Expand Your Thinking, Take Action, Repeat: A Blueprint for Financial Success with Rafael Cortez

Episode 89: Expand Your Thinking, Take Action, Repeat: A Blueprint for Financial Success with Rafael Cortez

THE Profit First FOR REI PODCAST

May 27, 2022

David Richter

Summary:

Have you had enough of your 9 to 5 and want to make a big leap in real estate investing?

Today we’re getting into the mind and systems of Rafael Cortez from REI Wholesaling. Make sure to strap in because Rafael will teach you how to expand your perspective, assess the pulse of your business, and take immediate action to build that legacy wealth!

Key Takeaways:

[1:52] How Rafael started in business transportation to real estate investing

[7:47] Organizational psychology helps you build a blueprint of the right people going on the right seats

[11:20] One of his biggest lessons is understanding that he had limited beliefs, and his financial thermostat wasn’t dialed in yet

[12:18] The importance of paying yourself first

[16:34] Rafael shares how he’s structured his business throughout the years

[17:14] You’re not accounting for that money to rescue you. You have to make it work

[20:05] Getting into those habits of what are you trying to accomplish in both your personal life and career

[24:58] There’s no magic recipe for success. It comes down to putting yourself in rooms that will make you grow

Quotes:

[1:43] “I didn’t choose the thug life. The thug life chose me.”

[7:15] “Everything begins with mindset. Once you understand the mindset, you can become aware of what can happen as you go to your low and high cycles.”

[16:46] “At a very simple essential level, you create a budget for your business.”

Links:

Rafael’s Instagram-https://instagram.com/rafaelcortezceo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

REI Wholesaling- www.reiwholesaling.com

Tired of living deal to deal? 

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David

Transcript:

Rafael Cortez (00:00):

Everything begins with mindset. Once you understand mindset, you become aware of the stuff that, uh, that can happen as you’re going through your low cycles and your high cycles. And you kind of, you have an idea of how to manage or mitigate some of those, uh, risks, emotional risks. Um, you become a better entrepreneur. You become a better business owner.

Intro (00:19):

Welcome to the Profit First REI podcast where real estate investors, master financial management, eradicate entrepreneurial poverty, and learn to be profitable from day one. Now for your host David Richter,

David Richter (00:41):

Hey everyone. It’s David Richter again with the Profit First REI podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We have another special guest today, Rafael Cortez, and this guy is doing some awesome things in real estate and helping other people achieve amazing things in real estate as well too. And this is when I love having people on that, not just do the actual action of the wholesaling and fix and flip or real estate, but they’re also teaching others too, because a lot of the people, you, they get a bad rap. It seems like, like, oh, you do one deal. And then you teach someone. But the, the people that we have on this podcast, they are doing it actively. And they’ve been doing it for a long time. And now they’re teaching and they’re really teaching people how to really get to where they need to be. So Rafael, thank you so much for coming on today. Really appreciate it.

Rafael Cortez (01:27):

Absolutely, man, my pleasure. It’s an honor to be here. Thanks for blight.

David Richter (01:30):

Oh yeah, for sure. So let’s get a little bit into your story so people can get to know you a little bit on the podcast. So what got you started in real estate and then we’ll go on your journey from there.

Rafael Cortez (01:40):

I like to say that the, uh, the, I didn’t choose the thug life. The thug life chose me. <laugh> uh, it comes to real estate. Yep. But I I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 21 and I started a business in transportation, uh, in 2007 and you know, it had nothing to do with real estate yet. So I started kind of getting into systems and development and kind of understanding what the ins and outs business were. Um, I came, you know, I started putting money together. I bootstrap that business and I started putting money together. And then I, you know, what I do with it, the, the first natural thing, because I didn’t understand stocks or, you know, there was no such thing as Bitcoin or anything like that going on was like, I don’t know, flip a house, put it into a property, uh, and then double it and then, you know, keep doing it all over again, uh, over and over again.

