Let's Ride w/ Paul Estrada

Hard Work and Happiness: How My Grandparents Built Their American Dream

• Paul Estrada • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Behind every successful business lies a story of grit, sacrifice, and unwavering determination. In this extraordinarily personal episode, I share recordings of conversations with my grandparents Connie and Alejandro  Castellanos that I've been collecting since 2017, capturing memories that I didnt want to get lost to time.

Connie's entrepreneurial journey began at just nine years old, working in her father's grocery store where she mastered everything from inventory to bookkeeping without formal training. When she married my grandfather Alex, they embarked on a remarkable business adventure together. While Alex worked three jobs simultaneously, they took the extraordinary risk of purchasing a 12-unit apartment building for $135,000 in the 1960s – when their weekly income was merely $60.

The story unfolds through acquisitions of liquor stores and additional properties, with Connie painting vacant apartments after hours while raising five children. Their partnership exemplified perfect balance – Alex handling repairs and maintenance while Connie managed finances and operations. Despite financial pressures and long hours, they never let business consume their lives entirely, always making time for family outings and simple pleasures.

What makes their story so powerful isn't just their financial success, but how they achieved it without sacrificing happiness or family bonds. Their approach wasn't driven by wealth accumulation but by creating stability and opportunities for those they loved. As Connie reflects, "Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have this."

This episode contains wisdom for entrepreneurs at any stage: the importance of partnership, opportunistic thinking, calculated risk-taking, and maintaining perspective about what truly matters. Whether you're building your first business or growing an empire, you'll find inspiration in this intimate glimpse into an extraordinary entrepreneurial legacy.

Alex:

why I couldn't go. Well, I think I couldn't go in place, I couldn't go.

Paul:

Yeah, that's okay so do you have any other questions about it?

Alex:

did you see anybody? Was there a hole?

Paul:

a hole yeah like where, like when you know, he was just relaxing in his bed how did what else happens?

Paul:

uh, that's it. He just says goodbye and that's it like disappear slowly. No, he's not gonna disappear, oh um, no, he's just gonna watch us from up in the sky. Now I really I can't explain that because I really don't know so. And I just know that our family members, when they die, that they're just always watching us and they're always looking out for us. But I want to tell you he was a really hard worker and he built some really amazing things.

Alex:

Built, like all the showers.

Paul:

All these houses, all kinds of houses, he built all by himself, and he did just. He had such an amazing life and so he just wants to make sure that me and mom and you and damien and all of our cousins and family, that we just work hard and that we spend as much time as we can with our family. And that's all he asked us to do sure for he even died.

Alex:

Well, how could it make people die?

Paul:

How could they? They just get older and their body just tells them, hey, that's it, it's time to go. But he was very old. He was 94 years old. He lived an amazing life so long. You know that your middle name, Alejandro, that's Greg Alex's name, right? So now you know that you'll always remember him because you have his name.

Alex:

Vince. Thank you.

Paul:

Yeah, and so then, hopefully, when you think about your middle name, then I hope that you'll think about Grandpa Alex, and he'll be very happy if you do that. Does that sound good? Mm-hmm, what's up, let's Ride. Listeners, this is a very personal episode of mine, something that I've been putting off basically since I started this podcast. We're now in episode 22, which is crazy to think, but these are just recordings.

Paul:

I've always wanted to know the story of my grandpa and grandpa in terms of their business and how they got started, how they became entrepreneurs, and a couple years ago, we had found out that my grandfather had dementia and I really wanted to capture his thoughts on this. And so, going all the way back to 2017, I started. When we would talk, I would just pull out my phone and hit record and just start capturing those memories, and I've been sitting on them for a long time and I finally went through them and I decided that I wanted to share. I was ready to share this deeply personal story with you guys. I feel like there's a lot of good pieces that we can all relate to. Thank you, guys for being great listeners and I hope you enjoy this episode. That's a good business.

Alex:

Then buy for kids again Everything that I buy. They almost beg me to buy it at whatever price. But now, at that time I can tell you there was just like what do they call it? There's more.

Paul:

More demand than supply Right.

Alex:

And shoot at Right, because everybody wants the same Right.

Paul:

It's much harder, and that's what's happened. That's what I'm telling you.

Alex:

So at the time, I mean, like I give it to you for $1,000, $10,000. Well, how about none? How about any? You know? Yeah, Okay, I think, but I don't want to. I mean.

Paul:

But no, like you said, everybody's trying to deals anymore.

Alex:

I know there's a lot of them doing what I did. There are deals that I can't express.

Paul:

That's what I'm telling you. It's too hard. Those types of deals, they don't exist anymore.

Alex:

I know, but if you have the money in your pocket, yes, for some reason they come. They come, fabriano Marido the Fed has.

