Client spotlight with CEO of Savvy Docs in Real Estate, Dr. Chiagozie Fawole

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Hi docs.

Welcome to the Entre MB podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians just like you, embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Un.

Well, welcome everybody to another awesome episode of the Entre MD podcast. I'm super stoked because I have a very good friend of mine and client, Dr. Chiagozi Faoli, and she is the big boss of all things real estate for physicians. So we're going to be talking about her journey as an entrepreneur and get to learn more about what she does. So welcome to the show, Doc.

Hey, thanks. Really excited.

I'm excited for you. All right, so I want you to take a moment and introduce yourself to the listeners. Let them know all the amazing stuff you do where you're from about your lovely kids whole night arts.

Okay, well, I'm Chia Ghazi Faou. Like you've already said. It's funny actually, as I say that, I remember being like called out in the OR once, like in the ICU once where I pronounce my name like I just did and this Nigerian lady just totally washed me down because she said that I anglicized my name. So I am Chia Ghaziye Fawale, a pediatric anesthesiologist based in Syracuse, New York. I am also a real estate investor. Have done this for now, what three and a half years. Started doing residency and having a lot of fun with it now also helping other doctors get started investing in real estate.

Yeah. Paying it forward, you know, that's my favorite thing. All right, so we're gonna track back to the beginning of our journey together. I was actually trying to go back through the Facebook messages to see when we first came in touch. But how did you come across what I do on ChairMB and all of that?

So back in. I believe it was March. March last year. It's not even up to you.

Yeah.

But in March last year, I don't know. I was wandering around. I think it was the entrepreneur group, and I saw your name, and I think I clicked, and I realized I was like, oh, my goodness, she's saying the very thing I've been trying to put into words. And I read your profile page. I think I saw your business page, and it was like, I need to talk to this person. I don't know who she is, but whoever she is, I need to get in touch with her. So I remember that night. I remember exactly where I was. I sent. I think I was in my closet. I sent you a message, like, right there. And then I was like, I need to connect with you because I like what you're doing, and we have to connect. And you actually answered. And I think it was a few. Like, a week or so. A week or two later, we actually spoke on the phone.

Yeah.

And I remember I was walking through one of our properties then, and we're having a conversation, talking about doctors that had been fired, talking about how doctors have to kind of have a plan in place. And I'm like, I don't know. Whatever she's doing, I need to connect with her somehow, because clearly someone else is seeing what I'm seeing. That's. That was it. That's less than a year ago. I can't even imagine. It's been just that it is less.

Than a year, actually, at the time of this. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, it feels like longer. But what the audience doesn't know is that we didn't compare notes with this. So I'm listening to this just like everybody else's, and I remember getting your Facebook message, and I was like, oh, yeah, of course I want to get on the phone with her. And we had that conversation. And, you know, that was just the beginning of everything. So that was March, and then in June was when we had our very first Entre MD Live, our first big live event. So you flew from Syracuse, you know, to come to entremd Live. So what was behind that thought process? Like, what made you leave the kids, the job, the weekend you could have been sleeping, you know, to come to that event.

Remember I said with our very first conversation, I knew that anything you were doing, I needed to be somewhat, in some way or the other, connected. Okay. And when I saw you were doing the untrammy events, I mean, it was something that I had already, like I said, kind of had it in my mind, but you had put it into words and actually put a platform around it. So I'm like, you know what? Just go ahead and support it. You learn something, you'll meet people, whatever. Just go. And it also was an opportunity for me to get to connect with other doctors who are going to be hearing the same message. Because up to that point, I had been in a lot of entrepreneurial groups, but the one issue I had was I felt like they didn't quite get me. Okay. Like, some of the groups, which I loved and have gotten a lot of value from, they'll have events at like 10am on a work day. Like, clearly, I'm not this person's ideal client, because if it were the case, they wouldn't put something at a time when I'm supposed to be in the or. So that was something that I felt I was lacking and I needed to find a community, find a tribe, you know, a group of people that would actually understand what I meant when I said, you can't just invite me for something a month in advance because that just wouldn't work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I find it interesting that you say that, because I think with entrepreneurship, it can be a really lonely journey. Sometimes, even when you're with other entrepreneurs, you really need to kind of be around entrepreneurs that are like you, you know, because sometimes I have some thoughts and ideas and stuff, and I'm like, this is absolutely crazy.

