How an Immigrant Mom Built a Real Estate Empire

I just wanted to solve problems,

“wanted to be in the middle of everything.”

I wanted to learn, wanted to grow, just very ambitious. People told me that I was in the wrong business. You know, contractors made me cry, but I had to get past that

because I just knew that there was a lot more to pass that. - Angie Stevens is a growth-driven entrepreneur, real estate expert, and the founder of Top Regency LLC, in Stevens Construction Group LLC.

- Through her expertise, she helps families and investors build well through real estate, development, and purposeful growth. - I do a lot of investments, and I do, you know, fix and flips,

ground-ups, right, new, but then we do work for clients, like it's bringing their vision to life. It's doing what they want, what they see, it's bringing that to life,

and I love that. - How do you find these clients or do they find you? - Well... (upbeat music)

- It spans the globe. Like a super high school,

“they enter their health, and they're ready to come here.”

- Today, Apple is going to reinvent for fun. - It's our Opal, I'm telling our win! - The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. - As it's free, we have awesome ideas.

- Oh, that is sensational! - Sure. - Open. - She comes up with the way you say, Paul, in the boxes, not on the planet.

- You can live your dream! - Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy Podcast for Insight's Access, I am Rie Gutierrez.

Joining me today is a powerful Perubian woman.

Angie Stevens is fresh of the filming of her episode. - Welcome. - Thank you, thank you for having me. - Oh, no, thanks for waiting. - Very excited.

- We're excited to have you. You are essentially our, our, our, our, our, I guess our last guest of the day, so the room and the podcast studio is all yours. - We can be here for exactly. - We can be here for hours now.

- Say the best for last. - Where do we start? Let's start Perub. - Okay. - When you're a Latina,

Latina, when you have this background lore, there's a lot of mystery to it. What is the mystery of being born and Peru? And how did that inspire you who you are today? - Sure, so coming from Peru,

young I was only there, you know, up until the age of nine, but I remember seeing my parents grow up very hardworking and visuals. You know, we're immigrants, very hardworking. My parents own very, you know, their own successful businesses. I grew up with having that drive,

that grit, that perseverance. It's definitely a third world country.

“It's poor, life is completely different here from over there.”

You know, the opportunities aren't as many as you have here. Over there is, you've got to work 10 times as hard. There's people with multiple degrees and not enough jobs. You know, and there's homelessness. I mean, there's a whole bunch of different aspects.

It's just a whole nother world. - Yeah, it's interesting how you kind of describe some states of the United States where it's like, well, that sounds a lot like some of the states here. Where are you currently now?

- So I live in Palm Beach County. - Right on, yeah, cool, no Palm Beach is great. Anything north of Boca is the rest of the United States I like to say, but I'm allowed to say that 'cause I was born and raised here. - Yeah.

- What's that with your background and as Latinos were designed for pain, were designed to just suffer. Like happiness to us is a luxury. We have to build our happiness. - What we do?

- How have you built your happiness from back then till today? I know that's quite the loaded question. - Yeah. - It was the montage.

- So I've always growing up.

I've always been really curious. I just wanted to solve problems. I wanted to be in the middle of everything. I wanted to learn, wanted to grow, just very ambitious. Coming here, I saw my dad actually restart his own career.

And he went from having bakery, carpentry, all these different businesses to be in a construction worker. - Yeah. - And not for it to be negative or anything,

but I learned so much from that. I saw both of my peers rebuild their careers. - Exactly. - Rebuild a second life here. So with that, I worked very, very hard at a young age,

bought my first home. And when the numbers, I love numbers within my career, finance and accounting, I was always intrigued with real estate everywhere. I could learn and I would find real estate

is the best way the pathway and wealth. And my dad doing construction, I kind of would put the pieces together and you wanted to be an entrepreneur, like either my mom or my dad,

whether it be dentistry or something else. And that's kind of how I put it together. You know, construction is something that came about from real estate investing. Real estate investing from my very first property at 20

onto my next property.

