164 | From Health Scare to Living Life on Your Own Terms with Lisa Michaud, Success Coach and Real Estate Investor
Lisa shares her life-changing health scare that prompted her to start living the life she wanted.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
Let us introduce and amazing guest, Lisa Michaud! Lisa is a Success Coach, Podcaster, and Creator of the 100 Day Goal Getter Planner and Journal and she’s also a real estate investor and coach with her husband Troy as they have been active real estate investors for over 12 years.
Lisa has been a member of our Business Babes Collective Community and huge support since the VERY Beginning!
We have always loved Lisa’s energy of what she brings to our community and she’s also co-facilitating our Mastermind right now to support our group in a powerful way while Dani takes some time with a new baby!
In this episode, Lisa shares her life-changing health scare and how it made her realize that she needed to start living the life she wanted instead of always finding reasons why she couldn't. She and her husband quit their jobs, sold their houses, and moved to Vancouver. This led her to start her coaching business, podcast, and speaking career, where she shares her lessons, tools, and inspiration to help others shift their thought processes and take action toward their goals.
She wants to inspire others to not wait until a life-changing event to start living the life they truly desire.
We also dive into the topic of Real Estate investing, and Dani asks her some juicy questions about how to get started in real estate, and so much more!
Our hearts and destinies are calling us
Lisa shares about her health scare and how it helped her realize that anything is possible when we start to ask “how is it possible”?
It may not happen overnight. We may not know all the steps, but first, by claiming what it is that we really want. And being honest with ourselves about that, and then getting out of our own way to ask how is it possible and to start to take those steps. That's where the potential is.
Overcoming Fear
Fear is a major player in the game of entrepreneurship! Fears of what it might look like. Fears that we're gonna fail. Fear of what other people are gonna think. We get stuck in our heads and it's hard to move through that. If you can overcome it, you can be limitless!
Lisa shares an exercise to help you tangibly identify and create a game plan to overcome limiting beliefs and fears:
Take a piece of paper, like a blank piece of paper and just draw a line down it, and on the left hand side, list out all the reasons why you think you can't accomplish your desires and every single one of your fears.
Identify the legitimate problems that need to be solved or figured out.
Identify the issues/concerns that are limiting beliefs and work out if they are true! Ask questions like:
Is this something that I actually believe? Is this belief something that's gonna allow me to become the person I wanna be and achieve what I wanna achieve in my life and have the impact I wanna have? Or is this something that I can rewrite or let go of and move forward through?
Once you have discerned your fears & problems, then, on the right side, rewrite it! If it’s a legitimate solvable problem, write out the solution. If it’s a limiting fear or belief, write out the actually empowering truth.
We get stuck in our heads and it's hard to move through that - so often when we actually write it down, it's easier than we think to identify our fears and then rewrite them.
And you don't have to do it alone. You can talk to a supportive friend, a coach, a mentor, listen to some great podcasts from people who think differently.
How to Go After the Big, Scary Goals
Community is KEY. Having someone remind you why your dreams are so important, having someone see your light and see your potential even more than you can see in yourself and getting to reciprocate that back, getting to shine back and inspire someone else, right? When you see the potential in someone else, all of a sudden you see more potential in yourself too. It really does go both ways. In the moments where we struggle to believe in ourselves, we all need others to believe in us.
Forget all the other hacks, just be accountable!
Accountability is having someone believe in you who is able to provide different ideas and different perspectives.
If we're just trying to do it alone, we're only seeing one piece of the picture! Other people's perspectives can help give us ideas on things that worked or why things may not work and things, again, not to say that you shouldn't do it cuz there might be problems, but what are some of those problems you can troubleshoot?
There's just so much more power in MORE! Why would you only rely on your own wisdom and experiences when you can tap into the wisdom and experience of those around you and those in your community to hopefully make things easier, less stressful, more effective and more fun along the way.
Get Started
Getting started in real estate investing can be overwhelming - like drinking from the fire hose. If you don't know, if you have zero lens in terms of what are you trying to achieve, what are your goals, what's your capacity, what are your resources, you can get lost in all the information and options out there!
Know your vision and your WHY!
Learn & Listen
Identify the strategy that works best for you.
This will help you identify, which one is the right one (strategy) or the best fit for you.
Connect with lisa
IG: @thelisamichaud
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transcript
[00:00:00] Danielle Wiebe: Lisa, I am so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:08] Lisa Michaud: I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me, Danielle.
[00:00:11] Danielle Wiebe: So can we start by you sharing a little bit more about your background, your story? How did you get into this world of entrepreneurship?
[00:00:19] Lisa Michaud: Yeah. Nine years ago my life was completely different.
[00:00:24] Lisa Michaud: At the time my husband and I, we had just gotten married. We were living in for McMurray Alberta, which is a very small northern community. We both had corporate jobs. They were great jobs in the energy industry. We were building our careers. We had our rental property. We were slowly starting to build our real estate portfolio.
[00:00:42] Lisa Michaud: We were traveling around the world, had this great group of friends. We ticked all like the boxes, get married, get a job with benefits, buy a house and life was pretty good. And then I had a health scare and I faced the reality that I might only have a year or two left to live.
