James Dmytriw is a real estate investor with an educational background that includes a degree in Environmental Design, specializing in Landscape and Urbanism from the faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. He is extremely involved in Building Science and Building Envelope Construction and is passionate about helping homeowners reduce energy consumption across Canada and the world. He is a professional Energy Evaluator and a Home Inspector. Currently, James is involved in the affordable energy program with Manitoba Hydro where he goes to applicant’s houses and evaluates the houses for eligibility.
Find out more about James Dmytriw online at:
www.jamesdmytriw.com
Stefan Aarnio: Ladies and gentleman welcome to the show, Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. We are the show where we interview people who’ve achieved mastery and freedom though discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who’s achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there. Today on the show I have a good friend of mine James D. James D is well-known. He’s a Canadian real estate entrepreneur. Really taken a rise in the buy-fix-sale space in Canada, in Winnipeg. James D welcome to the show, Respect The Grind. Thank you so much for joining me.
James Dmytriw: Hey man. Thanks for having me.
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah, and I see you’re doing it live from of your flips, which is amazing.
James Dmytriw: I am.
Stefan Aarnio: You’ve some art. Why don’t you show the people at home, just spin around a little bit. You know, your property that you’re standing in. Now James, for people at home who don’t know you, what and who is James D? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
James Dmytriw: What and who is James D? So, James D is a full-time real estate professional entrepreneur who is flipping about 30 houses a year right now in Winnipeg.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow.
James Dmytriw: And we’re doing everything from $200,000 houses to $1.1 million houses right now.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow, and that’s incredible. Now, I’m from Winnipeg, you’re from Winnipeg. Average home in Winnipeg is about 320,000 or so. So if you’re doing a $1.1 million home, that’s four times the median home. So you’re doing starter homes, you’re doing trade-up homes, you’re doing luxury homes. People at home are probably wondering how’d you get started in this kind of thing?
James Dmytriw: How did I get started? That’s a great question. So, before I was an entrepreneur and learning how to do all this, I was a home inspector and I was seeing a lot of guys that were doing renovations, rentals, apartment buildings, rooming houses, all kinds of very interesting investments are making them money, and just doing it consistently full-time. So I’d see some guys two or three times a week and ask, “What are you doing? How are you doing it?” And they said, “Just learn about real estate investing and that’ll get you started.” My path led me to you. We’ve known each other for what, three years now? I think it’s about three years.
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah, three years or something. So you went … You were inspecting homes for other people. You were looking at rooming houses and rentals and all this stuff, and then you went out and you started looking … What were you looking for? Education, mentorship, coaching, help? What were you looking for?
James Dmytriw: I was looking for how do I start doing it. So, mentoring, education, money, houses, the whole kit and caboodle all at once.
Stefan Aarnio: Awesome. We’ve been working together for a couple years and it’s been going well.
Stefan Aarnio: Now James, what was life like before you got started? Today you’re flipping million dollar houses. You got 30 houses on the go, which is huge in Canada by the way. In Canada, with our crappy little markets it’s very, very difficult to do that level of business in this country. What was life like before you bought into real estate and achieved success?
James Dmytriw: Life was stressful. As a contractor I was going from job to job and had no consistent income. I just graduated university, my wife, who is a medical professional, was making way more money than I was, and we weren’t really … We were scraping by. Like we were doing okay but it was really hard. So, life before being an entrepreneur was stressful in a different way than it is now. Worried about money, worried about family, worried about … That’s all it was, was just worries. One big worry, one big problem, one big … and no idea how to get out of it.
Stefan Aarnio: So what’s the difference between the worries before? You’re talking about worry, about money and things. I’m of the sentiment that the worries don’t really go away, they just change to different types. What are some of the problems you used to have, and what are the problems you have now?
James Dmytriw: So the problems I used to have were, how do we pay the bill? How do we pay for insurance? Usually things that we had to pay for. How do we go on this trip? How do we enjoy life when you’re living on a shoe string? … Not necessarily a shoe string budget, but you’re maxed out. You’re maxed out, you’ve got all your debts pulled, and you’re trying to do something and you can’t even do it because you don’t know where your next meal’s going to come from. That’s exactly how it was.
