"Inspired to Invest" Real Estate Investing Podcast
The "Inspired To Invest" Podcast shares stories from inspirational real estate investors, how/why they got started, challenges/obstacles faced, successes achieved, lessons learned and much more.
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The host of "Inspired To Invest", Serena Holmes, has been investing in real estate for over ten years, and over the past several has had the chance to get to know some super amazing people who have taken charge of their lives to completely change the trajectory of their finances, their future, and the legacy they will leave behind for their family.
With this said, the concept for “Inspired To Invest” was born.
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"Inspired to Invest" Real Estate Investing Podcast
Mastering Sales To Succeed In Real Estate
Mastering Sales To Succeed In Real Estate
Your mindset is incredibly important as a real estate investor, and as an entrepreneur, wouldn't you agree?
Welcome back to the "Inspired To Invest" real estate podcast. This week, Dan Plowman is with us for ep29
To watch rather than listen, click here.
Imagine working your days and nights, but feeling like you still can't get ahead. Then one day, the realization hits you that you should be directing your energy towards higher productive sales activities to bring in more money.
That is exactly what Dan Plowman did when he transitioned from running his own HVAC company into real estate, becoming a top realtor and real estate brokerage owner in Durham Region.
Don't miss a word of Dan's wisdom as he shines a light on starting out in the industry during a rough time, and while some realtors and investors were exiting, he was rising up thanks to his creativity and ingenuity.
Dan shares with us his belief that mastering your mindset is absolutely paramount to your success as a business owner, entrepreneur and investor. His belief in this strategy is so strong, that he has also launched a coaching business for other brokerages, to help them teach the realtors on their teams how to excel.
On his journey over the past few decades, Dan and his team have sold more than $2 billion dollars worth of real estate, and average the sale of one home for every day of the year - but his experience is not only limited to transacting, he also had a healthy real estate portfolio.
Dan talks about why partnership on rental properties may not be the best approach for everybody and discussed his personal experience with this.
Don't miss out on this phenomenal opportunity to hear from an absolute powerhouse in the real estate industry.
To connect with Dan, go to @danplowmancoaching or @danplowmanteam on social.
Thank you to the Canadian Real Estate Women Association for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to @canadian.re.women.association on social or https://crewa.ca.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at https://more2give.ca/beyond.
Tune back in on Wed., Jan. 10 for Ep30 with the owners of a real estate company headquartered in Port Hope who are focused on three things – people, properties and great investments.
Thank you for tuning in & remember, "when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit!"
Welcome to the "Inspire to Invest podcast, where we're sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of Inspire to Invest has been brought to you by the Canadian Real Estate Women Association, also known as CREWA. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Dan Clowman here with me today, and he's been the number one realtor in Durham region for the past several years, but he had humble beginnings, starting with the owning of an age-old company. He sold this business to transition into real estate, opening up his own brokerage and coaching company, and he's on a personal mission to share everything that he's learned over the past three decades in real estate. His brokerage has sold more than $2 billion in real estate so just about a home every day of the year and naturally, he's owned many investment properties as well, and one of his goals is also helping his clients get into real estate investing. So thank you so much for being here, dan. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm well. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Great. So obviously you've had quite the journey over the last three decades, so maybe you can take us back. You were in HVAC, you had this business. You started. What was the catalyst that made you move over into real estate?
Speaker 2:Great question. I did work in the HVAC business and I was kind of bored into it because that's what our family did. So growing up my dad was doing heating and air conditioning and then he went into sales and my brother became a mechanic and I became a mechanic and that's kind of the path I just fell into. What I learned as I grew a heating and air conditioning company was I knew I wanted to work alone. I wanted to do my own thing, my own business.
Speaker 2:I was very lucky at 18 to start my own business cleaning furnaces. But yeah, I've done a license. I've done a gas for a license. I got my gas for a license. I did that. My business took off pretty fast. We grew to become installing furnaces and then air conditioners. But what I realized between the age of 1920 to about 24, 25 was I didn't mind working 60, 70, our work weeks. I knew I didn't want to do it the rest of my life but I did love the sales part of it. So when I went out at night and did the sales because no business has any right at being in business without sales, right, you have to have the sales. Everything's driven by sales. So I would be swinging the wrenches during the day, but at night I'd go do the sales. So what I realized by the age of 24 and was honest about and was able to finally say I really like sales more than even swing in the wrench so my brother was always a better mechanic than me.
