The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III

Elijah DeLaGarza: 2 Keys to Guaranteed Business Success

April 05, 2019 Elijah DeLaGarza Episode 78
The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
Elijah DeLaGarza: 2 Keys to Guaranteed Business Success
Show Notes Transcript

Elijah DeLaGarza, CEO of Titanium Investments of Hawaii, guest hosts for RJ Bates III this week. Elijah shares his two key factors to guaranteed success in business, no matter what business, Integrity and Excellence. Since the day Elijah graduated from high school he has fulfilled his destiny of being an entrepreneur. He has owned roofing companies from Florida all the way to Hawaii and now has found a passion within real estate investing. Despite being in the most remote location on the planet, Elijah has spearheaded Titanium Investments expansion to Hawaii and has found success with fix and flips, rentals and most recently wholesaling to local investors. Enjoy this week's intimate episode with Elijah DeLaGarza where he shares the importance of integrity and excellence! 

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Speaker 1:

Listen up real estate investors, entrepreneurs, and agents. You're in the right place. Unlocking the secrets to real estate investing and entrepreneurship. Welcome to the titanium vault hosted by RJ banks. But third, here's RJ

Speaker 2:

[inaudible].

Speaker 3:

Aloha. This is Alijah Della Garza. And you're listening to the titanium vault hosted by none other than himself, RJ Bates, the third RJ and I have been best friends since fifth grade. And tonight I have the distinct honor of being on the titanium Balt as your hosts. Uh, there is no guests tonight. It's just me dropping some wisdom bombs on you guys. Hopefully I, uh, I usually have no problem coming up with things to say. So, uh, you know, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but I'm going to go ahead and lay some truths on you, um, and thinking about this like anything else I do or RJ does, we like to, uh, put some forethought into it and, and come up with something, uh, valuable that we can share. So, um, you know, I have to come from where I'm at as a human and, and what's important to me. And so tonight we're gonna talk about, uh, a little bit about company culture. Um, mainly the two core pillars or principles that I employ in any business I'm involved in to guarantee my success. And yes, I did say guaranteed. Um, and then we're going to talk about what does it mean to be a warrior. So, uh, first of all, I'd just like to read something here real quick. It's a quote out of a book that, uh, I, I read some times, I've re-read over the years, multiple times of, you guys haven't ever read it. It's called, uh, Chris Christian business legends lessons from history. It's a, a little biography on James Cash Penney, the founder of JC penny, asset Chandler, founder of Coca-Cola. Uh, Henry Parsons Crowl, found founder of Quaker oats, Booker T Washington, Anthony T Rossi, founder of Tropicana, ma, Mary Kay, Ash, founder of Mary Kay cosmetics, Dwight moody, founder of moody Bible Institute, and RG Latino, inventor builder and engineer. It's also got a feature in here about, uh, Rockefeller. So, uh, the quote I want to read to you real quick is something that has always impressed me. And, uh, you know, it was a different way of looking at something that I've heard people talk about before. The quote says, business people everywhere are starting to understand that doing business God's way is not only the best way to operate in the market, it is the only way and beyond the mere ethical considerations, many are coming to understand that the Bible has even more to say about running one's business, creating wealth at every stage in one's career and taking back the business world for Christ through hard work instead of through schemes and suppose it economic loopholes. So first thing I want to do is just focus on what's being said here in this quote. Um, you know, I, I'm not trying to come at you from a religious standpoint. Uh, it is America. You can feel freedom of religion to believe in whatever you want to believe. We're not pressing any one type of religion here. And this isn't about religion. This is about wisdom. And wisdom is not just learning from your own mistakes. It's learning from other's mistakes. And it's researching and tapping into resources that have the information you need to succeed. Uh, you know, I would never be so prideful as to, uh, you know, just totally put aside, uh, other, you know, knowledge that I could learn based on, uh, a bias that I have. So for instance, if I was against, uh, Christianity for some reason and I would refuse to listen to wisdom from the Bible simply because I don't believe in Jesus or I'm not a Christian. Now that's not the case. I am a Christian and I very deeply believe in Jesus and have a real relationship with him. But as it pertains to business, um, you don't have to be a Christian or a believer to gain wisdom from what the Bible speaks. So, uh, if anybody is interested in finding the, the, the true wisdom and knowledge, you just got to open up to Proverbs. Now those are instructions that were written by King Solomon and, uh, that was the wisest man in