Ryan “Rotty” Garcilazo Shares His Raw Journey of Making Mistakes to a Multi- Million Dollar Real Estate Rehab Empire

Kevin Harrington
Hi, I’m Kevin Harrington, an original shark from the hit television show Shark Tank and you’re listening to the underdog podcast

Pamela Bardhi
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the underdog podcast today I have Rotty in the building Rotty Ryan Garcilazo. How are you, my friend? What’s happening?

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
You tell me, man, I’m good.

Pamela Bardhi
Rotty, you are an amazing man. I like to call you the construction King, if you will rehab depot in the building like crazy talented, your energy is amazing. Like you’re just a rockstar in so many different realms. I’m just so excited to get into your story today. Because I’ve had the privilege of being able to hang out with you several times at family mastermind. And just like be part of your vision of what you’re doing in this world. It’s just super cool, man. I’m just so excited about what’s happening in the future. And like, yeah, honored to be a part of all that. I just can’t wait to get into your story today.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
What do you want to know? I’m open book, baby.

Pamela Bardhi
I know you are.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
So I’ll share stories with you be like, Oh, exactly. No, you don’t you don’t find success without trials and tribulations. Let’s say that.

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. So I gotta ask you what inspired you on your journey to where you are today? Man,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
I wanted to be the best. So let me explain what I mean by that. Because that mindset was a 21-year-old mindset. When I had that I wanted to be the greatest, the biggest, baddest, most registered flashes the cockiest. That was 21, right? Because now I’m 40. So the mindsets a little bit different. But I would not be here without that 21-year-old boy, because I call him a boy because he’s a fucking boy. But at 21 I wanted to obviously, as an entrepreneur. My whole life when I’m nine years old, I was selling told my toys on the side of a road. We’d go over the hill, I put a blanket out for all my toys.

I get a nice little like, and I’m like mice roll when shit trying to make it look flashy or appealing. If you will, and you would drive by no different than a lemonade stand. And I remember the police came by they’re like, Listen, son, I like what you’re doing. But you can’t do that. You know, it’s illegal to be able to sell your stuff like that. I don’t know any of the things that he said to me, I didn’t understand. He was saying, All I knew was I’m selling my shit. So he’s like, you gotta pack it up. And you gotta you can’t do this. I said that’s fine, I rolled all my shit up in the blanket. Then I went across the street and went to the other side of the hill opened up shop again, I didn’t care.

And I haven’t done that, like on the weekends or whatnot. Then I graduated into taking my rent flyer wagon door to door. Again, this is before you knew that door sale was what it was. Because nobody likes to ignore sales, but it’s like a 10-year-old. I’m like, Alright, so take my dad’s stationery and office shit. I never asked him for permission, nor did I even realize he was never done using it. I would just put staplers and staples and pencils and pens and wagon. And I go door to door and sell shit for like five cents, 10 cents, and people would buy it. So I was always an entrepreneur.

Then I got into high school sold drugs. Did my thing there that I went I became I was 1819. I was in graduate high school 17 and 1819. We started running some casinos out of hotels. I graduated through Chicago and through me and my crew, we started doing the underground casinos in the Makita and hotels. And I got a funny story about that because life comes full circle. But there was a really, really good side to what we were the mindset of who I wasn’t where I was going. But I chose a darker path for a number of years utilizing those skills. My mom always said you’d be the greatest gang leader in prison of all time.

I’m like, Well, thank God that didn’t happen. But she always thought like, that was my future. She thought you’re going to jail, you’re gonna die. You’re too smart to be doing the dumb shit you’re doing. But I was fascinated. I’ve always been fascinated by a dark sense of who I am. You know, I don’t hide it from anybody. Anybody that knows me now is like, yeah, he’s, he’s a good time to be careful. But you graduate to those levels of doing stupid things. And when you do stupid things about how smart you are, the repercussions are just as swift and as serious. And then you start growing at 1819 20.

Realized that I wasn’t going to jail friends are getting killed things. This is not good, right? It’s the whole Chicago underground, you got to cheer your listeners can put the two and two together. So you know, I was kind of born into that family-wise. It was kind of something that we were instinctively known to do. I was the firstborn nephew of the firstborn grandson in 1981. So there came a little bit of an expectancy with that expectation that I didn’t know. I was being groomed a long time ago didn’t realize I was being groomed but whatever they were grooming me to be, it was working.

It was working very well. Then I got big, I got size and I got an attitude and you combine all those things. You’re a problem, you become a problem. Anyway, long story short, that was my youth and then 20 came in. Like I said once I started seeing friends and family you know really getting in trouble. You know sort of time and FBI DEA and different things are happening. You have decisions to make. And I went into, Believe it or not, I went into medical, I became a paramedic working in the ers out here in Chicago. And I met a doctor who’s still one of my friends now and that’s another full circle store. He and I just befriended each other very well.
When you work in the ER should they have a sick mindset because of the things that are coming through that door? You got kids drowning in the pools you got gunshot wounds, you got gangbangers you’ve got people have to capitated for car accidents. You just got to be mentally and emotionally prepared for what you’re going to endure and see. And again, I’ve always been built for stuff like that. So that teaches you direct patient care, it teaches you humanity. It gave me a well-rounded me to the point to understand my fellow people in terms of humans and the feeling of empathy and sympathy because there’s a difference. I’ll talk about that later.

All these experiences in life kept giving me another piece that kept rounding me off because that’s just I was just a jagged edge. But it just kept all these things kept rounding me off, in my opinion there for him, they’ve been done. But that point, my doctor friends today, long story short, he’s like, Hey, I’ve got a property that he had investor property. Do you know, to rehab it? I actually thought he meant I need to rehab on my broad I mean, rehab. He’s like, No, do you know, the rehab properties? I said I don’t even know what that means. Like, what do you mean remodel? He’s like, Yeah, so I’ve got those in the trade and see we can do versus history.

