#19: Alex Rubio - PreMed to Property Management, Navigating Getting Older, and Benefits of an MBA - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000
Gurus with me, your host, jrYonacruz.
So today's guest is Alex Rubio.
So Alex Rubio is a seasonedprofessional in property
management and real estate withover 15 years of experience.
He earned his degree inbiological sciences from UC
Irvine in 2007 and his MBA fromUC Irvine's Mirage School of

(00:22):
Business in 2015, completing thefully employed program.
While working full-time, alexbegan his career with American
Campus Communities, or ACC, in2006 and since then has worked
up his way from AssistantResident Director to Area
Manager by 2019.
In addition to his work at ACC,alex has obtained his real

(00:42):
estate license in 2017 andjoined eXp Realty in 2023,
expanding his expertise into thereal estate sector.
So this was a fun episode,because Alex was actually my old
boss in college when I workedas a CA, which is kind of like
an RA for off-campus studenthousing.
We have a lot of things incommon, such as being Philippine
Americans, foodies and proudUCI alumni.

(01:04):
This is a great conversationwhere I personally learned a lot
.
Alex's experience leading teamsand having a long career in
property management, as well asbeing very eloquent and
introspective on the lessonshe's learned over the years,
really lend to him being anexcellent guru.
For this episode.
We talk a lot about his careertrajectory, starting off pre-med
to quote-unquote, temporarilygoing into property management

(01:26):
for almost 20 years.
He also gives great insightsinto leadership, fun stories
about student housing and whatit's like to get an MBA.
As a working professional,reconnecting with people I
respect, like Alex, is kind ofhalf the reason why I created
this show, so I was reallygrateful for this opportunity.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this episode with Alex
Rubio.
Hello everyone and welcome backto 1000 Gurus.

(01:49):
Today's guest is Alex RubioIncredible, yeah.
Thanks for being here, alex.
So yeah, we talked about rightbefore we started recording.
It's been a while I feel likeit's been almost 10 years since
the last time I met him.
Yeah, it's been forever.
So for those of you don't know,I just read alex's bio.

(02:12):
But he was my old boss.
Back during my fourth year incollege I worked as a ca, a
community assistant, so it'skind of like an ra, but for the
acc properties.
And then alex was the gm atcamino and so he was like the
big boss man.
Oh, you know, what I should I'mgonna link it in the notes is
all the memes that I made maybejust a a couple of you, but my
favorite one, the one that Isent you like more recently, was
the was the you?
Doing this and it was like isthat a phone number or a bill?
Alex?

Alex (02:32):
is the money guy.

J.R. (02:33):
Yeah, that was really good .
I did some of the other prostaff too, but it was a lot of
fun.
That was my meme era.
I just had folders of memes.
But yeah, let me go into how Iknow you.
So, yeah, like I said, you'vebeen at ACC for a while.
I stalked your LinkedIn andeverything.
Just to refresh, I was a CA forCamino in 2012, 2013.
You were our pro staff manager.
You'd been at ACC for I don'tknow like six, seven years,

(02:56):
something like that.
I started in 2006.
Right, 2006.
Yeah, so then it's been a fewyears.
So you started as a CA.

Alex (03:04):
You know, actually, when I was a student, they wanted me
to apply to be a CA.
I really didn't want to give upmy two bedroom units.

J.R. (03:11):
I was a student staff at UCF.
Oh, student staff, gotcha,gotcha.
Okay, so you're student staff,because I remember it was like
you said that and then, afteryou graduated, you became
pro-staff then.

Alex (03:19):
Exactly.

J.R. (03:21):
Right, yeah, let's see.
And then so you graduated 2007,BioSci and then business school
, 2015.
And then the other thing that Iremember is that you used to
post I don't know if you stilldo, but a lot of cooking stories
.

Alex (03:34):
Yeah.

J.R. (03:34):
Where you were like doing that.
Do you still do a lot ofcooking?

Alex (03:36):
You know, not as much as I want to, but I probably the
last time I started really doingthat was last year.

J.R. (03:45):
But Last time I started really doing that was last year,
but things got so busy withlife.
Yeah, yeah, I always admirepeople who go into cooking,
because that's the last thingthat I care about is learning
how to cook.
I don't know.
There's just something aboutfood for me personally that I'm
just like.
I just want to eat it, but Idon't have the patience, nor the
skill, nor the inclination towant to make something beautiful
and props to everyone who doesso.

(04:07):
Whenever I see people like oh,getting to cooking, I'm like oh,
that's, that sounds cool.

Alex (04:09):
I would never do it.
I do it for the gram.
Ah, the gram.
There you go, just for theoptimal angle of the dish.

J.R. (04:11):
Yeah, I take pictures of food, you know.
Yeah, oh, but that's the extent.

Alex (04:15):
Anything else that you're up to nowadays before we get
into our topics still just youknow, at uci doing the whole acc
management thing and trying towork on my the growth of my real
estate sort of side gig yeah,nice, and we'll get into that
too as well.

J.R. (04:31):
Okay, so first topic that I wanted to get into is you've
been.
Is it safe to say you'rediehard UCI?
I mean, you've been thereforever yes yeah, so, which is
super cool.
So I wanted to ask you.
First topic is usually kind oforigin story, right like where
you grew up.
I know you said you grew up in626 area.
What were your careeraspirations, growing up and main
influences?

Alex (04:51):
I guess we'll start there so I remember, you know, just
like, I think, any asian family,yeah, the filipino family your
parents want the best for you,right?
So you know, ever since secondgrade, I can remember my dad
really pushing me to be a doctor.
So you know, ever since secondgrade, I can remember my dad
really pushing me to be a doctor.
So you know, ever since secondgrade, I remember I really liked
my second grade teacher, mrsFerris, and I remember just

(05:13):
mentioning to my dad that Ithink I want to be a teacher
when I grow up, and my dad was,you know, no, you're not.

J.R. (05:18):
You give the hard side eye .

Alex (05:20):
You're going to be a doctor.
Sorry, you said doctor Prettymuch.
I think that's what happenedFrom second grade on.
It's been like the molding ofgoing towards being a doctor,
which is why I went to Biol Sciat UCI and Irvine, because my
dad was familiar with Irvinebecause he worked in the city of
Irvine in that area, and so itwas a good combination of both

(05:44):
kind of that distance to kind ofhave the independence, but also
close to family when there's nobig filipino parties.

J.R. (05:50):
Yeah, of course, of course , okay.
So then.
So you chose irvine, uci,biocide because you were like
pre-med.
So then what was?
Well?
There's two things I want toask as someone who's been at uci
for a long time.
Right, I'm curious about howit's changed since you when you
started first year.
Right, because Irvine is evensince I dropped on campus, like

(06:11):
2009 when I was first year.
It's changed since then a lot,but I imagine even before that
you've been around for longer isso my first topic is kind of
like, how has Irvine slash UCIchanged?
And like what your experiencewas like going through that?
And then also, what was thattrajectory of you know biocide
from when you started till 2007?
Like, where did that careerpath go?

Alex (06:31):
yeah, have you been to the campus at all recently?
When's the last time I?

J.R. (06:34):
went.
Oh no, I went to give a blooddonation, like a few days ago oh
.
I go there every three, two tothree months to donate blood.
Okay, at the student center.
At the student center, becauseI know all the nurses they're
super nice, especially thefilipino ones, shout out.
Tina from the blood center.
I was like I was here the firstyear.
I came like it opened.
Okay, so another quick tangent.
So I like maybe two blood blooddonations ago I was like

(06:56):
sitting there and it was like apromo.
So there was first years likeall around me and then the guy
next to me, he's like what's myfirst time, first time.

Alex (07:02):
And I was like, oh, yeah, it's the first time I'm like
I've been here for a while now.

J.R. (07:05):
And later, eventually, it got on.
So, yeah, I've been here for,let's say, eight or nine years.
And then, tina, she's like,yeah, that's when we opened.
I'm like, yeah, I think I washere since then, right.
But then and I him, and I waslike, yeah, my and this is a
real story I almost passed out,actually, yeah, I barely didn't

(07:27):
pass out and a nurse caught me.
I stood up, I felt nauseous andthen I started blacking out and
then one of the nurses caughtme and then they put a cold
thing and then laid me down.
That was my first blooddonation.
But then, since then, I waslike I trust these guys, they
saved my life yeah they saved mylife and they have a full
facility.
They're super professional.
They do this by volume, a lot,so they know what they're doing.
So I exclusively go to UCIBlood Donor Center.

