Laurel Simmons: Alfonso, hello and welcome REITE club nation to the REITE Club podcast. I'm Laurel Simmons, and I have Alfonso Salemi with me. How are you doing?
Alfonso Salemi: Very good. Laurel. It's awesome. I have you co-hosted and we have an amazing interview today. What you can control is how you plan your portfolio and how that legacy that you're leaving all the hard work and learning and podcasts that you're listening to, and thank you for listening to that and all the amount of education you take on and that you go imply and take action and build. You wanna make sure that's in good hands, right? And so when that's taken care of, you don't want taxes and probates and other people managing your assets or benefiting.
Laurel Simmons: It's not about thinking about when you're not here as in after you've died. It's way more than that. It's about, and I think it's about being a responsible business owner. It's about understanding how your personal life and your business life mesh. We're all human beings, right? And we own businesses, we own properties. We are, everything is integrated. So Ryan has really good tips about how you can.
I don't wanna say separate them, but deal with them separately so that it makes it easier for your estate, for your family, for your what, whoever it is. And you know what? I think it just makes it easier for you. You can go to bed at night and realize that, you know what I've done the right thing. I've taken care of things, and that's worth a lot.
Alfonso Salemi: That's right. That peace of mind. And you know what Ryan said was the investment that you make into the team, right? That's what's gonna be that long-term or that structure or that really, even beyond structure, the foundation, right?
The foundation that you're gonna build upon and checking in, what are the short, long, short, medium, and long-term goals that you have? And those are constantly changing as well too. We get into that as well. Really great convo.
Laurel Simmons: You know what, Alfonso, I think we should go right to the interview.
Alfonso Salemi: Let's do it. All right. Welcome to the podcast. Once again, Mr. Ryan Carson. I think you got the lead right now for most podcast appearances. And it's amazing because the service that you provide, from a legal standpoint, from an investor standpoint, the mindset that you got we're super excited to to have you on today.
Ryan Carson: Thanks a lot, Alfonso. Thanks a lot for having me on again.
Laurel Simmons: Thank you. So Ryan, we're gonna talk about a topic that's really, they're so interrelated. We're talking about succession planning and what that means for success in real estate investing. Because a lot of people don't really think about how succession planning can lead to success. For their real estate investing business. So tell us a little bit about why I think a lot of people don't know exactly what succession planning is, so why don't we start there.
Ryan Carson: Succession planning is a fancier way of basically saying wills estates tax planning for your immediate to short and long-term goals. And so on that point, I think if you don't have a foundation of a decent will and powers of attorney that's always layer one or foundation level one that you should have as a minimum, whether you are a real estate investor or even if you aren't a real estate investor those are the things that you'd wanna have.
As a starting point in regards to next level steps, that's really gonna start to flow out of what you actually do for a living, what kind of assets you own, what your short, medium, and long-term goals are. And so in the real estate investor world, it could be things like having that corporate or family trust structure.
Also accompany the wills and powers of attorney and then depending on the tax advice that you would have from your financial and accountant advisors. There could be certain, springboard effects from there for your estate planning. But definitely you wanna have a will and power of attorney just start.
Then from there you'd want to springboard into having some discussions appropriately with your accountant about. What kind of tax planning and estate planning should I be thinking of for my short, medium and long term goals? Short being, next 12 months, 24 months medium being a five year plan, and then 10 plus for long term.
Then maybe like the ultimate goal or plan, which is, if I was no longer an investor or if I was retiring, or if I were to suddenly die. What would I want to happen? Everything that I've been accumulating, that I've been growing, that I've been working with as a real estate investor. To do that kind of planning and have that kind of discussion with your financial advisor, with your tax accountant and your lawyer is a fairly important thing to do. And I think it's something that people can easily lose sight of because they get so affixed on the exciting part, which is the deals.
Trying to land the deals and find the deals and go shopping for the deals and putting the deals together, and then working the deals that you forget to work in the business as opposed to just on the business. And doing that kind of work for yourself can significantly improve and positively impact your success in the real estate business. But in any business.