Paul:

Our guest today is a very special guest. Imagine starting life bagging rice and paper sacks at a grocery store run by your family at just nine years old, and then carrying that work ethic into a lifetime of building businesses from scratch with your partner, your husband, from liquor stores to apartment complexes, from bookkeeping to painting entire apartment units by yourself after hours. She never saw obstacles, only opportunities. Her story is one of grit, family and an unstoppable drive to create a better life. It's also a reminder that behind every thriving business is someone willing to sacrifice, persevere and still make space for joy and family time. Today we get to hear stories firsthand, the lessons learned and the legacy that continues to inspire future generations of her family. Our guest today is my grandmother, connie Castellanos.

Speaker 3:

One, two, three go.

Paul:

So let's ride. Let's ride on the way at the beginning and I want to start with your dad, who I believe was an entrepreneur, owned a grocery store in Santa Barbara, carpinteria and just kind of get your thoughts on what it was like growing up with an entrepreneurial-minded father. Did he work for a company at some point and then become an Carpinteria? And just kind of get your thoughts on what it was like growing up with an entrepreneurial minded father. Did he work for a company at some point and then become an entrepreneur? Was he always an entrepreneur? What was it like growing up with your dad?

Connie:

Well, growing up. To start with, my father was in his early 30s when his father had a surprise heart attack, massive heart attack, and he died. He had started his store in Santa Barbara and it was mainly a grocery store and a lot of Mexican products which they didn't have at that time he started it. There's a picture there it's 1904, where he started his first grocery store. 1904, where he started his first grocery store, and my dad is in one of those prams or buggies and he's just born. He was born in 1904. So all he knew he was the only son. They did have another little boy, my grandparents but he died young and so my dad was the oldest and the only boy.

Paul:

So your dad then had an example from the very beginning, from when he was basically an infant, of his dad being an entrepreneur, and so I'm assuming then he grew up around that and did your grandfather have that store pretty much your dad's whole life.

Connie:

Well, this is what happened. My parents married in I think it was 1929. And so, of course, my grandfather already had this grocery store. So then my dad and my mom decided they'll open a store, because their family's all living off one store and usually it's not a good idea for the children to try to live the life that their parents are living, and one store is not going to make it for two, three families to be living. And so they decided they would start a store. Same name. Osuna's First customer walks in and he wants to buy a sack of beans. Well, they only had one sack. So my mother thinks okay, we'll deliver it to you tomorrow morning, Because now they had time to go get another sack of beans. That's the way they got started. They found out they had a really good business going.

Paul:

You're making it sound almost like for your dad. It was just kind of a, because he had grown up with a father who was an entrepreneur. He goes through his life, gets married, all that. That. It was almost just inevitable that he was going to become an entrepreneur, because that's what he knew. Well, that's what he knew.

Connie:

He had only gone to the sixth grade, Right, but he liked to read a lot and so he would get into these manuals I guess you can call them where you could study. And he got one that was how to cut meat, how to be a butcher. By the book and he read about it and I guess he got several. He must have bought the set of how to and then there was a test and he took it and now he could cut a side of beef. So that's how he learned how to be a butcher and from what I learned a little bit that I saw was that Mexican people like certain cuts of meat that you don't find in the mostly big markets. So he learned how to do that and that was part of why his business grew, because he had a meat department and food and vegetables.

Paul:

Right. What do you remember early on about their experience of just like seeing your parents running a business that they own Like. What do you remember about that?

Connie:

Well, what do you mean? Like, well, they were working Right, but they had a life.

Paul:

They didn't throw themselves into the business totally because so do you think that that did anything stick with you in those days? Like, did you think to yourself, like this is great, I want to do this when I get older? Or were your parents saying, oh no, we want you to go study and find a different career.

Connie:

Like older? Or were your parents saying, oh no, we want you to go study and find a different career. Like what was that? Like no, it never occurred to me, I never. Well, when we moved to santa barbara by then, I think I I knew everything about the store, or so I thought how old were you?

Paul:

I was uh nine years old and you knew everything.

Connie:

You knew everything about the store, oh yeah like the bookkeeping, the inventory, the everything, everything I'd go when I out of school. It's either go clean the house or go to the store and work a little while, and there was always something to do.

Paul:

So as you got older, did either one of your parents encourage you and say, you know, we want you to take over the store one day or we want you to get a further your education, like were they pushing you in any, any direction no, they really didn't um, I just love school and when you graduated from high school, did you and you were studying different subjects did you start to have a sense of what you wanted to do for a living?