the world to date. They still say in, you know, some publications I've read, he had more money than anyone. Uh, since then, uh, if you, you know, account for inflation and whatever else they do economically, um, you know, his, his money and his possessions and his standing in the world was Supreme when he was a very intelligent guy. Now he talks about some very simple principles and I found in life that, uh, you know, wisdom is sometimes found in the, in between places, if that makes sense. Um, you know, there's these scenarios where you know, you can do the right thing and it turned out bad for someone that you love or you can do something really bad and it turned out really good for someone. Um, you know, it's, everything's not always black and white, but sometimes it is. So we're going to talk about those times, uh, as it pertains to the Bible. What I'm talking about, I'm not going to read you a scripture, go into any of that any further. I'm just going to let you know that that's the basis of the understanding of my two pillars of business, which are integrity and excellence. Um, integrity, as you all know, is doing the right thing no matter what the situation, no matter who's looking, whether you're alone or someone's with you, uh, it's making right decisions. Now that sounds on the surface pretty easy to accomplish, but, uh, you know, particularly when it comes to people can, uh, allow emotions to get in the way. So the first thing I'd like to do is admonish you on your love of money. This one of the things, uh, that scripture talks about is that money answers all things and that's a beautiful thing that that sentence is encompassing for humans at answer with all things. If you want a woman and you can get a woman with money, you want a car, you can get a car. You want to fix your health, cause you're sick, you need money, you want to eat, you need money. There's not a lot of problems in the world that cannot be solved with money if you have enough of it. And that's, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, that, that that's a statement. Money answers all things. Uh, there's another statement. It is the, the love of money is the root of all evil. And so, you know, we're not going to go into a theological argument about the root of all evil, but the concept is pretty solid that if you love money, bad things can happen. Okay. You're gonna make bad decisions. So, uh, the admonishment is don't love money. I know it's wonderful and, and solves problems for you, but at the end of the day, there's more to life than just money. My integrity means a lot more to me than money does. I would rather make a decision that I lose monetarily short term and keep my reputation and character, uh, and maintain that integrity. And that's the kind of things that I try to accomplish. And I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am saying that that is my goal and that I would like to be perfect at it. Um, as far as the, you know, excellence goes, those two things tie in together. Uh, if you're going to do something of integrity, that means it needs to be whole and complete and done right and perfectly well. It needs to have integrity, structural integrity for instance, meaning it can hold weight. Um, you know, so integrity is not just a moral thing. It is a structural thing in my mind, right? If you have a business that's built on integrity, in making right decisions, uh, decisions that are beneficial for your longterm reputation and for your character that is going to in the long run yield you a lot of monetary benefits. Um, you know, I think people get lost and they get short sighted and they're looking at, well, if I did this, I could squeeze out another 10,000 and then once I get that 10,000, this is what I have my plans for. I'm going to spend it on this and that. And they become emotionally involved in that and they've told themselves, in their mind they're already gonna get that 10,000. And then if it doesn't go their way, all of a sudden it's threats and lawsuits. Or if it does go their way and it was to disadvantage someone else in the process, they will justify or come up with rationale as to explain why it was okay to do something wrong because there was a benefit to them. Those are the kinds of things that I'm talking about that, you know, there's only a certain amount of times in business that you can do that before, you know, um, the, the, the veil is torn apart and people see in and see the truth. Right. Um, you know, I was just on Facebook. Um, I had a business partner tell you a short story. I had a business partner, uh, in a business I created that RJ was a part of before real estate. Um, and if review, those of you that don't know, uh, we were business partners in another business prior. Um, we brought in some investors and one of those investors, as you know, uh, I, I won't name his name, but he, he came in and, uh, caused some friction and some issues and gave away some proprietary information and all kinds of other things happen, bad things. And, uh, it's been five or six years now since this occurred. But, uh, anyways, I saw him on Facebook getting put on blast. And, you know, at the time, five years ago, I wondered, you know, how many times can a person like