From Immigrant Hustle to Real Estate Power Couple – Their Inspiring Journey - Key Factors RealEstateAF

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Monday, better Tuesday, better Tuesday, better
for five years, ten years,fifteen years.
How much better you are gettingbetter every single day?
That's how much way you're justtaking small steps, meaning
you'll try to get all the time.

SPEAKER_05 (00:44):
Uh uh.
No, no, no.
So one of the things the biggestthing we have in common is that
all what we all work with ourspouses.
Yeah.
We all work with the same here.
Yeah, we all work with ourspouses, and it was, you know,
it was kind of like um, how do Isay it?
It was a a we weren't expectingfor everybody to be as
collaborative with us becausethey all we all have the same

(01:07):
goals, same same goals, samebeliefs, same, you know, common
sense, which is you know,there's a big shortage of that
nowadays.

SPEAKER_06 (01:16):
I totally agree.
Let's kick it off.
Are you ready?

SPEAKER_04 (01:20):
Ready.

SPEAKER_06 (01:21):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (01:21):
All right, we are ready.
Another episode of Key FactorsPodcast Real Estate AFN3, two,
one.

SPEAKER_06 (01:29):
And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors
Podcast Real Estate AF, wherethe AF stands for and finance,
and I'm your host, Mark Jones,and we are powered by Lone Bot,
Smarter Mortgage Matching, nowavailable on the App Store and
Google Play.
And today, guys, I wanted tohave a discussion with some
folks that I recently met andwant to know more about.

(01:51):
I think there's plenty that youguys out there can learn from,
especially their journey.
But without further ado, matterof fact, before we do that, JC,
if you can throw the screen up,I gotta I have to, I have to, I
have to look at that guy rightthere.
Hello.
That was so without further ado,you can kill it.

(02:14):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 (02:16):
That is that was that was the first.

SPEAKER_06 (02:17):
Let me introduce Cesar Amesqua and his wife Erin.
How are you guys?

SPEAKER_02 (02:22):
Good, thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_06 (02:24):
Absolutely fantastic.
So, as we kick off thisdiscussion, if you could tell us
a little bit about yourselves,and we'll have you start, and
then Aaron, if you could tell meabout you.

SPEAKER_05 (02:35):
Well, you know, a lot of people don't know.
I spent, you know, I had dinnerwith some mastermind folks this
past Thursday.
Is it Thursday when I anyways?
And yeah, I sat next next toLevi Rogers the whole dinner.
Dude's hilarious.
I mean, my my jaw so he reallyis.
And and he didn't know that Iwas actually born and raised in

(02:57):
Mexico.
He didn't know I was born andraised in Mexico.
He he's like, I he's like, Man,I've known you for 12 years and
I have no idea.
So I was born and raised inMexico, right across the border
from Eagle Pass.
And, you know, no, I wasn't borninto riches and one of those,
you know, that that comes out.

SPEAKER_06 (03:14):
He said right across Mexico, not Mexico City.
No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 (03:18):
I I was a border kid and uh yeah, just grew up, you
know, very, very poor.
My wife is here to attest tothat.
And 16 years old is when Idecided to just leave.
I have no idea how my parentsdid it, no clue.
And did your parents stay?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, everybody's still overthere.

(03:38):
My brother lives in West Texas.
We both went to Angelo State, soshe went to Angelo State as
well.
That's where we met.
Okay.
And yeah, 16 is when went to St.
Anthony.
I graduated, let's say fifth inmy class out of 50.
So that'll be in the 10%.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Gave me a scholarship to go.
And nerds.
That's how I yeah, thank you.

(03:59):
And that's how I ended up inWest Texas, you know.
That's how I ended up.
I was out of 6,500 somethingstudents in the whole
university, I was the onlystudent from Mexico.
So, did you get a scholarship?
Yes.
Okay, very good.
Yeah, academic.

SPEAKER_06 (04:12):
Very good.

SPEAKER_05 (04:13):
And football was all taken.

SPEAKER_06 (04:14):
So yeah, for us little guys.
I thought I was gonna be afootball star.
I actually got one one semesterof uh paid football college at
McMurray and Abilene.
Okay, and it was like, okay,this is a different game.

SPEAKER_05 (04:30):
I I have a friend that played he was a kicker for
McMurray for a little while.

SPEAKER_06 (04:34):
Okay, yeah.
We call it the dirty dirty.
Yeah.
And then it got super clean.
They redid everythingcompletely, and then they
started winning as soon as Ileft.
There you go.
Always happens.
So, Aaron, how about you?
Where you come from?

SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
So my family is originally from Nebraska.
Okay, but my dad was in the AirForce, so I traveled.
Yeah.
We moved every three years untilI got to middle school.
We moved to San Angelo.

SPEAKER_07 (04:59):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
So I went to middle school there, went to high
school there.
My dad actually was going to betransferred, and I was like, I
can't move.
It's my senior year.
I can't move.
I was on, you know, playedsports and a whole bunch of
things.
So he left for a year so wecould stay.
Graduated from there, went toAngelo State.

SPEAKER_06 (05:20):
Right down the street.

SPEAKER_02 (05:21):
And we met each other.

SPEAKER_06 (05:23):
Stumbled upon this guy.

SPEAKER_02 (05:24):
Yes.
The end of the state.
Oh, it wasn't until the end?
It was the towards the very end.

SPEAKER_06 (05:30):
So did you guys know each other in?
I mean, Angela, it's not a bigplace.
Not really.
No.
No, yes, at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 (05:40):
Okay, so her brother and I are fraternity brothers.
And before I say that, I just Ijust want to say that I have a
huge amount of respect for whatRick, her dad, for what Rick
did.
He took off for a year to likeloneliness in South Korea.
Oh wow.
So she could graduate highschool.
And I've always, you know, likeI I don't think I could have

(06:02):
done that to to you know to kindof delay his deployment, or I
don't know what they call it,but he took off you know for a
year and lived in South Korea byhimself so she could graduate.
So, you know, I've always beenvery now.

SPEAKER_06 (06:16):
Mind you, South Korea is a it's a beautiful
place.
I know in places, it's kind oflike very inexpensive, very I
mean, did he come back with amail owner bride or something?

SPEAKER_02 (06:26):
No, he came home with a lot of cool stuff for us.

SPEAKER_06 (06:28):
Okay, yeah.
Some fake Jordans, some Ford's.
Couldn't tell.
Yeah, you couldn't tell untilyou like spelled out.

SPEAKER_02 (06:35):
That was before the time of FaceTime, and you know,
my parents would email eachother.
Wow.
That was it.

SPEAKER_06 (06:41):
So she stayed, he went.
She stayed, yeah.
Holy cow, yeah.
For a whole year, I don't knowif I could do that either.
There's a lot of people, oilfields, stuff like that, that
that I see their profession, andI go, Man, hats off to you.
Yeah, that's not enough moneyfor me.

SPEAKER_05 (06:53):
But we so yes and no, I'm fraternity brothers with
her brother Jason.
And Jason and I, I mean, weweren't like the best friends,
you know, we just frat brothers.
That was a we partied together.
And part of part of the I was afreshman, he was a sophomore.
Part of the obviously you gothrough the whole hazing

(07:15):
process, of course.
Uh, which was a lot of fun.
So anybody out there complainingabout hazing, just chill.
They didn't do it right.
They didn't do it right.
And he says, Hey, you know, wehad to get these interviews.
So he says, Hey, go go to thisstreet, and there's gonna be a
sign that says Aaron.
And I'm thinking A-A-R-O-N.
A-A-R-O-N.

(07:35):
So, you know, pledge brother ofmine, Nick, and I and I were
just driving up and down of thestreet, and we're like, I can't
find Aaron.
Like, who and who's Aaron, bythe way?

SPEAKER_02 (07:43):
And these are like massive signs, you know, like
sports signs, like huge.

SPEAKER_05 (07:47):
Yeah, volleyball.
Yeah, and then we finally seewe're like, oh duh, it's
E-R-I-N.
That's Jason's house.
And I I knew Jason, I knew hismom, I knew his dad right when
he came back.
Right.
I met Rick, and I actuallycrossed paths with with Aaron
twice.

(08:08):
Once was okay, it was a party wewere having, and it was her 18th
birthday.
Oh goodness, and so I'm there,and you know, I'm doing my own
thing at this point.
And and she walks in, you know,with this air of like everything
stops.

(08:29):
How dare you all mere mortalslook at me?
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 (08:34):
Okay, and I'm really thinking, like, oh my gosh, this
is like the little sister ofsomebody walking in.
Like, I was so embarrassed tocome ask for something.
Sure.
So I was just like, Don't lookat me, I'll just be in and out.

