Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Unlock More to life with Adrienne Penoza Real Estate Investing podcast, where we broadcast interviews with successful real estate investors across North America to empower you on your journey to unlocking more to life with real estate investing. Now, now, here's your host, Adrian Penoza.
Speaker 1 00:00:25 Hey everyone, it's Adrian Penoza here with the More to Life Real Estate Investing podcast, where we try to help you get more to life through the power of real estate investing. Um, I have a super popular and well-known guest here today. We are on actually episode 54, 54.
Speaker 1 00:00:50 Um, super happy about that, super grateful about that, that we, uh, have the traction we do to keep it going for 54 episodes, which is awesome. Uh, just a quick, uh, quick couple of minutes about what we got on the go before I introduce our speaker here or our guest. Um, so we just firmed up on a 11 unit building out my first acquisition, actually, uh, out in Welland, Ontario. Never done a deal out in Wellen, but, uh, I'm very excited to start exploring market centers outside of my backyard being Hamilton. Uh, so, uh, we just, uh, we were conditional on strictly the, uh, phase one environmental coming back clean, which it did. So, yeah, um, excited about that. And lastly, uh, for everybody listening and everybody that knows, there's somebody that may know, a first responder, a police, fire ambulance, um, in their networks.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 I'm hosting with one of my colleagues, a first responders obviously. That's where I came from. A first responders wealth networking event, uh, information session on how to build wealth in real estate. February 22nd this month, 6:30 PM uh, in Mississauga. It's called the Hanza House. Uh, it's in Mississauga, highway 10 and Dairy Road area. Um, we're only charging $20 a ticket and all proceeds are going to, uh, a nonprofit organization, not keeping the money, uh, it's called Boots on the Ground, which is a 24 hour, 365 day a year crisis hotline where police, fire, uh, first responders can call in who are in crisis and, and talk to a professional for free and get, um, uh, some advice or some counseling or whatever the case may be. So all proceeds are going to them. Cuz I'm a firm believer, you knows, in the emergency field, there's, there's a lot of ups and downs and you know, I was there once for 21 years.
Speaker 1 00:03:07 So it's our way of giving back to the community. So anybody out there, friends and family of first responders, more than welcome to come on my social media and my bio. There's the link on Eventbrite that, uh, you can purchase, uh, your ticket and come on out, learn how to invest in real estate as a first responder and start creating some generational wealth for your families. On that note, um, Danielle is a serial entrepreneur, my guest for today and my, my well-known guest for today who is known for her work in the field of real estate investing, specifically in residential development, rental housing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And she's gonna tell us what all the et ceteras are. Um, she focuses primarily in Ontario. Her projects have arranged in scoped from light cleanups to full scale rentals, as well as conversions, duplex, triplex, uh, and multi-unit flips.
Speaker 1 00:04:08 In addition to those facts, Danielle also works as a general contractor. I know she doesn't look like one, but <laugh>, where she manages various trades, all kinds of staff while managing her organization. She fills her days operating multiple businesses, underwriting properties, balancing financings, managing rental properties, endless educating herself and others. A great, uh, well-known speaker. And maybe you're gonna touch upon that in, in, in our interview today. She just had a, she was on stage this weekend and she's gonna be on stage this, uh, coming May, but you're gonna touch upon that. She's also very excited to be launching Strategic Success Coaching in 2023, which is her background, obviously. Um, please welcome Danielle to the Mor Life Real Estate Investing Podcast. Thank you for joining us, Danielle.
Speaker 2 00:05:06 Woohoo. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah, so just to be clear, um, yeah, strategic Success Consulting that we're gonna be relaunching and, uh, I dunno if it's because I'm good at it, but I'll tell you what, I'm passionate about it and that's what I wanna do, is I wanna serve and educate others and help them on their journeys.
Speaker 1 00:05:24 Awesome. Yes, and I've, I actually met you, I guess a couple years ago when we were, um, at the Synergy Mastermind in Montreal and kind of stayed in touch then. I'm see, I've actually seen, obviously your business grow since then as well, which is super exciting. Uh, so yeah, I'm thrilled to, uh, get into it. For, for the listeners out there that really don't know your story and how it all started for you in, in this, uh, space, can you give us a bit of your background?
