The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

From Landlord Coach to Business Strategist: Mark Dolfini's Evolution

• Dwan Bent-Twyford • Season 7 • Episode 401

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Mark Dolfini returns to share his evolution from the Landlord Coach to a business strategist helping entrepreneurs create sustainable, time-wealthy businesses through his VIPER methodology. We discuss the importance of putting personal vision before business goals and the dangers of living to serve your business rather than building a business that serves your life.

• Celebrating 1 million podcast downloads and reconnecting with favorite past guests
• Why Mark transitioned from real estate coaching to broader business strategy
• The VIPER method: Vision, Infrastructure, Process, Execution, Reporting
• Creating a personal vision before developing your business vision
• The difference between tactical processes and strategic planning
• Why "action faking" prevents real progress in business
• Creating accountability systems that promote consistent habits
• The importance of intentional communication through regular meetings
• Balancing business ownership with family life and personal priorities
• Mark's new book "The Time Wealthy Advantage" coming soon

Visit strategicboardroom.com/Dwan for special offers on Mark's upcoming book and additional resources for business owners.


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Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everybody, Welcome to the most Dwanderful real estate podcast ever. I'm your host, Dwan Bent-Twyford. I'm America's most sought-after real estate investor and I have one of my fan favorites. On today we're going to talk to Mark Dolfini and we're going to catch up and see what's happening, but I wanted to share some super exciting news. In case you don't know, I just reached a million downloads on my podcast recently, I know, and I got a whole thing from Buzzsprout like official 1 million. I was like so immediately, Mark, I pick up my phone, I'm like, okay, is 1 million downloads good? And it says, oh, you're in the top 5%. And I'm like, look at me. So I'm so excited about that.

Mark Dolfini:

So Mark.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Dolfini deal.

Mark Dolfini:

Welcome back to the show well, hello, welcome and congratulations on a million. That's a huge deal that's that's. It's exactly one million more than I've got I know I was so excited.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I um, I use buzzsprout to like host my podcast and stuff. And they send me this email with like a full graphic and it says congratulations. And I'm like one million certified down. So, oh my gosh, one million, that seems like a lot. I've had it five years. So I start googling. I'm like, oh my god, that's like amazing. I was like, oh, look at me, look at me. I'm so excited. So I I posted it everywhere. I share videos everywhere. I thanked everybody because I'm super excited about it you should be.

Mark Dolfini:

That's a good, that's a big accomplishment it is huge.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

so, on the next big accomplishment that you get, you know they have like the little rewards coming out and the next one is to reach 500 podcasts and I'm at at about I'm close to 400. So my first thought was like, okay, if I did like three a week, you know all this year I could hit 500. But then I thought, no, doing that many it's too many, first of all, and I don't know that it wouldn't like maybe lower the quality just having so many all the time. So I thought, no, I'm going to keep doing one a week and it's going to take me two more years to hit 500. But maybe by then I'll hit 2 million and 500 at the same time.

Mark Dolfini:

Yes, yes.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's what I'm hoping for.

Mark Dolfini:

It's good to have goals.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It is it is yeah. I want to let you know. So I went through and you are the the last of the 10 people. I went through my phone and I have everybody on my phone saved under um. You know, under your contacts it's the word podcast and then their names. So I think I sent you a link like a month or two ago in march it was a while.

Mark Dolfini:

Actually, it was a while ago. You're just being very gracious because I was slow to respond. Well, it was. It had to be in a while ago. You're just being very gracious because I was slow to respond.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Well, it was. It had to be in march because I was in florida and for the whole month, so it had to be at least the first week of march. And I thought, you know, I'm gonna pick out like 10 people that I really loved and just see what they're doing. And I started scrolling through and the funny thing is, like some of the people like I don't even remember what we talked about, and other people I was like, oh, I love that person. So I know that old saying that says people don't always remember what you said, but they remember how you make them feel. So I said I'm going to test that theory. I'm going to scroll through because I've got 200 people, so I'm going to pick the 10 that I remember having the most fun with. I'm going to invite them to come back. And so you were one of the 10. I made the list. You did so. You're one of my personal fan favorites.

Mark Dolfini:

I love it. Well, thank you, that means a lot.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, Well, thank you. And so, as I was doing it, I remember like, oh, this person was really funny and I thought, oh, this person I had to pull teeth and like you start remembering. And a few people was like I don't even know, I have to go back and even look at the podcast, I just don't know. And so I sent out 10 requests and all 10 said yes and then, as I have them on, I'm like, hey, you were in my top 10 favorites of like just remembering that we had a really fun podcast.

Mark Dolfini:

Well, that's incredibly humbling. I appreciate you and I just enjoy your energy and everything about you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, you too, I love you too and I also I follow, and some of the people I realized that I chose were people I follow on Instagram, so I feel a little more connected to them. Oh, look at this great post they made so and I was like, oh, that's kind of fun. So I put that theory to the test about not knowing what you said but how you made them feel. And then I realized there's about a hundred people I I don't think I could even tell you what they look like.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And that's terrible, I should remember, but some of them are four years ago. Yeah, you know but I've never seen them or heard from them since you know.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, it speaks to, though, what is really important, though, like these, you know, obviously we all we're getting the business, we do our thing we have. Everybody gets busy, but people don't forget how someone makes you feel. If you have been, you know there's been times where I have not on purpose, but slighted someone and I didn't realize that I had done it until later. And I reached out and I'm like man I am, I just realized I was. I did not handle that situation the best. I should have remembered who you were, or whatever, like. I'm very quick to do the best I can to to mend those fences, because people sometimes they harbor things a lot longer than you do?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I know I've had a few people like you know. You said you would invite me on your podcast. You never sent me a link. I'm like when, like three years ago, it's like seriously, seriously, so and yeah, and I don't even remember, but I have had a guy emmanuel I think you talked to emmanuel before. That helps, uh, book my shows. But these I did myself. I just sent everyone a link and said fill it out. And I said okay, let's see, and like all 10 and I was like, hey, all right super excited.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I was like wow, these are my favorite people so.