So I want to sold forth into a million dollar fixed

and flips now into new construction.

- Yeah.

“- Did you always know that this was gonna happen?”

Like that nine year old little girl, did you feel it in your heart? Like, oh, I'm gonna own this and we're gonna do that with being millionaire. But right now, I guess I'm nine.

(laughing) So I did know that I wanted to do something. - Sure. - I wanted to be my own boss

because I always said I'm gonna be like my mom.

I'm gonna be like my dad. You know, they own their own businesses and that is what I striped for. What was it going to be? No idea.

I really thought I was actually going to be in the dentistry into dentistry because my mom always pushed, you're gonna be in dentistry and to be in dentists. I even took some medical courses in high school and it just wasn't for me.

But numbers always lived within me. It just made me who I am. The numbers, it's just so natural to me. So I took a very much like and wanting to just find as an accounting was like my passion.

And I could take that to any business. - Oh for sure. - So I knew I was gonna do business. I didn't know what, but I knew that as long as I had the solid foundation,

I could run any business. - Oh hell yeah.

- That was never fit in that.

- I was just gonna say you're super power seeing the numbers. My very guests are taxed strategies and CPAs. I always say you need a medium, a lawyer and a tax strategist in part of your (laughs)

- I didn't press that. - You'll have to size on the medium, you definitely need that spiritual guidance. - I agree. The reason why I enjoyed speaking to folks like you

is because you literally see the numbers. You see the art and the numbers. You see the rhythms and the frequencies and the patterns and numbers. What's it like living with that superpower

“and how do you attribute that to everything you work on now?”

- So it's not just like numbers and money or finance, but it's numbers like with constructions. I mean, I'm really able to play with the numbers with like architectural and plans and the blueprints, redesigning spaces,

turning houses from two bedrooms to three bedrooms or four bedrooms, you know, maximizing that space, that area. And even in one thing is theory, right? You're building the plants like an architect, you still need your engineer.

But even when you're on site, you can have an architect design, you can have an engineer make sure that you hold all the weights, et cetera. But when you're on site and you're doing out that layout,

you're like, wait a moment. You know, this like one inch here, one inch there really can make that difference. - Right on. - So I love being there and I've learned a lot

of that for my dad. My dad does framing and drywall and he does the houses that he builds or for the company that he works for. They're about eight, 10, 12,000 square foot homes

or like mega mansions. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So layouts matter, you know. And if it's often inch here there, it may not seem like a big deal, but it really is.

- No, it's a huge deal. Like we've been designed the studios here at Inside Success where you open the door, your eye catches things specifically. We watch eye, I'm the studio lead.

So I somehow designed the studios with Rudy and the idea was you're going on the adventure. This is the Rudy simulator. Rudy and I have been doing this for quite a while. It's like, all right, let's get guests in here

and put them through the regular rule of what it's like to work with Ray, the team, and then just to Rudy Rudy and that, you are playing this role of this experience. And that's what these properties are.

First of all, they're not, shame on you,

they're not properties or assets. (laughing) You should know better than that, too. - They're all assets. - They're all assets.

- All of it. - But when you buy all mentioned, folks live in there, this is a little world. So it's an inhabitants, an incubator of life. The design philosophy is are absolutely different.

Talk about dealing with these higher power beings that happen to understand that wealth is a superpower and they transform their homes into worlds. - Sure, so it starts with a vision. It's like you're going to have that vision, that idea,

but also you're going to be able to relate. You know, I'm a mother, a wife. My husband was a chef before he became a contractor. - Oh yes. - So it's like a kitchen for him.

- Very important versus like I have a home with a kitchen in it because it comes with it. You know, like I'm not cooking on a day in a day, but if you love cooking or baking, it's like such an important aspect in heart of the home.

