From $400 to Millions in 7 Years and Winning with the Immigrant Mentality

Dylan Silver (00:00.864)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel, the nation’s premier real estate mastermind. I’m your host, Dylan Silver, and today on the show we have Valentina Brega. Valentina came to the US in 2018 with only $400 in her pocket and is now leading a successful business helping real estate investors scale their companies and get back their time.

She has impacted hundreds of entrepreneurs and we’ll walk a step by step how you can do that too during the show. Valentina, welcome to the show.

Valentina (00:38.185)
Thank you so much for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:40.06)
Absolutely. Before we hopped on here, I mentioned I always like to get folks backstory and you have a particularly inspirational backstory. Tell us about that.

Valentina (00:52.078)
It sounds inspirational now, but it was so scary when I was going through that. So yeah, I moved to the United States in 2018. We were living in Europe back then in Sweden. I’m not originally from Sweden, but I’m from Eastern Europe. I’m originally from Moldova. My daughter was born in Sweden, so we thought this was going to be our forever home. And then when my daughter was two months old, we found out that we have this opportunity to come to the United States.

because we won the green car lottery, which is something we have been applying for every single year. And every single year was rejection, rejection. I mean, not rejection. It’s just, we were not selected. It is literally like a lottery. And I was so frustrated at the time. said, why is this a lottery? Why is this not married based? Because I’m educated. I speak the language. I do this, right? Like I really want to come to the United States, but you know, they wanted to keep it fair. So, but when I was in Sweden,

That’s when we, you know, I opened the email and I’m like, wait, so this looks different than all the other emails before. So, and then I say there, congratulations, you were selected. And I tell my husband, what do we do? Do we go to the United States? Do we stay here? Like I just started learning Swedish, you know, all of that. And he said, we know what we can have in Europe. Let’s try our luck in the United States. So, okay. And we said, we’re going to give ourselves one year to see if we like it. If we like it, great. If not, we can always come back. Like, what’s the risk?

Okay, so that’s what we decided to do. We pack our bags. It took about a year to put together all the documents, everything. So when my daughter was one year old, we come to the United States. We don’t have a house, we don’t have a car, we don’t have insurance. The hardest thing about coming to the US is you have no credit history because we don’t have that in Europe, right? No insurance. So nobody could lend us anything. No one could rent us a house. It was very, very stressful. And no jobs.

So on top of that, okay, I said, we had some money put aside to get us started in the United States. And then we come here and we cannot access our funds from home at all. Right. So I called the bank in Sweden and I said, Hey, we can’t access that. said, Oh yeah, you should have notified us that you’re going to access it from being outside of the country. You need to come back here, present yourself in person. I lose my green card if I do that. I can’t do this. So we had to rely, right? Literally the only cash we had back then was $400 in our pocket.

Dylan Silver (02:48.123)
my gosh.

Valentina (03:06.966)
It’s not like we had millions in our bank, know, but it was something to get us started. So it’s like, we’re going to make it work. said, I’m going to get a job. we don’t remember, we don’t have a car, right? But walking distance from us was a Walmart across the street from Walmart was a Target. Inside Walmart, there’s a subway inside a Target. There’s Starbucks. I said, there’s four potential places that I can be employed. Okay. And I said, give me three months and I will run that place. That’s what I like. I don’t care what I do. I will.

mop the floors, but give me three months and I will be a manager. I will be running that place. So, but I was applying for jobs, everything. So I saw this opportunity when I was applying for jobs of working for a real estate wholesaling company and it was work from home. This was a miracle because I didn’t have a car at the time. So, and we, we, luckily we had some relatives who we stayed with just to get us started, but it was a really, really rough, rough beginning.

But that real estate company that employed me, I am forever grateful to them. It opened opportunities to me more than I would have even imagined. this is, this is, you know, this is amazing. We’re truly living the American dream because of that one good decision that I applied to work for real estate. Not only did I understand about real estate wholesaling, the whole process, but then I brought so much value to real estate investors. I made millions of dollars to the company that I was working for. And then it got me to now having my own company.

