Transcription
In this video, we sit down with my guy Ricky. He's 23 years old, and he is an absolute legend. He's built a 15,000 a month rent-to-rent portfolio with 15 properties after dropping out of a pharmacy job and nearly giving up.
I've not come from a lot of money, but that's why I've understood that I no matter what happens in my life, I have to become someone. Now I'm in this phase of my life where it's all about me doing this. So now I can build something for myself so I can be proud of myself easily. We're clearing about an average of about £15,000 a month as a company.
>> Samuel, what did he say when you told him that you got a deal?
>> He was over the moon. I remember putting into the WhatsApp group chat cuz we used to have a WhatsApp chat of the academy members and I was like got my keys and it consistently made me £1,000 every single month for three years and that was my foundation. and he shares how a £12,000 loan from his dad. A tough wakeup call from me and relentless consistency just completely changed everything. You're going to figure out what happened, what that switch was. Samuel actually helped me out quite a bit. Have you tried this? Have you tried that? Have you got in contact with this person? They might be able to give you some sort of advice. If you don't get your first property deal within 1 month from now, I'm going to come around to your house. I'm going to punch you in your face. And I just thought, I've made it. Of course, I look back and I'm like, you didn't make it at that point. It's a starting point. But at that point, I was 20 years old who's controlling a six-bedroom house. And that isn't even the craziest part. We're going to dive into Ricky's journey from failure to financial freedom. The power of mentorship, community, environment, and his latest challenge, stepping into the Muay Thai ring as a fighter. And I remember sitting there watching it and thinking, man, one day I want to be in a ring like that. And I looked at myself and I used to look in the mirror and not like how I look. And I thought, this could be better. This could be better. I'm actually being trained by a world champion now.
>> So, this is going to be a crazy one. You're going to absolutely love it. Make sure you subscribe to the channel for future success stories and stick around to hear Ricky's story.
>> Hello and welcome to Samuel Lead's Success Stories. I'm your host, Patricia Massuda, and today we're sitting with my good friend Ruth Xerpal. Welcome, Ricky. Thanks for joining us. Um, so I was just taken aback when we spent some time on the property buzz tour and I got to know you a little bit better and I was really shocked with everything that you kept saying was just something new and you're such a well-rounded young individual and so I was really excited to see that we were going to sit down and talk about your journey. Um, why don't we start from before you joined the academy as a teenager? What was that like?
>> Well, growing up, I was always told that when it comes to education, it's your only reliable way of achieving success. So, from a young age, I had aspirations of becoming a professional cricketer. And I was thinking, you know what, I'm going to pursue this avenue and I'll make it one day. And I remember when I went for trials, it didn't go my way. Part of it was down to me. In fact, a majority of it was down to me. It was my laziness at the time, my inconsistency, wanting something yet not working for it. And now I look back and I'm like, I did not deserve to go the distance. And then when that wasn't going to plan and then I got my GCSE results and I didn't perform up to the standard I was supposed to, my dad said this one line. He said, "Whatever you put into education, you will get back out." So when it came to doing my A levels, I took it to heart and I used that as the foundations of my principles for the next year and a half after that. I worked really really hard day in day out. I put everything into it until COVID came about.
>> And so unfortunately I was in that year where COVID happened and I didn't actually get to sit my exams. So my exam results were predicted. So it was not a reflection of what I actually could achieve. Imagine the whole year I'm achieving A's and A stars and in the end I only ended up with A BB. Now why is that significant? My goals initially were to be a dentist. I thought with education I want to get into dentistry. It's a lot of money. Let me pursue it. And I worked really really hard just for the opportunity to prove myself that what I achieved back then is not a reflection of me and that truly what I put into education I will get out of it. that opportunity was taken away from me and it put me off of education because imagine for two years you hear this line that whatever you put in you will get back out and you take it to heart and it doesn't work that way.
>> and so when I went to university I ended up doing pharmacy which again was an accidental option as well I put it down as my fifth option only to prove to my mom that pharmacy is easy to get into but it's dentistry that I want to get into because she was comparing me with some other people saying oh they're getting in why are you not getting in and I said look I will show you I applied for it and two weeks later I got the spark little did I know that I would actually end up having to do it and so for that one year of where COVID was happening 2020 September I started university I just couldn't bring myself to just work hard with education anymore it's like I'd lost the fire for it I'd lost the desire because imagine you worked all these years so hard and there's no opportunity to prove yourself and I just thought this is not where I want to be. This is not for me. Even this course, why am I here? I'm only here because I wanted to prove a point to my mom. So, I'm not even happy with what I'm doing right now.
>> Oh, wow.
>> And there was a time when I was young and I was like, "Yeah, I'll I'll be a pharmacist." Cuz my dad said it like, "Oh, yeah, that's a good industry." And the way they looked at it at the time was they had come from India and so they had gone through some really really tough challenges to get to this country and build from the ground up. So they've worked really really hard in their lives to get us to where we are.
>> But they didn't want us to suffer the same way.
>> They said look just get a job. You'll have a nice car. You'll get a paycheck every month and you know you you'll be safe.
>> Yeah.
>> Right. You won't have to worry about anything. You'll have a nice family. It's the typical
>> follow the rules.
>> Follow the rules kind of thing.
>> Yeah.
>> And I thought, you know what, they're right. And who doesn't listen to their parents, right? It's natural. When they program you from a young age, as they should, you you run with their vision that they've put into you. But when I obviously got to university, I started wanting different. I I just didn't know what I wanted. I just felt something was off. I just felt like this is not where I belong, but I need to do something different. So I started looking into various different types of businesses and things people are doing as side hustles and whatnot but nothing kind of stuck with me.
>> What kind of side hustles did you do?
>> Well, I started looking at things like trading and stuff and then I tried to start learning about it and I just thought
>> this my heart and soul are not in these things. I I don't know what it is but it's not this
>> and I just thought I don't know what kind of thing I can get into. But even then my eyes were not open to business. I didn't understand business. I didn't understand money at the time.
