Mindset & Intention: The Real Keys to Money Confidence | Steve Arneson

#067.  In this episode, I sit down with real estate investor and entrepreneur Steve Arneson to explore how shifting your mindset and living with intention can unlock a life of purpose, freedom, and wealth. Steve shares his journey from burnout to designing a life that aligns with his values—and the mindset and habits that made it possible.

Whether you're a parent looking to model money confidence for your kids or someone seeking more clarity and control over your financial path, this episode is for you.

You'll Learn:

• How to break free from limiting beliefs about money and success
• Why intention is more powerful than hustle
• The daily habits that support a freedom-based life
• How to build a life by design, not default
• What it takes to trust your vision—especially when others don’t see it yet

Show notes and more at:

https://moneydadpodcast.com/session067

Transcript

Steve Arneson

Justin: [00:00:00] I'm pleased to be here with my guest, Steve Arneson. Steve is the co-founder of the Re Investors, a real estate investment and education company that helps investors get connected to investment opportunities. He also co-founded a real estate mastermind called Synergy Mastermind in 2020, a community of elite investors looking to scale up their portfolios.

Justin: , Steve is based in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. Steve, welcome to the Money Day Podcast. 

Steve: Man, I'm so excited to be here. , excited to have a conversation with you and, , thank you so much for opening up this conversation. This is your first time listening to the show. , this is an amazing show and you've got a lot of great content and a lot of awesome speakers in the past.

Steve: So rewind episode one and just listen, binge it over the next two weeks. It's great. Thank you. 

Justin: I appreciate that Steve and I know, we are connected through, , mutual, , acquaintance May Lee, who, you know, some of my listeners may remember from episode five, for those of you tuning it back in from the start where she was talking about how she teaches her own kids about the power of real estate and, you know, she's a member of your Synergy Mastermind.

Justin: So I've [00:01:00] heard so many fantastic things from Maye and others who have been on the show who have been a part of the Mastermind. Excited for this conversation and to dive into this with you a as we get started here , talk to us about the relationship or your relationship with money growing up as a child.

Justin: Like many of us, there probably wasn't any formal financial education growing up, but what were some of those lessons about money that you learned as a child that you know, you continue to have or carry over to today? 

Steve: Oh, man. Yeah, look, I was having a conversation about this with one of the other communities I'm a part of earlier today, and , the lessons I learned, you ever know what a reverse role model is?

Steve: A 

Justin: reverse role model? No, can't say did. 

Steve: It's like I've had so many of them in my life. Bosses, sometimes parents, friends, colleagues, peers, whatever. But a reverse role model is exactly what it sounds like as somebody that you learned a lesson of what not to do. Ah, 

Justin (2): okay. Yeah. 

Steve: And then you implement that.

Steve: And there's a lot of those moments from my parents. I love [00:02:00] all of my parents. My parents split when I was two, and so I'm grateful enough to have four parents in my life. And how I've looked at money over the last four or five years versus the 30 years before that, completely different. And a lot of it has come from just the personal work that I've done on what my own beliefs are now, and conquering through some limiting beliefs.

Steve: I've completely, honestly reset. How I look at money and how I save money and how I engage with money over the last five years. So to answer your question directly, there's not a lot that has continued from the lessons that I've learned as a kid than what it was today because not that I was totally irresponsible with funds before, I just didn't put attention to it.

Steve: And I'm a big believer of what you put attention to grows. And so it just never grew. 

Justin: Yeah, I certainly hear you about resetting those beliefs [00:03:00] that maybe when we, growing up you I don't know about you, but my my parents, certainly I don't think they meant to, but there's some limiting beliefs that they put in place about money, and it took a while.

Justin: It didn't take me until my. Twenties before I had to realize and rethink and reset those beliefs. And really one of which was probably coming from instead of money, it's a lack of, it's more about no money is abundant and it's just a matter of trying to put yourself out there and get in front of opportunities and that there can be win-win relationships in all aspects.

Justin: It's not like one person wins and one person loses. , So it definitely, you know, the time that. You or I that or people put into their personal development and look at their beliefs and change them is certainly well worth it. 

Steve: What was one of the biggest ones for you, Justin, one of the living beliefs that you had to overcome?

Justin: I think for me it was initially because we didn't have a ton of money growing up. And my parents, they were hardworking immigrant parents that came into Canada from Jamaica and Hong Kong, and they, it was very, money was [00:04:00] very tight. My dad, he was he was a hustler.

Justin: Like he started off as doing accounting work. He was doing bookkeeping work. He was a wholesaler. He was a realtor. Like he didn't have a steady nine to five job where it was like money was coming in. So he had to he had to work and so money was tight. And so I think a lot of it, initially my limiting belief was, okay, well it's, there's only so much of it that could go around.

Justin: Right? Um, And it wasn't until I started to, you know, expand into and, and for me it was looking into real estate investing. And that became my avenue of realizing, oh, you know what, you can create, money can be created first of all. And there's more than enough it to go around. It's just a matter of putting yourself in that in that lane and helping people and helping people get what they want and they can help you get what you want.

