Appearances, continued.

Welcome to Investing for Generational frivolity. I'm. John from Cloud Capital, where we help high earners, just like yourself, invest outside of the traditional stock market wealth generation through superior risk adjusted returns, long-term passive income, cash flow, and tax benefits. And together with investors, we're renovating over 900 apartments and building over 500 single family rental homes.

And then we're also expanding beyond that to alternative assets, such as debt income fund, commercial or triple-not real estate as well as oil and gas pretty soon.- and so before we begin a quick disclaimer like always, we are not financial advisors. Our investments are subject to and of course possible loss of your money. Please do your due diligence and before making any financial decisions and consult your CPA, your lawyer, and the like. So, I'm your host today, John Lai, from Clive Capital, and today's episode is acquiring.

It's acquiring your first apartment building. We all where a lot of us who have acquired our first apartment building know kind of that that sensation. And today's guest is Leslie Awasom. Leslie is the director of Rations.

And co founder of X I capital investment where he oversees company operations. He does market data analysis. cash flow and budgeting. And he is a dedicated entrepreneur.

He has an amazing journey, founding an e-commerce company, a wellness clinic in Baltimore, and training as a nurse anesthetic, an anesthesiologist, or an anesthetist, rather. Yeah, you got it. Leslie, if I put your name any more, do you want to give a little bit more of your background and how you got to where you are, Jake? Sure, absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you so much for that amazing introduction, by the way. Like you said, my name is Leslie Awasom. I'm one of the co-founders of XSITE Capital Investments.

I just started off like everybody else, as a busy professional. I'm a nurse anesthetist by training. I was a nurse anesthet aesthetist for nine years. Before, this year I officially left my position to focus full-time, real estate.

But I was just And instead is going into what most of us busy professionals go through, which is the burnout. After putting in all those hours and realizing that there's that limit to the growth when you're trading your hours for dollars, I started a look in to find alternative ways where I could create income and build generation of our family. I came across real estate investing, learning that a lot of millionaires I've come by a lot of millionaires have been made through listed investing. So I was like, that's what I want to be to.

So let me get into it. So I started in single-family investing in 2017. I met my two amazing partners, Dr. Julius Oni and Tenny Tolofari, and we co-founded XSITE Capital in 2019 to really be of service to all the busy professionals like ourselves.

Understanding that if we go into that same kind of burnout feeling and looking for financial freedom, there are many others like us that want the same thing. So our platform was created to serve that demographic, and it just took off from there and grew to where we are today. That's fantastic. Now I know you like many of us started with single family properties, you made that transition.

What prompted you to make that transition? And did you, transition immediately to multifamily investment? Or did you do like intermediary steps to get there So, I transitioned immediately from single family, actually did one deal and then transition. For me, what made that transition, what made me make that transition is more on the number side of things.

I'm a logical person. And I think my training, in anesthesia, also So, when I studied multifamily and I saw it from the numbers perspective, understanding how multifamily assets are valued, and seeing how that applies to the regular day life, like you actually investing, in an asset that caters to a core human need, right? It's a need that is not going to go away. people always need a place to live.

And then looking at the numbers from the numbers perspective, just from a basic principle of economics of demand and supply. Understanding that there's more demand for these assets than there's ever going to be It just made sense, right? And then single-family, I had some exposure to single-family both as a buyer and as an investor and understanding how those are valued versus how multifamily assets are valued. I think the valuation of multifamily assets was that formula of understanding how multifamily assets are valued that that hit home for me and my God, this actually exist and these assets you could buy these assets and if I don't know about it how many other busy professionals, like myself, don't know that you have access to this.

So that was the motivation to move straight to more family investing. Now, how did you gain your experience, because I go back to like my experience with multi-family and just with commercial real estate and it took some time right there's a lot of and especially a lot of us that are, you know, educated, that probably too analytical, right? Yeah. So like, how did you how?

How did you learn what you learned? And then did you apply what you learned right away? Or did you take some time and maybe analysis by paralysis? And I'm guilty of that as well.

Oh, no, that's an amazing point. Analysis paralysis is real. And what I've come to learn in my entrepreneurial journey is like, actually, a. A lot of us that are over, that are educated, that are intelligent, like we suffer from that a lot, right?

Our overexposure and over education can actually be an Achilles that holds us back from taking action, because we want to look at everything from every single angle before we move forward. And a lot of times the data that we're using to make these, this decision is not necessarily correct because we haven't been exposed to that. We're using very limited knowledge to make decisions that hold us back. For me personally, I gotta tell you the truth, if it was left to me alone, I probably would not have started till about 3-4 years.

I was just so blessed that I had some amazing partners that are a little bit opposite than I am. I'm more of the critical thinker and analytical person. One of my partners, Tenny Tolofari, is like fire, then aim later, you know. So he pushed me a lot out of my shell, so that that makes sure that that caught on me of like somebody that is more reserved, a more analytical versus him that is like more outgoing.

And that kind of push, we kind of pushed each other out. Then Dr. Oni too was more outgoing and more pushful, so that helped me get out of my shell and be able to take more action and to do things. And the more I did the things, I realized that because the way I looked at it was like, I'm a busy professional, I have a high income, I have a high earning job.

Now, do I wanna spend all five years, figuring this out on my own and learn from the mistakes? Or I just invest a specific amount of the income that I have and buy the most valuable asset, which is the time, right? So we went for that route, plugged in with some really experienced mentors and they really accelerated that journey and helped us grow really fast. And then every point throughout the journey is like constant education, constant learning, constant getting better, and taking action.

Actually, the best education is taking action because you're gonna learn more from that. than sitting back and trying to figure it out or analyze stuff. But yeah, that's a great point. I also remember going back and I was probably announced this paralysis, for about a good three years before I met the shop and then we decided to jump in together.

We also relied on mentors and the built a red side and we really didn't get into multifamily until a little bit later. And then, you know, I took some courses on, um, mentor mentorships on commercial realistic, uh, triple dad. Um, there's a lot to still to be learned, right? As you learn from mentors, how do you make that mental sleep?

Did you go in status at this point? Oh yeah, started off as an LP. Our first investment was an LP. Then we did like a core GP where we raised capital and then got a little bit of a role on the management side.

But right now, we actually lead our own assets. We actually go find the, we do everything except for the property management. We identify the assets, underwrite the assets, take it on the contract. we are lead sponsors on our deals, you run the asset management on our deals and we raise capital as well for our deals.

We partner. With other people as well to buy these assets together. So we do it all right now, but starting off started as a LP because I fundamentally believe that, um, it's almost impossible for you to go present and sell something to somebody that you do not truly believe in it. So, that whole experience of investing $50,000 and then getting a quarterly distribution, like having that experience, that conviction that, oh my God, this works, was very powerful for us to go out and be able to present this opportunity to other investors.

Yeah, that's great, and I felt the same way as well. We don't necessarily do a whole lot of G.P. at this point. We find that it's much more valuable from our perspective to stay.

the LP capital raisers because that then affords our audience, our investors, with much more opportunity to invest in other things besides multifamily. But how did you pick the asset class of multifamily and have you been stuck with it? Are you continuing to stick with it in this market? Absolutely.

We pick multifamily because of the numbers, right? And one of the things that we truly believe, in is focus, right? The market has been crazy but I actually have a deal right now that we're raising capital for a really great deal because what we're finding is like in this climate when everybody's afraid like where the sentiment is like blah everybody's down we're seeing some really incredible opportunities and the only way we're able to see those opportunities is because we stock last two years we on the road we reviewed about 2325 deals like 2325. On the road hundreds of them right before we were able to find this one deal that made sense.

But in this same climate where everybody is like oh man things are going bad, everybody's focused you of the and everyone was doing well because the market, right? Like as interest rates RAs were going down, everyone was doing well, they started creeping up again in the last few three years. And then like the short term, you know, funding bridge loans came due. And so that indicators came into some trouble, right?

Because then they didn't project that or maybe they didn't fix those Bridge Logs, right. and to very important for us. We see this current climate as an opportunity to really buy some good assets in markets that have strong fundamentals to grow over the next 10 to 15 years, right? Again, a lot of this is like a long-term investment.

For example, a market like Atlanta or if you look at the job growth a lot of the economic development projects that are in the RPP pipeline that are still in the pipeline. It's significant for the next 10 to 15 years. But in some of these markets experience a little bit of oversupply from all the new product that's coming. RPPO You talked about the bridge loan issue.

A lot of developers are facing some of those issues as well. So they're discounting the assets, right? But the fundamentals have not changed. The short period of like the crazy interest rates, the loan and all of that affected some of these assets.

but the fundamentals of that market have not changed. The growth trajectory of that market has not changed. So this is just a temporary period. So we see it as the great opportunity to go in those markets, find really nice neighborhood, buy assets at a discount because the general sentiment in the market is negative.

Buy it at a discount and make sure that the business plan is at least five years and hold onto it. And hold onto it for a good period of time what we like. I know there's a lot of interest right now especially, from the institutional bias on distress assets, like all those bridge loan deals, all those deals that had issues and stuff like that a lot of institutional bias are going after such assets, but we are focusing on buying stable assets at a discount in good areas. So that's what our buy box is right now.

Got, okay. Thank you for that. Do you see that it's changed at all based on market dynamics, whether it's the interest rates going up a little bit and obviously it's to who knows what's going to happen in the future. But interest rates, you talked about, insurance, that's definitely impacted the market, or maybe like the population dynamics, and certainly like the, not that we're going to see this for a long term, but the election, like there's a lot of the election and ambiguity in the last month or so.

And then, you know, once the election happens, then it will clear up the ambiguity. But what have you seen in the market impact those market dynamics? So it's exactly what I was explaining to you earlier. It's like the negative news cycle that.

The polarization that is all over, right? Whereas like the on this side or that side or the war is coming, these people are going to go to war, I actually had an investor reached out to me in panic that she thinks there's going to be a civil war that breaks out in a few days and stuff like that. I don't listen to the news. I don't pay attention to that.

So R So that finally hit me. I was like, Oh my God. There's a lot of negativity going out there. And that R that is what you see.

That's why people are like, Hey, I'm not investing. I'm just holding onto my money. But if you really want to billions upon billions of dollars. They're buying these assets at expanded cap rates.

Now cap rates have expanded. In some markets, we've seen a 35% decrease in prices from where it was at the peak, right? So there's that opportunity out there that we see. Right now, what we're seeing mostly in the market, are probably one of the few groups that are still active, still on the riding deals, still looking at those, and currently raising capital for a deal right now.

Most of the groups are sitting in the sidelines just waiting to see what will happen over the next few months, a but we stay active. Our philosophy, when it comes to the numbers. So yeah so we, again, like I said, we see this as a good opportunity for us to buy good assets. And we have a really good one that we are taking to the finish line there soon.

Okay, got it. So. We do have some investors that are not very, knowledgeable about a multifamily, about the commercial. So the question came up, what is an LP versus a GP?

And maybe you can go and talk a little bit about that. What's the sindication, right? And then at some point, we'll get to like transition from a single to multifamily. Yes, you can hire a mentor, but like what's maybe like step one, step two, step three.

I think that's of interest. Or do you jump in as an LP first and learn the ropes and then prove your value to your GP and you join their team. So first of all, what's an LP versus GP? So an LP is a limited partner and an LP is a passive investor.

So as a partner in a syndication, you are not involved in the management of that asset. So being an LP is like an ideal position for a busy person that is just looking to create passive income in real estate but doesn't want to be a landlord because R's nothing passive about being a landlord. Trust me, and there's nothing passive, but this kind of a structure allows you to be truly passive. And this is done in a syndication.

The syndication is pretty much just think of it as a group of people coming together to buy a, an asset, right? That asset can be an oil field. It could be land, or it could be a large apartment complex, which is what we focusing on. When the syndication is formed, you usually have the general partners, which is the GP.

These are the people that manage the asset. These are the people that get the debt on the asset. And these are the people that are involved- in the day-to-day management and make sure that the limited partners, the RPs, get their returns that is promised to them. So our most syndications are usually structured maybe like 70, 30?

Meaning the LPs own 70% of the entity and the GP is owned 30 or it could be structured 80-20 R with the GP is owning 20% and the LP is owned 80% as well. So I hope that answered all the questions. That does. And then sponsorships, like we talked about sponsors, like who is a sponsor in a GP?

Yes, so in a GP, the responsibility of a GP is to go find a R secure the debt, like the loan to acquire the R and then build a team to manage the deal and then report to the LPs on a monthly basis. So to secure the debt to buy these assets, you need to have a net worth that is equal to the value of the asset, and liquidity that is up to 10% of the value of the asset that you're buying. So sponsor or loan sponsor or KPO, P or key principal is somebody that qualifies, that brings in their a checkbook, right, I have $34 million in assets and I have maybe $15 million or $10 million in liquidity. So now I qualify to be able to get that loan.

For us at XSITE Capital, we have a dedicated KP, a partner that we use that comes in and becomes part of the general partnership. His role is to bring his checkbook and his liquidity to the table, so that we could secure the loan. His name goes on the loan, Yep, that's great. Thank you for that.

Keep those questions coming in. I love those questions. One question that you might have gotten from, you know, prospective investors is, how do I identify a good syndication, a good, you know, GP to invest in? And like, how do there are multiple investors out there?

There are multiple asset classes and then And within each. There's regions, right? And then there are sizes. How would you go about assessing a particular GP and then like narrow down your niche as an investor to decide who you want to go with in terms of GPS, you know, if you had asked this question to, a, to most, uh, syndicators, a real estate investors, uh, three, four years ago, though,.

I told you to identify a good deal, go to the location, and then I look at the property. then you look at the sponsor. But after everything that has happened over the last three years, the number one thing you wanna pay attention to is the sponsor. It's like who that GP is, who that lead GP is.

And there's nothing more important in a business partner than the character of that person, right? Like they say the way what somebody does one thing is the way they do everything. So what we've seen over the last few years is like some, They fell down the bridge loan trap and they lost a lot of deals. And then you saw some issues where they're not communicating well with their investors and all of that.

You know, for me, personally, what I learned is like the people, the sponsors that that value that investors was their motivation for becoming, uh, for getting in the business in the first place, who are they truly looking to serve, right, uh, there do they have skin in the game, right? I'm like, for example, I'll give you an example. Like we're buying this deal in Georgia. I'm investing in the deal in Georgia.

My brother is investing in the deal in Georgia. My sister investing in Georgia. I'm investing for my kids in the deal in Georgia. So you have skin in the game, right?

Majority of our investors are people that we I know, like, and trust. So all of that goes into the decision-making process, right? Because of the investor base that we have and the people that we serve, we were very careful in the kind of deals we went into like the bridge loan era where everybody was jumping in and getting a bunch of deals with crazy bridge loans and all of that. We were super careful right because you know the people that you serve and all of that.

So that kind of saved us from a lot and that is why I look back and I say one of the most important things that you want to focus in on is with the sponsors what is truly that motivation what they're looking to serve and then yeah learn to talk to other investors people ask for references for people that have invested with that sponsor. Because the deal can't go bad right but what would the sponsor do when the deal goes bad that is R the most important thing because the actions of the sponsor can save the deal and save the rest of the investors or the action of the sponsor can completely destroy the deal. I say it is because I know sponsors that have struggled with deals and that have pulled out their own personal funds, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the deal afloat. So when you hit that kind of a situation, what would your sponsor do?

Does the sponsor have the character to do that they're just going to, let it slide. So I think one of the most important things that you really want to focus in on is the sponsor. And once you find a good sponsor, build a relationship with them, work with them on a long term basis, because this is truly a long-term business. It, it's not a get rich quick scheme and when done right, when you partner up right with the right group of people, you can do really well.

Um, yeah, I've seen it happen. able to give that kind of value to other people. That's great. I think that's a perfect answer.

The flip side of that is like what to watch out for. Like what are some red flags. I've heard like capital calls are red flags like you do a capital call is well maybe you can explain what a capital call is and then like what are some other red flags to watch out for. I would not necessarily call capital calls a red flag or like a suit no-go because I'm a student, I'm consistent and I'm observing from other experienced sponsors and I've.

seen some. a syndication when you invest your initial capital most investors expect that my initial capital is in, I'm just going to sit and expect and get returns, you know, but then if something goes bad, and that business needs more money, then the GP, the general partner, issues a capital call, which means that every member of that entity that owns the asset has to contribute some more capital to keep the business afloat, right? And that is shared amongst. All the people and there's been an abundance of that over the increased and insurance costs and everything that happened.

And the properties were not doing well. So a lot of sponsors had to do capital calls. Thankfully we never had to do that. And again, I do believe that the reason is because we're extra careful going to buy those deals.

Just paying attention for the people that we serve. But there're some good sponsors that the capital calls, what did professional background, what profession is that person from, what is their reputation from a professional background, you want to look at that as well, then once you look at the person as well, you also want to look at the fundamentals of the deal and the market, right? Because I could be the best, nicest person in the world, the greatest, most trustworthy person, and I go by a bad asset in a bad market and it's going to go down no matter how good I am, no matter how much I try, matter at the amount of effort that are put in, right? So once you have identified a sponsor market, a good market can save a bad asset, right?

And even a bad sponsor so invest in markets that are growing population growth remember Rit's a business so we focus on demand and supply always look at demand and supply what drives demand population. Roth more people moving into this market it means there's more demand for living spaces so you want to invest in those kinds of markets and then you want to invest in assets that have a clear to growth. You know we do value add, which means that we add the value of the asset by doing some kind of renovation. If you see a value add business plan, is it proven?

Right? Are there already units in there that have been renovated that are getting those rents? Or are there neighboring units that are getting the rents that are projected? And you want to see that the sponsor is not being overly aggressive on like growth numbers, rent growth numbers, especially now with the rent growth kind of declining or staying flat, you want to see that factor in on there.

Again, there's more to the numbers that we could go into. That's like a whole separate class which I don't want to go too deep down the rabbit hole and get some of you lost because I love talking numbers, but look at the sponsor, look at the market, then you look at the deal. Got it. Okay, that's great.

A question did come in about bridge loans. What is the bridge loan issue, and how prevalent is it these days? And sure, the bridge loan, I would say the bridge loan issue really started about 2021 ish timeframe when interest rates that were at the 3%, you know, jumped up to certainly to about 6% people before 2021 got into floating rate debt, right? Floating rate debt allows banks to adjust that debt, right?

a s those bridge loans typically are either floating rate or fixed and a lot of people who allow syndicators who created you know these investments opportunities prior to 2021 would have gone in thinking that the rate would be held steady and so they didn't fix the rate and so those bridge loans, are loans that are five years, maybe seven years in length, and they'll be floating, and so when the rates started going up in 2021, They were caught a 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9% rate debt. And so that was not modeled into their initial assumptions, and that's what got them into some trouble. Any more on that, Leslie? R.A.

No, you are absolutely spot on. are typically loans that are given to development projects, developers love bridge loans because it's short-term loan. So the interest rates on these short-term loans are floating. You could typically buy something called a rate cap, which is an insurance policy on the interest rate so that it does not float past a certain amount, a certain level.

But those rate caps usually last two years or three years. So what happened is like when the Fed cut interest rates down to zero with COVID. The value of this multifamily assets skyrocketed. They increased.

The reason why they increase is because one of the biggest expense in multifamily is like the debt, right? It's usually about 70% of the value. So 70% is the debt. So if the debt is that cheap, right?

Capital cost is cheap, the values go up. When debt becomes more expensive, capital cost is higher. So the values come down, which is what we've seen over the last 24 months. So when the values went up, the traditional lenders, which are government agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, stayed disciplined and they would only allocate maybe about 50% leverage or 60% leverage to investors.

Then in came in the bridge lenders. These are lenders that traditionally lend to developers. So now they came into the market and started giving this bridge loans to multifamily investors. And a lot of the investors were buying these assets with bridge loans, putting in a two, three-year interest rate cap on it because the Federal Reserve was saying there is no interest rate hike in sight anytime soon.

They- they were reassuring that interest rates are going to stay. Close to zero or close to zero for a long period of time. And one of the biggest lessons is never trust the federal reserve, you know, so but inflation went out of hand, and they had to do something to control inflation. And what they had to do was to increase interest rates.

So they went on like a record interest rate hike spree, which rates went from zero to 5%, like the fight fund rate. So you had a an owner that had a bridge loan with an interest rate of maybe 3% percent cap with a interest rate cap of an additional percent. So maximum rate is four and that cap expires just when interest rates have doubled. So your debt cost changes from 4% to 9%.

So imagine having a loan $30 million loan and your interest rate increase from 4% to 9%, right. So that completely kills the deal and that roes are some of those assets that are coming to market right now at cheaper prices and those are some of those assets that are forcing the value of multifamily assets to drop. And which is the reason why a lot of institutional investors are rushing in and scooping some of these assets. And again, that's one of the reasons why we too, we are very aggressive and very active in the market, trying to find good deals.

A question did come in. I'm just gonna read it because it's pretty lengthy. Say I'm a GP and I find an apartment complex for $10 million. How is the capital that will be funding the deal broken down?

Does the sponsor typically buy the whole thing cash? Oh no, that's typically not the case. Or are they putting down a down payment? Or is the deal funded by all the money from the GPs and now it the GPs combined and the sponsor acts only as a consign, cosigner.

So with that, so the question is, if you find a deal that that it's $10 million, you're trying to understand how much money you need to bring in as a sponsor or an investor. And the good rule of thumb is estimate that you have to bring forward anywhere from 35 to 40% of the total value of the transaction. So let's say if it's a $10 million deal, you wanna conservatively say, you're probably gonna need about 3.5 million to $4 million. And that's because the down payment might be 30%.

you have other fees, like the financing fees, you need to bring in some funds and put them in reserves. You need to have some funds in reserves as well. You might need to do some renovations as well. And you might need to pay some other fees.

So what we see is usually anywhere from 35 to 40%. So you're probably gonna need of need to have $3.5 million or raise that from investors. You could bring a group of family and friends and syndicate that as well and go after the $10 million building. But it's definitely a great business to get into So definitely a great investment to get into long-term once you understand how to do it correctly.

And now, I know the answer to this, but why do banks lend a hundred percent, right? The value of that particular investment, the 10 million. Why don't banks lend the entire 10 million? Yeah, if I found a bank that could lend the entire 10 million, I'm going to take a tent and I'll be slipping in front of that bank like I'm shopping for a new Apple product.

You know, because at that point, then the bank is taking 100% of the risk, right? And they're relying 100% on like the goodwill of the sponsor or the manager to execute on that business correctly. So there has to be some skin in the game, right? So the bank will bring in some of the capital and they're bringing it at an interest rate, which they're making money from it.

But the fact that you two, you're bringing in some of the funds, at least it decreases the risk as well. So it won't make sense for bank to give 100%. Although, there are some other institutions or some other forms of lending in real estate where that happens. But there's another collateral that holds onto that debt and allows you to be able to get that kind of funding.

Yep. And so at the $10 million mark, it's what I'm trying to say is. At some point, it makes sense to raise equity, right. Rather than contribute all of your money.

At $10 million, $3 to $4 million, a key, a KP or a sponsor could probably contribute all of that in the potential of the GPs, right? or you can raise from a small equity group, right? Call it 10X of that, $100 million. They'll likely go out and raise the money rather than contribute that money themselves because they want to use other people's money.

Leverage is great, both on the debt side as well as on the equity side. And they will also want to give investors a portion of that potential profit margin, right? So for all those reasons, I think it makes sense to go out at some point, and it really depends on A, do you have a sponsor with the enough cashflow, the bankroll, your deal, and the size of the deal, right? It's also, you know, risk to the sponsor, the KP, if they're contributing, call it 50% of the equity that's required.

So it probably makes sense for them to spread the risk at that point as well. Absolutely. And the other beauty to that too is like, you get to share. Now that there are some people that want to do deals on their own.

The thought of like having other investors and other people on deals like is bothersome to them and that's okay, right? It's fine. But to really scale and accelerate, you leverage other people's money. And I think I was one of those that was very skeptical about raising funds from other people to buy deals.

My first realist did deal, I saved our funds. My brother and I went and bought it and that's what I intended to do. But I heard a mentor tell me that this line, which I take to it and everything I do is like the fastest way to get what you want is to find other people that want exactly the same thing and give it to them. So how that applies to our business is like if I want financial freedom, I find other people that have that one financial freedom and I give them an opportunity to earn that, the investors ask for asset.

of the profit comes Our goal is really to focus, master one area, become really good at it. Yeah, at some point we're going to get into other assets. One of the natural progressions that we're probably going to get into is like development and build to rent. We have a mentor here in Maryland.

That's, like, one of the biggest developers here in Maryland that we're looking, to work on a project within the future, but it's still multi-family, still build-to-rent communities and stuff, still along those lines, right? So it still has the same issue where most of the gains come towards the end of the appreciation, but like our goal right now is to focus in this space, master it, continue to master it, build a robust team that can like a machine that can continue to run and push and go forward. It's just this year that Tenny and I exited and we are full time on this. So we're doing that back end machine.

So maybe in a couple of years from today, we're going to be exploring those other avenues, but we remain focused on multi-family right now. Okay, the question came in, what is the range of expected return of an LP in your experience, and is there a standard minimum investment amount of most notifications. And my experience has been 50k is the standard amount of investment expected range. I know I have expected ranges that when we look at investments and we try to underwrite those investments.

re have that range but from a syndicate perspective, what are you looking at. So for our investors, we project anywhere from 14 to 18% average on our returns and we tend to be extremely conservative when it comes to the projections because our philosophy is like we write that on the promise and over deliver because we can a look at a deal and there there's a justification, there's a story that we could use to sell that a deal like 22% IRR or but that is a situation where everything goes almost everything goes right and one of my favorite philosophers is Mike Tyson and he said everybody has a plan on today get punched in the face and trust me in this business you're gonna get punched in the face so many times so we tend to be a little bit more conservative so our a projections are usually from 14 to 18 percent average on our return but our historical returns that we've delivered to date is 29.97 percent average on our return And so if I promise you 15%, then at the R and you get 30%, you know, I'm going to be a favorite person. So we tend to be very conservative. Yeah.

That's great. Yeah. I mean, I think that's, I'm part of what we're looking at as well. Historically, we've seen, I would say like anywhere from 20 on up, right?

Um, with like 1.5 to two x equity multiples. Yeah, those are like multifamily returns. When you get to like debt income, uh, funds, they are vastly different just because of the cash flow implications like they're meant for cash flow. And so they're, yes, anywhere from like 10 to 20% cash flow, which is great for a, you a debt income fund.

If you're looking at investing in, you know, your bank, a CD, that's like four or 5%, four or five, six percent, right? To be able to get 10 to 20% on a debt income fund. That's great. But it really depends on the asset class, right?

And it depends on some syndicators are very aggressive. And as you say, they're not conservative in terms of how they underwrite and that might get them into trouble later on, they might own for problem centers, whether, whereas I so we rather be conservative and do much better for you than the opposite. Yeah, that's great. In terms of investors, that are just starting out and thinking about asset classes outside of traditional stocks and bonds, how much should they be considering multi-family real estate and should they invest in a REIT or should they invest in with a syndication and then what are some other considerations besides maybe the returns, obviously like taxes, tax implications applications, being able to re invest out of a tax deferred account, or some of those considerations that they should be thinking about.

I would highly recommend that multifamily investment should be part of your investment strategy. At least. Invest in one multifamily deal every single year. I would start because I'm a CRNA by training.

This is what I tell my CRNA colleagues, I highly recommend that at least invest. Once you identify a good sponsor, invest at least in one multifamily asset every single year. Because once you start exiting the compound, the returns that you get over time is going to accelerate your path to retirement. And like you mentioned, it's not just about the returns that you get.

You also get the tax You get the cost segregation, and it gives you some depreciation, which you could apply to any passive income. And then if you are like a solo entrepreneur, 1099 employee, you could do a solo 401k or self-directed IRA. You could roll over all retirement plans to a self-directed IRA and invest in these, you So REITs are not the same thing as investing in like actual assets and becoming part of the that was looking to come in as an LP partner for one of our deals because the REITs most of them do not actually manage the deals that work with other sponsors. They bring in the capital.

So let's say for a REIT might come in and bring $10 million to a deal. The real estate investment trust that's correct. Yeah So a read is a real estate investment trust like a read might come in and bringing a 10 million dollars to one of our deals and they get maybe 18% average on our returns on that. And you as an investor in that REIT, when you're buying those shares on like trading and buying shares in the REIT, you might end up with maybe eight, nine, 10% return on your money, and then the REIT owner makes the difference.

So why do that when you can invest directly in the assets and get all the benefits and stuff like that? So I think part, a lot of it is like it's a lack of education. A lot of us are very well educated like traditional investment vehicles like stocks, ETFs, funds, and all of that. But these private investments exist, and they've existed in a long time, and a lot of investors take advantage of them.

And even some of those funds in stocks, bthey use some of that money and they invest in these R assets. Like a lot of the larger apartment complexes, the $100 million, $200 million buildings, are owned by ETF funds, like they're owned by insurance companies and all these other funds. And that's the way to give you the returns that you're looking for. So I highly recommend investing in MoTA family, at least add that as part of your strategy, even if it's just one deal a year that you invest in.

Okay, great, thank you. We are at the top of the hour and I want to be cognizant of all the attendees. If you have any other questions, feel free to drop in here. Leslie, any parting thoughts from you?

It has been such a pleasure being part of your platform. Meghan, thank you so much and thank you Kesha for inviting me to come share We have created a community of other busy professionals that are looking to grow work, whether it's in real estate or start as is called the 9 to 5 club. If you're looking in that direction, if you're looking to learn more about alternative assets or looking to invest in any one of our deals, you could find us at beyond95club.com. So our website is www.xicapital.com or even like in the 268-unit deal in Atlanta, Georgia, still open, we.

We still have a few slots left for some investors. So if that picks your interest, you want to learn more, reach out to us. We're more than happy to walk you through the opportunity. Perfect.

Well, thank you again. Again today for all that you've brought a lot of great insight not only into how you transition from senior family to multi-family, but Also your buy box ought, how to be conservative as a syndicator and as really an LP investor. I think that a lot of great experiences, a great insight they brought to our team. All.

All the information here will be shared, both on our webinar as well as on our podcasts and that's the generational wealth. So please like and subscribe and let other R people know about our podcast as well as our webinar. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at july.cloudcap.com and go to cloudcap.com for more information. But thank you everyone.

And until next time, keep investing for generational wealth.

Welcome to the cashflow project podcast. Are you looking to better your financial situation by increasing your cashflow? Too busy to hunt for real estate deals or don't know where to start? Then you're in the right spot.

Join us as we dive in and talk about investing for cashflow using multifamily real estate. Welcome to the cashflow project podcast. I'm your host, Steve Fieros with Tri-City Equity Group. Today I'm excited,.

We've He's a director of operations and co-founder of XSITE Capital investment, LLC. He's a professional anesthesia, a nurse. He's a, as a dynamic entrepreneur and seasoned real estate investor with an impressive, track record and multifamily investing. It began his real estate journey And then he's also founded an e-commerce company, a wellness clinic, there are our ventures spending most of my time, working as the director of operations at for one in medical and then of course later on me the transition.

Yeah, Steve, if I could put it all in one word, I would just say burn out. I had a great job as a nurse and a status, I'm a, I'm went back to school. Got a graduate degree and became a nurse in a status. And back in 2015, when I started my career, I felt I was on top of the world.

I had this great job that I paid me a lot and I was very happy. And the great thing about these healthcare jobs is like you can never run out of the number of hours to work. The only way you run out of the hours is because there's 24 hours in a day and that's as much as you can go. But there was a lot of work for us to do.

And I was very hungry, so I spent a. a lot of time I worked really hard. and the same time my daughter, my second daughter was a born in, 2015, so I came back home one day and realize she was doing all these things like walking. around attempting to talk and I realized that chasing like all these hours in the they had to miss out on sacrifice in order to get that.

And I made a commitment to myself to figure out if there's a better way other than just exchanging my hours for dollars. So that's when I started investing, and I started investing in myself. Then I came across real estate investing as a path to wealth. Read one of the books that recommended real estate investing, signed up for like a mastermind, got mentors, then bought my first property, which was a single family real estate property in 2017.

model that worked really well, so the light bulb really went out in my head, and I was like, hey, this stuff is serious stuff, let me take it seriously. So around that time, I met my partners, Dr. Judy Tolofari. We decided to come together, bring our forces and resources together to focus on what's our family investing because we saw that in our community, in our immigrant community, in our healthcare community, there were not a lot of people that knew that you even have access to this asset class.

And we know that a lot of our healthcare colleagues, too, are going through some of the same pains that we're going through, which is the burnout, putting in all these hours and exchanging hours for money, which is really not the most R efficient way of creating wealth. So we decided to create Exact Capita as a platform where we could provide opportunities for all the healthcare professionals or professionals in and out of health healthcare to grow their wealth, to put their hard-earned resources to work so that it continues to grow for them and be a able to create wealth that way. So XSITE Capital was founded in 2019, since then, we've acquired $168 million of assets, distributed back to our investors, close to $8 million. And we're in the process of acquiring another $49 million dealers as we're recording.

Amazing. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. And I like that part of your story for one.

And I think this is similar to a lot of people, but the beginning of your story, obviously, you're an immigrant and come see the opportunity Like you said, okay, I'm surrounded by people who are doing well for themselves my wife was in the medical field and know so many people in the see that there is opportunity beyond I'm like, that's the first out. And so, who does to you for even being able to do that? There's so many times you're just, Hey, my mom and I keep my head down. I'm just going to work my hours.

This, this is the dream is to work these long hours and take full advantage of it. And it's like, well, yes, that's, but then the other part of it you found obviously was stepping outside, becoming an entrepreneur effectively and stepping into using the power of leverage, getting into real estate. And that's a pretty big jump. So you started off doing residential.

Did you find it difficult? I've found networking over the years for a lot of people, they have a hard time bridging that gap between residential and commercial. Like it's just, well, I've seen other people own a house and so I can wrap my head around that. I can buy another house or two or three or whatever.

But then the step up to commercial is usually something different. And so, did you find that personally difficult or was it like, no, I just surrounded myself with other people who were doing it. And we're off to the races. That, that's a really good question, Steve.

The interesting thing is it wasn't as difficult for me, as I'm seeing a lot of other people that are focused in residential go through like because we mentor some others some guys that are looking to transition to multi-family it wasn't as difficult for me why because R wasn't in the residential space long enough. I just had that one deal in the R like buying that single family home that worked out really well right. I did the BRR model went to refinance values have gone up like $77,000 and right at that moment of like oh my god this is part of with stuff. That's when I discovered that multi-family even exists.

Right? So it's like, you are this high where you're feeling like you're on top of the wall, you could do anything. Then that concept get to you. So it's like, Oh yeah.

We can do this. And I was also very blessed that I think there's absolutely no way I would have been able to do this if I didn't have my partners with me starting off, because I have partners that are very bold and together being able to focus on the reason why, like the, really the why behind XSITE Capital starting was like the whole exciting part, because we, I remember that day very well, we were sitting at a Wegmans here in Maryland. to create this platform to go educate them about this and be able to buy these buildings. So that whole passion and purpose behind it was like just got us really excited.

