Would you rather be helped right now or helped tomorrow?

Stupid question, right? Of course, you’d like to be helped now rather than tomorrow.

I was looking for help from X company the other day and was on the phone for 45 minutes before any rep answered the phone. Seriously? Even worse, they had to transfer me to another rep to actually help me.

Okay, this post wasn’t just for me to complain — but I feel that companies that are still operating like this are all a century old or not serious about providing the best user experience.

Here’s what the best companies are doing (especially during the whole COVID internet-only era):

👉 Training and re-training client-facing employees to able to identify problems quickly and resolve them in real-time

👉 Providing the infrastructure that gives these employees every tool they need. For one, whatever infrastructure needs to allow employees to communicate and crowdsource solutions quickly. Another would be an instant messenger that allows Gen Z and Millennials to text rather than talk on the phone.

👉 If asynchronous is the only method, they’re using the extra time as an opportunity to not only solve that issue, but giving out support for issues that the client may experience later

👉 Overcommunicating by providing more information in a clear, concise way (think self-help parts of websites)

👉 Collecting data — What are the pain points? Where are clients getting stuck? — then asking “how do we fix that?”

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I shared a room with 10,000 cockroaches

No, it’s not clickbait.

No, I don’t have an infestation.

No, I’m not crazy.

I keep live feeder insects for a peculiar roommate of mine, a lizard. If that wasn’t odd enough, this is all because I run a Facebook group called “Bearded Dragon Obsession.”

To make it even weirder, I used to sell these cockroaches for thousands of dollars when I was 13-18 years old. They’re called “Dubia Roaches” — a cockroach from South America, and they’re seen as one of the staple food items for many lizards. One female roach can cost upward of $2 per one. To sweeten the deal, there’s almost always a shortage (and thus a strong demand to buy them at larger sizes) even now.

Some of my friends use to poke fun at this — I use to be the “roach boy” (don’t worry, it was all in good fun).

I wanted to share this because there are so many different businesses that are highly profitable, cheap to start, and require very little experience, but they’re not the “sexy” businesses people are paying attention to.

This is the type of entrepreneurship that many people don’t pay attention to, but there is a ton of money to be made with little risk.

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LinkedIn just has a different vibe to it.

I just feel that there's an overwhelming amount of people wanting to support each other.

I love when...

👉 Someone's rejection post lands them a job because it gets a ton of views

👉 That someone is willing to post their rejection in itself to balance out all the acceptance posts

👉 That people congratulate you on your acceptance posts (even complete strangers)

👉 And lastly, that there less political posts

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How I went from 0 to 60,000+ views on LinkedIn in 4 weeks 👇

1. Live in your DMs, not your posts — Making real connection with people by engaging in longer and better discourse creates friendships instead of fake networking buddies.

2. Posted consistently — Only 1% of LinkedIn users share original content daily. Even if your content isn't outstanding, you'll still be in the top 1% of LinkedIn.

3. Shared what I was truly interested in — Posting what I was interested in personally allowed me to discuss topics in-depth when people reached out to me in my DMs.

4. Included a CTA (Call-To-Action) — A simple call-to-action like asking a question in your post help engagement.

5. Engaged with other creators (consistently) — Comment, like and share other people's posts. Support others and they may support you! Jonathan Javier💡 does this well and engages with his entire audience.

6. Be opinionated — It's impossible to please everyone, so stop trying to. Be you.

7. Tell personal stories — We crave connection. Simple.

I'm not an expert. I'm just learning and sharing what's interesting to me each morning. But after going back and looking at which posts were more successful, this is what I took from it.

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You don't need to have it all figured out.

I certainly don't. After talking to many entrepreneurs and founders the past year, I realized that none of them have it figured out either.

Everyone is just winging it: making the playbook as they go and setting up systems that help reduce failure for those that follow their steps.

It's more important to continue to try and challenge the status quo, remain consistent, and iterate to improve.

Take the first step and don't wait until it's perfect to ship it out. Experience is gained in the process, not the end result.

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There are only 3 levels of being rich.

It goes something like this:

1. Being able to buy the essentials - food, water, shelter

2. Being able to go to the grocery store and not have to check the prices

3. Being able to do choose what you want to do - travel, buy luxury, not work

There's no practical reason to chase money after this (in my opinion). The only real reason to gain more is to feed your own ego.

Re-evaluate what "rich" means to you. You don't need to have a lofty goal of having millions or billions of dollars. After a certain point, making more money won't make you any happier.

