In this episode of The Exchange I talk to Dean Harris – Principal and VP of Business Development at Fusion Projects. Fusion Projects designs and builds office spaces for Fortune 500 companies, and Dean reveals the 9 stages involved in this process as well as a unique leadership strategy at their company.

Listen to the journey of a Vancouver based home baker, who started a company called The Granola Girl.   

Hasti is the Owner & Lead Planner of La Vista Events, a wedding and event planning company based out of Vancouver.  

Hasti joined us on the podcast and shared her story about leaving her full time HR career to pursue her passion for planning. She gave up her 9-5 job as well as her condo, moving back into her parents’ place in order to focus on growing her business at full force. Here she is now, 5 years later, sharing insight into her award winning business.  

You can check out the full video version here:  

On that episode, topics range from how to get started as an event planner (and that the only thing you need to invest in the beginning is your time); to the dos and don'ts of wedding planning; to important business operations advice, plus plenty more. Sunil & Hasti go in-depth, followed by a Q&A from the community at the 24 minute mark of the full version.  

Thanks for coming in Hasti!  

Check out La Vista Events: www.lavistaevents.com 

Instagram: @lavistaevents 

Facebook: @LaVistaEventsVancouver ___  

Listen and subscribe : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-exchange-with-sunil-prasad/id1469243647?uo=4

 00:11 | If you could change one thing about people in general, what would it be? 

00:51 | What is your best tip (or tips) for beginner investors? 

02:31 | As an entrepreneur, do you think that dressing sharp will open more doors for you? 

03:34 | What is the first thing you notice when you meet someone for the first time? 

04:26 | What's the best choice/decision you've made in business?  

All of those questions answered in this week's BizDev. I want to elaborate a little more on the tips for beginner investors so we'll be doing a little more comprehensive video on that in the near future.  

Feel free to reach out to me in the comments or through DM if you've got any questions you want answered.  

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 About a month into hiring Dylan (July 2017) and starting to develop my personal brand, I was talking to a guy outside of a Starbucks. I think he as an app developer or something and we got talking about what I was doing (I had a guy hovering around me with a camera so that may have given it away).   

So I said I was looking to build a brand through visual/audio content and he told me that statistically, most people who start a vlog or a blog or whatever only last 3 months.

   I told him that didn't really bother me and he said "we'll see."   

24 months later (to the day) and we're still here. Not to mention that this year has been my busiest year so far with the mortgage business, while I know that in the Vancouver area the industry has a whole has just tanked. Having a brand behind you can take you through the down times in business so I'm extremely glad I started it and kept at it.  

So if you guys are just starting out - whatever it is - drown out the noise and just get to work. I can't say the entire 2 years have been easy, and I would never expect it to be, but we're not stopping now.   

Thanks to all of you that tune in and watch my videos and listen to the podcast! 

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00:48 // How Zillow Got Started & Introduction to Zillow Canada 

01:57 // Zillow's Perception in the U.S. Real Estate Market & How Realtors are Utilizing Advertising 

04:32 // Zillow's Intuitive Technology & Artificial Intelligence Development 

06:35 // How is Zillow Affecting the Real Estate Market? 

08:57 // Zillow's Relationship with Realtors  

I visited Zillow Canada's Vancouver branch a couple of weeks ago to chat with Teri Conrad (Director Broker Relations, Western Canada) about Zillow's arrival in Canada last October, how realtors are interacting with Zillow, and the overall influence Zillow has in both the U.S. and Canadian real estate markets, among other topics. 

 "Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with the best local professionals who can help." www.zillow.com  

Thanks for the chat Teri! @tericonrad - Instagram 

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 This is an episode I'm extremely excited about. This man changed my life over the course of the last 7 or 8 years. He helped me find my purpose and he helped me deal with a lot of unnecessary bullshit in my life. My mentor, Dov Baron.  

All of the work I have done on myself has helped me get to where I am today and I am extremely grateful to have him on the vlog. This way some of you can see Dov in action, hear his story, and get some insight into some of the exercises we went through back in the day, which I still use and carry with me to this day.  

The entire conversation runs about an hour, so there are timecodes listed above with the main talking point listed in case there is something specific that stands out to you.  

