Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 3 - Episode 28 with Rob Chevez, The CAZA Company

Transcript

The Why Not Today? Podcast - Season 3 - Episode 28 with Rob Chevez, The CAZA Company · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

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Welcome to the Why Not Today podcast where we celebrate courage, determination, and the
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power of saying, Why Not Today.
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I'm your host, Leslie Cain, and in each episode we dive into inspiring stories of individuals
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who have taken bold steps to face their fears and embrace the possibility of today.
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From entrepreneurs to artists, dreamers to doers, we explore the moments when somebody
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said, Enough waiting, Why Not Today?
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Join us as we uncover the heartwarming, the audacious, and the transformative.
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Whether it's pursuing a lifelong passion, overcoming obstacles, or simply choosing joy,
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our guests share their journeys and inspire us all.
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I started this podcast on honor of my father, Patrick Cain, who often said, Why Not Today?
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And remember, you're just one decision away from changing your life.
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And I'm excited about my guest today, Rob Chavez, and he is with Kava Group, which he started.
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And I was talking about where we met and connected.
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I don't even remember where I first met you.
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I think somebody just said, I need to know you.
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And this was years ago.
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And you live like a stone's throw away from me.
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And I see you walking your dog and connected and you had a podcast.
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I don't know if you're still doing it, that I was on.
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Long time ago.
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Well, it was, it was prior to COVID.
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It was a community neighborhood business owner podcast.
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So I would interview business owners on that podcast that live in arresting.
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It was great.
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I think that's how we, Leslie, I think that's how we actually met for the first time.
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Yeah.
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And then we've gotten together a couple of times for coffee and just the energy and
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all the stuff you're doing.
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I said in the beginning, then I often think about you when I got a lot going on, I'm like,
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okay, I can handle all this.
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So why don't you introduce you, who you are, not your business, but a little background
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on who you are.
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And then we'll get into the courage.
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So Rob Chavez, I'm a husband, proud husband of 23 years, proud dad of a 22 year old,
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little baby girl, set of a diplomat, grew up outside of the United States.
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The majority of my childhood, I didn't come to the States until I was 15.
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I remember coming here to the US for the first time, I think I was 15.
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I was like, wow, it was pretty, it wasn't the first time, but it was the first time
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that we were like, going to live for an extended period of time that I can remember.
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And stayed in the area, went to American University, wrestled for American University, and started
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my business, my first business with my best friend when I was 24, pretty much, you know,
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year out of college.
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Awesome.
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How long have you lived in Reston?
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The longest I've ever lived anywhere, actually, since 2004.
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Okay.
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Right?
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So.
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A few years.
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A few years.
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That's awesome.
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So, I know you do all kinds of things business, and we're going to talk about that in a minute,
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but what is your definition of courage?
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Oh, it's, it's entering into the cave, right?
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That the thing that we fear the most is typically the place that we need to go, and exploring
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that and stepping into that, and doing it anyways, even if it's scary.
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And so, I've always tried to step that next step into that cave, the one that scares me
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to discover who I am.
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That's awesome.
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Totally agree.
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We got to do those uncomfortable things.
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So, all right, so you have an amazing career, and you do a lot.
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You keep adding stuff, and I keep learning.
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I think the last time we met for coffee, we were there forever.
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And I still talk about that, because that woman dipped into our conversation.
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She was interested in the conversation.
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Yeah, later I found out she's a little, I don't know, interesting as somebody said.
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Oh, sure.
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But yeah, she was literally dipping into our entire conversation.
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But I guess we're having such a great conversation, she wanted to be part of it.
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So, you have a real estate team, and I think you said your company is Cava.
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Caza.
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Caza.
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Caza, right.
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So, so Caza actually means, you know, that's an interesting place to go.
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And we first started, my wife and I started that business.
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That was the summer of oh five, and the business was called Caza properties.
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And Caza is kind of a play on words a little bit, caza in Spanish.
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That's how it's pronounced, caza.
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In Spanish with an S means house.
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But with a Z, it means to hunt, right.
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And our business at the time was a home buying business.
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And we do, we have a home buying division today.
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So the literal translation was to hunt for houses, right.
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Caza properties meant to hunt for houses.
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And since then it's really evolved into the pursuit of right, the pursuit of a bigger
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life, the pursuit of your dreams, the pursuit of goals, the pursuit of the impact that you
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want to make.
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And I remember when, when I was landing on a name, it was actually my dad that came up
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with that name.
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And I was like, dad, like, people are going to get it, right.
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And, you know, and he's like, listen, you're an international kid.
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This is an international brand.
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And and so we rolled with it.
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And it's worked out well for us.
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Bright red letters, caza, bold.
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I think the first time I started noticing was your moving truck.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Great kind of thing.
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So let's go to the beginning.
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So were you always in real estate?
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How did you get into this?
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What were you doing?
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Yeah.
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American University to having 10 different businesses under this entity.
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Yeah.
