Nick Prefontaine  0:00  

When I first started I was just handed a script and told our you go knock on the door and you read the script that kind of thing and then when I started doing that I just wasn’t seeing a lot of success I get a lot of doors slammed in my face and then shortly after them my cousin and I Mike, we flew out to San Diego to shadow the top top guy in the country was having success doing door knocking these pre foreclosure doors. Once I saw his approach and how it differed from mine and in how it was vastly different it was there were so many things there were there were like you wouldn’t go off knock on the door lightly like a like a friend was stopping by take a few steps back and then they come to the door. Look on either side. Hey, I’m not I’m not sure if I have the right address. Could you help me out and then you’d show them the list that notice sort of faultless news working off of in once they saw their name, they would light up.

Announcer  1:00  

 Welcome to CREPN Radio for influential commercial real estate professionals who work with investors, buyers and sellers of commercial real estate coast to coast whether you’re an investor, broker, lender, property manager, attorney or accountant We are here to learn from the experts. 

J Darrin Gross  1:19  

Welcome to commercial real estate pro networks CREPN Radio. Thanks for joining us. My name is J Darrin Gross. This is the podcast focused on commercial real estate investment and risk management strategies. Weekly we have conversations with commercial real estate investors and professionals who provide their experience and insight to help you grow your real estate portfolio. 

Today, my guest is Nick Prefontaine. Nick is part of the Smart Real Estate Coach family located in Newport, Rhode Island. He recently co authored the best selling book, The New Rules of Real Estate Investing, 24 Leading Experts Reveal Their Real Estate Secrets. And in just a minute, we’re going to speak with Nick about overcoming adversity and breaking through your limiting beliefs. So you can build your real estate portfolio. But first, a quick reminder, if you like our show, CREPN Radio, there are a couple things you can do to help. You can like, share and subscribe. And we hope you would consider leaving a comment we’d love to hear from our listeners. Also, if you’d like to see our handsome our guest are, be sure to check out our YouTube channel. And you can find us on YouTube at Commercial Real Estate Pro Network. And if you would please subscribe. We’d love to have grow the subscription and attract more viewers as well. With that, I want to welcome my guest, Nick, welcome to CREPN Radio.

Nick Prefontaine  2:49  

Hi, Darrin, I’m very happy to be here with you and your listeners.

J Darrin Gross  2:54  

Well, I’m so glad we’re able to do this. I’m looking forward to our talk today. But before we get started, if you could take just a minute and share with listeners a little bit about your background.

Nick Prefontaine  3:06  

Hmm, all right, I really I really think that some that’s really the part of Part of the reason why I’m I’m with you Darren and So talk a little bit about my background and kind of how I get into what I’m doing. So, um, I actually in 2003, I was in a snowboarding accident, went off a jump landed on my head and I was in a coma for three weeks. And I had to learn how to walk talk need to get so on that day, the February 5 2003 of my accident I remember the reason I was going to the mountain was I was with my ski club. I remember that my friends and I we were very proactive meaning that we brought all of our snowboarding gear onto the bus to get ready so as not to miss a precious moment once we got to the mountain. So getting ready on the bus I noticed that I had forgot one thing that I usually brought to ski club not all the time but usually and that was my helmet. I didn’t really down and really think anything of it because you know, I was just gonna be careful you know nothing ever happened I’d be fine. 