this do these kinds of things and get away with it? How many times? Because, you know, I didn't do anything. I believe, you know, you just let it go. You turn the other cheek. And so that's what I did. I moved on with my life. I let it go. But you know, he's getting his day right now and there's literally hundreds of people and comments on this post a, of all the people he's wronged coming out. Uh, and in this day and age with social media, those are the kinds of things that can happen. So you gotta be very careful. Um, so, you know, I was hurting to see that happening because there was this very intelligent human being who has an unbelievable skill to earn money. Who blows it because he's so shortsighted. He can only see right in front of him to the, the short term win. Right? And, and he's greedy is what it boils down to. He loves money. He loves money more than he likes relationships. He loves money more than he likes to succeed at business because he makes decisions wherein he takes advantage of his customers. And now he's got a bad reputation and his business is now shutting down as offices are being closed. Um, now businesses go out all the time for reasons that are not in a Pfarius like that. Things just happen. Bad economy, not a good product, whatever it may be. Um, you know, those things are not good, but to go out of business because you were intelligent and because you had all the skillset and you had all the resources and you had the customers and you were succeeding, but because you were greedy and you didn't know how to make integrity decisions, that is a really, really sucky way to lose your business. And I can assure you there's going to be a day where this gentleman is going to come to terms and he's going to be real with themselves for once and he's going to realize how Epic of an opportunity he messed up. You know, he stole a lot of money from me and my partners and, uh, our business from us essentially. And we let it go and moved on because I don't like to associate myself and waste my time chasing, you know, uh, those kinds of, you know, there's not enough time in the day and got to focus your attention like a laser on the things that are going to make you the most money you have to chase in business. The, the, the, the test of success is how much money you're making. Otherwise there's no point in doing it, right? Um, there's nothing wrong with making money. The what you do with it, whether you want to be socialist with it or, or you want to just hoard it all to yourself. It is kind of what we're talking about here. You know, uh, not having that scarcity mindset, but having that abundance mindset and understanding there's going to be more deals. There's going to be more relationships, there's going to be more, there's always more. You never have to feel like if you don't take everything in front of you right now, that there's not going to be any left. And I know a lot of people struggle with that and you know, maybe you were a middle child and your big brother and little brother got all the good stuff and you got left out all the time. Um, and so this is just a predisposition. You have, you know, you got to talk back to yourself and you've got to say, this is something I'm not going to tolerate in myself any longer and I'm going to fix it. And you have to have that abundance mindset and say, there's always going to be more. I can always go get more. You know, I've made a lot of money in my career and I've lost a lot of money, but I've never lost money and taken advantage of anyone or causing any harm to anyone. I always pay the people that I'm supposed to pay and do the right thing. And that's what's led me to create relationships that where even when things are bad, I still have people's support and they're still standing beside me and still trying to see me win. Right? We all have ups and downs life, our relationships and our businesses are like rollercoaster ride. You're going to go up and you're gonna go down. Um, and that's okay. Just if you're in one of those downspots I encourage you today, don't stop, don't get discouraged, just keep on going. And maybe the problem is you haven't been making integrity decisions. So like what we choose to do here every day at titanium investments is wake up and make decisions that are beneficial for our investors, for our employees, for the people we're buying houses from, for the people we're selling houses to. Every person we come in contact with, the connections we make are based around doing good business and doing mutually beneficial business. You know, my father told me when I was a young man, there is no such thing as a good deal. We're only one parties happy. So if you feel like you're coming out of something, um, like, uh, like abandoned as the same ghost, um, you made out like a bandit, that's not good. Don't brag about that. Okay. If you made out where you brought value to someone and you got to win because of that and they feel like they got a win, y'all both go away feeling like you one that my friend is something to brag about. So if you make that your focus, making integrity deals, deals where you have thought empathetically about the other party involved and decided that if you were in their shoes, how would you