Once we did his property, I failed miserably. But I understood what the business was. And me being an entrepreneur and having that mindset, numbers make sense to me. Now, I’m not saying I enjoy math, because I don’t, but I’m good with it. It just makes sense to me. So I was looking at numbers, and I started looking at the business behind it. This is huge. And this is before recessions really you talk about 2000 2001. This 911 hadn’t even hit yet. You’re talking about this is just around the turn of 911 happening, and 911 happens to be my birthday, by the way. So I turned 20 When 911 happened, and that’s around the time that this was making sense to me.

So as the economy was crashing, because of that, that’s when real estate really started taking off again, and only comments and all that stuff. And here we are again. But long story short, he had a property I did it, we failed. Got an idea what the business was like I did some research realize the hedge funds were the gods in this game. I started making phone calls doing what I do, I started cold calling. I don’t know who was asking for to know who to ask for what department they asked for what I was even asking for. And I couldn’t do any more diligence online, I realized construction directors, construction managers ask for these individuals.

So I would call Blackstone I would call invitation knows pathway homes, all these crazy hedge funds. And I’d say, can you point me the direction of your construction director for the Chicago market in the Midwest market or whatever. Finally, I got to some people and I got to try out. Out here on the north side, Chicago is where they had a big office I went there and they gave me three properties to bid. Because the hedge funds just buy sheets at a time. They say here’s three properties. Here’s addresses lockbox code minimum. And I know what a bid on my bid on like 20,000 Short each. I remember them saying You sure you could do it for that price? They’re like, Yeah, I can do them for us couldn’t do it for that price.

So long story short, I failed on all three of those. But again, I knew that I understood like there’s this huge like, I need to figure this out. What I started doing was studying the hedge funds, how do they have all this management? Why are their spreadsheets look the way they do and why did they only give 50% margin and how do they have their vendor? So I studied this shit. And we decided meeting me at that time at 2122. I said if I can implement what these hedge funds are doing very small Lee into my small little construction company at the time, I’ll become the big dog in Chicago.

In five years by 25, We’re the number one GC in Chicago doing rehabs. We were doing 100 flips a year for the hedge funds. We were winning awards left and right when he was coming in, but I was still that 21-year-old boy. I was still that 21-year-old cleanly. I was that 21-year-old OG if you will, I had to get that mindset going. So I blew it by 2627 I had to start all over again. Then you get wise another piece that starts shaping such rounding you off like fuck, that’s a big ass piece of humble pie to eat. And I ate it the whole fucking pie. And I said, Well, I’m not done, I get this shit, I know what to do.

And in doing so we evolved into understanding that my clients, the investors did not understand construction. They were costing me money just as much as I was costing them money. They blame me meeting the contractors for every fucking thing that they had wrong, which is not my fucking problem in the first place. And I realized they didn’t know any more than I did. So I said, Let me master construction. I’ll stay in my lane. I’ll stay in single-family master shadows, and then go back home and teach these guys how to stop. Long story short, here we are. So we’ve been teaching it the last seven years we’ve done 30 boot camps, we’ve done three master classes. I can’t even tell you how many virtual sessions we’ve done.

We’ve trained 1000s of real estate investors, we’ve flipped over $500 billion. I’m sorry, $500 million in assets locally and internationally as partners with other investment portfolios. It’s a blessing to come this far. But, you know, advice I’ll give anybody out there who’s either young or still in space. Because you’re still in an empty space is that you have done it, Standard, there are seasons in your life. Your 20s and 30s are the morning of your life. Then you have your 30s and 40s, which the afternoon of life, then you have your 50s and 60s. Which is the evening and in 60s, you’re in Twilight. Now you can actually figure that out if you have any fucking sense. What I’m trying to say is at 40 I’m not supposed to be the same guy was the morning of my life.

Because I’ve just entered the afternoon. If I’m still the same 21-year-old fucking idiot, thinking the same way I did at 21 I’d have nothing. I’d be in jail, I’d be dead or IV broker, it’s just the whole mind. It just I would not have a fulfilled life. And you have to continue to evolve and the guy at 20. In my 20s I don’t care about partnering with anybody. I didn’t care about networking, I think it was shit about masterminds, I thought I was God. That was the mentality. I was like, nobody could fucking touch me.

I’m gonna go make a million dollars. I’m gonna spend a million dollars, I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I want. That dude served a purpose, right? Because that dude got me here. In my 30s I got a little more rounded at children got married, started opening up other businesses. Started learning about other trials and tribulations and variables and challenges that are gonna happen in real life. And responsibilities, accountability, all those things. So the start, you started looking at your business model and getting a little sharper and smarter and wiser. More tactful, more detailed, more specific, more granular. And then you start looking at your business ecosystem, realizing what’s working, what’s not working, cut the fat, get lean. It’s a journey, man.

I’ve been doing this 19 years, and I’m only 40 It’s a fucking journey. And you know, being one of the young guys in the game, and I consider myself young at 40. The people I served in my 20s were 4050 67. Now 40, I’m in the middle, you know. So now I’m trying to capture the 21-year-old saying, listen, listen, guys, I’ve got the golden fucking ticket. I am Willy Wonka. All right, I got the candy shot, I’m telling you just follow what I’m trying to tell you, you’ll get there faster than I will.

So it’s interesting to be in that position now where I’ve earned the respect. And I say earned with a capital D. I earned the respect of my peers, I’ve earned the respect of this industry. Because they watched and watched and watched they watched a boy become a man. Let me tell you some in an alpha male world, just because I’m an alpha doesn’t mean other alphas are gonna accept me. I got to prove myself in the jungle and that’s the difference between this business. And I go uptown, I go on, well, she won them.

Pamela Bardhi
All Gods were there, you mentioned so many things. Thank you. I love it, I just love hearing your story kind of in detail. I mean, to go from a youth. That’s troublesome. Like wild like, and getting into like the paramedic field, because that’s not an easy field to really get out of. So for the people that are listening that they have a lifestyle, or they have habits, or they have an energy of people around them.

