September 6, 2024 • 51 mins
🌟 Ever wondered how a first-generation American builds an empire from scratch? Meet the incredible Trixy Castro, a powerhouse entrepreneur who has founded over 50 companies, including Genesis Capital and Hudson Marshall. In this episode, Trixy shares her inspiring journey from advocating for her mother as a child to launching her first company at just 14 years old. Her story embodies resilience, innovation, and the strength found in community support.
🔥 What You'll Discover:
🚀 Building an Investment Empire: From securing $250 million in equity to navigating the unpredictable real estate market.
💼 Breaking Barriers in Business: Trixy shares her experience as the only woman in boardrooms, overcoming obstacles and shattering the corporate glass ceiling.
💡 Lessons in Leadership: Gain insights on women's leadership and personal growth, as Trixy emphasizes the importance of authenticity and resilience in the face of adversity
🏆 Unprecedented Success: How Trixy sold her firms to giants like Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, redefining success on her own terms.
🎧 This episode is for you if:
- You're a woman in business or leadership looking to break barriers.
- You're seeking inspiration to pursue your own entrepreneurial dreams.
- You want to learn how to turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Trixy's story is a powerful reminder that, with determination, innovation, and a relentless belief in yourself, you can achieve greatness. Tune in now to be inspired by her trailblazing journey!
https://www.trixycastro.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Audra (00:00):
Welcome in everyone and thank you so much for joining me
again this week.
This week, there is not enoughgood things that I can say to
you about my guest.
First of all, this woman isself-made, and when I mean that
she is self-made, I am veryserious, very serious.
(00:21):
My guest this week is TrixieCastro, and she has founded more
than 50 companies, includingGenesis Capital, which was
acquired by Goldman Sachs,hudson Marshall, which was
acquired by Fidelity NationalTitle.
She is a visionary leader andshe is an official member of the
(00:44):
Forbes Finance Council.
She has made reinvention andmaking herself a success an art
form.
It is my pleasure and my honorto introduce to you Trixie.
Trixie, thank you so much forbeing here and welcome to the
show.
Trixy (01:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited.
It was like Christmas.
I woke up excited to get to dothis with you today and I very
much respect everything thatyou're doing, really love it.
Thank you for having me.
Audra (01:18):
I am so excited for you to be here.
I left the best part about whatyou do out of the intro because
I did not want to give away thebest part.
I said that you were aself-made woman, and I meant
from very early beginnings,because you were also a first
(01:38):
generation American, which yourstory is so inspiring and, like
I said, I don't want to give itaway.
So I would like for you to tellthe audience about who you are
and where you started from.
Trixy (01:58):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
And, you know, in thinkingabout today and being able to
say, hey, listen, I hope that mystory can inspire and help
anyone else or the things thatmaybe young Trixie would have
wished to have known.
That's the mission and I'm sograteful to be able to do that
(02:18):
and to do it with you, anotherwoman championing other women,
kind of taking it a step back.
My parents came here from Cubaand they're amazing people.
I had all the love in the world, but there's limitations when
you are in a new country, newlanguage, new everything.
One of those was educationwasn't the priority.
It's kind of cute.
(02:39):
My mom actually was goingthrough like a box of mementos a
couple weeks ago and she saysyou're not going to believe this
, trixie, I have a letter fromyour kindergarten teacher and
I'm thinking, oh, that's so cute.
Yes, I remember Mrs Weinstein.
Da, da, da, da da.
And I'm thinking it's about me,right?
Oh, no, no, it was directed toher saying Mrs Castro, you need
(03:06):
to bring your daughter to schoolevery day.
Like I didn't realize that youactually had to go every day,
that that was really a thing,because if it was cold or you
were tired or anything like,which didn't go and I'm like Mom
, right.
So that is it shows you right.
Then, later on, of course, shebecame like the biggest champion
for education and the likes.
But to kind of give you an idea,and so my story starts with
them, I saw hard work, I sawgrit, I saw my mom really
(03:29):
willing to say, hey, I'm goingto do whatever it takes.
And one of those hey, I'm goingto do whatever it takes moments
was I was three years old andshe had an interview with a
family to come in and be alive-in caretaker to take care
of the grounds, the facility.
The woman had Alzheimer'sdisease, lovely family, also
immigrants from Italy.
Anyway, she had to take me inthe interview with her and she
(03:53):
was mortified and she was like,oh my goodness, trixie, don't
say anything, you knowda-da-da-da-da.
And I remember her being sonervous and doing this and just
anxious.
And I jumped in at three yearsold and said, hey, you need to
hire my mom.
And they said why?
And I said because you get me,I want to learn what you did to
(04:14):
live here, because it was themost beautiful house I'd ever
seen.
So to give you an idea, Ididn't realize really I didn't
register that that wasn't myhome.
So much so that housing becameso critically important to me
throughout my life and my careerthat everybody have an
opportunity to really have ahome.
So at 14 years old,unfortunately, she passed away,
(04:35):
the woman that my mom was takingcare of.
So we moved, we did theunthinkable.
Moving in high school and Iwent out and I tried out for
cheer and soccer made bothAmazing.
That's so great.
Except for one fun fact Each ofthem was $1,000.
I didn't want to be a burdenand so now I panicked.
I'm like, okay, let me figureout a way to make this money.
(04:57):
Well, I didn't have a worker'spermit.
I didn't have a ride to work.
What I had was old computerpaper with the bubbles on the
sides and my younger sister'smagic markers.
So it was at that moment.
Am I going to get to makefriends right in this new school
and actually get in there, oram I going to be limited?
Nope, went through and Icreated my first company called
(05:19):
Trixie's Tutor Time.
With my sister's magic markersI cut the paper in like six,
went across the street to anelementary school that my
younger sisters attended andwent to the principal and
explained what was going on, andhe paid it forward by giving me
an opportunity and introducingme to the teachers, and within
one month I was making more cashthan both of my parents
(05:43):
combined.
But what it taught me more thanwhere there's a will, there's a
way and that really resonatedwith me at that moment was that
if you want it, go do it.
There's people that are goingto support you.
But also, hey, let me make mysweet spot the second and third
grade community, and I can hirethe sixth graders, and now I can
(06:03):
expand to another school.
So this was like kind of mythinking.
And now I can hire my mom to bemy driver.
So so, really, this is this isall true.
And so I got so fascinated thatI realized, my goodness, I love
business.
If this is what business is,amazing, sign me up.
So I thought, okay, where,where can I go?
(06:25):
Who can I speak to?
That is going to teach me therope so I can learn.
And I remembered this familythat we grew up, that I grew up
with.
They made all their money intothings in finance, starting bank
and real estate.
So I marched into Wells Fargoand asked them for a job and
they were like, what would youlike to do?
I said I don't know.
(06:45):
Whatever the entry position is,give me that.
And I did.
And I started as a teller and Imust tell you I was the worst
teller on the planet.
I talked too much, shockingly,and I really wanted to
understand my clients and wouldask them hey, what are you doing
?
How's your business?
And I learned that my largestdepositors consisted of gamblers
(07:05):
, tech and real estate.
So here I am, maybe 18 yearsold barely, and I think, all
right, well, gambling, not inthe cards for me, not trying to
do that.
Tech was still very new, soreal estate it was.
So really started to understandokay, what are these groups
doing?
They explained to me hey, whatare these groups doing?
They explained to me hey, we'regoing to the courthouse steps,
(07:27):
we're paying in wads ofcashier's checks, hence why
we're here every day.
We're hiring kids your age togo be the runners.
And I thought, my goodness,like, if you're buying X amount
of houses, why don't you getleverage and you can buy Y?
And they were like, because wecan't, because banks like you
guys will only lend us up to 10properties.
Like, what do you mean?
And that's where I started torealize, huh, there's this niche
(07:48):
.
So these business to businessloans weren't really a thing.
There was hard money, right,there was a very disorganized,
fragmented kind of way of doingit, but there wasn't an
institutionalized, formatted waythat I was aware of that we can
do it.
So I thought this is amazing,let me learn this.
While I'm living in a dorm roomnow in college, playing soccer,
(08:08):
doing all the things and stillworking at the bank, let me
really understand this and letme figure this out.
And I realized this was such anincredible niche and that I
could put something togetherwhere I could kind of kill both
passions, meaning that I couldalign myself with these groups,
help them scale their businesses, and I could feel really good
(08:31):
about it because I'm providinghousing to the next group.
We could take some of theseblighted neighborhoods and go
back and look with pride of like, hey, we were able to fix that
right.
We were a part of that solution, helping families create
generational wealth.
So I set out to do that andlearn the business.
And you name it.
I did it from originating toprocessing to answering the
(08:52):
phone.
It was Trixie, party of one.
Basically right, I did it all,and today we call that
crowdfunding.
Back then it was fractionalizedlending and so I realized, like
my goodness, I have to takecharge of this, because if I
give the opportunity to theinvestors, they're going to take
the riskiest, highest paying,you know deal and I'm like very
risk averse, so let me put afund together.
(09:15):
And that evolved into a companycalled Genesis Capital and I
truly the story is true I reallystarted it with a phone and a
desk in like the worst of theworst areas that I was into,
where my brother used to have tocome and walk me to my car on
Fridays because I'd get robbedby a homeless guy every Friday
and I mean it was just it'scrazy to think about.
(09:36):
And and I just loved it we putthis together and with a little
engine that could, and I'm goingto these groups and I'm
realizing, my goodness, I needto really get organized here.
Right, it's a mess, it's.
I can lend you maybe two orthree, because that's all the
money I have and I can'tsecuritize a paper because it
(09:57):
didn't exist on short term moneyat the time and I got to go
raise the money and I got to dothis and it was a whole thing.
So let me figure out a way tomake it look like where I come
from the institutional world.
So that's what I set out to doand raise money and 5 million,
10 million, like, started at oldschool.
Like I think my firstinvestment was $25,000 from an
investor and, by the way, a lotof my investors are still like
(10:20):
part of my family today, if youwill, in my chosen family.
I realized I couldn't raise themoney fast enough.
I needed to go to a large well,but in order to do that, to get
from here to there, I needed tohave something else to keep
these clients wanting to workwith me.