like it? And then you make your decision. That's wisdom, right? Um, I've never in my whole life wanted something that someone else had. I don't want what someone else has. I don't want anything for free. I don't like entitlement feeling. I don't like that mentality. Um, I was raised old school style. I don't want anything that's not mine. I don't want anything that I didn't earn. The only things I've ever really treasured in life I had to work for. And you know, everyone wants the easy way out nowadays and they just want to go straight to, uh, the top of the ladder and skip all the lower rungs. Uh, and you know, what they don't realize is you're going to hit those rungs if you skip them, but it's not going to be going on the way up. You're going to be flying down that ladder and they're going to be busting underneath you one at a time and you're going to hit them with your face on the way down. That's not how you want to win. Okay? A lot of people achieve short term success, but you know, you'll see on my Facebook, I have a little hashtag that I pull it. Um, some people think it's cocky. I think it's funny and, and more appropriate than anything because that's how I think it says, uh, I played chess. You played checkers difference between that. As you know, uh, everybody's on the checkerboard short term strategy. They don't want to have to think too much. They don't want to have to prepare and plan ahead and have contingencies in place like you have to in chess. They just wanna see the, the kill in front of them and they want to jump the one so that they can get to the other side and be crowned. Right. Simple game, um, still complicated and can be fun. But don't get me wrong, but nothing in comparison to chess. All the different moves that the chess players can make and all the, the moves ahead you have to plan. One is short game and one is long game. Now, you know, I've played short game in one before but it's never lasting and that's not good. The long game is the one where you get to plan ahead and yeah, sometimes it sucks. Maybe you go through those little valleys on the roller coaster ride and things aren't going that well, but if you prepare yourself and you set up a long game chess style, you will have longterm success. And that's what integrity is. Integrity is doing things the right way so that maybe not right now today, maybe on this one deal, you know, you, you gave it away a little bit, you still made money, but you could have made an extra 10 grand, but you left someone really happy and you made a good name for yourself a year, two years, five years, maybe 10 years down the road. That's going to come back around for you. And I can guarantee it. I've never seen anybody, and this is, you know, it, it is something that I can stand behind. Now you may have had a different experience, but I'm sure there's a story, but I've never seen a business that operated on integrity and excellence. There wasn't doing well. Those businesses are always easy to find because they do things so well and you know it. The customer service experience is good. It's like when you go to a restaurant and the temperature's right and you can have a conversation without hearing what are saying at the table next to you and everything is clean and it smells good. And then the waiter knows when not to come. You know, don't interrupt this intimate moment, wait a minute, and then come and ask me if I want to refill. You know, those, those small things, the nuances are what make that an experience. And what you're trying to do is deliver an experience to the people you do business with. And if you have the core concepts of that integrity and that excellence, then that experience is going to be good. It has to be a, the excellence part of it is doing everything to the best of your ability, putting the love into it, the passion into it. If it's your business, if it's your relationship, you know, we talk a lot about real estate, but life is not real estate. Uh, you know, and, and I'll take the moment to talk about something that I feel personally. Uh, I am both the roofing contractor and I'm a real estate investor now. Um, I'm actively involved online and I see the majority of people gaining their self worth and how well they do at business. And you know, every roofer and every real estate guy who's done a deal feels like they're the King of the Hill and that is a good feeling to have. But I would again admonish you guys to not get so caught up in the, uh, the acceptance or the praise of others so that you can focus still on your core goal, which is doing good for other people and making generational wealth for your family. And that family is what makes you rich truly. Right? You can have all the money in the world if you're alone, you're not going to be a happy person. And then there's an old saying and it comes out of this book here, the guy who makes$1,000 a week and spins 900 who has a a hundred dollars left over. It's a pretty happy guy. He's not rich, but he's not hurting the guy who makes$1 million a week. The spins 1.1 is very miserable man. Now I've been in both positions and I've been in, in the paradox of that where there was plenty of money and I wasn't spending nearly as much as I was bringing in. Um, you