October 25, 2024 • 69 mins
Discover how Lana McKenzie's $2.2 million lottery win changed her life forever. In this inspiring interview, hosted by Powerball winner Timothy Schultz on the Lottery, Dreams, and Fortune podcast, Lana shares the emotional highs and challenges of sudden wealth, her experience on My Lottery Dream Home, and her personal journey. Tune in to hear her advice for lottery winners and what comes after a life-changing jackpot win!
🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST:
Meet your host, Timothy Schultz – a Powerball winner turned journalist! With Bullhead Entertainment, LLC, he's bringing you tales of triumph, with a focus on our mindset and the belief that anything is possible.
If you have a story that you want considered for this podcast, email us today! Email Timothy Schultz's team at Contact@Timothy-Schultz.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to lottery, Dreams and
Fortune. My name is Timothy Schultz.
This is an interview with Lana
Mckenzie.
Now, if you want to watch this
interview, we will put a link to the
YouTube page in the show notes.
Without further ado, let's get to
the interview. So I am so excited
to be joined here by Lana Mckenzie.
Her story is inspiring,
very, very inspiring.
(00:20):
And she actually is many things,
but also a lottery winner.
She actually won a jackpot
of $2.2 million
from the B.C.
Children's Hospital
Lottery.
Her story is very heartwarming.
She was one of the first
people that I interviewed on
this channel.
So we met once
(00:40):
before. But a lot has
happened. And so we're going to
get caught up with her and learn
more about her story. Lana, how are
you doing today?
I'm great.
It's so great to see you again.
I was looking back and I can't
believe it's been, like, over five
years since we last talked.
When was this?
When did this happen that you won
this $2.2 million prize
(01:02):
from the Children's Hospital
lottery?
That was it in 2017.
So May of 2017.
My son had been a patient at the
hospital, the B.C.
Children's Hospital, and then
we just wanted to support any way we
could. And so we bought the
the fundraiser lottery tickets.
They do two fundraisers a year with
them.
(01:22):
To win a prize, you can get
a choice of a house or just take a
cash prize. And so we decided on the
cash prize.
Yeah, it was completely life
changing and in so
many good ways.
It's like just surreal
when it all happens.
And then you kind of
now have to navigate through like,
(01:43):
what do we do now?
How does this how does
our lifestyle look like right now?
And you want wanted to improve, you
know, the way.
Yeah. It's it's I think
the biggest challenge is
been to
kind of like set yourself
up for the future so that
it's not like
(02:04):
this big.
And then you just kind of sad.
Said and then it's like.
You you don't want to be a broke
lottery winner.
Yeah. So you the
at first you kind of make like rash,
you know, quick decisions.
But it's so much better when you
actually can make
(02:25):
decisions that are like
thinking about the long term and,
and things like that.
So yeah.
Yeah, that sounds very wise.
And there's that stigma out there
of lottery winners
going through money.
There's the stigma in our culture,
but I don't know how much of that
is true or not true, but it's
certainly.
(02:46):
Yeah, it's the way the media
portrays it. But like that, that
guy that just won like the biggest
Powerball ever and like
he's buying all these houses.
And in my mind, I'm like, that's
good. But like, you have to have
enough to maintain those houses.
You have to have enough income
coming in from your investments
that if you don't have enough
to maintain what you've bought, like
(03:08):
it's, you know, buying these huge
properties. Like there's people
that you have to hire to do
all this work or taxes you have
to pay And like, yeah,
it's interesting seeing, you
know, how the media reports
it or like what information
you see about other lottery winners.
I loved your video with the guy
who won the
(03:29):
$10 million scratcher.
And then yeah Bradley.
Hired me.
Yeah. And then he ended up with like
3 million, which is like how it
works in the States or whatever.
But I was like so inspired
by how they were so
good with their investments
and living off the money
from the investments.
I thought that was like so
(03:50):
smart and inspiring.
And it was like, I
wished I'd made different decisions
along the way where after I'd
seen that video and
how it was, they
were so smart
with the decisions they made.
And in it's kind of like
if you kind of stop and think about
(04:11):
the long term.
Is is much more
beneficial than like this short term
like stuff
material. You know, it's
it's it's it's hard to
have the mindset because it's such a
big you know, it's such a big thing
and.
Yeah. And and you won
this 2.2
(04:33):
million now in Canada
a lot of prizes if you win lotto max
or one of the major prizes and
I assume this as well tax
free it's.
All tax free.
Yeah.
So that's our government
has sort of set it up.
So it's it's like a gift.
You're giving a gift because all
the people that have bought the
tickets have paid income tax on
(04:54):
the money. You know this.
And so it's like all this taxation
that would happen.
So luckily our government has
kept it as a tax free investment.
And then but any of your income
that like once you invest the money,
any income that's taxable income.
So then you want to, you
know, do things that are going to
leverage. And, you
(05:14):
know, there was some strategies that
we thought about, but
not everything works out okay.
I think it's quite.
Well I definitely want to ask
your thoughts on that but
before I get to that, I
read that you purchased three
tickets for a total of $100.
(05:35):
So yeah,
and a little bit of back story.
Your son you mentioned was in the
hospital.
What why was he in the hospital
For people that aren't yet familiar
with your story?
And yeah, he
when I was pregnant, it was detected
that he had an enlarged kidney.
So they monitored it while I was
(05:55):
pregnant. And then once
he was born, then
he had the ultrasounds
right away to see what it was
and it was not functioning
properly.
So it was decided that
he the best course
would be to have surgery.
So at eight months old, he had
kidney surgery
(06:17):
and that was a
crazy experience to hand your baby
over to the doctor and
hope that it all goes well.
And but it did.
It was amazing care.
Amazing. Doctors like the surgery
that they're doing is this
microsurgery.
It's so tiny on,
you know, just a eight month old
little baby. And it was
(06:38):
the care the nurses, the
the we stayed there for three days
and he quickly was
getting better, you know, right
away. And then
the day that we it
was, I think two years later
that we won because
the lottery
from that and the same day
(06:59):
we got the like all clear that every
surgery was successful and
it was like his kidney was better
than before. So we got to hold
the check and then we got the great
news.
So the same day.
My gosh.
And what did that feel like?
It was, like, incredible.
It was so good.
And like the day
you get the news, it's like
(07:21):
you actually do the check picture
like about a week later.
So like, I knew these because we
have to go over to Vancouver.
We actually live on being Cooper
Island, so we are
it's about a like six hour
day trip to get to Vancouver.
So we kind of had to plan it out of
like going.
And I knew we were going to have
this appointment with the doctor.
So we like coordinate it all in the
(07:42):
same day of doing this check
presentation and doing
the appointment with the doctor.
And then we actually had a
painting that we had
from when we moved over to the
island, we had a goodbye present.
It was a painting of our family, so
I had a copy of it made and I gave
that to ABC Children's as a thank
you gift.
So it was really like a really
(08:02):
nice experience.
It was amazing to like,
take this check with this 2 million,
you know, $2.2 million and,
and that that our son was
going to be just fine.
And, you know, it's just
it's like so great.
That is amazing.
And I read that you had $33
in your bank account prior to that.
(08:23):
Is that true?
Yeah, maybe.
I think that we might have been.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
My. My husband was making us
money.
So what did you do right after you
got this money?
(08:44):
We we had recently moved over
to Vancouver Island, and we were
staying at, like, my grandparents
cottage. And then
we were, we were going to actually
be buying a place because
we were moving over here.
We just hadn't really kind of
decided. So it was
kind of an opportunistic move.
And then I contacted
the TV and
(09:06):
I got to audition.
They accepted our story
and then did the filming and
David brought. Said found our house.
That's right. Because you were on my
lottery dream home.
My Lottery Dream Home.
Yeah, we were on the lottery dreamshow.
Yeah, it was.
That was, like, so much
fun. I loved feeling
that it was so much
(09:28):
fun to do.
It was so much like
the film crew that they had were
just so tight and they were just
such a great group of people and
it was like so fun.
I loved it.
And like we ended
up picking, you know, the house
and we actually were still
in the house. We we love it.
It's like out of everything
that's happened and everything
(09:49):
that we've bought or
things, whatever we've done,
it's been so great
to like have this rock
of like, you know, your, your
home. It's like it's so important
to have your home base
in your home, like
through Covid.
It was so amazing
(10:10):
that we had this, like, beautiful
house to joy to have the space.
We we ended up putting a pool
in the backyard.
We extended the patio,
made it bigger, put a gazebo.
It's a mess right now because the
kids are also in summer.
So I have my nice banana
leaf background.
Yeah, it looks like you're in a
(10:31):
jungle or something.
You have all these leaves behind
you. What is that?
At the Beverly Hills Hotel?
Virtually, This
is the iconic banana leaf
wallpaper that they have that was
put in specifically at the Beverly
Hills Hotel.
It made an appearance on the Golden
Girls as well.
But his bedroom was like this.
(10:51):
So it's one of my favorite
backgrounds. So I thought
it was a little bit of fun
to do that.
I don't know if the housing market
like where you are has like
increased so much, but
we our house is actually doubled in
value for what we
we borrowed 700,000.
It's now 41.4 million.
(11:12):
And like, so just
having like when we paid
cash, we didn't get a mortgage.
We and it's been
like just the best decision
and like the best part of the
whole situation.
It's like a great location.
The kids can walk to school, the
high schools, the hockey rings.
(11:34):
My husband was.
Like.
I had to talk him into.
Doing the show.
The H, the
My Lottery Dream Home, you had totalk
him into it.
Yeah.
What was his hesitation?
He's he he doesn't
love cameras and doing
like being the center focus
(11:54):
you know he's such a great
guy so friendly but he likes
more one on one where I'm
more like.
Tell everybody
what was the attention like when
you and then a few
national television shows.
But I mean that's beyond national
that's.
We were actually the first Canadians
(12:15):
so when I approached the
show they
had never come to Canada before.
The show was in
its fourth season
when ours was season four,
Episode 11.
So when we
joined the show
(12:36):
had popularity, it was like
number two on the
for HGTV.
Their network Fixer, upper
Fixer Upper was like the show
that everyone loved right then.
And so my lottery dream house
was like slowly making
its waves. But it hadn't quite,
you know, people were enjoying
(12:58):
it. But now I think it's
during Covid, it became one of their
number one shows and
it really took off because people
like that story of like, what could
I what could happen if I won the
lottery? You know, it's such a feel
good story that they show.
I love the way they edited and the
way that they show the like
everybody looking for the dream is
(13:18):
such a great concept.
And it's like to be part
of that show is so neat.
Yeah. What a unique
and fun opportunity.
There's a lot of really inspiring
stories on there.
And they did a follow up with you
Was that in 2020 or.
Yeah, during Covid like?
So I actually after we
(13:38):
did that and then it
was like I was looking for other
investments.
And so I was looking at doing
like some more real estate
purchases
and I contacted them about
doing more of like a condo in
Victoria. And so they actually,
because I look back with the show
(13:58):
and the director and the casting,
they said, Well, yeah, like
would you be interested to audition?
And we'll talk about, you know,
going and having you buy another
condo, because I wanted one in
Victoria, which is about three hours
south of here.
I did the audition and they accepted
me again. So
I but then because of Covid,
(14:19):
they never came rent
or they said they couldn't get
the production crew through the
border because the Australian
government had shut down the border
and they couldn't get any crews
through. And because that didn't
work out, we sort of did like catch
up, like, you know, what's everybody
doing kind of thing.
And I don't know if it I try
to find it. And they took those
(14:41):
shows off because I
think be like
they like it to be like happy
stories and like seeing
people filming during Covid is kind
of like, right.
You know? So they might have taken
some of that shows off their network
streaming and stuff like that.
But it was great.
It was a one hour episode and I had
(15:02):
about five minutes of airtime and I
just talked about, you know, what
we've been doing.
And and then I sort of led into
like, I'm thinking about buying a
place in Victoria.
What's in these like, I'll come
back.
And.
But it kind of fizzled.
So I went off on my own and
I searched on my
my own self.
(15:22):
And I did find
a condo that I really loved.