Rafael Cortez (02:25):

So, uh, yeah, I did that. I started with that in 2009 and, and flipped a couple of properties and, uh, eventually ended up selling the transportation business. But during that time, I mean, I stayed active in, in real estate and I came across a couple of podcasts, uh, for whole selling. And, you know, I knew I could find deals through email campaigns just by signing up to like different people’s email lists. I didn’t know how they worked. I didn’t know, you know, what they were doing. I didn’t know how the process kind of, you know, was laid out. And, and then, you know, I came across the whole concept of posts selling. It was like, I’d, you know, flip paper than flip an actual property. I wanna flip my vested interest in a property. Right. So it just kind of, you know, it, it, it was one of those things I started flipping and then got into wholesaling.

Rafael Cortez (03:09):

Uh, usually it’s the other way around, but, but, uh, yeah, it, it, uh, uh, I just need to replace some cash and I, the first property, man, it’s so crazy. I bought the, the property cash. So I paid for the property cash. There was no financing, no leveraging, no nothing. So I put a bunch of cookies into that own property. Um, and then financed the rehab. I mean, I did it all wrong. Thankfully I didn’t lose money. I made about $2,000 after like six months of sweat and tears. Um, but, uh, it was like the best schooling I could have ever gotten. <laugh>

David Richter (03:44):

Awesome. Yeah. That some it’s sometimes those ones that don’t go the way that we want ’em to that give us the best schooling and give us the best, you know, and even I’m glad you did make money cuz there’s a lot of people, they have like six figure ex educations where they’re going the wrong way.

Rafael Cortez (03:59):

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

David Richter (04:01):

Well, so then tell us a little bit about your journey from there. You started real estate investing and then, you know, like what year was that then? How, you know, like what are you doing today? Cuz you’ve got an active wholesaling and foot business now too.

Rafael Cortez (04:12):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I, uh, I, I started doing acquisitions for, for Sean Terry actually in 2000, 2013 and I was this acquisitions guy for, for three years. So during that time I, I, I sold the business 2014, actually I sold the business in 2014 and um, I, I cashed out. So I had that business for a period of eight years. just under eight years, uh, and cashed out. Right. So I was just sitting on, on, on this idea that I want, you know, I wanna build something, I wanted do something and I wanna do it in real estate. And I didn’t wanna flip, like I knew I didn’t like swinging hammers and then managing crews and the transportation business I built, I started by myself, just me, one vehicle. And then I built that to, to a fleet of close to 30 vehicles and, and 46 employees.

Rafael Cortez (05:00):

And I didn’t want the headaches. Like I, I wanted to step away from that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So I saw the opportunity. I applied, started doing acquisitions with, with uh, Sean and, um, and he, I mean he just, you know, put me in trial by fire type of thing, started going on appointments face to face. And then one thing led to another. I stayed there for about three years and, and um, in my background during this whole time I was, I was going to, I got my bachelor’s in business administration and business management. So I was kind of, I was soaked in with KPIs and how to, you know, how to run the business. There’s a lot of logistics and transportation. So I had to learn that stuff. And I already had that too under my belt. So, um, started fine tuning a lot of that stuff as I got exposed, you know, to, um, to wholesaling and the process and really coming into a place where I just got exposure, just cut the learning curve.

Rafael Cortez (05:47):

I mean, by a good 10 years, honestly, I mean, I was going on like five face to face appointments a day. Wow. And doing a ton of negotiation back and forth. Um, I have, um, eventually, you know, I graduated, uh, I got two master’s degrees in, in, in psychology. One is organizational psychology and that’s, that’s my practice. Um, but it’s, it all happened like over a period of, of, you know, four or five years when I really went into it and just decided to improve and then decided to learn and, and, and just grow and get it outta my comfort zone. Right. Yeah. Um, yeah, eventually, um, I, I ended up, uh, leaving and I started my own, uh, wholesaling business and, you know, went back to the fixed and flip. So I have a, a, a standing company now it’s full capital where we wholesale, we fixed and flip cherry pick. And then we, you know, keep those that we wanna, you know, work with. Um, I also own a brokerage and then I own a, um, an organizational psychology practice where I, I do, uh, coaching consulting for businesses and different verticals as well as, uh, specific program in real estate investments and wholesaling. So

David Richter (06:50):

Awesome. I love that. So you’ve got a psychology degrees and that’s helping you root the owners and get them in the organizational psychology and getting them to where they need to be. So I guess talk about that a little bit. That’s definitely an interesting twist there that you don’t hear much in real estate that people go down that route.

