Carlton sheets, "winning in the cash flow business" ..

I am fascinated with infomercials lately as I intend to eventually distribute through those channels. I have been watching quite a few of them, and remembering others that I have seen.

Now this is excluding informational products such as Lucinda Basset or Tony Robbins, and I'm not talking about exercise systems like Billy Blanks, Hip hop abs, Boot Camp, or P90X. I'm talking strictly about financial programs. "How to be a millionaire in these easy steps..."

The question I pose to everyone:

Have ANY of these systems ever worked? Obviously yeah you can buy foreclosures, yeah you can probably get a free grant or loan from the government, but all of this on a consistent basis?

Has ANYONE ever seen, heard of, or made any of these programs work? (not that I'm looking to buy any of them...)

I never bought an actual financial product such as this, but I have purchased something similar about eight years ago. It was an internet marketing "package" promising to automate the entire online retailing process for you, so all you had to do was choose the products, and they would create the website, ship the products for you and process the payments.

The problem? The products they offered were horrible, and the site they designed for you was horribly ugly (big surprise), plus they wouldn't market the site as promised. In order to sell nicer products, have a more attractive website or promote your store, you needed to pay the company more money. What I have found is that these schemes are generally of very low quality, and they try to sell you on something incredibly easy, but once you have your foot in the door, the only way to actually attain what was promised is to pay them more and more money.

I'm sure a lot of these programs "work," but it has absolutely nothing to do with the program. It has to do with the person learning the program, figuring out what makes sense in his/her market, and then applying the techniques.

I'm guessing that 99% of people that buy these programs make no money long-term, but that says more about the people then about the program.

Also, I'd be willing to be that there is absolutely nothing in those programs that you can't learn on your own for a lot less money.

The problem is, those programs are geared towards people who are lazy and want to learn how to make a quick buck. While the programs may contain good information, these are the sorts of people who don't really want to make an effort, so it really doesn't matter how good the information is.

Now, the people who are willing to make an effort *could* benefit from these types of programs, but these are the sort of people who can learn this stuff themselves anyway.

I was on the conference call with reipro, and he said Carlton Sheets has not done a real estate deal in like 10-20 years. Like Carlton most of these salesmen make all their money selling the wannabes their lousy products. I was considering a new at home study course by John Burley but I think I am talking myself out of it.

When your in a business, its very easy to see who the salesmen are and who the doers are. Unfortunately (and especially now) when folks get desperate, they will latch onto the first good thing they hear.

I purchased Carleton Sheet's program years ago.

I'd suggest that the program and others like it are very general, not necessarily peddling wrong information but probably not giving you enough of a system to really develop a full fledged business, like a franchise. However; it did cause me to push farther and I found specific "mentors" in the real estate investing arena. These experts sold products which gave me fairly specific directions on how to do something and I profited from it (Bill Bronchick as an example).

Regarding Tony Robbins and Kyosaki type programs - personally I get a lot of motivation from those - but in many respects it depends on the mindset of the viewer/reader.

FYI - a tip - take a look on ebay or craigs list for these programs - you can purchase them with considerable savings..

I've purchased Carleton Sheets, Bill Bronchick, Robyn Thompson, and many others.

Spideyman (from the RD forum) was a big Burley fan.

SteveO on this forum followed one of the multifamily gurus.

My opinion is that you can learn something from all of them.

You don't need to believe everything you read, but I'd read everything I could.

I have not bought any of the "systems" from any of these guys. I have sat through the sales pitches of most of them - I was always turned off by the hard sale. Offer your product, if it is as good as you say it is it should sell itself.

That said, I have read literally 1000's of dollars in books. I buy a book nearly every month, sometimes two. A lot of it is the same tired-ass crap, but if you can gleen one nugget of new learning out of it, it pays for itself 100x.

I just think some of them are so ridiculous..

I mean really... "I'm going to show you how to win in the cash flow business!" ... like... really?

It's like saying "I'm going to to teach you how to make money in the making money business!!"

It's all about sales! convince someone it is worth teaching them something you know and the money follows. Become an expert in your field and you no longer have to work in your field.

Rep+! Very profound statement!

I am the same way. I even re-read several of the books that I have read in the past to see if there are any nuggets I have missed.

I have carleton sheets real estate stuff (no money down). I bought it knowing very little about real estate. I got quite a bit of good info from it but nothing takes the place of mentors. The no money down system is like finding a needle in a haystack. You got to go through hundreds of leads before you find a no money down deal. Its easier if you have a small chuck of change. All in all I learned a lot. If you are a neophyte its a good buy. but be prepared for a lot of rejections on no money down deals.

As for Tony Robbins I think everything he talks about except nutrition is spot on. Highly reccomend his programs.

These two programs along with psycho cybernetics began my quest to improve myself. I came from clothes on my back to 40k net worth and climbing. so That IMHO speaks volumes.


If you are already high in net worth then maybe you wont get a lot from these programs but i sure did.

Its been a long road but I see the promised land ahead.

I tell nooBs that all of the programs out there work its just a matter of finding a niche for yourself and working it dilligently. 100% programs out there offer info that can be found in the library, barnes and nobles or free on the net.

I remember back in 05-07 down here in Tampa there were 15-17 year olds doing birddogging,wholesale contract flips, condo developments and presales, tax liens and buying mortgage notes...all of it learned from basic 39.99 programs, library books, networking locally and on internet forums. Guess what their focus is on now in this "BIG SCAAAAAAAARY economy"-high end forclosures and shortsales- their money never stopped, when one method dries up move to the next.

I forget the guru's name but he had the 100:10:1 ratio- look at 100 properties make offers on 10, purchase 1. Most people just don't have the fortitude or stamina for real estate or general business for that matter.

They are stuck in a state education facility mindset and want someone to hold their hand for EVERY step. So when they fail they pass all the blame on to a system that they failed to work.