>> What did your parents do?
>> So, my mom doesn't work, but my dad, he's a recovery truck driver.
>> So, I don't come from money.
>> And I think this is one thing I want to highlight to people cuz when they look at me and they see that, oh, 23-year-old drives an AMG, right? Surely
>> born with a silver spoon probably, right?
>> I've had people comment on my stuff saying it's daddy's money. And I take it as a compliment cuz I wish it was sometimes,
>> right? Maybe life would have been a bit more fun if I had it easy. But I didn't. I've not come from a lot of money. But that's why I've understood that I no matter what happens in my life, I have to become someone. From a young age, I knew I'd be successful. One way or another, I will become successful and I'll be rich. I've always had that fire to get there. So when I get to pharmacy and I'm trying to find out how much I'll earn and I'm only seeing 40, 50k, I'm thinking, this is not for me.
>> Yeah.
>> Is this the end of my dreams? If if failing your not failing but not doing well in your A levels, is that the end of your life? Is that it?
>> What I do at 16 or 18 years old, does it dictate what happens in the rest of my life forever? And these things were quite unsettling for me. I want I was not convinced by this at all. And my peers, they just enjoyed what they did and they liked it. And I guess it made it even harder for me is like maybe there's something wrong with me. I tried so so hard to put my mind to these things and I just kept struggling.
>> What were your friends doing?
>> So they were also doing pharmacy and they were doing other university courses.
>> Mom and dad want them to do. Right.
>> Exactly. And it's so crazy because a lot of people that come to me and speak to me now and they're like, oh, I'm at university. I'm in my final year.
>> And then instantly they'll say to me, I'm only doing it for my parents.
>> Yep.
>> Which I find kind of sad because I I've said this before as well. Asian parents espec es especially that have come from another country they'll come here especially from where I come from so my parents come from the region Punjab in India
>> a lot of people that have come from there to the UK the way they've got themselves on their feet is through business majority of them if you look at it some sort of business we've had a shop in the past others have had the same they've had some sort of like skip hire business or cash in hand type of businesses whatever it is they found a way to make money to set the foundations just to say to the kids now you go to uni, get a job.
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, that's really interesting.
>> It doesn't make sense.
>> Yeah.
>> And I think it's a clear example of people don't understand money because when you understand money, you wouldn't be pushing your kids to do the exact same things.
>> Yeah.
>> And I think when parents go through a certain struggle, they project it onto their kids. They'll be they'll try to shield them from the world and think that I'm doing the right thing and in their eyes they are
>> but it's not always as it seems.
>> So what did your parents think when you started in property or sorry so let's back up then how did you find Samuel? You were saying that you were looking for some side hustles.
>> Okay. So how I found Samuel is a very interesting journey because I was going through a bit of a phase in my life and I started going to church. Now that's a very long story. We won't get into that one today. But when I started going to church, there was a lot of talk about being self-sufficient, having a business, and having financial freedom and having your time back and not being stuck in the job because if you're stuck in a job, you're not free to serve God. So, money is now your master. And when I was hearing these things, it started encouraging me more and more to look into something. Then there was a book that the leader of that church has written. It's called How to Become a Millionaire in Real Estate. I actually bought that book for my dad to read because I don't know nothing about that prop about property at that time and he had a a few things in India at the time which he still has and I thought if I get him this book maybe he can learn something and start doing something because again like I said I don't come from money but it would have been great if he at that time if he could have done something and start leveling up.
>> Yeah.
>> But he never got time because my dad to and I got to give him credit because he works really really long hours. There's times when he's dropping off cars all the way to the other side of Scotland and he'll do it in the same day. He'll come back. He won't stay in a hotel.
>> He'll come straight back. Sometimes he'll drive 18 hours, 20 hours straight, right? Minimal breaks.
>> And I got to give him credit because he works really, really hard just to put food on, you know, our tables.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's a story with a lot of Asian parents, I'd say, right? They work really, really hard
>> for their kids, you know, that have come from back home, right? to just make sure that their family are provided for.
>> Yeah.
>> Which I really admire about him, his work ethic. If I could apply the exact same thing into property and be a millionaire by next week.
>> So, where were we again about what was the question he asked?
>> Um, Samuel.
>> Samuel. Okay.
>> So, then going back to about the book, he didn't have the time to read it. So, I decided I have a bit of time. let me read it and I'll give him a summary so he understands.
>> Yeah.
>> And as I finished that book, it wasn't a very long book. It was about 60 pages long and I read through it and after an hour I thought this is something I could do.
>> And the idea of it just it just sat in my spirit and I thought this is something I need to look into. So I hopped onto YouTube property for beginners. I remember searching that up and Samuel came up and there were quite a few other people as well and I was a they're long and boring. I'm not understanding what they're saying and all this jargon that they using. And then Samuel is there like it's simple. It's like this this this this. And I just thought, okay, so it is something I could do. And so I thought, okay, let me binge watch quite a few of his videos, which is what I did.
>> I think everybody, right?
>> Yeah. I binge watched The Eviction. I binge watched Winners on a Wednesday. I remember seeing um there's this one lad who used to be on the academy and he was like my age roughly when he started and I thought if he's doing it so can I
>> right and so then I got into a crash course I remember this one was held in Wolverhampton this was in September 2021 and it's funny because he's never held one there since that was the one-off that he did
>> oh wow
>> and I just remember going there
>> just for you Ricky
>> I assume so and I went and I just remember thinking this is it as you kept speaking. It was like he was speaking to my soul and I was like
>> this is it for me and I remember signing up and that was the beginning of my journey with Samuel Leeds.
>> Amazing. Well, I remember first seeing you when you were on the eviction.
>> Yes.
>> Can you tell us a little bit about that?
>> Now, the eviction was an amazing opportunity and it's funny because I spoke about how I was binge watching it before coming.
>> Yeah.
>> And I remember thinking one day I'd love to be on that. Yeah.
