How does your mindset shape your journey to becoming a millionaire?
In this inspiring episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show, host Corwyn J. Melette welcomes Patrick Francey, a serial entrepreneur, podcast host of The Everyday Millionaire, and former leader of the Real Estate Investment Network. Listen to this first part episode as Patrick takes us on his journey, sharing how his entrepreneurial path began with what he calls an “entrepreneurial accident”, his transition from the oil industry to becoming a successful real estate investor and entrepreneur and how his mindset played a crucial role in building multiple businesses.
He highlights the significance of mindset in identifying and seizing opportunities. He also discusses the importance of understanding economic fundamentals and treating real estate investment as a business to ensure prosperous ventures. The conversation touches on how Patrick grew his portfolio from single-family homes to diversified real estate assets while emphasizing the role of coaching and education through the Real Estate Investment Network.
The episode aims to empower listeners with insights on building financial freedom and a secure future through strategic real estate investments.
Key Takeaways:
- 4:08: Mindset is Everything – Learn how Patrick’s mindset has shaped his entrepreneurial journey and how it can fuel your own success.
- 10:0: Opportunities Are Everywhere – Patrick explains how to recognize and create opportunities, even when they seem hidden.
- 11:17: Supporting Others – Discover why Patrick believes in the power of helping others climb the mountain, and how that philosophy has impacted his own success.
- 13:11 Diving into Real Estate Investing
- 18:34 Teaching Real Estate Investment Strategies
Connect with Patrick Francey:
- Website: https://reincanada.com/
- Email: ceo@reincanada.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfrancey
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pfrancey/
Connect with Corwyn@:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Email: corwyn@corwynmelette.com
Shoutout to our Sponsor: ROBYN COLLINS
Do you want something more? More Meaningful Moments opportunities, deeper relationships and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you say YES, a career and real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for guiding people to one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative.
Exit Realty has a revolutionary compensation model training and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today ROBYN COLLINS with REDROBYN HOMES at 843-557-5003. Again that’s 843-557-5003 or visit RedRobynhomes.com/join.exit and make your Exit today.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/support
ROBYN:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today, Robyn Collins, R – O – B – Y – N Collins with Red Robin Homes at 843-557-5003. Again, that’s 843-557-5003 or visit us at redrobinhomes.com/joinexit and make your exit today
CORWYN:
Good morning and great morning, guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, if this is your first time listening to this show, a mission A is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. Guys, we are legacy building. That is what we do. Guys, I’d be remiss if I did not give a shout out to all you loyal listeners, those who tune in locally in the Charleston region, in South Carolina, for those that listen to us through our podcast from around the world. You guys rock, and I really appreciate that, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. So, guys, today we have a fabulous episode. Look, I’m over here. I’m literally anxious to hear this, because when you talk to someone who quote unquote has climbed the mountain, went and got the word, and then in turn brought that thing back down that mountain, and who’s ready to sit there at the base and say, hey, look, this is how you get there because I just left. You are always in for a treat when you find someone like that who’s willing to give back because they found a path for themselves. So, today I’m very fortunate to have with us none other than Patrick Francey. Let me tell you a little bit about him now. So, Patrick, look, Patrick is, after my own heart, he’s a serial entrepreneur. He’s also a podcast host hosting the Everyday Millionaire podcast. Let me say that one more time.
The Everyday, like someday, not just, okay, yesterday or tomorrow, everyday, which means we’re living a lifestyle. Y’all need to track that, the Everyday Millionaire podcast. I love it. But he’s also the founder, he was the leader of the Real Estate Investment Network. So, he’s tuned in, guys. Again, he’s a guy after my own heart. So, I’m super, super excited for this conversation today with him. Patrick, thank you so much for being on the show with us. How are you?
PATRICK:
I’m excited to be here and having this conversation. So, thanks for the invitation, and I’m really looking forward to this conversation.
CORWYN:
So, Patrick, if you don’t mind, give our listeners, and I say sometimes the 30,000, sometimes the 50,000-foot view of who you are and what you do.