Rafael Cortez (07:08):

Yeah, no, I love it. I mean, I think it’s, it’s, uh, a lot of times it’s the missing link, right? Between the, uh, uh, everything begins with mindset. Once you understand mindset, you become aware of the stuff that, uh, that can happen as you’re going through your low cycles and your high cycles. And you kind of, you have an idea of how to manage or mitigate some of those, uh, risks, emotional risks. Um, you become a better entrepreneur, you become a better business owner. Uh, now mix that in with understanding behavioral psychology and how people operate, how people process information, and you can plug them into the right places in your company, right? Yes. So it, you start building this blueprint, uh, and of, you know, the right people going in the right seats. And we, we hear that on EOS and, and you know, just about every, every other, you know, business, uh, or coaching program out there. Right. But how do you do it? So, so that’s where it comes in. It’s it’s organizational psychology at, at, at its essence. Right? Yeah.

David Richter (08:02):

I love that.

Rafael Cortez (08:04):

Yeah. But it’s, it’s an incredible way to really craft a team. And then, um, more importantly, fine tune, um, based off of the abilities that you already have in the talent that you have within your company.

David Richter (08:14):

Yeah. No, I love that. Cuz that is so important. Cuz you, like you said, you hear that everywhere, right. People, right seat. Yes. How do you actually do that? How do you actually put those people in the right seat? Because it is the most important thing. The people are the most important thing. Even if you have a small team and you run lean, those people are even that much more important to make sure that you, you know, you have them in the right position and you are holding them accountable to the right things.

Rafael Cortez (08:37):

Yeah. It’s human capital, man. It’s human capital. People see payroll as an expense. It’s not, it’s an investment, the best investment you’re gonna have in your business.

David Richter (08:44):

Yeah. Big time. Yeah. Yeah. Thousand. Exactly. I love that. I love that. If, if you’re listening right now and you’re thinking like, oh man, I need to hire someone. That’s a good thing. You know like you should, if you are ready to grow, if it is the right timing, if you have made that, those decisions, it is it’s that capital, it is an investment. So I absolutely love that. That’s a, that’s very key. So let’s talk a little bit about the money side then it’s first REI podcast. Let’s go over a little bit. And I like that you have the, the psychology side because I ask a lot of people, this question on the podcast, what early lessons did you learn about money and how does that compare to what you think about money today?

Rafael Cortez (09:24):

Ooh, I mean, that’s, that’s a loaded question. Oh yeah. Um, I had limitations. I had, I definitely had my, my limited beliefs when it came to money. I grew up in a, in a, in a small town and, and you know, $30,000 was, you know, you were, you were rolling in it, you know, it’s that kind of, uh, mentality, which, you know, for the place it was okay. Like it was a standard of living, uh, 30, 45 K. I became a fireman when I was 19 and I started, uh, earning about 60,000 hours a year. I mean, I, I spent a lot of time overtime hours and, and all kinds of stuff. Right. So I started earning about 60 and I felt like I was okay, cool. Breaking the, uh, the mold a little bit, but I was still caught like at that, uh, at that space.

Rafael Cortez (10:07):

And as I started moving on, I started my own business and started getting exposed to bigger and bigger and bigger bills. Not, not necessarily profits but bills. Right. But things to pay and overhead. And, and then I became exposed to that. Um, it, um, it it’s, it’s almost like the, the elastic, uh, the elasticity of, of my, my financial, um, you know, gauge just, you know, kind of started expanding, you know, you know what I mean? Um, so, but definitely I had a lot of, uh, you know, limiting beliefs when I first came into it, even when I started negotiating deals. Um, and, and I’ll make it real estate specific. But when I would go into my initial appointments and walk into the house, uh, for the first, I mean, I gotta say maybe six months or something, the first thing that would always pop into my mind was a money problem, money, problem, money, problem.