And so
for me, like I started
investing in the stock market,
I started doing investments
with a
financial advisor and that
worked out good. And it was like
something that we sort of found
through my grandpa and stuff.
(15:43):
But real estate is
like, I just.
How far was this after you won
the lottery that you got of
Financial Advisor?
Well, that was right away.
I mean, it's
kind of like you feel like that's
what you're supposed to do.
Yeah, everybody's
telling you, you know, And
(16:03):
so there had been people that
like had contacted me
through Facebook Messenger.
We went to school together.
So do you.
Need a financial advisor?
You know, so my grandpa
had a guy locally that
worked out fine, but
there, you know, and we set things
up and there's but
(16:25):
there's mistakes that were made
that were annoying.
And, you know,
I sort of through
the journey of investments
and stuff, I figured
because I'm so
good at, I like
to do it myself.
Like, I like to do my own research
(16:45):
about investments
or like gifts or
but, you know, sometimes things
aren't good or some things are good,
like when
the stock market and like when Covid
hit, the stock market just went
crazy. Like, because streaming
I actually had invested in HGTV
like the Discovery stock
(17:07):
and because I like investing
in things that I'm
I know like that are
meaningful to me or have affected
me in my life.
So like investing in Discovery
was who owned HGTV?
And like, so I put the stock and
it was just before they announced
streaming.
And so the stock like Donald
(17:27):
was amazing.
I mean, I hadn't put a lot, but
it was still like, wow, look at
that.
And so and that was like,
I had done that through my
advisor because that's how
you like, I don't have a trading
license.
And so but it was
my decision.
And so.
(17:49):
Once there started to be like
self trading platforms,
I started moving in that direction
because I wanted to control it
myself.
Because there was mistakes made with
like moving some money from
one to the other for
and it had tax implications
and our financial
(18:09):
advisor done that and it
was really kind of like annoying.
So, so I
just yeah, I decided to take
control of myself and then to
like,
diversify your portfolio.
You know, I want to invest in real
estate because I wanted
a more active investment
(18:30):
that I had control over because
I had I will be able to buy
it. I would be able to do what I
wanted to it, and then
I would be able to sell it or rent
it out or, you know, I wanted
you kind of want
I'm someone who likes that control
and some people or
they like to just sit and forget and
(18:50):
like just make a bit of money.
And, you know, it just depends.
If you want to be an active investor
or more of a passive investor.
And my husband's more passive.
He's like, just, you know,
let things just go where I'm
more like active.
Like, yeah, absolutely.
You were actually on
a show, I believe it is called
(19:11):
Hustlers, Gamblers
and Crooks
recently, just recently.
And so, yeah, what is
that? Where can people find it and
what what is that all about?
What happened?
So I had a friend,
you know, tell me about this
investment she's done.
She had great success.
She's been getting some really good
(19:32):
returns.
So I tried it out.
It was with a mortgage broker
locally here
on the island, Victoria.
And it was it was still
investing in real estate, doing the
short term bridge loan.
So like, you would
lend out your money through this
mortgage broker that would like
(19:53):
you. He would put together
financing for, you know,
projects or people that needed to
borrow money for real estate.
It was kind of like
just sort of like private lending
opportunities so
that I sort of like once I sold
all the real estate and then
we just had some actual
money to play with.
(20:13):
And so I was like, okay, well try
this. And I was getting great
returns.
But unfortunately
things went a bit sideways
with that situation
and
the guy took off with
over 1200 investors.
Money left the country
(20:35):
and $300
million is gone.
Stolen, scammed.
$300 million.
Yes.
People different.
Wow. It turns.
Out that.
It was a huge
scam, that
(20:56):
it seemed like a legit investment.
I talked to my lawyer, you know,
what should I be checking for?
And my lawyer said, you know, check
with the Mortgage Broker
Association. You should make sure
he's licensed.
Talk to other investors.
You know, I spoke to someone who
was an exempt
market dealer.
She said she'd had great success.
(21:19):
I did, you know, research
the project. It was like other
people had success.
I tested I did one investment, put
some money in, took some money out,
got returns.
And so then
the the company like the
company, it was the guy
(21:39):
he had this like good really good
setup because he
started working with people who
were in the market dealer
like invest private lending
sort of area.
And they brought this good system
that was it was like a portal
that investors had so that we could
check which investments we were
(22:01):
invested in, how what
was happening with your payouts.
And it was kind of like it was
actually a really good system that
worked in other
like with other investment
companies, like there's
some companies that you can
lend your money and they invest in
multifamily in the states,
and so they'll invest in apartment
(22:23):
buildings. And then you keep your
money in there for a year or two and
then you get returns back when they
sell off the properties and stuff.
So I had I knew
that that system was
being used and so
it felt like it was
good because you had this good
online system
that you could see.
(22:44):
So
the guys.
That.
Did it totally did, and it was
working and it was good.
We were getting payouts.
But then, yeah, we started not
getting payouts and then we
started trying to contact
the guy and he wasn't reachable
and like he wasn't talking.
And then there was like people
on like Reddit were like
(23:06):
talking to other investors, started
connecting with each other on
Facebook. And we started like,
because he would have these like,
Zoom calls. And it was but nobody
could talk. Nobody could chat.
It was just a one way of him like
giving us information, You're going
to get your payout.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so was he.
Where was.
He?
He was originally based in Victoria
(23:26):
and, like, he knows a lot of my
friends. Like he.
He's is.
He's not.
No. I think he's someone who
knew how to work the system.
And figured out how to
He figured out how to
launder money.
Really?
And do it in a way like,
yeah, it's is such a scam.
(23:46):
And so he
ended up he, he was trying to start
this company that was like a
competitor to Toro.
Do you know what Toro is?
It's like a where if you have a car
like if you have a fancy car you can
or any car you're
usually Tesla is or it's a
platform where you can rent
(24:06):
someone's it's like Airbnb cars.
Yeah yeah I am familiar.
Yeah. And so he was trying
to start this thing called car share
that he was had
people designing websites and
like he had started doing it and so
he had moved to California
and like he was offering investments
that were in with like
real estate in California.
(24:28):
And then he was doing because
he was based in Victoria, but then
going down. So he had investors
actually from California, he
had investors from New York.
It's like it's
he had people all across America
that like, it's crazy.
It's going to be the biggest scam in
Canada like
(24:48):
that ever happened.
This guy was.
And it's it's still ongoing.
Did the is he still missing
or is there been accountability for
what's happening?
So in 2022,
this is when he
left the country.
He said he told the
investors that he
(25:09):
was he had started
volunteering with this company.
It's called ah railroad
or something. It was like a company
that goes and
gets.
Human trafficking.
Like if kids are being human
trafficked, they go and like get
those kids and rescue them.
(25:30):
And so he said he was volunteering,
but I don't think he was.
I think he went to a gala event and
took his picture. And then he used
it to say that like he was
I think he used it as
a decoy or whatever,
so that he said
he was going to Thailand to go on a
mission to like volunteer
and be on a mission.
(25:52):
And so we were like,
that sounds great.
Then it's like, turns
out he like, skipped the country
and knew where
he was and no one was getting
any money. And it like.
Yeah, it all this
film like it's gotten
(26:12):
like I we
invested quite a bit because it was
successful and so I was,
you know, trying to leverage
some
money so that like you
could, I borrowed a bit so that it
was like a tax write
off because when you borrow to
invest and you get these tax breaks
and stuff, So it
(26:33):
was kind of like you're getting
caught up in like.
Yeah.
And so, yeah,
it was devastating.
Once we found, like, my friend
texted me like he's left the country
and it was like the
air just came out of me and I just
like.
It was so crazy
(26:54):
to think that someone
had intentionally
stolen your money like it was
it.
It's the craziest
feeling of
devastation.
Like, and so then,
like, things started appearing
on the news.
The local news picked it up.
(27:15):
And I mean,
there's investors that have been
completely wiped out like.
You know, grandparents that have put
their pension in with
him and.
Like just.
Completely devastated and
like, we're not devastated at all.
We we it was
just part of our whole, you
(27:35):
know, portfolio and things like
that. It's super sucky.
It's, you know, a pain
in the butt and it feels
really like it
feels like you've been.
Like a crime has happened to you.
You like it's weird.
It's so strange.
And so while that was happening,
(27:55):
was reached out
by this production company
that was producing shows for
it was it wasn't named at
first the show
because they, you know, see me on
HGTV. They knew our story.
And so it was
they approached me more just about
like our story of the win.
And, you know, they wanted to hear
(28:16):
about it. And so the casting
people had contacted me and
I met with them and I started
doing the interview with the casting
director. And she's like,
that's a great story.
It's not like the lottery stuff
was a good story, but
the the that show
was looking for a little bit more.
(28:37):
And so I said, I'm not
done yet.
I got more of the story.
And so we got into.
For people that are watching or
listening, this is for the show
Hustlers, gamblers and Crooks
on Max.
Yeah, right. Okay.
So I think known the
show would have been named that
would have been maybe if
(28:58):
I didn't find out that what the
show was going to be named I was
when I found out like it,
I found out what the show was called
like way after I filmed
it and stuff. And it
was a bit devastating to be part
of a show that was called Hustlers,
Gamblers, Crooks.
But I feel
thankful that I get to tell my story
(29:20):
and at the end of the day, I'm
not one of those people that
I'm not a hustler, I'm not a crook,
I'm not a gambler.
I had something happen to me
by a crook.
And so my
story is, you know,
interesting enough to tell
it and these extreme things
that happened.
(29:40):
And, you know, I wanted
to put awareness about, you know,
what can happen
easily, that you can get
scammed like it's
people are out there that those
situations that happen and
it's.
It's tough.
And so
I loved filming it, though.
(30:01):
It was so fun to go and film
and slide.
It was like, once.
It's in Las Vegas.
Yeah. So you go through this casting
process, so you meet with the
casting. We do like a
like a virtual meeting.
I tell my story and
they liked, you know, my
the way I am on camera, I guess,
(30:23):
and you know the story that I had to
tell. And then I
hear that they accepted me
so once because
then, like, once you do your casting
tape or whatever, then they take
that to the network because the
production companies are different
than the actual network.
So I didn't actually know what
network it was going to be for.
(30:44):
When you do its cast,
they can they just say a
large network or or
things like that. They don't tell
you like which network
or anything like that because
they don't think they can because
they haven't.
Maybe like they're still pitching.
It's kind of like a you're part
your part of the pitch.
Like they get like approved
(31:06):
for so much money on the show
and the show concept gets approved,
but then they kind of have to do
this pitch like to the network.
So once that all
came about, then
you sign agreements, releases,
you got all the paperwork that you
need to sign, then you do the
scheduling.
So they agreed to pay for my
(31:26):
flights, so they paid for my flights
to L.A. and back.
They paid for my Ubers,
which Uber is like so
fun. I love Uber is
like the most revolutionary
thing. I think it's the coolest
thing. We don't have Uber where.
They didn't have that in Canada, or
at least now.
They have.
Like Uber.
(31:47):
They've got it set up in Victoria,
just got it.
But we don't we're not big enough
here, I guess. I don't know.
We don't have Uber, but it's like
amazing that you can like book a car
with your phone.
So yeah, they set
up these vouchers that were like in
Uber, and when I got
picked up at the airport, I
(32:07):
accidentally might have booked
a luxury.
At the fancy car.
Or like the.
Production assistant, when she
picked me up, she's like, Yeah, So
you got a book the, like, regular?
Is that how that works?
(32:29):
So yeah, I learned how
to use Uber,
and then they put me up in a hotel
for two nights in Burbank, and
then the production assistant
picked me up from the hotel.
We did the filming all in one day.
And like, it's always kind of
surreal, like getting on a plane
because you're going to be going to,
like, film something in L.A.
(32:51):
And it was
like such a cool experience,
even though like, it was like
a sucky thing to talk about.
And it
was. But like the whole experience
of going and like,
getting to do that was super fun.
Was I loved it.
That sounds fun.
(33:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
Really unique opportunity.
Yeah. So the other
production office that they use
there was a few other like
shows that are regularly filmed in
that production office.
So when I get there, they
take me into my own green room.
Which is.
(33:32):
Super fun.
