Ep.7 From School Bus Hustle To Investment Real Estate

We trace Natasha’s career from early, scrappy sales lessons to building an investment-focused real estate business that runs on trust and long-term thinking. We talk about leaving corporate life, learning through rejection, and why doing the right thing becomes both a moral choice and a business advantage. 
• turning a school bus problem into a first sales “deal” and learning to set boundaries early 
• seeing corporate politics up close and deciding a traditional office path is not the goal 
• building grit through cold calls, showing up in person, and getting comfortable with “no” 
• choosing real estate as a career and carving out an investment-focused niche 
• learning key investor lessons the hard way, including refinance vs sell decisions 
• why realtors have an edge in real estate investing if they actually do the work 
• joint ventures as a way to invest without all the capital and build a retirement-style safety net 
• growing a team with intention, clear communication, and authentic relationships 
• pushing back on people who want your ambition smaller and “within reason” 
• playing the long game: protect clients, protect reputation, and let results speak 

Transcript

Theme Song And Welcome

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Built this empire from the ground. Never back and down. Never bound.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Two hearts, one vision, we stay true. In the fig of it. In the fips of it.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Welcome to In the Fips of It. I'm Natasha Phipps.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

And I'm Rodney Phipps.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Welcome to our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

We're here to talk about life, love, our pursuit of authentic happiness.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

We are married, we work together, we're parents to two amazing kids, and we hope you enjoy the show. Ready?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yes, ready.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

We are ready. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Back again.

First Deal On The School Bus

SPEAKER_04 0:54

So today should we talk about my career?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yes, let's start with yours. More interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

I had lunch with a friend the other day, well, a friend of both of ours, Lisa. And she, I don't know how we got on this topic, but this is what kind of sparked the idea for for today's kind of topic around my career. And kind of like, how did you first get into sales? Or like, how did you, you know, I don't think anyone when you're young is like, I want to be a realtor when you grow up. But what was the kind of first experience with sales? And I grew up in from when I was like three till 10, living in just outside of Marway in Alberta, in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

And my bus ride to school was quite long, starting in kindergarten and grade one. And the bus was full of kids from kindergarten to grade 12, right? So wide range of kids, as you can imagine. Those town school. Small town school, the teenage boys are always hungry, right? And if anyone knows my mom, she feeds everybody very well. Okay. And I was always sent to school with lots of food, lots of snacks. And very quickly I became the target of them like stealing my food, like first thing in the morning. And my brother was almost eight years older than me, and I don't really remember him doing much to intervene. But so I remember coming home from school one day, upset. I had like they took all my food and my mom didn't call the school. She didn't call the bus company. She gave me a wooden spoon to take on the bus the next day.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

And so I can remember this clearest day. And this kid sitting behind me, he like leaned over to try to take and I was ready. I was ready with this wooden spoon. And I smacked this kid over the head with this wooden spoon to like, you're not taking my food, right? And I'm like grade one kindergarten, like I'm little and this kid's maybe like 10 or so.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

And anyway, but that's where I struck my first deal. And I started selling my food on the bus. So after I stood up for myself, then it was a sales game.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Then flip it. Yeah. This is I guess late 80s, early 90s time time period. Very different. Very different. It was we were we were on the the the cusp of the everyone is special. We weren't quite there yet. So it was, it was, it was definitely a little bit of a different, different period of conflict resolution, let's call it.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Well, yeah, and you have no cell phone. You're not like calling for help. You're not, I mean, the bus driver was smoking, not paying attention at all to what like that bus ride was like, you have to stand up for yourself. There is no no one's coming to help you.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Yeah, yeah, no one's coming to save you.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

And so from then on, my mom was like, like, I always came home with money. And so I always had way more food than I needed. And so I started coming home with money every day in my lunchbox. So when we have my mom on, maybe we'll see how she remembers that story from her perspective.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Her perspective of that. Because it's not only that you started to sell, but that she didn't stop giving you more food. No, so she was like, she was in a way supporting your first business initiative as a as a kid in grade one, like you know, slinging treats to the the people on the bus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

And you know, I will say that kid was so shocked by what I did. Like he never tried it again, and he was just shook that I like responded that way, you know, total shock and awe. Yeah. And I'm sure it hurt, but he was obviously well, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

But it's also was not on the spectrum of results he was expecting. Like of all the things he was expecting to see and experience, that was outside of his realm of possibility.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

So that's a good way to bring my first memory of being underestimated. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Well, and unfortunately, there's been many since then, but that's a good start.

