025: Down Under School Dropout to Multimillion Dollar Business with Real Estate Investment Dingo Engelo Rumora from Ohio Cashflow

People ask me, ‘Engelo, you quit school at the age of 14, you can’t type, your grammar sucks, and your math is even worse, how the hell are you an owner of a multi-million dollar real estate investment company? you wear flip-flops, you never wear a suit, you wear these stupid caps, your clothes are torn up, right you don’t shave, and its the truth.’

#00:00:53-7# Neil :  Hello everybody, its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey, the vision, the mindset, the committment, the sacrifice, failures and successes, I am so excited to bring you our special guest, Engelo Rumora. But before I do, I have got a little bit of trivia for you, Neil Degrace Tyson said, ‘no-one is dumb who is curious.’ The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives. The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Angelo, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:01:45-6# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I sure am Neil, and guess what? I already know that I am going to be your best guest to date.

#00:01:50-6# Neil :  Ha ha ha ha ha. Well its great to hear that and welcome to the show. Engelo is a successful property investor, motivational speaker, and soon-to-be-author that quit school at the age of 14. Played professional soccer at 18, and built a property portfolio valued at over $1 million dollars in only six months. Engelo, can you please provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life to allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are?

#00:02:23-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :  Sure Neil, well first of all I would like to say ‘go Arsenal’ ok? so everyone listening, I want them to know I am an Arsenal supporter, alright? Mate look, ha ha ha yeh so I quit school at the age of 14, and the reason why I left school at the age of was I have been playing soccer since the age of 5, or football, ok? and I was very very fortunate that at the age of 14, I got a youth contract, and that kind of enabled me to quit school, and I hated school, believe it or not, and I had to move to another city to start training twice a day. And you know really focusing on football and trying to reach that elite level. I was very fortunate to reach that elite level at the age of 18, I have played professional soccer in Hong Kong for a team called Woofool Typo. And I played there for 8 months, and unfortunately things didn’t really work out, I went back to Australia, and not having any formal education mate, it was hard to find any job, and I don’t want to go into too much depth with regards to why I did not continue trying to play soccer at a professional level. There were just too many things going on at the time and just long story short it was, I did not see it as a feasible option moving forward. Whereby the age of 30, I would be able to secure my financial future and the financial future of my loved ones, so I just decided to hang up the boots man and start looking for alternative options and another future for myself and my loved ones, you know, not having any formal education mate when I returned back to Australia, I was like at a standstill, you know what next? Where do I go now? What do I do? and the only job I could get mate, was a job on a dirty construction site. Ok? I was working as a labourer, sweeping floors, collecting trash, and all that fun stuff for a good three years and the life-changing moment came for me mate when I was given a book. I know that a lot of you listeners have read this book, its rich dad, poor dad by Robert Kiosaki. And this book mate it absolutely freakin brainwashed me, to start thinking about you know, assets and liabilities, and just business finance real estate and in a complete different way. So what happened mate, is I found that I transitioned from this huge passion that I had for soccer, and for many many years I transitioned that passion to anything and everything business related. Stocks, real estate, starting a company. You name it, I was completely emersing myself in going to seminars, going to conventions. You know, attending events. Talking to people, networking with people, I mean reading books, I did it all.

#00:05:17-7# Neil :  Mmm hmm

#00:05:17-7# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Then what happened mate, is I got a job. A much better job than what I had as a labourer, it was with this real estate investment company in Australia. This particular fellow, he was a very young guy and right now, he has got a $100 million dollar business there and he is one of the most successful real estate investors in the country, so I managed to get a job with him after being very very persistant for a good six months, and I got through the door and I worked as his apprentice mate. And he literally gave me the foundations to the real estate investor and entrepreneur that I am today. Right, so from finding deals to negotiating with sellers to negotiating with buyers, to working with relators to working with contractors. I mean he, as I said he gave me the foundations of me being the real estate investor that I am today. So worked for him for a good year and a half mate, did really well and I always wanted to venture out on my own. I have always had that entrepreneurial mindset, and just wanting independence and wanting to do things however the hell I want to do them. I didn’t want to be micro-managed, I wanted the freedom you know to start my own business and to really make things happen and to leave a legacy, right?

