Next Level Pros - #12 Bobby Castro - Founder of Bankers HealthCare Group, Real Estate Investor & Author.

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Join host Chris Lee in this captivating episode of the Founders Podcast as he delves into the remarkable journey of entrepreneur Bobby Castro, the visionary founder behind Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG).  In this inspiring interview, Castro shares his insights on entrepreneurship, scaling businesses, and creating financial and personal freedom. Castro's entrepreneurial voyage began with limited resources, but his determination and strategic mindset allowed him to transform BHG into a billion-dollar enterprise within a span of 18 years. Discover the pivotal moments and key lessons that propelled Castro's success and shaped his approach to business. Tune in as Castro discusses his book, "Upsiders," which serves as a guide to unlocking financial freedom and understanding the intricate relationship with money. Gain valuable insights from Castro's experiences and learn about the concept of enterprise value, an essential element in creating sustainable wealth. You'll be inspired by Castro's approach to scaling and pivoting in business, his emphasis on surrounding oneself with exceptional talent, and the power of duplicating oneself to achieve exponential growth. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a business enthusiast, this episode offers invaluable lessons and firsthand experiences from a true industry disruptor!  HIGHLIGHTS "I'm not saying we didn't have obstacles and challenges. We had them every day, but what I did is I looked at them as opportunities." "You don't have to make money to create enterprise value, but if you create enterprise value, you will make money." "You have to be a master of your cash flow. You have to be able to understand that this dollar that comes in is an employee." TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 14:14 The Big Sell  22:36 Digging Deep  29:50 Opportunity 35:52 Positivity  41:51 What Drives You Now? 43:59 The Upsiders Book 50:03 Opening Up A Whole New Chapter  54:07 The ups & Downs Of Life 58:12 Advice & What’s Next For Bobby 🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

Welcome to the Founder Podcast, where we explore the journeys of some of the most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs from around the world. I'm your host, Chris Lee, a serial entrepreneur with a passion for building and growing businesses. Throughout my career, I founded multiple nine-figure businesses and learned a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in the world of business. I want to share those lessons with you by searching out the coolest guests on planet earth and have them share their own incredible stories. But this podcast, it's not just for entrepreneurs. It's for anyone that's

looking to be inspired by these stories of people who have overcome incredible odds and create something truly remarkable. So join me on this journey as we explore the fascinating world of entrepreneurship and meet the founders that are shaping it today. Let's dive in. Oh baby, welcome to another episode of the Founders Podcast. Today I am joined by Mr. Bobby Castro. Bobby is a remarkable entrepreneur founder. He founded a company called Bankers Health Corps Group. Am I saying that correct? Bankers Health Care Group. There we go. Nice. BHG in 2001 and later, it was 18 years later, exited for over a billion dollar valuation. The guy is currently building a family office, which he is highly invested in real estate.

He is a newly published author. He's going to be telling us a little bit about his book today. The guy is just an amazing guest. We're super excited. Welcome to the show, Bobby. Thank you, man. Thank you. That was very nice of you.

It's good to have you show, Bobby. Thank you, man. Thank you. That was very nice of you. It's good to have you here, dude. So tell me, obviously, building a billion-dollar business, you know, my business, you know, we built it to, you know, about a third of the valuation of that. We did it in a six-year period. It wasn't, you know, it's extremely difficult to grow that fast. You were able to build a 10-figure business. Like what, obviously there's a backstory to that. Let's, let's talk a little bit about your backstory. Yeah. Crazy story. And, you know, a book I just came out with not too long ago called Upsiders. It talks a little bit about my story, my journey,

but more so how I was able to create this financial freedom along with personal freedom. So there's something I call enterprise value, and I didn't really understand it a long time ago. And I could have gotten there easily instead of 18 years, easily maybe in eight to 10 years. And I just didn't understand because there was not another Bobby. There was nothing as to resources for me to really understand how to scale and how to pivot until I realized that I was so stuck for so many years, dude, so many years. But then when I understood the magnitude

of having a relationship with money, so the objective is to create money, not make money. And I didn't have any clue of that. I was busy making money, almost like all of us on that hamster on that wheel. And I only duplicated, you know, selling a company for a billion, but I actually did it along the way, even with not much money invested in real estate that stands strong to maybe a little bit under $800 million in a real estate portfolio. Now the company I sold, no investors, no bank loans bank loans no nothing have a story like many others many others and because of this great country called the United States of America it provided me one thing over and over and over I was able to start over and over and over but I

learned from these lessons I was making mistakes after mistakes but never from these lessons. I was making mistakes after mistakes, but never learning these lessons. So I was the only person when we started, went to two, went to three, went to nearly close to a thousand employees when I sold. Today that stands strong at 1,800. And as long as you can build a business that is not all about you, the me, me, I, I, I, I, I, I did that drill and I was really good at it. Made a lot of money,

but never created financial independency. When I started duplicating myself and starting to surround myself with superior skillsets, I can tell you, man, my life took off completely. Everything I'm attached to seems to take off because I understand the power of created money. This compound effect that most people don't really understand. They'll probably nod their heads and say, yeah, Bobby, I get it. I get it. But there's something that's staggering, dude. And I don't know about you,

if you know about it, you go to Google, a penny, a penny a day compounded for 30 days, a lousy penny that you, I, many take for granted. In 30 days, it compounds over 5 million bucks. It's crazy. I just can't stop thinking about that. When I understood that many years ago, having that relationship with money, I got so darn motivated with a concept called stack and rack. I do believe cash is not trash. Without cash, you can't buy anything. Without cash, you can't start a business. Without cash, you can't buy anything without cash. You can't start a business without cash. You can't expand a business without cash. You can't hire these awesome people. Love it. Love it. So in 2001, when you started this journey of your business, how old were you? So I started this business when I was a waiter, I was waiting tables at the Rusty Pelican in Key Biscayne at