Alex (07:48):
Nice, I remember when it opened.
I used to be a regular theretoo, watching movies while I'm
giving platelets.

J.R. (07:54):
Yeah, like platelets yes.

Alex (07:55):
Yes, they used to give out movie tickets.

J.R. (07:59):
Yeah, to $60, which is a good deal.

Alex (08:01):
Hey, that's better.

J.R. (08:02):
Yeah, blood is like 5 to 10, platelets is 40 to 60.

Alex (08:05):
Oh man, yeah, I was going to go tangent with-.
Yeah, tangent yeah.

J.R. (08:08):
It's our blood donor center, exactly so shout out
Sorry, where were we at?

Alex (08:11):
How has it changed?
Yeah, going back to that kindof along the same lines of the
blood donor centers,everything's changed.
We talk about ACC.
That's the private housing oncampus that's managed by
American Campus.
I remember when that didn'texist, so when I was a freshman

(08:33):
living in Middle Earth circa2002, that whole East Campus was
just Arroyo Vista.
That was it, and it was justopen field.

J.R. (08:38):
Yeah.

Alex (08:38):
So where you used to work, Arroyo Drive, that wasn't there
.
It wasn't there.
Yeah, I remember the firstphase, Vista del Campo.
I was a resident there.
When it first opened, my roomsmelled like fresh paint.
It was so weird.

J.R. (08:52):
Fresh paint and lead.

Alex (08:54):
It was?
What year was that?
Probably 2004.
And it was like a long roadfrom the first stop sign.
It was at the very end right Atthe very end, top of the hill.
It was like a long road, ArroyoDrive, and so I remember one
year it was just, you know totake the shuttle.
Firstly, they were old schoolschool buses back then, and when
you drive up Arroyo Drive itwas just open field on both

(09:15):
sides.

J.R. (09:18):
It felt like we're going like into.

Alex (09:19):
This was just vacant.
Now it's all built out, so it'sit's so.
It's so weird.
And even utc across the streetwas so different.
Lee's sandwiches isn't thereanymore that's right.
Yeah, yeah, I remember I used,you know, the old 24-hour
fitness isn't there anymore,it's target now.
Before that it was from what Iremember, from what I heard from
alumni it used to be like thismetropolis sort of club oh
really yeah, everything aboutthe campus is different.

(09:41):
There's no more buildings,buildings, so UCI is under
construction definitely.

J.R. (09:45):
Under construction.
Definitely All the acronyms.

Alex (09:47):
Yeah, all that.

J.R. (09:48):
What were the other ones?

Alex (09:50):
Probably something we shouldn't say.

J.R. (09:51):
Okay, I was going to think of it.
Okay, we don't have to say it.
Google that.
All those acronyms, All theacronyms yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, that's been myexperience too, Like even just
the short time you know, thefour.
Well, actually, to be honest,like I've been at been in Irvine

(10:12):
for 10 years, so since I wasfirst year and then I moved back
home and then moved back toIrvine for the next eight years
or something like that, so I'vebeen around Irvine a lot, so I
feel like that's like my secondhome but, so, yeah, it's
developed a lot and then you'vebeen part of that, especially
with the student housing as well, which I don't know.
I feel like the ACC communitieswas a big part of my experience,
because I think I lived on themaside from first year,
obviously, I think secondthrough fourth year and I liked

(10:33):
it a lot, and then I was a CA aswell and I think it really adds
to the experience because it'slike it's off-campus housing but
it's really connected.

Alex (10:41):
We're really part of the campus so if we did our job, it
feels like it's part of thestudent life, although it's, you
know, not managed by usayhousing.
But we're partners and you knowthe trip when you were a
student we did all the trainingsto you know very similar to a
cra experience.
That's the acc version of thatyeah, definitely okay.

J.R. (10:59):
So then, going back to now , your undergraduate experience,
like how did you, what was thepath going forward of?

Alex (11:04):
okay, I'm biopsych going to be a doctor, yeah.

J.R. (11:07):
And then you graduate and now you're ACC and I'm not a
doctor yeah, not a doctor.

Alex (11:12):
Yeah, you know it was.
I think it was well.
First I have a biopsych degree,not a total waste, I think.
In my mind People always say,well, should you have just
switched majors?
It's hard to say, because mylife wouldn't be the same it
wouldn't be now if I wasn't abio major, because when I

(11:35):
graduated bio I actually didn'twant to graduate yet I wanted to
stay a fifth year to kind ofdelay the inevitable of
graduation.
But bio sci didn't let me.
They were like if you want thesecond major you have to
graduate from uci and thenreapply to uci as a second
baccalaureate.
So you know, I go.
Joining acc was actuallybecause I didn't know what to do

(11:55):
with a bio major, because I waspre-med.
I ultimately didn't become pregoing to medical school.
I never worked.
I, you know, I did my researchat the hospital, the main
hospital in orange, but I neverworked in the lab.
So most people who aren'tpre-med, they worked in some
sort of pharmaceutical thing andI never did that.
But to kind of rewind a bit, mygrades weren't competitive, so

(12:16):
I wasn't an academic superstar.
I didn't want to go intomedicine like other folks who
were in my cohort.
Like I said, I did research atthe emergency department in the
hospital, the main hospital, yousay hospital in orange.
All my friends are doctors, soexcept for me, but um, I didn't
want it that much.
You know, some folks you knowwere not as competitive in their

(12:39):
academics so they decided to doa post-bac program because they
really wanted to go into thatand I just never had that
passion, like I said it wasn'tlike.
But biocide was a total wastebecause I think the work ethic
and sort of the mindset to get abiodegrade at UCI even if
you're not competitive, kind ofwas helpful for me when I

(13:00):
proceeded to everything I'mdoing now.
That critical mind and allthose hard sciences and the STEM
sort of stuff kind of reallyhelped me today.
So not total waste, but it wasa very weird pathway to get
where I am.

J.R. (13:13):
Yeah, definitely.
I think that's a good thing tounderscore is no matter what you
do, you're not wasting yourtime because you get something
out of it as long as you see itthat way right Like it's not a
waste and I had a questionsitting in, for I dance with
college students at UCLA and alot of them are, let's say, like
bioengineering, like bio, sci,phi, sci and all that, and it's
very competitive.

(13:34):
Like you said, how does one, orhow did you, or how do you see
one discerning?
Okay, I'm, my grades aren'tcompetitive, or maybe I feel
like this isn't really for me.
Like when is it?
When?
At what point do you make apivot?
Or look to other things and notjump to med school?
Or maybe take a few of themwant to take one or two gap year
to like work and figure it out,because they're not so like med

(13:55):
school, like right afterwards.

Alex (13:57):
You know it's something I talked about in one-on-one
meetings that I used to havewith CAs, because, you and
everyone else who I've knownover the years, it's always
similar in terms of either theirgung-ho and what they want to
do, or they're feeling kind oflost.
And just you know, in themoment you have those feelings,

(14:18):
but in in like retrospect, whenI see everyone do their thing,
it kind of comes down to do wellin whatever you do and things
will fall into place.
So there are folks who havereally pushed for med school.
Maybe they were burnt out orthey were just so focused on it,
and when they didn't do well itwas somewhat demoralizing in a

(14:43):
sense, and so they found othersort of avenues.
But there's other folks whomaybe didn't succeed in the
GMATs or whatever they wanted todo.
They did a gap year or theytried to find other things
during that one or two yearsafter graduating UCI, and doing
that actually motivated themeven further to kind of realize

(15:04):
you know what I want to be adoctor.
Doing all that reignited theirpassion.
So not everyone's path is thesame.
I know when you go to UCI ormaybe you hear from your parents
, you kind of have thismentality that you have to be
the doctor, be the lawyer, bethis headliner title, and you
see everyone at UCI who is verydriven or very successful and

(15:26):
you feel you have to have thatpath.
Everyone has their own pathBecause if you put yourself in
that mold from what I've seenall the you know I've been to
the ACC for about 20 years, sothat's how many generations of
student staff I've seen you justhave to be passionate whenever
you do, you know, be proud ofyour story or be proud of your
path and because it's broughtyou to where you are.