It didn R matter what the obstacle were, it was just like, okay, what do we need to next? What do we need to figure out next? Which mentor do we need to hire next? And it just took it one step at a time and it does just opened up, and then more possibilities came along the way.

So yeah, so it wasn't as challenging like I find most people going through. Yeah, no, that's awesome. And I'm almost even thinking, too, because, and I've heard this before. And I a m sure you've probably heard this before, kind of the concept of the immigrant edge, where it's like, well, Hey, like, I don't have this preconceived kind of notions of how it's supposed to quote unquote supposed to be right.

It's like, well, I saw my parents, I saw my grandparents, like they bought a lot of my parents bought a house. So like, okay, I can do that. That's going to be my route. Also, it's like, no, you came from somewhere else and it's like, hey, the opportunities are endless.

Like you already achieved. Again,. You've already achieved success working in your W two and you're surrounded by other people have also kind of put in that household, put in that time, the energy, all of that, that it takes in order to get where you need to be in order to work for the hospital. You mentioned where your partners are, you know, doctors as well.

So, I mean, lots of hours of study. You've already put in some a lot of commitment of time. That kind of brings me to another flip question too. Was it hard to leave the hospital, like knowing R that you, hey, I put in walk away from, let's say the work, or was it, no, you know what, I can help more people doing on the investing side.

Was that difficult for you to make that transition from the hospital to working full-time in real estate? Oh my gosh, Steve, like, are you really good at asking questions? That was the most difficult decision I've ever made, in my life. And I've made that decision at a point where we are, build the XSITE Capital to $168 million.

We're making like revenues. In 2022, we made revenues in the seven figures, six figures. So, the company is growing, and doing really well. And then I to make that- to other people and I for surgery or whatever, because it's going to improve ideally Whereas now it's like, well, hey, not only can I improve the quality of improve.

The to your family members, also your spouse, your kids, your family, your parents, whatever it's just that gift of time. it challenge I'm like, are you guys navigating? Let's say current deal flow in terms of all right. Yeah, we've had to make shifts here.

we're changing underwriting or whatever, or maybe coming up with creative ways to finance, deals are, I'm curious how you guys and your team are navigating let's say the current market environment. And then I'll ask a two part question on that on the backend of it. It's like, well, where do you see that's going now too? So., you're absolutely.

So the last 28, 20, 20, 22 months I've been like really slow on the deal flows aside. But we never stopped. We bought our last deal at the end of 2022, like when the market was starting to fall down. And we kept looking at deals, kept on the writing deals, kept reviewing a ton of deals, but nothing was penciling, right?

Given the changes in the market and we stayed disciplined to our conservative on the riding metrics and nothing was passing. It wasn't until June of this year that we took our deal, the deal that we currently have open for investment on the contract. But we stay, we keep a true pulse of the market. Our position strategy right now is really to focus in our markets that we have a lot of knowledge on.

Like we like the Atlanta market, we own an asset over there. We're like the Columbia, South Carolina market we own there. We own a couple of assets over there. So we understand the market dynamics, we have some resources within that market.

We know what the expenses are for the assets that we're buying, going into it because we already have another asset that is that we're able to gauge, use the numbers from. So our, on the writing, our projections and everything, again, we made adjustments based on where the market is at, right? And also leveraging all the data sources like COSTAR to see what the future projections are, but staying very conservative, especially on items like rent growth, expenses, definitely expenses went up so we keep a close track of that. So having that R presence within the market, our property managers, the same that we're going to use, we already have the presence within the market.

I see all the expenses on a monthly basis, I see what's happening on the property on a weekly basis. So it gives us that intelligence to be able to make the right or projections on the writing, when we're taking down this asset. So the market has been like a huge with the interest rate family property. One of our mentors said, it's unfortunate because he said real estate and stocks are the only two items.

When it's on sale and nobody wants to buy. So these assets are highly discounted right now. Interest rates are signaling that they're going to drop the drop down. So now is the time to go and buy.

So we have a deal with closing. After that, we're going to be looking for more deals. So we're going to be heavy. We're going to be very aggressive on our acquiring more deals because we see this window of opportunity and we really want to get a bunch of our investors on these deals as much as possible.

Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, I agree. And it has taken a little while for the same thing for. For us, you'll float really it really slow down and doesn't mean that you stop underwriting, stop looking at deals, but just to your point as well.

Hey, you don't want to push anything. That was a wrong time to and even now like you don't want to be so aggressive. We're still facing some headwinds here. Obviously, we're recording this right now in October, but Probably by the time it releases, we're going to be around election time.

And obviously that can impact things and things had some storms rolled through. Hopefully none of your properties or you guys weren't affected by any of that either. I know a lot of people have been, but you have all a lot R variables that you can't control. So the one, two, the things that you can control are being mindful of the underwriting, not being too aggressive, not being overly aggressive and trying to force something, but I think you're right.

I think there is, there's definitely an opportunity now is you had a lot of people They got kind of squeezed out and that kind of shook outs and deals and bridge loans coming mature and okay. Hey, that's going to create opportunity to the market. This is the one thing that people, I feel failed to realize a lot of times, like the market does this, the market is cyclical. So it doesn't stay up forever.

It a doesn't stay down forever. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

No, so that's great. So now you guys are continuing to work, and you mentioned Atlanta, you mentioned South Carolina. presence there, my partner, Tenny Tolofari lives in North Carolina. So he's, he needs our positions team.

So he's always out there touring properties. And I'm looking for more. So once we the rates were so cheap and of course you had a lot of capri compression and really spike spiking values, but yeah, pull back now. I mean, that is shaking loose some opportunities.

So yeah, like I said, totally agree with you that there's a lot of opportunity both now and I think coming forward. So the, I know you've focused on creating community, what kind of, what. Tell us a little bit more about the community about the exciting community. And I think that's, I think it's an underserved and market segment.

I mean, there's a lot of different segments you can go into Obviously that you guys have the expertise of being medical professionals yourself, cause that looks like that's who you're that's a target audience and kind of who you guys are catering to give themselves a little bit more about the community. Is that something you guys are. Is that something you guys are at an event for, you know, meetups or is it like primarily online? Like fill us in a little bit more on that.

Well, that's a great question, Steve. Yeah. So when we got into business, one of the things we noticed is like, there was like a lot of , gate-keeping of information, it took us a little while to be able to learn things. We had to pay to get everything.

So we got really frustrated about that, starting off. So, and where a lot of our investors are very new to this, a lot of my investors I've never heard about multi-family investing. All they know is like stocks, crypto, everything that is mainstream, but a lot of them did not even know that they qualify as a credit debt investors to invest in these assets. So in order for us to be able to serve that community, we had to educate.

So we do a lot of education. When we started off, we started with an in-person meetup every first Monday of the month when COVID came, we transitioned that into like virtual. And that just expanded where we have in this virtual meetup every first Monday of the month. Then on top of that, started back in 2020, I started like an underwriting class.

So we've been doing a lot of that informally. We do like community, events, quarterly investor dinners or quarterly exciting events where we invite people, come just talk, network and share That's community.exactcapital.com if you wanted to get access to it on that community We're going to continue doing what we've been doing over you r providing a lot of education It's going to be a place where all of us this professionals we could share ideas work together Learn about real estate learn about other businesses all of the all everybody that's looking like you're burned out at the job Looking for another option to create alternative sources of income so that you could have that option It's about having that option, so that you have multiple sources of income. so all the lessons we've learned along the way to get to this point, Steve, like we spent the significant, we invested a significant amount of money in ourselves from coaches, mentors, books, courses, seminars, learning everything from real estate, investing to sales, leadership, building teams, everything that you could think of to help us grow while we've been able to. So is to share as much as we can to members of our community on that private community.

So yeah, so if that's something that you're interested, come check us out, it's community.exe.com, so I'm really excited r excited for it's. Like that gatekeeping and I'm even now to like, I mean, there's a lot of resources out there available. People don't don, don't know, I don't just don't know the right questions to ask and kind of how they can find out that information or even too, like that there's communities out there that, hey, look, we all want to see each other succeed. But of course it's not child's play, there are significant skills and resources.

You need to be able to tap into and take advantage of and so when I do it with community, so that's a perfect way to do it. to do it. No, that's awesome. Well, we have a little section in our show, it's going to, it's called struggle sessions.

So basically, Hey, what are some of the, obviously any entrepreneur, any investor, right? It's not all rainbows and sunshine, like not everything is always easy. And oh, sure. I just had a couple of million dollars dropping H in my lap.

And we found the right operators and the right deal and all of that was usually had some bugs and challenges in the road. Tell us me that in the listening audience, what's a what's the biggest mistake that you've made so far in your career and how did you learn from it? Cause I think too often times, like I said, to be to the shows, like everything is, Oh, it's amazing. And you're a pulling up in the Lamborghini or the.

It's like, Oh, that guy's so lucky. Like, but it's not always the case that has not, that's not reality. It it's like, well, it takes a lot of hard work and effort. And it's not always a smooth sale.

What are, what it's a deal that you had that maybe went sideways or just a learning lesson somewhere along the way that that caused you to, okay. Hey, we're not doing that again, or we're staying away from that market or that whatever. Can you share a mistake that's happened or a lesson that you learned from it? Absolutely.

I could, if I start sharing those mistakes, Steve, we might finish up, we might take another two hours in the podcast. And I'm glad you mentioned this because a lot of times when we get on podcast and talk about the growth and success, and it feels like we're just pushing on [inaudible]. It does require a lot of hard work and it does require a lot of grit to be able to a deal with some of these challenges that R come along the way. As you were asking, one that comes to mind is like, we own a property in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a distressed sale that we bought at the end of 2022.

The bank was getting ready to that we used to go out to tell our investors, this is what we- we see in this property. But as soon as we got in the property - I realized, oh my god, the things on this property are really bad and it takes a lot a longer period of time. What we did not factor into our equation was like how long it was taken to actually evict people, after post COVID. The moratoriums had expired, but the state of Maryland still had some loopholes in places where tenants were using it.

So we had to evict about 40 people out of that property in a time R when the market was not as strong. So it took us a long period of time to finally get it stabilized. So instead of the eight months we talked, we're gonna get a stabilized. It took us 18 months to get it stabilized.

So and that was like a big learning experience. And the thing is like, even if we've been conservative on it, conservative on the writing or conservative projections on a value ideal is different from conservative projections or conservative on the writing on the distress deal. So that was a huge lesson that we learned to be a lot more concerned, especially when we're looking at distressed assets and gotta approach it looking at it from a different perspective. But we also love the property a lot because it's like a property is located .

between two Johns Hopkins hospitals. So the location is really nice. A really nice property, but it's kind of hidden. So nobody knows about it.

So, but we've done a great job at improving the visibility, the marketing and all of that. But it just takes time. Like fixing a problem that inheriting R. From somebody else is going to take longer than what you think it's going to take.

So that's the biggest lesson that I learned from that experience. That's awesome. And yeah, incredibly valuable because yeah, you're right, like that's doing a value ad versus distressed. It's like the lift is much heavier to go after the stress out of it.

Yeah, it's like you mentioned doing a burr earlier. It's like, okay, well, for those of our listening audience that may not be familiar kind of with what distressed and what value add and all that kind of stuff means. Just think in your mind, okay, well, hey, I want a property for a long-term rental. We're just talking, a residential property.

Okay. Well, you're going to come across some that are like, this house is totally fine. It's a little dated, maybe it's built in the nineties. And so to finish this, look a little old and okay, great.

I can put in some paint and some carpet and put in some new countertops and some new hardware. Okay. Cool. Like that's value add.

You got it off market and like how you said like it's it was a drug house and now so now I got to get the people out who are in there selling drugs and then when they leave it's like no they trash-the-property and so now it's and so we're talking about a process now that's much longer drawn out it's just like what is he sharing there versus one that's like okay cool we can be in and out I'm gonna rehab this thing in six weeks or whatever and we're going to refinance and cool, nice and clean that now turns into, no, it took a long time to get those people out. And guess what? It was a math house. Now we got to do all this remediation and change all kinds of stuff.

And, you know, it's just a total mess. And it's a totally different deal. Although on paper, it does look similar. Well, hey, the value is going to be this after we make an improvement and that kind of deal, but the process of that is.

Yeah, way different. And like you found out, right. The timeline, way longer. And when you're dealing with big numbers of a commercial property.

Oh, man. Like you talk about, Hey, the clock is ticking to get things going. So no, thank you for sharing that. That's a very valuable lesson.

And for listeners, it may be kind of going after property. Keep that in mind. That, that's. So thanks.

Thanks for sharing that. I think, well, this is the point where we transition to what we call our fire round. So little, just a little brief, more rapid fire Q and a, something a little bit lighter, a little bit more fun and set something you're up for. Let's do it.

all right. Awesome. First question. So what is your favorite book recommendation?

I see you got a nice bookshelf. Behind you, maybe some of that's medical. Maybe some of it's real estate. I don't know, but what are your go to book recommendations for really can be anything.

It can be mindset. It can be business. It can be real estate. Can be whatever.

So by the way, none of them is medical, uh, example, some of our psychology. Oh, my book recommendation right now I'll have to say is the ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes. Yeah. That's a really good book.

I'm going through it right now studying it. So that's the book recommendation I'm going to get. Right. I love hearing stuff that I know.

usually hear it. So I don't think I've heard anybody recommend that one on the show just yet. So we'll check that on our ultimate sales machine. Alright, next question.

What would you consider your superpower to be? each to be an entrepreneur. And I was looking around, trying to find anybody around me that could be like a mentor, that could do, that that has done some amazing things that I could follow. but there was nobody here.

I had nobody in my community, I could not meet anybody until one day I was talking to somebody and I was explaining this to them, somebody that's in a different field and he looked me in the eyes and he said, the person you're looking for is the person you have to become and that, that really hit home for me. So, I enjoy mentoring all this, I think that's my superpower, being able to help people see further thanI what they think they're capable of doing. Yeah, wonderful. That is a great super power, and that's how you know that that's true, is if somebody else told you that, then they'll see in you what you don't see It a great quote actually to the person you're looking for, it's a person you need to become.

Excellent. or for somebody busy working professional, obviously a lot of who you're working with, to leverage that money so that it creates more work for you. Whether it's in yourself through education, coaches, seminars or whatever, investing in other assets. The most important thing is that you have to put that money to work for you instead of just consuming, because then if you do that over time, it compounds, even that investment in yourself compounds over time to make you grow to become, somebody else.

So investing, just like investing in the stock market or real estate compounds over time and create a higher amount of work. So it is just a, it's very important that you use those resources to invest in yourself, we invest in other assets. Yeah, no, it's powerful too. And you'd be surprised how much,.

I think a lot of times people discount if they were to just take a season of their life, right. And it's, then it's not a long period of time. Like it doesn't have to be anyways, they take a season in their life and just say, look, I'm just going to pour into myself, right? I'm going to do some self-development, some improvement, read some books, right, I'm going to read some books.

I'm going to just get around in some groups that maybe I'm just not, I don't usually do that. Even just for a season, gosh, they can alter the trajectory of your life. Massively. So yeah, no, that's really good.

All right. And then last question for you. What advice would you have for your 20 year old self? Man, my 20 year old self would be like, I don't know, stop being a Woodson, just go out there and do it.

And I was so much of an introvert, justB scared of going out, networking, and talking to people. Like I had all these beliefs in my mind that kept me from going on and being able to network. Even like doing something like a podcast like this would have been something really foreign to me. So, it's just about do.

Like, just go out and do the world is not dangerous like you think it is. And there's some amazing people out there. And once you take one step towards the direction you're supposed to go, you're gonna meet other people that will walk along that step with you. So, that's what I I'll tell my Rhenioh stuff because I've spent a lot of time just in my own thoughts circling around when all I needed to do to take a step in the right direction.

And a lot of times it's that first step. It's that first step towards the future. It's always the hardest one. Yeah, no, that's really powerful.

Well, for our audience, again, you kind of mentioned some of it earlier, but if they wanna reach out, they wanna connect with you, they wanna connect with the team, what are the best ways to do that? All right, so the best place you can find me is our community. I'm there every R week teaching, doing a lot of presentations or interacting with other community members and community.xicapital.com. That's x-s-i-lo-phone-s-i-t-e-capitol.com.

And I'm also on all the social media platforms. Leslie Awasom is my name and that's my name on all of social media. So connect with me, reach out. Let's continue to learn from each other.

I love hearing from other people, I love learning from other people as well. I guess, so yeah, let's reach out, we'll be in touch. Well, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I've enjoyed our conversation and our listeners have as well.

So I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to share your knowledge, share your experience with us. And we look forward to circle back with you in the future maybe and see where you guys are out, how many people you've helped at that point. So yeah, thanks so much for hopping on. with me, Leslie thank you so much, Steve.

Thank you so much for having me on your platform. . Truly appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

I have a great one, but take some action for everybody. Then a lot. Oh, great conversation with Leslie. I was from XSITE Capital, a great guy and great story, making r the transition from the medical field, working as a nurse anesthetist.

Are you working long hours in the hospital, which is, as I'm sure maybe a lot of our listeners are used to working whatever field that you're working in looking for a way to, hey, how can I get my time back? How can I spend more time with my family and not continuing to put in the long hours? And you may enjoy your job, but it's something different when you have to do the job versus like, no, I get to do it and I'm doing it because, not because, hey, I've got my mortgage coming up. and the bills are due, but because I've got a passion for it, and, awesome, those are two different things.

So the main thing is working towards getting back your time. And so, yeah, a pleasure having him on the show. Go out and check out his community as well. If you guys are medical professionals or if you're on the East.

So you just want to connect with them. They've got some in-person meetups and some good things happening over there. Guys, if you're interested in investing with us, go to tricityequity.com. You can learn more about the current opportunities and some previous deals that we've done.

We also have, of course, our local meetups. So if this is your first time listening to the show and you want to connect with us here locally, you're in Honolulu or you're going to be visiting, we'd love to be able toI connect with you. We've got a group that meets every month at a beautiful location. So Honolulu multi-family and more.

So we'll leave the link in the show notes. If you guys want to check us out there, you can also find us on, meetup.com of all the different platforms there to be able to meet you in person. And also too, if you continue to find value in the show, hit the like button, hit the R subscribe button, depending on the platform, believe it's a five star review. We'd love to continue to provide you great content.

And the one way we can continue to do that is getting some encouragement from you guys that you're finding value in the podcast. Alright guys, that's going to be it for today. Go out, take some action, and we'll see you on the next episode.

There's some doctors that actually are still not jacked by ink. They've chosen to stay here in Nigeria to help Nigerian patients. Yes, there are issues with our country. Our problems in Nigeria is only going to be solved by Nigerians.

Not all of us can leave. It's just impossible. Hi guys, welcome back to terms and condition. I'm your host Shyle.

And I'm your host. And today we have with us a very special guest. I will let him do the introduction by himself because I cannot carry the weight of the intro. So yes, please introduce yourself to us.

I am Dr. Julia Soni, the CEO at Doc Medical Center Nigeria, Director for as much as I'm excited to get into today's topic, I want us to do a quick trivia. Let me test your medical knowledge. I mean, I'm testing the medical knowledge for the senior ortho-opaedic.

I still know John Hopkins. I still may miss someone. So it's okay. I like your full humility.

It's like, yeah, I'm going to miss someone. But we all know you're not going to do that. So yes, Shayo, you want to check? Hey, do you want to check?

Okay. What's the longest bone in the body? um femur because that's your five that's the second longest bone is the back one actually the tibia yeah tibia it's doing your leg right no it's in your lower leg yeah because then your lower leg is the tibia and fibula so the two bones seeing a lower leg but your thigh bone is the longest bone i feel like i know you know for me to get another I jumped on to go back a 30 minutes. What's the largest organ in the human body?

Largest organ? It's got to be your skin, I think. It's because it's. Sorry, I only noticed.

Oh, no, you know, it's a science. Is it your? No. Skin is skin because it's like it's all over.

It's got to be like a large surface area. What. What is harder to catch the faster you run? What's harder to catch the faster you run?

The faster you run? Oh, it was harder to catch the faster you run. Yeah. Oh, like your breath.

I mean, what? OK, I'm sorry, you missed. I know it's all. What?

What part of the body can't get cancer? Can't get cancer. Yeah. There's only one part of the body that you can't get cancer in.

Oh, I get it. Oh that's interesting that you can't get cancer I guess it's gotta be something that that's kind of already dead this gotta be a few of them you can't get cancer. your teeth or your nail or you can't get cancer in the gum oh you could get but on your teeth I mean that's you can't get anything that's dead your hair but they're already outside for locals, teeth, bones, nose, they can't. It's like it's in your body.

Like it's in your body, yeah. Yeah, it is interesting. Anything that replicates, you probably could get cancer on, like if it's alive and it's going through the replication process you could get cancer, so. You're saying give up now.

Let me see. Okay. That's really exciting show. I give up.

You know how you're fighting and I know how R- I feel like. Go for it. That's a sign. I feel like your heart.

I was going to say that. Your heart? I was going to say that. .

it was a ,------------ ... ... ... ...

... the SATs was lucky enough to do well. I know you. Where were you in 98?

You. I wasn't born. Oh yeah. So yeah.

Oh I was born. I- Oh I was alive. I was sure I was. Yeah sure you were there.

So you can call me Uncle too. So, but I'm just joking. So, but I, so yeah. I went for college.

I was lucky enough to get some partial scholarships and also lucky during college to, I've gotten into medical school, so I stayed through for medical school, then residency after that and orthopedic surgery, which is the surgery of bone, muscles, and joints, and then did a fellowship after that for one year to study out to do joint replacements properly, or at least fine-tune my joint replacement, you know, expertise, and then I've been in practice for 11 plus years, about 12 years, since then. So yeah, that's it. That's nice. So that was your Jatwa experience.

How long were you out of How long were you there for? So 25 years in total, you know, doing all of that. And for me, all roads eventually led back home, you know? For people who've known me for a long time, you know I always kind of always wanted to come back and people always just thought that I woke up one day and just decided to come but I had been coming to Nigeria for over 10 years visiting at least four times a year you know doing surgeries either through my non-profit Operation Stan Walk Run that I started with a couple of other surgeons and also working in collaboration with other hospitals in Nigeria.

So, I've been coming, I've been studying the landscape and for me, I chose to do orthopedic surgery because my paternal grandmother had end-stage knee arthritis and there was no one available to take care of her. So, I switched from cardiovascular surgery to orthopedic surgery. And so, for me, I chose to do it because of a Nigerian And even though I never got a chance to take care of her, because she died about three years after I found out, but I've been able to take care of other people's uncles, aunties, a father's mother's grandma, grandpa's, in three different continents, you know, Middle East, America and Africa. So for me, it made the most sense to use my R scale to improve the lives of Nigerians in Nigeria.

And so it just became, the time was right for me to do it because I had done a lot of the things I wanted to do in the US, I had mastered what I was doing. And it just made, and I just saw the increasing need on ground, it just made a lot of sense to come. So how many years of fishy have you been back in Nigeria? Three months.

Oh, so you're a fresh bud. I am fresh. I am fresh. I love it.

Absolutely. So now two questions. First one is, would you consider yourself patriotic? And then how did you know that, okay, this was the time to come back.

Like you said, you've been away for a 25 years. So when did you realize it was like, we just woke up one day and. said, you know what? I need to be in Nigeria next month, by the 14th, I'm moving back or it was a gradual process.

So how did you know it was time for you to come back? So about five years ago, I made a decision that I was going to come go to Nigeria, move back to Nigeria. And at that point, I figured, you know what? To move back, I had to be, I had to make sure that I put a lot of things in.

Because I have a family, my beautiful wife, two kids. I had to make sure they were set and that things were, you know, that I was not putting them at any type of risk, financial or otherwise. So I was like, I just needed to put things in place daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis, to get there. And thankfully, I was able to do it.

And so once I felt like I was pretty confident that I wasn't putting my family in any type of jeopardy, I was like, okay. You know, I wanted to, I thought about it. I was like, what do I really want to do with life? What do I want my legacy to be?

When it's all said and done. when people talk about me, what do I want them to say about me? I want that to be that I contributed, I want that I contributed significantly to improving access to musculoskeletal care in underserved countries starting with Nigeria. So if the work is ever done in Nigeria, I'll move to another maybe African country or another underserved place and do the same thing, but there's a lot of work to be done here.

You spoke about your wife and kids. Did they move back with you? Yeah. Are they excited when you told them that, okay, we're coming back?

Well, actually, my wife reminded me that during our first date, I had asked her, that if we were to be together, like, you know, would she be okay moving back with me? And she said yes then, and to our credit, she said yes again when, you know, 11 years later, I asked her. So, she's the real G. Yeah, that's nice.

So your family has been really supportive. Absolutely. How are the kids finding it? Is it a bit of a social change for them?

They've been doing I say pikes actually they've been doing that to In the UK it is actually like bike park, so you get these ramps and like yeah, they turn into like Part of the ski curriculum like they take you out to actual long bike rides and stuff and I haven't seen that 90 I've enjoyed the cycle clone every Sunday I knew exactly what you're saying. No, there's actually like a whole proper... It's a school curriculum. The hair is like recreational, you ran around the estate.

No, I'm talking about like pop off free riding. You couldn't ride bikes I said, did they miss that? I know in America, you guys make it like a really big deal. Things like driving from 15, like it's a big deal.

You don't just enter the car. Like they actually have designated spaces for this. And that's one thing I feel like people who transition here always feel like that's the first thing they miss. For example, like amusement parks.

I don't care what amusement park is in New York, there's no way I r going there. Now unless I'm ready to say yes, I'm ready to off my life, I don't want to live another day. There's no way I'll go to an amusement park in Nigeria. How?

But then they still park, And so they play with them, you know, they are able to ride around the small estate and things like that they, you know, every weekend we go on family, you know, we go to places and go get the breeze and things like that. So it shock, practicing medicine, because I'm going to give you like some examples now. I know that some people like, there's this whole thread on Twitter. So a while ago, we're medical practitioners.

We're coming and talking about like, one of the things that you've had to do as people practicing in Nigeria, talking about, oh, they're particular. They had to use their touchlights to finish up surgeries. They've had to shift tourniquets. So there's so many things like that.

So what was your biggest shock coming back as a Nigerian who has lived abroad for 25 years and then as a medical doctor who has practiced in a first world country, how was it coming back to a third world country to practice it? To your first question, I'd say that, you remember I told you I've been coming for almost 10 years. So I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I knew what some of the challenges were going to be and things like having to deal with home artisans you know, artisans all the time, you know, it's not plumbing, it's electric, if it's not that, it's some league somewhere, things like that.

But I mean, you expect it, and you try to solve for it as much as you can. But I don't think I've had a major shock, to be honest with you. With regards to leaving in Nigeria, I knew exactly what I was planning to experience. And, I had my expectations set appropriately.

With regards to practicing,. There's been challenges. I think Nigerian doctors, they actually do a thankless job sometimes because they're doing the best that they can using limited resources. And doing a fantastic job with it in most cases but unfortunately the bad stories kind of get way more oxygen than the daily triumphs that they are achieving you know taking care of 220 million people with only 55,000 doctors right.

So I think you know yes there are limited resources yes, there's maybe some gaps in technical proficiency, in some cases, not just with doctors, but with healthcare staff in general. But there are some people practicing still at the top of their skill, but there are some gaps in some places too. I fully expected that, and we are at least in my own little corner of Nigeria. I'm trying to solve for it as much as I can.

What's the most unorthodox thing that has happened to you practicing medicine in Nigeria. That's it. So I mean that there was you had to do that. You knew that whole year if I was in the US, I wouldn't have done it.

So I mean, I actually have chosen not to cut any corners. But for example, there was one time someone was trying to open up a sterile glove for me and they did. Ripped it and handed it to me. and usually there's a particular way to open that sterile glove to make sure it's sterile.

And but because they were used to just doing it that way and in a way that, R the pay margin or why do you feel a lot of that is and then do you feel like the replacement. For example, if a doctor is trying to train as an orthopaedic surgeon here, they may not You can think of the volume that I get access to. So a lot of people want access to that too when you can't fault them for that But it and it's unfortunate because Nigeria actuallyh actually subsidize the training and education, the doctor. In Nigeria, is to become, a doctor in Nigeria, you pay so much less than everywhere else.

But then I mean, also, you could also be, you know, you're paying for less and you're getting unfortunately a. I was going to mention that. So when you look at like university teaching hospitals, because I've had like the opportunity to visit some university teaching hospitals and things like that. And you also hear stories, because I have friends who trained as medical doctors as well.

So you also hear stories of, oh, in the class, they like, they have lack of access to proper. They're using outdated medical equipment. Basically, you're having to contribute money to buy fuel to run this to do that. I mean, those are issues that premiere the entire society.

But I will tell you this, though, those same doctors that are trained here, they go to other places and they're able to perform at a very high level pretty quickly. So this is not a, you know, so a lack of materials here doesn't affect them aboard. Exactly. They are still.

I mean, the training is still good enough where people are going to every part of the world and doing fantastic. I mean, there's no there are over 30,000 Nigerian. I mean, doctors of Nigerian origin either. I think it's about maybe at least 10, thousand Nigerian training, Nigeria that's left the left to practice or elsewhere.

but How would you bridge that gap? and help out with surgeries or if you, , do you know, I. If I specialize in abroad because what you are. Talking about is being able people who specialize who have the training aboard to come to Nigeria and also make a change.

How would someone who's in I don't imagine you just email the gap. Hey, I have next week free. I mean, I'm so confused. It could be that simple, you can even advocate and say, listen, I want to come and offer services, and then you gotta apply for medical license in Nigeria, which can sometimes be a little bit of a stressful process for a lot of people.

So one of the things that I've advocated is that we make that process so much easier, the process of getting your license, and to be fair, the MDC and that's the medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, they're working and trying to make that process so easy that within a week within two weeks you could get your license pretty easily and you could start delivering care to patients. And then you could then create guardrails to and then presuming that people are paying in Naira, how would I as a British or an American, make, I think there's still a job. You still have a family. It's I got to be sustainable.

No questions about. But I tell you this a good number of doctors that will be more than willing, to come down and take a little less payment or take- significantly less than what they making in the US, I mean, so, but I'm willing to do it because seeing that difference, for Nigerian patients, you know, when I operate on patients, they come in completely debilitated, and then six weeks later, abroad who maybe has like annual leave and wants to come and book some surgeries. They've already done through the process. .

What's the average salary you can? That's a difficult one because it's so different for every specialty, right? So the ranges are very huge. I actually r ry, I don't know what the typical salary for Nigerian doctors are.

But I mean, typically it's compared to, I mean, it. It's uncommon to see people making less than a million or per month or something like that, you know, 12 million. I mean, that is, I mean, most compared to how much people. So yeah, so, I mean, that's still, and other parts of the world, too.

Yes, you make a pretty large gross income, but there are also a lot of bills that are gonna line up. Taxes to bill. Taxes, you know, you get taxes about 40 to 50, you, then have a bunch of like, you know, bills, you're getting taxed, everything you buy, there's a tax attached to it and things like that. So, yes.

Can we talk about that a little bit more? Like, I feel like people always have this impression that, that when you leave Nigeria, you drop out, you go to the broad, oh my God, you're making dollars, because you're so much money. I'm going to have to realize that when you first of all, the rent that. Most people pay in Nigeria R for R like threeie monthly rent.

What you pay for, I hear At the end of the month, a lot of people still live paycheck to paycheck because there is always an outs or something is always coming out. Absolutely. It's so unlike people always look I look down like, oh, and I go to my friend who is to Canada. And they're like, after one month to like, I just want to come back.

Like, who said they felt like they've been captured. Yeah. b ar. Was this smooth sailing for you when you left Nigeria to go to the US?

No. Did you work any r? Did you just jump right into like., like, you a ry, people when they move I think the third day that I landed and I was I working, and I was working as a dishwasher and I was serving my fellow I was a pizza maker. like we're talking about reverse Jaffa.

I obviously let's talk about how people Jaffa through legal means because in the past couple of months we've seen like a lot of movies around you know, people leaving Nigeria illegally. and it's crazy because how bad have things got in that? you just you so - so I would say this so there's no questions that things are tough and this is a tough macroeconomic period for the country and through really throughout the world. I mean the world is burning right now, right?

Exactly. So, but our problems in Nigeria is only going to be solved by Nigerians, right? Yeah. And we cannot, and we can, not all of us can leave.

It's just impossible, right? Not all 200. And, as much as Jackpot Phenomenon is very a common app promise is not how many of exactly so ultimately all everybody living in Nigeria needs services we need things to happen so it's all about perspective and it's easy sometimes for you know people like me to say but it truly is right when you talk to most people who are not originally Nigerian who were now living in Nigeria, and I have a lot and is not built to fight the system or see the positive or the good in the system. R.I.P.

completely, to know that things are hard. So this is certain negative bias when we talk about Nigeria, right? And, so if there's a part of the tongue, right? And if all we continue to say is, this place is dead, this place is gone, there, there's no hope, there's right?

I'm not trying to be the devil. No. Let me finish this. And that's fine.

This is my opinion. You have the right to yours. But if we continue to say that, then that's exactly how things are going to be. Right?

But if in the... Yes, we have problems. Yes, there are issues with our country. But are we...

Are you in your everyday like doing. Everything you can to make everything better for your fellow citizens and for yourself? If the answer is yes, bravo to you, and you're doing your part. But is everybody else doing that?

Is your plumber always trying to like, trying to swindle you? Is your electrician always trying to swindle you? Is your fellow person always trying to get one over you? Is someone always trying to push you down to push themselves up?

You know, like, are we treating each other as citizens, you know, in fairness and in truth, and always trying to, you know, lift each other up. I'm not sure, we can R.I. on a daily basis, but that's all I have control over. So what I usually try to preach is that whatever you have control over, just be good as best as you can And then if we all if a critical mass of us do that, then I think we'll be talking about a different country.

Re I'm telling you, I've traveled all over the world. I've been to a lot of different places. Nigeria, even in this state, It's a good country. Ask so much to give.

And we, there's still so many opportunities. And there's still so much value to be created. And money is only a store of value. Right?

If you two have a problem, it's a burning issue for you and I'm able to come up with a solution. Guess what? You would give me your money to get that solution. And so frivolity, that's why say based on what I know, you drop me in any random place.

Give me no money. Guess what? Because I was study even if I have no money. I will study and be like, what is the problem here?

And yes, but I now try to figure the situation too. And that's just it's a mindset. It's hard. when you when all you surrounded with is negative and you've been pushed down to your point and you've been re- great, I am wealthy, in spirit, in body, in energy, and I'm going to perspective in both perspectives, like a lot of people are like I can call any of my friends in the UK now they will trade places with me and I don't even have to finish I and outside wish and it's not because, oh, Nigeria is fun.

There's this different, I feel like, it's different things, whatever you want out of life. Number one, I definitely agree that, that Nigeria has more opportunities. I feel like you can go to bed for here and wake up rich, you can wake up, go to bed without nothing. You don't know what a to do in your life and then someone can call you tomorrow morning and all.