night. During the day, my brother, I had a day job selling memberships at the Better Business Bureau. I started this. Yeah, man, I started this business, believe it or not, with $1,700. That was not my money. It was my mother-in-law's money. She's no longer here. She passed some years ago. I burned a lot of bridges. I didn't understand the value of transparency. And you and I talked briefly about that before the podcast and this amazing lady back in the day, all these amazing ladies had everything in their bra and she, she was from Cuba, her key chain of a hundred doors, her, her beeper and all the money the family had. And this was me and my wife have been married 33 years now. She handed me, and she said something in Spanish, mira means here. She gave me just about what I needed to buy this package for $1,700. It was the equipment,

leasing, and finance, how to become a lease and finance broker. And we took that 1700, my wife and I marched down the field, learning it our way, being self-taught by awful mistakes. Matter of fact, so many mistakes. I almost lost my marriage. I almost lost everything in my life over and over. $1,700, man, took us to sell it for a billion dollars on our terms. And we not only did that, we did it. Yep. So how old were you when you took this leap? You're waiting tables. You're selling Better Business Bureau memberships, which, by the way, I hate the Better Business

Bureau, but keep going. Yeah. No, I got you. I got you. I understand your frustration. I know. I was 20-ish. bureau but keep going yeah no i got you i got you i understand your frustration i know um i was uh 20 23 24 years old waiting on tables again i was a big flash dancer i was a show off i needed to

i needed the need to show you i was successful i I would wear the fake Rolexes, and that grew to real Rolexes, and I was just so caught up in the flash dance. I would say that was 23 years. I'm 56 years old. I got in the space called life, started activating my life, and I started the business about five years before 2021. I met somebody at Martha's Vineyard in 21. That took it to a whole different level.

I understand the power of people skills. So I started this industry when I was about 23 years old. I formally formed the company in 2021. Or 2020, yeah, 2001. Sorry, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're good, you're good. So you formed it in 2001 2001 so you mentioned a few

different things you said you you met some people that kind of helped you scale like what what was that transition like what what changed in your business i was a broker i was basically a money broker i would put you as a business owner i needed a forklift needed an x-ray machine and you wanted to finance or release it i will find a lender to provide the money in exchange that lender would pay me a commission so i started becoming really good in the health care space because a lot of doctors they don't like to wait in line so i was a real big broker in the southeast region just a money broker in equipment and i would just get paid on a commission very good at it but it came to the point

where I was just a broker. I was just starting to really make a quarter of a million dollars a year, 150. I maxed out like maybe $300,000. I was invited to a conference in Martha's Vineyard to celebrate a lot of awards, this and that for brokers. And I met an investment banker because obviously I believe

when you go to these conferences and the networks, I work these conferences. I just don't show up with my buddies and hang out and drink all night. I did that dance a long time ago, got nowhere. Why not meet an individual? I talked to this individual and I explained to him some change that was going on in the market. And he said, Bobby, what do you mean? I said, well, in the medical space, there's some issues.

GE, Siemens, they're starting to offer free finance and free 0% interest to move more product. And it's a threat to me and a threat to you that they don't need our financing no more. Well, he didn't really buy into it because I told him there is something that they're telling me they want. These doctors want cash, unsecured working capital because their insurance reimbursements were just taking its time to get here. And when they do arrive, instead of being $76,000, they're $19,000 and putting them in the cash flow squeeze. And I keep asking these doctors, well, what else do you need if I can't give you the equipment? Well, I need cash.

I need cash. He said, Bobby, man, I get it, but all my stuff is securitized by equipment, not unsecured. And I said, you don't understand, man. These credit scores are 740. They're making about $300,000 adjusted gross income. They have about $2 million net worth. They've been licensed gastronologists, OBGYNs for 11 years. And it's the same concept. I get it, but I can't do it. He goes, by the way, really? 18%? They'll buy that? I said, yes. No one's doing it. Man, I would love to help you. I can't. I followed up, followed up, followed up. At about a month, month and a half. So you're telling me that these doctors were willing to pay 18% for cash, unsecured cash? Yeah. This is way back in the day. We were the very first

fintechs. So I want you to think about this, and I want you to be open-minded. Federal Express, FastPass, and Disney, all these things that you and I pay for today because we don't want to stand in line, we pay a premium to get it now. I felt that there was a huge need with these doctors that they were willing to buy a premium if I can get my money right now, but they had to really be a good credit. So I started, you know, asking these doctors, what else do you need? They kept saying this cash is cash. And these banks took too long. They didn't want to go in the lobby of bank of America. They didn't, they don't have time for it. So finally, long story short, a few months, a couple months down the road, he goes, send me a deal.

He just told me to do that, just get him off so I can get off his back. I send him the deal. He calls back. He goes, Bobby, man, you're telling me this guy will take 18%? I said, all day, every day. He goes, okay, let me see what I can do. I'd never heard from him for about a month, followed up. Finally, I was so persistent that he finally went to one of his institutions

and they said they'll buy the deal. That one deal turned into billions. And I'm talking about billions of dollars in volume. We became a lender about two years after that. Today, that company produces over $200 million net income. It produced over $100 million in net income when I exited. Wow. There's a niche.

