Join me on the next Foreclosure Fridays Live (June 29th) to discuss my trip, Foreclosure Book, etc! Start at 5PM PST (10AM Saturday in Australia).

From the “Publisher” of Casey’s Foreclosure Book…

[Begin guest post from the “Publisher”]

Warning: this will be a lengthy post, but will answer many questions people are dying to know.

In light of Casey shutting down his blog, turning it back on, his last several posts and people’s comments, the need for many clarifications are apparent.

Casey had asked me to create a post, and then a post at least once per week leading up to the launch of his first book in a series.

I agreed on one condition.

The posts I create will be completely unedited. Why? I have a few “beefs” personally with Casey, while resolved behind the scenes, will help you (the readers of IAFF) get an insight to things happening in Casey’s life he hasn’t really discussed before, or has been very cryptic about, giving clues, but not really explaining.

First, who am I?

For the sake of this post, “The Publisher” will be referred to as “I, our, we, me”. On behalf of my company, I’ve been the main contact person with Casey and have spent the most time with him over the last two months, from finalizing our publishing agreement, to doing many hours of interviews with Casey creating content for the first book in a series.

Who we are is unimportant at this point, due to the fact we don’t want our office being hammered with phone calls and emails.

The views and actions expressed and taken by Casey are solely those of Casey. These views and actions by Casey do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher, its parent, affiliates or subsidiary companies. We are reporting on his experiences and turning those experiences into an information product series.

Our agreement with Casey is much deeper than merely a “book” or “publishing deal”. It’s a joint venture that encompasses an information product series, including: multiple books, home study courses, teleseminars, live events, workshops, speaking engagements, coaching and consulting programs, etc…

However, to keep it simple, we’ll refer to all of this as Casey’s “foreclosure book” or just “book”.

People will be absolutely blown away by all that has been going on behind the scenes!

And for the most part, Casey has been very tight-lipped in keeping certain behind the scene things under wraps. This has been a huge breakthrough for Casey in the sense that for those of you following the IAFF blog know that Casey can be unpredictable, speak his mind without thinking, and just off the wall crazy with his actions sometimes.

Reason for a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with Casey

Speaking of those things, this is the specific reason we added a very “wordy” Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with Casey, and drilled it home that he can not discuss anything pertaining to our publishing deal unless we agree to it. This only makes good business sense not to discuss every financial detail of your life, especially in a pubic forum.

Last Two Weeks of IAFF

When Casey says “some crazy things have been happenin’ lately”, that is a complete understatement!

To what led up to pulling the plug, what happened during the week the blog was down, to what Casey has been doing the last 72 hours, will completely make your head spin.

It made our head spin in disbelief. This stuff couldn’t be scripted even if we tried, as it is so off-the-wall, and could only happen in Casey’s world!

And yes, all these juicy details will be in the book. It will definitely make it even more compelling and informative.

Shutting down the blog

For personal reasons, Casey shut down the blog. It’s not my place to discuss these, and Casey will have to choose to discuss them publicly if he so chooses. The details will be in the book though.

From a business perspective, this had to be the worst move Casey could have made.

Why?

The previous week before Casey shut the blog down, he generated over $2200 in advertising revenue in one week with a little focused effort!

Actually, it was a lot more, because his affiliate revenue and another $500 advertiser weren’t counted in that total. So, the numbers were actually over $3500!

If you have to survive and pay basic “survival” living expenses, such as rent, food, utilities, insurance, gas for your car, internet connection, cell phone, etc., why on earth would you throw that away? You need to “survive” right?

It’s like saying, “Casey, here’s $50,000 in cash.” Then, he takes the money and literally starts crumpling up brand new crisp $100 bills and flushing them down the toilet over and over, until the pile of money is gone.

Who in their right mind would flush money down the drain when they desperately need it?!?!?!

Also, I had personally referred a $500 per month advertiser to Casey, then he shuts the IAFF blog down. How does that make me look to the person I had just referred to Casey only a week earlier?

My thoughts were:
“WTF?”
“Why did you shut the blog down abruptly?”
“What the hell is going on?”
“If you’re going to ruin your reputation, don’t ruin mine in the process!”
“You better refund that $500 to that advertiser immediately or else!”