So we got some own and because we already had a trade for the top. On the way to the top though, we noticed that it was very icy. Because it had been raining people are wiping out everywhere. Like but needless to say it wasn’t wasn’t my first year first time on a snowboard I I knew what I was doing on a snowboard so I got to Godzilla top and ballclub Ben and headed straight for the biggest chump with all my speed. All the while before that and part of the reason that drove me to want to go towards that jump was because all of my friends were saying anyone who hit that jump right now will be crazy, cuz it was the biggest jump in the train Park. Going up to the jump, I caught the edge of my snowboard which threw me off balance a little. I was too close to the top of that junk to stop and I was going way too fast to even think about being able to stop. So in the air I went off and I the the people can’t see me, I’m showing the motion of what my body did. And that was my my body inverting basically to landing right on my head. Now I was told that I landed on my head, and I wasn’t wearing a helmet. One of the things that happened when I later found this how one of the things that happen when I fell though I didn’t have a helmet on the goggles one of the things there, there’s two or three things that I can point to that saved my life in that moment. One of those was my goggles that I was wearing, even though wearing a helmet, obviously, but they were very thick goggles, they were they were called spies, they were very thick goggles, with water padding. I was told that with each impact, even after the initial impact, those goggles would rotate to where the next impact was going to be to cushion my fall a bit. It was much too windy for them to lifeflight me. UMass Medical Center and the paramedics wanted to lifeflight me like bring a helicopter in but it was much too windy for that. So they had to send a team of paramedics up to the Hill to get me and bring me down. And then because I had such a fall, I had to be intubated right on the spot. Watch. For those of you listeners who don’t know what that is, when you get a serious accident like that you that’s part of their procedure that they have to do to allow you to breathe at its basically to paralyze you. I found out later, Darrin that there’s only one or two of the paramedics, the staff of six that is abled that hasn’t know how to intubate right on the spot. Fortunate for me, that person was working that day. So as you can see a bunch of bunch of things were, you know, playing playing out in my favor, which I’m very, very fortunate because.

I got to the ICU, the intensive care unit at UMass and the doctors told by parents that well, we don’t know when he’s going to come out of a coma. But if if he does, we don’t really know if he’ll be able to walk, talk or eat on his own. That was that was very early on in my recovery that they shared their prognosis and I was actually very fortunate that my parents anytime that doctors would come into my, my roommate at the ICU to share newslite that they would start to tell my parents what was going on. And they My parents always said, No, no, not here, not in front of him because even though I was in a coma, I was still taking information in. So they made the doctor’s go with them outside the hospital room, whatever it was to share information about how grim the forecast was, especially in the beginning. After I was stabilized in and when I say in a coma I was it was a partially induced coma because they said that from the impact alone Darrin that I would have been out for 10 to 14 days just from the impacts alone. However, after that the swelling was such in my in my brain in with my head that if it increased any more Even a small bit, if it increased a little bit, I wouldn’t have died. So there’s those are those, those are the three things, I always have trouble. If I don’t go, if I don’t go slow during the beginning with telling the story correctly, I always have trouble like, wait, I thought there was three, like retracing my steps. So that’s the third thing. 

So they had to induce me into a coma to allow the swelling in my brain to come down. Then after I was stabilized, approximately a month later, I don’t remember a month, basically, that month of my life is gone. I can’t recall that. I don’t remember that. And it’s really, it’s really interesting, because I’ve been back to the ICU to that unit at UMass. And I went back there a few a couple years after I recovered from my accident for a groundbreaking ceremony that I was a part of. And I went and that was my first time walking through the unit. When I walked to the unit, I was like, Oh, you look really familiar. Like you Oh, you look really familiar. I feel like I’ve been here before, like the whole layout. But I couldn’t really put my finger on and now that’s because like, unconscious way I I do recall being there, but just consciously wasn’t happening because I seen videos of myself when I was at UMass in the ICU. And my eyes are open. But I don’t remember any of that time because I was coming off of being induced in a coma. So it was like the lights are on but no one was home. kind of thing. And then after I was stabilized, like I was saying Darrin approximately a month later, I was moved to Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Boston, they were actually right in Brighton Mass. In that’s that’s where I started my journey. That’s where I had to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to eat on my own. And I remember I always tell this story because it sticks out in my mind as a big, big turning point. Whenever someone meets me today, and they learn about my story, there is Hey, oh, I’m glad you made it. I say Yeah, me too.

J Darrin Gross  12:35  

Right.

