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 00:31
WealthGenius Podcast, this is a family reunion. The Godfather is here and the little Godfather is here, by the way, we're all here together. Once again, this one's going to be a special one for me, because, you know, when we started WealthGenius, I don't know, if I could even imagine where we're at today, you know? And you guys took a leap of faith at the very beginning. And you were member number one, member number two, not because of anything it's just how I put people into the inner circle, you know? But let's start with Patrice. Maybe Introduce yourself kind of where you are with your investing. And you know, let's start there.
Patrice Milord 01:14
So I'm a member number one back in 2018. It can never be taken away, So-
Alfonso Cuadra 01:19
You got that!
Patrice Milord 01:20
I got that and uh-
Alfonso Cuadra 01:21
You're gonna get the plaque!
Patrice Milord 01:22
Yeah, so my kids and grandkids will say "Remember, WealthGenius!" You know? That he was the first member. So I'm super proud of it. Super proud of how we've grown and expanded. I've grown myself and thanks to you for offering this opportunity to ask to kind of grow, kind of expand our minds, because before that I was just focusing on the onesies and twosies. So single family homes, duplexes. But now you've created this community of quality people. And it starts with the leader and it bleeds into the organization. You've also given us the opportunity to give back to become coaches and impart our education experience, just to help people achieve their real estate goals and dreams just like you did to ourselves.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:04
I hear you're the second best dressed in real estate. Is that true?
Patrice Milord 02:08
You're wrong. I'm the best dressed!
Luis Rivas 02:11
He's number one! He's number one!
Alfonso Cuadra 02:12
Luis Yes, sir. Not even with WealthGenius that started in 2018. But we connected way, way before that. Yeah, way, way back. And we met at a Bob Proctor event.
Luis Rivas 02:24
So first of all, Bob Proctor and- I was like really pumped. I was like, "I'm gonna meet the guy from The Secret." And I met him and I was like, kind of disappointed because he wasn't as like, excited.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:37
He was getting in age, right?
Luis Rivas 02:38
He's getting an age. Right? And I saw you there. And I was just like, "oh, yeah, yeah, hey, hey, man. Cool." I was so blinded, like starstruck by-
Alfonso Cuadra 02:48
Bob.
Luis Rivas 02:48
Bob, that I didn't really pay you as much attention as I should have. And it wasn't until I was on the show with you, you know, it should have been my wife. But like you said, there was an issue. So I filled in, and then it was kind of like that seed got, like, watered. A lot of the things that we talked about are coming about.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:09
Yeah. And so you came to a few of my events. Right? And, you know, like, you kind of one day, you invited me to your house? And-
Luis Rivas 03:17
Yeah,
Alfonso Cuadra 03:17
You know, and all these things are kind of like it was very organic, right? And then I invited you to this real estate event.
Luis Rivas 03:24
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:25
A private event.
Luis Rivas 03:26
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:26
You know, it's like the Illuminati like, you can't, you can't tell anybody-
Luis Rivas 03:30
You don't talk about it.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:31
Yeah, yeah, only my idea was like, you know, I was on big stages, right? And my idea was, well, I miss coaching, I miss having hands on people I miss, you know, like, guiding people and seeing their whole journey from start to finish. And so I reached out to, like, friends and family that like just my immediate community to do the first event at the Holiday Inn in Kanata.
Luis Rivas 03:57
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:57
Right? Not the big room. The small room, I can't remember how many people we had, I want to say 30 or 20 or 30. People I can't remember.
Luis Rivas 04:05
Something like that.
Alfonso Cuadra 04:06
So what are you thinking at this point? Like this guy, right, with you, Patrice, we knew each other, like from way, way back from the store and everything. But like, now, I'm inviting you to this event. What are you thinking? What are you thinking?
Luis Rivas 04:22
I was hesitant. I was hesitant. My wife and I had bought a couple of condos. Before that, you know, a few years back and we didn't do the underwriting. We didn't do the process. We didn't do anything. And these things were negative performing. And we sold them. We liquidated them just to kind of like stop the bleeding. And I felt really kind of crappy about myself. I felt like a failure in real estate and, and I didn't want to come to the event. And my wife said, "What do you have to lose? It's your it's your- it's your good friend?" Yeah. And I said, "Yeah, you're right. Like, what do I have to lose? You know, this is this is going to be fun."