Needless to say I was extremely upset with Casey initially, as well as many others, including the advertisers and you, the loyal readers of IAFF.

A blank website will cause you to loose your natural organic search engine rankings for all your keywords rather quickly. The longer the blog stays “empty” the worse it will affect all the hard work Casey put in the last nine months.

No traffic = no revenue.

Plus, one of the key components of what Casey was bringing to the table was the IamFacingForeclosure.com blog and community. There is tons of marketing leverage to having a built in audience and traffic to market a book effectively.

Contrary to what some people left in the comments under Casey’s 6/6/07 and 6/8/07, publishers typically don’t market your book for you. That is a common myth and assumption. They distribute it. Authors need to take marketing responsibility for their book to have more success. There are many “poor” best selling authors out there that made those same assumptions of publishers.

More on that below under “Interesting Statistics Surrounding Authors and Book Publishers”

However, in our agreement with Casey, he does have certain obligations he agreed to with marketing the book series, namely this blog.

Luckily the one week the blog was down didn’t seem to affect his search engine rankings much.

Refunding the Advertisers

According to Casey, he had refunded all advertising money shortly after shutting the blog down. He personally contacted them. Some advertisers only asked for a partial refund, others a full refund. He took care of everyone.

I know for a fact he refunded the $500 to the advertiser I referred to him, as that particular advertiser contacted me directly once they received the refund in full.

Is Casey W-2 Job Material Right Now?

Many people have commented and told Casey “Just get a job!”.

In my opinion, Casey is “unemployable” in a W-2 job, working for someone else, at this time in his life.

This is just my opinion, so let me explain.

Casey is a true Entrepreneur at heart. Business is in his blood. You can’t shut that drive off. Entrepreneurs typically don’t like working “for” others, except they do like working “with” others doing joint ventures and structuring deals.

Besides that, his credit is ruined. Any decent job he may be qualified for, and may go through several interviews to get, once they do the “formalities” of doing a background check, which always includes a credit check, most W-2 Employers won’t hire him.

They will see all of those foreclosures on his credit, and would probably not want to take the risk on Casey, because he looks unstable and “flaky”. W-2 Employers want star employees that are stable, honest, and trustworthy. Their “perception” of Casey will be the opposite.

If they Google his name, they will see all of this exposure, drama, and stories all over the Internet. Employers will not want this to creep into their workplace and have Casey be distracted from performing his job while he’s on their payroll.

Since Casey needs “money in hand” right now to survive, there will be a lengthy time frame before he would start work at a W-2 job.

Here’s a worse case scenario that would probably occur.

Casey is finally hired by someone. He starts work. Then, several of the true “haterz” of Casey, people that genuinely hate Casey with a passion, will find out where Casey works, and call his workplace obsessively to harass Casey and his Employer. Casey would then be fired, because it would drain time and energy from the Employers workplace.

Casey needs to “have money in hand” right now to survive.

He’s proven he can generate revenue from the blog with focused effort. That is just the start. There are so many other revenue streams that Casey will have by continuing to blog, and keeping IAFF going.

The more obstacles Casey self imposes on himself will only hinder his efforts in ultimately becoming successful, let alone having enough money to survive on in the short term, and being able to structure reasonable time frames to repay “every dirty penny” of his debt as he puts it.

Bringing Back the Blog

Casey stated in his 6/8/07 post that we “forced” him to turn the blog back on.

I say this may be 20% correct.

We definitely did not hold a gun to Casey’s head and tell him to turn the blog back on, however, we had to use some “leverage” points with Casey to bring him back to reality as it pertained to our agreement, regardless of personal issues he was having.

Although Casey did shut down the blog for personal reasons, “The dog ate my homework” excuse and other excuses like it, don’t hold water in the real world, especially with business agreements and financial loss/gain at stake for others involved.

Here’s how events happened between Casey and us after he pulled the plug on his blog late Wednesday evening 5/30/07.

My assistant called me to say Casey’s blog was “blank”, not offline, but “blank”. She has been on the blog almost daily, doing research on earlier posts, and pulling out other interesting things for the first book.

Dozens of Emails and Phone Calls go Unanswered

For the next several days, we tried getting a hold of Casey. Dozens of phone calls, voice messages, and emails went unanswered.