Nick Prefontaine  12:36  

But the thing that always takes out is there was Everyone knows that always asked me like you have such a you have such a, you know, a powerful story and you were so strong gone through it, you’re so much stronger because of it. But was there ever that moment of doubt. And we all have doubt. This is why this is why I like to share this, it was very early on in my recovery in between therapies because I would my days were just to give you a glimpse, I would have to get up, I needed help getting showered. Because I had to learn how to do that again, too. So I would take a shower with the physical like the physical therapist would would help me take a shower and you know, teach me the order of things that you have to do and everything like that. Then after that I would have sessions of physical, occupational and speech therapy.  Then I would go to lunch and this moment came at that one I was in a break at lunch and I was still in a wheelchair, I still was only able to produce a whisper of of my voice of talking. And I remember looking just kind of looking at my situation. I don’t know what it was. And I looked at my legs in the wheelchair and I looked over my mom and I’m like, Mom, am I ever gonna be able to walk again? And she said, yeah, of course you are that like, Why? Why would you add that’s why we’re here so you can get everything back and then we can just go back to go back home and you know, go on go on with everything. And it was that it was that confidence and that she was so sure that Yeah, you’re that that’s what we’re doing here that you’re going to learn everything again and then we’re gonna go back so we can go home and everything in that moment always sticks out to me, because I’m not saying that there was never any doubt as to that but that was a big that was a big portion and everyone and I’m sure your listeners can and you could agree that everyone has doubts. Everyone Yeah, you set a goal and you’re working towards it but everything is rosy all the time. Everyone has their doubts So, I always like to share that with people so they understand that I’m a real person. And you know, I did at one point have doubt going through that experience. 

Then kind of fast forward a few months and I ran out of the hospital. So April I believe the day was April 24 of 2003. I ran out of Franciscan Children’s Hospital. And we on the day that I ran out, we went down to the local pizza shop right down the street from the hospital and I realized a couple goals day I realized my food goal, I say my food goal because I couldn’t swallow. I had to be fed through a tube at the beginning to get all my nutrients and everything in. I so I always had that goal of a Coke and a grinder. Now a grinder for those non New Englanders out there is like a sub like, like a, like a big sub like a like a turkey or meatball or something like that. But uh, so that was always that was always a goal of mine. And actually while I’m, while I’m talking about this, and I haven’t even talked about this on an interview before the with the feeding tube. It was very early on in my recovery, but my mom who was in the every day said you don’t like you don’t really need that anymore, because I was starting to eat solid foods and everything. So she said you don’t need them anymore. And I at the time, I wasn’t able to talk I was only able to like mouth things. There was like no volume, and it was really kind of holding me back. So she started to pull it out. I was like yeah, I was like, go ahead. Like, that’s fine. That’s fine. I’m going to present so she took it out. And by the time she got like right here I my eyes started to get really wide. Because I I didn’t know it. I didn’t know went that far. I was as as it got farther, like my eyes got wider and wider. And then when the nurses later that day later that night came in to check on me. They said no, what happened your feeding tube. And remember I could I couldn’t talk. So I just went like this.

And we, we rehearsed that there’s the shoulder shrug that like I don’t, I don’t know, not sure what happened. So my goal was always a Coke and a grinder. So on the day that I ran out of the hospital, first we walk right next door to the local pizza shop, had my coke and the grinder. Then from there I ran. That’s where we filmed that video that I ran out of the hospital. Now I did have to go back inside to still got my stuff. But it was it was like it was a big it was a big moment. It was because I realized my goal that I was working for that whole time. So that was that was pretty cool.

J Darrin Gross  18:15  

Oh, that’s awesome. I, you know, my wife. She’s not practicing now. But when we first met his physical therapist, and I can remember numerous times we’d be out in public. And somebody come up to her and give her the biggest hug. And it was about kind of like the story. I mean, she would tell me the story. And a lot of times it was about something very similar t to you. I mean, the fact that they normal day major, just a weird fluke of a thing happened and all of a sudden, whether they’re a TBI or a spinal cord injury or something and just the, you know, how much of life we take for granted. You know, and how old were you on the day that this happened in 2003?

Nick Prefontaine  18:59  

I was 14.

J Darrin Gross  19:00  

Okay, 14 year old, most 14 year olds, I’ve got a 15 and a 17 year old, they don’t have a concern in the world. I mean, there’s just it’s just not, you know, you know, there’s certain things you’re supposed to do, but to have any kind of concerns of like any of any of the things you take for granted could be taken from you, is just the farthest thing. And then from from that moment to where when you said you’re you have that conversation with your mom about am I gonna be able to do this again. That’s, that’s pretty enlightening. You know that that all of a sudden now as a 14 year old? You know, you do have some sort of a question or a doubt of, you know, what am I gonna be able to make it? So two months, over two months later, you run out of hospital. From that day when you’re asking your mom Am I gonna be able to walk? Was your was your progress with it. I mean, like minimal daily or I can you describe some of the progress because some people forget about.

