SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hustlers, on today's episode of the Turnp to Hustle podcast, we're joined by a true San Antonio real estate legend. Over his 36-year career, he has generated nearly $1 billion in residential home sales. But his story is much more than real estate. He's faced fellow business partnerships, went from being a multimillionaire to having just $500 left in his name, and fought a long-term battle with alcoholism. Today he's not only back on top with a thriving business, but he's also celebrating more than nine and a half years of sobriety and inspiring others to invest in themselves, pursue personal growth, and become the very best version of who they can be. This is a conversation about resilience, redemption, and what it really takes to build a life worth living. On today's episode, Robert Elder. Welcome to another episode of Trump the Hustle Podcast for real estate investors, entrepreneurs, and hustlers. Show the stories, mindset, and strategies behind our business. I'm your host, Michael Giannis, aka Mr. Hustle. To my right, Scott Moon. Let's go. And today's special guest, Robert Elder. That's me. That's me.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

No, man. Appreciate you being on this podcast. I've been wanting to do this one for a minute, man. Yeah, yeah. But before we get started, I always start the podcast with three things my hustle. My hustle is real estate wholesaling, real estate flipping houses, and real estate subject to by taking over payments. When someone thinks of Robert Elder, what's Robert Elder's hustle?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Uh, definitely on the retail side of real estate, but more uh more importantly, my name has been associated with a lot of luxury real estate. So I've never considered myself a luxury realtor, even though I started out my career 36 years ago in the Dominion, but I guess now I just have to wear the title and be fine with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Well, and I think of Robert Elder, I think of luxury. Okay. All right. I think the luxury listings that you have, the Dominions, the cars, the watches, the shoes. And you talk about luxury for real, man. So let's bring this back. I believe you're almost a billion dollars in sales.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Before the billion dollars in sales, take it way back. You said 36 years ago. Yeah. I want to know who was Robert before all of this, before the real estate.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Who was Robert? Before the real estate. So my family had retail stores. I grew up in Laredo, Texas, and my mother had two stores. One was a fashion boutique, women's fashion boutique store, and then the other one was for medical devices and doctors and stuff like that. So I found myself working in the fashion boutique uh all the time. I'd take the bus home from uh elementary school, and then I'd walk about 18 blocks in Laredo, Texas to get to the store. I would start selling shoes. I was in charge of the shoe department. So literally at like 12 to 13 years old, I was selling shoes. And then when we'd go to the Dallas Apparel Mart, my mom would give me a check and she'd say, Okay, Mijito, get these shoes, and then you pick two styles that you like. So my eye for style started way back then because of the retail world.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I didn't know you were from Laredo.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah, from Laredo.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

With sales as 12 years old now, from Laredo. You said a Spanish word. What's your ethnicity?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Mijito?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, what's your ethnicity? What's uh Mexicano?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Okay, that's what I thought. But elder? No, yeah. Okay. Wider than him.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Okay, so dad's white mom's makeup. Okay, you can't took me after I know you got the tan.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

The tan's a tennis tan.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Okay, so you're in Laredo.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

At 12 years old, you're already in sales.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I'm already in sales, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

You think that shaped you for who you are to say?

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've grew up around sales. The only thing I've ever learned or known, I should say, how to do my entire life is sales. I mean, I had a porta potty business. I I was this guy that sold them. You know, I ended up selling almost 6,000 toilets here in town. That's when I sold the company, that's how many we had.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Let's let's go back to Laredo. So you're 12 years old, 13 years old, you're doing shoe sales. Yep in Laredo, you're doing something about Dallas, you said?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Uh no, the Dallas apparel market. Dallas apparel market. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

What age did you come to San Antonio?

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Ooh, so we came to San Antonio because we lost everything. So the peso devaluation, literally, we were homeless. Um, lost our house. My family owned a real nice office building. We had our two stores. Um, my my mother and stepfather had to come to San Antonio like in a it was, I'll never forget it. It was a Nissan SE extra cab little red pickup truck, and it was scheduled to be repossessed. So every night they had to park it in a different place at their apartment complex, or they'd park it at North Star Mall because they they lived right there on Oblate in this apartment complex. So they wouldn't take it. And so I had to live back in San Antonio and in Lareda with my grandparents because my family couldn't afford me. Like we were we were broke, broke as a joke. They slept on the floor for probably eight to nine months when they moved to San Antonio.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

You know, I I've heard a lot of stories. Yeah. I've never heard no one say my family couldn't afford me. Yeah. That's a strong word right there. That's a strong sentence. Yeah. How old were you then?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

14, 14 years old.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Right around there. That's a that's a powerful sentence.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

I I remember coming home and we had a we had a very nice house, and there was a gigantic padlock around the iron gates at the house. And I didn't I didn't know what that was. Like I couldn't comprehend what that was, but it's because they they foreclosed on the house. Like literally, we all of our clothing, everything was in the house. We got nothing. We just had the clothing on our back. So it's funny, everyone thinks, oh yeah, he's had it easy. Hell no.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Most people think that. Yeah. Most people think, oh, parents this, parents that. Exactly. It taught you the hustle.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. What happens then? After that, um, you know, I was going to college. College just wasn't for me. Um, not that I'm stupid by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn't engaging for me. All of my friends, they were all entrepreneurs. So when we had our clothing stores, I had friends that had gold stores. I had friends that had, you know, uh electronic stores, uh, other clothing stores there in Laredo. So I that's all I knew. I didn't know anyone with a nine to five. I didn't know corporate people. I knew people that worked and hustled. And then you know so so for me, that's how I always picked up everything. After that, then I got my real estate license because I'd watch my mother here here in San Antonio, and and she, I just like language of sales, I started picking up on what she was doing, how she would negotiate, how she would treat people. And I would just kind of pick that up. So by the time I had my license, I always tell everyone I had a ridiculously unfair advantage because I learned from one of the best ladies in the industry, which is my mom. And it was off to the races, man. I I was dating someone in in uh San Antonio. She was a dentist a few years older than me. And so I kept on commuting back and forth until one day my mom says, Hey, there's an opportunity at the Dominion. There's it's it's a part-time to the part-time uh position. I said, What does that mean? She goes, Okay, there's seven of us that are full-time, and there's two part-time. You're gonna be the person on the bottom of the totem pole. I was like, I'm in. Within a year and a half, I was outselling everyone in the Dominion.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, even my mom. Even your mom. Yeah, which was some fatty business.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Which at times that could have not gone very well. How old was this? How old were you then? Ooh, 20 years old. 20 years old.

unknown 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Part time to the part-time.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yeah, part-time to the part until I became the full-time agent.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And for the you local, if you guys are not local Dominions, that's one of the most affluent parts uh neighborhoods in San Antonio. Uh definitely high-end luxury, right? Especially back then. Back then.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Because there wasn't many, there wasn't many to choose from. I mean, nowadays there's a lot of great subdivisions, but there was only one Dominion.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Anybody who was anybody lived in the Dominions. It was the most guarded, it was the most prestigious, had the country club, and there was other country clubs, you know, but that was the one that if you said that name, I mean you were you're in. You're somebody. Yeah, there's no question. Exactly. In anybody's mind, you are somebody. That's 100% correct.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

So at the age of 20 years old, how were you running the top sales agent for the Dominions at 20 years old?