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So I worked for a very successful business owner while I was in college.
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He his name is Alan Meltzer is very well known in the DC Metro market in insurance.
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No insurance and financial services.
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Okay.
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And you know, I was in my early 20s.
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I had no idea what I wanted to do.
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I remember he asked me one day, what do you want to do with your life?
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And I'm like, well, I want to, I want to run a business because I'd seen him build a business.
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He had built an impact on me already.
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I had been around some people at the university that were donors to the university that were
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all business owners, right?
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So success leaves clues.
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I saw these business owners who had given money for these programs and I was fascinated
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by it.
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So I said, I want to run my own business.
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He said, well, that's great.
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What do you want to do now?
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And I'm like, well, I don't know.
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And he's like, well, come work for me.
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So I went to go work for him in the his life insurance, I'm sorry, his health insurance
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division.
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So group health insurance, helping companies shop their group health insurance.
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Right.
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And that was my first exposure to clients, account management, having to work a job,
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right, type of environment.
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But he took really great care of me.
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And I learned by watching him and he was really the kind of the first imprint of what a business
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owner entrepreneur looked in my life, looked like in my life.
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And then around that time, my best friend had started in the recruiting industry.
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And one day we had a conversation.
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He said, Rob, I'm thinking of leaving the company that I'm at to go start a recruiting
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company, placing salespeople for technology companies.
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And I remember just saying, if you start that, I'll join you.
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Right.
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I'll join you.
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Like I was working with, I get it would be the opportunity to work with my best friend.
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You didn't have anything.
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But you were in the scenario around that conversation.
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You obviously remember the conversation.
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Yeah.
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Well, there's we were meeting it like a Panera or something like that, right?
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It was it was like a little coffee shop.
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I call those why not today moments like you.
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It's a pivotal moment in your life that totally changed trajectory.
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And you remember where you were.
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Oh, you just, I just remember they don't even exist anymore.
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Oh, it was like a Boston market.
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Boston market.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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One of those.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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There was a Boston market and it just came to me.
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Right.
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And I remember having the conversation and I caught him off guard a little bit because,
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you know, he didn't have any intention to have a business partner.
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And here I am asking him to be a business partner in a business.
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I have no idea how to run.
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Right.
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And I have no experience in business at any point or they always work for somebody.
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What's that?
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Did your parents were their entrepreneurs or do they always know for this, for this thing
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from entrepreneurs, you know, they, they were my mom's an artist, which, you know, I think
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that's probably a very entrepreneurial rate.
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My mom was an artist and she do are very creative.
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My dad worked for the State Department.
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But from the, from the perspective that they were nomads, right, like that's very entrepreneurial,
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like you move every two or three years and you've got to set up shop and you've got to
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make friends and, and everywhere we went, we would how like a home was a big deal.
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Right.
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We'd have to go find a house.
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We'd have to make it a home, live in there for two or three years.
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So like from that perspective, they were, I mean, I remember from an early age, my mom
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and dad having us work on houses and most of them were like rentals.
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We would always leave the rental in better condition that we got it.
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Right.
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Because you know, the government kind of paid for your housing everywhere.
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All right.
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So you went from, so you have, you're going to join your friend.
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Did you quit your job right away or did you?
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Pretty much quit my job.
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I remember when I had to go into this mentor who I love in a door, I was at his house,
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like I would get to his house at 430 in the morning.
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Like this was the imprint hardcore, get to his house at 430 in the morning.
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I'd work out with him from 430 to 530.
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I remember lifting and I said, you know, I, you know, I have something to tell you.
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I feel really bad about it, but I, I, I'm going to leave and I'm going to go start this
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business.
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And he said, well, because you're going to go start your business, your own business,
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don't be, don't feel bad about it.
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Right.
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Just go out and make it happen kind of thing.
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Another one.
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You remember where you were, what you're doing?
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Oh, 100% 100%.
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And so, so we did, we went out, we started this business without any training, any clue,
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any mentorship, any, anything, but we didn't have a lot of, you know, we weren't married.
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We didn't have kids.
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We didn't have any responsibility.
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And we worked out of a one bedroom, his, his one bedroom room in a little townhouse
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in Maryfield.
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He lived with two other girls.
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One had the basement.
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And had one of the bedrooms upstairs and he had the other bedroom and we had a fax machine
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and that was our house.
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Wow.
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Amazing where we start and where we finish are so different.
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Yeah, that was our office.
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Great.
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Right.
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So then how'd you get into the real estate world?
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Well, I was in that, I ran that business with him through the dot com boom bust and
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all the way to 2005.
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Right.
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So for seven years, I did that.
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We were very, it was a very successful business.
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It's still operational today.
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It's called CMI career management incorporated.
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He's done, done a phenomenal job.
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But there was something fundamentally flawed in that business that I didn't love.
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Every month you started zero, just like, just like agents do, right?
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Like you're only as good as your next placement.
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And so what happened was I didn't like that idea.
