Let’s take an inside look into what a $1,000,000 network actually looks like, why it’s so valuable and why so many people call it legal insider trading.
I just finished running our mastermind intensive for Freedom Warrior for our tribe this weekend, and it was so much fun. Despite the fact that many of us are in lockdown right now, I was really happy to see that everyone still played full out.
One of the guests that I had this weekend made a comment saying that he understands exactly why I don’t showcase the network that’s inside the program more directly.
So, let me give you the facts.
The Real Edge As an Investor
The truth is, there’s no shortage of opportunity in the world, but I really believe that the stellar opportunities are actually coveted by few.
The real edge as an investor, as I’ve talked about in other episodes, comes from:
- having a solid plan that lays out your possibilities,
- having access to epic deal flow or an ability to create opportunities for yourself, and
- the developing of annuities, so income streams that last indefinitely so that you can actually experience true autonomy – and that means the freedom to choose how you spend your time.
Some of you have heard me talk about this as the Freedom Formula in other episodes, which I encourage you to go back and listen to.
But what I want to highlight is the real edge that sits inside of part two, which is the access piece that really boils down to your capacity to develop what I call a $1,000,000 network.
Why Most Investors Flounder
First of all, they’re chasing deals. There is no question in a heated, and I like to use the word “frothy,” market as we see today. People are paying over the odds – potentially over what people regard as a sensible price. This is simply because they just want to get their foot in the door on a deal.
I’ve certainly had the experience, particularly in my early years of investing, where I felt like the competition was cutthroat. Real estate agents would describe deals as, “Oh, we had X number of people turn up to see this deal today,” and that’s really overwhelming. What often happens is, we stretch and pay over the odds because we just want to get a deal under our belt.
Most investors who invest in the majority of strategies that are available to us in the mainstream market are banking on a rising market because that’s just simply the way these strategies work. We’ve talked many times about the idea that Australia and New Zealand represent some of the best real estate opportunities in the world.
However, the caveat on that is it’s expensive. For you to make money, the majority of those deals require a rising market to succeed, so that’s kind of a good and a slightly narrow way of gleaning success.
The third reason investors flounder is that they don’t actually know who to trust or to get honest advice from. There’s no question that the industry surrounding wealth and finance is full of wannabes and people who are good at marketing rather than really knowing their stuff.
I’m not arguing that paying fees to get a good service is not okay – I think that’s actually reasonable. If someone can give you an edge or give you advice that gives you a clear ROI, then by all means, pay for it.
But what I also see out there is lazy wealth profession channels that get paid based not so much on the success they deliver you but on the theoretical knowledge they share. There are a lot of people out there who don’t really walk their own talks. Not so much sharks, but well-intentioned people.
That’s led to a negative green cloud over the wealth creation industries. Ultimately, investors are worried that if they put their faith in the wrong people, they’re going to waste time and possibly even risk their capital.
The Value of Having a Great Network
The silver lining that I want to share with you is that if you get this piece right, if you can wrap your head around the value that comes with having a killer $1,000,000 network, then you can be cherry-picking deals well before you have the money. You’re not competing alongside other investors. People will supply you with deals as and when you want them. So you’re not in that FOMO or fear of missing out phase of investing.
The second thing is you can tap into strategies that thrive in any market condition. If we lift our gaze and look beyond the traditional, and this is really what this podcast is all about, there are strategies out there that will work regardless of whether the market goes up, down or sideways. And there are people who know exactly what the tremors in the market are and how to pivot strategies to take advantage of new loopholes and opportunities that arise. The capacity to tap into strategies that thrive in any market condition is definitely something that’s given me an edge for quite a few years now.
If you find investors that have the results that you want, you will get insights. These are insights that you’re not going to find in the media and you’re not going to find on the internet. You’re going to find insights that are unfolding as they happen and are not reported. Many months or years down the track, I have seen a news headline or a media report trying to showcase some shift in the market. Perhaps people who are in the know have been aware of that opportunity months and years ahead! So ultimately, you can leverage your network to avoid landmines. Protect your wealth and access opportunities that completely outperform the market, and that is really the ultimate dream of most people.
