Unlock the Key to Overcoming Your Business Setbacks | Build Your Dream Life

People are coming to you for the extra service. They're coming to you for the expert knowledge. They're coming to you for help. You're going to tell them all the things that they need to get done that they didn't even think about before because you've been through it however many times. And for everybody, it's probably their first time. And so that's where people lean on an expert to get advice and knowledge. The only problem right now is you don't believe in that bigger future yet, which is what we have to overcome, because especially the beginning of a business, when you can target people who have money, who are willing to pay money, it's just so much easier than targeting people who don't. When you turn 15, it's a big deal.

It's a big deal. I spent $32,000 on my daughter.

No, you did not.

Yes.

No, see, this is the business you need to be in to be able to focus on this so you don't have to have your job anymore. You could make enough just from your current clients and word-of-mouth power right now, or you're just too attached to like the store. People are still going to do their parties. They may not be $32,000 parties, and that's a great business to be in. Oh my God, I'm going to have nightmares over this.

I closed my business. So this is what happened. A year into my first business, it wasn't working out. So what I did was I sold— I sold that one. And with the money that I made from that one, I started another one. And it was doing good. It was a boutique, a quinceañera and bridal boutique. I was doing really good. And then COVID happened. So I had to close it. I closed it a month ago. Well, a month and a half ago. I closed it and I sold the stuff that I had in there. Like, because I didn't own the business, you know, just the building itself. I didn't own that. I just owned what was in there. So I sold that, and I mean, I took a big hit, you know. I lost a lot of money on it, but I still was able to, to make some of it. So that's what I'm— that money that I have right now, I don't know what to do with it because I don't want to use it for my personal life because what I end up doing was going and work. So I'm working. That's whenever I was talking to you the other day, I was working. Um, whenever you last—

yeah, yeah, you're in the store. Yeah, it was great. That was great.

I love it. Yeah, I got in trouble too, but I was like, it was an emergency. Yeah, but you know, that's what I end up doing, having to work for someone, which is hard. I mean, after you've been on your own for so long, it's hard. So right now I'm like, okay, what do I do? You know, like, I'm stuck. I'm lacking discipline. Lacking focus because I have so many things going on. Just a lot of personal stuff and then business stuff. Like, my husband walked out in April. So it's like one thing after the other. I came home one day and he was gone. We've been having problems, so this was coming. But it's like everything hitting at the same time. I'm like, what do I do? You know, so right now I'm working for this place. I'm still— I'm doing retail, and I'm like, um, manager's assistant, but it's not something that I want to do. So my thing is, um, how can I get back into being disciplined? I mean, I've always been disciplined, but right now I'm like, I don't know what's happening, you know. So that's where I'm stuck.

Okay, so you start with, you know, you take a deep breath and you realize, hey, this is a pretty— you've had some pretty life-altering things that have happened, and don't expect to be perfect while it's happening. You know, like when I broke my neck on my tour last year, I was super frustrated too that I couldn't do— like, I had a concussion, right? I had a concussion, broke my neck in two spots. And I'm in the hospital and I had to cancel my event because that was that night. And then I told the doctor, okay, can we, can we just have everybody who was going to come to the event come to my hotel and can I do something there? He's like, no, you have a concussion, like you can't do this, right? And so it was like slowing down was really hard. I remember that the first night I was able to go home, I couldn't I had to go to the bathroom at, you know, 3 or 4 in the morning or something, and I pushed myself up and I was starting to get dizzy and I was worried that I was gonna pass out, which isn't good when you've just broken your neck, right? Like fall on the floor. And so I had to wake up my wife to help me go to the bathroom. And they mean— that may not seem like a big deal, but I like independence, you know, I like doing my own thing, and I couldn't do something as simple as go to the bathroom by myself. And so it's okay that you have to go through some periods of slowness when this stuff happens. You know, when I— I'm divorced. When I was divorced, I don't know, 8 or 9 years ago, I wrote to everybody who was in my circle, my customers, my friends, my employees, everybody on my team, and I said, hey, here's what happened. I'm not mentally where I need to be right now. I'm not as sharp as I used to be. I'm probably going to drop a few balls. Like, it's not going to be as normal Evan, but I'm going to get back to it. So just letting you know, this is what's going on. And it wasn't a total disaster, but just letting people know, like, it's, it's, it's not even them. It's, it's for you to understand that it's okay that it's going to slow down. Right now that this is not— you're not going to be in retail forever. Like, in a couple years, you're not going to be working at a retail store, right? And, and you deserve to have, you know, a husband in your life who supports you and believes in you and encourages you. And it's a blessing that he's gone, because imagine another 4 years of being with him and just lost opportunity cost. So you, you will be in a different spot. So don't— I wouldn't put so much pressure on yourself right now. And I'm the go, go, go consistency guy, right? But there are moments where you have to be more gentle on yourself and not expect to be perfect on your schedule or perfect in your discipline. But know that you will be in a different spot. So it's now creating hope for a better future. So like, where do you Where do you want to be? What do you want to be doing again? Like, when COVID's done, what do you want to be doing? Back to the bridal store or something else?

