How this physician invests with purpose

Welcome ladies to The Real Estate Investor Show, providing inspiration, strategies, and insight to empower women investors to live balanced and financially free lives. Now here are your co-hosts, Liz and Andresa Guidelli.

So ladies, in today's episode, we have Nancy Wen. And you're going to love this episode. She talks about how she is able to do syndications right now and incorporate that with her mission. And she does not have a small mission. She has a huge mission to really help more than 80% of the folks around the world that are blind, should not be blind. So, she's a physician who is merging her profession with real estate and going around the world helping those folks to see the world all over again. Isn't that powerful, Mandy?

Oh, this is such a Renaissance woman. Like sitting in the same like room with her just made me feel like ready to take on the world. But not only is she helping people not be blind that shouldn't be blind, but you know, she has recognized the burnout that's happened in medicine, you know, coming from medical device. And you know, my younger brother is an ER doctor, seeing his time commitment and what COVID has done to physicians has just, you know, it's overwhelming. And the suicide rate is unacceptable. So that the chance to be able to choose what you do with your time by way of investment and syndication, that's super powerful too.

Love it.

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Welcome back to The Real Estate Investor Show. I am Andresa Guidelli and I have a special guest with me today.

I am Mandy.

Hey, Mandy. I am being Liz today. So, and Mandy is being Andresa today. Liz is on vacation and Mandy graciously accepted the invitation to be on our show. So we are so grateful to have you here, Mandy. And you guys gonna know more about Mandy in a second. We have Nancy Nguyen with us today. Hi, Nancy. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Andresa. Hey, Mandy. Thanks for having me.

Of course. So as we always start the show, Liz and I have a quick banter about what's happening in our lives and things like that. But we're going to skip this today because I think that this is a great opportunity for you guys to know more about this wonderful person. Called Mandy, and I adore her to death. And there's so many reasons for it, but I don't want to talk about her. I want you guys to know her, but you know that it's Mandy. You know that Mandy is in the room because of her energy. This woman wakes up full of positive energy, and there's nobody can be around her that doesn't get affected by it. And if you know her, you know what I'm talking about. So, Mindy, my dear, welcome, welcome. We love to have you here.

Oh, hi.

I could not be more excited to be part of this and part of InvestHer in general. So, thank you for the invitation and very excited to dig in with Nancy and you too, Andresa.

So, tell me more about you, Mindy. What are you up to? I know there's a conversion of a motel and different stuff. So much fun. Tell us more about your real estate experience and what, what's up in Amanda's world.

Well, I'm a single mama of the one of the funniest little boys in the whole world, Duncan, Duncan Dean, and he wants to be a real estate investor when he grows up and get those assets. But I invest in small multis, I buy between 4 units and 50 units. That's really my wheelhouse. And I am 2 weeks from having been full time for 1 full year. So it's almost my anniversary of having— thank you— retired from medical device sales. And I was on the floor of the Board of Trade, my first job after undergrad. So the motel actually came about, it was an 18-unit, which is in my wheelhouse. And I was very interested in the short-term play, but I liked the scale of the small multis. So I didn't know a thing about short-term rentals, but I found a friend who knew about short-term rentals. So we ended up purchasing it together. And outdoorsin@balsamlake.com if you want to see the rehab that we had. I love it.

I love it. It's all about leveraging, right, Mandy? Like, I don't know, and I don't need to know. Let me find who knows, and then we can skip that learning curve. And then we go for it. Love it, Mandy. All right, Nancy, without further ado, welcome to the show. We want to dive into your story. Very curious about how you, you merge real estate with your mission, with your purpose in life. So share with us, Nancy, what did propel you to get started in real estate?

Yeah, so I followed the very traditional path like many people do and did the whole go to school, get a good education, get a good professional job. My parents are refugees from Vietnam, so I was the first to be born in the US. So it was a very typical immigrant story. So I followed that path. And along the way, I discovered I really liked medicine. Medicine. So I went to become a doctor. So I'm actually an eye doctor and a surgeon. But as I started practicing medicine, I just realized a lot of things weren't in my control. And Mandy, you might be familiar with this being in the medical device industry. It's not just a patient-doctor relationship, right? There's the patient and the doctor, and then the medical industry, you know, the pharmaceutical companies, government, insurance companies. So there was just a lot of lack of autonomy. But what really got to me was that I didn't have control of my time. And this really hit home when my daughter was born 5 years ago. She's 5 now. And I just remember the time when my nanny called and was like, she has a 103-degree fever. Can you come home right now? And I looked at my schedule and I was like, I cannot come home right now, but I'll be home as soon as possible. And I just remember that feeling that whole afternoon. I was drudging through seeing the patients, but just thinking, gosh, I'm making pretty good money. But the one thing that I want most is to be home with her, to have control of that time. I don't have that. And that was the spark that triggered me to say, I need to find something else other than just medicine and my job. And that's when I discovered real estate.

