Your vision doesn’t have to be that big. Compensation is what matters. You have to make the exceptions, but you also don’t have to force your vision to be this crazy vision. Be transparent with them. I was forced to be very transparent with them because of all the changes that was going on. 90% of the deals that we did were with hedge funds, and that’s where we messed up. Because as soon as the hedge funds turned off, we had too big of an overhead to pivot with the market. If your goal is net revenue and not deal count or not gross revenue or whatever, and your goal is just net revenue, then your whole decision making process changes of how you run your business, how you do deals. I would say the biggest game changer for me was organizing my team on EOS.

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What’s going on guys? Gonzalo, thank you so much for taking the time and hopping on with us today. I know you’ve been in the space for a while, but I am curious how you got into real estate in the first place.

Yeah, absolutely. So thanks for having me on, man. My older brother, me and him are super tight. He’s five years older than me. He read Rich Dad Poor Dad when he was in college. I was about to graduate high school and he got the bug, became a realtor and started buying some houses. And then I was about to graduate high school and he was like, “Dude, you got to get into this. You would crush it in real estate.” And so he took me to a seminar and he took me to one of those three day seminars, self-help motivation seminars, but it was put on by a bunch of real estate guys. And two weeks after that event, I dropped out of college and I went to go work intern basically at one of the guys that I met at that event. So he happened to be in Florida. I was also in Florida and I was like, “Dude, I’m going to go to college for four years and learn and make no money. So why don’t I go learn and make no money working for this guy?” And that turned into me running a wholesale operation for this investor. I was mainly on the dispo side selling the houses. And then I did that for two years. And then in 2017, I started Cash Geeks. And so I broke off on my own and started Cash Geeks. And that’s kind of what got me in the game. So I owe a lot of this to my older brother for pushing me. And I had told him for a while, “No, man, you go be the successful one. You go crush it. ” I was actually going to school to be a cop or criminology and stuff. And yeah, so that’s what got me in the game.

That’s awesome. First off, what a cool older brother to get you in this game. I mean, that’s super, super cool. And then for the people listening, what does the business look like today?

Yeah, so right now what I’m mainly focused on is buying properties from my network. So I’ve wholesaled for since 2015, right? That’s when I got in the game. So this year will be 11 years that I’m in the game. And I wholesaled up until like 2023. We were wholesaling, selling to a bunch of hedge funds and then they stopped buying and that like totally changed my business. We were doing like 400 deals a year and then we weren’t doing any deals, right? And so I had to pivot. And when I pivoted, I parted ways with my partner at that time. I shrunk the company down and that pivoted me into actually closing on assets because I saw a lot of buyers were like leaving the market or too scared to buy and I was getting good deals. And so I started taking them down and that led to me doing some more fix and flips. So right now what the business looks like is we do about 70 deals a year, just buying from other wholesalers and other realtors. Or if it doesn’t work for me, then we just JV dispo for other wholesalers, mainly with the focus of buying and either fix and flipping it or wholetailing it.

Awesome. Awesome. And what was the main problem or thing that you were trying to solve when breaking off and starting your own thing?

Starting my own thing in 2017, like when I first started this company? Yep. So a lot of it was just like I had a job essentially as a dispo guy at a wholesale company. And my goal, everybody knew one day is to start my own thing. And so I would say a lot of it was like, I felt like I was doing a lot of the business, but getting a small percentage of the deal. And so I felt like I couldn’t grow there anymore and I needed to really just go out on my own, start my own thing and I didn’t really have creative control there. I was just a Dispo guy and at least that’s how I was getting paid. It was just a Dispo guy, but I was doing a lot more. I was going to the houses when they were locking them up to underwrite them because I’m not helpful as a Dispo guy if you give me a crap deal, right? And so it turned into me starting to go inspect houses for them, then sometimes even close sellers for them. But honestly, it was great. I’m still tight with my mentor. I still call him my mentor till this day because he really, really let me … It was like a great exit, if that makes sense. “Dude, go fly, go do your thing.” Yeah.

