One Thousand Gurus Podcast
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a software project manager, self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, dancer, stand-up comedian, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.
One Thousand Gurus Podcast
#19: Alex Rubio - PreMed to Property Management, Navigating Getting Older, and Benefits of an MBA
Alex Rubio shares his transformative journey from pre-med to property management, offering valuable insights on leadership, resilience, and finding one's true calling. His experience illustrates the power of adaptability and relationships in creating a fulfilling professional life.
• Discussing the early career influences and shifts
• Building strong workplace relationships and culture
• Insights on leadership learned through experience
• The decision to enter real estate after years in property management
• Experiences and takeaways from obtaining an MBA
• The importance of personal growth and flexibility in one’s career
Guest bio:
Alex Rubio is a seasoned professional in property management and real estate, with over 15 years of experience. He earned his degree in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine in 2007 and his MBA from UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business in 2015, completing the fully employed program while working full-time.
Alex began his career with American Campus Communities (ACC) in 2006, where he played a key role in opening multiple properties, including Camino del Sol in 2010, Plaza Verde in 2019, and Plaza Verde II in 2023. Over the years, he advanced from Assistant Resident Director to Area Manager by 2019, earning accolades such as the “Whatever It Takes: React and Adapt” Award in 2020 and “Area Manager of the Year” in 2021. In addition to his work at ACC, Alex obtained his Real Estate License in 2017 and joined eXp Realty in 2023, expanding his expertise into the real estate sector. Passionate about both student housing and real estate, Alex combines strategic leadership with a forward-thinking approach to drive success in every project he undertakes.
Socials:
IG: @fiatalux / @alexrubio.realtor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarubio/
FB: Alex Rubio
Website: https://alexrubio.exprealty.com/
Links/resources:
One Thousand Gurus Podcast:
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.
www.onethousandgurus.com
Instagram: @OneThousandGurus
TikTok: @onethousandgurus
YouTube: One Thousand Gurus Podcast
Email: onethousandgurus@gmail.com
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000 Gurus with me, your host, jr Yonacruz.
J.R.:So today's guest is Alex Rubio. So Alex Rubio is a seasoned professional in property management and real estate with over 15 years of experience. He earned his degree in biological sciences from UC Irvine in 2007 and his MBA from UC Irvine's Mirage School of Business in 2015, completing the fully employed program. While working full-time, alex began his career with American Campus Communities, or ACC, in 2006 and since then has worked up his way from Assistant Resident Director to Area Manager by 2019. In addition to his work at ACC, alex has obtained his real estate license in 2017 and joined eXp Realty in 2023, expanding his expertise into the real estate sector.
J.R.:So this was a fun episode, because Alex was actually my old boss in college when I worked as a CA, which is kind of like an RA for off-campus student housing. We have a lot of things in common, such as being Philippine Americans, foodies and proud UCI alumni. This is a great conversation where I personally learned a lot. Alex's experience leading teams and having a long career in property management, as well as being very eloquent and introspective on the lessons he's learned over the years, really lend to him being an excellent guru. For this episode. We talk a lot about his career trajectory, starting off pre-med to quote-unquote, temporarily going into property management for almost 20 years. He also gives great insights into leadership, fun stories about student housing and what it's like to get an MBA. As a working professional, reconnecting with people I respect, like Alex, is kind of half the reason why I created this show, so I was really grateful for this opportunity.
J.R.:So, without further ado, hope you enjoy this episode with Alex Rubio. Hello everyone and welcome back to 1000 Gurus. Today's guest is Alex Rubio Incredible, yeah. Thanks for being here, alex. So yeah, we talked about right before we started recording. It's been a while I feel like it's been almost 10 years since the last time I met him.
J.R.:Yeah, it's been forever. So for those of you don't know, I just read alex's bio. But he was my old boss. Back during my fourth year in college I worked as a ca, a community assistant, so it's kind of like an ra, but for the acc properties. And then alex was the gm at camino and so he was like the big boss man.
J.R.:Oh, you know, what I should I'm gonna link it in the notes is all the memes that I made maybe just a a couple of you, but my favorite one, the one that I sent you like more recently, was the was the you? Doing this and it was like is that a phone number or a bill? Alex?
Alex:is the money guy.
J.R.:Yeah, that was really good. I did some of the other pro staff too, but it was a lot of fun. That was my meme era. I just had folders of memes. But yeah, let me go into how I know you. So, yeah, like I said, you've been at ACC for a while. I stalked your LinkedIn and everything. Just to refresh, I was a CA for Camino in 2012, 2013. You were our pro staff manager. You'd been at ACC for I don't know like six, seven years, something like that. I started in 2006. Right, 2006. Yeah, so then it's been a few years. So you started as a CA.
Alex:You know, actually, when I was a student, they wanted me to apply to be a CA. I really didn't want to give up my two bedroom units.
J.R.:I was a student staff at UCF. Oh, student staff, gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so you're student staff, because I remember it was like you said that and then, after you graduated, you became pro-staff then.
Alex:Exactly.
J.R.:Right, yeah, let's see. And then so you graduated 2007, BioSci and then business school, 2015. And then the other thing that I remember is that you used to post I don't know if you still do, but a lot of cooking stories.
Alex:Yeah.
J.R.:Where you were like doing that. Do you still do a lot of cooking?
Alex:You know, not as much as I want to, but I probably the last time I started really doing that was last year.
J.R.:But Last time I started really doing that was last year, but things got so busy with life. Yeah, yeah, I always admire people who go into cooking, because that's the last thing that I care about is learning how to cook.
J.R.:I don't know. There's just something about food for me personally that I'm just like. I just want to eat it, but I don't have the patience, nor the skill, nor the inclination to want to make something beautiful and props to everyone who does so. Whenever I see people like oh, getting to cooking, I'm like oh, that's, that sounds cool.
Alex:I would never do it. I do it for the gram. Ah, the gram. There you go, just for the optimal angle of the dish.
J.R.:Yeah, I take pictures of food, you know. Yeah, oh, but that's the extent.
Alex:Anything else that you're up to nowadays before we get into our topics still just you know, at uci doing the whole acc management thing and trying to work on my the growth of my real estate sort of side gig yeah, nice, and we'll get into that too as well.
J.R.:Okay, so first topic that I wanted to get into is you've been. Is it safe to say you're diehard UCI? I mean, you've been there forever yes yeah, so, which is super cool. So I wanted to ask you. First topic is usually kind of origin story, right like where you grew up. I know you said you grew up in 626 area. What were your career aspirations, growing up and main influences?
Alex:I guess we'll start there so I remember, you know, just like, I think, any asian family, yeah, the filipino family your parents want the best for you, right? So you know, ever since second grade, I can remember my dad really pushing me to be a doctor. So you know, ever since second grade, I can remember my dad really pushing me to be a doctor. So you know, ever since second grade, I remember I really liked my second grade teacher, mrs Ferris, and I remember just mentioning to my dad that I think I want to be a teacher when I grow up, and my dad was, you know, no, you're not.
J.R.:You give the hard side eye.
Alex:You're going to be a doctor. Sorry, you said doctor Pretty much. I think that's what happened From second grade on. It's been like the molding of going towards being a doctor, which is why I went to Biol Sci at UCI and Irvine, because my dad was familiar with Irvine because he worked in the city of Irvine in that area, and so it was a good combination of both kind of that distance to kind of have the independence, but also close to family when there's no big filipino parties.
