09/05/2026
JOAO RIBEIRO | Business Coach, Insurance & Investments
She asked to come work with me in 2024. I said yes
before she finished the sentence.
Markelly was a physiotherapist at a reference
rehabilitation hospital in Brazil. Canada wanted
two more years of school and about $50,000 to
validate a degree she already held, so she did
massage therapy instead, because it was the fastest
thing she could get licensed for here.
She did it until her own body gave out.
We’ve run the business together full time since,
as equal partners. Not helping. Not supporting.
Partners.
If you moved here with a qualification, did Canada
count it? Yes or no.
09/04/2026
JOAO RIBEIRO | Business Coach, Insurance & Investments
Four months in real estate without a single sale.
That was 2015.
Ten of us started around the same time. I was the
only one still there a year later. Not because I
was better. Because four months is a long time to
do something for free and most people can’t.
Month three is where everyone goes. I know because
I watched them.
I made the first sale and then never went a month
without one after that.
I did the whole thing again in BC at 40, in a
language that isn’t mine.
How long would you last on zero? Months in the
comments.
