Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You mentioned the word grit. What does grit mean to you?
[00:00:04] Speaker B: The ability to get punched in the face and be able to stand up and say, thank you, sir. Can I have another? That's a short answer. Accepting failure and dusting yourself off and moving on. A lot of people, you know, either they have perhaps low self esteem or perhaps they are surrounded by people that may not encourage their goals. You know, the journey to entrepreneurship is very hard and when things aren't successful, immediately, you know, and I could think of a multitude of, you know, examples or, you know, things I've seen with people I've coached over the years.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Everybody, this is Joe Siegel, your real estate asset protection and estate planning lawyer here in Florida. I'm here today at the Trust this Studios with Robert Vasquez. And Robert is part of our master series today. I want to talk to him about where he's been, what he's done, where he's been successful, maybe some of his failures that he'll share with you guys because he's been extremely successful at what he's done. And that's part of our job here at Trust. This, during these podcasts is I want to introduce you, the audience. If you are an entrepreneur, if you're a small business owner, if you're a real estate investor professional, I want you to learn from the best of the best who are out there, who have done this, who came before you, and maybe you can learn something because that's been my biggest frustration, working with clients. I set up their business, I set up their structures. I get them going and I put them out there and then they sink because they get bad business partners. They, they just don't know what to do next. They don't hire well, they don't fire well, they don't have processes and procedures. They don't have habits of highly successful people. So I want you to take away from these interviews, when we talk to these folks in these master series, people like Robert today that you're going to hear from, I want you to listen to them carefully, take some nuggets away and maybe look inside yourself and think about what you may be not doing well and how you could do it better. So with that, Robert, I want to welcome you to today's show. Why don't you just tell a little bit about yourself to everybody, sort of introduce yourself.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Well, Joe, number one, thank you for having me on your show. And I look forward to providing value to you and your guests. And literally everything you said of what not to do is literally what I've Done. All right. Every single mistake that you can possibly make, I've made. Part of that was failing to reach out, to get proper counsel. Part of that was thinking I knew a little bit more than I did and thinking, you know what? I did a little bit of a Google search. I can figure this out. And you know, part of it's being a little too hard headed and just, just with this whole mentality of I could do it and I can figure it out. And I think that anyone in business who has enough grit will eventually become successful. I think the most failures occur not because people failed, it's because they failed to proceed. Failure is a part of success. And I say this all the time. There's a difference between failing and failure. Okay? Failure is just, bottom line, I got hit in the face. I don't want to get hit in the face again, and I want to walk away. Failing is the process. It's the journey to get to whatever success is. And by any means, I'm not anywhere where I need to be because anytime I start getting close to where I want to be, I keep pushing that marker further and further and further. But again, I'm Robert Vasquez. I run Countrywide Capital Group and Countrywide Group of companies. We are a totally ver, a vertically integrated company. Now I hear a lot of people say that, but it's taken me 20 years of methodically planning and strategically kind of working towards a goal of having everything that I want in my ecosystem and literally every part of the transaction, every part of the cog wheel. We have everything from a, a title Company In 18 states, we're a real estate broker, we're mortgage brokers, we're hard money lenders, we're general contractors, we're brokers, builders and developers. So we're doing everything from land entitlements, subdivisions, hotels, apartment complexes, single family homes, and our regular traditional business. So all of that did not come easy. A lot of people look at what we do and they go, hell, that, you know, we want to replicate that. And that's good because to an extent, you know, imitation is the best form of flattery. And I do the same thing every time I see someone that is in a position where I like to be at. I do everything I can to try to get in or around the air that they're in.
And that's just really the, let's say, the secret of our, of my success and everyone in my circle is just trying to level up your game, you know, and the level up your game also means you know, leveling up your circle. Right. You know, if you're the biggest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: You said a lot of things there. I want to dig into the first one. You mentioned the word grit. What does grit mean to you?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: The ability to get punched in the face and be able to stand up and say, thank you, sir. Can I have another? That's a short answer. Accepting failure and dusting yourself off and moving on. A lot of people, you know, either they have perhaps low self esteem or perhaps they are surrounded by people that may not encourage their goals. You know, the journey to entrepreneurship is very hard. And when things aren't successful immediately, you know, and I could think of a multitude of, you know, examples or, you know, things I've seen with people I've coached over the years. You know, when you have, for example, a husband who wants to be very, very successful and wants to do something entrepreneurial, and he may make a small attempt at doing so, but it's not successful right off the bat, then, then you have the wife who may not be as supportive, you know, or maybe she was supportive for the first or second attempt, but not the third. And that can cause some issues. And that person's just like, hey, you know what, I can't do this anymore. You're right. Let me go back to work at, you know, Home Depot as an example. And there's nothing wrong with Home Depot or any other organization. You know, the world, and I say this without, you know, any offense, but the world needs ditch diggers. You know, the world needs guys that work at ice cream shops and pizza shops and so on and so forth. And, and I don't mean to say that in any discouraging way, but grit is the ability to be able to get punched in the face over and over and over and be able to stand up and say, I'm going to keep going.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: You also said you don't like to be the smartest guy in the room. Surround yourself with people, learn how do, how do you find yourself? How do you find those smarter people to be around? And how do you know when it's time to move on or to move.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Up when you seem to be the one person who's providing more value in a room than you're receiving. It's a perfect example that you're probably in the wrong room because you've become the biggest fish. And much like the example of a fish will only grow to the size of their environment, right? You take a shark you catch in the ocean you put in a fish tank, that shark will only grow so much because they're limited to their environment. And over the years I've learned to put myself in bigger rooms. I pay six figures a year and I travel and I spend six figures a year to travel to events and to be able to mastermind and network with higher with people that are, you know, doing things that I aspire to be doing. I'll give you an example. I became a pilot. Okay. I like to fly. I love to fly. Still scares the out of me, don't get me wrong. But, but I love doing it. Why? Because it makes me uncomfortable. And use this as an example because, you know, I want to buy an airplane and then when I'm speaking to somebody who has an airplane, he's talking about upgrading his airplane and then that guy's talking about how he's on his fifth jet. That's a perfect example going, I'm in that right? I'm in the right room. I need to get, I need to be in the room where that guy's at and then understanding and learning the problems that are associated at that level. And that's something that, you know, there's, there's truly levels to life and there's levels in this game and to understand that once you reach a certain income level, it's not necessarily about as crazy as this may sound to someone of your viewers. But that's a problem when you start making enough money that you have to then, as an example, buy an airplane. Not because you can necessarily afford to buy it or because you know you're going to be flying and jet setting all over the place. It's a good tax avoidance vehicle if you're doing it the right way. And you can also make money with leasing and so on and so forth. But you know, the way I look at it is would I rather pay a large check to the IRS or would I rather have an airplane that I can thoroughly enjoy? I choose the latter.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I've, I've thought lately about getting a plane and getting my POTS license, but it takes a long time and it's, it's a lot of work. How do you find time for doing things like that?
