting Beliefs, Set Empowering Goals, and Crush It in 2024 with Trevor McGregor

Trevor McGregor 00:00
Where do you need to raise your standards? What do you need to do to draw that line in the sand and step over, saying, ‘You know what, I am going to listen to more great podcasts like this. I’m going to read more books. I’m going to attend more real estate events. I’m going to send referrals to Cityside Capital because, you know what, I believe that we’re all better together.’ So once you shift your state, your story, and your standards, Greg, then we’re ready to answer your question of how do we set the goals because the fourth ‘S’ is the strategy.

Greg Lyons 00:31
Welcome to the Passive Income Brothers podcast.

Tim Lyons 00:34
Here, we take the fear out of real estate investing using real-life stories of everyday successful investors. Let’s go! Welcome to another episode of the Passive Income Brothers podcast. My name is Tim Lyons, and today I’m joined by two absolute rockstars—one of which is my brother, Greg. How are you doing today, buddy?

Greg Lyons 00:52
I’m doing fantastic. We are winding down 2023 and about to step into 2024. Today’s podcast is exactly what everyone needs to propel themselves into ’24.

Tim Lyons 01:05
That’s right. So today, we have my coach, Trevor McGregor, who is a platinum coach. He has worked with some of the world’s greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and business owners. He trained under Tony Robbins. I mean, when you talk about mindset expansion, personal growth and development, entrepreneurship, and doing the right thing in the right order in the right way, and surrounding yourself with great folks, there’s nobody else that I could recommend higher than Trevor McGregor. So, it’s COACH T, as he’s affectionately known. How are you doing today?

Trevor McGregor 01:45
Well, thank you for the beautiful intro, gentlemen. I am blessed, grateful, and wishing you a happy new year. I’m just so excited to be here with you guys. Let’s rock this!

Tim Lyons 01:57
Well, Happy New Year to you, and to our listeners. Look, when we close out one year and open up the next, it’s a time where we’re all looking forward, full of excitement, right? Reflecting on 2023 with affection, hopefully, you had some wins, maybe some losses, but we’ll recognize those and use them as experience. As we move into 2024, how do we want to kick off the new year? What are we going to do? And there’s nobody better than Coach T to help expand our mindset. So, Coach T, moving into 2024, what are a couple of the biggest hurdles you find people face when starting off the new year, especially when they lack clarity?

Trevor McGregor 02:44
Well, it’s such a great question. The old paradigm, meaning the way most people think because it’s the most familiar to them, is that they go through Thanksgiving, they go through Christmas, and as it gets close to the New Year, they wait until December 31st to set some New Year’s resolutions. Well, I can tell you, as a high-performance peak performance master platinum coach, and in addition to being a real estate investor since 2003, gentlemen, that’s not what high performers do. Having conducted over 40,000 coaching sessions, yes, 40,000 coaching sessions with high performers like yourselves, I can say that high performers do things a bit differently.

What we first do is take what I call a personal inventory. A personal inventory is where we look back at 2023 and identify what worked and what didn’t work. What were our successes, and what were our potential failures, or as I prefer to call them, things where we got feedback? There’s a great quote in ‘Think and Grow Rich’ that says there is no failure, there’s only feedback. As business people, real estate investors, spouses, or parents, we get a lot of feedback, don’t we? So what I like to do with clients is look back at the last 11 or 12 months to see what wins we put on the scoreboard and maybe what losses we encountered. As we move into 2024, I approach this with an attitude of gratitude. People are often grateful for all the good in their lives, but I’m also grateful for the things that I didn’t achieve because that’s how the universe works. It gets us to step up, build the muscle, keep going, and drive forward toward our goals. So, before we even look at 2024, we’re going to take a look backward because that will springboard us forward. Does that make sense?

Greg Lyons 04:40
Oh, it absolutely does. To take that personal inventory with gratitude is so important, right? Because, as Tim was saying, 2023 had its highs, lows, and certainly some lessons learned along the way. No doubt about it. With you being a real estate investor and coach, recognizing the choppiness of 2023 is crucial. As you move on to 2024, what do your goals look like? And how do emotions sometimes get in the way of people when they’re trying to set goals or have a great start to the year?

Trevor McGregor 05:22
That’s such a great question, Greg. And you know what? We’re all emotional creatures, right? 2023 has been more than choppy. If you give it a boat analogy, it’s like being in a canoe in whitewater rapids—bobbing up and down, feeling like you might get thrown out. Eventually, a waterfall comes, and you go over it, wondering if you’ll survive. So, I’m here to remind people that there are three modalities of time: the past, the present, and the future.

