The First Million Is Always The Hardest
The First Million Is Always The Hardest podcast is your introduction to the mindset and mechanics behind success. In this podcast, host Bo Kemp breaks down why the first million —whether in dollars, impact, or purpose — is always the hardest milestone to achieve.
The First Million Is Always The Hardest
Fireside with Seth Ferguson: Building Wealth & Canada’s #1 Business Conference
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Video Version: https://youtu.be/UDCGs52FzaI
In this special live fireside chat recorded at ACHIEVE Summit 2025, host Bo Kemp sits down with powerhouse investor and real estate developer Seth Ferguson, the founder of Canada’s #1 Business Conference and one of North America's leading voices in real estate and high-performance investing.
Seth shares the story of his evolution — from his first real estate acquisition to leading large-scale development projects — and how he’s created a movement that helps others break into private equity, multifamily investing, and wealth building at scale.
Bo and Seth dig into how Seth transitioned from small deals to major multifamily developments, the current market trends reshaping multifamily investment across North America, why community is Seth’s most valuable asset — and how he's built one of the most respected business events in Canada, and what it takes to create opportunities at scale for new investors.
Seth’s story is more than a business journey — it’s a blueprint for how to use influence, access, and intention to open doors for others. Whether you're looking to raise capital, scale your portfolio, or build a legacy, this episode offers tactical wisdom and high-level perspective from a leader who's truly changing the game.
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SPEAKER_02Go into thisdevelopment.org and start building your legacy to take a lot of what does it actually take to go wealth from multifamily real estate? And this case from a five-side class steps focusing here how we went from real estate to operating large-scale partner investments and what most people get wrong about the API class. We get into underwriting deals, raising capital, and why multifamily continues to outperform investors. If you want a clear practical lens on real estate at scale, this is a must less I'm really excited to have you.
SPEAKER_03You've been involved with us since we started this process several months ago so you've had a chance to see kind of how we're building and I'm really eager for you to tell a little bit about your background to everyone so they get a sense of who you are what you've been building starting a little bit with your uh real estate business and then transitioning into multifamily conference now the Powerhouse Conference.
SPEAKER_01For for sure. And you know what having seen you guys start this from scratch I have to give huge props to Bo and his team guys. Hasn't this been awesome? Yeah. This team has worked so hard putting this on for you guys. But going back to your your question about me I started off uh trying to make the NHL as a hockey referee of course I never even of course me being Canadian right so uh then I got into selling real estate uh started investing single family homes duplex conversions and then I made the transition into multifamily and then uh during COVID I had the crazy idea of starting a big conference uh in the middle of a global pandemic hey wouldn't it be great to get a thousand people together yeah and uh so the rest is history I had no idea what I was doing made a lot of mistakes along the way uh but I survived and made it out to the other side.
SPEAKER_03Well well tell me a little bit or tell us a little bit about your experience early in investing. You know what did you buy first? And um how did you think about that particular acquisition given what you know now.
SPEAKER_01Oh man uh if if only I had a time machine. Right. If only I had a time machine. Yeah that the first acquisition was a duplex so it was a bungalow uh built in the 50s hurricane proof you couldn't knock the thing down uh blocked foundation and uh what we did at the time was we installed a basement and accessory apartment so we turned it from a single family home into a duplex uh in a major uh I'm from Toronto so it was just outside of Toronto uh really poor cash flow uh we made a lot of equity so I was equity rich cash flow poor yeah uh which was a big mistake I didn't understand cash flow at the time uh but then we leveraged that one refinanced it then was able to acquire another one and then it started off that way but man if I could go back in time I would not have purchased that property uh because there was no cash flow yeah um I I remember in our second year of owning that property uh you know how you have the drain out to the sewer a tree is not clogged oh man well a a tree root actually busted through the terracotta pipe and so we had a huge sewage backup in the basement uh unit and the cost of that repair was eight thousand dollars the cash flow on that property was not even eight thousand dollars yeah so now even though I have all this equity I can't access it and uh so you're paying out of pocket and uh I I think a lot of investors when they first start out they just say oh well they just see a house oh wouldn't it be great to own it? Yeah but you have to look at the business of owning real estate and that's something I didn't know at the time fortunately I've made those mistakes and I know now but you you have to look out for the cash flow.
