The Code To Winning - FROM A MOTHER AT 14 TO A REAL ESTATE POWERHOUSE (OVER $1 BILLION IN SALES IN REAL ESTATE) || CLAUDIENNE HIBBERT || EPISODE 034

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

Claudienne Hibbert-Smith: From Teenage Mom to Real Estate Powerhouse & Community Builder   Claudienne Hibbert-Smith’s story is one of extraordinary resilience, bold vision, and unstoppable execution. Becoming a mother at just 14 years old, she defied every odd society placed before her. She graduated from Miami Carol City Senior High and went on to earn her degree from the University of Florida — proving early on that no circumstance would define her ceiling.   By the age of 21, she had already become a licensed realtor and purchased her first duplex — a move that would spark a career spanning over two decades and more than $1 billion in real estate sales. Known for her relentless work ethic, financial savvy, and passion for empowerment, She quickly rose to become a top-producing agent, mentor, investor, and businesswoman.   After 20 successful years with one real estate firm, she made the bold move to partner with eXp Realty, where she continues to dominate the industry and inspire others through her leadership. She’s also the founder of the TRU Real Estate Expansion Club, a thriving hub that helps professionals build wealth through smart investing and community collaboration.   Today, Claudienne is more than just a realtor — she’s a school owner (TRU Prep Academy, K-12), a health advocate, and a sought-after speaker and board member with numerous honors under her belt, including the prestigious Agents' Choice Award and recognition in the Top 5 Real Estate Network.   Her mission is clear: to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and real estate professionals with the mindset, strategies, and mentorship to break generational limitations and create lasting wealth.

I knew that I always wanted to make a lot of money, and the reason for that is I wanted to be able to help a lot of people. And so I say that, to say this, the five people that you're around is very important. My seventh grade teacher who took me in while I was in middle school, her and I became very good friends. And I got to journey with her when she moved back to Miami on buying a home. I said, wait a minute. You know, I'm very smart, I'm intelligent, and I know how to add and subtract. Something wasn't adding up because it took me a whole year to make $40,000. I did it.

I quit my job two days after that moment. And then I said, okay, how do I go get my license? Lucky for me, it only takes a 63 hours. I was with one company for 20 years. I was the Ricky of the year. I was the door knocker. I was the realtor that would get it done by any means necessary. And I had no skill say yet because what you learn in class is not really all that happens in the real world.

Exactly. And I've done over a billion dollars in sales. So just get that for a second. I'm a hustler. Like, I have sold pencils in school. I have sold potato chips in garbage bags in high school, middle school, you name it, elementary. So I had the hustle. I didn't have a skill set.

Sometimes working smarter by outsourcing and paying for what it is as well. So you're a great business leader, which kind of segues to what I'm going to. How have you seen that outsourcing has upscaled your business over time? Oh, tremendously. Tremendously. And I'll share with you this. Probably for the first. five to seven years of my career, I was always a

The Code to Winning Insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Again, we have a real treat, an amazing guest right here in the heart of Miami, the Sunshine State of Florida. We are going to be introducing you to somebody that I've been looking forward to interviewing. If you are curious and interested in learning about real estate, buying, selling and investing in real estate. This is the episode for you. Claudienne,

Herbert Smith, a person who is very, very experienced, one of the number one realtor, as well as one of the top coaches, and also somebody that can actually teach you to learn about real estate at the same time as well. So without further ado, our amazing guest, Claudienne. Sorry from Mr. Renalding it earlier.

Hey, listen, I'm happy to be here. Like I told you earlier on, as we start off, I know you just spoke about you being in South Africa. Born and raised there, immigrant pursuing the American dream, but at the same time, still culturally rooted in South Africa and Africa. Because I think there's a lot of potential back at home. Can you tell me about your experience there in South Africa with stormy and all that? Well, let me just say this. From the hospitality, from the service to the food, I was supposed to be there for one week.

I ended up there three weeks because I just kept extending my time. And in that moment, I mean, we traveled outside of Johannesburg. We, you know, I don't even know how to appreciate a zoo in my own backyard. Because when you went to the safaris, it was just like, wow. And so I can't wait. So I have a 30-year-old son. And I also have a- You're like 35. How did that work? The math's not messy.

The third. And then I have a three- and a four-year-old. And what I can say is that I cannot wait for them to journey there to see the culture. I mean, the food was just so fresh. Like you use the bathroom twice a day at least. And it just speaks to. to the quality, in my opinion, of the continent. So I served my, I had a service mission for my church in Ghana,

so which is West Africa as well. But when you speak about South Africa, I don't know if you did the safari, so next time you go there you should let me know, if there's a place, it's a walk with Lions Park, right? And so what happened when I went, you don't do these things when you're there, when I start bringing a lot of friends and tourists,

when we went down there, 2018, We went to a park. It's about like an hour and a half away from Johannesburg. And so what it is, it's like there's like teenage, close to full adult male lines that are there. So you can see like the main forming up. But like we're walking with about four, five, three hundred and fifty pound male lines to 400 pounds. And just the roar alone just freezes your heart. Because when they come out the cage and they're just like doing that average roar, it's like, what have I put myself into? You know what I'm saying?

But that's the best death ever. Imagine dying saying you died from a lion, you know what I'm saying? Well, I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that. I don't want to say that. But, you know, I'm excited to go back. Some of the places we're looking to invest in Ghana across some hour and a half away, three hours away.

And I'm looking at the potential and really asking, why are the people there not so excited about investing in their own space? I think I just answered it right now in this moment. And a lot of times people don't have the experience that we have here, inflation. Let me just say that. And so then you can't recognize and see the diamond that you have. But I believe in years to come, it's going to be so developed. A lot of people, not only just from the U.S. are migrating there, from other countries are migrating there.

