Meet Our Boots On The Ground Trainers

Born in Iowa and raised in Illinois, Adam learned hard work growing up on a farm. He started his first business at the age of fourteen and has been an entrepreneur ever since. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in communications from Illinois College, he moved to Utah and became a licensed realtor. His top performance led to a position as head of sales for a local builder, and he became part of a small, distinguished group authorized to sell state-owned property. He also began personal real estate investing in the 1990s.

Adam has been a key figure in developing real estate education programs since 1999, launching or working on programs for Dean Graziosi, Franklin Covey, Rich Dad Real Estate, Robert Allen, Armando Montelongo and more. Adam has consulted with many real estate companies, trained thousands of investors and realtors, and been involved in countless real estate transactions in the United States and abroad. He has participated and trained on transactions in wholesaling, flipping/turning, and holding. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with people who are truly ready to make a positive change in their lives. He holds a master’s degree in adult education and is working towards a PhD.

In his spare time, Adam enjoys spending time with his family, travelling, sports, movies, and helping people in his community. He currently resides in Salt Lake City, UT.

Ali Safavi received his BA in sociology from UCLA and his JD and MBA degrees from the University of Tennessee.

Ali’s impressive executive corporate experience stretches across several household name companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Sara Lee, Levi’s, Haagen-Dazs, P&G and Disney. While at Procter and Gamble in a key brand management role, Ali led the company’s most significant and successful brand launch in Febreze Air Effects – worth $200 million in profitable revenue.

Ali’s last corporate role before diving full-time into real estate was heading up The Walt Disney Company’s international business with a focus on Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. He has held a number of different positions across Disney, including areas such as brand management, distribution, sales, and global account management.

Ali’s passion is real estate investing. He owns multiple cash-flowing properties across the nation, allowing him to retire before the age of 40. Ali happily resides in Los Angeles, California, close to the most important thing in his life: his family.

Amber believes in the infinite potential of real estate and has enjoyed working side by side with investors. She believes the path to success starts with creating the right mindset and goals. Training with the Real Estate Education Group has given her the opportunity to combine her passion for teaching with her passion for real estate.

Amber lives an active lifestyle full of adventure, travel, and being outdoors with her two children.

Amber is licensed in Utah and the state of Colorado.

Chip and Andrea became involved with real estate investing together before they were even married. In the beginning they were undereducated and overzealous, lending a rocky start. After about a year of struggling in the real estate investing world on their own, Chip saw one of Dean Graziosi’s infomercials on television (during their honeymoon) and ordered the book. Shortly after that, they signed up for the associated coaching program and hit the ground running. Soon they realized that all they needed was the education, a plan, and some drive to take action and be successful.

Their main real estate focus has been wholesaling. They’ve done numerous bird dog, assignments of contract, and double close deals. Of all these strategies, assignment of contract is their favorite since it is quick and puts money in their pocket right away. They have also done fix and flips with great success in three different states. They have continued to grow their passive income as well by acquiring 22 rental properties that they hold in five different states. They love working on growing their rental portfolio and continue to do so each year.

Andrea is a master at remote investing. She builds new teams in the markets that they enter and has established a solid system for market research. They’ve successfully completed deals in twelve states across the country and are continuing to grow their business all the time. Andrea also has great expertise in private money and building relationships with financial institutions for financing and rental cash out refinances.

Chip and Andrea live in Englewood, Colorado with their son Caleb.

After studying international relations and economics at the University of Southern California, Ayres took a position with IBM where his specialty was marketing to the banking industry. He continued with high technology sales for over 20 years, selling financial, HRMS, and distribution systems to Forbes 2000 companies.

After a successful marketing, sales, and business career, Ayres participated in a real estate boot camp in 2007. He has been a full-time real estate developer, wholesaler, flipper, and investor ever since. He has purchased properties from bank REO inventory, short sales, probate, trustee sales, and defaulted loans ranging from entry level homes to properties with values surpassing $4 million. He is a licensed real estate agent in California. Supplementing his already impressive real estate experience, he also heads up the sales and marketing operations of the notes buying and selling business at The Lemoine Group in Southern California.