>> So, I remember I think it was around April time 2022 and Samuel brought it up on a Zoom call saying, "We've got the eviction coming up. You know, if you want to apply, apply for it here. You know, the perfect type of candidates we're looking for will be like this person, that person, and oh yeah, Ricky, you'd be a really good candidate for it potentially." So, he'd already,
>> wow,
>> give me the spotlight for it. And I thought, yes, I'm going to apply and I should get on. So then I signed up for the well I applied for the eviction and then I had an interview to go through it and whatnot. And it's funny because I actually had a dream that I got onto the eviction two weeks before I actually I actually got on.
>> Oh, really?
>> So I remember writing it down in my diary. So I've actually got it written down in my diary that oh on this day I had this dream that I've got to the eviction.
>> Isn't that funny? Cuz you know what? When I sat down with Elijah, he said he had a dream.
>> Yeah.
>> That he walked into Samuel's house and everybody was cheering for him before he won.
>> Yeah.
>> That's so crazy.
>> It's interesting how these things work.
>> Yeah. Okay, go on. So,
>> and so then after the interview process and everything, I got an email to say, "Congratulations, you've been chosen to be part of the eviction."
>> And I remember going in with this mindset that I'm going to win. Everyone wants to win, right?
>> Yeah.
>> I'm going to backtrack a little bit here as well.
>> At this point, even though I'd started doing property, I still struggled. My journey in property hasn't been an easy one. It's been a tough one. My first deal took about six months to do. But even then, the hardest part wasn't even actually getting the deal. The hardest part was changing how I am, changing myself because I had this at the time issue, I'd say, where I was just really lazy. If I'm very very truthful, I' i'd be happy to jump on a Monday mastermind and happy to complain to Samuel that this isn't working, that isn't working. But truthfully, I wasn't putting the work in. And many times we fool ourselves thinking we're doing enough. And it's like one day I'm doing a little bit of property, two days I don't do nothing, then maybe I do a little bit more. And this inconsistency, I believe, was the biggest thing that was holding me back from achieving. Cuz especially now that I reflect back and as a who I am now, I I'm a really firm believer in self accountability. Anything that's happened in my life, I always look back and try to think where did I go wrong because when you point a finger at somebody else, there's three fingers pointing back at you.
>> That's right.
>> So I try to find out what could I have done different. And the main thing now as I look back, if I was just was consistent, I probably could have done something earlier. But at the end of the day, there's nothing that I would change in my past because it has led for me to be here today and to become who I am.
>> So it's not that I regret it, but I definitely see what it was. So when I would come and complain on these mastermind calls that this is not working, Samuel actually helped me out quite a bit because I remember a couple times after the calls, he would phone me on my phone saying, "Ricky, look, I don't want you to struggle. I want you to genuinely do well. Have you tried this? have you tried that? Have you got in contact with this person? They might be able to give you some sort of advice. And and and it was a real personal experience because Samuel really really worked hard to try to do something for me. Was I following through with it all? Unfortunately, not
>> until Samuel got to a point where he kind of just flipped on one of the calls. He said, "Ricky, I'm tired of hearing you complain. Week in week exact same thing with you. I'm going to give you a month and I'll get this drawn up by a solicitor. If you don't get your first property deal within one month from now, I'm gonna come around to your house. I'm gonna punch you in your face. Now, there's 200 people on this call. Of course, you laugh it off and you take it as a joke, but you know, Samuels is serious as well.
>> Yeah.
>> Like, he'll be disappointed even if he doesn't come around to punch me in my face. Right. I think disappointing him would have been worse.
>> Oh, 100 times worse.
>> I'd rather be punched and he's that, "Yep, all right, we can go again." than him just be disappointed that man I've helped you and you've not achieved. And I don't want to be someone that Samuel ever looks at and thinks he's not worth much
>> because Samuel has so much he could be doing. He's worth quite a lot. He's got a beautiful family and there's just so many things in life to do and he chooses to give up his time and help us. And some people would be like, "Yeah, but he makes money." Okay, but I believe people should be rewarded for their time. Why should he just give me handouts? Nobody should get a hand out.
>> Mhm.
>> But it's the fact that he went the extra mile to what he's promised us.
>> Yeah.
>> So, as we were going through that month, I'm two weeks in nothing's changed. I'm still being the exact same way. I'm still doing what I was doing before. And then I'm just thinking at this point, you know what? Let's just do this. I'll just stop going to the mastermind calls and Samuel will just kind of forget about me and I'll just kind of fizzle out and that will be that. Excuse me. And then my dad, I think it was this was in like 3 days after that thought process. My dad was like to me, "So, have you found anything yet?" Cuz I'd said to my dad at this point that I'm a first one. I'll kind of like JV with him because I don't know much about these things yet, especially, you know, if I'm doing up a property and he had a background in being a builder. So, he knew quite a few things and I thought, let's JV on my first one. And also it' help him out as well, you know, um reduce the burden of his expenses, let's say.
>> So he's counting on me to do something at this point.
>> Yeah.
>> He's One thing I forgot to mention is he's at this point loan me 12 grand for the academy.
>> Oh,
>> right.
>> Yeah.
>> Money that he technically didn't even have at that point.
>> And he's used credit cards and everything to be able to lend me the money because he has that level of belief in me. And that's one thing I would appreciate from my dad always is he's always believed in me. No matter what what I've picked, he's always said even if my mom says, "No, no, he's making a bad choice." He would say to my mom, "No, no, no. I believe in it."
>> Yeah. I
>> I know he'll do well.
>> And so at this point, he's owed me 12 grand and I've said to him, "Well, JV, and I've got his hopes up, let's say, and he's seeing me be lazy." And he said to me, "What was the point then? I've invested, you know, I've helped you out and you don't even try." and he kind of had a go at me. And of course in the moment you argue and you try to fight your corner a little bit because it's just human nature to nobody wants to be criticized, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Until you get to a level where you realize criticism is important. It helps you level up.