But then I have a group of.

People who are like, it's not crazy. It's so cool. Those are my people. You know what I mean? And I find it interesting that you say that. And for me, even with the Entre MB platform, that's one of the biggest things I get out of it. Because I have this place where I can be my authentic self. I can embrace my dreams as valid and just chase them down, even though to somebody else they may look like, what in the world are you doing?

Right.

So that's pretty cool. So for that event, what are some of the things that could have stopped you from coming? Because I'm Sure. You had some narrative in your mind as to, you know, what are you doing? And how did you overcome that to come?

Well, the first one was the distance. It was. I mean, coming from Syracuse, I had to actually hire flight for something that I. You know, I think we had that one conversation, and then we had one coaching call, which was really right up to. But like I said, I knew exactly what I wanted in that. I knew I needed the connection and community. And so I felt, you know, if I'm off that weekend. So I checked and I was off. I figured that was all I needed to make that decision. So what could have stopped me? Well, scheduling issues. And honestly, if I, you know, if I wasn't off that weekend, it would have been a. It had been one more hurdle to go over, but I was off. For me, the plane ticket was nothing. I mean, the event itself was. That first one. I mean, it was. The price was not. Was really nothing for the value that I was anticipating. So.

Nice.

Yeah, nice.

So if you were working this weekend for Entre MD Live, would you take it off?

Oh, good question, Actually, based on what I know now. Oh, yeah. I mean, I would try to rearrange. Rearrange things the best I can.

Like, figure it out.

No, just do what I can to try to rearrange it. And I know this year, once I heard of the date, I put my vacation that weekend.

So you don't want to tell any stories.

We plan these things a year out. So I knew about it a year in advance. I'm like, all right, you have no excuse. You have no excuse.

So tell me about your experience in that. The first one. So the one for last year.

So that one thing that I really got from that weekend, and I don't think I've said this anywhere else, was watching your own business grow during that event. That's what that did for me. Because up to that point, I had seen other people do it. I had seen other entrepreneurs do it, and somehow I could see myself in you doing what you did that weekend. And I walked away thinking, yep, she can do it. I could definitely do it, too. Yes.

I like that. I've never heard you say that.

I haven't.

That is so good. Now, there's something I discovered about events, right? I used to be the person who'd go to events for the content, right? So you just go listen to what the speakers say. You're like, wow, that was so powerful. I'm gonna go apply the 200 things I learned. But then there's another over the years, I learned to attend events differently. So I'm so glad this came up. And I look at it in three parts. I'm like, one part is the content. Of course, when you go, you have to get the content piece out of it. The other part is the networking, which is as important as the content, the people you meet there. Because then again, if you think entrepreneurship can be a lonely space. You have people in the room who are, you know, they're crazy like you. They're crazy entrepreneurs. So when you get those ideas, other people will shoot it down. They'll cheer you on, like, come on. Yes, we can do this. So the networking is really powerful. And then the third thing is what you said is watching the people do what they do, watching the results they're getting. So you can go, like, I might could do that too. So there's actually three parts to learning from. From every event.

And speaking of the three parts, I got stuff from all three parts. Okay. From the one story that sticks out to me all the time was the story that you told about the. Actually two people. One of the lady at the mall, they said, you know, pierce ears that use very often, and I'll let people, you know, just come for the next event to actually hear the full story. But basically from that story, I'm like, if somebody at the mall who has not. Who may or may not have spent 14 years in training can come up with some idea and make 100k a year, what. My excuse?

What's your excuse?

