Over the years, we’ve spent a lot of time and money investing in ourselves. Both with taking the time to read but also with investing in audio programs and attending different conferences and mastermind meetings. We’ve always found this to be extremely beneficial. On this episode of The Your Life! Your Terms! Show we chat with Mike Desormeaux and Ruben Furtado to have a group chat on their personal development, making money and what has had the biggest personal growth impact in our lives so far.
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Transcript
Hey everyone, it’s Tom Karadza and this episode is a pure experiment. I thought we’d bring in Ruben Furtado. So if you don’t know Ruben, him and I have known each other for quite a long time now we’re good friends we met at Oracle. I came up in Oracle on the technology side. He went in straight into the sales side. When I transferred into sales. He was actually my first sales manager. we flipped houses together in real estate. And then ultimately now we are working together here at Rockstar he specializes in really the high end modern real estate market and is doing very well for himself and he really comes from you know, I don’t want to say nothing but he doesn’t come from a well off background and had to work hard for everything that he has. So I thought wouldn’t be cool to bring in him. And then also bring in Mike disorder Mo. If you don’t know Mike says normal. He’s been part of the Rockstar team here. Pretty much from day one amazing guy works with tons of Rockstar inner circle real estate investors does a great job here working with investors really helped people build some amazing real estate property. Leo’s. And Mike’s background is shared in in another podcast. And if you haven’t listened to it, he really comes from not a, you know, a middle class or upper upper middle class background either. He shares a little bit of his story on this particular podcast, not much. We get into it much deeper in an earlier podcast, if you’re interested, you can look up my dorm, a story and our podcasts and you’ll find it there. But I thought wouldn’t be cool to bring these two guys who are doing really well for themselves. They’re really successful bringing my brother Nick karadza, who really started with his real estate adventures at a really young age, and just pick their brains on personal development and money and their thoughts on money. So this episode is a pure experiment. There was no grand plan for this, I perhaps should have been a little bit more prepared to ask them questions that just kind of threw stuff at them. didn’t prepare them for what I was going to ask them. But we ended up talking about some pretty cool stuff and sharing different ideas back and forth. So I hope you enjoy it. And the idea and the concept behind this particular episode was just Let’s talk about our ideas of money when we were young, how we think about it now, and personal development, how we view personal development, what we went through when we were younger and where it’s gotten to us at this point in our lives, and share just so that if you’re going along your own journey, you can hear other people with their own challenges and successes and who’s made mistakes, and share our journeys. And perhaps we can all help each other along the way. So that’s the idea behind this Pat podcast. And if you’re listening to this episode, and you’re on your own real estate journey, one of our books called income for life for Canadians is available on our website for free. And if you know someone who you think is about to explore real estate, but they’re on the fence, you can share a free copy of that book with them. And the reason that particular book might be the good place a good place to start for them is we’ve had so many real estate investors tell us they were on the fence about investing in real estate, because all they found were different us examples of properties or they were reading about investors that were outside of Ontario or Outside of the Greater Toronto Golden Horseshoe area, but when they read that particular book with local examples of different properties, it really got them excited that somebody in their neighborhood was having success with real estate. And perhaps they could jump in and enjoy some of their own success in real estate as well. So if you know someone who’s thinking about getting into real estate investing, whether it be a joint venture partner with you, or a family member that you know is on the fence, you can share a free copy of that book by downloading, downloading it at Rockstar inner circle, calm forward slash books. So that’s rock star inner circle.com forward slash books, you can get access to that income for life for Canadians book, their books are probably the thing that have the biggest impact on my own life and my own journey. So to be able to share a book back and see if it can help someone in some way possibly is really motivating and encouraging for us to be able to do that kind of thing encouraging for us. I don’t even know if I’m speaking properly at this point. But we’re, we’re excited to be able to offer that if it’s at all helpful. So With that, let’s get on with the show.
Are you ready to live life on your turn? Is it time did take charge, real estate, business building the economy, health and nutrition and more. It’s the your life your terms show with Tom and Nick Karadza. Are you ready? Let’s go.
Okay, we are live, so
I’m just gonna ask it. Nick, can you hear me?
Can you hear me Mike? Listen, I feel obligated to ask the freaking question now. Can you hear me
loud and clear? Okay, good. Thanks for checking. I’m really glad that we have that out of the way.
Listen, I gotta just admit something if I know if Can you smell anything in the office right now? I did when I walked in. Did you also smoke inside the micro?
Sorry. No, just that was the weirdest question though. Can you
Snow you know, the reason is because ever since I had that concussion, it’s kind of left me with a stiff neck. And now that the concussion symptoms are pretty much past, if I get like physio therapy done or anything on my neck, the trap muscles here seem to tense up the next day and it tenses up in the muscles right up the back of my neck tense up in the muscle, you know, you have these little muscles on the side of your skull. Right? You guys know that or no?
make sense.
I didn’t even know I had muscles on the side of my they tense up. So what I discovered is if I get these little pads, see these things on my shoulders? These are what like my my 80 year old mother in law when she has like arthritis or something. She puts these little muscle relaxing pads. Their little stickers that you stick on. It’s like, I think is Ben gay like a muscle relaxant.
Yeah, I think it is. Yeah,
okay. Anyway, I smell like an old man right now because I have these patches on and they smell but they seem to do a really good job of relax by traveling. Which relaxes the muscles on the side of my head. I know I realized how ridiculous this is. But this is the state of life. For me right now as a 46 year old man. Anyway, so
if you smell something, that’s what you’re smelling, I had no idea where you’re going with that. I thought you were gonna say that your sense of smell was stronger since you’ve had the concussion.
