Finding Financial Freedom, Passive Income, & Happiness While Traveling the World with Karim Kerachni

🎙️ Welcome to another enlightening episode of Pathways with Amber Stitt! Today, we're diving into a conversation with entrepreneur and digital entrepreneur, Karim Kerachni.

💪 Join us as Amber and Karim explore Karim's "Pathways of Peak Performance," delving into how building a life foundation around what you love can lead to both personal and professional success.

🗺️ Karim shares his unique journey from Canada to Southeast Asia, highlighting the invaluable lessons he's learned about community, happiness, and resilience from his travels in Malaysia, Vietnam, France, Kuwait, and countless other travels.

🙏 Amber and Karim discuss the cultural contrasts between Southeast Asia and the West, particularly in attitudes towards work-life balance and community engagement.

🏘️We'll hear about Karim's current role as a US Franchise Developer in the real estate market with PropertyGuys.com, his insights on passive income, and strategic business expansion. Karim also expands on why he thinks the Property Guys real estate transaction model will eventually take-over in the US.

📊 Amber and Karim also examine the benefits of the franchise model for aspiring entrepreneurs and critique traditional retirement planning.

📻 Stay tuned to discover practical tips on leveraging cultural experiences for business success, managing a digital entrepreneur lifestyle, and creating a fulfilling, balanced life.

✈️ Prepare to be inspired by Karim's enthusiasm and be sure to connect with him on LinkedIn after the show. Let's get the journey started!

📽️ To watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/hKxKmbw0TAU

🔗 Resources & Links:

To learn more about Karim Kerachni please visit:

📲 Website: https://info.propertyguys.com/mass/

📲 Book Mentioned: "The Happiness Advantage" by Shawn Achor

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Karim-Kerachni/

📲 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PropertyGuysFranchisesMA

To learn more about Amber Stitt please visit:

📲 Website: https://www.amberstitt.com

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-stitt-acp-chfc%C2%AE-cltc%C2%AE-clu%C2%AE-gallup%C2%AE-1b186821

📲 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberstitt_ 

#PathwaysWithAmberStitt #AmberStitt #KarimKerachni #digitalnomadlifestyle #PeakPerformance #CommunityEngagement #RealEstateInvesting #Entrepreneurship #HappinessAdvantage #PropertyGuys #PathwaysToPeakPerformance

Transcript

Amber Stitt [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways. I am your host, Amber Stitt. And today we have Karim Kerachni with us today. Welcome, Karim.

Karim Kerachni [00:00:08]:
Thank you, Amber. Thanks for having me. I've been excited for what, for a month now to be on your show.

Amber Stitt [00:00:12]:
Yeah, well, and this is probably a common question, but where in the world are you today?

Karim Kerachni [00:00:19]:
I get that all the time. I'm currently in Malaysia on an island named Penang, which is off the coast of Malaysia, not far from the border with Thailand. I've been here for a few months now. But as you kind of led to this, I do travel pretty much full time. I've been traveling for a year and a half now to various countries.

Amber Stitt [00:00:37]:
A year and a half? Well, you've been in sales and business entrepreneurship for over a decade almost. Plus 13 years, or so.

Karim Kerachni [00:00:46]:
That's right.

Amber Stitt [00:00:46]:
You grew up in being Canadian born, then you grew up in France. Do you think this was just instilled in you just to keep the adventure moving? Were you born into this life?

Karim Kerachni [00:00:56]:
You know, it's funny because I don't feel like I was born into that traveling mindset. I really got the travel bug when I was in Canada and I went for a 6 month road trip across Southeast Asia. That's when I really...and actually even moving from France to Canada. So in 2014 was the first big adventure. Before that, funny enough, with my parents, I grew up in France and we actually didn't travel abroad. We only traveled all across France, because there is just so much to see. You know, we don't realize how much in everyone's country there is just so much to see in your own backyard.

Karim Kerachni [00:01:31]:
And a lot of people want to go abroad, visit your own country first. And I actually am very grateful to my parents that they instilled this in me, you know.

Amber Stitt [00:01:38]:
Yeah. In the US And I can't speak for everybody, but I feel that if you're US born, you might tend to not go international as much as the other countries come in.

Karim Kerachni [00:01:50]:
That's right.

Amber Stitt [00:01:50]:
I think we forget how big the US Is compared to some of these countries. We've seen it on the globe and then we're like, "Oh, it's this humongous place." But you're taking trains across different countries pretty fast. It's almost like being on the east coast where you can go and be in New Jersey, New York. And it just depends on where you're driving. You can be in different spots. So I noticed with some of my family, through my husband's side in Australia, they will come up a lot and be here for months. And I go, "I can't do that."

