This is a KUNV studios original program The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of

Nevada System of Higher Education Good morning and welcome to the grind I'm your host

extraordinaire Mr Eric James The grind Simply put the grind is a half hour conversation

that speaks to local business entrepreneurs and explores their take on where our local economy is heading

and asks them to tell us their own story of the sacrifices and work ethic

that it takes to have a successful business Good morning Good morning everyone My name is Eric James and

I'm gonna be the host of my new show The Grind The Grind is a half an hour talk

show of industry individuals talking about their individual grinds what made them successful in their industries how they overcame the

obstacles of their particular industry or life in general because we really wanted to be personal but informative as well

and today I'm telling you I got I I got I got a line up for

you I got a power A couple for you when we started this show we came

in we're gonna bang this first one out and really find out about two individuals that I

personally know and care about but they work together as a husband and wife team and I don't know

if I could do it folks because you know you know not that I'm married but if I was married

like every day in and out talking with your spouse and working with your spouse arguing about and do it

but they find a way to do it they are that power couple so I'm

gonna introduce them Is Juan and the cool Huerta and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves and tell

you about what they do and how what their story is and what their grind is and

how they became successful in their field of industry uh and hey folks again nothing but

respect and love for what you guys do because I'm always impressed with seeing people that bet on

themselves and didn't take the 9 to 5 route and again hey don't be I don't

want 90 haters out there talking about well I have a 9 to 5 and I'm not saying

that I'm just saying in the world it is hard to go out and risk and gamble on yourself

and and in a competitive market environment or the business field and rise to the top So this

show is about people that have made that choice have gone out and really established themselves in their

business field and I want to know how did you get there what's your grind what's

your story Talk to people tell people about the what it takes to make it out there in the

world and maybe inspire a few people on and they go out on their Own

and do what you do or copy or follow you we'll also you know let them introduce the

companies or who they work with and if you feel free you wanna reach out to them and and

maybe ask them some questions or you know work with them because they are leaders in their field we're more

than happy to promote and do that as well but hey we're gonna start I

believe you know normally women come first but in this case uh I'm being signaled that

Juan would like to be first head of the household so we're gonna let him speak up and tell his

story but then we're gonna make sure his beautiful and lovely wife gets to share

her insights and her big personality and make sure we all know who really runs that household So Juan tell

me about your story I'm gonna ask you some questions but tell me about you what makes you

successful What is your grind and what how did you make this happen OK that

sounds great Well first of all I'm definitely not the head of the house so I wanna make

sure you got that straight my friend right Um so I am a mortgage broker a residential

mortgage broker So we only deal with residential homes which are 4 plexes and under um we have a variety

of loans that people can choose from but essentially I'm the guy that you come to when you want to

buy a house first time home buyers move up buyers investment properties um and so whether you'd

go to a bank or to a broker that's what I do and I got into it I actually

was in Vegas um working for Sprint doing a 9 to 5 job before I went

on my own went on a Match.com date with a young lady And ended up uh moving to

Vegas to chase that young lady to uh Vegas by the way the young lady ended up being

Nicole just so you know so you hear all those stories about people following a boy or a girl

someplace They don't normally turn out well right But there was definitely some persistence there so I you know

I would agree you know I know the 9 to 5 uh I know you do

the grind You and I met when you'd come solicit not that sounds terrible Uh but I don't

I don't have a problem with that word actually right You would come in and do stuff

you'd bring Xavier and you guys would come in and talk about er yep and you would talk

about uh you know homeowner's insurance which all my clients need And uh it's not just one time that

you came to see me it's a bunch of times and so like sometimes I think I've

never told you this but I'm kinda like wow that is a grind because in what you do you need

to have that face to face content So I got into the business I think what

I didn't understand in the beginning is is that you got to understand how to get a

loan done Um that's not really the grind What the grind really is is that

you have to have really good follow up consistency and systems so I can honestly tell you I probably repeated