Laurel Simmons: You were talking about a little bit earlier, actually before we started this recording, you were talking about what you called. So there's a primary and maybe a secondary will? Is that right? But also it's not just that, it's whether it's personal or corporate, cause there's a number of variations there.
Ryan Carson: That it builds off the point I was saying before, you'd wanna have a meeting. Hopefully it'd be a holistic meeting between your lawyer, your tax accountant, and your financial advisor so that everybody's, Driving in the same direction. Everybody's understanding what you're trying to accomplish, what you have accomplished, and where you want to go.
As lawyers, we normally would or at least I would advise our client to say, okay. Have we sat down with a tax accountant who really understands your short, medium, and long-term goals? And hopefully the answer is yes. And if the answer is yes, then the question just becomes okay. What advice are they giving for those short, medium, long-term goals? There's likely gonna be some sort of instruction to put together for the example of real estate investors who are holding corporate structure. So whether it's a three tier system or a one tier or whatever the case is with corporations being in place to operate and hold the real estate property.
Two, you'd want to have in place two, two types of wills. So one will, would some people call it a primary will or a non-corporate will that would deal with all your. Non-business related assets. So your personal investments in the stock market, life insurance, maybe your personal home that you own, your bank account, vehicles, that kind of thing.
But then you'd have a corporate will, or some people call it secondary or non-personal, will they all relate to the same thing, but that corporate will, that would be holding all of your assets and shares and business inventory of your various real estate businesses would then govern all of those assets.
You'd have the, you'd have the non-corporate or their personal will dealing with all of your personal items outside of your real estate investor businesses and then all of your real estate investor businesses that are under either a parent company or an umbrella of corporations. Those would all be listed in the corporate will.
The benefit in doing that is, If you have a secondary will or the corporate will, and you have all of those assets listed within that will, you can bypass what used to be called probate or is now called a state administration. And the ultimate goal being you save yourself some processing and procedure on the passing of the individual.
Then you also save the estate a one and half 5% tax, which on every million dollars of value would equate to $15,000 saved. So there's some procedural, there's some practical, and there's some monetary benefits in arranging at least primary and secondary wills.
Alfonso Salemi: I think, having it in the right coordination like you said, working with other members of the power team that actually see from an all sides of the standpoint that you know, what type of structure you're setting up because the accountant has that same plan and it's all the same plan where everybody's doing their own thing.
You're pulling the legal weight the accountants are pulling their weight, right? Their side of the deal and the financial planners as well. And from people that maybe have the standpoint like, oh, you know what, I just have one property right now. I'm, I don't need to worry about all that.
From the other end of the spectrum of people wanting to scale to Skyscrapers and owning islands and cities, right? And then everyone in between, we notice in our REITE club community and then the REITE club nation, there's all those different types.
Kinda the question, and maybe it's not an easy question, but like, how do you structure that? Like how does that look like in that growth of that? If I was just like a brand new saying, Hey, I'm gonna go and start investing in real estate, should I go with the whole. Kit and caboodle, the nine yards, the corps, the estate, the wills, all that kind of stuff. Go one shot or how does that tickle in throughout the growth? And over that period of time of an investor's life cycle.
Ryan Carson: It's a great question. And it's one that there really isn't obviously a set answer on because everybody everybody's personally different. Everybody deals with business decisions differently, everybody places different priorities on business or aspects of business. I think at the end of the day it comes down to practicality. A lot of people who are getting into real estate investment, it starts out as a secondary source of income or revenue for them. Most people have that primary career still there to give them comfort.
Then as the real estate potentially grows, which it hopefully does it sometimes turns into the primary vehicle of revenue. And or the primary vocation, right? Sometimes people end up saying, oh, I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm just gonna be a real estate investor. And or at that point, maybe they've been wildly successful and they start being a mentor and a coach, as you guys have been able to do at the REITE club So I think it just really boils down to everybody's a little bit different, but I really, I've always liked something that I heard from George of BDO and Peter Tini, where they end, they ended up saying, don't view the lawyer and the accountant and the other members of the power team as a cost.