Speaker 2 00:05:54 Yeah, so, uh, let's, how far back do we go? Let's see, so in my twenties, bought my first properties and was a landlord. I actually bought two properties at the same time. That was my first acquisition. One was a house hacking, duplex, was in a duplex, actually had a mother-in-law suite in the bottom. I didn't know the difference between a legal unit and not, and I bought a second house at the same time, which was also an up and down mother-in-law suite. And so rented out the second one, obviously. And then the first one we house hacked. I lived upstairs, rented out the basement downstairs. And, um, yeah, fast forward I acquired a few more properties with a father of my children. And then from there thought I knew everything. I was a landlord, I got it made. I thought I knew everything. Worked with, um, my ex in his contracting company.
Speaker 2 00:06:45 Learned a ton. That set me up great for what I'm doing now as far as running a business, running the operations, managing contractors. And by the way, I don't operate as a GC operator, more as a project manager, uh, where I manage all the contractors. So I typically, on my jobs, I sub out all the trades, and so it's kind of like operating as a gc, but they're my own unit. So it's project managing really. Uh, but yeah, so fast forward to 2013, I decided I wanted to take it to another level when it came to my real estate portfolio and dove into educating myself. And boy, boy did I ever, I had no idea of all of the things that you could do in real estate. I was a landlord. I thought I had it all. I had it all figured out. Like I had it.
Speaker 2 00:07:32 I was a landlord, I had multiple properties, I got this now I knew nothing. Let me tell you something. That's when I transitioned from being an amateur investor or a landlord into a sophisticated, sophisticated investor that I am today. And, uh, started out running a business, by the way, when you get into real estate, don't do it as a side hustle. Look at it right from the get-go as a business. And that's what I did. Educated myself. I needed to learn a lot. I did that. And then I started flipping houses. And I did that for a while, and that was my primary thing that I did. And I learned a lot doing it because when you're flipping, there's a lot of moving parts. And I did it all myself. And then at the beginning of Covid, I decided I didn't wanna flip anymore because I wanted to scale, but I didn't wanna scale a flipping business.
Speaker 2 00:08:19 I wanted to scale my portfolio. So I went into just acquisitions, uh, wanted to go into the malts, I onboarded a couple of partners, and then, um, just went on a buying spree. And yeah, ultimately I ended up with a lot of properties. And here's the mistake that I made, is I ended up, I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna flip anymore. I didn't wanna do that anymore. And I ended up buying, when I switched into acquisitions, multi-family acquisitions, I ended up buying what I knew, which was distressed properties. And now all of a sudden I find myself managing contractors again, which I wanted to get away from. And so at the end of the day, the whole thing with 2022 happening, the economy, shifting tides and all of that really, again, was another transformational moment for me where I sat back with my partners. We looked at the portfolio and we actually realized, you know, this is not the asset class that we want.
Speaker 2 00:09:16 And so now I'm transitioning into another phase where we're offloading the portfolio to come back in with new development. And while we're doing that, one of the big reasons why we're doing that is to free up my time, because all through 20 21, 20 22, that's when we decided that I, well, I decided my partners fully support me on this, where I wanna help educate others. That's really my passion. And so my partners are going to run and spearhead the realty stuff under, of course, my direction and consultation, and we decide what we're gonna invest in as a team, but ultimately I'm gonna be spending my time mostly helping people. That's what I love doing. And so if you can't love what you do, then you shouldn't be doing it. Find a way to love what you do. And so I traveled around in the real estate realm for a decade now it's 2013 as a sophisticated investor, and I've really found the thing that lights me up. And so that's where I'm spending most of my time. That's why we're relaunching strategic success. I'm dedicating all of my time and effort to that just to give back and help others on their journey. I wanna help others accelerate and grow and set them up for success.
Speaker 1 00:10:29 Amazing. So repeat that last part. You said you're gonna, you're gonna liquidate or you're just transitioning or you're gonna liquidate what you have to get back in with new development.
Speaker 2 00:10:42 Yeah, so that's a great question. Um, we are absolutely liquidating almost everything in the portfolio. Not everything, but almost. Uh, and then coming back in with new development. So we're actually talking with different teams of land developers and partnering with them in order to make big things happen. There's, I, I can't tell you everything that's in the works, but let me tell you, Adrian, it's gonna be phenomenal. I can't even tell you. And so the beauty about it is, is that I'll be able to help others too that just wanna invest passively, uh, you know, and then as long as we can align everything where it's a win-win for everybody, I have a rule. If it's not a win-win, we don't do it. It's simple for me. Everybody needs to be happy. Everybody needs to win in the game. And if it's not a win-win, then it's just not a right fit.
Speaker 1 00:11:30 Amazing. Wow. Yeah. Maybe you'll tell me more when we're off air. Yeah. Uh, cool, cool. Um, tell me a little bit about, uh, your work as an author, um, ah, sense, the REI community.