The Definition of a Million Dollar Network
One of the things that I never really understood as a skill, but I’m coming to realise has great value, is your capacity to make friends far and wide.
I think one of the strengths that I’ve had, which has come from a place of feeling like I didn’t really know much, was my capacity to be very humble and to ask for help when I needed it. And that’s probably the thing that’s opened one door, and then another and then another: the capacity to continue to be thoughtful and generous in your approach to how you meet people and thinking more from the space of, “How can I be of service?”
So for me, a $1,000,000 network in the context of wealth is access to the best investors in the world.
People you can call on who perhaps even care about your success, who are really generous with their time and knowledge.
I’ve met people who are great investors but whose way of being or personal values just didn’t align with mine. So, I’ve just quietly stepped away from those sorts of people.
You want people who have access to private opportunities that will deliver consistent, predictable, sustainable incomes. These are people who will guide you during difficult economic times. They’ll show you how to protect your wealth and avoid the landmines that people who are maybe not in the know, just they don’t even see.
The really key piece is that I’m always looking for relationships that are likely to be part of my world, not just for one deal but for the rest of my life. And so that’s a really different perspective to going out there and just trying to leverage relationships to get the inside edge on one deal. This is why working with people you enjoy working with and you like is actually very important. Life is too short to spend time around people that you don’t enjoy, that you don’t feel alignment with.
As I’ve grown older, I feel more intuitive about the people that kind of resonate with me. I’m better now than I was when I was younger, and people used to accuse me of being very innocent and being very naive. I’m a very trusting person, and certainly, I’ve gleaned a lot of bruises and cuts from putting my faith in the wrong people. But I think the art of discernment, that capacity to read people better is definitely one that I’ve honed over time, so I didn’t actually have it in there as a key.
But that would be something just to be aware of. I don’t know that there’s any course out there that will teach you that stuff, but I think if you’re someone who is open and trusting, the real skill in life is to sharpen the sword on your ability to use that in a way that not only opens doors for you, but allows you also to have your radar up when you feel like something a little bit off with people, and to notice it.
The First Key to Building a Million Dollar Network: Finding People Who Have the Results You Want
Find the people who have the results that you want and figure out how to become part of their world.
This could mean that you have to pay for access. Maybe you have to seek professional advice. It may also require you to go out and do some research. The people who are really great at what they do don’t necessarily need to do a whole lot of marketing to advertise that they’re great at it. Their referrals come from existing clients through private networks, and they’re not really in the mainstream. They’re definitely not the Gary Vee’s of the world, although I think Gary Vee is pretty cool.
One of the things I’ve learned over time is that the people who are out there, trumpeting their own success and telling the world how great they are, are often not necessarily the people that I want alignment with on the investor front.
It was probably when I stopped looking for famous celebrities and started looking for the quiet achievers and just asking people in my network, “Who do you know that’s really great at this stuff? Who do you know that has actually practised what they preach? And has achieved financial freedom?”
Study them either because you have direct contact or study them from afar. This is the same advice that I give people who I’ve worked with who are younger teenagers and people in their early 20s. The first thing I say is, find people who have the results that you want and find out how they did it. And the advice would be the same for adults and people who are well established in life.
Most of you are probably super successful business owners, so that’s an area of life that you’ve already mastered. My experience with business owners is that majority are not so great at converting their awesome income into wealth, it’s a different skill set, and so you need to find people who can show you the way.
The Second Key to Building a Million Dollar Network: Practice Humility
Investors can not only be great guides but can also supply you and connect you to epic deal flow. The truth of the matter is they don’t need our money. There is more money floating around in the world than there are great deals to match up with. If you know there’s more money out there than great deal flow, you’ve got to think about what you’re going to do to get an edge and think about shared values.
So as a business owner, it’s great when your customers are good people and you can see they share your values. And that’s potentially what turns a good customer into a great customer. So from my perspective, ethics matter. You recognise what your values are and then see them in other people. They’re the people you want to align with it. They become your tribe.
