Episode 38 | Ruben Garcia | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up military millionaires. I'm your host David Pere.

Today we have an exciting episode about coaching and mentoring for real estate agents and real estate investors as well as a little bit about Airbnb with Ruben Garcia.

The Proven by Ruben, a real estate coach who is a very successful guy, I got to meet him. You know, I've gotten to know Him through some very high level mutual friends, and it's gonna be an exciting episode.

If this is your first time listening. Thanks for joining the community. This podcast is produced every week for your enjoyment. Show notes are found at Frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast. Now relax and enjoy the show.

Intro:

You're listening to the military millionaire podcast, a show about real estate investing for the working class. Stay tuned as we explore ways to help you improve your finances, build wealth through real estate and become a person that is worth knowing.

Sponsor:

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David:

Hey, what's up everybody? It's Dave and I’m here with Ruben Garcia otherwise known as Proven by Ruben who is, he's not a military, he wanted me to make sure that everyone knew that because he's got a big military market. However, I got to know him because he coaches a friend of mine who is in the military. I've had her on the show earlier Shelby Osborne, and he is a real estate coach mastermind for agents and also does some investing. You know, got to sit down in the cool kid seats at the 10x growth con. And yeah, I was just excited to finally get a chance to talk to him and pick his brain a little bit.

So Ruben, thanks for joining us.

Ruben:

Of course, of course. Thank you so much for having me, I'm gonna enjoy this.

David:

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your story.

Ruben:

Starting when? Tell me when to start and I'll jump on in.

David:

When you first got into real estate.

I mean, you could go from birth and chips in but that might be forgetting that much.

Ruben:

But everybody be like God, dang, is this thing gonna end?

David:

You don't even gonna notice.

Ruben:

Yeah. And signing off.

No. So getting into real estate.

So I worked at UPS for 12 years. So every one of my friends went into the military because I'm outside of Fort Bragg. I had an opportunity to start at UPS when I was 18. So I said that might be a good gig. So I jumped in and was there for 12 years, until it finally hit me that I was like, there's got to be something bigger out there. There's got to be something better out there. There's no way that I'm fueling trucks. And that's why I was born right?

And a couple friends said hey, you would be good in real estate, or you'd be good in sales. So they were like, you should sell phones you should sell cars and I was like, I'm gonna sell something. It's gonna be a freakin home, right? It's gonna be the one of the biggest things that I could sell.

David:

Used cars.

Ruben:

You know, that's what initially.

Yeah, use car salesmen which by the way, if you know in the long run I kind of want to run there again. I bet I could be a top salesperson on the floor of some dealerships around our area but that's what got me into sales and that's what got me into real estate.

David;

Nice.

Ruben:

Yeah, yeah.

05:00 - 10:00

David:

So you got into real estate, and you obviously became quite good at it. What? I mean, I don't know how to ask that question like, what made you successful in real estate? But like, how did you go from being an agent? Because a lot, you know, there's a lot of people who start as an agent, they just give up. But obviously, you went so far the other way that you're now doing masterminds and coaching, you know, when did you kind of realize that that was more like going to be your gift, then? Yeah. However, I would ask that question.

Ruben:

Yeah, I think a lot of people, I think life has a way of showing you what you would be best at, right?

You have to recognize it and be willing to walk through that door, though, no matter how uncomfortable it is. And when that time came to me was my very first year I helped someone is, there's one agent, one admin, and I came on, and they wanted to build a team.

All right, our very first year as a real estate agent wants to grow a team. Well, we grew that team to do over 12 million in production our very first year. And this is our price point at like 150,000. And, you know, what I learned from that is one you can't we I know, I can't I couldn't do that alone, right? We needed buyer's agents, we needed listing specialists, we needed admin to handle the 80% work. And as I was helping grow that I started to learn man, I, I enjoy this coaching, holding people accountable, making sure that they reach their goals no matter what it takes, throughout that whole process.

So that was my very first year in real estate. And we were able to do that I hired a coach, a business coach at that time to kind of push me and, and I just started to understand and get the feel of like, man, I want to be there to mentor people, I want to be there to grow people, I want to be there to help them find the gaps and help them break their own systems. So we can make it better. Like I just started enjoying it. And then shortly after that became the CEO of that office, about 120 agents rocked that world and broke all time records every month, and then rolled out of that and started my own coaching program.

David:

Man, see you went from being Nick the new guy with three people to 120. How long did it take to grow that? Like, how many years are we talking here?

Ruben:

One year for the 12?

Yeah, so the office actually owed that team that we helped grow, right?

David:

Okay.

Ruben:

So I decided to leave the team and step into the CEO position. All right, and they had about 120 agents, but we broke profit share records we broke or all time records we broke closed units. Volume. I mean, we every month we crushed it, we crushed it, we had a good job. But that was where I started feeling as if man this is my team now. 120 agents, how can we lead them to break goals? How can we lead them when everyone says the markets down? How can we push them harder than before? Like I just started filling the niche for that and really enjoyed it.

David:

Yeah, that's, that's super cool.

And then you stepped into the coaching world, which is, I think that's a lot of fun. Honestly, sales is awesome, houses, you know, all that stuff. But for some of us, and it's definitely not everybody, because it's a love hate sometimes teaching and coaching becomes more fun, because it's almost so I got the chance when I was a recruiter. Three years ago, now.

