Have you ever wondered how a successful real estate investor builds their empire?
Today on “Inspired To Invest”, we’re speaking with Sarah Miskelly, a thriving investor who’s carved her own path in the real estate sector. Drawing from experiences with her property manager father, Sarah shares her journey from dabbling in real estate sales to becoming a full-time investor.
To watch the episode, click below.
Throughout our discussion, Sarah throws light on her adventures in resort real estate, private equity, private lending, and syndications, highlighting the role of self-education and initiative in diversifying your portfolio.
We get personal with Sarah as she reflects on her unique challenges and victories. She shares nuggets of wisdom she’s gathered over the years and her personal financial freedom goals. Sarah pinpoints the essence of networking and building connections, crucial to surviving and thriving in the industry.
And not just that, she reveals her strategies for giving back, with an awe-inspiring goal of donating a million dollars to charity.
Our conversation wraps up with Sarah dropping some golden advice for budding investors. We discuss the significance of an emergency fund for real estate investing and Sarah shares her tactics for portfolio building. Sarah’s story is an inspiring narrative of success, but also a practical guide for anyone hoping to make it big in the real estate field.
So, join us and soak in some wisdom from a seasoned pro!
To connect with Sarah directly, you can find her on instagram or online.
To download a copy of her e-book “Secrets To Apartment Investing”, click here.
A huge thank you to our sponsor, Control and Compound Financial for bringing us this episode of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about Infinite Banking and how this can benefit you, connect with them on YouTube, online or on social.
To connect with our host, Serena Holmes, click here and to buy a copy of The Accidental Entrepreneur, click here.
And, for everything related to real estate and real estate investing, please make sure you’ve subscribed to @serenaholmesrealtor on YouTube, Instagram & other platforms. We also have a page dedicated to this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @inspiredtoinvestpodcast where we preview guests each week, highlight their episodes, top takeaways, tips, quotes and more.
Are you a full-time real estate investor with an inspiring story to share? Apply now!
Join us on Wed., Sept. 20 for a guest who is scaling his portfolio to 7,500+ units and also runs an education company for investors to learn about land development, multi-family property investing, wholesaling and investing in the U.S.
Thanks for tuning into the “Inspired To Invest” Real Estate Podcast hosted by Serena Holmes & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit”
Real Estate Investing Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1
00:01
Welcome to the Inspired 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 Control and Compound Financial. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspired to Invest podcast.
00:22
I have Sarah Miskelly here with me today. I promise she sounds way better than I do, so she’ll do most of the talking, but before we dive in, I’ll read a short bio so you can understand a little bit about her background. So she grew up in the world of real estate, managing investment properties from a young age with her property manager father. She entered real estate sales when she was 24 years old. She sold $55 million and earned the top agent under the age of 30 for three years in a row, while she built report volume in Canada, us and Belize I didn’t know that about Belize, so that’s really cool. And she also has two children. So she has shifted her focus to real estate full time to give her flexibility with her family, and now she’s focused on also helping ambitious women generate wealth by passively investing in real estate. So welcome.
Speaker 2
01:13
Thank you, I’m so glad to be here and I was just joking with Serena before we hopped on that. I was her on Monday because I got back from a financial freedom conference and it was like four days of shitty chatting. So it’s all good. I hear you on the way to being gone.
Speaker 1
01:30
So I know our bio kind of sums some of it up, but can you talk about what you were doing really before real estate? I know that’s been like a big part of your career, but did you ever think you were going to be doing something different?
Speaker 2
01:41
I started. I went to university so I’m very typical millennial. I went to university, got useless bachelor’s degree that I didn’t use and I didn’t know what to do. Quite frankly, I had this degree, I was confused, I was idealistic, I thought, hey, I want to get into, you know, working at a charitable organization that I was like, well, they pay what like 3040 grand a year, yeah.