And all. Of a sudden you have motive or there's something to do. You got to put yourself in a situation. And that's the thing.

Being black abroad is a very scary thing. Listen, like I thought we would, you know, waking up in Nigeria and knowing I. I the color is black, so of, without PR because I mean, look at what happened with Haffa beats. Right.

I mean, so and I still think all those things are still in its infancy, right, so, and people in the UK of the US was actually easier and it's easier to become a billionaire yeah here because I mean and that's that and that's the thing and I'm not just talking about and I hate to just frame wealth in terms of and you know, to me, wealth is the ability to do what I want with the people that I want as long as I want, you know, in any way that I want, you know, that's the freedom, geographic freedom, financial freedom, wealth freedom, health freedom, you know, where you just like healthy enough to enjoy life with friends and family and not have to, You know, that's true wealth, right. So money helps that, your health helps that your spiritual wellness, your mental wellness, your overall emotional well-ness helps. And if we as Nigerians just start to tell ourselves, I truly believe, I am such a big believer is that if we start to tell ourselves a different story, there's a power to that. I mean, yes, we have problems and we should prosecute those problems and old, our leaders accountable.

No questions about it. And that's okay. But we need to also start saying we are this people. And we need to start saying we are honest people.

We are people of integrity. And we need to start telling ourselves this story. Because when we start to develop that inherent collective identity as the people of greatness, as the people who have no bounds who are going to be great. Guess what?

I mean, things will happen. And I just believe that right now we I mean this have never been this bad we are this nadir and even though it feels bad b right now and everyone is feeling it from top to a bottom right guess what it's going to change no matter what I mean for the better no questions guess what places like Democratic Republic of Congo this me or other places that have been war torn for such a long time and they're finally trying to get their things together. I was reading stories about even in those really bad years, right, they were entrepreneurs that were doing fantastically well, even in those countries. Thankfully, we've not gotten there and by God's grace, we would never get there.

If all of us as young people are asking ourselves, wait, okay, yes, there are problems. What can I do to, in my own small place to like make a difference. I'm telling you, it will be fire. Before we round up, I just have one final question for you.

Realistically, what do you think of the future of health care in Nigeria? And idealistically, how would you like it to be? Absolutely, thank you. Realistically and idealistically for me are very similar.

I actually have very great, hopes for the future of health care in Nigeria. And I am very optimistic that it's going to be better. When my video kind of went viral, you wouldn't believe how many health care professionals from doctors to nurses to physical therapists to respiratory therapists, to, you know, all types of health care professionals, pharmacists, who have said, you know what, we want to do this, we want to come home, you know? Or I want to give back in one way or the other too.

Like, even if I don't move permanently, I want to come frequently, is hundreds of them, maybe thousands of them that have that desire to do it. So we just need to figure out a way to encourage them, incentivize them, you know, like make it easy for them when they come down, Give them a great cultural experience. Let them form deep bonds with the country so that they can bring their resources, they can bring their expertise, they can bring their love and their skills to bear their wealth of knowledge to bear here. So I absolutely believe that the future is super bright.

I mean, I've, in my few months here, I've had, I've consulted for patients from Ghana. business have rumbed down from the UK, from the US, you know, to have the surgery down here. And it's just me. I'm hearing the same story happening with other doctors that are offering just high level care here too.

So it's just the beginning. I think it's the beginning of a seismic change that's going to transform the country within health care. And we just in the early days, I believe five years from now, there's going be more doctors, more nurses, more physical therapists, more pharmacists, more dentists coming on ground. Making a difference and working closely with our fantastic colleagues on ground to really transform the world of healthcare in Nigeria.

I'm something I was going to ask you something, skip my mind, but I remember it again, what do you have to say to people that think that doctors have a good complex. I mean, I, sorry, I know that some doctors will say that, oh, after performing surgery, people have prayed, like you had something was wrong with you. You prayed, nothing happened on the list of people in the hospital. Doctor has shifted in a common identity testimony.

Ah, go save me. And doctors were like, no, God didn't, I didn't. But like, yeah. So I You know, it's a collab, right?

Like that. That's right. So I the vast majority of doctors don't have a God complex. I think there are a few.

Just like there are some engineers with God, complex and some architects and some bankers with God complexes. But if vast majority of doctors just really want to do their best and help their patients. I mean, look at a lot of the doctors, there's some doctors They're actually a still not Jack buying they've chosen to stay here in Nigeria to help Nigerian patients Those are the patient that the doctors actually that should be getting the kind of attention I'm getting right now to be honest, you know, they are the real VI because they deciding that you know what I'm staying in Nigeria to help Nigerian patients Even though I can also go anywhere else. So, those are the ones that I think should R highlighted, they should be praised, they.

Should be encouraged to continue to do what the works R that they're doing. And I always love to collaborate with those types of doctors any day. How can someone reach you? How can people reach you?

And what should we expect from Dr. Oni moving forward? What are the big projects you have? Tell us about them.

Please tell our audience about so they can know what to look out for. Fantastic. I'm Julius On Rni on LinkedIn, Dr. JKL, that's D-O-C-T-O-R, JKL on IG, Instagram, and what to expect.

I'm going to continue to expand my practice, Dark Medical Center, Nigeria. We mostly focus on hip and knee replacements. We can see people for all types of orthopedic problems. If we can, I'll fix it.

We can send you to the right person that can fix it. Are you hiring? So at this point we have a full staff, but we're going to have a fellowship program where I'm training orthopedic a surgeon to do hip and knee surgeons. We have a fellow right now is fantastic.

And probably in the next year we'll probably go to two fellows a year. And so just look for the practice to get busier, and for me to continue to advocate for Nigerian health care, I think the Nigerian patients deserve it. Thank you so much, it's very insightful, very honest, very open. I really appreciate you coming here, to see what you're doing on the big space.

I love to connect a few again after this. This has been another wonderful episode of terms and conditions. If I do say so myself, I will see you guys on the next one.

Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening depending on where you're joining us from today. I Am R excited to bring into the studio someone with a very unique story and a very unique journey in fact when I was going through the checkpoints and check off I realized when it comes to his level of Tribblazing is a big check When it comes to his level of creating a new narrative, it's another big check.

When it comes to his originality, big check. Authenticity, big check. Ethical conduct, big check. So I am delighted to invite all the story warriors out there, story warrior friends, story warrior associates, fanatics, whoever you are, pull your cheers closer if you want to be successful financially.

If you're looking for opportunities to grow, whether you're in a diaspora or not in a diaspora, pull your chair closer because you are about to drink from the right sauce. I'm talking about Mr. Leslie Awasom, a gentleman who has made an incredible transition from healthcare, I don't know if it's complete, but it's almost completely into financial matters, financial liberation, financial freedom through the world of real estate. And if you're joining for the first time, you may be wondering, but who are you?

Who are you bringing this gentleman into the studio or into this virtual fireside? All right, hold it there for one second. My name is Gideon, for Moquai. I consider myself a story warrior, a product of Africa.

Produced in Asia, packaged in America and distributed worldwide. I am delighted to invite Mr. Leslie Awasom to break down what it takes to. Be successful in the diaspora.

Good morning, Mr. Awasom. Good afternoon and good evening to all the guests. Good morning, Dr.

Mukwai. Thank you so much for having me on this platform. That was an amazing introduction, by the way. I love how you introduce yourself rnd different influences that you had across the wall, and which is a reflection of the kind of person that you are.

So I am really delighted and grateful to be part of this podcast and to be here today to share the little knowledge that I have based from my experiences. you have acquired through painstaking commitment and I cannot take that for granted. First of all, which part of the world, are you joining us from today? I know you do travel quite a fair bit in the Americas and beyond.

Where are you joining us from this morning? It's morning now for me in a Dallas, Texas. I don't know where you are, which part of the world? Yeah, it's actually morning where I am.

I'm in Maryland. I'm actually at home and this is like my favorite place at home, like my little library where I do most of my work and study. So yeah, my home is my favorite place. It's good to catch you at home R because I'm sure you'd be more centered because I don't want to catch you.

Last time we met, I think it was somewhere in Houston and there a lot. that were looking up to you, seeking advice from you on how to, where to put your financial resources, where to put in the right bucket. And you did a very good job of explaining to them where they should put their money. But I know the reason you today is because you are writing a new chapter in the way that people of African ancestry, people of African diaspora, they can write new stories of success in the financial world.

I know you're one of the co-founders of Ex, XSITE Capital. Tell us about XSITE Capital. Oh, thank you. So XSITE Capital Investments is a private equity firm focused in the acquisition of multifamily assets that's buying large apartment complexes.

We focus on buying apartment complexes that constitute at least 100 units. And so we buy 100 units or more assets in growing markets across the US. And XSITE Capital was founded in 2019 by myself and my two amazing partners, Dr. Julius Oni, and Mr.

Tony Tolofari. And it was founded because all three of us are busy professionals, and all where African immigrants who followed the traditional path of migrating to the U.S., and going to school and getting a job. But once we got on that path, got a job and started working in our respective careers that each of like this cannot be it there has to be more like the traditional path of just going to work saving money in your 401k and hoping that by the time you retire it's all going that you that story just did not resonate with us so we individually sought different methods looked at different ways to diversify and grow our wealth and came across real estate and discovered the world of multifamily investing. And again, I'm referring to Raffa and complexes as African immigrants,.

We all that lived in apartment complexes, but while living in an apartment, I never really stopped to ask myself who owns this? Can I own it myself? And that was like a foreign concept to a lot of us. So, but when we discovered that it is possible, all the communities are doing it and they're able to own this and create work for themselves members of that community.

Uh we said it we knew it was our duty, we took it upon ourselves to create a platform um that will focus on this asset class and not just focus on acquiring these assets but also focus heavily on educating members of our community about the power that exists in this asset class and uh and provide opportunities. Opportunities, for members of our community and when I'm referring to community, I'm talking about members of our immigrant community, members of our professional community, provide them with opportunities to invest in these assets that are sitting out there right in front of you but most of us did not know that we have access to it and it's truly one of the most powerful work creation R tools, that are available to us here in the United States. Very interesting. I am fascinated by what you're saying because it looks like most of us who are here as part of the African diaspora and even diaspora from other parts of the world, we were sold a lie or we bought into RIM that was broken but somebody said it was a perfect dream And you went into, uh, nursing and in East Asia.

It wasn't, it's not a field that, uh, it certainly, it's highly regarded field. You are already making inroads in that professional area, but tell us, how could someone in a field that is highly regarded like, and this Asia to find that, uh, the dream is a broken dream or we've been sold a lie. tell us something about that and what you found missing. Yeah so I would not put it in the exact there's a more expansive universe of opportunity than that.

But a lot of us never really get exposed to that. And to know four out of hours because what we know is the information that we've been given I walked down that same path of the limited truth that was sold to us, which is go to school, do all the school, get a job, and I did that. You know, as an immigrant, you come to the US, there's a common thing that one of my friends told me, which is true that here in the US, your life in the US is highly dependent on who picks you up at the airport when you land. Because at that point you're hungry, you're fresh, your mind is open, you're coming to the lack of opportunity, the person picking you up, has been there before, knows the area R.

If that person is telling you, first thing, it's what it is, that's what you believe, or computer is what it is, that's what you believe, right? The person that picked me up from the airport is my lovely mother, my love and respect so much and I'm so appreciative of for everything that she's done for myself my siblings and my mom is a nurse and as an immigrant she came here to with our nursing degree and was able to stabilize really so she encouraged us to get into healthcare and which is I started off in computer sense that didn't work out so well then I went into healthcare and nursing I said well mom is right let me do that. So got into nursing, did well in nursing undergrad and again I'm always the growth-seeking individual. So the next lot I had to ask myself, okay, I am an undergraduate practicing nurse, what's the next step?

I look at all the options that are available to me. The top option was like in nurse anesthesia which is probably one of the most prestigious careers in nursing in the US. I'm a very challenging, I love a challenge. So I took upon that to go that route as well.

And I was blessed to go through it and started working. I've had a really great job as a nurse anesthetist over the last nine years. It has done so much for me. It has been like a very rewarding career financially.

It has given me the resources for me to be able to take out my family. It has given me the resources for me to be able to invest in myself and invest in the businesses that I'm building and that we built, right? So, but once I got in at what was thought to be like this pinnacle, I get rid of the feeling like, there has to be more, like. What if there is more?

What does that all look like, right? So that curiosity pushed me down the path of doing a little bit of introspection and research. Then I came across a book by one of my- on my favorite authors, Robert Kiyos aki. That is called, second chance at your money in your life.

And when I picked up that book, I felt like it was one of my lost, my long-lost uncles, was just giving me the answers of everything that I, all the questions I've had. You know, so at that point I was so desperate for more that I was willing to take the step and do some of the things that he was recommending, although it was way outside of that limited truth that I was I saw. So that's our real estate and I met my partners, we founded XSITE Capital and we were going the company to a point now where I am getting ready to completely lead the anesthesia profession and be 100% entrepreneur in the next few months. I can only understand that of course when you get busy you get busier with more and more acquisitions with more and more partners coming in there will be a lot more expectations but let's just talk briefly about second chance I think I bought a copy of it yesterday on Audible.

I thanks to your influence. I spotted it somewhere I think on one of your publications and I said you know what if Leslie is reading that I better read that that you know but what I'm understanding here is you are a man on a mission. You're a man in pursuit of a better tomorrow. You understand that the world as it is, in my own words, is broken.

It needs someone XSITE Capital. The name sounds very exciting. Tell. What went behind that name?

Exide. sound exciting, the opportunities sounded exciting like when we discovered multi-family investing and we sat down and we were thinking to ourselves oh my god like how many of us in the immigrant community do not know that this actually exists like because we had gone we were going to conferences. We'll go to all these conferences we've been blessed to have some mentors from different communities like the Indian and Jewish community and we'll see what they're doing in their communities, like where they're banding together and buying these assets and able to create work for themselves. And we asked ourselves so, what if really got us excited.

We thought about a bunch of different names, but when we when XSITE Capital came we were like okay that's the name a problem we didn't want it to be like excite like exciting so we use x to we want it to sound the same so we use x and then the site right you look at our logo the eyes of building which is a vision of where we want to take the company to that's beautiful and when I asked that question I did not know that it was going to really reveal such an exciting background or undertone to eat. But that's very unique. Now, when you started XSITE Capital, I'm sure like you said, 2019 It's been a few years now. How do you compare what a company is today with where.

It was in 2019? It's night and day. It's had nothing that we had right now. All we had was that belief and that vision and that excitement that this is something that we think is powerful and we want r and we wanted to go out there and spread this gospel of multi-family investing to our community.

That's all we. Right. We didn't have no rich uncles, no backers, none of that. Right.

Initially when the company started, was just Tenny and I. And all we had were our jobs and this vision, and we got we do the meetups that we do now every month. Our very first meetup, only about three people showed up. It was nothing like it is today, right?

So there's a lot of growth that has happened. When it started, it was Tenny and I. And then along the way, we met Dr. Oni and doctor only came on board and then things was escalated from there you know he just took us to a whole other level so but so a lot of change and growth has happened since we started right and it took a lot of time and a lot of daily work a lot of hard work for us to get to where we are today thank you very much for saying that because R some people when they see a finished product not even a finished product someone that is amazing maybe in the way they the work and the way they talk and the way they sing or in the way that you have built XSITE Capital to what it is today.

They look at it and say, wow, they don't know how much work you've put in the backyard. They don't know how much work you've put in the back you know back office. They have no clue. So tell us with the first meeting you had three people.

Tell us an average meeting today about how many people show up about 50 on average online, we've had like ones that goes 100 or more depends on what the topic is, but average is about 50. There you go. I love to hear that because it begins to demonstrate to any goal seeker to anyone out there who wants to accomplish something that it takes a lot of work to get things done, especially when you're going out there when there's no roadmap. And that's exactly what you and your co-founders, you and your partners have done, you're going.

Where there is no footpath and you're leaving a footprint. So tell us, where do you see XSITE Capital going in the next five years? 10 years. I want our audience, our viewers to see the vision, to see the excitement that you see, because this is going somewhere and I can see it.

I can feel it based on the kind of gravitas. Based on the kind of energy that I'm seeing, virtually. And when I've spoken with you, I realized, you know what? This.

Man is on a mission. So what do you see yourself in five years or 10 years? So in 10 years, our north. Is to have $5 billion, like $5 billion of assets under management.

Yes. Currently have $168 million of assets under management. And so that $5 billion is our North Star for 10 years. And to get there, it will require us to grow, and significantly grow our investor base, significantly grow ourselves, grow our knowledge, grow our team.

So we see XSITE Capital in 10 years, not just focus, not just becoming a US company, but becoming a global company. That is creating vehicles for people to grow their world and providing the education and inspiration for people to think beyond the limited truth that, that we've been sold, you, so. So that's where we're going over the next 10 years. That is phenomenal.

R, like you call it limited truth, probably the broken world that needs someone with good hands, a good vision to mend it, to mold it, to make it a little bit better, to a lot more attractive. And so that you've been encountering so far? You talk about challenges. Every day is one challenge after the other.

So that's what the essence of entrepreneurship is. It's all about solving problems. Like initially when we started off, we can not even raise capital. We had an opportunity to buy a deal to be part of a deal and we can not even raise $1,000 towards that deal.

So that challenge taught us a lesson. And then we learned from that challenge and then made changes that pushed us to be successful, right? So every day it's one challenge after another. Whether it's like figuring out marketing, like figuring out communication with our investors or whether it's even like just breaking into this close-knit circle, which is what the family is investing, right?

That has been a challenge because there are not too many minorities in that industry. So breaking into it has been a challenge, but we've been pushed our way through. Just go out there with our open hearts, open mind, like clear intentions, to give value and we've been so blessed and we are so grateful that we've been invited into some spaces that we never thought existed. So we look at every challenge as an opportunity.

And the more we see a challenge, the more we look at where the opportunity is, and then we go out and try to walk around that, and that has significantly helped us in that road. But every day is like multiple challenges, even, like, with team members, bringing in team members, a some of them not necessarily being the good fit long term, have to go back all over again. Spending money on the wrong resources, or the wrong system, like the wrong, like spending money on the wrong stuff and they realize they're not getting results on that, but you just make adjustments along the way and keep going. Yes, I really enjoy that, but not the pain that you go through, but the fact that you love to see When you see an obstacle, don't always run away from it.

R take some time to examine it, take some time to look at it closely, you may be able to find a workaround through it, under it, over it, beside it. And there are so many opportunities that we just don't see. Like they said, people die for lack of vision. Or lack of knowledge.

Not so much because of lack of resources. Yeah, give us a little bit more of how you are using your faith, your vision, to break through some of these challenges and getting invited into rooms where you would otherwise not even be invited. So what role is faith playing in your breakthroughs, in your ability to go where no one has got? Oh my, this is such a good question.

place a massive role in what we're doing. And when I'm talking about faith, I'm not talking about like, faith as in like religion, right? So, one of the things, the formula to miracles, I read it from a book called The Miracle Equation by Hal Arroyd, right? Formula to miracles is unwavering faith and mass action, right?

Mass action is what we do every single day but sometimes to do that massive actually you need to have you must have that unwavering faith, right? So what is unwavering faith? Now this is on waving faith, this is the best description I have for waving faith that I've R come across. It's like let's say you live in Dallas, right?

You've driven from Dallas to Houston so many times, right? You know for a fact that you sitting in Houston, you're sitting in Dallas, Houston exists, right? And you get up in your house one day and you say you want to drive to Houston. And as you get in your car, it starts raining.

It is dark outside, right. All you can see ahead of you is the next 100 meters or the next 100 yards right. But you know without a doubt that when you take that 100 100 meters or 100 yards, your life is going to show you the next 100. Yeah.

Right. They know without a doubt that Houston exists. Right. But you may not see the next curve or the next turn that's going to get you to Houston.

When you see the next 100 that's all to go, right? So that has been like so powerful in my growth because a lot of people start something want to figure out how is going to get to the end before we start anything that fate that, okay for example, like we said our goal this year, we're going to buy 200 million of assets, we want to buy a $50 million deal. Do we have the path already set of how we going to acquire that $50 million deal before we set that goal? No.

But we know once we set that goal and we know that goal exists because somebody else has bought a $50 million deal. So we know once we take first 100 steps, the next 100 steps are going to show up. And we put in that massive action every single day because the massive action is what gets you from where you are to the next 100 meters. So faith plays a massive role in whatever you do.

You have to believe that whatever you're going after actually is this and it's actually good R or you're gonna start a half a 75-75 K. exemptions that we use is Rec. 506B, which means we could take non-accredited investor. But we have to establish a substantive relationship with that person, which means we must provide prior communication.

Like you and I, we've met so many times. So that that substantive relationship exists. So those are the two exemptions that we use for investing and I'm Now go to math you've done the math on eight percent average annual return now go to the math on 15 On 18 percent average on our returns and see how fast it takes for you to grow your world now When now that is knowledge that has been hiding in plain sight for all of us here in the United It's open for all of us to do this to capitalize and invest in. So I'm just grateful that.

We discovered it and that is why we get so excited why we talk about it because we get to educate other people about it. Isn't that beautiful that you now I've been fascinated by compound interest, I mean, this is fascinating. And I know that people out there that are dying to find something credible that it can be part of, but they R don't know. And in our community, that that we bring upon ourselves.

Because if you did not take the time to study these other blue oceans out there, I would definitely not even be familiar with it, even though I do a fair bit of reading.. So I can imagine that there are a lot of people that still don't have R access to this knowledge. So you said part of the goal is to start educating some of the people in our community. So what are you doing in the world of education?

you're doing to get this message out so the more people who have excess cash on the side can put it in the right bucket because some of our people have been burnt. They've sent money home, I've been burnt. Not once, not twice, countless times. Send money home to someone who has a very different take on investment and they take it like it's a Christmas day and they blow it away.

So my question is, what are you doing to make sure that more and more of the people that need this information are aware of it? Yeah, I'm gonna answer that question then I want to hit on the money, sending money home because I have been there before. So, this is where we started. But go ahead, I don't want to rp you.

I was running a weekly on the writing course where I was teaching people on the right properties and stuff, and a lot of members of our community reached out and said, you know, like, you guys are doing this, it's not really structured. Why don't you guys learn something really formal? Because this education is needed in our community. So last year we created Excite Academy, which is going to be an educational platform.

We've launched our first course on Excite Academy. It's a digital course. On multifamily investing, I highly, if you're thinking about investing in multifamily assets, I highly recommend it. Because one of the most important thing you must have is the prerequisite knowledge of how these assets work, and on the risk that are involved.

It's great assets. r you can make a ton of money but like every investment you can lose your money to. So the way you prevent that, although the risk with this is significantly lower than most investments, but the way you prevent that become foolproof is by getting the right education. So we have that course and that you could take and learn how to invest.

This as a passive investor and we also want to create other apartment owners. So we launched a very small mentorship program where we're gonna be taking only 20 people to help bide at first apartment building, which is kind of like a done with you approach where we hold their hands and help introduce them to some of our resources, some of the networks that we've, been able to break into so they could get on the path to owning that first deal. Something that we did not have when we started. , so we have that going as well.

And later on this year, I'm gonna expand on the education of peace because we're learning a lot about finances, All of us get bachelor's, master's, PhD. By the time you've done the amount of books you've read, you just want to sit back and enjoy life, and that's where I was. Which I don't subscribe to at all because when you drop that degree, that's when you should really start learning to leave. That's probably when the education started, but our living system was set up to beat us up so much that by the time you've done, you don't even want to see a book, R I.

because if you think about it a lot of the stuff that the teachers, It's like you don't even use it in your career. Yes. I remember when I got out of anesthesia school, I was like I would never open a book again. You know, so I've been there before, but look at the behind me my lab, it's like I've read over since I picked second chance, I've read over 500 500.

And I read every single day and because I read, I go implement and I see the result. Yes. That's probably where I failed to a lot extent. I've read like crazy.

I've not implemented as much. And so I'm rededicating myself to starting to implement even just 10% of what I know, which I thought different places, whether it's in Asia, here in America, Europe, in the Middle East. If I can implement 10% of that, there'll be revolution. But to your point, some of our people think that formal education is all that there is.

But I academy. All of these are helping people who are already qualified with formal education to do things that are more practical and bring more results to a community. So you're familiar with our community, people don't quite like reading and that's yeah that's a little bit sad but in other communities that you work with let's say the Indian community or the Jewish community that I'm very family, the Chinese community, more R with each other, right? And that's something that I, myself, had growing out because we thought not to trust this person because they're from this, not to trust this other person because they're from that.

Like I'll give you an example. My two partners and Nigerians, and you can imagine all the stereotypes and everything that we've heard about Niger. And all of that, you know, I'm really grateful because my mom kind of raised me differently to the more open minded people. So I never really judge people based off of the stereotypes and all of that.

I judge people based off the experiences that I have with them. Yes, I will lay my life on the line for them. Yes, I any day any time It right because these are people that are trustworthy that I trust that I have that kind of level of trust with them But if I had listened if I listen like when I met any I would have been oh my god This guy's in a day and I should not be partnering Yes, you know and I would have a missed out on a significant opportunity to learn a lot Yes, sir. Most of them have had the opportunity to go to Nigeria actually spend some time over.

There from an observer's perspective, and I Nigeria. It's a giant. Yes. So rising, trying to learn from Nigerians, right?

The way they carry themselves with a sense of identity. Oh, my partner is that Nigeria is the future of Africa and in the next 10 to 20 years, we're going to start seeing that you don have to go far to look at it. Just see what happened with Afro beats. Yeah, you would tell that what's coming.

So again, so some of these stereotypes just lead to mistrust, like I don't know where those stereotypes, came from, but if you look at some of the Rgents, it was created to keep us intentionally separated, right? Yes. And you find it difficult for each other. From all the learnings that I have gotten from my personal development journey, I can see it even in our Cameroonian community, right?

Nothing in Cameroon can, the greatest thing that leads to failure when communities try to come together in Cameroon is time right? You just need. To give it some time.. Yes.

All the negatives will start emerging themselves. People can get inspired and say, Oh, let's do this. Let's do this. Just give it some time.

It takes eight months. You're going to start seeing it emerging. It's not. It's not.

It's not by coincidence. Yes. I know means it's not by coincidence. specifically because the information that we have been told, it is because of the.

Information that was transferred to us and it builds this foundation of mistrust that we have to have amongst each other. Yes. I spent some time studying like the Jewish philosophy. I got read so many books by Jewish authors and how they view money and the way they interpret.

The Bible and all of that and I'm telling you like there's absolutely no way you understand why they're so successful. Number one, they're described as a chosen, right? If you go up in life knowing that you're chosen, you can go and try to push against anything because you know you're chosen, there's somebody that's always there with you. So I decided to wire myself to that way, that challenge is because I know there's a higher part that's pushing me.

So that's something that I learned from that community. And the other thing that I learned is they work together. We had the privilege of being invited to like an Orthodox Jewish real estate conference in Florida back in November. And you go to a space you see thousands of people all of them are accomplished millionaires, their own a multiple assets all over the U.S.

they are humble, the humility is seen, the communication, the community, the sense of community is there, they're open to each other, transactions happen between each other, they're open to each other and want to work with you and you're open right now, think about some of the stereotypes that we've learned about somes of this community. When you go in there, you realize that people are just people. Yes, people want to work with people that share the similar interests with them. So we must, we have to start changing that in our community.

Thank you. There is absolutely no way we grow as a continent as a people if we do not work with people, right? So we possess a lot of resources, a lot of intelligence amongst us, a lot of discipline, but when we are together, we produce so much. Look, I want to excited capital has been able to done, we've been able to acquire 168 million of assets under management with 70% of our investors being immigrants.

Very small number, like 70% of about 200. There you go You require 168 million of us imagine what will happen We are a thousand 2,000 2,000, 3,000 The Nigerian professional community alone in the US is 750,000 working professionals The camera community is thousands of to start thinking of coming together and doing this you don't have to please you don't have to invest with XSITE Capital. Yes. If you want to go create another XSITE Capital you come and if you qualify it will take you on and will mentor you teach you how to do it.

There you go. We must like we must continue to work together as a community to grow further because there's so much opportunities out there for everybody there's more than enough for all of us. Thank you so much for saying that and saying it was as you could see I was just like groening and not groaning in a bad way but like in agreement with you because what has really beset us is a tribal mindset yes we held back by the father oh my god that one is family queue oh my god that one is not great oh my no people are people humans are humans everywhere you go You know, when I went to Singapore in my mid 20s, everybody said to me, don't go to America. I went on my own instincts and I've never found a place more beautiful, more tolerant.

I I've never found a place more engaging in every single sense of the word. It flows through my system the thinking the way that things get done right not just getting things done but getting things done right it's like it's a philosophy that we need to humble ourselves and learn and even millionaires are humble billionaires are humble they go to the coffee shop and they drink coffee they they're normal people they're not showing up they're not bullying , people around that really struck a card with me and so when you talk about this tribal mindset, and you talk about what you've learned from the other communities, it really resonates very clearly with me because I've seen it in our community and I wish and I pray we can learn from these other communities that have done R homework, they've excelled, we can learn from them. But now, so there's a cultural dimension to it. Last week, I was part of a group known as African Ting Tank.

Beautiful, R brought people in from all corners of Africa and they were talking ideas just like what you're talking about. Do you not realize it's not just about the problem is not the finances. The problem is we need a cultural shift in the way that we b articulate our problems in the way that we articulate the importance of getting together. Do you see that that's a new piece that we need to think about that will help us to start molding together, building together, not building apart because what's killing us is not that we're not brilliant, we're brilliant, but we don't build together.

And in my little humble way, maybe I now disclose, bring the cut out of the back. What I'm doing here on this platform is begin to start conversations with folks that look like us, with folks that don't look like us. Who can share ideas with us and with others? Because it's about not just us, but everyone else.

So we begin to see that what holds us together is far stronger than what holds us apart. And it's Black History Month, Martin Luther King said, judge me by the content of my content. When you were speaking, I was thinking, okay, this is something like Dr King would say, but you're seeing it in the financial world. So what else can we do?

What kind of collaborations can XSITE Capital put together with other organizations, with other people of good faith, good will, to start molding that cultural peace. Because without that, even if we put the money together sooner than later, we'll start fighting. What else can we do to build those bridges and understand it? So these those are some great points.

And that's a very good question. Um, the question I asked for the audience, anybody listening to this is, it's what we're doing right now is it working right and they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and hoping that they get a different result clearly what we, we're doing right now is not working. It is not working at all for all of us right so there has to be that change in mindset that change in culture right and it's on us to do it right we can sit and talk about it and then come over and because I'm not the first one to talk about it you're not the first when to talk about it. This is something we've always known.

We've known all along and our ancestors, our elders have spoken about a bit, but we haven't done anything to change that narrative. So, XSITE Capital, one of our ethos is to lead by example, like to show this by example. We hold ourselves to a very strong core values, right? Our honesty and transparency being one of them, abundance and growth, like we understand that there's more than enough to go around, right?

Yes. We don't lose anything by sharing everything we know with somebody else. Wow. And like, and during to be unique, which is like doing some of these things R by taking the example.

Because we could talk about it, but what are we doing? Yes. And in our actions in what we're doing, like we always hope we do collaboration, right? and one, you have a great thing that you're doing that aligns with what our vision and our goals are.

We would love to collaborate with you. If there's anything that we could do to help in your own growth, we would love to give that. And you see, that's one of the reasons why we launched this one-on-one mentorship program. Tenny and I were just talking about it this past week.

I was in Charlotte. to exclusive deals. And we were like, but why do other people not do this? This person trusts you, somebody else, you mentoring wants it.

Why do you want them to go through all the steps? Introduce your shake-hands, now you have the credibility, go by your own ego, right? There's so many, there's so much more out there. And the thing is, once you start doing something like that because of the way we've been trained.

There's a lot of suspicion, right. There's a lot of doubters that come in, they call, oh, this, that you hear all of that. So we know that's the path we have to walk through, right? And we know that it.

It might take us setting an example for somebody else to follow. And that's an example. So I encourage others out there that are doing it, there are some other people that are doing it in silence and not being out there and telling the story like we are right now. Yes.

And that's how we initially, we you guys must go out there and share the story because it's a powerful one, you know, because we thought that when you're doing something, oh, don't let your neighbor know. So I had to struggle with that. Right. We had to change a lot of that.

So, um, like the African thing, then I think is a great, that's a great platform, good organization. Let's keep doing that. Let's keep having the conversations and then move from conversations to leading When you do something, you figure it out, pull your brother's arm, show them that that this is how it is, you know, like it, nobody has taken anything from you by showing somebody else how to do it. The truth is, there's so much more opportunity.

So Ruch, so much more, that is the key word I hear from you so much more, and the communities that have molded me, yes, beyond home, I would have to admit, have taught me that there's so much more to go around. There's enough bread for everybody. If we just pause and look at how much we've already accumulated, we realize we're R-not probably even going to consume all of that. So get a little piece of that share with somebody also.

I really applaud you for studying XS Academy, which, as you say, will begin to mentor you right? Yes. And who could be a good beneficiary of that? So an accredited investor is somebody according to the SEC definition is somebody that makes $200, 000 an income a year in.

Personal income as an individual or that makes $300 000 a year as a couple, right? So it's just an income qualifier that that needs to access to more so the way that your system is set up, right, truly set out to favor the more successful. Absolutely true. They have all these qualifiers accredited investors, qualified investors, and there's a difference to what you have access to.

A lot of us that make 200, $300,000 a year don't even know that we are credit investors and have access to this. And I'm talking about private real estate, private credit, all these other investments that give double digit return, right? And then when you go like a qualified investors, you got to have a network of like $2 million, $2 million. And with that, that even gives you access to more exclusive, more investments like these are the investments that give you like uh that when it works it gives you like 100 x yes uh return on investment you understand so but the not so savvy and not so um the other people that don't know about it or the lower income let's say go put all your money in the 401k stop market how dangerous is that exactly and that is probably one of the risk case investments that's out there unless you're just putting it like on the SMT and just let it float over there.

But then why the rich investing and all this the accredited investors and investing is all these other assets and getting double triple digit returns. But like I mentioned, there's been a lot of push for more access to sign me up. Sign me up. I believe.

The more knowledge we have, the better because I'm an educator, it down to the masses so that everybody can benefit from it. And I wanna be sure because I grew up with the masses, I grew up down and out. I wanna be able to contribute in some way in taking those ideas, stealing those ideas from wherever they may be hiding in the ivory towers and take them to the main street so that the people who are really genuinely hungry can benefit from that. And that's what I see that exit capital is doing.

You're stealing the elixir from the top of the mountain. You're Raking the hot fire. those who are seeing desperate need to find a better way to because that's a physiological need and as you go about this journey, I am in awe because you're putting yourself out there. You're super approachable.

You are genuine, you're authentic and I see the values and principles as very inspiring. So let me ask you a question. If there's a young immigrant from Africa, from Asia, from Middle East, from Southern America, what wants to grow up and do what you do? What should they be more interested with?

Should it be formal education, informal education? What steps would you provide to someone who is in their 20s and saying, you know what? When I grow up, I want to be like Mr. What's up?