Ayes enjoys helping to create the next successful real estate investor by sharing his transactional knowledge and business practices. He strongly believes real estate investing is a team sport and that the end goal is developing passive income to gain personal freedom. His goal is to equip others with the skills required to develop a lucrative career in real estate.

In his free time, Ayres likes to travel, go boating, and spend time with his wife and 13-year old triplets. He resides in Newport Beach, California

One morning Chad walked into his daughter’s bedroom for a kiss. She asked why he had to go to work. The question hit him like a ton of bricks, and he cried all the way to the shop. He had to figure out a way to be more available to his family while providing the financial security they needed. He knew that harsh conditions, long hours, contact with chemicals and other demands of his current job could not have a good long-term impact, and he also realized that the anthropology degree he was pursuing was still many years from creating real income.

Watching a Dean Graziosi infomercial, he ordered and read the book, then joined Dean’s Success Academy. Even though he was living in Anchorage at the time, he decided to build his real estate business in Kansas City. He woke early every morning and took advantage of the time difference to handle his Missouri real estate transactions before heading to the shop. He hustled hard, put in the hours and started seeing results. It wasn’t long before he closed his first deal. Within three months he’d closed six deals, quit his job and relocated to Kansas City.

In less than two years Chad has completed over seventy real estate transactions. His portfolio currently includes a duplex and five SFRs, all purchased using no money down techniques. He’s also overseeing multiple joint venture rehabs. Chad has found his passion in real estate and is excited to continue growing his business while helping others start theirs.

Charlie boasts over 30 years of experience in real estate investing. In addition to owning his own successful real estate office in Seal Beach, California, he also has 15 years of experience as a stock broker and office manager with several brokerage firms, including large firms such as E.F. Hutton.

Charlie brings his many years of professional experience to the Boots on the Ground events, ensuring clients are well-versed in the real estate principles pertinent to their business goals. He has personally helped thousands of clients to greater success and profits over the past fourteen years.

Charlie has a deep interest in personal health and fitness. He also enjoys entertainment in many forms and is an avid outdoor enthusiast.

“I love seeing someone go from being completely new to real estate to knowing exactly what they need to do to find their first deals in only a few days. The system we teach works and it’s my pleasure to share it with others.” Chris has a bachelor’s degree from West Texas A&M University where he studied Marketing. He enjoys spending time with family and friends. He has volunteered for a number of organizations including private, church, and civic groups.

Chris has been investing in real estate since 2007. In that time he has purchased and sold approximately 1,600 properties using a combination of methods and strategies. While his primary focus has been on REO, or bank owned, properties, his vast experiences have exposed him to almost every aspect of real estate investing. In addition to his real estate experience, he has a strong background in Marketing and Advertising, which lends to his ability to move properties. He has owned several successful companies from real estate investing to business consulting. It has been his opportunity to teach people how to invest in real estate from all over the world. He has taught throughout the United States including Puerto Rico and Hawaii as well as in other countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Dawn has extensive experience in both internet marketing and real estate investing. Her current responsibilities at PMI include evaluating and revamping real estate curriculum, developing an effective training protocol, mapping coaching procedures, and assisting in the implementation and training of new products on the coaching floor. Dawn also researches and evaluates new products being offered by My e Biz, as well as working closely with customer service, resolutions, compliance and sales departments.

Her past responsibilities have included managing a department with 25 direct reports and recruiting and hiring qualified employees to help diversify the team’s areas of expertise. She also has experience resolving and reconciling client/employee conflicts, conducting performance reviews and promoting a team atmosphere among employees.

Dawn enjoys traveling, working out, organized sports, and any outdoor sporting activities. She volunteers at a substance abuse clinic in her free time, and is a professed grease monkey.

Drew has spent many years in the business arena, both as an entrepreneur and working for other companies. He has acted as a Chief Operating Officer for a major US retail company and has started and managed multiple personal businesses. We have been fortunate to have Drew working as a client advisor on our real estate team for many years.