My sense of smell good. We better get this.
We better get and I didn’t have a concussion.
No, I know.
We got to get this on track. So the whole idea with this episode is we were going to talk about I know Mike, what you’ve been through. Over the last, I guess 2030 years, maybe Reuben what you’ve been through, Nick, what you’ve done. And I just thought it would be really interesting to see if I could get something around your viewpoints on personal development and on money. And I guess can because Ruben threatened to me before we started this, Mike will start with you, Nick. You’re going to take off and what? 30 minutes.
Yeah, I got I got it. I got it. Downtown but but yeah, about 30 minutes 30 minutes.
So I’ll start with Mike. I guess what I’m interested to hear is, you know, you’re now in your late 40s. When What were you? Can you articulate? Do you remember what your thoughts around money or maybe people who quote unquote, had money, because I know your story. And just to summarize it really quickly for those don’t know, you don’t come from like this big background of like, upper middle class upbringing, where you were just like on five star luxury vacations as a kid or anything like that. So now to the point where you’re doing pretty well for yourself now. Can you reflect back like Do you remember what you thought of around making money or what it would take to make money back then? Yeah.
Geez, if I go back to I think 1819 is probably when I opened up that book. I refer to it before it was awakening the giant by Tony Robbins. Because I didn’t know about the people I married did not have wealthy people in it. I simply did not know wealthy people. I think that was that is running meeting St. Clair. In front of us was the railroad tracks down the street from us was a slaughterhouses on a bad day. Is that Canada Packers? Yeah. Completely been revamped since then. But I mean, there would be bulls or cows loose periodically, every now and then back then the police would walk up to it. And we could be kids in a playground and they just shoot it right in the head. I’m sure that wouldn’t happen nowadays. Yeah, nobody loves
animals, 90 and the police officers would be arrested by animal activists.
Yeah. So yeah, it was a little bit different back then. But I think that was one of the books and then somehow the vision board it came into play. And I remember I always had this vision board in my room with things that I you know, I think that’s how it starts. Right? When you’re young. It’s things you want these things because you don’t understand it because we all have
the picture of the lambri or whatever. And yeah,
the yacht, the watches and whatnot. But I think as you get older and mature it’s it’s not about the things it’s more about the freedom and experiences in the stories that you share with you know, your family and friends and whatnot. So I think back then it was Yeah, it was it was a book and a vision board that got me started.
And what was it in the Tony Robbins book? I can’t believe you read that book that is a thick book it is I listened to all the personal power stuff I think was personal power to by Tony Robbins that really changed my life. Our mom had the tape signed out from the library, I guess and we could borrow them and listen to those tapes. And then Reuben I know you listen to those tapes as well. I want to ask you about that in a second. But do you remember from that book was there anything that just kind of like did it make you think oh my gosh, I can accomplish anything I want in my life or what was what was the change as airy as that sounds? I think that was it believe it or not?
Yeah, cuz I went down that rabbit hole as well. personal power, unlimited power went to one of the events as well.
The Tony Robbins event yet yet? Got it? Yeah.
walked on the call. Yeah, got it. Yeah. What do you think
it took to have money when you were young? Because I mean, when when Nick and I were young I used to, I didn’t have really understand what it took to I didn’t see people who like bought investment properties. I didn’t know people who are living in, I guess, Ruben, I’m looking at, you know, like buying three $4 million houses like I didn’t know these people. So my concept of who had money and who didn’t have money I didn’t make and I we didn’t really have those role models, either. So did you have any concepts of like what it took to make some good money in your life?
Back then it was just working hard. For me. I remember in high school, I would start at a gas station seven in the morning on a Saturday and finished seven in the morning on a Sunday. It was a 24 hour shift. Remember that on the corner? there right beside your house? How do you stay awake? Barely hapa what do you do drugs?
Yeah.
No, I don’t even think I was doing coffee back then. either. So well, I will, you
know, high school with 1617. So it’s easier to push through it. Yeah.
For sure. So because I had a couple episodes where I was out, you know, drinking till late and then somehow I think like three hours of sleep, I could get up and work for like a 10 hour shift. And now if I tried to do that, right my god, there’s no I couldn’t do 30 minutes.
So that was a full serve gas station. So you do the regular people’s cars and then you do the taxi cabs with the taxicab drivers, you doing propane? And I remember they would tip you and that was huge. might only be $1 might only be 50 cents. But when you get that to feel that cool, wow. I mean, the money
How much did you make on
seven bucks? It wasn’t like bartending. Oh,
no, no. Yeah, that’s a whole new level. Yeah,
yeah. Okay, since we Nick brought up the bartending when it comes to bartending. You know, how many people skills you picked up and sales skills did you learn? Did you realize how much you were learning as a bartender? Because you’ve parlayed all of that into what you’re doing now working with investors, right here are social skills and your people skills. You probably hone those as a bartender.
Yeah, that’s a good point. Never thought about it that way. But yeah, you’re absolutely right. And
as I’m sure you saw, all kinds of characters come through which part You were all downtown and then you were Niagara.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Okay. So one other thing just about the money topic, Mike, for you is if you had to look back at your senior late 40s. Now, if you had to look back at yourself at 21 years old, what would you tell that Mike about making money?