[00:08:36] Speaker B: You know, it's a good question. And this is where I'm checking myself again. In 2019, I had probably one of the better years. We hit 5,000 fastest growing companies, top 20 Orlando companies, and I did three Ironman competitions and I was single and, and I enjoyed being single, you know, so I was also incorporating a Lot of dating, which also means you, you got to go out and, you know, multiple dates, and then you're doing this and you're doing that. My point is, is that you can find the time. The same people that say, how do you have the time to go to the gym? You know, well, I don't sleep 12 hours a day. How about that? You know, I'm okay with four or five hours. I'm okay going to the gym at 5:00 in the morning. You can make time for the things that you really, truly want to do. That's a simple answer. So when I was doing my pilot's license, I would wake up early in the morning, especially with Florida weather. Florida is a very unique place to learn how to fly because, you know, by the time I leave my house and I get to the airport, you know, you start learning to become a weatherman. If you start flying, you'll understand what I mean by this. You know, you're literally a weatherman. You're constantly looking at the weather. You're looking at clouds. You know, you become really boring in certain circles because you're like, that's a cumulus cloud over there, you know, and I could fly right around here, you know, but, you know, by the time you get out there, you may have a little bit of time to fly. And by the time you're coming back for your second round of that day, the weather can completely shift and change. So you have to adapt your schedule again, being in control of your own schedule to the extent that you can, you know, and like, for example, you have a hearing to go to. You can't say, judge, I'm so sorry, but I've got a flight I've got scheduled. No, it doesn't work that way. You just got to play around your schedule. So I think anything and everything is doable. I was able to ride 75 miles in the morning on my bike, come back, work 12 hours a day, still be able to go out and go on a date. And if you're married, same thing. Date your wife, right? Date your spouse, date your partner. You're still, you're still able to do the things you want to do. But most people get comfortable, and as my mentor tells me, the only way to coast is downhill. Well, most people do, especially entrepreneurs. They become victims of the it's me time. You know, I worked all day and I'm now it's my time. I'm gonna sit on the couch and I'm gonna relax as I deserved it. I'm Gonna tune out to the tv. Yeah, that's what happens. Or you can pick up a book and educate yourself, or you can think about planning out your next morning, or you can say, you know what, I'm going to eat, I'm gonna spend time with my family, or whatever you got to do. I'm gonna self educate myself. I'm going to work out because tomorrow morning, early in the morning, I'm going to set my schedule, I'm going to set my intention. This is what I'm going to do. Everything is possible. The question is, is whether or not you're going to make that hard decision. That's a simple answer. It's easier said.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. And that's the thing, I think, you know, a lot of people sit here and listen to us talk and they're like, there's no way I could ever do that eyes, you know, and they're going to put excuses out there. Not reasons, it's, it's excuses. And some of the best advice I hear from the entrepreneurs I talk to on this podcast, it's, it's, it's advice like, like you're giving it. You, you set time for growth, you set time for learning, and you don't, you don't waste time with frivolous activity. For instance, one of my, one of my guests, he said, the best time in my car is not listening to music, it's listening to podcasts, it's listening to books about growing and learning. And the music's not changed. The music I like hasn't changed since I was 13 years old. So why am I still listening to the same music 40 years later when I could be learning something new 40 years later? So what is a routine for you that you wish you had started earlier in your journey?
[00:12:16] Speaker B: You know, fortunately, I had the opportunity and the privilege to serve in our military. And lessons that I learned in the military is something that's been kind of ingrained in me. So working out, especially early in the morning, is something that I still do. I remember being in the military, being 18 years old, you know, waking up at 4:00 in the morning and being freezing and the dark, the pitch of dark, you know, just complete darkness and just thinking to myself, I am America's first line of defense, you know, and while most people are sleeping, I'm training my body, I'm training my mind to be a weapon to protect our country. And as, as silly as that may sound to some of your viewers, that's something that, that gave me this mental kind of clarity, where I looked at my body not only as a, you know, just as a vessel to say, you know, I'm going to do something, you know, productive. You know, think. People think, hey, soldier, you know, in the military, you're trained that as a soldier, you were a professional. You were a professional soldier. And that's something that I, again, I carry through the military. So getting out of the military when I found myself at my lowest of lows, when I was partying too much, because, you know, I got out of the military and I got into the. I very fortunate. I got into the mortgage industry. And before I knew it, you know, I'm 20 years old, I'm making 20, 30, 40, $50,000 a month living in Miami. The party lifestyle does seem to catch up to you. And I had an amazing time while that lasted. It's something that, you know, I don't really necessarily regret to an extent, because there's a lot of lessons that I've got that I learned from that. But I wasn't working out anymore at that point. I was drinking and I was partying and I was having the best time. Was I the most successful I was in my career? No. I made a lot of money, but I didn't have a lot of education. I learned now that opportunity shifted my mindset, okay? And sometimes all someone needs is that shift in a mindset. But again, that's just the beginning step, because the way I look at it is, you know, you're either educated in the thought process of. Of in the belief of making money, okay, or you're not. I grew up in an environment where, you know, the mortgage industry wasn't something that was available in the finance industry. The things that I'm doing right now is not something that I ever thought was humanly possible, nor that I think was really achievable. I thought I was just going to get a job and I was going to try to support my family and whatever that job is. And I think most people get stuck in that routine. I mean, hell, people right now are burying themselves in college debt for a major they're not even getting a job in, or it's difficult to get a job in, or by the time they get that job, it doesn't even support their bills, let alone their student debt. So I think most people are just happy to get a job initially and they get stuck in a routine. How the mortgage industry and the job that I had in the mortgage industry, that really changed my entire life. It changed my trajectory. It changed my perception My state of mind, and I started making a lot of money. But again, money without proper financial education. Financial literacy is a combination. It's a recipe for disaster. So, you know, having this, you know, shifting your mindset is one thing. Continuing to learn and evolve as a, as an entrepreneur, that's where I believe you get to step up to the next level. Okay, long answer. I hope I answered that because I went on a tangent there, but I think, you know, waking up early in the morning, reading my, My pod or listening to my podcast, you know, my audibles while driving to maximize and be efficient, that's something that I think, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs do. You know, hell, oftentimes I'll sit in my vehicle, I'll drive 40 minutes in my office. I didn't realize, I didn't even turn the radio on. Just because I'm lost in thought and constantly in my head, just kind of, you know, I don't need a movie, I don't need a tv, I don't need. And again, don't get me wrong, I like my downtime and I do enjoy my movies here, but, you know, my shows, you know, here and there, but not as often as I used to, because I like to. I like what's kind of going on in here, and. And I'm constantly plotting and planning what my next step is going to be. What I've realized to an extent is life is like a chess game. And sometimes I'm just in my mind working out a million different variables of what could happen and then how that spawns off the million other variables, how that could be. So when something happens, it's. It's going to happen to an extent, to the way I kind of thought or planned it out. And it seems a little nuts, but the longer you're into this entrepreneur game, you'll realize that what you focus on grows. And you focus on success, you focus on business. You know, the likelihood of you being successful is going to be greater than if you focus on the problems and the issues at hand. Like I tell my staff, if you're going to come to me with a problem, come to me with a couple different solutions, because more often than not, you're going to be able to find the answer without me having to give you the green light for it. So oftentimes they come in here, I'm like, okay, that sounds like the solution. You just want me to give you a thumbs up because you got it, you know, but anyhow, I hope that I answer that long question.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: No, that's good. Well, but it takes me to. You said you had a mind shift and I think that's it. I, I would call it the entrepreneurial paralysis. I think that's what they call it. E Myth Revisited.
