The Entrepreneur DNA - Empowering Women in Business | Sofia Castro | EP21

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Today I am joined with Sophia Castro, where she shares her experiences and insights as a trailblazer in women's empowerment and entrepreneurship. Discussing the challenges of modern parenting and the pressures women face in seeking help, Sophia emphasizes the importance of building a robust support system for balancing family and business responsibilities. She recounts her journey from financial struggles to significant business success, advocating for a mindset shift towards empowerment and strategic thinking. Sophia's story is not just inspirational but also a guide on leveraging support, overcoming societal expectations, and achieving financial independence through entrepreneurship. -- Connect with Sofia! Instagram - @officialsofiacastro Upsiders Facebook community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/officialupsiderscommunity/    

What is up entrepreneur or DNA family? I am back with another incredible guest and I am so excited. We already just were riffing for the last 15-20 minutes about kids, parenting, being a woman, being a business owner. This is super exciting to have Sofia Castro here. How are you? Doing great. Thank you so much for the invite. I'm super excited to be able to speak now that we've been talking a lot about women empowerment and you know pma yeah yeah all the good things yeah so excited to be able to give value and uh maybe get to be one woman to change your mind on the outlook of being an entrepreneur and stronger than the men that's it well so i was just telling you and for all you watchers and listeners right now go follow sofia men and women alike um she has an incredible women's movement.

We'll talk about that. But the first thing I started peppering you with was just like me and my wife are in the trenches and like brand new baby, five weeks old. We have a three-year-old girl. We're navigating the single only child syndrome now. She's not the only child. But let's just talk about the parenting part of all this before we get to business and the strength of a mother and the things that the stuff that we were just talking about, right? Getting help. Like how hard is that for women to ask for it and things of that nature? You know, this is one of the strongest topics I would have to say that when I go on to

a stage or if I'm in a mastermind group, that is a topic of very strong interest. A lot of women, you know, when we have babies, we automatically become this, you know, guarded. I got it. I got it. No one's going to touch. Nobody's going to do it better. I got this. I don't want help. And later on, it could be two weeks. It could be two months. It could be there. They break down. They break down because no matter, you know, we're, we want to be superwoman, right? And we are superwoman. Um, but it does get tiring. And what I try to tell women,

I've been there. I have two, you know, two children. I have a 33 and a 27 now way older. So I've already been experienced. I've been there. I've done that. I now have grandbabies. Um, and what I try to tell women is don't feel underpowered or less because you want help. That is not the case. That is when you bring in help, you're getting more power. You're going to be able to be that superwoman that we are. And it doesn't mean that you're a bad parent. I had a nanny since, you know, my mother was with me, me being Cuban. My mom is that Cuban mom that wanted to be there, that little hen and taking care of everybody.

So I was very lucky for the first four or five years of my first child's life that I had her, but I had a housekeeper as well. And I couldn't afford it at the time. I'm going to tell you, because a lot of people say, I can't afford that. Do whatever you got to do to be able to bring in help for yourself because it's mental health. It's your relationship. Your children get the best of you when you have other people around you helping you. And I always like to tell this to women, what is better? Giving your child one hour of great interaction of like really paying attention or giving that child all of you instead of one hour, because after one hour, you're already tired. You have to clean the house.

You have to cook. You have to wash your clothes. You have to run errands. You have to do this. So now your child is a burden. Now it's like, oh, my God. And then when your spouse gets home, you're a pain in the ass. Right?

And you don't mean to. But now then that brings friction into your relationship. Because now you're like, I've been out there with our kids. I've cleaned. I've cooked. I've done this. I've done this. I've done this.

And now you get home and you want me to give you my attention too. Yeah. Well, you don't want help. And it's the biggest relationship breaking up of like because you're exhausted and then you want your your spouse and whether this is a man or a woman you want them to come home after they've been out there busting their butt for 8 10 12 hours and you want them to bring to help you when you don't want to get help is that fair i'm gonna say no no that is not fair at all and And I tell this to all stay-at-home moms. Be the CEO of your household.

There you go. You control your household, your children, your house, but bring in help. Bring in your secretary. Bring in, just like a businessman does, or a businesswoman, bring in help so that when you're the CEO of your household, you are calling the shots. You're not doing everything. You have, you're taking care of your kids. You're going to take care of the bills of the house. If there's any repairs that need to be at home, any kind of planning, anything you're, you are in charge, anything that belongs to your home, your household chores. That way, now you have a cleaning lady. If you have a nanny, you could have somebody outside doing all the chores.