JE got me, because I don’t think I would have done anything any different. Because I would have had a different result. So I don’t know what I would have said back then. Because back then it was just hard work. And it parlayed into every, every other career that I’ve chosen was just hard work. And I feel that that’s what led to more wealth. And that’s
interesting, because I wonder if how many people today believe because you can use that hard work a few times. Now. I wonder how many people today believe hard work is the path to making money. You know what I mean? Because a lot of people I speak to and i don’t i don’t mean this as a statement that covers everybody, obviously because we meet people who have hustle and work hard. But I do meet a lot of people who think that with a little bit of an app they make or with technology, you can almost hack your way to success and not put in the hard work. Like I don’t meet a lot of people right now who just say hard work is the path like you’ve repeated a few times. I meet more people who tell me they’re trying to figure out the way to make money and hard work is never really brought up in those discussions. And again, I don’t mean to blanket everybody like that. I’m sure someone listening to this is like all about hard work. Yeah. It’s just interesting that you’ve said that many times and it doesn’t really come up. Ruben, I want to switch over to you. We were joking. Before this is one of the things that’s always stood out from you is that in order for you to make some extra money, and one of your jobs you were security guard at Aarons Town Center. That’s right. And I remember hearing the mills Town Center in Mississauga when it had the mini golf course around the center of the elevator or whatever it was.
That was the worst mall and no one ever went there. So what do you do? You don’t have to do anything you just find out We did.
We’re talking about you know, yeah, still had stuff happening. We were in security actually Mike work there with me for a year or two. Yeah,
I worked at Woodbine. We did. Okay. Okay. I didn’t really I guess I didn’t remember the Air Mail the most part. I remember when that mall open that no one was there. Yeah,
well, there wasn’t much development still in that area. That was really new right now. You have obviously
changed a lot. Yes. Holy cow. Sorry. I cut you off. Tom. When you Reuben, when you speak Can you keep your mouth at the mic? And then just look with your eyes? Other people all right. I just want to capture what you’re saying. I’m gonna go cross eyed. No. No,
it is like a right between my
we’re gonna fix this problem. But anyway, I want people to six years to listen, one of the things that you did always impressed me when you told me in order to make some extra money. You did. What can you explain that story? Because I just want to get into your mindset and why you did that.
Yeah. So it wasn’t to make extra money. It was a career path. So when I was doing security there, there was an opportunity to manage That miniature golf course in the center court. It was with the same property management company so, and I applied for that position, because I figured that one day I’ll put me on a career path to get into property management. So basically took that job, but they didn’t pay me what that was posted for that job. So the market value in a salary. And they said, because I didn’t have enough experience, so I took the job anyway, they gave it to me, and then I had to prove myself and by proving myself What I did is I had to, obviously it was never profitable. So I had to reduce all the expenses, and then also figure out different streams of revenue. The mini golf course wasn’t responsible. It wasn’t no profitable, profitable, sorry, it was responsible,
responsible.
profitable, it wasn’t profitable. It wasn’t.
So in title, manager of the mini
pot, I don’t know. It was
Yeah, it sounds like a movie. Okay.
But either way, so
Yeah, sounds like
I’m proofing. I manage the money but Okay,
so long story short is I looked at where the biggest expenses were and it was in obviously salaries, labor, and then it was maintenance. So I started basically cutting back on, you know, the front line instead of me being in the back of the office I started working the front cash and and so we cut back hours and then we had a maintenance contract and it was like $12,000 a year, but it was a substantial portion of the expenses. So what I ended up doing is I got rid of that. And after the mall would close around whatever 910 o’clock, I literally in that miniature golf course you had basically it was like you had your sand pits, and then you had your bronze but the kids used to love grabbing all the sand and throwing it into the water which would turn into mud. So I literally had to drain all the all the ponds and then literally find myself with a shovel take all the mud and put it into buckets and you know how far it is from the center court to the Actual, I would carry buckets of mud, put them in my car and then drive them out to the curb because that area wasn’t developed it and dump it out. And that’s how we I basically saved my $10,000. But eventually between that and a couple other marketing promotions that we did with some of the vendors there co marketing, didn’t you switch out the sand to something else? No, we replaced it with new sand. Okay, so it took all the mud out, brought new sand in like I remember it was like, two weeks every day after closing. Just doing that not getting paid for it.
So when you sell a little cat kids then on the new one, are you just freaking out?
Yeah, yeah.
So what would you tell you? I mean,
those little mini parts were made out of rubber.
Smack somebody we were talking about little kids
should do it. We should do an episode with Rubens kids on.
