Podcast Transcription

Erwin Szeto [00:00:08] Greetings, everyone. Welcome to another episode, The Truth About Real Estate Investing Show. My name’s Erwin Szeto and I trust everyone’s had a great weekend as the war goes on in Ukraine and checking in with my Ukrainian and Russian friends on social media. I can’t help but be grateful. I don’t have to explain to my kids what’s happening like I would if I lived in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Quick fire. I know most people, including myself, just a few weeks ago thought the pronunciation was Kiev, but actually Russians who said Kiev locals to Ukraine, from my understanding, pronounce it Kiev. Here I am waiting for the day that my social media feeds will no longer be filled with trucker convoy news. Now it’s all about the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. This is so incredibly sad. This is not what I wanted. As always, I prefer not to dwell on anything. Either do something about it or move on. So Cherri and I have made a donation to the Canadian Red Cross where our government is matching donations. I run my own charity, so I understand that many charities. We run our own charity because we wanted it to be an efficient charity. Just doing some quick research. This made sense since my dollar is being matched. On the brighter news this past weekend was the beginning of another stock hacker academy beginners course. Four months a program starting with the weekend crash course. One real estate investor shared with me that he owns four investment properties and he plans on holding forever as a hedge in case the real estate prices go even more out of control. He actually happens to be a mortgage broker, and he’s taking our Stock Hacker Academy course for his daughters as he doesn’t know how the next generation will get into real estate investing without significant financial help. Him being in the mortgage and the mortgage space and also is funny enough with a few mortgage people taking the course and they shared the same thing. No, I actually asked the question, what are young people doing for financing? And the consistent answer seem to be everyone’s getting financial help from parents or grandparents or some sort of financial help from outside. It’s not all of them. So again, he’s learning how to start out because she needs a side hustle that will be accessible for his daughters. From my experience of working with hundreds of investors, over 90% of our clients are borrowing from their homes for down payments and renovation money. Of course, this is not financial advice. I’m just sharing my experience of working with a lot of successful real estate investors. So without the help of parents, I don’t know how any young person is supposed to buy a home, let alone invest in an investment property. If anyone has ideas besides real estate in the stock market, I’m all ears. Bankers, private equities, insurance, whatever else he has got out there. I am keen on listing of course, cryptocurrency. Should I mention that none of this is advice? We hosted 25 new stockbrokers in person, which is the most we’ve done in the last two years since we’ve been in a pandemic. So it was really nice to see people in person. And I think I’m not the only one who is so, so tired of COVID. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted so my kids. So I’m not saying don’t take precautions and just so, so tired. A quick public service announcement also from the weekend I’ve been speaking to at least one investor a week who is not having the best experience investing with organized, large scale real estate investments or private mortgages. Again, I’m getting at least one personal story a week on deals going sideways. This current one sounds pretty bad as these investors, the specific investor, was sharing how they lent money and the amount in excess of the market value of the property. I’ve never done that and I never would. That’s my own threshold. Also, after the deal went sideways, the switch that always happens is some people don’t do much diligence going into the deal and then they’re doing a lot of diligence when things go sideways. So from what they’re telling me is that the assessed value of the property, so be what the tax man or woman thinks. The value of the property is actually above market value, which is highly uncommon, this market being in central Canada. It’s a different market that I’m used to where I invest. Prices have gone up. Maybe not. This market doesn’t seem to be the same as mine. I probably expected from expert in central tenant investments. But anyways. But you sound terrible. I would never I don’t think any investor would get into them knowing that they are lending at values above, above market value and above assessed values. Actually assessed value doesn’t matter. Sort of matters. I think I get my point. It’s actually the investor’s opinion that the appraisers that were working with the investors directly may have been influenced because these are not know. For example, when we go typically when I’m investing, my clients invest, we’re going through a bank and then the bank sends their own appraiser. We can’t influence who that is. Right. So the bank has a bit more control on the quality of the appraisal that comes back. So we I’ve never seen these types of problems before. Personally, again, just hope everyone. There’s being careful doing their diligence. You know, if you know the property and you’ve seen the property and you’ve had inspected and you are not cutting corners in the process, it’s really tough to pull the wool over your eyes. So do your diligence out there. I’ve said it before, I personally don’t private land because I believe there’s a lot of diligence that goes in. For my own purposes, I can be a bit controlling over my own investments, which is why I choose not to private invest private land, because I’d much rather just own property straight out if I’m going to do that much diligence. So just quickly, though, know your market well. Know your prices. Worst case, it’s not hard to have a trustworthy realtor to ask questions of, and then you can avoid a whole lot of scams. Again, I’ve repeated this many times. My preference is to still own real estate and do my own stock hacking thing if it’s passive. I’m only investing what I’m willing to lose so I can, for example, private equities or with my RSP. Everything for me is worked out. Not everything, but certainly things have worked out for me and I’m no financial advisor enough for me after this show. This week’s guest is Bennett Mr. Feld, a former real estate agent, having sold his business. We talked about why he sold it and how he sold it at the peak of 2008. Real estate market then own 61 properties across four cities and 20 plus investment partners. And he was living the dream, at least he thought it was, until the market came tumbling down. Thanks to falling oil prices and the credit crisis in the financial markets, which was a pretty significant recession in the world. Ben is here today to share how he coaches business owners, including realtors and investors, to better understand themselves, break down walls so they may find happiness and have more energy to push towards their goals. Ben’s an old friend. We go back quite a ways, quite a few years. He’s been on the show before, so help yourself. I’ve included Link in the show notes and on this email alert and also it’s on the website as well on our website. Truth about Real Estate Investing. That’s you make sure to sign up for our real estate newsletter and be notified via email when we have new episodes come out and also shares about his new book. He’s coming out with the richest real estate agent and I look forward to buying copies for my own team. And I, I was a guest that was kind enough to have me on as a guest on his podcast, the richest real estate agent. So check that out as well and you can find Ben at WW dot Ben Oosterveld dot com. So that’s Ben Oostrveld dot com near the show. Ben Oosterveld. Is that right?

Ben Oosterveld [00:07:35] Oosterveld, Ooosterveld, Oshkerveld whatever.

Erwin Szeto [00:07:36] And that’s Dutch.

Ben Oosterveld [00:07:37] Dutch? Yep.

Erwin Szeto [00:07:38] Have you been to Holland?

Ben Oosterveld [00:07:39] No, no. But we have family nights off to run one of my retreats there.

Erwin Szeto [00:07:44] And be cool. I’ve never been.

Ben Oosterveld [00:07:46] There. Yeah, for sure. I never been either. Lots of people know me there though. I know the Australians, there’s much family there, so there’s some connections on. Hasn’t really been a first on the list, you know.

Erwin Szeto [00:07:58] And where you live in now.

Ben Oosterveld [00:08:00] West Vancouver.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:01] Oh how are we still with that?

Ben Oosterveld [00:08:04] I moved here in May. May, so today the May two, 2021, I moved there. So we it’s part of my whole life philosophy. Build a life you love, love where you live, love where you work, love who you’re with, love who you are, love what you do. And we I build everything according to that compass. And this is one of the dreams. And we pulled it off, living in one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Vancouver and look at the ocean every day in Canada.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:28] That it was the most expensive, like number one? I think.

Ben Oosterveld [00:08:32] So. I think so. I think there’s a house down the street at $8.9 million listed. It’s ridiculous. But man, is it pretty so. But what do you do? Limited edition. You look at the ocean every day. You know, it’s crazy.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:44] You see the ocean.

Ben Oosterveld [00:08:45] I’m looking at it right now. Well, it’s a little foggy.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:47] Can you turn the camera?

Ben Oosterveld [00:08:49] It’s really funny. Let me just see here.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:50] Just see. The beach is not worth it. Then you overpaid. So that’s for the benefit of you guys watching on YouTube. We are on YouTube as well. Ruined. Everything has been everything difficult for him. That’s awesome.

Ben Oosterveld [00:09:03] No, what I like is that perfection, given Michael clear, perfection is definitely the goal, but it’s impossible. So whatever, whatever happens on these shows, whatever happens, I literally don’t care if it’s perfect. So that was beautiful. My camera started crooked. Now, now you’re great.

Erwin Szeto [00:09:18] Beautiful. You sound beautiful.

Ben Oosterveld [00:09:20] Thank you. Thank you. Mm. Matters now. It’s a huge change for us. We got five kids, and Corbin was a huge help for that. Everything got shut down.