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I was like, wouldn't it be nice if I did something one time and got paid forever?
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So pretty early on, I started buying one piece of real estate a year.
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And I bought a townhouse right next to the office.
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Like, you know how he, I said that we ran that business out of his, like a townhouse
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that he rented.
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I bought the house like three doors down was an end unit townhouse in Maryfield.
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I house hacked it.
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So I lived in the basement and I rented out the rooms and my roommates paid 90% of my
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mortgage and I was like, this, I want to do more.
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I want to do this.
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And so every year I bought a, you know, I bought another house.
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We went through the dot com crash.
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So I realized I learned during that time what it was like to make a lot of money and then
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make no money at all.
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And by that time, yeah, by that time, I, I bought a single family hope in McLean on
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a quarter acre lot.
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My wife was pregnant, whether baby girl and 2002, the year she was born, remember we had
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9 11 2001, the, the, the tech market was imploding.
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My 2002 was like literally like somebody turned off the spicket, right?
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Somebody turned off the spicket to, to that business.
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And we worked so hard to bring that business back.
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I grinded in that business all through 2002, 2003, 2004.
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And all along I kept buying real estate and that's what kind of kept us alive to be honest
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with you, Leslie, like if I needed an additional 60 or $70,000, I'd sell an asset or I'd sell
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a property and it would fill the hole that I was experiencing my, in that other business.
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And so by 05, I was, I had fallen in love with real estate and I just turned to my business
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partner and said, Hey, I'm still productive, but my brain is not here any longer.
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Why me out?
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And we worked out an arrangement, which was pennies on the dollar, right?
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I didn't really didn't make any money on that sale, but it was okay.
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I was off to my next adventure.
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And you know, he was my best friend then and my best friend today.
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I picked up all your lessons, hopefully on the way and yeah, it was great.
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It's great.
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I learned how to sell.
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I learned how to sell in that business.
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Awesome.
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And probably you learned more how to sell when things were not good.
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Yeah, I learned, I learned how to create predictable income in my life as a self-employed
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person through activity and tracking data, which then translated into my, all my other
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businesses.
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Right.
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All right.
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So how did you, to your buy that properties, how'd you get into the being?
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I know the story, but share the story, how'd you get into being a real estate agent and
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then all the things you've done since?
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Sure.
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So I started on the investment side and what happened was by, like the first six, the last
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six months of O five was really kind of like my learning phase.
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I decided to go full time as an investor, but it was, I almost called that like my therapy
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phase.
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Like I was driving around looking at real estate, just kind of getting all of this like
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or Brit in an office out of my system and like driving through the mountains and looking
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at real estate because I was buying property in Cumberland, Maryland.
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That's about two hours away from where we live today.
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And and in the O six and O seven, I think my wife, between those two years, we bought
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like 60 properties and we, we bought 60, we fixed them up.
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We sold them to investors turnkey.
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And before we knew it, we had 300 properties under management, managing third party.
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Like, you know, I'd say maybe like 10% of those were ours, but then the other, the other,
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you know, the others were with our other investors.
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So that was like my learning phase was like getting a PhD and like what not to do.
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We made a ton of mistakes.
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We did a lot of stuff, right?
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We did a lot of stuff wrong.
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But I remember in O seven, I turned to my wife and I said, you know, I don't know for making
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money.
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I don't know for losing money.
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Like I, like I, I didn't have a handle on our finances super well because every time
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I'd sell something, I was taking the money to go buy something else.
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And I didn't know how to silo my money.
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I didn't know how to pay myself first.
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Right.
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There was a lot of like things I didn't know how to do, but I did know how to create revenue.
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Right.
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So there's a difference between creating revenue and creating profit.
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Right.
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And, and so I remember thinking, well, I got my license purely as a way to get referral
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fees because an agent legally cannot pay you a referral unless you're licensed.
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And so that I think it was a book by the end of O seven, I had made something like $20,000
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or $30,000 in referral fees.
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And I was like, wow, that's a lot of money on referrals that I've given out to other
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agents.
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What if I just start doing some of those deals?
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And because I had built up such a knowledge base on how to fix an asset and how to make
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an asset more valuable and how to price an asset and how to position it to get the most
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money out from the sale.
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I felt like I had this unique skill set to help sellers make more money from their properties.
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And I still remember one of the first listings I ever had was a friend of mine.
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I was for 1.7 million in Arlington.
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There was a luxury agent that had failed to sell it the first time.
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Remember in O seven, like the market started sliding a bit.
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I ran the analysis and I looked at how they positioned it.
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And I sold it 30 days later.
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I made a really big commission.
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I got to work with a friend of mine.
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I got to sell luxury real estate and I didn't have to travel two hours to do it.
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And I remember thinking, oh, I need to do more of this because my original intent of
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getting into investing was not to create more earned income, was to buy rental properties.
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So I realized that I could create a cash machine, an agent machine, like being a fix and flipper
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or a wholesaler or an agent.
