December 24, 2024 • 15 mins
🌟 Meet Tara Omotara: A trailblazer in construction project management and real estate investing! 🌍
From winning the Calgary Peace Award 🕊️ to founding Freedom Tree, an organization dedicated to reducing maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone, Tara’s story is one of impact and transformation. 💡✨
Learn how her masterful budget strategies in real estate and her experience managing large-scale projects can teach you to maximize efficiency and control costs. 📊🏗️
Plus, hear how running a charity parallels running a business, with a focus on measurable results and meaningful change. 🌱💼
Discover how small actions can lead to big transformations—whether in communities or investments. 💪🌟
https://www.freedomtree.ca/
Sponsored by: https://aliferousacademy.com/
#RealEstate #HumanitarianImpact #BudgetMastery #FreedomTree #Inspiration
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because some really terrible tenants that I've had
had A plus credit scores, butthey were just awful.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we
unlock real estate and businessinsights one question at a time.
This episode is sponsored byIlliferous Academy.
I'm Christian Spilfogel andthis is your Illiferous Academy.
I'm Christian Spilfogel andthis is your Illiferous Academy.
Finding top-notch real estateeducation can be tough.
(00:32):
Many courses are taught bynovices.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am Cherry Chen, and this is your Illiferous Academy
.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm Seth Ferguson, and this is your Illiferous
Academy.
At Illiferous Academy, onlyexperts in their field teach the
courses.
I'm Mark Amiot, and this isyour Elliferis Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I'm Melissa Dupuis and this is your Elliferis
Academy.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Elliferis Academy all the experts one subscription.
I'm Chad Robinson and this isyour Elliferis Academy.
Dive into self-paced courses,regular group coaching and stay
ahead with fresh content everymonth.
Sign up now ateliphorusacademycom.
Welcome to the 5 QuestionsPodcast.
I'm your host, mario Lamar, ourguest on today's show.
(01:16):
She has been recognized with aCalgary Peace Award.
She is a specialist inconstruction project management
and real estate investor and sheis the founder of Freedom Tree.
Welcome, tara Omatara.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hi Mario, how are you ?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm very well, Tara.
The concept of the podcast isvery easy Five questions about
real estate or business and weget straight to the point.
You ready.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, I'm ready, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, first off, every time someone has been
recognized with an award, I'dlike to talk about it.
And you have been recognizedwith a Calgary Peace Award.
That's right.
What does that honor mean toyou personally and
professionally?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know it was really wonderful to be
recognized by my city you know,the city where I live, calgary
for work that we have doneinternationally in Sierra Leone,
and so the Peace Award wasspecifically to recognize
individuals or organizations whohave done exemplary work in the
area of not just non-profit butreally kind of changing their
(02:19):
city, changing their environmentor changing another location
and, you know, changing thelives of people, and so that was
a really big honor to get.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And, I'm sure, professionally, it opened quite
a bit of doors for you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It did.
Yeah, it did open some doors.
We had a big celebration, asyou know, Freedom Tree and the
board and even our supporters.
We came out and actuallycelebrated that to receive the
award.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's really great.
That brings us to our secondquestion, which I'm going to
talk about Freedom Tree in alittle bit, but first I'd like
to talk about your experience inreal estate.
We mentioned at the beginningyou were a project management
specialist and you worked onreally big projects up to $750
(03:09):
million projects.
That's right.
What budget control strategieshave you carried over into your
real estate investing career?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's a really great question.
I think it's to not ignore thedetails.
And so, with budget control,sometimes we look at the big
numbers and we're so focused onwhat the big numbers are Like.
You know, this is going to costa hundred grand.
You know, let's see how we canmake it.
You know how we can make itcheaper.
But when I was, you know, aconstruction manager, it was the
small things that ate away atthe budget.
(03:39):
It was ordering that extragallon of paint that we didn't
need and that would eventuallysit there and you had to throw
away.
