Well, it’s finally here! My mission to raise your financial literacy finally blew up & now I get to do my favorite type of content, WRITING! But the funny thing is, being an author, teacher, coach, getting millions of clicks, having influence, notarization and a large following comes with it’s price. Let’s start back in 2004 so I can bring you up to speed on the reality.
Upon flipping my 1st house back in 2004, I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that I, little boy from Lynchburg Virginia by way of Hampton University would ever help others all around the country to do the same. I was simply trying to find my way in this cold world and I’d just came to the realization I knew NOTHING about how money worked. Having just received our first 6 figure check from producing the song “Wanksta” with my boy J. Praize, I’d gone broke sleeping on my friend’s couch. I thought if you had money, then you’ll always have money. Oh how wrong I was. The fact is money will leave your hand if you don’t have it in your mind.
After going broke, I decided to get educated and started with the one book we all read when we’re at the beginning of our financial journey, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kyosaki. It was great but it didn’t give me a plan. Fast forward over the next 7 years, I busted my butt to figure out the real estate investing business. I knew I had to focus on things that made me passive income and went up in value over time. The music business was great, but it was quickly changing and all of the large studios were closing at the time so I had to make a shift. Digital media was erupting and my senses told me to get out NOW. I’m glad I did because most of my music counterparts went out of business trying to adapt as CD’s (compact disks) fell by the wayside.
THE START OF COACHING AND TRAINING
Starting real estate in 2004 and doing a ton of real estate transactions by 2010, people would often ask me questions on their deals. I found myself answering the same questions over and over again so I decided to write a book about real estate. It was a #1 best seller on Amazon. “How to get paid Flipping houses you never own.” Then I came to the realization there were a lot of people all around the country that had these same questions about getting started in real estate. Fast forward to 2017, I cut on a camera and started telling people about real estate investing. 5 Million views and 60,000 subscribers later, my Youtube channel makes up a large part of my business and life.
It took me some time to understand creating a digital footprint on the internet would allow me to motivate and inspire others to raise their financial literacy through real estate investing and Entrepreneurship. But with that large mission comes it’s problems. To whom much is given much is required. One of the things I pride myself on is radical transparency. I want you to know real estate, and life, is full of ups and downs. Most of us only want to celebrate the ups, but I believe the real lessons and growth comes with the downs.
DEALING WITH HATERS
The losses I’ve taken since 2004 have been in the tens of thousands of dollars. My training and teaching covers my career path and I try to hold nothing back. The internet & social media allows people to express opinions without revealing who they are. This allows people to leave horrible comments on my videos. Steve Harvey said hate is much louder than love and I can feel it when I read hateful emails sent to me. Further, when I try to help people, it seems like they keep pushing me to cover every topic under the sun, it can’t be done. People often ask; “Kris, why do you where this type of clothing, it doesn’t look good“, or “You’re a scum landlord for evicting this tenant” or “You’re telling a lie” and “You talk too much” or “Why are you talking religion?” etc.etc. I could go on forever about the hate comments.
Not only has serving opened me up to haters, it’s also opened my eye to the millions of people that truly need help. There’s no way to help or please every person everywhere. We get tons of emails from people telling me they need help, but are not willing to sacrifice the money to invest in the experiences of masters. This often hurts because I want to help everybody but due to time constraints, I can only offer high level help to those that pay. This often leaves out a large amount of people that may not be able to afford training which are often people I connect with. My free content is helping millions but I know it’s not enough. People are still living below the poverty line. People are still raising families without any savings, owning any assets or having any plan for their financial future. In Hampton, Virginia where I live, the medium household income is $43k, according to labor statistics.
SUCCESS HAS IT’S PRICE
So you see, having a degree of success feels great, but it tugs at my heart when I know my people are still doing so bad. From the intake questionnaires I receive, I know the majority of my followers have very little savings and no assets. Their debt is high and they still rent. They’ve adapted & developed habits and lifestyles that simply aren’t sustainable and must be broken in order to achieve financial freedom. Living below your means is NOT easy. There were and still are many arguments in my house about why we don’t splurge a little. But my heart’s still sad as the more people I help, I see there are countless amounts more that need help. We’re at war, the country wants you to be broke your entire life working for a system that barely pays you enough to get by. I’ve been there. Working all week with just enough to pay the bills. It doesn’t feel good.
Let’s keep the mission of raising our financial literacy going by sharing information openly to each other. My mentor, Donald Hunt, passed away last month and has left a huge hole in the Hampton Roads community as far as knowledge, construction, investing and ownership. Why did he have to take all that with him to the grave. I begged him to write a book but at least I do have an audio interview of him before he passed. Giving this knowledge away helps others to “pass the baton” to the next generation, a thing the black community has yet to understand and start to master. Stay with me on this ride as we explore people, places, things that will raise all of our financial literacy in the spirit of Entrepreneurship & real estate investing. Assets over liabilities!
7 replies to "How if feels to be responsible for MILLIONS!"
Awesome Kris,
Thanks to your videos, I am starting my journey to build generational wealth for my family.
Kris,
Thanks so much for all that you do and for your sincere desire to help people change the lives of their families for generations to come. May everything you pour out return to you one hundred fold. Be blessed.
Kris, congratulations from Simon and family aka SAME DNA REAL ESTATE,LLC.
Great job Kris. Sometimes I get tired of watching videos, and this is another great way of learning for me. Thank you!
Wow, my brother up early in the morning as usual. I think the Haskin’s have always been grinders. Yes, from my research, some people(like us) enjoy a nice short read from time to time. I happen to like writing more than I do shooting videos. It might be cool to have the “Autosearch” blog too, that’s got a nice ring to it. Creating copy has been a solace for me especially when I created The Roundup Monthly Newsletter back in 2013. Every month we mail out a hard copy to our subscribers, i think it’s the only real estate investing publication of it’s kind. It’s amazing what black ink on white paper can do to mankind, fast forward to today, it’s black ink on a screen. I love the power of words…. Thanx for taking the time to chime in. Love you!!
I’ve been watching your videos for a few months and felt like I knew the ‘kind of person’ you were. I had no idea how truly ‘real’ you are – I think you’ve got a gift for communication and I’m sure glad you do! I really enjoyed reading your story here and appreciate you sharing it with us.
Keep on keepin’ on, sir 😉
yo yo Dawn, it’s such an honor to serve you. Thnx for supporting my crazy world and allowing me to pour into you.