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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by
[00:06] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs. Hello, this is Robert Smilke, coming to today with a Vancouver's
[00:11] SPEAKER_01: podcast, a member of the Canada's podcast network, where we talk to the
[00:14] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in Vancouver, British Columbia. So
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: you can listen, discover and engage. Today's guest is Augustine Wong, because of
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: his bitter experience working as an employee for someone else and his
[00:28] SPEAKER_01: success being a real estate investor. Augustine is on a mission to show
[00:34] SPEAKER_01: people that they too can be real estate investors so that they do not need to
[00:39] SPEAKER_01: feel so dependent on their full-time jobs to survive. When working with his
[00:45] SPEAKER_01: clients, his goal is not to help them earn more money, but to help them make
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: investments, which will empower them to pursue the lives that they truly
[00:57] SPEAKER_01: desire. Well Augustine, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time today to be
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: here for all our listeners. Yeah, thank you very much. I'm really excited to
[01:05] SPEAKER_00: share my story with you and your audience here. Awesome. Okay, I want you to tell
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: us a little bit more about yourself, where you're from, and give us the details on
[01:14] SPEAKER_00: your current business. Yeah, for sure. So I grew up in Vancouver for pretty much
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: my entire life. So for those of you who are listening on audio, I'm Chinese, so I'm
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: a CVC Canadian-born Chinese through and through. I grew up in household that
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: but really believes obviously in hardware, kind of like the tiger parenting
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: kind of environment. So believe in hard work, that hard work who pays off, and
[01:46] SPEAKER_00: of course, hard work is very important. But you know, as you when you grew up and
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: you go out into the real, into the working world, I worked as a computer engineer
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: for 10 years. You start to realize that the work that you put in especially as an
[02:01] SPEAKER_00: employee doesn't necessarily translate into you getting what it is that you deserve.
[02:09] SPEAKER_00: And for me, about six years ago, I started looking to real estate because I
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: wanted to take the money that I was earning and grow it. So I looked into it and
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: I realized over time that I really enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed investing in real
[02:26] SPEAKER_00: estate, I enjoyed talking to realtors, I enjoyed talking to mortgage brokers, I
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: enjoyed the process of really taking a time for myself to think about how I'm
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: going to grow my money. And through that, that's basically what inspired me to
[02:41] SPEAKER_00: give back as it were and help other people who have realized that, you know what, I'm
[02:46] SPEAKER_00: working a full-time job, it's nice, but I'm not going to be able to retire if I just
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: continue down this path. And I'm here to help them invest in real estate for themselves
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: so that they can live the life that they want.
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: Awesome. Okay, good. Now, did you need financing to start your company and how do you
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: currently make money in your business now?
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: So I guess I'm right now, I don't need financing for saying the sense that I don't really
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: have a product, right? I know that from a lot of entrepreneurs out there, especially
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: in tech, right? There's this idea that you need to build something so that you need financing
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: to finance the building of that thing. For me, it's different. For me, I find what's
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: been most effective for me is simply just having conversations with people. And nice thing
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: about Vancouver is that everyone loves talking about real estate, and that opens up a conversation.
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: And I invite somebody that I would be able to help them. So that's what's been most
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: effective for me at this point. So I imagine it's easy getting clients. Is it for you?