Nick Prefontaine  20:09  

Yeah, that’s Oh, that’s interesting. Interesting that you asked that because yeah, when I was when I was going through it, I was, oh my god, it was like yours. Like I spent years in the hospital. But in reality it was I got moved to Franciscan, I believe I was on March 4, or fifth. And then I ran out of all I ran out of Franciscan on April 24. So under two months, but going through that, it felt like two years, honestly, because it was it just it seemed it seemed like a lot because I had to I had to learn everything again, it just time move very slowly. Whenever, and I know that’s now that everything goes really fast, like things go faster as you get as you get older and get busy and everything. But that was a time in my life when everything just stopped, basically. And it it’s that time it might as well vent two years. actually going through that. So yeah, the progress, the progress was very quickly, I I progress very quickly, it didn’t feel like it at the time. But yeah. And then when I ran on the hospital, it wasn’t like the work was done, okay, you’re all set, I still had to I had to go back home. And my school where I was I was in eighth grade at the time said, don’t worry about it, you know you had a major injury, don’t worry about it. What you can do is come back next year and just take the eighth grade over. I didn’t, I really Darrin, I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to be able to graduate with my classmates. So what I did was I would go in in the mornings and I wasn’t able to sit in normal classes. Remember I had to get caught up and everything. So I would sit with the private tutor at the school. So get up. then I would go to school for a few hours, believe it was around the time of nine or 930 to 1130 or 12. And then I would get I would have private tutor sessions to get caught up. Now I was able to a few months later graduate with my walk at the ceremony with my eighth grade class. But the work wasn’t done for me. I had to have a different tutor come to my house five days a week for two or three hours a day, every day in order for me to pass the eighth grade. But I was able to do that and I was able to go on to fresh you know start freshman year with my class but when I got home the days looked like this I would get up go to school from that nine to 11 1130 window, I get get tutored for two hours, then I would I would get to have lunch with my classmates which was the most important the most important thing my day. I love that because I I wasn’t able to see them for months so I would go to lunch with them. And then after them my mom would would pick me up and we would go to outpatient therapy. My outpatient therapy was physical sessions of physical occupational and speech therapy so I didn’t have to do them double sessions like it was when I was an impatient but I did have to do them five days a week. 

You know every day until six months later when I was 100% clear then still really the work wasn’t done after that I went privately and saw physical therapists to get additional exercises and additional things I was going to help me continue to strengthen and you know keep keep my body up and going in. So then I had freshman year at Shrewsbury the high school I had actually got into a private all boys school Catholic, private all Boys School St. John’s high school. I got in there prior to my accident but my parents weren’t sure if I could handle it after getting my accident. So I started at the at Shrewsbury High School and once I was there for six months or not six months, but once I was there like three or four months, I was like I don’t. Like I don’t, I don’t like like, I want to be challenged. So I arranged to transfer into St. John’s for my sophomore year and part of the reason why I went to Shrewsbury for that freshman year was to get my IEP set up Individual Education Plan, because if I just went to St. John’s, they wouldn’t have that. So I had to get that set up first transferred into there. And then only two years later, Darrin, I was actually I was starting to get the itch. I was reading a lot of books, a lot of real estate books, and the one that really caught my interest was a Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. And I started asking my dad questions like how cuz he had a real estate investment company at the time. And I started to ask him questions like, how can I help? And what can I do? How can I get involved that kind of thing? 

Right around that time, I started asking questions, I was about 16 years old. And he was starting to experiment with the idea of having several people door knocking pre foreclosure doors, like you would get a list of people that have received the notice of default letter from the bank, meaning they mess 123, or even up to 10 to 12. In those days, payments, and the bank still hadn’t foreclose. So I would get that list. And I would go to the areas where I could knock out the most amount of doors in a day. And that translated, I didn’t realize it at the time, but that translated are not the best areas. You know, like not good areas of cities by anyway. So I did that. And I was able I was able to when I first started I was just handed a script and told our you go knock on the door and you read the script, that kind of thing. And then when I started doing that, I just wasn’t seen a lot of success. I get a lot of doors slammed in my face. And then shortly after them my cousin and I Mike we flew out to San Diego to shadow the top top guy in the country was having success doing door knocking these pre foreclosure doors. Once I saw his approach and how it differed from mine and in how it was vastly different it was there were so many things there were there were like you wouldn’t go off knock on the door lightly like a, like a friend was stopping by take a few steps back and then they come to the door. Look on either side. Hey, I’m not I’m not sure if I have the right address, could you help me out and then he showed them the list that notice of default lists and who’s working off of in, um, once they saw their name, they would light up and tell him what they were doing to fix a problem what happened and why the bank was, you know, terrible sob and everything and as you can imagine, but the number the success rate that he was having was just like, wow, okay, I’m gonna change to do it that way. So once I got back, I started doing that. And I saw a lot of success of that. 

