Steven Leconte: Elevating Your Game Through Strategic Real Estate Investments

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, you guys, I met my next guest through a group that we're both a part of, and he basically had told the group that he had recently lost £40 in a year. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to hear that story. And then as we got to talking, I got to hear what he does for people where he helps people raise money to be able to help them invest in capital and different goals that they might have financially. And it's amazing how both of these worlds actually connected after talking to him for a little bit. And I'm excited to share his story with you guys, because what is really life about, right? If you only have the money and you don't have your health, or if you only have your health and you don't have the money, it's like, let's get it. All right? And so he's here to help us do the thing and do all of that. So I'm so excited to welcome Stephen to the show. Hey, Steven.

Hey. See you. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, thanks so much for joining me. I feel like right now we're recording it around the holidays. I don't know when it will get published, but it's recording around now. And I feel like the timing of that right now, especially with the weight side of your story, is really cool because so many people are going into the new year wanting to change something about their health, and I just kind of thought we could start there. What got you interested? To be able to finally make that decision to lose the weight that you lost and to be able to just really do the thing in terms of your health.

Thank you so much for asking that question. You know what? Like, I'd like to say that it's like one thing that got me there, but as I'm thinking about it, it's like a series of different things that really got me there. I got a few wake up calls. I like to call them. One of them, for example, is that I actually got Covid. And when I got Covid, I got it very, very badly for like, a month and a half, roughly. It was really down and lost a bunch of weight. I had a lot of time to think and to read. And so I spent a lot of time reading different things, like the Bible, different books. And then during that time, I thought about. I'm always on the go, always doing different things. But for that time, I was just not able to do too much. So it got me to think about my health a lot more. And so that was one of the big things, Just being obligated to not do too much and then having that time to really think about my health. And then there's different cool and interesting quotes like your body's your temple. And I was looking at the things that I was putting in my body, like, a lot of, like, fried food and a little bit of drinking on a weekend and that kind of stuff. And I was like, are these things really helping me out? As I'm getting older and older, the body is doing different things. The accumulation of these different things, and seeing other people around me to get sick or not doing too well or not being around anymore for different reasons, it all got me that. These difficult weeks, club calls, that I needed to take all that seriously.

Yeah. I love how this moment of the pause, Right. Where everything stopped, especially with COVID So it really got you to kind of give it some space and realize what you wanted to do in terms of your health.

Yeah. 1%. It was a different time. Right. I think as, like, we're all busy people. Right? You're busy, I'm busy. Real estate, that I was busy, and we're all doing different things, and then sometimes we're prioritizing this over this, and then health at. For me, at least, it was. It was always that thing where I was like, you know what? I don't need to sleep that much. I can sleep a couple hours less, and then I'll be more productive. I'll be able to do that extra thing or want to go, like, let's just grab, like, whatever we can find on the way, and then it's okay. But then it compounds, Right. Over time, you just do a bit more, a bit more, and then before you know it, you're 40 pounds or 50 pounds overweight, and you look super tired, and it impacts. It starts impacting everything else. Yeah.

So you really tapped into why you wanted to do it. You kind of had a reason to, because Everything else had paused. And then you got to see as you were on that pause, that all of a sudden you're 40 pounds, 50 pounds heavier. So I'd love to hear, and I know the listeners that are listening want to know is, what did you do? How did you actually be able to do the thing? Because there's so many people that want it, but they're not able to get there.

Yeah, I like that. Doing the thing. The first thing that I did was really take a decision, and I got to a point where I was really fed up. One of the things, for me, too, that I didn't mention is that when I was sleeping, I felt like I had trouble breathing as well sometimes. And I was like, man, that's too much. I really have to start taking some drastic actions. And the first thing that I did is, like, I took a decision. I was. I sat with myself. And then I decided that, you know what? From this day on, I'm going to take some steps in the right direction to really make a positive change in my health. So for me, the first thing that I did after taking that decision is that right away, I signed up for the gym. I went in, I took a membership. They were trying to explain to me the different options. I was like, you just sign me up. I was not interested in literally, I was just like, sign me up right away. That's the first thing. So I took a financial decision. And I think that for me, sometimes, you know, take a decision, but I like to back it up with a concrete action. And for me, it usually results in, like, buying a course or taking some coaching or doing some kind of expense. So for me, I went, signed up for the gym, and then I started creating some more time in my day to learn things that I needed to learn about my body and my health. So I learned about just sleeping, right? So it sounds so simple. You should sleep a certain amount of time. But I got myself this ring, aura ring. So it gives me stats about how much I sleep and what the quality of my sleep. And it gives me advice in terms of what to do, when to push, when to rest, and just different data point. And I'm. I'm huge on data. I like data. So for me, it was good to be able to see a graph of how I'm doing and different things like that. So the ring, learning about sleeping, learning about eating. Started fasting a bit more, too. So I used to do this fasting for spiritual fast, but I started doing fast for health. So I did a few. I did like intermittent fasting, which was big for me, just reducing the window of time that I'm giving myself to eat. The quality of the food. A bit more vegetables, a bit more fruits, proteins, less fried food, less carbs. And then just listening to my body and understanding how do I feel when I eat this, how do I feel when I sleep, this amount of time, how do I feel? What's the energy level, what's the. How do I feel? My brain. And started to go on walks. I did. I created a goal for myself in terms of how many steps I wanted to do on a daily basis. So at first I started slow with the goal of getting to 10,000 steps per day. So but at first it was just like, get out of your seat, go for a walk, just do it. It doesn't matter if it's 500 steps, 200 steps, 100 step. It's like, just get on to the habit of doing it. And then gradually I went up from there, so. And alternated between gym and then walks and eating well, then sleeping better and doing a couple fasts every now and then.

