In episode 22 of Wake Up to Wealth, Brandon Brittingham interviews Bobby Castro, a successful entrepreneur and mentor, as he shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings with a ninth-grade education to building and exiting a billion-dollar company.
Tune in to this inspiring story of overcoming obstacles and achieving financial success.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Brandon Brittingham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailboxmoneyb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.brittingham.1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittingham/
Bobby Castro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobbycastro/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobbyCastroOfficial/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobby-castro/
WEBSITE
Brandon Brittingham: https://www.brandonsbrain.org/home
This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.
All right, what's up, everybody? We are back. Another show today, Waking Up to Wealth. Super excited today. Got a good friend of mine and been lucky enough to call this guy a mentor, Bobby Castro. I know how busy you are, so I'm very, very grateful for you taking some time with me today. Thank you.
Brandon Brittingham
Thank you, man. And I appreciate our relationship. I'm excited about where it's going to go. And what I like the most about you, Brandon, the transparency and the conversations not only are meaningful, but they add value to my life. So I appreciate you, dude. Thank you, man.
Bobby Castro
So for people that don't know you, you exited a huge exit in a company that you built. I'm first going to ask you, how'd you do it? And then I'm going to ask you some of the mistakes that you made, because people don't like to talk about that. For people that don't know, because I think people want to hear the back story. It's like, oh, you exited. You must have came for money. You must have had an Ivy League education. Give us the five minute of, I started here and I ended there.
Brandon Brittingham
Yeah, it's crazy. You know, I only have a ninth grade education. Back then, Brandon, it was junior high. It's not high school as it is today. And that's as far as I have as an education. My mom was a waitress all her life. I became a waiter. We lived on section eight. We lived on, like a lot of families, struggling. Electricity always out. I talk a lot about it in my book. So it's the same struggle that a lot of us, including you, can relate to it. The only difference with me, somehow, some way, and it's kind of crazy, since I've been on social media and maybe after my exit, I'm now realizing the magnitude of what I was able to accomplish. And it's pretty darn cool. I really didn't have much idea, maybe up to maybe a couple of years ago, of exiting a company for a billion dollars on my terms. And before that, it was 600 million. Before that was 250 million. And before that, I started this journey with $1,700, $1,700 guys. And the money wasn't even mine. It was my mother-in-law. I just got married, Dixie. She's no longer with us. She passed, unfortunately, of cancer some years back. She gave me $1,700 when I burned pretty much every bridge, every relationship. I didn't understand how important relationships are, especially the right ones. She gave me $1,700. I took the $1,700 and it took my wife and I, we've been married 34 years, dude. It took us to exit a company for a billion dollars. And. I'm now starting to appreciate that younger Bobby. And then the Bobby that came after that, the Bobby that came after that, the Bobby that came after that, the Bobby that sits here in front of you. And I can't wait to meet the Bobby next month, next, tomorrow. And I really believe that anybody can do this. I really do. And I know it sounds so crazy when I speak at events or I speak to people, they can't seem to handle that statement. And it's amazing, dude, my life changed and we're powerful. And when you hear people say you are the best investment, just imagine this, whatever I focus 100 percent on and what I give energy to 100 percent, 100% guarantee it's going to grow. So all I did was give this 100% energy and focus. That means a lot of sacrifices. I almost got divorced from my wife many, many times from getting distracted in life. So many things. And a lot of people, including me, before I got that concept, They give energy here, they put 2% here, 5% here, 32% here on social media, 14% here at the strip joints, 15% here at the car dealership, whatever the case may be. And really nothing grows, but you're just maintaining a lifestyle that is not sustainable over long periods of time.
At some point, you had to have a turning point, and I hear what you're saying on the focus, but when was it, can you go back to the moment of like, man, I think I've got something that could be worth a billion dollars. Did you realize it? You know what I mean? Obviously, it didn't happen overnight, but where was the turning point where you're like, man, we've got something special, and I think we can grow this too. It's just an insane company.