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: Since everyone's real estate is the thing in Vancouver, right? I mean, so it's, yes, I would
[04:02] SPEAKER_00: say yes and no. I'd say it's easy to get clients in the sense that again, everyone loves
[04:07] SPEAKER_00: talking about real estate, especially in Vancouver. Suppose it's, it's hard to get clients in
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: the sense that everyone has their own ideas about what real estate investing is like. So
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: a part of my job as someone who's trying to help people invest in real estate is to give
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: the unadulterated facts like, for example, there was one individual I was working with
[04:29] SPEAKER_00: who wanted to manage his own property. That's fine. But he wanted to do an Airbnb again,
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: that's fine. But his idea was that the Airbnb would be in Kelona, and then he was going to
[04:43] SPEAKER_00: move to Bali. Nice for, yeah, which is nice. Yeah, it's good that you're going to be moving to
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: Bali where the sun's always shining. But that's not really realistic if you want to manage a
[04:56] SPEAKER_00: property. And then the same thing. From a beach farm alley. Yes. So a lot of a lot of the things
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: I encounter is just trying to be realistic with my clients and say, look, you know, you've got to
[05:07] SPEAKER_00: be aware that yes, real estate investing is a great way to the money, but you've got to be
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: aware that there are things that you need to consider, right? That you might not consider if you're
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: just investing your money passively in stocks. Right. Okay. So like we mentioned Vancouver is a
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: hot real estate market, but what is the long term vision and what will your company look like in
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: the future? Do you see the company expanding into other areas and where beyond Vancouver BC
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: or even Canada? Yeah, that's a great question. So for a long term vision, obviously right now real
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: estate investing is a core, but really for me at the end of the day real estate investing is simply
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: a tool to help me have that secure financial future. So I feel like the long term vision would be
[05:56] SPEAKER_00: yes, real estate investing would be a component, but really at the end of the day it's
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: things like financial literacy, for example, financial habits, financial mindset. You know,
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: you can have all the great investments that you want, but if you're going to blow all your
[06:16] SPEAKER_00: money that you earn in making poor lifestyle choices, it doesn't matter how many great investments
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: you make. So I see my goal is to be take a more holistic approach for my clients and help them
[06:28] SPEAKER_00: with all aspects of related to money. So whether that be mindset or knowing where to invest, how to
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: save money, things of that nature. Okay. Now let's talk a little bit about Vancouver. I want you to
[06:42] SPEAKER_01: tell me what are the biggest benefits for you and being an entrepreneur in Vancouver, BC. Obviously,
[06:47] SPEAKER_01: we talked about real estate. So give us some of the good points about starting a company here,
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: but I also want you to give us some of the tough things or the challenges for listeners so they can
[06:56] SPEAKER_00: keep it out for them. Yeah, for sure. So I don't know if this is specific to Vancouver, but I found that
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: once you do become an entrepreneur and you put yourself out there as an entrepreneur, there is a
[07:09] SPEAKER_00: great community of entrepreneurs here. Me coming from a computer engineering background, I don't
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: like before I didn't have an entrepreneurial bow in my body. So I am working with a business coach
[07:25] SPEAKER_00: so that I learned the skills of an entrepreneur, a business person. And through that coach, I've
[07:33] SPEAKER_00: met some amazing entrepreneurs who are like me, they're small scrappy people who have big dreams.
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: So I think if you immerse yourself in the entrepreneur culture in Vancouver, you'll be able to find a
[07:48] SPEAKER_00: lot of people who will be more than happy to support you. I think the bad thing about Vancouver,
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: probably the legal real estate, I'm sure you've had other people say this I showed, but probably the
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: expenses here, like the legal expenses here. That is a tough one, especially these days if you have
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: a business that where you can interact with clients online, I don't know if it makes complete
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: sense for you to live in Vancouver necessarily, you could run the same kind of business in Calgary or
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: someplace that's more affordable. So I think that that would be probably the biggest drawback that
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: comes to mind when it comes to being an entrepreneur in Vancouver. Okay, Vancouver is a very beautiful
[08:32] SPEAKER_01: place. We all know that it's very international people love to live here and work here. We do some
[08:37] SPEAKER_01: of our best work outside the office. Is there a place in the lower main, like close to where you live
[08:41] SPEAKER_01: or work, we like to go recharge or get inspired with ideas and just think about your business,
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: and does it change with the season, considering all the rain we get here?