That is kind of holding them back or pushing them in a direction that they shouldn’t be in. Or they just sense that and feel that like how do you break that mold? Because you went from that to like the paramedical space. Which is like, what, like the medical field? Like, that’s crazy, you know, like, so what would be some recommendations on your own body on that. Because that’s one thing that I picked up, I was like, well, it is not easy to kind of break away from all that, you know, and start fresh. You know,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
I was thinking becoming a fireman at that time. I’m like, I gotta get out of this thing. And I gotta, I never knew about grow out of that lifestyle. This is before I opened the Garcilaso group of people and other companies I have no I didn’t. I didn’t know if I’d ever even survive the lifestyle I was living because we were good at it. When I say we were good at it, he was dangerously good. And when you’re dangerously good at it, I always say this. Some of the biggest masterminds are criminals in the entire world are absolute geniuses. Probably would have been dominated as legitimate CEOs of any corporation.

You know, that’s the reality of some of these masterminds, who are just these men like Pablo Escobar. I mean, he technically probably was the richest man in the world at one point. And to be able to run an organization that’s worldwide dealing drugs and shit like that. If you think like, he’s not stupid, he’s not an idiot. And there’s a lot of elements to that personality to be that you have to be deadly. You have to be precise. You have to be assertive, you have to be empathetic, sympathetic, you’ve got to be combative, not competitive, you’ve got to be leveraged, not leveraged. There’s a lot that goes into being a leader, but in bed, and at that time in my life. I realized that I’m really good at what I’m doing, but it’s bad. I need to do something.

So I always thought to myself, wow, I’ve always basically been like a fireman. It’s rugged down. Cool. I like that stuff. And I could always work two days on one day off and do business. That’s how I thought on my days off I run and read some business. So I went that route and part of becoming farmer you got to compare mental processes. It wasn’t gonna chose to be hermetic as part of that process is you need to get you got to get that medical license. I said, alright, I’ll take the test and go through the whole course in class and I did that fast. It was hard. It’s not easy, but you know, God blessed me.

I wish this whole time God blessed you with moments of brilliance and massive amounts of courage. Right guys, like I’m gonna give you an hour to be brilliant. But the next 23 hours used to be a flat-off Can idiot. So pay attention. And I’m good with that, I tell people all the time. Like, Listen, if you’ve got a good idea. I’ll give you 15 minutes because much just pick up. I need to hear it, give it to me so I can soak it in. And I can process things really quick, anything really, really quickly. But I think I think what most entrepreneurs and business owners is called now you’re young, in the middle of season. That season still growing, whatever you take the attributes that you have, and amplify them good and bad.

Because I was using brilliance for negativity. But I was like, Well if I just switch the dial and open, close this door and open that door. I can still apply my trade. If you will, and still apply that brain that I have. And absorb something new and do something that’s long term, that’s good. And that helps people. When as a youth, I would hurt people, I used to love to fight without remorse. There’s part of the process. You hurt people and you go about you go to fucking Denny’s. You’re in a bar, and you got to do what you got to do. You handle your shit in the parking lot or off-site at a construction site. You’re going to find out that he’s talking about a foreign one, smoking cigarettes. I’ll tell you that guy, I can read a book.

But the evolution of that has to come at some point. I say this in a lot of our master classes when I teach construction and project management. The first day, I always lead with leadership. Obviously, with hard skills, soft skills, I always lead with experience emotions. I always talk about the six levels of alphas and who you’re dealing with. Always, I deal with people first before we begin an instruction. Because a lot of people have to realize you are in your own way. Or the people around you, in their own way, are all together. You’re just a big fucking collection of idiots. Either way, you’ve got to look at what you’re doing and dissect it.

You have to separate from the pack to find out if you’re going to be able to grow with them or without them. And that’s kind of what I did at that point. My life is I enjoyed direct patient care. I felt like I was giving back I felt like karma was working in my favor now that I was getting back, like in God’s eyes. Like I was doing what I’m supposed to help people out, do it the right way. So I just got through some level of redemption there. And in doing so you feel good, you feel positive, so you continue to explore. Then that opportunity comes I’m telling you I believe into this day, when you do good, the opportunities are just fucking floating around you.

Your angels are like, Listen, I’m gonna sprinkle some love on you real quick. Oh, you need this, I’m gonna make sure that that door is available, but you got to walk it. I tell this people all the time, especially in our class. I say listen, I said you want a million dollars. When you fucking ask God for letting me tell you some, he’s not gonna just drop a million dollars on you. But you’re gonna present yourself three opportunities and it’s up to you to see him. You have to see him. You can pray for anything you want healing blessings, family, friends, cancer, no cancer, whatever.

But the opportunities will be in abundance. If you’re not paying attention, If you’re in a negative space, you’ll never see. If you’re always living in a positive space or trying to be as positive again, you will always see the signs, the signs are there. And then that gives you the opportunity to take the opportunity. Which I think most people miss in the first place. They have the fucking balls even take the opportunity. I could go on and on about that bullshit.

Pamela Bardhi
Well, that’s the thing is, well, one thing that I love that you were challenged in that rehab. And then from there, you were like, I’m just gonna try even though you blew it, that’s okay. But you’ve learned right? And then you started calling these hedge funds and you were searching for the answers. You didn’t know what you were looking for. But somehow you found it.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Didn’t find it. I had to learn that pie to be 10 flips to figure out that maybe I did it right to house. To figure out that I think I did it right when I say bitter right within like $25,000. So it wasn’t accurate. That’s what I try to tell people, people think that I’ll make an overnight success and get stuck in mind. There’s no such thing. This is relentless practice. This is the exception of failure. I love failing, I don’t give a shit. Like you tell me hey, let’s go climb that fucking house. Don’t know why but I’ll do it. Like we’ll just go Okay, let’s go jump on that roof and desert pool. And you jump off of like, let’s Okay, let’s try it. I’m like excitement like that.

But I also like risk but I analyze the risk. And I teach that to analyze the risk. So when you go into rehab, first thing you’re doing is you’re looking at a project right with your financial kit. As you should if the numbers make sense. Take that head off which contractor had honestly Okay, now let me look at it from a construction standpoint. What are my risks? Season weather all my KPIs supply chain? Can I get my trucks through here? Do I gotta do driveways? Do I have to build a pool? What kind of subs do I need? What’s the timeframe for this? Do I have the right schedule? Am I gonna hit snow? Am I gonna hit rains that hurricane season, you have to look at all that shifts and affects construction.