Drew holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a minor in marketing. He also has participated in real estate license training and is a licensed realtor. Drew's favorite part of working here is his association with his coworkers. He enjoys the personalities and intelligence of those around him. Drew enjoys doing mixed martial arts, skiing, reading and investing in real estate. He has mentored the same young man in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program for nine years. He is a League Champion in Fantasy Football and loves to travel.

“Doc” bought his first house at age 22. He negotiated a significantly below market value deal on a probate “fixer-upper” in Glendale, California. After working his way through California State Northridge University as a commercial flight instructor, Howard started climbing the corporate ladder. He ultimately became the senior vice-president of United Artist, managing over 4 billion dollars of commercial real estate. While working his full time corporate job he continued to pursue more real estate deals. He executed buy-fix-flips, wholesale purchases, buy-and-holds, retail residential sales, commercial deals and real estate development projects.

Howard eventually quit his corporate job to pursue managing and investing in real estate full time. He’s been a licensed real estate broker in California for over 25 years, as well as a California licensed general contractor and licensed engineering contractor. He has personally been involved in over $250,000,000 in real estate deals.

In addition to real estate investing, “Doc” is an accomplished real estate instructor and mentor in both the United States and Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in leadership from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, where he lives with his wife, Rose. They have 6 children and 9 grandchildren.

Gena is as homegrown a product of Dean Graziosi and PMI as a ripe, juicy tomato in a backyard garden. When 2009 began her roles were wife/mother/household-commander-in-chief/piano teacher. Before the year ended her life was destined to change. Graduating with a degree in education, she has always loved to teach – anyone, any age, any topic. However, she hit the market along with an overabundance of teachers, so Gena found her way to IBM. She worked in various roles in the data processing division, from customer and technical support, to marketing, both instructing individual clients and presenting to large audiences.

After nearly a decade with “Big Blue”, Gena chose to discontinue her career to raise her four fabulous children while her husband became the sole breadwinner. During the most recent decade, Gena honed her entrepreneurial skills by establishing and maintaining a piano studio of twenty to thirty students. She was completely satisfied with this arrangement until 2.5 of her children hit college at the same time. More money was needed.

Enter Dean Graziosi into her family room, via an infomercial, late one night in mid-2009. Gena ordered the books and immediately took advantage of the related classes and coaching. Having the incredible PMI staff to back her up gave her the confidence to move forward with this exciting new career. In short order Gena bought, renovated, sold, and lease-optioned a number of properties near Seattle where she resides. Within the past year she’s developed a remote power team in her home town of Cleveland. She’s purchased, renovated, and rented ten homes, and is on track to increase this exponentially. She’s also establishing teams and inventory in several additional markets. Her current business model is to buy and hold creating enough passive income to allow her husband to retire in the near term.

Gena changed her life through real estate, and she believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that anyone, at any point in life, in any financial situation can do the same. It takes determination, persistence, solid education, and good mentorship. It is now her absolute joy and honor to pass these gifts on to others.

Greg always applies himself completely to the tasks he undertakes. For example, he eventually grew his high school band into a full-time professional entertainment agency. He used the proceeds from selling that business to begin his real estate career. Shortly thereafter, many agents left the profession due to negative market conditions. Greg sensed opportunity. Through a self-education process and with the help of a mentor, he began mastering a variety of creative financing techniques which he used for the benefit of his clients and himself. He now has more than 30 years’ experience as an agent, trainer, educator, and investor who has thrived in good times and bad.

Certified Franklin Covey Coach, Greg has worked in the coaching industry since 1995. He’s directed large coaching operations for Carleton Sheets, Franklin Covey, Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Robert Allen and Jack Canfield (The Success Principles – Chicken Soup for the Soul). In addition to coaching management, he also directed content development in support of the programs previously listed.

Greg enjoys teaching and sharing the principles that empower people to take control of their lives. He’s the happily married father of six children and five grandchildren (so far).