SPEAKER_06 (08:46):
Meanwhile, you were cooler than the other side of
the pillow.

SPEAKER_02 (08:48):
I was trying to act like it, right?

SPEAKER_05 (08:50):
Yeah, so she's walking around like this, and I
was like, What's Jason's sisterdoing doing here?
I was picking up a bottle ofParabay.

SPEAKER_06 (08:58):
This is West Texas shenanigans, you know.

SPEAKER_05 (09:00):
Of course, of course, so that was one, and
then the other one for the firstthree years of my college
career, I had a girlfriend.
Okay.
And for those three years, Ireally didn't party much, didn't
get out much.
You know, I didn't my I worked alot, went to school, and during

(09:21):
parties, I didn't really want tohang out at the parties, you
know.
My my girlfriend at the time didnot want to go to the parties,
and so I would end up workingparking lot duty or you know,
the entrance or something.
That's how it works withfraternities.
Yep.
And I was the guy that got thekegs and collect money at the
door.
There you go.
So one one night, morning, thiswas late, it was like two

(09:45):
o'clock, and I see this JeepCherokee that's broken down, and
it's Aaron and her friend Jill.
And it's Jill's Cherokee, andit's broken down, and I see all
these guys surrounding it.
And I said, That's Jason'ssister.
Let me go see if I can help.
I go and I start looking around.
I have no idea what's going on,and I tell them, like, hey, if

(10:07):
y'all need a ride, you know, Ican just give you a ride back to
your place, and then Jason canbring you back.
Then Jason shows up with, youknow, a companion, and he looks
at her and says, Hey, see thisguy right here?
Trust him with my life.
I'm like, wow, really?
That's awesome.
And he basically ponder off tome.

(10:29):
And she just went like, hell no,I'm not going with some random
guy.
Right.
So I have no idea what happenedto her that night.
I just like, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 (10:36):
We called somebody we knew.

SPEAKER_05 (10:37):
Yeah.
I was like, what makes perfectsense?
The whatever lady.

SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
You know, I was like, thanks, no thanks.

SPEAKER_05 (10:43):
Yeah, I was like, whatever lady.
And I would see her at church.
We went to the same, we're bothCatholic.
We went to the same mass.
We I called it the hungover massbecause it was on Sunday at 10
a.m.
So everybody there that was weall reeked of whatever was thin.
Yes, a lot of that.

(11:04):
And we're just like, oh my gosh,but we gotta get through it.
And I would see her away.
I was like, Oh, that's that'sJason's sister.
She's the you know, she's theone with the pretty eyes, and
and that's that's theuntouchable.
I I well, I had a I had a I hada girlfriend, of course.

SPEAKER_06 (11:19):
That was it wasn't anything that crossed your mind.

SPEAKER_05 (11:21):
No, but it was you know, Jason's sister, you know,
the one with the pretty eyes.
That was it.
So I knew her, but she obviouslyhad no idea.
So what made the flip switchflip?

SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
There was one night we went out to a bar.
This was years later.
I had two or three friends withme, and one of the friends I was
with knew the group of guys thathe was with, and she was like,
Oh, let's go over there, let meintroduce you.
So we walk over and I'm justtalking, and I introduce myself
to him.
Really, you know, that hey, I'mso-and-so.

(11:55):
Where are you from?
I ask him that question, and helooks at me and goes, You don't
know?
And I look at him like, Are youkidding me?
Like, why would I know whereyou're from?
I just met you.
Wow, you know, and he gets likebuttons, yeah.
And I'm sitting here going, Whoare you?
You know, so that's how thatconversation started.

(12:16):
And then we talk about eachother, and after I met him, I ri
remembered.
I was like, You're that guy thatdrives that Tahoe that you tried
to get us to ride home from thatparty a couple years ago.
Oh, so you you did remember.

SPEAKER_06 (12:28):
I did remember, and he was like, Yeah, she
remembered the whole time, bythe way.
The whole time.

SPEAKER_02 (12:33):
So I was like, Okay.

SPEAKER_06 (12:34):
Playing cool still.
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (12:36):
So I that I was very insulted that evening, by the
way.
I'm sure.

SPEAKER_06 (12:40):
I'm sure ego, tail between the legs.

SPEAKER_05 (12:44):
I was Mr.
ASU.
Okay.
And I everybody on campus knewme.
Everybody, I I drove my own golfcart for crying out loud.

SPEAKER_06 (12:53):
Van Wilder's Van Wilder stuff.

SPEAKER_05 (12:56):
Wow, I believe that.
And she could tell you it's it'strue.
I drove my own golf cart toclass, I worked everywhere.
I ran the arena, I ran the eventcenter, concerts, everything.
You name it, it was it was me.
I I operated the jumbotron, thesound systems.
Wow.
The president, I was on a firstname basis basis with president,
vice president, all the deans,everybody just because I was I

(13:20):
was an international student.

SPEAKER_06 (13:21):
I was gonna say it had probably to do with the
international factor, and youwere going above and beyond in
every aspect thus far that I cantell.

SPEAKER_05 (13:32):
It was it was I as an international student, you're
not allowed to work off campus.

SPEAKER_07 (13:36):
Okay.

SPEAKER_05 (13:36):
So I was always like tied to being in the school.
So if I wanted to work, I had tobe on campus.
So I was always on campus and apart of you know student
government, part of you know,the fraternity, part of you
know, the student alumniassociation, everything I could
get involved with.
I just wanted as much America aspossible.

SPEAKER_02 (13:54):
Yeah, it was my experience was opposite.
Really?
I lived off campus, I worked offcampus, I would go to school and
leave.
Well, go to class and leave.

SPEAKER_06 (14:04):
That in the same time, you're you're from that
town technically for the lastseveral years, and you wanted to
stay here instead of going overto South Korea.

SPEAKER_02 (14:12):
So, yeah, I it was a totally different college
experience for both of us.
Wow.

SPEAKER_06 (14:16):
Townies, yeah, yeah, you can't fix them.
But hey, those those backwoodparties, there's nothing like
it, man.
She went to those.
I didn't.
I did, yes.
Back at Abilene in Abilene, thatwas the only thing to do.
Matter of fact, the threecolleges right there, Abilene
McMurray, we had what ACU?
ACU right down the street,Christian, yeah, yeah.

(14:36):
And then there was one otherone, not Harden Simmons,
something else, but they wouldwe would all come together every
weekend.
It was like we threw properparty parties, sir.

SPEAKER_05 (14:44):
Yeah, we actually got venues and you know, had
like a proper DJ and lights, andyou know, it was coming from
Mexico, yeah.
We threw pop we threw properparties.

SPEAKER_06 (14:54):
Where's the charanga?
Huh?

SPEAKER_05 (14:55):
Yeah, so but that's how that's how that's how we
met.
That's awesome.
She was the first one to say no.
Okay, okay.
I'm like, challenge accepted.

SPEAKER_06 (15:03):
Amen.
Kind of similar situation withme and my wife, yeah.
But I won't even go into detailon that.
So now that you guys met, whatwhen at what point did you guys
move to San Antonio?
Oh my.
Because you started your realestate career in San Antonio,
correct?
No.
Okay, let's start there.
Where did that transition?

SPEAKER_02 (15:22):
He graduated college a year before me.

SPEAKER_06 (15:24):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (15:26):
I don't know if I should get into that story.
Uh let's let's just how old of afar he is.

SPEAKER_05 (15:30):
No, you gotta you gotta tell the ultimatum.

SPEAKER_02 (15:33):
So I was still there.
He was grad he graduated, he wasstill working on campus because
he had one more year on hisvisa, student visa.

SPEAKER_05 (15:41):
It was called optional practical training.
Okay.
Uh, it's OPT.
And as long as you were workingin a field that you study, yeah.
That you study, you you couldwork.
So because my job was customerservice, right?
I graduated with a businessadministration marketing
communications degree.
So it made it made sense to staythere for to figure out what

(16:02):
would what I was gonna do.

SPEAKER_06 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Could you imagine if it wasservicing customers?
We were no, we were good.
We were good.
I okay, cool.
We got sense of humor.

SPEAKER_05 (16:13):
No, no, no.
Testing the waters.
Not uh not over there.
Um but uh yeah, it was it wasthat's how I I I I was allowed
to stay and you know continue towork while figuring out what
what to do.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (16:27):
So I was still in school.
It got to a point where I wasgonna graduate in instead of
May, it was December, right?
So I had one semester left.
This was the summer before mylast semester, and he his his
license or what permit was aboutto expire, so he had to make
some choices.