View them as an investment in your business that you're trying to grow, and the steps you take at the very beginning and the out. We'll pay you huge dividends and spade down the road if you work on it, doing it right from the very beginning. And, so the example of that is, let's say, Alfonso, you were just trying to start your business today, and you're geez, I got five or 10 grand budgeted for this, and I don't want to go below five grand right away just on, the. Lawyer and the accountant together, and then now I only got five grand left.
Like I really only wanna spend like a thousand max on that and then, have nine left over to go and do actual business stuff with. And I get that and I appreciate that because, as a small business owner, everybody's been there right at this, the startup and you're trying to balance practicality and cost and pros and cons. So it really just comes down to what everybody individually is comfortable with. But, another example is maybe this, hits home a little bit clearer here, is you get lots of people asking about corporate structure all the time. Like, when's the good time to do it? Or, corporate Tru Family Trust structures, right?
It's okay, how many properties? And what are you retaining in revenue and so forth, right? And, you get different answers, but the whole thing all boils down back to the same point, which is if you started with zero properties and then all of a sudden in a short period of time, let's call it three to six months, you've got.
Five properties and then all of a sudden you've got another five at a year. So now you're at 10 and just keep growing at this, fairly consistent and aggressive pace. But these are all personally owned and now in, at the end of the year two, after you're 20 properties in, you wanna put corporate structure into it.
The cost to reverse all that back into a corporate structure or family structure is gonna far outweigh. What it would've cost to do the three year or so corporations at the outset. Cause you got land transfer tax per property, let's just say land transfer tax for each one of those 20 properties averaged. Two grand, two, that's a big coin.
Alfonso Salemi: You're setting that up as that one time, and that's gonna continue to be able to pay you like setting that up, that correct way over every deal. It just escalates. If it's three, it's multiple three. If it's five, it's multiple five Every time that you're able to do that.
Ryan Carson: I've really always loved that saying that Peter and George have used at a presentation many years ago that I heard them speak at, which is it's not a cost, it's an investment. And if you view it that way, then it starts you. I think you appreciate it a little bit more and B, you're not as afraid or as standoffish to push it to the side.
Then when you do come around into it because you've gotten to a point where you're further along in your growth and you want to try to have those conversations it's wow, I really wish she just came and saw us at the beginning or early because. This would've been a lot less expensive.
Now it's gonna be astronomically more expensive because you're talking about $2,000 times 20 deals. Whereas, if you did three incorporations at the beginning, yes, it would've cost you, three or $4,000 to put them together, but it wouldn't be, 20 times, $2,000. So you're, it's hindsight is always 2020.
That's why these podcasts, and that's why the REITE club is so great because you get to learn from people who have hopefully made some of these mistakes or gone through some of this and benefiting already from some of this planning and they're trying to pass it along to you so that it's not you're not saying to your yourself I'll just wait, two or three years, 30, 40 properties and then I'll do the incorporation. At that point it could be a bit too late, right? Or, yeah, I'll wait two or three years down the road and then do my estate planning, but. That involves taxes and corporate structure and all this kinda stuff. And now it's never too late, but it's gonna cost you a lot more.
Laurel Simmons: I have a question and I wanna get back to the personal versus the corporate wills. Like I totally understand the personals cause I have a personal will, my husband does, et cetera, et cetera, and get that. And I totally believe that everyone should have a will because as I say to people If you don't decide what you want to do with your property, then guess what the government's gonna decide.
That's what it comes down to, right? But with a corporate will, I'm assuming that they have to go in tandem. So what happens if you have a corporate will? So you have your personal will and it comes into effect, whatever you have, your corporate will. And if there's a conflict between the will, it's like what happens then?
Because things change, right? I'm assuming that you review it every whatever, there's major changes or on a regular basis, what if there's a conflict? Cause I'm a little bit confused about how that works and I'm probably not gonna be the only one.
Ryan Carson: That's a good question. There, actually, if it's done properly, there won't be a conflict. Only because the primary and the secondary will, or the personal and the corporate wills, which, however you want to call it, they all, it's all the same kind of idea in the legal industry. The terminology is just, some people like different vernacular, but they have to speak to one another, so you can't have assets found in the personal.