So what would you tell? So you are obviously all about hard work. I mean, just listening to that story. That’s just pure hard work. So You had this hard work thing ingrained in you to what? So then what could you tell yourself like it? So there’s automatically just a theme here. It’s like hard work. No,
I think I think hard work is important. And I think that is a character that you, you start to develop early on. And but I know a lot of people who work hard, you know, that have multiple jobs, and still are not financially free. Right. So I think I think all of us in here work super hard. But you would ask the question. So Mike, if I can go back and talk to my 21 year old self? I would tell him Hey, it’s not how hard you work, because that the game changer for me, again, wasn’t reading a book or anything. I think the big game changer for me, was my context changing of how much somebody could potentially make in what they did. Right? So like, like, Mike, I didn’t. There wasn’t anybody in my family, or did we have friends or anybody that we knew that was really successful? My dad owned the business. And I saw, hey, you want to make some money and get a little bit further ahead? You have a business right? But then you were working seven days a week. And it was all about hard work. Because if you didn’t work hard when you had a business, it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. But eventually, when I got into working as that manager in that, in that mall doing that, I saw that the property manager was making I still remember that she was making $75,000 a year while back then back then I was like, wow, yeah. So that’s why I took that job. That’s why I was, you know, every day after work, lugging out these buckets of mud, because I figured that’s the person I want to be. And But eventually, the best thing ever happened to me, is a friend of mine, Rick, he basically made an introduction to somebody that was in because he was in the software industry. And he said, Hey, I can get through a sales job, or a pre sales job, like a telemarketing job in a software company. And I was going to make less money, right, and I had to drive like an hour and a half. for that particular job. I didn’t want it because it was new to me. It was Markham somewhere it was all around market and there was no four seven at the time. So I was going to drive an hour and a half every single day to make the exact same money to do something I wasn’t comfortable doing. Right. But when I got over there and I started interviewing, because I don’t say no to anything until I actually find out what are all the pros and cons. So when I went out there, and then I started meeting people there that were making 150 200,000. And then my context changed again. And I’m like, Okay, I’m willing to, I’m willing to try this and do this. And I already had that hard work ingrained in me. So I knew whatever I did, and it wasn’t just about hard work. It’s also doing like, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, I’m always going to make sure I do the very best of that job. Right? It could be cutting the grass, I want to have my lines in a 45 degree, right on the lawn, or Washington, it doesn’t matter what it is. So when I went to do that job, I want it to be the best at that job. And I literally they were telling me it was going to take two years to get a promotion. Within two years, I had four promotions. So and again always being exposed to other people who are making more money. So I think what If I can go back and talk to my 21 year old self, I’m like, Hey, you know what, first of all, just believe you’re going to get there to surround yourself with people that are going to change your context. And again, continue to work hard, right?
I think one of the big things too, is the ability to delay gratification. So any of those jobs that you chose, you didn’t go in at the top level that you work from the bottom up. I think that’s a big point where people, you know, want instant gratification. And they may be working hard, but if they don’t get it, they often feel beat up. jaded and try something else. And they make that switch to quickly.
Yeah, I don’t give it up.
You had kids when you were young? Do you think that made you work harder or you Oh, I think I have a feeling you just always worked hard. Yeah.
I don’t think it made me work harder.
I think I made when you were 20. I was 2121.
Yeah, so that that just maybe give you a bit more focused, but I feel like you always had that. Hard work
yeah, yeah.
Yeah, go ahead Mike saying if I was I grew up with this guy and him and his brother were just moving furniture felt like seven days a week for that
are like 12 years old but some point yeah, I think it’s a combination like both like both you guys said it’s like hard works a key right everyone’s looking I shouldn’t say everyone there’s a lot of people looking for so focused on trying how to circumvent hard work, that they they’re kind of like leave it all this time go by and they’ve realized if they put all that effort of looking for shortcuts into just kind of trying to do something and get really good at something, they would benefit that way. And but that it’s got to be combined with what you were saying Robin, you gotta work smart too. So it’s like a combination of everything. And then to add to that, you got it Michael, you said you need to be kind of like there is some delayed gratification and in an anyone I know this continue that develop continued success. They haven’t hit the home runs in their lives, for other for swing. Do you know I mean, they showed they’ve kind of like just Barely kind of gotten out of the batter’s box, and then made it seem and then we’re able to get to the next level slowly and then all of a sudden, as they’re playing the game, they hit this home run, they’re like, holy shit that worked out really well. And then they’re on to the next thing. So it’s like, it’s just this kind of combination. And I think, you know, so often people are always asked for, like, well, what’s the one thing like, what it’s what’s the thing that needs to do? And the reason one thing, there’s like, five things, you know, there’s, you gotta, you gotta, there’s delay gratification, there’s work involved, there’s, there’s thinking about what you’re doing. Because if you just are a hard worker, and All you think about is just moving the furniture that you’re moving when you’re when you’re younger Ruben, then that’s not going to work out too well. But if you want to be the best mover ever, so that you can then own your own moving company and hire other guys and, you know, then that might get you to kind of a different level financially too. So there’s got to be like, it’s, there’s all these pieces that kind of have to come into play. And I think sometimes, you know, people are looking for one thing or two things and maybe they should be looking for five and then build off of that it completes your puzzle.
I know you’re going to leave in a little bit. So I want to circle back to asking you a specific question. But I want to address a point that you just brought up because I think it’s important. Some people do you know how you said, you kind of have to like, just work hard and pick a direction to kind of work Work hard. And sometimes I find myself leaning when I’m talking to eight and my son saying, Hey, if you’re going to work hard, you may as well so I’m trying to think of the advice to them. Like I want him to have his own life and explore his own sure stuff. Yeah. But if I reflect back on where the hard work has benefited us, the most like So Nick, you and I, Ruben, we used to work together at Oracle and in tech companies and then Mike just our adventure together over the last dozen years about now, I find myself repeatedly saying find out what the trends are, and direct your hard work in one of those areas. So for example, when we were in tech Ruben, when you work hard, you were probably benefiting from that financially above and beyond what hard work, equal hard work, and another industry that had already matured. So like the same hard work you were you and I were doing in software sales, if you and I were working the same way in, let’s say, selling some kind of furniture back to how you were selling furniture, we would have probably made a fraction of what we were making. So I find myself saying to my own children, hey, if you don’t know where you’re going to like what you’re going to love doing in life, keep searching. And in the meantime, try to find out what the trends are in the world right now. And jump on to those because then if I so tech served us really well. And Nick, you were in the tech stuff as well. And over the last 10 years for like three days. It was longer than it was a few months. I’ll never forget getting that call from the VP of reports. You saying, Nick just turned down the job offer you told me to make him What’s wrong with you? And I remember trying to think like,
you know, because I had
a relationship. I like this guy and I was trying to maintain that and then you’re my brother. So I was trying to like say Don’t worry.