SPEAKER_03So in the time that you bought that initial property um how what did you finance and what was your relationship with your bank and or how did you get the uh money to put down like kind of walk us through that early stage because a lot of folks here are going to be in that early stage of trying to figure that part out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah it was a love-hate relationship let me tell you because at the time I was self-employed I was a real estate broker and we all know how banks love self-employed people right stuff they give you a ton of money no questions asked uh and so especially uh in Canada uh the rules are a lot tighter as well so what happens is once you own a handful of properties qualifying for the next loan becomes next to impossible which is why I ended up uh switching over to multifamily um but uh in terms of uh getting ready getting the money uh we did I think it was 80% loan to value if I can remember uh now we felt confident doing that because it was a major metro center we were happy with it um but it it just made the cash flow really tough and uh if I was going back again I would probably give myself more of a buffer or have a better game plan on doing a faster refi. Now again being brand new and fresh for that first property made a ton of mistakes with the contractor made a ton of mistakes uh in terms of permits and drawings and we got set back like every everything takes longer than you think it will. And so you know even though we went in with a game plan no plan survives first contact with the enemy so you always have to plan have your contingencies in place and uh the the thing I remember about that first deal was the cash crunch.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because you're dumping you know I I think we dumped$150,000 into the property you're already paying for the mortgage and now things run over schedule you you never want to be in that position.
SPEAKER_03So what's funny you say you never your your plan never survives first contact with the enemy. The enemy in this case could be the financial team it could be the contractor it could be the tenant did you were were all three of them your enemies?
SPEAKER_01All of the above all of the above and especially you know when you go into uh pull your money out with a refi a refinance does everybody know what I mean by refi? It's probably worth a little quick explanation. Yeah so so basically the the game plan if you're going to do what's called a value add so you're acquiring a piece of real estate property you're making improvements to it with the hope of increasing the market value. Once you've increased the market value of the asset now you can go back to the bank and say hey Mr banker now the property's worth X can you give me a loan based on this new value so you can actually put more debt on the property and take some money out which we ended up doing and then we acquired our second asset.
SPEAKER_03But when you're going back to the bank you're self-employed the costs are uh overrun it it's it's just very sticky uh let me put it that way and and over time you know this idea of managing your contractors is a really big one yes you know what have you found has been a secret sauce in terms of doing that is it been using the same people um do you integrate the new people in from time to time and go through some sort of vetting process for them? Do you kind of keep them within this tolerance range of you can do change orders but once you get outside of this I'm gonna cut you off how how do you manage that process?
SPEAKER_01Yeah I I'll give you a couple really good pieces of advice there. The first one whenever you are getting a contractor to quote the job it's not good enough just to have them take a look and give you a price. You want to have a detailed scope of work so that way everybody is on the same page and that way you can hold them accountable to what's what's happening in the job. Because the mistake we made is number one we hired a cheap guy not the more expensive guy. Number two, we had a price and a rough idea of the work but it wasn't itemized. So then when costs overrun and you go back to the contract and say hey listen why is this happening you know you're trying to charge me more I paid you this there's no contract that's clear as day. So you have to have that scope of work. And especially as you scale up into larger properties what what happens a lot of operators they'll go in they'll have a contractor quote the job but let's say you have 50 units 100 units you need a detailed scope of work for every single unit because it's going to be different. So the more accurate you can be in your scope of work the better results you're gonna have on the back end. But we just didn't we made every mistake in the book hiring hiring the cheap guy huge mistake no details in the contract another huge mistake and then that turned into issues with permitting and inspections. I remember we had one inspection where we actually had to rip out uh some work that had previously been done just because it the they never had it inspected and then that causes more issues.