So I mean, having been in medicine, having gone, I started out in the pre-med track, like you're a perfect little girl, right? And you're so used to getting like straight A's and like all of the things are so perfect. And you know, the, the kind of the family expectation that comes from that. I think I'm interested to know, especially with the kind of immigrant angle, is, you know, how did you deal with the family expectations of taking this kind of left-hand turn for your life?

I still practice medicine. I still really love what I do. It's just that now I have a little bit more options and control. So my family, truthfully, I tell them about what I'm doing, but they don't quite understand. They're like, well, why are you Why do you want to be a real estate agent? They think I'm an agent or something selling homes. They don't quite understand the investing piece quite yet, but I'm slowly educating each and every one of them.

It's so funny you were saying this because a friend of mine asked me another day, what do I do? She lives in Brazil and I said, I work in real estate. And then she said the same thing. Oh, so you're an agent, you sell houses. I was like, no, no, it's quite different. I think that what you're saying though, it's so important, not just for physicians, but for other professionals, right? High earner professionals that they do have a job and they do have the income. However, the time, right? Financial freedom is actually freedom of time that we're looking for. And there is this, I don't know, this paradox inside our own head. I don't hate what I do, right? Many physicians don't hate what they do and they do a great job. I'm curious about the first step. How did you figure it out? What worked for you? You didn't just say, okay, forget about that. How did you merge both worlds? What did you do first?

Yeah, absolutely. I think the first step was just a shift in mindset, mind frame, right? I think that's the most critical step because we're so taught to, you know, go to school, earn this active income. And that's when I learned about active versus passive income, the whole cash flow quadrant that probably most of our audience is familiar with is Really dividing what am I spending my time on to earn money and how can I make that money work for me? And I never thought about it that way. I've always invested in stocks, 401(k)s, but now my mind shifted to how can I make these little dollars that I'm working so hard for with my time, make it march on for me and work 24 hours a day. Best employee is what I call it. And so that was the merging was, yes, I'm going to work hard at my job because I still love what I do, but I'm going to take that income and in turn, turn into the other quadrant so that it's working for me in another way. And to me, that's through real estate because I find that it's the most proven and viable stuff. I don't understand anything about the stock market yet. I was just throwing my money away in it for years and years. Yeah.

I mean, gosh, how many of us have that same story, right? That you're just taught that you just throw your money into the stock market. The 401(k) gets set up as you take a new job. I'm super curious, what is your kind of asset class interest? What is your kind of pick your poison of real estate investing?

So my journey has evolved. So when I first started, I did what a lot of people did, right? When they think about real estate investing, which is go buy a single-family home, go buy that duplex. So that's how I started out in the residential, building a portfolio in my backyard here in Atlanta. But as I got into it, I realized it wasn't quite as passive as I wanted. So I started off self-managing my first property and I was like, "Never again." I learned a lot, handed over to property management and built this portfolio. But even with property management, I found that it was taking much more of my time. And I'll give you a classic story. I was at the park with my daughter, always with my daughter, right? Every story involves her. It was a beautiful sunny day and what do I get? A call from my property manager. It's never good when you get a call. You know, it's They're probably never good.

No, they're not saying, listen, we have a great tenant coming through. They're going to pay much more than the previous. Usually it's not that, right? Usually it's like toilet issues or something broke and then they need your authorization for whatever that is.

Yeah. What was your call? My call was, hey, the duplex that you had just remodeled, brand new everything, spent almost close to 6 figures on this remodel. The toilets and the restrooms are all flooded. I'm like, oh, oh, great. So what's going on? I know we replaced everything. I don't know, have the plumber here. We'll figure it out. Don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm not gonna worry about it. Right? Sure.

You just really just broke my day. And I don't need to worry about it right now.

