The Elephant Rope:
How to use the power of optimism to grow businesses and create generational wealth as a real estate investor.

Could making a single 10 second video make you $25,000 a month every month for the next two years?  Optimism can be a powerful weapon and too many real estate investors ignore this lesson.  Today we will talk about a few well known experiments and how you can use those lessons to radically increase your equity and passive income.  

First of all, THANK YOU again for making this channel the number one channel for Indiana real estate on YouTube according google analytics and SocialBlade info for BigReia.com.  We’re also building the world’s largest organization of Special Needs Business Owners and Real Estate Investors.

Make sure go digest the ground breaking material at BigReia.com 

We are creating the world’s clearest instructions to empower any human being on the planet can start from zero and create a passive income of at least $30,000 a month.

Our mission is to make lifelong friends helping folks around the world create generational wealth with Indiana real estate and business building.

Now for today’s class on using optimism to create passive income…

Can you build your business with an experiment on optimism?  Realtor makes an extra $1M a year by using signs.

Beautiful Azam explains: 

  • A simple experiment on Learned Optimism and what it means to investors?

  • How a 10 second video added $25k/month to a Hero’s income?

  • Exactly how to create passive income with this formula? 

Learned Optimism: The Elephant Rope.

Imagine you put a monkey in a cage and there is no way for the monkey to get out of the cage, so at first the monkey will try to get out of the cage but eventually he will stop and just sit in the corner – he will give up and accept there is no way out of the cage.

Now imagine you have another monkey in another cage and in this second cage there is a way out.  So when the monkey tries to get out he can and eventually will get out.

So we have two monkeys in two cages.

Now if you take the two monkeys and switch the cages that you put them in, something remarkable happens.  So this time we take Monkey #1 and put him cage #2, this cage does have an easy way out.  Now he is in a cage that he can easily get out of, but instead of getting out to freedom he will just go and sit in the corner and not even try to get out…

… The monkey has accepted that there is no way out of the cage…

Researchers call this a “Learned Limitation”.

Now with Monkey #2 we put him in Cage #1, the cage with NO way out BUT the monkey will still try to get out and he will try much harder than monkey #1 tried to get out of the cage.  In fact Monkey #2 will try much harder than ANY other monkey to get out of the cage. This monkey will try 2, 3, 4, 5 times harder or more to get out of the cage than any ordinary monkey.

Why?

The reason is because he believes it is possible, in his mind there is a positive image that he is working towards.

This is called “Learned Optimism”.

There have been many books written about this concept of “Learned Optimism”.

There’s one more thing about these experiments with monkeys, what do you think happens when you put other monkeys into these cages?  This is pretty bonkers because what we’ve seen is that the new monkeys will behave in accordance to the limitation or optimism of the main monkey.

This is called “Transferred Limitation” or “Transferred Optimism”.

This is the what we consider possible and how contagious the belief in our abilities is to others and their abilities.  So these are the four concepts for today:

Learned Limitation – Transferred Limitation

Learned Optimism – Transferred Optimism

Today we’ll go over how you can use these four ideas to build businesses, improve the world and…

Control Optimism to Create Generational Passive Income.

Control Optimism to Create Generational Passive Income.

Today we’ll go over how you can use these four ideas to build businesses, improve the world and create generational passive income so let’s get started…

I was born in Miami.

Much of my childhood, however, was spent overseas.  I grew up in places like Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, etc.  During elementary school, in less than two school years I had attended nine schools in five countries.  I moved around a lot.  When that happens, see amazing things.

I remember the first time I saw a pet elephant.

I saw a grown elephant in somebody’s backyard.  This giant, strong, beautiful creature (just like me) was not in a zoo or a sanctuary or anything like that – it was just in somebody’s backyard as their pet the way you would have a god here in the States.  How’d they keep the elephant behaved so well?

The Elephant Rope.

As I looked down I saw that tied to the elephant’s leg was a tiny rope and at the other end of the rope was an even tinier stake in the ground.  It looked crazy.  That little stake that couldn’t hold a poodle or even a strong fly, was somehow keeping the elephant in place.

It was the elephant’s leash.

