Unlocking Success: A Journey from Survival to Thriving

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.421)
Welcome back to the show when we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. Let me tell y’all something. I got you guys a real treat today. I got Alfonso Aramburo in the house. He reigns out from the state of California coming up from Mexico where he started his real estate investing journey nine years ago. And we’re going to have an incredible conversation. It’s your host, Stephen Schmidt. And if you’re joining us for the second, third or hundredth time, welcome back.

We know you’re gonna get some value out of today. And if you’re joining us for the first time, where you been at? We’ve been waiting for ya. You’re about to add this to your regularly listening docket of podcasts. I really been saying this the last few shows. I gotta come up with a better way saying that before I keep you in the intro. I forget about it every time we end a podcast. And then don’t write it down. anyways, before we get started, just keep in mind that Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs two to five X their businesses in order to build

businesses they’ve always wanted so they can live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Alfonso also has a little bit of a background with business turnarounds, which we’re going to possibly get into a little bit as well in his experience. Alfonso, welcome to the show.

Alfonso Aramburo (01:14.861)
Hey, thank you for having me, Steven. Really happy to be here and wow, man, such a very honor after that intro, man. It feels great.

Stephen Schmidt (01:22.781)
You bad brother. Well, you know, I can’t say that you’re gonna go home and feel like a king, but at least I can make you feel like a king for a good hour. So, well.

Alfonso Aramburo (01:31.852)
There you go, man. I can take that. I could be the highlight of my day.

Stephen Schmidt (01:35.574)
I love it. I love it, man. That’s so funny you say that. I ask my wife every night, I say, was the highlight of your day? And half the time she doesn’t know. And so I’m like, oh, so nothing good happened today? And she goes, OK, well. And I’m like, yeah, come on. It’s all mindset. It’s all perspective. But man, Alfonso, just for our listeners sake, give us a little bit of background on you, how you got started in the real estate space, what you’re doing now and what you do with your main business and if applicable, how that relates to real estate pros.

Alfonso Aramburo (01:52.255)
yeah.

Alfonso Aramburo (02:05.855)
Absolutely. think what got me to real estate initially was the mindset of survival. mean, initially, yeah, no, absolutely. mean, initially, obviously, you have a lot of hunger, right? To succeed, you had a lot of hunger to… I mean, nine years ago, I wasn’t even thinking about building wealth. I just wanted to be successful, whatever that meant, right? And obviously, success then was much different than what it is now to me.

Stephen Schmidt (02:11.57)
Mmm, really.

Alfonso Aramburo (02:33.593)
And but back then I was just trying to make an A for myself or do something right meaningful. And so I did have an opportunity to flip a house. And I said, you know what is that? I mean, how hard can it be? Right. I mean, little I knew about how to manage people and how to manage the contractors. So anyways, I ended up getting a handyman because I was like, well, handyman can get it done. Right. So obviously, I was started doing it later. found out.

that well, it just takes some skills, right? To at least manage them correctly. Got into that and then ended up selling it. And after all the obstacles and whatnot, I loved that. And then what I found is that after the repair value of what it’s called the ARV, as most of your listeners might know, I was able to purchase a bigger and better house. So I did that. And then I saw the power.

that it was in real estate and I got super pumped. that’s really how it started. It’s just seeing and experiencing firsthand that just little, I mean, not to say that it’s no effort, but certainly by having certain skills, it can pay off great dividends.

Stephen Schmidt (03:53.664)
Certainly. Man, so when you first got started, you talk about that survival mode, right? And getting into it, trying to find a way out and to maybe create some peace. What was your first deal like?

Alfonso Aramburo (04:11.655)
And it was truly more about, so in my mind, it wasn’t an opportunity. So one of my family members had this house that was just dilapidated, just horrible. Like I said, it was missing a wall, it was missing a roof. And then I kind of pitched it as like, okay, how would it be?

If like, what are you doing with the property? Sorry, asking the questions. I will not think it’s been sitting there forever. And then I saw the opportunity. And so when I was referring to survival mindset is, I mean, I think where you’re always chasing the next paycheck, right? When you’re always chasing for, gosh, man, I mean, I would love to buy this, but I don’t have the money. It’s always a constant un-frying.

