On Hard Work, Success and Extremes With Juan Huizar

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:00

Hello and welcome to the Be Well, Do Well podcast.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:02

Today is a bonus episode where I'm excited to chat with a remarkable entrepreneur

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:06

that's going share his amazing story of struggle, success, and extremes.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:11

At four years old with eight kids, Juan's mother and father left Mexico

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:15

to start a new life in America.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:18

By nine, he was getting up at 5:00 AM and working in the garlic fields

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:22

with his brothers and sisters.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:23

So as you can tell, hard work is not a stranger to Juan, and I'm so excited

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:27

to learn about the mindset that got him to where he is today as the president

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:31

of Sage Real Estate, the leading multi-family and commercial real estate

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:35

brokerage in Long Beach, California.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:37

Welcome to the show, Juan.

Juan Huizar: 00:00:39

Thank you so much for having me.

Juan Huizar: 00:00:41

Amin, I'm excited to be here and um, yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:00:43

Thank you for, for the intro.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:45

Absolutely.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:46

Now, before we get started, I have to ask, I've got one sister, one sibling,

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:50

and she's been a big influence in my life, but we don't always get along.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:54

You've got seven siblings.

Amin Ahmed: 00:00:57

I'm curious what that looks like in the Huizar household.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:01

You know, it's the most interesting thing,

Juan Huizar: 00:01:03

how close we are till this day.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:07

We are like, we are on this massive text thread where all the siblings are on

Juan Huizar: 00:01:11

it, all my sisters, all my brothers, and it's like we're kids like, we're like

Juan Huizar: 00:01:15

high school kids texting left and right.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:17

And people are, you know, sending pictures of their kids, kids graduations,

Juan Huizar: 00:01:22

kids birthday parties, weddings that are coming up within the nieces and

Juan Huizar: 00:01:25

nephews because now there's a lot of us.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:27

Right.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:27

And, people are amazed that there's this much level of love and

Juan Huizar: 00:01:32

communication with all eight siblings.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:34

I guess I'm amazed by it too.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:37

And if anything, you know, sometimes people are like similar to you or you

Juan Huizar: 00:01:40

know, if you have one sibling or two siblings and maybe I think with, there's

Juan Huizar: 00:01:44

so many of us and we're all different.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:46

But I think because there's so many, if someone was gonna be left out,

Juan Huizar: 00:01:51

the, there's someone in that family that would kind of bring 'em along.

Juan Huizar: 00:01:54

And so it's amazing, you know, how close we are still.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:00

And this last weekend I got to see everybody.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:02

We had a nephew get married.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:04

And to get everyone to get everyone together is the best thing.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:07

It's, it's all I could ask for.

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:09

Hatch, match, and dispatch, I always say, right, Like when a baby's

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:12

born, when you get married and when unfortunately somebody passes away, Right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:16

The family comes together.

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:17

Yeah, definitely.

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:18

Family's always a big thing for us, you know, as East Indians, I, I was

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:22

born in Africa where heritage is, East Indian family's a big thing, right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:26

Back in the day that you all live in a small village, all the kids running around

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:30

and you know, that was the way it was.

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:32

My parents always taught us that education is priority.

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:36

And I, and I know that your parents also taught that as well, so correct

Amin Ahmed: 00:02:40

me if I'm wrong, but all of the eight siblings all got college degrees.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:45

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:45

Correct.

Juan Huizar: 00:02:46

So probably my parents' biggest accomplishment in their life is to

Juan Huizar: 00:02:51

be able to get their kids out of Mexico where at that time the highest

Juan Huizar: 00:02:57

education that we could have gotten from the, from the, from the little

Juan Huizar: 00:03:01

town that we lived in was sixth grade.

Juan Huizar: 00:03:03

So my parents only have a sixth grade education.

Juan Huizar: 00:03:06

And because of that, they didn't want us to experience that.

Juan Huizar: 00:03:10

And that's the, that's the reason why they left Mexico.

Juan Huizar: 00:03:13

And so their biggest accomplishment was to bring us to the US, and I'm, I'm super

Juan Huizar: 00:03:17

thankful that, you know, I'm an American citizen and, and that all eight of us had

Juan Huizar: 00:03:24

the opportunity for college education and yeah, all, all eight of us have degrees.

Juan Huizar: 00:03:29

And that, I think that's my parents's biggest accomplishment.

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:33

That's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:33

That's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:34

Now, in the intro I mentioned about hard work not being a stranger to you.

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:38

Tell me a little bit about you being nine years old and getting up early in

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:42

the morning at 5:00 AM on a hot summer day going out to the garlic field.

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:45

When your friends from school are probably out riding their bicycles

Amin Ahmed: 00:03:49

or playing, what, what does that feel like when you're doing that?

Juan Huizar: 00:03:52

You know, when I was, when I was eight, Well, listen,

Juan Huizar: 00:03:57

when we came from Mexico, we came here for one goal was education.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:04

For, for us.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:05

Okay.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:05

And so my, my parents, you know, so my dad worked in the field.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:11

My mom worked at a little local Mexican restaurant.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:14

They didn't speak English.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:15

So this was like entry level minimum wage jobs that they were entering.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:19

And so the family needed to contribute.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:21

At that time, like the youngest was three years old and it went all the way up.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:25

And every two years I feel like we, there was another sibling that

Juan Huizar: 00:04:28

we had, so everyone had to work.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:31

By the time I would see them in the summers go to the fields, I

Juan Huizar: 00:04:35

had been asking since I was seven years old to asking my dad and mom

Juan Huizar: 00:04:39

to please send me, because I saw, yeah, it was hard work, but they were

Juan Huizar: 00:04:43

together and I loved my siblings.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:44

And so although they were waking up super early and coming back tired

Juan Huizar: 00:04:48

and fatigued and exhausted from working in the, in the, in the fields

Juan Huizar: 00:04:51

all day, I wanted part of that and.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:54

When I was nine, my dad finally let me go and I got to wake

Juan Huizar: 00:04:57

up early with everybody else.