[00:00:58] Lisa Michaud: And I remember that night laying in bed with my [00:01:00] husband and I looked at him and I said, What are we gonna do? What do you wanna do if I only have a year or two left? And my husband is the pragmatic one. So he looked at me and he was like, Lisa, you're the one with the timeline. What do you wanna do?
[00:01:13] Lisa Michaud: And in that moment, the first thing that came to my mind was "move to Vancouver." And I have to tell you, Danielle, like from the time I was a little girl my whole life, every time I remember coming to Vancouver, I just loved the city. We would come for dance conventions and concerts and Disney on ice, and my parents would fall asleep in the hotel room and I would run to the window and I'd peek open the curtains and listen to my Christina Aguilera cd and just look at the city lights and dream about living there.
[00:01:37] Lisa Michaud: And when I was 12 years old, like I wasn't allowed to just like move out on my own. So obviously I didn't. I didn't move to Vancouver, and as time went on, the list of why I didn't move to Vancouver just became longer. First it was my university wasn't there, then my boyfriend wasn't there, and then my next boyfriend wasn't there.
[00:01:53] Lisa Michaud: And then my house wasn't in Vancouver and I had a, a serious job and my husband had a serious job. And then we had, we [00:02:00] had a quad. What the heck were we gonna do with a quad? My husband's a small town boy. Vancouver's so expensive. Like the list of reasons why I could never live in Vancouver was a mile long.
[00:02:09] Lisa Michaud: But that night, laying in bed with my husband, realizing that I may not have all the time in the world to make, to do the things I wanna do, and what the heck am I gonna do? All of a sudden I started realizing, why am I looking at this list of why I can't do things and why am I not asking myself, how is it possible and how can I do things?
[00:02:25] Lisa Michaud: And that was really a profound shift for me. And I'm really lucky because it was just a scare. I'm healthy today. It was, it was just a wake up call. But for me it was that moment where I started to realize, I am so busy creating the list of why I can't do things or so busy creating the list of things I'll do later.
[00:02:43] Lisa Michaud: Like when I'm ready, quote, when I'm ready and not enough time and energy and intention spent on what do I actually wanna create with my life? What do I wanna do and how can I make it happen? And it wasn't an overnight process, we had to quit our jobs, sell our [00:03:00] houses, figure out what to do with the quad, you know, all those things.
[00:03:03] Lisa Michaud: Spoiler alert, I now share a parking stall in downtown Vancouver with a quad. It took time, but we're here and I'm so grateful that I get to record this podcast as I look out onto beautiful Vancouver. And it's just a reminder for me that, you know, anything is possible when we start to ask how is it possible?
[00:03:20] Lisa Michaud: And it may not happen overnight. We may not know all the steps, but first, by claiming what it is that we really want. And being honest with ourselves about that, and then getting out of our own way to ask how is it possible and to start to take those steps. That's where the potential is.
[00:03:35] Lisa Michaud: And after landing in Vancouver, And realizing like that was, it took me a giant health scare, and I don't want it to take that for other people. I don't want it to take the death of somebody that they love or a global economic meltdown or whatever's happening. I don't want these things to happen to get people to start taking action today.
[00:03:52] Lisa Michaud: And so that's, that was the starting point of me also wanting to create my business and become a coach. Become a speaker, have a podcast, [00:04:00] and share some of the lessons, the tools, the inspiration and the shift in thought and some of that, like a loving taps on the butt to get us all moving in the direction we actually want in our lives because our our hearts and our destinies are calling us and not just because we've messed it up in the first place like I did. So that's that's how I got to where I am. That's why I'm so passionate about the work that I do because, I almost faced the reality that I wasn't gonna get to do things that I wanted to do in my life.
[00:04:29] Lisa Michaud: And I don't want anyone else to have to go through that too.
[00:04:32] Danielle Wiebe: . Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. I actually, I remember when we met, and I'm, I think we talked about this we were trying to figure out like the exact timeline of when we met maybe in the first couple of years that you were in Vancouver that we connected originally and I was just starting our community and what a cool thing that we were able to actually connect. And since then we've been connected and you've been involved in our community [00:05:00] for a very long time, and it's just been such a, yeah, such a blessing to know you in an honor to just c collaborate with you and connect with you and have you a part of our community.
[00:05:09] Danielle Wiebe: So it's just been, it's been amazing.
[00:05:11] Lisa Michaud: Oh, right back at you. Yeah. I still remember the birds and the beats in our coffee and just being like, wow, people like you, communities, like what you've created to, to be honest with you, sometimes I still ask myself what was the purpose of me living in Vancouver?
[00:05:23] Lisa Michaud: Like what? There wasn't some great big like aha moment and the skies haven't parted. Yeah, we haven't seen Blue sky in a long time. But like communities like yours, people like you, I is the closest that I have figured to why I'm meant to be here is to be connected to people like you and be in communities like yours.
[00:05:43] Lisa Michaud: So thank you for what you're creating. And yeah, you were one of the first bright lights and faces that I met and really connected to in the city, and I'm so grateful to still be connected to you.
[00:05:51] Danielle Wiebe: Aw, I love that so much. And I love that you talk a lot about like goal setting and you talk a lot about, [00:06:00] creating what you wanna create in your life.
[00:06:01] Danielle Wiebe: And I think it's so cool to just see how that has inspired a lot of your work. So can you give us a little bit more in depth of the things that you've been able to do, how you coach women to really have them dream big and go after their goals and be able to achieve the big things that they wanna do in their life.