And what happened was the traditional route, as you know, you're an entrepreneur, you sold these businesses because other people don't recognize a void. That was cheap money. 18%, 15% is cheap money if you get it now because what you're going to do with the money matters. I picked up on it. We rode that wave, my brother. For so many years, we became a fintech way before Lending Club, Prosper, all

these, these Godzillas came aboard. We hit it way before when no one was looking at it. And I talk heavily about my book. When you're not distracted, you can see so much of what the market frigging wants. Love that. Love that. Man, the fact that you recognize that just so early. This was all in 2001 is kind of when you got that original idea. It was like two years before I saw the

trend going differently for me. It was threading my income. And I'm grateful that I looked at that as a job, not an opportunity because I was all paranoid. Oh my gosh, I'm not gonna make a couple hundred thousand dollars more. I'm going to have to go back to wait on tables. So I was urgently asking my customers, what else can I help you with? And they kept talking about this working capital, working capital. And they were just telling me what they wanted. The market said, impossible. We don't have a program on security. You out of your mind? I didn't stop. I kept knocking on the doors. That's so awesome. I mean, yeah, you were really a pioneer in the space, like you said, right before all these other fintech companies and whatnot. So love that and it's still it's probably the leader in the fintech space today bhg dominates the market so of the medical world is what you're saying that's awesome medical and

general business oh general you guys do general business everything oh dude we we scaled it with mo see most institutions today they only can do two three-year terms we do 12-year terms you know i keep talking about like if it's my company i'm a bhe or for life so you know it's it's tattooed on my heart dude so did uh so you went when you exited um you ended up selling to a private equity company who did you sell off to or or was a strategic buyer take it public what did you do there so check this out it's it's crazy so here i am making some coin making some money yep and then i got distracted i started paying attention to the flash dancers they were all into real estate they were doing this and that and i had this little company that was doing good, providing some incredible

outcomes in my life, my family's life. I then wanted to get into the real estate game like everyone else, not knowing what to do or how to do it. I went ahead and I signed personally for these loans. I also, we also put the corporate guarantee of the company that we sold, by the way, we went out and we bought a bunch of apartment buildings thinking that we're going to kick everyone out do condo conversions because everybody else was doing it in south florida and around the country well it didn't work out what we were doing we what year was this this was uh uh in oh four Oh five, the height of the market. We went out at this point, at this point,

what kind of money are you generating as a business? Cause obviously you were a hundred million when you exited, but at this point, how much kind of cash were you making? I was, I was definitely making a personally, I don't know, 3 million bucks, 2 million bucks. Uh, you felt like you were on top sheet yeah felt you on top of the world but got distracted went went to this real estate case so tell pick up the story from there got totally distracted started giving energy and focus outside my business and unfortunately what happens unfortunately what happens when you give

energy and you focus on something it it starts growing. This thing started growing my interest of real estate. Everybody was doing it. Went in, bought a bunch of stuff I had no clue. I bought it high, put the wrong type of debt, did all this garbage, got myself in jams with these banks. Now I'm in trouble. Now I'm talking to bankruptcy attorneys.

Now I'm deciding which attorney we're going to go with. Out of frustration and depression, I ran back to the business because I didn't want to confront this fire. I go back to the business, attacking it, attacking it just so I can ignore this. As we're attacking this, the business starts growing more than ever because again, what you give energy and what you focus on guys, what happens? Only one thing guarantees to happen. It grows. I adjusted without knowing my, I got my focus off of this crap, started focusing on this beautiful company that I never really, really understood what it could do. Start diving into the crap. Starts growing, growing to the point where, my gosh, we're not working on nothing with the banks. We're actually starting to pay them off. This stuff is going away. Check this out. A couple

years later, it goes away. We put it out maybe three years later. I'm exaggerating. Maybe three years later, the thing goes away because of this company. Just attacking the company. Couple years thereafter, a knock on the door. Hey, we want to give you all cash, 30% based on $250 million valuation,

and we want to close right now. It was, yes, why not? For sure. Well, guess what? It closed within 90 days, give or take. 75 million wired, all cash. We all looked at ourselves like, wow, what idiot would do this? Well, guess what, man?

It's still my best friend today, google.com. You do an investigation, and that's where I – that's where my life really took off to a whole different level. I understood multiples. I understood valuations. I understood the power of distractions. I looked at myself. I said, my gosh, we thought we hit a home run.

They stole the freaking company. Well, they had a first round refusal. What institution did they pay you? A 10, a 10 multiple, give or take. At that time, about a nine. A major institution. There were about maybe 14 billion at that time. There were about 40 billion today. And they're based out of Nashville.

So anyways, we say yes to it. It closes. We found out what a bunch of ding dongs. The power of what you don't Nashville. So anyways, we say yes to it. It closes. We found out. What a bunch of ding-dongs. The power of what you don't know. So guess what? They had their first right refusal, meaning that, hey, guys, you want anything more off the table?

We would love to take more. We have the first right refusal. Well, 11 months, not a year. So obsessed. We were focused on our business here. But the market is focused here. They see us here, but they see the value proposition here and we didn't connect those dots.

11 months later, not even a year, we go back, hey, we still own and control 70%, but we want to take off 19% more and we still want to now own and control 51%. We just want to take more chips off. Right. Awesome. We are ready to rock and roll, but hold on, but it's not two 50. It's 600 million. You're out of your mind. I totally understand your frustrations. I get it. Fast forward. It closes maybe four months, not three months.

All cash for 19% based on $600 million. We're the same group. Now we're starting. Now we're the same group, dude. Now we understand a whole different level that we never understood because we were so frigging distracted. We didn't understand what we have. Like so many business owners out there, they treat their company and their business like a frigging job like I did and not an opportunity.

Few years later, me and my wife, we have grandchildren. I started wanting to fly free, do other things in life. I said, well, I'm going to take the remaining chips off. Went to, this time we went to a process, talked to all the big institutions. They all looked at the book from KKR to Aries, you name it, Apollo. They were all involved, indications,

1.6, 1.7 billion, 1.5 billion. My wife and I have 33 years now. We settled at a billion because we wanted it on our terms, no carve outs, no clawbacks. This is somebody you're looking at, my brother, that's a waiter. I failed at the third grade in public system in Miami. No one fails at the third grade. So that means I didn't have much brains because at the third grade in public system, that's an automatic pass.

Well, they failed me. And then I only got through the ninth grade back then was junior high. I don't have more than a ninth grade education. I am the prime example of what this country represents, man. It allowed me to make awful mistakes in life. It allowed me to continue being a repeater of those mistakes. And then it allowed me, Bobby, are you ready this time? The gates are always there, man.