SPEAKER_03Yeah and and this issue of inspection you know we're gonna have tomorrow workshops and one of those workshops is really about dealing with zoning permitting um entitlements all those sorts of issues that come up but I found in the work that I've done you know getting the permitting right is man everything. You you talked about ripping something out that you'd already done so you've paid twice to do the same thing because the right person didn't come on Tuesday at three o'clock when the guy who was gonna you know put the caulk up came at four o'clock or whatever it is. How do you manage that?
SPEAKER_01Well and that that's the joys of dealing with contractors because what happens is let's say your electrician was scheduled to come on this day you have to rip it out now he's already booked for the rest of the week and now he has to try and fit you in and if you're already running overtime it just exacerbates uh the issue and uh speaking of permitting you have to have somebody who knows what they're doing with that because you're you have you're gonna pay more but you're paying for speed because every single day counts when you're doing a project on a piece of real estate you have carrying costs you have mortgage you have uh insurance every day that that property is vacant and doesn't have a tenant in it it's costing you money so by having that permitting process dialed in working with the professional knowing with somebody who's dealing with the city on a daily basis already even though you will pay more you're going to get so much more back in the form of saved saved interest uh more rent because you're getting a tenant in there faster I can't speak I can't say enough about the benefits of working with a true professional and not trying to cut corners like I did the first time but I learned my lesson.
SPEAKER_03You know um one of the things that's also interesting is just where you started in your mental process. You bought this first property turned into a duplex refi bought a second one but did you have a vision before you bought your first one of where you were trying to go and and how close to that original vision did you come?
SPEAKER_01Ah the the answer is no I didn't have a vision. And I think I wasn't you know I was in my 20s at the time and I hadn't experienced enough life yet. So the way I was approaching investing and my business at the time was everything was for me. So that forced me to look through a certain frame or a lens about all the decisions I was making. Also I didn't understand the business of real estate yet. I thought that success meant owning a handful of properties and then over the next 20 30 years I could pay those off and I would be ultra successful. That's what I thought success looked like in real estate. I didn't realize there were people who owned 5,000 units or a thousand units or a hundred units in buildings that that just wasn't on my radar. But what it took was it took my son being born to have me shift in terms of how I thought about my life what success looked like legacy that type of stuff because you know when I was holding him for the first time in my arms now I felt like as a as a father as a man I had to do a whole lot more. And when I worked out the math on how many houses I would have to do to hit my goal now to provide security to my son it just turned into some insane numbers. So then I had to shift to a different uh a different type of real estate asset that was more scalable but yeah when I first started I had no idea now was that a bad thing? No because I think a lot of people they think too much they try and plan too much it doesn't matter just get your first deal out of the way whether or not you make a ton of money chances are you won't it doesn't matter. Well if you have Bo's help you probably will but uh you know no guaranteed uh statements there but um it as long as you get your first deal out of the way that's all that matters because that's ripping off the band-aid jumping into the pool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah I think you know um I don't think it's atypical that many folks that get into the space of real estate don't have a real plan and it's not also atypical that you don't have a lot of education. You know, prior to the Powerhouse conference being available how did you educate yourself in the real estate space?
SPEAKER_01Oh man uh this is going back before real uh YouTube was really big uh so I bought a lot of books and I remember I bought this course from a guy online and uh he mailed me a binder that was this thick and it was just a binder that I bought I was like are you kidding I paid$2,000 for a binder uh but but that's how I tried educating myself. Now there's so much content available I didn't realize there were events like this I could go to I I didn't realize there were people on YouTube who were just sharing their secrets. I was ignorant of what was out there. But by getting into the space and getting that first deal done I started learning not about I I was learning through experience but I was also learning hey who else is in the game? Who's the people to trust? Who should I look up to? And that knowledge gap I I think is is the most expensive if you don't fix it.