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Why do you think most people, or I’m going to phrase it differently. When it comes to making sure that your employees don’t ever reach that plateau, how do you handle that and how do you try and make it so that your dream is so big that there has to fit inside of it or can fit inside of it? How do you play with that?

Yeah, that’s a great question, man. So the few team members that I have now, they’ve been with me for like five years now. So they were with us when we blew it up. We were crazy big, and then as we shrunk, they kind of stuck it out. And I would say your vision doesn’t have to be that big. Compensation is what matters. And so it doesn’t matter if your goal is to do … I would say my vision was bigger when I was doing 300 deals a year than I am doing now, but my team members are getting paid more money now than they were then. And so Compensation, I mean, let’s just get right to it, right? I’m no fluff kind of guy. They just want to make more money. That’s how they grow, right? Most people, right? And so if you can just figure out how to make more money. I think one of the things is, which is hard to do in an organization that has a lot of people, is tailoring different structures with different individuals. And it’s harder to do when you have a big machine, right? And so it’s harder to break that mold for the right individuals, but you should break the mold for those right individuals. With the team, we actually read a book called 11 Rings. Phil Jackson wrote the book and he basically tells a story about how he coached all these teams and got 11 rings, right? And one of the things that really stood out from the book was make the exceptions for the rock stars. That’s what Made Phil. He would tell the other team members, yo, Jordan is our guy. So if Jordan wants to show up at 5:00 PM, he shows up at 5:00 PM and that’s it. But you still have to show up at this time, but Jordan’s Jordan. So we’re going to make the exception for Jordan and if you have a problem with it, you can go. And so that was a very unique thing to experience because we always felt like we were going against the grain when we were making exceptions for rock stars. And so you have to make the exceptions, but you also don’t have to force your vision to be this crazy vision, be transparent with them. I was forced to be very transparent with them because of all the changes that was going on. And then when I started Cashbloom, it was me and another business partner. And so we were firing a ton of people and then that led to me and my partner splitting up. And so at that point, the vision isn’t like, “Hey, we’re going to go do a hundred more deals next year.” It was like, “How can I convey what I’m going through to my team for them to stick it with me? ” And so it’s not about the vision being big, it’s about the vision being clear. Are you the leader leading from the front? Do they believe what you’re saying and then just pay them well and they will outgrow their pay. I say it to this day, if they paid me better at the other company, I would have never started cash cake, but it was just I had to get paid what the Dispo guys got paid because I was just a Dispo guy. It doesn’t matter if I was a rockstar went above and beyond, I got paid my Dispo cut and that was it. And so, yeah, so I would say vision doesn’t have to be as big. Just pay them well.

I like what you said about the Jordan thing. It’s like, first off, if you’re pissed about it, either leave or be Jordan, like have that worth ethic and become that guy so that you get the exception, 100%. When it comes to doing less deals, I feel like when you do less deals, you can squeeze more out of each deal and it most of the time evens out. Obviously you’re doing in that 70 range compared to that 300 range. How much simpler is it and have you seen that you get more out of each deal than when you were doing 300? Oh,

