The Journey From Musical Theater Performer, To Real Estate Developer & Educator

In this episode of The WealthGenius Podcast, Alfonso Cuadra interviews Darren Voros, who shares his inspiring journey from the world of musical theater to becoming a successful real estate investor. Darren opens up about how he started saving money during a theater job in Japan, which led to the purchase of his first property. He talks about the challenges and learning experiences he faced while transitioning from the arts to real estate, including acquiring construction skills and understanding the complexities of property investment. The episode is rich with insights on financial planning, the importance of continuous learning, and the benefits of hands-on experience in real estate. Darren’s story is a testament to how diverse career paths can intersect and lead to success in unexpected fields.

About Darren Voros

With over 20 years of experience in real-estate investing, and 250+ doors in his portfolio, Darren is passionate about sharing the knowledge he’s gained as an investor, trainer, and coach.

He currently manages a portfolio of properties valued at just over $30,000,000 and has travelled across North America educating audiences on the subject of real estate investing, financial independence, and financial literacy.

Darren has been featured as an on-air renovation expert on “The Goods” (CBC) and “CityLine” (CityTV). He was also the behind-the-scenes contractor on “Save My Reno” (HGTV) and “Game of Homes” (W Network).

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Carl Richards, Alfonso Cuadra, Darren Voros

Carl Richards  00:05

Welcome to The WealthGenius Podcast brought to you by the Expand Wealth Real Estate Fund. Expand your wealth by investing in apartment buildings. Go to expandwealthfund.com to book your info session. 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 expansive experience in business and massive success as a real estate investor. The WealthGenius Podcast, let's dive into today's episode.

Alfonso Cuadra  00:45

My brother, my brother. Look, I'm still waiting to see the episode in your episode. You know, I told you it was going to be the biggest episode you've ever had on your podcast, and I'm still waiting for it. I hope, hopefully uh-

Darren Voros  00:58

It's in the archives somewhere. I'll have to dig it out.

Alfonso Cuadra  01:01

Look, I'm so happy you're here. We've been talking about working together for a very long time, and bingo, we finally did it. We worked it out. And you- you've been someone that like an old friend, right? It's like we always touch base from here, you know, from time to time. And I remember when we met, actually, you know, we met way back, you know, 2016 or something? 

Darren Voros  01:25

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  01:25

And I remember that's, that's a cool guy, you know, and having drinks together, hanging out together. So I've been waiting for this time, you know, but I want to know more about you, because you, you know, you're always on podcast, you got an incredible YouTube channel, and you're always, you're interviewing people, but we never get to know kind of the background, you know? Because I know that you were in the theater. 

Darren Voros  01:47

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  01:47

Most people are not going to know that. So that's the kind of things that I want to uncover here. 

Darren Voros  01:52

Sure!

Alfonso Cuadra  01:52

You know?

Darren Voros  01:53

Absolutely. 

Alfonso Cuadra  01:53

And so, Darren, how did you get started? 

Darren Voros  01:56

Well, first of all, you know, thanks for having me here. It's great to be a part of your community, and I've always enjoyed working with you. So that was a no brainer, but yeah, how did I get started? I actually got started. I- I'll take a little step backwards. 

I was I worked 15 years professionally in musical theater, and one of the the first big jobs that I got was actually working over in Japan at Universal Studios, and at- in 2001 universal opened in Japan, and I was part of the inaugural cast, and they brought over 150 foreign performers from- 

Alfonso Cuadra  02:31

What show waswas it? 

Darren Voros  02:32

It was a musical review, like a rock and roll show, right? And I played The Wolf Man, and so I got dressed up in my wolf costume every, every day I had like, an hour of makeup that I had to do. 

Alfonso Cuadra  02:32

Wow.

Darren Voros  02:32

It was kind of crazy. But yeah. So we were part of that inaugural cast and 150 foreign performers, mostly from Australia, U.S. There was only two Canadians, myself and another woman. But when we went over there, of course, they took care of us, right? They gave us apartments. Which were they built the apartment for the foreign performers, so we were the first ones to live in it. They gave us train passes, bicycles, gym memberships.

Alfonso Cuadra  03:08

Wow. 

Darren Voros  03:08

I got a salary in US dollars, and I got a per diem, wow. And so I was pretty good with my money. That year. I was, I was always really good with my money. 

Alfonso Cuadra  03:16

How old were you? 

Darren Voros  03:17

I was 24.