SPEAKER_03You know so you had mentioned in your story that you're sitting around in COVID and you're thinking to yourself hey what's the best way for me to spread COVID? Let me bring a thousand people together to talk about real estate. You know I know there's a bit more of a transition in that story but at this point you've already started investing in multifamily multifamily is another word for apartment buildings for those of you who may not know so you already have gone from single family to multifamily have you ever been invested in commercial or industrial properties?
SPEAKER_01No so so that was the transition I made and the reason I I did that just in case somebody's not just in case you're not familiar with apartment buildings basically think of it as multiple houses but on one piece of property so you have instead of let's say I own a hundred houses I'm dealing with a hundred tenants a hundred different roofs a hundred different insurance policies if you put a hundred of those on one property and have one roof on it it just makes it a whole lot easier and then banks like it a lot better too and they'll give you more money. But I I I had made the transition but I realized that you know for me to be successful in the space I I had to get noticed because I was just one of millions of people in the space what made me special and the lesson I've really learned over the years is you know the market doesn't reward you for being good. It rewards you for being seen for being known for being the obvious choice. And so here I was the world had just shut down nobody was outside everybody was still wiping down their grocery bags and I was watching Shark Tank and I I made the decision that I was going to launch a conference and uh try and bring a thousand people together and uh I didn't know especially up in Canada how how long it would be before we could actually leave our houses but but we got it done.
SPEAKER_03Yeah that that you know it it's interesting about this attention economy and one of the things that I would say about um you know you and some of the guests have already spoken you guys have spent your time not focused on getting attention but actually focused on being really good at what you do right and actually perfecting your craft in some cases documenting your craft so you can share it with others but perfecting the craft but the world has it hasn't just immediately changed but it definitely has migrated to this attention economy and uh you know I I I watched something online not too long ago and a guy said things that are not seen don't get paid right um and so you kind of recognize hey I need to kind of get in this mode where I'm seen more how is that now affecting not just the powerhouse conference but even the work that you do for yourself it totally changed my life hands down.
SPEAKER_01I looking back to before I launched it to now night and day difference. The connections the opportunities uh people approach me yeah uh with with deals all the time um I can call up some very very big names and speak with them uh because of the conference you know when you can say you have thousands of people would you like to be on my stage people will pick up the phone and have a conversation with you it totally changed my life and I I've learned there's been there's been a lot of ups and downs with it learned a lot of lessons made a lot of mistakes but I think overall uh you know I chose the live event uh model uh to follow but you can do the same thing with the podcast I started with the podcast I we can go into that if you want to I I had a cable TV show uh it doesn't matter what platform you use but everybody needs some type of authority platform a platform you can use to get your message into the market and uh a platform that establishes you as the expert because when your potential clients when your prospects are looking for you they don't care about you dancing on TikTok. What they're looking for is expertise. And if you have that authority platform, podcast, speaking, events, when you have that you are now elevated above most of your competition and it just makes it it's far better to swim in the blue ocean than the than the red ocean.
SPEAKER_03So you and I have talked a little bit about your podcast and it's a great story because it's a a transition in how you started I think for the benefit of everyone tell a little bit about your podcast how you got your first guest and how that transitioned into Powerhouse.
SPEAKER_01Yeah absolutely so here I was I had literally lost everything I was back living with my parents after a messy family situation let's put it that way I had my son back at home with my parents and I got a great piece of advice from somebody he said start a podcast. I had never even listened to a podcast before and so here I am uh decided to launch this podcast didn't know what I was doing but I started emailing guests and there was this one gentleman by the name of Chris Gray Australian real estate investor he had a TV show on Sky News and so I just emailed Chris out of the blue I said hey I run this podcast would you like to come on and be interviewed a couple days later he actually said yes I'd watched this guy for three years on TV and now just because I reached out with the podcast I got an hour of his time to talk with him. And I think the big lesson for me was as long as you have a platform and you make requests and you ask people to come on, you'll get some no's but you will be astounded astounded at how many people will actually say yes. It is it is mind blowing. I it still blows my mind that you know some guy who was dead broke, had nothing going for him at the time could reach out to a very successful person and actually get a yes. I hadn't even launched an episode yet. Chris didn't know he didn't do his research but anyways I I got him on the podcast and and uh that started everything.