Whatever you can afford, but let me tell you something. Whatever you need to do, having a housekeeper or having a nanny is a must for a new parent to be able to get through those rough years because they're not easy when you bring in a second or third or fourth person into this relationship meaning your children it is not easy it is the only thing in listen i'm a little older in terms of when i got married so i'm 42 now i got married at 39 i met my wife at 37 Met her at Kiki's on the River. Oh, nice. One of my favorites. Great. So I lived in Scottsdale. She lives here. She's Cuban from Miami. Met her at a day club, Sunday day club. We were having a great time. But I will tell you, getting married didn't change my

life. Dating, all that. It's the kids that changes your life and it changes our relationship because to your exact point, literally today, I'm trying to pamper her give her what she wants we were just talking about this she's going for mom's day but the second we are over I have to run home because someone has to pick up the three-year-old because the grandma's with the little baby she's getting I'm like this is chaos it's too chaotic and this is what I like to tell women. I love to say, you need to build a highway, okay? And you build lanes in that highway. It doesn't matter how many lanes. Everybody has different amount of lanes that you're going to put in that lane, in that highway. You pick your highway. I mean, you pick your lane. When you pick your lane, you need to stay

in that lane. Everybody needs to stay in that lane because once you start crossing over, example, your wife, I want to be a stay-at-home mom. I want to be the one that take care of our children. But now she's crossing into your lane, right? And no offense to your wife. I don't know her, but please don't get mad at me. I'm just trying to make your life a little easier. When you say, I'm going to stay home,

she can't expect for you to let go of your job or your career to come home for the kids when she chose to be a stay-at-home, right? Now you're stopping your goals, your big goal to build that empire. Now she crashed into you. Now she just put a flat tire on your car. Now that's going to take you longer to get to that end goal, right? So everybody, I'm not saying that it's going to stop you, but it's going to slow you down because now you've got to let go of your day

to go take care of the kids. Meanwhile, because she doesn't want to have a nanny? Right. I mean, that's what it goes back to. She can be the CEO of the house, go get a nanny, get someone that can pick up the three-year-old from school, bring her home. I mean, her mom is great. You're still creating your career for both.

That's for your whole entire household. Right. You're in charge of creating that empire for your whole entire family. Yeah. of her household and create assistance, this, that, whatever she could create to make her and your life easier so that later on as well, when you get home at whatever time it is at your choice, that you are able to be pleasant with each other and wanting to say, oh my God, my husband's coming home. I'm going to be able to have a dinner with him, with the children as well, or without the children, whatever the case may be.

Have your date night. Feel fresh so that you guys could not feel tired at night. So those are the little things that women don't understand. And they impose this whole chaos life that they've built for themselves because they want to with their relationship and that's where you see where the relationships can't last right more than a certain amount of years because somebody's going to get tired yeah whether it's you or her right so and that's the point is if you're both tired then there's no communication we both go to sleep early there's no hanging out with each other there's no romance love because both go to sleep early. There's no hanging out with each other. There's no romance, love, because you're just tired.

And then it breaks, right? At one point, it could last three, four, five years, but it'll break if you don't get this under control. And maybe it lasts us two months. Some people just can't deal with this chaos. Some men say, I'm done. I can't be a Mr. Mom and I can't be the entrepreneur to create this empire for our family, especially when you're beginning because they're both rough, right? You're

beginning this career or this whole empire life that you've created. Bobby and I didn't have a nanny and a housekeeper. We would have never been able to accomplish what we have accomplished in our lifetime. It's impossible. Well, so let's go to this because I think people need to hear your story too. I think this is a great start, but I think they also need to realize like, yeah, you're talking about having a housekeeper. Yes, you're talking about having a nanny. But you guys didn't come from like, oh, we're just, we were born with money.

And so this is what we're- Bobby's family lived on, you know, food stamps and no lights and stuff like that. And my family, my parents came from Cuba in 1959 or 60 with $0 and seven children. So my mom couldn't go work. There was a possible that they could put seven children. And you're both raised in Hialeah?

In Hialeah. Yeah. So for all those from Miami, And you're both raised in Hialeah? In Hialeah. Yeah. So for all those from Miami, you guys are aware of where Hialeah is. La ciudad que produce esta. There you go. And so, you know, I think people need to hear the kind of the come up because while we're talking about where I'm at in life, which is a lot more financially stable than when you guys were having kids. A hundred percent. Getting my wife to get a nanny is just a function of having her probably talk to you, frankly,

but just believe that she, this needs to happen, right? Not just for her, but for us, right? But I'm at a different place in my life where the money part isn't hard. How do you, how do you do all of this? What was the come up for you and Bobby to, to kind of reach where you're at and to be able to have the mindset like, okay, I don't care if we need to go there was no Uber back then but we need to go do Uber to pay for the nanny whatever it was two to three jobs it didn't matter and you guys would do that yes 100% we did that and uh yes so that all of you know um you know I'm a