Alfonso Cuadra  03:18

Wow.

Darren Voros  03:19

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  03:19

Do you speak Japanese? 

Darren Voros  03:20

I mean, by the end of that year, I was like, pretty good, like, I could understand a lot, I could speak a little bit and, you know, but it was just like, it's, it's a difficult language to master, and, you know, in a one year time frame, but I didn't touch my salary the whole year that I was there. And at the end of the year, if you completed the contract, you got a bonus. 

And because I had done the most shows of anyone in my cast, I got another bonus. And so I came back to Canada, and I had some money, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with that money. I was living in Toronto, because that was the only place you could kind of live as a as a musical theater performer. I thought about New York, but I had lived there before, and I didn't really want to go back to New York, and I didn't want to buy anything in Toronto because I couldn't afford it. 

I would have been house poor. I would have put all my money into like a 600 square foot condo, because at the time, they were like 150 grand, which I was like, That's crazy to pay for a condo. You know, in retrospect, always in 2020 but I went and bought a house in Alberta, and I where I grew up, and it was 130,000 for a little, you know, two story. I bought it from the builder. I went in and finished the basement, and I was gonna plan to sell that property, flip it, make some profit and do another one.

Alfonso Cuadra  04:24

Did you hire someone? 

Darren Voros  04:26

Yeah, I hired- 

Alfonso Cuadra  04:26

Did you do a lot of the work yourself?

Darren Voros  04:28

I did very little of the work myself, but that was kind of how I learned about sweat equity. You know, I got into I hung some drywall and and put up some doors, and had some people come in and help me and teach me a little a few things along the way, and I built a deck with my brother in law. So we did a couple little things, but the builder did the bulk of the of the house. 

Alfonso Cuadra  04:46

Were you were you handy as a as a kid? Like, were you a handy teenager? Like, did your dad teach you things?

Darren Voros  04:52

Oh, my dad is, like, the least handy guy, and he'd be the first one to say, like, I'm not telling- exactly. No, I wasn't like, I was curious. I always really liked, you know, understanding how things work, but I never was really in construction, you know, that wasn't really my thing, but so we did a little bit of work, a little bit of sweat equity, but that was my first property, and I ended up having to rent it out because I couldn't sell it. I had it for four years. 

The market went berserk in Alberta, and ended up almost doubling in price in those four years. Sold that, and then I had enough money to come to Ontario, and I ended up buying a couple properties in Toronto, and that's where my sort of career-

Alfonso Cuadra  05:30

So- so you made 100k, about 100k on your first property. And what are you thinking in this moment? Like, because you just spent how much time working? 

Darren Voros  05:39

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  05:39

Like, how hard was that to save up about 100k or how much did you save up?

Darren Voros  05:44

Yeah, I mean, I'd saved I think I ended up coming back from Japan with 80,000 Canadian in the bank. 

Alfonso Cuadra  05:49

And you worked your behind off. 

Darren Voros  05:51

That was, like, probably, that was like five years of combined work. I mean, the year in Japan really set me up. But lots of people left Japan with $0 I did well to save there. But yeah, that was so to make $100,000 plus I got my initial investment back to my down payment, right, which is like another 30 or 40 or $50,000 so I ended up with like $150,000 and I took that money and I went and bought three properties within six months. 

And that was kind of how I was, like, "whoa, this I can go exponentially." Right? We talk about that all the time. Like, instead of going from one to two, if you can go from like, one to three, and then three to six, and then six to 12, that's where you start to scale something out. And that's where I was, like, doing real estate on the side, still, because I was still a musical theater performer. And everyone was like, why are you doing all this extra work? And I'm like, because I really enjoy it. And I'm building my future, right? And I'm building my net worth so that when I get into retirement, I don't have to rely on this profession.

Alfonso Cuadra  06:48

That's so crazy. Yeah, because you're, you're around these artists. 

Darren Voros  06:52

All the time.

Alfonso Cuadra  06:53

And the artists, it's not like they're thinking about their finances and but you were doing this. 

Darren Voros  06:59

I was, yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  07:00

You must have felt like an outcast. 

Darren Voros  07:01

I was a black sheep, for sure. And everyone was like, 

Alfonso Cuadra  07:04

You're buying a house. You get a mortgage. You're getting multiple mortgages?

