Why do you think leaders hide from funding their vision?
And then how can those leaders
lean into funding that vision?
So I think the reason that founders, myself included,
when I am looking to start something new,
I don't always jump in at 100%.
A part of that is I'm a little bit jaded
from being in business for so long, right?
I know that not every idea I have
is gonna be a home run idea.
I know not every idea is gonna be great.
And I have built businesses from zero.
I have a company right now that we built from zero,
and now it's probably worth like 70 or $80 million
over four years.
But it took a lot of investment, right?
Not just sweat, blood, tears, all of the things,
but it also took a lot of intentionality
of how we were gonna build this business,
that we were gonna build this business.
And so it's hard because one,
you're trying to do something
that you maybe have never done before,
so it's uncomfortable.
Two, you are doing something that you don't really know
you're gonna have a full payoff from it,
which is funny because I was just on a call
with my mindset coach before this call,
and I was talking to her about what my 2025 goals are,
my vision board, et cetera.
And she's shared with me, she's like,
look, I've noticed a shift in how you're showing up,
and I wanna ask you more questions around that.
And where we kinda got was that I need to make some changes
that I know I need to make, but haven't yet made.
And one of the changes or one of the things
I wanna lean into is something that I feel excited about,
but she's not yet convinced
because I'm not putting all of my energy and effort into it.
And part of the fear that's holding me back
is I don't wanna fund something with time, energy, effort,
or dollar if it's not going to be successful.
And I think that that is a common fear
that new entrepreneurs have and serial entrepreneurs have.
It's the fear of the unknown.
It's the fear of putting something into building this
and then having it not be successful.
It's the fear of needing to pivot.
It's the fear of what will people think
if I try something new that I've never done before?
So it's like all of these are fear-based,
but I just share this because it's very timely
because I'm definitely in the middle of that too.
And I think that it's important that as leaders,
especially once you've reached success,
that you talk about these things,
because these are real and these are things that
you think of at many different stages
of many different types of startups and businesses.
Thank you for sharing that.
I think that's exactly on point with your thoughts
because there's so many times,
for my business, for example,
I started it and then I found my partner
and then my partner was doing 10 times bigger
and better things I was doing.
Then I realized if I grow his business,
then my business just fades away.
So there's no point in me putting money, time,
and energy and effort into that
because it encompasses the bigger picture of other things.
I'm like, do I want to do this or do I want to build this?
Yeah.
Do I want a $50 million company?
Do I want a $5 billion company?
Which one do I wanna choose?
So, yeah.
You know, the $50 billion company isn't for everybody
and that's okay.
The $50 billion company is not for everybody.
That's okay too, but I think it's more about
being in alignment with what you're choosing to do.
Then what tips do you have for leaders?
Oh gosh.
Okay, this is maybe,
I don't know if it's the blind leading the blind
or the partially seeing leading the blind here,
but here's what I can say.
Work with somebody who can give you outside perspective
because it wasn't until I was on this call with Rosie today
that I realized that I had a lot of fear around this
and a lot of resistance around this
because I couldn't see it
while I'm in the middle of the storm, right?
Like when you're in the middle of the storm,
you just cannot see the perspective of everything.
But when you have someone like a Rosie who's outside
and looking at you from the outside,
they see things differently.
They can compartmentalize differently.
It doesn't feel personal to them the way it does for us.
So my first tip is find yourself a Rosie.
Her name's Rosie Noel.
She's fantastic.
So I'd say find yourself a mindset coach
that aligns with you,
that can help you see your vision and gain clarity.
Second is you are going to come up
against new challenges all the time.
And one thing Rosie always says to me is
it is gonna be uncomfortable
for you to stay the same exact person as you are right now.
And it's also gonna be uncomfortable for you to grow.
You have to choose which discomfort you want,
which one is less uncomfortable
because both are gonna be uncomfortable.
And when I think about it like that,
and when it's framed like that,
then I'm always thinking,
okay, what's the worst thing that can happen to me?
Okay, if this is the worst outcome,
can I tolerate, recover, or live with that outcome?
There are very few things that I can think of as outcomes,
especially in business,
that I'm just unwilling to go down that path.
And I think one that most people find surprising about me
is a lot of people go,
oh, you're gonna be a billionaire.
And I go, yeah, probably not.
And they go, no, but you can do it.
And I go, I could.
I fully believe that this is within reach,
except I don't wanna do the things
that you have to do to become a billionaire.
Exactly.
And I don't think people will really grasp
how much money that is.
That's a lot of money.
I've transacted on a billion dollars of real estate.
I know what this number means.
I just don't think I have a need for a billion dollars.
If someone's gonna hand it to me, I'm not gonna be mad.
So you can definitely gift me a billion dollars.
But I don't think I want to do the work.
I don't want to take advantage of the opportunities
that I would need to in order to be a billionaire.
It's not a priority for me.