J.R.:Yeah, of course, of course, okay. So then. So you chose irvine, uci, biocide because you were like pre-med. So then what was? Well? There's two things I want to ask as someone who's been at uci for a long time. Right, I'm curious about how it's changed since you when you started first year. Right, because Irvine is even since I dropped on campus, like 2009 when I was first year. It's changed since then a lot, but I imagine even before that you've been around for longer is so my first topic is kind of like, how has Irvine slash UCI changed? And like what your experience was like going through that? And then also, what was that trajectory of you know biocide from when you started till 2007? Like, where did that career path go?
Alex:yeah, have you been to the campus at all recently? When's the last time I?
J.R.:went. Oh no, I went to give a blood donation, like a few days ago oh. I go there every three, two to three months to donate blood. Okay, at the student center. At the student center, because I know all the nurses they're super nice, especially the filipino ones, shout out.
J.R.:Tina from the blood center. I was like I was here the first year. I came like it opened. Okay, so another quick tangent. So I like maybe two blood blood donations ago I was like sitting there and it was like a promo. So there was first years like all around me and then the guy next to me, he's like what's my first time, first time.
Alex:And I was like, oh, yeah, it's the first time I'm like I've been here for a while now.
J.R.:And later, eventually, it got on. So, yeah, I've been here for, let's say, eight or nine years. And then, tina, she's like, yeah, that's when we opened. I'm like, yeah, I think I was here since then, right. But then and I him, and I was like, yeah, my and this is a real story I almost passed out, actually, yeah, I barely didn't pass out and a nurse caught me. I stood up, I felt nauseous and then I started blacking out and then one of the nurses caught me and then they put a cold thing and then laid me down. That was my first blood donation. But then, since then, I was like I trust these guys, they saved my life yeah they saved my life and they have a full facility.
J.R.:They're super professional. They do this by volume, a lot, so they know what they're doing. So I exclusively go to UCI Blood Donor Center.
Alex:Nice, I remember when it opened. I used to be a regular there too, watching movies while I'm giving platelets.
J.R.:Yeah, like platelets yes.
Alex:Yes, they used to give out movie tickets.
J.R.:Yeah, to $60, which is a good deal.
Alex:Hey, that's better.
J.R.:Yeah, blood is like 5 to 10, platelets is 40 to 60.
Alex:Oh man, yeah, I was going to go tangent with-. Yeah, tangent yeah.
J.R.:It's our blood donor center, exactly so shout out Sorry, where were we at?
Alex:How has it changed? Yeah, going back to that kind of along the same lines of the blood donor centers, everything's changed. We talk about ACC. That's the private housing on campus that's managed by American Campus. I remember when that didn't exist, so when I was a freshman living in Middle Earth circa 2002, that whole East Campus was just Arroyo Vista. That was it, and it was just open field.
J.R.:Yeah.
Alex:So where you used to work, Arroyo Drive, that wasn't there. It wasn't there. Yeah, I remember the first phase, Vista del Campo. I was a resident there. When it first opened, my room smelled like fresh paint. It was so weird.
J.R.:Fresh paint and lead.
Alex:It was? What year was that? Probably 2004. And it was like a long road from the first stop sign. It was at the very end right At the very end, top of the hill. It was like a long road, Arroyo Drive, and so I remember one year it was just, you know to take the shuttle. Firstly, they were old school school buses back then, and when you drive up Arroyo Drive it was just open field on both sides.
J.R.:It felt like we're going like into.
Alex:This was just vacant. Now it's all built out, so it's it's so. It's so weird. And even utc across the street was so different. Lee's sandwiches isn't there anymore that's right. Yeah, yeah, I remember I used, you know, the old 24-hour fitness isn't there anymore, it's target now. Before that it was from what I remember, from what I heard from alumni it used to be like this metropolis sort of club oh really yeah, everything about the campus is different. There's no more buildings, buildings, so UCI is under construction definitely.
J.R.:Under construction. Definitely All the acronyms.
Alex:Yeah, all that.
J.R.:What were the other ones?
Alex:Probably something we shouldn't say.
J.R.:Okay, I was going to think of it. Okay, we don't have to say it. Google that. All those acronyms, All the acronyms yeah.
J.R.:Okay. So yeah, that's been my experience too, Like even just the short time you know, the four. Well, actually, to be honest, like I've been at been in Irvine for 10 years, so since I was first year and then I moved back home and then moved back to Irvine for the next eight years or something like that, so I've been around Irvine a lot, so I feel like that's like my second home but, so, yeah, it's developed a lot and then you've been part of that, especially with the student housing as well, which I don't know.
J.R.:I feel like the ACC communities was a big part of my experience, because I think I lived on them aside from first year, obviously, I think second through fourth year and I liked it a lot, and then I was a CA as well and I think it really adds to the experience because it's like it's off-campus housing but it's really connected.
Alex:We're really part of the campus so if we did our job, it feels like it's part of the student life, although it's, you know, not managed by usay housing. But we're partners and you know the trip when you were a student we did all the trainings to you know very similar to a cra experience. That's the acc version of that yeah, definitely okay.
J.R.:So then, going back to now, your undergraduate experience, like how did you, what was the path going forward of?
Alex:okay, I'm biopsych going to be a doctor, yeah.
J.R.:And then you graduate and now you're ACC and I'm not a doctor yeah, not a doctor.
Alex:Yeah, you know it was. I think it was well. First I have a biopsych degree, not a total waste, I think. In my mind People always say, well, should you have just switched majors? It's hard to say, because my life wouldn't be the same it wouldn't be now if I wasn't a bio major, because when I graduated bio I actually didn't want to graduate yet I wanted to stay a fifth year to kind of delay the inevitable of graduation.
Alex:But bio sci didn't let me. They were like if you want the second major you have to graduate from uci and then reapply to uci as a second baccalaureate. So you know, I go. Joining acc was actually because I didn't know what to do with a bio major, because I was pre-med. I ultimately didn't become pre going to medical school. I never worked.
Alex:I, you know, I did my research at the hospital, the main hospital in orange, but I never worked in the lab. So most people who aren't pre-med, they worked in some sort of pharmaceutical thing and I never did that. But to kind of rewind a bit, my grades weren't competitive, so I wasn't an academic superstar. I didn't want to go into medicine like other folks who were in my cohort. Like I said, I did research at the emergency department in the hospital, the main hospital, you say hospital in orange. All my friends are doctors, so except for me, but um, I didn't want it that much.
Alex:You know, some folks you know were not as competitive in their academics so they decided to do a post-bac program because they really wanted to go into that and I just never had that passion, like I said it wasn't like. But biocide was a total waste because I think the work ethic and sort of the mindset to get a biodegrade at UCI even if you're not competitive, kind of was helpful for me when I proceeded to everything I'm doing now. That critical mind and all those hard sciences and the STEM sort of stuff kind of really helped me today. So not total waste, but it was a very weird pathway to get where I am.
J.R.:Yeah, definitely.