If you're a mother and you have kids, like you want to make sure that things are laid out properly, they make sense, you know, it has to flow, you know, or your bachelor pad. Like you have, it's different for everyone,

but it's having that vision. What the goal is aiming for it and then getting there and achieving that perspective. You know, whether it's an investor or for a client 'cause remember, I do a lot of investments

“and I do, you know, fix inflips, ground ups, right?”

New, but then we do work for clients like it's bringing their vision to life. It's doing what they want, what they see, it's bringing that to life and I love that. - Who's your common customer?

Like who's the person that goes to your underscore underscore, social media angle is, "Hey, I want to work with you.

- So as far as the construction site or which part-- - As in, like, high, I'm regular tears, I'm a 42 year old man that owns a house by the airport and it's just sitting there and I've been wanting to look for someone like you goes,

"Hey, I want to update this "and make it into something that's either an Airbnb "or a production space, just my home "that I can just flip a switch "and just turn into whatever I want and be module."

- Of course, so I have, I would say, two different clientele's. I have one of the focuses more on the investor side and the business partner for the new construction and I love that.

“I think we all come together as a team to create something”

greater than ours and it's putting those ideas those designs, those visions and investing in it communicatively together and growing from there. And then on the construction site, I have that client who once, you know, they either serve childhood at home

or it's a home in the water that's a great investment that they want to make their own. And I love making that into what they see as their vision, helping them along that process, maximize their use and their space and bringing their dreams to life.

- Yeah, absolutely. I was very blessed to be on the home or the asset that I grew up in. And I spent my 20s just being an artist

and I never had a real job.

I was just bouncing. So matter of fact, my first real job or out of job at high school was on 12 and altered world 12 of Washington, and I was a casting director. So this house has been in my life.

And now that I'm back home in '42 and it's been through Helen Back 'cause I've neglected it, unfortunately. I definitely want to put it back into the zeitgeist of the energy of Miami and gold.

This house is designed for artists that need that ascension. - Perfect. - How do you find these clients that go beyond vision but go ascend to something greater? - For, like quality client.

I guess what I'm trying to find is your quality kinds that are beyond just quality. They're really just world creators. How do you find these clients or do they find you?

- Well, in the, for the new building in the new construction. So usually it's, for example, like a business partners and investor, where we're building we each,

“sometimes we have our niche and we're good at, right?”

We're all really good at a specific niche. And when we come together as we're building something, we're putting something together, we have that vision where we're buying a home, we're tearing it down and creating something new.

- Great, great. - And I'm sorry, was that your desk? - No, I was just gonna say no, no, no, I see I lost you a little bit of it, I'm gonna bring you right back in. I'm actually gonna tease you a little bit.

You can't hear, talking about the Kardashians.

And I've never wanted to say that.

The only reason why I asked is because the Kardashians are brilliant, they're masterminds, they're the power couple. You keep mentioning your mom, you keep mentioning your dad, I'm like, "Ah, well, the Kardashians is the prime Kardashian,

"was the father." Like beyond OJ, the Kardashians seniors, a fucking Kardashian, he knows business. And you think he's powerful, what's the mother, the true Kardashian, they've created an empire.

- Absolutely. - They've figured out the guff, they were the gift to the guff. And even our own president kind of figured out

“that out decades ago, he's been running for presents”

on the long one. We all know that, especially if you're sitting in these seats. Talk about where you find your power and folks that make fun of the Kardashians. But no, you see mentors, you see vision.

- Yeah, well, when I was a little girl, like I said, my father owned his own bakery. He owned his own taxi cab business. He owned his own carpentry shop. My grandfather also owned his own carpentry shop.

So it's something that's just within the family, I've seen growing up in business. And seeing with my mom, she owned her dental practice. And I knew that I wanted to be in position where I owned my own business.

Great wasn't something that was just an option. It's really the way we lived, it's how it was taught, how it was brought up, it's just to work hard that really hard work, work ethic. And perseverance, I don't give up, I don't back down.

Failure is just not an option.

Even the first property ever did.