Karim Kerachni [00:02:17]:
Australians travel a lot. You might travel...Australians you see them everywhere. I don't know. It's very much in the culture, actually. No, I think you got it right. In the US it's not just the size. It's so rich in different type of landscapes, and you have mountains, you have different types of beaches, and you have forests and so on. So you can easily spend your whole life visiting the US, when in Australia....

Karim Kerachni [00:02:41]:
It's whatever, 90%, 85% desert. So they gotta go abroad.

Amber Stitt [00:02:46]:
Yes. And I think that's probably part of what it is. We had some family here a couple months back, and they said you literally have to fly. It's like going to the west to the east and the US, in Australia itself, and you can't be in the middle. There's just nothing to do. And it's, you know,...

Karim Kerachni [00:03:00]:
It's huge, but it's so sparsely, you know, ah, what's the word I'm looking for? Very little population. Yeah. I mean, you can spend days driving and not encounter one single human being. It's just so huge and isolated, you know, at the same time.

Amber Stitt [00:03:16]:
Yeah. There's something, though, when we think of Europe, it's so magical, and I think it is. And there's a lot of history. It's very funny that I feel that international folks would spend the time to allocate the time to come into the US where I think sometimes we're too busy in the US with our mindset. And that's really where I wanted to ask you about the nomad entrepreneur life that you have. I'm hearing a lot of digital nomads, too. Can you speak about being that type of entrepreneur and what kind of freedom it gives people?

Karim Kerachni [00:03:47]:
Sure. So it gives a lot of freedom. It also comes with challenges. So I always like to highlight that, because I don't want to just put stars in people's eyes and mind.

Amber Stitt [00:03:56]:
It's Instagram beautiful always!

Karim Kerachni [00:03:59]:
Exactly. It's not. I mean, it is, you know, at times, obviously. So on the plus side, you have that freedom of space and time, whether you're a freelancer, a digital nomad, a digital entrepreneur like myself. You have that freedom of space where you can literally go anywhere you want. You actually quickly realize that once you've visited a few countries and you've been moving a lot, you also like to settle down in one specific country and really get to absorb the culture, make friendships with the locals, maybe volunteer, or engage with the local culture and so on. That's more my type of traveling. That's why I've been here for now eight months.

Karim Kerachni [00:04:35]:
The previous country was Kuwait. I was there for 7 months and so on. But on the other hand, and we were talking about that off record, the time zone difference. For instance, it's midnight here and I'm going to be working for probably another 1 or 2 hours after that. And being always mindful of the time zone, always having a good Internet connection, which is not a given, everywhere. Having a solid...I had to cancel some podcasts and meetings because I find myself somewhere where the Internet is way too poor. So those small details. But, overall I think the focus should be more on what are you doing and are you happy doing what you're doing, work wise.

Karim Kerachni [00:05:11]:
And then whether you're at home, you're traveling, or at the office really for the matter, that's really where you should focus your time and attention to find the career and/or job, or business that really makes you happy and makes you happy waking up every day, right?

Amber Stitt [00:05:27]:
So whatever the experiences that you want for yourself, having that alignment with what you do for work to open up that experience. And I've noticed even, I work with insurance planning in a digital space, I don't have that face-to-face interaction with my clients. My physician clients very much need efficient, quick meetings. So there's a lot of high volume. It's almost like going to a consult with the physician. It can be more like my world. And some people, they can't understand that. But I do then things in-person with people throughout the nation at conferences or presentations or social events.

Amber Stitt [00:05:59]:
And I can get my fix of the social aspect. But to be able to immerse yourself in different environments, it's so powerful. And then you can really, I think, focus on what's important. So I suppose when you can get organized and pack a bag and rely on experience, I think that could be more fulfilling, essentially.

Karim Kerachni [00:06:19]:
Absolutely, that's absolutely true. And not just in terms of stuff, also in terms of your time. For instance, I was talking about the time difference. So because of this I actually have relatively limited time for interaction. So how I organize my day, I do during the day 1 - 3 hours of admin work because it's nighttime in North America. So it's chill, I go to a coffee shop, maybe it's sometime even at the beach with my laptop and that's pretty cool. And then in the evening, I only have three, four, maybe five hours if I don't want to go to bed too late for meetings, podcasts, networking, client calls, and so on and so forth. And so actually that really helped me organize my day.

Karim Kerachni [00:06:57]:
Obviously better to have a good work life balance and not cramming 6, 7, 8 hours of work in a row like most employees do, but also to prioritize who I want to talk to and really prioritize and organize my work better. So it comes with some good perks along the way.

Amber Stitt [00:07:14]:
Absolutely. So how do you select the countries? Because you've named Kuwait and then you've named really close to Thailand. How did this come about?