Speaker 2:He was one of the guys that worked for the company now and I built it up to like 20 plus people, so it was a good company. It was a viable company, sold it to him, went into real estate.
Speaker 2:That's why I went into real estate because of the sales side of it and it actually was funny the way it happened. I was complaining about having done a real estate transaction the first place I'd ever bought is at 25,. I could finally afford to buy a vacant piece of land for $12,000. I was thinking I thought, well, eventually maybe I'll build a house there because I can't afford to do anything here. North York was stupid money for certainly a 25 year old kid getting by with three little kids at the time and I thought, well, this is great, at least I bought something. But I remember doing this transaction with this realtor that I never met. I had to go down to Staples to sign the facts back and forth and spoke to him on the phone for maybe 20 minutes to realize, on $12,000 transaction, he'd made 10% on the transaction, which was common back then on vacant properties or rural properties. And I said I remember saying to him so I have to pay you 10%. And he said, no, no, it's paid by the seller.
Speaker 1:No, you don't have to pay me anything, you just ask me what I made.
Speaker 2:So that's your thanks, bye. And that was that. And it bothered me for weeks. After I gave me $1200. I heard him spoke to the guy this is easy. I was like I worked like a dog to make $1,000 a week and I'm going back, you know, 35 years ago, right, and he says and then I said to someone at the time I think it was my brother and I kept saying to him he said well, just, why don't you just?
Speaker 2:go to real estate then and I said ding. And I remember thinking to myself maybe I should do that.
Speaker 2:So I checked it out, I went to school and I did it and then I just kind of I'm going to do this full time, sold it to my brother and never look back. I never. I started in the real estate business in November of 89. And my broker at the time said the day you started is the day the market crashed. That's really nice. That burden on my shoulders is really nice for all of the country. And I remember thinking, okay, well, this is going to be tough. 24, 2500 realtors on a real estate board have not merged with Toronto board yet and within less than three years I think it was 30 months they had cut to half. About half of them had just walked out of the business and consumers were handing their keys back to the banks quick clans that were just power sales.
Speaker 1:And it was like 1987, then that was 1990.
Speaker 2:1999, I started, so that was 1990, an interest rate 16, 18%. 1990, 1991, 92 was the first three years in the business. By 1991 was my second year in the business. I made First year in the business I worked at the year for the company over a hundred agents which was one of the biggest offices in Durham and by 92, I was number two in the office for realtors and it was in the top 2% for all of remacs.
Speaker 1:And what would you say you were doing differently? That made you so successful compared to other people?
Speaker 2:And I was really aware that I was the one who was work ethic. I came from 60 70 hour work weeks in an HVAC company where I was up at 6am and wasn't home quite often before 8pm and I was genuinely working all the time. So when I came into real estate because I mean to be honest, I was attracted to real estate, because I saw the nicest cars, the nicest jewelry and people driving around with smiley faces all the time.
Speaker 2:I mean little did I know I was coming into a business where these people were going to put their cars repoed and be punning their jewelry.
Speaker 1:But I'm not exaggerating?
Speaker 2:really I'm not. These people lost their shirts. I came into a business where I watched brokers and owners of five and six different commercial properties literally lose everything in the early 90s when rates went so high. There was the refinance and the money wasn't there. And there's some common denominators to today, but not quite as bad my opinion. But yeah, I think answer your question and I'm not skirting the question. I think I think it was the fact that I wasn't afraid to really push. Those first five years in the business I pushed. I worked 75, 80 our work weeks. People were doing one open house on the weekends. I would do for two on a Saturday, sunday. I would do one on Thursday on a busy street. I pick up from somebody else in the office that was out of listing, it was on a busy street and I would just meet people. Listen, here's the thing. It's kind of cool for our business and being realtors.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I talked to people. They want to do door knocking. I talked to people they want to. You know, the odd one will want to prospect for an hour. They the most people that I've ever seen. They are most people want to do something different. I want to do an open house. I want to do, I want to do the Apple Festival and meet lots of people. I want to do the property show and set up a booth. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that and all these ideas are great I'm going to do, or not.