SPEAKER_04 4:32

Yeah, it is a good story. So from there. So from there, yes.

Why Corporate Life Felt Wrong

SPEAKER_04 4:36

Sales. I mean, sales can become like a dirty word, right? But we're all in sales. Everyone is in sales, in my opinion. But definitely never thought I would get into like real estate in terms of being a realtor. But yeah, I got into real estate because I didn't want to live the corporate life.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yes, and you you went to school for marketing, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:58

Yeah, I have a marketing degree, graduated from the University of Lethbridge, but never set foot in Lethbridge. Yeah. They had a campus in Calgary at sea, so that's where my degree is from. But through university, was working in oil and gas. Yep. Downtown, at Nexon, corporate job, and I knew for sure I was not going to survive in that corporate environment for many reasons.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Which I think we both kind of bonded on that early. But what I didn't, you know, really pay attention to at the time was like I was interested in real estate. I was investing in real estate. I bought my first property, also my second property, but hadn't really thought about becoming a realtor until I was like forced, like, what the heck am I gonna do? I really don't want to get another nine to five. And that's when we had first started dating.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah, yeah. No, that was because you didn't get your license until we moved to actually to Pentacla.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah. And that's an interesting story too, because we have two different perspectives on the stereotypical Calgary, you know, oil and gas community culture, whatever you want to call it. So this would be the early 2000s. I grew up a city kid, my dad obviously in the oil and gas business. I had all the runway to follow in his footsteps. Yeah. I knew pretty young that I wasn't going to, but but it was there where you came from the country, you know, small town girl, very different sort of entry point, but coming to a very similar conclusion. Now you came to that conclusion by actually spending time in the trenches, so to speak, in the in the in the offices and dealing with the you know, politics and the yeah, there was a couple of just like revelations in terms of like what I wasn't okay with.

SPEAKER_04 6:37

I I remember one of the first things was I was doing a huge research project on international business development. I was researching like old abandoned sites and and new sites, and I had there was all this data I had to compile, like it was a big project, and it took me it took me a couple of months to put it together. And I remember they were presenting kind of the compilation of everything at a meeting, and right before the meeting, like I was invited to the meeting, but right before the meeting, they took it from my hands and presented it, and I didn't get to say one word, which obviously I'm I'm a student, I'm a junior, you know, and and and I and I believe in earning your place, but I also believe in you know giving people credit for their work. Yes. But that was that one of those moments where I was just like, ah, you know, I can see the next 30 years of this and was not was not okay with it.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, and it's like it you can see where it begins a path of having to play a certain game.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

So having to design your days and your interactions and your, you know, the office politics, they call it, you have to start changing the way you approach things based on that. Because yes, you want it to be a merit-based system. I think when you go out on your own, it's all it's it's maybe more that way because it's up to you and you sink or swim. There's no one to help you, there's no one to cover you. But in the office, the the corporate world, there's more politics, there's more, you know, time and place, or your spot, make sure you don't overstep. Like there's all these kind of things, and and having the time in and and making sure, you know, all those sort of things. So it starts a path of having to change your approach to interactions, to people, to whatever. That's also part of it. I think also an interesting side note, you were working at Nexin, which was actually a company my dad had been with for years before that. Yeah. Which was another wild coincidence that you just happened to be with that that company that my dad had worked with, and that one of your friends at the time, her dad actually went to high school with my dad.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Which I mean that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

There's all these weird kind of side threads, but that one always makes me laugh because of all the places you were working at, happens to be that company with.