So what was your. You had this mind shift, you had this entrepreneurial paralysis while you were young. You, you were, you young party in Miami in the mortgage industry and all of a sudden you go, you know what? I've got a great opportunity here. What was the first, what do you see as your first action, the first thing you did after you realized that to actually start acting on your, your, your mind shift? What, what took you, your first step away from that?
[00:17:48] Speaker B: That's a two part kind of. Well, it's a multiple phase or multiple kind of ways. I can answer that. Number one, let me kind of take a step back and just state this, that you can lead a horse to water. You can't make them drink. I've spoke in front of, you know, 500 plus people crowd. All right. And if I'm going to say a message, here's one thing I realized is that you can't be all things for all people. And I believe that people that want to be successful tune into frequencies. And this is something that I've read over years and this is what has allowed me to, to recognize that. What I realize is whether that frequency be your, your favorite radio station, whatever the case is, you're going to tune into a message that's meant for you. So I can have two people in a room sitting in this chair and this chair, and I can say the same message. That person's going to resonate with my message and he's going to tune into what I'm saying because we're on the same frequency. And the other person's going to say, this isn't for me. Okay, that happens all the time in sales or whatever the case is. You can tell people about, you know, there's a lot of great books written on the secret, right? Literally the book, the Secret, a million different variations thereof. People are going to tune into the message at whatever point in their life that they're ready to receive that message and they're not ready to receive that message, then that's. That message is not for them. So the shift in the mortgage industry just allowed me to recognize that I a person at the time. Now, you know, again, I was going to college in the military. I joined the military at 17 years old, turn 18 in basic training. I started going to college, Central Texas college. I was in the Military. Before we went to Iraq, I had to stop my going to school because we were being deployed, which didn't happen until year, year and a half later. So I did what I could to educate myself. Nevertheless, you know, you know, school education is an entrepreneurial education, right? My belief, it doesn't matter what you're doing, no one's going to teach you to become a business owner, business administration, business management. They're teaching you to be employees of other companies, right? So working for that company, which is Americus Mortgage Company, largest subprime lender in the country, sponsor Major League Baseball, NFL, you know, commercials, etc. It allowed me to understand that I can make more money than a doctor can. And while most people could say that's, that's, that's insane, and here I am, 19 years old by the end, by the end of year one, I'm making more money than most doctors. Not, not specialty doctors, not plastic surgeons and, and so on and so forth. But I know a lot of doctors and I made more money than they did at 19 years old. Between 19 and 20, you know, I mean, hell, my first quarterly bonus was $75,000 on top of my commission that month, which I don't know what it was, 50, 60,000. I made a hundred plus thousand dollars when in a month, you know, 130, whatever it was in my. Before I was 21 years old. You know what, how stupid that is to give that to a person with no financial education? It's like bottles on me. Let's go. We're going to party it up. So the first ship was understanding that I can make money. That doesn't mean I want to keep the money, you know, and that lesson I learned later on, you know, we're talking about some mistakes now. There are certain things that I can control. There's certain things I can't. I was 25 years old. Excuse me. I was 23 years old when I bought my first house. I was very proud. I had three kids. No, I had four kids at the time. I have four boys. And I was 20 by 20 by 23 years old.
And by the time I was 25 years old, I lost my house to foreclosure. The 2008 market hit. And that was the most humbling experience I've ever had in my life. I felt ashamed. I felt, you know, like a loser. I felt like, what am I going to do? I have to pack up my family. I didn't know what to say. It was a very, very heavy time.
Still brings up Emotions. Every time I think about it, because I think about the feeling that I had, you know, packing up my bags or having to hear that knock, you know, not knowing if that was a sheriff or what was going to happen. And that's actually what led me into were, you know, into the things that I did with respect to distressed real estate. So a very disastrous situation turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: So how did you turn that around? What, what was your. So you just got a major punch in the gut, punch in the face, going, coming back to this grit. What did you do next?
[00:21:56] Speaker B: You know, I say this jokingly, I don't mean to put myself down, but you know, you heard the term that you're too big to fail. I was too dumb to quit. I was just hard headed. I didn't know what else to do. The market tanked. You know, 2008, recession hit. You know, Taylor, Beam and Whitaker went down. I spoke about this for many years. The world literally collapsed. If you had an 850 credit score and solid financials and you were a plastic surgeon making $15 million a year, I couldn't let you borrow $200,000 for a house. No one was lending. It happened so quick. And there was this lull, this pause in the marketplace. You know, I missed my first mortgage payment and I think it was six or seven months later. I had already been. The foreclosure process was quick. This was before the onslaught of these mortgage foreclosures. So for me to lose my house so quick, if I was a second or third wave, I could have potentially stayed in my house for two, three, four, five years, as many people did. But me losing the house so quickly made me question, how did this happen? And how did this happen so quickly? And I wanted to understand why. When I was trying to negotiate with my bank, they were telling me the things they were telling me and I was like, wait a minute, so you're the servicer now? Meanwhile, I was in the mortgage business. I should know this. But here I am being a originator now. At the time I was 23 years, 25. I had multiple offices, I had a bunch of loan officers who were working, you know, you know, I just had a good team. We were making a lot of money, and my cash reserves went away very, very quickly because I was living in a manner in which that water spigot was never going to shut off. Okay, this is, this, these are the learning lessons in life. You know, build a war chest. That's one of the biggest lessons I've ever heard or received.