It was, you know, deciding tocarry out work on a day that it
was too windy, and so youcouldn't do it.
And so you have a guy show upon the job.
You know he spends two hourslooking around and deciding you
know what.
This is not a good day to dowork, and he goes home, but you
(04:00):
still have to pay him for thattwo hours, and that's two hours
that's wasted.
And so it's the small things.
And so making sure in realestate that you're efficient,
that you make decisions that are, and that you, that your team
around you, is efficient andthey budget conscious as well,
and so I think that's one of thethings that I've carried
forward into real estate and,you know, when it comes to a
(04:22):
handyman, you know like if youhave somebody that's going to
repair things, not someonethat's just going to, you know,
spin the wheels and try andfigure out what, what to do for
seven hours while he charges youfor seven hours of work.
It's, it's those little things.
It's the little things thatcauses issues.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, it's true, you know I can't agree more than
enough with you.
A lot of small holes leaks.
The boat leaks a lot more.
It's easy to fix one big holebecause it's easy to see right,
but all little holes, you know,some can go unnoticed.
So I 100% agree with you.
(05:01):
And not a lot of, not enough, Ishould say.
Real estate investors focus onthose small leaks.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's the small leaks.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's where the bleed is.
Yeah, it's the small leaks.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's the small leaks, that's where the bleed is.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, it's the small leaks.
That leads us to our thirdquestion, and I'd like to talk
to you about your approach foryour tenant management and
screening, especially when itcomes to properties outside your
local area.
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah.
So with properties outside ofmy local area, I rely on a good
property management company todo that.
They, you know, they'refamiliar with the neighborhood,
they're familiar with the area,they're familiar with the kind
of typical tenant profile thatwould make a great tenant or not
.
And so I rely on a goodproperty manager and you have to
(05:49):
kind of get that on your team.
For me personally, I meanthere's definitely screening
questions that you ask and youhave to kind of get that on your
team.
For me personally, I meanthere's definitely screening
questions that you ask and youget you know, you make sure you
do a credit check or reference,make sure you do a job check,
make sure your tenants can paythe bills.
But to be very, very frank,meeting somebody in person is a
very good determinant of whetheror not they're going to be a
good tenant or not, because somereally terrible tenants that
(06:10):
I've had had A plus creditscores but they were just awful,
just bad attitude, alwayscomplaining, always moaning, and
so when you meet them in person, that just tells you a lot more
of who that person is.
And going with your gut andbeing able to read people I
think is a great skill when itcomes to tenant management.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Absolutely.
There's nothing better thangoing with your gut, but, um,
maybe you, you probably build astructure for your property
managers, uh, that you use so Ido, I build a structure.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I build a structure.
I give them a guideline.
They usually have their owninternal processes in terms of
what they do, but I build astructure and give them a
guideline.
So, yeah, to be honest, a lotof them, I find property
managers weed people through bymaking sure that those that they
only show the property to arethose who can answer a million
questions up front, and weedthem out at that level, which I
(07:01):
actually don't agree.
I don't agree with that methodbecause I think that you're
going to lose some people inthis generation who just don't
have the patience to do that.
But they're looking for acertain type of person who's
pedantic, who follows rules,follows instructions and that
sort of thing, and that doesn'tnecessarily make a good tenant,
but that's what they do, right?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Well, I think we're going to spend more time on the
fourth question, because this issomething that is dear to you.
You are the founder of FreedomTree.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And you to make a real difference in Sierra Leone.
First of all, maybe athree-part question what is
Freedom Tree, what prompted youto create that initiative and
what impact have you seen thatFreedom Tree did?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, so Freedom Tree is an organization that I
started over a decade ago nowand it was to address the root
causes of maternal and infantmortality in Sierra Leone, west
Africa.
So Sierra Leone has the highestrate of maternal mortality in
the entire world.
It means that every two minutes.
So by the time that we're donethis podcast, about seven women
(08:12):
would have died in the countryjust from giving birth.
