My background is probably very similar to most of you. I was born in Sacramento, California, lived in suburbia and had a great childhood. Thinking back, my desire to do more and willing to work hard to be successful, started back when I was in Brownies and Girl Scouts. I was driven to complete ALL the badges and sell cookies so that I could receive not only recognition but The Presidents Award.  I achieved both by talking my parents into helping me get to different locations and obtain the materials I needed to complete the badges, and by going to my parent’s place of business and personally selling cookies. 

In middle school the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program, which allowed us to learn about the stock market and investing, how to start a business and sell products at school events, plus so much more, was really the inspiration that lead me to believe that I would run my own business. All through high school and college I was drawn to classes that would help me reach my goal. When I was nineteen a friend asked me if I wanted to open a Domino’s Pizza with him, and I asked him to give me a few weeks to think about it while I was on vacation. Before I left on vacation I asked my dad for some advice, as he designed restaurants and sold the equipment, so he had seen the good and the bad in the industry. When I came home from my trip my dad announced I was going to open a sandwich shop franchise.

The franchise was sold after five years in business, and even though I worked eighty hours + a week, I learned more than any college education could have provided. You couldn’t help but learn every aspect of a business from ordering product, bookkeeping, customer service, to managing a staff and so much more. I continued taking college classes while I ran the sandwich shop, completing my BA degree in Business Management from California State University Sacramento a few years later. After graduation I entered the corporate world and worked a 9 to 5 job which left me unfulfilled. I realize now that I was pushing my entrepreneurial spirit to the side.

While going through the motions at my corporate job I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and had an epiphany, everything that was mentioned in the book was what I wanted to achieve. Shortly afterwards the company I worked for lost its contract and my “job security” was gone. I took my severance package and decided to purchase my first investment property. Unsure of what my next step should be, I decided to go to law school and focus on business law. In my second year my father passed away the night before a final exam. I contacted the school to see if I could postpone my test due to my father’s death – the answer was no. If this was how personal and major incidents were regarded, I did not want to be a part of the profession.  It was not a hard decision to drop out of law school, at that point in my life.

My focus turned back to real estate investing and continuing to grow my investment portfolio. The more I worked in the field the more I knew this was the right path for me, I loved doing it and had a natural talent for finding solid real estate investments. Over the years I have gotten to know many great people in the industry, and with their guidance, have become an expert in analyzing real estate markets, especially pre-construction. Asset protection, building a strong foundation, analyzing risk versus reward, exit strategies and much more are also key in being successful in any type of investing, and these are the strengths that I bring to my clients. I am CEO of The Foresthill Group, Inc., which helps others to build their investment portfolios through coaching, educational webinars, seminars and finding reputable investment opportunities. I have recently started an organization to help women, Women On The Move; live, learn, inspire, to provide information and offer women practical and useful information to assist them in being self-reliant and successful in their lives.