"Positivity Leads to Profitability!" says Vinney Chopra!

[00:00:03] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield ReMax team presents real Estate and More. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Bay Area real estate is different than in all of America and why? What's up with home buyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market? And much, much more. [00:00:20] Speaker A: Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield. Hello and thank you for tuning in to the Real Estate and More show where we explore the exciting world of real estate and take deep dives into fab fascinating topics and amazing people. I am your host, Michael Hatfield. Today we're featuring one of real estate's most recognizable and optimistic voices, Vinny. Mr. Smile Chopra. Many investors know Vinny through his best selling books, Apartment Syndication Made Easy and Senior Living Investing Made Easy. But one of his writings is Positivity Brings Profitability. It takes readers beyond investing strateg into the principles he credits for much of his success. He arrived in America with limited resources and he's going to tell you more about that in a little while. Built an impressive real estate empire and became a sought after speaker, mentor and educator in Positivity Brings Profitability. He argues that positivity isn't just about feeling good. It's a powerful business tool that can drive wealth creation, stronger relationships and long success. Let's dive in. Mr. Chopra. Vinny, your story is one of the classic entrepreneurial success stories. Looking back to when you first arrived in the United States, did you ever imagine that one day you'd be managing many accounts, many of the money of other people and helping them along the way to gain wealth? [00:02:02] Speaker C: Michael, thank you so much. It's such a privilege to be here with you in this studio. I'm so privileged and thankful. You know what, when I came From India about 50 years back to the day, I was just a young man and with $7 in my pocket and just a briefcase, small suitcase of clothes. I'm an engineer actually from India and came here for my mba. But I never imagined the life that God has been really given me with my married life now for 46 years, two children, they are our biggest, you know, treasures. I always say that it's not who we are, it's our children, our friendships, our relationships with the clients and everybody. But I sold bible books and encyclopedias within three months after I arrived here. People couldn't understand me. Still they can't understand me. [00:02:59] Speaker A: No. That's good. Well, it's always the Smile that wins everyone over for sure. Well, you know, your book Positivity Brings Profitability is filled with personal stories and lessons learned along the way. Why was it important for you to share your own struggles and setbacks instead of just like most authors and people and teachers simply teaching the concepts. [00:03:25] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh, so glad you're asking me. My wife actually inspired me to write that book. After I wrote the book, Apartment Syndication Made Easy, it became top seller on Amazon, and she read it also back to back, while she was flying from east coast to West Coast. She says, you know what? I have lived with you for 38 years. At that time, you are the most positive person. Everybody around you, they say, vinnie, you think differently. Please write a book on positivity. Guess what? Next morning, I got up early and started scribbling on it. And it's been such a unique experience for me. I wrote one book First I didn't like it, Then I revised it again. Last 2024, I think. And that's what I find. People are into so much negativism in this life. Everything is so negative on television. Everywhere around us, people are always moaning and griping and stressful. So I just felt that, you know, I should really put some things. Why I feel so good, enthusiastic and positive. How I can change other people's behavior. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice. Well, you know, many people see successful investors only after they've already made it. But what was the defining moment early in your journey when positivity helped you push through that major obstacle? Was it your wife that said, you're the most positive guy ever? [00:05:00] Speaker C: No, no, no. Actually, it started way back. I remember when I started selling books 13 hours a day. And when I got the rewards, plaques or things like that, my team said, vinny, you're always smiling. You're very positive guy. This is 49 years back or whatever. And they took my middle name out, Kumar, and put smile in there. So I. I've been keeping up with that smile for over 49 years. And positivity actually comes when we train the muscles because we feed so much. I always say that we eat so much, you know, good food, everything, spend restaurants, money for the neck down, like Zig Ziglar talks about, Jim Rohn talks about. They have been my mentors for life. And we don't spend money from the neck up or mouth up, I say, which is right there in the brain. How we could take the negatives out. I always say that you got to give space for positivity in your mindset, in your habits, in your thinking, but you got to take the negatives out slowly and slowly. So it's been a process. It's been a process. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Wow. You Know the title itself, positivity brings profitability is, it's powerful. And your concept that you're talking about is very, very powerful. And to share that with other people, it has to be a giving type of thing. You know, it's a giving kind of thing. And what's inspired you to connect that positivity directly with financial success? [00:06:35] Speaker C: You know, that's a very good question. I would say that I have had a life of abundance because I always believe the more I give, the more comes back. That's the law, Law of attraction, law of manifestation, law of everything. The reason is a lot of times we are very scared and we are worried. I don't want to give my gifts away. And that's a wrong attitude. We need to give and give and give. Every meeting, every room we come into, we will, we should really bring the light, sunlight to them and they feel so positive they will be open minded to all our listenings and what we can do for them. That's what I feel. So essentially by keeping the open mind and training our muscles to listen more, talk less and also bring positivity and positiveness in every situation, we all get stressed. I have so many things going on in my life just like everybody. But compartmentalizing it is the best way because this stress should not affect my meeting in the next hour or two hours where I need to be totally focused how I can bring value to my investors, my high net worth investors who give me millions of dollars because they like my track record in real estate and so on. [00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that track record is something. So when you connect that concept of profitability, positivity in business and financial transactions, it means a whole lot, you know. But some people only think that positivity is simply about maintaining a good attitude. Well, it's not that at all because I believe in your argument that it's much more than that. What does positivity actually mean in a business concept? [00:08:34] Speaker C: Very good question. Very, very good question. At the peak we had almost 1.3 billion in our portfolio. The key thing was we had 158 team members. I always say, not employees, they are team members. They are our people at our apartments, senior livings, hospitality, hotels like that. So they are representing my company, Moneel, Monica and Neil, our kids name together. That's our brand. But the key thing is bringing the light of hope. Even when the situations happen and the tenants or residents are calling and they didn't get something fixed and things like that, we need to be really in a right frame of mind. Being positive, you're able to find solutions much better. Much, much better. Creatively, fine, better. Rather than if you are just being negative and say, why us and why it happened, things like that. So in my relationships with my teams, I am always very looking forward to. They are looking for beacon of hope. They are looking for somebody as a CEO to get the right frame of mind so that they can be training their muscles to be more positive. [00:09:52] Speaker A: Unbelievable. There's a doctor I befriended many years ago, 15 years ago, and I talk about him incessantly because he's such an amazing person, a lot like you. It's always the positive attitude. It's like you have to provide some type of hope and inspiration. If your hope and your inspiration is a negative kind of a thing, then you're not going to be as successful. So is it something that people are born with or can it be developed and strengthened over time? [00:10:24] Speaker C: You know, that's a very good question. To be truthful, as I go back to my early days because we lived in six siblings and mom and dad, eight people in 382 square feet, apartment, one bedroom apartment, one hallway, one living room. But we were positive. We were happy. I don't know how positive we were, but we had good living, even though we had very meager range and we had bicycle and public transportation, things like that. It's only after coming to America with the, you know, the dreamland and things like that. But I bought my first car for $700. Maverick Blue. Maverick. I talk about that. The thing is, you keep humble. You got to be humble. Ego has no space in our lifetime because why we are egotistic many times is because we want to really flounder and do things people don't like egotistic people. So the key thing is how we train ourselves to bring value to others is the main serving attitude has to be at the core front. Everybody. I always say that our residents are gold because if I don't have travelers coming to my hotels, I'm nobody. My residents living in my apartments have to be my seniors at my senior living communities that I'm building. They are gold. Second, my team members are gold because if they don't represent us right, then we are nothing. Then my contacts, my attorneys, my lawyers, my vendors are gold because their life is dependent on what we do. Then comes my team members and their families. Then come we are at the bottom. My family and everybody comes at the bottom of this. But the key thing is to permeate that positivity. You cannot be negative. Well, it's good to be negative. I'm negative sometimes by myself, but I don't need to be negative when I'm dealing with situations in my business because my being negative with them is not going to solve anything. I could be very direct and say we got the situation, how it came about and let's find solutions because more and more