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WealthGenius Podcast
WealthGenius Podcast
Packing a Parachute: Taking a Leap into Real Estate Investment
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Gary Hibbert is a leadership expert who delivers inspiring keynote presentations that challenge audiences to leverage their focus and relate to Gary’s practical and humble approach to what matters most in their life and their business. His extensive background in building businesses, corporate management and joint venture partnerships makes him the perfect fit.
“Real Talk With Gary” is the highly acclaimed Canadian podcast that Gary is the host of. The show has become a go-to resource for anyone interested in real estate investing, health, wealth and mindset; with a large and growing audience tuning in weekly to hear Gary’s insights and interviews with other influential guests.
Gary is also a co-owner of “Our Neighbourhood Realty”, a real estate brokerage with multiple branches, in Ontario, and has been instrumental in driving the company’s success. His extensive knowledge of the investment market, combined with his exceptional customer service, and peer partnerships has helped him to establish a loyal client base and achieve outstanding results.
“Smart Home Choice/ Realty Group”, the real estate side of Gary’s portfolio has assisted hundreds of individuals with buying and selling real estate, investment properties, luxury homes and vacation properties. He is a pioneer in the Real Estate Investment realm and is well respected by his peers.
Gary takes immense pride in being a dedicated family man, a role he holds in the highest regard, if not more, than his numerous business accomplishments. While his professional success has brought recognition and rewards, his true sense of fulfilment arises from the deep, enduring connections he shares with his family. Gary values these moments as the most meaningful achievements in his life. He believes that the balance between his thriving career and the strong foundation of his family is the essence of his true success, and a testament to his unwavering commitment to the people who matter most to him.
Connect with Gary:
- Website: www.garyhibbert.ca
- Email: info@garyhibbert.ca
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garyhibbertbrand
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garyhibbert/
- Podcast: Real Talk With Gary
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SPEAKERS
Alfonso Cuadra, Gary Hibbert, Carl Richards
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 Sstate, Alfonso Cuadra, who has expansive experience in business and massive success as a real estate investor. The WealthGenius podcast, let's dive in to today's episode.
Alfonso Cuadra 00:33
It's so good to be here. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. I've been on your show how many times?
Gary Hibbert 00:39
Twice, three times? I think it's got to be three times.
Alfonso Cuadra 00:42
It's got to be three, four.
Gary Hibbert 00:42
More than that more than that. Well, you've done webinars for us.
Alfonso Cuadra 00:45
Oh, yes yes yes yes, yes, yes.
Gary Hibbert 00:46
You've done podcasts for us. Yeah, you've come on done talks for us.
Alfonso Cuadra 00:49
Yes.
Gary Hibbert 00:49
We're getting into like, double digits here now, brother.
Alfonso Cuadra 00:52
And then- and I remember we, I was on your show. And so I decided to go live on my YouTube channel. And it was like a two hour live that led into some drinks and talking about all kinds of things about life. And so I always enjoy my conversations with you. And it's just too bad that it takes so long for us to get together. You know what I mean?
Gary Hibbert 01:13
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 01:13
So we're gonna have to plan some other non show, you know, visits. You know what I mean?
Gary Hibbert 01:18
Well I think part of it too, is like, you know, we're both busy. We're both building businesses. We're out they're having fun with what we're doing as well, too. And, you know, it's great watching what you've been doing. You know, it's incredible. Like I said, Before, the mics turned on. I'm like, every time I wake up Alfonso, or before I go to bed, Alfonso.
Alfonso Cuadra 01:34
There I am, there I am.
Gary Hibbert 01:34
You know, but you're doing great things. And I love that I love seeing people build businesses. And I think even more importantly, giving back to the community.
Alfonso Cuadra 01:42
Yes.
Gary Hibbert 01:43
You know, it's I think it's service to many leads to greatness. And you're a prime example of and you're doing it well.
Alfonso Cuadra 01:48
Yeah. Thank you. And you too. I mean, I want to congratulate you. I was just in your office in I think-
Gary Hibbert 01:55
Oshawa?
Alfonso Cuadra 01:55
Last- last, no the other one right here that you opened up the new office-
Gary Hibbert 02:00
Oh at Brichworks there. Yeah just off of BP.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:01
Yeah. I was there last spring.