Rafael Cortez (10:53):

People have money problems. People have not, you know, and that, that was my, my, uh, assumption, because that’s the way I was thinking, you know, that’s the way I was wired. I was wired with limiting beliefs in terms of money. Um, but that, wasn’t the case. Like if, if you know, people were having time issues, people were having relationship issues and they just needed to, you know, do something with the property, not through the MLS. Right. So we came in that way. Uh, but a lot of it was just challenging. Right. And it was one of the biggest lessons was understanding that I had limited beliefs, uh, in my capacity, my, my financial thermostat wasn’t, you know, wasn’t dialed in yet. Yeah. You know, to that point of growth. Yeah. Yeah. Um, as time, you know, kind of went by the more I, you know, I started earning, right.

Rafael Cortez (11:36):

It started expanding and things become normal after a while and whatnot, uh, then you gotta do something else. So for me, that’s something else was going to masterminds, putting myself in rooms where, I mean, I feel like the smallest fish in the pond, um, even, you know, even though I’m relatively successful right. In, in my field, in my area, but you go to other places where people are just crushing and doing something, it like just breaks your thinking, it breaks your, your, your chain of beliefs, limited beliefs, and then you just restructure from there. But yeah, it’s, uh, moneywise, I think it’s some of the most valuable lessons, um, have been well that’s one. And then the other one was, uh, paying myself first, honestly, like it it’s, I didn’t do that for years in my first business. Uh, and I was always scrambling, scrambling, scrambling, scrambling. Uh, it’s not, it’s not the right way. <laugh>

David Richter (12:28):

I love that. I love, I love hearing, I hear so many different answers, but this one is, I love this one because it’s, it is about number one, that those limiting beliefs, we all have them, even if you grew up in a great entrepreneurial family and whatnot, you are exposed to so many different beliefs as growing up. And like, what are some of those ones that are hindering you from getting to where you really should be? And then I love what you said too, then going out to these places and making yourself be that small fish in a bigger room, a big fish, you know, of like, then you are really expanding that mindset then. Yeah, of course we have to hone in on paying yourself first, cuz this, since this is the Profit First REI podcast. So let’s talk about that. So when did you make that leap from cuz you said your first business, it didn’t, you didn’t really have that mindset. So how did that mindset change to paying yourself first and like what did you see about actually putting in a system like that to pay yourself first?

Rafael Cortez (13:23):

I think the first time where I started actually paying myself, uh, was back in 2000, I think three years into the transportation business. Okay. Transportation. I mean, I had to pursue contracts with the government, so we had accounts receivable, accounts, payables, and all kind, you know, so there was a delay in payment. Right. Um, and I would just allocate all the expenses and then just pull from the account and, and I never knew how my business was doing, which is crazy. Like, but I had no other, like I had, I didn’t have an accountability method. Um, the, uh, I did a couple of things early on and that was before I, I, you know, I, I, I clarified, clarified it with a, with a profit, uh, you know, first mental mentality. And, um, that was, it hit me. Right. Like, no, I gotta pay myself.

Rafael Cortez (14:07):

We have enough cushion in, in the, uh, in the bank now. So up until I, I built it out. Um, that’s when I started drawing. Right. And getting, actually putting myself on a, on a paycheck and then doing draws. Um, so that was one of the things that happened like about three and a half years into it. Uh, I would’ve knowing what I know now I would’ve started from day one. Hmm. Um, I would absolutely would’ve started from day one at least at, you know, with a small portion, with a small amount. Yeah. Uh, but building that, uh, you know, that muscle, because it was, it was a game changer once I started doing it, uh, now I wasn’t operating or my profits were not, you know, um, accounting for what I was making a year. Like yeah. How much did your business make a year? Well, my profits were $350,000. Did you pay yourself like no then

David Richter (14:53):

<laugh> right.