Will also then carried over into the corporate will. So if we take your example for your situation Laurel as an example, and you come to me and you're like, okay Ryan, I heard your podcast and I've always had a personal will, but I didn't have the corporate. And I think it's a great idea cuz I have several corporate entities and they have assets and value and I'd love to save as much as I can from the government's taxes.
What do I do? So we would sit down and we would review that together. We probably, again, have, hopefully have some discussions with your accountant as well, just to see if there's anything we should know from a tax planning perspective that they would really like to see in place. But let's say they said, no, go ahead.
Everything's good. Just do a personal and a corporate will. We would look at your wishes for all your personal assets, and so your personal will would say, all of the assets that I own at the time of my death, save and accept for corporation A, B, and C are governed by this personal will.
This is the person who's in charge. These are my beneficiaries. These are my alternate beneficiaries. If my beneficiaries die, so that's personal will. So then your corporate will would say everything that is in corporation A, B, and C is governed by this corporate will. And anything outside of my corporation, A, B, and C assets are all governed only by my personal will.
They actually reference one another. So one will say primary personal estate, one will say corporate secondary estate. And so you can make your corporate will. Say anything you wanted, you could, it could say I wanna leave everything to Alfonso, and not to whoever your beneficiary is in your personal will.
They don't have to be the same that way, but they do have to reference one another so that there's not that conflict in law, but they, if what you meant by conflict was, could leave assets to completely different people or some combination of one another. Then they can do that. They will separately carve out your estate into corporate assets and then everything else that's non-corporate.
Alfonso Salemi: Interpersonal. Wow. And yeah, to be clear, we're not advising everybody to leave their wills to Alfonso, but if you want to listen, we're not gonna argue that. But and again, Laurel made a good point, right? Because things do change, right? Once you have one property, or if you have five properties, or then your partners and your JV and then there's maybe some private lending and you have the kind of, and then you know.
There's a variety in your portfolio, right? Even outside of real estate investing, maybe stocks, all this type of stuff is there like a rule of thumb on how, like if it is personal or it is corporate or is that again, depending on, like the tax structure of how it's already current.
Ryan Carson: Is the question more like how do you determine if something is a corporate versus personal asset?
Alfonso Salemi: If I'm saying I'm buying a building, is it on the owner of the building now that can be corporate? Or is it because now like a holding company that I'm a shareholder and owns part of that company? Like it I know it gets sometimes a little bit tricky, but how is it determined that it's. Like the corporate and non-corporate wills, like what, are there some assets that can or can't be in one or the other?
Ryan Carson: Yeah, it's a good question. My experience has always been that the only assets that would arise from being able to be in the corporate will or the secondary or non-personal will, whatever you want to call it, would be assets that are owned by actual corporations.
You couldn't have you couldn't be doing stuff in a partnership, like a true partnership or a non incorporated business, like a sole proprietorship. You need to actually be incorporated. So that's number one. And then number two the corporation and the assets held by that corporation, whether it's through a partnership agreement or a joint venture agreement, or just usually owning the assets of the corporation. Like everything that particular or group of corporations owns. It would be able to go into your secondary will.
Alfonso Salemi: Like we've talked about this with our team now, we've talked to our accountants, we've talked to our financial planners. We've met with you and your team. And so once that corporate, like people sometimes say I don't know. Should I buy it? In the corporation or should I buy and it is their own personal, again, depending on what they have, but what are maybe some of the, from the legal standpoint of why I would or why I wouldn't? Like again, if understanding you're not the account you're not the financial planner, but like why you would say, hey, like I would or wouldn't do this, or the pros and cons.
Ryan Carson: I think the main reason and maybe one of the only reasons you do the two sets of wills is saving tax. You're talking about Tax savings. Every million dollars, like I said, is about $15,000. For some people, they would say that's absolutely worth it. For other people, they might say 15,000 on a million bucks. Really? It's only 1%, so it's a personal decision. But you're saving tax. So that's one main reason to do the primary and secondary wills. Sometimes another main reason would be just ease of processing. So if you put your corporate assets into this corporate will, it doesn't have to go through the process of probate.