I decided to head down on apost-it note, start sketching
(10:42):
out an online auction model,because my view was okay, if I
can provide the gold, the REO,the short sale at the time, the
distressed real estate, then Ihave a reason for you to hang on
with me while I raise the money, because I'm going to raise the
money.
And so I mean truly old schoolput that model together, and
that was a company calledGenesis Auctions that later
(11:04):
became Hudson and Marshall, andI had one client and that one
client.
We were going to give it ourall, and it was just.
I mean, it was something likeout of a movie, right, our first
auction, the website, and itcrashes and I'm like, okay,
don't worry.
Ran to the bathroom, threw up,nobody knew, came back and kept
going, right, and I'm thinking,oh my goodness, like what, what
(11:27):
right?
And so, in you know, I lookback and I think the, the desire
to succeed, the ability to saywe're just going to put our
heads out and do it, I'm not notgoing to let this go, I think,
is what drove me to say, okay,I'm going to go raise the money
and I'm, no matter what, itdoesn't matter if I've gone to
these groups and they're notready to hear it.
I'm ahead of my time.
(11:48):
You name it, I heard it.
I was at this point like immuneto it, right, like you don't
let me in through the door,guess what?
I'm coming in through thewindow.
And so um, got my, got Oak treecapital out of downtown to be
the first, to my knowledge inthis space, to kind of really
come in as an institution, gaveme the first $250 million in
equity and we scaled that to acouple billion dollars a year of
(12:09):
loans.
So this little company thatstarted with a phone and a desk
and a homeless guy turned intothis machine and the auction
company the same thing.
So now we're humming right, weare going, we are cranking, I am
hiring people that are farsuperior than myself, and I'm
okay with that because I love tolearn.
But now it's its own set ofchallenge.
(12:30):
Now you're growth mode, you'rescaling.
So everything you could possiblyhave encountered or done wrong,
I did it.
So feel free to call me, and Imean and truly, and that's how I
learned.
All of that being said,realized no-transcript, like
(13:14):
drop the mic.
That's why Because we all arethe best at what we do To be
able to empower others and topave the way for women to say
hey, you be, you, never letsomebody come in and tell you to
be different, because I coulddo three podcasts with you on
that part.
You know on how many peoplewere.
You know adversaries thatpresented themselves in sheep
(13:35):
clothes, right, and so you knowyou don't realize until you
realize.
Anyway, sold those companieslike you mentioned one to
Goldman Sachs, one to Fidelitywithin nine months of each other
.
Audra (13:50):
So talk about like quite a period.
This sounds like a whirlwind.
So I want to pause for a secondbecause I am just blown away,
because this started as just acuriosity, a curiosity in money
and investing.
And you went to work for a bankand it started with
(14:12):
conversations, curiosity andconversations on how people make
money.
Trixy (14:20):
It makes me tear up.
It really brings tears to myeyes because it is the American
dream and we have everyopportunity to do that for
ourselves every day and as kids.
I was so young, you have starsin your eyes, right.
So what's the difference now asan adult?
Usually it's because we listento the outside chatter, the
outside noise.
Audra (14:38):
that is irrelevant anyways don't the the adults get
on got in the way and you justdidn't have that.
You didn't.
No one told you the, the uh,adult version of it, so you
didn't have that.
So you just went after it.
So you started having theseconversations and started
building these things.
(14:58):
So nobody told you thelimitations, so you didn't
realize there were anylimitations.
So you started putting thesethings together.
No one told you that you weretoo young, that it hadn't been
done before, so you just did it,yeah, and put it together.
Yeah, and they told me I didn'thear it, I'm going to put it
together and put together thesecompanies and sold this to
(15:22):
Goldman Sachs I mean, goldmanSachs, this is, and folks, she
didn't just sell it to them for$2.
I mean, I assure you this wasquite the investment.
And selling her other auctioncompany to Fidelity National
(15:45):
this is a cornerstone of theirbusiness.
And selling her other auctioncompany to Fidelity National
this is a cornerstone of theirbusiness.
This auction site that she soldis a cornerstone of their
business because it had neverbeen done before and she wasn't
told that there were anylimitations, so she just built
it.
She just built it because itwasn't there before, so she did
it.
She just built it.
She just built it because itwasn't there before, so she did
(16:08):
it.
And the point of this is thatshe's done it being her and I
wanted to stop her because Iknow that a lot of us are told
who we should be or what.
Oh, that doesn't fit, or youshould be this, or you shouldn't
be that, or you're too muchthis, or you're not enough that
Trixie didn't listen to any ofthat.
(16:29):
She just did things that shefelt that she needed to do the
way she needed to be.
Like I said, she's a self-madewoman.
I started this interview byexplaining that she is a
self-made woman.
She built herself and hercompanies from the ground up,
doing this her way on her own.
(16:51):
And I guess her name is Trixie,and she walks into boardrooms
and she's the only woman in theroom.
She's the only woman, she's theonly Hispanic in the room.
Her family's from Cuba and, asthe first time she and I met,
(17:12):
she says and my name is Trixie,how do you think people greet me
?
So I'm not going to let, I'mnot going to give that away.
I'm going to let her tell youhow she has been greeted and how
she has not let that stop her.
So, trixie, I will let you sayhow people have greeted you and
how you have not let thoseobstacles stand in your way.
Trixy (17:39):
Well, if they greeted me at all, right, if they greeted
me at all, it was very much.
Hey, can you get us watercoffee?
You know whatever, sure, I'mhappy to get you tea, water,
coffee, I'll bake you a cake,whatever it is that you want.
But I'm actually here to get adeal done, right?
Your meeting's actually with meand they were like no, no Right
.
And it was either you fit thisnorm or you don't.
(18:00):
And if you don't which I didn't, clearly it was you know why
should we work with you?
And it was like, well, hey, atleast give me a chance.
And then I could see, after thefirst five minutes, 10 minutes,
then I could see theunderstanding in their eyes.
It was kind of like this oh, myGod, she really knows what
she's talking about.
So then it was, you know,because I can't tell you how
many times it was well, youdon't look like what I expected
(18:24):
or you know, and whatever.
It was always a comment of that.
I didn't look or sound or, onpaper, fit the mold.
And so I mean, it got to thepoint where I was like, yeah,
you're right, I don't look likeyou, you're a hundred percent
right, I'm not a man or I'm nota this or I'm not like you're a
hundred percent right and I amtotally okay in my own skin and
(18:45):
I had so many times where I hadpeople, including women, try and
say to me well, you need to goin and put your hair in a bun
and no makeup, and flat shoesand a double-breasted suit, and
that's amazing and that's greatand I love that.
But that was not me.
I'm pink, I enjoy beingfeminine, that's just my thing,
(19:06):
right.
And so, basically, I was beingtold don't be yourself, come fit
and conform to this and gofigure out how to try and make
yourself be someone else.
Well, I can't.
I can't rewrite my history.
All I can do is use that tofuel me.
All I can do is say hey, listen, I've been there.
I understand what it's like tohave literally less than nothing
(19:27):
and see somebody and think toyourself at three years old why
do they live in the main houseand I live in the guest house?
What's the difference?
I wasn't bitter, I was curiousto your point, so let me go
figure out how to do that.
And so to me.
I ended up looking at it andlaughing inside, thinking I'm
going to use this all the way tothe bank, meaning you're going
(19:48):
to knock me on my name tricksy,or that I don't do this, or
perfect, no problem, because atthe end I know we're doing
something together and I'm theone cashing the check, so happy
to do it.
So it just became somethingthat just didn't let bother me.
And I remember asking my dad whydid you name me Trixie?
You know all the names and mydad's name is, in Spanish, is
(20:09):
Enrique.
And he chose Henry.
And he said to me you know,trixie, we were new to this
country, I didn't read thelanguage.
Your mom goes into labor.
She thinks you're going to be aboy.
So she had chosen a boy's name.
And here I am and you're a girl.
And she was kind of like youdid this to me, you figure it
out Right?
(20:36):
Went to the nurses and I saidcan you help me?
What should I name this baby?
And they gave him a name book.
Well, he was reading theopposite side of the page,
because that's what they weretelling him the meaning in Latin
.
And in Latin it meant bringerof joy.
And he said that's why I namedyou Trixie.
And he said to me somethingI'll never forget.
He said you are your name, youmake your name, and I stuck to
that hook, line and sinkerbecause that is so true of all
(20:58):
of us.
We are, we make our own name inwhatever capacity that we want
to.
And those were words that, assimple as they sounded, they
resonated with me, and so muchso that you know you use it to
fuel, to fuel what you're tryingto accomplish, to fuel what
you're trying to accomplish.
Audra (21:15):
That is why I have admired you for so long, and it
has just taken us 10 years toget to know each other.
What I didn't say in thebeginning is that Trixie and I
actually worked for the samecompany over a decade ago and we
just never got the opportunityto meet.
I had wanted to, justcircumstances didn't allow for
(21:36):
it, and it was just by completecoincidence maybe divine
intervention, you call itwhatever you'd like that we got
introduced through this medium.
And that was the first thing Isaid to her.
I said, by the way, I'veadmired you for a long time, and
I was afraid she thought I'd bea weirdo, but, much to my
(22:00):
delight, she did not.
She did not.
I said I admired you because youhave built yourself from the
ground up, and I really, reallyadmire women that build
themselves from the ground upand don't let anybody or
anything dictate who they areand don't let society try to
(22:25):
tell them who they're supposedto be or how they should
shapeshift or any of that.
And that was one of the thingsthat I wanted to get across to
all of you, because that issomething that I have personally
struggled with, because in thiscrazy world that we're in.
There's so many rules and somany messaging that we get that
we're just trying really hard tojust make a success of
(22:49):
ourselves and there's just somany things and so many
different messaging that we getmany things and so many
different messaging that we get.
And I'm fine For me personally,I'm finally feeling comfortable
, at the ripe old age of 53, offinally comfortable, of being in
my own skin and being totallyokay with it and showing
(23:10):
everybody that this is me.
If you don't like it, that'sjust too bad.
And Trixie's been doing it,naturally, all her whole life
because she didn't listen to therules and it was really
important that we reinforce thatto all of you because she's
done this successfully and wedon't want the rest of you, the
younger generation, the youngergenerations coming behind us,
(23:32):
not to make the same mistakesthat I've made and many of the
other women that are in my samegeneration that we have made,
just because we got badinformation.