SPEAKER_03Well you know um it's funny I'm I'm taking your lead and the SDA where have we have a a podcast that's coming out this is a bit of a commercial right the first million is always the hardest and we talked a little bit about this as well because I want to take a little bit of what we're talking about and add it to our podcast. But one of the things that we do in this podcast is make sure that we're not just talking about making money but we're also talking a little bit about kind of your personal fulfillment and I want to backtrack a little bit and let you tell everybody a little bit about what your hopes and dreams were when you were a child. When you were young in your early days short of being Wayne Gretzky which was part of it right what were the things that really drove and motivated you and I'm really interested in kind of the surface level of hey I wanted to be a hockey player right but what was the underlying desire behind being a hockey player or in any of the other things that you were interested in when you were young?
SPEAKER_01Oh man uh this could go really deep. Yeah so you can cry it's okay I I can cry yeah um I I think uh certainly growing up I was a huge history nerd I still am massive history nerd if I could get paid to research history I would be the happiest guy out there. Sports you know hockey was a big thing when I figured out I wasn't making the NHL as a player I tried the referee route and had a really really good run with that got to do some really interesting things. But I think under everything I always tend to, I have this thing called sweating bullets, right? If you're not thinking big enough, if you're not sweating, you're not making any progress. Too many people stay within a box. I call it the safety box, where you're just blending in, you're doing the same as everybody else, but you're never going to get traction. You have to step outside the comfort zone, start sweating a little bit, and that's when you start, you know, that's when you start making some real progress. For me, I've always had that in me, whether it was the hockey stuff, whether it was whatever you whatever you call it, I've always had that. And I think deep down inside, I I always want to prove to myself that I can do it. So I put myself in these really impossible, you know, daunting uh situations, knowing deep down inside that I can do it. So it's almost like the in-between of, yeah, I got this, and how the fuck am I going to pull this off? In the middle is kind of where you want to be. And uh and I think I I'm trying to prove it to myself.
SPEAKER_03That's interesting. You know, um obviously this conference is very much the same. We extend this process and knowing like this is gonna be very difficult, but we're committed to where we see the vision of this. And you know, you had a vision for what the conference could be for Powerhouse when you started. Um, how has that vision changed? And I'm gonna come back to other childhood things, but just because you brought it up, I want to make sure I finish that that thought.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I set off with the conference. Uh we were uh a real estate investing conference when we first started, and uh my goal from day one was to create the largest real estate investing conference in Canada, in the entire country. Uh we did that in year two, so it's not not too shabby. Um but uh oh yeah, thanks. Yeah, we it we had a we have a really, really good team uh that that works on it. Um but uh yeah the goal was always total world domination.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And and the reason is you know, I'd gone to a lot of events and I was always really disappointed at the events I went to, and I just thought I could do a better job. Now, that was partly you know ignorance because I didn't understand what really went into these events, uh, but I I I think I I really believed I could do it. And so I set off trying to uh dominate the world in terms of real estate investing with events in Canada, and that has now shifted uh with Powerhouse, so we're we're wealth-building business, uh, we've expanded our base, and uh, we still have that world domination plan.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh so we're we're just going bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_03You know, um when you were describing uh your time as a child and some of the things that were important to you, what really resonated with me is the idea that you needed to prove to yourself that you were able to do this. And so the idea of taking these challenges, whether it's you know buying the properties, uh the podcast, the powerhouse, you've always kind of put yourself in a position to challenge yourself just enough, as you say, to sweat bullets so that you can figure out how to get to the next end. You know, um you've gotten to a point now where you've proven that you can do this repeatedly. How do you continue to use this as motivation given where you are today?