The Third Key to Building a Million Dollar Network: Be Knowledgeable Before You Approach
If people are really good at what they do, and assuming that you know you need them more than they need you, one of the worst things that you can do is be completely ignorant and not respectful of their time when you first connect.
Do your homework. Know the in’s and outs of the strategy that they use and just be prepared with the questions that you have. I want to also asterisks that there are no dumb questions. But one of the things that are really endearing is when you can see that someone has done their homework that they understand the opportunity.
When people come and join Freedom Warrior, there’s a vast network of people, and one of the big challenges initially is a little bit of overwhelm. “Wow – there’s this network of killer dealmakers, killer advisors and amazing opportunities. Where do I begin?” So, I work with people to help them shortlist.
First of all, you need to know what strategies are in alignment with their game plan, and then you know which trusted advisors are going to be the best people for them to start with.
One of the things that I’m a huge believer in is education and capturing education. So inside of our membership site, we have hundreds of hours of interviews of education and content that are all around these trusted advisors who have very generously and freely given their time to me over the years.
These people will become your network gradually over time. But before I do any personal introductions, it’s really important that you completely understand who they are, what they do, how their deals work, and then when you get on a call with them, you’re really clear that you’re not going to waste their time and you’re just going to zero in on the questions that matter to you.
The guys that I really treasure as my network are happy to extend their friendship and services to people in my world because of the fact that they come at it from a place of humility. They come at it from a place of being educated, and they don’t waste their time. They get that that these guys are super valuable to them, and they use that time effectively.
The Benefits of Being in a Community With Other Like-Minded Investors
The biggest benefit that I think people see when they come and join the Freedom Warrior community is, of course, access to me. I make sure that you build out an epic plan with lots of possibilities and avoid the landmines. I hold your hand, and we have a deep personal relationship that evolves over time.
And the other reason you come is because you want access to premium opportunities. So I get that that’s on the superficial level. That’s the primary reason that people join.
I don’t think many of our members fully anticipated it before they joined, but now they probably grasp number one at a very deep level. There’s huge value in being part of a community of like-minded investors.
I think being in business is sometimes lonely and I definitely feel like when people joined, they didn’t anticipate the value that comes from looking over the shoulder of other people, seeing what kinds of deals they’re doing, asking what worked, and what didn’t work. These guys become your peers.
This is an opportunity to create relationships with a network of people who will potentially become your advisors for the rest of your life. I feel that a lot of the guys that are part of my world are my friends now. But even if if you’re not seeking friendship, having relationships for life is really priceless. I won’t go down a rabbit hole of ROI, but these are people who will help you, guide you, support you, supply you with deals for the rest of your life. They give you a heads up when economic sands are shifting, and they give you legal insider information on how you can beat the market.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about our concerns around pending inflation, with all of the property markets and share markets going absolutely ridiculous. We’re in a very low-interest-rate environment, and there are a lot of concerns from a lot of people that we’re kicking the can down the road and that hedging against inflation is a massive issue.
I’ve had at least 15 conversations, maybe more, with my gurus and my network who are really giving me some fabulous insights and ideas for stepping around this issue. How do you hedge against inflation? How do you make sure you don’t allow your wealth to become eroded because you haven’t got those protective mechanisms in place?
Final Thoughts
The focus on building a $1,000,000 network is super important. It is what will give you the edge when others are floundering, and it’s not something that is rocket science.
It’s just something that requires you to be human, to be real, to have humility, and to really put some headspace towards it.
If you are interested in understanding more about what we do inside of Freedom Warrior, please reach out and get in touch. Just email me salena@freedomwarrior.com.
If you’re a business owner feeling frustrated that despite doing everything right in the property investing playbook and you’re no closer to financial freedom, then head over to www.inkosiwealth.com to learn more about how you can use alternative investments to catapult your investing income and blend strategies to shave decades off your timeline to financial freedom.
If you’re interested in understanding how to create wealth through alternative strategies, please check out my programs, where I help you catapult your investment income and blend strategies to shave decades off your timeline to financial freedom.
Or, you’re welcome to get in touch today, book a call with me, and I would be happy to talk you through it – no obligation!