Speaker 2 00:11:49 Yeah. So, wow, where did that come from? The book case? So the book is called Stop Saving. You're Losing Money, ultimately. I started when I was running Perfect Property, which was the flipping business. I still have, but I'm not flipping right now. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, perfect Property was my flipping business. And while I was doing that, that's when I started getting asked to speak on stage, talk about contractors, talk about flipping and the whole pro process, underwriting all these different, you know, facets that come along with running a flipping business. And one of the things that happens that every time I got off stage, people would come up to me and say, Hey Danielle, I got this problem. Can I bounce, bounce it off you? Can I ask for your suggestions? Can I ask for your advice? And I started seeing a common denominator. And what was happening was that everybody was coming up and, and telling me what strategy they invested in, and then I would see where the problems were.
Speaker 2 00:12:45 And essentially it was very easy for me to identify that they got involved in the wrong strategy for them. Because here's the mistake that a lot of new investors make, is they see me on stage speaking Adrian or anybody else, and then they go, oh, flipping that sounds great. I could do that. Yeah, make 30 k I can do that, you know, in four months. And so they just dive into the strategy, but they don't actually analyze and see whether or not it's a good fit for them. Are you able to manage a flip or a flipping business? Are you able to hire contractors? Do you have the skillset for that? All of this other stuff, like even if the financing, another big mistake people make with flipping is that they go and they buy the property and they get the financing on the property, but maybe on the back end, you know, if it doesn't work as a flip, well now they're stuck with the property, but they can't bur it out and refinance with the, the lender because they don't qualify at the higher amount at the A R v, the after repair value.
Speaker 2 00:13:47 And these are things that people don't think about, and then they're stuck and they're like, what can I do? I've got all this cash in here, I have to pay off my privates, I have to do all of this, and I can't get the financing. And so, you know, if I sell it, I'm gonna take it at a, at a loss, which is happening right now through the end of 2022, coming into 2023. People who are flipping are having to go to their second or third exit strategy because the first strategy is just not necessarily working. So, you know, all of these things that, the problems that were presented to me when I come off stage, it made me realize that people are chasing the shiny objects based on what the speakers are saying and presenting. And I'm gonna tell you right now, Adrian, I cannot even as a keynote speaker with 90 minutes, and I'm, I'm speaking tonight, downtown Toronto for the Canadian Real Estate Invest, uh, excuse me, the Canadian Real Estate Women's Association.
Speaker 2 00:14:42 And I've got 80 minutes on stage, and I can't tell you as a keynote in 80 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes, I can't even tell you, I can't scratch the surface on a strategy. So you don't get enough information to go and pull the trigger and actually do it. You need to learn a little bit more and then be able to analyze and make that decision if that's the right strategy for you. So what happened was that induced me to create reverse engineering real estate, which is a two day workshop that I started doing pre covid and helping investors identify the right strategy for them in order to set them up for success. And that, by the way, is the heart of strategic success relaunch. Like, we're so excited about doing this and just to help people get into the right strategy. So the book to come back, this is a long way to get there, sorry, Adrian <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:15:35 But the book was supposed to be written kind of like a manual about reverse engineering real estate, and then just all of the things to go through. But then as I started writing the book and I came up with the title, my publishers said, come up with the title first. You need the title first. So I came up with Stop saving. You're losing money at the core of who I am. I'm an investor. If you're saving your money, you're, it's, you're, you're buying power is getting eroded away due to inflation. You're actually losing money. And so at the end of the day, I wanted to show people you need to shift your mindset. And I know you, you're really big on mindset. And I am such an advocate because it all starts with that. I want to help people shift from the mindset that gets created in our education system. And from what the government puts out there, save your money, save your money, bring it to the bank, into investing your money. And as I started writing the book, it became all about financial fundamentals and just learning about money. And it had nothing to do with reverse engineering real estate. This is the book that is the prelude to everything else. So if you wanna understand money and why you should invest and how to do it and different strategies to do it, that's all in the book.
Speaker 1 00:16:51 Amazing, amazing. You touched upon something that's I think very dear to both of us, uh, and very important to all, or should be very important to everybody mindset. Let's talk a little bit about mindset in this, uh, forum, in this space, and as real estate investors, especially, you know, in a, in a year like 2023 and, and what's happening out there right now. Um, let's talk a little bit about where people's mindset and and and where it should be and how that can affect everything around you.