[00:06:23] Danielle Wiebe: And not make excuses like what you're saying, not have a quad or have this. And it's funny but it's, it is so true. We take these things that, we might look at it. You know later and say, oh man, that was such a funny reason why I didn't take action on this. But to us, those things are really big and they're really real and they feel do you find that it's because people have that fear?
[00:06:48] Danielle Wiebe: That's that subconscious fear, and that's the reason why we make up these tangible examples of why we can't do something is because. Like deep down, we're actually just [00:07:00] so afraid of actually doing what we want.
[00:07:02] Lisa Michaud: Oh, a thousand percent. Yeah. I always encourage people, this is like, One of my best coaching tips, I'm gonna give it to you here.
[00:07:10] Lisa Michaud: Now you have the best of what I got. I always tell people to take a piece of paper, like a blank piece of paper and just draw a line down it, and on the left hand side, list out all the reasons why you think you can't, like every single one of those fears. And I think it's one of the most powerful exercises you can do because number one, I think a lot of, the things that we have replaying in our head, they end up like on a, okay, this is maybe the young kids won't get this, but there's used to be these things called cassette tapes. And if the cassette tape the little piece in the cassette tape, if it got twisted, like the sound would be all jarbled up. And I think that's what sometimes happens in our brains. It's like all these different messages get jarbled and they get confused.
[00:07:47] Lisa Michaud: And that's why I always get tell people write them all down. Because what ends up getting intertwined and we have to separate out are number one, legitimate problems that we need to solve and things we need to figure out. Such [00:08:00] as like legitimate question, like, where am I gonna store a quad?
[00:08:03] Lisa Michaud: Where is that? That's it is a problem to solve, but is it the reason I don't move somewhere? Probably not. But if I don't actually put that down on paper, it's just playing on repeat in my head, jumbled up, and my head can't discern if there's a reason to not. Go ahead at all? Or is this just a problem to solve?
[00:08:21] Lisa Michaud: And when we list out all these things, we also then the second kind of bucket that comes up, so bucket number one is the problems to solve. Bucket number two is the fears or concerns or limiting beliefs that we have around this thing. And we also get the opportunity then to actually explore and figure out, is this true?
[00:08:38] Lisa Michaud: Is this something that I actually believe is this belief something that's gonna allow me to become the person I wanna be and achieve what I wanna achieve in my life and have the impact I wanna have? Or is this something that I can rewrite or let go of and move forward through? And so often when we actually write it down, it's it's easier than we think to identify what are some of [00:09:00] those fears and then rewrite them, fears such as some legitimate fears is like, I don't know anybody in Vancouver or Vancouver is really expensive. And what happens, what is the place gonna look like that I'm gonna live and actually starting to pull back some of that.
[00:09:15] Lisa Michaud: Okay what are the numbers on this is Yes, Vancouver is quote, expensive compared to other places, but what does that actually look like? And can I transform the way I live? Or can I transform the way I look at money to make Vancouver more accessible for me? Change my definition of expensive and start to troubleshoot those things and really get deeper.
[00:09:33] Lisa Michaud: So I think like both those things get tangled up. So the fears, a thousand percent fears of what it might look like. Fears that we're gonna fail. Fear of what other people are gonna think, oh my goodness. What are my parents gonna think when I, we've just gotten married and I call them with big news.
[00:09:48] Lisa Michaud: They're expecting grandchildren. And I'm telling them that we're quitting our jobs, selling all of our stuff and moving to the city. Yeah, what are they gonna think? So I think all those fears absolutely get twisted up [00:10:00] with like real, problems, things that we need to figure out. And it can be really hard.
[00:10:05] Lisa Michaud: We get stuck in our heads and it's hard to move through that. So when you write out that list on that piece of paper, on the left hand side, all the things that come up, all the fears, all the problems. all of the thoughts of why you can't do it. On the left hand side, you discern, is this a problem?
[00:10:19] Lisa Michaud: And if so, okay, I can, how am I gonna figure this out? And if it's a limiting belief or something that might be holding you back, like, how can I rewrite that to be something that's empowering and something that can be aligned? And you don't have to do alone. You can talk to a supportive friend, a coach, a mentor, listen to some great podcasts and on people who think differently.
[00:10:37] Lisa Michaud: And have done what you wanna do. And that will help you either problem solve some of those problems, cuz chances are they face the same problems or overcome some of those living beliefs because chances are they have to figure out the same limiting beliefs and turn 'em into empowered beliefs too.
[00:10:50] Danielle Wiebe: So good.
[00:10:51] Danielle Wiebe: I love that so much and yeah, thank you. Thank you for giving that tangible example. I think that's so powerful. I would encourage everyone to do that today. If there's something that [00:11:00] you've been maybe putting off or like a dream that you have, even if it feels like a. Far off dream. Cuz I think sometimes too, we have these ideas or these dreams that we have for ourselves and then we just think, okay, I'll do that someday.
[00:11:14] Danielle Wiebe: And that's what maybe you had in your mind of moving to Vancouver and that was a dream that you had, but it's okay, someday I'll do that someday. But it's like, When is that someday gonna come because every month, every year, we start to just like push that someday further and further ahead, and then we wake up.
