From Corporate Courtier to The Land Development Queen, An Interview with Carina Guzman

In Episode 2, join Alfonso Cuadra as he engages in a captivating conversation with Carina Guzman, known as The Land Development Queen. Discover the fascinating parallels between their immigration experiences in Canada as they delve into Carina's remarkable transformation from a corporate professional to a thriving real estate investor and entrepreneur. Brace yourself for an enlightening exploration of the hurdles she encountered throughout her journey. Stay tuned as Carina generously imparts her invaluable wisdom by unveiling her three paramount tips for aspiring real estate investors seeking to embark on this exciting path.

Inspired by Carina's story? You can connect with Carina on the following pages:

Website

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/carina-guzm%C3%A1n-04647996

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_land_development_queen/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carina.guzman.946

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Transcript

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SPEAKERS

Carina Guzman, Carl Richards, Alfonso Cuadra

Carl Richards  00:05

Welcome to the WealthGenius podcast. The WealthGenius podcast: strategies for multifamily real estate investing, mindset, community success. The WealthGenius podcast with your host, The Godfather of Real Estate, Alfonso Cuadra, who has extensive experience in business and massive success as a real estate investor, The WealthGenius podcast, let's dive in to today's episode.

Alfonso Cuadra  00:32

We are here with my friend Carina. What's happening? 

Carina Guzman  00:38

What's going on, Alfonso? 

Alfonso Cuadra  00:40

Thank you for coming on the show. When I thought about having a podcast, you were the first person I thought about. 

Carina Guzman  00:47

That makes me so happy.

Alfonso Cuadra  00:48

We've shared this many times. You know, we've known each other in the industry. And one day, you know, I think I saw your post or something. I can't remember what it was. And so then I went to your, your Facebook page. And then I was like, Oh, that's interesting. She's- I knew you were Latina, but I didn't know like, from where. But I did discover that you were from El Salvador. You were a Libra. And you're in real estate. And I'm like, "why don't I know this person more?" You know, and I think I wrote you, like something like, "Hey, why don't we know each other more, you know?" And came into my office and we connected and ultimately, it led to us being partners in the land development track within WealthGenius. And, you know, I don't know, just, it's kind of like, it feels like I know you forever. But it's only been like three years or two years.

Carina Guzman  01:42

Something like that. Yeah, I remember following you too. Like I follow you. I see you. I kind of knew you. But you know, you don't we never really met. So when you sent me that message, I was like, "yeah yeah, how come we don't know each other?"

Alfonso Cuadra  01:58

Exactly, exactly. It was, it was really bizarre to me. You know, I want our audience and, you know, everyone that's watching here that I know that some people know you. Right. But some people don't know "The Land Development Queen. Yes. Right. And so I want to know, kind of where your business is at today. What do you do? What do you spend the majority of your time doing?

Carina Guzman  02:20

Awesome. Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you. Like, I feel so happy to be here with you today. So thank you for bringing me on. And yeah, my journey, you know, I've kind of mentioned it, and we've had many conversations together. And it's, it's evolving, you know, it's still is. We're, um, we started off with the land development , well- well actually let me even go back before that we were doing just buy and hold. You know, I started in 23- 

Alfonso Cuadra  02:49

What kind of- what kind of properties?

Carina Guzman  02:50

So when I was 23, I bought my first property. It was townhomes. So townhouse, I rented it out, I lived in it, and I rented it out as well.

Alfonso Cuadra  03:01

Like you turned- the converted the basement into like a unit?

Carina Guzman  03:04

Yeah yeah. I rented rooms, and back then they're like, "who's gonna rent a room?" I'm like, "I don't know." But a lot of, a lot of women did. And then I saw the purpose, you know, like, it's, it's a great way to just manage people how to deal with emotional, how to collect the rents, all of those things you just learn, right? I was 23 years old. And it was the best time because, I mean, I had no commitments really, unless like, that's, for me, it's like the best time to do it. When you're young. When you're willing to make sacrifices, no privacy, you know, bunch of people living there, you know?

Alfonso Cuadra  03:40

You don't know what can go wrong. 

Carina Guzman  03:41

You don't know you could like super oblivious, right to think something like, I find being oblivious, you know, just not knowing everything. Sometimes it's good. You know, it just makes you take the step and not feeling like I need to know everything is really what I've my entire career has been like that. It's just going for it. Whether or not I know absolutely everything. And I've grown so much in everything, just by doing that.