Speaker 2 00:17:33 Gosh, I thought you said we were going for a half an hour,
Speaker 1 00:17:36 <laugh>. Yeah, I know this could be a two hour, this could be a two hour talk, just, just mindset, but
Speaker 2 00:17:42 Easily. Yeah, easily. So listen, the thing about mindset, it's a, it's a, it's a really sneaky thing because nobody realizes that they need to do the work until they've done the work and looked back. You don't know what you don't know. And when it comes to mindset, if you try to sell mindset to somebody, they're gonna be like, no, I got this. I'm fine. You have to guide. As, as for myself, as a consultant and all of that, I have to guide people to get there on their own. And the only way you can get there as an individual when it comes to mindset, is to keep an open mind. There's two things you need to do. You need to keep an open mind. You need to check your ego at the door. How do you keep an open mind by respecting other people's opinion?
Speaker 2 00:18:30 Allow them to share their opinion, give it some consideration, and then make a decision. Don't be so a closed mind, does this, no, that's not how it is. It's like this. An open mind will say, Hmm, I never looked at it from that perspective. Let me think about that for a minute. And the fear that people have is that if they give somebody else's perspective or opinion, consideration that they're gonna have to buy into it. That's not the case. Give it some consideration, think about it, and then make a decision. You can still stay with your own personal opinion, but keep an open mind and give consideration to others. And if you disagree, it's okay. It's okay to disagree, but at least you're always open to hearing something and open to learning and growing. If you have a closed mind, you think you gotta figure it out, that may very well be true, but you're gonna miss opportunities just because you're not giving them consideration. So given consideration, having an open mind and really respecting other people's opinions and accepting that that is their right to have an opinion that defers from yours will really move you along when it comes to personal growth and self-development.
Speaker 1 00:19:44 Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. How about a mindset in this space when it comes to setbacks and failures?
Speaker 2 00:19:55 Hmm. Haha. Love them. Embrace them. Again, it's so counterintuitive. It's so counterintuitive when you're in that space, it's so hard to say, this is awesome that this is happening to me. But I think once you realize that this is part of the journey, you accept that and you go, this is where I'm going to stretch and grow. This is where I'm gonna have a breakthrough. This is where I'm gonna learn something critical that's gonna make me better forward on the back end so that next time I have an issue, I'll be able to avoid it, overcome it, get through it. Those moments that are really, really, really hard are our blessings. And again, it's so counterintuitive and looking at it, it it, it's like, why? Why would I be happy about something crazy happening to me that's hurting me? Yes, it feels pain and you need to honor that as well.
Speaker 2 00:20:54 You have to honor that pain and say, this is pretty crappy and it doesn't feel good and it sucks, but know that it's gonna make you better because there's only one way to fail. And that's by quitting. And if you don't look at it from a healthy perspective and say, look, this is a challenge, this is gonna make me grow, right? If you don't look at it from that perspective, you're gonna be tempted to quit. You're gonna be tempted to throw in the towel, you're gonna be tempted to walk away from it all and never look back. And that's very unfortunate, because if that's the case, then you've missed an opportunity to grow and become a better version of yourself. So here's one thing I wanna talk about. When it comes to quitting or throwing in the towel, let's say you're struggling with a property.
Speaker 2 00:21:44 And right now there's a lot of people out there who are struggling. 2022 has not been kind to investors. Our our debt service has gone up nearly 300% over the course of less than 12 months over the course. 10 months actually to be, to be exact. And so the debt service has completely eroded away cash flow for many, especially if you bought in in the last two years, and now you're operating in a negative cash flow situation. And a lot of people don't have the money to cover it. And so they're freaking out. Here's what I'm gonna tell you. Shifting gears or changing your position or your strategy is not a failure. That's called pivoting. So throwing in the towel means to me, when you just give it all up, you walk away and you never look at real estate again. That's not a pivot.
Speaker 2 00:22:35 When things get really hard and makes you dive in deeper and find a solution that works, and maybe the solution is you need to sell, or maybe the solution is you need to onboard a partner to bring cash infusion into your, into your business so that you can survive the storm, whatever that is. Pivoting is not a failure. Pivoting is smart business because you gotta move at the times. So how you look at things and what your perspective is, is really gonna dictate to you your mood, right? If I'm looking at myself and I have some self-talk that says, oh my God, I failed. Oh my God, I bought a flip and now it's not gonna work as a flip. If I sell it, I'm gonna sell it for less than what I put into it. And by the way, I got one of those right now that's under contract.