[00:11:31] Danielle Wiebe: 10 years later and be like, oh, I actually never accomplished that. And so just, having, like you said, you don't want people to have a health scare or have to have something drastic or big happen in their life that's traumatic that maybe, gives them that push or gives them that permission to go after it.
[00:11:52] Danielle Wiebe: And so what do you think. Can give people, like you mentioned, like having those people around you, [00:12:00] like coaches, mentors, how, how important is that as far as like community goes? Cuz I think the thing I think we get along on, so well least is that we both have this passion for people, for community.
[00:12:13] Danielle Wiebe: Why is that important when it comes to going after our big scary goals?
[00:12:19] Lisa Michaud: I think it's everything. Like I would be hard pressed to find anyone who's achieved anything. And even if you look at your own life, think about the things that are the most fulfilling, the things that you're most proud of.
[00:12:31] Lisa Michaud: They're probably things that in some way, shape or form happen in community. Or you had support from somebody else or you got inspired by someone else and you created that, or you did something together. It's I really think it's everything. When. I was living in Fort McMurray and this is kinda like the start of like my whole Golden Girls journey and the where the idea came from, it was literally just me and three girlfriends, four of us in total on a Friday night sitting around and having some wine.
[00:12:57] Lisa Michaud: And we started to talk about our dreams and our goals and the things we wanted to [00:13:00] achieve. And we realized, you know, how much deeper our conversations were, how much more, How much more richer our support for each other and our love for each other came out. And we, as we started to hear each other's dreams and goals, and we just made a commitment that we'd connect once a month and get together over a bottle of wine and check in on how things are going, what do we need help with what are we celebrating, like all those pieces.
[00:13:21] Lisa Michaud: And we did that for several months and that really, I think for me, really helped us in our process of moving to Vancouver and in talking through all the hard times in. Having someone remind me why this is so important, having someone see my light and see my potential even more than I could see in myself.
[00:13:37] Lisa Michaud: And also getting to reciprocate that back, getting to shine back and inspire someone else, right? Like when you see the potential in someone else, all of a sudden you see more potential in yourself too. It really does go both ways. So it's everything from having someone else believe in you.
[00:13:51] Lisa Michaud: We all need that. In the moments where we struggle to believe in ourselves. Accountability, holy moly. I'm just gonna like, Give you all of the, the good stuff here.[00:14:00] Accountability has been shown to be help people achieve a goal up to 95% more just by telling someone you're gonna do something by a certain date and following up, like forget all the other hacks, just being accountable. And I think that's probably because a lot of us are people pleasers and it may not be necessarily a great reason why that is, but the truth is that it works. And so even just having accountability, again, whether it's a community like a formal community, Of couple of girlfriends with a wait if the ball of kombucha, couple girlfriends on the beach, couple girlfriends on a walk. A formal community, a coach, a mentor, a leader, whatever that looks like. Accountability, having someone believe in you, and then also just getting different ideas and different perspectives, you know?
[00:14:40] Lisa Michaud: We, we come with our own attachments, our own ideas which can be really powerful, but we often have our own things that we can't see about our own situation or opportunities. And if we're just trying to do it alone, we're only seeing one piece of the picture and other people's perspectives can help give us ideas on things that worked or why things [00:15:00] may not work and things, again, not to say that you shouldn't do it cuz there might be problems, but what are some of those problems you can troubleshoot?
[00:15:05] Lisa Michaud: And there's just so much more power. Why would you only rely on your own wisdom and experiences when you can tap into the wisdom and experience of those around you and those in your community to hopefully make things easier, less stressful, more. Effective and more fun along the way. Plus just people are great.
[00:15:22] Lisa Michaud: It's fun. It's fun to build those connections and to inspire others too. It keeps the circle going. And I feel like I can honestly answer this question like all day and just keep coming up with lists of reasons why it's great community. But those are the ones that come to my mind, having someone else believe in you and see your provision, having accountability, getting other ideas and perspectives and tools, resources, connecting to other people's, experience and knowledge. And then I would also say the opportunity to, inspire others, which in turn fuels our inspiration too.
[00:15:50] Danielle Wiebe: So good. Oh my gosh.
[00:15:51] Danielle Wiebe: Everything, everything you're saying, I'm just like, yes. Amen things that I wholeheartedly believe in and obviously is such a huge [00:16:00] portion of the passion that I have for community, and I just love that you're, you share that and I just appreciate that perspective and.
[00:16:09] Danielle Wiebe: I would love to hear cuz you and your husband have been able to do some really cool things together. And I wanna bring that into the community piece too, because obviously we have like community when, whether it be with our girlfriends or with yeah you said like more maybe we have a coach or a community like more formally that we get together with and I think.
[00:16:29] Danielle Wiebe: I personally think it's like, why have one, why not have all of the above? I'm like, I wanna be, I wanna have a coach, I wanna be a part of a mastermind. I wanna be a part of several communities.
[00:16:39] Danielle Wiebe: But the more community we have, I think the richer our lives are. And so I just wanted to like, share that piece just cuz I think that, often we say yeah, whatever that community looks like, but it's like instead of thinking what's the. What's the minimum I can have to achieve my goals?
[00:16:56] Danielle Wiebe: It's let's actually invite in the most community that we [00:17:00] can have in order to be able to live a really full and meaningful life. But shifting gears slightly to the community that you have within your own. Family and I just, I really admire you and your little family and how you and your husband have been able to build some really cool things together.