But understanding the way that the banking system works, understanding CEOs and MBS is RMBS is residential mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, credit default obligations. Understanding this, understanding the levels, understanding a whole loan operators, understanding a Camel ratings with banks. These are things that I literally spent 20 plus hours a day studying while trying to figure out how to make money. So when people say they can't do things, the things I did to try to make ends meet, to try to pay rent, to try to put food on the table While literally working 20 hours a day, I scoured the FDIC's website. I learned, I educated myself on what Camel ratings were. I started learning how to go after banks that with a 3 plus Camel ratings that were being in danger of being taken over by the fdic. I started learning how to read their court, their, their daily filings and then started contacting the banks and trying to figure out with, by the way, no money whatsoever, literally no money whatsoever on how to trade debt. So I went from originating debt as in as a broker to being the bank overnight. My first successful trade put me on the map for me and I made seven figures. So I went from losing everything to my first trade, that one non performing note portfolio had more loans in there than most real estate offices will do in terms of transactions in their entire career. Okay, over 5,000 loans in one pop. You know what it is to go from, you know, zero to hero, you know, overnight. And I didn't blow that money. I was extremely conservative at that point and I just started learning more and more. And for every, with every single trade that I did, I always asked the question because one of the things I realized when I was trying to essentially this is a fancy arbitrage. You're talking about wholesaling properties. I started wholesaling portfolios. That's all it was to. When I started going back and backwards to try to add wholesaling to my business, I did not like the business. I was like, this is way too much work for such small profit. This is a grind, this is a job. And that was my mistake to even dabble in that because I saw all these people doing it and that's a shiny, shiny object syndrome. I'm going, I should have just stayed in my lane because I'm playing at a much higher level, making a lot more money with the same effort. Again naturally the entrepreneur in me, when I'm speaking to a fund who has the ability to make, to raise capital and I asked them what are you guys going to do with this debt, okay? They said, well, we'll figure it out. You know, we're going to. Again, these are entrepreneurs that have Wall street access to capital. They don't know what they're doing either. Okay? Now, not, not everyone, not everyone. Just the funds I was fortunate enough to get a hold of. So when I asked the question, what are you guys gonna do with this debt? They go, well, we're gonna find some realtors and we're going to, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna assign REO properties to them. I go, I've got them. And they go, you do? I said, absolutely. And then from there, I built out a whole nationwide network. Okay? So I work, I work backwards. I literally jumped off the cliff and I built the airplane on the way down. Now there's kind of fast forwarding to that first, not successful, non performing, no trade. In the midst of me losing my house and understanding that entire process, I started doing short sales. Nobody knew what short sales were at the time. And at the time, I was very, very fortunate because again, I lost my house so quickly that in that process of me negotiating with the bank, I started to learn a couple of things that didn't work for me, but they work for the next person. The first person I helped out, I was able to help them out. And then the second person, the third person, at that point. You want to talk about the easiest marketing? You know, I spent $0 on ads, on leads, and I had thousands and thousands upon thousands of people giving me their business nationwide. LinkedIn was my favorite tool back in the day. I linked, I lived on it. The same realtors that gave me business, I negotiated on their behalf. They kept the commissions, I kept the flip. I started an office in the Philippines at the same time I was reading the book the four hour workweek. I was deploying the strategies that the book was teaching, which only gave me affirmation, right? I'm like, oh, wow, I'm actually already doing this. So it kind of, you know, led me to believe, hey, I could do this, I'm on the right track. We created a very, very systematized process. It was, it was amazing. The software that we invested in, everything from timestamping every time we made a phone call, I mean, literally every piece of that we did not only make help me make a lot of money, it also saved my ass towards the end. But anyhow, we processed thousands of short sales. The same realtors that gave me business are the same realtors that I use as my network that I then they then became REO agents. So it worked in our favor. The following question after we had the agents assigned, I go, what are you guys going to do with these Defaulted with these distressed properties ago? Well, we're going to renovate them. I go, do you guys have construction company? They go, no, we're looking for that. I go, I happen to have a construction company that evolved into me doing 3, 500 remodels for banks across the southeast region, United States. I never done that before, okay? I figured it out, and I became very, very good at it. They called me the Cuban cost cutter for a reason. Triple C. All right, so that's a. That. That's essentially how he evolved into opening up a construction company. So country, our realty partner, my real estate brokerage originally was an asset management company, okay, Providing essentially, you know, sub asset management services for the larger institutions. Vasquez Construction Development evolved into what it is, but it originally started off, you know, doing bank remodels. Originally, I bought a construction company, and the gentleman was just. It was just right timing. The gentleman was going back to Columbia. I said, I'll buy your company as long as we can, you know, keep your license in place. That worked in our favor, and we made a lot of money doing that. So again, I say this all the time. A necessity stimulates creativity. And when you see opportunity and you don't take advantage of that opportunity in an ethical manner, okay, that's your responsibility. It's your fault. You know, if someone's telling you right now, I've got a hundred dollars, I want to give it away right now, and you need that. A hundred dollars. You don't ask for it. You don't say, what can I do for it? That's your responsibility. It's your fault for not taking action. I'm just a person that sees an opportunity and ask a million questions to see how I could squeeze every last little drop out of that orange, so to say. And that's just something that worked in my favor. It's not genius, just curiosity.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: That's one thing I want to ask you. Did you? So when you said, I've got a construction company, I've got Realtors, did you really have them? Or did you say, I got it, and then you went and built it to have it?
[00:29:56] Speaker B: That's what I said. I said, I'll figure it out. I said, I got that. Because the thing is, everyone knows Willie the Handyman. So I said, no, I know a guy. I. I could do that. And then I built it out from there. And be honest with you, I built that. I built the entire thing off of LinkedIn and Craigslist. I would literally go to a new market and I would say, and I would just type in under services, drywall repair, plumber, lawn care. And at the time you want to talk about how easy it is to get contractors to work for you, the entire financial market has completely collapsed. Which is to say that, you know, national builders stopped building. Everyone stopped building. So you had extremely highly talented individuals with no work. And here I am saying, guys, you're going back to work. It was very easy to get very, very good skilled labor management to say, hey, I have the crew. So it wasn't like I had to go to Alabama, I had to go here, I had to go there and go person to person. Once I was able to find my one or two or three people, you know, per given market, they already had the subs. And I would test them with the responsibility of saying, okay, this is your responsibility. This is what I need. I need photos, I need that this is the format that the bank wants it in. And then I either follow the bank's format or we created a format for the bank to follow.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: So as the REO market matured and the banks sold off their inventory and they still have inventory, don't get me wrong. But how have you shifted over the years with that, that sea change?
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Again, again, it's just adapt and overcome. When the remodeling turn, the spigot turned on. We made so much money doing that that our personal kind of flip business was put on the wayside. Because again, it's just a, it's a mathematical equation. I can put this much money and risk it, or if I were to put out, let's say as an example, $20,000 for a bank remodel that I know it's going to pay us 60 guaranteed. And I say that loosely because we got burned on a few invoices, a very, very small percentage in relation to what we made. So it's easy to write that off.
