Overcoming Rock Bottom with Jorge Vasquez

Episode 036 — Overcoming Rock Bottom with Jorge Vazquez

Rock bottom doesn’t just take your money—it can take your identity, your confidence, your relationships, and your will to keep going. In this episode of Overcoming Anything, host Anne Vryonides sits down with real estate investor Jorge Vazquez, who shares how the 2007–2008 crash wiped out everything he thought made him “successful”—and how he rebuilt from homelessness, addiction, and near-suicidal despair into a thriving real estate empire. 

Jorge Vazquez is the CEO of Graystone Investment Group and a veteran real estate investor with 20+ years of experience and 3,500+ transactions. He helps investors overcome fear, get clear on real estate strategies, and build long-term wealth through disciplined investing and consistency. 

Key Takeaways
• Your comeback starts when you stop hiding and start telling the truth—about what happened and what needs to change 
• Consistency + passion is the formula: pick a lane you can stay in long enough to become undeniable 
• Rock bottom becomes “training” when you use it as data, build thick skin, and commit to rebuilding one deal at a time 

Timestamps
• 00:00 — Introduction: what rock bottom really looked like for Jorge 
• 02:10 — The mantra: “Put in your 10,000 hours” and why quitting resets the clock 
• 06:00 — The fall: the 2007–2008 crash and losing everything (homes, cars, marriage, friends) 
• 11:30 — The darkest season: shame, hiding, threats from creditors, and drinking to sleep 
• 18:00 — The turning point: a creditor invites him to church—and Jorge hears “this isn’t your end” 
• 23:00 — The restart: borrowing $10,000, walking away from the old company, starting over from scratch 
• 30:00 — The rebuild strategy: 6,000 contacts, relentless calls, and earning one investor’s trust the hard way 
• 38:00 — The breakthrough year: doing the unglamorous work, eating the costs, and closing 85 homes with one client 
• 44:00 — The new rules: live below your means, invest first, and stop chasing appearances 
• 49:00 — Real friends vs. party friends: losing “200 friends” and keeping the one that mattered 
• 53:00 — Advice for someone at rock bottom: choose a passion, commit long enough to become the expert 
• 58:00 — Real estate entry points: ways to start with little/no money + finding where you bring value 
• 01:03:00 — Where to find Jorge + Graystone Investment Group 

Connect with Jorge Vazquez
• Jorge/Graystone website: https://graystoneig.com | Instagram | Facebook 

Resources
• Recommended book from this episode: (Not mentioned in the transcript shared.)
• Explore Graystone Investment Group: https://graystoneig.com 

If this episode helped you, share it with someone rebuilding after a financial collapse, divorce, addiction, or a season of deep shame—and needs proof that rock bottom can become a launchpad. I’ll see you next time on Overcoming Anything.
 ❤️ Anne

Disclaimer
The content of this episode is for informational and inspirational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional therapy, diagnosis, legal, or medical care.

#overcominganything #midlifetransformations #energyhealing #resilience #rockbottom #startingover #financialrecovery #realestateinvesting #wealthbuilding #mindsetshift #personaldevelopment #mentalhealthpodcast #selfimprovement #resiliencepodcast #overcomingadversity #comebackstory #discipline #consistency #persistence #entrepreneurship #businessmindset #debtfreejo

Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Welcome to Overcoming Anything, the podcast where we dive deep into stories of resilience, transformation, and growth. I'm your host, Anne Vryonides, and today we have an incredible guest who has overcome rock bottom. So joining me today is George Vasquez. So with over 20 years in real estate, over 3,500 transactions, he helps investors overcome the fear of real estate investing. And he has also overcome rock bottom and built his real estate empire, and he's gonna share with us the details of his story. So welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 0:40

Thank you for having me here, Anne. Appreciate it. My,

Speaker 0:43

my pleasure. So before we dive in, I always love to ask, what's one quote or mantra that keeps you going in tough times?

Speaker 2 0:51

I think the main thing is, stay doing your stuff for 10,000 hours. Michael Jordan said this, as long as you keep practice practicing on your craft you'll become a better, and eventually, so the minute you quit is when you gotta restart. But I always think about that no matter what I do, if I stay into the same niche, what I into the same passion, I'm eventually gonna become an expert. And that's something that keeps me going no matter what.

