 Good evening and welcome back to the first time home by a show. I'm your host, Esty Klaassen. Tonight we chat into an absolutely amazing guest and I'm sure the background behind me looks extremely familiar. Last week we chatted to Papa Boachiyadum about his journey through property investment and tonight we chat to the one and only, Hetty the Entrepreneur. How are you this evening? I'm so good Esty and really excited to be here. Thank you so much for allowing us back into your beautiful home and I introduced you as Hetty the Entrepreneur. So I'd like to know is Hetty and Hetty the Entrepreneur two separate people? Hetty the Entrepreneur is one person. I am an entrepreneur through and through. I love entrepreneurship particularly African-led businesses. So who is Hetty at the core then? Hetty at the core is a Pan-Africanist, a lover of our beautiful continent, an entrepreneur and I really love to travel and meet new people as well. Right and I know that from your journey and like I said I've seen your social media platforms and you really what I love about you and Papa your vision and your journey that you've been on is you're so transparent. You're always willing to share and give help and so I want to find out from you because you're obviously a mentor to a few people. Being a mentor what does that mean for you? You know being a mentor really is walking a journey with our mentees in terms of their businesses. So I work with numerous African-led businesses. Some of them are in the property space, others are in other types of businesses. It's walking a journey really understanding your mentee's vision, what they want to accomplish with their lives and their businesses and helping them put proper structures in place to achieve their goals. So why African? I know we're South African in Africa and but I want to know why you chose that as your main goal because we could have worked anyway we've gone to the States to the UK. You chose to stay at home and work you know child of the soil. Why here? Absolutely so my mentorship takes place online so it's digital and I have a specific passion for African-led businesses because I believe that those are the businesses that are going to transform our continent and also the world's perception of Africa. I believe that we have creative people, innovative businesses that can really trailblaze our economies and take us to the next frontier. So I really want to be able to play my role and my part in transforming our continent but and I also interestingly enough work with quite a number of entrepreneurs around the world. So there's one lady in particular she's based in Russia but she's from Ghana so I love that beauty of being in the online space because it opens up the world to you. So COVID-19 did not affect Haiti the entrepreneur? You know I would honestly really be amiss to say that it didn't affect me at all. We've all had our moments of introspection so you know when the pandemic hit our retail stores were closed our factory was closed and we were in hard lockdown and I remember actually having a conversation with myself where I thought okay Haiti you are forced to slow down now. If you could do anything else aside from your retail business what would it be and I'd always done mentorship but rather on a small scale and I thought to myself I want to be able to impact my continent, I want to be able to impact businesses and that's when I really ramped up my mentorship business and I'm so proud and happy for all of the mentors, mentees that I've been able to impact. So in 2020 I was able to materially impact 100 African-led businesses and I thought I would be impacting them through mentorship but I didn't realize the impact they would have on me through just giving me a sense of purpose. Yeah and I know we always talk about the wall of fame behind us and your name is also here you in the article you've done a few things tell us a little bit about what you've achieved up until now. All right so together with Papa we own the largest African print retail brand in South Africa and that's called P&H Boutique. We've got P&H Homes which is our cash positive business where we deal with residential properties and then of course I've got my mentorship business which is Haiti the entrepreneur and you know when you're in business you don't really in it to accumulate accolades you're kind of in it to work within your business so when the accolades come you're like oh my goodness I didn't think that anybody's recognizing what we're doing so along the way we've been able to become male and guardian top 200 young South Africans, top 50 thriving female founders, top 1000 African voices and all of this is validation that we are on the right track so we're deeply deeply grateful. So you've spoken about what you've achieved and we can see it and I know I love what you said that when you start something you don't know that you're gonna get these awards or become this person going in on your journey and someone who people look up to you inspire me you know I watch your videos and I learn so much from you and we know what you've achieved but let's say because you know when starting every business you need an end goal your main goal what does the future for Haiti the entrepreneur look like? It's interesting because every year I try to challenge myself I try to have a new goal for myself so in 2021 my goal is to materially impact 300 African-led businesses to monetize in the online space through the use of digital products so that is my big goal for 2021 and then once that's achieved then we'll tackle 2022. I'm just kind of taking it one bite at a time for now. Let's double tap on that monetize because you call yourself the monetized