Thursday, December 11, 2014

 

Today was our big event. After only a few hours sleep, I woke to go for a run around the hotel’s perimeter. When I saw that people were already getting into the hotel’s convention center, I realized that I would have to postpone my run. I needed to return to my room, shower, suit up, and get to the opening of the convention so that I could take a pulse of what was going on. There was a frenetic energy. The name of the conference was “Never Work Again,” and just as in the event from the previous week in Palm Springs, more than 250 people were in attendance. They signed up for the program to learn about investment opportunities.

After an hour of listening to the opening comments, I walked to the lobby so that I could finalize my presentation. Since I was presenting alone, I couldn’t use the same presentation that I had used in Palm Springs. The changes would take several hours, then I had to rehearse to ensure that I came across as credible. At 1:00 I finished. Danny and Robert joined me and we walked back to the convention center. We set up our marketing materials, which included two banners and all of our brochures. I set up my computer outside of the seminar room so that participants could see our amazing videos.

I was scheduled to present at 8:30. But as the day went on, I could see that my time slot would be pushed back. The speakers were speaking for longer than an hour. After their presentations, audience members surrounded the speakers to learn more and to place orders. The early afternoon presenter sold digital marketing services; the mid-afternoon speaker sold lessons on hard-money lending; the early evening speaker spoke about value investing and sold a course that would teach others how to invest. He didn’t finish until after 9:00 in the evening. Then there was dinner. My slot got pushed back until 10:15.

The audience had been in the room since before 9:00 am, so I was somewhat apprehensive about how much energy they would have for the investment opportunity I was about to present. Our was a compelling offering, at least from my perspective. We were offering 1/2-acre home sites in an oceanfront community, a tropical paradise, for $120,000. The real value were the financing terms, as buyers would only need to pay their first-and-last month payment of $500, plus pay another $1,000 to cover the costs associated with touring the property. With that $2,000 payment, and an agreement to pay $500 per month with no interest, they would control an appreciating asset in an appreciating market.

At the end of my presentation, we signed up 12 prospects who became owners in our development. I had hoped to sell more, but I was pleased with the result. Since I didn’t finish my presentation until 11:30 in the evening, I invited those who wanted to learn more to meet my colleagues and me in the hotel’s restaurant at 7:30 for breakfast. We would treat them to breakfast and respond to any questions they had about why our project made so much sense for any investor who had a five-year time horizon.

Danny, Robert, and me went to the hotel’s restaurant at midnight to celebrate our good day. Pizza was the only item on the menu at that late hour, and we didn’t mind at all. I got to my room and went to sleep around 1:00 am.

 

Days since my release from prison: 486

Miles that I ran today: 0

Miles that I ran so far this week: 13.42

Miles that I’ve run during the month of December: 60.57

Miles that I ran so far in 2014: 2,291.56

Miles that I need to run in order to reach my annual goal of 2,400 miles: 108.44

Miles I’m ahead of schedule to reach my 2,400-mile goal by the end of 2014: 24.91

My weight for today: 168