Gary Hibbert 02:03
Yes, yes.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:04
Was it last spring that you opened it?
Gary Hibbert 02:05
Yes just before spring.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:07
Yeah, it's gorgeous office.
Gary Hibbert 02:08
Thank you.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:08
And so there's momentum on your side? You know, you're building the real estate, you're building the brokerages. And then I see this Mexico stuff. So I want to get into that.
Gary Hibbert 02:17
Yeah, yeah absolutely.
Alfonso Cuadra 02:18
So, so- so much to get into. So I want to start with where you are now. What is the scope of your portfolio? Your businesses? What do you got going on?
Gary Hibbert 02:27
Yeah, good question. So we've got lots going on. Right? So you want me to kind of go through it all the podcasts that I'm doing?
Alfonso Cuadra 02:34
I've been on a few times. Yeah, you know, you better go there and check it out.
Gary Hibbert 02:39
Alright, thanks. Yeah, the podcasts, you know, I did want today, actually, but I have a lot of fun with that. Because I get to sit down with people that are going out and doing things. And, and it also what I love about it as well, too, is sometimes it challenges my pillars.
And like, "I never thought about it like that. That's a great idea. That's a great thought, that's a great direction that you're going in." And so that has really kind of shaped the person that I am today. So I love doing the podcast, you know, I'm a real estate investor as well, too, started that back in 2008. I'll kind of break that down.
So I did rent-to-own first, then I got into the two unit conversions, then I got into private lending. Then I went into investing outside of the country where you know, I've got something down in Mexico. So we can break that down a little bit more later on. And now I'm looking at the apartment building space. I never thought I was gonna get into that space. You know?
Alfonso Cuadra 03:31
Welcome home.
Gary Hibbert 03:32
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so we're looking, we're looking down in the US. But I also understand as well too where my strengths are. So I'm partnering with people that are in that space, they understand it and so I can kind of partner with them and complement each other use what I'm good at use what they're good at and then come together and you're good to go.
Alfonso Cuadra 03:55
Leverage!
Gary Hibbert 03:56
100%
Alfonso Cuadra 03:56
Yeah, love it.
Gary Hibbert 03:57
And then we've also got the brokerage. Yeah, so that was started in 2017. I didn't come in until 2019. And then since then we've we've grown up we've got about 170 agents, there was so so-
Alfonso Cuadra 04:11
Congratulations! That's incredible!
Gary Hibbert 04:13
Thank you, thank you.
Alfonso Cuadra 04:13
Not only that, it shows a great deal of leadership, right? Because even though you have the brokerage, but agents are operating kind of their own businesses,
Gary Hibbert 04:22
Right.
Alfonso Cuadra 04:23
And getting people motivated and getting people organized, it's like herding cats.
Gary Hibbert 04:29
I was just thinking that as you said it, you know, yeah, it's difficult. You know, I thought when I got into that space, like okay, well, look, I you know what, I've raised capital, I've gotten investors to invest with me, to believe in me to move with me. And I'm like, well, I can do this with real estate agents "Err, wrong!" It'ss not that easy. You know, so it was it was challenging but-
Alfonso Cuadra 04:54
Is it- is it like therapy?
Gary Hibbert 04:56
But you know what, though? It's a good challenge.
Alfonso Cuadra 04:58
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 04:58
And I think that's what is important is that you're always challenging yourself, you're always seeing what mountain you can climb next. And so they know that that's been an interesting journey.
And I think also now going into the apartment building space, that's going to be an interesting journey as well, too. And, and I think it's really important the way that I laid it out. But also, for people that are listening to understand that don't jump from strategy to strategy to strategy quickly, you should be in a strategy for at least four or five years and master it-
Alfonso Cuadra 04:58
See it through.
Gary Hibbert 05:30
Yeah, and then you can move into the next strategy. And then while you're moving into that next strategy, it's almost kind of like that. 80-20, like you still, you know, in that strategy working on and learning the other strategy before you kind of move into it. Right?
Alfonso Cuadra 05:44
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 05:44
Because then you become, you know, an expert in each of these particular areas, right? And, you know, like rent-to-own, I wrote a book on it, I understand it, I can move back to that. But if I'm only in it for, you know, yeah, six months? Well, I haven't really fully engaged in it and understand it to the fullest.