We got really bad information,not for anybody's fault other
than we didn't know any better.
People told us the wrong thing.
Trixie was fortunate enoughthat she had blinders on.
I didn't always get blinders, Ijust got really bad information
(23:56):
and a lot of us got really badinformation, which is why I'm
such a big admirer of Trixie'sthat she was just like I'm
single-minded, I am curious.
I am curious about how otherpeople make money, and she had
the foresight to start askingquestions, and I think that
(24:17):
that's remarkable.
When you're asking thesequestions and you're building
businesses and you're stillbuilding businesses, by the way,
I mean, even though you havesold off other businesses you
don't just sit on your laurelsand go yeah, I'm good, you still
have a curiosity about otherbusinesses.
I mean, you're not one to justgo.
(24:42):
Hmm, you're going to keep goingbecause that's just your
personality.
What do you tell other womenwhen they're like you know, this
doesn't feel comfortable, Iwant to keep building something.
What do you tell them whenthey're like I have this nudge
(25:03):
to build something, but I justdon't know quite what it is.
How would you advise them?
So?
Trixy (25:10):
to me.
I look at it and see two things.
You can look at opportunity andif you get stuck there because
sometimes we do look at theproblems what are the problems
that are being faced?
What are the challenges?
So in my businesses, forexample, when I have a challenge
and an issue, I'm thinking,okay, we have this challenge and
(25:32):
this issue that I would assumeothers do as well.
So what type of a solution canwe put into place that helps our
immediate today need but alsohelps others for when they come
through this?
And voila, you've got another,either revenue stream or company
and truly you end up looking atthe world that way and you see
(25:56):
opportunity everywhere.
It's rethinking and reshapinghow you view everything.
I tell women all the time look.
The best example I can give youis we love to beat ourselves up
.
So before we even go into atough situation, we're mad at
ourselves for something andwe're juggling templates.
Let's say, juggling kids, workthis, whatever the templates are
(26:18):
.
And we're juggling templates.
Let's say, juggling kids, workthis, whatever the templates are
.
But we're juggling them, okay,and we drop one.
Of course we're human.
We drop one, maybe two, and wefocus on that for so long that
we go into the battlefield, soto speak, already at a
disadvantage, with that voice inour head and this familiar tape
of like all the negativity.
And I tell women all the timestop, stop right there.
(26:40):
The opportunity is right infront of you.
Focus on the fact that you werejuggling 10 and you were
juggling eight very efficiently.
How many people can say, hey, Ican do that?
Not that many.
And you didn't drop them.
You focus on the eight.
That's amazing.
I have eight plates that I'mjuggling and I think if we
(27:01):
change our mind, shift as women,as people, it's by nature.
You change it in your businessor in your workplace, or you
give yourself permission at thatpoint to really use your
creativity to then go and launchout on your own, because until
then, it's right here.
That is where we're stopped and, yes, I got very lucky that I
(27:23):
was so young and I had a win at14, because somebody was willing
to take a shot on me.
We have to then be thatsomebody to be willing to take a
shot on somebody else.
But the story would be verydifferent if it was failure
after failure after failure.
It would be a very differentstory, perhaps very similar
outcome, because you know yougrit and you white knuckle it,
(27:43):
but it wouldn't have been thesame formation.
Why would we do that toourselves and just focus on the
negative, the negative, thenegative of what we missed?
To give you an example, I wasin a room full of young
entrepreneurs, midsizeentrepreneurs and everybody, and
I said okay, we're going towrite down everything that we
(28:04):
want to improve on as a person.
First, we'll get to thebusiness Pages and we're
actually physically write itdown Writing, writing, writing,
writing.
People asking for more time.
Truly, okay, we got it.
Now flip over the page, orhere's three new pages because
you wrote so much.
Focus and write down the thingsthat you know you do.
Well, crickets, people wrotedown on average two things.
(28:29):
Two, are you kidding me?
You're juggling 30,000 platesevery day and you're two.
And it broke my heart and Ithought my goodness, we have our
work cut out for us.
We need to shift how we, aswomen, view ourselves, because
if we don't, we are setting ourown limitations.
So forget about even startingsomething, because we can't even
(28:50):
get off first base, because wedon't believe that we can.
So that's my biggest advice towomen Change the narrative in
your head.
They're just tapes playing inyour head anyway.
Let's just put a new one in.
Forget the noise, forget thedrama, forget the negativity,
let's just put a new one.
And it starts with us.
Audra (29:12):
Yeah, it's just it's.
It's the old, it's old feedbackthat unfortunately, we
inherited.
I've said that a lot in ondifferent shows is that it's
just we've inherited this, thisold cultural dialogue that
there's something wrong with us.
There's nothing wrong with us,that's.
We're actually pretty damnawesome.
If you got an, if you want toknow the truth.
We are the bringers of life.
Let's face it.
We bring life and that ispretty remarkable when you get
(29:35):
down to it.
We've just been culturallyconditioned to think there's
something wrong with that.
There's walk into any storeanywhere and it's a store and
aisles full of products.
That's convinced women to feellike there's something wrong
with them.
They're just trying to sell yousomething.
They're just trying to sell yousomething.
(29:57):
That's it.
So change the mindset.
I have been threatening for sixmonths now to start a journal
and writing things down, and doyou know what that works?
I know people have been tellingme I've had experts on my show
telling me for months to writedown things in a journal that it
(30:19):
works, it works, it works.
Okay, I'm not great at this,but you know I finally did it.
I'm stubborn.
I'm a slow learner.
I don't know what to tell you,trixie, I'm slow, but I finally
did it.
And you know what works.
It really does To reprogram thethings that you say to yourself
.
It works, and the way that youtalk to yourself starts to
(30:46):
change how you act on theoutside.
It's the strangest thing.
But then people start to noticeand it starts to get contagious
.
Trixy (30:59):
It's the most interesting thing.
You're 100% right.
I love that.
I love that, and there'ssomething about that process of
writing it down and reading itand seeing it and writing.
It's almost like you open upthe possibilities of huh.
I have choices here.
What am I going to choose totell myself?
And I always ask people wouldyou speak to someone else other
(31:20):
than your significant other oryour spouse?
Would you speak to someone elsethe way you speak to yourself?
The answer is always no.
So if we can work on that, ifwe can change that, then I think
we can accomplish anything,because I truly believe that we
are smart enough to figure outwhat it is that we want to do,
work backwards from there, andthere's a business and, like I
(31:43):
said before, you're alwaysbuilding something.
Audra (31:46):
But what I love about what you're building is that not
everything you build is asuccess, but it's a constant
trial.
You don't let just somethingthat doesn't necessarily take
off as a success.
You never say, oh, this hascrushed me, I'm a failure, I'm
never doing this again.
You're like, okay, well, thatis one way that didn't work, let
(32:10):
me try something different thatmaybe it will work.
How would you advise women thatare like maybe they're not
building a business, but maybethey're trying a different way
to be successful at work?
How do you advise women thatare like I've tried this, but
this doesn't feel good, or I'vetried this and it doesn't feel
like it's working?
How do you advise them whenthey're like I'm still feeling
(32:31):
stuck and you, like I said, youare the queen of reinvention,
you have made it an art form andthere's no one better at it?
How do you advise them withthat?
I?
Trixy (32:44):
advise them to take a step back and let's identify
what the problem really is.
Okay, let's start there.
So a lot of times I like towhiteboard because I can see it.
Okay, however, works for you.
That's what I tell people to do.
But take a step back andrealize, okay, what is the
problem If you're in theworkplace and you can't further
your career and you've gone toyour boss three times, or you're
(33:05):
in a business and you can'tscale it to the next level,
whatever the issue is, take astep back.
Identify the issue Okay, andthere's usually subsets of it,
or there's two things, but it'snot a hundred things.
Like it feels, because it canfeel very overwhelming.
The walls are caving in, theworld's just falling apart.
That's how it feels.
That's a feeling.
That's not a fact.
(33:25):
So, identify the issue and thentake responsibility for that.
So like when I, to your point,I've had many failures,
everybody has but I don't justlike sweep them under the rug.
I want to know where did I miss?
Let me actually learn from that.
I missed here, here and here.
There's your areas onimprovement.
I don't dwell on it, no, thengo and make the next machine
(33:48):
bigger and better.
So, identify the issue.
Take responsibility for okay, Ican improve these little things
, whatever it is.
Make sure it's not a them issue, meaning a lot of times what we
take on, especially as women,is someone else's problem.
We just take it on becausewe're trying to make everybody
(34:10):
around us happy, because, didn'tyou know that's also one of our
plates that we're supposed todo.
So make sure that it's not athem issue.
Make sure that it's really realand if it is a them issue that
is impacting your life or yourbusiness or your workplace,
address it the exact same way.
Let's take a step back.
Let's look at what it is.
Let's come up with somesolutions, what would work, and
(34:31):
then seek wise counsel.
At that point, when you'veidentified it and you understand
, go find somebody that yourespect.
What they've done, whether it'sin life, in business, whatever.
Go speak to a couple of people,find wise counsel, inform
yourself.
How have others done it?
Don't be afraid to ask Peoplethat are on the journey or have
(34:53):
made it or whatever.
They're very willing usually tohelp.
You're not asking them fortrade secrets.
You're not asking them to dosomething.
You're just asking, talking,ask.
Don't be afraid of that.
Ask right.
Sometimes you feel like I don'twant to be an imposition.
Oh, I don't want to bother them.
Bother be an imposition becausethey'll do it to you.
So for that second, be a littlebit selfish and say, hey, I
(35:15):
want to pick your brain aboutthis.
You know how much I've learnedfrom people, to the point where
I'll go to a dinner and I havemy little moleskin you know
notebook and I'm taking notesbecause I'm there to learn,
right, I want to understandwhere, how did you go through
this, or what did you do, or howdo you suggest that I can do
that?
And a lot of times you might say, well, I don't really have that
(35:41):
, I don't really have thatcircle.
You actually do.
You have it at your resources,right, you have it at your
fingertips.
We can look it up.
We can ask just take a look atwho are the people you're
working with.
Are there, you know?
Is there counsel, is therelegal?
You have that, you really do.