James Dmytriw: Now, my problems are, “Okay, we’ve got a deal, we’ve got an opportunity coming up, we have to raise the money for, we have to get the contractor involved, we have to put it on the market,” all that other stuff. So the worries have become much bigger in the sense that now it’s, “How are we going to put this thing together? How are we going to make it happen?” The nice thing is, is that time and time again, with the track record that we have, they just keep putting it together, just keep putting people, deals, and money together like that.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow. Well, that’s incredible.
Stefan Aarnio: Now James, why did you choose real estate of all things? It seems to me that a person can make money in any business. Why real estate out of all things?
James Dmytriw: So, I was just listening to Dan’s podcast with you guys, and he was talking about being good with his hands. I came from a very similar background where my dad taught me how to do renovations, and was a very handy guy and did a lot of stuff by himself. So, that’s what I did. I learned how to build things and organize teams, and real estate investing seemed natural to me because I knew a lot about construction in general. Knew nothing about business, which I learned mostly from you, so thank you. Knew nothing about how to find houses, money, contractors, and put it all together. But I knew how to swing a hammer. Now … Well, now I don’t swing a hammer, I just run business.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s fantastic. That’s a real change.
Stefan Aarnio: So James, let me ask you this, what are some of the mind shifts you had to go through? As you know, I meet people all the time, they’re like, “Man, I can swing a hammer. Man, I can paint. I can flip a house,” which may or may not be true. What’s the mind shift between the guy who can swing a hammer and the guy who’s flipping 30 houses, because that’s a huge gap. That’s a huge success story.
James Dmytriw: The mind shift. I was sitting down with someone a little while ago who said to me, “All the money is made by doing it yourself.” And I said to him-
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah, how much money does that guy have?
James Dmytriw: It’s not a lot. He was doing maybe two deals a year. He was doing two flips a year with him and maybe another person, two other people, whatever.
Stefan Aarnio: So he’s working 4,000 hours a year too. He’s working 80 hours a week to flip those two houses.
James Dmytriw: Exactly. So I said to him, “Well, if you’re doing that, and you’re in the house, and I’m out finding a house to sell you, and I’m making $1,000 an hour, and you’re making $15 an hour, who’s going to end up with more money at the end of the day?” I said, “That’s the difference, is the skills to be able to find what you’re looking for.”
Stefan Aarnio: Right. So there’s skills, there’s mindset, that’s incredible.
Stefan Aarnio: Now James, how did you go … I coached you years ago, first year I think you did what, six houses? Six deals?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, six houses.
Stefan Aarnio: Second year you did what? 16 houses the second year?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, we did 16, yeah.
Stefan Aarnio: And third year you’re doing 30, right? So three years in the business, you’re doing 30 houses now. Tell me a little bit about the changes from six first year, which is a great first year, to 16, which is a great second year, to 30 in your third year. Tell me about ABC. What’s the changes there in between those three years?
James Dmytriw: Well, the first year I spent a lot of time learning. When I was with you originally, we signed up to do one deal, one buy-fix-sell. During that experience I learned the transactional parts of the business, which is finding it, organize the contractors, raising the money and getting it done. So the first year I spent of my time just organizing, essentially the money and the contractors, and not spending a lot of time finding other product, or knowing how to find new product. So that was the first year, while working a full-time job, while having a newborn, which was a whole, whole ‘nother thing, being a family man and having to run a business that was six deals a year on top of being a contractor. It was pretty tough.
James Dmytriw: Come the end of that first year, I looked at the business and how it was going, and I wasn’t too happy with it, because I thought, “Why aren’t we doing 12 deals a year? Why are we only going six? What’s the difference, what’s the difference?” I remember having this conversation with you. You said, “Well, you haven’t paid enough to be able to do that business.”
Stefan Aarnio: Right, you haven’t paid enough to do that many in that amount of time. Right, you want to be a superstar today, while you ought to train. So tell me about that conversation some more.
James Dmytriw: So that conversation, you and I were sitting down in Rae & Jerry’s here in Winnipeg, and we did six deals. I told my wife, “Stefan wants to sit down and have lunch with us.” And she said to me verbatim, she said, “He’s going to sell you on doing the next level of coaching.” And I said, “Yeah.” She said, “Good, I think you should.”