SPEAKER_01Well, you can always add an extra zero. Yeah, and that's a good way to do it. Um yeah, with us right now, you know, we we've grown to a certain point. We have a good reputation uh with the conference and what we're doing. Uh but again, you know, what does it look like now running two of these a year, going international with it? You know, these are the things that we're thinking about now that certainly, you know, we we have the model we follow, but now we take that model and put it in Europe. Does the model break at some point? We have to test that. Um so that's the long-term vision for it, and that's how we keep uh you know testing ourselves and putting ourselves in uh forward.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So one of the questions that I like to ask of a lot of the investors and entrepreneurs is this question about how much money matters in this process, right? So um a lot of people would say, hey, if I only had more money, I would be able to do X. In your case, if he only had more money, what would you have done differently from the beginning to where you are today?
SPEAKER_01Ooh, that's a very good question because I don't think money solves everything. Um because I I think what you can do is until you've figured out the model, throwing more money on it, more money at it is not going to solve anything. Um also I think there is an argument to be made about constraints and constriction. So not having all of the money you need really forces you to take a look at your model and what you're doing and get more efficient with it. Really ask yourself, do I need this? Where am I getting the most bang for your buck? And especially any startup here, uh like any startup, any business goes through that phase. And I really think it makes you stronger. Uh certainly, if I had unlimited funds when I started the conference, I would probably have made different decisions. Right. Maybe for the good, maybe not. It's tough to say. Um, but I think now that we have the model, uh now it's just a matter of pouring some gasoline onto the fire, and that takes us in a different direction.
SPEAKER_03Well, for many entrepreneurs or investors, the next question kind of related is if I only had the right partner, is there some partner, uh partnership that would have made a difference in your early stage that you think about now?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And it but then there's pros and cons with partnership, right? Um, you know, I've had partnerships that have gone well and some that have not gone well. Um but I think in the early stage, um, I embarked upon that conference journey knowing nothing about running a conference. It was just me learning as I went. On the one side, that was a very valuable experience. And when you get the scars yourself, you learn a lot faster, especially when it's in your own money. Um if I would have partnered with somebody who had a track record of running large-scale events like that, I probably could have uh gone through with less gray hair because it's starting to come in now because of the event. Um but but then on the flip side, would I have learned the same lessons? Would they have stuck as well? It's tough to say. Um, you know, on one side I am glad it's gone the way it has. Um, but then you know, you do think, hey, if I had the right partner uh who could have injected uh cash at an opportune time or who had more experience in this specific area, it would have been different. It's tough to say though. Salt and pepper, by the way, is the way to go.
SPEAKER_03That's that's right. Everybody thinks it's sexy, right? That's right. Everybody says salt and pepper is sexy. Yeah. I'm just saying. You didn't come this far only to come this far. You've got experience, network skills, but you're still trading your time for someone else's dream. Imagine using what you already know to build a life that pace you in time, money, and impact. In the Life Design Masterclass, I'll show you how high performers turn career story into the next level of business. Go to lifedesign.com right now. That's L-I-F-E, D E S Y N dot com. Don't just upgrade your job, redesign your life.
SPEAKER_00Your listening to the first million is always the hardest. We are now returning to the show.