So I have a plan, um, and like, I'm, you know, I know where I want to go. Like, when I turn— my goal is when I turn 50 years old, I want to have a business where I just check up on it, you know. I don't want to be involved in all this starting up and going back and forth managing the business. I want to be able to just check up on it, you know. Like, I tell my kids— well, they're all grown up, but, you know, I just want to come by there and pick up the check and leave, you know. Just, just, um, but what I want to do is I want to buy some small houses and rent them out to people with low income because I've struggled so much while raising my kids, you know. Renting places was a struggle always, or just buying a house was a struggle. So I want to buy small houses, nothing big, you know, just like a single home and rent them out to people with low income. And then like I'm looking at 2 or 3 years, start my bridal and quinceañera store again. So those are the, the 2 things that I want to get back on, you know, but I just don't know if it's possible, you know, like The way I guess the way I'm feeling right now is just, it's not helping me think, but that's really what I want to do. You know, I want to start my store again in like 2 to 3 years, but come back like with a bigger store because right now it was, it was small. It wasn't really small, but it wasn't too big. It was like a medium size. Well, when I want to come back and make a big store, but at the same time, you know, I want to be able to buy those houses and Just rent them out.

Why do you believe that you can't start a bridal store again? You've already done it, you've had some success doing it. Why do you believe you can't start it up again?

I'm thinking that maybe 2 or 3 years from now it's not going to be, um, maybe it's not going to be a big demand like it is right now because in this area we don't have a quinceañera. We have bridal shops, but they're more— I guess my— the people that I was selling to was more Latin American, you know, people. So it was more of a quinceañera, more than— more than bridal.

Sure.

If— I don't know if— I don't want to sound so confusing, but it was more Hispanic-based, you know. And that's what I'm saying, like, maybe in 3 years from now it's not going to be such a big demand as it was now.

Why?

Um, because like now what I'm seeing is more people are finding places or like just ordering online. And I don't know, I'm just— I guess I'm just afraid that it's not going to be a big demand. I know how to do it. I mean, I have the providers, I have a list, you know, because I'm very, um, I'm very organized when it comes to things like that. So I have all these providers that I know I can go back to and, and purchase from. But I guess I'm just afraid that it's not going to be a big, a big demand, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, but this is the thing that you have to— this is what you have to start getting excited by to figure out your way through it. Because people can't always buy online, and that's fine. But if they're buying a wedding dress online, it's probably not your, your target audience anyway. People are coming to you for the extra service. They're coming to you for the expert knowledge. They're coming to you for help because they don't know how to do— you're going to tell them all the things that they need to get done that they maybe not— they didn't even think about before because you've been through it however many times. And for everybody, it's probably their first time. And so that's where people lean on an expert to get advice and knowledge. So, uh, the, the only problem right now is you don't believe in that bigger future. Yet, which is, which is what we have to overcome. Because especially the beginning of a business, when you can target people who have money, who are willing to pay money, it's just so much easier than targeting people who don't. So when you're at somebody's wedding, people spend stupid money on weddings, you know, right? People, people spend a lot of money on a lot of things. It's crazy, right? It's like they want their dream wedding And they want it to be perfect. And that's a great business to be in. It's much better than your other idea. Like the low-income homes is a noble idea, but it's a hard first business to do because you're targeting people who don't have money. And so finding the rental property that will make you enough, finding the right quality tenants, having people pay you on time when they don't have any money, like it's going to be really hard to make money in that business. Not that you can't, it's a, it's a noble ambition, but as a first business, I would love to see you make some money again, right? So then you can invest into other causes, right? Um, you have to start thinking about what a, what a good plan for your, for your wedding shop is going to be. And start— I would start talking to all my, all my suppliers, ask them how they're doing, see what they're up to. Um, I'd be sticking around in the community. Like, how did you get most of your clients before? Word of mouth?

Yeah. See, what happened was I had a quinceañera in 2015. My daughter turned 15, so it was so hard for me to find her dress, like the perfect dress, you know, and just to find everything that I wanted, 'cause there was one store in the area and they were so basic, you know, and I wanted something different. So I did everything myself. Never in my life have I done anything like that. So I did it myself and people loved it. And they were always asking me, like different people were asking me, where did you get it from? You know, like, or where did you buy the centerpieces? And I created everything.

Yeah.

So that's what started my business.

Is nobody calling you now for help?

Yeah.

And so what are you doing with them? They're calling you and saying, hey, I need a dress, or I need— what's happening right now?

Right now I tell them I'm sorry, I'm closed, um, and I referred them over to the lady that bought my stuff.

Do you have a non-compete?

Um, no.

So why not say, hey, I'll make, I'll make your dress?

Well, the dresses— what I was doing is the dresses I was buying them and reselling.

Okay.

So in order for me to do that, I would have to invest more money. It's not—

But what's the order time on a dress to get it in?

3 months.

3 months. That's a long time.

Yeah.

Well, what's it like? This is the time to be creative. What can you do? You've got customers coming. Like you've got the hard part. You got people who are calling you and saying, hey, how do I do this? Instead of just passing them on to the person about your store, what can you do to help them? Like, what did you do at the beginning? You didn't have so much inventory and everything.

Well, see, this— no, this is what happened. Because at the beginning, I had— what I was doing was decorating venues, because that's— I did that for my daughter too, and people wanted me to do what I did for my daughter, to do it for them, because it was so different. So whenever I sold that business, I invested that money and I bought a bunch of merchandise.

And then you started selling that?

And then I started selling that. Instead of me putting the work in, I was just buying and reselling.

Got it. So, so who can you connect with that can make these dresses faster, or you can sell on commission?

I could probably sell on commission. Um, But you see, even— and that's what I guess— that's why I just decided to sell what I had, because it was just becoming so hard for me. Because I didn't— in order for me to buy, like, the big companies that sell the dresses, I have to buy, like, $3,000 worth of dresses, which is, like, 3 dresses, 4 dresses. 'cause those dresses are really expensive. But in order for me to sell the dress, then I have to sell the bouquets. It's just a lot of stuff that comes with it. And people that buy your dresses, they want you to sell them everything, like the bouquets, the tiaras, you know, just like the whole, I guess the whole packages. And that's where I was making my money because I was selling the whole packages, but I was buying from different suppliers.