monetization guru yes so where did that name come from why where did that what inspired that for you? To be honest with you it's inspired by my own journey ST so you know when I began the mentorship program I realized that the best way to actually impact businesses is through digital products so that was through you know webinars masterclasses courses etc and I realized that I was able to generate an income through those products and also teach people how to do the same as well and so I realized that this is actually a replicatable formula people can monetize in the online space through their skills their passion their experience their talent can be monetized and a lot of people don't know this and so I'm really passionate about teaching people how they can convert what comes naturally to them what they're really good at into a monetizable business online right and I want to go back to bringing you and papa back together because we a lot of this you can't do by yourself yes so there's a support structure absolutely and tell us about that journey with you like when going along and a lot of the awards you've gotten with papa by your side so what was that like you know having that support let me take it back to last week we spoke about a power team yes that papa refers to as a tribe yes you know that's your tribe yes so what was that journey like you know it's absolutely remarkable um you know doing life with papa is an absolute privilege because we are able to boost each other up so even in our property business for example he's the numbers guy he knows how to figure it out is this does this make sense are we going to make money from this and I really appreciate that and then I also come in and I say okay but let's look at the aesthetics what are we doing from a marketing perspective how are we putting ourselves out there so by being able to leverage on our collective strengths we're able to build each other up and create magic together so it's it's truly such an honor to be able to have not only a life partner but a business partner as well you're each other's mentors yes at the end of the day which is absolutely beautiful I love that and I know you've got a lot of businesses and you're obviously still planning more and they're all growing they're booming at this time which is amazing so well done thank you I want to take it back to being a mentor and the responsibilities we briefly spoke about it last week with papa about everyone you can't be everyone's mentor yeah people have a vibe they're going for yes maybe this person does not speak your language I'm myself I'm very for a spiritual kind of level so if my mentor can you know align with my vision yeah is what we need so what type of mentor would you say you are and what would you say your biggest responsibility is being that mentor for other people so for me I am what you would refer to as a results based mentor so I'm very much results based I've had several mentors over the years and a lot of times when people think of mentorship they think of having a coffee date with someone maybe chatting about your business and then you part ways I'm very much into the practical implementation into your business so that you can see the return of your investment you can actually see the return of the work that you're doing so we I like to put in practical steps to say this this is what we want to accomplish and then we have timelines so that we hold each other accountable and we're able to come back to the drawing board to see what's working what isn't working what can be tweaked etc so I'm very much a results based mentor and you're absolutely right I think it's worth investing the time to see which type of mentor is good for you it might not be heady but it might be somebody else I really encourage people to look for mentors people who are a GPS to show them the path to go because then the road to success is so much shortened because you don't have to go through it alone how do I find the right mentor can you guide me with that how do I absolutely number one you want to do research so you want to look into the person's background where is their area of specialization so mine for example I'm very strong on marketing and sales but if somebody is looking to get their finances in order I then refer them to papa if somebody is looking to from an HR perspective I've got somebody else to refer them to so not everybody that comes with me ends with me it really depends on what your needs are within your business and you want to be able to go to somebody that responds to those needs so do your research look at their track record look at where their strengths lie and then also look and see if you've got a good rapport with each other do you enjoy their teaching style you know everybody responds differently so it's important to make sure that you pair together with the right mentor and I love that you because I know there's mentors who will not refer you will sit with you and try and make it work because they they want to be a mentor and I love that you actually refer people because like we're not everyone is not your foot absolutely so in audit and you're able to let go you know because you have you have your tribe yes yes you have that you don't need to keep looking and fishing for it which I love I just before we end off because I know we're still going to chat to papa in a minute what so we're talking about home and we're talking to first time home buyers your journey to being a homeowner what was that like you know it's it's actually been really quite interesting because you know we purchased this property and which we absolutely love it's in the heart of the mabunin precinct it's a heartbeat of entrepreneurial