Exclusive Interview with Bobby Castro

Samantha Guthrie: Hello, everyone! I’m here with Bobby Castro, and we’re diving into his incredible journey.

Bobby Castro: Hey there! Ready for the questions.

Samantha Guthrie: Absolutely! To start, could you share a bit about yourself?

Bobby Castro: Certainly, I’m Bobby Castro. I’m blessed to say that I’ve created financial freedom, not just myself, but my wife and I, Sophie, of 33 years. And we sold a business for a billion dollars. We started that business with $1,700, raising no money or anything. And along the way before we sold it, we created a real estate portfolio that stands strong, maybe around $750 million worth of real estate, multifamily. Gives us a cash flow around $600,000 every single month. And dreams do come true, man. I only got through the ninth grade, failed at the third grade in the public system, meaning that nobody fails at a third grade. That’s an automatic pass, that just shows you anybody could do this.

Samantha Guthrie: Love that. Thank you Bobby. Okay, three questions. The first one is, what is the number one most costly mistake you have made or seen many investors or business owners make that could be avoided?

Bobby Castro: Not changing the strategy to scale, meaning that I stayed small, doing small things. So, in order to scale a business, everything has to change. So, for a number of years I was small, meaning doing $10 million, $5 million in annual sales and not realizing is number one, my business scalable? Does it have a solution? Is it disruptive? And I realized it was, so a lot of business owners are in a business that is maybe not scalable, and they’re just so stubborn. They didn’t want to give up like I did. I had businesses that were not scalable and I did not want to give up after I figured it out. You’re not giving up, you’re still on that journey as an entrepreneur. So, I simply just figured how to scale my business, meaning that I had to really unload a lot of people that helped me, got me where I was at. But the same people will not necessarily get you to that next level.

Samantha Guthrie: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah, who got you there, won’t get you there. Number two, what is a strategy worth far more than a million dollars that you wish someone provided you with earlier on that you can share here?

Bobby Castro: Data, data, data. The data was the most powerful thing for me. Data is everything. It does not have a personality, no emotions. It’s almost as close as factual facts. I had no clue how important data was, and so many business owners like myself, ignore data. Just think about the data. It’ll tell you exactly where to go, how to go, and what to do. So, I had no clue of how important the data was. So, as you’re gathering data, how you’re flipping data, how you’re receiving data is very, very critical. When I started realizing how important data was, I needed to team up with people that understood how to digest it and flip the data, that changed my entire life. I became financially free because the data showed me exactly where to go in my business.

Samantha Guthrie: Love that. I love that. Okay, last question. What was the major turning point, point of increased momentum, or strategic choke point that once acquired or completed, made everything you were doing start forward?

Bobby Castro: The right people, skillset. I unfortunately started the company with a lot of incredible people, no longer there. When I started really creating and recruiting the right people at a certain stage of my company, it completely took off. If I did not do that, there’ll be no way I’ll be financially free. Just imagine you have this data, what to do with this data. Your staff has no clue. You’re talking about new CFOs, new COOs, CTOs, everybody had to practically be changed. That took me such a long time to surrender to that. To move on from that, imagine letting go of people that have been there for many years with you. And unfortunately, the opportunity outgrew a lot of people, including myself. It outgrew me. Therefore, I had to take a step back, bring people in front of me that knew the job, the skillset far better. So, I always say something, ego’s not your amigo. As soon as I surrendered that ego, my business took off.

Samantha Guthrie: Love it. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible insights, Bobby!

Bobby Castro: My pleasure. Looking forward to seeing you all again!