And then the other one was the story of the. Of the psychic who charged, you know.

God knows how much per consultation charge, 25 per client. She had. I made 280,000 a year as a psychic.

Yep.

And I say to myself, okay, what was the excuse again?

So I'll tell you a secret. Right. The idea behind those two stories was to tick us off enough so we're like, what? Like, so what am I doing? So what you're telling me is that it works. So happy to hear it.

It actually. I mean, it worked on the networking piece, I think at the time when I came for the event. I also had my network marketing business at the time. So even I got to meet other people who were somewhat remotely, peripherally interested in growing their business as well. So I had. I had that in my hands actively at the time.

Yeah.

And even. Has anybody from there done my course yet? I don't think anyone so far has done my real estate things. But I grew. I mean, I got to meet really wonderful doctors who are now actively building their own businesses.

Isn't that so cool?

Oh, yeah.

You could do a thing called the difference a year can make. You know what I mean? You should do something like that. So at the time when you came for the event, you know, we started talking and all that. What were the kind of problems you were facing in your business at that time? Because I like for people to see both sides of it, you know, and that's why I tried to tell a lot of my messes so people can see, like, don't worry, messes. It's universal. You just overcome them.

One of my major issues, and it's something you've worked with me with because I still deal with it even right now, has been just staying focused, defining really what my goal is and staying focused with that. Because I am an avid learner. Okay. The whole lifelong learning thing in medicine, I think I carried it into life in general. So I. I think we need to.

Qualify that because the listeners may not get it. You're a very, very, very, very, very advent learner, let's put it that way. Which is a good thing.

No kidding. To put it even better into perspective, I listen to webinars as leisure. Okay. Saturday morning, when people are cleaning and just enjoying that Saturday morning calm, I turn on a webinar, okay? That's a degree to mine. So what that does for me is I have a ton of ideas. A few years ago, the problem was I didn't have any business ideas. Now I have so many that I literally have to tell myself, okay, you can't. You can't do everything. How about you just do one thing? And going for that event and then working with you, I've been able to narrow my focus down to the one thing that I actually want to build and grow now, because it's me, I have found a way to make that one thing into multiple things. But at least it's one mental space that I'm operating in right now, which is real estate. And it's been great just realizing that, okay, you don't have to be all over the place and actually believing. Because I think a portion of being all over the place is not really believing that the one thing that you have working on will amount to something. So just realizing that, okay, this one thing can amount to something, okay. Even if you spin up multiple income streams from it, it's still this one thing that you can focus your energy, mind, space, and all of that on to make something good out of. Yeah.

So focus was your biggest thing. I'm so happy you're focused on real estate. Cause you're really good at it. You have a lot of stories around it. Something that comes really naturally to you. I remember talking with you once, and you're like, well, you know, this is stuff I learned from Bigger Pockets and all this stuff, like, it's not a big deal. I'm like, pause. It's not a big deal to you. You don't want to listen to Bigger Pockets. I mean, like, I'm not knocking the podcast. You understand what I'm saying? We don't want to glean all that information from 100 episodes. We want you to come say, this is the way it works. Do this, do this, do this, and I'll see you next week. That's all we want. So it's so easy. It comes so naturally to you because that's your gifting. I can't tell you how many times on coaching calls that clients have literally started laughing out loud, like, how does your mind work like that? Like, how did you just come up with this idea? I've been dealing with this issue for so. And you're just going to say it like that? I'm like, I'm in my lane. You know what I mean? So real estate is your lane. So I just love to see you shine there.

Yeah, I think a lot of entrepreneurs deal with this as well. There's that imposter syndrome feeling that, well, who am I to teach these people how to get started investing in real estate? It's just like, can't they just go like you said, but in motion in getting things done? Now I'm realizing that, no, they can't just go to bigger pockets. They can't just. Yes, they can go and learn the information, but where the value comes in is in the real life experience that I keep them from making newbie mistakes where, you know, just enough to make a whopping mistake.