(15:48):
Like I said, there's thatthere's one student staff member
who thought that they ruled outmedical school or being a
doctor, but that two-year gapreignited that passion and it
and they're now in med school orthey're a doctor now.
So, and also remembering thatwhatever you decide to do,
either your it's your dream jobor dream role since you were in

(16:08):
second grade or something youfell into, whatever job's going
to have dark times, it's goingto have difficulties, right, but
it's that kind of passion thatyou have for it, that kind of
lights the way sort of thing.
So for me, I didn't aspire towork in property management or
student housing or real estate.
I fell into it, you know, withmy story.
But I enjoy working at UCI.

(16:29):
I enjoyed working with thecampus partners.
I enjoy working with CAs andACC as a company.
So during those difficult times, that's what lights the way you
know.
So, whatever you do, you'regoing to have some sort of
passion.
Don't be so blinded to.
I have to do it this waybecause you might get burned out
.
It's from what I've seen fromother people right, right.

J.R. (16:49):
So it's from what I'm getting, or what you're saying,
and what I think you're gettingat is people have their own path
yeah, you know, it doesn't haveto be very straightforward.
you can kind of take a break butdevelop, developing some sort
of self-awareness that you know,like you can figure out what
you're passionate about.
And then sometimes you fallinto something that was kind of
like similar with my career path, like I didn't know what I
wanted to do but I knew that ifI did a good job and I kept an
open mind, I would findsomething.

(17:10):
So I like that a lot, so I guessnow segue into that is so how
did you fall?
Okay, you fell into propertymanagement and ACC for the last
20 years or so.

Alex (17:21):
Temporary for the last 20 years.

J.R. (17:22):
Yeah, exactly, it's okay.
Maybe I'll do this propertymanagement thing, see how it
goes for 20 years.
So then, what was the I guess?
Could you walk us through howthat, how it led from one year
to 20 years?

Alex (17:33):
I would like to assume you like it there because you're
clearly still there, right.

J.R. (17:37):
So could you walk us through that?

Alex (17:39):
You know, it's interesting because working for this
company or going through thisindustry was temporary, because,
like I said, I didn't know whatto do with my life, with my bio
degree and graduating earlierthan I thought, and so I was
speaking.
I was chatting with my currentboss, emily, on AIM Instant
messaging.
Yeah, that's old right, what'sAIM?

J.R. (17:59):
Yeah, that's so sad.

Alex (18:01):
Known as Teams probably now.
It's kind of venting on.
I don't know what I want to do.
I have this bio degree, allthose things.
And she messaged me and saidyou know what?
We're opening our second phase,visito Campo Norte, and we're
splitting the staff.
We need to hire more staff.
Since you don't know what to dowith your life, come work for

(18:23):
us.
And I was like, since I reallydidn't know what to do with my
life and I wasn't sure if Iwanted to move back to Walnut, I
applied and I got it.
And it was going to be, like Isaid, temporary.
While I figure out what I wantto do with my life, I'll work
for ACC.
I don't know what this is about.
I worked on campus and that'show I knew Emily.
She was my boss when I was astudent housing advisor at UCI,

(18:45):
so I gave housing tours.
I was also campus rep at UCI,so I gave campus tours, so
that's how I know Emily.
But yeah, while I figure it out, I'll just do this side gig
sort of thing.
And it's been temporary eversince I just kind of moved up
the company.
It's been very good to me.

J.R. (19:07):
Were there very good to me , yeah, were there.
Maybe.
Specifically, what are somethings about your career with
acc that you know that lended toyou staying for so long?
I'm assuming?
I mean I've I worked there fora year as a ca, but like what
about it do you feel likecompels you to have stayed for
this long?
Because there are people outthere who go into different work
environments and maybe there'ssome are good, some are not so
good, but 20 years in acompany-ish seems like a good

(19:28):
track record.
So I don't know, like whatthings do you feel like lend it
to being a good place to work?

Alex (19:32):
I think it's, you know, a combination of working for your
alma mater as you said, I was aproud anteater, so there's that
blessing but also working for agood company American Campus but
I think combining that createdan environment where it's the
people.
I've worked with a lot of mycolleagues who I've known for

(19:53):
now like Emily, I've known sinceI was a student staff as an
undergraduate, and so I thinkit's the people that we work
with that kind of drive everyday.
It could be the people who willwork on campus, who I used to
work as a student staff and theywere the pro staff.
Now they're my colleagues andthere's that, you know, seeing
CAs like yourself grow intodoing all their different

(20:15):
passions.
So, when it comes down to it,seeing all those different
populations working with thosedifferent people, it's the
environment, it's the peoplethat kind of make it a really
awesome environment to work in.

J.R. (20:25):
Nice.
So my next question is you knowas a manager, and you've been a
manager in that capacity for along time.
My question is like whatinsights or lessons have you
learned that you feel like helpwith leading a large team and
overseeing like a large area?
That's something that I'mreally interested in is like

(20:46):
leadership and creating thatsort of culture and environment
that makes people want to stayfor, let's say, 20 years Right,
and I know you've been a part ofthat to help growth the growth
of ACC at UCI.
Do you have any like insightsor lessons that you've learned?

Alex (20:58):
It takes experience, you know it's.
I don't think I was like anaturally born leader and it's
really an awareness about yourown shortcomings and you want to
learn from it.
But it's I wouldn't say it'sbeen a rocky road.
I hope it's not been a rockyroad for the people I worked
with.
But it's a growing journey ofbeing a leader.
So I was.

(21:19):
When I first started with ACC, Iwas an assistant resident
director and then becameresident director.
So I got experience throughsupervising student staff and,
you know, learning that, thoseinitial stages of being a
supervisor.
So that's learning thestrengths of your team, knowing
how to identify weaknesses andhow to let them grow and teach

(21:41):
them.
You know those kind offoundational things.
And then as I moved up, thecompany that kind of
transitioned from student staffto full-time staff Totally
different population.
Because when you're studentstaff they're very part-time
sort of people.
They have academic work and soyou only really supervise them
when they're in the office.
But when you're pro staffyou're now supervising someone

(22:05):
who's here eight to five longterm.
So there's different nuanceswith that.
But I think the leadership kindof aspect is you know, I got my
MBA.
They touch on leadership andbeing a supervisor.
They're kind of they touch onleadership and being a
supervisor, but really it's thehands-on experience over the
years to hone in those skills,to really know what you need to

(22:26):
be a successful leader for yourteam and then helping them go
towards that goal of whateverthe mission is or whatever the
initiative is for that time.

J.R. (22:36):
So it's a lot of self-awareness, I think, and
some humility too, I thinkself-awareness, humility yeah
really getting to know, likeyour staff yeah what their
motivations are and guiding themtowards the common goal.
Yeah, I feel like that issomething that, in my personal
experience, it takes a lot oftime just in the trenches right
like just learning how to dealwith people I guess.
Well, the next question waslike how does one manage the

(22:57):
entire professional staff andstudent staff?
Like leadership tips, but inlieu of that I think we kind of
touched upon it Any crazy, funnyor unique stories working in
student housing or propertymanagement.

Alex (23:06):
This is the juicy parts.
If you have a juicy spot, yeah.

J.R. (23:09):
I know.
Okay, so one of the things Ithink I saw you post recently is
you know what is it like turn,turnaround or turnover, turnover
right.
Where it's like between leasesand then you kind of have to go
through all of the.
I've been there too, right,where it's okay, people are,
students are moving out,students are not the cleanest
people I'm sure you know of allpeople right and so then you
have to deal with all of that,like that garbage refugee camp.

(23:30):
What is this?
And then clean that up and thenget it ready for the next group
of people coming right.
So yeah, sorry, just to leadinto that.
Like any fun stories, Funstories.

Alex (23:38):
I don't know.
They're pretty gross stories,Right right right.
You know, when it comes down toit we're pretty blessed in
Irvine.
For the most part people takecare of their units.
But you know there are somediscoveries we find when people
have to quickly leave their unitbecause you know they have a
deadline to move out.
Just feel like it's okay toleave whatever you don't want in
the unit and so there have beenturn treasures we like to call

(24:02):
them.
I love that.
There's definitely beentreasures we found.
One year, I think we found likeit wasn't a real sword but it
was definitely not a plasticsword, so it for a couple years
it became our turn sword.
We brought it out when it'stime for turns like you touched
on it the gross sort of wow.
I cannot believe that you tooka shower in that those sort of
stereotypical student housingsort of things.