02:04
So I was really kind of obligating that past educational landscape and I ended up getting into experiential marketing, which is actually where I met Serena, because she won like a really big company that was highly successful in that space. So I doubled in that here and there and it was fun. For a while. I kind of considered it fun employment and at the same time, it wasn’t getting me to feel fulfilled and I had always been in that space of real estate growing up and it just seemed natural to say, okay, look, let me get into the sales side of real estate. I already understand property management and I think that was the best decision because it gave me a much broader perspective of the entire industry and I was able to put together all the pieces and integrate everything really, really well.
Speaker 1
02:45
Yeah, Now what was the catalyst to move towards investing? That you’re working as a realtor? You’re obviously busy, so then what was it kind of redirected that path?
Speaker 2
02:58
I had always seen the benefit of having assets. When I was a kid, you know, my dad worked extremely hard and we also would get summers off and go to Croatia and lie on a beach. So is that work, hard, plate, hard lifestyle? And I just kind of had the understanding that that wasn’t normal for everyone. My mom, in contrast. They weren’t together, but she would work in an office, you know, like nine to five every day. She had very set hours and weeks off in the, you know, for vacation.
03:28
Yeah, there was that distinction available to me and because I saw this, I started to take the initiative. To be honest, at some level we have to take the initiative to self educate. That is a huge component of it. And I had this pull to self educate on what were the other options within the world of real estate because I had that multifamily background. I now had the sales background and I just started to explore private lending and syndications and many, many things. And I think I had as well the I don’t know why sometimes, but I said, hey, look, every paycheck I get, I should invest a portion. There was just a logic to it because I knew that when I was a realtor I was working so freaking hard and I knew this wasn’t sustainable long term. I saw that there was another way to live. Yeah, you know, there isn’t inkling in a sense.
Speaker 1
04:17
Yeah. So then what is your portfolio look like now? I know I mentioned it’s like Canada US police, but what is actually comprising?
Speaker 2
04:25
That’s a good question because it is many things at this point. So I have hard assets, so I have actual multi unit assets that have a number of tenants that live in the properties that I manage and take care of, and that’s the very straightforward. I’ve had other assets as well that I’ve sold. So you know condominium, for example. That was a pre construction deal. Like that private lending would look like when I’m acting as the bank and I’m loaning money to somebody else privately, so we have legal contracts and everything, but we’re not going to a big institution to facilitate that. So that is another component of it and they’ll give me cash flow from that deal and then I’ll get my money back at the end.
05:06
I also have money invested in syndications and what that means is I give my cash to a sponsorship team and they acquire large assets, so big apartment buildings that I would never be able to acquire on my own, and so my money helps purchase that asset and I get the benefit of the cash flow and profits when that asset sells without having to go and manage 100 plus apartment apartment building. So there’s not. There’s some resort real estate in Belize. There’s also some private equity. I’m very diversified at this point yeah, and that has been a step by step process, like I don’t want anybody thinking like, oh my gosh, he’s doing so much. It was like piece by piece, I learned, I met new people and I built it up to have this larger portfolio.
Speaker 1
05:56
Now, when you look at your whole portfolio, is there anything in particular that you look at is, like some of your most proud of, or you feel like you know it’s most successful investment that you’ve done so far?
Speaker 2
06:07
That’s a great question. I would say I am very proud of the hard assets because that is something you can feel and touch and I can see, now when I’ve leveraged them, the value of that equity that’s in the property. Meaning you know, when you purchase a property, the bank on some of it, you own some of it as well and over time as the asset goes up in value of equity in that property, there’s a bit of a familial component to because it was related to my dad and I think there’s the emotion that’s connected to it, which you know there’s a lot of emotion. Real estate is here in the residential space, so that would be one component. I also really love the syndications and the private lending, just because I feel like they’re very innovative and as we move into the way the world’s going, less people are handy, people are more committed to their careers, they’re more remote, even like we’re moving down to Costa Rica in September and the ability to have money passively invested in these deals, where I’m getting the income and I’m not managing them.
07:05
I think that model is the future.
Speaker 1
07:09
Yeah, well, you’re only one person, right. There’s only so much you can do, and there are people with proven systems and things in place that why would you struggle through it?
