Turning Loss Into Leadership In Business And Life

You can’t fake perspective. It’s earned in the lows that most people won’t talk about: childhood chaos, addiction, grief that knocks the air from your lungs, and careers capped by glass ceilings. We sat down as owners and team leads to tell the truth about how those lows forged our leadership, sharpened our empathy, and set the tone for how we build brokerages that actually serve people.

We start with raw origin stories and the flip from victimhood to agency—therapy before tactics, faith before funnels, and mentors who make you fix your life before your lead gen. Then we break down the real market from 2023 to 2025 without spin: morale is a metric, culture is hard work, and smaller wins keep teams moving. You’ll hear how we cut break-even side plays, killed bad spend, and focused on what we do best so our people could keep winning even when the weather turned.

Looking ahead, we outline a clear 2026 plan. Scott shares a global dive into modular construction and factory robotics that could cut build times to days and costs below $100 per foot, with partnerships spanning China, LA, and Dubai. Ronnie leans into scaling Resi Realty by embracing the hard lessons of 2025 and doubling down on people-first systems. Jeff commits to owning a headquarters, expanding into new cities, resurrecting a profit-focused production team, and entering asset management and REO as cycles shift. The throughline is simple: invest in people, protect hope, eliminate waste, and make sure every effort returns value.

If you’re tired of empty hype and hungry for practical strategy, mindset shifts, and real leadership, this conversation is your playbook. Subscribe, share it with someone who needs the push, and leave a review telling us the one choice you’ll make differently this year.

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2025 Wins & Losses — A Conversation About Pain, Purpose & Leadership

In this Christmas Day special, Mark Jones hosts an incredibly raw and transparent roundtable with Scott Malouff, Jeff Garza, and Ronnie Trevino—three of San Antonio’s top real estate leaders.

Together, they discuss:

• Childhood trauma
• Addiction and recovery
• Loss of loved ones
• Leadership pressure
• Betrayals in business
• Mental health & emotional intelligence
• Faith, healing, and rebuilding a life of purpose

This is the most vulnerable conversation ever recorded on the Key Factors Podcast.

If you're navigating life, business, or leadership in any capacity—this episode will speak directly to you.

Apply for Home Financing with Mark Jones:
https://www.iThinkMortgage.com

Subscribe to The Key Factors Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/@keyfactorspodcast

CHANNEL DISCLOSURE: Mark Jones, Senior Loan Officer | NMLS#513437 iThink Mortgage powered by Premier Mortgage Resources | NMLS #1169 Equal Housing Lender All content on this channel is for educational purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to lend. Loan terms and availability are subject to credit approval, underwriting guidelines, and market conditions. Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my company. No compensation is given or received for referrals, endorsements, or podcast appearances, in co

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Welcome & Guest Intros
• 5:45 Early Lives And Pre-Real-Estate Lows
• 14:30 Darkness, Perspective, And Gratitude
• 22:30 Defining Moments And Identity Shifts
• 31:30 Ownership, Responsibility, And Showing Up
• 40:00 Grief, Faith, And Finding Purpose
• 49:30 Leadership, Humility, And Wise Counsel
• 58:30 2025 Market Reality And Morale
• 1:08:00 Letting Go, Focus, And Shiny Objects
• 1:17:00 Mindset, Reps, And Staying In Your Lane
• 1:26:30 Big Bets For 2026: Modular & Scale
• 1:36:00 New Cities, Teams, And Asset Plays

Transcript

Mark Jones: 0:47

And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast, Real Estate AF, where the AF stands for and finance. And I'm your host, Mark Jones, and we are powered by Lone Bot, Smarter Mortgage Matching, now available on the App Store and Google Play. And today, first off, I will start by saying Merry Christmas, everybody. I have one of my guests that brought up a topic and said it would be a great discussion to have and to share with others out there on a day like today. We're going to be talking about personal losses, gains, and how that has fueled, hindered, and helped us thrive in what we do in our everyday life and in our business. So without further ado, let me introduce all of my fine guests today. All have been on the podcast before. So I welcome them back. Let me start with the gentleman to my right that you can already see, Scott Maloof. What's up, dude? What's up, Mark? How you doing? Doing very well. Blessed to be here. Amen to that. And then we've got Jeff Garza. Jeff, how are you?

Jeff Garza: 1:50

Doing well, man. Merry Christmas to everybody that's just and hopefully the the season is treating everybody well.

Mark Jones: 1:55

That's right. Making a prediction. It's Texas morning and it's probably 80 degrees.

Jeff Garza: 2:00

Yeah.

Mark Jones: 2:02

And my last but not least guest, Ronnie Trevino. How are you?

Ronnie Trevino: 2:06

I'm doing fantastic, Mark. How's everybody doing?

Mark Jones: 2:08

Doing very well. And just make sure when you talk, bring that mic. There we go. Yeah, you can pull it wherever you want.

Ronnie Trevino: 2:13

These things are that DJ voice.

Mark Jones: 2:15

Yeah, that old Timu.

Ronnie Trevino: 2:17

That's good stuff. Like I said earlier, I'm just grateful to be in the room with everybody. These is these are men, real men building real businesses. So I'm just glad to be with all of y'all. And Merry Christmas to everybody.

Mark Jones: 2:28

Amen to that. So, guys, I'm going to kick this off and we'll dive into it because we've got quite a bit to talk about. We've got plenty of stories and situations to share, and I'll be pulling a lot out of you guys if that's okay. Let's do it. So I want to start with the first matter of fact, before we do that, there's probably folks out there that have no clue who you guys are. So if we could just do a real quick round the horn of who you are, what you do, and why you're on this podcast right now.

Ronnie Trevino: 2:58

Fantastic. Yeah. Okay. We're starting with me, I guess. Looking at the stud. My name's Ronnie Trevino, and I'm the uh owner broker of Rezi Realty, and also have several other businesses. But I've been in the industry for 18 years now, and I absolutely love what I do. Absolutely love serving others and just collaborating with other people like you guys in the room. So I'm excited to be here.

Mark Jones: 3:23

And we're excited to have you and to get, like I said, price and stuff out of you guys today.

Jeff Garza: 3:27

Jeff. Yep. Jeff Gar is a broker owner of Redbird Realty, much like Ronnie mentioned, you know, have my hands in other business ventures as well, as well, you know, property management and some other investments and some other cool things that we do. But Redbird is probably what most people would know me uh to be about. Amen. They'll probably learn a whole lot more today, I'm sure.

Mark Jones: 3:47

Hoping so. Yeah. No, now random question because my ADD is totally out of control. I was so excited for this discussion that I got zero sleep last week, though. Jeff, yeah, do you guys have like a uh an anthem or a call?

Jeff Garza: 4:00

Like we don't, but there is like this like bird symbol. Okay. Okay. So like if the camera can do it like that, there is a bird symbol. So those t-shirts are coming out soon. Very so, like, anyways, but yeah, a hand bird symbol, like how to. Exactly. I like it. Very cool.

Mark Jones: 4:16

And Scott, tell us about you, man.

Scott Malouff : 4:18

So my name's Scott Maloof. I have a team, Maloof International Group, where I'm the team lead of inside of Keller Williams, and I do have a lot of ancillary businesses as well, like the other guys here. We've all worked together in the past, so it's uh blessing to be here today.

Mark Jones: 4:30

Absolutely, absolutely. So we're gonna kick this thing off pretty strong with the first question, and I'm gonna ask this of Jeff first, and then we'll just go around the horn and go from there, see where it takes us. Cool. But Jeff, for you, what personal loss or low-shaped points that you encountered prior to getting into real estate?

Jeff Garza: 4:58

Prior to getting into real estate, yes. Wow. Ooh, that's a good one. I wasn't ready for that one. Okay.

Mark Jones: 5:03

We're gonna do it like a sandwich. Prior to real estate that you just got in and now yeah, yeah.

Jeff Garza: 5:09

Man, that's a great one. So, you know, for people that are listening to this, because I think all of us are gonna break the internet this morning here on Christmas Day. So when you're tired with unwrapping your gifts, then you need to be jumping on onto the uh to the live stream. I would say this before real estate, a lot of people may not know this about me. I had almost a 17-year career in social work and criminal justice. I started working for the state of Texas actually at a food stamp office while I was still in college. Oh, wow. And I was one of those guys who graduated from high school like when I was barely 17. So I was always kind of like doing more at a younger age than some others, right? Just simply because of the way my birthday and I guess however whenever I got put into school. But did a bunch of social work jobs over that 17-year career, and you know, was a juvenile probation officer with Bear County, was an investigator with child protective services many, many moons ago. I was barely, barely young enough to call myself a man, if you if you really want to know the truth, now knowing what I know today. And I was doing physical abuse investigations and sexual abuse investigations and things of that sort. But I guess to answer your question, before real estate, the low for me was realizing, and I think a lot of people on this watching this will be able to understand this. When I was working at the county, which was like my last tour stop before I became an entrepreneur and went into the real estate world. And as we all would say, burned the boats, like legitimately burned the boats, right? Because there's some people who say they do and haven't. And then there's people that you know they did, right? Like, and I was one of those that was like, I'm not going back to whatever this is. And what it was for me was realizing that I was working in at that time at the county juvenile probation department, realizing that I was still very young in my life, knowing that the only way for me to become like the deputy chief or the chief probation officer of Bear County was like I needed like, and this is gonna sound horrible, but I needed like 15 or 16 people to retire or die. Or or marry into the oralize like that's not gonna happen. And so for me, there was this frustration point where I'm like super tenured with the state retirement system in the county as well, you know, bilingual, senior PO, promoted multiple times. But it's like when people talk about that glass ceiling, definitely had a glass ceiling. And so, you know, I didn't do any of that work in my story for money. You don't get into social work for money. I mean, bottom line, but I had been doing it long enough that I realized I'm trading time for money, yeah, and I'm not gonna get any more. Right. And this doesn't work for me. And so that's probably my there was a low right before I decided like I need to do something different. And real estate happened to be like on the bingo card for something different, yeah. But I was just like, I'm done with this. And so I ended up leaving that with no parachute. Like I didn't leave that for real estate. I left that because I was done. You were done. And I was, you know, we can polish it, we can, we can sugarcoat it. I was in between jobs, as all of us who in real estate have been once or twice. I was in between jobs, yeah. But I literally knew when I went home, I'm like, I'm not going back, I'm not doing this. And so I think I watched Jerry Springer for like a month, figured out my stuff, and then I was like, I gotta do something different, you know, prayed a whole bunch, and then I feel like God should send me a sign, and how I got into real estate is a whole different story. But real estate is what I stumbled upon. Yeah. And little did I know 12, 13 years ago or whatever it's been, like I'd be doing what I do now today, you know. And so it's it's it's a huge blessing. But I guess I would hope that anybody hears that little part, like there's a whole whole lot to it. But I was frustrated enough. It was like an old country and western song. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yes, sir. And I was like, this can't be everything that I was that that I was meant for. Right. And so that's probably it was a low, but turned into obviously a whole lot more after that.

