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- [00:00]
A
I'm very lucky to be alive. I had a motorcycle accident in the jungles of Thailand and that was about 15 years ago. I fractured my skull, my spine, my ankle, my knee, my shoulder, my elbow, broke three ribs, perforated my lungs and had a brain hemorrhage. The real key is when you do come across a problem, it's not what's happening to you, it's how you deal with it.
- [00:18]
B
Matt Towner is an inspiring survivor, author and global real estate investor who's turned life's toughest challenges into legs of purpose. After a near fatal motorcycle accident shattered his body and spirit, Matt rebuilt himself and now helps others build passive income and legacies through strategic global real estate investments.
- [00:35]
A
My legacy now is to try and encourage people and help people even more to have some sort of backup, a passive income in their life both from insurance wise and for me it's been cash flow positive properties. Because everyone in their life, something at some stage is going to go wrong. Even if it's not with yourself, it's with your family and you need to take time out to take care of the loved ones that you need to or yourself.
- [00:59]
B
Someone's listening. They want to get into real estate. Give a couple of general tips. How do they start?
- [01:04]
A
Yeah, well what we're offering now is it spans the globe like a super highest cold Internet Elvis Preston. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy podcast. For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan open Chicago with the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
- [01:50]
B
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Legacy Makers. Joining me today is Matt all the way from Australia with a pretty epic life and death that we're going to talk about a little later and also how he's one of the world's top property investors, travels the world, finds the hotspots, the juiciest investments right now on the planet. He's going to talk a bit about that, how he's helped 30,000 plus investors and a whole bunch more. So Matt, welcome to the show.
- [02:16]
A
Thanks very much, Rudy. Thank you.
- [02:17]
B
Of course. So thanks for the trip in. I know you've traveled a long way, long flight and you know if people don't know who you are, do you mind just giving the minute summary of who you are, what you do?
- [02:27]
A
Yeah, certainly what I do. It's interesting admire what you do because legacy is important. Part of my Life. I'm very lucky to be alive. I had a motorcycle accident in the jungles of Thailand and that was about 15 years ago. I fractured my skull, my spine, my ankle, my knee, my shoulder, my elbow broke three ribs, perforated my lungs and a brain hemorrhage. All in the middle of nowhere.
- [02:48]
B
Yeah.
- [02:49]
A
So I'm very, very lucky to be alive. Some villages saved my life and then hospitals, one to the next and then really it was a long recovery. I had to learn to walk and talk again. I still have a metal spine, metal ankle, mild brain damage, post traumatic stress. So it's an ongoing recovery. But I was lucky in that. And I guess my legacy now is to try and encourage people and help people even more to have some sort of backup, a passive income in their life, both from insurance wise and for me it's been cash flow positive properties. Because everyone in their life, something at some stage is going to go wrong. Even if it's not with yourself, it's with your family. And you need to take time out to take care of the loved ones that you need to or yourself. And sometimes that can be weeks, months or years.
- [03:36]
B
Yeah. And I know on top of that one more thing, you travel, right. You find all these hotspots, you have a series of books. Do you want to just go over that too?
- [03:45]
A
Yeah, I, I always wanted to be a writer but I could never do the starving artist thing.
- [03:50]
B
Yeah.
- [03:51]
A
So being an entrepreneur and as you know, an entrepreneur is somebody who jumps off a cliff and learns how to build a plane on the way down.
- [03:56]
B
Yeah.
- [03:58]
A
And so I've always been involved. Business and real estate really became my passion and probably the only thing of all the things I've done that really set me up financially. And wealth is much more than just money. It's being, having freedom then to travel, which is my passion. So yeah, that really is what sort of got me to where I am today. And again now with that near death experience with the legacy I want to leave. Sales is a four letter word these days, as it should be. Those days are over. People want to be helped and I think real salespeople want to help. Yeah, that's the whole idea and that's what I try.