When you take a step back,you're efficient, right To be at
that point where, even thinkingabout these things, you're an
efficient, qualified woman.
So you do have resources.
(36:02):
You're savvy enough to go findmore, because a lot of times the
resources in our friend groupand our circle may be here and
we need it to be here.
Okay, that's a differentsituation.
Let's figure out how to getthat.
For me that was very much thecase.
I didn't have exposure.
I didn't have the right room towalk into.
I didn't even know the rightroom existed, let alone how I'm
going to get in there.
So once you start to see thatand you have more exposure, your
(36:25):
world starts to change becauseyou start to realize, huh, other
people have gone through thistoo, I'm not the only one.
And when you have that momentit doesn't feel so scary and
intense.
That's when you can actuallysolve it.
But until you have that, huh, Ican you know others have I can
get through this.
Nothing's going to change, nomatter how much you want it to,
(36:45):
because it starts with your ownthinking.
Audra (36:49):
This is why I admire her so much.
This is why she's built so manycompanies and has evolved and
changes, because the problems tosolve are really not as big as
that we make them out to be.
It's scaling it all down tosomething that is much smaller
than what we think it is andsolving the smaller problem
(37:11):
first and then worrying aboutthe bigger problems, because it
really is the smaller problemthat's in front of you that
needs to be solved, and then,from what I'm hearing, it's a
domino effect and the largerones get can get more easily
solved after that core problemis solved first, which is, I
(37:32):
think, is how the opportunitieshappen, too.
Correct, absolutely, absolutely.
What's the biggest surprise ofthis journey that you've had in
this amazing career, which Iknow that you didn't plan?
This has just been through,like I said, curiosity and
(37:55):
excitement and wanting to havemore than than what you that you
came with.
You wanted.
You wanted more for your familyand your family wanted to have
more than what they had had inCuba.
So what has been your biggestsurprise?
Trixy (38:15):
So there are so many right, there are so many things
that are unexpected.
But as far as a surprise, Ithink that I was surprised to
see that business is business,meaning you could take good
business practices andprinciples and apply them
throughout all industries.
(38:36):
That was surprising to mebecause, to our point of what we
were talking about earlier, youget so linear in your thinking
in your own little box, in yourown little industry, in your own
little whatever right, ownlittle industry and your own
little whatever right, that it'shard to take a step back,
probably similar to like a kidrealizing it's a big, great big
world, not just my little friendgroup or my little soccer team
(38:56):
or whatever.
It's kind of like that right.
So I kind of felt like, oh, Imean, I heard this a million
times but I had neverexperienced it.
So I was very surprised thatsome of the things and some of
the tools and some of the goodhabits and some of the knowledge
transcended into other spacesand that was so exciting because
that was not just validatingfor me, that was validating for
(39:19):
my team.
Right, like, here we are, webuilt something out of nothing
and guess what?
That something can also beapplied and help other
entrepreneurs in their journeys.
That was a huge surprise.
It's one thing to hear it, it'sone thing to have experienced
it and continue to do so, toyour point, like I'm never
stopping.
I'm working on five companiesright now.
(39:39):
You know what I mean and I loveit.
I love it.
I see a challenge, I see anopportunity, and here you go, we
have an ecosystem of sorts.
Audra (39:48):
And you work with the same team that you've had for
over 10 years.
Trixy (39:55):
Yes, almost 20, if you can believe it.
Yeah, it means 20 years.
They just keep coming with you.
You see each other through.
You know graduations, deaths,divorces, children.
You name it.
You name it.
So you really get to understandwhat leadership can be built
into.
Right, and they don't need meanymore.
These women are powerhouses,they don't need me.
(40:18):
We just choose to work togetherbecause we see things in a very
similar light.
Right, we're very like-mindedwasn't always that way with
others, you know, or whatever,and as you grow, you expand and
evolve, but being able to do ittogether is such an incredible,
such an incredible feeling andopportunity to do it.
Audra (40:38):
I think what you just said was really amazing of that
sentiment of you don't have to,sentiment of you don't have to,
you choose to.
You have built a team based onintegrity and trust of this core
group of women that you don'thave to do this, you want to.
It is a choice that you enjoyeach other so much that you
(41:03):
trust each other so much that itis a joy to get to work with
each other each and every day.
It is my hope that we all getto find that.
I think that is something thatwe all aspire to get the
privilege of doing, and I hope Iget to do that someday.
(41:25):
That is what I try to do everysingle day.
I think that's a lot of what Ihave tried to create with this
platform is that it is a joythat I get to do every single
day and hope that it inspiresother people to do things that
bring them joy too.
Trixy (41:44):
Oh, absolutely.
You are doing it every day andyou'll never know the full
impact and the ripple effectthat you have.
With what you're doing, you'recreating a platform that really
changes people's lives, not justtheir businesses or their
thinking.
It changes lives because thatripple effect of that woman and
her kids and their friends andand and I mean it's incredible.
(42:05):
So what you're doing isincredible, it's incredible.
Audra (42:07):
So what you're doing is incredible.
Well, like I said, I startedthis interview because I wanted
you all to know Trixie.
I wanted you all just get aglimpse of her life, because she
is an amazing woman.
You just got to get a glimpseof her and I just wanted you to
(42:32):
get to know her.
That, until you can get to knowyourselves a little bit better
because it doesn't matter yourbackground, your education, your
origins, nothing, it doesn'tmatter what your challenges are,
what pitfalls are in front ofyou, nothing matters.
You can create whatever it isfrom wherever you are, wherever
(42:53):
you are.
Trixie just said that she hasrun into so many pitfalls and I
know that she has also fallenflat on her face.
I know that because she hastold me it doesn't matter.
You can start from whereveryou're at and create whatever
you want.
That is why I wanted you all tomeet Trixie, because she has
(43:16):
done it over and over and overagain.
She is the master of her owndestiny and if she can do it,
each and every one of you can doit.
So, trixie, what gets you up inthe morning?
Because, like I said, you arethe master of your own destiny.
(43:39):
But what is it that gets you upin the morning to do all that.
Trixy (43:44):
I absolutely love it because I think of how many
lives can it impact, how muchgood can we do In whatever
vehicle, in whatever fashion.
It's a part of buildingsomething and trying to be a
value add in everything that youdo.
A passion for me and it'salways been to be able to say,
(44:08):
hey, if I can inspire the nextperson, if somebody can say a
young kid or a young girl or ayoung, whomever, can look at it
and say, huh, I have similarchallenges.
I'm first generation, I don'thave the resources.
I wasn't even thinking aboutgoing to college or whatever the
situation may be.
I'm living proof.
Yes, you can.
You can do all of it and I knowyou can do all of it, you will
(44:33):
do all of it, and if I can behelpful in any little piece of
that journey for them, it's ahuge win.
So to me, that's the everything, that's the why.
Audra (44:44):
So what's next for you?
Trixy (44:46):
Well, I've got all sorts of things going on, very much
real estate and finance related.
You know, I can't help myselfback at it again with a lending
company.
We've got a bunch of differentthings, but you'll see, I've got
some stuff that is reallyexciting because it's different
industries, but it's solving asolution right, it's solving a
problem, excuse me, with asolution, and I'm really excited
(45:09):
because I've gotten to nowalign with really interesting
people same team, right,aligning with others, and it's a
new experience for me on someof these, because it's building
someone else's dream that I'vecome on board, right, I've got
an engineer and he and I areworking on something right, and
so there's all sorts ofdifferent things that I'll be
showing on my website and, youknow, making aware and available
(45:32):
to everybody over the next fewmonths.
But I can't help myself.
I cannot help myself.
I love it.
It's my form of art.
I will always be anentrepreneur, like.
I just can't help myself.
Audra (45:46):
You know what.
That's what makes you so, sospecial.
That's what you were put onthis planet to do.
You were plant.
This is this is what you wereput on this planet to create.
You were put on this planet tocreate other businesses and put
and create wealth for otherpeople.
I mean that there is.
(46:08):
There is dignity in that.
You've created small businesses.
You've created the Americandream for other people.
There is a lot of integrity inthat.
I hope so.
So there is an amazing, amazinggift in that, and that is just
(46:29):
like I said.
You are a self-made woman andthere's not enough good things I
can say about you.
Before we go and I want to makesure everybody knows where to
reach you I always give anopportunity where you get to
have an intimate moment directwith the audience, without me
(46:49):
interrupting you and asking youa bunch of questions.
So I'm going to step back fromthe mic and let you have that
moment.
So the mic is yours, thank you.
Trixy (47:01):
My biggest, biggest piece of advice is remember one thing
you matter, you are thebusiness.
You 100% deserve the best, notthe end, the scraps of the end
of the day when we're exhausted.
Invest in yourself.
Do the things that make youfeel good, whether it's a
(47:21):
workout, meditating, whatever itis.
Make yourself that priority.
Unlock that way of thinking sothat you can focus on the eight
plates, because I'm sure thoseeight plates are really 25
plates and there's so much morethat you will continue to unlock
about yourself.
That, in terms of the dollarsfollow, the money follows.
(47:43):
That's all great, but it'sbeing free in yourself to be
able to get out there and becreative in whatever avenue that
you want.
And it starts with our thinkingand our putting ourselves first
, completely opposite of whatwe're taught every day.
We're taught make everybodyelse a priority, make everybody
else happy.
Do all the things I'm notsaying.
(48:03):
Don't do the things I'm saying.
Just make sure that youremember that you matter, that
you are the business.
Focus on building yourself,making yourself happy.
The rest will follow.
Audra (48:18):
Thank you, but thank you for the reminder, because we
forget, yes, we forget.
We're so busy doing all thethings and the priorities that
we're supposed to do that weforget.
So thank you for providing meto us when can we reach you if
we want to know more about you,if we want to talk to you, if
(48:40):
we're curious, we want to knowwhat you're working on.
Where can we find you?
Trixy (48:43):
Well, I'm new to being front facing, meaning all these
years I've been just buildingcompanies, so I've got a website
, trixiecastrocom, and I'm newto being front-facing, meaning
all these years I've been justbuilding companies.
So I've got a website,trixiecastrocom, and I'm getting
better at putting all thethings and making it very
interactive and all the things.
So more to come on that, butTrixieCastrocom will take you to
everything.