The first year in the business 15 times before I got some mentoring and understanding of how to structure a

day and so I would say this to everybody when you hear the word grind And you'll hear

people say embrace the grind I actually say to myself I love the grind The

the grind is what gets me paid It lets me take care of my family lets me feel fulfilled So

to me I love the grind and if people can understand that's the key I think

life gets a little bit easier So tell me I mean you're originally from Boston uh

it says by way of Cleveland Ohio two cold climates You're out here in in a beautiful Sunday morning

in Las Vegas which I think it might be 50 degrees and we're acting like it's

cold but Um the the but you said you liked the grind but in your

journey what was the grind What were the obstacles What were the points where you said

I might not make it or was there ever a moment where you doubted your ability to make it and

survive because it's not an easy field it it's so competitive and there's so many unknown obstacles

among other things the economic crash in 2010 you've been in the business long enough you've seen the highs

and lows Where did you say I got this or where was that moment that

you knew you you you were going to be successful Well you know it's kind of funny and

Nicole tell this I I just think I've been doing it for 20 years I

think it's just recently I think where I'm like I'm OK And I think one of the challenges for me

on this piece is waiting to feel good And to feel OK like to feel prepared you know

when I do this many loans or when I make this money I will have arrived

and I will feel good and I'll be OK And after 20 years in the business I

realized that's not really the the the mindset that's that's the uh that would hold me

back You feel the fear and you do it anyway You don't wait to feel good

about something and you for me it was about restructuring it because I used to

think if something was uncomfortable you should run away from it Well what I've learned is is that when

something feels a little bit off right that's what you should be facing There's a guy by the

name of Ed Mylet that says when you have butterflies you should be chasing butterflies So for me there's a

a lot of mindset there I think the other thing on the grind for me too is really

understanding that it's about consistency I had the idea that it was about being smart Nobody cares right Holy

Um it was about uh you know being like the best loan officer It's not it's about making that extra

phone call calling people on their birthday reaching out to the real estate agents which is a huge

part of my business and staying consistent So I would always think to myself when I talk to somebody I've

got to have some revelation to tell them right which a really bad space to be when in reality

all I need to be doing is calling up my business partners and saying hey what's in

your life right now right So it was a big for me the grind the big shift

was that idea It's relationship based and it's not about these huge big movements in

your business It's just these little items day by day and just sticking to that OK so let's talk relationships

then So we're gonna switch over to your lovely wife and folks wants a good

looking dude There's no question about that you know he's got a little swag about him but I got I

gotta admit I got a secret crush on his wife now now people know she's

a beautiful lady she's got a bubbly personality and so Talk of relationships how they

met Nicole tell us your industry I mean you're a realtor as Juan said he's in the

mortgage business so it's a tandem tag team but there has to be also challenges

working together So after we understand your story and where you came from I would

like you to you know talk to us or talk to the audience a little bit about what

it's like working with your spouse and the advantages disadvantages and how you two have made that work Tell me

a little bit about yourself Great Well the short story 15 years ago I started in

the real estate industry as a marketing rep for a title company so I used to train realtors and people

would say Oh why don't you do it yourself Why don't you start off your own business And I

really wasn't ready to take that leap and not have a salary I'd been in sales and marketing but

I always had that base salary That leap is scary It is very scary thing

to have a paycheck coming in every two weeks and then not know where your

next if your bills are going to be paid right So fast forward 10 years ago

and I said OK now I'm ready We had one child at the time and now I'm ready to go

So I started since I had been in Title I knew who to go to

picked an amazing mentor and started the grind So I would be at the office at 8

o'clock in the morning doing cold calls Hate to do that By the way one

of my biggest weaknesses is phone calls Better in person because you can read the room you

can interact with people read their body language OK But did that it took me at least 6 months to

even get my first And that's one of the things people don't realize even if

you're in the office very organized staying focused driven but it was a grind doing those types of things