PATRICK:
Well, that’s a big question. I’ve been in the world of business for 40-plus years. I’m a multiple business owner. The Real Estate Investment Network was a business that has been around for 30 years. I’ve got another business in Alberta, Canada that is literally we just celebrated our 40th anniversary. So, there’s a part of me that who I am is an entrepreneur, is a business owner. The other part of me, I guess, is I’m a husband, I’m a father, I’m a grandfather, and I’m an individual who’s just committed to living their purpose, living their mission, which in my case is helping other people to succeed. I have a mantra or a mission statement, if you will, which is be your greatest self, live your best life. So, for me, who I am is that individual that makes decisions based on that, gets into and creates relationship based on that particular mission. Am I being a contribution and being of significance to others? And that’s what drives me. So, that’s a little bit of what I do and who I am. That’s about as 30,000 as I can get, Corwyn.
CORWYN:
I love it. So, Patrick, look, so you may look at this camera a few times and see me over here, literally look like I’m bouncing inside my skin or something over here. I promise you it’s not the camera making waves or interference or anything. It’s just literally my excitement because one of the things you just touched on is that I heard in there, embedded, is you live your life by design and you have a mindset that supports that. Does that sound about right?
PATRICK:
Yeah, that’s an accurate statement for sure.
CORWYN:
So, let’s talk about what got you started. Because on this show, we’re addressing people’s mindset, how they respond, how to handle money, how they budget, finance, and how they pursue their goals. That’s literally everything, encompass everything we’re talking about. What was your driver? What was your wow? What got you into, what was that trigger point, if you will, that you decided, okay, I’m going to be an entrepreneur. I’m going to do something different and along this vein?
PATRICK:
You know, that’s, again, it was a long time ago. But when I first came out of high school at the time, I didn’t go on to post-secondary. I’m probably pretty blue collar in that regards. But I got a job when I was 18 years old in the province in Canada of Alberta.
And within that province through the, that was in, I think, back in 1977, by the way. I’m 66 years old today. Literally, that was a long time ago. But back in those days, what was happening politically and what was happening in Canada overall, specifically in that province, was we were a very wealthy province. We had oil and oil was going crazy. It was really driving that economy. And within the political sphere, what happened in about 1980, 81, they introduced what they call the National Energy Program, which literally shut down the oil industry. And that particular province went from feast to famine. And literally, unemployment rate went from 3.5% to 14%. And so I was caught up. I was in the oil industry. It was the only job I ever had. I came out of that oil industry. I got laid off in 1983, late 83, and hung around trying to look for a job in a market that nobody was hiring. And that’s when I had what I refer to as my entrepreneurial accident. And when I had that entrepreneurial accident, it was just me hanging out with a friend and his business. But I’d had a number of years. I think seven years was the total of corporate training. So when I was in the oil industry, I was working for a large corporation. I was young. I was inspired. I always had this vision of being in a corner office somewhere. So I really worked hard. But ultimately, I worked my way up the corporate ladder, if you will, got laid off. And then when I met my friend and we were having these conversations, he owned a very small business, was struggling. But when we came together, I brought a lot of things to the table. And the next thing you know, I was working with him. We were having a ton of fun. And ultimately, his sales tripled that year. And it was because we were implementing stuff. And I had experience. I had that corporate training that I put to work. And then really, the rest of it is history. And from that point, I never had another job. I worked with him. I bought him out.
And then I took that business over. And that was really the business that then led me into the world of real estate and building my own real estate portfolio. And then ultimately, buying a company called the Real Estate Investment Network. And so that’s Nicole’s notes of what got me on the journey. And along the way, I refer to any number of entrepreneurial accidents that I had because it’s not like I said, OK, I’m going to go buy a franchise and put this business together. What happened for me and how it is for me is opportunities show up. I go, that’s a cool opportunity. And then I take advantage of that opportunity or I step into that opportunity, lean into it, and then try and grow that part of the business. And that’s how I became wired to be entrepreneurial in my thought process. And that’s how I treat my real estate investing. And that’s actually what I coach and what I teach within my real estate investing community.