Stefan Aarnio: Whoa, the supportive wife [crosstalk 00:10:41], whoa. For all the guys at home, I talk to guys all the time. They have the unsupportive wife, so your wife was supportive. Because you were successful at doing the six deals, she said, “Go to the next level.” Is that why?
James Dmytriw: I would assume so. I’m not one to say that I know my wife, and I’m sure that she would say the same thing. But I would assume that would be correct.
Stefan Aarnio: It’s always interesting, the husband-wife dynamic. Somebody always wants to do it, somebody always doesn’t. It depends on … If the man’s successful, he can call the shots. But if he’s not a success, then his wife’s babysitting him and saying, “Hey, no, no, no, no. You can’t do that, you screwed up these last four things.”
Stefan Aarnio: You there, James?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, I’m here.
Stefan Aarnio: Okay. I just lost your video for a sec.
Stefan Aarnio: And if she says, “You sucked at those last four things, so you can’t do this fifth thing.” But if you’re winning, she says, “Hey, just bring it home.”
Stefan Aarnio: Okay, so remember, I think I sat you down, I said, “James, stop being a little bitch, and let’s just do this.”
James Dmytriw: Yeah, verbatim, yeah. I think that’s exactly what you said.
Stefan Aarnio: “Stop being a little bitch.” So tell me about … What are some things you had to let go to stop being a little bitch?
James Dmytriw: Well, I remember … I think it was about a month and a half after we decided to go to the next level, and there was an opportunity to buy three houses at once. And I said, “Well, I’m just going to buy one.” And you said to me, “No. You’re buying all.” You have to do 12 houses this year, so you’re buying all three of these today, right now.” That was pretty much the … I want to say the experience throughout the whole process. It was just understanding that in order to do a larger volume, well guess what, you’ve got to get out of your head and you’ve got to do a larger volume.
Stefan Aarnio: Right.
James Dmytriw: You want to do a million dollar flip, great, let’s do a million dollar flip. But you’ve got to say yes to it first. You want to find more investors, you want to do all this stuff, well guess what, man, you got to go out and you’ve got to raise [inaudible 00:12:44] for it. The one thing that I realized and I keep realizing is now we’re doing flips, I’ve got an assistant who is doing a lot of my business without me, which is great.
Stefan Aarnio: Is that Dakota?
James Dmytriw: That’s Dakota.
Stefan Aarnio: Okay, interesting. We’re going to have to talk about that too. So you’ve got a guy working for you. Now do you say he’s an assistant or he’s an acquisition person?
James Dmytriw: Well, he’s in acquisitions, and he also does everything else that I need him to do. He’s essentially a very little, very little version of me-
Stefan Aarnio: A mini-me.
James Dmytriw: … just less good looking, right?
Stefan Aarnio: Oh, I don’t know, man. Maybe we’ll put a picture of him up for the people on video.
James Dmytriw: Sure.
Stefan Aarnio: Hard to say, you’re both handsome men.
James Dmytriw: Yeah. Now the business has changed to the point where I am not just doing flips. We’re also raising money for a cannabis company. We’re also raising money, we’re syndicating money for a friend of mine who’s doing some acquisitions out in Regina for land. We’re looking at larger deals that are much more complex. So him taking that step and me following behind making sure that everything is getting done properly and moving to another level is really changed what my business is and what we do on a daily basis. Like we talked before, it’s just different problems now.
Stefan Aarnio: Different problems. Okay. Fantastic.
Stefan Aarnio: So here’s a big step for a lot of people with their businesses, you’re sole [inaudible 00:14:18] and you start out. You’re by yourself, James, you’re doing it yourself, that kind of thing. Tell me about the step of getting your first person working with you, the Dakota … who interestingly used to work for me at one point. Then I think he quit my office, went and folded underwear at The Bay for a while, and started cutting lawns, and then he came and worked for you. Tell me about that step of having zero employees, and then you got someone in-house. What’s that like?