SPEAKER_04 8:41

Well, and

Phone Book Cold Calls And Grit

SPEAKER_04 8:42

and I think if we get to rewind a little bit too, because my first kind of jobs were my very first job was I grew up from, you know, when I was about 10, I started getting really into horseback riding. Yeah, my very first job was at the barn cleaning stalls.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

I literally think I got paid $3 an hour. I don't know. Very little. But it was my first job, you know, on the weekends that I have to be at the barn at like 6 a.m. cleaning stalls. I eventually started and like feeding the horses. It was like through the winter, it was those were like hard days, hard mornings. And but one thing that my parents did starting at about 14, kind of my first sales job, other than the bus story, was a summer job. And my dad, he's in new construction. My parents' company is a company that does roofing and siding here in Calgary. And we needed more work. And so I was I was gonna help find new jobs for us. And he sat me down at the desk and just put the phone book through the phone book in front of me and left and was like, we need more work, figure it out, right? And then you're like looking through the phone book, like and I started phoning builders, I think maybe when I was around 16, is when I actually like got a couple of these builders over the line. Right. But my dad worked with these people for like decades. There was one builder in particular. I remember I was 16 because I drove there myself, went and met the guy myself, and picked up the blueprints like physically and brought them home. And I remember walking this guy's office and he was like shocked to see me. He was just like, What are you here for? I'm like, I'm from Boa Valley Exteriors. We really want to quote this project. And there's no way this guy could say no. Like, I could see him looking at me like, No, this can't be serious. This can't be serious. This girl's here. But we did, I took it home, we quoted the job, and those relationships were made. And those relationships, I think, lasted a decent amount of time for my dad in in that scenario. So it's like that was the first sales job. Just figure it out. Here's a phone book.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Well, and then and make mistakes. Exactly. Yeah, but conversely, if you see someone like that now, like your dad mentioned there was someone going door to door. You see someone with that, like that tenacity to just like show up and to make the hard phone calls like that's uh a bit sound a little bit like an old man shouting at clouds, it's a little bit of a lost art, but but it is it it sharpens your steel, like it's there's just no duplication for just doing the work and like you know and being and putting yourself in a situation that you're gonna hear no.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Yes, you're gonna be rejected and you're gonna say no, because I guarantee you I called probably you know, most of the builders in town, and maybe I got two meetings, right? And it took me a while, and I remember being very nervous, but someone will say yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yeah, it's and that's such a common one in like across all industries, but like the music business, for example, they talk about it all the time. Yeah, you're gonna heal a million no's, you just gotta hear one yes, right? That's the thing that keeps you going, is the one yes, not the million no's. But you got to get used to hearing the no's.

SPEAKER_04 11:30

Yeah. And I do hear a lot too, realtors say, I'm too young, I'm too young to succeed, people don't take me seriously. Yeah, and like I understand that fear, but it is really a fear that you're putting in your own brain.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

For some people, you may be too young, but for some people, you might be to this and to that and whatever. You're never gonna be something to everybody. So being young, having energy, having like that's what I'm looking for now. I'm looking for those people that have that energy and that and that care and interest and desire to learn and and work. And so there is no to anything. It's just that's not gonna be fair.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And so then when