SPEAKER_00 7:19

How was I running? Yeah, how does that happen? Compared to all the other, I mean, compared to your mom. Dude, you know it was funny. Um I wish I wish I knew back then what I know now because I would have done things very, very differently. Back then, the only thing I knew was I had to meet people and I knew my numbers. It took 35 people to meet to get one transaction. So for me, no, no, no. I was like, all right, no, I'm just getting closer to you. Yes. That's the only thing I focused on. I didn't focus on relationships or marketing back then. Like it was just, I just need to meet people. That's it. That's the only thing I knew how to do. And then from there I started learning, you know, closing techniques, this, that, and the other, marketing. But that was years later. I mean, it was just, I was just kind of girl, not a gorilla marketing, but like just in the paint meeting people until I got a yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

And you just kept doing it all over and over. And at the age of 20, what did your counterparts say? What did your mom say?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Oh, um, my mom was happy at first until she wasn't. She got a little bit jealous, in all honesty. That's you know, my mom and I had a different kind of relationship. I mean, uh, I I I shared with you that, you know, I'm in a sobriety. My mom was an alcoholic, sadly enough. Like alcoholism was runs rampant in in our family, unfortunately. And so, you know, there were a lot of times we were button heads. And there were a lot of times we were hugging it out too. You know, she had my back.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

In the office? Pardon me? Butting heads in the office. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, absolutely. It was uh it was a contentious relationship. My mom had me when she was 15 years old, pregnant at 14. So it was a child ra raising a child, you know, and and now being an adult, I'm 55 now, I look back and it's like she did the best she could with the tools she had. That was it. So I can't be mad at her as a child or anything like that. Back then it was different, you know. But now as an adult, having me go through my sobriety as well in my rough times, I go back and like and look at her with respect and honor her saying she did the best she could with the tools she had. That's cool, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So it's cool how it came full circle.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So we're in Dominions, we're top agent for the most part. What's next after you dominating the Dominions back then?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

So after that, uh I went to Keller Williams for a while after I left Dominion Associated Realtors, which ultimately shut down uh Cooper ended up buying out that office because when my mother and I left, we were the big guns in that office. And so it kind of uh took the wind out of the sails of of that location. Went to Keller Williams, uh, and it was during that time that I decided to also open up a porta-potty company. There was some that I someone that I met in Dominion, I sold him a house. And uh one day, three days later, he's calls me up and says, Hey, I sold my company to waste management and I need to sell my house. I'm moving back to Dallas and meet me at Papacito's, we'll list the house. And so I'm sitting there, you know, listing his million-dollar whatever house, and he's like, You should get in the porta-potty business. I'm like, Why? He's like, You know every builder. And so it it made sense. Literally, two weeks later, I started up the company and I didn't have the money for it. I, you know, I was still so, I don't want to say in my infancy with real estate, but I just started making money. So I didn't have like a million bucks to go drop on trucks and trailers and this, that, and the other, but I had connections. And that was that was that was where I was already starting to shine. And so I called up uh my buddy Paul Golebart that I'd sold a house to, and he was an angel investor. He became my angel investor for that company. And seven years later to the day, we sold it for 5.5 million to a big national firm.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Porta putties, you say.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Porta potties, huh? Joking money. Everyone in San Antonio knew me as the crap king. That was that was literally my What was the name of the company? Pit Stop. Pitstop Portable Restrooms. I came up with that name. I did. Pit stop. Funny story behind that though, my grandfather used to have a little used car lot, and we'd come from Laredo to San Antonio to go to the auction, and he'd always tell me, Hito, do you need to make a pit stop? And so it just and so it was just kind of like a way to honor him, too, but it was a cool name. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Seven years into so you're still doing real estate though, right? Oh, yeah. That was just a side hustle.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

It was it, yeah, yeah. The real estate kind of got minimized, to be honest with you, because I was so busy running the company. When I sold that, I had, let's see, it was 37 employees, 28 trucks, and and about 5,500 toilets. It was the biggest in the city. I I put out um waste management's division had to shut down. Uh uh, let's see, Republic Waste Division shut down their porta potties, and then I bought out two competitors.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

I was a son of a bitch back then. I mean, I was mean. Um, there was this one guy that took 10 toilets from me. It was a little competitor. And so that next day I get my report and like, why'd this guy pick up 10 toilets? And well, the so-and-so from whatever XYZ company called him up. I called him up and I said, You take 10 more from me, I'm gonna take a hundred from you, motherfucker. I said it just like that. Hopefully, sorry if anyone gets offended that I cussed. But I was brutal back then. And so uh he didn't take any more from me. I like this brutalness.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Student as a real estate. I didn't know that uh porta potty was such a cutthroat business.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Oh well, yeah, talk we can talk about the garbage industry then too. As I was in that. Why'd you sell the porta potty business? Money. Money, baby. Right timing? Yeah, it was the right timing. I when when I started that company, I knew exactly who we were gonna sell it to. It was that company was built to strategically planned. Yeah, it was an exit. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Wow. Who knew? Okay, so now we're making five million dollars plus in porta potties.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

What's after that?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

After that, uh it was a garbage company. So then I became a garbage man. Uh and my Ferrari, I had a recycle logo. The it was a recycle, and then it was abbreviated garbage man. And uh it was funny because that that there's a long story to that, but everyone used to say, Are you a garbage man? I was like, Yeah, I just, you know, I'm the guy in the back of the truck. You know, I'm working extra hours, they pay me good. That's how I can afford the Ferrari.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

But yeah, I know. I we started a garbage company here in town and then sold that one for 17 and a half million in four years. Four years? Yeah.

unknown 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Granted, I mean, you know, not all that money comes from. You have partners, you have assets you have to, you know, pay for and all that other stuff. You you guys are in business, you understand it. The average person though, oh wow, you got 17 and a half million dollars. That's not how it works. Wish. Yeah, will you wish? Why why garbage? How did that how did that come about? Um, because of the first remember the guy that sold his company and then he called me up, he was he became my partner. And it was just he called me up one day and said, Hey, there's an opportunity, let's let's do this. And so we did.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

What's one of the uh toughest challenges in this garbage business? Oof.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

A lot of them, man. When I was in Houston, we'd we'd have drive-bys. I mean, competition in Houston was insane. There were there were nights where I was like at my shop, we had a probably 10-acre facility, gigantic buildings, all this stuff, and and I'd see the competitors driving by with guns, and we'd have guns too. It was hardcore, man. I don't know, it was that deep.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Oh yeah. Let me ask you this. How does one it's so funny it's so random. I actually had somebody ask me this question yesterday. How does one start? And I didn't even know you were in this business. I didn't read your thing until this morning, but how does one start a garbage company? Do you lease the landfill? Does the city own the landfill?

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Typically, well, they're either privatized or or city owned. And then there's different types of landfills. Some of them are just C and D construction and demolition, and then other ones would have patrescible food, like food waste, stuff like that. So you can't mix and mingle, if you will. So, you know, like job sites for construction, they can go to one landfill. The other stuff will go to another one. It's it's it's capital intensive. Yeah. So more often than not, when you see a lot of these mom and pop guys, they're they're usually just doing roll-offs, right? Which are construction debris. We had roll-offs, we had recycle, we had front loaders, you know, like stuff that would service buildings like this. We we had it all. We had everything. We had a gigantic plant as well that would uh like do all the separation for cardboard and paper, plastics, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

And so for your specific business, you had to purchase all the equipment, obviously the trucks and whatnot. You had to lease a big warehouse. We'd we'd buy them. We'd buy the warehouse.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

We'd buy the warehouse.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Okay. And then on the where you would go, the landfill, you guys would lease it from somebody, or you own that as well?