Yeah, don't worry. Just, you know, I got it taken care of. I just wanted to keep you informed. Okay, thanks. Right. So instead of spending that beautiful afternoon with my daughter, I was back and forth with him text and phone. And eventually what the problem was, the tree roots had grown in the sewer line in the street and had backed up. So my point in saying this whole story is instead of spending that beautiful afternoon with my daughter playing in the park, I was worried about this on the phone. So even what I'm saying is even with property management, it wasn't as passive as I wanted. And I was just like, there has to be a better way. If this is what real estate investing is, I don't know if I'm cut out for it. You know, I have a pretty busy job already. I have 2 children by this point, like, I need a more passive route. And then that's when I dug in and did more research and then discovered syndications. So I've kind of completely shifted my portfolio to passive investing. And so, yeah, that's great.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the syndication projects, that I really want to talk about your mission and what you're incorporating, which is very neat. I think that when those, those those moments happen, right? When we get those calls or when something goes off in our rehab projects. So for the ladies that are listening, or you might be in one right now, you might be on your way to your project right now, right? And you're listening to us. This is a decisive moment, right? Because that's when you're going to, to think, okay, this is happening to me. Does this fit my lifestyle? Does this fit what I'm going to do in the future?

Is this—

it might be temporary, but those questions, right? Instead of feeling like defeated and that you need to deal with that, what for the rest of your life, what can you put in place or what can you shift? What is working? What's not? What fits you, your lifestyle? What do you— those are very important moments that I think that I wish I was more aware of those moments before. And I endure those situations over and over again. Because I didn't learn my lesson when they happened. When I got the call for my rehab, mine was a rehab, Nancy, that I got the call and they said, "We just sold the house and the basement all flooded." And I was like, "How come?" And I remember Saturday night going to Home Depot, getting a little dye color to figure it out where is the issue and we couldn't figure it out. Long story short, roots. Roots on the outside. So ladies, roots. Quick tip, if you have trees on the outside of your house, you gotta run the snake on the sewer line before you finish everything up. The call that I had with my carpet guy was wonderful. I said to him, listen, everything that you installed 2 weeks ago, I need it all over again. And he's like, For another house? I was like, no, for the same, for the same. He's like, what? No, something is wrong. I was like, no, no, for the same house. Take everything out, just do it again. He's like, this is a shame. It was just like so bright. And he was like, yep, roots. I got the lesson. So Nancy, let's talk about syndications, right? Share with us, break down for us your first syndication deal, where it was, how many units, What was the structure of it? What your role within the syndication group? Let us know how it happened.

I'll tell you my very, very, very first syndication. And ladies, do not do what I did. I went on a crowdfunding site and I said, hmm, this looks like a good deal with all these numbers. And it's so near me. I know exactly where this is. Click, click, click, bought. Worst deal ever. I did not vet the sponsor. I did not really look at the business plan. I was just like, it's like buying a stock, right? What, what could go wrong? Yeah, do not do that. So I'll tell you the real syndication that I actually did my homework on. So the first syndication was a little over 300-unit apartment in South Carolina. And it was with a great group that we had vetted. So after that lesson, I was like, I got to do my homework. So what I did was, Which markets am I interested in? And then found sponsors that were in those markets and started talking to them and researching them and looking at their track record and just personality, trustworthiness. And then we looked at the deal when they had a deal, and that's how I got into it. So my role was as a limited partner, as a passive investor. So after doing the initial homework of vetting the property, making sure it was fitting my investment goals, I wired the money, And that's it. So, and then you get the money in your checking account. And that was like, I was like, yeah, this seems more like that passive investing that I'm looking for. So yeah, that was my first indication.

That is awesome. I, you know, I've been on the active side and the passive side of syndication, and it can be great and it can be terrible, right? So you talked about vetting the sponsor, it sounds like you first picked the market, then the sponsor, then the deal. I love that progression. Because, you know, the market matters, so much because the growth of what's going to happen, you're either going with the tide or you're going against the tide. So going with the tide is so much easier, right? I'm super interested to know, what are some actionable things for vetting the sponsor, for looking at the market? What are some kind of nitty-gritty, if I'm someone who wants to do some passive investing, what do I do right now to move forward like you did?