James Dmytriw: Well, he wasn’t actually my first employee. I actually had another acquisitions person who did along the lines the same stuff, just not nearly as efficient or consistently. I went through the experience of having a really … I wouldn’t say bad employee, but someone that I wasn’t very good at managing and leading. Because at the end of the day, that’s all it is, is managing and leading these people. If you can do it properly, they’re going to have results. It’ll take time, but it’ll have results. So after letting her go and having Dakota jump on, I understood that there needs to be a bigger purpose for them to be a part of the company, for them to be a part of everything that I do. Part of my life. To show up. If something needs to get done, it needs to get done now, what is their motivation for showing up? What is their motivation? Just like with a regular vendor. You’re talking with a vendor, they want to sell because their husband passed away or whatever, you need to figure out, okay, well the husband passed away, they can’t afford the house. They got to sell the house, I’m here to buy the house, we can solve each other’s problems.
James Dmytriw: So much in the same way I’ve been treating Dakota, my assistant, as someone that I need to understand his motivation. So now that we understand each other, he’s producing quite a lot. His relationships with other realtors, with other wholesalers, with other contractors, with even money partners has gone up to a level that I never would have expected, because I understood that he wants to be me.
Stefan Aarnio: Okay, that’s interesting. So should you be hiring people who want to be you?
James Dmytriw: I don’t know. It’s been working out really well. And that’s a long-term question. Ideally is it good to have someone come onboard that will eventually take over the business, will eventually run it without you there? Getting approval for major decisions, stuff like that. But is it worth it? At this point, I would say yes. Absolutely. Every day of the week.
Stefan Aarnio: Fantastic. [crosstalk 00:17:06]
James Dmytriw: Will that change? Don’t know.
Stefan Aarnio: I think what you’ve done there, James, is you’ve got a really good small little team. Dakota, I remember I hired him back then because he had a great spirit. He’s a hungry, hungry young guy, and you got him, I think, at the right maturity level, and certainly you’re doing very well with him.
Stefan Aarnio: Now let me ask you this, switching gears, James, did success change you, or did you have to change to become successful?
James Dmytriw: I had to change to become successful.
Stefan Aarnio: Tell me about some of the changes you had to go through to become a success.
James Dmytriw: Okay, we’ll start out with that second year that you and I were talking about when I had the 16 deals, and understanding that in order to get more you have to go out and get more. What changed in me is understanding that I have to share more, I have to learn more. I have to constantly be doing more to get more. If you’re looking for $150,000 sell house or you’re looking for a $1.1 million sell house, and anything in between, you have to understand that they all fit in the same category. Just like any business, if you have a business model that applies to whatever you’re doing, then you have to understand how it fits. What I was doing was, I understood everything from a construction background when I first started, and now I see everything as a business opportunity, as an opportunity to raise money, or make money, or help someone, and making it all happen in that regard. So what changed is my perspective on being selfish. I know that sounds weird, but I used to think, “What’s in it for me,” now I say, “What’s in it for you?”
Stefan Aarnio: We’re getting juicy now. This is a juicy big topic. Let’s talk about that spiritual shift from looking to take versus looking to give. Tell me more about this, James, because this is big stuff, man. This is big foundational shifts, and I talk about it a lot in my book Money, People, Deal, about creating more and sharing. Tell me about the ‘what’s in it for you’ mentality, versus ‘what’s in it for me.”
James Dmytriw: I’m sitting down with a guy who … He’s well-known in the city, he’s got a lot of stuff going on. The whole conversation was him telling me about his problems. I said, “How can I help you with those problems?” He said, “Well, you can make me more money.” And I said, “Great, let’s make you more money.” Boom, investor. He became one of my money partners.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow.
James Dmytriw: The ‘what’s in it for you’ mentality, the ‘what can I get you? How can I serve you? How can we have a relationship where we’re working well together?’ That mentality, and that … not even understanding, because I would say that I haven’t mastered it at all yet, because I’ve only been doing this for a few years … is what’s taken us to another level. We’ll, it’s taken my business to another level, was what brought a lot of different opportunities outside of real estate invest, outside of thinking about what a good father is, what a good husband is, what a good son is. All those things. I think about it right now, and I’m thinking to myself, “Okay, if you’re thinking about how can I help someone else, you’ll have more gratitude from them, and you’ll feel better as a person in general, and you’ll get more out of that relationship.”
