Ever wondered how to make a 180-degree career switch and thrive?
Welcome back to the “Inspired To Invest” Real Estate Podcast. This week, Mimi Fei is joining us.
You’ll be captivated by our conversation with Mimi, who is the owner of Honeybee Homes, the CEO of Tree Life Investment Group Mutual Fund Trust, as well as the CFO for Honeybee Development Group.
From a solid grounding in finance, Mimi plunged headlong into the world of real estate and construction, navigating turbulence, and finding success in unchartered territory. She talks about her intriguing journey, how she and her husband cleverly invested their wedding money into real estate, and how she juggled the roles of a young mom and a businesswoman while setting up three enterprises.
Mimi’s story is a testament to the power of ambition and determination.
Our discussion takes a deeper dive into the world of real estate, the territory where Mimi has carved a niche for herself. Not one to shy away from risks, she shares her experiences as a land developer, the successes and challenges, and the importance of mental adaptability when things don’t go as planned.
Ever bought a bungalow sight unseen? Well, Mimi has!
She spills the beans on her most unusual real estate escapades, including a bizarre encounter with a room full of used cat litter, and shares some eye-opening stories from her fellow real estate investors.
Mimi’s insights into managing expectations, building strong professional alliances, and the mental aspects of entrepreneurship are nothing short of enlightening.
o connect with Mimi, go to @honeybee.development on social or honeybeedevelopment.com online,
Thank you to Dijon Properties for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to @dijon.inc on social.
Tune back in on Wed., Nov. 22 for Episode Twenty-Four for a guest focused on leveraging business and real estate to improve communities locally and internationally. For past episodes, click here.
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
Succeed In Real Estate Episode Transcript
Speaker 1
00:01
Welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast, where we’re sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of Inspire to Invest has been brought to you by Dijon Properties. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I have an amazing guest today, named Mimi Fei. I believe I’m saying that right. I’ll give you a little bit of background on Mimi before she goes into her story. But to give you some background, she has a bachelor’s in finance and then she did a total 180 degree spin and found herself in construction. So she’s actually the CEO of Honey Bee Development Group. She’s the owner of Honey Bee Homes and she’s also the CEO of Tree Life Investment Group Mutual Fund Trust, which manages more than $500 million in development projects across Canada. And as if she doesn’t have enough on her plate, she also has three children, some cats and somehow she squeezes and gardening in her spare time. So, without further ado, welcome Mimi to Inspire to Invest. How are you today?
Speaker 2
01:07
Thank you so much, serena, for having me. It’s such an honor to be in your podcast, so I’m very grateful for that.
Speaker 1
01:13
Thank you, thank you, and you sound like so much better than I do, of course, that’s okay.
Speaker 2
01:18
I actually think it’s quite cool. You should do sing some karaoke.
Speaker 1
01:22
There you go. Well, I just didn’t want to cancel on anybody, of course, if they like. You just got to show up, right, so no worries. We’ll get right into it. So you did mention that you had the bachelor in finance. But just to take people back, like what did life look like before real estate for you? Like how did you end up, you know, in this crazy role? You’ve got three companies on the go, you know. I just wanted to kind of take it back to where it all began.
Speaker 2
01:45
It’s funny, actually, because in my early 20s my life goal was to be a young mom. Like you know, there’s lots of really ambitious, motivated 20-something year olds. I was chasing boys in my early 20s. I had a corporate job, I went to school, I have a bachelor’s in finance, so I was doing the grind like going through the motion, and what happened was I met my husband and, funny enough, wasn’t through chasing boys we were actually introduced by our parents.
02:22
So it was not an arranged marriage, but we got arranged, and my mother-in-law was the one that got me into real estate. She always told me that money needs to move, and by the time when we got married, I planned the wedding. I did all the decorations myself. It was a shoestring budget, but we took some of the money that we got from the wedding and we put it into two presale condos. So that’s how our journey began, and how I got into construction is actually even crazier, because on our first date I told my husband I wanted three kids before and he was like okay ready to go.
03:03
And so we had three kids and unfortunately back in the day there wasn’t such thing as remote working, there wasn’t even job sharing where I worked in the corporate world, at banking. So by necessity I had to quit my job because I had three kids in daycare. You know, I had to transit downtown to work and sometimes the sky trains didn’t work, so I would constantly be late to pick up my kids. And so I said you know what? We are going to quit this job. I had a bunch of side hustles before deciding to build our own house, and that was because our old house had a lot of mold in it and my daughter was having and she was a baby, so there was a lot of eczema in the babies. And so my husband said you know what? Let’s just build it. I’m really busy, you go do it. Sure, no problem.