Alfonso Cuadra  04:12

And sometimes I feel when you know too much, then that can hinder you.

Carina Guzman  04:17

It does!

Alfonso Cuadra  04:17

And, you know, sometimes you just need to discover. There's a certain level of knowledge that you need to have. But you know, you don't need to know every single step. You just got to take a step.

Carina Guzman  04:27

Exactly. That's what it is. And you're absolutely right. You can be the complete opposite, like analysis-paralysis, and you can be the complete opposite too, not know anything, right? So you want to kind of be in that middle space, where you, you just know enough to say, "Yeah you know what, I'm willing to take that step." Or, or that intuition that makes you feel like "this feels right, I need to go this way." And that's been my entire career. Everything that I've done has been 100% that so that's how I started with that whole I didn't even call it buy and hold, I was just like "I'm buying a townhouse."

Alfonso Cuadra  05:01

And so like, how did that transition into land development?

Carina Guzman  05:05

It's the crazy ride because I did that for a while. So buy and hold, buy and buy and hold. And I loved it. But at some point, like we all do, we realized I need to go to next step. Like there's got to be something more. And I went to a lot of education platforms similar to WealthGenius, wish WealthGenius was there back then. But it wasn't existing back then. And-

Alfonso Cuadra  05:26

It was just a thought.

Carina Guzman  05:27

Yeah, just the thought, right? I learned about all the different types of strategies. And I'm, I've always been like, I don't know what it is. With me. I've always been in that mindset where I see everybody doing the same thing. And I watch, I'm a people watcher, I love people watching and I watch what is going on. And if I see everybody going that way, I go the opposite. I'm like, what, what can I do completely the opposite. And that's literally how it happened. It was just, I kept learning about different strategies, but they were all very the same strategies, right in real estate, which is the typical ones.

Alfonso Cuadra  06:05

That would being the, you know "Buy and Hold."

Carina Guzman  06:09

ESU Conversion, Buy and Hold, you know, the BRRRR strategy. And I was like, "okay, cool, cool." But everybody in the grandmother was going for the same bungalow, you know, to make an SDU. And I was like, now people are overbidding, and all this stuff. And at one of the conferences, I met a girl. And she said to me, I build semis with my husband, and I was like, "huh, I never heard anybody say that before." I didn't know any builders back then, nothing. And then I just asked her like, how do you know like, what do you do? Where do you do these? She's like "you read the zoning." And I was like, "what's that? What's zoning? And I was literally this big. Like I had a big belly because I was giving birth to my son in like a month. And anyways, so she ended up living so close to me, I spent the first three months with my baby and her just she was teaching me everything that she knew about like zoning. And she had her real estate license, so she would pull up listings, and then we would go over it. And we would walk through the properties together like with my baby just brought him along everywhere.

She's really what kick started absolutely everything in my whole entire journey. So when I talk about giving back when I talk about giving people a little bit of seed, that's what she did for me, you know, so you know, how we how we always come across somebody in our lives, who does one little thing and it can completely change the trajectory of your life. That's what she did for me. So I'm really big on that even now, right? Because I know the impact that it can have for people.

Alfonso Cuadra  07:44

 Yeah, yeah. 

Carina Guzman  07:45

And that changed my whole life. Literally, I talk to her now. And we laugh about it, because she's just told a friend of mine, we still talk and she's like, "I gave you one little thing. And you just went off and you took it this way, you know?" And I was like, "Yeah, once I'm obsessed and become obsessed, I literally became obsessed. 

Alfonso Cuadra  07:59

So what was the first deal? 

Carina Guzman  08:01

The first deal. So, it's so funny, because we had just bought our first house, our second house. And we had put all of our money in to buy that second house. And then of course, I started learning about all this stuff. And I had read an article where the city said the city is supportive of intensification around transit. And I said, That's it, like we just have to do that focus around transit. And because I was with Jessica, we were looking at listings, and we were going over, she she called me up, and she said "I found one. It's right around transit is right here. We got to go see it today." It was an estate sale. And I was like, "let's go!" and I brought my son with me.

Alfonso Cuadra  08:40

And this was an existing house that you had to tear down? 