But the other stuff is fast. Flowers are like— flowers, you know, are you doing the flowers in-house yourself? No, you work with a flower shop.

Well, it was more of, um, I wasn't doing any real flowers, I was doing fake flowers.

Okay, great. So, but how long— what's the lead time on getting the flowers together?

Um, it depends on what the person wants. Sometimes 2 weeks, 3 weeks. So it's not Yeah, it's faster.

Like, is anything as long as the wedding dress? I guess it's not a wedding dress if we're talking about 15-year-old girls, right? Is this like a, uh, like a special party when you turn 15? It's a big deal.

It's a big deal. I spent $32,000 on my daughter.

No, you did not.

Yes.

No, no. Yeah.

What? Yeah.

Wow. See, this is the business you need to be in.

I love it. I love it. And I love talking to you.

$32,000 when she turned 15. Is this only for girls or boys too?

Girls.

Just girls.

Just for girls.

When girls turn 15, it's a big deal.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Okay, so, so, but the dress takes a lot of time, great, but the other stuff is just a matter of weeks?

Yeah. Yeah.

So, so then you could do all the other stuff easily.

You could do all the other stuff.

And see, that's how I started, because when I first started, I was doing everything from my house. When I got the permits I got them in my house, so it was like a home-based business. But then I just needed so much inventory that I had to go out and rent a place, you know. And that's what I'm thinking, okay, so what if right now I focus on taking a lot of courses towards, um, e-commerce, you know, um, knowing how to use Instagram? Because this is the first time I'm using Instagram now that I'm, you know, in your Yeah, in your group. So just taking this time to train myself to use YouTube channel, to do Facebook Lives, you know, maybe just take like a whole year and just learn how to do this other stuff and then come back. You know what I mean? Like save this money.

Yeah, I don't think you need to though. Like I think you can start right now. Like it's not that you shouldn't do Instagram or YouTube or be able to blow this up. And I think you could even do it not just for your own little— not just for your own town, not just in North Carolina, but you could do it for America, you know, and learning how can I market myself in, in Florida, right, or in Texas, or in— right. But even for now, you have an opportunity. Like, I want you to be able to focus on this so you don't have to have your job anymore. Like, you, you could make enough just from your current clients and, and word of mouth power right now. You're just too attached to like the store. People are still going to do their parties. They may not be $32,000 parties, $42,000. How much did you spend again?

$32,000.

Oh my God. I'm going to have nightmares over this. Did you have Justin Bieber come sing at your event or something or what? He would do that. He'd charge more. Um, anyway, like people are still doing their parties. They may not be as big. They may not be as expensive. They may not be as, You know, they may not be having 100 people come over or whatever with COVID but they're still, it's obviously an important tradition and people are still doing it, just like people are still having weddings and brides still want their wedding dress and they still want their bouquets and they still want their invitations and all of this stuff, right? So maybe instead of a $32,000 party, it's a $15,000 party or whatever, but there's still room in there for you to make money. There doesn't have to be a store for people to go to. The thing that you went off of was never actually your store. It's your heart. Like, you care about these parties. You care about these girls. You care about these families in a way that probably the person who took over your store doesn't care as much about them. It's not that they don't care, but it's a business as opposed to something that's like deep in their heart. Like, whenever you start talking about it, you see your energy come alive and you're happy and smiling. So I'll be looking right away, how can I make enough money from that business so that I don't have to be at that job? And it may not be the same size business as you had before yet. Once we get through COVID and all this, and great, it can, it can build up. But you also don't need it to be as big because you don't have overhead. You don't have a store to have to go to and worry about, and you just have to be a little more resourceful in that You can take pictures of the things, you know, in your home instead of them coming to visit your home. Maybe you order 3 dresses that are kind of the most common dress that, that is easier to sell compared to like this crazy unique dress that's going to be really hard to sell. And you still use all your suppliers because they probably still love you. Yeah, and they're probably stuck with struggling business too. And if you're saying, hey, I've got an opportunity for you, maybe they give you a better rate, or maybe they give you faster timelines because they want to keep their business afloat too. If I'm you, I'm open for business. I'm at home and I'm open for business, and I can't do everything that I did before, but I'm— but I still got the heart, and I still want to make sure that your daughter has the greatest event of all time, and I'm the person who's going to help you do that. And here's how it can help. Okay, the only thing missing is just a lack of belief that that path is possible.

So I will, you know, I will think about it because I, I really don't want to give up on it. You know, it's something that I love to do. And then I have another quinceañera coming up in 2 years. I have one more daughter.

You need $52,000. Oh my God, this is amazing. Um, no, you, you, uh, the next person that calls you that says, hey, how do I— Esmeralda, I need a dress, who should I go to? Me. I'll help you.

Okay.

The next people who call you, you're saying, I'll help you. And then, and then you put the word out back to the— like, how are you communicating with people? Just email or in the Facebook group or just phone calls or texts or face— what, like, how are you talking about phone calls and Facebook?

I used to have a Facebook page, but I wasn't so good with it. I wasn't good at uploading my pictures, but it was—

that's fine. No, that's fine. It's word of mouth. Like, this is a word of mouth business. You've won because, because you have a big heart to do this.

You're lovable.

