The Social Media Strategy Millionaires Use: Gabe Mendez

Join us as we sit down with Gabe Mendez, a thought leader and successful loan officer who transformed from being broke to a millionaire using social media. In this heartfelt conversation, Gabe shares real-world experiences that have shaped his journey. We dive into the power of building a personal brand, leveraging cold calls, and tackling self-doubt to achieve success. Gabe, a renowned actor in his own right, discusses the pivotal moments that defined his path, including challenges and triumphs that resonate with many aspiring entrepreneurs.

His story is one of perseverance, resilience, and faith. As a top social media influencer and a broker associate at Realty America, Gabe has revolutionized the real estate industry with over $100 million in transactions.

Click here to watch the whole interview!
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This podcast has been edited and produced by Content by Fabio LLC

Transcript

Building a personal brand and using social media as the platform to let the world know how you can help them is probably one of the most powerful things that you can do. And in this episode today, I'm gonna introduce you to someone who has changed their life using social media as a platform. Um, and we're gonna give you some real tactics today to help you start your journey and to help you take your business to the next level. And this individual is, you know, become a millionaire. They're doing some amazing things. And today, my guest is Gabe Mendez. Gabe, man, thank you for being here today. What's up, Chris? How's it going, brother? Good, man. Happy to meet you. Friday. It's good to finally be here with you, man. Uh, so those of you don't know Gabe. Gabe's, uh, the broker associate of Realty America. And I don't know if you've been to any events or anything in your local markets, but you're gonna start seeing this brand pop up everywhere. It's ROA. They've done a really good job marketing it. Um, he's also a commercial realtor. He has a team that's produced over a 100,000,000 in real estate transaction. He's probably the one of the most prolific content producers I've seen. He was voted, um, top social media influencer in California for real estate, and he's probably won every real estate award imaginable as he was coming up through traditional brokerages. And he's starting this new venture with Realty America, which we'll talk about, but, you know, probably one of the most important characteristics about Gabe is he's a man of faith. He's a father. He has 2 beautiful children. He's a husband. Gabe, man, I really appreciate you taking the time to be here. Chris, it's an honor, brother. I was watching some of your content, uh, when we ran into each other at the latitude. When I started following it, uh, there's very few Instagram pages that keep my attention. There's a lot they capture, but it's very rare that they keep. And I caught myself scrolling on your page. It's it's really unique the way that you film, the way that you edit, the way that you ask the questions. Uh, it's like a culmination of, like, very high energy, but you go really deep at the same time. Typically with high energy people, they don't go deep and somehow manage a way to combine, like, enthusiasm with the, uh, lower layers. And I think that's what's really unique about your platform and how you've done it and why I was really enthusiastic to be here because your vibe, bro, it's just like mine, but then you have that ability to go deep and pull some gold out. And that that's what I'm here to do, man. What inspires people today? Oh, so I wanna jump into some tactical stuff out the gates, man. I I help a lot of loan officers and leaders in the mortgage space that wanna jump into social media and try to help them, you know, get out of their head, get them started on producing content. And what I see happen to a lot of people is they start and, um, and then they fizzle out. And so, you know, they fizzle out because a lot of people just expect that there's gonna be an immediate return. And, you know, that don't that's not always what happens. And, um, I'm just curious from you is, you know, what is it about, uh, your business that you looked at social media and understood that it was gonna be something that you had to lean into and, you know, obviously, has helped you get to where you're at today. But what do you say to those loan officers that are struggling? So to the loan but I'm gonna I'm gonna address every loan officer as a real relation to both. You it's a problem that I think that everyone has is that they having gotten to a point in their life where it's been so low that it hurts, that they're forced to do something new regardless if they like it or not. I was at I I was once in a position in my life where it was so disgusting, so dark, it was so hurt. I was broke, busted, and disgusted that I had no option but to fight. It's like that one, uh, historical story to be always here. You know, it's like where the, uh, commander or chief of the boat, whatever it was, gets off and has an army, and he turns around and says to matters, it says burn the boats. And as he has his entire army right on the beach for him says either we fight and win or we die, but there's no retreat. And I think a lot of people out there looking at it, a lot of people have that retreat option. They have a plan b. They have something to fall back onto that if this doesn't work, it's going to be okay. And if they don't and they're just barely getting by, then they're okay worth a wrap. So you either have to, 1, get to a point where it hurts so bad that you're forced to make a change. Or 2, the other type of person that that that's out there right now, the other person that's out there that's not pushing beyond their limits is the person who once struggled is now and beyond that struggle marker, is doing better than what they've done before. And in their mind, they've convinced themselves that they've achieved a level of success. And they for them, they don't wanna let go of the level of success that they have because they're already better than what they were. But that's a handicap because what's happening is it's not allowing them to grow. And we know as humans, we're not stagnant. We're either green and growing or brown and dying just like trees. So 2 types of people out there. Again, recap. You're either as the person who has a plan b. You haven't burned the boats. There's no need to. Or you're the second type of person who who failed before, but finally has some level of success that you're not willing to risk it to go for something bigger? Because in your mind, you're already far greater than you were before, and you feel good about that decision. I was neither of those. I I was I was first. I was option a. I was the guy that had my back against the wall. I was broke, busted in disgust, and I was falling into depression that I just needed something to work, and I was willing to try whatever it was. And whatever my mentors were telling me to do, I was so broke, so lost that you told me to jump back and say, hi. You asked him to knock on doors. I'd ask how many. You said, here's the script. Go practice it. I would master it. I would become the Leonardo DiCaprio, or not. The guy that would wear any hat or any kind of shoe, say whatever I needed to say, become that person because look at look how look how how Leonardo per Leo performs on camera. And he's one of the most top paid actors of all time with some of the biggest box office movie hits of all time. And you