04:00
Okay, it was $100,000 to hire a project manager at the time and I said you know what I’m doing like side hustles anyways. So if I could save us $100,000, that would be $100,000 really income for us. So that’s a pretty good income. So I went and I got the owner builder training. I passed the test because I love to study and away we went. Throughout that process we met a lot of really good people, got a lot of clients and I went on to get my full on builders license, got the construction company going.
Speaker 1
04:35
Now how long ago was that that was in 2018.
Speaker 2
04:39
Okay, so wasn’t that long ago.
Speaker 1
04:41
No, did you just make that transition like you’re building your own house. So then, how did it work that you then started to take on these other projects?
Speaker 2
04:49
So I guess in the construction industry especially just you know, even just five, five years ago it was still very much an old boys club and because I was a professional, I was able to do budgets, I was able to communicate and I knew finances and numbers. So I found myself in a really cool niche, one, being female, to being able to manage customers expectations and help. It started off with friends and family. So helping friends and family do the budgeting, telling them, walking them through what that construction process looked like, because to me it was very new as well. So I knew how to put construction into English for a lot of people. So people really enjoyed that and I earned a lot of respect from my trades. It’s a different style of management. Being a female, we can’t go head to head in terms of ego. So we had a really, really good team. So I was very, very fortunate enough to have a lot of support and a lot of really, really great clients.
Speaker 1
05:59
Awesome. Now, I mean, it’s only been five years, so you’ve grown like these companies quite quickly. When you look now back at the last five years, what do you think is your greatest success in your mind, out of everything?
Speaker 2
06:12
That’s a very good question. I want to say there’s two things, and I’ll explain why. The first one is always the people, so establishing that, the relationships, relationships, your network is your network. So I couldn’t have built my construction company without the great trades, without the great professionals, the engineers, my mentors that have helped me. And it’s the same with the development company and the mutual fund trust. We have a fantastic team back behind us lawyers, accountants and it’s always treating people with kindness and respect. I mean, if you treat somebody the way you want to be treated, they want to help you vice versa. So that’s what’s been really able to help us grow.
07:02
And the second thing that I think is also really important is becoming a small business owner is very different than being an employee where you’re just working a nine to five. I read a book somewhere I don’t remember from which book, but they were saying all entrepreneurs are psychologists, not by interest but by necessity. So throughout this journey, I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of it was my own awareness in my own mindset, my shortcomings, where I have psychological or emotional blocks, and how I deal with that. So I think those two are hand in hand, the most important. Nothing technical, it’s all in here.
Speaker 1
07:49
Well, I think that’s a good way to look at it, because I’m pretty sure of elsewhere that entrepreneurs can be like psychotics. Those are crazy to like you know, take these risks and like just the way that they grind things out and stuff like that. So maybe I got it wrong. Then you could go both.
Speaker 2
08:06
Psychotic. But we’re also go getters, yeah, and I think it’s psychotic for, you know, risk adverse people to think you’re crazy. Compared to the other person Exactly right, like, but I think we love it. Like my mom always says oh my God, I’d be so stressed out if I were you and I go, mom, think about the flip. I’m so productive. Yeah, I get so much done. Yeah, I think it’s stressful, it’s productive.
Speaker 1
08:32
Well, it’s like what they say, like if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it right. A great example of that. Now, in the past five years, I’m sure it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. So what would you say are some of the biggest challenges and obstacles that you’ve faced?
Speaker 2
08:48
I think, as an entrepreneur, I mean, every day is a challenge in an obstacle, like just being able to put on very many different hats. But I think it all goes back to mentality as well. So there, let’s put it in the real estate context. So sometimes when we’re doing developments, it’s a world like it’s unknown, no matter how well you do your proformas and you have, you know, all of the experience and you know the pricing. There are still things that could go wrong, and sometimes they do. So having the stomach to say I believe in this project and I’m going to jump forward and whatever happens during the project it doesn’t matter, because I’ve made that decision with all the information that I had at the time, with all the due diligence that I did, and I’m okay. So I think it’s two parts.
09:49
Again, I like to break it down. Number one is taking the leap of faith in something that you truly believe in and being able to go and jump, because you will see the biggest payouts when you take the risk right. But it’s calculated risk. Sometimes you miss the due diligence and there’s no point in kicking yourself and saying, oh my God, I’m so stupid, I’m going to be paralyzed in fear or anxiety or stress moving forward. But the second point to that is, if something does go wrong, adjust your mentality and push forward, because it is what it is so you can make the most of it or and find ways to get around it, be creative, or you can wallow in fear and anxiety and really be upset and not take any other projects on in the future.