Dov, thanks again for coming on for this episode and sharing your wisdom!

Link to Dov's chat with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer of VaynerMedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7V5_...  

Dov's channel: youtube.com/dovbaron 

IG: @dovbaronleadership 

FB: @DovBaronLeadership 

www.fullmontyleadership.com 

Dov's podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5XrwJcf... ___  

Stay up to date on my day to day business life:  https://www.facebook.com/sunilprasad360 

 I've talked about my journey a lot but I don't think I've ever explained exactly my path to starting TFS.   

Met with Kelsey Johnson of Paragon Mortgage Inc. the other day and got a little more in-depth into why and how I started my own business.   

After high school I started out as a mechanic for Ford. After a few years of making money and not spending any of it, I had saved up a decent amount for someone in their early 20's.  

So with that cash I starting investing in the stock market and then shortly after in the real estate market as well. With those investments I had some money coming in and I didn't really need a "job" at that point so I became an investor.  

So in 2009 I was in California visiting family and was sitting down at a restaurant and got talking to someone next to me. We got talking and eventually he told me he owned the building across the street.  

So we talked more about investing and business and he mentioned that he used to have a line of credit with Bank of America that he used for some business operations. Bank of America ended up pulling that line of credit from him and so he said he ended up going to a "hard money lender."  

I said "what the hell is a hard money lender?" He told me it was a private investor that he borrows money from that he pays about 10-12% interest on those loans. Which sparked some real interest in me because I was getting about 3-5% returns from dividends on my stock investments.  

So I asked him what the investors secured his loan against, and he told my that they secured against his property, so if he didn't pay his loan back, the investors could potentially take over the property he put up as collateral.  

So anyways, went back home and started doing my research and talking to people and realized in Canada it's called "private lending", or "private mortgage."  

Went to go start my company and they asked me for my mortgage license, which I didn't have. They told me I needed to have to be a licensed mortgage broker to start a fund like that. So I went to school, got my license, and had to spend 2 years under someone else's mortgage company.   

And during those 2 years I learned everything I needed to know on the business side - I saw deals coming through, saw how to handle the operations side, ins and outs of regulations, etc, etc...  

After that I started TFS Total Financing Solutions. A lot has happened since then as well, with that business and some of the other ventures I've started, but that's the jist of how I started my mortgage business. ___  

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 Knowing your audience is important, but understanding yourself beforehand is crucial. Your audience is not going to identify with you if they don't know where you stand, first of all. And second, providing insight and advice outside of your area of expertise is just counter-productive to everyone involved.  

It doesn't make sense for me to talk about cooking or videography, but I've chatted with chef's and sometimes I'll have Dylan come on camera and talk about certain things on the video side if I think my audience can gain some value from it.  

On the flip side, don't second guess yourself if you're afraid or nervous about sharing your knowledge. Years ago I wanted to start making videos like I am today, but never started. Think about the value I could have been giving to people during those years that people potentially missed out on. And even the growth I would have seen in myself during that time. Anyways, it doesn't matter now, but the point is that you shouldn't wait if you have a feeling that you want to get your voice out there, but dig deep before you do.   

Have some conversations with yourself, have some conversations with others to see what their interests are - maybe that will guide you to create certain content for certain people. Just get out there and start, whatever it is. ___  

Stay up to date on my day to day business life:  https://www.youtube.com/sunilprasad360 

 Just a quick overview here guys on running a Facebook ad. This is not meant to be an in-depth tutorial video about how to run a Facebook ad, but instead a more simplified walk-through of my process for this particular ad.  

In this case we were running an ad for my mortgage company, TFS Total Financing Solutions. Construction season has begun here in B.C. so we wanted to get an ad out there to let people know that we do construction financing.   

Like I said, this isn't a full tutorial and I'm not a Facebook advertising pro - but this video should demonstrate that the process is fairly simple and straight forward. There's no need to get stressed out over it. In the video I go over the basics: location, demographic, details & interests of the demographic, and just some other simple customization and content tips that should provide some insight into what a Facebook ad for a business looks like.   

Link to the full ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57G9h... ___  

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