Mark Dolfini:

So the the important question then is did did it stand up to the test? So if you've got all 10 now, so far out of the nine has it been yeah, they were super great interviews.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They were shorter because it's just a catch-up, you know, and like the show notes on here, I'll say, hey, if you want to see uh mark's full, go back to this episode and watch the whole thing. So these are just more like gonna catch up and have fun. But yeah, every single one was super blast. A few people I forgot how funny they were. I was like, oh, my god, that's why I liked them, because they were super. And one person is not even in real estate at all and didn't tell me. So I said, oh, how's your career going? Oh, I stopped and I'm working at a restaurant. I was like what? But it was fine because it was super fun anyway.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But the look on my face, I'm sure it was like okay, okay, but that's okay, all right so let's catch up with you, and so you said you were switching what you do a little bit, so tell us what you're doing now.

Mark Dolfini:

So what well, what I was doing in the real estate space I was. I operated under the landlord coach brand.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yes, you did.

Mark Dolfini:

And I had the book the time wealthyor 2.0. And I really did enjoy that during the time that I did it right, like I was out doing the circuit and speaking and all these different places, and that's one of those things that it's fun until it's not right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I get you.

Mark Dolfini:

And I had done that for a couple of years and I had, and I had seen, I mean, we'd see, we don't need to mention names, but we, we know who all the old salts are, who've been doing it for 30 years, right, and I'm like, how do you keep this? Like, not even how, but why, why would you keep this pace up? You know, pace of you know, because, again, for me it's about being in total control of my calendar, Yep, and and being time wealthy, right, you know, having control of, like, we've got a. You know, my bride and I we have a 19 year old son, a 17 year old son and a two year old daughter and, you know, I kind of want to be around. Yeah, that's a big jump. The older ones are then a two-year-old, yeah, yeah, we were intentional, we wanted to have more kids.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, that's amazing.

Mark Dolfini:

That was part of our vision.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

How old, are you now?

Mark Dolfini:

So I didn't really do the math, but being 52 and chasing a two-year-old around, I should have thought that through a little bit better 52 and she's two.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You know what 52 and she's two. You know what You'll be like that super fun dad, because at this point in your life you get to spend more time with the little one than you did with the older ones.

Mark Dolfini:

I do, yeah, and honestly, my relationship with all of them is good and different, because they're different kids and they're different humans. But I'm so much more intentional about my relationship and about my use of time and just being present yeah, you know, just being totally present. No matter what I'm doing, I'm present with you in this moment. I'm not thinking of 15 things that I didn't get done today and the 30 things I'm going to try to get done for the rest of the day. I'm just totally present and in the moment when I'm with them, when I'm with anyone, and that's probably one of the biggest gift I can give to myself.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It is. It is, you know, Bill went through that terrible cancer crazy thing that we went through with that bone marrow transplant and after that I was like you know what, dude, I don't want to spend time with anybody anymore, unless like I really want to, or they add value all this like stuff that we do that's so meaningless. I'm not doing it anymore. Like you literally almost died and you know we're 66 and 67. It's not like we got 200 years left. We're on a hard downside of things. It's like I'm just not. I'm just not. So I say no to so many things over the last three or four years. Like so many things I would have done before, like oh man, but now I'm like no, it doesn't suit me. And people are like wow, and I'm like no, I haven't changed, I just changed my priorities.

Mark Dolfini:

Right, right, yeah. Perspective is it starts to get you start to get a change of perspective when something like that I have someone here. Hey, Mark, there he is how you doing stud dog. Good to see you, man.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Good to see you, you're looking great. Yeah, you too, man. Thanks, he looks great, doesn't he?

Mark Dolfini:

He does Get my hair back anyway, good seeing you, man, you too, my brother.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

He looks so good, doesn't he?

Mark Dolfini:

He does.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Now he's got all this help back. He's got that 25-year-old female DNA. So I tell people he's like my gay best friend, lesbian lover, husband. He's like, will you stop that? I'll be like, no, I won't stop it until it's not funny anymore.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, it kills every time you have 25-year-old female DNA.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You have identical DNA to a 25-year-old. It's funny.

Mark Dolfini:

It is funny. Yeah, just let it happen.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I tell you, his skin is so soft it's so bizarre having, I mean, you know, not very many people have a full bone marrow stem cell transplant, but your skin is so soft and his blood type changed from A blood type to O, which I didn't. Somehow during all the classes we took I never realized your blood type changes. Like what do you mean? He has O blood type now. So he with the O blood type you know they're more like carnivores he eats like every day, he eats so much protein. I was like, dude, I've been married to you 20 years. I haven't seen you eat 20 steaks. I have one every single day and I just crave meat. I was like like, hey, the doctor said eat anything at all that you want to eat. Don't even worry about that until you get past your five years and then you can, you know. But yeah, it's funny.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

All right. So what are you doing now? Because landlording, I get it, landlording is great. I'm a landlord, I got it. But you're working more now with what so?

Mark Dolfini:

I still have my properties, my real estate, and I'm still doing that and people still come to me because they have issues Like the Time. Wealthy Investor 2.0 was a fantastic book it was. I'm very proud of that book, oh it's a great book.