Karim Kerachni [00:07:22]:
So in this specific case, I didn't take from my bucket list. It's just that About a year, 15 months ago, I got married in Kuwait. My wife was living there and working there and I went to Kuwait. We got buried there and then I waited for her to finish her contract and that took 7 months, her work contract in Malaysia. I had that in mind for a few years for various reasons. And she actually visited also a few years before, separately, before we even met and really liked the country. So, it was a perfect match.

Karim Kerachni [00:07:53]:
We wanted to move here, we didn't know for how long. So for the first few months we were on tourist visa and jumping the border every 3 months. And now we've applied recently for a digital nomad visa to actually stay more long-term and not necessarily to settle down here forever, but to actually give us the opportunity, while you're here, you actually can easily visit all the countries around. So, Thailand and Cambodia and Vietnam, even Australia and so on. So that's the cool thing when you live in one place, visit that country, but also get to visit the countries around it. It's usually less than, I don't know, 50 bucks to go to some dream destinations.

Amber Stitt [00:08:28]:
Yes. And my sister-in-law that is in Australia, she will say they go to Bali in these countries that are just on the bucket list for people like you said. And it's just a quick flight. There was a guest I interviewed that said it's pretty amazing how Americans, and maybe Canadians, too, underestimate the cost of living in other countries that you can actually do a lot and even provide pretty solid education for your family. It's very interesting.

Karim Kerachni [00:08:54]:
Absolutely.

Amber Stitt [00:08:55]:
I see you're agreeing with that.

Karim Kerachni [00:08:56]:
Oh yeah, 100%. And amongst the criteria...I mean, Malaysia, that was not the main criteria, but that was one of the factors why we chose Malaysia. The cost of living is just ridiculously low compared to North America. So that's one of the cool thing I do mention to people who are already working remotely, but from home, like take that show on the road, because you don't realize, as you said, how many countries you literally could be traveling, visiting those dream destinations and saving money compared to just being at home and paying your mortgage, or your rent and your car expenses, and so on. To give you an idea, just in terms of rent, we're here in a two bedroom, two bathroom, huge apartment. I think maybe 1,300 square feet or something like that. Sea view, swimming pool in the building, and so on. In US dollars, I think it's about $350 a month.

Karim Kerachni [00:09:41]:
Me and my wife together probably spend less than a grand per month compared to 3 or 4...

Amber Stitt [00:09:45]:
Oh, you think about like $3,500 - $4,000.

Karim Kerachni [00:09:49]:
No, no. $350 per month for rent. In the U.S.? No, here in Malaysia.

Amber Stitt [00:09:54]:
Yes. Yes. Okay. Got it.

Amber Stitt [00:09:57]:
I'm like, wait a minute. That's really affordable for the U.S. no, no. Okay, I see what you're saying.

Karim Kerachni [00:10:00]:
Compared to, I mean, we used to spend, I don't know, $1,500 or 2 grand for just for rent in Canada. Yes, you know.

Amber Stitt [00:10:07]:
Oh, yes, absolutely.

Karim Kerachni [00:10:09]:
Just to illustrate that point.

Amber Stitt [00:10:11]:
So is there anything that you've learned after being international, where maybe we get it wrong when it comes to business? Is there anything that you've learned that's given you this freedom that you're like, "You know, if you could just incorporate..." and I suppose you just touched on it. I forgot. I was thinking. I didn't want to interrupt you. You can also write things off while you're working and traveling. So that's like ultimate tax reduction strategy. That's, "Yes, let's do that!"

Amber Stitt [00:10:36]:
Trying to do things that incorporate on the back end, or the front end, or maybe right in the middle while you go into that pool, or see the ocean view. You can write these things off depending on where you're going and what you're doing.

Karim Kerachni [00:10:47]:
Exactly. Yeah.

Amber Stitt [00:10:48]:
Because you're working too.

Karim Kerachni [00:10:50]:
Yeah. You can write things off. You're saving money in terms of expenses, daily expenses. You can also, as you said, find some business ideas. And I have found some along the way, things that I see around here that I'd like to bring to North America, Canada, US, or vice versa. Actually, currently I just have my hands full. So it's not for right away, but you have ideas that come along the way. However, one resource that I think I will be pulling the trigger on soon is human resources.

Karim Kerachni [00:11:19]:
As I work remotely, I do hire some freelancers, some VA salespeople, and so on, the web designers. And in a country like Malaysia, I mean actually in a lot of countries you can find some excellent resources. People with great you knowledge and experience who are hungry for work, very dedicated, and with the exchange rate will probably cost, you know, $3, $4, $5 U.S. dollars per hour compared to at least $20 - $25 per hour if it's someone local. So I've been using VAs through platforms like Upwork, like Fiverr. I'm sure most people are familiar with those but since I'm here and I actually get to interact with these people and get to, you know, it's not just virtual and I see some stars on a website. No, I get to chat with them and see what they do and that's probably something I'm going to move forward with very soon.