I don’t care what you want the country or where you’re at in the world. Weather is a risk demographic and location is risk geography. You got 10 projects. God bless where they add, oh, they’re like 10 miles apart. That’s a fucking nightmare way to go. That’s a risk. Yes. Well, that’s my point is like, these are the things that we always talk about learning. And part of my growth and evolution is I’m always analyzing the risks.

Pamela Bardhi
Absolutely, I love that, right? I mean, like you literally jumped into that space, through the hedge funds then you had your own GC company. And you guys became number one in Chicago, which I think is amazing. But you’ve also built the systems and processes. Now you’re trading all around the country. And what you just mentioned was really critical. Because it’s something I’m super passionate about as a real estate developer and contractor as well. But it’s like me Everyone wants to talk about flipping houses. They want to talk about doing all these things that you know, value adds to properties. Whether it’s commercial residential, mixed, use, or whatever. What has you, everything you just mentioned is the most important thing, the construction.

If everyone loses their hat on construction, you can lose your damn shirt on construction if you’re not careful. 100% and I have to I’ve lost on deals, I’ve said it I’ve lost 20k here, 30k here, but then I’ve also made it all back. But it took a few to like get it all together. And it’s like these systems and processes that you created that you’re now training all across the country is absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. And like you were saying mitigating the risk. I mean, that’s the number one thing you got to know your numbers.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
You know, that goes, but I appreciate you saying that. But that goes back to that 21-year-old and 25-year-old kid. Without that mentality and that kid at that time, I would not be the man I am today. You have to go through all of it, You can’t when shit coming to you, it’s coming to you. You have to deal with it. That’s life. But when I look back and reflect on my 20s and 30s, my 20s of wanting to be the best. Having that mentality serves me. It did, It served me then it serves me now. Because now I don’t have the mentality about being the best. I already know on the bus. I know the rehab depot is on the map forever.

We built that. Now, it’s about being quality, it’s about credibility. About authenticity, it’s about results. Now it’s about you can’t know. And our branding is extremely powerful. Because as a true entrepreneur, I don’t believe in just being in one isolated area. I want to be everywhere. You know, we’re doing cigars. How do we do that Ronnie, Ronnie brand, you know, and I share the story with people all the time? It wasn’t there was no such thing as rotting in my 20s. He came up in my I think, right? It was built seven years ago. We lost the rehab depot to start teaching. He was born by accident.

My very first consulting client had a CEO that was in his office and his name was Ryan. And I remember he was in Detroit. He called me they call me says Hey, Ryan, are we called the outfit? We both go what? He goes because you’re an asshole. You’re rotting. And I looked at him. I said That’s fucking brilliant, I love that. And I called my marketing girl. Her name was Millie. I said we need to get this rotting because I’m a Rottweiler. I own Rottweilers. It’s what we are, we were the Garcilaso group, which is our first construction company was the Rottweil as a redevelopment so that it fits. That’s what we were known for.

But I never heard the name. That’s how that was born. Then oh, we hit social media. We hit billboards in Chicago, we were just killing it with this rowdy thing. And I believe heavily in branding, not marketing. I believe in branding, not advertising. Right, you are your product, right? So when people see us marketing stuff on social media, it’s not because I’m infatuated with social media. In fact, I think social media is fucking garbage. But it serves a purpose. You spin your brand correctly, it has brand recognition, which people automatically buy based on you. And I tell people all the time, I know I’m an acquired taste. I’m not for everybody. I’m good with that. You know why? Because one of my mentors told me a long time ago.

This shit down for anybody who’s listening in la la land, that you don’t want them or you don’t need them on, you won’t get him. If you can make peace with those three things, your fire, you’re gonna be fine in love. And that’s where I’m at. I don’t need them all, I don’t want them on, I know, I’ll get him on. I get the right ones. Obviously, we’re doing just fine with the right ones in a lot of those people that act real hoity-toity. And I’m Christian or Muslim, or I’m whatever. God bless you, do you? But don’t act like you somebody when you call me. Because when you call me, I knew there was a devil inside.

So let’s play. Everybody’s got a dark side. I’ll bring it out. So I’m like, listen, because everybody, everybody respects the fact that our brand says what they think. They know they won’t say it’s not who they are. And that’s fine. I’ll speak for the masses. But I’ll always tell it how it is. I will always be authentic. What you see is what you get and I teach it the way I’m talking to you. I do my videos where I’m speaking to you all day long because that’s just who I am. I’d rather somebody be straight with me than voice my fucking time. And I’ll tell him always my fucking time.

Pamela Bardhi
Absolutely. Well, hey, that’s the raw Rottie right there. That’s what I always say do and whenever he was like, ask me about you. Because obviously like, I’m your licensee. And so we’ve collaborated on some business things. I’m like, man, right? He’s just like, he’s just ROM and he’s gonna tell it to you. Like it is he’s on his game. And like, that’s just that’s him. Like, and I was fascinated and like, it’s amazing to be confident like that, you know, what I mean? To be confident in business, I think is super, super important. I mean, you were born with it. That’s, that’s without a doubt.

And it’s obviously established itself throughout the years. But I just think it’s, you know, you had a heavy influence on your success because you’re like, I am the best. Like, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna keep going, like your confidence and your stature. And all the things is what propelled you even more forward in the business. Not just like, of course, you know, your stuff.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Let’s talk about that. It’s about empathy, sympathy. That’s part of the process of getting to where you’re at right? Understanding like I remembers I would have to fire project managers that fire contracts all the time. It is what it is. And of course, people would have a problem with that. They’d say this, then you, whatever, it’s your problem, not my issue to shut the fuck up. But I would always tell people, you know, I used to get all the time like, you have no sympathy. So no, there’s a difference for. I said I have sympathy, my sympathies for my friends and family. So they have empathy for your fucking problem. Because I’ve been there. I said, But I saved my sympathy for those that actually love and love me back.