Well, I remember exactly where I was when I got that call and he basically said like, What the hell
was a good job, man?
Yeah, he’s like, What the hell are you like taking this job or what? And I remember exactly where I was driving down with Churchill. I was in the car, I guess you could still speak on your cell phone at that time. So I don’t think I have Bluetooth. So I probably was speaking up my cell phone. And yeah, I remember having that conversation for some reason I was that like, Winston Churchill Burton area, and I was driving self down there. It’s funny like the those weird little moments you sometimes you just remember them
their life changers? Sorry, no, no. So what I was what I was going to say on that is that, over the last 12 years, real estate has been a trend, you know, who knew interest rates, were going to be as low as they were going to be? I mean, we kind of talked about it that they have, we’re going to stay low. And we thought there was going to be a nice trend, but we have no crystal ball and no guarantee to it. But that was a trend over the last 12 years, that we all four of us here have benefited greatly. So I find myself always asking people, hey, if you don’t are always kind of advising, if you don’t know the area of life, you want to focus on find a trend that you think is going to go forward. So for example, maybe it’s like eSports you know, maybe it’s biotech. Like the emergence of biology and technology smashed together in some capacity, artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence and go into so even if you’re not going to be a computer programmer for artificial intelligence with none of us, Sarah said, I was a computer programmer for three months, and I almost stabbed myself. I couldn’t you were
talking about sales cells, robot
executive, you don’t have to go. And that’s what something that I find. I didn’t know when I was younger. I always thought if if I heard something like artificial intelligence, I would automatically assume, Oh, my gosh, you have to go into like, be a hardcore programmer. But no, maybe you like marketing, maybe you like sales, maybe you like operations, you might as well hone your craft in that industry, because the trend is going to have more money flowing in that industry. So you’ll kind of financially benefit greater faster. Does that make sense? So if there’s one thing I kind of mix in, it’s like the hard work and find the trend. Nick, I want to I want to circle back to your hard work because you know, we’ve repeated this before but if you haven’t heard Nick when he was 21, I think it was bought your first Tom to flip and you were getting up before you went to the region appeal to work and you were doing all the work like before and after work and you borrowed our dad’s pickup truck You almost killed our father when he slept with it what did he slip with?
It was a Vegas summit ready mix
probably been already then almost 60 years old by that time
you know maybe because there was there was snow and then a bunch of freezing rain sick actually wat you know we can walk on the snow so thick with ice and he tells the story every week right so he he slipped and he fell sideways down onto the ice and the bag of ready mix landed right on his chest and he’s like yeah, yeah, I don’t think oh thanks for we feel bad about it.
Yeah, free family labor but
I was waking up at that time I was waking up but so early 20s or 21 we can have a 530 k my desk pickup truck going to that house loading up the garbage for the night before driving to Britannia dump waiting for the dump to open in the center lane. I never forget I was waiting the center lane with Brandon dumpers Philip and I was like falling asleep half falling asleep. They would open the gates, I’d pull in MTL Truck drive back home give my dad the trucks handle this construction business right here the pickup truck, get my car drive to work come home, stop on the way home to at the gym and then go to the and then go to the house again. Yeah, that was all for and you know what the end of the day how much money I made. So look, there’s lessons there. At the end of the day, I made 4000 bucks about four days just under i think but I round up because I feel better about 4000 bucks in profit after all that
work and risk and it wasn’t for I tell people 3500 I thought
it was like I think it was like 37 I just round it just sounds bet for makes me feel better about myself.
And you know what we did when Nick did that? I think I remember when he was telling me that that we calculated that there was a McDonald’s like Lakeshore and Cawthra in that area. And if he had just worked at the McDonalds the same amount of hours he would have made more money.
But the less I don’t think I can say that. I think Tom as the as the big brother wanted to point that out to me. But I didn’t want to figure something out that you should hear
so I don’t want it to be an asshole. I think I just remember thinking I think they made him in more. Make. I can’t speak today make more money.