I asked how that was possible and then I learned that when the elephant was just a baby they tied that elephant rope to it and used a much stronger stake.  The elephant unsuccessfully tried to escape again and again and eventually accepted defeat.

A Learned Limitation right?

Once we accept and self-impose a border around our potential we won’t even TRY to cross it.  We won’t even come close to the imaginary limit on our potential.  So as the elephant gets older it doesn’t even TRY to escape.  Just like the monkey who goes into the corner and doesn’t even try to get out of the cage.

That’s how you get the ridiculous scene of a giant elephant being held in place with a tiny rope that’s barely stronger than a common rubber band.  This goes even further because that same owner also taught me how to do this with multiple elephants.

A Limitation Can Spread.

You can use one stake to hold multiple elephants.  Imagine seeing five elephants each on a tiny rope and just a SINGLE peg or stake in ground holding the whole herd in place.  That’s when the Learned Limitation has become a Transferred Limitation as it spread to others.

Learned Limitation Can Become a Transferred Limitation.

We call this…

The Elephant Rope:

A situation where enormous strength/potential is overpowered by a one small learned limitation.

How can an Elephant Rope create generational wealth?

How can an Elephant Rope create generational wealth?

The Elephant Rope: A situation where enormous strength/potential is overpowered by a one small learned limitation.

Once you train your brain to keep an eye out for this you’ll Elephant Ropes everywhere…

… Everywhere.

People lose decades of their lives by being loyal to their limitations, so many people sacrifice so much of their lives by putting faith in a single toxic idea.  To it is important to identify your own self imposed limitations and then the opportunity in helping others deal with theirs.

There are three parts of the Elephant Rope:

ONE: Enormous strength/potential (like an elephant)

TWO: Inches from Victory, Easily Overpowered by something they could overpower

THREE: Most importantly, the Learned Limitation – this is the final stage of self handicapping

Once you get this down and understand it, you’ll be able to create income at will. 

In the elephant’s case let’s fill these blanks in:

First the enormous Strength/Potential = The elephant’s size and strength that’s obvious

Second, Inches from Victory = All it would take is a light tug from the elephant – just walk.

Third, The Learned Limitation = The rope is stronger than me and I can’t break free from it.

So how does this apply to creating passive income?

Remember the Passive Income formula: Equity times Production.

Remember the Passive Income Formula: Equity times Production.

As Empire Builders we focus on CREATING equity and making your own way in this world almost literally writing your own check.  To create equity remember the only three ways to grow the equity of an asset: Think of Dr. Dre…

Three ways to create equity: DRE

DRE = Debt – Revenue – Estimate Value Equity

One way to create equity is pay down debt, second is to grow the revenue/income and third is to raise the estimate value.  This is how we use the Elephant Rope to create passive income, we look for opportunities to increase the INCOME and thus the VALUE of our target companies. 

I’ll give a you a few examples see if you can spot the Elephant Rope and do very simple experiments to massively grow Equity.,.

10 second video grows sales by over 400%?

One of our Heroes was working with a company that sold stereo equipment and he noticed that with each sale they sent an email.  That email had a catalog of similar items the customer could buy immediately with special terms.  They weren’t getting many orders.

When he asked about this they said it was because “Nobody reads emails”.

Not accepting this he did a little experiment (remember everything we do is an EXPERIMENT) and used the following script with each of the customers:

“I want to make sure your order is perfect so I’m making a quick video an attaching to an email that I’m sending to you right now, do you mind taking 10 seconds and letting me know that everything is good to go?”

After doing this two things happened. 

First their sales went up over 400% overnight because now people were actually opening and reading the email and seeing the catalog. 

Second, is that the entire business more than doubled in the first 30 days.

Sales Doubling in 30 Days?

After doing this two things happened.  First their sales went up over 400% overnight because now people were actually opening and reading the email and seeing the catalog.  Second, is that the entire business more than doubled in the first 30 days.

How was this doubled so quickly? 

Because all of a sudden people open the first email and whitelist the company’s email address.  This way they would get and be able to read the following emails afterwards.  Remember it isn’t just getting the emails but READING the emails.

Do you see the Elephant Rope?