Over a four day period, our thoughts went from concern for Casey to being very aggravated, irritated, to down-right pissed off and insulted, big time!

All of a sudden, we felt we were being treated like one of Casey’s creditors, and totally ignored by him. From virtual daily contact with Casey for over two months, to nothing in over 4 days!

Assume the Worst

Not hearing from someone for that long, and under the circumstances, you start to assume the worst.

So, we had to do something to get Casey’s attention in an abrupt way. Just so he would at least contact us to let us know what was going on. In business, lack of communication is not good.

To be labeled a scapegoat by Casey as an excuse for him to turn the blog back on, so be it. We had to do what we had to do to protect our investment and hold Casey’s feet to the fire with honoring his end of our agreement.

Our position is the blog should have never been shut down in the first place.

Let’s face it.

80% of Casey needed / wanted to keep blogging due to the fact he needs money in hand right now to live on, and he knows it made him look even more unpredictable by abruptly shutting it down for personal reasons.

And, whether he likes to admit it or not, he misses ALL OF YOU guys and gals, the loyal readers of IamFacingForeclosure.com!

Casey needs to monetize all his hard work, sacrifice, and making himself a target for criticism, over the last nine months to even have a shot of getting himself out of a huge financial hole he dug for himself.

To pull the plug is complete insanity when you need to create stable income first, get your debts structured to repay, and ultimately achieve financial success. Strong financial legs to move forward.

Starting over and reinventing the wheel is not a smart choice.

Behind the Scenes in Casey’s Life

We have been privy to many details in Casey’s life he’s revealed only to a close few in his “inner circle” and some details he’s never shared with anyone.

These things were “leverage points” we had to use with Casey to point out what route we “could” take, but merely pointed these out to get Casey’s attention, as he ignored us for over 4 days. We had to assume the worst, and that Casey was flaking out on his publishing deal with us.

Relief came when Casey contacted us, and told us what really was happening, why he shut the blog down, and more importantly, how we could discuss how he could still hold up his end of the agreement.

To make changes to an agreement are simple, if two parties have open communication. Casey did fail to perform on several minor issues with our agreement that we let pass.

However, shutting down the blog was a huge issue we couldn’t let pass. It would severely affect the marketability of the complete info product series and plans over the next 12 months and beyond.

Agreements are Like Toilet Paper

Many people look at Casey as someone who is unable to keep agreements with anyone, even himself.

In fact, when you really look at it, unless there are things at risk, agreements are only worth the paper they are written on.

When entering into an agreement with someone, you have to be relatively certain the other party is able and willing to hold up their end of the bargain.

Our agreement with Casey is structured more like a joint venture. We both brought something of value to the table. A breakdown on one side, means failure for the complete project.

The agreement was very “wordy” and had clear cut consequences for lack of performance. We had to protect ourselves going in, due to Casey’s past experiences of saying one thing, then doing another.

Those days we didn’t hear from Casey really made us think “why did we get involved with Casey in the first place?”

Does Casey Care if Anyone Sues Him?

When you look at it, Casey’s credit is ruined. If a creditor tried to sue him, what would they really get?

Nothing! But, more headaches, aggravation, and lost money.

When pointed out to Casey in our seven page letter to him, reality sunk in, and he decided he really needed to honor his agreement with us, as it greatly benefits his financial situation.

Is Casey Really “Judgment Proof”?

Yes and no.

Having “insider information” into Casey’s life, allowed us to touch on some hot buttons that Casey’s creditors have no clue about.

I won’t go into detail here, as it would provide a roadmap for his creditors to follow.

Honoring business agreements: contractually, morally, and ethically

Most of that letter we sent Casey was pointing out things from a business perspective. It was done tactfully and professionally.

The main things we pointed out, regardless of things going on in his personal life, is you can’t tune people out, decide to walk away from obligations, and basically crap all over people and your commitments.

Also, Casey was two months into out agreement. A lot of time, money, and effort had been invested on both sides up to this point, not to mention the future revenue that would be shared in.

Too much to loose for Casey simply to walk away.

Again, no blog = no marketing leverage = little or no revenue for Casey or us!