- [04:34]
B
All of our sales, you know, I've done sales and had sales teams for many years and I've always said, you know, it's more consultative approach, like you know, just to really guide. I see sales as guiding someone and you know, I think real estate investors the same. Right. Like you're guiding people to. I think Everyone agrees real estate is a generally good safe investment. There's always risk, but it's one of the safer ones. And it's shown through history to be pretty reliable if you make the right decisions. So it's really, you know, what you do is help guide people into how to find the opportunities and vet them. And obviously you do some of it for them with investors too. Right?
- [05:14]
A
A lot of that, yeah. My, my service is really a very bespoke service because I have Traveled now for 35 years, pretty much constantly all over the world and always been looking at. Because you know, you always want a diversified portfolio. But I've never really been into stocks and shares or even now bitcoins and crypt. I just always love that bricks and mortar that because things can go wrong on a global scale and have done and will do and if worse comes to worse, I know I've got my little piece of paradise. Or I'm actually lucky enough to have quite a few so I could run away and hide on a tropical island somewhere. Some people are into desert lifestyles or snowscapes. All of those areas have their pluses and minuses and that's a matter of looking at that, doing that due diligence. And we do a 35 point due diligence which is very intensive.
- [06:03]
B
Yeah, I remember, you know, a big famous entrepreneur that I hung out with a long time ago, he always said something I'll remember like, you know, the good thing about real estate is people always need somewhere to live.
- [06:14]
A
Yeah, yeah, like very true.
- [06:16]
B
And things can come and go and stock, you know, but people always need a roof over their head. So. Yeah, so let's just. I just don't want to skip over the, the, the motorcycle crash and how that, how did that change your life? Like from a mighty. Obviously the recovery. But like, you know, I think there are pinnacle moments in people's lives. Right. Like obviously mostly not as severe as you're Sometimes a divorce or they get fired from a job or they have their first baby and kid and these like where they make a change. So how did that change you?
- [06:49]
A
Yeah, I, I think the most as you said, more than even the, the intensity of the accident. You know, I was in a coma for three days. I was in intensive care for three months. It was pretty much three years. Intensive therapies to get back to even close to a normal lifestyle.
- [07:06]
B
Was there a point where the doctors told you you're never going to walk again? Oh yeah, there was all of that.
- [07:11]
A
I didn't even contact anyone from that Hospital bed in Thailand for weeks until I. Because I really didn't think that I was going to be able to walk again. One specialist explained it to me and I find the human body incredible that most people who end up in a wheelchair is not because of a broken spine, it's your broken spinal cord. And I spent 30 minutes in the of a truck which I was basically in four pieces.
- [07:36]
B
Yeah.
- [07:36]
A
But my spinal cord didn't break even though my spine was broken. And one specialist explained that it's that fragile. It's like a string of toothpaste.
- [07:44]
B
Yeah.
- [07:45]
A
So that is a miracle. I was in and out of death during that truck ride. So. But what was even more poignant for me and brings me to legacy makers because a cousin of mine when I was coming back to Australia still in a wheelchair at this stage and he. I've never met Jeremy Towner but he was born in Perth, he was my age at the time, I was 30 years old. And he had a wife and children and he dived into his family's swimming pool at his parents house, something he'd done his whole life since he was a child. And he hit his head on the side of the pool, dead. I literally split my head wide open. Broke everything from head to toe. And I'm still here and he's not. And I remind myself of that every day and it gives me more drive, more compassion, more empathy, more reason to live.
- [08:33]
B
Yeah. And you know, I've met a few people that have had these life and death experiences and they have a new look on life after. How, how did your outlook on life change?
- [08:44]
A
I think it has been a lot more it. I see life as being a situation where to try and help people in any way that I can. And again it's interesting trying to find out what your, your legacy is or even your passion. I always say I admire. I have friends of mine, a lot of friends who are musicians because I was in the arts industry myself for a long time before real estate and I have friends who've made it very big and famous. But I sort of admire guys more who are my age now. 55 years old, still traveling the country in a beat up old camper van doing pub gigs every night because that's who they are, they're a musician, they would never change that regardless of fame or fortune. Whereas I don't know that I had that one thing. If I look back over my whole life, I've changed my whole life every few years. That's sort of my thing. But everything I try to do. I do the best of my ability to help people in whatever industry.