Justin: And so it, it can be win-win. That was one of mines, I dunno about one of one of yours. What was that for you? 

Steve: Just to comment on what you're saying there really quickly it's like a form of energy. Yep. Where you have [00:05:00] that, a lot of, certainly within like capitalism anyways, like you have a energy or confidence, a idea, a passion, a pursuit, a plan, and that positive energy can like, almost manifest or attract capital.

Steve: Whereas if your attitude is like. I shrugged for people who can't see me on the camera that like, you put up that field of like bad energy. Like you're just like and it's amazing how how similar they're one of the biggest limiting beliefs that I had that that I've had to overcome and that I'm still overcoming.

Steve: On the tail side of that is like the worth of higher value of before my mom. Oh man. Bless her heart. I remember when I was like 15, we were in her teal Honda Accord. No Camry. It was a Camry. And I was just really fascinated by I, I wanted more capital 'cause I wanted this [00:06:00] BMX bike. And in what?

Steve: In, kid who wanted a lot of different things. And I was like, Hey mom, I was talking about careers or, getting towards the end of high school what's the next chapter of college gonna be? And I wanted to pick a path that had a really high income opportunity. It was like, mom what type like of salary range should I target in a career?

Steve: And she's like, 80 grand. And back then I was like, oh. Okay. That's uh, yeah, that's a reach. And today I'm like, oh, man. Like I've made that more like one in one single check before. Yep. And I think there's like those little pieces and she had no idea the impact that one response would have on me thinking that's huge and grandiose and like tough to achieve.

Steve: And. Thinking that Okay. The best get that almost or the worthiest, if you will, of our community or like our social circle will get that as like a, [00:07:00] as a top of the ceiling career. And I've had to do a lot of like internal work on reframing the value that I can create to create the income that I can create.

Justin: It's, it is. Creating value in the world. And then seeing that come to fruition. , I remember a post that you put on social media mentioning that your dad actually gave you a copy of Rich Kid Smart Kid. Yeah. Um, Bob Robert Kiyosaki, when you were young and you had said at the time you didn't necessarily appreciate it but looking back on your life.

Justin: You found it, it has influenced the person you've become, if you recall that one at all. Like reflecting back on the book, do you recall any of the takeaways or some of the takeaways that you gleaned from reading it?

Steve: I don't even know if I actually read that book to be honest with you. I ended up reading Rich Dad, poor Dad at one point or another. The thing about that story that I posted, two things really stand out about that [00:08:00] story. One, my dad . Like of all my parents, I think he was the most influential in terms of personal growth and development.

Steve: And my dad and I run a lot, and he's been fighting the cancer battle for a little while, so he doesn't run as much. But like when we were growing up, we used to run a lot and we'd play hockey and whenever we'd be together he'd always teach me to finish strong. And to do with the extra rep kind of thing.

Steve: Yeah. And I think there was a discipline there and a mindset of no matter how difficult it gets, like in this conversation financially from that practice of always doing the extra rep, always finishing strong and having that mindset and the belief that you can, persevere and accomplish that.

Steve: That was one of the biggest things I got outta my dad. And about, Robert Kawasaki and, and at least reached out Poor Dad which I've read numerous times since. I think the biggest thing there is just understanding [00:09:00] how money operates, like the choosing, your positioning on your beliefs are on debt, and that there's good debt and that there's bad debt.

Steve: And when I started to understand the difference there and how to utilize that, and especially within the real estate space, the difference between a debt or an equity position. 

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: Or just cash. I guess it'd be equity. That started to like really monumentally change the vision of what's possible.

Justin: I know for me the, whole good debt versus bad debt thing and understanding, understanding the distinction between the two, where, there's, yeah, there's a lot of people out there that may not. Understand that. 'cause there's folks that they're like, let's say, I don't wanna bash on them, but like one Dave Ramsey, it's no debt at all.

Justin: Yeah. But, you can use this, which is a great principle, which is a great principle. I mean, I, , I'm not bashing it. I think some, for some people or. It makes sense to have no debt and but to me it's like, okay, you look, you [00:10:00] can use debt to your advantage and you can use it to grow grow wealth if you use it in the right way.

Justin: So yeah, you're not gonna, you don't wanna get in debt to buy that boat. Or to me, things that are gonna depreciate and not gonna. Create an income stream for you. Like you use that and buy a boat where you're gonna, start a , businesses off of it. And Sure. That, that's, that could be great.

Justin: But yeah, so that, that's a key principle that for me was impactful in terms of that good and bad debt. For sure. 

Steve: Can I riff on that for one second? Yeah. Trust him. I think that there's one of my mentors his name is Mike. He, when I was 20. 7 28. He was really well off had been around really well off people, was in like the marketing field and had just he's worked with Coca-Cola and like big companies.

Steve: And we were talking about money as he was somebody that I admired around that space. And he's dude there's three sort of positions in life. With money, there's three different sectors of life and you gotta figure out, first off, you gotta figure out which [00:11:00] one you're in. And to comment about the debt aspect that you can leverage it.