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It's all the same business, it's just, you're doing a service and you're getting paid.
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The true wealth comes from buying assets and owning those over time or building a business
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that becomes an asset.
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And so I said, well, what if I reduce my risk?
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We were about to enter into 2008, which was crazy.
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What if I reduce my risk?
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And I just focused more on the agent business.
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And that a year in 2008, even though I said that, everything was 50% off, if you remember
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in 08, right?
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Like you'd drive every sign in the yard was a foreclosure, short sale.
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So I just started dollar cost averaging rentals, like I would buy one a month and none of it
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was with my own money, by the way.
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I had developed relationships and friendships with people that had some money.
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And so I did the work, they put up the money and we just accumulated a portfolio properties,
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which we still own today, which are all paid for free and clear.
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And I look back and said, man, that was the smartest thing I've ever done.
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And I didn't do enough of it.
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I should have done more, right?
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But I'm blessed for what we did do.
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But during the course of that, I started working with a lot more builders and investors and
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developers and playing the agent game as an agent that just knew a lot about investments.
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And I fell in love with the agent game and realized that I could build a business as
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an agent that is, I could run it like a business as opposed to like a self-employed agent.
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Most agents you meet are just do it yourself first, when really, if you build it like a
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business, it can operate with a mission, vision, values, belief system, and it can operate
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like a business.
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And so for the next 10 years after that, from 2007, really, to 2017, I was what you would
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call in, or maybe 2016, I was an owner operator.
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So I would both sell and be the owner.
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And by around 2018, I learned how to scale out of it as an owner, I mean, as a producer
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and operated just like an owner.
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And I realized that I could actually open up other offices.
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And so since 2018, today has really just been an evolution of me opening up offices.
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All that are all what I would, other teams, right?
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But not just teams, like not just real estate teams, but mortgage, right?
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Title, property management, construction.
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So you might have seen some of our construction companies around.
20:28
You know the story of Bro Vineyards?
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I do not.
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All Bro.
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Very similar.
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So Paul Bro owns or own real estate company in Outer Banks.
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I remember the one that was called, but he kind of like you.
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He was like, all right, I'm paying all these people to change locks.
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I might as well buy a locks company.
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I'm paying people to fix air conditioning.
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I might as well buy an air conditioning business.
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Yeah.
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Start buying up all these companies to complement his business.
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Came in this area to buy some property in the country and found out he had grapevines
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on there and made into a great winery.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Kind of cool story.
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That's a cool story.
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Yeah.
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So that's what we've done is created a vertically integrated business.
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Awesome.
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And you know that I run this investment network called Grid, right?
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I'm wrapping my Grid shirt today.
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And Grid was just my way of talking shop with real estate entrepreneurs because many of
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them were construction people and investors and agents that all wanted to learn the game
21:37
of real estate investing.
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And that little, you know, I still remember my first meeting had five people in it.
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Today we have 40,000 Grid members across the country.
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We have 40 locations that are led by other leaders, right, that host meetups that all
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pay us a licensing fee for our playbook because what I discovered was that that model was
22:05
actually a lead generation tool for all of our businesses.
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And it implements the go giver philosophy if you're familiar with that.
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You know, VRK, which is my other business, operates on the go give philosophy.
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Yeah.
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The whole company started on that.
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Yeah.
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And I built my entire business on the go giver philosophy.
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And I realized, oh, wow, this is a really, one, I have fun doing it.
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I love doing it, right?
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And two, it's good for business.
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And you create social currency.
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And I've built unbelievable relationships with people.
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Just hosting these months, like I host one monthly event.
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And it's all like there's typically a topic of some kind of investment topic that we discuss.
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And it's great.
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And you know what I love about what you do is, yes, it's for real estate and around
23:06
the real estate world, but it's just business, any kind of business will work.
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And I've gained a lot of knowledge from what you've done.
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And I'm going to, I'm still following you.
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And one of the reasons I wanted to do the podcast.
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And I say, you know, I did this podcast for selfish reasons because I'm getting so much
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expertise and training and coaching and learning.
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And then how can we leverage together and run together?
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Like our businesses are completely different, but they complement each other.
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I was mentioning somebody else that I'm going to have on the podcast, but I met another
23:37
real estate agent and she wrote a book about her success principles.
23:41
And I'm like, does it relate to other companies, other businesses?
23:43
Like, I don't know.
23:45
And sure it does.
23:46
I mean, business is business and it's sales is sales and it's people and it's building
23:51
those relationships and as you said, that go give philosophy is just so important.
23:57
And when we hold everything so tight and are so competitive, like there is enough business
24:01
out there.
24:02
100%.
24:03
You know, what's interesting, I'm no longer with Keller Williams, but I was with Keller
24:07
Williams for 17 years.
24:10
And you know, I moved to a cloud based brokerage.
24:13
I believe that's kind of where the business is going.
24:15
I'm with the EXP.