It's ridiculous, it's?
You know?
If this was happening in Canada, there's no way that we would
have died in the country justfrom giving birth.
It's ridiculous, it's.
You know.
If this was happening in Canada, there's no way that we would
have allowed it, you know.
But for different reasons, youknow, due to the lack of
education, lack of health careor infrastructure as well you
know Sierra Leone, women arevery high risk of maternal
(08:33):
mortality, and then infantmortality is also extremely high
and infant mortality is closelylinked to maternal mortality.
You know in that way, and thefabric, you know the fabric of
the family or the society.
So that's what Freedom Tree isall about.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And then, what made you decide to start that
initiative?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I started it due to a passion.
I went to Sierra Leone as avolunteer.
I saw what was going on and Ikept saying to somebody I said,
you know, somebody needs to dosomething, somebody needs to do
something.
And then I realized prettyquickly I was like, wow, this,
you know, maybe that somebody isme, maybe that somebody is me.
And so you know why not?
(09:14):
Sometimes we think that theanswer to the problems that we
see around us, somebody needs totake care of that.
I hear that all the time.
You know, oh, look at thehomeless on the street.
The government, the city needsto do something about that.
Well, no, not really.
Maybe you can do somethingabout it If you can change
somebody's life, one person'slife, and you make a difference.
Imagine if we all did that, ifwe all made a huge difference in
one person's life, we couldsolve the homelessness problem
(09:37):
just like that.
And so I think it was the same,you know the same attitude that
I looked at with thisparticular issue.
Even you know if, even if it'sfive women whose lives have
changed now, we've changedhundreds and thousands of
women's lives.
But even if it's just a few,imagine what I, you know what
that means for those specificwomen and what we could do with
that.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So it's easy to pass the bucket to someone else to
pass the buck.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the third part of thequestion is is maybe the impact
that you have seen since youstarted Freedom Tree?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Ah well, so we on average, reach about 100,000
people a year.
You know, between 70 to 100,000, depending on our reach and the
impact that we've seen.
We've seen entire villageswhere a woman used to give you
know, used to die every month,or you know every two months, to
no deaths whatsoever.
So the first place that webuilt a clinic at was actually
(10:34):
10 years ago now, in 2014.
We celebrated the grand openingof that clinic and they used to
see women die all the time.
They would have at least 10women die a year.
We built the clinic there andto date, there has been zero,
zero women that have died inthat community, and so that's
the kind of impact that we'rehaving.
We also deal with the holisticfamily, and so, when it comes to
(10:58):
men and women and therelationships between each other
, so we deal with that as well,and we're seeing the
relationships between men andwomen change, the relationships
between husbands and wiveschange, where husbands are
recognizing what their role iswhen it comes to birth, taking
care of babies, and that'smaking a huge impact, and so
that was not an intendedconsequence, but that's
(11:20):
something that happened, and sowhen I go to these villages, the
men are like, wow, thank you.
We had no idea that you knowour role and the things that we
do makes a huge impact in thewellbeing of a woman because
they have age old culturalpractices, just like we do here,
and assumptions of whatrelationships between men and
women are supposed to look like.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
And I know you also built a school this year.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We're in the process of building a school.
So we're halfway there and,mario, thank you so much because
you were one of our supportersand donators to that school.
I posted pictures recently.
I'm not sure if you saw it, butwe've brought the school up to
full height, so the next stagethat we need to do is now put a
roof over the school, and soit's coming along.
It's coming along.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
That's amazing.
We'll make sure to post thelink of people who want to
donate for the cause.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
That's awesome, that would be wonderful, that would
be wonderful.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, well, that brings us to our last question,
and I wanted to tie real estatewith Freedom Tree.
So how does your experience inreal estate and construction
benefit Freedom Tree's missionand projects?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So managing a charity is actually very similar to
managing any kind of businessMaking sure.