>> But when he kind of said that and then the words of Samuel echoed in my head, I thought I have to do something. So for the next few days, all day, every day, from morning till night, I just sat down, found property after property after property after property, calls after calls after calls. I just kept going at it at such a incredible rate that you know what I look back, I'm like, well done for that. Because then in those few days, I managed to land a viewing for a particular property. And I remember phoning up this landlord saying, "I've seen your property. I want to rent out all the rooms." Cuz it was listed individually room by room on spare room at this point. And he got excited. You want to rent out all my rooms? And I was like, "Yeah." And I could see that the price at the time was about 1,800 for the six-bedroom house. And I thought, but I said to him, "But the price, I can't pay you 1,800. Since I'm taking on all the rooms, can you do a bit of a discount?" And he said, "Come around, let's have a discussion." So a few days later, we go around, we negotiate and whatnot. And long story short, 3 days later, and this is literally on the exact deadline that Samuel set out for me, on the exact day of that being a month.
>> Uh-huh.
>> I got the keys to my first property deal.
>> Woo! Oh my gosh. So dramatic. Holy cow. How did you feel?
>> It felt like a relief.
>> Yeah.
>> It was the beginning of a new chapter in my life.
>> Yeah. I remember posting I I had this gray suit I always wore to six form. It was the only suit I'd wear to even viewings at that point. And I remember putting it on and posing with my keys in front of the house and I just thought I've made it.
>> A
>> and of course I look back and I'm like you didn't make it at that point the starting point. But at the point at that point I was 20 years old.
>> Mhm.
>> Who's controlling a six-bedroom house. And that isn't even the craziest part. The craziest part is with this landlord, I managed to negotiate him down £500 on the rent.
>> I managed to negotiate no deposit.
>> I managed to negotiate 8 weeks rent free.
>> What?
>> And then on top of that, when I'd given him my company details,
>> he looked at my company and he saw we'd only been running 6 months and he said, "You're basically a fresh company." In fact, he'd got his friend involved at this point to do up the contracts and to make sure everything is right. And he said, "But you've only been running 6 months." And that's when I said that, "Oh, but we're the sister company of Samuel Leeds Limited." Which I could say because I was working with Samuel already since we was on the academy. And I'd said that that. Yeah. Yeah. Samuel Leeds is our sister company here. Check it out. And he goes, "You work with Samuel Leeds cuz the landlord knew Samuel Leeds."
>> Wow.
>> And I was like, "Yeah, yeah." So he goes, "Is Samuel Le's going to come look at this property?" I go, "Maybe." And because I'd mentioned him, he didn't even do any referencing on me.
>> Wow.
>> He just gave me the property. So, in itself, it was a miracle because my whole total money in for that deal was only £1,500.
>> That's crazy.
>> I've never had a deal ever since like that. £1,500, which is simply to do up the property, which it took about 6 weeks to do. Probably could have done it in three or four. Now, with the knowledge that I have now,
>> yeah,
>> but it was a learning experience at the time. And we got it ready and before the first rent payment went out to the landlord, we managed to fully tenant it. And bearing in mind, I'm a university student at this point. I didn't have money to spend like a lot of money. So I can't make my dad spend too much either because again where's he going to kind of get it from
>> I managed to keep my costs only to 1,500 and it was fully tenanted. So that means we made a grand profit before we even started paying the landlord rent. So what's that? 500 technically.
>> Well that's incredible. Well done. And so um so what did you learn from that whole experience?
>> There was quite a few lessons I took away to be honest. Firstly, if you do put the effort in, you will get back out. There's actually a principle in the Bible, right? And I'm not here to preach anything, but it talks about time and chance.
>> And it said, and it goes, the race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong, nor bread to the wise. That means you don't need to be the strongest, you don't need to be the fastest, you don't need to be the wisest, but time and chance happens to everyone. M.
>> So I just thought if I just keep showing up consistently again and again and again and again somewhere my time and chance will happen and when I get my time and chance I will land more deals. And I just went in with that mentality after that property deal that I just need to keep attempting. And don't get me wrong, there were many frustrating days. I understand that yes, after you get your first deal, all the other deals become easier to obtain, but that doesn't mean that it was always easy. There were other challenges that are not seen before. You don't learn any everything off just one property. It takes a few deals and then you get the flow of things and whatnot.
>> Cuz I remember before I had got my first deal,
>> I remember frustration after frustration, I'd gone to viewings and
>> things had happened. And I remember one viewing I went to, I'd waited an hour for the landlord.
>> And then it turns out, sorry, not the landlord, the agent
>> an hour for the agent.
>> Oh my gosh.
>> And then I got the concierge to contact the agent and then the agent said, "Oh, that property we rented it out this morning."
>> And I remember sitting in my car after that and just screaming to God like I'm trying so hard. I'm going on so many different viewings. I'm trying so diff so so so much. Why is this not working? I just want to get one property deal and I can't even do that. And I remember just shouting in my car. And at that point I was so I felt so broken. And it's like I'm trying again and again and again.
>> But I didn't give in
>> because what was my other option? Fail. Go back to university. Be one year behind all my peers. Because what happened in university in my first year was that I actually failed one exam at the end of that year. So they wanted me to retake that module at the end of the following year. So that meant I was already one year behind my peers.
>> I don't want to be one year behind people. I don't want to be seen as less than people. And I know people don't always say these things, but I'm quite open about it. I always want to be better than the average person at least, right? because I've just always had this mindset that I'm not I'm not ordinary. I'm a special case,
>> right? Not everyone can do what I can do. And so in my mind, I had no option but to succeed and many sleepless nights came with it. I remember nights being stressed out thinking if I have to go back to university that that's like that's that is my hell on earth for me. I did not want to go back. And some people might just say it's only university, but it wasn't that. It was what was attached to it. It was the belief of my parents. It's the fact that I've borrowed this money. It's the fact that I'm behind people now and I want to be ahead of people. So, it was a lot of these things um that were there and it just kept me going. It was like I have no choice. I must continue marching forward until of course I got my first property deal.
>> Do you still have that property deal?