Remember the three parts to the Elephant Rope: Strength/Potential, Ease of Victory and Inches from Victory because the barrier so easily overpowered and then third is the Learned Limitation that is handicapped them.

So in this situation do you see all three parts of the Elephant Rope?

First, the Strength/Potential: Here was a business that could grow sales in one area by over 4x and more than double the entire business.

Second, Inches from Victory: All they had to do was send one 10 second video, the barrier was Easily Overpowered but it never happened before because…

Third, The Learned Limitation: The Learned Limitation that people don’t read emails, if you accept that then just like the monkey who stays in the corner you want even TRY to give people a reason to read emails.

There was that business sitting there just ONE sentence away from a multi-million dollar breakthrough.  Holding them back was the entire management team and all the sales people with their legs tied to that one stake in the ground, that stake of limitation…

“Nobody Reads Emails.”

That one Learned Limitation had paralyzed the entire team just like a single stake in the ground can leash a herd of elephants.  Always keep that imagery in your mind.  An entire company’s sales team can all have a SINGLE limitation holding the entire herd in place.

Realtor makes an extra $1,000,000 a year with ugly, handwritten signs?

Years ago a student of ours, Rob, was a realtor in the Midwest.  After 10 years as a luxury real estate agent, he and his brokers were all convinced that our ugly ass neon-yellow handwritten signs were just too damn trashy for his sophisticated clients. 

To his credit, he eventually tested our signs and was astonished at the results.  It was how he was able to immediately make over $1M/year.  All of that money, every red cent was from our ugly ass signs.  When the brokers would ask him how he was doing they wouldn’t believe his answer.

They were so SURE it wouldn’t work that none of them even tried.

To do this and work the Lender/Agent Model and other insights, you can check out our other classes. 

Right now our main focus is learning to spot the Elephant Rope, let’s identify the three parts:

One, The Strength/Potential?

Well that’s easy it is 1M a year, that potential was always there.

Second, Inches from Victory?

Al they had to do was put some ugly signs but immune system wouldn’t let them do it because…

Three, The Learned Limitation?

That our ugly signs don’t work.

How can one picture make you 20k/month?

How can one picture make you 20k/month?

Anna made a video about another Hero of ours who worked with a video game company that she is in the middle of acquiring equity in, one of the things they do is build custom arcade machines. The Hero was volunteering for them and asked about their text marketing and they said it was a bust and…

“People don’t use text for this kind of business.”

“People don’t buy over text” or…

“People won’t buy anything this expensive over text.”

In other words “It doesn’t work in my area.”

Or another version: 

“It doesn’t work for my kind of business…”

Now in THAT moment if you try to deal with them or educate them it is like pouring water in a basket.  It is like playing tennis with bowling balls as we say.  So instead of trying to argue with them, they did a quick experiment. 

Since these arcades came with so many pre-installed systems, she took a quick picture of all the 200+ game consoles that were included.  This giant list was five pages long when it was printed out and put on table for her to take a picture of it. 

That picture was sent in a text message to a group of subscribers.

In less a few hours they had sold over $25,000 worth of arcades.  That’s amazing isn’t it?  Such a great win was just a few seconds – just a single picture – a single text away from $25,000.  If you went through the class Anna did then you saw how have continued make 15-20k/month with that text campaign.

 Learned Optimism, right?

The whole team grew immediately afterwards.  They all saw the monkey escape the cage and now they all want to set records just like that and make that high the new norm.  This is a SIMPLE way to get your entire team to raise their performance and set records overnight – just by using OPTIMISM.

Friendly Fight Clubs.

As you may or may not know, we’ve trained several people to do the Friendly Fight Club Model where you do a $25,000 massive weight loss and body rebuilding program.  To get leads for that program, we email the gym’s current clientele and customer list.

This usually requires a “Nurturing Period” to build compliance with their list and communication so that the Tunnel is strong.  In the last 10+ years that our Heroes have been doing this Model, EVERY single gym says that it’ll never work because…

“Our people don’t have that kind of money…”

And then after it works, we have testimonials of people saying…

“I made more in one week that I made in the last 10 years…”

This makes sense because after just one Fight Club they can make $200k, $300k, $500k and more.  That money is possible because it would only take 10-20 people in the club, so you can – and should – keep those classes small.