But it was a lot easier for me to say, I'm going to put 20 per property, get 60 back. This is, this is an easy metric. It's like if you know you're going to put 20 into a vending machine, it's going to spit you back 60.
I think you're going to do that every single day. You're just going to sit there feeding it money. Okay, so that was low hanging fruit. The shift we've started focusing our Energies on that because it was low hanging fruit. Once we were able to do that, I know that I could make a lot more money off of all these opportunities than me making a 3 to 30 cent, 15 cent spread on a portfolio. But it might take me, you know, five, six, seven, eight months, but I'm making seven figure rips per trade. The downside to that business, it's almost, and I hate to say it like that, but this is the way the market was. You know, we've all seen drug movies, you know, and, and imagine as if the bank was my Pablo Escobar and I'm the one guy in the middle and everyone wants to talk to Pablo Escobar. I go, I'm sorry you have to go through me. Everyone, and I mean everyone did everything they could to try to go around me, to go directly to Pablo. But Pablo's my buddy. We're friends, you know. But, you know, you did have a few savvy investors that, you know, made the condition that, hey, my offer will only go through if only if I meet PA low. And what happens? They cut you out. I got tired of that. And it was just a constant. The amount of money I didn't make by because of the fear that I had of people trying to figure out my sources was probably greater than I did make. Okay? And that's the shift that I made in the future. That scarcity mindset I don't have anymore. You're going to screw me. You're going to screw me. That happens in business, okay? But I focus more on the, you know, what, what would happen if you didn't screw me? You know, we can make a lot more money together now again, the few people that were able to find out my sources, they made tens of millions of dollars. Some few local outfits here in Orlando, which I don't do business with. And they've reached out to me in the, in the past and I'm like, click. You know, hey, we need these services. Click. You know, just respectfully speaking, I know who you are as a person and that says more to me, you know, than anything than, you know, says more than I care to entertain anymore anyhow. Evolving. Now let's take a step back. At one point, the banks turn the spigot off and they said, hey Rob, a new mandate came down. Everyone needs to be a general contractor. And I'm like, well, why, you know, we're doing, you know, we're doing bank remodeling, etc. They're like, okay, you're not the gc and at the time the company had bought, the guy had already moved to Columbia. He was gone, out of the picture. Okay, so after a couple, several weeks of us arguing with the bank again. Now, the term general contractor is different in Florida. Very high standard. To be a general contractor in New Jersey, you walk in there, you apply, and you get it. In Texas, there's no general contractor license. You can build a house. You just need to hire a licensed plumber, electrician. Okay. With no roofing license, no general contracting license. That went. I spent almost two years. Almost two years of not working full time, completely unhealthy, drinking Red Bull and every other energy drink for almost 10 to 12 hours a day, studying every single book I could so I could take my GC exam. And by the time that I passed, I went back, like, again, I had made enough money and I built up enough of a war chest I didn't have to work. Now. I had a couple flips going, and I had a few of our projects, which we. Which we are, had already signed contracts on that I knew I had a pipeline of cash by the time that I became a general contractor. The bank's like, what? We got rid of that rule, like, six, seven, eight months ago or whatever the case. You didn't have to do that anymore. And I sat there, I was so pissed. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. But their portfolio was winding down. So this is a bank that had. When I say a bank, this is a. We had hedge funds, we had servicers we were working with. We had one bank that had 200,000 loans with a servicer. And as we were winding these loans down and they transitioned, then they got rid of that servicer. But the asset manager, they lights. They said, hey, look, I don't care. You're leaving that job. We're boarding 50,000 loans to this other servicer. We want you to work for them. We want you to be our point of contact there. I fortunately, work with that asset manager who goes, rob, I'm jumping over here. So again, by cultivating relationships, not only was I approved with this vendor, now I became approved with that vendor, and then I became approved with that vendor when they moved it across the board. So again, I cultivated additional relationships that gave us additional opportunities. But I looked at the.
The shift in as. As quickly as that spigot was turned on, that spigot was turned off because they needed me to become a general contractor. So I thought to myself, you know, I don't want to be at the mercy of someone else ever again. And that's where it evolved to like me started doing my own projects and, and developing my own projects and building my own houses. And that's where the con, that's where the birth of Vasquez Construction and development of Vasquez Family Builders came about, is me being able to control my own destiny. Now again, there's, you know, there's, there's, there's ebbs and flows in things, right. You know, for example, market increasing 300 basis points was a stomach, was a sucker punch and a real hit to the face that impacted our business as it impacted many people's businesses. You have a trillion dollars worth of commercial mortgages that are resetting the amount of, of negative impact that's going to have on extremely good operators. You're having wonderfully run multifamily facilities and extremely good skilled tal operators that are not going to be able to debt service because their rates are going to adjust. Right. So you know, you have to, you have to shift with that market as well to the, as the best, as best as you can. But ultimately speaking, you know, we control our future as best as humanly possible, as best as anyone can predict. That's the reason why we have multiple entities. So should one slow down as, as all businesses, you know, ebbs and blows, we have another one that's going to be able to pick up.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's a true requirement. In today's environment you've got to have cyclical and anti cyclical businesses. The longest time I had, especially during the downturn, I had the bankruptcy side and then on the foreclosures we did bankruptcy and foreclosures and then and foreclosure defense. And then on the other side we had real estate closing. So when the economy was doing well, we did real estate closings in the title agencies and when the economy was bad, we were doing bankruptcies and foreclosure defense on the other side. So I think any, anybody's got to look and go, okay, well I need businesses that can work in both environments when that's happening. You mentioned scarcity mindset and I wanted to touch on that a little bit because I, I preach it a lot. It's scarcity versus abundance mindset. And what does that mean to you?
[00:38:32] Speaker B: I think that if you believe, and that's a key word is if you believe that everything's going to be okay, it will be. You have no idea how many times I've been in a position in the past where I was like, oh my God, I need this loan to go through. I need this loan to go through, because I had that one deal, and that's it. There was nothing else on my table, right? And I focused all my energies on that. And it was bad. You know, there was a. It was. It was a crisis. And when I somehow shifted my mindset to understand that, you know, there's. There's an abundance of business in this world, and the more I speak to people and the more I give my time and the more I speak and the more I just. I just focus on just more and more and more and more and more. You know, literally, I'm looking at my bottle of water. It just. It's almost the belief that, hey, when that water's done, I can just refill it, and that's going to be perfectly fine. And if I've got to walk a little bit further to refill it, that's going to be fine because it's going to be refilled. And if that water fountain gets pushed a little bit further, it's okay. I'm going to refill it, and it's going to be refilled, and it's going to have. It's going to be overflowing. And the more I think about that kind of energy, the more it happens. And I see it in real life, you know, I see it. You know, sometimes I can tell you right now, I work for myself. I've got multiple businesses. At sometimes, at some points, I feel like my employer is American Express, because when you rack up a quarter million dollars a month on American Express, sometimes I feel like that's my employer. I got to pay that sucker back. But that's my partner, you know, that's. I also look at my American Express, that's my business partner. They allow me credit to keep operations going and fund, you know, to start construction material and so on. But. But sometimes I'm like, that's my boss. I got. I got to pay the piper.