It was like, here's all your snacks,
here's your own bathroom
and your own like sort of place.
And they have like a hangar to hang
out because I brought a few
different outfits. I wasn't sure
what I was going to wear. And then
you get to meet like the director
and like the
producer and
(33:53):
then the actual like, studio
that they actually had set
up was the Josh
Gates Show.
I don't know if you know the
show that's on Discovery.
It was like his
where he does all his talking
and like it but they had a green
screen set up in front of
like all his the all the
(34:13):
like background that he uses in his
show. And I
didn't I never heard of that show.
Is that I was like.
Is that last Tomb's sunken
treasures vanished plant I'm just
reading.
That.
There's a whole different like he
has a whole bunch of different shows
of like treasures
and like he goes hunting for
(34:34):
like different things or has
like, it's actually his
shows are really cool.
And so it's the same production
company that produces his shows.
And then they're they
were like, Dr. Pimple
Popper is upstairs.
You can.
Go. And like you, she's filming
right now. Like, you could go and
say hi. I was like, What?
(34:54):
Yeah. So because my husband.
Yeah.
But it's really neat to like.
You know, be where those people
are and like that that stuff is
happening and stuff.
And so.
So then they get ready and then
like, they set you up
(35:15):
in the
where the filming is.
So it's like just a big green screen
behind you.
And then they they
had like kind of like all the
questions, kind of like
they because they'd seen my
interviews. So they kind of they
know what you were going to talk
about. So then they have specific
questions, kind of like steer
you in the direction that the
(35:36):
director wants you
to do.
And like they're they're a bit
dramatic when they say, like,
it was my nightmare.
Where you said.
No. Well, the director kind of says
like, you know what happened here?
Like, they kind of like get
you to say some dramatic
(35:57):
things that, like, you know,
it's for this show.
It's how they added it together.
So it was
like
but I actually, you know, watching
it back when I watched it back of
like how they pieced it, how they
added it, they did it really,
really good. And like, I was really
proud of myself the way
(36:18):
I talked on the show and how
I explained what happened.
And it really
was very cohesive the way that
they edit it and the way
it really tells the story
really. Like I told the story really
good, but they edited it really
good. And but I didn't
I didn't know, I, I didn't know
(36:39):
what the show was going to be about.
It was like they
had started the production.
You know, we have lunch together and
like, they talk about kind of like
what the show is about and
like, what? Because they have to go
and interview people
and they have to like most people,
they were able to do virtual
interviews. So they like
(36:59):
interviewed, you know, tons
of people trying to source
content and people and
like they talked about the guy
who was on a different episode, but
that like he was an A bet
and he like got that have
fake boobs and then like he ended
up.
Keeping so
yeah.
(37:21):
Someone for him to have fake boobs
and then he did. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like some of these stories
that like after
like I watched, you know, all the
stories and like how they
pieced together each of the stories
that actually the way
the stories were.
And it was good and it was
(37:41):
entertaining. It was like
it was a good shows
on. I think it's still on streaming.
It's on Discovery.
They came out this year in March.
Is it on Max or.
Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Discovery Max or because it's now
HBO Max or
I think in Canada it's on
(38:02):
Discovery plus.
Yeah.
And I think in the States it's HBO
Max or something.
I think there was somebody bought
somebody out or something.
But yeah, it's on there.
And the weird
thing that's really weird
is like, once you have
something happen to you, it's like
this crime and this, like, crazy
thing.
You kind of, like, get
(38:24):
obsessed about looking up things on
the Internet about like, the people
that are involved or the
situations.
And like, I guess he had this
partner in California that
like, was helping him with mortgage
brokering and it was like another
arm that they were trying to get
going or something.
And so supposedly
this guy had no idea about what
(38:45):
he was doing with this other,
you know, short term bridge loan
kind of stuff.
And there was
so I looked him up on Instagram
and then he was friends
with this guy in Las Vegas
that does all this betting.
You know, he could see it get to
I've seen him tagged in the pictures
(39:05):
with him.
And then there was a guy that was
like on my show, his name's
Mickey Mace, and he's crazy gambler
like the things that he did was
like, crazy, like just
millions of dollars in the casinos.
And it ended up that
those two people are friends.
And so it was like this four degrees
of separation
(39:27):
from my situation
that it was like, wow,
it's like small world.
But that's what social media does.
You can find these connections that,
like, you didn't
expect or, you
know, it was like, interesting to
see that connection
with like.
(39:47):
Just situation also
happened.
But yeah, the.
But the
where we're at with like
what happened to us.
The reason why it all played
out is that there was one investor
that invested like $17 million
and the he
(40:08):
ended up hiring a lawyer
and the lawyer
got this guy
put into bankruptcy, like forced
bankruptcy through the courts.
And so that's how it all played out.
And then the guy left the country
and and like, you know, it
was like every day on the news,
it was like something more has
happened with this crazy
(40:30):
mortgage broker that, like, did all
these investing.
And so then, you know, we're
watching all the courts play out.
So he gets put into bankruptcy, then
the trustee takes over.
So then the trustee is the one
that's looking at, you know,
where are the funds where like
they're the ones that get appointed
because of the bankruptcy.
And in the meantime, the regulator
(40:51):
is checking.
But like to this day,
I mean, it's it's now a year and a
half later, it's still no charges
have been pressed, no criminal
charges.
He's only.
I have no idea.
It's ridiculous.
It's like.
It's weird.
(41:12):
It's strange.
It's like the trustee
had to.
To look and,
like. So then the trustee
has to contact the banks to
say, like, where is this money?
And then the banks have to say,
we don't have the money.
And then the trustee says to say,
Well, can you show me where the
money went?
(41:33):
Say no.
And the banks were withholding the
information
from this trustee.
And so then
more stuff happens.
But like in the meantime, we've
given statements to the regulator
who's the authority.
But like, it's just it's a weird
situation and it's kind of like
(41:53):
frustrating that it hasn't
gotten to
it's like held up with the trustee
because we were we're
all kind of waiting for it.
It's called the funds flow analysis
of like where the funds went.
And so just only
just like a month ago,
they they went back to court
(42:14):
because of this bankruptcy and
they haven't finished the funds flow
analysis. But they've they've
come to the determination that it's
a Ponzi.
Is like a Ponzi scheme.
Yeah. So we I.
I had kind of like.
But, you know, we
all kind of like were suspicious
(42:35):
that it was because of
like the whole dynamic
of what what how
it all played out.
But
we had kind of always
thought that it was maybe just a
failed, failed business venture.
But no, he's actually
like scamming,
stealing and
(42:57):
paying one person.
And then, you know, it's like it's a
Ponzi. And so.
Basically paying paying
money from
the new investors to
the old investors, that gets old
like.
That. The Internet was just like,
yeah. And so, like you,
I think it's still to
(43:17):
be determined if there was
like transaction like how
the banks still or like
need to supply information
and like it all went through
the World Bank and the World
Bank just got fined $7 million
from the like
Canadian regulator because
they weren't providing documentation
(43:38):
that the regulator needed like in
general floor to,
you know, look so that the
regulator can be sure that they're
looking for fraudulent transactions.
I think there's been a few banks
that have had fines lately for
not providing documentation that's
required in
to make sure that,
(43:59):
you know, money laundering is not
happening and stuff like that.
So it's kind of like.
Really relevant to what's happening
to us to see like.
That these banks are getting
fined for not
providing. And it's like and then
this funds flow analysis is taking
like so long because
what's kind of also happening,
(44:19):
which is really frustrating for
a lot of the investors that
is it's
it's impacted our tax returns.
So because we were
getting investment income we were
getting t fives is what it's
called when you get investment
income.
It turns out he wasn't
supposed to be giving t fives
(44:39):
because only like someone who's
licensed for investments
can give T for like a bank or
something like that.
So in the meantime, we
done a tax return saying that we
got income but we hadn't actually
got paid.
So we had to do tax returns
with income we hadn't received.
(45:00):
So now we're having to do this
reconciliation of
accounts. And
in the meantime, like CRA is
like is it's kind of like our IRS.
It's the same.
They're kind of waiting for this
funds flow analysis
because they need to make a
determination for the investors
of how we can reconcile our taxes.
(45:21):
So it's like this whole loop of like
the trustees waiting for the banks
and the bank, you know, the
taxes are waiting for the
the trustee.
And like it's all this circle
of like things that are
getting happened.
And in the meantime, like, I think
that in order to press criminal
charges they needs this funds flow
(45:41):
analysis to see that there was
actual like criminal activity with
funds and it's just
it's a mess.
well I'm so I'm so sorry
to hear that.
Like it's taken over
the last, like year and a half
of our lives of like, what's
happened and like that
(46:02):
you're just so caught up in, in your
involved in like, it's like affects
you mentally
of like this happened to us and
like it's really depressing
that you could be
involved in that you know and
get scammed and like it's so weird.
It's not
I never
(46:22):
thought that would happen or,
you know, you know.
Like.
It's so weird.
Yeah, I'm sure it came across
as being very legitimate.
So.
Yeah.
How do you what would you say to
people to how to watch out
for that type of thing?
And also, was there a background
check on this person?
(46:42):
I did check for like a broker
license and on the like
authority, like the regulator that
regulated him. He did have an active
license because he did do
mortgage brokering for
like residential mortgage
broker, like that was his business.
And then this,
like private lending was kind of
like a thing he did on the side kind
(47:03):
of thing. So he did have
like a legitimate front business.
And then it was just sort of this
other side of things.
And so it's just it's hard
to know.
Like it's hard to check
for scammers, you know,
like it's.
It's so weird.
It's just.
It's.
(47:23):
You think it's something's legit and
it's not. And like, I mean,
the returns were good.
You have to be
conscious of when things are too
good to be true, like they probably
are. It's like when you look on
Facebook marketplace and you're
like, that's a good deal.
That's a good deal. I mean, you
click on it, you're like, it's a
scam,
(47:44):
you know, but it's evident.
Whereas this is like it was this
whole facade of like
he had people working for him
that were like his
people to get the investor set up.
He had relationships with
other like licensed
investors that I had checked with
to see, you know, how is it for you
(48:06):
and stuff like, like it.
It was kind of a perfect storm of
like.
Yeah, it's just weird.
But how it all
happened.
Yeah. Well, I'm so sorry to hear
that. It sounds really sophisticated.
Yeah.
And involved.
What? What advice would you give
to.
(48:27):
People that come across
sudden wealth or they just have some
extra money where they want to
invest. How do you watch out for
someone?
I would say, like
right now,
looking back, I would have just
invested in EFT and
got the dividends and
lived happily ever after.
(48:50):
Yeah.
And because I think
there is risk in the stock market.
But you know,
there is or
there's, I think, stability
in like having a base
and then like having that extra
money you can kind of play around
with and stuff.
And it's hard to.
(49:10):
What advice to tell people because
it's there's
so many things you can
do right and there's so many things
you could risk and do wrong.
So it's
and I've
learned that you can't
trust everybody.
And advice sometimes is wrong.
(49:31):
Like, you know,
a lot with
online, there's been a lot of
like people who have come into
wealth because of whatever.
If they've invested in short term
rentals or if they've invested in,
you know, the stock market or
there's so much out there that you
(49:52):
can just get sucked into the way
that it's played out for that
person. And then they sell you this
course or this thing or this
and like you can totally get
influenced so easily
and it's
hard to know who to trust,
especially now, like what's happened
to us and stuff.
I it's hard to have
advice.
(50:15):
Well, yeah, I hope that they
resolve that soon.
And you guys are
able to get your money back
after you.
We went through this.
You trying to look at what happened
with the Bernie Madoff situation?
So that's taken, I
think, 10 to 12 years
of
(50:37):
the I think
what happened with that is that they
assigned the the regulator,
like the financial regulator or
of security investing in the
states. They assigned a working
group or like a committee
that was specifically only for
the Madoff situation.
And they basically took
the net winners and the net losers
(50:58):
and then they evened everybody
out, I think is what happened.
So like, some people had to pay
back.
And some in there were.
So there's net winners and losers.
And so I don't know if this
is how this situation is going to
play out is like the people
because there was people who had it
been investing with him for
(51:19):
like ten years.