Steve: That's where I'm going. Phase one, you have to earn it. You gotta figure out how to make money. That's step one. Maybe that's in developing skills putting yourself out there, networking, et cetera. The second phase of life with money is you gotta figure out how to grow it. And that's where data think really comes in, where you can leverage debt to, leverage your time to leverage other people's time to leverage technology, to leverage into like real estate where you're using OPM banks or private equity or whatever to buy appreciating cash flow flowing assets.

Steve: The third stage is protection. And I've worked with investors, excuse me, I've worked with investors who have given me. $5,000 and I've worked with investors who have given me well over seven figures. And as I've chatted with people in all those different fields, you can you can see which field they're in, and the conversation really [00:12:00] changes when you start talking between one or the next.

Steve: And when you're talking in the protect space, it's all about that like risk mitigation element. Yeah. They're, they don't care about growth, right? They don't care about opportunity. They're just being like, how do I not lose? In that middle space you're using a little bit more leverage. So you're trying to find those higher opportunity deals, and you're okay with it because you have the income, you have that earning capability, and you're trying to grow and magnify what you have so you can get into more of that protection space.

Steve: Yeah, and I thought that was just a really, for me, it's been a really great lesson. 

Justin: Yeah. And it, it probably relates to, I guess the way I look at that was in relation to where you are in your stage of life too, right? So when you're. Older. And, you've earned it, you've grown it, and now you know, now you, you're more concerned with preserving it and protecting it as opposed to.

Justin: , you know, Looking to earn more and grow more. Whereas when you're young and you're, maybe you're in your twenties, you're looking to earn it so that you can grow [00:13:00] it. Mm-hmm. Uh, And you're not so worried about losing it 'cause you don't, maybe you don't even have a lot of it to protect or lose anyway.

Justin: So I think it can, definitely depend on your stage of. Where you're at in your stage of life. You mentioned a hundred percent you mentioned mentors and that mentor that you had when you were 27, 28 years old. I am curious, you're in your mid thirties now.

Justin: If you could turn back the hands of time and go back to when you were 16, 17, 18 years old, what words of advice or wisdom would you give yourself? Around developing your financial IQ or financial literacy that you would impart on yourself? Given where you are today? 

Steve: The two that really stand out to me, that come to mind first are one, be more disciplined with it.

Steve: So I didn't really start a savings until I was in my late twenties. 

Steve: And two, think bigger. And I've been in sales for most of my career, basically, since I started mowing lawns next door, like when I was like 14 and [00:14:00] through the years my, I think my stepdad taught me this, he's Hey, you can cut grass around our place like, in our neighborhood, and maybe they'll give you 10 or 15 bucks, or we can go to the fancy place and you can do the exact same thing and maybe they'll give you 20 or 25 bucks.

Steve: And so one of those things is in the same area, like if you're raising capital or if you're selling a course or if you're, whatever sort of like element it is that you're building, you can do the exact same input. It's same work. It's almost people tell you that it's just as hard or just as easy to do a really big deal as it's to do a small deal.

Steve: Yep. The same thing I think applies in. And earning and working and growing money is you can take the same conversation and just speak to different people. 

Justin (2): I like that. Be more just, I had a really 

Steve: hard time growing or thinking big when I was younger, 

Justin: and I think that probably comes. Now that you've done more things and become [00:15:00] a successful entrepreneur and, seen more things is probably one of those things where it boils down to one maybe people you surround yourself with or what you're exposed to, and the bigger things that you do, the more realize, the more you realize there is no limit to what I can do here. I, , , I dunno if you're a basketball fan or not, but I was just reading Yeah. A post where, it talked about so Jason Tatum who's, on Boston Celtics and plays for team USA.

Justin: So he, he had shared a post where he, what he wrote down when he was in grade four. . Not eloquent, but he wrote this pretty much like a, almost like a vision of what do you want to do? I'm gonna become a basketball player. I'm gonna play for the, I think he said something like, I'm gonna play for the Lakers.

Justin: I'm gonna win three Champ. I'm gonna have three championships by the time I'm this, I'm gonna play for team USA, and he was nine years old. Right. And it's not, yeah. And so, you know, you go back to, you know, your thought was, think big. He was already thinking big when he was nine years old.

Justin: And it's really a matter of trying to Yeah. Put it out there and you're [00:16:00] almost putting it out there in your universe. And if you know what you want, kudos to him. I don't know how many people at nine years old know, you know exactly what they wanna do, but , yeah, it's amazing being able to seek that out.

Justin: And go for it is huge. 

Steve: And just to comment on that really quickly as well. Like even now I have, one of the biggest words in my life has been intention. And with that, like you get the sense of clarity. 'cause you're like, when you get the clarity, you can then form the intention and the actions move forward.

Steve: And for so long, man especially financially, like I just went with the flow. Yeah. And whatever it felt like doing in the moment. Buy a new pair of Nike Kicks, cool. Buy a new pair of Nike kicks. Go on a vacation. Cool. Save 

Justin (2): me. 