So stressful at the time, but it grew me as a person like nothing else before.

Dylan Silver (04:38.944)
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Talk a bit about the emotions and emotional strain that you felt. I I moved from San Antonio to Dallas, Texas recently, and I don’t have family in Texas. I have family in the East Coast. And I was not in the same dire straits. It was just me, and it was hard, right? And so it took me about, now fortunately we have a really good job market out here, but it still took me about

Valentina (04:40.494)
you

Valentina (04:49.986)
Mm.

Dylan Silver (05:08.404)
two weeks to get employed and I was stressing because similar to you, had a finite amount of money. The thoughts that I was thinking, because I came up here to do real estate wholesale, interesting story, right? I knew an investor out here. The thoughts that I was thinking were like, I have to do this. I have no other option and it really felt like life and death. That’s crazy. A little bit of an exaggeration, but it really felt that way.

Valentina (05:33.55)
I completely agree with you. And I think that’s the reason why we made it work because my mind was focused on finding something that works. So there’s this book called The Entrepreneur Edge, or not entrepreneur, The Immigrant Edge. I think it’s Immigrant Edge or Advantage. But the idea is that when you are an immigrant, when you’re looking for opportunities, you see opportunities. So I, my mindset back then was like, I came to the United States. This is the land of opportunities. It’s all around me.

I just got to see it. just got to find it. I need to recognize that opportunity. And because my mind was primed and focused, you know, it’s kind of like when you think about red cars, you see red cars everywhere. It’s the same thing with opportunities. When you think you’re looking for opportunities, you see them everywhere and you treat every everything as such. So I think that’s what kind of made you successful and what got me where I am, because like you were saying, like, I got to make it work. That’s it. Like, this is it. You know, it’s swim or sink. So.

Dylan Silver (06:32.0)
It’s exactly right, sink or swim and it was terrifying. I can only imagine how much more heightened it was in your scenario with a child and not being able to go back home and bank accounts. It’s truly terrifying, but God bless you Valentina, you made it. I wanted to, and before we hopped on here, I mentioned multiple languages and I’ve traveled abroad. I got a passport recently. I really hadn’t had a passport in over like decade.

Valentina (06:49.23)
Thank you.

Dylan Silver (07:00.98)
but I got a passport about a year and a half ago and I traveled abroad, Spanish speaking country, and it really opened my eyes on a way that I still don’t fully understand or comprehend because I came back here and I recognized that my actual way of thinking had changed. I still can’t quite enunciate it and explain it, but in the real estate deals that I’ve done since then, since I went abroad in 2023,

Valentina (07:19.982)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (07:29.571)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (07:29.588)
I’ve recognized my Spanish has come in handy. Me interacting with different cultures, different immigrants, has improved. And do you feel like it was a similar to me, like it was a tremendous advantage, even though you might not have seen it in that way?

Valentina (07:32.622)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (07:46.806)
Yes, absolutely. think studying foreign languages always is a good idea because it changes your perspectives. It broadens your mindset. It’s amazing. But also what it does for me is it helps me connect with people from different backgrounds. And I think because when I worked for the real estate company, what I did, my first job was qualifying leads over the phone. And as you know, in real estate investing, we’re talking to people who have distress, who are going through something.

Right? And I come from a place that I’m from Eastern Europe. I’m from Moldova originally, which is the least visited country in Europe. It’s not well known. It’s not the richest country, you know, anything like that. So I come from a place where I saw distress and I could connect with people here. And speaking multiple languages also helped me travel around, recognizing different traits in people. And I think I’m a very good people reader.

And it helped me because I traveled, because I can communicate with people. And foreign languages came so handy to me when I was on the phone because I spoke with someone in Russian. I spoke with someone in Romanian, which is my native language. Never spoke with anyone in German, but I understand Spanish very well because it’s a very close, it’s a romance language like my native language, Romanian, so I could assist them. And yeah, it was great.