Choosing Real Estate Over Nine To Five

SPEAKER_00 12:05

you first got your real estate license, we were living in Penticton just before we moved back here, but pretty well right away you started focusing on the investment space and identified that that's a bit of a niche, an interest also niche. But this is now like 2009. Yeah. So now you're seeing in the marketplace more of a carved out corner for investment focused real estate on the residential level. But then there wasn't a ton of people doing that. There was there weren't there wasn't a big network that at least you were a part of that, or you know, even now, I mean, I think you talk to most realtors, a lot of them don't understand the transaction difference. Like there is a significant difference in in the client relationship and the process.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Yeah, I mean, you're not trained when you get your real estate license to be investment focused, or there is no section on like, you know, how to be a good investment focused realtor. But I know I wanted to focus on that at the time. There was now there's so much information everywhere. But at the time, there was no, there was no obviously no YouTube channel. There was nothing. But there also wasn't a lot of groups and stuff. And I remember just even the first after my first couple transactions and yours too, that alone, like the things we learned after like after four or five transactions, what we should have been advised by our real estate team, our mortgage team, our bank, like we were not advised at all. And and those were things alone that I was just like, that can make a huge difference in someone's financial picture, like refinance instead of sell. You know, there was times in in our very early years that we absolutely should have done that, and but nobody once told us that.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Yeah, certainly not in the in the banking space. And I was very fortunate that my mom and and my dad got kind of got me started in real estate as well. So when we first together, we had some real estate going and made some decisions and did some buying and some selling and some transacting, but we did more selling than if we were to go back in time and advise the younger us what to do, probably wouldn't have sold. Yeah. But that was also part of our education. Yeah. So it's not you you can learn from it, and then you know, that also helped you as you became further along in this space. That was part of your learning curve and part of the education that you had to your own career almost before you started to learn more about that within the space.

SPEAKER_04 14:20

Well, and and I do believe if you're gonna be niched in anything, like it's you're gonna succeed a lot more if you're physically doing it yourself as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 14:29

And it builds a lot of rapport, it builds a lot of you know conversations based on experience with clients rather than just I heard this or this is what we should do, right? So I think in the investment space, if you should want to be investing, that's what you're selling.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yeah. Yeah, it's something that we kind of joke about a lot, and especially now that we have Welsh and these other things, that there's so many realtors out there that they're specialized, quote unquote, in real estate. That's their career, but they don't actually own real estate themselves. Yeah. And that's an interesting one because you you know, if that's your specialty, you would think you would have at least some exposure to that. And especially if you're an investment, to your point. Now we're fortunate now at this point, we've probably done almost every type of real estate investing there is pre-sales, we've done our infills, we've done fix-ups, we've done, you know, the whole line, you know, multifamily, like all these different things in different sizes and different, you know, numbers, but it's doing

Learning Investment Real Estate The Hard Way

SPEAKER_00 15:30

it, right? And there's so many realtors that aren't aren't actually doing the thing and then are potentially trying to teach with the experience.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

I fully believe realtors have such an advantage to do well with real estate investing. Yeah, you know, you know the market well, you know when you see a deal, you know when you see something, but it's just taking the time to learn how you like what can you do with that expertise and that knowledge. You know, joint venturing, for example, I think realtors should be seriously considering joint venturing. There's many people who would love to partner with you. You have expertise in this particular area or or strategy or something, but they don't want to do the work. They don't want to, you know, be get involved, but that doesn't mean they don't want to invest or partner up with you. So I think joint venturing for realtors like should really be top of mind because we don't have a retirement plan often out of realtors, right? We don't have that um plan necessarily built out, and that can be your plan. Like having a couple of properties through your career can make all the difference.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

All the difference. And it's a natural progression. You already have your client base. Yeah, you have your relationships that you should be building with authenticity, with long-term relationships in mind. If you're building those relationships the right way and not just off one transaction and then what have you done for me lately, but with a true understanding of the long-term relationship and what's best for that client, what's best for what they're trying to accomplish, then you're naturally building a relationship that makes sense for a joint venture. Yeah. Because we've been fortunate we've had some great joint ventures and we've had some partnerships that weren't so great. But the ones that were the best were the ones that were cultivated over time with transactions, with the relationship that was built on trust and built on a fundamental understanding that you were working in their best interests. The ones that maybe haven't worked as well came together much faster and without the history of working together and understanding the like-mindedness or or not like-minded. That's fine. You don't have to be like-minded, you just need to know. And so the successes came from that natural working with these people. And so realtors have this network already that they're building as part of their career. It's a huge opportunity in just sitting right there. Now you have to be willing to do the extra work. You have to go find the deals. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Well, I think they are. I mean, realtors can work crazy hours, they can put in lots of effort. A lot of realtors do put in an insane amount of effort into their business. But I think they go, well, I don't have the capital to invest, I don't have the capital to to do this. But uh honestly, you don't necessarily need it. And but it is learning how to how to do that. So that's one thing I'm really passionate about with our team, yes, is educating our realtors and encouraging them to use their expertise to further their financial picture. Yeah. And be like you need to build some type of safety net in this business. I think, you know, through my career, that's you know, there's ups and downs, and money's flowing, and then money's tight. And um, you know, you yeah, so you gotta plan for those rainy days.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah. And and as your career grew, you know, you've you've had a time at a couple different brokerages and have really settled now with CIR and what was first the Phips group and its first iteration, learnt a lot from that. Yeah. And learnt a lot about intention.