Darren Voros  07:06

Yeah, people are like what did you do this morning? I was like, I was like, cutting concrete, doing whatever. They're like, "what like I was I went to a dance class, or I slept in, or I did whatever." And people kind of were, like, a little bit taken aback by it. They were almost like, "what are you doing? Why are you doing this, right? It seems like you're putting in a lot of extra time and energy and effort." 

And- and I specifically would say, like, "I'm doing this for my future, right? I think I you cannot rely on that being an artist." There is no, you know, guarantee that you're going to be able to do that forever. And then there's also no like, plan that they set up for you. You can have a little RSP thing. But, I mean, we know how RSPs work. You know, you might make two 3% over the long run of an RSP, and that's just not enough to get you where you want to go. 

And that was part of my "why", too. My parents always struggled with money, and I just didn't want to be in that scenario, right? And so I was like, this is I want to use real estate investing to, like, really have a different future for myself.

Alfonso Cuadra  08:02

How did you get to the point where you were like, Well, I'm gonna leave this art because it's like, it's an art form. You're passionate about it, you love it. It fulfills you. But at some point you said, I'm stepping away from the art Or? 

Darren Voros  08:16

Yeah, there was a couple things that happened. One, I was I was really tired of working nights and weekends. I worked six days a week. That was that's a theater schedule. You do a show every night from Tuesday to Saturday, you do two shows on Wednesday, and you do two shows on Saturday, and you do a matinee on Sunday. So your time off is from Sunday at 5pm to Tuesday at seven o'clock, whenever your call time is. 

So it was really hard for me to have a social life, you know. Like, imagine saying, like, Hey, do you want to meet up with somebody? And they're like, Yeah, do you want to go for dinner on Friday night? You're like, No, I can't. I have a show. I can meet you at 11. They're like, I'll be in bed or I'll be drunk, right? You don't want either one of those two things. So then it's like, your option was to, like, see people on Sunday and Monday, which is just like, the only people that had that had that schedule were other theater people. 

So I just wasn't, I didn't, wasn't able to, like, really have a social life. And then the other thing was, the industry changed a little bit in Canada. Ed Mirvish was a big theater guy, and he passed away. David, his son took over Mirvish productions, and David's an art lover. And then, you know, kind of shifted. They're actually, they were looking at redeveloping a lot of their theaters. They were selling them or developing them to like, multi million dollar condo developments. And they started hiring a lot of like U.S. casts to come to Canada instead of hiring Canadians, right? 

Alfonso Cuadra  09:35

Bastards.

Darren Voros  09:35

Yeah. And so the industry changed a little bit. And I was a little bit tired, and I was like, let me try this real estate thing for a little bit, and then I just, I really loved it. 

Alfonso Cuadra  09:43

So what was the first, you know, because you dabbled in it, but what was the first kind of move that you made, like, that was, like, significant where you said, "I'm in this full time."

Darren Voros  09:53

The first time that I had a bit of a light bulb moment was when I got educated on real estate, because I was a "trial and error." Like, when I first started in real estate, I don't know, maybe you can prove me wrong if you want, but, like, there just wasn't a lot of information out there. We didn't have- 

Alfonso Cuadra  10:09

zero, yeah.

Darren Voros  10:09

Like, a little bit, maybe a book here and there. But even now, everything that we have access to, there's so many great education pieces. And I didn't have that piece. That was the missing piece was I found an education company that was teaching real estate investing. I went there, and I had my mind opened up to all the different possibilities of like recycling the money over and over again. 

And although I had learned some of that naturally through the progression, no one really taught me how to do it. And that's where things started to change. And I was like, I think I can make a career out of this, because I have this new knowledge, right? And so that's where the the light bulb kind of went off, and everything changed.

Alfonso Cuadra  10:45

And you're known for someone that is, like, very hands on in terms of the construction component. How in the world did you learn that? I mean, I was trying to dig a little bit earlier when I was asking you, did you was it your dad that taught you this stuff? But because I know anytime I've ever tried, it's been a disaster. It's cost me double to get someone to fix my horrible mistakes. So I learned that it's not for me. Yeah, it's not for everybody, but it definitely is for you. I fits you. It suits you. It's kind of up your alley. So kind of, how did that get started?

Darren Voros  11:20

Well, you know, it started with sort of that mindset of, like, I actually started doing a couple things, just- I was in a position where something had broke, or I had to fix something, and my thought was, "what's it gonna cost me to hire somebody else?" And this is different than I think now, but at the time, I was like, "How much does it cost to have somebody else do this? What is the cost of the materials that I actually need to do this, and how many times can I screw this up before it costs me the same amount that it would be to hire somebody else." Right? 