Dylan Silver (09:09.13)
It’s really unbelievable because for me, when I’m talking in Spanish, I always say this, I always say this, if you want to learn how to do something, go to where you have no other choice. Because just like your story is a heightened version of mine, you know, and I’m trying to get to your point, Valentino, but I need some deeds in my name first. But when I was learning Spanish, when I’m in Santo Domingo, and I have no other option, because I’m not in Punta Cana, I’m not in a tourist, you know, it’s…

Valentina (09:20.525)
Yes.

Valentina (09:37.09)
Yes.

Dylan Silver (09:38.656)
It’s you speak Spanish or you’re not going to get to where you need to go. You know, your 5G. Yeah, your 5G internet, which you have in the United States. Everybody knows 5G or even if you have slower 3G, you can still connect and Google translate. You know, they have clatter. You know, so it’s not even you don’t that you have to learn Spanish. So I discovered this right. And then coming back here when I’m getting on the phones and I find myself.

Valentina (09:43.778)
Or your scarf.

Valentina (09:59.042)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (10:06.536)
Sometimes even losing my Spanish because I’m not around it every day I realize it’s it’s the best way as as frightening as it is. It’s sink or swim. It’s it’s submersion So Valentina, how did how did some of these conversations go for you? You know, you’re brand new first couple days in the job. You’re talking to Screening leads. I imagine this is kind of overwhelming multiple languages. How did these first couple deals go down for you?

Valentina (10:34.242)
Yeah. So let me start by saying that I was not very good on the phone when I started out because I was thinking that, it was probably imposter syndrome. I was probably feeling like I’m the immigrant, like, how can I help someone here in the United States? It was just a different mindset. And that’s actually one of the things that I really, really like in the U S is that people don’t really care where you’re from. They don’t really care. Like as long as you deliver value, I did not feel like an outsider, but my mindset back then was different.

because I felt like it would be an us versus you, but it was not the case at all. Like I was very well integrated into, with the company I was working with and even with the people on the phone, but the first couple of conversations I had were very stressful, but then I understood like they’re just people. They’re just people who, and all of us have, all of us have issues we have in life. Like there’s no such thing as a perfect life. There’s, all of us are humans.

So I need to find that humanity, that human element and connect to them. So it got better and better very fast. They got better within a week, two weeks and so on. But the conversations that I had was, I like scripts and I, I used to have a script. I like scripts, but I don’t love them. And the reason I don’t love scripts is because they kind of put you in a box. And even though I do have a script that worked for me, what I say is like follow, you kind of have to know the guidelines of the script, but then,

Active listening is going to give you maybe like read between the lines or listen carefully what the person is trying to say, like this little subtleties. And that’s what made the difference on the conversation. So I’ll give you an example for instance, right? Let’s say I’m talking to a seller on the phone. They have distress and they say something like, no one’s giving me what I want. If you’re going to give, if you’re going to buy my house cheap, don’t even bother. A lot of people would be like, no worries. We’re going to give you a good offer or something like that. Right. But that’s.

Not how do you know what a good offer is to that seller? Right? So instead of you being defensive, I want to understand, like, there’s a reason that seller is saying that. Meaning he probably got bad offers before from someone else. he’s probably tired of getting bad offers. He probably thinks I’m just like anyone else. So how do I set myself apart? So if I say that, no worries, I’m going to give you a good offer. He will think like, well, that’s what everyone says. And then I hit them with a lowball offer and he’s going to be like, you’re, you’re just a liar. Right? So instead of that, I’m like,

Valentina (12:56.602)
Well, it sounds, I say something like, well, it sounds like you, it sounds like you already spoke with some people who kind of made you a bad offer. Am I hearing the right? Is that what’s happening here? Yeah, I’m tired of people low balling me and all of that stuff. Okay. I completely understand. Look, I don’t know anything about your house yet, but I would love to learn more about the property and make you an offer. And hopefully that makes sense to you, but I don’t want to low ball you. That’s not my intention. To be honest, I want to win your business.