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Real Estate isn't a fast way to grow wealth.

Many internet gurus tell us that real estate is the way to become a millionaire and buy that lambo and that they can teach you in 16 weeks.

Can you get rich from RE?

Yes.

Can you generate a full-time income from RE?

Maybe...over time.

Is RE better than stocks?

Maybe.

Does it happen quickly?

No.

Unless you start with a large bank account to buy multiple cash flowing properties, it's extremely difficult to actually generate meaningful wealth quickly (and without experience) despite many people telling you that it's the way.

It's like many other investments...it takes time to compound.

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2020 has been hectic to say the least! But I've been happy to see the positivity rolling around in many of my peers' year-end reviews.

Special thanks to many of the mentors I've had this year who encouraged me and helped me develop!

I wish all of you health and growth for 2021!

My 2020 Review

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👉 LinkedIn (Analytics for the past 4 weeks when I started posting regularly)

-59496 Views

-836 Likes

-132 Comments

-289 New Followers

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👉 Professionally

-3 Financial Services Internships (FPA, BBFF, XYPN)

-4 Certifications (Social Media, Frictionless Sales, Inbound Sales, eMoney)

-3 Scholarships (PHI BETA KAPPA, Central Valley Scholars, Strategic Impact via AFCPE & NEFE)

-Became an AFCⓇ Candidate

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👉 Personally

-Launched my own Financial Education course

-37K Unique Visitors via my 2 websites (87% yr/yr!)

-6 months until early graduation

-14 books read

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Getting back into reading books during the pandemic was difficult.

When I started in March, it was extremely difficult for me to focus on reading because my mind would constantly wander from idea to idea. But I'm happy that I can now sit for 30-45 minute sessions hyperfocused!

These are my picks for 2021 - definitely more fiction this time around, but please feel free to give me some recommendations to add to my arsenal (fiction or not!).

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Invest in real estate virtually for as little as $20K with renovation, tenant placement, and property management. No experience required.

Sounds a bit crazy. I know.

But Doorvest is already doing this. It's making the unscalable, scalable. Simply put, you talk to one of their advisors, and they help you with the less sexy and difficult parts of real estate investing setting you up for success.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Andrew Luong, Co-founder and CEO of Doorvest. And I believe that his startup is the future of real estate investing.

Gone are the days of the exclusivity of real estate investing.

You don't need a ton of capital, and you don't need the experience.

It's better, faster, and cheaper like startups should be.

Special thanks to Kristina Nguyen and Henry Ngo making the introduction!

Note: I'm not a spokesman for Doorvest - just love the product and service. See their terms and conditions! Link in comments.

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Iteration

I've been pretty critical of the cost vs. benefit ratio of higher education with #collegesanduniversities...

...but here's one thing I learned about in none other than my Business and Professional Writing class:

💡 Your writing (product) is never perfect. It can always be improved.

See, in school, we work towards this single grade at the end. Then, that's it. But when I took this class, we only wrote one paper. But redid it every single week. And each week, we would improve.

Even though each week, we thought our work was done and it was perfect. But we always found a way to improve out work, even if it was just a single sentence change.

Now apply this to your work, your goals, your finances, and everything else. It's more important to start than to try to get it perfect on the first try.

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Has virtual learning been better than in-person instruction for anyone?

Virtual learning at #ucdavis has been a huge part in my professional growth this year.

It gives me...

👉 freedom to learn on my schedule

👉 more time with family

👉 time to network (during work-hours)

and many more pros!

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"You need to invest your money now."

— Every finance guy ever

This year has been hard on everyone, but worse for others. Some people had dumb sheer luck not to have their careers impacted. Restaurants, nail salons, and other typically small businesses took the brunt.

Making blanket statements like this can be harmful. It's not even true. If I just lost my job and don't have excess savings, I'm going to save, not invest.

I used to do this all the time to my friends (all college students - some in debt). And I was wrong to do so!

As I work on completing my Accredited Financial Counselor®️ training, I'm realizing the huge breadth of knowledge I had been missing this whole time. But I'm appreciating the training I am getting to better that part of me.

To my friends who see this, sorry, I'll do better. To others, learn from my mistake!

The Advantage

One of the most interesting economic topics I learned about was the idea of specialization and comparative advantage. If you're able to develop a skill that very few can do, people will pay you a ton of money to leverage it.

For example, China is more efficient at manufacturing and has an economy and capital that lends itself to being a manufacturing machine. But the United States is much more inclined in service positions. This is one of the reasons the United States manufacturing industry has been so weak for the past decades.