Well at McDonald’s, I was at it at the NIT at the time. And at that time, there was a demand for it workers technology kind of wave and stuff. And I could have easily worked extra hours and make me substantially more money. But the lessons that, you know, the path that sent me on the lessons were, were invaluable,
you know. So something, something that comes up a lot in I find goal setting books or goal setting magazines is often I created also my guy also created a vision board. I get you Yeah, and my own personal kind of development always. At the beginning. Anyway, it focused on Tony Robbins and like les Hewitt, and Mark Canfield, Nick, you’re out of here. Okay, next, take it off. And it led to like creating a vision board. I have something on my vision board still, because a bunch of stuff magically seems to have come true, which is weird. It’s sometimes I’m like, Don’t even admit that because, you know, someone’s gonna think you just make a vision board and it kind of excludes all the hard work that went into that. But there’s a picture of a host that is in Hawaii. With no walls on the exterior walls, and it’s a beautiful roof and it’s got like a fire pit in the middle of it with an opening to the roof in the middle there so I guess the flame the smoking get out, but the rest of the house is all like, you know, kind of enclosed bedrooms but the exterior of the house is almost like wide open. I don’t know how to fully kind of describe this but it’s just this beautiful house overlooking the water, the water it’s been tacked up on this vision board that I have, like basically buried in my basement somewhere at this point. But I’m always wondering, I’m like, Is that going to come true to like, I don’t have the Hawaii has now like what’s what’s the problem vision? Where is this? Why goes How come I don’t have the white house but but something I wanted to mention is that what I didn’t gather for my own personal development is that it often led me to focus on the things to get instead of the person I needed to become for sure to earn those things. And I now know that the moment you decide to become the person that earns those things, you are almost automatically set the forces in motion to achieve anything you want in life. And for me that specifically started when I decided to live by principles and the three principles for me in my 20s that I figured out for myself where I’m always going to do the right thing no matter what, I’m always going to give 110% and I’m always going to treat others as I treat myself right. And when I kind of started living by those three principles anytime I would stray off to make a decision that maybe wasn’t right, the do the right thing principle of all of them always corrected course immediately. So for example, if there was like a way to make an extra $500 on a sales commission, but it wasn’t the right thing to do. I would always I’m trying to think if I should use the word always cuz I’m sure it were like, there were some times I wasn’t like, perfect, by any means. But I guess the vast majority of time I would always go to defaulting to giving the $500 back or calling it out and making sure that the right thing was happening. Whenever I started living like that, I noticed so many more things falling into place for me and taking kind of massive steps forward and in my accomplishments, does that sound ridiculous when I say it out loud? No. Yeah, do you? So what are your thoughts when I said you guys kind of believe in that kind of thing like becoming, you know, becoming the person to earn what you want, kind of automatically guarantees that you’re going to get what you want? I don’t know if I’m being clear on this.
No, I get it. Just grabbed the mic. Just keeps on moving. We’ll just hold it. I don’t get tired.
Semi complaining. No, you’re good. Yeah. So I agree with that. I also think that On the flip side, if on that vision board, you see those things and you feel that you truly believe that you’re going to get them that the way you think and the way you act will also change that will also align you with those prints. Alright, so it’s a combination of both I don’t if because I don’t have those same guiding principles that are unconscious up, right, but I’ve seen you operate your life
by principle.
But again, I don’t have a Alan just saying is that I don’t have them defined the way you do. But I still operate under the same type of principles, but I think part of it is just knowing what I what I want to accomplish and who I want to be. And then that’ll kind of put my behavior in line with that, right. So but like, I like the way you broke it down, though.
sounds a lot better. You know, well, no, I don’t I can’t take credit for it. You know, where I heard that was episode of Oracle, or was it was one of the sales meetings, they played like, a video of some Hall of Famer football coach, and he said, these are the principles our football team can live by. And I remember hearing the principles of principles, thinking I think those are the principles I want to live by.
Basically stole my legs some movie
You don’t even know title.
They’ve really worked really well. No, I don’t. But I think the coach was Lou Holtz, I think was a Notre Dame connection. I remember that you remember? I do Yeah. It was like a really good inspirational wise. Yeah, it was a bit in our 20 sometime. And then something else that was really been important is I kind of figured out through my own experimentation with personal development, like to get your thoughts on this that my morning, my habits, kind of create my future. So if I have principles that I live by, and then I have the right habits on a day to day basis, I’ll kind of get what I want. And for me, one of the habits that I’ve always chosen to live by, not always, I guess it’s been since I went out and quit my corporate job was that not a single day would go by without me doing one thing that would earn me future business. And what I mean by that is that I’m not doing something to earn me money today. I’m not trying to close a deal with someone today to make money today. It would be one proactive thing whether it was like writing an article Sending a thank you card to somebody, like just something that would possibly earn me future business. And I would never let a single day go by without me doing that thing. And it was like almost like putting deposits into my own future. And for me having that habit has forced me to do all these things that I don’t feel like doing. So like, you know, making another video for one of our websites or another blog post or an article or an email follow up or something. But that is like a habit that I can see has paid off greatly over the last 12 years. Do you and I feel like I’m putting you guys on the spot. But do you guys have any morning routine habits or any habits that you you know, you’re operating a high level when you do those kinds of things?
For me, whether it’s physical activity, so I have a habit. First thing I do when I get up in the mornings is go to the gym. I find that keeps me energetic, very clear. It just makes me feel like I’ve already accomplished something early. I find that if I tried doing it later in the evening, it’s much harder for me to commit to. So and then from that, it’s like, coming back. I do meditate. And there’s the meditation I do. It’s called this six phase meditation. So the idea of meditating is to not think of anything. And but for me, it’s just hard to kill 20 minutes and not being productive. So there’s a process that I go through, and then it’s going right into work. So I don’t have like, you know, I remember at one point in time, I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d break out like a to do list and put it out in four quadrants, you know, things that are urgent and important, and that definitely help guide me to be more productive during the day, but that kind of dropped off the wayside. So, that’s all for now.
Why Why do you think the morning workout? What is it about that just sent to you sets you mentally strong It does,
yeah. Because it immediately makes me feel like okay, I’ve accomplished accomplished something that would typically be very hard to get done during the day. And I also enjoy doing it. So it makes it very easy for me to get up. So I think sometimes we make to think that we make things too hard on ourselves. So if we’re trying to do certain things, all we need to know is like, you know, start off with something that you enjoy doing. And then get that gets the momentum going on to the next thing and on to the next thing so
and then when you so you’ve identified that that works really well for you if you get away from that because we all naturally get away from like different things that work well. Then what you just meet you kind of forced yourself back into that habit again, because I’m sure you drift off from that
I do and I find that when I do is that my productivity starts to really lag even more, right? Because from there then it’s like, okay, it’s maybe sitting around watching a bit of TV in the morning or looking at social media or something like that, right? But Forced to pretty much get up, get out of the house. And, and then come back and come back with a different state of mind. Right.
