AoG #1: Peter Torkan's Secret Life

Come join us on this journey to find out more about the Founder of the Agency Toronto, Peter Torkan. His resilience, successes and struggles in life to get to the place he is at today. 
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Art of Greatness

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Welcome to The Art of Greatness. This is our pilot episode number one. We are very excited to bring on my first guest, my co-host, who has over 1.6 billion in seals, multiple awards across the real estate industry, about two decades of experience, a loving father, a husband, and also the founder of the agency Toronto. I'd like to welcome Peter Tokin. Damn. That's how that intro was. Amazing, brother. Thank you. I appreciate that. You deserve it. I think you've accomplished a lot in your life. You've done a lot of great things, and that's why I'm excited to have you as not only our first guest, but also as my co-host for this podcast moving forward. Absolutely. The Art of Greatness, and we're going to get into that a little bit later and tell you guys what our podcast is going to be all about. But first, I want to dig deep into Peter's journey. We're going to learn a little bit about Peter, about where he comes from, what he's done, and how he really got to where he's at today. A lot of the wins that he's had, and he's had a ton of them, and some of the struggles, the things that he faced, the challenges that have truly shaped him into the human being and the leader that he is today. So I want to turn to you, Peter. So start us off with your journey before you moved to Canada. What was kind of your outlook on life? What were you doing what was happening? And I want to go on early in your life and learn a little bit more about you and teach our viewers a little bit about you. Yeah, you're going really deep now. You're going way back. So, okay. I'll give you as much as I can be just for the sake of time. So I don't think I can fit everything into one episode, but let's just talk about a little bit. So been in Canada for about 27 years. In Toronto. I had a sort of very how can I say it? Childhood of full of adventure. Okay. That's the better word to use. We placed in so many different countries. I've visited so many different places. So I started coming out of Iran in 1984. That was the first time I actually left the country. I went to Turkey of all the places because we weren't going to go to Germany and stay in European countries with my father, of course. But that didn't pan out because my father had to go back to Iran and take care of some business, and he had a import expert office back then. So I lived in Turkey for two and a half years alone. So <laugh> Wow. At the age of, I can remember 11, I think. And then after two and a half years I was there, I was in Istanbul and I was waiting for my father to come so we can go back to continue our journey. But that didn't happen. So who were you staying with all this time? So my step uncle was there and his friends were there. We were at a hotel called Hotel Mass in Lales or Istanbul, and I remember those days they used to the fuel system was coil and the whole wintertime, you come out, you smell the whole coil in the whole city. It was crazy. But anyways, I don't want to talk about that. So I went back to Iran and stayed there for a little while, and then we decided to leave again. So we left a second time. And so this time we actually went with the family and we went to different cities and countries along the way. So pretty much I've visited, I think I've been to Russia, I've been to Germany, I've been to Holland, I've been to Poland, I've been to Austria, I've been to, so I've been to all of these places before. We wanted, I stationed myself with my uncle in Germany and I studied in Germany, but Germany wasn't for me. So I went back to Iran when I was I think 18. So from there couldn't stay because I was used to being in European countries and out of the country for so long, and there was a whole war happening back then. It was one Iraq war, so I decided to leave again. So this is the second time. So this is the time that I actually, I met my wife. So I'm telling you the whole story right now without you actually asking a single fucking question. Okay. I love it. So until we get to the journey of coming to Canada, then I'm sure you're going to have more questions about that. So this time I actually went left illegally because I was 19 and I met Paige in ski resort because I used to ski back then with my friends. So we fell in love madly. I proposed to her after six months. I said, listen, I want to marry you, but I'm going to go. She said, what the hell are you talking about? So you want to marry me. You're 19 and you're telling me you're proposing, but you want to leave the country. How the fuck is that going to work, right? So I said, yeah, so don't worry. My father was living in Amsterdam back then, and he said to me, so come to Amsterdam. So this time I actually left truck. The guy was delivering a pistachio <laugh> pistachio, and Peter delivered Pistachio and Peter at the same time. So we went through Russia. He took us 10 days to get to Netlands from Russia this time. So every border that we got to it was a tarp on the back of these 18 wheeler that I was traveling in. And so he was lifting, I was skinny as hell, so was lifting the side of the actual tarp. So I would squeeze myself to get into the bag and I had to lie down. I put on, these are 40 kilos pistachios, I never forget it. I had to put two, it was half full the truck. So I had to put two of them up on the other ones and had to lie down still at every border that we got to because I was 19. I was illegal. I had to go back to the army and I didn't want to go to the army. I wanted to leave the country. So anyways, long story short, finally we got to Amsterdam to Holland, and I made a decision not to stay there for reasons of European countries are amazing. But I came in 19 and I saw there's all the legal weeds and everything was legal. It's still legal in back there. We just got legalization in Canada, but it was legal back then. And I didn't like that environment to raise a family because I knew I want to marry Paige and proposed, and at 19 years old, I said to my dad, I said, dad I'm leaving. I want to go after a month of being in Holland. He goes, where the fuck do you want to go? I said, he goes, I want to open up businesses. I want you to run it for me. And so on. I suffered. I said, no, this Europe is not for me. So I called Paige. I said, we used to write letters back then, right? Because there was no internet. There was no such thing. This is 1994 I'm talking about, right? So I said to Paige, I said Han, I called her up. I said, I'm not staying in Holland. I'm leaving. She goes, what are you talking about? So you said, you want me to come to stay with you? We want to get married, but where you want to go? I said I have two choices. So I told my father, I said, you need to make me some illegal papers or passwords if you have to. And he did. I had a couple of different passwords, and I came illegal anyways through the airports, but that's a different story as well all altogether. But I called Paige, I said, Paige, hun, I'm leaving Holland and I'm going. So he gave me a choice. He goes, you want to go to California, or you want to go to Toronto, Canada? So I said, Toronto, Canada, I could have said easily California <laugh>, right? But I made the right choice because I love how stable candidate is and how it's an environment for everybody and everybody from every country to come, and what multicultural and all of that stuff is truly visible here, and I love that. So I said, you know what? I'm going to go to Toronto, Canada. So got on the plane, came in 1994, I arrived into Canada, Toronto. Wow, wow. And Paige wasn't with you at. This time? No, no, no, no, she wasn't. And. So the heartthrob, Peter Tokin was writing letters for those of you who need tips on how to pick up women, <laugh>, just out to Peter, you to write amongst other. Letters and poems. That was my two and. Poems of poems. Rosanna told me a little bit. She was like, yeah, dad used to write letters. Yeah, she's sharing with us. Yeah, that's. Actually, we still have it. It's about, I dunno. Yay. Hi. Yeah, she told me you guys have a stack. Yeah, we still, I was like, I have one right here. Let me read it out. But it was in Farsi though, right? It was in Farsi, yeah, it was in Farsi, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So you moved here and then how long after you moved that Paige joined you? So Paige came in 1995, a year later. Okay. So I was here by myself. So finally we got married and we had a little connection in the embassy of Iran and in Canadian embassy in Iran. And so she oh, we got her a visa and she came on a visa work visa because she was also a computer engineer. She finished her university and she wanted to come as a work status. So we got her and as soon as she came here, and then we started a life together. So that's. Fantastic. So when you came here, what were the opportunities? What did you want to do? What'd you have in mind? So this is 20 year old Peter Tokin trying to figure out what it is that he wants to