So that's probably the biggest challenge at first Now I'm very organized so if people are

ever doing their own business that is one of the things as Juan mentioned it's the day

to day push yourself I've always said if you stay in your comfort zone you don't grow and that applies

to exercise which I'm big on Anything else you want to do if it's comfortable you're not growing you're just

staying stagnant so you have to reach out and do that I thought getting in oh I

have a big sphere of influence people that I know because I'm very involved kids I did ballroom

dancing had a lot of people followed up with them Nope nothing So I didn't get the business that

I thought I would from that So I had to then look at different avenues

doing open houses again making the cold calls doing Marketing events I tried to do

community service activities None of that was working other than say the open houses and the door knocking I

would door knock in the heat 9 to noon You know you're talking to a lot of young realtors

right now that they're going to get into this business and do all those things and you're telling them that's

not gonna work You got to have plan B and C right Exactly Exactly And I'm not saying don't get

into it but no make sure you have You can live for 8 months without getting a deal because

you might not close A deal Some people close them early but then you really have to like Juan

said embrace the grind or be OK with it That is gonna come whether it's

your first year or 5 years down the road because the market does go up and

down So you really need to focus on that and just keep on trucking keep

on trucking So yes I had to pick different avenues and it did finally work again the door knocking I

liked that because people didn't open the door You knew if they're starting to shut that

door Oh by the way one More things so and I don't like to be pushy So one

of my biggest weaknesses is not selling myself Fine with selling properties I use all my business strategies and marketing

That's no problem So one helps me in that end in pushing to promote myself Um don't

know if you want a little story We're in Dunkin' Donuts and it was a Sunday

I wasn't dressed professionally whatever He said you had me at Dunkin Donuts Yeah OK So we were leaving

Dunkin' Donuts in the car getting ready To go and I said oh there was a lady

there talking with someone about real estate I don't remember why He said You have to go in there

No I'm not dressed blah blah blah Excuses excuses right You can make excuses or you can make

it happen That's another Embrace the grind So I went in kind of interjected myself We did find her a

deal So that's one of the things where we work off each other and help each

other He helps me with that type of thing So kind of little story Now

to address the challenges that we Have it's great Having one as a lender is a lender husband

is amazing because he was in the business He's been doing it for 20 years I've been doing

it for 1012 But the challenges are stay in your lane honey Stay in your lane because he can give

me advice but sometimes it's unsolicited I'm talking with a client if it happens to be late

at night Oh my job is a little more nuanced in the sense that I sometimes

have to talk people off a ledge at 11 o'clock at night etc Mine is not As structured

yes he works on weekends but I have to also manage emotions whether you're a seller

or a buyer There are emotions and helping them look at the big picture So sometimes something will start

off and he'll give me his advice I said not not asking stay in your lane And it's

fine You say it in a funny way and I stay in my lane because

he's a lender and I don't try or attempt to give people lending advice So that's

really what's been very successful and helpful is that we're not doing the same thing We're in the

same business and it's been helpful because I know how to screen if I'm selling a property and I get

an offer I know how to screen that lender right So it's a great way to get free advice

because we have a lot of skin in the game right He's going to give

free advice to my client So it's helpful in that way we bounce off each other and work off of

each other's strengths and we stay in our lane So that's what makes it What's the name of

your company Realty Group What can people if somebody wanted to reach out to you and I'm

gonna ask you the same question because we want people to reach out to people in the

market Where could they find you if they wanted to talk with you You can

go to thebestegasagent.com or you can email me at the bestveasagent@gmail.com Say it one more

time The best Vegasagent@gmail.com And one for you because again folks we're keeping Juan is a mortgage rep and

Nicole is a realtor so though they work in tandem they're two separate fields but they're both part of

the buying process of home buying So efficiency is uh working with them would be you

know if somebody was interested for efficiency and knowledge base to have an all in one and for those

you know since I didn't mention it earlier I do happen to own a State

Farm Insurance Agency for the last 24 years or James State Farm or insurance agency um So we kind

of all have worked in tandem and work and interact with each other That's how I know their professionalism That's

how I know them as far as we as we said the grind and that's why

I wanted them on my first show because the best rise to the top and these two are

some of the best One what's the name of your company So I work for a company called