Oh, that's such a good question. And it brings me to something, which I'm just going to talk about then answer the question I grew up in. I went to primary screen combat in the northwest problems a very sad that time was a very small and remote delay. And growing up in that village, I remember way and thought,.

You know, there's a big world out there. I had this big vision of the world, but I just didn't know how to get there. I just didn't know what to do. But I always had that belief within my mind that there's a much bigger scope to the world than what I see in that environment.

And I say I prefer that to say that I know that there are many other young kids growing up in Africa all over the world that I look in at that too and seeing that, right? And that was one of the things that pushed me out of my shell to be able to share my story because being public is not something that I'm very comfortable with to be honest with you, but I do it because I so that somebody else is going to see it, and they're like, you know what, he does it, so I can do it. And that has been happening. I'm getting like people reaching out to me from.

Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, and asking these questions that you're asking. Now you know my mind reader, I can read what's on the minds of the viewers and the audience. Yes, so they want to know what part to do. I'll say important first of all, at least get a good foundation, like get a good foundation, basic education.

You gotta first of all know how to understand, how to look at numbers, read, you know and all of that. I don't know what kind of education that requires, if you can informally train yourself, read by yourself to do that, that's fine. But one of the biggest things you got to have is the belief that you can accomplish, whatever it is that you set in your mind to. You got to have that belief because it's not an easy journey to transition from that part to getting to this.

Righ? Because he's talking from like, we're nothing. So I'll say, once you have that belief set, right, start educating yourself. You talked about the informal sector of education is very powerful.

YouTube University is a thing, R.I.DRE. Whatever section you want to focus in on, zero it down on YouTube. Like I had a young lady reached out to me from the Middle East. That's an immigrant over there, I was asking about what to do and I recommended that you like marketing, go online, digital marketing, just consume as much content in University of Digital Marketing and start testing it out.

And you do that for over a year, you're going to be surprised by where you're going to take yourself, so right. Absolutely. I want to really mention this because it's important. It's not a get rich quick idea, whatever it is that you want, you must put in the time and the work.

I don't see me talking about the 168 million and thought that I read Second Chance and then all of a sudden, I had the book. It has been a daily grind every single day. Yes were going to grow myself reading more books. Pushing myself out going out to network with other people Which is the other most important part is.

To step out of that circle that you're in right now. Yes, sir. If you're not where you are in life, that means that you are not you don't have the right people. to right.

Set a goal to provide. investors that I'm really passionate about started with nothing just the idea and I've been able to get to where I am so I'm at some point I'll put my thoughts together and then be able to see if I could offer that or something that I help others that want to go in that path as well. I love teaching people. I love seeing people grow.

I think that is, the core of who I am. Yes when I was in CPC Valley as a very young man, I was the youngest in my class, but my classmates used to call me for advice because I always loved to teach people what I'm talking about back then. Go CPC, go Bobas, go, crazy guys, I love seeing other people succeed so however way I could transfer my experiences or knowledge to other people to help them grow, I would love to keepI keep doing that. Talking about that advice if you read that book making the crossover from health care to financial care I would love to be the first person to stand in line and buy my copy and get it a autographed by you and if you want to work on fine-tuning those stories so that they glow so that they can touch and encourage and your courage, your tenacity to go get it done.

That really is so inspiring to me. And I mean, inviting all the story warriors, story warrior associates, story warrior fans in Asia, in America, in the Middle-East, in Europe, in Africa, all over, wherever you are, please go check out XSITE Capital. How can we find XSITE Capital? How can we get in touch with you?

? How can we be part of this movement that you're creating? You are the hardware top man of Financial K as I would This is some big shoes to carry Get a step from somewhere Financial K on the ground So x-ray capital is spelled X as in xylophone S as in Sam, I-T-E, x-ray capital, you can search us online Our website is www.x-raycapital.com My name is Leslie Awasom. That's my name on all the social media platforms.

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn, sharing my story of how I got here on LinkedIn. So please connect with me on LinkedIn, on any of the social media platforms, and to learn more about what we're doing, go on our website, we have a ton of resources on there. We keep updating it and adding more resources, and we have a ton of information and any opportunities that we have that are upcoming, will have it on our website as well.

So I look forward to connecting with you and yeah so let's keep growing. There's so much more there for all of us and let's keep going all right amazing so this is a very last segment we do the rapid fire segment which is just to help people get to know you a little bit more so a short question short answer m. Mr Leslie Awasom tell us when did you first arrive America May 15 2000 okay when did you found or co found Exide r February 2nd 2019 Man those dates are so precise. Tell us.

What is your favorite day of the week? Tuesday Tell us What is your favorite Book? Ah, man, that's a tough question Give us top There's so many books that I love Ah I have a second chance in there because it's one of those is the book that got me on that path. The other Because it taught me about the power of beliefs and how I could exchange my beliefs and that has really helped me grow the power And there are many mine.

Okay, the code of the ordinary mine. Okay code of the extraordinary member everything they can eat And then I. I'm gonna wrap it up with We think and grow reach by Napoleon Hill because that's a foundational book on and like The power of our thoughts and how we could tap into that to create some really good results. And that keeps coming It keeps coming up over and over for most of the extraordinary people that we have interviewed here on this channel.

And what's, your favorite ice cream? Anything with caramel flavor. Okay, favorite city in America? Charlotte, favorite place to go on vacation.

very much. My vacation is reading books. Fair enough, you need that the knowledge. Yeah, so favorite place, Mexico.

I like Mexico. Okay, and the final one, prefer a chew or arrow. Say that again. Oh no, we got frozen.

Yeah, my response to the last question was I'm a monk or man so that's an easy answer. I chew all the way. I don't want my answer to come after me. I chew all the way okay well I think it might lose today but it might not lose tomorrow because who knows the guest that's coming up next but I know.

Thank you so much Mr. Leslie I want some of XSITE Capital.. This has been a phenomenal conversation just unpacking your journey from humble beginnings in Cambay to where you are now in Baltimore and you are leading a transition or a transformation within our community. What you do definitely is touching lives and you're one of our four identified trade blazers that I would like to call the highly attackments of financial care that are building an underground train to get people our people from ignorance to informed because when you informed and you're confident and you have beliefs you.

Can do extraordinary things. This has been Gideon Formuquai of the Story Warrior Channel. Thank you Mr. Awasom for his time.

And sir, thank you for all you do. May you keep encouraging. May you keep inspiring. We appreciate you very much.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for those kind words. I am truly honored. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Now for a quick message from Anthropic, the team behind Claude, the AI built for businesses. Imagination doesn't need permission. Just room to play. Claude is an AI that works alongside you to give your ideas the space they need to grow and then it helps you make them real and ready to ship.

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See official rules at mickelope ultra.com slash courtside for free deadlines, prizes and details. Welcome everybody once again to the sleeping with Sonya podcast and am thrilled to have with me today a friend that I met in my travels weirdly enough who has since becomeed such an inspiration to my life, Mr. Leslie Awasom. Thank you, Sonia.

I'm very happy to be here. It's a pleasure to have you. So before we dive into our conversation, I think it's important for people to recognize something that I think you have spoken about, the power of networking and how you and I actually met at sort of a networking event. Absolutely, your network, like it's commonly said that your network is your network.

That's not a simple statement, it carries a lot of power and it networking is everything. You-you gotta get out there and meet people, talk to people. And you get to learn a lot from people because if you've got it, everything that you want or everything that you seek here on earth, it has to come through people. so it's by going out there and putting yourself in those circles of people that you wanna be like that you're gonna get.

So one of the things that. So networking is truly everything. And I'm glad I got to meet you at this event, Sonia. Of course,.

Of course. So we were- so we were back at the Nursing Empowerment's Summit in Washington DC when we first met. And I think it's worth mentioning. I'm gonna give a little bit of a background about your bio market data analysis, cash flow, and budget analysis.

I have no idea what those things mean. That's why we have you here. b As an entrepreneur and real estate investor, Mr. O'Wason began his journey in real estate investing with single family properties in 2017 and transitioned to multifamily in 2019.

Together with his partners, they currently own and manage a portfolio of multifamily real estate. All right, I had to like, I actually highlighted this, $168 million, not $168,168.000, $168 million. So, in addition to Ventures in Real Estate, Leslie founded the e-commerce company and co-founded a wellness clinic in Baltimore, Maryland in 2021. His training includes being a nurse anestBtus and earning a master's degree from the University of Baltimore, Maryland.

I'm sorry, university of Maryland, Baltimore, I got that backwards. He remains deeply passionate about building businesses and thrives on adding value to individuals' lives to help shape their financial futures. And of course, outside of work, Leslie has a cherished role as a husband and father to three beautiful children. So, Leslie, how do you stay grounded?

- Yes, I do. How do you stay grounded? That is a lot going on and it's incredible. It is a lot going on and that's what keeps me grounded, actually, because it's funny, like, that's what I enjoy doing.

So being able to put myself in this position to challenge myself to grow, to be constantly learning and constantly seeking ways to give value, that keeps me grounded. Doing anything else, I feel like I'm not living the life on purpose that, that I really want to so I enjoyed doing what I do and that's pretty much that simple answer to that question. You know I think I one of the things I remember most about you were one of the speakers of the event that we attended in Washington DC and I was there as a vendor and I had a table with a little book signing and I remember listening and one the most fascinating things- that really caught my attention was the fact that you have this sense of discipline and it's not just discipline it's this. sense that if you have a routine that's going to set you up for success you can achieve anything absolutely uh you know uh human character it's probably uh one of our biggest obstacles to grow so uh one of the things i learned early on my personal develop journey uh personal development journey was to eliminate the need for eliminates certain distractions, you know, to be able.

Because it doesn't matter how great of an idea you have, it doesn't matter how great of a vision you have, if you're not disciplined towards taking action towards those ideas, it's just a fancy dream, it's just a dream and it's never going to come to fruition. So I had to develop like whatever disciplines I could at that point in time, that made sense that I enjoy doing, keep going after the goals that I love doing. And then the more you do it, it not becomes more of a habit that you keep doing it over and over again. So it has been a progressive journey.

It's not one of those things that just, I just woke up from bed and learned, but I had to push myself to develop that discipline. And then when you, discipline yourself that way you start seeing the results, it becomes real. Now you want to keep doing more and keep pushing forward. Sure.

And you know, I think you and I can both attest to the fact that when you have a background in training in nurse anesthesia, when, you've gone through the rigors of that sort of profession. It almost makes it feel like figuring anything else out is kind of doable. It's sort of established that bar where if I can do this and I can keep people alive and I can provide this level of care and hypervigilance under these crazy conditions, I could figure out pretty much anything else. Absolutely, I totally agree with you.

And that's what I tell my anesthesia colleagues because a lot of times people look at some of the things that we've been able to accomplish that XSITE Capital and like, wow, or how are you able to do this? How are you able to do all this and I tell them, listen, the discipline it takes for you to become an anesthesia provider. If you apply that same discipline in anything that you do in a business world, you're going to be super successful, right? Because to become an anesthesia provider, you got to have a certain level of intelligence.

The academic side is very challenging. Going through the clinical rotations, of doing all of that,. You get bombarded with all kinds of challenges that all kinds of obstacles that get put along your way. And then taking care of the patients in the hospital itself, you know, like you have somebody talking about life and death, and you get to manage people through some of the most complex procedures that you could think of and they come on a life and comfortable idea, right?

You know, I think we underestimate what we're doing a daily basis because it just becomes like a job, I-I-I'm doing this and all of that. We underestimate what it took for us to get there, but what I've learned is like applying that same kind of discipline in business outside of like a job scenario can lead to a significant amount of growth in whatever direction you want to go. So, I think going through that education and going to that career path sets you off as success in many ways. You just have to, know how to use it and you have to want it to go out and seek it.

And, you know, I think one of the things that people may not recognize about a career in anesthesia and in nursing to begin with is the level of you have to have a certain subset of people-skills And you have to know how to have new conversations with not just patients and their families, r with all the other providers, everyone that you're working with. And that's r not the kind of stuff you learn on the fly. That's the sort of knowledge that you gain through experience and interaction. And I would imagine that has served you tremendously well in your and into business.

It definitely has, because one of the most important skills you could develop in life is listening skills, right? The biggest piece of communication is being able to be present and listening, you know. And that's one of the things that I enjoyed about health care. It's talking, and listening to patients, you know, trying to not look at the world from, not see the world from the way I see things, but try to see things from their perspective.

You know, and believe it or not, that has helped me a lot in business because once you're able to walk in the other person's shoes, then you're truly able to be able to provide value or to communicate with that person in a way that actually provides value to them, you know, and that patience that you develop from dealing with some of the challenging patients or some of those challenging situations or situations with colleagues at work, you know, all of those things, it's funny because I can name thousands and thousands of scenarios where you could transfer that from the professional world to the business world, you know, same kind of scenario, just different setting. You know, the level of transferable skills that come from what you do there every day, I think that one of the major influences that you have now is you provide sort of this blueprint of you can start here, and I don't want to call it a stepping stone, but in many ways you can say, this is where you can begin, but now look at The many ways that you can branch out. And I think what's so important for us, not only as healthcare professionals, but as humans, is to remember that we're so much more than our role. We're not just the letters after our name, and we have such potential to grow beyond whatever it is that we've achieved.

You don't necessarily just have to climb upwards. You can go outwards in many different directions and find that sort of sense of passion and purpose that may not necessarily exist going to work every day. Yeah, absolutely. And before we really dive into that, I gotta say that for some people that passion is going to work every day and doing that, right?

And that's what they strive for. That's where they get their energy from. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But on the other hand, right, there don't limit yourself to that because that's what you've walked through.

If you have that passion to seek and do something else, there's so much more than you could do I'm humbled that you see me as somebody that is setting that example for others because I really just got on this path because I was seeking for somebody else, I was looking for somebody else that I walked down the path that I could learn from and I could not see the person. So I just decided taking steps towards that and now I find myself in this position. But you're absolutely, and I go back to a quote by Tony Robbins which says that the strongest force in human psychology is the need to stay true to who we identify ourselves to be. Your identity is very powerful, right?

Your identity is very powerful. I have chills hearing that because it's that powerful. The way you identify yourself is who you're going to do everything in your world to prove that person to be, right? If you identify yourself as a CRNA, this is who I've always wanted to be.

This is my pinnacle. This is where I want to go, right? And once you get there, it's going to be tough for you to try to seek anything else because that is your identity. That is who.

You are right. But if deep within you see yourself as something other than just being a CR. And there's nothing wrong with saying I'm a CR and an entrepreneur. You don't have there's no there's nothing that that precludes you from having like another identity or adding something to that identity, right?

You got to think you got to understand that it's your life and you get to choose how you want to live it. Rght? don't lock yourself in any box that you want to be so deep down within I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur from a very young age I tried my hands in different and entrepreneurial ventures, but none of them really work. But I will start that the path to having a comfortable life and secure life, is to go get a job, get a good school, and then live life that way.

But when I did that and I got to that, I realized that this is not truly who I am. So I started seeking information on what else can be out there. And that's how I came along. I was able to discover what I think is my true, what I know is my true path, and I started working down that path.

And for others that are sitting there, and have this great idea or want to do something, and always had that itch within them. Oh, I need to, like, I am so blessed that I got to take this journey. I actually took the courage to be putting myself out there because of some of the conversations that I've had with other people that are reaching out to me. And I'm like, you know what?

always had this itch within me immigrants, my parents came from Macedonia, it felt as though, you know, for us, education was a privilege. My sister became a pharmacist, I became a nurse anesthetist, we're the first to have our doctorates in the family, and it's not something that is taken lightly by any means. So when you feel that sort of external weight of almost like a family Legacy weighing upon you it's scared to jump out of the box. You know what I mean?

It's. Scary to make the choices that say you what mom and dad Instead of entering a science field your girl wants to be a writer She wants to go write books. I mean cute. That's a cute hobby, but like be serious, right?

So you have to it truly is an act of courage to say I'm going to do what I know in my soul and in my gut feels right for me and not for everyone else around me It is the biggest part of this whole journey. It's it takes a lot of guts It takes a lot of courage and it's not just going against people that you look up to It's going against what you believe what you've been thought. This is the right path of to life This is how you supposed to do it, right and it's stepping out of that comfort, right? That comfort, that predictability and going and trying something else that you don't have that predictable path that has been designed for you, like do this, this is what you get.

So it is scary. It is very scary. When is the last time you did something that scared you? What's the last big decision that you made or the big step that you took where you said this is scary and I'm terrified, but I'm gonna dive in.

I just quit my job at Johns Hopkins Bayview in March. That's where I've been for like nine years as a full time CRNA then went PR in and was working. How it is, it's where I've been. It's where I started my career as a nurse and a steady.

it's where I grew up as a provider. It's where the facility gave me so much, right? because I never left, I never went chasing like all the big moneyynasty and all of that because right there I had a very flexible schedule. I knew my way around.

I had a great team that I worked with. So I had that predictability where I could go out and build things that I've been able to build while working at the CRNA. At that facility, I met two of my business partners. Dr.

Judas Oni was my- What a blessing. Exactly. So it's been like a real blessing to me. Dr.

Gilles, Dr. and that gives me the opportunity to do what I always want to do to working a I had to pull back from my hours at the hospital so that I can focus on helping others in a way that I. That feels pertinent to me and that's, taking care of. I don't think people really understand how much of it is an energetic exchange between the patient and the provider.

Like it or not. tough decision, but it is a decision that feels right, and I know now is the right time to do it, and I. I am just grateful that I even have the opportunity, to do this, that I found myself in this position where I'm able to make this choice and I'm able to do it, and move forward, right? I recently, I know you've probably heard a lot of people say time is money, right?

money, right? Yeah. But I recently heard listen to a speaker. He says something that.

There's this misnotion that time is equals to money. The truth is time is actually way more valuable than money. Right. And at the end of the day, we.

Have a very limited time here on there, right? So wherever we started or wherever we are right now, there's a finite point where we all gonna get there, whether you like it or not. So the question is, what are you doing with this time that you have left here, right? I tell my spouse every day, like, if I wake up, if I don, I don't wake up from sleep tomorrow, I'll be all that happy, man, because I know that every day I wake up doing the things that I enjoy doing, going after the dreams that I've always wanted to go after.

So it's not necessarily about the, for me, it really is not about the money. I know we're going to make a ton of money. Yes, I'm going to make a lot of money for what I'm doing. But for me, it's about that journey, that process of getting up, like facing the challenges, doing R that.

I really enjoy doing that. So as long as I'm walking in that path and I'm doing that. I know that I'm living the life that I'm supposed to be living. So that finite time that I have here left on earth, I'm using it to the best of my ability.

So I could go out one day smiling without any regrets. And that's you know, there's something about when you know that you're in alignment with whatever, It is that you're supposed to be doing you know, I had a moment today Leslie I'm interviewing you remotely and not in person because I'm currently recording from Bali I know for me It's late So I've taken a trip for almost four weeks for about a month taking some time to focus on that sense of why are we here and what is our purpose and what is this journey really r about. And I think that some of the people that I've come to know and admire over the years who are the most successful also have this sort of sense of spiritual growth and this emotional After and I think at the end of the day, you know today, I was sitting for a number. Of hours and I wrote 21 pages of a new book in one day.

I don't know if anybody realizes that's a lot of pages to Sit and writing that's a lot of writing to sit and just flow. But can I tell you, Leslie, it felt like magic. It was true, pure bliss to just sit and let it all come out and feel in the moment and exist in the moment. And I stopped for some point and I thought to myself, this is what brings me joy.

And it's nothing special. It's nothing that interesting to any other person. But to me, I feel at home. So the things we do, knowing that we have this limited time here-on-Earth, the self-progress or fitness or whatever the case may be.

At the end of the day, none of us know how much time we have left. So you have to use it accordingly. Absolutely. You got to do what works for you and, you know, what aligns with your purpose, you know, and do it to the best and kudos for the writing.

Man, I wish I had your writing skills I could write like you and maybe I need to come to Bali too, Sonia. Listen, you're more than welcome to invest $168 million and I'll, you know, produce whatever it is that you need me to bring to the table. That's for sure. But yeah, I do actually suggest everyone, 46 hours for me to get here, I ended up getting routed, on a route that I wasn't supposed to take because of weather issues, I was going to miss a connecting flight, so they ended up putting me on a different plane.

I was supposed to connect through Singapore. And they said, all we have right now is a nine hour layover in Melbourne, Australia. And here's the little thing about alignment, Leslie. My parents are from Macedonia.

When they left and came to America, the rest of my family, my parents, siblings, cousins, everyone, know where they went? Melbourne, Australia. Oh, nice. So they said you have a nine hour lay over.

I said, I'll take it. I saw 10 family members on it like a six hour window. I met a cousin I'd never met before for nieces and all of the spouses I'd never met before. It was.

Okay. So I know you everybody knows by now that, you know, when my mom passed away a little over two years ago, I always credit these crazy things, like me sitting in Bali right now to her sort of, pulling the strings. And I know that layover where I got to see her R sister and my uncles and aunts and everyone else. I know that was her prepping me for this journey to come to Bali.

Oh, that's so nice. It's amazing. But that, those are the things that matter. It's funny how the world works isn't it and you know it's I used to be someone who thought that there was a lot of we had a lot of I do believe that in so many ways but I'm not sure how many things in life are a coincidence sometimes I think when you meet the people like the way that you met your business partners and the way that I've met certain people like yourself and like stories of the alignment and the timing and the way things just click, you can't make that stuff up.

No, you can't. And that's the thing, right? That's also how you know you're on the right path, right? Because when you take one step, it feels like the universe takes 10,000 steps for you.

But the most important thing is you got to take that first step, right? It's not one of those things where you sit down in your house and everything comes meet you over there, right? For example, I had been working with my business partners at the same hospital for two years, right? But we had been having high, hello, high colleague conversations, right, but it wasn't until I made that decision that I'm going to step on this journey of personal growth, right?

And starting to learn on myself and then challenging myself. It's not like I changed. The only thing that changed was my attitude, right? And when you change your attitude now, every the world around you changes.

So my attitude in the way I looked at things, the way I looked at work, the way I looked at life changed. And now I started becoming close to these people, and then now the conversation changed, right? So the most important thing is you have to make that first step. You got to make that decision.

This is the path I want to go to and have that faith, right? R that once you take the next step is going to show up like I have this- this great analogy of faith, right? Which I love a lot, right? Like imagine faith is like you get up one morning, you go on a journey, you decide to take a journey to a route that you're very familiar with.

Let's say we met in Maryland and you decide one day that you're going to leave from Maryland. You're just going to drive to Virginia Beach, right? You've been to Virginia Beach before. You know Virginia Beach.

You know it's there, that destination that you want to go to. Without a doubt, you. You have that faith that is there. And you can get there.

But as you get out from your house- to drive to Virginia Beach, this huge storm starts. The cloud gets dark. And as you get in your car, you try to drive. All you can see is 100 yards ahead of you with, your light, your bright lights on.

All you can see is your 100 yards ahead of you. But you know that when you drive those 100 yards, your light is gonna show you the next 100. And you just keep going slowly. You just keep going slowly.

Because you know without a doubt that Virginia Beach exists. And all you gotta do is just take those, 100 yards, right? That's how life works. So if you know that end destination is where you're supposed to be.

if you know that's where you belong. And the end destination exists because by the time you have that idea in mind, it already exists because even if you haven't done it, somebody else has already done it. So that destination exists, right? So you got to have the faith that wherever you want to go, it exists and you're going to get there.

And you're not going to know how because a lot of us, especially a lot of us that come from the professional world, We wanna know it all before we even take the first step, it's like, you wanna know all the symptoms your patient is struggling through before you design your anesthesia plan, right? In life and in business, it doesn't work that way. one shit happens, things happen in life, you're going to have to pivot. You can't ever achieve high levels of success without failing.

You're going to fail at something. You're going to fail at something. And I listened to a podcast with Stephen Bartlett, and he described failure as really just a way of ascertaining evidence. It's a way of gathering data.

You collect enough data points in your failures to adjust and plan accordingly. But if you are paralyzed by the fear of failure and you want to know A, B, C, D, E, and G without being able to sort of be flexible, I think it's almost nearly impossible to achieve that really great high level of entrepreneurial success. Because at some point, you just have to have faith, like you said, and the fact that the next 100 feet ahead of me are what I can see, and that's enough for now. Absolutely correct.

And that kind of aligns with what I listened to one of my mentors, Alex Omozi says, it's like an entrepreneurship, the only two possible outcomes. You either succeed or you give up before you succeed, right? Failure is just like a touch point along the way. It's like, you have this journey, failure maybe is just a little bump.

When you fail, you know that you got to read the record. Right. because at that point of whatever you call failure at that same point, right, exist the opposite of that failure, which is like what you need to do next to move in the opposite direction. But if you so caught up in like that particular point in time and not looking about maybe the lesson that you need to learn from it, what you need to see to keep moving forward.

you get stuck or you pull back you know and a lot of times it's like you go into it with this fear with all this pressure from everybody around you and then you anytime any kind of obstacle that you meet it goes back oh I told you so you cannot do this why you know you got to go back to doing whatever is predictive or who do you think you are you know so that's where failure really gets us because the opinion of others puts a meaning to it that is not necessarily true so you just gotta reframe it and then just keep going it's you know there. I'm sure you hear this all the time and it's something that I hear frequently and to the point that it's almost like I like joke about it how many times in your life has somebody looked at you and said man you're so lucky. Oh, a lot of times. And I accept it.

I am lucky. R I'm You know, I especially the last few years since post-COVID and acts of gratitude and making it a daily ratic literally every single day I journal or I write and I express gratitude out loud to myself in When you say, I'm stepping away from my role in the hospital. I'm a true entrepreneur. Now.

I'm fully invested in my business It's very easy for others to look at where you stand now without considering where you came from They don't know all the pieces that it took for you to get there. Absolutely they don't and unfortunately, that's how human nature works, right? We focus so much on the end result and not really seeing every journey what it took, you know, so that's why I or whenever I have the opportunity to speak to people I get to let them know you know, it's really fun it's enjoyable but r it's not a walking apart. It requires a lot of work right over this year as well I was working full time as an anesthesia provider.

I put in a lot of work. Right. I did not nothing comes to you from sitting down. But again, that's why I said in the beginning that you have to want, whatever it is, you have to want it, right?

It doesn't matter how good or how beautiful we say it is. If you as an individual, r you do not want it, you're not going to go after it, but it does take a lot of work. Like anything in-life. I talked about the faith part.

There's a other part to it to get anything that you want in- life. And that is a massive action, right? When you have on wavering faith that wherever you want to go exists, right? The next piece is like how much action you take towards that, right?

For example, like the analogy I gave. You could've gotten out of your car, . You know Virginia Beach exists and it's raining. And you're like, you know what, I'm just gonna sit in the house for like 30 minutes and let this rain down a little bit before I go up.

Right? Or you keep going, right? Or you could have been driving down that road and maybe it got too. Stormy.

You pulled out by a gas station and said, let. Let me wait. Another few hours to go. but the other person would be like, you know, I'll keep going.

Keep pushing. It doesn't matter what off the car face. It's how fast you get to that destination. So the destination exists, right?

The work gets you there without the work. You always going to know it r going to get there. You won't get there. And I, you know, I think a lot of people confuse consistency with discipline being disciplined and being consistent or different in the sense that you don't necessarily have to show up and give 100% every single day, but you do have to show up every day.

You do have to give something every single day. And you know, I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself, man, I, I'm just not feeling inspired. And you know, it's one of those great excuses as a creative type where you could say, I've got writer's block. I don't want to do it today.

Writer's block Listen, full disclosure, writer's block is bullshit because writing and creating is like rexing a muscle. And even if all you do is right, or create one sentence, or do one thing on R to do list, or take one step on that treadmill, or, you know, do one life. It's you showing up. And by showing up,re you've set the bar.

You now are able to maintain that consistency so that next time hopefully you can show up and write two sentences, or take two steps or whatever the case may be. Absolutely you have to show up. Doesn't matter just keep showing up. And we are all human, right?

It's not gonna be every day, but give it something. Put in a little bit here, you know, there's some days are better than others, but just keep going. What advice would you give to someone who perhaps is like yourself, whether they're in healthcare or not, but there's someone who's saying, I want to self teach myself finance and investing, or business practice. What is your advice to them?

Where do you begin? Where do you begin? Where do you begin? There's so many resources out there.

There Rso many things out there, where do you start? I start with a book, right? Get a book and start reading a book in whatever area of finance that you want to go into. The one book, now, a lot R of people started with reach that for that and it made a lot of sense to them.

For me, the book that got me started on this journey was another book by Robert K Risaki called Second Chance at Your Money in Your Life. And that was a book that really answered a lot of the questions that I had at that time. and then gave me a door way to walk towards and I started walking through it. So I said start with a book.

Second Chance is a good book. Reach that for that, it's a great book. Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson is another great book that I recommend. So start with that book, then get out of your circle.

If you do not have that result that you have, that you want, get out of where you are and go out and start networking with others. Go out to other circles, Go meet other people that are doing it, you know. When I wanted to start in real estate, time. And I remember going back and sitting in my car and I'm like, I got this all wrong.

- I have this master's degree. Fancy paper on the wall and I could write whatever English you want me to write, but I am broke. I have hundreds of thousands of students. I got to put myself in the hospital every day.

I got to spend all this hours just so I could take care of my family. Like, what did I not get right? So that's what that networking does to you, right? It shows you people that are walking in your path.

Exactly, because when you see others that are doing what you're doing and you realize that they don't have two hands in their head, they don't have five hands, you realize that you two can do it. So read, go out there and then take a step. Such a great advice. And this is where we'll sort of leave it off.

because you don't know who you're talking to. You don't know who you're going to meet. You know, I've met Uber drivers and people on my people at restaurants through just being pleasant and nice who have ended up being major contacts in my life and people who I can turn to and who have become friends, you just don't know. And when you look at life as when the adventure, This can be such a great surprise.

It changes everything. It turns it into pieces of a puzzle that come together. Absolutely. Life is so much fun.

It's all about the perspective, right? And because it's the same life we leave, some people look at it one way, others look at it the other way. So it's all about the way you look at life. That's gonna determine the kind of life that you live and how you go about your life.

So yeah, it's all about the perspective for sure. Leslie, thank you so much for joining us today on the Sleeping with Sonia podcast. I think that this is gonna leave people with such a fresh perspective and a sense of optimism. It's not this mentality of the grind will kill you.

It's, you know what? This can be fun and rewarding. It's going to be challenging, but you're going to gain so much about it. So in the show notes, grateful to be on this journey and to be here.

And if you want to reach out to me, I'm Leslie Awasom everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I do a lot of content on LinkedIn as well. And if you are interested in becoming a multi-family investor or learning how to invest in multi-family properties, reach out to us at www.xi.com and it's going to be on the show notes we're more than happy to help in any way. Thank you so much Leslie for being here with us today and thank you all for listening please make sure I check out Leslie a awesome on all of his platforms you will learn something you will be inspired and hopefully you'll make some money too.

Thanks again everyone for listening until just room to play. Claude is an AI that works alongside you to give your ideas the space they need to grow and then it helps you make them real and ready to ship. Discover more with Claude at claud.ai slash span.

He now real estate and through his multi- million dollar startup initiative called Capital. Jonas, divides his time, but the United States and several countries the Middle East, bringing cutting edge orthopedheic surgery to underserved and deserving population of cultural settings across the globe. He's young, driven and passionate about the country of the [inaudible].

R. You've been fellowship director, adult reconstructive all to your name, one person. So here's my question. So who is Julius, his conquering Caesar, about time?

Tell us a bit about yourself, your educational background or what's left of it, and what's informed your career path and your choice of institutions that tend so far. Thank you. Thank you for a very long introduction. Indeed.

It is. It's, I mean Julius Oni is just a, you know, gentleman from Nigeria. You know, I was born and raised in Ondo State, you know, specifically Kariakokal. And I spent 17 years of my life in Nigeria, finished high school at the great Citadel International since you didn't mention that yet.

Anyways, and then moved on to the U.S. after that to start college. All of the things that you just mentioned happened after that. And for the next 14 years I was either an undergrad or a medical, you know, medical school or some training program.

was done with that by 2012-2013 was when I finished my fellowship program. After that I took a job, my first job in Philadelphia at Einstein Medical Center. Now known as Jefferson-Einstein and it was from there that Johns Hopkins came and recruited me and I've been there- ever since. But, yeah, so for me, I am a person who is filled with passion.

I'm a person who is driven by strong convictions. And about five years ago, I had come up with my life's vision, which the first of which is that I want to significantly contribute to improving access to high quality musculoskeletal care. in all, in extending from there, other forms of health care, in underserved countries, just starting with Nigeria. So once I came up with that vision statement a few years ago, I started working very hard towards it.

And that is the road that led me here today. Okay, thank you. And that's very useful, very interesting insight career at least you know that I've been able to articulate so far but we can teach a legitimate career. In its own right, you can be academia, you're a venture capitalist, the politicization of the entrepreneur, and you do a lot of work in the not-for-profit sector in.

Advocacy and so on and so forth. First of all, tell us what I would like to know where you find the juice, the extra hours, I would really like to know, and I'm interested in the why, as well. Also talk to me about how your interests in these three areas, they're quite separate, quite diverse. Does He knows you.

Dr. Julius Oni is at a small hospital and actually as a young chap, I would run around the hospital and in those times, I actually did not want to do medicine at all because I saw a bunch of things and I was like, that's not for me. But then, when I got to undergrad, I started to have this affinity for biological sciences, the physiology of the human body, and trying to figure out ways to address pathophysiology. Those fascinated me to the point where I knew that this was my calling.

I had to apply for medical school, and I was fortunate to get into a fantastic medical school, Howard University, where I had a great experience. really a formative experience for me was, came in my third year of medical school. I had gone into medical school thinking I wanted to be a surgical surgeon and then I was having a conversation with my father in my third year. That conversation went something like this.

Hey, how are you I'm like I'm doing fine he asked me you know what are you trying to do and what are you currently on? I'm all my cardiovascular rotations surgery rotation I still think I want to do it you know thanks for that nature and then in and then I was asking after my paternal grandmother was his mother and I was like always we call that my nurse you know how is my when I was doing you know and he went on to tell me about how she was having such severe knee pains that she was having problems getting from the living room to the bedroom. So come to find out my own grandmother at end-stage knee arthritis so that severe knee arthritis that was preventing her from being able to walk and enjoy a life and so I was I naively asked my father so Wow, in a country of at that point maybe 180 million people. Now we say 200 and 220 million people, right?

I was just flapping acid. So that started a cascade of events that led me to change my career path from cardiovascular surgery to, orthopedic surgery and very shortly, afterwards I rotated through orthopedic surgery, loved it, loved the personalities of the surgeons, started to feel like, yes, I may be finding something that I'm, super passionate about. And while I went through orthopedic surgery residency, it became very clear that,. You know, this was the path, this was what I was made for.

This is what my passion is. And right after that, I mean, because of my grandmother, and because I truly enjoy doing joint replacements, I went down the pathway of doing an additional year of fellowship in joint replacement at Rush University Medical Center, one of the foremost, you know, best places to train for joint replacements at that time, and still is. So, I mean, those, that particular formative experience led me down the path of joint replacement surgery. Unfortunately, my grandma did die about three years after that conversation.