So, you know, I believe that I will still be alive and around to see, you know, the benefits of us taking, you know, know our capital and invest in there. One of the things as well, before we continue, with South Africa, it's a little bit more unique than other African countries in the sense where South Africans

love staying in South Africa. So you'll never come across as many immigrants as you'll come across with Ghana, Nigeria, different parts of course. Because usually we have obviously the best economy in Africa, but it's nothing in comparison

to the United States. It's like a fraction, of course. But in terms of developing, we're part of the bricks, you know, with Brazil, Russia, India, China. And so, like, with our development, it's pretty good. But again, I feel like we can still capitalize a bit more with the opportunity that's at home. You know what I'm saying? In terms of resources-wise, culture-wise, and so forth.

But it's a unique experience back at home. Well, I'll be visiting there in the next four or five months, so I'm excited. Walk with Lions Park. I'll send you about it as well. You will enjoy the experience. I promise you it's safe. Yeah, and so, yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, can we talk a bit more about it? your journey. I'm very fascinated with the whole real estate. You've been in real estate since 2001. How did your journey begin? How did you start in that specific field? It was very simple. I was broke. I was a broke college graduate, you know, and they teach you, you know, you go to college, you get your degree, and you've made the American dream, you're going to get a job. And I remember, like it was yesterday, just to give the people perspective, that was at 2021. I'm now 45. And in August I'll be 46.

I knew that I always wanted to make a lot of money. And the reason for that is I wanted to be able to help a lot of people. And so I say that to say this, the five people that you're around is very important because my seventh grade teacher who took me in, while I was in middle school, her and I became very good friends. And I got to journey with her when she moved back to Miami on buying a home. And when I saw that the realtor was in AC in the nice model home, where you could go and pick several models and the finishes.

And, you know, she was in AC. She made about $40,000 on the transaction. Wow. It's exactly what I said. I said, wait a minute. You know, I'm very smart. I'm intelligent, and I know how to add and subtract. Something wasn't adding up because it took me a whole year to make $40,000.

Yet I was asking my job from 8 to 5. Sometimes I would stay there until 6. You know, it's hot in South Florida. We had to wear panty holes and jackets. It was just a lot. And I was very successful in the space, and I was very grateful. but after I saw that, I quit two days later. I didn't know how to go and get my license,

but I knew how to go and get educated because I'd already done it, right? And I did it. I quit my job two days after that moment, and then I said, okay, how do I go get my license? Lucky for me, it only takes a 63 hours. And I said to myself, well, you're not working anymore, Claudienne, so just knock it out in one week.

So for seven days from Sunday to Sunday, I did real estate class. I failed it once. I failed it twice. I said, I know the problem. I need to get out of Miami because I was still hanging out with my friends. And so I went to Dallas. I studied for about a week and I came home and I literally aced the test. Wow.

I was with one company for 20 years. I was the Rookie of the Year. I was the door knocker. I was the realtor that would get it done. by any means necessary. And I had no skill say yet because what you learn in class is not really all that happens in the real world. Every client of mine, and I've done over a billion dollars in sales, so just get that for a second, has been different. It's almost saying that everybody has a different social security number, even when you're twins. Every client came with a different

set of something, whether good or bad. And I just knew that I would leverage my research, resources. I would knock on those doors. And let me tell you a story. So my first deal, I was selling a town home. Where was this in? In Miami. Okay. I'm in Broward County, but I was selling a town home and I didn't know that the buyers had to get pre-approved with the HOA, Homeowners Association. And so I'm crying because it's three days before closing and they say this process takes 30 days, but I called someone that I knew that bought that house. Her name's Tina Howe. She bought the first wing stop to Miami.

Now she's over 20. Wing stops. But I said, what are you doing? Because she had already been a homeowner. She knew. She said, well, Claudia, you know, the board is usually made up of the homeowners. Go figure out who the president is. Knock on their door.

Give them the application. And let me tell you something. They got us close in three days. Wow. And so leveraging resources and just becoming skillful. And then I realized, wait a minute, it just can't be hustled for me. I'm a hustler. Like I have sold pencils in school. I have sold potato chips in garbage bags in high school, middle school, you name it, elementary. So I had the hustle. I didn't have the skill set. So I started to go to things like Tony Robbins and Brian Buffini, some of these industry experts. I mean, I don't even think Tony Robbins had this elite $150,000 thing back then. But I still couldn't afford it. But I would go to the free session. I would soak in as much as I could. And they would when I made the money and take a portion of it and then go and buy the next thing,

you know, maybe it was a $5,000 course or a three-day weekend where you, you know, walked on the fire. And so I became skillful over time and, you know, the rest is history. That's fascinating. I'm glad you mentioned that. And I also loved your story of, you know, you've always done sales and so forth as well. Before you done real estate when you were selling pencils, is that like, did you always, were you always born with the sales?

kind of mentality or something that developed over time? I think I was, everybody has a uniqueness about them that they're born with. I believe that I was born with the ability to use my mouth to champion whatever it is that I was doing. I was my school vice president. I was, you know, VP of SGA. I was, you know, I was always a leader. Even when I was going down the wrong path, I was still a leader. I was just leading a bunch of people who were just doing the wrong thing. So the minute I took it and made it positive, which was right around high school, and just to put things in perspective, by the time I got to ninth grade, I had 100 referrals in the system. And for those of you that don't know

what referrals are, it's simply write-ups from your principal, your teachers, that you did something bad, and you were either in detention after school or 10-day suspension. And so I didn't always have the life of this perfect person, but I knew when that mentor, Tina Howell came into my life, my life literally changed. You know, and I'm glad you mentioned that. It was me personally, so you've been to South Africa before. So we have these very unique, like kind of pin pops, lollipops that we have. And so what I would do, I'd buy like a packet of those. It was about, like, I'm going to use just Rans, because I'll just say dollars then. Let's say the packet was about $30. And what I'd do with the $30, there was about like $48 inside there. So you sell each for

$2, it becomes like $96. So you buy, I'd buy like Rottie Pops, sell all of them, and I'd make three times the amount of profit that I would do. And what was very fascinating about that is that it was double the amount that was being sold in at the tech shop, which is what we have there. And then I realized this is so darn easy. So what I would do, I'd sell all these packets, and I'm like, hang on, why am I selling all these different packets? Let me try and get somebody that I could outsource and actually pay a commission for that and still get my money back as well. And what I would do is that I would do that and then I'd go to like an eighth grader

because I was at the 12th grade at that time. And like someone who's super popular who knows the school, who's a little confident in himself and do the exact same thing. And then what he would do, he would take about a third of the commission. Now I get double for not doing like much of the work besides investing in the specific product. and then he gets his commission for selling everything he sells. And then you realize sometimes working smarter by outsourcing and paying for what it is as well. So you're a great business leader, which kind of segues to what I'm going to.