When we set goals for 2024, we don’t want to do it from the choppiness of the past or the uncertainty of bouncing out of the boat. We want to step into the present and ask ourselves, ‘Who am I? What’s my state? What’s my story? What’s my standard?’ It’s from this present moment that we create what we call the predictable future. However, you never want to start your goal-setting process for 2024 without considering where you are in that three-pound mass called your brain, predominantly there to keep you safe.

If you’re stuck in an emotion still living in the choppiness of the past, your goals might be driven by doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, or feelings of inadequacy. That’s the work of the saboteur—the little voice in your head that gives you all the reasons why you can’t win. You’ve got to access the wise sage that resides in your heart and your gut, saying, ‘Maybe 2023 wasn’t the year I intended to have, but I’ll get up, dust myself off, and keep on keepin’ on.’ Change those emotions to possibilities, courage, optimism, and gamification because, as humans, we’re the only creatures on the planet that can choose to shift our emotions from a negative to a positive emotional home.

So, if you’re really going to sit down and set your goals, understand the three modalities of time—past, present, future. Get out of any emotion that isn’t serving you and into an empowering emotion. That’s where we can start to have the goal-setting conversation. What do you think?

Tim Lyons 07:46
Well, as the listeners now know, I like to do some push-ups in the aisle from time to time because I get fired up. But I’m going to save everybody from that ugly sight right now. You know, Coach T, so much of investing is, let me back up. When I first started working with you, I was very concerned about the ‘how,’ right? How do we do this? How do I do that? Why must I do it in that way? Working with you, I was taught that investing is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. We have to get our physiology and our psychology correct. We have to become the person that we need to become before we start worrying about the ‘how.’

So, with that kind of thought process, how can people shape up their 2024 outlook by embodying that 80% psychology that is needed to do the 20% of the mechanics?

Trevor McGregor 08:50
I love that, Tim, and again, this goes way back because we’ve worked together for years and years. Before I answer that, I had the good fortune to work with the man, the myth, the legend, yes, Tony Robbins, for half a decade as one of his top real estate coaches. I was able to appear behind the curtain and really see how Tony Robbins says that everything boils down to state. Your state refers to how you are showing up in your mind and in your body. If you’re in an unresourceful state, you’re going to make decisions that follow suit to where that state takes you. Versus if you’re in a resourceful state, you’ll do things that are far more achievable.

So, when you’re setting goals for 2024, are you in the right state? We call your state your triad. Anything that’s a triad has three sides like a triangle. The bottom of your triad or your triangle for state management is checking in with your physiology. If your shoulders are down, your head is down, and you’re quiet, you’re probably breathing shallowly, and your body is not in an empowered state. You’ve got to get up, move, hydrate, put on some music because all emotion changes with motion. It’s that simple; you’ve got to engage the body and the mind to move.

If that’s at the bottom of your triad, what goes in one of the upper left corners of your triangle? That’s what we call your focus. One of my favorite quotes, and I know it’s one of yours too, is ‘Where focus goes, energy flows.’ So if we engage a better physiology, you’ve got to ask, am I focused on what I don’t want, or am I focusing on what I do want? We call that an empowering focus versus staying in that disempowering focus. If we shift that around and focus on how we can create more abundance, get into great shape, and have a wonderful relationship with our significant other, whatever the brain hears, the brain will go consciously and subconsciously, and move towards.

Step one, we’ve got to change our physiology. Step two, we’ve got to shift our focus. And that takes us to the third part of the triad, gentlemen, which is your language. Yes, your language because what you’re saying to yourself internally about your goals or what you’re saying out loud is really going to drive your behavior. As a high-performance master platinum coach, if you’re saying things like, ‘I should do this,’ ‘I ought to do that,’ and ‘Maybe tomorrow, I’ll try this,’ those are weak forms of commitment. You’ve got to absolutely get up and say, ‘I will,’ ‘I’ve got this,’ ‘I’m doing this.’ When you combine your physiology, your focus, and your language, that’s when sparks fly, and magic happens. What do you guys think? I’ll throw it back to you.