Alfonso Cuadra 04:58
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 04:58
And it was three days. That uh- Man that third day was pretty emotional.
Alfonso Cuadra 05:06
Yeah I remember that. I remember that.
Luis Rivas 05:08
I almost lost, I almost lost- well I felt it. You know?
Alfonso Cuadra 05:11
I feel that it's emotional for a lot of people. People are looking for change. People are looking for something. I know for sure people need a tribe. I mean, everybody needs a tribe, that sense of community. And when people find it, it's almost too good to be true. And it could lead people to some very emotional places. You know? What about you?
Patrice Milord 05:38
Well, I remember we had connected before that, but I was already doing some coaching with someone else. And then you said, "Okay, I'll reconnect." And then you finally invited me in 2018. But I was also skeptical because I had made a lot of mistakes in real estate. But when I got there, you just started speaking, and I'm like, this is the place to be, this is what I was looking for.
Alfonso Cuadra 05:56
Let's talk about that. You had a duplex? Yes. So what happened?
Patrice Milord 06:01
Well, first of all, I it was overpriced. I tried to sell and flip and all that that didn't work out. It was negative performing $600. And I thought, well, nothing was wrong, you know, until I spoke to you about it, and you're like, "What are you doing? This is not how you do real estate!"
Alfonso Cuadra 06:16
You know, a lot of people are sitting there with negative performing properties. And some of the excuses are, "oh, it's like an RRSP contribution." Or "I pay less taxes!" You don't want to make money in real estate, because you're gonna pay more taxes. I'm like, "What the hell are these people talking about?" So I think that's where you were?
Patrice Milord 06:32
That's where I was. And then you talked about, you went around the room asking people what they wanted to do. And I remember you saying that you were going to create 20 millionaires. And I remember saying, "I'm going to be one of them." And I also said, "I wanted to be on stage just like you." And here we are today. So-
Alfonso Cuadra 06:49
Wooooh!
Patrice Milord 06:49
It's been a great journey.
Patrice Milord 06:51
No, especially in coming from my community or family, they take a lot of pride in education. My dad was one of the top performers at school. But the leadership role that was given to me was passed on by my father, when he passed away. And I just felt that I needed to take the leap and step into that role. So that's really why WealthGenius was the right platform to be able to develop those skills more further and just help other people become leaders as well.
Alfonso Cuadra 06:51
You know, what, when I hear just your story inspires me to keep going, right? I love that you were doing the bow ties. You were doing events, I know that your daughter has a business as well. So I'm like, this family's entrepreneurial family. And so you were searching for something as well. So when was that moment? Well, first of all before that, like wait have you always been entrepreneurial?
Patrice Milord 07:46
It was when you describe how to do real estate the right way. Because before that, I didn't really believe it. But when you told us to focus on the multifamily and kind of crushed my heart when you said the single family is not a good investment, because I thought I was doing well. So that's when I'm like, "Okay, this guy knows what he's doing." I was doing other boot camps, but it was more US base didn't really apply to what we were doing here in Canada.
Alfonso Cuadra 07:46
You know, I remember we worked on that duplex. But what was the moment for you that you said to yourself, "whoa, like, this is the path. This is all I should be doing with my time."
Alfonso Cuadra 08:17
Yeah.
Patrice Milord 08:17
And you just spoke about generational wealth. And that's important, especially in my community. I'm just here to build something else for not just myself, but future generations.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:26
Yeah. So you're right, it starts with the family. Right? It starts with how you're raised. And we hope that, you know, people can wake up and, you know, change the cycle. Right? And in my family, it's like a cycle of poverty of not knowing, not understanding, and I was brought up with really good values. At the same time, no one taught me about business. No one taught me about leadership. No one taught me about managing my credit. So with our students, what are some of the challenges you see, you know, not just with individual students, but even with the industry? Like, what is their- like, what's kind of the roadblock for some of our students?