SPEAKER_00 15:13

No, you you you basically buy tickets. We'll call it to make it simplistic. You you you dump a 40-yard container, there's your ticket. Or you're or you're dumping by the weight. I mean, everyone, everyone's a little bit different. And then you get the bill at the end of the month, and it's somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000. That's so crazy. Oh, yeah, there were it was hilarious. I mean, when we were up in Houston, there'd be months where we were billing two, two and a half million dollars, and after all bills were paid, maybe there was five thousand bucks left over. It was ridiculous. In the restaurant industry. Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

So, but drive-bys, huh?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Drive-bys, baby. Yeah. Cutthroat it is, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

That's just business in general.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

But okay, you sold it for 17 plus million. Yeah, that one that one was sold. 17 and a half. No, then I lost my ass in Houston. When I was in Houston, lost everything. Business partner and I started button heads, you know, found out some stuff that uh just didn't set right, and we parted ways. And and I came back to San Antonio uh broke, broke as a joke. I had $80,000 to my name. And for me, that's broke. Um, I had lost everything, uh, sold the Ferrari. Um, you know, my my mom had died. I was caring for my grandmother at that time. So I moved my grandmother from Laredo to Houston, and my life changed like overnight with that, but in a good way, because you know, I was still drinking at that time, and I I would have so much fun with my grandmother because you have to remember to what I said earlier in the story, they took care of me when I was little because my family couldn't afford me. Now I was able to pay that back. I was able to take care of her. And and man, you know, it was some of the best memories uh ever. And if she was with me about six years until I finally had to put her in a home when her dementia started kicking in and all that stuff. But from an adult's perspective, I just thought it was beautiful that I got to spend time with her.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

That is cool.

unknown 16:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Yeah. They always feel like it's like, how can this happen? How can someone move from Laredo to San Antonio, become a top producer in one of the uh luxury markets in San Antonio, sell their first business for five million, sell their second business for 17 million? I feel like a lot of people who are watching, like, man, how does how do you lose it all? I know you said bad partnership. Yeah. And for people who are watching, you know, it comes in business comes and goes, right? It does. It comes in waves. You're you're rolling one day, next thing you're like, man, are we gonna pay the bills this month and still control for the next month and finish out the quarter or finish out the year? Right. What has that done for your mindset on hitting 17 million down to zero?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Well, put it this way, it's like I jokingly call myself a cockroach, man, because you you just you can't kill me. People I have my haters, you know, and I have my people that love me as well. And some people love to see me fail. And I've had failures before. I mean, I've been I was a guy that got sued by Tim Duncan years ago. So, you know, I'll bring that out. That's me design. It was funny because there were people that absolutely wanted me to fail. And I I don't think that way. I see guys like you, I admire that, man. I I want to see people win. I I just don't, my mind doesn't think that way. But it's funny how some people do think that way. And it taught me resilience, man. I mean, you can bounce back from anything because guess what? There's so much fucking money out there to be made. So you lose it. Big deal, go make more of it. There's plenty out there. Plenty out there.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

It's funny you say that because one, that's like the best mindset to have. There's I mean, there's two options. If you go make it back, you sit there and cry and don't do anything about it, right? Um but what you just said about um drew a blank about Yes, but there's one specific thing that you said that has been written over and over again. Cut this part out. You were saying uh literally the last thing you just said about the mindset. There's one quote about um right before you talked about keep moving on. It'll it'll it'll come.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

But it but this is the the one thing that it taught me is every morning when I wake up, I wake up unemployed. I wake up unemployed. So I gotta go and and make my check that day. It doesn't matter how much money or how if the day before I deposited 120 grand in commission checks this morning, I'm broke and I gotta go make my check. So I I've I've thought that way for years at this point, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

So when you were saying people want to see other people fail, it's only with the part that's been written before is only people that are under you. There's nobody ever who's above you that wants you to fail. And so that's what's one thing that people get so hurt about online comments or people in person that are talking shit to them, or whatever it is, but it's always people under you because people who are above you, they don't have the time. They're typically like your attitude that says, I want other people to succeed, because then if you're in my circle and you're succeeding, we're all succeeding, we also succeed together. But the people who only talk negative, they're people who are below you.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

So yeah, it's good you have that mindset. Hustlers, real estate investing doesn't have to be overwhelming and you don't have to do it alone. If you've been watching from the sidelines, scrolling past deals on Zillow, or binging YouTube videos, but still not taking action, this is for you. That's why we built Hustle Academy, a community designed for new and experienced real estate investors who want to learn, network, and grow. Inside Hustle Academy, you'll get weekly live calls, QA sessions, and step-by-step classes on fix and flip, wholesaling, creative finance, and my favorite subject to deals. Everything you need to know to build real skills and start closing real deals. You'll join a powerful group of like-minded hustlers who are sharing wins, breaking down deals, and all pushing toward the same goal financial freedom through real estate. If you're ready to level up, no matter what stage you're starting at, join Hustle Academy today, tap the link in the description, or visit hustleacademy.com and let's trump the hustle together. So come back to San Antonio, you sell the Ferrari because you couldn't afford it. Yep. Right? You lost it all.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Lost it all.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

$80,000. Now, for someone who had millions and millions, $80,000 is not a lot. Nothing. It's not a lot, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

It's a drop in the bucket, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

It's big time, right? So how do you bounce back? Well, what's next?

SPEAKER_00 21:14

So so I I called up my good buddy Craig Owen. He owns Keller Williams Heritage, and he's uh he's my brother. We we live on the same street there at Sontera now. And uh I said, Craig, look, and he has offices in Houston. I said, This is what's happening. This is my life is just coming completely unglued, and I think I want to get back into real estate in Houston. He goes, Why? Come back to San Antonio. Everyone knows you, likes you, they love you. You know, you've already had an established business here, and your kids are here because I was already divorced at that time. So my boys would fly up to Houston every other weekend. And I said, Okay. So I did that. I rented a little house in uh the vineyard off of Blanco, moved my grandmother in with me. I had two dogs and and myself. And that was my and my my little $80,000. And I immediately started. Figuring out what was new in the real estate world that wasn't around when I was doing it. And it was social media. And so like I immersed myself for like 45 days just trying to learn as much as I possibly could about it. So back then, when I got back, which so this would be 14-ish years ago, um, I would have I was considered that the social media guy back then. Now there's much, much bigger players. I would never ever say that you know social media is my thing. It's like I do it, but not to the extent that the others do. But I was making or in sales anywhere from five to eight million a year organically because of leads that would come off of Facebook. Instagram wasn't even really a thing necessarily back then. And I was consistently bringing that business in every single month. So I was like, yeah, posting, doing videos, doing that. Back then, everyone would copy me too, because people that knew me knew that I was a son of a bitch and I was gonna take over the market. The ones that didn't know me, they're like, who is this guy? All of a sudden he's new to San Antonio and he's selling, you know, 15, 17 million dollars a year. That was when I got back in here. And they're like, it's because it's Robert Elder, you haven't met him yet. That's cool, man. This is 2012, you said? Yeah, about that. About that.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Social media. What now? You said you studied the market and you saw social media.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

A lot of people, even to today, they hate social media. I hate it.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I love it. I hate it too. Don't get me wrong. I hate social media. But you did it. But I do it, I still do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Studying that social media, how do you study it? What were you doing back then to really uh like even today's right? Today we're doing the podcast, we're doing reels, we're doing TikToks. How do you study to be different than everyone else?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Because what I did was I I was the one that would do uh almost like lifestyle. Um so I used to competitively cook back when I had my porta potty company. So I did the I did I did the I know you're learning all kinds of shit about me. I I used to uh I would plate this food, I would make it, and then I would put my Robert Elder Holmes, the same logo I used when I got sued by Tim Duncan, I'd put that on the picture. And so people would like they were sharing that, oh, give me that recipe, and then I'd post a house. The point I'm trying to make is most agents were posting nothing but close, sale, this, that, the other. Me, I'd be like, close, sale, lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle, because that's what generated more interest in me than posting about sales. Like, who cares about the sales? You drop that in there, but people want to, oh, what are they doing? What are they doing? So, you know, where are they going?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah, people are interested in the individual. Exactly. Yeah, not the same thing every single time. Exactly. Clear to close. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, who cares?