And since then, man, me and my wife have created financial freedom in so many different areas. That real estate story, when I was, we went back in, in 2011, now I know what I'm doing. I said, never again, I will be a speculator buyer. I am a long-term, I want to create financial wealth. That portfolio throughout the year, since 2011, we've been building this portfolio, my wife and I, section 8,000, one at a time. Now we're developers. It gives me and my wife every month, just she and I, $500,000 a month besides what's given to my family, my kids, my grandchildren. That's just one stream of income. I'm not here to brag.

I am here to tell you the power of nonrefundable minutes. How you invest them matters. If you decide to give them away, burn them, matters. And the focus, man, I believe there's two things comes with focus, the type of focus. There's two cousins. One is called desperation. The other one is called urgency.

They're related, but they behave different. They give you two different outcomes. I practiced desperation so much in my life. I was so disappointed when I received clarity in my life from not being distracted. I had effective urgency, very powerful. I love that. I love that. I love the, I love the saying that goes along with what you're talking about, that you hit oil by digging one hole, a thousand, a thousand feet deep, not a thousand holes, one feet deep. Right. Cause I mean, it's so easy as entrepreneurs. I'm sure you're this way as I am. We have so many ideas, so many shiny objects. We

have so many different things going on and we know that we can go make money a billion different ways. And, and like one of the hardest things I think to do as an entrepreneur is learn how to focus in and just get, you know, just dig deep in the boring and do the boring work, do the thing day in, day out, double down on our efforts to learn. You know, my buddy, uh, Alex Ramosi, he talks about like the way that you succeed is time invested into one thing. It's not invested into so many different things. And so, um, dude, I love, I love that principle. So you, you talk about, you know, uh, the opportunity that the U S has given you from the, from the standpoint of, you know, you, you had a low education level, all these different

things. I'd love to hear what, what love to hear what are your thoughts on the current education system, the college system or whatnot. It's horrible. Give me a little bit of that. It's a disgrace. It's disgusting. And I say that not because I'm – it's just horrible. Let's put it this way.

I've hired thousands of people, ultimately wind up working with me, call it 800 people. I've hired people from the highest level of education. I am so disappointed when they come to the table, what they're teaching them there. They have learned more being in business with, I hate to say this, man.

So I'm going to try to say it nicely. A students wind up working for the C students for some reason, at least in my world. And I think sometimes this education is not teaching them a frigging thing. They come in for marketing. They don't even know how to market. They don't know what to market. They have no clue how to move the needle. They don't know what a balance sheet is. They don't know what a P and L is. They have no clue other than, Hey dude, I have Stanford on me. That's great. But what else did they teach you? Because what you have right now, you're not giving me no value. They wind up being in sales. I love sales. I think everything's sales. I'm selling my wife. She's selling me. I'm selling that dude across the lane in the stop sign.

Let me get over. My grandkids are selling me. I'm selling them on something. Form of communication is everything. And I find the education, man. They're suing everyone out there in this government. Should be a class action suit of the education system. Charging people $300,000, $500,000 for what?

It is absolutely mind-boggling. I love to stir the pot when it comes to this. I'm a big believer in education, but just not in the traditional sense. To your exact point, our college system is failing us. They're coming out with undereducated, highly leveraged in debt, you know, no experience. The opportunity cost that they've missed from all these years invested into school is absolutely insane. Speaking of which, man, I really, after the podcast, I'd love to share with you, I have like a whole idea to totally revamp the education system that I'm going to be dumping a lot of money into. So, yeah, man.

You know what stinks too. It's us parents. We tell our kids to duplicate exactly what we did and we expect a different outcome and generations or generations are just duplicating. And I tell parents, man, and I don't hold back. Stop telling your kids to go to school. My mother, dude, when I left school, you know what my mother told me? And we lived on Section 8. Before I finished telling her I was going to leave and the school system had a problem in junior high with it, she pushed me to go for it.

The reason I'm here today is because of my mother. My mother didn't tell me, no, stay in school, do this, get a college and all that. I see so many parents forcing their kids to get a college degree. For what? Do you understand what you're telling them? I don't get it, man.

And parents, of course, they love their children, but you're broke, you're struggling, you went to college and you're telling your kids to do the exact same, matter of fact, you're telling them to go to the exact same college, studying the exact same. Matter of fact, you're telling them to go to the exact same college, studying the exact same degree. And you're complaining that you're making $300,000 a year and you don't have enough to go on vacation, but you're telling them to choose your path. Why don't you tell them do everything opposite than I did, man, take risk. Right. Right. And the crazy thing is, is we expect these kids to have it all figured out

of their career path and their choice that they're going to go without ever even like experiencing the career. You know, it's it's mind boggling to me that we're going to go. We're like, hey, go take two hundred thousand dollars in debt for something that you literally never even spent an hour in the field. Right. And so like I am, I'm such a big believer, like go get experience, figure out what you're good at, what value you can bring to the world. And then if it requires a certain degree or whatnot, and it makes sense and you absolutely love it, then sure. Go to, go to college, go get, become a doctor, go do, go these do things. But like like i think probably the saddest thing in the world is a musician that is stuck cleaning teeth every single day all right or or an accountant an accountant that loves

numbers right and is stuck doing something completely opposite and they are just so stuck because they're so invested they have there's no way to like, and they'll, you know, they'll let everybody around them down because they chose this path when they're 18 years old. It's freaking nuts. It is. It is so damaging and it's causing so much depression where people are being affected later in life. And the, you know, Gary Vee says it best. I was in Puerto Rico at a conference he was speaking at, and I took time to listen to him. And he said something that just makes, it's powerful. When you visit a nursing home, 85, 90 year old people, you walk out. The only thing you will hear that one word is regret. Should have, could have, would have. So much much regret I keep going back to my great country

This country allowed Bobby and Sofia Castro To have the most awful, ugliest credit Not one time, many times Allowed us to start over Paid our taxes late because we didn't have no money Paid our bills late Failed walk-on obligations Have all the stuff And allowed money, paid our bills late, failed walk-on obligations, have all this stuff, and allowed me, Bobby, come back in, man. It's okay. And think about if you

have mental, physical health, what is your freaking excuse, man? You're around a supporting team that is supporting and justifying why you shouldn't go for it. In 2023, with this frigging internet and this explosive world we live in, how are you struggling? How are you not meeting new people? So much opportunity that young kids, and we're just saying, hey, go and do the same box that the people did in the 1950s and 1960s, right?