Mark Jones: 9:01

Absolutely. Yeah. So I want to come back to you in in just a moment to discuss, and and I will for each of you on how that low point shaped who you are today, and if it did at that point in time, or was it too early? But just again, the ADD is killing me today. Jerry Springer. I feel like that was the tick tock and reels replaced that uh addiction. So it was like Jerry was on to something way sooner before everybody else. Rest in peace, Jerry Springer.

Jeff Garza: 9:35

Yeah, where you could just let your brain go into mush, absolutely and you'd be like there just staring at the TV and be like, this is absolutely not gonna improve my life. One iota, but I'm still interested. Those are the good old days. That's right.

Mark Jones: 9:46

You got cheering at the screen, and there's no games going on, just people fighting and pulling hair wigs, and yeah, anywho. So, Ronnie, what what what was in your journey becoming a realtor were pre-that moment? What low points did you go through as just Ronnie the man?

Ronnie Trevino: 10:10

Oh man, you know, there's so many low points in my life. Honestly, guys, I and I was I was talking to agents at the broker's the other day. I was telling people, and I was getting real passionate, saying that, you know, I shouldn't even be sitting here today because I was born to a 15-year-old mother who at the time was fighting her own demons. And I grew up in a house that, you know, probably wasn't fit for newborn babies at the time, right? Until I was adopted by my grandparents at the age of three years old. And growing up in a loving family, but having a lot of, you know, uh dysfunction, addiction, drugs, alcohol, stuff like that. For me, the biggest low point in my life, I think, was getting involved in all that. You know, growing up, I was never, I never really aspired to be great. I think my grandparents were pretty tired already. They had already raised their kids. So I just kind of skated through school. And, you know, when I graduated, and it wasn't until my girlfriend got pregnant that I realized, holy shit, I better start doing something. And, you know, I started working and got a little bit of success and thought that that that was what was being a man, but I never realized, you know, in the background, my drinking, my drugging, all that was going on, and it was behind the scenes. But that was kind of just the way I grew up. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I I actually do, yes. Like if if if your loved ones are are smoking pot and drinking, then those are the people that care for you, then they're not bad people, right? Right. So I wasn't a bad person. I just kind of had my own demons too. And I never realized where that was gonna take me until I realized that, you know. Well, for those of you that don't know, and I think a lot of people do know that, you know, I just lost my son recently last year. And it wasn't until he grew up and started falling into that same pattern that I realized holy shit, if I don't do something, then you know, that's where my kids are leading to. So for me, there's been a lot of losses, but I think the biggest one was, you know, just falling into that addiction and and and going down that path. Right. I mean, I'm grateful where it's led me that today, but but I think that's that's uh a pretty big loss.

Mark Jones: 12:33

Yeah.

Ronnie Trevino: 12:33

You know, so it wasn't anything about like losing a well, we were talking pre-real estate. Yeah, correct. Not losing a dealer, yeah, never losing a job. I think it was more for me, it was personal like that. Like I look back and that's that's what I tell my kids today. Like, you guys don't understand. Right now, you have so much potential to be great. Like, I wish people would have told me back then when I was a kid. Yeah you have a lot of potential to be great if you just do these things. I just didn't have that.

Mark Jones: 13:02

And I want to take a brief break to hone in on what you talked about and and get some feedback from the rest. But it's the idea of going through that, being pulled into that, and I'm gonna say world because it is a whole nother world that you don't really know until you're in it, and then it's you either realize you're in it and try to get out, or you're in it and you're so deep that it's too late. You end up in bad places. But I would also go as far as to say that those that have been through that, the drugs, the wrong crowd, that kind of stuff, me personally, it gives you I'm not gonna say a greater perspective, but a deeper perspective on the concept of if you let's say somebody's excited, they're there's I'm the happiest I've ever been, but yet they've never been to the lowest they've ever been. Can they really feel what it's like to be truly grateful, truly thankful, truly appreciative of where they've been and where they are now? What are you guys' thoughts on that? I mean, obviously we all haven't been through the same stuff, but similar with yours, you weren't the ones doing the drugs, but you saw it. You weren't the one beating wives, but you saw it, type concept. And Scott, I'll get to you, but if you've got something to share on this by all means, what are you guys' thoughts on that concept of you can only feel the greatest high after you've felt what it's like to be at your lowest low?

Jeff Garza: 14:50

I'll I'll I'll jump in real quick. So what I know to be true in my history and my experience, and uh you made a great correlation about the things I used to see on the other side. Yeah, you know, investigating and being with families and through the court process and things professionally, right? Right over those many years. What I can tell you is you're absolutely on to something. When people can either experience for themselves or witness the depths of humanity, yes, and how dark real darkness looks like, absolutely, and also how bright brightness looks like, then you can actually have a measuring stick that's bigger than just your perspective or your experience or your upbringing. And so, and again, that doesn't mean that someone else's perspective isn't greater. I just would say that if they've never seen what dark and evil looks like, or if they've never experienced brightness in their life either, right? I don't know that their measuring stick is as big as someone who has had those experiences or seen those from a variety of ways, right? Yeah. And so that's what I would say. I think it's depths to what we what we are as people.

Ronnie Trevino: 16:09

I'd also like to add a perspective to and and it's and it's similar to what you said, but I think everybody has their own journey, and and it's not up to us to decide how low is our lowest low, right? Like my lowest low was being passed out on the side of bidders at 6 p.m. and having the cops wake me up. That was pretty damn.

Mark Jones: 16:32

See, and I'm gonna push back on you to bringly.

Ronnie Trevino: 16:34

You know, I know people that their lowest low was getting an F. Yeah. And they were devastated, and they went to depths that I was like, oh my gosh, just because you you failed in school. Like I failed in school and I thought I was pretty cool. So I think everybody has their own journey.

Mark Jones: 16:53

Yes, most most definitely. But but you mentioned something that we we didn't choose, and in fact, we did choose. We are the ones that are making those bad decisions, but also the ones that make the good decision to get out of it. Trust me, I've got friends today that are still in the thick of things that unfortunately love you, but I I sorry, and um and why does their journey look like that? Why do they have choices? Bottom line, and I and I correlate that what you were talking about there to kind of what's going on with today's youth is they've never really failed at anything. So how do you know when the anxiety kicks in, if that's truly your depths, if that's example. Any of you guys play football back in the day, high school, anything like that? You remember two a days?

Jeff Garza: 17:49

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Jones: 17:50

You thought you were gonna die, oh yeah, but you didn't. Yeah, I wasn't theater, dude. It's already so let me tell you, going through two a days, you'd go to your first one, and it's always in the middle of summer. It's hot. They got hoses coming out of pipes and stuff just for you temporarily, but you're done. Oh, guess what? A couple hours later, you got to do it again.

Jeff Garza: 18:12

It's different times, man. The society that we live in is different. Generations change from the 80s to the 90s to the early 2000s to even now, right? We're closer to 2030 than anything, you know. That's that's that's right in front of us, right? You know, going back to your football one, I remember like a lot of the things that we grew up with, all of us, I don't even know if they would be acceptable in today's world. I don't think teachers could pull off some of the stuff they did. I don't think coaches and administration administrators can pull off some of the things they did to try to keep us, you know, on the straight and narrow and keep us from some of those dis decisions or choices that might have led us to the street or to the gang life or to whatever that was, right? I mean, real quick, I remember one time during uh spring training, like where you're doing all these circuit training and all this other craziness. I remember back in, you know, I was at that time, 5A was the biggest school you could be at. We were at I was at a I was at a huge 5A, and I remember some of the coaches were out for a a statewide coaching clinic, and so they were like, hey, everybody dress out, shorts, whatever. We're gonna go out, ran some laps, did some real quick stretching, and they're like, All right, we're gonna be doing up downs for 50 minutes.

Mark Jones: 19:17

Ooh, I remember those days.

Jeff Garza: 19:19

We were doing up downs for 50 minutes on asphalt. Oh, and the reason they did that was because they wanted about 15 kids to quit because they had too many. Yeah. And so instead of them selecting it, they were like, we're gonna have you deselect yourself. And I'll never forget, I mean, this would have been like 1993, maybe 94, maybe. And I remember all the guys who quit were skinning their knees on the asphalt, bleeding like crazy. Yeah, and no one flinched. Go to the nurse, have them wrap it up, tell them to get out of football. You need to be in art or music next. That's right. And they were waiting for 15 guys to drop. And that was okay. That was wild. Of course, that's a wild story. Am I saying that that Agree with that? Is that something I'd want to see my son go through today? I don't know. I can't say no, and I can't see it. I'm gonna come because that's actually a good question. But, anyways, yeah, yeah.

Mark Jones: 20:08

So, Scott, you've gotten off now what almost 20 minutes without saying much. So, I'm coming to you, brother.

Jeff Garza: 20:15

Here it comes.

Mark Jones: 20:15

Tell me about a time or something pre real estate that was a major downfall for you.

Scott Malouff : 20:23

Okay. I'm glad I went last because I was listening. It took me back to a lot of a lot of memories of just growing up. So, like Ronnie, you know, I I was raised by a single mom too. I don't know if it was a single mom. My mom was a single mom. She had me young, she had me at 19, not 15. Yeah, we uh we moved in with my grandparents until I was 10. And then after we moved out of my grandparents, we had a rental house over there off like 78. And that neighborhood, it was like the neighborhood parents raised each other. And she was working two jobs back then. She was working at Golden Corral in Sherguard. So she would work at nights at Golden Corral, and she worked during the day at the Sherguard Storage. And we got in a lot of trouble back then. I'm in the about seventh and eighth grade. Like I went to Juvie three times in middle school. And I don't really even say that on any anywhere.

Mark Jones: 21:10

You let me know if you need me to edit that out. Not kidding. I'm kidding. We're sharing a lot of things. No, no, no. No, absolutely.