Audra (49:07):
I'll make sure that that link is in the show notes so
it'll make it easy for them toget to you.
And as you get social media,I'll make sure that we're all
tagged so everybody can get tothat as well.
Yes, please, thank you, and,trixie, thank you again for
being here.
Thank you for being sovulnerable and transparent and
sharing your story with us,because it is inspiring and it
is important for everybody toknow what they're capable of,
(49:28):
because everybody is trulycapable of brilliance if they
just allow themselves.
So thank you for being here andsharing your story with them.
Trixy (49:39):
Thank you so much for having me truly, Really, it's an
honor.
Audra (49:42):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, and thank all of youonce again for listening and
we'll see you again next time.
Welcome in everyone and thank you so much for joining me
again this week.
This week, there is not enoughgood things that I can say to
you about my guest.
First of all, this woman isself-made, and when I mean that
she is self-made, I am veryserious, very serious.
(00:21):
My guest this week is TrixieCastro, and she has founded more
than 50 companies, includingGenesis Capital, which was
acquired by Goldman Sachs,hudson Marshall, which was
acquired by Fidelity NationalTitle.
She is a visionary leader andshe is an official member of the
(00:44):
Forbes Finance Council.
She has made reinvention andmaking herself a success an art
form.
It is my pleasure and my honorto introduce to you Trixie.
Trixie, thank you so much forbeing here and welcome to the
show.
Trixy (01:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited.
It was like Christmas.
I woke up excited to get to dothis with you today and I very
much respect everything thatyou're doing, really love it.
Thank you for having me.
Audra (01:18):
I am so excited for you to be here.
I left the best part about whatyou do out of the intro because
I did not want to give away thebest part.
I said that you were aself-made woman, and I meant
from very early beginnings,because you were also a first
(01:38):
generation American, which yourstory is so inspiring and, like
I said, I don't want to give itaway.
So I would like for you to tellthe audience about who you are
and where you started from.
Trixy (01:58):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
And, you know, in thinkingabout today and being able to
say, hey, listen, I hope that mystory can inspire and help
anyone else or the things thatmaybe young Trixie would have
wished to have known.
That's the mission and I'm sograteful to be able to do that
(02:18):
and to do it with you, anotherwoman championing other women,
kind of taking it a step back.
My parents came here from Cubaand they're amazing people.
I had all the love in the world, but there's limitations when
you are in a new country, newlanguage, new everything.
One of those was educationwasn't the priority.
It's kind of cute.
(02:39):
My mom actually was goingthrough like a box of mementos a
couple weeks ago and she saysyou're not going to believe this
, trixie, I have a letter fromyour kindergarten teacher and
I'm thinking, oh, that's so cute.
Yes, I remember Mrs Weinstein.
Da, da, da, da da.
And I'm thinking it's about me,right?
Oh, no, no, it was directed toher saying Mrs Castro, you need
(03:06):
to bring your daughter to schoolevery day.
Like I didn't realize that youactually had to go every day,
that that was really a thing,because if it was cold or you
were tired or anything like,which didn't go and I'm like Mom
, right.
So that is it shows you right.
Then, later on, of course, shebecame like the biggest champion
for education and the likes.
But to kind of give you an idea,and so my story starts with
them, I saw hard work, I sawgrit, I saw my mom really
(03:29):
willing to say, hey, I'm goingto do whatever it takes.
And one of those hey, I'm goingto do whatever it takes moments
was I was three years old andshe had an interview with a
family to come in and be alive-in caretaker to take care
of the grounds, the facility.
The woman had Alzheimer'sdisease, lovely family, also
immigrants from Italy.
Anyway, she had to take me inthe interview with her and she
(03:53):
was mortified and she was like,oh my goodness, trixie, don't
say anything, you knowda-da-da-da-da.
And I remember her being sonervous and doing this and just
anxious.
And I jumped in at three yearsold and said, hey, you need to
hire my mom.
And they said why?
And I said because you get me,I want to learn what you did to
(04:14):
live here, because it was themost beautiful house I'd ever
seen.
So to give you an idea, Ididn't realize really I didn't
register that that wasn't myhome.
So much so that housing becameso critically important to me
throughout my life and my careerthat everybody have an
opportunity to really have ahome.
So at 14 years old,unfortunately, she passed away,
(04:35):
the woman that my mom was takingcare of.
So we moved, we did theunthinkable.
Moving in high school and Iwent out and I tried out for
cheer and soccer made bothAmazing.
That's so great.
Except for one fun fact Each ofthem was $1,000.
I didn't want to be a burdenand so now I panicked.
I'm like, okay, let me figureout a way to make this money.
(04:57):
Well, I didn't have a worker'spermit.
I didn't have a ride to work.
What I had was old computerpaper with the bubbles on the
sides and my younger sister'smagic markers.
So it was at that moment.
Am I going to get to makefriends right in this new school
and actually get in there, oram I going to be limited?
Nope, went through and Icreated my first company called
(05:19):
Trixie's Tutor Time.
With my sister's magic markersI cut the paper in like six,
went across the street to anelementary school that my
younger sisters attended andwent to the principal and
explained what was going on, andhe paid it forward by giving me
an opportunity and introducingme to the teachers, and within
one month I was making more cashthan both of my parents
(05:43):
combined.
But what it taught me more thanwhere there's a will, there's a
way and that really resonatedwith me at that moment was that
if you want it, go do it.
There's people that are goingto support you.
But also, hey, let me make mysweet spot the second and third
grade community, and I can hirethe sixth graders, and now I can
(06:03):
expand to another school.
So this was like kind of mythinking.
And now I can hire my mom to bemy driver.
So so, really, this is this isall true.
And so I got so fascinated thatI realized, my goodness, I love
business.
If this is what business is,amazing, sign me up.
So I thought, okay, where,where can I go?
(06:25):
Who can I speak to?
That is going to teach me therope so I can learn.
And I remembered this familythat we grew up, that I grew up
with.
They made all their money intothings in finance, starting bank
and real estate.
So I marched into Wells Fargoand asked them for a job and
they were like, what would youlike to do?
I said I don't know.
(06:45):
Whatever the entry position is,give me that.
And I did.
And I started as a teller and Imust tell you I was the worst
teller on the planet.
I talked too much, shockingly,and I really wanted to
understand my clients and wouldask them hey, what are you doing
?
How's your business?
And I learned that my largestdepositors consisted of gamblers
(07:05):
, tech and real estate.
So here I am, maybe 18 yearsold barely, and I think, all
right, well, gambling, not inthe cards for me, not trying to
do that.
Tech was still very new, soreal estate it was.
So really started to understandokay, what are these groups
doing?
They explained to me hey, whatare these groups doing?
They explained to me hey, we'regoing to the courthouse steps,
(07:27):
we're paying in wads ofcashier's checks, hence why
we're here every day.
We're hiring kids your age togo be the runners.
And I thought, my goodness,like, if you're buying X amount
of houses, why don't you getleverage and you can buy Y?
And they were like, because wecan't, because banks like you
guys will only lend us up to 10properties.
Like, what do you mean?
And that's where I started torealize, huh, there's this niche
(07:48):
.
So these business to businessloans weren't really a thing.
There was hard money, right,there was a very disorganized,
fragmented kind of way of doingit, but there wasn't an
institutionalized, formatted waythat I was aware of that we can
do it.
So I thought this is amazing,let me learn this.
While I'm living in a dorm roomnow in college, playing soccer,
(08:08):
doing all the things and stillworking at the bank, let me
really understand this and letme figure this out.
And I realized this was such anincredible niche and that I
could put something togetherwhere I could kind of kill both
passions, meaning that I couldalign myself with these groups,
help them scale their businesses, and I could feel really good
(08:31):
about it because I'm providinghousing to the next group.
We could take some of theseblighted neighborhoods and go
back and look with pride of like, hey, we were able to fix that
right.
We were a part of that solution, helping families create
generational wealth.
So I set out to do that andlearn the business.
And you name it.
I did it from originating toprocessing to answering the
(08:52):
phone.
It was Trixie, party of one.
Basically right, I did it all,and today we call that
crowdfunding.
Back then it was fractionalizedlending and so I realized, like
my goodness, I have to takecharge of this, because if I
give the opportunity to theinvestors, they're going to take
the riskiest, highest paying,you know deal and I'm like very
risk averse, so let me put afund together.
(09:15):
And that evolved into a companycalled Genesis Capital and I
truly the story is true I reallystarted it with a phone and a
desk in like the worst of theworst areas that I was into,
where my brother used to have tocome and walk me to my car on
Fridays because I'd get robbedby a homeless guy every Friday
and I mean it was just it'scrazy to think about.
(09:36):
And and I just loved it we putthis together and with a little
engine that could, and I'm goingto these groups and I'm
realizing, my goodness, I needto really get organized here.
Right, it's a mess, it's.
I can lend you maybe two orthree, because that's all the
money I have and I can'tsecuritize a paper because it
(09:57):
didn't exist on short term moneyat the time and I got to go
raise the money and I got to dothis and it was a whole thing.
So let me figure out a way tomake it look like where I come
from the institutional world.
So that's what I set out to doand raise money and 5 million,
10 million, like, started at oldschool.
Like I think my firstinvestment was $25,000 from an
investor and, by the way, a lotof my investors are still like
(10:20):
part of my family today, if youwill, in my chosen family.
I realized I couldn't raise themoney fast enough.
I needed to go to a large well,but in order to do that, to get
from here to there, I needed tohave something else to keep
these clients wanting to workwith me.
I decided to head down on apost-it note, start sketching
(10:42):
out an online auction model,because my view was okay, if I
can provide the gold, the REO,the short sale at the time, the
distressed real estate, then Ihave a reason for you to hang on
with me while I raise the money, because I'm going to raise the
money.
And so I mean truly old schoolput that model together, and
that was a company calledGenesis Auctions that later
(11:04):
became Hudson and Marshall, andI had one client and that one
client.
We were going to give it ourall, and it was just.
I mean, it was something likeout of a movie, right, our first
auction, the website, and itcrashes and I'm like, okay,
don't worry.
Ran to the bathroom, threw up,nobody knew, came back and kept
going, right, and I'm thinking,oh my goodness, like what, what
(11:27):
right?