Connie:

no, what I wanted to do was I wanted to be a nurse, and my dad didn't think that was a good deal. He said nurses had to do a lot of things that weren't appropriate for a young girl, and so I started to study x-ray. I was almost finished when I decided to get married. I was 19 when I got married and I didn't finish the x-ray that I had started, just kind of just needed testing. Anyway, it was very different, right the way it was done then to the way it is now.

Paul:

And when you got married, what was your plan? How were you guys going to make money? So if you weren't going to be an x-ray, I had no clue.

Connie:

Okay, I had no clue. I had been brought up, I didn't need anything and, by the way, my dad never even paid me. I went every day and on Saturdays I worked all day and I never got a pay. But I tell dad I need money and he'd right away how much do you need Give me? So I really didn't look at it as a job. I looked at it as helping my parents. It didn't occur to me. My cousin lived with us and she got paid and I saw it and it never occurred to me that I should do that, oh, wow Okay.

Connie:

So the funny thing is, my dad didn't think that way. He grew up working. And of course he didn't think that way. He grew up working and of course he didn't get paid. He ended up being the boss because his father died. And so when my brother grew up, he couldn't understand why he didn't want to work. And so my husband? He asked my husband, this guy doesn't want to go to work. I don't know what to do with him. And my husband said do you pay him? What? Yes, does he have a wage? Does he get paid? No, I give him whatever he needs. Well, that's, a young man needs to have money for his car to go. My brother loved to go surfing, so then my dad thought, wow, that's something new. And so he started paying my brother. And then my brother was willing to work. Shocking, shocking, huh. He got shocked, yeah, and he was used to me just going all happy, and I was. I was very happy.

Paul:

And with Grandpa Alex coming into the picture, what do you think it was about him that drew you to him, that made you feel like that was going to be a good partner for you?

Connie:

You mean like he was he had plans, he had goals. He never talked about them. His brother had his. He was older, two years older, and he would say, well, when I'm such and such an age, I want to have this he had it all planned.

Paul:

So you knew Grandpa had a plan, but you didn't know the details of the plan.

Connie:

No, my husband didn't have a plan, he would just listen, oh.

Paul:

I see.

Connie:

Maybe he did have a plan, but it was in his head. He didn't communicate it.

Paul:

He didn't talk about it, I see.

Connie:

So he worked. He didn't want me to work, so he had two jobs. He'd go from one to the other and then on the weekends he'd go to a gas station and work close up.

Paul:

He had three jobs. Three jobs on the weekends Okay, so he didn't want you to work, and what were? Just so everyone knows what jobs were. What were the? So one was a gas station cleric, one, what else?

Connie:

Yeah, he would do. He knew mechanic, he could fix cars and he was working for a place that made doors. They called them Hollywood doors. They had the window on top and they're using them for kitchens. That was something new, the kitchen door that had a window, and so he was good at it. He'd fix.

Paul:

Do you think I mean three jobs? That's a lot. Did you ever get a sense that it seemed like he was under a lot of pressure? Was he placing a lot of pressure on himself?

Connie:

Well, I'm going to say something I never heard him say he was tired. He'd get up with music. His alarm had a, the radio had an alarm and the radio would go on. He'd go to work singing, except if he couldn't find his keys to the car because the kids had moved the car, didn't put the keys where they belong, or the comb. He had to have his comb and his things in a certain place and if they weren't there, all the lights were turned on. He'd raise hell.

Connie:

Otherwise he was a very happy person and he never complained and he would got home. He'd fix somebody's car. Of course, when he wanted something for the first house we bought, his friends were there putting a window for him, putting the door, and that's how he learned. His dad was a person that was very handy. My dad, he was a business guy and he didn't know how to fix anything. So that was a difference, right. But Alex had grown up with his dad doing and there was 10 of them, five boys and five girls, and so they were all hard, hard working, but he was always happy, come home, happy, and that was our life.

Paul:

We'd, we'd go out, we'd go to a park, whatever we could afford well, it sounds like he just maybe it was his personality or because he had no choice to just constantly be moving like it sounds like what you're describing. It's like he was coming home, having dinner and then kicking back and watching a baseball game.

Connie:

He was constantly doing something. We'd go to the park and the kids would ride their bikes or we'd take a lunch. We didn't have money to be fooling around with going to expensive places. But our neighbors had a projector projector and they'd have home movies and our house had a big wall and so that was a screen for the movies and my husband and the neighbor they'd go buy ice cones big bucket of ice cones and we'd have it and watch home movies and that was our entertainment but it made it seem like we were having a good time there yeah, well, it sounds like it.

Paul:

At any point did he communicate to you that he wanted for something? It sounds like he was a hard worker, right, but did he communicate?

Connie:

hey, this is like well it all started, uh, his parents and we're now living in mexico, guadalajara, and uh, every time we go he said you know, I'm giving my dad money to put in the bank because the interest was very good at that time. And he said that way, when we go, we'll have money to spend and.