I thought that was, that should have wiped me out. People told me that I was in the wrong business. You know, contractors made me cry. But I had to get past that because, and when I did, I just knew that there was a lot more

than that. Yeah, folks, I like to take this quote from Rudy. Rudy's well off, but no one ever talks about the thousands of millions of failures and the money you've lost and people stealing from you all the negative.

It's very easy to sit there and not talk about this. And they're like, oh yeah, things are great. No, it takes quite the hardship. Very. That hardship is part of the ritual, really,

to like, are you deserving of this lifestyle? Well, let's put you through the, through the rigmarole called life and test you. And right when you think you've made it, the list matches it from you, how many times have you had

that opportunity just snatched underneath you? But had the mental and spiritual education of knowing, yes, move on. I'm going to climb even higher. Exactly.

So every challenge has been such a great lesson. And it happens all the time.

All the time. I mean, even you hear when you're a podcast. A little bit. Absolutely. There's challenges along the way.

Like I said, my very first property,

I was told, I was in the wrong business. I shouldn't have done it. It's I'm going to fail. Are you a girl or are you doing it all the way to me? You don't know what you're doing.

There's so many different things that came about that. But overcoming those challenges, I think it only made me so much more stronger. Everything just is so much easier. But it doesn't mean that everything is peaches and cream.

It just keeps, there's other challenges and other challenges. But what I do love and I do crave is finding solutions, right? It's that it's finding those solutions onto the next step. It's like sometimes I think I have big problems.

But then it's like, you know what? I want another problem.

“Like that's the only way I'm going to learn.”

The only way I'm going to grow. I'm going to come out of my comfort zone. I'm going to succeed whether it's my job, my children, as they're growing up, my marriage, my business, my household, all of the above.

They're all challenges. But every single step of those have made me so much stronger. And they happen on a daily basis. I mean, I was just going to say that sounds like one day. That's the day.

That was like yesterday, how many, oh, my goodness. And it happens. But I'm really grateful for them. I can't imagine running a business and not have had a single failure.

I mean, COVID, that was one of them. Sure, I believe. I mean, I invest. I had to completely stop the world completely paused.

I had to pivot my business from investing, completely retract. And pivot into the construction side of things and work with clients. You know, when nobody, the streets were empty. Nobody was driving.

No one, everyone was afraid of everything. I created a logo, it's created business and a website. And I said, you know what, we are going to get this done. And if I'm not, I need cash flow. Oh, yeah.

Like investment takes a lot of your money, your efforts. You are the last one to get paid. I mean, we put in, we invest in, we go, go, go. When the last person that gets paid, it's usually us. For sure, right?

So with the construction company having that cash flow, it's client-based and as we're working through COVID, but that's, that's a challenge, you know, reinventing yourself. But that's only made me stronger. It's only growing our construction side, right?

And then eventually someday to commercial. Right on. I got to ask, where do you think as a woman in power, your episode that you just filmed with COVID? Where do you think this power is coming from?

- Where does this double account come from? - Well, I definitely have a lot of faith. Thankful for that. My parents, a lot of my mentors. I think I, I love to be a student. I absolutely crave knowledge.

Like I can be a leader, but I can also be a student.

“I like to be in a room where I'm constantly learning, right?”

I never once for a moment feel like I'm the know-it-all in the room.

And I feel like that would be the worst room to ever be in. It's being able to constantly be a sponge. And really, my, everyone that's been in my life, all of my business partners, all of my mentors, even my friends, even my kids teach me things along the way.

And things that I can apply in the business or in the business, in my family, et cetera, vice versa. So if they work for everybody else that is involved in my life, my husband who is my ultimate right hand person, I think I'm the visionary and I see it and I want it.

And it's happening, whether everyone likes it or not. And he's just there and he makes, like, he turns my visions into reality and he's there. And when I'm like rolling out rollercoaster and I'm high up high, he's there for me and when I'm on the low,

he's got a shoulder for me too. So if I didn't have that, God knows where I'd be right now. I was just gonna say, for folks who are listening in or watching and it's a husband and wife driving to work or driving to the next project, any advice for folks that are in your

situation, you're clearly a very powerful woman.