I’ll be honest, if you’re going to sell the house, I want you to sell it to me. So it’s in my best interest to give you a good offer. Now, when you say low ball, what did other people give you? Okay. Everyone was giving me like, what was that? Yeah, but like, this is kind of like how you connect with them. that’s, look, I’ll be honest and you change your tonalities. Like, I’ll be honest. Look, if you’re going to sell the house, I want you to sell it to me. You know what I mean, Mr. Seller? So look, I want to give you a good offer. That’s my intention.

Dylan Silver (13:33.856)
I’m on the edge of my seat here. I’m on the edge of my seat here.

Valentina (13:51.886)
Now let’s, let’s talk about this. What do you mean by low ball? Like what did they give you? They gave me a hundred K. Okay. Well, how much were you hoping to get? At least 150. Okay. Did they say why they only give you 100? Like what’s happening? Does the house need some work? Like what does, and then you naturally go into the condition of the property and, and they already trust you because you are on their side. Like they feel heard, they feel understood. So I think that’s, um, I don’t know if I digress from the topic, but you asked me about how the, how the conversations went with the prospects.

This is what made the difference for me, and that’s what I trained my team on, and how to handle those conversations.

Dylan Silver (14:28.17)
Valentino, what was your journey like with this company? you know, what’s mind blowing to me is you’re like, it took me some time. Well, it was two weeks, you know, so it was fast. It was fast. You know, for some people it takes them three months just to get, you know, a job. And you were like, I’ll work at Subway. I’ll work at Target. I’ll work at Walmart. But I just happened to, by divine intervention, get an opportunity and I ran with it. So two weeks in, you’re getting the swing of things. Maybe you’re getting better traction, getting some deals.

but you ended up growing with this company and you did millions of dollars with them. So what was that process like both from a learning perspective, learning about real estate and then also maybe a mindset coming from, know, I’ll manage a subway to I can have, you know, a real estate empire.

Valentina (15:02.072)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (15:11.427)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (15:17.334)
Yeah. So I, I, I started like answering the phones, right. Qualifying leads over the phone. And then there was a team that I was working with and I knew nothing about real estate. And I mean, absolutely nada, like nothing. Right. I mean, the first couple of conversations when people said like, what’s the ballpark? I was thinking, what is ballpark? I thought it was a park where people play ball. Really. And I really thought there was a park next to the house where people play ball. Like, like that, that’s like how.

Dylan Silver (15:45.886)
I love this.

Valentina (15:47.084)
That’s how green I was in, in, in real estate, like the lingo. I speak English, I speak it fluently, but when it comes to different lingo, you know, it’s like, I was completely green. So, but I, I had this hunger and I wanted to be the best employee this company has ever had. So I learned everything about real estate. Our calls were recorded. I went to our acquisition rep who was a very good closer. And I said, analyze this call, give me feedback. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? You know, so he kind of gave me feedback. And over time.

My numbers were the highest than anyone else’s in my department. So they completely let go of everyone in the department. And I was only me left. That was three months in. And they said, you hire your own team. Your numbers are good. You’re doing great. You have the best performance here. You hired your team. You train them on everything you can do. You know. So that’s what I did. So three months in into this job, I was promoted to lead manager. I hired two local people and then I hired virtual assistants from overseas. At that time, I had no idea who virtual assistants were.

But I hired them and like, very good, talented people, great English, much more affordable. That’s awesome. So three months later, because our numbers were so good, I was promoted to sales director. Not only was I supervising the lead team, but I was also supervising the acquisition rep. It’s kind of looking through the numbers, making sure that this is the best exit strategy for the property. so, yeah, so we made $9 million with, I was with the company three years. We made over $9 million just for that department.

that I was supervising.

Dylan Silver (17:17.376)
So at this point in time, did you decide you got it to nine million dollars at this point in time? Are you looking at I’m going to go do this for myself? Were you thinking, okay, let me see. Is there any more room for growth? Because I think a lot of people first of all, a lot of people wouldn’t do it in three years. They would do it in 25 years, right? They would take multiple degrees and you know, be years and years and years and maybe promotion, the motion, maybe a movement to laterally.