Alfonso Cuadra 06:01
So let me ask you a question in terms of running a brokerage. And, you know, being a realtor, okay? What do you love most about that business?
Gary Hibbert 06:11
I love mentoring and showing real estate agents that there's a different way to run your business, that you don't have to do it the typical way of just the door knocking, or just the open house, if you have a client, you don't have to wait for them to move again, you can now be their financial advisor for life.
Alfonso Cuadra 06:33
It's like- you're like their quarterback.
Gary Hibbert 06:35
Yeah and that's what you should be, you should be their financial advisor. So that you know, a few years goes by, you check up on them, where things are homes going up in equity, real estate investing is a great way to build wealth, there's so many different things you can do with them, right. And I think that's a great way to show agents "don't only stay in that Red Sea, go over to the Blue Ocean", you know what I mean? Like that Blue Ocean is an area where a lot of real estate agents don't live in, they're all fighting for this little small pool.
Alfonso Cuadra 07:06
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 07:06
But if you really nurture and look after each of your clients, it can take them a long way.
Alfonso Cuadra 07:12
And I think that we're very much in alignment with that. It's just like value, like add value to people, and then the business will be automatic, the business will come. Everybody's just looking to do a transaction.
And when you're looking to do a transaction, you will do some transactions, but you'll never have that long lasting loyalty that you're going to get from a customer that's going to come back to you for many different things. Maybe they're not selling their home. But they're they want to invest. They want some advice on what can they do with the equity, right?
Gary Hibbert 07:43
Right.
Alfonso Cuadra 07:44
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 07:44
Yeah. And then what ends up happening as well, too, is that you are now in their sphere of influence. And then they start telling their friends, like, "my agent helped me buy an investment property. I'm like at three now."
Alfonso Cuadra 07:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gary Hibbert 07:57
"What your agent doesn't do that for you? Well you gotta come talk to my agent!"
Alfonso Cuadra 08:02
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gary Hibbert 08:02
Right. Yeah. So yeah, so it's important to educate them. And in show them that there are different ways to invest your money.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:10
I've been on your show, a few times, three or four times, we don't remember how many times but I've always shared my story. And I've never gotten to hear your story.
Gary Hibbert 08:22
Okay.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:22
And so I'm kind of looking forward to this, you know, I want to know, kind of, like, What's the origin story? Like how to, you know, now we see you, you know, you got the blazer on looking sexy. And, you know, you got the brokerage, you got the overseas, you got the multifamily got the rent-to-own. So how did where did it all start?
Gary Hibbert 08:40
Great question. So I was in a nine to five role. I was in there for about 17 years.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:47
What were you doing?
Gary Hibbert 08:48
IT.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:49
IT, wow.
Gary Hibbert 08:49
Yeah, dealing with servers, mainframes, Ethernet.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:52
Wow.
Gary Hibbert 08:53
You know, and nothing to do with sales, right? So completely completely different world. And after 2008, when they had the crash down there in the US, we call it Black Monday, and the manager came out and called on one of the- one of my co workers.
And so he calls my coworker he comes out, and I can see the look on his face. And I'm like, "Oh, he just got let go." And so all day long Alfonso they're letting people go, and I'm banging that keyboard I'm thinking oh man my manager. He's got to see me working real hard here. But I mean, look, they already had their list. They knew who they're gonna let go. He comes out and he goes, "Okay, whoever's here, you guys are safe." And driving home.
And I go, "Never again do I ever want to feel like somebody's in control of my financial freedom or future." The problem was, I didn't know what to do. Now. Now, luckily, about a year or two years before that my brother had brought over the secret. And I was like, I wonder if this thing works. And then that Got me into Jim Rohn. And now I'm starting to work on my mindset, which is good. So now I'm working on my mindset before even getting into real estate investing.
Alfonso Cuadra 08:53
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 09:18
So I started trying a couple of different businesses, I got into stock, the stock market trading, currency, I was waking up at four in the morning trading the yen, the euro, the US, you know.
Alfonso Cuadra 10:18
It's, I always find it so fascinating. Like, everybody's searching for something, right. And we've all kind of tied to these things like The Secret, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that leads into selling, you know, Vitamin Water and, you know, weight loss thing and this and that. There's always like a search, you know, like, you're doing trading 4x, trading the yen, and the this and that, because it's like, we don't know what to do. We just know we need to do something.