At the time Greg became interested in real estate, he had horrible credit, was in debt up to his eyeballs, and worked over 60 hours per week. He had no free time and no extra money. When watching late-night television he saw a Dean Graziosi infomercial and wondered if he could make real estate investing work in a small town like his.

A year later, Greg was the poster boy for success against all the odds. He is known for his famous phrase, “my credit was in the crapper.” Without a penny to invest, he dove into his real estate education and used the techniques he learned to purchase homes without financing them, creating cash flow in the process.

Now, with over 40 deals completed and real estate holding totaling a half million dollars, he doesn’t have any shortage of cash. He has no house payment and only works 20 hours a week. He’s not far away from completely being able to live off of his real estate holdings.

With over fifteen years of real estate experience, Jared has been training individuals to succeed in real estate since 2003.

He’s educated students in programs for gurus including Dean Graziosi, Carlton Sheets, Robert Kiyosaki, William Bronchick and Armando Montelongo.

Simultaneously he’s built his own real estate portfolio, creatively purchasing over two dozen properties in order to create a college fund for his two sons and a passive income stream for himself and his wife. He enjoys helping others create success using the same techniques that have worked for him.

Jeff has nearly 10 years’ experience as a real estate consultant, but he has been investing for even longer. As an investor, he has worked with REO properties, short sales, VA foreclosures, partnerships, and even a strip mall.

Jeff received an AA in political science and a BA in history at Brigham Young University. He spent some time as a loan officer before entering a career in consulting. He is skilled at transferring his deep knowledge to clients in bite sized pieces so they can learn and understand crucial principles as they apply them to current investing possibilities. He has worked with thousands of students. To him, nothing is more satisfying as a consultant than watching someone go from start to finish with their first real estate deal.

In 2001 and 2003, he helped a partner buy, construct and rent three duplex properties. In 2005, he was able to buy, fix and sell a property with the same partner. In 2007, he became a certified home inspector and has been active in that role as well.

Jeff’s personal interests include spending time with his family and doing all types of activities. He enjoys reading, weight training, and finish carpentry. His continued studies include business management and finance. He also enjoys learning what makes companies successful and what allows them to remain effective. He is married with five children and currently lives in Utah.

Joe was a typical, hard-working guy from the Midwest, living in a small town between Indianapolis and Chicago. He holds an MSA and worked in corporate America for over 20 years as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He even instructed financial accounting courses at Purdue University. Despite his success, he wanted more.

In March 2009, Joe ordered Dean Graziosi’s book on real estate and attended a training event one month later. Within a year he had completed over 10 deals and increased his net worth by more than $750,000, He credits his rapid real estate success to the training he received and believes anyone can experience the same success as long as they follow the program.

Joe is a serial entrepreneur, having founded, owned, and operated several businesses including a promotion company, an eBay/Craigslist business, a restaurant, and a pizzeria. His most recent success is his newfound passion: real estate!

Jon David is a natural born re-habber. At approximately ten years old he began his first rehab career with bicycles. He won marbles, traded them for bike parts, then built bicycles and sold them to the neighborhood kids. It was only natural that when he wanted a car at age sixteen he built his own. He started with a $50 car. Within a short period of time he’d upgraded to a two-year-old car for his mother and a custom high performance street machine for himself.

After serving one term in the army and earning sergeant E5 hard stripe in two years, Jon David received his discharge. He got married, went to college and stayed on the Dean’s List in order to keep a scholarship. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in environmental graphic design. He left Buffalo, where he’d grown up, and moved to Atlanta to start his graphic design business.

When it came time to buy a house, not surprisingly, he started with a fixer upper. This time something clicked. He felt he’d found his calling fixing and selling houses. He recognized that it could provide a more consistent living and lifestyle than he was currently enjoying. Jon David attended several real estate courses and boot camps and was on his way. He began rehabbing, flipping and holding his own properties.

John graduated from college with a Communications degree in 2009 and quickly jumped into a traditional career at Microsoft. Spending over three years in a grey cubicle convinced him there was more to life than emails, boring meetings and long daily commutes. He knew there was something he could do to make a difference and feel fulfilled from his work.

