Episode #804 - From Poverty To Millions with Angela Duncan

Welcome to this edition of the million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

I'm talking with Angela Duncan and she's in Miami. Hello, Angela.

Thank you so much, Larry, for having me today.

I'm enjoying looking at that pink chair you're sitting in. Pink is your part of your brand?

Yes, it's my favorite color. And I love that Barbie brought back pink and it's popular again for a little bit.

Yeah. Well, congratulations on your business success in so many different areas and we'll get into that. But, you know, one of the things, you know, it's substantial achievement to have success and then to keep it going for a long time. But you've owned and run a top 10 ReMax office, which is an entrepreneurial. It's like the biggest ReMax is the biggest realtor in the world. I didn't know that. They sell more houses and they're in 110 countries. Who knew all that? So thousands and thousands of offices. Over a hundred thousand, well over a hundred thousand agents. And you ran one of the top 10 offices for over five years and had to be a lot of education that came from that.

Definitely one of them is make sure you pick the right partners to run business with. Because understanding what you do great means you need to understand you hire out what you don't do great.

Yeah. Now talk about how does the young, beautiful Angela Duncan get started in life where she doesn't know anything about anything outside of her home, her family or friends? How did, what. What about your life stood out early on where you realized, you know, you as a, a human being, a young child, my reality is a little bit different than other people.

Yeah. So I think I'm a survivor of childhood poverty. So sex aid, housing, welfare moved around a ton. I've lived in motels, cars, other people's houses, but I didn't know any different. And I think when you grow up without anything, you don't necessarily have that fear of losing, you know, losing what you have because you just don't have anything. So being naive was probably an advantage for me as a young girl. But what I find is that I was just very curious. I always thought that money would solve every problem. And so when I was a kid and in going through my career, I thought if I earned more money, that that would solve my problem. And so that's where my early pursuit of learning about Money started, but definitely not where it is today.

Now, brothers and sisters, how big, you know, this family, you know, how many were there in this traveling band that's moving around?

Yeah, so it was my mom, my stepfather, and my younger brother, who is almost 11 years my junior. So he got to share a room with his big sister growing up until I moved out of the house.

Wow. And so what was that like? I mean, you know, you say poverty, very few people will say, you know, we lived in poverty. Unless you're in South Georgia. That's the South. And you're in a wooden shack and, you know, you share a crop or something like that, which is what my grandparents did, and did it successfully moved up through the ladder. But, you know, you don't hear poverty that much. But there's a world of people out there and kids growing up in that, especially with this immigrant situation we've got that kids are growing up in poverty. And what did you remember or if anything, the conversations about or what was it like? I mean, this constant jumble, never knowing where you're going to be, not being able to kind of plan, build relationships or things like that.

Yeah. And I. I'm glad that you said that, because poverty in the US Obviously can be quite different than, say, poverty in Africa. Right. So poverty, for me, growing up meant no Christmas. You know, for example, I remember one Christmas, we were living in a motel room, and I just wanted to have Christmas as a kid. So I drew a Christmas tree on a piece of paper and I put it on the wall. And that, to me, meant that we had Christmas. We didn't have any money for Christmas, but I really wanted to understand that it still existed in my world. But, you know, getting books from a local charity as a Christmas present, not having birthdays, getting food from other resources that, you know, provided for families without money. I said sharing a room with my brother because we couldn't afford to have more. You know, my mattress was on the floor. When we were living together, I didn' have new clothes, got made fun of a lot for having, you know, old, ugly clothes or receiving lunch and breakfast from the school because we qualified for that free food program. So there's a lot of things that go on early on in a childhood when you grow up in that kind of environment. And not learning about money was probably the biggest disadvantage, you know, going into my adulthood.

Well, it's, you know, if you're a boy, you know, you're a male, you think, you know, that you've got a tougher skin and you could, you know, but even, you know, it even gets to the males. But a fragile, you know, you think of the, the girls as being more fragile or, you know, because even in the best of homes, in the best neighborhoods, you know, the blue bloods, you know, they have the cat fighting, you know, you know, the, the little 12 year old girls doing, you know, I remember one of my, I won't say who, relatives, young relatives growing up and like little Helen at school, you know, tormented her every day and you know, they, you know, they, you know, they were saying this, that the other, and you know, she finally had to get out and go to public school just to get away from, from the, you know, what you think is a perfection, you know, but the teachers can't control it and this or the other. But then you take that to the nth degree where they don't have all the clothes they want, all the food they want, all the vacations they want and they have nothing and they have to deal with because kids can be tough and not sympathetic.