- [09:38]
B
I think that's the entrepreneur in us. Like, I know some people, like 15 years later the same thing, whereas I'm the same as you. You know, like, we get bored quicker, you know, and even if you look at the biggest entrepreneurs, like Elon Musk, you know, goes from PayPal to Tesla to Twitter to all these things, right. And Mark Zuckerberg, I mean, I know he has Facebook, but it's really. He's buying Instagram, then working on VR. And yeah, you know, I'm friendly with Richard Branson and hang out with him. And you look back at his life and it's like he's got Virgin everything, Virgin trains, gyms, you know, because I think as entrepreneurs, we see opportunities or problems and then we go work on those opportunities of problems.
- [10:19]
A
And then the real key is when you do come across a problem, it's not how what's happening to you, it's how you deal with it and how quickly we can adjust our mindset. Because there are people, I've even met, people during my recovery who had a lot lesser accidents than me that are still addicted to painkillers. And woe is me and complaining about their life. And the power of positive thinking is so important.
- [10:40]
B
Well, that's going to be my next question.
- [10:42]
A
How.
- [10:43]
B
Because, you know, I kind of teed up the question because I asked you earlier if the doctor said you'd never walk again. And. And I found again, like the world top athletes or like people with resilience mindset entrepreneurs and stuff, you know, they. And I've heard several stories. They get told, no chance you're gonna ever walk again. And then they somehow do. Right? Like this miracle. But I really do believe. It's the power of belief. Right. And so I was going to ask you, how much did your mindset change or how important was that during that recovery phase?
- [11:15]
A
Yeah, it's a great question. Which reminded me one of the stories in my book series, which is an incredibly true story for someone who. My mother was a churchgoing Catholic, so I was raised as a young boy to that way. I then went on to a boarding school that wasn't Catholic or religious at all. And in my life, so I've been more spiritual than religious as such. But I had an incredibly religious experience when I came out of my coma, which again, I was back and forth from life and death on many cases during those few days. And. But a voice came to me. It was my voice, but it wasn't me, however, you, whatever you believe, that is that booming voice. And I said, this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you. And I know that if I'd had the opposite mantra of that, I would be in a wheelchair or addicted to painkillers or living on the streets, which a lot of people sadly do take that road for one reason or another. But I know that that, that changed everything. Regardless of all the beautiful medical care.
- [12:24]
B
I had, was the times during that recovery where you had to, like. Because I think in business, a lot of times where I always explain, like, you got the angel and the devil, and it's like sometimes this voice, oh, just give up. Or just close that department down or quit on that project. And then you got the angel that, like, as you keep going. Yeah. Did you. Did you have that during the recovery of days you wanted to give up?
- [12:50]
A
I still have that. It's not something that I. I talk about or even thought I would be talking about in this podcast, but because a lot of people don't talk about it. And I think that is a problem with post traumatic stress, which I have. And it's similar symptoms to bipolar or manic depressive, which so many people have a doctor made of mine says everyone's bipolar.
- [13:09]
B
Well, I mean, every entrepreneur, we're like this, right?
- [13:13]
A
That's right. And it's about. It's like everything. It's like business. It's learning, manage that. It's knowing it's having a good team around you. It's. It's delegating, it's being prepared. All of the same things in business I have to do in my life to a more extreme because I can get a week's work done in three days. I can get books published all over the world. I can do things like this when I'm on, but I know there'll be a day where I just want to draw the curtains, go into my think tank, not answer the phone, turn it all off. And so I do. I ride those waves. I know it's coming. I know what I can do and what I can't do. I don't overdo it. I don't push it. Because if I give too much of myself, myself, I'll get to a stage where. And I'm an extremist, where I understand people who get suicidal.
- [13:53]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [13:54]
A
And it's really sad. I've lost a lot of friends in my life, and even now, the younger generation, it's very sad to see people getting to that point of desperation.