Scott Malouff : 21:16

Because you go through seasons in life, and I feel like you go through those things to become who you're gonna become. Yet I feel if I didn't learn those issues and those things at that age, it could have hit me when I was 18 or 23 or 20, like at an older age where it would still be on my record, or I wouldn't have transitioned the way I did. And then when I got in, then I transferred schools and we moved to the northwest side of town. And I had just it was like three weeks into the school. I was still hanging out with my people from the northeast side, and the drug dogs sent it on my car. Now I had my hardship license early, so I had a but yet we were at a party that weekend and whatever they hit my things happened. And yeah, there I didn't have any drugs on me, but I had a letter opener, which they considered a dagger. So I ended up getting expelled from Northside. So just going through those seasons, it kind of put me in a place where I was looking just to belong a lot of times. And then ended up doing the high school parties when I was in high school, and that became like a family, was like the nightlife. And the nightlife from there, when I became 18, that became my like family away from the family. And we grew a really, you know, productive nightlife promotion team, and we were doing a lot of events until there was a there was always fights. There was always this person fighting, this person. And I was about I was in my you know upper 20s, and I was like, man, I'm getting old doing this because I have been doing it since I was like 14 years old, been in the in the clubs. And a fight breaks out, and I know everybody that's in the fight, and I'm looking, I'm like, okay, let me break this up. I'm talking to one side, I'm talking to like 20 people fighting. And next thing I hear this and uh a dude shot another dude, but I knew both of them. Oh and I was like, yeah, I need to make this transition. Like this is not this is not utilizing my gifts to be able to live on purpose. And like I've I've been doing this for you know over a decade now, and it's time for me to transition. And I had one of my boys, he was getting his license, and he was like, Hey, I'm gonna get my real estate license. All right, so cool, I'll do it too. I've never been good at test taking, like all throughout high school. I was in CMC, if y'all remember CMC is. Like I was in CMC, I was I was always in that. So it took me a long time to even pass my test. A lot of people don't know that, but it took me over 20 times to even take my test over and over and over again before I passed my real estate test of national state. And then once I once I passed, I was like, you know, this is it. Like I know where I've been, I know where I'm going, and I know where I never want to be again. And it was all in real estate until we get where we're at in today.

Mark Jones: 23:57

Brother, thank you for sharing that. That I didn't know half of that stuff about you, and I I thought I knew you pretty well. So wow, okay.

unknown: 24:06

Yeah.

Scott Malouff : 24:06

I mean, it's it's it's seasons, and then yeah, just like Ronnie, we've had losses, because it's weird because when he's talking about, you know, you know what? I lost my mom in 2017. A ladybug is what reminds me of it, and there's this ladybug right here that's just been looking the whole time. So I just, you know, there's a lot of things I think we go through that are losses. And you know, we we I know we're going over the losses of this year. Yeah, when I lost her, that was transitioning my life too to where it's that legacy quote that a legacy is not what people leave for you, it's what they leave in you.

unknown: 24:36

Yes.

Scott Malouff : 24:36

And, you know, as we continue to grow and when we lose things, we just know it's gonna make us stronger. And you know, we we just learn as we continue.

Mark Jones: 24:43

Absolutely. And and I I totally agree with the the seasons concept of that. Some don't go through as many seasons, and and again, kind of back to that concept of have you really lived yet if you haven't kind of gotten in trouble or done anything, because at a certain point you're going to want to do that or you're going to end up doing that. And by that time, you're you're old, and the the the repercussions are totally different than an adolescent. So go go for it. Yes, I know.

Ronnie Trevino: 25:17

I'm I just I just I just love what you what you what you just said right now. Like the way you put it is that you know, to me, you you're talking about your losses, and I see the person you are today, and it makes me think about like we're we're all talking about our losses, but are they truly losses because of who they've made us today? Like, I look back on all those things that were just incredibly devastating. Yeah, I remember I a lot of people don't know this. I I share a little bit more now. I think I'm a little bit more comfortable sharing. Before, man, I was like freaking, I hoarded everything in. But I I after I graduated in high school, my my father was was uh in my my grandfather, he was my dad. He was in the Air Force and he retired from the Air Force, fought in Vietnam. He was very, very proud. And that was his plan for me because that's what changed his life. And I enlisted in the Air Force, and two weeks before deployment, I went out and partied with my cousin in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, and he ended up getting in a fight and he punched this glass and ended up cutting his arm. And I'm rushing him to the hospital, and I got in a car accident. Cops get there and stuff, and then ask me if I'm drinking. Of course, I have been, and I got a DWI, and that's it, you know. End of the US Air Force career. Right. But was that at loss? Back then it was the biggest freaking loss. I remember telling him, I remember looking at my dad and telling him, asking him, I fucked up, didn't I? And he was like, he laughed and he was like, Yeah, you fucked up, you know. Now you got to get a job and now you gotta, you know, become your life.

Mark Jones: 26:58

That's right.

Ronnie Trevino: 26:58

But it just I just wanted to share that. You're talking about losses, and and to me, it's like it defines who you are today. All those things that happen just sharpens, makes us who we are.

Scott Malouff : 27:09

Well, go for it. I mean, it it shows, I mean, you have two passes because in life we have defining moments. And in a defining moment, a lot of people end up in victimhood where they don't overcome it. They end up putting themselves in a frame their whole thing. That's a good point. And then there's people that you grew up with that keep you in that frame also that still remember you when you were 14 or 15 years old and don't realize you have transitioned into a different person.

unknown: 27:31

Yes.

Scott Malouff : 27:31

So there's family members like that. I have family members like that with me that still think I'm the middle school kid. I'm like, I'm you know, I'm family. Like, yeah, the way they talk, man, and it's just like like you have to like be careful because I'm like, okay, I know that they still look at me at this frame and that they still this is who they picture me as. Yeah. Yet I when you know inside of who you're becoming and you know who you became, yeah, it none of it really matters at that point.

Jeff Garza: 27:58

I I gotta jump in, man. Like, I think so, like, you know, and I'm gonna sound like a major fan right now, but like I think a lot of people in the real estate world, and I'll just talk locally, right? I mean, even though I think all of us have a national essence in some way or form, you know, people locally, if they've never sat down with Ronnie, they owe it to themselves to sit down with Ronnie. I mean, he don't need to recruit him, they don't need to go to his brokerage, but he he's forgotten more about real estate than most people know. Yeah. You know, Scott Malof, I mean, people pay to get five minutes with that man. That's right. And to be able to hear some of the things that we're sharing right now and continue to talk about, it's it's about perspective and it's about what decisions we make with what the world throws at us, right? Yes. And so, like, what I would say is that kind of like to dovetail into kind of what y'all were just mentioning, you know, loss is loss. It sucks, it hurts, it might create sorrow, it might create pain, it might create grief, it might create depression, it might create all those things in one. Like it could be the whole bag of tricks, right? But what I really would hope that people that are listening to this that are going through their own loss or their own pain is like, what do people that the industry would say are like resilient winners in our industry, right? In real estate, which is just like it's just a piece of who we are. It's not who we are. Like I'm pretty confident in saying that, you know, like you know, Ronnie and I are are are actually very close, real close, like real close. And I'm I'm I'm privy to know a lot of the inner workings of his mind, you know, about how he sees the world as a dad, yeah, how he sees the world as a husband, how he sees the world as a believer, how he sees the world as a leader, right? So, like if people that are listening to this, and I and I think this is the beauty of today's conversation with with exactly who's in this room right now, is like, you know, Ronnie and I, when we go have dinner or when we meet for coffee, or when I'd call him for five minutes, or he calls me for five minutes, just for like like what we would say a consejo or like a like just a sidebar. Just a just a little bit of a like, hey, I need to pick your brain on something, right? Like, you know, it's not a matter of like, hey man, you know, how's your sales doing this week? Like we're it's never about that. It's about how would you lead in this situation?

unknown: 30:24

Yeah.

Jeff Garza: 30:24

It's about what would you tell this one agent who just came and told me this? Because I think I did right, but I need to check myself, right? And so the the ability that we have, the blessing that we have is how do we take our losses and how do we become a pillar or a beacon of hope for others, right? Because what Scott's talking about, what Ronnie's talking about is we are we're all gonna go through shit. Absolutely. Every day, yeah. We're all gonna go through shit, and we're gonna go through more loss. That is a guarantee of life. We're gonna go through more loss. But like Scott had mentioned, the choice to either stay stuck in victimhood, the choice to stay stuck in, well, this happened to me. Well, you have the option to happen back. You know, that's probably not even proper grammar, but I think everyone's understanding what you're doing.

Ronnie Trevino: 31:16

And I think that's true leadership, Jeff. What you're talking about is true leadership. Talking about Scott's losses, what we've gone through, what you've gone through, what Mark's gone through, all those losses, all those defining moments. Like that that's true leadership. And and for those that haven't truly experienced that while they're leading, maybe they haven't truly led because true leadership encompasses a lot of that pain, a lot of that loss, a lot of that, a lot of those, a lot of those failures. But it's like Scott said, it's how do we pivot from that and where do we go from there?

Scott Malouff : 31:57

Yeah. And when you when you start to get entrusted with more people in leadership, the more people that come in your world, the more you're gonna see other people going through situations where you can be empathetic because you've been through a lot of those situations. Yeah. And you're like, you know what? Maybe I went through that 10 years ago, five years ago, last month, because God was gonna put somebody else in my life that's going through the same thing. And now I'm able to show up for that person because I know how I went through it and how I got through it, and how I am today because of that.

Jeff Garza: 32:27

Now that even through the mistakes, uh-huh. Because going through some of the shit that we've all gone through, today I don't know that I would respond the way I did then. Totally. And so it's not like, hey, I got it right 10 years ago when I went through the same thing. So this is what you should do. Sometimes I come from the perspective, which I'm sure you do too, and everybody else is like, hey, man, I've been through that. And I wish I would have done that differently, maybe, because I think we're probably extreme critics of ourselves. Actually, I know you all personally. Absolutely. I think we're all very extremely critical of ourselves and how we show up and how we present to that person who might need help from us or whatever. So, yeah. Yeah, most definitely.