Gary Hibbert 10:19
Right.
Alfonso Cuadra 10:20
And so we're- at the very beginning, we tried all kinds of things.
Gary Hibbert 10:27
Right? Because I was like, I can't just only rely on this paycheck, I realized that I was just.
Alfonso Cuadra 10:54
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 10:54
I was just another body or I was just another number. So while doing that I was putting myself into into debt. I'm trying all these different things within that working. So I go to the bank for the third time to take all my debt to wrap it up into my mortgage. So consolidate everything.
And I'm sitting in there. and my financial advisor goes, "Listen, Gary, you know what? You don't know how to handle your home equity line of credit, you don't know, how to handle like these lines of credit and credit." I'm like, "yeah, get rid of them. I want nothing to do with them anymore." Because I just wanted to now just pay for cash. But I wasn't educated enough on how to use and how to leverage and all that.
Alfonso Cuadra 11:32
Was financial literacy taught at home?
Gary Hibbert 11:34
No yeah, no, it was more about, you know, saving. Yeah, that was that was really about it. You know, the one thing I remember my dad always saying is like, "Man, if I had some money I'd buy some land, if I had some money, I'd buy some land." So that always kind of stuck with me.
I was like, "Okay, there's something there with this land thing." So anyways, she she leaves the office, and I'm in there by myself. And I look up on the wall, and I see the Andex Chart. And on the Andex Chart, it shows you what's happened for the last 50 years. So the stock market and it shows you what interest rates were in the different prime ministers and everything.
And then I see inflation. And that's interesting. So inflation has been anywhere from 1-2% to as high as you know, 17-18%. So if I average it out, it's 5%. Okay, well, what was my raise at work a year before. It's like $1,000, I did the math based on my income. And I'm like, it worked out to like 1.3 1.4%. And I'm like, you can even outpace inflation, if it's at 2%. I got it. But this house that I'm living in has bailed me out three times. So what if I bought one more? That's where it all started. So I bought my first investment property. And-
Alfonso Cuadra 12:50
So how do you go about buying your first investment property? Because, you know, you're kind of tapped out, you know-
Gary Hibbert 12:56
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 12:57
You've done your- you're already like, the bank guys telling you "listen, like what's going on? And you every three months, you're in his office, you're trying to like, reconsolidate everything. how many times are we're gonna do this?"
Gary Hibbert 13:09
Exactly, exactly.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:10
So and obviously, the reason I asked that, because I know that there's a transition happening there. And at the same time, mindset is being shifted. And debt is a big part of that paradigm like how to use that, how to leverage that good debt versus bad debt. You know, my mom said, never be in debt.
Gary Hibbert 13:30
Yes.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:30
Right? And that's the mindset that I these are the things that I have to overcome. So kind of, you're going to buy one house, that was your goal. Buy a second house?
Gary Hibbert 13:30
Right.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:30
Yeah. And so-
Gary Hibbert 13:37
That was my goal.
Alfonso Cuadra 13:41
How did you do it?
Gary Hibbert 13:42
So then I just started telling people like, "Okay, I want to buy an investment property, I need to get an investment property and let everybody know." And so I told a friend of mine that and he goes, "You know what, my, my dad's going through a bit of a situation.
And he really wants to stay in the home. And his girlfriend decided that they're going to sell it". "I'll buy it." He was "You're going to buy my dad's home?" I'm like, "yeah, how much is it?" Like it was, I was so focused on just buying a home.
Alfonso Cuadra 14:08
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 14:09
And at the time, it was a illegal two unit. I didn't care. I didn't know anything about real estate investing and stuff like that. I'm like, "Yeah, that's cool."
Alfonso Cuadra 14:15
Legal schmegle.
Gary Hibbert 14:16
Who cares? Let's get the property. So it was 200,000 it was in Oshawa. And here's the thing that I did prior to that, when I was reconsolidated and everything I went into, there was a very short window, you could do this a 40 year amortization for my my mortgage. What that did was looking back at and that was it was good, because what it did- well it right exactly, it allowed me to now look better on paper. So then I was able to buy that property. And now there was a small window where you can actually buy zero down. So I think it was like $3000 or $3,500 to buy this property. Okay, that's all it was.
Alfonso Cuadra 14:52
Wow.