Speaker 2 00:23:18 I'm selling it, right? I'm taking a loss on that. That's okay. I'm pivoting. I'm not giving up, I'm not walking away. I'm changing my business model to one where I wanna be. And two, like I just look at it as a blessing. You know, this whole thing for me made me realize I got a portfolio of properties that I'm not proud of, that I'm not happy about. So is this a blessing? It's kind of crappy. We're going through this and I'm like, you know, the last few years of my life of working, working, working, I'm just like liquidating now, right? It's, it's not a great feeling, but when you move and shift and pivot into something that's better because of it, then you feel great about it. And I'm super, super blessed and grateful that I'm pivoting into what I actually love doing. Like this has been a bless.
Speaker 2 00:24:04 I kind of feel like the whole interest rate kite thing, it's happened for me to push me into where I needed to go cuz I wasn't getting there on my own. And so when you embrace the pain and look at it as a blessing and say, what's, what's gonna happen for me on the other side? What good can come from this? That's when you can really survive that storm mentally, which is so important. Like our mindset and how we look at things and process things is so important. Uh, when you're looking at that and, and again, like the talk that I'm having tonight at um, uh, you know, in Toronto is all about mindset because it's so important that we put our mind in check. We have to have control over where our mind is going. And I think the biggest mistake that people make is they have a thought and they accept it.
Speaker 2 00:24:56 If you have a thought question it first before you accept it, just like you would question somebody else's perspective. So if you and I have a different perspective on something, Adrian, you and I are talking, you're like, yeah, well I think this. And I go, okay, well I think that, and then you're telling me you think this way. Keeping an open mind and saying, okay, let me think about what he said there for a minute. How does that work? How does that apply to me? Do I agree with that fundamentally? And all of that? And I question it, I process it, and then I come to a decision, but I don't automatically closed mind, like I said, is just gonna look at us, say, I don't agree with that. Have you even considered it? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, how about considering your thoughts? Don't just accept them, consider them and say, Hmm, is this true?
Speaker 2 00:25:42 The issue that we have is that it's easier to get to a no than it is to a yes, because sometimes a yes is a little bit of work. So it's easier just buying into your negative thoughts and accept them than it is to question them, because that's a little bit of work. But if you question them and go, wait a minute, no, not sure that I agree with that, right? The interest rate's going up. Could I have easily had said this is a bad thing because it's eroding away my cash flow I could have. I'm like, hmm, let me look at what's happening right now. What are we gonna have to do about this? What's gonna happen? Okay, well what if I, you know, what if I bring on some partners? Like we looked at so many different strategies. We thought about doing short-term rentals and boost cash flow.
Speaker 2 00:26:22 A lot of people are doing that too. You know, there's a lot of different ways that you can manage your portfolio to survive. But then ultimately, because I questioned it and I actually had a really deep dive with my partners, at the end of it, we decided, you know what? It makes sense for us to sell. So is it a good thing or a bad thing? It's because I questioned my thought. You have to question your thought to dig a little deeper. And then once you dig a little deeper is when you're gonna really find the answers you need to find
Speaker 1 00:26:50 Amazing advice. You, you really had me focused there. I was <laugh> like, yeah, that, that's amazing advice. I you're very vocal in terms of public speaking. Now obviously you've been on stage a lot recently and on stage again tonight and running different, uh, workshops and, and all kinds of platforms. Can we touch upon, um, some exciting news that, uh, you're gonna be on stage at the in May? Tell us a little bit.
Speaker 2 00:27:22 Yes. So excited about that. Yes, I'm gonna be on stage at the multi-family conference and I was an attendee last year, just like you and everybody else, who, who was there. Um, you know, I was blessed to be able to ask Kevin O'Leary a question and, and push him a little bit. And, um, yeah, it, it, it's an amazing conference. I'm there, obviously I'm there speaking on stage, as you mentioned. I'm gonna be sharing stage with Arod and Grant Cardone and Dalia Barum, some other amazing speakers. Seth Ferguson is the organizer. He's an amazing, amazing human being. And I think it's gonna be an amazing weekend that everybody should be there. Again, this is what I'm saying. I was there as an attendee. If I wasn't speaking, I would be there as an attendee. So I encourage everybody who's listening to go, not because to see me, but there's going to be some great, great content shared.
Speaker 2 00:28:15 And if you wanna learn and grow in real estate, that's one place that you're gonna stretch. Uh, beyond that though, I mean there's gonna be some great networking opportunities. There's gonna be an exhibitor's hall where you'll see me, I'll be there with my booth and talking a little bit more about strategic success and all of just amazing stuff. Like, I'm just so stoked and excited about this because there's just places like that is where people make connections, where deals fall in line. Partnerships happen in places like that. So I'm super stoked to be talking there. You'll be talking about underwriting, uh, how to underwrite a deal and things to look out for when you're underwriting a deal to avoid making mistakes and super, super stoked.