Speaker 2:He's going to be great. And they try these things but they don't get the results, so they stop. Yeah, what's interesting is the common denominator and all things that realtors want to try is this they all, basically, are saying I want to meet and talk to people. Right, you don't want to do the Apple Festival or the property show or the open house or the door knocking to not talk to people. You want to do it because you want to meet and talk to people. So the common denominator, if that's it and that's the goal, Please understand and know that that's something you can't stop doing. I don't care how you do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah but you should be in this market, coming into what we're going through and about to go through the next couple of years. In my opinion, you've got to talk to and connect with 25 people a day. Yeah, try 25 people a day, just try it. Yeah, watch and I'm talking five days a week minimum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 25 people, that's not easy. That means you've got to dial. If you're going to just you know, cold call, my cold call, I prefer warm calling do just list, just solds, do something that's productive with a productive script and we can help you down there from the coaching. And there's my plug. But if you do something every day and you think you're going to talk to 25 people, just dialing 25 numbers your nuts. You got to dial about 250 to have 25 valuable conversations. That's about right, okay. So if you can do 25 a day for 90 days, not only will your business change, you will prosper like you never thought possible. So I kind of got off topic there.
Speaker 1:I know, I know I find it interesting, though right so. So just to your point. You were talking about, obviously, the flashy cars and like just the way that you know people want to present themselves, and I think the reality is that real estate is a very image oriented business, at least on that aspect to it. And what I find really interesting is that you don't maybe a little bit more now, but you would see all these realtors that you know they have to work that hard to kind of maintain that image, to maintain that lifestyle, and you see a lot of them that retire and then they actually can't afford retirement. They go back to working because they haven't invested their money, they haven't invested in real estate. So how did you then go from? You know you're obviously this top producer, but what drove you then to start investing as well, to just see the value in, in building that long term wealth and equity?
Speaker 2:Well, I've sure investing has been a part of my portfolio, for sure I don't know what we're going to talk about. That that's the driver behind this. A little bit of this podcast, right. So I do know that I've made mistakes too, and I'll talk to you about those.
Speaker 2:I one of the biggest mistakes I made in investing early on was I took a partner. So be careful if you're going to pick a partner when you're investing in real estate, because the partner that I happen to take on I won't use any names, it doesn't matter we had built about 50 55 units together. By that I mean actual units that were rentable, so some are triplex, some are duplexes over 50 units. So we had a pretty good portfolio going, you know, and the goal was to buy and hold, buy and hold, buy and hold, but down leverage against the property by another one and you know the game right and tenant them positive cash flow or at least cover themselves. Hold it, worry about it, walk away from what the tenant paid off, right, so that that's the game.
Speaker 2:The problem was my partner fell in love with someone else who had a different vision for their portfolio, who wanted the properties all sold so they could buy the big house on the hill. So we were. We sold them. I should have bought some of them out. I said, okay, well, we'll sell them, that's fine. I did. I did take some money and buy some others on my own wife. I'm not going to say you know, if you do, I prefer your partner.
Speaker 1:If you're going to go into business, make sure it's the same bank account you share your partner, literally you should technically be opening it up a new corporation with them, right, actually just blog on joint venture partnerships and the questions you should ask. So it does cover off some of those things, just in terms of having the same goals, what your exit strategy is, what the plan is having the same corporation bank account, all those good things.
Speaker 2:The problem even if two officers are officers in a corporation.
Speaker 1:If one person's plans change, your victim of that regardless of whether or not, so just be careful just to your point, I had my own business for 18 years and my business partner and the founder left four years in. So you can imagine like I was like what I was like I was like I was like I was like I was like I was like I was like I was like what happened this week after I bought my first house? So I was what's going to happen? Very much the face of the business. She drove the sales, I was more operations and on the back end. So I was a little bit nervous obviously going into that because I had to assume her role and and kind of shoulder things while she was off.