Right? That you’re always chasing after the next thing and you’re not able to truly focus on like, what is going to be my next move that is going to truly catapult me, right? Or truly launch me onto my, to meet my goals is much, much harder to see you have a much narrower view of things. And that’s what I call the survival mode. It’s just, okay, what is the next step? What is the next step? What is the next thing? Right?

And I was all over the place, I mean, I did for so many years and I’ll get probably more into that later. For so many years, I think I tried so many things that didn’t take me nowhere because I was finding myself, was still hustling, still trying to find, OK, what works for me? And that’s difficult because I was, again, chasing money, right? And that truly

Stephen Schmidt (05:51.593)
Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (05:57.205)
Sure.

Alfonso Aramburo (06:00.127)
blinds you from what you should do that fits you. And that’s something that I didn’t do initially.

Stephen Schmidt (06:08.181)
Yeah, 100%. Now, so in the process of finding yourself and all that through real estate, when did you start the company that you’re or I guess I didn’t ask pre-show, do you own the business that you currently work with?

Alfonso Aramburo (06:24.874)
So I do a combination of things. So am the vice president of operations of a distance sized company, manufacturing company. We sell electric products. One of the major companies in our field, in our niche, for the type of products. Basically what we do is transfer switches. So when power goes out, we are the ones who, you our products kick in.

Stephen Schmidt (06:27.433)
Yeah, give us a little background.

Stephen Schmidt (06:37.396)
Nice.

Alfonso Aramburo (06:54.792)
right to power like all the fruits that you’re eating like most most of the fruits you go to Walmart you go to Dole you go to all these big stores I mean they have our products right the majority of these so yeah so anyways that’s what I do in

Stephen Schmidt (06:55.711)
No kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (07:07.007)
No kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (07:10.803)
It doesn’t happen to be Kohler, does it?

Alfonso Aramburo (07:13.902)
No. No,

Stephen Schmidt (07:15.175)
Okay, well, it’s just funny. One of my largest clients, my marketing agency is the second largest Kohler dealer in the nation for the generator space. So I’m actually hilariously very in tune with transfer switches and generators and all that kind of stuff that you guys do. So what are the chances? Small world.

Alfonso Aramburo (07:26.099)
Next.

Alfonso Aramburo (07:31.568)
Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. And so what I do aside from that is I’ve been doing education, right? And what I do basically is I go to companies and then either I show them some skills, right? Some gaps that they have in their maybe leadership or maybe gaps that they have in their maybe lean manufacturing, maybe how to manage change and or how to improve

their company, right? In whatever that is. That’s another thing that I do. And obviously, with a little time left, it will be with my son and obviously on the real estate side. Just pay, really what I do is just pay someone that can do it and just verify and manage that.

Stephen Schmidt (08:23.701)
That’s neat. So tell me a little bit about the business turnarounds and stuff. do you do with that exactly?

Alfonso Aramburo (08:32.414)
Yeah, so I go to underperforming companies. So a company that is not performing as desired. That’s what I consider underperforming. It could be a company that if you’re familiar with financial terms of the typically at the executive level is EBITDA, right? Which is earnings and depreciations and all that before taxes. So that’s going to be, I mean, some other people know it and there are some differences, but it truly is your

profit margins, right? Could be cross profit, if you will. And so

Stephen Schmidt (09:06.047)
earnings before interest taxes, depreciation, and amortization. You bet. EBITDA.

Alfonso Aramburo (09:10.674)
Correct. There we go. There we go. There we go. Yes, sir. So that is the main KPI that I drive in my efforts. Because anything else and everything else, it’s just a second thing. So what I do is make sure that the owner and or stakeholders get more money.

Stephen Schmidt (09:22.549)
Mm-hmm.

Alfonso Aramburo (09:34.088)
So, and there could be multiple things. So what I do is I assess the problem, I identify what the problem or problems, and then I prioritize what is what we need to tackle based on resources, based on time, based on the money that the company either wants to invest or willing to invest at that time. And then we start getting certain wins that end up, again, hitting the bottom line and end up improving their financials, right?

Yeah, I do that on the operational side.

Stephen Schmidt (10:04.853)
So how to, what are some of those ways, because obviously you’re an operational guru, right? I mean, if somebody was implementing EOS, I think it would be fair to say you’d be a perfect integrator. So what is it exactly about going into a business, A, that gets you excited about helping them, but then B, what are some of those like little ways that business owners maybe that might be listening are like,

Alfonso Aramburo (10:11.314)
Yes, sir.