And, you know, sometimes, you know, we'll have multiple projects going and something happens. And let's say we're expecting draws and, you know, we're talking to the tombs of millions of dollars in projects. You know, so cash flow management's extremely important. But sometimes, you know, material delays or theft or things happen, you're like, you know, we're talking this on multiple line items. You know, again, having a war chest is very important. But when I catch myself kind of going, oh, my God, what am I going to do? I stop immediately. I go, it's Going to be fine. And it always is. It always is. And I've been on that other end where I worried so much. And even though I knew, I knew this was like the birth of that mindset, I knew it. But there's a difference between knowing and reality, right? Reality is my mortgage is due tomorrow. I can't wish it will be paid tomorrow, right? But understanding that, you know what, it's going to be, okay, my mortgage is due tomorrow and I'm going to figure it out. Something's going to happen. And just again, you're tuning into the frequency that something's going to happen. And at least in my situation, in my case, when I focus on that positivity, hey, a phone call might happen, a lead might come in, a consultation or something, whatever the case is, something happens and I go, it's done, it's fixed. Why? Is it because. And I started analyzing it. Is it because I was focusing on the positivity? Is it because I was focused on the abundance in this, in this universe? And it sounds crazy because I'm not one of these, I hate to say it like this, but I'm not one of these yogi guys that are sitting there preaching with, with, you know, an incense burning and a candle at night. No man, I'm a hard working guy. I just believe that, you know, positive things will happen and, and it will happen because I will it to be. So, okay, I know it's going to happen because I want it in my life, I deserve it in my life. I'm doing good things and it's just going to happen because there's no other, there's no other exceptions, there's no other, nothing else is going to happen because I'm focusing on that frequency. And that's it.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Well, and I think you said it too, you're constantly giving education, you're sharing your knowledge without expectation of being, getting something in return for that immediately. And that to me is the difference between a scarcity and an abundance mindset. Scarcity is, well, I'm going to tell you this, but you are going to give me something in return. Everything is a transaction and there's only so much for me to win something, you have to lose something thing. And to me that abundance mindset is, well, if you win, that's great, I'm gonna, I'm gonna win too. It may not be right now, but it's going to be eventually. It's going to come back to me eventually because there is plenty out there for everyone and plenty to grow for for and grow from, for everybody. And I really, you know, it disheartens me when I hear people talking from a scarcity mindset because I'm like, you know, no, there's plenty out there for all of us. If, if we all work together and we can make it, we can definitely make it.
Where do you see the market going over the. Not too far out by the end of, just through 2025. Where do you see the REO market going? Where do you see just the market in general going for real estate?
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Well, let's. You mentioned reo and you know, certain things I want to address right now. You know, when the market tanked, we were in a position where no one wanted to touch real estate. And the shift between 2008 to now, you know, you have now institutional investors that are gobbling up properties. They've realized as an investment vehicle. When you're talking about like annuities. Right. An income stream, you know, you're having. Institutional investors at Blackstone created the first residential mortgage backed security, the residential backed security, the rbs, which is, which was outperforming many other investment.
So the backlog of these foreclosures of all these REO properties, banks have realized that they have institutional investors that are willing to gobble up these properties. Okay, but one thing I've realized in the landscape of the REO business is that again, there is like any business, you fine tune your model, right? Blackstone, all these other companies have raised billions and billions of dollars. They deployed so much capital in the marketplace. You know, I think what they had 20,000 properties just in Florida alone. They bought all the kind of properties they can buy. And what do they do is they certify and tune their model. Hey, we've realized that we don't want properties that back up to major streets. We don't want properties with pools. We don't want properties before this year built. So they refine their model. Now they're getting rid of these assets. So the likelihood of there being or should there be another national kind of disaster or whatever the case is, a global recession. I think that from a significantly higher point of view than most people can understand, okay. From a top high money management standpoint, they're gonna, they're gonna lock up all these properties, they're gonna keep buying these things up, and they're gonna start trading them in portfolios such as multi family. That's the way I see. Because it's been happening, I've been seeing that progression. Now you're having investors have gone from Buying hundreds of thousands of scattered lots to. Now the new trend is purpose built subdivisions, B2R subdivisions. So now they're creating subdivisions that are specifically for rentals. Right. And that is a higher asset class than, than buying a pool of other assets. Now let's say you're buying a, a mix of class A. What happens after a few years? And you know, as you start putting more capital expenditures in these properties, they're going to start being traded as B and C properties and they're going to start trading them to other managers. Because from a high level point of view, Terry, and this is what I interviewed with, with Blackstone's Invitation Homes, because we sold a ton of properties to them as well. And when I understood their metric, it blew my mind. Because again, you only can see things from your perspective. And what I mean by that is as an investor, meaning a flipper, that's very, very loose for that word because there's levels of investor as a flipper, transactional business, same as wholesaling. I need to make $30,000 or more in a deal. I hear that all the time, right? Transactional business. If it's not 30, it's not for me. As opposed to a rental investor, a cash flow investors, I don't mind overpaying as long as I can achieve 2 or 300amonth or whatever that case is. Different mindset, different investor. When you're managing billions of dollars and you're offering an investor a 6%, you know, stable return, okay, now for private investor, 6% is not worth my time for a, for a money manager, let's say a, a pension fund or whatever the case is 6% stable, okay, as long as it's beating inflation stable, all right, as long as that losing good, they're going to charge 2, you know, 2% money management fee. Doesn't sound like a whole lot, but 2% or 2 and a half percent on billions of dollars, that's enough money to keep operations going. That's enough money for dividends, for bonuses, for salaries, for overhead, etc, so we're just at different levels, okay? That money manager can afford to overpay because at that time, Invitation Homes, when you want to buy a property as an investor, hey, it's worth 100 grand. I got to buy it for 50 to put 30 into it, right? To turn around and sell it for, you know, that 30 Delta, a landlord investor is going to take that same hundred thousand dollars property and say I'm going to pay $85,000 for it, give myself a small little Window to put some capex into it. I'll be at market value, right? My tenant will pay down the balance. I'll be fine. Invitation homes at the time. House is worth a hundred thousand dollars repaired, we'll buy for 130 and then put rent money into