I went from being at the time the top guy in my little office of four or five, I was one of the top guys in the state. And I jumped into being the staff when I saw the boss of the four or five guys. And it's a different, it's definitely a weird transition to go from like, Okay, I'm enlisting all these guys. And you guys aren't carrying your weight to, oh, I'm not enlisting all these guys now. Where are we going to enlist them?

But, I had a lot of fun, starting to analyze numbers and metrics and all that stuff and getting to show people where they're failing and helping them out and watching them do better. And I actually don't know, I think I enjoy that part more. But some people get into that role. And they're like, nope, nope, send me back to where I'm just in charge of myself. So Nope.

Yeah. And I'm sure it's a little different too, because you know, in your market, I would like to think that you have some more motivated clientele because they, they want to be a real estate agent. Not not all recruiters want to be a recruiter. They get voluntold as we say, but

Ruben:

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, man. We have a great pool here. I mean, we have talented people here like Shelby Osborne, right. I mean, this is the home of the 82nd and special operations and, and, I mean, we just got a great community right like that. That is mission based and knows what they want and no excuses. And yeah, man, we got a great pool to pull from for sure.

But the voluntold stuff. One thing that we had, I knew I had to sharpen as I started helping people is to not truly volyn tell them, right, because if they fail, then they're going to blame me and not themselves. And so to put them in a position for them to take on that Extreme Ownership, you have to ask the right questions to where they buy in on what that goal is or what the result will be.

Does that make sense?

10:00 - 15:00

David:

That's one of my favorite books. Extreme Ownership.

Ruben:

Great book. Yeah it’s a great book.

David:

Absolutely.

Alright, so what's your, What's your favorite?

Here's a weird one. What's your favorite setting? As far as the coaching mastermind, like, from a coach's perspective, do you prefer doing like a group conversation? Or like one on one coaching? Or like, what's your what's your, your favorite aspect of being a coach? You don't ever get to ask the coach that?

Ruben:

Yeah, so I like them both. However, one on one for me is the jam.

I mean, because you have so this can sound in. I keep a box of tissues, because people will break down, they will break down didn't mean they were just because of personal or professional challenges that they're having.

And then a group setting. I mean, how deep Can you really get with someone on an individual basis, right? One on One, man, you can keep going and tell me more about that and tell me more. And they're like, it starts breaking the blaaaah, right? But at least you found out something so deep, that you know, they want to go that you know, you can kind of hold that and say you don't ever want to go back to that place. Or it was a cry like pure thing, excitement of things that they can accomplish you’re like, let's get more of that. Let's 10 X that. Let's multiply that, right. So one on one for me is the jam. I do one on ones. Yeah, I get most of my energy from one on ones like this. I'm getting tons of energy from you, man.

David:

That's funny. I never had tissues. But it was like a thing of pride. If you could get someone to tear up because it meant you really found they're like their super neat or motivator. And I'll never forget this one kid. It was like one of my first few interviews. And he's like, in there with his parents. And he's like sobbing. And I'm sitting there and I'm a recruiter, and I'm like, Ah, what do I. What do I do now? Like, what did I do to this kid? But afterwards, like my boss is like, no, that means you did everything perfect. You had like he completely gave him everything.

Ruben:

You made him cry.

David:

Like, Oh, that's a good thing. But you know, I mean, it is because yeah, if you can get someone to that state. Yeah, I say that. Like that's a jerk thing. Like if you can get them there. But, you know, if they open up that much, and they're that vulnerable with you, you've got trust, you've got rapport, and you found the real heartstring.

Ruben:

Yeah, I mean, and on the surface level. Does society truly want to dig deep in someone's world, right? They don't get asked those questions on a daily they day to day basis. They don't, they don't get asked to go deeper. They don't get asked to tell them more. So what about that's important to them? Like, what about that hurt them the most? Like, they just don't, unless you're surrounding yourself 24/7 with multipliers, they don't have those conversations, right?

So it's going to take some pills and back for them to get deep. They're just not used to it. But when they do you know, you've tapped into something, right?

David:

Yeah, and you don't get much conflict either. People just aren't yet. They're used to just kind of go and go and buy in their own little world.

Ruben:

Just autopilot.

David:

I am curious, maybe this will be a useful question for the audience. What kind of trends do you see? Like as far as agents and sales? Like what do you notice any trends for like, wow, nobody's any good at this or maybe not that way. But.

Ruben:

So trends in real estate agents, putting effort into it, or?

David:

Just like things that you focus on that you're like, Wow, man, there's a lot of people who don't understand X or that don't do, like, is there anything trend wise that you would say like, man, a lot of people are not any good at this. And this would really help them out.

Ruben:

Yeah. 100% so I have, so there's a few things that that I do first, like have you ever heard the disc assessment?

David:

Love it.

Ruben:

Love it.

David:

Probably because mine came back saying good things.

Ruben:

Yeah.

David:

I can't remember the numbers, but I'm like a 90s I and like a super high D two, so I'm okay with that.

15:00 - 20:00

Ruben:

Right. Right. Exactly.