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Then you're authentic to yourself. That's a big, big one on social media. A lot of people trying to be somebody they're not and rent a car and you know, post it, or rent an Airbnb and post it. But if you're just authentic and you've obviously got a lot of cool stuff going on, people relate to that, right? They relate to everything that you're doing and want to see what you're and generally become interested in you and your story.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Right. Humor. I also used a lot of humor back then as well. Like I would post things where, you know, when you see those goose, and you guys probably see it too, in houses that you buy sometimes where like maybe two toilets are next to each other, just something goofy. And I would post that as a joke. But then I started learning that people would think, oh, did you just show that house? I'm like, no, man, I found this online. It's a joke. You know, it's my humor. So in time, I did have to move away from that though, as well. And so I kind of like started elevating what I was posting, if that makes any sense.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

You don't see that right now. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

You're looking at like four million dollar houses and Ferraris and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Two toilets chasing each other. Exactly. Hey, honey. Now, this story was big. I think I was probably just barely getting into real estate, but I remember that story. Completely forgot about it too. You brought it up. That's why when you said Tim Duncan, I automatically went like this. I remember the story. Yeah. Completely forgot about it, though. Refresh my memory a little back to the back. So those that aren't watching, how do you get sued by Tim Duncan? Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Well, you get sued by Tim Duncan very easily. Um, so I I'll never forget. I was I was at um SeaWorld when all of this went down. And earlier that morning, and I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I found a picture, and everyone was doing that back then. Everyone was Marky Mark, like every freaking celebrity. There was a sign in front. I just happened to pick Tim Duncan that day. And I guess it was because maybe he was retiring. I can't honestly remember what it was, but it was towards the tail end of everything. And I was on my phone, and this is like this is to me, this is a God thing because I'm a believer. I tried to get that logo on that image like 10 times, and it wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it, wouldn't do it until I think God finally said, All right, pendejo, get ready. Boom, and it worked. I posted it. And then I put the phone in the locker because I was with my boys and we were doing whatever you do over at SeaWorld. And when I finally got back to the locker and my phone, my phone was blowing up. Everyone and their grandmother was looking for me, trying to get me to pick up to pull this thing down. And the attorneys, you know, they get on the phone and they're like, sorry, we're at the courthouse, we're suing you, blah, blah, blah. And so that that that's then it was off to the races at that point. You know, I had to leave Keller Williams, Gary Keller was pissed off. Um, a bunch of other agents were doing it. As a matter of fact, in in Keller Williams Houston, they were doing it because I'm good friends with the broker. He's like, Man, I just posted one myself, but with a different celebrity. We're taking everything down. I had I had to be the poster child, though, of getting in trouble. And and I and I did. I mean, it got me in big trouble.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

So I remember that, man. It was it was when viral was out of the world.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

I was trying to I was trending on Twitter for two days. Dang. I remember. I was trending on Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

What was the actual post? It was a picture of Tim Duncan with some sign that said it's been years ago. Some sign that probably said, use Robert as your realtor or your logo or something like that. It was my logo, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

And I didn't even say that he endorsed me.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

It was just like it was just some edited edited PD edited image. And ridiculously innocent.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

You know what's a funny thing is though? You know he owns Blackjack Speed Shop, right? Uh-huh. There were pictures of other actors that blackjack used the same way. But was I gonna bring that up? I I I can't. How was I gonna defend myself against someone like that? And it was something innocent, like it wasn't malicious. Yeah, of course. I wasn't expecting to get business out of it. It was like a joke. Again, joke, me joking.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Something that was trending, yeah. Yep, yeah, yeah. How did it all in? Just took it down, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

I took it down, there were fines, apologies, you know, all kinds. I had to leave the brokerage, I had to go to a different brokerage as well. I mean, yeah, it was it wasn't as easy as you thought. I had to shut all of my social media down for probably three weeks. Dude, I'm not gonna lie, I was getting death threats in Facebook. From Spurs fans and stuff. It was it was crazy. There was an agent who didn't identify themselves that sent a letter to Trek saying he violated blah, blah, blah code, whatever, which was all BS because I didn't violate anything. And if you can't get him on that, at least get him on something. That's what they wrote to Trek. And I'm like, wow, people hate me that much, just for something like that. It's like that's small-minded, in my opinion. But whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

I didn't even serious, but I didn't know it was that serious. Yeah, no, no. That next game was probably awkward. It's just good. I mean, and it messes with you up here too, man. The whole city. Yeah, it messes with you up here. But some parts of the city. Some parts of the city.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

What year was this? Do you remember? What's that? What year was this? Uh this was like 10-ish years ago. Yeah. Uh no, no, no. I take it back probably 12, 12 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah. That's kind of like I first kind of joined. I was like, oh, is that how you market it? That's when I first joined, and that's what I mean, that's when I first started kind of real estate investing. And that's I remember that photo. Man, so you get past that Dunkin' Hurdle.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Yep. Past that Dunkin' Hurdle.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Going through that mindset of social media, and everyone's out to kind of get you, and you're the poster child. You get sued, all that's kind of relieved. The dust settles. What's next?

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Oh, dust settles. I was in an interesting relationship with someone that just it wasn't a healthy relationship, and and it's actually what led me to the doors of AA. And it was a you know an argument that we got into, and you know, we'd both been drinking, and I told myself, this is just not normal. Um, I had a big, beautiful painting. So while I didn't have any money at that point, I had still nice things from when I had money, and there was a painting on the wall, and we were in this argument. So instead of hitting this person, I I demolished this $10,000 painting. And I was more concerned about why did I just demolish that? Not thinking I wanted to potentially hurt this person, which was completely wrong too. And uh I said, I I I need help. Like I told myself I need help. And that next day, I was heading to an appointment, I was driving on I-10, I saw someone that I didn't know, they were just on my social media, they posted their 31 or 32 year chip. I immediately tracked down their phone number, called that guy, and I'm not gonna lie, I was I was like nasty crying. I mean, because I was I was broken inside, big time. And I said, I need help. And so he invited me to my first uh AA meeting that very next day, and by the grace of God, I've been sober ever since. I mean, going on almost nine and a half years. So that was massively life-changing. I had to leave that relationship, I had to work on myself, and I pretty much just uh I was almost a hermit for like three, four months um working on what was broken inside of me because I fully acknowledged I had things that I needed to work on. And then that's when I met I met Stephanie, you know, my my my current wife. And when when she met me, I had nothing. And we had been dating about three months, and I was still coming out of like the financial ruin part of it. And there was one month I had $500 in my bank account, and I couldn't pay my my rent that month on that little house that I was renting. And I I like if if you've ever been in a position like that where you have to humbly ask for help from someone, especially someone that you're dating, and when you're the man, you know, I'm not that I'm trying to make it like a machismo thing, but you know, you just you're you're the breadwinner, you're this, that, the other. And and I had to kind of go hat in hand and just be honest with her, like I I don't know what to do, I can't afford this. And she thought about it, she's like, okay, I'm gonna take a chance. I'll I'll allow you and and your two dogs and your two boys to to move in with me. And and she had a little house in Presidio at that time, and it was like 1300 square feet. We were busting at the seams, but it's like sh that woman, you know, took a chance with me, and what we've done since then is like bananas, bro. I mean, like, she's my gal. Like, I take a bullet for this with this woman, like she believed in me when I had nothing. And and we've done quite a lot together now.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

So that's that's awesome to hear, man. You hear this stories all the time, but to actually see it to see the passion in your eyes, man. It's it's really cool to see it. Let's go back to this ten thousand dollar painting. Uh beating up a painting. Do you think it was the m the the painting cost 10 grand and you say I gotta get myself into AA? Or it was just the beating up the painting in general?