Speaker 3
07:18
Like figured out on your own right.
Speaker 1
07:20
Now, when you look back at some of the things you’ve done, what are some of the challenges that you faced along the way?
Speaker 2
07:26
I would say some of the challenges was my youth. When I started I was very naive. When I was 16 was when my dad passed away and at that time you know there’s assets, there’s liquidation, there’s the politics of family, but I was left with some capital and knowing where to go with that was very confronting. So I think the complexities of as well being a woman in the space look, I’m not one to sit here and be like, oh, it’s so hard being a woman and all this, like I freaking love being a woman I actually found like as a realtor, I crushed it A lot of amazing women in that space. I never had anything going on about being a woman in real estate. I think that there is a missing though in the educational landscape of investing, where it seems very far off and out of reach for women, and there’s this gap that needs bridge and I had that firsthand experience of that gap being there and it took a lot more to figure it out Right, A lot more time and effort to understand that.
Speaker 1
08:23
Yeah, would you say that’s the biggest obstacle they’ve encountered so far, or there be something different.
Speaker 2
08:29
I would say another obstacle is just managing deal flow and cash flow and actually when you’re starting to create a life where you are making investing a part of your income, you have to manage. You have to be a bank essentially you have to be a financial advisor for yourself and then you have to start to put things in different places to ensure that you have liquidity and cash flow, because some of the deals don’t pay out on time and then you have to say, okay, well, if this doesn’t pay out, where is my actual liquidity coming from to finance my lifestyle? So there’s a lot of management pieces and I think people have the misconception that you know when you’re investing at a high level, you’re just rolling in dough every day. It’s not necessarily it, because you also have business expenses. You have all this other stuff going on. It’s amazing. I’m not here to say, oh, it’s so terrible and so hard. There’s just a level of management that does take time and effort and understanding and the nuances.
Speaker 1
09:23
So, obviously, like we both do private lending, but for anyone out there that’s not really familiar with it, what are some of the things that you do to protect yourself and protect what you’re investing?
Speaker 2
09:33
With private lending from the outside, looking in, I think people would think it’s kind of sketchy, like that’s private, you know you’re going in parking lots and backpacks. There’s like bad players involved. Definitely not like that when you involve yourself with the right people. So I would say the biggest part is the people that you’re working with is the same indication space, which is just when people pool money together to buy apartment buildings. It really depends on who you’re working with and making sure that they have a good track record, making sure that they’re very open with you, very communicative, they’re very responsive.
10:05
And when we’re doing what I’m doing private lending deals I just say we know you do them as well. I always need to have legal documentation that a lawyer reviews. You’re going to get appraisals for the property to determine how to determine to but to show you the value of that asset. And I even had, when I was getting into this space, mortgage brokers that I trusted they would take me to the physical asset, I would walk inside it and that was very comforting for me at the beginning. Yeah, so you are just making sure that you’re dotting on your eyes, crossing all your teas and a lot of that comes down to the paperwork and proving it and getting a few eyeballs on it to ensure that it’s all a go.
Speaker 1
10:43
Yeah, no, absolutely. So we’re going to continue, but we’re just going to have a quick word from our sponsors first and we’ll be right back.
Speaker 3
10:50
Hey, christina White here from control and compound. You might have heard the term infinite banking recently. It’s getting more and more popular in the real estate community. Well, I’ve got Darren Mitchell here, the infinite banking guru, to tell you about it in 60 seconds.
Speaker 4
11:03
So how does infinite banking work? Well, an infinite banking type policy is going to be high cash value. What that means is we’re going to grow our cash value inside this insurance policy as fast as we can. This money is going to stay and compound tax free for the rest of your life. But because you have that, you can leverage other money. The insurance company will loan you 90% of your cash value. But they’ll loan you their money.