The process of probate or state administration as it's called now will take anywhere from a month to the filing and approval with the court could take up to six to nine months. Like Toronto it takes six months. Easy peel region, six months, probably easy. Holton, Hamilton region, maybe some of the other areas like in, in Niagara. You might, you probably could see two, two to four months. Processing time. So that's a period of at least 30 to 60 days up to, potentially, 180 plus where assets are more or less stuck in limbo.
Like the person who was able to deal with them and move them along in the fact that the person died, you're stuck in limbo until you get a probate certificate from the court saying you're the executor, you're appointed by the courts and this will to now deal with these assets, and deal with them as per the will. Whereas if you have all your corporate assets of which all your real estate holdings are under now, you don't have to wait that period of time.
It's all there in the secondary, you just see what the secondary will say so you can get it all dealt with in at least a review of it and set a path of a course of action in 30 days or less. Whereas probate, you're looking at probably at the quickest, at least two to three months.
Laurel Simmons: That wanna be clear though, Ryan, cause all those places you mentioned were Ontario and we're talking about Canada wide. Is that correct? It doesn't matter where you are?
Ryan Carson: Yeah, I would only be able to comment on Ontario because of our licensing, as lawyers we're licensed by provinces. So I can only really probably speak intelligently on Ontario and how the Ontario process would work. The will though, to your point Yes. Could govern your assets. Not only just coast to coast in Canada, but in continental North America and in the world really. Your will, you only theoretically need to have one will. I don't wanna put us down a path of Getting distracted here, but I mean there is some thought about having potential additional wills for assets held in other countries, right?
If you had a whole bunch of properties all owned in, say, Florida, for example, it might be a good idea to make sure you have a will that governs only assets in Florida, right? Or if you were dealing with property, say, in the Middle East, because you had that kind of international investment portfolio.
The Middle East doesn't really go by a traditional English, common law system of law. So it would be, again, a good idea to make sure you have. The appropriate legal documents in place that would be like a will in Canada, but specifically in the Middle East for your Middle Eastern properties, for example.
Laurel Simmons: It sounds like if you have properties and investments of any kind internationally it would be a really good idea to talk to your accountant, who hopefully if they don't have the experience to work. In the international venue at least you can put you in touch with accountants who have experience in those countries or jurisdictions' jurisdictional boundaries.
Then on top of that you want to have lawyers. Who are familiar with the rules and regulations and laws within that country. And if we're talking about, I don't know, a $30,000 little shock in Tennessee, maybe it is not worth it. I don't know. I'm not making any judgments. However, it doesn't take long for properties to add up. And the last thing you wanna do, I would think, is get caught up, especially in a foreign court. Or maybe you don't even know the language.
Ryan Carson: Absolutely. Again it all boils down to, I think the main thing we're trying to get across here too, which is taking the time to plan for your ultimate successes, right? And there's stages of success, but then there's also you, going back to your point of what is succession planning? Succession is dealing with that actual event where we're not gonna live forever. We're still trying to figure that one out. But being a success in business means making sure that you can leave a legacy of hopefully good value and good wealth and good prosperity to whoever you want to leave that to, right?
Whether it's business partners, whether it's family, whether it's community at large or a combination of all those things. Succession is just one chapter of being successful at business. A lot of the real estate investors that are either at the very beginning stage, one of, their journey, or, stage five being like a really experienced and high volume slash /high property individual, somebody who's coaching and mentoring and running a very successful business.
Then you've got levels two, three, and four, all kinda all in between there. This idea of succession planning and sitting down as early in the process as you can. With your lawyer, with your tax accountant, with your financial advisor to say, okay, these are my short, medium, long-term goals I wanna accomplish.
I heard the podcast, they talked about tax structuring and having corporate versus personal wills. So what do I do? So how do I get started and why is it important to me? I think. You wanna ask yourself those kinds of questions as early in the process as you can so that you can take advantage of as many opportunities that are available.
Doing it, as early as stage one is obviously ideal, but it doesn't always work that way. And so you have to try to learn from your mistakes and from others' mistakes and lessons. And then hopefully they bring about as much prosperity free as possible.