Searching for a more exciting and rewarding career path, John discovered real estate and never looked backed. He quickly attended a Boots on the Ground class which confirmed his new passion–real estate investing! This three day course provided John with the skills and confidence needed to build a profitable career outside the confines of a traditional J-C-B, and more importantly, his grey cubicle.

John knew he wanted to pursue a real estate investing career full time, but needed to be smart. He juggled his Microsoft job with investing for nearly year. He frequently spent lunch hours self-educating, making phone calls to his contractors, agents, buyers and sellers and reviewing listings.

After nearly a year of balancing two demanding jobs, he left his dreaded grey cubicle for good in January 2014! Since, he has been assembling power teams and managing home rehabs in numerous remote markets while wholesaling in his overpriced backyard in Seattle, WA.

John loves teaching Boots On the Ground classes because the class forever changed his life for the better. He hopes sharing his experiences and successes will inspire and empower students to change their life tool.

When John is not investing or teaching he enjoys hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and playing basketball.

A typical mid-west homemaker without much in the way of schooling or opportunity, Rina Krisak’s main financial skill used to be stretching small paychecks to cover her family’s necessities. Then, in 2008, an infomercial changed her life. Hearing Dean Graziosi’s story, and the experiences of so many of his students, lit a fire inside her. She embraced real estate. She’s now totally self-sufficient and semi-retired as a result.

Rina has completed hundreds of deals using many different strategies including wholesaling (assignments, doublecloses, bird-dogging), fix-n-flips, flips, buy and holds, lease/options and more. She’s big on teaching people how to leverage other people’s money, along with helping them maximize their own resources. She loves building student’s confidence by getting them to think creatively. Her goal is to help each student see the world through investing eyes. She takes pride in inspiring people to grab hold of opportunities, and to start their most successful life chapter ever.

For Rina, one of the greatest benefits of a successful real estate business is no longer worrying about limited income. There’s always plenty of money, and more to be made when desired. Her success affords her the opportunity to travel and experience the world with her family. In fact, her financial independence now allows her to enjoy gifts that money can’t really buy.

Real estate has been amazing to my family. My wife and 3 kids also share in the excitement real estate can bring. Out of all the deals we do, the one thing I love is to take my kids to see the homes and properties we are working on. They love coming to see the next home.

I started working in real estate when I was a kid. My dad was a general contractor, so building homes comes natural to me. When I turned 22 I started my first sole proprietor business remodeling homes. In 2005 I graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Civil Engineering, but decided to go right into real estate investing. I got licensed as a mortgage loan originator, and with experience managing rentals I started buying properties. I added a number of rentals to my portfolio quickly the first couple years using financing and creative techniques.

It wasn’t until later that I learned the wholesaling strategies from other investors. I began to wholesale, which opened up doors to flipping more properties. Over the years my team and I are working with residential buy fix and sell’s, rentals, wholesale, land development, condo conversions, new construction, and mobile homes. I’m currently involved with my largest single commercial deal; we are building an assisted living care center. It will be open July 2015. My new enjoyment that brings fulfillment is teaching and seeing others changing their lives using the investing engine of real estate.

Paul Mangelson has acquired, managed, disposed, and/or directed real estate related transactions valued at over $1.0 Billion in aggregate. He began his career in the investment area, handling both equities and real estate, in the early 1980’s. Soon specializing in real estate, he ran a successful, small brokerage business during his college years.

Wanting to expand to more sophisticated transactions, and following attainment of a university business/acctng degree, he spent the next 15 years in the institutional real estate marketplace.

As a corporate real estate executive he was responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, and finance of projects/properties valued between $5.0M to $100M, including office, industrial, multi-family, retail, commercial, business property, development, and specialty.

During this time he developed detailed experience and understanding of the unique characteristics of these various property and project types, as well as asset and portfolio diversification strategies. As a compliment to this, he is skilled in both standard and niche deal structures and financial techniques.