Right. And so they've been getting
returns and returns and
like, you know, they're
going to possibly have to pay back.
But I don't know.
I mean, we were only so
recently in it that we're
definitely a net loser.
So we would get paid
back if it.
But, I mean, people would have to
(51:39):
sell. People just go bankrupt
before they would pay,
you know, stuff back.
So I don't know.
It would I don't know if there's
any hope. I think the main
thing is that we want our taxes, our
taxes sorted out so that we
can claim the loss
on our taxes because we're not there
like we were. I'm still working with
(52:00):
my accountant or kind of waiting
for the C.R.A.
to make a ruling on
like what kind of loss?
Because there's kind of two
different losses.
There's a capital loss and there's a
business loss.
So a capital loss is more like
if you lost money
in a real estate investment,
(52:20):
it's like a capital
loss where a business
loss is something that you're sort
of getting interest in income
off of regularly and like.
So we could spread the loss over a
couple of years, which would be more
beneficial for us.
But a capital loss, you have to
claim it in the year that you
got that the loss happened.
(52:42):
So we're hopeful that
it will be more of a business
loss and that we can kind of
claim it over because then we'll
even out on our taxes and stuff
like that. And then I
don't know if we ever got paid
back something, then we have to sort
it out later.
Yeah, we're just sort of hopeful
that that kind of gets reconciled
(53:03):
with the tax agency.
But I mean, they're all
depending on these other people
writing the information.
So it's kind of a bit of a
whole wait
waiting game.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm so sorry to hear that.
It sounds like I mean, it's really
been a whirlwind from
(53:24):
winning the lottery this very,
you know, wonderful.
And now it's wonderful.
But it's like
it changes your life and, you
know, having this happen to us,
it's a try to see
from every situation of like, what
good things happen from
even negative things.
(53:44):
It's it's still hard to see
right now like what's come out.
I mean I got to go film
that show in L.A.
and like the the casting
director I said, you know, if if
I hadn't had that last what I've
been on this show.
She said, No, you wouldn't.
So, I mean, that was what
thing that.
But I would have rather not had
(54:06):
the loss than
if.
Yeah it's
it's kind of it's just weird how
things play out that you
don't expect your, you know, turn
of events or
it's. Yeah, that's what life
is though. Life you know has
throws those curveballs and stuff
(54:27):
like that. I mean yeah
it's nobody
expected Covid and that happened and
like so it's, it's like
yeah it's life.
Yeah.
Yeah. Now it is time to move on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that's.
I'm sorry to hear that.
(54:48):
Yeah, it's.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds really
weird.
Yeah, it's weird to like the.
Because what's happened in Canada
is
I don't know if you've heard that
the news agencies are not allowed
to post on social media.
No. W Have you
heard that?
(55:09):
No. Yeah.
So we
like this situation
that's happened to us.
Like there's been some news media
about this guy and like, it's like,
so it's on like the 5:00 news,
but we can't
get you can't even post on social
media. Like, I can't share a link
from a newspaper
and like, stuff like, it's very
(55:31):
strange. And so.
What has happened to us hasn't
been in the media that much, like
it hasn't really been.
But, you know,
because, you know, people
have kind of transitioned to getting
their their news from social
media now. You know, we don't watch
TV as much.
(55:52):
You kind of engage with social
media. So you kind of you have
to actually go
to the like website of the news
agencies and but not
as many people do that.
I mean, so it's been
a bit of a change.
The government like
this law that like something
changed with the media and the media
said, okay, we're not posting
(56:13):
it. So it's like it
hasn't had a lot of awareness about
like because
like if you think of like
the Bernie Madoff thing, I mean, it
was a big thing.
But this is this is the biggest one
in Canada. $300 million
is like.
But it hasn't really but I don't
know if that's because he hasn't had
a criminal charge yet, because
(56:34):
they haven't charged him
yet with anything.
So I don't know.
Obviously was not predicted.
It was terrible
and shocking.
And yeah, just came
out of, you know, not something you
expected. But what about
things that you do expect
(56:55):
in life? Because a lot
of people are watching or listening
to this are also into
the power of visualization and
manifestation and that sort
of thing. And the last time that we
spoke, we spoke briefly
a little bit about that.
And I was just curious what your
thoughts are because you had some
things happen before your
lottery win
(57:15):
that.
Yeah, I.
I did have some things happen.
And I think because you're open to
it, you know,
it happens. And if you
have that mindset and that way of
thinking, then.
Things were happening.
But it's.
(57:36):
I feel like.
I'm like stuck right now
in, like a not.
I don't know. I feel like kind of
like, where do I go
from here? It's like this regrouping
of, like and
like, it's hard when you have
something happen that's in a
(57:56):
negative way to
it's, it's when you're, when things
are positive and things you're like,
yeah, that was, that was the sign I
got. Or, you know, I had a dream or
I had this thing that someone gave
me. And, you know, that's,
you know what?
And so it's
like I have to figure out how
to kind of move forward from
(58:17):
negativity to kind of get back to
that of like, openness
to like things happening
for a reason or what, You
know, it's, it's kind of it gives me
a bit of a hit to your
sort of mental way
being in stuff.
I did actually find
the person who I
(58:39):
talked to about the little I
received something at work in the
mail. It was a little
it's called an organ.
She had I had talked to her on the
phone and we talked
about some something
that she was thinking about property
that she was buying or something.
And I'd helped her over the phone.
And then she sent me this lovely
note, like just
(59:00):
like about a week after our phone
call, it appeared at the office and
it was like, Here's this
like orgone.
And it's like, so, you know,
this will help you.
And then like a month later, we won
the lottery and stuff.
And like I it
was so weird that that kind
of happened. And then I'd always
I kept I kept I keep it
(59:21):
always in my purse and
I, I finally figured
out who she is.
And so I want
to go and, like, meet her
and talk to her.
And so I think
I feel like maybe
if I think I need to do that
and I haven't done that yet.
So that's something that maybe
we can I can do it.
(59:42):
We can talk about it.
That's great.
I want to try to film, like meeting
with her because she's she
doesn't know
that that happened to us after, like
she and she's
kind of like someone who
does, you know, readings
and she has
she makes these organs that have
(01:00:03):
these positive
things, you know, when you have
these things. So I think it
would be neat to connect with her.
And so I think I have to do
that soon.
Yeah, that would be that would be
really neat. So what sort of
orgone? Like what what exactly was
it?
It's like a little
it's like an a poxy thing that's
(01:00:23):
like a little it.
And it has things that are inside of
it that have like
maybe
metaphysical qualities in the
rocks or the things that.
And I think it stems
from a bit of a Scottish thing
I think is an orgone and
which is kind of neat because I'm
like Mckenzie's.
(01:00:44):
So yeah,
I think it was a really neat gesture
that somebody did for me.
And, and so I,
you know, want to
kind of re regroup and see,
you know, thank her
for her kind gesture
and and stuff like that.
So I think that I should do that.
(01:01:05):
But I don't want to, I,
I, I want her to figure out who
I am until I actually meet her in
person.
Speaking about meeting in person,
have you had people what sort of
reactions do you get?
Reactions from anyone on the street
that has seen you on any of these
shows or.
No, no, nobody.
(01:01:26):
Like I.
I think like once when we were on
vacation in Mexico, somebody
recognized my husband.
And then I went, I, I
when I took my. Graham, No, I took
my kids.
We, I took my kids on an Alaska
cruise like two years ago.
And we I, it was so
fun. I loved taking them on a
cruise. I used to work on cruise
ships.
(01:01:46):
So taking my kids back
and showing them like where I used
to work and the fun things I used to
do and stuff.
And it was we had the best time.
And I sat down when
the first day we got on the ship and
then we go up to the deck and we sit
on the lounge chairs and
I sit next to this,
this lady, and she was so nice.
We started talking and she was like
(01:02:08):
from close to where I lived.
And she said, I recognize
you.
And I was like, Well, I don't know.
Like, do you know?
Do you know do where do you live
and stuff?
And she's like,
I just I recognize you.
Well, do you watch HGTV?
And she said.
(01:02:28):
Yes, that's you.
And I said, Yeah.
That was nice.
And then, but it was so
neat. And. It was like I made
friends with them and we hung out
the rest of the cruise.
We like had dinners together
and like it was just such
a great.
You know, people don't fan girl.
(01:02:50):
They just like want they love
hearing your story.
They love hearing what happened to
us. And like, it's
it's such a great story to share.
And so it was neat to have
someone, like, recognize me and
knew me from that story.
I haven't been to Vegas, so I don't
know if like I go to Vegas.
If anything,
I'd like to go to
(01:03:11):
do some do a trip
to Vegas and I think that would be
fun.
Yeah, it's such a such a fun city.
Although it doesn't have the
lottery, it's it's
no surprise. And they don't offer
the the lottery out of all of the
gambling.
Like you can't buy lottery tickets.
They don't sell them in the state of
Nevada.
So what?
(01:03:32):
Powerball?
Yeah. No Powerball.
Everyone goes.
Well, not everyone, but
it's crazy.
If you take a road trip
across the United States and you're
in the corner of.
Like, right where California and
Nevada meet.
There's this store
that's literally just over
(01:03:53):
the border in California.
And all the people from a
lot of people from Nevada go there.
And there's these lines around the
store to buy lottery tickets
because they're in Nevada.
Yeah, I did not know that.
Yeah, it's.
Pretty hard to believe.
It's crazy.
I, I when we went to Disneyland,
(01:04:14):
I bought I bought tickets for the
Powerball.
Because I think you.
Can win as a Canadian.
You can actually win
if you're like if you buy the ticket
in person or whatever.
I think there's it's
still I heard it still work
this.
Yeah, you can definitely win as a
foreign, you know, as a
(01:04:35):
nonresident and you could still go
out and win and that would be a
story to tell.
My God.
Lottery jackpot.
Yeah, I know.
I hope I can win another one.
I'm. I'm trying to I'm still
doing you know, I still play the
B.C. Children's Hospital.
Jimmy Kimmel had one that he just
did for hospital.
Cause I think if he had taken his
(01:04:56):
son to the hospital.
So then, like, they were doing a
hospital, a lottery.
So I bought those tickets and
there's like a lot of fundraisers.
Like especially nowadays,
things are more virtual and stuff.
There's a lot of like raffles and
I the hockey we like
our kids are both in hockey and they
always do 5050s.
(01:05:16):
So ah, I do enter those and
I do actually win those
so.
Well yeah.
We will have to.
When that happens, we're going to
have to book the next interview,
that third, third interview.
Yeah.
It's totally possible.
We're here with Lana Mckenzie.
(01:05:36):
Lana, where can people
find you?
Are you on social media?
I am L'antigene zero zero.
That's my Instagram.
I'm hopeful that I'm going to have
a YouTube channel.
Welcome to me.
Do a little videos about me
in my life.
So yeah, I would love to see
people reach out to me on social
(01:05:57):
media and
I try to do some engaging
videos.
For.
Fun.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we will put links to
those in the shownotes.
If you're listening to this or in
the description of this
video, if you're watching on
YouTube.
But Lana,
(01:06:19):
I really, really appreciate your
time today.
It sounds like you have really been
through so much and
your lottery story
and experience is very inspiring.
And it's just everything is
You've been through a lot.
Is there anything else that you
wanted to say today that I
didn't ask or that you just want to
(01:06:40):
say today?
I just I want to say thanks
to you. Like having the connection
that I made with
you and your, you know, stories
that you tell, I think
and even reconnecting five
years later and you
kind of like if there's
you hear about something and you
(01:07:00):
tell me and just us having that
relationship, I think it's really
great. And I love your channel
and what you've done on your channel
and the stories that you tell
or I think it's really neat.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And your story is very,
very inspiring.
With the lottery win and with your
family. I hope they're doing well.
(01:07:22):
But it's.
Yeah, it's.
They're great.
Yeah.
It's great to see you again.
Yeah, you as well.
And I hope they resolve.
I hope that all the legal
all that stuff gets
you to meet sooner.
Sooner than later.
Yeah.
So. But, yeah.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you. It's so nice to see.
(01:07:43):
You again, too.