Juan Huizar: 00:04:59

And this is in the Central Valley, so the Central Valley of

Juan Huizar: 00:05:02

California a hundred plus degrees.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:04

Every single day.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:06

And you know, back then they would clip the garlic by hand.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:10

And that's the work that we did.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:11

And so this, this starts in July.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:14

So from July, all the way through the end of August, you're working in the fields.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:18

That is when, that is, when the crop is being clipped.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:21

And so we were there at the, at the hottest peak in the summer, and that

Juan Huizar: 00:05:25

was what we were doing every single day.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:28

This was Monday through Saturday.

Amin Ahmed: 00:05:30

Wow.

Amin Ahmed: 00:05:31

Wow.

Amin Ahmed: 00:05:31

And that, I mean, that, that sounds like just from what you're saying,

Amin Ahmed: 00:05:34

the heat getting up early, right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:05:36

Being out there it sounds like hard work.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:38

So let me, let me tell you one of my biggest takeaways from

Juan Huizar: 00:05:41

working in the garlic field, when, when we're working in the fields back

Juan Huizar: 00:05:45

then after you clipped the head of the garlic and the bottom of the garlic,

Juan Huizar: 00:05:50

you know, it's kind of a garlic bulb.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:51

Right?

Juan Huizar: 00:05:52

So each one of those goes into a five gallon bucket.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:55

An empty five gallon bucket, something that paint would come in.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:57

Right.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:58

But now it's just been cleared out.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:59

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:05:59

So you do that until you fill it up, and once you fill it up,

Juan Huizar: 00:06:06

you've, you've earned a dollar.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:08

So they give you a card and they punch the card and.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:12

Now, I was nine years old, so like on my, my first week I was filling

Juan Huizar: 00:06:16

up per day, nine buckets a day.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:19

So I was, I was, I was making $9 a day and it wasn't that I was making is

Juan Huizar: 00:06:24

all of us worked together as a family.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:25

So whatever the family made that day all went back to help my mom and dad.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:29

I learned early on that the harder I work, the harder I get rewarded.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:36

And so my brother was a little bit older, so he was making more than nine.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:39

And then by the end of the summer, you know, I was starting to make more and

Juan Huizar: 00:06:42

more and in my head I was like, wait, the faster, the harder that I could

Juan Huizar: 00:06:46

clip this garlic, like the more money I could contribute towards a family.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:49

So taking that, taking that on, and, and applying that through, you

Juan Huizar: 00:06:57

know, elementary and we got middle school when you got high school.

Juan Huizar: 00:06:59

Well, now I'm in college, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:07:01

And so, In college, if you're an accounting student, where I was in school,

Juan Huizar: 00:07:07

every accounting student, like their dream job was to work for one of the big four.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:12

So this is Deloitte and Touche, KPMG, Earnston Younge

Juan Huizar: 00:07:17

and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:19

So these are still what they call the big four.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:21

They're the big four accounting firms in the world still to this day.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:24

So when you're an accounting student, they, they tell you,

Juan Huizar: 00:07:28

Hey, you have to have good grades.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:30

You need to be involved and have leadership roles.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:33

You need to interview well.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:34

And so all these things, you know, at the university that I went to,

Juan Huizar: 00:07:38

I didn't know how to interview.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:39

Amin, I didn't even know how to properly handshake.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:42

You know, tying a tie and all these things were things that I was not exposed to.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:46

Like, I didn't have a dad or an uncle or anyone that taught me these things.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:49

So now, so now I'm at the, at the university and I realize that the

Juan Huizar: 00:07:54

university has mock interviews where you could practice interviews.

Juan Huizar: 00:07:58

And so I took advantage of all the resources that they had, and I learned

Juan Huizar: 00:08:03

all these things that I didn't know.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:04

And so by the time, by the time, by the time the accounting companies came

Juan Huizar: 00:08:08

around, I made sure that my grades were, were the best they could be.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:13

You know, I graduated with honors.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:15

I made sure that I was involved at the club levels and that I

Juan Huizar: 00:08:18

would take leadership roles there.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:20

And so, you know, I was bilingual.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:22

That certainly helped.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:23

And by then I, I had practice just to get good mock interviews.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:28

I would, I would attend these clinics, these little courses they

Juan Huizar: 00:08:30

would have, and I would just go until I got better and got comfortable.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:34

And so I was fortunate enough that because I did everything that I was asked of me.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:39

And in my head, in back of my head was like, Hey, the harder you work,

Juan Huizar: 00:08:42

the harder you're gonna get rewarded.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:44

Because I'm bringing these kind of that same work ethic that I

Juan Huizar: 00:08:47

got early on working in the garlic fields that as a junior the first

Juan Huizar: 00:08:51

company to give me a job offer.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:53

This was like a year before I even graduated was Deloitte Touche.