Mark Jones: 33:04

And and what you're talking about there is a deeper sense of the ethos that people talk, emotional intelligence, that by way of your journey, by way of your downfalls, by way of the seasons, it's shaped you. And and for example, when I got my first coach, we did the concept of EQ. And I read on emotional intelligence for the first time. And as I'm reading the book, I'm like, I know this stuff. Like that, I know the answer. I know how this should feel, I know how this person should respond. And all the while I'm thinking it's because I'm a chameleon. I can uh relate to anybody. But no, it was because I actually experienced a lot that allowed me to, like you said, kind of take a step back and go, okay, I I don't want to go that route. And now let me advise this person that's going through it right now that hey, this isn't the end. That this isn't the end of the world. It's now up to you to decide how this situation defines you.

Jeff Garza: 34:10

Let me jump in there. So to everybody's, we're all saying a very similar thing, but the loss doesn't have to stay a loss. Right. I know you were kind of hitting on that earlier. The loss doesn't have to stay a loss. It'll be my like, like, so I'll use a quick example, right? And I this may even turn into like what the next one was like, you know, be what got you into real estate or what got you to your top.

Mark Jones: 34:30

We're almost there. What's funny is as as I'm typing the ideas for questions, you guys are literally running into battle.

Jeff Garza: 34:36

Yeah, I'm like, well, it's a it's a natural discussion, right? So, like, you know, there was somebody profound in my world one time. They told me a really interesting thing. I looked at this person and I told them, I said, Man, I I wonder like what life would be like had I never started Redbird, my own independent brokerage, right? And this person looked at me and says, You realize, and this was very profound, like one of the most profound, most five profound things ever anyone ever told me. He says, You know, you realize you would not have ever started Redbird or ever thought about Redbird had your dad not passed. And for those that don't know, like Red Bird was my rally cry to my depression and my pain and my hurt and sorrow when my dad passed. And you know, I was, you know, I was at KW with these guys and doing my thing, yeah, you know, selling a hundred homes a year or whatever that was at the time, you know, enjoying it, you know. And then a life event happens, you know, what are the young folk? It's like a canon event, right? Like there's a there's a major chapter in the book, and you're like, oh my God, right? And the air went out, you know, the the cells started to fall down. And I'm like, man, I don't I don't know if I'm even passionate about selling a hundred homes anymore. Yeah. Where other people would trade to be in that position, you know, or whatever that was. Sure. But I was like, no, I I I need to do something different. I just felt a calling. And so then I go open up this company, name it Red Bird, you know, representative of the Cardinal, which is representative of a loved one past, right? And so, like, maybe people don't even know that story. But the the point was is that this person told me you wouldn't even have started Redbird. Redbird would have never even happened if your dad was still alive. And I'm like, what would I still be doing if I was still alive? He's still like you'd have like a top 10 team in the city and you'd still probably be at KW Heritage.

unknown: 36:38

Yeah.

Jeff Garza: 36:39

Like, but there were things that happened where I was like, I want to go chase something different because the calling that the internal compass got pulled, right? For me to go do something. My point being is that I chose to no longer let that hurt and pain be a forever loss. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a forever loss in this life. Because I'll be back with my dad one day, whenever that's that's meant to happen.

unknown: 37:04

Yeah.

Jeff Garza: 37:04

However, I could have stayed stuck there. Like, how dare the world throw that at me? Yeah. How dare he take, you know, the world take that away from me, you know? But it it happened, right? And so then it's like what you do in that loss, right? And so again, that victim mentality, that victimhood mindset, we can stay there or not. And and and again, as people are listening to this, we're not even talking about deals or commissions, which is great because I'm sure we're all tired of talking about that type of stuff. Like, I'm not gonna speak for myself, but like y'all three here are like big time winners, and people can learn from this about how you processed your loss or losses, yours and yours, right? And so, and that's what we do.

Mark Jones: 37:51

And that's that that's leading me to the the next kind of prompt before we get into the real estate side of things. All of these examples, all of these topics within these topics have to do with milestones, setbacks, getting knocked down. And you guys have all seen the Rocky movie where he's talking to his son, telling him life isn't about how you get knocked down, it's how you get up that that defines you. And I I'm I've I'm of the belief that the more I go through, the more I grow through, and it's been true thus far in my life, but we have all taken note about the victim mentality. So I ask what enables you guys to treat instead of it being a bad day, it's now a learning day, and that kick in the ass, what motivates you? And this is before even real estate, because you had to continue after the setbacks to even get on that path of real estate where you are now. But what is it something inside of you? Because there are many folks that have gone through similar situations. We're we're not the only ones that go through these things. We feel like it at the time, always. Like you said, it's the worst thing ever.

Ronnie Trevino: 39:22

That's a that's a great, that's a great question. I want to I wanna chime in on that one. Please. That's a that's a good one. Yeah. I think that one of the the things that that enables uh enables us to to change that is you know, we're all talking about and we're all sharing tremendous stories of grief.

unknown: 39:42

Yeah.

Ronnie Trevino: 39:43

And in the end, we're we're actually I think that's an those tremendous moments of grief or loss in the end end up becoming really big wins. Like I was thinking about wins on my Way over here, and I mentioned it earlier. It didn't have anything to do with like how many agents we recruited or you know what we did as a company, the businesses that I've created along with my partners or whatever. You know, the the biggest win for me was actually overcoming the grief of the passing of my son and and learning how to take that grief and then really see the the true passion in what I'm doing. So I'll and I'll elaborate a little bit more on that. You know, a lot of people don't know this, but when I was selling real estate back in the day and and an agent, a lot of times I would get awards, and people would tell me, man, you never really boast about what you're doing. And you're just out there doing deals and you'll get awards, but you just go back to work. And and the truth of the matter was that I really didn't have time to go out there and party and do stuff. Right. When when Christian was in the depths of his addiction, I was working my ass off to put him through rehab whenever he had to go through rehab. And then the times where he would overdose and I would spend time with him, then I'd have to be with him and you know, show properties with him and just haul them around with me to make sure he wouldn't stray off. And today, my true passion comes from helping people that have that same story. Because if it wouldn't have been for this business and this industry, there's no way I would have been able to take care of my son and put him in rehab and do all that stuff for him and spend time with him during that whole time. Right. If it wasn't for this industry that allowed me to go ahead and work my own hours, drop everything that I was doing on a dime, and then go and tend to my family. Right. So today, all those losses, all that pain, all that grief, it's I'm passionate about this industry and about helping others achieve that. Because if it wasn't for this business, I would have never been able to take care of my family during all that, during all those hard times.

Mark Jones: 42:00

So, Ronnie, you mentioned that all of these losses ended up being wins, but that is a matter of perspective. At what point in your growth, in your journey, did you start seeing that as a learning example or as a win? Was it not until you fast track that you're able to look back? Or is it a part of the decision-making process at a certain point? Does that make sense? And yeah, and the reason why I ask is now in my older age, older age, my middle-age self, your prime. There you go, my prime, damn it. That's right. I'm able to quickly take a downfall and go, okay, this is what I was supposed to learn. Thank you, Lord, for putting that in my path. Because had he not sharpened that tool, had he not, I don't know, carried me for that moment, who knows where I would have been.

Ronnie Trevino: 43:06

Yeah, you know, that's a great question. And I know exactly how to answer that because Scott Scott mentioned it earlier. He when he was talking about, oh geez, I lost my train of thought.

Mark Jones: 43:18

That's okay. That's okay. What were you talking about earlier, Scott?

Ronnie Trevino: 43:22

He was talking about a lot of things, but I think it's Scott mentioned, and now I know where I'm going. Scott mentioned that you know, some of the people that he used to hang out with back in the day, some of the middle schoolers, they still think that he's there, right? That's that's who he is today. Well, if I would have continued hanging out with those people, those failures would have been, they would have been failures. And I would have fallen to the depths of those failures. You know what I mean? Back then with those people. But it's ever since I started hanging out with a different group of people.

unknown: 43:56

Yeah.

Ronnie Trevino: 43:57

And and, you know, I'm just gonna give credit where credit is due. Back in 2015, I joined the brokerage where there was incredible people that mentored me. And I was very, very fortunate to have people like Steve Collins, Craig Owen, yeah, pour into me and you know, help change that that mindset. I remember the first appointment that I had with with our boy Steve Collins. It was, it was, you know, I was a high-producing realtor, and he asked me about my personal life, and I started telling him, Well, my marriage is in shambles, recovering alcoholic, and I'm over a hundred grand in debt with the IRS. And I remember him listening to me for a couple minutes, and then he shut his folder and he said, Man, you know what? Before we can even move forward with business, I need you to call this therapist, set up an appointment with him, because if if your family and your mind isn't right, there's no way your business is gonna be right. That's exactly right. So it was it was just hanging out with people like that who had that perspective. And once I I started hanging out with people that were giving me that those giving me those tools to to equip myself. Well, I mean, I didn't want to go as far as you know, I didn't want to go back.

Mark Jones: 45:10

I'll I'll say you started hanging out with people that respected you and probably respected themselves at a at a certain point. That is maybe what allowed you to see that putting it into perspective, going, okay, this this is the path that I'm supposed to be on. I am making the right decisions now. I'm gonna keep making the right decisions now, if that makes sense.

Ronnie Trevino: 45:35

And I'll and I'll add one more thing. Yeah. Whenever I met my wife, Sophia, I honestly like whenever I met her, I I knew she was like a huge step up. She comes from a different family. And and when I saw her, I was like, there's no way that she would go for a damaged person like me. Yeah. And that woman, I don't know what it is that she saw in me. Like I was broken. I was an addict. I was I wasn't a great human being. Yeah, I was, but she saw potential in me. And she was, she was always, you know, every time I would fall, she'd be there. She's my cheerleader. Yeah. Hey, get back up. You're so capable. You're you're the you're really smart. You're a great businessman. Just keep going. Just keep get back up. And she was always pushing me, pushing me, pushing me. She still does today. So, you know, having a good spouse, having a good partner also helps too.

Mark Jones: 46:28

I would have to agree with that. My wife saved me. I was running and gunning and fell head over heels. We joke about it. We joke about it.

Ronnie Trevino: 46:36

Like you said, where would I be today if I wouldn't have met her? Absolutely.

Jeff Garza: 46:40

Probably in jail. I'm gonna jump in real quick, man. You know, the humility that he demonstrated in that moment in Steve Collins' office, we weren't there, but he just told us basically like as if we were a fly on the wall. And again, for those who are watching and listening, there's so much to learn from that, you know? There's so much to learn from that humble approach and and the humility involved, right?

unknown: 47:06

Yeah.

