Welcome back to Unlimited Capital. I'm your host, Richard McGur, and today we're talking with

someone whose story perfectly illustrates that your biggest perceived weaknesses can become your

greatest strengths in capital raising. My guest today was Zoria Belongay, co-founder of BREI

properties based in Edmonton, Alberta. Zoya has built a portfolio of nearly $28 million in assets under management

across 177 units in Canada and the United States. But here's what makes her story compelling.

Zoria started as an introverted engineer who was terrified of phone calls and public speaking.

Today she's confidently speaking on stages, hosting meetups, and has successfully completed cross-border deals, including a 144-unit value-ad project in Houston, which they recently refinanced from $11 million to $18 million.

What's particularly unique about Zoria's approach is how she's mastered the complexities of managing international investors.

She's created sophisticated structures that allow Canadian investors to easily participate in U.S. deals

without all of the typical tax headaches.

And she's proven that geographic boundaries don't have to limit your capital raising potential.

So with that said, let's get to the show.

Hi, Zoria. Welcome to the show. Hi, Zoria.

Welcome to the show.

Hi.

Really nice.

Great to be here.

Yeah, it's great to have you on.

So why don't you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became a prolific public speaker?

Okay.

Well, I wouldn't say I'm a prolific public speaker, but I do do some public speaking. I just actually finished speaking quite a few times at a conference, a real estate investing conference about multifamily and about raising capital on stage this past weekend. Yeah, so my story starts off, you know, let's start with childhood. I was very, very shy and I'm an introvert. I'm still an introvert. I don't think you can change that about yourself. But I used to be terrified. I used to never put my hand up in class. Even in university, I would never say anything. And I would say it all comes down to practice. When I first discovered, I was an engineer by trade. And, you know, when I first started into real estate investing, I discovered it. I quickly realized that I would have to speak to people, especially if I wanted to get anything done. Can't just sit behind a computer. And so that's when I

some research and discovered that Toastmasters could help me. And that was, that was good because it's a

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