Amber Stitt [00:12:07]:
Yeah, I have for about two years now the media manager, that you know, he lives in Chile and I have a graphic designer that's in Guatemala and she does beautiful work and it's awesome because, again, I can hand things off and things are being worked on while I sleep and then we kind of tag team that out. So it's been really neat.

Karim Kerachni [00:12:24]:
Absolutely.

Amber Stitt [00:12:24]:
So let's get into the biggest project I think you have right now. And back in 2022 there's a business generating a lot of revenue. Let's tell that story how you've released some of that business in order to fund the next thing. And part of talking about that I think is teaching the strategy of how to generate some passive income and really have the ability to have more revenue. So let's kick that one off.

Karim Kerachni [00:12:49]:
Sure. Yes. And thank you for bringing that up. So I started my first business that I started from scratch myself, not a business that I just got involved with. The name is Steamates. It's a cleaning company, residential/commercial cleaning company that I launched in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, on the east coast, the Atlantic coast. And that was in 2018. And long story short, from day one I was focused on really learning the business from scratch.

Karim Kerachni [00:13:14]:
I was hands-on initially and growing it as I'm recording every process, the way I'm doing it, or the way that is the most successful. What I'm talking about is not just the type of cleaning, but also how to hire, how to fire, how to do the marketing the different campaigns, the networking, and so on and so forth. And as I'm recording this and building this operations manual, I was actually able very quickly after 3 years to open, less than 3 years actually, to open a second branch in Ottawa simply by transferring all this knowledge to a business partner that I got over there, copy/paste everything, basically the same brand and so on, and open a second branch that is now almost as successful as the first one. And so this way of not only recording every aspect of the business but also removing yourself from the business. Because if you're still in the business, hands-on and everything, you're limiting the growth of the business. You're a bottleneck for your business. Once I was able to understand every part of the business, grow them, record them, I was obviously looking at automating, or delegating, those are the key words if you want to grow and then duplicating by restarting the same model in another city. And so at that time, so 2022, as you mentioned, I had those two businesses, I was not really involved anymore.

Karim Kerachni [00:14:29]:
I was not involved at all, hands-on in the business. I was still in touch obviously with the business, with the vision, growth opportunities, and so on, large accounts. But beside that, I was working from home and I was already looking at starting to travel at that time, but there came to me this opportunity with PropertyGuys.com. So that's a whole different ballgame. This is a very well known company in Canada in the real estate industry. It's a disruptor in the real estate industry with a very unique and innovative model. And they wanted to expand in the U.S. because they've been very successful in Canada for 25 years.

Karim Kerachni [00:15:02]:
They have over a 100 franchises active in Canada. They wanted to do the same in the US. That's where I got involved. And so I started a business that partnered with them for their US expansion, specifically Massachusetts. That's where I'm focused. So I'm in charge of franchise development for Property Guys in Massachusetts. So looking for a franchisee, whether an aspiring entrepreneur who has never set foot in real estate, or in business, or someone who already is a seasoned business owner, or a seasoned realtor, all of the above can make really good franchisee for this model.

Amber Stitt [00:15:35]:
I think you almost answered the question: New England. Why would you pick New England? Well, was it because the territories that they were looking for to kick it off, they were predetermined and you hopped in and started there?

Karim Kerachni [00:15:48]:
No, no, that was actually my own choice. I've done some market research in a lot of states and I chose New England for various reasons. It was the right combination of markets between Boston and Worcester, who are large cities, very vibrant. Anyways, the real estate market was great and also a lot of countryside villages and small towns, and so on. And I wanted to see how the Property Guys model would do best. So I'm actually starting in the North Shore, the northeast corner of the state, which has both Boston and some small towns, to see how the model will do. Because historically the Property Guys model has worked slightly better in the countryside, in rural areas. But it's also because the headquarters of Property Guys is just across the border from Maine.

Karim Kerachni [00:16:35]:
It's in New Brunswick for those who are familiar. Near New Brunswick and same time zone as Halifax where I was living. So combination of all of this, that's one of the reasons. But at the end of the day I know that it's a model that hands down will take over all of the US and I hope to be part of it for at least the eastern half of the U.S.. It's very much the future of real estate. So it doesn't really matter where we start at the end of the day.

Amber Stitt [00:17:00]:
I figured you wanted to be by some international airports, too.

Karim Kerachni [00:17:03]:
No, to be honest, that hasn't been really a factor because most cities have an international airport, the closeness from Halifax being on same time zone and the type of market, the real estate market in Massachusetts is great and it's really hot. So those were the main factors.

Amber Stitt [00:17:17]:
So you have been all over the place and absorbing market research and then you have the news and the media. In the US we don't really look at what's going on in UK, or other news broadcasts, not typically. And so sometimes there's information that's maybe not accurate, or there's a lot of fear mongering. There's typically, at some point, ups and downs in the market historically. So as you get into this real estate venture, I'm biased because I've already been dabbling in that and I believe in real estate. But what could you almost teach the audience about thinking outside the box when it comes to entrepreneurship and real estate? I want to connect the dots with financial freedom and looking at, you don't have to be a business owner and run a business like I do, or like you do. Maybe you do want to go in and work as an employee for X, Y and Z while having something else.

Amber Stitt [00:18:10]:
Maybe you don't want to always think and be thinking about work and you want to clock out at the 5 o'clock or whatever it might be. But you can still be an entrepreneur. So can you kind of tie, if that makes sense with my long winded question, of why this is exciting and historically proven to be something that can appreciate and be an asset for folks.

Karim Kerachni [00:18:28]:
Okay, yeah, I see. Sorry. Thank you for clarifying the question. I really like actually the depth of the question, so I probably should give a better understanding on what Property Guys does first, to actually tie that with what you just said. So in a nutshell, with a traditional real estate model, for those who are not familiar, if you want to buy or sell your house or commercial property, you get a real estate agent, you pay a commission 5 - 6%, and you get also a whole bunch of professionals like a lawyer and a photographer and a stager, and so on and so forth. And at the end of the day, it gets quite pricey nowadays because this is a model that hasn't changed in over 100 years. The thing is, a 100 years ago, houses were way cheaper than they are now. And so as you know...

Amber Stitt [00:19:11]:
Such a good point.

Karim Kerachni [00:19:12]:
Yeah. The average price goes up, but this commission is still tied to the value of your property.

Amber Stitt [00:19:18]:
Yeah.

Karim Kerachni [00:19:19]:
And so not only you're paying 30, 40, $50,000, or more, to get your own house sold, this is money that should stay in your pocket. But on top of that, you're actually incentivizing the realtors to potentially put more effort of their time into properties that will bring them a bigger commission than actually your house. So this model we believe is broken. And that's what Property Guys came to fix by offering a solution that is a one time flat fee for a package of services, as many or as little, as much or as little, services as you need as a seller. But typically the full service package that contains everything, an appraiser, photographer, stager, drone shots, marketing, MLS, and so on, the lawyer, everything is included, typically 5 or 6 grand, on average. So it's about 10 times cheaper for the same result. So that's what Property Guys does. Now, from the franchise standpoint, a franchisee owns an exclusive territory where they are the only one.

Karim Kerachni [00:20:13]:
And that means that they have a large portion of just organic leads and clients, people who just heard of the brand, or heard of the model, heard of the savings. They want to work with Property Guys, they're their client, this franchisee's client. And on top of that, they have a very unique offering that really stands out from everyone else that offers the same thing. You can use any agent, they do the same thing. So that's what's really interesting out of the box with Property Guys. And so to tie with what you were saying, what I really like with this model, it actually allows me and everyone involved to not see the real estate industry based exclusively on how the market is doing. Pretty much everyone in the real estate industry is tied, enslaved to how the market is doing.

Karim Kerachni [00:20:52]:
If it's a hot market, they're on fire, they're making money hand over fist. And you just have to put a sign on the front lawn and this property gets 20 offers. But as soon as the market is colder, everyone is on vacation, struggling these days, a lot of agents are struggling heavily. And so with a model that is different, that destroyed the industry. It doesn't matter how the market is doing, they are very consistent. Because in one type of market or the other, people are still looking to make massive savings and doing things differently. Does that kind of make sense?

Amber Stitt [00:21:23]:
Yes. And outside the box, you're saving time by not looking for those experts. And I know sometimes people just want to save money because of that antiquated system you've talked about. And they might skip steps, but any successful business person will tell you you need to have your team, your business attorneys, tax advisors, et cetera. So sounds like they have the proper channels to have everything. It can move more efficiently, too, and have less errors. I mean, even title could have just something wonky pop up just last minute and it could be a typo and you're like, "Oh, now we're not going to miss our closing." It's just I used to work in real estate way back before 2008.

Amber Stitt [00:21:57]:
So I just remember just how the silliest, the smoothest things can still get you off track and slow some things down. Where if you can have out of the box, it's more efficient and can give you more opportunity.

Karim Kerachni [00:22:09]:
And in terms of financial freedom. Sorry to interrupt, but you just got me thinking on both sides of the table for the clients. Obviously, they literally make dozens of thousands of dollars of savings every single time. You know, if they sell their property, this is all the value that they built over the years, now they actually get to enjoy it. And that's where people like you come in to educate them and advise them on what you do with the savings. The reason I'm mentioning this is because one of the leads, one of the candidates that I'm dealing with currently, his name is Dan. And one of the purposes for him to become a franchisee is because he wants to funnel all those clients that will have dozens of thousands of dollars of savings all of a sudden, into his consulting business. He helps them invest in such and such type of investment.