So that it helped me analyze the person I won't lean on 100 percent on it, but it will help me lean on, lean on if they're good in sales, are they good on the back end? Are they good in certain admin positions? You know, that has helped me from the very beginning to know if they're hitting a wall and sales may be sales isn't their jam like that I've coached people out of the coaching program, right? And not to be a dick. But it was there, it was better for them to be in a different position on a real estate team that they can thrive on, thrive in, versus in the frontline sales.

So I would say having that conversation, definitely a trend, everybody that gets into real estate thinks that they're going to be an amazing salesperson or, or their family, Man says, Man, why don't you crush it in real estate? Why are you doing a good job? And maybe they were never even, they were sitting in the wrong seat of the bus. Right? And so having those conversations at first is definitely a trend. And you'll have people that thank you afterwards, I didn't want to hear, but thank you, because I'm crushing it in this role, and they're getting bonuses. And some of them need that security. They're getting paid every month, you know, and it's different from a commission job.

So having that first and then second mindset, or I should really say that's first is having mindset conversations and calendar, though, to get more specific, like tangible stuff is following the calendar and building out your calendar and sticking into your calendar, right like that is right there. I've hired my own coach. And my coach is like, you can't write a book on just that. But I'm just always like, dang, that's the one thing that always comes up is they're allowing what they call distractions into the world and disrupting their time. So they can't focus on something, which is an excuse, and they're allowing that they're setting that substandard back to Extreme Ownership, right? They're setting that sub standard in their calendar.

But how do you protect it? What do you plug into it? First, you know, these are some of the stuff that I helped them with at first.

David:

Yeah, that's actually, you know, it's funny, I have not stuck to this as much lately, because I'm getting ready to move but my little like, weekly, I'm going to do XYZ through the days and big key things, because I remember so on recruiting, you know, they preach about a monthly plan, and then a weekly plan, and then a daily plan to hit your metrics. And, and, you know, we did it, but it was always kind of like, whatever.

And when I became the boss what I started doing, and this is I guess what I'm supposed to do anyway. But no one had ever told me that's what we were supposed to do. Because it wasn't what we did at the time. I started every single morning, it was like we showed up to the office, it was one of the better stations. So we did not show up early because I was like the kids aren't even awake at eight in the morning. So why do we need to be here, let's go to the gym.

But we'd show up at like 8:30. And we would sit down for 30 minutes to an hour with the whole team. And everyone had their daily plan. And we would just go like line by line. And I would sit there and go nope, take that off. We're doing this and take that off. We're doing this and you know, okay, we need to do this, what are the top three things for you? What is you know, and I'd give them missions or whatever. And tell them like, hey, you're behind on phone calls, you're behind on this, you need to do more here you need. And we went from when I took over to where we had just hit a really rough patch. And we were not. I don't want to say sucking my chest wound.

But I mean, we were a drag on all the other stations. And by the time I left 12 months later, we were so far ahead that we could have missed mission two months in a row and still been station of the year I think. And and and it's not because I did anything amazing. But I think that was probably like the number one thing was to be able to say, look, dude, you were supposed to make 300 phone calls this week. And it's the third day of the week, and you've made 10 so you need to make 150 phone calls today and figure it out and be able to like, do that. Because nobody likes cold calling. They're gonna find a reason not to cold call.

Ruben:

Yeah. Agreed. Agreed.

I mean, breaking it down to daily messages is, is key. I mean, there's so much clarity in that and activities you need to do. But going back to the disc assessment, man, we find that there's some there's some people who love cold calling, right? It just depends on their personality and the kind of stability that comes behind that with a paycheck and having some hard skin so yeah, no, I get it with cold calling. And I get it by breaking it down to daily metrics, huge, huge brings a lot of clarity in your world because it's a contact sport. It's a contact sport you get its people, people relationships. Right. So how many of those relationships are you building on a day to day basis? It's huge.

David:

Yeah, absolutely.

And to build those relationships generally take some stuff that you kind of got to get forced into doing rather than just, I mean, not everybody just likes to meet people all the time. So sometimes, you know, like you said, You've got to. I almost wish we could do the disc assessment for recruiters. I think we'd be much more effective, but I don't think they'd approve that because eventually recruits should be like, okay, now I gotta say this on this test. So they would find a way, like my eyes zero. Cannot talk to people. Sorry.

Ruben:

Yeah. Yeah.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

I would read a book on the calendar. If you ever write one. I'm just saying.

Ruben:

Dude, I was thinking about calling it if, you know, I got this abundant mindset, so I don't mind telling the the title, but I was thinking like the freedom structure, because so many people see it as structure like, it's going to be something that that shackles them and holds them down. And they have to follow this schedule. And it's like, no, there's a shoot ton of freedom in the structure, right? If you just follow the structure, there's a ton of freedom behind it. But there's ways that I started coming up with that can help eliminate what needs to truly be in your calendar, because some of those tasks that you were talking about at first, I mean, I would, I would write a who I would write the word who next to each one of those, and some of those may be you.

But hold each one of those tasks accountable. Like you and I were talking before we jumped on and what's the dollar per hour activity, right? And raise your dollar per hour activities by putting a different who next to it? Because you might find that it has it, you don't belong next to that, right. It's something that we can leverage off. So put who next all those tasks as well. For sure.

David:

I’ll write that down.

Ruben:

I hope I'm answering your answers or your questions correctly. Get me all hyped up.

David:

No, I appreciate it. I like it.