[00:17:17] Danielle Wiebe: So can you talk a little bit about that when it comes to real estate, because that's something that you and your husband have been pursuing over the last several years. Actually, I'm not exactly sure what the timeline has been on that, so I would love that kind of background of how you got into that and some of the things you guys have been able to create with it.
[00:17:37] Lisa Michaud: Yeah. And I just, I echo everything you said there, yes. And the more community, the more support, always the better. So, As I kind of alluded to in my story um, my husband and I had our first rental property back in 2011, so like 12 years ago. And we always joked that we became accidental landlords because he owned a house. And then we had the opportunity to purchase one together. And we at the time were kinda like should we sell this [00:18:00] house? Or should we keep it? And we're like, you know what? It'll be really great. When we retire, let's keep it, let's have a little bit more money in retirement, it'll just give us a little bit of breathing room and it'll be awesome.
[00:18:09] Lisa Michaud: And for so many years, that's kind of all we did. Like we had an extra rental. We ended up selling that. We did a couple rent to owns along the way which was a really amazing way to, to do some win-wins in terms of real estate. And it wasn't until 2017 when I was pregnant and we happened to be in Napa Valley and I was very sober in Napa Valley, which is a whole other story.
[00:18:33] Lisa Michaud: But we were sitting there just thinking Napa Valley's amazing, but we love the Okanagan even more. And it was one of our one days, one day we'll get a place in the Okanagan and sitting in Napa Valley we're like, no, now is the time to do it. We literally found the property, signed the papers on it.
[00:18:47] Lisa Michaud: A couple months after that, we purchased our first. Yeah. Yeah. In Napa? In Napa, we're buying Canadian Okanagan Valley real estate. Yeah. I was I was sober. Okay. I was sober. Yeah. I don't know about Troy, but I definitely was. A couple months after that, [00:19:00] we had the opportunity to buy a duplex and we bought a duplex and all of a sudden, within a couple months, we now had, Three doors, three different income streams.
[00:19:08] Lisa Michaud: And we were like, wow, this is really amazing. Like when we retire, we'll have quite a bit of a little bit more padding than we even thought. And like, that's amazing. The following year we had the opportunity to buy Six Plex and we're like, this is even cooler. Look at that now we've got nine doors.
[00:19:21] Lisa Michaud: And then the pandemic hit and we had the opportunity to buy a 13 unit building. And I'm gonna tell you this was pretty terrifying because we were about to close. We were about to be responsible for 22 people's homes, and that's not a responsibility that we take lightly plus our own. There was, didn't nobody knew what was happening with the economy.
[00:19:43] Lisa Michaud: No, we didn't know what was happening with my husband's job with my events dried up right away. Things were really, it was pretty scary. But we were like, you know what? We have faith in this. So we believe we can do a good job. Let's go for it. And we just really started to see the potential and started to realize, wow, if we could, we [00:20:00] can do a good job running a real estate business.
[00:20:02] Lisa Michaud: If we can create comfortable, safe homes for families and do it in a way that feels aligned and also allows us to make money maybe today, not even in 20 years, let's do this. And in, in 2020, 2021, there wasn't even 2022, there wasn't really a lot going on. So we dove in to actually learning more about real estate.
[00:20:20] Lisa Michaud: We'd always loved it. We'd been doing it since 2011, but we just kind of like, Played around. Like I said, , we were in Napa, we're like, Hey, let's buy another property. There wasn't a lot of strategy, there wasn't a lot of thought in it. And finally we had this time and space to to think about it and really set bigger goals.
[00:20:33] Lisa Michaud: We learned more about, we always knew people that had like, you know, 50 properties, but we never knew how. And so we actually started to do the research. We worked with mentors, we took courses, we listened to podcasts, we read books. And since then, in the last three years, we went from nine doors to, we were just counting the other day, it like ebbs and flows, but like roughly 65 doors that we solely own.
[00:20:55] Lisa Michaud: We have a few more in joint venture and then we have another around like [00:21:00] 15 units under contract to close in July this summer. Um, So it's been, yeah, like almost a 10 x, 10 x growth in less than three years. But even more so than just that, like we've figured out the how. No it was always this question of like how to do it and like now we feel like we know we've got the systems, we have the mindset, we've started to build the community, the teams, the resources, like all these pieces that now it really just feels like the sky's the limit in terms of what we can create.
[00:21:27] Lisa Michaud: And we also love to share with other people and help them do the same too. Like help people find ways to build more income, not necessarily passive, but passive ish and just build financial stability while at the same time providing ethical, safe, comfortable homes for poeple who need them and want them.
[00:21:46] Danielle Wiebe: So cool. I love that story, and I love, it's so cool because one of the things that I think is so powerful is the fact that you have this, you said okay, we have everything in place. We have the the team, we have [00:22:00] the knowledge, we have the resources, and we have the mindset.
[00:22:03] Danielle Wiebe: And it's so cool cuz it's like up until, this point where you guys were starting to invest in real estate. You've been running your own business, you've been, you know, coaching people and working on your own mindset. And I think that's so powerful. Cause I think that is a huge piece of it.