So we mentioned earlier look atthe small leaks.
I am pedantic about looking atthe small leaks, even in Freedom
Tree my staff they get veryupset with me sometimes because
they feel like I'm so pedanticon it.
But I'm like look at the smallleaks, like, make sure when we
(12:56):
are doing our projects, thatwe're actually being efficient.
Make sure that when we that wedo an assessment prior to and we
do an assessment after we'vedone a project and so we can
actually measure the change.
We just don't go into acommunity and say, oh yeah, we
made a huge difference andeveryone's happy.
No, we measure it.
Make sure that it's success ismeasurable, because it always is
(13:17):
.
And it's actually moredifficult to do that in a
nonprofit setting becauseusually in a for-profit setting
we measure success by profit youknow how much money you've made
but in a nonprofit it's muchdifferent.
And so being pedantic about theprocesses, managing a project,
making sure everything isefficiently done, is something
I'm extremely passionate aboutand that's something that I
(13:39):
learned, I think, from my timewhen I worked in construction as
a construction manager,managing projects, and then I've
brought it into FreedomTree aswell as real estate as well,
because you know like I'vemanaged renovations, you know my
real estate project or buildsand you have to be pedantic
about those details and you knowdon't let them slip through.
(14:00):
I know don't take them forgranted.
Measure everything.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's you know.
I'm so glad you came on theshow because I think for real
estate investors that arelistening, you gave great
insights of not forgetting thosesmall leaks.
It's easy to look away, butthey're very important, and then
the work that you do is veryimportant.
(14:26):
Sierra Leone they're lucky tohave a woman behind them that
offers all that help.
So thank you for being on theshow today.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, what an honor to beon the show, mary.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Thank you so much Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What an honor to be on the show, mary.
I've been looking forward tothis for a long time, so yes, we
tried to catch up to each otherfor a while.
We're very busy.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And that's okay because you do great things.
But thank you for being on theshow.
I'll make sure to post thelinks of people who wants to
donate to the cause and we'llprobably talk to you very soon.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Okay, all right, I might see you in December
probably.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Probably yes.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, all right, thanks, mario.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Bye-bye, have a great day.
Thanks for tuning into the fivequestions podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, like
and hit the notification bellon our YouTube channel so you
never miss an episode.
Stay tuned for more insightsand tips to transform your real
estate and business game.
See you next time.
Because some really terrible tenants that I've had
had A plus credit scores, butthey were just awful.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we
unlock real estate and businessinsights one question at a time.
This episode is sponsored byIlliferous Academy.
I'm Christian Spilfogel andthis is your Illiferous Academy.
I'm Christian Spilfogel andthis is your Illiferous Academy.
Finding top-notch real estateeducation can be tough.
(00:32):
Many courses are taught bynovices.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
I am Cherry Chen, and this is your Illiferous Academy
.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I'm Seth Ferguson, and this is your Illiferous
Academy.
At Illiferous Academy, onlyexperts in their field teach the
courses.
I'm Mark Amiot, and this isyour Elliferis Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I'm Melissa Dupuis and this is your Elliferis
Academy.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Elliferis Academy all the experts one subscription.
I'm Chad Robinson and this isyour Elliferis Academy.
Dive into self-paced courses,regular group coaching and stay
ahead with fresh content everymonth.
Sign up now ateliphorusacademycom.
Welcome to the 5 QuestionsPodcast.
I'm your host, mario Lamar, ourguest on today's show.
(01:16):
She has been recognized with aCalgary Peace Award.
She is a specialist inconstruction project management
and real estate investor and sheis the founder of Freedom Tree.
Welcome, tara Omatara.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Hi Mario, how are you ?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm very well, Tara.
The concept of the podcast isvery easy Five questions about
real estate or business and weget straight to the point.
You ready.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, I'm ready, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, first off, every time someone has been
recognized with an award, I'dlike to talk about it.