So there’s a difference. I have no sympathy business, I have empathy and business. That’s different. And that’s why I tell everybody, I’m like, You have to understand the difference. Because they serve two purposes. You can’t be sympathetic in business if you are the BNI fucking profit. That’s me.

Pamela Bardhi
Listen, I mean, that’s the name of the game. And I mean, ready to like, was really interesting. Because I know a lot of guys, a lot of contractors out there work perfectly capable. They’re brilliant. They’re hard workers, they’re doing their thing and all that. How did you transition into the teaching side of things after being on the job sites? You know what I mean? Because that’s like, a tough thing. For most people, you know, you are not most people.

So I get that has a lot to do with you and your personality entrepreneur and who you are. But I just know, like a bunch of contractors and stuff that are so very well capable of doing so much more. But it’s like, yeah, right, exactly. So it’s like that’s a differentiator for you like, what advice would you give to. Say, a contractor right now who wants to take his or her life to the next level? That just can’t seem to just, you know what I mean. They’re stuck in that day-to-day and they have everything it takes to go above and beyond. But what would your piece

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
That’s a great question. So here’s off the cuff of our process on this. Not, and I say not by, I mean a small margin. Not every contractor should teach it can’t teach it will teach it or wants to teach it. So contractors are just rugged. They’re skilled tradesmen, they’re good at what they do. That’s where they should stay. No problem to do what we’re doing. And I don’t want this to come off as cocky. I wanted to come up with deliberate. There has to be an element of effect. Okay. Look at Conor McGregor. Okay, without money. He’s your typical Irish man who could fucking knock people out with money. He’s the flashiest motherfucker in the world. And it’s in well, he wears it. Well, he looks at well, he speaks it. He dresses it, he loves it.

Well, you know what I mean? There’s an F factor. What do I mean by that? So when I say this all the time I get asked this question all the time. So I love this question. You take Conor McGregor, he had to earn his way up the ranks. It wasn’t handed to him. And when he started making a name for himself, because of the way he fought, he started earning the leverage to negotiate his contracts. This is no different than business. There was there being a contractor saying I want to get out of the rat race and start teaching the shit. You have to earn your stripes on the way up to get credibility. As he’s growing, Conor McGregor is going he’s getting respect to not only his peers and fighters.

The world to take a notice like this fucking Irish kids can ask us exciting, he’s flashy. He talks a lot of shit. But when he talks, a lot of shitty speaks very well. So you pay attention to it because the intellect is there. That’s just a piece of the part of the effect. He speaks it well. Obviously, he backs it up, so I’ll knock you the fuck out. So he does it well, right. And then he started dressing Nice. Okay, he looks at well, then you start speaking more and more. He’s doing commercials, He’s the man. Now he’s doing bourbons. He’s got other business. Okay? That’s an effect. All right. His competence continued to grow with every next level he took. But he came in with cabinets. He came in saying he was going to be the best and sure shit he did.

That’s what I’m talking about. It starts with confidence. First and foremost. Are you good at what you do? One, two, if you are good at what you do, can that be checked? backed up and validate? Okay, for us check all the fucking awards. Upstairs, downstairs in the garage, I put my I put all of our company polos in a frame. I wear my own shirt. I hang my own shirts right on hey, I need I love Michael Jordan is my man. But I need to hang his jersey, I hang my because it shows me how far we’ve come. And I got five different polos on this wall to show how we’ve changed logos and colours over the years reminds me of how far we’ve come. I’ve got my dog, that’s my dog painted. He’s in here. This is his place.

That’s our book 50 laws of rehab in that frame right there. I like to remind myself that this is my life. This is what we do stays, I stay motivated to help build my confidence. So to anybody who wants to get into what we’re doing a source of confidence to be looking at yourself. Okay, you have to have the effect. I promise you, because what’s going to differentiate you from me? Let’s say 10. Guys, listen to this call their great contract. I’m not taking that away from you because you’re the best contractor in your market. Do you have the effect? Are you handsome? good looking? Do you dress while you speak? Are you financially literate? Can you teach? put a curriculum together? Can you stand up and public speak?

Do you like getting in front of a camera? Those are all pieces to the effect. Because if you can’t it will show and once it shows you’re done. Any weakness when you’re the public guy it’s over. I wear that well I know exactly. Any move anything I say could be taken completely wrong and by By the way, I don’t give a fuck. Because we built that brand where it’s like body’s gonna be rotting. In the beginning, it was a little bit different, I had to play a little bit societal. And I’m like, but I’m gonna continue showing people that this is who I am. And then finally, again, I believe we earned the right to be who we are. It’s respected.

Again, not for everybody, for the right people. But for anybody who wants to get in our space, you have to look at the effector as a whole, do you have the package? And if you have the package, can you deliver it consistently? That’s my two cents. People might not agree with that. But you look at the biggest celebrities in the world, what do they have the effect? And that costs more sports teacher what after what they do. NASA sports teachers, politicians, those individuals have reached the top of their industry. Because they have the effect or that Id factor is the confidence the backbone to not give a fuck what you think.

Pamela Bardhi
Hmm, amen. Amen. And now to those contractors that want to become like developers. Because most of the time developers are hiring them. Or like these hedge funds and things like that. Like, how do you level up? Again, it’s it’s almost similar to

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
It’s a good question, because I did that. It’s a great question, because I did it. So we went from being the best as single family, rehabbing, remodels, renovations, or renovations went as high as five $600,000. Before I was like, do tear down and rebuilt. Then you go and evolve into new construction. Once I got to new construction, I hired a mentor in new construction. Once I went and did a new construction, I went to land development, I hired mentors in land development to teach me land development. So I’m never I’m not, I’m the consultants consultant. I have no problem hiring other consultants to help me grow. And that’s where I think, again, with the confidence, you have to put your ego aside, right and say, Listen, this is your world. This is my world.