Greg Lyons 12:12
Wow, lots to digest there, right? It’s really about the energy you bring. If you’re not going to bring the energy, your focus won’t improve, and your language won’t improve. I liked that triad right there; it’s so important. So, how do we take all of this together, the triad, moving your body, focus, and the language you use with yourself? Tim mentioned that investing and building wealth are 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. When we take all of this together and go out to set our goals for 2024, how do you make the goals? Do you make them attainable? Some people say, ‘Don’t shoot for the moon; you might get disappointed.’ Or do you go the Grant Cardone way and say, ’10x everything’? You want to make $100,000? Make it a million. Want to make a million? Make it 10 million. How do we take all of this information and go about setting our goals for 2024?

Trevor McGregor 13:16
Well, Greg, you’re singing from my song sheet because I get asked that every day, multiple times a day. And before we do that, we also have to check in with two other words that start with the letter ‘S.’ Because if we check in with our state before we set goals, we also have to check in with our story. Our story is really our identity, the narrative we tell about ourselves. Some people are telling me a story that they’re a victim of 2023 because of interest rates, a supposed recession, shifting cap rates, or decreased investor activity. They’re setting goals from a victim standpoint, thinking that’s as good as it’s going to get in 2024, which might not be true. So, you’ve got to shift your state, shift your story to say, ‘It’s a new year.’ I believe interest rates will come down, and real estate is a better investment than the stock market. That’s my personal opinion, and I’m well-invested in U.S. real estate. I have a story that acknowledges peaks and valleys, and maybe 2023 was a valley for you, but it doesn’t have to be the same for 2024 if you shift your story. The third ‘S’ is Tim’s favorite, and that is your standards. Where do you need to raise your standards? What do you need to do to draw that line in the sand and step over, saying, ‘I am going to listen to more great podcasts like this, read more books, attend more real estate events, and send referrals to Cityside Capital because we’re all better together.’ Once you shift your state, your story, and your standards, Greg, then we’re ready to answer your question about how to set goals because the fourth ‘S’ is the strategy. The strategy is one of my favorite things to do as a coach because that’s where the rubber meets the road. If the first three ‘S’s are your psychology, the fourth ‘S’ is your strategy. Before we dive into that, Tim or Greg, any comments on those three ‘S’s?

Tim Lyons 15:38
Yeah, I mean, listen, when I was coaching with you and we were doing our calls, bam, bam, I had homework to do. I was ready, set up, and had my schedule cleared because this was my golden time. I mean, let’s be honest, Coach T, have you ever worked with someone with bigger limiting beliefs than Timmy Lyons brought to you? Probably not, right? My story, my standards, I was definitely up there. But when it comes to strategy, why do you think I have a podcast today? Do you think it’s because I came up with the idea myself? No, Coach T worked me until I finally said, ‘Greg, we’re starting a podcast.’ That was two years ago this December. What a way to do it, right? But it wasn’t until I had my standards, my story, that I could finally get into the strategy. Coach T, I don’t know if you’re going to hit on this, but on my wall right over here, you can see it on the camera, I still have my productivity pyramid. So when I get stuck, I look over at my productivity pyramid. You can explain it better than I can, but I try to play above the line. As an investor, father, brother, business partner, you can either play above the line or below the line. So Coach T, back to you. Let’s do some goal setting and play above the line.