Joint Ventures And Building A Safety Net

SPEAKER_00 18:50

And then now as it's expanded, I think having Andrea in for an episode would be fantastic. Yes. Because we're you know both really excited about the FIPS and Test Y group and what that means for both of you. But the amazing story there is just what we're talking about. This was someone that started as a client, yeah, an investment-focused client, awesome person. You identified, I remember you hearing about her very early on and how impressed you were with her and her husband. And the strategy that they were taking and the intention that they had, and she's you know, a little bit younger than you, and then became a realtor on your team, and then was one of those people that stood up and had the intention to do more, to put in the extra work, to be the take more of a leadership role. And so that that had that long-term relationship, long-term person, the intention, all those things, but it started as a client. Started that relationship, and it was with being legitimate in the transactions you did with her early on that helped cultivate a relationship that now is a team together. Yeah, that's the that's the perfect example of how it can work. Yeah, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Andrea and Kevin, they they did everything right. I think they they they have really taken this real estate investing space and done so well with it. House hacked, you know, had those short-term pain for long-term gain while they had no kids, and you know, it it's it's just so awesome to see. So yeah, we have to have her on for sure. I think that'll be great. She would be great to chat with more about that.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

And authentic people, right? Like that's part of the transition through different places, different brokerages, different teammates. Like you learn who the really authentic people are. And sometimes you you can only learn by putting the time in, by doing it, by testing it, going through you know, the iterations of what the team was meant to be and you know, how how the relationship should work. And you know, for so long it was just you and your career as most realtors start. Yeah. And you spent a lot of time that way, and then experiencing some teams that weren't working the right way, and then starting your own team and figuring out that sort of almost happened in reverse order. It was just like, you know, you're almost so busy for a period of time that's what it was. It grew based on on how busy you were, not based on an intention to build a team. Yes. Whereas I think the second iteration, it it started more a lot more at start, but it became a lot more intentional about this is what we're trying to do, this is what I need, this is what I expect, having clean and clear communication, like those are things that came with shifting the intention of the team, at least from where I was sitting with a 10,000-foot view.

SPEAKER_04 21:24

You know, in my largest production year, did over 100 transactions in a year.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

And so that and that that was just mine. So the overflow from that, the the team was sort of an overflow. It wasn't intentionally put together, like this is who we are, this is what we're doing. And Andrea has done, has brought so much value to to dialing into who we are and what we want to be and who is our clients and who is our team as well. So we're very dialed into that now. I'm really excited about that because before, yeah, it was just more like a urgent matter of just craziness rather than intention.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah, and I think one will you we'll have a episode later just titled Relationships. So I won't go into it this too much right now, but I think what you learn too is that a team, I think for realtors and teams that are out there, it it doesn't necessarily have to be a forever relationship, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Relationships sometimes can be short. And as long as they're both both sides are being treated fairly and are communicating and everything, that's fine. You can you can be there for a little while and go and start your own thing, and that's great. There's there's there's dynamics that fit, but the relationships that it's not all or nothing necessarily to mean it was a valuable relationship for when it existed.