Karim Kerachni [00:22:56]:
So having this double hat and similarly and actually that links with this franchisee, we have, as I said, some seasoned entrepreneurs and business owners who make great franchisees. But actually a lot of our franchisees are people who are sick of their 9-to-5, want to start their first business, but don't know what. I'm sure you know 100's of people who are listening to this are like, "Oh, that's me." So that's where a franchise model is a perfect solution for this type of scenario. Because a franchise, whether it is Property Guys, or another franchise, a franchise gives you all the hard work and the mistakes that you would make in the first 1 to 3 years of your startup. You actually don't make them. That's what you pay for, actually, for those costly mistakes. You don't have to do that.

Karim Kerachni [00:23:38]:
What you get is a strong brand with a client database, with clear systems and processes, like I was talking about earlier, an operation manual that is very clear, you just have to apply, and a support system. Typically you have a call center, you have lead generation, you have marketing and so on, all of that provided to you. So all you have to do is to come and apply all of this in your territory, in your market and so on. It makes things so much easier and lowers drastically the risk of failure compared to a traditional business you start from scratch.

Amber Stitt [00:24:08]:
Yeah, and I think that that's super important for those that, like you said, they might want to leave their 9-to-5. A lot of my clients are medical professionals and they do have to go to that hospital sometimes. Their specialties do not allow for the opportunity to just always be working whatever schedule that they want. They just, it's not built that way. They don't have time to do this research. And I think sometimes some of us that might be high achievers, we want to maybe be the pioneer in like the startup mentality. But I think you gotta consider the fact you need a team and you need experts and to fast track that out of the box, something like this can save a lot of time. And so that's where you're seeing North America being...

Amber Stitt [00:24:48]:
this being an opportunity to not be just clinging to the economical woes that we might be facing and I guess it could be anywhere really, but having the ability to have more control over your life by more of a stable system.

Karim Kerachni [00:25:01]:
Exactly. Yeah. I see a lot of franchises and businesses that you can quickly turn into a passive income, or at least a semi absentee hands-off model. And it's really not that difficult when you know what you're doing to get a business where you can remove yourself from the process and either work on it remotely, or even not have to work on it at all. So when we were talking about investment, yeah, that could be an opportunity. Real estate is an amazing investment, but it's also very long-term, except if you're active in it, you're flipping and whatnot, you buy investments that you hold for dozens of years. A business, you can spend a couple of years growing it and then selling it for 10 times more, or you can buy a business that you hold and that just generates a flow of income that is passive, or semi passive. And you can use this income to get your second and your third business, or to get some real estate.

Karim Kerachni [00:25:54]:
It's just important to diversify and obviously you know that better than me to diversify your streams of income and to diversify your types of investment.

Amber Stitt [00:26:01]:
Well, let's hang out there for a moment because I'm a little bit different than some of those in financial services. What's long-term in years typically in your world at this point when you're considering real estate?

Karim Kerachni [00:26:12]:
Depends on what you're talking about in investment real estate. In real estate, long-term is 20 years. I would say start at 20 years.

Amber Stitt [00:26:18]:
Okay. We have been pre programmed to believe in, I think the US, North America, potentially. I don't know enough about Canadian history there, but where we give money into accounts that we're supposed to wait and leave them there for 30 years, just give your money. Somebody you don't know is going to then just help you and it's going to go down, it's going to go up, but don't worry, just leave it there. And I have a lot of people argue with me about this, "Like historically it's this and this..." And I say, well there's DALBAR and other institutes that can say there's a rate of return after advisory fees and then taxes. There is an opportunity today to invest in things today. Opportunity cost that 20 years is shorter than this 30 year projection of this retirement age.

Amber Stitt [00:26:59]:
So a lot of my strategic partners want to disrupt that thought process of this banking institution kind of where we've grown up like, "Just give your money to X, Y and Z and it'll be okay." We know that when people go to retire, most of them do not have the money that they thought that they would have. I think that what I have learned in the last decade of studying and waiting and watching and also investing, I'm seeing the fruits of real estate being an opportunity that you can be in it and kind of have some of that instant gratification. So 20 years out, sure, but you're seeing the fruits of that earlier. And some of that comes in the form of deductions and write-offs, too.

Karim Kerachni [00:27:36]:
Oh yeah, there is that too. And by the way, I agree with you 100% with banks and savings accounts, and so on. Because if you think about it, if they're able to give us half a percent, or 1% a year, that means they're making at least, you know, 10 or 20 or 30% with our money by using it, using your money to make a ton of money and giving you a fraction. Anyways, don't get me started on that. However, on the real estate aspect, what I meant by long-term is if you're just purchasing something that you hold, whether it is your own property or a property that you have, you know, rental, you can make huge returns if you're a little bit more active, whether it is flipping, improving the model.