10th grade dropout uh Bobby is a 9th grade dropout. And we come from a very humble, humble background. Like our families had no money. They worked very hard and made very little money. So nothing was handed to Bobby and I in a pallet or nothing. It was us too. When I met Bobby, he had this really positive mindset. And if everybody knows Bobby, it's PMA all day, every day. That is very true. How we were able to get through business and that we wanted this future for ourselves. We saw very big goals. We had huge goals and didn't know how to get there, but we knew we

were going to get stepping stones to get there somehow. How long it was going to take us, we weren't worried, but we knew that we were going to head in that highway and we had to pick roles because we did bump into each other many times broke that car completely you know crashed it like not just the wheel I mean it was the whole entire car because we didn't have you know no one in front of us to pave that road for us we were on rocky rocky unpaved roads with holes and 19 when we got married 19 and 23 that is so wild to me being someone that got married at 38 years old oh man you guys god bless you too but i want to fast forward for all the people that may not even know the story how this story ends so far year to date this moment they've had a 10 figure exit in business just so you guys do the math just think of the commas and the zeros and 10 figures you guys currently own 30 2200 or 3200 doors about 2500 25 yeah like it's a 700

about 750 750 million dollar portfolio yeah so i just wanted to fast forward for all you guys yeah you know difficult start because there's so many people out there that will create why they can't. And you, Bobby, didn't. And that's why I wanted to fast forward to where you're at today while you're sitting in front of me. You have this massive, massive portfolio, almost a billion dollars worth of real estate. You've already had a 10-figure exit on a business, which is incredible.

These are things coming from a ninth grade dropout, a 10th grade dropout, not married at 19 with a child, no money, and just all that's between your two years PMA all day, every day, uh, the non-refundable minutes and stack and rack urgent massive action. I mean that we were just like, those were our mantras. We lived based on that every single day of our life. And I know a lot of people might say, Oh, that's so cliche. I can't just wake up and say, I have a positive mindset and I'm going to get there. But that's what happens that they just say, Oh yeah. Oh, I just have to have a positive mindset. No, it's like, you really have to believe it. And it comes from inside your that's it um and that mind will definitely shift but you have to have that big why that big why

has to be there and bobby's really to tell you the truth if it wasn't for bobby i don't know that i would have had this big why because my family didn't come from that or Bobby's but Bobby's mom and Bobby's uncle were very their mindset was I do whatever I put my mindset I'm going to get it done they just didn't know how to really use it they put it towards being an employee instead of putting it to be an employer and um but Bobby just said I'm not going to do what my family did. I'm not living on welfare. I'm not living on Section 8. I'm not going to be struggling, you know, to have no electricity in the house for weeks. So he was just like, I'm not doing that. Whatever I'm going to do, I'm going to do opposite.

And Bobby always says, your biggest mentors are who you don't want to be. Interesting. So for him, that was his biggest mentor was, I don't want to be. Interesting. So for him, that was his biggest mentor was, I don't want to be where my family was. So whatever I need to do to do opposite, that's where I'm going. If I really think so, I grew up with alcoholic mother, father and stepfather. Everyone has a story. So I had a tough childhood because of alcohol. But if I think about it, that was my biggest learning curve and lesson was I've created today what I knew I didn't want dealing with as a kid.

So that's an interesting point of view. So that was your mentor. Sure. And so how did you, you didn't even realize that that was your mentor. It took shape in a different way. I realized that. Yes.

Right. That, that was the best learning is, is learning because now I'm thankful for it, but I didn't realize it was my mentor. I was thankful that my mother and father, because now where I'm at. But that's the mentor. But that's what happens.

A lot of people don't. So us, Bobby and I, being so young, we got pregnant six months into knowing each other. And I wanted to have an abortion. And Bobby was totally against it. Because we had no money. We just, we had known each other for six months. I'm like, I'm going to be a single mom, right? Struggling. I'm like, that's not what I want for my life. And he finally convinced me and thank God. I pray to God every day. Thank you for giving me the blessing because of my daughter, Priscilla at 33 years old today has been our

biggest blessing. And you know, she always brags about it. Like, yeah, she was a mistake per se, but has been our biggest blessing. Because if it wasn't for her, I don't think we would have pushed as hard as we did that young and get through all the obstacles that we went through in life because it was not easy. Give me a hand.

I mean, at that age, like, I can't even can't even, here's why I can't fathom. Because basically my entire 20s and 30s, I fucked off. I made a lot of money. I was in the club in Vegas, popping bottles, in the club in Scottsdale. Like I was that guy. I can't fathom being 20, 21, 22, 23 years old with a child at all. Yeah, you're what Bobby calls flash dancing. Oh, 100%.

But I own it. I knew I was that guy. You know what? I guarantee you that you won't do that again now in your stage of your life of spending 20. We were just talking about that today. You know, you spend $20,000, $30,000 on a weekend on a club. What does that bring back to you?

My accountant would light me up on a Monday. Yeah, what does that bring back to you? Like, what the fuck is this credit card bill I just got for like $19,000 between Friday and Saturday? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm just having fun. So, you know, I tell a lot of people, again, that was my biggest blessing because I would have been a person. I love to have fun. I love to party. I'm Cuban. You know love to have fun. I love to party.

I'm Cuban. You know, I have that. I get it. That's that side of me. That's it. You know, but I, again, this is why I say it's a blessing because Bobby and I, number one, we didn't have the money. We couldn't go out clubbing like that.