Speaker 1
10:47
Yeah, yeah, and I think it’s smart to look at it from a perspective that you can’t control what happens, but you can control how you react to it and how resourceful you are and how you pick up the pieces and move on. Absolutely. We’ll just take a really brief break from our sponsors and then we’ll be right back.
Speaker 2
11:02
The Dijon vision is to add value and create beautiful spaces that make a positive impact. We transform homes and lives and believe that everyone deserves a beautiful home.
Speaker 1
11:31
Thanks again for following along with this episode of Inspired to Invest. In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the Accidental Entrepreneur in October of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in picking up a copy, you can find the link at SerenaHomesRealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support. Everybody welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast, with Mimi here talking about her experience as a land developer and all the things that she’s achieved in a fairly short window of time. So we’re talking a little bit about your successes and your challenges. What do you think is the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you so far?
Speaker 2
12:26
Okay, so there’s. I mean, for a lot of people, every day is crazy in our life. But we purchased, during the height of the crazy hot market sight unseen, this old, old bungalow and it was slated for redevelopment. So I saw some potential in there. It had a view of the ocean on Vancouver Island. So we’re like, okay, no problem, it’s pretty easy, We’ll lipstick that thing, We’ll put it on rental for a little while while we do the rezoning and the redevelopment. So, super straight forward project. We could get a lot of density out of it. We go to see the project once we completed. And then there was this one room that was locked and we had hired some boys to come help me clean and do some demolition. So they’re like well, none of this big lump of keys opened that room.
Speaker 1
13:27
And I’m like, oh my gosh it’s either treasure or a dead body.
Speaker 2
13:31
And so I’m like hiding behind them and I said open it up, like well. So we unscrewed the hinges of the door, we opened it and we found a entire room. I think that room was probably 10 by 15. So it was quite large and it was completely filled from floor to ceiling in used cat litter, used the smell of that house, oh my gosh. And so the boys are like we’re not touching that.
Speaker 1
14:01
I’m like no, I’m like, no, I’m like but anyone put that in there.
Speaker 2
14:04
So it turns out from the neighbors that this bungalow has been a rental for as long as they can remember. So the sellers who sold us the property were also investors and they, I guess I don’t know, for whatever reason, didn’t end up developing the project and they made quite a good lift in the height of the housing market. So they just sold it off. So they had no idea what was in that room, they just knew the house stunk and so we thought it was the dog. But it was actually a room full of cat litter.
14:37
So, the boys got their nose plugs, they got the masks and like has matte suits and we went and we swept the poo off the ground. It was a fun one. So I would say that one so far has been the craziest. But we’ve had people cooking meth in our Airbnb’s. We had some mental health issues with our tenants and they did a bunch of random stuff, like they stole all our linen and threw them into the bushes. They didn’t steal the stuff, they just threw them everywhere.
Speaker 1
15:14
So bizarre. Yeah, I mean, there was someone I was talking to recently and they had a bit of a weird situation with their tenants as well from their short-term rental, that the cleaner went and there was vomit everywhere and instead of doing the dishes, they threw the dishes out. There’s some like a window craft and like different things and you just you know it’s all part of it and take me in stride, you know, at the end of the day, like I guess it’s really bad, that’s what insurance is for, but better than a dead body. So I just have to say that.
Speaker 2
15:39
Exactly better than a dead body. I’ll take anything over that.
Speaker 1
15:44
No, obviously, like when you’re in this role, especially when you’re leading a company, you’ve got to be the one that figures things out. But when you look at the mentorship and coaching that you’ve had, what’s some of the best advice that you’ve been given?
Speaker 2
15:57
That’s a good one. So many, but I would say the biggest thing again I’m going to go from like one very tactical and one a little bit more abstract. So the most tactical advice that I got was actually from my mother-in-law I mentioned earlier, and she always says that money needs to move. So you shouldn’t have always have, you shouldn’t have money just sitting there. It’s the velocity. And then I relate back to my schooling days. There’s an economic term called the money multiplier. So the faster the money moves, the more that it can do for you. So we’ve really taken that to heart when we started our real estate investment journey is that we have to keep our money moving. So we put it in a property, then we take it out and we do it, do something else with it, we take out the line of credit. We now have the infinite banking concept, so your money can be used several times over.