energy and creative spirit so we also feed off the energy of this environment and then when it comes to our property investment journey I must be honest with you ST one of my biggest limiting beliefs when it came to investing in property was the assumption that you need to have wards of money like truckloads of money in order to invest so imagine our surprise with papa and I when we discovered that number one you don't have to have wards of money number two you can invest in cash positive properties you know oftentimes you see you when you hear of people investing in properties it's cash negative so they have to add more money every single month they their properties are not serving them so I have been pleasantly surprised by our property journey and really taking it one step at a time and the way that we've done it has taught me and has been able to teach our mentees that they can be able to do it too exactly where they are so you don't have to wait for 10 years time you can actually do it right now and I like that you said that so that was one of the things that you assumed yes no idea that no you do not need yeah a lot of money but what was one of the rewarding things for you when you when you got this home what was it about it that you love I know that you said you're in your central and this is it's very funky vibe and this it speaks to you and papa that's when we came in that's exactly why we gave us energetic fun loving yes but what else was rewarding about making that first purchase realizing that I don't need a lot of money and it's mine now yes and it's positive cash positive yes I think really it is that feeling of it's mine now it's mine now you know when when you look at our communities owning property is a big thing it means that you always have a roof over your head it means that there's a place that you can call home it means that you can make it your own you can decorate it and let it be a representation of who you are so even if I'm not here and you walk through the door this space should be able to tell you a story about me and for me that is something that's truly special so what what does we asked papa this last week what does home mean for you so what does it mean for Haiti home for me is the place where I can just be and rest where I can replenish where I can recharge where I can truly just be myself that is home for me I love that so much Haiti we're gonna go over to papa now but I just want to thank you before you leave thank you so much for taking the time sitting with us and I love to hear from different mentors because we're at the point in our life right now where we need you absolutely you guys more than anything and just to find the right one and that's what's so important that's one of the most important things I'm taking from today's conversation is find the right one for you yes which I really appreciate so thank you so much Haiti thank you Isti we'll see you guys again soon hopefully there should probably be a part three at this rate is gonna be so much more but thank you so much we're gonna go over to papa again and we're gonna chat a little bit more about numbers you heard papa is a numbers guy so let's dive into that all right as you know without further duty back with papa this evening how are you doing today excellent thanks for having me back here we go coming back um you've you seem very ready we just heard you a numbers guy but before we dive into that there's something I want to touch on with you that we just spoke to Haiti about which is this assumption of what property is like before you even go into it and you also said that one of the assumptions that we need a lot of money and that's not to what are the other perceptions around property that maybe you've heard from your mentees and you had to pull them pull them out of that journey and what I think one of the two biggest perceptions that I've had to work on for myself and with others is especially that if one's gonna get onto property it's specifically got to be uh you know the area that they're going to be looking into uh that that's one of the the biggest things and then also the second thing which often comes up especially preventing people from getting involved is that oh no what am I going to do when my tenants don't pay and and the thing is that I mean that is a that is a valid concern but they I mean the majority of people generally do pay and there's well mitigating actions that one can take to ensure that the type of tenants that one gets can provide peace of mind because the main thing getting into property is we get into property because we want peace of mind there's no access to passive income if we don't have peace of mind and and those are the things that one needs to just take cognizance of yeah you're right it is a mind game and remember we spoke about a few books last week um where it is really about the power of your mind and your mindset and that's how you can kind of change the narrative and make it easier for yourself make the ride easier now just before we go we we just spoke to her about how she kind of mentors people so let's find out a little bit about you how you so let's say these are the challenges will my tenant pay and is it am I is it going to be a passive income at the end of the day what do you do as a mentor just to to help ease my mind look I think the the first thing that I like to start off with is just finding out what what actually is your goal what are you trying to achieve here because every person's situation is different and then understanding what the goals are and if somebody's goals actually is in terms of I've read some of these things in these books and I want to have money coming in every