CORWYN:
Patrick, one of the things you’ve said in there is an undercurrent I picked up on as well is sometimes, and this is my belief. If you disagree, please tell me. But it is a belief of mine that an entrepreneur will see an opportunity in most things, regardless of where you put them at. So you hanging out with your buddy in conversation because you had an entrepreneur spirit essentially embedded into you, that you recognize inefficiencies and things that could have been improved that could help him scale and multiply exponentially that business, which you shared. He recognized in Viprocity that, okay, you understand this. Hey, let’s work together. And then in turn, that’s what turned into this company now. Does that sound fair?
PATRICK:
Yeah, that’s a reasonable assessment of what kind of went down and how that unfolded. I think there’s a fundamental here, Corwyn, that we talked about. You mentioned mindset a little bit earlier on. And what has evolved for me over the years is that mindset is everything. So even under the umbrella of the everyday millionaire, my wife, who is a Olympic and world-class mental performance coach for many athletes and has been for 25 or 30 years, we actually do a podcast every week called Mindset Matters under the umbrella of the everyday millionaire. So that just gives you some idea of how serious we look at mindset. Now, when we go back to opportunity, we look and say, well, we see opportunities. Well, first we have to recognize, and I’ve come to understand, is that until you think something is possible, you can’t see opportunity. And so I look at it and go, so many things are possible.
And I look at saying, okay, do I see an opportunity? Can I create an opportunity? Can I engineer an opportunity? So when I’m looking and assessing at things this many years later, number one, I know what my values are, what kind of floats my boat, what is important to me, what will light me up, and that is living into my values. But the mindset component of it is an ever-ongoing, has been for years, how I’m always self-assessing. Am I being my best self? Am I being my greatest self? Am I living true to my authentic self, living into my values? And so mindset goes back to even when I was working, even before I understood it, when I was supporting my friend, as much as it was great to grow the business and grow the revenue and it was awesome and I loved it, behind it all was the fact that I was supporting my friend, that I was helping him succeed. And I didn’t have to steer the bus. I didn’t have to be the pointy end of the spear. Sometimes I’ve come to realize that if somebody else is climbing the mountain, I’m happy to be the Sherpa, and I’m the guy behind him, and I’ve got my hand on his ass pushing him up that mountain. That’s how I think and that’s how I’m wired. I don’t have any ego of having to be the brightest shining star or take credit for stuff. I don’t need to be that guy. And so I realized that’s how I was wired many years ago. And as much as that’s great, by the way, there’s a downside to being that person too. So that’s always the balance that we see in recognizing who we are.
CORWYN:
So I’m going to take a part of that, Patrick, and try to see if I can reframe this. Because one thing that you said is that, so being who you are, being authentic is important. So you’re the person that doesn’t care about the limelight, the spotlight. You want to see everybody make it. That is where your success lies. And there’s some people, they want to have everything pointing to them.
I think they create more stress. I don’t necessarily believe that to be successful. Who knows? However people think, whatever their perception is, becomes their reality, if you will. But you’re that person because people that lead give. People that lead create opportunities for others to be able to capitalize and take advantage of. It’s not about them. It’s about these other people that they’re trying to get there. So the shortcut in being successful is based upon how many people they get to the top of the mountain. Not because they quote unquote carried them, but because they gave them guidance and assistance along the way. I talk about that Sherpa, and I use that as an analogy at times when I’m speaking about real estate. So when you said it, man, you just look here. I told you, man, I’m literally just over here jumping in my skin. Because that is what we do as successful and professionals, entrepreneurs, and things. We are, we should be guides to people. So I really appreciate that. So you started, what was your fancy that got you to real estate?
PATRICK:
Well, in my business, I worked hard to grow that business. And 40 years later, it’s still operating. I haven’t even had a key to that business. I’m not even in that province anymore. I’m bi-provincial. So I’m an hour and 20 minute flight away from my business.