- [14:02]
B
Yeah. And the reason I'm asking is, like, I think there's such a. You know, I always thought there's such a correlation, I mean, between pro sport and success in business because of the mindset. But. But I even think this, what you went through. Right. The mindset of the. Of battling through that and coming out the other side and recovering, you know, for the most part, fully versus people that don't. And it's really the same in business. And that mindset, it's probably why you're also successful in business and had a successful recovery.
- [14:30]
A
Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of the key factors there. The resilience factor, and certainly. Yeah. That power of positive thinking. No matter. And I know in your businesses, in your life, there are times where we're literally tearing our hair out because everything is going wrong.
- [14:43]
B
And I always say, too, in life, when it's going great, just savor it, because very soon there's gonna be another cliff again. Like, I'm waiting, you know?
- [14:51]
A
Totally.
- [14:51]
B
Yeah.
- [14:52]
A
And that's true in business, like, in personal life in every way. And physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And, yeah, I think the sooner you can get your head around that, the better. And that's certainly what I encourage. I don't have children of my own. I'm the godfather of nine, the uncle of six, and I try to mentor as much as I can, but I think the sooner you can realize that things are gonna go wrong and just be prepared.
- [15:12]
B
Yeah. And I think in business, like I always say, too, pretty much every time I speak about this, I think when I started business and it was hard and you had all these problems, you think it gets easier, but it actually gets worse. You get bigger lawsuits, bigger. Someone stealing from you. It's bigger. Your website goes down, it affects more customers, not less. Right. But you just get a little better at handling it.
- [15:34]
A
That's right.
- [15:35]
B
A little better.
- [15:35]
A
Yeah. The stakes are higher, and then you actually, that is that sink or swim. Because if you're going to step up to that level, and I suppose it does come back again to being, like, a sportsman. Yeah. You've got to be at that level.
- [15:46]
B
Yeah. Because the numbing was, you know, if you're, I would say, Olympic athlete, it's like, I would hate to be an Olympian because you wait four years for the next big event and you get food poisoning the night before. Right. Like, imagine that. Like, at least in entrepreneurship, project goes wrong, you're onto a new one in a month or six months. Right. Yeah. An Olympian. Most of the time, it's you know, four years. So you have to have that resilience. So, and I think that's a good bridge to. Let's talk about the real estate because any type of investing, it's not all like, you know, you buy a hundred homes, I doubt all 100 made you a bunch of money and didn't have, you know, planning problems or the roof cave in or something happened. Right. But over all 90 work out and 10 maybe don't or whatever. Right. So how have you like what, what's your general advice and opinion on that with investing?
- [16:36]
A
And that would definitely be my stats. 9 out of 10 in my personal and professional career have been successful because again, getting back to those same principles, it's looking at for the factors that are going to be resilient. So you always, you know, there's a lot of romantic investments, which is great, but they're sort of things down the track or that you can afford when you can't afford.
- [16:56]
B
Yeah, I own, I own a castle and it's my worst investment. But I have a lot of other boring real estate like shitty homes in England that I rent to students.
- [17:06]
A
Totally.
- [17:06]
B
They make me way more return than the castle, 100%.
- [17:09]
A
And you know, I have friends who, and clients who. And even now young people who think that it's too late or they keep waiting to get into the market. You're not going to get your dream home overnight. Like you. A lot of the properties that I bought I would never wanted to live in, but they were the stepping stones to get me the beach house I wanted. And that was a dozen properties down the line. But and those ones, they give people homes. So basically you're servicing supply and demand. And I do this now not only I started throughout Australia and then now throughout Asia and now looking further afield again looking now places like the Bahamas or even Hawaii. You know, I'm a beach kind of guy. I love that sort of thing. But again, so does tourism. So that ticks a big box in terms of getting return on investment. But as much as I would want a little beach house on a remote island, that's not going to give me the return that I would need than having an apartment in a busy area. And that's where Bali really comes in now. It's probably one of the most booming.