This is the kind of stuff that I like to hear. Because it's all stuff that I really need to hear. Because I'm doing a really terrible job about farming stuff out to my virtual assistant, I got a call with her on Mondays so that I can because I realized like, man, she's helping me so much. There's so much more that I need to hand over to her. Oh, that's what we're gonna do.

Ruben:

Yeah. And would she be glad to take on that extra work?

David:

I think so.

Ruben:

Would she get paid more?

David:

Yeah, we're kind of doing hourly for now. tested it out.

Ruben:

Got it. Got it.

What do you think she's using that money for?

David:

I think she's using it like saving it to invest. So we met and she's gonna listen to this, and you're gonna give me all, like in trouble and stuff we met with I was actually on test piloting some coaching program. And so her and her husband were one of my, I don't want to use I guess, students, I don't know. They were helping me test pilot it. And afterwards, they were like she was, she reached out and said, You know, I have some copywriting skills and some skills with this, this and this. And you mentioned time, I'd love to help you out. And like, okay, yeah.

So at the time, I was looking into hiring a virtual assistant anyway, but I'm a marine. And we're very stubborn. And we like to do things ourselves and which is funny, I'm really quite good at delegating in my job. But when it comes to this, like, it's been fun for me to like, just do everything myself and learn how it works. And then once I'm having fun and learning it, it's hard for me to say okay, now that I understand it, let me turn it over, because I'm, I'm struggling with that piece, because I'm kind of enjoying, like, I enjoy producing this podcast and editing it and typing out the show notes and uploading it and tagging everything and all that for SEO. That's kind of fun to me now. It's a huge waste of my time when I need to shut it off. And so but it's hard for me to do that. Because I'm like, you know what, it's kind of fun. But the reality is, it's kind of fun, because it's keeping me from doing the less fun stuff that I have to do. So I'm finally starting to make that transition happen. But man, it's not as easy as I thought it would be.

Ruben:

Yeah, well, what's cool, so, take yourself out of the equation, right? So for her, she’s going to be collecting the money to invest, right? And to invest in stuff that's gonna benefit her family. Probably correct?

David:

Yep.

Ruben:

So think about that, right? So think about like, damn by you by doing that by you leveraging that stuff to hurt, and you're not only impacting your world and your family, you're impacting her world, and her family by bringing in leverage and allowing that stuff to go into her world, right.

But you got to take yourself out of that equation and just see the impact that you will create, although it may seem like so small of a thing, who she's saving the money to invest to impact her family. And on the other end of that you can stay in your 20% where you start bringing in more income to impact your family as well.

David:

I haven't been taught that way.

If you're listening to this, if you're listening to this, our conversation on Monday, hopefully will go well except that by the time this comes out, it'll be our conversation that happened like a couple weeks ago on Monday. So.

Ruben:

This is her chance to hold you accountable, right?

David:

Oh, she does. She's awesome.

Ruben:

Good.

25:00 - 30:00

David:

And she's so she does some proofreading and editing for me, and it's great because she's so she's not military, and she has like, no military background, which is honestly a huge blessing in disguise because like I'm writing about the post, like a four week series on the VA loan, like because nobody seems to understand the VA loan. So I'm going super into the weeds. And she's been editing and she's like, None of this makes any sense for me. Like, I don't understand this, this and this, you did a terrible job of explaining it like, Okay, thanks. I'll get wrapped up in the military jargon. And although it's more geared towards the military, I need to make it you know, if non military can't understand it, then I'm doing a poor job of explaining it right? Even if it was to a military guy, so I need to break that down. So that's probably saved me a lot of trouble. Because what good is writing a nice four four piece series if nobody knows what I'm talking about?

Ruben:

Yeah. And so my mind goes like, Man, what if you build two versions, one for strictly military and one for anybody who intends to get in the military could read this to help them into the I mean, cuz dude, like, you know, the investing world, you know, how powerful VA loan could be, right? So that could be for the people who aspire to not only get into the military, but also aspire to be an ambassador, right?

So breaking it down for them, but also running that military play, you might have two versions.

David:

Not a bad idea. I like it.

I need to make a video one of these days, right? Just use like, think of how to use every military acronym I can come up with and try to make it a nice funny video that only someone in the military would understand and only use acronyms and not explain it to see it off. Because you know, we have a language of acronyms.

Ruben:

Oh, yeah, no doubt.

David:

Or alphabet soup.

Anyway, I digress.

Yeah. So the calendar thing is awesome. I appreciate the little, little chat. Look at that. You bring someone on who talks coaching and all of a sudden you're getting some coaching out of it? What a weird, I know, it's awesome. So now what do you do? I guess, here's an interesting one. What's the future for Ruben? Were you trying to go?

Ruben:

So there's no try, right? You gotta go there, you're not going there. So what I'm looking at is, I'm looking at building, which is why this podcast is perfect building a much more passive income, business versus active because coaching is active. You know, it's very active. I was capped out last year, about 52 clients doing one on ones.

So this year scaled back a lot after the 10 X growth con. Because I got, I got mind punched by a lot of people there. So building a better passive income business is what I'm focused on this year. And what you and I were talking about a little bit was more into the Airbnb world in my market. That's going to bring into passive income. And with that, being that property being a plan B to go long term, just in case Airbnb is punched in the mouth in my market, right? But yeah, it's gonna be real estate, heavy, more focused on real estate than where I'm at right now. And building passive income. So I can go coach, whoever whenever I want to.