Rafael Cortez (14:54):

Yeah. It’s just, it’s bubbled up numbers right at, at the end of the day. So what are the real profits, you know, outside of what you’re making, uh, understanding that was a big, big, uh, game changer. Um, and then more importantly, adjusting my lifestyle, uh, and really like setting up a foundation from my lifestyle based off of that. And building from that as opposed to having, you know, boom, $50,000 months and then $500 months, uh, just because of the, you know, the, the accounts receivables and the delays, it’s the government. Sometimes they pay on time. Sometimes they don’t, you know, give a crap and then they’ll just carry it for 90 days. Mm-hmm <affirmative> um, and, and that’s the nature of it. Right. So, uh, yeah, but that to me was a big, big, big breaking point.

David Richter (15:34):

Awesome. So then what about your real estate businesses? Did you set that up in your real estate businesses when you started them and now you want, you know, making sure that they have a system for that because like I, you were talking about the government being inconsistent. I think real estate can be, uh, pretty inconsistent sometimes as well, too, if, if you agree.

Rafael Cortez (15:52):

Absolutely. If you don’t, if you’re listen, if you’re you’re marketing, I just flew in, I landed about 20 minutes ago, uh, and drove straight in here, but I came from a, from a, um, a sales Mar um, seminar or training. Uh, if your marketing is not important, it’s not consistent. Uh, your, your capital, your earnings are not gonna be consistent in real estate. It doesn’t matter how great of an agent or how great of a wholesaler of a closer, it doesn’t matter. Uh, if that’s not consistent, if your system is not consistent, your earnings are not gonna be consistent. That’s, you know, super important I think to keep in mind right. Or figure I’d put it out there. Um, but it’s, uh, yeah, the, the, uh, now the way that I structure is, you know, the wholesale business, we have profit shares. We have, uh, percentages, we have incentives and we have, you know, all kinds of stuff that’s in place.

Rafael Cortez (16:38):

Right. But I draw out, um, first, okay, this is, this is because it creates a budget. I mean, at a very, you know, simple, essential level, uh, what it’s doing, it’s, you’re creating a budget for your business. Yeah. That it’s not no longer dependent on your survival, your ability to survive on, on, on 20 bucks. Um, it’s, it’s, you’re creating a budget. So instead of operating from, you know, 150, um, you operate off of a, you know, a hundred or whatever minus per pay is. Yeah. Um, but it, it, trust me, it’s, it’s almost like, um, outta sight down of mind, right? Yeah. Like you’re not accounting for that money being there coming to rescue you, you have, you’re gonna make it work. You’re gonna make your marketing work with that budget. You’re gonna find ways to lean out your system. You’re gonna, you know, find ways to be more efficient.

Rafael Cortez (17:23):

And I think it’s, you know, it was one of the catalysts that, uh, that really triggered everything back in 2009, once they started doing that, I was like, okay, cool. I am not touching this. Um, and I created a different, and I created just a, a, a different setup for accounts, which I had for years, and I’ll break it down if you want. Um, and, uh, but that was, that was my version. Profit First is a lot better, but that was my version when I first got started. Um, but anyways, doing that kind of, you know, helped me allocate right where the funds were and what the real numbers were at, at, you know, at any, any point in time. Otherwise it, it’s impossible to, to listen. If you have scorecards, if you have a CPA and account, you still gotta do the accounting yourself.

Rafael Cortez (18:01):

You’re the accounter of your business. Not that you have to, you know, break down every receipt and whatnot, but you have to know your numbers. Right. Um, there has to be a fast way of doing it and then filling out a, a KPI spreadsheet every week I tried it, I tried it for years and never worked. I always, you know, dropped the ball. I, you know, went three, four weeks without doing it. And then, uh, oh, you know what, it’s gonna take me two hours instead of 15 minutes. So I’m gonna push it back to next week. And, and that sort of thing, that consistency, again, kicks in. You have to make it simple. But yeah. So the, uh, what I, what I started doing, uh, when I started paying myself was I, I broke down a couple of different accounts. One was the create account.