Luis Rivas 09:07
Well a lot of them come with some of those intergenerational brainwashings, and they don't believe they could do it. Or they don't believe they deserve it. Even making an investment to be part of this community. They, they might be able to afford it. They might not. But if they can afford it, sometimes they think well, I don't think I deserve it.
Alfonso Cuadra 09:28
So they sabotage, self sabotage.
Alfonso Cuadra 09:29
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 09:29
Self sabotage, it's almost like they keep hitting the wall and bouncing off the wall. Some people break through and eventually take that leap. But a lot of people have, you know, those limiting beliefs. I think a lot of students come with limiting beliefs. Yeah, I see students coming from other organizations that focus in other worlds or other niches of real estate, and they, they try to recreate and redo the same things over and over again. They always end up reverting back to what they're comfortable with. It's only when they break through and sense that, "hey, this is kind of similar to what I was doing before, maybe a little bit simpler. And it's got a lot more rewards."
Luis Rivas 09:30
You know?
Alfonso Cuadra 09:32
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 09:33
But sometimes it takes time for, for the students to like, experience them.
Alfonso Cuadra 09:56
Yeah.
Patrice Milord 10:05
For me, it's- I see as the Shiny Object Syndrome. So jumping to the next cool thing. I've done it myself, like even starting I was I took a stock trading course, I took an immigration consultant course just jumping into the next thing, rather than focusing on your goals. So I see a lot of that. So you just need to bring them back to what are their goals? What you're about to be doing? Is this in alignment that with the goals that you had set out? So a lot of people suffer from that. They just want to jump into the next cool thing without wanting to see things through.
Alfonso Cuadra 10:49
What do you like the most about coaching?
Luis Rivas 10:54
It's a feeling for me. It's a feeling that I can control my time. It's a feeling that I impart my knowledge and my feeling on other people. And it energizes me man! Sometimes I'm tired, and I'll get on a call. And I'll be like, fired up.
Alfonso Cuadra 11:13
I know what you feel like, you know, like, we just went through this two day boot camp. This morning I was like, "Well..." I want to be efficient with my time. So I'm doing a whole bunch of interviews in one day. And I came in here this morning. And then boom, the second the camera was on I was like, "Hello, what's going on?" You know, I was here, little Godfather was here. Everybody was here. So I definitely know that I feed off people. So it looks like you're on the same wave length.
Luis Rivas 11:41
Aw man, it fires me up! It fires me up. I'll have like back to back to back. And it's just flying by. And I love it. I love it.
Alfonso Cuadra 11:50
Yeah.
Patrice Milord 11:51
For me, it's the impact that you can have on someone and I could have a bad day, but then read the messages for my students to say, well, you know, that thing that you said the other day, like, it opened up some other opportunities for me, it changed my life. I'm so thankful that you're here. So those things are what's fulfilling for me. And it's kind of what you did to us. So I feel the same way.
Alfonso Cuadra 12:10
I love that. And, look, I want people to get something out of this interview, right? So I want you to share with us tips, maybe three tips, three tips, whether they're part of WealthGenius, or not maybe just watching his YouTube channel, or this podcast. And there's certain things that they can do right now. So what are three? I'll ask both of you, but I'll start with Luis. What are three tips that you can offer someone to get started?
Luis Rivas 12:38
Get a coach. Get a mentor.
Alfonso Cuadra 12:42
Look for someone that has done it before.
Luis Rivas 12:44
And still doing it hopefully.
Alfonso Cuadra 12:46
Yeah. Yeah.
Luis Rivas 12:46
You know, and loves to do it. And stay coachable. Because it's one thing to get the coach and then you just not really drinking the Kool Aid.
Alfonso Cuadra 12:55
Well you try and reinvent the wheel.
Luis Rivas 12:56
Yeah, yeah. That's just gonna waste their time and your time. So I think getting a coach is staying coachable.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:03
You know, I love that stay coachable. Right. And then number three.