How have you seen that outsourcing has upscaled your business over time? Oh, tremendously. And I'll share with you this. Probably for the first five to seven years of my career, I was always afraid to hire an assistant, to hire realtors because I just felt like they wouldn't work as hard as me. I felt like nobody would go the mile, the extra mile, to get that home buyer in that home or in that investment. I don't know why I even told myself that.

It was just something, and maybe it had something to do with experiences. I would hear a lot of people back then say, this isn't for me, I can't get a sale, yet I'm cold calling. I am calling house after house. I land my first listing appointment, my second, in Star Island. I'm calling somebody in Opelaca, I think, and I'm calling her business. And she said to me, she said, how do you know that I'm interested in selling my house? I said, because I have some buyers that are interested.

This was the script. I had no buyers, by the way. I had some buyers that are interested in, you know, moving in your community. She says, oh, this is great. I said, well, let me get your address. And she said, blah, blah, blah, star island. And I neared. I'm 21, 22, so I'm young.

I don't know a lot. And then you start to tell yourself these things, right? Do I have enough experience? Is she going to look at that I'm a woman? Is she going to even look at the fact that I'm black and Star Island? Like, you start telling yourself things. And I said, you know what? I don't know, but I'm going to be smart about this thing.

I went and got Mr. Tom Rabatey, blonde hair, blue-eyed guy. And I said, come on, we're going to do this together. And I was very transparent with him, and he loved it. And we knocked it out. So, you know, scaling my business, and I brought it up for a reason, I do that today. I outsource a lot of my buyers and a lot of my listings because I'm only one person. You know, and I'm going into a department or an era of coaching. You know, I want to take the last 24 years of knowledge that I've been able to pay for, experience, put to work, however you want to call it.

And I want to show people how I was able to do that and they don't have to take 20 years. In fact, they don't need to take nine months that they told me it was going to take me to do my first deal. It took me four months to do my first deal. Wow. So I beat the odds. And I'll share this with you. When I got started in real estate for the first, I would say, 10 to 15 years, it was white male dominated. I didn't even know that then.

But what if I would have known that? would I have gained the level of success? Because sometimes you get stuck in the fear. Exactly. You do until you can break through the barrier. So I'm kind of glad I didn't know that. Because I was number one for many, many years, top five, top 10. And I tell you, those people didn't look like me at the top.

But I was breaking barriers and it felt good. It felt good. I want to just add on that. And I think that was an intimidating thing that I had because I used to do even a bit of sales back at home. But obviously when I came here, I'm like, oh my gosh, not only am I black, I got a different accent. You know what I'm saying? But I'm like, let me use that to my darn advantage. You know what I'm saying?

It's an ice break. I have an accent. Where are you from England? I'm like, God save the queen. By the way, I'm selling that thing. You know what I'm just making an example, of course. But I think sometimes when we limit ourselves and we put those barriers in between conversations or we implant certain things in our mind, it can prevent us.

I mean, you're in your story, becoming the number one realtor, consecutive times. the year, like I said, even to this day, it's still somewhat like white male dominated kind of field, you know, but you can see a lot of change. It's been happening over time, and it's amazing you see that as well. But I'm grateful you kind of spoke about that, because sometimes I feel like there's someone out there's like, can I even do this thing today? Can I even jump into that specific field? And I think you're the embodiment of success, and I love seeing that a lot. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you, welcome. Now, in terms of buying and selling a real estate,

Do you start off in wholesaling or was it just when you were in realtor? Like how did you, you spoke about the transaction? Was that wholesaling that you were talking about early on? So, no, I'm not a big wholesaler. I'm not. Have I done them? Yes. My main focus is sales for sellers and buyers and the residential and commercial space.

That is how I gained my income. But I tell you in college, and I'm not even an avid reader, I just have to, this is for all the people who say, I don't like to read. Get you some friends that like to read because they will communicate with you what they read and you'll learn a lot. I just understand what you're good at and what you're not good at implement some relationships or people in your lives that, you know, whatever they're good at, that can complement what I have. And so I remember reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, in college. And I don't remember why I read the book. I read it as my freshman year. And when I became a realtor, something

triggered from that time to the time I became a realtor, which is probably about five years. I don't even know how I paired the two. And I said, man, I made in one or two deals what I would take to make a whole year working from eight to five. But I'm working. I want you to understand. making $40,000 at 21 in one month, like what that felt and looked like. That's phenomenal. And then I quickly realized, hmm, I've got a rich mom and I love my mom, but my mom was going to work every day, made probably 40, $45,000. That was my example.

So now I have a rich mom and a poor mom, right? And I said, okay, when you start hanging around people for a very long time, you don't even got to call them no more. They start popping up in your brain and in your psyche. And I said to myself, I can run through this money, which I did some of it. I rewarded myself. I shopped a little bit for a very short period of time. I said either I could run through this money or I can make the money work for me.

And that's when that book popped up. I said, making $40,000 is great, but what am I? Like, I realize very quickly I'm as good as my last sale. It's a sales business. You don't close, you don't make money. You don't close any deals, you don't make any money. You understand what I'm saying? Exactly.

All right, cool. I said, what could I do with this income that would make me money every month if I decided, I didn't want to do real estate at 35 years old? And that was my target age to get out of the market. I said, you know what? I remember Rich Dad, poor dad saying that he had, you know, done investments. And while that book was on the surface, it didn't tell you all the details that I learned later, It was definitely a great start.

So I bought my first duplex at 21. I took my money and I bought my first duplex. And while it only made me $1,600 a month, I quickly calculated, man, if I do this once a year, at $1,600 a month for the next 20 years, I said 10 years, that's like $16,000 a month. There were years that I bought two, three properties. there was years where inflation happened that I just sat back, I watched.