Casey is Now Holding Up His End of the Deal

Casey has mended his actions with us, and is back on track to honoring his commitments with us. We’re not holding anything against Casey for doing what he did for personal reasons.

Several other people probably can’t say the same, as numerous people are probably not happy with Casey with agreements he broke with them, namely his creditors and others.

We are not forcing Casey to do anything. He realizes that it’s far easier to continue on with things already set in motion, that are near completion, rather than start something from scratch.

This is a very customized agreement that has many lucrative points for Casey.

Is Casey a Brand?

Whether people like it or not, Casey is a brand. He’s definitely unique. Whether you agree with him or his actions, his life and experiences are exceptionally compelling to follow.

Love him, or hate him, he’s a very entertaining guy. You never know what he will do or say next!

Eventually, Casey may have the notoriety of other bloggers like Perez Hilton, Shoe Money, Matt Cutts, or Darren Rowse, just to name a few.

Millionaires Have 5x as Many Failures for Each of Their Breakthrough Successes

Did you know that countless numbers of millionaires and other successful people have failed many more times than they have succeeded? There are many stories of successful people’s failures out there.

Casey is far from millionaire status at the moment, but well on his way if he does things correctly, and consistently, over the next 12 – 24 months to lay the proper groundwork that will allow him to accelerate to millionaire status at some point in the future.

That starts with consistently honoring commitments, building character, using leverage to create financially strong legs, and working on the highest revenue producing things possible.

Fail Fast!

At only 24, Casey is already on his way to success, because in real estate, there are countless mistakes he made, that he now knows what not to do, in order to avoid those mistakes next time.

Painful mistakes? Absolutely.
Embarrassing mistakes? No doubt.
Personal sacrifice? Yes.

However, there were several key things he did right. These got overshadowed by all the failures though.

His “failures” with loosing many of his properties provide quite a bit of experience (both good and bad) to share with others.

People Facing Foreclosure:
How Could Casey’s Experience Help You?

With many people having leveraged themselves into more house than they could afford, there is a huge wave of foreclosures on the horizon across the country.

Many people across the country took out interest only mortgages, or short term adjustable rate mortgages. They also took out 95% to 100% financing on those same properties.

More lenders will be going out of business, more people loosing their homes, more bankruptcy filings, etc.

Casey experienced this almost eight times with his properties. His experiences can help educate people on what to expect before, during, and after foreclosure, as fear of the unknown to most people causes a great deal of stress and worry.

By Casey educating people on the complete process, and assembling others that can help those facing foreclosure, this would provide tremendous value to these individuals.

Real Estate Investors, People Looking to Invest in Real Estate:
How Could Casey’s Experience Help You?

Whether you are a first time homeowner, want to get involved with real estate investing, or are a seasoned real estate investor, there is tremendous value in Casey’s experiences.

At 24, he purchased $2.2 MILLION in real estate in less than one year. That was eight properties.

Just knowing HOW he did that, especially at his age, is worth its weight in gold to real estate investors.

In addition, analyzing each of the eight deals in microscopic detail, provides a blueprint of what to do, and what not to do, when purchasing a home or investment property.

As an investor, or potential investor, you will make a lot more money knowing this information!

There are Many “Poor” Authors Out There

When most authors get a “book deal”, they are often elated.

Shortly after, assumptions are realized to be just that, assumed. Reality sinks in.

If an advance was received, if they were that lucky, often that is the only financial gain an author will see.

Authors assume their publisher will do all the marketing necessary to make the book a success. This is a complete myth. Authors must take responsibility for their own marketing.

Unless an author is a “big name” proven commodity or celebrity, publishers do very little in the way of marketing. They merely put it into their distribution channels.