Trevor McGregor 17:13
Awesome! Well, I love it. And I love that you still have that posted on your office wall, as do thousands of my clients. Because, guys, it’s like Timmy said, he didn’t just randomly think of starting the podcast, nor did Greg. I’ve got a big belief that came from Tony Robbins that says, ‘Success leaves clues.’ So we don’t have to reinvent the wheel with starting a podcast or investing in real estate or figuring out if we should buy an apartment building and fix it up and find some investors that want to join us in becoming more wealthy, successful, and rich. That already exists. So what we do is we take the state, story, standard, and plug it into the strategy. I’ve got a seven-step process I’d love to take the listener through now. But before I do, I want to speak to the productivity pyramid that Tim’s referring to because it has everything for me. So, again, I’m going to give the listener a visual of a triangle. That triangle has four levels moving up, and in the very first level, it’s what we call no or low value. This is where you spend time because we all have 168 hours a week. You spend time in level one doing things that don’t really give you a return on your investment, like watching copious amounts of television or surfing the internet mindlessly. We always try to stay away from level one; we can do a little bit of it, but not too much of it. Because even Tony Robbins calls the television the ‘electronic income reducer.’ We want to go up one level to level two. That’s what we call low dollar value where now you start researching real estate opportunities. You look at different things, maybe in the Carolinas or you look at opportunities in Arizona, or you look at opportunities in Atlanta. Now you start really searching for where do you want to go? What do you want to do and what gets you ready to make money? From there, we go and play above the line, which is the middle line of the equator of the triangle that Tim is talking about, where we move into high dollar value activities. Because it’s in high dollar value activities that we go out there and have conversations with Tim and Greg, wire our money, drive by the property, meet with brokers, go on bus tours, and figure out how to find the next property. Because guys, I’m telling you, the best way to help the poor isn’t to be one of them. And we all have a unique opportunity to use real estate as one of the greatest wealth vehicles on the planet. But if you stay in level one and do nothing, or level two, just think about it. Level three is where you take what I call intelligent and inspired action. That’s where you absolutely get in the game and invest in real estate. And then level four, that top level that Tim’s talking about, is what we call high lifetime value. High lifetime value is really working out at the gym, spending time with your significant other, going on date nights, spending time with your children, going on vacation, hiring a high-performance coach, listening to podcasts, reading ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad,’ ‘Think and Grow Rich.’ What Tim is referring to is he has really, really worked hard to make sure he doesn’t just play below the line. But he lives and plays above the line. And that’s what high performers do. So as we get ready to set goals, it’s going to be obvious to the listener now that you could be setting goals that are level one, goals level two, three, or four. And it’s okay to set them all, but I’m here to really, really push you on level two, three, and four. Does that make sense, guys?

Greg Lyons 20:57
You know, it definitely does. I think when people are trying to set goals, they often go to a place of, ‘Hey, I have to make a million dollars, or I have to make an extra $100,000.’ But that level four, the piece of the puzzle above the equator, the intelligent, inspired, high lifetime value stuff – goals like taking your significant other out for a date once a month or ensuring your mental health is right – those are the things that are so very important. However, a lot of times, when you have that drive to achieve a goal or buy a certain number of properties, other aspects of your life, such as relationships or health, can suffer. Overlooking that can be a major problem when you’re setting your goals.

Trevor McGregor 21:48
Yeah, Greg, it’s really good. That’s why I bring it up on the show. I’d be a bad coach if I didn’t, just like the first three S’s. When you know your state, your story, your standards, you’ve got a time management triangle, what we call the productivity pyramid. This allows us to get to the nuts and bolts of goal setting and achievement, which is what we call strategy. I’m here to share what I do, what my clients do, and what I know you guys do to give the listener a high overview of what high performers do to set goals.

Before I get to the seven steps, the first thing is to dream big, right? We’re all here on purpose and with purpose to create, whether it’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, or building, painting, riding motorcycles, boating, playing musical instruments, etc. Regardless of the goal, I like to chunk them down into categories, such as personal ones like health, spouse, kids, travel, tithing, and business ones like high-performance coaching, consulting, professional keynote speaking, book publishing, and real estate.

With a lot going on in my life, being married with three boys, I chunk down goals into individual categories for 2024—personal and professional. What are my main goals? How much money do I want to make? How many deals and vacations? How many date nights? By chunking down goals into categories, it keeps me out of overwhelm. Many people get overwhelmed in the goal-setting process, fearing they won’t achieve their financial or business goals.

However, that’s the work of the saboteur instead of the why sage. Whatever goal you set, it should excite and stretch you. It should be something that, if achieved, would make you do the happy dance. Think about how much money you want to make, how many deals you want to be part of, or how many investors you want to bring into city side. Stretch it a bit, get comfortable being uncomfortable. There are no limits when you add value to others. Money is a byproduct of adding value, and in real estate, we add value to investors, partners, tenants, families, contractors, landscapers, roofers, plumbers, electricians.

One pebble thrown into the water creates concentric circles, going bigger and bigger. If you want to make more money, add more value. If you want to lose weight, find a big reason why. To be a better parent, examine how you’re showing up now. All of this happens individually by category. You don’t judge it as good or bad, right or wrong; it’s a personal inventory. This sets us up to dive into the seven simple steps of goal setting and achievement.

Tim Lyons 25:40
By now, you would think COACH T and I have learned how to unmute my mic when I start talking. But even at episode 100, it’s still something I occasionally forget to do.

Trevor McGregor 25:50
To me, there is no failure; there’s only feedback, right?

Tim Lyons 25:57
That’s right. You know, when I went?