Steve: I didn't really feel like doing that at the time, but when you do have that clarity that he has, Michael Jordan also comes to mind of course, like when, or whoever, when you have that vision and like the breakdown on how to get there and the passion behind it and the discipline to say no to so [00:17:00] many other things.

Steve: Vacations, Nike Kicks, can't imagine the amount of times that Tatum has said no to going to a party or, skipping practice or anything like that. He can be that committed to it and have that intention of this is the goal. It's so admirable. And I think like I've moved so much faster in that space of intention and I've accomplished so much more because I have been able to get clear on things.

Steve: And I think that really comes back to. 

Justin: Absolutely. You talked about intention there and clarity. I wanted to get into , you know, intentions around your entrepreneurial mindset. For you, you're an entrepreneur within the real estate space was becoming an entrepreneur. A natural evolution for you?

Justin: Once you found something that you got behind. You mentioned you were in sales before, but can you talk to us about your entrepreneurial mindset and how that's allowed you to push forward to achieving the success that you've had so far? 

Steve: I think it has been a natural evolution, to [00:18:00] be totally honest with you.

Steve: It came from having too many reverse role models as bosses. 

Steve: And. There was a culture thing where time and time again, the leader that I looked up to who said, go do this, wouldn't live up to expectations or his own word. And I found that just so frustrating. 'cause I personally just wanted a mentor, a leader to.

Steve: Have high standards like that I would expect them to have and to live lead by example. And I just got so frustrated with really poor cultures of companies that I used to work for. 

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: That when I had the chance to pull the ripcord and, and go and do my own thing, it was al probably it was more out of just getting out of a toxic area and into just like.

Steve: Clean air. And since then [00:19:00] it's been completely unemployable. And it's taken time, like it was, it's been two, what was that, 2017 or 18 that I left in the corporate world? Yeah. Fumbled through it for a few years to, it was basically like sold a property, ran through a line of credit and credit cards to try to figure out this life of entrepreneurship and invested in coaches and myself and, just had this belief, this vision of what I wanted to create.

Steve: And eventually after a whole bunch of flopping through it, it starts to click in. And you start to learn this thing of business. And I've still got a lot of learning to go, but I think that's just a constant evolution. And I think for us as entrepreneurs, we like that. We want that sense of curiosity and exploration and like destin's in my hands.

Steve: And if I wanna [00:20:00] take today off, I understand the consequences to that. If I wanna hustle. For six months straight and not see any friends, not do anything fun and just build, I will get the rewards from that. 

Steve: And so I think like the power of choice really comes into it. And the mindset has just been like, you have to be tenacious and

Steve: I think you have to have the right people around you. I know that for a fact actually, like I've lost some really good friends from just being

Steve: who I used to be and growing into who I am. And there's this great quote, I can't remember who says it, but spend more time with people who talk about the future and 

Justin (2): People 

Steve: who talk about the past. And that is the type of people that I want to be around. And it's just like one of those things that to, for me to be.

Steve: My best self [00:21:00] day in and day out. So I can give that to Rebecca, my family, my communities, and my team. You have to put together the people around you who are also doing that same thing. 

Justin: Oh, there's that and I'm gonna butcher the quote, but it's almost like the, there's people that.

Justin: Talk about people. It's like there's people talk about people. Oh yeah. You can either talk about like people then there's like venter ideas, answerer ideas. And I found, like I've always been drawn to , and , you know, when you said you're, you, I. Wanna surround yourself with people that are talking about the future as opposed to the past, right?

Justin: And so being able to have those conversations and elevate those conversations so that you are pushing forward, looking forward, whether it's your vision, your intention, or you're talking about ideas and making things happen. I've always found myself attracted to and, wanting to have those conversations as opposed to, talking about what, oh, so and so did, or what, you know, And you know, what you mentioned in terms of, tenacity. Tenacity, and just really want I think it, it goes back to like, [00:22:00] what, why do you want what you want? First, defining what you want, but then kind of why, you know what's mm-hmm. for you and for everyone. It's per personal.

Justin: But I think that's what makes the desires stronger when you have that clarity in your mind to, what that vision is and why you want to achieve it. . 

Steve: I think all entrepreneurs probably have to be creators. Yeah. Because that's what business is.

Steve: That's what entrepreneurs, you're either taking one thing and implementing your own sort of like flavor into it to make it better. Or you're taking several things and combining it into one and you're creating something new. Or you're just inventor that's I'm creating something new because this doesn't exist in the world today and the world needs it.

Steve: Yep. And like ideas like the future, that's what that is. I haven't thought about that before, but I'm like, not like a content creator kind of thing, but just a creator in life. That's maybe my thing is, the culture that I wanted to create might be the thing that really pushed me into entrepreneurism.

Steve: Yeah. [00:23:00] Interesting. 

Justin: I've always felt that people who are a successful, because they've developed successful habits along the way. What would you say are some of the. Habits that you've developed that have like a central role in your life, or what habits do you suggest other, whether it's other entrepreneurs work on in order to be successful?

Steve: Is this specifically within like business? 