Speaker 1:23

Wow, we, I'm sure you've definitely got in your 10,000 hours if you've had 3,500 real estate transactions, so I'm sure you've way surpassed that.

Speaker 2 1:33

So what happens organically? You become a mentor. Organically. So whether. You've had to overcome 10 challenges, a hundred challenges for the past 10, 15 years. You still don't. Nobody takes that title away from you. You are a mentor now. You're able to do things with the knowledge that you have now with those 10,000 hours. There's a lot of stuff that you can do.

Speaker 1:56

Yeah, absolutely. Take us back, let's start at the beginning. What was the hardest thing that you ever had to overcome in your life?

Speaker 2 2:04

The hardest thing was the big recession. I call it depression of 2007. Where I was. I was in my mid twenties. I thought I knew everything. I was this cocky investor in real estate advisor. I had bought a mansion at 25. Had traveled the world two, three times. Money was pouring in. I thought that I have made it and that I knew everything and that the market was never gonna collapse. Wow. And in 2008, I lost everything. Lost 22 homes, lost my primary home, lost all of my cars, lost my wife, lost my friends, my supposed friends. And I was pretty much homeless and, very close to ending my life.

Speaker 2:54

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry to hear that. I got chills all over my

Speaker 2 2:58

body. I mean, it's so, and it's something about, I mean, you think about so young. You're dealing with so much wealth, so quick and all of a sudden you collapse so far. Imagine what that does to a young mind. Like mine, it was, like that shift or now I feel like I was a loser. I didn't wanna tell my family. I didn't wanna tell my friends. I didn't want to tell anything, anybody. I wanted to keep pretending. And I owe a lot of people money as well, so I feel like. I didn't even want to leave the house'cause somebody be in the corner, so to speak looking for me,

Speaker 3:43

Oh my gosh, how scary. Because you came so high, so fast and then to fall so low, so fast, that had to be like tragic. So, was there a specific moment when everything just felt impossible?

Speaker 2 3:58

Yeah, absolutely. In order for me to even be able to sleep, I was an alcoholic for six months. I had to drink myself to sleep because the pain and the disappointment that I ha, the disappointment that I have. Within myself was huge. I would cry every night. I would say I'm stupid. Stupid. What did I do? I'm garbage. I don't want to live. God, take me. That in my life. Yes.

Speaker 4:26

Oh my gosh. I felt that

Speaker 2 4:28

a year ago. Yes. It was very tough. Very tough. Very tough.

Speaker 4:33

So who was there to support you then? If you didn't tell your family because you were embarrassed that you lost everything, and then if your wife left, how did you make it through? Like what was that turning point when you're like, oh my gosh, things have to change and I can't give up.

Speaker 2 4:49

After days, weeks, months of just drinking, drinking and, super depressed and getting in the car and wanting to Dr. Drop off a bridge a few times. Oh no. What happened? The turn the turnaround, believe it or not, was that one of the kinds,'cause this was, makes it worse and I owe half a million dollars to people. Not in the not big companies. Right. To people.'cause my business was taking a lot of money from me, so I wanted to keep it alive. So I injected money, keep borrowing money. So I owe like$400,000 to individuals. And they will call me and they will say, I hope that you rotten in hell. Oh my

Speaker 5:36

gosh. Hope,

Speaker 2 5:37

I hope that you rotten in jail. I see you are the most wanted. You imagine getting those phone calls, you imagine getting those phone calls back to back, so

Speaker 5:47

no. What

Speaker 2 5:47

happens? This guy, Brian, comes to me. And I'm thinking he's gonna punch me or something. At this moment, I, I owe the guy like$50,000 and he comes to me, he says, oh, Jorge, I want to take you to church.'cause I was like, what do you want? He said, I wanna take you to church. I know you going through some tough time at the end of the day, you are always nice to me. I know you owe me money, but we're gonna, we'll deal with that in the future. And I was like, man, that's so sweet. I don't know what to say. So I went with them. And, then I felt like God talked to me. I've said this story many times, and I don't know if it was the trauma that I had made me hear things.'cause I'm not super religious. I do believe in God, but like you and I, God said to me, get up. This is not your end. This is not the end of you, Jorge. You gotta keep going. And that's when things turned around for me.