Do you think that's how you got through? The mindset piece of it is you weren't attached to how long you were doing it. You were just sort of trying to get that muscle flexed of the habit.

Yeah. You know, you're. You're a big proponent of doing the thing. Right. And I think sometimes we try to go straight to the top. You go from not doing anything at all to wanting to do 10,000 steps, like tomorrow, 10,000 steps? No, for me, it was like, go on, walk, five minute was a success for me. And then gradually I went a bit more, a bit more, a bit more, a bit more. And then a few days I went over 10,000 and I was like, okay, that's amazing, you know, but at first, I think if I went and set the goal of doing 10,000 steps at the beginning, I would have probably not succeeded and then probably failed in that goal, that pursuit. But I took one thing at a time. Gradually, it was just like one thing, like, drink more water, do it for a few days and then do a bit more. Then when I became fine, I was like, okay, do the next thing and look at the sleep and then see what's going on. But it was not better. Do eight hours of sleep. Go from like four, five to six hours of sleep to eight hours sleep. It was like, just try to sleep an extra 10, 15, 20 minutes. Just drink a little bit, like, have some water here, like, just drink like straight Carrying water around with you just gradually and then it kind of went from there.

Yeah, I think it's so smart when you're able to just make those little micro steps and then that's how it compounds over time. Was there ever a moment that you didn't want to even do the micro step and how did you overcome that?

How about I never wanted to do them? To be honest, I didn't really want to do it, but it was, I think for me what started to help is seeing the positive results of doing the thing right. When you go for a 10 minute walk and then you come back and you feel like, oh wow, I did it and you feel good in your body and it's not a huge time commitment to spend 10 minutes and do something that feels good or you're sleeping a bit more. And then in that order of time you're able to do so much more than you would be able to do before because you come in sluggish and tired and then you have clarity and you're able to get a lot of stuff done. Like just these positive things really helped keep me accountable to myself. And then I wrote down a lot too about what I was doing and how I was doing and tracked different things. But I was never super motivated to do things in a day to day. But I was very interested in the results of being able to see, hey, if I do that, then I'm going to feel better, I'm going to look better, I'm going to feel great in my body. And then I started getting a few compliments and then these started to help too because people were noticing and I was like, I want to continue getting some more of those, you know, so. But every now and then I'll be fully transparent. Every now and then I didn't feel like doing it. And then sometimes I forced myself, sometimes I actually didn't do it. But then I tried really, really hard to not let it be that way for too long. So let's say I took a day or two that I wasn't really feeling like it and I didn't do it. I would try not to let like a week go by, for example, without going to the gym, or I would reduce the amount, the intensity. Like let's say I got to 5,000 steps and then that was my regular thing. But then a day I didn't really feel like doing it. I was like, okay, at least do 2,000 steps. Like you're not doing what you, you know, the full five, but at least you're doing Something. So that's kind of how I went.

You're building that consistency muscle and then you're building on it, basically. You mentioned that you were writing things down, which I look at as accountability to yourself. Did you keep yourself accountable in any other way?