David:

So how do you make Airbnb passive?

Ruben:

Yeah, so that's a great question, right? Because I've talked to a few people in my market and they said, yeah, we love Airbnb, except we have to wash the towels, we have to replace the toilet paper, we have to clean the coffee dispenser, we have to have a ba, ba, ba, ba, ba Ba, I was like, Okay, that sounds not passive at all. In fact, it sounds very active.

So that is what I'll stay away from. And that was a mistake, right? Because I allowed someone else's world to impact mine in a negative way. And so what I did was add a while a little bit, give it some time, I started asking more questions. And then found who I told you about earlier, a guy named Toby who actually manages these Airbnb s. And I'm hands off, all I do is get a check every month.

I mean, he does everything. He's got everything planned out. So right now there's a few reasons why I like Airbnb, I like that inspections are freaking weekly, versus where it was with the long term, right and how much damage some of these tenants have done. I love that they're in the property a lot more and the return is two x three x than what I'm getting right now. And I just started with Airbnb. I bet I can get more than that. But right now, that's the passive income play. Yeah.

David:

I love it. And that's what I was hoping you would you would go with so there's, I hear a lot of people talk like there's some guys out there with some pretty crazy Airbnb strategies where they can almost get the person who rented to clean everything for them by saying, you know, hey, if you do XYZ, then I'll charge you this much less or whatever. But the idea of hiring out a manager you know, if It's just like a property manager.

So many people will avoid hiring a property manager because they don't want to pay the 10%. And I get that, you know, whatever. But I pay my property manager, and I focus on my rentals, like an hour a month. So for me, my rentals are now like $1500 a month, or $1500 an hour tasks, because I take like, one hour a month, and they're bringing in around $1500 a month right now.

30:00 - 35:00

David:

And, you know, as I scale that, that's only going to get better. Because I'm not doing anything at this point. But when I go home this month, I'm gonna say, Hey, you know, I've been paying my mortgage payments and my utilities payment on this one property. And I know you're paying everything else you want to just, here's the account numbers, you want to just pay these ones for me too. And now I've gone from an hour a month to like 45 minutes to balance my books once, which I could farm out, but I enjoyed the Excel doc account balancing piece. And for 45 minutes, I think I can justify that. But, I don't understand why people won't systemize these things. Like that's how you scale. And that's, it's cool.

So I'm glad you found a way to do that.

Ruben:

Yep, yep.

David:

What's been something? Yeah.

Ruben:

So I mean, yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, for me, I was I, I tried running that play. I was like, I can manage this property, no worries.

Yeah, I let my buddy move in. And they tore up the place that they would, they would, they would clean up whatever their pets did. That was a lie into being like three pets in this property, destroying the property. I was terrible at collecting the money like it was. I was just terrible at it. So I said, this is one thing I need to leverage.

So I ended up doing that. But it's the best thing because for me, it's a lot more passive, right? I don't have to spend the time on it. And the fee, the 10%, the 12%, the whatever percent is a write off for me, I mean, it's just going to help me beat up that tax bill that's going to be coming at the end of the month, so or end of the year. So or quarterly, or however it's done in your world.

But Dude, I, I want passive, I want passive, my goal is passive. And I'm willing to pay for the time to break off and spend more time with my family to break off, spend more time coaching and break off. Spend more time on a podcast, right? To get my message out there. I sell these t-shirts with every state.

David:

Which I love.

Ruben:

Yeah.

So like, I can focus on getting this stuff out there, right? Instead of managing the properties and I'm 100% want to suck in I'm 100%. Okay with leveraging it out? Yeah, for sure.

David:

In life, right, you get to decide if you want to pay for time or not. And I think that anyone who's trying to scale paying for time is the way to go. They talk about you know, people, people, people avoid coaches, right people avoid, oh, I don't need a coach. And you don't there's I mean, yeah, sure, you can figure it out on your own. But you know, it might take you a decade.

Whereas you get a coach who punched you in the gut right away. And you take that decade and turn it into a year? Well, I'll take that. Any day? Yeah.

Ruben:

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it wasn't what I don't know. For 5,6,7 months, when I was in real estate, Todd decided to hire my own coach, couldn't even afford it, and put it on a credit card. And they literally squeeze time. For me, right, I was able to accomplish so much because of what they've already done. They just showed me the path was a year ago, I had three coaches. Because that's how messed up I am. To show me the path and I've been in real estate, not even five years, right was able to help grow that team and was able to help grow that office. And by the way, it's not me, right, I had a great team with me as well, was able to help grow the coaching program, I was able to be Vice President of Business Development Division within a coaching program called the locker room that has 2000 real estate agents in less than five years. I'm not boasting, all I'm saying is like, I had to squeeze time, right? I move quickly. And one of the best ways to squeeze time is hiring someone to show you the path and hold you accountable to it, right.

So yeah, I'm a big believer in coaches, big believer, they squeeze time, man, they're sweet, they're well worth it. I went into someone's p&l the other day, and I think we pulled in another 20 to 30 grand back into their business. Do they pay for me for years?

David:

Yeah.