Mike, what about for you? Do you? Is there a certain kind of situation where you’re just like, wow, when I’m in this flow This is it things are working out well for me, or is it all over the map? There’s no right answer.
Yeah, I’m still old school with the paper based planner. So I already bought the 2020 planner and all right, a lot of things in there that I have to do for 2020. And a lot of that will involve you know, I’m specifically carving out time for the gym because I find if I don’t go to the gym, I think it’s just the chemical releases and whatnot that don’t feel as good. And then I go in and out of different things. I’ve tried the Five Minute Journal, the productivity planner. almost seems like I need different things at different times. So
that’s a good way to put it. I’m like that Yeah,
yeah, cuz I’ll come back and you know, I’ll shelf it for a while then I’ll come back to it. But I like the Five Minute Journal because that’s you start off the day being grateful. I like the productivity planner, but my paper police planner is also Sort of a productivity planner anyway, sorry, I’m already already planned the day ahead. So I know what type of follow up I have to be do what kind of seeking to do, whether it be with builders or different opportunities. So if Yeah, I never stray from that, though, that that paper based planner is my biggest. So when you get an electronic calendar invite, you’ll
accept the invite.
But I still read in your account. Yeah.
So that that is your life. That is Yeah, and the productivity planner and the Five Minute Journal, if you’re listening to this, I forget the Toronto based company that puts those out. But if you just Google five minute per sorry, productivity planner or Five Minute Journal, you can get like examples of those things on their websites are pretty, pretty handy. Okay, the next thing I wanted to ask you guys was this. You know, when I would listen to the Tony Robbins tapes in my car, there’s a certain group of my friends that would totally make fun of me for listening to that kind of stuff. So I just didn’t even bring it up with them. That’s the way I handled it. And I’m curious, you don’t Did you? Did you have friends who heard you playing these audio cassettes in your car. For some reason, Reuben I just think of you with some little t shirt.
hair. Long hair you have with your dingy have T bars on your car something like car drive in high school.
Oh in high school.
Yeah, I know you listen to Tony Robbins after high school.
I was like, Oh, yeah, no in high school.
Did you have an Iraq or something? No, but was it
a Mazda MXXGT turbo
and you just shake you out of the Iraq? No,
because the Iraq was very much like a Geno type movie. Right where I had a it was an important card. It did not you
look like a classic Gino? I
know. But I had I literally had it was the import which did not suit my personality. Right. So
so so yeah, would be so when people you’re in your 20s and you people were listening to this or heard this in your car. What did you did you just like dismiss it or what did you do?
Yeah, I think that’s Stephen to today to if you mentioned it, some people are just not into that. And yeah, I think that’s fine. Every different things get different people going,
I think, I think a lot of times when you don’t, I don’t tell people, right unless they ask and I’m very open with it. But when you’re kind of volunteered like and it’s unsolicited, it almost feels like, it becomes religious, right, and you’re trying to figure out somebody speeding. But what I did for selfish reasons, like with my kids and family members is as I would learn lessons in those, and I didn’t have tapes, I had CDs. Let’s see, because as later as I listened to those lessons, and those CDs, what I did selfishly, is I would then go share it with my kids or my wife, right? Or a close friend or something like that, just to reinforce that idea. Right. And then eventually they realized that I wasn’t doing it for them. I was doing it for me. But yeah, I but I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t volunteer and just tell anybody. You know,
I have this thing on personal development is I never look at it as an issue. Spend some my life I always look at it as an investment into myself. And the most ridiculous example of that is probably a box of tapes I bought from Robert Allen for about $5,000 that I think I’ve told you this story before, but it was I convinced Carol we had just gotten married, just moved into our first house. We didn’t have this. We didn’t have a dining room table. You know, we have missing furniture in the house and I we had a bit of extra money. And I think the majority of it was probably $5,000 that was liquid. And I asked Carol, it was okay, if I could go buy these Robert Allen tapes. And I don’t know how she supported me through the years on some of these things. But literally, a box of tapes arrives at my front door. And all of the real estate education in there was stuff I already knew. Like there wasn’t a new thing in that $5,000 but there was one little sliver of tapes that was explaining how to speak effectively in front of a group and about a month. In the future. I was going to speak in front of 300 people at Oracle and Reuben I don’t know if you remember this, but it was a talk that was explaining I think it was Mark I forget which guys asked me to do the talk but a bunch of guys asked me to speak in front of 300 people at a bowling alley. We were all there at this bowling I think was planet bowl and Eglinton there. And it was to explain what it was like to make the you know, the sales there was no was like to make your sales quota and go to club, remember, hit that club where you went to. And I had to give that talk. And I listened to those tapes for about a whole month before giving that talk. And I used a lot of the things I learned from that talk. And after I gave that talk, I had such good feedback of like, Oh my gosh, you know, you made people laugh and you called people out and use the stories and examples. And it just gave me such confidence that it kind of put me on this path of feeling very comfortable speaking in front of people. And so that $5,000 as ridiculous as it sounds to spend on a box of tapes. It kind of changed my life from just a bunch of little tapes that were stuck in the middle of that. I don’t even know why I’m sharing that with you guys. Now it’s just always stuck. So please stop just share it because I know it sounds so ridiculous, but it was like a changing point. a turning point in my life. For me and the tapes, I couldn’t listen to in my car because my car had a CD player. But these were tapes. So I had to go to Zellers and buy a ghetto blaster with batteries. And I put on the passenger seat of my car. And I put the tapes in the ghetto blaster. So when people would go out for lunch at Oracle, I, they would always ask me why I had a ghetto blaster in the car and I would always just kind of dismiss I’m like, I’m just listening some stuff and I would put it in the backseat and not kind of paid any attention. So I kind of hit it a little bit. I think I was a bit embarrassed by it.