When you have this opportunity to be a YouTuber, to be a, you know, you can do literally, there's so many ways to buy and resell things, be in the sales world. Oh, dude. I mean, I'm meeting a 19-year-old since I've been on social media when I sold the company. I'm meeting a 19-year-old.

20-year-olds are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. I mean, millions a year. And then I look at this way and I'm seeing a 25-year-old, 35-year-old completely stuck by choice and completely addicted like crack cocaine of their complaints.

Because I do believe patterns lead to routines. Routines lead to habits. You allow those habits to go on, man, to unwind them is very hard. And I think you brought up a very important word. You said choice. It's interesting because a lot of times when you're 30, 40, whatever, and you're stuck, you feel like you don't have a choice, right?

And you don't realize that the choices that you've made, right? All the pattern of your choices is what got you to the point? And it's not until you come to that realization that like, I'm here because of me. I'm not a victim, right? It's not because of my skin color. It's not because of the way I was raised. It was not because of this, that, or the other. I literally made choices that have compounded to this day. And because of it, I have a decision and a choice to make to change that. Right. Like so many people just feel stuck and they're like, I have no choice.

I'm a victim. I have to forever continue down this path. I have all these people I got to please. You know, my mom thinks I got to stay in this career, whatever it is, man. And it's,

it really is the saddest thing. It really, it's horrible, man. And there's one thing I always say, and I repeat it so much. I feel like a parrot, but I can't help it. You, I, many others, everybody. And I'll talk about me for a second. I am one out of 8 billion people on the planet.

There's only going to be one type of Bobby ever. Another one will not be born ever when I'm somewhere else, I'm no longer here or I'm here right now. There's not, I have things that others will never, ever have. And all these other individuals we've been talking about are blocking the full potential of that. This amazing individual they have within themselves. And they're simply living life like a frigging job. It's unbelievable. I see my parents do it. I see my family. I come from a big, chaotic, passionate family.

And we've been broke. We've been challenged with depression, suicide, drug use. You name it, we have it like many millions of other families. If somehow, someway we figured it out, and this wasn't in the internet stage. Right now, this is like a layup for people. How are you not winning in life with all this technology? The world's flat. We are now communicating. I am establishing relationships by the day of incredible people, but I'm activating my life. I am going after it. I'm leaning into life. I am not waiting for Amazon to deliver the frigging thing. They will never deliver me success. I love that. I love that, man. And, you know, the interesting thing, like I know listeners that are listening to this like, well, I guess I got to go start my own business. Right.

You don't even have to you don't have to own your own business. But like there's so much opportunity as an entrepreneur, right? Like working for one of the things Grant Cardone shared on my podcast, which I thought was genius. I was like, Hey, what advice do you have for a kid that's starting out thinking about starting his own business? And he's like, he's like, don't, he's like, there are so many successful entrepreneurs out there that are just no longer wanting to build their empire, go team up with them and figure out how you can get a piece of that action being an entrepreneur. Grant's a hundred percent right. He's a hundred percent right. When I sold the company, guess what, my brother, many people became millionaires in their bank. Millions of dollars were transferred in their account. They helped us build this thing. They

became financially free. Grant is a hundred percent right. There's no excuse. Dude, I love, I love that. So I'm a, I'm a big believer in what you, uh, you just expressed. So in building my business, I've never been one to just want it all right. I've incentivized and brought on employees and tied them into long-term incentive plans and those type of things. And yeah, when we did our transactions, there was many multi-millionaires actually made it in our transaction, which for me was like the best experience of my life. Great feeling. Because you made all these promises along the way, right? And you'd be able to go and fulfill and win together as a team.

Dude, there's nothing better. So I want you to tell me more about that. How was that making millionaires and putting millions of dollars into other people's bank accounts? Walk me through that. Out of the three wire transfers that I illustrated earlier on our podcast here, to this day, there's two wow-wow moments for me. One was my first job at Pasquale's. I was 14 years old on my takeout. It was my very first job. I'll never, ever get that feeling out of my, I just feel so passionate about that feeling. The second one is when I made people multimillionaires. That was more fulfilling for me

versus the millions in my bank because integrity and transparency, these folks, it wasn't a Bobby Castro show. There's many people behind the scenes and on the front lines. Without them, I don't have my story. For me to look them in the eye and to frigging hug them and thank them,

we did it. We got here. I can't tell you, made me proud, man. It made me feel really good of the integrity. I started really understanding that each of us can impact each of us negatively or positively. I choose to really live a positive life, to really be with transparency, represent things of truth. I wasn't about that many years back. I didn't understand that, including my marriage, including so many other ways that I practice life. When I started understanding the power of integrity,

what you represent, the power of legacy, every decision I was making was based on my legacy of what I want to leave to my family. That wasn't always the case. The Bobby you're seeing today was not the Bobby then, nor the Bobby of yesterday. I continue peeling away a better version of myself and it feels so freaking good living up to obligations, impacting families. Think about it, man. That's financially free. So Grant is right. You don't, what is your excuse? You don't have the money to start your own business. Team up with a Bobby, team up with a Grant, team up with somebody and prove to them you want it as much

as they want it because they need you, man. You can't scale without others. And the reality, right? There's not the Bobbies and the Chris's and the grants. Not everybody's a Bobby, Chris or Grant, right? Like not everyone's a vocal leader, enthusiastic visionary, right? That's going and pushing it. And that's fine. You don't have to be that. That's right. Steve Wozniak's of the world.