SPEAKER_00 32:44

I think it was I think it was a little bit of both because at that moment I was more concerned about something material, which means nothing. You know, as but at that moment I thought it was something like I put too much significance on material things back then. Now the material shit comes and goes. But I just knew that my my head wasn't right in what I was thinking and and I I needed to I needed to make some some massive changes. Massive changes.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

You know, going down this road of alcohol and abusing AA alcohol anonymous the drive to drink because you wanted to, because you needed it. Depression. Depression. Depression. Because of the money situation, life situation.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it all started up in Houston. I mean, I I I I remember perfectly the first time I took my first drink in the morning, which I never ever took in the morning, in the morning, because I was running my my recycle cruise. So I was having to get up around four o'clock in the morning. I was out the door by like four forty-five because my crew was getting to the office about 5 15 to 5 30. So I had to be there before them. And I'll never forget, I opened up my freezer, I was gonna get some water, and there was a bottle of vodka in there, and I was like, Yeah, that sounds good. I'm gonna try it. And I did. Made a made a big ol' uh uh Cape, it was a Cape Cod, it's uh cranberry juice and vodka and a squeeze of lime. Took it to took it to the office, so that was my roadie for the day. And then every lunch or every uh every uh lunchtime, I was the first person at Papacito's in Umble, Texas, right at 11 o'clock, because they had really good margaritas, and I'd have two margaritas and a lunch. You know, so like at that point I was drinking all day long. And then I'd get home and I'd care for my grandmother and I'd make a picture of margaritas, and then I'd go to sleep. But but at the end of the day, I was I was so depressed, it wasn't even funny. You know, it just it was that was that was my coping mechanism, which is not healthy at all. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

What was the toughest challenge? Now it's almost 10 years. What's what's been the toughest challenge?

SPEAKER_00 34:40

I don't think there's been a tough challenge, to be honest with you, man. Uh honestly, I think it's a for me, it's been a cheat code. It's absolutely been a cheat code. I would never I just I would never think right when I was drinking. I never got in trouble. I I never hurt anyone. I never got into an accident, you know. It was uh none of those things yet. I always say yet because it hadn't happened yet. So I was blessed that I didn't have to go through that shit.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

So alcoholism is is crazy. It ran in my family as well. My uh my grandfather, and then at the end of his life, he was like 20 years sober. Um but I have an aunt that actually died of it. She drank herself literally to death. Yeah um I mean it just ruins she has three kids, ruined their lives, her ex-husband's life's crazy. And you know, it's just it's a very sad thing. And it's something that um I don't want to say I've ever suffered from. I've I used to drink, I'm two and a half years sober too, but I wasn't like a crazy drinker. Obviously, in the nightclub business, you you get your fair share of alcohol, but you know, it wasn't anything that like controlled me or whatever. Um but it does make you a very different person. It does. It does make you a very even if it doesn't technically control you, it does make you think differently, do things differently. It's weird. So it's a very, very uh weird drug. I have a sister that suffers with it still currently, 16 years, and it's just like once you're on the other side, it's so easy to say, like, it's so easy to stop. But you know, when you're in it, obviously it's it's not, but uh, but yeah, it is a cheat code, not having it ever. It's just you think so clear, your your body feels so good. Um I don't know. It's definitely uh not trying to get anybody to stop, but it's definitely a a great way to live.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

It is, no, a hundred percent it is. The reason why I like to be so open about it though, is because it goes back to my earlier comment. Most everyone thinks successful people have all their shit together and they live this perfect life, and it's the furthest thing from the truth. We we all have stress, we all have crap we're having to deal with, you know, challenges with the relationships and everything else. So I would rather show my imperfections to hopefully help someone else out there.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

And the crazy thing is is typically the most successful people are the ones who've gone through the most struggle because they've been able to overcome the struggle and then it builds character and it builds who they are. Now they can overcome other obstacles. So typically it's the people who you know, you look at Elon Musk, you think he's never struggled before. He's gone through insane amounts of struggle, stuff you can't even think of, right? And so but people look at it, oh, he's the richest man in the world. What kind of problems could he have? Yeah. You don't want the problems. You don't want the problems he's had. I mean he's got like 32 kids. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

With about 28 months, baby mom. So Stephanie was uh a crucial role in your life. Huge.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Huge, huge role.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

On this side and really pinpoint where you're at now.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

It's uh I've I've got a great relationship with my ex-wife, and Stephanie is wonderful friends with my ex-wife. I mean, we've traveled together now at this point, but it took years to get to that from me, you know, having to make amends, fix things that I ruined, you know, in that relationship. Because I I respect my ex-wife. I mean, she gave me two amazing boys, you know. It's like I will always respect her, despite what I did back then, but that was that was then, and this is now. And now we have a great, you know, relationship. We have a family group chat, you know, we're that's cool, sending jokes to each other and everything else. So it's like uh I'm I'm blessed. Like I know most people can't say that. So, but but Stephanie was a huge part in that because she she operates one way and I operate a different way when it comes to business, but I've learned so much from her, and then vice versa, she's learned so much from me. So we've grown personally as business people because of us being together as well. And it's I mean, it's it's been massively impactful to our business. Hell, during COVID, I think we sold like, I don't know, 70 something million bucks in real estate. Well, that's a lot. It's a lot during COVID, yeah. Yeah, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

So, what's the journey now now uh from then when she gave you that rent money? From there then till now, what's the goal? I mean, I know you're almost at a billion dollars in sales. Is that the goal? Are you driven to hit that billion? Is it just because it is what it is?

SPEAKER_00 38:34

It just is what it is, man. It's just and then after I hit a billion, then it's gonna be 1.1 billion and everything else. Um, it's not financial goals anymore, honestly. Like, you know, we we do well, we have a nice lifestyle, we we get to enjoy our toys, we we invest, you know, we save, we travel. I could care less about being number one. I look at it this way, man. If if I were to die tomorrow, no one's gonna remember how many homes I sold, how many awards I got. But if I impacted you or you by sharing my story of like sobriety or overcoming something, you'll remember that. You're never gonna remember that I sold a billion dollars worth of real estate, but you'll remember that I planted a seed to help change your life. That's the shit that's important to me now. Real estate sales, that's just how I live. This talking about this on a platform is is my passion. It's what I love. Because I've learned we just have to we have to be good humans with each other, man. Every everyone needs a help, a helping hand every now and again. I don't care where you're at and what station in life, whether you're down here or up here. I know guys that I've made friends with in the doors of AA that were literally living under a bridge. When I met them, now this one gentleman, of course I'm not gonna say his name, married, got two kids, owns a house, owns two cars now, has got a great job. Like to see that change in his life, dude, that's powerful stuff, man. That's powerful stuff.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

I feel like I heard the uh Elder Foundation coming soon. That'd be cool. That would be cool. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

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SPEAKER_00 41:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Tell me about this Ferrari. When would you get your first supercar? Oh, God. Because when I think of you, man, I think of supercars. I think of the uh the Bernie uh they got coming up. Which I want to talk about because that's that's something different from what I first saw. Okay. Let's go back into uh supercars. When did you get your first one?

