09/20/2025
My Story by Alberta McKinney
I’m telling my story because every truly successful entrepreneur has a survival struggle before success. Winning is a mindset—it’s not about having lots of money, but about having lots of determination. I always look for the comeback story. If a person has never failed and gotten back up, then when hard times come, they will walk away looking for the easy way out. Failure solidifies your success!
Can you imagine closing one of the nicest investor real estate deals you’ve ever contracted? In 2008, after being a real estate investor for over 8 years, I had built a lucrative business training new investors and specializing in short sales. That’s when I landed one of the sweetest deals ever.
I had a contract for $600k with a market value of $1.2 million. The market was down, so great deals were out there. I negotiated converting all the properties to separate water meters. (By the way, this contract covered a community of properties: single-family, duplex, and triplex.) Just a beautiful deal. My funding was already approved. I was walking away from closing with $325k cash out.
If you were in the real estate market at that time, you know we woke up one morning and it was over. The stock market crash of 2008 wiped out trillions of dollars in real estate equity. Nobody was answering calls. Title companies and banks pulled closings off the table. My sweet deal never happened. It was devastating for all of us.
How do you start over from something like that? After about 6 months of wondering what’s next, I set out on a journey to understand: Was it something I didn’t know, or something I didn’t do? Before starting my real estate investment business, I was a mortgage broker who came from the financial planning industry. I had worked with business owners, hospital employees, and school board employees, providing retirement planning services.
I held both a life insurance license and a Series 6 securities license, so pivoting back into the business market was the obvious and choice for me. It took several years to rebuild that market. But as true entrepreneurs, we never stop believing. Owning a business is in our blood.
That’s why I stepped into coaching and mentoring with my AI business head-on. I obtained my AI certification from IBM, updated my skill sets to use industry tools, and included an agency providing AI marketing solutions for my coaching business.
The moral of my story is: Never give up! This is just a quick synopsis of years of going through lack and struggles. I know and understand what it’s like to lose it all. Being a survivor and coming back as a winner is all about mindset. Give yourself time to understand your industry and target your growth strategy.
Look for that comeback person who knows how to weather a storm.
“What’s your comeback story?”
🔗 Connect with Alberta McKinney
📌 Entrepreneur by Design
📞 727-761-1593💻 Virtual Assistance: Sadie