Valentina (17:36.184)
you

Dylan Silver (17:45.912)
But you did it as fast as you possibly could, even if it might have not been fast enough personally, but to everyone else it was super fast. When you got to that top point, what were you thinking and what were some of the thoughts and emotions that you were experiencing?

Valentina (18:04.396)
Yeah. So my, come back to the mindset that I’m here for, for the opportunities and United States, it’s still the land of opportunities. Everyone who tells you different, they’re lying. Like I know there’s a ton of opportunities. You don’t have to have a college degree to make money in the United States. It doesn’t matter. This is what I like this country. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from. If you have a, if you were in jail, if you’re like, it doesn’t matter. Like whatever you like.

You have, this is the best place to actually do something, provide value and be rewarded for that. So, um, I think so. still do think so. So what kind of, what, what helped me here was, um, I, I also have this also mindset. like, it’s to be successful. need 33, 33 % is your idea. 33 % is the action and 34 % is luck. But luck means, uh, being present, doing this, trying this.

Trying and failing, failing fast, learning more and going like it means not stopping. A lot of people think luck is just being having the opportunity to be handed to you. It’s not. It’s you trying multiple things. Like I said, failing fast, try again, get up again, tweak the numbers and all of that. So I think that’s what that’s what probably got me to the journey that I am because I was not afraid to fail fast. And when I saw the results, I was, I was keeping an eye on the numbers and I was tweaking the numbers that I was going.

And that’s why so many people came to me and said, Hey, can you teach my team everything? Can you teach my team everything you’re teaching your team? And that’s when I said, I could, and I did some consulting, but then I said, I can find someone like me. I know what it’s like being non-American, working on the American market, what kind of mindset shifts we have to go through. So I know how I can find these people, train them on everything I know. And then you have your own person in house and people really liked it. And

I’m still very, very good friends with a company I worked with and they get virtual assistance from me. And I’m just so, grateful. we’re really in amazing relationships. And if I can help them, I help them anytime. If they help me with advice and mentorship, and they always do that as well. But it’s always comes back to that. well, maybe you were at the right time in the right place. Yeah, but to be in the right time in the right place, you have to take action. You have to be present. You have to talk about what you’re doing.

Dylan Silver (20:04.736)
Hmm.

Valentina (20:28.854)
And it’s same in real estate. Like, I want to get more deals. We’ll talk about this. When you go to church, talk about what you do. You never know how somebody knows somebody who has a house they might want to sell. And you’re the first person they think about. So be omnipresent. Be present on social media. Tell people, let people know that this is what you can do for others. That’s it.

Dylan Silver (20:48.352)
I completely agree Valentina. I call it being a networking junkie, gorilla networking, networking fanatic. Like you have to just be that person. And for most Americans, it’s maybe unusual because in growing up in school, you know, you’re taught to follow instructions and you’re to get a job and you know, self promotion seems like, well, what are you going to do? Make a YouTube video, but

Valentina (20:56.195)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (21:10.573)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (21:15.786)
There’s other ways and B, that YouTube video is talking to a guy yesterday who’s one of the top real estate brokers in Arkansas and he specifically got big on YouTube. In fact, there really wasn’t anybody who was doing what he was doing which was talking about relocating from other US states to Arkansas, which is wild notion because that’s not like relocating to Miami.

Valentina (21:43.139)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (21:43.306)
Fort Waterdale or know Malibu, California, you know, it’s Arkansas, you know, a lot of people can’t even name a major city in Arkansas. So fanatical networking, which you’ve clearly done well. I want to pivot a bit here, Valentina, coaching and multifamily syndication, which we talked about for the show. I know that you’re involved in both of these spaces. How’s the coaching? How did the coaching come about?

Valentina (21:48.718)
I’m going to leave.

Valentina (22:10.166)
Yeah. So coaching came about when I had good results in with a real estate company and I was a part of a mastermind and that’s why I think masterminds are so important. And they were like, because people, people talk, people share value. People say, Hey, who do you know who can do this? How do you, so, just if you’re part of a mastermind, for example, if you provide good value to one person, then that person will recommend it to someone else or your name will come up in discussions.