Juan Huizar: 00:08:57

Yeah, so they gave me a job offer and what ends up happening in the accounting

Juan Huizar: 00:09:01

world is once a firm gives you an offer, the others all kind of follow, like, oh,

Juan Huizar: 00:09:05

like, hey, they were vetted by so and so.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:07

And so then, then came all the others.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:09

And so that was gonna be my path, is I, They said I ended up signing with Deloitte

Juan Huizar: 00:09:14

and Tush because they were the first ones I felt that were actively recruiting me.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:20

They were the ones who wanted me.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:21

The others kind of followed along after someone said yes to me.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:25

And so I'm like, you know, like I wanna be loyal to them.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:27

I feel like they saw the talent and maybe potential in me.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:29

And so I had signed on with Deloitte and I'm a junior in college and I

Juan Huizar: 00:09:33

have one more year to finish and I, and they say, Hey, just finish now.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:38

You know, the stress is off of, Like, what are you gonna do for a living?

Juan Huizar: 00:09:41

This is what you're gonna do.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:42

You're gonna do, you're gonna work in the world of audit, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:09:45

It's not a sexy world, but you're gonna work in the world of audit

Juan Huizar: 00:09:48

and within three to five years, you'll, you'll become a cpa.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:51

You'll work your way at management, you're gonna work a lot of hours.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:54

But you're gonna have a lot of connections and, and resources.

Juan Huizar: 00:09:57

And this is, you know, this is a way to to start off as a professional.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:00

So I was excited.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:01

You know, this, this was gonna be my, this was gonna be my career.

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:05

That's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:06

Now, before we get into what happened next, I want to touch a little

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:09

bit on the fact that we're both parents, we both have young kids.

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:12

So how do you instill that, that drive and hunger in your kids from a young age?

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:18

How old are your kids again?

Juan Huizar: 00:10:20

So I have two daughters a 12 year old Vivian, and then my

Juan Huizar: 00:10:23

my nine year old Solana, she's, so I got 12 and nine year old daughters,

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:27

What advice do you have for the parents listening here, for instilling

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:31

that need and that desire to want to do more and not just get distracted by all

Amin Ahmed: 00:10:35

the, the digital, the tech, the screens?

Juan Huizar: 00:10:39

I mean, I, That is a really tough question because, I did it out

Juan Huizar: 00:10:44

of fear and there was no safety net.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:47

Right?

Juan Huizar: 00:10:48

I did it out of fear and there's no safety net.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:50

Mm-hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:52

well.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:53

Your kids and my kids have a safety net.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:56

They have us.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:57

Okay.

Juan Huizar: 00:10:58

So that, So that's the very tough part.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:00

And so, but as I think about it more, because I do get this question asked

Juan Huizar: 00:11:03

often, Well, Juan, how can you take what you have and now give your kids?

Juan Huizar: 00:11:06

Cuz what you have, you're like, you really want more and you want the best out of

Juan Huizar: 00:11:10

yourself and you're gonna push yourself.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:12

The only way that I could possibly teach that is just through being

Juan Huizar: 00:11:16

who I am, and they get to see it every day being who I am.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:20

And they get to see it every day.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:21

Now teaching the, you know, they're never gonna work in the garlic

Juan Huizar: 00:11:24

fields, but I, but I've done a little miniature documentary on my family.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:28

I took a camera crew up to the Central Valley where I'm from to capture what life

Juan Huizar: 00:11:33

was like, you know, the, the whole waking up early, we caught that all on video.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:37

I actually went back to the garlic fields and I got permission from one of

Juan Huizar: 00:11:40

the farmers to, to record what that is.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:43

And so it's some of those things.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:45

I interviewed my sisters, my brothers, and we talked about what life was like

Juan Huizar: 00:11:49

in Mexico, what it was like coming to the US and actually crossing the border

Juan Huizar: 00:11:54

and, and then what life was like here when we were having to work in the field.

Juan Huizar: 00:11:57

And so these are videos that now we have, these are videos that my daughters get to

Juan Huizar: 00:12:01

watch our nieces and nephews get to watch.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:03

And it's just a constant reminder of where we came from.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:07

Life is much, much different for you now, but we're not gonna forget why we're here.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:11

And still it's why are we here is education.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:14

And I, and that's still the goal with my daughters.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:15

It's educatation.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:16

It's still to them.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:17

Exact same thing.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:18

The, the exact same message my parents had for us, I want them to have as well.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:23

Our

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:23

parents when they moved here, you know, mine from

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:26

Africa and, and yours from Mexico.

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:28

It was, they were working a lot.

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:30

They were working hard, you know, they had little, and it's hard to

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:34

have a wellness routine, Right.

Amin Ahmed: 00:12:36

To, to find that balance, which is so elusive.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:38

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:39

So one of the, I guess, newest activities is that we picked, I picked up running, I

Juan Huizar: 00:12:44

you know, I think I had mentioned before that I had done 11 years of CrossFit

Juan Huizar: 00:12:48

where like, you know, I got physically fit and CrossFit's like a different type of

Juan Huizar: 00:12:53

quick fast workouts with heavy weights.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:55

And so that was great.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:56

And then I kind of picked up running.

Juan Huizar: 00:12:57

And so for the last three years I've done multiple, multiple trail

Juan Huizar: 00:13:01

runs, marathons, half marathons.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:03

And then most recently I got into a triathlon.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:05

And so I did my first half Ironman.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:07

And so I spent, yeah, I wake up really early and I spend a lot

Juan Huizar: 00:13:10

of time either riding the bike, swimming or running depending on

Juan Huizar: 00:13:14

what the schedule is for the day.

Amin Ahmed: 00:13:16

And so what does your morning routine look?

Juan Huizar: 00:13:18

So I wake up at five in the morning.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:20

I spend 10 to 15 minutes meditating.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:24

I spend 15 minutes writing.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:27

There's a terrific book.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:28

It's called the artist way morning pages, if you read that book, you'll

Juan Huizar: 00:13:32

see the importance of just writing.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:34

And so I write and a lot of ideas and creativity comes out and you

Juan Huizar: 00:13:37

don't even know where they come from.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:39

And, and it's this beautiful thing.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:40

So meditation, I write, I stretch.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:44

I'm a big believer in stretching.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:45

I stretch every single day because I know I'm gonna push my body and

Juan Huizar: 00:13:49

I don't want my body to break down.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:51

I don't want it to let up.