it. Like, how the hell can you operate a business like that? It makes no sense. And you couldn't compete. Okay, Right. But when you understand their metric that they're making, as long as that Property's making an 8 1/2% yield, okay, they're making money. So again, you can't compete with that. And when you also look at the competitive landscape and I, and I'm talking about the United States in general, and you look at the United Kingdom and you know how many people own homes there and what's the price point of those homes? We in America are becoming a nation of renters, okay? That's where I see the future. I see the future being that it's going to continue to be increasingly unaffordable short of a global crisis. Okay, that's going to reset pricing. Interest rates are becoming so high that it is, it's becoming unaffordable. Now again, if you can afford to buy, you know, I always say this, you date the rate, you marry the house. Okay? Interest rates, if they adjust in a low, in a lower good, do it. But price points have gone up so high in relation to interest rates that again, short of there being a global meltdown, and again, the market has slowed down, it's cooled off significantly. Okay. You have more licensed real estate agents than you have properties in the market. Okay, that's an interesting, you know, kind of number. You also have it. Was it, I saw a study that said, I think, was it three or four years ago you had, I'm not sure this is, I believe this is in Florida. You're like 400, 000 loan officers now. You have like 99, 000. Okay, so a third of the business is still in business. So 2/3 of the business is out. So what are those people doing? Did they not build a war chest? I mean, again, it's difficult to give someone a mortgage when the majority of America has a lot of equity in their homes and they're at sub 4%, sub, you know, 3% interest rates. Those people aren't moving short of there being a life event. Right, Life event, meaning they have to move for job transfer, death, divorce, you know, the 3Ds people are not moving, you know, because the question that we keep Hearing is, where am I going to move to? What am I going to buy? I'm going to sell my house. Great. But where am I going to move to? Because it's, is it going to be commensurate? So again, how did I shift and adapt to this? As a builder, I control my market. You know, the difference between you and you and I, Joe, as an example, you want to go out and buy a property. Okay. Number one, good luck. Number two, you know, @ the price point you're going to buy a home, I'm building a home for probably at the price you're going to be buying that at or significantly lower. And my equity is already built in. Okay. That's my major competitive advantage over everyone else in the marketplace is that I am building for so low that, you know, we're building, we're putting a new product in the marketplace and I don't have to put Capex into it, at least for a number of years. Okay. And we're, we're building homes with, with built in, 25, 30, 40%, you know, increased margins over what you're doing. You're buying it to then dump money into it, which is never going to compete with my new construction home for the most part. So where do I see the market going? You know, it's interesting, I hate to say that I don't know, because the only thing we can do as investors is adapt with what's going on. Here's what I mean by that. If we get rid of income taxes, which I hope we do, but if we get rid of all this, you know, my mind's already going, wait a minute, how do we report taxes then? And how does this work for people that are going to qualify for homes? So if we, if banks are making their decisions based on tax returns as an example, what's going to happen? Should we get rid of that? That's a whole new underwriting thing that we're going to have to overcome. Right. How are we going to do this? So my mind's spinning again in all these different variables, you know, wondering, you know, what's next. I think that as investors, okay, it's our job to spot the opportunities in crisis. Okay? The only way you're going to stay in business is by being nimble. And I say this all the time. Do you remember that company that you would get penalized if you didn't rewind? What was that? Please be kind and rewind.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Yeah, Blockbuster.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they're not in business anymore.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: Should have been the Netflix. They should have been the Netflix and Toys R Us. They're no longer in business. Why? Because I always did it this way. The entrepreneurs stay in business. Okay, Stay in business because they're shifting the same way you alluded to. You know, hey, the market is calling for bankruptcies and short sales and foreclosure defense. That's where the spigot is turned on. Right. Hey, that. That market, straight up, we're doing our traditional real estate closings. So, you know, congratulations, because you adapted to the marketplace, and the ones that didn't are the ones that are, you know, having a job somewhere else with probably something negative to say about the business. Oh, you know, that's. It doesn't work, you know, you can't make money or it's too high risk. Yeah, of course. Of course it is. What if that's what you believe? And it can be. But those who stay in this business will prevail because they're going to shift and adapt to the market as best as you humanly can. I mean, no one's perfect. And. And you don't always win. You're never, you know. No, there's. No, There's. Remember, in every single baseball game, football game, basketball game, there's a winner and there's a loser. Okay? You lost that game. You didn't lose a season. You lost the game. And. But, you know, unfortunately, when we're dealing with life, you know, those. Those losses could be catastrophic. You know, and rebuilding is something that can take some time. You know, remember on average, what the lifespan of a man is, what, 75, 80 years old or whatever, it's increasing. You know, we have a long. We have a long span. I saw there was a guy online, Howard Payne, big old teeth. I don't know. He got them done. I don't mean to say it negatively, but I saw this guy running around doing one of his videos. And while the video was a little cheesy this morning, I smiled because I said, I'm going to tune into this message because he's saying something to me. And again, I tuned into the frequency, and even though it was a little cheesy, he's sending a message to people that need to hear it. And that message was in 2010. He was 600 grand in debt. He was upside down. He. He. He was at a loss. And here he is buying a $100 million property, okay, showing how Moroccans flew into California and built this property, and he's got a sick property in. In South Florida, and he's got all the toys, the SF90, you know, the, the, he just, he's got all the toys. This guy created that, that silly thing that you plank on you, you work out your core and it's got a little video game on there. So yeah, that's the guy who created that. He goes, I went from zero to hero. I went from 600 grand in debt in 2010-2015 in a five year spans. Again, not overnight, not next month, not next quarter, not next year. But over five years of him investing in himself and believing in himself, he turned negative 600 grand into success story. And how many times have you heard of that happening? It happens all the time. Why? Because people just don't give up on themselves. That's the only thing. I've taken many, many licks. But I believe in myself, I'm going to keep betting in myself. And you can't go wrong investing and betting in yourself.
[00:54:28] Speaker A: What is, what do you think is the best investment in yourself that you've made over the years?
[00:54:33] Speaker B: Continuing to educate myself and pouring into myself, I have again, I'm a pilot, a state certified general contractor. I'm a mortgage broker, I'm a real estate broker, I'm a title agent, I've got every license you can possibly think of. And I'm still constantly going, what's the next thing I can get? What's next? What's next?