I haven’t had a key to that business since 2005, I think. It really is built that way. So what got me into real estate is as I was building that business, what I was often doing was I was looking at people that I admired in business and that I had gotten to know. And some of them were very successful, multi-million dollar businesses. And when I looked at what they were doing, what I noticed almost 100% of the time, but I’ll say 95% of the time, is that regardless of how successful they were in their business, they all owned real estate. They all took profits from their business and they invested in real estate. And one of my friends who’s a business owner, and I’m talking to him about it, he goes, well, listen, here’s the thing, Patrick, is that as much as one day you’re going to hopefully exit your business and it’ll be a check that you get or however that is, there’s no guarantee. You don’t have a pension. And so as much as you might build equity into your business, you don’t know how it’s going to exit. You never know. And so one of the way to assure that you have something is to build assets. And real estate, of course, is that hard asset that is really worth looking at. So I started learning about real estate. At the time, I didn’t even know how to spell real estate. And I joke about it.
Is it one word? Is it two words? Do I got to capitalize real estate? How does it all go? And so I started learning about real estate. And that’s how I stumbled across the Real Estate Investment Network. And it was a small network of people that were buying real estate, investing in real estate. It was led by a man who’s a bestselling author in Canada. He’s written six or seven books. And he wrote the book Real Estate Investing in Canada. Don R. Campbell is his name. He wrote that book in 2006, by the way. And to this day, it’s still a bestseller in Canada and actually even outside of Canada because the fundamentals of that book apply in any first world country. Okay. Having said all, that’s really what got me started in real estate is that I realized that to secure my financial future in terms of security, in terms of certainty, and even financial freedom. Real estate was one of those things that I needed to divest into. And so that’s how I got on my real estate journey and started buying and investing in real estate. Which then led to my next entrepreneurial accident, which was, in fact, teaching people how to invest in real estate. And now we have a national organization. Again, we’re into our 30th year. We’ve had almost 200,000 people go through our programs. And that’s what I do because I love to coach. I love to teach. And I’ve gotten good at it over the years.
CORWYN:
So, Patrick, do you have… So, my imagination tells me, and please correct me if I’m wrong. My imagination tells me you probably took the initial step foray, if you will, into single family and then maybe scaled and moved into multifamily and eventually over into commercial, maybe apartment complexes and or commercial buildings. Does that sound about right?
PATRICK:
Yeah, that’s right. I went into, again, single family detached. And back in the time when I was investing, I could buy… Literally, I could buy a house for $135,000, put a renter in it, and have a cash flow. That same house today is $625,000. And although it’s paid for, that’s the only reason that it’s still cash flows. But now to do that, it’s never about a single family. It’s about detached. I’m still a fan of detached. But now it’s, of course, duplex, triplex, fourplex, or even a multi, over five units. And then I also own some light industrial. And part of the light industrial I own is that’s what one of my retail businesses run out of is the light industrial that I own, which has served me very well. And I’m my best tenant. So it’s like I know I’m going to get paid. And every so often I can raise my rent because I deserve it.
CORWYN:
I love it. People miss that hack. People miss the hack in general, that a lot of businesses, especially larger retailers, may develop a shopping center, may develop or build a store. But then they sell the store and they keep a lease because there’s tax benefits in having a lease. There’s so many things in that particular space. I love it, by the way, because that’s what intrigues me, like how to leverage, how to get to that next level. As you have grown and grown your portfolio, divested and restructured as you’ve gone along, you’ve done this. It’s been like a growth pattern for you is what I heard there, which is, OK, I’m just starting. Let me get this.
OK, well, now we’re at a place where we need to be doing this. And then we keep rolling. And pretty soon you form this whole world of real estate that works, quote unquote, for you because you worked your way through it. What do you teach people? So let’s talk about that, because I definitely want to make sure I get the information out here. We’ll have it for our listeners. Guys, you can go to our website because we will have that information up this episode where you can reach Patrick and get connected to him.
But you actually do training and coaching. So let’s talk about that. .