We didn't have that kind of money back then. But it allowed us to really grow up and really look at the, our future in a way of what are we going to build now strong. And I love to tell this to people is build your foundation with concrete, not with sand, not with wood, because once you start building on that foundation, if level one collapse, you're not going nowhere. If it's made out of concrete, you're going to that first level and let's start building again. If it collapsed in the fifth floor again, where are you coming to, to a concrete solid foundation where you could start building again. And that happened to Bobby and I many times. We didn't build this new, the building,

the business that we had that we sold yeah we didn't that didn't start from the beginning we went through many failures before we got to this business and then it took us 20 something years to be able to build what we did for it to be able to be sold at that 10 but respectfully people feel like you just come in you build it you sell it off and you have this big exit oh my god but they don't know like enough of the build and the grow and the mistakes and the failures and the losses and the trying and they don't get those things so that's where i want i had to move back to my mom's well bobby and i and my daughter we had to move back to my mom's house twice in this journey that we had i love hearing hearing that. Not because I wanted that for you.

No, but. But that's reality. And it was for us, it was the failures. What was really what helped us be able to create this business that we sold. Because every time we failed at something, we didn't sit there and dig a hole and put the sand over our heads or go into a bottle of water and just drown. No, we were like, okay, we need to sit down. What did we do wrong? Why did this not go forward

the way that we thought it was? So we would take down and say, okay, now the next one, we cannot do this, this, this, this. We need to do it this other way. Did you jump around different businesses? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And then a lot of people feel like they just need to know, like, what am I doing for the rest of my life? I need to know before I do anything. I'm the opposite. Like, especially when you're young, I say, fuck around, try it all. Kind of a Gary V type of thing. Like you're young. You don't really, you guys had a lot to lose. You had a kid, but like in a general sense, figure out what

you like, what you don't like, what you're passionate about. Obviously,, you guys had a lot to lose. You had a kid, but like in a general sense, figure out what you like, what you don't like, what you're passionate about. Obviously, once you guys got into the space that you found it. Yes. You and Bobby could pour on your special sauce. Yep. But how many different iterations of businesses did you go? Oh, we went through many, went through many.

It was not just finance, you know, this world of finance. We wanted to get into real estate from day one. But back then, we didn't even know about mentors or anything like that. But there was no money, we didn't have money, we didn't have the financial knowledge to say, how do we get into? So we thought by getting into different businesses, trying to create what we call stack and rack, that we will be able to buy a single family home to rent it or to flip it or whatever but we didn't know how to get in there so we didn't try it at the beginning we tried different businesses that bobby's always been about cash flow okay always any business we do needs to bring in

revenue like immediately yeah so we would try this and and it obviously we failed a couple of times but we finally got to knowing okay we need to find something that we could really put in all these lessons that we have learned and had a skill and we did not know by no means that we were gonna scale the way that we scaled we just thought okay we'll make a couple of millions and you know we'll be good. But once we started learning that it was not about creating millions, it was about creating the solidness of a business so that that trade could continue and not fail, that's when we started realizing like, okay, forget about being rich. This is not our goal at all. It's not, this is not what we want. What we want to do is we want to create an empire that we

could say we built something so solid because of our knowledge and because we were so focused on it that we want it to be something big. the business is still around today and it does amazing right it does amazing our brother-in-law still a uh partner in the business a third partner and they're doing amazing uh the business continues to grow um right now it's way worth more than what you know we sold out but we're okay with that we're we're so happy i was gonna say the same thing of course and in it i think and i i've never been in your seat i've never had a 10 figure payday right but i think when you have those opportunities there's such a once in a lifetime thing regardless of whether

if you stayed in it could have been worth double that and you would have made double that and all these other things you could have but i feel the journey, the next chapter is what was more important for you guys, right? Which is definitely this real estate play that you guys have done so very well at, right? That I'm in and this is where you want to go. Talk to that point where, okay, we've done something very special here. Great. Now what? Cause you're not, you don't strike me as someone that could just go retire. You're not going to sit. There's no way we're in Miami, but you're not going to go just sit at the Ritz down and you know, no, I cannot, I can not yet. Not, um, I'm only 53 and I know, uh, that's old for some, but I still feel so young and there's still so much for me to give.

Yeah. And I want to still provide more of a legacy. And one of my biggest ones is I really want women. I want this women empowerment. And I don't want you to take this wrong in the women empowerment because I don't find myself to compare myself to a man by no reason, by no mean. I don't like this whole thing of like, oh, if I'm in a corporate office, the C-suite's only for men and I feel empowered. No, if you want it, you're going to go get it. What I want to teach women is be empowered.

Don't feel afraid to do what you want to do, whether it's entrepreneurship, real estate investor, or being in a corporation and being a C-suite person, right? Don't feel that you, competition can be a woman. Of course. Don't feel like you're going in there and competing against a man. Compete against your knowledge. Compete about the value that you're able to provide to get where you want.