Jeff Garza: 47:06

And I think we're we're definitely not the the the young cats in the industry. We're definitely not the old heads either, but we're we're in our prime, right? And you know, I'll I'm gonna go on a ledge and speak for all of us. Like, you know, if someone wants to enter my sphere, my sphere, right? Whatever that looks like, our world, I I I don't really care too much about like how much real estate you sell. That's right. That really is not that relevant, just truthfully to me. I want to know what kind of person you are.

Mark Jones: 47:36

Yes, sir. And because in in that case, what you're talking about, you're referring to someone that defines themselves by right. Right. I sell this many homes. Right. Okay, yeah, but who who are you?

Jeff Garza: 47:51

Right. And and I think that you know, a lot of people can stand to learn from what Ronnie just put out there, and everybody, like, you know, because because I know you've had past episodes about like, you know, the whole like the social media influencer and what's an influencer, and you know, the people doing all the the crazy flips and tricks on on video and stuff like that, which I get all of it. It's all good, and it's all it all, there's a place for all of it, right? There's a place for all of it. I'm not gonna be the guy to to crap on in and say there's not. There is, but man, like to be able to throw yourself to the mercy of the court in a coaching scenario, right? That was that was like a coaching meeting. Yeah, that was you know first coaching meeting. Like, I mean, that's that that's a good coach. Because what he's done is he's empowered the guy at that time who he engaged with to coach him into becoming a better business man, entrepreneur, whatever that was. He empowered him to actually help him. Yes, right, because everybody has shit. And everybody like I deal with, I mean, I have a large organization. Yeah, and man, like everybody has something. Trust me, you know, it's just a matter of like, are you willing to be honest and open about it? And are you trusting enough of someone? And I always tell people, like, you know, we've heard this, it's it's it's you know, it's it's this meme or it's cliche, right? You know, success leaves tracks or success leaves clues, right? And so if you're going through shit, he went through shit, but he figured out how to bust through that. That's right. And how to crack that code, right? And all of us at this table have been been influenced by the people he mentioned. Like, you know, man, I learned some of my most valuable entrepreneur lessons by having breakfast with Craig open Craig Owen or dinner with Craig Owen. Yeah, you know, and the things that they imparted on me, and I'm I'm sure on Scott, and I know on Ronnie, right? Like, but we also have the opportunity to impart some of that wisdom on the next round of people that maybe are coming up behind us. And I think that's the part about legacy. I think that's the part about humility, I think that's the part about us not necessarily walking around town like our shit don't stink, like because that's not how any of us operate, you know? And I think that's the beauty of the conversation today, because I personally I've been in the industry long enough to know that I think almost everyone at this table is misunderstood. I think everyone at this table in this industry, we're speaking specific specific to San Antonio. I think a lot of people think they know Ronnie and they don't. I think a lot of people think they know Scott and I'm sure they don't, and so on and so forth. And so I think there's just something pretty magical about like, you know, these big names and big producers and with volume and sales and records and awards, like you mentioned, you know. But man, at the end of the day, what's the real story? There's more there's right way more behind it, man. There's a lot behind it.

Mark Jones: 50:50

So I want to dive into the real estate side for the last 30 minutes of this, but before I do, I I want to ask you, Scott. We've talked about the concept of and and shared some of the tragedies, some of the uh uh landmines that we've stepped on. And for you, what is it that motivates you, pushes you, drags you, steers you, whatever verb you want to use to keep going, to push past because I mean we we talked about it. Many people out there are they have us misunderstood. Why? Because they don't see what's behind the curtain. And as a matter of fact, this episode, this discussion is almost a hey guys, take some of this uh advice. Why? Because we care enough to be sharing this stuff with you, technically, you know. So for you, what what what you've been through some shit, man.

Scott Malouff : 51:55

For me, it's people, and I know it's it's the same for Jeff and Ronnie and and you. When because my team is is the size of a a small brokerage. Yeah. And when you start a team, when you start a brokerage, it's no longer about you, it's about them. And it's figuring out what's important to them to be able to help them achieve what they're looking to achieve. Yeah, when you take that role and you take the responsibility, you have to show up.

unknown: 52:20

Yeah.

Scott Malouff : 52:21

And there's gonna be days where you're like, man, I just got beat up, you know, an hour ago. Yet I'm still gonna show up as my best version for this person. I have to be the best version of myself. So it's how you let things affect you. So there's a book called The Power of Moments, and it talks a lot about that and how you how things go. And for me, it's that mindset. If it if it's not gonna matter in five years, it shouldn't matter in five minutes. So I let go of things fast. I let go of things fast. And when I look at, you know, the business and how we're growing it, it's not just about transactions. When we looked at different organizations around the world, around the country, and we were like, okay, what is our goal to mimic as an organization that is gonna create a culture that I'm going to show up every day and we're gonna have the right culture that's gonna help people grow. And the organization that made the most sense was a mega church. And how mega churches thrive are through their small groups. So with our in our team, we have faith, we have wellness, we have philanthropy, we have education, we have events, we have social, and then we do things every month when it comes to that. So we have our team's woman Bible study, a team Bible study, philanthropy. We do our give backs. So there's there's a lot we do that is not just like, hey, how many calls did you make today? Right. It's like, hey, we're gonna go serve the community today. We're gonna go give back, we're gonna do this. And and and they feel that and they understand that it's is a bigger purpose and there's and there's a bigger purpose on what we do when we show up. And when that happens, life changes. Amen. Wow, hell of it. Absolutely, man.

Mark Jones: 53:53

So I don't want to waste any time as we transition into the the real estate, what what everybody came here to hear about in talking about how you got into real estate and all that stuff. What we're we're deep in it, guys. We're we're in it. As we roll into 2026, I want to ask you guys, what what was one of or some of your biggest struggles, some biggest landmines, maybe some bombs that uh you went through in 2025?

Jeff Garza: 54:25

I'll jump on it first. So for me, man, and hopefully I'll get y'all laugh from this one because we all need a good chuckle. But 25 was just an extension of 23 and 24. I mean, in a sense, right? Like I have a saying, you know, good friend of mine, winners win, losers lose. Winners are gonna find a way to win. Right. And closers are gonna close, you know, all the cliches, whatever the market throws at us, all of us here are sophisticated enough to make adjustments to account for that market to continue to win, right?

Mark Jones: 54:55

Yeah, but but spell that word sophisticated.

Jeff Garza: 54:58

Yeah, yeah. So, but but what I'm trying to say is like ultimately we also know the weather. Yeah, we know it was a little cloudy out. We know that sellers aren't really too motivated to sell because buyers aren't really too motivated to buy, and people are still waiting for two and a quarter interest rate, which is never gonna happen, and they're getting bad advice from their TIA, who never owned a home, and and all these other things, right? But you know, my answer is like 2025 literally was just an extension of 23 and 24. I do believe, and I hope I would imagine everybody here believes that 26 is probably a rebound year, and then we probably all would believe that 27 is probably gonna go off, you know, go off the chain, which is gonna be really cool for us. I think you know it's all cyclical. However, what I would say deeper is for me, at in my position, the struggle or the pain is always maintaining the morale because I'm not gonna say that someone who's over two people has it less, I just have it more frequent. Yeah, because I have a pretty sizable organization. Correct. So I have to work through when I see agents having their struggle in their moment, right? Yeah. So I wouldn't necessarily say, like, you know, did 2025 do Jeff Dirty? I'm just gonna say 2025 played its part into giving pushback to a lot of my agents who I'm rooting for.

unknown: 56:30

Yeah.

Jeff Garza: 56:31

And who I want to see them be very successful. And so I have to almost play like weatherman and psychologist in one and tell them this is the weather, this is how we dress for it tomorrow, this is the forecast for next month, and this is how we plan for it tomorrow. But I also have to remind you, if you're gonna win, you're still gonna win and keep them motivated, right? So for me, the struggle for me has always been how do you keep that morale high? How do you keep them engaged? How do you keep them coming back for more? Right. Because getting getting jabbed up in the corner and you know, that upper hook, you know, getting boxed up really good, yeah, you know, which the industry can do. And I mean, I mean, let's let's let's talk lenders real quick. In the last three years, what are we less less than 75,000 lenders across the US? Yeah. And now it's what do you think it is today?

Mark Jones: 57:22

Oh, goodness. I mean, it's dropped at least at very minimum by two-thirds. Yeah, two not even joking.

Jeff Garza: 57:29

Two-thirds of all mortgage originators, lenders, yeah, in the last 36 years. I should say gone for the moment. Gone for the moment, yes. But gone. Yeah, gone, right? So, like, yes, did a scott continue to figure out how to win with the the winds and the tides? Of course. Did I? I feel like did Ronnie, of course. We we all grew. That's right. I think we all grew during this time. Absolutely. But again, it it I did not tackle it like, hey guys, it's a shitty time. We need to keep pumping those numbers. So make more calls and make more documents. I don't that wasn't me. I was like, let's get real with your financials, let's get real with what it takes to run your household, and let's start getting excited even for smaller wins. Absolutely. Because smaller wins will keep you coming back for more. The bigger win may be a year away from now. That's right. So for me, it was a morale and a culture, keeping that culture. I've always told people building a culture, starting a culture is easy. Yeah. Maintaining it is hard. Absolutely. And and that was my hard is making sure that my agents or people that are in my stratosphere, whether it be industry affiliates, vendors, clients, consumers, customers, agents, prospects, whatever the term is, that they saw that there was hope. Yes. And I always told my agents throughout this storm, make sure that when they talk to you, they don't feel like you have no hope. Yes. Because you might be the only person that has it. And you can't be their dream pressure, you know, because we might have had a bad, bad month in commissions. That's true.

Mark Jones: 59:03

And a lot of this is perspective based. Yeah. And I'll compare it oddly to, let's say, a basketball team, to where you've got your starters that get to have more of the reps. Life's about life's about getting in those reps so that you can start to see patterns in those reps. You can start to do it with your eyes closed, type concept, because you've done it so many times or you've been kicked in the dirt so many times. And 22, 23, 24, if you're a realtor that, or lender for that matter, that was struggling but chose to pack it up, you packed it up at a time where you could have been a starter. And why I say that is the the herd was thinned out to where it's now your time to shine. But if you don't have that mindset, that perspective of I've Been through this shit and I know what to do now. Unfortunately, you packed it up instead of rising to the occasion, instead of doubling down on more marketing, doubling down on the phone calls, that kind of concept, if that makes sense. And I guarantee you, younger us give us this market 10 years ago, we would have still crushed it. It was the hunger, it was the passion, it was the honestly, it was the new discovery of financial freedom. Uh, in in the in the I can see it. This this is starting to make sense now. My good choices are adding up. I'm gonna make some more tough good choices in in that aspect. But let's move it to the real estate. Well, actually, I we only got Jeff's side. Who who's up next? What would was 2025?