And you have been recognizedwith a Calgary Peace Award.
That's right.
What does that honor mean toyou personally and
professionally?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know it was really wonderful to be
recognized by my city you know,the city where I live, calgary
for work that we have doneinternationally in Sierra Leone,
and so the Peace Award wasspecifically to recognize
individuals or organizations whohave done exemplary work in the
area of not just non-profit butreally kind of changing their
(02:19):
city, changing their environmentor changing another location
and, you know, changing thelives of people, and so that was
a really big honor to get.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And, I'm sure, professionally, it opened quite
a bit of doors for you.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
It did.
Yeah, it did open some doors.
We had a big celebration, asyou know, Freedom Tree and the
board and even our supporters.
We came out and actuallycelebrated that to receive the
award.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's really great.
That brings us to our secondquestion, which I'm going to
talk about Freedom Tree in alittle bit, but first I'd like
to talk about your experience inreal estate.
We mentioned at the beginningyou were a project management
specialist and you worked onreally big projects up to $750
(03:09):
million projects.
That's right.
What budget control strategieshave you carried over into your
real estate investing career?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's a really great question.
I think it's to not ignore thedetails.
And so, with budget control,sometimes we look at the big
numbers and we're so focused onwhat the big numbers are Like.
You know, this is going to costa hundred grand.
You know, let's see how we canmake it.
You know how we can make itcheaper.
But when I was, you know, aconstruction manager, it was the
small things that ate away atthe budget.
(03:39):
It was ordering that extragallon of paint that we didn't
need and that would eventuallysit there and you had to throw
away.
It was, you know, deciding tocarry out work on a day that it
was too windy, and so youcouldn't do it.
And so you have a guy show upon the job.
You know he spends two hourslooking around and deciding you
know what.
This is not a good day to dowork, and he goes home, but you
(04:00):
still have to pay him for thattwo hours, and that's two hours
that's wasted.
And so it's the small things.
And so making sure in realestate that you're efficient,
that you make decisions that are, and that you, that your team
around you, is efficient andthey budget conscious as well,
and so I think that's one of thethings that I've carried
forward into real estate and,you know, when it comes to a
(04:22):
handyman, you know like if youhave somebody that's going to
repair things, not someonethat's just going to, you know,
spin the wheels and try andfigure out what, what to do for
seven hours while he charges youfor seven hours of work.
It's, it's those little things.
It's the little things thatcauses issues.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, it's true, you know I can't agree more than
enough with you.
A lot of small holes leaks.
The boat leaks a lot more.
It's easy to fix one big holebecause it's easy to see right,
but all little holes, you know,some can go unnoticed.
So I 100% agree with you.
(05:01):
And not a lot of, not enough, Ishould say.
Real estate investors focus onthose small leaks.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's the small leaks.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's where the bleed is.
Yeah, it's the small leaks.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's the small leaks, that's where the bleed is.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, it's the small leaks.
That leads us to our thirdquestion, and I'd like to talk
to you about your approach foryour tenant management and
screening, especially when itcomes to properties outside your
local area.
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah.
So with properties outside ofmy local area, I rely on a good
property management company todo that.
They, you know, they'refamiliar with the neighborhood,
they're familiar with the area,they're familiar with the kind
of typical tenant profile thatwould make a great tenant or not
.
And so I rely on a goodproperty manager and you have to
(05:49):
kind of get that on your team.
For me personally, I meanthere's definitely screening
questions that you ask and youhave to kind of get that on your
team.
For me personally, I meanthere's definitely screening
questions that you ask and youget you know, you make sure you
do a credit check or reference,make sure you do a job check,
make sure your tenants can paythe bills.
But to be very, very frank,meeting somebody in person is a
very good determinant of whetheror not they're going to be a
good tenant or not, because somereally terrible tenants that
(06:10):
I've had had A plus creditscores but they were just awful,
just bad attitude, alwayscomplaining, always moaning, and
so when you meet them in person, that just tells you a lot more
of who that person is.