Erwin Szeto [00:09:30] And you’re saying COVID was a good thing for you?

Ben Oosterveld [00:09:33] Yeah. Yeah, it was. Because it actually a few things happened that were good. And COVID. Yeah. When your kids are we have five kids. Half of them are still teenagers. And you’ve got kids and horse riding, horse jumping, hockey, you got gymnastics, and then all of a sudden, COVID shuts everything down for like a year and a half. They’re homeschooled. All of a sudden when we were saying, we’re thinking about moving, all of a sudden the kids are pumped. And it used to be like, We’re never moving here, we’re not leaving our friends. So it’s just a such a time is this is just put together. We had ours. You know, beautiful acreage market kind of popped. We just renovated it and it was a miracle, man. Someone just came over one of my buddies and he’s like, You ever think of selling them? Like, We’re listing it tomorrow? Is it? I’ll buy it. What’s your price? Literally just happen. So sometimes you wonder about being in alignment, and life doesn’t have to be so hard. Maybe there’s a little bit of a flow in life when you align to the true desires of what your heart is. It’s like someone that plays piano without even practicing. Like, I think there’s a piece of us that have our thing. Everyone has a thing. And, and I think if we’re looking at our desires, what we really want, a lot of times where we don’t allow ourselves to dream, don’t allow ourselves to have what we want, we always look at the best freaking ROI or the best logical financial plan. Trust me, it was not a good financial plan to come here. But can I tell you, wake up every single day happy and that’s where we value that. So I think getting yourself to a place where it’s a little bit out of logic and more into following your heart. I think there’s a magic involved in that. It’s a definitely need. We need wisdom obviously, and logic and good financial sense, but there is absolutely something about doing something that just pulls you toward it.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:12] West Vancouver House has gone up in value. You know you’re on the ocean.

Ben Oosterveld [00:11:15] Well, not on the ocean, but now it’s don’t care.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:19] So you don’t look okay.

Ben Oosterveld [00:11:22] You look.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:23] I look, I don’t care what the price of my house is and what the neighbors are selling for.

Ben Oosterveld [00:11:30] Yeah, you know what I like looking at the ocean. I like going for walks. There’s Lighthouse Park. There’s just absolutely beautiful man. This beautiful door.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:38] Where were you before?

Ben Oosterveld [00:11:40] Short Park, Alberta, called. So Edmonton, really? Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:45] And your kids wanted to move. They didn’t like to have an all that property.

Ben Oosterveld [00:11:48] You know, we had a beautiful acreage, but yeah, no, it’s you know what? It was scary. Everyone was worried. We but we now we have amazing schools and everything turned out, man. It turned out amazing. So now it’s yeah, it’s and to be honest with you, I don’t know if it’s energetically, but man, we make friends here fast, connect with people better, like even in the hometown where we are. For a long time I didn’t feel fully connected and I knew everybody here. It’s so easy. It just it just a different energy can explain it. Maybe it’s me. Probably is. But my wife has a whole new friends group. All the kids have new friends groups. Like it’s already better than where we lived for all those years. Interesting stuff.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:24] Like the Western cultures are pretty similar.

Ben Oosterveld [00:12:27] Your friends here, I don’t know if it’s I don’t know what it is. I think we bring an energy to our life. I think that’s what we bring to our life. I never want it to be in anything every day. I didn’t like it.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:36] So, oh, you’re going to piss off some people hanging, get all these negative reviews. Now they’re saying by ten. There you go. Because to be fair, I had pure Pulitzer John on just last week. So you all talking about Edmonton so. Okay.

Ben Oosterveld [00:12:54] All good.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:54] It was most of your realtor business in Edmonton.

Ben Oosterveld [00:12:57] Yes, I’ll be. Yeah. The team asked about real estate. Was there. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:00] So you’re selling crap, not.

Ben Oosterveld [00:13:03] Selling cheap real estate. Let me tell you, Ivan, I didn’t sell for a few years, so my. I built the team. We had everything all automated. And you had multiple assistants. You know, we had we had a few team members and it was good. We built out an amazing referral base and that was most of the business. So yeah, I know. And yeah, my, my brother in law actually bought the company, Corey McEwan. It was awesome. He’s fully trained everything I taught him and he’s obviously even taken it farther. And so when we get my assistant, he got my team, I had a couple really big agents leave beforehand. So it definitely changed the value at one point. But happy to have a set up where I’d my brother in law can take over the entire company and I get a bit of money for that, which is very exciting. Nice little exit for her selling my business really focused on trying to build a business that’s sellable as a real estate agent. And that’s not that means that you got to have automated systems. You got to have things because no one’s going to value your business at all if you’re the person making all the sales. So that was what was my focus is how do I get out of selling? And honestly, the real estate business was I was on the side for ten years. I was just I was I was coaching. The whole reason I became an agent was to prove the systems. And it was fun. It was a it was a fun challenge. You know, Bill, that came Rookie of the year. So the whole hell of a lot of property got all kinds of cool wars and but it was more of the challenge of actually putting the system together and doing it differently. And yeah, super proud of what we did there. But yeah, no, it definitely was never the plan to be a real estate agent, to be honest.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:29] Because what year did you start is I remember you’re in the show and you had just started.

Ben Oosterveld [00:14:33] Yeah, that’s right, man. 2012. I got my license. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And so, so I, I sat on it because I was coaching and then finally I’m like, okay, let’s, let’s do this. So it was August 2012, the first six months I made I made $60,000 first six months, the next 12 months. That’s why you hear me say the first calendar year. I think 440 grand in Edmonton would have been a million for sure in Toronto or Vancouver. But then the next. So I. Hired an assistant literally within the first month of me getting the job because I was building a company. I wasn’t building a sales machine. I was building a company. And I knew at being dyslexic and all kinds of like my like literally, I look like a child when I write anything. And even what if you watch me read something I literally carry unless I’m like ridiculously passionate about it, and then the hyperfocus kicks in and I can crush reading. It’s a really weird problem, but with all these different ailments, I just hired an assistant to do the work for me, you know, 3 hours a day at 15 bucks an hour. And that was the hack. And so that’s and I ended up getting a, a buyer’s agent my first year, I made $97,000. My very first year in one month. Sorry, I had one of my biggest months, like $97,000 in my first year. And yeah, I went and built one of the top Western Canada retail sales teams within three years and rock and roll and the whole time I was coaching the whole time, so it was really cool. So yeah, no, I start in 2012 halfway through.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:57] And your coaching was focused on who.

Ben Oosterveld [00:15:59] My coaching is. You know, before I was an agent, I coached businesses, I coached individual entrepreneurs, I coached national companies. I was just all over the place because I was a real estate investor and going through the crash of 2008, which we definitely should talk about. Yes. And the thing is, I repositioned my life. It was actually really difficult time to go from being a seven year straight real estate investor owning 61 properties. I had four different cities going, 20 some investors legitimate, real legit business and having a 2008 crash happened where we were you can you know I didn’t realize it was probably the biggest crash will ever see in our lifetime and I was young in my twenties really late twenties. In trying to navigate that, we ended up okay, but it was definitely, definitely not easy. But I reposition myself to a sales and marketing coach and I started coaching companies in sales and marketing and then it evolved to business and then it evolved to deep personal psychological growth, emotional intelligence over the years. So that’s so that’s what happens. That’s what I did. And I focused all in on real estate agents because I realized this business is ridiculously easy. People are just like doing the same old thing. Like you look at the competition and it’s almost like I looked at it and I’m like, everyone has like Toyota cameras and they’re all trying to beat each other. I’m like, we go into like world class service, we go into long game systems, we go to automations. There’s all kinds of different things that that are brought to the table that just completely put us to the top that people weren’t doing. Like when someone would buy a property, they’d say, thanks. We roll out the full carpet, give them wine, customize gifts according to the things that are nostalgic values. Now, three months later, we send a picture of them on the red carpet, not a picture of us we never branded ourselves once we branded the experience. And then what happened was within the first year we were probably 20% referrals out of the gate and we just focused everything we could do on client experience, building up the referral base. And I realized nobody was focused on keeping their clients zero. Look, I think about it. Your show is about investors. It’s a simple philosophy. If you’re an investor and if you have people’s money, like, why are you not creating a long game, you know, a relationship program that keeps them in the game for 20 years? You’re going to get all your business from referrals if you keep a relationship. And it’s just like in real estate they get so busy because it’s sales focused. I realized everyone was just sell, sell, next deal, next deal. Every single coach right now is teaching how to find sales. But what happens when you do get sales? What happens you get freaking busy and your service and all the different cool pop buys and phone calls, video messages and all these cool things that kept the relationships a skill at full speed fall apart because they didn’t build an actual business. It’s just one of those things. So I realize, yeah, it’s refocused everything on coaching real estate agents because, because it was a massive need. No one was a business owner. Everyone was salesmen and saleswomen, and they still are. That’s why we call Real Estate Reboot Program is literally taking hardworking salesmen, focused real estate agents and turning them into real business owners that actually can have a business. They can go on a holiday and leave a computer at home and still make money like it’s business.