>> I've actually just given it back a few months ago.
>> Oh, why'd you give it back? Well, our contract finished um and relationships with the landlord kind of broke down towards the end. Um a
>> bit of miscommunication, but I just thought, you know what,
>> everything has its purpose. Everything has its time and season,
>> and maybe it was time to let go of that property. And I didn't want to let go, I'll be honest, because it held such an emotional attachment for me being my first one and all that it taught me and all the memories of doing it up and whatnot.
>> But it was such an amazing property.
>> Yeah,
>> it consisted
>> Where was it?
>> This was in Birmingham. Okay.
>> And it consistently made me £1,000 every single month for three years.
>> Wow.
>> And that was my foundation.
>> Yeah.
>> It sustained me for when I was now building up my property business. No other funds are coming in. No maintenance loans or anything like that.
>> It was my foundation. And that property, like I said, it served its purpose and it always hold a special place in my heart.
>> Of course, it would. Right. And then, of course, and Samuel, what did he say when you told him that you got a deal?
>> He was over the moon. Yeah,
>> he he was excited. I remember giving him the breakdown. I remember putting into the WhatsApp group chat cuz we used to have a WhatsApp chat on the academy members
>> and I was like got my keys and I remember everyone congratulating me and whatnot and Samuel just being over the moon and and I know Samuel's proud because he shares his story so often.
>> Yeah. and I've heard it so many times and he's made me share it with people so many times and now it's funny looking back on it but in the moment it's really scary like someone's going to come punch me
>> and so now you have how many rent to rents in your portfolio?
>> so now there's 15 properties that controlling
>> 15 like that's really incredible
>> thank you
>> and what kind of profit are you clearing from 15 properties?
>> now it does vary month on month
>> but easily we're clearing about an average of about £15,000 a month as a company.
>> Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Congratulations.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Well done.
>> So, where where did the eviction come in into this? Um, was it after you secured your first property?
>> Yes. I just kind of secured my first property. Hadn't kind of gone live or anything like that,
>> but um and the eviction came out.
>> Yeah.
>> And so when the eviction did come out, which is all that I've talked about earlier,
>> and I went on to it with this fire that I can do it, I saw the work ethic of other people. And that was another eye opener because I thought I had what it takes to win and then I was the first one out.
>> Ah yes, right. It cut deep.
>> It cut really deep because and I remember actually being very emotional about it and I'm not somebody who gets upset about things like that and I remember that being one of those things feeling like I failed. Now of course it was not the end of my journey. It was just a stepping stone. But as a 20-year-old, when everything anything goes bad, it feels like the end of the world because you haven't matured to learn that it's okay, you know, it's going to direct me to where I need to get to.
>> Exactly.
>> But on the back of that, again, my parents were they were disappointed at that point. They were thinking, "Oh, okay. You went in with this confidence that you're going to win your first out. Excuse me." And then I just thought I definitely can't let them down now. And that set the fire, the foundation I needed to keep pushing now and to get to a level where people can look up at look up to me and say, "Oh, this guy's doing very, very well now." And that's exactly what I did cuz I knew that this would be released in December. So we filmed in about June, July.
>> Mhm.
>> And I knew this was going to be released in December. Stor by December I need to be financially free and I need to have filmed my winners so that as soon as the eviction goes out and they see that this young Asian gone on ambitious and he's gone first out
>> Mhm.
>> straight away my winners comes out. That was the plan.
>> Yeah.
>> It was the aim so that people can be like, "Oh, he's first out but he's doing this and this now." That hats off to him. And that's actually what I ended up doing because then a few weeks after the eviction, I managed to secure my second property deal, which I actually still have,
>> right?
>> The landlords love me. In fact, the landlords trust me so much. They've got another property that they want to give me. And they're like, "Oh, we're in London. We'll post you the keys. Take a look at it. Do whatever you need to do."
>> Amazing.
>> So, I've built a really good relationship with them.
>> Yeah.
>> That deal actually took a long time to negotiate, though. Um, it took about 4 weeks and told to negotiate because again, still a fresh company, a lot of back and forth and oh, you're only 20 years old. Can we trust you? And I remember praying. I was like, oh, God, let this happen. Cuz there was a lot of times I thought, no, I've I've fluffed it. I've messed up at this point. And then all of a sudden, it looks like I'm going to have it and then I'm not going to have it. But I remember signing on it in person, going to the apartment. We signed on the contract and getting the keys. And when they saw how young I I was and I looked, I didn't have a beard at that point.
>> They're like, "You're
>> Oh my gosh, without the beard, I bet you must look like
>> the tallest baby."
>> Exactly. And they were like, "You're literally the same age as us, son. We really hope this property makes you a lot of money."
>> Oh.
>> They've never once up my rent
>> and they've never stressed me about anything. They've never bothered me. I've always paid the rent on time, right? And they've always been good to me. And again with the first landlord, even the relationships broken down with him, I really appreciate him because he gave me my first opportunity and same with the second one because again they gave me my opportunity that I needed. So I really do appreciate these people no matter what happens.
>> What kind of advice would you give to somebody who wants to be in the eviction? Like what what's some you know golden tips from somebody who's first voted out?
>> Don't give up. I think the worst thing you can do is stop doing property at that point because there's people I know who I did the eviction with. And they were way more fantastic than me. And I still look up to them in some regards now. But after the eviction, they took it to heart more than I did, I guess. And they just stopped doing property.
>> And some of these I got to the furthest rounds possible. Now, I'm not going to mention names or anything,
>> but they stopped. But I didn't.
>> Yeah. And this this game isn't about who can do it the fastest. You can get 10 renance in your first month. Amazing. But what if all those 10 renance make you minus £1,000 each month?
>> Yeah.
>> Then you haven't got yourself a business. You've got yourself a liability.
>> Yeah.