There were years that I was able to, like now, sell high. And I've pretty much sold almost everything that we've owned to really go and just buy a 10, 20, 30 unit building. So right now I'm actually actively looking for a 2030 unit building. From one duplex that I bought for $120,000, maybe seven, eight years ago. and I'm just using this as an example since that was the last transaction but I sold it

I took the proceeds I moved it into a 1031 exchange to defer the property tax gains on the property and I'm scaling my business up because by the time that I'm 50 I want to have a thousand units

and that's really where real retirement happens you know you spoke about rich dad poor dad like the story you just mention is it's actually very inspiring because that's also one of the first books I read. You know, when you kind of explain the whole cash flow quadrant, employee, small business, big business, and then invest. And I'm like, how do I get a B-I? And I think people don't realize it's actually more accessible. I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's accessible. It can be done. You know what I'm saying? And I think like you're in your story, 21 years old, black woman in America getting a duplex,

that. And I could not get my peers to do it. I mean, so just to give you a little history, we had a hurricane by the name of Hurricane Andrew. I was probably in high school that happened maybe late 90s, early 2000. I can't remember, but no, it had to be in the 90s because I was in high school. And I remember it was probably the worst documented hurricane that we've had in Florida since I've been alive. And it just really just made all of Homestead flat, which helped develop places like Miramar and Pembro Pines, which was a little bit more north.

And I remembered maybe at about 22, 23, they started rebuilding Homestead. And I didn't have a lot of knowledge about investing, but what I did know was that I was going to buy in Homestead. And I remember buying three townhomes. And I remember the day of closing, not ever owning the property. Back then they would do something called an assignment or they would call it a, not a consecutive closing, but I can't think of the name, but you could close. You could be in contract and the next buyer could close and you would get the assignment fee.

I remember making $30,000 off of each of those properties. And when I tell you, I call my friends, they were school teachers, they were in, like, I tried to get so many people on board, and it just was not happening. And I just went on about my business and continued. So today, moving forward to see so many people, especially that look like me, investing in real estate, it's just like, wow, I never realized a day that this would happen. So it makes me proud. So you are the founding mother. I'm the founding mother. So you are the George Washington.

Exactly. I love that. Mrs. Washington. There we go. So now when somebody out there that's perhaps watching right now and wants to start, what can they do right now to prepare for their first real estate, like, investment? Like what's the first step they can do? Well, I'll just take you through my journey.

You know, when I came out of college, I had bad credit. You know, the people on campus had the credit cards. come get your free cup, your free t-shirt. And I was like, I want to, forget the credit card. I want the T-shirt and the cup. And I remember just going into credit card debt. What I didn't know is that I had to pay these bills every month and I didn't have an income.

So where was the money going to be coming from? Financial aid, no, scholarships, no. So I remember getting myself into some situations. And when I got out of college, I said, okay, my hair was red. I was like, let me go back to black. I'm going to go back in the working world. Sure. like this. And I remember saying, okay, for me to buy real estate, I'm selling it, but for me to

buy, I need to get my credit in order. It was like a 500 credit score. It was bad. I started to call the creditors, and I started to make settlement. If I owed $10,000, I'd say, listen, I got $1,200 right now. I can pay it. If you can promise to send me a letter saying that you agreed to settle and update my credit card, I'm ready to do it right now. Like, I was a negotiator. I don't even know where I got those skills from. Like, I could talk you into some stuff, right? And so I started getting my credit together. So rule number one, credit is king. People say cash is king, but credit really is king, because you can leverage other people's money while you're building your asset portfolio. So that's number one. Number two, making sure you have documented income. So I am a 1099, right?

I do not have W-2s, and what do 1099 people like to do? They like to write off all of their income. And so although you make a million dollars or $500,000, you end up making $30,000 at the end of the day. And it doesn't benefit you because it's income versus debt. So making sure your paperwork is right, right? Making sure your income is documented, understanding, you know, even in the non-W2 employee sector, entrepreneurship, they have loans designed for those types of people. knowing that you can add on or add back in it's a lot but just knowing that there are special loans for different segment of professionals like you can do a bank

statement loans you could be having a lot of big deposits they would take the average of 12 to 24 months and determine what your income would be and now you don't have to worry about W2 and tax returns right what is the minimum credit score for something like that understanding how to level leverage the bank's money is very important. That's number two. If you need to leverage partnerships, I've done that. They've gone bad and they've gone good. Understanding that person's financial background and their history is very important. A lot of times we get into business because they're our friends or it's a great idea. But no, really do a background. I want to

see what your financials look like and be able to be in a position to offer yours. So you can know who you're going into bed with, business bed, I guess, I would say. So understanding that. So just if you're not ready alone, who can I collaborate to get the goal done? And I'll share this with you. I did not buy a single family house first. I bought six investment properties. And then I went and bought the house.

And guess what? I realized when I looked at my six unit, like there were six different properties. five were multi-family, one was a single-family home. And I would look at my simple Excel spreadsheet, nothing complicated, and I would look and say, okay, the revenue on the single family is only $6,000 a year. While I was making 28, 32, 34, on the multi-units, I said, wait a minute. I got married to the tenant because I just loved the tenant, you know, but it was business. eventually I had to break away and say,

I love you as a tenant, but I'm going to put this house on the market. Can I prep you to buy it? And all that she didn't buy, I just relocated her to something else that we had. And I sold that one single family home and paid off my house. So for years, my rental income paid for my house.