Ruben:

Right. I mean, and they were like, don't don't even have to look at our P&L, we run lean, don't even worry about us, like Well, let me you know, entertain me. So they brought it in, and we have every one of those expenses accountable. And we were able to, to not only increase the income, but decrease the expenses going out. We saved them 20 plus grand. So ya know, I'm a big fan of coaches, their debt, though it's an investment. It's not a cost for sure. And it's a write off.

35:00 - 40:00

David:

Yeah, that's true.

Ruben:

Right.

David:

That's very true. Yeah, I love it. In fact, I need to find myself. Gotta find the right. I'm in a weird niche where I'm like, okay, half of my stuff is being a real estate investor and half of my stuff is building an online community. Which coach do I want? Do I hire both? Do I hire a third one to tell me I suck all the time? Like, I just need to hire someone like Alex Felice to just sit in my ear and be like, You're terrible?

Ruben:

Yeah, no, I would do this, you know, it'd have to be where someone sat down with you and had that first consultation about, you know, just going deep, and making making David cry a little bit, right and finding out what that a finding out what that northern, what we talked about is that Northern Star, right? For that mission, or that vision that we find so deep within you that you want to accomplish in your life time that anything that comes into your world, you get to filter it through that, right, it has to run through the filter. And if it's not going to help you get closer to that Northern Star, or pull you closer to that it's not going to align with your mission or your vision, your values, your beliefs, your purpose, then we pass it off to someone else, right.

So knowing that should help you along the way of what activities you should be focusing most of your energy on. And what you should be leveraging out. You gotta have that first conversation.

David:

Well, I just have to fly out to North Carolina and pay you to make the graph.

Ruben:

Down. Down.

David:

All right. A couple of questions.

Ruben:

We got a good group here, right?

David:

You guys do? You guys have got some good, some good players out there, some big players out there that I know a lot of them. I don't know if so I had interviewed Shelby. And I had posted that I was going to the 10 x growth conference. And she was like, yo, we got an Airbnb, and you should just crash and it ended up being like, it was like 10 of us in this like three bed one of the half baths. You know, 1100 square foot little house and I slept on like this pullout couch thing in the back with my buddy Phil next to me on the couch with like, you know, he had the other pull out like, it was super funny, because it's like, not big enough. There were people on the floor, but it was super cool to hang out with all of them. So.

Ruben:

Yeah, yeah.

David:

Cool.

Well, I have a couple questions that I like to ask everyone. So we'll throw a few at you. And we'll see what happens.

The first that I like to ask is, if a young 18 to 20 year old was to walk up to you asking for advice. You only had a minute, what would you tell? Such a broad question, I love it.

Ruben:

To blow my mind goes like three different places. But I'm trying to figure out the one thing that would take care of the other two or three.

And I think, I think. Can I force this person to do such?

David:

Sure.

Ruben:

Just ask them all untold stuff.

Um, it has to mean I would have to, I would love to tell and show that person Thinking Grow Rich, because I want to first say get rid of all your friends. That's what I first want to say. You get rid of every single one of your friends and build a new network immediately, right?

But how do you do that, right? It's a mindset change first. So you know, my coach told me sell them what they want, then give them what they need. So maybe I would structure it in a way to where the 18 year old would have given him that book. Will that person get more girls in some way or fashion, right? Something that they want? But in that book is everything you need. So if I could just slap that guy it would be the mindset change that comes with thinking grow rich.

David:

I think I like the get rid of all your friends.

I mean, the point is there that makes perfect sense. You're right. Nobody would listen to you. But, man, some of my friends when I was 18 years old, definitely should have gotten rid of

Cool.

Ruben:

Yep, I think I can think of one friend I would keep around right and he's still in my circle to this day. EOD guy. But an amazing guy. So.

David:

Of course EOD is worth it.

Ruben:

Other than that, get rid of everyone.

David:

And the crummy thing is it's hard to tell who those people are going to be. You know, it's funny, I look back on high school. And I'm going to get somewhat some flack for this if any of these people actually listen to this, which I doubt.

40:00 - 45:00

David:

I can't think of like outside of my friends who went military or were Eagle Scouts. So I was in Boy Scouts. And outside of my friends who were either Eagle Scouts or went military, I can't think of anyone who made it out of our town and is doing big things like all my friends that were Eagle Scouts. Like, I got a buddy who works for the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, I got a buddy who's like, who's in DC working with a congressman, I got a buddy who's, you know, like three or four doctors and all another guy who's got a business he built all these buddies of mine from like, my little Scout troop, all went places. But like, the majority of the people that I know from high school have no idea what to do, nothing. Yeah, they're still in town. You know, nothing wrong with staying in town. But like, it's just weird to think. And if I had known that, when I was a senior in high school, I would have just not even bothered with these people.

Ruben:

Right.

Well, and I would give honestly, the same advice to my friends, right to get rid of me, because I wasn't where I needed to be either right to find a new circle. So I would give them the same advice. I mean, I'm not better than him. I didn't know that would allow us.

David:

It’s a common trend at that age, right? We have like an awakening and that we all go, What the hell? Why didn't I know this sooner? Because you weren't ready?

Ruben:

Yeah.