>> But this game truly is a marathon. There's a saying, very famous saying, if you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. No matter what you do, keep moving forward. M
>> and that's key. As long as you keep moving forward, it might be 6 months, it might be 12 months, but I promise you, if you stick it out, you will get to where you need to get to. I always ask people, what's the rush? Why do you need to become a millionaire by tomorrow? If somebody gave you a million tomorrow, what would you do with that money? You wouldn't know. And even to have money, there's a level of character you need. And so all these challenges that come with trying to get to that level, they'll keep you humble. They'll keep you grounded. And so I appreciate every single challenge that came my way. Every single rejection, every single embarrassment, I truly appreciate it now now that I look back on things because it's made me who I am. And now when new people come to me and they're complaining, I understand their positioning, but I also know what to tell them. So, it's been a really humbling experience. And all I say to people is stick it out. I promise you, you'll get to where you need to get to.
>> I love that. Well said, Ricky. you
>> and um okay so we were just recently on a property bus tour. We were invited by Samuel to uh tour 10 million pounds of properties over 3 days. Um that was just like last month, wasn't it?
>> Yes,
>> something like that. Um, so tell me what kind of takeaways did you get from that experience?
>> Now that was a really interesting experience because now that I've got about 15 properties, I'm I'm comfortable. That's the truth. I'm very comfortable. I drive a nice car.
>> Yeah. I have control of my time.
>> If I want to go somewhere and travel, I can. I mean, I've just come back from America a few weeks ago.
>> Now I'm going to Canada in a few weeks.
>> Oh, really?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
>> And so, I've got that freedom now to do what I want when I want. Nobody's telling me what to do.
>> What was the thing you said again?
>> Um,
>> property bus tour.
>> Sorry. Yeah.
>> So, nobody's telling me what to do. And now, so when I went on this property bus tour, I'm not exactly going 100 miles an hour with property. I've slowed down maybe 50 miles an hour. And I'm telling people, it's okay. You can be 50 miles once you get to a certain level, which has an element of truth to it.
>> Mhm.
>> I remember the people I was with and the likes of people that are with, yes, they're all older than me, but they're millionaires. And at one point, I kind of felt out of place. I thought, "Oh man, these are way more successful than me. Why is Samuel chosen me to be here?" And I remember at one point we was um having dinner and we was going to take a picture and Simon was like take a picture and all these people are property millionaires. I was like I'm not. And yeah, he's like, "Yeah, you're the brokeest one here." Bearing in mind I'm making 15 grand a month. And I'm thinking very highly of myself. And he's like, "Yeah, you're actually the broke one here." And so I did the maths and I was like, "Okay, he's got this many rent to rent. He owns this. Okay, he's making about that much. This person's making that." After I did the math, I was like, I'm way nowhere near their level and I thought, nah, I need to go start buying properties. So, again, it set another fire under my feet.
>> Yeah.
>> And I think people need to realize that you need to have fire for the short term and fire for the long term because short-term fire will run out. Now, that fire I had from the eviction, of course, it's not going to carry on till now because that fire was about
proving people wrong, which I've done.
And I remember having this conversation with you about how chapter one of my life was about proving others wrong. It was showing other people what I'm capable of and to never look down upon me. But chapter 2 isn't about this. It's about me. It's about doing this for me. It's about doing this to prove to myself of what I am capable of. So that one day when I stand in front of God and he shows me who I could have become. I am exactly that.
And that's not going to happen if I'm thinking about, oh, I'm going to get this car. I'm going to do this and this person's going to regret for how they treated me and this and this. You get to a point where you realize people don't care. Even the people that are giving you advice and telling you that property is risky, they don't care because in 5 years time where you are, it doesn't matter to them. Unless they're your parents, of course they they're going to care. But family, friends, or friends or colleagues, peers, whoever they are, they don't care. Don't do this for other people because you'll be trapped in this cycle of wanting external validation when really you should be the only one validating yourself. So now I'm in this phase of my life where it's all about me doing this. So now I can build something for myself so I can be proud of myself.
Mhm.
And so now I'm looking to get my first VR. So now I'm constantly hitting the phones getting these viewings now and I'm and I'm just give me a bit of time and I'm going to have my first VR and then let's see. I'm going to catch up to all these people now. Not that I'm competing anything but I'm just this is a laugh. I'm like don't worry I'm not going to be the broken anymore.
Um and you've to recently taken up Muay Thai. Yes.
Can we talk about that a little bit?
Yeah. So, property has been a big part of my adulthood. I've been doing this since 19 years old. I'm 23 now.
And it's been the center of my life. And I just thought to myself, look, I want there to be more about rhyth just want to be known as the property guy and that's it. And I want new challenges because I think a life without challenges and purpose is boring. And I think it's important to always stay relevant because I always ask myself, you know, when I wake up, God's given me this ability to wake up today. Some people haven't woken up today. For what purpose? I need to make God proud today. I want him to look at me and think, you know what? He's a good investment. I'm doing the right thing by keeping him alive, by giving him oxygen. I'm doing the right thing. So I thought I need to become someone who has more to their character, something more to them, more stories so that I can relate with more people because business was about showing Christians especially that money is okay, right? There's nothing wrong with having it. It's all about what you do with it.
It's about showing young people to chase your dreams. Don't be trapped by a system, right? It's not about what other people want for you. It's about what you want for your life. And now it's becoming also about showing fighters of everything is possible to do and showing other people that you can balance other things. Your life doesn't need to just be work. It can be Muay Thai as it is for me now. It can be work balance alongside and you can do all these things. But how am I able to do these things? It's because I have that financial freedom which I've got through my business. Without it, how am I going to be attending Muay Thai sessions in like half 10 in the morning? In fact, I literally just came on from one this morning, went home, showered, ate, straight here to London. 2 and a half hour drive.
Wow. And so, do you compete or like what is it just for fun, for exercise?
Well, in my mind, when I took this up, I told myself, if I'm doing this, I'm taking this seriously. And funny enough, when I actually chose which combat sport to do, I thought to myself, which one looks the scariest? Because I wanted to challenge myself.
Yeah.