Stefan Aarnio: You put in more, you get out more. That’s-
James Dmytriw: Yeah, you put money in the bank and you sit it in a savings account, and you will get out more.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow, I love that, James.
James Dmytriw: It’s just like everything else.
Stefan Aarnio: I love that, James. That’s a huge spiritual law that I think the rich, poor, middle-class have different mentalities. I think the poor are always looking to get. You see them on the street, they’re begging, “Give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me.” The rich, really, it’s the Robert Kiyosaki idea, is the rich are more generous. They’re giving. They’re letting people rent their houses, they’re letting people use their ideas, they’re letting people work in their companies and they’re giving, giving, giving all the time. Real interesting shift, man. I love that.
Stefan Aarnio: Let me ask you this, James, what’s more important, having a great brand or having a great business?
James Dmytriw: Having a great brand.
Stefan Aarnio: Tell me about your brand and how you’re building your brand right now.
James Dmytriw: So, right now we’re building our brand to be focused on high-end, good quality homes. So that’s the brand. How we’re achieving that is by doing the things that not a lot of guys in my industry, in our industry, will do, and that’s whole apartments. That’s having a scope of work for the end buyer. That’s even giving a warranty. Now that’s something I’m in the works, because warranty on a buy-fix-sell house that’s 100 years old, that’s a very weird thing to do.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s tough, man, because a lot of that stuff isn’t even yours. It’s been there for 100 years.
James Dmytriw: Exactly. So how do with justify it? So my brand, Kingsley Wallace, the company that I founded, has been focusing on how do we get people in the door buying our houses before they hit the market, based on our branding alone?
Stefan Aarnio: That’s hot, I love it.
James Dmytriw: That’s what I’ve been focusing on a lot, is understanding, what does the buyer actually want? Well, the buyer wants a house that isn’t going to fall down, that they don’t got to worry about fixing costs. Letting other people know, “Look, we’re marketing this product for a specific client, and this product, you can be assured, because it is a Kingsley Wallace product.”
Stefan Aarnio: I love it. That’s fantastic.
Stefan Aarnio: So James, in the same vein, what … Every entrepreneur has an obsession. They have something that they go to bed thinking about, they wake up in the morning thinking about, what’s your obsession?
James Dmytriw: I’ve got two, actually. The first one is doing my best to be a really, really, really good dad. Exceptional father. That’s one of the things, exceptional in family. So I go to bed thinking about how much time am I going to spend with my family today? How much time do I get to go spend at the end of the day? What are we doing that day? How are we getting more out of life? So that [inaudible 00:24:35] off to my next point, which is: I need a lot of money to fund that. We want to go on trips, if we want to go on [inaudible 00:24:41]. Just enjoy life if we want to go somewhere. If we want to do something. So my two obsessions are spending time with my family, and then my second obsession is finding a house to buy.
James Dmytriw: I love buying homes. I love that feeling, sitting in the office, signing it down with the lawyer. That is my obsession, is we need to hit that 30-deal mark. We need to hit that. That is something that is going to happen.
Stefan Aarnio: Awesome, I love the energy.
Stefan Aarnio: Now James, what motivates you to be great at what you do?
James Dmytriw: What motivates me to be great at what I do?
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah.
James Dmytriw: Oh boy, that’s a good one. I guess building a legacy for my family. At the end of the day with-
Stefan Aarnio: What’s a legacy?
James Dmytriw: What’s a legacy? Well, having the ability to pass down this business to my son and understanding that come … whatever happens to him in life, that he will always have the option to take over the business. He’ll always have the option to do what I do, and learn from the skills that I’ve learned so that he can be successful no matter what. To master those skills of negotiating, and selling, and marketing, and branding, so that I can pass that on to him. I can pass it on to him as not only someone that does it well, but someone that has taught others to do it as well.
Stefan Aarnio: So this is tremendous. So you invested in a little seed called education three years ago. This little magic beanstalk. This little seed, and it’s grown into a beanstalk. You climbed the beanstalk, James, you’re a developed entrepreneur. Now you’re talking about passing on that education, passing on the company, the legacy to your son. That is … It sounds like the best investment you ever made in your life.
James Dmytriw: I would agree with that.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s tremendous.