Greg Lyons 26:00
Well, this is a very slow feedback loop. I will tell you that much right now. But keep going.

Tim Lyons 26:08
Listen, you talk about your CEOs, right? The categories of improvement—the personal, correct, and then the professional, right? That’s so much of what the goal-setting for 2024 is going to look like, and I have a feeling you might go into the RPMs next, the Rapid Planning Method, but I might be mistaken. But you know what this is; this is what I paid for. This is what was so valuable to me because I needed it, right? How many times are you there at the beginning of the year? We all have these great feelings; we all have this gut feeling, we have it in our gut, we have it in our mind, there’s so much we want to do, so much we want to accomplish, so much we want to experience in life. And we come hitting the ground on January 1, flying through things. And by about the third or fourth week of January, that motivation is lacking. There’s no consistency; we don’t see results right away, whether you’re just trying to lose weight, trying to make more money, trying to make more phone calls, or trying to be a better parent—whatever it might be. If you don’t have that consistency behind that motivation, we’re just going to flame out, right? And that’s what I want listeners not to do for 2024. Because believe me, I’m a guy from Long Island, right? I’m a New Yorker. I’m skeptical. I’ve got massive, massive limiting beliefs. Right? You want to talk about a scarcity mindset, man, Coach, so you could probably write a book about how we broke my scarcity mindset. So, Coach, throw it back to you. What are these concrete steps people can take to hit 2024 running?

Trevor McGregor 27:40
I love it. And yes, you’ve done the work. That’s apparent, and congrats to you. So really, for the listener, it’s straightforward. You’re going to take a COI or a category of improvement, right? So the personal and professional things that we’ve chunked down, and you’re going to run them through these seven simple steps. And again, this comes from the man, the myth, the legend, Tony Robbins, my coach, who literally taught me this, and guys, I use this to run everything. I use this to run my personal life, my business life, my real estate empire. If Lisa and I are going on a trip, that’s my wife, we use RPM to plan it out because it really is foolproof. If you listen and apply the seven simple steps, you too can turn decades into days in terms of choosing a better lifestyle, making more money, being in better shape, having better relationships, or anything else.

So without further ado, let’s kick it off with calling it RPM. And it stands for the Rapid Planning Method, right, the Rapid Planning Method. And the first three letters are the first three steps. So we’ll make it real easy for the listener here. And let’s kick it off with the letter R because that stands for number one, your result? What do you want? What’s the outcome? Right. And if you can write that down per COI, you know, you can say, “I am so grateful for earning X amount of money in 2024,” or “I’m so grateful for getting into five real estate deals in 2024,” or “I’m so grateful for releasing 15 pounds of body fat back to the universe in 2024.” I’m so grateful for going on these trips. I’m so grateful for tithing to the church or something that’s near and dear to your heart. But you never ever, ever want to set goals that you don’t have a crystal clear outcome for, and you want to throw some metrics in there. Is it the full 12 months? Do you want to achieve it in the first three months? Do you want to achieve it in the first half of the year? Oftentimes, I’ll declare by July the fourth; I will have my whole year goals done by July the fourth, and many times I do, whereas some people they put their goals out over the course of the 12 months. So whatever you’re doing, understand Step one is to write down what it is you want. What is the result or the outcome for that goal? That takes us to number two, which is the P in rpm that stands for purpose. Why do you want that goal? Why do you want to make that much money? Why do you want to lose the weight? Why do you want to travel? Right? Why do you want to listen to more great podcasts and take your knowledge to the next level? Because when the why is big enough, gentlemen, when times get tough, or there are some waves, like there were in 2023, or things don’t work out exactly as they thought they would out of the gate, or a business partner quits on you or something goes upside down. The why is what keeps us moving towards our target. That’s why I like to come up with 2345 big, fat compelling reasons why I want that outcome in that CLI. Does that make sense?