SPEAKER_00 41:20

So my very first one, um, I'm I'm thinking here as I go through a lot of cars. It was uh it was a let's see 1999 uh Porsche 911 C2 factory aero kit. Fab speed exhaust. It had racing headers, had a short BM short shift. Like that was my first, I'll call it supercar, even though technically it's not a supercar. But uh my my then wife says, I don't know what to get you for your birthday. Go buy something and tell people that that I got it for you. And I was like, okay. So I called up my buddy in California. Hey, I saw a purple Porsche that you had, and he shipped it down. So I bought a Porsche. And so they pulled up to the house on the big rig, and she's like, What the hell is this? I'm like, Well, this is what you bought me. And so, yeah, she got pissed. But my my first like supercar was my Ferrari when I sold my garbage company. I bought a 360 Modena. This is Modena tricked it all out. Um, it was a fun car, moved to Houston. That's when the the car scene in Houston is next, next, next level. And then I've yeah, I've had all kinds of stuff in between that. I just got rid of my Audi, uh, my R8. Yeah, that was pushing uh about 810 horsepower. Uh that was a beast.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

A cool color too.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Yeah, it was a cool color. It was it was loud and bright, but that that's gone as of last week. Now, now I got a 9-11 the other day a GTS. So I'm not I'm not to the Lambo level like you. You like Porsches that you're your style? No, man. You know what? I just like cars. Cars in general. Yeah, I'll keep this Porsche maybe a year and then get a Lambo or maybe a McLaren. I don't know. I just I like cars. I appreciate cars, they're fun to drive. How'd you like that Ferrari? Ferrari was badass. It was great. Lorini exhaust. Uh that thing is screamed. My neighbors hated me.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

A 360 Modena, that's the one with the uh that dam on the side, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

As a previous Ferrari owner, thoughts on the new electric Ferrari that's got announced last week.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

I don't even like the way they look, unfortunately. The the I mean the SF90 is a is a good looking car, but those things What's the new one? The Loose? Uh well, the Loose is the fully electric one. Yeah, that's tip that's not even a Ferrari in my book. But the 296 is a beautiful car, but I don't know, man, these whole hybrid things.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Lambo's selling that way too.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

I know, yeah, they are. And then none of them are doing well on the resale. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, which means all your car's gone up in value. Yep. In the last six months, 25 to 50 grand in value is what's funny to say that because I got a text message randomly.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Really? I didn't tell you this. I got a text message a couple days ago. Hey, we're buying Lamborghinis. You want a cash offer for your car? Oh wow. Yeah, no, like me on real estate. They're buying it like crazy. So you got the supercars. I mean, I've seen your car, it's really cool. I'm very nice. Congrats on that purchase. Thank you. What are you doing in Bernie in this in this motor club thing? So uh Bernie explain that to us.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Yeah, Bernie Motorsport. So you're you're familiar with car colours. Right.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

So for those who aren't familiar with car condos, what exactly is a car condo? Because when I first saw the concept a few years ago, and I think it might have been from you to be honest with you, when I saw a car condo, I was like, what would it? You hang out there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

What's the thoughts? It's a wild thing. So this was right before uh COVID happened in San Antonio, a place called Texas Garage uh condos opened up. No one knew what to think about them, what to do with them, but they were just that a place to park your car. It was a I don't want to say an empty shell, but you know, AC, sheetrock, this, that, the other. Now these guys buy these units, it starts a community in those spaces, but then you start with the personalization. So I've seen units where they'll spend a million dollars on the finish out. You know, nicer finish out than you'll see in some of your finest homes that you could ever imagine to see. And it's just for a place for their cars. But it's the it's the really cool thing, it's the community that it creates. Ferrotsi. So there's uh Texas Garage Condo, there's Dominion Motor Club, there's Chavano, and then there's BMC Bernie Motorsport, which we just opened up and I've already sold three units in 60 days over there. It's the community that it creates. If you have to think about it from a business perspective, like you or you, let's say you go buy one, you've got your supercar, and who do you think you're around? It's like it's one of the best clubs that is not a club to be a part of.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Like a modern day country club.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

It's a it's a who's who, let me tell you what, man. Like a matter of those with, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Modern day country club. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of fun. Buy the condo. How much are they going for? 385. 385.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

How big is it? Uh those are 25 by 53. But here, I'm gonna give you a different perspective. Okay, Coda, you know what Coda is, right? Have you heard of T11? T11 is their car condos up in Coda. They start in the 800,000 range and top out at like uh I think it's 1.4 or 1.6 million for the shell. So so guys that are up there, you know who's up there? Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan's a T11. The guy that owns Paul Mitchell, he's up there. You have billionaires that are hanging out there. So think about that networking group. Yeah, that's okay. That's it's next level, man.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

So I'm sure they put on events and different things.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

We just had a drive this past weekend. We had about, I don't know, 25, 30 cars, something like that on our drive. Uh so as these places get sold out and more and more people uh move into them, you when I say move into them, start storing things in there, it creates that community. So F1 watch parties, you know, birthday parties, uh rallies, blah, blah, blah. I mean, all kinds of crazy stuff. It's it's it's a lot of fun, man.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Doesn't the dem uh doesn't Ferrari right there have one connected to it or something?

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Well, Ferrari has their vault. Okay. A lot of these places will have their vault. Like so when I was in uh, and I wish I knew about it because I didn't find out about it until a couple days later, but I bought my Porsche at Porsche Austin. Apparently they have a vault, and that's where it's like, you know, the creme de la creme of like the had the Ferrari vault. Yeah. There's some insane, there's some $10 million cars in there.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

Shannon's cars. Yeah, it's nuts.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

No, you know Shannon? I don't know if she shows us keeps them in there. I've seen her ship them back and forth a couple times out of there. She had uh there was a show last night. She had her car out at Bar 301. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

That's her spot. So you got the supercars, you got the condos. Uh how many units are in the in that condo? 23. 23. 23 units. And you sold three already? Three already. 20 left. I mean, this thing just opened up not too long ago.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Yeah, 60 days ago, I started I took that project on. And so yeah, I'll probably it'll six to eight months to sell it out, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

Just curious, the uh I mean, we're not sure too much information. But those three that bought it, what are their character traits? What do they do?

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Uh one person is a jet broker. So he's actually not a car person, but he he he lives in Cordillera Ranch and he's building his kind of uh office, I guess if you will. Not that he has any walk-in traffic, but he brokers jets around the world. Um the other two people are car people. So yeah. Retired broker. Yeah. That's pretty cool, right? Jet broker. Wholesale jets. Right. Yeah, there you go. Wholesaling jets. Okay. There's money to be made everywhere, baby.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

All about connections, right? Connecting, finding the right deals, and selling the deals. So when I think of Elder, I also think of watches. Yep. So I've been seeing your stuff, man. What watch you wear now?