And that one year, when I decided to sell that asset, because I had so much equity, at about $300,000 of equity, I said, okay, it's costing me. this amount of money on the single family home, which is what I occupy, that is not an asset to me. I got to cut the trees. I got to do the pool. I have to cut the lawn. If the roof needs cleaning, I got to do that. If I got to want to upgrade my windows, I have to maintain this house. So I didn't want to do that first. So I bought my first duplex. I bought another one. I bought a four unit,

and it kept going, kept going. And then when I had enough money to now take care of the house that I was living in, I said, okay, now this makes sense. I don't even know. where I came up with that from. It just made sense to me and that's what I did. And I ended up selling that one house out of my portfolio in that moment and paying off my house that I lived in. And let me tell it felt good. It felt good. I'm glad you shared that. That's actually very inspiring. I want to also talk about just a few of the setbacks. We know the market has not always been in favor of like realtors or people in the real estate field as well. I mean, dot com wasn't have that big of an effect, but that's when you entered the real estate. But then there was the great recession

which was like the financial, 2008, 2009, know it so well. And then there was also COVID, but 2008-09 specifically was literally the market crash as well, especially housing market crash. How did that affect your business or your portfolio around that specific time as well? So, I can say this. I have never seen my rents going in the opposite direction. I've never seen my rents go from 2000. Oh, now it's down to 500.

I had not seen that in 20 years of my career. I have seen properties be worth 500, and they go down to 400,000. But I'm not really, I don't really care about that because my goal is not to sell these properties. It's to keep them forever. It's really to become a legacy player. You know, my kids, my youngest two kids are legend and legacy intentionally because that's what we're creating for them now. You know, that's our new focus. You know, what are they going to live up to see and what's going to prove?

prep them, not only them, but their children's children, over a period of time. And so for me, when the market crash, I'll tell you what was affected. My income was affected from sales because no one knew what to do. There were short sale processes at banks, but they had no department. It was taking us a year and a half to process a short sale. Now it takes a 60 days. So it was an era of figuring out, wait, what happened? Start market crashed.

I also tell you what I believe contributed to this, because I experienced this myself, living in my town home. I remember buying a pre-construction property and the taxes, when I closed, were about $600 for the year. Well, if you take $600 and you divide it by 12 months, that's how you pay your taxes. It was a little of nothing. But what I didn't realize in that time is that we pay taxes in the rear. So at the end of the year, we pay taxes. And about September, August, September is when they do the reassessment. So just think about the year before.

They assessed only land. Now they're going for a reassessment. There's not only land there, but there is a building structure. My taxes went from $600 to $6,000 over a year's span of time. and I kept saying, I can afford this, but it was still a shock to me. What about the average person that's going to work from 9 to 5? They have their budget. They budgeted for this payment, and now they've got to figure out how to come up with an overreach

and now add on another $7,800 on a mortgage payment. I believe that also heavily, heavily contributed to the market crash. tell you why. People couldn't afford it. They started to vacate, leave the properties. Like, they didn't even know what to do. And so we had a crisis. There were blocks and blocks. I remember it like it was yesterday. I never realized I would be the person saying that I remember 20 years ago or 19 years ago. You would hear that earlier on in my career from, you know, the seniors that had been in the business. And I don't mean senior in age. Veterans, yeah. Veterans. Veterans. I should say veterans.

And they would be, oh, my God, you know how we look for properties? We'd look in the yellow pages and would flip. And then we get this nice system on the computer. But now I'm saying, wow, do you know what it took us to look for properties? Now, you know, we didn't have a Zillow and the Internet and all this stuff. But nevertheless, you know, it was a very devastating time. And there was building and construction going on on every corner. People were building and flipping, building and flipping.

And it was another level of inflation, different from today, obviously. But it was, I went from $598,000 that I had made in 2006. I remember it like it was yesterday. 2007, I made $52,000 in sales. Wow. I did not do anything different in terms of skill set and hustle, but I did not know how to maneuver in that space because I had not seen it before. And so I said, okay, this was a time where I was thinking,

Man, I should have went to college for nursing. I should have finished that nursing degree so I can just go to the hospital and work. And I said, well, I didn't do that, Claudia. What is it that you need to do? And I took money that I had put away. I'm never living over my expenses. I'm just over my ability. I'm just never going to outspend and do all these ridiculous things.

It's just not me. And so I have money put up and I said, you know what? I'm going to put it in marketing. My girlfriend and I, we rode for hours, two days in a row. Say, I'm going to put a billboard here. I'm going to put a bill. Like, I turned my marketing up 10X. And let me tell you something, it was a game changer for me.

I started to go to more conferences, building relationships with bank executives, presidents, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, the city. And then, guess what? I become an REO broker. Well, what's an REO broker? Claudia Ann. It's the real estate-owned department of banks. So now I get these accounts with the banks. Wow. And now the inventory, the influx of foreclosures are landing right in my computer in the system because I just, I was able to pivot. And it's very important to do in any market really, pivot

before the devastation happens. I started to work for the cities, Miami Gardens. I helped curate the NSP program. What's that, Claudia? It's the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, where if you were a city and entity, you could request millions and millions of dollars from the federal government. They would award you those funds,

and you would go into your city on those blighted streets and rehab foreclosures, buy the foreclosures, rehab them, grant the buyers down payment assistance, $60,000 to $180,000. Okay, this was not a little bit of money. And beautify your cities again. And so I was a part of that. And because I did such a great job,

they said, hey, Pembert Pines and Miramar, you need to check Claudia Ann out. Like, I am the queen of bar of peace. Request for proposals. I don't want you guys to be saying, what are she talking about? What are she talking about requests for proposals? So I was a queen.

And I literally, that next year, I went from 52,000 and I started to see my income climb again. I think for the first, these first 45 minutes was enough to get somebody a PhD in real estate. So thank you for the insight you this gave. Maybe I should implement a school. By the way, I do owe to school by way of my husband. We both bought a school together. Is it an academy?

It's an academy. It's called True Prep Academy. We started all boys at first for the first seven years. And then we were able to scale. We were able to have a weight. list. Thank God. And I'd tell you a building that we had watched for seven years became available, and we were able to buy it 25,000 square feet. Oh my goodness. 25,000 square feet. We are the proud owners of that building and a church sold it to us and now they're now renting from us. We love them.

They love us. And we're going to continue to it's not easy. Okay. It's not easy because when you're start ripping up stuff. You're like, okay, tear that up to, tear it up to, and you're like, wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't have done that. And so we're a million into renovations, but we are excited about that. I'm excited to curate different business relationships. We have the Miami Foundation, grant us a grant, a forgivable grant, if we stay there for five years. But I can tell you right now, we're not selling that building. That is going down in the history books to our children's children's children's children. And so I'm excited about that, too. We now are now co-ed. We have girls and boys.