do in life before real estate, before anything. So pretty much I've done everything you can think of. I've done pizza deliveries, I've done pizza cooking, washing dishes. I've done handing flyers out door to door in the middle of winter. I walked at the gas station in the middle of the winter as well. I used to go study and go at nighttime and pump gas for peoples of Petro Canada at Bayview, and no, sorry, at Broadview and Danforth it doesn't exist anymore. It's a rock mark there now. So I used to pump gas. I've done everything that you can think of in Toronto in terms of working, you know what I mean? You need to work now. You are married, you need to support. And I was never shy of rolling my sleeve up and if it needs to be hard work, I was there. I had no issues with it. So I've done pretty much all you can imagine. So. Wow. So back then they used to pay$5 an hour and you had to have a Canadian experience to wash and dishes. So when I went to apply for work everywhere I went to, the guy goes to me I applied for dishwasher job, for example. He goes, you have Canadian experience. Said, what the fuck is a Canadian experience? He's washing dishes. What do you want? So what do you think I'm going to do? I'm going to drop your dishes because I don't have a Canadian experience. I break them. So anyways, but I was aggressive. So I continuously worked from different job to different job, and I try to improve. Everything I do is just next one. So what's better than this? So if I leave this, what would be the better? And then in 1997 or 1997, yeah, 1997, I decided to get into sales. So I went to page, I said page hun, I think I love selling. I'm good at selling myself. Selling is an art of, it's a lot of people, either they have a do or they don't. Okay? In my opinions, just how would you come across when you're talking to somebody and how can you sell yourself? If you can sell yourself, you can sell anything in fucking life. You're really selling trust, right? Trust. And if say, trust you. Exactly. If they know you, you trust you. They will do business with you. Ideally. Absolutely. Do you want me to continue or you want ask? Oh, no, no. Question. I'm loving it. Don't continue. Because you're actually at that point, your first sales job. What was it? And I think for the people listening, it's important to understand. Look, guys, Peter's where he's at today. He's got this massive social following. He's the founder of the agency, Toronto. He's got so many accolades. And I think all we see at the, I guess at the face level is all those accomplishments, all those great things, the nice car, the nice house the multi-million dollar homes. And we're going to get into that a little bit later. But I think it's important to figure out that all these people, they've had their struggles. They've been through a lot. They've done a lot of jobs, including washing dishes, including cooking food or pumping gas. Absolutely. So back to your story. I'm loving it so far. Continue. You're at 1997, you're getting your first sales job. So. Look, absolutely, you headed right on the head. So everybody thinks, everybody sees what they want to see today, but they don't see where I've been for the past 27 years to get to the position that I am today. And that's why I see a lot of talent of people, a lot of young individuals, that they can't figure out what they want in life. That's the major thing. And I see they look for ways of becoming rich overnight. There is no such a thing. If there is, it won't last long because you haven't got the value of what your expansion is. It is joyful in everything you do. I brought so much joy to whatever I did, doesn't matter if it was washing dishes, delivering pizza up, cooking pizza are opening my own restaurant and whatever the case was, or I'll get to that. But that's what I love. I am present at everything that I've done in my life. I've been there that moment. And that was a very educational and learning experience for me personally, and made me who I am today. So let's go back to 1997. So I started my first sales job in<laugh> 2001, Audi Audio, video. Audio, video, audio, video. Still around. So still around. So they still have some few locations here and there. So I started my sales career there. I was always fascinated with electronics. I started electronics a little bit, and I was always fascinated. I wanted to I was really good at it. So I knew what's ins and outs of this is why I'm so good with social media and all of that technology thing, because it was just my passion to know what they are. And I even opened up TVs to what the know fuck is inside it. How does the TV work, how does VCR works? Or I don't know if you even remember what VCRs are. Of course. I remember VCR.<Laugh>. So anyways, so I got into, you had. To blow out the back of the tapes before you put them in. Yeah. Exactly. And I know sometimes you chewed the tape actually. Yeah, as well. But before that, it was actually eight tracks. So yeah, the cars and all of that. So that's my era. So anyways, 2001 Audi video. That was my first sales real sales job. But before that, I actually, my real full-time sales job was 2001 Audi video. But before that, I actually sold Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. So that was the sales job that I started in for three or six months. I did it. And then it was$2,500 vacuum cleaner. This is 1997 that the box was humongous that I had to carry door to door, knock on people's door, Hey, do you want us do want to buy $2,500 vacuum cleaner? And the sales pitch, the sales pitch was to get into the house, to get into the house and bring this vacuum cleaner up in a box, assemble it, and vacuum the carpets, vacuum beds. And it was so much dirt would come out of these things that people would fucking panic because they just look at it and say, I just vacuumed this carpet yesterday and look how much the dirt comes up. So that was my sales door to door. That's how I started the cells. And then I say, eh, you know what? I don't like this shit that I have to carry humongous vacuum cleaner and go to people's house and clean their people's house so I can get a sell. So I've sold salt, actually, believe it or not. That builds some thick skin though, going door to door and knocking at a young age. I think my very first job, I was 13 years old and it wasn't even a job. It was really you door knock, and you tried to get people to subscribe to Toronto Star. Oh yeah. So a subscription made me like$20. That was basically it. If it was a credit card subscription, it made me a little bit more it was a fascinating gig, but you learned so much and you learned rejection, how to deal with it. Absolutely. You build some really big skin. Yeah. So then 2,100 video, I said that many times that really started my selling and how to create experience for people, for customers that came into the store that wanted to buy a TV or VCR or any sort of cassette record player for their cars. And then the CD came along. So this is how all the back, the shit goes, right? The camcorders wasn't invented yet, so they came to Camera. DVDs weren't invented yet. So the, I will never forget, the first VCR R I sold was 22, 20 $200. That was a vcr, VHS tape. Holy shit. It was crazy. So that was from 1997 to 1999. I made myself a great earning. I, I think I made about 40 to$50,000 a year back then. That's very good money. It was very good money back then. And then one day I went to Page, I said, you know what? There's another company I want to go try out. It's bigger box stores called Future Shop. So right now it's Best Buy, best Buy Bottom Out. So I said I want to go try working there. So I went and dropped off my resume and I had a interview and Guy manager goes, how much have you sold? I said, this is how much I made. This is the year. So they hired me for the video department. This is on Eggington and Laird right now. It's not, doesn't exist there anymore. Or it does, I can't remember. Or it's maybe a different store right now. So I started in 1999, being in sales in future shop. First year I became number two in Canada. So I met something I think in the vicinity of $85,000 my first year in future shop. And my hours was 37 and a half hours a week. So Paige was also working at the same time, and she was working in C I B C. She was very well educated. So she started studying. She became a financial advisor. She started from teller jobs. So both of us, we started from extremely humble beginning. So both she used to work in when I was working pizza or delivering food pizza or Washington, this is whatever the case, maybe she was working hand, same level as me. Whatever job we could have get. She was working in country style by example. So at nighttime, I was worried about Harry. This was in Lawrence. There was a coffee time, I don't know if you remember that brand Coffee time. My dad actually owned a franchise of Coffee Time. There you go. We had to show a business When we moved here, we came on a business visa. So we bought a coffee time on Queen and Airport. Amazing. So she used to go and work night shift because that's all she could get. So I was working my shift and I was worried about her. So as soon as I finished, I went and slept in the car for her to finish up her shift to pick her up.