24:18
But I give a lot of, a lot of our growth really because of Gary Keller, right?
24:25
And he wrote the book, the millionaire real estate agent book.
24:29
And the one thing which I'm reading right now.
24:31
And he wrote, he wrote the one thing and like Gary is like amazing, right?
24:35
He's just amazing.
24:37
And I remember when I read that book, Leslie, I was not an agent.
24:42
I was an investor that was seeking a model.
24:45
I was seeking a model.
24:46
And remember when I read the book, I was like, Oh my God, this is not a book about being
24:50
a real estate agent.
24:52
This is a book for any service based business.
24:56
And I could have taken the word real estate agent out and plugged in recruiter.
25:00
And that was my big, aha.
25:01
Right.
25:02
I was like, Oh, here's this guy that gives a model for how to build and scale a business.
25:11
He just happened to, you know, focus on agents, but it could be applied to any service based
25:15
business.
25:16
Yeah, absolutely.
25:17
And I'm, as I said, I'm reading his book.
25:18
The one thing I'm going to have to get that book next, but yeah, my sister in law is with
25:23
a Kella Williams team.
25:24
And she was like, she went, went to the one event.
25:27
She's like, I went and drank the Kool-Aid and she's like, you would be so good at this.
25:30
And everybody I talked to is like, you'd be a great agent.
25:33
I'm like, no, that's not my love, but I can take everything you guys are doing and apply
25:37
it to my business and growing to support people and growing their businesses.
25:42
And kind of the turn that I'm taking is starting doing some coaching.
25:48
And the word I keep hearing is overwhelmed.
25:52
I went to a networking event last night and probably every other person said overwhelmed.
25:56
And so I think as business owners, we can get overwhelmed and it's lonely.
26:02
And how do you manage your time?
26:03
How do you manage yourself?
26:04
How do you manage your business?
26:05
And that's one of the questions I asked you, like, okay, you got a million things going
26:08
on.
26:09
How are you getting all that done?
26:12
Well, I get it that like the couple of things I've learned.
26:16
Nobody succeeds alone.
26:17
You have to work through people, but there's typically one or two numbers in a business
26:21
that drives the economic profitability of that business.
26:26
I learned what that was in my business, in my agent business.
26:31
And so I managed to that number and I coach and consult my agents and my leaders on their
26:39
one thing number.
26:41
Right?
26:42
And I helped them learn how to get to that one thing number.
26:46
And then I got very good at delegation.
26:49
I realized that there were certain activities that I could do that the dollar per hour was
26:56
extremely high and everything else that I just needed to outsource it.
27:01
And Dan Martell, who wrote a book called, Buy Back Your Time, it's a great book, by
27:07
the way.
27:09
You said 80% of somebody doing it as good as you is 100% awesome.
27:14
And I love that because it's so true because everybody is always like, I could do it better.
27:17
I could do it faster.
27:18
I'm like, no, you cannot multiply.
27:20
The only way to grow something big is to multiply yourself.
27:22
And the only way you can multiply yourself is by finding great people and training and
27:27
developing them and to help them reach their goals.
27:30
That's all this is.
27:31
Yeah.
27:32
Have you read Who Not How?
27:34
My favorite book in the last decade.
27:37
Okay.
27:38
Yeah.
27:39
I just read it and listened to it.
27:41
And I'm like, we need to get things off our plates.
27:45
Kind of the analogy I'm using is we're all at the same time spinning plates, throwing
27:50
balls in the air and wearing too many hats.
27:52
You said you're only just one decision away from changing your life, right?
27:56
You're only one relationship away.
27:58
That's how I've always thought about it from changing your life.
28:01
Like one, typically if you have too much stress, I remember Gary Keller would say this.
28:05
He would say, if you have a lot of stress going on in your world, there's typically a
28:11
who that's missing.
28:13
You need a who in an area that's causing you stress.
28:19
And so you have to then ask yourself the question, not how am I going to do this?
28:23
It's who is going to do this, right?
28:26
So true.
28:27
I wear a starfish necklace a lot because the story is starfish.
28:30
Do you know the story?
28:31
Yes, I saved that one.
28:33
Okay.
28:34
It matters to that one.
28:35
I feel like, all right, who's that person's going to move the needle for you?
28:38
Who's that person you're going to randomly meet?
28:40
You know, like somebody saying years ago, you need to meet Rob.
28:43
Rob, I'm like, okay, I'll meet him.
28:45
And, you know, and now kind of connected and definitely.
28:48
Yeah, your only one.
28:49
Yeah, to me, I think relationships take you to places that money never can.
28:53
Absolutely.
28:54
And so, you know, it's interesting.
28:58
I love that.
28:59
I love to think that I, like, I stole that from somebody and so, but it's so true.
29:04
It resonates with me, right?
29:07
And I forget his name.
29:08
I want to give him credit, but he's so, like, it was so good that it has always stayed with
29:12
me because, you know, I'll give you an example.