Carina Guzman  08:42

Yeah. Well, I mean, it had a bungalow, an old one, mind you, but it was still livable. And it was a double lot, like really nice sized lot, with the highest zoning in the residential zone that you can already have within like walking distance to the transit. So I got back home and I was like, that's it, we gotta buy this one. And my husband's like how? Like, we just put all our money on this house. And I'm like, I don't know how I don't know. But you know, like that feeling like, I cannot let this go. It's meant for me, like this opportunity is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And we just figured it out. I literally put an offer in and I didn't even have the money. You know, when you put an offer and they accept that offer. You have to put a deposit?

Alfonso Cuadra  09:27

Yeah.

Carina Guzman  09:27

 I had to take out, I think it was like 1500 bucks from my visa. Like I literally cashed out 1500 bucks for my visa. That's how like, I had no money like, you know.

Alfonso Cuadra  09:38

But at least you control that deal.

Carina Guzman  09:39

I had it. Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  09:40

had it under contract.

Carina Guzman  09:41

Had it under contract. Still didn't know what I was doing. But I found a tenant. You know, that's the beauty about real estate, right? I mean, the house was perfect. That guy loved it because he has a huge backyard and he loved to work on his cars and things like that. He he turned out to be an amazing tenant. He actually moved from one property to another with us, it was just funny because he knew what we did. He knew that we were developing them, he knew that we were buying them for purpose. And he's like, "oh, I'll just go to your next one." 

And he ended up like, for for a few years, he just followed us through our developments. And it was it was a great starter project. We ended up putting the team together. And mind you, I had my, you know, I was- I had my baby. So you know, I was doing this on the side, when he was sleeping, calling people meeting people going to the city, all the things that you kind of you have to do right to move the project forward. And we ended up doing the 12 unit apartment building there. But the kicker was that I use this to talk to everybody about it. Like I went to all- it kept going.

Alfonso Cuadra  10:48

So you used the first deal to- It's like a showcase. It's like, this is what we can do.

Carina Guzman  10:55

Yeah. Like I was like, I was so excited. And not even like intentional. Like it was just purely from obsession. Yeah. And being excited about deal. You know, when you wake up-

Alfonso Cuadra  11:06

You want to share it with everyone, like this is crazy!

Carina Guzman  11:08

Yeah, and like, you know, when you're so excited about something like you literally wake up with energy, right? You're just so excited. That's how I woke up. And I was just like, it was it was like free flow. It was like, I just felt like I was in the zone. And I just want to talk to everybody about it. And it was great. Because people would be like, "You should talk to that person, you should talk to that person or that person or this maybe there." And it was just an amazing time. It was like, it was I felt like I reinvented myself.

Alfonso Cuadra  11:34

How long did it take from the first deal to the second deal?

Carina Guzman  11:40

Not long, because what ended up happening, funny enough, because I was telling everybody about my deal. There was one guy that I had mentioned, he was while I'm a builder. And I told him about the project and what we were getting approved for and all that. He goes, "Okay, cool." And then the next time I saw him, he kept asking me, "how is that going? And how was that going?" Eventually, he was like, "Well, what are you going to do with it? Like, are you going to build it?" And I'm like, "Ah, I'm not sure." Because building at the time felt like a big deal, right? That's how much I didn't even think about it. You know, it was just like, I was like, so in the flow. 

And then one day he came up to me, he goes, "Well, I'll buy it from you. And I'll build it." And I was- it was the first time I realized like, you would just buy the plans? So I ended up flipping it. That's why where my flipping the paper came from. And it was like ding-ding-ding! Like, I could just do this over and over and over again. Like what if I could repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat? We did that within six months sold it, right after getting the approval. So we didn't build that.

Alfonso Cuadra  12:44

Yeah. And which, for a lot of people, you know, they have this belief that, you know, why would a contractor or a builder buy plans from you when they could do it on their own? And, you know, what, what they don't think about is the value of time. Exactly. And someone that focuses, you know, if you have to hire someone, you have to pay someone ongoing a salary ongoing until they find a project. You know, the I've just bought a land, right, I just bought a land for like 1.5 million that I can build 52 units, the seller of that land bought it for 300 something thousand, right? And so I don't care how much money he's making. I care about how much I'm gonna make, right? Because he has to go through the Bio study, he had to do the Sound study, he had to do the Phase One environmental, he had to do the rezoning. Like I didn't want to do that. I just want I want instant results, right? And it makes a lot of sense a builder, contractor or someone that's going to take on this project, they're not focused on what you're focused on, which is looking at deals, developing deals, they just want to have something that's shovel ready.