we are focusing on getting out of very good solutions. The better we will make our companies grow and the people also under us will be respecting us lot more then they. I have seen lots of, you know, times the team members frown upon talking to their supervisors because they have been so negative with them. They say I don't want to, oh my gosh, that phone, I don't want to pick that up anyway. [00:13:26] Speaker B: Wow. [00:13:26] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about more about the book. Positivity brings profitability. One of the themes throughout the book is goal setting. What separates people who achieve their goals from those who simply write them down? [00:13:41] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. My friends tell me, Vinny, when you were young boy, I only remember positive things in my life. By the way, I don't remember many negative things at all. My friends tell me who have been with me for I'm 73 now. 73, going on 70, 37 actually. I opposite age. I tell my mind always, every year, Vinny, you are one year younger, you're one year younger. So when I'm 84, I'll be only 48. [00:14:16] Speaker A: I remember the Beatles song that came out when I'm 64. Now that's in our rear view mirror. I mean what are we going to do? So I'm thinking if we can keep a really positive attitude about everything, then perhaps then we will have a longer, more enjoyable life. [00:14:30] Speaker C: We will, we'll live much better. I mean eating right, paying gratitude in the morning, miracle morning, which I love, chanting yoga, all those things are so important because if I eat right I'll live up to 100, maybe 140. Now they say new kids born now can be living much longer. But you're right. The key thing is we want to really focus on our mind, body, soul and all that comes when we have the right mindset. And the positivity and goal setting is so important because 3% of the people kind of reach the goals if they have written it down or 7% or something. Many people say I have goals in my mind, I'm going to accomplish this. That no, no, no, those are dreams. Many times the dreams are so many and we just while away. But if we Put the dreams with deadlines and measurable specific goals, then we accomplish them. And that is the secret of happiness, positivity and achievement of growing our companies to the next level. To the next level. And it's not always that we want to grow to the next nth degree, but we need to have purpose in life. The purpose in life comes when we write down goals. And nowadays with the apps like we have, we can actually have a movie. I looked at it. You could have a positive movie. You write yourself your goals, you talk into the mirror and you listen to it all day long. I'm the kind of guy I used to use three by five cards, many of them with written goals. And one was on my mirror, one was in the car dashboard, one was in when I went to sleep at night. I mean, just like, you know, Norman Vincent Peale and all these Wayne Dyer and Jim Rohn's and Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins of course, you know, all these people, they talk about a lot of good, great things. We need to just capture them. [00:16:41] Speaker A: It seems like relationships are very important to you. I imagine you spend a lot of time with your relationships and making sure that they are good with whatever the prospectus may be at the time. So in your book you say, first of all, set your goals. Second of all, have a great attitude. Number two is work with great people. And like I say, you probably spend a bit of time on those relationships because those relationships contribute to the success 100%. [00:17:12] Speaker C: Michael, you're so right about it. Actually, my whole life, every morning when I get up, I really pray to God and really pay gratitude to everybody around me and the people I'll be meeting and the investors I'll be meeting, or all the attorneys and CPAs and all those. When I have meetings, I want to make sure that I'm giving the best to them. The biggest thing is that you have to build relationships because relationships get you further and further and further in your businesses and relationships in every walks of life. We have so many different roles as a brother, as a father, as husband, as a community person, as a, you know, a temple. I go to temple, all those things. But the relationships really build the person. Nobody's going to remember how many dollars I had or whatever. It's how, how did I make them feel? That's what is the most important when I love to zoom call with my investors and I record them with their permission so that I can give them back the whole recording so that they could show it to their cpa, their, you know, The CPA and the attorney and their family. But relationships are the crust of anything we do in life. I just say in the dinosaur years, our hundred years of life is like a dot, not even a dot. So why should we worry about a lot of things? Sometimes we worry about things they will never happen. 85% of the things in the future we think will happen, never happen at all. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Wow. [00:18:57] Speaker A: Isn't that incredible? You know, gratitude is another part recurring theme in the book. And people are always talking about gratitude. I did a show, it was based on gratitude. And I brought in various people to talk about it and what it means and how do they practice it. But it seems like it's a recurring theme in your book. And again, positivity brings profitability, right? [00:19:20] Speaker C: It is. It really brings profitability. I was thinking about the title and I said, I do want positivity in there. And if we are able to really be more positive, it brings profitability in every walk of life. Not just in the dollars and cents or the business growth and everything, but profitability in relationships, in the kind of things we are trying to accomplish with everybody in our life. And we cannot live alone. That's what it is. A lot of time people say, I can do everything by myself. Never, never, never. Where I am today. It's the culmination of so many people, so many great mentors, so many great investors, so many great attorneys, lawyers, and all of them. I mean, CPAs and my brokers. I was a real estate broker myself, 25 years in California. But the key thing was I always wanted to see what's there, which can build me better relationship builder. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I understand. You know, real estate has always been challenging. You know, I grew up in a real estate family. My mother was a broker. I'm a broker. We are still practicing, you know, with the real estate team that we have. But it's a very emotional kind of thing, and it's. It's a cyclical kind of thing, and it's. It can be emotionally challenging. And the markets are always fluctuating. In fact, everybody asked me, how's the market? How's the market? That's the number one thing right out of their mouth. So how do you deal with the emotional fluctuations that are so challenging for your investors? [00:21:05] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. Very good question, Michael. Again, I think the biggest thing is you got to always see realistically where the market is and find the silver lining. Silver lining to the cloud. I say that because, as you know, Warren Buffett did so well in life when things were really Bleak. And when things are very bad, lots and lots of us get into the blackness or the bleakness and we say, you know, there is nothing good happening around. But if we really try to look at a different angle and try to pivot. For example, in my life also, multifamily has gone a different route. I have bought so many multi family apartments, but now the cash flow is not there and the interest rates are not coming down. I could be griping about all that, but I said, you know, Vinny, where is another avenue? Similarly in your business also, there are opportunities where investors are looking and the homeowners are looking so that they could really make streams of income, I call it, by being happily involved. But we can pivot. Pivoting is the word. So like in my case, I went to hospitality because it's apartments on steroids, I call it. And you can have the leasing every day. So that's how I was going to say I could be just staying in the same lane which a lot of my compatriots, my partners, are just griping about. Apartments. I have shifted in the last five, six years into hospitality and senior living because I knew there will be some different silver lining. And I'm so proud that now my investors are giving me millions of dollars because they are making great, great returns. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Have you ever encountered a deal that just totally looked impossible on paper but succeeded after you thought a lot about it, researched a lot about it and it succeeded because of the persistence and the creativity and a positive outlook? [00:23:23] Speaker C: Yes, I would say that very recently, actually, we got to have 107 units apartment complex in Knoxville, Tennessee. I can talk about it. It's a case study because we did so well in it. And what happened was I knew it the day I found that deal. It came on my desk that it was renovated fully by a flipper and the rents on that apartment complex were about half. Oh my gosh. The property management company was not doing a good job. And once we analyzed everything, we said, let's jump into it. And we did. We jumped into it and we knew it's going to take us about nine to 10 months to change the whole scheme because the sellers were giving everything, the cable, the water, the electricity, everything was given for free to the residents and they were enjoying it. But the thing was, it was not properly managed. And that's where my superpower has been because I had, you know, managed so many hundreds and thousands of apartments. So we were able to buy that. And then we shifted from looking at the negative to bringing it positive. Then the rates went up. By the way, just to let you know, my mortgage went from 27,000 to 72,000 per month. Per month. Wow. And we did not put a dime because by shifting the rents higher and higher, which it should have been, with the positivity, we were able to lock in the interest rate at 5.56 and we sold that property from 12.5 million to 17.4 million in just two and a half years. But it's that positivity that brought us along. If I had been negative, why rates are not where they are, why this, why that? I would have never accomplished what my team and I did. Not me, my daughter, my whole team. I really pay respect to everybody in our team because I'm just a guy, I'm just a regular person. It's everybody behind me and with me make me successful. [00:25:45] Speaker A: Critics might argue that positivity alone doesn't create the success that you'd