Interesting Facts, Statistics, and Myths, Surrounding Authors and Publishers

Did you know…

  • An average of 330 books are published each and every day of the year! That’s over 120,000 books published each year, not including all the other self-published books.
  • Where do all of these books end up? Not being noticed that’s for sure!
  • 1 in 50,000 books are ever considered a “great” success.
  • A successful fiction book sells 5000 copies or more.
  • A successful non-fiction book sells 7500 copies or more.
  • Most published books never sell more than 100 copies in their lifetime!
  • There are approximately:
    6 large publishers (in New York)
    400 medium-sized publishers
    86,000 small/self-publishers

  • 78% of all books published are from small independent publishers or are self published.
  • Books are the new “business card” of this decade and beyond.
  • Typically, you don’t make any money on the book itself, rather all the other ways the book will make you money through positioning and branding. Seminars, speaking engagements, home study courses, audio and cd programs, dvd’s, and other info products.
  • Authors greatly enhance the success of the book by taking 100% responsibility for marketing their book. Of course, publishers like to take the credit, but it’s really the author’s personal marketing and publicity that is key in a successful selling book.

Successful Authors – Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield

Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield are two of the most successful authors of all time.

Their “Chicken Soup for the Soul” Book Series has more than 100 books published, and have sold more than 120 MILLION COPIES Worldwide, generating in excess of $100 MILLION DOLLARS in sales.

Walk into any Barnes and Noble or Borders Book Stores and you see giant sections dedicated to their successful book series.

How did they achieve their phenomenal success?

It all started with them taking responsibility for the marketing of their book series.

For two years, they committed to doing one radio interview every day of the week, and sent out five books a day to reviewers and other potential opinion molders, that would help to promote their book.

See page 19 – 20 of their book “The Power of Focus”

This is what built the solid foundation that leveraged the success of each of those 100+ “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books.

The authors took marketing responsibility for their book(s) and made a fortune in the process. Their publisher made a fortune also, but if Mark and Jack didn’t do all that leg work for the first two years, all involved would have made only a fraction of the revenue.

Eliminate Making “Weakening” Decisions

With Casey making continuous weakening decisions, such as avoiding agreements, obligations, ignoring people, say one thing-then do another, being inconsistent, this has already proven to be a recipe for disaster in all areas of his life.

Wasting time chasing every “opportunity” that comes his way, setting unrealistic expectations and goals, setting himself up for failure, were just some of the things that Casey kept doing over and over.

Some people would call it “spinning your wheels”.

By holding his feet to the fire, was helping him take the first step to take a stand, and break the cycle of wrong decisions that would keep him from spiraling downward even worse financially.

Time for Consistent “Strengthening” Decisions

For Casey to ultimately tell his “success story” or “comeback” in the near future, he has to start making consistent strengthening decisions that will make this possible.

One of Casey’s strengths, is he likes to “jump in”. In other words, he’s a doer. He may “fire” first, then “ready” and “aim” as he goes along (using the analogy of “ready, aim, fire”).

Most of you have heard of Mark Burnett, creator of many highly successful Reality TV Shows such as: Survivor and The Apprentice. He also wrote a book a few years ago titled “Jump In! – Even if You Don’t Know How to Swim”.

In his book forward foreword, Mark says, “Always remember in order to succeed you must be willing to fail. I hope you always Jump In.”

Casey is definitely not afraid to jump in!

Casey also has a very thick skin to criticism, a high tolerance level to stress, and gets up and keeps moving forward no matter what. He has a tremendous drive for success, and is not afraid to fail.

These are all key attributes of a successful entrepreneur and business person.

Sure Casey has other areas to improve on, but he definitely has the

The key for Casey now is to focus on one highly leveraged thing, and ignore all the rest. Leverage that thing into the next, and so on. Create a cash cow to survive in the short term, and to have the finances to pay off his debts over a longer period of time.

Disclaimer

The views and actions expressed and taken by Casey are solely those of Casey. These views and actions by Casey do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher, its parent, affiliates or subsidiary companies. The reason for doing a publishing deal with Casey is that we are reporting on his experiences and turning those experiences into an information product series.

In Conclusion…

Casey is back, is honoring his agreement with us, and is well on his way to helping others, entertaining others, and improving his financial and personal life in the process.

Thanks for reading this rather lengthy post, and thank you Casey for allowing us to address these things to your readers directly and unedited.

“The Publisher”

P.S. In a few days you will be able to submit your questions, comments, and suggestions to us directly.

What is the biggest question you have for Casey that you’re just dying to know the answer to?

What do you want to see in Casey’s first book?

You can even be quoted in the book as “haterz” or as “supporterz”. There will be one chapter dedicated to both sides! Love him, or hate him, you have a chance to be quoted!

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