Carina Guzman  13:59

Ready build, yeah, ready to go. I love how you said that. Because there's usually a couple ways people do it. You're going to hire a development manager, right? A lot of these larger companies do that. They'll have it in house development managers who will do that they'll acquire the property, but they hire them right on a salary basis to do all the permitting all the work that needs to be done. The builder itself themselves are not doing that they hire that person to do that work for them. So you can either retain the talent internally and have it as part of your business. Or you just get together with somebody like this who is shovel ready, and is like okay, I'm willing to do that. And they want to do that because their whole business model is building. Yeah, that is their niche that is their job. So especially if you have a big crew, you have people on staff, you want to have a steady flow of projects, so that you can keep your business running and you can keep it going. That is their whole business model.

Alfonso Cuadra  14:56

Love it. 

Alfonso Cuadra  14:57

At what point did you realize, like, "wait a minute, I got something here like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life."

Carina Guzman  14:57

Yeah.

Carina Guzman  15:08

Well, I was, like a lot of people, which you and I know, I was unhappy in my day job already. So, I mean, I was already excited just to be doing something else, let alone being like- but I was very intentional. When I had my son, I had told my husband, I said, I want to do something in real estate. I don't know what, but I'm going to make it into business. And I was very intentional about that. And I told him, I'm not coming back to this job, I'm going to do whatever it takes. That's why I took my baby. One month, two months, he was coming around with me everywhere, because I had no time to waste. So I was like, I'm gonna go and do it. And figure it out.

Alfonso Cuadra  15:49

Did you have any experience in business before? Have you run a business before? Have you-

Carina Guzman  15:53

No.

Alfonso Cuadra  15:53

-sold anything before?

Carina Guzman  15:54

Nothing. I wish I was like that kid, you know, with like that- used to have a lemonade stand and had like, all these little, you know, business ideas. I was not that kid. My family, immigrants from El Salvador, you know very much about school. 

Alfonso Cuadra  16:09

Yeah. 

Carina Guzman  16:09

Very much about getting education, get a government job, pension and benefits. And you're set in that whole steady employment was very important. And my parents, as long as I had that they were happy.

Alfonso Cuadra  16:25

 So you had that? 

Carina Guzman  16:26

I had that.

Alfonso Cuadra  16:27

Congratulations. But you were like, "No, I don't want that. I'm going to be in real estate. And it's gonna- I'm going to turn it into a business."

Carina Guzman  16:33

Yes. You know, that's, that's what I wanted. I didn't know how, like at all. And I didn't even have a business coach, which now in hindsight, thinking about, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, I don't even look for that. Like, why wasn't I there?" You know? But I think at least for me, I was blessed to find something that made me feel alive again, made me feel like I can figure this out. My excitement for it was like, I'm not taking no for an answer. To that extent. Literally obsessed. When I talk about, I tell people, I was obsessed. I was obsessed. 

Alfonso Cuadra  17:10

I love it!

Carina Guzman  17:11

It was ridiculous. You know, so I was blessed to be in that zone that like that obsession zone. It just makes you do things you would never even think to do it.

Alfonso Cuadra  17:23

So do you remember the moment where you're like, "Whoa, like, this is it? Like, I'm doing this for the rest of my life?" 

Carina Guzman  17:31

Yeah. When I flipped the paper the first time.

Alfonso Cuadra  17:34

That first time. Was it when you had the check? Was it when you're like getting the offer?

Carina Guzman  17:39

Yeah, yeah. When I got the offer-

Alfonso Cuadra  17:42

Can I ask how much you made that deal?

Carina Guzman  17:43

I was just gonna tell you, we made $250,000.

Alfonso Cuadra  17:47

250k. Did you get a check? 

Carina Guzman  17:50

We got that- well, closing right? You get the money.

Alfonso Cuadra  17:52

That closing from the Lawyer? Yeah? you got a check. Right? 

Carina Guzman  17:54

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  17:55

And you're looking at the check. And is that the biggest amount of money you've ever made up to that point? 

Carina Guzman  18:01

Absolutely. 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:02

And what are you feeling? What are you feeling?

Carina Guzman  18:07

Well, one I wanted to celebrate. I was like, let's go party! 