People know that you're going to do a good job, and you've built a reputation for, for delivering, right? So it's, it's like today I would contact Look at the past 30 people who bought from you and, and call them and tell them that you're— you don't want to close down the business and that you're open for business from home. Because the way it just spreads, that they know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, and, and it's— they're gonna— your phone's gonna ring.

Okay. And I have one, like, I have one quinceañera that they had to postpone, like, they had to postpone their party till next year. So they want me to do it. They want me to do it. So they're waiting for, you know, they gave me a time, but they want me to do it.

Of course.

And you're going to say, yes, I'm going to do this, not go to this person who bought my store.

Yeah. So yeah, it's—

how many do you need to do to not— like, how many do you do in a month to not work that job anymore?

2.

2 a month? Oh my God, Esmeralda, come on. This is what you need to do.

Just two. I mean, it's, it's a really good business. And I guess that's what drove me to do it because it's— I get to make money. I get to talk to teenagers, which I love doing, you know, and I, I get to just come up with new ideas because everybody wants something different.

Yeah.

And so it was like everything was there for me.

And how many hours a week are you working at this place?

40.

40 hours a week. Like, you have to. You could get those 2 today. You could put out— if you, if you called 30 to 50 people today and just said, hey, you know what, I'm back in business. I don't have my store. I'm doing it from home. I don't have all the resources that I did before, but I will care more for your daughter and your event than anybody else in this city. And if you know somebody or you're doing it, just keep me in mind. You'll get 2 today. You just have to call 50 people.

Yeah.

And then you don't have to go work 40 hours at a job that— not that they're bad, that the company's bad, but like, you just, you know, you can do so much more. And you don't have to wait 3 years for that to happen and do real estate or anything on the side until you get there. Like, you could make that happen today. What's the resistance to calling up all the people who've work with you, who've hired you in the past, because people know people and they have cousins and nieces and, you know, second daughters and all this other stuff, right? What's the hesitation to just calling 50 people today who already know you in the community and saying, I'm open for business if you know anybody, I'm doing it from home right now?

I guess I'm just kind of, um, I guess I was just depressed because April came and I started getting phone calls. Because what happens with these parties is that they plan ahead, like a year ahead or 6 months ahead, just because it takes so long for everything, for the whole planning. And I started getting calls, look, we need to cancel. I need a refund. Just one thing after the other. And with some people, I had to give them a refund because I knew it wasn't their fault. So I'm here and I'm making money and I have to give money out. And I guess it was just one thing after the other, my personal life and then my business. And I just got depressed and I was like, this is not me. So I told myself, I can't keep doing this. And I started working. That's the reason why I started working, because I was like, I can't be at home just feeling depressed. And now I'm like, I mean, do I really— I don't know. Like, I just feel like I'm not that same person, you know, that I could do anything.

No, no, you are. You're not this person. You are that person. You're that person. You're not this person. This is who you're not. But it's just— it's— listen, a lot of people have been punched in the face because of— COVID and everything else that's happened right now. A lot of, a lot of people. And, and that is part of business, you know, stuff is going to happen. This is obviously a crazy time, totally outside your control. Nobody predicted that this was coming. Um, and it's like, just imagine where you want to be in 3 years. That's, that's possible. You can have a bigger store than you had before, and people still— like, this is part of the culture and the heritage, and people are still going to have Unless people stop having daughters or something, you know, like, there's always going to be a business for you.

Yeah, right.

And I think with your heart and care, and yes, learning about Instagram and YouTube might help you turn this into a national thing where now you're getting orders from, from Miami and getting orders from, from Dallas, right? Like, you get orders from across America working with people, but you could easily get back to a place where you can support yourself not have to have that job, get your 2 clients a month just by putting the word out to the 50 people. And if they say, hey, we're still not ready, like October next year we'll do it, or June next year. Okay, no problem. Whenever you're ready, I'm here. And if you want to do it when your daughter is 16 years old, I'm ready for that too. Right? Yeah, it's a little bit of, um, humbleness, you know, to, to— it feels like a failure going backwards. And it's— but, but look at what's happened instead. You've gone and got a job at a retail store instead, right? I would, I would call— like, I think you can get your 50— your 2 clients today by calling up to 50 people. And again, they may not be as profitable and you don't have your store and all that stuff, but you can still get that business today. And you can start to— this is all this is, is just how, how long do we want to stay in the hole? Because you got hit hard like a lot of, you know, the world did, and you're in the hole right now, but you can get out a lot faster than most people. You can get out. Just how long do you want to stay here before you get out? And then your head is like, okay, I'm going to wait 3 years here and then do real estate and then build my store bigger, where like that could happen way faster if you wanted to. And it's just giving yourself permission to, to, to do it and call the clients. And it's okay that you took this little, uh, I won't call it a pity party, but like the little time to reflect and, and Don't judge yourself too hard for not being perfect and not, um, not being on schedule and sticking to your routine and being like the, the ambitious person that you used to be. That's who you actually are. This is just a slow period, like it's a small setback which happens, right? This isn't just straight up, right? It's a lot of this. So you're in a down, just you can control how low you stay down here and You know, I desperately want you just to call 50 people today. We're talking tomorrow, right? You're on my— you're on Movie Makers tomorrow.

Well, I gotta work, so I'm gonna be listening to you.

You're listening. You say, Esmeralda, did we do our 50? Did we get our 50? Or maybe you're not working tomorrow because you just got 2 deals from the 50 calls that you made today.

Possibly. Hopefully.