Community Access Lending Best way to reach me is to send me an email I have a

corporate email which is Juan J U A N At Community Access lending.com all spelled out

Uh the other one which may be a little bit easier is loans L O A N S B

B Y Juan J U A N At gmail.com And I always like to say

it again because I know somebody listening will say you said it too fast and I was

trying to write it down or I didn't have a pen in my hand so say

it one more time for the person uh that didn't have their phone handy to

type the notes in there to make sure they get your information Perfect Juan J

U A N at community accesslending.com That's all spelled out or my personal email which is

fine is loans by Juan L O A N S B Y J U A N at gmail.com And not

to be obvious or are you bilingual sir OK so for our uh Latino community if

uh you had some questions or you prefer to speak somebody speak with somebody that um is

fluid uh Nicole I'm not sure if I am not bilingual and we work separately too I'm

only a small portion of Juan's business I'm probably the biggest pain in his butt

realtor for sure for sure She'll threaten to fire me in a heartbeat baby Oh yeah bring them to a

higher level As good as my last deal with here her right She's threatened to I'll

call another lender baby I'm like oh my God then whatever something I just learned about you ballroom dancing Wait

wait give me give me give me a little juice on the ballroom dancing scene

What's the hot circuit What's the the give me as they as the young kids say give me the

tea Wait wait before you say I just want to say one of her dresses cost more than the last

one of the cars I had right Well it was only it was a 2008 Honda car was only worth

like $2400 but the point being is the dress was worth more than my car.in Well

we started we started to just do a dance for our wedding wanted to do a slow salsa so we

did that and I never do anything That I can't compete in I shouldn't say that it's bad

I have a very competitive personality so I like to do things and get myself better So I got

into ballroom dancing The first dance because it led to all these lessons but it was fine And my one

friend from LA and we've been friends since 8th grade she said Why can't you find an

inexpensive hobby Because I've always loved horses so I used to ride horses Never never

had a horse was not at that You know price level and now I don't do ballroom dancing anymore

but I've gotten back to horseback riding just because I can do it once a week and do some

competitions It's not quite at the level that I was at with the ballroom dancing but it's a lot of

fun There are a bunch of competitions right here in Vegas You can do it all locally and

dance with a professional You don't need a partner Yes I can dance and I can tell here that Eric

James can dance really well We had like really really well It was So I I don't know what this

is a you know kids TV show where it's early in the morning but we

we were at an event and we were having fun It was one of the shows and a little participation

and you and I really kind of hammed it up a little bit right Eric's got a

very calm demeanor but he's underneath He likes to play around So and Juan is a

much more natural rhythmic dancer than I am I'm coordinated and athletic used to teach aerobics that type of thing

but I had to said I had to pay to be graceful I wasn't graceful

originally So you know they they they're a fun couple that's why I like hanging out

with them but at grind the the one thing that Nicole mentioned is her competitive

personality and I think that's an essential trait in in the business world or as you know

repetitious a little bit about the name of the show The Grind but the grind is essential and being competitive

and wanting to rise to the top in a very competitive market spaces or fields where

the failure rate in my own field in the insurance industry that Failure rate is about 75% and

so you have to believe or be very competitive to excel or to survive in a market So that's something

one do you feel you have a competitive competitive person It's hard because you have said I'm to achieve but

you're not as competitive It's just a different cards Or doing something social with the kids Is

that competition in there or you know are you pushing the kids out of the way to make

sure they don't win What's the give me the family don't I do not let them win I

mean maybe when they were 2 maybe And that I try to keep it in and be a

good because to be a good competitor you have to also be a good loser You have

to be gracious So I'll never let anyone know but deep down I'm really annoyed that I got beaten

at Candyland 7 times Can't stand it You got to crush them kids when they're young because they

get to become teenagers and think they know everything and then they think their parents

you got me grind them early make sure they know you know make sure you know

bang them on the basketball court a little extra let them know let them know who's in

charge So let's get back to the business thing because we actually are about 10

minutes away from the end of the show because it goes by fairly quickly And I'm gonna introduce myself

and my two guests My name is Eric James I'm your coach Uh I'm your host and I own a