Two turning points. One turning point, I talk about it heavily in the book, that the first turning point I'm here at living in Sophie's house, her mom and dad's house. And we got married very young, been married 34 years. On a weekday, dude, I didn't even have a job. I walk out of my in-law's house like some schlep. No job, living in someone else's house. They're feeding us. They even bought us a car. I walk out on a weekday, late in the afternoon, and a black Mustang pulls up. Pretty much beat up. It was just transportation. And the front seat was this incredible hot chick, my wife. And she smiled to me. And she's so red, not because of anything other than it's so, the humidity here in South Florida is tough. She was just stuck in traffic, windows were down, reverse fumes, there was no air condition. And then there was a little baby, my daughter Priscilla, who's 33 years old today. Pee-wee, dude, pee-wee. And she's doing the same thing, smiling at me, sweat and pink. Felt shameful right there and then. I don't know what happened. I stopped my lies. I used to be a very good liar. I lie to myself and I was really good. That means I can lie to anybody. And right there then, something happened to me, and I shifted my entire life, and I said, enough of your crap, enough of your lies, enough of your mixing things up and justifying stuff, you gotta get your act together. Immediately, I got a waiter job at the Rusty Pelican Key Biscayne, and I got a second job selling memberships for the Better Business Bureau during the day. I said, I'm gonna start right here. I am gonna win here, and stop doing this stuff, trying to win here when I'm here. I'm gonna win at the stage where I'm at. That was a turning point. Fast forward, we get into this business, as I mentioned to you, $1,700, and I'm working it, and it's starting to do good because I'm giving it energy. I've never taken a vacation up to that time, including my wife or my in-laws. Finally, me and Sophie get a few dollars, not much, but when you don't have nothing, a few dollars is a lot. We were able to take vacation. We got went on a carnival cruise line. It was like 350 bucks each. I took Pedro and Dixie, myself, my wife, and our daughter Priscilla to a carnival cruise line for one week. It was the biggest thing. We were so excited. And I was building this business just myself. And I had nobody to leave it to. Again, that was a one-man operation. It was all about Bobby Castro. So I go to my brother, Eric, and I said, Eric, dude, would you mind, because he was doing some other, he was doing medical supply uniforms, trying his own little gig. And I said, Eric, dude, I need a real big favor. Can you watch the phones for me? Yeah, Bobby, no problem. I said, yeah, but they ring. There's people calling me. I got deals going on. I gave him a little snapshot for like a week before I left. because I knew he can manage it or at least hold, yeah, he'll be right back, he's not there, whatever. I come back on vacation, my brother who I love, we're only 18 months apart, we're inseparable. And by the way, I couldn't have sold that company for a billion dollars without my brother's involvement. I come back on vacation, my brother, Eric, Bobby, you have something here. just because he came from him, because he was living the same lie in life as we. We grew up together. We come from the same struggle. When he told me that, and I seen the face, the expression, I felt it. I knew there was something here. What that something is, nothing. Again, it could have been because I didn't have nothing. He just looked at me saying, Bob, you have something here. You have a, this is a business. And I said, Dude, you want to come in? I'll give you 50%. Don't give me $1. I brought my brother in for 50%, not only because he's my brother, but somebody I knew at that time I had a leverage for his skill set that I didn't have. And I did that without knowing.
And so for people that are listening that might not know, what business did you start that you ultimately exited?
We were really the first fintech in the United States of America. So when I say fintech, if you're familiar with Lending Club, Prosper, anybody that you can get online and get a $25,000, $50,000 loan instantly through Atherrhythms. And we didn't have an Atherrhythm back then. That's a fintech. Oh, no, we didn't have that, brother. It wasn't what you have today. We grew into that. We created that for sure. We were one of the pioneers in the space. And, you know, it took us, in order to get there, it took us to meet other people. Right. Because think about it. I only have a ninth grade education. My brother only got through high school. Then he went to the Marine Corps because there was nothing else to do. So we were smart enough to leverage smarter people than us. Even at that time, I didn't even realize it. I had an ego because that's when I made that turning point where I said enough of these lies. And I recognized I needed to be around other people. We talked about earlier about network. So right there, I started giving it focus. partners started paying attention because we were giving them good business. And then I was invited, Eric and I, to an event, many, many years ago. And that event, talk about leverage, guys. If you don't have no money, and you're a Brandon, you're a Bobby, you're a Sophie, you're a Vivian, you're a Peggy, whoever you are out there, and you have no money, but you're physically healthy, mentally healthy, I am here to tell you, this is 100% possible. Leverage a network. What I did in Martha's Vineyard, that's where the event was, I leveraged that network. I got to know people. I was proactive in the network, the reason I went there. And I met somebody and it was an investment banker. And I was kind, I was humble. I did what my mom did all her life, waiting on tables because she had a, agree and cooperate with difficult personalities. When you're a waiter, you're confronted with all these personalities. My mother always had to put a smile and get by the personality because she always told me, Bobby, in life, the mission is not to win battles, it's to win wars. And so I met this individual. And again, because I met this individual, it changed my life. And how I got in the business, I met an individual that changed my life. I had a classified ad and I talk heavily in the book, and I know I go fast, guys, and there's a book, it's called Upsiders, I hope you don't mind me mentioning it. You can go to Upsiders, you can go just Bobby Cash or Upsiders on Google, the book, and you get it on Amazon. If you don't have the money, it's even free on my Instagram. You can get a free audio. If you don't speak English, it's even in Spanish. I get a classified ad, my brother. I responded to a classified ad. That's how I got in this business. That's wild, man. That's pretty crazy. It's available to anybody. We have the internet today. We have YouTube, which is the most powerful tool, I personally think, in order to learn. Yeah. I didn't have any of this. Yeah. I only had a curiosity. Sure. So right now, all of you are so overwhelmed with all this incredible access But you find reasons not to execute on it because you're negotiating at the same time. You can't execute if you're negotiating yourself. Should I do it or not? I responded to a classified ad, a business opportunity. and I'm financially free today.