Justin: It could be. It could be habits for business, could be real estate, could be even life in general. Oh man. Big question. I'm just opening it up to the entire broad spectrum, but Yeah. But you can relate it to however you wanna relate it to. . 

Steve: , I think one of the biggest habits that I've incorporated in my life over the last probably five years is, this might sound easy, but it is regular practice of gratitude.

Steve: My mindset has shifted. Significantly like [00:24:00] monumentally, I can't state that large enough. There'd be times when I'm sitting in the traffic and I'm just bitter and angry. Or if you ask Rebecca, I hate standing in lineups. But I can't remember what book it was. It started talking more like an attitude of gratitude and.

Steve: I think it was maybe even a speaker who taught me how to shift a negative and convert that negative into a positive to find the gratitude in it. 

Steve: Because otherwise you're just bitter. And that's not the way I wanna live. It's not the way I wanna feel. And so in those moments of traffic, for example.

Steve: How do you find gratitude in that moment when somebody just cuts you off or you're looking down the road and there's a mile of red lights okay, you take that breath. All right. I'm grateful for the opportunity now to call a friend 'cause I have some extra time. I'm grateful [00:25:00] to turn on an audible and learn and develop my brain and so you, you convert the pain into gratitude.

Steve: And I've found with having just a clearer mindset because with that bitterness, that anger, you're not thinking clearly. 

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: There's cortisol running through your blood into your brain and it's literally like fight or flight. And that's not a good space to make decisions, especially if you're a business owner.

Steve: Yeah. So converting that energy into more positive light where you're thinking clearly has been a big change. It's a daily thing. The very, as soon as my alarm goes off, I immediately still lying in bed. 10 seconds after I wake up, I'm thinking about things I'm grateful for, and then I incorporate it through the day as well.

Steve: I start on my team meetings. We start off with just a really quick share about gratitude. What are we grateful for today? And that's a really cool one too because you get to know like little tiny pieces, little glimpses into people's personal lives and like what they love and what's really close to them.[00:26:00] 

Steve: The other thing about habits that I'll say is choosing what I call like bowling ball habits. 

Steve: . 

Steve: So this is where clarity and intention really come into place. Let's say your intention is just start a business or buy a property, start a business, and buy a property. You have to think of what habits do I need or what skills.

Steve: Do I need to do that thing? You'll list off like I got another market, so I have to have a skill and like data analysis. I'm probably gonna have to be really good at networking so I could get better at communicating, have to maybe get better at swinging a hammer and doing my notes myself to use, sweat equity.

Steve: And you list off, probably 10 different things, 15 different things about what skills are necessary for the outcome of this goal. And a bowling ball habit is what is an action that I can do. Every single day, multiple times a day. [00:27:00] That helps multiple skills. So if you think about one of the things that I do every week is this Freedom Friday.

Steve: Friday's at nine PSDI come into a training and it's an hour of, I do a 20 minute rant on a topic about business leadership or real estate. And that one hour. Of the week helps me in so many other areas that I wanna build skill in. It helps me become better storyteller. It helps me have more influence.

Steve: It helps me articulate, it helps me learn new words, helps me illustrate how I, think on paper, helps me communicate in so many different ways. And that communication growth will. Just helping. So other ways as well. So like a bowling ball habit, what's one thing that you can do every single day?

Steve: Maybe it's gratitude as well. That will have like leverage one input in five inputs out. 

Justin: It's, yeah, it's about, if I hear you correctly, yeah. It's about [00:28:00] having yeah, doing one thing so that you are being able to knock off a number of different skills or things to help you in your, in whatever you're trying to.

Justin: Accomplish. And that's great advice. I think I know one, one mentor, I wouldn't say mentor, but one thing I remember that came to me when you said that was in, in university, actually I remember this university professor and he talked about so when you're doing an action, you should make sure that you have, there's multiple payoffs, so mm-hmm. if you're, it's not just a one-to-one, you're trying to create. Going back to what you're talking about it's almost like creating leverage where you're, you are you're trying to knock off a couple things by doing that one thing. And I never called it Bowling Paul habit, but I think that's a great way to look at things.

Justin: I heard Alex 

Steve: Mosey say this like a year ago. Yeah. Where he was saying something about the same conversation around leverage. And I [00:29:00] dunno, whatever real it was that I was watching, he's Hey, how much do you have? Like how much more life do you have to live? Is it 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, et cetera?

Steve: You can build a habit over that amount of time. You have a lot of habits to be able to build. Yeah. But what most people do is they go, I'm gonna incorporate these 10 new habits into my life on January 1st and become a new person by February 1st. They're down to one habit, and by March 1st. 50% of people aren't even doing that anymore.

Steve: Yeah. And so when I heard that, I was like, ah, I just need to pick one thing and do it way better. So I can't like extend the time horizon of my expectations from, 75 hard being 70 days or 75 days to cool. I'm gonna do this one thing for five years and get so good at it and have it be just a staple in my life so that I cannot fail at it anymore.