J.R.:I think that's a good thing to underscore is no matter what you do, you're not wasting your time because you get something out of it as long as you see it that way right Like it's not a waste and I had a question sitting in, for I dance with college students at UCLA and a lot of them are, let's say, like bioengineering, like bio, sci, phi, sci and all that, and it's very competitive. Like you said, how does one, or how did you, or how do you see one discerning? Okay, I'm, my grades aren't competitive, or maybe I feel like this isn't really for me. Like when is it? When? At what point do you make a pivot? Or look to other things and not jump to med school? Or maybe take a few of them want to take one or two gap year to like work and figure it out, because they're not so like med school, like right afterwards.
Alex:You know it's something I talked about in one-on-one meetings that I used to have with CAs, because, you and everyone else who I've known over the years, it's always similar in terms of either their gung-ho and what they want to do, or they're feeling kind of lost. And just you know, in the moment you have those feelings, but in in like retrospect, when I see everyone do their thing, it kind of comes down to do well in whatever you do and things will fall into place. So there are folks who have really pushed for med school. Maybe they were burnt out or they were just so focused on it, and when they didn't do well it was somewhat demoralizing in a sense, and so they found other sort of avenues. But there's other folks who maybe didn't succeed in the GMATs or whatever they wanted to do. They did a gap year or they tried to find other things during that one or two years after graduating UCI, and doing that actually motivated them even further to kind of realize you know what I want to be a doctor. Doing all that reignited their passion.
Alex:So not everyone's path is the same. I know when you go to UCI or maybe you hear from your parents, you kind of have this mentality that you have to be the doctor, be the lawyer, be this headliner title, and you see everyone at UCI who is very driven or very successful and you feel you have to have that path. Everyone has their own path Because if you put yourself in that mold from what I've seen all the you know I've been to the ACC for about 20 years, so that's how many generations of student staff I've seen you just have to be passionate whenever you do, you know, be proud of your story or be proud of your path and because it's brought you to where you are. Like I said, there's that there's one student staff member who thought that they ruled out medical school or being a doctor, but that two-year gap reignited that passion and it and they're now in med school or they're a doctor now. So, and also remembering that whatever you decide to do, either your it's your dream job or dream role since you were in second grade or something you fell into, whatever job's going to have dark times, it's going to have difficulties, right, but it's that kind of passion that you have for it, that kind of lights the way sort of thing.
Alex:So for me, I didn't aspire to work in property management or student housing or real estate. I fell into it, you know, with my story. But I enjoy working at UCI. I enjoyed working with the campus partners. I enjoy working with CAs and ACC as a company. So during those difficult times, that's what lights the way you know. So, whatever you do, you're going to have some sort of passion. Don't be so blinded to. I have to do it this way because you might get burned out. It's from what I've seen from other people right, right.
J.R.:So it's from what I'm getting, or what you're saying, and what I think you're getting at is people have their own path yeah, you know, it doesn't have to be very straightforward.
J.R.:you can kind of take a break but develop, developing some sort of self-awareness that you know, like you can figure out what you're passionate about. And then sometimes you fall into something that was kind of like similar with my career path, like I didn't know what I wanted to do but I knew that if I did a good job and I kept an open mind, I would find something.
J.R.:So I like that a lot, so I guess now segue into that is so how did you fall? Okay, you fell into property management and ACC for the last 20 years or so.
Alex:Temporary for the last 20 years.
J.R.:Yeah, exactly, it's okay. Maybe I'll do this property management thing, see how it goes for 20 years. So then, what was the I guess? Could you walk us through how that, how it led from one year to 20 years?
Alex:I would like to assume you like it there because you're clearly still there, right.
J.R.:So could you walk us through that?
Alex:You know, it's interesting because working for this company or going through this industry was temporary, because, like I said, I didn't know what to do with my life, with my bio degree and graduating earlier than I thought, and so I was speaking. I was chatting with my current boss, emily, on AIM Instant messaging. Yeah, that's old right, what's AIM?
J.R.:Yeah, that's so sad.
Alex:Known as Teams probably now.
Alex:It's kind of venting on. I don't know what I want to do. I have this bio degree, all those things. And she messaged me and said you know what? We're opening our second phase, visito Campo Norte, and we're splitting the staff. We need to hire more staff. Since you don't know what to do with your life, come work for us. And I was like, since I really didn't know what to do with my life and I wasn't sure if I wanted to move back to Walnut, I applied and I got it.
Alex:And it was going to be, like I said, temporary. While I figure out what I want to do with my life, I'll work for ACC. I don't know what this is about. I worked on campus and that's how I knew Emily. She was my boss when I was a student housing advisor at UCI, so I gave housing tours. I was also campus rep at UCI, so I gave campus tours, so that's how I know Emily. But yeah, while I figure it out, I'll just do this side gig sort of thing. And it's been temporary ever since I just kind of moved up the company. It's been very good to me.
J.R.:Were there very good to me, yeah, were there. Maybe. Specifically, what are some things about your career with acc that you know that lended to you staying for so long? I'm assuming? I mean I've I worked there for a year as a ca, but like what about it do you feel like compels you to have stayed for this long? Because there are people out there who go into different work environments and maybe there's some are good, some are not so good, but 20 years in a company-ish seems like a good track record. So I don't know, like what things do you feel like lend it to being a good place to work?
Alex:I think it's, you know, a combination of working for your alma mater as you said, I was a proud anteater, so there's that blessing but also working for a good company American Campus but I think combining that created an environment where it's the people. I've worked with a lot of my colleagues who I've known for now like Emily, I've known since I was a student staff as an undergraduate, and so I think it's the people that we work with that kind of drive every day. It could be the people who will work on campus, who I used to work as a student staff and they were the pro staff. Now they're my colleagues and there's that, you know, seeing CAs like yourself grow into doing all their different passions. So, when it comes down to it, seeing all those different populations working with those different people, it's the environment, it's the people that kind of make it a really awesome environment to work in.
J.R.:Nice.
J.R.:So my next question is you know as a manager, and you've been a manager in that capacity for a long time. My question is like what insights or lessons have you learned that you feel like help with leading a large team and overseeing like a large area? That's something that I'm really interested in is like leadership and creating that sort of culture and environment that makes people want to stay for, let's say, 20 years Right, and I know you've been a part of that to help growth the growth of ACC at UCI. Do you have any like insights or lessons that you've learned?
Alex:It takes experience, you know it's. I don't think I was like a naturally born leader and it's really an awareness about your own shortcomings and you want to learn from it. But it's I wouldn't say it's been a rocky road. I hope it's not been a rocky road for the people I worked with. But it's a growing journey of being a leader. So I was.
Alex:When I first started with ACC, I was an assistant resident director and then became resident director. So I got experience through supervising student staff and, you know, learning that, those initial stages of being a supervisor. So that's learning the strengths of your team, knowing how to identify weaknesses and how to let them grow and teach them. You know those kind of foundational things. And then as I moved up, the company that kind of transitioned from student staff to full-time staff Totally different population.
Alex:Because when you're student staff they're very part-time sort of people. They have academic work and so you only really supervise them when they're in the office. But when you're pro staff you're now supervising someone who's here eight to five long term. So there's different nuances with that. But I think the leadership kind of aspect is you know, I got my MBA. They touch on leadership and being a supervisor. They're kind of they touch on leadership and being a supervisor, but really it's the hands-on experience over the years to hone in those skills, to really know what you need to be a successful leader for your team and then helping them go towards that goal of whatever the mission is or whatever the initiative is for that time.
J.R.:So it's a lot of self-awareness, I think, and some humility too, I think self-awareness, humility yeah really getting to know, like your staff yeah what their motivations are and guiding them towards the common goal. Yeah, I feel like that is something that, in my personal experience, it takes a lot of time just in the trenches right like just learning how to deal with people I guess. Well, the next question was like how does one manage the entire professional staff and student staff? Like leadership tips, but in lieu of that I think we kind of touched upon it Any crazy, funny or unique stories working in student housing or property management.
Alex:This is the juicy parts. If you have a juicy spot, yeah.
J.R.:I know. Okay, so one of the things I think I saw you post recently is you know what is it like turn, turnaround or turnover, turnover right. Where it's like between leases and then you kind of have to go through all of the. I've been there too, right, where it's okay, people are, students are moving out, students are not the cleanest people I'm sure you know of all people right and so then you have to deal with all of that, like that garbage refugee camp. What is this?
J.R.:And then clean that up and then get it ready for the next group of people coming right. So yeah, sorry, just to lead into that. Like any fun stories, Fun stories.
Alex:I don't know. They're pretty gross stories, Right right right. You know, when it comes down to it we're pretty blessed in Irvine. For the most part people take care of their units. But you know there are some discoveries we find when people have to quickly leave their unit because you know they have a deadline to move out. Just feel like it's okay to leave whatever you don't want in the unit and so there have been turn treasures we like to call them.
Alex:I love that. There's definitely been treasures we found. One year, I think we found like it wasn't a real sword but it was definitely not a plastic sword, so it for a couple years it became our turn sword. We brought it out when it's time for turns like you touched on it the gross sort of wow. I cannot believe that you took a shower in that those sort of stereotypical student housing sort of things. But I think it's mostly that it's just kind of the amazement of how people live and they have no shame, that I feel people realize that people will come in to clean this space. So there's a level of judgment of wow, you're pretty gross you're pretty disgusting.
J.R.:Yeah, wow, good for you. Good luck in the future, yeah, but you know there's a level of judgment of wow, you're pretty gross, you're pretty disgusting.
Alex:Yeah, well, good for you.
J.R.:Good luck in the future yeah, but no, there's some stuff like that and the turn sword that we kind of man, I, I could go through a lot of stories of being on duty and like breaking up parties. That was always fun for me not for some of my other colleagues because you know it's sometimes it's intimidating, right, if you're one or two people and you're trying to you're a student, you're trying to make up a party and there's 30 people in there, right. I always liked it because it's like a challenge for me. It's like, all right, you're drunk, I'm not. Also, I have the authority behind me of, okay, I could call the cops if I need to pro. What do we do with this? But it was just a full keg. Yeah, I think I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was super funny. And then I remember when I was living in Camino, too, like one of the other residents had a bunny, like a rabbit, like they were. Just, you know, you're not supposed to have pets, right, or are you?
J.R.:Yeah, I mean we're still no pets, okay, yeah yeah, so I think at the time you weren't allowed to. But then so when this guy had it, it was a thing and he kept having meetings with pro staff and it's like you can't have the pet man and he's like, okay, fine, and then he would still have it. Stuff like that, where it's like okay, this is funny.
Alex:Yeah, I mean student housing. We try to have those conversations because once you leave UCI or student housing, people are not going to. You know your landlord is not going to have this conversation with you. You really shouldn't have this pet. Yeah, so, but transitional time? Yeah, definitely.
J.R.:Yeah, so we get it. You know, people are becoming adults.
Alex:Yeah yeah.
J.R.:Another question is like how does one I know you said that you know you really like acc for lots of good reasons how do you think about sticking at one company versus like jumping around some of the company? I know that's like a common thing. Sometimes I feel like more often in this day and age you have a lot of people who kind of jump around every so often for various reasons. Sometimes it's because you can get more pay. When you jump around like that in the past it's you get, you stay at a company, you get rewarded and it's like a little bit different. How do you see that? As someone who stayed at a company for a long time, how do you see, like you know, moving around versus like staying in one company?
Alex:You know, I think it's a balance because there's definitely value to jumping around getting more experience, making yourself more competitive.
Alex:But I think there's a balance to that because, as someone who hires people, if I see someone leaving every few months, why would I hire you, compared to someone who maybe hasn't jumped they weren't at their last company for 20 years but maybe have given at least a year just because it's a lot of effort to go through a hiring process, for me and the committee to go through that process, the training that goes behind it. Companies and businesses spend a lot of time and effort to try to make their team members as best as they can. So if we see someone who's a few months or six months and they're just jumping around as someone who's hiring, that's a red flag. But I think it's a balance. I think if you are in an industry that that is champion, then great. Or if it's, you find an opportunity that you can articulate. You know I had to leave my previous company for this long because it was a great experience then as long as you can articulate it on why you left or why you're moving around, that's fine.
Alex:But for me, you know, I like my company, I like working at UCI. I've been blessed by working there, so I haven't had any reason to leave. I'm not going to leave just for the sake of leaving. It has to be something compelling, obviously, I'm sure they treat you well.
J.R.:It's been worth your while, obviously. So for you that decision was pretty straightforward, but for someone else, in different situations, it could be like yeah, there could be a good compelling reason to leave and jump around, as long as, like you said, context matters. If it's like aimless, that's different than like you actually had intent on moving around.
Alex:And I think that's a big thing. It's intent, because there's folks who are doing certain things thinking that it'll improve their life, but if you aren't able to articulate it, that means you're not really learning from it. Articulated, that means you're not really learning from it. So a big, huge thing when you're interviewing or you're looking for something, or if you're thinking about your path, have a self-awareness to articulate what you're actually gaining from it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense On that too.
J.R.:I want to ask if you were to give yourself advice starting out in this field, is there anything that you would do differently, like rewinding 20 years or 15 years or or whatnot?
Alex:I think it kind of goes back to the leadership question you had before probably relax. You know, I think I was a lot more strict in the way of a supervisor sort of style back then, just because the way I operate, if I'm not sure how a certain decision I would make would affect downstream or down the line, I tend to be more conservative in the way that I supervise folks or when I run turn back in the day when I was first learning how to. You know, for those who don't know what turn is, it's like the cleaning part, like the maintenance, the work, all those different things to prep the unit.
Alex:We, you know, we turn like thousands of beds in a week or two, and so it's a high stress yeah but looking back, I would just probably say relax, you know, still have the mindset of wanting to do better and like analyzing that and pushing yourself to be successful. But you don't have to, I don't have to be so stressed about it. I think maybe it's now. Looking back. I'm like I know what I'm doing now, so it's easy to say that but I think easy for me to say yeah.
Alex:I know I kind of know my role now, but I think in general it's just relax, enjoy the time or enjoy the people still have some drive, but don't be stressed, yeah yeah, that's good, good advice, trying to tell people who are younger early, like, just relax, how can I relax?
J.R.:Yeah, but yeah, it's so competitive.
Alex:now I think that's almost natural. It's where people are just so wound up, or it's just. You know, life is short, just be driven, but don't be all, don't be so wound up.
J.R.:Yeah, it's not worth all the worry and stress. Last question on this topic is you made the pivot into real estate, so why real estate? And how does this kind of connect the dots to like your overarching, like career path trajectory and whatnot?
Alex:No man, there are no dots to connect no just kidding. Well, you know, I've had my real estate license for several years, I think since 2017. Just because in my role off campus, folks require a real estate license. Where I'm on campus, they don't require that, so it's a different world. So I actually got my real estate license just to be competitive, just in case that professional development thing.
Alex:And I sat on it for ever since then and I decided to actually do something about it in 2023, where I'm like you know what this license has been doing nothing since 2017. So I decided to. You know, and a lot of people or a lot of colleagues, friends, they all have side gigs. So I feel, you know I need a side gig. I need to have something to do outside of like my normal full-time job. So it was an easy kind of natural progression where, because my role is property management, it has the same principle. It is real estate, it's just student housing, so I'm expanding that to more of the retail side of real estate. So I decided to join eXp Realty as my brokerage and then start sort of that expansion of that field.
Alex:But being a real estate agent when you say it's a side gig or a part-time, there's no such thing as doing that. Being a real estate agent to be successful, you can't do it part-time and I'm not a natural entrepreneur. And being a real estate agent, especially in eXp, you are starting your own business, so there's support there. But if you want to market yourself, because I'm not part of a team, it's just me, right? So you have to do all the marketing yourself, learning the systems yourself and those certain things. So that's taking a lot of time but it's been fun. I've been able to help people find homes on the rental side, which has been rewarding. And since I think it's not my primary sort of principal job, I'm not or maybe I should be, but I'm not hawkish in terms of trying to get that business, get that deal.
Alex:It's been a few people who move to the area and they want to find rental home rentals and that's what I do although I can do sale, sell and buy homes, I really focus on the rental piece where because in the real estate world people don't help folks who want to find rentals because it's not a big payout sort of thing, it's a smaller but it was it seems to be more rewarding just because it's usually a population that real estate agents don't focus on and so they pass it on to other agents to just kind of can you help them find a house? But the people who come to Orange County and need a home or their own living situations change and they need to find a bigger rental home. Or I also helped some UCI students find a home because they had to leave and they didn't plan ahead. So we were able to find them housing. So that kind of stuff is rewarding and I'm not salesy, it's not my primary job. So you need some help. Sure I'll help you. Let's look for some homes.
J.R.:I like that. So you're just here to kind of help them get into a place. Yeah, yeah, we had a. I had Jessica Lee on the show, friend of mine, I I used her as my realtor when I was going through like looking at properties last year but she said the same thing. It's like you can't part-time real estate no everything like to be successful.
J.R.:You really it's, because it's very, it's like self-employed, it's very, you know, that sort of driven so it makes sense, but it's cool that you can still at least have the benefits of your license and helping people out here and there and then you know eventually if you wanted to expand that you could and you have all this experience too.
J.R.:Okay, next topic we'll go into and I guess it's a little bit of pivot, but like business school and balancing that with full-time work, I think for me personally, I've always been interested in business school or getting mba. I read books on it and what the experience is like, and so I wanted to kind of pick your brain at that sort of process. So what is the process? Okay, well, how did you decide you wanted to go into business school? What was the process like?
Alex:And then what?
J.R.:did you learn overall?
Alex:It's funny because when I was an undergrad I took an undergrad class in business, did not do well, oh yeah. So this is kind of when I think back of that I'm like, wow, I can. So when I decided not to be a doctor, my parents were really pushing for me to do something that's higher level than a bachelor's degree, so like. So, when do you get your master's? When do you get your master's? And I had already been thinking, when I was already working for American Campus, to get a master's degree. So when I was in residence life or resident director position, I was thinking maybe I should get a higher degree in student development, higher education. But when I progressed onto assistant general manager and general manager and I was exposed to the business operations of things, that's when I started thinking about getting an MBA.
Alex:So you know, UCI has a great program and so I looked at that. I looked at other universities, but ultimately, when I did tours and consultation meetings with the admission staff, irvine's Mirage School was the best for me. It was a good fit and it's very convenient. It's just right there. And so, yeah, I got my MBA through the Fully Employed Program, which I don't know if it exists anymore. They call it something else, probably the Flex Program, but back then it was called the fully employed mba program. So it's designed for people to work full time and go to classes at night, which I think was great, because I went or one of the selling points was the things you learn in the classroom that evening you can literally apply it to work the next day. So it was. I think it was a really great program to be part of and that's kind of how I kind of fell into that so it makes it made sense because you're already kind of working.
J.R.:You're working property management and getting exposed to the business side of. Hey, this seems really relevant to what I'm doing and it's part-time, it's reddit, it's right there, yeah, so, like it all lined up, okay, this makes a lot of sense yeah, and it's you know.
Alex:Although you learn about the academic part, right, you know about, you learn about financial statements, you learn about organizational development, working with people, so all of those things are very tangible and applicable to my job. So it was easy to apply the next day. But another part of the benefit, or another benefit of an MBA or any graduate program, I think, is the people that you meet. So half of it is the academics, the other half is the networking and knowing the people who are in the same, similar boat as you. So they're all working full time. So you can't use that as an excuse, so you can't do your group work and learning all the same things. But everyone's in different industries.
Alex:I know a lot of people who are in the engineering field or they were working in energy or in HR. So engineering field or they were working in energy or in HR. So if you had a problem in your office in terms of a task that you needed to tackle and you needed another perspective, you could just turn to your classmates because either they've done it before or they can give you a different perspective from a different industry. So I think that's a huge part of the MBA is the networking that you can get. I love that.
J.R.:Yeah, I feel like that would be a huge benefit because you're talking, you're meeting, you're studying with these people who have is like the networking that you can get. I love that. Yeah, that is. I feel like that would be a huge benefit because you're talking, you're meeting, you're studying with these people who have live experience in the field and they're currently working. That's pretty invaluable. So what was it like? Trying to well, I guess you kind of touched on it, but like balancing working full-time and going through this program was it easy, was it hard? Or going through this program Was it easy, was it hard, or were some of the challenges? And then it seems like the answer to my next question was like is it worth it? You've answered it, but would you want to go through any of those?
Alex:You know it's definitely challenging, you have to. My first year was especially challenging. I don't know why I did it. I was working full time, I was going through the academics of a first year and the MBA program I went through was three years, the first year academics and just going through that the experience of going back to school is challenging.
Alex:Before they started the program, they actually go through a three-day sort of boot camp to kind of shock you back into academics, where we all went through a residential off-site program at the hotel on Jamboree in Irvine and we stayed there for three days, two nights, and they basically gave us homework in the day that was and it was group work that was due the next day, so we all had to work overnight.
Alex:Yeah, and you know a lot of the folks who were in part of this program were married with kids or you know they weren't young and so chopping us back into that life and so that aspect of producing that life to us wasn't easy. But I also added I was part of a competition where we were identifying sort of like a new business. It was I forget the name of it, but it was basically partnering with another organization on campus where we would be able to monetize or be like their consultant on how to monetize their invention, and so it was a competition that I was a part of, and so I had an extracurricular on top of that my first year.
Alex:I don't recommend it to anyone. I don't know why I did that, but I think, yeah, mba it's tough, it's not going to be easy because you have homework, you have other folks, have families, and so I think it's just being able to manage that being, have a very understanding group of friends or family to kind of help you through the MBA program. Because, yeah, it's, it takes up a good chunk of your life, but I think it's worth it in the end with the different benefits you get, like the people and the degree okay, that makes a lot of sense, I so, on the opposite side, like the skeptic right.
J.R.:So I read a book called I'm missing the title. It's like like your something, mba. I'll link to it, but it's.
J.R.:The argument was like um against having an mba because you can learn all this stuff live in the field and a lot of what you learn in in like an mba, in a business school course, is theoretical Again, I'm just rephrasing what the book is saying and that you can learn a lot more actually starting your own business and doing those other things. But he said the benefits of a program like that is, if you get into a good school, you do have the network. So he kind of lent it to that. So then that was okay. So then is it worth it? And or because you know, like you're also going back to school and there's a price to that. So how did you? Now my question is a little fluffy, but Nebulous.
J.R.:Yeah, as an outsider, right, Because I'm reading this book. Okay, they make good points. But I also know people who have an MBA and they're like, oh, they enjoyed it career. And there are people who are like, oh, I just finished my four years back, like my bachelor's, undergraduate, should I want to go straight into an mba? And some people are like, well, you should figure out what you really want, because it's just like law school, it's commitment, right. So I guess I don't know, just throw that to you.
Alex:What thoughts on any of that sort of yeah, I think what you're, I think I know what you're getting. So it depends on the person, you know if they're, and it also depends what they want to do or whatever industry they want to go into. You know, there are really successful people who never went to college. Same kind of same principle, right? I probably am not one of those people who could. I you know where I don't go to. I didn't go to uci and have a successful, multi-million paying job. That's just not my life, right? So people kind of have to think about themselves and what their situation is. If you don't need a degree and kind of have that financial burden, great, other people may need that. You know there's industries where they value a higher education degree. So an MBA was definitely going to be worth it to go a certain path. So I think that you know people have their own opinions, but it really depends on the individual and what their goal is yeah the.
Alex:You know, the person who wrote that book said that they can learn a lot of that stuff in the field, which is true. A lot of the principles that you learn in business school they're not like derived simply only from the institution itself. They were research done or they discovered those while in the workplace. So, yeah, that's true. But would you, without that framework of a formal education, would you have absorbed that for that individual? Maybe yes, maybe no. So it all depends. Like I said, if half the education is the academics, other half is the network, so you figure out what you want to get into and if it's something where you think it'll be beneficial for you as an individual, that's awesome. And it's also depending on what school you go to.
Alex:Like you said, there's very high prestigious schools Some people go to locally. In Orange County there's UC Irvine Mirage School, there's the USC Marshall School, ucla Anderson School. So everyone has different schools and I know some folks who considered all those and they decided to go do like USC, for example, and they were very happy there. Great, you know, everyone will find their own path. I don't think there's like a oh yeah, you know, higher education. That's just such a waste of time that's too generalized. I think it depends on the person.
J.R.:Definitely, 100% agree. I feel like it's contextual to the person what your goals are and I would never discount like a type of education, because sometimes structured education works well for a lot of people obviously and maybe less structured education.
J.R.:Actually doing something might work well for someone else, and so, yeah, I totally agree with you. It definitely depends. I wouldn't discount any sort of method. You can try it out If you have the ability to go to a school and you have the funds and whatnot, but if you can't, then obviously there are other avenues. You can learn online or stuff like that. So I really like that. One consideration is I meet a lot of people who say they're let's say they're leading with the thesis of I want to start my own business, right and then. So the other argument from the book is well, if you want to be a business owner, you just start a business. You don't necessarily need to have an mba.
J.R.:And his argument again was like having mba, like in business school, they'll teach you how to be like a middle manager, slash do like the accounting and all this other stuff, but not necessarily how to run a company right and I get that, understand that argument and then, like I said, I'm not saying I agree with this person, right, but I'm saying like, for those people who just want to start a business, I can see, see the argument of, okay, you thinking that you want to start a business, you think you have to go straight to get an MBA is the answer. Maybe it's not. Maybe there's some sort of lower like proof of concept that you can ship out with today's technology, that you could start a business as a one person and then learn as you go and then realize, actually I think an MBA would really help me, right, how do you see that, like someone who, actually, I think an MBA would really help me? How do you see that? Someone who's like I want to start a business and then you have?
Alex:gone to have an MBA. What would you say? Well, I kind of get a taste of that just because of my realtor sort of side, where I'm basically making my own business, where I have to figure out my own brand and my own marketing. And do I want to be all in real estate where I'm buying, selling real? You know, having that analysis of what's my niche, right? So I don't think an MBA alone can help someone become an entrepreneur and making a business. It depends. Again, it depends. If you're someone who's driven and you're just like scouring the internet and all the resources available to you to kind of hone in on what your business is and how to run it, then that's great. But if you're someone who, like I said, needs that structure, you have the money or you have a bit.
Alex:There's a benefit to talking to other people just because you know in the mba program you kind of touched on it there's three different at least when I was at mirage. There's three different types. There's folks who were full employed or full, full-time mba, so they kind of went straight into the mba or they did like a gap year, because you to get an mba, you need work experience. So there are folks who, you know, undergraduate one to two years and then went to straight to full-time. There are folks like me who did the fully employed program where typically five to 10 years work experience and then we're going to school while we're going to work full-time. And then there's the executive MBA folks who are also mixed into those elective classes where they're vice presidents, they're business owners and that program because of their experience they go to school or they go to actually in-person classes less because it's more group work or it's.
Alex:You know it's a different need when you're an executive mba but you get to network with those people and those folks found there's found the benefit. Although they have an established business going, getting an executive mba was beneficial to them. So again, it all depends. If you want to start your own business and you have the entrepreneurial spirit and it's maybe useful down the line, it could be useful for you. But for me, if I didn't have my full-time job or my MBA now and I wanted to be a realtor, I don't need to get an MBA. If I wanted to, uh, create my own team or my own branch, there could be benefits to that because of all the inner workings of running a business. That's separate from the real estate portion. It's just the core business functions of, like people accounting, all those things it could be beneficial okay I like that a lot and thank you.
J.R.:yeah, that's very insightful as someone who's like always been curious. Last question on that is so what, aside from the networks, like, what do they actually teach you in business school? I know it's like the inner workings of a company, how to run it, maybe if you are focused on, like, the accounting side or the management side or whatever. So what are some things that you get out of business school?
Alex:So they have similar to undergraduate. They have their core classes right. So they're going to teach you organizational development. They're going to teach you economics macro and microeconomics. What else did I take? Marketing is a core class you can go into consulting. So there's the core classes and then there's the specializations, so they're going to just like undergraduate. They're going to teach you all the different aspects of different parts of business and then, if you can stay into the general aspect when you graduate, or you can specialize in real estate or consulting or marketing. So it's a whole bunch of different things the numbers, the people systems, the world systems, so different things.
Alex:Part of the mba program at least that's mandatory for the fully employed program was the international residential. So for two weeks I went to china with my cohort to learn about businesses in china and how, how, and we got to meet with executives there and have meetings with them. I learned about we. I think we met with someone from disney, so we were learning. We had to put our phones away and hide it. They were teaching. They were showing us elements of the new Shanghai Disney that we were building at the time.
Alex:So that was pretty cool to see the park before it opened or before it became really public. So yeah, there's those different aspects of the business program and it helps you kind of hone into a field that you want to go into. Okay, that makes a lot of sense Because you may not realize you like something until you get exposed to it.
J.R.:Exactly, Just like you know, getting your undergraduate that's the whole point is to be exposed to different things and figure out what you want to do.
Alex:There's opportunities there to learn.
J.R.:Yeah, cool. That's it for my main topics. Ready for rapid fire? I don't know, fun this. I think it's the easy part, to be honest, but I but then again, I'm just asking the questions okay.
Alex:So the first one is billboard questions. So if you could put up a sign for millions of people to see, what would it say metaphorically relax, take it easy. Or something like relax or be good. I feel like there's just a lot of stress or a lot of people are. You know, obviously there's stresses in the world, there's conflicts in the world right now. Different, I feel old by saying that kind of stuff. But be good, relax, something like that.
J.R.:Be good meaning be good for the world.
Alex:Everything Be good to each other. I think people are just. They forgot how to just be like good to each other. Just be kind. You know, everyone is different, everyone has different backgrounds or upbringings, and so we focus on the bad or the differences rather than just, you know, just being kind to each other.
J.R.:I love that. What is one of the hardest challenges you faced in your life and what did you learn from it?
Alex:I think that question changes with age. Okay, the old.
J.R.:Back in my day, back in my day.
Alex:I think the general thing is adulting, but I think right now it's just going through. Actually it's the aging part, it's the act of I'm getting older. You know, my dad recently passed and so having been with my mom and so as part of aging is also seeing your parents get older and that kind of life challenge. So from that perspective it's the aging, it's the people, your friends, how your life changes and how you have to adapt to that and realizing that life before is not the same, moving forward and you kind of have to keep on changing on that. From the kind of work side of it, it's the challenge of starting a new business while working full time Right and being good to your people and being true to yourself. It. It's the challenge of starting a new business, you know, while working full-time right, so and being good to your going, being good to your people and being true to yourself and kind of just helping people. But, yeah, starting a new business. So two different things I like it.
J.R.:This one's called self-inflicted wound. Do you have a story about something that's gone wrong in your life and it's your own fault and you can't blame anyone else? I I try to block those out.
Alex:Yeah, don't we all and you're trying to resurrect them.
J.R.:Bring it back out. Yeah, I might start crying.
Alex:No, that's a hard question. I don't know. I'm not perfect, so there are definitely micro failures every day in work and in life. The only thing that comes to mind is I did become a doctor, so thanks for bringing that back up again. But at the same time, you know, because my grades weren't competitive, I, you know, I had to stay in an extra quarter. After I flipped my tassel. I had to go back to school the next week, so that I guess that's a failure in the sense that I didn't get my degree on the or, like my, my life goal of being a doctor didn't pan out from that perspective.
J.R.:But but I'm happy with my life now Right right, like it's a quote-unquote failure, but obviously you like re-ended up and it worked out.
Alex:Yeah, and I wouldn't change it.
J.R.:If you could redo one thing, what would you do differently? As a thought experiment, most people are like I don't regret my life, which is great, but if you could redo something, what would you do? Isn't that a fluffy?
Alex:response be what I talked about before. It's relax A couple of things. Maybe Relax when times of stress or when I took things a little too seriously, or on the flip side of that is, I guess it's not being so extreme, being more focused during academics because my grades weren't great. Right, I got my degree, I got my MBA, all those things, but I could have tried harder, I think, think, if I was a bit more focused. But times when I was more a little bit too stressed on myself relax. So just a little bit more middle of the road, so not so extremes in my reaction to things.
J.R.:If you could give your younger self advice, what would it be now? And aside from the relax, yeah, younger self, differently, differently.
Alex:Oh man, probably it's hard, because when you're a kid or when you're younger you don't realize until it's a retrospect. But you know that stuff. I think it would be cherishing family time more. That sounds so fluffy. It's real, though. It is real. My mom made a comment earlier. I think I was talking to her yesterday. We're planning for Christmas and she just made you know. She made a comment how part our family parties used to be so big where it's like. She made a comment like we haven't. It's almost like the whole barangay was like at the house, the whole village was at the house, but but now that family has gotten older or branches of the family have their own families or we've lost people, so it's not as the whole barangay is not there anymore. So I think it's just cherishing those moments a little bit more.
J.R.:Good reminder for everyone. Honestly, in the last few years, what new, what new belief, behavior or habit has improved your life?
Alex:has improved my life. Well, you know, I think it's just taking care of yourself. Um, as you get older, um, you can't just eat anything and right what. You can't eat anything.
J.R.:Yeah, you can't just eat plastic and you'll still be fine just devour a bucket of sugar and yeah, okay, the next day I remember when I was an undergrad my mom sees this.
Alex:She'll be so mad, but it's been forever. But I remember I lived on Campus Village at UCI with my roommate Charlie at the time. I remember there was a time we all got. We went to KFC. It doesn't exist anymore. At UCI we went to KFC and got a family meal for each of us. How irresponsible is that? So healthy. Yeah right, you're like your arteries.
J.R.:I love you so much. Exactly Original crispy oh amazing, there's a family right here in my stomach.
Alex:Yeah, that's the problem. There's a family right here right now and it's still here.
J.R.:Family never left. Family never left Never evicted them.
Alex:I tried to, and then nothing's happening. But I think it's stuff that I can't do. If I do that now I would just be like you know, it wouldn't be good. So I think now it's just being more health conscious. I think, being in California and Southern California, it's already part of our kind of culture here to some degree, but being more aware of it as I get older is just to be more healthy, and my mom's all about healthy foods. Now she's, you know, she's always Googling or YouTubing certain health people, doctors, and so she ingrains sort of those things. It's all about what you eat and it'll help with your. You know you as a person Right.
J.R.:I like that a lot. And yeah so like I said, I dance with college students, and every practice it's always Bobo right. It's like share tea across the street, and so they're all, like you know they're ordering their drinks and it's yeah, 100% sugar. I'm like, yeah, so I you know I do 0% sugar with and it's like IU jelly, like green tea, whatever so, and they're like ew, you drink that 0%. I'm like I honestly can't do more because I'm going to get a headache if I drink too much sugar.
Alex:You're speaking to the choir Exactly. I mean making that switch from recommended to less sweet or whatever, wherever you go or whatever. It was tough. I almost felt like I was caving into my age when I would say like medium, sweet or light sweet. I guess. I guess it's more responsible, but now it's. Of course I'm going to get light sweet because, yeah, I would get a headache or I would get just like lethargic or even snacks, like I used to be like oh, pringles, chips, oh, yeah, awesome.
Alex:Now I'm just oh, where's the dragon fruit? Yeah, that's so I. Those types of changes happen and you don't really realize until wow, or you're forced to it when you go to the doctor and you're like, yeah, I really should oh, nope, yeah, my blood work was not that good. Nope, yeah the charts starting to go up, yeah, yeah.
J.R.:Yeah, it's funny, my girlfriend, she like you know her, let's just say her metrics weren't as where she wanted to be. Right it like, yeah, you're gonna get new pr, this like okay. So she loves butter. I don't know, why.
J.R.:And so she like takes shots of butter jokingly, but she like loves dunking everything in butter and I'm like, yeah, let's go try glycerides new pr this year just to tease her. Yeah, I'm like you really want to take a shot of that. You want a straw for your butter. But yeah, I just. Yeah, food hits us differently. I've I had to tell the young ones I'm like I can't drink that much because it will kill me the next day.