Gary Hibbert 14:53
I had to joint venture with my friend. I'm like, I only got like $1,500 Matt. I just consolidated everything into their mortgage.
Alfonso Cuadra 14:59
Can you imagine?
Gary Hibbert 15:00
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 15:00
Right? Like when you're telling this story, it doesn't even seem believable, right?
Gary Hibbert 15:05
I know!
Alfonso Cuadra 15:05
It's like you're trying to buy a property. And it's only $1500 bucks. And you you're still having trouble coming up with that?
Gary Hibbert 15:13
Yes. And so I wrote down an agreement. And it was a joint venture agreement on one piece of paper. I didn't know what a joint venture agreement even looked like, you know what I mean?
So I'm like, "Hey, I promise that, you know, if we get into a negative situation or a positive situation, we're equally bound by this." And so that was my first investment property. That's how I got into it. Then after that, the second one, I partnered with my my brother in law, and we bought a property in Scarborough.
Alfonso Cuadra 15:37
And how did you convince your brother, your brother in law, it was your brother in law? Was he around real estate?
Gary Hibbert 15:43
No.
Alfonso Cuadra 15:44
Did he have that mindset?
Gary Hibbert 15:45
No, I just convinced him. Yeah, like, we got to get more properties. Like, look how much your home has already gone up. Look how much my home has gone up. Let's go buy some more properties.
Alfonso Cuadra 15:52
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 15:53
And he's like, "Alright, let's do it."
Alfonso Cuadra 15:54
Nice.
Gary Hibbert 15:54
And so then we went out, and at the time to his mother was looking for a place as well. So then we picked up another illegal two unit in in Scarborough. And we went down into the basement, we didn't understand anything about foundations, and this and that, and there was like a support wall. And so we got some sledgehammers, because there was a doorway. So we knocked that a piece out. We didn't know when we were doing it.
Alfonso Cuadra 16:17
Yeah, yeah.
Gary Hibbert 16:17
We had no clue what we were doing, Alfonso, it was so crazy in the beginning. But I was so determined that I wanted to get into it. And the tenant that I put into the basement, he showed up and we had an ad, I think it was using Craigslist. We were using Craigslist, back then he shows up, and he just gave me cash in my hand. And like I look at my brother in law I'm like "see Matt told you this thing is easy." Come to find out this guy became the biggest pain.And he was smoking in the basement.
Alfonso Cuadra 16:48
I was gonna say cash is a red flag.
Gary Hibbert 16:49
Yeah. And then you know, I'd show up to pick up the money. And he'd be like, "Oh, come on inside. Look, I did this, I did that. The rent this month is an 800. It's 500." And this went on for like a whole year. And I'm like, Okay, I don't know what I'm doing here. And so we ended up-
Alfonso Cuadra 17:02
A lot of people would have gave up at that point.
Gary Hibbert 17:04
So then we sold it. And we kind of broke even, I wish would have kept it cause man, it was- it would be well over a million now. And then I realized that I needed education. I knew there was still something there. And then I went home, Googled, and came across a concept called rent-to-own.
And I'm like, "What, this is interesting". And then I just educated myself on rent-to-own and then you know, the rest kind of was history from there. From 2010, I think to 2014, it picked up 19 properties.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:35
And it you were kind of in alignment with the times because the money dried up. And remember, obviously there was a crash in the US but here was a correction and money dried up in terms of like private mortgages, the options dried up for a lot of people. And you know, a lot of people still wanted homes. And to be in the rent-to-own space is kind of like that was a perfect.
Gary Hibbert 17:35
It was a great strategy at that time. Yeah, it definitely was.
Alfonso Cuadra 17:43
It's still a good strategy, especially now with high interest rates. If someone's having trouble selling their house or relocating, or let's say is negative cashflow. Well rent to own strategy would fix that right away because you're- the rent to own strategy is the only time you actually see a single family cashflow.
Gary Hibbert 18:21
That was the the amazing thing about it too. We were buying these homes for 250, 260, 280.
Alfonso Cuadra 18:27
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 18:27
You know, and they were they were price great back then. And it was great that you could cashflow on the single family homes. And so I wrote a book on it. And then we started teaching investors. And when we when we started Smart Home Choice in 2010. That was all we did. It was just rent-to-own. Because the big thing was for us was be an investor, not a landlord. And so it was great because you were having a family move in. They had a vested interest, the cashflow was good. And you were gonna get this payout at the end three years later.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:00
Yeah. And then is the strategy because you were a realtor at that time.