Mark Dolfini:

Thank you, and it really helped people who really struggled with putting together systems and processes for their property management business, their real estate business, basically their buy and hold business, and that's where I spent most of my time teaching.

Mark Dolfini:

But the problem was with that. Well, I realized, came to realize it was really using about maybe 10, 15% of really what I can coach and consult and train on. So I decided to niche up a little bit and I now like working with business owners in general. So many of them tend to be investors you know, real estate investors but they also tend to have contracting businesses or hair salons or coffee shops and other things, and they were looking at the real estate investments as just something to channel their wealth into. So I founded a company called strategic boardroom and you can, you can find uh, the uh that's, you can find that as strategic boardroomcom and uh, I just am actually getting ready to launch my next book. So it's not even published yet, but I, I, I don't know if you can see it, I'll hold it up here, but it's uh, that's the rendering, that's the proof oh, I like it the time wealthy advantage.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like that clock thing on there.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, it's uh it's super cool because the clock face actually has a, has a dollar bill imposed on it, like a, like a, uh oh, hold it up again.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Let me look at it, yeah yeah, it's uh.

Mark Dolfini:

So there's a ben franklin, so you'll see this little strip across there. That's the, that's the proof.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But you can see the little ben ben franklin. Yeah, that's such a great, that's great, that's beautiful it.

Mark Dolfini:

It's really cool because, um and really, it's about creating a time wealthy advantage for people who are business owners, who are struggling with time in general, you know, with struggling with procrastination, struggling with being late everywhere, struggling with, you know, not being able to wind down or have white space on their calendar for when things like life show up. Yeah, and they're so used to running at. You know they're running hot. They're running anywhere from 99 to 105% every day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Every day.

Mark Dolfini:

And it leaves a deficit right. So when life shows up, it becomes this massive event. And now they're even further behind, so it creates this whole downward spiral. So it's about creating a time wealthy advantage, where it's not about being more frenetic and getting more things done. It's about putting, about putting systems, processes and certain other things in place so you can be much more effective in what you're doing I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So. So you're working with business, which I like the fact too, because there are a lot of business owners that still sort of need like a mentor or someone to help them, because they're you know, they haven't been business owners before. Same thing with landlords, and if you're going to have start buying, you know, rentals and stuff, you need someone to kind of show you the ropes a little bit yeah I mean, everything's not so easy as it looks on you hgtv really really it isn't.

Mark Dolfini:

You mean, that's not real I watch their show.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Sometimes I'm just like, oh my god, poor people. They have no idea what they're getting into and they just go look how easy that was.

Mark Dolfini:

It is. It really does. And the one thing that people often forget is that real estate is very much a people business. Yeah, it really is, and like they just think that, like the systems and processes are important, don't get me wrong. But they should always focus on the human element, the deliverable right and making sure that the experience is considered.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, so now someone gets into your strategic boardroom. Let's say, I own a hair salon.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

What would you help me with?

Mark Dolfini:

So the approach that I take, which I wrote in the book, is called the VIPER method V-I-P-E-R.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Is that an acronym?

Mark Dolfini:

It's an acronym, that's right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm writing this down on my paper here how many steps?

Mark Dolfini:

did it take, okay, viper. So VIPER is because I'm a strategist, I look at things in certain categories and I'll get to those categories here in a second. But the VIPER method it stands for Vision Infrastructure Process.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hold on, I have to write this down.

Mark Dolfini:

I'm getting it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You can't write quite that fast. Structure okay. Vision Infrastructure.

Mark Dolfini:

Vision Infrastructure Process.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh Process, Okay, I love it. Execution oh process, Okay, I love it.

Mark Dolfini:

Execution, oh and reporting.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, I got it written down. Vision infrastructure processes.

Mark Dolfini:

Execution oh execution.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I wrote that really. Oh, I didn't cross the X Execution, Okay, and Reporting. Oh, reporting I-N-G. Okay, I wrote that really fast, I'm like the fastest Okay. So I like that. So they have the Viper method.

Mark Dolfini:

Right. So so what that does, it's a it's a very it's. You know, channeling my inner Stephen Covey from the seven habits, right, it's habit number two, which is beginning with the end in mind. So we want, what we're trying to do, is create a business that exists for us, not us existing for the business.

Mark Dolfini:

So, first and foremost, the vision contains two components and the vision piece. The first part of vision is the personal vision, right, like what are you doing this for? You know, if you landed in a pile of money, or you had, you didn't have to worry about income generation, you know what would, what would your life look like from day to day? And the problem is that most people that I and when they get into business, they focus on the business vision first and, in essence, the business vision becomes the personal vision. They live for their business. And oftentimes I see this when you know, when you create a business vision before you create a personal vision, you end up creating a life that exists to serve the business. I've done that, oh yeah, I've done that too, and I, and I've done it a couple of times.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I have to, I have to, I'm fine, like no, I'm putting my foot down. That's the. I don't think they're going to be anymore.

Mark Dolfini:

I have to, I have to. I'm finally like no, I'm putting my foot down. That's the. I don't think they're going to be anymore. Yeah, yeah, and good for you for doing that, because you're a great gal and Bill's a great guy, and the world would be lesser off if we didn't get to see that side of you right If it was always about business.

Mark Dolfini:

Well, it's just, it's the truth, and it's the truth for so many people that I end up working with Now. There's some people let's just face it they're, you know, not great folks and you're just kind of like, okay, you know you're, you're bad at life. Maybe you should just stop trying, you know, I know some people make so many bad decisions but not even once or twice, like decades on end.