Erwin Szeto [00:19:00] So sales and marketing doesn’t solve everything because that’s what’s been sold out. Their best script.

Ben Oosterveld [00:19:05] Oh man, that’s like minor pressure mushrooms.

Erwin Szeto [00:19:08] I get all those I can tell the ads to sales Erwin.

Ben Oosterveld [00:19:12] It’s like it’s almost like the magic diet pill, bestselling thing you can buy, you know? Why do you think millions of different ways to lose weight is out there but everyone’s fat? That’s because there’s something else other than then they’re looking for the hack and it’s almost like everyone else. All the other coaches sell ice cream and I’m like, Yeah, I got ice cream too, but you’re going to make you eat your vegetables. And that’s what changes life. That’s for real. Results happen. It’s just a little bit different, a little harder to sell, understanding like you’re in your own way. I remember Erwin standing on stage and at a keynote when I was speaking, and I love to ask this question when I talk and it’s simply saying, do say how many people in the auditorium right now loved to ask for help? We’d like just to look at this. I’m so deep into the psychology of what it takes to take action. Why don’t we do what we’re supposed to be doing? We know the answer, but why are we not doing it? And so this is a really big question. It’s like so the psychology is that nobody likes to ask for help. Guess what? The most successful people on the planet find who to help, not how. But do you think Elon Musk is sitting there reading a book on freakin rocket engines and how to fly a rocket? No. He finds the people that are the best and they put the people together. That is how the billionaires are doing it. And you got a bunch of real estate agents trends that, Oh, no, I don’t need help. I can do everything I can. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. And that’s why you have a and paid your taxes. That’s why you’re not doing follow up. You missed over 150 $200,000, lost revenue from simply not following up because you’re too busy doing everything. And so when I, I love to bring that example because when we’re sitting on stage at a keynote and everyone’s like, Oh, and then I say, okay, let me ask you a question. If you had someone to remind you every single day and it would take a one phone call, so let’s pay this person $15 a day, call you and say, hey, did you call that person? That’s it, literally. And Oh, I’ll keep care of your client list. So this one person at a one hour a day, let’s just say it’s what, 30 $500 a year? I always ask, how many deals did you miss last year from a lack of follow up? Right. And so let’s say ten deals Erwin. What’s the average in your area for one sale? Average commission.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:24] It’s getting pretty big, 16,000 somewhere.

Ben Oosterveld [00:21:27] In there. Let’s say it’s 10,000 and.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:29] Using that, I like that.

Ben Oosterveld [00:21:31] Yeah, thanks. I had an idea. And so. So I need your life to come on. Here’s the thing, Erwin. If you do that, what does that. Ten sales is 100 grand. So I could spend what? Imagine me saying, why don’t you get someone for 30 $500 a year to remind you to come over? That would make you $100,000. Like, people are not thinking, this is so easy. They’re complicating it. They’re just it’s just not. But you have to ask for help. You have to build a team. You have to get people to help you. That’s a big deal. Really big deal. That’s why a coach, real estate agent, it’s a huge hole. I like solving that problem.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:02] Real estate agents, I know it looks shiny on the outside because so many people are getting into it. You seeing that, too? Well, people are getting into it.

Ben Oosterveld [00:22:07] Totally like it’s a lottery mentality now.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:11] It’s what mentality, lottery or lottery mentality. I think it’s like the grass is greener on the other side. It’s easy, low barriers of entry.

Ben Oosterveld [00:22:19] Well, so people aren’t happy on the inside. Look at the fact.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:23] That they’re going to pick up, become a realtor to become happy.

Ben Oosterveld [00:22:25] Yeah, because you look at a big wall, think about this big commission checks. You kidding me? You just told me 16,000 for one house. Oh, man. All I need to do is sell five houses and I’m set. No clue. No clue. They don’t understand what? It takes 90 days to get momentum at the fastest, maybe six months. And then when there’s no such thing as a sale a month, it comes in like nine sales and then no sales. Like it’s an it’s a really tricky business that way. So to be honest, the Erwin this reminds me of 2008. Like if you think about it, like this is we talked about it earlier and I had 61 properties, 20 some investors, millions of dollars of real estate. I had four different city staff, the whole bit property management company to manage all of them. 2008 and I head. I had never seen nothing like it. I didn’t have any perspective of bad, okay, this is what’s happening or when people getting into the market in the last few years, they don’t understand the negative that can happen. I am the last person to say don’t risk. I love taking risks, but I’m also understand what it’s like to go through a crash when your investor calls you and says, I’ve lost all my money on the stock market, can you remember how we were going to sell that property? Can we sell it? And I say, No, we’re stuck. And I’m a young man that’s never, never gone through something like this. It was horrified being a people pleaser at the time.

Erwin Szeto [00:23:43] Making using contacts. So what year is this?

Ben Oosterveld [00:23:46] 2028 to 2009. Like it was a cliff. Now it was like off. And what happens was in Edmonton, Alberta, I had I had four different cities, Red Deer Hinton in Alberta, I mean, Edmonton and Calgary. So we were heavily in Alberta. And when we had them.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:03] World oil crash.

Ben Oosterveld [00:24:05] Oil. And what’s the financial crash rate when me.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:08] Can get double whammy I.

Ben Oosterveld [00:24:09] Got I got a mortgage with I don’t even know what my credit was back in the day way back and I got it 107% mortgage. I didn’t even I just said I want a property and like how 107%. Thanks. So I bought all the furniture I needed, furnished it, called every single oil company in Hinton and said, Do you want a hotel alternative? Do you want a hotel alternative? What do you paying for? Hotel is like 20 grand a month. I’m like, how about 7000 for mine? I bought the property for 101 hundred grand. It was like I was making five or $6,000, like literally every single month clear on these. I had ten of them in that town at that time. It was wild. But remember, like, that’s a scary that’s a fucking lottery, dude. So what happens is I just want lack of them, right? I didn’t. I went through the lessons learned are huge because all of a sudden the market stopped. And that’s what it means when Warren Buffett says you’ll only see who’s swimming naked when the tide goes out. But there’s never been a boom that’s lasted, what, ten years? Never. Like, I don’t know what the history is, but the. Maybe there is somewhere, but it has to change. And what is crazy now that I’m old and wise because of that, I went through it and I paid the price. Is that right now is the best time in the world right now to take the extra money and do things that play the 20 year game. So let’s just take real estate agents right now. Man, it’s so easy. Put a sign in the lawn. It’s sold. It’s a bidding war. It just depends on how to navigate that. And it’s like, okay, something is way too easy. Erin There’s more people right now coming to me. Like, I coach agents all over North America and it’s every single agent’s like. Most of them are having their banner years and they think that they’re better. Is what changed from last year to this year? Did you get better as an agent? Nope. You’re the same person. The difference is free sales are coming your way. You don’t have to market that much because everyone, every coffee shop like this morning I’m sitting in Starbucks and there goes another guy walking by talking about property value. It is the hardest topic in the world, and this is what it was with when I was investing in 2004, five, six and seven. It was while you were in the game. We were probably doing the similar things through and just thinking, Let’s make our money. This is amazing. And so this is what’s happening. Again, I’m not predicting a crash. I’m predicting a mentality that they’re going to be blind to the future. So what they’re doing is they’re playing the present game and they’re people and the people are taking 90 degree turns on their life plan to get in the game. They’re literally abandoning their life plans so they can make sure they don’t missed the real estate boom. And I’m like, Man, I’m watching it happen again. No easy ways to raise money in this market. It’s you know, it’s so easy. It was so easy to raise money because you’re like, you want to get into the game. I got an investment. You know, people lining up on condo builds that are going to be two years out and they’re just lining up and off. What a napkin drawing here. Here’s the building. Oh, I want to end like we’re losing our wisdom. And I would not know this unless I went through a horrible year or two in the crash and understand what it’s like to look at someone and say, I know you invested your money, but I can’t get it out. Then you know, I have two properties Erwin that are dogs still.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:17] From those.