Absolutely. I would say the first thing, even before all that, is Define your investing goal. Everyone's going to be different. So if you are a 20-something-year-old who's just starting out and want to grow your wealth like 2 or 3 times over the course of the next decades, you're going to have very different goals than say a 70-year-old who's just looking to retain their money that they've already accumulated and earn the best amount of returns on it so they can live during retirement. So first of all, what do you want out of investing? Is it more for cash flow or more for equity or a combination of both, because you're going to be looking at very different deals. So in terms of the practical steps after that is when you look at what markets you want to invest in, I say there's 3 key things you want to look for. One is population growth. Number 2 is job growth. And number 3 is household growth, basically, in a way, or income growth, I should say. The reason why these are important is If people are not moving there and moving away, it doesn't matter if you have the best A-class shiny building. There's no one to live there, so who cares, right? And so it's important to look where, as you said, Mandy, the people are moving to, like where that population is growing. And then the other things you want to look at is just jobs. Are there a diversity of jobs or is it just one industry? We all heard of Detroit when the auto industry went out. I mean, It basically kind of destroyed the whole housing markets there. So you want to look for a market that has diverse job growth and also employers. So you just don't want one industry that dominates the entire area. So those are kind of things to look for in the market. And in terms of the sponsor, which is the most important, because if you don't trust the sponsor, just stop right there. Just say, I'm not even going to look at the deal, the market, whatever. I think the first thing is just Trustworthiness is easy to say, but I find it's the hardest to vet, right? It's kind of out of gut feeling. It's not like a specific question that you could ask that determines that. But if you don't— if you just get in your sense that this person's not being honest or not trustworthy, not transparent, then just stop right there, you know, if you have any doubts. But if they pass that test, then say, hey, what is their track record? Have they gone through multiple cycles, or am I their guinea pig, that this is their first indication? It's kind of like, you know, I liken to myself being a surgeon. If 10 years ago when I started out, I don't think my patients would've really liked that I was the one training and doing their surgeries for the first time without someone guiding me, right? Like my attending physician. It's the same thing with syndication. You don't want to be that first person investing in their deal and you're their first investor. And then the other thing I also look for is just their team, right? Because these syndications is not one person that does it. So the property management, you know, their vendors, everything about that? Are they going to be able to carry out that business plan? Because you can have the best presentation pro forma, but if you don't have the team and the know-how to execute on that, who cares? So those are kind of things I look at.

I think you're so dead on. If the sponsor gives you the willies, stop right there, you know. But I mean, I went to church with a guy who took $110,000 from me, so you can be misled. One thing though that I— I mean, a resource that might be helpful to you or somebody else listening, I, if I'm going to do a joint venture deal with someone, I do a full background check on them. If they're my marriage, I'm going to be partnered with them for a long time. I do, it's worth the $15 to do that full background check. I would have known that that guy was a crook, right? But there's another free resource called privateinvestorclub.com, which there's a forum that if you're a private investor, you can go on and search for sponsor names and get real, like I've invested with this person and I'm not their aunt, who you got the name of from that sponsor. Privateinvestorclub.com.

I love that. And I think that for women, trust is a big thing, right? How are we able to trust people? And you have women on completely different side of the spectrum, right? You have those like, you smile, I already trust you. I already liked you. Here's my ACH or my wire. And then, on the other side, there's so much skepticism, and then they shoot themselves in the foot because they don't actually trust themselves. It has nothing to do with the person. They did the background check, everything, the track record, everything else, but they're still, they don't trust. So, they actually don't trust themselves. So, finding the middle ground's a great thing. I think that one thing that I wanted to commend is going through the process because many times people say, Oh, you're on social media, you're on the podcast, or you are— you have X, Y, and Z amount of followers. Ladies, that's not enough. That is not enough at all. So knowing the team is super important. There's nothing wrong with people having different roles within the team. You just need to know who is who and who is doing what within the business plan. And ask questions. Don't you agree, Nancy? Asking questions over and over again, because many times women feel like, oh, maybe I shouldn't be asking so many questions, right?

Absolutely. A lot of women physicians I talk to, they're afraid to ask it, right? Because it's still a very male-dominated field. So they often come to me to ask it as kind of the intermediary because they feel intimidated. I'm like, you shouldn't. You're handing over your hard-earned money. So ask all the questions you want. And I often tell them it's a two-way street. It's kind of like it's gonna be a marriage for 5 years or longer or shorter, but you gotta kind of date each other and ask the right questions. Because as much as you are asking the sponsors questions and vetting them, they're also vetting you to see if, you know, they want you as an investor and it's going to be a good working relationship. So do not be afraid to ask questions.