SPEAKER_04 22:37

I believe in growth. I believe in consistently

Growing A Team With Clear Intention

SPEAKER_04 22:40

growing. And you might outgrow relationships, outgrow people, but that's that's totally okay. It's when you get stagnant and stuck and everything needs to remain the same, or you're surrounded by people who don't want you to grow. Yes. That's been actually my largest points in my career where I've struggled a little bit. And now that I look back, it's I had people around me that did not want to grow themselves, they didn't want me to grow, they just kind of wanted as is status quo. And that is something I'm very aware of now. Yes, but that took some learning.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

And I'm gonna look at the camera for this one. I'm sorry, but I gotta do it. If anyone ever tells you you shouldn't have what you want or you shouldn't go for it, or what you have is enough, and why do you want more? Fuck that person, fuck them. It's not right, and every person's gotta decide for themselves. Sorry, but that's the truth. And I firmly believe that if it was me sitting in your seat instead of you, the difference purely between us being male and female, yeah, no one was saying that to me. No, and that is fucking frustrating.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

Yeah, no, I've heard a lot of that. Why do you want more? Why aren't you happy with what you have? Why are you trying to build so much? Why are you trying to, you know, do do XYZ? And that's not the right kind of people you want to have around you. If you really want to like go for something great, you're really trying to build something. That does not help them.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

No, and it's coming from people that are wanting you to be a powerful woman and uh and speaking out ha side of their mouth. I want you to be powerful, but not too. I want you to be successful, but not too successful. I want you to be this, but you know, yeah, just you know, within a reason. Within reason. I mean, come on. And and and it's just so gross, yeah. Like it just really is, especially when you know, like, like I said, they're not gonna say that to me. Yeah, and it's and and that's now, of course, a whole other episode as well. So we won't go into it, but I said it, I'm gonna say it again. Fuck that person. And I mean it because it's no, it it's just it it's it's so wrong on so many different levels. But we'll save that rant for another rainy day.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

I think we got it. We got a good rant then.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

No, that's just the start of it. I need a soapbox and I get 30 minutes to really get into that one with teeth, but that's all right. Yeah, and I mean, I obviously I'm protective and uh supportive of you, so seeing it right next to you is also gonna give me a little bit more energy for it. Yeah, but especially when I know, I know without a shadow of a doubt that if it was me doing that, it would just be clapped or like let's go. You know, some hate, of course. I mean, people hate me no matter what I do, but it would not be so direct, so overt, like, you know, calm it down. Yes, you've had enough, you've had your success, you know, you know, pick up your purse and and and be a nice little, you know, yeah, woman. And it's just, anyways, I don't want to derail what's been an amazing career, of course, but it is part of the story. It is part of the growth

Ambition Pushback And Double Standards

SPEAKER_00 25:25

of your business, the growth of your team, the growth of now you are a nationally recognized name. We joke all the time, like you've made the Phipps name more recognizable than my dad or I could ever have, right? And you know, when when the news is doing an article on Calgary in real estate, they often call you Global CBC. You know, you have articles pop up on you know people's you know, iPhone Apple news, Apple News or whatever, you know, from from across the country. And of course, right now it's very political. There's all the Alberta stuff, which is great, but but you've done that piece by piece over the last 19 years and always with that long-term vision, with building things the right way, by treating each and every single client you have the right way. I've seen you walk away from deals countless times because you knew that it wasn't the right deal for that client.

SPEAKER_03 26:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

And that's what's built you a relationship where you can go back to your clients and when it's time to grow your business or expand it to something like Wellshare, Wellshare was launched off the relationships that you have. I contributed a little bit, Monique's contributed a ton, but the the core investing group were people that you built relationships with that had seen the way you've worked over a long period of time, that you never took the shortcut, that you never put them in a bad deal, you never put your transaction ahead of what was best for them.

SPEAKER_04 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

You do that over time. It's maybe not the fastest road, no, but it is the one that you build that can last your entire career.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

And I think realtors, if there's one message to learn from this, it's that. It's a it's a tough business. There's jokes about realtors for a reason. It's it can be very hand-to-hand. Like five percent of realtors are doing 95% of the transactions. I mean, I've that's an exaggeration, but it's not that much of a 2080, yeah. Yeah, 2080. Yeah, but it can probably feel like five.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

And and there's a reason, and it's hard. And you start with your your your personal circle, and so the first year or two, you might have a great because you go to your friends and family, and you and you, and then you exhaust that, and then what do you do, right? That's that's a plan. Now, your team has a plan for that because you've learned it, you've done it. But what it really comes down to is your clients and the relationships you've built there and being there in the right way with the right intention and not just a quick fix deal.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