I’m good here. You’re good there. Teach me this. And I’ll teach you that. So it’s really, in my opinion, it’s an ego check. Most men will never ever and women, there’s other women without question, but there’s more alpha males. This is another thing I always teach. You know, when you look at the different levels of alphas. There’s a rhyme and a reason as to why they are not alphas. 85% of men in the world are not helpless by any means. In fact, the majority are a bunch of bitches. That’s a fact. So that’s just the reality of it. And I always say the same thing. When we go into masterclass or we have our boot camps, that’s predominantly men that come in.

The first thing I do when I walk into my own match, plus I walk you kind of like this, this book ROM, and what am I doing? I’m looking for the alphas because alpha recognises Alpha game recognises game already know the weeklies, weeklies don’t even make eye contact. So I’m already looking at who’s the author who has something to say, who wants to come greet me. Or shake my hand, who’s got a question who’s outgoing, who’s flashy, he’s talking shit already. You know, I’m looking for that guy, or that two guys or three guys. And usually, there’s always one. There’s always one that comes in. Then through the first two hours, I’ll remind him that there’s only one alpha in this room. And that’s why you’re sitting in the chair, and I’m not.

And that’s that’s where leadership comes into play, is that we have to check egos. Because there’s only going to be one ego in this room. If I come to your class. Sure you go, I’m sitting down. And that’s where I think a lot of men in this industry of construction and females as well. Because I’ve hired many general category females. I’ve trained the best female project managers, they’re fucking beasts. I’m proud of them, and they’re still kicking ass right now. You have to understand personalities, you have to be able to read people and a lot of contractors can’t read people. I’ve never been a position to read people are not an order they character to review. Because they’ve probably been the tradesmen being told what to do.

So when you’re in a leadership position, you have to be able to read situations, people circumstances, and then forecasts because you did risk what’s coming, and then plan for it. There’s a lot that comes into the shits, that’s what can you use? Whether this is a walk in the park, it is when it becomes instant, but it takes years before it becomes instinct. Hmm,

Pamela Bardhi
Absolutely. And I mean, for real estate investors out there, or contractors. Anybody in general like what would be your best piece of advice when it comes to like renovations, flips, rehabs, anything really

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Get your reps in, you have to get your reps in. It’s like a basketball player that shoots 100 Free throws a day. Get your reps and you have to take all challenges. Find your sweet spot. For example, not every contractor can do $100,000 renovation, but every country can do new construction. Every contractor can handle 30,000 They all want different things based on their skill set. Ask those fucking questions. I asked countries all day long when I hire them. I’m like, What’s the one thing you don’t want to do on the scope of work? I hate drywall. Good. You’re not doing drywall. Thank you. Don’t check that shit off. I’m going to find drywall.

People don’t ask common questions. Because there’s things I don’t like I didn’t like schedule for almost 20 years. I like half the shit. I’ll tell you I don’t want to. So what I was saying back in the day, my mother said hire somebody else. Because I’ll do it. It won’t be to your quality. And then you got to pay twice then we’re gonna fight. So reverse the roles and if you’re the investor hiring the contract or you’re the contract being hired. Share what you like and don’t like, share what you’re good at not good. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna get the job. You need the right job, or right jobs within the job. Then you may Get one.

Pamela Bardhi
Love everybody I know. I mean, the questions are super duper important. I mean, when any one assumes that one contractor is going to do everything. And that’s one of the biggest things that I teach, I’m like, Ah, subcontract. Everything your project is going to take three times. As long as you have one guy trying to do everything. Well, I’ve got one guy or girl trying to do everything like no way. If you just let the painters paint, but the drywall guys do the drywall, carpenters do the carpentry.

And it just works so much better and so much more efficiently, because things just move so much faster. Whereas if you have one person trying to do everything, it’s a disaster. I’ve been there. I did that on my first couple of projects. Like immediate because I didn’t know I was like, no, no, no, we can do everything.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
It’s like telling you. Common sense goes a long way in construction. It’s not as scientific as people think it is, It’s like make that fit there. Okay, let’s figure that out. Let’s do it to code, use the right tool. We just make that joke. Used to run what we called the rehab labs, and we’d partner with Florida Corp years ago. And what we would do is we would build in the front of the store, like on a Saturday morning while they’re open to the public. And they would let us take their product and builds and we would show investors they pay to come see it. We put like 50 investors in the front of the store. It was a win because they were there to buy product anyway.

So before the courts happy and we’re they’re putting on a show showing how to tile a bathroom. Or how to frame a wall, or how to drywall the wall after you framed it. We’re showing them all these things hands on. One of the drills that we showed them was I put together a foot wall. I didn’t actually put it together, I laid it out 60 minutes. And I showed him how I did that. And I gave him two options. I said here’s a nail gun, I said here’s a hammer nails. Then here’s a screw, right, I said, I’m gonna have you use a screw, you’re gonna hammer the nails and you can use the gun. We’re just gonna see who’s faster and who’s more proficient.

And let me tell you who you think one nail gun god sakes, the girl here fucking missing the nail head. You got the guy with the scoop. He kept fucking missing the screw. I’m like, Yeah, we got all fucking day. You know why? I said because you’re using the wrong tool. And when you start using the right tools, you become effective and efficient, effective and efficient. You’re actually working on the right time period and meeting schedules and deadlines because you’re doing it correctly. There’s so many variables that becoming the best of the best, you have to look at those things.

Like why is this taking so long? All because this dumbass is fucking hammering this in 2022. Yeah, we’re not doing that to get the fucking nail gun. You need one? I’ll bring one huh? Absolutely, it’s about efficiency. So we would teach investors all of this stuff just so that they had leverage to see it see that. And they can better manage that if it’s happening. That’s really what the real deal was all about. It’s we’re not necessarily saying all day long, like this is how you frame a window. We’re going to show you that. But we’re going to show you all about that window.

