Wearing up I've always been like really curious. 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. Contractors made me cry, but I had to get past that because I just knew that there was a lot more past 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 wealth 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. Yes, correct. 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... It spans the globe like a super high is cold and the internet. Elvis, ready? Ready. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's not over until I win. The Living Your Legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Open. Open. Chicago with the lead. You say, Paul, is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast for Insight Success. I am Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today is a powerful Peruvian woman. Angie Stevens is fresh off the filming of her episode. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Oh no, thanks for... Very excited. We're excited to have you. You are essentially our, I guess, our last guests of the day. So the room and the podcast studio is all yours. Say the best for last. Exactly. We can be here for hours now. Say the best for last. Where do we start? Let's start Peru. Okay. When you're a Latina or Latino, when you have this background lore, there's a lot of mystery to it. What is the mystery of being born in Peru and how did that inspire you, who you are today? Sure. So coming from Peru, Younga was only there up until the age of nine, but I remember seeing my parents grew up very hardworking individuals. 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's, you gotta 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 other 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, as I like to say, but I'm allowed to say that because I was born and raised here. Yes. What's that with your background? And as Latinos, we're designed for pain. We're designed to just suffer. Like happiness to us is a luxury. We have to build our happiness. We do. How have you built your happiness from back then until today? I know that's quite the loaded question. Yeah. Give us the montage. So I've always growing up, I've always been like really curious. I just wanted to solve problems, 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 being 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 parents rebuild their careers. Oh yeah. 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 just, I was always intrigued with real estate. Everywhere I could learn and I would find real estate is the best way, the pathway to wealth. And my dad doing construction, I kind of would put the pieces together and you know what, I would 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. 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 on and so forth, into a million dollar fix and flips, now into new construction. Hell yeah, good for you. 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, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna be a millionaire, but right now I guess I'm nine. So I did know that I wanted to do something. 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 strived 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 a dentist, you're gonna be a dentist. 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 was just so natural to me. So I took a very much like and wanting to just, finance 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. So I was not afraid of that. I was just gonna say your superpower is seeing the numbers. My favorite guests are tax strategists and CPAs. I always say you need a medium, a lawyer and a tax strategist in part of your, 100%. You all emphasize on the medium, you definitely need that spiritual guidance. I agree. The reason why I enjoy speaking to folks like you is because you literally see the numbers, you see the art in the numbers, you see the rhythms in the frequencies in 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, and 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 plans like an architect, you still need your engineer. But even when you're on site, you can have an architect design it, you can have an engineer make sure that it, you know, holds 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. So I love being there and I've learned a lot of that from 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, they're like mega mansions. So layouts matter, you know, and if it's off an inch here, there, it may not seem like a big deal, but it really is. No, it's a huge deal. Like we even designed the studios here at Insight Success where you open the door, your eye catches things specifically. We want you, I'm the studio lead. So I somehow designed the studios with Rudy and the idea was you're going on an 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 rigmarole of what it's like to work with Ray, the team, and the, Rudy, Rudy, and 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. They are. Absolutely. You should know better than that. They're all assets. They're all assets. All of it. All of it. But when you buy a mansion, folks live in there. This is a little world. So it's an inhabitants, an incubator of life. The design philosophies 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've got to have that vision, that idea, but also you've got to be able to relate. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. My husband was a chef before he became a contractor. So it's like a kitchen for him. Always cooking. 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 to 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. It has to flow, you know, or your or a bachelor pad. Like you have, it's different for everyone, but it's having that vision, what the goal is, Amy 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 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. Who's your common customer? Like who's the person that goes to your underscore, underscore, underscore social media and goes, hey, I want to work with you. How does that work? So as far as the construction side or which part? As in like, hi, I'm Ray Gutierrez. I'm a 42 year old man that owns a house by the airport and 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 it into whatever I want and be a module. Of course. So I have, I would say two different clientele. I have one that 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 communitively together and growing from there. And then on the construction side, I have that client who wants to, you know, they have, they either search childhood home or it's a home in the water that's a great investment that they want to make their own. 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 to own the home or the asset that I grew up in. And I spent my twenties just being an artist and I never had a real job. I was just bouncing. As a matter of fact, my first real job or out of job out of high school was on 12 and Alton, we're on 12 with Washington. I was a casting director. So this house has been in my life. And now that I'm back home and I'm 42 and it's been through hell and back because I've neglected it, unfortunately. I definitely want to put it back into the zeitgeist of the energy of Miami and go, this house is designed for artists that need that ascension. Exactly. How do you find these clients that go beyond vision but go ascend to something greater? For? Like quality clients. I guess what I'm trying to find is your quality clients that are beyond just quality, they're really just world creators. How do you find these clients or do they find you? Well, for the new building and the new construction, so usually it's, for example, like a business partners and investor, where we're building, sometimes we have our niche and we're all 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're building something together, we have that vision where we're buying a home, we're tearing it down and creating something new. I'm sorry, was that your adaction? No, I was just gonna say, no, no, I see I lost you a little bit, I'm gonna bring you right back in, I'm actually gonna tease you a little bit. You came in here talking about the Kardashians. And I've been wanting to tell, the only reason why I asked is because the Kardashians are brilliant, they're masterminds, they're 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 Kardashian 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 gulf, they were the gift to the gulf and like even our own president kind of figured