11:25
Your money stays in the policy. Their money is automatically loaned to you. You put that money in real estate. You do some great real estate deals. You pay the loan back. You rinse and repeat. The whole time you’re doing this, your money is growing, completely tax free. Plus you’re multiplying the money. Plus you have a death benefit when you hit retirement. What do you do Now? You start taking tax free loans from the policy to top up your retirement income an extra $500 grand a year. That money. You don’t pay that money back till death. Then there’s a massive death benefit. The death benefit pays off the policy loans and there’s lots left over tax-free death benefit to your family. That’s infinite banking and at Control Compound. We are the experts at infinite banking for real estate investors. To learn more, go to controlandcompoundcom.
Speaker 1
12:08
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. You can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Sarah Miss Kelly here talking about the portfolio that she’s built out to basically service the lifestyle that she wants to live. Talked about your successes and your challenges. Now what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor?
Speaker 2
13:03
The craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. I would say that it’s just related to what I mentioned before, which is managing the income and the returns and investing in projects where it’s supposed to go one way and then it goes another way. I think that to me means being very confronting at times when I’m trying to put all the pieces together. So, in terms of like a craziest story, I’m like trying to think of something like outlandish, but nothing like crazy really comes to mind. I think it’s just being like oh shoot, I got to get things lined up here and that can look like getting out and putting in a bunch of work in one area to balance it out in another. I think that would, to me, be like kind of the thing that’s crazy that you have to manage on a daily basis.
Speaker 1
13:49
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I would say like up until now it was more like people would pay out on time or actually early. And then you’re like well, I wasn’t expecting this early because I wanted the interest. And then right now there’s been some delays where people want to extend and stuff like that. So, yeah, it’s just knowing that you’ve got to take both sides.
Speaker 2
14:08
For sure.
Speaker 1
14:09
Yeah, now I guess, in terms of the best advice you’ve ever gotten, is there anything in particular that comes to mind?
Speaker 2
14:16
I would say the best advice I’ve ever gotten is, when you’re building something out like this, you have to understand that it’s going to take time and to not be so hard on yourself and know that when you’re confronted by challenges in a business or with growth, that that confrontation, when you’re dealing with it, that actually means you’re moving forward and you’re elevating. So I think me personally and I think a lot of people are similar over in the entrepreneurial space they’re very hard on themselves and they said I should be farther, faster, I’m not doing good enough. That conversation goes on with me all the time. The experience, though, sitting back and saying look how far you’ve come and actually realizing that the complexity that is occurring is because you’re getting to a higher level. I find I have to reflect on that a lot and it really helps me see, okay, like we’re going places here. I want to be farther, because that’s just how I am and we’re going places and it’s all good.
Speaker 1
15:08
Now, as you’re building, is there any particular financial freedom number that you have in mind, whether it’s cash flow, number of doors, like value of your portfolio? What does that look like?
Speaker 2
15:18
It’s funny I would move. I have a board right in my office and it says 15 million net worth by 40. That is just this goal, this trajectory that I have for myself. I believe in money as the score board. It’s not really about the money, it’s that has how I measure my growth and success as a person. I remember when I was a realtor I had this exact same board actually the same one and it said 400k by 30 and that was my big realtor goal. And when I was 24 and I wrote that, I was like this is ridiculous. I did it and I’m very much like a metric person. That is kind of my big picture goal and it is just, like I said, to see how far I can develop.
15:59
I also have goals. I want to donate a million dollars to God behind bars. It’s a charity that for some reason, just spoke to my soul. They just bring in the gospel and stuff into prisons where people have no hope and it gives them hope. That, for me, is also this benchmark of like wow, I believe that I would have achieved success when I can donate a million dollars to that charity. That’s kind of how I think, yeah, no, that’s awesome.
Speaker 1
16:22
There’s someone else that I interviewed and his mission is like go big to give big and basically allocating that money up front. For example, if you have a family like $10 a door every month close to charity, you kind of create that from the outset. It’s always starting out and then as you grow it just melts in place.
Speaker 2
16:39
Yes, exactly that’s what I do as well, and it feels so small right now, but same thing, I can’t be hard on myself. I’m building those pieces up as I expand. I’m going to keep doing more. It’s exciting, it’s kind of a game.