Following this time, he opened his own finance and development company through which he then developed, managed, and/or financed projects (for his own account or for others) including subdivisions, commercial/retail, mini-storage, renovations, apartments, mid-rise condominiums, medical/dental, etc. His finance activities have included Equity Capital, Hard Money Loans, SBA/small business, Commercial Loans, Small Residential lending, Mezzanine/Bridge Loans, and has involved both institutional and private funding capital. He has been a consultant with many people to help them evaluate deals and opportunities, and has helped save millions in bad investments.

His Real Estate and Finance expertise includes transactions of various types in over 15 major markets. Mr. Mangelson has personally handled or managed all aspects of transactions including purchase and sales, equity and debt financing, valuation and appraisal, project prospectus / packaging, legal documentation, leasing and tenancies, business plans, value maximization, asset protection, etc.

He has served in various positions some of which include Owner, Operator, Director, Partner, EVP, Pres, Board Member, COO, and has been a keynote speaker at conferences and seminars.

Robin has always had the entrepreneurial spirit. She started her first company, one of the first home-based travel agencies, at the age of 19. She has a BA degree from the University of Memphis and an MA degree from Bond University in Queensland Australia.

Having decided to be a stay at home mom, Robin dissolved her travel agency business and focused on her family. Not long after Robin was forced to go into the work place and got a job as a training specialist for Royal Caribbean Cruise lines. Although she enjoyed her job it was tough going from being a stay at home mom to working 60+ hours a week as a salaried position.

One day her mom brought her to a real estate seminar. Robin saw the opportunity that real estate could bring to her life. Having worked for herself most of her career she was ready to make the leap. After 1 ½ years Robin was able to purchase enough real estate cash flowing assets to make what she made at her job and was able to quit. She now focuses on her real estate business full time and loves to help educate and motivate others to reach their dreams and goals.

Outside of real estate Robin loves to travel. She has worked and lived in several countries (England, Australia and Norway). She is also a self-proclaimed foodie and enjoys eating and cooking foods from all around the globe.

Ryan started investing in real estate during the spring of 2004. He began with single family residences and in just over a year was involved with a large multi-family project. He has worked in many states and is currently flipping homes in several of them. Three of his favorite specialties to work in are multi-family flipping single family residences and creative financing.

Ryan enjoys taking projects and figuring out the best way to structure the deal to benefit the client the most. He has helped thousands of clients make important decisions about their real estate investing careers. He is very passionate about real estate and is extremely excited about all of the possibilities in the industry.

Ryan has a B.S degree in Humanities and is also a licensed realtor in the State of Utah. He is fluent in both English and Spanish and loves to travel, cycle, and climbing mountains.

Tim’s deep love of real estate stems from being raised in a family dedicated to the industry. His father was a real estate broker and investor in Northern California for forty years. Tim’s own professional endeavors in real estate began almost 21 years ago. To this day, his business is focused on two general practice areas – personal investing and commercial brokerage. He has personally closed transactions in 12 different states while his brokerage and consulting has taken him all over North America. His personal product experience covers single-family, apartments, retail, office, industrial, and land. He has managed teams engaged in specialty product types such as hospitality, seniors housing, and manufactured housing.

Tim’s greatest joys are his five children. Among the biggest reasons why he loves real estate is it has given him the flexibility to be a loving, dedicated father with time to raise his children. He has a passion for giving that gift to others. When he does carve out some free time; Tim enjoys hiking, cooking, and travel.

Tom obtained a strong work ethic early on in life…He worked 3 jobs to put himself through architectural engineering school and then started his own construction company in the early 1990’s, which has now become a family run business.

Around 2010 Tom discovered Dean Graziosi and began an incredible journey of self-awareness and his true calling of teaching others. Tom’s main focus now is leaving his daughter a legacy and not a business to run. He currently owns multiple properties. He buys fix and flips all over the United States and loves teaching others how to empower themselves and how to use real estate as a vehicle to obtain things in life they want to achieve. When Tom is not busy working you might find him Salmon fishing in Alaska, obtaining his helicopter pilot license or at his home in Connecticut with his wife and daughter.