I have been an entrepreneur all my life—I have been honing my sales skills everyday since I was 9 years old. I have learned a lot along the way. I love to share what I have learned and hope that I can pass along some of what I have learned.
My first entrepreneurial venture happened when I was 9. While sitting on the toilet one morning I was flipping through a Mother’s Earth News magazine. I saw an ad to buy toilet bowl cleaners wholesale. The value proposition of the cleaners was a double your money back guarantee. My first instinct was to buy them and return them and double my money. After my parents told me I couldn’t do that I spent the day thinking this “opportunity” to buy toilet bowl cleaners.
The next day I asked my parents for a $500 dollar loan. I bought 32 cases of toilet bowl cleaners. I went door to door and sold toilet bowl cleaners. At school they started calling me “Toby Toilet Bowl”—that was OK with me because over the next few months I made about $1,200 dollars from that venture and realized that selling something was way better than mowing lawns. I learned the power of leverage at 9 years old.
My entrepreneurial mindset was born.
I have since gone on to build and operate 6 companies. I have started and run service companies, technology companies, finance companies and real estate. I used my sales and marketing skills to accomplish 1 thing and that is to make MONEY. Along the way I had my AHA moment.
I started a service (environmental) company in 2001. I grew to to 58 employees and over 4Million in annual revenue. I became a millionaire at 33 and a multi-millionaire at 35. After becoming a millionaire a realization began to occur although it would take a few more years before I understood what it meant. It was the gradual realization that helping people was a better feeling than increasing my bank account. During the 8 years I ran that company I was able to put 7 people through drug programs that changed their lives. I was able to take laborers and teach them sales skills and they went from driving ratty old cars to owning their own homes and having an RV and a boat. I really love what money can do but, I began to enjoy the feeling of helping others more than putting more zero’s in my bank account.
My next venture began after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I saw an opportunity in finance. Banking was a mess and companies with strong balance sheets could not get operating capital. A friend and I raised 12Million dollars and started doing bridge loans. All of our loans were secured by real estate. This was my start in real estate. I learned a ton by looking at real estate portfolios, how ownership was structured, valuations and how deals got introduced and closed. That first year we did 72Million in transactions and I looked at an unbelievable amount of real estate deals.
In late 2009 we had a very deep education and we were able to bid on a portfolio being auctioned off by the FDIC. A builder had defaulted on a 70Million dollar portfolio of real estate. It was 66 houses, 525 fully developed lots with all infrastructure, streets, undergrounds, etc and another 411 paper lots. We ended up buying it for 3.2Million dollars. We were definitely in the real estate game! We began selling off these assets which was tough in 2010 and it was slow going.
I took a million dollars of my personal money and began buying single family homes. I bought 1 then 2 and within about 6 months I owned 14 properties. At this time deals were everywhere. I was buying properties for the land value and essentially getting the structures for free. I ended up fixing and flipping houses for about 3 years and realized the industry from an agents perspective was fragmented and broken.
Along the way I had the opportunity to take many agents and help them refine their businesses. Again—I got that same great feeling when I could help someone. A lot of times that felt better than getting a good deal.
The last nail in the coffin that sealed the deal for this project Super Agents Live is this. I was interviewed on a podcast called eventual millionaire. The show talks with millionaires and asks them how they did it. They asked me how a person could achieve a million. I ended up telling them that if a person wanted to create wealth they should not start a tech company or build a web app but, find an industry where lots of normal people have become millionaires. There is only one industry where that happens on a regular basis—–Real Estate.
I set out to follow Napolean Hill’s path and talk with the most successful people in real estate and share their stories. These stories illustrate how an ordinary person with a bit of determination can follow the footsteps of greatness and find success in their own lives. Thanks for being here.
Toby