Stephen Schmidt (10:33.585)
not realizing there’s so much waste.

Alfonso Aramburo (10:36.723)
man, it’s what I’ve noticed is it depends on the size of the company. They’re very typical traits like we’re getting into mid-size companies. Typically, it’s going to be that one of the number one things will be ownership, accountability, and obviously the commitments and values. Right. So these three things. So why do I mention values? Because the values is an important

Stephen Schmidt (10:43.743)
Sure.

Alfonso Aramburo (11:06.586)
important critical aspect of a business turnaround. It’s not one of the most important ones. You have your culture dialed in, which is has to go in line with the values of the company. Then everything else falls into place. And then the second, as I mentioned, is ownership. Right. So could be ownership of the process of who does what. So what is it when you’re walking the process, when you are, let’s say that you are even in sales? I mean, he sales

Do they have a closed loop of communication and communicating properly with other departments? Does production know what customer service and sales are telling them? Are we speaking the same language? How do we interconnect those channels of communication? That would be one. And then the third one, again, not the only ones, but certainly the main ones, is accountability. So what you said you were gonna do, do you do it?

Because at the end is you walk into, could be a new formal meeting or a formal meeting and there has to be action items at the end of a conversation, right? In a clear path of where are we heading? Cause that is always the difference between vision and execution could be, there could be a huge gap.

And that’s where most people in companies fail is how it is that we’re, setting goals, we’re setting objectives, and we just can’t seem to get there. We’re always falling short. Right. And that is for these three things that I mentioned.

Stephen Schmidt (12:37.385)
How did you see a need in the market for that? When did you wake up one morning and go, I’m going to do this now? Or how did that come to be?

Alfonso Aramburo (12:47.791)
Well, was honestly just by I met a guy and my sound is funny story man, but I was really at the gym. This was 20 years ago. At the gym, ended up I was talking to everybody right at the gym. It was small gym. So one of the guys is an old gentleman, a lot, little to no hair similar to me, man, but probably a little bit less hair and much more gray hair than I do.

I was always chatting with the guy and then I mentioned to him once that I needed to do, I was looking for some internship or engineering work. And so he hired me to, well, first I did an internship which lasted like three, four months. Then I got an offer to stay with them and do continuous improvement projects, which is, okay, just whatever it is that you see, just make it better. So I did that for about like,

Gosh, man, like over three years. And then after that, just I was all over. mean, lean improvements. I worked in Germany. I worked in the States or in Mexico. I was like all over the place, just managing projects, improving whatever that was. And so it was really something that happened organically, one thing after the other. Yeah. Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (14:10.165)
No kidding, dude, that’s amazing. So what’s your like 12 to 18 month vision with what you’re doing? Like do you see yourself actually quitting your W-2 at some point and going full time into doing business, real estate? What’s like the real dream for you now? And then what’s the next 12 to 18 months look like?

Alfonso Aramburo (14:32.164)
Man, that’s a great question. Not too long ago, I did one of these workshops, That you actually, those are the things that you get to define. At least that was my intention, but then found out that I used to live in the future, right? Always in with that creates lots of anxiety. And while it’s great to have goals and objectives, I do have my ultimate goal would be to feel successful, right? To feel successful. And I do feel successful today.

Stephen Schmidt (14:45.407)
Mm.

Stephen Schmidt (14:55.829)
Hmm.

Alfonso Aramburo (15:00.004)
right with my real estate side of what I do. However, just asking your question more specifically, I don’t see just starting something and then quitting. What I see myself doing is truly developing. So I’m currently writing a book in operations, right, which I’m pretty close to finishing to complete it.

So my idea is, okay, finishing the book and start showing, right? Honestly, I’m very passionate about what I do. And I found that not too many people have the ability of turning companies around, right? It’s something that I’ve done at least three times that is, and for drastic changes that I feel the necessity to share that with people so that more people can do.

this right and more companies there’s so much it’s a niche but I see this every single company needs to learn all these skills to be able to impact companies and do better right so I’m more rather than quitting the job I’m more in a mission truly to share this with with others right in whatever capacity that is whether it’s employed or maybe at some point maybe a consultant and I’m not

Stephen Schmidt (15:57.236)
you

Alfonso Aramburo (16:25.561)
I’m open to honestly at this point to possibilities and opportunities, right? Could be as a fractional CEO. I’ve been invited to do that as well. multiple possibilities. I guess we’ll see where that takes us.