She was working from 10: 20:36

00 AM until 4:00 AM or something like that,

10:00 PM until 4: 20:41

00 AM and I had to slip in the car to make sure that she's okay every now and then. I had to get up and look at her, make sure she's in there,<laugh>, she's in there, and I pick her up. And then we went home again and tomorrow rings and repeat. So fast forward, I went in, applied for future shop. So they hired me on first year I made $85,000. And they manager said, holy shit, you're really good at selling. So the second year I became really smart. I said, you know what? I made a lot of money by example on the whole December month. So in whole December I made in one month $28,000 or$27,000 in that month. So I hire the TV's over heavy. So I hired people to actually take this TV that I was selling to put in people's car for Boxing Day, you on Boxing Week and stuff like that. And then almost had good ambitious, I'd love expansion in life. If you're still, then you're not going to get anywhere. So I never forget it. So I went and leased myself. The second year I was in future shop brand new three series BMW White. Okay. Leased it. The payment was $330 a month.<laugh> not like it is today, guys. Not exactly. So I leased that car and I was showing up in a brand new BMW three series, who's this fucker showing up in a bmw? Our manager back then, Tony, I don't want to name names, but Tony used to show up, not the same level car as I had. And we used to get there in the mornings together, and I parked and he parked. He looked at my car, said, what the fuck? You work for me and you are driving this car, and I'm driving this shitty car. And I laughed. I said, oh, it's a lease. You're all done. Welcome to have the key. Anytime you want it, you can take it and it's yours. You pay the payments you can have, what am I going to say? But I always loved cars. Of course I loved expansion and having good stuff traveled. That's one of my, our favorites. Paige and I traveled around the world and I've visited so many different countries. So the second year I made $120,000 in, this is nine, this is year 2000. So that's a lot of money back there. My manager, I think was making 60 K. Our general manager manager, the managed five, six stores was making$80,000. So these guys, they hired me and said, Hey, listen you became number one in the company, and I think I've sold something like we used to sell extended warranties by example. So I think I sold in a year, 3 million worth of extended warranty. Something crazy. I used to, I was really good at it, and I knew, and it was good for the client customers as well, because in case TVs were the beginning, they were coming out. If it breaks down, you need to service it and cost a lot of money because these things were expensive. With the Q E H S came, the DVDs came, the camcorders came, the home theaters came. So I met a lot of people through that whole network. So that was the second year I was there. And then I decided to what time for expansion again? So what am I going to do? I knew a gentleman in that had owned the restaurant in Danforth, so he used to call Joy of Java. So Paige and I, we get together. He said, hon, you know, why don't we just go and open up our own business? <laugh>. This since 2001. This is 2001, correct. Okay. So 2001. So I bought his restaurant. So I bought him out and I. Never knew this. Yeah, it's used to me too, guys. A lot of this stuff. Most people don't know where Peter. Comes from. No, I don't share these stories. I only share these stories with few people. But now this is the time I think if it's going to elevate people, because this is our podcast, and my intention with this is bring so much spirituality because that's where I come from. I grew up in a very spiritual family, not a religious family. It's very different from being religion and spiritual. There. There'll be my aunt and uncles. They were Sufis, so back home. So I grew up in that environment. So that's the way of life today for me as well. So I'll get to that too if you want to, but that's the way I've been all my life now. So even though I love the expansion part, but I always had that sense of connectivity with my source, the infinite intelligence. And I always was always happy. I was always positive. But that's not enough because you always have trouble in life and you go down up sideways, and you need to be able to anchor to something bigger than yourself so you can dig yourself out on those moments. So I'll speak to about that as well later on if you want. So Paige and I, we decided to go buy a restaurant on Afor. So we bought it. We changed the name, we bought the restaurant for hundred and $20,000, and we changed the name to Viva. So we made it into a Italian restaurant. So anyways, I had absolutely zero idea how to scramble an eggs or crack a couple of eggs even to make an omelet. So I said, what the fuck am I going to do? I had two chefs and I said, if tomorrow, if these guys leave, what am I do? So in dates, some of them, for six months during the daytime, I worked at the restaurant. Paige quit her job as well. She was still working with C I B C. She was a financial advisor there. But it was hard because she was going to work in downtown Commerce Court C I B C. And at nighttime, she used to come to the restaurant to manage the restaurant with me, right? Because I had to go on to college. I went to George Brown College culinary school. So I said, what if I wanted to, if tomorrow these two chefs of mine quit, they don't like my face and say, we are leaving. Whatever the case may be, what the hell am I going to do? Because, so it was a very busy restaurant. So I went six months and I taught myself how to cook. So I did classes, I did that. So during the day, I run the business nighttime, I went to there and then came back after the few hours and back to the restaurant and closed the restaurant down because we were open until 11, 12 o'clock at night, and <inaudible> repeat. So that's gone. College finished. I knew how to cook. Then one of my really good chef left. I had to roll up the sleeve and stay in the kitchen myself and cook the food. So the restaurant was a very family oriented restaurant, and it was that we used to do Saturday and Sunday brunches and in, we used to sell 1200 eggs every Saturday and Sunday. People would line up for, and it wasn't a small restaurant, the restaurant was had about 90 or hundred and 20 seats, and it would people line up for hours outside the door just to get in to have breakfast. And I became the chef when I cooked with a lion cook next to me. And I had my sister-in-law got, she always used to come and make fun of me because I had six burners running at the same time. I had no, we were, because not only we serve breakfast, we serve pizza, we serve hamburgers, we serve everything. So can you imagine serving eggs Ben Day? And all of a sudden somebody orders a fucking pizza in <laugh>, in the middle you followed. So it was a lot, but I loved it. I love cooking. Cooking is an art in my opinion. And what it did for me was it really concentrated and I didn't have to think so much. It was just an autopilot. I had two ovens running six burners every day, cooked up and everything else was running at the same time. But I love producing that something wow factored that goes in front of somebody and looks at it and goes, wow, I love this dish and the taste even better. So I love that idea. So I had a restaurant until my first daughter was born, and she was a little bit six months, I think one year page is better, bit accurate with dates. It became too much. You had it for two and a half years. It became too much to handle because I worked from seven o'clock in the morning, I opened and I closed. So I stayed there seven days a week, and I thought to myself, okay, I'm making the same amount of money as I was making in future shop. So why? And you're bust. I'm busting my butt and I'm working nonstop, and why am I doing this? I said, you know what, babe? This is not for us. I love the restaurant business, but let's sell it and move on. So we did. We sold it to somebody else, and I went back and applied to Sony Canada for a position in sells. Again, this is in York Del Mall, but there used to be a Sony the electronic store in York Dub Mall. So the manager hired me first year. I remember that story. Yeah, that was a big story. That was a big story. That was a very big story. So first year I became number one in Canada for Sony. <laugh> History keeps repeating itself.