SPEAKER_07 (16:46):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (16:47):
I either move, he had a cousin that was in Plano,
she was in doing uh bilingualteaching, and they would give
work visa because they were inneed of bilingual teachers.
That was an option, or stay andget his master's.
And he was like, I don't want toget my master's, so this is
gonna be my option for me.
And he went and visited, he gota job offer, came back, and

(17:09):
basically was like, You gonnacome with me or we're gonna end
this relationship because Ican't do this long distance.

SPEAKER_06 (17:15):
And that that was probably somewhat new of a
relationship at that point intime, all right?

SPEAKER_02 (17:21):
Maybe a year.
Okay, so yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
It was not even a year.

SPEAKER_05 (17:27):
Maybe six months.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (17:29):
Yeah, because we always say Halloween.
Halloween is our like officialfirst date.

SPEAKER_06 (17:35):
Easy to remember.

SPEAKER_02 (17:37):
So I thought about it for a little while and I was
like, okay, I'm in.
Because at this point, I'dalready been in San Angelo for a
long time.
Yeah.
I was ready, like you can onlygo to so many parties and
they're all exactly the same,right?
I was I was ready to leave.
So I still had three roads.

SPEAKER_06 (17:53):
I I still remember going through there to get to uh
Abilene.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (17:58):
So I had I think nine hours left for to graduate.

SPEAKER_06 (18:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (18:03):
It just so happened that all my nine hours were like
entry-level, like economics,like speech, biology.
Okay.
I was a chemistry major, so withthe biology mind.
So I already had like everythingdone.
So I figured out a way where Iwas like, I'm gonna go to this
junior college and this juniorcollege and this junior college,

(18:24):
get my nine hours, transfer themback, I'll still graduate.
Called my dad, did not tell himthat.
Was not happy.

SPEAKER_05 (18:32):
Yeah, did not go well.

SPEAKER_02 (18:34):
Like, not happy.
They lived in Nebraska at thetime, so it wasn't even a
face-to-face, it was just aphone conversation.
But I was like, I got this, Ican do it.
I mean, looking back, like Idon't really know how I probably
wouldn't have trusted a21-year-old, 22-year-old at the
time.

SPEAKER_06 (18:48):
I'm surprised he didn't ask if he was a Mexican
or a Mexican.

SPEAKER_02 (18:51):
And they'd only met him once.
That's money.

SPEAKER_05 (18:56):
That is money.

SPEAKER_02 (18:57):
They'd only met him once.

SPEAKER_05 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, they only met me once.
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (19:02):
So we I did it.
We left.

SPEAKER_05 (19:04):
We packed our we packed our stuff.
I had my job in Garland, Texas.
I worked for Garland ISD for sixyears as a bilingual teacher,
third grade, fourth grade, fifthgrade, you know, and they
obviously they they sponsoredwith the H1B visa.
And I had a promise, not not apromise, but they said, hey, you

(19:26):
stick around, you know, we'llhelp you get a master's degree,
we'll help you get your, youknow, your your permanent
residency.
And you know, that was the thatwas that was my plan right to to
continue, you know, the chasingthe dream, right?
Yeah.
And so I had all that lined upwhen they when I met with HR,

(19:47):
when I met with my my futureprincipal, they said, yeah, you
stick around, we'll make sureyou have your your work permit
ready, and they had it ready.
By the time I got there, theythey had all that lined up.
It was a f I think it was afive-year work plan, and then
you could apply for citizenship.
They would sponsor no, notcitizenship.
Okay, no, it was for yourpermanent residency.

(20:08):
Gotcha.
And that permanent residencyruns about two years, and then
you renew it, and then it goesto 10 years.
Okay.
But that was my plan.
Yeah.
You know, that was my plan.
And I just went to her and Isaid, Hey, we either come or
going.
That's it.
It's I don't do long distance.
It's four hours.
Right.
It was just it, it wasn't gonnabe it weren't gonna work out.

(20:30):
But she didn't even hesitate.
She's like, Okay, that'sawesome.
Just packed up her shit andthat's packed up my shit, and we
left after a barbecue that myroommates threw for us.
Yeah, and we were we had alittle U-Haul that was pulling
with my Tahoe with Mexicanlicense plates.
Really?

SPEAKER_02 (20:50):
Yeah, the whole time with the little two-door Tahoes.
Oh, my favorite.
Those little blazers.

SPEAKER_06 (20:55):
You know how many of those I've owned?
Eight.
Really?
Eight.
Yeah, that was.
There was a point in time in mysorry, side note, guys.
Those are nice.
There was a point in time in mylife where so I I grew up when I
turned 16, my mom gave me herTahoe, but it was a four-door
Tahoe.
I went and threw big tires onit, sound system the whole nine

(21:16):
yards, and loved the two-door,but never could get one because
at that point in time it wasthey were still too expensive
and hard to find, etc.
They stopped making them after98.
Yeah.
So once I got to being an adultmaking some real money, I'm
like, yep, I want that one.
I want that one.
So did did I remember that?

(21:37):
To flip them.
It's like if I can get it forfour, I know they're worth eight
to ten at this point.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (21:42):
See, when I told them, like, you're that guy with
that car.
Did I remember him or did Iremember his car?

SPEAKER_05 (21:47):
A lot of girls remembered my car.

SPEAKER_02 (21:49):
Because it was a cool car.

SPEAKER_05 (21:51):
A lot of girls.

SPEAKER_06 (21:52):
There's I still see them on the road and go, man, I
wonder how much he would takefor that.

SPEAKER_05 (21:56):
Yeah.
No, I'm always shopping for thembecause you never know.
I still want to, I still want torehab.
That's gonna be a collector.
Yeah, absolutely.
And but yeah, all all the girls,like when I was single, all the
girls, oh, you're that guy withthe Tahoe, you know, with the
Mexican license plates.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's me.
That's me, you know.
He started off cool.

(22:16):
How you doing?
I mean, how you doing?

SPEAKER_06 (22:19):
If you rolled up onto campus with the two-door
Tahoe and Mexican licenseplates, Mexican license plates
and Greek letters.
Now, did he speak perfectEnglish at that time?

SPEAKER_02 (22:28):
Yes.
Well, that's why when he askedme, you don't know, and I'm
like, well, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_06 (22:33):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 (22:34):
Yeah, no, he's actually he had like probably
West Texas, like Twang.

SPEAKER_06 (22:40):
Twang.

SPEAKER_05 (22:40):
If you get me out there, yeah, it comes back, yes,
it comes back in a matter ofseconds.
Yes, I mean, quick.

SPEAKER_06 (22:46):
And it's not getting lazy when you get back there,
it's getting back to home base.
It is home.

SPEAKER_05 (22:51):
Yeah, it is for me.
For me, St.
Anthony's home, Angelo State.
It it you just get there and itjust feels like home.
Every time I go to St.
Anthony, it feels like home.
Every time I go to ASU, it feelslike home.
It's just such a great feeling.
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 (23:06):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 (23:06):
And we got a lot of similarities, minus the fact
that uh I'm I'm I'm a brother,but the I did not know that
until you mentioned it lasttime.
I said, Oh, did not see that onecoming.
Did not, yeah, did not see thatone coming.
I was uh that was a bit of asurprise.

SPEAKER_06 (23:24):
But there you go.

SPEAKER_04 (23:27):
See you're taking me back to college, but I didn't
have one of those cool things.
I had a big old tricked outblazer.
Oh, the GMC was a good one.

SPEAKER_06 (23:34):
The GMC they they came out with the talk right
after that, almostsimultaneously.
Take it.

SPEAKER_04 (23:39):
Yeah, I had about as good of a time in college as
you, I think.

SPEAKER_05 (23:43):
That's awesome.
Yeah, so we're we're we we leavefor Garland, Texas.
Okay, and you know, we You'redoing the teacher thing, doing
the teacher thing.
She suffered for a solid year uhworking at a daycare center
while she's trying to finish.

SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
Going to three different colleges to take these
classes.
Wrap it up, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (24:06):
Yeah.
And we got all that done.
We needed one one last favorfrom ASU.
You know, luckily I knew thedean to make sure that her all
her classes came in and madesure that she graduated on time
and she did.
Just like I promised herparents, you know, she's gonna
graduate on time and she did.
She graduated on time.
And we we just we were livingthe life in Dallas.

(24:28):
You know, we were both teachers.
We moved to Rollette.
Okay.
It was our first house.
We bought our first house.
I met our first realtor whoeventually became my mentor.
And yeah, we were living thelife.
We live, we we paid$151,000 fora three-bed, two-bath, two-car
garage, eighteen hundred squarefoot home, brick all around on a

(24:51):
golf course.

SPEAKER_02 (24:52):
Wow.
And I looked it up the otherday.

SPEAKER_05 (24:54):
Wow.
It's like$375,$400.

SPEAKER_02 (24:57):
And it looks exactly the same.