Stephen Schmidt (16:41.353)
You mentioned feeling successful. At what point do you think you’ll have that feeling?

Alfonso Aramburo (16:47.525)
I feel successful now to a certain degree. In my mind is one of my main goals is be able to choose to work. I think there’s a whole different having to work to not only make ends meet, but to also be able to invest. I mean, I’m thankful.

that what I do, it pays for my investments, it pays for my lifestyle, it pays for everything, right? If I want to invest in whatever, I could do it. And in my DTI, it’s still great, right? A credit score and all that stuff. But I think just the ability to say, okay, you know what? It’s fine if I don’t work for a year, I will still be receiving something. So let me choose, maybe I’ll try this. I think that’s even better, right?

Enjoying work is I do enjoy it, but I at this point I have to work. So that to me is true success. Right. And that’s why I said partially.

Stephen Schmidt (17:50.87)
100 % because ultimately what you’re referring to is the time freedom, right? So what would you do with your time if you weren’t working as much as you are now? What would you do with it?

Alfonso Aramburo (18:06.829)
I I would do the same thing. The only difference would be that I would choose my timeframes differently. So I would certainly be spending more time with my kid. That would be one thing. obviously, traveling, but in a different capacity. Maybe I’ll fly him out. And maybe, OK, let’s go. Let’s go here. Let’s go whatever that is.

working more remotely, right? Who knows? It’s just, again, just having that freedom of choosing where to put your time in. And I might end up working more. It’s not a matter of working less, but because I know that I’m passionate about, I might end up even working, yeah, more hours than now. But again, that’s fine because that’s the mission, right?

Stephen Schmidt (18:59.541)
Yeah, % man.

So it’s funny that you say that too because I’m reading the book Be Obsessed, Be Average by Cardone right now, which I was recommended by someone I interviewed recently. And I wouldn’t say that I’m like, you know, the biggest fan of everything Cardone does. But, you know, I think he also is, I think he’s gained a lot of wisdom that is worth listening to over the last 35, 40 years or so in his career in the real estate space.

Alfonso Aramburo (19:21.923)
Okay.

Stephen Schmidt (19:32.358)
you talked about right there is exactly what he refers to. It’s like he got so obsessed with the chase of being successful and everything else because previously he was obsessed with the wrong things. He was obsessed with doing drugs, he was a daily user, all these things, went to rehab and then he came out and basically was told by the counselor.

Like, hey, by the way, you need to stop dreaming. Like, you’re never gonna make it. You’re gonna fail. There’s no possible way that you ever do not use drugs again. And so the only success you’ll ever have is if you can just not use drugs. And that was his parting gift from the rehab facility.

you know, obviously he’s become who he is today. And so to your point, it’s almost like when you actually really truly enjoy everything you’re doing, like you sometimes work more than you even realize because you’re just obsessed with what you love to do, right?

Alfonso Aramburo (20:32.931)
Yeah, yeah. mean, there’s some other book, I can’t remember what book that is. And it’s like, do what you what you love and you won’t work it in your life, right?

Stephen Schmidt (20:41.637)
Which I completely disagree with the premise of that, but that’s another story for another day. Yeah, just I don’t know man I think there definitely still comes work like we’re always gonna have to do things that we don’t want to do You know what I mean? But it’s like can you find those sorry go ahead

Alfonso Aramburo (20:45.699)
Hahaha!

Alfonso Aramburo (20:55.253)
yeah, no, absolutely. And not every day will be, yeah, not every day will be the happiest day, right? So not every day you’ll get to enjoy, even if they, I mean, I say that I love the challenge, but certainly there are a lot of things within what, I mean, and what I do that are not as pleasing, right? I mean, having those difficult conversations at times with people that are paying you like, hey, what you’re asking me to do is not aligned with what.

Stephen Schmidt (21:03.317)
You bet.