And that's what I want to be able to give out to women. I want them to feel empowered and not compare themselves to a sex gender. Compare yourself to the value, the knowledge that you could provide for that, whatever it is, if it's for your own business or if you're working for a partnership, or if you're a real estate investor. So there's a lot of motivational speakers and all that kind of stuff. But something that goes around that you've heard and I've heard a ton of times is me versus me. So the way I would rephrase what you're saying is I would just say, compare yourself against yourself and get 1% better every single day to be better today than you were yesterday. And you will be in the C the c suite you will be the ceo you will be the president united states i mean it is just a matter of time

it is happening it's right it just needs to be the right lady but all those things are barriers that you as sophia are going to be able to help women and that's why i'm so happy to have you on because as i told you in my more single family residential space, I try to empower women because I firmly believe what you believe. I believe if women could harness a little bit more thick skin and ability to believe in themselves, they would crush it financially relative to men. They would own the marketplace. Realtors, investors, lenders, women would just own it because I think women, you guys have all of the pieces. And the most important to me is the empathy. You guys have an ability to sit and listen,

to agree, and then to empathize where men just want to bulldoze a lot of times. I'm right. This is the way, this is the thing, take it or leave it. Right. But women will sit and listen and they'll be patient and they'll empathize. And that is the strongest quality I can think of. And that's why I know that women, if they just get around the Sophia Castro's of the world who have been there, done that, built it, have another thing they're building, right?

Which is this movement. They need to be around you, right? So that is my plug right now. Go follow Sophia right right now but also you do actually have a movement it's um rain yeah rain finance group um so what I did with rain finance group is it's exactly how Bobby and I started many many years ago the business that we were able to sell and it's just being a commercial uh broker Okay. You know, that's how we started. It's just about going out there, being a realtor.

It's almost being a realtor, but in the finance world, right? Got it. And helping small to medium-sized businesses to be able to get finance, whether it's equipment for their business, a working capital, an SBA, a commercial loan, anything to do with the real estate we're able to do. But I'm teaching them how to create their own entrepreneurship with the backbone of somebody being there to help you and not having to do the back office work. So I love to say I'm giving you a vehicle and a toolbox. Now what you do with it, it's up to you. So you still got to go sell.

You got to go get your clients. Of course, but that's what's teaching. That's what we did. You know, like you can't sit there in a couch and say, I want to be, you know, the princess. I want to be the queen. I want to be the, and that it's just going to automatically come to you like a movie.

You know, it's hard if it's, if not everybody would be out there would be successful but you give them the blueprint but i'm giving them a system you have a toolbox you have everything to go in the the training there's training there's the backbone like i love to say i'll be the backbone i'm giving you everything i have all the lenders that will do it. I have everything that it will take for you to become successful. As long as you have that mindset and that focus and that want. Yeah. Because if you don't care to be successful or to create your own business, it's difficult.

I have a few that have failed because they they just think that oh I'm on with Sophia it's just gonna rub off on me and I'm just gonna be successful it's not the way it works I mean there's so much sacrifice that people don't they think you're just gonna rub off but they didn't see the sacrifices you made to go grow this business and 20 something years more and you're an overlay success right like all of a sudden the cash rows are on no no we've been here you guys just don't see all the dog shit sandwiches we ate along this way you just see the big eggs and we're still at it we're still at it hard i mean you're doing this interview you like i said you could be at the risk in key biscayne and you know sipping a mocktail or

whatever you're not you're here no right it's it's incredible and what would we tell the the female in this point of the interview making a decision for entrepreneurship what do we want what do we want the message to be do we want it to be real estate I love real estate for so many different reasons um do we want it to be financial do we just say go try something what's the message that we want to speak to the female um the females audience out here you need to really sit down with yourself wanting to know do I want to be an entrepreneur or do I want to go work for somebody else and make them rich um it's a big difference of being an entrepreneur and being an employee so that that mindset, you have to have it.

Because if you go out there with a mindset that I want to go work for somebody because it's so much easier, I get to work from nine to five and I get to go home and I get to do with my kids or get to do what I want. And on the weekends,

I don't have to worry about anything and hands off. That's not a mindset of being an entrepreneur. Hell no. I tell my wife all the time. Do you remember the movie Cocktails with Tom Cruise? No brains, no headaches. I want to go be a bartender on the beach. We're going to have a one bedroom apartment and we're going to have nothing else.

Nothing else. But man, I would have my hair still. Yeah. Right? And you can lay on the beach and have the pina coladas or do whatever you want. But is that what you want? Your point is, is that what you want? I can't.

I couldn't do it even when I had my children. Like I told you, I lasted three months and I was not because I love my children. I love being a mom. I couldn't do it without them. But I was, I'm a working, I love to create. I love to be, you know, to be able to bring value to others. I cannot sit at home and say, I'm going to do nothing with my brain and just be a mom, which is nothing wrong with it.

And again, I praise these women that want to be stay at home moms because it is a lot of work, a lot, 365 days out of the year. You get zero break even if you're sick. Isn't that crazy? Like I literally tell my wife, I praise you because I don't, whatever you need, because I cannot do what you do. I can't do it either. That wasn't me. So I don't take it wrong, women.