Alfonso Cuadra  18:09

What did you- what did you do?

Carina Guzman  18:11

We went partying with some friends.

Alfonso Cuadra  18:13

Yeah, yeah.

Carina Guzman  18:13

But not really telling anybody.

Alfonso Cuadra  18:15

So you just kept that to yourself, but you just want to celebrate.

Carina Guzman  18:18

We went to celebrate.

Alfonso Cuadra  18:19

Nobody knew what you were celevrating for you're just "woooo!"

Carina Guzman  18:23

Cause I didn't even know how to say people, you know, like that.

Alfonso Cuadra  18:26

I know exactly what you mean. It's hard to- when people are not in real estate. You know, and you make 150, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000, whatever it is. It doesn't seem believable to people. And if they don't understand real estate, it sounds like you're maybe bragging or you know what I mean, you know, people are just used to like making 100,000 a year. Yeah. What do you mean, you just made double someone's income in one deal. 

Carina Guzman  18:56

Excatly!

Alfonso Cuadra  18:57

Right. But what were you feeling?

Carina Guzman  18:59

Like the money was exciting. But it was more like the confirmation that's like, it worked. I can tweak things, I know what to do now a little bit more. And I can make this into a business. That for me, was like the kicker, that's when I was like, super excited.

Alfonso Cuadra  19:17

I love that so much. Because a lot of people that are watching this, and a lot of people that watch my YouTube channel, they're curious. Maybe they heard my name somewhere, whatever. And then all of a sudden they find themselves like, you know, learning about real estate, but not really believing it. It can work. It's easy to say, oh, it can work for that person, it can work for that person can work for that person. And, like I want to be that inspiration for people. 

You know, my upbringing where I came from my circumstances, even though I went through all of that. This is where I am. Right. So I want to go back to where you came from. Because, you know, I think we have a very similar story. Are you and this is kind of how we can have our paths aligned in a way. But I want you to share that story you like, you know, kind of like, coming to Canada, your parents, and some of the struggles and and all of that.

Carina Guzman  20:14

Yeah, that's uh- definitely I have so much respect, just like you with your mom and your family. And I mean, the- my parents were 31-32 years old, coming to Canada with four girls. 

Alfonso Cuadra  20:31

Wow.

Carina Guzman  20:31

Four girls leaving everything. Not having- you know, when we talk about immigrants, a lot of us a lot of the immigrants have family here. So it's kind of like, oh, it makes sense to come here. And you have support. You have people waiting for you when you come here. But our parents didn't have that.

Alfonso Cuadra  20:48

No, I mean, I don't even have a cousin. I didn't grow up-

Carina Guzman  20:51

Nothing!

Alfonso Cuadra  20:51

-with like, well, you had sisters, right? I didn't. I didn't have other siblings. So it was just like us.

Carina Guzman  20:53

Just you. Yeah, yeah, I had my sisters, luckily, you're right. But we had nobody here. And my parents left everything right? Especially at a time when it was a civil war. You know, it's a very scary time for a lot of people. And it was all this talk about, "do not believe that they're gonna bring you to Canada!" People thought they're gonna send us to concentration camps.

Alfonso Cuadra  21:20

Yeah.

Carina Guzman  21:21

Like I remember my dad, later on telling us the story. And he was like, all his friends, because he was well connected. He worked at the university, he was an accountant. He taught also accounting at the university, he worked for the government. So he had a lot of people in the government people, well educated people telling him "do not believe that they're gonna take you to Canada." And, and it was this fear, right? So it's like him taking that chance. And my mom says this all the time, all the time. She says, "had it not been for your dad and him convincing me." Because she's like, "I would have never done it. I would have never came to Canada." She was too fearful. But she only need-

Alfonso Cuadra  22:06

Too cold!

Carina Guzman  22:06

Too cold! You know, and she would have never done it. She says we always give my dad that, that like respect, because he took that chance to come here when everybody else was telling him not to. That's, that's hard to do.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:19

And how old are you?

Carina Guzman  22:21

I was eight.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:22

Eight years old, so very much like me. Right? So I was nine years old, you still have a solid memory of what the world you came from used to look like. 

Carina Guzman  22:31

Oh my gosh, yes.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:32

But coming into whole new world. You don't speak the language. People making fun of you in school-

Carina Guzman  22:39

So much, yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:39

-things like that. So how was that transition for you?