single month rather than taking money out and this is the area that I'm looking at then I attest and say okay cool is that actually the correct area these are other opportunities that are also available what type of structure are you going to be looking at and just the main thing is actually how can I assist them to be able to achieve those goals I do find often one is almost looking at a specific strategy because they don't know all the other strategies that are actually available and and for me then I just come in there to just be act as a guide act as a guide where I can provide more information more information in a manner that is easier to digest so that one can then be able to assess for themselves what's going to make better sense for for them and also for for their family so you said to make it a little bit easier to digest which I love so let's talk about you know you're the finance guy you're the money guy the numbers guy so let's talk about these numbers we we talk I mean first time home buyers do we know what ROI is return on investment do we know how do we look for these things how are we sure that this is the one how do you then explain that to you I mean or how can you explain that to me today in layman's terms look I think it's to keep it quite simple I mean there's lots of different numbers that one can look at but of course if one is looking to become a first time buyer in most cases for me it's its first time investors that that's the space that I play in quite a lot with and I just relate my journey because my journey is quite a simple one where obviously I'd read a lot of books and now I was going through analysis paralysis going through all these different types of properties and not really going anywhere and then what actually happened is that I sat through in a presentation where my mentor was then presented to a room full of I think we're about 100 people and when he presented there he showcased an example where we could participate it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a deal where we could buy up to 40 cashflow positive properties okay so he explained and I thought this makes a lot of sense then he invited everybody who was interested on the Saturday to come and view this building to see these cashflow positive properties I'd heard about this I'd read about this I wanted to see if it was real I think there were about 50 people that put their hands up I went there on the Saturday at that lot of time and here's the saddest thing when I got there and I'll let the viewers know we were 12 people there we were 12 people there I was the only black person in that space there in the meeting room everybody was mixed at different races and so on and I was the only black person that came to view this opportunity and I didn't understand why that was the case and what actually happened afterwards is I looked at everything I looked at the building the numbers made sense and and I put up my hand I said I'd like to participate here at the time we trade cautiously and we went and we applied with the bank and the bank approved for us to purchase four of the units now when I look back because it's been five years since we purchased those when I actually look back I mean the bank of the time they would have granted us to purchase I think we would have been 20 of those units because you know we're both working and we had saved quite a bit and so on and they would have granted that and we didn't we only took four of the units and do you know how many times those apartments you know how many times the the tenants have skipped rent they've never skipped rent they have never skipped rent in in that period of five years and that's when it started to trickle into me as I was going through our entrepreneurship journey but but this type of model makes sense you know we were cautious some people didn't even participate but this model actually made sense and it was then that I said okay I'm gonna look to replicate this type of model those units at the time when we purchased them they were I kid you're not there were 160,000 rent each 160,000 per apartment the rentals that we get on each apartment they range between 4,200 and 5,000 rent that's per apartment yeah and and so that that was the thing where I looked into it and like I said there's lots of jogging there's lots of jogging in terms of figuring out return and internal rate of return and all types of different things but sometimes the easiest way to look at it is how much money will I get into my account after all the expenses are paid I purchased this investment what's going to be my bond what are the other expenses and will I get any money extra in my account or do I have to spend extra money every time to pay for the all the other expenses and that's something that that I just look to share with other people and and move forward from that because you talk about the jogging and the little things that I'm sure when you first went you said okay cool you understood what he was saying and you took a chance and you went and it is quite sad that you were the only black man there at this time and on this day and look now you know we report so and you're sitting happily and you've made that investment now I know you're a mentor but tell me about do we have more black people investing in property now oh no look I mean I think the specific reason why uh no there's lots of black investors that don't don't misunderstand me I think the specific reason why and that's that's why I've had to I engage with um other investors and other main teas right it was the area that was the biggest stumbling block because the area actually was in jenniesburg cbd and for a lot of people that was like no go