<laugh> history keeps repeating itself, and it was fun. I had so much fun selling stuff. I saw the most expensive TV on display in entire Canada. It was $38,000 tv. So it was a 60 inch plasma. I'll never forget it. Nobody give this guy a time of the day. He came in, he was watching this tv, and the stand of this TV was Pure Glass. The stand was $8,000. Okay? So TV was 30, the stand was eight plus tax. So the guy was standing over there, I can't remember his name. He was tall. And I went, Hey, can I help you? He goes, why is this so expensive? I said so I give him the rundown about the tv, and I said, this is the best TV in the world right now from Sony. And he goes, shit, I like it. I'll take it. I said, excuse me, <laugh>, you take it. I said, sure, let's go to the cash. Let's go to the <laugh>. Let's go read you up. So I don't ask questions. If somebody says, I'll take it, I'll take it. I'm not, I'm not going to talk you out. Shut the fuck up and shut the fuck up, and you go to cash. Can I come check you out? Let's get it done. So he gave me American Express Platinum. I didn't even know what the American Express is back then, right? So the platinum and boom, I said, who are buying this to be? I said, this is the only one. There's only one on display. There is nothing. There is oddity that we don't have. We don't carry, because Sony didn't even think that they're going to sell this tv. This was something that they had on display to brag around and say, Hey, we have a $38,000 tv. So I said, this is the only one. He goes, okay, I'll take the display model. I said, are you sure? I said, yeah, okay, I'll wrap it up for you and I'll have it delivered tomorrow. What are you buying this for? Who is this for? I asked him. He goes this is for my in-laws. Actually, I'm buying it as a gift. I said, holy shit, you must really love your inlaws. You must, must really love your in-laws. And so I called the delivery guy, I ran the card through flat, came up called American Express. So I called American Express. Is it? Yeah, the gentleman is buying a $38,000 tb. They said, okay, approved. I don't know who this gentleman was. So he bought, we had it delivered as well. So anyways, going forward I became, in two years or three, two and a half years I was there, I became number one in Sony, Canada again. And I always hit the plateaus of cells wherever I was I hitting the ceiling because when you hit the ceiling, then what's next? Especially on the retail side specifically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the sales associates, a lot of people may or may not know this, but the best salespeople in most companies will make more than the top managers in those companies. That's just the reality. And I come from a retail background, whether it was Sachs, whether it was any other company that you've worked for, your top associates are sometimes hitting a million dollars. You just never know. Absolutely. You are absolutely right. And that's why I love sales, because there is no ceiling of how much money I want to make. So that was the question and the catalyst why I came into real estate. So I had a friend of mine that went to real estate when we were in future shop together, and I called him up I said, MASU, his name is Masu. I said, MASU you've been into real estate. He got his license in year 2000. So me and him, we always competed with each other big time when he were in sales in future shop, and he still was there. And I said to him how's the real estate thing going on? He go, goes, look, I love it. Just so long I made this much money. I said, oh, good. Maybe this is something. I said, is there a ceiling how much money you can make? He goes, no, there is no ceiling. It's up to you how much money you want to make. So that triggered something in me. So I came home one day, I said, Paige babe, I think I'm going to go and get my license. I want to go get into real estate, and I think it's still sells. And I was used to a dent because sells, nobody writes you a check, my man. You write your own check. And I'm used to it. And now I have this fast forward, I think this was year 2005, end of 2005, I had, so I said to Paige, I said and she was pregnant with my youngest Rosanna. So I said I think I'm going to go get into real estate. And she goes okay, I'll support you. Whatever you want to do, go ahead for It. Wasn't that scary at first though, especially since you're now making six figures at Sony, I'm guessing right around there. We're making over a hundred grand at Sony. Yep. Now you've got a second daughter on the way. For those who don't know, you had one already, you got your second one. And how is that from a mindset perspective that what did you fight with that you're now leaving 120 on the table potentially, and then you don't know what you're going to make in this new field? So my objective was to get the license first. So at 2005, I was working full-time in Sony and I was coming home at 11 o'clock at night, and I studied go until one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning until my eyes could couldn't see anymore, and then I fell asleep and rinse and repeat the next day. So it took me a little while. It took me a year to get my license because I was working. So you have to support the family raid. So once I got my license, then I really talked to my inner being my own self, and I always conversed with whatever that was with Paige. I said, listen, this is my feeling. This is what I think I should do. I always followed my gut feelings in life, in whatever changes I've done. I followed the gut feeling. Some of them works out, some of them matter, but always in my belief is if it feels good to me, I'm doing it. I'm not fucking a chance. You know what I mean? The other day I came to you, this is off topic a little bit, but I came to you, I had a little thing in my head and I said, I'm fucking doing it. And we did it and we did it. Yeah, we did it. So that's how I am. If something resonates and I ask myself, does this feel good to me doing this? And if he does, I'm doing it. Okay. So wrong or right, I'm doing it and I make the decision and I stick by it. Okay. Was. There a fear of failure at that point in time when you made that move? I'm going to tell you that. So I got the license I got my license for 30 days, and I was going to Sony and I was thinking, okay, okay. I went and actually, I interviewed three offices. Nobody interviews him fucking me. I interviewed the managers. So I went to two max offices on one Royal page, and I had three questions from them before I joined. As soon as I got my message, you have to sign up with a brokerage. So I had three questions for them. I said, who's your top guy? How much your top guy makes? What's his name? Who's your bottom guy, how much he makes, and what's your average commission between your agents? Okay, so the two out of three, they were fucked up. They were just out to lunch in terms of what I wanted to hear. And third one was the one that I actually, I didn't even ask questions of how much the split is, how much my monthly is. I did, they told me what it is, but I didn't care. So that was my third office that I stayed signed up and I stayed there for 15 years was the, and I asked the manager, Barbara, and she goes, the top guy is Barry Cohen which became partner later on. I can talk about that, but let's see. And then he goes, yeah, it's him. He makes seven figures. I don't want a number, but yeah, yeah. And then the low guy, our lowest is somebody that makes 70 K a year, and our average is between a hundred, 210,000. So I figured, you know what? I can be worse than the fucking low guy because I made 128 ring Sony and I made the same selling TVs, selling TVs, so I can't be less than that guy. Average is pretty good. That's my av, that's what I'm making right now anyways, and I like to be the top guy. That's where I like to be. And I knew that I needed to be somewhere surround myself with successful people. And that office was, it had a lot of top producers because I want breed success, breed success, and I know my personality. I'm not shy to ask anything from anybody. I don't care who you are. You are a billionaire. I don't give a shit. So I said, sign me up. So I signed up, I came home, and this is a month after getting my license. I came to Paige. I said, hon, I'm Queen. And Sony, Paige said she looked at me, she goes, we have two kids, and all of that stuff, and sure about this. I said, a hundred percent. My gut is telling me I can't do half here, half there. This is not a business of being half hasard job and lukewarm. I'm never a person that does something halfway, so I know I'm doing it or I'm not fucking doing it. Okay. So that's my personality. So I said, babe, if I really want to have a career, I need to have a career. Selling in retail store is not a career for me. If I wanted to have a career, I need to build something now. So she And. How old are you at this point in time? I was 30. You're 30? Yeah. Okay. So I said I need to have a career, and I think realistic could be a career that I could be great at because it sells and it's all has to do with my hustle, not anybody else's hustle. And I'm great at hustling, so let me get in there. So she supported me, always supported me in my life. I owe Paige everything I have in my life, everybody thinks that's all me, but it's not fucking me her. If you guys don't know you, if don't know about my wife, she's just an angel on her. That's all there is to it. And I could talk about her for another five different episodes if you want to. But she always supported me to anything that I wanted to do. And I even told some of my friends there. We had a lot of good doctor friends the chiropractor, surgeon or physicians and all of that. They were all our immediate close friends. And I said, yeah, I'm quite in. They all looked at me and said, are you fucking crazy? You want to leave a stable job with two kids and go into something that you don't know what you're doing? You haven't even done anything yet. I said, look, guys, can't be worse on the fuck I'm what I'm doing right now anyways, so I'm doing it. So I went to our manager's office in Sonia and I said, I quit the guy. My manager looked at me and said, what the fuck does that mean? I said, I'm giving you my two weeks notice. Bye. He goes, what are you doing? I said, I got my real list, so I'm lingo I'm going to realistic. He goes, you what? You are you serious? I said, yeah, course. He had nothing to say. I resigned anyway. I give him a letter. I said, I'm leaving. So two weeks I came out, came full-time to real estate. This was the end of year 2006, September. I