if you were to start with $1,000 where would you invest that so now we have the rapid fire round I'll start with you Adrian you cannot answer more than five words you know who you're talking to go to investment vehicle for quick returns high risk High reward or J growth for long term potentially more like gambling than it is actually investing just one top advice for any new investor [Applause] [Music] December 9 2023 we hosted the largest new immigrant networking event in Canada and we did a panel discussion with really accomplished individuals who have done very well in their respective Fields Tracy Valco mortgage broker for 27 years Matthew shant real estate investor for 20 plus years and my mentor for the last 2 years Max Nicholson founder and CEO of Blossom the number one social networking app for investors Sam lman a certified financial planner handling portfolio is worth millions of dollars every single month and finally Adrien Bar Needs no introduction Canadian in a t-shirt a YouTuber a stock market expert real estate investor this discussion is going to be power pack and we're going to talk about wealth building so let's get started you know today I really wanted to talk about weth building because we have someone from the stock market we have some a financial planner we have a CEO we have a real estate investor we have a real estate investor and someone from the mortgage industry from the real estate industry so Tracy I have the first question for you what has thisis so you you know you have built a massive uh brokerage and it's Soul first it's heart first like you you know it's heart centered right you know how has risk played a role I think that you know you have to take risk in life right if you want to follow your purpose a very long time ago when I first entered into the mortgage industry we were less than 5% as women in the financial industry in Canada and for myself when I looked at mortgage financing I didn't look at the numbers I didn't look at doing the mortgage I looked at what impact I can make on people and that wasn't a leadership style that was recognized or appreciated so I realized the risk I needed to take was to take that first step right to be able to to really own what my purpose and impact was and you know nose down face forward you know don't worry about the noise I don't know how many people said no you can't do this Tracy you're a woman you're not smart enough you're not you don't have the experience and I just sat there and said no I want to make impact I want to make a difference and I really fostered force and that doesn't mean that I didn't take a a few steps back to take a few steps forward but one thing I really did learn uh through the whole process is thank God I did take the risk because the amount of people that I was able to impact not only with the people that I served doing mortgages I built a community now with the brokerage you know when I first started this brokerage 5 years ago I had 14 mortgage agents and Brokers with Matthew and we have now 78 agents of mortgage ERS across Canada and fully licensed across Canada we really resonate and really in the true essence of what we do is want to be able to provide people a very great life because we all deserve it right we all deserve to have home ownership we all deserve to be able to support our families our friends our loved ones and the amount of love and commitment for us to move mountains and to be able to bring people like you nav Joo you know math you know how many people you've brought into the brokerage we just continue to build on that momentum of taking risk and be able to surround ourselves with amazing people so risk is everything but everything brings you so much in life Matt yes like can you give us one example either positive or you know like one risk that you took in your investing Journey that has has impacted you either negatively or positively if you were to pick one example okay well um maybe what I'll do is tell you how I mitigated the risk because I Am My Own Worst risk when it comes to investing um I'm not that smart and I'm emotional and I make bad decisions so how I mitigated that is actually right in front of us uh I picked a partner to collaborate with who was exactly the opposite and found someone who was grounded sensible who who who went through life in a more calculated way than I did you know which allowed me and empowered me to go take the risks that provided the results that we would see the biggest risk would be partnering with Richard oh yeah probably that was his biggest that was his biggest risk uh partnering with me and and knowing that you would find someone who complemented your your weaknesses uh with their strengths and being able to lean on that person knowing that you're Your Own Worst Enemy half the time right that's not the answer that I would have thought but thank you so much Matt Max you quit your job at McKenzie right how long ago was that uh that was about uh just over two years ago now so what made you made that's a massive risk right and starting an app and I have built an app Business my first app Business failed miserably uh so I know how hard it is and we didn't scale to the level that you did we were nowhere close but that would have been a massive scary move like talk us through what was going on in your head yeah definitely well before I do that show of hands how many people either run their own business or are interested in starting their own business wow that that is amazing and I think I I spoke to a bunch of folks um when we were grabbing food and and a lot of folks either had their own business and or were thinking about starting and it's it's a big leap I think Adrian was talking about the risks I took a approach that I almost wouldn't recommend now I I fully left McKenzie to start uh Blossom I went all in part of the reason I did that was because McKenzie and Consulting is a lot like investment banking so I was working like 80 weeks I didn't really have the ability to uh do it on the weekends or do it do it after work it it was sort of I did have to leave but I was very thoughtful in in how I did that I for about a year knew I wanted to leave to start something cuz I'm very passionate about creating something and and building something which Consulting you don't really get to do you're more advising you're guiding which is is very rewarding and fulfilling but for me my passion has always been about building and creating so I I knew in my mind that I wanted to do that and I think many of you sounds like you know you want to do that you can start planning for that before you even have an idea before you even take that leap so for about a year I was saving saving saving to have enough you know Runway you talk about Runway when in a business but even you know personal Runway so that if it took a while to get off the ground I had that support and I think in this in the concept of risk you were talking about you know what you can do to drisk