So that’s awesome. And that takes us to step number three in rpm, which is the M, and that stands for the map or the massive action plan. This is where we take inventory of all the things that we could do to achieve our goal. If we’re going to make more money, we got to start talking to people that can get us into real estate deals, or we’ve got to start a side hustle, or we’ve got to go to a conference or read, you know, “Thinking, Grow Rich,” whatever it is, these are where you’re going to take intelligent, inspired action to follow the map or the steps that are going to help you get to that outcome for all the reasons why you listed in the reason steps number two. So those are the first three steps of RPM, what do I want? Why do I want it? And what are all the things that I could do to get there? The final four steps are really very simple. So I’m going to go through those four steps now because it’s really very simple, where step four is what we call prioritization. Prioritization, this is where we look back up at the map, and we identify what your three to thrive is, what are the first three things you’re going to do come January 1, to get out of the gate, and then you prioritize those. And then once the first three are done, you can knock out whatever else is there. Step five is what’s called time stamping. And time stamping is really where, you know, you put a deadline on something or you block something out in your calendar to work on something. But it’s really where you leave no stone unturned in your state, story, and standard to really work on what is going to get you out of the gate fastest in 2024. Step six is called leverage. This is where you ask, well, who can help me to achieve the goal that I’ve set for myself? Is it Greg? Is it Tim? Is it a coach? Is it an accountability partner? Is it a gym trainer? Is it your spouse, right? And I’m telling you, there is so much possibility now with artificial intelligence or technology that it’s mind-blowing to think of where we’re going from 2024 and beyond. And then the final step, gentlemen, Step seven is execution. That is, you got to go out there and take that intelligent and inspired action. Because if you don’t, you’re never going to achieve your outcomes. So to recap, the art is for the result, the P is for the purpose, the M is for the map, which is the list of all the things you can do. And then step four is we prioritize it, we timestamp it, we leverage it and ask who can help me, and then we execute. And if the listener follows all of those steps, I guarantee that they’ll have a better 2024 than if they didn’t use those steps, gentlemen.

Tim Lyons 33:23
So, Greg, let me just stack on top real quick, Coach. I’m going to add an eighth step to your RPM method. And that is simply to write it down. Yeah, right? Because that might sound like it’s intuitive, right? That we should be writing down our goals, but so many, I mean, before I started coaching, before I got into the personal growth and development space, it was all in my head. And I had to keep track of everything. And it’s hard, right? Like it’s hard to keep track of in your head. Where are you and what am I thinking about? And oh, yeah, I need to cook dinner tonight. And all of a sudden, you’re overwhelmed, right? But if you get it out of your head and you use this framework, right, seven steps, boom, write down the seven steps on page one, and now you got it as a key to use to make your categories of improvement your personal, your professional, your relationships, your health, your mentation, your education, who do you want to listen to, what podcast, what are you reading, you know, all these things? I mean, there’s no shortage of categories of improvement that I know I want to each year improve upon. So I just love that. So thank you for sharing the SEO wise and the RPMs, man. It brings me back to our early days, Coach T, and I just absolutely love it. So mindful.

Greg Lyons 34:40
The one thing about that is this is absolute gold. And, you know, hopefully, the listener will come back, listen to this again, take some notes because I have just, you know, two pages of notes right here, which is crazy. But, you know, as you go through the year, keep remembering that story you tell yourself because, as Coach T gets his goals done by July 4 every year, not all of them are going to happen right away. So it’s not that you’re a failure; you’re still doing your research. It’s the story you tell yourself of, “I’m still going to get there, I’m still going to have a great attitude. And we’re still going to make stuff happen, even when there are some highs and lows, because just like 2023, 2024 will bring those highs and lows.

Tim Lyons 35:24
Alright, so I want to be mindful of everybody’s time here. And I want to jump into the last three questions because I know Coach T is going to knock it out of the park. Coach T, are you ready, sir?

Trevor McGregor 35:34
I am more than ready; let’s do this.

Tim Lyons 35:39
That’s awesome. So the first question I want to ask you is, you know, when you’re talking to folks, whether it’s just at a cocktail party, in case people still do that, or at a barbecue, or whatever it might be. And you know, you get to talking about real estate, and someone turns around and tells you, you know, Trevor, that sounds great. And all but isn’t investing in real estate too risky? How would you respond to that person?