Because I don't want to turn this off. I'm constantly educating myself. I'm constantly, I'm, I'm try to as best as possible be a student of life. It's the simplest way I could say it is. You know, again, without, without getting stuck on the shiny object syndrome. Listening and learning and understanding how people are doing things and going, that's pretty interesting. That's unique. That's a really creative way of doing something. That's it. Just, just constantly investing in yourself. You can't go wrong investing yourself. But take a step back. You know, they say the knowledge is power. We've all heard that and I think it's bullshit. And you've heard a lot of people say that too. Applied knowledge is power. There's no point in you learning how to flip a house if you're never going to take that, that chance and flip a house. You know. You know, you start boxing, everything's fun until you get punched in the face. You know, you're like, wait a minute, I don't want to fight anymore. But you know, that's what you're training for. That's what you've Got to do. You have no idea how many times I've been to seminars and. And all this stuff. And I've seen people buy courses and become course junkies, and they take it, they put it on the shelf, and they're going to one day do this, you know, and, you know, I have family that I will never forget, that they. They leverage themselves. They put all this. All these Carlton sheets back in the day, bought the course and never did anything with it. And I just thought that was just, you know, mind blowing. I bought my first course with money I didn't have from a guy who didn't put it together well. And I could have been. Well, first of all, I was pissed, but I could have just socked it away and just said, this isn't going to work. But I bridged the gap because I said, this is what I need to know. This is what I need to do. I need to learn how to do this. And I bridged that gap. I was like, wait a minute. It's almost like if A and C is here, what's missing? The letter B. I got to figure that out. You know, it's just kind of algebra or whatever the case is. You. You do the next logical step, and whatever. Whatever life's going to be again.
I was too proud to go to meetups. I was too nervous. You know, I remember moving to Central Florida, and back in the day, I think it was red carpet Wednesdays or whatever it was, and they bounced around. And I remember driving to some place in Baldwin park for my first networking meeting, nervous as hell, not knowing anyone. I'd moved to Central Florida. I'd lost my house. I didn't have a whole network. You know, my whole family, my whole life was in South Florida. And here I am in central Florida after losing my place, walking into a networking thing without a dollar to my name. Barely had the gas money to get there, going, what am I going to do? And by the way, I don't look like the nicest guy in the world. You know, ever since I got back from Iraq, I look stern. I look mean. I'm pretty chill, you know, but usually people are like, oh, this guy looks really intense, and really, you know, whatever. And I've learned to embrace that. Nevertheless, you know, it's still, you know, people turn around, they're like, he looks upset. Let me not say hi to that guy, you know, so I've got to go over the top. Hey, how are you guys doing? You know, but that wasn't easy for me, you know? And I know that networking is not easy. And I tell. I did a whole class on this. Networking is a contact sport. It's a contact sport. You know, you have to go out there, hey, how you doing? My name is Rob. What do you do? And again, learning and continuing to read books like how to Win Friends and Influence People and then deploying those strategies. That book, by the way, great book. That book led me to meet my first billionaire, and that billionaire led me to own multiple rental properties. And based on that book, taking action on that book, learning, reaching out to a billionaire who took me as his mentee. He was my mentor. That meeting changed my entire life. Okay? Because I took action. I could have simply read the book and said, okay, that's good. Next book. No, dude. If you're going to take time to invest in yourself, deploy the strategies you're doing, you know, it's almost like, you know, if you look at a military soldier, what do they have? They've got their magazines right here. They might have a sidearm. They have their AR15. They might have a knife. They might have that. They've got multiple tools available. If you have a handyman on a job site, you picture the guy with a tool belt. What does he have? He's got multiple tools. As an entrepreneur, you need to have multiple tools. Okay? So if you're on this journey to being an entrepreneur or you're a real estate wholesaler, that's all you know, understand that it's your responsibility to continue to keep adding tools to your tool belt, you know, Because I'll tell you right now, it's really, really hard trying to hammer in a nail with a screwdriver.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Well, and I think you've illustrated very well the old saying that a vision without implementation and execution is nothing more than a dream. You know, eventually you've got to use the tools available to you and you've got to go do it. You can't just keep having visions and dreaming and dreaming and dreaming. At some point, you've got to implement, you've got to execute, and you've done that. And one of the things you talked about there, and one of the things I always end every show with, since our mission is to help people aspire to a better life, I always ask, who is someone in your life, a mentor, parent, friend, whoever, who is that person who helped you aspire to a better life and how they do it?
[00:59:51] Speaker B: There's a lot of people that have had an impact in my life, you know, whether they know it or not. And that's that's a beautiful part because, you know, you can learn a lot from a distance. And the one thing I've learned in the military, at least I learned it in the military, is that you can learn as much from bad leadership as you can from good leadership. The less. My Uncle Rick is a man that I saw from a distance. That. And I say from a distance because, you know, I ran away at home, from home when I was 14 years old and never went back. And that was a challenge and obstacles I had to overcome. Nevertheless, looking back, my uncle had an amazing relationship with his wife, my aunt. He is an incredible father to his kids, and they have an amazing relationship. When I was getting out of the military, he is a man who had a successful insurance business and had been in that same location now for over 35 years. He also was in the mortgage industry. And from a distance, I looked at him, and by all outward appearances, he was successful. And when I was younger, I was a knucklehead, so I didn't get along with quite a few people. Hence, I left at 14 years old because I thought I knew it all. But my Uncle Rick is a good friend and a good mentor to me. I love the relationship he has with his wife. I love the relationship he has with his kids. And that's something that I aspire to continue to try to be. And that's all you can do, is to, you know, try to emulate people that impact your life in a positive way, whether they know it or not, you know, because there's a lot of people that look at guys, you know, whomever, Donald Trump, whatever, and say, I'm going to try to pursue that, and you should, you know, if there's things that, you know, you like in terms of character or work ethic or whatever the case from people, number one, it's nice to acknowledge it and share that with someone. Because sometimes, and you know this, I'm sure, Joe, from a. From a leadership position or even from an authority, you know, having a podcast or whatnot, the. The guests that you have here and the messages that you deliver impact the lives of others, you know, and it's sometimes nice to hear, hey, you know, I appreciate that show that you did that gave me that encouragement or those words of advice, help me do this deal or whatever the case that put money in my pocket. And sometimes you're like, oh, that's. That's nice. That's great. But that little advice changed the world for that person. That deal and that money they made, help that person, whatever pay their mortgage or, or invest in their business that helped them 10x it or whatever the case is. So I would say that if there's someone I could think of right off the top of my head, my Uncle Rick and I'll leave it there.
[01:02:24] Speaker A: Well, Rob, I want to thank you so much for coming on, exemplifying that abundance mentality. Sharing this, these nuggets of knowledge that you have today with everybody, with our audience is invaluable. And I want to thank you again for coming. And if everyone out there ever needs to get in touch with Rob or learn any more, we have down in the Show Notes. We'll have links to everything that we talked about today. If you heard a book mentioned anything like that, all of that's going to be down in the show notes. So please, I hope you all got something out of this. And until next time, I want everybody just to trust this.
Thanks for listening to this edition of Trust this. If you got something out of it, please press like and subscribe and give us a five star review to help us reach others who can benefit from this series. Until next time, keep aspiring to a better life.