that out decades ago, he's been running for president since I was only 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 same with my mom, she owned her dental practice. And I just, I knew that I wanted to be in a position where I own my own business. You know, grit 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 work hard, that really hard work ethic. And perseverance, like I don't give up, I don't back down, failure is just not an option. Even the first property I ever did, I thought 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. Yeah, folks, I like to take this quote from Rudy, like Rudy's well off, 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 be 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 rigmarole called life and test you. And right when you think you've made it, it snatches it from you. How many times have you had that opportunity to snatched underneath you, but had the mental and spiritual education of knowing, yes. Next, move on. I'm gonna climb even higher. Exactly. So every challenge has been such a great lesson and it happens all the time. All the time. All the time, I mean. Even you hear one of your podcasts. Little things. Absolutely, 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 gonna fail. Aren't you a girl? Oh, what are you doing? You don't know what you're doing. 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 like, 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 gonna learn. It's the only way I'm gonna grow. I'm gonna come out of my comfort zone. I'm gonna 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 gonna say that sounds like Wednesday. That's today. I 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 it. 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. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When the streets were empty, nobody was driving, no one, everyone was afraid of everything. I created a logo, I just created a business and a website. And I said, you know what? We are gonna get this done. And if I'm not, I need cash flow. Oh yeah, for sure. 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 and we go, go, go. And 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 a challenge, reinventing yourself. But that's only made me stronger. It's only growing our construction side, right? And then eventually someday do commercial. Right on. I gotta ask, where do you think as a woman in power, your episode that you just filmed with Kofi, where do you think this power is coming from? Where does this doubt come from? Well, I definitely have a lot of faith. I'm thankful for that. My parents, a lot of my mentors, I think 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. 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 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, you know, 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 it weren't for everybody else that is involved in my life, my husband, who is my ultimate right hand person, I think I'm the, you know, 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 that roller coaster 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 what 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 perfect balance because in every area that I lack or I'm weak or I'm just not the best at, he is like the ultimate rock star. 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 like simple things, certainly simple things like, like I can do, like cooking, like I can cook, I'm not really gonna cook, but it's some of the smaller things, like I'm 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, and I can put it all together, draw it out, do the numbers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 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 150 things, you know? It's like, no, 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, oh, okay, yeah, I guess. 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, where does work and family kind of end and start in a day? And that took us a while. We've been doing business now for about 10 years now. And it took us a while, it's, you know, from business and, you know, running, someone's gotta 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 wife too. So it's tough, but it's, and if you can get through that, you can get through anything. Yeah, I was gonna say, I- 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, no cute voices or nothing. Listen, we definitely have those conversations because we, you would do- It's very important. Absolutely, because if I have 10, five, eight 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 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 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 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. And part of the reason why our construction set of our business is called Steven's Construction Group is because we foresee that future within our family and continuing that legacy. You know, not what my children are gonna do, I can't say. They will invest. They will invest. They don't have to be an architect or be an engineer or anything like that. But 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 has seen 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 and runs. And my kids love numbers as well. So I'm thankful for that. Look at that. So they're going to, and they're already showing signs of, you know, their interests in business and all of that. So I look, I wanna be an example for them. I wanna be that strength. And I wanna continue that legacy through my children. And when I'm older, I wanna see my children continue their legacy for their families and their kids and have that freedom and have that wealth. Because I mean, nine of 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 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 nine 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 kicks in. That's where resilience kicks 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 the nine to five. But it's not really work though at that point. You're just kind of like manifesting. It's not work. And that's the thing. When you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. You'll never work a day online. So when I'm sitting on 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 just, I get lost in it and I love it and I have fun and I think my kids see that. And when you love something you have passion for and you're just so ambitious to do more and more and more, like I write down my goals and then as the year goes by, I'll cross them off the list and my goal's gonna get bigger. But yeah, there's doubts. I love it. This is necessary. It's absolutely necessary for you to enjoy the sweet and eat the sour. It is, it is. And so I'm thankful for, I'm even thankful for my 12, 13, 14 hour work days and they happen. But I do have some days where I work two hours a day. 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 and 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. You know, I am looking forward to that. I think in the next, it's taken me a while. I sometimes you always feel like, you know, you need more experience, you need more experience, and it's definitely taken me a while. Again, adversity, right? It's taken 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 kids' schools, et cetera. Friends, whoever, I really love it so much. I love to train and teach and 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 deco churches, all sorts of fun churches, but it's all the same energy. I mean, I'm not good with colors. Purple churches. But I'm not good with colors, but I, the design inside, I'll tell you, be 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'sConstructionGroup.com, they'll find us on our construction business page. And then at top, top region, CLC, that's my company where we do all the investments for any investors out there. If you are a doctor or a 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 chaining them down, we're building up new constructions, 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. Sure, absolutely. But you, you build the building. Both, yeah. I love it. Best to buy it, sell all of the above. Gosh, Angie, thank you so much for your time and energy. Thank you so much for having me. Great way to wrap up our Wednesday. And with that, that concludes another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Woman in Power edition for Insight Success. I am Reggie Thiers, and this is Angie Stevens, and we are Insight Success.