know, I can attest to the fact that that's a true statement there. So, you know, how does that all relate to what we're talking about? Well, if you do things in excellence, you're going to find yourself in a place where you analyze every decision you make to try and do it the right way. If you're doing it with that integrity in that excellence, right? Um, the excellence is when you have the chance to take a shortcut or you have an opportunity, um, to maybe not finish something because it's going to be hidden. Say we're talking about real estate and it's the drywall before you put the cabinets in. Well, you know, what does it really matter? It's behind the cabinets. You don't have to paint it. You don't have to finish it. You don't have to do all that, you know. Now. Maybe that's an extreme example, but the concept remains excellence would speak to the fact that no, it doesn't matter if anyone else knows. I know, and that's my piece of artwork. My property is a piece of artwork to me. I want to sign my name at the bottom of it. When I'm done, I want to see it through to the end and finish it with an excellent spirit, right? So even those things that you cannot see, we're going to do them right anyways, even if it takes a little bit more time, even if it takes a little bit more money, it's worth it in the end because you get something called a reputation. Now that's enough on integrity and excellence. I think you guys understand the concept there. Um, I would say tomorrow, get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and say, today I'm going to operate with integrity and I'm going to operate with excellence. Everything I do from the smallest little thing to the most important thing in your day, make sure that you are making integrity decisions. Make sure you are doing it to the best of your abilities. Okay. Now we're going to talk a little bit about what it means to be a warrior. This is something you see us hashtag at titanium investments. It's a personal edition I brought to the team. Uh, it's something that I've held close and dear to my heart for a very long time. Uh, I was a younger man. I would own, I don't know, it was probably just out of high school I think. And I found some, a, I was a big time reader. Still am, but not as much as then. Um, you know, if you ever heard of Don won this at Avantis, it's a, it's a book about this traveler. And long story short, uh, he has the, the spirit of a warrior and there's a lot of wisdom, uh, in these books. And the warrior spirit, uh, was very impressive to me cause that's how I look at myself. You know, shoulders, back, head, high, long beard. Uh, I'm a fierce individual. I'm out there to conquer. I'm not coming here to play games. Uh, you know, it's like, uh, Eric Thomas talks about the Hunter, the lion. Everyone has this post on their Facebook of the lion, but when it comes down to do a lions do not, a lot of people show up, you know, hunters hunt, they get up and they go everyday. And that's what I do. I'm a Hunter now. I'm not perfect. There's days I get up and my body doesn't feel like it. My mind doesn't feel like it. Maybe I get a slow start. It doesn't make a difference. I push myself and I make myself go do it. I have to go hunt because that's what I love to do. I love the kill. Okay. Now is that pertains to being a warrior. Uh, the warrior spirit is best summed up in these quotes that I like to take every once and again and share with people. And it's surprising to me how few people have read this book or seen these quotes before. So they always find it so inspirational and they give me some kind of credit. I didn't come up with this stuff. Uh, the, the idea of a warrior has been around for a very long time. Uh, I'm just taking it and applying it to my life. So, uh, one of the quotes I love the best is this. A, he says the basic difference between a warrior and an ordinary man is that an ordinary man sees everything in his life as a blessing or a curse. While a warrior sees everything as a challenge. Now you break that down. It's really simple. It's just, it's almost a quote about attitude or mentality. My mentality is not, Oh, poor me, I can't believe this thing happened to me today and it sucks so bad and what am I going to do about it? And pulling my hair out, or yes, I won. I'm so lucky. I just got lucky. You know, whenever people say they get lucky, I just think to myself, well, who wants that? Who wants some randomized formula that you have no idea of how it happened or why it happened? It just happened to you. You just just fell on your lap. How do you repeat that? You know, business is about repeatable results. Okay. So building a system and being able to literally do the same thing over and over again really, really well with integrity and excellence. That's how you build a business, right? So being a warrior is having the mentality that no matter what happens, whether it's good or bad, I'm going to be the master of my universe. What's around me? I am the King of. So you see me put on their warrior King doesn't mean I think I'm your King, obviously. Um, I'd love to be, I would think I'd be a good King, but, um, I am the King of my domain. Whether it is titanium investments or it is roofing solutions or it's my