Gary Hibbert 19:04
I wasn't a realtor.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:04
Oh you weren't a realtor?
Gary Hibbert 19:05
No. But I had a friend who was a realtor that was part of the business at the time.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:08
Okay, so the strategy was that they would be, they would just leave be the liaison. Maybe if it's five years into the future, but at least it's there like, it's business. And at some point, those people are going to want to sell and you know,
Gary Hibbert 19:21
Yeah, exactly.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:22
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 19:22
Now, after doing that for about, you know, a good six, seven years, part of that, about five years, I realized, Oh, hold on a second. I'm losing these properties. Now. It was great, because I was helping these families get into homeownership. And I'm like, but I need these assets. Like I can't be losing them.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:38
End up holding on to it.
Gary Hibbert 19:39
Right, right. So as much as I love the cash flow, which allowed me to actually depart my full time job in 2014, because I had enough cash flow coming in that it was covering our mortgage payments. So that was great. So it gave me the courage to leave that nine to five
Alfonso Cuadra 19:52
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 19:52
I'm like, but we got to keep his assets. And this is now when I went into the BRRRR strategy and achieving it.
Alfonso Cuadra 19:56
Going back on leaving the the J O B. Just over broke. How was that transition for you, like?
Gary Hibbert 20:04
Scary.
Alfonso Cuadra 20:04
Was it easy? Like, did your family support it? You know, because I know, when I got into real estate, my mom was like, "Nah, it's not gonna work." You know, but like, was it easy for you, did you find that there was there was-
Gary Hibbert 20:17
No, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy, because, you know, as I was growing the portfolio, a lot of my co workers were like, "Oh, this is good. Oh, hold on a second. The markets gonna crash, it's gonna crash again."
Alfonso Cuadra 20:27
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 20:27
So you gotta remember-
Alfonso Cuadra 20:29
Bubble. Bubble.
Gary Hibbert 20:29
Yeah, you got to remember it. I think people forget this. During that time, 2010, 11, 12, 14, everybody was saying was going to crash, it's going to correct and that was a very fearful time as well, too. I think people forget that. At least I was hearing it in my ear from my cooworkers.
Alfonso Cuadra 20:42
I'll never forget the Globe and Mail picture of Toronto houses. And it's like, "We've Entered The Bubble". And it was like, like, big it was the whole- there was- the entire front page. And it was like "The Bubble", you know, and the bubble is gonna burst, you know?
Gary Hibbert 21:00
And everything was fear, fear, fear. And so now I'm hearing it from my co workers as well, too. And you're gonna lose all these homes, you're gonna lose your own personal home, you're gonna go bankrupt, and like, "Oh, my God". So, you know, I was educated myself.
But I still felt like I was on shaky grounds, even though I was going to these events that I'm learning from, you know, these people that are where I want to be. So I'm like, "okay, cool. But I, these people, there's, they're not saying that's gonna happen, or they're still investing in real estate."
And I'm still starting to get the fundamentals of just buy an asset, make sure cash flows. And then back then to, it wasn't just a variable, do what allows you to sleep at night. So I was like, "Okay, well, maybe we'll do variable, maybe we'll do a fixed." So sometimes we did fix sometimes we did variable.
And so then I had a good mentor. And I was asking him a lot of questions he was like, Gary man, you can do this, however, you've been at this job, man for like, almost 17 years, you got this pension, and I'm getting close to 40 now. And I'm like, if I don't make this transition, if I don't make this move, I'm stuck here for life. Because you don't want to give up that pension. It starts getting to a size of like, what am I doing?
Alfonso Cuadra 22:04
It starts getting closer and closer and it's- It's like, I'm almost there.
Gary Hibbert 22:08
Right!
Alfonso Cuadra 22:08
Just another 10 more years.
Gary Hibbert 22:10
Yeah, exactly. And you know what it was, as well, too, was that I remember saying this to myself when I was at TD and asking the people that I was working with, like, hey, how do we get out of here? And it got to the point where like, no one was able to give me this the solution. I'm like, "Man, I can't wait. I just retire." What a horrible thing to say. I can't wait till I'm 65 years old, Alfonso. That was when I was like, man, you know what I'm disgusted with where I am.