That's pretty crazy. So one thing that, with social media now, one of the things that agitates the hell out of me is, you know, people will see somebody like you, and they'll see somebody like me, and they're seeing us where we are today, right? I'm not necessarily going on social media and showing you every time I take a loss or something bad happens. But so a lot of times people think, that it's the hockey stick. Your journey was a hockey stick, my journey was a hockey stick. We both know that's certainly not true. Some of the things you dealt with early on, tell everybody that's out there, the shit doesn't happen overnight and it's not easy, you know what I mean? What are some of the things you dealt with where you're like, or was there ever a point where you were, you guys were doing well but the hits kept coming and you kept getting knocked down and you're like, man, I don't know, you know what I mean? People need to hear that side of it, because that's the real shit.
Yes, many times, and I think it all relates to being distracted. I fight distraction every day. Yeah. along with every one of you are vulnerable to distractions. We get these headwinds all day. It's constantly inbound, social media, this, that, a hot chick, a hot dude, whatever that distraction is, a phone call or whatever, it's a distraction. And I was so distracted so many times, even before I started the business, After I started the business, I almost lost the business that I sold for a billion dollars, guys. I almost filed bankruptcy because I was distracted. I was interviewing bankruptcy attorneys at a time when the company was doing good, Brandon. Bobby, if it's doing good, why were you talking to investors or talking to Bankruptcy attorneys, because I was distracted. I thought my business was doing good because I wasn't paying attention to it. I was being distracted on something else. So I almost filed bankruptcy. So for me, my testimonial, every time I fell, I looked for reasons. Okay, what happened? And it kept coming back. Man, I got distracted. I was doing this instead of doing this. I was doing this, working on the business versus what I should be working on the business. That's what I, for me, it was distractions as it is today. I'm such on high alert, dude. I don't have a phone ringer or a vibration on my phone. I know it's very dangerous. My wife tells me all the time, but I'm so vulnerable from distractions. The last thing I need is to get a text message for a funny joke about some chick on a Harley Davidson.
I'm just making that up, by the way. I don't know why I said that. No, but I think what's great about that is you were at the worst place you could be financially, which is close to bankruptcy, to exiting. And that's the part of the story a lot of people just don't hear. With any entrepreneur, they don't know or they don't hear about. So a lot of times, that's where most people quit. You know what I mean? The point where you're at is where most people quit.
And I think we're all scared to fail. And I think the biggest obstacle is that they don't realize you have to fail. And not only one time, many times. You have to be willing to fail more than once. You have to be willing to put it all on the line. It may even cause a divorce. You're so passionate about this company. You're giving it more attention than your relationship. There's gonna be that struggle.
Yeah. So, I know there's probably not one, but give me the one that sticks out of someone's listening to this, there's an entrepreneur, we have tons of entrepreneurs that listen to this show, reach out to me all the time, ask me for advice. Like, for someone that's listening, You want to build a billion-dollar company. They're listening to us right now. They want to know how to do it. What's one piece of advice that you would give them? I know you could give them tons of advice, but one that sticks out. If I could give you one, this would be it.