Very expensive mistake. Very expensive mistake. You know, and sometimes, you know, I think, like you said, we all deal with that to an extent. And then sometimes we compare ourselves to others, like, okay, I'm talking about real estate. But there are people like, you know, biggerpockets and the millennial real estate investor. All these people who are doing big things. What do I have to offer?

Right?

And someone told me that. I said, yeah, but I'm a business coach. So is Tony Robbins. What did I do? Quit? You know what I'm saying?

Yes.

But the bottom line is this the way the world is designed. Everybody's supposed to help somebody who is in an experience that they've come out of. Right. So if you think about it, you know, you have two daughters, right? I have four kids. When I had baby number three, guess who was going to get the diapers for me. Baby number one, guess who was going to get the formula. Baby number one, guess who could keep an eye on the baby so I can run and go pee. Baby number one. Now, she could have said, well, I'm not old enough to have a child or care for a child or breastfeed a child, so I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to let mommy do it. That's not the way that works. You know, so it's almost like own your lane and help the people that are your people.

Right.

Yeah. We're going to talk a bit more about real estate in a sec because I love your story. It's just too big. Absolutely love it. So after On Trend Live, which was June of last year year, then we got to work together in the Freedom Formula Masterclass, which started right afterwards. So this is a 12 week masterclass and we're doing all the things that make entrepreneurs nervous. So it's literally like mental toughness, how to do the math of business speaking, Facebook lives, setting up a referral system, you know, focus, staying in motion. And it was, you know, I'll let you talk about it, but what was your experience like with it?

What Freedom Masterclass did for me was helping me realize that if I was serious about building this coaching side of my business, that I needed to actually set goals for it. I remember one of the months you asked what our numbers were for the month and I had some like huge, huge flamboyant numbers. And you were like, what was last month's number? And I gave you whatever. But it was like, okay, like, can we make this a little more realistic? Can we? And that alone made me to start to set goals that were realistic enough that I could then work towards.

Yeah.

Before then, I will say I'm a big thinker type of person, in case you haven't noticed yet. But I think really big. But it took that master class actually get me not to think small, but to take what is in front of me and like actually make a tangible goal out of it. That motivated me. Like a goal that even I could believe in.

Yeah.

And then work towards. Because if you don't believe in your goal, it'll just be on the wall, it'll be on the vision board, it'll be everywhere. And you wouldn't do anything about It. Trust me. But that's what that class did for me.

Yeah, that's. That's great. Because usually what happens when we set those kind of goals, and I say we because we've all done that, you set those big goals, you know, you're just writing it, you know, you have no intention of doing anything about it, and you know that it's not going to happen.

You know what I mean?

Like, you're just putting that to say, this is what we're going to do. And they're like, oh, my gosh. Okay, let's pedal it back a little bit. You know? And I always use the rubber band analogy. I'm like, your goals should strike stretch you, but you shouldn't be stretching so much that you break. Right. So it should make you uncomfortable, but it should still be. You'll be like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to need to. I'm going to need a lot of Jesus for this. But you know that it's possible. You know what I mean? So that's pretty cool. All right, so since the whole entre MD thing, since we're almost at a year, we're not quite there yet. What would you say some of the greatest benefits you've experienced? Experience. Been.

The first will be just the whole goal setting.

Okay.

I never had. I want to say I never had goals because, of course, I went through medical school, and I had the goal of getting through, you know, through training. But beyond medicine, I never actually set realistic goals that I was following and actually trying to work on. So I think that has been one big benefit that now I am very intentional about even putting a goal on paper because I'm like, do you really want to go after this? You know, I'm not having a ton of goals out there that I'm really not chasing. That's number one. Number two is seeing the need for what I have to offer as a real estate coach, not minimizing my skills and abilities and understanding that I will not help every single person.

You will not.

I will not. And that's okay. Those who can use my help will come to me, and I will help them, and I will get them results because I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Those. I think those two things I would say are the biggest things that I've said I've come away with. Yay. That I'm still coming away with because each day I learned, I learned even something even. Even better.