Alfonso Cuadra 22:32
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gary Hibbert 22:32
And that was another that was another fuel that I used to get me out of where I was. So then here's what I did. When I finally made the decision that I'm gonna leave, is I went and did the CN Tower walk.
Alfonso Cuadra 22:46
Oh, man, the one that they-
Gary Hibbert 22:48
Yeah. And they make you go like this and you for it.
Alfonso Cuadra 22:51
That's crazy.
Gary Hibbert 22:52
I went did that. Then I went on a boy's trip and went down to Cuba. And I saw this, this plane above. And then about five minutes later, a bunch of guys land on the beach. And I look at my brother, I'm like, "Let's go jump out of this plane." And I look at the guy and I go "how was that?" And he goes, "it was awesome." Okay, so the four of us were like, "Let's go!"
Alfonso Cuadra 23:17
Are you an adrenaline junkie, or what?
Gary Hibbert 23:20
I think so. Maybe a little bit of time.
Alfonso Cuadra 23:22
Yeah, yeah, yeah I can see.
Gary Hibbert 23:23
So, so we jump in this car. I don't even know who these guys are. We're in Cuba. I don't know what their safety, you know, mechanisms are and how safe it is and whatever. So anyways, I'm like, I don't think they're gonna mess up on our jump, you know? So go on this plane, and this little rickety old plane. You know, when they're when they're going up, you can see the cables moving in the top.
Alfonso Cuadra 23:44
I'm already like, I'm already- my heart is already stopped twice during this story. You know,
Gary Hibbert 23:50
Wild!
Alfonso Cuadra 23:50
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 23:51
So we jump out. And we land, best experience in my whole entire life.
Alfonso Cuadra 23:56
In Cuba!
Gary Hibbert 23:57
In Cuba, land right on our beach right by our resort. Incredible. And when I landed, I said you know what? The CN Tower and htis jump didn't kill me. So leaving TD Bank definitely won't kill me.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:08
Wow.
Gary Hibbert 24:09
And that was my reasoning of doing it of like, well, I'm not going to die. I might feel like I'm gonna die.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:15
What is the worst case scenario?
Gary Hibbert 24:17
Right? I won't die.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:18
You get another job. Right?
Gary Hibbert 24:19
I get another job. Yeah, whatever it may be. But I'm not going to actually physically die.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:24
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 24:25
And that was what I use to make the decision to leave. But I also remember something that Jim Rohn said to me as well to well, not to me, but well to the herd.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:33
Well said to us.
Gary Hibbert 24:33
Yeah, said to us.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:35
Cause I- I-
Gary Hibbert 24:36
He was like "Hey, Gary. Listen man."
Alfonso Cuadra 24:39
No but, you know what? I spent hours listening to Jim.
Gary Hibbert 24:41
I can't even tell you how many hours in the car.
Alfonso Cuadra 24:44
Yeah. And I felt he was talking to me.
Gary Hibbert 24:46
Yeah, you know what I would do? And I'll get back to finish that story, is when I was listening to him, I would stop it. And then I would say it in my own words on a recording so that I would go back and listen to it.
And it sounded like it was it was me it was this is some of the things that I was saying, even though I knew it was coming from Jim Rohn. But it allowed it to sit in my mind more like, you know, you know, "don't wish it was easier, wish you were better." "Don't ask for less problems-
Alfonso Cuadra 25:13
-Wish for more skills. Yes sir!
Gary Hibbert 25:15
All that stuff. Oh, I know them all, you know, and. And then so when I made that decision, there was another thing that he said was, "don't leave your full time job until your part time job becomes your full time job."
Alfonso Cuadra 25:28
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 25:28
And then my part time job was getting there was starting to feel like a full time job and like, "Okay, if I can give this thing 10 hours a day, 12 hours a day, I can get this thing off the ground, I feel like I can." And then so I packed my my parachute and left.
Alfonso Cuadra 25:43
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 25:44
And I haven't looked back. And you know, it was probably one of the best days of leaving, and really starting to believe in yourself. And realizing that you only either you win or you learn, you win or you'll learn, there's no losing. Like last year, I learned a lot. I learned a lot last year, you know, I thought I had a recession proof business "Err" wrong. So you know, so it's good, it's good to go through those things, you know?