But over the last 12 R years I've people's uncles aunties fathers mothers you know grandpa's grandpa and grandmothers and mostly in the US but also I've had the opportunity to do to take care of patients in Saudi Arabia and Qatar in Nigeria over the span of time. But, um, for me, the last several years, there's been a deep conviction in my heart to, because I know still today in 2024, there are still so many a people just like my grandmother back in 2006. We'll still have significant need for the services that I can provide. and there's still so many of them that still cannot reaccess it.

Even for those that can pay for it, a lot of them are still having to travel outside of the country. I mean, over a billion dollars is spent on medical tourism, right? That I mean, that's a low conservative number estimate, right? And a significant portion of that when you look at the reasons why people Rieve is for musculos, skeletal care.

About $400- million dollars worth. Absolutely. $400 million dollars worth. There's back pain, there's Rieve pain, fractures things of that nature.

So for me, yes, I was, you know, I became very successful in orthopedic surgery at one. One of the foremost institutions in the world stay there and I felt like this gotta be a way to make a difference in our very dear country and initially over the last 10 years I came I would come actually a starting from my fourth year of Rov residency I remember in fourth year residency I came to Bafimiello University gave a talk operated with the surgeons there as a 40 year resident and since I became an attendant I've been coming became a consultant, I've been coming to Nigeria to offer services, do non-profit work. We have a non-profit called Operation Stand Work Run where we've done some hip and knee replacements for people who cannot afford it and me and other surgeons included my very dear friend Dr. Hamo Yinkke who has been at the forefront of also driving change in the world of arthroplasty surgery in this country have done that work.

There are other surgeons have been doing those works at silo also you know there's the guys at Nikia hospital the hospital Dr. Onwachigu and the group there and there they're, they are different- Rif.I.A.A. different groups like that and you just, I mean this the Dr. Professor Abadu has been coming down from the UK so there, and there are some of the local surgeons in different places in NOH, Cano, NOH, NOGUNGUN, NOH National Hospital in Lagos.

These are the people that we stand on their shoulders but I do believe that the way that we solve our problems long-term in healthcare regardless of the specialty but the one I know is orthopaedic surgery is combining the resources and the expertise of diasporic surgeons with the resources and the expertise of our local surgeons and finding the middle ground where we can leverage that collaboration to expand access to care to the most number of patients. So yeah, so I did that's my orthopaedic surgery life. In 2015 a started to invest so I started I became an rheopedic surgeon in 2013 and spent the first two years saving up and enjoying life a bit and then in 2015, I started to invest quite a bit. I started doing a lot of angel investing, so that is a high risk, high reward type of startups, you're investing them and then you expect about maybe 10 to 20 percent of them to become something, but hopefully that makes up for your entire investment portfolio, right?

So through that I invested in Helium Health, which is, so even then I was thinking I was focused, you know, even though I spread those investments, not just through it, throughout, you know, Nigerian health care startups, but there was some emerging market startups from other places, and also US health care startups. So Helium Health, you know, led by Adegoke Ullubusi. And they've done very well over time. I actually partially exited my stake.

I was the first investor outside of the founder. So that's my one of my badges of art. As Asian investors do. That's the name of it.

You got that. Yeah. Partially. Partially.

And that's global. It's become, I think, the second-largest diagnostics startup in the country. I think after a union diagnostics, they may be the largest. And that's run by my brother, Shogani.

And then there's others, Romtech in the U.S., Aquito Labs, Cronus Health, a few others like that, that I invested in between 2015 and 2020 and with significant success. But that was a high-risk, high-reward type of play. And I started thinking, it's got to be a better way to meet my daily expenses, you know. Have some cash flow and not have to trade my time just for money because I realized that the only way to actually become free to have the freedom of the geographic freedom, time freedom, financial freedom, all of the freedoms is to essentially detach this, you know, idea of trading time-full money.

So I started to invest in single-family real estate initially because that was all we knew as Nigerians, as LPA professionals in general. you. You buy a single family home, you rent it out, and that's it. But then quickly I realized that the cash flow from that was pretty low, and that I actually did not enjoy dealing with change a bulb.

So I was like, this is. This is not going into scale. It was around that operating on the patient and my co-worker who was the certified registered nurse and anesthetist. His name is Leslie Awasom now my co-founder and partner of my real estate venture, XSITE Capital.

We were operating together. When the patient's asleep, I was operating on them and when the when we had a little bit of break, it asked me it's like hey listen have you ever heard of multifamily real estate? I was like, what is that? It explains to me that it's, you know, buying apartment buildings.

And I'm like, interesting. I used to live in those apartment buildings, coming up the ranks, you know, in it, in undergrad and in medical school and things of that nature. And I was like, I never thought it would never crossed my mind that it was possible for someone like me to own them. So I was like, You say, well, you may not have 10 million dollars or 20 million dollars to go acquire an Andra Jr property, but we could do it together if enough of us are willing to come together.

And this is why one of my courses, you want to go fast, you go by yourself, but you want to go far. You want to make great impact to go together. So this was one of my first life lessons in collaboration. So, I sat on it for a bit, but then I started to read a lot.

low risk compared to like all of the other opportunities to invest, you know, including the stock market and other assets. And it was in the yielded above average returns, especially if you are willing to wait. The only potential, you know, like downside of it is relatively ill and liquid. But we're even trying to solve for that.

That's for another day. So I was like, this is incredible. This is, awesome, so we started a company called XSITE Capital, where we went out and started raising capital from orthopedic surgeons like myself, other health care professionals, and underrepresented minorities, particularly because we realized that we didn't see health care professionals or underrepresented minorities of all professions represented in any of MFTs we were going to. And so we took the gospel of multif, multifamily to those respective communities.

And interestingly, it worked out over the last five years. We bought about $168 million worth of assets. And we generated a s significant cash flow and wealth for those investors that went on the journey with us. And we continue to grow and we not going to stop.

So, that gave me the, because of what we were able to do with that, a give R the confidence and the inspiration that anything is possible because six years ago, if you told me that I was going to be the CEO of a private equity, multi-family with a state firm that was going to be a way to make that. That much of a difference. I would say you were smoking something. Yeah, right.

But it happened. And it just took a bunch of people, putting their minds together, going out there. They're telling me of what is possible when we all. All work together.

Right. And we did something incredible. So once I was able to essentially create another source of income outside of medicine. So the a question was.

Now, how do I really want to create impact? How do I want to change the world like in my own little. Yeah, because you know, this, that quote that says you wish to see in the world and that resonates with me, so that was what actually started me on the journey of saying it's time to go to Nigeria. That was when I came up with the vision statement saying I want to improve access to high quality musculoskeletal care in underserved country starting with Nigeria and I started to work towards that and I reversed the engineer all the steps that I needed to do to essentially get there and that's because I started asking people the questions about Nigeria.

I started coming down more exploring the ecosystem and I started getting a lot of great insight by from a lot of wonderful people and then I was like, huh, interesting. Just one on one conversation is this great insights. What is going to happen if I was, if I went out and. Built a community or started talking to a logic community, then I could really get even greater insights.

And that's when I started the LinkedIn. I started posting more frequently at LinkedIn. I can't tell you enough how much great insights I've gotten from that community I mean they've just been super supporters. I mean there's a few of them that think I'm a little crazy for living in the US but for the most part they are extremely supportive.

Yes, the rally around me even the times when I'm a little weak they make me feel significantly strong and I'm extremely thankful for them. So yeah, so the investment life still goes on I'm still running XSITE Capital from you. And I still am running, I'm still the director for global orthopedics at Johns Hopkins. And now I have my orthopedic surgery practice, Dark I'm collaborating with Citacrest, but I'm renting space, essentially that, and we've been seeing patients so far, I think I started seeing patients about four weeks ago.

And yeah, I've had some great success, did the re-surgeons already, have a few more in the pipeline, and more people are starting to get to know about what we do. And they are engaging with us and I just cannot wait to see how much impact we are going as doc medical but also in collaboration with all of these entities and individuals that are willing to collaborate. Fantastic. I mean, what an incredible journey so far and I mean that the passion and the energy There are many who would say that counter to conventional wisdom, what you have done is that you have made the decision to come here promptly, physically at the peak of your practice.

And yes, there are some who would say that that is absolutely nuts. that's crazy, that is balmy. But I get it. My question is, why now at a time that many would say is a very difficult R time, very difficult period for us in our trajectory as a country.

Why now? And then perhaps you could also talk to me a bit, about what challenges you haven't proved it so far, along the way. Yeah, that's a great question, Tom, a nd why now? So I really struggled with this decision for all of the great reasons that you mentioned.

I mean, based on wisdom, this is a very terrible time to be in Nigeria. Everybody's trying to leave in every possible career path, So they see Nigeria almost like a glass ball that is falling from a very high height and it's about to land on the ground and it's at a shadow. I beg to differ. I see Nigeria as a nice bouncy ball.

Their yes is descending and it's falling from a pretty high height, But it's about to land and bounce back things are going downhill and now there's no opportunities and guess what they are right in you know in many ways they are very correct. But when I sit around with some of my friends who are maybe of other backgrounds and ethnicities who are also based is Nigeria right some of them are more Nigerian and some of us now at this point And I would specifically say Lebanese, the Chinese, the Indians, great. When I'm having those conversations with them, 90% of the conversation is about the opportunities that exist. Different perspective.

Different perspective, right? So I didn't wonder what are my folks missing, right? And yes, no one is-one is saying that it's easy. is saying that it's going to be easy, but we have this one country.

Yeah. It's the largest black population in the world. To 20 million people. To 20 million people.

We've got great potential. And we've talked about this potential since I was a baby. And I can talk all I want about and how things are messed up and how everything is not working. But do I really have any feet to stand on if I am not willing to put my feet on ground and actually be stay right on the front lines and do be part of the struggle for me.

That is the conviction. That's the deep condition that that makes me feel like, you know what, it's either now or never. And another reason is when I put my business hat on. When you look at a country like Nigeria, if you agree with me that it's about to bouncing to start going right up.

Hopefully, not to come back down again. If you believe that it's close-to-the- ground, that means that the prospect for growth is incredible. So and the people who, put themselves in the position to take unvantage of the growth that is potentially going to happen are the ones who are going to be the leaders of industry of tomorrow real benefactors exactly yeah so and it's okay for those people that are afraid to invest to put the work in right now it's okay when the ball bounces and gets about here they could jump on that's fine but they will be able-to take that put their feet right on ground, right at the base of it, they're going to be able to take advantage of the entire growth. And so what I always tell people that I mentor and friends and things like that is saying, look, I understand it's difficult, but, money is only a store of value.

So all we need to do is to say, listen, what is it that I can do that a vast majority of rpeople in this country can need. Well, what is it that I can do that is niche market that needs this thing can use? Can do without? Like.

Like it can do without. Find a problem, come up with a solution for it and. give it a fair shot. There's no guarantee it works.

But if it does work, Then, you would have created significant value for society and you. You would have done very well for yourself economically. So for me, the question is not if it's the right move to make or not. I only count failure as not doing it at all.

If I did not take this step and tried, then I would have failed. If I've tried, you know, for a year, two years, and failed at it, then at least I'll I intend to see this through. I intend to do my part to contribute, not just to musculoskeletal care, but to the entire healthcare ecosystem and whatever ways that I can. I feel like I'm uniquely professionals like yourself, I have treated some people in the political elite.

And so I have some inroads that I understand the patient population just from my experience of being on ground for some time. And I also understand a little bit about in part of things. So I just feel like it would be wrong if someone like myself does not at least give it a shot. Come in, talk to all of the stakeholders figure out ways and small ways to move the needle forward together.

But we'll figure out ways to get us to work together just like we did. We did impossible dance with the real estate company. We can do impossible dance also if we just decide to work together. And I know there's a lot of trust issues amongst us Nigerians sometimes.

Everybody's always kind of, you know, wondering what the ulterior motives are. But, you know, I fully. understand the a the concept, and you medical tourism is reversing the trend a medical tourism abroad and delivering that I just,. recovery process.

That's clinically financially, so actually absolutely. So I think it's, for those of us that can be stay in the gap for the rest of the citizenry, we have to always continue to advocate for that and that's why I respect so much what That's why I respect what Dr. Felix-Ogir, and the folks at the Citycrest have done in other places like I think it's incredible that all of these institutions exist and that they are trying their best to you know reduce the effort to improve the ability of care but I do think that there's a part that the government is going to have to play also at some point, both on the local state and federal governments, because ultimately, this just got to be an increased spend on healthcare in the country. Right.

The existential problem is funded. Right. And this got to be, better insurance penetration in the country. And I know they are way smarter than me, many people smarter than me are working on this problem, both on the state level and then the federal level.

But we can't wait until that becomes a reality, a full reality for the vast majority of Nigerians to start coming, with the solution. So for me, when I think about the problem globally, it's so challenging that you could become paralyzed. So in situations like this what I usually hereafter is what can I do to make a difference in my own little way. Be the change you want to see.

Absolutely, so what I've done is okay I'm going to bring that expertise down so that you don't have to come see me at Johns Hopkins to have your total knee or total hip replacement and I'm going to do my best to create an ecosystem, where we could also encourage more folks like me to come down and deliver services, high quality services to our population because I believe the Nigerian patients deserve it. Yes, I worth it. Absolutely. And for those people that may not be able to afford the care, for example, I ran a free clinic at their OAC hospital on August 22nd.

That's the first one, but we'll continue to do that. So for those people that can do that, guess we'll see those patients, you know, give them the non- operative treatment that they need. For those people that require surgery, they go on their list. And my hope is that we can entice and encourage some people from different parts of the place where I have R a lot of contacts is the US.

I know they are people that do surgical mission trips. We can have them come at intervals, take care of that list for us and also raise capital for maybe private institutions as part of their corporate social responsibilities, maybe from private individuals, high net wealth individuals that maybe want to help. We can create It's a great way to do that, and for that part of my practice, the free clinic, I I'm collaborating with Operation Stand Work Run nonprofit to implement that. And my hope, eventually, is to get maybe the state government to even subsidize that care so that more patients can access care even faster.

And so yes, the care for those patients may be a little delayed, But, you know, my intention and my goal would be to get them that care as quickly as possible. So you pay with it maybe a little bit of your time versus you pay with money. And that is the model that I'm working with right now. But it is possible that we that model may need to be iteratedated and changed over time and I'm constantly telling people I welcome- I- welcome you know new ideas about the best ways to actually you know um deliver the scare because my intention is to be able to deliver the scare to the greatest number of people regardless of the ability to pay but you know the realities are the realities the practice still needs to be sustainable.

That's the only way to keep it going for a long time. But we also, need to be continue to think of innovative ways to take care of the least of the societies, the people that cannot afford it. And that is one of R my passions. We've been talking now for quite a bit, haven't we?

We've explored some very interesting ideas and great insight. And what is clear to me, of course, is that you are very focused, very passionate about what is happening locally, very keen to play a part in moving things forward, moving the needle significantly, but of course you also have a global view, a global perspective to things, especially considering your background, that John Hopkins and what you have done in orthopedic surgery and elsewhere, makes like capital, and all the fat a very. I'm very keen to know to learn from you from a personal point of view. Of course, there are some very quite interesting.

Perhaps I'm certain totally unjustified stereotypes out there concerning Nigerians abroad, I'm interested from your point of view, what's your experience of that being and how important. Is it to you to deal with or to disrupt some of these perceptions and convenient stereotypes? Absolutely. Thank you for that question.

I mean, for any objective observer, there's only one conclusion to come to about Niger Nigerians in diaspora. And it is that we are absolutely excellent here. Right. No.

No questions. absolutely Go to any graduate hospital and graduate institution Go to any undergraduate institution and look at the people doing fantastically well at the top of their classes in medical schools, law schools, pharmacy schools-schools, engineering schools, you know, and then leave the institutions go into the workplace. I'm getting r excited now. In the UK, in Australia, in Canada, in the US, anywhere, and look at the people who are blazing trails in politics, in medicine, in science, and engineering, I mean there are so many professors of Nigerian origin and the interesting thing about this population is this is significant portion of them that still has a fire still burning all this country.

Absolutely and it may be burning fatally. And that was made, very clear to me after my video had gone viral, I got so many calls from doctors from all over the place, from Australia, from Canada, from the UK, from the US, saying, We also want to do this. We want to move back to Nigeria. We're going to watch and see what happens with you, and with your career, and then we'll make a.

And many of them were talking about short term, two years, three years, four years, five years. It's all right. So. It's not that they were talking about, you know, I'm thinking short term with regards so when they wanted to make them move.

So they're not thinking about something in the far-flung future, you know, I know in like the vast majority of folks that came in have come in maybe once they've retired and they come here to retire. And I thought about that too but I wanted to be a little contrarian and I wanted to give my best while I still got the energy. Happy Peking Hill Browns. At the peak when I still can move the needle.

So and I bet you there are so many Nigerians just like that. We're watching closely and trying to see how they too can contribute. You don't have to contribute by moving, doing what I do,. By moving your family, selling your home and selling your cars and things like that to move to Nigeria, you don't have to do that.

You could test it out. You could come in, check it out,. You know, collaborate with folks on ground, give of yourself and things of that nature. many people are doing that and many more are going to be doing it in the years to come.

And so for me, I know I can do it all, but in my own little ecosystem with my, with the people that work with me and my family, I am a big believer in this country. And I will always continue to encourage people to challenge their assumptions about Nigeria And so always, for every negative thing that they think about Nigeria, and try to think about some of the positive things that the country also has given. And that we can still take pride in the country, so hopefully we'll get there someday. But I will not stop talking about it until my time on this Earth is over.

over, I lower the barrier of transactions between us will increase, the level of trust between, we'll r and incredible things happen when we're able to do that absolutely. Assuming you were, let's say the health minister of this country, you have all of these responsibilities and you have the ultimate responsibility. Talk to me about three things that that you would like to see the same done in order to ensure that we are delivering to the private sector, what I'll do is find one or two things because I know I can not solve all of the problems, but I do know that I can be able to provide a minimum care for the vast majority of people that will be my goal. I.

I would choose a number I Want to solve this healthcare problem for 20 million additional Niger Right and I want to solve it across the country So some of the basic health care needs are probably going to be run through some of our private else you know clinics. So, obviously, you drive a lot of resources towards those and significantly. across the entire ecosystem, we're down to the person that needs to use it. They don has to underpin every effort because that discourages the you know.

The. The. You know, slight of the resources that you are intending to use for all of this efforts. And another pathway that I would probably focus on also.

is going to be developing our healthcare industry. It breaks my heart when, a user glove and I just know, that this is the worst quality thing I've ever a in all of the places that I've practiced medicine It breaks my heart when I put on a surgical gown and I just know that this may not protect me or the patient the way it's supposed to It breaks my heart when someone is trying to open a sterile glove and there's no way to open it without breaking sterility. It breaks my heart When I asked for an to clean something. And what I see is a cotton ball dipped in ethanol.

Bricks my heart when I'm trying to sterilize the body before surgery and I'm given the you know, sterile a fluid that has been sitting there for weeks in the corner of the operating room. These are all things that kin can be solved, for. And one of the ways the syringes, the needles, you know, to make the IV fluids, you know, make the drugs, you know, and that is going to solve it for the population. Because as far as we are dependent on an importation regime where, you know.

We all, I just have to wait until some folks bring things pension and we're always going to be subject to the quality that they deem fine. And most of the people bringing it in are not even in medicine, they are pure business folks. And so, we're stopping them from asking for the worst quality, and still selling it at the premium pricing, right? So I will disrupt that market by working towards healthcare manufacturing in the country.

And to be frank,. R the government is saying the right things. They are putting all the right things to try to do. I see some of the undulations and some of the attempts to Because, God forbid, we get a another pandemic and all these other countries start to hoard And I just believe in the ability.

to contribute at home. I'll r make it so easy that it would be literally if a you needed a license to practice, we would obviously check your credentials. It's easy, you literally could go to any board of any specialties in any respective country online, check to make that person is still a valid practicing physician. That is how you start to reverse the brain drain.

Unfortunately, obviously there's going to be all There's always the folks who think they don't need additional folks to come out. Don't do anything. And, uh, and usually they are the people benefiting from the status quo. And so, um, yeah, so for me, you know, if you, are willing to partner with us we can expand-access the care for the greatest number of patients I will work with you.

If you want to be in the way then we'll get through you are a very busy man and you have to do all these balls simultaneously and family is to me. I have a beautiful, wonderful wife and two wonderful kids, yeah, daughters But she's such an incredible woman that she saw the conviction, she knew how tortured I was about it, she knew that this is where my heart was and that I really just want to the playground and you know, I've been conversations with them while one of my those conversations with them. I'm like wow I remember when you were a baby and crawling around here and now they're having out in great conversations it's fantastic and usually I try to take. And so, I love traveling to different places and that's why even part of what I have done so far is go to orthopedics.

I have licenses to a practice in the U.S in Saudi [inaudible]. Yeah, tell me about it. So my personal hero and my parents. Yeah, they just incredible people so When I got the opportunity to go to the US they mortgaged our.I house R Yeah, they didn't have the money to, too. Send me to the US to go to school.

I got a partial scholarship, we're still at the rest. The mortgage-style house, they gave me half of the money, says, listen, go, try to figure it out with that. And they kept the rest for the rest of the family. So kept supporting me in whatever way they could, over time, non-stop.

And they just instilled me from a very young age, the power of and the need to be r eth ethically sound, to care for r other people, to always look at others from the perspective of how can I got to benefit from a lot of their goodwill and the goodwill they had built, but so many people over time. Next question to you feels almost redundant really. And I was going to ask, I mean, all of these wonderful and incredible accomplishments and I think if you could, then I know I'm putting you in an incredibly difficult position. If you could attribute this to just one thing, what would that one thing be?

God, when it comes to the spiritual being God, who has orchestrated all of these things and allowed me to be in the right place at the right time and allowed me to, after insight, to work hard, to have the grit and allowed me to even when things look bleak come out on the other side successfully. I refuse to take that credit for myself because it because it's just divine. My pathway so far has been. And so for me, the way I communicate with God as a Christian is through Jesus, but I do believe that you have to have that direct link that allows you R, you to show gratitude and allows you to tap into your, were, Your purposes And so I talk about my conviction, but I'm talking about youre, the spirit of God speaking to me and saying you know what you've got to get up you've got to go to Nigeria you've got to try to do your best to make a difference and you know So, any time, I, I've listened, I've, never failed.

And so for me, this entire journey, the entire journey is sometimes surreal I have to like pinch He is a father, he's a husband, he is a child to fantastic parents, I mean, like it's a brother sibling to fantastic siblings. I just, I Incredibly lucky. Incredibly lucky- and that's why ry my daily practice involves the rapid thank you for everything that I have. thank you for you to wake up every day and try to drive change.

Thank you for the family that I've got, for the siblings that I've got even thank you for the people that I think I'm going to share that are working actively for my failure because guess what. they drive me to make sure that they are wrong. Right? Thank you for, all the support network that you've put around me, so I am extremely grateful and I think if we all can start to, like put in a little bit of gratitude in our daily practice We will realize, to come full circle, we will realize that Nigeria, there is a lot more positives to it than negatives There's still a lot to be capacity.

Would you jump at it? Is it something that I do think that it's important for good people, great people that are thoughtful and that care about the average person to be in a lot of these positions. I strongly believe that because if we leave the public sector to like just you know transactional people to people just in it for themselves then we will talk about these types of conversations till we turn red and nothing there are some fantastic people with the heart for this work with a deep love for public service that will be way more qualified than I am and that I will absolutely support from the private sector. But I love the private sector.

I feel like you I can move faster what, right, I'm sure they at raising standards of care by some of the other work that you put in or contribute to the healthcare manufacturing industry, millions of patients who potentially benefit over time, right? . And maybe there will be potential partnerships with the public sector in whatever ways that they are willing to collaborate. Absolutely, we welcome it, right?

sector, but working very closely with the public sector and the reason is really because I see an opportunity to do things faster and get to the results a lot quicker in the private sector. I think I will be. I think I will be super paralyzed by some of the bureaucracy and some of the politicking and It's some of the idiosyncrasies on the public sector. So, my skill sets are best suited for that at this time.

Maybe I evolve into it, but right now. My focus is the private sector. But I'm more than happy to work closely with the public sector in whatever ways that serve the vast majority of the population. Julius, you are a great modernising the Caesar of our time.

For more information about this rgram and other episodes, visit us on YouTube and on 1to1show.com. 1to1 is available as a podcast on Spotify, Apple, HODBe

Leslie's an immigrant rocket ship, to be honest. Like, that's what he is. Like, he's an... Like, God.

Like, [laughs] I don't even know what to say here right now because, like, this episode, we talked about everything. Um, we talked about his journey to the States. We talked about cultural differences. We talked about, um, studying computer science and then having a serious accident where he had to be airlifted to the hospital, moving to nursing, starting real estate.

He told the story of how his business is called XSITE Capital. Like, he told the story about that. Um, you know, I think I should just stop here. I'm probably rambling at this point.

Like, I really think you should just listen to this episode because it has a ton of stories, a ton of lessons, a ton of advice, a ton of things that you-- if you're looking to start a business, if you're looking to, um, pe- develop yourself personally, I think you should listen to this episode. Let's get to it. [intro music] Welcome to the Newcomers Podcast. [laughs] I mean, first of all, thank you.

Like, I mean, you know... I am, I'm so excited, so I hope it doesn't show off in-- while I'm recording. But I'm really excited to do this because, you know, when you read someone's story and then you're like, "Yeah, this guy gets it." He gets what it means to start life afresh and say to themselves that, "You know what? I'm gonna take the bull by the horns and just, you know, just crush through it." You know?

But I'm just gonna go back and ask, like, what was going through your head when you decided you're like, "Yeah, I'm gonna leave Cameroon"? Like, what was going through your head? Because that's like 20 years ago, if I look at... Well, yeah, that's like tw- you left when you were about 18, 19.

It's pretty young, you know. Like, what was going through your head at that point in time? That's a great question. Uh, by the way, thank you so much for having me on your platform.

Um, so I left Cameroon when I was 18 years old. Um, that was about, uh, 24 years ago, actually. Um, 2000. May 15th 2000 was the day I landed to the US.

And, um, I had just completed my high school. Um, in Cameroon we do, uh, GCE at A levels. I had just completed my A levels a year before that, and at that time I w- I didn't go to university. I was spending time studying computer science because the plan was always, had always been to migrate to the US.

Uh, my mom had migrated to the US, uh, about three years earlier than that, and she was working extremely hard to make sure that she brought us over to the US, um, myself and my siblings. So that was the plan. Uh, things were moving in the right direction at that time. So getting out of high school, I already knew that, um, my future was gonna be by me hopefully migrating to the US and pursuing, uh, studies here.

And it, it was an exciting prospect because, uh, back then as a young man in Cameroon, um, getting out of, uh, high school, there were not many opportunities that were available out there, or at least, um, from the perspective, the limited perspective that I had at that point in time, there were not many other opportunities. Because, again, all we were thought is, like, you gotta go to school, um, graduate from school, get a job. I was seeing other people that, uh, were graduating, going to school, graduating from university, and working for years to find a job. They could not get a job because as you know, in most African countries it has-- it's not necessarily about what you know, it's about who you know when it comes to getting jobs and all of that.

So, um, I didn't come from a rich family. I didn't come from a well-known family, so I didn't have any, uh, godfathers or anybody to move me up front. So, uh, so I felt like moving to the US, um, was like the right opportunity for me. And, um, ever since we were young, we've always known the US as the dreamland, you know.

Uh, the US has done a good job of marketing that to the rest of the world. So, [laughs] so it's a land of opportunity. So who doesn't want opportunity? So that's why I have migrated here, yes.

You know, I... There's something you said I really like, which is you said limited view of... I feel like when we, when you're in Nigeria, Cameroon, like it does have its limitations, no doubt. Yeah.

But I also think that, I think just because you're in it at some point, at that point in time and you're trying to survive, the w- your view of the country is just so limited. And then when you move out of the country sometimes and you look back and you're like, "Oh, there's actually some opportunities there," it might just take much more work to get it through than it would be down back here in the West. But like, so I really like that because sometimes I get the sense that people move and-- which is why I really appreciate that statement. People move and all they do is just castigate and say, "Oh yeah, no, yeah, back home is bad.

Back home is X." I'm like, look, it has its issues. I will be first to say, like Nigeria tires... I ran away from Ni- It-- Nigeria tires me out. Like it has its issues.

[laughs] You know? But I still know that there's still stuff there that the people who are... Not everyone can leave, and we all have to somehow help and push back, put back in as where we came from, you know? Yeah.

But just kind of moving on, and I'm gonna kind of jump between stuff here. It's-- So you landed in the US now, kind of started out, started school, I believe. What was it like? You know, young kid, left Cameroon, you know, starting afresh, new culture, you know, all the nuances.

Like what was it like? Like was it like, gosh, like this is opportunity. So like, yeah, I miss home. Like what was the...

Some people have... They want, they wanna go back. Some people are like, yeah, they're gonna dive right in and experience what they, what they're in at the moment. So I'm gonna talk about the point that I'm glad that you picked up on what I said.

Um, that's very powerful that you picked up on it. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that, then I'll answer this question right. Sure. So your perspective of how you look the world is very important.Right?

That's something that I did not learn this until over the last six, seven years, and that is probably one of the main reasons why, uh, that is, uh, responsible for the growth that I've experienced personally and in business. Perspective in which you see the world is very important, right? You gave the example of like how when we leave... Like when I left Cameroon, I was saying exactly the same thing that, that you're saying.

Like, "Oh, this country is garbage," blah, and all of that. You know, uh, everybody gotta move out of Cameroon because it's garbage, right? Um, then a- as I grew in life and as I grew in my mindset and my perspective, I started to look back. I'm like, wait, in Cameroon there are like Nigerians that migrate to Cameroon in search of opportunity, and they come to Cameroon and they do really well in the same Cameroon that I lived in, right?

Then if you look at the reverse, in Nigeria, where those Nigerians are leaving from because they're not there are Cameroonians that migrate to Nigeria in search of opportunity and they do really well. So what is the difference? The difference is just that view. Why are you going there?

I'm going there in search of opportunity. If you're looking for opportunity, you will see opportunity, right? If you're looking, if you're waiting for your government that owes you the right to give you everything that you need, including a job, including pension, because you're a citizen of that country, that's what you're gonna keep looking for, and that's the perspective that a lot of us see the world. It's the same thing in America, right?

When I migrated to the US, I was looking for opportunity. Here in the US, there are local US citizens that look at the country and all they see is negativity, right? So what I've come to learn is like our perspective as people that, that... Like we have a sense of entitlement when we are natives of a particular area, right?

It's like our right to this land, our right to this. We, the government owes us this, this owes us that, right? And that, that to some extent kind of holds us back from having that hungry perspective. When I came to the US, I was hungry.

I was hungry for opportunity, you know? Um, my very first job was at McDonald's. I was getting paid $5.25 an hour. I called my best friend in Cameroon, I said, "I'm rich." [laughs] "I'm making serious money." I was making $300 every two weeks, you know?

I was working my butt off every day. Like I was given 40 hours a week, I was doing 60. I would stay late to 3:00 AM, just the manager and I, clean up the restaurant and do all of that. I was earning an income, $5.25 an hour.

Something that I could not do while I was in Cameroon. And people were complaining about a job. I'm like, washing dishes? You're complaining about washing dishes for $5.25?

Give me the dishes, I'll wash it. You know? So that's the perspective that I came to the US with, right? And then with that opportunity, you start from there and you start striving as you start growing.

You start pushing and you start looking for other opportunities to continue to grow. So I think the perspective of coming to the US in search of opportunity, right, actually helps. Because again, and it just depends on how big you think that opportunity is, that's truly how big you'll be able to go. Because at the end of the day, it's still the same kind of hard work that you put in.

Yeah. Yeah, it's so true. It's just, it's the mindset. And like, and I think the balance is that, yes, the government does owe you something, you know, gives you security, give you something.

The government does owe you some job, or because it's the government, you pay your taxes and all that. But at the same time, it's kind of keeping that balance and saying to yourself that, "Look, the government has work to do, but I also have to keep my mind open and say like, what are these things I have to do?" Because like you said, like there's this saying that we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are. As we are. Yeah.

That's very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. That's so...

That's we see things as we are. So, and it's, once you start doing that to yourself, then it, it allows you to be honest and say to yourself that, you know, like, "What am I actually doing right now?" Like, you know, because you're complaining, but that's... It's, you're seeing as you are. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, uh, it's what you're seeing is your bias is, um, is what's defining how you're seeing the world right now. Yes. And if you want...

It's a hard thing for us to accept because it, you know, as I grow older and pr- work on myself more, I'm learning that the ego is the most powerful thing. Like once you master your ego, you know, you will do anything in this world, you know? Absolutely. Because the first one is even, just even saying to yourself that, "Okay, like I, the one I...

The way I am right now is where I know when it comes. I know, I see it." I, so I don't win it all the time. Mm. But I see it when it comes and I look back, I'm looking at it, I'm like, "Okay, you've come again, right?

Like, so this is what you're asking me to do." And it's just trying to battle that thing. But like that see things as we are is, it is powerful. Yeah. So back to the question about like settling in, first night, first week, new kid on the block, like how did you handle it?

[laughs] Yeah. Oh man, I was scared. I was scared of everything. Um, I'm not naturally, uh, an extrovert or somebody that just goes out and start talking to people.

So the first few weeks I spent my time in the house, you know, just waiting for, um, uh, for my mom to provide guidance. My siblings were out going out meeting kids in the neighborhood. [laughs] I'm like, man, if I go out and step on somebody's grass, like what, would I get arrested? Like this, this society looks so clean, you know?

Like [laughs] Oh gosh, yeah. Like, what, what's going on? Luckily enough, um, I had one of my friends from back home, um, he's a cousin as well, who had been here, um, had been here a few months earlier than me. So he came, took me out, showed me around, and was introducing me to other people and was like, "Hey, you know, this is what's going on.

This is this." And, uh, he's a little bit more outgoing than I was. So at least I had somebody to, um- Yeah... to kind of show me around. And I had my mother as well.

I think I was very lucky that I migrated here to the US as an, uh, as a legal immigrant, and my mother was here. She works extremely hard, um, making sure that, uh, we had everything that we neededUm, took me out, got me to interview for jobs. That's how I was able to get my first job at McDonald's. And when I started working out there, meeting other people, just getting acclimated to the society, you know, uh, things became, um, less scary than- Yeah...

uh, than they did when I initially came here. Interesting. You know, now exploring those emotions you were feeling at that point in time, like two questions. What was the first time it hit you that you weren't home, like you weren't back home in Cameroon?

And then the follow-up question on that is, within th-that first, let me say one year maybe, what was your f- you know, most overwhelming moment where you're like, "Okay, this is a lot. I should probably either run back home and go sit on my bed and ask myself what I'm doing here, or I should get on a plane and go back to Cameroon," depending on how extreme the emotion was. [chuckles] The first time I realized I wasn't in Cameroon was when I stepped out of the airport, man. I landed at Dulles Airport, and I looked around, and I'm looking, I'm seeing all these buildings and the roads.