Ronnie Trevino: 1:00:51

You know, for for me, 2025 was a pivotal year because there's a lot that I learned in in the business that I never really delved into or thought about too much. One of them being that when I started this brokerage, I started this with with people because I had a vision to grow a brokerage and to scale a brokerage with with with people. And you know, I've always valued as people being the most important part of your business. Not a CRM, it's not a website, it's the people. And 2025 was a year where I feel comfortable in my own skin, but at the same time, there's there's people that I partnered with that I've lost. And it sucks because you think that these are your people, and then they end up and then they end up going. They end up leaving somewhere else. So for me, learning how to deal with those losses or those separations has been has been a big a big deal for me. And then also learning how to face decisions head on and not isolate because in the past a lot of times you mean like freeze up and and and let it linger, freeze up, let it linger, not take action. And today I'm I'm passionate about the people in our organization. So for me, 2025 was a year where I really learned how to just have faith and and really lean into trusting in in God and trusting in our higher power and also having having faith that things are gonna work out and that if as long as you're doing the right thing and you're taking care of of God's children, then God's gonna take care of you and and the business is gonna keep moving forward. So 2025 was very pivotal, pivotal. I learned a lot in business, I learned a lot in in in who is in business with you. You know, there's there's there's things that that I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for that pressure that's allowed me to to take that next next step forward for my people because we're not building something that's gonna just stay local. Like if we're gonna build something that's gonna scale, you gotta get uncomfortable, you gotta be able to get out there and be courageous for your people. So 2025 for me was was pivotal in the fact that I was able to show up of it. Yeah, risk it for the biscuit, absolutely. Risk it for the biscuit. I like her.

Scott Malouff : 1:03:28

Yeah, yeah, I understand what Ronnie's saying. I mean, because with the team and with the brokerage, you you get people in your world, and you're like, man, this is like a relationship. Yet there's certain people that are opportunists that you you have a blind spot to. And I've had that over over time. And I'm I've had, you know, Victoria, she's been with me now for nine years, and uh my director of operations. And she's like, Hey, you you need to watch this person. And I'm like, Jesus kept Judas around. Like, I know, like, I understand, like, you're good. And then when it happens, like it it it hurts, but it's like you knew that person was just there as an opportunist, and another opportunity comes, they think is better, they're gonna go with that opportunity. So I I've learned to kind of understand people and kind of just know not that I say I put them in buckets, I just I just know what's important to people. I didn't and I and I get to know them better, like sure. Have them take their love languages now, do certain things like that. To answer your question though, this year it's it's kind of similar to Jeff, you know, 23, 24. 23 and 24, I got hit by in the job. Even though the business was going up, I didn't fire nobody, I didn't let go of nobody. So my PLs stayed the same. Yet the you know, there there was there was ups and downs. And I'm like, man, this month I lost 50,000. This month, like that's how how like 23 and 24 is going. Right. And I was like, man, what am I gonna do? And I was getting distracted too. Like I was getting hit with uh, you know, all these other there's title here, and you know, get your mortgage license here and lose this and do that. I'm like, and I'm like, you know what? That's that's what I need to do. Then that's gonna be my saving grace. And I just got very distracted on other businesses that took away from the business. And this year I was I was blessed that so I we started a property management company about three years ago, and we grew it, and we got to about 70 properties, and and I you know, I had full-time staff and everything. And I'm I'm sitting with my coach, I have a couple of a couple coaches. So this was you know, Steve is still one of our coaches, but yeah, I have another coach named Jordan Freed. And he's like, Okay, so how's the property management going? Let's look at the P House. I'm like, I'm just barely breaking even like I have 70 properties, I'm barely breaking even, getting more calls on this than I am on my real estate like business. And he's okay, let's grow 200 properties. How much are you making? I said, At that point, I'm making about 8,000 a month. He said, You got 100 properties, you got this, this, and that, you got staff, you got liability. What if you just sell one more house a month? How much you gonna make? I'm like, damn, that's the same I'm making on these hundred properties from like perspective. Yeah, so I so I was like, you know what? So I I got with you know a couple people I know that was in the property management, and I sold it for a good amount that made sense and have that partnership now to where it let go of certain things. And I'm like, okay, even though I thought that this was what's gonna help me get here, this was gonna help kind of just plug this hole. I just need to stay focused on what I know I'm good at and just continue to focus on my people, even show up for my people. And it's it's easy in this business to get distracted by all the shiny objects. Yeah, and that's that happened a lot. Yeah, man, that's a good one. Absolutely.

Mark Jones: 1:06:27

Yeah, and I and I think I think more people listening to this can relate to what you guys are talking about than they would even go as far to admit.

Jeff Garza: 1:06:38

Exactly. Uh kudos to you, Scott. Like, hats off to you, or my elf head or my Santa head. You know, for him to say something like, you know, in 23 and 24, like, man, I got my jaw broken, you know, into 78 pieces. That's not what you said. But it felt like it to us. Absolutely, you know, and and when I'm like, who's us? Like, why am I speaking for Scott? No, I'm just speaking about for people who create jobs. Yes. I'm talking about people who spend a lot of money to market a name and a brand. I'm talking about people who, no matter how cloudy it is out tomorrow, we're still going outside. That's right. And that's not for everybody, and that's not gonna be everybody. But if an agent listening to this lost in one shape or form or manner, when you hear someone like Scott say, like, man, you know, shit, I I took it for 50 grand this month, like the only thing that changes is really zeros and commas. That's right. But the loss is still a loss. The loss is still a loss, sir. And I I would, I would, I would put everything I have on it that if I ever reached out to anybody here at this table, I'm like, hey, I want to buy dinner, I want to talk about business, something or another. I think everybody would say yes. Absolutely. I believe that. Absolutely. Because we know that we're willing to have such a raw conversation about whatever it is that might be on our mind. And we also know that there's only so many people that live in that life or have lived in that life, you know, whether it be the coaches that you know we employ today to help us go to other levels or people that we know that are in it, right? And so that goes back to like the biblical term, which is like seek wise counsel, right? You know, I mean, like we got to be equally yoked in business. Yes. That's you know, you you hit one on the like, man. I I had to kind of pull back on some things over the last three years that were not serving me and the whole, right? That were taking more, that were detracting more than addition, you know, adding to what we were doing. And so so through some of those rough times and those ebbs and flows, the the beautiful part about uh the mindset of a realtor, generally speaking, is that we all believe we can get a deal to get out of our next problem with the next deal, because we all believe we can make money tomorrow, which we technically can. We've proven that we can. That's right, right? But it's not necessarily easy. No one ever guaranteed that it was easy. But I know that we're all mavericks enough to be like, man, I'm gonna have a shitty month, but watch me next month. Watch me go off, right? I'm gonna go off for 48, you know, or whatever. I'm gonna be Steph Curry and I'm gonna drain 52 tonight, right? Like that's how we kind of perform, right? We're just performing in in the entrepreneur real estate sect, right, if you will. But ultimately, I think people listening to this really, really need to hear that people that they might want to emulate or appreciate or respect go through this shit. It's just another zero, another comma. That's right. And it doesn't make ours any worse or theirs any less. Like, you know, I mean, it it sucks. And and we're and that's I think the beauty of the conversation, which is like, you know, moving into 26, like, what are we gonna do to continue to be providers, to to continue to protect what we've built and to continue to build for the people that entrust us to lead them to something better for tomorrow, right? Because, you know, you know, I have this one, you know, person in my organization, and you know, she told me recently, you know, because I've always had, you know, there's there's there's hunters and there's gatherers, right? There's people that are willing to go on the canoe with one paddle, it's got holes. I'm gonna go with the harpoon, grab the whale, you know, and bring the whale back, and then I'm gonna feed the village, right? And then there's people waiting at the pier to get the whale, right? And then she told me recently, she's like, Well, there's hunters and there's skinners.

Mark Jones: 1:10:22

Yeah, that I've always used that.

Jeff Garza: 1:10:23

You know, she was like, you know, because because you need to bring in what you bring in, but you also probably don't want to touch all the blood and gut. So let me handle that, right? And so it's it's it's realizing like there's so many people in this world with so many talents that we people like ourselves need to figure out what are we really good at, and we need to probably stay in that lane. And and leadership is not for everybody.

Mark Jones: 1:10:45

Agree.

Jeff Garza: 1:10:46

Coaching is not for everybody, being a mentor is not for everybody, and being a trainer is not for everybody. And I and I really am passionate about that because I feel like our industry, I feel I'm gonna say this, and this is probably gonna get me banned from San Antonio real estate mixers or something like that.

Mark Jones: 1:11:04

You're uncancelable.

Jeff Garza: 1:11:05

Yes, so my my headset is long enough because it's about to get hot. Yep, there we go. But but ultimately, here's the deal. I feel like agents as a whole are suckers. I've I've been one. I've bought that new lead system many moons ago because they promised me the world when I was young, right? And then I'm like, man, I can I can outperform that lead system if I go door knock tomorrow. That's right. And I can put it all in my own hands. I can outperform that lead system in cold call tomorrow because no one can convert better than I can. That's at least the mindset, right? It goes back to Steph Curry or Michael Jordan or whoever, like they didn't take the court thinking they sucked. They took the court being like, I'm the man, right? Yeah, you know, or I'm I'm I'm I'm the gal, right? I'm I'm the person that's gonna make it happen, right? And so what I mean by that is like, you know, if you're great at training, stay there and keep on keep on empowering more. If you're great at mentoring, stay there. If you're great at leading, stay there. But just because you've maybe witnessed someone like Scott or Ronnie over the years become what they've become and build what they've built, doesn't necessarily mean that you would even want to be a day in their financial shoes or their personal shoes or their faith shoes. Because, man, if if if nothing will test test your faith more than looking at your bank account, act like a freaking, you know, water boiling and and getting cold and boiling and getting cold and boiling, and you're like, wait, what's what is it today? That's right, you know? I mean, because it's very fluid, right? And and obviously that's not how we want to run our business, and that's not the way we should run our business. I'm just saying it can happen, right? And so we've all been there. And so I what I'm saying is to all the realtors out there, don't be suckers. Believe in you more than anyone else believes in you. And that's what's been one of my struggles over the years is like, I believe so much in every person that walks through my my door that that might be like my secret sauce, but that also might be something that can deflate me if I want it more for them than they want it, right? And so for every agent out there listening, even especially like the brand, brand new ones, nobody is gonna make you successful. It's gonna fall on you. If you were gonna be successful at X brokerage, you were gonna be successful at Y brokerage because you were gonna have the successful person traits. Yeah. You were gonna have the successful person attack, you were gonna have the successful person energy. And all of us have been in the industry long enough that when we find that person, we know it in 30 seconds. We're like you're about to be someone big here. That's exactly what you're about to start doing things, right?