Connie:

And to start with, he said and I'm going to give you my check, my 40 hours that I work, I'm going to give them to you, Rain or shine, work or no work, you're going to have it. But if I work overtime, that's going to be mine. I said, fine, I didn't care, it was plenty 40 hours, and so I made it work. So of course, then summer would come. You want to go here, you want to go there? Well, yeah, and he'd take us. Yeah, it was on him, right, so it worked. It worked for us. But he was saving money. And then he got the bright idea when we lived, there was a liquor store, right on atlantic boulevard, and he uh, at the time he was working his jobs.

Connie:

He wasn't as so up to this point he had been working for other people yes, collecting a paycheck yes so this is the first time he so he wants to buy this liquor store because my sister was married and his her husband lost his job. So he thought I'll buy this liquor store and my brother-in-law can work. And I was against it, totally against it, because I had learned by my dad having a store that if he wasn't there it wasn't working store, that if he wasn't there it wasn't working Of course, him and my mother.

Connie:

So I got to her. If he went, he wanted to go on a vacation, I would go. I would go and run the store for him. So anyway, I was expecting my youngest son at the time, and so I was totally against him buying it. But he didn't listen. So he asked his father to send him the money back To a bank in Tijuana.

Paul:

Okay, so that's the money you had mentioned. He had put money down in a bank in Mexico because the interest was really good. Yeah, now he's pulling that money out.

Connie:

So he's got $40,000. Oh, and I don't even know that he had that much and this is like what year he was doing it every year when we'd go on vacation. He takes extra money. He's saving the money. He. He takes extra money. He's saving the money. He's not throwing it right, his money, that, and I don't even know how much. It is okay, his. He has a partner and they go and they buy this 12 unit apartments wait first.

Paul:

There's a. There's a liquor store first or no? It was the apartments. Okay, so the money came out of mexico?

Connie:

no, but that was the apartments it was. His partner had some money and Alex had a little bit, but not much. But they pulled it together and they bought it and it was $135,000. And to us it was a lot of money.

Paul:

For a 12-unit apartment complex. That was to me.

Connie:

I couldn't even sleep at night because I thought, wow, that's a lot of money for a 12 unit apartment complex. That was uh to me. I couldn't even sleep at night because I thought, wow, that's a lot of money. Yeah, we had paid 11 000 for our house was that one again did.

Paul:

Did he talk to you about that or did he just do that? Did he just?

Connie:

make. Well, he did and he didn't. He just got all excited about it and he wanted it okay when he bought it.

Paul:

So he he took a bunch of money that he had saved up with a partner. He buys this huge apartment complex. That stretches you guys really thin. I'm assuming he's working his day job still and then, oh yeah, going there and they were both working yeah and I'll go into it right now.

Connie:

Okay, but right now I'm going to tell you about the liquor store, okay, so okay, we already owe all this. And I decide, okay, how can I put it? I thought, okay, the worst thing that can happen is we'll lose the apartments if we can't make the payment. The payment was 600 a month and the rents were 60, which pretty tight. It was very tight, yeah. So we need a heater. What do you mean? A water heater? And how much is that going to cost? Well, we don't have money. Well, wayne and alex were still working, they had their jobs, so they'd buy. But anyway, I learned, I had no idea how to be a landlord.

Connie:

Landlord yeah, no idea. And neither did alex and neither did wayne, never had any experience yeah and somebody's moving. They want their security. What do you mean security? I didn't, I didn't even know. And yes, I looked through the papers. Yes, there was a whole sheet that had gone into the bank, but we had used all the money we had, yeah, and so, oh my god, we have to come up with 60 120 or something like that, some ridiculous, you know.

Connie:

But to 120 was a lot, yeah, alex was. His check was 60 a week. Okay, yeah. So that's how we're thinking, that's our thinking. So anyway, he pulls this money that he's got in Mexico and we go to the bank in Tijuana because he's going to buy that, and so we happen to know.

Connie:

So then my sister and her husband he took over the liquor store. They didn't have experience at all, and after six months I had my son, ricardo, and when he was five months old they said they just could not go on, that it was too much, too many hours and it just wasn't working for him, right. And so now my husband is panicked because he can't leave his job yet, right, and he owes and he has this liquor store, and now he doesn't know what to do. So I tell him okay, I guess I can do it, but I don't know anything about liquor, right, but it was a store something like the 7-Elevens are now. Right, I got a sitter for my five-month-old baby and I have two kids in high school, two in grammar school and one at home, and I have to open the store seven in the morning every morning.

Alex:

Yeah.

Connie:

And we had it for 10 years. And so now I'm back to the apartments. Somebody would move out and his partner, my husband and his partner would go clean, patch anything that was broken, replace anything, and they'd patch everything. And then, guess what, when somebody would leave me at the store, I'd go paint, and one day I would paint the latex, the two bedrooms of the living room, and the next day I would go paint the kitchen, the bathroom and the trim, and then I'd just leave the. I wouldn't clean anything, I just leave it there. The heck with it. They could do it when they come, came home and I'd go home and and meet all my problems that I had with my kids.

Paul:

Make dinner and do all that. So you're. I mean, this is what I'm hearing is you guys are just stretched incredibly thin, not just financially, but also just from the hours in the day to be able to balance.

Connie:

It was all day. It was an all day thing.

Paul:

All day, every day.

Connie:

And the next day I opened at seven and my husband would leave at five and then he'd shower. When he came home, he would eat and shower and go to the store, and this went on for 10 years. Well, no, after a while business was good, by the way, oh okay it was very good.

Paul:

The apartment and the liquor store were good. Pardon me, both the liquor store and the apartments were both doing well well, the apartments were always rented.

Connie:

Yeah, there were two bedrooms and you know people would, little by little we'd learn that you know they couldn't have just a couple or we. We were careful about who was there and for them we hardly ever put a sign, because people stayed and we treated them well. I I say we, but I never went. I never went, I only went to paint. I didn't know the people, but I would do all the bookkeeping.

Alex:

Yeah.

Connie:

I do the bookkeeping and then they would go buy stuff and I where's that, where's the other? Aside from I'm doing the bookkeeping for the store?

Alex:

Yeah.

Connie:

But my cousin who was a lawyer, tommy, lived in Santa Barbara and he showed me a lot of things, how to do a lot of things. So, going back, everything was going okay. Now, during that time I had two babysitters. One stayed three years and then the other one stayed another three years and then Ricardo was in school. So now everybody's in school and the boys would take turns. They were in high school Artie and Eddie I'm talking about and one would help. They'd come home together. One would go and load up the refrigerators and get all the supplies and the other one would go home and hopefully study, and then the next day the other one would go Because they had to keep up there.

Paul:

I'm trying to think about my own journey now. You know, I think what I'm doing is hard, but then I hear your story and it doesn't sound so hard after all. But you know, I find myself, you know, working, you know, like grandpa, a 40-hour work week, you know, for somebody, and then trying to do things on the side. Because that's kind of what I saw, you guys, and that was the example I had. So, of course, the first thought when I came into some money and saved and managed my money well was well, I got to buy a property. That's what I saw my grandparents do, and I know that that's a guaranteed path to success, and so I did that.

Connie:

Well, anything you do has problems, no matter what they tell you. Anybody. If you have a business, in Spanish there's the same. You know, if you have a business, take care of it. If you're not taking care of it, sell it, because you're the boss and you're the one that has the business. It isn't the workers.

Paul:

They could care less. Yeah Well, I think I mean I understand that part and I would say I've had this little bit of rebellious side of me and so when I first started working a corporate job, the first couple of years I really struggled with it because I always saw myself being an entrepreneur. But I didn't like kind of your story. I didn't know the first thing about how to start a business, what kind of business. So I felt it best at that time to go into the business world, use my college degree and get my footing, learn some skills and then see where I can go from there. But I didn't like being in this. Okay, you have to be here from this time to this time. This person's going to tell you what to do all the time and you have to follow these orders, right Because?

Connie:

okay, the important thing if you have a business like we had, you have to open. If you say you're going to open at seven, you better be open at seven because people are going to run in, they think you're open. And if you're closed and you're not opening until 7.30 or 8 or until you feel like it, they're not going to go anymore because the markets they open at a certain hour so they can go. Like I told my sons they'd get a little flippy with people. Go look what we sell here. They sell it in every corner.

Alex:

Right.

Connie:

We're selling personality health and they're getting what they want fast. And they came in here running. They didn't. They're not shopping. They come here running because they know what they need and they want it now, right, not. And they want it to be open. Yeah, and so they. A couple of times we'd go someplace. They'd come home. It's a sunday and it's six o'clock and they're closed. How come you closed? Well, there was no business. Oh man, that would get me so angry if you say you're gonna close at noon, close at noon so, grandma, when you have, you know, now you, I'm gonna fast forward a bunch, but basically you started.

Paul:

You have the liquor store, you have this apartment complex. It starts to build. Now you buy another property, and another property, and another property. You kind of figure out this formula right okay, we were renting the we.

Connie:

he bought the business but we were renting the building. I think it was only like 200, 250, something like that. It was just a building. It had parking in the back for maybe two cars and there was an empty lot next door. So my husband he's always there looking and he wanted to buy it. But it was one of these places. It had gotten mixed up with probate People had died, it was a mess, and there it stood the whole corner. Our clients were using it to park. So one day the sign goes up for sale. Now we already had the liquor store maybe five years and all of a sudden it goes for sale and my husband bought it, and I don't even know how much he paid. He just went ahead and did this because he had money.

Paul:

You say he, you guys had money.

Connie:

No, no, because we were. Now we're living off. He's still giving me his check. Yeah, for uh 40 hours yeah he's still giving it to me, but now I'm dipping into the store because the store is doing real well. Kids are getting paid. We're living off it really yeah except for things, fresh, things that go by. And so he's got money and he bought the empty lot and he didn't say too much. I mean, he told me he bought it and I signed papers and what have you?

Paul:

Okay, so if I just can summarize this a little bit, it's very hardworking, very good at saving money, very good at being opportunistic, finding deals or just keeping your eye out for different opportunities that make sense and, when they come around, being prepared to take advantage of that opportunity.

Connie:

Well, yeah, you know, I read the book of Ina Ina Garden. She's a cook, she writes recipes and has a had a thing on a TV program and she wrote this book and it said yeah, I was always prepared. When you get a break, if you're prepared, you can go on and do it. If you're not prepared or you don't see it and I guess Alex had that- the vision for that.

Connie:

He did. Yeah, he didn't say much. But anyway, the lady that was our landlord said she wanted to speak to us one day, and so I said okay, we'll meet you. So she said well, I just want to tell you I'm sorry, but I'm going to raise a rent. And so then my husband spoke oh, he goes, don't worry about it. Yeah, you know it's a good deal we've had, but anyway, I bought the corner and I'm going to make another store there. And she said what? Oh, she almost had a nervous breakdown on the spot. She said what do you mean? I've always thought that it was not for sale. I asked several times and it was in probate. And he said, well, it wasn't one day. And I bought it. And, oh man, she was beside herself. And so she got angry and she said well, then I'm going to have to give you if you want to buy what I have. Now I have something that doesn't even have parking If you built. Oh, she was so angry and my husband said okay, I'll buy it. And so he bought it.

Connie:

So, now he had that. Why do you want to do that? I go, I'm tired already. I can't go on like this. I want just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. I have to work a little bit more.

Connie:

So one day I opened the store and I get held up. Two guys went in there. They had guns and I got held up, so it was a trauma for me. As soon as I, the police went and they left and all this stuff. And I said we're selling the store, I'm not going to have it one more minute. And my husband no, why don't just a little bit more? I go no, no, put your foot down.

Connie:

And I called my brother. He was in real estate and and I said come over here and sell this store. I don't want my sons to work, I don't want my husband to work and I'm not working. Right, I'm done. Yeah, 10 years ago, no, I don't want. And so he came and my husband told him and I don't even know how much he just said I don't want a penny under. And he still remembers. And I should ask I don't want a penny under, and he still remembers. And I should ask, because I don't know how much he sold it for. But he sold the land, the business and the property, yeah, sold the whole thing, and there now we had money.

Paul:

That was like the first time you're like, okay, without. That was like where you didn't feel like it was tight. It was like, okay, we have no well, we have a good bank well to start with.

Connie:

Okay, we sold it. I thought we're gonna have money, because that same the next day my brother got there. He made flyers. He went around the neighborhood giving the flyers that it was for sale and that evening there was three couples that wanted it. So then he said okay.

Connie:

My brother said in the kitchen each couple go in there, write down what their top offer is what they're going to give the top offer, and it's going to be secret, and then the other couple will go, and then the other couple, so the one we sold it to I think he went like two or three times more than what we were asking. Wow, because my husband was going by the price, but what he had paid for it, uh-huh. But now you know, 10 years had gone by, yeah. And so I thought, oh, goody, goody, and my you can relax now.

Paul:

That was my thing, yeah, so you get this huge offer.

Connie:

Well, wait a minute.

Paul:

Okay.

Connie:

My brother is working for the cousin that's a lawyer.

Alex:

Okay.

Connie:

He's a CPA, he's doing his business, you know, as a CPA, and so he goes and tells my cousin so here you know, I went. He told him I'm going to go.

Paul:

Like hey, alex and Connie got a bunch of money in the bank.

Connie:

Yeah, no. So he went back and he said we sold it, yeah, so he went back and he said we sold it. Yeah, and he calls me, my cousin calls me and he goes don't touch that money, why I go here, I'm all excited as soon as escrow goes through. I mean wow, yeah, and he goes no, don't touch it, You're going to do a trade.

Paul:

Yeah, 529.