Absolutely. I would say that the bottom line is the bottom line. It doesn’t matter what top line revenue is. And I was young and got sucked into that top line revenue goal and dream, right? I was going to all these events and masterminds and stuff and everybody’s just crushing top line revenue. And so I was the guy who was like, “I’m going to crush top line revenue because one day that will mean I will net more, right? One day.” And so it wasn’t until I had to start over again and I was forced to start over again because of what happened to our business when the interest rates went up, my business was solely … 90% of the deals that we did were with hedge funds and that’s where we messed up, right? Because as soon as the hedge funds turned off, we had too big of an overhead to pivot with the market. And so because of that, we’d slowly had to make cuts and cuts and cuts. And then once I went to go do this again, I was like, “Okay, well, I’m not going to go do that again. I’m not going to go bring in five mil to keep 500K. I’m going to go bring in one mil and keep 500K.” Also, in that year in 2022, I had my first kid. And so that played a lot into my priorities changed from just a vanity metric of a top line revenue and building this massive business to what’s the least amount of work I have to do to make the most amount of money that I can. And so that changed my model into, I’m just going to be buying houses from other wholesalers because direct to seller takes a lot of energy and time and focus. And I also feel like I was a little bit burnt out. I feel like since I’ve turned it off, I’m kind of getting that hype again of like, all right, I need to go talk to some sellers and get my own deals, but that totally simplified my business. And if your goal is net revenue and not deal count or not gross revenue or whatever, and your goal is just net revenue, then your whole decision making process changes of how you run your business, how you do deals. Yeah. And so I love it. I also think there’s a time and place for it, right? So if the market was super hot, maybe I would be pressing on the gas a little bit more, but I also think that in this market, you have to have your eyes on every deal. You have to have your eyes on every call. You have to be on top of it. You can’t let one deal fall through. And so because of that, having a small team allows us to, like you said, maximize every deal because I have my elite team members on every single deal.

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So I would say the biggest game changer for me was organizing my team on EOS. Because things are slower, like when everything is fast paced and you’re just running to the next appointment, we cared a lot less about having these scorecards and metrics and you know what I mean? Because the deals were just happening and cool, did we make money? Awesome. Who cares on these metrics? And so I had always put that off. And so since things were a little bit less hectic, it was like the perfect time to start that. And so I am not that guy. I’m very, I would say disorganized, not a planner, winging it, say yes, figure it out later, kind of dude. And so now that I’m on my own with Cash Geeks and pivoting, trying to figure out what to do in this market, kind of saying yes and figuring it out later doesn’t always work. And so I had to figure out how to get a little bit more organized. I’ve been part of these mastermind groups where everybody was always hyping up EOS or at least some sort of structure like that. And so I was like, “You know what? This is the time to do it. If I’m ever going to do it, now is the time. It’s not going to be when I’m hiring back a bunch of people or the market’s crazy again.” And so that I would say has been game changer because it really has allowed us to stop worrying about noise and just worry about the next 90 days. What are we doing in the next 90 days? Did we buy the nine houses that we said we were going to buy in those 90 days? Did we bring in the X amount of revenue that we said we were going to do in those next 90 days? And so that’s been game changer, not just on the scorecard side, but also on like the rocks. So with Rock, so basically with EOS, they make us figure out scorecard metrics for every employee, every department. And so like, what are the metrics that actually matter? And then you also have your rocks, which are just basically like mini projects/goals, right? So for example, one of my guys is transitioning to helping me buy houses, right? And so one of the projects that I have to do for this quarter is to connect him with my book of business. All the people that send me deals for me to buy, I need to connect him to them so that they can start sending him deals, but like that doesn’t really go on a scorecard, right? But that is a project. And so as you know, as an entrepreneur running a business, the project list is never ending. And so if you don’t pick what specific projects we’re going to do for this quarter, then you just never move the needle. So That I would say was game changer and I’m not that guy. I would talk crap about EOS because I’m like, “Oh, they’re just wasting time planning all day and going over goals. We’re getting contracts.” We’re on the phones with sellers, not planning and reviewing our scorecards. And now it’s a big deal if we miss our Tuesday level 10 meeting, it just feels like we haven’t checked in. It feels like I don’t have a pulse on the business. And it’s not just me saying this, it’s like my team. My team loves it too, because before it was just like, “Okay, what are we doing every day? Cool. Gee, hopefully G’s figured out this year.” Because since 2022, it’s been like pivoting every six months, figuring out what to do. And so now it forces you to stop pivoting. It forces you to … Not saying you shouldn’t pivot if you have to, but if you’re not organized and have that, “What am I doing in the next 90 days?” Things pop up, “Oh, hey, this deal pops cool. Let’s do a new construction deal. Let’s go do this. Let’s go. ” Yeah. So that’s been game changer for us.