Luis Rivas 13:08
It's kind of along the same vein, and that's; become a master or an addict of being comfortable being uncomfortable. Ya know? Some people say that fear is a motivator. Yeah, fear could be part of that discomfort. But if you're part of a big community, of other like minded individuals, it is the secret, in my opinion, to remaining comfortable being uncomfortable, because everybody's kind of like walking hand in hand, walking through the fire or coals or whatever metaphor you want to use. And everybody's doing it at the same time. Everybody can can congregate and share stories, and pick each other up, you know, and move together in unison.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:50
Yeah, yeah, Love it. Three tips.
Patrice Milord 13:53
Three tips. So find someone that has what you want and just learn, immerse yourself and learn from them. And number two; be careful who you listen to. If you focus more on what's going on in the media. I mean, I don't know it's better to be surrounded by people that have what you want, and you focus on that, then you focus on your growth. And also you don't know what you don't know. Nobody knows everything, everybody's here to grow. So everybody's like, here to learn. So you've never fulfilled your full potential, you can always grow and learn. And if you use those words, "I know" then-
Alfonso Cuadra 14:26
You're done! You're toast!
Patrice Milord 14:29
Last but not least, is invest in yourself. So easy to pay for that university degree. I didn't have to think twice about it, because we're programmed that that's the way to go. But when it's time to invest in yourself, people have a lot of problems to trust themselves that they can invest in themselves and grow.
Alfonso Cuadra 14:45
I love it. I love it. You know, there's always these little nuggets of inspiration that we all find in life. There's certain quotes that when you hear them, you're like, Whoa, I get it, you know? For example, mine was from Jim Rohn. "Success is what you attract by the person you become." When I heard that quote, it's like, I get it. I was like, I could see the light, you know, it was like the light switch went on in my mind. So, do you have quotes like that? Like, do you have phrases, proverbs or, you know, maybe a moment, you know, what was it for you?
Luis Rivas 15:24
Well, lately it's been at the end of the bootcamp, you say, "in five years from now, you will have arrived."
Alfonso Cuadra 15:30
Yes.
Luis Rivas 15:31
You know, and who- who will that be?
Alfonso Cuadra 15:33
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 15:34
And we're coming up on that. That five year anniversary of, of when all this started before it was even WealthGenius?
Alfonso Cuadra 15:42
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 15:44
Like, I get kind of emotional about it, because I didn't dream all this. But I did dream of feeling. I did have that feeling. And has it exceeded my expectations? Heck, yeah, it has you know? But when I hear that quote, it really like, screams at me now.
Alfonso Cuadra 16:06
I love it.
Patrice Milord 16:07
To me, it's just a few simple words, like, "take that leap of faith." And again, it goes back to what you mentioned yesterday at the boot camp, just believe in yourself and take that leap of faith that you can do better, you can be more you can do more. Because we're on this earth, not to be average. When my dad came here and to Canada to give us an opportunity to be in a prosperous country. Like I can't, I cannot just be average. No, I can't.
Alfonso Cuadra 16:34
We didn't come here to be average.
Patrice Milord 16:35
I can't.
Alfonso Cuadra 16:35
Yeah, yeah. I love it. Both of you guys are inspiring, you know, and you inspire me and you're leaders within this organization. And thank you, thank you. I'm grateful for you and your contributions to the people that we lead. Right? I mean, that's a huge responsibility that we have. And I know you don't take it lightly. How can people connect with you?
Luis Rivas 17:00
Come to the bootcamp.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:03
Wealthgenius.ai and they come connect with you at the boot camp and you know, YouTube channel.
Luis Rivas 17:10
Yeah, yeah, Rivas Real Estate Investments.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:13
Yeah.
Luis Rivas 17:13
On YouTube. Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:14
Nice.
Patrice Milord 17:16
Just follow the best dressed guy and really that's- that's the only way to find me. It's pretty easy to do. So that's the best way to find me.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:22
I love it. I love it. So, guys, thank you for coming.
Luis Rivas 17:25
Thank you.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:26
Love you guys. Love you love you love you. This was fun. This was a lot of fun. It was like brought me back down memory lane. And that's it. Alfonso loves you and we'll see you all at the top! Woooooh!
Carl Richards 17:39
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.