I continue the rest of high school doing that. Then when I graduated high school after I graduated, I started certainly near my real estate license 2008 March 2008, I got my real estate license, I know settled down it was it was a great it was a great time to get your real estate license. There was kind of before the proverbial shit hit the fan though. It was it was still things are still buzzing. And so I was a realtor full bore really for about six years of that going full time realtor making a living, you know, doing the whole deal prospecting and, you know, door knocking, doing that whole thing. But I was able to, I was able to make a living, and I was able to support myself on just my activities. Bit. So to me, there was a lot of pride involved in that, like, I didn’t, I didn’t need any, any help or any, like, I took a lot of pride out of that. Then if you got I’m sorry.

J Darrin Gross  29:24  

I was gonna ask you, you know, the, your your injury and recovery story. We talked a little bit about the just the amount of work. I mean, you talked about how not only to get from the ICU to the hospital, then from the hospital to get released from the hospital then from from home to just to catch up. I mean, all the work and just the the amount of work and the focus and all of the effort. I mean, I think a lot of times when, when people are, they’re not in that situation. They don’t understand all the work that goes into to get back to work. You know, your your base, yeah, but then it sounds like even in this door knocking thing, you know, you were, you’re going and knocking as many doors as you could, and initially not having the success that you, you know, eventually had after you saw somebody else did it, but I’m assuming that the repetition of it and just staying focused and staying committed to it, as opposed to going, this isn’t working this blows. You know, I mean, if you’ve done that, when you’re in the hospital, I mean, you, you know, likely wouldn’t be walking, you wouldn’t be able to live on your own kind of thing. I mean, if you if you, you know, if you’d stop there. If, if you hadn’t, you know, committed yourself in the school work cap up with your class, if you hadn’t, you know, gone and learn from this other person and really kind of honed your craft. I mean, I’m assuming there’s a there is a parallel in all of those as far as just the, you know, the focus and the work to get the results.

Nick Prefontaine  30:56  

There’s a thread Yeah, that absolutely, there is a thread in all of that. And that even that even what we’re doing today, with real estate, like the associates that we work with, and all across the country, who are doing it, it’s it’s so funny, Darrin, because I say Actually, we say all the time, it’s not just me that someone new starts out or maybe not even so new it a few months, you know, goes by and their work and they’re doing the right things. And then they get it like good news, they got a deal. But then there’s so much more like follow up and more things that need to like, there’s so many layers to what they have to learn in order to be a successful real estate investor. And I’m just really, I don’t know, I’m really like, amazed that at the fact that people, people when they first started out, like, Alright, dude, I did the work like, what am I get my check, you know, kind of thing. And it’s like, no, it takes a lot of follow up on on every everything you get, you got to stay on everything. And that common thread is what you picked up on what I was talking about, through my recovery and everything, it’s just you have to keep going. And I say it, I say it’s a buyers all the time, let’s just, let’s just take this one step at a time, all you have to worry about right now is going to see the house, then if you’re interested, give me give me some forms back and then we can talk more detail. But if I told everyone and even our associates, if I told them or if any of us at smart real estate coach told them everything that’s involved, right at the beginning, there, there probably wouldn’t be as many people that we’re working with today because of that, but because we spoon feed people, the right amount of information. There, they’re able to realize their goals and to have success. Because all you have to worry about is is doing the next step in front of you. And for me those those next steps were it was all there was quite a few and there continues to be those next steps.

J Darrin Gross  33:24  

Yeah, I always love that question. You know, how do you eat an elephant? in one bite at a time? Right? Yeah. The, in just I think, like you mentioned is that, you know, staying committed, staying focused and recognizing You have to do it over and over and over again and stay with it. It’s easy to get discouraged. What what are some of the things that you see when you’re when you’re talking with others or some of your students or your your associates? Is there a common limiting belief?