Juan Huizar: 00:13:51

And then after that is when I start my, my workout of the day, whatever that might.

Amin Ahmed: 00:13:56

That's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:13:57

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:13:57

Getting up early.

Amin Ahmed: 00:13:58

It definitely has benefits.

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:00

I get up pretty early and I, I know when I, I was never a early morning

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:04

person growing up, and then I started to become one and I saw those benefits

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:07

and I've also done the morning pages.

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:09

Is there something when you're doing the morning pages, like you have a

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:12

column on the side that's like, when I have this inspiration or something,

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:16

you know, the spark of genius, you just like jot it down on the side.

Amin Ahmed: 00:14:19

What's your process for that.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:21

So the, the, the way the book reads is you, you just start

Juan Huizar: 00:14:24

writing anything and if you have nothing to write, you write your name.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:29

Or if you have nothing to write, write the things you're grateful for.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:32

But this is not a journal, this is once you start writing ideas start coming up.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:36

And I'm not even like trying to like, Bring these ideas up.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:38

I just start writing and things come up, or feelings come

Juan Huizar: 00:14:41

up and it leads to results.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:44

Or it sparks this light, light bulb in my head of like, Aha.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:47

I could use that either towards something for the family,

Juan Huizar: 00:14:50

something personal, something financial, or even for my business.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:53

And I really, really enjoy it.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:55

Something I would've never done in the past.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:56

But you know, I gotta learn from the people that are doing it.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:59

Right.

Juan Huizar: 00:14:59

And a lot of people do do write in the morning.

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:01

Do you find that it helps you overcome like blockages

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:04

if there's something you're working on and you're stuck?

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:06

You may not be going into the morning pages with a looking for a

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:09

solution, but do you ever just like find the solution when you're, when

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:12

you're letting it flow through you?

Juan Huizar: 00:15:14

Sometimes you find solutions to problems you

Juan Huizar: 00:15:16

didn't know you had . Okay.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:18

That is the most amazing part.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:20

That is the most amazing part.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:22

And when you go back and you start reading, there's patterns to what

Juan Huizar: 00:15:24

you're writing and then you get to see like, , I address that concern.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:28

I address that issue.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:30

I actually did that.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:31

Then it feels so good.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:32

And if you didn't, you know what ends up happening is that all of us have all these

Juan Huizar: 00:15:36

ideas and stresses in our, in our head.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:40

You need to get 'em outta your head.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:41

This is the one way that I get them out of my head.

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:45

Do you mind sharing something that, like a problem

Amin Ahmed: 00:15:48

that came up or a challenge that you didn't even know you had?

Juan Huizar: 00:15:50

So typically they're like, work, Well, typically

Juan Huizar: 00:15:52

they're like marketing problems.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:54

Like, who am I gonna hire?

Juan Huizar: 00:15:55

Sometimes it's like, who am I gonna hire next?

Juan Huizar: 00:15:57

Interesting.

Juan Huizar: 00:15:58

You know, like, you know, for anyone who's an entrepreneur,

Juan Huizar: 00:16:01

they're like, We want more leads.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:04

And so, you know, a lot of us who are entrepreneurs, there's like

Juan Huizar: 00:16:06

a hundred different things that are going on through our heads.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:09

And, you know, we're, we're the rainmakers, we're the marketers,

Juan Huizar: 00:16:11

we're everything for our business.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:13

And so more recently I was like, okay, where, where are my pain points in my

Juan Huizar: 00:16:17

business and what are the things that I no longer want to be doing because I want my

Juan Huizar: 00:16:20

productivity to be at a hundred percent.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:22

I want to do the things that, that like my time is.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:27

Best use.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:27

Right?

Juan Huizar: 00:16:28

And so what came up, I made a list of the things I didn't want to

Juan Huizar: 00:16:30

do, and through that I was able to hire someone to handle that list.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:35

And that came directly, directly from morning pages,

Juan Huizar: 00:16:39

just writing in the morning.

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:40

That's pretty cool.

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:41

That's really cool.

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:42

Now I promise that we'd come back to what you do now, and

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:46

you could have been an account.

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:48

But you're not one now.

Amin Ahmed: 00:16:49

So what happened there when you had your offers?

Juan Huizar: 00:16:52

You know, it's interesting.

Juan Huizar: 00:16:53

I spent all my, you know, five years in college getting this job

Juan Huizar: 00:16:58

with this accounting firm, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:17:00

And then, so there I am with the, everyone wanted to be in my position,

Juan Huizar: 00:17:05

a junior going into the senior year knowing that you have a full-time job.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:09

Like that is what, this was in 2003.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:13

And so then I had a salary waiting for me.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:15

It was, it was great.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:16

Well, as a senior, I meet someone, and his name's Mark Malan.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:21

And Mark Malan was a real estate investor.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:25

He was a real estate broker, appraiser contractor.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:27

He was all these things surrounding real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:30

I met him as a senior and he offered me a job and I needed a

Juan Huizar: 00:17:34

job during that time as a senior.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:36

And I started working alongside him.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:38

And as I was working with him, I saw him building wealth through real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:17:43

And so I saw him buy commercial buildings, and he would always figure out, so

Juan Huizar: 00:17:48

he would buy like vacant commercial buildings, downsize them into smaller

Juan Huizar: 00:17:52

commercial spaces, improve the property, and then bring in new tenants, bring

Juan Huizar: 00:17:57

in good income, and then he would refinance and then build wealth.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:01