And the person's in business? Yes. OK, great. You have people right now, whether you like it or not, that shouldn't be with the organization. If you're not subtracting people from your life, Bear with me. If you're not subtracting people, including your employees, you're not growing. You're settling. The only way you can grow is subtracting so you can see and receive change. That's why companies evolve. Jeff Bezos came in business to sell used books. The business today is not used books. It evolves to something else. Our business model evolved to something else. At one time, we were not subtracting. We were simply adding. And I got caught up when people used to be, hey, Bobby, man, I hear you doing good. Oh yeah, Brandon, thank you, dude. Yeah, I got 62 employees. All I thought about, the more employees I have, the more successful I appeared. I was so wrong. I wasn't efficient with my time. I was not efficient getting people with skillset. Again, people in your life, including friends and family, if you're not subtracting some of them, including some of your employees, even your leadership team, you're not growing, nor that company will grow. The same people that got me from A to B, it's not the same people today. They change in stages. It's called seasons of life. That one data point that I just gave was a game changer. Now, I coach a lot of people, not a lot of people, 13 people one-on-one, and I always challenge people of letting go. And every time we let go of a big leader that we think or they think that, no, man, this is the horse, I can't. It's amazing. The new person comes in, Brandon, doubles the volume.
Yeah, how much you didn't understand you weren't actually getting.
Yeah. And it happened to me. I wasn't paying attention. I was not looking at KPIs.
Well, you know, I can't not say this because you brought it up. You know, one of the most important lessons I've ever heard or that I've ever experienced is we tend to hire down instead of hiring up. And or, you know, this person's been with me forever and their skill set is what their skill set is. But now I want to put them in an executive position instead of going and hiring the executive who's already done it.
It almost put me out of business many times. Yeah. When I started my company, and I'm sure the same thing with you and a lot of other people, the first ones we go to was the only people we know is family and friends. Yeah. Yeah. I brought on a lot of family, a lot of friends. And as the company was growing, it got parked and stuck many times because it takes people to scale. It takes skillset. And I wasn't subbing and I couldn't confront this hard conversation. How do I confront my nephew, man? How do I confront my niece? How do I confront my sister? I love you. And they're making good money, Brandon. It's everything to them. This is how they're paying the bills. This is how they're feeding their children. I could not face that. Sure. It took me a long time to face that. And when I faced it, man, did I grow? Yes, it was heartburn. Yes. Even today, it's a sensitive topic with a lot of my family members. I love them to death. And if you're listening to this, man, I love you. I love you. but I have a life and I'm trying to create some magical things. And all I'm looking for is skillset. This is strictly business. So if you're listening to this and you're an entrepreneur, understand that you got to communicate that to your friends and family. Now they're rock stars, Brandon, and they're performing, they're doing fine. Okay. But it comes to a point when someone is not able as the opportunity to continue to grow, can they handle that capacity or skillset? This is the number one killer why people stay small in business.
We're two more questions. I'm going to ask you the same question, ask everybody at the end. But another thing, you just made me think about this, and that you've said it to me multiple times. And it's a big deal, because I tend, I mean, I have a pretty big imagination. But hanging out with you and talking to you has actually made me even stretch even further. Like, I just want you to say something about that, because oftentimes, people that are listening to this are just in general, the ceiling is created by something in their mind that's not real.
Yeah. You know, surroundings and my staff, they hear me all day long. Surroundings. So my minutes are, I have something called non-refundable minutes. I can never get them back, Brandon. It means so much to me that I trademarked it years ago. I value my minutes worth a lot of money because everyone wants to talk about supply and demand. And I'll give you an example, Bitcoin, only 27 million coins. Okay, I get it. But my minutes continue to deplete itself. And sooner or later, it's not gonna be there anymore because I won't be there. So it's the most precious asset on the planet, in my opinion. So when you're surrounded by individuals and you're a younger Bobby, you're a mid-age Bobby, you're a Bobby like me, a 57 years old man, you could still do it, dude. Your surroundings is everything because that is what's coming in your mind. See, we're born with this fresh mind and what we put in it, we become it. So as you're around your associations and surroundings, that's information and we are absorbing it. And we're building, what I build, a generational pattern that my family has been duplicating for so many years, being broke, broke, broke, broke. We don't know any other way. So surroundings are really important for me. And if I'm spending my time, I want value for my time. I want to give you value. This has to be a value proposition. I do not want to go to a party. A lot of my family members, They think maybe I'm rude or I'm not. I think I'm a pretty cool dude, but I don't want to talk about the same topic I've been talking about for the last 12 years. I don't want to talk about people. I want to talk about growth. How can we grow? So I believe in accountability. I want to be surrounded by people saying, Bobby, don't get comfortable. Keep winning, Bobby. Keep taking risk. And when they hear me say, man, I'm just gonna maybe just cruise. No, no, you don't give up, Bobby. You said you were not gonna give up. Now that's who you wanna be around in your life, saying, hey, Brad, and I'm gonna use Brad here, because I love Brad. His friends, or his so-called friends, should be telling him, Brad, man, are you settling in life? I mean, you're working for this dude. How come you're not working for yourself? That's a good pointer. And I'm saying that with just, I'm here for transparency. So surroundings, man, we got to keep each other accountable. Now, if you have surroundings and they're not keeping you accountable, you are wasting and spending your time. Sorry for getting jacked up.
No, no. This is what people listen to the show for. I want to end it, and that was gold, by the way. Thank you. I want to end it with the same thing I ask everybody. We call the show Wake Up to Wealth. I call the show Wake Up to Wealth because I believe, I don't have a high school education, didn't graduate college just like you, but I believe that we've all been taught about money. And that's why I call it Wake Up to Wealth. That's why people like you come on this show to educate people of what's possible. So I ask everybody the same question at the end of the show, and that is, whatever your version of it is, what does waking up to wealth mean to you?
Freedom. Access. Resources. I wanna be able to choose, Brandon, where, when, how, and with whom. I wanna be able to, I just got back from nearly a month vacation with my grandchildren, my children, their spouses, my wife. We went to Europe. I wanna have the freedom to do things I can never, ever imagine. And imagine having that freedom called financial freedom. I can literally, And I want to get to what keeps me up at night too, but I've accomplished so much, man. I'm starting to really last couple of years, man, say this word, very proud of myself. Very freaking proud because the more I'm around people, most of them, man, you're not even trying enough. You say you're a Mac daddy, you're winning, you're driving that Ferrari and all that. It's like, that's all you got? Is that all you have in the tank? I want the freedom. I want the personal freedom. The money situation, I was after money, but the time, my time, I want it invested. How I want to invest it. I can never get it back. I can get money. I know how to make money. I make millions of dollars just sitting down, and I'm not saying that cocky. I'm just waking up another Bobby, man. It's possible. You know, besides selling that company, guys, for a billion dollars, me and my awesome life partner, and that's just a season of life. Imagine being married for 34 years. How do you do that? Talk about seasons, talk about communication, start work it, fertilize it. It's the same thing, fertilizing your life. Can you imagine that Sophie and I were invested in real estate way before we sold the company. We sold it on three slices. First was $250 million valuation. 11 months, call it a year, 600 million. And then the final one was a billion. Before that, we used to take our nickels and dimes and dollars and buy little section eight houses, duplexes, single family. We started doing that because we understood the power of compound money. I did not want to repeat my generational patterns that they didn't understand the relationship with money. And we grew it to three quarters of a billion dollars. Just that portfolio gives us over half a million dollars a month to me and my wife, not including my two kids or my grandchildren, just in real estate. That's one of a few different channels. Guys, what are you doing with your time? If you have time, which I know you have time, if you subtract, we talked about subtracting things and people from your life, it gives you what? Capacity to do what? get your curiosity, learn about compound interest, learn about the fact that one penny a day compounded for a lousy 30 days equals over 5 million bucks. I can't get that stat over. So I become obsessed about it. So now I want to earn a dollar and I call a stack and rack to invest it. And I go back and I earn $2 more. And now I'm focused about creating impact in my life and legacy for my children. Because a lot of fathers out there, I'm not gonna speak about the mother because I'm not a mother. You can call yourself a father. It only takes two seconds to be a father. And we know how to do that. A father is walking the walk, having that leadership, and being accountable, like I said about those friends and associations, saying, son, daughter, do not make the same mistakes that I made. Do it better. Take risk. Don't work for somebody. No, no, say no to the UPS. Say no to a police officer. I'm not knocking these careers, because without these people, we will be in trouble, but I'm not gonna lie to my children. I'm not gonna have them make the same mistakes I made, including a hundred years back, everybody in my family member. And I see these fathers. tell their freaking kids, get off Instagram, get off the hour, get off to TikTok. And they're here all day on the darn thing. Not walking the walk. And then, and all this crap. You know, a leader creates leaders. And that's how you can do that with your children. If you feel like it's too late for you, well, guess what? You have a legacy. Those are your children, grandchildren. The information you can give them is like giving them a billion dollars in your will. It's the information coming from who they love the most, the Father. You're giving them gold by telling them that, not just ignoring that, repeating what you have done and where you're at today. Shame on you, man.
That was way more. So I'm not even a high guy until I get radical, man. Hey, it was great. I mean, dude, there's millions and millions of dollars worth of game you gave away today. And I appreciate you. I know how valuable your time is, so I appreciate you taking the time to speak to my audience. Thank you, dude. And thank you for taking the time with me today.
Thank you. Thank you for the relationship. Thank you, brother.
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