(24:23):
But I think it's mostly thatit's just kind of the amazement
of how people live and they haveno shame, that I feel people
realize that people will come into clean this space.
So there's a level of judgmentof wow, you're pretty gross
you're pretty disgusting.

J.R. (24:38):
Yeah, wow, good for you.
Good luck in the future, yeah,but you know there's a level of
judgment of wow, you're prettygross, you're pretty disgusting.

Alex (24:40):
Yeah, well, good for you.

J.R. (24:41):
Good luck in the future yeah, but no, there's some stuff
like that and the turn swordthat we kind of man, I, I could
go through a lot of stories ofbeing on duty and like breaking
up parties.
That was always fun for me notfor some of my other colleagues
because you know it's sometimesit's intimidating, right, if
you're one or two people andyou're trying to you're a
student, you're trying to makeup a party and there's 30 people

(25:02):
in there, right.
I always liked it because it'slike a challenge for me.
It's like, all right, you'redrunk, I'm not.
Also, I have the authoritybehind me of, okay, I could call
the cops if I need to pro.
What do we do with this?
But it was just a full keg.
Yeah, I think I remember that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was superfunny.
And then I remember when I wasliving in Camino, too, like one

(25:23):
of the other residents had abunny, like a rabbit, like they
were.
Just, you know, you're notsupposed to have pets, right, or
are you?
Yeah, I mean we're still no pets, okay, yeah yeah, so I think at
the time you weren't allowed to.
But then so when this guy hadit, it was a thing and he kept
having meetings with pro staffand it's like you can't have the

(25:44):
pet man and he's like, okay,fine, and then he would still
have it.
Stuff like that, where it'slike okay, this is funny.

Alex (25:57):
Yeah, I mean student housing.
We try to have thoseconversations because once you
leave UCI or student housing,people are not going to.
You know your landlord is notgoing to have this conversation
with you.
You really shouldn't have thispet.
Yeah, so, but transitional time?
Yeah, definitely.

J.R. (26:11):
Yeah, so we get it.
You know, people are becomingadults.

Alex (26:14):
Yeah yeah.

J.R. (26:15):
Another question is like how does one I know you said
that you know you really likeacc for lots of good reasons how
do you think about sticking atone company versus like jumping
around some of the company?
I know that's like a commonthing.
Sometimes I feel like moreoften in this day and age you
have a lot of people who kind ofjump around every so often for
various reasons.
Sometimes it's because you canget more pay.
When you jump around like thatin the past it's you get, you

(26:36):
stay at a company, you getrewarded and it's like a little
bit different.
How do you see that?
As someone who stayed at acompany for a long time, how do
you see, like you know, movingaround versus like staying in
one company?

Alex (26:46):
You know, I think it's a balance because there's
definitely value to jumpingaround getting more experience,
making yourself more competitive.
But I think there's a balance tothat because, as someone who
hires people, if I see someoneleaving every few months, why
would I hire you, compared tosomeone who maybe hasn't jumped

(27:11):
they weren't at their lastcompany for 20 years but maybe
have given at least a year justbecause it's a lot of effort to
go through a hiring process, forme and the committee to go
through that process, thetraining that goes behind it.
Companies and businesses spenda lot of time and effort to try
to make their team members asbest as they can.
So if we see someone who's afew months or six months and
they're just jumping around assomeone who's hiring, that's a

(27:34):
red flag.
But I think it's a balance.
I think if you are in anindustry that that is champion,
then great.
Or if it's, you find anopportunity that you can
articulate.
You know I had to leave myprevious company for this long
because it was a greatexperience then as long as you
can articulate it on why youleft or why you're moving around
, that's fine.

(27:54):
But for me, you know, I like mycompany, I like working at UCI.
I've been blessed by workingthere, so I haven't had any
reason to leave.
I'm not going to leave just forthe sake of leaving.
It has to be somethingcompelling, obviously, I'm sure
they treat you well.

J.R. (28:10):
It's been worth your while , obviously.
So for you that decision waspretty straightforward, but for
someone else, in differentsituations, it could be like
yeah, there could be a goodcompelling reason to leave and
jump around, as long as, likeyou said, context matters.
If it's like aimless, that'sdifferent than like you actually
had intent on moving around.

Alex (28:25):
And I think that's a big thing.
It's intent, because there'sfolks who are doing certain
things thinking that it'llimprove their life, but if you
aren't able to articulate it,that means you're not really
learning from it.
Articulated, that means you'renot really learning from it.
So a big, huge thing whenyou're interviewing or you're
looking for something, or ifyou're thinking about your path,
have a self-awareness toarticulate what you're actually

(28:45):
gaining from it.
Yeah, that makes a lot of senseOn that too.

J.R. (28:50):
I want to ask if you were to give yourself advice starting
out in this field, is thereanything that you would do
differently, like rewinding 20years or 15 years or or whatnot?

Alex (29:00):
I think it kind of goes back to the leadership question
you had before probably relax.
You know, I think I was a lotmore strict in the way of a
supervisor sort of style backthen, just because the way I
operate, if I'm not sure how acertain decision I would make
would affect downstream or downthe line, I tend to be more

(29:21):
conservative in the way that Isupervise folks or when I run
turn back in the day when I wasfirst learning how to.
You know, for those who don'tknow what turn is, it's like the
cleaning part, like themaintenance, the work, all those
different things to prep theunit.
We, you know, we turn likethousands of beds in a week or
two, and so it's a high stressyeah but looking back, I would

(29:43):
just probably say relax, youknow, still have the mindset of
wanting to do better and likeanalyzing that and pushing
yourself to be successful.
But you don't have to, I don'thave to be so stressed about it.
I think maybe it's now.
Looking back.
I'm like I know what I'm doingnow, so it's easy to say that
but I think easy for me to sayyeah.
I know I kind of know my rolenow, but I think in general it's

(30:03):
just relax, enjoy the time orenjoy the people still have some
drive, but don't be stressed,yeah yeah, that's good, good
advice, trying to tell peoplewho are younger early, like,
just relax, how can I relax?

J.R. (30:17):
Yeah, but yeah, it's so competitive.

Alex (30:20):
now I think that's almost natural.
It's where people are just sowound up, or it's just.
You know, life is short, justbe driven, but don't be all,
don't be so wound up.

J.R. (30:29):
Yeah, it's not worth all the worry and stress.
Last question on this topic isyou made the pivot into real
estate, so why real estate?
And how does this kind ofconnect the dots to like your
overarching, like career pathtrajectory and whatnot?

Alex (30:43):
No man, there are no dots to connect no just kidding.
Well, you know, I've had myreal estate license for several
years, I think since 2017.
Just because in my role offcampus, folks require a real
estate license.
Where I'm on campus, they don'trequire that, so it's a
different world.
So I actually got my realestate license just to be
competitive, just in case thatprofessional development thing.

(31:03):
And I sat on it for ever sincethen and I decided to actually
do something about it in 2023,where I'm like you know what
this license has been doingnothing since 2017.
So I decided to.
You know, and a lot of peopleor a lot of colleagues, friends,
they all have side gigs.
So I feel, you know I need aside gig.
I need to have something to dooutside of like my normal

(31:25):
full-time job.
So it was an easy kind ofnatural progression where,
because my role is propertymanagement, it has the same
principle.
It is real estate, it's juststudent housing, so I'm
expanding that to more of theretail side of real estate.
So I decided to join eXp Realtyas my brokerage and then start
sort of that expansion of thatfield.