There are so many cars in the roads. I'm like, "Oh my God, what world is this?" You know. [laughs] Like, this is so beautiful. And, uh, we're driving back, we're driving from the airport, I'm looking around like I'm in awe.

I'm like, "This is so nice," you know. Like, how is th- how the pe- how are people able to get this stuff done? Like- Yeah... where are all these cars going to, you know?

And then, this is funny, uh, but then when I got home, my mom had made food, and there was all this, there was, uh, like an abundance of meat. I'm like [laughs] like I've never seen this much beef and food in my life, you know. [laughs] You know, yeah. But, uh, yeah, that was good.

Then, um, on the other part of the question, when the winter came, man, I had to take the bus to school. Um, every day I would take the bus. I would jump on like two, three buses to get to school every day. And this one day I went to school, um, I did not look at the weather forecast.

I wasn't well-dressed, and it started snowing like heavily. And the buses, one of the buses was n- the route was shut down, so I had to walk like two, three miles in the cold to go get to another bus stop to take the bus home. Man, I was like, "Oh my God, what kind of nonsense is this?" I was like, what? Like, yeah, it was rough, you know.

Um, but I just kept walking, and then got to the bus stop. Was able to get in the next bus. At least I didn't die of hypothermia, so [laughs] so I made it home. But, uh, I was like, "Ah, man, I'm, I miss home." You know, I miss home.

It's really nice. And then the other thing is like, um, the other thing that I noticed, um, within my first year is like, um, a lot of the people were not as friendly as, um, as back home, you know. Like I could b- back home, you could walk into anybody's house. You could go to the neighbor.

You could, uh, you know, um... It's kind of like a small village. You know, it's a community, you know. So that community aspect existed more back home.

But here it's like, um, people where everybody owns their own personal space. So that cultural difference was a little bit difficult to adjust to. Um, but over time it becomes like, uh, normal. You understand, um, everybody's cultural perspective, and you just respect it.

Yeah, and you move on from there, yeah. That, that part about the commun- the communal thing, it hits everyone hard because- Yeah... you know, a friend said to me one day, "Do you see we now use calendars to plan visits." [both laughing] Like back home- Yeah... like that wasn't like...

We now use- Exactly... calendars to plan visits. Like, so you... Like my wife sometimes, like I'll just see it in my calendar, "X, going to X on Sunday." I'll just put my hand on my head like this, and I'll be like- [laughs]...

gosh. Like back home, you just got into the car- You just show up... you know what I'm talking... You show up.

Yeah. Like, yeah. "Hey, everybody's like, oh, welcome." All that kind of stuff. Yeah.

But now you actually... Because yeah, you could get there, and they are, they're out, or they have something going on, and they don't really have your time. And while- Yeah... they might welcome you into their home, you would sense that you actually just stumbled on something that you shouldn't be in, you know.

And you're putting- Yeah... it's just a very uncomfortable situation that you're in. You know. Now let's move forward to all the interesting things you've done.

Went to school, changed to nursing, went back to Cameroon, started a trucking company. [laughs] You know, let me pause there. Like I just want to understand the guy who went from studying computer science to saying, you know, yeah, serious accident, nursing. That, that makes sense to me.

We do... When we have these near-life, near-death experiences, a lot of things change in our lives. Um, but like from nursing to starting a trucking company, just walk me through the Leslie who was thinking of all these things. [laughs] Yeah.

You know, so I... When I came to the US, I had big dreams, right? Um, I don't know. I think, um, maybe I think I got it.

I... When I reflect on it, I think I got it from my mother because my mother is a big dreamer, um, and a hard worker. So I had big dreams. I wanted to get into computer science and do some big things.

That was when like the dotcom thing was happening, Y2K, all of the noise about computers taking over the world and all of that. So that really piqued my interest. That's why I started studying computer science back home before coming over here. So, um, and I was hearing about all these guys doing all this amazing thing on computers and stuff, so I wanted to learn that.

That... So, but when I came, my mom is a nurse, right? She really wanted one of her kids to go to medical school- Oh... do something in healthcare, and, um, none of us were interested.

None of us is like, we're not doing none of that. [laughs] Uh, so, um, so I started doing computer science, and things were going really well. Um, I took a programming class, uh, A++ programming, got a certificate, and I got a job in DC, and I was... Remember I started 5.25 an hour, and this job was promising to pay me $18 an hour.

You can imagine I thought I was rich, you know? [laughs] And, um, so but that happened right around when that dotcom crash happened.So all those jobs went away. Yeah. Every other person in the Cameroonian society that I was looking up to as a mentor in computer science, they lost their jobs, right?

A lot of them were switching back and going to nursing. A lot of them were trying to figure something else out. So I got in this state of like... I was really depressed at that stage.

I'm like, "Man, I'm gonna keep going to school." Get out and I'm unable to have a job. This job that I had, I was looking forward to making this $18 an hour, maybe even moving out of my mom's house and getting my own apartment. It's gone. Like, what if I had gotten the apartment and I didn't have that?

So I... That, that led me down a, like a dark path because I stopped going to class. I wasn't paying attention. I was spending most of my time partying, you know, just hanging out with friends and, um, spending most of my time just partying.

And, um, after one of those parties, um, I was driving back home after I dropped my friends off, and I fell asleep on the wheel. You know, um, during that time when I was going through this, my mom kept insisting, like, "Go to medical school," or at least that's a guaranteed job or do nursing or something. And I was like, "No, I'm not doing that." You know, just being the normal stubborn, uh, son that I was, you know? Yeah, so I fell asleep on the wheel driving back, um, from a party, and I went off my lane, and I had a head-on collision with the other car.

Gosh. Yeah. And I remember, um, I remember getting out of the car and, um, walking to that other car and, um, I saw the driver and the passenger, and they were hurt. They were, like, bleeding.

And I'm like, "Oh my God, did I just kill somebody?" Like, um... And I was hurt myself, you know? Uh, but I did not know. I was running to check on the other people.

So then somebody came out of the car like, "Oh my God. Oh, you know, go and s- go and lay down there. You are hurt." So... And I laid down and I passed out.

Next thing I know, I woke up at the hospital, Shock Trauma Hospital, University of Maryland. Actually, I woke up first and I was cold. I woke up, I was cold, then I realized I was being airlifted to the hospital. I was in a chopper.

And, um, took me down to University of Maryland Trauma Hospital. I was there. And as life will have it, my mom was working at the hospital that night as a night shift nurse. Gosh.

So they came... When I regained consciousness, they asked me stuff. I told them my mother is in this hospital. They went and got my mother, and I was out, and I woke up, and I saw my mother sitting next to me on the bed crying.

Oh, Tom. And I went out again. [laughs] Oh, God. I passed out again.

But, um, I finally woke up. Uh, but on that hospital bed, I made the decision then and there that I'm going to go into nursing. Right? On that...

At that moment, I made the decision that I was going to go into nursing. And I was there for a couple of days. The next day I was going out, I saw the other people that I was in an accident with. Thankfully, none of them, um, sustained any life-altering injuries.

Injuries. Uh, they just had some bruises. Uh, so, um, which I'm profoundly... I don't know how I would have been able to- Yeah.

Mm-hmm... carry on if I knew that I was able to cause that kind of hurt to somebody. But that was a pivotal moment in my life, right? Um, when that happened, uh, two weeks later, uh, when I got, uh, I got...

Was able to put some funds together, I got another car. That happened in November. I think it's November 18, 20, uh, 2001. Uh, January 3rd, 2002, I was on my way to North Carolina.

I packed my bags, put my clothes in the car, and drove off. I'm like, one of the important lessons that I learned in life is, like, who... Your network is who you become. At that time, a lot of my other friends from Cameroon had migrated to the US, and all of them were in Maryland, and we were all partying together, just having fun, you know?

So I was like, "I gotta get out of here." So I packed my bags, called my cousin in North Carolina. He's like, he's a very studious guy, engineer. I'm like, "Okay, I'm coming." So I got in the car and I moved to North Carolina to go study nursing. So, um, I got there, nice environment, quiet environment, you know, good group of people.

Everybody's serious about education. And I was excelling. I did really well, um, in nursing school. Um, but then I always still had...

Even when going to school, I always had that big vision. Tried a couple businesses while in nursing school. Um, like, uh, we were organizing parties every now and then on, uh, on summers to make some money as well. So that was fun.

Uh, it's like, I think at every point I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit- Yeah... but I wanted something that... Some security. So when I started working as a nurse...

When I graduated, I moved back to Maryland. I started working as a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital, right? And so I was making, uh, a small good amount of money, then started doing travel nursing, and I was like, "Man, what can I do?" Like, uh, maybe now is the time to start thinking about business again, you know? Um, so the...

Actually, the first thing we do is, uh, with a group of friends, my first trip to Cameroon, I was like, "Uh, I'm gonna go back to visit Cameroon, but let me try to do some... Make some money while I go over there." So we loaded a container with a bunch of goods- [laughs]... shipped it to Cameroon to go sell it. You are an evil businessman.

[laughs] So we loaded the container, went to Cameroon, and that's when everything that could go wrong with that whole stuff. If you've ever... If you're Cameroonian, if you've ever sent a container in Cameroon, you know what I mean. Um, so there are a lot of bottlenecks over there.

Um, we... That container got stuck at the port. I was supposed to be in Cameroon for three weeks. I was not able to get it...

We were not able to get it out until about four days before I was leaving. Gosh. Right? But during that process, right, during that, that process, because we were going back and forth, uh, the economic capital of Cameroon, Douala, we're going back and forth to the port and all of this stuff, and I was seeing all these trucks, and I'm like, "Man-This is crazy, right?

I'm looking at all these trucks and they're carrying all this stuff. I'm like, "These guys are making a killing." So I started doing some research about trucking. Like, this is what we should be doing, right? This is the real business here because this is where the money is.

So at that time, struggle, but I got to learn a lot about the, that business. Then fortunately, I have one of my cousins that lives in Du- Douala, the economic capital. She owns a laundromat business. Um, so when she would go to the market early in the morning, like 6:00, 5:00 AM to buy her supplies, I would go with her.

So I'll go in one morning, and you see... That's when I really saw how money was being made. Because, um, in Africa, you don't get to see that if you come from a middle class home or you go to school- Yeah, you don't. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't. Uh, you don't. So but when you like take some time, go to those markets like 4:00, 5:00 AM, and then you see how things really work, I was like, "Wow, this is powerful stuff." Then that trucking stuff got reinforced in me because I'm seeing all these trucks bringing all these goods, all these traders unloading the goods in the morning. I'm like, "I gotta do this.

I gotta do this." So when we came back after that trauma experience, you know, got ourselves together. Um, the same group of friends that we did the container with said we gotta get into this trucking thing, you know. So, uh, so we, uh, we had- we identified, um, like a supplier of cocoa in Douala, and, um, he had a contract for a specific kind of truck to be delivering the co- cocoa that has, uh, specific specifications. So we're like, "Okay, we'll supply this for you at a contract, and this is how much you're gonna be paying us." He agreed.

So we look... Luckily, that was, um, right after the 2008 crash, economic crash, like around 2010, 2011, when things were cheap. Yeah. So we bought a nice good truck from Germany, shipped it to Cameroon, uh, with those specifications for that specific contract, but when it got to Cameroon, the guy was like, he lost that contract, so that truck is no longer vi- it's no [chuckles] longer relevant.

Uh, well, yeah, so we had to- Gosh... so we had to repurpose it, right? We had to repurpose it for it to be doing like general transport and just- Yeah... doing all that stuff.

We were able to do it. After about eight months of paying, going back and forth, you know, spending all this money, you know, trying to repurpose it and all of that, we were able to finally get it and get it on the road. Then it started transporting, uh, cocoa and goods from the English-speaking region to like Douala to the market, and we were... Things were going well.

We were making money, making good money. Things were going well. We af- finally broke even, and we were looking forward to start making more and maybe buy more trucks. Then the conflict broke out.

Oh, yeah. The Anglophone Crisis broke out. The areas where we were getting goods from, that's where- Yeah... all the, all everything was going bad.

The truck almost got burned down, so we were shut down. Because now you had all these trucks that were going all to the Anglophone region. They're all packed. They're competing for the little.

So business was done, right? Uh, so, uh, ended up selling the truck, and I'm like, "You know, I gotta go back to school and get [chuckles] another job." So I went to anesthesia school. Oh my, that's a story. Gosh.

[laughs] Y- you know, I, I'm just gonna let that story sit. I'll probably-- I might come back, I might not come back to it [chuckles], but that is some story. So like how did you... Now from there, how did you move to saying, "You know what?

I'm gonna do real estate, you know, with Julius." Like how did you get there? So when I got done with my anesthesia school, the truck was out. Um, it was down, so it's not working. Um, I got done from anesthesia school.

I'm working in the OR. I'm making good money. Um, great six figures plus income. I'm doing...

I'm liv- I'm comfortable, right? And my s- my second daughter is born, um, right after my first year of pract- right around my first year of practice, and I'm working hard. I'm like hitting the hours. There's all these overtime hours, and I'm picking it up like crazy.

You know, making like... Working like 50, 60 hours a week. And I'm not home. I'm missing out on my daughter's life, right?

I'm not seeing anything. Uh, so I came home one day, and she had started walking and, um- Gosh... babbling and I'm looking at her. She's so like happy, you know, and I'm like, "Man, I'm gonna be doing this and missing out on all my kids' life," you know?

And I'm looking at the hospital. I'm seeing these other guys that have been at the job for like, um, 50, 60 years. They're doing well. They have nice houses, nice cars, good retirement packages, but there was just something about their face.

I'm like, "Nah, I really don't wanna be here." Uh, this, this is a... This is not a bad path, but I, this is not how I see myself to grow for the re- And the other thing too is like at that point it felt like I had reached the ceiling of my growth, right? Because in nursing you could start... Nursing is a great foundation for anybody because you could branch out and go to multiple things, right?

So, um, I had branched out and went into anesthesia, which is considered one of the top careers in nursing. What's next, right? I'm gonna go get a doctorate, remain a nurse anesthetist. So what's next?

So that, that feeling of hitting the ceiling made me feel really uneasy. So I started looking around like, what am I gonna do? What... Well, like is this how the rest of my life is going to be?

This doesn't make any sense. So one day I'm sitting, um, during my lunch break, and I'm scrolling through my phone, and I see an article. It says... Oh, I had been hearing people talking about "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and all this stuff.

And it says, "Oh, the author of 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' has, uh, written another book for millennials that are stuck in student loan debt, uh, that explains the financial system." I'm like, "Well, that's me. I might as well read this." So I bought the bookThe book came, "Second Chance at Your Money, at Your Life" by Robert Kiyosaki. I opened that book, I could not keep it down. It was like a long lost uncle that is just coming back and telling me wisdom, what I need to hear.

Back in 2008, I had attempted to get into real estate, right? But that was when the real estate crash happened. Mm-hmm. I had family members that were losing houses and all of that stuff.

That was actually pushed me to go do business in Cameroon because I'm like, "There's nothing here," right? So it explained that to me, why that happened, why people lost houses, how the capitalistic system in the US is set up, um, how you could set yourself up to win. And what some of the things he talked about was like real estate is a good way to invest because it's tax advantaged. Mm-hmm.

You could invest, make cash flow, grow appreciation, and save on taxes. Yeah. And the other thing he talked about was the power of personal development, of investing in yourself. Yeah.

He mentioned some authors in the book like Earl Nightingale. He talked about Buckminster Fuller, talked about a couple other people, and I just went and I bought the books and I bought this. And one of the tapes I bought was "Lead the Field" by Earl Nightingale. And every...

I think that, that particular tape did something to my mind because every day I was going to work, and remind you I was working 60 hours a week, so I was going to work a lot. [chuckles] Uh, so I would listen to it on my way to work, listen to it on my way back, listen to it on my way to work, listen to it on my way back. And finally took the courage, and one of the things he talked about was getting into real estate, go to networking events in h- go... He talked about informal education a lot, right?

The real education starts when you get out of school, and real teachers are not the ones that own... have the degrees and all of that. They're the ones that are doing what you want to do. Yeah.

Those are the people you wanna learn from. So I did. I s- I jumped in, joined the Baltimore Real Estate Association, started going to the meetings, signed up for some of their courses, and learned about the BRR model. And I'm like, "Man, this is interesting.

So I could buy and then make all this money?" And, uh, I took the courage and I did it. On the first property, I bought it together with my brother. We did the BRR model, right? So we bought the property, uh, did the renovation.

I remember I took two weeks off of work to manage the renovation. And during that process, I really enjoyed it. Like I really enjoyed that whole process of going and getting, uh, the workers to come and do this supervising and doing all of that. It was so much fun, right?

It didn't feel like I was working. So did that. We got a tenant in there and, uh, a few months later we went to look at what this property is valued at. The value of that home had gone up by $77,000.

So I'm like, "Wait, so what this guy was saying in that book is real." [chuckles] Right? Just like that I could make $77,000. So what if I do three, four, five properties a year and keep doing that? So that, that...

Then I'm like, "This, this is just from reading a book." So I became obsessed with reading and personal development. So I would read this book, it would tell me about this other book. I would jump in and get the book. Like when I got done with anesthesia school, I promised myself I would never read a book again in my life.

[chuckles] But if you look here in my basement while I'm doing this, like the whole basement is filled with books. And I've read way more books than I ever read up to my edu... And nobody's forcing me to read them, right? Yeah.

[chuckles] So I'm reading, I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm becoming a better person. Then, um, as I was getting into real estate, um, one day my wife came home and said, "Hey, I met this, uh, this Nigerian guy. He's a young guy, and he was talking to me about l-life insurance and all this other stuff," and I was like, "I don't know anything about this." "I gotta get you to meet my husband." I'm like, "Ah, you... Why are you trying to introduce me to another insurance salesman?" Like I, I'm tired of meeting this." She's like, "No, you gotta meet this guy.

I think you'll go... I think he's a good guy and we need to do something about life insurance." So she's my wife. I'm like, "Okay. All right.

All right. I'll meet this guy." So, uh, the guy shows up, it's Tenny, my partner. [chuckles] So Tenny shows up all nicely dressed and all of that, and he comes in and he's doing his spiel on like insurance. I'm like, "This guy, what are you trying to sell?" You know?

Uh, [chuckles] I had read all this stuff about insurance, but I'd be... I was educated, so I was bombarding him with questions and he was answering very honestly, right? Um, like, and very knowledgeable in answering. I'm like, "Hmm, okay.

This guy is different." So we're talking, I'm bombarding him, he's answering. Then during that conversation, somehow he said something, I think that it was from one of the books that I had read. I'm like, "Wait, you read books as well?" He's like, "Yeah." He's very rich dad, poor dad, cash flow quadrant. And then he's reading a book by...

on Elon Musk by Ashley Vance, the one of the first books on Elon Musk. I'm like, "No way. I'm reading that book as well right now." So we connected on that, right? I'm like, to meet another African brother that is in personal development like I am is rare.

At that point I had no friends because when I read Robert Kiyosaki's book, I bought a bunch of copies and I sent it to a bunch of my friends and none of them read it. So at some point I realized that this is my- Yeah... journey that I gotta take by myself. Yeah.

So I cannot be forcing to drag other people. So I had recruited myself and I was focusing on that. So I'm like, "Oh my God, another young guy that's in-into this stuff." So, you know, this is good. You know, I'll buy your insurance.

Whatever you're selling, I'll buy it. [chuckles] You know? So, um, got the insurance, then we became friends, we became accountability partners. He introduced me to some of the stuff he was doing on personal development.

I introduced him to some of the stuff I was... the books I was reading. Then we started meeting every Friday night. We'll play the Cashflow board game.

We'll meet at a coffee shop. Like I'll leave the house and say, tell my wife I'm going to meet Tenny at a coffee shop, play Cashflow board game. He'll tell his wife the same thing. They're like, "What's wrong with these guys?" Like, uh, something- You guys are just cuckoo.

[chuckles] You know? Yeah. So we'll go sit downWe play Cashflow board game, and through the game is interesting because I was able to learn about his money habits through that, and he was able to learn about mine, right? So we just l- for like six months just meeting and just talking, like sharing books, sharing notes and stuff.

And then, um, at some point he was like, um, "Well, like guy, you know, you're doing this real estate stuff. I've always wanted to do in real estate. I have this insurance thing. Now, the cashflow quadrant, you know, we're gonna be in the B and I, business and investment side.

Why don't we scale up and then we-- Why don't we join together, join forces and scale up the real estate stuff?" I'm like, "Yeah, let's do it." You know, um, and so we went to... I'm like, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Let, let's do it." So I w- I wasn't 100% sold yet on Teni, right? Because I had tried other partnerships and it didn't work well in the past.

But one day we went to a real estate conference. I'm an introvert, so he was like, our goal was to go over there and just talk to other investors and get their contacts because we were looking for like OPM, other people's money, passive investors. Yeah. So we got to that conference.

There were like 120 people in there. He was like, "Okay, so what's the plan?" I'm like, "We just need to get as many contacts here as possible." He's like, "Oh, okay. Just their name, phone number, email." I'm like, "Yeah, that's what we need." He's like, "Okay. All right." Like, "Don't worry.

Sit down, I got this." So I'm there, I'm scared. Salesman. Salesman. I'm scared to death.

[laughs] How am I gonna go start talking to people? He's like, "Don't worry. Sit down, I got this." I-- No joke. During the break, he woke up, he went to every single table, he got everybody's contact on a list, and he came and he gave it to me.

Like, "All right. Let's do it, man. What's next?" I'm like, "Ah, this is my guy." [laughs] I'm like, "This is my guy," you know? So we partnered up and started doing research in real estate.

We wanted to buy single families, a bunch of them, and do like the same BRRRR model. One day he calls me, he's like, "You gotta listen to this tape. You gotta listen to this." So I'm listening to it. It's a, it was a tape on multifamily investing by Grant Cardone, and he was talking, he was like, um, oversimplification of how real estate, multifamily estate works.

But that got me really intrigued, right? I'm like, "This is it. This is what we need to do," right? This is like the big business, big investing thing that we need to do.

Why focus our attention, why try to build and get to there instead of just starting there? So we decided to create XSITE Capital Investments to focus on multifamily, uh, assets. And when we were talking about it, the more we learned about it, we realized that in our community, in our African immigrant community, we have some of the hardest working people, some of the most disciplined people, some of the, uh, highest income earners, but most of us do not even know that we could own these apartment buildings. We all live in apartment buildings.

We get the notices every year about a $25 increase. We get the notices here about new pet fee and all of that, but we do not know the amount of wealth that is being created by those little increases. So once we grasped that, we're like, "Oh my God, we gotta figure out a way to bring this to our community." That's how the name XSITE Capital came about, because we were so excited about it. Yeah.

Honestly, like it makes sense, right? Yeah. It does. Yeah.

It makes sense. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. So we're like, "That, that, no, this makes sense." So we're like, can you imagine the number of Nigerian doctors that exist in the US?

Can you imagine the number of Cameroonian doctors or medical professionals or engineers that make a lot of money and qualify as accredited investors and don't even know that they could own a piece of these apartment buildings and generate that amount of wealth? So, and as we were talking, I'm like, "Oh my God, I know this guy. I know this guy at the hospital. That's the first person I'm gonna go talk to about this asset.

I know this guy." So we started XSITE Capital, but initially we were afraid. Although we created XSITE Capital to go after our demographic, we were afraid to go talk to them because we were like, "Ah, they're gonna look at you like this guy here a scammer. You're trying to..." [laughs] He know that play, man. I know that play.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, so we were scared to go. So the initial place we went to try to talk to investors to build our base is like to actual real estate investors, because the thought process in the back of our mind was, "Let's go to people that are already used to real estate first- Yep...

then before we come to our community." Fair point. Very bad idea. [laughs] It was just a fear, right? Um, we tried to do that.

We had an opportunity to be part of a deal. Um, we were not able to raise even a single dollar, not $1 for that deal. [laughs] So after that, that incident, it was still Teni and I, so we sat down and we were debriefing. We're like, "Okay, so what did we do wrong here and how can we fix it?" We identified that branding is important.

We did not brand ourselves very well. And then, uh, we identified that, oh, we have not really been talking to the people that we created this company for, right? So, and I was like, "Man, yeah, you remember I had told you about this one guy that I work with, like Dr. Julius Oni?

This guy, I know this will be so good for him. Every time we're working, we're talking about investments and all this stuff, uh, but he's never talked about multifamily. He does all this stuff. Like, I gotta figure out a way to go talk to him." Now, Teni cannot come to my hospital and talk.

He can talk to anybody, but me, I'm, uh, at that point, I'm afraid to talk to people. So we actually practiced how I was gonna go pitch Dr. Oni, right? Prior to that, I had sent him, I was, I had invited him to one of our meetups because I wanted Teni to pitch him.

I, so I sent him like some material on multifamily investing. Uh, he tells us that when he looked at it, he's like, "Uh, what Ponzi scheme are these guys cooking over here?" So he dropped it out. So, but after this incident, right, uh, we're practicing to go talk to him. I never really had the opportunity to pitch him because about, a- about six weeks laterRight?

As life happens, it's just amazing how life happens. He calls me. I remember that day vividly. I'm driving somewhere in Baltimore, he calls me.

He's like, "Hey, Leslie, um, can you talk for a minute?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "Hey, um, are you still doing that real estate stuff that you said you were doing?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "Okay. I've had a chance to look at the stuff you sent to me. Is your partner available?" I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "Can we get on a call?" I'm like, "Absolutely, just hold on." I put him on hold. I dialed Tenny.

I'm like, "Dude, you remember that doctor I was telling you about?" He's like, "Which doctor, dude? Dude, calm down." I'm like, "That doctor, that surgeon I was telling you about." Excite pockets off. Yeah. He's like, "Oh, yeah.

Yeah, the orthopedic guy?" I'm like, "Yeah. I see he's on the phone, he wants to talk to us." He's like, "Oh, man, put it in." Dialed in the call. We're talking to Dr. Oni.

He's like, "Man, you know, I've had a chance to review this stuff. Um, I just don't wanna be a passive investor, I wanna be a partner," right? Um, "Whatever you guys have invested so far, I'm willing to come in. This is powerful stuff, we gotta bring this to the community." And that conversation ended up lasting about four hours.

Like, we were just going on the phone, got past the partnership, just talking about each other, our dreams, our goals, our aspirations, and I-- and man, like it was like- Gosh, like that's amazing... a serendipitous moment. Man. That's amazing.

Right? I came back home. I was on the ph- my wife is looking at me like, "Like, what's going on?" We were on the phone for like two, three hours. Kept going.

Kept going when I got home. Just kept going, you know? And that was the day that the XSITE Capital, as you see it today, actually came to light. And that day, that was the day that things completely changed from us.

The day that Dr. Oni joined the company and became the third leg in the tripod, everything just took off from there. Wow. Like that's like, gosh, like that's...

You know, it's amazing. Like it's just really amazing. I love it when these kinds of things happen, you know? [sighs] So yeah, I am like, I [laughs]...

It is like, it's such a beautiful story because you're like-- 'cause I see what y'all talk about on LinkedIn and stuff, and I s- I mean, I've gone to the website, I'm like, gosh, yeah, like we need more people like this doing these kind of things, coming together to do this kind of stuff, showing people how to do these things, you know, and just banding together because that's the way we grow. Like, you know, they say, what's that thing? The, a rising tide lifts all boats. Like that's- Absolutely...

the way we grow. Yeah. You know, that's the way we grow. I wanna, so I wanna jump into just asking some, a couple of questions, which is like from the community, which like these three questions about business, which is like the first one is like how did you gain the confidence to say to yourselves, "I was gonna venture into entrepreneurship," you know?

You know, because as an immigrant, there are various challenges, there are barriers that we face. There are various challenges and barriers that we face, you know? So like how did you gain the confidence to venture into entrepreneur- entrepreneurship despite all the challenges and barriers that immigrants face when they're looking to start a business? So, um, gain the confidence to venture into entrepreneurship, I just wanted, I wanted-- the desire was there really bad, but the confidence just comes with time and action.

And I could tell you today that, um, you cannot wait to gain the confidence. The confidence comes with action, right? I'm still afraid to in a lot of situations that we go into. Like right now we have a $49 million deal under contract.

When we had the deal under contract [laughs]... Yeah, so but I've learned to understand that, um, fear is a necessary part of growth, right? When you're comfortable, you're not growing. I think personal development, me personally, helped me out a lot, right?

Getting involved in personal development, understanding how our mind works, and, um, understanding, um, how some of these things come about. And seeing other people, learning from other people, being in other communities of other people that are doing it, and meeting some of these people that are doing amazing things and realizing that they don't have two heads. Yeah. Right?

Or they're not like, um... And these people too, when you get in the space, you realize that a lot of people are very gracious with knowledge. Yes. A lot of people- Yes.

It's very difficult to see other people that are stepping down that path, so they wanna help you grow, they wanna push you. So I've had a lot of great mentors along the way. I've met some incredible people, and I cannot say, tell you enough about my partners, right? And how amazing these brothers have been, uh, to my life personally and to our business.

I told you the story about Tenny. Yeah. Um, I learned so much from him, right? Um, he's a very confident guy.

He's not afraid to talk to anybody. I'm the opposite, right? [laughs] Um, Dr. Oni is just a leader.

He's a charger. He's not afraid of anything, so- Yeah. I see. [laughs] You know.

Yeah, so like, yeah, so those guys are bl- Sometimes I just hide behind their confidence, you know? [laughs] And I'm able to gain a lot from that. So yeah, so, um, yeah, so it's just about surrounding yourself with the right people and, um, and then just keep taking action. Confidence comes with action.

You cannot wait to have confidence before you move. It's never going to come. Yeah. And then, you know, you've started, you st- you've started a ton of businesses, you know, Excite, the trucking thing.

You started a clinic with your wife and Dr. Joshi. Like, so one other question I got was like what's the one advice you would give an immigrant entrepreneur who's just starting out on their journey? You know, asides from confidence breeding action, like is there another thing that you would give someone?

You know. I'll say take one thing and focus on it, right? And, um, take one thing and focus on it for at least three to five years. One of the most important mindsets that you could adopt in business, entrepreneurship, or anything is having a long-term perspective.Very important, right?

A lot of us wants to start something, and you want it to work in six months. In eight months, nine months, 12 months, you're not seeing results, you shut it down and you walk away. That's not how business works. It takes time.

Continuous effort is what leads to results, right? So if you are not willing to dedicate at least, at the very minimum, three years of your life towards something, don't start it. But once you pick something, you understand that there's a market for it, make up your mind that for the next three years I'm going to invest all the time I can, all the money I can, all the visions and desires I can to building this dream, and I guarantee you will not fail. There are going to be a ton of, like, obstacles.

Uh, it's just part of the journey. Challenges, starting off not getting... It's part of the journey. The question is, are you looking at it from a perspective of fear of like, "Oh, this is not working," or, "What can I learn from this?

Which other direction can I take? Which other path can I take?" If you adopt that attitude, you can never fail, so but you must have a long-term perspective. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that advice is for me too, because I'm one of those guys who my friends call me an idea stacker.

So, like, you... If you tell me something, I have this... It's a blessing and a curse in the sense that you say something to me, I can build an idea off it. Like, you tell me, "Edozie, this is X." I'm like, "Oh, yeah, there's an opportunity here." And at some point in my life I felt like I was just trying different things.

I just... Like, I had three, four things running. I mean, now I, I'm doing that thing now where you say, like... I ju- I just said to myself, "You know what?

I wanna build a media publication that explores what it means to be an immigrant in every way possible, and I'm just gonna focus on doing that," and that's what I'm doing. I just said, "You know what? I'm just focused on that." 'Cause I've heard this. You're the third person that say this thing now, like, find one thing and do it.

Do it well till it grows. Most times we want to do five things and then try- you're trying to play a bet which is gonna grow. Like, none is, none of them will grow. Like, none will grow, [laughs] you know?

And then you talked a bit about failure, so, like, one of the questions I got was also, like, the first time you majorly failed, you know, business, personal life, like, how did you overcome it? Um, earlier on I didn't... Earlier on in life I did not really, uh, handle failure very well. Um, used to beat myself up, um, whenever I failed at something, look down on myself.

Uh, but in business, um, I failed so many times. Um, and I just... I don't know. It's like in business it's like I get so excited about the possibility of business that when I fail it's...

it, it has been much easier for me to pick up the pieces and go. Not every business that I've started, as you know by the story that I've shared, not every business that I've started has worked. Most of them have failed. You know, but then when it failed I was like, "Oh, all right, it's done.

Uh, so what's the next thing?" You know? [laughs] So I think the thing that helped me is that I'm such a growth-focused person, right? Like, when I'm growing, I am... feel like I'm living the best life ever, right?

Yeah. So, um, so business, these attempts help me grow in such a way. When I have something to go after, right, I feel like I always have something to look forward to. So it's har- it's not hard for me to overcome.

But I'll give you an example. Like, um, like, uh, in business when we started, when we were trying to raise funds for a deal and we were unable to raise $1,000, you know, um, at that point we sat back and we reflect... We asked ourselves, you know, uh, "What is this telling us? What do we need to do better, and what direction do we need to look at?" Right?

And branding, going back to the community that we created the business for and educating was what we came up with, and we did that and then things start moving. Even, uh, um, right now at XSITE Capital, we've had challenges, right? And we continue to have challenges. And sometimes when we...

It's become so ingrained that when we have failures and challenges, we start laughing and smiling like, "Oh, okay, the big one is about to come." [laughs] Because we just know that when you fail, it's like guiding you. It's... So failure now has become as just like a guiding post, right? Mm.

There are only two ways. You either succeed or you learn lessons. Yeah. So it's just about reframing what failure is in your mind, and then you could do whatever you want, you know.

So failures- Mm-hmm... are going to come. The so-called failures, it's inevitable. It's an inevitable part of the journey.

Use it as an opportunity to learn and get better. Yeah. Yeah, that's so true. So I just have two questions for you to round up.

Mm-hmm. First one is you've been saying something called BRRR. What does that mean? Sorry.

I thought it was build- So-... renovate, something like that. It's buy, um, renovate, rent, refinance, and repeat. Hmm.

So you buy a property, you renovate it, you rent it out to a tenant. A few months later, you refinance, you pull out all the money that you put in the first place, then you go and do the next one. Mm. Okay.

And then the last question I have for you is you've had some journey, to be honest, like, and it's an amazing one. [clears throat] If you had to say, like... I don't wanna call... I want- I usually call it the how to hit the ground running playbook for a new immigrant, like, what would that be for you?

Like, new person in the States today, wherever in the world, you come as an immigrant, like, what would you say is three, four, five things that would be a playbook for hitting the ground running? Number one, be careful of who picks you up at the airport. [laughs]I agree with that Your destiny, your life is gonna be framed significantly by what picks you up. So be mindful, uh, if you're a big dreamer, because i- imagine you come into the US, a lot of opportunity, and somebody is picking up you- picking you up at the airport.

