From Broke To Millionaire
Article From Entrepreneur Brain Dump
Before you read on to hear about one of our most influential business mentors and his incredible journey from near broke to a real estate portfolio worth over 40M, I wanted to provide background to this Entrepreneur Highlight.
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".
Cameron came into our lives at the right time, in the right way and the gravity of the impact he has had on our business in immeasurable. This article is only a snippet of the degree of awesome that Cameron is. We have had the pleasure of learning from him, but furthermore, aligning with with someone who is doing exactly what we are doing, just a few stages ahead.
The beauty of Camerons personality is that he doesn't forget where he came from and he so vividly knows the feeling that we have of being IN THE TRENCHES and the fire that burns in us each and every day to succeed.
Upon sending him the finished version of this article where I posted it [HERE]​(tab:https://medium.com/practice-in-public/from-broke-to-millionaire-f5c1250ed941) on Medium, Cameron responded with this:
..."You’re on a mission…you know it…I know it, and I have no doubt that you’re going to do massive things. I’m thankful that you and I share a lot of the same vision, and that we connect on so many different levels.
Let’s keep rolling hard so we can keep influencing the world in positive ways."
If I could pass on just ONE single piece of advice to you out there, in the grind, hustling day in and day out, dreaming big, thinking big, burning the midnight oil to build bigger and better things for your family.... yes you... The ONE piece of advice I would give would be to keep your eyes open to find your own version of Cameron.
5min Read
“Those who say they can and those who say they can’t are both right.”
Follow me here on this: On average we have 60,000 thoughts a day. 40 thoughts per minute. The issue; 80% of our thoughts are negative …
Let’s back it up for a second… 60 THOUSAND thoughts. Woah.
It’s gets better. From all those thoughts, we have 840+ DIFFERENT emotions that we’re capable of feeling and potentially have to process through. Most people don’t even realize it, but we are completely controlled by these wandering thoughts and emotions.
It’s possible to live our entire lives at the mercy of our negative thoughts. Some people do.
Seriously, If we could just ignore the noise from everyone else and focus on controlling our own thoughts, we could dominate in the game of life. Mindset is EVERYTHING.
“Cool Kev, but how?”
It’s not always as easy as just flipping a switch and having it all figured out. This process takes time. It takes conscious, intentional effort to change the trajectory of your mind and your life. It takes momentum.
“I hear you, but again, HOW do you start to get that initial momentum?”
That’s the problem. Right there. The problem is inaction. We stop before we even start.
- We doubt ourselves before we even have anything tangible to place judgement on.
- We compare ourselves to others before we’ve done anything to begin with.
The irony is the only difference between you and the people you’re comparing yourself to is that they STARTED and you’re standing there as the “good idea fairy”.
This is hard sh*t to do. These are hard pills to swallow and creating that initial momentum does not come without it’s share of growing pains.
Truthfully, I feel that I finally have some solid momentum moving the needle forward each day. Pieces of the puzzle are falling into place and progress milestones are being reached. Nothing is perfect, but it started with action and that action created momentum and that momentum continues to build.
A pivotal point for me was when I had the opportunity to connect with someone who is exactly where I want to be.
They are doing the things that I want to be doing. They are CRUSHING the things that I want to be crushing. It all happened unintentionally, but I found someone that I knew I needed to be in close proximity with.
His name is Cameron Barsanti. And I would not be where I am right now without having learned from him. There are moments in our lives where we are in the right place at the right time and this was one of them. I’ve had coaching of all kinds before.
I’ve spent thousands on trainings, coaching, seminars, courses, classes, you name, over the years… and genuinely, have NEVER had anyone as dedicated to providing such pure, raw, unconditional value as Cam has. And what a story he has. He has literally gone from spending his wife’s life savings on a movie deal that didn’t pan out to now, having 40M assets under management in real estate. FORTY MILLION.
It’s kind of crazy and almost a little too far fetched to be believable, but here’s the story. It’s legit and he’s the real deal, I promise.
Cameron was living in LA with a kid on the way and writing screen plays to get by. At this time he was essentially an out of work actor just trying to make ends meet.
His wife was working a government job with a “good salary” and benefits, while he tried to figure this Hollywood thing out.
At that time, he had just made a feature film but in the process, he lost all their money and what’s worse, it really didn’t do as well as he had planned. Cameron was 1000% in the dog house. But Cam married up. He knows it.
She had been listening to real estate podcasts about investing in real estate without a lot of money down. She was learning how to leverage what they did have left in order to grow it into more. She sat his butt down one day and laid down the law.
She told him that he needed to stop doing everything else that he was doing and put all his focus into real estate. Like the smart man he is, he nodded and agreed.
He turned the fire hose on and started drinking. Everything he could consume on real estate, he did. He was all in. From there, he hired a coach and then did an even crazier thing… he pulled equity of his house, fully committed to the vision they had and the empire they were building.
What this came down to at that time was just feeding that momentum.
- He didn’t have a portfolio of millions then.
- He wasn’t coaching people.
- He wasn’t speaking at events.
- He was underwater financially and nervous as hell.
But he knew one thing that so many people didn’t.
When you create as much as you can as fast as you can, you build momentum. The more momentum you create, the more successful you become.
He was using all his time to look at deals EVERYWHERE. Getting better and better at the dirty work. The research, calling, data analysis… all the “not fun” things. He did them. Day in and day out.
But then
He found a deal.
One thing led to another and from deal 1, he found deal 2. Soon enough, he got really good at finding deals. And this skillset brought a pivotal capital partner in his life.
Why? Because he was good at finding deals. He was good at the HARD THINGS. He figured out his “why” and took action towards that direction every single day.
“You have to have action to continue to keep you inspired”
Because action leads to momentum. And momentum is the force that takes us where we went to go.
Motivation isn’t going to keep you going. Motivation will come and go from one day to the next. You can’t rely on that. What you CAN do is take action regardless of how you feel.
Move the needle everyday in the direction you want to go regardless of your motivation levels or anything else going on in the world.
Life doesn’t get easier. Time keeps passing and while you’re overthinking and “under-doing”, other people are taking action during that time.
Cam said it best;
“we are born again each morning and it’s the choices we make today that matter the most. throw yourself in the ring and create so much activity and action that there is NO way of getting board”
But most importantly, DO IT NOW.
None of us have any idea what’s going to happen in the future. We can sit back and watch the world pass us by OR
We strike while the iron is hot, use the God given abilities we have and take action in the direction we want to go…
This is said so often that it’s almost become cliché. BUT, hear the truth in it:
It’s hard to step out of your comfort zone and do the boring, tedious, not fun work… BUT it’s also hard to live a life worried about bills, living pay check to pay check, unsatisfied with who you are and what you do… Both are hard. Choose your hard.
Stay in the fight. Kevin
Ways to find Cameron: IG: ​@storagelifecam​ Website: ​Storagelife.com​