Start With A Win - Serving Diverse Communities with Lisa Nguyen

Starting point is 00:00:00 Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And coming to you from all over the place right now, it's Adam Kanto, CEO of Remax with Start With A Win. And in the virtual studio that we are broadcasting from now, we have producer Mark. How you doing, buddy? Hey, I am doing so good. I love it. We are figuring out how to do a Zoom podcast, I guess you could say. So I've got a studio set up. Mark has a studio set up. Our guest has a studio set up. And it's kind of fun because we get to see each other even though we're not like face to face. So with us today, we have a very special guest who is an amazing real estate agent here in the Denver metro area. We have with us Lisa Nguyen. How are you? Good, good. Doing well. Awesome. And Lisa is a Colorado-born native,

Starting point is 00:01:12 serves kind of Denver metro area, surrounding areas. But Lisa also is bilingual in Vietnamese. So her parents arrived in the US as Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s with $20 in their pocket. And Lisa has made some amazing things happen in the Denver metro area, as well as with the Asian Real Estate Association of America. Is that right, Lisa? Yep, yep, that's correct. I'm currently serving as the Greater Denver 2020 President of ARIA. Awesome. You were awarded as one of the Asian American and Pacific Islander

Starting point is 00:01:49 Women Leaders, the Diamonds and Pearls of Denver in 2017 from Denver Mayor Hancock as well. And you're also the Colorado Homeowners Magazine 2019 40 Under 40 winner. And you've also been on the uh american dream tv show we have a celebrity in our mess our miss a rock star no kidding i mean lisa what i mean you're you're like taking over the world and kudos to you you're an amazing woman leader amazing asian american woman leader and uh we're honored to have you on the show today it's great to be on the show today, especially amongst all of these things that are going on right now. Yeah, we've got a lot of stuff happening right now with the coronavirus.

Starting point is 00:02:33 And we're all kind of practicing our social distancing by using video conferencing and the podcast here. But let's talk about you first, though, Lisa. Not the coronavirus, okay. So how did you get into real estate? What's your story? So it actually goes back pretty far. I got my license in 2005. And at that time, it was more an idea after college of going into real estate. Shortly after I got my license, the market crashed in 2007. And so I worked through that first recession there and ended up getting pregnant with my second child. And so I quit and went into corporate for five years while I was raising my kids. And I had an aha moment one day after working five years in a

Starting point is 00:03:18 corporate job. And I quit without a plan. It was pretty crazy what I did. I've never done something like that before in my entire life. And I cashed out my retirement. And then I put it back into real estate. And so in 2016, I joined Remax Professionals. I got an amazing opportunity with that company. And they brought me on board. And I took my retirement money. And I bought some yard signs and a billboard on South Federal

Starting point is 00:03:45 and got some business cards and I said a prayer and hoped that it would work out. And I literally have never looked back since. So I just celebrated my fourth year with Remax Professionals and here I am four years later, actually, I guess 15 years later, technically. It's been a long journey, but I am an agent that quit at one point because it was so hard and then got back into it. And then the second time around, I said, I'm not going to do it part-time. I'm going in all in. That's it. All in or nothing at all at this point. I love your attitude, Lisa. I mean, it's just, I'm going to go do this and you go do it. And you're also the president of ARIA. Can you explain to us what that organization is and how you got involved?

Starting point is 00:04:30 Yeah. So ARIA, it was started in 2003 by John Wong and Alan Okamoto and a few others who had sat at a round table and decided that they were going to put an organization together to help sustainable home ownership within the AAPI communities. If you look at the statistics within the community, we have very high education levels, very high income, but yet the ownership levels are a lot lower than our counterparts. And so at that time, they formed an organization not knowing what was going to happen. And 41 chapters and 17,500 members later here we are i got involved with aria in 2016 when dylan newin started the greater denver chapter here in denver and i served as his treasurer dipping my feet in the water not knowing too

Starting point is 00:05:19 much about the organization but since then i've worked in you know went from treasurer to vice president last year not a president but um the main purpose of getting involved with ARIA was to help service my community here and it's not even really just about one community I've been you know working with others from NARREP and NARREP and a lot of the other organizations so that we can put our resources and our communities together to try to just get everybody into houses that don't have the opportunity for sustainable home ownership. So for me, it's not just about ARIA, but it's just about working together for the greater good of helping people who would never, without these opportunities, be able to

Starting point is 00:06:03 get into a home. So you mentioned the rapid-growing Asian American and Pacific Islanders demographic in the U.S. Specifically, why is it important to serve that community? It's very important to service it. Because if you were just to look at statistics alone, let's say all things aside, all opinions aside, maybe you don't speak the language, you don't know too much about the culture, but by 2055, you know, we're slated to be the largest minority group in the whole country. And so if you were just merely looking at statistics, you know, you don't work for the community, but somebody on the other end might be a seller or a buyer. And so if you're starting to look into the future of real estate,