- [18:08]
B
Yeah, I hear especially during COVID like a lot, you know. So two questions on that. First, one more broad, someone's listening. They want to get into real estate, give a couple of general tips. How do they start?
- [18:20]
A
Yeah, well, what we're offering now is fractional investments. So even if you don't have enough money to buy your first property, you can buy a fraction of a holiday rental apartment. And again, getting back to the teamwork thing, like an athlete, we have one of the best teams now in the world. We're dealing with some of the biggest construction companies, the biggest travel agencies, so that we know that we can pretty much guarantee there's always going to be swings and hurdles. So we're basically always trying to circumvent that, you know, forbid there's another Covid. But even Bali is one of the few places on the planet that during both the global financial crisis and during COVID it didn't fall to pieces like a lot of places did in the financial crisis like that. So it's got a resilience already. And then what we do is link with some of the best travel and tour and construction resort owners and operators in the world and now even magazine chains. We're rebranding, we're doing all sorts of things.
- [19:17]
B
So one tip, if someone's starting, maybe invest into more like a fund almost. Right. Or a collected thing. What if someone's like, they want to just buy locally, get their foot in the door and they're on it. Like any general tips for their first.
- [19:31]
A
If you're looking for an investment, because again, it's very different if you're looking for your family home.
- [19:34]
B
Yeah. Investment property.
- [19:35]
A
Investment property. You're really looking for key indicators for areas that has more than one revenue stream. So that if the tourism industry does fall down for any one reason or take a break, which has happened over history, that you basically won't have other factors. So I've done a lot of stuff with military, defence housing, for example, so places like that, where you've got a.
- [19:55]
B
Big military near hospitals, I hear too, that's great.
- [19:58]
A
Definitely. Any of those key indicators. Construction or mining towns.
- [20:04]
B
All the minor universities in England. In England you only live in the. On the campus in year one and then you have to go out and find housing with friends. In America you can live the whole time on campus. England, they don't have enough. So I actually bought all these houses during my being at university myself, right. For my friends and I rented them to my class and now I rent them, you know, 10 years arms still to students and. And I just want to echo. And the good thing about it is because someone said to me, one of my parents, because they're not very risk. Risk takers, they said, well, what if this, you know, what if people stop going to university or what if the university builds more accommodation on campus? I said, well, I'll just run it to a family. Right.
- [20:49]
A
You've always got that.
- [20:50]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [20:51]
A
You always want the exit strategy or on plan B, C and D. Yeah.
- [20:55]
B
And for me, when I bought them, I renovated them all myself. Like with a couple of handymen. Like, you know, I was 20 years old and every penny I had went into the down payment with the bank. So I had no money to pay 30 grand for renovations. I had to do it all myself. And even just doing that, I added like 40, 50 grand to the property value. Exactly. Like even if it doesn't, I just flip it now. Totally.
- [21:18]
A
That's exactly what I did with my first properties. I was buying all these little towns all the way up the coast of Australia.
- [21:23]
B
Yeah.
- [21:23]
A
And basically the old Queensland as they call. So they're beautiful big old homes.
- [21:26]
B
Yeah.
- [21:27]
A
But they're pretty much falling down. But I would literally, I wouldn't make too many improvements because I didn't have the money to. I'd really just tidy them up, paint them all white.
- [21:34]
B
Yeah. New liquor paint and IKEA furniture and it's like a totally different home.
- [21:38]
A
Still another good trick for people. Anyone listening is painting white inside and out. And then the mirror double, the big mirrored sliding.
- [21:45]
B
Yeah. Mirrors.
- [21:46]
A
Not only got a built in wardrobe. Yeah. The room, I did that and I.
- [21:50]
B
Did four back in the day. You know this 10 years ago I did put 40 inch TVs in every bedroom for students and none of them had TVs so my houses would run instantly. They were nicely decorated with IKEA furniture and they all had 40 inch TVs. They're great. Was like the biggest unique selling point. And you know, I was smart enough at 20 to like. I didn't know what a unique selling point was back then, like the definition of it. But I said to all my friends and parents like, you know, I spent another grand, put TVs in there and now I instantly like rent them versus the other 3,000 homes. It's like a no brainer. So, you know, I think those little tips. Tips help a lot with that.