And going with your gut andbeing able to read people I
think is a great skill when itcomes to tenant management.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Absolutely.
There's nothing better thangoing with your gut, but, um,
maybe you, you probably build astructure for your property
managers, uh, that you use so Ido, I build a structure.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, I build a structure.
I give them a guideline.
They usually have their owninternal processes in terms of
what they do, but I build astructure and give them a
guideline.
So, yeah, to be honest, a lotof them, I find property
managers weed people through bymaking sure that those that they
only show the property to arethose who can answer a million
questions up front, and weedthem out at that level, which I
(07:01):
actually don't agree.
I don't agree with that methodbecause I think that you're
going to lose some people inthis generation who just don't
have the patience to do that.
But they're looking for acertain type of person who's
pedantic, who follows rules,follows instructions and that
sort of thing, and that doesn'tnecessarily make a good tenant,
but that's what they do, right?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Well, I think we're going to spend more time on the
fourth question, because this issomething that is dear to you.
You are the founder of FreedomTree.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
And you to make a real difference in Sierra Leone.
First of all, maybe athree-part question what is
Freedom Tree, what prompted youto create that initiative and
what impact have you seen thatFreedom Tree did?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, so Freedom Tree is an organization that I
started over a decade ago nowand it was to address the root
causes of maternal and infantmortality in Sierra Leone, west
Africa.
So Sierra Leone has the highestrate of maternal mortality in
the entire world.
It means that every two minutes.
So by the time that we're donethis podcast, about seven women
(08:12):
would have died in the countryjust from giving birth.
It's ridiculous, it's?
You know?
If this was happening in Canada, there's no way that we would
have died in the country justfrom giving birth.
It's ridiculous, it's.
You know.
If this was happening in Canada, there's no way that we would
have allowed it, you know.
But for different reasons, youknow, due to the lack of
education, lack of health careor infrastructure as well you
know Sierra Leone, women arevery high risk of maternal
(08:33):
mortality, and then infantmortality is also extremely high
and infant mortality is closelylinked to maternal mortality.
You know in that way, and thefabric, you know the fabric of
the family or the society.
So that's what Freedom Tree isall about.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And then, what made you decide to start that
initiative?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I started it due to a passion.
I went to Sierra Leone as avolunteer.
I saw what was going on and Ikept saying to somebody I said,
you know, somebody needs to dosomething, somebody needs to do
something.
And then I realized prettyquickly I was like, wow, this,
you know, maybe that somebody isme, maybe that somebody is me.
And so you know why not?
(09:14):
Sometimes we think that theanswer to the problems that we
see around us, somebody needs totake care of that.
I hear that all the time.
You know, oh, look at thehomeless on the street.
The government, the city needsto do something about that.
Well, no, not really.
Maybe you can do somethingabout it If you can change
somebody's life, one person'slife, and you make a difference.
Imagine if we all did that, ifwe all made a huge difference in
one person's life, we couldsolve the homelessness problem
(09:37):
just like that.
And so I think it was the same,you know the same attitude that
I looked at with thisparticular issue.
Even you know if, even if it'sfive women whose lives have
changed now, we've changedhundreds and thousands of
women's lives.
But even if it's just a few,imagine what I, you know what
that means for those specificwomen and what we could do with
that.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So it's easy to pass the bucket to someone else to
pass the buck.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the third part of thequestion is is maybe the impact
that you have seen since youstarted Freedom Tree?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Ah well, so we on average, reach about 100,000
people a year.
You know, between 70 to 100,000, depending on our reach and the
impact that we've seen.
We've seen entire villageswhere a woman used to give you
know, used to die every month,or you know every two months, to
no deaths whatsoever.
So the first place that webuilt a clinic at was actually
(10:34):
10 years ago now, in 2014.
We celebrated the grand openingof that clinic and they used to
see women die all the time.