Mark Dolfini:

Oh, yeah, yeah, what's wrong with you? Yeah, and and what it is, and that's fine. But for the folks who really do want to focus on their marriage or being a great dad or being a great mom, maybe faith plays a big role in their life, or maybe they want to play a bigger role, but whatever that is, now they've got this. Now their job description isn't a life description.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah.

Mark Dolfini:

Right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So the first thing is you work on their personal. And then what's the second?

Mark Dolfini:

So the second piece of the vision right. So you do create a business vision, but you know so I'm not saying business vision is irrelevant, it just can't come first, right, right.

Mark Dolfini:

So you create a personal vision, then you create a business vision and you create a business vision around three Cs, which is core purpose, core values and client avatar. That helps define the business vision, right. And then of course, you put a timeline on that and so forth. But that's the basis of the vision. The next piece, the I, is the infrastructure. Right Now, the is the infrastructure. Right Now, the infrastructure and process. That's the INP of Viper, that's the system part of the business, right? So when you're thinking about it, the infrastructure is your desks, your chairs, your software, your phone systems, your websites, things like that, right, your processes. That's broken down into two different areas. So one is the day-to-day process. It's the day-to-day stuff. It's the SOPs, it's your opening procedures, it's your closing procedures. You have a hair salon. You know how do you open for the day, how do you close for the day, how do you prepare bank deposits? Right, it's the. It's the mundane, boring stuff.

Mark Dolfini:

Right, Right. So Michael Gerber wrote about that in the E-Myth literally like 100 years ago, and it was, like you know, in the E-Myth like everyone raved about it. Well, that's what he talked about was the processes right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I think I read that book like 20 years ago or more it was.

Mark Dolfini:

the original book was actually published in the 70s.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Gosh, I read it so long ago I don't even remember it?

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, well, if so, one of the things that he talked about was you want to systematize, as if you were going to franchise and that's a good idea, right?

Mark Dolfini:

As if he said look, even if you're not planning on franchising, just you want it to be consistent. You want your consistency should be your aim, and I think, with the processes and making sure all the processes are built out, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, it does, Right. So the other side of process is is your strategic planning. So you have your tactical day-to-day stuff and then you have strategic planning, which is the other side of process. And the reason that strategic planning is so important is because you know let's just say you know your, your job and my job is to get in the boat in row, right, I'm the left door door, you're the right or right, and our job is just to just grab the oar and row every day and just keep rowing until we get tired and then do the same thing the next day. Well, that's what many business owners do, right?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

ah, that is so true. You just row and rub and the next thing you wake up you go. Oh man, my arms are tired, but I'm gonna row again all day today.

Mark Dolfini:

Got to row, got to row again.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's exactly what it is.

Mark Dolfini:

Well, exactly, and the problem is the problem with that is they never stop and look up and go. Where are we going Like? Are we making one big left turn, or are we getting ready to go over the waterfalls?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

right, we're on the same island all the time.

Mark Dolfini:

That's right. Just cutting holes in the ocean Awesome. So the strategic plan part is where you look up once in a while and make sure the boat's still going in the same direction. You want it to go in right. So strategic planning, it's got certain components to it. It's got the people side of it, the purpose of the strategic plan and and, of course, the promotion and making sure that you know, you know who who needs to know right the inside, the outside, that sort of thing, so. So there's certain components to the tactical processes and there's certain components to the strategic planning part of the process. So that's the. So that's the vision, infrastructure and process. And then then you've got execution right. So execution is simply, you know, like again, if there's a you've made this big plan right, well, if it's going to fall apart, it's generally going to fall apart in the execution, like that's, yeah, everyone's like it'll fall apart in the beginning exactly, yeah, I mean where.

Mark Dolfini:

This is where where excessive planning can become another form of procrastination and you never execute.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I meet people.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You know, bill, and I teach, like you, we teach and I meet people that say, well, I've got to get my LLC, I've got to get my bank, I've got to get this laundry list, and then I'll see them at an event, like a year later. Yeah, I was like like, well, how are you doing? They go. Well, you know, I just still don't have like my base. It's like, oh my god, that's like the easiest part. If you can't get past that, you need to just save yourself the time and quit now, because you're never going to make it in investing. You know, you see the same people.

Mark Dolfini:

It's like yeah, you're like dude, what are you doing? Well, or even worse. They've opened like seven LLCs and they still don't own a property, you know, or it's like, but they're getting ready, to get ready, and they've opened three trusts and they've got a Wisconsin LLC and a Wyoming LLC. Like, what in the world are you doing? You don't even own anything yet.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, I can't tell you how often I see that, like at a big event like the Ohio Rio, because I remember people. They'll come on and they're like hey, I saw you two years ago, what are you doing? They're like well, and it's the same answer. It's like okay.

Mark Dolfini:

Okay.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

All right, it's like a form, it is. It's like they feel like I call it like people doing like busy work, but it's really procrastination.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They feel like they're doing something. They're online, they're looking at leads. You know they're looking things up and they feel busy, but it's like procrastinating. You haven't done anything.

Mark Dolfini:

I refer to that as action faking.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, action faking, that's a good word.

Mark Dolfini:

I may have to use that. Yeah, action faking. So it's where. You like, oh so you're going to do something and you're like, oh cool, I'm going to spend five hours designing my business card. You're like, dude, it's a business card, no one cares, no one, really cares, nobody cares. Name your phone number. Right, right, but I got to mess with the font Like dude. Literally no one cares that much really.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Nobody cares.