Instead, I want to have enough.
I want to leave a legacy.
I want to leave an impact.
So I think that's kind of my other tip is,
as entrepreneurs, it can be really hard
when we're in these spaces
to not get carried away with more and the next thing
and bigger and better.
And I think it's really important for us
to consider how much is actually enough?
What is enough?
What is the thing that makes you feel happy,
that makes you feel fulfilled?
What do you need to live a great life?
And aim for that instead of choosing an arbitrary number.
When someone says I want to build a billion dollar company
in the next six months, I go, why?
What's the goal?
And a lot of times they can't articulate it.
And I go, okay, then why not a $10 billion company?
Why not a $500 billion company?
These are just arbitrary numbers
that you don't really have an understanding of what they are.
Yeah, and that on a micro scale
is so much more prevalent than you can see.
Like in the entrepreneur world,
we can see so many people just either undercalculating
how much effort that needs to be put in something
to be successful.
Hey, I want to work for myself.
I want to not have a boss and all these things.
I'm like, do you know what that takes to do it?
Yeah, not as easy as you think.
Yeah, I think Alex Hermosy calls it the,
what's it called, the depth of something, I forgot.
Wait, he has this term for it where you try something,
it's exciting and getting new,
then you get to the bottom of it,
my gosh, it's actually very, very hard.
So you start climbing it, then it's super hard.
And most people leave it at there.
Yes.
Instead of going toward the other side.
And that's what entrepreneurship has and has been.
And that's a great point you made.
Like, do I really want,
and for some people it's gonna be like $10,000
or maybe $15,000.
Like, do you really want $15,000, $10,000 a month?
And am I willing to do the work
that needs to be done for that?
Yeah.
And that's exactly set right.
And I think I hear,
and I'm curious if this is true for you too,
but I hear it the most with a billion.
Like, this is the hot button number that I hear all the time.
And I'm on countless panels on countless stages,
they do an open Q&A and I always get asked,
how do I become a billionaire?
Okay, let's start with why do you need to be a billionaire?
Like, do you really need a billion dollars
to do what you need to do?
Like, what are the things you're trying to do
that you can't do with 10 million or 100 million
or 500 million?
Like, why a billion?
It's just, I think it's just a number of people throw out
and I don't think that they really comprehend what it means.
Yeah, exactly.
I have not come more to these experiences
but you probably have,
where people actually say, I want a billion dollars.
Oh yeah.
Don't, I, so let me tell you the thing
about my billion dollars.
Like, it's my friend's vision.
And I think that might help other people see
what it could do.
So first class business on the top right corner,
if you see the logo.
He created this company as a way of growing
and helping businesses and helping businesses scale.
At the same time, it's a way to bridge gaps
between the financial disparity between the world.
So like, if you go, like, so he started it in Latin America
where he hires virtual assistants and trains them,
makes them learn and pays them at the same time
to help them become a virtual assistant
or provide for their family.
Where, like, I know like in America,
a lot of people pay like, very less amount of money,
more than they deserve and they treat them like crap.
But we help them see what they're capable of.
We obviously can't hire everyone and anyone.
But we find people who align with their values
and we can help them grow in their skills.
And then once they get to a certain point,
they work with us and they have opportunities to grow
and get more and more money.
It's not limited to something.
One of the few of the VAs are actually owners
of the company, they own percentage of the company.
It's crazy.
Yeah, so that's his vision of billion dollars,
like $5 billion, I don't know what it's gonna be.
But that's why he wanted to make billion dollars.
And like that inspired me, like that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean, I would still challenge him though,
is it really a billion dollars that you need
for the things you wanna do?
I don't think it is, for most people it's not.
Yeah, you're right.
And for him though, he's competing against Ernest and Youngs
and McKenzie and Company.
To leave like a very specific legacy that requires that.
So like, it's well thought out, it makes sense.
99% of the time when someone says,
I wanna be a billionaire, okay, tell me what you're doing now,
why you wanna do this, what your vision is,
what's the goal, because without understanding
what you're working toward, it's very hard to get there.
I'm getting to a billion is hard in general,
but getting there with no roadmap or vision,
I don't know, I'm sure it's possible
and I'm sure there's people that have done it,
but that is like hoping for lightning to strike.
Yeah, but for him there's a difference though,
he does not put a cap on how big the company can get.
And he doesn't even know how to control
if he doesn't get it within his lifetime.
Like he might come to a point where it's self-sustaining,
he just goes on the board
and then things to survive itself.
And then it can grow farther and farther.
He does not cap that, there's no cap to it
and there's no under cap to it, you know what I mean?
So yeah, so I'm glad you said something of that sort.
Thank you, Christian, that was Asfina.
One more question for you.
Throughout your journey, what held you back all these years?
I bet there's a gazillion things you can talk about,
but something that you think would be impactful or obvious?
Fear.
Fear, tell me more about that.