(31:46):
But being a real estate agentwhen you say it's a side gig or
a part-time, there's no suchthing as doing that.
Being a real estate agent to besuccessful, you can't do it
part-time and I'm not a naturalentrepreneur.
And being a real estate agent,especially in eXp, you are
starting your own business, sothere's support there.
But if you want to marketyourself, because I'm not part

(32:08):
of a team, it's just me, right?
So you have to do all themarketing yourself, learning the
systems yourself and thosecertain things.
So that's taking a lot of timebut it's been fun.
I've been able to help peoplefind homes on the rental side,
which has been rewarding.
And since I think it's not myprimary sort of principal job,
I'm not or maybe I should be,but I'm not hawkish in terms of

(32:32):
trying to get that business, getthat deal.
It's been a few people who moveto the area and they want to
find rental home rentals andthat's what I do although I can
do sale, sell and buy homes, Ireally focus on the rental piece
where because in the realestate world people don't help
folks who want to find rentalsbecause it's not a big payout

(32:53):
sort of thing, it's a smallerbut it was it seems to be more
rewarding just because it'susually a population that real
estate agents don't focus on andso they pass it on to other
agents to just kind of can youhelp them find a house?
But the people who come toOrange County and need a home or
their own living situationschange and they need to find a
bigger rental home.
Or I also helped some UCIstudents find a home because

(33:15):
they had to leave and theydidn't plan ahead.
So we were able to find themhousing.
So that kind of stuff isrewarding and I'm not salesy,
it's not my primary job.
So you need some help.
Sure I'll help you.
Let's look for some homes.

J.R. (33:26):
I like that.
So you're just here to kind ofhelp them get into a place.
Yeah, yeah, we had a.
I had Jessica Lee on the show,friend of mine, I I used her as
my realtor when I was goingthrough like looking at
properties last year but shesaid the same thing.
It's like you can't part-timereal estate no everything like
to be successful.
You really it's, because it'svery, it's like self-employed,

(33:46):
it's very, you know, that sortof driven so it makes sense, but
it's cool that you can still atleast have the benefits of your
license and helping people outhere and there and then you know
eventually if you wanted toexpand that you could and you
have all this experience too.
Okay, next topic we'll go intoand I guess it's a little bit of
pivot, but like business schooland balancing that with
full-time work, I think for mepersonally, I've always been

(34:07):
interested in business school orgetting mba.
I read books on it and what theexperience is like, and so I
wanted to kind of pick yourbrain at that sort of process.
So what is the process?
Okay, well, how did you decideyou wanted to go into business
school?
What was the process like?

Alex (34:21):
And then what?

J.R. (34:22):
did you learn overall?

Alex (34:23):
It's funny because when I was an undergrad I took an
undergrad class in business, didnot do well, oh yeah.
So this is kind of when I thinkback of that I'm like, wow, I
can.
So when I decided not to be adoctor, my parents were really
pushing for me to do somethingthat's higher level than a

(34:46):
bachelor's degree, so like.
So, when do you get yourmaster's?
When do you get your master's?
And I had already been thinking, when I was already working for
American Campus, to get amaster's degree.
So when I was in residence lifeor resident director position,
I was thinking maybe I shouldget a higher degree in student
development, higher education.
But when I progressed ontoassistant general manager and

(35:06):
general manager and I wasexposed to the business
operations of things, that'swhen I started thinking about
getting an MBA.
So you know, UCI has a greatprogram and so I looked at that.
I looked at other universities,but ultimately, when I did
tours and consultation meetingswith the admission staff,
irvine's Mirage School was thebest for me.
It was a good fit and it's veryconvenient.

(35:28):
It's just right there.
And so, yeah, I got my MBAthrough the Fully Employed
Program, which I don't know ifit exists anymore.
They call it something else,probably the Flex Program, but
back then it was called thefully employed mba program.
So it's designed for people towork full time and go to classes
at night, which I think wasgreat, because I went or one of
the selling points was thethings you learn in the

(35:48):
classroom that evening you canliterally apply it to work the
next day.
So it was.
I think it was a really greatprogram to be part of and that's
kind of how I kind of fell intothat so it makes it made sense
because you're already kind ofworking.

J.R. (36:00):
You're working property management and getting exposed
to the business side of.
Hey, this seems really relevantto what I'm doing and it's
part-time, it's reddit, it'sright there, yeah, so, like it
all lined up, okay, this makes alot of sense yeah, and it's you
know.

Alex (36:12):
Although you learn about the academic part, right, you
know about, you learn aboutfinancial statements, you learn
about organizational development, working with people, so all of
those things are very tangibleand applicable to my job.
So it was easy to apply thenext day.
But another part of the benefit, or another benefit of an MBA
or any graduate program, I think, is the people that you meet.

(36:35):
So half of it is the academics,the other half is the
networking and knowing thepeople who are in the same,
similar boat as you.
So they're all working fulltime.
So you can't use that as anexcuse, so you can't do your
group work and learning all thesame things.
But everyone's in differentindustries.
I know a lot of people who arein the engineering field or they

(36:55):
were working in energy or in HR.
So engineering field or theywere working in energy or in HR.
So if you had a problem in youroffice in terms of a task that
you needed to tackle and youneeded another perspective, you
could just turn to yourclassmates because either
they've done it before or theycan give you a different
perspective from a differentindustry.
So I think that's a huge partof the MBA is the networking
that you can get.
I love that.

J.R. (37:15):
Yeah, I feel like that would be a huge benefit because
you're talking, you're meeting,you're studying with these
people who have is like thenetworking that you can get.
I love that.
Yeah, that is.
I feel like that would be ahuge benefit because you're
talking, you're meeting, you'restudying with these people who
have live experience in thefield and they're currently
working.
That's pretty invaluable.
So what was it like?
Trying to well, I guess youkind of touched on it, but like
balancing working full-time andgoing through this program was
it easy, was it hard?

(37:36):
Or going through this programWas it easy, was it hard, or
were some of the challenges?
And then it seems like theanswer to my next question was
like is it worth it?
You've answered it, but wouldyou want to go through any of
those?

Alex (37:43):
You know it's definitely challenging, you have to.
My first year was especiallychallenging.
I don't know why I did it.
I was working full time, I wasgoing through the academics of a
first year and the MBA programI went through was three years,
the first year academics andjust going through that the

(38:03):
experience of going back toschool is challenging.
Before they started the program,they actually go through a
three-day sort of boot camp tokind of shock you back into
academics, where we all wentthrough a residential off-site
program at the hotel on Jamboreein Irvine and we stayed there
for three days, two nights, andthey basically gave us homework
in the day that was and it wasgroup work that was due the next

(38:25):
day, so we all had to workovernight.
Yeah, and you know a lot of thefolks who were in part of this
program were married with kidsor you know they weren't young
and so chopping us back intothat life and so that aspect of
producing that life to us wasn'teasy.
But I also added I was part ofa competition where we were
identifying sort of like a newbusiness.

(38:47):
It was I forget the name of it,but it was basically partnering
with another organization oncampus where we would be able to
monetize or be like theirconsultant on how to monetize
their invention, and so it was acompetition that I was a part
of, and so I had anextracurricular on top of that

(39:08):
my first year.
I don't recommend it to anyone.
I don't know why I did that,but I think, yeah, mba it's
tough, it's not going to be easybecause you have homework, you
have other folks, have families,and so I think it's just being
able to manage that being, havea very understanding group of
friends or family to kind ofhelp you through the MBA program

(39:30):
.
Because, yeah, it's, it takesup a good chunk of your life,
but I think it's worth it in theend with the different benefits
you get, like the people andthe degree okay, that makes a
lot of sense, I so, on theopposite side, like the skeptic
right.

J.R. (39:43):
So I read a book called I'm missing the title.
It's like like your something,mba.
I'll link to it, but it's.
The argument was like um againsthaving an mba because you can
learn all this stuff live in thefield and a lot of what you
learn in in like an mba, in abusiness school course, is
theoretical Again, I'm justrephrasing what the book is

(40:05):
saying and that you can learn alot more actually starting your
own business and doing thoseother things.
But he said the benefits of aprogram like that is, if you get
into a good school, you do havethe network.
So he kind of lent it to that.
So then that was okay.
So then is it worth it?
And or because you know, likeyou're also going back to school
and there's a price to that.
So how did you?
Now my question is a littlefluffy, but Nebulous.

(40:27):
Yeah, as an outsider, right,Because I'm reading this book.
Okay, they make good points.
But I also know people who havean MBA and they're like, oh,
they enjoyed it career.
And there are people who arelike, oh, I just finished my
four years back, like mybachelor's, undergraduate,
should I want to go straightinto an mba?
And some people are like, well,you should figure out what you
really want, because it's justlike law school, it's commitment
, right.
So I guess I don't know, justthrow that to you.