Speaker 2:So I understand I never dreamed going into partnership with her that she would be the one to leave. But I realized I didn't want to stay in the business of multiple tenants. Yeah, so I did maintain some investments with some individual homes. Where was just one tenant for that home and had it down that it was feasible to do that? So I have some investments. Now I'm not going to be in New Yorkville and at the college in the house, but I have maintained my investments. The mistake I feel that I made was at a younger age when I had the multiple properties. I wish I kept more of them. I wish I instilled more of a habit to buy one every 24 months. I'm 33 years in the business now. You know that would have been about 1617 properties.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, but here's what's cool. Here's what's cool about buying anything in real estate. Any investment you made, you push yourself to get the down payment to the point where the rent will carry it the balance over 17 years. If you are 25 years, or however you am it, yeah, it's paid for by somebody else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean from all the real estate investors that I speak to you. I think one thing that I you know I wish I had done sooner was going to multi family right, and there could be ways you can just raise investor money and you know you're not even using your own money but you own 50% equity and possibly an apartment building and there are all these strategies that people can implement that you know you're not personally guaranteeing it. You may not use your own money and there's so much that you can do. So I think Really it's just taking the risk, taking the chance and starting to build your equity, and it may start in one capacity and shift over, but you have to do what's going to work for you in the long run.
Speaker 2:Correct. That's right, and things change for people like Einstein. But yeah, that's so. My idea of the ideal investment for me personally I'm almost 60 years old, in my late 50s is I don't want multifamily now, I just don't, but I wish I'd had more of it. That makes sense, yeah so. But now I'm happy to have individual units where people you know just one tenant and I'm okay with that. But, like I said earlier on, I wish I'd been more aggressive. We did really really well to get to over 50 units. I think that is pretty aggressive, but I wish I'd been more aggressive on my own is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. Now, when you look back at your career so, like you said, it spans 33 years what would you think is your? You know something that you're most proud of.
Speaker 2:I think for me being able to learn how to leverage people, technology and money to the point where, as an individual, on my own, I got to, you know something, 63 homes one year, that was a big deal Like that's a lot of homes in one year. Actually to the point where I was doing a disservice to clients because I was starting to drop balls because, you know, as a realtor we wear many hats. But to be able to dissect at that sector of my life and realize I got to go back to about 35, 40 deals which is why that's the sweet spot when I was running and keeping everybody happy and doing everything properly and being a pretty good service to everything that was required with all the hats I had to wear, I think being able to dissect when I was at that crossroads or sector of my life and realize I either go backwards and, you know, adjust my lifestyle to that, or I go forward but learn how to leverage a business now where I can have better people to wear the hats that are more profile, more, much better for doing those positions. So being able to tear that down, identify that it was a business opportunity in our industry to develop a team when teams were not a thing, when brokers were saying, oh, this team thing, it's not going to work. More than 80% of our deals now on the Toronto Board of you know for 65,000 realtors are done by teams one for another. So teams are a viable thing.
Speaker 2:They took up to be able to identify early on that there's an opportunity here and then to build all the job descriptions, leverage the people, technology, marketing and train phenomenal realtors on the team and leverage opportunities that come their way so that they can work on a platform that allows them to prosper more than traditional brokerages a real estate offers.
Speaker 2:I think that, to me, is pretty cool. When I watch people come into my business In the first 12 months, my goal is to get them to six figures with no expenses as quick as possible within 12 months and then to teach them how to get them 150, teach them how to get to 200, 250, 300, okay, buy a car is now buy an investment. When I watch people do that that have been on my team for some 12, 15, 17 years, that's exciting to me. So I think that's probably the brokerage that I built. And then, of course, the byproduct of that is now we take those systems that we use internally and we use them in coaching and training company. We help other people across Canada and North America, some clients as far south as Texas. So we're grateful we're able to take what works for us, that we do actively each and every day, and give it to others turnkey as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's huge because I think at the end of the day, you know you go from being a sole proprietor to basically running a business right and you've got to understand how to grow and scale. What would you say are some of the biggest challenges that you experienced early on, when you were starting to grow that team?
Speaker 2:Well, growing the team early on, okay, so that I was already, you know, eight, nine years into the business on my own.
Speaker 1:So when I started, to grow the team.
Speaker 2:Some of the biggest challenges, I think, were my ego. I had a hard time sharing my clients with my new partners. I had to let go. You know, you know the old saying one step backwards, two steps forward. So one step backwards means I give you two clients and I only keep one, but you make more money and I make less for a little while. But then, when I have three or four of you doing that, now you're all getting more business than me, but we're all part of it together. It pays back in dividends.
