How Taking Action Builds Real Estate Wealth Faster Than Waiting

Fong Chua (00:00)
I think we kind of touched on a lot of big points already on the mindset and how you should approach anything. ⁓ I think the last thing I would like to say is, if you want to do something, reach out and ask a question to somebody. Because everything that you ever wanted to do has been done and done successfully by somebody out there and some group of people out there. So as long as you’re willing to go out there and go, hey, help me. Hey, share your story. Hey, let me know how did you do this and how did you do that?

Quentin (00:23)
Yeah.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And you know what I’m going to say? I’m excited to be here today. And I am. And you know what else I’m going to say? Because this is true too. I have another fantastic guest. I have another fantastic guest. And I’m going let him dive into everything that he does. But man, definitely we’re going to talk about some coaching today for sure. It’s coaching people who want to get into the real estate space. But also if you want to get into speaking and different other facets.

This is the guy that can help you out. has the strategies and the knackers to do it. And so I’m so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Fong Chua. Mr. Fong how did I deal with the last name, All right. Absolutely, man. I appreciate you being here. How you doing today,

Fong Chua (02:40)
It’s all good, all good, all good. Nicely done.

doing fantastic.

for having me.

Quentin (02:49)
Absolutely, no. So, so grateful for you being on. And I’m gonna type, I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you could give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. We love origin stories. And then please man, tell them what part of the world you’re in. People love to know where people are geographically. And so Mr. Fong, sir, you have the floor, man.

Fong Chua (03:13)
All right, origin story.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, taught to find a good job and be in that job for the rest of my life. Became a structural engineer and got into the oil and gas space. And then for any of those who know about Edmonton, Alberta, well, we’re completely dependent on oil and gas almost. So in 2007, 2008, when there was an oil downturn, the company I was with at the time went from 800 plus employees and laid off down to 120 some employees.

So then my girlfriend at the time, who’s not my wife, decided to pick up Rich Dad Poor Dad, which I’m sure everybody on your podcast here has probably read or has a whole library of purple books. ⁓ I joined one of those webinars, seminars, and then that leads to a three-day boot camp and all that great stuff. And then we got into basically investing in real estate and learning more about business and investments and whatnot. From there, we quickly realized that if you don’t have a coach,

Quentin (03:52)
Yeah,

Fong Chua (04:11)
by your side, then you’re going to be kind of left in the dark sometimes. And a lot of times that dark is created by your own fear. So having a coach by our side really helped us go from zero properties to about 23, 24 properties over 32 units within five years. So then from there, coach goes, hey, why don’t you start writing some books? I’m like, OK, let’s start writing books. So within two years, we published

three books and to date we have about eight books out. And then the next challenge from our coach was, Hey, why don’t you do some speaking? And I go, okay, great. What do want me to speak on kind of thing? So, went from doing some speaking engagements here and there to speaking, ⁓ in the States. And of course during COVID time, ⁓ lots of, lots of speaking engagements virtually all around the world. So it got to do a lot of that stuff.

And then also because of COVID coach goes, don’t you start a podcast? So let’s start a podcast.

So yeah, that’s where I’m at right now. So my main focus point right now from a real estate perspective, I do a lot of buy and hold myself. And basically I coach a lot of people who are up and coming. Thinking about investing in real estate, which is the right kind of vehicle for them to get into. Usually try and tell them the ins and outs and not paint them this amazing story of how real estate is going to be and have them kind of have false expectations. So kind of give them the little land.

and also help people publish books using books as a credibility tool and then do speaking.

Quentin (06:29)
Love it, love it. Thank you. Thank you so much for us what it is that you do. Definitely thank you for cluing us in on the journey, the origin stories. And I love it. And I always appreciate the journey, appreciate when people talk about the journey. And I was actively listening when you talked. So was writing some things now. So I’m born and raised in Alberta. Was an engineer, got into the oil and gas space. They did a layoff from 800 to 100.

I mean, wow. And so ⁓ rich dad, poor dad came into place. It’s like so many different other people. You learned, learned investments, got a coach. I think he, I think you said they coach you from three properties to 23. Did I hear that correctly? zero. Okay. it. You said it’s like, he a respect, no, no, he coached me from zero to 23. So then I got it. And he continued to coach you, coach you into writing books.

Fong Chua (07:14)
I was, yeah, we were at zero properties at the time. Yeah.

It’s all good.

Quentin (07:28)
Eight books out, coach you into speaking, coach you into podcasting. And so Mr. Fong, I’d regurgitate all those things back to you. Cause I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? The journey has no wasted moments. We’re building momentum to the people we are now. And the moments they find out thinking, they give us different strategies. They help us be the person, the people that we are today. And so I would love to know throughout the journey, throughout the moments, what have they taught you about yourself?

Have they taught you resilience, discipline? What has these moments taught you about you?

Fong Chua (08:03)
I think it taught me that if you want to do something, you have to stop talking about it and just do it. Lots of people go, oh, when the time comes, I’ll invest in real estate. When the time comes when I’m ready, I’ll go speak. I’m like, well, you can’t really turn on the switch and all of sudden invest. You have to put in the time and effort now so that by the time you are ready, you can actually take action on it. So the thing is, one thing it really taught me is like, okay, if you really want to do something, you have to put in the effort to either learn more about it and take action on it.

Quentin (08:34)
Yeah. I love it. I love taking action. They always say you got to crawl before you walk, right? And so one of the things that we learn when we’re walking is that sometimes we stumble, right? You stand up, you get the strength in your legs, and you start walking, but then you fall down. But then you keep standing up until you get stronger and stronger. So I would love to know along the journey, what

Fong Chua (08:34)
or else nothing ever happens.

Quentin (08:58)
What adversity have you faced and how have you overcome it? Because adversity shows its head in every journey. So how has it shown its head and how did you overcome it?

Fong Chua (09:07)
I think a lot of those, let’s say face plants, occurred before… You’re talking about walking, right? Yeah, my daughter just face planted on the floor learning how to walk, right? So I think a lot of those happened prior to having Coach because you think you could do everything. I think we started investing in a lot of products that eventually did not go anywhere. You pay thousands of dollars thinking that, it’s going to make you tons of money and whatnot, but then it doesn’t come to fruition the way you…

Quentin (09:11)
Yes.

Mmm. Mmm!

Fong Chua (09:35)
it was promoted and whatnot. So a lot of that stuff happened. I remember putting an offer on my very first investment property and at the time I was so scared. What if, what if they say yes? And the thing is, it was an offer that would for sure make me money, but I was so scared that if they say yes, I don’t know what to do

Quentin (09:51)
Mmm.

Fong Chua (10:35)
So therefore I was almost hoping, okay,

Please don’t take it, please don’t take it. And yeah, eventually I didn’t take it because my offer was low. But in retrospect, if it got through, it would have been a great deal. And that fear is something that we kind of manifest ourselves, but it’s also because we don’t have the people around us for us to kind of bounce ideas off of. We were surrounded by all the people that we grew up with or within our inner circle who are there to support and love and watch out for you.

But sometimes that love and that support is because they don’t know any better either. So they’re like, yeah, don’t do this, don’t do that, it’s too risky. And the thing is, yeah, that’s within their space. That’s what they understand. If they don’t understand the real estate world, if they don’t understand the investment world, then how can they talk about it? So therefore surrounding yourself with the coaches and the experts and talking to them, asking questions about how they fail and how did they succeed, that goes a whole lot.

farther along than you testing out everything yourself. So for me, the biggest thing is one, taking the action and two, surrounding yourself with the people who actually know what they’re doing and are currently doing it.

Quentin (11:48)
Come on, I think that’s so important. I couldn’t have said that any better, sir. So let me ask you, you’re in this space now, you’re in the coaching space. What is next for you? What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve at scale next?

Fong Chua (12:00)
Well for me it’s really connecting with as many people as I can. Meeting people like yourself, meeting people who are out there making the world go round and what not. Those are action takers basically. ⁓ Meeting as many action takers as I can because those are the people who would actually grow, succeed, and impact even more people. So what I like doing is working with people who are, hey, they know they have something special inside them.

Quentin (12:13)
here.

Fong Chua (12:28)
and don’t know how to either express it or how to act upon it or have the right mindset to take action on things, I like to be working with people like them so that they then learn how to do it and then have the, what do call it, the passion of passing down that knowledge and that wisdom to other people that they’re connected to. Because my voice is my voice, right? I can say the exact same thing as you say, but I may or may not connect with the same people that you connect, right?

when you speak, people listen. People want to follow Quentin. It might be the exact same message what I say, but we’re connecting with different people. as much as I can impact people in a positive way, that’s what I like doing. And whether that’s through coaching, like helping people write books or helping people come up with podcasts, helping people get on stages, whatnot, that’s what I love.