- [22:27]
A
Oh definitely. And that would have been ahead of its time, but it is things like that you want to think about now. Now it's, it's. Yeah, it's all about having WI FI connections that are state of the art. And even PowerPoints nowadays in this day and age, you want whole bands of PowerPoints, not just one in the, in the corner somewhere that you've Got to look for.
- [22:44]
B
Yeah. So next question is more about like the legacy side now, right. So if people have maybe not watched your episode yet, what are some things they're going to get from the episode? And, and you know, you're talking about legacy and all of that.
- [22:57]
A
Well, I suppose my biggest important message is insurance, my travel insurance. And I still know people to this day who travel without insurance. They picked up my US$200,000 hospital bill in Thailand, three months in intensive care and Thailand, America and Thailand are two of the worst countries.
- [23:15]
B
Oh yes, America.
- [23:16]
A
If you don't have that credit card, if you didn't have insurance, I would have had to be able to. Otherwise they will leave you in the waiting room to die. No problem at all. If you don't have the insurance or the fund funds up front, you ain't getting operated.
- [23:29]
B
Yeah, England's the opposite. It's like anyone can come and they'll try you as well.
- [23:32]
A
Yeah, but, yeah, but yeah, I still wouldn't have been able to, to do that without that travel insurance. So now I insure everything and again I've had properties that have been affected by floods, by droughts, by bushfires, by all sorts of things and I've been lucky enough to have all that covered by insurance because I fully insure, I've had motor vehicles written on, off, I insure everything because if you think you don't need it, that's generally when you need it the most and you know, it weighs up but it certainly, in my case I'm well ahead. Insurance companies, their trick, they're always going to try not. Yeah, so it is a game, especially.
- [24:08]
B
In America, they're very like good out here. I feel like.
- [24:10]
A
Well, there's another tip and is to use insurance brokers because a lot of it, it is a game of chess and a lot of it is language and if you're a layman and you phone up, you can say one word wrong. For example, the difference between a storm and a flood and that's recorded and that's no pay one, no cent. So yeah, insurance brokers, that's their job to work on your behalf. So I always recommend insure everything and then I help people to look at properties that will give them some sort of return on investment and is as guaranteed as possible in terms of not only having that, that it will cover what your costs are and some, but also the capital growth obviously is just a bonus. And all of my properties, there's only one property that I've ever had that has gone backwards so all of the others now are worth three, four, five times.
- [24:56]
B
Yeah. Touch what I've all of mine, you know, not as many as you, but one or two, like stagnated where I didn't really make much and resold them. But some of them have paid for themselves several times over in the last 10 years. So I, I, and I, I really want to get back into it in the us. Just so busy, you know, like with the business side.
- [25:14]
A
Yeah. Well, imagine the university housing thing would be a good thing here, being a bit of that.
- [25:18]
B
If I had stayed in England I'd have like 200 by now because it was just such a good model, like buy one, renovate, it instantly jumps in price and then you get like four times more than the family rental price because you rent per room.
- [25:31]
A
Exactly.
- [25:31]
B
So it's just a crazy.
- [25:32]
A
And the same. As you mentioned before, I've helped a lot of clients with the same thing with hospitals.
- [25:36]
B
Yeah.
- [25:36]
A
And again, the beauty of it is you want to, you know, we're not. I'm a capitalist hippie, I always have been. So to, to be able to have an investment but also have a heart. So not only in that way, you're helping students to get into homes near the university.
- [25:51]
B
Nice homes because most of them are like a bomb site, you know. Yeah, ye.