think you want to know the rest of it now. It's a long story, man. I think the viewers are enjoying this. I think people like to find out what the story is, what the background is, the journey. I think the journey is so important, and that's where we want to be different, right? Than any other podcast. Our goal is to bring you the full journey. Our goal is to bring you their story instead of just me asking cold questions. Peter what should people do if they want to join a brokerage? Well, what did Peter do when he wanted to join a brokerage? I think look at him and take a look at that. Use that as inspiration for yourself. If you're 30 or 40, doesn't matter how old you are, you want to make the move. See what support you have, see what you can do. And it's never too late to make that move. He's taken jumps from whether it was future shop, making six figures to buying a restaurant, which was really a shot in the dark. Nobody knew if that was going to be successful. He had no prior experience running a restaurant, and most would say that was a stupid move, but at the same time, it taught him what to do. It taught him to be a stronger person to face, face adversity, and then realize, okay, maybe sales is my calling. This is what I need to do. Hence comes Sony. Absolutely. And then Sony leads you into here, which most people would not leave a six figure job to go join real where they don't know how much they're going to make, although your cap doesn't exist in real estate. But at the same time, there's a lot of unknowns. And the thing is, with those variables, you can't calculate how much money you're going to make. You don't know when that first house is going to sell. You don't know when your first check's going. To come. You don't know anything. But to have your wife support you, I think that's a big, big deal. And knowing Paige, Paige is such a wonderful human being. I think Alexandra and I were driving yesterday. We were having this chat. She's an angel. She's, she's an angel. She's a beautiful person inside out. Absolutely, absolutely love her. And she's very easy to talk to. For those of you that don't know Paige maybe we'll have her as one of our future guests. I think a hundred percent. I think. That would be. Cool to bring the full story. We're hosting together. So we are going to have her in on one of our episodes as well, because my memory is foggy. I always have to go and ask her, babe, what did I do back then? Or which restaurants or whatever it is. If you went to a restaurant by example with our friends, we've been there four times and I don't remember. And I say, babe, have you been to research? She goes, we've been there four times here. Memory is a lot more accurate than I am. So I'm just giving you guys some synopsis and some condense of my past 30 years or so of life. And the biggest reason that I really wanted to open up, because I haven't shared this story with a lot of people, and is for what? Just for heart said, if this will allow you to pick one or two things from my life and implement it in yours, or if it's going to motivate you, or if it's going to inspire you to take the jump that you couldn't take or you don't want to take or you are afraid to take, you have fears to do it. Sometimes the grasses is greener on the other side, and there's a lot of old sane about that. And you need to understand expansion is part of every human being, and they need to expand and improve yourselves in life and should. And the fear and your brain is the one that keeps you from doing it. And often is the first step is the biggest issue. People don't take the first step because if they, they're too. Afraid. They're. Too afraid, there's too much fear, they're too much fear, too much the negativity and too much looking at in the back and in their history and saying, what if. You know what I mean? Forget about what if it actually fucking works? What if you succeed? Ask. Yourself, what if you succeed? What if I succeed? Then what? Exactly. Then what? Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. You're probably right. Yeah. That's half the battle. Having that belief in yourself, and I think that's a great lesson learned from Peter's journey is he's believed in himself in everything he's done. And there's different types of people, and people like Peter as an example, they're successful at everything they do. It's because success is a habit. It comes through hard work. Hard work is a habit. It comes through grinding and making sure you put in the effort every single day, waking up and saying that, Hey, I can do this. I'm going to do this. Instead of being pessimistic and saying I don't know what's going to happen. Let's just see. Absolutely. If God wants it to happen, it'll happen. No, you go out there and fucking make it happen. Because guess what? You certainly can. And those people that are successful, and you have these two types of friends, just remember this. You have the friend that is successful at every job they've ever held. They are number one or number two at every job. They get promoted everywhere they go and they say good things about their job. And then you have this other friend that talks shit about every manager they've had that doesn't like any job they've ever held. Those are two types of people that have something ingrained in their minds. That person number one, is going to be successful at anything they do anything they touch. But that's because they've learned to work hard. They've learned to put in the effort. They understand that their beliefs can take them much further than they even thought possible. Absolutely. And that's the thing. Who would've thought you'd be making X amount of money or be opening a brokerage yourself 16 years ago where there was a lot of unknown? Absolutely. And I think jumping back into that, so how long did it take you to sell your first house? What were some of the struggles that you faced in real estate? Because it is a very different business altogether. You've got to go chase it. There's no clients walking through that door. No, there's nobody saying, Hey, I want that $38,000 tv, or I want that 10 million home, whatever that is. How big was your first transaction? Get started there. Okay, so. Let's pop the mic back on. What do you mean? Yeah, the mic is just this part. Just press this in this. That's fine. Leave it. I just don't want to mess it up. Leave it with way it is right now. We'll fix it later. So I left my secure job and I went into the office the next day, once I fully was out of the Soly Corporation went in the next day, I went straight to the manager's office. I said question, okay, where is Barry Cohen? He always worked from his home. So I said, does he come to the office? So they said, not so much. I said, okay, so who are the top 10 agents in the office? And the manager told me I'm going to give their names because they're close friends of mine. Bill Tom was one of the top ages. He was making seven figure back then. You know what I mean? So Wayne Kindin was one of the top producers. Robert Croll or Hossain Mo was there as he was making great money back then, and who else? So she gave me a few names and I said, okay, I thank you. So I came by. I was passing by the office. I see. All of a sudden, bill Tom was sitting in a boardroom and writing a listing document. So I went into the room, I opened the door, I closed the door behind me, and he was writing the paperwork. He was filling up a listing paper. He goes who are you? I said, hi I'm Peter. I just joined. He looked at me, okay, can I help you? He goes, yeah. I said, can I said can I ask you a question? He goes I'm in the middle of something. I sat down. <laugh> Such a new thing to do. I didn't even think you fucking know for an answer. I just sat up, sat down on the table, across the street, across the table from him. I said, I looked at him. I said, I heard you were one of the top producers in the office. He goes yeah, thank you. I said, okay, so I have a question for you. He goes, what? He goes, I'm in the middle of something. I said, give me few minutes. He goes, what's the question? I said, how do you get listings? So I'm sitting in front of this guy that's one of the top guys. He's making over million bucks a year. And I'm asking him I just got literally my license and I'm asking him, how do you get listings? How do you do your business? So me and him, we had good conversations. I picked his brain. I asked questions. I asked questions, okay, thank you. I came out, where is Wayne Khan? So office. So he was on the second floor. I ran upstairs. I said, knocked on the door. Wayne opened the door, Wayne, I love you. You know that. So he opened the door and I said, you, Wayne? He goes, yeah. I said I heard you were one of the top producers. He goes, yeah. I said, so what the fuck do you do <laugh> to make money? So I went to one producer after one producer after one producer, and I picked her brain. So Wayne was great at geographical farming. He still is. All of these people became really close friends after, and they're still from my friends up to today. So I went after one after each other, and I picked a brain and I accumulated as much as knowledge as I could from each one of them. And I said, okay, now, but we need to grind. Now is the time for the grind. So I had an office I went that the manager gave me was, I don't know, three feet by three feet or very tiny with a little desk and a phone in there. So I went and actually grabbed the white pages. So I grabbed the white pages. There was a phone, there was nothing else there