Alfonso Cuadra 26:05
And I think you're, you're an inspiring person. And you know, just, this conversation alone is gonna help a lot of people. I don't know, if you shared much of your story. I love it. You know, you had something secure, and you jumped out, you literally jumped out of a plane to get into- bet on yourself.
Gary Hibbert 26:24
Right.
Alfonso Cuadra 26:24
And everyone should take a page from your book. What's a quote or your mantra? What do you live by?
Gary Hibbert 26:31
Hmm, good question. Work hard, play hard. I love that. You know, one of the things that I did, just before we left is I sat down with the kids because I knew that you know, Smart Home Choice was going to take a lot of time away from them.
And I got this big, huge kind of Bristol board and I wrote Smart Home Choice in the middle and said, "Hey, what do you guys want from this?" And they're like, "What do you mean?" Like, "okay, we're gonna start this business, me and mom, like, what do you want? Like, how much money you want to make each month?" "A million dollars!" "Thats cool! So make a million dollars. What else you want?" "A mascot!" "A mascot? Okay, that's fine. We'll put a mascot. What else you want?" I'm like "how much vacation two months?" "How about four months?" "Okay, four months?"
And so then you kind of looked at it like, "okay, cool. This is-" So now the kids knew as we're building this business, that it was gonna take some time away from them. But I looked at it like, I wonder if I can do four months, a year. And so we started Smart Home Choice.
And then we take July and August off, meaning we just don't do any events. And then we took December January off, which then allowed us to spend more time with the kids go to Wonderland, go to Florida, do whatever, but then they knew now, "Okay, cool. It's summertime, you said four months off." And so we built that business around them.
Alfonso Cuadra 27:38
Yeah. And they have buy in.
Gary Hibbert 27:40
They have buy in because they felt like they also added to what we were doing with the business. And-
Alfonso Cuadra 27:45
I love that.
Gary Hibbert 27:46
Yeah. And I'll add one last thing I think is really important is that early on, in our early 30s, you know, my my mom got diagnosed with cancer. And shortly afterwards, my wife's mom got diagnosed with cancer.
Alfonso Cuadra 28:02
Wow.
Gary Hibbert 28:03
So imagine now your, you know, your two queens, you know, fighting this, this- this battle. And eventually my mom passed away. And then three months later, my mother- my mother in law passed away. And this is like 31-32. And when it made me realized.
Alfonso Cuadra 28:19
I'm sorry to hear that, that's tough.
Gary Hibbert 28:21
Yeah, that's tough. Yeah. And you lose your two queens.
Alfonso Cuadra 28:23
Yeah.
Gary Hibbert 28:23
It ma- made us look at life and say, This is not a forever ride. And I think that's where that whole work hard play hard came in. And I think that's where we take mini retirements every year, that, you know, let's enjoy life along the way.
And then we go back into we give it 110%. And then we take a break and relax. And where are we right now? This is where we want to be? What's the journey? Okay, cool, boom, and we go back in and service to many.
Alfonso Cuadra 28:49
I knew this was going to be a great interview. And you know, the time that we have allotted it was it's not even doesn't even come close to the kind of conversations that you know, we can have
Gary Hibbert 28:58
Oh, yeah, yeah for sure.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:00
So we're gonna leave this as part one.
Gary Hibbert 29:02
All right. Awesome. Awesome.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:03
And thank you for coming by. I really appreciate you and I know a lot of people gonna appreciate you too.
Gary Hibbert 29:10
I appreciate you, man. I love you too. And well, let me let me say one last thing.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:13
Go ahead, go ahead!
Gary Hibbert 29:14
And this is you know, I think part of the whole mantra as well, too.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gary Hibbert 29:17
And it's another Jim Rohn, quote, "make the goal to become a millionaire. Not for the money, but for the person you have to become to achieve it." Once you really break that down, it's not about the money.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:28
Success is what you attract by the person you become.
Gary Hibbert 29:31
Yes, yes.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:33
Love it.
Gary Hibbert 29:33
Yeah.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:34
I love it. Hey!
Gary Hibbert 29:34
All right, brother. Thank you.
Alfonso Cuadra 29:36
Thank you. Thank you guys. We'll see you at the top. Whoo!
Carl Richards 29:41
Thanks for listening to the WealthGenius podcast 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!