State Farm Insurance agency and if somebody wanted to contact me they could reach out to me at 702-836-0953

Again 702-836-0953 That's my insurance agency I do I also own Black Rose LLC which

is my entertainment company and you could reach me at 702-858-2415 702-858-2415 You want to

shoot a commercial or you wanna uh film work So we do a little bit of all

that I have my board game that we launched in the entertainment uh company called Paradox of Morality

You can go to the Paradox of morality.com on Amazon as well as on our

own website at www.paradoxmorality.com Paradox Moralityamul party game show and even right now I'm in

negotiations to buy a home inspection company so trying to expand my own grind but

today we're talking with this power couple about their Try their history their story uh uh one is

originally from Boston and the other one from Connecticut They managed to migrate all the way out here

to the desert and found their footing So it's one thing to be from Las Vegas as I

am due to the military um and born and raised and see the community change and evolve but

when you come in from a different perspective a different environment a different cultural perspective you both of you

had to change or evolve who you were or how you approach life To uh

and make it in a in a very different environment What was the one obstacle one along the way

you could say that was a breaking point or a point where you knew OK I've got this I

can I can make it in this industry because uh looking at your bio because I asked each guest

for a small bio I know their background the mortgage business wasn't your original uh yeah I was

uh I was working for Sprint out of uh graduated from business school I worked for

Sprint in Kansas City So I was doing the 9 to 5 which I will I will tell you the

funny thing about that is is that I was in a corporate job that we're probably overpaid When you

look at the people that work in the phone industry like at the stores or whatever

they have really big jobs I'm not saying they're they they they can make good money

but they're they're dealing with real strife They're line workers not staff So I think

one of the things that occurred to me is is that I left kind of the ivory towers I was

working in business development and operations and you really get into messiness right And I have

taken me a long time to handle messiness well right a long time And so that to

me I think when I knew it because when you first get into the business the first thing

is God am I gonna close any loans right Then you get to the point where

there's probably no months where you don't miss a loan it becomes do I close 2378

what are the numbers right Um but I think for me it's this idea that

you have to live in uncertainty like people think of the word uncertainty as something

bad it's not good or bad it just is what it is So it hasn't been that long

I'd say maybe 5 years ago where I kind of said all right I'm gonna be OK There was a

long time where I was like am I gonna be OK And a lot of

that has to do with some of the stuff I have in my head But I know I'm

gonna be OK now and I know that if you put the effort in it comes out

the other side My belief wasn't really there like you could work hard and it doesn't work

I now understand and I would say this to everybody if you work hard you

pay attention and you tweak numbers and metrics you're gonna be OK If you work hard and

you pay no attention to what's going on there could be an issue Um but it took me

a while to get there That's very insightful and it corresponds with you know we have our team meetings

and things like that and as a realtor or anyone who has their own business you need a business plan

OK And you have to be very specific in what you're doing so that you can track

your numbers OK The first year or two it's kind of willy-nilly You don't know you don't know how many

contacts it takes to get a sale or to reach a certain point but you

have to track your numbers so that you can Um funnel it down to how what actions do I need

to do today and how many people can I talk to etc and you can use

that in any business and remember you learn from your failures more than your successes So I just

wanted to kind of get that that tweak in there as far as it's kind of up and down And