Yeah. You mentioned Masterminds a lot, and obviously we’re in a lot of them. I know you’re in one. There’s tons of different masterminds out there, and obviously you got to find the one that fits you and the one you can relate to and the one that helps you most. But how important is it for someone that maybe is scared to put money into a mastermind or scared to invest in themselves? How crucial has that been for you and what would you tell an investor that is scared to invest in themselves and go to an event or join a mastermind?

So I’ll make it very easy because I’m sure you can say, “Oh, the connections that you’ll make, the lessons that you’ll make, blah, blah, blah.” Don’t get me wrong, all that’s there. But all of your competitors are in Mastermind, so I’ll just leave it at that. You want to do what your competitors are doing, you want to market how they’re marketing, you’re trying to beat them to deals. One way to continue to be like your competitors is do what your competitors do and all the top guys that I know doing deals. We were just talking about one guy that’s doing TV ads with you guys. I just bought a house from him. He’s in a ton of masterminds. I’m sure that’s how you guys probably connected, right? And so your competitors that are beating you on deals are in Masterminds. That’s what I realized early on. Who do I want to be like? What businesses do I want to be like? Oh, they’re going to all these seminars and conferences and masterminds. And so if they’re doing it, I don’t need to know exactly why, but if that’s what they’re doing, I need to do it too. And so I kind of caught the bug with my brother because he took me to a seminar. That was what got me into it. And so at that seminar, I was like, dang, that one seminar literally changed my life. And so since then, I’m kind of biased when it comes to masterminds or seminars because I’m like, dude, that one seminar, I’m like, I’m here today because of that seminar. So I need to keep going to these things and I will keep going to them because number one, they also, they’ll just make you money. After you join, you’re so scared of like, how is this going to pan out, whatever. Then next thing you know, you meet a hard money lender and you get a discount because you’re just in the group. And then you meet another guy who’s like, “Oh yeah, I can … I’m a mobile home dealer and anybody’s in this group.” I mean, obviously don’t quote me on this stuff, but like, anybody who’s in this group, I give a 10% like, “Oh, well I do mobile homes and like I just got a 10% discount just for joining this group.” This is awesome. So obviously it’ll pay for itself, but you don’t know that going in. But what you do know is almost all of your competitors, if not all of them, are in these groups. So do you want to be like your competitors or do you want to be better than them? And you have to join these groups.

100%. When it comes to the word success, everyone’s got their own definition for it, everyone’s got their own way to measure it and strive for it. How do you define the word success? How do you measure it? And then how do you strive for it every day?

Hey, so number one, I would say, how do I define success? Man, I hate to get all kind of like spiritual, but like that’s really for me is like, it starts with that. Is God happy with my life? Right? And so that’s what I would define as success is, am I living the biblical truth of being a son of God? And that’s the way that I would look at it. What that means though is like, are you honoring God in everything that you do? Are you treating your wife and family as a godly man? Are you treating your business as a godly man? Are you being honest, truthful, true integrity? That to me is success. I don’t measure success in deals or money, right? So that’s the way that I measure success. And so because of that also, like deal count matters less to me. Top line revenue matters less to me. It’s all about like, do I have enough to pay my bills and invest and have a good life? Don’t get me wrong. I want to make money. I want to do deals. I want to not work forever, so I need to take some of this money that I’m making and not blow it and invest it. And the more I will invest, the quicker I can retire. And so it inspires me to go make more money so then I can retire sooner. But I would say, is your wife happy with you? Does your wife love you or does she want to divorce you? That’s success to me. If your kids hate you or do your kids love you? And I’m sure there will be phases in my life where my kids hate me, right? But that’s the way that I kind of look at it.

Yeah, I love that. Especially when they’re teenagers, of course.

Yes.

What do you think, in your opinion, is the biggest challenge that we’re seeing right now in real estate?

I would say if I’m being honest, the biggest challenge is uncertainty. And so uncertainty creates kind of a lull of activity. And so that is what I would say is, for me, the biggest challenge right now is like, I know people want to do deals, but because of the uncertainty, people aren’t pressing on the gas. And so yeah, there’s nothing like every year we’re like, okay, new president. Okay. Now it’s like, oh, now the Fed is going to change the guy in charge, right? The chairman of the feds. So like, oh, once he comes in, now we’ll really have a good market. Or like you just never know. And so everybody’s waiting for that clear like, “Oh, we’re back.” Right? And so I don’t know that that’s going to happen very clearly. It may have already happened for some people, it may have not happened for some people. And so as a whole, there’s still this uncertainty, and I think that’s the biggest challenge that we face.

Yeah. Well, let me ask you a question. If you were going to start from scratch, the business goes away, you can keep all the knowledge you’ve learned over the years, but the business completely goes away, what would you focus on first to rebuild?

So I’m a people person. So I would immediately go to as many networking events as I can and just go get a pulse on your local market. I’m a belly to belly guy, I’m a networker, right? That’s how I do my business and so-

You’re talking local events, right? Like Rios-

Talking local events, yes. Go to meetup.com and look up your local REA and go to those. Those matter more in the beginning than any mastermind or whatever. It’s going to be too high level too. You’ll get there, but you want to be closing deals and figure out what’s really a deal versus what you think is a deal. Go talk to the local people and you can’t just go to one because that night might have sucked at that meetup. And so join everything. I still, I close deals. I’ve been doing so many deals and businesses and like employees and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I still go to, that’s actually one of the scorecard metrics that we have is, are we going to networking events? Because that’s where we get the local pulse and that’s where we actually see, all right, hey, people aren’t liking this strategy anymore. Hey, people aren’t doing this anymore. And you find out late if you’re not tapped into your local market.

Yeah, 100%, 100%. What drives you to keep innovating, to keep helping your people succeed? What keeps you motivated?

Freedom. I had this thought of like the bigger my business, the more freedom I will have. And I’m not the best business owner, so I can’t structure a bigger business to run without me when I was doing the most deals ever is when I had the least time freedom. And so for me, I am motivated to truly have freedom. And what I mean by freedom is time freedom, right? Especially now, I’ve had three babies in the last three years, and I haven’t had my wife, so she’s the rockstar, right? But my wife’s had three babies in the last three years. She’s pregnant with our fourth, and so that just demands a lot of doctor’s appointments and missing work. And then I never … Before you have kids, you love three day weekends, right? Once you have kids, dude, three day weekends suck. Those are like, “Oh dang, it’s Monday. I got to go to work, but I can’t because my kids are at home now. So I got to watch the kids for the day.” So time freedom, but three, four years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. There’s no way I could take a Monday off or work from home on a Monday. The team needs me. I need to be there running the ship, right? And so that’s what I would say keeps me going and keeps me innovating is you think you have freedom figured out until a deal goes bad, until you lose money on a deal and you’re like, “Crap, I got to get back on the grind. I got to figure it out. ” Or it doesn’t work out with a team member, now you’re back on it. And so yeah, freedom drives me. And I think that’s what also my team wants, right? As far as going back to your first question of like, how do you Keep these people. Dude, if somebody needs to work from home, just be cool with it. They need that flexibility to not leave you because if they are worthy of leaving you, they can just go do this on their own. And a lot of people have. And so just give them that time freedom. I don’t care what time you’ve come into the office or not. Are you grinding? If you’re grinding, who cares? Just grind. Yeah.

That’s awesome. Well, if someone’s interested in reaching out to you or has questions or anything like that, where can people find you? Where can people reach out to you?

Yeah. So I would say you can just send me an email or send me a text. My email is Gonzalo, G-O-N-Z-A-L-O @cashgeeks.com. And my phone number is 941-993-9892.

Awesome. I love it. I love it. Well, G, thank you so much for …