Nick Prefontaine  34:06  

Um,

I would say something that that we come up against a lie is the fact that someone thinks, well, I have to have all the information before I take action. So I’ll have to I’ll have to gather all the information about the property, I’ll have to get the mortgage information, I’ll have to get everything before I before I take that first step and pick up the phone and make a call. And that really couldn’t be farther from the truth. They they just the limited information, just the name number and what the address is and give them a call and that comes down and that comes down to anything, any kind of any kind of tough conversation. It shows Taking action. I would say the lack of taking action, like not taking action thinking there are more important things than lead generation.

J Darrin Gross  35:13  

Right? Not that is, you know, I think that’s true in my life, certainly, you know, it’s the, it’s easy to get overwhelmed thinking like, I can make a small problem, a really big problem, as opposed to, you know, doing that first first step, you know, and usually, it usually involves engaging somebody. So whether it be a property owner, or what have you, but but, you know, you know, engaging someone in, in laying it out, and I like the the example, like you were describing with the person at San Diego how they would, you know, they would ask I, you know, I don’t know, if I’m in the right place, you know, but having that kind of a sense of, I don’t know, everything, you know, is your is your, your first step, as opposed to trying to be the expert on everything. Because, you know, it’s tough to be an expert on everything, or, you know, even all the way through on anything. Yeah. But I think people are a lot more at ease. If you have some sort of a sense of, you don’t know, and you’re comfortable in that, as opposed to, I think you can, you can, you know, off put people when you’re, you know, when you when you’re trying to just to assert authority in a situation.

Nick Prefontaine  36:41  

Yeah. And I mean, that that’s 100% accurate, because I think at the beginning, I was treating it, I was treating it exactly like you’re saying, like rushing out to the door, saying, I’m here to help you out of your unfortunate situation. But then just kind of once I learned Collins approach, it took a step back and kind of like, could you help me out? and somewhat, you know, the majority of people out there are, they’ll help someone if, you know, most of the people out there are good people, you know?

J Darrin Gross  37:14  

Yeah, I do believe that. I think that most people are are inclined to do good.

Nick Prefontaine  37:19  

Yeah.

J Darrin Gross  37:20  

There’s always a few that recognize that and are willing to take advantage of that. But But I think that in the in the main you recognize that people and for the most part are are, you know, trying to do good, the most? Yeah. and willing to help? You know, I think that was kind of an interesting question. I, you know, can you help me here? That’s a pretty disarming question right there. So, your, your experience in working with your associates in that? Is there any kind of a, you mentioned, do the next right thing or just do that the next step? do you what do you what do you say to people, when they ask, how long is it going to take? You know, how long is it going to take to get to get where I want to go?

Nick Prefontaine  38:12  

totally depends on totally depends on their, their goals, their level, their level of commitment, how much time there, they have available to throw at this throw at this venture. I mean, a lot of a lot of the people that that come into our fold are people that do have that court to have like a corporate job, but their end goal is they want they want to leave that once you know, once they have an income from the real estate business that’s able to support them. And we’ve actually been able to come up with a plan and have we just had another one of our associates Brian a few weeks ago, give his final notice to his company. And he’s it’s happening regularly now with our associates. So a lot of our associates are are realizing that dream that they had been able to give their final notice one of our one of our top associates and coach he actually would, he was in the produce business in the I forget I’m drawing a blank right now. But he had to, he had a busy season and he had to commute two hours to work. And that’s one way he would make calls. He would drive with his brother he would make calls on the way to work and on the way home from work. And then eventually he was able to walk away and do his real estate business full time. And he’s one of our one of our coaches now as well.

J Darrin Gross  39:50  

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. But it sounds like you know even kind of like we talked about you two hours you put in the work and kind of the goal and stuck with it and yeah Now he’s, I’m assuming he learned a lot along the way. You know, as he continued to do it, you know, kind of fine tune like you were talking about door knocking and stuff, you know that repetition kind of helps you kind of recognize the errors or where you have success and you can fine tune it and stuff.