Ben Oosterveld [00:27:17] Times? Yep.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:18] You still got them?

Ben Oosterveld [00:27:20] Still got them. They’re like break evens. They do nothing. I’ve got other ones I’ve done really well on. Obviously I’ve got about nine properties still now I’ve got it down to Hannibal is easy portfolio. But the thing is that those properties are like it’s one of those ones. They’re like, you know, like you get out of them, you need to sell, but they still like they’re almost break even. So you’re kind of like sitting on this property. And the point is not the details of that investment. The fact is I’m still in a couple of those that aren’t exciting to me, like an attempted just to just take a loss and get rid of the stupid things. So they’re.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:51] Underwater. You’re saying.

Ben Oosterveld [00:27:52] They’re underwater.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:53] Still? Yeah. Okay. So there were today they’re worth less than what you paid for them.

Ben Oosterveld [00:27:57] They are two of them. That was the absolute peak we were buying and that particular property.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:02] Was 13 years.

Ben Oosterveld [00:28:03] I don’t like Erwin. This is why I’m saying I never thought that could happen. So I’ve got other properties that are diamonds, right? Like I’ve done really well in real estate. But the thing is, I know both sides. I feel so freaking lucky because now I feel like a wise man looking at what’s happening. I’m not scared, dude. I think it’s amazing time to be getting in real estate, but not with blindness like real estate agents are the side effect. Like, that’s where I live, helping agents. And there they have a chance. Right now they’re making 50 to $250000 more in their budget. How much do you think is going to be building infrastructure, hiring staff, building out their long games, client gifts, like actual things that are going to actually drive business for next 20 years. They’re just looking at making money right now. They’re getting new cars, holidays. Are they even knowing how to put their tax money away? If they are, that’s great. But reinvest into the company right now, reinvest in staff, waste money trying to build out your infrastructure. Waste it. I don’t care. Take it. Don’t. Don’t start buying more marketing right now. You don’t need to spend much money on marketing. Go long game, long game connection with your clients, making sure that that’s good to hire someone and just manage a prospect list, hire a feedback manager, raise your experience. So when the market crashes, you’re still the very best option in the market. It’s absolutely simple. But right now, because of the boom, people are starting to get a little bit complacent. They’re losing their customer service because they don’t need it. When you’re making a half million dollars without even freaking trying. See, this is times will change. And the people that set up their systems and set up a real business and challenged their mindset that way, they’re going to be the ones that last the 20 year play. They’re not just going to be like, Remember the good old days when we used to make all this money? That’s what’s coming. That’s the feast and famine cycle. We are in the feast right now.

Erwin Szeto [00:29:50] I heard happened to some realtors and realtor teams just even in the pandemic was they were like in a wait and see mode. Yeah like versus like cheering.

Ben Oosterveld [00:29:57] Our let’s go.

Erwin Szeto [00:29:58] For hosting like weekly webinars on like what to do in. Situation.

Ben Oosterveld [00:30:03] But you watch this. Okay. Watch this. You have infrastructure to watch. The power you had. Like me, too. I was. I had planned zoo. That was mean. You knew zum ten years before anybody else. We were ready. We had infrastructure. We had an assistant to put out the email. We had the team to go do the sales while you’re running your team, to have the time to set the vision to talk to your wife, bam, you got instantly because you have a list Erwin that you’ve been nurturing. So guess what? You had those things ready. So. Kolb It hits you, turn it on instantly and grow. And this is the message. This is exactly what I’m talking about. Erwin you and I one and covered in some level, it could have been a lot worse in some level, right.

Erwin Szeto [00:30:46] Across all the people who are all these people who are miserable.

Ben Oosterveld [00:30:49] Why and I think people like I know a buddy of mine, he owns the largest box in juvenile western Canada. He had built all of his online training program that he was going live in. It was sitting on the shelf. Guess what? He invested enough in infrastructure. He had it ready. He turned it on overnight. He didn’t miss a beat. It’s been hard as hell for him. And he and he. But guess what? He ran the whole time. Other gyms are like sorry. Like it was because he invested when the times are right in infrastructure he had imagine if you had to film your imagine the people going I guess I going to do online training what zoom what camera I get like if we get this real estate agents have a list. If you don’t have your list, manage pay someone to handle that list like there’s infrastructure, things that are basic and people aren’t taking care. But guess what they do? They take 10,000 more dollars and they crank it to legion. They take another bunch of money. You get into magazines, you do doorknock. Every single decision is based on sales when they should be making some of their revenue and allocating it to infrastructure. But there’s no real teaching out there. Erwin It’s frustrating. They hire an assistant to be the number one thing every agent should be doing. If they have extra money, take 15 grand, take one freaking deal and invest it into an assistant just to help you. It’ll shift your mentality.

Erwin Szeto [00:32:06] How many people have you dealt for not getting the assistant.

Ben Oosterveld [00:32:09] Deal with you? So would you say yelled at?

Erwin Szeto [00:32:11] Yeah, I when I started I had an assistant within six weeks because I hated the paperwork that much.

Ben Oosterveld [00:32:15] Everyone that’s won the game in that for.

Erwin Szeto [00:32:18] Some people who.

Ben Oosterveld [00:32:18] Don’t Carson Brier he went through my six months real estate boot camp. He’s a I don’t know. It’s got to be close to a couple million dollars. The guy’s one of the top agents in Edmonton and yeah, same thing. He hired an assistant within six weeks. Eight weeks. Like it. Just understanding business pays more than understanding sales reps.

Erwin Szeto [00:32:39] Awesome people can be rewind it 28.

Ben Oosterveld [00:32:42] On bring it on the top sales guy everywhere I’ve ever gone to So I got the right and I only got me it got me freakin busy. I got big paychecks, but it led to chaos. It led to hurting my relationship with my wife. It rent to a place where my kids wondered where I was. When I was in freaking Florida. I was sitting there dealing with brokerage issues because I didn’t have there’s times where the times where I outsold everyone, it covered my sins. It like it just look a really, really bad money manager is no problem. As long as you keep on selling a shit ton of stuff, you don’t need to worry about money management. But the moment the sales drop, you find out where you’re at.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:20] Because we got lucky because the government built us out this last time. But like 2008, there was no bailouts, was there?

Ben Oosterveld [00:33:26] Dude, it was scary, man. It was scary. I calculated the money we had. We thought, okay, we have to we have a literally a timer because the money dried up and we had no sales like meaning I made money with my investments and I had structured deals where I made money while I was investing like. And so we had to kind of keep investing as we built our portfolio, we had different things, but everything stopped. Nobody was investing like it wasn’t like, dude, it was literally like June of 2008. I remember exactly. It was literally felt like the next day and every single person wasn’t interested in investing in real estate. It was literally, I’ve never seen nothing like it because it was like the market. It was the stock market started plummeting. It’s so fast. Every single person panicked. I remember, dude, my dad. My dad was a financial planner. Erwin. During that time, my dad and I had parallel lives. But you know what? He’s a people pleaser. He was always a performance guy. And guess what happened? He ended up having a really hard time. He put money into an investment that fell apart. And it was it was insured. It was safe. It was everything. He went through a really difficult time. People were coming, going, I have the money now. And it was like their investments are going back 50%. Like, how do you look at people? And I realize now looking back is that I was in real estate and yes, we did get some underwater stuff and yes, we did, but we never lost anything. That’s why real estate is really cool, because you still have bricks and mortar. So the cash flow, you still can pay it down. Stock market is a little bit different. So I like the diversification. I like having a little bit of real, real estate because even when it crash happened, I still got real estate. I still got real estate. A lot of people lost everything in the market if they were in the wrong place. But I remember people killing themselves during that time. Financial planners were killing themselves. Like, I didn’t realize how intense that was being in the position. I was early or late twenties, trying to navigate being an advisor with money for all these people like. And so I don’t think I’m jaded from it now because it’s like it literally was a process to get through that. Mentally, I’ve gone through a lot, but reality is reality as I smell it again, starting to smell that that hyper blind jump in the game focus right now and it’s I don’t I’m not scared of that we different economics I don’t think it’s going to crash I really don’t. But I think we got to be having our head up. Let’s not make stupid moves right now. We’ve got a great opportunity to get ahead right now.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:42] It’s just this past week in a similar property to the type of properties I buy at 23 offers on it.