Yeah, I remember a teacher told me when I was younger, she could probably tell I was struggling with the other kids not being so nice. And she said to me, and it really helped change my perspective, she said, you never know what's going on in that other child's life. You know, they could be having parent issues or abuse issues and they're acting out towards you. So don't take it personally, be you do your thing and don't worry so much about the other side. And I think that really changed my perspective. So I was no longer necessarily so hurt by what they were saying. This was my world, this was my environment, I couldn't control it and who knows what the other kid is going through. So you learn to just kind of brush it off. And I wish more kids can kind of take that perspective, but it really helped me get through some of those really difficult times as a child.

Well, you hear about people, you know, they have these charities and they gave away so many meals at Thanksgiving and you know, toys for tots type, you know, those type things. Are those valid? I mean, you know it because I mean, I have looked at that and said, great, they got one meal, you know, what could that mean? Or they got one toy. But I guess that could make all the difference in the world, you know. Yeah, talk about that. Like when people do that, you actually get your hands on a toy or you actually have a decent meal.

Yeah, yeah. So I can recall one memory when I was probably in eighth grade, I received books from the local charity as a Christmas present. And that's where my love for reading really started. And it meant the world to me to receive those books. And so now as an adult, I do the other side, right. I love, love being part of the organizations that do go out into the community and provide food or toys or whatever it is that they need. Because I can remember as a kid that it really made a huge impact on me. I felt like someone saw me, someone cared about me. Even though we couldn't afford it, someone else gave that opportunity for me. And now I'm an avid reader because it started from that early gift.

So you would recommend, you know, when you get in the entrepreneurial world, you have some success and people are thinking about giving back. You would encourage all, any and all of those kinds of efforts to the people that are on the the side of the tracks where hopefully they're moving up, but maybe they're just going to be there for a few years.

Yeah, absolutely. And if you have the time, get out there and volunteer too. Because when we see the other people, that just makes it so much more valuable because then you get to see the person on the other side and know that there are people in this world that are and that they care for you and it helps to shape you to make you want to do more in life and then be able to contribute back to someone else like yourself as you were as a kid.

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Coming up now, where was the kind of a moment to where something happened? You did something, someone said something, somewhere along the way you realized things could be different in your world.

Yeah, I think I contribute that to when my daughter was born. I at the time was living in Oceanside, California, a neighborhood where even Domino's pizza would not deliver. And so when she was born, it changed my perspective again. And I've been through a lot of hills and Valleys over my life. But when she was born, I realized that I needed to change her environment, that I did not want her to feel the pain that I did as a kid. And it was my responsibility now to figure out how to really, truly change my life. And I started seeking out mentors and looking for people who I thought were successful in my world, asking them questions, coming from contribution, just figuring out what do I need to do differently, how do I invest in myself so I can break the cycle and not allow for my daughter to go through the same poverty that I did.

Up to that time, what kind of how old were you? And up to that time what kind of jobs had you had?

Yeah. So from 18 to 23, I spent five years going to college. I had multiple jobs from 5am Call centers to Home Depot to Wendy's to bank of America. And I landed a full time job after college in bank of America, which is where the mentorships came from. I had my daughter in my early 20s and when I started surrounding myself with with other women that look to be successful and I started asking them questions, I found that if you come from the right place, meaning I'm not demanding of your time, they're willing to help. I think as general, most people are willing to help, but we're just afraid to ask. And I had to take that first step and say, hey, do you mind teaching me more, I want to learn more and how can I help you? And just became a win win situation for us.

So you have this light bulb moment goes on, you've got mentors. What position did you wind up getting? Where did you move to in the business world? Now that where you say this is where I start on a different fork. I'm taking a different fork in the road here.

Yeah. So I went from being a teller at bank of America to getting my license for securities, which then they transferred me to being a receptionist at the investment hub of bank of America. And then when I started to ask for more opportunities, then that slowly moved me into the financial advisor group where I could help, you know, talk about stocks and IPOs and bond markets and bond ladders. And so it was my way of being able to get some experience in the financial advisor world, but still knowing that I'm a support system for the team as well.

And how did you jump the gap to where you're an entrepreneur now you're a realtor, you're on commission and then eventually you get your own office. How long did that take and what was that journey like?

Yeah, so God had a different plan for me. He put a boy in my life. I say boy because I was still in my 20s and I already had my daughter at the time. And he lived in Florida, I lived in San Diego. And we thought, okay, well, somebody has to move. So I made the decision, I took the leap, and my daughter and I moved to Florida. And he was just starting in real estate, and so I joined him and we just grew a company from there.

Okay, so talk about how you grew a company.

Yeah, well, I got my license in 2007. If you know the. The market at the time we had the biggest crash in real estate is 2008, 2009. And so we had to figure out, how do you create leads? How do you build relationships in a down market? Well, open houses, door knocking, calling people, Craigslist. Like any and everything we could find that was free because we didn't really have money. We hammered and we put in the time and again, we still kept mentors and coaches in our life. So if that's one thing I can tell people is if they want to win in life, you need coaches, you need mentors in your life. That's how you're going to get to that other level of success.