Speaker 1
16:49
Yeah, absolutely. Now, for anyone else that’s starting out, are there any pearls of wisdom, like something that you would pass along, like maybe you wish that you knew yourself. You’re starting out.
Speaker 2
17:00
I would say getting in contact with people more, networking more. I’m not naturally the most social person. I was very shy growing up. I can turn it on in a business setting. I’m very good at turning it on, yeah, but we don’t go out every night with friends. I come home. I have my kids. I have like three friends that I hang out with. I’m very boring, in a sense happily boring. I would say.
17:23
When you’re starting out, it’s really who you’re meeting that’s going to make the biggest difference. If there’s somebody that you know who’s in the private lending space and you are saying, hey, who are you investing with, who are you working with, it really is nothing for them to share that with you. I find most people in the real estate space are very sharing and open because it’s not a competitive landscape. There’s so much for everyone. So I’d say, when you’re getting started, make sure that you’re out there, you’re making connections, whether that’s on Instagram, on LinkedIn, in person, at Meetups. That’s going to get you farther faster. Like I was at a conference the limitless conference on the weekend and there’s so many big names there and you’re able to just communicate with them and speak with them and ask those questions and the list of opportunities and connections that I’m making this week are fantastic, and that’s just because I put myself out there and had those conversations.
Speaker 1
18:16
Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve found that people have been so generous with their time as well, in a surprising way. Sometimes, I think everyone really just wants to help. Now is there anything in terms of motivation and inspiration? Obviously, the name of the podcast, inspire to invest. So what quotes motivate you?
Speaker 2
18:35
Oh, wow. So I don’t know if you’ve heard of Tim Grover. He wrote Relentless. So it’s not so much a quote, but hit. That book is just so amazing, it’s so aggressive. It just is like if you’re an athlete, you are going to push it far and never stop. David Goggins as well is an amazing author and he really gets people motivated and going.
18:57
But I would say as well it’s on my board, my two actual quotes. So it’s remarkable what you can build if you just don’t stop. That, for me, really resonates right now. And the other one is if it’s up to. If it’s no, let me correct it. If it’s to be, it’s up to me. I love that. I think about those two all the time because I just know that if anything is going to happen in this lifetime, I’m going to be the one to make it happen, obviously with connections, but at the end of the day, if I’m not getting up at 5am every day and getting to work, no matter what my circumstances are, then my circumstances aren’t going to change. So that’s very much how I motivate myself.
Speaker 1
19:36
Yeah, no, absolutely, and I would feel the same way like no one’s going to hand you anything. Right, you got to make the contacts, but in the effort and take action. Yeah, now, for anyone that wants to get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to connect?
Speaker 2
19:49
The best way to connect would be you can go to my website, so it’s wwwhighlycapitalcom. That’s H-Y-L-E-E. It’s after my kids high patient Leo and as well. I’m having a passive real estate wealth summit on September 21 and 22. The website is passiverealestatewealthcom and that’s going to be for female founders specifically to get into passive real estate investing opportunities and get the full spectrum educational process on just getting out your finances started to knowing the actual real deals that you can invest in. Because I think that’s a big missing is where do you find these deals that seem kind of elusive.
Speaker 1
20:28
Yeah, so we’re going to be hearing them. No, I love that. I’ll include that obviously below as well, and for anyone that’s watching, make sure you subscribe for future episodes and that you’re following along at Inspired to Invest podcast on social. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks for tuning in and, sarah, thank you so much for being here today. So happy to be here.
Speaker 3
20:51
Hey, christina White here from Control and Compound. You might have heard the term infinite banking recently. It’s getting more and more popular in the real estate community. Well, I’ve got Darren Mitchell here, the infinite banking guru, to tell you about it in 60 seconds.
Speaker 4
21:04
So how does infinite banking work? Well, an infinite banking type policy is going to be high cash value. What that means is we’re going to grow our cash value inside this insurance policy as fast as we can. This money is going to stay in compound tax free for the rest of your life. But because you have that, you can leverage other money. The insurance company will loan you 90% of your cash value, but they’ll loan you their money.