29:16
I have been texting and calling my CEO today, right?
29:21
So it's a publicly traded real estate company.
29:28
I just happened to have made a relationship with this particular gentleman when he was
29:35
25 and I was 33 and now he's the CEO of a company and he's unbelievable.
29:42
And it's great.
29:43
It's just like, you never know where these relationships end up.
29:45
He was just the real estate agent at the time.
29:47
You know, I'm firm believer in that and I've always reached up and ask, you know, my dad
29:52
always taught me the worst thing somebody can say is no.
29:55
And so I've reached out to somebody on the podcast that I saw on CBS this morning.
29:59
I'm actually, this is a cool story.
30:00
I'm going to a nationals game with somebody who is this week on Friday.
30:04
He has a nonprofit and his son has a goal of throwing out a ball at every major league
30:09
game.
30:10
And he's from Utah and he's coming here to the national.
30:13
So I invited me and my sister to go to a game, like because I asked.
30:16
Yeah.
30:17
I asked and got to reach out and people in positions that are higher than us or CEOs
30:24
or top people, or even, you know, when you're just starting, you know, build those relationships
30:29
and you just never know where somebody's going to end up and people are willing to help.
30:34
Yeah.
30:35
It was interesting that the gentleman, my first mentor that I talked to you about Alan,
30:42
the thing that I remember the most, the, what stuck with me said, kid, if you want something
30:48
in life, you got to ask for it.
30:50
So true.
30:51
I was like, okay.
30:52
I know people want to serve.
30:54
I'm reading another book and I don't know if you've read the breakthrough code.
30:57
Really good one.
30:58
But it's just a story of this young man not doing too well and somebody's mentoring him.
31:04
But everybody in the book that he meets, that's this mentor, who hooks him up with the doctor,
31:09
everybody asks, how can I serve you?
31:11
Yeah.
31:12
Yeah, that's great.
31:13
You know, it may take a little of your time, but giving you get so much back and somebody
31:18
else is going to give to you and it all works out.
31:20
It does.
31:21
Yeah.
31:22
Yeah.
31:23
Well, we could talk forever and ever, but I try to keep these around 30 minutes.
31:26
So how, Rob, would you encourage somebody else to say why not today to start a business?
31:31
I know when we talked the other day or whenever we talked, you talked about a neighbor that
31:35
wanted to do a business, you're like, just go start the LLC now.
31:39
Like, don't wait.
31:40
Do it today.
31:41
Yeah.
31:42
Or somebody else.
31:43
I think that whenever you have a thought or an inkling or suspicion or a hunch or like
31:52
that is the universe telling you like you need to explore that.
31:55
That's that itch.
31:56
You need to scratch.
31:57
And the way to actually do it is by just taking action on it.
32:02
And you know, I really believe that if you're paying attention that the world is telling
32:10
you what the next step should be and you just need to take it, but so many people started
32:16
over analyzing it and start tearing it down and why won't it work?
32:22
And I always tell my little sister, my sister's a thinker, right?
32:27
And I always tell her, you know, one of the things that I, I think the reason why I've
32:32
been able to build things is because I don't overthink them.
32:36
I just do it and I make lots of mistakes and I'm okay with making mistakes because that's
32:42
how you actually learn.
32:44
So you got, you got to be okay with making mistakes.
32:47
Don't worry about being foolish.
32:49
I've made a thousand.
32:50
Like the only way to truly learn is to make a mistake.
32:54
And that's what I say to with that thing.
32:56
We were, I was just on a podcast earlier, we were talking about, you know, that thing
33:00
that keeps you up at night or that people keep saying, you should do this.
33:03
I mean, it's like somebody's telling you, do these things, you know, don't sit on it.
33:09
And that's when you have those why not today moments.
33:11
Remember where you were.
33:12
It's like, all right, I need to do this and don't wait.
33:16
And nobody, none of us start here and finish here.
33:20
We finish all over here.
33:22
And you know, you and I are both growing and changing and expanding businesses and who
33:26
knows where we're going to end up.
33:27
Oh yeah.
33:28
And by the way, I think, I think, and I've always gotten the sense about this from you.
33:35
Right.
33:36
Like when you actually just enjoy it, you realize you enjoy the game that like what is retirement
33:42
actually mean?
33:43
Because some people would always be like, why do you work so hard?
33:45
What do you do?
33:46
Like, oh my God, you're so ambitious.
33:47
And I'm like, you know, I just wake up and I have fun doing what I'm doing.
33:52
It feels like a game I learned every day.
33:56
I figure out what works, what doesn't work.
33:58
I have goals.
33:59
I know how to win the game.
34:00
I know how to lose.
34:01
Right.
34:02
Like there's like certain, like I've, I've got a map that I've kind of decided like
34:06
that I've, it's a way I teach agents to figure out like how do you actually win different
34:11
levels of the game?
34:14
But you never stop playing the game.
34:16
It's infinite.
34:17
Right.