So usually the math was like, I could screw it up like, three or four times before it would be costing me the same amount of money. So I was like, I probably can get this on the maybe not the first try, but maybe the second try, right? If I if it's like, small repairs and things like that. So that's the mindset that I took. And I started to build my tool catalog, which I always say renovation the biggest thing. You have to have a little bit of know how, but you have to have the right tools. If you have the right tools, it makes every job so much easier. And I just started doing little projects here and there, and mostly on my stuff, right? 

So it wasn't like I was working for a client. Wasn't like I was externally doing stuff. So I was like doing renovations, and I started small with, like the basic stuff, like drywall and painting and all those things. And then you pick up flooring, and you do a couple things like that, and and you're also seeing huge cost savings. If you can do some sweat equity, you can do some labor yourself, right? And so I was starting to see the equity building in my projects, because I was able to do things at a lesser value because I didn't have to hire someone. 

And then I started realizing that I'm actually enjoying it. I'm enjoying seeing the transformation of a space when I show up at the beginning of the day and I leave at the end of the day, I actually found that very rewarding. And so as each project went on and I did something new every single time, I just gained knowledge and I gained tools, and I gained, you know, all the skills. And next thing, you know, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna take a building down, and I'm gonna build the whole thing from the ground up, yeah. And now that's how you learn. That was the biggest project I ever took on. And then, you know, since then, it's just been that's, that's what I like to do.

Alfonso Cuadra  13:15

I love it. What do you love about it? And what do you prefer wasn't a part of it.

Darren Voros  13:22

I love, I love seeing the transformation. There's, there's not a single day in construction that you show up at the beginning of the day and leave at the end of the day with something that hasn't changed, right? 

Alfonso Cuadra  13:34

Progress.

Darren Voros  13:34

And it's instant, like, there's, if you like instant gratification, like construction is the industry, because you get it every single day. The part that I don't like is, obviously, there's, like, a lot of grunt, like, there's physical labor that you have to do. And so sometimes you're just like, "Okay, I gotta get 50 sheets of drywall to the third story of this building." I'm like, that's, yeah, I could go get a machine to do it, but that's days and 1000s. I'm like, "Okay, it's just bringing all this stuff on our back and the way we go." You know? I mean, that's just not fun. It's not glamorous, right? And, but that's just some of the stuff you have to do on a construction site. 

Alfonso Cuadra  14:11

Yeah, and, like, I watched a lot of your the YouTube, you know, your YouTube channel, and kind of like, you're getting into the trenches, and I think there's value there. And I can definitely, I can see that you enjoy it. 

Darren Voros  14:22

Yeah. 

Alfonso Cuadra  14:22

Because you can tell when someone when someone doesn't enjoy it. So you, you transition into becoming a full time investor, yeah? And how did the the show come about? Like, not the show, but the television appearances. Because now you're like, this, Mr. Fixit guy- 

Darren Voros  14:42

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  14:42

-From the show. You know what I mean? It's, it's like you- like it's not like you grew up, you have all these years, but now you have this new knowledge that I think your theater background, combined with your new career now puts you in a position where you can be entertaining, educate people, and now you know. You've had these television spots. So how did that come about?

Darren Voros  15:03

It was, I mean, it was a very natural progression, because I was auditioning a lot for theater and for television things like that. You get to know the casting directors a little bit, and then as I started to, you know, get a little bit more experience on the construction side. There was one casting director specifically that kept sending me out for all these HGTV shows, right? And they're like, "there's a new show coming out, and they need a host." 

And and I would walk into the room and you know, I would talk a little bit about my construction experience, and they're like, "Wow, you're so comfortable, like on camera." Because they are used to seeing all these contractors come in, right? And I'm like, "Well, I have a background in theater, and that's I worked 15 years in theater." And so they're like, "oh, that's why you have such a natural ease around the camera-

Alfonso Cuadra  15:46

Such a, such a powerful mix, yeah.

Darren Voros  15:47

-like, all that stuff. And so then, yeah, they, they, I kept auditioning. I kept auditioning for every all of these different shows. I didn't get any of them and and then one time it hit, I auditioned for The Goods to be one of the hosts. It was a CBC show. And they were like, we loved you, but Steven Sabados, who's, like, been in the, you know, the interior design space for, you know, many, many years, they're like, he's going to be our, like, renovation construction guy, but we'd love to have you come in and actually speak about construction and all these different things, because that's your expertise. 