SPEAKER_05 (24:59):
Exactly.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (25:00):
Same mirror that I put in and everything.
Zero up, same flooring that weput in.

SPEAKER_06 (25:05):
We should never have sold that thing.
I say the same thing with all ofour rental properties.
We bought our first one for$132,sold them all in 2019 because we
were gonna go flip properties.
I mean, it was the right time.
We did good, but at the sametime, it's like, dang.
Yeah, but it just held on to allthose.

SPEAKER_05 (25:21):
That's the one that that's the one that got away.
Yeah.
We have we have two houses thatgot away.
That one and the go lightlyhouse that we had a we had a
chance of buying like one acrein Helotus for like one acre in
Helotus right off of 1604 forlike 369.

SPEAKER_06 (25:34):
Ooh, I know.
Ooh, whereabouts in Helotus atFossil Creek.
Okay, fossil, yep, I knowexactly what that's.
I grew up in Halotus, so tospeak.

SPEAKER_05 (25:42):
Yeah, Fossil Creek.
We had one acre, and I I thoughtit was sitting and they needed
to sell, and we talked about it,and I almost approached them,
and then an offer came in.
We're like, okay, problemsolved.
No big deal.
Now I look back, darn it, it wasone acre looking up on the
mountain.
It was yeah, it hurts.
It hurts.

SPEAKER_06 (26:01):
Oh, but we live on.
Yeah.
So now you're in Garland.
You bought your first house, youcame in contact with this
realtor that, and you mentionedbecame your mentor.
Where did the merge or the shiftin okay, I'm done teaching, I'm
going to jump into real estate.

(26:22):
And that started in Garland.
That started in Garland.

SPEAKER_05 (26:25):
We covered 14, 14 cities up there.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (26:28):
We both got our real estate license the same summer
together.
We took the classes together,got our license.

SPEAKER_05 (26:33):
580-573, 580-574.
How cool is that?
Uh, we tested the same day, andwe just, you know, being a
teacher during the summer isreally expensive.

SPEAKER_07 (26:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (26:43):
Because you have some income coming in, but you
have all this time.
Right.
And you're out at the mall,you're getting out, spending.
So I needed a side hustle.
And she we both got licensed,and then I started doing real
estate part-time with Mary Pat,my mentor.
With uh, I was with KellerWilliams for one year.

SPEAKER_06 (27:03):
And this was what, 15 years ago?

SPEAKER_05 (27:05):
2000.
2008.
2008.
Okay.
Perfect.
Perfect timing.

SPEAKER_06 (27:10):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (27:10):
There you go.
Perfect timing to start a tostart a real estate career.
So we went to we were doing openhouses, we were doing what we
were talking about last time.
I mean, you're just putting inthe work.
Right.
That's right.
You know, four open houses aweekend, going to trade shows,
going to anything that hadpeople, getting in front of
people as much as possible.

SPEAKER_07 (27:29):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (27:30):
And we, you know, we just kept on working it.
And then eventually she said,you know what?
I'm gonna get my master's.
You keep on doing the realestate thing, but I'm gonna get
my master's because she wantedto go into administration.
Okay.
School administration.
She, how many are you?
How many years did you clock in?

SPEAKER_02 (27:45):
11.

SPEAKER_06 (27:46):
As business administration for the school?

SPEAKER_02 (27:49):
No, as teaching.

SPEAKER_06 (27:50):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (27:51):
Yeah, so I got my master's when we were in
Garland.
And then I started lookingaround at, you know, okay, I'm
ready to move up.
There's there's a lot ofpolitics into the city.
There's a politics and uh plentyof things.
I didn't know it, very naive atthe time.
You know, I was probably 20, 28.
Wasn't bilingual, they neededthat, you know.

SPEAKER_06 (28:11):
So I was like so you had a real Mexican that didn't
teach you some Spanish?
See?

SPEAKER_02 (28:21):
Not then though.

unknown (28:22):
Okay.

SPEAKER_06 (28:22):
Back then okay.

SPEAKER_02 (28:25):
He never spoke Spanish, never around me.
So no, I didn't I never pickedit up.
And his family was far away, sowe weren't around them very
much.

SPEAKER_07 (28:32):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (28:33):
But then I was finally, now it's like 2010.
I was like, let's let's move.

SPEAKER_05 (28:41):
We were we if we had stayed up there, we were having
a lot of fun.
Sure.
A lot.
I mean, we're 28, 29, makinggood money because back then,
you know, a 53,000,$54,000salary times two, yeah, plus I
was selling what$30,000 worth ofreal estate per year on on the

(29:02):
side.
So it was Thursday happy hour.
Yeah, Friday, Knox Henderson,Saturday, Uptown, Sunday, the
lake.
Yeah.
Back to work on Monday andrepeat working out every day,
sometimes twice.
It was just us and our twopuppies.

SPEAKER_07 (29:20):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (29:20):
And I told her, I said, if we stay here, we're
never having kids.
My family is 10 hours away,pretty much.
Yeah.
Your family lives in SanAntonio.
If we stay here, we're neverdoing it.
So I told her, I said, let'sjust up and go.

SPEAKER_02 (29:34):
It was more I was like, okay, I'll start looking
for a job.
If I get a job, we're out ofhere.

SPEAKER_06 (29:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (29:40):
You know.

SPEAKER_06 (29:41):
So and at that time, your real estate business hadn't
taken over your life just yet.
It was it was to the point whereyou're still doing it part time.
I've learned plenty.
I can do this anywhere.
Just gotta Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (29:53):
I had a great broker.
Big shout out to Bill and MaryJordan over at William Davis
Real.
They they're fantastic.
Once I left Killer Williams, Ifigured you know Killer Williams
wasn't wasn't for me.
I went to William Davis and theythey ran a fantastic shop that
they still do.
And they they they took goodcare of me.

(30:16):
I was able to keep a little bitmore of my commission.
They were very similar to kindof what what Jeff does.
Sure.
And yeah, they they took care ofme.
I was able to save some moneyand finally just looked at her
and said, Hey, if we don't movenow, we're not gonna have kids,
like Fox Ticking.
Yeah, Fox Ticking, and we neversee your parents, we never see

(30:37):
my parents.
Let's just get closer to home.

SPEAKER_06 (30:40):
So it sounds like you guys grew up pretty quickly
in that decision-making processthere.

SPEAKER_05 (30:45):
Oh, yeah.
We we we punch first and askquestions later.
Yeah, it hasn't always workedout, but you know, we that's how
we learn.

SPEAKER_07 (30:52):
Yeah, you know we learn.

SPEAKER_05 (30:53):
The sooner, the sooner you make the mistake, the
sooner you can correct it.
Amen.
Yeah.
And we 2010 invited a bunch offriends over for a barbecue.
They helped us pack the theU-Haul.

SPEAKER_02 (31:04):
We packed in what it was like 30 minutes.
Wow.

SPEAKER_05 (31:07):
Yeah, a whole house in 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_06 (31:09):
Wow.

SPEAKER_02 (31:09):
We had a barbecue in an empty house, and then we
drove out the next morning.

SPEAKER_06 (31:13):
And did you know where you were gonna stay?

SPEAKER_02 (31:15):
Where I mean we stayed, well, that summer we had
strategically packed, and whenwe came down to visit, we would
bring stuff.
So we had we had like a storageunit.
So we didn't have too muchstuff, it was just the big stuff
in the U-Haul.
But everything in storage stayedwith my parents.
I started working in August.

(31:35):
Okay, my new school, and he waslike, Okay, I'm full-time real
estate.
So he knew uh just a handful ofpeople from high school here.

SPEAKER_06 (31:44):
Sure.

SPEAKER_02 (31:45):
That was it.

SPEAKER_06 (31:45):
That was the sphere.

SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
That was it.
Yeah, wow.
So every day I would go out, goto work, and he would just try
to figure it out, hustle, getout there and figure out what to
do.
Wow.
We were also looking for our ourhouse.

SPEAKER_05 (31:59):
Took about three months for us to find our home.
Yeah.
We lived with her parents, and Imean it was easy because she
would go off to work and takecare of the dogs and just try to
figure out kind of what's goingon.
Right.
With my broker still fromDallas.
I still have I still have my mymy mom has a bunch of those, the
my first business card, and itit has a P.O.

(32:22):
box from Helotas.
Oh wow, wow.
I operated out of out of a P.O.
box in Helotus, and my first, Imean, once we landed here, we
got you know situated with thehouse and and all that.
And once started working, Ithink other than the purchase of
our home, I sold two houses in2010 and then just hit the

(32:43):
ground running 2011.

unknown (32:44):
Wow.

SPEAKER_05 (32:45):
2011.
My goal was to replace myteacher's salary.
I almost doubled it.