I would also say those are you know we both of us do a good

job of tracking but it's also stick to it to stick to it in this whatever that word is

right So when you first persistency grit So you know the first time you swung by to

see me in my office years ago and you're some State Farm guy right It's like who's this

guy And then I see you again and you come by and you give a

little item and you say hello and then you know it's 3 or 4 and then after a

while you're kind of like OK you're really there right So for me I wasn't going anywhere But you're

also very calm and polite and easygoing You weren't pushy We chatted right And so like I think what I

would say to everybody out there don't do it once or twice You got to stick

to it right That's the hardest in real estate too That's one of the biggest challenges because because I'm so

type A and driven I expect results fairly immediately and that was something that I had to learn way

back when In real estate for instance they say oh it's a 90 day Anything you do

now it's going to take at least 90 days But sometimes it takes 6 months Sometimes

it takes 2 years and you just have to keep doing the actions because it

will fall into place but we all get impatient at least I do So that's

a struggle too What I the one thing I try to tell people that are come

to me to ask me for advice to the business is in economics so I've honed and done other

things I was actually a realtor for several years Du licensing laws made it difficult for me to keep Licenses

but that consistency piece if you treat the grind like a 9 to 5 you're almost 100% sure to fail

Once you get out into the business field you're going to work 15 hours a day to

get started because people don't know your name You might work for a company again I'm I'm affiliated with State

Farm People know State Farm they don't know Eric James How did my story was

I had to figure out how to get people to know who I was And so they

would send me because there's you know 50 other State Farm agents all say Geico Progressive

farmers there's a billion other companies out there they can go to that do similar things not as good as

my company but they're not as good as me but do similar things and the same thing when

I was a realtor Why did why why choose me out of a million other realtors Um

I I don't know the number today but Nicole you may be able to tell me how many

realtors do you think there's licensed currently in the state of Nevada Oh 14,000 and

so out of 13 14,000 she has to figure out a way to get you to see

her as your best option One same question approximation your best guess how many loan

officers would you say there's in the state Uh that's you know I used to know

those numbers a little bit harder to track estimate Well I would say this when I first

got into the business there were 30,000 loan officers and that kept shrinking and we lost 90% during the bubble

I have to say because we also have banks I'd probably say 30,000 only because

you got bank reps too Well think out there and at the end the show's called The Grind

You have to compete with 30,000 other individuals that want the same business as you you want You're

not doing that if you're doing this as a 9 to 5 You've got to spend that

extra hour that extra day that extra phone call that extra visit to the office as Juan said when

I used to come in there and I used to bring my my younger uh uh children in

with me because one I was working long hours and it gave me Trick man How could

I not want to chat with you with your kids It allowed me to work longer but it gave

me a way to spend time with my young children um and then afterwards we'd

go for ice cream or to the park to kind of let them know but I'd take my

son to loan officer's offices and and he'd hand out and put them in a

suit He'd hand out f flowers to the ladies or you know my daughter in a

cheerleader outfit so it was my way of you know doing both but it looks like we're running short

on time I think we got about a minute left here So I want to give my

guest the last word here um to let you know how you can contact them and also just

to let you know that they are important people in this industry So folks just give

them audience just the last little bit of information about each of you We have about a minute left

and just let them know about you and your grind OK and I'm going to say a

quick little sound bite Knowledge is power and conversations are free People are often afraid

to reach out thinking they're going to be committed to something especially You know lenders but have a

conversation and learn your plan before it's ready to go My email is the best Vegas agent A G E

N T at gmail.com Again the best Vegas agent@gmail.com Great And my email is Juan J@comuns lending.com and

my last piece to say there would be Not all loan officers are created equal This

is not a commodity loans are tough and the other thing that I would say

to people is don't get frustrated by the process I think a lot of people don't take that

step It's not as bad as it seems at least get it done All right folks thank you for

joining us today on the grind Again my name is Eric James I'm your host We hope to

see you next next time and stay on that grind Stay on that grind Stay on that

grind Thanks for listening to the grind again My name is Eric James We hope that today's show was two

parts entertaining with a dash of education Feel free to reach out to me at

my office at 702-836-0953 and remember to always stay on your grind