Steve: And then when I have that really strong foundation, I'm gonna layer on a second habit with the same expectations. I'm going to commit to this thing forever because of how [00:30:00] consistency matters and how impactful that can be on cre, like your, the outputs that you're creating. I. 

Justin: I think that's an interesting perspective you just gave, where it's about extending the time horizon.

Justin: 'cause I, and you know, when you're saying that I'm very guilty of this. I'm like, yeah, come, January 1st. And, I try not to layer it in, you know, new Year's resolutions, but even at the start of quarters, I'm like, okay, yeah, you know what, this quarter I'm gonna do, I'm gonna get up at 6:00 AM I'm gonna go to bed at 10.

Justin: I'm gonna run like, three times a week. Like I've just got all these things that I wanna do, and I almost, set myself up for failure because I'm trying to implement multiple habits. And not only just, form them, but maintain them over an extended period of time. But I guess if you give yourself some grace and you say, okay, look, I don't need to get this all accomplished in one year.

Justin: I have yeah, a bigger or longer time horizon, you can stack those so that you give yourself a fighting chance to. Instill those habits. Some great advice there. I wanted to kinda [00:31:00] learn about your own real estate investing journey. You know, At the age of 24, you purchased your first property back in 2012, and I believe it was a condo in, Victoria, BC.

Justin: Over time, you know, I imagine you. Obviously you've gone through the ups and downs of acquiring properties, raising capital so you know what it takes to build a successful business and just how hard it can be. Can you talk a little bit about your real estate journey and what are some key lessons that others can learn from on that journey?

Steve: Yeah you're absolutely right. My first property was a two bed, two bath condo in Oak Bay, which is a municipality here in Victoria, DC and it was 2012. And I had a little basic understanding about real estate growing up. We did live in flips. I've got an uncle who's a realtor, I've got another uncle in project management.

Steve: My grandpa ran an insurance company, a real estate brokerage, his. Father bought apartment buildings. So we have this sort of like, it's in my veins almost. [00:32:00] Yeah. Yeah. And I knew well enough that the market was up and now it's down and when's the best time to buy something? It's when it's down. And so we looked for, market fundamentals.

Steve: Where in Victoria is the safest investment, the most desirable neighborhood? And something that you can do value add to 'cause you can't get any worse.

Steve: And so that's what I bought from, thanks to mom and dad and lived there for a few years and just did, 5,000 bucks here, couple thousand bucks there, and just renovated it. Did really well over time 'cause the market appreciated and the sweat equity saved a ton of cash.

Steve: And as the story really began in 2015 when a friend of my ex business partner dragged me, literally dragged me to a real estate guru course. And I did not want to go, I thought it was a scam. 

Justin (2): Right? [00:33:00] 

Steve: And it was on the third day of the conference where they were talking about like joint venture partnerships, working partners.

Steve: And money partners. And the speaker was like, all right, who wants to be the working partner in the room, knocking on doors, finding deals, managing tenants, swinging hammers, by half, let's put our hand up. Yeah. And he goes, cool. Who wants to do none of that? And just experience the benefits of real estate through a partnership.

Steve: But a third of the room put their hand up. And I was like, what? That blew my mind Just then. Yep. And so from my business experience and like analysis brain and Randy's trades experience, we were like, this is the best of both worlds. Let's go find a partner and do hers. So we did a half duplex, which is our first one.

Steve: We did a second half duplex, and we were looking at half duplexes at the time because the rental rates were just under what you would get for a normal house. 

Justin (2): Yep. 

Steve: But [00:34:00] the cost to buy was significantly lower. 

Steve: And so your rent ratio was much higher and it actually cash flowed. And so we found this hidden little niche for a few years where we had stack property and did really well with our joint ventures.

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: And then we were running our meetups, so we're educating people, we're telling people exactly what we were doing, which looking back, we could have made a lot more money if we kept that a secret. Yeah. But that's just not what we mean. And then that, the market evolved, so we had to evolve.

Steve: So we had to go into, single families and then like larger value adds and small malts, and then larger mal. Then in 2019 we got into development projects as well. 2018, I think we got into the to development projects as well. And , you know, the last couple years have been really challenging.

Steve: But to answer your question, I think one of the best things that, two things that I'll say about real estate investing is one, you have to be patient and pick the right deals. And we've seen that over the last three years. 

Justin (2): Yeah, 

Steve: right. There [00:35:00] was a lot of. Hype and FOMO and interest in, and attention in the ramp up through Covid.

Steve: Right? 20 end of 20 20, 20 21. Just a lot of acquisitions happening. 

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: My business partner at the time we stopped like a May. No, this before that it was like January 21. Nothing else penciled. Like I couldn't find anything and I was looking like I was looking at 30 deals a day. 

Justin (2): Yeah. 

Steve: And I couldn't find something in our market or in any neighboring markets that would pencil and I was gaining pressure being like, we gotta close something.

Steve: We gotta close something, we gotta close something. I'm like, dude, show me something that works. I gotta know how these people are making it. And so had we just been, had we compromised our values at the time to be like, ah, yeah, this one. If we just play around with some things. 

