5 Best Insights from Investing Workshop Last Weekend

I just got into office today after this past weekend’s investor workshop. (Sometime I’ll tell you about how the valet at the Sheraton lost my car keys.)

I want to share my own personal biggest “aha’s” and insights from the event with you. The guest advisors were amazing. The single biggest “liked best” that our attendees shared was how good they were.

From former CEO and one of the team of founders of priceline.com Jeff Hoffman, to 30-year commercial real estate veteran Ed Fitzpatrick (been involved with over $1 billion of commercial real estate deals!), to tax strategist Kevin Basset, to investor and negotiator Nate Byelick, the advisors added fresh and totally relevant content on investing in today’s market.

In just a moment I’ll share with you my own biggest “aha’s” from listening to them.

But first I want to encourage those of you who really want a boost to succeeding financially to join us in Orange County, CA on June 26-27-28th for the, Level Three Wealth Workshop (aka: “Mini Maui”.)

Now on to my biggest insights and “aha’s” from the 2009 Commercial Real Estate Super Conference…

My 5 Biggest Insights from This Past Weekend’s Workshop

Not only did I teach some, but I also got the chance to listen in as four world class experts shared their experiences and take on the current world we do business in and invest in. Here are my top insights from listening to them.

1. One of the key skills of the 21st century is to learn how to see the opportunities in connecting “disconnected” yet related facts.

Hearing Jeff Hoffman’s story of how he and his team came up with the idea of priceline.com (market cap $2 BILLION!) by connecting 4 “unrelated” data points was remarkable.

I can see that this is a skill that can be cultivated.

2. Power Question: “What can I do today that I couldn’t do yesterday?” Jeff talked about this question in connection about the technological changes that allow you to do radically new things in business and investing that yesterday you couldn’t do (or couldn’t practically do.)

3. The “RTC” is coming back! Listening to Ed Fitzpatrick (who made MILLIONS for his clients in early 90’s with S&L aftermath and Resolution Trust Coorporation) made it clear that there are going to be some real bulk / DEEP discounted buying opportunities with commercial real estate over the next 36 months. He predicts the RTC (or some new incarnation of this entity) will be used to clear all these “legacy assets” –the warm fuzzy renaming of “toxic assets”—out of the system. (This is on the agenda to discuss in Anaheim at the Level Three Wealth Workshop.)

4. Another Power Question: “What business are you really in?” Chances are it isn’t the business you think it is… Jeff shared how in the 90’s he met with Tower Records execs, who at the time were responsible for selling hundreds of millions of CDs… they thought they were in the retail business, operating music stores that sold CDs… But they were first and foremost in the music business, and they didn’t see that, so when online pieces came into focus they went bankrupt and Apple took over the market.

Sidenote: Guess who sells the most CD’s of any store in the work? STARBUCKS! What business are they in? HINT: It isn’t the “coffee” business… They are in the business of selling an experience, a mood, a moment of respite, an oasis of peace and focus… but definitely not just a “coffee retailer” or “restaurant”.

You’ve got to look at what business you are really in from a broader, fresher perspective.

Power Question: If you were doing your business all over again from scratch today, how would you design it to give your clients and customers the maximum value?

5. Learning to raise capital is one of the most valuable investor skills. Raising money means targeting who you’ll raise from, doing your homework about them, keeping the focus on what THEY want not you, and telling a compelling story. (Yes we will also put this on the agenda for the Level Three Wealth Workshop in Anaheim.)

I hope these ideas spark your thinking.