And listen, even if you don't get the— even if you don't get the 2 sales right now, just saying that you're back in it and you want to help people from your home, uh, we'll get you a deal. We'll get you to 2 deals next month. Like, if you don't get it today, you'll get it next month. And that, that, that allows you to have a window for your job so that it's not 40 hours working for somebody else doing work that you hate for years. It's for the next couple weeks because you still got to make money, you still got to get paid. Just mortgage, all that stuff. But just letting people know that you're back, you will get deals, and it's just accepting smaller deals and building up.

It would be like going back whenever I first started, you know, I was just doing them because people were asking me to do them for them, not because I'm— I wasn't planning on starting a business, you know. I was just— first I started doing it for free with friends and family. And then it became a business.

And you're a lot smarter than you were then, and you have a lot more connections than you did, than you did back then. And you know how to solve problems way faster than you did back then. So you can rebuild. Like, if my YouTube channel went to zero, I could rebuild a lot faster than the 11 years it took me to get here. So same thing with you. Like, even if you're starting, you're not actually starting from scratch. It's not like you're moving to a brand new city and have no idea what you're doing. You already have connections and suppliers and people who love you and know you and want to work with you. You can rebuild it way faster, but it's not going to happen if you don't make the calls. And it's not going to happen if you are staying at this job that you don't like.

True. That's true.

Let's go, Esmeralda. Come on. 50 calls. Yeah. Make the calls. You just got to make the calls.

Will do.

All right.

All right.

Talk to you tomorrow, Esmeralda.

All right.

I'm going to check in and see how you're doing. All right.

Thank you.

Much love.

I kind of have, I think, a unique situation, and I'm looking just for some feedback from you, from your experience. So I am a, I'm a self-employed certified financial planner. So, I thought, "Hey, you know what? There's a lot of need out there for the misinformation that's out there for what to do for financial planning." Like, I hear it all the time. So, financial literacy is really bad out there and there's a lot of bad information out there. So, I thought, "Why don't I start doing some YouTube videos, start a channel, hopefully grow my business as well." I'm in Ontario, so I can only practice in Ontario, but I can get licenses across Canada. You know, I was looking at your course saying, who's your market? Well, initially, currently my market right now would be Ontario people, and clients that I'm looking to attract would be more like on the professional self-employed basis like me. That's who I work with and higher asset values like half a million or more. However, I want to get the message out to anybody, whether they need to start an RESP or, you know, save for a house or whatever. They're probably not going to become clients, but, you know, they need the information as well. So that's the one thing. Now what I've learned is I just can't do videos. Like, I did a few videos and my compliance said take them down, they're not approved. So we're heavily regulated. The one benefit is that we have a lot of pre-approved material that I can just read word for word or put in my intonation, maybe change a little bit. However, I've learned that my process of approval takes about 2 weeks. Every time I send something in— and this is— I didn't know this, right? Yeah, I thought I'd send something in, I get I get something back in 48 hours. No, I send something in, 2 weeks later I get it back. They make some changes, resubmit, another 2 weeks. So I've learned that. So now my— I've already figured out I got to send in something one a day basically and have something going. So my challenge right now is just finding the time on the schedule, like all of us, how to do this while running a practice, meeting clients, all that other stuff. So that's currently, uh, in 5 years' time, I probably will be retired from this. And living somewhere in Europe because we've always looked to be moving there. So my idea for 5 years from now is to have a consultancy, financial planning focused for Canadian expats looking to move to Europe. For example, I've already got clients that have already done that. So I'm already in that. We've tasted Europe and that's kind of the long-term 5-year plan. So now my challenge is how to merge these two together, having a channel on basically my ideas like, hey, you know, maybe do a video Malaga, Spain is a great place to retire to, blah, blah, blah. And here's someone we talked to that— my cousin lives there. And then if you really want to know how to make a plan to get there, go to my other YouTube channel over there, which has like financial planning, and click there. So the one YouTube channel for today is finding clients with half a million or more, self-employed professionals, get the message out for other things. And then the other one would be like 5 years down the road to build it to have a consultancy. And just to make matters even more complicated, I also became— I was promoted to division manager last year. So my other job is recruiting new financial professionals. So I'm thinking a third YouTube channel where how to run a successful financial planning practice, right? Which would be attracting other professionals in the industry.

Got it.

There you go, Evan. Do your magic. I love it, dude.

Let's go. I love it. I love it. And it happens in your industry. It happens a lot of medical industries, how much you can say, how much advice you can give. You don't want to be given medical advice, legal advice, same thing. Franchisees, same thing. They can only say some things that the head office has to improve. So I hear you. If I'm you, I'm first thinking about what is the thing that you want to be building towards? Like if your business is pretty good right now and you're a division head, you're managing your team and you're growing your business, a lot of it is still based off of referrals anyway right now. And you want to be somewhere else in 5 years, that's the one I would prioritize the most is let me start planting the seed to set myself up for success in 5 years. And maybe that becomes a 3-year plan or 2-year plan.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. It could be a 5-year, 3-year, or 10-year, who knows, right?

Yeah. Well, but if you start getting tons of clients for that thing, it can help bump up the timeline and get there faster because you got so much domain. So build domain for the right thing. If you're building a YouTube channel for, you know, clients for your consumer business, but then you know you're going to be out in a couple of years, it's almost not worth it.

Well, so one tidbit, because there's a lot of information I got to present, like for example, I still have to maintain and grow my current business because when I leave, I sell my practice to another advisor. So the bigger it is, the better it's going to be. And you know, it's, it's not just I can't keep it stagnant, I want to still bring in.

Yeah.

So really, if I could get like 10 clients a year at half a million, that's fine. That's all I need.