Mark Dolfini:

So, yeah. So the action faking is definitely a thing. So defining the execution is really important, and when you're defining execution, you want to look at lead metrics and lag metrics. Lead metrics are the activities and the actions and the lag metrics, of course, are the results of those actions and activities. So the only thing you have real direct control over is your actions and activities, your lead metrics. So you should have in the execution, this is where you're going to be tracking the things that you actually need to be doing, the things that are going to move the needle towards your strategic plan, right, the things that are going to move the needle towards your strategic plan.

Mark Dolfini:

So the last component is the R, which is the reporting and reporting. Everything's got to have a reporting function, right? So this is where you're tracking your operational metrics, your things like that, and this is where I come into the four core functions of business, and the four core functions are lead generation, sales, operations and accounting. Every business has to have those four functions. They do, and the reporting function should report on all the actions and activities around those four functions your lead generation, your sales, your operations and your accounting. And your customer's journey happens in that order. So that's yeah. So that's the premise in terms of if you had a, you know whatever business you of of. If you were had a. If you had a, uh uh, you know whatever business you had, even if it was real estate or otherwise.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, anything. I mean everyone. You know, I think a lot of people, especially in real estate, they're like oh yeah, I'm going to just buy a fixer upper, and like there's not a real plan. It's like do you want to buy one? Do you want to buy two? Are you going to work on your stuff? You're going to hire people out? Like, what are you going to do when you have, like you know, it's just like people just I feel like, for real estate investing, some people just sort of just think if they just roll into it, they'll become like super wealthy and everything will work, but they don't ever have a plan.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, that's. That's probably one of the reasons why I stopped looking to exclusively work with real estate investors. Not that I won't work with them, right, but when I was focusing specifically on buy and hold investors, it was really frustrating because they were like, well, let me get 50 units and then I'll hire you, get 50 units and then I'll hire you. I'm like dude at that point you're, you're I, I don't know that you're going to get there, because you're so disconnected and discombobulated now Like you think you're going to get to 50 units overnight, Like not going to work.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I talk to people like that. I'm just like oh my God, you're so cute, you can't possibly think that's how. That's how things are. I I'm with you all the time. I mean the people that we coach. We make them stay so accountable.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And then sometimes you're just like God, I have to just turn on accountability logs every week. It's like, well, we have to know what you're doing, like you got to turn stuff in. If you can't be accountable to us and we're coaching and helping you, I don't know how you're going to build anything. Yeah, coaching and helping you, I don't know how you're going to build anything.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, it's tough, it is, it is really tough. And the thing with accountability is that people they're like, oh no, no, dwan, I didn't want that kind of accountability, I wanted kind of the other kind of accountability, which was super easy, and you just tell everybody, you know, and then I have another excuse somewhere else built in.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They do. We have this form that people have to fill out. They have to fill it out, they have to send it every week, and it says like, how many doors did you knock or how many postcards or how many leads did you reach out to? Like the very specific, how many people did you talk to, how many people did you make an appointment with? So I'll be like, oh, I talked to 50 people and made no appointments. And then, and then in a few months they'll go listen, I'm taking two weeks off and they start like giving excuses why they can't send their login. Even if it's all zeros, the fact that you send it every week, still, you're still doing it Like it doesn't have to be full. And then, and then you just see them, you know more and more zeros. Or on the other side, they're like they're blowing up and they've got so much going on that they need a little bit more help.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So it is funny because we're like you have to do this every friday, I don't care what you're doing, I have to get it. Uh, I have to get this thing. You can take a picture, you can text me email, I don't care what you do. No, you can't miss any days, no matter what, and then you'll see in just a few weeks. Well, this happened and that happened, and I did. I'm like I don't know about here, just put a bunch of zeros, but you got to keep sending it in.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, yeah, I love that because it's really it's just like saving right, it's like saving money. It's it's about the habit more than it is about the thing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, and I'm like, listen, I don't care if it's all zeros, but the fact that you send it every Friday by 5, by 5 pm Eastern time every Friday, that's just part of making things a habit.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, there was a great book. It was published back in the 90s by this guy, chet Holmes, and he worked under Charlie Munger for a bit and he wrote the book that's called the Ultimate Sales Machine and it was the first business book I read after college. And of course after college I was like I thank God, I never get to read another book again, right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, you started.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, I literally just started, but, but it was funny because one of the things he talked about in that, in that book, was to hold meetings, hold weekly meetings. He says and even if you're a one man army, you need to hold a meeting, and I thought that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

Mark Dolfini:

And you're holding the meeting, not for the meeting, but because, eventually, when you have a tribe, when you have people that you're working, that are working under you, that habit's already been instilled. So I love that you're teaching that to your clients.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, we have you know I think I don't know if I told you before or not we're rehabbing a bunch of buildings in Clinton, iowa. I think when I talked to you last time we'd already started. We've been doing it for about five years now. So we ended up opening up a little antique mall and a marketplace, a coffee shop and like a clothing boutique. And I'm like bill, we don't know anything about any of these businesses, I don't even drink coffee. But we ended up opening them up and the people were like I said listen, I need, I need canada, I need recipes, I need this, I need that, I need that and all this stuff, oh my god. And I said you guys have to meet every week. We see each other every day. I said I don't, you have to sit down when the store is closed and you have to meet every week.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't care if it's for 20 minutes, I don't care. You see each other every day. You have to have a meeting and I mean, I'm telling you what for like the first three months half the people were like that sounds stupid. I'm like, well, you know what? You have the option to quit you don't have to work for me.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But if you're going to, you're going to meet every week. You're going to send me a list of what you talked about and you're going to do that every week forever, till the end of time. Yes, and now they're like we're so excited for our meeting and they're all about it now. But in the beginning, man, I got a lot of flack from these kids, like we just want to make coffee and go home. It.