family or it's just me in the gym by myself. Uh, it's me, you know, sleeping and just thinking about how do I see myself, how do I envision myself? It's as a King. It is as a warrior King, I am ready to put on my armor and go to battle for my people at any point in time. There's not a thing that I am not willing to do. I take out the trash in my business. I dump dump trucks. I, I sell jobs, I collect payments from customers, I get motivated sellers to sell to me. I meet, you know, investors in sell them properties. I write checks, I do anything and everything that's required of me. And you know, a lot of people ask, how do you guys do what you do? How do you succeed? You, you have to give it effort. There is no free, uh, there is no free pass. There's no magic pill to take. There's a lot of dedication and perseverance and sacrifice to winning. And if you don't put those things in, you're not gonna win. And if you do win, it was on accident again. Who wants that? Nobody. I want to build a process. I want to build a system so that without me being there, I've got training in place. Excellent training, okay. Teaching people, not just how to do what we do, but how to make decisions. Right? When it comes time for them to come to that crossroad, what do they do? So that's where the warrior mentality comes in. The warrior is self-sufficient, right? He doesn't need anything. So I can't be blockaded. Right? You can't come in and say, Elijah, here's this thing and if you don't give me what I want, then I'm going to do something. Or I, there is no ultimatum with the Lija, you can't do that to me, okay? Because nothing is important to me enough that you could do that to me. My family is important to me. There'll be besides that, I mean my relationship to God, but my business, cars, clothes, houses, food, money, possessions, boats, things, nothing. I could care less. I enjoy them. I'm after them, but that's not who I am and what I'm trying to accomplish. The warrior spirit in me is trying to accomplish greatness and that means doing good for other people. Utilizing my fierce tenacity, my ability to persevere when anyone else in the world would give up. That's how a warrior behaves, right? A warrior sees the world as perfect the way it is. It doesn't need to be all good. And it's okay that there's things that don't go right. Those are the opportunities in life that we are given to Excel to show who we are and what we're made of. Now, right now, RJ and I are a, some of you may be following along and saw my cries for help. Uh, there's a property called the Lily Poona project that we've been working on for a, I believe it's over a thousand days now. So we're going to write a little short story. When we're done with this project, it's going to be called the thousand day short sell. There's nothing short about short sales, right? Um, this is a project that, you know, I won't share the details with you cause they're so juicy and good, but there's been more heartbreaks happening the more times that anyone could have imagined that they would have given up and walked away from this project. But we didn't. We've persevered and we've stuck with it and it's going to be a Testament to our warrior spirit. When we tell this story, people are going to be able to see very clearly that our Jane Elijah can do anything but quit. That's the only thing I can't do is quit anything else. The warrior spirit in me says, I can do it. So I want to encourage you guys to be warriors. You're trying to do something, whether it's real estate in investment or not, um, be a warrior. Do it with integrity. Do it with excellence. Get up and tell yourself how you're gonna be. Be intentional about what you're doing. And a little tidbit. This is something, a wisdom nugget. You know, one of those bombs that, that sounds so simple, but it's so profound. If you would just do this one thing, okay, you got so much time in the day and I'll, I'll leave you with this. Find the thing, the one thing in your day that you can do that's going to make money move, right? What does that mean? It means it moves from a bank into your pocket. That's what I mean by money moves. Okay? How do I use my mouthpiece? How do I use my brain right now to make money move from one place to another place? And if you clasp onto that, you grasp it and you just run with it and you do things with integrity, you do things with excellence, you're going to find yourself having amazing results in your life and your relationships and in your business. So you guys run out there and do amazing things and you have that warrior mentality. Hope you guys have a blessed evening or day, wherever it is you are. I'm going to go home now and spend time with my beautiful family. Thank you today for listening to the titanium Balt hosted by RJ Bates. I'm your guest host, Elijah Della Garza, partner with RJ at titanium investments of Hawaii and Aloha.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for listening to the titanium vault with your host, RJ Bates. The third. For more info and to stay up to date, visit www.podcast.thetitaniumvault.comandonfacebook.com/their titanium vault. If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review and we'll catch you next time on a time take involved.