Nick Prefontaine  40:17  

Oh, absolutely. And I found them with anything I found that with, with telemarketing or and like anything, if I’m calling five to call a bunch of people. I’m not, I’m not going to really get my legs under me until I’ve until I’ve had five to 10 calls. And then I’m going to say to myself, well, I want to keep going now I’m in I’m in a rhythm, I feel good. I feel good about this. So I actually ended up doing more than I set out to do. In the beginning, same thing was for me, when I was a realtor first learning how to how to brand new realtor how to cold call and everything i would i would do just fine. It’s just repetition. Just keep going and you get better with repetition. 

J Darrin Gross  41:07  

Right, right. No, I know that I know that. Well. The first couple are not my best. But you get going yeah, you kind of get a groove and keep going. No, hey, Nick, if we could, I’d like to shift gears here for a second. By day, I’m an insurance broker. And I work with clients to assess risk and determine what to do with the risk. And there’s three strategies we typically consider. The first is we look and see, can we avoid the risk. If that’s not an option, we look to see if we can minimize the risk. And when neither of those are an option, we look to see if we can transfer the risk. And that’s what an insurance policy is. And I like to ask my guests if they can take a look at their situation, whether it be their their own personal situation, or in your case, your associates or even your clients. And if you can assess or consider what you think is the biggest risk. And for clarity, I’m not necessarily looking for an insurance related answer. But if you’re willing, I’d like to ask you Nick Prefontaine, what is the BIGGEST RISK?

Nick Prefontaine  42:21  

The BIGGEST RISK is analysis paralysis, so not taking action. Thinking that you have to learn you have to learn XYZ or you have to you have to do something else or get to a certain point before you’re ready to take action. I just think that that paralyzes people into not getting results if they’re not taking action. So one of the things that I always say is ready fire aim. Like just get started. And then once you’re started, you can course correct and that’s, that’s been my whole career. Door knocking, like I said, I get out there, I failed a bunch of times I didn’t, I had limited information about what to do. But then once I had something to go off of, and I was able to fine tune in and get better and better. Same thing with cold calling and prospecting as a realtor. You know, once I got started, I was I was able to adjust and get better. Then there was a time when I didn’t know I work primarily with the buyers in our business, the rent to own buyers and kind of out of the out of working with them I Distilled or developed a process that you have to put everyone through to ensure that they’re able to be successful and get to the end of their lease and be able to get their own loan and get across the finish line. But there was a time when I didn’t know any of that. I my dad listen to some of my first calls. I there was a time I didn’t know any of that. So I was I just start that. That’s my thing. Like take action.

J Darrin Gross  44:09  

Yeah, there’s no teacher like failure, right? Mm hmm. So don’t be afraid to fail. Hey, Nick, Where can the listeners go if they would like to learn more connect with you?

Nick Prefontaine  44:21  

Yeah, great. Um, they can go to our website, which is smartrealestatecoach.com.  And we actually have a webinar on there that tells if anything, what I mentioned rings true with any of your listeners out there, they can go to that website smart real estate coach comm get registered for the webinar. It lays out everything of our business and if they’re interested, they’ll know how to take the next step at the end. What comes with that for registering because they register for the webinar is a free strategy call with one of our team members here. And that’s the best way to get in contact with us. And then if they want to pick up a free copy of our best selling book The New Rules of Real Estate Investing and when I say free Darrin I mean 100% free not say yes, and then we’ll charge it $10 for shipping or it’s 100% free, then go to newrulesforfree.com and submit their info there and get a free copy sent out to them. And I’ll just repeat that it’s newrulesforfree.com. Just you know, with the whole COVID and the Coronavirus calling on just you know, be Be patient. I’m not sure if it’s going to get right out to you The Day After you submit your info but we’ll we’ll definitely get it out to that’s the best way. The best way to get started, I would say.

J Darrin Gross  45:57  

Awesome. All that will be listed in the show notes. Nick, I can’t say thanks enough for taking the time to talk today. I’ve enjoyed our our talk and learned a lot and I hope we can do it again soon.

Nick Prefontaine  46:14  

Me too, Darrin. Thank you.

J Darrin Gross  46:16  

All right. For our listeners. If you like this episode, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember, the more you know, the more you grow. That’s what we’ve got this week. Until next time, thanks for listening to Commercial Real Estate Pro Networks CREPN Radio.

Intro  46:36  

You’re listening to CREPN Radio for influential commercial real estate professionals. For more information on this or any of our guests like us on Facebook CREPN Radio.