I'm assuming your husband is as well. But talk about that camaraderie, that energy flow between the right partner. Okay, so super important to have the right partner by your side. My husband and I almost complete opposites, which is really, really wild.

Which is actually kind of great. It is actually, it is the most, it is the most perfect balance because in every area that I lack or a week or I'm just not the best at that, he is like the ultimate rock star. Right on.

And in areas where he's like the, you know, where he lacks, I just like, I'm just like bam bam bam. I can knock things out, you know, but look like simple things. Certain simple things like, like I can't do like cooking. Like I can cook, I'm not really gonna cook.

“But it's some of the smaller things, like a laundry, you know?”

Or in the operations, like I have the vision, I see this. I know what it's gonna look like, the end goal.

do the numbers, but he's like very meticulous.

He sees the, like I have a to-do list of 10. He looks at my to-do list. It's like, no, that's more like a hundred and fifty things. And I'm like, so it's really only 10. He's like, no, no, no.

Each one of these has about 10 or 15 things within that item. I'm like, okay, yeah, I guess. (laughing) And, but it's that balance, you know, that opposite is so important, especially if you work with your

significant other, I mean, a family member, one thing. But your significant other, I mean, we're just work and family kind of end and start in a day. And that took us a while. We've been doing business out for about 10 years now.

And it took us a while, it's, you know, from business

“and, you know, running, someone's got to run the show, right?”

And make the bigger calls, which I like to make, I make those decisions, those bigger calls. And, but then it's, you know, your husband's wife, too. - Yeah. - So it's tough, but, it's, and if you can get through that,

you can get through anything. - Yeah, I was gonna say that. - You can get through anything. - Do you guys have like ground rules? When we're at work, it's only first name basis,

and none of this honey crap. No, no, no, no, she's no cute voices. - That's it, we essentially have those conversations. - You need to. - We, you do.

- It's very important. - Absolutely. - If I have 10, 5, 8 workers, and we're all in a meeting or a business setting, and something goes wrong, and somebody needs to take responsibility,

but it's like, hey, you know, this is that,

or, you know, there's always accountability.

Whether it's, I need to take accountability. - For sure, for sure. - Whatever decisions I make,

“same for every employee or my husband, et cetera,”

but, yeah, we have to kind of separate that being, you know, in the, in the work setting, and then the family setting. - Right on. - So, in the family setting, he's like so amazing. I'm so thankful for that, because he's,

he's just, he's an amazing father. - I hope he's watching this and playing that part on loop over and over again. - He is, I'm really so thankful. I can't imagine if I didn't have that right hand.

- That's an amazing blessing congrats on that. We do another show called Legacy Makers. I gotta ask, you talk about a lot of your legacy, your dad, your mom, and what does it mean to be a legacy maker or a legacy world builder?

- Sure, so, in part of the reason why our construction instead of our business is called Stevens Construction Group is because we foresee that future within our family, continuing that legacy. - Right on.

- You know, not what my children are going to do, I can't say, they will, they will invest. (laughs) They will invest. They don't have to be in our protector, be an engineer,

anything like that. But you can, you can be whatever you want in a career, and you can still invest and make the right decisions with investments and building wealth and have that freedom.

- So, I am very intentional.

“I think my husband and I over the course of time”

with our business, he is seen, you know, that I want to build like that is, I mean, I even talk about my grandfather. He was a carpenter and my uncles are architects and also contractors and builders.

My dad is as well, and now it's just, it's within me. - Yeah. - And my kids love numbers as well, so I'm thankful for that. - So they're going, and they're already showing signs

of, you know, their interests in business and all of that. So I look, I want to be an example for them. I want to be that strength, and I want to continue that, like I see through my children, and when I'm older, I want to see my children continue their legacy

for their families and their kids and have that freedom and have that wealth because I mean, nine or five is great, but if you can grow beyond that and have your own business and build wealth too, you can just, there's so much you can do and give back.