#00:06:35-1# Neil :  Mmm

#00:06:35-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I was building my real estate portfolio in Australia at the time, I bought quite alot of properties in a short amount of time Neil. And I caught the attention of alot of media outlets there because I was this young kid, you know had a portfolio worth over a million dollars. And you know everyone was singing my name in praise, even though Neil, they had no clue that I was actually losing money every single month on the mortgage repayments, on all of my properties. You know what I think it is tragedy that alot of people here in America, were utilising before the global financial crisis, right? I was buying high, re-financing, using that equity to put it into another deal, and hoping that these properties are going to appreciate in value. So I quickly woke up and smelt the roses, I knew that continuing to go down this path, of hoping that my portfolio was going to go up in value is a receipe for disaster, because I was losing money every single month, I was having to put my hand in my own pocket, to cover costs. I started looking at other investments that would actually put money in my pocket, right? They say if cash is king, then cashflow must be queen. So the only other market Neil that I could find that was absolutely at rock bottom, was America. God bless America. So as I said mate, I woke up and smelt the roses, I figured out that what I was doing in Australia building this large portfolio, getting into ton of debt, losing money on my monthly mortgage repayments was not a sustainable way of moving forward. And mate, I decided to pack my bags, grab everything I had, leave everything and everyone I have ever known behind and I move to this beautiful country. And mate I have been here for four years right now, I have got a multi million dollar real investment company, we are spread across two offices here in Ohio, we have got ten full time staff. And mate I will tell you this, I am so freaking excited with what the future holds, I am about to jump out of my chair right now,

#00:08:41-5# Neil :  Ha ha ha ha

#00:08:41-5# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   So theres the long version, so how about you start bombarding me with questions right now?

#00:08:49-4# Neil :  Oh I am definately going to do that. So what are you doing now then that is different to what you did before? Because obviously you were relying on capital appreciation on your properties previously and hoping that would all work out fine in the end, which obviously all went wrong in 2008/2009 so what is it you do differently now?

#00:09:10-4# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Great question mate, now look, just to touch on that it went wrong for all of the people here in the US, it didn’t really go wrong for me because I was building my portfolio after the global financial crisis and Australia didn’t really get affected, with what happened here in the US. I mean here you had property prices go from $100 dollars to $20 dollars literally. 80% decline in some markets, so just wanted to clear that up, but mate look what I changed and I started doing here is quite simple, I started focusing on the actual numbers in the deal. Ok? so what I mean by that is when you purchase a property, you know what your income is, and you also know what your expenses are. And then once you calculate your expenses, you are going to achieve a net figure. Ok? and as I mentioned earlier, if cash is king, then cashflow must be queen. And what I mean by that is why do people invest in real estate? People invest in real estate to supplement the current income, that they are getting from a job that they do not want to be working in ok? So you want to be getting $5, 10, 15, 20,000 dollars every single month in cash flow in passive income to start living life on your terms to do what you want, where you want, and when you want. Now when I started my journey as a real estate investor in Australia, I did not focus on cashflow. I was focusing on hope, I was focusing on predictions that my properties are going to go up in value more, than what I was actually losing on my monthly mortgage repayments, and mate this is a very very bad idea. Neil, no-one has a crystal ball, we can’t predict what is going to happen in the next ten minutes, why the hell would we predict whats going to happen in the next year, two or five, ten years? So I just completely shift it, right? I stopped focusing on capital appreciation, I just started looking at the numbers, in the deal as they are today. So if I am buying a property, and that property after all expenses are taken into consideration, is putting $5,000 dollars per year in cash flow in my pocket, well thats a freaking awesome investment. And then it just comes down to how many of these properties do I need to buy and add to my portfolio, before I reach a cashflow figure, that I can live life on my terms and I can help my loved ones live life on their terms and all my friends too. Right? so that is what I did differently, that is how I shifted my mindset and my endeavours as a real estate investor.

#00:11:40-5# Neil :  Ok and do you buy these properties for yourself?