And so, in you know, I lookback and I think the, the desire
to succeed, the ability to saywe're just going to put our
heads out and do it, I'm not notgoing to let this go, I think,
is what drove me to say, okay,I'm going to go raise the money
and I'm, no matter what, itdoesn't matter if I've gone to
these groups and they're notready to hear it.
I'm ahead of my time.
(11:48):
You name it, I heard it.
I was at this point like immuneto it, right, like you don't
let me in through the door,guess what?
I'm coming in through thewindow.
And so um, got my, got Oak treecapital out of downtown to be
the first, to my knowledge inthis space, to kind of really
come in as an institution, gaveme the first $250 million in
equity and we scaled that to acouple billion dollars a year of
(12:09):
loans.
So this little company thatstarted with a phone and a desk
and a homeless guy turned intothis machine and the auction
company the same thing.
So now we're humming right, weare going, we are cranking, I am
hiring people that are farsuperior than myself, and I'm
okay with that because I love tolearn.
But now it's its own set ofchallenge.
(12:30):
Now you're growth mode, you'rescaling.
So everything you could possiblyhave encountered or done wrong,
I did it.
So feel free to call me, and Imean and truly, and that's how I
learned.
All of that being said,realized no-transcript, like
(13:14):
drop the mic.
That's why Because we all arethe best at what we do To be
able to empower others and topave the way for women to say
hey, you be, you, never letsomebody come in and tell you to
be different, because I coulddo three podcasts with you on
that part.
You know on how many peoplewere.
You know adversaries thatpresented themselves in sheep
(13:35):
clothes, right, and so you knowyou don't realize until you
realize.
Anyway, sold those companieslike you mentioned one to
Goldman Sachs, one to Fidelitywithin nine months of each other
.
Audra (13:50):
So talk about like quite a period.
This sounds like a whirlwind.
So I want to pause for a secondbecause I am just blown away,
because this started as just acuriosity, a curiosity in money
and investing.
And you went to work for a bankand it started with
(14:12):
conversations, curiosity andconversations on how people make
money.
Trixy (14:20):
It makes me tear up.
It really brings tears to myeyes because it is the American
dream and we have everyopportunity to do that for
ourselves every day and as kids.
I was so young, you have starsin your eyes, right.
So what's the difference now asan adult?
Usually it's because we listento the outside chatter, the
outside noise.
Audra (14:38):
that is irrelevant anyways don't the the adults get
on got in the way and you justdidn't have that.
You didn't.
No one told you the, the uh,adult version of it, so you
didn't have that.
So you just went after it.
So you started having theseconversations and started
building these things.
(14:58):
So nobody told you thelimitations, so you didn't
realize there were anylimitations.
So you started putting thesethings together.
No one told you that you weretoo young, that it hadn't been
done before, so you just did it,yeah, and put it together.
Yeah, and they told me I didn'thear it, I'm going to put it
together and put together thesecompanies and sold this to
(15:22):
Goldman Sachs I mean, goldmanSachs, this is, and folks, she
didn't just sell it to them for$2.
I mean, I assure you this wasquite the investment.
And selling her other auctioncompany to Fidelity National
(15:45):
this is a cornerstone of theirbusiness.
And selling her other auctioncompany to Fidelity National
this is a cornerstone of theirbusiness.
This auction site that she soldis a cornerstone of their
business because it had neverbeen done before and she wasn't
told that there were anylimitations, so she just built
it.
She just built it because itwasn't there before, so she did
it.
She just built it.
She just built it because itwasn't there before, so she did
(16:08):
it.
And the point of this is thatshe's done it being her and I
wanted to stop her because Iknow that a lot of us are told
who we should be or what.
Oh, that doesn't fit, or youshould be this, or you shouldn't
be that, or you're too muchthis, or you're not enough that
Trixie didn't listen to any ofthat.
(16:29):
She just did things that shefelt that she needed to do the
way she needed to be.
Like I said, she's a self-madewoman.
I started this interview byexplaining that she is a
self-made woman.
She built herself and hercompanies from the ground up,
doing this her way on her own.
(16:51):
And I guess her name is Trixie,and she walks into boardrooms
and she's the only woman in theroom.
She's the only woman, she's theonly Hispanic in the room.
Her family's from Cuba and, asthe first time she and I met,
(17:12):
she says and my name is Trixie,how do you think people greet me
?
So I'm not going to let, I'mnot going to give that away.
I'm going to let her tell youhow she has been greeted and how
she has not let that stop her.
So, trixie, I will let you sayhow people have greeted you and
how you have not let thoseobstacles stand in your way.
Trixy (17:39):
Well, if they greeted me at all, right, if they greeted
me at all, it was very much.
Hey, can you get us watercoffee?
You know whatever, sure, I'mhappy to get you tea, water,
coffee, I'll bake you a cake,whatever it is that you want.
But I'm actually here to get adeal done, right?
Your meeting's actually with meand they were like no, no Right
.
And it was either you fit thisnorm or you don't.
(18:00):
And if you don't which I didn't, clearly it was you know why
should we work with you?
And it was like, well, hey, atleast give me a chance.
And then I could see, after thefirst five minutes, 10 minutes,
then I could see theunderstanding in their eyes.
It was kind of like this oh, myGod, she really knows what
she's talking about.
So then it was, you know,because I can't tell you how
many times it was well, youdon't look like what I expected
(18:24):
or you know, and whatever.
It was always a comment of that.
I didn't look or sound or, onpaper, fit the mold.
And so I mean, it got to thepoint where I was like, yeah,
you're right, I don't look likeyou, you're a hundred percent
right, I'm not a man or I'm nota this or I'm not like you're a
hundred percent right and I amtotally okay in my own skin and
(18:45):
I had so many times where I hadpeople, including women, try and
say to me well, you need to goin and put your hair in a bun
and no makeup, and flat shoesand a double-breasted suit, and
that's amazing and that's greatand I love that.
But that was not me.
I'm pink, I enjoy beingfeminine, that's just my thing,
(19:06):
right.
And so, basically, I was beingtold don't be yourself, come fit
and conform to this and gofigure out how to try and make
yourself be someone else.
Well, I can't.
I can't rewrite my history.
All I can do is use that tofuel me.
All I can do is say hey, listen, I've been there.
I understand what it's like tohave literally less than nothing
(19:27):
and see somebody and think toyourself at three years old why
do they live in the main houseand I live in the guest house?
What's the difference?
I wasn't bitter, I was curiousto your point, so let me go
figure out how to do that.
And so to me.
I ended up looking at it andlaughing inside, thinking I'm
going to use this all the way tothe bank, meaning you're going
(19:48):
to knock me on my name tricksy,or that I don't do this, or
perfect, no problem, because atthe end I know we're doing
something together and I'm theone cashing the check, so happy
to do it.
So it just became somethingthat just didn't let bother me.
And I remember asking my dad whydid you name me Trixie?
You know all the names and mydad's name is, in Spanish, is
(20:09):
Enrique.
And he chose Henry.
And he said to me you know,trixie, we were new to this
country, I didn't read thelanguage.
Your mom goes into labor.
She thinks you're going to be aboy.
So she had chosen a boy's name.
And here I am and you're a girl.
And she was kind of like youdid this to me, you figure it
out Right?
(20:36):
Went to the nurses and I saidcan you help me?
What should I name this baby?
And they gave him a name book.
Well, he was reading theopposite side of the page,
because that's what they weretelling him the meaning in Latin
.
And in Latin it meant bringerof joy.
And he said that's why I namedyou Trixie.
And he said to me somethingI'll never forget.
He said you are your name, youmake your name, and I stuck to
that hook, line and sinkerbecause that is so true of all
(20:58):
of us.
We are, we make our own name inwhatever capacity that we want
to.
And those were words that, assimple as they sounded, they
resonated with me, and so muchso that you know you use it to
fuel, to fuel what you're tryingto accomplish, to fuel what
you're trying to accomplish.
Audra (21:15):
That is why I have admired you for so long, and it
has just taken us 10 years toget to know each other.
What I didn't say in thebeginning is that Trixie and I
actually worked for the samecompany over a decade ago and we
just never got the opportunityto meet.
I had wanted to, justcircumstances didn't allow for
(21:36):
it, and it was just by completecoincidence maybe divine
intervention, you call itwhatever you'd like that we got
introduced through this medium.
And that was the first thing Isaid to her.
I said, by the way, I'veadmired you for a long time, and
I was afraid she thought I'd bea weirdo, but, much to my
(22:00):
delight, she did not.
She did not.
I said I admired you because youhave built yourself from the
ground up, and I really, reallyadmire women that build
themselves from the ground upand don't let anybody or
anything dictate who they areand don't let society try to
(22:25):
tell them who they're supposedto be or how they should
shapeshift or any of that.
And that was one of the thingsthat I wanted to get across to
all of you, because that issomething that I have personally
struggled with, because in thiscrazy world that we're in.
There's so many rules and somany messaging that we get that
we're just trying really hard tojust make a success of
(22:49):
ourselves and there's just somany things and so many
different messaging that we getmany things and so many
different messaging that we get.
And I'm fine For me personally,I'm finally feeling comfortable
, at the ripe old age of 53, offinally comfortable, of being in
my own skin and being totallyokay with it and showing
(23:10):
everybody that this is me.
If you don't like it, that'sjust too bad.
And Trixie's been doing it,naturally, all her whole life
because she didn't listen to therules and it was really
important that we reinforce thatto all of you because she's
done this successfully and wedon't want the rest of you, the
younger generation, the youngergenerations coming behind us,
(23:32):
not to make the same mistakesthat I've made and many of the
other women that are in my samegeneration that we have made,
just because we got badinformation.
We got really bad information,not for anybody's fault other
than we didn't know any better.
People told us the wrong thing.
Trixie was fortunate enoughthat she had blinders on.
I didn't always get blinders, Ijust got really bad information
(23:56):
and a lot of us got really badinformation, which is why I'm
such a big admirer of Trixie'sthat she was just like I'm
single-minded, I am curious.
I am curious about how otherpeople make money, and she had
the foresight to start askingquestions, and I think that
(24:17):
that's remarkable.
When you're asking thesequestions and you're building
businesses and you're stillbuilding businesses, by the way,
I mean, even though you havesold off other businesses you
don't just sit on your laurelsand go yeah, I'm good, you still
have a curiosity about otherbusinesses.