Alfonso Salemi: In different stages you're gonna need different things. And for those listeners out there, I don't know, Ryan's a pretty nifty hockey player and he's got some dangles he can skate. But the other thing is you don't need like the $400 hockey stick if you don't even, okay. If you can't even get on the ice and skate yet.
Like you gotta work on those fundamentals. And I try to use that analogy cause I know he's a big hockey fan and I'm missing hockey, right about now. So it's almost playoff time. But you need those things in different stages. You don't want to kill a mosquito with a sledgehammer.
Hopefully that mosquito gets bigger into something and you're gonna need a sledgehammer for that protection, right? And that's why always checking in, making sure that you're adapting along with your business, like Ryan said, working on that, seeing what the short, medium, and long-term plans are and reassessing those because the short-term plan is always the short-term plan.
Until it leads into the medium and then the long, and then you gotta restart again. What's the next short, medium, and long and constantly evolving. So it's good to check in and have a frame of reference to do that.
Ryan Carson: I would just add to that point, Alfonso, which is excellent. Because that's the only constant in life is change. So something's always changing for us. Even if you set really good goals and really good targets and really good processes, things always change. But so one thing I always say to my clients, cause they always say so I put this all in place.
How often do I review it or how often do I check it or when should I be reviewing and checking it? And there's a list of enumerated events that we would give our clients in a reporting letter. Whether it's, somebody got very sick or you got very sick, or there was a very massive, positive gain in your portfolio.
Or conversely a large contraction in it. Those are obviously some triggering events that potentially would require a review. But even if, let's say everything was status quo and it was business as usual and it you were, trucking along on your business plan really well. I always say at your year end when you're filing your taxes, cause you always do that probably the same time every year. Do a review of your will and your succession plan and say, what did I put into place last year and is it still true now? And has anything maybe changed? Oh, we thought we were only gonna buy one or two properties this year and bought 10, and they're not all with the same business partners.
Oh, maybe I should, they're structured differently. They're not all corporate structures, some of them have joint venture agreements tied into them, even though they're with the same corporation. Group of companies they're not, it's not me owning everything through the corporation, like a hundred percent.
There's some JV splits there and things. So it's just stuff like that. Every year, sit down, do a review, have a refresher of a discussion with your lawyer and your accountant. And I think you'd find that you'd be pleasantly surprised by that. You should get out in front of things more often than re reacting to them.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. That's really great advice, Orion. And wow, you've really given us a lot to think about, but now you know what time it is. It's time for the lightning round.
Alfonso Salemi: Ryan, you've been on the podcast a bunch of times, so we don't wanna ask you the same lightning round questions. We're gonna change it up a little bit. So are you okay with that?
Ryan Carson: Sure.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome. All right, so my question for you, the first one is, what's one daily routine that you do that helps for success or helps your day or that just makes, clears your mind or helps you get your task done more efficiently?
Ryan Carson: It's not really a business tool, but one thing I try to do is have as much habit in my daily grind as I can. So I always typically get up at the same time every day. I'm an early riser just because the most fresh, early in the morning, like it is energetic to get jobs accomplished. And so the most important jobs, the ones that I want to get done no matter what that day, particular day, I always try to do as early in the day as possible.
I try to block off a set period of time early in the day. Typically I try to get it done, between five and seven in the morning. That way I know that it gets done. Nobody's gonna be up at that time, or very few people, nobody in my office will be, nobody's gonna be distracting me, and I know that I have a good chunk of time and I can get it done.
That works for me, but it won't work for everybody. The whole point is whenever you find you're the freshest and the most engaged to get work done. Make the tasks that are the most important to you, the ones that you do at that time, and do it. And don't let it be just a once in a while thing. Make it something you do every day.
Laurel Simmons: Okay? That's a great answer. Now, number two. Now this is totally left turn or right turn, depending what you want. Tomorrow morning you wake up and you could be anywhere in the world you wanted to be. Where would it be?
Ryan Carson: On a beach.
Laurel Simmons: Where?