Rafael Cortez (18:40):

Um, it’s to create memories that’s I would throw money in there and I would throw a percentage, like 5% in there for, for vacations for just, you know, create whatever I wanted to create. Like, I don’t know. We wanna go to take a vacation to Florida or something. Yeah. Like I I’d look at that account. Um, my wealth account was a second one, uh, and that’s where I just, all the income went into that account. And then I had the live account, which all the expenses were being taken out of my, my live account living expenses. And then I had the, uh, the flow account. I called it the flow account, but that was like, uh, to pay off debt and then do investments. And then that was my flow. So I had percentages, I got a, uh, anytime I got money, I would just allocated to those accounts. So I had to create wealth live and flow. Like, that’s how it rolled in my head. And for a couple of years, I, I, you know, actually about six, seven years, but I rolled with those, those accounts in place and it helped. Right. And then I, I saw the, the, like declared behind everything else, like, uh, Profit First and, and now, okay, wow. I can see the actual business temperature where I’m at, just by looking at this and making it so simple. Like it’s a no brainer. Right? Definitely no brainer. Yeah.

David Richter (19:46):

I love that. I love those accounts too. Like, even before you had read Profit First, you had a system like that too, make sure that what was important to you was taken care of. And I think that’s the, that’s where a lot of people get tripped up with Profit First. They’re like, oh, all these bank accounts in this system. And it’s like, well, you understand, the whole reason is behind it is getting into those habits of what are you really trying to accomplish in your business or your personal life or whatever. So I love that. I love those account names that you had. I love, you know, that you have them specifically, you have to be intentional, you know, and you have to hold yourself accountable, you know, and hold yourself accountable to those accounts and making sure I’m funding these and that I’m getting that in there. So I love that. So then, so then now in your, in your businesses and your systems, like the first model you’re getting, you know, you implement that in place. And it just sounds like from what you said, just gives you a lot of clarity, gives you a lot of clarity of knowing the what’s there, how we can run the business and, you know, do you wanna just speak on that just a little bit about the clarity it gives you?

Rafael Cortez (20:45):

Well, again, I mean it, when you have, when you have a baseline of, okay, this is, this is my operations, right? This is where I, I, and the baseline happens. As soon as you set it up, when you set it up, you have, you know, now you have a, a blueprint. Okay, cool. This is in reality, without any BS, without blowing up numbers, without, you know, me not paying myself and, and wishful thinking like this is really where the business is at. And sometimes it can be a bit scary, right? It is. Ugh. Alright, cool. It’s not the sexiest thing. Um, I think, I mean, subconsciously, I think we, we drive away from things like that because we don’t wanna realize the, uh, the, uh, the deficits that we may have as we, as we start building businesses. But I mean, the, the sooner that you tackle those, and you become honest about where you’re at financially, where you’re at, you know, with your team and, and, you know, this is an entrepreneur in general, the sooner that you can fix those issues, uh, to me, it was eyeopening, right?

Rafael Cortez (21:39):

Because I started setting things up. And then, um, I, this is, this is my, this is where I allocate what I’m gonna, you know, take off, you know, from here. And even one very important thing, man. And I’m sure you’ve talked about it a thousand times here, but even if you don’t have, you know, a big, massive stream of revenue coming in, it doesn’t mean that you can’t allocate 1%, 2% just to build the structure and then build on top of that structure as you go. Um, but anyways, when I saw that structure and when I saw it laid out, um, I, I mean, you’re, you’re talking marketing. It’s one of the biggest things that we look at in real estate. How much am I gonna spend on marketing? You know, how, what is gonna be the ROI on that stuff? Um, and it’s, it’s easier to, to look at something like that on a snap than it is to dive into your P and L and then break down campaigns. So, I mean, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have that kind of stuff you have to, but if you’re, you gotta know where the pulse of your business is. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, uh, no pun intended actually pun intended.