So that was my interview with Linda
McKenzie. Now, what did you think
about this interview?
Let me know your thoughts by
commenting under the YouTube page.
For this interview, we will put a
link to it along with all the other
important links in the show notes.
Remember, anything and everything
is possible.
Thank you so much for listening
(01:08:04):
today and thank you for your
support.
Welcome to lottery, Dreams and
Fortune. My name is Timothy Schultz.
This is an interview with Lana
Mckenzie.
Now, if you want to watch this
interview, we will put a link to the
YouTube page in the show notes.
Without further ado, let's get to
the interview. So I am so excited
to be joined here by Lana Mckenzie.
Her story is inspiring,
very, very inspiring.
(00:20):
And she actually is many things,
but also a lottery winner.
She actually won a jackpot
of $2.2 million
from the B.C.
Children's Hospital
Lottery.
Her story is very heartwarming.
She was one of the first
people that I interviewed on
this channel.
So we met once
(00:40):
before. But a lot has
happened. And so we're going to
get caught up with her and learn
more about her story. Lana, how are
you doing today?
I'm great.
It's so great to see you again.
I was looking back and I can't
believe it's been, like, over five
years since we last talked.
When was this?
When did this happen that you won
this $2.2 million prize
(01:02):
from the Children's Hospital
lottery?
That was it in 2017.
So May of 2017.
My son had been a patient at the
hospital, the B.C.
Children's Hospital, and then
we just wanted to support any way we
could. And so we bought the
the fundraiser lottery tickets.
They do two fundraisers a year with
them.
(01:22):
To win a prize, you can get
a choice of a house or just take a
cash prize. And so we decided on the
cash prize.
Yeah, it was completely life
changing and in so
many good ways.
It's like just surreal
when it all happens.
And then you kind of
now have to navigate through like,
(01:43):
what do we do now?
How does this how does
our lifestyle look like right now?
And you want wanted to improve, you
know, the way.
Yeah. It's it's I think
the biggest challenge is
been to
kind of like set yourself
up for the future so that
it's not like
(02:04):
this big.
And then you just kind of sad.
Said and then it's like.
You you don't want to be a broke
lottery winner.
Yeah. So you the
at first you kind of make like rash,
you know, quick decisions.
But it's so much better when you
actually can make
(02:25):
decisions that are like
thinking about the long term and,
and things like that.
So yeah.
Yeah, that sounds very wise.
And there's that stigma out there
of lottery winners
going through money.
There's the stigma in our culture,
but I don't know how much of that
is true or not true, but it's
certainly.
(02:46):
Yeah, it's the way the media
portrays it. But like that, that
guy that just won like the biggest
Powerball ever and like
he's buying all these houses.
And in my mind, I'm like, that's
good. But like, you have to have
enough to maintain those houses.
You have to have enough income
coming in from your investments
that if you don't have enough
to maintain what you've bought, like
(03:08):
it's, you know, buying these huge
properties. Like there's people
that you have to hire to do
all this work or taxes you have
to pay And like, yeah,
it's interesting seeing, you
know, how the media reports
it or like what information
you see about other lottery winners.
I loved your video with the guy
who won the
(03:29):
$10 million scratcher.
And then yeah Bradley.
Hired me.
Yeah. And then he ended up with like
3 million, which is like how it
works in the States or whatever.
But I was like so inspired
by how they were so
good with their investments
and living off the money
from the investments.
I thought that was like so
(03:50):
smart and inspiring.
And it was like, I
wished I'd made different decisions
along the way where after I'd
seen that video and
how it was, they
were so smart
with the decisions they made.
And in it's kind of like
if you kind of stop and think about
(04:11):
the long term.
Is is much more
beneficial than like this short term
like stuff
material. You know, it's
it's it's it's hard to
have the mindset because it's such a
big you know, it's such a big thing
and.
Yeah. And and you won
this 2.2
(04:33):
million now in Canada
a lot of prizes if you win lotto max
or one of the major prizes and
I assume this as well tax
free it's.
All tax free.
Yeah.
So that's our government
has sort of set it up.
So it's it's like a gift.
You're giving a gift because all
the people that have bought the
tickets have paid income tax on
(04:54):
the money. You know this.
And so it's like all this taxation
that would happen.
So luckily our government has
kept it as a tax free investment.
And then but any of your income
that like once you invest the money,
any income that's taxable income.
So then you want to, you
know, do things that are going to
leverage. And, you
(05:14):
know, there was some strategies that
we thought about, but
not everything works out okay.
I think it's quite.
Well I definitely want to ask
your thoughts on that but
before I get to that, I
read that you purchased three
tickets for a total of $100.
(05:35):
So yeah,
and a little bit of back story.
Your son you mentioned was in the
hospital.
What why was he in the hospital
For people that aren't yet familiar
with your story?
And yeah, he
when I was pregnant, it was detected
that he had an enlarged kidney.
So they monitored it while I was
(05:55):
pregnant. And then once
he was born, then
he had the ultrasounds
right away to see what it was
and it was not functioning
properly.
So it was decided that
he the best course
would be to have surgery.
So at eight months old, he had
kidney surgery
(06:17):
and that was a
crazy experience to hand your baby
over to the doctor and
hope that it all goes well.
And but it did.
It was amazing care.
Amazing. Doctors like the surgery
that they're doing is this
microsurgery.
It's so tiny on,
you know, just a eight month old
little baby. And it was
(06:38):
the care the nurses, the
the we stayed there for three days
and he quickly was
getting better, you know, right
away. And then
the day that we it
was, I think two years later
that we won because
the lottery
from that and the same day
(06:59):
we got the like all clear that every
surgery was successful and
it was like his kidney was better
than before. So we got to hold
the check and then we got the great
news.
So the same day.
My gosh.
And what did that feel like?
It was, like, incredible.
It was so good.
And like the day
you get the news, it's like
(07:21):
you actually do the check picture
like about a week later.
So like, I knew these because we
have to go over to Vancouver.
We actually live on being Cooper
Island, so we are
it's about a like six hour
day trip to get to Vancouver.
So we kind of had to plan it out of
like going.
And I knew we were going to have
this appointment with the doctor.
So we like coordinate it all in the
(07:42):
same day of doing this check
presentation and doing
the appointment with the doctor.
And then we actually had a
painting that we had
from when we moved over to the
island, we had a goodbye present.
It was a painting of our family, so
I had a copy of it made and I gave
that to ABC Children's as a thank
you gift.
So it was really like a really
(08:02):
nice experience.
It was amazing to like,
take this check with this 2 million,
you know, $2.2 million and,
and that that our son was
going to be just fine.
And, you know, it's just
it's like so great.
That is amazing.
And I read that you had $33
in your bank account prior to that.
(08:23):
Is that true?
Yeah, maybe.
I think that we might have been.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
My. My husband was making us
money.
So what did you do right after you
got this money?
(08:44):
We we had recently moved over
to Vancouver Island, and we were
staying at, like, my grandparents
cottage. And then
we were, we were going to actually
be buying a place because
we were moving over here.
We just hadn't really kind of
decided. So it was
kind of an opportunistic move.
And then I contacted
the TV and
(09:06):
I got to audition.
They accepted our story
and then did the filming and
David brought. Said found our house.
That's right. Because you were on my
lottery dream home.
My Lottery Dream Home.
Yeah, we were on the lottery dreamshow.
Yeah, it was.
That was, like, so much
fun. I loved feeling
that it was so much
(09:28):
fun to do.
It was so much like
the film crew that they had were
just so tight and they were just
such a great group of people and
it was like so fun.
I loved it.
And like we ended
up picking, you know, the house
and we actually were still
in the house. We we love it.
It's like out of everything
that's happened and everything
(09:49):
that we've bought or
things, whatever we've done,
it's been so great
to like have this rock
of like, you know, your, your
home. It's like it's so important
to have your home base
in your home, like
through Covid.
It was so amazing
(10:10):
that we had this, like, beautiful
house to joy to have the space.
We we ended up putting a pool
in the backyard.
We extended the patio,
made it bigger, put a gazebo.
It's a mess right now because the
kids are also in summer.
So I have my nice banana
leaf background.
Yeah, it looks like you're in a
(10:31):
jungle or something.
You have all these leaves behind
you. What is that?
At the Beverly Hills Hotel?
Virtually, This
is the iconic banana leaf
wallpaper that they have that was
put in specifically at the Beverly
Hills Hotel.
It made an appearance on the Golden
Girls as well.
But his bedroom was like this.
(10:51):
So it's one of my favorite
backgrounds. So I thought
it was a little bit of fun
to do that.
I don't know if the housing market
like where you are has like
increased so much, but
we our house is actually doubled in
value for what we
we borrowed 700,000.
It's now 41.4 million.
(11:12):
And like, so just
having like when we paid
cash, we didn't get a mortgage.
We and it's been
like just the best decision
and like the best part of the
whole situation.
It's like a great location.
The kids can walk to school, the
high schools, the hockey rings.
(11:34):
My husband was.
Like.
I had to talk him into.
Doing the show.
The H, the
My Lottery Dream Home, you had totalk
him into it.
Yeah.
What was his hesitation?
He's he he doesn't
love cameras and doing
like being the center focus
(11:54):
you know he's such a great
guy so friendly but he likes
more one on one where I'm
more like.
Tell everybody
what was the attention like when
you and then a few
national television shows.
But I mean that's beyond national
that's.
We were actually the first Canadians
(12:15):
so when I approached the
show they
had never come to Canada before.
The show was in
its fourth season
when ours was season four,
Episode 11.
So when we
joined the show
(12:36):
had popularity, it was like
number two on the
for HGTV.
Their network Fixer, upper
Fixer Upper was like the show
that everyone loved right then.
And so my lottery dream house
was like slowly making
its waves. But it hadn't quite,
you know, people were enjoying
(12:58):
it. But now I think it's
during Covid, it became one of their
number one shows and
it really took off because people
like that story of like, what could
I what could happen if I won the
lottery? You know, it's such a feel
good story that they show.
I love the way they edited and the
way that they show the like
everybody looking for the dream is
(13:18):
such a great concept.
And it's like to be part
of that show is so neat.
Yeah. What a unique
and fun opportunity.
There's a lot of really inspiring
stories on there.
And they did a follow up with you
Was that in 2020 or.
Yeah, during Covid like?
So I actually after we
(13:38):
did that and then it
was like I was looking for other
investments.
And so I was looking at doing
like some more real estate
purchases
and I contacted them about
doing more of like a condo in
Victoria. And so they actually,
because I look back with the show
(13:58):
and the director and the casting,
they said, Well, yeah, like
would you be interested to audition?
And we'll talk about, you know,
going and having you buy another
condo, because I wanted one in
Victoria, which is about three hours
south of here.
I did the audition and they accepted
me again. So
I but then because of Covid,
(14:19):
they never came rent
or they said they couldn't get
the production crew through the
border because the Australian
government had shut down the border
and they couldn't get any crews
through. And because that didn't
work out, we sort of did like catch
up, like, you know, what's everybody
doing kind of thing.
And I don't know if it I try
to find it. And they took those
(14:41):
shows off because I
think be like
they like it to be like happy
stories and like seeing
people filming during Covid is kind
of like, right.
You know? So they might have taken
some of that shows off their network
streaming and stuff like that.
But it was great.
It was a one hour episode and I had
(15:02):
about five minutes of airtime and I
just talked about, you know, what
we've been doing.
And and then I sort of led into
like, I'm thinking about buying a
place in Victoria.
What's in these like, I'll come
back.
And.
But it kind of fizzled.
So I went off on my own and
I searched on my
my own self.
(15:22):
And I did find
a condo that I really loved.
And so
for me, like I started
investing in the stock market,
I started doing investments
with a
financial advisor and that
worked out good. And it was like
something that we sort of found
through my grandpa and stuff.
(15:43):
But real estate is
like, I just.
How far was this after you won
the lottery that you got of
Financial Advisor?
Well, that was right away.
I mean, it's
kind of like you feel like that's
what you're supposed to do.
Yeah, everybody's
telling you, you know, And
(16:03):
so there had been people that
like had contacted me
through Facebook Messenger.