SPEAKER_07 (32:49):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (32:50):
And my broker from from Dallas was like, hey, are
you how are you doing this?
I said, What do you mean?

SPEAKER_06 (32:57):
It's like you sold, you sold 22 houses, dude.
Well, see, first off, there'sway more people in San Antonio
than there is in Garland.
Yeah.
But everybody likes me here.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (33:09):
I just, I just, I tell people it's just it was a
lot of open houses.
It was a lot of, you know, goingto the the you know, bank
branches.
Yeah, you know, the WallsFargo's, the Bank of America's.

SPEAKER_06 (33:21):
And you're you're right.
Back then there wasn't as manymortgage companies because they
had all closed down for the mostpart.

SPEAKER_05 (33:28):
Exactly.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 (33:29):
It was, I mean, back then there was it was world
savings that then turned intothis, turned into that, and then
they all poop dissipated, andthen they all started popping
back up as you remember.
Yeah, Starking broker.
I remember Starking Mortgage.
I remember that too.
And I so I got in the businessin 2012.
So it was, I guess, a year afteryou started hitting the ground

(33:50):
running.
And same concept.
I mean, I didn't know anybody inthe real estate game, but I knew
a lot of people, and I'd been inSan Antonio the whole time.
And it was, how do I reach a tonof people?
Well, let me try this socialmedia thing back then, before
anybody was doing it, and Irepeated over, but the closing
picture, I was one of the firstto do that, in my opinion,

(34:13):
anywhere back in 2012.
Nobody was using social mediafor that purpose.
And I would put a post out andmaybe one like, but then what
was happening is I was having somany closings that it was like,
oh, there's another one.
This guy's doing it.
There's another one, there'sanother one.
And I was the one giving thedeals to the realtors.
Austin Pantuso was my first.

(34:34):
I jumped in the business.
We I had known him since we wereyounger, and I said, Hey, give
me a turn down, give mesomething.
Like, I need to figure it out.
And he said, You know what?
I've got a turn down, you figureit out, you're my guy.
Yeah, okay, let's go.
In everybody's office.
Okay, now what do I do?
Now what do I do?
Yeah, yeah, it was it was trialby trial by error.

SPEAKER_05 (34:54):
Yeah.
Back then, you just went andtried it.
If it worked, great.
If it didn't, it didn't work,okay.
And uh I ended up at ERAcolonial.

SPEAKER_02 (35:06):
I think that's where that picture is from.

SPEAKER_05 (35:08):
Yeah, that picture is from ERA.
Okay.
Uh the that was my first photoshoot here in San Antonio, my
first official photo shoot.
Yeah, no idea I looked thatyoung.
But then again, that was 15years ago.
So 14 years ago.
And I got I got recruited by byTom and Molly over at ERA.

(35:31):
And I was there for a year.
I met my second mentor, my true,true second mentor.
Big shout out to Chad Hughes.
And he he would like, it wasweird because I don't know, he
kind of like took to me in away.
Sure.
He'll deny it to this day, buthe would, I would walk by, he's
like, hey, come here.
Because he had an office.
I didn't.
I was out in the bullpen.

(35:51):
Yeah.
Hey, come here.
What kind of car do you drive?

SPEAKER_06 (35:56):
He was sizing you up the whole time.

SPEAKER_05 (35:59):
Like this.
He's like, you shouldn't drivethat.
Okay.
I've seen how many clothing youhad.
Time to buy something else.
You need to buy this.
And to this day, I drive aforerunner because Chad Hughes
told me to buy a forerunner.
You can go.
He's like, hey.

SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
Pretty sure it's the same one you bought.

SPEAKER_05 (36:15):
The no, this is this is this is 2.0.

SPEAKER_02 (36:18):
Okay.

SPEAKER_05 (36:18):
And he's like, hey, what kind of jeans do you wear?
It's like, well, I have theseTommies that are they fit nice.
He's like, no, no, no, no.
You need to wear sevens.
Seven jeans.
You need to wear sevens, bro.
Okay.
You need to wear sevens, right?
Because you can show up withsevens of the Dominion.
You can show up with sevens inthe South Side.
That's fine.
Okay.
But no nobody likes your jeans.

SPEAKER_06 (36:40):
And it's not I'm not even going to say back then.
Even now, it's the little thingslike that.
Yeah.
That separate the ones that aregoing to get the business or
not.
And as silly as that sounds.

SPEAKER_02 (36:54):
Oh, we've had a client that told us before,
like, I think you asked them,like, what was the difference
between me and the otherrealtor?
And their answer was your car.

SPEAKER_06 (37:05):
The forerunner.
I believe it.
I believe that.
And it it's just mentalroadblocks that people put up
themselves just from watchingshows, seeing it before, that
kind of stuff.
It associates you with successand being able to go, okay,
that's that's our guy.
We can trust in him because iteither is a facade or that's the

(37:27):
real life.
But either way, he's faking itthe right way.

SPEAKER_05 (37:30):
It was it was thanks to him that I started dressing
like a bum.

SPEAKER_06 (37:33):
That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 (37:33):
Yeah, because he it was always for him, it was
always boots, jeans, and a nicebutton-down.
And you never, and he was he wasrealtor number two in the city
at the moment.
And I, you know, he'd never worea suit, he'd never wear a
jacket.
I'm like, wow, I want to be likethat one of these.
I want to be like Chad when Igrow up.
Really want to be like Chad whenI grow up.
And I think it was what was itthree years ago that we were at

(37:57):
the Business Journal Awards?
I think it was like three years,and I'm sitting here, and he's
sitting on the table next to us.
And you know, we have a greatrelationship.
We talk maybe two, three times ayear, and it's always like, how
can we improve our business, youknow, collaboration or
competition, then the wholething.
And it was it was when I got thenod.
Finally got the nod from fromObi-Wan, you know, when because

(38:21):
they're they're naming, youknow, you know how it goes on
those awards.
They they they start naming thepeople the closer they get to
number one, and they haven'tcalled your name, they're like,
wow.
So they call his name, and youknow, he gets the award, and
yeah, you know, fist bump.
And you know, now I'm in the top10, and they still haven't
called my name.
And he he looks he looks to meand he's like, he just says,

(38:45):
like, I'm like, and then now I'min the top five.
He's like, serious, and or whowas that?
That was me.
Okay, and finally, I think thatyear I was number five.
Yeah, I think that year I was Iwas number five, and they call
my name, and he looks at me andhe's like, I was like, Yes.

(39:08):
Wow, yes, finally, yeah.
I got the nod from from Obi-Wan.

SPEAKER_06 (39:12):
Yes, the the confirmation that I'm cool now
too.

SPEAKER_05 (39:17):
Yeah, there's one of those moments where I was like,
I made it.
You know, I've I'm I'm I'mthere, yeah, I'm there, I'm
solid.
When when your mentor is likegood job, buddy.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 (39:28):
No, absolutely, and it means a lot.
But I could totally see thatthat feeling, that that that
moment that you yourself,because we're always the hardest
or toughest critic on ourselves.
I don't know if that's true withyou, but definitely true with
me.
It's that confirmation, finally,you know, this is what I've been

(39:50):
working towards.
You could have been makingplenty of money, but until you
got that person's approval orthat's a huge deal for me.
Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 (39:59):
I'm sure and he isn't Chad also the one that
encourages you to oh yeah, openour open up this brokerage.

SPEAKER_06 (40:06):
So let's let's let's now fast forward to that.
JC, how are we doing on time?

SPEAKER_04 (40:12):
41 minutes in.

SPEAKER_06 (40:14):
Okay, we got about 20 minutes.
Okay, and I want you guys totake me through the journey of
what made you realize or decideto open the brokerage.
And at that time, was it justyou?
Were you helping out with thatstuff?
Where were where how did thatwhat inspired that?

SPEAKER_05 (40:32):
So again, back to Chad.
Yeah, he where I'm walking andhe's like, Hey, come here.
It's like, what are you doinghere?
So, what do you mean?
Like, what are you doing here?
You're not taking Relo, youknow, at the time, relocation
business, of course.
And I said, Yeah, I don't likeworking relo.
He's like, Well, why are youhere?
This is too expensive for you.
You know, I know what your splitis, I know how much you're

(40:55):
paying per deal.
This is way too expensive.
Just leave.
Go at least go to KellerWilliams.
I mean, there's a cap overthere, right?
I said, Okay, and I I had mybroker's license already.
I always wanted to get mybroker's license.
I got I can't remember how old Iwas when I got licensed, but I
got my broker's license.
And I went to Tom, who was my mybroker of record, and I said,

(41:17):
Tom, I'm leaving.
And he's like, Why are youleaving?
I said, because I want what youhave.
I want well, I'm not, I mean,there were there were there were
a a a franchise.
Okay.
I said, I I want my name.
I want my name on the on the onthe front door.
And then at that point, therewas nothing.
He encouraged me.
There were everybody there wassuper super helpful.