#00:11:44-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I do, I am actually starting building my own portfolio again rapidly this year, for the last couple of years we were solely focusing on investors, so what our bread and butter business model is we buy run-down distressed properties, we fix them up to a great standard, we get them tennented with our in-house property management, and then we sell them to investors. We work with a lot of investors here in the US, east coast, west coast, we have got a lot of investors from the UK, Canada, Australia, we have recently expanded into Asia. So pretty much investors that like to work with us are folks that cannot you know find cash flow in their current markets due to how expensive the market is, and I will give you a little bit of an example, here in Ohio, a three-bedroom, one bathroom property, we sell them anywhere between $50-70,000 dollars. Ok, and they have all been rennovated, they are all tennented and they are getting a cashflow of around $800- $1,000 dollars per month in rent. So approximately a 10% net return on investment, so right alot of investors get caught up in these figures because they are amazing returns and they are returns that you literally cannot find anywhere else in the world, they are all in any other investment vehicle, and we completely take out the headache of managing these properties. So alot of investors come to us and they buy these properties from us and I have been so busy over the last couple of years meeting the demand of all of these other investors that I did not have any time to focus on my own portfolio, but I decided to be a little bit selfish this year, and I have already bought three properties from my portfolio this year, and I am intending to buy another 25 until the end of the year for my personal portfolio,

#00:13:23-3# Neil :  So when you talk about 10% net, thats net of mortgage payments, net of management costs, net of any other costs that are related to it, is that what you are saying, when you say 10% net?

#00:13:34-2# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Yeh, I am not including mortgage repayments, so most of our investors are cash buyers, when they purchased these properties with cash, I am including property management fees, I am including the annual city taxes that you have to pay here in the US, I am including the insurance that you have to pay on the property, and I am including any calculations for maintenance and vacancy. So its always going to be around the 10% net, of course I am throwing you this disclaimer out there, there are sometimes unforseen circumstances that do happen which kind of lower that cap rate. Or net yield as we like to say in Australia, but it just depends on the year and the property too. Alrighty?

#00:14:10-9# Neil :  Yeh thanks for clearing that up, so what do you enjoy most about what you do?

#00:14:20-4# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Well mate, great question, what do I enjoy most about what I do? Look its my passion, Neil as I mentioned, I had a huge passion for football and it was my whole life mate, I lived it, I breathed it, I mean my whole freakin life evolved around football and I replaced that passion for business, for entrepreneurship. What we are doing here right now, you and me doing this podcast, is my passion, its what I love doing. I love talking about who I am, where I have been, what I have done, what I am doing now and where I am going. And you know, someone might get inspired by my journey, and it might just get them on the right path, and get them to where they need to be. You know, I love giving, I know it sounds corny, but I love giving more than I like receiving. So for example, with business and with real estate, you know if I can write a bonus cheque to some of my employees, there is no better feeling than that. I would rather give than receive anything from them, so when I started my journey as a real estate investor, it was more about me, it was more about how can I build my portfolio? how can I get financial freedom? But then when you start becoming bigger, and when you start building more traction and when your business starts getting greater. It kind of changes, it changes from being about you to being about everyone else, right and it is amazing how this transission happens Neil, but that is what I believe entrepreneurship is about. That is what I believe a genuine and true entrepreneur should be doing. It should not be about him, it should be about everyone else besides him.

#00:15:51-6# Neil :  Mmmm hmm, and what is it that drives you? My biggest drive is my family, ok? my biggest drive is my family right now, I am just looking at their photos right above my desk.They push me to sit my ass in the office here every morning and to not leave for at least 12 hours. I need to secure their financial future, I need them to start living life they want to be living life, then of course myself too, I mean I cannot help anyone else unless I help myself first, so I want to start living life on my terms, I want to create this great business that is going to have 50 full time employees, and thats going to make it a sustainable business where all of these folks will be able to support their loved ones for many many years to come, once I achieved those particular targets, of helping out myself, of helping out my family, creating this grand business, then its about leaving a legacy. And that is something bigger and greater than myself and my family and this business and everyone associated with it, its about once everything is said and done mate, and I am six feet under, my last name is going to be on a hospital. Not Trump Towers, ha ha ha but on a hospital mate and you know I, when I am gone, when there is no more Engelo Rumora, something is going to last forever. And it is going to be there to continue helping others for a long time.