What happens next?  Another $300,000 payday?

You would THINK that those gyms would do it again immediately without us, but it doesn’t happen.  After that huge payday and making all that money, they’ll often go years and never do it again.  When we go back and ask them they haven’t done it we see they’ve tied themselves back to the Elephant Rope.

“None of our other clients have that kind of money…”

Learned Limitations can kill everything.

If the LC doesn’t see their limitations present they’ll attract and create circumstances that’ll make their limitations inevitable.  They’re excuses will never end, if you try to find the end of their excuses then you’ll be like a dog on a treadmill.

By the way – why did we start The BigReia.com Project?

Here’s the real reason we do this if you don’t already know.  I met Anna when working with my autistic son.  We both have kids with special needs and we developed a special needs therapy that involves real estate investing, business building and influential compliance-gaining communication skills.

By the way THANK YOU for making this the number one YouTube channel for Indiana real estate.

You have also made this the largest real estate media company in the Midwest, that’s awesome and all because of YOU – again…

THANK YOU.

Anna and I needed a way for our Heroes to deal with their issues, whether they had physical handicaps, mental illness, terminal illness, cognitive delays, learning disabilities, addiction, etc.  We needed a way for them to see PAST and ABOVE their circumstance.

If all they ever saw was people failing then it made sense for them to believe they would never win or achieve like other normal kids BUT if they saw somebody with stage 4 cancer, or cerebral palsy or somebody who was a non verbal autistic patient. 

Everything can change if they learn to build businesses.

If that person learns to speak, read or – even crazier – build a BUSINESS – then THEY internalize that possibility as well – they swallow that potential and digest Learned Optimism.  It becomes addictive. 

Ambition and success are from the same cup, the more you drink from it the more you thirst.

This is what our work is focused on right now.  Once a Hero sees somebody do something great than they become more ambitious themselves and less likely to accept the limitations of others or to let any limitation be contagious to them.

Think of Learned Optimism like a vaccine against limited thinking.

If the ripest fruit is on the highest tree you’re protecting your thoughts by putting them on a branch that is above the clouds.

How do grow businesses?  Remember DRE:

DEBT REDUCTION – REVENUE INCREASE – EQUITY GROWTH

Less debt, more income and/or higher value.

So your assignment is to look for Elephant Ropes.

So your assignment is to look for Elephant Ropes.

(Quick note: you know why we hire elephants?  Because they work for peanuts)

Finding Elephant Ropes will allow grow companies which will allow you to create passive income which will allow you to build generational wealth.  How to do this today?  We LOVE local, small businesses that have an SDE (Sellers Discretionary Earnings) of $100k-300k or under $500k. 

These are EASY businesses to double and get equity in.

When you start screening them you’ll see Elephant Ropes everywhere. 

Here are three categories that we use to find Elephant Ropes:

First is Basic Stuff:
(Stuff that everybody knows but almost nobody does… even though they should)

More Advanced Stuff:
(this is stuff almost nobody does and even fewer people do but REALLY want to do)

The BigReia.com Phoenix:
(The Legendary stuff that nobody knows about or even comes close to doing and you’ll LOVE)

There are three parts to each one.

There are three parts to each business building category:

First the Basic Bish’:

1.) Do they return all calls and emails and follow a scripted response 100% of the time no exception?

2.) Are they doing online reputation management, things like Yelp, Amazon, google reviews, etc.?

3.) Do they have a single lead generation campaign running?

Guys remember this is JUST the basics and I’ve never EVER seen a target company – local small business, owner operated with under 1-2M of revenue – I’ve never seen a single one that can’t be doubled by doing one or all three of just the those basic ones…

… let alone the more advanced Elephant Ropes.

Let’s move on…

Now the Advanced Mother Grabbers:

1.) Do they send out communication at least once a week at the same time/day every week?

2.) Do they know exactly how much they are (and should be) paying per lead and per transaction?

3.) Do they have ANY follow up communication online AND offline to convert leads that don’t buy after  the first contact?

Again you’ll NEVER find a target business that you can’t at least double and create a $10-30k/month passive income with just by using those THREE questions.  So that is more than enough brilliance to create generational wealth already.