area you know but the thing is that for me I was focusing on the numbers and opportunity and I was trusting my guide because the view had been you know if you go into places like jenniesburg cbd buildings are hijacked tenants don't pay it's a mission I don't want to go there and things like that but I found contrary contrary to that what I actually did find you actually find the working clause they're really off focused on making sure that the roof over their head they maintain those payments it's actually more important to them than somebody where you know their rental is 10 15 000 rand uh they've got other types of uh credit and liabilities that are chasing off to them so sometimes to skip the the landlords a rental payment it's an easier thing to do as opposed to in in in the cbd and so since then that's what I've gone through and I've looked at um other types of places within there we've invested in other apartments and other buildings and within the jenniesburg cbd and I've formed relationships with different different agents different agents where we've had a connection where they they send me deals and often quite a few times in the week and I'm not somebody who's going around purchasing you know three four properties per week I mean and so that's where you know sometimes and I let my network know I'll I'll let my mentees know this opportunity is available um these are the type of numbers this is something that I think might make sense and things like that because you're right the the the area determines the tenants and I mean Johanna's proximity is scary I mean if I was there I also probably wouldn't have been have invested in it because you think that they're not going to pay but you're right the people or your tenants that you you tend to get yes I love that you said that these are the people who will pay because the most important thing to them is security first where other people are worrying about other things which I love so back to us knowing as first time homebuyers what our return on investments is and you all about cash positive property and just like what other things do we look for what is key when looking at the property it's the area you've mentioned what other things is key to look for to know that this property will be cash positive well look I mean obviously the the biggest mistake that I find that people make is sometimes okay I find that they've selected an area and they're going through for it perhaps they're only looking at what the bond is going to be and then they're looking at what the the rental is going to be but I mean there are other things that they're coming to play simple basics like the levies if they are levies that need to be paid your rates and taxes and things like that as well as insurance or maintenance those all need to be added so you can see if I put all of these type of expenses how does that compare to the rental that I will achieve the second thing actually that makes sense as well is looking at the specific place and seeing can I add value to this place can I add value that will allow me to get more rental than either what is the average or what the current tenants are paying and then there's simple things to look at in terms of adding value either a light renovation things like perhaps you know adding a cleaning service or things like adding a free wi-fi so there's all types of different things one can look to but it's it's also looking at the value that one can add that will make sense for the type of tenants that would partake in your type of place that you've purchased and the area as well I want to take it back to you because the whole I like that the session is really about mentorship that's what I kept to seem to you and Haiti and being a mentee we are trusting you with so much decisions you're holding our hand you you're helping us you're guiding us and your responsibility being one because I mean I've never been a mentor but would you say that being a mentor and advising people on something that you clearly cleared up on that journey for you of being a mentor what was that like for you well I mean it's it's quite enlightening I think what I have seen is that back when when I started I wish I had somebody like guiding me throughout the way that I'm guiding people at the same time I mean I think because I'm a more practical person and I like to focus more on the numbers so sometimes when somebody will talk to me about something that they're thinking about or an area in property that they're thinking of it's fine because it you know when it comes to property it is emotive it's emotional it's it's big investments and things like that but what I have come to see is that you know I'll just give an example where I had somebody where they were looking at you know they're looking at investing and there were places that they're looking at specifically around Santa and this is going to be like their first type of investment that they're looking into and when I probe further I realized what they really wanted was what you know they'd read about in these books with Robert Kimisaki and things like that and passive income and what they were buying into was going to be taking quite a bit of money out of the account every single month and and then I guided them I just said here's another type of opportunity and it doesn't even cost that much money because the places that he was looking at was 800 or closer to about a million and and with that same availability of credit that the bank would have been able to get him I was able to guide him and show look here's an opportunity you can actually purchase three or four properties with that same amount 801 million and and with that I mean look at how much