And he and I would see what he was doing.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:02

He did this with commercial buildings, he did it with apartment buildings where

Juan Huizar: 00:18:06

he was always looking to add value.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:09

Sometimes he would simply refinance it and like keep the property.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:12

Mm-hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:12

and other times he would sell it and buy another larger property.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:15

And I saw this with hotels, self storages, commercial buildings, apartment

Juan Huizar: 00:18:18

buildings, houses, whatever he could do to build wealth, he was doing it.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:22

So my entire senior year was, You know, getting through the last of my accounting

Juan Huizar: 00:18:26

courses and working with Mark as his assistant, you know, I was just running

Juan Huizar: 00:18:30

around with whatever he needed of me.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:32

Well, as I got close to graduating, Mark got used to having me around.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:35

Okay?

Juan Huizar: 00:18:36

And so he said, Hey, I know you told me that you wanted to be a

Juan Huizar: 00:18:39

CPA and do this accounting thing.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:41

No pressure, but I would love to keep you.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:44

Like, what is it that they're gonna pay you?

Juan Huizar: 00:18:45

I'll match the salary, but more importantly, I will teach you how

Juan Huizar: 00:18:49

to build wealth through real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:52

And at first I said, No way.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:53

Like, like I'm, I'm set.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:55

I'm gonna be a CPA.

Juan Huizar: 00:18:57

And everyone, I mean, for the most part, if you tell someone you're a

Juan Huizar: 00:18:59

CPA, and granted I was 22 years old, very, I was young and, and to think

Juan Huizar: 00:19:06

that I was gonna be a CPA and, and you know, that was gonna be well respected.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:09

My parents get to tell their, their friends, Hey, you know,

Juan Huizar: 00:19:12

Juan is gonna become a CPA.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:14

I thought that was gonna be my path.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:15

And so at first I told Mark, no.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:17

Hey, I'm just gonna stick on this plan.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:20

Back then, it was all about your resume and who you had on your resume and who

Juan Huizar: 00:19:23

you work with, and so I told him no.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:27

And then what I realized was the accounting recruiters that were recruiting

Juan Huizar: 00:19:32

me, I told them what I was doing during my senior year as a, as a senior and

Juan Huizar: 00:19:37

who I was working with while they wanted me to set up meetings to meet Mark.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:42

They, they were, the accounting recruiters were more interested

Juan Huizar: 00:19:45

in what I was doing with Mark than what they were doing in accounting.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:49

Hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:49

And so then that kind of got my head scratching, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:19:51

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:52

And I was like, Wait, why is it that they're more interested in learning how to

Juan Huizar: 00:19:55

building wealth through real estate when they're, you know, they're all CPAs now.

Juan Huizar: 00:19:58

Like, aren't they happy with that?

Juan Huizar: 00:20:00

And I thought, and well, kind of a small story.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:06

So Mark Mullan is the person who offered me the job.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:08

His mentors a guy named Jeff Chauncey.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:11

And so Jeff Chauncey, I got to meet every now and then.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:13

Well, the day that Jeff Chauncey was set to retire and he was gonna move to

Juan Huizar: 00:20:17

Florida, he, I ran into him at the bank.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:21

And so Jeff waited for me to be done with what I had to do, and.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:25

I'm in the middle of, of like my decision making, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:20:28

Like what am I gonna do?

Juan Huizar: 00:20:28

Which direction, you know, fork in the road.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:31

They're both good options.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:32

Where do I go?

Juan Huizar: 00:20:33

And so Jeff waited for me and he's like, Hey Juan, I'm about to catch my flight.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:36

I'm leaving.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:37

I just want to, you know, say it was good to meet you.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:39

He's like, If I could give you some advice, He's like, I know

Juan Huizar: 00:20:42

Mark asked you to stay on with him.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:45

And he said, If I was you, he says, I would go learn how to

Juan Huizar: 00:20:49

build welath in real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:51

He said, because that is unlimited.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:54

He says, If you become a CPA, yes you'll have a good salary,

Juan Huizar: 00:20:57

but you're gonna be capped.

Juan Huizar: 00:20:58

You're gonna be capped in, in, in that profession.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:01

He said, But if you could learn the way that Mark is building wealth,

Juan Huizar: 00:21:04

there's no limit to what you could do.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:06

And kind of hearing it from someone who had already made it

Juan Huizar: 00:21:09

was retiring, you know, he had his yacht waiting for him in Florida.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:13

I was like, Well, And he said, Hey, what's the worst that could happen?

Juan Huizar: 00:21:16

You could always go back to accounting.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:17

You could always go back to accounting.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:19

So I, that day I pick up the phone, I called Deloitte and

Juan Huizar: 00:21:22

Touche and they were so upset.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:24

I called them and I said, I'm sorry, but I decided to go in a different

Juan Huizar: 00:21:27

direction and they were upset, you know, they were waiting for

Juan Huizar: 00:21:30

me to graduate and go that route.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:31

But, you know, as a, you know, by then I was 23.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:35

I, you know, I, I guess I took a leap of faith afterwards.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:39

Everyone, all my friends and all the kids in my accounting

Juan Huizar: 00:21:41

department thought I was an idiot.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:43

They're like, You blew your chance.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:45

You worked so hard for this, and you're just going to go do real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:49

That makes no sense.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:50

And so through the years there was, there was times where I was

Juan Huizar: 00:21:53

like, I may have made a mistake.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:55

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:21:55

And you know, now it's, you know, over 20 years or something that I've have

Juan Huizar: 00:21:59

graduated since, been out of college.