right and that's you know testing the business trying to get your first customers testing the concept iterating through a bunch of Concepts before you take that leap starting to save building yourself that safety net there's a lot of things you can do so that when you're taking that that risk and you're taking that leap it's it's not Reckless it's actually a calcul ated risk in the same way that in investing you're taking calculated risk I think having that same mindset for business and for entrepreneurship is very important as well that's amazing Max you're inspiring as hell you know it it's only been a few months that I've known you but you have inspired me Sam hey so I'll ask you a very financial planner question right so as a financial planner you deal with millions of dollars right what is that one risk that you really feel people should be very careful taking as business owner it's a great question uh first of all I feel honored to be up here with so many amazing accomplished people so uh yeah thanks for having me I'd say the biggest risk that individual investors have is actually themselves and overconfidence it's really easy to get caught up in I know exactly what's right I don't need people beside me I don't need great mentors I don't need people who will say no to me and say this is a bad idea over confidence and thinking I did something right once so I can do it right again you always have to be cognizant of what can essentially disrupt yourself just and as a startup founder right you're always disrupting right and and you're disrupting an industry but your industry is simultaneously being disrupted if you're not always looking at your own internal like struggles saying what can I improve on where am I weak where where can I get better then I think that that is a risk that you're taking we see it all the time with investors who say I did it once um I beat the stock market I can continue to do it I'm going to take a big risk it's potentially more like gambling than it is actually investing it's uh I would say so overconfidence would be that one big thing having a team around you that can actually say hey bring it down for a second let's think this through logically um Daniel pink he's a accomplished author has this great analogy of the elephant and the rider um where there's one side of your brain that is emotional and is really really hard to control there's one side of your brain that's logical obviously I'm oversimplifying it but the idea that when you have control over the elephant which is the emotional side of your decision making you can move that and do great things but if you don't have control over that if you don't the people in your life telling you when you're doing something wrong if you don't have the professional advisers the people in your life then that elephant you've got absolutely no control over it so I would say overconfidence making sure that you're actually doing the things right running your ideas and strategies by people who have done what you want to do that's probably the biggest risk I see in detriment to investors and people who are getting started in business and investing that's so insightful you know I and as a person who said you know you you said know to you know I totally agree with you right because I I am that person who would feel that you know you know I probably know because I research a lot but yeah I totally agree with you you know and I lean on you for advice for sure um Adrian you're one of the most weldered person in terms of you know in your Niche right so in general also you know you read a lot you know you wanted to be a physicist I can't even begin to think you know what that takes right why read the tax code like that's such a nerdy thing to do right why did you decide to read the tax code you're well you're asking a nerd I'm a nerd so um no so for me really I've always been like I I'm I'm an engineer at heart and what I mean by that is I'm always about optimizing and maximizing efficiency in all areas of life that means I want to be as efficient with my time I want to be as efficient with my resources with my nutrition and yes with my money and here's the thing like ever since I was in in University when I first started doing SE I was always working you know I I had multiple kind of side digs I was doing uh contract software development I was working as a as a private tutor for a couple of years um I had all these kind of miscellaneous little freelance works and I always knew like hey I knew that there were I knew the general concept of tax write-offs and business deductions I heard that all my life but I was always like what does that really mean and I and I and at one moment I kind of remember I for a weekend I kind of sat down I thought to myself okay I'm working like I'm working my butt off studying doing all these courses and whatever time I have I'm working on these different kind of side businesses I'm working so hard for my money I want to make sure that my money is working just as hard for me and a big part of that is I don't want to be throwing money down the drain uh in excess taxes even penalties or whatever if there is a better way out there right so I decided hey you know what like instead of just working um finding new client this weekend uh I will just sit down and read through the entire tax code so I understand the rules and the way I look at it really it's kind of like it's kind of like playing a game right like if you want to play basketball you have to know the rules you have to know oh I can take otherwise you'll be traveling all day you have to know like oh I can pivot on one foot I can take three steps I can make a run for the net right once you learn the rules you can learn how to win within those rules but if you don't know the rules you're just playing you're just you're just playing like BL kind of like like like like the elephant analogy you said you have no control you're just hoping for the best and then eventually the tax B will catch you right so instead be proactive get in front of that and like learn it all obviously taxes are not fun reading they're not easy reading but you know especially compared like today compared to you know how many years fine I'll admit like 10 years ago when I was a student right um there's so many more online resources out there whether you watch Sam's uh Tik Tok videos or Instagram whether you watch my videos on YouTube whether you you know read online blogs there's so much online resources out there to really understand how the at least the fundamentals of taxes if you want that more specialized uh you know advice or or that kind of like you have a very particular question then in that case yeah you probably have to pay money to speak to an accountant or or advisor what what have you but I would say take advantage of whatever free resources you have right now there's never been a better time than today to learn about these things and it really like honestly you learn