Over the years we've been in many battles.
So many battles that sometimes we wonder how we got through them all.
Here’s a small sampling…
We’ve had to rip out 40-year-old toilets from properties that released an odour you just can’t describe.
We’ve had tenants get upset with us and call us nasty names (we did nothing wrong, they were upset with life).
We’ve had threats that Environment Canada is coming to shut down our properties (it proved to be false).
We’ve had banks ask us for more financial paperwork hours before closing.
We’ve had banks threaten to pull financing altogether the day of a closing.
We’ve had lawyers go missing on us the actual day of closing on a new property.
We’ve had contractors rip us off.
We’ve had home inspectors miss major problems on a new purchase.
We’ve had people quit on us with no notice.
We had the very first brokerage we worked out of go bankrupt and the doors were being locked as we rushed out with our office desks, printer, and VOIP phone.
We’ve had people tell members of our team that we would fail.
We had someone try and steal all our marketing material and take it to another real estate brokerage.
We have had chains wrapped around the doors of our second office. We were subleasing and it turned out the guy we were subleasing off of stopped paying his rent (but kept taking ours!).
We had the police show up as we “broke into” our own office and ripped out our desks, printer and VOIP phone (again!).
We have had refinances fall apart at the last minute after we already mentally spent the money we were going to receive.
We have had more basement leaks than you can count.
Heck, we’ve had Nick dive across a basement floor to stop a “river of crap” backwashing up through the main basement drain from running into a brand new furnace.
We almost ran out of cash after quitting our jobs and starting this business.
The bottom line is…
We have stories we can share!!
So when we get the opportunity, like Nick is above, to go skiing on a weekday with my daughter, Sienna, and his daughter, Ella…it’s a blessing.
And, after everything we’ve been through so far, to be able to buy a vacation home up there feels like a small miracle.
We’re grateful.
Last week, I darted down to Naples, Florida for 5 days to hang out with some old friends and check out some real estate.
To be able to do things like this “on a whim” feels like pure freedom.
Got some sun, had some laughs, ate some great food, checked out some real estate…amazing.
Next week, we’re all off to the Dominican. Fourteen of us are all going to the same place. Can’t wait!
And on top of all of this we get to work in a business, Rock Star, with amazing people who are all trying to better themselves and their financial situations.
Honestly, just couldn’t be more thankful for the position we find ourselves in.
It’s been a journey to get to this point but we wouldn’t change a thing.
With that, here’s a few things we’ve learned over the years:
ㅤㅤ1. Ride a trend.
If you’re going to commit to one area of work and you’re not exactly sure where to put your efforts…find a trend and work in that space.
The rising tide of the trend lifts all boats.
For us it has been real estate. Low rates, debt, money printing, huge population growth…all work well for real estate over medium and longer terms.
ㅤㅤ2. Use systems.
Income properties work because they are a “system in a box”.
Every day your customer (tenant) wakes up in your business and pays rent (every single day). There’s no guessing, it’s a system that works for you day-in and day-out.
For a business, the highest and best use of your time is to develop a system to acquire new customers.
Once you have mastered your craft there should be nothing else that you focus on. A sales and marketing system is priceless to you.
Ours has generated tens of millions of dollars in revenues.
ㅤㅤ3. Find good people and hang out with them.
“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” - Jim Rohn
ㅤㅤ4. Keep learning. Never stop.
Our little cheat code has been this. Learn about real estate deeply. Learn about the money game deeply. Learn about business building deeply. Learn about relationships, nutrition, health, fitness, family … deeply.
For us this has been through books, courses, seminars, events, newsletters, conferences, masterminds, consulting, coaching…all of it.
ㅤㅤ5. Live with principles.
Here are ours:
a. Always do the right thing.
b. Give 110% (take 1 and multiply it by 98%…take the result and do that again…the number keeps getting smaller. That’s your life when you don’t give at least 100% or more.)
c. Treat others as you would treat yourself.
ㅤㅤ6. Action beats meditation.
So many people wait or meditate until they feel they have 100% of the info before they do anything.
This is incorrect.
Get up to 80% of the info you want and then act. You need failures and mistakes to guide your next decisions. When you make a mistake it guides your next move.
Your mistakes are the raw material needed for your personal success.
ㅤㅤ7. Love your family and your friends.
Money is not going to make you happy.
Don’t forget that when crap hits the fan the people that will clean you up are going to be your family and your best friends.
Spend time with them, call them right now and say hello, love them, surprise them, invest in these relationships.
They are everything. Bottom line, end of story.
OK, there’s way more to share but that’s all we have time for today.
You can live the life you want to live, exactly on your terms.
Find people who are doing it and hang out with them, learn from them, ask them questions. It’s possible.
And find the happy ones, not the grumpy ones, LOL!
See ya next week!
Tom & Nick
p.s. There’s so much confusion on the eviction process in Ontario that we created a new Rock Star Minutes episode all about it with an absolute expert in the area, Paralegal Kelly Hawkes…you can check it out below or watch it at: rockstarinnercircle.com/how-
p.p.s. We started putting out some YouTube Shorts. This week we have a super quick video on why you may not be achieving what you want to achieve in life. It’s all about getting frustrated with your life. You can check that out right here (remember, we’re happy people but we mean what we said here!)