Alex:Yeah, no, like I just talking about the tri. That's right, you hit home there. That really struck a nerve because I used to go to the movies and, yeah, that little machine where you put the butter on top of the, yeah, that my butter, my popcorn level probably went down a little bit because it was so drenched in butter yeah, and I can't say, I can't deny that I've done what she's done in terms of the butter y'all are some species of what?
Alex:yeah, and and now I'm paying for it. Yeah, I'm more conscious about it. You just feel it more, I think I, I think she sees it on the chart, but she maybe she doesn't feel it. But when she starts feeling it, you're like oh, yeah, it's like, oh, that's yeah, oh, that's true. I, I should have listened.
J.R.:Yeah, definitely Okay. Who would you call successful and how do you define success, if anyone?
Alex:You know, when you ask that, the first thing I think about is my parents, just because it sounds touchy-feely. But you know, they immigrated here from the Philippines and maybe it's because they've always talked about how we have nothing in the Philippines. But you know we've had a comfortable life. You know it wasn't easy. It's not like we were like Bill Gates, rich or anything, or even half of Bill Gates or 1% of him.
J.R.:Or 0.01%, whatever.
Alex:Yeah, but I think we had a. They had a great life. Well, they have a great life and lots of blessings. So, from going from the Philippines, migrating to a country that you're not familiar with, my mom went back to school when she was an accountant and then went back to school to become a nurse when she was probably my age now. She kind of went back to school and pivoted to a different career and now she's older now and pivoted to a different career and so, and now she's you know, she's older now and she's still a nurse and I think that when I think success, I think about my parents, because they sacrificed a lot to come here to the states and then have a to make a great life or for the family I like that and on that note, like for future guests, if you guys are listening to this, you can say your parents, that is a great answer.
J.R.:No one will ever knock you for that, because some people are like I don't really follow celebrities or whatever.
Alex:Elon Musk whatever, I'm like you can say your parents. Yeah, I mean that's valid. Well, when you ask that I'm like oh, do I have to say something like someone famous?
J.R.:Exactly.
Alex:Exactly, yeah, the pope yeah, right, exactly, yeah but looking close to it's almost like vacation, right, you never really go on vacation locally, yeah locally yeah, you kind of go far away because that's you know, but there's a lot of yeah, I would say, my parents I like it.
J.R.:If you knew you couldn't fail, what would you try or what would you be doing right now?
Alex:although I love my job disclaimer I love my job.
J.R.:I love my job to be there for yeah, please don't let me go.
Alex:I think it would be starting my own business, because you said I wouldn't fail, but I still need money to survive. So I think it would be creating my own business with more confidence, because I can't fail. And it would be like either you know, I'm a foodie, so either a restaurant, so I wouldn't need to learn how to cook or get experience to run a restaurant, or oh man, or grow my real estate business to something bigger, yeah, yeah.
J.R.:I like it. I could see you like owning a restaurant or something. You like food and you're. You obviously have management experience and you have an MBA, so manifest that.
Alex:Thank you.
J.R.:What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you've made recently in either time, money, energy, etc.
Alex:It's funny, I think, ever since I graduated my MBA, after one to two years I felt like my education was regressing, so I kind of filled my void with getting certificates. So, in terms of when you talked about investments, it's that aspect, it's like my own investment in myself. So I wanted to say something fun, like a new car, but yeah, it's going through certificates growing. I'm going to go to I'm not sure if people have heard or you've heard of it the disney institute, so I haven't gone there yet, but I've. I just paid for the registration last week, but in february I'm going to go to disneyland for three days to learn about quality service, leadership, experience and employee engagement. So that's quite the investment, I must say, but I'm excited for it.
J.R.:So stuff like that I'm excited for that's cool that sounds like a good kind of thing to get into or like experience. Favorite recent purchase around 50 to 100 dollars that has impacted your life the most. In six months you can change the range of it, yeah.
Alex:I'm like what costs 50 to 100 dollars yeah the only thing I bought in the last six months that's $50 to $100 is I got a new coat rack so my clothes aren't like just on this, just like everywhere anymore so that's nice. I feel like an adult, yeah yeah, I'm sure it's like the money I'm spending on either home stuff, because as you get older it's just.
Alex:Oh, I'm excited for this new coat rack yeah which is you know how, when you get older, that's the conversations you have with your friends you get excited about weird stuff, those things, yeah, yeah, yeah.
J.R.:Now I'm going to this concert.
Alex:It's like I got this new like table. It's awesome. So I think it's just stuff around the house that makes the environment feel like more organized and I could just feel more relaxed at home. Yeah.
J.R.:Yeah, other adults can relate to that. Yeah, last question Any favorite books, movies, videos, articles or media that you share or recommend the most?
Alex:If any, I don't read, so the last book I read I think it was like Angels and Demons and that was like painful to get through.
J.R.:Yeah.
Alex:Not because I didn't like it, but I still like reading.
J.R.:Right, right right.
Alex:Any media at all. Any media, any. I recommend it because I actually saw this stage show when it was at the Pantages, like 20 times back when it was here.
J.R.:Oh, so you're a fan then I'm a fan.
Alex:I even had a wicked hoodie, nice. I recommend the movie, although there's nothing that replaces the experience of like. When they built like Defying Gravity, it's like a wall of sound that hits you there. But when you're like in the theater, it's like. That's nice. Yeah, that's good so that's what comes to mind when you ask that nice good work, good work.
J.R.:I also watched it. I really enjoyed it. Alright, let's wrap this up, so final questions. Gratitude, alex. What are you grateful for?
Alex:grateful for my family, grateful for my mom yeah, nice again.
J.R.:Future guest Future guests. That's a great answer. You can just stick with that. Any final ask from the audience or any final takeaways you'd like them to have from the show?
Alex:I mean we talked a lot about like the MBA sort of thing. But I think the theme is like just do well in whatever you do, have direction, but don't take life too seriously. Enjoy it, be driven, but just let things you know don't be like yeah let things flow and then you don't have no direction. But I think, just enjoy life and let things fall where they may, nice I like it all right.
J.R.:So now, alex, if people want to connect with you or see what you're up to, or reach out, where can they find you?
Alex:like social media, email, linkedin, whatever yeah, you can actually find me on instagram, fiat alex. So f Fiat Alex is UC's sort of thing, so I'm a UCI nerd from that aspect. If you need any real estate assistance or just want to chat, I guess alexrubiorealtor Nice.
J.R.:Cool, all right. Well, that is it. So thank you so much, alex, for being here. I really appreciate it. And a quick shout, quick shout out to I think my experience at ACC as a CA was, I think, foundational for me, like in a work environment, because I think what I remember a lot was, like you and the other pro staff, really setting a good example for what it's like to work in a professional environment, and all the skills and stuff that I learned there really helped me for my future career. So I just want to thank you specifically for that leadership and guidance. You're a great boss and you know I'm always excited to see what you're up to and you don't need to hear this from me, but I'm also really proud of you and your journey.
Alex:All you've done.
J.R.:I'm like that's why I wanted you on the show. I'm like I feel like we can learn a lot from you.
Alex:So I just wanted to shout you out Well, thank you. But I think part of the joy is this is awesome. So no, all of you are the blessing.
J.R.:Thank you. Thank you All right. Well, so that is it for the show, my final sign off. Thank you guys for tuning in. I really appreciate you guys for being here. It's just a final reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself, and you can always learn something from someone if you take the time to listen. So thank you for tuning in.