[00:22:17] Danielle Wiebe: The reason I really wanted to bring this up is because I think a lot of people have owning real estate or owning rental properties, on their dream board and on their vision board of things that they want to do someday. And so I would love for you to talk a little bit just about what does that, what do those first steps , look like?
[00:22:38] Danielle Wiebe: Can you maybe just give us a little bit of insight into how can someone get started if they have this on their vision board? They have it as something that they would love to do one day. What are those like first steps?
[00:22:50] Lisa Michaud: Yeah, so good. I think number one, and you were big on goals here, so number one is getting a sense, it's great to ha know [00:23:00] okay, I want to have rental properties, but really strip that back and like, why?
[00:23:04] Lisa Michaud: What are you looking for? And in the next like one to three years, what goal does having real estate help you accomplish? Because as much as I'm A big proponent of not waiting till someday. I also think it's not necessarily like that does not permission slip to just jump in and make bad decisions every day.
[00:23:22] Lisa Michaud: Yeah. Sometimes there are times where like different strategies, different opportunities make more sense. So I think understanding what season of life you're in, what your goals are, and how real estate can support that. And the reason why I say that is because just like anything else, there is a giant learning curve.
[00:23:36] Lisa Michaud: And there's a giant learning curve when it comes to owning and managing a property. But there are other ways to get involved with real estate that are perhaps that aren't actually more passive or require less time or and on the flip side of it, there are opportunities that require even more time, but less capital.
[00:23:52] Lisa Michaud: And so you kind of have to assess like, what are, what do I have time? Do I have money? You'd one of those two, you need either a little bit of time [00:24:00] or a little bit of money frankly to get started. And then what is my goal? Like, Am I looking to actually have cash flow right now?
[00:24:07] Lisa Michaud: Am I looking to plant seeds Because I wanna start a business in, let's say five years. And so maybe I wanna build up some seed some capital to then have money to start a business. Am I looking for retirement income? Am I looking to just build another income stream so that in case something happens in the economy, we have one more backup?
[00:24:23] Lisa Michaud: Am I looking to replace my income altogether? Am I looking for capital and retirement? Am I looking for vacation properties? There's so many things, there's so many goals and reasons why we may wanna invest in real estate and understanding what are the ones that are pressing right now, or what's, like what's the why right now? And matching that with what your kind of capacity or your resources is right now. So that's number one.
[00:24:44] Lisa Michaud: And then number two, once you have a sense of that, then you start to just learn and listen. So listen to some podcasts, read some articles. Go to investor meetups, talk to people cuz there's. Like just as many as there's an online business.
[00:24:58] Lisa Michaud: There's that many different strategies. [00:25:00] In real estate, there's everything from, we, we talked about multi-family. You can buy a building that is what's called turnkey, that's ready to go, and you don't have to do anything to it. It will run on its own, but on that level, you need a lot of capital.
[00:25:12] Lisa Michaud: You need a lot of money. On the other end, let's say you have no money, but you have time, you can actually do things like joint venture partnerships where you find somebody that does have money and you do all the work to bring that property up. And that's how you start to build equity even though you don't have capital, you bring the knowledge, you figure out, maybe you bring in sweat equity, maybe you do the renovations, right?
[00:25:32] Lisa Michaud: Maybe you figure out how to decorate the short term rental or whatever that looks like. Then there's also like much more passive things, such as private lending. So that's giving money. We work with private lenders a lot. People lend us money and we take that money, we invest it in our projects. We pay people an interest rate, and if things go not so well, we still owe them the money and they still get their money and they don't have to worry about the project.
[00:25:55] Lisa Michaud: So that's a really passive way to do it too. There's also real estate income trusts, which are like [00:26:00] mutual funds, where these big organizations go out and buy multiple properties that are all real estate. And you can buy pieces of this income trust and get a portion of the rent as part of your investment.
[00:26:10] Lisa Michaud: There's new platforms. Radium is one of them. There's a few others that allow people to. The buy into like very specific projects. There's some really cool kind of technology coming about in the real estate world too. And what it's really about is first knowing yourself, like knowing what are my resources and what's my goal with real estate.
[00:26:26] Lisa Michaud: For the next, let's call one to three years, where do those things match up? And then, Immersing yourself a little bit, listening to some podcasts, going to the meetups, reading some books, and figuring out which of these many different strategies best aligns for where I'm at right now and what my goal is and where is that match? That is the biggest thing that you can do. And then the next step becomes a lot clearer once you've figured out what that strategy is. But it'll be really overwhelming. It's like drinking from the fire hose. If you don't know, if you have zero lens in terms of what are you trying to achieve, what are your [00:27:00] goals, what's your capacity, what are your resources?
[00:27:01] Lisa Michaud: And you're just trying to learn about all the things, you're gonna get overwhelmed. And I think that's what. Biggest things that stops people is like, there's so many options. Which one is the best one? And there's not a best, there's just, which one is the right one for you or the best fit for you right now.
[00:27:15] Danielle Wiebe: Oh, I so appreciate you going through that, Lisa, because I like, even as you were talking, I'm like, oh, that makes so much sense. Because there's some people over here saying oh, the best opportunity to invest in real estate is X, Y, Z. Or like someone on the opposite side, there's no, you shouldn't do that.
[00:27:31] Danielle Wiebe: You should do this instead. And it's it's it can be so confusing to really figure out. I really appreciate and love like the holistic perspective that you bring to this conversation to real estate because it is really dependent on what the individual person, their goals, their season of life.