Alex (40:48):
What thoughts on any of that sort of yeah, I think what
you're, I think I know whatyou're getting.
So it depends on the person,you know if they're, and it also
depends what they want to do orwhatever industry they want to
go into.
You know, there are reallysuccessful people who never went
to college.
Same kind of same principle,right?
I probably am not one of thosepeople who could.

(41:08):
I you know where I don't go to.
I didn't go to uci and have asuccessful, multi-million paying
job.
That's just not my life, right?
So people kind of have to thinkabout themselves and what their
situation is.
If you don't need a degree andkind of have that financial
burden, great, other people mayneed that.
You know there's industrieswhere they value a higher

(41:31):
education degree.
So an MBA was definitely goingto be worth it to go a certain
path.
So I think that you know peoplehave their own opinions, but it
really depends on theindividual and what their goal
is yeah the.
You know, the person who wrotethat book said that they can
learn a lot of that stuff in thefield, which is true.
A lot of the principles thatyou learn in business school
they're not like derived simplyonly from the institution itself

(41:55):
.
They were research done or theydiscovered those while in the
workplace.
So, yeah, that's true.
But would you, without thatframework of a formal education,
would you have absorbed thatfor that individual?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
So it all depends.
Like I said, if half theeducation is the academics,
other half is the network, soyou figure out what you want to

(42:17):
get into and if it's somethingwhere you think it'll be
beneficial for you as anindividual, that's awesome.
And it's also depending on whatschool you go to.
Like you said, there's very highprestigious schools Some people
go to locally.
In Orange County there's UCIrvine Mirage School, there's
the USC Marshall School, uclaAnderson School.
So everyone has differentschools and I know some folks

(42:41):
who considered all those andthey decided to go do like USC,
for example, and they were veryhappy there.
Great, you know, everyone willfind their own path.
I don't think there's like a ohyeah, you know, higher
education.
That's just such a waste oftime that's too generalized.
I think it depends on theperson.

J.R. (42:55):
Definitely, 100% agree.
I feel like it's contextual tothe person what your goals are
and I would never discount likea type of education, because
sometimes structured educationworks well for a lot of people
obviously and maybe lessstructured education.
Actually doing something mightwork well for someone else, and
so, yeah, I totally agree withyou.
It definitely depends.
I wouldn't discount any sort ofmethod.
You can try it out If you havethe ability to go to a school

(43:17):
and you have the funds andwhatnot, but if you can't, then
obviously there are otheravenues.
You can learn online or stufflike that.
So I really like that.
One consideration is I meet alot of people who say they're
let's say they're leading withthe thesis of I want to start my
own business, right and then.
So the other argument from thebook is well, if you want to be
a business owner, you just starta business.
You don't necessarily need tohave an mba.

(43:40):
And his argument again was likehaving mba, like in business
school, they'll teach you how tobe like a middle manager, slash
do like the accounting and allthis other stuff, but not
necessarily how to run a companyright and I get that,
understand that argument andthen, like I said, I'm not
saying I agree with this person,right, but I'm saying like, for
those people who just want tostart a business, I can see, see

(44:00):
the argument of, okay, youthinking that you want to start
a business, you think you haveto go straight to get an MBA is
the answer.
Maybe it's not.
Maybe there's some sort oflower like proof of concept that
you can ship out with today'stechnology, that you could start
a business as a one person andthen learn as you go and then
realize, actually I think an MBAwould really help me, right,
how do you see that, likesomeone who, actually, I think

(44:21):
an MBA would really help me?
How do you see that?
Someone who's like I want tostart a business and then you
have?

Alex (44:24):
gone to have an MBA.
What would you say?
Well, I kind of get a taste ofthat just because of my realtor
sort of side, where I'mbasically making my own business
, where I have to figure out myown brand and my own marketing.
And do I want to be all in realestate where I'm buying,
selling real?
You know, having that analysisof what's my niche, right?

(44:46):
So I don't think an MBA alonecan help someone become an
entrepreneur and making abusiness.
It depends.
Again, it depends.
If you're someone who's drivenand you're just like scouring
the internet and all theresources available to you to
kind of hone in on what yourbusiness is and how to run it,
then that's great.
But if you're someone who, likeI said, needs that structure,

(45:09):
you have the money or you have abit.
There's a benefit to talking toother people just because you
know in the mba program you kindof touched on it there's three
different at least when I was atmirage.
There's three different types.
There's folks who were fullemployed or full, full-time mba,
so they kind of went straightinto the mba or they did like a

(45:29):
gap year, because you to get anmba, you need work experience.
So there are folks who, youknow, undergraduate one to two
years and then went to straightto full-time.
There are folks like me who didthe fully employed program
where typically five to 10 yearswork experience and then we're
going to school while we'regoing to work full-time.
And then there's the executiveMBA folks who are also mixed

(45:52):
into those elective classeswhere they're vice presidents,
they're business owners and thatprogram because of their
experience they go to school orthey go to actually in-person
classes less because it's moregroup work or it's.
You know it's a different needwhen you're an executive mba but
you get to network with thosepeople and those folks found

(46:12):
there's found the benefit.
Although they have anestablished business going,
getting an executive mba wasbeneficial to them.
So again, it all depends.
If you want to start your ownbusiness and you have the
entrepreneurial spirit and it'smaybe useful down the line, it
could be useful for you.
But for me, if I didn't have myfull-time job or my MBA now and

(46:36):
I wanted to be a realtor, Idon't need to get an MBA.
If I wanted to, uh, create myown team or my own branch, there
could be benefits to thatbecause of all the inner
workings of running a business.
That's separate from the realestate portion.
It's just the core businessfunctions of, like people
accounting, all those things itcould be beneficial okay I like

(47:00):
that a lot and thank you.

J.R. (47:00):
yeah, that's very insightful as someone who's like
always been curious.
Last question on that is sowhat, aside from the networks,
like, what do they actuallyteach you in business school?
I know it's like the innerworkings of a company, how to
run it, maybe if you are focusedon, like, the accounting side
or the management side orwhatever.
So what are some things thatyou get out of business school?

Alex (47:18):
So they have similar to undergraduate.
They have their core classesright.
So they're going to teach youorganizational development.
They're going to teach youeconomics macro and
microeconomics.
What else did I take?
Marketing is a core class youcan go into consulting.
So there's the core classes andthen there's the
specializations, so they'regoing to just like undergraduate

(47:41):
.
They're going to teach you allthe different aspects of
different parts of business andthen, if you can stay into the
general aspect when you graduate, or you can specialize in real
estate or consulting ormarketing.
So it's a whole bunch ofdifferent things the numbers,
the people systems, the worldsystems, so different things.
Part of the mba program at leastthat's mandatory for the fully

(48:03):
employed program was theinternational residential.
So for two weeks I went tochina with my cohort to learn
about businesses in china andhow, how, and we got to meet
with executives there and havemeetings with them.
I learned about we.
I think we met with someonefrom disney, so we were learning
.
We had to put our phones awayand hide it.
They were teaching.
They were showing us elementsof the new Shanghai Disney that

(48:25):
we were building at the time.
So that was pretty cool to seethe park before it opened or
before it became really public.
So yeah, there's thosedifferent aspects of the
business program and it helpsyou kind of hone into a field
that you want to go into.
Okay, that makes a lot of senseBecause you may not realize you
like something until you getexposed to it.

J.R. (48:43):
Exactly, Just like you know, getting your undergraduate
that's the whole point is to beexposed to different things and
figure out what you want to do.

Alex (48:48):
There's opportunities there to learn.

J.R. (48:50):
Yeah, cool.
That's it for my main topics.
Ready for rapid fire?
I don't know, fun this.
I think it's the easy part, tobe honest, but I but then again,
I'm just asking the questionsokay.

Alex (49:08):
So the first one is billboard questions.
So if you could put up a signfor millions of people to see,
what would it say metaphoricallyrelax, take it easy.
Or something like relax or begood.
I feel like there's just a lotof stress or a lot of people are
.
You know, obviously there'sstresses in the world, there's
conflicts in the world right now.
Different, I feel old by sayingthat kind of stuff.
But be good, relax, somethinglike that.

J.R. (49:25):
Be good meaning be good for the world.

Alex (49:27):
Everything Be good to each other.
I think people are just.
They forgot how to just be likegood to each other.
Just be kind.
You know, everyone is different, everyone has different
backgrounds or upbringings, andso we focus on the bad or the
differences rather than just,you know, just being kind to
each other.

