This post is a place for me to discuss the happenings from the boot camp.

Right now we are still in Florida and I only have my phone with me.

I will start it off by saying it was worth it for us to have traveled to take this training.

It helps to have someone lay out their system. It gives you ideas to improve your system. Jeffrey is very organized. It is well worth it.

My son is super glad he went and has tons of pages of notes (he's a fast typist!) and now I have someone I can also direct to implement things I've long wanted to do.

Here's a traveling nightmare though: our JetBlue direct flight, scheduled for noon-ish, was flat out cancelled with no options. No offers of other flights, no hotels, no nothing.

Entire plane of people stranded. We managed to get a connecting flight on Southwest - for 7.30 pm. Hang out in airport, get text at 5.30pm or so ALL flights were delayed or cancelled - weather - which means our connecting flight would be delayed or missed. Dithered about and then decided to cancel and headed to Amtrak and we are now on an overnighter back to Richmond. About 20 hours? Tiny private room with bunk beds (I get the bottom :) but it's moving. It's fun actually.

And the cost...not as bad as could be and this is why you save for a (literally) rainy day.

Well my body decided that it was not done with the head cold and it flared back up. Trying to finish my open place. I did get the bathroom done and pics on the site but still have a couple days to go.

That being said I admit to not even looking at my notes, let alone trying to study and formulate a plan of action.

There was a huge amount of information provided.

Could someone just take the info from the notebook and make it work? Sure thing. Could someone miss vital steps because of all the information overload? Absolutely.

As always Jeffrey was a great host and Dot was making sure everything ran smoothly from behind the scenes.

Not a lot of people in the group, which was for the best. We had people that had been there before and just wanted a refresher, people that had not even started the journey into rentals, people that were managing more than owning as well as owning and not managing other's properties.

With the differences among the people in what they did or wanted to do it provided insight into other aspects of this job.

There were two speakers. Noel with his insurance agency and Randy aka Mr. Trust. They were not there to push hard but rather to inform us of what was available.

Side note, we had purchased a package from Randy at the last convention. When we were done that evening the wife and I invited him to our table and we had a nice long discussion. Not just about trusts but about how we all got started, what had happened and how we saw the near future.

Back to the camp.

The group was warned ahead of time that if we strayed too far off topic or just took too long to get a point across that we would be cut off. This worked out for the best as there was so much information to get through. I admit to being reeled back in a few times myself.

I believe that we got the meat and potatoes that were needed to take advantage of all the information provided. I am positive that we will utilize more and more as time goes on. Being given all that at one shot makes it a bit tough to decide which thing to focus on first. I did have a couple lines on my notes that I put an * by to help guide me.

Now to non-related info. We flew in with Allegiant airlines non-stop from Ft. Wayne. It did not land at the big airport and there was no complimentary shuttle. We hired a service and it was nice, although pricey. We had no issues with getting to and from the hotel and the flights were both fine.

The hotel was nice. The pillows were not pillows but that is a preference. We stayed at the hotel the entire trip. The food was decent although expensive. But the staff was on it. Big bonus was our room was next door to the conference room so breaks were easy to get there and back.

Bottom line with no training info given out is are we happy that we went? Yes we are. It would have been nicer if I wasn't getting over a cold but you can't plan around that.

Thank you, zero, for the added information.

I wonder something. I have noticed that when I read or listen to something more than once, that I seem to get something new out of it, although nothing has changed in it. It's as if I just slept through, or overlooked that part, but it was there the whole time. Is it possible this could be the case if you went to the boot camp the next year?

I also wonder what you mean by "not a lot of people in the group"? How many people would you say?

Also, I thought meals were included?

Did you eat as a group or go separate ways and groups, to various locations?

How expensive was the food?

A group Lunch was provided, 6x6, for an extra charge, as at the Conventions.

For your listening pleasure, there is a USB drive with Audio training.

Thank you very much, WMH, for the added information.

I plan on getting back to it, but I do have a hard copy of an older boot camp that I ordered from Jeffrey a few years ago. This is in a physical binder, which I like, and on CD's. I guess he upgraded to USB? I do like Jeffrey's teaching style.

Was this Boot Camp recorded?

If this one was recorded someone else did it.

Jeffrey was using a binder that was maybe a couple years old and it didn't have all the same page numbers and such. It has been added to over the years for sure.

For me with the information overload I do not see making a trip for the same stuff next year as worth it. You have all the info in your hands, or ears. This is a lot of information. If you have been to any of the cons you don't even understand how much more there is in this. Nearly all of it is focused on management.

I would tell people to go. It is worth it for the immersion. I am honestly not sure if the few that were there who were not in the business yet got as much out of it as they could have.

Being able to connect with some of the things that he talks about sure helped out.

I am guessing that there were around 20 participants when we started. Five of them were from the same company. Two of them were not in the business at all yet. Two had been there before (WMH and her DS3).

As mentioned about the conferences there is a worth to meeting people outside the classroom as well.

The theme of "Management by Checklist" is what it all boils down to - the idea you should be able to hand a checklist to anyone and they would be able to follow it and get that particular management task done, from listing a unit to turning it over to handling tenants, etc. All checklist-able chores to ensure you can get hit by a bus (or go on vacation, or to a conference, or a retreat) and be sure the person you delegate to will know what to do.

Zero is right, though. This is not a necessary annual class, if you pay attention and actual implement the ideas. For us, it was a reiteration of what we already knew we needed to do - and for DS3, it was a chance to pay true attention this time, and actually know what everyone was talking about it. He was beyond happy he attended.