Ronnie Trevino: 1:13:42

I want to elaborate on what both of you guys said. But, you know, Scott, thanks for being vulnerable and sharing that story about the property management company. Because, like you, man, in 2023, 2024, we're there looking at the saving grace, the the shiny object that's gonna save us and is gonna, you know, allow us to offset operating expenses so that we can continue casting vision and growing the organization. That's right. Yep. And I think one of the biggest lessons for me in 2025 was realizing that maybe I'm not the best at everything. And and I was actually gonna touch on that. Um realizing and and it was it was through loss, you know, that it was through the loss and the grief that I couldn't operate, that I kind of just, you know, wanted to give up, but the organization didn't give up. Correct. So the people in the organization stood up, and I was able to s to learn that maybe they are better at running the organization than I am, and maybe I should just continue doing what I'm good at.

Mark Jones: 1:14:50

So you're saying you learn how to get out of your own way?

Ronnie Trevino: 1:14:54

Learn how to get out of my own way. And, you know, I think that was a a big uh lesson for me, too. Like, just because I'm a badass real estate agent doesn't mean that I'm gonna be able to open up a property management company that it's gonna flourish.

Mark Jones: 1:15:06

Yes, you know what I mean? But you had to attempt it to get that out of your system. You had to, you we had to go down those roads. Jeff, you mentioned a couple of things that I just took a quick note that I want to just bring up. You talked about strengths, weaknesses, you kind of piggybacked off of that. And I think a lot of matter of fact, probably all of us at a certain point realized that you know what? I am really good at this. I should probably stop trying to get good at these things that I'm not good at and either hire for them, or I'm just not intending to be doing that, period. I think that is a lot of folks' struggle is learning how to let go, knowing what your strengths are. I don't have somebody take a strength test to find out what they're not good at to make them better. No, I want to find out what you're good at, and I want to find out what you're not so that we can scrap that, replace that, automate that, what have you. The other topic is the lion and the gazelle. There's a mindset that that each of us have. And I learned this story, gosh, probably day one when I got in the business, when old John Golder walked in my office and handed me a brass number two. And he said, Hey, you've had crazy six months. Like I've never seen somebody close that much business, not knowing what the hell they're doing. And I'm like, Yeah, this is awesome. He slapped that number two on my desk and he said, Just remember, there's always somebody better. So keep running. And that's when he told me about the lion and the gazelle. And every morning the lion wakes up and he's got to be running for that food. And every morning, the other perspective is that gazelle needs to be running for their life. And if they don't wake up and start running, one of them is either not gonna eat, the other one is gonna be eaten. And that is kind of innate in me. I learned that concept day one in the business, and it's carried forward. And I'm hoping others out there can grab that. And then the last piece was the conversations you mentioned, being able to share things with like-minded individuals. And I think this podcast has saved me thousands in therapy sessions, and and the reason being is over the years in running this, I've gotten to share conversations like this with like-minded individuals. With yes, it is fantastic to get to learn as many people that I have and go into the depths and then take what they've learned or gone through and apply it to my everyday life, but even more so it lets me know that I'm not alone in this fight that I chose to do, if that makes sense. Because a lot of folks through my life have gone, well, why do you do that to yourself? Why do you work so hard? Why, why it's it's 12 o'clock at night. What are you doing? And having these conversations puts it back into perspective. It it it confirms the mindset that I have, the drive that I have, the way that I made that decision after going through failure to get my ass back up and keep on pushing. And you guys have shared that today. I mean, that is gosh. I'm hoping that this goes into the depths of these folks, not just to their ears, but to their soul, right? So that they don't have to go through some of the hardships that that we have gone through.

Ronnie Trevino: 1:18:53

Well, first of all, Mark, I I'm I just man, I feel really compelled compelled to tell you this because you just mentioned something and you mentioned that this has saved you thousands of dollars in therapy. And and as somebody who truly believes in in seeing a therapist if you need one, right? I just want to tell you, I wanna I want to thank you actually, because whenever I walked in here before everyone came in, we were we were I was sharing a little bit about personal right, we're personal stuff. And a lot of times, you know, like the passing of my son is is a delicate absolutely for a lot of people, they could see that as like a trigger, right? Yeah, but honestly, when someone asks me about Christian, I love it. Like I love it so much because I'm able to talk about him, I'm able to remember him, and it's just so therapeutic for me to let it out. And whenever I'm able to talk to people like you guys in this room about things like that, that's what keeps the business going forward. That's what keeps me passionate, that's what keeps me grounded, that's what keeps me being a good dad, a good husband. It's it's sharing those things with you guys and talking about it and being vocal. Yeah. And and finding that group, right? Who are your people? I consider you guys my people. You know, I know we don't spend a lot of time outside of doing us doing this out there, but I'm sure if we were to run into each other, you know, we'd have a good old time. Yeah.

Mark Jones: 1:20:21

And and I think that stems from the roots of our experiences, the mindset and the drive that we have individually and then getting together collaboratively for the confirmation. I'm not crazy type concept. Like, okay, I'm not the only one. And it is a good feeling that that confirmation of just one day we'll be able to enjoy these fruits, but right now we're gonna keep watering. We're gonna keep watering. And that being said, guys, I want to I'm gonna go over. Screw it. Last question for you guys as we roll in to 2026, what is your vision for this coming year? Uh it's easy to say it's gonna be a great year. Real talk. What what what what do you guys have cooking for this coming year that will continue the mindset, the drive, the confirmation that all that shit that you guys went through wasn't for nothing.

Scott Malouff : 1:21:33

Anyone? All right, so all these deep questions. I went to uh a wedding in May and it was a girl that was that was on my team, she's still technically on my team, and she now lives in uh in Dubai. And we went on a team trip three years ago, and when we were there, she met a guy at a pool party. He lived in Barcelona. She he flew out here a couple times, she flew out there a couple times. So she ends up going to uh Barcelona for a summer, and she comes back and she said, Hey Scott, I'm getting married in Italy. And I'm like, All right, cool. I said, All right, we'll get married in. She's like, I want you to be there. Because, you know, I was when I took her on a team trip, that's where she met the guy, so I was like, all right, there's a little domino effect. So you buy me a ticket? I mean, they he the the guy he's he's well off, the guy that that she ended up marrying. So I'm at this wedding, and there's 28 countries being represented at this wedding. It's in Tuscany and it's a million-dollar wedding. And the father-in-law gets up and he looks at everybody and he says, Welcome to my dinner, all you poor people. I'm like, I'm like, damn, he got my attention. Right. So he does his whole speech, and while I'm at the wedding, I meet a guy named Peter. Peter lives in uh Bangkok. And I start talking to Peter, and Peter's like, you know, I've been in business with the father-in-law, X, Y, Z, for a certain amount of years. So I'm like, okay, so a couple days later, I'm in Rome, it's the final dinner, and the father-in-law comes up to me and he said, You met my business partner, Peter. He's like, he's very fond of you. He's like, Me and Peter went in business together in 1978. We went deep into China, deep into the jungle where nobody would go. And he said, by 1993, we went we well, when they went back after 1978, he picked three countries in Europe, Peter picked three countries in Europe, and by 1993, we were the biggest furniture distributors in all of Europe and have been since then. And I'm like, damn, they're just the middleman.

unknown: 1:23:32

Wow.

Scott Malouff : 1:23:32

They went into China and they did this. So on that plane ride home, I started looking deep into like, you know, Amazon and certain things. And I have a cousin that does like drop shipping. He he made 400,000 last year. Another cousin that made a little over 300,000 last year, just drop shipping just different products. And I started just going down this long rabbit hole. While I'm doing that, I've come to across a fair called the Canton Fair. And the Canton Fair is where like every every factory in Asia go to this one fair and they sell their stuff at the lowest of the low. So while I'm going down that rabbit hole, I'm also going down the future of what real estate looks like. And I'm looking at 3D bills and I'm looking at modular homes, and I'm, you know, looking at Boxable, which is in Vegas, and certain companies like that, and seeing, you know, by 2035, over 50% of homes that are going to be built are going to either be 3D or modular. That's right. Compared to what right now we're dealing with the stick and the wood.

Mark Jones: 1:24:30

And what he means, guys, is at that point in time, within our industry, within the development and growth of AI and everything else, machinery, machines will be building our homes, not people.

Scott Malouff : 1:24:44

Not so while I was doing that, I look into China, and China's been doing that for 25 years. So I started going down the deep rabbit hole with that. And I found the biggest modular building company that's been around since the 80s. They started with clean air, and then they they do they do 28-story apartment complexes within 14 days because they have the robots already in the factories. So I flew to China about a month ago, and I spent two and a half weeks there, and I met with the CEO, I met with the chairman, and I went just like a deep dive with those people to see how can we bring that to the U.S. And with that, I ended up making a partnership with somebody else that follows me on my social media in Dubai and connected that while also meeting with the chairman again in LA about bringing that to LA and helping him find a factory to start in California and grow from that. So as you say, moving into 2026.

Mark Jones: 1:25:43

Did you did you advise him on those taxes in California?

Scott Malouff : 1:25:46

I mean, he the price, the price they they build at with the with the machinery and the technology they got, worth it. They're good. Yeah. Because these are better builds. Concrete, concrete builds with steel reinforcement. They're faster builds, and the and they're going to be more cost effective. So it knocks, it checks a lot of boxes off. And if you're able to build a house in three days, that's 2,500 square feet, and you're able to build them at you know less than $100 a square foot, and you know, there's just a lot that is going to be able to help the home building long term.

Mark Jones: 1:26:20

So you're saying that may solve the affordability issue if people don't get greedy.

Scott Malouff : 1:26:25

It's going to.

Mark Jones: 1:26:26

Yeah.