Trevor McGregor 36:03
Yeah, I do get that a lot. And, you know, again, I think that everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but their opinion is usually formulated because their Uncle Bob invested in real estate, and he lost all his money. And then Aunt Betty invested in something, and she lost all her money. So I like to really say, you know, are you sharing that from your own experience? Are you sharing that from someone else’s experience, and either way is fine with me. But here’s what I know to be true: People have literally been investing in real estate for thousands of years when you go back in history. People went to war to claim land. Right? In today, hopefully, we’re not fighting wars, but what we’re looking to do is continue to understand that I think real estate is the number one wealth vehicle on the planet. And that 90 to 95% of all multimillionaires, not just millionaires, but multimillionaires, 95% of them have done so through real estate. And then I really ask them, you know, what would prevent you from coming in? Is it that you feel you don’t know enough? Or that you’d have to deal with tenants and toilets and termites when you know that’s not what you’re here to do? You can invest passively. Have you ever thought of investing passively instead of actively? So usually, the quality of my questions back to them, gentlemen, dictates the quality of their ability to say, “Wow, I never saw it that way.” Or “Wow, I’ve never heard about that.” Or “Wow, Trevor, can you tell me more?” And that’s when they start to really see the eyebrows go up, and I see the head nodding a lot. And that’s when they start to understand what it’s really about. Does that make sense?

Greg Lyons 37:35
That’s an absolutely great answer. And, you know, it’s really just, you know, where is your own perspective coming from? And I think a lot of the times people just hear stuff, and they say, “Oh, that’s just what I’m going to go with.” And I think that kind of leads us into our second thought, which has to do with interest rates and stuff like that. Robert Kiyosaki once said, “Savers are losers, and debtors are winners.” What does that mean to you?

Trevor McGregor 38:05
Well, again, I’ve been on this planet for five decades, gentlemen, so I’m kind of telling my age now. But yeah, at the age of 50, I’ve been through many different economic cycles. I’ve had many money lessons as I’ve navigated the peaks and valleys of real estate, the stock market, speculative angel investing—I mean, gosh, my wife and I have definitely had a few money lessons. But, like I said earlier, there is no failure; there’s only feedback. And that makes us bigger, better, faster, stronger. So when I see interest rates go up, I really see it as an opportunity where a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines, afraid to go play in the sandbox because, oh my gosh, interest rates are so high. I see that as an opportunity to go in and find more deals, make more offers, do more business. And I really do believe that we’re probably near the highs, and we’re going to start to see interest rate cuts, maybe in Q2 or Q3 of 2024. I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do know where the economy is. And I talk to real estate investors all over the US every single day because I’ve got clients in 37 different states right now, doing everything from multifamily to mobile home parks, assisted living, self-storage—I mean, some are buying historic buildings or doing land development. So I think that I’ve been given a gift of being able to cross-pollinate a whole bunch of conversations. But again, I do believe that what goes up must come down. So that’s how I’d answer that.

Tim Lyons 39:37
Love that, Coach T. The third question comes from somebody that I’m sure you know very well, it’s Jim Rohn, right? I think anybody who is in this kind of space loves to listen to a little Jim Rohn every once in a while. So, you know, so much of our growth has come from masterminds, from coaching, from meetups, from podcasts, from books, and Jim Rohn said that you are the average of the five people that you spend the most amount of time with. So Coach T, take it away, what does that mean to you?

Trevor McGregor 40:13
Well, it’s so funny that you bring that up. I just talked about this on another podcast about four days ago. And, you know, I really like to talk about it in what I refer to as the five freedoms. So I’m going to segue back to your question, but I want people to really understand what everybody is really after because, guys, I’m just going to give the keys to the kingdom here, and we’ll see if you guys agree with me, and the listener agrees with me because as I’ve done over 40,000 coaching sessions, and yes, that’s an actual statistic, I’ve been through all of these markets. I’ve worked with, and for Tony Robbins, I’ve got a ton of clients all over the planet. I believe we’re only after five things. And the first of the five freedoms is financial freedom. Let’s get that money thing handled. And if real estate is a bridge or conduit to financial freedom, let’s walk across the bridge with guys like Tim and Greg. Number two that people want is time freedom, right? Because once you have financial freedom, you start to be able to get some of your time back or delegate things or hire people to do some of the work. That’s number two. Number three is what I call location freedom. Right? I’m coming to you today from Australia because my wife and I have a house in Vancouver, Canada. And we also love spending a good chunk of the year down under because she did her university here, and she absolutely loves being here. So when you’ve got financial freedom and time freedom, you can also have some location freedom. Number four is what we call impact freedom. That is where you, when you’ve got financial time, and the places to go anywhere, the time and place to go anywhere, you can really do some work that impacts causes or charities that are near and dear to your heart. So we call that the fourth of the five freedoms. And now we get the land, the airplane on number 510. Because number five is called relationship freedom. And relationship freedom is beautiful because you don’t have to just hang around with the family and friends you’ve got; you can find higher level people that are defiantly committed to success. They’re in real estate; they own businesses; they might own franchises; they go to conferences; they read books; they listen to podcasts; they work out. And I’m telling you, Jim Rohn is absolutely spot on that you become who you hang around with. So you really got to take a look at your peer group. And you know, it’s just like me, and I’m not afraid to say that I’ve had to leave, not completely, but leave some older friendships and some older relationships to continue to step up because you know what the growing never stops. And I don’t make those relationships good or bad. I just am very aware of how much time I spend with some of those people to really surround myself with people like you, people like Greg, people like Joe Fairless. You know, people like Dan Hanford, some of the other people that play in this space that I absolutely love, you know, sharing the stage with or investing with or sending clients to. But I’ve been on your podcast multiple times; I’ve been with you in a coaching client relationship for as long as I can remember. And I know that you guys are also after those five freedoms. Would that be true? And how would you speak to that, Tim?