But you can have the mindset of wanting to be an employee or stay an old mom and try entrepreneurship. Right. So different. Yeah. You're working every single day, even on the weekends. Even if it's not all day on the weekends, you're working on the weekends. I wake up on Saturday and Sunday and look at my email first thing and answer things or send things. Or sometimes I have to go do a mastermind that we're involved with

or go travel because I'm going to be in an event. So it's entrepreneurship. I tell you all need to have that mindset of being an entrepreneur because there's no greater reward in the world than being an entrepreneur. You call the shots. You do what you want to create. You're able to, if you want a huge empire, you get a huge empire. If you want a small empire, you get a small empire, but you call the shots. Being an employee, you don't call the shots and you have to be on command of whatever that

employer wants because you chose to be that, right? And there's, again, there's nothing wrong with that either. We all need employees. So I'm grateful for a lot of people wanting to be employees because if not, how do we find help to be able to? Because one thing, entrepreneurs, don't think that you could do this on your own. You need a village to create this empire. And whoever tells me that they could do it on their own,

they're going nowhere. Impossible. I don't care how good you are. Even just getting around you or me or coaches and mentors, you said masterminds. I have a six-figure budget for myself to cut checks, to be a part of masterminds, to pay for coaches. A lot of these people aren't famous people.

These are the experts in a very niche part of what I need for my business, right? That's another part is all you out there watching this or listening to this, if you're interested, then you go and get in Sophia's world, right? Even if it's a check you have to cut to figure out whether you want that, it is a much smaller check than going around your whole life and having opportunity costs and wondering should I could have woulda and then never doing anything about it but at least if you get around Sophia or others yeah you'll at least know and what if it does strike gold and you go oh my god I'm gonna be the next

Sophia right I'm gonna be the next powerful woman who's created this I wish I had mentors when me and Bobby were starting off our journey of being entrepreneurs. I would have been so much easier. What would you guys have done differently? Now that you say that, you did a lot of different things, but if you literally are connecting the dots looking backwards, not differently, like would you have changed everything? I'm just saying like, would there have been a vertical, an industry that you would have started earlier, whether it be the financial, whether it be real estate, would you have been a vertical, an industry that you would have started earlier, whether it be the financial, whether it be real estate? Would you have done something differently to kind of set this up now that could have sped up that learning curve?

So I'm going to give you a two part answers to that one. much, me and Bobby, that now we're able to share this knowledge, this wealth of just doing things that I would have never learned really, probably if I would have had a different path. But yes, would I would love to have a mentor to be able to pave the way a little bit maybe so that we wouldn't have so many crashes crashes yeah i would have been great especially on real estate we got involved in real estate in 2003 okay uh without no knowledge in real estate just thinking oh we're business owners yeah we have money and we had all the financial institutions that were available to us to finance and leverage ourselves to the max because we had the relationships.

Yeah. So I would have loved to been able to had a coach maybe or a mentor. Slow down a little. Don't go that far. So that we didn't, because in 2003, we started getting into condo conversions. We didn't know a thing about it, zero. Got it. Just had the money and and in 2006 when

the world came starting to crash down we were leveraged at 120 percent on all of our buildings that we were converting in 2007 we started feeling the pain in 2008 we had to let go of a lot we didn't go into we didn't turn in no buildings. We came to, we would give away these buildings and come to the closing table with money because we had two things. We had our business, that BHG as collateral to all of our finances on our real estate. There was no way that we were going to let go of that business that we had built. And it took us so much struggle to let go and go into foreclosure and lose our business because that was what was bringing in the money to be able to afford real estate. And number two, it was our reputation and our credit. We would let go of that and we

were going to foreclosure. We were never going to be into having the business we had. Yeah, because you're talking about a $100,000 house. No, we're talking about $81 million in debt in real estate. Yeah. So there was no way. And you got out of that without. Without. Okay.

No BK, no foreclosures, no turning, no lure of nothing. None of that. No deed and lieu. None. We completely figured out. Bobby and our other business partner went back into BHG and drowded their head in it. How are we going to create this business to succeed so that we can now cover the real estate debt? Because we were in the partnership of BHG was in the partnership of real estate.

So we were together. So we knew. So then my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law and me, we went into the real estate and started learning how do we get tenants back into these buildings? Because we had them completely vacated because we were turning them into condo conversions. Oh my God. Right. With zero income coming in. You're just cutting checks. We're paying all day long. So we're like, then this is where Bobby and I, our whole brain started, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting. Oh, my God.

Rental income. What are you talking about? You get rental income monthly and you just get a check? And at this time, we're not making no money because we have bought the buildings very sky high, overpriced. We were over leveraged on our mortgages. So any money that was coming in was to pay all these expenses that these buildings needed. So we were like, but we knew we were like, wait a minute, we could do this the right way. Yeah. Get into rental properties and we're going to receive passive income. So did you just for clarity, did you have to

get back, not give back, but did you have to unwind all of your rentals at that time all of them you sold them all cut checks to close them get rid of the ones that we knew we stayed with two or three buildings okay that we knew we could cash flow a little bit at least to cover all the debt from those buildings once they that once we filled them back up then we sold them you know because they were rent to income and again but at least they were sellable you know people wanted them they had cash flow so we sold those building and we still have one from this whole condo conversion that we still own because it's a one of it you know it's a trophy property and we just me and bobby just couldn't attach ourselves we couldn't detach ourselves from it. And we still