SPEAKER_03Similarly, uh about people, personnel. You know, um, my experience, and um I think we may have talked about this, if not, um, there's this book called The E-Myth by a guy named Michael Gerber. Excellent book. It's a phenomenal book if you've never read it. For a lot of my staff, I buy it for them. It's this concept that basically says you start off as a worker, a manager, and an architect, and as you grow your business, you actually have to give away some of the responsibility, and they're not gonna do it as well as you did. And if you get frustrated and take it back from them, that's the first sign that you're probably gonna die, right? Um, and so you have to actually be willing to give away some of the responsibilities. It's a very difficult thing to do. But what that book in my mind really speaks to is the importance of personnel, people that you hire. So not necessarily your business partner, although they could be, but it's the people that work with you. And my question again would be if you had to all do it all over again, you know, what type of person, who's the person that you would have hired sooner that would have made the difference in your business?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I think I've learned I've certainly learned this lesson too. And I want to add on what you just said there's the people, but there's also the systems behind the people. Because if you can put the best person in place, but if there's no framework or foundation, you're not setting them up for success. And I the mistake I've made with people is I have not hired A players, I've hired B players. And a B player will never perform or tackle a problem like an A player would. So if I could go back in time, I would take longer to bring somebody in, but make sure they're that A player who can tackle that issue, make it their own, and they'll just take it and run. Everybody knows an A player when they meet one. But is they're hard to find, and even harder still, they're harder to recruit. So you need those systems in place, you need that track record in place to attract that A player, but once you have that person, you're off to the races. So if I could go back in time, I would I would hunt for those people specifically because a B or a C player is gonna slow you down and cost you so much money over the long term.
SPEAKER_03You know, one of the things we talk about in the podcast when you guys all sign up on Spotify is this concept that um to get an A player, you actually are recruiting that person before they ever come. And the most important way that you recruit that A player is for them to see another person who was an A player who works for you go on to do something else. This is kind of antithetical to a lot of people. The concept that I'm gonna bring this person in, I'm gonna foster this whole relationship, grow and develop them, and then they leave. But in reality, to get the A players, people who are A players want to see that if I come and I invest with you, I've got a future, whether it's with you or with someone else, and that you may even facilitate that future. And if you're not willing to put that kind of engagement, it's very difficult to recruit A players because they're interviewing you as much as you're interviewing them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're bang on. And the other thing too is you don't, it's kind of like it's kind of like a parent and their child is going off to college for the first time. You have to let them go. Because if you're trying to hold that person back, it just builds resent. But you know, we've had people come through our company who have moved on, you know, like they'll come back and they'll they'll help you out. Like you have you have to keep that relationship going. You should be happy that they're that they've moved on. You think of yourself as uh you know the the minor leagues in baseball. Somebody gets called up to the big club. Awesome, have a great time. And then you can use them as a success story to recruit your next one. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03So, you know, one of the other issues that I like to talk with entrepreneurs and investors about is the difference of using other people's money versus your own money. And just give us a sense philosophically where you are. Has that changed over time, also just given that you're doing bigger and bigger deals? Presumably, of course, you're in real estate, so you're you're you're leveraging borrowing money for real estate, so that's different. But on the equity side, when you have to put up a certain amount of money to get that leverage, how have you thought differently about whether I should bring in other people's money or should I make this solely my investment?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, when I first started, I thought I had to provide all the capital and I had to save up until I had enough to do the deal. That's way too slow. And the the biggest realization I had, actually it happened in Philadelphia at a three-day event just like this one. Um I realized I learned that there's more money out there looking for deals than there are deals looking for capital.
SPEAKER_03No question about it.