Tim Lyons 43:21
Well, it’s 100% true. And when people ask me all the time, Coach T, they’ll say, you know, how did Tim the fireman, Tim, the ER nurse, accomplish all this in, say, four years or less? And it’s true because sometimes this is my life. I get to go to bed at night, and I feel fulfilled, but people on the outside looking in sometimes, you know, when I have a conversation with them, they’ll say, wow, like, you did all of that. And that’s basically since 2019. And the answer is yes. But I didn’t do it alone, right? I had my brother Greg; I had Coach T in my corner, right? Because I can truly say that without the coaching, without the masterminds, without my real estate tribe, without my passive income tribe, without my personal growth and development tribe, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where Greg and I are today without them.

So when I hear the Jim Rohn quote, I mean, it hits home because that is right. If you hang around with five losers, you’re gonna be a loser. Probably. You know, if you hang around five Olympic swimmers, by God, you’re probably going to be—you might pick up a thing or two in the pool. You know what I’m saying? So that’s why I just love having you on. I think this is a perfect time of year for people to hear this message, for people to really sit back and reflect and rewind this and write down some of these goals. Use the CLI and the RPMs, take some of the gold, you know, what’s your three to thrive? You know, Greg and I still talk about that, Coach T. You know, Greg and I talk multiple times per day, probably more than he could care to ever speak to another human being. But there are times where I break down to the first principles. You know, listen, we need three to thrive. What are we doing? Is it marketing? Is it sales? Is it rewriting copy? Is it reaching out to investors? Is it calling operators? You know, what are we doing to move the needle today? And that’s a long way of saying, Coach T, I am grateful for your support, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work with you, that I had you in my corner, that we had you in our corner. So with all that being said, Coach T, if somebody is looking for a high-performance coach, if they’re looking to learn more about you and what you offer, what is the best way for people to reach out and connect?

Trevor McGregor 45:43
Well, thank you so much for the kind words, and I echo those right back to you guys because you’re the ones doing the work, right? And I applaud you to the moon and back. For anyone who wants to reach out and find a little bit more about how a coaching structure could support them in blasting off to new heights, there are a couple of ways to do it. You can simply go to my website, which is TrevorMcGregor.com. You know, I’m sure that’ll be in the show notes, TrevorMcGregor.com. Or you can find me on social media channels like LinkedIn or Facebook. But I’m really excited to announce that I’m not just doing one-to-one coaching, but I’ve got some phenomenal group coaching programs that I’m launching in 2024. So if you head over to my website, you’ll see all of the different things that might fit your eye in terms of where you’re at, where you want to go, and how we can close the gap to get you there. So with that said, TrevorMcGregor.com is the website, and if anyone wants to email me, you can simply reach out, Trevor@TrevorMcGregor.com. And thank you for having me on.

Tim Lyons 46:41
Well, of course, T, thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you for making the time. I hope the listeners get a ton of value out of this. We’re going to put all of that information down in the show notes for our listeners to check out. So let’s make it a great impactful 2024. Coach T, I look forward to talking to you real soon. And that’s going to do it for this week’s edition of The Passive Income Brothers podcast. We look forward to serving you again next week. Thank you for listening to another episode of The Passive Income Brothers podcast. We would be grateful for your support of our podcast by giving our show a five-star rating and review and subscribing to our show on your favorite podcast platform. Don’t forget to take inspired action after listening to this show so that you can start building out your passive income streams. Finally, head on over to CitySideCap.com to connect with us and find out more information about how to get started passively investing in real estate.