Speaker 6:48

Wow that's a powerful life changing moment right there. So you were definitely meant to go to church and to hear those words from God. And so once you heard God say this isn't the end, then how did you turn things around? What was the next step?

Speaker 2 7:06

So I went to another investor, friend of mine. That I owe a hundred thousand to and I said to him, his name is Tony. I said, Tony, I have a re revelation. I talk to God. I know that you are gonna think that I'm going crazy, but I. I know what to do now. I know what to fix now. Can you let me$10,000 and I'm gonna get you all of the money back? I said, I know exactly what to do. I'm never gonna travel the world again. I'm gonna leave with the minimum possible and I'm just gonna focus on paying everybody back and I will you let me$10,000. And he said, yes. He's like, yes, I believe in you. You made some mistakes, but you now you know what to do. He said, I think you have a really good business plan. You were just too young and dumb.

Speaker 8:01

Wow. Well, God was definitely working through him. For him to still be so understanding and still believe in you and still give you$10,000.

Speaker 2 8:13

We're still friends by the way. And, so what happened at that moment? What made it worse? I was also going through a divorce. Not being able to talk to the only person that would understand me, my ex-wife, it was making things even worse. So what happened at that moment, my wife, my ex-wife wanted to keep borrowing money and she was delirious, she wasn't thinking straight. And I said, you keep the company, I'm out. And like the movie Jerry McGuire, I just said to the staff, Hey, anybody wants to come with me? I wanna start all over again. The secretary came to me, came with me, took her stuff, and I was like, Hey, I cannot promise you anything. I got$10,000 a promise of$10,000. And, when I get an office and I wanna get started, I can maybe guarantee the first month of e salary. I cannot do anymore. But I got a good plan. She came with me and, that's how we started again, stage two. Wow.

Speaker 9:13

Wow. Is she still with you today?

Speaker 2 9:16

No, she left, five years ago and,, she helped me with the business a lot, and then she opened up her own business doing the same.

Speaker 9:23

Oh, okay. All right.

Speaker 2 9:25

Yeah. But fast forward to today. I own 40 properties. Again, five companies, probably worth$50 million. I never gave up. Oh. And I pay everybody everything back.

Speaker 9:37

Wow. Ooh. I get goosebumps. Wow. That's powerful.

Speaker 2 9:41

Check this out. And it's, it is, it's a miracle when people think about it. It's like, when I paid everybody back within 12 months.

Speaker 9:51

Wow. So how did you do it? They always say that the people, wealthy people, if they lose the money, they can always like just make it back again because they have the skillset, they have the mindset. So it sounds like that's what you did. So what was the secret to rebuilding? I'm sure all the listeners wanna know.

Speaker 2 10:11

So what happened? Check this out. This is super interesting, right? I was always, pretty good collecting data. I went to school for online marketing, computer programming back in the early two thousands. So I've always had websites. I was pretty good with cRM systems, collecting emails and stuff like that. So by the time my, my business closed, I had about 6,000 emails, 6,000 contacts that I had gathered for the past, six, seven years.'cause I was pretty good doing online forms and stuff like that, when I, with everything started, I was like, God. I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do. If I have to make a thousand phone calls a week, I am gonna do that. I'm not gonna sleep. I'm gonna do a hundred, 200 phone calls a day. I'm gonna call this entire database within two months. And I did that. So I start on the phone. I remember, by the pool. Where my house was getting, short sale.

Speaker 11:06

Oh no. Uh,

Speaker 2 11:07

and I was there like making phone calls nonstop until this guy picks up the phone and he is like, yeah, I'm interested in buying some properties. And I said, I could definitely help you. Let me help you. And then of course I had a couple of things in on the, the better Business Bureau.'cause my company, we owe money to people. Tons of complaints the company had closed down, so when he looked at that, he was like. When I call him back as a follow up, he's like, Hey, Robert, you want do this thing? He is like, no. So you have some stuff on the Better Business Bureau. You owe money people? No, thanks. He said that to me. Oh,

Speaker 11:52

wow.