#00:17:13-3# Neil :  Thats a great dream, how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

#00:17:19-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I can’t. Mate thats one thing that I need to get better at Neil. I can’t relax, I can’t leave the phone alone, I can’t leave the laptop alone. I will tell you this mate, there is only one place in the world where I can switch off, and that is the Bahamas. So I am looking at buying a house there, here in the very near future, so I can duck away for a couple of days a month and just completely swich off, because its important mate. Switching off from the day-to-day life is very important.

#00:17:50-2# Neil :  Absolutely, it really is important that because it fuels your ideas doesn’t it? If you can take time out sometimes?

#00:17:55-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   100% mate.

#00:17:58-2# Neil :  Its almost unmeasurable the benefit it can actually have for you? So do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

# #00:18:07-3# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I do mate, Gary Vernachuck is someone that I very much look up to, he is freakin awesome and I just wish that I had his energy mate, its impossible to keep up with what he is doing, I mean I stalk him on snapchat, I stalk him on facebook. I mean you name it, I stalk this guy, its just incredible how much he hustles.

#00:18:25-9# Neil :  Yeh he is a great guy, in fact someone else said him in one of my last interviews, so can we just talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur, because obviously you eluded to what happened before in your introduction. What difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

# #00:18:44-6# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate that is a great question, I guess the biggest difficulty is before I started my business was no one really takes you seriously mate, look I am only 28 years old and when I started my business, I was only 24 you know what I mean. And everyone was like, who is this young punk you know? going around talking about real estate, talking about stocks, you know believing in this big dream, I mean he is a nobody, he is a little shmuck. So the biggest hurdle there was getting people to take you seriously. I am still young, but I write all of the cheques now Neil, so everyone takes me seriously. Ha ha ha ha. Ok when you start writing the cheques and paying people, no matter how young you are, they start to take you seriously.

#00:19:29-2# Neil :  If you were at a stage where people did not take you seriously, and you have got to a stage where they do because you write the cheques, how did you fill that void, how did you make that jump across that gap.

#00:19:38-7# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate, great question, I just ignored them. I let it go in one ear and out the other, and I hustled. I hustled every single day, I mean you can get caught up in the noise, and that is something that I always tell myself, forget about what everyone else is saying, some will like you, some will hate you and I like to say, ‘hate it or love it, Engelo Rumora is always on top.’ And that is what I tell myself, so you know just don’t get caught up in the noise, and the sad thing about it Neil is all of these people that are going to bring you down are going to be your closest loved ones, and that is the crazy thing about it, it is not because they want you harm, its because they are scared. They don’t want you to fail. They don’t want you to do anything risky, well risky in their mind. Because people these days are just caught up in that old stereotypical stigma, you have got to work a 9-5, you have got to go to college, you have got to get a degree, you have got to get a good job, you have got to buy a house, you got to get a mortgage, you have got to get married and then you drop dead. Bom. What a shit life mate, so unfortunately as I said, alot of people are caught up in that stigma, the stereotypical way and don’t get caught up in the noise. Don’t allow it to affect you, don’t allow it to bring you down. Keep moving forward, believe in the bigger picture, stay true to what you are good at, focus on your strengths, outsource your weaknesses and just keep moving forward no matter how many times they punch you or knock you down. Pick yourself back up and keep moving forward, and that is what I did mate, and you know here we are today.

#00:21:07-4# Neil :  I saw something the other day that said, ‘safe is risky’ and I think it is, isn’t it? I think what people think is safe is actually more risky, than what people think is risky sometimes.