Carina Guzman  22:43

It was rough. I mean, I was eight. We didn't know the language. I hated the cold. I still do. But we had each other, me and my sister we were together the- we literally held hands like all day, because we were like afraid. People making fun of you, throwing stuff at you, like just cra-. I remember coming to Canada, and saying "hi." Like, I was like, "Hi." And people would look at you like, why are you talking to me? And I went home to my mom. And I was like, "people are so cold here." Like, physically cold. But also like cold people are cold. And we just didn't understand that. 

Because back home, if you remember, like, everybody's doors open, you talk to everybody, even strangers, you walk down the street, you acknowledge that that person is there. And you say, "buenas tardes", good afternoon, everywhere you go, that's how it is. And then you come to here. And it was like, nobody looks at you. Nobody talks to you. So as a child, even eight years old, I felt it. I was like, This is so cold here.

Alfonso Cuadra  23:47

What are some of the stories or challenges or things that you were impacted by when you were a kid? That you're like, Thank God, I went through that, because now it's helped me in my real estate. It's helped me oin my land development helped me in my life.

Carina Guzman  24:02

Oh my gosh that is so such a good question. One of the things growing up, honestly, Alfonso I don't even know why I believed this. I, for some reason, I actually believed that I was not smart. And I think it comes a little bit with like, having older siblings, having a twin that was a lot smarter than I was she always had better grades. I hated school. She liked school. Like, there was such a-, I literally had a comp, like I had a comp, you know, we're talking about real estate and comp? I had a comp that lived next to me, you know, like, she was like the complete opposite. She was like the good twin and I was always the bad twin. 

So I grew up with this feeling like, I'm just not smart. I actually believed in my brain that I was not intelligent. And when I thought about being a business owner, like I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to have my own business. Inside of me, I kept hearing the voice, "you're not smart enough, you're not smart enough, you're not smart enough." Evolving through the business world, having multiple businesses now. And growing and doing much larger projects. I realized the whole like, took me so long to get this, that it's not that I'm not smart, is that what I was learning at school just didn't interest me. And I'm smart in a different way. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:25

You weren't inspired. 

Carina Guzman  25:26

I was not inspired. So now people say, "Oh, my gosh, you're so smart!" Which makes me laugh inside, because I'm like, "I'm just smarter in a different way." So realizing that I wish I would have realized earlier that I'm smarter, just differently. And now, what has happened is I've realized so much that all I need to do is surround myself with the team, people who are way smarter than I am. And I say this all the time. It's literally by design. I'm surrounded by people who are really intelligent, who have, you know, certification to their name, they're high level performers, and they're the ones that carry our entire business our entire- everything that we do. We're like a family. So that has evolved so much being as a child feeling like, you're not smart enough to realizing "I don't have to know everything. I just have to know the right people."

Carina Guzman  26:21

Big guys.

Alfonso Cuadra  26:21

Yeah, well, I think that's genius. That is WealthGenius. I love that I love that. So you built, you know, now you have this team. And you're coaching, you're, you know, obviously in WealthGenius. We have a land development track, which I always think is it's important. And kind of the mindset behind WealthGenius was, there's so many other programs out there, what are we going to do that's different? What are we going to offer that's different. And I like these advanced strategies that people can participate in. And you know, most people didn't even think that they can get into land development, right? That's like, something for the big people.

Alfonso Cuadra  26:21

Yeah, you say big guys, big people, whatever. But you know, I'm looking at right now outside the window, there's a crane. And now there's this big, there's this building being built right in front of the office here. But you know, you never think that that's possible, until you do it. And then Oh, my God, it is possible. So, you know, what do you say to people that are watching this, that are thinking? "Whoah, she's lucky, you know, she built this business?" Like, what do you say to that?

Carina Guzman  27:29

Yeah. I mean, to be honest, like, adding on top of that being a woman, right, like, when I first started, I only dealt with men, like, the land development space, you know, it's been very man-driven for it's one of those spaces-

Alfonso Cuadra  27:44

Why is it, you know, like is there a-

Carina Guzman  27:46

-I think it's just, it's so tied to construction. Right?

Alfonso Cuadra  27:49

Mhm. Alright, that makes sense.