Nice. Okay, so let's go back to your real estate. So share with us some of your wins. You know, I'm a big. I love celebrating wins. I mean, like, oh my gosh, if people could see what happens on our coaching calls. I'm like literally about to, you know, step away from the computer and go do cartwheels.

Like.

Yes. So celebrate some. Tell me about some of the wins you've had recently in your business.

So one of them was actually very recently that by. We are now on, let's see, week, week eight of my program, my 12 week program. And by week five, we had one of my clients announced that she was under contract for property. And I was like, whoa. Okay.

So before this doctor. I'm assuming it's a doctor, right? Yeah.

Doctor, yeah.

Okay. So before this doctor started your course, was she thinking, I'm going to be under contract with a new property under five weeks?

Well, at first I got a sense that she was on fire. Okay. Because somewhere around. So what I learned recently, Let me give you a bit of a backstory, was that when you're doing your coaching program that sometimes there's attrition. Okay. Throughout the process, people start out on fire, they want to do what they want to do, and then over time, things kind of weaken. So I learned to kind of front load information so that at least I could go to bed comfortable that at least I delivered in the time that I had your attention. And then we can work through. We can work through the details. So that's actually what I did. But she took it. She went off one weekend. I'm not sure how. I mean, if she was under contract by week five, I think it was probably by the third week maybe she said she had 11 properties to go see.

I was like, whoa, nice.

Okay.

So you know what I call those kind of. That's somebody like you. So don't say whoa too much. That's you. But I call those kind of people bulldogs. And I have to go like, it's a compliment. When I call you a bulldog, it's a compliment. It means you get a goal, you hang onto it like a bulldog hangs onto a bone. And you're like, no retreat, no surrender. You know, that's amazing.

And actually what's interesting is that when we. During our very first Q and A call and all of that, her attention wasn't actually on those kind of properties. She was looking for a different asset class generally. And when we worked through that particular one that she was looking at at first, we realized that that model wasn't going to really work in her area.

Okay.

So it was a slight it was a pivot.

Okay.

But she worked with that pivot really fast and got a property under contract very quickly.

Let me interrupt you real quick, because you mentioned something that's really powerful. One of the things that a great coach will do for you is they will help you see the end from the beginning. Right. Because sometimes you're working on something and you're like, this is. You know, you're so excited about it. You're trying to brand it and all that stuff, and then your coach is like, well, let's trace it, right? If we go to here, to here, to here, you see, we're going nowhere, but if we tweak this a little bit and did this, then we get where we want to be. And that's what makes good coaches worth their weight in gold.

Yes.

I've had many people who are like, this is my business model. I'm going to start a website. I'm going to do this, I'm going.

To do that, I'm going to do that.

I'm like, wait, wait. Let's track it and see where this is going. So you probably saved her years of trying to do things wrong and tons of money and making those mistakes. So that's really good. I just wanted to point it out.

Oh, absolutely, Absolutely. And that was a statement that she made after she went under contract. She said, okay, now we go figure out the funding. And I said, yes. I have so replicated myself. I have replicated myself, and that is not the goal. But I could see myself in exactly what she was doing, because very often, that's what I do myself. I'm like, you know what? I see a good deal, I go for it. And then I figure out the funding. And some people, they'll say, wait, no, that's crazy. That's not how. No, no, no, no. When you learn that funding doesn't stop is the one thing that shouldn't stop you from doing a good deal. Yeah. He would learn to actually just go make offers.

She's a true entrepreneur. Jump off the cliff and go like, all right, let's build the plane on the way down.

That is so good.

Now, what kind of doctors do you help do real estate? Like, who's your person? Right. You said, you're clear that you can't help everybody. Who's your person?