Stefan Aarnio: What’s … Switching gears, what’s one moment you thought you’d fail?
James Dmytriw: Oh god. One moment.
Stefan Aarnio: One moment, yeah. One moment. What are you talking about? I’m bipolar, every day I think I’m going to fail. Oh my god.
James Dmytriw: Yeah. If I don’t think I’m going to fail, it means that I know that I won’t succeed. So it’s a constant battle. Every day. Every day I think at some point, “All right, is this actually going to happen? Is this actually going to work?” I try not to think fearful, but it’s definitely one of my weaknesses and so the way that I get past that is seeing what we’ve done, showing people what we’ve done, having conversations like this, pushing myself even further, meeting other investors who are doing more things than I am. Like yourself.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s awesome.
Stefan Aarnio: What … Now, the entrepreneur has this mindset, it’s like, “I’m a genius, I’m an idiot. I’m a genius, I’m an idiot. Oh my god, I’m winning, I’m going to lose.” What do you think causes most people to fail?
James Dmytriw: Causes most people to fail … I would say action.
Stefan Aarnio: Action.
James Dmytriw: Taking action. Actually doing it. Getting out there. On a weekly basis, we’re talking to 75 realtors.
Stefan Aarnio: 75 a week?
James Dmytriw: 75 a week.
Stefan Aarnio: Good for you.
James Dmytriw: That’s not including meetings, and houses, and offers, private leads, private marketing, hiring other people to do all that stuff, meeting other contractors to have maintenance done on the properties, let alone the contractors that are actually renovating them. When I think about it, it’s a pretty big business. I would say that a lot of people fail because they just decide not to go and do those small little things on a daily basis, to implement habits that force you to deliver and market, and have those meetings. Those little, tiny things that seem meticulous and not worth doing are usually the ones that take you to another level. So I would say action is the biggest thing that holds people back.
James Dmytriw: So inaction would be the thing that I would say causes people to fail. I’ve seen that in a couple people that I’ve talked to as a coach, that a lot of inaction forces them to stay stuck, to stay in the world they’re in and not progress to a level that I’m at.
Stefan Aarnio: Right, and you do some coaching for me. We’ve given you a small book of students to take through my curriculum and coach, because you’ve been successful at it. Now, it’s interesting, with people there’s a … This is just human statistics, about half the people just do nothing when they sign up for a program, whether it’s a university or whether it’s a cooking class, or whether it’s … whatever it is, real estate investing. Half the people just do nothing. Why do you think half of the people do nothing?
James Dmytriw: Because they fear. They have a lot of fear. A lot of fear, a lot of pride, they don’t think that they can have enough money, or have enough time. The big four.
Stefan Aarnio: What are the big four? Tell me about the big four.
James Dmytriw: Money, pride … sorry. Lack of money, too much pride, not enough time, and I’m forgetting the fourth one.
Stefan Aarnio: Time, money, fear, pride.
James Dmytriw: Time, money, fear, pride.
Stefan Aarnio: Time, money, fear, pride. You got to ask, which one is you? James, you’re a successful guy, and I love talking to successful guys. Out of the time, money, fear, pride, what do you think holds you back the most?
James Dmytriw: Oh, that one’s easy, fear.
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah, fear.
James Dmytriw: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Stefan Aarnio: So getting dark, what do you fear the most, or what’s the fear that goes through your mind sometimes?
James Dmytriw: I fear that I’m doing to die and no one’s going to know who I am. I’m going to-
Stefan Aarnio: Ooh. Fear of legacy.
James Dmytriw: … just going to poof, gone. That’s it. There is no nothing.
Stefan Aarnio: Wow, that is-
James Dmytriw: So I want to leave my mark.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s interesting, man. I think that that’s a real deep thing. We get deep with a lot of people on this show, a lot of successful people like yourself, but fear of just disappearing and being forgotten one day, I think that is a sign of success. A lot of people end up, especially after achieving success, they end up going to legacy, or they want legacy. So I think that’s fantastic that you’re trying to create something that’s going to outlast you. Fantastic, James.
Stefan Aarnio: All right, next question here. What are the top three books that changed your life?
James Dmytriw: Think and Grow Rich is definitely the top.