Now for the Heavy Hitter…

The BigReia.com Phoenix has entered the chat…

Legendary Badass BigReia.com Phoenix Mother Shizzle:

1.) Do they have Compliance Assets in place to build Authority Positioning?

Remember to build authority and thus gain more compliances your target must believe one of three things about you:

A. You are smarter than them.

B. You are know people smarter than them.

C. Lastly, you are getting smarter than them.

So you want to have a plan of accumulating Compliance Assets like books, videos, articles, a weekly column, podcast interviews, speaking at local meetings, etc.  Nobody does this and you can just help a business do this ONE thing and you’ll get equity deals easy.

Check out Azam’s great class on Hiring a Realtor That Makes You $10,000 A Month for more on crafting Compliance Curve material. 

So that’s the first question are they building their arsenal of compliance assets?

2.) Have they listed their Business Doublers?

Have they made a list of 10-20 people who would double their business with a plan of attack for high compliance with them?  We have a great class on this and making $20,000 a month from a single buyer, there are several other classes that can really help with this as well.

3.) Are they getting a list of best practices for that business or industry from other non-competing businesses?

We call this Checklist Collecting and it is part of the MFM Models.

You can soar income overnight with just this one technique.

Maybe not everybody will want help and that’s okay, focus on the right people and it will be obvious who they are. 

The best people to help are the ones who participate in their own rescue.

You must avoid the LC they will only drag you down.

So those are nine questions that will reveal the LOW hanging fruit…

How do you know that you’ve found an Elephant Rope?

If you find ONE Elephant Rope you can make $30,000/month for the rest of your life.

How do you know that you’ve found an Elephant Rope?

You’ll hear any of these words:

Everybody does that and I want to be different…

My Clients don’t have the money for that…

People don’t have/read email addresses…

Nobody makes money doing that…

I’ve been meaning to do that but…

My people are smarter than that…

We tried that and it didn’t work…

That doesn’t work anymore…

That would cost too much…

That doesn’t in my area…

My business is different…

Then you have the Yeah Butters who will always say “Yeah, but…”

That never works…

My business is different…

I’m not doing that because…

I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work…

Remember the LC always looks for and finds reasons to validate their in action.

“I’m not too lazy I’m just too smart…”

The same way the Ultra High Achiever will do the opposite and find a way apply the lesson and benefit from the brilliance. The BIGGEST Elephant Rope is communication with their Fanbase because it is almost always terrible. 

There they are with this GIANT resource but unwilling to mine that gold because of some Learned Limitation…

Remember to look for these LCs responses because it means there is a lot of low hanging fruit.  Much like the same demon can come to you in different people, the same LC will come in different forms – always know the language and you spot them easily.

My area, my business, That doesn’t work because… that doesn’t work anymore… My people don’t… People don’t have/do/think… I’m not doing that because… The problem with that kind of marketing is… Everybody/Nobody/Not anymore/Never/Always, etc.

Questions to ask business owners and real estate investors?

Look at these businesses and ask yourself how are they generating leads?

How are they converting them and what is the time frame and cost?

How they are communicating with their people?

Done correctly…

These questions will change your life and create generational passive income…

These questions will change your life and create generational passive income…

(just follow my instructions lol)

How do they use, test and improve their scripts, follow up communication, ads, headlines, testimonials, online reputation management with reviews at yelp, google, etc.  The same with their CC material, Authority Positioning (column, book, speaking, etc.), lead generation, Business Doublers, etc.

But just by asking the right questions you’ll see people react positively towards you and want you to be around and work with them, they’ll want you the same reason a monkey wants a banana –

You have a peel…

So that’s it for now, make sure you go to BigReia.com and get our list of over 100 FREE ways to find motivated sellers, how to buy and sell companies at light speed and retire in the next year with over 30k/month coming in on auto pilot: BigReia.com go there and you’ll…

Make the Universe Smile.

Indy Anna
Love (at) BigReia.com
408-430-7417‬ (Yes, that’s my real number and I actually answer so please text me first Thx!)

Want more (brilliantly) EPIC posts of real estate investing and bidness badasssery...?