That person is coming from a higher frame. You're looking up to this person for guidance, and they're gonna tell you, "Oh, this is what you need to do. You need to get into IT. You need to do this, and you need to do into that." And that occupies a bigger space in your mind than anything else.

So just be mindful of that, right? Understand that that person is not telling you a bad thing. They're only guiding you from their perspective of what they see. Don't limit yourself to, um, to that.

Number two, um, step out of your community and go network with people in other communities, right? A lot of times, especially in my Cameroonian communities, like we band together. So if you see like a lot of us, we either... It's-- there's usually trends.

It's either nursing, like everybody's doing nursing. Next is like, uh, DBA. Everybody's doing DBA. It's like IT and stuff like that.

So venture out to other communities and see what other people are doing, and then learn from them. Like it's not scary outside of your community. Learn from them and go and try and implement. Number three, I'm gonna say think big.

Think as big as you can, right? You have just one life to live. Every day that goes by, you are losing part of that life. The-- we are lucky to be in America.

It's a society that if you apply yourself, you give value to people, you will grow. Don't limit yourself. Think big. And finally, I'll say read books.

Not books about the career path that you wanna go to. Read books by other business people. Read books on personal development. The greatest tool that you have is your mind, right?

And who you become is highly dependent on the way you see the world, the lens with which you see the world. Yeah. So you gotta clear that lens out. We come from our respective communities with a build-out vision of how we see the world, right?

I had somebody... As one of my personal development teachers did an illustration where he had a bottle of Coke, right? Uh, no, a glass of Coke. And that glass, if you put Coke, Coca-Cola in a glass, you see how dark it is.

You cannot see through. A lot of us when we come, that's our perspective of the world. It's surrounded by that glass, right? All we can see are those dark spaces around, right, is our culture.

It's like what we've been told America is about. It's been told like, "This is how you have to do. This is how you have to do it," right? But you have to clear that perspective, and the only way you clear it is by pouring clean water into it.

So if you take that glass of Coke, you put it under a tap of water, and you just let water pour into it slowly, eventually the dark glass becomes clearer. So you in that space that has been surrounded by that glass, you could see now around you could see a much wider vision around you, and that's the vision of America, right? Um, we are some of the hardest working, most disciplined people are immigrants that, that come to the US. If you look at, uh, any career, any path, anywhere, you will see a Nigerian there that is successful.

You know, uh, or you see an African immigrant there that is doing great things. We could do so much more. There are no limits, right? And then, oh, finally, let's work together.

Yes. Let's band together. Yes. Right?

Let's work together- Yes... and do much more. Yes. I am so proud of what we've been able to do at XSITE Capital with a very small number of immigrants, uh, banding together 80% of our investors, and we've raised over thirty-two million dollars from investors are African immigrants.

We've bought together with our community of about three hundred people so far. We've bought a hundred and sixty-eight million dollars of apartment buildings, and our investors are making great returns. We've distributed thirty percent average annual returns to our investors. We did this with a very small number of people.

Now imagine if we are hundreds, thousands like other- Yeah... communities are doing and working together and supporting each other. There's way more than enough for all of us. Yeah.

The sky is the limit. There's more than enough to go around. Trust me, there is. We don't take anybody-- anything from anybody by sharing.

So there's a lot. So let's work together because, um, that's the way, uh, we build our society forward. This is a good place to end this. Like I'm not gonna add anything.

I'm just gonna say, you know, let's end this here. [laughs] Thank you so much, Leslie. Like, gosh, thank you. Like it's been a beautiful one hour with you.

God. [laughs] Thank you, Dozie. I really appreciate you having me. Thank you so much for listening to this episode.

Like, gosh, like if there's one thing that I want you to take from this, it's that point where he says confidence helps you get over fear, and to keep acting. If you're scared of starting something, if you're looking to gain confidence, just act. Just start. Just move, and then everything else works out from there.

As usual, please share with someone whom I find this useful. You know, please like, share. I mean, we have a Substack. Subscribe.

I would love you to subscribe, you know. On YouTube, please subscribe too. Um, and if you know someone you think we should talk to, please send them my way. Thank you so much.

Ciao. [outro jingle]

Welcome, how did they do it? Real Estate podcast. Have you ever wondered how people succeed in real estate and what steps they took to get there? If so, this podcast So Leslie, can you start off by sharing a little bit more about your background and how did you get started with real estate?

Sure, absolutely. As mentioned in your intro, I am a trained nurse anesthetist a nurse anesthetist for the last nine years recently exited out of my job just to focus on the real estate and business full-time So I started off going the traditional path like everybody else, you know I'm an immigrant from Cameroon I migrated to the U.S about 20 years ago, came here, went to college, and went to a stable need. You go back to school and get another job. That's exactly what I did became a nurse anesthetist, but very early on in my career as a nurse anesthetist, I came to do realization that this is not the path that I want to be for the rest of my life.

I had a great job that was paying me very well, great income, but I was spending most of my time away from home, spending hours upon hours in the hospital in order to make that income that I needed. I was essentially exchanging my hours for the dollars that I was making and in doing that I was missing out on like I think it was actually when my second daughter was born and I realized how much of the time that I missed being R being around her with being in the hospital that I started making me question a lot of things and I started asking himself there's got to something. There's got to be second chance at your money in your life and that book completely changed it for me. It really expanded my perspective and got me on the path to looking into real estate investing.

So as you mentioned, I invested in my first property in 2017. Met my partners in 2019. You found that XSITE Capital and it has just been an amazing journey ever since then. So just grateful to be on this path and I'm happy to share my journey and story with others.

Hopefully I can inspire them to get on that path R for themselves as well, whatever they want to do. It's of a certain way of doing that to you, right? making you realize how short of a time we have on this planet because they develop so quickly every single day. Absolutely.

Absolutely. I don't know what you're missing until you come around and you look at your child is doing something like, when did that happen, you know, where have I been living, you know, so. Yes. So that was a good realization for me.

And I'm glad. I came to that realization. So then in two thousand and seventeen, you started to look into other ways about wealth to kind of start taking off that reliance off of your nurse W two job. What did you start to do in real estate to get the ball rolling, to get started in that?

What was your first property also? So absolutely. The first thing I did was education that education, I-I started by educating myself. And one of the things that I started reading us, because that book gave me a book.

I could read on personal development and business that could help in my growth about those books that are reading them as well. that's created a lot of millionaires and continues to do that, then that's the path that I want to go into. So I got into real estate, and read a lot of books b read a lot of books in real estate, took some courses, local r courses online on how to invest in real estate. a then I started implementing, you know in 2017, learn about the BRR model, had taken some classes on the BRR model so I went in to implement and as luck would have it, it was a great experience.

Obviously nothing went as planned because this is the very first property, we overspend on the renovations but we did well because we bought in a very good location. We followed the fundamentals of real estate which is buying for location. We bought in a good location and the values of that property were able to increase significantly after we, so when that happened, I think the value increased by about $77,000 when we went to do like a check on the refi without light bulb moment was like oh my a god with six months of work I could generate $77,000 just like that now imagine if I'm doing down eight nine properties how what would I a be able to do for myself so and on top of that, I really enjoyed the process of managing that renovation. that's So being it that it was your first property, what were some of the metrics that you looked at or what were some of the factors that made it seem like a good deal to you for you and your brother to go ahead and make that move and purchase it?

We did the analysis. I took one of the courses R. to renovate this condo and get it up to speed. I ended up spending about $15, and the main reason for that is just because I was new.

I didn I made some mistakes. I had to do some things over and over again. So that cost me money and that shouldn't have cost. But it's not really.

It rly costing money is the price you pay for education. Let me just go learn how to do it, read the books, pick out the formulas, and that's exactly what I did So I made some mistakes that I probably would have avoided but it was a good learning experience. You know, in this journey, you're going to learn one way or another either of buying the experience of somebody else or you learn by making your own mistakes and learning along R the way but it's just part of the learning process. So what really saved us was the after repair value of the property We didn't underestimate but we just got in on a time when that market was growing So after repair value became higher than what we estimated.

So the cost we spend in renovation did not affect our returns are actually much higher than what we projected. Did you end up using that property to rent it out long term or did you end up selling it in the short period after you've incorporated all those renovation costs and brought the value? and. a little bit, took that first chance.

What did you do after that? So right after I did the first property, my plan, I got so excited. After everything worked, the plan was, my plan was we're gonna buy many more properties. Like every year I'm gonna be buying like two, three properties and maybe after a five, 10 years, I'm gonna have 10, to 15 properties and I'll be able to retire, right?

and I'll be able to control my time. So right around the time when we finished the business plan of that first property. I met my first business partner, Mr. Tenny Tolofari.

he had a financial service a So he's a cybersecurity engineer. So he actually, came to sell me life insurance. We did having conversations and realized we were reading the same book at that time. It was the first book on a lot of most by actually vans R.

so we connected on that and became friends. I and our conversations, I realized that he has skills that I don't have. He's the complete opposite of who I am. very personable looked at doing wholesalings, looked at even getting into like a system.

Then we came across multifamily. And the light, but it's just everything clicked. It. It made sense.

We've always been long term investors, long-term. understand a lot of things by the numbers Realizing that we could use this And we have been working ever and since then acquired 168 million of multifamily assets. So when you, between you and your partner, to focus primarily on multifamily. In addition to educating yourself, what were some of the other steps that you had to take in order to get through to your first deal?

That's a very good question. The great thing coming into that is we've had some experience with the that you get through to r a rd, a guy that we have been following on Facebook and he had some mentorship program that was the very first thing we do paid for that mentorship program and guided and then we got into that program realize that that the knowledge he was giving was not sufficient enough to get us to where we need to be and we got in so we got into another mentorship then and what we did we understood that to shorten a learning curve. a curve and to get in there and understand, we had to learn from somebody that has walked down that path, that has the resources and knowledge that's exactly what we strive to do, and that's what was able to accelerate that growth as we went along as well, and we dove in really deep as well, putting a lot of work, learning, reading books, going to networking events, going to conferences. Just doing all that was necessary to move our business forward and that and that's that that's exactly what happened I actually want to go one a I So prior to that, right, like I explained to that it is more it's much better to have 10% of a billion-dollar company than a hundred percent of A million dollar company, right?, so that has always been our philosophy R& it was just about finding the right People to work with so that could help you in that growth.

So while XSITE Capital initially started with Tenny and I, XSITE Capital today constitute three partners equal partners myself CEO, Dr. Julius Oni myself, our CEO, Dr. Julius Oni and Tenny Tolofari, Dr. Julius Oni came on later on in 2019, but initially started with Tenny and I.

and it has never been an issue of like who owns what or whatever. We always knew that anything we,? We're going into, we're going in as equal partners, I. partners and the goal is just to build this platform to something that could provide a ton of value to others.

Philosophy going in, when we started, it was equal partnership and it's still equal partnership today with Dr. Oni onboard. So after getting mentorship and to expedite your learning, networking, how did you come across the first multifamily deal? So the mentorship part is important that I mentioned is because when we then we got in and realized that a lot of the things that they were sharing was not necessarily true.

By that R mentorship, and it's not working. So what do we do? So we asked ourselves, okay, we gotta look into the network. At least the one great thing that the mentorship had was a network.

So we're gonna reach out to the network, and see what we can gain from that. And through that we were able to meet somebody that actually became a great mentor for us a outside of that organization. And that was the person that really helped us to get on that first deal. Can you share a little bit more details about that first deal?

Yeah. Absolutely. Our first deal is a 49 unit here in DC. Actually before that, right we had an opportunity by our same mentor to be on the deal.

Right. A great deal, like a great deal in Atlanta. They had a deal in Atlanta and they wanted us to come onboard and be like. Partners general partners on it, but.

To as part of the general partnership requirement. We had to bring our own investors on the deal as well. as well,. as well as a contributing to the management of the asset.

But we were unable to raise even a thousand dollars for that deal. So we failed woofily at that and missed out on that opportunity What was the difference in strategy that you implemented from that first deal where you raised $0 to that next 49 units and you were able to raise $1 million because that's a When we started the journey, we were not really going and educating R target avatar. a have great energy, you work really, hard will like it, you know, and when we had that The only important thing that we learn is that we've the other thing that we were shy about doing is going out there and telling members of our community that this is what we're doing. We learned the importance of personal branding, we learned the importance of education, and then we went out and started implementing that.

and R as the last how did you get-over that imposter syndrome in order to start a, sharing what you're doing with your network and community and then also. What were some of the ways that you started to educate. your ideal avatar. Yeah, that's another great I'll do it is I do exactly the thing that, that whenever I try to get the impostor syndrome and I just keep doing it, and before you know it, like the things that I used to have impostor syndrome for when I started on this journey, I no longer have that impostor syndrome for, but as we continue to grow, it's always there.

I always keep asking myself, am. I good enough to be in this room, you know, and, it's always there. And I, I've come to accept that it's always going to be there because I am growth centered You know, I was the second part of your question. I'm sorry.

What were some of the ways that you educated your avatar R. All right. So when we started and we realized the importance of education, we started like a monthly meetup, which is still running to. Today is called the.

We started in person, then covid came and we had to transition to virtual and we've been virtual ever since. Uh, so we do that every month, every first, Monday of the month, we build, we're building a robust community of like-minded busy professionals that are looking to alternative ways to grow world, busy professionals that are looking just to learn and ways that they could better grow their world or even how to start a site also. We're building that community, we're educating them to newsletters. We have a running email newsletter, we have a running LinkedIn newsletter, And this year as R we reling to actually R that community into one place where we could continue to offer a ton of education you know because one of the things that go out there, and try it.

So we want to continue to be able to those deals and so when it comes to that and this is a really good question. I have success. I'm has been a gene part. Because of our core values when we came together as three partners to create the exact computer that we know today.

We said, we're going to function on four, sorry, on five foundational core values, right? Number one is persistence, right. I have that tenacity to keep working. It doesn't matter.

What. We have a growth and abundance mindset. I believe is that you don't take anything away from us by ushering whatever uh that we have with you humility you know we remain humble at in anything that we do it doesn't matter how much we grow we try to remain humble at the other place and we dare to be unique as well right um we we're not always going to do things exactly like how everybody is doing we're always thinking of ways so how to get things better and these are all the these are a us And to get our first deal, right, he had to drive from Charlotte, North Carolina to Charleston, North Carolina, South Carolina, which is a three hour drive for a 15 minute meeting with a broker, and then drive back three hours and it was that broker that gave us that first deal. So the path to our first deal was laid in a lot of tenacity and in order Because when we started, because we had built a community where we were providing a ton of education, like letting, showing people as much as we can to help in their growth., these are the people that had gone to the know, like, and trust that believed in us, that believe in what we were doing, they had seen our growth from the beginning and not just to be comfortable enough to jump on any deal with us.

You know, so having those core values in place have been a R part of our r growth have really b helped us grow and led to us being able to win that first day and being able to raise easily and continue as we get along this year. So Leslie, what is your next focus and how are you continue to operate and find more deals in today's market in to be able to transfer that knowledge to other suits-to be able to build the similar kind of platform for a good rate to educate all [inaudible] every day and I'm dealing with people that are almost dying and we bring in them back to life. Um, like having It takes a lot of thinking, it takes a lot of, you got to deal with a lot of pressure. And I did it well, on the pressure.

You know, but when I wanted to get into real estate, I created all but as an anesthesia provider, giving anesthesia to patients is much more difficult than investing in real estate. Yes, you're having people's lives on your hands. Yes. So Leslie, what is the one thing that sets successful people apart in real estate investing?

I'll have to say, it's opportunity to meet some really, successful real estate investors and they're a mentor by some really successful real estate investors. And one of the most important things I've learned from being around them is they have a long- You have a very high chance of succeeding in real estate. And Leslie, where can our listeners find out more about you and what you're doing? Well, you could I'm very active on LinkedIn.

My name is Leslie. I was some L E S L I E A W A S O M. And there's the same name on all the social media platforms. That's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

I believe I also have a TikTok account as well. So. I'm on social media and you could also visit our website. which is www.X.I.T capital.

that are looking to grow as well. hear your feedback and any topics that you're interested for future episodes. If you're, and you're anything like Seyla and me, and believe that real estate is a great way to create passive income and build long term wealth, check out our free apartment syndication due diligence checklist for passive investors at Bonneves Capital.com at bonaviscapital. Lastly, to learn more, you can go to bonavicapital and fill out the contact us page so you can speak to us directly.

Nothing on the show should be considered personal advice. Please consult your legal, tax,

So that's one of my motivations for going out there and sharing my story so that somebody else, right, that is just migrating that stepping foot here in the US can see that there are multiple other paths. The American dream of buying a home, getting a job is not the only path you could take. There's more you can do to contribute, to do much bigger, to be bigger. My hope is that somebody else is going to see the examples of what we've been able to do and do 10 times more than what we've been or what we will ever do in our.

Welcome to the Path to Wealth, the show about well-being fulfillment and financial freedom. And I'm your host, Hannes Henchi. Welcome back to another of the episode of the Path to Wealth. I'm your host, Hannes Henchi.

I'm excited to introduce to you our guest today, Leslie Awasom, the co-founder of XSITE Capital Investments. Leslie used to work as a certified nurse for anesthesia, which is why one of his missions is to help health care professionals achieve financial freedom through multifamily real estate investing. In this episode, we will explore. explore Leslie's exciting journey to financial freedom through investing in real estate.

Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my journey with your audience. So where did this journey of longing for or financial freedom initially start?

Well, I have to say the journey for some financial stability, I started very early on in my childhood because I grew up in Africa, in Cameroon. Growing up over there, you see some struggle, you see some poverty. And then at some point, you get a glimpse of other communities, other societies, you see what is possible. So you have that dream and that vision of maybe having a taste of that someday.

Fast forward when I was 18 I migrated to the US and my goal was R s to come into the US and build a life for myself and able to gain that financial freedom, you know, give it to not necessarily I didn't even know what financial freedom was. All I knew is I wanted stability like I wanted to be able to afford the things that I wanted to and live the life that I wanted to. So, full of the traditional path of going to school, getting a job. That's what I got me into nursing because I wanted a secure job at that time.

So got into nursing then while I was a nurse, working as a nurse initially, I tried a few entrepreneurial ventures because I've always been like, had this entrepreneurial book trying to start a business and all of that. All of them, which were very, which were unsuccessful, but I did learn a lot of lessons. And fast forward a few years later, when I became a certified registered nurse under studies, which is a really prestigious job to have. It's a really great career to have, which I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to practice, that I've had the opportunity to practice as a CRNA for over nine years.

But a year or two in my career as a CRNA, I started questioning myself like, okay, I'm at this, in the nursing career, that's probably one of the most prestigious jobs you could ever have. I'm like, okay, I'm right there what is considered by society has being there at the 1%, 2% or whatever but is this all my life is going to be? Do I have to keep coming to the hospital for 12, 16, 24 hours every day so I could be able to feed my family. So that just didn't sound right with me.

Especially when my second half three kids, my second daughter was born, I was working so hard and missed out on almost everything,. And my childhood. So that was when a came to that full decision. I had not necessarily the realization, but that was the point when I made the decision that something else has to be done.

I got to figure out another way. And I went on that path of like personal development, financial education. And that led to me being able to build the businesses that I've been able to build over this year. Nice, and I think you mentioned something so crucial, it's that sometimes those initial things that we try out that don't quite work, they do add up to the skill set later.

And it's a little bit like Steve Jobs mentioned, you can only connect the dots in hindsight. Absolutely. I love that quote a lot. It says you cannot connect the dots moving forward, but you just got to take the step forward with the faith that somehow the dots will connect.

So I reflect on that a lot. Where did- you have the faith, to say this will connect eventually, like I just have to be persistent, I have to keep trying, was it something that came naturally to you or something where you really had to lean in? So it didn't come naturally and I really did not come into that realization until later on down the line. I just saw something, I just discovered, like, one of the very first books on personal development or audio tips on personal development that I read was like lead the field by L Nightingale.

And as I was listening to that tape over and over again, and I was like, whatever he was saying, like, it just filled my spirit with a lot of excitement to do more, to want to do more. And I started doing more, reading other books on financial education and real estate and describing all this new knowledge, right? I think it was the growth. It was the growth that I was experiencing intellectually, the growth that I was experiencing emotionally, and the growth that I was experiencing just in life in general, like my general state.

I had like something that I could look forward to that I could work towards, to us, right? So I just R enjoyed that a whole process of doing things, right? Met my first partner. We started XSITE Capital, set this big audacious goal, got really excited about it and just started working, doing the stuff because my career at that point felt like I have gotten to the plateau, right?

Now I created another plateau for myself, which was so far away, right? And I was so excited about working towards it. So it was just that R journey that I was working towards then like two years down the line, like, oh my God, like all of this has happened. Wow.

Now you can connect the dots moving forward, moving backwards, but initially it was just that excitement of growth that got me moving. Hm, I like that you already realized even that is just another plateau. Yeah. Like it's not the goal.

It's not the finish line. It's just another plateau. Yes. It seems that life, you know, the goal post keeps endlessly moving like we can.

And I think the journey is to how far can we stretch? It's not about ever reaching. It's just like, how far can we stretch? Absolutely.

That's what life is all about. Right. Um, the only end point is when you die, to be honest, right? So, like somebody once asked me, so when are you going to retire?

I'm like, retire from what? You know, retire from living life. I enjoy what I'm doing. It's just part of life.

I just keep doing it. And maybe you set a goal in a business, you accomplish it, then you look for another goal and you go after it. Again, it's just about going after the pursuits that bring joy to you know. So, and that's what I have dedicated my life to.

I'm saying I'm going to be getting the rest of my life to do is to go after the pursuits that bring joy to me. Yeah. Do. You feel like that same American dream is still alive that you had as an 18 year-old when you came here?

No. The American's dream that was sold to me as an 18-year-old when I came here. It's, a very limited dream, right? It's the dream of going and getting a job and having a career and then retiring.

But I think the American's dream. It's much more broader and much, more bigger than that, right? And the true American dream is that anybody can come in here with $100 and a few bags of clothes and start something and then build it to something that is big. That American dream, I personally believe it's still alive because I am living it.

Right? I am living it because I came in here with nothing. I was lucky that I came, I had a mother that was working hard and was able to help support me and help me get to school and all of that. But she came in here too with nothing, right?

the work and who put in the work then at some point I discovered that there is more than that initial dream that most people in my community thought was an American dream. There's a much bigger dream than that and I started going after it and I'm seeing results. There are very few societies in the world where you are able to do that. Very few, right?

So I do believe that dream is still alive no matter what anybody says about America. I think it's probably one of the, I'm just grateful that I'm here and I think it's one of the greatest societies in the world. I think the trick there is to not read the headlines and to just keep working the dream. Yeah, I stopped.

I'm so glad I stopped listening to the news a long time ago. My quality of life has significantly improved since I started doing that, since I stopped listening to the news. Yeah, because otherwise you think the whole country is on fire every single, you know, you see snippets of this and that, and you're like, how are you really living in this kind of society? But if you don't look at it, you just go about your day, you work on your dreams, you help other people build their dreams, enable them becoming financially independent.

Absolutely. Again, it just depends on what you focus on, right? There's so much happening in the world around you. So it's important what you choose to focus yourself on, right?

If the news, if it feeds you and you like listening to it or it feeds whatever part you're going on to, is great, but it's not for everybody that figure out the path you want to go and then find the things that feed you to get towards that path, you know, and then so it's all about what to focus in on. So I'm very deliberate on what I choose to focus my attention on. So what are you focusing on next with Excite? What are like the next big audacious goals after working the first six deals, you know, kind of wrapped up in a way there operational?

What are the next audacious goals? Oh, man, we are so excited this year.. Yeah, well, one of the things that we discovered when we started -excited capital is like there's a lot of, R gatekeeping of information out there, then when it comes to like education or helping other people get on this path of buying apartment and buildings or helping them provide resources for them to be able to go and start their own businesses as well. So that's one of the things that we were so passionate about that we are going to create other people like us.

bSo this year, we decided to take along just a few people to help, them buy their first apartment buildings. Right. And so far it has been so great. Like, we have a couple of invent, that are submitting office and ready to buy their.

First building. So, that to me, is like, something that I'm really passionate about. That to me,. That's what life is all about.

Right. Being able to grow and help other people grow. It's something that has been at the core of our mission. I would with my partners.

And of course, as we bring all the people and help them get that initial step of what we were able to do to help shorten their path and help. Now help them, avoid a ton of mistakes along the way to get to that point, we are also seeking to grow as well. So this year we're looking to acquire 200 RMB of assets and then and The beauty about the compounding curve is the acceleration on the tail end of it. It's like always initially when we start building the pipeline, it looks like nothing has happened or nothing is happening.

But when then the compounding kicks really in then. So these audacious goals become more tangible. Yeah, I love that a lot. One of our mentors, whenever we meet with him, he reminds us, he's like, guys, listen, it's an inverted triangle, right?

When you start in the beginning, you got to put in a lot of effort to get a small amount of results, but it gets easier as you go. And this is somebody that holds almost over 2 billion of assets. And he's been there. So that, I always keep reminding myself that, you know, keep pushing and you see it too, right?

We see it. The kind of effort that we have to put in to be able to get just to our first transaction, right? It takes less now because we'll build those resources and all of that. So, it's just an.

Exciting journey to be on. Yeah. So, what was that like to go from zero to one? Because that's.

as you said, that takes so much effort and we don't quite know the lay of the land, we don't have all the resources, we don't have all the contacts., like if you were to compare zero to one to maybe the fifth deal to the a sixth deal, how much more in terms of effort and our spend do you think that takes if you can somehow put that in perspective? Absolutely. Zero to one was tough, right? But the interesting thing is like when we're doing it, we didn't think it was tough because we're just, I think one of my partners likes to use the word is like, ignorant enthusiasm, right?

That's just what we were just so enthusiastic, but didn't no left from right and we just go in hitting this wall hitting that wall but so enthusiastic but kept pushing forward. You know, so looking back, it was challenging, right? And one of The main reasons why it was challenging is because we just did it. This was a path that we have never walked before, right?

and we didn't have the right guidance to walk on that path. S we had to figure out a lot of things on our own. We made a lot of mistakes, some of them costly more than others, but every single one of them was an opportunity for us to learn, right? The great thing we had is like every time we hit a roadblock, we'll always sit back and reflect and ask ourselves, OK, what are we doing here and what can we do better?

what other direction can we go, right? And we did a lot of that unconsciously just because we were so enthusiastic about the value that we had the possibility of providing to our community. So we were ready to put in whatever it took for us to get there, right? So from that zero to the first initial one was very challenging, but a lot of growth, a lot of personal growth happened along that path between myself and my partner.

We grew significantly as individuals. And I believe once we grew as individuals to the point where we were capable of achieving that goal then the first came in. Now, once the first comes in, you have the foundations that are necessary, right? You have the credibility.

by being able to close your first deals, you build relationship, you've shown credibility, you have investors that you're providing value to and then it expands from there, right? And then it becomes much easier, but not completely easy, right? It becomes much easier, but the more you go and the more you push and stretch your goals from that level of comfort, the more you face a challenge, but more you get past that, things become a little, I think about the checks we return to our investors. I feel like we're enabling dreams, you know, whatever that means to them.

It could be putting the kids through college, could be getting another car, it could be getting a home, could be getting more stability, but every check we return to our investors is a dream. Yeah, I tell my partners that I'm lucky that, in our partnership. I'm on the asset management side so I get to process these distributions and that's usually my best favorite time of the portfolio and I hit that send button and I send distributions to our investors. Some of them are my and some of them.

We're very skeptical investing in this the first time and I tell them no you got to do this you got to do so whenever I send them I have to just call them and remind them that don't forget. So yeah. It's a great business to be in. Like when done correctly, right, when you go out there and you actually see great opportunities that could help people grow the award and you're able to provide these opportunities to them.

So what better way to live life than providing that kind of opportunity to other people. Yeah. But it's also interesting. You mentioned that sometimes people are so skeptical that they can't I even see the good in things.

That's like, I wanted to explain one of my friends what cost segregation could mean for him. He's already a landlord, so he would have qualified for using those losses on a multifamily real estate investment. He's just saying, no, it just sounds too good to be true, I don't think it works. I'm like, we're doing, this is legal, this is not some moons Moonshine business.

Yeah, that's how human nature, right? We start by being skeptical. Every time you like, it's less like a face. And that's what I tell my men, this is a face and you have to start early because the mistake you don't want to make is to start only when you have that opportunity to provide to investors, for example.

It's a face once you start, it. There's going to be skepticism, you got to expect it. So plant the seed and let them be skeptical so that it gives them enough time to go back and do a little bit of research on that and you continue to inform and continue to educate. It's a long-term process, right?

Yeah, but I've come to understand that it is human nature, right? So I expect it. I expect that skepticism. It's totally okay.

I love when people come in and ask me like 10,000 questions. You know, when they're skeptical, I'm like, no, this sounds too good to be true. You sure this is not a Ponzi scheme? So I love when people do that because it gives me an opportunity to educate them and really expand their minds to what is possible.

And a lot of the members of our community that started off that way are some of the most loyal investors that get in on every single duo. And after the first one, they saw the effect, they just go bonkers, you know? So I expect the skepticism again. It's just part of the process.

Yeah, I mean, the beauty is once you've maybe, I don't want to say persuaded, but once you help somebody see the value in an opportunity where they were originally very sceptical, then they become like a true believer in a way where they're like, this actually works, I've been intensely skeptical initially and they've always become like a spokesperson. Absolutely, those are the people that bring you the most referrals, you know, because yourself, like, if you have that much doubt about something, then you realize it works and how excited you get, you know, and you want to tell everybody about it. So, yeah, so it's welcome skepticism, for sure. And oftentimes.

That skepticism is more about their past experiences than it is about us. It's like, okay, they might question our experience, then we can point to our partnerships and our mentors and we're like, yes. yes, we might initially have started a different path we do have a solid network around ourselves, a solid team that helps us navigate them. And then the question is like, which part of the skepticism comes out of their past experience, like where did they get burned in the past?

points. And sometimes by asking questions to a And, again, it that you hold them to them for R 5. it's great, it's a match, but if you I think you have to I love going back to Cameroon. The reason why I haven't gone back is because there's been a conflict in.

that And in that village, I's got, community or to move forward, you know, back I mean, the political situation is gathered over here and bring it back there to the people you were still in touch with? That's what I hope to do, that I saw how much impact they had on them. I. you can see that there are multiple other paths.

The American dream of buying a home, getting a job is not the only path you could take. There's more you can do to contribute, to do much, to be bigger. And my hope is that somebody else is gonna see the examples of what we've been able to do and do 10 times more than what we've been, what we would ever do in our lifetime, you know? So, yeah, so it's great to be in that position to be able to share that kind of value.

and my- and out there and do things so much. So for the most of the inspiration, if they are jealous, I don't know, to be honest, because I really don't focus on that. And I don't feed into, I just do what I need to do and keep going,. And anybody that supports, I encourage them as well and give value to them as much as possible.

So if somebody is jealous, I really don't know. I've had a couple people reach out. Like if somebody responds, um, responds to something that I do A lot of it is fear, right? Some people doubt themselves, doubt the ability that they're able to do that and they express that in that way.

. So I have a way I can help them, I do it, but again, I don't focus on the negative, whether they're jealous or not, I don't know. Yeah, I'm just wondering, sometimes there's those, like, oh yeah, you could do that because,I don't know, you were able to go to the United States hart to say unfortunately that's human nature and a lot of it too has to do with the society that would grow up in and the beliefs that we so even if somebody says that to me right I don't take it personal I actually feel a little bit of sense of pity for the person because I know personal growth journey I'm my own experience I know the beliefs or whatever information that you have to take in to be able to see, to have that perception that this is a, this is may. R, something else than what it truly is.

It all comes from the inside. To some extent I feel a little bit of pity, but I don't focus on it. I just keep moving. And anytime you start something about going to be skeptical.

There are people that were very skeptical about what we're doing when we started. Some of those people are greater supporters today, so you just got to keep reminding myself what my grandpa would wanted me to do, I would have been nowhere close to what I'm doing right now. I would be still in the same village at home. Yeah, your grandpa just gave you the best information based on what he knew.

And again, that's one of the things that I tell people is like, oh, I'm doing this because my parents said I should do it this way. I think it's being really unfair to be your parents, And this is the crucial part, and I think this is also the power of immigration. Like you and me came here from a different continent, and it kind of shook our original belief system. It shook the way we look at the world, and suddenly we were in a different part of the world that was thinking different, that culturally it was different, and it kind of allowed ourselves to, allow ourselves to question, like, not, to question like, okay, what are the jewels in what we learned in the past, and what is be not so worthwhile holding on to.

Yeah. And I think this is the power of unsettling and going somewhere where else for some time. Yeah-that's very interesting becasue I was with a group of friends yesterday and we were talking about this, right. R It is really something that I've been fascinated about.

Because, for example, right, and this goes back into the importance of what you focus on, right? For example, it's not just immigration from, let's say from a third world country to the United States, where you see that happening, it's actually And they started businesses and are becoming very successful. Right. Guess what to on the opposite side, on the other side of the border in Nigeria, right?

Because my point is that Nigerians have been to Nigeria a few times, the same thing is happening when Nigerians are like, oh I think some of our government is bad. This and all of that, nothing is working. this country there's no opportunity. I want to get out and there are other foreigners, Cameroonians and other people that are living from that country coming to Nigeria in search of rir.

find that opportunity and they're successful. Same thing happens in many other communities. So the question I've, asked myself, is like, why does this happen? Right?

And the truth is, it gets back to that point. It depends on what you're focusing on. When you're leaving your community to go to another community, it's because you've seen that there's no You do not have all the stories and sense of entitlement that you have when you are in your own community. For example, I'm Cameroonian.

I'm a. I'm a citizen of this country. I have the right. The government has to take care of me.

The government has to provide this. I have to do all of these things for me. And if I'm not getting it, I'm going to move in another country. When I move to another country, I'm not a citizen.

So I don't have this right. I have to also have to find opportunities. that again, the stories we tell ourselves and what we focus on highly determines the results I would have had the thinking of that village bacause it would have been so much harder I think by displacing myself, I just had to look at everything with a clean slate I'm like okay, how do I make sense of this, how do I get here for my family now break free, was given to you in a, way and then try to seek opportunities somewhere else, and I think that's the beauty of immigration. If I look at the United States, it's a country of immigration, and it's also so many great businesses have been built by or so many of the hustlers I know people that are actually like going for it.

They come from somewhere And I think, hey, this is a great playing field. I want to play all out. R the United States. this is where a can do it.

And I feel the same way like. Where. I All the sea is like, everything is going down, the government is I think it's part of the human psyche and I think now can get amplified a lot more like it used to be a newspaper and kind of the gatekeeper of information and storytelling and narrative to. public, used to be newspapers, then we got radio and s on TV.

and now just about anybody can or it starts with individuals and families, And then it takes it maybe takes that unsettling that you through, by immigrating, that allows us to know it's about what we focus on it's about r keeping this out and we're focusing on what is possible and what we can work, what we can control there's like a real opportunity absolutely it's all again it goes back to. what you focus on because there's so much information in the world, where you decide RAC your mind is where your growth is gonna go towards. Yeah, very powerful. Thank you.