Speaker 2:But you've got to learn as a team leader, as a leader in any industry, I believe you've got to learn that your direct success is secondary to what others and how you can help them get to where they need or want to go. If you've got great people that want to work, you've got to elevate them. You, even at your own expenses what I'm trying to say and when you genuinely give to someone else, knowing and they know that you genuinely want them to do well at any cost, including your own. I believe there's a lot out there. There's a lot for all of us to take from, and money's just a natural byproduct of doing the right things and when I got my, when I got rid of the ego and really enjoyed and learned how to help other people's help other people elevate, we grew. The team grew, but that was one of the biggest things I needed to learn early on, because I went through a few people arguing and fighting over stupid little things that really didn't matter and when I started to realize this is not right.
Speaker 1:I need to help these people prosper here more than that of what traditional real estate you know to give people the breathing room to make the mistakes right, like I think that was one challenge that I had as an entrepreneur that you know. I had these client relationships and I you're at the point where you're delegating and it was hard to see people stumble and make mistakes because it felt like, you know, it's your reputation on the line. It could possibly cost you that relationship with that client, but it's all part of growing, like you're not going to be able to grow if you can't, you know, pull back on the reins a little bit, right? So I think it's all just part of growing as a business owner, right? So, with that said, we're just going to take a really brief break for our sponsors and we'll be right back.
Speaker 1:The Canadian Real Estate Women Association, also known as CROA, is a national not-for-profit association of female professionals working and investing in Canadian real estate. They believe that women have no limits in the real estate world. They're looking to connect with leaders in the industry who will share the strategies that they use in real estate, along with exclusive details of their life experience, which are important for consistent personal and professional growth and happiness. To learn more, go to CROAca. Thanks again for following along with this episode of Inspired to Invest. In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the Accidental Entrepreneur in October of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you're interested in picking up a copy, you can find the link at serenahomesrealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support.
Speaker 1:Inspired to Invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today's complex world, it's absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational bootcamp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. At Beyond Success, it's not just about teaching financial literacy. It's also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future. Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. Aya Dan Plum in here today. He is the number one realtor in.
Speaker 2:Durham.
Speaker 1:Region and he's sharing some of his experiences, not only as a realtor, but also as a real estate investor. So just before the break, we were talking about some of those challenges that you experienced growing your team and some of the successes as well. What's the craziest thing that you would say that you've experienced so far, whether it's as an investor or as a realtor?
Speaker 2:The craziest thing? Oh my Well, that's a big question. Well, I've had a lot of crazy things happen. I'm not sure how to answer that. The craziest thing. Crazy, you mean like crazy fun, crazy stupid.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've only been a realtor for not that long and I've already had my fresher of crazy things, so I can imagine in 30 plus years that you've had a few. Is there anything that jumps out that you're like, oh, Well, you say, jumps out.
Speaker 2:So I think of a story when I had a partner early on. We worked together as a team what we thought was a team back in 1991, 1992. And it was basically just two people sharing the same name on a card. But it was great because that person had been in the business already for 12 years. So I was able to take on a lot of knowledge and experience and and you know how to do vendor take backs, when financing was an issue, and creative doing creative deals. I'll say that. But I remember she'd walked into a place to show it and she'd opened a door that I guess wasn't supposed to be open. But we didn't know where we could find the house and it was dark and it was hot. She went in and she went in the door and closed behind it because it had a spring on the door that closed the door, which was odd, couldn't find the light and a monkey had jumped on her.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:This was. This was a room that had a jungle environment, including the, and that was kind of crazy. I've had some other things happen. Yeah, I was at an open house once where I fell asleep to wake the client waking me up on their couch.
Speaker 1:Working harder, hardly working yeah.
Speaker 2:I was doing a lot open houses. I'll tell you one more story that happened that's more specific to our industry and my enthusiasm. I remember early in the business when I talked to realtors. I would ask them what do you do? How do you make money? Because I was, I needed to make money, I want to make. And I noticed a common denominator. They were the good realtors were doing an open house, one every weekend. Yeah. So I thought, well, what if I do two? What if I do Saturday, on Saturday? And then I got the bar, what if I do four? Two on a Sunday, two on a Sunday. So that became my life, was doing four open houses every weekend. And I was enthusiastic and I'd say, how many signs do you put out there? Well, we put one in front of the house and a couple others out. So three or four signs, five or six, whatever. So I thought, ok, I sold my car, I got a van so I could get 10. And then I had a dozen signs. Well, the more signs I put out, I'll do better.