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Uh an AP. An AP.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

What do you think about that new oak? That new swatch AP deal.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Oh my god, man, that was horrible. It would if they would have looked like how they were portraying them to look like, which was like a regular AP, would have been awesome. But who wants a freaking stopwatch looking thing? It was the weirdest collab. I don't know. Those things were trading on day one for about $4,500, I want to say, on the gray market. Within 10 to 12 hours, it was half that. And now I think they're under a thousand bucks, you know, for a $400 watch. Like a keychain. Stupid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

It's like a keychain. You want to just get a little something from AP and get a little keychain.

SPEAKER_00 48:53

Like one of those top watches. I'm sure you can go, I'm sure you can go to the uh Chinatown in New York and get them for like 10 bucks. Right? Yeah, I'm sure for sure. Yeah, I think they're already out there.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

So what's your what's your love of the watch? How's that come about? What's that?

SPEAKER_00 49:04

Love of watches. So my grandfather gifted me my first Rolex when I was, I don't know, 10 or 12 years old. I guarantee he did it because he was drunk. Hey, I'm just being honest. We'll take it. But I kept it for years. I kept that for years. So that that kind of like planted the seed of my love for watches. And uh and then there was a do you know how difficult it is to get a Rolex? You know the story behind Rolex ADs and what the little games are.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Especially go to the other wise dealer, like you said, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you go in there, you look at the uh catalog and come back in a year or two. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

Yeah, or or go buy a bunch of other stuff and and maybe, maybe we'll sell you this watch. Um and and remind me to tell you a story about California in a second. So it's impossible to get these things. So I, as a collector, was using someone local as my gray market dealer as well. And of course, I know a lot of people, and people be like, hey, uh, you know, I need to buy this watch for my wife. Oh, call this guy, call this guy, call this guy. And then a week later, I'd be like, hey, uh, he never called me back. And so for whatever reason, the guy that I was referring out to, with no expectation of anything coming back to me, I was just like, hey, just go find him a watch. He wasn't calling him back. And so I said, Well, you know what? I think I can figure out where he was getting them. So I did it and I sold my first one. I added a thousand dollars to it profit, like, whatever, you know. Um, and then probably eight months into that, I had a several different guys that I was buying from. And my wife and I were in New York one time, and I said, you know what? I need to meet this kid, Adi. And I had probably spent maybe half a million dollars with him at that point, buying and selling watches. Wow. I never heard his voice, never knew what he looked like. I just had basically his phone number. That's it. And everything was just text messages and and and Facebook messages back and forth, you know, shipping watches, you know, 50,000, 30,000, 10,000, blah, blah, blah. And so we go to the Diamond District. I go into this place, Stephanie's behind me, I meet this kid. He's a kid. He was 19 years old, like he was a baby. This, this we've we're still wonderful friends at this point. But Stephanie and I are talking to him, and then she interrupts me because he and I are talking, she goes, wait a second, I'm getting this vibe that you guys didn't even know each other. I said, Babe, this guy could have walked up to me in public and I would have not known who in the hell it was, not knowing it was Adi. Right. And so, yeah, that that's how this business is, though. It's like there's many of these people, I've never once heard their voices, but they'll ship me a hundred thousand dollar watch even without me sending the money first. Like it, the level of respect in this industry is insane. It's like if I tell you Mazal, it's my word. Yeah, that's it. Like I can't break, you cannot break your word in this world. It's the craziest thing. I, you know, I don't think it would go to that. It's not that type of crowd, but it's a very honorable. That's the word I'm looking for. It's a very honorable crowd. It's it's wild, man. I mean, the level of respect that, yeah, that is in. So I'll do, I mean, easily I can do a million dollars a year in sales and watch sales. So spare time. Spare time. This is but this is the logic why I started doing that. It's not the money that's to be made, it puts me in different circles. People that weren't around in my circles. So now I've done deals with people that I've sold watches to because if they can buy a $40,000, $50,000 watch for me, guess what? They can buy a million-dollar house.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

That's a good lead magnet, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

It's a funnel. Yeah, that's cool, man. The word mazzal, what exactly does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Mazal, it's like it's it's your handshake. It's a done deal. Yeah, we have a deal.

unknown 52:26

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Follow a lot of those guys in New York? Yeah, some of them. Tracks. Yeah, Moses.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen, I've talked to Moses before. He's a trip, man.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

That dude's cool. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

I think he's stuff, man. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 52:38

And then tracks when he did that whole deal.

SPEAKER_00 52:39

Tracks, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Banking on that on that table. Yeah, that was a trip. It's definitely a whole different world out there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a very fast-paced world. We love New York. You said something about California? Oh, what's that? You said something about California.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

She's from California.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

No, you said about a California Rolex story, a watch story.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

Oh, yes, yes, yes. So we're in Palm Springs just three weeks ago, and I'm at the airport, turn my phone on, and I start seeing on Instagram, uh, have you purchased a Rolex in the last year or something like that? Asking all these questions. Did you have to buy other things? How much did you have to spend? Did you ever get your Rolex? If so, which one? Like asking all these questions. Why? Because they're, I guarantee they're getting ready for to put a class action lawsuit against these uh authorized dealers. And if they win, mark my words, if they win, guess what it's gonna happen to? It's gonna happen to AP, it's gonna happen to Hermes, it's gonna happen to a lot of these big luxury brands that force people to buy other stuff before they'll let you buy your toy. Think about it. Ferrari does it too. You know, Porsche does it. You can't walk in there and get a GT3RS. You have to buy all this other stuff. When that lawsuit with the realtors last year that that happened and they won, to me, in my opinion, that's what opened the doors for all these crazy class action lawsuits. Not that they're gonna change the industry because nothing changed in real estate.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

But someone's gonna get paid. It's the attorneys, they're gonna get paid.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

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SPEAKER_02 55:05

I think I must have got lucky because I bought mine right after I sold the phone stores that I had. And it was right during COVID. It was probably probably this time, like June or July of 2020. And I just walked into the one at Loch Interra and ordered it, customized it how I wanted it. And within like three months it was here. I don't know. They didn't ask many questions. I don't know if I just got lucky with the one I had. Now, since then I went back and tried to order more, and I haven't even been called back, which is weird because it's from the same store. They know I'm a buyer. Yeah. But yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

Not gonna get it.

SPEAKER_01 55:39

What's your favorite watch?

SPEAKER_00 55:40

Ooh, that's a loaded question, man. Um honestly my favorite watch, and I've had it three times. It's the white gold uh Yachtmaster 42 on Oyster Flex. I just like that watch. I don't know what it is about that watch. It's not the most expensive watch, it's not the craziest watch, it's not flashy. I just like it. To me, I just like that watch. Yeah, it's a good looking, yeah. It's like stealth wealth. Stealth wealth. Yeah, people think that oh, it's it's stainless. No, it's white gold. I mean, feel the weight.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Thoughts on putting diamonds on watches?