Jesse, what r you consider a life well lived? A life well lived is a life of purpose, right? My rly, a life world lived is a that lives an impact for the next generation to come. Yeah, that's how I think the greatest fulfillment is when you start stepping into helping others.

Yeah. It's like, it gets real boring, real quick if you just take care of it. Yeah, if your goals are just individual based, and again, some people are individually motivated. Everybody, every person has a different core human need.

I found my biggest human need So for me, as long as I'm growing having. All right, so I'm very active on LinkedIn. R on LinkedIn, I am Leslie Awasom. Please.

Connect with me on there. Let's share ideas. I'm also Leslie Awasom on all We're putting on a lot of educational content, and a lot of great stuff on YouTube. So come connect with us, learn, grow, and reach out to anyone of us if it could be e-e- JPME-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E- Awesome, and also make sure to have all of the details in the, Yeah, thank you for making the time and I feel, the same way where Click if this is available to them.

So thank you for putting yourself out there despite being an introvert. Thank you.

people, man. I'm going to credit that to people, the people that I met along the way and personal development. So very early on when I was on my journey of like self-education and personal development, I was reading all these books by myself. I came across, I went to a hospital where I was working per diem, and I was reading a book, and it walked up to me.

It's like, hey, man, you read books too? I'm like, yeah. It's like, what are you reading? I'm like, I'm reading doing this.

He's like, Oh man, I thought I was the only one. I don't talk about this stuff. He's like, I've been into personal development since I was like 16 or whatever. His name is Chris Scott.

I credit him a lot. He doesn't really know what he did for me, He contributed a significant amount to my growth. Welcome to the Investing Orion Podcast, your number one resource for nurses and healthcare professionals who want to take control of their financial well-being and build a life of abundance and freedom, hosted by Josh Condado and Colin Davis. Each week, we bring you r each week we bring you insightful interviews with successful nurses, entrepreneurs and experts in the field.

Together, we'll explore the world of investing, uncover strategies to overcome challenges and inspire you to create a thriving portfolio. Whether you're a new nurse, just starting out or a seasoned veteran, Invest, RN is here to equip you with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration you need to invest your time, money, and relationships wisely. All right, so welcome to the Investing RN podcast. Today we have, I guess, Leslie Awasom.

I think I said that right. You got it, brother. You got it right. We're from Cameroon, born in Cameroon, moved to the States when he was 18, tried different things, chose nursing, then anesthesia, and now is trying some new things again.

We'll get all into it, uh, buying a bunch of real estate, uh, open to new business recently. We're going to talk all about it and he's going to give you advice and tell you what not to do and what to do. So welcome, Leslie. Oh, thank you, guys.

Thank you guys so much for having me. Yeah. So let's start up. I, we usually kind of ask how people even, I guess, hear about nursing, like why nursing as opposed to anything else?

Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, for me, it was like, um, there's the moment I stepped my foot in the year She pushed it on my siblings and I and Initially, I wasn't doing that. I wasn't gonna do nursing. I came in.

I was studying computer science. I was back in 2000 and With the computer science, I think right on there. That's when the bubble the dot-com bubble burst and a lot of computer science professionals lost their job Everybody in my community that I was looking out to that was studying computer science. All of them lost their job.

So, um, so at that point, my mom won, you know, cause she was like, I told you know, you gotta get something that is a steam rule, a stable job and all of that. So I was like, okay. I guess the mom was always right. So I went into nursing.

That's all. They ever want to hear is that they were right. This episode is sponsored by all day investments. If you would like to get your start.

In real estate investing, but don't want to deal with toilets or tenants. We have several new opportunities that might interest you head over to alldayinvestments.co, forward slash invest, or follow the link in our show notes to book a call with our team. So you tried computer science. you sit for the NCLEX, and I think it's much easier now than it was before.

You had to get all your licenses and all of that done, then sit for the NCLEX, then before you start getting a job. So a lot of nurses that might come and start off as CNAs or assistants and why they work through the system. I was going to say, that seems to be pretty common with like all the medical professionals that are coming to the States, and it seems like there should be a smoother transition. working on it.

But yeah, I mean, if your medicine's medicine, it should translate. I think there is like for nurses, like the Filipino nurses that get recruited from the Philippines to come to the US. So all of that process gets taken care of way in advance before they get here. So for others that migrate on their own, then you have to go to the system, which is what it is, yeah.

So, did she, what field was your, or department was your mom in? So, in Cameroon when she migrated as a nurse, you do everything. It's not like really specialized. My mom has done meet with me.

She's done like a med surg, ICU back in Cameroon. But when she came over here, I think she was working in like a med surg unit. Yeah, that's where she's worked for the most part and step down in it. And then for you, did you get into something like that, or did you go straight for ICU knowing you wanted to do the CRNA route?

So I didn't know I wanted to do the CRNA route, but I went straight for ICU. When I got into nursing, the more I learned about nursing, I realized, oh my God, it is a really broad field. It truly is a great foundational career to start or however that actually want to go and the fact that it had that great foundation, like that existed when I started nursing school. It wasn't until like my second year into nursing school that I came across a CRNA and it just blew my mind.

I went and did some research and I was like, oh my God, you know, this is possible. And the reason why I chose initially to go to the ICU is because everybody told me that's the most difficult unit to go into.-. So that's one trait that I've always had. I always try to push myself to go after challenging stuff.

So, I was like, I got to figure out how to really get into the ICU. One of my friends that graduated, he was working at Hopkins ICU and he was like, don't worry, I'll put a referral in and you get in. So, I was able to get in that ICU then, later on down the line, I was like, okay, let me do the CRN thing. That seemed like a good direction to go at that time.

Yeah, it's kind of a, it's a blessing and a curse, like in the nursing field. Yeah. Because there's so many things that you can do. Yes.

I mean I like options but I don't like 50 options give me like 3 or 4 and then I can pick. Yeah. So at what point did you find out what a CRNA is and what we do? So it was like second year in nursing school, I met a CRNA in Greensboro, North Carolina.

I was doing a rotation in the PACU and I met a CRNA and she was telling me what they do to give anesthesia and everybody was telling me how good of a career it is. know as I went back and did some research I was like oh my god this is really an interesting field but then I was hearing all the stories about how difficult how challenging it is and all of that so um I that seed got planted in my head but I had not made up my mind at that point that this is the path I want to go- I was like man this has so many options. Actually one of the things that I was considering was like doing some kind of international world health kind of stuff because I'm from Cameroon so I always had that passion of being able bto help people from back home. So.

maybe like working for the WHO or one of these international organizations. That's actually one of the things I was piquing my interest while I was in nursing school and not CRNA. That's a, I think that's interesting cause we've talked to travel nurses that are traveling domestically in the United States, but, um, and then what you're talking about is kind of different, but like I've heard about travel contracts and Dubai and international travel contracts, and I don't know what working for the WHO like is like pay wise, but I know some of these Dubai contracts are like crazy money and they'll pay you and they'll pay all your living and all that kind of stuff. What does like work and did you look into it in terms of like pay rates and like how that all kind and what kind of licenses you need?

Yeah, actually the friend I told you about my very good friend that Got me into Hopkins., he actually got a job at the WHO and he actually works over there. He's like Big shot then in Africa and Kobo working for WHO so but he had to do like a master's in and I think it's healthcare administration to be able to get that job. So he doesn't really work as a nurse over there, but more on the administrative side. I do believe the pace and the six figures and it's a great job for people that love to travel that really have a passion for that kind of work.

So he's doing it, he loves it. . and I love that environment and all of that stuff I, the art, and so let me learn about this realistic stuff and see where it goes. Um, so that was around 2016 when I started walking down that path.

So how long did you educate yourself before you dove in? Cause I know analysis paralysis, that's like something that's preached huge. It's a big talking point. So what did you do before you bought your first property?

And then, if you don't mind diving into your first property, and the numbers, and all that. R.B. Absolutely. It took too long, because I was just going crazy on this educational journey, reading these books, listening to all these things.

Then, I was trying so hard to get everybody around me, because I had confidence myself to do it. So, I was trying so hard to get all of my friends to bought and like, maybe somebody is going to take the lead and I follow. But nobody was really as interested as I was. I told you about a second chance book.

I bought about 10 copies of that and I sent it out to my friends, but it looks like none of them read it or even if they read it, they did not get it as I got it. So, I was reading this book, going to the REAS analysis process, like you say, it is very common, especially for us healthcare providers, especially anesthesia providers, because if you think about it, our training as anesthesia providers is to learn everything that might go wrong during surgery so nothing goes wrong, right? So, when you get out of the world in business, that is the same approach we tend to take, and that's what I was taking. So, after about a year of reading books, going to all these networking events, I was talking to any and everybody around me about it, including my younger brother.

And one day he was like, man, you're talking a lot about this real estate stuff, let's do it, right? I was like, okay, let's do it. So, we put money together. Easy for him to do because he lives in California.

He came to Maryland and we looked at a property, he's like, okay, man, you got this. So we bought the property, yeah. So we bought this property, it was, we bought that property for $92,000. It was an estate sale, a condo.

The person that lived in there had just passed away, so the family sold it to us. It was a little beat up, but really nice area by high school. So we ended up spending about $14,000 to repair something that probably would have cost $6,000 in hindsight, but during that process, I took two weeks off of work and I was . I would leave the house at 6 a.m.

go there and there's nobody there, I was just there by myself, start cleaning up stuff, the workers would come in, would do the work and I spent my whole day there for like two weeks and I really enjoyed doing it. I was like, oh my god, this business this stuff might be something that I do I'm going to buy more houses and do this So we were doing the be our model, which is like by renovate rent Refinance and repeat so When we got to the refinance they realized that the that house that the homes in that area had increased the value of that property had increased by like seven to seven thousand dollars I was like, oh my god, this works and in less than six to seven months and generated this much money from an investment. . What Robert Kiyosaki was saying is not a scam is real.

So that got me really excited. I was like, we've got to do more of this. You know, I got I was thinking about just going and buying, like two properties, two, three properties a year and taking it from there. But then things change along the way.

That sounds similar to ours, but even better, because like I think we made about our first deal we did was a burr. And it was in Wisconsin. There was like 35,000 by the house, 20,000 rehab in a praise for 80. We got 60 back made 5,000.

Oh my God. Yeah. Ended up having to put a little more into like bats and AC, but still came out on top. But it didn't matter because we saw that worked.

And we were so excited. And we were so excited. And we were so excited. Oh, this is it.

We're going to do this. We go out, found the next house, bought it for like 23 grand and it turned into a to your flip and we barely Rokey had to go for you after the first one. So, uh, the first, I'm good. I'm good.

I'm good. I'm good. Like your second one, but we got lucky cause our values increase in that area, right? Because like I said, I re-app costs end up being double, uh, what it was supposed to be.

So we got lucky because of the economy and all of that. So, after that,- I was thinking of, single family units and doing the same thing and doing because I've always wanted to be rental, long term rental. Flips, the other short term stock was not really holding my interest. I was looking to create more wealth.

So, around that R time, I met my., my first partner, R first initial partner for XSITE Capital Tenny. He owned a financial services company and he was coming to sell me life insurance. I had gone through like a ton of all, you know how when you get out of school, they want to sell you all this insurance stuff and stuff like that. So I almost signed up for like some crazy stuff then I figured it out and I was very skeptical of any financial advisors or anybody that sell life insurance.

But when this guy came, we had a conversation, we talked, I prepared him with a bunch of questions because I've been doing a lot of reading and he was very honest and very knowledgeable in and what he was saying so I was like oh this is an interesting guy so I was like I'm not gonna buy insurance with you yet but you seem like a nice guy we were reading the same book at that time so we became friends and we used to meet and play a board game by Robert Kiyosaki called Cashflow and just talk business he's talking about his financial services I'm talking about real estate so at one point he was like I've always wanted to be real estate, why don't we partner up and then scale whatever you're doing. So we did, we We're gonna partner up and go buy net properties and maybe do the BR model and stuff like that and hold it long term But when we're doing our research He simplified the process to it to us was like a light bulb moment understanding the power of being able to buy multiple units at once and then the math on how these properties are valued well like oh my god this, not a scam you did blah. So I was like, yeah, there's definitely a need here to create a something and go and educate members of that community. So I left from that single investment to founding XSITE Capital with Tenny initially and then Dr.

Oni. Dr. Oni became our third partner later on down the line. So I'm on your website right now and I see that you guys have a total portfolio of almost 200 Rillion..

I guess one 68 is what it says on your website. 838 doors. Underman. Yes.

So how do you go from one Burr to starting to diving into something this, this huge, this large, this a R, valuable, I guess, like, the analysis paralysis is big on a small scale, but when you dive into these massive properties, I can only imagine what it's like at that point. So how did you overcome that and what are the beginnings of X I capital look like people man I'm going to credit that to people the people that I met along the way and I'm personal development. So very early on when I was on my journey of like self education and personal development I was reading all these books by myself I came across I went to one hospital I was working for a year and I was reading a book and Sierra and they walked up to me like hey man You read books too? I'm like, yeah, it's like, what are you reading?

I'm like, I'm reading this. He's like, oh, man, I thought I was the only one who read that. I don't talk about this stuff. He's like, I've been into personal development since I was like 16 or whatever his name is Chris Scott.

I credit him a lot. He doesn't really know what he did for me, But, he contributed a significant amount to my I growth. So Chris said, hey, you At that point that I started diving into because our skills is one Psychology is probably the biggest thing ever Like you talk about analysis parties and all of that. A lot of that is based on a psychology based Basis, right like Tony Robbins said is like 80% psychology 20% skill and there's no doubt about that So I had to work a lot on my own personal psychology in order to be able to do that and I credit to a lot For like my partner on Tenny Tolofari and dr.

Julius Oni for helping me around the way because I had a lot of fears So many fears you cannot even imagine Like our very first meetup that we had You could have seen me over there always jittering like I was a crackhead or something just nervous Right just nervous to talk to people just nervous to talk about this. So are partners like the people that we met along the way and just pushing through those fears like going against your comfort zone pushing against your comfort zone and then you start realizing oh my god it's not as crazy as I a thought right this is something of need that you're actually providing and you I can do this I am doing this so you just go every day take action quiet the fears take action and then keep going so that's how I went from the single-family rental to starting XSITE Capital of my partners I- I'm so blessed and he is kind of opposite he doesn't have any fears if you say let's go talk to Barack Obama tomorrow or Donald Trump to invest he's gonna be like oh what's his number let me call him so what I like to spend time thinking he's like no let's do it and do it so that balance kind of helped me realize that a lot of the things I fear it's more in my head than in reality. So and then the more I kept doing, the more I kept growing. So what are, so there's three partners in XSITE Capital now, right?

So what are, so there's three partners in XSITE Capital now, right? So. So what is each of your roles? And how did that transition from when you first started to what it looks like today?

It has been an interesting transition. I am a director of operations. I'm more on the operations side. I manage the operations of XSITE Capital and now our assets that we have, Telling his director of acquisitions.

He's on the forefront of brokers in the markets talking to and trying to get us these deals that the only I see or is also died of investor relations like he brings in the relationships and The investors that he needs that front for like sourcing investors that that invest in these deals When we started out I was actually the end of acquisitions and I was mad at it and 10 were back on operations the main reason we did it that way is because I R s I did the on the writing where we started because I love playing with numbers and all of that so I did I was doing down the writing so we thought on the writing person and has to be acquisition so but I was so scared to even talk to brokers that wasn't working so that was not working Tony and I initially started XSITE Capital so it was just two of us right So, I went to the hospital and I went to pitch Dr. Oni to become an investor, a passive investor in the Ex I capital. When he finally got the chance to review the deal package that we provided to him, he called, he was like, I don't want to be an investor, I want to be a partner. We were like, Oh my God, this is amazing, right?

Because when we started and I was thinking in my head like, who are some of the people And Teddy and I actually practice on how to pitch him how to talk to him to b an investor and when he said it And, he was like, oh no, this is powerful stuff. I want to be a partner. It was a no-brainer for us So when he came on board, it was like the third leg of the tripod that just came in and stabilized everything And that is true when our growth trajectory started right in the beginning We were just running around doing a lot of work But not seeing a lot of growth when he came on board that we have right all the pieces in the right places like now and you've been able to grow probably beyond what you could have done had you stayed as the two of us and it's like I mean it sounds like you'd already had that in your mind but it's like how do you kind of like justify that or is it like an equation you run or is it just like something you feel like how did you guys figure it out that that's what you needed to do our philosophy has always been is better to own one percent of a billion dollar company than to on a hundred percent of a zero dollar company That has always been our philosophy, right? And that is what we maintain going forward.

So we were never shy away from talking to partners that will help us grow, partnering people that will help. And we have the philosophy that we have, which is actually one of our core values is the growth and abundance mindset. We do believe there's truly more than enough for everybody, right? If you bring a significant amount of value that's going to help us grow.

R If you share in our own values as individuals, if you bring skills that are bad, that is gonna take us to the right direction. We have all we had always been open like to bring it in a partner and when he came It was a no-brainer for us like that call When doctor only called that day I can never forget that day when he called I said hold on a second He's like he's a partner available. I'm like yes. He said I want to talk to you both I'm like hold on a second.

I switched over the call and I caught any. I was like you remember the doctor told you about He was like yeah, he. He's on the phone. Let's get on a call and talk That call normally probably would have I lasted 15 10 minutes, but it ended up lasting four hours Like We were just going back and forth on like our visions of life The way we look at things where we are and it was just like it was It felt natural.

It felt right? So it was a no-brainer for us that all two of us are going to be equal partners. We can keep going two of us and End up with nothing. We had just come off of trying to raise on a deal.

Well, we could I didn't raise a thousand dollars It's a neon light So we could keep going and doing that and thinking. Oh, we have this company and all of that or we could bring we could, work with somebody that builds in a Significant amount of value that none of us can bring and then we grow together so it was a no-brainer for us and now we are all we were all equal partners and Really all two of them are like brothers in growth and I'm truly like incredibly blessed To have them in my life and to be going on this journey with them So the three partners that you have now, so your CRNA, uh, your other partners, financial, No, he's a security engineer, but his initial side also was like, uh, financial services business. Okay. And then what was your third part?

He's an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Oni. Okay. Are all three of you, um, phasing out or do you plan, do any of you plan to keep doing what you were doing?

We're all, we are facing a lot of conversation of money yesterday. I would like this time. I do want to talk about that because before we hit record, um, we were talking about going through all this and like amount of school and then just like not throwing it away but like essentially you're kind of throwing away everything that you've learned. How are you able to do that I guess for somebody who's put a ton of time into school and the amount of student loans you paid back because of this.

And now you're transitioning to another favorite phase of life. So it depends right and again I love quotes I back to a quote that Tony Robbins says, which is like the strongest force in human psychology is the need to stay true to who we identify ourselves to be, right? So it depends, right? If your identity is strong as a CRNA or a doctor, that's all you've ever wanted to be in your life, it's going to be difficult for you to move that away, all right, and go to something else.

But if you have an identity of something bigger, of Something more than being a seer and a might just be a path to wherever you're going, right? So for me It's not hard at all. Right? I love this year and a job that I do But I thought that I could be way more value to the world and staying at a job Like and I love that getting into entrepreneurship.

I truly found my passion being able to build this Everybody tries to make it be. It's not for everybody. It's painful. So but I enjoy doing it, right?

And I've always seen myself as that prior to going to see honest grow I tried to multiple the businesses and I feel it at them, but I never stopped So for me is not hard and for my part as well because we see the value that we could give By going on this path being able to do what we do so it's just a transition It's a chance to the face of life and my degree doesn't get taken away from me. The years that I spend grinding, going through rough clinicals to have my CIRNA degree is never. Going to get taken away from me. Right.

That's a journey I went through. But if I see something else that I enjoyed doing, that I have a passion for, I should not be stuck over here just because I spent money on it. No, the growth has to continue. Yeah.

So this sounds like it's been kind of a gradual stepping away because before you said you've been a CRN a nine years. Um, and you've been kind of slowly phasing out, have you Re, have you been phasing out equally with how you've been replacing your salary or is it just, um, No, it never, it's not for me personally, it's not a smooth process, right? Maybe for some people is like smooth, you do all of this and do all, that. So for example, um, so this is what led to my phase out.

Let me be very honest. Um, in 2023, um, I learned In 2021, I stopped working as a full-time and I went to per diem CRNA. at that point I was doing mostly like weekends and nights and during the week I'm working on my best our business is growing 2021 2022 we are acquiring more assets right so the glow was that at the end of 2023 I'm going to phase out completely so thankful luckily for me as I was working podium that's when the CRN rates went like bonus like my rate pretty much double right so I was working less and making way more right and then 2023 came along I set the goal in 2023 that I was going to exit full-time WTAM will exit the hospital completely I end up 2023 the infusion clinic I mentioned to you guys before the call we were supposed to launch in March of 2023 we experience all kinds of delays and all kinds of delays expenses and everything when we plan right 2023 was also a very slow for us on the syndication side we do not acquire any deals right so we made we didn't make any income from the deals that we own but we didn't make any income from some of the deals that we acquired because part of our income on some of the acquisition of these deals. So 2023 when it comes to like income from business was like a very slow year.

But now at the hospital, I'm producing, I'm limited in the number of hours that I could pick right which work well for me. But the hospital I've been begging me and saying, hey, we need staff, you were short staff, please pick up extra do this and I kept doing that right. So in November of this year, the administrator called me and I was like, Hey, Leslie, you've exceeded the number of hours that you could work in a year. And main administrators are like, you gotta take you off the schedule so you cannot work.

So the end was actually first right because at that point, if everything was I was growing smooth. I probably kept picking up a couple of shifts over there, but at that point, I had to ask myself the question. What do I really want to do? Right?

Yeah, and I spoke to my wife and my wife for the first time to my entrepreneurial and she was like, no, you're not going back. Just focus on business. I was like, oh my God, what's happening here? You know?

You know, so I got the support of my spouse and we have been our clinic launched in November. So I had the time now to focus on the business, on the businesses because my hospital said I cannot pick up initiatives until March. So I said I'm gonna use that time to focus on my business and then see if at the end of March, things are not working, maybe I'll go back to the hospital. But boy, oh boy, that has been the greatest, one of the greatest blessings of my life that happened.

One of my goals in life has always been wake up every morning and drive my kids to school. I get to do that now. Come back home, we have conversations, I help them with homework. I see them grow, it is so much beauty.

Then the time that I have using that time to focus in on our business, on my businesses has been exponential, like the return on investment because your greatest asset is your time and you really do not know how your time is until you have that time to yourself. You might think the value of your time is the algorithm that you get, but if you have a platform or something that you could apply that time to, you could create a way more value than you could ever think. So thankfully for me, this happened at a stage where I had built multiple platforms that I could focus in on. So that's what I'm doing and I'm like, I'm just gonna go complete my shifts in March And I am done and focusing on business moving forward.

Yeah, that's great. That's powerful stuff. Yeah. You never know how valuable your time is until you have it, I guess.

And then that's kind of like a mindset that everybody, I guess, I can't say everybody, but most people fall into like, this is how much I get paid for my time. So this is how valuable I am. But to your point, you, you're way more valuable if you just put your time in the right spot. And earlier you mentioned, uh, the word wealth.

So I would be curious to know, like, what is your definition of wealth? My definition of wealth is it truly is freedom. And being able to do the things that I love to do and when I want to do it, however way I want to do it, that's true wealth for me. And I'm being able to impact others.

Like that is being able to. Impact others. That's something that I'm Riali passionate about. being able to show others that there's more possibility to them that they have more possibilities for themselves in the beautiful world that we live in than what they've been being able to have that impact.

Whatever it, it truly isn't about the money, the money gets me the freedom to do whatever I want to do, but it is that whatever I. want to do that is the true wealth for me and being able to do that But when I put my daughter to bed every night and I was there every morning when she woke up and it was like that is more wealth than I ever got from any paycheck. So it's very significant. You can't take it without quality of life, man.

You cannot really quantify it in dollars and cents, you know, but it is powerful. Yeah. Definitely. All right.

So, let's. Excited capital one more time. I'm so you said you didn't acquire anything in 2023, no new properties. Do you see any potential now with the market potentially picking back up?

I don't know. There's a lot of talk about interest rates coming down. What's that going to look like for investors? What do you see 24, 2024 looking like for XSITE Capital?

2024 is a once in a lifetime opportunity for people that are buying large apartment buildings. So we are going to be very active this year. Why 2023? We did not close any deals.

We spent the time building our investor base. We never slowed down, kept doing the work, and that has increased our investor base significantly. So we have a R ton of investors now. So as deals start coming, we're going to be buying a lot of deals this year.

So we do plan to be very active this year. Later on in the year, we're probably going to launch a fund to go over some distressed assets. Why I say 20-24 is going to be a window of opportunity once in a lifetime is because, in the last three years, there was a lot of activity in multifamily. When interest rates, the Fed dropped interest rates down to zero, multifamily home prices went up.

Like the large apartment buildings, the prices went up, and a lot of operators bought deals using of these I have some money and take advantage of assets and grow your wealth as well. That's great. What type of returns do you give your investors? So we typically project 14% to 20% average returns on ideals.

But our last full cycle deal, the investors worked over 30% average returns. I saw on your Instagram you mentioned, I think it. I'm a real estate syndicator. Of course I know what IRR is.

I, uh, I cannot explain that. R. I cannot explain that. That's why I made that for us because I, uh, it's one of them was complicated metrics that anybody they get a, I don't understand.

I don't, I cannot explain it to be honest with you. That's why I'm with that. That's why you have a team right. Exactly.

No, you know, I, uh, it's like, it's called the, uh, internal rule of return and it's a very complex formula, right? That, you used to be able to get the IRR, but essentially it determines return over time. For example, the longer you hold an asset, the shorter you hold an asset, So it's a value that is commonly used by institutions. A lot of institutional investors-investors use it a lot to be able to determine how viable an investment is.

But the formula of calculating IRR or getting to it, that's what I cannot explain to you. But just understanding that concept is like value of money over time, the return over dollars prior to that. And now you're raising money for a So he has that credibility, right? And I'll give you an example.

There were a ton of people in the hospital, like my CIA colleagues that had been talking to them about investing in this, that I shriveled in that deal and they were like, ah, okay, and did not invest in it, right? but when Dr. Oni came on board and they're like, oh my God, wait, Dr. Oni is partnering with Leslie?

Oh, then, what a thing might make sense, you understand? So he brought in that credibility and then he has a huge network, right? of other physicians that he has known over the years. So he reached out to a lot of his buddies and friends and they invested.

So because he was on board, I had extra credibility, Tanya had extra credibility and we were able to raise. And then, but the most important thing that happened is that we did what we said we were going to do. And we were very conservative, R-right? And we started educating people, making sure, letting them know what's happening in their investment, like quick customer service.

So now somebody learns about it, then tell somebody else so, It doesn't matter how good of a service or whatever you have if people do not know about it, it doesn't exist. That was a very hard pill to swallow, very hard lesson to learn. I'm an introvert. all the stuff you see me doing on social media, I'm doing it because I have to R my business.

If I had to do it all over, I'll be sitting back somewhere and not doing all of this. But. This branding stuff is really powerful, especially in this day of social media. So we invested in that and that significantly skilled our growth and our investor base.

But talking about Dr. Oni, you know how they say when you go to prison, you find the biggest person and go knock them out. I don't know why, but that's kind of where my mind went when you said like you brought Dr. Oni and then everybody knew that you were the real deal.

No, you're absolutely right. Like one of the things I learned when I was studying, I saw study person at the Roman is like, find people that are more smarter than you and make friends with them. And that's been the secret to whatever growth and success R that I've had. It's about people, right?

I'll give you an example. Like Dr. Oni, I actually started I wanted to be his friend and then we became partners Another man is the savages the very first day. I work with him.

I was like, oh my god. This guy is incredibly smart, right? So we became friends. I started giving invaluable exchanging books and then we became friends realize that we have similar mindset and now He's my partner with the infusion clinic and the vibing he brings I can never bring it You know, so that is absolutely true in life Find the people that are better than you connect to them and they're gonna help you grow Yeah.

You also mentioned having, it sounds like you and your first partner flipped roles in addition to bringing in doctor only who was the CEO. Did you guys how did you guys diagnose like what the problem was with where you were in the company and then find your place. Broker conversations are not happening because I was too scared to talk to brokers You know and then ten need, loves to talk like he could talk your head off say the clinic a But he was born out some paternity leave and I was sitting at home one night and I was Killing for him and I'm like man exact half of it was doing great with closing all these deals But if you know anything about syndications. As an operator, you really do not make a significant amount of bony onto you exit out on the deal Our deals are to be all three to five years.

So I'm like, man I got to wait three to five years before I exit out of the job and being able to take out myself So, I I'm gonna miss having this little guy's life again So I was like I gotta figure something else out to general income on the side That would be a good me out of the hospital so that I could have time to spend on my kids and the business And so putting sleep playing on my phone I came across because I believe that I have this believe that whenever I need something a comes to me That's where I believe it, you know, so I take that seriously So when I had that thought I started playing on my phone. I R came across a video a marketing on a ket I mean Academy, I bought the class right then. And I started taking it business plan and Dr. Joshi was passing by.

We talk about business all the time. He owns a bunch of dental clinics, him and his wife. So when he saw that, he was like, Leslie, this is it, we gotta do this together. I've been thinking about this as well, and I cannot think of a better person to do it with.

Came back home, turned my wife, and she was like, yep, let's do it. And we started working. Now, just to give you some context, that was back in 2021. But the clinic did not open, until November 2023, right?

Huddles, obstacles, so, because a lot of times we talk about the end, but we don't talk about what happens in between that initial phase to get to that end. It's been one, it's been a rollercoaster ride for the past two years, but we stayed persistent and consistent, and then finally at this point I think Alex Vermosey said entrepreneurship is so difficult because you're putting in a ton of work that you don't know for a. Fact that it'll ever pay it back. a lot of people, they stick to their W two because it's guaranteed income.

It's guaranteed. A lot of stuff is guaranteed and nothing's guaranteed. You could get fired, but the mindset is different. So we're gonna jump to our final segment.

It's five questions that we ask everybody. First question is what's a top financial resource that you go to educate yourself with? top financial, resource. When it comes to finances, I do a lot on the real estate side.

The Lineman Lettuce is a letter on the economy by Peter Lineman. It's like a paid subscription. I read that, really deep dive into it because I love how he thinks about the economy and finances in real estate. For me, that's my top financial resource.

It's interesting. Earlier, you mentioned Robert Kiyosaki and immediately I thought you're- I thought you were going to say rich dad, poor dad, but what was that book again? A second chance at your money and your life. Okay.

So I actually read that before I went back to reach that poor dad. I had never heard of reach that poor dad before. I had a second a chance then it exposed me to all of some of his other books. I did cash flow quadrant as well and then got the board game and yeah, it really helped the health in my growth.

Yeah. by cows. Yeah, he's always on some weird stuff. I know.

I know these days he was like, I try to listen into his focus. I'm like, nah. I think I got to go back to the book. I like that image.

Um, uh, think big, um, work a hard, don't settle. Right. Keep it simply. I like that and that's it.

M R. All right. So you kind of alluded to this a little bit, but, um, we always ask everybody what this year looks like for you, what are your big goals and what are you trying to accomplish? is just to, uh, be the full-time entrepreneur that I've always dreamed, dream to be, and, um, being able to give value to all this.

One of the things we launched this year was like at the end of last year was like a mentorship program trying to help out 20 other professionals by their first large apartment buildings. So that would be something that I would pour in my energy behind seeing others grow something that I've always dreamed of doing and I get to do it now so that that would be my big goal for the year.. Number four, if you were to tell people to do one thing right now, what would you tell them to do. Read a book, not a book on whatever career that you're in.

Read a book on personal development or finances. That's a really, Do you have a favorite personal development or entrepreneurship book? That you recommend? Kidding Sacred Cows by Gary Gunderson is a good one on finances.

Personal development, it just really depends on what they ask me. But Think and Grow Rich is a good foundation for almost everybody that I could I recommend. But I also like another book, it's called The Code of the Extraordinary Mind and the reason I like this book, it talks about the power of beliefs, how your perception of the world is really shaped by what you believe in and you have the power to change that by changing what you believe in. So, and I applied that in my Rife and it was a game changer for me.

Did you ever read the alchemist? Yes, I read the alchemist. I love devil. You got to read it again, Josh.

I read it when I say read, I don RIT, I don't read anything. It's on your books. So I read the alchemist and I don't know some before we had, right. It was over my head.

Yeah. So this book, it depends on when you read it, right? Go back to some of it. And then it was like, Oh my God.

Oh, wow. Oh yeah. This makes it, some books-books that I read in the beginning of my journey and I the drop a lot of that in there, but, all of me, um is that I was at a point in life I was like I don't care I'm open to I figured out what work for me, right, if you ever- if you wanna grow you gotta be open to, try things that you're not that the biggest financial mistake that you free money. Hey, just take it, you know, so I ended up getting an undergrad with a teller student a loan and I had to work hard to.

to start paying that back up and the other financial thing that I did is when I got out as a nurse, I thought I was a big shot. I went and bought a Mercedes S 4.30 and I bought a used and that car almost I was almost ruined my life. So not Mercedes, it's get the Oh, it was like Rambini. Rambini, I just want to, the name I wanted to, fit in with the judges.

I wanted to be a, uh, big guy, something that I was not. Um, and I got it. Had a high interest learn or not because I cannot qualify for it and the cost that are breaking now So it cost me a lot of money to maintain a life that resident within my life that I R And it never a given me any issues, right? So It's not really he's not even about the car is don't do anything.

In life to please others I do what works for you and stick with it. If. If you love that car you want to work out for it R. tight then it opens up at the top.

It's a very intelligent car. It's a car that I always wanted. I wanted this car for the last seven years, so I've been working hard for it slowly. investment strategies, investing in myself 80-90%.

So I was putting all my resources into my businesses and everything that we were building. And when we got to a point where I feel like, okay, this is now, then, okay, yeah, so. And then the other day, great thing too is a tax write-off. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, is it more than 8,000 pounds or 6,000 pounds? It to know. I haven't been in like negative degree temperatures and stuff, but it's a battery operated car.

So stuff like that might happen. So but yeah, but it's a really nice car. I love. Yeah, that's cool.

Well, great. This has been awesome. I think the only a the only thing left to do is just let everybody. Everybody know where they can and find you.

Well, I am available on all social media, Leslie, our awesome. You can follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn. I produce a lot of content on our Instagram and on LinkedIn. now, my goal is really to share a significant amount of value to think Thanks again for coming on.

This has been an incredible fun conversation and thank you guys for what you guys are doing for the nursing community, educating other nurses to think bigger than wherever they are or where anybody that is looking to step out there and do more stuff. So I really appreciate you guys having me. to share this episode with one other person and follow us on Instagram at investing, rn.co. If you have any other questions or topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes next time.

Remember, your financial well-being is a journey and we're here to guide you every step of the way. Keep investing in yourself and your future.