Ben Oosterveld [00:35:47] So I mean, man, I remember, I remember.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:49] I’m closer to it now than I ever was. So I’ll keep tabs on how many offers are on stuff, and then maybe I’ll decide to sell something when I think something might turn.

Ben Oosterveld [00:35:58] You know what, man? I know a guy right now, a friend of mine use. He invested for as long as I have. And I just had a talk with him and he’s a real estate agent. Just became one and he made a half million dollars last year on the island. First year, like really? But he’s a good dude. He’s a salesman, but also a really good, wholesome human being. He liquidated and he’s repossession. He probably because he did go through the harder times. So now you see a boom. You’re like, I want to take the money. And so he made that choice. I think logically it’s going to be a loser on our why. But it’s but the thing is that was his choice. And he can reposition his money to whatever he wants and he’s in the best places ever been in his entire life.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:33] Vancouver Island. You’re saying when you mean island.

Ben Oosterveld [00:36:35] Everything he sold was in actually Ontario. I think it was a kind of in your area, to be honest. Okay. You had about three or 4 hours gone. He’s got a whole whack of cash and now he’s going to do whatever he does. But mentally, that was really good, isn’t it?

Erwin Szeto [00:36:48] Well, sorry, does he live in Vancouver Island? I mean, sold. And I’m not a fan of investing far away from me personally.

Ben Oosterveld [00:36:55] Yeah, we don’t actually calculate something. Erwin is called mental cost in relationship costs. Like, I just. I just. I paid the price, my friend. We are also I divorced. I’ve had a lot of troubles and in marriage by chasing the dollar and I learned some major lessons men and definitely can say I don’t do that anymore clear as day realize have already won the game got amazing wife kids live in amazing place I get to know people I get to run retreats. I get to do adventures like there’s just so crazy. I get to talk to you today and middle of the day. I don’t I don’t have a job I like. There’s just something about building that life. It’s I realized very long time ago, I. I had already won the game and I was still chasing. And it’s a lesson that’s so massive. I would love the fact that we got this on the podcast because it’s like. It’s like what? Like I used to play the game as if it was over timer. And so this is the energy I used to bring to the table. I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t I had to do it. And over time you’re playing hockey or any game. That’s the time where you if you have a broken leg, you keep working. If you if you’ve anything that happens, you keep grinding because one slip up, you lose. And that mentality almost cost me my marriage. It almost cost me so much. It cost me a lot of chaos because I tried to leverage too much because I wanted to keep going. And that was the day I realized when my wife was really sit down talking about leaving and wow, I, I don’t want her to leave me. I realized that was more important than almost anything in the world. And that’s when I started changing my life and I realized I had already won. Why am I playing the game? And in overtime I got money, got opportunity. I’m on a really great trend. The kid’s life. It just was one of those days. I’m like, I won. And so I live life from when I’ve won. The game is a different life and a different perspective now. So I don’t ever get I don’t chase anymore. But can I tell you something? I’m as ambitious as the day I ever was. I am so ambitious. But it can be let go in 9 seconds when it gets in the way of what I want. So my ambition didn’t change my priorities yet.

Erwin Szeto [00:38:43] So what did you do tactically? So actually. Then just give me some. Give the listener some context. Yeah, sure. I don’t have stats on it, but divorce rate among realtors is pretty high. Got to be. You’re closer to it than I am. You talked to more from different brokerages.

Ben Oosterveld [00:38:57] I’m coaching very closely with many people. I’ve even got a client right now that’s actually asked me specifically just to work with him, him and his wife on a relationship level, which is.

Erwin Szeto [00:39:06] Is the way for.

Ben Oosterveld [00:39:07] And they’re actually not real estate agents, to be honest. They’re just this odd, odd, random person that came to my retreat, that one coaching and very close to the real estate game. Okay, so very close, but not actual real estate. But the thing is, the biggest conversation I have my one, two ones with all of the real estate agents that are in my high ticket, like my mastermind group, I only take about 15 people a year, but these every single one of them is 65%. Talk about relationship. Probably 75% of our conversations is relationships. Why is that’s what that’s the part that is the most important to them. I think the divorce rate is tough now because marriage is secondary. It’s not most it’s not even and it’s not marriage is not necessarily the like. How do you measure some of that? Not married, but they live together for like it’s common lives just almost as normal. Same thing that’s.

Erwin Szeto [00:39:54] I mean, it’s something.

Ben Oosterveld [00:39:55] So same thing. Yeah. So I don’t know the stats either, but I know that it’s rapid, rapid everywhere. I just know that 100% of people I talk to, that real estate is putting strain on their marriage and on their family.

Erwin Szeto [00:40:06] So tactically, what can someone do?

Ben Oosterveld [00:40:10] You know what I really like? Okay, so this is personal, right? So I run a program that’s 50% personal growth and it takes six months through there. And I take them through a process with training them in real estate. The first thing I do is ask them what makes them happy. And it’s really weird. I do a two hour session, what makes them happy? And I ask them, so let me let me just give you I’ll give you the actual exercise. So at least there’s something that your listeners can take. What I would do is I would say this give me your financial goals. So one of the first questions I ask them is a good old coaching question What’s your financial goals? So I set them up. I set them up. So anyone joining my program, you’ll know I’m going to set you up. So here’s what it is. So I say, what are your financial goals? And you can imagine, right? Like what do they say? Like their what their financial goals are like in real estate terms? It’s always the same thing. Okay, I need is what, 250 grand or a million or 50 deals or 80 deals. So they put a monetary value either it’s on volume number of deals or gross income. And then I ask the next question. Okay, so I set them up. So I’m asking people to do this. Write down your financial goals. The next question is describe, you know, hour by hour your day when you hit those goals. So now, like, what are you doing in your life? I’m talking specifically, what are you doing in your day? You know what happens. Erwin it’s I could literally open it up right now. I want and show you 100 times. I’ve probably done this. I’ve got all that homework in a file; I’ve got a lot of data. And so what it is, is this. You’ll have this, you’ll have the first question. And everyone talks about money and they say, what’s your goals? And the next question is this Well, what I want is to wake up in the morning and sit on my balcony and have a tea or have a coffee, maybe go to the gym and maybe do a deal here and there. But I just and I’m like, hold on a second. And then I stop and go, Can’t you do that today? So you think you need to make $1,000,000 to go to your mother effing patio and have a tea? What I realize Erwin over a years of coaching is that it’s an emotional thing they’re looking for and they’re trying to solve it with the money goal. You know what they’re trying to solve? Or one worry. That’s what they’re trying to solve. Worry. I don’t want to worry about money. So if I get lots of money, I won’t have to worry. Nope. The more money you have, the more worry you have. And it’s the exact wrong solution. So the psychology needs to be looked at. And then the next step is this Erwin people need to look at their fuel. So I’ll give a little bit of practical things to start the journey of getting the obviously this is we could do a ten part series on this, but here’s another one. So first of all, that’s the question. You’re out of alignment. You’re trying to solve an emotional need. You’re trying to stop worry by getting more money. But that’s not going to work, I promise you. And you can keep trying until you feel like the pain is enough. And then you can come talk to me. But the reality is that does not work. You need to solve them. Why are you worrying? Like this is the better question. It’s like I want to wake up and not worry. Sit on my balcony, have a tea. It’s not about the tea. It’s just that I don’t have stress. I don’t have to worry. And the very thing they’re doing is creating more stress and more worry by solving it. The traditional financial planning style way, like your goal setting bigger goals, more sales. That’s all we’re getting taught in real estate and it’s creating more stress, creating more worry, the very thing they’re trying to get out and now the definition of insanity fits do the same thing over and over again. You get the same results. It’s just hopeless. That’s where, you know, marriages break and stuff. So here’s another tactic that I think that’s shifting people massively. I think we’re not looking at our fuel. We’re not valuing our fuel. Okay. So let’s talk about this. When you wake up in the morning, how’s your energy? See, we spend so many, so much time thinking about tactics and systems and how to be number one or whatever it is. We don’t ever spend enough time on going, how are we going to fuel ourselves to get the goal? So the bigger the ambition, the better energy you need. But that’s not a conversation. That’s some very, very fu stuff. But let me just explain it in a real, practical way. Let’s say you’re a race car driver, right? And the thing is, you’re what do you need? You can have the best machine. You can have the best driver, best tires, best brakes, best engine. You could literally the best record in the world. But if you don’t put fuel in the car, you literally lose. It’s the number one thing that can take out anybody is low energy interstate. Did you get covered or Erwin you get covered knock on wood.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:33] No.