have that building and it's one of our best buildings, um, that we have cash flowing, but all, even though all of our buildings, Bobby and I are very, very strong. And when we buy a building, it needs to cashflow day one, got it in place, whatever's in place. And then we'll worry about Performa. Yeah. You know, I love it. So a couple follow-up to this entire story. It's encouraging to hear, even myself that has seven or eight different companies, there are times that one company is sinking and another company has to be able to cover that sinking boat, right? Correct. And it's not sinking because of really bad mistakes. It's just sinking because the revenue

hasn't caught up to marketing and operations and cost and whatever, right? It's encouraging to know that you can go and people go through that, right? Because sometimes you get stuck in your four walls and be like, am I fucking even doing this right? Like, is that supposed to be happening? But it happens. It happens. It happens to the best of us, right? And God bless you and Bobby and Bobby going back in saying, okay, I got to generate scales for my financial business so I can cover the checks

for this business because sales cures all. A hundred percent. And unfortunately, and you've seen this over the last decade, the real estate world has been appreciating so much over the last decade that all these little young gurus or people getting into real estate and they're 22, 25, 27 years old, they feel like they're millionaires and they've made a lot of money, but it's because they've had wind at their back and it cures everything because it's hard to make a mistake when it's appreciating, especially in Miami. Like I bought my home in 2021 and I gained over a million dollars of equity since 2021 in three years. Like that's insanity. Insane.

Right? And so it's hard to make mistakes when that happens. You can cover up a lot of mistakes when you do stuff like that. Yes. But you know, you could cover them up if you understand the play. Yeah. Because a lot of people get real estate and they think that they're going to become millionaires and they start putting high leverage. They start

not really concentrating it as a business and they think it's just an investment that's just going to forever bring them cash. And they do miss the big mistakes and they lose the property because they don't know how to manage the cashflow of the properties. So it is and it isn't. I see a lot of people doing this mistake of like, I'm just going to put my money into real estate. I don't know nothing about it. And they don't understand that a single family home behaves differently than an apartment building,

than a storage, retail, anything. All real estate investments, they behave so differently and they have to be managed completely differently. And in certain markets, all of them go, you know, they switch up, right? So you got to be careful. You can't go into real estate blindly either because we did it and we almost lost it all yeah but to credit to you too right yeah find a way this goes back to like not everyone's built for entrepreneurship exactly that if you guys would have been working even making really good money at an institution you would not have had that headache and that problem that challenge yeah what did that do to your

personal life right you guys are working together and you're going through that kind of that could not have been that much no it was that wasn't easy that was a rough even for our relationship at that time it was rough because you're you're like this you want to blow your head off you're like what do i do how am i going to cover 81 million dollars in debt and that we don't lose our business our credit we had no life back then. And zero money to even breathe. We were back to when we first started the business. We were like, we got to let go of everything. Everything.

Nothing can exist right now. We need to go back to zero. Let go of all the cars. Let go of every partying, going on vacation. None of that. All had to go back to zero and be humble enough to go down to that step. And again, what happened? Our foundation was out of concrete.

So we crashed, but we weren't going below that concrete base. That's right. So that concrete base just gave us that backbone to say, okay, we're rebuilding. Yeah. And rebuilding stronger now. Yeah. What do you think the biggest mistake there was? Was it just over leverage?

Over leverage. Yeah. A hundred percent. Not understanding leverage. Not understanding leverage and that markets change. Right? Of course. Back then the market was at its highest peak. Anybody would, I mean, a baby could go buy a freaking place and they were making money right

in real estate so and you didn't have to have any knowledge it was just like you're saying right now million dollars i have equity but what happens if you mismanage that money right you don't know you out you take that million dollars out of your house and you go play with that money and now how do you yeah and how do you pay that mortgage now? Because, yeah, you had the equity. You refinanced it, and you got the cash out. And the economy changes. But what do you do with that money?

Right. And that's what people don't know. Go buy toys. You go flash dance like Bobby likes to say. Go do everything. And now, how do you pay for that? Well, luckily, I'm older now. Yeah, now you're older.

Because I would have done that. I would have done that. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. You need to go in as an entrepreneur. That's why I'm older now. Yeah, now you're older. Because I would have done that. I would have done that. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. You need to go in as an entrepreneur. That's why I'm telling everybody, you have to understand that entrepreneurship is amazing. I wouldn't tell everybody to do it like I said before, but you have to have that mindset. You cannot go into entrepreneurship with an employee mindset.

You will fail fail i'm going to ask you to talk to the females really quickly as we're wrapping up here what would you advise female entrepreneurs today to what do they need to sacrifice what do they need to be willing to give up right because i have my own kind of rhetoric that i say about that but i think it is different i think being a mother is different than being a father, right? I think the connectivity there, like, I don't have an instinctual, I want to be with my kids for 12 straight hours. Mothers a lot of times do. What does that look like for females? So I'm going to tell you from my experience, what I gave up, I gave up being that stay home mom, being with my children 12 hours a day. I chose to have that

entrepreneur mindset and create an empire for my children. Instead of being that stay-at-home mom, I gave up my Saturdays and Sundays. I didn't go out to party on Saturday and Sunday like a normal 20-something-year-old would do. I decided that Monday through Friday was going to be my working out. Like I was going to go do everything I can to build this empire. And then Saturday and Sunday, give that time to my children. So that meant no friends that met going to my family's house when I can, because I wanted to do whatever my kids wanted to do, because that's what the time I was giving to them. But I didn't feel like that was giving up anything at all. For me, it was I was creating a future for my family, Bobby and I. And then Friday nights, Bobby and I did date night every Friday, meaning I didn't spend time with our kids on Friday nights.