#00:21:17-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate, Steve Jobs said, ‘if you know where you are going to end up one day, nothing is risky.’ Right, and where are we going to end up Neil? we are going to end up six feet under, so if you can actually accept that as a reality, then whats risky? you can not take any wealth with you, you are going to end up in the same place and …that some homeless man will. Or that Bill Gates will, so nothing is risky mate, I mean live life to the fullest. Try new things, and mate I always like to say ‘it doesn’t matter how many times you are wrong.’ Mate it really does not, as long as you are right once, and that once counts. If anyone asks, lets say Mark Zuckerberg he had a hundred business ideas for example, and 99 of those business ideas failed. And he failed like tremendously failed, but one idea was a facebook. Bom. There you go, so it does not matter how many times he was wrong because he was right once and that once counts. Right?

#00:22:09-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Absolutely.

#00:22:09-8# Neil :  So keep trying. Keep trying, no matter how many times you fail, keep trying.

#00:22:14-1# Neil :  Yeh and did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

#00:22:19-5# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Of course mate, I mean I am fortunate enough that I was able to master my own emotions. Right? They say one that can conquer himself, can conquer all. So, you always have doubts, your mind is always playing tricks with you, so when I say ‘don’t get caught up with the noise of what everyone else is saying’ I am also going to say right now, ‘don’t get caught up in the noise of what your own mind is telling you.’ I mean you are always going to have this fear of taking that leap of faith and jumping over the edge into the unknown. But if you do not take that chance mate, you will never know. Right, another little quote there ‘if you never go, you will never never know’ so just do it, go for it and deal with the consequences. Try and accept in your mind, I am going to get a little bit philosophical here mate, try and accept in your mind that every experience is a good experience. No matter how bad it is. Ok I will repeat that, every experience is a good experience no matter how bad it is. So breaking that down a little bit, I can kind of describe it as ‘you can find something positive, no matter how crappy the experience was.’ There is something positive from that experience, and it could be that you have lost a ton of money in a particular transaction, ok, well the positive out of that experience is that you are never going to lose that money making those same mistakes again because you have just made them now. So take that with you and let that carry you and let that push you forward. Ok?

# #00:23:50-9# Neil :  Yeh thats great advice. And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:23:59-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Quite easy mate, trusting the wrong people. Trusting the wrong people Neil, its never the numbers in a particular real estate transaction that are going to cost you money, its never the profitability of a business venture, thats going to cost you money. It is the people. Period, no ifs ands or buts. Lying, stealing, cheating, dishonest, greedy people and in my business practices, and what I always advise everyone is focus on the people first before you look at anything else.

#00:24:32-5# Neil :  Ok great advice there. And what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners who have not yet taken their first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:24:43-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate, great question, look before I started Ohio cashflow, I literally had 50 plus things on the to do list, that I had to execute on, and I am a big big to do list guy, I mean if you look at my office walls right now, it resembles a scene from a beautiful mind by Russell Crowe. I mean it is just ridiculous, I have got white boards everywhere, I have got sticky notes everwhere, its crazy, so I am a big believer in to do lists and before you look at starting any venture, business or whatever it may be, you have to sit out a plan of attack, and you have to have certain things written out on what you need to execute on, before you can actually start that business and get going. And some of could be you know, established a company. Other things could be, create a website, create business cards, create a logo. Get insurances for your businesses, I mean all of these little minor things, that whatever comes to mind, jot it down and make sure that you implement everything before you actually you know, establish your company.

#00:25:47-9# Neil :  Mmm hmm

#00:25:47-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :  I mean I can go into a ton of depth here, I know we don’t have that much time, but that would probably be my biggest tip to everyone, is put down a list of things that you need, that will assist you in getting this business up and running, no matter how long that list is, you know just start executing on it as quickly as you can and as efficiently as possible.