don't become the vast actor because you don't know your script, because you don't dress the part, because you don't know how to make sure that your body's matched your manners and match your tonality. So I became the Leo of Door knocking because that's what my, uh, my my mentor told me I had to do. Again, my back was against the wall. So for a lot of you that are out there right now, what's your pain point? Does it hurt enough? And chances are it doesn't. And until we can feel a little bit of pain or until you let that thing happen, unless it does happen, you're gonna eventually, you will self self sabotage. If you don't get out of your way, you're going to self sabotage. You're gonna get to a fight where you do fail, and it does hurt. You know, they say, uh, what's that expression that, you know, dumb people never learn from their mistakes. Our people learn from this mistakes, but wise people, they learn from other people's mistakes. And I'm I'm encouraging all of you on this call today. Become the wise person. Look at everyone else's story and say, do I have to fall rock fall to rock bottom to experience that? Or am I joyous am I just gonna take the wisdom that's given to me out of this call and go implement it? I'm hoping that that's all of you, but I know for a fact, some of you won't, and you're going to have to feel that pain. And for some of you, it's going to be the biggest blessing in your life. And for others of you, that's where you're going to stay for a long time. But again, I pray it's not that option. So I say to everyone out there, Chris, again, just, you know, maybe a long story short, is is you have to is is you have to choose which one it's gonna be. Do you wanna have to go through it, or do you wanna learn from somebody's mistake? And I you know, if I'm if I'm out there watching it, unfortunately, uh, you know, if I'm being honest, I I didn't hit that. And Chris at the same time, bro, I didn't have anyone in my corner championing me. I didn't have someone a mentor. I didn't have a father figure. I didn't have a stepfather. I was, uh, I was raised by guys over my age, you know, not the streets, like, the hood kind of streets, but we were out all the time partying and getting breaking into houses and, you know, we did a lot of stupid things as teenagers. So I found an taught myself to grow. I have someone in my ear telling me this is how you're supposed to be. You think bigger. You can do better. Uh, you know, learn a skill set, change your mindset. No one's had that conversation with me until I got into multilevel marketing at the age of 26. That's when this whole personal change for me. So I'm just really hoping I can impart something in all of you today. That if you want that change bad enough on if you want that change in your business bad enough, then you're gonna have to want it bad enough so much so that the the the excitement of the return on investment is far greater than the fear of rejection or the fear of embarrassment that you face. And you're gonna have to make that adjustment. Most of you are gonna be really embarrassed, feel feel really dumb on social media. A lot of you are gonna feel really stupid, then you posted something on there. But that's the pain. Now he increased the pleasure, so the pleasure far exceeds the pain. How great can it be? How would it look if people started sending you direct messages to sell your home and to to originate it well? How good would that feel if you got 1, 2, 3, 10? If you made a half $1,000,000 a year off the back of social media, because it was far greater than the embarrassment that you wanted to feel. And you gotta make that so clear in your brain. And how do you do it? A lot of you guys didn't ask. I'll tell you anyways. Go out there, create a vision board, write your to do list, and get ultra focused and obsessed on the goal. Envision it. Last thing I'll say, uh, last thing I'll say a lot is this, Chris, that there's been, um, I can tell you from personal experience that when I was younger, I loved shoes and I loved clothes. I loved it so much because I never had a lot of them. I always got the handy dashes from all my client I mean, my cousins. So when I was younger, I would obsess about clothes and go to the mall and buy shoes and hats. And finally, I started making money as older. I spent way too much money on clothes. But my point is this, that before I had any of it, Chris, before I had, I would envision it in my head. I would envision myself walking into the mall, putting that jacket, tying up those jays, getting a match matching hat to go with the jays for the weekend. And I was thinking about that being looking fresh every single weekend. And even though, Chris, although I didn't have it physically, the feeling was still inside as if I did. The excitement, the joy. Isn't that interesting that I didn't necessarily need the physical thing in my hand, But because it was here, something changed on the inside. And that's figured me off the inside for me over. And that was a beautiful part of my career. So you were able to to envision it, walk a little bit taller, have a little bit more confidence because you already knew it was within your your site. And I think that's where people forget to take a moment, take a step back, and visualize where they wanna be in life. And, you know, I always ask somebody, like, can you touch it? Can you feel it? Do you feel like that goal? Do you take can you taste it? Because if you do, then it's already there. That's 90% of it. Now you now it's time to execute. But a lot of people, you know, don't have that ability. And then there's that second piece, and I think you were touching on this a little bit, and that's that our brain does this thing to us that stops us from moving forward in a in an uncomfortable situation. Meaning, if I'm about to post something, I overthink it. I overthink how I look. I overthink how I sound. I overthink all of it because my brain is saying, don't do it. Don't don't grow. Our our brain wants to stay nice and cozy and, you know, a nice warm blanket and not move. And it's up to us to retrain our brain to go out there and do something. And that's what you're saying. You the pain has to be so great that there are no options, and that's what you were doing. And so my question to you, and I'm so curious about this, is what came first, the chicken or the egg, when it came to you building your brand on social media? Did did you say to yourself, um, I'm gonna go to social media and I'm gonna be rich? Or did you already have a level of success before you went to social media to build your brand? I already had a level of success before I went into social media. So the, um, um, most people think I I I my success in real estate comes from social media. It actually doesn't. So the first two years of my career, I spent cold calling and door knocking and hosting open houses. And, honestly, I think that everyone needs to go through at least 2 to 4 weeks of strictly door knocking and cold calling just to get the endurance of, um, hustling, build the endurance of hustling, and then also build a level of, I guess, defense or numbing to towards towards rejection. You have to get used to it. You know? And rejection doesn't feel good at it to any of us. Even still at this day in my life, I don't feel good rejecting. All you single guys out there, you should really use rejection because you're single out there. But honestly, rejection sucks. So we have to learn how to develop that that, uh, tolerance for rejection. And the best way to go out there and do it is to call people that