Oh, writing things down was the thing that I think I did the most. I didn't want to have like a. I thought about potentially doing a public thing where I would go and use maybe social media or tell like my wife or a friend or someone that hey, you know what, this is my goal. But I wanted to really keep it to myself. I didn't want the extra pressure as well of having someone else or a group of people looking and then expecting things. So I just wrote things down. As I kept it to myself, I didn't tell anyone what I was doing. I just made the decision, started making a few steps. And then at the beginning every day, and then over time I went like every, every week. But every day I would just go on a scale and, and then look at my weight and take a picture of myself. And then I would just write. I woke up, I was this way, went to bed, I was this weight. What did I do today? Did I go on a walk? Did I eat fruits and vegetables? How many meals did I have? Did I eat any junk food? How much sleep did I get? Just a few metrics. And then every day I just review and I'd also look at my energy level. How did I feel? How did it feel? Did it feel good? How did I feel in my body? And I would just write down every day, I think five, 10 minutes to just check. Now I just do it once a week or when I feel like it's needed. But at first, every day I'd wake up, check the weight, write it down, do the day, at the end of the day, check the weight, check everything. And then every day I would just do it.

One of the pieces of the do the thing formula is my people, which is surrounding yourself with people who are doing the same thing as you and that want the same thing. And in the group that we're in, for example, those are my people. Cuz we're both wanting to be able to impact people through a program that we're creating. And so with the weight, I'm wondering, cause it sounds like you kept it kind of private so you didn't have the extra pressure, which makes sense. But did you have any source of connectedness with people, even at the gym where you were doing something with others?

Yeah. So one thing that I did. Although I was writing a lot and keeping a lot by my to myself because of that was going to the gym kind of on a regular basis. Around the same time, I saw some friends at the gym, people that I knew from before, and then also new people that I met at the gym. And then just having them around, like, we talk, they give me some tips. And then just knowing that they'd be at a gym at a certain time, I would come in, sometimes they would help me with a exercise or we talk about health, what they were doing, what I was doing. And then we'd compare notes and then seeing a progress too. Like, for a while, I think it took a bit of time that I wasn't going to the gym. I think it was traveling or something. And then I came back and then I saw one of my friends that had continued going to the gym on a regular basis. And then just the progress that he had done in a time that I wasn't going to the gym, I was like, okay, these things kept me accountable as well. Just to be able to see other people progress and being able to talk about it. And then I could see that they really wanted me to do well and they were giving me advice and tips. And then I was using them and coming back and then talking to them about it. And one even told me that he would give me muscle shirt if I got to a certain amount of body fat. It was like, I didn't get to it yet, but it's still work in progress. And when I get to it, I'll go and inflate my muscle shirt. So these, like, little reward things, I think gamifying things just in general, having people that you can count on, finding ways to give yourself little challenges, little rewards every now and then. They're all things that are very, very positive and help with reaching different goals.

Yeah, I'm glad this came up because we have our friends, right? And they fulfill a lot of needs that we have for connection. But then when we're wanting to do something new and scary or different or challenging, yeah, it does add pressure to kind of add those friends into it. But that's why if you're surrounding yourself with people that have a common goal or a shared purpose, then you're able to do it with them. And it's this way of creating this peer network of people that are just supporting and encourage each other along the way.

Yeah, 100%.

Thanks so much for sharing that story. I was really excited to hear about it because I feel like there's Just so many people right now that are wanting to make changes, especially with their health. But I think the way you were able to talk about it, you could basically apply those skills that you used for your health to anything that you want because of some of the strategies you talked about, which is just start with walking a hundred yards. You don't need to walk 10,000 steps. And I think so many people have that all or nothing mentality with so many things. And then the other thing that I think is so relevant for anything you want to do is just making a decision. Right. And being able to just start with that. And then once you make the decision, regardless of how you're going to do it, I think it all starts to fall into place.

Yeah. 1%. I love that you said that.

Yeah. So let's talk about. Because we're in a group together and we haven't talked about your program yet. I'd love to hear what you're doing for people with that as well.

Yeah, so what I do. So you're right. Like health, all these things are really connected. Health, wealth, faith, like all these things are super connected. And one of the things that I'm doing is I spend a lot of time investing in real estate and I love that space. And one of the issues that came up for me when I started investing in real estate is that you come in with some money and then you're. You invest and that's great. But then eventually you get tapped out because your money is trapped into a property that you bought. And then it's going to take a while before you're able to get your money out. But then when you become really good at finding properties that are cash flow positive or whatever strategy that you're using, or you're good in business and then you have like different things that are happening. Eventually you kind of get in a position where you get a lot of deals or a lot of opportunities coming your way. But then because your funds that you use or like trapped into a deal maybe for a year, for two years, for five years, you get to a position that you stop. So I learned how to raise capital to be able to basically partner up with other people to be able to buy real estate. So let's say, for example, I find a great deal, I don't have money. And because my money's tied up, or there's a position where you have some money and I have the deal, we can partner up and then buy the real estate together. So you get some profit, you get some of the benefits. I might do the work, might not put some money. You put the money, you don't do the work, and then we're able to help each other that way. So I did a few of those, and then eventually I was like, you know what? This is a really cool thing that I'm probably not the only person that's struggling with that. So let's see who else might need help with that. And then I decided to essentially teach other people how to go about doing that. And I found out that people needed for real estate. But sometime in business as well, when you go to the bank and then you're trying to get a loan or you apply for a government program, there's a lot of rules and regulations and different things that reporting and things that kind of slow things down, approval levels and different things like that. But if you're able to learn how to position yourself and position your deal or your opportunity in a way where you can attract someone that has disposable income that they'd be happy to invest with you, then you're able to grow faster. So what I do essentially is that I raise capital for my deals and I teach people how to go about raising capital for themselves and then also to help people in basically doing it for them. So these are like the different things that I do now that it's really, really cool. I love it a lot, and people are enjoying it too.