Juan Huizar: 00:22:01

And now looking back, it was the best decision that I could have made.

Juan Huizar: 00:22:04

But early on it's hard to know that, you know, now looking back, I'm so glad that

Juan Huizar: 00:22:08

I, that I made the decision that I made.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:11

You know, hindsight is always 2020, right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:13

You look back and you're like, I know I made the right decision now.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:16

But when that doubt, crept in.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:19

What did you do?

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:20

Did you, did you consider going back?

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:22

Did you, were you just like, I'm stubborn, I'm just gonna keep going

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:25

?

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:26

You know, and I don't, and I wouldn't even say that I'm stubborn.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:29

I, I always know that a lot of people know more than me and I'm

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:32

open to learning from everybody.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:34

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:34

But You know, there was a lot of early success that I had

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:37

in real estate thanks to Mark.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:38

You know, he showed me how to get started and how to invest and

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:40

how to you know, create wealth.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:42

And so all these things started happening early on.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:44

And so when things got tough I.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:46

I always wondered what if, like, what if I would've become a cpa?

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:49

What if, if I would've joined this company that there was always that,

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:52

but at no point did I wanna go back and call them and say, Hey, I'm ready.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:55

You know, I'm ready to come back.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:57

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:58

And certainly now it does.

Amin Ahmed: 00:22:59

Now it doesn't even cross my head at all.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:00

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:01

.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:02

Yeah, that's a good thing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:03

One of the mantras that we have at home here is that everything

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:06

in life is a wonderful journey.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:08

and we tell our kids it's wonder filled because you don't

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:11

know what's gonna happen next.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:12

And it's a journey because it's not just the destination that you're going after.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:16

Mm-hmm.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:16

. And you know, when I hear your story about moving from Mexico, you

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:20

didn't know what was gonna happen.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:21

Right.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:21

Then you go to school, then you go to middle school and

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:24

high school and then college.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:25

Right.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:26

And even at the end of that journey where people think that college is, you know,

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:30

graduated from college as your end goal.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:32

You still were ready to take that 90 degree turn.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:36

I mean, it is crazy, but I'm, I'm happy that it worked out for you, right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:40

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:41

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:42

That's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:43

Now, are there any, any productivity hacks?

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:46

Like you, you're a very efficient person to get all of this stuff done.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:49

You've got kids, you, you know, you're, you're busy in your business

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:52

and you take time to, to run crazy, crazy marathons and stuff.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:55

Right.

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:56

Do you have some productivity hacks that you'd like to share with our audience?

Amin Ahmed: 00:23:59

For, for them to get stuff done?

Amin Ahmed: 00:24:00

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:01

And it's gonna be as simple as filling up your calendar

Juan Huizar: 00:24:04

with the things that are important.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:05

Nice.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:06

Filling up your calendar.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:07

So if you look at my calendar 5am to 7:30am, completely blocked off.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:11

Mm-hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:11

5am to 7:30am, because that's gonna be my morning routine and my workout.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:15

This is every day.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:16

Yeah.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:17

And then, but then, you know, obviously then we schedule out

Juan Huizar: 00:24:20

the day, but then when I get home, six to eight, phone is off.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:24

Phone is off because I do not wanna walk into the house with being on the phone and

Juan Huizar: 00:24:30

then I have to wait to hug my daughters.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:32

No way.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:33

So it's off.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:33

I put it in my briefcase, I zip it up and I just leave it in my car.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:37

Now because I own my own business, I know things are gonna happen between that two

Juan Huizar: 00:24:40

hour window and after we put 'em to bed, then I'm gonna come grab it and there

Juan Huizar: 00:24:44

might be some work that I have to get to.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:45

Right.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:46

But there's a lot of scheduling and so I feel like, you know, when it comes

Juan Huizar: 00:24:49

to working out, cuz people do say, Well, how do you have time to work out?

Juan Huizar: 00:24:52

It's again, early morning is getting that stuff in, in the morning.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:56

Then I don't have to worry about.

Juan Huizar: 00:24:57

You know, I'm the kind of guy where like I have to work out every day.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:01

Like this is like seven days a week.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:02

There's really no recovery, even though they say that's good, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:25:05

It's, I'm just going hard.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:06

And so then I go hard in the morning and then I check that box and like

Juan Huizar: 00:25:09

my body doesn't need that anymore.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:11

Right?

Juan Huizar: 00:25:11

And now, you know, I could go hard at work and then, then I could go hard

Juan Huizar: 00:25:14

in being the best dad and husband that I could be once I get home.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:17

But.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:18

Everything has to go on the calendar.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:19

Every little thing has to go on the calendar.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:21

And that's probably, in terms of being productive, that has to be

Juan Huizar: 00:25:25

the number one thing, you know?

Juan Huizar: 00:25:27

But, you know, there's a lot of apps.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:28

I mean, I use, you know, Headspace, I use Headspace for for my meditation.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:33

You know, there's a, there's a certain app that I use for

Juan Huizar: 00:25:36

stretching, and so I let you know.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:38

I'm a consumer of these products because it makes my life easier and

Juan Huizar: 00:25:41

it takes the decision making off of my hands, and I'm like, Okay.

Juan Huizar: 00:25:45

I just follow the script that they have for that day.

Amin Ahmed: 00:25:48

Yeah.

Amin Ahmed: 00:25:48

I love that.

Amin Ahmed: 00:25:49

I love that because when you say take that decision out of your head, right?

Amin Ahmed: 00:25:53

Like I said, so many people yesterday I was talking to my son and I said,

Amin Ahmed: 00:25:56

When you have too many decisions to make, you go into decision.