don't know you and just say, hey, you're thinking about selling your home. Hey, f you. Stop calling me. Like, alright. That sucked. Heard a little bit. Call them again. Call us call the same person back. Hey. I think we got disconnected. No. We didn't get disconnected, asshole. Stop calling me. Click. And then it becomes a game. And before you before you know it, Chris, you didn't care about it. But door knocking and cold calling is what I did when I first got started. And then I took that oh, I took that, uh, I took all those victories. I was I was documenting my process in the very beginning, and I would flip that out to social media. And what would you know, who would know? The people actually liked to watch behind the scenes activity. They were entertained by the stuff that they couldn't see. You know, the the journey the destination's always cool, but what's even cooler is the journey. This is why reality TV does so well, because people wanna see behind the scenes. Oh, you're out there door knocking. You were cold calling. And everyone loves an underdog story. So a lot of my closest supporters, fans, people who look out for me and love on me are people that I don't know. People who watch me on social media and be like, bro, you're such an inspiration. I have clients who comment on my posts. Uh, there was one that I pinned on one of my pinned posts, I pinned a comment. Uh, one of them is from my past client. It almost brings tears to my eyes because 2014 and 15, I wanted this so bad, Chris. So, uh, I can't even be able to tell you how bad I wanted this. I was willing to do anything as work as hard as I need, everything legally and spiritually correct, aligned with the work. But I was willing to do anything I could to make this work. I went into debt. We talked about my car situation. We'll get that in one moment. Did I went through so much? I built up, like, 20, $3,000 of credit card debt just to make this dream work. And I remember in my head, my my mentors told me, if you don't give up, you will succeed. And that's the one thing that played every day in my head. The only way you lose is if you give up the only way you lose is if you quit. The only way this doesn't work is if you stop. And I knew that if I just kept on pushing beyond that pain point, if I kept on pushing beyond the point where the I would do the work and had no immediate return, as long as I could remember that I couldn't sow and reap in the same season, that I had to sow the seed, how to sow the seed, how to sow the seed, and next season, I had to believe I had to believe it would show up. And as long as I kept doing it, I knew it would work out. And during that season of building my business, DoorDock, there was this beautiful couple that and, honestly, looking back at it now as an adult, I think maybe they just felt bad for me. But it's just my my my one of my first clients in my entire career, um, Missael and Amy, On a on a fact, they have the same last name as me. I knocked on their door. I still remember the street from 2015. I don't remember the house. I remember the street. I remember what I was wearing when I knocked on that door, And I knocked on it. I had a conversation with the wife. She brought her husband to the door, Misael. He got me connected with somebody, and that ended up being one of the first clients who bought a house with me in 2015. And that money that I made on that transaction on a $200,000 condo, 2% commission, I ended up using that money to pay my aunt back for my car. And I've been friends with them for the last 9 years, and she made a comment on my middle pinned post. And I pinned her comment right next to, uh, Leo Barajas comment. And, uh, she made a comment that says, you came a long way from the days of knocking on our door, and I've been watching you grow for the last 9 years, and it's something incredible. It's some beautiful messages she wrote to me. And I pinned it because I wanna keep myself grounded and remember where I came from. Wasn't always as good as this. And that if I stop working, it could be taken away overnight. So I need to show up better for my family, of course. But I also need to show up every day for my clients, for my staff, for my agents, for the the agents in my group and our new company. I have to show for all these people. And it was it wasn't for if it wasn't for that couple, I don't know if I would have lasted in real estate 2, 3 more months because that $4,000 they don't know this, but that $4,000 carried me to, like, 2 more months of hope. 2 more months of food, 2 more months of paying my cell phone, 2 more months of my gas. I didn't do anything else, but there was 2 more months of life. 2 more months of hope it gave me. So big shout out to me, Sayel and Amy. Thank you guys for supporting me when you saw me. And I'm here because of, you know, one of may one of the reasons because Well, how how how fun was it to go door to door? I used to go door to door to, um, I used to sell cable door to door and like my whole thing, if you answer the door, we're talking, man. Like, it's just about like, I enjoy I even cold calling. Like, I'll tell you, I hate cold calling because I do. But if that first person rejects me, it's on, man. I'm not losing today. Right? Like we but there's something that happens inside of you that that takes place. And so I had a manager. We talk about rejection for a little bit. I was talking to a man 2 managers actually this week got, um, got rejected by, um, somebody that they were, um, talking. And it wasn't really a rejection. It was just the person decided they weren't gonna make a move to their company, right, to to our company. And, um, and they were, like, bummed by it. And I and I said to them that I was like, I'm excited about this. They're like, why? And I'm like, because that no just got you closer to a yes. You just need a bigger pipeline. Like, it is impossible for you to get 10 noes. So go get 10 no's. It is impossible for you to do that without a yes. And my thought is is if you could take those no's and use it as fuel to get you closer to the yes, then that's all it's about. It's a numbers game. But to your point, you gotta get the reps in because the 1st door you knocked on was way different than the last door you knocked on. And what I'll tell you about you is I think that if you if we took you right now and threw you out there, your confidence alone will help you get more deals than you ever did because you now have proof of success behind you. Um, but you have to go through the the what what also door knocking teaches you is it fast forwards the amount of nose you're gonna get, and it also teaches you human behavior. I knew from the moment they opened the door over time where that conversation would go and how it would end, and I knew where to take it. And that's only through reps. And so I think for you, you saying that and you you talking about that and talking about the journey there, man, it's fun, dude. So do you do you, uh, could you go today and have a good time doing it? Oh my gosh, bro. I would have the best time doing it. I would have the most fun going out there, meeting old ladies, meeting, uh, young families. The I I would I would probably I'm not even joking, dude. And probably get invited in for dinner because that's how good I am with people. I would walk in and we'd have a conversation. I'd take pictures of them, post it on social media. Bro, I need, like, I need, like, Sam. I'd be, like, coming out the door. I I Great. I'm so conditioned. I'm so trained, and I'm so mentally there that it's not even a fear. It's a joy, brother. It's training us. Right? Like, I think part of the coolest thing about your new venture is you're you're taking everything that you've done, and now you're sharing it with the the people that are coming to work for your company. I saw you on stage doing, like, a whole, uh, deal around. You were doing, like, knock, knock, knock. Like, let's let's let's, uh, let's role play this. And I think that that's hugely important as well. That's pretty dope you're doing that. Yeah. Because, you know, a lot of things I know I know you know this, Chris, but for people out there, a lot of the training is cut, Todd. You have to be there. You have to see it. You have to feel it. And I can tell you on paper textbook, this is what it is. But unless you're watching someone actively do it and you're around that person, you're seeing it with your own eyes, going to the door knock, watching the role play, you can't catch everything on paper. You can only catch it when you're around it, which is why I say some things are caught, not taught. Yeah. That is right. Some things are caught, not taught. I love that. Matt, if you take us back, like, to do you remember when, you know, you got a little bit of success? You've been doing door knocking. You're starting to close some deals, um, you're probably getting a lot of recognition from the companies you are with, and then the the idea to jump into social media goes into your brain. How did that how what was the early days like, and what really inspired you to do it? So the biggest motivating factor at the beginning was I loved documenting my story and hearing the response from people and just, like, hearing the response from our followers on social media. So for me, I love the fact that I can post something on social media and immediately get a response from people. Bro, good luck at the doors today. Congratulations on a new closing. You and your wife rocked it, something like that. And so that that posting of social media was, like, 2 benefits. Number 1, it was accountability because I said I was gonna do something. So every morning, I'd wake up at 5 or 5 30, post my old morning routine on social media, which I still do to this day. Not every day anymore, but I used to do that every day back in the day. I would read every single day. I'd write thank you cards every single day. I'd go door knocking and cold calling every day. So it was a level of accountability. And after a certain period of time, people get conditioned to what your lifestyle is and what they could expect from your channel or your show. Uh, if you don't show up and you don't do something, you start getting messages like, yo, bro. Is everything okay? Like, where you at? You missed your workout. Or you start inspiring other people to do the same thing that they're tagging you. And if you're and if you always show up, then, you know, you look like a loser. So number 1 was the accountability aspect. The other thing was the, uh, community of, like, cheering and and support. So when I would do something, I would get immediate feedback from people. Um, and I love that interaction with people having them see what it was I was going through. Now I didn't know it would turn into business right away. I just knew that I was engaging with thousands of people out there were following me. And I knew that I was doing something different at that time. Because again, we're talking 2014, 2015 when Instagram was barely coming out and it was barely something. 2013. And I'm posting all these things on social media when it wasn't that big. It wasn't normal to do that. You gotta remember this, bro. Like, we don't come you know, my generation I'm 37 years a of age. We don't come from the generation of posting everything on social media. So 2,005, when I was in high school, dude, flip flops are barely coming out, man. Like, the little Nokias and all that, and you'd take these little grainy pictures. Like so, you know, the only way you ever recorded something was actual camera camcorder with the tape inside of it. You'd have to film it like this, and maybe maybe you had a little LED screen, but that was my era. And then as phones got smarter and social media came out, I had to learn how to grab this thing, turn around, and talk to it. And that was, like, a way that I was able to capture some amounts of attention quickly because I was one of the first to do it in my field, in my market. And everyone was like, oh, Gabe Mendez. San Diego Riller. San Diego Riller Gabe Mendez. Like, he's on social media. He's the social media king. And then I just got better over time with it. I forgot the question, but that's yeah. Do that's Well, I what the question was what inspired you to do it, but, um, and it sounds like I mean, what you're saying is a lot of it was when you started doing it, there was a an an immediate inner, like, interaction with your audience that that really fueled you to wanna, you know, document more. Um, I do got a question, though, but, like, do you remember when you started racking up followers? Was it an overnight thing? I mean, you have, what, like, over a 100000 followers, um, or something like that. But how did you do you remember, like, a single post that went viral that really changed everything for you? So the first post that went viral for me dude, I did a dance for, like, 2,000 and 17, I think. Uh, 2008. It was 2018 when I first went to SEPCHE21. Um, and that was, like, when the backpack kid was, like, a big deal. The kid that would do, like, that, uh, it was called the backpack kid dance, I think. It was, like, on Fortnite. You'd swing your hands from side to side. So I did that dance at a lifting appointment at a excuse me, at a listing video. And so I played the I forgot what the name of the song was, but I played this. I I I walk out of the garage. The garage comes up slowly. Music kicks in. I start walking out of the garage. It's a big driveway, and I just stand in the center of the screen on every shot of the house. And the entire time, I'm just staring at the camera, and I'm just doing this dance with, like, no emotion on my face for, like, 2 and a half minutes, and then it just ends randomly. Uh, I posted that on face I posted that on Facebook, and that thing went full viral, bro. It just skyrocketed. It was getting we took, like, hours to get they had, like, 100 of thousands of views, 100 of thousands of comments. It just started blowing up my Facebook, blowing up my Instagram. I had a I had 2, like, 2 news stations reach out to me. Wanted to do an interview, 1 in Australia and then another one in somewhere in Cali so I'm in the United States. I forgot where it was. I had to go to this one, um, some place in downtown San Diego where they have where they film all these interviews. Anyways, I did that, and now what ended up blowing up for me, that was the first post that did that did really, really well. The second post that we had that did really, really well was our post on our YouTube channel. So my wife and I, we ended up recording a video of our proposal, and that proposal video is, I think, now is up to, like, 10,000,000 views worldwide. So we posted that one on YouTube and it edge blowing up, dude. So those 2 videos, uh, are the ones that ended up taking off. And honestly, the dancing one was just to be silly and try something different. It wasn't for the intention to go viral. And then the one with my wife, it was just a document, our journey of what we have done for a lot of people. It was never like, oh, dude. We're gonna put this thing together. We're gonna be famous. It just happened to go viral between both of those clips. And that's, like, where the whole journey of, like, growing your social page, uh, started for us. Well, do you think that, um, part of why you have success on social is because you're willing to show the real you outside of business, share your family? Like, I know a lot about you because I follow your social. Um, and, obviously, that's through one lens, but you are showing, you know, your family. You are showing the journey. You the 2 years that I've been following you, I think it's been 2 years. You are not the same dude that that I started with on social media to where you are now. The growth has been enormous. In one of the most difficult markets of our lives, you still continue to to to get success. So do you think part of that success on why people wanna use you is because your story, being a man of faith, being a father, being a husband, being willing to dance on camera, is why people resonate why it resonates with you and helps you connect closer with your audience? You know, I hear feedback from everyone, and they tell me it's this, it's that, it's the other. And for me, I like my whole goal with social media is to inspire people. I I feel like my there's like this deep urge. I'm gonna go deep for a second. Yeah. There's like this deep urge, Chris, that I have inside where if I don't maximize my potential, if I don't maximize my life, if I don't maximize what God's given me, if I don't maximize this opportunity in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, where my family came from Mexico. My grandmother came from Mexico with 7 kids, uh, came over here, didn't speak the language, worked 3 jobs. My mother came over here without a father, single mother, who worked 3 jobs, and she put me on a platform. And if I don't backslide on this opportunity, there's, there's like something conditioned to have a built inside of me where I almost feel like a loser. I feel like, like I didn't complete my the highest billing, highest calling. So I'm wired in a way where I have to find out what my fullest potential is. And I'm also wired in a way where I want to help many people along the way. I'll tell you this, dude. Making money is cool. It's fun. And and and making a lot of money is really fun because it removes a level of fear from your life, and it gives you the utmost peace because you don't have to worry about anything anymore. You know, if if dad has to get this taken care of or paid for, you can swipe your credit card without thinking twice. If the kids have to go buy this, you can go swipe your credit card without thinking twice. And removing that level of fear and that level of issue is amazing. But making money just for self gain is terrible. It's one of the most empty feelings in the entire world. You have to tie it to something bigger. And for me, that bigger is helping other people. I love the fact that I solve problems. One of the biggest problems for most people, um, period, you know, is which is a real estate portfolio, their investments. And now I'm getting into the commercial space, uh, financial services space, all of these different spaces to solve these problems. I love inspiring people to have better marriages. I love inspiring people to become better fathers, present fathers. I love inspiring people how to be healthy and fit and, you know, be an attractive person yet be respectful and all these other things, man. Like, have integrity in the business. I love inspiring people to do that. And for me, that is like that's actually worth more to me than the money itself. Because I'm having like, I feel like there's purpose to my life now and I'm doing something with it. But the reason I'm sharing all that is because when you're asking about the social aspect and sharing everything, white people working with me, I've never done it for that reason. I only did it because I knew it was a platform to go out there and and and show people who I am for the sole purpose of inspiring them. Why do I post my wife so much? Because I love her, of course. And also I'm hoping to inspire other men to start posting their wives. Why do I why why do I talk about my faith openly? Because, of course, I love my Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I'm grateful he changed my life and my marriage. But I'm also he's also used me as a vessel, and he said, I'll bless you with the desires of your heart as long as you call me your lord and savior. He but he he also wants to use me to go out in the marketplace and inspire other people to bring them home, bring them back home. So, hey, if Gabe can go have a good family, a healthy wife, a prosperous business, and he's always saying it's God's reason for for all of it happening, then maybe I should go listen to that. Maybe I should go to church. Maybe I should go to men's prayer. Maybe I should think of the bible and just see what he's talking about because what I'm doing isn't working. I mean, what he's doing is working. And I'm inspiring people for those things. So and so, you know, for whatever if they hire me because I'm a man of faith, if they hire me because Harry met, if they hire me because my family met Whatever it is. Whatever it is. Right? At the end of the day, at the I mean, my my biggest wish, my biggest prayer is that I'm impacting their life in a more meaningful way. And, yes, you'll get the top notch service. And, of course, I do believe I'm the best real estate agent in the country, uh, probably in the world. I just haven't met everyone in the world, but in the country, I really do believe that. Of course, you could get top notch service with it. But at the very least, I'm inspiring in some sort of way to think bigger, dream bigger, be better. And, uh, hopefully, you know, that that's, uh, that's more impactful long term. Gabe, when did you realize that or feel that time where you had a big deal, you got a lot of money, and you're like, yeah. And then, like, minutes later, you were like, you felt empty. Like, do you remember that time when you realized, like, making money isn't everything? Because now I have it, and I don't feel any better after the the initial, you know, hey. We drank some champagne. We, you know, whatever. You know? And now now now what? Right? Like, when when was that in your life that you realize that you have to tie what you're doing with purpose? That was, uh, October of 2014. October of 2014, I had my new license for real I got my buyout license in December of 2013. Okay. Okay. And I was in multi level marketing. I had money saved. So I had I had I had passive income coming from multi level marketing. I was receiving income from TC ing Files. I had money saved. And then I had to close, I think, 1 or 2 deals in 2014, um, with no debt. Um, so and I was doing some stuff on the side here and there. So I was probably making about 5,000 a month or 7,000 at the age of, like, 26 with no debt. And October of 2,000, uh, 14, that's when I was making money with no debt. You know, to make 5 to $7 a month and have no debt. I was talking to, like, no car. I just paid, like, $500 of rent. Uh, essentially nothing. I had all this money to do stuff with. And when I started making that money consistently, I started going out drinking champagne, go to nice dinners. And that's when I realized, bro, like, that was the most empty feeling in the entire world. You could have all the money you want. You could have all the women you want. You could have the recognition you want. You know, public notoriety where everyone sees you're successful. You can have all that. But if you don't have that one thing that centers you and grounds you, you get lost. And, Chris, this is why I strongly believe that if you look at all these celebrities, Justin Bieber and all these other people who had breakdowns, they they got everything they ever wanted. Money, house, cars, women, fame. But they didn't have that one thing, that thing that grounded them spiritually, and they didn't have purpose. Because once you have everything and you have no one around you, you have no purpose and no center, what are you doing it for? There's only so many women you would want to be with. There's only so many cars you can buy. There's only so many houses and mansions you can own. There's only so many yachts you can drive in. And and what what's next? A bigger one? A bigger one? A bigger one? You know, all it uh, a shell, a foundation, a roof, walls, electrical plumbing, all it is is a house. But if you don't have anyone out there that loves you and supports you, it doesn't turn into a home until you have that love and support from people that you care for. So the community, the people, the purpose, that center, that spiritual sense, right, makes that house some home. And you could have a small tent on the beach with the closest people to you most happy. Everyone's happy and they're healthy. And that is much more warming than having a big mansion on the hill, the best cars, and yet you feel like you're not connected to the people, and you're alone, and you're isolated. This is why you see so many successful people commit suicide and take their life. This is why you see so many celebrities who go into depression and go spiraling downhill after they have got grabbed everything because they forgot the one thing about it the most, which is community purpose in God. You need that along the way, dude. And so I don't ever get want to. I I'm happy with my humble home. I'm happy with our humble cars. And is God gonna bless us some more? He already is. Need more. I God's given me what I need what I need. Now do I want it to inspire the people for whatever his kingdom is? Yeah. Because the truth is, Chris, I can't do my job as a Christian as a as a Christ follower to reach people of influence, people in business, uh, people of political power. You know, they won't listen to me unless I reach a certain status of income, such as certain status of business. So in order for me to impact the world and influence the world the way I want to, I have to build a business that's successful international internationally. So now I get invited into those close-up rooms. And they say, dude, this guy, Gabe, he's cool, bro. Like, he's humble. He's down to earth. He has a good family. He he earns a lot of income. He's doing something right. You know, what's going on? And I had that opportunity to say, dude, let me tell you about Christ. And, boom, we change, you know, we we we change how families are done. We change our communities. We change our counties. We influence our state legislation. We influence our country. We influence the world. Before you know it, we'll become a harmon harmonious, happy, peaceful place again. So Yeah. Sorry sorry to get deep on that, brother, but that No. I I think that I think that, uh, I think that people wanna hear, you know, the the the way that, um, if if anybody can walk away with an idea around how to stay centered, um, and how to, you know, have purpose, I think that's really good, you know, a good message for people to hear. You know? I mean, every success story has this moment where you feel like you're you're falling apart, where you feel like you're alone, where you feel like you're, you know, in a hole, and, um, it's the end of the world in in your mind. Like, the walls are closing in. Was there a moment that you can remember that as you were coming up that, you know, you hit where you were like, I have to change my mindset. I have to change this. Tell us about that moment that if you're willing to be uh, vulnerable about it and share with our audience, tell us about that moment that that you had that really changed your life. Right. And there was there was there was so many, Chris. It didn't depend on what part of life you're talking about. But that October 2014 I was telling you about, we started getting everything that felt really empty. I fell into a deep, dark depression. Everyone thought I was okay. I contemplated suicide in December of 2014, and that's when I knew I had to change something. And I went and got a job to create stability in my life. So I went I went and got hired by the department of corrections for, like, 5 months just to create stability in my life. I needed a routine. I needed steady income. I needed I just needed a routine. And so I did that. That was number 1. That was the biggest game changer. That was one of the game changers that the scariest game changers that happened in my life. The, um, most, like, humbling experience I ever had was in 2015 when I quit that job, I went full time into real estate because I just felt there was this bigger calling for my life. You know, my mother, she's 1st generation from Mexico. We ended up losing our home in 2007. And having a sheriff knock at your door, having signs posted outside for the neighbors to see, and then being escorted out of your property that you lived in for 2 years, The first time I ever had my own bedroom in my entire life, you know, having getting pulled out of the house and having everyone around you look at you, having all your friends and family and friend, uh, high school friends ask you what happened to that home, it scarred me on the inside. And then knowing what my mother went through, it scarred me knowing that she had a burden, you know, she had to carry that weight. So in 2015, when I quit that job, I told myself, there's work that's that's unfinished, and I have to go out there and complete this work. So when I did when I quit the job and I went back into real estate, for the 1st 6 months, brother, I cleared my entire savings account. I bought suits, business cards, websites, open house signs for sale signs. I rereaded myself completely, and I went all in on real estate. No plan b. Burn the boats like we talked about earlier. And when I did that, 5 months into it, my car got repossessed at a listing appointment. And, dude, it was one of the most toughest emotional moments in my entire career because I finally was able to secure an appointment on my own. I was able I felt good enough to close it on my own. No team leader, no broker to support me, no manager. And And I'm sitting there in a suit with a white shirt that had yellow stains around the neck of it because I've worn it so many times at door knocking and and cold calling at offices. It was starting to stain yellow around the neck. And I remember my shoes were like my soles were down to the bottom because I only had 2 share pairs of shoes, a black one and brown pair. And I remember the black ones I was wearing were all the way down, so I would door knock on them 5 days a week. And I'm sitting inside this guy's house in a 2 story townhome, and we're sandwiched in between 2 buildings. And his mother comes running down the stairs. She's yelling in Spanish, like, hey. Do you have a blue car? And in that moment, bro, my heart dropped to my stomach because I knew what was going on the moment she said. I knew I was getting the letters. I was getting the phone calls. I knew I was behind 4 months on my payment on my BMW. I knew that was happening. And I just tried to keep a poker face. And I I looked at his mom and I said, yeah, I I I have a blue car. Why? What's up? She said, they're towing it. She was yelling in Spanish. They're taking it. They're taking it. So I take a deep breath, and he's like, let's go take a look outside. We open the door. Uh, he opens the door for me. It kinda brushed right in front of him. So I walk ahead so he doesn't hear the conversation. And sure enough, man, uh, they had my car already hooked to the thing. And I'm in a gated community. I don't know how they on my car. I found it inside then. He even got inside, but they hooked it. And I remember they hooked, and I remember walking into this guy. He's a 6 foot 5, bro. Big beard. This massive looking dude, bro. And he looks like I mean, just looks like a massive scary dude. And I'm walking over there, but, bro, this guy looks at my eyes. He can see my face. And I remember just looking into this guy's face, and he just turned me like this puppy dog, like a soft bear, a teddy bear. And he's like, I'm so sorry. I have to take the car. And I asked him. I'm like, dude, can you please can you please release my car? I'm at work. I have no money. I'll give you my cell phone, something. I just don't take my car in front of me right now. And he apologized. Like, I'm sorry. BMW said I had to take it. So they ended up towing my hooking my car up. And I remember in that moment, I had to make a decision. You know, I it it was I had all this weight on top of me. I'm embarrassed. I'm hot. I'm broke. You know? The the sellers are behind me. The tow truck's in front of me, and I have all this weight on top of me. And I finally decide, you know what? I'm just gonna suck it up and turn around and just swallow my face. So I take a deep breath. I turn around. I go walk back towards the. I'm like, oh, they took my car. I'll just get it later. And he wraps a dart around my shoulder, and he was like, do you see Gabe? This is why I wanna sell my home. Like, why why do you wanna sell it? It was probably one of my neighbors that ended up calling because he parked at the visitor's spot without the placard. And I'm like, oh, shit. I'm like, yeah, dude. It was your neighbor. He's like, let's go sell this home, dude. So we walk inside, and I don't get the listing. And then I don't have anyone to pick me up. And he's like, do you want me to give you a ride back to the office? So I get I jump in his 2 seater truck, and it's one of those old school trucks that you gotta roll the window down with your hand, one of those crank ones. There's no radio. It's it's it's a single cabins. We're sitting right next to each other. And it was like the longest 7 minute drive at the office. And we were just sitting there quietly. The most embarrassing, humiliating moment in my entire career. I open the door. I hop out. We make eye contact. Just know for a fact, this is the last time that I'm gonna talk to this guy ever. I close the door and I never hear from him ever again. And, yeah, long and behold, man, we ended up, uh, ended up losing my car. I sat there for a moment, and I thought to myself, I have 2 options. I can either break down and cry and quit, or I can pull it together, go back inside, complete the work. I decided to combine the 2. I decided to cry, and I decided to go back inside and get to work. So I cried like a baby. I mean, what else where you can't even breathe, and the boogers are coming out, and you're like, oh, oh, oh, you know, outside out there. And I just I cried for, like, 20 minutes or just cleaning my face up. My face was all my eyes were puffy. I couldn't breathe. My nose was clogged. And I went back inside and I finished the day. And that was, like, a very impactful day that ended up changing my life forever. It was one of those moments in my life that I knew would shape me differently. And that was the most profound moments of my career because I had to it built the character inside of me, the resilience. And so, you know, then I met the client, knocked in the door, I got the money back, and then we got the choir repossession, and, um, yeah, I made, like, 2 sales in 2015 or 3 sales. And then after that, you know, the projection was upward afterwards. Wow, bro. Mad respect for that story. So you're in a listening appointment. You get your car repoed. I mean, the fact that you were able to pull it off at the end of it and, you know, live to see another day, um, when you got home that day, what what were you what what did you feel like? I mean, was that that's the moment that you were like, okay. This something has changed. Like, what what what was that like? You wanna know the truth, bro? It felt it felt so good when I got home because I do for a fact after reading all those books, listening to all listening to all those audiobooks, all those motivational videos I was watching, everyone said the same thing. Everyone said the same thing. You're going to have that, that career defining moment that you hit a crossroad and you got to make a decision. It's either you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna quit or you're gonna fight till the death, the last thing. But you're gonna have one of those moments in your career that shifts everything for you. And that was my moment in my career that shifted everything for me. It was that breakthrough moment. You know, it's like that meme that's on Instagram and TikTok where it has, like, that guy with the pickaxe, and he's, like, digging through the cave. And he's, like, 2 feet away from, like, the diamonds, and there's a guy right above him who's, like, 6 feet back with the pickaxe. He's, like, digging super excited that the diamonds are really far. But the guy on the bottom who was 2 feet away, he had his back and he's walking away with a pickaxe with his head down because he had dug so far and never hit the diamond. See, like, us as people, you know, you're gonna have that defining moment in your career. You're gonna have a moment where the you're starting to break down and you're starting to break down and you're starting to break down. Everything you're doing, it's feeling it's not working. But I remember from watching those videos and those motivational takes that the breakthrough happens just before the break. Um, and I knew my breakthrough was coming. I knew it was coming because I had finally broken down to the bare bottom, and it's written already. It's already been proven by so many testimonials out there. You know, like they say, you know, you can't have a you can't have a you can't have a testimonial without a test. And all these people were tested, and they have testimony that it's exceeding. And if I if you just believe enough, you believe in the stories, you believe in the audio tapes, you believe in the vision, cafe, you have hope, it will work out for you one day. And as long as you don't give up, it will work. I had that little belief in myself. But I went, Elbro. I was like, Rocky. I was like, yeah. My car just got repossessed after I tried, of course, after I cried, baby. But I felt good on it because I knew the success was on the other side. That's, uh, that's rewriting rejection, and that's rewriting the way, um, the way our brain, you know, processes information. I mean, you you feel you really have mastered the art of it. And I think a lot of people have to realize that, you know, in order to achieve the level of success that someone like Gabe is is in, you have to be willing to have your back against the wall and take the l's because for every time you take a loss, you're just getting closer to, you know, the success. Uh, most people most people would have gone back to being a correctional officer