There is a great post and class on the 38 Ways to Buy Apartment Buildings Zero Down with Pet Policies, and here are some other helpful and EPIC posts... for starters as a real estate investor if you ever want to build a business that makes you 30 grand a month then you MUST do this...

Wanna Create Generational Passive Income Buying Real Estate and Small Businesses?

Here's a class on exactly how to make $30,000 in passive income as an out of state Indy landlord.  Exactly how many Indiana rental properties do you need to make 30 grand a month.  Anna can you help me invest in Indianapolis turnkey real estate investment properties?

There's also a great class Azam did on how anybody can retire in the next 1-2 years with $30,000 a month in passive income by buying and selling businesses zero down.  What about Micro Flipping?  We have a great class on how to start micro-flipping real estate zero down from your house and make $500/day, speed wholesaling 101.

There’s also another great class on how to buy apartment buildings zero down that you can check out as well.  This relates directly to growing income on rental properties.  Speaking of which make sure to check out our epic page on 14 ways to avoid tenants from hell.  Also we have a great post on how to make build a "six figure a month" real estate wholesaling business.

Also here is a post on how I did this and I flipped a house off Zillow for 30.  Also you can check out the post on five steps to flip a house right off Zillow for 40 grand.  You can also check out our other epic post on 57 ways to make money with vacant land.

Here’s another post on how a Hero flipped a house off Zillow and made 40k in a few weeks while he was learning to read.  Also you want to check our post on the EPIC $25 million letter and the copy writing lessons for real estate investors, you'll love it.  Also you can see how ONE letter is making me $9,000 a month.  Also you can check out the post on 101 FREE places to advertise your houses.

Also check out the "SA" class and your REAL chances of create social mobility and income ascension with your real estate business.  Brilliant stuff.  Also there is a great post on the ONLY way you'll ever make 30 grand a month as a real estate investor and/or business builder.  Another brilliant class with a free downloadable Investor Guide is about 19 Ways to Make $10,000 a Month by Helping Tired Landlords.

Plus make sure you check out Azam's post on how to hire a realtor that makes you $10,000 a month... while you sit back with your shoes kicked up on your desk and fingers folded behind your head.  Also there is a great post on how to make five grand a week from putting out signs.

Also we have some great posts on 30 ways to buy real estate with no money down.  That is a two part series so make sure to watch the second part on the 30 ways to buy real estate zero down and with no loans or credit.  I also get questions about our "Epic Flipping" and how to turn $1 into over $25,000 by flipping ordinary items for exponentially high ROI.

And don’t forget our EPIC page on 100 FREE ways to find motivated sellers, we are making the number one page in the world on FREE ways of finding motivated sellers.  Also check out how I find motivated sellers from code violation properties, and also how I make over $1,500 a week giving investors access to that list

Speaking of lists, for a list of the "Good People" and My Indy Anna Homeys - this is a FREE list of EVERY possible contact that you'll ever need to build a real estate business in the Indianapolis or the Midwest.

You can also get a LONG list of every contract, piece of paperwork and legal document that you'll EVER need for your real estate business all FREE to download.

Also perhaps the most important class Azam has done is on the "Frequency of Thought" and how to use the laws of quantum physics to rewire your brain, attract brilliance like a lightning rod and be the best version of yourself.  Check out this epic 3-hour class on Quantum Real Estate.

When I first go started I thought wouldn't it be great if somebody put together ONE list of every possible contact that I would ever need to build a passive income with Indiana real estate - or any Midwest real estate?  Well that's exaclty what I did with our “People Page” here it is:

A totally FREE list of every possible real estate professional contact you’ll ever need to do unlimited deals, start and scale your real estate business and create generational passive income with real estate anywhere Indiana or the Midwest.

Stay here at BigReia.com and you’ll become allergic to being an LC and addicted to improving the world and creating Income Ascension and Social Mobility for you and yours… 

Thanks so much!  = )

Make the Universe Smile.

~ Indy Anna
Love (at) BigReia.com
(YES that's my actual Direct Line and I really do answer lol, so please text me first Thx!)

Free Comic Book Reveals:

100 FREE ways to find motivated sellers.