Scott Malouff : 1:26:27

And it's it's just you just I might sound crazy today and we can look at the code. No, not at all. Yeah. Yet the way technology is going and the way the growth of that is gonna go, you just have to be ready for it. So my thing is just I want to, I don't want to be the last one to the dance. Yeah. And, you know, I'll I'll put it out there because just this is what I'm doing. This is the journey I'm going down right now, is figuring out the modular world, figuring out who I need to be in a relationship with, and just making sure that we're at the dance when it's time to show up.

Mark Jones: 1:26:58

Matter of fact, my largest pool of transactions within the past two years has been a manufactured home builder Titan Factory. I'm one of their preferred and their modular homes after modular homes, the cost efficiency of that. I mean, it's it's it's nuts how, like you said, and I'm gonna compare it to fully autonomous vehicles. We have the ability right now to deploy those things throughout the country right now. As a matter of fact, it would reduce the amount of deaths astronomically. But the issue is let one person pass away from a car accident by a machine or AI. We don't stand for that, but yet there are X amount of deaths per year from people making mistakes. It's the resistance to the change and those that are willing to risk it for the biscuit.

Scott Malouff : 1:27:58

There's a there's a book called Well Machines Do Everything. And I that's gonna happen too, exactly what you're talking about. And I believe it's gonna start with public transportation. Yep. You're gonna start getting those that are gonna, you know, first gonna be airport and downtown rides, and then over time it's gonna go into longer and bigger. That's right.

Mark Jones: 1:28:14

Yeah, that's that's huge foresight right there, in addition to the the idea of going against the grain, because there's gonna be a lot of resistance to it as it gets rolled out, just like every new anything that helps save money over here, reduces the cost of that. Well, you're cutting off all the hands that were in that jar. Like, of course, they're gonna resist that.

unknown: 1:28:36

Yeah.

Scott Malouff : 1:28:36

So so when you move into 2026, that's my vision, yet also my focus is people. The best investment you can make is in people, and it's continuing to invest in others so they continue to grow. Amen.

Mark Jones: 1:28:49

I love that.

Ronnie Trevino: 1:28:50

How about you guys? Yeah, well, you know, for for me, 2026 is is going into 2026, I'm going in knowing that the hard lessons that I learned in 2025 were pivotal, pivotal, pivotable for me to grow. Yeah. So going into 2026, I'm I'm embracing those challenges, and I'm gonna find out how to win on the other side because, like, like Scott said, for me, I'm I'm real passionate about the people. So we got a great thing going on at Resi Realty. What we're building, it's not just it's you know, Resi Realty is not a little mom and pop shop. Right. We're we're building it to scale. So in in 2026, I'm taking those lessons in 2025, and I'm gonna embrace those challenges in 2026. I'm gonna find a better way to overcome those challenges so that I can show up for my people and scale Resi Realty. Boom. I love it. Jeff.

Jeff Garza: 1:29:48

Yeah, so close us out. Yeah. So 2026 for me, you know, in business, but more so personally, has to be that everything that I'm involved in has to return value. And and what I mean by that, I know I clearly I think you know what I mean.

Mark Jones: 1:30:07

Like matter of fact, that's what I was going to say because I believe it, just not in that way. And I'm glad you did. So go for it. Yes.

Jeff Garza: 1:30:15

Everything that I'm involved in as I continue to go down this journey, right? This path, this vision that I had for myself and for what it's become, it there has to be a return on all the effort and all the energy and all the expense and all the investment that that goes into what we do to build these things, right? Yes. So whether it means digging into you know fixed costs and eliminating, you know, bad spends, whether it goes into a growth model, you know, all those things, all those things are gonna happen. And so, you know, we're excited for 26, you know, with Redbird. You know, I'll be either building our first headquarters or I'll be buying it. Boom. That'll happen in 26. I'm I'm done renting. And that's gonna be a huge pendulum swing for for the brokerage, for our valuations, yes, our worth, and for our long-term security, right?

Mark Jones: 1:31:11

You do it right, that's generational.

Jeff Garza: 1:31:13

Yeah, for sure. So that's a big, that's that's gonna be the big one. The second one is we're gonna launch in another city. So we'll we'll be opening up in another city or two coming up in 2026. That'll come with its fair share of uh headaches, just like anything else, man. I mean, you know, if I know something to be true in this entrepreneur world, is that change is is is is a constant, right? And so we'll deal with those. And then also adding a couple of things that I believe in, like Scott was talking about, you know, I'm creating uh two things right now. Actually, one would be and and I I told Ronnie this a while, you know, not too long ago, and a couple other people that are you know tight in my circle. Like, you know, I've been watching a lot of the the players in our town. And one of the things that I did a long time ago to make sure that Redbird per se was was strong and healthy was I I stopped production, but I've resurrected a production team to make sure that Jeff is strong and healthy. God, because you're in here, because I I have to be, I uh I gave up a lot of money. I mean, let me just put it that way. Yes, I gave up a lot of money to go create a brand and go create a brokerage that today a lot of people probably would love to have, but not every day is payday. That's right. And and so so one of the things, one of the initiatives for 26 for me is to, and I've already done it, like we're already in it, we're in the thick of it right now. Uh resurrecting a production team that I've been able to emulate and see some, like actually both of y'all, like these are great examples of people I've been watching, and I'm like, you know what? They they can do this, and and so can I. I can get back into that per se, right? Right. Jeff's not gonna be showing homes and but you I can build it and we can we can get it done, right? And so, because I gotta be right to be able to continue to be right for to lead for the company, right? That's right. And so then the second part, kind of what I was talking about with Scott, like Scott has a particular, you know, passion, and and all of us are rabbit hole guys. Yeah, because once you show me a good idea, like I'm I might just be likely to like really go all the way in on it, right? And so for me, one of the things that I'll be adding, which I I heavily believe in, is kind of going into a different world of real estate that I haven't really delved into or touched myself a whole lot. Uh, but that's gonna be into like the whole, you know, asset management foreclosures, bank-owned property type situation. Yeah. And so I'll be going down that road in 26 as well, because I I do believe that there's gonna be several years ahead of us of some foreclosure assets and things of that nature that were, you know, in that world, you know, like Scott was alluding to in terms of what he was mentioning, that world is very much about who do you know, who can you connect with, who's willing to have a conversation with you, and who's willing to open up a door. That's right. And so, you know, I've had to kind of look at the scoreboard a little bit, if you will, not like to boast, but like I've had to look back and be like, you know what? I think a lot of people would would be interested in talking to me about if I can provide dual value. Yes, can you bring me value? Let me bring you value, and let's let's solve some big problems, right? And so that's kind of what I what I feel like I'm about for 26. Not that we're any, not about it any other year, but it's it's very much it's more clear, it's more refined for sure. Yeah, and I and I just I just want to find more profits where they can be found. I want to eliminate waste where I can eliminate it. I want to deepen relationships with people that are like-minded and that provide value. Like, like I don't know that any of us want to be in a one-sided relationship where it's always take from us, yes, you know, and so I want to be in more relationships where it's like give, give, you know, and so with a with a passion, and and I'm I'm grateful that you shared what you just did because I was on that path thought process-wise.

Mark Jones: 1:35:04

When it comes to me, I'm gonna talk about this. But now that you mentioned it, mine was gonna be very PG and tiptoeing around the bullshit. I'm tired of pouring into cups with holes in them. Yeah. You know, that's fair. It's always that's fair fill fill other people's cups. I've gotten this far. I fill in other people's cups, but I'm only going to get this far if I keep pouring into cups that have holes in them. So there's a lot of folks that that when they come in contact with me and I talk about loans and whatnot, and they're like, wait a minute, you you still do loans? I still do loans, guys. It's fueling all the rest of the things in the life that goes on. It it helps me pay for employees when times are tough, and I gotta take a pay cut and gotta keep them on because that's a choice that we make to commit to these folks because they've done good for us. So, yeah, in 2026, the gloves are off for Mr. Mark Jones. He is a producer, he is an entrepreneur, he is a creator, he's a leader. But this year I'm gonna lead by example more than I ever have. And and it's just a part of this journey that you get to a point that you go, okay, it's time for me to eat now.

Jeff Garza: 1:36:26

Amen, man. Yep. You know, for sure.

Mark Jones: 1:36:29

So, guys, I want to thank you truly from the bottom and top of my heart for this conversation and you guys sharing and being so vulnerable. The folks out there, shit. We should charge to watch this. But this is a good one. We'll we'll definitely be collecting in a different way. And and I I think that the folks out there can truly appreciate you guys' candor, your your uh vulnerability and transparency in this discussion today. So I thank you guys. Hats off to you, and wiggle my little hat. Uh uh and for the folks out there, I think that you may not have gone through the same journey that we have. Matter of fact, no two people's journey is the same. But there are many that I'm finding that do have a very similar mindset, and at its core, that mindset is a switch that eventually flips. And and it's not up to someone to tell you that, hey, it's time for the flip to switch. It's up to you. You go you grow through what you go through. And at a certain point, I hope that many of you adopt the concept of there are good days and there are learning days. And I can tell you, if you're on the path, or if you decide to get on the path that we decided to, you're going to have plenty more learning days than you are the good days. But those learning days is why you get to know what it is to appreciate the good days. Kind of that tip and scale of how great things can be or feel right now. You can feel it the other way. So that's how you know. That being said, guys, I promise to continue bringing you guests like this in 2026. Maybe a couple that don't agree with me. We'll see what that looks like. If there is any out there worthy or wise enough to uh come at me, bro. But definitely I appreciate you guys. Amy, if you could throw up the reference view. Bang. Awesome. Guys, I want to thank you all. It was goodness, three years ago when we started this YouTube channel, and a year into it, we had a hundred subscribers. And I was like, guys, let's just keep going. JC, let's just keep going. Let's do another one. Get let's get somebody else in here. Eventually it'll do something. Worst case scenario, I'm getting some pretty cheap therapy. But here we are, 32,000 subscribers and growing. Just unreal. We're talking about the most boring thing, the unsexy of real estate. We're not talking about spending all this money and no, this is real estate and mortgage, guys. But at the heart of it, it's entrepreneurship because we all own our business. Um, and if we treat that with that mindset, everything becomes a good day or a learning day. So uh I appreciate you guys one last time. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for showing up and actually showing up. Um, guys out there, thank you. We will catch you on the next one.

Jeff Garza: 1:39:45

Peace.

Mark Jones: 1:40:12

If you're still sending out pre-approval letters and praying your realtors send you the next lead, you're already behind.

un: 1:40:19

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