David:

I often joke about what if someone had handed me Rich Dad Poor Dad earlier, right? And then I'm talking to my mom one day, and she's like, Hey, asshole, I tried to get you to read that in high school. And I'm like, well, that answers that question. That's what would have happened if someone had handed me that book earlier. Nothing, nothing would have happened.

Ruben:

Right. Exactly.

That's why that's why I think that was so profound that my coach said, you gotta sell them what they want, and give them what they need.

David:

Yeah.

Ruben:

So you'd have to structure it in some way that day, you would, would want it right. Something that's gonna give them what they want. But truly the material and content is exactly what they need.

David:

I’ll try to write that code down.

Ruben:

Put it in an acronym.

David:

Yeah.

Ruben:

Put it on a shirt man to sell after this podcast.

David:

I probably posted this one of my little Instagram quotes eventually. And I'll and I'll totally cite you, and then you're gonna see it and be like, what? No. All right. So.

Ruben:

Yeah, yeah.

David:

What is one resource, you know, book, course, website, whatever. I guess you could say, coach, but I think that's obvious. So something else that you would recommend anybody getting started in real estate, either as an investor or an agent or life?

Ruben:

Yeah. So you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad obviously comes to mind because, again, man, everything starts in the mind first, right? So I want to say the millionaire real estate agent, then I want to say the millionaire real estate investor, then I want to say the bigger pocket. That's so it's, it's so strategic, that your mind has to be ready for that, right.

So you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, or really anything that shows you that there's something bigger than yourself out there. You know, some people that's the Bible, right? Like, I don't know, just the big, whatever that whatever is going to change your mindset on what investing truly is, that we can kind of pile on all the strategies behind it. But for me, I needed a coach, I needed someone that I know that was easy. I needed someone to, to get more specific in my world. But anything that's going to tap into your mindset, shake it up and alter what you think is real, and show that the world is bigger than just you, then you can start taking in the content behind investing. I don't know if I danced around that answer. I sure feel like I did.

David:

I think I think you're spot on because you could read the millionaire real estate investor and not do anything with it, if you're not ready for it.

Ruben:

How many people have gotten that book and they love to say that they have it or that they read a few pages, but they're just not ready. It's the mindset, you got to. You gotta surround yourself with multipliers, people who are going to challenge you to think differently. And then once that happens, you'll be open to all of that.

So find whatever the hell that is. For me, it was a coach. Because, and again, my coach told me this, he said, he said, when you pay, you pay attention, right? And when I was paying that coach, you damn right I paid attention. I was freaking pay. I was paying $500 paying her $500 a month and at that time, I was a single dad. I was struggling, struggling and that was a killer for me. But I paid attention. I paid attention to everything she said. I was able to quit UPS in 10 months after coaching with her I thought was going to take two years. So yeah, yeah.

45:00 - 50:00

David:

Cool.

Yeah, that's that's huge. And you're right. I think, I mean, mindsets like the biggest piece to it. In fact, you know, there was this someone was debating the other day I saw a buddy of mine host a podcast and they were having kind of trying to, you know, start some controversy talking about Robert Kiyosaki about oh, well, you know, I don't know, do you believe if any of this is true to you, you know, whatever. And there's a lot of people out there who, like no one can really prove who the Rich Dad Poor Dad was. So they don't know if it was accurate or whatever.

Ruben:

Okay.

David:

And I say that I would almost give him more credit if the whole thing was made up. Because the ability to craft a story that is compelling and that perfect first telling the story to me, is much cooler than if it was true. And I don't really care, you know, like, whatever, because that book, it's probably the only book that I've ever listened to, like five times.

Ruben:

So I would ask the question, I would say, Okay, great, real or fake? How much of an impact does that have made? And then stop, because at that point, it doesn't, what does it matter? What does it matter? I mean, I honestly, I never even thought to ask that question. But damn, what does it matter? What is the impact of how many people that you've had on this podcast mention that book?

David:

Enough that I eventually just stopped counting that as their answer?

Ruben:

Exactly. So you can't even, you almost can't even scale the impact?

David:

No, I can. In fact, when I go home this next month, I need to, I told the guy to head on here the other day, because we're talking about having an impact and how you may never even know that you impacted that person. And it kind of hit me and I was like, yeah, you know, I know the name of the. I can sit down. I was gonna be he talked me into Amway. Amway, didn't work out for me, you know, it is what it is. But I was after the coaching side of things like I was, that's what sold me on Amway, not the products.

And, and, you know, it didn't really work out for me at all, but, but he sat me down, and he said, Here's your sideboard, and you need to read this. And I said, I'm a Marine, I don't read, I don't like reading. And he said, Okay, here's a disc, listen to it while you drive around, and your little recruiter will do. And I did. And that is the single moment that is like, everything else. Within three months, I bought my first investment property, and I mean, things have just snowballed since then. And I need to sit, I need to take, you know, like, hit him up out of nowhere. It's been like three years, just be like, you know, take him out to coffee. Okay, I just want to let you know, I don't know if you see any of this on social media, but it's all from you. Thanks.

Ruben:

Yeah. And that's, that's level one impact, right, where you've bought your first property.

Now, who did it? Who did that impact? Right? Does that start impacting your family? Does that start impacting people who are looking at you as an example? Did that start impacting the person who actually moved into that property who needed a home? Did that start impacting your mindset on this podcast? Where now frickin tons of people listen to that? I mean, that just it, just it compounds. So that would be the question is what what kind of impact do you think this book will make? And then step away, walk out of the room and leave and have them talk. Right?