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: That's a yeah, that's a great question. I feel like for me, it's not so much about the place
[09:00] SPEAKER_00: actually. It's about getting outside of your own head. So oftentimes it's not, obviously it changes
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: scenery helps, but I think it's a simple matter of doing a different task. Let's say you've been
[09:14] SPEAKER_00: working on your business for, I don't know, 10 hours. And if you want to get outside your head,
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: just do something very simple like cooking, right? That's a great activity to do that gets outside
[09:25] SPEAKER_00: your head. So I think for me, it's not so much about a place in Vancouver, so much as about
[09:29] SPEAKER_00: the a place in your head, really. Okay, so I think cooking for me cooking is my answer.
[09:36] SPEAKER_01: There you go. Let's talk about your routine. Now, what does the first hour look like for you when
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: you get up in the morning? Do you have a specific specific routine or ritual to help you make
[09:45] SPEAKER_01: it you motivated to start your day? And do you start it early? Yeah, so my routine right now is
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: forced to follow me because I have a baby girl. So she's six months old. So the routine is the baby
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: wakes up in cries. So I go and feed her. So that's that's been a regular routine. And I still call
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: a routine because at least it's something that does happen regularly. And I find that
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: it's made me much more of an early bird now. So it does have benefits. So that would be the closest
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: to have to a routine in the mornings anyway. So wake up at 5 30 feet or six or whatever feed the
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: baby usually get in a little bit of rest before I start on with the rest of the day after rest.
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: Okay, now earlier you made the switch from employee to an entrepreneur. Do you think entrepreneurs have
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: to be weird or unique in a positive way or are wired differently? I can say for myself that I don't
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: I may be weird, but I don't see myself as weird in a good way. Honestly, if you if you look at
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: how I grew up I didn't grow up with entrepreneur parents. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: did grow up in an environment where they're encouraged to be entrepreneurs. I didn't have
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: that kind of environment. I was very much encouraged to go on to the workforce, work hard, earn that
[11:04] SPEAKER_00: state paycheck. So I don't have a weird backstory in that sense. I think that being entrepreneur,
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: all it takes is at the end of the day, it just really it's that leap of faith that you need to
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: take in yourself. And I feel like anyone can have that. Okay, good. Let's talk about what books you're
[11:23] SPEAKER_01: reading now and why are even audiobooks and you can you recommend any books for our listeners who
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: are also aspiring entrepreneurs? The the audiobook that I heard listening was I forgot the
[11:36] SPEAKER_00: office name, but it's persuade and get paid. So that's very good book because as entrepreneurs
[11:44] SPEAKER_00: sometimes and I'm a solo entrepreneur. So so if there's anyone in your audience that's thinking
[11:50] SPEAKER_00: of striking out a business on their own, you're going to need to do your own sales. So listening to
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: and reading as many books as you can about how to do sales properly, is it going to be a great start?
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: So I recommend persuade and get paid. That's a that's a good audiobook. Okay, so you probably work
[12:07] SPEAKER_01: quite a bit and most entrepreneurs do, but for most of a while we need to have this bit of balance
[12:12] SPEAKER_01: and Vancouver certainly offers a lot of variety shall we say of outdoor lifestyle. How do you
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: balance work and how do you relax and not think about work and what are your favorite activities to do
[12:25] SPEAKER_01: in BC? Do you ski, do you bike, kayak, golf, hike or simply go for a drive? I'd say simply go for a
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: drive. Actually hit that one on the head. I despite the fact that I grew up in Vancouver, I haven't
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: oh, I've never been really partial to winter sports. The sports that I've enjoyed were
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: traditionally summer sports. So I used to play tennis competitively. So I enjoy playing tennis,
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: going out for walks, going out for a run. So not winter sports. So those are the activities I
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: enjoy. And of course, Vancouver being Vancouver, there's a lot of great spots where you can run.
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: So you're working all the time, but I want you to think about something for a second here.
[13:06] SPEAKER_01: If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession outside of real estate?
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'd like to teach something. I have a great respect for teachers. I know that
[13:21] SPEAKER_00: depending on your interaction with teachers, I think that they're really great or really bad,
[13:24] SPEAKER_00: but I think the core idea that you're teaching something for the next generation, I really
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: gravitate towards that. So I don't know if I'd be a public school teacher necessarily, but I do
[13:36] SPEAKER_00: want to give back by teaching in some capacity. It could be teaching computer programming.
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: It could be something like that. What job could you not do?
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: Holy computer engineering.
[13:51] SPEAKER_01: Or what someone says to you, someone says to you, can you fix my computer for me that part, right?
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I probably that part. Like no, no, you're thinking of something, you're thinking of a different
[14:00] SPEAKER_01: August student. In business, what is your favorite word, quote, or sentence that you like to use?
[14:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of great quotes out there from really famous business people,
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: but I think the one that I tell myself is figure it out because entrepreneurship from what I've
[14:21] SPEAKER_00: experienced is really all about solving problems. There's a solving one problem after another problem.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes there can be no support. Like you're the business owners. So it falls on our
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: shoulders to be able to overcome the challenges. So I think figuring out is the one that I feel like
[14:40] SPEAKER_00: I have to tell myself the most, especially when things are down. Okay, what's your least favorite word
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: or sentence you do not like to hear? I don't have anything, it's not like this word inherently is bad,
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: but I don't like the the loaded meaning of the word mistake. I think a lot of times when people say
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: mistake, they mean it in a bad way. Oh, you made a mistake. And let's just call a mistake for what
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: it is. A mistake is simply that you tried. And I wish people more say would say, you know, good job,
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: you tried as opposed to, oh, you made a mistake. And as an entrepreneur, you're going to have,
[15:18] SPEAKER_00: you're going to make a lot of mistakes for those who are listening who are thinking about being
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneur, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. So you got to get comfortable with that and
[15:29] SPEAKER_01: be comfortable learning from those mistakes. If you had to pick one or two words to describe
[15:34] SPEAKER_00: yourself, what would it be and why? I think the two words probably would be, I don't know if I
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: am this, but I aspire to be determined. I would say, so I would pick determined, maybe more
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: aspirational, but determined, especially because again, as an entrepreneur, it's not an easy thing.
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: So there are good days and there are bad days. So being determined is important. And I think the
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: other term that I would use to find myself is really compassionate. I really believe in helping
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: my clients. I want them to succeed. That's why I made the jump from being an employee with the
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: steady paycheck to doing what is I doing because I want to do something that really matters to the
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: people around me. So I think I'll pick commission as my second word. Anything keeping up at night,
[16:22] SPEAKER_00: these days besides the new baby? Well, I think my business is the other baby. So does that count?
[16:29] SPEAKER_01: That's something. There's stresses of finding clients, cash flow, solving problems.
[16:37] SPEAKER_00: I think it's more the problem solving. The thing where you're thinking, okay, I got one client,
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: how am I going to get the next client? Like what's marketing strategies? Things of that nature.
[16:51] SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that do occasionally keep you up at night, for sure.
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: Okay. I want you to tell me beyond what you're doing on a daily basis. Give us this top three things
[17:04] SPEAKER_01: on your inspired lifeless. This could be if you want to travel more if you want to write a book,
[17:09] SPEAKER_01: philanthropy, teach, like you mentioned earlier, anything like that? Top three.
[17:15] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'd say one of the top three would be learning a new language. So I want to learn French more.
[17:26] SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's Canadian, right? It's that Canadian pride. But also, I do really genuinely
[17:32] SPEAKER_00: enjoy language. I am somewhat conversant in it, but I love to be far more fluent in it than I already
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: am. Simply spending more time with my family. That's that's the second one. And third one,
[17:45] SPEAKER_00: God, I think third one is I'm not going to put teaching on there, but cooking more. I hinted
[17:51] SPEAKER_00: earlier that I enjoy cooking. So I love to be able to be more of a gourmand.
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneurs
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: throughout Canada? Yeah, the one piece of advice that I was given was that customers aren't
[18:13] SPEAKER_00: born, they're made. So I hinted earlier that as entrepreneurs, we do need to be part of our own
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: sales proceeds. And when I started off as an entrepreneur, I thought that you got to find those
[18:26] SPEAKER_00: customers that are already willing to accept your products. But the other way to go about sales
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: is you find people who are somewhat ready and you educate them, teach them and guide them
[18:38] SPEAKER_00: into the realization that, hey, you know, actually you're the guy that they've been looking for.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: They just didn't know it yet. So that would be the advice that I would give to entrepreneurs
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: is like make your customers. Don't think that they're just born. Okay. Obviously, you're ready to
[18:53] SPEAKER_01: have some fun? Yes, I'm ready to have some fun. Okay. Well, we're going to take away from Vancouver.
[18:59] SPEAKER_01: We're going to send you to Fiji to a small tropical island. There's only one phone booth there.
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: There is no internet. This place does exist by the way. And yes, there are hammocks there.
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: We're going to drop you off there. You won't have a computer or a smartphone or tablet. You can use
[19:14] SPEAKER_01: a phone booth. There's one phone booth there. You can call that boat. You can call the boat. We'll
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: come pick you up anytime you call. We'll be there. How long would you last before you made that call?
[19:25] SPEAKER_00: What would you do while you were there? This is a question. Okay. So I'm going to make some assumptions
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: when to answer that question. At first, I'm going to assume that the locals are very friendly
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: because otherwise I'd be calling right away. So I assume the locals are very friendly. I assume that
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: food shelter or not a guest or it's all there. It's all there. Just no internet. No internet.
[19:48] SPEAKER_00: Actually, you know, maybe this is a sign that I was never meant to be a computer engineer, but I can
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: probably do very well without the internet. Really? Well, obviously not in the sense like
[19:57] SPEAKER_00: feeling my business would probably not do well if it didn't have internet. But in terms of
[20:02] SPEAKER_00: recharging, I feel like that's a great way to disconnect is to literally disconnect.
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: So I'd say assuming that my family is taking care of that it didn't have to worry about the baby
[20:14] SPEAKER_00: crying and things in that nature. Say two months. Two months where I can juggle. Yeah.
[20:20] SPEAKER_00: I bet there's a lot of people out there who want a two month vacation away from
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: away from the chaos of their daily lives. So maybe two months is lowball yet. Really? But that's
[20:34] SPEAKER_00: a say two two months based on those very those assumptions that I made though. I had Dan Locke on
[20:40] SPEAKER_01: the show one time. He said, tell the boat not to go too far. So it was probably 10, 15 minutes
[20:46] SPEAKER_01: there. So you did well. Two months. Good for you. Yeah, thank you. You're always like Tom Hanks
[20:54] SPEAKER_00: in Castaway. Tom Hanks was that was that was forced upon him. So this is of my own free will though.
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: And you got the phone booth there. You got the phone booth. Yes, I have the security of the phone booth.
[21:07] SPEAKER_01: Okay, good. Okay, we're going to wrap things up. How can our listeners get whole of you and
[21:11] SPEAKER_01: is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today? Yeah, for sure. So your audience can
[21:19] SPEAKER_00: reach me through LinkedIn. And I also I also check my emails almost constantly. So my email is
[21:27] SPEAKER_00: a AUGGY W-O-N-G-E-R at gmail.com. So those are the those are the two primary ways that they can
[21:34] SPEAKER_00: reach me right now. And last thing listeners is I do hope that you take some time whether or not
[21:43] SPEAKER_00: you decide to invest in real stays. I hope you do take some time, especially for those who are
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: working the nine to five to really think about how it is that you're going to invest your money
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: and make it grow. Because I always feel like it's important to have a second source of income.
[21:59] SPEAKER_00: And you know if you read the statistics, you know a lot of people aren't prepared for
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: comfortable retirement. So I really hope that your audience isn't going to be fallen to that trap.
[22:10] SPEAKER_01: Excellent. Okay, good advice there. Well, Augustine, thank you for coming on the show. I've learned a lot
[22:15] SPEAKER_01: about you and I'm sure our listeners have as well. Thank you very much.