Mark Dolfini:

No, no, that's not how that works.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't care if you want to make coffee, tell me how many cups of juice, tell me Liz, how much coffee, how many straws. Tell me all that, and then you can make all the coffee you want.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, it's interesting because I see and I even wrote about this in the book where people will declare meeting bankruptcy. They're like no more meetings, we don't have to meet anymore. It's like well, we, we communicate through all throughout the day. You know like, so we don't really have to meet. It's not the same. And and it was I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said the funny thing about communication is the illusion that it's happened.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's brilliant.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I can't, I didn't, I'm paraphrasing, but yeah, that was so smart but yeah, that was so smart, it's so funny and these people, I mean, they work together all the time. I'm like it's not the same thing for me just saying, hey, listen, we ordered cups. Like you know, I want a meeting. So now I've got them all trained. Now they're all really great and they've got all these things in action. They've got all these binders and they've got system and all the stuff. That well, it's really great. It's like working for a big company and so you got to treat a little company like a big company. If you ever want to be a big company, yeah, yeah, I didn't know that, so I was like 15 years into investing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I had terrible record keeping, terrible everything. I'm only bad about it now. Just because I mentor so many people, I have to keep track of myself.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Well and it allows you to have mental bandwidth. So you're like, oh, did I forget to do this? Did I forget to do that? When I leave my office at night and my house is only a few minutes away it's about a seven minute drive I'm not obsessing about anything at night, laying down going, oh did I do this? Did I do this? Did I do this? Of course, every now and again something pops up, but I just open up a little, you know, or like something I think of and I go oh, I got to, I got to remember to do that tomorrow and I might have to make a quick note, but it's pretty rare now that I that I even have to do that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, no, I'm getting pretty good at that too. I'm like it only took me until I was like in my 60s. So all y'all out there, start getting organized earlier.

Mark Dolfini:

Do it now right. Do it now.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You're never too old though, just so you know you're still never too old, but just start doing it now. Well, I love all the stuff that you have going, so I'm assuming that people are going to be in some type of mentorship or something like that. So, you know, don't want to give a big sales pitch or anything, but like, wherever people go to, whatever you have them do, take a quiz, get a free download, have something when are they going to find that?

Mark Dolfini:

I'll tell you what I'm going to. I was thinking about it. I was going to create a page for just your listeners of strategicboardroomcom, forward slash Dwan, and where they could get a copy of the book um for a lot cheaper than um buying it on Amazon and uh, and they? I can sign it direct to them and I can give some other cool stuff away too with the purchase of the book. So, I mean.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I hope you don't get zero people.

Mark Dolfini:

Well, you know what Zero is fine, that's okay, that'd be great.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Strategiccoachingcom and possibly a forward slash Dwan. And then what?

Mark Dolfini:

are your Strategic boardroom. I'm sorry.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Strategic. I looked right at the word and read wrong Strategicboardroomcom. I wrote it down yeah, forward slash Dwan Yep, there you gocom.

Mark Dolfini:

I wrote it down. Yeah, forward slash one, yep, there you go. Okay, and on your socials.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Where are you on social media? What are all your socials?

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, so again, I'm pretty easy to find on social media, most of my. I have a small YouTube channel. I think it's maybe 1500 people at this point, so I literally just started growing that last year. So you can find me on YouTube. You can find me on Facebook just under my name. I'm pretty easy to find. So I don't do much on LinkedIn these days because I feel like that's just become this like Middle Eastern bazaar for selling health insurance. I don't know.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't even I have a BA team. I think they put up stuff on there once in a while. It's like I haven't looked at my LinkedIn page for I don't even know. Years like years.

Mark Dolfini:

Every time I go in there someone's trying to sell me health insurance. I'm like do I look sick? Do I look like I'm? You do not look sick. Is that what I like? Why are you constantly pitching? I mean, so I just don't even go there anymore. I feel like someone's going to try to sell me a you know a, a cashmere rug.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I just like you know, I don't even go there. I don't either. I just I don't know. I was never a super fan of it because I'm not really looking for other business. I just am mostly on Instagram and Facebook and my YouTube channel. So I had not been on Instagram for about six months and I went on there the other day and I'm like, hey, I got 3,500 followers. It's like look at me.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, that's amazing.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

If I check stuff every day, it doesn't grow fast enough. So now I have to just look at things like followers and time like every two months, Cause if I look at today and then tomorrow it's like, oh my God, nobody watched anything in the whole day. I get too obsessed. So I'm like every three months I go through the whole channel, I go through everything and I'm like, wow, look how much I grew since the last time. This is really great.

Mark Dolfini:

So I have to. Those are metrics, those are metrics. Those are metrics you should track.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have a team track all my stuff. Every week they send me. Oh, okay, oh no no, no, my team tracks every opt-in, every click, everything of everything. I get a whole report sent to me every single week. But when I go on there myself, if I don't see like a bunch of growth since like two videos ago, I'm like where are the people? Okay, for my own mental health, I just have to check it every couple months there was.