21:26
Your money stays in the policy. Their money is automatically loaned to you. You put that money in real estate. You do some great real estate deals. You pay the loan back, you rinse and repeat. The whole time you’re doing this, your money’s growing, completely tax free. Plus you’re multiplying the money. Plus you have a death benefit when you hit retirement. What do you do Now? You start taking tax free loans from the policy to top up your retirement income an extra $500,000 a year. That money you don’t pay that money back till death. Then there’s a massive death benefit. The death benefit pays off the policy loans and there’s lots left over tax free death benefit to your family. That’s infinite banking, and at Control and Compound. We are the experts at infinite banking for real estate investors. To learn more, go to controlandcompoundcom.
Speaker 1
22:09
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. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I have Sarah Miss Kelly here talking about the portfolio that she’s built out to basically service the lifestyle that she wants to live. We talked about your successes and your challenges. Now what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor?
Speaker 2
23:03
The craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. I would say that it’s just related to what I mentioned before, which is managing the income and the returns and investing in projects where it’s supposed to go one way and then it goes another way. I think that, to me, has been very confronting at times when I’m trying to put all the pieces together. So, in terms of like a craziest story, I’m like trying to think of something like outlandish, but nothing like crazy really comes to mind. I think it’s just being like oh shoot, I got to get things lined up here and that can look like getting out and putting in a bunch of work in one area to balance it out in another. I think that would, to me, be kind of the thing that’s crazy that you have to manage on a daily basis.
Speaker 1
23:50
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean I would say up until now it was more like people would pay out on time or actually early. And then you’re like, well, I wasn’t expecting this early because I wanted the interest. And then right now there’s been some delays where people want to extend and stuff like that. So, yeah, it’s just knowing that you got to take both sides for sure. Yeah, now I guess, in terms of the best advice you’ve ever gotten, is there anything in particular that comes to mind?
Speaker 2
24:16
I would say the best advice I’ve ever gotten is, when you’re building something out like this, you have to understand that it’s going to take time and to not be so hard on yourself and know that when you’re confronted by challenges in a business or with growth, that that confrontation, when you’re dealing with it, that actually means you’re moving forward and you’re elevating. So I think me personally and I think a lot of people are similar over in the entrepreneurial space they’re very hard on themselves and they said I should be farther, faster, I’m not doing good enough. That conversation goes on with me all the time. The experience, though, sitting back and saying look how far you’ve come and actually realizing that the complexity that is occurring is because you’re getting to a higher level. I find I have to reflect on that a lot and it really helps me see, okay, like we’re going places here. I want to be farther, because that’s just how I am and we’re going places and it’s all good.
Speaker 1
25:08
Now, as you’re building, is there any particular financial freedom number that you have in mind, whether it’s cash flow, number of doors, like value of your portfolio? What does that look like?
Speaker 2
25:18
It’s funny, I would move. I have a board right in my office and it says 15 million net worth by 40. That is just this goal, this trajectory that I have for myself. I believe in money as the scoreboard. It’s not really about the money. It’s that has how I measure my growth and success as a person. I remember when I was a realtor I had this exact same board actually the same one and it said 400K by 30 and that was my big realtor goal. And when I was 24 and I wrote that, I was like this is ridiculous. I did it and I’m very much like a metric person. That is my big picture goal and it is just, like I said, to see how far I can develop.
25:59
I also have goals. I want to donate a million dollars to God behind bars. It’s a charity that for some reason, just spoke to my soul. They just bring in the gospel and stuff into prisons where people have no hope, and it gives them hope. That, for me, is also this benchmark of like wow. I believe that I would have achieved success when I can donate a million dollars to that charity. That’s how I think.
Speaker 1
26:21
Yeah, I know that’s awesome. There’s someone else that I interviewed and his mission is like go big to give big and basically allocating that money up front, for example, if you have a family like $10 a door every month close to charity. So you kind of create that from the outset. It’s always starting out and then as you grow it just melts in place.