And we think you're great on camera. We really love you. And so that's kind of how that that came about. And then that transitioned into city line, and then I did all this other stuff behind the scenes on "Save My Reno" and a bunch of other different shows. And so, yeah, it was kind of a natural through the casting, you know, the casting agent that I got into those television shows.

Alfonso Cuadra  16:40

I remember having a conversation shortly after covid, where now you're- you transition like to YouTube, right? And I remember you had the cameras and the editing, and, by the way, at that time, you know, we did an episode together, which was one of your best viewed episodes at that time. For a long time. 

Darren Voros  17:01

It held the top spot for a long time, a long time. Yeah. On vendor take backs. 

Alfonso Cuadra  17:05

Yes. Vendor take backs that's right. Go check it out. 

Darren Voros  17:08

It's a really good episode! 

Alfonso Cuadra  17:09

Yeah. It's a great episode. Actually, a lot of people have, you know, every once in a while get someone that sends me an email, where "I watched you on that show it was really well edited." 

Darren Voros  17:17

Yeah. I won't tell everyone how long the actual interview was versus what we put on camera.

Alfonso Cuadra  17:24

But it was good. It was good. It was good, but, but ultimately, how important it is it to create these platforms. I mean, you're obviously, you're now on television. You got this YouTube channel happening, and you know, now you you've moved on to bigger projects where now you have to raise capital, and, you know, you got to do all these things. How important it is it to be on YouTube?

Darren Voros  17:46

Oh, man. Like thought leadership platforms like YouTube, like anything in social media, even blogs and articles, things like that, where people can search you out and find you. It literally transformed my business. I couldn't I, you know, I had a hard time raising $20,000 just because people didn't know what I was doing and that, you know, they didn't necessarily trust me yet, because I was relatively new as a real estate investor the moment that I created a thought leadership platform, and that was for me, was YouTube, you know, maybe not the easiest path to take, but there wasn't a lot of other people out there doing what I was doing at the time. It transformed. 

I mean, I raised millions of dollars in those first couple of years, versus I was having a hard time raising 10 or $20,000 before that, and part of that was because people just they see you in that role. They trust you. There's an immediate sort of connection with you. If I go to an event like we're at here this weekend, people will come up to me like they feel like they know me already because they've been watching my videos for years, some of them right now, and that really was a huge change in everything that I was doing. And it was again, a natural thing for me to be in front of the cameras and be speaking about my experiences. So it came relatively easy to me. It doesn't mean that it was easy to get started or easy to build an audience, but it was definitely easy for me to turn the camera on and start recording.

Alfonso Cuadra  19:04

And so if you had to do it over again, what would you do? Like, what would you do differently? Because you there's things that you've learned that I think could be valuable to the audience right now. You know, people are watching this show. There's a there's a proper mic, yeah, you got lights, you got a whole crew here in the back, and you got, you know, soundboards and mics and, you know, so, and I'm always from the I come from the thought of, like, "Oh, it doesn't have to be that way." There's simple, a simple way to get started, and then eventually you can build up to it, right? So what were some of the things that you would do differently if you had to go back? 

Darren Voros  19:40

Well, I think- 

Alfonso Cuadra  19:40

Or would you do anything different? 

Darren Voros  19:41

I mean, I would, for sure. I think that I might have chosen a different platform like YouTube is incredibly- that's what that was, my platform that I chose, and the way that I chose to shoot my videos. And we were always laughing about this, every time we would talk, because you're like, "Oh, I just turned my camera on, and I shoot something and I post it. I'm like, "Dude, I like, like, I script it, or I like, I come up with thing, I shoot it, I edit it. You know I got titles.

Alfonso Cuadra  20:04

Is that your production background that you feel that it needs to because there's a part of you that needs to put on a show?

Darren Voros  20:11

Yeah, I think so. I think I was just like, I want to make sure that the content that I put out is, like, really polished, really hard hitting, and just like, people get exactly what they need in that eight to 10 minute video, right? There's no fluff. There's no space in between anything that I'm talking about, if I'm saying something that's really specifically there, but that's a really hard platform and a really hard way to go about I was my first video. 