money will come into your account every single month and look at these type of buildings they actually managed quite well the cheaper and the tenants are going to pay so you know this is another type of opportunity that is available that you can just compare the two and when he was able to compare the two on paper it's like no but this makes a perfect sense for him obviously something that was important is he didn't want to keep coming back and forth into the Janisberg CBD and with us we do offer as we manage people's properties as well so there's something where we're able to manage their properties as well and give them peace of mind so that was passive income at its finest and I know passive income leads us to financial freedom so just before we close up what is financial freedom for Papa? So financial freedom it's different things for different people I think for me and it's part of the goal that's what we work towards is financial freedom is actually being able to make decisions that are best for you and your family regardless of the money situation you see because sometimes I mean there are things either in terms of where you want to live or where you want to be or where you want to work and sometimes those decisions you're making them solely based on on financial reasons but if one's able to get to a point where you're making those decisions based on what's most important for you and money is a secondary concern then I think that's the direction to go towards financial freedom. Yeah so I just want to close off and I you can have a few last words for the viewers because I'd also like to ask the first especially for first-timers first-time homebuyers I wanted to find out the importance of having a mentor and I think that there is obviously a cost involved and maybe you can't afford to have a mentor like now or maybe you have the wrong mentor but you're not sure what do we do as first-timers in that case? I think the most important thing to understand is that we all spend money okay we all spend money and in the way that we spend money either it's as an expense or we are investing okay and I think that the most important thing to understand is that I don't know I might have mentioned before people will ask me this property is it a good investment or is it a bad investment and I spoke about it before is that I don't know if it's a good investment or a bad investment my thing is are you a good investor or a bad investor and a bad investor is somebody who's partaking into something and they don't have the education so the thing is for me I'm always trying to partake my knowledge to allow people to get educated and listen don't get me wrong I get people coming to me all the time within the industry where they ask papapa I mean you do all of these sessions on social media for free and all of these things why are you telling the people all of these things that I mean that you've learned and you spend money on and so and so what are you doing but for me that's that's not where my heart is for me I want more people to know so that the pot can get bigger of course there are different elements where sometimes there's a cost involved but it's important that people are able to invest in themselves because once you invest in yourself you've got that knowledge and that you're able to impart yourself and your family and you own that for yourself and we grew up knowing that education is an investment and having a mentor who educates you it might not be theory or anything but its property is still education so I think that's what we need to know as a people is to just keep investing not only in assets or something that because I feel like education or often I'm done with my mentor I don't have like a degree a piece of paper that I can see you know we did it and I think that's something we need to kind of again mind think change your mindset and understand that if I do pay for mentor at the end of the day I still am educating and feeding myself yeah and I think that that's that's very keen and I mean not only that because it is a normal thing where what certificate am I going to get after this but this is something that I got to experience when I went through my own mentoring I mean years ago is I really felt the impact in my bank account and because I could see the impact in my bank account I knew okay I'm on the correct path I didn't need a certificate because the evidence is already in my bank account and what I got to see was that because it was a real cling I mean we've spoken before about property and entrepreneurship and the link and where the penny dropped for me was when you know after building all our retail stores and some are open and some had to be closed and it's a very emotional journey and when I looked through that whole process I was thinking but this is very strange because my tenants have kept paying all of this time they really have kept paying all of this time and at the time we only we had a couple of units and then I realized why don't I grow the number of units why don't I invest the gates in terms of what other areas what other types of buildings are going to make sense and invest more there and then and then one can just take it forward yeah I agree thank you so much again for sitting with us this evening and I really appreciate I love again we said this last week about you need to be a good investor you know it's not about a good investment which I want to echo on and again what I'm taking away from tonight is investing in yourself which is very key so thanks again papa thank you so much thank you to our viewers at home that is all we have time for tonight again I think take away to invest in yourself that is key thank you so much