Stefan Aarnio: I was going to say, that’s the number one. Everybody, everybody hits on Think and Grow Rich when they come on this show.
James Dmytriw: The weird thing is is that I didn’t start thinking I needed to have more in life until my son was born. I stumbled upon Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That would probably be number two. Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Stefan Aarnio: Rich Dad, Poor Dad, yeah.
James Dmytriw: And then you know, Stefan. You know I got to say it, man.
Stefan Aarnio: What are you going to say?
James Dmytriw: Money, People, Deal.
Stefan Aarnio: Money, People, Deal, what do you mean one of my books made it?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well of course one of your books made it. It was … I think it was the second book … No … Yeah, the second book that I started reading that opened up my mind to real estate investment. Because Rich Dad, Poor Dad was the first one. And Think and Grow Rich I keep reading, because every time I read it it’s different.
Stefan Aarnio: Oh buddy, it’s huge. It’s huge. Some people read that book every year for their whole life. It’s the map, it’s the map.
James Dmytriw: I’ve read it three times and I’ve been doing this for three years. I can appreciate that.
Stefan Aarnio: Now I got to ask you this, James, not just because I’m the author of Money, People, Deal, but everybody, says Think and Grow Rich, everybody says Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Everybody says those two books. How the heck does a little old crappy book from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Money, People, Deal get on the list with the greats like Napoleon Hill and Robert Kiyosaki? What was it about Money, People, Deal that makes it onto the list? I’m sure you’ve read hundreds of books by now.
James Dmytriw: So, that’s an interesting question. It’s a tough question for me to answer.
Stefan Aarnio: For the people at home, I didn’t know what book you were going to say, and I’m not paying him. People always think, “Oh, he must be paying him.” No dude, I’m not paying you jack. Legitimately, you’re saying that Money, People, Deal. I didn’t think you were going to say that, and I’m curious to know what about that book makes the list, because the other two are [gimmes 00:35:14]. Everybody says those two. Money, People, Deal, tell me about it.
James Dmytriw: So, it’s pretty simple, actually. I’ll try my best to answer that question, but it’s simple. When I started doing this, because it’s what started me in real estate was reading and understanding the business. Money, People, Deal is a blueprint for doing real estate investing. It is a blueprint. It’s very simple, it’s a blueprint. It’s from your experience, firsthand. Understanding how to structure a joint venture deal, how to bring people to the table. Understanding your value as an entrepreneur at the table once you have two of three pieces, and then implementing it. That’s why, because at the time, I wasn’t thinking, “How do I get from this mountain to the next mountain?” I was thinking, “Jeez, there’s a mountian? I didn’t know there was a mountain here.” So Money, People, Deal was the way that I started climbing the mountain. Real estate investings, how I started climbing that mountain.
James Dmytriw: Now I have, not necessarily a lot of free time, but I have more life, more money, more gas in the tank. We want to do something, we just go and do it.
Stefan Aarnio: Okay. I love that, man. I love it. I think it’s great. Finding the map, finding the blueprint. I don’t know, have you ever read, I think it’s Richest Man in Babylon. You ever read that book?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, liked that one too.
Stefan Aarnio: They talk about, in Richest Man in Babylon, would you rather have a pot of gold or a clay tablet with knowledge? They say well, if you’re going for the pot of gold, one day you’ll be broke, but if you go for the clay tablet of knowledge, one day you get the gold. That’s what those books are, that’s fantastic.
Stefan Aarnio: All right, so second final question here on the show. James, what is the one thing that young people, the millennials, Generation Z, what do these people need to succeed these days?
James Dmytriw: Man, that is a question. There’s a bunch of things. Understanding that success takes time. Things take time. Things take effort. Things … You don’t just become a master by thinking about doing something, you become a master by doing it over and over and over and over and consistently doing it. That’s the one challenge I find. People even our age, we’re technically millennials. We’re not really millennials, but we’re technically millennials, and I find that a lot of guys my age, that I know, that I’ve pushed past because they’re not in the same realm that we are, that I am anyway. It’s always about instant gratification. It’s always about, “I want the glory as fast as I can get it.” That’s not how life works. It’s work, and it’s being stubborn, and it’s pushing past obstacles, and understanding that there’s going to be obstacles. I would say that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed. [crosstalk 00:38:36]
Stefan Aarnio: So would you say it’s just respecting the grind, then?