Mark Dolfini:

There was a um, a baseball. Uh, I don't remember who it was. It might have been like babe ruth or something, like he never checked his stats, like he never wanted to know, or it was some some big league hitter who never he never checked his. Yeah, it was kind of interesting because he never wanted to know, like if he was in a slump, because that would get, that would rent space in his head. So, yeah, I can see that?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

because I I did that when I started my youtube channel a couple years ago every day and I'm like, oh my gosh, I only got 10 more people today and like every day. And I was like, okay, this is not good for me, I need to check it. I have a team that does it and sends me a report. And then, like my podcast, I checked my stats. I mean, like six or eight months ago I was like, oh, I'm like you know, I don't know where I was at, maybe six hundred thousand or something. I thought probably you know the next year or so. And then I just forgot to check and, just proof, I got a thing for me.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I was like, so yeah, I have a person that I want someone to track everything for me and send it to me. But personally, every day, go through everything. If it's not growing as fast as I think it should, then it gets in like, well, I need to do more. No, I'm trying to not do more, I'm fine.

Mark Dolfini:

I'm impressed that you have a team that tracks your metrics for you. That's super impressive.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They track everything.

Mark Dolfini:

I love it. I have a whole VA team.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

They track every single thing because, first of all, I don't want to track everything. It's not a thing I enjoy doing. Right Now every week I get likes options how much time people send on my website, on the video, on the blog, like every single thing because I like to read it. I don't want to spend the time doing it yeah, that that makes a lot more sense.

Mark Dolfini:

Now I can see myself getting getting too sucked into the into the mechanism of actually compiling the data, because I do have people do the same thing, but uh, but there are some data that I do track personally because I do want to. I'm interested in it. I just want to see how things perform.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah I mostly do personally, personally, a lot of my podcast stuff. I like to do that. I have my intro, my mid-roman outro and I read all the show notes and I fix all the spelling and I write the little blog and I pick the 60 seconds that this is going to go on Instagram. I really like to do all of that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But the rest I'm just like, hmm, send me a report every Wednesday, every Wednesday at 10 o'clock. I'm happy and surprised. Right, right, all right, so we're going to. I just want to ask you a couple of questions. I don't even know when we start talking, so I have not tracked the time. Do you know when we started?

Mark Dolfini:

I think we started at 45 after, so we're about 45 minutes in.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

We're about 45. Okay, usually I start like I write it down, but you know I'm getting the time. Today I was like I didn't even track it. But it's okay, people love listening to us anyway, and I may have asked you this before, because I don't know when I added these questions to my podcast, so you may have been asked this before. But if you haven't asked you again, what's your favorite band of all time?

Mark Dolfini:

My favorite band of all time, man, I got to tell you I think I always seem to gravitate back towards Nickelback.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like Nickelback.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like Nickelback too. They're a good band. I don't remember.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I don't think I was doing that when I interviewed you the first time, so I started asking questions about music and food and what people do, because, at the end of the day, people work with people that they like. Like you talked about earlier, people work with people that they like and if you have things in common with other people, it's like oh, we like the same kind of music, we like this, we like food, we like that, we like strategizing and I feel like it. You know, plus it's more yeah, what's your favorite food?

Mark Dolfini:

my favorite food. Um, let's see my favorite food. That's a really good question because, uh, right now it just seemed, when you have a two-year-old, you pretty much eat whatever she shoves in your mouth, so so it's generally anything that's not wet that came out of a two-year-old's mouth. But I really enjoy good sushi.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I had poke for breakfast yesterday. For breakfast, bill's like how do you eat things? I'm like it's the best thing in the world. I had it for breakfast. You know, we started taking our grandkids to Indian food when they were really little, like one and two. They love Indian food. Now they are three, five, nine and ten and if you say we want to go out to eat, they always want to go to indian food no kidding, wow yeah I started them off with the tandoori chicken I like I like indian food too.

Mark Dolfini:

We have a few. So I live in um lafayette, indiana, indiana, and because Purdue is so close by and we have a lot of industry around here in addition to the college, there are quite a few different cuisine type. You know different cuisines around here, so there's Indian, there's Japanese, there's Korean. I mean, for a small town that's a big deal. You might say if you live in New York, like who cares, like that's on every corner, we're in the Midwest. That's a big deal. You might say if you live in New York, like who cares, like that's on every corner, we're in the Midwest. That's a little unusual, but we have a really eclectic set of cuisine here.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I started taking my little grandkids to Indian because I love to eat Indian food. We just got our first Indian food restaurant in the mountains. I've lived here 24 years now. We just got an indian food restaurant and I mean the place is packed every minute of the day because it's in the mountains, like we only have like five restaurants in this whole area. I got to drive all the way down to denver, which is like an hour to drive to go out to eat.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So I'm like yeah, yeah indian food, we have chinese and then we have, of course, like you know, your little diner type things. It's like oh fine, there's some Subway, we got a Subway. It's like that's a big deal.

Mark Dolfini:

You're on the map. Yeah, you're on the map.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm like we have a Subway. I'm waiting for a Taco Bell, Like, oh, come on, please put a Taco Bell on up here.

Mark Dolfini:

Come on a Taco Bell, I'll probably gain 20 pounds.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love Taco Bell. Just push your car home after you eat it. I know I don't know what it is. I I worked as my first job in high school. I know it's so terrible for you, but I love Taco Bell.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So what's your favorite time of day? You have a new baby now, so, like what is your happy place? Where's your time of day, where you're like?

Mark Dolfini:

ah, this is the best time ever right now. Um, it's pretty much always been for me early, early in the morning. I really like getting up early. Um, not always super easy. Right now, um, she's definitely becoming a better sleeper, but my bride takes the brunt of that, so, um, I'm very grateful for her. She's a fantastic mom and um and such a great, such a great gal. Um very blessed to have her in my life and have her raising our daughter, um, so it enables me to get up. I like getting up like super early, as early as I can Like. If I could get up at four 30 in the morning, give it, but I got to have enough rest. If I don't have enough rest, I'm not going to get up that early.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I hear you but.