Speaker 2:So this one particular Monday, after doing open houses, my broker comes to my office and the way I front stores, you could see through them. And I'm sitting at my desk and I see my broker with two police officers standing. So you knock on the door and they come in and the cops steps by the broker. He says are you down plowman? I'm like yeah, and he says yeah, you didn't open house in Bowmanville on the weekend. Mr Plowman, we're here to let you know you can't put open houses down the 401 raps.
Speaker 2:Open house signs down 401 raps. So I was so enthusiastic as a new realtor I thought I'd put my signs all down the 401 raps to come off the 401 and come up to my open house and come into the subdivision. I have 12, 15 signs in every open house and this was an enthusiasm right. And I looked at the office I'm so sorry, I didn't know that. He says yeah, we're here to warn you now, but we can find you for that. You cannot do that off the land. So that was one of their things they had to do. It was on their list to make sure. They went around and told Mr Plowman you couldn't do that. So the broker, my broker, after they left.
Speaker 2:Frank said to me man, you're killing it, keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll just say it is strategic.
Speaker 2:But I think you probably think that's dangerous. You didn't want to quash my enthusiasm right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's awesome. Do you think there's anything that stands out to you also as the best advice that you've ever received, or something that you like to share with people that you think will help them early on in their careers?
Speaker 2:So I think the best advice I'd give anybody new in the business that's coming into real estate is what you're asking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just the best advice that you think is important to share.
Speaker 2:Leverage knowledge, leverage experience, if you can. If you're going to come into this business and because a lot of what happens in this industry is you're kind of throwing the wolves Good luck, here's your office, here's your bill every month. Or good luck, here's your office and here's your split every month. I hope you make it. And I'm not making fun or light of brokers. I think brokers have come a long way with regards to helping with training and caring about their people. That's all I'm saying. But if you can take and invest in the very best thing, which is yourself, leverage some knowledge, leverage point one, for example. We have a point one product for new people coming into the business that gives you scripts, it gives you how to track. It gives you a CRM contact relationship management system which gets you organized quickly. It gives you all the tools as a realtor so that you can leverage 100 grantee here quickly, because most people that come into this business don't make it and unfortunately, a lot of people leave our business. That shouldn't. Now there's some people that are in the business should leave, but that's another story. I'm joking, but I'm not. But I will say, if you're able to invest in yourself with the right tools, the right language and then the right habits. So you have a. If you can get to a schedule of eight or 10 hour schedule every day of actual dollar productive activities and you keep doing it consistently, you will make money in this business. You'll make it in this business.
Speaker 2:But the problem is most people come in and they do this. What do I do now? What do I do? I should try this, I should try that, I should try this, I should try that. And they think they had a busy day, being busy, but nothing was really specific to dollar productive activities and without understanding what that means, without understanding how to do that, you'll fail. That's the problem. So I think leverage like again Dan Plummer, coaching point one leverage. Leverage something that's going to give you specifics that will get you on the path of a daily schedule that's productive. That would be my advice. Okay, Awesome.
Speaker 1:Now, obviously you've had such a robust career already. What's next for you?
Speaker 2:I really, really enjoy it. I have a lot of fun with my coaching side, with my coaches as well as my sales team here in the marketing team, helping people again take and leverage and use what we do so that they can just use it turn kids. Pretty cool to have a coaching and training company that isn't just set up based on we want to help people, but it's based on here's what we do and here's how many homes we sell. You can, too, Just use our system plug them in turnkey. We actually practice what we preach, which is pretty powerful. That's my unique selling prop as a training company. So I think for me what's next is to continue to help people to grow their business and launch their business as quickly as possible. Play one products. Do that for you. What?
Speaker 1:would you say, is your financial freedom number.
Speaker 2:Well, what does that mean? A financial freedom number, I believe I mean you are 20 million in the bank or 20 million in assets, or what do you mean?
Speaker 1:Well, sometimes people look at it as a monthly cash flow. Number of doors, like, number of people helped, like it means different people, you know, like. Is there anything that you would say you're specifically striving towards that would make you feel financially free, whether that's in terms of return on time, return on investment?