SPEAKER_00 56:11

Uh I if they come factory, absolutely. If if they don't, I don't do it. Yeah, it it kills the value, makes them hard to resell. Hard to resell. Now, don't get me wrong. My grandfather's watch, I ended up putting diamonds on it, you know, years ago. So still have it. No, unfortunately, I don't have it, man. I should have kept it. Youthful heirs, they're like, oh, well, if I trade this in, then I can get that one, not knowing the significance, the sentimental value. If I can go back to that day, I'd I'd totally keep it.

unknown 56:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:41

So now we talk about billion dollars in sales. We've talked about cars, condos, car condos, watches.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

What's next for Robert Elder? Ooh, that's a good question. Um, we got rid of all of our rental houses, and I think we're trying to learn a little bit about like some light commercial, trying to figure out what what the different uh uh investment play is. We don't know the answer to that yet, to be honest with you, because we're learning. Uh Stephanie is is like that. She loves to learn about investing and what to figure out. And we want to have some more real estate assets, but right now the the rental world is just it's just hard for us, man, with you know uh rates, insurance rates going up, with uh taxes going up, like our cash flow went down to negatives instead of the positives it were at. So I don't know. I'm gonna have to follow guys like you to figure out new things to do.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Different things. Yeah, get creative on being creative. That's what I love. Exactly, man. Now, for everyone that's watching our our podcast here, what's one thing you can share with those guys that can really take away when it comes to mindset, or what strategy that can they do that a thoughtful thing that you can leave with these hustlers?

SPEAKER_00 57:41

I'll tell you what, man. Um, something that's really, really big for me is how I start my morning. I call it my morning power hour where I'm doing gratitude journaling. I'm doing something what's called Caligro writing, writing as if though things have already happened. So, you know, like let's say the the three of us took a private jet, or we have already taken a private jet to Paris because I wanted to go show you Roland Garrett. So it's a you write as if though. Um, and then you know, self-help books. I don't read like uh books about stories. I I want to learn about someone's story and how they got to where they got. Um that if I don't start my morning off that way, and then also with my prayer and meditation, if I don't start my morning that way, I'm off. And admittedly, last year I was off and I realized I wasn't doing my morning power hour. The moment I started doing that, which was in December, it's like my attraction button came back on again. And I I don't know if it's God's gift for me and doing these things that this is how I'm rewarded. I I I don't know. I really don't have an answer for it, but all I know is for me personally, it works. I guarantee it'll work for others too if they don't do things like that in their lives.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

People see the cars, the lifestyle, the watches. What's one myth or misconception you think people have of you?

SPEAKER_00 58:53

The fucking hours, the hours that we put in. I mean, we we work our butts off, Stephanie and I. I mean, we we put in the hours. We're seven days a week, even when we're traveling. I I remember there was one uh morning I had to get up really, really early in Paris last year because I had to have a Zoom call with a client and had to present a particular offer. And and I'm not the type of agent where I'm like putting my negotiations on one of my junior agents. I want I want to do it. You know, they they get me. That's why they're hiring me. So I stick with that.

SPEAKER_01 59:25

Got two more questions for you, man. When I think of Robert, I always want to judge everyone by their answer. On this question, what's your answer? And I'm gonna judge you hard on it. What is Robert Elder's favorite movie?

SPEAKER_00 59:37

Ooh, Robert Elder's favorite movie. Fuck, that's a tough one, man. I got a lot of favorite movies.

SPEAKER_01 59:43

What's one of them that's up there?

SPEAKER_00 59:45

Uh Godfather, casino, goodfellas. Okay. Late 80s stuff. Late 80s stuff, yeah, yeah. The new stuff. I don't know how to really get into any of the new stuff, but I will say this. Did you guys get into Stranger Things? I'm not gonna Stranger Things TV show. Oh my god. That was actually, I don't know what it was. I think it brought me back to the 80s. Um, which is like the baset time era, best decade ever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Casino, that's casino's a good movie. Casino, yeah. I like kind of like the gangster movies, man. I don't know. Maybe that was my hard-ass self before. Well, you said you said casino? Casino Goodfellas. Goodfellas, and Goodfellas is a good thing. Except for Godfather 3. That one wasn't good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

I like Goodfellas. Goodfellas was Goodfellas had that scene. You remember when uh she takes he takes the uh the wife or the girlfriend at the time to the whole restaurant? That was such a big deal back then to go through the whole motions, do that big turnaround just to go be seated into the uh front table. Yeah, in the front table. Yeah, that was such a big deal on scenes, cameras, going through the motions. That was that's a good video. But but it portrayed the level of respect that that that he was. From parking the car all the way to here's a bottle. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

It's a cool movie. It's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Now, next, last question for me. Um turn up the hustle, Robert, it's it's not a motto for me. It's not a slogan, it's really my lifestyle, it's the way I live. And I've done that for many years in real estate. When Robert thinks of turn up the hustle, what does that mean to Robert?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:11

Ooh, turn up the hustle, that's a good one. Um it's for me, it's it's being in the paint con constantly. My my job is to get in front of people. That's my job. My job is not to be at the office, sit behind a desk, or send out emails or anything else. I for me personally, belly to belly, that's how I like to get in front of people. And I I want to get in front of as many people as possible, and the most important people that I could possibly get in get in front of. It it's weird, but people will make fun of when when you got your car, did anything change for you? Not not with perception, but in the rooms in which you were in. Did anything change for you?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:48

I think so. I feel it. Yeah, I feel it. Once once it was about three and a half years ago. Yeah. Um I think it kind of faded away now because people know, but right when you get it, that's the guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:55

Yeah, but it but it will still like it was still, don't get me wrong. Yeah, it will still like when I got my Audi, it put me in different circles. This this this Porsche that I got the other day, I got I got calls from guys in my car group. They're like, oh my gosh, the level of respect and everything else. Yeah, it opens doors. Watches open doors. That's what a lot of people don't understand. It's like they don't invest in themselves. They'll see that as like a a purchase, an ego purchase. No, not necessarily. You know how many conversations I've had because of a watch? Some some random guy like in a coffee shop. I've done business with those people now, those random people that I complimented their watch on. Why? Because now I have something in common that with that person. For me, that's hustling. That's hustling. If I see in if I didn't know you two guys, I'd compliment your watches so I can get to talk to you, so I could learn about you. But that that's how I hustle. Does that make sense? Makes perfect sense.

unknown 1:02:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Well, we want to thank you before we wrap this up for taking time out of your days. We know you are super busy and super famous here in San Antonio, so appreciate you taking the time out. But um, if you had to uh give one parting word to the audience, uh, we do have a lot of obviously agents that are in that are watching and investors. If you had to give one set of parting words, what would be your your parting word to those guys?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Um don't try and reinvent the wheel. There's people that have already done this. Follow the ones that have done it that are successful doing it, model them. Why why why bang your head against the wall? There was one book years ago that that changed my life, and it was um oh goodness gracious, I just had a brain fart. The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. That that book is the letter E-Myth. That book changed my life. That helped me start thinking more of a like a business person than uh someone that owns a job. And that's what a lot of people unfortunately have these days. They own a job, they don't necessarily own a business. And that book taught me how to own a business. And I've implant implemented it over my you know years and and career and whatnot with different things that I've done. That would be for me one of the biggest things to leave the audience with.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:53

And for those who maybe it's the first time they've seen you, which I doubt, but if it's the first time they've seen you, what uh what's the best way for them to connect with you? If they want to do a deal with you, what's the best way for them to find you?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

Uh Instagram all day long, Robert Elder Realtor. At Robert ElderRealter.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

That's a good file. There you guys have it. Again, we appreciate you for taking the time to be on. We appreciate you guys for tuning in and watching. We really hope that you're getting value. We try each and every week to give you more and more value each week. And if you are getting value, we ask that you like, comment, and subscribe to the channel. And as always, as always, remember to turn up the hustle, and we will see you guys on the next one. Peace.