James Dmytriw: It’s respecting the grind, then. Twice, nice! Well done.
Stefan Aarnio: You just got to Respect The Grind. That’s the name of this show, man.
Stefan Aarnio: I think it’s really interesting you’re saying that, because I think the young people, they don’t know what the grind is. Their grandparents knew what the grind is. Maybe their parents did. But not the young people today, we’re born with too much … Kids these days have been given too much stuff and we got lazy, and there’s two things. There’s respecting the grind, which is hard work, and then at some point you got to get into the ‘do less,’ which is leverage. I think right now you’ve been grinding, and grinding, and grinding, and now by having other people you’re getting into the ‘do less,’ which is the next step after the grind. The grind can take you so far, but at some point you can’t grind anymore. You can only grind so many hours a day. You need to reach that leverage and do less.
James Dmytriw: Yeah, I do-
Stefan Aarnio: That’s fantastic.
Stefan Aarnio: James, is there any resource you can recommend for people starting out wanting to follow a path like yours?
James Dmytriw: Well, those four books that you’ve been talking about are great resources. I would recommend all your books, and I often do. Getting a time management tool. I don’t know if The High Performance Journal that you’ve created is on here, but it should be. That’s an amazing little tool when you actually use it.
Stefan Aarnio: How’s your journal going? Are you using a journal every day?
James Dmytriw: I’m trying to do it every day. It’s definitely a challenge for me, but it’s going pretty well. I just finished one book, or just about finished.
Stefan Aarnio: [crosstalk 00:40:18]
James Dmytriw: I’m just about finished my first one, yeah.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s tremendous, man. I got my whole team on The High Performance Journal right now, and The Black Book, so everybody has to use both. If you’re on my team, no questions asked they have to buy it too. What’s great about it is, we’re just finishing up our first 90 days on the journal, and everybody on the team has just about hit their goals on time. Their personal goals for their life and their business goals.
James Dmytriw: Nice.
Stefan Aarnio: Which is amazing, because the power of writing it down is amazing. My goals … I got my personal goals on my journal. Everything is hit, and it’s within about a 10-day variance right now for me. It’s all hit, hit, hit. I don’t do the journaling every day. I’m lazy, I forget it, I do all these things. But the goals are set and the intention’s set. When it’s set and it’s written down, and you know where it is, you know how to access it, it happens, right?
James Dmytriw: Yeah, I agree with that.
Stefan Aarnio: Fantastic. Do you have Dakota on the journal too?
James Dmytriw: I have everybody that I know on the journal.
Stefan Aarnio: Good man. Love it.
Stefan Aarnio: All right man. Well great, how can people get in touch with James D if they want to get in touch with you?
James Dmytriw: They can check us out on KingsleyWallace.com. They can go to Facebook and check out the webpage on that. If they really want they can reach out and get my phone number through private message. Other than that, that’s the best way to get in touch with me.
Stefan Aarnio: Awesome, James. Respect The Grind. Thanks for being on the show, buddy. Really appreciate your success, and you just keep going up, up, up. Great to know you.
James Dmytriw: Bye for now, my friend.
Stefan Aarnio: Thank you.
Stefan Aarnio: Hey. It’s Stefan Aarnio here, thank you for listening to another episode of my podcast, Respect The Grind. Now, if you liked the content on this podcast today, you are going to love my new book, Hard Times Create Strong Men. Now, we live in an age right now where the men have become weak. Society had become weak. The mindset has become weak. What does it mean to be a man? Now, whether you’re a man or a woman, you’re going to find value in this book, Hard Times Create Strong Men, which reveal the philosophy and the power of what it takes to be strong in today’s market economy. Go ahead and get a copy of Hard Times Create Strong Men at HardTimesStrongMen.com/podcast. That’s going to give you a special offer just for podcast listeners that’s HardTimesStrongMen.com/podcast. Get the book, you’re going to love it. It’s going to change the way you think.
Stefan Aarnio: I’m Stefan Aarnio, Respect The Grind. We’ll see you on the next episode.