Ryan Carson: It doesn't matter at this point, anywhere on a beach that's gonna be peaceful and relaxing. And I can hear the waves, see nature and have a nice Adult beverage and feel that warm sun on my pale skin. That's what I would want.
Alfonso Salemi: That's awesome. And for those of you listening to the podcast, not watching on YouTube, Ryan's got the virtual background of the palm tree and the waves in the back, and it's just, I keep looking.
I'm like, oh, it's so peaceful. But Yeah to brighter days when we're actually on those beaches, like you said, sipping some sipping some. But alright. So my second and last question for me of the lightning round, who is, so I got kinda like a double-edged question, but what's one business book or one maybe business thought leader that you recommend for somebody to look into or that's maybe made an impact on your thought process about business?
Ryan Carson: I've been involved for the last I think it's a little over a year now, and I got referred to this by a client and colleague and friend who's several years into it. He's three or four years, I think, into the program. It's called Strategic Coach and it's an overall like business growth and development group and association. It's got similar ideas as the REITE Club but on a much broader scale. It's not just about real estate, it's about just business and just professional attitude about trying to 10x your business. I'm right in the middle of that and they give you a tremendous amount of literature.
I would say any literature coming out of them is fantastic. I think it was actually brought up in one of the REITE club events. I think last year somebody talked about, reading up on Colby Index and what the Colby Index means and what it says about you. So I think that would be a great association or group to check out a little bit if you're interested in a 10x type of program that's broader than just say real estate, but it's just more being a professional and professional growth and so forth. Strategic coach and the good part about It has main offices only in Chicago and Toronto.
The fact that Toronto actually gets people flown in from literally all over the world, like Australia, London, middle East, USA , like they come in from everywhere to go to these conferences and the fact that we have 30 minutes from us, if you live in Burlington or Holton region, to go to Toronto that's great.
Anything by them I think is pretty, pretty strong. And worth the look or investment. And then specifically reading up on and learning more about yourself through your Colby Index. It's very interesting and well worth that analysis of yourself as well.
Laurel Simmons: That's great. Now I have one again totally from left field. Get ready. If you could speak to any world leader existing right now in the world, who would that be?
Ryan Carson: Oh boy. That's funny. The first thing that popped in my head would be Donald Trump only So I can tell him what I think.
Alfonso Salemi: I knew, okay, let's take Donald off the table.
Ryan Carson: Hopefully there's not too many Republicans listening. But anyways, that being said, world leader, interesting. And did you say political or Could be anything?
Laurel Simmons: It could be anybody.
Ryan Carson: Past and present?
Laurel Simmons: Obviously Donald Trump. Yeah. I might just like you.
Ryan Carson: That's just so I can tell him.
Alfonso Salemi: He wouldn't listen anyway.
Ryan Carson: Don't wanna ask him anything. I would really like to talk to somebody like Warren Buffet or like Bill Gates, guys who especially like a guy like Bill Gates. He's literally, he literally started from a garage, with nothing like, with relatively nothing. And has become one of the, and you could say wealth, wealthy wealth is measured by, money or assets worth and that kind of thing.
I think it's more than that. I love all his philanthropy and all his charitable endeavors. I love the challenge that he's given out to the top 10 wealthiest people in the world too. Divest 90% of their wealth, upon death, to like charitable endeavors. I just think that kind of person, whether it would be him or any of those top 10 like individuals like Jeff Bezos or it'd just be interesting to talk to them and be like, How did you get here?
Like how did you do this? Like from such humble beginnings, right? Like that to me is mind boggling that people were able to go from one extreme to this other extreme in a lifetime. Like me, that's amazing. It's incredible. And I think the reason I would specifically personally wanna talk to them would be like, the hardest part about being a business owner, an entrepreneur is getting over the fear factor, right?
The factor of oh, if I don't do well at this, I'm gonna fail and I'm gonna lose everything. Or I'm comfortable, I've grown to this point. But to get to this next level I can't be afraid of the fact that it might not work out. Like the jump to the next level might not work out and then I lose whatever I've got at this level, right?