(41:38):
And I just went out by myself.
I said, just yeah, I didn't evenhave a name for the brokerage
yet.
It was 2013, July 2013.
And didn't even have it was justCaesar a Mesco broker.
That was it.
That was those, those are mycontracts, and got everything
set up.
Was working with a designer, andat first it was CA and

(41:59):
Associates.
Okay.
CA and Associates, and that wasa bit of a mouthful.
And the logo looked like apenguin sideways.

unknown (42:08):
Okay.

SPEAKER_05 (42:10):
So I started doing my thing.
We we hooked up with Zillow.
Okay.
You know, in the early days,back when it was cheaper.
When it was cheaper.

SPEAKER_06 (42:17):
And they allowed other people to participate.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (42:19):
And you know, we did really well with with Zillow.
That's where I met people greatpeople like like Levi, Micah.
And we just we we kept onworking, and little by little
the brokerage kept on, you know,growing and growing and growing.
But in the back end, it was afreaking mess.
In the back end, it was afreaking mess.

(42:39):
It was just absolute justdestruction.

SPEAKER_06 (42:42):
Because at that time you were a producer, not
necessarily administration.

SPEAKER_02 (42:47):
Well, and the first agent that we had, it was one of
our really great friends.
And it was more because I haveall these leads coming in and I
can't handle them all.
I need help.

SPEAKER_05 (42:58):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (42:58):
So he convinced her she was our neighbor.

SPEAKER_05 (43:00):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (43:01):
Next to you.

SPEAKER_05 (43:01):
Shout out to Carmen.
There you go.
Sister from another mister.

SPEAKER_02 (43:04):
I can help.
So she came along.
And that's how it kind of grew.

SPEAKER_05 (43:11):
A lot of our a lot of our agents are plients.
Okay.
About 80% of our agents are pastclients.

SPEAKER_02 (43:17):
But still at the time.
So he's working, producing,getting more agents so that they
can produce.
Sure.
Back behind the scenes, still amess.

SPEAKER_05 (43:25):
Yeah.
I mean, our our dining room isfull of like files and folders.
Right.
You know, when it was time to doaccounting, holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 (43:34):
So at the time I wasn't doing much with him.
I was still teaching.

SPEAKER_05 (43:38):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (43:38):
I would during the summertime.
Like there was one summer Iremember being like, you need to
email your clients.
And he's like, Well, I don'tknow how to do that.
Like a mass email.

SPEAKER_04 (43:47):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (43:48):
And this was before CRMs and stuff.
So I was like, give me the list.
And I'm trying to make an Excelsheet of his clients and putting
them into Google so he could atleast have like groups to email.
Yeah.
So that's what I did during thesummer.
And then I kept tabs of anotherspreadsheet for like his
expenses.
So when we went to get our taxesdone, he'd have something.

(44:10):
So that was as far as I wasdoing.

SPEAKER_05 (44:12):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (44:14):
And then it happened.

SPEAKER_05 (44:16):
Uh oh.
Yeah, then it happened.
Life got better.
You well.

SPEAKER_02 (44:20):
No, not really.

SPEAKER_05 (44:23):
Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 (44:24):
Our daughter was born premature.

SPEAKER_05 (44:26):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (44:27):
27 weeks.
She was born at 27 weeks.
I was on bed rest since she was20 weeks old.
So we had kind of a rough startto that.
So I middle of the school year,I was out.

SPEAKER_07 (44:41):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (44:42):
And then when she came home, I was like, I gotta
make sure that this kid is set.
Like she's already delayed on alot of things.
We had a lot of therapies.
I went to him, I was like, Ican't go back to work.

SPEAKER_07 (44:52):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (44:52):
I can't give this to my mom.
I gotta stay home and make surethis kid's good.
So I did.
And that's hard to do afteryou've been working for so long.
Like so I'm taking care of mykids, and I kind of feel like
not like what's my purpose, buta busybody.
Like I need to do something athome.
And we already had help too withthe kids, and so I was like,

(45:15):
well, what am I gonna do?
And I'm looking at his desk andI'm looking and I'm like, well,
maybe I need to organize this.
So I kind of get it and I startdoing some stuff.
Um we just got QuickBooks and Iwas like, okay, let me learn how
to do some of this.
Things like him saying, Oh, Iwant to have a party for our
clients.
I want to have a party.
And I don't know how many timesI heard it, and it just didn't

(45:37):
happen, but it never happened,right?
Because he's out all the time.
So finally I was like, I'm justgonna make up, we're gonna do
it.
So I he comes home, you know,and I'm like, okay, I called so
this place and this place, andthis and he's like, okay, our
first movie event happened.
So I just slowly kind of workedyourself out of there.
Getting things off of hisinfiltrated your system and

(45:58):
organizing them and well, thebest I could, and trying to all
at the same time, I didn'treally fully understand the
business.
Right.
So, you know, at times he'd belike, You just need to do this.
And I'm like, I don't even knowwhat you're talking about.
Like, but I guess I'll figure itout.

SPEAKER_05 (46:14):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (46:14):
So that's kind of how it started.

SPEAKER_05 (46:16):
And then there's there's been moments in my life
where I've had a bucket of coldwater poured on me.
Oh, I'm sure.
And that that was I mean, that Imean, Adriana being born.
I mean, that was that wasintense.
And I remember telling her, youknow, hey, first year is on me.
I'm gonna bust my ass and dowhat I can to make sure that you

(46:38):
don't have to worry.
Northside is D was absolutelyamazing in helping us,
especially with all theinsurance.
Big sh big shout out to the theBilly, Billy Naven, her last
principal.
He was he was crucial in makingsure that we were taken care of.
And I get a phone call.
I'm driving down 1604, you know,just my merry self, you know,

(47:01):
yay, happy, happy.
And she calls me, she says, Hey,do you have any clothing coming
up?
I said, I don't I don't knowwhy.
She's like, We're not makingthat much money and bucket of
cold water.
She's like, You need to makemore money because we're not
making enough money.
And I said, You're speechless asa husband, right?

(47:23):
You know, you're you'respeechless.
You're like, Oh, I thought I wascrushing it, dude.
You know, I was I'm in the top100 for NARIP and you know, and
that didn't matter.
She she had fully immersedherself into the business,
right?

SPEAKER_06 (47:36):
She knows your business now from the back end
of it, what you're spending andhow much is going out each
month.
With why are you doing this?

SPEAKER_05 (47:43):
Why are you doing that?
What is this happening?
How many more closings do youhave?
And then in a matter of twoyears, we became 400% more
profitable just because sheplugged in and decided to say,
you know, she said, I'm notgoing back to teaching.
She just said, I'm I'm done withteaching.

SPEAKER_02 (48:04):
She she jumped in and well, part of it was I was
like, okay, if I go back toteaching, who's gonna do my job?

SPEAKER_06 (48:10):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (48:10):
I'm gonna have to hire somebody.

SPEAKER_06 (48:12):
Right.
And I'm like, is that even worthit?
Correct.

SPEAKER_02 (48:15):
So I was like, I'm it's just better for me to be
here.

SPEAKER_06 (48:18):
Yeah.
And it's almost one of thoseconcepts of if I find a way to
make you more money and pay formyself, can I stay?

SPEAKER_05 (48:28):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so she took she tookspecial coaching for QuickBooks,
she developed her own systems,did everything to because the
back end was a mess.
Yeah.
So she basically cleaned up thewhole back end.
We were able to implement moresystems, we were able to go to
conferences, we were able to goand learn from other people,
interact with other people, andthen you know, we're doing

(48:52):
great, and then boom, COVIDhits.
Yeah.
I always thought I was the heroof the story for from COVID.
You know, I was like, oh, I'mout, you know, just yeah,
punching and selling houses.
And I wasn't the hero of thestory.
She was the hero of the storybecause she kept the house in
order.
In order.
She was there with the kids,distance learning, all that

(49:14):
jazz, making sure our daughtergrew up.
You know, she went through allof that.
I I keep on telling her, youknow, there's at one point I'm
gonna, you know, call my cousinthat's a photographer, and we're
gonna do a Wonder Woman shoot.
That's awesome, you know.
That way our daughter can haveyou on her wall because she
would go to the hospital.

(49:35):
I mean, our daughter was therefor three months.
Wow, you know, we didn't wedidn't take our baby home.
You know, when we went home, wedidn't take our baby home.
Okay, that's that was that'stough.
Yeah.
And but she was there, you know,four times a day driving to the
medical center and holding,feeding, changing, doing just so
we could get her out.