Justin: Yeah.

Justin: You know what I'm talking about. I know. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. Tweaking the numbers here and there. You're like, yeah, if this works out, or I can if I pull this 

Steve: lever. Yeah. Yeah, if we [00:36:00] just compromise that, we would've been screwed. And so I think just being really strict on the thing that it is that you're looking for and the essentials to make that deal.

Steve: You gotta be real about that. That's one. And then coming back to the conversation about good debt and bad debt when you are in that mode of I wanna build a portfolio, I know people who are actively trying to scale to a hundred million. I know who people who are actively scaled past a billion.

Steve: I know people who are trying to get their first, second, third, or fifth property. This applies across the board and it ties in so well with our economic status right now of like, how. Much money has been injected into our economy. Yeah, 

Justin (2): yeah. 

Steve: But it's all about debt. And if you have too much debt, fixed high interest, you just can't get outta that hole.

Steve: You're screwed. You're screwed. Yes. And there's been some tragedies in, the real estate investing community across Canada over the last couple years with just too much [00:37:00] debt. And that's been something that we've. Always try to avoid through equity positions instead. 'cause you have the luxury of time at that point.

Steve: And so just being clear on here's the criteria to make a good deal and being firm on that, or just admitting to yourself. Cool. I'll take that consequence. Yeah, that's on you. As well as just the knowledge on how debt really works. 'cause like our economy right now, it's like. I can't remember what the stats are in the states right now, but if you listen to the All In podcast yeah, within the next five years, like our debts just gonna be out of control 'cause of how compounded it's gonna be.

Steve: But anyways, those are be the two biggest lessons that come to mind. 

Justin: Okay. , those are fantastic lessons and that I think any, whether you're a beginner investor or an experienced investor, you can take away some of those nuggets and learnings. I wanted to touch on Masterminds.

Justin: You, you created Synergy Mastermind, back in [00:38:00] 2020. And masterminds are a really, fantastic way to surround yourself with like-minded people and in a way to get the collective wisdom of the group to achieve more success than you would, personally ever achieve on your own.

Justin: Can you talk about the Synergy Mastermind, how it works, who it's for, and what are some of the results of that? People who have gone through it have experienced and continue to be part of that Mastermind. 

Steve: So our vision statement for Synergy Mastermind is that Synergy is, maybe it's more of a mission statement, not more vision.

Steve: Synergy Mastermind is a exclusive, intimate and experiential mastermind for high achieving real estate investors who wanna be around other growth minded entrepreneurs who are doing business, right? And with impact.

Steve: Sort of inflection point for us to create. It was our portfolio. Our business was at a point, it was had grown to a point where the challenges that we are facing [00:39:00] just weren't being discussed in any other rooms. Yeah, there keys, bar rain, kinda like two big communities, rockstar a bunch of other ones across Canada, like they're phenomenal groups to be a part of.

Steve: They helped me get started as well, but then there was nothing for that next step. It's a great way to be like, here's how you get started and I'm not gonna talk about the rest of the pain that comes later. And I've been hosting a meetup for five or six years in Victoria and that kind of just got a little bit stale 'cause it's the same conversation and we were talking about how to get your first deal or how to leverage what you have, your second or third deal.

Steve: And my portfolio was, five X that at the time. Yeah. And I just had different. Problems that needed to be solved. 

Steve: Yeah. And I wanted to have that like-minded group of people to talk about the future and ideas and just bigger things to, to hold me accountable and to push me and to do the same thing, to give back the knowledge that I have and the wisdom that I've experienced for people who are [00:40:00] just like a minute behind me, and then the same thing to be lifted up by others who are just a minute in front of me.

Steve: And so synergy is really for people who have some experience in real estate, investors or professionals. Who can come into a really high energy room, who wanna grow a business, who wanna talk about personal development, who wanna just give back to the world their knowledge, their heart, their expertise. And it's just, it's an exciting year.

Steve: This year, this is our fifth year. We've completely restructured the model behind it to make it just a lot more affordable for people. Because we're, being sensitive around how economic times have been over the last year or two. And I think that's gonna allow us to get some really great speakers, even better speakers that we've had in the past.

Steve: And we've had some fallen speakers before. Brandon Turner, Vina Jetty, come to a few different events. Dan Martel the list goes on. And it's been interesting to [00:41:00] see the con the conversation change within synergy from being like, Hey, I want to talk about like real estate investing and how we get better at real estate investing.

Steve: Yeah. And then over the years it's turned more into people know how to real, how to invest in real estate, but how do they run a business? And how do they become the best version of themselves? And so I used to talk about synergy being like, we're 75% real estate content and 20% business and 5% personal growth.

Steve: And now it's like it's totally flipped. Completely flipped. 

Justin: Yeah. 'cause I think you're right. Like once, not to say, yeah. Once you know what you're doing you're trying to better yourself through personal development and running a business by putting in place, whether it's proper systems, proper processes, the right people.