And that’s how, that’s how I got connected to doing some coaching. It just got to a point where I wanted to do something that doesn’t require too much of my active time. And I wanted to be, I wanted to scale it because if I coach it, that means it still relies on my time and my time is limited. Right. So that’s why I pivoted from it, but I really enjoyed, actually still do, it’s called laser coaching for that community. I still do laser coaching. If people have any questions.

which I really, really enjoy sharing what’s working and hearing other success stories and then relaying the success stories to them. But that’s kind of how it started, being part of communities and delivering value.

Dylan Silver (23:20.192)
As you’re talking about this, I’m thinking about this, tell me what you think. We would probably have to talk about this more after the podcast, but I would love to see there be some type of community specifically for real estate investors who are coming from other countries or maybe who have family in other countries because that element is so intrinsic to the American story, but also it makes you a better real estate investor. Have you heard of anything like this?

Valentina (23:35.502)
Ooh.

Valentina (23:49.482)
I have not, but that sounds like a great idea. This is what really sets you apart, could set you apart, right? Like it’s a very niche down, but it also unites people because they go through the same thing. It’s like they have something in common and I think that’s a good idea.

Dylan Silver (24:05.364)
I was just, what got me into real estate, what got me into real estate was I went to a Texas RIA event and there was a woman with a heavy accent who was an immigrant herself who got successful in real estate knocking doors. I thought, similar to your story, was like, man, what am I doing? If she’s doing this, I have to be at least doing 80 % of what she’s doing. And so that story, that mentality, I just think there’s so much there.

Valentina (24:31.256)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (24:35.2)
But pivoting again, multifamily syndication. So you went from wholesaling to coaching. Now you’re at a point where you’re able to participate in multifamily syndication. How has that been going and how did you get into this space?

Valentina (24:40.302)
Mm-hmm.

Valentina (24:53.322)
Again, I got into the space by knowing, by connecting with people, by being a networker. And I just told like, would like to have, I said, I would like to invest in real estate, but because I have my company, I don’t have time to do wholesaling, or I don’t have time to do flipping, or, and honestly, it’s like, it’s not something that I would have maybe been the best of. Like I know what my strengths are, is connecting with people and working with people. So I but I would still like to have.

real estate work for me because most people, most rich people, they make a lot of money through real estate, right? I mean, that’s a known fact. So how can I do that? And then someone said, you should invest in syndications. Think about being a limited partner. It’s like, well, what does that mean? How does that work? And they told us about, you you get an apartment, apartment complexes, how they renovate them. They walked me through the whole process and I said, well, this is great. It’s a lot of money to invest upfront, but this sounds great. So

But if you know the people you work with and you see their previous work and you trust them and so far for us, it has been going really well. We are about to invest in one more project soon. it’s, yeah, we’ve been, this is kind of like what I like to do is it’s a more passive income. It’s definitely passive income, but it’s still have real estate working for me. So it’s, there’s so many ways you can invest in real estate. That’s what I like about it.

Dylan Silver (26:17.101)
Do you see Valentina maybe a prototype for a career path for a real estate investor? Let’s say someone’s a teacher in the United States or they’re working for the government or they’re in a different sales career but not in real estate and they want to get into real estate and they don’t know how. Should I get a real estate license? What do I do? Do I wholesale? Do I fix and flip? You know, do I give a buddy money who’s doing it because he needs

Valentina (26:26.862)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (26:44.753)
lenders and investors. What do you think? What do you think is a prototype for a career in real estate if for someone on the outside?

Valentina (26:52.95)
Yeah, I met so many people who have different backgrounds. I know a teacher who is a millionaire now and she has an amazing rental portfolio and she’s in Oklahoma. You know, so I know people who have, love, who are engineers love their W-2 jobs. mean, different, different pathways and they all like want to do real estate. I know so, so many cases, but this is what I would say. You can read every book out there.

you can watch everything out there, but unless you actually do it, it will not be as effective. The action, the actually doing it is going to be the best teacher ever. But also, you want to minimize your risk. So I would say, don’t do it alone. Find a group of people who understand you, who support you. Join a mastermind, join a community. Have somebody hold your hand, or at least have somebody who, if you think about video games, right, think…

Find somebody who already slayed this dragon and they’re already moving to the next level and you’re still stuck at level one. Find someone who told you how they slayed this dragon. Like this is what I did, this is how it worked for me. So you don’t have to have those trial and errors because yeah, you will learn, but it can be a very costly mistake. It could probably be a lot more expensive learning yourself than just joining a community where people encourage you and hold your hand and support you. That’s what I would say.