(49:56):
She's stubborn.
Yeah.
To this day, she is.
They call her miracle babybecause no, nothing
developmental, not everything iseverything is where it needs to
be, but golly, she is stubborn.
Yeah, and we put a lot of workinto that though.
She did.
Yeah, I hid behind work.
She was the hero of this.
It wasn't me.
I hid behind work.
I was like, I'm working reallyhard, I'm working really hard,

(50:18):
I'm working really hard.
Right.
That's my job.
I'm working really hard.
She went through all thosepunches that were, I mean, those
were hard punches to the go.
And you know, we we have apicture of of Adri's hand, you
know, the for her first picture.
Her hand is the size of mythumb.
Wow, that's how little she was.

(50:39):
Now you see her now.
You never know.
No, she she does jujitsu.
She she's I mean, she's tallerthan probably half her class
already, long legs like her mom,and attitude, and she's nice and
she's stubborn, and she singsand draws and does all kinds of
things.

(50:59):
And that was, you know, thatthat's how this whole thing
started because it wasn'tsupposed to work out this way,
right?

SPEAKER_02 (51:06):
You know, she I never ever thought I was gonna
be full-fledged in real estateworking alone.
Never crossed my mind.
Yeah, I was actually still likecontemplating should I go to
admin?
That was a possibility still.

SPEAKER_05 (51:21):
So she saves the day there, then saves the day during
COVID, right?
And we just the growth justcontinues, yeah.
The growth just continues, andnow we're you know, we're going
into into you know a differentcycle, and she's taking on more
responsibility, she's taking onmore different things to grow to

(51:43):
grow the business.
I'm just the guy that smiles fora living, yeah, you know, and
goes and sells houses, but shetakes over like these monumental
changes in our life, and peopleask us all the time, like, how
can you work together?
Well, it's it's a lot ofcollaboration, but at the same
time, it's a lot of arguments.

(52:04):
There's a lot of arguments,there's a lot of things of like,
dude, I can't read your mind,right?
I'm squirrel guy, right?

SPEAKER_06 (52:10):
Same here, and and and and I'll I will add the
following in my opinion,conflict is kind of what you're
talking about, and conflict inmy world is a great thing until
it goes unresolved.
So I would imagine that theconflict that you had was
resolved, therefore, it became ahuge bonus to everything that

(52:33):
you're doing.
You guys grew every time therewas another conflict, it was
seeking resolution, not you'rean idiot, you're an idiot.
I would guarantee that's not howit went went.
It's we've got a problem, andthis is the way I see it.
This is the way I see it.
Well, you have two differentviews.
Let's put those together andthen come up with our game plan.

(52:55):
And then it sounds like you guysare fantastic about execution.

SPEAKER_02 (52:59):
The yeah, we have our we have our flaws, but I I
think the biggest thing is Iknow what he's really good at,
right?
And I also know what he's not sogood at.

SPEAKER_06 (53:08):
Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (53:09):
So I can't expect him to do those things that I
know he's not great at or hedoesn't love.
So I already know from my end,like those things need to be
picked up by somebody.
Yeah, maybe it'll have to be me.
Right.
Because he's out there killingit on all the stuff that he's
really good at, right?
So it's just kind of knowingyour place.

SPEAKER_05 (53:26):
And you know, we we we work together, but at the
same time, that's not our firstjob.
Okay, okay, that's not our firstjob.
Our first job is to beabsolutely, we both grew up with
amazing parents.
We both grew up with absolutelyamazing out of this world.
We were parents rich.

SPEAKER_04 (53:47):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (53:47):
A lot of people grow up rich.
We grew up parents rich.
Okay.
My my dad, may rest in peace.
He was out of this world.
My mom is out of this world,three-time cancer survivor.
Wow.
Her dad, a lot of sacrificessince he was there, we're very
young.
We, we, I mean, the odds of youknow, a girl that was born in

(54:08):
the Philippines at Clark AirForce Base, and a guy that was
born across the border.
What are the odds of you know,us two coming together and our
families being so similar?
Sure.
And Kay, I just, I just I loveKay to death.
She's my she's my she's mysecond mom.
She she's probably the reasonwhy I married her.

SPEAKER_06 (54:30):
And that's beautiful.
The idea, uh, just like yousaid, of two completely
different cultures yet equallythe same.
How strange but beautiful thatis to display for everyone out
there, you know, the idea thatjust blows my mind, but at the
same time, I I totally get it.

(54:52):
She is very white.
My wife is pretty white.

SPEAKER_02 (54:55):
I was gonna say it's like cult, there are a lot of
there has been moments that havebeen like, oh, this is a
cultural clash between us that Ididn't realize because the way
our morals and our values are soaligned, right?
You know, that you don't inbetween things you come across
something random and you'relike, oh well, we're clashing

(55:15):
because it's a cultural thing.
I'm not used to that.
He's not used to the way I doit.

SPEAKER_06 (55:19):
Have you learned the words pinchupendejo?

SPEAKER_02 (55:21):
Oh, I know that.
Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_06 (55:22):
There we go.
She walked by, she's like,You're so Mexican sometimes.
I'm like, what?
It's just, you know, it's justthe way we do things.

SPEAKER_02 (55:30):
The bad words you learn first.

SPEAKER_06 (55:32):
Absolutely.
And then you learn how to usethem properly.

SPEAKER_05 (55:35):
If we speak slow enough in the household, which
is hard because I'm from thenorth.
Right.
You know, northern Mexico, wespeak very fast.
So she's like, I'm gonna go takea nap, guys.
So when my brother, my sister,you'll do that.

SPEAKER_02 (55:48):
My brain, my brain, yeah, my brain hurts too much,
and then I'm like, okay, I'm toonext.

SPEAKER_06 (55:52):
Every other word, it still doesn't make sense.
I'm out.
So let me ask you guys to wrapthis from your story.
You guys started with verylittle great parents, great
background, great with greatparents comes great ethics,
comes a good work ethic.

(56:12):
Call it your backbone, so tospeak.
You both had great backbones andthen came together to do life
that, in my opinion, in opinion,is almost by design on how it's
supposed to be.
Because if you're talking tosomebody and they say, Oh, I've
never had any fights with mywife, or I've never had any

(56:34):
adversity, okay, you're full ofshit.
Sorry.
You're not being honest with me.
And taking what you guys havelearned, what is some good
advice that you would give tobecause there, I I can guarantee
there are plenty of husbands andwives out there that are

(56:54):
considering doing the samething.
They maybe haven't had enoughproduction over here for this
person to quit to jump over, ormany different scenarios, but
I'm sure there are folks outthere that are going, hmm, maybe
we could do that.
We've been talking about it.
What what does that look like?
What's some advice that youwould give to someone listening?

(57:18):
No rush.

SPEAKER_05 (57:18):
This is where I'm like, first of all, I mean,
never, like you said, neverleave something unresolved.
Yeah.
That that you have to you know,you have to go through the
gauntlet and just you know sortit out somehow, somehow.
Because your co-worker, she'sactually my boss.

(57:40):
Yeah, okay.
It's I tell everybody the samething.
She's actually my boss.
If she tells me not to spendmoney on certain things, I won't
spend money on certain things,period.
Yep.
And I I you know, the the thework day ends, and then you go
back to husband wife, yeah.
And you can't leave somethingunresolved, you can't be upset,
you can't be mad, and thenexpect to go to bed like

(58:02):
nothing.
Like you have to you have toclear all that out.
And there's been nights that westay up late, yeah, because I
tell her, like, no, we cannot goto sleep like this, right?
Gotta sort this shit out.
And you know, he's really goodat that.
Yeah, I I we can't just, youknow, and in my family, like we
we talk a lot, right?
And we're like, hey, get getthat shit out, like just scare

(58:24):
it out.
Let's just let's let's figureout a solution, then we can go
to bed.
Yeah.
Okay.
So never leave anythingunresolved would be would be one
piece of advice that I would Iwould give.
Probably the most crucial one isnever never leave anything
unresolved for sure.

SPEAKER_06 (58:39):
Yeah, and I would say that that's great advice.
Same concept with my wife and I.
Is she's on the real estateside, insurance side, I'm on the
lending side, but every daythere's something that we come
across.
There's a buyer that we'reworking with together that it's
just, my god, we've got to draghim across the finish line.
And I'll get frustrated andshe'll go, all right, bring it
down.
Keep in mind this is what we do,you know.