Justin: So it becomes a lot. More than just, can you run this cash flow and, look at this mark and see if it makes sense or yeah, fantastic that you've been able to evolve it and it's continues to evolve, I'm sure. And I've heard the great line of speakers that have [00:42:00] come out to the, the events and yeah.

Justin: It's a great way I think for others out there, other people looking to scale up. To join and to be a part of. . 

Steve: The last little thing I'll say . Is one of the biggest differences, sort of relating this back to like the reverse role model that I had in business, but not having the right culture.

Steve: Yeah. There is nothing like the Synergy Mastermind culture. We walk into that room with members and we as like facilitators really lead by example in this space of being real. About what's happening in the economy, but what's happening in our business and not putting up blinders being like, I'm not gonna talk about that.

Steve: I'm not gonna talk about that. Yeah. We come in and pardon my French here, but we share the shit. Yeah. And that's the only way that you solve the real problems. 

Justin: Yeah. And people wanna, people like you. People want that. That's what you, yeah. To be able to go through. You don't want this like facade of.

Justin: Everything's great, rainbow and butterflies great. Everything's great. No, it's not there's real problems that you gotta solve and [00:43:00] fix and and those real conversations more efficient that way. Yeah, for sure. 

Steve: And it bonds you in such a, such an amazing, incredible way. 

Justin: I wanted to transition over to our rapid fire round of questions here.

Justin: So if you're ready I'll fire 'em over to you. 

Steve: Oh, I'm ready. 

Justin: All right. Question number one is, what's one of your favorite books that you've read and enjoyed? 

Steve: 15 commitments of conscious leadership. 

Justin: Question number two is when you're not working, what do you love to do in your spare time?

Steve: Hike with my dog. 

Justin: Okay. Question three is, what's the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? 

Steve: Oh, dang. 

Justin: Never quit. Never quit tennesse. Okay. Never, ever quit. Yeah. Fourth one is if you could sit down with anyone and have dinner with them dead or alive, who would it be and why? 

Steve: Oh man. Russell Brunson probably he just lives such a fun, exciting life. He's figured out the entrepreneurship [00:44:00] game to the max from.

Steve: Just everything that he does, I think would probably be like, if I could have an afternoon with somebody, it'd be him. My list is long. That guest list is long, but he's gotta be, I think he might be the top of the list. 

Justin: Okay. 

Steve: Very cool. 

Justin: And then finally, what's the one conversation that you recommend parents have with their kids today about money?

Steve: What motivates you 

Steve: . I remember this one time I was coming home from school and I had a really average at best report card and I was embarrassed by it other than pe I rocked that. But a buddy of mine, his name was Wilson, he was like, my parents pay me for grades and money motivated me at the time and.

Steve: Came home shy and embarrassed about what I got. And they're like what's going on? They're giving me the gears about my grades. And I was like hey, like [00:45:00] I really wanna save up for this thing or that thing. What if you guys just incentivize me by paying me for grades? Maybe it's 50 bucks for an A, it's 20 for A B, and IOU for a C.

Steve: And they squashed it. And I think if I. If I went back at that time and they did that, I think I would be in, I'd have so much more structure I think around finances. I would had a much better teens and twenties and early thirties and not just would've compounded as you would know through the rest of my life.

Steve: And so I think finding what it is about your kids that motivate them and. In a genuine way, try to attach that to like meaningful financial literacy. 

Justin: . I think that would be wonderful to, 'cause you're aligning, you're aligning their motivation to to the, I guess the end result or the [00:46:00] reward.

Justin: Which. When you're aligned with your motivation that's what's pushing you and giving you direction yeah. To go. So a wonderful piece of voice there. Yeah. 

Steve: The caveat to that, I think is it has to be like, it can't just be instant gratification. Yeah. We have this epidemic these days of just instant, like the expectation of instant gratification.

Steve: And I think with like grades. Semester by semester is a few months. I think that's long enough to have some sort of carrot at the end when you work for something and not just be like, oh look, go cut the lawn today. And then you get the thing. It's gotta be like, you gotta build that muscle, you gotta get that grit and that callous.

Steve: Totally, 

Justin: totally. As we wrap up here where can my audience follow what you're doing or if they're interested in, in, in looking into or joining Synergy Mastermind? Where can they go? 

Steve: Yeah, synergy Mastermind do ca is the best place to go and check out about the Mastermind. Whether you're a real estate professional or a investor who's just interested in growing as a human [00:47:00] or growing your portfolio or growing your business, that is the community to chat with.

Steve: And we have a Facebook group for exactly that, just look up synergy Mastermind. And then I spend my most of my time on Instagram. So it's just first name, last name, official. Steve Arneson official. Cool. And we'll have 

Justin: all that in the show notes as well for everyone. So yeah, Steve, just appreciate you coming on the show today and sharing your, it's been awesome Justin.

Justin: Experience wisdom whether that's about entrepreneurship, it's about financial developing financial literacy and helping how do we do that for kids? Your real estate journey mastermind. So just, yeah, truly appreciate your energy and your wisdom today and just sharing that with everyone here.

Justin: So thanks so much. 

Steve: My pleasure, my friend. Be well.