I think I was talking about it, you know, earlier today, I spent about 45 hours just on that one 12 minute video, right? That was shot on my iPhone by the time I edited it and put titles on and all that kind of stuff, that's a lot of time. And I knew I was like, this is not scalable. I cannot do like, if I wanted to do two videos a week, I'd be putting in 80 hours, and you just can't do that. So for me, if I was going back again and starting again, I might choose a platform that's a little more economical for one because with YouTube, you need camera gear. You need all the stuff, right? And when people are getting started, that's often difficult, although the cameras now on our phones are amazing. You can do a lot with that. 

But you know, that would probably be like, maybe I would start a podcast, something like that. Because even if I'd gotten in at that time, you know, it would have been a little bit easier to build an audience with with that, with with that, with that platform, and it would have been a heck of a lot easier, right?

Alfonso Cuadra  20:11

So the podcast, you do it in person?

Darren Voros  20:40

When I was doing podcasting at the time, we would do like, over Zoom. And, you know, that was, that was an easy thing for me to do, because we could connect on Zoom, and sometimes the audio quality was not great, but you got to sacrifice that a little bit for, you know, just having the ease of somebody sitting in their living room and you're sitting in yours, and you can kind of just interview anybody at any time. So that was, that was the trade off, right? But, yeah, I did. I think I'd shot maybe 10 episodes, podcast episodes with people, like, actually, physically in the room with me. And I really enjoyed those. But again-

Alfonso Cuadra  22:00

I love in person. 

Darren Voros  22:01

I think it's way better. Yeah, you can actually, it's also too, like, you're not stepping on someone else's words. Like, video is hard, right? For that, it's like, you know, you're kind of talking, I'm talking, and we're like, oh, okay, you know, you go ahead. Like, in person, it's just so much easier, but the logistically, that's a lot more challenging.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:16

So for someone that wants to get started, do you recommend like Tiktok, or live, like reels? I like a lot of live. I saw, like, your Land Development Series, yeah, uh, high level production. 

Darren Voros  22:28

Oh, man, yeah, that was a fun time.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:30

Like, this is a full on show. So, and it fits, because now you have the audience. 

Darren Voros  22:34

Yeah, exactly.

Alfonso Cuadra  22:35

I think you have the audience where now you have, you have to always, like, over deliver, you know, with your audience, to continue to expand on it. But do you recommend like Tiktok and Instagram and lives like that? Like what's your view on it?

Darren Voros  22:49

I think you have to figure out who you're trying to market to, like if you're trying to get views, you're trying to get eyeballs, you know that's one thing. If you're trying to raise capital or find investors or find projects. There are different platforms that are going to be much better than, let's say, Tiktok. Tiktok, you might be able to get some views and get some some activity happening, but if you're looking for people to kind of take you seriously and invest with you, you know there's better platforms like LinkedIn, for instance, right? 

I mean, I think a lot of people forget about LinkedIn because it's like a business platform, but that's where all the business people are. So I guess it depends on I don't think there's a right answer between short form or long form content. The thing that I've seen great success on with my videos is evergreen content, so stuff that's relevant regardless of when they view it, right? So like, how to buy your first rental property, that's always going to be something that people search right? How to do a vendor take back? Like that- the reason why that video is so popular-

Alfonso Cuadra  23:46

Is because it's me!

Darren Voros  23:47

It's because it's you, and you're the greatest guest I've ever had. 

Alfonso Cuadra  23:50

I'm just joking. 

Darren Voros  23:51

The other reason why it's so good.

Alfonso Cuadra  23:53

The real reason!

Darren Voros  23:53

Is- is because it's evergreen.

Alfonso Cuadra  23:56

Yeah. 

Darren Voros  23:57

Right? It's always relevant.

Alfonso Cuadra  23:58

Someone's gonna search it at some point. 

Darren Voros  24:00

Someone's going to be like, how do I do a vendor take back, and YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, only behind Google, which Google owns YouTube. So when somebody searches, "how do I do a vendor take back?" Probably our video is going to come up in the search engine, right? That's why I love that evergreen content. 

Alfonso Cuadra  24:18

What's your biggest video? 

Darren Voros  24:19

Ha, ironically, it's how to underpin a foundation of a property. Those construction videos do really well, and it's only because people search, how do I underpin if they want to, like, do it themselves or whatever. And that's exactly why I did that video, because I wanted to underpin my own basement. I was like, there's no videos out there on how to do this. 