They would have at least 10women die a year.
We built the clinic there andto date, there has been zero,
zero women that have died inthat community, and so that's
the kind of impact that we'rehaving.
We also deal with the holisticfamily, and so, when it comes to
(10:58):
men and women and therelationships between each other
, so we deal with that as well,and we're seeing the
relationships between men andwomen change, the relationships
between husbands and wiveschange, where husbands are
recognizing what their role iswhen it comes to birth, taking
care of babies, and that'smaking a huge impact, and so
that was not an intendedconsequence, but that's
(11:20):
something that happened, and sowhen I go to these villages, the
men are like, wow, thank you.
We had no idea that you knowour role and the things that we
do makes a huge impact in thewellbeing of a woman because
they have age old culturalpractices, just like we do here,
and assumptions of whatrelationships between men and
women are supposed to look like.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
And I know you also built a school this year.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We're in the process of building a school.
So we're halfway there and,mario, thank you so much because
you were one of our supportersand donators to that school.
I posted pictures recently.
I'm not sure if you saw it, butwe've brought the school up to
full height, so the next stagethat we need to do is now put a
roof over the school, and soit's coming along.
It's coming along.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
That's amazing.
We'll make sure to post thelink of people who want to
donate for the cause.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
That's awesome, that would be wonderful, that would
be wonderful.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, well, that brings us to our last question,
and I wanted to tie real estatewith Freedom Tree.
So how does your experience inreal estate and construction
benefit Freedom Tree's missionand projects?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So managing a charity is actually very similar to
managing any kind of businessMaking sure.
So we mentioned earlier look atthe small leaks.
I am pedantic about looking atthe small leaks, even in Freedom
Tree my staff they get veryupset with me sometimes because
they feel like I'm so pedanticon it.
But I'm like look at the smallleaks, like, make sure when we
(12:56):
are doing our projects, thatwe're actually being efficient.
Make sure that when we that wedo an assessment prior to and we
do an assessment after we'vedone a project and so we can
actually measure the change.
We just don't go into acommunity and say, oh yeah, we
made a huge difference andeveryone's happy.
No, we measure it.
Make sure that it's success ismeasurable, because it always is
(13:17):
.
And it's actually moredifficult to do that in a
nonprofit setting becauseusually in a for-profit setting
we measure success by profit youknow how much money you've made
but in a nonprofit it's muchdifferent.
And so being pedantic about theprocesses, managing a project,
making sure everything isefficiently done, is something
I'm extremely passionate aboutand that's something that I
(13:39):
learned, I think, from my timewhen I worked in construction as
a construction manager,managing projects, and then I've
brought it into FreedomTree aswell as real estate as well,
because you know like I'vemanaged renovations, you know my
real estate project or buildsand you have to be pedantic
about those details and you knowdon't let them slip through.
(14:00):
I know don't take them forgranted.
Measure everything.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That's you know.
I'm so glad you came on theshow because I think for real
estate investors that arelistening, you gave great
insights of not forgetting thosesmall leaks.
It's easy to look away, butthey're very important, and then
the work that you do is veryimportant.
(14:26):
Sierra Leone they're lucky tohave a woman behind them that
offers all that help.
So thank you for being on theshow today.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, what an honor to beon the show, mary.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Thank you so much Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What an honor to be on the show, mary.
I've been looking forward tothis for a long time, so yes, we
tried to catch up to each otherfor a while.
We're very busy.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And that's okay because you do great things.
But thank you for being on theshow.
I'll make sure to post thelinks of people who wants to
donate to the cause and we'llprobably talk to you very soon.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Okay, all right, I might see you in December
probably.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Probably yes.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, all right, thanks, mario.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Bye-bye, have a great day.
Thanks for tuning into the fivequestions podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, like
and hit the notification bellon our YouTube channel so you
never miss an episode.
Stay tuned for more insightsand tips to transform your real
estate and business game.
See you next time.
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