[00:27:52] Danielle Wiebe: Whether they have more time than money or more money than time, so thank you so much for going through some of those options because [00:28:00] I think that's so helpful for people to wrap their brain around okay, there are options for me, depending on where I'm at, if I want to start investing in real estate. And here's some of those options.
[00:28:12] Danielle Wiebe: And I would love to just hear from your perspective, what has been the, your favorite thing about this new world of real estate? Like your, the most exciting maybe aspect of what you guys are doing with real estate and what is your least favorite?
[00:28:30] Lisa Michaud: Okay, so let's go least favorite. I'm gonna say two things. On my podcast you said you loved email. I hate email. Like I just am not great at it. And so in terms of like building a community, I find like I am super happy to pick the meet up, come up with what we're gonna talk about, bring in guest speakers, figure out the format, facilitate, but like all the pieces leading up to it of even just today I'm like, oh, I have to create a graphic to promote our event. And the graphic and the copy and the email into [00:29:00] this email and Like making sure everybody knows where to be, when to be like that stuff, right?
[00:29:04] Lisa Michaud: Like it's and I think my husband would probably say the same, like with anything great you're trying to achieve. Mark Mason he always says you have to eat, I'm gonna say the poop sandwich.
[00:29:12] Lisa Michaud: So in everything good that you wanna do, there's always like the poop you have to eat in it, right? And so I feel because this is new and we're growing it, like there's just, there's still some poop in what we're doing and stuff that we don't necessarily love to do, but have to do a lot of bookkeeping.
[00:29:25] Lisa Michaud: Our business is also really capital intensive, so we just end up doing like a lot of work, like bank runs and updating insurance and we're still in that phase of growing it. So we don't, we haven't, hi hired a lot of help for all of these different pieces. We have.
[00:29:37] Lisa Michaud: We definitely have help on property management. We have help on renovations. We have amazing teams in place for a lot of those things, but there's still a lot of poop work, if you will. Let's say that. So that's what I, yeah. And we work a lot right now. So that's the stuff I don't really that's the, some of the reality of it in this season.
[00:29:53] Lisa Michaud: The things that I do love I'm gonna say two pieces. So number one, like [00:30:00] working with private lenders has been so rewarding. It's really easy sometimes to just be like, what's the win for me? But it is so freaking cool to see what's possible for other people. One of our private lenders it gave like having this quote, passive income, like getting interest payments on the money they've lent us.
[00:30:17] Lisa Michaud: They were able to have some money put aside. They were in a relationship that was not going so well and needed some extra financial security. The ability to leave the relationship if it was to continue to go down downhill. And, it's, I'm really happy that wasn't, didn't end up being the case, but knowing that we were able to create wealth that has that meaning, that really gave someone the freedom and the independence and the confidence and the financial resources to be able to make a move to be happy and safe in their lives.
[00:30:48] Lisa Michaud: That is really big and that's something I'm really proud of. We also have a lender who is able to take an extended parental leave. Both parents were able to take it because the income that they made off of their loan was [00:31:00] the same or more than what they would've made on in their job.
[00:31:03] Lisa Michaud: And that's amazing to be able to take a longer parental leave and actually spend time with their child. They had some major losses in her life the year before. And so to actually be able to be present with. Their baby and, be there for the first year and a half of their child's life and be able to also process all the grief that they had.
[00:31:19] Lisa Michaud: Like to be able to generate income, create, value in the marketplace, and be able to pass that win onto somebody else in such meaningful ways is something I'm really. Proud of, to create like real win-wins that make a difference in people's lives. And then I'll also say, there's people that we've worked with Troy and I just started coaching people and it is so cool.
[00:31:40] Lisa Michaud: And maybe you can relate to this, Danielle it just, like in the online business world, just like anywhere, there's there's a million different strategies, there's a million different courses, and it's, it's one thing to like learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. But at a certain point you have to take action.
[00:31:51] Lisa Michaud: And so we've really found that sometimes people just get stuck. And like they need help to move from I've learned this, but how do I actually apply it? Or how do I [00:32:00] actually do it? Or, oh my God, I'm still really afraid cause I'm making a five or six or $700,000 decision and I don't, I wanna be the right one.
[00:32:06] Lisa Michaud: So it's really cool. Something that I'm really, really proud of is being able to witness and listen and empathize and also help people get unstuck from that place of I've, I know enough, but I'm still scared. And watching people take all the knowledge and the resources and find their confidence and actually, take the action.
[00:32:28] Lisa Michaud: Not just learn, but, buy the first property and then buy the next one and start to, to really see the fruits of what. What they're capable of. I think that's really inspiring and something I like, I love witnessing and it is really powerful.
[00:32:42] Danielle Wiebe: Ah, thank you so much for sharing that and I just, I love that so much because something that we talk about on the podcast a lot is just how, running a business is all about really, like how can we serve others? Whether you have a product base or service-based business, or you're doing [00:33:00] consulting or whatever that looks like, it's like how can you really make the world a better place without sounding too cheesy, but it is true.
[00:33:08] Danielle Wiebe: And I love that you shared that, Lisa, cuz I think it's encouraging for all of us, just as business owners, dreaming big and having a big vision for what we're doing in our business because if we have just a vision on what we want to create and our vision is small, it actually doesn't include some of those things of like supporting other people.