#00:26:07-6# Neil :  Ok, thank you for that. Can we now talk about your entrepreneurial journey, a bit more Engelo? Do you think that culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:26:20-4# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate look I do, I do, and I know we touched on this a little bit before the interview mate and look right now we have got 10 full time staff and to be honest with you, I don’t think that we really have a culture within the company. Now how I see a culture within a business would be when we get someone new on board, we always try and share the bigger picture and vision with them. Right, we want to get them to be excited about where we are going and what we are doing. But look, we have grown at such a rapid pace Neil that its kind of hard to establish a culture within our company because we went from a little shitty desk, to a 200-square foot office, then a 1000 square foot office, and now we have got two 1000 square foot offices in two different cities and we are looking for a 5,000 square foot office. So its still kind of very early days for us, I think that once we actually move into this bigger office, once we start getting the building heavily branded. Once we start getting the interior heavily branded, once we kind of are in business for a little bit longer, once we add more staff to the company, then I think we can start working on having this culture, having people you know, know who you are, know what we do, know our style, you know, know how loud and proud we are with our branding, and I think that it is very important, and I tell you this, I am looking forward to having this awesome hype and buzz as soon as I walk through the front door of our headquarters.

#00:27:51-9# Neil :  Sounds great. Knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:28:01-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Yes, I would have been more patient, I would not have jumped in as quickly as I did, I lost alot of money Neil, I got burnt very badly mate, so I would have been more patient, just in regards to real estate investing terms, not necessarily entrepreneurial. You know I was buying properties for the purpose of being able to call myself a real estate investor and entrepreneur. So I was investing because of the title that came associated with investing, which is stupid, it is ridiculous, why the hell would you do that? So everyone out there that is listening, that wants to start their own business, don’t start a business just so you can tell everyone you are an entrepreneur. I mean thats bullshit. I mean that is not why you start a business, you start a business because of something that is bigger and better than yourself, its bigger and better than money. Its not about you, its about what you can leave behind once everything is said and done. Thats why you should start a business. So mate, I would have been more patient, I would not have bought properties for the purpose of calling myself an investor and a real estate, and an entrepreneur, I would have invested in those properties so I can really supplement the income that I was getting from a job that I did not want to be working in. So thats something that I could kind of my tip to everyone would be, is be more patient, pull back a little bit, do more due dilligence and moreso on the people that you are looking on working with, rather than the profitability of a business or a particular transaction. And yeh, once you feel fully comfortable, take the leap of faith, jump in and you know as I mentioned make sure that no matter what happens, you perceived every experience to be as a good experience and keep moving forward.

#00:29:47-0# Neil :  Ok and how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:29:51-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Every decision. Every decision and whenever I did not trust my gut, I was always wrong. And even when I do trust my gut, I’m wrong, right? But most of the time I am right, and I love to go by gut instinct. Absolutely love to go by gut instinct,

#00:30:10-4# Neil :  You must still look at the numbers though in what you do, surely?

#00:30:13-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Of course, of course I mean you cannot make a decision unless you do your preliminary due dilligence. But for example, for hiring people, yes you do your background checks, yes you do their previous employment history. Yes you review their application to see if what you are looking for fits within their previous experience. But then it just comes down to the gut feeling because mate, when it comes to people, you always have to take a leap of faith. And everyone looks straight on paper, but once they actually move into the office and they start hammering out, you do not know, so you really have to take, you know you really have to use your gut to make such decisions.

#00:30:54-8# Neil :  Yeh hire on skills, and fire on attitude, I think that is what someone said to me the other day.

#00:30:59-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Love it mate, I have actually got another one hire slowly, fire quickly. Ha ha ha ha.

#00:31:06-3# Neil :  Life is made of constant change whether we like it or not. And in fact some people would say, the only constant is change. Engelo, how do you try to keep up with change?

# #00:31:15-2# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Well mate, great question, how do I try to keep up with change? look I try to immerse myself in as many articles as I possibly can, its really really hard these days because as soon as I sit in the office, see I am onto emails and phone calls and  25,000 different other things. Its like a circus Neil, I have got two hands and I am juggling a 1000 balls. Right, so I try and stay up to speed with all of the articles and I attend alot of conventions, seminars, expos, and what I have set myself for this year is to do alot more reading than what I did in the past year, and to brush shoulders with the biggest and best entrepreneurs, in the country, so I have already got a few days planned this year to fly out into other cities, to shadow alot of these big wig entrepreneurs that are much bigger and greater than myself and there is nothing better for me mate than to affilliate myself with people who are bigger and better and doing more things. So I am very honoured to have the privalege of being able to shadow them around and that in itself mate, is huge, when it comes to keeping up to what the market is doing, what is new in the world, what changes are happening right? Because these folks that I am going to be brushing shoulders with, they are not in real estate Neil, they are in tech. They are in products, they are in venture capital. I mean we are talking 50-100 million dollar companies here, right so if anyone knows what the hell is going on in the market, I tell you what mate, its these guys. And I am going to be right there with them for a day or two, stalking their every move.