We went to school together.
So do you.
Need a financial advisor?
You know, so my grandpa
had a guy locally that
worked out fine, but
there, you know, and we set things
up and there's but
(16:25):
there's mistakes that were made
that were annoying.
And, you know,
I sort of through
the journey of investments
and stuff, I figured
because I'm so
good at, I like
to do it myself.
Like, I like to do my own research
(16:45):
about investments
or like gifts or
but, you know, sometimes things
aren't good or some things are good,
like when
the stock market and like when Covid
hit, the stock market just went
crazy. Like, because streaming
I actually had invested in HGTV
like the Discovery stock
(17:07):
and because I like investing
in things that I'm
I know like that are
meaningful to me or have affected
me in my life.
So like investing in Discovery
was who owned HGTV?
And like, so I put the stock and
it was just before they announced
streaming.
And so the stock like Donald
(17:27):
was amazing.
I mean, I hadn't put a lot, but
it was still like, wow, look at
that.
And so and that was like,
I had done that through my
advisor because that's how
you like, I don't have a trading
license.
And so but it was
my decision.
And so.
(17:49):
Once there started to be like
self trading platforms,
I started moving in that direction
because I wanted to control it
myself.
Because there was mistakes made with
like moving some money from
one to the other for
and it had tax implications
and our financial
(18:09):
advisor done that and it
was really kind of like annoying.
So, so I
just yeah, I decided to take
control of myself and then to
like,
diversify your portfolio.
You know, I want to invest in real
estate because I wanted
a more active investment
(18:30):
that I had control over because
I had I will be able to buy
it. I would be able to do what I
wanted to it, and then
I would be able to sell it or rent
it out or, you know, I wanted
you kind of want
I'm someone who likes that control
and some people or
they like to just sit and forget and
(18:50):
like just make a bit of money.
And, you know, it just depends.
If you want to be an active investor
or more of a passive investor.
And my husband's more passive.
He's like, just, you know,
let things just go where I'm
more like active.
Like, yeah, absolutely.
You were actually on
a show, I believe it is called
(19:11):
Hustlers, Gamblers
and Crooks
recently, just recently.
And so, yeah, what is
that? Where can people find it and
what what is that all about?
What happened?
So I had a friend,
you know, tell me about this
investment she's done.
She had great success.
She's been getting some really good
(19:32):
returns.
So I tried it out.
It was with a mortgage broker
locally here
on the island, Victoria.
And it was it was still
investing in real estate, doing the
short term bridge loan.
So like, you would
lend out your money through this
mortgage broker that would like
(19:53):
you. He would put together
financing for, you know,
projects or people that needed to
borrow money for real estate.
It was kind of like
just sort of like private lending
opportunities so
that I sort of like once I sold
all the real estate and then
we just had some actual
money to play with.
(20:13):
And so I was like, okay, well try
this. And I was getting great
returns.
But unfortunately
things went a bit sideways
with that situation
and
the guy took off with
over 1200 investors.
Money left the country
(20:35):
and $300
million is gone.
Stolen, scammed.
$300 million.
Yes.
People different.
Wow. It turns.
Out that.
It was a huge
scam, that
(20:56):
it seemed like a legit investment.
I talked to my lawyer, you know,
what should I be checking for?
And my lawyer said, you know, check
with the Mortgage Broker
Association. You should make sure
he's licensed.
Talk to other investors.
You know, I spoke to someone who
was an exempt
market dealer.
She said she'd had great success.
(21:19):
I did, you know, research
the project. It was like other
people had success.
I tested I did one investment, put
some money in, took some money out,
got returns.
And so then
the the company like the
company, it was the guy
(21:39):
he had this like good really good
setup because he
started working with people who
were in the market dealer
like invest private lending
sort of area.
And they brought this good system
that was it was like a portal
that investors had so that we could
check which investments we were
(22:01):
invested in, how what
was happening with your payouts.
And it was kind of like it was
actually a really good system that
worked in other
like with other investment
companies, like there's
some companies that you can
lend your money and they invest in
multifamily in the states,
and so they'll invest in apartment
(22:23):
buildings. And then you keep your
money in there for a year or two and
then you get returns back when they
sell off the properties and stuff.
So I had I knew
that that system was
being used and so
it felt like it was
good because you had this good
online system
that you could see.
(22:44):
So
the guys.
That.
Did it totally did, and it was
working and it was good.
We were getting payouts.
But then, yeah, we started not
getting payouts and then we
started trying to contact
the guy and he wasn't reachable
and like he wasn't talking.
And then there was like people
on like Reddit were like
(23:06):
talking to other investors, started
connecting with each other on
Facebook. And we started like,
because he would have these like,
Zoom calls. And it was but nobody
could talk. Nobody could chat.
It was just a one way of him like
giving us information, You're going
to get your payout.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so was he.
Where was.
He?
He was originally based in Victoria
(23:26):
and, like, he knows a lot of my
friends. Like he.
He's is.
He's not.
No. I think he's someone who
knew how to work the system.
And figured out how to
He figured out how to
launder money.
Really?
And do it in a way like,
yeah, it's is such a scam.
(23:46):
And so he
ended up he, he was trying to start
this company that was like a
competitor to Toro.
Do you know what Toro is?
It's like a where if you have a car
like if you have a fancy car you can
or any car you're
usually Tesla is or it's a
platform where you can rent
(24:06):
someone's it's like Airbnb cars.
Yeah yeah I am familiar.
Yeah. And so he was trying
to start this thing called car share
that he was had
people designing websites and
like he had started doing it and so
he had moved to California
and like he was offering investments
that were in with like
real estate in California.
(24:28):
And then he was doing because
he was based in Victoria, but then
going down. So he had investors
actually from California, he
had investors from New York.
It's like it's
he had people all across America
that like, it's crazy.
It's going to be the biggest scam in
Canada like
(24:48):
that ever happened.
This guy was.
And it's it's still ongoing.
Did the is he still missing
or is there been accountability for
what's happening?
So in 2022,
this is when he
left the country.
He said he told the
investors that he
(25:09):
was he had started
volunteering with this company.
It's called ah railroad
or something. It was like a company
that goes and
gets.
Human trafficking.
Like if kids are being human
trafficked, they go and like get
those kids and rescue them.
(25:30):
And so he said he was volunteering,
but I don't think he was.
I think he went to a gala event and
took his picture. And then he used
it to say that like he was
I think he used it as
a decoy or whatever,
so that he said
he was going to Thailand to go on a
mission to like volunteer
and be on a mission.
(25:52):
And so we were like,
that sounds great.
Then it's like, turns
out he like, skipped the country
and knew where
he was and no one was getting
any money. And it like.
Yeah, it all this
film like it's gotten
(26:12):
like I we
invested quite a bit because it was
successful and so I was,
you know, trying to leverage
some
money so that like you
could, I borrowed a bit so that it
was like a tax write
off because when you borrow to
invest and you get these tax breaks
and stuff, So it
(26:33):
was kind of like you're getting
caught up in like.
Yeah.
And so, yeah,
it was devastating.
Once we found, like, my friend
texted me like he's left the country
and it was like the
air just came out of me and I just
like.
It was so crazy
(26:54):
to think that someone
had intentionally
stolen your money like it was
it.
It's the craziest
feeling of
devastation.
Like, and so then,
like, things started appearing
on the news.
The local news picked it up.
(27:15):
And I mean,
there's investors that have been
completely wiped out like.
You know, grandparents that have put
their pension in with
him and.
Like just.
Completely devastated and
like, we're not devastated at all.
We we it was
just part of our whole, you
(27:35):
know, portfolio and things like
that. It's super sucky.
It's, you know, a pain
in the butt and it feels
really like it
feels like you've been.
Like a crime has happened to you.
You like it's weird.
It's so strange.
And so while that was happening,
(27:55):
was reached out
by this production company
that was producing shows for
it was it wasn't named at
first the show
because they, you know, see me on
HGTV. They knew our story.
And so it was
they approached me more just about
like our story of the win.
And, you know, they wanted to hear
(28:16):
about it. And so the casting
people had contacted me and
I met with them and I started
doing the interview with the casting
director. And she's like,
that's a great story.
It's not like the lottery stuff
was a good story, but
the the that show
was looking for a little bit more.
(28:37):
And so I said, I'm not
done yet.
I got more of the story.
And so we got into.
For people that are watching or
listening, this is for the show
Hustlers, gamblers and Crooks
on Max.
Yeah, right. Okay.
So I think known the
show would have been named that
would have been maybe if
(28:58):
I didn't find out that what the
show was going to be named I was
when I found out like it,
I found out what the show was called
like way after I filmed
it and stuff. And it
was a bit devastating to be part
of a show that was called Hustlers,
Gamblers, Crooks.
But I feel
thankful that I get to tell my story
(29:20):
and at the end of the day, I'm
not one of those people that
I'm not a hustler, I'm not a crook,
I'm not a gambler.
I had something happen to me
by a crook.
And so my
story is, you know,
interesting enough to tell
it and these extreme things
that happened.
(29:40):
And, you know, I wanted
to put awareness about, you know,
what can happen
easily, that you can get
scammed like it's
people are out there that those
situations that happen and
it's.
It's tough.
And so
I loved filming it, though.
(30:01):
It was so fun to go and film
and slide.
It was like, once.
It's in Las Vegas.
Yeah. So you go through this casting
process, so you meet with the
casting. We do like a
like a virtual meeting.
I tell my story and
they liked, you know, my
the way I am on camera, I guess,
(30:23):
and you know the story that I had to
tell. And then I
hear that they accepted me
so once because
then, like, once you do your casting
tape or whatever, then they take
that to the network because the
production companies are different
than the actual network.
So I didn't actually know what
network it was going to be for.
(30:44):
When you do its cast,
they can they just say a
large network or or
things like that. They don't tell
you like which network
or anything like that because
they don't think they can because
they haven't.
Maybe like they're still pitching.
It's kind of like a you're part
your part of the pitch.
Like they get like approved
(31:06):
for so much money on the show
and the show concept gets approved,
but then they kind of have to do
this pitch like to the network.
So once that all
came about, then
you sign agreements, releases,
you got all the paperwork that you
need to sign, then you do the
scheduling.
So they agreed to pay for my
(31:26):
flights, so they paid for my flights
to L.A. and back.
They paid for my Ubers,
which Uber is like so
fun. I love Uber is
like the most revolutionary
thing. I think it's the coolest
thing. We don't have Uber where.
They didn't have that in Canada, or
at least now.
They have.
Like Uber.
(31:47):
They've got it set up in Victoria,
just got it.
But we don't we're not big enough
here, I guess. I don't know.
We don't have Uber, but it's like
amazing that you can like book a car
with your phone.
So yeah, they set
up these vouchers that were like in
Uber, and when I got
picked up at the airport, I
(32:07):
accidentally might have booked
a luxury.
At the fancy car.
Or like the.
Production assistant, when she
picked me up, she's like, Yeah, So
you got a book the, like, regular?
Is that how that works?
(32:29):
So yeah, I learned how
to use Uber,
and then they put me up in a hotel
for two nights in Burbank, and
then the production assistant
picked me up from the hotel.
We did the filming all in one day.
And like, it's always kind of
surreal, like getting on a plane
because you're going to be going to,
like, film something in L.A.
(32:51):
And it was
like such a cool experience,
even though like, it was like
a sucky thing to talk about.
And it
was. But like the whole experience
of going and like,
getting to do that was super fun.
Was I loved it.
That sounds fun.
(33:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
Really unique opportunity.
Yeah. So the other
production office that they use
there was a few other like
shows that are regularly filmed in
that production office.
So when I get there, they
take me into my own green room.
Which is.
(33:32):
Super fun.
It was like, here's all your snacks,
here's your own bathroom
and your own like sort of place.
And they have like a hangar to hang
out because I brought a few
different outfits. I wasn't sure
what I was going to wear. And then
you get to meet like the director
and like the
producer and
(33:53):
then the actual like, studio
that they actually had set
up was the Josh
Gates Show.
I don't know if you know the
show that's on Discovery.