Alfonso Aramburo (21:23.33)
I mean, if you want the result, this is what needs to happen and you’re not open to it. And if you’re not open to it, then I mean, why am I here? Right. I mean, those conversations are tough when you have to do certain things and there’s going to be friction while you do. mean, you might not have been work. You might not like something, but that doesn’t mean you can’t you can’t learn to not only tolerate, but also to find the joy in something, one thing that you do.

Stephen Schmidt (21:53.086)
Right, yeah, 100%. Totally with you, So with your long-term vision, long-term goals, guess the dream for you is just to keep doing more of what you’re doing, huh?

Alfonso Aramburo (22:06.338)
It really is. mean, to be able to impact more companies, more people, be able to be speaker and reach out to more more people to where, it’s not only, and maybe there are some eagle there, right? Maybe there are some like, oh gosh, I want to be recognized. I want to be this, that. Maybe there’s a little bit of that, but that’s not truly the real motivator is, as I explained, is just imagine that now all of a sudden,

There are more people that when I walk into a place, people have the methodologies that I use and the framework that I use to where it’s much easier to impact. It’s much easier to get through people. It’s much easier to just keep growing as a person because when a person grows, then the company grows, right? They’re after. So anyways, part of that. That would be beautiful to see.

Stephen Schmidt (22:59.637)
that.

If you could go back to the beginning of when you got started and everything, you could do something different and could do something the same with what you know today, what would you do different and what would you do the same?

Alfonso Aramburo (23:17.462)
The one thing that I would tell myself, it’s more about a state of being, is being present, being fully present and fully engaged with what I’m doing and with the people that I’m with. That would be the main thing that I would tell myself. I think that when you’re fully present, you can develop skills better. You can…

be better at what you do and those skills you can develop them faster and you can move on to the next thing. But not wanting to always chase after the next thing. Earlier in my career, was always, you know, was that eager kid of like, what next? What next? What next? I was there yet? I was there yet? I was there yet? That was me. And what I learned is it’s much better to, okay, if I already committed,

to these meter rental that I told you about that I’m currently in the process actually finishing and going live these weekends. Okay, I commit it’s hard. It’s difficult to coordinate a meter rental. mean, let alone, mean remodeling and furnishing and I mean, I’ve never considered myself a guy who would just be in decor and where the frame looks and where can I place the mirror? And then that’s, I always saw that as something very…

not like me. mean, I’m an engineer by trade, right? So I’m all about numbers and statistics and that processes. So it’s just just enjoying, enjoying, right? What I what I do and I will tell myself, I’ll fall asleep. Just enjoy everything that you do and just try to do better and be better. But that’s it. Enjoy the moment. Right. And stop chasing the next thing. There is a lot of value in that. Now, if you want to get technical,

Well, dude, just stay in one lane. Yes, you’re trying to find yourself, but what is the true motivator? Why are you doing this? I think that the sooner that you define what you enjoy, don’t do anything for money necessarily. Like just do because there is money in everything. This is how just develop those skills that you truly align yourself with who you are and find yourself. The sooner you do that, the better.

Stephen Schmidt (25:39.157)
you about. Well Alfonso this has been great man. Where can people go learn more about you or what you’re working on?

Alfonso Aramburo (25:45.566)
Yeah, well, you can reach me on LinkedIn. So Alfonso Aramburo. So LinkedIn and then whatever is the slash in slash Alfonso Aramburo. Or my Instagram. I’m there as well. But you’ll find me there on Instagram as ponchoaramburo. P-O-M-C-H-O. And then my last name Aramburo, A-R-A-M-B-U-R-O.

Stephen Schmidt (26:11.669)
Go drop them a follow y’all show them some love from the real estate pros and the investor fuel family Excuse me, I just had to sneeze for those of you that aren’t watching the YouTube for those of you that are I hope you just got an awesome laugh at my expense Oh man, that’s a first that’s never happened before I just came out of nowhere anyways

Alfonso Aramburo (26:19.775)
Man

Yeah. Then you know why? Because I got the sniffs. Maybe I pass it on to you, man, even through the camp. It is. It is virtually contagious. Watch out, people.

Stephen Schmidt (26:38.421)
It’s contagious!

Stephen Schmidt (26:45.299)
Gosh, well go drop him a follow. Y’all show him some love from the real estate pros and the investor fuel family and we’ll see you on the next episode. Thanks again for being here, Alfonso.

Alfonso Aramburo (26:52.063)
Awesome Ed. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it.