like. You know, factors like timing, market conditions, education and access to capital matter as well. Well, how would you respond to that criticism? [00:26:00] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. You know, Michael, to be truthful, humble guy with $7. I came into this country and we had negative account. [00:26:11] Speaker A: You said $7? [00:26:12] Speaker C: Yes, sir. $7 I had in my pocket many years back. Even when I got married 46 years back now I had zero account, negative account, and we didn't have no money whatsoever. My wife brought some savings and we were able to buy $99,000 home in Union City. Rest is history. But the thing is you got to really look for bigger, better things. Things by goal setting. I told my wife I'll be making five times the income. I was making 10,000 a year straight commission when I married. You know, and anyway, those are things. But the thing is you got to write down and then you work with the goals and that's what it's all about. So if I didn't learn the world of syndication, what that means is it's happily getting involved investors of the like minded people so that they could really reap the benefit of your skills and knowledge. So we kept on buying larger commercial real estate with their money, other people's money, just like Google, just like Apple, just like it's all other people's money that all these kinds of companies are making such big star. I mean, look at that SpaceX 1.73 trillion or whatever, you know, it's all other people's money. So in real estate it's called syndication. I'm a fund manager and I raised 239 million a guy, little guy coming with $7 from India. I learned right way through SEC ruling and all the things to how to raise through ppm, private placement memorandums and all and build the track record. So Michael, it's because of that where I am sitting today with you know, hospitality to be able to buy $52 million apartment buildings and all. It's not me, it's my investors trust and their, you know, confidence in me. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Wow. Very interesting. Well, this book positivity brings profitability has a lot of great, great facets in here. I recommend go out and pick it up and see what you can glean from it. So it is basically having positivity as your starting point, setting your goals and getting great relationships to syndicate and to move forward. That's pretty much the foundation of the elements that are involved in your e, your text. But seems very interesting and I've started it. I haven't finished it yet but I definitely will. But I wanted to ask you, Vinny, Mr. Smile Chopra, I know you just say smile. I want to ask you this question. If you were to say one thing to leave our audience with today, what would it be? [00:29:06] Speaker C: I would say that please try, please try in the next 30 seconds and rest 30 minutes to be more positive. Please look at everything that comes around. You smell the roses. I always say step down little bit, slow down to speed up. I say that also because this life is a beautiful life. Happiness comes from within and the positivity also will come from within because if we give more time into thinking how beautiful our life is, what we are no matter where we are, it's a positive thing and you will grow into more positive world and people will love you more, they will be attracted to you more. You'll close lot more business deals and you will be very happy with your family and your children and your spouse and better half and everybody. So please be positive, please be positive and please go to Vinny Chopra.com and all my books are for free totally around the world. You could go to Amazon pay for it also. I try to keep them at the lowest price. But you could go to Vinny Chopra.com freebook, free book actually because I wrote first book. Now I have five books in there and I'm writing two more books right now. It'll be seven very soon and then 10. But the biggest thing is please take action. I hope you will be more positive. I look forward to see you one day. I live in Danville, California in the Bay Area. Beautiful place here. God has given so much to ourselves and God bless you. [00:30:53] Speaker A: Vinny Chopra, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your awesome blessings. Book Positivity brings profitability as well as your other ones, and it offers a lot of motivation. It provides a blueprint for if a person is approaching a business transaction, investing, relationships and life itself with a mindset. It's geared towards growth and opportunity, and for anyone seeking practical encouragement and entrepreneurial wisdom, this book is certainly worth exploring. Thanks for joining us today at the Real Estate and More Show. I'm Michael Hatfield. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you'll tune in next week and in the meantime, have a blessed week. [00:31:45] Speaker B: The views and opinions expressed are based on current economic and market conditions and are subject to change. Information on the show provided for Illustrator purposes only and does not constitute professional or legal advice. Information from sources deemed reliable, but accuracy and completeness not guaranteed. Michael Hatfield and The Michael Hatfield ReMax team have no liability for information discussed on the show. Consult with qualified professionals prior to taking action. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Sam.