I’m Moving to Threads

For those that follow me online, you know that I’ve spent the last 16 or so years posting on Twitter, but over the last year it has gotten more and more toxic and I no longer find much value there.

Here are a few articles on the downfall of the platform if you haven’t been paying attention:

Instead of posting there, I will now be focusing my efforts engaging over on Threads. The platform was launched a few months ago by Meta (Facebook / Insta), and while I don’t love everything the company stands for, I do believe its approach to social media, troll management, persona verification, moderation and more are leagues better than Twitter’s.

Over the last few months, Threads has added a considerable number of new features and is approaching the feature set that I utilized at Twitter. While there was a huge flood of new registrants at launch, many people signed up and disappeared shortly thereafter, but we’re starting to see more and more people flood in as Twitter (X) becomes more and more of a cesspool of hate and misinformation.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, I encourage you to create an account and join up. If you’re already there, make sure to follow me on Threads.

Last thing . . . I rarely, if ever, post about real estate.

If you’re hoping to get insight from me on that topic, you’ll probably be disappointed. These days I post about things like tech, social media, sustainability, the environment, health, happiness, angel investing, startups and other topics.

See you over there!

BiggerPockets Turns 18 Years Old!

Original BiggerPockets Website

Almost a lifetime ago - 18 years today - I officially marked the founding of BiggerPockets

Starting a hobby website while working as a full time teacher was one thing.

Two years later taking the risk to quit my job to become a full time startup founder was the craziest and smartest thing I ever did. Maybe not crazier than moving to California to dive deeper into the entertainment business, but I digress…

While I struggled for quite a long time before the business really took off, I was able to live my life on my own terms. I got to be my own boss and although I worked absolutely crazy hours, I never felt the stress of a crappy boss or pressure to act under some artificial timeline. I built at my own pace and designed a business with a mission and values that were important to me.

It became more than a website - it became a brand and an ideal. The impact of the site, the podcasts, the dozens of books, the videos can’t be measured in KPIs alone, but must be measured by lives changed for the better.

As a result, BiggerPockets helped transform an industry.

Where previously competitors were weary of one another, we helped people learn that coopetition was a better model - one where people could compete AND cooperate for mutual benefit. We took power from those who made information inaccessable by opening the doors and making sure real estate investing knowledge was free.

Over the years, the mission to democratize knowledge so anyone, anywhere, regardless of income, education, age, or any other demographic, could learn to build wealth, has resulted in countless lives being changed for the better.

Not only have we helped individual investors around the country and work, but we’ve moved markets.

I’ve always wanted to calculate the actual economic impact of the business - I’m sure the true number would blow everyone’s minds.

Beyond that, we’ve helped transform neighborhoods, built communities and so much more.

It has been almost 4 years since exiting the day to day and stepping away. Like any 18 year old, it has continued to mature and to life a life of its own.

While my personal contributions to the business are today marked by occasional phone calls and quarterly board meetings, I hope my personal stamp will continue to last for the next 18 years and beyond.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me.

In the early years, that was mostly strangers, as most of my friends thought I was nuts, but the coolest part is that today, many of those strangers are my closest friends.

Finally, if you’re dreaming about starting some crazy idea - whether it be a small business, a startup, a real estate investment, or anything else, I encourage you to take a chance.

Life is too short to life without taking some risks.

And no one wants to live a life full of regrets.

Besides, you’ll never know if that hobby or idea can become a success if you never give it any real effort. You may fail, but at least you will have taken your shot.

Good luck!

On Pivoting and Maintaining Control of Everything

Shopping these days is just a little less fun…

Whether it is the struggle to communicate at checkout while you and the cashier are donning masks, or the untrusting looks from everyone around you, the entire experience is less pleasurable for all of us.

Knowing I was in for a long visit to Home Depot yesterday, I made sure I had my list together and set out to pick up all the materials I needed to renovate our guest bathroom.

My strategy was to first pick out the easy items like toilet, vanity, towel bars and hooks, followed by choosing flooring, and finally finding a pre-fab shower that we could just drop in.

I coasted through the store with the ease of a professional, choosing items that would look great together and which would stand the test of time.

When the time came to pick out the shower, I realized that there weren’t any that matched the size we needed.

This was a problem.

We needed to get this done and time was not on our side.

Oh, and we’re living on a rock in the middle of the ocean during a pandemic, which means that getting your hands on materials that aren’t here in Maui, is a game of patience.

Overnighted packages might take a week or so if you’re lucky, standard mail might take weeks, and trying to get a package from the mainland - well, hold on - that might be 2-3 months.

These facts can either break you or teach you that you simply have no control of things beyond yourself.

Accept the New Rules of Life or Suffer in Misery

I had a budget and time crunch, and was not going to be able to get what I needed on budget or in time.

Given the choice, I decided to pivot and change course.

Mind you, in order to survive in business, the pivot is one of your most powerful tools. And if you want to grow and thrive, you have to become seriously adept at it.

Fear of change or of taking risks by changing course has sunk far too many businesses.

So, I looked at our total budget for the project, made some adjustments, grabbed some floor and wall tile for the newly conceptualized (on the fly in my head) shower and went on my way.

It was just another thing I needed to do.

And I did it without freaking out or getting stressed because doing so doesn’t help.

We are all faced with challenges as we go through our lives and they can either break us or just be another thing we deal with.

I choose to deal with them as they come using logic and working through like I would any game or problem.

Doing so otherwise would leave me a nervous wreck.

Don’t get me wrong - I used to stress about EVERYTHING.

But time and life experience has taught me that doing so only makes my health, relationships, and happiness far worse.

So . . .

Now I take it as it comes, pivot as needed, use a little logic and thinking to get me through the problems, and go about my day - using my energy and brain power for the things that really matter instead of suffering through perseverating about everything all the time.

The Evolution of Business: From Bootstrap to Semi-Retired (Video)

Many of you already know my story, but it is always a privilege to have the opportunity to share it with other entrepreneurs in person, at events, and of course, via podcast conversations.

Last month I had the opportunity to speak at the Denver Founders event for Colorado entrepreneurs and had a fantastic Q&A with my friend Chris Franks.

Check it out below and hopefully you learn not only a little more about me, but you also pick up some tidbits about business, entrepreneurship, work-life balance, family, and important time-management habits.

Let me know what you think and please share this if you find it valuable!

How to Support Your Favorite Charities (for Free) Every Time You Shop on Amazon

Most people do what they can to help others out, and I wanted to share a little tip along those lines that I don’t think a lot of people are familiar with. This tip will teach you how to be a philanthropist (for free) every time you shop on Amazon.

All you need to do is go to https://smile.amazon.com/ and you’ll have the option to select a non-profit of your choice to give to.

“Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.”

As you can see in the image below, every time you shop while using the smile subdomain, Amazon will show you your charity of choice (in this case, you can see that we support Children’s Hospital Colorado Foundation).

Amazon Smile

As of February 2019, Amazon has raised $124,651,081.04 for charities through this program (Source Amazon).

With over 100 million prime members, there’s about a 1 in 3 chance you are one and if you are, there’s a close to 50% change you’re shopping there once a week. I believe the program is available for all Amazon users, so even if you aren’t Prime, you can partake.

So, without spending any more money or giving up any of your time (both of which I recommend you do in support of great charities around the world), you can be a philanthropist!

What are you waiting for? Start shopping!

And please share this article so more people can learn about this amazing program.

Photo Credit: Pexels