So my person is that physician. And the way I kind of picture this person in my mind is someone. Okay, probably like someone like me. Okay. Where you kind of come to terms with the fact that, okay, medicine is great, but I need to find something that will make me money without me necessarily having to show up every single day. And you're not necessarily under fire to, like, quit your job next month, but you want to build something over time that can ultimately maybe even replace your income, and you want to have control over your asset. So there you can be a passive investor in real estate. That's fine. That's perfectly fine. But I generally help people who want to know enough about doing the deals that even if they chose to be passive in their investments, they know enough about how the deals work to not get swindled. They know enough about how the deals work that they could have done that deal themselves if they found a deal. Generally, I lean towards being a more active investor, but I empower those who want to be passive investors so that they're passive investors by choice and not.

By circumstance, not by ignorance.

Right, right.

That is really good. That is really good. All right, so docs, you've heard it. So you know, here you go. All right, so where would people find you?

So right now it'll be on Savvy docs in real estate. So S A V V Y D O C S in Real estate dot com.

Great. And I'll put the link in the show notes as well. So if you're driving and you didn't catch that, you can just click on the link. That's there. There. That is so awesome. I'm happy for your client. Tell her, you know, that I'm a fan. That's really good. That's a bulldog right there. I'm really happy we had this conversation. So if you have a friend and you know, you're like, June 13, 2020 on Trend Live is coming up again, and she doesn't know anything about entremd, you know, what would you tell her.

If for no other reason, to be in a room with other medical professionals who are also thinking outside of medicine? It is worth the trip. It is worth whatever the ticket costs. It is worth the day off. It's worth the trip down to Atlanta. Because part of what holds us back a lot is the fear that people think I'm weird.

Yeah.

When I started in real estate for a good maybe two and a half, almost three years, I did not post a thing about it on Facebook.

Yep, I remember that.

They'll think I'm crazy doing real estate when I have, you know, I was a resident at the time. They will think I'm totally nuts. And now I look back and I'm like, what? I could have built this thing Even a lot faster if I simply told people what I was doing at the time. So, yeah, to just be in a room full of people that tell you you're normal, you're actually smart by thinking outside of medicine. I mean, just look at what's going on.

Yeah, we don't have an option. That is really powerful. So I hope your friends that are listening. Got it. So Entre MD Live is going to be happening June 13, 2020. It's a one day event. It is the business of medicine event. You have to be there. And if you're listening and you're like, I want to do something, I'm scared. I don't know where to start. I want to, but I don't think I can. Just the way Dr. Fowler said, My people are people who, they're like me, they want to learn all this stuff. My people are people like me. We want to do entrepreneurship. We think we're not good enough. We think there are people that are better than us. We think we can scale and build something bigger if we already have something that's paying the bills. You're going to be in a room full of your people. You're going to get the empowerment you need. You're going to get the community you need, which is, you know, one of the biggest things. And you're going to get the direction you need. You're going to see doctors just like you because There are many. Dr. Fowler, right?

Oh, yes.

You'll see doctors just like you who are killing it, who also started with those insecurities or not knowing what to do and all of that stuff. So you definitely want to be there. Check it out. It's entre md.com, you can check out the event there, get your tickets, and I'd love to love you in Atlanta. And if you have any questions about it, you can email me. Dr. Una-r u n a ntrempd.com, email. Ask your questions, get your clarity. But you need to be in Atlanta. So, Dr. Chiagozi, I'm so happy you came on.

I am glad you had me on. Thank you.

Yeah. And I'm rooting for you and I can't wait to see the rest of it because we have really big plans down. I mean, you didn't stop dreaming big. It's just that in the short term, you're taking smaller steps so you can.

Get what you want done.

But you know, I can't wait. I know. It's just success after success. And actually you talked about the win with the new client, but you did your first Black Friday sale last year. You did your first Christmas sale. You've been in full on motion. And anybody that knows me knows I love motion. And action. Those are just like love words for me. So thank you so much for coming on here. I'll put all your links in the show notes so people can connect with you and we'll continue what we do in the group.

Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me on.

My pleasure.

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