Sorry. So I said, "Let me see what's out there." Now, I don't know anything about Muay Thai at this point. Never done it. Never heard of it. You didn't know anything about watched a match of it. Oh my god.
I don't know anybody who's big in this industry or anyone.
I just I just Googled Muay Thai gyms near me and I found one near me that looked decent. They had good reviews and everything and the way they marketed themselves really well. And I thought, "Yo, it looks like a small gym as well. Not commercialized, but they've done themselves well. Let me go there."
Mhm. And I remember showing up for the first time and I just felt like a foreigner, like I don't belong there in a way.
Similar to how when I first did my crash course and I remember being in that room thinking everybody's older than me and I'm this 19-year-old with a suit on and oh I feel a bit weird. But of course, because I'd learned from property that you got to get comfortable being uncomfortable, I pushed with it and I started training and I do it quite religiously. Four times a week I'm doing Muay Thai. Twice a week I'm in the gym.
Wow.
And I kept pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. And the then in my mind I thought I want to compete because two years ago yesterday Samuel had his boxing match.
I saw on Amanda's um Instagram. Yes.
Yeah. That was amazing, wasn't it?
It was amazing. And I remember sitting there watching it and thinking, man, one day I want to be in a ring like that.
Yeah.
I want to do something. Because I remember how Samuel looked physically and how much effort and dedication he put to how he looks now.
Yeah. And I looked at myself and I used to look in the mirror and not like how I look. And I thought this could be better. This could be better. And I thought if Samuel can do it and he's running a business, he's running a property training company as well. And he's got a whole family. Everything he's doing and he's managed to find the time to do this. I can do it.
So then I thought if I give myself a goal to compete in Muay Thai, it will force me to start getting in shape, which is what I've been doing for the past five, six months.
Oh wow.
When's your fight? So it's we're still planning it. It's in the works. The plan is at the moment I'm going to get a few inter clubs in. I'm actually being trained by a world champion now. Um so the one who runs our gym, his name is Nathan Bendon.
And he said to me one of the after one of the sessions cuz I'd mentioned potentially doing like a charity fight and he said, "Look, Ricky, don't do that. If you're serious about this Muay Thai, you need to stick to it." I'll tell you what, I don't train people normally. It's not what I do. I don't do PTS. I have no interest. But you, I would actually train. There's something about you. You have a fire. I will train you. So now we've been working together for the last few weeks and I understand the importance of mentorship. Again, what I've learned from property, I'm applying it to that. And now I'm getting really, really comfortable and really, really good with things and still training hard. And now the plan is, okay, I want to start competing cuz like I said, I want it to be more about me than just property alone.
Yeah. Well, that's great. I love that. Were you athletic? I mean, you mentioned you were uh you thought you were going to be a cricketer.
Yeah.
So, you've been an athletic person from a young age. Any sport that school had, I was participating in it.
Great.
I I just love being active.
Yeah.
It it was just my thing, whether it was football, tennis. I remember doing um what's that one sport? Not basketball. It's the one that's um netball. I I remember in primary school doing netball and it was mainly a girls team, but then you had like a couple of lads on each team as well. And I remember because I was like, I just want to do sports and I had this hunger. Um and so I've always been an athletic person.
Mhm. Great. Um what have been some of your um learning experiences being in the academy?
Okay. There's quite a few things I've learned, right? There's so many things I could talk about. I think the biggest takeaways from me have been the importance of discipline. Now, I know I've banged on it about quite a bit already in this, but it is genuinely my biggest takeaway. You know, people can get motivated all the time. You know, Samuel has this high energy. And when you're with him, you feel like you're on top of the world. You can achieve anything. But what about when you go home? What about when you're sitting in your bedroom, no one's around you, and it's just you and you? That's it, right? And there's no signal to motivate you at that point, and you've just been rejected 10 times on the phone. Then what? And that's why most people give up.
But through my time in the academy, I've learned just keep going. Just keep trying. Keep tracking what you're doing as well so you're not deceiving yourself because that's another big thing, deception. A lot of people convince them convince theirelves that they're working really, really hard, but really they're not. And Samuel kind of made me realize this as well. He goes, you know, you saying you were doing all this, but really you weren't. And I see this after I got my first deal. And he was like, "But you see, you've learned now. That isn't just, oh, I feel like I've done 100 calls and then check my spreadsheets, it's only 13 calls." Like, that's not 100. There's 87 to go. And there's a saying as well that says if you knew you were only 30 failures away from achieving what you wanted, how quickly would you fail?
I think people need to change how they see failure.
Yeah.
I actually enjoy failing now. when I took a Muay Thai and I'm learning all these new things and I'm failing at doing something right and believe me I get shouted that as well right my coach can get fed up with me sometimes I don't think of it as oh maybe it's not for me it's simply a stepping stone a learning curve for me to say see that okay this is one way of not to do it next and if you keep going and going and going failure and success just go hand in hand and eventually you will reach that success. But you know when you do reach that success, you realize the whole point of everything was the journey. The most beautiful thing and the best thing was the journey. I appreciate my struggles now. I'm getting into VR and I'm finding a few things tough because it's new territory for me. I love struggling because it's challenging me and I know I'm growing as a person and I know that I will look back and think, "Oh man, I work hard for this." And so nobody can take it away from me. Nobody can say that I had it easy or that I've got advantages that they don't have or that I come from money. I know people have put in my YouTube videos that it's daddy's money. I wish it was daddy's money, right? But to know that I've worked hard to get to where I've got to, it's humbling and I just love it. It's just a memory that I can talk about to people and inspire other people.
That's great. and your story is very inspirational and you've overcome so much one challenge after another and you just keep pushing through. So that's that's really admirable. And I think that when you were saying earlier about recognizing that you were lazy, it's a really mature thing to be able to um retrospectively look at your own faults because that's something that a lot of people can't do, right? They think I I don't I'm not wrong. It's not me, but it's really um it's admirable to be able to um dissect it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think self-awareness, it's it's quite an interesting one.
Mhm.