Carina Guzman  27:50

And it just makes sense. Like, it's construction is men, mostly. Still today, right? It's just really taking the steps, you know, to get the- you don't have to be big. I mean, I wasn't, and you just take small steps towards that. Everybody, I still feel fear, right? We still feel fear. Because we're taking on large projects, the amounts of money is so much bigger than before. And you still feel this, like, " hooh, it's crazy, right?" But it's just like, feeling like, you know, what, just one step at a time. Everybody started somewhere, everybody, even the big guys, they all started somewhere. You know, so I'm always like, I kind of internally say, say to myself, we all pee. We all pee all of us. 

Alfonso Cuadra  27:53

Some standing up and some sitting down.

Carina Guzman  28:41

Exactly. But we're all the same.

Alfonso Cuadra  28:43

Yeah yeah yeah, it makes sense. I love that, you know, it can be intimidating. This is why we have the education component-

Carina Guzman  28:50

Yes

Alfonso Cuadra  28:50

-to it, which I love. You know, I love that we can teach people with some of these advanced strategies. And maybe that's where they start, right? And then just follow what they're passionate about. So if someone was trying to get into real estate period, what would be some of the tips, you know, give me like three tangible tips, from your perspective that someone needs to do if they want to get started. Maybe they don't even know if they want to be in land development, multifamily investing in the US all these things. What are three tips that you can offer?

Carina Guzman  29:22

Yeah, I- one thing that worked for me a lot was really learning about the various different strategies. You know, like, I like I was saying, right, I went to all of this, I learned about everything. And that was an all new to me at the time, learning about the different strategies, what's going on in the area, like what what are people doing, just learning all of that I realized a lot about myself. Like there's some strategies that might not excite you. And there were some that I didn't excite me at all. And I was like, ah, that's cool, but I can't see myself doing that, you know. So just like learning about it is I think number one, you should need to-

Alfonso Cuadra  30:02

You gotta know what you don't like.

Carina Guzman  30:04

Yes!

Alfonso Cuadra  30:05

To find out what you like.

Carina Guzman  30:06

Exactly. That's the only way I found out like what excited me it was like, oh, once I figured that I'm like, "oh my god, I could see myself doing that." I like that, I was like, "that's cool!" It's like visionary. It's like taking something from scratch. And just like designing something brand new. That for me excited me so I was like, "I love that idea." So that's number one. One thing that I wish I would have done sooner is getting a coach or a mentor. I have two mentors now. Three, if I count you, because you've mentored me quite a bit, like in this entire journey, like you've been a big component of my growth. But now I really focus on my mentors. And I think they're like key to my entire business. Absolutely. 100%. But I didn't do that sooner. I didn't realize the value of it, or I just didn't even think about it.

Alfonso Cuadra  30:58

Yeah. People underestimate the value of tapping into someone else's experience.

Carina Guzman  31:04

Yes.

Alfonso Cuadra  31:04

People are trying to do everything on their own, not realizing that they can compress time by tapping into someone else's experience.

Carina Guzman  31:13

Yeah, it just expedites everything, you know, like, I'm, you're a coach, you're- I'm a coach, too. And, you know, we have our students come to us and ask a question. And I know it, I can answer it. And they're like, Oh, my God, how do you know all this? How do you know all this information? I'm like, because I've done all of it.

Alfonso Cuadra  31:30

Yes. 

Carina Guzman  31:31

And I know when I go to my coach, my mentors, too. And I ask them a question that I don't know. And they give me the answer. I'm like, good, I can run off and do it. It's just so much quicker. It expedites everything. So I wish I would have done that sooner. For sure. So that's number two. And then number three, is really surrounding yourself with the right people.

Alfonso Cuadra  31:53

I love that so much.

Carina Guzman  31:55

Yes, because I did it, Alfonso like when I when I first- that story, I told you from the first little bungalow next to the LRT, we went off and did so many of those, we were like, I became transit oriented development developer just because of that, because I saw it as like, I could replicate this over and over and over again. And we were doing that. And I loved it. But again, I was I was like a lone wolf. I was like, it's just me in my own little bubble. And all that. And I was lucky that I had enough drive to do that. Because I remember I was obsessed, literally obsessed. So I had that. So I went on longer, way longer on my own, that I think a lot of people could, unless you have that drive unless you have that like obsession. 