Yeah, fear of the unknown, fear of failure
is probably one of the biggest ones.
Impostor syndrome,
which I think has like a fear component to it.
Not being sure if the juice is gonna be worth the squeeze,
not being sure if I can actually do the thing
I'm setting out to do,
not being sure if other people will see value in my work.
Yeah, a lot of fear has held me back,
which is why I do so much mindset coaching, right?
Is because I'm trying to overcome that.
I'm trying to make changes intentionally
and making sure, and it's honestly,
it's even being able to recognize and understand
my own thoughts and feelings as they come up,
being able to identify them and name them
has been a much more powerful tool
than I thought I ever needed.
And so I'm really grateful for those experiences
so that I can identify fear when it is popping up
and understand why I have fear and if I should have fear,
or should I be changing something here?
Should I be thinking about it differently?
Do I need to reframe?
Or is this like a legitimate concern
that I should be addressing?
Yeah.
Would you like to share some stories
that relate to the scenarios?
Oh gosh, I have countless, countless stories.
Well, I'll give you a fear story
and then I know the outcome of it,
so I'll share that too, that is maybe helpful.
But back in 2020, this must have been
probably like August 2020,
I had my current JV partner, Ellie Perlman,
she reached out to me and she said,
hey, Vina, and I had just left my old partnership,
I had just started my own company in June
and I hadn't done a deal yet.
My old partnership was just really out of alignment
with who I was and how I wanted to show up and operate.
So it became toxic very quickly.
And she called me and she said,
hey, I know you have a lot going on.
I also had like a personal situation with,
one of my daughters had a medical diagnosis
that at the time was pretty significant.
All is okay with her though, but she was just,
she said, I don't know how to say this,
but I know you have a lot going on,
but I wondered if you would be interested
in working on this massive deal with me.
This was the largest deal I had ever bought at the time.
It was $80 million.
Before that, the largest deal I'd ever bought
was $52 million.
So it was a big job.
And it was in the middle of COVID, there was no vaccine.
I was going through so much on the personal side.
I had a lot of turmoil on the professional side.
And she said, do you wanna do this deal with me?
I was like, and who?
She's like, just us.
And I was like, okay, this feels terrifying.
We've raised like $29 million in the middle of COVID.
We don't even know if real estate's gonna recover
at this point.
How are we gonna do this?
Like I had so many unknowns.
And I remember being so scared when I agreed to do this deal.
And I agreed to do it.
And we bought it.
And it has been the single most successful deal
I've ever done on the multifamily side.
What I mean by that is we bought it for $80 million
and sold it for $110 million just 18 months later.
So it was because I had that fear holding me back,
but was able to overcome it and do it anyway
and do it scared.
I had a $30 million profit in 18 months.
That's such a strong case study
that even now when I'm feeling resistance
and it's because I'm just scared of the unknown,
not because there's a legitimate concern,
I always think back to that deal.
Yeah, it's awesome.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
I bet for some people it just blows their mind.
Like, my gosh.
I mean, look, it blew my mind too.
So now I'm more used to it because I've done it more.
Yeah.
So I bet in those times though,
when you were going through that,
you were like, did I make this right decision?
Should I be putting more partners out?
Yeah, there's a lot went on with it.
I still have those thoughts.
I know that leaving my last partnership
was absolutely the right move without question.
I still find that intrusive thought creeping in, right?
Of, wait, should I have done that?
Am I missing something?
Maybe I made a mistake.
But I know when I think about it logically,
I know without question I made the right choice.
And I would make it again today.
I would made it sooner actually
with the information I have today.
But it is hard when fear is holding you back.
So what did you do in that case?
So I feel like it's an incomplete answer
without the solution.
So yes, the fear holds you back,
and then you went and did it anyway.
So what was the solution to you doing it anyway?
I think it is the unwavering belief
that I might not win,
but I'm definitely not gonna quit.
And I knew that about myself.
And I knew that the one thing
that makes entrepreneurs successful is perseverance.
So I know even as I go through various hard moments,
yes, I might be in a storm,
but that storm isn't gonna last forever.
And so again, it goes back to mindset, right?
Like this is all mindset work.
This is also being around people who can elevate you,
who can help you think through this, right?
Who can say, hey, I've been there too.
I know that this is hard.
Here are some things that I did.
This is how I reframed it.
Or they can give you a different perspective,
which can really help you.
So staying curious is probably the number one tip
I could give someone if they're facing fear
or any kind of resistance to what they're doing
is be curious then.
Be curious about why your body is telling you this,
why your mind is telling you this.
Be curious about what other people think.
Be curious about how other people
have solved these same problems.
What are the people that have come before you done?
Be curious about what potential possible wins there are,
right?
You can also counterbalance fear
because fear is really just the fear of the unknown, right?
It's uncertainty.
But if you can look at certainties,
then it's much easier to counterbalance that.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.