Speaker 2 11:52

Yeah, and then I said, Robert and I have to explain my whole life to him. I had no choice.

Speaker 11:59

Right.

Speaker 2 12:00

Yeah,

Speaker 12:01

you needed the sale, right?

Speaker 2 12:03

I needed the sales. Hey, listen, I was stupid. I was living beyond my means. I didn't know what I was doing. The skills are there. I know how to find properties. I know how to finance properties. I know how to do that, and I promise you I know what to do. Now. Just gimme a chance with one deal, one property. I won't even charge you anything. I'll charge you a thousand dollars. But gimme a break with one property. And I remember like yesterday, he's a New Yorker, so he is okay, I'm gonna give you a break, but if you mess it up, I'm gonna break your legs. He said,

Speaker 12:34

oh no. You're like, whoa. I already have people after me for money.

Speaker 2 12:37

Mind you that before I had investors I owe money to that will come to my house and show me their gun. And they will say, we settled that in my country, a little different than how things are in the us. So those are the type of threats that I was getting.

Speaker 12:51

Wow.

Speaker 2 12:52

Now reflecting on it, Robert is 80 years old. He would've never been able to break my, my, my legs, but, he wanted to scare me like that. So I was like, okay, deal. And, we doing the first property together. And of course everything that could go wrong goes wrong.

Speaker 13:06

Oh

Speaker 2 13:06

no. Over budget. And I'm like, I'm not gonna charge Robert a, a penny is, I'm the project manager. I'm going to eat it. Whatever the cost. I'm like digging out sewer lines myself, getting full of crap and literally, and putting sewer lines.'cause that wasn't part of the bogie, the sew line. Doing myself weekends and weekends finishing the job. Finally, the time comes where he is gonna review the job and he's, and everything was done. He liked it. He looked at me, he said, can you do five of this a month? And I end up selling 85 homes to him that year.

Speaker 13:43

Wow. Did you know how to do sewer lines or you just had to figure that out?

Speaker 2 13:48

No, I didn't know. No, I didn't know. I just asked

Speaker 13:50

YouTube.

Speaker 2 13:51

Yeah, I just asked some of the guys that were doing the rest of the stuff. That I didn't pay him for. Of course, the sewer line, how do you do it? Yeah, do a little bit of YouTube and I got it done,

Speaker 14:01

wow.

Speaker 2 14:02

Crazy, huh?

Speaker 14:03

Yeah. I think that's a testament that you bet on yourself, you, so to have such certainty. About yourself, that you're gonna make it happen no matter what it takes and to rebuild yourself. And he obviously saw that in you and gave you 85 more properties.

Speaker 2 14:22

I call it too existent. I really believe in that. I think that. You are capable of doing anything, you put your mind into it. I mean, think about it. I didn't know the language in this country. I still have an accent. Hopefully you guys understand me, but, I'm not that smarter than anybody else. I'm not, I don't retain for, retain information that well. And if I did it, it's all about you being consistent, persistent. No matter what, know that the outcome is gonna be the outcome no matter what the challenges that come through, the outcome is the outcome you have to call it.

Speaker 15:00

I like that. Consistent and persistent.

Speaker 2 15:02

Yes.

Speaker 15:03

I like that. Such wisdom. So what life lessons did this experience teach you?

Speaker 2 15:09

That's a good question. 2010 Camry that I still drive. That's the lessons that it gave me. I paid off my car like a decade ago and, I have the money to buy a bmw, whatever I want. But, unless it is an investment, unless it's really necessary, I don't go there. I don't go there. I don't have cable tv, I don't have satellite. I had YouTube and Netflix only. My insurance minimum possible. I don't buy myself a lot of stuff. I don't have any fancy watches. I don't have none of that, but I own 40 properties in five businesses. Wow. So if it's investment, I do. I haven't traveled the world. Since, I've been to a couple of countries, but not at the magnitude that I was doing when I was 25, 26, back and forth to Europe and stuff like that. So yeah, that's sometimes, and it's not about how much you make, it's about how much you spend. It's about so true. You know?