I mean, you're not one to justgo.
(24:42):
Hmm, you're going to keep goingbecause that's just your
personality.
What do you tell other womenwhen they're like you know, this
doesn't feel comfortable, Iwant to keep building something.
What do you tell them whenthey're like I have this nudge
(25:03):
to build something, but I justdon't know quite what it is.
How would you advise them?
So?
Trixy (25:10):
to me.
I look at it and see two things.
You can look at opportunity andif you get stuck there because
sometimes we do look at theproblems what are the problems
that are being faced?
What are the challenges?
So in my businesses, forexample, when I have a challenge
and an issue, I'm thinking,okay, we have this challenge and
(25:32):
this issue that I would assumeothers do as well.
So what type of a solution canwe put into place that helps our
immediate today need but alsohelps others for when they come
through this?
And voila, you've got another,either revenue stream or company
and truly you end up looking atthe world that way and you see
(25:56):
opportunity everywhere.
It's rethinking and reshapinghow you view everything.
I tell women all the time look.
The best example I can give youis we love to beat ourselves up
.
So before we even go into atough situation, we're mad at
ourselves for something andwe're juggling templates.
Let's say, juggling kids, workthis, whatever the templates are
(26:18):
.
And we're juggling templates.
Let's say, juggling kids, workthis, whatever the templates are
.
But we're juggling them, okay,and we drop one.
Of course we're human.
We drop one, maybe two, and wefocus on that for so long that
we go into the battlefield, soto speak, already at a
disadvantage, with that voice inour head and this familiar tape
of like all the negativity.
And I tell women all the timestop, stop right there.
(26:40):
The opportunity is right infront of you.
Focus on the fact that you werejuggling 10 and you were
juggling eight very efficiently.
How many people can say, hey, Ican do that?
Not that many.
And you didn't drop them.
You focus on the eight.
That's amazing.
I have eight plates that I'mjuggling and I think if we
(27:01):
change our mind, shift as women,as people, it's by nature.
You change it in your businessor in your workplace, or you
give yourself permission at thatpoint to really use your
creativity to then go and launchout on your own, because until
then, it's right here.
That is where we're stopped and, yes, I got very lucky that I
(27:23):
was so young and I had a win at14, because somebody was willing
to take a shot on me.
We have to then be thatsomebody to be willing to take a
shot on somebody else.
But the story would be verydifferent if it was failure
after failure after failure.
It would be a very differentstory, perhaps very similar
outcome, because you know yougrit and you white knuckle it,
(27:43):
but it wouldn't have been thesame formation.
Why would we do that toourselves and just focus on the
negative, the negative, thenegative of what we missed?
To give you an example, I wasin a room full of young
entrepreneurs, midsizeentrepreneurs and everybody, and
I said okay, we're going towrite down everything that we
(28:04):
want to improve on as a person.
First, we'll get to thebusiness Pages and we're
actually physically write itdown Writing, writing, writing,
writing.
People asking for more time.
Truly, okay, we got it.
Now flip over the page, orhere's three new pages because
you wrote so much.
Focus and write down the thingsthat you know you do.
Well, crickets, people wrotedown on average two things.
(28:29):
Two, are you kidding me?
You're juggling 30,000 platesevery day and you're two.
And it broke my heart and Ithought my goodness, we have our
work cut out for us.
We need to shift how we, aswomen, view ourselves, because
if we don't, we are setting ourown limitations.
So forget about even startingsomething, because we can't even
(28:50):
get off first base, because wedon't believe that we can.
So that's my biggest advice towomen Change the narrative in
your head.
They're just tapes playing inyour head anyway.
Let's just put a new one in.
Forget the noise, forget thedrama, forget the negativity,
let's just put a new one.
And it starts with us.
Audra (29:12):
Yeah, it's just it's.
It's the old, it's old feedbackthat unfortunately, we
inherited.
I've said that a lot in ondifferent shows is that it's
just we've inherited this, thisold cultural dialogue that
there's something wrong with us.
There's nothing wrong with us,that's.
We're actually pretty damnawesome.
If you got an, if you want toknow the truth.
We are the bringers of life.
Let's face it.
We bring life and that ispretty remarkable when you get
(29:35):
down to it.
We've just been culturallyconditioned to think there's
something wrong with that.
There's walk into any storeanywhere and it's a store and
aisles full of products.
That's convinced women to feellike there's something wrong
with them.
They're just trying to sell yousomething.
They're just trying to sell yousomething.
(29:57):
That's it.
So change the mindset.
I have been threatening for sixmonths now to start a journal
and writing things down, and doyou know what that works?
I know people have been tellingme I've had experts on my show
telling me for months to writedown things in a journal that it
(30:19):
works, it works, it works.
Okay, I'm not great at this,but you know I finally did it.
I'm stubborn.
I'm a slow learner.
I don't know what to tell you,trixie, I'm slow, but I finally
did it.
And you know what works.
It really does To reprogram thethings that you say to yourself
.
It works, and the way that youtalk to yourself starts to
(30:46):
change how you act on theoutside.
It's the strangest thing.
But then people start to noticeand it starts to get contagious
.
Trixy (30:59):
It's the most interesting thing.
You're 100% right.
I love that.
I love that, and there'ssomething about that process of
writing it down and reading itand seeing it and writing.
It's almost like you open upthe possibilities of huh.
I have choices here.
What am I going to choose totell myself?
And I always ask people wouldyou speak to someone else other
(31:20):
than your significant other oryour spouse?
Would you speak to someone elsethe way you speak to yourself?
The answer is always no.
So if we can work on that, ifwe can change that, then I think
we can accomplish anything,because I truly believe that we
are smart enough to figure outwhat it is that we want to do,
work backwards from there, andthere's a business and, like I
(31:43):
said before, you're alwaysbuilding something.
Audra (31:46):
But what I love about what you're building is that not
everything you build is asuccess, but it's a constant
trial.
You don't let just somethingthat doesn't necessarily take
off as a success.
You never say, oh, this hascrushed me, I'm a failure, I'm
never doing this again.
You're like, okay, well, thatis one way that didn't work, let
(32:10):
me try something different thatmaybe it will work.
How would you advise women thatare like maybe they're not
building a business, but maybethey're trying a different way
to be successful at work?
How do you advise women thatare like I've tried this, but
this doesn't feel good, or I'vetried this and it doesn't feel
like it's working?
How do you advise them whenthey're like I'm still feeling
(32:31):
stuck and you, like I said, youare the queen of reinvention,
you have made it an art form andthere's no one better at it?
How do you advise them withthat?
I?
Trixy (32:44):
advise them to take a step back and let's identify
what the problem really is.
Okay, let's start there.
So a lot of times I like towhiteboard because I can see it.
Okay, however, works for you.
That's what I tell people to do.
But take a step back andrealize, okay, what is the
problem If you're in theworkplace and you can't further
your career and you've gone toyour boss three times, or you're
(33:05):
in a business and you can'tscale it to the next level,
whatever the issue is, take astep back.
Identify the issue Okay, andthere's usually subsets of it,
or there's two things, but it'snot a hundred things.
Like it feels, because it canfeel very overwhelming.
The walls are caving in, theworld's just falling apart.
That's how it feels.
That's a feeling.
That's not a fact.
(33:25):
So, identify the issue and thentake responsibility for that.
So like when I, to your point,I've had many failures,
everybody has but I don't justlike sweep them under the rug.
I want to know where did I miss?
Let me actually learn from that.
I missed here, here and here.
There's your areas onimprovement.
I don't dwell on it, no, thengo and make the next machine
(33:48):
bigger and better.
So, identify the issue.
Take responsibility for okay, Ican improve these little things
, whatever it is.
Make sure it's not a them issue, meaning a lot of times what we
take on, especially as women,is someone else's problem.
We just take it on becausewe're trying to make everybody
(34:10):
around us happy, because, didn'tyou know that's also one of our
plates that we're supposed todo.
So make sure that it's not athem issue.
Make sure that it's really realand if it is a them issue that
is impacting your life or yourbusiness or your workplace,
address it the exact same way.
Let's take a step back.
Let's look at what it is.
Let's come up with somesolutions, what would work, and
(34:31):
then seek wise counsel.
At that point, when you'veidentified it and you understand
, go find somebody that yourespect.
What they've done, whether it'sin life, in business, whatever.
Go speak to a couple of people,find wise counsel, inform
yourself.
How have others done it?
Don't be afraid to ask Peoplethat are on the journey or have
(34:53):
made it or whatever.
They're very willing usually tohelp.
You're not asking them fortrade secrets.
You're not asking them to dosomething.
You're just asking, talking,ask.
Don't be afraid of that.
Ask right.
Sometimes you feel like I don'twant to be an imposition.
Oh, I don't want to bother them.
Bother be an imposition becausethey'll do it to you.
So for that second, be a littlebit selfish and say, hey, I
(35:15):
want to pick your brain aboutthis.
You know how much I've learnedfrom people, to the point where
I'll go to a dinner and I havemy little moleskin you know
notebook and I'm taking notesbecause I'm there to learn,
right, I want to understandwhere, how did you go through
this, or what did you do, or howdo you suggest that I can do
that?
And a lot of times you might say, well, I don't really have that
(35:41):
, I don't really have thatcircle.
You actually do.
You have it at your resources,right, you have it at your
fingertips.
We can look it up.
We can ask just take a look atwho are the people you're
working with.
Are there, you know?
Is there counsel, is therelegal?
You have that, you really do.
When you take a step back,you're efficient, right To be at
that point where, even thinkingabout these things, you're an
efficient, qualified woman.
So you do have resources.
(36:02):
You're savvy enough to go findmore, because a lot of times the
resources in our friend groupand our circle may be here and
we need it to be here.
Okay, that's a differentsituation.
Let's figure out how to getthat.
For me that was very much thecase.
I didn't have exposure.
I didn't have the right room towalk into.
I didn't even know the rightroom existed, let alone how I'm
going to get in there.
So once you start to see thatand you have more exposure, your
(36:25):
world starts to change becauseyou start to realize, huh, other
people have gone through thistoo, I'm not the only one.
And when you have that momentit doesn't feel so scary and
intense.