J.R. (49:44):
I love that.
What is one of the hardestchallenges you faced in your
life and what did you learn fromit?

Alex (49:50):
I think that question changes with age.
Okay, the old.

J.R. (49:55):
Back in my day, back in my day.

Alex (49:58):
I think the general thing is adulting, but I think right
now it's just going through.
Actually it's the aging part,it's the act of I'm getting
older.
You know, my dad recentlypassed and so having been with
my mom and so as part of agingis also seeing your parents get
older and that kind of lifechallenge.
So from that perspective it'sthe aging, it's the people, your

(50:24):
friends, how your life changesand how you have to adapt to
that and realizing that lifebefore is not the same, moving
forward and you kind of have tokeep on changing on that.
From the kind of work side ofit, it's the challenge of
starting a new business whileworking full time Right and
being good to your people andbeing true to yourself.
It.
It's the challenge of startinga new business, you know, while
working full-time right, so andbeing good to your going, being
good to your people and beingtrue to yourself and kind of

(50:46):
just helping people.
But, yeah, starting a newbusiness.
So two different things I likeit.

J.R. (50:52):
This one's called self-inflicted wound.
Do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life and it's your ownfault and you can't blame anyone
else?
I I try to block those out.

Alex (50:59):
Yeah, don't we all and you're trying to resurrect them.

J.R. (51:03):
Bring it back out.
Yeah, I might start crying.

Alex (51:05):
No, that's a hard question .
I don't know.
I'm not perfect, so there aredefinitely micro failures every
day in work and in life.
The only thing that comes tomind is I did become a doctor,
so thanks for bringing that backup again.
But at the same time, you know,because my grades weren't
competitive, I, you know, I hadto stay in an extra quarter.
After I flipped my tassel.
I had to go back to school thenext week, so that I guess

(51:27):
that's a failure in the sensethat I didn't get my degree on
the or, like my, my life goal ofbeing a doctor didn't pan out
from that perspective.

J.R. (51:36):
But but I'm happy with my life now Right right, like it's
a quote-unquote failure, butobviously you like re-ended up
and it worked out.

Alex (51:43):
Yeah, and I wouldn't change it.

J.R. (51:44):
If you could redo one thing, what would you do
differently?
As a thought experiment, mostpeople are like I don't regret
my life, which is great, but ifyou could redo something, what
would you do?
Isn't that a fluffy?

Alex (51:54):
response be what I talked about before.
It's relax A couple of things.
Maybe Relax when times ofstress or when I took things a
little too seriously, or on theflip side of that is, I guess
it's not being so extreme, beingmore focused during academics

(52:16):
because my grades weren't great.
Right, I got my degree, I gotmy MBA, all those things, but I
could have tried harder, I think, think, if I was a bit more
focused.
But times when I was more alittle bit too stressed on
myself relax.
So just a little bit moremiddle of the road, so not so
extremes in my reaction tothings.

J.R. (52:34):
If you could give your younger self advice, what would
it be now?
And aside from the relax, yeah,younger self, differently,
differently.

Alex (52:40):
Oh man, probably it's hard , because when you're a kid or
when you're younger you don'trealize until it's a retrospect.
But you know that stuff.
I think it would be cherishingfamily time more.
That sounds so fluffy.
It's real, though.
It is real.
My mom made a comment earlier.

(53:01):
I think I was talking to heryesterday.
We're planning for Christmasand she just made you know.
She made a comment how part ourfamily parties used to be so
big where it's like.
She made a comment like wehaven't.
It's almost like the wholebarangay was like at the house,
the whole village was at thehouse, but but now that family
has gotten older or branches ofthe family have their own

(53:23):
families or we've lost people,so it's not as the whole
barangay is not there anymore.
So I think it's just cherishingthose moments a little bit more
.

J.R. (53:36):
Good reminder for everyone .
Honestly, in the last few years, what new, what new belief,
behavior or habit has improvedyour life?

Alex (53:42):
has improved my life.
Well, you know, I think it'sjust taking care of yourself.
Um, as you get older, um, youcan't just eat anything and
right what.
You can't eat anything.

J.R. (53:54):
Yeah, you can't just eat plastic and you'll still be fine
just devour a bucket of sugarand yeah, okay, the next day I
remember when I was an undergradmy mom sees this.

Alex (54:02):
She'll be so mad, but it's been forever.
But I remember I lived onCampus Village at UCI with my
roommate Charlie at the time.
I remember there was a time weall got.
We went to KFC.
It doesn't exist anymore.
At UCI we went to KFC and got afamily meal for each of us.
How irresponsible is that?

(54:23):
So healthy.
Yeah right, you're like yourarteries.

J.R. (54:25):
I love you so much.
Exactly Original crispy ohamazing, there's a family right
here in my stomach.

Alex (54:31):
Yeah, that's the problem.
There's a family right hereright now and it's still here.

J.R. (54:34):
Family never left.
Family never left Never evictedthem.

Alex (54:37):
I tried to, and then nothing's happening.
But I think it's stuff that Ican't do.
If I do that now I would justbe like you know, it wouldn't be
good.
So I think now it's just beingmore health conscious.
I think, being in Californiaand Southern California, it's
already part of our kind ofculture here to some degree, but
being more aware of it as I getolder is just to be more
healthy, and my mom's all abouthealthy foods.

(54:59):
Now she's, you know, she'salways Googling or YouTubing
certain health people, doctors,and so she ingrains sort of
those things.
It's all about what you eat andit'll help with your.
You know you as a person Right.

J.R. (55:13):
I like that a lot.
And yeah so like I said, Idance with college students, and
every practice it's always Boboright.
It's like share tea across thestreet, and so they're all, like
you know they're ordering theirdrinks and it's yeah, 100%
sugar.
I'm like, yeah, so I you know Ido 0% sugar with and it's like
IU jelly, like green tea,whatever so, and they're like ew

(55:33):
, you drink that 0%.
I'm like I honestly can't domore because I'm going to get a
headache if I drink too muchsugar.

Alex (55:38):
You're speaking to the choir Exactly.
I mean making that switch fromrecommended to less sweet or
whatever, wherever you go orwhatever.
It was tough.
I almost felt like I was cavinginto my age when I would say
like medium, sweet or lightsweet.
I guess.
I guess it's more responsible,but now it's.

(56:07):
Of course I'm going to getlight sweet because, yeah, I
would get a headache or I wouldget just like lethargic or even
snacks, like I used to be likeoh, pringles, chips, oh, yeah,
awesome.
Now I'm just oh, where's thedragon fruit?
Yeah, that's so I.
Those types of changes happenand you don't really realize
until wow, or you're forced toit when you go to the doctor and
you're like, yeah, I reallyshould oh, nope, yeah, my blood
work was not that good.
Nope, yeah the charts startingto go up, yeah, yeah.

J.R. (56:24):
Yeah, it's funny, my girlfriend, she like you know
her, let's just say her metricsweren't as where she wanted to
be.
Right it like, yeah, you'regonna get new pr, this like okay
.
So she loves butter.
I don't know, why.
And so she like takes shots ofbutter jokingly, but she like
loves dunking everything inbutter and I'm like, yeah, let's

(56:45):
go try glycerides new pr thisyear just to tease her.
Yeah, I'm like you really wantto take a shot of that.
You want a straw for yourbutter.
But yeah, I just.
Yeah, food hits us differently.
I've I had to tell the youngones I'm like I can't drink that
much because it will kill methe next day.

Alex (57:01):
Yeah, no, like I just talking about the tri.
That's right, you hit homethere.
That really struck a nervebecause I used to go to the
movies and, yeah, that littlemachine where you put the butter
on top of the, yeah, that mybutter, my popcorn level
probably went down a little bitbecause it was so drenched in
butter yeah, and I can't say, Ican't deny that I've done what
she's done in terms of thebutter y'all are some species of

(57:25):
what?
yeah, and and now I'm paying forit.
Yeah, I'm more conscious aboutit.
You just feel it more, I thinkI, I think she sees it on the
chart, but she maybe she doesn'tfeel it.
But when she starts feeling it,you're like oh, yeah, it's like
, oh, that's yeah, oh, that'strue.
I, I should have listened.

J.R. (57:42):
Yeah, definitely Okay.
Who would you call successfuland how do you define success,
if anyone?