Speaker 1 00:28:56 Yeah, I was there. I think we had breakfast, uh, together last year. I was there with my daughter and your son. I remember you introducing your son to me and whatnot. So yeah, it was a great event last year. Some real heavy hitters this year. And you must, I'd be pretty stoked if I was on stage with those heavy hitters as well. So, good for you. Thank you. That's, that's amazing. Um, we have a few minutes left. Um, and I really love the tone and, and just the energy of, of your conversation with me, with all of this. Amazing, by the way, what is your why?
Speaker 2 00:29:36 Hmm. Okay, so it's a little bit controversial, <laugh>, I'm am gonna speak to all of the people who don't have a why. It's okay. It's okay. Everybody kind of looks at, you know, everybody, there's this buzzword, you know, what's your why? What's your why? What does that mean? What is your why? Your why is what grounds you, your why is what keeps you centered. Your why is your sense of purpose. But does it have to be explained in a way that is your why? Can there be another way of looking at it? Absolutely. I don't have a why I don't, I did kind of tap into, because I went through a phase and I'm sure there's a lot of people listening. I went through a phase where I was like, oh my God, I don't have a why. I need a why. I need a why.
Speaker 2 00:30:25 And I was trying to like dig deeper and peel the layers. And, and I did. By the way, when you're digging for your why and you come up with an answer, ask yourself why you should have seven layers of why. So if you say, well, it's because I wanna provide and support my family. Why? Why is that? Well, so that they don't star or go hungry. Well, why is that? Well, because I don't want them to hurt. Well, why is that? Well, because I'm their parent and that's a sense of obligation that I have to them. Well, why is that? Because I love my children. So just keep going a minimum of seven layers until you get to the point of pain where it hurts, where you feel it. It's gotta be emotional. That is your why. That's how you do that exercise. But for me, it's not something that I relate to.
Speaker 2 00:31:08 So I don't have a specific why, but when I did do that exercise, I will share with you, to answer your question, Adrian, is because I didn't wanna be dependent on anybody ever again in my life. So when I was with the father of my children, uh, that was my forever plan. We were together and I was in love and I had my love blinders on and, and then it fell apart and my life was destroyed. It crushed me. And what I'd realized after the fact was I had built my life to be so I thought codependent, but I was actually dependent on my ex and I never wanna be there again. So if you want the answer, that's my answer, but I will tell you that's not what drives me. And so what drives you is your sense, your true sense of purpose and why.
Speaker 2 00:31:55 And what drives me is that I refuse to fail. I I just have a competitive spirit. Failing is not an option. And if I could translate my why into what drives me, it's that failure is not an option. So I'm constantly pivoting and finding ways to make my business work and I shift the model where it needs to be shifted in order to shift with the times, like I said, in 2023, in 20, in 2022 rather in 2020 at the beginning of Covid, when I pivoted wasn't because it wasn't working for me. The business I pivoted because it wasn't working for me mentally because I was burnt out. And that had to pivot. And I ha and, and at that time it was, I either move into multi-family acquisitions or I have to scale by hiring a pro, um, sorry, a project manager. Because in order for it to be profitable to where I wanted it to be, I needed to have multiple projects on the go.
Speaker 2 00:32:55 And for me, being the one that was doing the underwriting, dealing with the realtors, doing the comps, walking the properties, running the numbers, and then hiring the contractors, organizing everything, picking all the specs, all, all of that was too much for me to be able to do in order to scale that. So I knew I needed to onboard somebody to manage subtrades that I was contracting out and I didn't wanna do that. And the reason why I didn't wanna do that is because it's a massive liability. I'm a bit of a micromanager and I just didn't have the trust or faith into somebody to be able to properly do these renovations and make sure that they're safe because that's a big deal to me. And so I know a lot of contractors, they cut corners and I didn't trust bringing in a property manager to, to run a job and not cut corners or to make sure that they're watching what the contractors are doing closely enough to make sure that it's done properly.
Speaker 2 00:33:46 And so that's, that was my decision why I drove away from building and scaling the flipping business and moved in to acquisitions. Well, the other reason too was because it was starting to get painful doing all of these properties and bringing them beautiful, beautiful properties and selling them. And so, you know, you get cash at the end of the transaction and then is done. But, you know, I wasn't building anything for wealth because I wasn't hanging on to very many properties at that point, right? So I wanted to start building my generational wealth by acquiring properties. So that's why I shifted. Um, but again, coming back to coming back to building your business and pivoting, you wanna make sure that you're protecting your mental health, you're protecting your energy and you're doing what you love in order to, to get that success. And so you just keep pivoting. Real estate is such a big, big universe of so many different ways to travel it. You just need to make sure that you keep traveling, traveling down different highways until you find the highway that's gonna take you to your goals.