16:58
And the other advice that’s a little bit more abstract is and it’s really abstract, is and I’ve been trying to embody this into my own relationships for everything, not just for business and it’s approach everything with love and compassion. And I want to kind of elaborate why it’s because there’s a lot of negativity in the world and we’ve learned. Serena, you and I were part of the same mastermind, so we’ve done a lot of stuff on mindset coaching. Everybody has blockages and nobody shows it in work. But I noticed that once you approach anything, even if somebody has screwed you over, and you break down that wall with love and once that happens then you have that relationship and people are willing to help.
18:00
Because entrepreneurship business investing it’s a lonely road and it’s hard. If you don’t have a good tribe, if you don’t have a good team of people that are willing to help and collaborate, there’s no way you can succeed as an entrepreneur, at least a high performing entrepreneur. You could be a business operator, but being a business owner really takes a team. So you have to love everybody, accept them for who they are, be compassionate and you’ll get that in return. And then beautiful things happen.
Speaker 1
18:37
Yeah, no, I agree, and I guess, looking at things in terms of your goals, so would you say, as you’re building this business, is there something specific you’re working towards that you would? You know, it doesn’t mean that you stop there, but is there something that you would perceive as your pinnacle, or your financial freedom number, and it doesn’t even have to be like a physical number, but it could be whatever that means to you.
Speaker 2
19:00
For me. I think I just love what I do so much that I am okay working until I die. Somebody was saying I would screech to the coffin, like and then drop, but I think I would like to achieve something. That I guess how I should describe. It is how it would make me feel. So in my perfect day. I would love to be able to go out, water my garden, play with my cats, hang out with the kids, but still be on the board of advisors to run this real estate company, so I love being on site. I started off in construction. I love construction, so I love visiting my sites. I love finding creative solutions to build things, how to make things better. So that would be the ideal. There’s no number of doors, but also I would love to be able to have my team and my group of investors to be able to achieve their own freedom number or freedom day or freedom feeling along with me.
Speaker 1
20:09
So for a lot of our employees right now.
Speaker 2
20:13
For example, for one, we just had a discussion this weekend and he said he loves an outdoor kitchen because he likes crowd. So I said you know what? That will be my personal goal as well to build you a house with an outdoor kitchen so we can grab together in the backyard. So those are the things that really make me tick and make me happy.
Speaker 1
20:32
Yeah, that’s amazing, and I think that’s even how you build the type of company where people stay with you for 20 years, right Like it’s something that people become so attached to just the entire environment and how you are as a leader. So I think that’s really inspiring. And, with that said, in terms of quotes and inspiration, what is it that motivates you the most when you think of, like one quote that really resonates well with you?
Speaker 2
20:55
I have a quote since I was maybe 17 or 18 and it’s something that I think is very relevant to now. So the quote I don’t remember who said it, so if you know, please let me know. It’s called I identify myself as a peach, so I’m a sweet peach with a hard pit, and I think it’s very, very applicable in the construction industry, because they’re still I mean, there’s a lot of females coming doing it right now, but it’s still the minority, so using feminine energy is actually an advantage, in my opinion. So I’m a fuzzy, soft, beautiful peach on the outside, but my core values are strong, very, very strong and solid. You think that I’m vulnerable, you think that I’m weak, but as soon as you get to know me, you know that I’m not, and I like to keep it that way. I don’t need to go out and, like you know, guns blazing.
Speaker 1
22:01
I’ve done that and it doesn’t work, yeah, and it’s probably not true to your authentic self and how you want to be and show up. So I think that’s smart just to stay true to yourself in that way. But just in a time I’ve had to get to know you, I’d have to say that that’s pretty bang on Now for anyone else that wants to get to know you. What’s the best way for people to find you and get a hold of you?
Speaker 2
22:22
The best way is to visit our website at wwwhoneybeedevelopmentcom. There’s a link to the construction portion of our operations in there as well, but the thing is we only do physical construction in Vancouver, bc, in the lower mainland. Follow us on Instagram honeybeedevelopment.
Speaker 1
22:45
Awesome, so we’ll include that in the details below. Thank you for coming on to the show today, of course, and for anyone watching. If you like what you’ve just seen, minus my voice, please make sure you subscribe and you’re following along at Inspired to Invest podcast and always remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thank you again for tuning in. Thank you, serena. Thank you everyone, bye. Thanks again to our sponsor, dijon Properties, for bringing us this episode of the Inspired to Invest podcast. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guest featured on Inspired to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.