It was like his
where he does all his talking
and like it but they had a green
screen set up in front of
like all his the all the
(34:13):
like background that he uses in his
show. And I
didn't I never heard of that show.
Is that I was like.
Is that last Tomb's sunken
treasures vanished plant I'm just
reading.
That.
There's a whole different like he
has a whole bunch of different shows
of like treasures
and like he goes hunting for
(34:34):
like different things or has
like, it's actually his
shows are really cool.
And so it's the same production
company that produces his shows.
And then they're they
were like, Dr. Pimple
Popper is upstairs.
You can.
Go. And like you, she's filming
right now. Like, you could go and
say hi. I was like, What?
(34:54):
Yeah. So because my husband.
Yeah.
But it's really neat to like.
You know, be where those people
are and like that that stuff is
happening and stuff.
And so.
So then they get ready and then
like, they set you up
(35:15):
in the
where the filming is.
So it's like just a big green screen
behind you.
And then they they
had like kind of like all the
questions, kind of like
they because they'd seen my
interviews. So they kind of they
know what you were going to talk
about. So then they have specific
questions, kind of like steer
you in the direction that the
(35:36):
director wants you
to do.
And like they're they're a bit
dramatic when they say, like,
it was my nightmare.
Where you said.
No. Well, the director kind of says
like, you know what happened here?
Like, they kind of like get
you to say some dramatic
(35:57):
things that, like, you know,
it's for this show.
It's how they added it together.
So it was
like
but I actually, you know, watching
it back when I watched it back of
like how they pieced it, how they
added it, they did it really,
really good. And like, I was really
proud of myself the way
(36:18):
I talked on the show and how
I explained what happened.
And it really
was very cohesive the way that
they edit it and the way
it really tells the story
really. Like I told the story really
good, but they edited it really
good. And but I didn't
I didn't know, I, I didn't know
(36:39):
what the show was going to be about.
It was like they
had started the production.
You know, we have lunch together and
like, they talk about kind of like
what the show is about and
like, what? Because they have to go
and interview people
and they have to like most people,
they were able to do virtual
interviews. So they like
(36:59):
interviewed, you know, tons
of people trying to source
content and people and
like they talked about the guy
who was on a different episode, but
that like he was an A bet
and he like got that have
fake boobs and then like he ended
up.
Keeping so
yeah.
(37:21):
Someone for him to have fake boobs
and then he did. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like some of these stories
that like after
like I watched, you know, all the
stories and like how they
pieced together each of the stories
that actually the way
the stories were.
And it was good and it was
(37:41):
entertaining. It was like
it was a good shows
on. I think it's still on streaming.
It's on Discovery.
They came out this year in March.
Is it on Max or.
Yeah, I think so, yeah.
Discovery Max or because it's now
HBO Max or
I think in Canada it's on
(38:02):
Discovery plus.
Yeah.
And I think in the States it's HBO
Max or something.
I think there was somebody bought
somebody out or something.
But yeah, it's on there.
And the weird
thing that's really weird
is like, once you have
something happen to you, it's like
this crime and this, like, crazy
thing.
You kind of, like, get
(38:24):
obsessed about looking up things on
the Internet about like, the people
that are involved or the
situations.
And like, I guess he had this
partner in California that
like, was helping him with mortgage
brokering and it was like another
arm that they were trying to get
going or something.
And so supposedly
this guy had no idea about what
(38:45):
he was doing with this other,
you know, short term bridge loan
kind of stuff.
And there was
so I looked him up on Instagram
and then he was friends
with this guy in Las Vegas
that does all this betting.
You know, he could see it get to
I've seen him tagged in the pictures
(39:05):
with him.
And then there was a guy that was
like on my show, his name's
Mickey Mace, and he's crazy gambler
like the things that he did was
like, crazy, like just
millions of dollars in the casinos.
And it ended up that
those two people are friends.
And so it was like this four degrees
of separation
(39:27):
from my situation
that it was like, wow,
it's like small world.
But that's what social media does.
You can find these connections that,
like, you didn't
expect or, you
know, it was like, interesting to
see that connection
with like.
(39:47):
Just situation also
happened.
But yeah, the.
But the
where we're at with like
what happened to us.
The reason why it all played
out is that there was one investor
that invested like $17 million
and the he
(40:08):
ended up hiring a lawyer
and the lawyer
got this guy
put into bankruptcy, like forced
bankruptcy through the courts.
And so that's how it all played out.
And then the guy left the country
and and like, you know, it
was like every day on the news,
it was like something more has
happened with this crazy
(40:30):
mortgage broker that, like, did all
these investing.
And so then, you know, we're
watching all the courts play out.
So he gets put into bankruptcy, then
the trustee takes over.
So then the trustee is the one
that's looking at, you know,
where are the funds where like
they're the ones that get appointed
because of the bankruptcy.
And in the meantime, the regulator
(40:51):
is checking.
But like to this day,
I mean, it's it's now a year and a
half later, it's still no charges
have been pressed, no criminal
charges.
He's only.
I have no idea.
It's ridiculous.
It's like.
It's weird.
(41:12):
It's strange.
It's like the trustee
had to.
To look and,
like. So then the trustee
has to contact the banks to
say, like, where is this money?
And then the banks have to say,
we don't have the money.
And then the trustee says to say,
Well, can you show me where the
money went?
(41:33):
Say no.
And the banks were withholding the
information
from this trustee.
And so then
more stuff happens.
But like in the meantime, we've
given statements to the regulator
who's the authority.
But like, it's just it's a weird
situation and it's kind of like
(41:53):
frustrating that it hasn't
gotten to
it's like held up with the trustee
because we were we're
all kind of waiting for it.
It's called the funds flow analysis
of like where the funds went.
And so just only
just like a month ago,
they they went back to court
(42:14):
because of this bankruptcy and
they haven't finished the funds flow
analysis. But they've they've
come to the determination that it's
a Ponzi.
Is like a Ponzi scheme.
Yeah. So we I.
I had kind of like.
But, you know, we
all kind of like were suspicious
(42:35):
that it was because of
like the whole dynamic
of what what how
it all played out.
But
we had kind of always
thought that it was maybe just a
failed, failed business venture.
But no, he's actually
like scamming,
stealing and
(42:57):
paying one person.
And then, you know, it's like it's a
Ponzi. And so.
Basically paying paying
money from
the new investors to
the old investors, that gets old
like.
That. The Internet was just like,
yeah. And so, like you,
I think it's still to
(43:17):
be determined if there was
like transaction like how
the banks still or like
need to supply information
and like it all went through
the World Bank and the World
Bank just got fined $7 million
from the like
Canadian regulator because
they weren't providing documentation
(43:38):
that the regulator needed like in
general floor to,
you know, look so that the
regulator can be sure that they're
looking for fraudulent transactions.
I think there's been a few banks
that have had fines lately for
not providing documentation that's
required in
to make sure that,
(43:59):
you know, money laundering is not
happening and stuff like that.
So it's kind of like.
Really relevant to what's happening
to us to see like.
That these banks are getting
fined for not
providing. And it's like and then
this funds flow analysis is taking
like so long because
what's kind of also happening,
(44:19):
which is really frustrating for
a lot of the investors that
is it's
it's impacted our tax returns.
So because we were
getting investment income we were
getting t fives is what it's
called when you get investment
income.
It turns out he wasn't
supposed to be giving t fives
(44:39):
because only like someone who's
licensed for investments
can give T for like a bank or
something like that.
So in the meantime, we
done a tax return saying that we
got income but we hadn't actually
got paid.
So we had to do tax returns
with income we hadn't received.
(45:00):
So now we're having to do this
reconciliation of
accounts. And
in the meantime, like CRA is
like is it's kind of like our IRS.
It's the same.
They're kind of waiting for this
funds flow analysis
because they need to make a
determination for the investors
of how we can reconcile our taxes.
(45:21):
So it's like this whole loop of like
the trustees waiting for the banks
and the bank, you know, the
taxes are waiting for the
the trustee.
And like it's all this circle
of like things that are
getting happened.
And in the meantime, like, I think
that in order to press criminal
charges they needs this funds flow
(45:41):
analysis to see that there was
actual like criminal activity with
funds and it's just
it's a mess.
well I'm so I'm so sorry
to hear that.
Like it's taken over
the last, like year and a half
of our lives of like, what's
happened and like that
(46:02):
you're just so caught up in, in your
involved in like, it's like affects
you mentally
of like this happened to us and
like it's really depressing
that you could be
involved in that you know and
get scammed and like it's so weird.
It's not
I never
(46:22):
thought that would happen or,
you know, you know.
Like.
It's so weird.
Yeah, I'm sure it came across
as being very legitimate.
So.
Yeah.
How do you what would you say to
people to how to watch out
for that type of thing?
And also, was there a background
check on this person?
(46:42):
I did check for like a broker
license and on the like
authority, like the regulator that
regulated him. He did have an active
license because he did do
mortgage brokering for
like residential mortgage
broker, like that was his business.
And then this,
like private lending was kind of
like a thing he did on the side kind
(47:03):
of thing. So he did have
like a legitimate front business.
And then it was just sort of this
other side of things.
And so it's just it's hard
to know.
Like it's hard to check
for scammers, you know,
like it's.
It's so weird.
It's just.
It's.
(47:23):
You think it's something's legit and
it's not. And like, I mean,
the returns were good.
You have to be
conscious of when things are too
good to be true, like they probably
are. It's like when you look on
Facebook marketplace and you're
like, that's a good deal.
That's a good deal. I mean, you
click on it, you're like, it's a
scam,
(47:44):
you know, but it's evident.
Whereas this is like it was this
whole facade of like
he had people working for him
that were like his
people to get the investor set up.
He had relationships with
other like licensed
investors that I had checked with
to see, you know, how is it for you
(48:06):
and stuff like, like it.
It was kind of a perfect storm of
like.
Yeah, it's just weird.
But how it all
happened.
Yeah. Well, I'm so sorry to hear
that. It sounds really sophisticated.
Yeah.
And involved.
What? What advice would you give
to.
(48:27):
People that come across
sudden wealth or they just have some
extra money where they want to
invest. How do you watch out for
someone?
I would say, like
right now,
looking back, I would have just
invested in EFT and
got the dividends and
lived happily ever after.
(48:50):
Yeah.
And because I think
there is risk in the stock market.
But you know,
there is or
there's, I think, stability
in like having a base
and then like having that extra
money you can kind of play around
with and stuff.
And it's hard to.
(49:10):
What advice to tell people because
it's there's
so many things you can
do right and there's so many things
you could risk and do wrong.
So it's
and I've
learned that you can't
trust everybody.
And advice sometimes is wrong.
(49:31):
Like, you know,
a lot with
online, there's been a lot of
like people who have come into
wealth because of whatever.
If they've invested in short term
rentals or if they've invested in,
you know, the stock market or
there's so much out there that you
(49:52):
can just get sucked into the way
that it's played out for that
person. And then they sell you this
course or this thing or this
and like you can totally get
influenced so easily
and it's
hard to know who to trust,
especially now, like what's happened
to us and stuff.
I it's hard to have
advice.
(50:15):
Well, yeah, I hope that they
resolve that soon.
And you guys are
able to get your money back
after you.
We went through this.
You trying to look at what happened
with the Bernie Madoff situation?
So that's taken, I
think, 10 to 12 years
of
(50:37):
the I think
what happened with that is that they
assigned the the regulator,
like the financial regulator or
of security investing in the
states. They assigned a working
group or like a committee
that was specifically only for
the Madoff situation.
And they basically took
the net winners and the net losers
(50:58):
and then they evened everybody
out, I think is what happened.
So like, some people had to pay
back.
And some in there were.
So there's net winners and losers.
And so I don't know if this
is how this situation is going to
play out is like the people
because there was people who had it
been investing with him for
(51:19):
like ten years.
Right. And so they've been getting
returns and returns and
like, you know, they're
going to possibly have to pay back.
But I don't know.
I mean, we were only so
recently in it that we're
definitely a net loser.
So we would get paid
back if it.
But, I mean, people would have to
(51:39):
sell. People just go bankrupt
before they would pay,
you know, stuff back.
So I don't know.