Yeah. Like they those guys are big value creators. You just got to understand, like, what value do you bring the most to the world and just hone in on that and surround yourself with people that fill out your weaknesses? And check this out. And just to prove that point, you just reminded me of something. There was an intern back then. An intern. This intern wound up becoming financially free. This intern years later rode the wave with us,

became the CFO of the company. He graduated from Colgate, really shy. The biggest introvert to this day I've ever, ever met. He has impacted his life, his generation from teaming up with other like-minded individuals that have different strengths than him. He has different strengths than they do. Think about when you match the weaknesses and strengths of each other. Only one way, man.

We win. I love it. I love it. You know, when I think about people that team up and founders, it actually brings up a fun story. Do you know who Ronald Wayne is? No. You ever heard of Ronald Wayne? I'm bad with games. Oh, man. You've heard of Steve Wozniak? Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. From Apple.

Yep. From Apple. So here's the crazy thing. A lot of people don't realize this. There were three founders of Apple. Okay. Who are they? They've got Steve Jobs, Wozniak, and there was Ronald Wayne. Okay. A lot of people don't realize this because Ronald Wayne was a guy that ended up not realizing his calling in life, that he was just there to support this visionary of Steve Jobs. And he bailed out, I think, year number two in the business. I think he sold off his shares. It was like for $900, right? And this guy, the amount of shares that he would own would have made him like hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, right? Like just crazy amount of money, but he didn't buy into the vision. And the reason why you don't know who ronald wayne is is just for that right like he wasn't a guy wow that was willing to to latch on and realize what he's calling in life

the sad part about the whole thing the guy lives in a single wide trailer today in perump nevada which is like the armpit of the u.s it's like one of man dude are you serious wild wild wild and and he only shows up occasionally when you know it's it's crazy but i've never heard that that you just blew my mind that's just a prime example look at that man yeah it's it is it is uh cost of this opportunity so many so many uh so many stories out there of like great founders and missed opportunity founders right like uh so dude i i appreciate you sharing your story i think you have so much value so you're obviously a family man you have grandkids so tell us a little bit about your family love to love to hear about that so sophie and i we've

been married 33 years we have two childreniscilla, who's 32 years old, she's married to an awesome dude for about 10 years. Eddie, they have two children, our grandchildren, our legacy. Ocean, who's seven. Oakley, who's five. Our son, Brandon, who's 27, July 11th. He's getting married this month, June 24th, to an incredible individual, Jen.

And we're excited about now having her part of the family. We're very dialed in together. I don't have a lot of friends. I, I, I, I, legacy is very important for me, Chris, where I want to make the, I want to break a pattern in my family. My family's had a lot of struggles, generations and generations. And I only, I only can control what I do forward as a leader, my grandchildren, my children, I care more about what they witness in me versus what they hear because these kids they're watching and they watch how I carry myself, how I treat people with kindness, how I scale. I'm always activated. I'm always creating. I don't do drugs a lot. I get a highway energy.

People might think I do Coke, speed, ecstasy, whatever the calling out there. I do life, man. I'm so excited about life that I can't wait to wake up in the morning. That's so awesome. So obviously you're set financially for the rest of your life and your children's lives and everything else. What drives you every single day out? So obviously your family, what else, what else is pushing and motivating Bobby to jump out of bed in the morning? Just create an impact. So we built that business. I, we spent a lot of time with human capital. So I had a sales team. It was every day, a sales meeting all day, every day, the power of impact. And I want to show my children, my mission now is,

is, is my legacy. I want to have a legacy. I have PMAs, trademark, positive mental attitude. I believe you don't have to be a jerk or arrogant in life to create financial freedom and personal freedom. I tried it. It didn't work for me. That ego is not your amigo. It definitely didn't work for me. Kindness got me a lot of yeses. I became a magnet for opportunities. I am rich in relationships. I am very cautious on who I bring in my ecosystem. My passion is just really to show my kids and my grandchildren how you live a meaningful, happy, healthy life. How to have a relationship with money differently than most. It's creating money.

It's not making money. Do not get caught up in that money flare. I did it. It was not a good feeling. I talk a lot about flash dancing here. Man, I just like being a cool person, giving a lot of good vibes. I'm a hugger, man.

I love life. I'm 56 years old. I feel like I'm 17. I have my own family office with my kids. We have all these investments. My grandchildren are in the office. I mean, just, it's awesome. So what does a day in the life of Bobby bobby look like right now i get up about

maybe 10 minutes before five o'clock um i'm activated uh my personal trainer in the morning at my house i get massages every day to really get my body relaxed i am a very intense reader all about personal development i don't think you can ever, ever max out to bring your better version. There's no ceilings in life. I'm an introvert. I'm rereading my book right now because I'm doing a part two of it, a version of part two. A lot of people reached out to me to really understand now the next step. There was actually a few good people there, man, that really understood this book. If you read it, it's not a bunch of donkey calling. This stuff is proven, man. You're looking at a dude that filed tax returns, making $25 million a year. I paid

taxes, $20 million, $15 million a year, sold a company for a billion, created an $800 million real estate portfolio with no investors. This is a serious book. This is not just a storyteller here, man. This is real. So I got the attention to a few people because my intention, Chris, is not to touch the world, man. I know there's Bobbies out there. I know there's recovering people that are just challenged. You know, I've spoken to a lot of people recently that have been challenged with drugs, alcohol.

And I simply tell them, man, activate life. Get obsessed about doing life something differently. I don't know. That's kind of weird. God just got into my life maybe six months ago. Never religious. I believe in good energy. My family, they do believe in God.

I was at an event in Cabo, Mexico and i accepted god in my life that's a new journey i don't know how that's gonna roll other than i'm just figuring out so i'm able to pray now i feel good um and uh it's awesome yeah so i'm rereading my book you work out every morning you read right now you're reading your book and then what what else is part of your part of your day uh we manage our portfolio our investments uh we do a lot of boating so we travel a lot uh right now my my son's getting into the financial industry like the old man did so i'm helping him build his company uh my son-in-law is really passionate about real estate we have um dr orlando and his team from legacy capitals. We have a 100-year legacy plan, which is a real, it's a heavy lift. So we have a 100-year legacy plan on how our family is going to look 100 years from now.