Who are the best referral partners for your current business and for the Europe business?

It's been starting now a bit after about 5 years to get referrals. It wasn't at the beginning, but I'd say I got most of my referrals from the accountants that I work with.

Okay. And what about for the Europe business? Where do you anticipate?

I guess it would have to be my clients start talking about it because one has already moved there. So that would be a referral. One is working to move there in 5 to 10 years. I don't really have anybody else.

So that, especially for your business, referrals are so critical. I mean, I don't have to tell you that, but, you know, for people watching too, thinking about who could be good referral partners. If you're taking Canadians and then taking them to Europe, the lawyers who are experts in moving businesses over, the accountants who are experts in Italy or Greece or wherever you're going to go, and send people to, those are great relationships to start to build now.

Yeah.

And then that sets you up because they could help refer clients into you as well. It's like, oh, okay, well, we already have clients who are moving here and we're helping them with the legal. We need someone to help them figure out their finances. Talk to Serge, he's the guy. So building those relationships is the fastest way to start getting that business off the ground. Now, how do you do that with— you're talking YouTube content or Instagram content?

So I guess I could call them and say, hey, you want to do YouTube together with— and interview them and say, hey, what do you see about people coming over to whatever, Italy, and what are the things?

That's, that's the show. So the show, because of all the compliance and because of the kind of timeline that you're working on, the show is not actually for the consumer. The show is having people on who are your potential referral partners. It's a business development show.

Yeah.

So lawyers never get asked to do interviews on anything.

Yeah.

So If you go in and say, hey, do you want to be a potential partner for me and maybe refer business to each other? They're getting hit up all the time with business opportunities. And like, you're just another financial advisor that they're— that they have to kind of swat away and decide if they actually want to do something with you. But if you say, hey, I'd love to interview you for my YouTube channel, that's going to talk about how Canadians can either, you know, invest if it's a Canadian market or how Canadians can move overseas. That's what my channel is all dedicated towards. Like, really? You got a channel for that? Sure. I'd be happy to come on. And then you spend an hour with them interviewing them. Now you go through a relationship and now they're asking, hey, Serge, what do you do? Like, you're the financial guy, huh? We might have some clients for you. Yeah. So it almost doesn't matter how well that video does. It's— the point is to not reach consumers but to connect with potential referral partners. So it's business development for you.

Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Is it anywhere in Europe or specific countries you're trying to move into?

Uh, well, uh, most are going to be in the, the Latin-speaking languages, so, or the, the southern coast, so Spain, Italy, um, Portugal, you know, things like that. Portugal.

Yeah. Yeah. And the laws are similar but different, so you need a referral network.

Yeah. So one client right now, so I'm Eastern European by background, so the niche that I've kind of fell into is that, uh, most of my clients that I work with that are also Eastern European, Romania for example, that's where I'm from. They've come here, they've worked here for 10, 20, 30 years, and some of them have decided they want to move back into Europe for whatever the reason. So they sell everything here, they go back there, and because Romanian is a Latin-based language, they're picking Spain or Italy instead of going back to Romania, or it could even be back to Romania, but that's kind of the niche. And so far with that one client that did it, we talked with an international accountant, we did all the paperwork, we helped them set up, figured out what you have to do with the RRSPs, all that stuff. So my idea was if you're Canadian and it could be, it might not just be an expat retiring. It could be like right now people are traveling and working around the world. So even if you're like in your 30s or whatever, and you're deciding you want to go and spend some time in Europe and learn the language, you still need tax information and what to do with your RRSPs back home. Now I wouldn't be able to be paid like I am paid now where I manage assets. It'd be more like a consultancy fee, almost like This is what happens. This, we can set you up with a SIN number here, whatever bank account, whatever it will be, more like helping people get there. But I've got the knowledge of if you're coming from Canada, I know it's, I know exactly what's going to happen. What do you have to worry about? That's kind of what I'm selling here.

I love it. So it's then connecting with all of the international lawyers who are dealing with this, who are the experts, and then you have them on your show. Doing interviews to build relationships.

And then my lead magnet could be the checklist. This would be the top 10 things you got to do if you want to move to Italy or Spain or whatever, right?

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And the goal, like, you'll drive a lot more business from the people you have on the show than the people who watch the show.

Yeah.

So the goal is to have, like, if you do a show a week over the next year, then you have 50 connections to international lawyers. That maybe not all of them pass your business, but if 10 of them do, and it's an ongoing source of business for you, that it's not just this one-off deal, right? That's the strength of having it. They have people all the time coming in. That, that builds your entire business.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, international for me, like, I just finished going through the visa process to get to the US, and I had to work through a cross-border lawyer to help and set up cross-border banking. And like, it's a Giant pain. And it, I solved it through connections, you know, through people who were referrals. Like I didn't know who the right person, actually the first person I hired was the wrong person. We had to fire to get somebody to help us who had the right answer. So one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they don't think about business development in the content. So especially for you, if it's heavily regulated and you can only say so many things, you interviewing a lawyer about people moving over, is a lot easier to get through than you giving RSP advice to people that has to be screened by your organization.

Yeah. It's gotta be a totally different channel of different mindset. It is, it is consultancy, but not financial planning. Let's say it's like, what are the rules that you might encounter? Like if you leave or do stuff, if I talk anything at all about financial planning, then I run the risk of my compliance saying that should be on this other channel.

Yeah.

And that's going to be reviewed and vetted basically. So yeah.