I mean, we're growing. We're just growing. We can now hold. We could only hold about 85 students before. We have grown to a building that can hold over 600 kids. That's powerful. And I think that that's the American dream. That's a generational wealth that people aspire to be at that level as well. And before we go into the school thing, because I want to touch on that again, I want to talk just about just the importance of networking, you know. And I've seen it. And I love the stories. you've shared and how you kept elevating yourself, the more people you start of meeting the business conferences you'd go to. I often heard a saying say that you're obviously one handshake away from a completely different lifestyle. You know, you have to get yourself

from the right rooms. You have to be able to get with those people that have been there because it helps you get that shortcut from avoiding the mistakes that they did by giving you the knowledge that they've gained from their lifetime as well. The reason I like sharing this is I feel like people are a little bit complacent sometimes. We're in our comfort zone. It's hard for us to approach and ask for help. How can somebody then add value back to somebody that's given them value? You know what I'm saying?

I think understanding, so I'm very intentional, especially in this space. There is not probably a profession that you can call me about and I don't have a good referral to. Name a profession. Like, just name a couple. You may need a... Immigration lawyer. Oh, I got you. I got you.

Sunrise Boulevard, Palm Avenue. I got you. So I like to be people. I got you. You know, I just met with him a couple weeks ago. In fact, we just donated a Mercedes-Benz 20205. You saw that. I saw that on your Instagram.

Listen, I got you. So my thing is, I'm not here for small talk. I want to know what's your name. and I might ask you what you do before I even ask you your name. And so when people are asking, let me just back up. When I am in a room,

my goal is always to meet a minimum of three new people. I need to understand what they do, how can I help them and how can they help me? Okay? So when you're in a room and I'm asking you,

what are you doing, you say I'm an entrepreneur, wrong. I can't do anything with that information. I can't, what are you going to do an entrepreneur. What is it that you do? And I'm like, okay, but what do you do?

Tell me. And you need to be able to do that in a 30, I mean, 30 seconds is really even long when you're having a conversation with somebody who has got a very short window of receiving information. Okay? I know what I do. I know how I do it. And I know how to execute.

And so now I'm like, okay, wait a minute, you do this? wait a minute let me take your number i don't just scan those qr i have 8 000 contacts in this phone i am not going to remember who you are i go to my notepad i put the the name of the event the date of the event i write your information there with a phone number i take a picture text it to you so i can remember and i intentionally go back through my notes and i say okay this person is this let me at least say thanks for meeting you and i communicate i said i'm not going to text you right now but after the event event, I want to make sure that we connect. And I'm very intentional about that. I can talk to anybody. I could talk to the bum on the corner and we can have a good conversation. You'd learn a lot.

Like I do not say, okay, wait, that person looks like that or I think that they do this. No, I'm going to get clarity and then I'm going to decide, you know, how best we can work together. You know what's crazy. I'm glad you mentioned that. We had a very more humbling experience. We got the, I don't know if it was planning, what it was for the 10X conference recently. We were at Las Vegas there. But we had like the private breakfasts in the morning and all that. But what's happening, we're in a room full of people. And when I say we had that experience, we're sitting next to somebody that we never realized

was in a field that we wanted to like learn from. And then on the other side, we were sitting there to somebody that also we didn't, we couldn't tell. I think sometimes you end up prejudging. So why I'm sharing this thing, when they were talking, talk about businesses and what people do. I remember Jared starts saying, you guys need to connect with this person. It's got a $150 million business. And I'm like, dang, I was him right next to him. You know, it's like, are you kidding me?

You know, sometimes you end up prejudging without even realizing somebody can actually be out there. And they try to disguise and stuff as well because, you know, they just super chill because he kept asking, so what do you do? And I'm out there just. I'm out there just. I'm out there. You know, and it's just, it's such a humbling experience. So when you say that, I could just tell, you know, and I want to reiterate on that, it's just so important.

Like, you just go out there, talk. You never know that you had one handshake away from a completely different lifestyle. Absolutely. So, yeah. Absolutely. I love it. Now, going on to investment right now, from what you've seen, what would you say somebody should start in investing in, like, a single home or multifamily right now with how the market has been? I would stay away from single family homes, and I'll tell you.

why. It was not my journey. I don't know why. I don't have a, I did this and I, this was my mentor. I just realized more doors meant more money. And so when I bought my first duplex, I said, okay, Claudia, and if the tenant moves out in one unit, it's okay, you got the other unit that will cover the mortgage. I may not make, I may not make any money, but I'm not like, oh my God, what am I going to do, right? So I believe your first property should be multi. And I'll tell you why. Okay. If you're the average person going to work, you make six figures. I mean, six figures is, I mean, average. I mean, I don't even know what $40,000 can do for you today. But let's just say you're anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000 and you're on income that's dictated by your boss, right? That was the other reason why I chose real estate because there was no limit on what I was the limit of what I was going to be able to do.

But nevertheless, you know what you're putting is what you get out. Exactly. And so here's the thing. You now have to make calculations almost to the T. And if you buy a single family home and that tenant moves out, who's responsible for the mortgage at that moment? You are. Exactly. You definitely are.

if you had a two or a three unit and one person moves out. It's easy to find somebody else to fill out the future. Not only that, you still get two people paying rent. That's typically what happened. Not only that, with FHA, you get to put three and a half percent down on one to four units. So why not go and get your four units first, maximize your three and a half percent down payment, because you're going to occupy one of the units there. You follow me?

So let's just say if the unit is $500,000. It's easier for me to calculate at those numbers. $500,000. 3.5% is about 16.5, right? Somewhere in there. Okay? Let's say if you were buying this as an investment, you'd have to come up with a minimum of 10%.