Absolutely, absolutely. And I want to talk about your mission, right? Because you're a physician And you travel around the world. So, talk about that. I think that I looked at your website and it's just really remarkable when you talk about blindness. I see a lot of people that are financially blind in the real estate world. And I think that we're not physicians. Liz and I are not physicians, but we are opening up people's eyes to the possibility of them living life on their own terms through real estate. But your mission is beautiful. So, I want to give you the floor to share a little bit about What does that really mean and how you've been able to help people around the world?

Yeah, thanks, Andresa. And I love that. I'm going to steal that from you. Financially blind. I'm helping them not be financially blind. Yeah, but that, that is, that is part of my mission as well, is I really want to help the medical community, particularly physicians. So there's two missions that I'm really, really passionate about. One is helping the medical community, particularly physicians, because what your audience may or may not be aware of is there's a huge problem. So There's about a million physicians in the US and almost half of them are burned out. Can you imagine that? And the other thing is the suicide rate is double any other profession. Wow. So can you imagine that? So I feel like physicians are silently crying out, help me, I'm burned out. I don't know a way. And over and over again, as I'm talking to physicians, it's like, I feel so trapped. I feel so trapped. I don't know what to do. You know, I, I need this money. I have this lifestyle that I need to keep up, but I can't escape. I, I don't like my work environment, but I can't speak up. And so, you know, through trying to educate them about real estate and just finances, financial education in general, I want to show them a different way that there is this other way. You don't need to be trapped. There's other options for you. And I think with financial empowerment, really physicians can change medicine and the world. But with regards to your other question about the other mission of mine is I'm an ophthalmologist, I'm an eye physician and an eye surgeon. So how I fell into the field was I witnessed the miracle of cataract surgery for the first time when I was in medical school. So a completely blind patient had like a 10-minute cataract surgery, took off the patch, and was just ecstatic. It was like he was dying a slow death and suddenly just jumped up and came back to life. And that's when I was like, that's what I'm doing, you know. But the larger problem around the world is that most people are blind, but they don't need to be. So about 80% of the world blindness is preventable. So it's a simple—

80%?

Wow.

4 out of 5 people around the world are blind, but do not need to be. It's preventable or curable.

Wow.

Yeah.

Now, now we're talking. So, so share with us, what are you doing with, with that? What is one by one?

Yeah. One by one, group by group, but something as simple as a 5, 10-minute cataract surgery. So these surgeries cost, $25, and it could change someone's life. So what I've done is I've partnered with a great organization, GiveSight Global, and really the mission is to end this preventable blindness. And there's been other groups that's tried to do it, but I find that part of the problem is sustainability, right? Because if you think about the traditional model of charity, it's like a donor gives a certain amount of money and then it funds a certain set of cataract surgeries. You send a group of doctors or surgeons abroad for 1 or 2 weeks and they do as many surgeries as they can, then they fly home, and then what, right? You wait for the next group to come. So what we're trying to do is really create a sustainable system. So what we're trying to do is train the local people to screen their own people and teach the surgeons in the community how to do these cataract surgeries. And they're building their own for-profit vision centers. So they're earning an income develop them economically, entrepreneurship, and then funneling them to these hospitals that are already existing to do the surgeries. So it's multiple steps, but what we're trying to do is once a donor donates to a project, we hope that is only like once or maybe twice, and then that country or that community can sustain itself through all these activities. So that's what we're trying to do and end this problem around the world.

So part of the profit of some of your projects goes to that. Is that how it works?

Exactly. So it's none of our investors' money, but when they kind of invest with us or part of my real estate profits through the company, we donate it towards that cause. And I've always kind of done that. And now it's just kind of making it a larger vision and making more people aware of it and hopefully making a bigger impact.

I mean, it's the teach a man to fish, right? Like that's how things become significantly more sustainable. And talk about adding a huge why. So it's not just you and your family. It's the impact you're creating across the world, the ripple effect of all of these people that have their sight because of you. What a really incredible mission, Nancy.