#00:32:59-5# Neil :  Ok

#00:32:59-5# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   So that is something that I am utilising this year, to keep up the speed with all of the changes that are happening in this very high paced world we have.

#00:33:07-9# Neil :  So your stalking of these people as you described it, is that because are you thinking behind that, the sort of law of association, is that what you are thinking there?

# #00:33:18-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   100% mate, look I get a ton of questions every single day Neil, people asking Engelo, ‘you quit school at the age of 14, you can’t type, your grammar sucks, your math is even worse, how the hell are you an owner of a multi-million dollar real estate investment company? you wear flip flops, you never wear a suit, you wear these stupid caps, your clothes are torn up, right you don’t shave and its the truth right?’ and I always give them the exact same answer Neil. I asked questions of people who are where I wanted to be. Bom, how easy is that? Ask questions of people who are where you want to be. Right, and that is how I got to where I am. Right, if you hang around bums and drug addicts, well you are going to start doing drugs. If you hang around successful business owners and multi-millionaires, well you might not achieve their status, but I will tell you what, you will be a millionaire, for sure, because they drag you up, what they are doing, what they say, where they are going inspires you. It pulls you up with them, and that is what I have literally lived my life, and what I have based my entrepreneurial and business endeavours on, as you said, is associating myself with others that are much more successful, talented and better than I am.

#00:34:38-4# Neil :  Ok and what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:34:50-5# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mate look, my favourite book would have to be how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. And just the tips in that book are freaking awesome mate, I mean for example, just give you one tip that I have got on the top of my head right now. How smiling can make a huge difference. Right smiling, when you walk into a room, smile, when you say hello to someone, smile, right? and these things will stay in people’s minds. So its a great book and I highly recommend that everyone reads it and for everyone reading it to really really try and implement everything that the book preaches because it will change your life mate. I have not read it in a while, I have to re-read it again, but I know that as soon as I read that book and I started implementing the content within that book, I could see a huge shift in the people that I was talking the people I was working with. You know actually spending time and talking to people, just speaking positively, just giving them good feedback, just motivating them in a way where I would say something nice to them, that smile is huge also mate so as I said, highly recommend to everyone check that book out, how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie.

#00:36:05-4# Neil :  Yeh thats an awesome book I have read that. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge, in the time that you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing, to choose your free audio book go to,  www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. As long as you have not already signed up then you will qualify. Engelo, can we now move forward into the future a little bit and just speculate about a few different things. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you could not fail?

#00:36:44-2# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Well mate, you stumped me with that question, one thing that I would do if I could not fail?

#00:36:51-8# Neil :  Yeh #00:36:

I #00:36:51-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Mmm, let me think mate, how long do we have, have you got a couple of minutes? ha ha ha no I’m kidding mate, mate I guess if I could not fail, what is one thing that I would do with my business?

#00:37:05-9# Neil :  Yeh

#00:37:05-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I would venture into every single market I possibly could. I would get as many people on board as possible. Right now we have got Ohio cashflow, I would start Michegan cashflow, I would start Indiana cashflow, I would literally start a cashflow in every single freakin state here in the US. And I would bring on as many people on board as possible, and yeh mate, thats it and I would want to be the biggest turned key real investment company, not just in the country, but in the world.

#00:37:38-7# Neil :  Ok thats a small goal isn’t it?

#00:37:41-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   It is, it is mate, ha ha ha there you go. And literally, if I knew that I could not fail, I would start that right away. I would not wait one single minute I would literally start it right away.