Speaker 2:Well, for me personally, I don't need a lot of money anymore, so I think maybe I don't need to sound arrogant here. I really genuinely enjoy a residual aspect or that has been already built and established from some businesses that I'm a part of. So I personally like the word residual more than I do. You know, two million, five million in the bank Not that that's a bad thing either. I think both are great, but I really love residual. I think people are living longer.
Speaker 2:I think you made a reference to this early when we started this conversation. Just you and I have our early talk about people that are coming back in the business because they're lifestyle and they need more money. You know residuals their cash flow is a powerful, powerful thing. So I love to have my assets paid off by others and my equity and other homes, don't get me wrong and I believe that investing in stocks and diversified in all aspects, is important as well. I max out my RCPs every year and I have for many, many years. I do all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So is there one magic number that's gonna allow me financial freedom? I think I'm there personally. I think I'm pretty free. I genuinely do what I wanna do every day and I enjoy stuff like this. I enjoy talking to people about their business. I have two conversations with people on my team today to help them get back in gear with regards to, and sync with regards to, their dollar productive activities daily. We had great meetings this morning, two at two of my team members. I'm grateful they come to me. I'm grateful to help team leaders with their teams still to do those things. So the fact that I have that allows me to do the things I love without having to push to do the things maybe that I don't like so much but I have to do because I need the money. So I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's huge, and I guess the real question is are you using self-directed RCPs to invest in real estate?
Speaker 2:Well, I did, I have and you can through certain funds like Olympia is one of them, you can do that. Nothing can be arms-length. As you know, I have. Yes, I found that the returns change. When rates dropped as low as they did and I went back to some stocks. I'm now moving some other monies and doing some more of that in second mortgage.
Speaker 1:When you say invest in real estate, I was just being tongue-in-cheek, because it's a real estate investing thing.
Speaker 2:Oh no, you can, you can.
Speaker 1:You're just being where you're directing those investments.
Speaker 2:There's good money in holding second mortgages. Be careful with your mortgage value ratios. Know that 80, 20 is better than that because you have. You know the legal that allow you to protect 6% commission too.
Speaker 2:So, you know, yeah, I mean, just be careful with your loan devalues when the market is declining If you're going to invest in second mortgage good money in second mortgage. So yes, I have and I do. I think I have a couple of seconds out of stuff, but not a lot. I had quite a few out before COVID and when rates. I'm going back 70 years ago. I had quite a few out but I moved them back. I'm going to stop market a lot of them and now I'm slowly moving stuff back again the other way.
Speaker 1:So, but I think there's a lot of things now, like a lot of real estate investors have launched mutual fund trust so that they can accept registered funds. So I found that you know, I think they just there's a number of reasons why people move towards that. I think they want to be very careful when it comes to securities working with exempt market dealers, but it also opens up your investor pool to be able to accept registered funds. So it's becoming very, very popular, at least in the communities that I move in. So I was just curious to see what your strategy was Now. In closing, is there any quote that motivates you most that you want to share with anyone watching right now?
Speaker 2:I love quotes and I love that. You asked me not a question. I'll share a quote with you that I just heard recently, and it's this I'm going to bear with me because I got to find it. Oh my, I have an art time finding it, and I have a great quote for you, and it's with regards to making sure you're able. Oh, there it is, I do have it. The magic you're looking for is in the work you are avoiding. Yeah, that's it. I love that quote, and if I were to say it in a little more in depth, stop complaining about the results you didn't get from the work you didn't put in. The only way to become more successful than most people is by doing the work that most people aren't willing to do. It's just, it's awesome. I love that quote.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that makes perfect sense. Now, for anyone that wants to get in touch with you to learn more about your brokerage or your coaching program, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
Speaker 2:Just Google Damplowman coaching, Damplowman training and everything's there. I appreciate you and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Great and we'll include that in the show notes below as well. So for anyone that's watching, please make sure you like, comment and subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. And, of course, thank you for tuning in to Inspired to Invest and remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit. Thank you again to the Canadian Real Estate Women Association for bringing you this episode of Inspired to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guest featured on Inspired to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal, accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals. This episode of Inspired to Invest has been brought to you by the Canadian Real Estate Women Association, also known as CREWA.