Should I had a piece of cardboard in the backseat and say you were breakdancer?
Oh my god, Mike. I don’t know if you know the story that I think Mike knows this story. So for those of you don’t know when Reuben was actually my sales manager at Oracle and we had to we were selling into the US at one point and we had to work we had to work Canadian Thanksgiving because it wasn’t a US Thanksgiving and we’re based in here in Mississauga, but we’re selling to the US so you somehow thought it was a great idea for all us to all work on the Canadian Thanksgiving and us being hard working team. We decided it was going to work and you thought and you said this Never forget this Mike. He goes, as a reward for you guys working on became Thanksgiving. I’m going to bring in my BMX bike, and we’ll have a break and then we’ll have the day and we’ll go in the parking lot and I’ll show you guys some tricks. And one of the tricks was having like three or four of how many of us lay down, he got like three or four of us to lay down like freaking sausages all in a row. And then he like bunny hopped over us.
This is this is what our sales manager was giving us as the reward for Canadian holiday. I’ll never forget that as long as
I would remember that manager though.
Yeah, no, you’re right. Go down. It’s a pretty legendary.
You had the best sales team had a killer sales team.
But they had a good manager.
So yeah, so someone who might be listening to this trying to find out their owner or Mike actually your kids? Yeah. What do you think? Have you given any thought What are you going to tell your kids about finding their own path in life is it just going to be hard work? Yeah,
you know, explore super good question I have I feel some of the greatest books written in my house that needs to be still cracked open by myself. But yeah, I think social media is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Because looking back Back then, yeah, there was Tony Robbins, Jim Rome, there wasn’t really many people out there. But the people that were out there were the real deal. It wasn’t easy to get a book published back then. Now, anybody can produce content, whether it be video, audio, books, people are self writing, self publishing, it’s going to be interesting. So I think I’m going to refer them back to the books that I have in our library, because that’s the real deal. That stuff there. I think, more now than ever, people are just regurgitating and summarizing some of the great classics, but they’re missing the nitty gritty. So that’s a good point. Yeah, it’s gonna be a tough one.
That’s a really good, you’re right, because I think we are seeing like a surface level regurgitation of some amazing stuff that if you just go a little deeper can change your life because I’m having flashbacks to all of Dale Carnegie’s books like How are you? How to Win Friends and Influence People? That book that book changed me man. That book was amazing. I haven’t read it in years and I have a feeling the English it was written in was a little older English so it was a little difficult to read but not not excessively difficult but thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill was it was a great one all of Tony Robbins stuff was a great one I loved the I think you pronounce his name augment Dino that he wrote books like the greatest salesman in the world, the richest man in Babylon. Those books were just kind of blow my mind kind of books. A newer one would be the power of focus by Les Hewitt Mark Canfield in jack who might Mark Canfield know, jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. The Power Focus that book was freaking amazing. Ruben, you mentioned the quadrants. Those quadrants I stuck with for like about five years that had a huge impact on my life. The Seven Habits Highly effective. Yeah. So yeah, there’s all these books out there that are like, classics that I wonder if with social media, it’s so easy to watch like a two minute video instead, I think it’s a, but maybe maybe they get the information faster that way, or it gets to the point sooner. I don’t know, I
think if it comes to easy, you just kind of take it for granted. And you don’t, you don’t grab it and basically embrace it. Right? As before, it wasn’t available as much. So if you found a good book, right, or a mentor, you would just basically take that and you would it was and know how precious it was. And you know, definitely take it to the full advantage right now. I could be at home listening to something on YouTube. And it’s a great piece of advice, but there’s so much information on like that, that was good, and it just doesn’t digest. Right, it just move on to the next thing, right. And I think that’s what a lot of the newer generation is going to is encountering as well.
I think one of the things and we’ll wrap it up here but in one of the things that I think comes to mind for For me is that when you are getting advice from anyone, I always now look at the source. And I don’t mean to be judgmental by that by any means. I just mean if someone’s going to criticize me because we get a ton of criticism about social stuff we put out on different social platforms, people are very happy to critique us. But I always look at the source like what have they accomplished, where they’re able to kind of judge me in that fashion? And if I can’t really come up with anything good I kind of dismissed the opinion and it’s the only way I can keep myself sane. Otherwise you you can take people’s critiques of your own life really personally and it affects you especially with all the social media Mike when it is so people to do so easy to judge people online and post comments kind of online.
Right, right. Sure.
Thanks, guys. This was a little bit of an experiment. We didn’t have a plan we just sat down and record so I appreciate you guys sharing this stuff. Reuben, any last things to share? We’re good. We’ll get we’ll get the mic fixed for you next time. You will talk about your use got I got the better minds now when you kind of thanks guys. Everybody, so hopefully you enjoy That chat. I think I have an idea based on that how to structure these going forward. So if you have any feedback for us, please always you can send it into podcast at Rockstar inner circle. com. That’s podcast at Rockstar inner circle calm. And if you’d like any real estate investing information, the best place is always to go to rock star inner circle. com. That’s www dot rock star inner circle calm. That’s it for this time. Until next time, your life your terms