in that office. So I came here. I said, I sat behind my desk, I looked around at the street. I said, what street am I on? This is Ho, okay, Hollywood. All right, white Pages, Hollywood. So I went to the Hollywood section on the street, and I looked at the Alfred medical names and the phone number of the people that live on Hollywood. I picked up the phone and started, darling, Hey Mr. Smith, you want to sell your house? No. Okay, thank you. Boom. Next. So I sat there for hours every day, and I just cold call, cold call, cold call. I went to the door. I didn't know anything better. So I went to some door door, a door knock, and one thing led to another, and this is my first cell of residential. So I was living on Youngen Finch on a condominium seven Bishop Avenue. So what I did was we ran into somebody in the building and she said, oh, actually, I'm thinking of selling my condo. my office is down the street. She goes I'm actually really thinking of selling and buying something else. The in Scarborough, we want to move us. Okay, sure. We'll like 299,000, something like that. That was the price. So I said, okay. I didn't know how to write up mls. So I figured everything out. I listed the property. It was one plus one or one bedroom condo. And what I did was I came downstairs where mailboxes are, and there is a board of people hanging shed guitar lessons and all of that. So I rode with my handwriting. I said, one bedroom apartment available for sale. Call this number. And I pinned it to the board. I never forget it. So somebody called me the next day, his name is David. He called me actually a month ago. His name is David. He goes this is regarding the apartment that you put for sale. Is it available? I said, sure. So I took David through, I double-ended that property. That. Was your first? That was my first.<Laugh>. That's pretty fucking impressive. Double-ended, your friend. I sold it. I sold it to him. I sold it to David. I took them and I went to a Scarborough and bought him a $450,000 house. And then I was, one day I was on the street door knocking, and I run into one of the clients that used to come to my restaurant and she loved my food, and we saw each other, and all of a sudden she goes wait a second. I know you. I said, I know you. And one thing led to another. She wanted to sell her mother's house on Villa. Okay. I can't remember number 9 43. Nine 20, I can't remember the exact number. But she goes, I want to sell my mom's place on Villa. Can you help me out? Upsa? Fucking literally. So I got the listing. So I created a little business little card for myself that I just listed. So any property that I listed, I, I actually door knocked 50 homes around it right before he came out to market. I put on a little note that this house is coming. I spoke to everybody. I say, Hey, I have a house, by the way, coming over here before he goes off two days before. I said, I'm listening in two days. I'm wondering if you or anybody that wants to buy it. Okay, guess what? I run into a Korean gentleman that says, where? So there, okay, I'm coming to see it. I double. So I bought him that property. Not only I bought him that property, I bought him another one too, actually on run, on a street called Revco. So he bought as an investment property as well with me. And so you ended. Up getting three ends on the first three ends on the second. And how long did it take you to sell. This? This is between, so you get your license of August of September, so until the end of the year. So everything started panning out by end of 2006, beginning of 2007. So everything just came together all about those times. So I got my license on March, but I didn't quit until a little bit later and then I was figuring out what the hell to do and all of that stuff. So all of a sudden, you're right, it's one thing led to another and I sold it and I went actually door knocked again and to get more listings. I got another listing from it. So I know how to rely on my capability, not somebody coming and handing to me, Hey, here's a deal. And so one thing led to another in year 2007, which was my full year in business. By the end of year 2007, I didn't so I'd had lot of sales double ends on all of that stuff in regular transactions. And my manager came to me and said, look, there is a project downtown it's called One Blower by a company called Bazos International. So they have a sales thing, one blower, one of the fucking best addresses in Canada, as you can imagine. She goes, do you want go to that sales meeting and see what's going on? I said, fuck yeah, I'll go. So I jumped in my car. There was an event that the mayor was there, the builders were there, husband and wife was there as well. Michael Gold and Veronica, we are still friends with Michael. I called him about six months ago. We had a great conversation as well. So I know him for a long time. So I went to the cell center, don't know anybody. There was about 200 people there. Okay? So I'm standing in the corner watching everybody come in and everybody's shaking his hands because he bought their lane for 63 million and he wants to put in the best address in Canada on one blower. So I stayed there and I said to myself, I said, how do I get in front of this guy? I want to talk to this guy. I want to have a conversation with him. Something in my gut was telling me, go talk to this guy. So before that night, there were about a hundred, hundred and 50 agents sleeping on the street, intense. And I knew some agents from our own office that hired people to sleep intense and would pay them every night so they can get one unit. So the first 13 or 14 people that were on the first line, there were 200 people by the time that they opened the sales center that were sleeping there for two weeks, this is in November of 2007. It was all over the news, check it out. And I said, God, I'm not fucking going to that lineup over there. It's a shut show. So how do I get in front of this guy? So I waited my moment, my I waited, waited, waited, waited. So he was saying goodbye. He went to the park to the front of the front of the cell center, and I went down there and he was saying goodbye to people, shaking hands and so on and so forth. And all of a sudden I went to his face. I said, Hey Michael, how are you? He goes, hi, can I help you? I said, I'm Peter have a question for you. I goes what? What's up? I said something. I brought buyers. There was a hotel across the street. This is me in the business for a year, less than a year or a little bit over a year. So I said, I brought buyers from Germany to buy this project from you. I had absolutely no fucking buyer, but if I don't buy, Michael, if you I should have told you this story, the truth, but look what happened. So I said, Michael so I said, I have some buyers that is interested in buying, but I need don't want to. I'm putting them in hotel, I'm paying for it. There was fucking buyers. So I said, these guys I don't want to stay in the lineup. You need to help me out. He goes, he looked at me, he goes, you really have buyers? I said, you brought people from Germany to buy my thing. That's the first thing he came to my head. I don't know, I just blurbed it out. I said, I'm going to say it works because it's going to work or he doesn't work, so it's selling myself again, right? So he goes, okay, write down my cell phone. So I said, really? I'm shaking like this. I'm writing his cell phone down. So I wrote his cell phone down. He goes, call me Monday. I said, fine. So thank you, Michael. I came, I called Paige, I had the first phone, the Blackberries came out and all, I think it was Blackberry. I got no Kia, I can't remember. I called. I said, I have no idea what had just happened. He gave me, I got his cell phone. He told me to call him on Monday. What the fuck am I going to say to him on Monday? So anyway, so fast forward Monday, I came home. I couldn't sleep the whole weekend and I came home Monday. First thing I called the mob. I said, Michael this is Peter. We spoke over the thing and I, I'm the guy that brought the buyer. What do you want me to do? He goes, okay, go to the cell center. Go see Nikki. Love you, Nikki. I love you. Go see Nikki and probably this is the story that's going to see it now and you're going to figure it out. So became very good friend. So she was running the sales sales center for Michael. And so I went to Nicki, I knocked the door, there was police and security there. Who the hell are you? So I had a little fucking shitty briefcase with me and I went inside. So I said, I came to see Nicki, Michael told me to go to speak to Nicki. So we went in and Nicki said, what can I do for you? I said, Michael said to call him on his cell. Okay, stay here. She went in the back, she called Michael, they were on the phone and I see Nicki from the back. She's looking at me, the fuck what's going on on the phone? So she called Michael, she came back, she goes, who the hell are you? I said, why? I'm just an agent for Dream X. Why? She goes, because Michael told me to give you 30 units. I said yeah, great. So Michael said to me, to give you three floors, there were 10 units per floors. Who Did you have buyers for this? I said, absolutely. So zero buyers. So I came, I said, okay, give me the paperwork, give me the brochures, boxes of brochures. I'm coming out of this sales center. Everybody is looking at me. What the hell is going on? Who the hell is this guy? He's coming up with the brochure. I'm priceless. So she goes, what floors do you want? I said, I don't know, give me some low floors, medium floors