David:

Yeah, I didn't comment because I was like, am I gonna get involved in all this, but, you know, whatever. I don't care.

I did reach out to him the other day, I don't think it's gonna work out. But like, I know, a guy who knows the guy that is one of his coaches, I was like, Can you shoot him an email, try to. So I was hoping that I would be able to get a hold of him before I leave, because I'm currently stationed on the base where he retired from, and I want to be like, Hey, you know, I'm overlooking where you used to work. Let's get you on my show and talk about it. But it's not the end of my world if I don't hear back from them anytime soon. So be cool, though.

Ruben:

Just, I mean, Google a picture of where you work and say, Hey, I'm looking at the place where you used to work, right? You really mean anywhere and pull.

David:

Everybody tag him in this.

That might actually work. Because I've tagged him in stuff before it had his account comments. So someone's at least paying attention.

Ruben:

Exactly.

David:

Alright. So before we wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to add any parting advice or big ideas that we may have missed?

Ruben:

Well, I'll just say this.

So quadrant, right. So there was, um, there was somebody who kind of broke this down for me, and built out a quadrant. And they added a division symbol and one, a minus symbol and one a plus symbol and one and a multiplication symbol and the other.

And one of the coolest things, and this guy was a coach, oh my gosh, everyone's a freakin coach. I'm just saying it works. That's my network. Yeah, exactly.

And he runs a very successful coaching program. And he had us look at that and basically, add everyone in our world in one of those quadrants. So are they dividing your life? Are they subtracting from your life? Are they adding? Are they multiplying your life and, obviously, the people and I'll just make these real quick people who are dividing your life, just get rid of them. I mean, we're done with those.

The people who are taking away from your life, that's when you have a conversation with that person. And you basically say, I want you to add to my life, I want you in my life. I think you'd be a great asset in my life, and I'll be a great asset in your life. But you gotta quit bringing negativity if you do you automatically start dividing my life, right? And then you get rid of them.

50:00 - 54:19

Ruben:

The positive people, man, those people right there, those are your cheerleaders. You want them around, they're your positive people, they keep you uplifted, those are great people. But the one quadrant that you need to fill up and have and be very purposeful on doing your best to fill up and be intentional about filling up is that multiplication quadrant, the people who challenge you the people who who see more new than you see in yourself, the ones who just make you feel uncomfortable when you even walk in the room, right? Because you know, they're about to test you like it's those, that quadrant right there is so damn important.

So that to me, was super powerful. And I guess that's talking about the quadrant and Robert Kiyosaki just kind of popped in my mind. And that would be the last piece of advice, draw it out, add people in there have real fierce conversations and start filling up that multiplication multiplier symbol, quadrant immediately.

David:

That’s cool!

Ruben:

Today!

David:

Yeah, I'm all about a network, but I never heard it described that way. And that's, that's honestly, that's what I've been slowly working through in my life. And it's weird. So the military has some really solid people. But you know, a lot of them aren't aren't going where I plan to go, right. And so I'm kind of having that come to Jesus moment as they talk about where, okay, now, who do I keep around? Who do I transition out? And as I hang out, every time I hang out with someone high level, even if we're just having a coffee, right, and like just not even talking about business, there's just something I get out of that, that I wouldn't get out of having coffee with one of my peers in the military who just bought a new BMW for no reason. Because that mentality is just different. And.

Ruben:

Right.

David:

Yeah.

Ruben:

I couldn agree.

David:

Except I don't think that I ever have a coffee with one of those guys, and it doesn't turn into business or real estate or whatever. It's amazing the stuff that comes up.

Ruben:

Right and that's that's, I mean, because they want substance in the conversation. They don't want to hollow out we're really we're talking but we're not talking about anything conversation. They want to make sure that their time is being filled up with very purposeful conversation that is going to help them grow their world and essentially help you grow yours.

They want substance in the conversation. That's why it ends up going to those places you know.

David:

yeah, absolutely.

All right. So Mr. proven by Ruben. How can people get a hold of you?

Ruben:

So proven by Ruben on all social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and I'm sure there's more. But those are the main ones I play on. Especially Instagram, follow my stories, comment, ask questions. I tell my day, yes. show my day through stories. So that's the way you get, I can be transparent. You guys can be interactive, because I like that feedback.

But yeah, those are the best Oh, and YouTube, subscribe to the channel. Other than that, hit me up. I'm very I'm someone you can reach very easily. There's a word for that. But I just went that route. So just hit me up on those social media platforms at Proven by Ruben, R U B E N? Hell buy one of these shirts, I'll show you how to buy one of these shirts for your state.

David:

There you go. I might need to get one of those for my state. When I figure out what state that's gonna be a state right now it'd be Hawaii and then two weeks from now, it would be something else but.

Ruben:

whatever starts the conversation, man.

David:

Yeah, I like it. I do. I do like those shirts. It's very simple, simple and very obvious with the messages.

Ruben:

Mm hmm.

David:

Hey Ruben. I really appreciate you joining us today.

Ruben:

Of course.

Thank you, man. I appreciate you building this platform for others to listen to get stuff out of and take action on so thank you.

David:

It's been fun.

End: