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