A lot of folks are involved on the backside to help us. That's a heavy lift by getting a policy in place on how we choose to practice life, what we do with our money, what we don't do with our money, constantly value with a lot of charities. Just creating, man, just creating a better life, but more so how you measure and gauge, at least for me, Chris, is how I feel inside. I feel good, man. I feel good, the Bobby I am today. I love the word create. I firmly believe that that is the reason we exist, is to create. In fact, I have never, ever met somebody that suffers from depression or anxiety that is actively creating.

Yeah, nope, they're stuck. Never. It's impossible. And we were meant to be creators. Like that's what God has us here to do. Right. To produce, create value and creation takes so much more time and energy than destruction. Right. Like a freaking wrecking ball can come through and destroy a beautiful building that took years and years to build and can be destroyed in a day. And, and we're taught to be destroyers, right? Like this negative and, and like, and if we can just shift to that creation, I love that you've so much focus on that word because I am a big believer. Yeah. Innovation. Uh, you know, you know, I'm coaching. I decided to coach 10 business owners. Only 10 was I'm busy. I, I, I coach them one-on-one and the whole backdrop of my method constantly creating this company. You have, you cannot be still, you can't be stuck. You got to be innovative.

You got to be somewhat disruptive. Curiosity is the magic of, of, of what you're going to create. And, um, it's, it's fun, man. I'm having a good time. Um, it took me a while though. When I did sell, I took me, um, I hired a very famous life coach that helped the Amway company or the, the, the, the, the family that formed Amway took me about 13 months to come up for air. I didn't think it was going to be a hard transition. It was. Uh, so I, I fell in a little talk about, talk about that real quick. Was it an identity crisis? Like what were you going through? No, not identity. Um, you know, I, I let go of that whole ego crap.

Me, me, I, I many years prior to that, it was about that creating activity I talk about. Every day I was able to create, brainstorm, come up with new things, execute on things, create something that was just on paper to something that's just generating $100 million now this month. And when I left, I thought I was going to do this, do that, get on my boat, jump on the plane, do all that stuff that we talk about and I had no idea of this Bobby that have just formed a

good discipline habit. It took me a while to unwind that because you go from 100 miles per hour driving a really good Formula One race, and now you're doing golf carts. You know, so it took me a while, but I'm grateful that I have a great wife. We did it together. I went to Africa for two months. I went to Rwanda. I went to a school that we built in South Africa. We went to Asia.

I hired a monk for almost a month. I went on this whole journey, and I'm grateful that I have a great partner that allowed me to grow into this new chapter in our books. That was awesome. You know, that's so interesting. It's, you know, what you went through right there, the vast majority of the world will never have an opportunity to go through that, right? I'm going through a similar type thing right now. Right. Like where it's like, you've, you've created so much value as you talk about. Right. And you have this religious structure and work ethic and everything. And now it's like, how do I apply that into a whole new chapter in my life? And it's, uh, you know, there's first world problems and then

there's like 1% of 1% first world problems. And, uh, you know, that, that's literally what you went through. And, and, but I think it's so unique to like hear about it because these things aren't shared and, and you don't, you don't get it like the peer into the life of the one percent of the one percent and so um thank you for sharing that and like like the and dude how how did you feel doing this transition were there times of depression were there times yeah i'm not gonna lie there was and then i i i got a hold of a group uh that's related to richard branson Good dude, by the way. Spent some time with him. He and I may have a different view on politics, but we definitely vibe together on life.

I started surrounding myself with some people, some significant people that did some incredible things around the world that helped me, Chris, a lot, because they've done it a few times over. And then I was grateful enough for Bobby to reach out and find these other mentors in a different journey, in a different chapter in my life. Helped me tremendously. And I'm one of five founding members now of R360. So there are about 102 members around the world.

You got to have verifiable $100 million net worth. You got to be a cool individual. You got to be vetted out. We just came out on the, I think it was either wall street journal or one of those papers. Uh, two individuals were turned down one for us who had a $7 billion net worth one for $22 billion net worth. Can't say the names. We turned them down because it's somebody that we don't want to be around. We were looking for good energy. We've all hit the bell. We all rang the bell. Everyone has a lot of money. It's more than money because all along I was chasing money. And when I stopped chasing the money, Chris, guess what happened, dude, the money came. It's kind of crazy. That's right. I was chasing the

money and it goes back to, I was focused on making money, not creating money. And as soon as I stopped focusing on the money, I created enterprise value and financial freedom showed up at the door in an unbelievable way. I finally figured out how to get off the hamster wheel. And that's what everybody wants. You want to do it quicker than later. You don't have to, no reason you have to wait for the 20 year journey I did because you have this beautiful internet. You have all these mentors, you have all these podcasts like yours, Chris, you have all these resources and all this information that it's almost hard to miss. The only thing you're missing is how you're investing your time correctly. Yeah, absolutely, man. I, I love that. And I love that, uh, your founding member of that group sounds like a freaking remarkable, remarkable group. Incredible. Just incredible. So, uh, incredible people where you

think my story and your story is pretty cool. Woo. You'll be blown away. Some amazing people that have impacted millions of lives. Dude, if, if you could do it all over again, Bobby, what would you do different? I'm grateful for my mistakes because without these awful dark mistakes, I don't know if I'll be here today with my story. I don't know if I will. I had a real bad eagle, man. I was really, really about the shiny objects. If I had to do it again, and if some advice to another Bobby who's 23 years old, 19 years old, whatever the case is, be patient. You can still be urgent, but if you have clarity,

man, you could do some incredible things in your life. Do not be impatient being desperate because you're going to slow down the process. You're going to find ways to give up and never start. I was very desperate in life. I didn't understand how to navigate through life. You can do it as quickly, quicker. You could do it in five years. But if you focus on some clarity, and I talk heavily about that in my book, I wish I had the clarity. But then on the other side of the coin, Chris, I'm so grateful for those dark, awful

chapters in my life because without them, I would not have the lessons. But that doesn't mean that has to be for somebody else because you're listening to me and you to tell others, don't do it this way, do it that way. And if you just can trust that a little bit and not be suspicious about it, because I don't want nothing from, you know, not selling you a it because I don't want nothing from you, no, not selling your package. I don't want nothing. Just, you may want to go this way. I wasn't a person. I would ignore that. No,

that's too long. I want to go that way. Absolutely. And I, and I'm sure you go over some of those, those dark lessons that, uh, in your book, right?