So I look, I look forward to, I'm excited. - I'm excited for you. Folks, it's quite bizarre, it's like the nine to five. It's like, once you convert from the ninth to five to the four hour weekend, four hour week.

How does one stay in that reality where it's like, wow, my life is quite amazing. How do I stay in this dopamine reality without having to go back down this darkness? - Oh, well, the down happens for sure.

- That's where resilience gets in. - That's where resilience gets in.

- Absolutely, great, never stopping, never stopping.

So, so funny, right? Get out of the nine to five, get out of the nine to five. Here I am, you'll find me working like 12 hours a day on my computer way longer than a nine to five. - But suddenly you worked though at that point.

You're just kind of like manifesting. - It's not working. - When you do what you love, you'll never work a day on your life. You'll never work a day on life.

So when I'm sitting at my computer and looking over these plans or running over the business or the accounting side, et cetera, I just feel like I get lost in it. I just get play, I get lost in it and I love it

And when you love something you have passion for,

“you're just so ambitious to do more and more and more.”

Like I write down my goals and then as a year goes by, I'll cross them off the list and my goal's gonna get bigger. But yeah, it's their style. - There's love it. - That's all the time.

- This is necessary. - It's absolutely necessary. - If you didn't enjoy the sweet, you need the sour. - It is, it is, you know. And so, I'm thankful for,

I'm even thankful for my 12, 13, 14 hour work, you know, days. It didn't happen and, but I do have some days where I work two hours a day, you know?

And sometimes I get as much done

on certain parts of the business. And so it's a balance, but again, freedom, right? I have the freedom to work as much as I want, or as little as I want. It's not just that, you know,

and then I'm building for myself and my family. So I love that. - Fantastic, I love the fact that you know how to gauge your optimal side and you can decrease increase. That's very powerful.

A lot of folks don't understand how to do that. So hopefully you are on your adventure to train as many folks as you can. - I, you know, I am looking forward to that.

“I think of the next, it's taking me a while.”

I, in some sense, you always feel like,

you know, you need more experience, you need more experience, you need more experience. And it's definitely taking me a while. Again, adversity, right? It's taking me a while to get to the point

where I feel like, you know what? I have done all these things. You know, I can encourage other women if I can do it really anybody can do it. - Right on.

- You know, I tell my kids now and they're little and they get it. You know, so I look forward to the future. I think in the future, I would love to, you know, whether it's in the church or mentor or just like

in the kid's schools, et cetera, friends, whoever. I really love it so much. I love to train and teach. And we, we're changing the world. - One church at a time.

Can you imagine you just wake up

“and you're just building churches for fun?”

A pink church, a blue church. Our devil church is all sorts of fun churches, but it's all the same energy. - I mean, I'm not going to tell you. - Purple churches.

(laughs) - I'm not good with colors, but the design inside, I'll tell you the optimal. - I love it. How can people find you and discover more about you

after they're done listening to this podcast? - So, at Steven's ConstructionCrip.com and find us on a construction, this is page. And then, at top, top Regency LLC, that's my company where we do all the investments

for any investors out there. If you are a doctor, lawyer, you just, you're trying to find where to invest in. We have a lot of opportunities right now. We have 10 new groundups coming up where we'll buy them,

we're changing them down, we're building up, new construction spec homes, and looking forward to do more. - Yeah, the self-employed person will start a business in a building. The entrepreneur will buy the building.

(laughs) - Or absolutely. - But you build the building. (laughs) - Oh, yeah.

- And if I sell all of the above. - Gosh, Andy, thank you so much for your time and energy. - Thank you so much. - Such a great way to wrap up our Wednesday. And with that, that concludes another episode

of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Women in Power Edition. For Inside Success, I am Reguteris, and this is Angie Stevens, and we are Inside Success. (upbeat music)