on high floors. I make shit up. So I said, give me these things and I'll go and see. I'll sell 'em. Give me a week, I'll sell 'em all. I came out, I had no idea what the hell I'm going to do. So it was a friend of mine that now is a friend, and he was standing in line. It was one of the guys that was standing in line for 10 days freezing his ass off. So he looked at me coming out with these boxes of brochures. So she start, he started following my ass to the car. So we went to the car and he goes, what are these things? I said, listen Andy, call me on my cell phone and let's talk. You have buyers. He goes, we got lots of buyers. My dad owns a brokerage, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So called me and I said, let's see what we can do. So anyways Andy called me. We co-worked together, we called, sold them together. He had had actually some buyers. And then I came to the office and I introduce similar and they had some buyers and one thing led to another, and I sold actually 33 units. So that month I made, because you asked the question, how much did you make? So that year I made $585,000. Wow. That was my first year in the business. Full year. Full year. Impressive. Talk to me about joining Barry Cohen your first million dollar listing. Just talk to me about that. How did you get your first million dollar listing? Because a million dollars back then was a lot of money. Your average price point was closer to three, $400,000. So what was your first million dollar listing? How did you land that? And then what led you to join someone like Barry? So for the sake of time, yeah, I'm going to try to shorten all this stories because there's a lot of them. So I was doing a lot of preconstruction sales, so I went to that and some resales too but I figured because every builder they wanted to, the word got out that Peter is selling the six amount of preconstruction. And I did that quite well in different projects. So some projects I sold 96 with teamworks of other, of course with collaborations. But it became a really, really great stream of money coming in and I treated a listing. I was going into projects and getting hundred. So fast forward, I was getting really burnt out from it. I was getting tired because I was working really long hours and it was really tense of selling all these units. And so I was getting tired of it. I wanted to change. I said what do I do to give myself some pay raise if I wanted to? I'm making great money every year, but now I wanted to go to the next level and what do I do? And Ben and Barry always was top agent in Toronto. He's been one of the top, he's been around for a long time, and the way that worked out is I'm just going to give you quickly. So I went to him, I said, look, give me a business card and I'll bring you business. Okay. That was it. That was the conversation. I said, just give me a business card with your name on it and my name on it, and I'll go make both of us money. That was the whole conversation. And he goes, okay, I'll give you a chance. Okay. So first year to join him was 2011. I completely shut off the pre-construction. Like they were calling me from the biggest developers in Toronto. Hey, how many units do you want? How many floors do you want? I said, none. I'm not coming. So everybody's saying, what the F guy is wrong with this guy? He's saying no to money. But I wanted to change my whole concept of business. I wanted to go after luxury, and that's the way I am. I can't play with different chapters. I don't like that. If I'm focused on something or if I'm concentrated, it's 1000% concentration there. So I got the business card for Barry and I sat and cold call door, knock baby on York Mills and ride a path and everywhere. So I went to doors, I did whatever. I have a software that I cold called that. You guys are aware. So basically back to basic, and the grind was for me, and real estate is not rocket science. There's only so many different ways for you to make money from or the two types of ways that you can. And that was the best thing that you could have done with that moment. And one thing led to another, and the first deal that I did with Barry was on, I'll never forget a 24 Brian Cliff. Okay, so that's in baby in York, C 13. And so I called <laugh>, his name is Amid, we are friend now also. So I said, Hey, I'm calling la la la, do you want to sell your house? He goes, actually, yeah, we are thinking actually moving to the United States. You want to come over? I said, sure. So I met an opening appointment. We went there, we got the listing. Not only that, in one month I got three listings and I sold all three of them at the same time. Okay. Wow. So as soon as I joined him, it was Jan sometime in January or February. And what was the approximate price points? You don't have to mean that. The first one was we sold it in multiple offer for 1.6 50. Great. So that was the first one's. Huge. Yeah, it was huge. And then so the first, all of a sudden in one month we did three. And then out of cold calling on all of them, we got all three listings and we sold them all three in the vicinity of, so first when I joined him, I think I did four or 5 million worth of transaction. This is back in 2011, and prices were in this high that they are today. So land on brighter path was maybe two and a half million dollars for two acre lots. Right now is 15 million for a two acre lot. So this is the expansion and the raise of the prices on property. So anyways, so I knocked it out, I think the first year with him. I brought in over 30 deals, 30 listings and buys. And just one thing led to another. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And that's how it really started going into York Mills. And I told myself, I said, this is my baby. I made a four quadrant. I didn't know a single street there. I said, I'm not, I'm going this baby and I'm not coming out of this place. And now for those who don't know, if you're in a car with Peter, you drive down those streets. Peter knows every street, every house that's been listed, a lot of the owners, he sold a lot of them. He knows the sale price is exactly who bought it. He literally knows everything. It's incredible. And that's what you should aim to do, especially if you're a realtor and you're watching this or listening to this, guys, geo-farming is huge. But also, what did Peter do? He picked up the phone and called. I think there's so many people today that are afraid to make the calls and all they want to do is post a social media, Hey, great, I'm with the agency, or I'm with Remax, or I'm with Century 21. Doesn't matter the brokerage that you're with, what are you doing to go out there and earn that business, earn everything, every penny that you have. Exactly. You've got to go out there, get it. Nobody's going to call you. Just say, Hey, come list my house. Especially when you don't have any experience. And over the years you gained that. So what your would you say, and I think condensing that eight year, nine year stride with Barry, what were your biggest takeaways? Because you had a lot of growth. You went from selling couple hundred thousand properties to now selling multimillion dollar properties, you sold 20 million properties. So what were your key takeaways from working with Barry? Would you say two or three things that you truly executed really well and truly learn? So what I truly learned from Barry was it was a lot, first of all lot of shatter credit to him. He's been in the industry for a long, long time, and I have a lot of respect and admiration for him still to this day. And what I learned from him was patience. Okay? The second thing I learned from him, it wasn't about the money. So it became, for me, a point of not about the money anymore, about enjoying the process of selling those homes. The money was great, don't get me wrong, so don't get me wrong, but it became, for me, it became the art of actually dealing with people. And it's an art of having conversations with those caliber sellers and making sure the negotiation goes smooth and making sure that everybody keeps a cool head. And because when you talk big numbers a lot of egos comes in play, especially from the selling agent, from the seller, from the buyer, from a lot of those scenarios that I've seen in my career was selling all these big, I almost got into a fist five with the buyer, but I don't want to tell that story. But anyways, but what I'm trying to say is just you need to learn to be patient and the money will follow. It's not about the money anymore. It's about making sure you deliver such a exceptional service. Experience. Experience and negotiation skills that will result in coming back to you tenfold and million folds. It's just opened a whole different world of real estate. To me, that was the answer. I love it that, that's fascinating, right? Because you've now elevated yourself into a whole other league, a whole other ballgame. You're in the big leagues now, you're listing homes are Bridled Path, York Mills, forest Hill, and all these affluent areas of Toronto. And not to say that you haven't taken listings that are smaller either. Yeah, I've taken, you've still done. That. I'm still doing that. But I think keep that in mind, guys. For anyone who's looking for that inspiration on how to get into the luxury market, it's not because he had a Maybach or a Lamborghini that he was driving. When you got those listings, were you driving one of those guys? No. Or the run always. Fuck. I always drove a nice car, but the car, for me it's just a fun aspect of it. I never