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If you're looking for success, efficiency, and scalability in your business and investing pursuits, then you need to check out this episode. Gillian Irving shares her recipe for diversifying and juggling multiple entrepreneurial activities...
If you're looking for success, efficiency, and scalability in your business and investing pursuits, then you need to check out this episode. Gillian Irving shares her recipe for diversifying and juggling multiple entrepreneurial activities successfully, including finding the right people and frameworks to follow,
In this episode you will learn:
"For me, the willingness and the desire to invest in a franchise made great sense. I could leverage my skills in certain areas, and then leverage the things I didn't know were something that existed already."
Gillian Irving provides listeners with an inside look at the advantages of franchising and how it can be used to ease into a new business venture. She also touches on her personal experience with franchising, including why she chose to franchise Sky Zone and how it has helped her grow as an entrepreneur.
Gillian Irving is a real estate investor and entrepreneur who knows the value of diversification and being nimble in today's market. She shares her insights on how to juggle multiple businesses successfully, why student rentals are a great investment, and how to use others' paths to success.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
Gillian Irving, a mother of four, likes to say she was an “accidental investor” when buying a duplex in downtown Toronto in 2009 with little planning or preparation.
But she realized ‘luck’ was not going to be a long-term strategy so she
became a serious student of real estate investing and combined what she learned with her professional skills as a market research analyst to purchase 35 doors in Southern Ontario in 18 months.
Today, Gillian is a full-time investor, mortgage agent and entrepreneur, focused on student rental investing with joint venture partners, creating passive and long-term income to care for the future expenses of her son.
In the past, she co-owned a franchise and now also invests in stocks and cryptocurrency. In her spare time, Gillian is an avid runner and has an interest in health and life optimization.
Connect with Gillian Irving:
Website: https://investinstudentrentals.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillian-irving/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gillian.irving.79
Connect with Chris Shebib:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris.shebib/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebib
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIP29W-Jnbi528FAGMhhSjg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisshebib/
Website: https://shebib.com/
Other episodes you'll enjoy:
How Adversity Helps You Navigate Life and Business Better with Julie Broad
https://www.thehiddenupside.com/4
Never Ever EVER Give Up with Quentin D’Souza
https://www.thehiddenupside.com/3
Turning the Fear Into Fuel with Dalia Barsoum
https://www.thehiddenupside.com/2
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Chapter Summaries:
[00:00:00] - Gillian Irving is a friend, a fellow entrepreneur and real estate investor. She talks about real estate investing, franchise, entrepreneurship, philanthropic activities, stock and crypto investing and talks about a recipe to be able to diversify and juggle as many entrepreneurial activities as she does.
[00:02:29] - Real estate investor is dipping her toe into the short-term rental space. She's got a great rental in downtown Toronto and is looking at buying a four-season cottage rental this week. Her mortgage is up for renewal in March, so she's going to do an Airbnb.
[00:05:30] - There's a shortage of student rentals. So many investors sold their properties during the pandemic, and the trend in parenting styles might be factoring in to make renting a student a lot easier and easier over time. The only tricky part about student rentals remains the financing. They are stable investments despite their terrible reputation.
[00:09:55] - Now Gillian’s into a different business. It's business in a box where the hard, heavy-lifting thinking stuff is done for you. You don't have to think about everything. You can borrow lessons from successful people.
[00:17:46] - It took four years to find the right location and build it out. The soft opening was in July of maybe 2015. The building was an old toilet paper factory it was 28000 to 30000 square feet. It was sold just before the Pandemic.
[00:18:47] - Julie Broad helped Gillian to develop a business model for investing in student rentals. Gillian and her husband bought a house in 2009 without any real estate plan. She got real estate investing training in 2013 or 14. Gillian used the same system Julie used.
[00:20:44] - In 2000 she bought Bitcoin at $10000 and then he bought Ethereum at $300 us. In 2015 she co-ran Sky Zone.
[00:27:06] - Gillian Irving started a charity, and it's fed hundreds of families. It's evolved into a hot lunch program that helps kids all year round. There are more volunteers than there are spots needed.
[00:31:27] - Before the pandemic, she used to drink a lot. Now she's almost at a thousand days without alcohol. She did a couch to five-kilometre running program and a 75 km running program. She ran a marathon in the spring and a half marathon on Sunday. She listens to Andrew Huberman's podcast.
[00:35:08] - Gillian ran a 26-mile race. She didn't get the time she wanted. She trained in the winter and she ran Ottawa in super hot conditions. She is not naturally optimistic, and she has to fight against her natural inclinations to be negative.
[00:38:41] - Dylan was born with a congenital brain injury. He's legally blind and we were told he might not walk or talk. His mother read a book called ”what to do about your brain and your Child“ in the Sick Kids Library. Dylan started to get better and started walking and speaking.
[00:45:19] - He is now six feet three inches tall. He's at school and he's talking about all sorts of stuff.
[00:53:03] - There are inflection points in life when a person needs to make a change and finds a solution to a problem. The inflection point is something that is one of the biggest foundational pieces of how we operate today. It's the hard stuff that makes you look for the differences and find the answers.
[00:55:06] - Dylan is 18. He's at school. He plays hockey, and downhill skis with his dad and is funny, smart and has lots to say about a lot of different things. He's a wonderful boy. He's an incredible guy compared to what we thought was going to be the outcome.
[00:56:03] - Gillian works with real estate partners. She might have another business in the future. She follows Warren Buffett's successful recipe for success: Find a recipe that works and capitalize on it.