PATRICK:
So the Real Estate Investment Network is really a community of like minded individuals that get together to learn how to invest in real estate. The foundation of what we teach and what we coach is, number one, we don’t sell real estate. And the reason we don’t sell real estate is because a part of what we teach is to invest in real estate, not speculate in real estate. And what I mean by that is that as real estate investors, what do we want to do? We want to invest in real estate, but we want to invest in real estate that has a future. We want to look at the real estate future. Is it going to appreciate? Is cash flows going to increase? What’s driving the economy? Now, understanding the economic fundamentals and looking at the data of any given region, you start to understand that in the world of real estate, what do we need? We need GDP growth. So in other words, what is the economy of that region doing? Not of the United States, not of Canada, not of Australia. What is the economic fundamentals that are driving the economic health of a city? Carolina, whatever. My point is that when you look at, or Charlottetown. So when you look at what’s happening in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada or Dallas, Texas, I don’t care. We look at the economic fundamentals and say, well, we need GDP growth. So we need to be productive and we need to have jobs. When we have jobs, people move to where jobs are because they need to generate an income. And when you have jobs, when you have GDP growth, you have jobs, you’ve got people moving into that region. What do they do when they first move into the region? Most rent because they don’t. Number one, do they have a secure job? Number two, if they’re immigrants new to the country, they don’t have a credit rating. Number three, if they’re immigrants into the country, they culturally don’t know where or what part of town do they want to live in? Because they want to live in a part of town where they speak the language, eat the food, practice the religious, whatever those are. And it takes time to get grounded in those kind of areas. So in the meantime, they rent. So we know that if you’ve got economic health, GDP growth, you’ve got employment, strong employment. Then you’re going to have strong population growth, which means that you’re going to have demand on rental units, which will then bring rent up because that demand is high. Supply will be lower depending on your immigration. So you’re looking at these economic fundamentals. That gives you an indication of where real estate will go in the future. And so when we’re making decisions, a lot of people make the mistake of, yeah, but it’s so cheap in this town. Okay, well, let’s talk about it. Why is it so cheap? Well, then you start to break it down. Well, not a lot of people are moving there. There isn’t a strong demand. There’s not a lot of jobs. So why would you want to buy invest? Why would you want to invest in real estate there? Well, rents are really good.
I can cashflow. I could buy it for 80 grand and it’s going to cashflow 600 bucks a month. Okay, great. So just know that you’re buying for 600 bucks a month of cashflow. And what is the appreciation? Maybe there is not. Maybe it stays flat. Maybe you don’t care. That’s a strategy. So the point is that we teach people to treat their real estate investing like a business, to look at the economic fundamentals that are driving real estate. And then understand that when you look at the economic fundamentals, you see a future. Now, the other side of that question or the other side of that equation, Corwyn, is this. When GDP goes negative, when unemployment starts to go up, all of a sudden rental demand starts to go down. Why? Because people are moving out of that city. There is about an 18 month lag between the upside or the downside. It takes time to work through the system. Now, you’re familiar with it. You’re probably observing it across the U.S. and or to the degree that you pay attention to Canada. The point of that is the economy softens. You start to see layoffs. You start to see people moving. Immigration starts to get flat or you start to see movement from one state to another, one city to another, because people are going to where the jobs are. But that takes time. And if you’re paying attention to those economic fundamentals, you may decide to, number one, put in place long-term leases. You may, in fact, buy down some debt. You may, in fact, say, nope, I’m going to exit this market. I’m out. But it gives you that heads up so that you’re making decisions based on data, not on emotion. You’re making decisions based on data, not what your brother-in-law, your sister-in-law, the guy at work told you, your father-in-law told you, the realtor told you. So this is a whole different way of looking at real estate than speculating because everybody’s getting rich in a boom cycle. Well, boom cycles are fun, as you’ve seen and as you probably are aware of. But when do you want to buy? Do you really want to buy in a boom cycle? Maybe. It could be good. You buy in a slump cycle because it’s counterintuitive. It scares the crap out of people. But when you’re in a slump cycle, that’s where the best opportunities live. And that’s where you start to see the future because you know that this cycle will pass.
CORWYN:
What’s interesting is to say that I have repeated this at least a few times this week because in down markets, that’s when you see one or two things, companies grow. They make investment during those times. And then you see people that shrink and they disappear because they didn’t. That’s the opportunity, quote unquote. We’ve always going to buy real estate when it’s low. But you never know when low is exactly. You have indicators that, hey, this is going to happen. Let’s get prepared or what have you. But sure, we have we have very short memories when it comes to real estate. But it’s always a long ball game. So I love that. I love that, Patrick.