Mark Dolfini:

I love being up like super early, like 4.30, 4.45 in the morning that's like my best time of the day.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, a lot of people are really early in the morning kind of people. They love that time of day. You know what One thing I do like? I love that you call her my bride, because you've been married for a long time. Right, the kids are all yeah, yeah so, like 20-something, 25 years only been together.

Mark Dolfini:

So we've been together. Let's see, so we've been married 11 years. We've been together for gosh 15 years. So I adopted our boys they're my boys and then we had Lily, you know, between the two of us.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So yeah, so we're.

Mark Dolfini:

Liliana yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh man, that's so sweet.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, yeah, she's a.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

But you always say my bride. And it's funny because I don't know. Do you know who Marshall Silver is? Yeah, yeah, you know Marshall. He always calls Erica. He always says my bride and they've been together forever and ever. And I meet a few people here now and instead of saying this is my wife or what do they say, my bride. And he said that today, I was like, oh, I really love. I told Bill, I said you need to start calling me your bride.

Mark Dolfini:

I like that because it makes it sound like the honeymoon phase never went away. That's how, when I hear that, that's how I feel it for well, and it's I mean of course I reference my spouse or my wife. You know, I don't not use that, but when I I mean like bride is a, like you just get one day to be that like I don't know. I think that kind of that kind of sucks. So so we, so I, I, I just started referencing that to her and and called her that pretty much the whole first year and and uh and kept calling her that and she, she loves it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. When you said today my bride has an appointment, I was like, oh, my bride, I love people that you call you.

Mark Dolfini:

Um, I don't know that she, you know she doesn't reference me anything different than just husband. I think you know, um, you know stallion, something like that, I don't know. No, I've been out there because I'm 52 years old that's right I do like that.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I just I only meet a few people now and then that say that I was like, yeah, that's really sweet because it does make it feel you're right, you only get to be a bride for like the day. It makes it feel like even years later there's some newness.

Mark Dolfini:

But I'll always be the new bride.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm like I'm going to tell Billy I want to be called bride.

Mark Dolfini:

Yeah, yeah, renew your vows, Then you can start there.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And we're at the point now where we call it like hey, what are you doing, freak? I think we're on like a really playable stage. So we call it like these really funny names, I think, but other people probably think it's not funny. But oh my god, we just die laughing. He'll call me hey, freak, what's?

Mark Dolfini:

up. That's hilarious.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm like, hey, we're doing weirdo and we think it's really funny. But I'm like we need to probably be careful in public because people might think are insulting each other, but we're just antagonizing, yeah, I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

It is funny, all right, so, um, I have one more question. So, first of all, I want to thank you, I want to thank everybody for listening and if you enjoyed the show today, you know mark's one of my faves, so he was on my top 10 and, uh, I want you to, you know, leave a five-star review, leave a comment, share. Help us get to 2 million downloads. I tell you what, when I get to 2 million downloads, I don't know what I'm going to do. That's going to be someday. So help us. We can't do that without all of you. And also, don't forget to go to dwanderful D-W-A-N-D-E-R-F-U-L, dwanderfulcom and take my Real Estate Investing quiz and see where you're at, and me, or my husband, will actually call you after you take the quiz and offer you a little bit of free advice. So take the quiz. It's fun and it's worth it. Okay, last thing is, I want you to give us a word of wisdom, but just one actual word.

Mark Dolfini:

Intention.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Okay, now I'm going to ask you what it means in a minute. But so, at the wonderful universe, we make that our word of the week. So anyone that listens this week will write the word intention and put on a little sticky in front of the mirror and every time they go in a brush their teeth, they'll say intention, intention, intention, intention, intention. So I like having a word of the week and people do it and they follow through. They'll go hey, I used this word all week. It was really great. So what we want to know then is what does it mean to you?

Mark Dolfini:

intention for me is um, it it's far more than just well, I just kind of want this thing. It's. It's. For me, it's a very focused word, meaning, um, that when you can have, you can, you can have like an idea, you can have a dream, but you're really never doing anything until you have fully focused intention. And to me, it encompasses vision, it encompasses commitment, and when you're fully committed to something, fully committed, there's no other options except success or failure, like like burn, like it's like burn the boats we're either going to win or we're going to die, right? So when it, when it comes to that, I think it encompasses so many other words, like vision, like commitment, like consistency, like ferocity of purpose. So for me, intention, it encompasses so many things and I think, for people, I think that if you can get really intentional about what it is that you really want in your life, I don't think anything can stop you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love it. I love it. That's a great description, that's a great word. So y'all, that's your word of the week. Well, listen, I want to thank you for coming back on and for taking the time and catching up with me. I love the strategic boardroom that you're on like a new, exciting path where you're helping business owners, entrepreneurs and things like that. So y'all, check them out. You have a business, starting a business, doing whatever. It's a lot easier with someone to guide you. I can tell you that for a fact. I really wish I would have had someone like me 35 years ago. My learning curve was long Decades yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Long.

Mark Dolfini:

I wish you were around and I was in a spot where I would have been willing to listen.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I know, I know. I tell people, I say, hey, you're going to learn everything. You're going to learn through mentors and mistakes. And I'm telling you, mentors are cheaper 100%. A couple of mistakes to knock you out mentally or financially, and then you never pick back up from that. So let people that know help you reach all of your goals. All right, everyone, we'll be back next week, same bat time, same bat channel. And remember that the truth is in the red letters. Bye everybody, bye Mark, thank you See ya.