Ben Oosterveld [00:44:33] Yeah. That was so many people. Right. So they get called, right? Not the number one thing. They lose energy. I got a guy right now that’s got long Corvette that’s one of my coaching clients, 43 days. He’s into it now and he can’t get his energy. He’s one of the best sales guys and best closers, best team leads in I’ve ever met, and he’s sitting there at half energy and none of his skill matters anymore. Why are we not focusing on energy first? Now let’s go flip it out and say, what if a guy’s got more energy but less skill? Who wins? Most likely the guy with more energy. Because he’ll pick up the skill. Connor McDavid is the best hockey player on the planet. He is the most is wild. Anyone should look him up in the locker. Highlights is absolutely insane. What he can do on the ice. He’s better than ten times better than most. Almost everyone on the ice. But here’s the thing. What if he shows up, hung over? But literally, it doesn’t matter how good he is, he’s going to lose 50% of his skill because of energy. Making a very long point because I’ve worked with people like I’ll give you an example. Here’s a guy that owns a royal, a page that I that I coach and his whole team. We started working together and exactly in the Real Estate reboot, we have a thing called setting your compass. And one of the things is what are you neglecting out of your life that that does not drive business, but that would fuel your soul. He said, I’ve always wanted to sing and like I’ve always wanted to sing. What a dumb thing in a business coaching element to be like. Well, let’s talk about like literally how many calls are you making? Let’s talk about your team development. What kind of training did your morning meeting like we could be? What are you.

Erwin Szeto [00:46:00] Doing to maximize GCI? That’s right. Right. Correct. Commissions, I mean, for whatever.

Ben Oosterveld [00:46:05] Yeah. And it’s like. But that’s not why he came to me and came to me because he wanted deeper conversation. And so he said and I said, what can you commit to for the next 12, 12 weeks that is going to feed your soul, that does not feature business? And so he booked a singing lesson. This was one of the greatest breakthroughs in his life. He booked a singing lesson, start singing. And he had the connection. He goes, What else in my life am I holding myself back from? Fraught with fear? It was this unbelievable connection that happened. Oh, I’m scared of singing because I look stupid. But once he’s overcame that, everything else in his entire life had held him back because of fear. Was now on the table to be removed.

Erwin Szeto [00:46:45] Sorry about. He was afraid of singing. Yeah.

Ben Oosterveld [00:46:47] He’s like 59 years old and he’s just a, you know, a very professional man. And he’s going to go in singing and he’s like, so he got a singing lesson. And next thing you know, he steps up and he realized, why did I not why didn’t I not be who I was designed to be earlier? Because I was scared. Then he got the new brain data that says you can overcome your fears. So now what happened was he stepped in. Oh, my goodness, man. It’s crazy to see he’s had the biggest year he’s ever had. His team has had the biggest year. He’s now implemented a new assistant, got rid of someone that didn’t match. He started making way better moves. And guess what? The thing was connection was the result. Because when you’re withholding from who you really are, you are hiding. You cannot be in a relationship and hide. So now he is connected to his team. The conversations are ten times deeper, but with his team, his culture is better. Now. He comes on all my retreats with me and he’s still working with me and it’s amazing to see this go. He’s now done karaoke for the first time. He leveled up, he went to karaoke and he walked into the bar and he’s like, Okay, I’m going to do this. He thought no one would be there. I’m going to step up my game of never saying in front of anyone. And he goes in the bar and it’s loaded with like rough and tough guys. And there’s the karaoke mike and he’s like, Screw it, I’m doing it now. That’s what I call emotional strength. He didn’t have that. He needed to take those steps. But guess what’s happening? So he sang in the B, everyone was cheering them on. It’s just this huge breakthrough. But why are we talking about a man singing a real estate agent singing? Do you know what it is? Fuel. He wakes up in the morning happy. He’s now collecting records. Now he’s now nobody else is doing because he started challenging everything about his life going Where am I not align? Nobody want, nobody does. Three months of the year he lives in a cabin with his wife, running his real estate team. Three months of the year. He’s not even in the game now. That was designed, custom designed life, but it started with asking, what are you withholding that you love? It seems so simple now that I’ve been doing it hundreds of times with people and it’s cool to be able to. I really appreciate you letting me even share this because I think this is the message and it’s practical. Like, what do you feel like? What do you feel like after you go fishing, after you go wakeboarding? What do you feel like after you go sailing or whatever it is? Don’t you think you show up with your team better, your family better, you’re a better sales guy, your energy’s high. Why are we not putting that on a pedestal rather than a GCI gross sales? That’s not even profit. That’s what we’re why don’t we celebrate? How many vacations did you take in relation to your profit? I can take more vacations; I can get more profit now that. It’s a different question. We can change the metrics on our success. Redefine success is really important.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:27] It’s pretty cool because I remember I’ve always been a shy person and then there was actually at a at a real estate networking meeting because I read I read I think Brian Tracy wrote about it that those who speak will be more successful in business. So I forced.

Ben Oosterveld [00:49:41] I, in a way, overcome the fear. It’s just a fear. It’s a fear crusher.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:45] I want to overcome that fear first. Right.

Ben Oosterveld [00:49:47] That’s right.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:48] It was weird. I had to me basically had a black out moment to ask to ask the coordinator for speakers if I could give a talk on the city of Hamilton, investing in Hamilton. And I was so nervous.

Ben Oosterveld [00:49:59] I love it.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:00] And she said, Oh. So again, I had to block myself out to be asked to go speak in front of 300 people.

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:06] Well, intimidating, man. First time. Yeah, three hundreds. A big room. It actually looks really big. Yeah. Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:11] And then she said, Yeah, of course, no problem. Just send me an email, some ideas and book a date. Wow, that was easy. I thought that was easy. And then you actually began on the stage, and I I’m.

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:21] Going to make sure you go to the bathroom first because you might just be your pants. You’re so scared.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:25] My business has boomed after that.

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:27] Interesting. Yeah, because I think the energy you bring changes and people saw you. They actually saw you.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:34] But conquering that fear, not what enabled me to go after other ones. Because then the next one I attacked was my fear of heights. Right.

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:43] You jump out of a plane.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:44] After another plane, you have done bungee jumping, done the entire edge walk. When you’re trying to do it, you’re trying.

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:49] That sounds terrible. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:50] Bring it. Bring your mastermind. Love it. You guys want to close?

Ben Oosterveld [00:50:54] And this is crazy. We actually had a retreat in October in, I suppose, the Senate confirmation crowd. Without it next year, you didn’t want to, do we? We’ve got this amazing place that’s off grid, but at the lodge has a Wi-Fi connection, but no phones. And we go.

Erwin Szeto [00:51:11] There. We don’t like fight.

Ben Oosterveld [00:51:13] Well, you know what? You know why? Because we are in business. I think there’s some level of like connectivity that that can be there. And plus, mentally, I don’t think people can take all of it. I take baby steps. We don’t need to go to black belt. We go to Blue Belt. That’s fine. Sometimes we greater our accomplishes against top A-type big times winners. And I don’t think we need to do that. I think we need to greater success on the 1% steps that we need to take. And so one Wi-Fi connection is a pretty big deal for when you can’t use your phone in the cabin you got, you know, it’s a good step for most but anyways yet no we’re going to go deep dove into who you are what you want get clarity and get connection.

Erwin Szeto [00:51:48] When is it? When our stories are well.

Ben Oosterveld [00:51:51] What’s the date? If you go, do you want.

Erwin Szeto [00:51:52] Me to write an.

Ben Oosterveld [00:51:53] Article dot com and hit the retreats? It’s a mindset retreat and you spell it easy.

Erwin Szeto [00:51:59] That’s like Smith.

Ben Oosterveld [00:52:00] I also been on t e r v aldi dot com. If you go to Ben Oster Volcom the retreats there and it’s 300 bucks a person and it is probably one of the biggest game changers I’ve ever seen in my life. When it comes to business and relationships and the combination. This is how many days? It’s three days.

Erwin Szeto [00:52:22] Three days? Who’s it for? Who should go?