David Richter (22:36):

<laugh> yeah. He’s got a lot of businesses named pulse. So love it. Cause you have to have, you have to have that pulse on the business, which is so important because a lot of people, one of the biggest mistakes I see is just people avoiding, avoiding the finances, avoiding the numbers, just because, and it’s all, honestly, a lot of the times it’s not their fault. We haven’t been trained on that side. We get trained on the marketing, we get trained on the operations. Like those are the things where people will go to an, an event. But if someone says, oh, we’re doing an accounting seminar. Everyone’s like, okay, you know, like, let me get a CPA account. Yeah, exactly. We’re not accountants. We don’t need to know that stuff. And it’s like, okay, you gotta at least have some metrics here of knowing where your business, I love what you said at the beginning. You said, it’s not about you becoming the accountant or that person or doing the tr you know, the receipts or whatnot. It’s about you having the pulse on the numbers, really knowing where you are financially. And that’s sounds like that’s really helped you get that clarity and get those, you know, from that high level of here’s where we stand, here’s how we can move. Here’s how we can shift and do the things we need to do in our business.

Rafael Cortez (23:42):

A hundred percent, man. It it’s, uh, it’s tools like at the end of the day, you know, what levers to pull from, uh, you make, say that you make a, you make a pivot, you make a change or something happens in your business. Like you’re gonna see it reflecting like right away. You’re not gonna wait for that trailing document in 30 days, 45 days, uh, to, to realize, right. Like what’s happening in the business. That’s, that’s so important. Why, why, why do you have the ability to do stuff like that? Because you have it set up. Yeah. It’s, it’s just as KPIs. Right. And, and I assume that, you know, a lot of the people that, um, that are, you know, listening to podcasts about, you know, financial stability and that sort of, you know, have a, uh, at least the notion of, you know, KPIs and running through metrics and numbers. Um, and it, it’s just as important, if not more to understand where your money’s going and what it’s doing. Yep. Um, yeah, absolutely.

David Richter (24:33):

Yeah. I love that. So just a couple last questions here, since you’ve been given a ton of great information here. So what other last question here, before the very end, any other advice that you have recommendations? What should, you know, if they’re a real estate investor, what should they be doing,

Rafael Cortez (24:52):

Man? Uh, it, it, there’s no, uh, there’s no magic, uh, you know, uh, recipe, uh, for success at the end of the day really comes down to putting yourself in, in rooms that are gonna make you grow. Yeah. Right. Expand your perspective and take action. Expand your perspective and take action. Um, you know, I can’t emphasize enough, man. Every time I go to a, you know, one of the big mastermind we were just in Tampa mind blown.

David Richter (25:19):

Oh yeah.

Rafael Cortez (25:21):

Yeah. I just came back from this other training and like, as soon as soon as I come back, I implement, I put myself in a place that’s gonna take me outta my comfort zone. It’s gonna make me feel like I don’t have my shit figured out. Uh, so I come back and I work on it quick, like it’s expanding and taking action, expanding and taking action. Like that’s the process that I’ve used. Um, you know, somewhat methodically since 2007, when I launched my first business, putting myself outta my comfort zone, taking action on stuff that I learned and then doing it all over again, like it’s, it’s, uh, it’s one, two, right. One. That’s awesome.

David Richter (25:54):

<laugh> I love that. Expand and take action. Yeah. It’s that two, you know, is that two, you have to have both steps of that. It’s a two punch process.

Rafael Cortez (26:03):

It’s and what I mean by, by expanding is it’s expanding with the mindset of the perspective. Right. Think getting a bigger think and then taking action behind that. Exactly. Um, yeah. Yeah. Once you have, once you have the, uh, the, uh, the habit of that, uh, you have those two in place, you become, you you’re gonna feel uncomfortable every time you’re not doing it. Um, it it’s just a red flag. Right. Okay, cool. I’m way too comfortable. I know I could be doing something better or doing something more. Uh, what can I fine tune? Where can I, you know, if, if you’re not on vacation of course or something, but <laugh>

David Richter (26:36):

Exactly.

Rafael Cortez (26:37):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And at least,

David Richter (26:39):

And I will say Profit First and putting like these in place gives you that option. Do you want to grow in scale, right? Or do you want to keep the lifestyle, you know, of like where you are and like being able to run that because I feel like you’re always gonna need those two, no matter what, expand, and then take action, because it’s like, okay, you’re still gonna need that. If you are in, you know, if you’re in The Bahamas and you wanna keep doing that, and you have a team that runs what you’re doing, or if you wanna scale it to a billion dollars, you you’re going to have to constantly expand in action. So love that advice, very actionable go. And that’s why from this podcast pick out one thing that he said, maybe go look for a mastermind. If you’re not a part of one right now, if you’re not maybe look for a local one, just somewhere where you can find someone who’s several steps ahead of you.