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:00

In decision, and then you're stuck.

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:02

You can't make any decisions.

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:03

Right.

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:04

And do you, do you sometimes get stuck in there where you're like,

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:07

Or does that morning pages and meditation, does that help you not

Amin Ahmed: 00:26:10

get stuck in making a decision.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:13

Everyone's gonna get stuck.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:14

It's just how long do you get stuck and how frustrated does that make you?

Juan Huizar: 00:26:18

And, and you know, really what ends up happening is that

Juan Huizar: 00:26:21

frustration gets you more stuck.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:23

And there's really right.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:24

There's no productivity in being frustrated.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:27

And so I'm not gonna say that, you know, my morning routine clears everything.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:31

You know, you're still gonna get stuck.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:32

Mm-hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:32

. And that's why like I have a wonderful team in my business and.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:35

Man, I love mastermind and brainstorming with people.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:38

I love it.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:38

I love it.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:39

I love it.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:39

With any issue that I have, I'm like, Can't have this idea or

Juan Huizar: 00:26:41

this thing's bothering me and I'll bring it up to my team.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:44

And just getting ideas on top of ideas and their ideas and leading off of that

Juan Huizar: 00:26:48

and building and building on ideas from a business perspective is my favorite thing.

Juan Huizar: 00:26:53

And typically, you know, to, to your point, I still get stuck,

Juan Huizar: 00:26:55

but I will talk about being stuck with other people, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:26:59

And through that through that collaboration is

Juan Huizar: 00:27:01

where solutions are found.

Amin Ahmed: 00:27:03

So we've learned quite a bit about you in terms of, you know,

Amin Ahmed: 00:27:06

your backstory, your, your morning routine, your wellness routine.

Amin Ahmed: 00:27:10

But is there any one thing that people would be genuinely

Amin Ahmed: 00:27:13

surprised to learn about you?

Juan Huizar: 00:27:14

Well, it's probably not a good thing, but lifelong severe stutterer.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:18

I am a lifelong severe stutterer.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:21

And, Amin, this is something that for the longest time in my life I wouldn't talk

Juan Huizar: 00:27:25

about because I didn't wanna face the fact that I had this speech impediment.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:30

And so I tried to hide it.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:31

I try, but I mean well into my adulthood.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:35

This is high school, college.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:36

And I realized, Amin that one of the reasons why I chose accounting.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:42

Subconsciously, I chose a profession where I didn't have to speak.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:46

I chose a profession that really you could do auditing and you're really not having,

Juan Huizar: 00:27:50

or this is what I thought, that you didn't have to speak with a lot of people.

Juan Huizar: 00:27:53

And so it wasn't till I was about 35 that I got a little bit of therapy and I joined

Juan Huizar: 00:28:00

Toastmasters and I faced my biggest fear.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:03

It's just regular communication.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:05

So I mean, when I say that I stuttered, I was afraid of picking up the phone

Juan Huizar: 00:28:08

and saying, Hi, can I speak with Amin?

Juan Huizar: 00:28:10

Like that would not come outta my mouth.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:12

There'd be like this.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:13

I would get jammed up with my words.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:15

They wouldn't flow out properly.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:17

I couldn't order at a restaurant like so for the longest time.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:21

Till this day, my wife will still order for me cuz she knew how much

Juan Huizar: 00:28:25

of a struggle it was for me to order.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:28

Wow.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:28

And so now that I said yes to your podcast, it's because through through

Juan Huizar: 00:28:34

Toastmasters and through like facing my fear, through facing my biggest fear,

Juan Huizar: 00:28:38

this is years and years and I've stuttered since I was a kid, since we left Mexico,

Juan Huizar: 00:28:43

I had this massive stuttering problem and at some point a couple years ago, I, I

Juan Huizar: 00:28:50

saw that Toastmasters was actually helping me for some, you know, it's, it's weird.

Juan Huizar: 00:28:54

My, my favorite saying is, working on a weakness reduces the fear of it.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:02

Working on a weakness reduces the fear of it.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:04

I was finally facing this fear and I was going into this group

Juan Huizar: 00:29:08

and I was on stage a small group.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:10

Right.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:10

Toastmasters is this group where we practice, had a public speak, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:29:14

I was there not to public speak, I was there just to speak.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:17

I was there just to talk.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:19

And so that started giving me confidence and I got better.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:24

And so now it's interesting, I tell people and they're like, No, like it was severe.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:29

This was not like, Oh, Juan's you know, when you're little,

Juan Huizar: 00:29:31

it's like, Oh, he's cute.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:32

He stutters, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:29:33

Mine was not cute.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:34

It was like this.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:36

Being, being in college, knowing the answer and not being, being fearful to

Juan Huizar: 00:29:40

raise your hand because you're gonna stumble through your words, was my entire

Juan Huizar: 00:29:44

most of my life I've been a stutterer.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:46

So now the only I bring this up only because it does feel good for me to talk

Juan Huizar: 00:29:51

about it and say, this is what I am.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:53

Because for the longest time I've tried to pretend like, Oh, no, no, no.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:56

I just, I said that wrong.

Juan Huizar: 00:29:57

I was trying to like hide it and now I'm like, Okay, this is who I am.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:01

I still have it.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:02

I'll never get rid of it a hundred percent.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:04

But now that it's gone away, I say yes to every speaking engagement where I'm

Juan Huizar: 00:30:09

asked, because I feel like for the first time ever, I could get my words out and

Juan Huizar: 00:30:12

I'm like just so thankful and blessed that I could, that I could do that.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:15

And I know that's simple for anyone who hears this says,

Juan Huizar: 00:30:18

Man, that's just speaking.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:19

But like, not everyone could do that.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:20

And, and that was my disability.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:22

And so, I don't know, that's not like a fun story, but it's just

Juan Huizar: 00:30:25

a story that I felt like sharing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:27

Oh, that's amazing.