I think you're either kind of born with it to an extent or you're not. And if you're not born with it, you have to try really really hard to program yourself.
Yeah.
To make yourself that way. Because it's very easy for people when they are blamed for something or something doesn't go their way, they'll blame external things.
Yeah.
Oh, it's because I come from this country, I can't do it. It's because um I've heard women say, "Oh, because I'm a female, I don't have the advantages that you have." You know, "Oh, but you're young and you're youthful, so you've got energy. I'm getting old now. I can't do it." Um what whatever the excuse might be, they'll find a reason why they can't be successful. It's a victim mentality. And I'm not going to lie, there was a point in my time where I had that, like I said, when I was going through my journey of trying to reach also of becoming a professional cricketer and I'd say, "Oh, they're not choosing me because, you know, there's underlying racism in in sports, which there might be to an extent, but in my view, if you are doing that well and you are that good that you are undeniably ahead of everyone, they'll have no choice but to choose you."
Yeah. And so over time I learned look no matter what happens whether it's work, hobbies, relationships, whatever if something goes wrong somewhere again three fingers are pointing back at you. Find three reasons what you could have done differently and now apply them for next time.
Yeah.
And when you get into that habit I think you see life so differently. It's not about what's happening to me. It's about what am I doing with those circumstances that I've been blessed with. Because as much as we can complain about certain things that oh this is not going my way we are still privileged in some sort of way. Some people wish for the problems that I have even if it was just one rental I had at the time some people just wish that they had that one rent to rent.
Mhm.
When I remember going from my second property to my third it took quite a long time.
Yeah.
It took about six more months and in that period as well I had a bit of a struggle and I didn't know why. And people would have said to me, and I'm pretty sure if I look back, people be like, "Man, if I had two rent to rent, I could quit my job. I could do this. I could do that." And I've learned just appreciate where you are.
Mhm.
And when you walk with gratitude, you realize things come easy to you. And also another thing is stop chasing the money. Why do you want to become a millionaire? There needs to be a purpose with what you do. There needs to be a purpose. You want money.
What's your purpose?
So there's quite a few things, right? So the first purpose being I've had I've got a mission of where I want Christians to understand number one it's okay to have money. Money is not evil. Money is not good. It's simply a tool. Quite precisely what Samuel says himself.
Yeah.
Because before I started going to church, one of the reasons I didn't want to go to church when my parents started going, I was like, "No, Christians are like broke and stuff. I've got big dreams. I don't want to be a Christian if it means to be broke." Until I realized it's not the truth. The truth is you can be rich and also I'm quite big on what you do with your money. If money can't flow through you, it can't flow to you. So it's really important that you're very charitable because as Samuel says, if you have open hands, God will bless you with more. But if you're closed up, you're not in a position to even receive more.
What do you do in terms of charity?
So there's one charity in particular that I work with. It's called the Yuba Angel Foundation and I help raise quite a bit of money for that charity and they've got a lot of projects happening in rural areas in Africa. So such as Zimbabwe and they're doing quite a few projects. It might just be building wells. It might be providing food supplies to certain areas and whatnot. And another thing is also simply getting the gospel to these areas because we have a saying the gospel is free but the means to transport the gospel are not.
Right? because I'm big on my Christian faith. If I want people to enjoy the fruits that I have enjoyed of being a Christian, they got to know about it. But to know about it, we have to transport it to them and that takes money. So that is one of my main missions and which I spoke about previously. Another mission for me is to inspire young people that your path is not already set out for you. I don't believe in fate either. A lot of people will blame fate and the star signs and whatnot. And I say look, it's not about these things. Your life is what you decide to make it. What do you want from from life? I'll ask people what you what your dream life looks like and they can't even tell me. They don't know what the dream life looks like. If somebody asks my vision right now, I have five, six full pages written out of exactly where I want to be by this year, that year. I know exactly where I'm headed with my life.
Can you give it to us in 30 seconds?
It's quite a long one. I know where I want to be in terms of my property business. I know that okay, 2030, right? So in 5 years time I'm I need to be managing at least 50 to 100 properties. I' I've got the exact number written down but I'm not going to say cuz I'm I'm also a firm believer in not speaking your goals before they are also done.
There's that fine line but just to give you an idea and then it's like okay but this is what I want for my personal life. This is what I want my business in Muay Thai. I need to get to this and I need to be able to inspire this person by that time. I need to be speaking at this type of events and I need to be hanging around these big people and whatnot.
You need a vision.
Mhm. If there is no vision, where are you going? You don't even know where you are going yourself. And if you don't know where you are going, God has no reason to give you money. God doesn't give you money because you cry tears. God gives you money because he sees you as an investment. And he sees that you're worth putting money towards. You're going to give me a good return. You're going to help people around the world, so I'm going to give you more.
Great. I love that. Excellent. Well, I wish we could just sit around all day and talk because you have so much value to give. Um, if anybody wanted to reach out to you, how could they do that?
You can find me on Instagram and Tik Tok. So, it's hyped properties.
Oh, right. I've seen that. Okay. Hyped Properties.
And then if you want to get me on Facebook or LinkedIn, it's Ritic Surfer.
Okay, perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And if you want to learn more about property, just come to a crash course. Um, did you enjoy your first crash course when you went?
It was amazing. I'll never forget the feeling. I know, right? I know. I just went to London a couple months ago because I was in London for the Stratford Inner Circle.
Yeah.
And it was so much fun to be in that room again because it had been years for me, right? I I crew almost every month in Birmingham because I love the environment. You'll never find this anywhere else.
I know. It's so true. That's another way. And you didn't even mention that you crew. That's another way that you're giving back, right? Yeah.
So, that's great, Ricky. Thank you for doing that. And so, yes. So, if you want to see Ricky, he'll be at the Birmingham Crash Courses, so you can see him there. And um please do continue to um like and subscribe if you haven't already. Share, comment, and give Ricky some love here. And uh we'll just keep producing these for you. And thank you very much, my dear friend, for sitting down with us today. Thank you so much.