Amber Stitt [00:28:14]:
Like a rehab or something.

Karim Kerachni [00:28:16]:
Yeah, exactly. I mean, there are multiple ways to be a real estate investor, active real estate investor, and I think it is one of the fastest ways and fastest, safest way to acquire a huge wealth in just a matter of a decade, or two, if you're consistent.

Amber Stitt [00:28:32]:
Yeah, and I think what you're teaching today, there's variations to doing this. And we didn't talk much about this before today's episode, but I do talk about Pathways of Peak Performance for people. And it really talks about starting with the foundation of you focusing on what do you like to do? That's why I was curious about was this instilled in you, or did the adventure come later? But it sounds like the adventure probably was always there. But the appreciation of your community and your surroundings, you grew up with that. But then once you know what you love, you can focus on money and money your way, that you can build out goals. And it doesn't have to be this retirement age bracket. You can be doing things like you have, you've worked, you started a business, you've had another business.

Amber Stitt [00:29:13]:
And I mean, we're talking three, five years and you're seeing other people being able to sell or be serial entrepreneurs. But again, there's variations there. And then that's where I think you're building in some risk management, which is step number three. It's not always insurance. It's building some support behind like the organization of that life you want to lead. And you're doing that by saying, hey, we're going to be in Malaysia. You're paying attention to how to make this opportunity work. So risk management, I think can take different forms based upon what your ultimate goals are.

Amber Stitt [00:29:44]:
By getting organized and staying on top of what's important to you.

Karim Kerachni [00:29:48]:
Exactly. Potentially, yeah. Risk management. I actually didn't even think about it this way, but it makes a lot of sense. The way I see it is actually more. Are you familiar with the book "The Happiness Advantage"? I forgot the name of the author. But in a nutshell it basically explains that it's a whole thesis on positive psychology. And the pitch of it is we are so conditioned in thinking that you're going to be happy by reaching this next goal, this level of success.

Karim Kerachni [00:30:15]:
And whenever you reach it, well, there is always another one. And so it actually flips the equation where you actually should work on being happy and that will lead you to whatever goal, or success. And so that's something that I read years ago and I read it multiple times and I really have instilled in me. And so another reason why I'm traveling and why I'm living in this place and so on, it is to have this and constantly be satisfied with my lifestyle, my work life balance, my family life, and so on. And that actually gives me the energy, drive, productivity, motivation for my work. So I really see it the other way around. I don't use my work, my business as a means to an end. Actually it is a means to an end.

Karim Kerachni [00:30:55]:
But you see what I'm saying, it's the other way. I'm making sure that my lifestyle and my work life balance is successful. And that leads me to whatever success I get businesswise. And even if I have any kind of failure, I don't, you know, it doesn't really matter. I just start over. It's not a big deal.

Amber Stitt [00:31:12]:
You got to be happy here.

Karim Kerachni [00:31:13]:
Exactly.

Amber Stitt [00:31:14]:
And it's got to be important to you and other people that are on the team and the partnerships, or even our spouses, that's important. But like if you're not happy with the ultimate, what you're doing, then it's probably not worth it because not everyone's going to get behind it, understand it, always think the same way as you. So you have to just kind of know to your core what the purpose is. The fourth step is having resilience is really what the Pathways are about, is also focusing on marketing and technology, and you've been able to do a wonderful job at that. We have to keep innovating and looking at this because it's not just where we live now. It's beyond that. It can be global, as global as you want to be. And we're meeting today and becoming friends through this opportunity.

Amber Stitt [00:31:53]:
There's just really no excuses to get after it and see. And it can be daunting at times, but there's so much out there now and ways to learn just through YouTube and podcasts and other things that you can take your time with it, or just reach out to those that you find amazing and try to touch base because it's really interesting if you look out for that engagement with others. Usually it's pretty reciprocating once you start it.

Karim Kerachni [00:32:17]:
Absolutely.

Amber Stitt [00:32:18]:
So focusing on community is my last step, and I feel like you're doing that absolutely immersing yourself in the culture of where you are for the time. As we wrap up this episode, is there anything that you've maybe learned that you'd love to share with North America on culture or a mindset or something along your journey, just even up to this point, or even the last 5 years of business?

Karim Kerachni [00:32:40]:
Well, that's a question that actually brings me so many answers that it's going to be tough. The first thought that came to mind here, but specifically about Malaysia, actually, there's two things that come to mind. First is this sense of community, togetherness. There are so many, you know, occasional opportunities for people to get together. For example, the type of restaurants here are not restaurants where you have tables separately. And so the tables are really close to one another. You know, people have no problem gathering, eating together. The same people, maybe they don't know one another.