Ben Oosterveld [00:52:25] You know what? This is an open one. I’ve been running these retreats privately in my mastermind. This is the only time I’ve opened it up to, like the second time of only open it up to anybody so personally or when I I’ve seen fathers and sons, husbands, wives, real estate agents, the wife coming on their own, other agents that have actually worked with me for years. They sent their wife and they were into that. So to be honest, Erwin, it’s humans, right. And I think I think real estate is always a big topic in in my world, but it’s nothing. We don’t actually talk about real estate unless it’s in relation to how are you in your own way and where you going through. So I get everyone out of their heads by leaving your environment or when things are psychology completely changes. It’s I think even chemicals in your brain changes dopamine. Like there’s all these different things that happen stress, guilt, shame. All of these emotions show up when you have to leave your family, you have to leave your team. It also is a really good place to test if you’re a business owner to find out where your business falls apart when you leave for three days. So much benefit from just going. Just if I just say go and we just hung out, it would still be a massive thing. But at the retreats, what we do is, is we examine you. And if the safest environment in the entire world give our ability, you and I facilitate the whole thing. We figure out what you want. We’re heading your own way. And there’s times where we’re most of us are telling our story to our self that is not inaccurate because we don’t want to face the bad feelings, so we avoid them. And so we look at them and we have massive breakthrough. That’s when that’s what happens. And that’s where I can tell you story after story after story about lives of being. It’s like the catalyst for these massive changes in their lives. And increase is a very big thing. If you go to the website and watch the video, you’ll see the actual location. You’ll see some of the guys that went on this last retreat in northern Ontario. It’s north it’s an hour and 45 northeast of Sudbury.

Erwin Szeto [00:54:17] Oh, that’s far. It’s in like 3500. Includes meals and accommodation, everything. Just go make your way there. That’s it.

Ben Oosterveld [00:54:24] Just get there. You know, I don’t think it’ll always be that price, was it? If someone’s listening to this and it’s been a while, double check, you know? But it’s honestly, it’s the it’s just I just thought of this, and we’re branching out to opening it up. It’s just too many. Like, I just feel like it’s a we had this beautiful thing that we’ve been doing for years and years, and I think so many people would love to just jump in and retreat that aren’t wanting real estate coaching or they want to develop a like bring it, bring their team. And that’s the area that I can cover because I don’t need to coach everyone. So but like for example, if you brought your team or when you go coach them after, but the conversation on your team will change. That’s the difference. You’ll have a deeper connection. You want like it just they just the culture of your team is just an absolute game changer. It just changes everything because you actually get real. We break down the barriers and you can act like, put it this way, you’re like, How many people get you? Like, I’m talking buck naked. No, you are not ever naked, but you know what I mean. Metaphorically speaking, every single thing is on the table with Erwin they get you how many people.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:25] That are now a very small number and can be pretty closed off.

Ben Oosterveld [00:55:29] So what we need to share. So that’s fair. What if there was a place where I could get to where I really got you work? What would happen to me? No relationship that truly got to that place where I got, you.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:40] Know, we didn’t kill each other.

Ben Oosterveld [00:55:43] He’s like. He’s like.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:43] Stay away most of the.

Ben Oosterveld [00:55:45] Time in making up your team. If you could give that to your team. Yeah. And like you get them like you like that’s we talked or retention. Well, let’s offer all these things for retention and let’s invest in our team. I’m like, what if you just got them? That’s the most limited edition place you can ever be with a human being is they get me. I’ve probably got three people, my crew, my business from within mastermind. I think they get me. But there’s also my wife who gets me. And so there’s a very few amount of people I’ve been actively building my tribe in that way and being wildly open so I could find those relationships. So it’s a really big deal. So that’s where that’s where a lot of it’s a really great place to jump in. If it’s not about just coaching on real estate and stuff, it’s a really cool place. I envision teams showing up there and doing something together that would be just completely game changing.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:37] Sounds awesome. Dennis Felder Yeah. So you serve your company because I’m sure some people are interested in that. But you took an exit. Why? Why, why the decision to sell?

Ben Oosterveld [00:56:48] I never wanted to be an agent. I never did. I was always doing it. I’d been trying to exit first since my second year at real estate, to be honest. So I am deeply obsessed with human behavior and helping people. I’ve lived a life on the streets. I’ve been in rehab for over 365 years. I’ve had some real painful times. We in the psychiatric ward broke out of the psychiatric ward. It was on the news. My parents saw me. I fraudulently flew to Las Vegas as a kid on a through a beat, the airports and everything and 15 years old and got stuck out there and a crazy life I’ve lived. And so I’ve had a lot of pain. Depression was a massive thing for me. Rage and anger. So once you’ve got like for so much of my life, I just been trying to be normal that so many things that was always unfair. I was a good little boy and life, life class. And I think it’s the greatest gift of ever had my life. Now, I wouldn’t be so obsessed with making an impact and helping people. And so real estate is one of my avenues that that I used so I can impact lives. And I freakin love business, I love sales. I love it because I’m a frickin connected kind of guy I see through walls. And so, yeah, like it’s real estate. I sold my business because I was always trying to sell my business. You know, if I did it again, I probably could have done a little bit better. If I sold a little bit earlier, I waited a little bit too long because when you got a cash cow running, you know, you free hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in. And you don’t need you literally don’t even need to show up. That’s hard thing to sell. So I probably went too long, lost some value because some guys leave. Right? When you’re selling a real estate company, the biggest thing you’ve got is your systems and your team and so and your advertising. And if you’ve got a really good brand, you’re obviously buying the brand as well. And so to evaluate a company, you can evaluate your company with your sales. So let’s just say I sold 100 properties and my team sold 20. I can only evaluate my team is 20 because you’re not buying me, you know, you do got some you got some intellectual property and you’ve got some, you know, my list, but they all know me. So for two years before I sold, I was moving my client base to my team, planning to sell. The thing is though, I should have sold when it was at its peak. I didn’t know when it was at its peak and I wasn’t ready. And this is how it life is. But I ended up selling. I got a payday and I won’t disclose that in light of, you know, it’s obviously not for me to disclose. It wasn’t a massive payday, but I’ve structured a deal that’s five years. So I get paid for five years because I know my base and I know how many people call me still and I know the business. So I’ve kind of got a similar situation to when I own the company. It’s a little bit less obviously because I’m sharing now, but it’s like having a team Stults for the next four or five years and the next five years, and I’ve got two, and that’s how I’ve exited. I know other people that just took a quarter million dollar check and but the value, the value and it’s not the best business to sell, but it’s a great business to exit with a sale. Like most guys just fade away like it’s crazy. You’ve got 20 years, 30 years, man, if you would. You know why they don’t sell? Because I don’t keep a business. They’re a salesman with a phone. There’s no value in it. My value was I had four from start to finish process built. My assistant runs the business, my team systems. We had marketing out there, we had all of these different things, but it was a business. It was run without me. That’s when you can sell it if it’s honestly run without you, you know, like I think there’s that’s the value. Why wouldn’t you like Corey McEwen, who bought my company? I think what he has now, he literally has team Oscar belt in the same town. He’s got my entire base instantly overnight and my sales team and my office and my assistant overnight, it’s just crazy. Like the value that he picked up was just unreal. So why not buy a business? Why don’t even talk about this man now, many people right now, why do you go the old timers and say, I want to buy your list? Why don’t you come up with a deal that, guess what, you can buy it for a couple grand. They don’t know nothing. They probably even keep their list. You’re like, Oh, sure, sounds good. All you want is them on it for a year. Them to send out a good email, say he’s joining my team as he retires. I had a plan for this. I was going to pick up all the old timers and build my team this way, thinking, imagine you could go. You could literally get a 2 to 3000 people on your list by picking up these guys and have the retirement group. I loved it. I love the game and I love the game of real estate and building business. I could go all day on any business and I have all kinds of crazy ideas I never executed on. I love sharing those with my crew, love it, but that’s a great way. So think about that’s business mind. Versus a salesman’s mind.

Erwin Szeto [01:01:11] So then selfishly, I want to ask a question because we’re running on time. So I selfish question, not for me. It’s more my audience and all the people are struggling out there, mostly mental health wise. No, I think statistically, I think one in three people responded to a survey saying their mental health is suffering.

Ben Oosterveld [01:01:27] You train a.

Erwin Szeto [01:01:28] COVID, are you suffering? That’s not really the question. See, you are suffering.