after that moment. Most people would have given up after, you know, so many door knocks and their shoes being, you know, run out or, you know, worn down. Right? Like, most people would have been afraid to post a video of them doing a dance on social media. But most people aren't doing the type of level of success you are, and that's the difference. And I think that, um, you have inspired me. You have inspired so many people being on this podcast, man. I I can I thank you so much for taking the time to do this? I hope that this is a beginning of more collabs with you and I because I I love your energy. I love your message, um, and you're doing something really amazing, dude. So if there's a way that we could partner on anything, I wanna continue to do that with you. One last question before I go, and and and I know we we got, like, maybe 1 minute left. But, um, if you had to go on your phone right now and delete Instagram, which is in a lot of ways starting over in in this market, I know that you would grow your audience fast. But what would be the first type of content you would be putting out immediately to grow your audience again in the in this type of Instagram environment? Behind the scenes content. 100%. No doubt about it. Uh, it would be it would be stories or it'd be reels, but it'd be everything about the grind and the hustle. It would everything it'd be everything behind the scenes. It would be me waking up at 5:30. It would be me shut up to the office. It would be me knocking on doors. It would be I would literally record everything behind the scenes at my first home inspection, my first offer getting accepted, me meeting with my client to do the buyer consultation. I wouldn't be showing people that I'm willing to outwork every other person you're considering. I would show people that I'm I'm that I'm smarter than everyone else by showing them the courses and classes at higher level education that I'm attending as I'm going through this personal growth journey. And through that, I would follow everyone. I would follow all the local influencers in my marketplace, local influencer, uh, hairstylists, barbershops, uh, wedding photographers, wedding I'd follow everyone, Have them follow me back. I'm like, this dude's really active on social media. I like what he stands for. I like who he is, and I'd immediately build a following as I'm being proactive in my prospecting. And those two things will grow at the exact same time. And, eventually, I'll get this will pay me immediately, but the the the largest ROI will be on this side as this starts to take off and go viral. That's right. Yeah. If it that on on top of your entire message is probably the most important thing you said on this entire podcast as well. So I'm I'm trying to think about how to tell this in a nutshell. But first off, you're already my favorite guest because of all the things you just but no. I get this is a funny story. So I was in I got invited to do a Na rep event, um, a few years back, and I knew nothing about Na rep. Um, I in fact, I've been in the business for, you know, over 25 years and knew nothing about the the organization. And so my company invest a lot of money in this in this, uh, you know, in this organization, and so they needed somebody to speak about social media at one of their conferences. So I did it, and it was really surreal to walk into a room of that many Latinos. Like, it it really was, like, a weird, you know, vibe for me, and I loved it because, you know, I've done a lot of conferences, but never did it feel like just everybody looked like me. And, you know, it was kinda weird, right, to be brown and to see that many people, um, doing amazing things in the industry. And so I I really got attached to it. So I went to that event and then that was in DC, and I spoke on a panel about social media. And then the next event, I was checking in and the girl checking me in said it was in San Diego this time, and she said, hey. Are you gonna be on the panel this year? And I said, no. No one asked me. And she said, well, here's my card. You need to be on the next year's panel or the next one, and I'm so bummed you're not on it, but, you know, we'll get you back on. And so then I walked away from that conversation. I was bummed. I was like, man, I should have been that panel. I should have asked them. And so I go to go see this panel, and I'm walking towards the panel. You can't get anywhere near the the room. And you know how the rooms are. They're kinda small for these panels. So I'm I'm walking. I'm like, you can't even get near it. It's like just a crowd of people just and they're they're so this one is gonna be so good that they're looking over, like, the doorway to try to get in. And so I took a seat next to in a bench that was by there, and I was just checking emails for work. And I see this dude walk up that has, like, this entourage of about 20 or 20 people with him, and he's like I I'm guessing he's on Instagram live, and he's walking in through the door of all these people, and he goes in to do the the panel. And I was so glad at that moment that I wasn't on that panel and that guy was you. And I was like, this dude just came in and rocked this panel. And I'm so glad that I didn't have to sit next to him to to be, you know, like, watching somebody so amazing do what they're doing. I don't think I could've competed with that. And at that moment, I was like, I'm going to do a podcast with this dude because I need to learn what he's doing because there's so much energy behind, you know, his brand. And, um, and I'd never heard of you before. So I I DM ed you a few times, but, dude, you have so many people on your so this year, I caught you. We caught eyes. I caught you at this year's NAR rep, and I'm like, this dude's not getting away. And I walked up to you, and I gotta tell the the listeners who who are because I've I've asked a lot of good people to be on my podcast, and most people will will say yes, and then they kinda ghost you. But not only did you exchange your phone number with me because you didn't brush me off to DM you, You you exchange phone numbers, and then you immediately responded. You sent the picture to me that we we took, and then you followed up about let's get this podcast going. And there's very few people who are who are at the level that you're you're at, Gabe, that are willing to do that. And so and I think that goes to show how important your brand is to you, that you are yourself, you're authentic, and you're kind to the people that are asking you for your time. So I just wanna thank you out the gates, man, on how how much I appreciate that. And for those listening, if you ever run into Gabe, I mean, seriously, this guy is, you know, just amazing on, you know, his approach and, you know, his demeanor, and I can see how you've become extremely successful with your your business because of that. Thank you so much for doing this with us today. It means a lot. You're you're breaking through in a way, and I've seen you grow in 2 years, and I know 2 years from now, it's gonna be even further, man. But I I appreciate how you've inspired me today with with talking about your faith, um, and the things that center you and, um, from from one Latino to another. Thank you for making us look good out there, brother. Chris, it's a pleasure, brother. God bless you, and thanks for allowing me to be on your platform. It's an honor. Man, I appreciate you, Gabe. Thank you. Alright, guys. Enjoy your day. Go out there and do something with the information that Gabe gave you. Take care, everyone.