Karim Kerachni [00:33:10]:
I volunteer at the local mosque here, and pretty much every day there are people who just bring food, and then people just take food and eat together, you know, free food, and just sit down and eat together. So this sense of togetherness is really exceptional. It's very different from friendliness. You know, in Canada, for instance, people are super friendly and so on, but they don't tend to get together like this. For things as basic as sharing some food, if it's not someone very close to you, you know what I mean? So this togetherness is very impressive. And the other thing that I noticed, that in Vietnam, the last time I was there was a few years ago, but I was blown away by the...I want to call it hard work.

Karim Kerachni [00:33:46]:
But it's not just hard work. You know, I wake up very early as we talked, and at 4:00 am, 4:30 am, 5:00 am the streets are pretty much full of those small entrepreneurs that either are making food to sell during the day, or are making things. People who are out there exercising in the street, or in the park, actually, even here in Malaysia. But that's something that really shocked me the first time I went to Vietnam, is that people are up very early, they are active very early. And they work from 4:00 am, 5:00 am up to, I don't know, midnight or whatever, to make a living. And they're happy, they're not complaining. I don't think I've ever heard someone complaining in Southeast Asia.

Amber Stitt [00:34:25]:
But, if they're in the streets and they're among their community. There was a Netflix series about living to 100 and I feel like that was the constant denominator is being out among the people and having the connectedness that you're talking about.

Karim Kerachni [00:34:38]:
They're not making millions and I'm not saying they're okay with that, but like they're not complaining, they're doing something about it. You know, there are lots of regions where it's pretty poor from a North American standard, but you don't see people, you actually see very little if any people begging in the street. Everyone has some, they find something to do, they work, they wake up early. You know, they find a way instead of, you know, complaining, begging, whatever it might be, which is...

Amber Stitt [00:35:05]:
We never complain here. We never do.

Karim Kerachni [00:35:07]:
Are you...?

Amber Stitt [00:35:08]:
No, wait, wait.

Karim Kerachni [00:35:09]:
And I grew up in France, where the complaint level is...They complain in France, they complain for everything. It's ridiculous.

Amber Stitt [00:35:16]:
Okay. My sister-in-law, she loves the U.S. and I said, "Why? Where you live is so beautiful." She goes, "But Amber, people kind of look down and they don't really engage." And it's almost very proper older culture of just you kind of keep to yourself, or however she explained it. So I'm sorry if anyone's Australian. And I'm not saying...but she said that Americans are very friendly. But I know that we can complain a lot about a lot of things.

Karim Kerachni [00:35:40]:
You know, I think traveling does also bring this contentment in your life because you also do get to experience, even if those people don't complain, you still see the difference. You can be the minimum wage in the US you have a life that is 10 times more comfortable than people here, or some people here. And so getting to travel and experience that firsthand and seeing how those people are happy where they are and so on, there is no way you can complain after this because whatever you have is better.

Amber Stitt [00:36:08]:
Yes. So I think that maybe we'll close here with some gratitude, thanking you for being up late, which I know this is your thing, but I appreciate the energy that you bring and the kindness. I had a feeling about you, just watching you and kind of seeing what you're doing. But let's make sure people know how to find you because obviously if they look you up by your name, they'll find you. But let's talk about the website. If you are interested in doing more and just learning what passive income strategies can be available to them, you know, that's where you would come in. So let's share a little bit. We'll tag it up on the description boxes, but let's close with that how people can potentially work with you.

Karim Kerachni [00:36:51]:
Thank you so much for your kind words, by the way. I was also very excited for that reason. I knew we would have a really fun conversation. I watched a couple of your episodes before, so thank you so much for having me. And yes, to find me, actually the easiest way to connect with me personally is on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn and as you said, my name is very unique. So you type my name on LinkedIn, you will find me if someone wants to learn more also about Property Guys just by typing "Property Guys Franchise" or "Property Guys Massachusetts".

Karim Kerachni [00:37:17]:
That's where I'm based workwise. You will find my website, Property Guys website and also a whole bunch of content that I've made for people to review even before connecting with me if they're shy.

Amber Stitt [00:37:29]:
Awesome. Well, appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. I'm glad that we can make this happen.

Karim Kerachni [00:37:34]:
Thank you. Amber. Thank you so much for having me. And I mean, I wish you well with your podcast because you're bringing a lot of great value to people and so kudos to you for that.

Amber Stitt [00:37:42]:
Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. It's a lot of fun. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Pathways. For more information about the podcast, books, articles, the blog, and so much more, please visit my website at: www.AmberStitt.com And remember, let's take action today! Thank you for listening!