Ben Oosterveld [01:01:32] But genuinely, last year was the oddest year, one of the best years of my life. And honestly, really heart after the second year mentally didn’t weigh on me. Like I like if you think about I got five kids now we’re trying to we’re trying to like they were at home. My wife is my wife hasn’t gone to the gym for a long time. There was like, there’s all this different stuff going on. We moved from Edmonton to Vancouver, like on paper, social media, it looks amazing, but that’s hard. And we’re I’m also going from mentally running a real estate business to full time everything to do with coaching, which is a dream, which is that’s what I want to do. It’s kind of been doing that, but it’s like I created more space and it’s like so cool but definitely challenging. We’re looking at scaling, we’re building, but I love the process, but I had to get really honest with myself. I put on a little bit of weight and I was like, What am I doing? What’s happening to me? Because I disconnected with the emotional things I needed to deal with a disconnected from it so I could just plow forward because I had to move. We sold the company; we renovated the house. We had to get the cool, the set, the kids set up. So when you’re grinding so hard, what you do is you block out the emotion that’s telling you to slow down. And I didn’t for a bit because I needed to move. I needed to do these things. And the real raw truth of it is that it cost me a bit on my I was tired. I’m coming out of it now strong. Like I’m definitely losing weight and I’m fixing that all up. No problem. I’m back on track. But the thing is, I had to come to terms. Yeah, no, this got me a bit. It got me a bit it and I realized I disconnected from the emotions so I could keep moving forward. And that’s my go to back in the day. That’d be a shadow of mine where I’ll just be like, I don’t care if I’ve got a frickin broken leg. I’m win a game. I kind of shifted into like I kind of almost had to. Moving a company selling. Selling a company, selling a house, renovating a house, moving to West Vancouver, finding the kids schools, practical stuff like. But it was like, How are we going to move our kids? We got multiple cars, like just plus running a real coaching business, a national company with investment properties, just the amount of things that we hit through the transition of multiple things. I realized, Wow, I should have stopped and felt sad. I should have stopped and identified with my emotions. Instead, I just kept pushing and I’m okay with that. Like, I’m not perfect, man. It’s part. But I’m very self-aware that that’s what happened. I’m learning my lesson again, where we push too hard again I push too hard again. And I could have done a couple more days off. I should have taken another weekend away during the process, even though my life felt like I couldn’t. And so, yes, my mental health definitely got touched. And I finally feel like over the last few months, like, okay, okay, baby, let’s f and go, baby, let’s go. And I’m feeling back to myself like, yes, eating killer, doing well, coaching is on fire and everything’s good and it’s just like it’s just part of the process. So mental health is and I’m stronger, like mentally I’m strong and so I know and I and I was living a 1% life in it. So I’m very well aware of the privilege and the privilege I fucking work for every dollar. But anyways, that’s another, another topic. But I, I’m sitting in a privileged position for sure, but I work for that. So, but I think about the people that don’t have that and, and they have the struggles and there’s more child help lines doubled from like a million calls a year to 2 million. But those things destroy my gut. You’re talking about the police calls out there about battery, like more and more about physical beating each other up. And just I think the undercurrent of our society is fragile right now. Mentally, I really do.

Erwin Szeto [01:04:59] That’s why I told my wife to it. To learn Krav Maga.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:03] Is that fighting crime and God, what is that again?

Erwin Szeto [01:05:05] I think Israeli.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:07] That’s a legit man those that’s scary those scary dudes.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:11] And they play for keeps it’s like they cause damage.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:15] It’s crazy. I’m going to interview your wife for my podcast here.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:19] I like an asteroid from a guy.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:21] I see her when things that you should be a fighter.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:23] You know she took lessons on my advice.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:25] Okay, cool. That’s great. Good tip. I’ll ask her.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:28] So you have a book coming out. You tell me about it.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:30] The richest real estate agent how to build a seven figure business without Sacrificing Your Relationships. It’s the first mindset book in real estate that’s ever been written that has a ton of unbelievable tactics and strategies, all wrapped in mindset and personal growth.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:44] I wish I read that instead. That other book, the one that everybody calls the Red Book, you know, the one I’m talking about.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:50] I have a few.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:51] Emails coming in.

Ben Oosterveld [01:05:53] You know what, Erwin? I paid Scribe to help publish this book. I’ve invested probably $20,000 at least into writing it. These guys were they help me so much because they said, Ben, if you write a tactical real estate book, you’re going to be invisible. I know I don’t want to do a tactical real estate book, but I want to do a personal growth book. I want to do something that actually matters. And they’re like, Well, what if we bridged the gap? And I’m like, Yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do. And it’s very difficult to blaze a trail in in an industry that doesn’t have that trail blazed yet. So it’s like, is it going to even like no one’s going, you need to work on your inner game. We’re a relationship business. Should we train on relationships? No. Lead gen and like I get to me it’s really obvious. So I’m the first and honestly the results of the people going through my stuff is while. But people are really having massive success starting from the inner game and the thinking. And so this book bridges the gap between a marketing sales business development book with it all is based on mindset. 100% on emotional intelligence and mindset because you want to be in what is rich. Rich is like a like a very good dessert. Like, if you have a rich dessert, it’s just rich. And you want to wake up in the morning feeling like an amazing feeling on every area of your life. Money is not rich, but the rich is the marketing ploy. The richest real estate agents. Good marketing. So we now have richest real estate agent group for real estate agents. And we have our podcast. Richest the richest real estate agent podcast and the book. And it’s coming out in April 2022.

Erwin Szeto [01:07:21] Oh, soon we can get it working folks get it on.

Ben Oosterveld [01:07:24] And I don’t even know I think check Amazon my website. Probably Amazon is going to be probably the number one place people buy it. Okay. Okay. So that’s going to be that’s going to be the place. You can’t get it now. But you can go to my website right now. If it’s before April and join my waiting list, I’m going to do something special for anyone that wants to jump on my VIP early list.

Erwin Szeto [01:07:40] Well, I want to know. I want a copy for everyone, my team.

Ben Oosterveld [01:07:43] I have a feeling it’s I have this weird fire in my belly that’s like this is this might hit home because. Can I tell you something or what? I have my group, right. And I ask the group every time someone says, I want to join your Facebook group, I ask, what is one way you get yourself in your own way? Dude, it is so crazy. The real estate agents I overthink. I have I’m a people pleaser. Like everyone has massive emotional intelligence issues. They have psychological stuff that these and guess what it’s like there’s no solution to this unless you go to a therapist. I now bridge the gap with this book truly. And so people are going to understand how to raise their emotional intelligence, become mentally healthy while building a real estate business. I can truly at seven figures.

Erwin Szeto [01:08:30] I’m excited and you’re trying to bust through. I didn’t get through this book.

Ben Oosterveld [01:08:34] I’m going to do an audiobook, but I’m not doing it till probably the fall sometime so I can relaunch it. It’s a good marketing one, right to get. Once it starts dying out, I’m going to come up with the audiobook and fire that baby up again.

Erwin Szeto [01:08:45] So it sounds good. It sounds like it sounds like I get excited enough to read a hard copy.

Ben Oosterveld [01:08:51] I think I think you’ll actually really like it.

Erwin Szeto [01:08:53] I can’t wait and go sign up for it. Ben just been a blast. My team’s a big fan of your work for context for the listener. Like my team has been attended Ben’s events in Toronto. So yeah, all the feedback is fantastic. Can’t wait to see the book. Can’t wait for four more events in Toronto. Traveling open up went.

Ben Oosterveld [01:09:11] Crazy, only I had it ready to go do it for March. I was going to come to Toronto. I had all things lined up and it was like, Nope, cancel that baby. I’m not going to risk it again. I got to wait. Got to wait. But it’s probably the book. I’ll do some touring; I’ll do some speaking and things. It’ll be fun. So let me know.

Erwin Szeto [01:09:27] When you’re out this way.

Ben Oosterveld [01:09:28] Yeah, you got it. All right. Thank you so much for having me on again, honestly.

Erwin Szeto [01:09:31] Thank you. Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already and sign up for my newsletter and you’ll learn of the next free demonstration webinar I’ll be delivering on the subject of stock hacking. It’s a much improved demonstration over the one that I gave to my cousin Chubby at Thanksgiving dinner in 2019. He now averages 1% cash flow per week, and he’s a musician by trade. As a real estate investor myself, I got into real estate for the cash flow. But with the rising costs to operate a rental business, it’s just not the same as it was 5 to 10 years ago when I started. Never forget that cash flow reduces your risk. The more you have, the more lambs you can absorb. And if you have none or limited cash flow, you’re going to be paying out of your pocket like I did on a recent basement flood at my student rental in St Catherine’s, Ontario. If you’re interested in learning more about Stitcher for free from a newsletter at WDW DOT Truth About Real Estate Investing Dossier into your name email address on the right side will include in the newsletter when we announce our next Free Stock Anchor demonstration. Find out for yourself what so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase our cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and sharing the stuff.

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