So when you see it, you actually have some common sense to add to that conversation. Say, well, it’s not flush and plumb two keywords, or you didn’t insulate it another keyword, where’s the flashing and the cap and a couple more keywords. Now you’re having an intelligent conversation with your contractors and vice versa. And now you’re building what trust and rapport transparency, you guys might last a long time to do a couple more clips together. Resolver

Pamela Bardhi
Absolutely. And I love that you mentioned the tools basically that you you know, you can become more efficient. If you’re using the right tools, you’d be the smartest person in the game, if you’re not using the right tools to do things. That’s just with anything in life, either. Like it’s like, you could try to think you know it all yourself and kind of do your own way. But there’s always gonna be somebody or some tool or something that’s going to elevate you even further. So that you can become more efficient.

Tools, you know, not just in construction, but just life in genera. I feel like is it’s just a huge thing to just utilise tools. Like for example, like I see coaches as a tool. I see courses, I see education like for you, when you are stepping into new construction. You weren’t like Oh, I’m a know it all much I do this myself. You hired somebody you have to to do something more efficiently because God,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Resources, if I need something I know I’m gonna text away and say, Hey, in this situation, what would you do? And very often there’s numbers in development or new construction. Because that’s changing just like renovations, remodelling that I’ll review things and do my research and make changes, I’ll send that over to them. I said, these numbers are pretty accurate for what’s going on right now. And they’ll say yes or no are corrected. My man appreciate you because that information is valuable to my network to our industry. So it’s invaluable to have these resources in your toolbox. One of the biggest things I’ve been saying since day one for years is I think a lot of investors and contractors may start this off as like a hobby. I’m making some side money, or investors like I’m gonna I’m gonna flip one house.

Because that numbers make sense to me and I’m gonna go buy that house, I’m gonna flip that house. But you’re still treating it both business as a hobby. And at some point, it becomes a business and then you realise I don’t even know how to run a fucking business. I see that all too often. We do our consulting at a high level where I find many, many cities, and I’ll work into you know, directly with the individuals he or she did hire me their teams. And oftentimes I realise, Oh, you, you really don’t know how to run a business. This has nothing to do with construction. This has nothing to do with investments. You don’t know people processes and systems on how businesses and departments, you can speak to each other.

We have, we have a different challenge first, before we get to rehabbing or construction, and you find that out very often. So I’ve always preached that this is not a hobby, this is a business, you need to treat it as such. I’ll give an example. This is a raw shit. Alright, take some notes on this. When I was 1980 90, we’re running our casinos. It was a business, okay, we had security. We had food, we had the games, We had drinks, and we had entertainment. It’s five elements to consider that you have to have. So the people that show up are entertained and getting quality. Then you’re managing money. And the house takes off all that shit. What am I doing, you’re running an operation, you’re running a business.

And when you started looking at who has to get paid for what and the time and the hourly. And all the shit that you’re paying for food expenses, the hotel expense, all that shit. It’s no different than overhead. So when you start looking at this, the basics of what you’re doing. I think a lot of people are running little side operations, don’t even realise that. Like the way you take care of cutting your fucking grass lawn products, add it up, see what you’re spending on materials. If you’d like to wash your own fucking car, if I like to build up my own gym, it’s a massive expense. You’re talking about 1000s of dollars in equipment. They haven’t even finished, they still got to put it on this wall. Right? $1,000 expensive.

So I’ve got to look at that and say, Okay, I’m gonna expense that off the company because it’s, I work from the home office. Technically, it’s my office. So I’m playing all these fucking games. But the truth is you have to treat everything if you are in business, almost everything you look at it’s a disease becomes a business. That’s a fucked up situation. Trust me, because not everybody wants to hear these conversations. Everybody’s like, I’m tired of talking business. I get that. But unfortunately, this is my life.

And this is all I know, my kids are I have twins that are seven gonna be eight. That’s they know, they know scopes of work. They know about paying project managers. They know that daddy and mommy you know, are in real estate. And this is what we do. Like we’re always around. We always have crazy hours. But the crazy hours are freedom. Like, all you know, you guys are gonna bet on the jump on that laptop, two hours, whatever. But it’s like the freedom to run a business. It was a hobby I’d be fought.

What Would Ryan Older Self tell His Younger Self

Pamela Bardhi
This is one of my favourite questions and, and I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this. What would your older self tell your younger self based on what you know? Now, if you could talk to younger younger Rotty

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Ever? No one’s ever asked me. If I could talk to a younger Rotty. Check your ego sooner before somebody else does. If I could talk to the younger Rotty outsell the younger riders. Slow down and check your ego because someone’s about to and that’s one of the things that I learned. I think got me over the hump and everything in life was getting my ego finally checked. And knocked off that pedestal and then you’re like, Okay, now one, that’s a that’s an interesting thing for a very prideful individual.

And there’s millions of confident motherfuckers in the world guys and girls. But until you get your shit checked in. You get slapped off this invisible pedestal that you put yourself on and maybe other people put you on indirectly or directly. But I think the younger radio till the young writers SLOW THE FUCK DOWN shut the fuck up. And check your ego a little bit. Because you’re gonna meet somebody to go buck and check that shit. It’s inevitable that’s the game of life. Someone bigger bad is gonna say, bitch sit down and now and now the older rowdy is that guy to all the other younger ones coming up saying bitch sit out.

Pamela Bardhi
Right. Well, I mean, listen, like the ego will always keep us away from us sometimes. Because it’s like, we can’t let go of ourselves. And we think we know it all and do it all you know, I entrepreneurs suffer with this. I used to be like that. I was like, I can handle it myself. I can do it myself that and then yeah, you get your ego checked in. You’re like, okay, all right. I don’t know it all. Sorry, God,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
The most amazing feeling when you come out of that. I mean, somebody goes it takes a while for people to recover from that because they get butthurt and fucking. But you know, some ego checks can be very, very serious for a positive outcome later that you don’t see yet. You know, it can be an emotional check be a physical check. It can be both the spirit check me can be the whole thing. My personal experience is that the check will be all the above on the return. So you get checked you gotta come back spiritually. You gotta come back physically, mentally and emotionally. All those needs to happen when you making you come back from having a massive ego check.