Speaker 1 00:34:48 Amazing. When you actually, let me back up. Obviously you're very successful now relative to how the world views success. Do you think there's still more to life? And when you look at and picture more to life for you, what do you see?
Speaker 2 00:35:18 I have helped a lot of people on my journey. A lot of people. So, you know, even yesterday, you know, somebody booked a call with me, they had an issue, you know, and I had a 20 minute call, hopefully, um, my goal is to have a breakthrough. And I think we did. And, you know, get them stuck unstuck. Cuz a lot of times we get stuck in the mud. If we're spinning our wheels just don't know what to do. That's all one-to-one. And for me, I wanna do one to many now and that's why I'm pivoting and doing strategic success so that I can impact more people. And I really wanna build a business like anybody who knows me, knows that I'm passionate about. I'm aggressively passionate about the lack of financial literacy in our education system. And again, that was also one of the things that kind of fueled the book.
Speaker 2 00:36:13 Stop saving or losing money. Because ultimately that's where it all starts. And I have three kids, they're teenagers. I have educated them on financial literacy, not myself, but I took them to conferences with me and put them in a room and they learned because as a parent, you're not the person to teach them. And unfortunately, even the adults in our community right now, they don't understand financial literacy because they've never been taught and they don't even know that they have to go out and educate themselves cuz you don't know what you don't know. So if you're managing your credit card bills and you're paying your credit cards and you're paying your mortgage, you're paying your car payment, your insurance, you got this figured out, you're putting a little bit of money aside, it's easy to think that you got this figured out. But to your point about more to life, there is more to life than that.
Speaker 2 00:36:57 And putting away, you know, a hundred to $300 a month aside right into your RSPs, there's way more to life. And I don't love money. I don't, I love what money offers us because money gives us the freedom to be able to do the things that we love doing. Gives us the freedom to go and have a meal if we want at an expensive restaurant with our friends. And it's not about the expensive meal, it's about the time with our friends. But the money allows that. It allows me to take my staff out for lunches. It allows me to go to Cancun with a whole bunch of real estate investors and work on my business. If you don't have the money, you can't do these things. It allows me to go back east every, every year and visit my family. How many people are stuck here or wherever it is that you are and you have family in a different place and you can't go because you're trading time for money. Two things happen. One is you don't have the time because you can only do it on weekends and you don't have the money because it takes money to travel.
Speaker 1 00:38:08 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Speaker 2 00:38:09 Right? And so money, money is a vehicle to your passion. Real estate, I've always said is a vehicle to your passion. It, the, the real estate will bring you money and the money will bring you to where you wanna go.
Speaker 1 00:38:24 Bingo, love it. Real estate will bring you money and the money will bring you to where you wanna go.
Speaker 2 00:38:33 And that's how you find more to life, right? So like with the, with the strategic success, what we're doing is, uh, right now I'm building a program, program's not ready. I'm gonna come out with a whole bunch of different strategies that I'm gonna be selling as one-offs, but eventually we're gonna tie that all up into a pretty package that will allow people to come into the program, have access to all of those different strategies and learning modules that are supporting modules as you grow in your business. And every, every person that buys into the program, once I release the program, they will sponsor a youth for financial literacy. And so we're gonna have a whole, like we're setting up right now a charity. We're gonna have a whole different division where, um, the charity will be educating our youth. And that's what I'm really, really stoked about.
Speaker 2 00:39:24 So what's more to life like? I can't, I can't even tell you how happy that makes me. And ultimately I'd said about the financial literacy in the education system that I, and everybody who knows me knows this. I was gonna go to Ottawa and I was gonna start advocating and I got a lot of people in my network that wanna join me in that effort. But then when I realize we're building this education platform, like, hey, I don't need to put that on the back burner until I have time freedom to go to Ottawa and spent, because that's a massive, massive undertaking, which I know is gonna take a lot of my time when I commit to something I'm all in. And so I'm like, I'm not ready to do that yet because I don't have time freedom yet. But, so I had parked it on the back burner, but doing strategic success, I'm like, Ooh, I'll have the platform.