SPEAKER_01Um and so once you understand that, your your your perspective shifts. And so whenever you have an opportunity to deal, you shouldn't be thinking about, hey, how can I get this done on my own? It's like, well, there's a ton of people out there with money looking for a great deal. How can I present this to them and attract that type of person? Uh so now, and you know, raising money that presents a whole different set of challenges. Now you're responsible for somebody else's money. You're going to stay up at night some nights worrying about the money because things get rocky. Um that's that's part of the challenge that comes with raising capital, but the advantage you have is speed. You know, when you bring somebody else's money in, you get speed, and time is our number one resource.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, you have with Powerhouse built a community, and in the process of building that community and with your podcast, that actually gives you a network of people to both source deals and hopefully finance deals for you. Um, when you think about us individually starting our process of buying our first piece of real estate, trying to grow our portfolio, what are the kinds of suggestions and recommendations you'd make to develop our kind of small local community and how to grow that over time in a way that facilitates us sourcing new deals, sourcing financing for deals?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this has been a big game changer for me. So I'll give you an example. So we worked with a guy named Jimmy. He used to be a manager at a gym. Uh so he was managing a gym. He decided he wanted to get into real estate. Uh he got his first deal done under his belt. That year he did uh three other deals, so four deals his first year. Now he's doing these large development projects. The thing he did really, really well is he documented everything. He was visiting the job site, he would take a video, explain what was going on. He was visiting the city, he would take a video, explain what was going on. He just left an investor meeting, he would take a video, explain what was going on. He built his platform through video. I chose in-person events, I chose podcasts, Jimmy, he chose video. But what happened was he wasn't internet famous, but he started getting inquiries from people who were watching with money. And even though he may have may only have had a hundred views on that video, he has raised a ton of money through that just by documenting. You don't have to be an influencer, you don't have to wear yoga pants and do TikTok dances bending over anything. Nothing wrong with yoga pants. But uh but yeah, you don't have to do that. Just document what you're already doing. You can do it, start a podcast, talk about that. If you are doing your first deal, start a podcast, interview the real estate broker that helped you with the deal, interview your contractor, interview your architect, and just share what what you're doing. You will attract attention, I promise you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, I that's great advice. And I will say this as a bit of a caveat, right? Everybody out here probably shouldn't have their own podcast. But the idea of documenting is important, and there is a way to take the documentation that you put together and provide it to the public because people will find you, right? And to your point is it didn't take a hundred thousand people to see Jimmy and realize I want to invest. It only took maybe a hundred and a couple of those people to reach out and say, hey, I'm interested in following up in a transaction with you. And that's a way for many of us who may not come from family wealth, may not have an experience that may not even be credit worthy to banks of actually finding a way to source our own capital so that we can do some of the deals that we're interested in. Yeah. So we're we're getting close to our time, but before we go, I want to ask you a little bit about your personal journey to fulfillment. You know, and you've mentioned you've gone through all your trials and tribulations, business-wise, personally, you've kind of moved out of the family house eventually, and now you're on your you got a big boy's house now by yourself, you're raising your son. But how do you think about personal fulfillment? And and what has the role has been of your kind of investment thesis, the work of the powerhouse, and what makes you fulfilled as a person, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I what fulfills me now is not what I expected. Uh so when I launched the conference the first year, it was all about running this big event, I wanted to be the best. What happened was the second year, a whole lot of people came up to me and shared how much their life had changed because they came to the conference the first year. We have people who have called into the office crying, thanking me for running the conference because it's changed their life. We had this one guy, he showed up two years ago, he thought he was retired, very successfully, he built a good portfolio. He came out to the conference, he realized he hadn't even started yet. Within 12 months, he had basically tripled the size of his portfolio. Now, the numbers look good, but more importantly, think about the change in his children's lives and his grandchildren's lives. Think about how many people he employed by tripling his portfolio. Think about how many tenants he's helped by providing you know safe, affordable housing to those people. He has had a tremendous economic impact simply because he came out to my conference. So what gets me excited now isn't the money, it's not well hanging out with the celebrities is really cool. I'm not gonna it's really cool. Yeah, but hearing the real stories from you know people saying, hey, thank you. I've had this result, that is the coolest thing ever. And Bo, next year, you're gonna get the same thing from everybody in this room. It's gonna be really cool.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, thank you. Well, Seth, I really want to thank you on so many different levels for being part of this journey. We're gonna have you back here in future years, right, when we're gonna hear more success of what you're doing as an investor, your success as a father, your success at Powerhouse, and the support that you provided us. So just thank you very much. You've done a great job, Bo. Thanks.