[00:33:26] Danielle Wiebe: Like you think about, you and your husband and what you, what you've been able to create for yourselves is incredible, but now you're getting to actually pass that knowledge on and coach other people to do the same thing that you're doing. And so I just think that's such a really cool.
[00:33:40] Danielle Wiebe: Inspiration for a lot of people on, having these big goals and having these big visions. It's not just for ourselves, it's actually if our goals are small, then we're actually somewhat being selfish with it because that if our goals are small, it's only supporting ourselves.
[00:33:56] Danielle Wiebe: Whereas if our goals are big, we have these big visions that includes [00:34:00] other people along with us. So thank you for sharing that.
[00:34:03] Lisa Michaud: Literally, so Sure. I love that.
[00:34:04] Danielle Wiebe: I could literally talk to you all day and we'll have to have you back on the podcast again. Like I said at the beginning, Lisa has been a part of our community for a very long time and I just appreciate her so much. I just feel like we, we have such similar visions of supporting women and just helping them, and I just, I appreciate your heart for what you do so much.
[00:34:24] Danielle Wiebe: Can you tell people, what would you say you are most proud of, of your entrepreneurial journey so far?
[00:34:31] Lisa Michaud: I think Danielle, it's like the impact that it has on other people. And seeing that, what, what starts often as a little seedling or an idea in ourselves then also has a benefit to us, like whether it's fun for us or whether it makes us money or whether we're interested in it.
[00:34:49] Lisa Michaud: And then seeing that come out and how that actually impacts other people. I think that is the thing to be the most proud of. And it's also so cool and I think it flips on its head a lot of the conventional things that I grew [00:35:00] up thinking about business and about money that it was selfish or just about selling or just about making as much money as possible without caring about the receiver.
[00:35:10] Lisa Michaud: And so I guess, proud of being able to shift those mindsets and proud of being able to take the ideas and inspiration that I have in me, the things that I know, and those little seeds have the confidence, put it out there and share it, and then watch the impact on other people like that is for sure the thing to be the most proud of.
[00:35:28] Lisa Michaud: It's when people come back to me, Several years later, like clients and they're like, Hey this quote that I came across and we were coaching together seven years ago. I now still have it on a sticky note on my desk and I had a hard day and it got me through this day, and people saying this thing you said at a conference three years ago it's why I started my business, or it's why I left this relationship that wasn't serving me. Like, It's those moments where, cause it's so easy in business to like question yourself. Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing enough?
[00:35:54] Lisa Michaud: Am I doing too much? Does what I have to say really matter? Is what I'm doing actually helping [00:36:00] people? All of those things, is it worth it? Like, , All the questions. And to have those moments like come back full circle and realize yeah, this is, it's actually makes a difference and helps people and serves people and changes the world and plants cc, it's that's for sure the coolest.
[00:36:11] Lisa Michaud: And the thing that I'm the most proud of.
[00:36:13] Danielle Wiebe: So amazing. Where can people find out more about you? And I know that this coaching side of what you're doing with your real estate, which is so incredibly exciting, is somewhat new, but how can people find more about you personally?
[00:36:28] Danielle Wiebe: But then also how can they find out where they can go if they're interested in getting started with real estate and they just need some support or help or connection.
[00:36:37] Lisa Michaud: Ah, I love that. Thank you. Okay, so full transparency.
[00:36:40] Lisa Michaud: We're still figuring out the systems. Like it's been actually really cool. I feel like we're building this business completely in reverse. We already have clients, we already have like people that we're working with and I don't even have like a book of call, page going.
[00:36:51] Lisa Michaud: I feel like I'm breaking all the business rules on this. But you know what I'll give you my email, lisamichaud.com. People can feel free to email me to find out more [00:37:00] or Instagram dms. I'm actually on there way more than I should be, so that works too. And it's @thelisamichaud.
[00:37:05] Lisa Michaud: If people are interested , my podcast is Goalden Girls Podcast and it's spelled Goalden. Very clever to read, terrible to say on the podcast, which is ironic. And then we also, for real estate, we have our Facebook group and it, I appreciate what you said there, Danielle, about helping people like stand back and look at the big picture.
[00:37:23] Lisa Michaud: That's what we're all about. Our Facebook group is called Intentional Real Estate Investing with Lisa and Troy. And it's free to join. We host both virtual and in-person meetups, and that's a great way to get connected to our community of investors, other people doing cool things we do.
[00:37:38] Lisa Michaud: We bring in speakers, we do networking, we do mi, some mindset stuff, a whole mix of it. So yeah, those are best places. E email, on my website is lisamichaud.com.
[00:37:46] Danielle Wiebe: I will definitely put all those links below it'll all be linked there.
[00:37:50] Danielle Wiebe: I just wanted to say, Thank you first of all, Lisa, for being on the show. Loved having you here. Love our conversations always, and very grateful. [00:38:00] just super excited to see what you create and what you do over the next several months and years, and can't wait to be a part of that journey.
[00:38:08] Danielle Wiebe: So thanks for being on and , I hope everyone listening, loved this conversation as much as I did, and we will see you in the next episode.
[00:38:16] Lisa Michaud: Thank you so much for having me. You're amazing. And so is your community.