So the show is just about, hey, I'm Serge and I love helping Canadians set up in another country, whether it's as a second residence or now as a retirement residence and figuring out all the financial elements to be able to move over there and still manage their life and their business. And today I've got a special guest who is an international lawyer who specializes in all the legal aspects. And so we're going to talk about some of the things you have to think about when you move to Greece.

Yeah, I love it.

Well, yeah, right. And then so, and that's the show. And then you just ask questions, and it's the same questions like, what do Canadians have to keep in mind when they're moving over there? You know, what are the biggest mistakes that you think that these people make before they, they come over there? Right.

Like, you keep calling it a show though. So is it a YouTube, like, still videos you put on YouTube, or is it like A live show? I don't— what is it?

Yeah, so it's so that you can call it a show. Okay. So that you're not just making YouTube videos. It's like, I've got a show on YouTube and I interview experts to have them to help Canadians move abroad. And you're an expert in the legal side of things in Portugal. I'd love to interview you. I mean, as long as your English is halfway decent. But most people at that point will have— like, if you're a professional international lawyer, in one of these countries, you speak English. It may not be your first language, but you can get by in English. So you call it a show just to make it more— as opposed to, oh, you know, I want to do a YouTube video.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like you have a show and this is an ongoing thing that you're doing ideally every week where you have different experts on sharing their advice and their story. It's a really easy show to host. It's the same questions that you just keep asking, whatever you're curious about. Um, you don't run into the compliance issues because you're talking about the legal aspects, not the financial side of things. Uh, and then you get business from them because they need— they know all the legal stuff, but they need the financial guys, and that's where you come in.

Yeah. And I was thinking, like, because I love to travel and I love food, it could also almost be like a— it can almost be like a travel food relocation show. Like, you know, start off with— because we do travel a lot, so I have a huge opportunity to make my own videos while I'm there. Um, we'd go a couple of times a year, uh, build a database of it and say, you know, when you're here, you should try this stuff at this place. So we're like, this is the street that everybody goes to kind of thing. And then kind of get into them. And then from there, go into the interview aspect of it. Like, I really, I love to travel in the food.

I'm sorry.

Well, the travel is great. The food, I don't know how much you want to get in. You know, there's limits on the food. I'm half Italian, so I, it's easy to overeat when I go home, but Um, but for sure, and it might even be worth, like, if you can get— I don't know who the top lawyers are, the top potential referral partners for you are in, in those countries, but if you can line up an interview with one of the senior partners there, maybe that's worth a trip on its own that wasn't scheduled. And now, surprise, we're going to Portugal next weekend to do this interview.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, okay.

Really, yeah, it builds the connection and relationship, and especially if they meet you and they see you they're way more likely to want to do business with you.

Yeah.

So now we don't need to have 100,000 followers on your channel. No, you're making the content. Yes. Still to help. And it's still going to be valuable content, but you're making the content to help you grow your business through referral partnerships.

Yeah, it's, it's definitely needs focused time on the calendar and that's the biggest challenge. Just even, I haven't been able to attend all the Movement Makers, maybe 2 of them. I'm always thinking I'm going to watch them afterwards because for whatever reason a management meeting comes up or whatever, and if I don't plan it ahead, I just can't get it done. So I think that's going to be my next biggest challenge too. Everything you say is great. Now, how do I do that? Basically pick up the phone and start calling and booking.

Yeah, you or, I don't know if you have somebody on your team or you have an assistant or Or you can hire somebody to help you do it. I use a guy named Beau, and that's like, he books all the people for my shows. And I'm happy to introduce you to Beau if you want, or just you find somebody to help you do the bookings because then you, you like even this, I didn't book this. My assistant booked this. And now we're here doing this. Okay, I'm showing up. It's, it's 4 o'clock. Sergio and I are gonna do this.

Let's go.

So to have somebody do the outreach and then put it in the calendar, then all you have to do is show up. It's a lot easier to do a half hour, hour show where you're just asking questions than all of the back and forth and research and calling and emails and follow-ups and confirmations and making sure they got the link and all that stuff.

And you do the interviews through Instagram or some other way? It doesn't matter, Zoom or whatever.

It's a mix. Like, this is an Instagram Live, so this is on Instagram. My other interviews, you know, like Tony Robbins and Matthew McConaughey, we did on Zoom. So we just set up a Zoom link, but now everybody has Zoom, right? Like, you have a Zoom link. So everybody knows how to use Zoom now. Like, that's one of the big blessings of COVID is we all figured out how to use Zoom. So, but that's pretty— like, that's low-wage work. Like, that's not— that doesn't require you and your sophisticated expertise. You just need someone who's friendly and who knows how to do some research to go off and find these people and introduce the show and then figure out the time. I mean, it's Europe, so it's depending on the country, you're looking at, you know, 6, 7, 8 hours ahead. So it would be a morning show for you, afternoon, evening for them. Um, but that's, that's an easy— like, if you just have to show up for an hour and it's all been taken care of, that's a lot easier than for you have to do all the bookings. Okay.

Build the connections, do some shows. I won't be able to monetize that at all until— well, if I do that, I got to figure out, because any outside activity, I also have to advise, right? So if any other income that's not part of this, so it's more like base building a foundation and, you know, ready to go. Because when I do sell the practice, there'll be some money to keep us going for a couple of years for sure. While I build that other practice. But I guess having the connections in advance will definitely help.

I mean, you can apply the same model to your current practice right now. It's just you're not targeting lawyers and accountants in Portugal. You're targeting Ontario or Canada. I mean, even just Ontario, if there's enough here. How many accountants and lawyers are being asked to come on shows and talk about— like, nobody.