Now, were these mentors coming from the real estate business primarily?

Oh, absolutely. I want people who have done bigger things than me to teach me. I wouldn't want to learn from someone who's not experienced in the field.

Are there things that concepts that you picked up there that you still use today?

Yes. Building out a team and hiring out what you're not great at. You know, I've heard coaches say, if you're not good at something, spend more time doing that or spend more time, you know, the hours that you put in. And while I do believe that that has some validity, the hours you put into something you enjoy doing is more important to me than putting in hours in something I don't enjoy. So I'm going to hire out things that I know are not my skill set so that I can grow more in what I do love to do and what I know I'm good at. And then that's going to add more value to my clients, to my team and everybody around me.

Yeah, I think there's a discipline and an advantage from that discipline to kind of confronting the things that you don't like to do and don't want to do, and to go through a phase where you confront it and say, you know, I'm going to take a hard look at this thing and See if I can figure it out. But if you don't go anywhere on it, it's time to call in the Calvary. And so you have time and you have clear head to do the things you're good at where you could be productive. It's hard to be great at something you just hate. And yeah, I guess you can be, but you can be a whole lot greater in something you love. So the. And I think we've all gone through experiences like that, but when you admit that to yourself and you realize you free yourself up to go get help in those areas and you don't beat yourself up, there's a lot of people that are stuck beating themselves up because there's such. Basically, with entrepreneurs, it's bookkeeping. You know, somebody's got to look at the book, someone's got to keep up with the folks, or you're going to go out of business. And. But all that doesn't have to be you. And so you could have, you know, you could bring in help in that. That area. And that's, that's the kind of area where, you know, it's service support, things like that.

Yeah. And over 50% of business owners do their own bookkeeping, which is awful, because if that's not what they do, like a CPA or accountant, they. They're likely missing IRS tax laws that are in place for them not to pay more in taxes.

Right. So they change all the time. I mean, it's. The laws are changing all the time. You can't stay current on all that. And, yeah, I go to a therapist who, you know, last week she was, as soon as I left, she said, the rest of the day I'm going to be working on my bookkeeping and taxes. I thought, why not see a couple more clients and dump that off on somebody else? Well, it's not that hard. You know, I've seen the same thing in business where people open offices and they won't get, you know, they postpone, get a receptionist, secretary, administrative help. You know, it's like, well, it's not that much. Yeah. But it's enough to interrupt you, you know, and they say, well, my spouse can do it, or. So your spouse is more useful doing something else. Probably, you know, that might be a temporary solution. But people. And you see people, like five years later, they're in the same. The same rut. You know, they haven't grown because they won't spend a quarter to get some help, you know?

Yeah. They have to view it as an investment. It's Not a cost. You're investing in team members to help you grow and help more people.

How did it take? How long did it. How do you know? What was your rise to the top in on the real estate Market and in ReMax, how did your office come together?

The first couple years, it was just me and my ex husband and we worked nonstop seven days a week until we hired a coach who was the perfect fit for us. He made us take a vacation before he'd work with us because he knew we hadn't vacationed in three years. And we were known in the office as the bottom feeders, meaning we, we helped the lower price market. And so the first thing we did is hire an assistant. Then we started hiring salespeople to help grow that. So it probably wasn't until about three or four years after we hired the coach that we really started hitting our stride and making the marks that we were doing.

Yeah. How hard? It's one thing to find mentors and have friends that advise you. It's another thing to pay money to a coach. You know, how expensive, you know, was that coach? And was that was. Was. Did it pay off? We haven't called names here, so nobody's going to be hurt.

Yeah, no, he was the right fit. We really took our time to interview and find the right fit for us. It was so expensive, I don't even remember the dollar amount, but I remember thinking, oh, my God, if this doesn't work, I'm going to have to go get a job.

Wow. Wow. So how quick did things turn around and what is it like running a top office versus an office where you, you know, you make a couple sales a week?

I think the impact for me, so what I've always enjoyed about having a real estate company or a company in general, is the fact that I get to help other people and impact and change their lives. So I feel like my strength is building community and helping people figure out, you know, how to budget, how to create more income, how to invest in real estate. A lot of that for me was a lot of fun and that's how I built my side of the business. And then my ex was great at sales and marketing.

So what is building a community? You hear that a lot. Everybody's out there building communities. Sounds like you had some early experience with us. What does that mean to you?

So for me, I want people to come, want to work with me. I want them to want to come to the office. We have fun. We do things together like kickball tournaments or, you know, for those that drink, it was happy hours. But I want them to be able to count on each other. I want them to be able to trust each other. And that to me was important. So we did birthday parties, baby showers. You know, I wanted to do all the fun stuff stuff so that they wanted to be part of this community. But then my ex was great at holding them accountable, setting expectations, setting goals, keeping them accountable for their goals, while I got to bring in the fun aspect of things.

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