Speaker 2
26:39
Yes, exactly that’s what I do as well, and it feels so small right now, but same thing, I can’t be hard on myself. I’m building those pieces up as I expand. I’m going to keep doing more. It’s exciting, it’s kind of a game.
Speaker 1
26:50
Yeah absolutely Now. For anyone else that’s starting out, are there any pearls of wisdom, something that you would pass along like? Maybe you wish that you knew yourself were starting out.
Speaker 2
27:01
I would say getting in contact with people more and networking more. I’m not naturally, the most social person. I was very shy growing up. I can turn it on in a business setting, I’m very good at turning it on, but I don’t go out every night with friends. I come home. I have my kids. I have like three friends that I hang out with. Like I’m very boring, in a sense, happily boring.
27:23
And I would say when you’re starting out, it’s really who you’re meeting that’s going to make the biggest difference. Like if there’s somebody that you know who’s in the private lending space and you are say, hey, like who are you investing with? Who are you working with, it really is nothing for them to share that with you. And I find most people in the real estate space are very sharing and open because it’s not a competitive landscape. There’s so much for everyone. So I’d say, when you’re getting started, make sure that you’re out there, you’re making connections, whether that’s on Instagram, on LinkedIn, in person, at Meetups. That’s going to get you farther faster. Like I was at a conference the limitless conference on the weekend and there’s so many big names there and you’re able to just communicate with them and speak with them and ask those questions, and the list of opportunities and connections that I’m making this week are fantastic, and that’s just because I put myself out there and had those conversations.
Speaker 1
28:17
Yeah, yeah, I know I found that people have been so generous with their time as well, like in a surprising way. Sometimes, I think everyone really just wants to help. You know? Now, is there anything in terms of motivation and inspiration? Obviously, the name of the podcast, inspired to invest. So what quotes motivate you? Oh, wow.
Speaker 2
28:36
So I don’t know if you’ve heard of Tim Grover. He wrote Relentless. So it’s not so much a quote, but that book is just so amazing, it’s so aggressive. It just is like if you’re an athlete, you are going to push it far and never stop. David Goggins, as well, is an amazing, is an amazing author and he really gets people motivated and going.
28:58
But I would say as well it’s on my board, my two actual quotes. So it’s remarkable what you can build if you just don’t stop. That, for me, really resonates right now. And the other one is if it’s up to. If it’s no, let me correct it. If it’s to be, it’s up to me. I love that. I think about those two all the time because I just know that if anything is going to happen in this lifetime, I’m going to be the one to make it happen, obviously with connections, but at the end of the day, if I’m not getting up at 5am every day and getting to work, no matter what my circumstances are, then my circumstances aren’t going to change. Yeah, so that’s very much how I motivate myself.
Speaker 1
29:36
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I would feel the same way like no one’s going to hand you anything. Right, you’ve got to make the contacts, but in the effort and take action. Yeah, now, for anyone that wants to get in touch with you, what’s the best way for them to connect?
Speaker 2
29:49
The best way to connect would be you can go to my website, so it’s wwwhighleadcapitalcom. That’s H-Y-L-E-E. It’s after my kids, hypatia and Leo, and as well, I’m having a passive real estate wealth summit on September 21 and 22. The website is passiverealestatewealthcom and that’s going to be for female founders specifically to get into passive real estate investing opportunities and get the full spectrum educational process on just getting out your finances started to knowing the actual real deals that you can invest in, because I think that’s a big missing is where do you find these deals that seem kind of elusive? Yeah, so we’re going to be sharing them.
Speaker 1
30:30
No, I love that. I’ll include that obviously below as well, and for anyone that’s watching. Make sure you’ve subscribed for future episodes and that you’re following along at Inspired to Invest podcast on social. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks for tuning in and, sarah, thank you so much for being here today. So happy to be here. Thanks again to our sponsor, Control and Compound Financial, for bringing you this episode of Inspired to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The hosting guests 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.