How do you help people overcome the fear of doing something like that?

Yeah, I think that the thing that comes up the most is, is people have this feeling that if they're asking someone for money, it's a bad thing, and they have this feeling of, I'm in a position of like, they have the money, why would they invest with me? These kind of feelings come up. But how to overcome that is really, I wouldn't advise anyone to raise capital and then do partnership with someone if you don't have a proven system and a track record of being successful at what you do because you don't want to play or gamble with people's money. Very, very, very, very important. To treat the money of someone else the same way that you would treat your own funds and doing everything that you can not to lose any money, because people work really, really hard for their money and they sacrifice a lot to be able to get savings is not easy. Right. So you want to be really responsible with that kind of stuff. But once you do have something that works out, the flip is finding a way to really get in a position where you're trying to help people do well. Because if someone has money and then their money is just sitting in their bank account, the money's not being productive. So I put myself in a position where I want to be able to help people by giving them opportunities to make sure that their money's productive so that if they're. We're getting not the. Because the money's just at the bank not being productive, or they're going to the bank, they're getting a very, very, very low return on their investment. Is there a way that it can help them out, but by providing them with an opportunity with no pressure, by explaining them all the potential rewards, all the potential risks, and then really make it possible for them to take a decision that works best for them. And not being attached with the decision whether they decide to do it or decide not to do it, I'm all good with it. So that's kind of how I go about it. And that's how I teach too. You know, I'm really big on faith and the Bible. And so for me, it's like very, very important to operate with a sense of integrity and being able to do things that are going to be profitable for everyone so that it's a win win. So I never want to put myself in a position where it's going to be good for me but not good for the person. I always want to make sure that I understand everything that it involves. And then I also want to make sure that they seek legal advice, either from a legal professional or a financial professional, so that they're 100% aware of everything that goes into it, and then they can take a decision that. That works best for them. But once you overcome these things and then you come in with it with a sense of, hey, I'm here to help. I'm here to find ways to help people be more profitable and use more of their money, less of their time, get their money to work for them as hard as they're working themselves. I think these things are really, really powerful and then. And that stuff for everyone. So at the end of the day, some people are just like, not. It's not the right fit and it's.

Totally fine, but please share what people can learn more about you and get more information.

Yeah, for sure. So right now I do a lot of events. I've been doing some webinars and some sessions like that. The best way really to find me is on. On Facebook right now. Facebook Stephen Lecomte is my name, and I share a lot on my page about different Things that I do. We are in the process of creating a website and then we'll have regular events, but right now I post events on, on my page. People sign up and then they can come and and learn, or they reach out to me directly and then we can talk about if they don't learn how to do it and then just want someone to do it for them. We have the ability to do that too. But essentially the goal is to help people go from not being able to raise a single penny to raising their first 100,000 and then eventually going towards more and more until the number that they really need to be able to do the things that they need to do. Because once you get good at that, the games become the game or the the world becomes different. Because you're always looking for opportunities where you're able to connect a good deal, a good opportunity with a good source of capital that's sitting there doing that thing. And then you're able to get a bridge to really connect these two things and make things work.

All right, Steven, what would be your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the thing?

Doing the thing. I think the best I'll have two. One is really Stacy, do the thing. Follow JC Learn from other people that are doing a thing. But then I say really look inside. Really look inside and really look at Life is short. We don't know how much time we have here. We can be really in our head and think about all the reasons and all the things that could go wrong, but we'll never know if we don't try. So give it a try. Do the thing. And then if it doesn't work exactly like you'd like it to be, is it change? Seek advice, get some help. Surround yourself by other people that are doing great things as well. And enjoy it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it.

Thanks so much for coming on. It was great having you.

My pleasure. That was really cool.

Thank you for having me and for you guys. Do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show, but even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the thing. Do you have a burning question on Doing the Thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the Thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.