about it once you learn how these rules work once and then you're set for life yes every year there's going to be slight modifications to taxes but the fundamental principles that that will last you a lifetime so I think it's definitely worth it for most people so now we have the rapid fire round I'll start with you Adrian you cannot answer more than five words that's it you only have not more than five words to answer this you know who you're talking to you're putting me a five word L that's why I gave you five words but some of these are yes or no answer right so that's okay so your forever hold investment one if you were to choose one what would you hold forever five words Blossom social good answer that's amazing all right so uh Tracy one just one top advice for any new investor seek a mentor SE Mentor 100% amazing yeah that makes sense all right Matt high risk High reward or steady growth for long term okay so you have to balance it right I'm a balanced person no no no no no high risk on income long-term on investment I like that answer love it Max I have the same question for you high risk High reward or steady growth for long term because I see you go all in on Blossom right that's the reason why I'm asking you for five I say depends on personal risk appetite such a diplomatic answer but I I I take that Sam go to investment vehicle for quick returns and quick I don't mean 6 months or crypto I mean less than 3 years you guys are going [Music] gics man what about 10 years okay we have to have a better answer 10 years starting a business okay nice love it c i you one of very few um real estate advisers online who is talking about macroeconomics you just don't say you know Bond deals go down this goes down you know it's it's not knee joke I see that there's a lot of thought there's a lot of research how important is it when you're starting a business that knowledge you know especially in real estate how important is there are a lot of people here who want to be realitors who are realitors or who want to be mortgage agents there are a lot of people here you know uh you will meet them you know after this so what would you tell them how important is knowledge and how important is diving deeper into economics well I think it's very important especially when you're starting a business like if you are going into real estate or mortgages at the beginning you're not going to have an abundance of volume of clients this is the perfect time and like you said there's so much knowledge online like when I first started in the industry I don't want to age myself because I I started when I was 10 wow um but we didn't have the resources online like that at all right like I was trying to sit in the corner of a room trying to listen to a conversation of a senior mortgage broker and trying to get the information I needed to know about the economy now there's so much information that you can learn and I like inflation is a big topic and it's something that's necessary to understand so that you can have a better CA like conversation with your clients your referral Partners 64% of Canadians do not understand inflation and that's okay it's complicated the most Savvy of economists are saying it is very very complex and they're navigating every week it's a different conversation of a different strategy that the government's coming into place to be able to look at what the inflationary number is so this is a time to look at resources you know I always say surround yourself with smarter people right because that way there you can get the knowledge you get the experience and you get the confidence to have a better conversation with the person that you're speaking to or the group of people that you're speak speaking to and I know for myself that macro uh that macro conversation or education for me is a huge platform to be able to give back to the community because people need to understand it and they need to understand that even though there's challenges I always say the challenges gives you opportunity to be able to leverage a situation or right now in this time where buying a home is the perfect time because we have a lack of Supply right rates are starting to come down and this is a time where people need to take advantage of it but if you don't understand it becomes very daunting and it becomes a point of conversation where you don't want to learn so to your point it's really really important to take the time to leverage every aspect of being an entrepreneur in your business from understanding bookkeeping to understanding your budget to understanding accounting like to really fundamentally know every piece of how to run a business you will be so much more successful life no matter what you do no that's amazing you know coming from someone who has you know like done this for three decades it means a lot Sam I have a question which actually came from the audience right so if you were to start with $11,000 where would you invest that money like you only had $1,000 to invest where would you do that you have to invest it in yourself there there's no investment that's going to pay more dividends long term than increasing your skills increasing your ability to earn income $11,000 isn't going to help you retire in 30 years unless it's being put to good use to help you improve your skills and you have to start there um I'm I'm sitting here now and I'm like super inspired by the people who are sitting beside me I mean Max you make me want to like punch through a brick wall after you speak um but like it's it's it's that thing right like there's so many good resources and so many good people and there's courses you can take there's networks you can join there's people like who are willing to give their time um when you only have $1,000 chances are you have more time than money I hope if you you have no time and no money that's a problem you've got to F fix something there but if you have $1,000 to your name and you've got time you have to spend time learning spend time watching YouTube videos from good content creators who actually know their stuff right um and and there's people who like Tracy and like Matt you guys like are king and queen makers right you're the type of people who will Propel others to so much success and find those people in your life who are willing to invest in you and often correct me if I'm wrong the only thing you guys are going to ask for in return is for them to do it again to someone else when they have the opportunity to pay a quote and so when you have more time than money you have to spend time building your network buying into skills that can help you increase your income I'm aan so I got to jump in there Sam and that was inspiring I mean thank you so much guys for being here you know you came all the way from BC you came all the way from kishner Toronto thank you so much guys for coming here uh and being here with me and participating here thank you so much all right all right all [Applause] right