(59:01):
And it's that little constantreminder of of sanity that that
that injects itself into me.
And I go, Okay, all right.
Hello there, better, you know?
Just one of those things.
Yeah, just gotta suck it out.
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (59:15):
So I I guess I would say, and this is kind of a gent
more general in any part of thebusiness you could put it in.
And I I really didn't learn thisuntil just a couple years ago
when we did a book study and Iread something.
But don't wait for it to beperfect, just jump in and start.

unknown (59:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (59:35):
But when I read that, there were some things
that I was trying to do, and Iwas like, Oh, I can't do this, I
can't do this.
You know, when especially whenyou're working in a business and
you feel kind of alone.
Sure.
You're like, I can't do this, Ican't figure it out, or no, I
don't want to, I don't want tosend this email because it's not
right yet.

SPEAKER_06 (59:52):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (59:53):
Just send it.
Yeah.
You know, and once I read that,I started kind of looking around
me at other people in theindustry.
Emails I was getting, marketingthey were doing, and I was like,
theirs is not perfect.
Right.
Like I'm looking at this, likethis is from Canva.
They made a mistake here.
So why am I waiting?

SPEAKER_06 (01:00:10):
You're right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:11):
And then I looked back at telling the story today
all the times that we didn'tthink about and hesitate and
just jumped in.
You know, so I would say, justdo it.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
It doesn't have to be all set instone.
You don't have to have a massiveplan.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:28):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:28):
Just jump in and start figuring stuff out.
As long as you have thatmentality of we can figure this
out, I think it'll all it you'llyou'll be fine.
And you can keep growing andmoving from there.
None of this stuff in our storythat I could ever imagine when I
moved to Dallas.
Like this is where we were gonnabe today.
Not even on my radar.

(01:00:50):
I was gonna go to pharmacyschool.

SPEAKER_07 (01:00:52):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:52):
Like, and it just things didn't happen.
So that would be my advice isjust stop waiting and jump in
and do it.

SPEAKER_06 (01:01:00):
Life by design.
And I have to agree with that aswell.
There's there's so many folksout there that wait for perfect,
even when it comes to littlethings like I'm gonna do video.
And then they wait, they recordit, and then oh, that didn't
look good, or I'll do it later,I'll redo it later.
Get the stuff out there.
Number one, you're going tolearn good, bad, and different

(01:01:24):
from that action that you'redoing.
And and and I think the moral orpresent the the ideal is take
action.
Just take action and learn fromwhat you're actually doing.
That way you can use it for thenext time or not.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:40):
And just like you said earlier, you're you're
probably your most critical toyourself than anything.
So regardless of what it isyou're doing, nobody's gonna be
out there j judging you, youknow, and I tell our kids
nobody's thinking about you.

SPEAKER_06 (01:01:54):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:54):
Really, they're thinking about themselves,
they're not thinking about you.
So just wear what you want towear.
Show up how you want to show up.
There's no one's gonna belooking at you, they're thinking
about themselves.

SPEAKER_06 (01:02:05):
Boom.
That that's gonna be a clipright there.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:08):
It's the truth.

SPEAKER_06 (01:02:11):
I have to agree.
It's the truth.
So well, guys, this has beengreat.
I just learned a ton about youboth, and and I'm very
impressed.
I am honored to have uh sharedthat conversation with you, and
I'm glad that that that that I'dlike to get to know you guys
even better outside of thisworld, this world, not this
world.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:32):
That's a little too far.
Easy there, Elon.
Right?
Exactly.
Well, our our kids go to thesame school, so there you go.
That's right.

SPEAKER_06 (01:02:39):
So, is there anything else you guys would
like to add to this?
I I would actually like to haveyou both back to have a
conversation about some topics.
You guys get to pick the topic,controversial, not now that our
listeners have heard your story,know who you are.
I know that they're gonna wantyou back.
We'd love to.
That would be awesome.
Definitely.

SPEAKER_05 (01:02:58):
Yeah, no, we'd love to.
I would say, you know, in youknow, because we now we've met
so many people, and you know,big shout out to Rob.
He's in Japan right now, he'svacationing with a family, but
he's the one that pulled me outof my cave and introduced me to
all these wonderful peoplebecause I was just in my own
little, you know, I was a lonewolf.

(01:03:18):
Yeah, that was and I was proudof that.
I was like, I'm the lone wolf.
Like, no, actually, you know,you need to go out and meet new
people so you can grow, yeah, bein bigger rooms with smarter
people.

SPEAKER_06 (01:03:28):
Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 (01:03:28):
And that's that's what I would encourage people to
do, to just get out there andmeet people, grow with people.
And now that we've learned that,we've both grown so much in the
past couple of years, learningfrom learning from Jeff and
Clarissa.
Yeah.
You know, we we you know, wewent out to dinner a couple
months ago and just learningabout their story, Gillian

(01:03:50):
Denise, Adolfo and Lisa.
I mean, I could go on and on andon and on about you know their
journeys and how they do things,and just get out and really, you
know, just make yourselfvulnerable and say, I don't have
this right.
I don't have this right, I'm notdoing it right.
Is anybody else doing it right?
Right.
Is somebody doing it better thanme?

(01:04:10):
You'd be surprised how manypeople will say, Oh, I'll help
you.
Absolutely.
You're you're you're doing that,you're doing that wrong.
So you should probably try thisother way because we we're the
same way.
Yeah, we're the same way.
You know, we have our ourChristmas party this coming
Sunday, which by the way, bothof y'all are invited.
Woohoo! It's uh open bar.
All right.
At the rock, our Christmasparty, thanks to her, has grown

(01:04:34):
from 175 people to 450 people.
Wow.
There's not a real realtor intown that can touch my Christmas
party.
Wow.
Yeah, that's throwing down thegauntlet, just like drop boom,
mic drop.
Yeah, what's up?
450 people, free pictures withSanta.
It's at The Rock this Sunday.
We have our we have our ourregistration link on on our

(01:04:56):
Instagram.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:56):
It's a toy drive for Casa.
Awesome.
Toy drives usually are one oftheir biggest donors for this
time of season.

SPEAKER_06 (01:05:03):
So entry into this requires absolutely do not show
up empty-handed.

SPEAKER_05 (01:05:09):
I have to punch you.
I will punch you if you show upempty-handed.
I don't care who you are.
It's always a toy drive forChild Advocates San Antonio.
That's you know, charity that wehave very close, you know, to
our heart.
Yeah.
And, you know, thanks to her,we've been able to grow it to
450 people in attendance overthree hours at the rock.

(01:05:29):
Yeah, you know, we we went fromyou know a small little venue to
you know where this pursepracticed, right?
Which is pretty awesome.
Rain or shine, you know, there'sgames gonna be on the on the on
the big screen, there's homemadecookies, hot chocolate, open
bar, crafts for the kids, yeah,pictures with Santa Claus.

(01:05:50):
We she had these basketballsdesigned.
If you go to my Instagram, youcan see the basketball that she
designed uh with our logo.
How cool! So she opens orderswhat like 12, 15, and by the end
of the party, they're all gone.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:04):
That's cool.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:05):
By the end of the party, they're all they're all
gone.
Clients will be like, Can I takethis?

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:09):
Like, go for it.
I don't care, man.
Take it.
Go.
It's already paid for it.
Yeah, just go.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:13):
It's it's all good.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:14):
And it's depreciating anything.

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:15):
Yeah, it's it's losing value as we speak.
It's fine.
Let me let me autograph it foryou.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:20):
Right?

SPEAKER_05 (01:06:20):
But yeah, it's it's uh you know, invited, be happy
to have you guys, and thank youfor having us.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:27):
Absolutely, Aaron.
Hats off.
That was your first podcast, andnobody even knew until I said
that right now.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:35):
Next time I'll I'll do better.

SPEAKER_06 (01:06:37):
Professional, and incredible Wonder Woman here,
ladies and gentlemen listeningin.
As always, I appreciate youtuning in.
If you haven't already, makesure to like and subscribe.
We're up to 31,600 subscribers,and that's just on YouTube
alone.
We are on other platforms likeApple Podcast, Spotify, Google,

(01:06:58):
and all the others.
But I hope that you guys aregetting at least a fifth of what
I get from these conversations,and they are with folks that are
in the trenches doing the work,putting in the work, taking the
risks, and then learning fromthose mistakes, right or wrong,
and grateful enough to sharethem with you guys.

(01:07:20):
So um, that being said, guys,thank you again for joining this
conversation.
Uh, you guys out there, um, asalways, I promise to continue to
bring you experts like this thatare willing to share their
journey with us transparentlyand real AF.
That means and finance, rememberthat.
Um, other than that, we willcatch you on the next one.

unknown (01:08:00):
I am a master.
I am a master.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:06):
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From Immigrant Hustle to Real Estate Power Couple – Their Inspiring Journey

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Immigrant Hustle to Real Estate Power Couple – Their Inspiring Journey