So when I was doing it, I walked through the entire process, and so many people now comment on that video, just being like, Thanks, man. This, this video is like, perfect. It shows everything. It shows all the processes. And then I'm like, "yes, please make sure you hire an engineer." Causeuh, undermining the foundation of your home. It's not something you want to take on without some uh- professional advice. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:00

How many views on that? 

Darren Voros  25:01

I think it's up to 80, 90,000 views, something like that. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:04

Wow. 

Darren Voros  25:05

Yeah, my channel has now over 1.2 million views on it. 

Alfonso Cuadra  25:09

Beautiful. Congratulations. 

Darren Voros  25:10

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  25:11

That's awesome. 

Darren Voros  25:11

Yeah.

Alfonso Cuadra  25:12

I know that, you know you're gonna get, you know, you're gonna get a lot of people following you. And because you're an entertainer, you do so well, I think that that was a big part of it, and the people you know are going to get value and and, you know, I want to know what's, what's next for you, what's, what's the future look like for you? 

Darren Voros  25:31

For me, you know, I'm really just trying to simplify my portfolio and what I'm doing, I love development. I love what we're doing on the purpose built rental space. I love ground up developments. So pretty much everything we're doing is trying to, we're trying to get just into this, you know, sort of rinse and repeat mode in our business, where we buy and take down buildings and build up, you know, six, eight or 10 unit apartment buildings. 

And that's really what I want to focus on. We do some international investing. I have a project in Costa Rica. I'm not sure how much more of that I'll do. I want to get through that project, see it through all the way one time, and then I'll decide if I want to do another one. But for me, I think it's just finding a bit a bit more work life balance. You know, I think we talk about that a lot. Why are we doing all this stuff? Why are we, you know, investing in real estate, if we can't enjoy our time and enjoy the fruits of our labor. 

So for me, the focus is definitely finding that more balanced lifestyle. And I feel like I've been able to achieve that over the last six months for sure, and I just want to continue to ride that so building the business, but also being able to step back and and enjoy life a little bit.

Alfonso Cuadra  26:40

I love it. I love it so much. Darren, they're gonna find all your information in the show notes. So, you know, they need to get a hold of you. All the information is going to be there. But I want to address the elephant in the room. When are you going to release our podcast, dude?

Darren Voros  26:57

I don't know. I think maybe it's I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait for like-

Alfonso Cuadra  27:00

Cause I saw a little clip on it, or I saw a little reel on it, I'm like, oh my god, it's out. It's out, and it never came out anyway.

Darren Voros  27:07

I'm going to be like the Beatles or something like, 20 years from now, be like, "Hey, we're gonna go to the archives and release this, this video."

Alfonso Cuadra  27:15

Yeah, so for the people that are listening right now, so we did our- we did one podcast which was, did extremely well, and I was ready, prepared for this one to, you know, be even better than your underpinning video. But, you know, unfortunately, it's not released yet. Been waiting for over a year, so we'll see when that, when the time comes. Darren, what's a quote that you live by? 

Darren Voros  27:44

Oh, what's a quote that I live by? That's a great question, and I don't even know that I have a really good answer. But, you know, I think one of my favorite quotes, I'm a sports fan. You know, I grew up in Edmonton. I didn't grow up in Edmonton. I grew up in Red Deer., 

Alfonso Cuadra  27:59

Sorry, sorry about your loss. 

Darren Voros  28:01

Yeah, that was a tough one. But I love that quote by by Wayne Gretzky, you know where he says, You don't want to be- you know, you have to, kind of, like, envision where the puck is going right?

Alfonso Cuadra  28:12

Don't skid to where the puck is, skid to where the puck is going.

Darren Voros  28:14

Exactly. And I think that's kind of how we look at, you know, our investing and we look at our businesses. It's like, I don't really want to go and do what everyone else is kind of doing. I want to see, like, how can I be a pioneer in this space, and how can I lead versus following? And I think that's that really resonates with me for sure. 

Alfonso Cuadra  28:31

Beautiful. Darren, thank you for finally coming by. 

Darren Voros  28:35

Thanks for having me. 

Alfonso Cuadra  28:36

Good to have you here, brother and make sure you guys connect with him. Alfonso loves you. We'll see you at the top! Whoo!

Carl Richards  28:45

Thanks for listening to The WealthGenius Podcast, presented in part by Expand Investor Conference December 13th to 15th at Western Harbor Castle, Toronto. Get your tickets now at WealthGenius.ai/expand. 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!