Alex (57:48):
You know, when you ask that, the first thing I think
about is my parents, justbecause it sounds touchy-feely.
But you know, they immigratedhere from the Philippines and
maybe it's because they'vealways talked about how we have
nothing in the Philippines.
But you know we've had acomfortable life.
You know it wasn't easy.
It's not like we were like BillGates, rich or anything, or

(58:12):
even half of Bill Gates or 1% ofhim.

J.R. (58:15):
Or 0.01%, whatever.

Alex (58:16):
Yeah, but I think we had a .
They had a great life.
Well, they have a great lifeand lots of blessings.
So, from going from thePhilippines, migrating to a
country that you're not familiarwith, my mom went back to
school when she was anaccountant and then went back to
school to become a nurse whenshe was probably my age now.
She kind of went back to schooland pivoted to a different

(58:38):
career and now she's older nowand pivoted to a different
career and so, and now she's youknow, she's older now and she's
still a nurse and I think thatwhen I think success, I think
about my parents, because theysacrificed a lot to come here to
the states and then have a tomake a great life or for the
family I like that and on thatnote, like for future guests, if

(58:59):
you guys are listening to this,you can say your parents, that
is a great answer.

J.R. (59:02):
No one will ever knock you for that, because some people
are like I don't really followcelebrities or whatever.

Alex (59:07):
Elon Musk whatever, I'm like you can say your parents.
Yeah, I mean that's valid.
Well, when you ask that I'mlike oh, do I have to say
something like someone famous?

J.R. (59:14):
Exactly.

Alex (59:16):
Exactly, yeah, the pope yeah, right, exactly, yeah but
looking close to it's almostlike vacation, right, you never
really go on vacation locally,yeah locally yeah, you kind of
go far away because that's youknow, but there's a lot of yeah,
I would say, my parents I likeit.

J.R. (59:32):
If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you try or what
would you be doing right now?

Alex (59:36):
although I love my job disclaimer I love my job.

J.R. (59:38):
I love my job to be there for yeah, please don't let me go
.

Alex (59:44):
I think it would be starting my own business,
because you said I wouldn't fail, but I still need money to
survive.
So I think it would be creatingmy own business with more
confidence, because I can't fail.
And it would be like either youknow, I'm a foodie, so either a
restaurant, so I wouldn't needto learn how to cook or get
experience to run a restaurant,or oh man, or grow my real

(01:00:09):
estate business to somethingbigger, yeah, yeah.

J.R. (01:00:12):
I like it.
I could see you like owning arestaurant or something.
You like food and you're.
You obviously have managementexperience and you have an MBA,
so manifest that.

Alex (01:00:21):
Thank you.

J.R. (01:00:22):
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments
you've made recently in eithertime, money, energy, etc.

Alex (01:00:29):
It's funny, I think, ever since I graduated my MBA, after
one to two years I felt like myeducation was regressing, so I
kind of filled my void withgetting certificates.
So, in terms of when you talkedabout investments, it's that
aspect, it's like my owninvestment in myself.

(01:00:49):
So I wanted to say somethingfun, like a new car, but yeah,
it's going through certificatesgrowing.
I'm going to go to I'm not sureif people have heard or you've
heard of it the disney institute, so I haven't gone there yet,
but I've.
I just paid for theregistration last week, but in
february I'm going to go todisneyland for three days to

(01:01:10):
learn about quality service,leadership, experience and
employee engagement.
So that's quite the investment,I must say, but I'm excited for
it.

J.R. (01:01:20):
So stuff like that I'm excited for that's cool that
sounds like a good kind of thingto get into or like experience.
Favorite recent purchase around50 to 100 dollars that has
impacted your life the most.
In six months you can changethe range of it, yeah.

Alex (01:01:33):
I'm like what costs 50 to 100 dollars yeah the only thing
I bought in the last six monthsthat's $50 to $100 is I got a
new coat rack so my clothesaren't like just on this, just
like everywhere anymore sothat's nice.
I feel like an adult, yeah yeah, I'm sure it's like the money
I'm spending on either homestuff, because as you get older
it's just.
Oh, I'm excited for this newcoat rack yeah which is you know

(01:01:55):
how, when you get older, that'sthe conversations you have with
your friends you get excitedabout weird stuff, those things,
yeah, yeah, yeah.

J.R. (01:02:02):
Now I'm going to this concert.

Alex (01:02:03):
It's like I got this new like table.
It's awesome.
So I think it's just stuffaround the house that makes the
environment feel like moreorganized and I could just feel
more relaxed at home.
Yeah.

J.R. (01:02:15):
Yeah, other adults can relate to that.
Yeah, last question Anyfavorite books, movies, videos,
articles or media that you shareor recommend the most?

Alex (01:02:24):
If any, I don't read, so the last book I read I think it
was like Angels and Demons andthat was like painful to get
through.

J.R. (01:02:29):
Yeah.

Alex (01:02:30):
Not because I didn't like it, but I still like reading.

J.R. (01:02:32):
Right, right right.

Alex (01:02:33):
Any media at all.
Any media, any.
I recommend it because Iactually saw this stage show
when it was at the Pantages,like 20 times back when it was
here.

J.R. (01:02:44):
Oh, so you're a fan then I'm a fan.

Alex (01:02:45):
I even had a wicked hoodie , nice.
I recommend the movie, althoughthere's nothing that replaces
the experience of like.
When they built like DefyingGravity, it's like a wall of
sound that hits you there.
But when you're like in thetheater, it's like.
That's nice.
Yeah, that's good so that'swhat comes to mind when you ask
that nice good work, good work.

J.R. (01:03:05):
I also watched it.
I really enjoyed it.
Alright, let's wrap this up, sofinal questions.
Gratitude, alex.
What are you grateful for?

Alex (01:03:12):
grateful for my family, grateful for my mom yeah, nice
again.

J.R. (01:03:16):
Future guest Future guests .
That's a great answer.
You can just stick with that.
Any final ask from the audienceor any final takeaways you'd
like them to have from the show?

Alex (01:03:25):
I mean we talked a lot about like the MBA sort of thing
.
But I think the theme is likejust do well in whatever you do,
have direction, but don't takelife too seriously.
Enjoy it, be driven, but justlet things you know don't be
like yeah let things flow andthen you don't have no direction
.
But I think, just enjoy lifeand let things fall where they

(01:03:48):
may, nice I like it all right.

J.R. (01:03:50):
So now, alex, if people want to connect with you or see
what you're up to, or reach out,where can they find you?

Alex (01:03:56):
like social media, email, linkedin, whatever yeah, you can
actually find me on instagram,fiat alex.
So f Fiat Alex is UC's sort ofthing, so I'm a UCI nerd from
that aspect.
If you need any real estateassistance or just want to chat,
I guess alexrubiorealtor Nice.

J.R. (01:04:11):
Cool, all right.
Well, that is it.
So thank you so much, alex, forbeing here.
I really appreciate it.
And a quick shout, quick shoutout to I think my experience at
ACC as a CA was, I think,foundational for me, like in a
work environment, because Ithink what I remember a lot was,
like you and the other prostaff, really setting a good
example for what it's like towork in a professional
environment, and all the skillsand stuff that I learned there

(01:04:32):
really helped me for my futurecareer.
So I just want to thank youspecifically for that leadership
and guidance.
You're a great boss and youknow I'm always excited to see
what you're up to and you don'tneed to hear this from me, but
I'm also really proud of you andyour journey.

Alex (01:04:45):
All you've done.

J.R. (01:04:45):
I'm like that's why I wanted you on the show.
I'm like I feel like we canlearn a lot from you.

Alex (01:04:54):
So I just wanted to shout you out Well, thank you.
But I think part of the joy isthis is awesome.
So no, all of you are theblessing.

J.R. (01:04:59):
Thank you.
Thank you All right.
Well, so that is it for theshow, my final sign off.
Thank you guys for tuning in.
I really appreciate you guysfor being here.
It's just a final reminder toalways be kind to other people,
especially yourself, and you canalways learn something from
someone if you take the time tolisten.
So thank you for tuning in.

All Episodes

#19: Alex Rubio - PreMed to Property Management, Navigating Getting Older, and Benefits of an MBA

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#19: Alex Rubio - PreMed to Property Management, Navigating Getting Older, and Benefits of an MBA