Connie:

But you cannot touch it, right, he goes, I'm going to go over there and he was always taking care of me, right, and that helped Right Of us, I should say, because he would. Alex was always sitting in wherever whenever I went to do taxes. He would just sit there, he wouldn't say nothing, but he'd listen, right. And so he came almost running Don't touch it.

Paul:

If you touch, touch it, then we can't do this, yeah, and otherwise you're gonna have to pay big bucks so it's like almost like this um, it was like this slow ramp up and then it sounds like, you know, there's this big sale and now all of a sudden, things start picking up really quickly, huh just, and so you need to spend the money.

Connie:

It was like we had to buy now we had to buy something.

Paul:

When you think back and we can't go through every single property but when you think back on the whole experience, it sounds like those first 10 to 15 years were like roll up your sleeves, really, really grind. And then some good things, some dominoes started falling in place and then did it get easier. After that, grandma, when you, when you, if you reflect back on this whole experience like I just I'm hearing two people that were extremely driven, that pushed themselves physically, mentally, everything. I mean not everybody could do that. So where do you think that came from?

Connie:

because my mother and dad were an example. When we would go to santa barbara and my kids can tell you I mean, I'm telling you the truth There'd be a note on the stove we're at this party, you guys are invited, there's food on the thing, here's a number, call and they'll watch the kids. Or you can go and take the kids, because it's a family thing and we're over here. They always went out. They didn't let all this work get them down, you know, and so I'd be so tired sometimes I'd get home. I want to go to bed, but how could I With four kids?

Connie:

They all have to have their homework, they all have to do their chores. They all have to do, you know, and my husband's working until somebody relieves him and then he can come home. My husband's working until somebody relieves him and then he can come home. That's not at first, but afterward. We ended up having a man that would go. He was a security guard and then he said he could do the store and so he'd go. So that would give us, and then we'd go to the show. Just the two of us go to see a movie. We get out of all this stress. It was stressful.

Paul:

So you said you had good examples, but you still make it sound like it was just.

Connie:

We were happy, we didn't let it get to us, we didn't get into, we have to work, we have to do this. No, if something came up, okay, take a shower and go and try to make the best of it, and you need it. You can't just be working. It doesn't work.

Paul:

Yeah, all right, I'm going to tell you something now. That's going to make me a little bit emotional. It's already starting to. I've wanted to start a business my whole as long as I can remember. Like I said, I started with the properties and that's going well. But I have some ideas on some other things that I want to work on, and now I'm seeing where I get it from. Like, I go to work, I come home, I play with the kids and then, when they go down, I want to be learning new things and new skills and looking at new businesses.

Paul:

And I had a dream last week I don't have dreams like this very often, but let me tell you, try to get it out. It was grandpa and uh, he was back here, you know, back your house, where he used to work in his workshop, and uh, you know he used to watch us, uh, after school. So I remember going back there and I would always see him. I know he had already spent the day at the apartments working on things, but it just seemed like he liked being um back there working with his hands, and you know he had the pencil behind his ear and he was well, just relax a little bit, take a deep breath, and you were so good, you know, he would tell you go sit, sit down right there, and the step that's there going to our room, sit right there.

Connie:

I don't know what you were doing, but he told you to go sit, eddie. He would tell him, do this, and two minutes later he's under the truck and he's under the. You know, eddie, wouldn't. One day he comes in and I go where's Paul? And he goes. Oh my God, he's still sitting there where I told him to sit and he ran over there to get you because you behaved, or you sit with a worker. This is, grandma. Make me. I said come on inside and I'll make you a sandwich. Make me a. You get a tortilla. You put stuff in it. Oh, you want a taco? Yeah, like I tell martha, paul's expectations are a little bit low.

Paul:

He needs to, yeah, anyway all right, so get it, let me try this again. So just like that. So I came in this dream. I came to your house, just like I did when I was a kid go out the back, and this time I'm just in the dream just watching him work. Oh, we don't have a conversation, but he like looks up. Yeah, then I wake up and uh you don't know all the dreams I've had.

Connie:

It was a very intense dream, but I woke up so happy well, you know, now I'm not getting so many dreams, but for a while there and everything that was going on.

Paul:

I swear he must have somehow told me, because I knew what was going on yes, I just think he must know that I'm having a lot of thoughts and ideas that are going through my head right now.

Connie:

You know they say when people die that you put them up and everything. But you know he used to think so much, but he never really talked about it, right? No, he didn't. But he had all this in his head, right? And he'd come up with like that about giving me the money from now on. This is the way it's going to be, and we never argued over money. And you know, couples that's the big thing Argue over money because it's an important part of living, and if your wife isn't with you, the couple have to be together on it. You have to. You can't do it by yourself.