Quentin (13:22)
Man, you said something so important and I love that you said it because we all have our audience. We all have our audience. And I think one of the words, when you said one of the words that came to mind was influence. We influence people differently. You’re not, we are naturally going to influence people. Some of the same people will influence, but because of our experiences, because of our life’s journey, there are other people that you’re to influence differently than me.

And vice versa, because of the experiences and life journeys that we have. And so everybody have people that they get like, as you so eloquently said, that you’re going to connect differently with different people at times. so coaching people to understand that your voice matters, your stories matters is phenomenal. I put a premium on stories. believe everybody has a story that can affect the people around them. And we see it within our

Fong Chua (14:17)
Exactly.

Quentin (14:19)
families, see it within our children. Like you are an influence in your world. And with the right coaching, that world and the influence can actually expand because you already have the core thing, which is you, which is your story, which is your talents, but it’s your tools. And so I love it, man.

Fong Chua (14:35)
⁓ I picked

a thought in my mind right now. We connect with different people. We have different references, have different hobbies and different cultures and all that kind of stuff. Over the last 100 years, nothing new has been talked about, nothing new has been written, but it’s been written in a different way because of your experiences.

Quentin (14:42)
Yes, sir.

Fong Chua (15:01)
I’m an advocate on reading lots of business books and autobiographies and listening to lots of podcasts. And we’ve heard it all,

Work hard and think differently. Think outside the box and all that kind of stuff. It’s the same thing over and over again, but put into a different perspective. And my brother does not read a lot of that kind of stuff. He’s more into the creativity space and whatnot. And he also has this passion about collecting cards and Pokemon and whatnot.

And he recently said, I just read this amazing business book written by somebody who’s a big fan of Pokemon cards, right? And that entire book is business orientated, but written from a standpoint of how Pokemon works and how trade card trading works and all that kind of stuff. And I’m like, it’s the same stuff, but it’s interesting to him now because it’s written in that form, right? So everybody out there, you all have a voice. You just have to write it, put it out there and connect with the people that wants to connect with you and can relate.

to your experiences and your hobbies and your passions.

Quentin (16:44)
So well said. So well said. I’m going offer this. People sometimes ask me about podcasting and they say, yeah, any advice when it comes to podcasting? And one of my favorite things to say is grow a core, not a crowd. You want to grow a core of people who

support you, know you who believe in you. The crowd of people, they’ll come for the train wreck. The crowd of people, they’ll come to see you face plant, right? The crowd want to see you face plant. But the core people, they will help you up when you face plant. They’ll be there and say, hey, I know you’re still building. And so I say that to say, with your success, cannot make your success somebody else’s success. You got to grow with the people.

Fong Chua (17:13)
Hahaha.

Quentin (17:33)
and grow with the things that’s going to grow with you. And don’t be looking at, you know, what everybody else is doing. Focus on your core. Focus on your foundation. Focus on what you do best. And I promise you, if you do that, the core will grow with you and the core will go where you go and you will find success. So I just wanted to put that out there to you. How do feel about that?

Fong Chua (17:53)
Yes, definitely. And kind of going back on what you talked about, people love seeing the face plant and bringing it back to real estate wise, right? Everybody is interested in that story about, this person got arrested and therefore, oh, what am I going to do with my house? And, oh, this person’s, well, their house, well, that burned down and all these other problems. And, oh, yeah, I had to wake up 4 a.m. in the morning, go fix the toilet and whatnot. Everybody wants to hear those stories, right?

And then they go, once they hear those stories, they go, you know what? Yeah, real estate’s not for me. I don’t want to deal with any of that crap. Right? But when you talk about the success stories, yep, I got rent this month. Not very, not very flashy, right? It’s not exciting. So it’s the people who can over, overcome all the other stuff. Yes, the, the flash and the exciting stories and the big drama stuff that is able to consistently do what they do best.

Quentin (18:29)
Yeah, yeah.

Fong Chua (18:49)
Those are the ones that succeed. The stories, I tell a lot of those stories because it’s fun to tell. It’s exciting, people laugh, people cry, whatever it is. And you use those from a learning standpoint. You learn from them, you tell those stories, it’s entertaining and whatnot. But yeah, it’s not exciting stuff when it’s successful.