That's when you can actuallysolve it.
But until you have that, huh, Ican you know others have I can
get through this.
Nothing's going to change, nomatter how much you want it to,
(36:45):
because it starts with your ownthinking.
Audra (36:49):
This is why I admire her so much.
This is why she's built so manycompanies and has evolved and
changes, because the problems tosolve are really not as big as
that we make them out to be.
It's scaling it all down tosomething that is much smaller
than what we think it is andsolving the smaller problem
(37:11):
first and then worrying aboutthe bigger problems, because it
really is the smaller problemthat's in front of you that
needs to be solved, and then,from what I'm hearing, it's a
domino effect and the largerones get can get more easily
solved after that core problemis solved first, which is, I
(37:32):
think, is how the opportunitieshappen, too.
Correct, absolutely, absolutely.
What's the biggest surprise ofthis journey that you've had in
this amazing career, which Iknow that you didn't plan?
This has just been through,like I said, curiosity and
(37:55):
excitement and wanting to havemore than than what you that you
came with.
You wanted.
You wanted more for your familyand your family wanted to have
more than what they had had inCuba.
So what has been your biggestsurprise?
Trixy (38:15):
So there are so many right, there are so many things
that are unexpected.
But as far as a surprise, Ithink that I was surprised to
see that business is business,meaning you could take good
business practices andprinciples and apply them
throughout all industries.
(38:36):
That was surprising to mebecause, to our point of what we
were talking about earlier, youget so linear in your thinking
in your own little box, in yourown little industry, in your own
little whatever right, ownlittle industry and your own
little whatever right, that it'shard to take a step back,
probably similar to like a kidrealizing it's a big, great big
world, not just my little friendgroup or my little soccer team
(38:56):
or whatever.
It's kind of like that right.
So I kind of felt like, oh, Imean, I heard this a million
times but I had neverexperienced it.
So I was very surprised thatsome of the things and some of
the tools and some of the goodhabits and some of the knowledge
transcended into other spacesand that was so exciting because
that was not just validatingfor me, that was validating for
(39:19):
my team.
Right, like, here we are, webuilt something out of nothing
and guess what?
That something can also beapplied and help other
entrepreneurs in their journeys.
That was a huge surprise.
It's one thing to hear it, it'sone thing to have experienced
it and continue to do so, toyour point, like I'm never
stopping.
I'm working on five companiesright now.
(39:39):
You know what I mean and I loveit.
I love it.
I see a challenge, I see anopportunity, and here you go, we
have an ecosystem of sorts.
Audra (39:48):
And you work with the same team that you've had for
over 10 years.
Trixy (39:55):
Yes, almost 20, if you can believe it.
Yeah, it means 20 years.
They just keep coming with you.
You see each other through.
You know graduations, deaths,divorces, children.
You name it.
You name it.
So you really get to understandwhat leadership can be built
into.
Right, and they don't need meanymore.
These women are powerhouses,they don't need me.
(40:18):
We just choose to work togetherbecause we see things in a very
similar light.
Right, we're very like-mindedwasn't always that way with
others, you know, or whatever,and as you grow, you expand and
evolve, but being able to do ittogether is such an incredible,
such an incredible feeling andopportunity to do it.
Audra (40:38):
I think what you just said was really amazing of that
sentiment of you don't have to,sentiment of you don't have to,
you choose to.
You have built a team based onintegrity and trust of this core
group of women that you don'thave to do this, you want to.
It is a choice that you enjoyeach other so much that you
(41:03):
trust each other so much that itis a joy to get to work with
each other each and every day.
It is my hope that we all getto find that.
I think that is something thatwe all aspire to get the
privilege of doing, and I hope Iget to do that someday.
(41:25):
That is what I try to do everysingle day.
I think that's a lot of what Ihave tried to create with this
platform is that it is a joythat I get to do every single
day and hope that it inspiresother people to do things that
bring them joy too.
Trixy (41:44):
Oh, absolutely.
You are doing it every day andyou'll never know the full
impact and the ripple effectthat you have.
With what you're doing, you'recreating a platform that really
changes people's lives, not justtheir businesses or their
thinking.
It changes lives because thatripple effect of that woman and
her kids and their friends andand and I mean it's incredible.
(42:05):
So what you're doing isincredible, it's incredible.
Audra (42:07):
So what you're doing is incredible.
Well, like I said, I startedthis interview because I wanted
you all to know Trixie.
I wanted you all just get aglimpse of her life, because she
is an amazing woman.
You just got to get a glimpseof her and I just wanted you to
(42:32):
get to know her.
That, until you can get to knowyourselves a little bit better
because it doesn't matter yourbackground, your education, your
origins, nothing, it doesn'tmatter what your challenges are,
what pitfalls are in front ofyou, nothing matters.
You can create whatever it isfrom wherever you are, wherever
(42:53):
you are.
Trixie just said that she hasrun into so many pitfalls and I
know that she has also fallenflat on her face.
I know that because she hastold me it doesn't matter.
You can start from whereveryou're at and create whatever
you want.
That is why I wanted you all tomeet Trixie, because she has
(43:16):
done it over and over and overagain.
She is the master of her owndestiny and if she can do it,
each and every one of you can doit.
So, trixie, what gets you up inthe morning?
Because, like I said, you arethe master of your own destiny.
(43:39):
But what is it that gets you upin the morning to do all that.
Trixy (43:44):
I absolutely love it because I think of how many
lives can it impact, how muchgood can we do In whatever
vehicle, in whatever fashion.
It's a part of buildingsomething and trying to be a
value add in everything that youdo.
A passion for me and it'salways been to be able to say,
(44:08):
hey, if I can inspire the nextperson, if somebody can say a
young kid or a young girl or ayoung, whomever, can look at it
and say, huh, I have similarchallenges.
I'm first generation, I don'thave the resources.
I wasn't even thinking aboutgoing to college or whatever the
situation may be.
I'm living proof.
Yes, you can.
You can do all of it and I knowyou can do all of it, you will
(44:33):
do all of it, and if I can behelpful in any little piece of
that journey for them, it's ahuge win.
So to me, that's the everything, that's the why.
Audra (44:44):
So what's next for you?
Trixy (44:46):
Well, I've got all sorts of things going on, very much
real estate and finance related.
You know, I can't help myselfback at it again with a lending
company.
We've got a bunch of differentthings, but you'll see, I've got
some stuff that is reallyexciting because it's different
industries, but it's solving asolution right, it's solving a
problem, excuse me, with asolution, and I'm really excited
(45:09):
because I've gotten to nowalign with really interesting
people same team, right,aligning with others, and it's a
new experience for me on someof these, because it's building
someone else's dream that I'vecome on board, right, I've got
an engineer and he and I areworking on something right, and
so there's all sorts ofdifferent things that I'll be
showing on my website and, youknow, making aware and available
(45:32):
to everybody over the next fewmonths.
But I can't help myself.
I cannot help myself.
I love it.
It's my form of art.
I will always be anentrepreneur, like.
I just can't help myself.
Audra (45:46):
You know what.
That's what makes you so, sospecial.
That's what you were put onthis planet to do.
You were plant.
This is this is what you wereput on this planet to create.
You were put on this planet tocreate other businesses and put
and create wealth for otherpeople.
I mean that there is.
(46:08):
There is dignity in that.
You've created small businesses.
You've created the Americandream for other people.
There is a lot of integrity inthat.
I hope so.
So there is an amazing, amazinggift in that, and that is just
(46:29):
like I said.
You are a self-made woman andthere's not enough good things I
can say about you.
Before we go and I want to makesure everybody knows where to
reach you I always give anopportunity where you get to
have an intimate moment directwith the audience, without me
(46:49):
interrupting you and asking youa bunch of questions.
So I'm going to step back fromthe mic and let you have that
moment.
So the mic is yours, thank you.
Trixy (47:01):
My biggest, biggest piece of advice is remember one thing
you matter, you are thebusiness.
You 100% deserve the best, notthe end, the scraps of the end
of the day when we're exhausted.
Invest in yourself.
Do the things that make youfeel good, whether it's a
(47:21):
workout, meditating, whatever itis.
Make yourself that priority.
Unlock that way of thinking sothat you can focus on the eight
plates, because I'm sure thoseeight plates are really 25
plates and there's so much morethat you will continue to unlock
about yourself.
That, in terms of the dollarsfollow, the money follows.
(47:43):
That's all great, but it'sbeing free in yourself to be
able to get out there and becreative in whatever avenue that
you want.
And it starts with our thinkingand our putting ourselves first
, completely opposite of whatwe're taught every day.
We're taught make everybodyelse a priority, make everybody
else happy.
Do all the things I'm notsaying.
(48:03):
Don't do the things I'm saying.
Just make sure that youremember that you matter, that
you are the business.
Focus on building yourself,making yourself happy.
The rest will follow.
Audra (48:18):
Thank you, but thank you for the reminder, because we
forget, yes, we forget.
We're so busy doing all thethings and the priorities that
we're supposed to do that weforget.
So thank you for providing meto us when can we reach you if
we want to know more about you,if we want to talk to you, if
(48:40):
we're curious, we want to knowwhat you're working on.
Where can we find you?
Trixy (48:43):
Well, I'm new to being front facing, meaning all these
years I've been just buildingcompanies, so I've got a website
, trixiecastrocom, and I'm newto being front-facing, meaning
all these years I've been justbuilding companies.
So I've got a website,trixiecastrocom, and I'm getting
better at putting all thethings and making it very
interactive and all the things.
So more to come on that, butTrixieCastrocom will take you to
everything.
Audra (49:07):
I'll make sure that that link is in the show notes so
it'll make it easy for them toget to you.
And as you get social media,I'll make sure that we're all
tagged so everybody can get tothat as well.
Yes, please, thank you, and,trixie, thank you again for
being here.
Thank you for being sovulnerable and transparent and
sharing your story with us,because it is inspiring and it
is important for everybody toknow what they're capable of,
(49:28):
because everybody is trulycapable of brilliance if they
just allow themselves.
So thank you for being here andsharing your story with them.
Trixy (49:39):
Thank you so much for having me truly, Really, it's an
honor.
Audra (49:42):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, and thank all of youonce again for listening and
we'll see you again next time.
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