Yeah, well, that's true. It's true.

You might be the first person— Go ahead.

A lot of misinformation, misperceptions, even within the professional industry, like accountants assume what I know, what I'm gonna say, I assume what accountants are gonna say or lawyers are gonna say, right? So that's part of the whole financial literacy thing. Like, let's get all talking and make sure that the right information is out there because now with, you know, you can type anything in, People don't understand why I can't give them an insurance quote if I don't know anything about them. It's like, well, go to the dentist and tell them that you want your tooth extracted without asking them to do X-rays. Like, it's so, it's, it's so hard to, in this transactional business, to get people to understand. And that's part of the reason I want to do these videos as well, right? Why it's important.

So, so, I mean, if, if Ontario accountants are the number one driver for business right now, then go make a show interviewing Ontario accountants and you can go drive to them. You know, as long as they're not in like, I don't know where you live, but you know, if they're in Sudbury or something, maybe you don't want to take the drive out there, but they're easy to get on the show. This is the thing. Like, you're not trying to get Elon Musk on your show or The Rock or somebody. It's, it's an accountant in Richmond Hill that nobody's ever asked their opinion on anything. For a video, and now you're the only guy who's ever paid any attention to them, and they're going to come on, and now you build a relationship together, right? Like, it's, uh, it's super easy to get a yes in this kind of model, and then hopefully pass on business to you. And again, not everybody will, but if you did 50 shows in 50 weeks, you'll get, you'll get clients. And the beautiful thing is, once you get it, like, once you have the relationship, they keep giving you clients. It's not just a one-off thing. They're always having new people come in and they can always pass it on the surge. And you build an asset in the show that then when you sell your book, you could sell the show alongside the book.

Yeah.

Right. And you can just transition to host. So maybe for 6 months you co-host with the person. Yeah.

No, bring in someone else before I teach them, teach him or her the whole thing and move it on from there.

Yeah. Yeah, for 3 to 6 months you're co-hosting with them and then they take over the channel. So don't put the channel off your name, that channel, that's a channel off of whatever financial, you know, the company name. And then it could be anybody and you're just a face for it for now. You start interviewing accountants, build the book. I mean, if the goal is 10 clients a month, that's a year, 10 clients a year.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, cause no, cause I've— so basically because I've got multiple things, recruiting and the clients, and I've got my own client base, don't need to get 100 clients a year, but they got to be a certain asset level, like half a million or more. Then that'd be okay. Right. So it's not that stringent or hard to do that, but it's just, there's multiple balls in the air juggling basically. Right.

Yeah.

If I don't get the 10 clients, it will be, it will be a struggle. If I do, then it's good.

Well, you just need one good accountant relationship to get 10 clients. That's not— you're not coming in asking for the moon.

Yeah.

It's, it's—

I'm not looking to build a— I'm not looking to build like the RBC of, uh, my area. Like I've got my, my, my pie, my, my part of the pie and that's about it. Right.

So it's completely achievable if you even the— I mean, one show a week is aggressive, but even if you did one a month where you went in and talked to accountants and you interviewed them, to find out accountants in Toronto area is not that difficult. No, no research to contact them. Like, it's not international lawyers. It's so much easier. Yeah, email them is easy. Set up a time is not that difficult. And now they're on your show. And to get one person who's then giving you 10, 10 clients for the year is easy. And you're building up an asset that then you can sell to the next person.

It's actually— it might be a good time now to do it before the tax season here in Canada, because they could say, you know, what do you want to tell your clients that they want to make sure they do before they come and see you? And then afterwards, because you can't talk with them from February, March, right?

Yeah. But that's when you move, you move to the lawyers.

Yeah.

You know, when the accountants are too busy, you move to the lawyers because the lawyers can pass you business too.

Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

That's, that's the strategy. So it's a different kind of strategy than most. It's not the I need to get a million subscribers on my channel. It's getting the right people on your show so you can build your business, sell it, and then build your other business overseas.

That's right. That's right. You got it. I love it, man.

Well, there's your strategy. Thank you. Time to get to work. Yeah, it's great. I mean, it's actually a pretty easy business to build. Like, you could start, you could start this afternoon. Just pull up a list of all the accountants in your area and just Again, because meeting— going to call them and say, hey, I'm a financial planner, do you want to meet? It's— yeah, I think they get hit up all the time.

The roadblock that hit me, and you know, it hits in your brain, is like, oh man, I got to go through compliance. Oh, it's going to take forever. So it's kind of— it slowed me down significantly at the beginning. Like, I was all gung-ho at the beginning. I was making videos and all that stuff, and I was like— and then I sent in something, and they go— and this works— they go, and they said, oh, we looked at your YouTube channel. You should take all those ones down because it didn't go through compliance. And I was like, ah, so yeah, you got to be careful that we're actually, we're representing that company, even though I'm self-employed, independent, it's under a big umbrella, right? It doesn't matter. You know, someone's still sponsoring you behind the background there. Right.

So yeah, no, I get it. In any regulated industry and, or like franchises, it's, it's very similar. So this is a good little workaround hack and actually would perform even better, especially given your timeline. Of how quickly you want to make it happen to do the partnerships and just get the referral business in to blow up the company.

Okay, cool, man. Thank you.

All right, well, good luck. Keep us posted. We can't wait to see the show.

Absolutely.

Take care, Serge.

Bye.

To see me coach another entrepreneur one-on-one, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. How do I get people to the YouTube channel? Like, how do they know it even exists? YouTube takes the most time to build but is the most long-term brand building that you can do.