did it for anybody else to look at my car and say, oh, was driving a majority. I don't give a shit, to be honest with you, what people think, what I drive or what I do or. What I think. There's a lot of people that think, especially in this business, if they drive a nice car, they're going to get a lot of business. And you need to focus on really the education and the finesse. I think going back to that experience that you gained from 2006 all the way to 19 where you brought the agency into Canada or 20 is just that understanding of finesse, understanding of the experience, understanding of elevating your education on the real estate market, on the negotiation side. And unless you're coming with it from the backend, which you learned a lot of that here, especially the negotiation aspect that didn't exist at Sony or at Future shop, you're not really negotiating a ton of prices. No, there, there's no real room to negotiation. That's a different ballgame. But you had the art of seals, the art of the experience. Correct. And I think a lot of those skills, when they're transferrable into real estate or into different fields, it makes your transition into that new field a lot easier. And I found that from even my experience coming from a retail background, a leadership background, a lot of those skills, they were easy. And I've had the opportunity to negotiate. So it does make it easier for me to sit at the table and say, okay, here's this 4 million home, where can we get it? And I've gotten one of my clients$800,000 off the asking price that's, it's just about trying to figure out what it is that you can do and which cards you want to show. It's like a poker game. You're not trying to say, Hey, here's my client's budget, this is what we want. No, you feel it out, figure it out. Sometimes before we even go for showings, we pick up the phone, call the listening agent, we want more information. And you will be surprised as to how much people are willing to share, especially if you've got away with words. And I have some clients that were absolutely astounded found out for them. So on h, anything luxury and expensive properties, you have to do qualifications. That's exactly what I do all the time. So if they book a showing for my listings, the first thing I'm going to ask is, Hey I call this selling agent. I say can you tell me everything I need to know about your buyer? Guess what they're going to tell 'em? Well, they can probably give me their social security number too if I want to, but they're going to spill the whole beings who they are. But when you need to know that, because when you get to that caliber, you need to understand who's coming to the house. So if it's a $10 million sale, 1530 5 million that I have right now, if somebody calls me, I need to know who you are and can ask those qualifying questions, make sure that you, it's catered to the right person so we don't waste nobody's time. We are going to be mindful of that. That's amazing. I appreciate everything so far. So we're going to wrap this up pretty soon. I've got a couple more questions. I don't want to go the same route that everyone does and ask you, oh, you brought the agency to Toronto right now that you've brought the agency to Toronto, and we're kind of in that expansion phase ourselves with our new Netflix show buying Beverly Hills, which is exploded. Z if you haven't watched it, you. Should. How many people are reaching out to you to join the agency every day? Lots.<Laugh>. Lots. The answer is lot of people and I really appreciate every single one of them too. I do our brokerages is the way that's set up is we love to take as many as people as we can is but we are boutique in that manner. And we are picking and choosy of who we like to work with because it's a family environment. It is not a typical box office or big box brokerages that you can think outside where. Everyone just signs up. Everyone just signs up. And we like to keep it that way. And those people that join that, I want 'em to feel special. The the PPP part of something really great and yeah, but a lot of people are approaching not because of buying Beverly Hills since the beginning that I brought it on, because I've been around for a long time almost two decade doing this, right? And you are for almost a decade of selling really luxury properties. Lot of agents Alzheimer's knew they know me from those days, so they knew who I am and they wanted to work with me very closely. And I really appreciate that. And so far we try to bring people that we all resonate with each other and we are on the same vibration and same thought process. And you've seen me in the office running around and working, and my excitement level is really, really high all the time. And I like that. You know what I mean? Because if somebody came and said, oh, I don't know if their energy level is so low, there is nothing I can do with that person, unfortunately, unless they bring themselves up to a different level of energy. So I can have that same conversation with, so. Have you ever heard that popular thing? I, I'd rather hold back a raging bold and push a donkey. I never heard that, but I like that. Yeah. One of my bosses used to say it. It's always easier people with the drive. That's who you want at the end of the day. But also the culture I think is one of the biggest things is important. Yes, sir. The culture is absolutely phenomenal. Absolutely. That's what I absolutely love about the brokerage. This is not an advertisement for the brokerage by any means. But before we wrap it up, the last part is what does the art of greatness mean to you? And before you go, I'll answer you. Go first. I'll. Go first. I've been talking nonstop for over an hour. We, our goal for this podcast, and we've been thinking for a long time about starting a podcast individually actually. And I've had the stop process maybe for the last year, year and a half. I think, Peter, you've had it for about two years, correct? Where we've both individually wanted to start something to bring you guys things of value, something that is educational, that's fun to listen to, that is storytelling. We want to curate something for you that will make you want to listen, that will ideally help you learn something and hopefully inspire you to be great within your own world. We'll be bringing on guests from all facets of life, whether it's real estate, design, architecture, retail, corporate, doesn't matter their background. Spiritual leaders, spiritual leaders, people that are truly great at what they do, and once again, greatness it. It's a habit. These are people that have learned to work hard, learn to succeed in their respective roles, and they've been successful at almost everything that they've done. And these are the people that we want to invite and we want to shed some light on their story, on their wins, on their struggles, on how they've gotten to where they are at today. I know at face value, we see social media, we see the nice cars, we see the big homes, we see everyone doing so well. But I think there's so much to uncover and peel back the onion to figure out what that true struggle was, where they really came from. And I appreciate everything that Peter shared. With us here years too. Don't forget, oh my God. Because look, it's not always rosy, right? No, God, no. And the hard work and all of those stuff that's been through everybody's journey, that to get to their success level, that they are to get to a success level and perform at a very high level. There is no such thing as free lunch. No. Okay. So it's impossible for somebody to get to the levels that they think they want to get without sacrificing and without or working extremely hard at their talent and whatever they love to do. And you're absolutely right. You nailed the ahead hammered. What's that saying? You nailed the hammer on the head. Something like that. Something like that. And with what you said, this podcast is about adding value to your life. This is about improving your inner beings. This is about that's what I like to see about it. I like to open up that conversation within yourself with your higher being and your source and finding out your true colleagues. I always believed in this and I still do. If I don't love what I'm doing, I'm not doing it. I agree. And if I don't feel good about it, I'm not doing this. Whatever that is, whatever that is. Here's the issue that I see with lot of people out there. Number one, they don't even know what they want. You follow? So the biggest hurdle of a lot of people is they don't know what they want in life. That's the biggest challenge. Well, then once you know that desire, that what drives you, whatever that is, guys, whatever is resonating with your soul, that's your passion. And that's where your focus should be. And once you focus on whatever that passion is, I will guarantee you, you will be successful no matter what that is. If you want art, you want cooking, whatever it is, doesn't matter. But the first thing is you need to figure out what the hell do you want. That's the first one. That's once you have that and you feel good about it, and if you're loving it, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be successful. And this podcast, I want it to be something that will add those values for people. And maybe they say, you know what? This is what I want. This is what I want out of life. And they'll get it. Amazing. All right. Thank you again, Peter. We appreciate it. Lots of love to you guys out there. Thank you for listening. Staying till the end of the.