It would I don't know if there's
any hope. I think the main
thing is that we want our taxes, our
taxes sorted out so that we
can claim the loss
on our taxes because we're not there
like we were. I'm still working with
(52:00):
my accountant or kind of waiting
for the C.R.A.
to make a ruling on
like what kind of loss?
Because there's kind of two
different losses.
There's a capital loss and there's a
business loss.
So a capital loss is more like
if you lost money
in a real estate investment,
(52:20):
it's like a capital
loss where a business
loss is something that you're sort
of getting interest in income
off of regularly and like.
So we could spread the loss over a
couple of years, which would be more
beneficial for us.
But a capital loss, you have to
claim it in the year that you
got that the loss happened.
(52:42):
So we're hopeful that
it will be more of a business
loss and that we can kind of
claim it over because then we'll
even out on our taxes and stuff
like that. And then I
don't know if we ever got paid
back something, then we have to sort
it out later.
Yeah, we're just sort of hopeful
that that kind of gets reconciled
(53:03):
with the tax agency.
But I mean, they're all
depending on these other people
writing the information.
So it's kind of a bit of a
whole wait
waiting game.
Yeah.
Yeah. I'm so sorry to hear that.
It sounds like I mean, it's really
been a whirlwind from
(53:24):
winning the lottery this very,
you know, wonderful.
And now it's wonderful.
But it's like
it changes your life and, you
know, having this happen to us,
it's a try to see
from every situation of like, what
good things happen from
even negative things.
(53:44):
It's it's still hard to see
right now like what's come out.
I mean I got to go film
that show in L.A.
and like the the casting
director I said, you know, if if
I hadn't had that last what I've
been on this show.
She said, No, you wouldn't.
So, I mean, that was what
thing that.
But I would have rather not had
(54:06):
the loss than
if.
Yeah it's
it's kind of it's just weird how
things play out that you
don't expect your, you know, turn
of events or
it's. Yeah, that's what life
is though. Life you know has
throws those curveballs and stuff
(54:27):
like that. I mean yeah
it's nobody
expected Covid and that happened and
like so it's, it's like
yeah it's life.
Yeah.
Yeah. Now it is time to move on.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that's.
I'm sorry to hear that.
(54:48):
Yeah, it's.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds really
weird.
Yeah, it's weird to like the.
Because what's happened in Canada
is
I don't know if you've heard that
the news agencies are not allowed
to post on social media.
No. W Have you
heard that?
(55:09):
No. Yeah.
So we
like this situation
that's happened to us.
Like there's been some news media
about this guy and like, it's like,
so it's on like the 5:00 news,
but we can't
get you can't even post on social
media. Like, I can't share a link
from a newspaper
and like, stuff like, it's very
(55:31):
strange. And so.
What has happened to us hasn't
been in the media that much, like
it hasn't really been.
But, you know,
because, you know, people
have kind of transitioned to getting
their their news from social
media now. You know, we don't watch
TV as much.
(55:52):
You kind of engage with social
media. So you kind of you have
to actually go
to the like website of the news
agencies and but not
as many people do that.
I mean, so it's been
a bit of a change.
The government like
this law that like something
changed with the media and the media
said, okay, we're not posting
(56:13):
it. So it's like it
hasn't had a lot of awareness about
like because
like if you think of like
the Bernie Madoff thing, I mean, it
was a big thing.
But this is this is the biggest one
in Canada. $300 million
is like.
But it hasn't really but I don't
know if that's because he hasn't had
a criminal charge yet, because
(56:34):
they haven't charged him
yet with anything.
So I don't know.
Obviously was not predicted.
It was terrible
and shocking.
And yeah, just came
out of, you know, not something you
expected. But what about
things that you do expect
(56:55):
in life? Because a lot
of people are watching or listening
to this are also into
the power of visualization and
manifestation and that sort
of thing. And the last time that we
spoke, we spoke briefly
a little bit about that.
And I was just curious what your
thoughts are because you had some
things happen before your
lottery win
(57:15):
that.
Yeah, I.
I did have some things happen.
And I think because you're open to
it, you know,
it happens. And if you
have that mindset and that way of
thinking, then.
Things were happening.
But it's.
(57:36):
I feel like.
I'm like stuck right now
in, like a not.
I don't know. I feel like kind of
like, where do I go
from here? It's like this regrouping
of, like and
like, it's hard when you have
something happen that's in a
(57:56):
negative way to
it's, it's when you're, when things
are positive and things you're like,
yeah, that was, that was the sign I
got. Or, you know, I had a dream or
I had this thing that someone gave
me. And, you know, that's,
you know what?
And so it's
like I have to figure out how
to kind of move forward from
(58:17):
negativity to kind of get back to
that of like, openness
to like things happening
for a reason or what, You
know, it's, it's kind of it gives me
a bit of a hit to your
sort of mental way
being in stuff.
I did actually find
the person who I
(58:39):
talked to about the little I
received something at work in the
mail. It was a little
it's called an organ.
She had I had talked to her on the
phone and we talked
about some something
that she was thinking about property
that she was buying or something.
And I'd helped her over the phone.
And then she sent me this lovely
note, like just
(59:00):
like about a week after our phone
call, it appeared at the office and
it was like, Here's this
like orgone.
And it's like, so, you know,
this will help you.
And then like a month later, we won
the lottery and stuff.
And like I it
was so weird that that kind
of happened. And then I'd always
I kept I kept I keep it
(59:21):
always in my purse and
I, I finally figured
out who she is.
And so I want
to go and, like, meet her
and talk to her.
And so I think
I feel like maybe
if I think I need to do that
and I haven't done that yet.
So that's something that maybe
we can I can do it.
(59:42):
We can talk about it.
That's great.
I want to try to film, like meeting
with her because she's she
doesn't know
that that happened to us after, like
she and she's
kind of like someone who
does, you know, readings
and she has
she makes these organs that have
(01:00:03):
these positive
things, you know, when you have
these things. So I think it
would be neat to connect with her.
And so I think I have to do
that soon.
Yeah, that would be that would be
really neat. So what sort of
orgone? Like what what exactly was
it?
It's like a little
it's like an a poxy thing that's
(01:00:23):
like a little it.
And it has things that are inside of
it that have like
maybe
metaphysical qualities in the
rocks or the things that.
And I think it stems
from a bit of a Scottish thing
I think is an orgone and
which is kind of neat because I'm
like Mckenzie's.
(01:00:44):
So yeah,
I think it was a really neat gesture
that somebody did for me.
And, and so I,
you know, want to
kind of re regroup and see,
you know, thank her
for her kind gesture
and and stuff like that.
So I think that I should do that.
(01:01:05):
But I don't want to, I,
I, I want her to figure out who
I am until I actually meet her in
person.
Speaking about meeting in person,
have you had people what sort of
reactions do you get?
Reactions from anyone on the street
that has seen you on any of these
shows or.
No, no, nobody.
(01:01:26):
Like I.
I think like once when we were on
vacation in Mexico, somebody
recognized my husband.
And then I went, I, I
when I took my. Graham, No, I took
my kids.
We, I took my kids on an Alaska
cruise like two years ago.
And we I, it was so
fun. I loved taking them on a
cruise. I used to work on cruise
ships.
(01:01:46):
So taking my kids back
and showing them like where I used
to work and the fun things I used to
do and stuff.
And it was we had the best time.
And I sat down when
the first day we got on the ship and
then we go up to the deck and we sit
on the lounge chairs and
I sit next to this,
this lady, and she was so nice.
We started talking and she was like
(01:02:08):
from close to where I lived.
And she said, I recognize
you.
And I was like, Well, I don't know.
Like, do you know?
Do you know do where do you live
and stuff?
And she's like,
I just I recognize you.
Well, do you watch HGTV?
And she said.
(01:02:28):
Yes, that's you.
And I said, Yeah.
That was nice.
And then, but it was so
neat. And. It was like I made
friends with them and we hung out
the rest of the cruise.
We like had dinners together
and like it was just such
a great.
You know, people don't fan girl.
(01:02:50):
They just like want they love
hearing your story.
They love hearing what happened to
us. And like, it's
it's such a great story to share.
And so it was neat to have
someone, like, recognize me and
knew me from that story.
I haven't been to Vegas, so I don't
know if like I go to Vegas.
If anything,
I'd like to go to
(01:03:11):
do some do a trip
to Vegas and I think that would be
fun.
Yeah, it's such a such a fun city.
Although it doesn't have the
lottery, it's it's
no surprise. And they don't offer
the the lottery out of all of the
gambling.
Like you can't buy lottery tickets.
They don't sell them in the state of
Nevada.
So what?
(01:03:32):
Powerball?
Yeah. No Powerball.
Everyone goes.
Well, not everyone, but
it's crazy.
If you take a road trip
across the United States and you're
in the corner of.
Like, right where California and
Nevada meet.
There's this store
that's literally just over
(01:03:53):
the border in California.
And all the people from a
lot of people from Nevada go there.
And there's these lines around the
store to buy lottery tickets
because they're in Nevada.
Yeah, I did not know that.
Yeah, it's.
Pretty hard to believe.
It's crazy.
I, I when we went to Disneyland,
(01:04:14):
I bought I bought tickets for the
Powerball.
Because I think you.
Can win as a Canadian.
You can actually win
if you're like if you buy the ticket
in person or whatever.
I think there's it's
still I heard it still work
this.
Yeah, you can definitely win as a
foreign, you know, as a
(01:04:35):
nonresident and you could still go
out and win and that would be a
story to tell.
My God.
Lottery jackpot.
Yeah, I know.
I hope I can win another one.
I'm. I'm trying to I'm still
doing you know, I still play the
B.C. Children's Hospital.
Jimmy Kimmel had one that he just
did for hospital.
Cause I think if he had taken his
(01:04:56):
son to the hospital.
So then, like, they were doing a
hospital, a lottery.
So I bought those tickets and
there's like a lot of fundraisers.
Like especially nowadays,
things are more virtual and stuff.
There's a lot of like raffles and
I the hockey we like
our kids are both in hockey and they
always do 5050s.
(01:05:16):
So ah, I do enter those and
I do actually win those
so.
Well yeah.
We will have to.
When that happens, we're going to
have to book the next interview,
that third, third interview.
Yeah.
It's totally possible.
We're here with Lana Mckenzie.
(01:05:36):
Lana, where can people
find you?
Are you on social media?
I am L'antigene zero zero.
That's my Instagram.
I'm hopeful that I'm going to have
a YouTube channel.
Welcome to me.
Do a little videos about me
in my life.
So yeah, I would love to see
people reach out to me on social
(01:05:57):
media and
I try to do some engaging
videos.
For.
Fun.
Yeah, absolutely.
And we will put links to
those in the shownotes.
If you're listening to this or in
the description of this
video, if you're watching on
YouTube.
But Lana,
(01:06:19):
I really, really appreciate your
time today.
It sounds like you have really been
through so much and
your lottery story
and experience is very inspiring.
And it's just everything is
You've been through a lot.
Is there anything else that you
wanted to say today that I
didn't ask or that you just want to
(01:06:40):
say today?
I just I want to say thanks
to you. Like having the connection
that I made with
you and your, you know, stories
that you tell, I think
and even reconnecting five
years later and you
kind of like if there's
you hear about something and you
(01:07:00):
tell me and just us having that
relationship, I think it's really
great. And I love your channel
and what you've done on your channel
and the stories that you tell
or I think it's really neat.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And your story is very,
very inspiring.
With the lottery win and with your
family. I hope they're doing well.
(01:07:22):
But it's.
Yeah, it's.
They're great.
Yeah.
It's great to see you again.
Yeah, you as well.
And I hope they resolve.
I hope that all the legal
all that stuff gets
you to meet sooner.
Sooner than later.
Yeah.
So. But, yeah.
Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you. It's so nice to see.
(01:07:43):
You again, too.
So that was my interview with Linda
McKenzie. Now, what did you think
about this interview?
Let me know your thoughts by
commenting under the YouTube page.
For this interview, we will put a
link to it along with all the other
important links in the show notes.
Remember, anything and everything
is possible.
Thank you so much for listening
(01:08:04):
today and thank you for your
support.
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