Dylan Silver (28:15.52)
This is true Valentina, to your point, for folks who are in a job where it’s very stable, very secure, but they don’t have perhaps the ability to scale or they may feel stuck in a way, real estate does give you in a sense leverage, but at the same point in time that comes with risk, right? So you could open up a lemonade stand and you’re not gonna get sued, right? Or you could go be a real estate agent part-time in which case,

Valentina (28:33.486)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (28:44.884)
you have to worry in Texas about the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. So now it’s all these different things, but I agree with you and I echo your sentiment. The best thing, the best thing to do and how I started is through a RIA, right? And people have mixed feelings, but I love RIAs. Get into a group, a mastermind, a RIA, talk to people and find someone who you connect with, who connects with you and get your first deal.

Valentina (29:12.75)
And this is what I like about people in the United States and what I found shocking for me when I moved here is because people here don’t gatekeep. Like if I go to someone and I’m like, I love what you’re doing. How are you doing this? People will share. Maybe I’m lucky and I’m part of, you know, being surrounded by wonderful people. But I think just overall where I’m from, people would hold their cards close to their chest. But here it’s like, just tell me what you need. Like there’s so much information out there.

And they gladly connect you with someone or tell you how, you know, what worked for them or get on a call with you on Zoom. It’s amazing that the mentality of abundance that you have here in the United States is phenomenal. And if you feel like you’re, you’re, maybe you’re shy to approach someone, just think about this. I mean it with a hundred percent. There is a mentality of abundance in the United States. So if you have a question, ask, because there will be someone who can help you with this and they’re very happy to do so.

Dylan Silver (30:10.08)
Valentino, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to get a hold of you?

Valentina (30:14.818)
Yeah. You can find me on social media. I actually have a podcast as well. It’s called Built with VAs. If anybody wants to know how to work with VAs. But I’m on YouTube under my name, Valentina Brega. Instagram, my name, Facebook. Or if you want to go to my company, it’s HireTrainVA.com. Like we hire and we train VAs. And also, if you don’t mind, I want to give something back to your audience, to the listeners. I can put together the script that I use to generate the $9 million.

And I can put together some other resources that I found useful and I will put them under hiretrainva.com slash, I don’t know, you tell me what should be the slash, maybe this podcast name or cause I’ll make it, but what do think it should be?

Dylan Silver (30:57.76)
Man, I don’t have the jurisdiction to make this call. I gotta get with my boss and my people over here. They’ll probably get mad at me if I say anything. what’s the safe thing that we can say? Is it for coaching, yeah?

Valentina (31:12.11)
It is for real estate investors. Yes. It’s just, I’m giving them a lot of value. I said, like tasks like…

Dylan Silver (31:19.466)
Let’s do investors. That’ll be safe. That’ll be for everybody. So where do they go to, Valentina?

Valentina (31:23.498)
Love it. Love it. So it’s hiretrainva.com slash investors.

Dylan Silver (31:32.094)
You heard it here folks. you know, I want to end with this. Valentina is really an exemplification of the American dream. And for folks who feel like, you know, they’re stuck or feel like, you know, real estate is an unattainable career path. She came here with $400 in her pocket, unable to access funds in her country of origin, was willing to work odd jobs, know, stumbled into real estate.

Valentina (31:32.194)
That’s it.

Dylan Silver (32:01.65)
And now, you know, multiple seven figure empire, truly an inspirational story. Valentina, thank you for your time today on the show.

Valentina (32:11.16)
Thank you so much. Always great to be here. Thank you.