Quentin (18:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah,

love it. Yeah, one of my mentors say consistency be intensity any day. Being consistent is so fundamental. And so I love it. I want to get your perspective on this word. When you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind immediately to you?

Fong Chua (19:31)
everything. Like I challenge anybody to tell me what happened in their life that they liked or they didn’t like that did not originate from some type of relationship or lack thereof. Right? So everything starts from relationships. You will not be, I would not be speaking to you if we did not build some sort of relationship.

Quentin (19:50)
What? Spikes, yeah!

Fong Chua (20:01)
Of course we have to initiate it, reach out and say hi and all that kind of stuff, but after a while there’s some contact points and some, hey how are you doing and all that kind of stuff before it gets to something else. So everything that you ever enjoyed, loved, and have success on is because of somebody else that either guide you there, showed you the way, or introduced it to you, or whatever it is. It came from somebody, okay? Whether it’s a direct connection or not.

There’s something with a relationship that expanded to something else. And that’s why when I said I’m excited about connecting with people, meeting people who are action takers, meeting people who have a passion that wants to get out there and do something about it, because those people are able to connect with more and more people. And if I connect with them and make an impact and they connect with somebody else, it’s a exponential effect where you can connect with so many different people. So relationships is everything. Without relationships, nothing ever happens.

Quentin (20:59)
Well said. So well said again, Listen, Mr. Fong, is there any question or anything that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like, I don’t know, if you came in with something on your mind that you felt like I always need to know, I kind of want to open up the floor so you can deliver that message.

Fong Chua (21:22)
I think we kind of touched on a lot of big points already on the mindset and how you should approach anything. ⁓ I think the last thing I would like to say is, if you want to do something, reach out and ask a question to somebody. Because everything that you ever wanted to do has been done and done successfully by somebody out there and some group of people out there. So as long as you’re willing to go out there and go, hey, help me. Hey, share your story. Hey, let me know how did you do this and how did you do that?

Quentin (21:45)
Yeah.

Fong Chua (21:50)
Most people are most

willing to share their failures, share their stories because people who are successful likes to share. They like to be able to move that knowledge and pass down that information to other people so that they can also succeed because they themselves had somebody else help them. Right? So go out there and ask that question. Go out there and connect with somebody who’s already doing it because you never know. And don’t, don’t.

Don’t go and ask somebody who’s not doing it because they’re the first person that tells you not to. I had a client who came up to me and goes, what do you think about all this cryptocurrency stuff? I’m like, it’s great. Just know more about it, learn more about it, and be careful as to how much you put in and all that kind of stuff. He goes, yeah, it doesn’t work. I’m like, well, how do you know it doesn’t work? He goes, well, I talked to a buddy of mine and he says it doesn’t work. I’m like, okay, does he invest in it? No, no, no, no. I’m like, well, why are you asking him?

You could have asked me and I could have connected you with two or three other crypto experts who could share with you their ups and downs and you could decide if it’s right for you. But don’t dismiss everything without finding the right people to ask those questions to and then seeing if it fits into your life. So go out there and ask the people who’s doing it.

Quentin (23:12)
so well said sir. Listen, I have really really appreciated this conversation. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you sir?

Fong Chua (23:27)
You can find me on fongchua.com, can find me on Your Area TV on YouTube, and then my podcast is the Peak Potential Success Show. So you can find me on that too.

Quentin (23:37)
I love it. So let me say three things to you. First, thank you for your time because time is our most precious commodity. Yes, we know how podcasts work. You know, we we interview. So we do this together. But you could have been doing anything with your time, but you gave us your time. So I really appreciate that. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for your narrative. I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people. We may not see the growth, but the seed is there. And that that thinking.

take off at any given time and it can literally course correct them. I mean, we talked about rich dad, poor dad, you know, just it’s different stories of plant season. We never see the growth, but it’s still there. So thank you for planting seeds today. Doesn’t want to help people grow. And lastly, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, sir.

Fong Chua (24:24)
Well, thank you very much for giving me opportunity to share. So much appreciate.

Quentin (24:28)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Fong, please look into the show notes, get in contact with him, watch his podcast, please. Everything is right in the show notes. Definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Fong. So sir, thank you again and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.