Message from Tom & Nick
We’ve been a tad light on the podcasts recently but we’re back in the saddle pumping them out.
Yesterday, we had Matthew Campoli in-house for an episode.
That’s him, myself and my son, Aidan, above.
Aidan noticed him online as one of the young professionals in real estate really taking ownership of his craft.
Matthew has been busy making entertaining videos, offering value and generally being his authentic self. And he’s carving out a nice business and life for himself.
So naturally, we were curious about him and brought him on the podcast to share his story.
He has a YouTube channel, runs a podcast called “Priced to Sell”, is busy on Instagram, has a weekly email and more.
From the outside, it would seem he’s always been this extroverted, high-energy type of guy.
But it turns out he wasn’t always this way.
We learned that he was introverted growing up, the quiet one in the room. But he realized that to get to his longer-term goals he would have to step through his fears and begin sharing more of himself.
And it’s obviously working, we’re excited to see what he does over the next 5 and 10 years.
He reminded us how many times we’ve been absolutely terrified of something, but how forcing ourselves to face our fears ALWAYS benefited us in the long run.
Upon reflection, here are just a few examples of things that absolutely terrified us but that worked out really well:
- Quitting my tech job with two young children, Carol at home taking care of the family, and a mortgage on our house.
- Using a credit line on our house so Nick and I had funds to start Rock Star Real Estate. That credit line funded both our lives for a long time…it got a bit scary but eventually, the income stream turned and we paid it off! At one point I used the credit line on my own house to pay for the property taxes on that same house…not advisable.
- Jumping into a straight sales role after working as a technology consultant with a guaranteed salary. Having a senior sales rep that I was partnered with verbally rip me apart on my first day and explain to me that I would certainly fail…I almost peed my pants in fear. Not joking.
- Having our first brokerage tell us we would fail behind our backs to anyone who would listen and then having them go bankrupt…leaving us with no place to work from. Explaining to clients and real estate agents that we had a new “Rock Star service” where we would always come to them…they never had to come to our office (because we didn’t have one for 3 months!!).
- Accidentally ordering “color photocopies” on a major marketing flyer effort that then cost us $15,000 instead of $800. Money that we didn’t have but had to pay.
- Not being able to fill a property for way too long, peppering Milton with bag signs to advertise it, and having the police chase us down at 1:00 am at the side of a dark country road to explain ourselves. (they let us go, you’re allowed to put out bag signs apparently).
- Hosting our first “income property class”, praying people would show up and then shaking in fear before the class when they did.
- Buying a rental property with no financing in place and then scrambling two weeks before to find financing. This became a regular theme.
- Selling my family home and not getting the financing approved on my next family home with only 3 days left before closing b/c my name was on too many rental properties (see point #10). Wondering if my family would have anywhere to live in 72 hours. LOL! That one was intense.
- Nick living off $200 a week for almost a year when we first quit our jobs and started the business. To this day I have no idea how he did that.
- Spending $25K USD to join a mastermind group. Then doing it for another two years.
- Having tenants physically slam the door on my foot as I tried to see how many people were living in a basement unit (this actually didn’t scare me but it scares other people when I tell them I did that so it made the list).
- Selling all of my RRSPs to fund Rock Star Real Estate’s growth. Have no ability to put money away in an RESP for our kids’ education when they were young.
- Serving our first N4 notice in person (late rent notice).
- Recording our first podcast, making our first YouTube video, giving our first real estate educational tour, giving our first talk about the economy, having our first Rock Star team meeting, sending out our first email to our email list, doing our first Rent-to-Own property, dealing with our first student rental property, doing our first flip, refinancing our first rental, hiring our first team member...the list of things that once terrified us goes on and on and on.
Here’s what’s interesting:
Looking back on that list today, each of those things seems trivial.
At the time they were petrifying moments in our lives.
Context is an interesting thing.
Something that is big and scary in the moment isn’t really that big and scary after you face it head-on.
Today, Nick and I have a rule. If anything scares us...ANYTHING…then we must do that thing.
It’s the universe’s way of telling us that we haven’t graduated past that life lesson yet so we need to tackle it.
Now listen, we’re not here to tell you we have it all figured out. We don’t. We’re still learning.
But what we can tell you with 100% certainty is this…
Each of those terrifying moments led us closer to the freedom we wanted.
And without stepping into those moments we wouldn’t have the freedom that we enjoy today.
They were like little tests.
So whatever you are dealing with today, whatever that scary thing is, know that there is freedom on the other side.
Don’t run from whatever it is that looks terrifying…face it head-on. Tell the world that you’re here to stay and you’re not going away.
This applies to dealing with money, business, family, friends, health, fitness…everything.
The journey really is the way.
Everything you are dealing with today ultimately serves you.
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
- Hunter S. Thompson
Have a great week, everyone!!
We’re off to the Dominican for a bit, talk soon!
Tom & Nick