So FHA, which is for someone who's going to occupy, the property makes the best sense to me. Does this make sense? Exactly. So now I don't get one property. I get four units with three and a half percent down. The seller can pay all my closing costs. I can go in there with a hometown hero grant

that's coming back out in July, July 1st. It's $100 million allocated to the state of Florida. Ask me what the requirement is. There are over 100 job descriptions. everybody fits down to the dancer in the nightclub everybody fits the program okay so there's no excuse and now i'm generating income i would do it again fHA does not dictate that you must live in a house for any amount of time what it does say is that you must have the intent on moving into the property so you move into the property you stayed there for six months you know what

Claudia is getting a little crowded for me. I'd like to go to a two unit building. So now guess what I can do? I can use FHA again, rent out the unit that I used to live in. By the way, the bank is going to take 75% of the income coming into that building. Add it onto your income. Follow me?

Yes, 100%. You guys are following me. Now you're making 75, they get to take 75. percent use it towards your income to buy the next property, which is now two units. So now how many units do you have? Four and two is six. You just leverage your previous property to try and, you know, find... Exactly.

So now you, you know, you lived in that property for a year. You're like, Claudia, and this is great, but now I'm ready for my single family home. That structure makes sense to the bank. And then that amount can end up paying for your single family home's mortgage, right? Thank you. Bingo. But if you buy the single family home first, that debt is going to be counted against you. Why? Because there's nobody living in the property.

There's no income coming into the property. And then FHA is going to say, well, this doesn't make sense. You're going to move from your single family house to a four unit. This doesn't make sense. So I would do it the way I did it. I bought the four, I bought the two unit, the four unit, the two unit. I did buy a single family somewhere in there. I had about six properties before.

bought the single family. It worked for me. I heard nothing but devastation in the recession in 2008 with investors that owned single family homes. They lost almost all of their properties. Wow. And one thing I also noticed as well,

it's very, very common in the state of Utah where people would get like, because usually basements accommodate for like the climate and those kind of homes, Utah, Idaho. Like the Pacific Northwest, like, you know, Rocky Mountains around that area. So what happens is people often buy like a single family home and they would rent out the basement to another family knowing that the rent over there could potentially cover like their mortgages as well.

So things like that. It's a similar idea, just different jurisdiction, different kind of like. They call it house hacking. The house hacking. Yes, house hacking. No, I love that. I want to go back to something. You said the school academy, that's fascinating for me.

Can we touch about it? Can you talk about the academy again? And like, how does somebody enroll in the academy? What does the academy do? And, like, I don't know how passionate you were. And I'm passionate about education as well. Even though, like, I did go the route of getting my degree, financial economics. I did get an internship in the financial district.

But I'm at the point where I feel like entrepreneurship is a way to go. And I'm grateful I've got to experience that side. I'm grateful I got to, you know, meet, like, the 10th Richerspan in the world, Michael Bloomberg, in my internship, which I was one of only 40 interns to do that, which is like something all over. You know, and so looking back, there is no other way. After the cash flow quadrant, ES, B, I need to be in the B-I. Exactly.

Right. So can you talk about your Academy again? Like, how can somebody enroll in that? It's simple. You can come and do a site tour. You can go to TRU True, no E, Prepacademy.com. I mean, you can go on the website. You can see if it's a great fit.

We do not do things in my own. opinion, the traditional way in high school or middle school or elementary, we start our kids off not with a pledge of allegiance, but self-confidence creeds. They talk about their goals and their dreams. When you walk into our school, you're going to see quotes. I mean, you're just going to see positive stuff on all the walls. Affirmations. Affirmation after affirmation. I mean, we want to pump them with that, right? Sometimes our home life is not the best. sometimes their environments are not the best. Sometimes kids are just kids and they're going through something.

So we're there to remind them, you were great. No matter what cards you were dealt, what hand you were dealt, I've seen people win a game of spades with no spades in their hand. Why? Because they're strategizing. I mean, we want to teach them that that's possible. So what do we do? We travel with our children.

They've been to the African American Museum. They've been to the Jewish Museum. They have been in the, I mean, they've been everywhere. They experience downtown, midtown, different events here. And I believe, and this was my experience with my son, who's now 30, that, I mean, he had been to China. He had been, I mean, I can just list the names of places that he's been. And I truly believe that contributed to his entrepreneurship. Like, he is not getting a job.

You can forget it. He's going to figure he's going to be an entrepreneur and he's going to figure it out one way or the other. And I believe it's because of his experiences. Is there anything wrong with going to college? No, he went to college. We both did. We went on a full ride. So we're not those people who have a $300,000, you know, college bill.

Yeah, yeah. And he also played basketball, so he traveled there again as well. But I don't believe colleges are going to go away. And I believe if college is for you, then you do it. You still need to go to college and become a teacher. becoming doctor, an attorney, like an accountant. Like, you still have to do those. There are certain professions that require that.

But I believe, like, there's a lot of people that just go because they just go. Their parents, they go, and they go. And that can be a waste of time. It can't. It can. And so I forgot your question. Tell me, because I got way off.

Tell me. I was talking about the academy and, like, what's been talking to, yes. So here, thank you. So I wasn't way off. So here, just to bring it back home. So we will graduate you with your degree in high school. We have sent over 500 to 1,000 kids to colleges on full scholarships. We will provide you avenues for entrepreneurship experiences, if that's so what you want to do.

We will create spaces for you. We have architects come in. I mean, it's extensive, but we're just a little bit of, bit different when it comes to our morning regimen and how we do things. We sawed during COVID. Why? Because our curriculum is half teacher in person and half remote. And half remote, even though they're coming into a building, they're on their computers, learning in a space of an error in which we're already going. So we saw during COVID and a lot of schools closed down, we were already in the space. and we want to put our kids in situations where they're not above,

ahead of the curve, instead of trying to play catch-up. I feel like my career was catch-up. My husband knows that his career was catch-up, and we just didn't have the resources. And so that's what we do. We provide you the resources. We're digital and, you know, physical space. We have this.