Thank you, thank you. Yeah, no, I mean, I would just, you know, say to you two and also your audience, like, just close your eyes for a moment and then imagine if you can't see the sunrise. This is the reality for most people for decades and decades. Or I remember one mom She got cataract surgery and she saw her son's face for the first time because she was blind with cataracts when her son was born. So had never seen the son's face. So these are stories after stories like that. Yeah. Like it just gives you goosebumps.

Goosebumps.

Yeah. So those are the lives that we're impacting and really it changes not just their eyesight, but really their hope for the future. And it's been shown to economically improve these countries and these communities as well.

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I love it. So we just came back from InvestorCon, our annual conference, right? And this week I got shipments from, from different things that we had there. And one of the things that we had on our conference was this gigantic panel where people wrote their whys, right? And I was hosting, Liz and I were hosting, so we didn't get a chance to stop and read. So I opened up this full box and I was looking for it because I really wanted to see I see it. And I spread out, like I think it's 8 feet. I spread out and I started looking at them and crying because every single thing that I was looking, their whys, majority of them had nothing to do with themselves. It's all about a community in Africa, women, the, the next generation, my kids, my future. It's always about a more global. To the young kids that are seeing us. So I think that for women, real estate many times didn't feel attainable or didn't make any sense because the quote-unquote role models that we were seeing were showing off their cars or whatever, and that didn't make any sense for us, right? That does not motivate me at all. That does not take me out of bed if you keep showing that And I think we are really changing how the real estate industry should look like. Very different, full of different perspectives, different colors, different shapes, different cultures. And I love sharing stories like yours, Nancy, because then women that had different ideas before can say, wait a minute, I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy on doing this. And ladies, I don't want you guys to get intimidated. You can start by making an impact on your community, on your street, on the street that you are in. But I think that the why needs to be bigger than the fear, needs to be bigger than the obstacles. And that's why we're talking here about the mindset. And that's where I want to go right now, Nancy. You came from an immigrant family, right? So there are a lot of culture that goes from different immigrant families saying, oh, you need to become a doctor, become an attorney, or whatever that is. Talk to me about your mindset. What has helped you so far? What you have done? What is the secret sauce in order for you to really create a foundation, a mindset foundation that propel you to be where you are right now?

There's a couple of things, but I say the main thing is just embrace the fear. Fear is not a bad thing. I think a lot of us, especially as women, think that whenever you get that feeling, that nervous feeling, that fearful feeling, we should run away from it because it's not right. But if you turn it around and say that fear is actually a good thing, it's telling me I should peek behind that door and see what it is, because right beyond that door could be something great and something that you never knew and something of your potential that is going to open up a floodgate. And that's what I really had to shift through. I was this very traditional path, got very comfortable, right? I could perform eye surgeries in 5, 10 minutes and just got really, really comfortable and never really wanted to step outside of that lane. But when I started real estate investing, it was just like, yes, I was fearful buying that first real estate property, wiring that first money for that syndication. But now look at all the possibilities that I'm able to do, right? Because of that. So what I'm saying is just step beyond that fear, acknowledge it, don't push it aside, acknowledge it, but say, what is that fear? What is my gut telling me? And then act upon that. And then course correct, right? You don't need the 10 steps to get to it. You just need to know, where am I starting? Where do I want to go? Take that course. It's like a GPS. You put in the starting and ending destination, it's going to tell you take a right turn here. Oops, you made the wrong turn. Take a left turn. You know, rerouting you. Go back to this route. So it's the same thing. It's just don't be afraid that it's not a straight path. Embrace that circular path that life might take you.

You know, fear and excitement physiologically are the exact same response, right? So that kind of little hack of, you know, I'm embracing this fear. You know what? This is not something that I'm used to. I am going to go 500 feet and turn right. And if I'm wrong, I've mitigated that risk, but it's not going to break me. Right? Like that's so much of the figuring out how to deal with the fear for me has been exactly that. I know it won't break me. Gosh, I love that, Nancy. So what is the thing that scares you right now that you're working on?