Starting point is 00:06:45 I think it's very important to diversify yourself and just start to learn about things that you don't know. Because whether or not you're ready for it, the way that the demographics are changing, that's why it's going to be important to just understand a little bit more about that community. There's things like FERPDA, which are on our purchase contract now that people overlook and they don't realize that it's already a part of our contracts and it's a part of our contracts for a reason. Because most people, they don't want to think about it until they get sued or something bad happens. But it's better just to educate yourself now and prepare for the way that the market is changing. Yeah, I completely agree. And I grew up very close to the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community. One of my very best friends

Starting point is 00:07:31 growing up is Japanese Hawaiian. And I spent a ton of time with their family. And then my neighbors are Korean. And it was part of my childhood growing up in my life. And understanding the different Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures was fascinating. I love, love the cultures and just the community and the family. And I think so many people are missing out if you don't become part of that and really get to know an incredibly beautiful part of society. So how do you see us as a society integrating more with the Asian American and Pacific Islanders? Do you see different growing organizations like that

Starting point is 00:08:15 popping up around the US to have more exposure to those that just might not have exposure to those cultures and call it middle America or something like that? Yeah. Yeah. I definitely see a change. I mean, if you think about it, ARIA was started in 2003, which in the bigger picture, it wasn't that long ago. And just to see how much it's grown, I've had so much more interest even from huge banks, a lot of organizations, everybody wanting to just learn a little bit more and there's so many like you said there's so much about the culture which people can learn about even as far as real estate there's feng shui which a lot of people here don't use but people are practicing more and more every day especially with what's going on you know in society in the

Starting point is 00:09:03 community people are are trying to have to diversify themselves to sell houses to a different type of buyer. So even within real estate, if you just look at it in that realm, people are definitely more intrigued with learning about the community. But also, if you look at international business, like I just got back from the Asia Convention in India, where I was given the opportunity to speak over there for REMAX. And it was really intriguing for me to learn about how they do real estate in India. And so vice versa, there's just so many things with technology the way it

Starting point is 00:09:35 is now. We're able to meet people in other countries, stay in touch with them. We're able to start doing business. I have people from that trip that are still emailing me now asking about investing money from India and how their investors from India would invest here and vice versa. And some of the people I met on the trip, other Asians that are in New Zealand, it's the first time in my life I met somebody, an Asian Vietnamese man with a New Zealand accent. So I was thrown off. It's just very intriguing. It's just great to see how the world is starting to blend together, how all of our different cultures

Starting point is 00:10:09 and all of the different countries around the world, how we're connected. We don't think we're connected until things like this happen. And then all of a sudden, we find out just how connected we are and how much we depend on one another, not just in this nation, but around the world.

Starting point is 00:10:23 And that's where I kind of see things starting to change with technology, just connecting us more. Oh, 100%. I completely agree. And I had the opportunity to speak at one of our Asia Pacific conferences as well a couple years ago. It was so much fun. And you're right. It's interesting because you go to the... It's called the Asia Pacific Conference. But you get there and it's a conglomeration of somewhere between 22 and 25 countries, typically, that, like you said, extend all the way down to Australia, New Zealand, all throughout different parts of Africa here and there and all the different Asia communities and countries. So actually, if you're a REMAX agent and you have not been to the Asia Pacific Conference,

Starting point is 00:11:13 I strongly encourage you to check it out. There's so much business that is going on there as well as some incredible cultural experience. I met people from Thailand, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and different parts of the world that I had never even heard of before. People flew in from Africa. You wouldn't, it was not, I mean, I've been to R4 in Vegas, it's amazing.

Starting point is 00:11:38 I love R4 just because of how much happens there. But when I went to India and got to go see the Taj Mahal with the corporate in India, that was a surreal experience. And so it's so nice being a part of a company that is in this many countries. What are we in 117 different countries now? And to see what other REMAX agents

Starting point is 00:12:00 are doing around the world. You don't even need a license in India, which is so crazy. And I think that REMAX is starting to go into these countries and we're trying to set a standard of real estate around the world on how people should practice and be more professional in their business practices. And hopefully what we're doing here in the United States, we'll be able to implement in other countries around the world, especially those Asian countries that don't have as many rules and regulations right now. I think we're really setting the bar for a lot of these other countries.

Starting point is 00:12:27 That's huge. Yeah, I completely agree. I want to talk briefly about, we talk about all these different cultures. And unfortunately, sometimes you crash into things like unconscious bias. And it's truly that. There's no ill will intended. However, we have to consciously understand that there are different cultures and we need to treat everybody fairly and equally in this world with fair housing. Give me a little bit of your perspective, Lisa, on some tips

Starting point is 00:12:57 that maybe you have on how the real estate community can ensure that there is not unconscious bias occurring. So I actually, outside of serving on ARIA, I serve on the Community Alliance Task Force at the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. And what we have done is we have put all the organizations together, ARIA, NARREP, NAGAREP, NARREP, a lot of these organizations together. And what we've done is we've formed a task force where people can go to educate themselves, to learn more about fair housing. I think everybody needs to be very conscious of it. I actually don't get too, you know, there's things that do make me angry. There's things that don't make me angry. Mainly, what I'm realizing though, is as I'm learning about different cases and fair housing is that a lot of people don't even realize they are violating fair housing. So the first thing I think you need to do is educate yourself. There's a lot of protected classes. And so as you're going out