Speaker 16:10

Wow. So

Speaker 2 16:10

That's my takeaway.

Speaker 16:12

How has your life changed for the better since you went through this challenge?

Speaker 2 16:17

Couple of things. I think a lot of people think of me, my employees, the ones that like me, but most of'em do think that I'm a rhiner with thick skin and that nothing bothers me. That's something that I got from that experience. I felt like if I survive, that I can survive anything. As a CEO it has equipped me with thick skin.'cause what happens is, and the more successful you are, the more losses you get. That's exact correlation. To success in losses. I could you tell me how many losses you have and then I can tell you how many millions you have.'cause people are looking for that low hanging fruit. They know you own a lot of properties even when you do things the right way. But, so a lot of things that, we're afraid. Will make my team panic. I just look at it as I cannot be worse than what I went through. So that's one of the things that changed me and, knowing my real friends. And because, lemme tell you something, back in the days when I was 20 I was known in time for doing the biggest parties ever. I would invite 200 people to my house, cater it. I thought I had 200 friends. Turns out none of them were my friends. So I was able to, like right now I was I think that before I was, I love, I. Feeling like I know a lot of people and that I have a lot of friends now. It's about quality. Even if I go to an event with a lot of people I, I tell my family and friends can it be less people focus the attention to and make it worth something. So I was able to learn from that and the few friends,'cause nobody knew what was going on. The few friends that knew afterwards. Wanted to kill me again for not telling them and making them part of it and my family. So I got close to my dad and my mom as well to be able to say, okay, this is what's happening when something is happening. So those are the things that I take from it. The real friends family is important and not overdo it.

Speaker 18:24

So do you have any true friends left from the party days?

Speaker 2 18:29

One.

Speaker 18:32

Wow.

Speaker 2 18:32

One one out of the 201.

Speaker 18:37

Wow. So if someone is listening that's going through something similar right now, and let's say they're just at rock bottom and they're just like, I can't even see a way out of this, what advice would you give them?

Speaker 2 18:51

The most important advice is consistency, but consistency into something that you're passionate about. That's the formula, okay? So in the past, you have to do what you have to do and you fail. That's fine. Start with something new, but that you're passionate about, that you like, identify, take your time figuring out this hobby that you gonna make into a million dollar business.'cause once it's a hobby, something that you're really passionate about, then it makes it so much easy not to quit. And you're never gonna quit, by the way, because you're gonna do it as a business or as a hobby. So that's what they guarantee right there that you're always gonna do it and then commit to it because. Doesn't matter how many times you hit bottom that's college for you. That's education. Those are the, in the information you're gonna provide and you need, and you later podcast interviews like this. Yeah. Are things that you're that're gonna make you stronger, but the minute you quit, then you're starting all over again. To me it's all about consistency because before you know it, whether. You have make a lot of money or not, people are gonna start calling you doctor in the field. Oh, that guy's been doing it for 20 years, and all of a sudden I'm getting the business without doing the marketing. So as long as you're doing the stuff for a long time, eventually you're gonna be become a mentor. Eventually you're not gonna become an expert, and eventually things will gravitate to you just for the persistency along.

Speaker 20:30

Okay. So if someone is like on the rebound, what advice would you give them if they wanted to try and make some money in real estate?

Speaker 2 20:40

Okay.

Speaker 20:41

Would you have any advice to get started?

Speaker 2 20:44

Yeah, absolutely. It is back to the same thing I bought my first 10 properties with zero money. You have to think about, again, what I was saying, dissect. Every role in real estate, dissect every strategy in real estate and figure out where can you plug yourself, where you can bring value to that transaction, money wise, or without money. Just to give an example, if you say, I, I like looking at properties, then maybe you could be a bird dog. Maybe you could drive for dollars. Maybe you could pop distressed properties, present it to a guy with money. And now you guys go 50 50 own properties that didn't require you to put a dollar but it's something you enjoy driving around. If you are a peoples persons, again, I don't like driving around, hate it. Then maybe do join networking groups online, lead networking, networking groups online. Try to meet people, connect with people, and you're gonna be able to connect with people that. Are gonna connect with the properties that you wanna sell and then be part of that process. So to me, whether you have money or not, you gotta identify out of,'cause in real estate, you have short term rentals, long term rentals, Airbnb, BRBO, you have sandwich leases, subject to wraparound mortgages, short sales. You have foreclosures, you have tax deeds. You have. I could give you another 20 or 15 commercial lease leases.