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:27

One, thank you for sharing that.

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:28

Thank you for the vulnerability there.

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:30

You, you're blowing my mind right now because, you know, I thought, I thought

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:33

I, I could contain the extremes, but like, you know, 35 and now I know I

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:37

was doing some research on you before our call and you've got a YouTube

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:40

channel, dozens of videos there.

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:42

Can you talk a little bit about the business and the content that you

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:45

create on YouTube and what it is that you hope to do through that for your

Amin Ahmed: 00:30:49

for your clients and the audience.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:51

Got it.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:51

So what I've done is more from building trust.

Juan Huizar: 00:30:57

You know, like when you're in a business and you know this, is that we, we

Juan Huizar: 00:31:00

try to build trust book appointments and serve our clients, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:31:02

Those are the main three things that we're doing no matter what you're doing, right?

Juan Huizar: 00:31:05

But in order for me to really scale as a business I needed to show people what I'm

Juan Huizar: 00:31:11

about and so what I'm passionate about.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:13

And so, because I've, I learned early.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:17

You know after college how to build wealth through real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:20

And so I, I've been fortunate enough where I own large portfolio of properties and

Juan Huizar: 00:31:25

Mark held up to his end of the bargain.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:27

Juan, I'm gonna teach you how to build wealth, how to, how to, how

Juan Huizar: 00:31:31

to become independent and wealthy.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:33

By owning real estate.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:33

So he did that.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:35

And so now what I do is through my YouTube channels, teach others exactly

Juan Huizar: 00:31:38

what he taught me and now I get to put my experience and my little twist to it and

Juan Huizar: 00:31:43

things that maybe I, I use or I learn.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:45

And so our YouTube channel is dedicated to teaching people how to build

Juan Huizar: 00:31:49

wealth through real estate ownership.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:52

Whether it's apartments, condos, houses, everything.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:55

A lot of people want this information.

Juan Huizar: 00:31:56

And so our YouTube channel has, is growing, it's growing quickly and we

Juan Huizar: 00:32:01

have a lot of subscribers coming into us.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:02

And, and that is really at first, when I got started with this, it was this

Juan Huizar: 00:32:06

was actually part of my therapy is having the camera on me having to speak.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:11

This was not something that I wanted to do, but.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:14

The feedback and the comments and the support and the people sending back

Juan Huizar: 00:32:17

comments saying, Hey, I just did this because of your video, or I would love to

Juan Huizar: 00:32:20

work with you and your team, or Can you refer me to someone in such and such place

Juan Huizar: 00:32:24

because I'm not in your area and now we're ready to do this, Or, We bought our first

Juan Huizar: 00:32:29

investment property because of you, or now we're on our third one because of you.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:32

It's those comments.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:33

I mean, that just keep me wanting to keep doing this.

Juan Huizar: 00:32:35

It's just, it feels good that people care this much about the one, you

Juan Huizar: 00:32:39

know, one of the things that I'm really passionate about and And I'm super, super

Juan Huizar: 00:32:42

happy with the success of the channel.

Amin Ahmed: 00:32:44

Oh, that's beautiful.

Amin Ahmed: 00:32:45

When you hear people telling you the success that they've had as a result of

Amin Ahmed: 00:32:49

something you've spent time, you know, overcoming your challenges with stuttering

Amin Ahmed: 00:32:53

and, and getting in front of the camera.

Amin Ahmed: 00:32:54

What's the name of the YouTube channel so that our audience can look it up?

Juan Huizar: 00:32:57

Yeah, so it's just youtube.com/sagerealestate.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:02

So Sage Real Estate is my company, and the sage is, you know, sometimes

Juan Huizar: 00:33:06

people ask, Why'd you choose that?

Juan Huizar: 00:33:08

Sage is another word for wisdom.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:09

Mm-hmm.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:10

. And I would like to think that like when we're advising our clients and our

Juan Huizar: 00:33:13

friends on, on the next investment step to make that it, that it's, it's backed

Juan Huizar: 00:33:17

with a lot of wisdom and sage advice from what we're telling people to do.

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:22

Well throughout our time together here, you've definitely shared

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:25

a lot of sage advice for us, and I just wanted to thank you so much for taking

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:29

the time, first of all, and coming on and talking about it sharing some

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:33

of your feelings and vulnerabilities.

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:36

And if our audience wanted to get ahold of you, where can, what's your website

Amin Ahmed: 00:33:39

or where can they get ahold of you?

Juan Huizar: 00:33:40

Yeah, so check out our YouTube channel, but my, my

Juan Huizar: 00:33:43

website is um, www.sageregroup.com.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:47

So that's sage re for real estate re group.com.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:51

So check it out if, if anyone has any questions or wants to

Juan Huizar: 00:33:55

run something by me, I, you.

Juan Huizar: 00:33:57

Tell, tell me that you heard me on Amin's podcast, and I would

Juan Huizar: 00:34:01

love that, Love to hear from you.

Amin Ahmed: 00:34:02

That's awesome.

Amin Ahmed: 00:34:03

Okay.

Amin Ahmed: 00:34:03

Once again, Juan, thank you so much.

Amin Ahmed: 00:34:05

I really appreciate your time and I'm really grateful that you were

Amin Ahmed: 00:34:08

able to spend some time with us.

Juan Huizar: 00:34:10

Amin, it was a lot of fun.

Juan Huizar: 00:34:10

Thank you for having me.