Starting point is 00:13:55 and doing real estate, people are violating laws. I don't even think intentionally most of the time. So education is key. I just highlight that group because we are a body of education and you can always come to our group if you have a question about, hey, is this a violation? What we've done is we started this in 2016 and CAR took notice of it. I know Tyrone Adams, he's the CEO of CAR, he really stepped in and advocated for our group. And since we started our group, a bunch of other realtor organizations from around the state have started their own task forces just because they were like, wow, we didn't even realize we have nothing like this either. And, you know, there's a lot of the leaders that didn't know, you know, how they even get that education out to their realtors. I mean, and we ended up actually getting publicity on a national level. I had the Department of Justice call me from Washington, D.C.

Starting point is 00:14:48 And I had been quoted in an article after I spoke at the Economic Summit. And they were talking about discrimination and fair housing. And I kind of, being the crazy person that I am, I invited them to Denver. And I said, would you like to come meet us? And everybody was like, you invited the DOJ to come meet us. I said, I sure did. And I rounded up, you know, 17 leaders from around the state in all the different communities. And we sat down and we talked with the DOJ and everybody was nervous.

Starting point is 00:15:14 But really, they were like, we're not here to get people in trouble. A lot of times, you know, companies, corporations are violating for housing and they don't know. And so we can help in correcting those actions. So they've went into like big banks before. And, you know, I think when you get a letter from the DOJ, it's a little different from other people. So it's corrected people's actions and it's actually done good in the community. I think what we've done is funded in a positive way,

Starting point is 00:15:40 but I would say for agents that don't know, you know, go to one of the organizations or connect with an agent like me. I'm always a source and resource to RE-MAX agents or anybody that needs more information on what they may be doing to violate fair housing because it's such a huge topic right now. And I just think a lot of people, they don't know. Totally agree. And thank you for all your effort on that, Lisa. I think that's an incredibly important aspect of our business and the community that we all need to be focusing on. It's something we have to consciously take a look at and make sure that we're following fair housing

Starting point is 00:16:16 and treating people well. Everybody deserves to be treated fairly and equally, regardless of where they come from or their beliefs or anything like that. So thank you so much for what you do on that. So Lisa, I have a couple of questions that I ask all of our attendees on Start With A Win. The first one is, do you have any favorite books that you read? So a couple, I don't know if anybody's ever,

Starting point is 00:16:43 I love Thinking Grow Rich rich but reading it over and over again um it was one of the books that had been my favorite and then when i actually heard dave lenninger speak once he said he had read that book 20 or 30 times or something so i knew it was on the right path when our own ceo had read that book a bunch of times but what i love about thinking grow rich is they give you some advice, one of them being maybe a mantra, saying something two times a day. That was the best piece of advice that I took from that book. So every year I write down how many deals I want to do and how much money I want to make. And I stick it in places like my whiteboard or on a mirror. And you say that mantra two times a day and at some point you bring things to

Starting point is 00:17:27 fruition from from practicing and looking at something you know twice a day every single day for the whole year and you set goals subliminally in your head that help you to achieve those goals so that's the first thing and the second thing i'm just a big i'm a poet so i love poetry books i you know i eat breathe think real, but at the same time, there's gotta be balance in your life too. So whatever it is that you love, I would recommend reading those books. I mean, I just happen to love Sylvia Plath

Starting point is 00:17:52 and Edgar Allan Poe and all of those really dark poets, but I love poetry. That's my escape from real estate because there's got to be a balance too. Anybody that's in this industry knows it. You almost have to be crazy to survive this industry. But a lot of that is by balancing yourself. So I do love poetry books. What an amazing answer and some awesome places for our listeners to go. And Lisa,

Starting point is 00:18:16 I have a question for you. How do you start your day with a win? So I, for me, it's breakfast breakfast with the family I cook up a big feast every morning I mean it's kind of exhausting I know everybody doesn't have the time to do that but I do make time for that and I always start with a huge breakfast and um while we're eating breakfast sometimes we joke around and I have an attitude of gratitude. So, you know, just I wake up and I try to tell myself, thank God I woke up and I adjust my attitude

Starting point is 00:18:49 before the day starts because however you set your morning can really, really set the tone for the rest of the day. So I'm a big advocate of a huge breakfast, a lot of joking around and an attitude of gratitude. That is how I start my morning.

Starting point is 00:19:05 I love it. Lisa Nguyen, amazing REMAX agent, amazing member of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community, as well as the real estate community globally with REMAX. Lisa's an awesome agent in the greater Denver area with REMAX Professionals. So make sure you check her out for all your real estate needs in Denver, Colorado. Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and for being on Start With A Win. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. If you'd like to ask Adam a question or potentially be on our next episode, give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go onto iTunes and subscribe, write a review, or rate the show.

Starting point is 00:19:48 For more great content, follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. And remember, start with a win.

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Start With A Win - Serving Diverse Communities with Lisa Nguyen

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