Similarly, people who have specialized skills (i.e. engineers, developers, etc.) are able to sell their labor for over six figures!

It's less about going to college but college is an avenue that sets a path to learn a specialized skill.

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The greatest return on investment for students (in terms of tangible money) is...

...scholarships!

Scholarships are super competitive (and that myth that billions of dollars goes unclaimed is untrue...or at least misinterpreted). But they are hands down one of the most important income streams for students.

Imagine this:

You sit down and apply for a scholarship that has a payout of $1000. The application takes you 2 hours to complete. Effectively you were potentially just paid $500/hour.

"But Justin, I don't get every scholarship I apply for!"

True, but if you're an outstanding student, you'll likely get much more than most internships and service jobs (that pay out ~$15/hour)!

Plus, it's just extra motivation to be an outstanding student.

💡 Go to your Financial Aid Office's website right now. Many universities have scholarships and collections of outside scholarships already picked out for you. Apply and tailor your responses to each one!

And in a couple months...or even a year...come back and let me know how you did!

Side Note: Screw all those scam-like scholarship websites. Your college/university will have more than enough, and they're pre-selected and vetted for you!

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We don't always know what we want to do.

I mean how could we? When we exit high school and enter the big world of college, we're hit with

▶️ Choose a major that you can make money with

▶️ Choose a major that you're passionate about

▶️ Choose a major that is well respected

At aged 18, you know more about how mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell and pythagoras theorem than we do about what jobs are out there.

It sounds sexy to be an engineer or a doctor until you actually do the work of an engineer or doctor (you have my respect as these are incredibly difficult paths to take).

I was Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on a pre-med track (to anesthesiology) when I entered college. A year later, I switched to Economics. Then I specialized in Data Analytics cause Economics was too broad.

And I'm not the only one. I recently talked to a mother who's daughter was contemplating switching majors as a freshman.

It's okay to switch majors. And it's okay to not know.

💡 Make the decision now and adjust when necessary. Try different things.

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Why can't you budget...or lose weight...or invest consistently?

As New Years approaches, many of us feel a sense of a renewal and a one-time drive to set lofty goals for ourselves: the dreaded New Years Resolution.

As I worked with my first few clients, a trend was apparent.

They would set a goal: "I'm going to save 50% of my income this year."

While it sounds nice, and it might even work for the first month or two. But long term, making such drastic changes will burn you out.

So this year... I encourage you to take it SLOW!

Be the tortoise 🐢. SLOW and steady wins the race (in all areas of your life).

(Plus, this year has been hectic enough!)

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The five parts of every business:

👉Creates and delivers something of value...
👉That other people want...
👉At a price they're willing to pay...
👉In a way that satisfies the customer's needs and expectations...
👉So that the business brings in enough profit to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operation.*

Whether we know/like it or not, we, as ourselves, are all of our own business.

As employees, students, and interns, we must create and deliver value that's wanted at a "good" price that generates customer satisfaction and business profits. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense for you to get hired.

Let me know in the comments below:
💬 How do you provide value?

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What is your reason for being?

Listened in on Chris Do's workshop today on Ikigai, or your reason for being (link in comments).

Some of my thoughts:

For those who aren't aware, ikigai is a framework that allows you to find your reason for being broken down into 4 areas.

👉What you love

👉What you are good at

👉What you can be paid for

👉What the world needs

After going through the exercise myself a few months ago, I realized a few things:

1. My ikigai is my path to The Million Impact Mission (my mission to impact 1,000,000 people on their financial life journeys).

2. This is something everyone should do for themselves.

I've talked to so many #students throughout high school and college who don't know what they want to do.

This is one of the exercises that worked for me, and I'd highly recommend all of you try it. The first 3 (what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for) are typically easy. Figuring out the 4th and how you can connect it to the other 3 is the hard part.

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Are you indispensable?

Excerpt from Linchpin by Seth Godin:

"The system we grew up with is based on a simple formula: Do your job. Show up. Work hard. Listen to the boss. Stick it out. Be part of the system. You'll be rewarded.

That's the scam. Strong words, but true. You've been scammed. You traded years of your life to be part of a giant con in which you are definitely not the winner.

There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do."
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There's this push and pull you feel when you're starting out. Part of me pulls me back to be part of the system and taking it safer. The other part of me pushes me forward and tells me to connect with others even when there are no guarantees the market will like my ideas.

Maybe it's imposter syndrome. Or niavety. I have no clue and still looking for the answer.

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