Speaker 22:14

Wow.

Speaker 2 22:15

People net leases. So you have to really look at everything and say, man, I probably enjoy doing this. And once you identify, create a business plan and say, I'm gonna stick to this for 10 years, no matter what happens. And then you start figuring out where you bring the value. I could tell you I've made two agents millionaires working under me. All they did was figuring out what they were good at. And I'm gonna give you some examples. I one, what is that? Is a musician, jazz player plays the saxophone. And I said, okay, you're gonna be the jazzy realtor.

Speaker 22:56

I like it.

Speaker 2 22:57

And then he took off because musicians said they're not, they were far in between. They're not the musician. Clients were not found in the grass, so to speak, there on, on trees. But when they were found, when they did show up, he had the niche, he had the wow effect, okay, I wanna work with him. And then, and there was a matter of a snowball effect. I think I was a director of a networking group for 10 years. And I could tell you the person that I remember the most was. Carpet doctor,'cause he will wear a gown and he will walk in there and you're like, man, we got a doctor in the house. Turns out that he cleans carpet, but,

Speaker 23:36

I like that way to brand himself.

Speaker 2 23:39

10 years I've been telling this story and 10 years he only walked into my networking group once and I couldn't tell you about the guys and members that were in the, in a weekly basis coming to the networking group for years. I can't even remember what they do. But speaking to an niche, creating a branding, making it unique, and staying consistent is my advice on that.

Speaker 24:03

And since you brought it up, you ran a networking group. Any networking tips that you have on for someone on the rebound coming back

Speaker 2 24:14

don't need to be in person. I think in-person, networkings are overrated and it, it goes back to that analogy of too many people to be able to have anything meaningful we want. To me, substitute that with social media marketing. People don't like to be sell to, so don't sell. Typically when I'm wanna meet people, I just say, Hey, you're in the business. I'm in the business. Or I just wanna see if there's any type of synergy. Rather than can I get on a phone call with you and just talk spill balls? Just talk in general. So with social media, this is easier than ever. But you can't be selling, don't sell. Just say that you want to connect, that you wanna see how. You guys could help each other, but to me that's an easy way to keep your calendar book with people by using social media, in your favor like that.

Speaker 25:15

That's great advice. Looking back, what is the one thing you learned about yourself having gone through this experience?

Speaker 2 25:25

I'm stronger than I thought. That's one thing that I learned. I learned about. My passion about consistency. I apply even that with my marriage now. And, more couples should apply to the marriage'cause the grass is not greener on the other side. Just gotta a, I just keep it consistent. I really believe that when the time comes, the opportunity will appear. And, if you prepare. You're gonna be able to do it, but you gotta give it time. You gotta stay consistent.

Speaker 26:00

I love that. Great wisdom. Wow. This has been such an inspiring conversation, George. Thank you for sharing your story. I really appreciate you having the courage to tell us what you went through and how you overcame it. And look at you today. You should be so proud of yourself. So where can the followers find you on social media or on your website or learn more about your work? Or work

26:25

with

Speaker 2 26:25

you. So you could go to graystone ag.com. That's graystone investment group.com. We've kicked ass with, chat GT in,, Google. So if you put. Best company for investing in Tampa with the number one in the world. So you could Google investing in Tampa, you're gonna find those Graystone. You can ask the charge. GPT. What is the best investment company in Tampa is gonna refer us with the number one that shows up with charge GPT. So that's the easiest way to find us.

Speaker 26:54

Awesome. We'll put the links in, show notes so they can just connect directly with you. Thank you so much again, George. I really appreciate your time and if you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who might be facing a similar situation and feels that rock bottom in their life. They may need to hear this message of hope. So I'll see you next time on Overcoming Anything.

27:16

Thank you.