# #00:37:56-1# Neil :  What skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most, to double your business?

#00:38:02-3# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Managing people. Managing people better, if and that is something that I am really working on myself, I want to have better leadership skills. I want to be more corporate, right, you know how I said I said I wear flip flops and I don’t shave, and I wear around these baggy hats, and I look like crap most days, right, I am not necessarily saying that I would clean that up, I’m just saying that I would want to be more corporate in my mentality, I find that I get too close to people and I’m too buddy buddy with them and that is not good. Its not good for business, you have to be as we discussed before, we started this podcast mate, you have to take emotion out of decision making. Neil, if you make your decisions based on emotion, you will lose money and you will get burnt. So when it comes to business, take all emotion out, put it aside, and just look at the actual statistics, look at the actual figures in front of you, look at the actual descriptions that you are reading about a particular person. Of course let your gut instinct do its thing, but never get too close, never get too buddy buddy. They are the employee, you are leader, there is a saying, how does it go? you have to go the way, show the way, and something else, I can’t remember right now. Ha ha ha.

#00:39:24-5# Neil :  I will look that up, I have not heard it, it sounds good though.

#00:39:28-1# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I know, ‘you have to know the way, go the way, and show the way.’ Thats the one. Alrighty?

#00:39:32-2# Neil :  Awesome. In five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#00:39:46-3# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Oh wow, that is a good one mate. The Thunder from down under. ha ha ha ha. How about that one?

#00:40:00-5# Neil :  I’ve not heard that before. Ha ha ha. Anything else?

#00:40:05-5# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :  The thunder from down under does it again, and wait I have got one, I have got one here. The real estate bingo. Taking over America. ha ha ha.

# #00:40:23-4# Neil :  Sounds good.

#00:40:26-6# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :  And I just had to make this up out of thin air mate. If you gave me a little bit to think about, I will give you some awesome headings. But yeh, I think those two are good for now mate.

#00:40:35-3# Neil :  Ok. We are now at the part of the show where you share your three golden nuggets, so Engelo, what is your favourite quote, and how have you applied it?

#00:40:52-3# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :  Make a passion, an obsession and you will never work a day in your life. Mate, I am so passionate, I am obsessed. I am obsessed with everything I do and I love what I do and if you are not obsessed with what you do, and you don’t love what you do, stop. And go and find something that you love what you are doing because there are too many tough times in life and in business and whatever it is that you are doing, and if you do not absolutely love what you are doing, you will not last, you will quit, so you have to find something that you love and something that is a big passion.

#00:41:19-2# Neil :  And do you have a favourite online resource that you can share with us that would be useful?

# #00:41:23-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   I do mate, hipchat. Hipchat is a instant messanging app and once you start, having a few employees in the office, instead of everyone kind of talking to each other, just download the app and you can type to each other, you can send all different kinds of files, photos, links. All kinds of stuff, I think its a great great source for inhouse communication within your company. Hip chat is what its called.

#00:41:52-3# Neil :  Ok thanks for that. And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:42:00-9# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   My best advice would have to be, focus more on the people, than anything else and no matter how many times they knock you over, pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. Do not stop moving forward. Great quote by Martin Luther King, if you can’t run walk, if you can’t walk crawl. But whatever you do, just keep moving forward.

#00:42:24-0# Neil :  Awesome quote, everybody, if you did not manage to get a note of Engelo’s favourite resource or his favourite book, you can find the links on Engelo’s shownotes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Engelo or Engelo Rumora in the search box.  Engelo, is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

#00:42:45-2# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   No thats it Neil, look it was an absolute pleasure and thanks for your time mate, if people want to find out more about me, its easy, they just have to google my name, or google Ohio cashflow, we are very loud and proud, and they can check us out. Always happy to help in any way, answer any questions, so anyone that wants to chat to me mate, they can definately hit me up online.

#00:43:06-3# Neil :  Ok Engelo, its been a high energy, fast paced enjoyable interview and its certainly been an honour having you on here so thank you very much for sharing your insight, and your experience and your views, so thank you.

#00:43:20-8# Engelo Rumora, Ohio Cashflow :   Thanks mate, much appreciate it.

#00:43:20-8# Neil :  You are welcome.