Paul:

So so I'm just I guess, just to summarize, I just I grew up watching you guys do this and just admiring you being an entrepreneur working for yourself. I saw the joy and happiness of being your own boss, of building something for yourself uh, building a business that can support a family and, just like you said, enjoying life the whole time and um.

Connie:

so that's always been something that I've aspired for and I've done very well professionally, but it's, it's not the same as building something well, like I say, but but you have to do it in a way that you don't get so intense that that has to be your whole world. It can't be. You can't do, your whole body can't take it. Yeah, you know you can't, and a lot of people, maybe we had a lot of luck, or look at all these things that happened. We weren't prepared, we didn't think about it, just the way I tell you that's the way it happened, but we were ready.

Paul:

Well, alex was ready with the money. Yeah, he decided he's gonna do this anyways. I just I feel this very like. I said so. Just like you, I felt like I had the example in front of me growing up, and so I'm kind of in a place where I want to try to make those things happen well, like I say, I mean I'm, it's good that we, if we, gave you inspiration.

Connie:

but I'm telling you the truth how it happened. Yeah, and most of it, that we were happy. We were happy as a couple.

Alex:

Right.

Connie:

We understood each other. I don't know why Luck, I don't know.

Paul:

I think you guys knew what you were doing the whole time.

Connie:

He was, and I would see his brother doing so much, you know, but I would think, man, I could never be married to him. He's too controlling, you know, and Alex wasn't, he wasn't controlling and I wasn't trying to control him either. We're not doing this, you know. See, he'd get mad and I'd get mad. No, I'd tell him I'm not a yes person, I'm not going to say yes If I don't believe in it. No, and he'd argue, you know, we'd argue like all better roses. Yeah, but we weren't fighting about things that were personal, we were fine.

Paul:

When you think back now at what you and grandpa were able to accomplish from a business standpoint, from a family standpoint, like, like, what do you think? And I know it's hard to like, use the word legacy no, I know what you mean like what do you hope?

Connie:

like sometimes sometimes I sit here, I'm all by myself and I think not even in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would have. It's a beautiful house, you know, and everything is nice.

Paul:

I never, my aim was never to to do that yeah, no, you guys have never been driven by that oh, what I wanted was a house that was beautiful and the right thing, and you're starting to say as you, as you sit here, you have a lot of time to reflect, like how do you summarize what you guys are able to accomplish when you think back on it?

Connie:

Well, what I was telling you. I started to tell you that I look at things and my kids and how things have turned out. I'm very proud of them and I think, man, not even in my wildest dreams did I ever have this in my head. I just lived the way I was taught from my parents. Because that's what you do you learn from your parents. And thank God they weren't people that had vices. They weren't, you know, always being nice to everybody and their house was always open. And my dad, he could have been really rich because he had three stores at one time, but he they always helped, the whole family, always helping. But he had enough, you know, right, he was happy. And when my dad died, my mom, she was still there. Oh, I don't know. If I have enough, go mom, you have enough, and if you don't, we're here, you don't have to worry. And so that's the way we felt, because that's what we saw. It's nothing that you're thinking. Oh well, I want to do this. Well, maybe some people do, but we didn't.

Paul:

Well, grandma, I really appreciate everything that you've done and, yeah, just know that I think it's not just me, I think all your grandkids at this as an inspirational story and well, yeah, we feel very fortunate.

Connie:

To this as an inspirational story and, um well, yeah, we feel very fortunate. It was never about the money, right, it wasn't, maybe because I never needed anything as I was growing up and it just it didn't get in my head and I don't know why, but, and never. I like nice things and I like to go to places and everything, but it wasn't my thing that oh, oh God, I have to do this or else I'm going to fall apart or whatever. No, so I was lucky and I had things and I had a husband who gave me everything, so I didn't need anything. All right, but, like I say, maybe it was a lot of luck.

Paul:

I don't think so. I think you guys navigated it like experts and did a great job.

Connie:

I could hardly wait to get rid of everything.

Paul:

Thank you for telling these stories. I really appreciate it.

Connie:

You're welcome. Like I say, I hope it can help.

Paul:

It will, it absolutely will. Yeah, all right, love you, but for your own.

Connie:

Just relax and try to just take life the way it comes.

Paul:

All right, thanks, grandma, okay.

Alex:

What happened this? Take life the way it comes. All right, thanks, grandma. Okay, you want this one. Yeah, you want some. Huh, you want this one, you want one. I can buy one Si I get it. You want me to try? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 3:

No, no, no, the Rockies ain't too far from here. If we drive all night, the cold, that will do you well in the mountain morning light. So let's ride, let's ride on through the rain. Come on and take me anywhere that you wanna be. Let's ride and let's ride. Let's follow the skyline and when we make it to the other side We'll find all the bluest skies, with skies.