And especially in this real estate investing space, like this community is relatively small, actually, coast to coast. Canada's not a big country, and then you niche down into something like this space. I, you know, can you know say that we have never promoted a project that we wouldn't put our own money in.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

There's many projects we turned down, there's lots of projects we did not promote, and we would have made a killing if we would have promoted some of these because they were at very hot times in the market. But now I'm so happy we didn't and we really stood firm on what we believed was a good deal or not, because you know, hundreds of people could have been now calling me, going, what the hell did I buy? So that long-term vision is really important. The relationship is most important. Yeah, you know, there's all kinds of stories of of you know things. Maybe when we have Midi gone, I have a very funny story about her of how I, you know, put my own money in to help save a deal for her. Yeah and and and that was really important to me. Like I want my clients to be happy and I want them to be to make money, and I want them to keep buying on the next deal as well. Because if they make money on the deal one, they're gonna keep investing, and that's what it's all about. Exactly. That long-term vision has been critical.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

And even if you're just purely a mercenary, I hope you're not, but even if you are, do the right thing is good business.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Because that is a client that you have for the rest of your life. So even if you can't bring yourself to be an ethical, moral person, think of it purely on the business sense. That is someone that you can work with for a long time. And again and again, just by doing the right thing. It may take a little longer, but that's a that's a road that's built, that's paved.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

It's not just bushwhacked through some shrubbery and then grows over after you're gone.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Like that's it's it's vital and purely just on good business sense.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

And so obviously, I'm really proud of everything that I've seen you accomplish. And you I in a lot of ways, I feel like you're just kind of getting started in a lot of in a lot of ways, you know, with Welsh and with the team evolving and growing and other opportunities coming down. And you know, you're you're getting recognized again this year as a nomination for wealth professionals. And so that's two years in a row, and you know, that's just another sign. This is another this is out of Toronto. This isn't there's a couple people from the West that get invited to this thing every year, and and even less women. So that's we're starting to you're starting to see this recognition, and I and you know, as your partner and and and biggest fan, but probably in some ways also your biggest critic. It's awesome to see. And I you're very you you don't speak about your own successes very much. You're very modest, and that's awesome. And you've just always let your work do the talking, which I think is a the final piece of advice. Let your work do the talking.

SPEAKER_04 30:20

Results will always speak for themselves, right? And yeah, long-term vision, thinking long term. Yep, the most important thing. Do the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Do the right thing. There's no shortcut. Yeah, and guess what? You can see better at night.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

It's a very underrated thing. Sleeping.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

It's very true. Yeah, especially if you want longevity in this space. Because it word does get out, word gets around.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

So yeah, takes it takes years and years to build up a relationship, and it can take minutes to come up.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Yeah.

unknown 30:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

Well, you you hear us say variations of that all the time.

Let Your Work Talk And Close

SPEAKER_00 30:50

All right. Well, with that, I think that's pretty good for for that episode, for this episode and for this conversation, this piece. And I'm sure we'll go into more of these subjects as we go, but I think it's a really good communication point for other realtors, both ones that are just starting out, but also ones that have been in the industry for a while. Like you can hit plateaus in any career. Yeah. But it but I think specifically in a sales-based business, like being a realtor. So it's good to have you need to be growing.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

You need to be this industry is constantly changing. I mean, look at AI right now. Like, oh yeah, you know, uh I a couple months ago, I was like, I'm gonna get left in the dust if I don't start learning all this stuff, right? And so, but that's where I I thrive on that. I like the change, I like the growth, I like the movement, it it motivates me. Yeah, so if you're you know in a business like this, like you have to do that. Yeah, hopefully it feels you.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Yeah, absolutely. All right, well, with that, all right. Thanks a lot. Thanks for tuning in. See you next time. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Beauty's empire from the ground, never backing down, never bang.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Two hearts, one vision, we stay true. And the fig of it, and the flips of it.