Oh yeah. I'm sure. Big time, dude. Yeah. Big time. Awesome. Yeah.

So definitely encourage all the listeners to snag a copy. I think you said you can pick it up on Amazon. It's like 15 bucks. Is that right? Yeah, Amazon. It's called Upsiders by Bobby Castro. You can go to upsiders.com forward slash book. And if you don't have the money, man, you're struggling, DM me.

You can find me, Official Bobby Castro, on Instagram, and I'll send it to you, man, for free. I want you to win. I love that. In a spot in my life I want to give because I realized another thing, Chris, in order to receive in life, you got to be willing to give first. Absolutely, man. That's such a powerful principle. And, you know, a lot of people, they fantasize that like, once I do X, I will begin to give. That's just not the reality.

You have to give at whatever financial means you're at. You have to be a giver no matter if your net worth is $1,000, a million dollars, $100 million, a billion. And say your net worth is negative $1, Chris. Say you have a negative net worth. You're freaking broke. Bobby, what do I give? give value be all about value there's so much you have to give to the world you're one out of eight billion give value when i look in relationships give me value so i can give you value time and

value does not have to be currency yep time currency. That's, that's the way that you create value, man. I freaking, I love that. So Bobby, um, before we wrap this up, man, you got young guy, he's, he's just starting out thinking about going and doing his own thing. What could, what advice you giving to him besides young Bobby Castro, which is, which I love the patience thing. That's freaking awesome. I call that aggressively patient, right? Like what, uh, what other advice you've given to someone that's thinking about taking the leap? Very important. Now, each of us have stages in life and these stages will never, ever max out. There's no ceiling in life. You're at a stage right now, Bobby maximize this stage, whatever that looks like. I know it's not a stage you want to be at, but you're there now.

Maximize it. Get every bit of it, meaning that you're going to win and dominate the stage. You're going to hit the ceiling before you pivot to the next stage, Bobby. Make sure you look back. You covered everything. Meaning, I'll give you an example. You're working for a company. You're a salesperson.

You hate the job. You're looking to open your business. You want to do this or that, and you're working for a company, you're a salesperson, you hate the job, you're looking to open your business, you wanna do this or that, and you're all distracted. What about if I tell you, dominate right here at the job you're at. If you're in sales, you know you can make a lot more money if you focus. Again, remember Bobby, if whatever you focus

and give energy to, only one thing happens, it grows. Focus and give energy to the stage where you're at and dominate and win here. If you're making $60,000 a year and you're seeing other people in the same organization making 250, that is giving you a data point that there is room for growth. Maximize it because if you win

and you're the Mac daddy here, chances are you're gonna dominate the second stage. You cannot go to the second stage if you're giving up on this first stage. You almost start my business. I get it. You're freaking broke. You got bills.

I just outlined how people became millionaires with me by teaming up with me. At the organization you're at, instead of hating it, start falling in love with the process, hit the ceiling, and then you go to stage two. Let's go.

I love that. That is incredible advice. What about for the entrepreneur that's just going through the ceiling, and then you go to stage two. Let's go. I love that. That is incredible advice. What about for the entrepreneur that is going through the struggle similar to what you did with the real estate crash and everything else? I'm talking about right now. The companies I'm coaching, some of them are doing $50 million a year, several of them $20 million a year. I see them all vulnerable at the same situation. They all want to talk about real estate, a little crypto, a little bit this. And meanwhile, I, from outside in, looking at this beautiful company saying,

man, this dude has no clue what he's sitting on. So I try to rifle them back in and let them know of my mistakes, remind them why they hired me. Remind them what we're going to do, what we agreed to do and stay that course. Double down, baby. I love it. That's right.

Invest in your business. You're the best investment. Dude, I love it, man. You've dropped some incredible nuggets, guys. For those that are still with us, I appreciate you listening up until this point. Go ahead and drop in the comments some of the big gold or in a review, some of the things that you've taken from this incredible podcast, this incredible knowledge share. I mean, it's very rare that you get an opportunity from a guy like Bobby who sold a business for over a billion dollars that has created this massive wealth that is generational

and he's doing it with his kids and everything. So take advantage of the nuggets that he's sharing with you and start applying them. I appreciate so much. Thank you so much for your time. Any last words, any last little principle

that you could share with us, Mr. Bobby? Yes, sir. What I would like to ask each and every one of you listening to this podcast, do something, but only think about it after 24 hours. It'll change your life. At least you'll start to let go of three people in your ecosystem. Who are those three people who are giving you bad energy? Who's a distraction? Who's helping you support your laziness, your excuses? Let go of three people. Focus on three people. You will see how things start changing really quick. Influence

is very, very powerful. And remember this, misery loves company. Not because they're bad people, man. We just don't know any better. We're just taught what we've seen throughout the years. Let go of three people in your life. You don't have to make a big drama about it. Just fade in the distance. They tell you, hey, what's up, Bobby? No, dude, I'm so busy, man. I'm a freaking mess.

I'm trying to strain out my life. I'm so exhausted from being that old Bobby. I'm just so disappointed in myself. It's time for me to rock. I love you, dude. Hang up. If you're willing to do that, then that's a sign that you could be on the right track. Oh man,

that is gold. I appreciate it. Thank you so much again for your time, Bobby. Until next time. Thank you, Chris.