But eventually, that kind of wore off a little bit, because then I was like, "Oh, I am a lone wolf." You realize that you outgrow your friends, you outgrow business partners, you outgrow even sometimes family or people that surround you. you outgrow all of that. And you can just keep going on like saying it's fine, because this is what I'm doing. This is where I'm focusing on. So I accepted it, which is cool and all but eventually you feel like this feeling like there's nobody to share with. There's nobody besides my husband, but I mean, like, share in the sense like grow it with, do more.

Alfonso Cuadra  33:13

And you. You don't have anybody to share. Hey, I just made 250k Yeah, right?

Carina Guzman  33:19

Yes!

Alfonso Cuadra  33:19

And they understand because they also made 200,000.

Carina Guzman  33:22

And we celebrate together!

Alfonso Cuadra  33:23

And everyone can uplift one another. Exactly. I'm big on community, but the right community, yes, people that are like minded, that are going to challenge you and support you people that are going to help you level up people that are gonna keep you inspired. Right? So I believe in, in surrounding myself around people that are going to inspire me, inspire me consistently, right. And I want to be inspired by the people around me. I love it.

Carina Guzman  33:52

Yes. 

Alfonso Cuadra  33:53

I love it. One last thing, one last thing. What's a quote that has inspired you?

Carina Guzman  34:00

So I don't know if this is a quote or not. But I guess it's more of a phrase. And we've all heard it. You know that saying when they say "Do what you love, and you never work a day in your life." I feel like that is so true. You I mean, everything I spoke right now this whole time is about obsession. It's about like being in the flow, being following your intuition and just letting that guide you and learning through it. I feel like that's been all of me, like everything that I do. 

Even now. I mean, we're getting into other ventures in our business that we're creating. And I don't know what every single thing but I know that I'm going the right way. I know that I am obsessed. Like, when I find something that I become so excited about, I literally become obsessed by it. I don't know if my that's my personality or what's going on. But I'm like that, and I could do it forever. Like sometimes it's 11 o'clock at night and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I really should wrap it up now." You know?

Alfonso Cuadra  34:59

I'm sure you get the same question people ask me "what's the secret?" Fun?

Carina Guzman  35:04

Excatly

Alfonso Cuadra  35:04

Have Fun? 

Carina Guzman  35:05

Fun. Fun, yeah! 

Alfonso Cuadra  35:07

Just have- if you're having fun, like time it doesn't stop.

Carina Guzman  35:11

No. And especially when you're surrounded with the people that you love. So be surrounded by people that have the same vision as you that think outside the box that give you crazy stupid ideas. But I'm like, "I love it!" Just because you're thinking so outside the box. And you're in that flow. So you have we're having fun, like, our whole team, we just we enjoy being around each other. And I think you guys, you feel the same.

Alfonso Cuadra  35:37

Yeah. On that note, you know, we have events all over the country. 

Carina Guzman  35:42

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  35:42

Right. Who knows when this is coming out, but you're gonna be able to find you, and you'll be able to find me. WealthGenius.ai. And we have events, Land Development Bootcamps, the Real Estate Wealth Expo multiple different events. So when people come to a Land Development Bootcamp, the ones that we're organizing, what can they expect?

Carina Guzman  36:05

Oh, gosh, we go through, almost like a lot of insights. So we do go through about analyzing properties, the hidden gems, I talk a lot about hidden gems, finding the deals, sourcing them, capitalizing them creating it into a business. I really love to teach how to create it as a business, you know, because a lot of people I find, are wanting to get into real estate one thing, but also wanted to quit their job because a lot of us are in that time where I hate my job. I don't like what I do. I was there. I know what it's like to be there. And I made it into business. 

So I know a lot of people need that help. So I do focus on that as well. And then you hear me talking about a lot about the business aspect of it. So we talk all about that and of course the the network, right? It's all about the network and people getting together in with like minded individuals and having fun. That's what it's about.

Alfonso Cuadra  37:04

Whoo. Fun with Carina Guzman, Land Development Queen. Muchas Gracias!

Carina Guzman  37:10

Gracias, amigo!

Alfonso Cuadra  37:10

Thank you for- thank you for coming by. This was I loved it. I know that a lot of people are gonna get a lot of value here and we'll see you all the top.

Carl Richards  37:21

Thanks for listening to the WealthGenius podcast. If you have a question or comment about something you heard today. Reach out to The Godfather via social media or email him anytime. All that information is in the show notes. And of course don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of the WealthGenius podcast. The WealthGenius podcast, until next time, see you at the top!