We have podcasts in our school. Fascinating. Why? Because it teaches our kids confidence. It teaches them how to speak. You know, should I be in a chair like this? Or somebody going to perceive me better when I'm postured up, even when I'm not on the camera. Posturing is so important if I'm on the phone. Like during COVID, can you imagine how many people were just unsuccessful at homeworking because they had on their bonnet and they were trying to work in in pajamas? Like, no, get up and get yourself together, you know? I love that. And so we teach from a different angle, but we get the job done.

You're going to learn math. You're going to learn how to read. You're going to learn economics. You're going to go to the place where they show you where they actually make the physical money. Like, you're going to learn that. But then you're also going to learn, you know, the importance of Bitcoin. The importance of being in the space of that market altogether, it's important. Cryptocurrency, AI, transition, future.

I like that. Yes. We're not going to be. going to let you skip and just go to chat GPT for everything. But we do want, you know, there's a tool that you could use to spruce up what you've put in your mind, you know, and then make sure you're citing it. Making sure you cite, you know, other people's work. And so I'm excited.

No, and I think that's so important. I'm glad you mentioned. I think it's so important because I think many people have actually even switched over from leaving their kids at public schools to literally a home-based society. I know I follow a lot of Grand Cardone and I've seen how they've raised their kids in this homeschooling environment but I feel like what you guys are offering

is that homeschooling environment in a system where you're still socializing because that's my, like that's one of the hardest things I'm like yes I want to do a homeschooling thing but I still want them to interact with other kids and actually end up having friends and learning those important social skills gaining the confidence

and building friendships as well and I think that kind of culture because I wish entrepreneurship was taught in that sense where you don't have to go to rich dad, poor dad, or Tony Robbins, or read very, very important, life-changing, transformal books like, you know, the richest man in Babylon or, like, rich, you know, all these great books of what's my favorite, even the secret, like manifestation and like, you know, you're the universe, like transferring your energy understanding. What's the one of Napoleon Hill?

Great, my favorite book, we watched the movie the other time. It's the red. Napoleon Hill. Thinking grow rich. Jinks. And he's so many books, but thinking grow rich. Yeah, we're big on that. Like our kids, my three and four year old, know the affirmation. I believe it's in chapter six. I know I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life. Therefore, I will demand of myself that. And so my kids right now, they recite that

every morning. It's so important affirmations. I'm so grateful that. I want to respect your time right now, and I want to ask you just two last questions. The second last one, look back at your journey. I've just seen the trajectory of absolute success, but it also, there's a lot of contributing factors of confidence, belief, manifestation, grit and hard work is just as important. Right now, 2025, and you look at 2001 entering that entrepreneurial journey, what would you tell your younger self, knowing what you know now? Oh my God. Read more, do more, listen to surround myself with more like-minded people and people above where I was.

And I would do more. Like, I would have bought more properties, but you don't know until you get there. It's one of those things. But I would have taken more risk. And I took a lot. I take a lot of risk now. But I was taking more risk because I'm in the space of the future from then. So I'll share this.

I will say this. You know, they asked me, Claudia, and when's the best, I get this question all the time. When's the best time to buy real estate? The answer is always five years ago. But let's say you don't own anything today. You don't want another five years to go by, and you don't own real estate.

I bought property in North Carolina on a mountain that was so beautiful. at 24 years old, I never saw the property. I saw it on a CD that they sent to me, and I said, this looks pretty cool. It's only 35,000. The bank is going to help finance it. The payment is $250 a month.

I can handle that. And my husband looked at me and said, Claudia, what do you want to do for your 40th birthday? I'm pregnant with legend. I said, you know, I want to go to North Carolina, Asheville. I've never been there. I've never seen the property. I've paid the property off many moons ago.

I've never been there physically. We go. Now, this is somewhere in COVID, too. So there are no four-wheel drives at the car in a place. I knock on the neighbor's door. There were no houses built when I bought this property. It was trees, but the views were amazing. There were 20 houses.

There were roads built. built, there were lights, there were grocery store. I was so amazed. And I could not get up the mountain because I bought a very high lot in the mountain. And I knocked on doors until somebody answered and helped me. I said, I want to get to my property. I don't even know quite how to get there. I stopped at a real estate company. They pulled out a map. They kind of showed me how to get here. There was no address. It's land. And if you could help me, he says, oh, I'm from Fort Lauderdale. We've been here for five years, I'll take you up in the truck. I mean, it was the most profound feeling to know that one day I'm going to build on that

lot when I get a little time and my spare time, and that would be my second home. So I tell you this, say that to say this, I bought that property many moons ago. I didn't see it. I took a risk. It was a great risk. That same property is worth the land alone, $150,000. I haven't even built on it yet. It's almost five times the amount of what you bought it, literally.

So the point is, is that if somebody came today and offered me 150, I'd tell him no, but what is that property going to look like in the next 10 years? Probably going to be near $300,000. Do you understand what I'm saying? So don't look at it as, oh, she paid $30 and now it's $150, well, so like he's going to pay $150, and somebody's going to, 10 years from now say, wow, I'm so glad I bought this property. So when's the best time to buy?

Always five years ago. And if you haven't bought anything, definitely don't wait another five years to buy. Figure it out. The last and final question, we ask our guests all this question because our podcast is called the code to winning. Claudienne, what is your definition of winning? My definition, in short of winning, is a person, individual, setting a goal with a target. no matter what it is and obtaining it. I believe that that is what the code to winning is.

Setting out a goal, creating the target, and accomplishing the target. Boom. Mic drop right there. Mike drop. Obama, y'all. If you could let our viewers know whether you could get a hold of you if you want to learn about real estate, either if it's email or DM, or quoting your offices.

Could you please let our guess know? Absolutely. And so my name is Claudia Ann Hibbert, C-L-A-U-D-I-N-E-Hibbert. You can find me on all social media platforms by way of that. If you're a real estate agent and you want more, you can go to launch-1,000.com or hiring realtors.net. Definitely I'll be able to get your information, make sure you get on the right way.

I also have a coaching community and a cohort that you can be a part of. And if you are a buyer, you can go to I'm Ready to Buy.net, and I'll be able to service you there no matter where you are in the world. Awesome stuff. The coach-winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Clodianne Hibbert, thank you so much, ma'am. Thank you. This was great.