Speaker 2 00:40:06 I can put the education rate on the platform. So now we're setting up the charity and then maybe it's in 10 years from now, maybe it's in eight years from now, but when I go to Ottawa and I start saying, Hey, you guys need to pay attention, I'm also gonna have all of these cases of children, of youth that have gone through the program and I'm gonna show Ottawa what amazing, amazing adults they've become by taking ownership of their financial future and not become dependent on the system that they've created. And so I'm like super stoked about doing all of that. So having a business with intention, again, more to life, that's what fuels me and fires me up to, I can't even tell you, just fuels me.
Speaker 1 00:40:46 I can tell it fuels you just from the tone in, in, in the way you're delivering that right now. It's, it's very obvious. You're very passionate and it does. Yeah. It's, yeah, just listening to the tone in your voice, it's extremely obvious. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:41:01 Well, sorry we're
Speaker 1 00:41:02 A little, we're a little overboard on time, but that was absolutely amazing. Tons of great content came out of there. Danielle, I didn't realize you're such a great speaker. Cause although I've known you for a couple years, this is probably the longest we've communicated, uh, in all of the two years. So I'm so glad I had you on the show. Um, how do people get ahold of you? They want to connect with you, they wanna do business with you, how do they find you?
Speaker 2 00:41:32 Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you. Um, I am, I'm now coming out of my coma. So this is what happened when, uh, you know, when everything happened in 2020 and the world shut down. Like I said, I was kind of going through my burnouts, my mental burnout. So when I shifted away from flipping, I went really quiet and silent. I kind of took that as time for me to reset. And now 2020 threes here. And as you you've noticed, I've been all over social media and speaking and stuff and so now it's time for me to come back and I am, I'm back. Woo woo. Here I am. Um, ultimately if you wanna connect with me, you can. And that's, and that's why, by the way, because I met you during the time of Covid. So, um, now that you, you just, you hadn't seen me speak before cuz I, like I said, I was kind of in a coma, but now you're gonna see me.
Speaker 2 00:42:22 I know that you're gonna see me soon. Um, but for the people that that wanna reach out to me or you wanna see where I'm speaking and you wanna come join me, you can go to my social media accounts, can DM me. Um, it's, uh, I think for Instagram is Danielle Chaon. My last name is spelled c h i a s s o n for Facebook. It's um, at Danny Chaon, d a n i Chaon. And if you go to my social media page as well, if you don't wanna DM me, but just wanna see what's happening and what's going on in my Instagram profile, there's a link which will take you to the link treat and it has all the different links of, uh, where you can find me and where I'm speaking and discount codes and stuff like that. If you wanna join me, come see me. Uh, the multifamily conference link is there as well. So if you're looking for that and, uh, that's pretty much where you can find me and connect with me.
Speaker 1 00:43:17 Yeah, super easy guys. Obviously in today's day and age, we're all over social media. Everybody has it and everybody's on it. So super easy to find Danielle and connect with her. Um, all of her links will be once we release this episode, which should be typically Danielle, it's a couple of weeks mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it'll be aired, give or take. And then all the links will be in that episode for people to find you. Anyway, our, our marketing manager puts that all together for us in a nice little package. And on the e p C side of things, make sure you follow us if you haven't already, we're all over social media too, and glad to help anybody. Again. Last pitch, if you know any first responders we're holding this event February 22nd, uh, 6:30 PM at the Hanza house. Uh, learn how to create wealth and real estate.
Speaker 1 00:44:14 And this one is dear to my heart just because I came from law enforcement 21 years. Um, so I want to help all first responders if I can. Just nothing else, just educate them and, and help them get started and create a life by design like I have. So that's it for episode number 54. Danielle, it's been great. Wish a continued success. Look forward to bumping into you at the multifamily conference cuz I will be there as a guest. Um, and that's it. Good luck tonight on, uh, I guess on to, and you're speaking and
Speaker 2 00:44:53 T t dot gonna be there. I just wanna put it out there real quick guys. If you do go to the event and I encourage you to go, um, to the event, um, that they're doing that Adrian is hosting. I would say there is a ticket price, but he did mention it's going all to donations. And so, um, if you can find it in your hearts to dig a little deeper and, um, that's your minimum buy-in to go to this event, but if you can put in a few extra dollars, it'll go a long way.
Speaker 1 00:45:21 Yeah, thanks Danielle for that. Boots on the ground, guys, you can Google it. Uh, first, uh, nonprofit organization for them to c you know, all police, fire, ambulance, first responders, um, just to call in on crisis and you'd be surprised how many, uh, first responders live in crisis every day and just hold it in. And if we can get them help and just someone to talk to, that's what it's all about, right? So yeah, on that note, um, thanks again Danielle. Super grateful to have you and God bless.
Speaker 2 00:45:56 Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