34:18
There's just an, there's an unlocking of the next level.
34:20
And I think that that's business owners are always just striving to unlock that next level.
34:29
And that is part of the fun.
34:31
It is.
34:32
And it's, we gotta enjoy life.
34:34
We are not promised tomorrow.
34:36
And I say it over and over again that you gotta love what you're doing.
34:40
And it, as they say, it doesn't feel like you're working, but to, yeah, love what you're
34:47
doing.
34:48
And I was on a leadership call a couple of months ago and it's just broke my heart.
34:51
And I keep talking about it.
34:52
There are people that work for the government, which we know a lot of people and they literally
34:56
have countdown clocks on their desks to house in.
34:59
Oh my God.
35:00
And that just broke my heart.
35:02
And then another young lady I talked to her first job out of college, she hated it.
35:07
And I'm like, get another job.
35:08
She goes, you're not supposed to like your job.
35:10
That's what her parents told her their parents just work to retire.
35:14
And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to like, it's a prison sentence where people don't
35:17
understand that's a prison sentence.
35:19
And people ask you that when I quit my job house, was that scary?
35:23
I'm like, it's a lot more scary to me to work for somebody that can pull the rug out from
35:28
you in two seconds and you have no control.
35:30
Like I have control and I can enjoy my life and I'm living my life.
35:34
I don't know desire to retire.
35:35
I'd be bored to tears.
35:37
You know, it's interesting that that's where values kind of come into place.
35:39
Right.
35:40
Some people really value security, right?
35:44
But I always valued freedom.
35:46
And I was like, I was, I was like, what price would I pay to be free?
35:52
Like any price, right?
35:55
Whatever I need to do with freedom and flexibility.
35:57
I don't even like to be told to do what to do by myself.
36:01
Like I can't mine Mondays and Fridays and Tuesdays.
36:04
They're all different.
36:05
People like, tell me your schedule.
36:06
I'm like, it's all over the place because I'm, that's how I designed my life.
36:10
I could not do the same thing every day.
36:13
And I need that freedom and flexibility.
36:15
Well, I, you know, I'm a little opposite.
36:19
My day is super scheduled because I kind of, I learned that discipline equals freedom.
36:25
Meaning like if I could be very disciplined, if I could be very disciplined at some key
36:30
activities, then I had the ability to be, to have freedom in all other areas of my life.
36:37
But I had to be really disciplined around some key things.
36:41
Yeah.
36:42
That's the habit I need to get back into.
36:45
Shifting and changing and trying to do these new things.
36:47
So, well, as I said, we can go on and on forever, but I always try to tie this back to my dad.
36:53
And did you ever meet my dad?
36:55
I never, but he's a legend.
36:57
I've heard so much about your dad.
36:58
He is a legend, but so the things that kind of connected or where you live now is we lived
37:06
in the opposite one.
37:07
We lived in Maple Ridge when I first.
37:09
Oh, wow.
37:10
Preston.
37:11
That's cool.
37:12
And then talking about how your dad was instrumental and you get coming up with your business name.
37:18
And I think that is a lot.
37:21
My dad, he was, you know, I think we have that connection.
37:23
Our dads, even though your dad was an entrepreneur, which mine was that, you know, led by your
37:27
dad and he gave you permission to do what you wanted.
37:31
Actually, I got to tell you that right there.
37:33
You just nailed it.
37:34
My dad, when I think about my dad, he never imposed his will or like goals.
37:42
Like he didn't, he had to put that pressure on me.
37:43
He let me be me, right?
37:45
You know, it's so funny because I remember, you know, you know, my dad's a diplomat.
37:51
He was consul general for the U.S., right?
37:53
It's like a position down from the ambassador and people are like, and you're just a real
37:55
estate agent.
37:56
And I was like, yeah, I make a hell of a lot more money than my dad ever made, right?
38:02
But I, but he gave me permission to be me.
38:05
Like that was my, like my, he let me be an entrepreneur.
38:08
He let me be a business owner.
38:10
And he, and, and once he saw what I gravitated towards, he just kind of encouraged it, right?
38:17
And I think it's a, it was a big gift.
38:19
Like he never expected me to be the next, you know, whatever political position out
38:26
there.
38:27
It's like, shoot me.
38:28
I interviewed my brother for my second and first anniversary and he's five years younger
38:33
than me.
38:34
He was a fourth kid.
38:35
I was at first.
38:36
And so it's interesting how we all see our lives differently.
38:38
Oh yeah.
38:39
My dad, in my eyes, you know, if you came out with an A or a B or a C, you know, he let
38:45
you be you, you know, and some, my brother, I don't think respect is much the freedom
38:50
we have.
38:51
Interesting.
38:52
Is he young?
38:53
You said he's younger.
38:54
Younger.
38:55
And he was the fourth kid out of six, a middle, but you know, there's a whole analysis.
39:01
But yeah, my dad just let us be who we wanted to be.