We would get home from work, sometimes even leave straight from work because if they would see us, they would cry. So we would go straight from work. We would bring whatever change of clothes, change at our office and go on our date night. That was our time to be able to spend together. And then the kids, Saturday and Sunday. A lot of moms don't want to do this. A lot of moms feel like they feel bad. I'm a bottom mom. I'm not being there for my kids. And I totally disagree, but that's okay.

We all have different mindset. Again, an entrepreneur mindset or an employer, an employee mindset. And that is very, very hard. But I tell you, entrepreneur mindset women, don't feel bad doing this. It's beautiful what you're going to be able to provide for your family afterwards. I would love to have my kids now say they appreciate it now. Of course, when they were little, they would cry and they would pout. And I don't want to be with a nanny. And I'm so whatever. But now they're like, you know what?

I learned so much from you and dad because the tenacity, the perseverance, the consistency of what you guys have provided for us, you wouldn't have been able to provide it if you were a stay-at-home mom. So don't be afraid of giving that up because you're not giving it up. You're just giving it to them in a different form. And they will appreciate that later in life because you can't build an empire if you don't go out there and pursue it for yourself. It's impossible. Well, one thing you do a really good job, even on this episode, but just all your social media and everything that you do.

And speaking from stage is that you have to believe you can achieve it. And what you do is you show them, you don't even have to believe, look what I've done, right? It's not this mythical thing to have a 10 figure exit, to have 2000 rental properties. Like that's not,

that's not a thing out there. I've done this, right? Then you need to do the hard work. You need to make those sacrifices and rinse and repeat every single day. But then you have to come across failure. And that, I think, is a lot of the breaking point, right, is people aren't willing.

Because when they fail, they feel like they're going to be judged and so-and-so is going to say, you should have just been a mom or you should have just, but you got to be able to push through that. That happened to me. Yeah. When we were first starting. Shocker. My own parents and family members, members like I can't believe you've

done this but I said how do you get there if you don't fail nobody's perfect if it was that easy the whole entire eight billion people in this world would do it because it would be oh let me just walk into this lane and it's just going to happen for me. But, you know, failures are great guys, as long as you don't continue doing it. And I tell this to my daughter and she's, this is a big joke between her friends and me. It's, you know, I tell them all the time, don't fall over the same rock because if you continue going and going in that path and that rock's still there and you trip over it, okay, the first time around, that's great. But now you're coming around the second time and

you're going to fall again on the same rock. And that's a big joke, but it's just, think about it. If you, if you already, you know, that rock is there. Why are you going down that path? I feel like this is a very Spanish slash Cuban way's a Cuban way of saying that like my wife would be like she'd say something she's like that's a Cuban saying right I feel like that's kind of the version exactly it sounds nice in Spanish but 100% but then the last thing and this is why the big four that my big four is you have to believe it you have to do the hard work you have to fail and then you have to persist you got to keep going even after your failure and that equals the big win the big payoff the things that you guys have been able to achieve is because you didn't give up the castros didn't fucking give up and kept going and kept

figuring out a way and kept going and that's why people need to get around you get into your world follow you get a hold of you where else can they they go, you know, find the things that you've got out there? You know, Bobby and I just created a brand new community for exactly what we're talking about. It's almost like a 360 of life that we built a community and it's called Upsiders. And the reason why we built this is because, you know, Bobby and I, one of the things that we have in our priority list is that we want to be able to give to as many people that wants to listen bobby likes to say i want to even just give one person i love to say as many as i can um so the community it's called the upsiders community and if you go to facebook and you look for in the communities, you'll find their Upsiders community. And we are giving a lot of, you know, free information there. And then there's also other platforms that we have

inside that you could pay for with which is a little bit more one on ones. But even just joining the the Upsiders community, you know, we give a lot of insights of what we have gone through for you to not go through or just do it better. You know, but that mindset, man, please, that mindset has to switch over. You cannot be a dot person. You can't say I'm leaving Florida because it's too expensive. And that's a lot of people's mind. But I love Florida, but I'm going to leave and be miserable in a different state because it's cheaper and I don't have to do nothing and I could survive. No, if you love it and you want it, go get it.

It's about focus. Whatever you can focus on will flourish. Absolutely. Sophia, this has been a pleasure to have you here. Thank you. Thank you very much. We could do this for hours. Yes.

I have so many other questions personally. But guys, this has been an incredible episode. Make sure you're following Sophia Castro on all platforms. The Upsider is the Facebook group, free Facebook group for her and her husband. Appreciate you coming and joining the Entrepreneur DNA. Thank you so much for having me. All right, guys. That's it.

See you next time. Peace.