- [25:55]
A
And the hospital ones is really good. But when someone sadly, their little girl or their little boy's in hospital for months and they wouldn't be right next door. So it's the same thing buying big old homes or sometimes I've even purpose built big 10 bedroom homes with en suites so that people are coming in, they're paying by night, coming and going, perhaps flying back and forth, mums and dads. But it's a lot better place for them to go than staying in a home. And so, yeah, it really works as my whole thing is not only a win win, a win, win, win, win. So you want the investor to win, you want the, the person who's staying, whether that's tourism or, or hospitals or, or anyone to be able to feel good. And of course you want to feel good about what you do yourself.
- [26:36]
B
Yeah, I love it. Last couple of questions around legacy. Someone's listened to this. They're inspired, especially, you know, your personal journey and battling through that or maybe getting into investing. What would you say to someone that's like stuck in the contemplation phase? They're not taking action.
- [26:52]
A
Yeah, And I see it all the time. Sadly, through my whole life. It still frustrates me because the worst is when they're friends or clients or family that are so close to you that you can't ten years later say, I told you so, but just do it. Really just do it. And that's sort of why we started doing the fractional stuff, for people to have that stepping stone. You can invest as little as 30 or $40,000, put your toe in the water, and then you get that idea. All of a sudden you see money coming into your bank account. You're like, really? I'm making money. You get to use the property a couple of times a year, go for a holiday, whatever it may be, and it really is that stepping stone. And then I've had a lot of clients then go from there to buying their own holiday investments, then their own homes, and then get portfolios, and there's nothing, you know, it's not an egotistical thing to say, don't. They haven't taken my advice. That's up to them. I've never been a pushy salesman. I don't like that myself. I'm just not into the pushiness at all. I just offer opportunities. But it is frustrating when people just keep sitting on that fence for weeks, months, years. But the opposite of that is there's nothing better to have helped someone and they're thanking you 10 years later. And even more than that, now I'm at a stage in my life where there are people who've been involved in projects I've done in Australia and Indonesia and Thailand, in lots of places that we're now employing their children so their children have an opportunity to get into that project in one way, shape or form.
- [28:16]
B
I think the thing we've invested in is like, like, just like with time shares and stuff, there's like these odd horror stories. And then everyone thinks every real estate fund or investment is going to be like a horror story, right? But yeah, I think it's great. You know, look, if you don't want to go out and get your own little place and do it all yourself like I did or you did when you started, then funds, I, I, I have a friend that has $400 million of real estate. And I would say he's like as smart as I am at marketing in real estate. So I give him money because I'm like, you know, I could be as smart as you in real estate if I had kept going for 10 years, but I went this direction and I see how he works, operates, looks at stuff, so. And yeah, I mean, I always say every investment's a risk and, you know, never invest where it's like your life savings and everything's going to explode because no one knows. Right.
- [29:03]
A
There's absolutely no guarantees. But everything in life is about risk and return and it's calculated risk. So again, it's about someone like that. It's basically like me. It's my life's work and I do the work. So it's a matter of. Of ticking all the boxes, having the best team doing the most due diligence and limiting those risks.
- [29:21]
B
And look, There could be another 08 crash and no one can control that.
- [29:24]
A
Right.
- [29:25]
B
Or like a nuclear wars.
- [29:28]
A
And then we've got the plan B's and C's in place.
- [29:30]
B
Yeah, yeah. So, last question. Someone, you know, wants to read the books or, you know, listen to more about you or check out the real estate, where's the best place for them to find more about you?
- [29:43]
A
My website is probably the first and foremost, which is Positive Investment Investments dot com, but Googling my name, Matt Towner, you'll find a lot of stuff from the book series through to podcasts and webinars and a lot of stuff now that we're doing through Positive Investments or Matt Towner.
- [30:00]
B
And do they have to be in Australia?
- [30:01]
A
Oh, no, no. Worldwide.
- [30:03]
B
Right.
- [30:03]
A
Yeah. I've always been all over the world. 35 years.
- [30:05]
B
Good. And you have clients all around the world and. Great. Love it. All right, guys, well, that's a wrap. Go check out the full episode and read all the books. Fascinating stories I'm sure you witnessed. Witnessed. And I'm excited to see more of it come to life. As always, keep building a legacy and I'll see you soon.