39:05
And it's interesting when I started my Mary Kay career, it was right after I finished
39:08
my MBA.
39:09
He didn't say anything.
39:10
He just let me do what I wanted to do.
39:13
When I got my first Mary Kay car, he told my then senior mentor, it's like, yeah, Leslie
39:19
has changed a lot.
39:20
Like who would have known?
39:21
So I kind of questioned what she was doing, but I let her do it.
39:26
That's a blessing.
39:28
And I get that, oh, she's just a Mary Kay director.
39:30
I'm like, yeah, just a Mary Kay director.
39:32
Yeah.
39:33
Yeah.
39:34
Happy.
39:35
Yeah.
39:36
Happy doing what we do.
39:37
And enjoying our lives, right?
39:39
Like, because we, because we actually had people who didn't place their expectations
39:43
on us of what we should or shouldn't be, right?
39:46
And that's a blessing.
39:47
And I think the other thing my dad taught and I didn't catch it right away, but did later
39:51
years later is get back to me and get involved.
39:55
And yes, run that too.
39:56
And you know what?
39:57
It comes back to bless you over and over and over again.
40:00
You know, just a quick little side.
40:02
I know you're trying to wrap up, but my sister, who's four years younger than me, has also
40:07
commented on the fact that she wished that there had been a little bit more discipline.
40:11
Right.
40:12
Not that my dad, like I, we call my dad the general, by the way, my dad's the general,
40:15
right?
40:16
He's all disciplined, but, you know, my dad was all disciplined.
40:20
I mean, we were in bed by like eight 30 in the morning, but not that he disciplined us.
40:24
He just like ran a very tight ship.
40:27
But he also, he just had a couple of rules, right?
40:30
It's like early to read, early to bed or early to rise makes man healthy, wealthy and wise.
40:35
Like he literally like put that in my brain.
40:39
You know, do, do what you're saying you're going to do.
40:43
And he was a thinker.
40:44
He was always like, he, he wasn't, he wouldn't allow us to do like a lot of like, there was
40:51
like, it was hard to get permission to go out and do things, right?
40:55
So because we, we, you know, we're typically in very scary countries for the most part,
41:01
right?
41:03
But what she wanted was maybe somebody that was going to see her talents and then push
41:09
her shirt in those areas of talents, which my parent, you know, which, you know, they
41:14
didn't do.
41:16
And I was like, you know, and I, I did athletics in college and it didn't matter to me whether
41:22
they pushed me or not, because it's what I wanted to do.
41:24
So I was like, why would it matter if, if they were pushing you to do it?
41:27
Like you're going to want to do it yourself.
41:30
But it is an interesting dynamic because she does have a different world of you being four
41:35
years younger than me.
41:36
And so we have sometimes different, different recollection of our life.
41:40
I have two younger sisters that are 16 and 18 years younger and, you know, whole different
41:45
family, same parents, but, you know, different recollection.
41:49
Different, different.
41:50
Yeah.
41:51
My dad, I think had high expectations, but he let us do it.
41:54
But I remember we weren't always, we pushed the envelope, which he did, but he would,
42:04
we had many parties, let's put it that way at the house.
42:07
And in our member one time we had one of those parties and we didn't do something we were
42:12
supposed to and we had that sit down.
42:14
We didn't get grounded.
42:16
We didn't have, we didn't have phones take away, but none of that's happened.
42:19
But he had it, would sit down and have this conversation with us.
42:22
You know, I'm disappointed in you.
42:24
And I remember one instance we were sitting there and my sister had a friend that got
42:28
grounded all the time.
42:30
And my dad's like, would you rather be grounded or have these conversations?
42:33
He's like, grounded all day long.
42:36
Like this was rough, but yeah, he had high expectations.
42:39
And it's interesting, you know, what we learned from our parents and yeah, that's why I love
42:44
doing the podcast and referencing my dad and people knew he was and he made people think
42:52
and he asked lots of questions and he was a big thinker.
42:56
Like I have people that say he thought way ahead of where even are today.
43:01
That's awesome.
43:02
And I'm very creative like both of us.
43:03
So it sounds amazing.
43:04
Yes.
43:05
Well, thank you again for being here and thank you everybody for joining us on this inspiring
43:10
story.
43:11
Remember, every day is an opportunity to take actions, chase your dreams and make a difference.
43:15
So why not today?
43:16
And you can find out everything you want about the why not today podcast at whynottodaypodcast.com.
43:22
I'm adding some new things.
43:24
We have a why not today's connects lunch in once a month in rest in Virginia if you're
43:28
local, but then I'm also starting some coaching in some courses to help people to have given
43:34
permission to start and to help with that over around overwhelm.
43:38
So I'm going to share all Rob's contact information in the show notes.
43:41
So again, thank you for joining us and make sure you share the podcast, like the podcast,
43:46
tell your friends about it and follow us at why not today and remember say why not today.
43:51
But thanks Rob.
43:52
Thank you.