David Richter (27:23):

And you can say like, I can learn from this person. So that’s gonna be a huge scene. There’s been a bunch of other nuggets like that throughout this take action from this one. I think that’s what Ravel would want you to do and get, take that action. Awesome. So last question here. So since you provide a ton of value here, how can the listeners provide value back to you? Like I know that you coach you do like an amazing job. You help change lives and transform businesses. So talk about that a little bit. And anything else that you need right now? I don’t know if you need any connections or whatnot, but so everything out there.

Rafael Cortez (27:56):

Uh, thanks. I appreciate it. So, um, the, uh, uh, yeah, I do coach. I coach my focus in wholesaling. So I coach I have a wholesaling, uh, program through wholesaling, Inc. Uh, we have massive results. We have a lot of people that come through our program and then they just crush it and, and it it’s, uh, my program, it’s very systematic. I, as you can probably deduct from like this conversation, it’s very systematic one foot in front of the other. So, uh, somebody’s, it’s a way of cutting the learning curve, right. I think that’s the biggest message behind, behind the, uh, the plug. Uh, but it’s, it’s cutting the learning curve. If you have, if you don’t come in, then, you know, take a program or take a course, that’s gonna walk you through the process, find a mentor, go to somebody who’s gonna be able to, to help you cut those years of trial and error.

Rafael Cortez (28:38):

For me, it was the exposure that I got with Sean Terry back in 2013, 2014, that’s really what got me on, on the track. Right. And that saved me. Uh, I mean, I, if I were to quantify it at least, you know, five, seven years of, of just, you know, putting my own campaigns together and getting that experience. Yeah. So that was the, you know, cutting the learning curve for me in that space. Um, so yeah, through like, through the program that I have through wholesale, Inc it’s, we have that, we have a very methodical process. Uh, step one, step two. How do you get, you know, from zero to the one deal and then grow from there? Um, as a business, I have a very business, uh, oriented mentality. So we put all that in place. If you wanna get more information on that, go to REIwholesaling.com. Um, and if somebody wants to reach out, man, I’m on Instagram at Rafael Cortez CEO, I’m pretty active on there. So shoot me a DM. If you have any questions you wanna connect.

David Richter (29:30):

Awesome. So there you go. There’s the two places that to connect with him can endorse Rafael enough. He will help you get to where you want to be. Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for expanding. I believe that anyone who was listening their mindset and giving them actionable steps to go out and do right away.

Rafael Cortez (29:46):

Beautiful man. Love it. Thank you so much for the invite, man has been fun.

David Richter (29:50):

Thank you so much for listening to today’s show. If you found this episode valuable, could you do me a quick favor? Could you give us an honest rating within iTunes and be honest, you could say whether you liked it or not. And obviously with iTunes, the more reviews and ratings we have, the better it is for other people that are searching for a Profit First and a podcast. So we’d love to be ranked on there and that’s thanks to your help. So we would really appreciate that if you would like to go give us a rating. Also, if you’re looking to connect with us further, I would highly recommend checking out our Facebook group Profit First for real estate investors. And that’s literally what it’s called. So you can type in Profit First for real estate investors, and you’ll be able to find <laugh>, you’ll be able to find our Facebook group right there.

David Richter (30:33):

So come join active real estate investors who are supporting each other and growing their businesses and profits together. That’s what that group is all about. The link should be in the description below. And if you’re interested in working with us and implementing Profit First in your real estate business, we offer coaching and guidance. So if you wanna work with someone who’s actually Profit First certified and who works right now, currently with real estate businesses, you can actually go start your application process by going to simpleCFOsolutions.com/apply, or just go right to simpleCFOsolutions.com. And there’s an apply button right on there. If you wanna actually start your Profit First journey with someone who can actually walk you through those step by step and help, you know, and grow your cash flow. Thanks again for joining us for another episode of the first REI podcast. See you next episode.