Because some people their minds are clear it for a while, you’re cloudy, like fuck what just happened? And then you got to come back and sit there and go, What did I do wrong? Take your accountability for the actions you took and then obviously the results that you received and say, Okay, what do I learn? When am I gonna do it again? You want to do it again. It’s gonna happen again. So that’s that’s the evolution of the seasons in life outside.

You can’t really, is it as each season happens, you have to continue to grow. I won’t be the same guy at 50 that I’m at 40 will be the same guy. If it does, I’m a 60. Right? That’s just the way it goes. Do I look forward to meeting those two fucking animals? Jose, I’m enjoying 40 I don’t feel for you. I don’t look forward for you. So I’m feeling good. But I’m sure Father Time being undefeated to the catch my assume? No, I don’t. And then that, in fact, is gonna start dwindling away. When I get all greater wrinkled, and fucking bald, and they’re like, I can’t be on camera.

Pamela Bardhi
Now you’ll be you’ll be good. But speaking of the future writing like what’s up in your rather than next, like six to 12 months, what’s happening, what’s new and around the world,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Six to 12 months I hope to get we’re licencing out our product. So I hope to get like maybe five to seven more licensees. I’d like to bring out a few more hard money lenders onto our Rotty pm software programme that does draw management. And then I just want to continue consulting across the country helping bigger companies get better. That’s actually my passion, who would have thought after all these years and others should have gone through. And participate in that I get pure satisfaction out of flying into your city where it’s a blessing to have so many families welcome into their home.

And they’re feeding me breakfast like it’s the wildest fucking shit ever. I mean, not all the time. But it’s everybody and they take care of it. I’m grateful. It’s just the way they are taking the dinner. They want to interesting meeting their family and their friends and their kids. And I mean, there’s a lot of responsibilities. But while I take it with pride, it’s pure enjoyment for me. These people have shaped my fucking life. I’ll say that all my clients and my students have completely changed my life.

Pamela Bardhi
That’s amazing, right? And I know you’re gonna be doing some events this year as well, right and master classes and different things.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Yeah, we’ve got an online masterclass, that’s a rehab and construction manifest eight hour one day, it’ll be recorded. So if you wouldn’t get it virtually, we’ve got I’m going to be doing some lectures and the family mastermind advisory speaking independent mastermind. We do events like pretty much every two, three months. We have a new programme that we’re rolling out on July 18, called the Raleigh RIA programme. Where I’m gonna log in to zoom like this to twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays for two hours. And it’s 50 bucks a week for anybody in the world to log in.

And just continue learning and training with me just like this is gonna be very casual. I’m gonna talk about different topics within the industry about training. And then I want people to bring me their problems. There’s gonna be the largest live chat in the industry is always gonna be the largest live training industry. Because I’m telling you, it’s gonna hit. There’s nobody, nobody’s ever doing it. No one’s ever done it, and no one’s gonna plan to do it. So I love it.

Pamela Bardhi
I love it, right? I’m just pumped to see like in different events and everything, like just launching out there, especially in within the next year and like, man,

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Next 12 to 18 months, like the next two years, I’m personally planning on treating it like it was like I was in my 20s, but with a different mentality. I’m hungrier than ever. And I actually I did a video from a video on that, where I was being interviewed at a restaurant and the producer asked me a question. He asked me something like, 40 How do you find motivation? I said, I never lost it. I said,

That’s it at 40 I’m I’m hungrier than ever been before. I said hunger at 40. I’m ready. I’ll compute anybody wants to compete. I don’t sit. Like I’m just it’s I’m built different. Right? I’ve got more responsibilities, my children, so it’s like, dude, no, it’s not gonna happen. Now, are there a million other people trying to come up and do what they’re doing? Like what I’m doing? Sure. Should you go for it? Absolutely. But I’ll be here,

Pamela Bardhi
I just can’t wait to see it just grow and continue to elevate.

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
My goal is to put all of our companies back in into the award talk again, we haven’t won the award since 2019. And once I opened up our construction company, in my kid’s name, I said, we’re going to get you your first award by the time you’re eight. By the time they’re nine, so I got one year to get them into the remodelling magazine. So that’s my goal is to get their company, James Murray, my son’s name is Jackson James, my daughter’s name is Jean Marie. So it’s James Murray, real estate development construction.

My goal is to get them their first plaque and put them into magazines and get them on the board. And then my second goal is to get the real people back into position, because I took some time off. Didn’t have to, let’s take some time off over the past few years. And now I’m like, Nah, we’re gonna go back hard again. So my goal is to get all three of my companies on the award board, and trust me, when that happens, you’ll know

Pamela Bardhi
Oh, you will you absolutely well, oh, Rotty. You’re amazing. Thank you so much for every day. Now you’ve got to let everyone know where to find you, my friend. Where can everybody find Rotty?

Ryan Rotty Garcilazo
Alright, so you find me on Facebook, the rehab depot.com or pharmacy Brian Roddy Garcia Lazo. Or you can go on IG ryan_rotty_garcilazo, it’ll be easy once you pop that in. I’m all over but you can Google me for like the first 910 pages of Google. I mean, we’re everywhere. It’s easy to find me. If you want to text me this golden ticket told you. I’m talking Willy Wonka 84789957138478995713. If you Listen to this call and you’re an investor rehabber wholesaler construction guy and you don’t text me. You’re an absolute fucking idiot. Keep losing your there’s gonna be people listening in the car watching on social media shaking their head thinking. Yeah, I got I got a Texas cat if you don’t text me, God bless you.

Pamela Bardhi
Buddy, thank you so much for being here today and sharing your story but you are a trip. I love your story. You’re just you’re amazing and full of amazing information. You’re passionate, you’re just you’re incredible. I’m just, I’m lucky to be in your corner, my friend and I’m so blind corners. And just you know, I just can’t wait to see you to continue to grow and just crush it. So thank you so much for being out there. Sure. True. I appreciate you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so so much. So that’s it for today’s episode of underdog. Catch us next week, always dropping on Thursdays. And remember, if you’re interested in real estate, or want to learn how to create more money and magic in your life. Check out meetwith pamela.com and let’s chat sending you so so much love