I just co-GP'd a deal and I thought I was, I mean, this is beyond me, it's 132 units. The most I ever bought was like a small Motai. I mean, this is way beyond me. So it's just the whole process. I was fearful, you know, I had to raise money, never did that other than maybe selling some popcorn when I was 10 years old at school or something. So I had never fundraised, but I pushed beyond that and was able to do that. And now we have this great asset. So what's scaring me now is I want to expand the portfolio even more. You know, it's not for me, it's more so that I could bring other investors and expose them to these opportunities, especially physicians, and make them realize there's this other world that you don't need to be a landlord. If that's what you're afraid of, you don't need to be a landlord. There's this other way to invest that you could get great returns as well. So that's what's scaring me a little bit is just expanding, right? Because I don't know what I don't know. And now I'm a little bit more active on the pass— I'm kind of actively passive in a way. So it's an uncharted territory. So it's not scaring me. I'm excited. I view it as an opportunity. Be, but the fear is always of the unknown. But I always tell myself progress over perfection. You know, I heard that somewhere and then I, it's just always playing my mind. You know, as long as I take those 1 or 2 steps, it's gonna be fine. Then I could course correct.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I think I went to DIY workshop another day and 3 people were talking next to me and of course I hear real estate, my ears go like, go up. Right. And it's so funny when you observe people talking, right? They all had a 9 to 5, been in the same company for 15, 20 years. And their thought process, they were like, oh, are the prices going up, going down, whatever it is? And they're like, well, I don't wanna be a landlord. So I was like, wait a minute, you don't have to. You don't have to, for the love of God. You don't have to. But I think that we assume that people with high earning or high education understand what real estate is and what type of investment is. And it's farther from the truth that it is not the case at all for them. So I start having a conversation with them about property management, right? And then they take a portion to manage the property and they handle it, and then you go for it. You're like, "Well, but I'm looking for a second home in Stone Harbor and it's just like $2 million." I was like, "Is that going to make you money for you to go there, what, 3 weeks, 4 weeks? Is it worth it?" He's like, "No, it doesn't make any sense." I was like, "So it doesn't. But how about a multifamily there that will produce funds to—" He was like, "I never thought about it." I was like, yes, yes, yes. So I don't think that what you're doing with the physician quote unquote world, it's so important to educate them that there is this possibility. I wasn't aware about the situation of the, that there being the suicide rate being so high. And we appreciate, you know, first responders, all the doctors and nurses so much. And we want, and we stand for all of them to have peace of mind, right? But the money there, it's not— it's the time. So how can we buy time? Nancy, this has been great. I want to share here your information for the ladies, for the physicians that are listening to us. You don't need to just think about, oh, how the hell I'm gonna rehab a house, right? Because like, what time I'm gonna rehab a pretty house, right? But for all the folks that are listening to us, where they can find more information about you and what you're up to?

The best way is just go to my website, ClearVisionInvesting.com. You can find all the information there. You could also email me directly at Nancy@ClearVisionInvesting.com.

That is awesome. We will put all of that in the show notes. And now we are going to transition into the fabulous 3 questions. I've been so excited to say. Nancy, what is the most transformational book you've ever read?

Oh, transformational. Besides the Bible, I will have to say what everyone says is just Rich Dad Poor Dad. It really put into words what I was thinking about, you know, how do I get my time back, but really systematized it for me about, you know, the four quadrants and then helped me really shift. How can I shift there? So I'm gonna do the generic answer, Rich Dad Poor Dad.

It's impactful, you know. What is your most powerful routine that you do to help you live a financially free and balanced life?

Do something for myself first thing in the morning before everyone wakes up, because I think if you don't take care of yourself and you don't invest in yourself and really pour into yourself, you can't give to anyone else. If I don't do that for myself, I can't give to my kids, my husband, my patients, what I'm doing with real estate. So really do the first thing. So I have a very structured kind of morning routine, not structured, but I do certain things like I always exercise, read, journal, So it really helps get my body in the right state, my mind in the right state, so I'm ready to attack the rest of the day.

So many women need to hear that, Nancy. Which women, which woman, women, famous or not, has inspired you the most? Wow.

I think just my mom. You know, she, she came here with nothing, with my dad, as refugees. So, and then raised 5 of us. I come from a family of 5. So just really admire her hard work, her dedication, and just teaching me the core values I think really matter, which are compassionate love and just making the world a better place, or trying to make the world a better place. I love it.

Nancy, say hello to her. She's actually here.

She's actually here visiting from California. Yeah, so she's in the kitchen cooking for me.

Oh, there we go. I know how it feels when moms are cooking for us.

I love it. I love it.

Nancy, thank you so much for sharing your time with us and your work. We really appreciate you.

Thank you so much for having me.

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Ciao.