Like it's, that would be really an interesting conversation. And I would love to talk to somebody who was successful, who went from such humble beginnings to such an empire of not just wealth, but philanthropy and just global impact. I think talking to somebody like that would be awesome.
Laurel Simmons: Wow. Good answer. You did come up with a really good answer. That was great.
Ryan Carson: I was just gonna throw out like a hockey guy or something. The hockey metaphor.
Alfonso Salemi: Great one. Talk to the great one. Talk to Wayner. See what he's up to. Number four above your, yeah. Right on. Ryan, I know a lot of the REITE Club Nation already knows you, works with you and loves working with you. But for those of you that for those of the REITE Club Nation that to get ahold of you, what, how, where, how can they find you?
Ryan Carson: Best spot to start would be looking at our website Carsonlaw.ca, www.carson law.ca. All my contact information is online and we're constantly trying to build and put as much. Content on our site and on our different social media. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
The law firm has pages on all those different mediums as well. But the website we try to always present that as our foundation and our springboard for how to find us. And like I said, all my contact information there, email, cell phone number, I'd be happy to take your call or email anytime.
Laurel Simmons: That's great. Thank you so much, Ryan. We really appreciate your time and Wow, you've given us all a lot to think about, I think Alfonso?
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. Thank you so much for being amazing with your time and sharing so many pieces of expertise and besties and seeing you on the beach. Ryan, looking forward to it.
Laurel Simmons: You bet. Have that adult drink for me.
Ryan Carson: Take care. Bye.
Laurel Simmons: Alfonso. Wow. Ryan really had some good advice, didn't he?
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. I can't. I have a whole full page of notes here and like I just really r my conversations. Ryan's been on the podcast several times, and every time that he appears and he comes on and graces us with his time, he's giving us so much information. What was your takeaway, Laura? What was the one thing that you're like, oh, wow, that was great.
Laurel Simmons: You know what, the one thing was it, and he didn't actually say it, but it was he inferred it and it was simply that. Just pick up the phone. And talk get the process going. You're not committing to spending thousands and thousands of dollars. It's a very small price, very small investment, but you're not gonna go anywhere unless you pick up the phone, pick up the phone, call your accountant and pick up the phone and call your lawyer. Whether it's Ryan or somebody else, do it. All it is a phone call.
Alfonso Salemi: That's right. And you know what, a lot of us, we always talk about taking the action, taking the steps, and don't be paralyzed by fear. And, Ryan mentioned that as well too, is that's what a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs fear. So if you pick up the phone and you call and you get an answer, there's this old Chinese proverb and he or she who asks a question is a fool for a minute.
He or she who does not ask the question, is a fool forever. So you need to get over the fear of not being, no one knows everything, whether it's the lawyer, the accountant, whoever that person is, the doctor, the whatever. They're not gonna have every single answer for you.
It is critical to you. And if you wanna take the advice of people that are just telling you what they're doing, that's gonna work for them, right? You have to understand what's gonna work for you, what your situation's about. And again, working on the, for me was the short, medium, and long term goals and how they're constantly evolving and the short turns into the medium and the medium long and then kinda replaces and replenishes and keeps that journey going.
Laurel Simmons: It's all about setting that foundation because as you said, if you set up your corporate will or your dawn personal will, however, it's whatever the vernacular was that you used is the foundation. And then once you've got it set up, If you can add it or change it, but it's set up so if something does happen, you're taken care of. It's really not. When he talked about it, I went, it was like, oh my God. That's a no brainer, right?
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. Yeah again Ryan Carson from Carson Law. He's in Burlington, Ontario, but he gave out the website, get in touch with him, reached out, and he's there to help. He's an amazing, trusted partner and amazing contributor to the REITE club. So thank you, Ryan, for being on the podcast and thank you to the REITE Club nation. The listeners, the many followers that we have and the people that are encouraging us to keep it going, keep growing and and bring on more challenging questions and people that we want to grow together through all those different things. Laurel, what do we want everybody to do?
Laurel Simmons: I think it's four words. It is "come grow with us". Yes. Bye everybody.
Alfonso Salemi: Bye. See you next time.
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