How a Bank Job Layoff Led to a Six-Figure Real Estate Wholesaling Business | Entrepreneur Journey

Watson Saintsulne (00:00)
I ended up getting robbed at gunpoint by two, you know, black men ⁓ who ended up, you know, just

taking everything I own, my car, my keys. They stole my Mercedes Benz, held me up at gunpoint where one of the guys was just saying, Hey, let’s just shoot him and the other guy’s like, No, just take his stuff. You know, they end up stuffing me under, you know, a car that was ⁓ in the neighborhood, one guy pointing his gun at me while the other one goes ahead and starts my car. They take off with it and, you know, they took the car, but I was grateful to have my life.

Joseph Crooms (02:04)
Hey everyone welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Joseph Crooms and today I’m going to be joined by someone I I’ve been looking forward to to be chatting with. His name is Watson

Saintsulne, I may have got that wrong. He’s gonna correct me. So who’s been making serious moves in the industry, niche tip space. ⁓ so Watson, say hello to everyone.

Watson Saintsulne (02:31)
Hey, hey, how’s it going, everybody? it’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for the invite and I look forward to really ⁓ providing value for you guys.

Joseph Crooms (02:40)
Alright, so I think Alyssa’s really going to take something away from how you you approach business. So here we go. So ⁓ let’s let’s go here. So ⁓ let’s you caught my attention by what you were saying when we first started in the SWOT. That’s not easy, especially in this client. So what’s been the key keeping your machine running smooth?

Watson Saintsulne (03:03)
Well, first things first, you know, I’m in the real estate space as a wholesaler, currently. That is what I do full time. I’ve been doing that for the last six years. And really the key for me is ⁓ really betting on myself. I was ⁓ in banking up until, you know, November 2020 when I got laid off. because not because of COVID, but because I was just underperforming and uninspired at the at the role.

I feel as though that after getting laid off, that was my opportunity to really ⁓ take control over, you know, my life, my income. And I’ve always been a fan of real estate and we could probably dive deeper into how I got into real estate a little bit later. But ⁓ I started as a wholesaler and I’ve been doing that for six years. And I think the key is to understand that, you know, w you can go as far as you want if you’re willing to take yourself there. ⁓ and you know, the third

party challenges and the things that are considered obstacles ⁓ are not real obstacles. The real obstacle that you have is just you yourself and your belief system and the vision that you have. So that has been really the key for me. I’ve just decided that hey, I’m gonna go into business f for myself as a solo entrepreneur in the real estate space. And that has served me over the last six years. And now my real focus is diving as deep as I possibly can and mastering

Claude Code and Claude Cowork to create leverage in my business, to scale my business and to productize my my knowledge and my expertise to serve other ⁓ investors and real estate entrepreneurs in in in the space.

Joseph Crooms (04:47)
So Watson, why don’t you just tell us how you well you know, what steps you took to actually get into real estate and and to be at where you’re at? How did you get to this moment?

Watson Saintsulne (05:45)
Yeah, you know, it all started when I was nineteen years old. I wanted to be in real estate at that point. And ⁓ I’m forty now. So at nineteen I decided to go ahead and get my real estate license. And ⁓ I failed and didn’t I think I sold a one home when I did get my license. and it just it was just something that was embedded in me from an early age, working at bookstores, reading books.

like 16, 17, reading the real estate books. I always wanted to be in real estate. So ⁓ over between the ages of 19 and when I went full time at 35, I took on a number of sales jobs, which served me ⁓ because I was able to take control of my income and make money based on how much my performance. But I ended up working at a bank, retail bank.

Around the age of between thirty-three and thirty-five. And at that time, because sales were slow at my previous job, I went into banking and we we did well. Right. And one quarter we had such a big bonus. I’m like, I I told myself, What am I gonna do with all this fun these this money? And I s approached a coworker and I said, Hey, you’re a real estate investor. How do I get into real estate with all this money and start investing myself? And he said that you can either find ⁓ a real estate agent

Who is investor friendly, or you can find a wholesaler to help you find deals. I’m like, what what’s a wholesaler? I never heard of that. and he told me that they find properties off market that aren’t available to anyone else and they can sell them to you at a discount. and and I’m like, Well, that’s great. What’s the difference between a wholesaler and a realtor? How do they get paid? So he broke down to me what wholesalers are, how they get paid in terms of getting the property under contract for one price. ⁓

And then selling it to an investor at another price, and you’re not limited by the three or six percent that ⁓ a realtor can ⁓ make. And I told myself, that just doesn’t sound like a great way to find investment properties. That sounds like a great business model that I should invest in myself. So that’s essentially what I did. I took all that money and I went down the whole YouTube university route, learned as much as I possibly could about wholesaling real estate.

I joined my local real estate investment association. They had a course on wholesaling, invested into that. And ⁓ you know, even before I got let go of at my job, I had already hired three virtual assistants. I was already doing marketing, cold calling. So when I would get off of work, I was ⁓ working as a a wholesaler trying to get deals. So by the time they let me go, ⁓ I already had a whole ⁓ real estate wholesaling operation running. And I think them letting go.

me go was just God giving me permission to pursue what I really wanted to do full time.

Joseph Crooms (08:39)
I love it. ⁓ not every operator I know has moments where ⁓ where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or time that had to pivot fast. ⁓ do you mind sharing ⁓ one of those moments with us?

Watson Saintsulne (08:56)
A moment when things got real and I had to pivot fast. Yeah, I mean I can share a couple of stories. I think, you know, the day I got let go from my banking job and ⁓ I can remember. I started the job in March 2020. I think it was like March first, 2020, which, you know, a week after that

the whole country, a week or two after that, the whole country was on alert for COVID and things started to get to shut down. and I was just miserable at the job. I felt as though that I wasn’t doing enough in life. ⁓ and again, I think that was part of the reason as to why I was underperforming. I was uninspired. I didn’t want to be there. and you know, once they let me go

had the option to getting another job. I had contacts at other banks that I could reach out to. ⁓ but I just said, you know what, that’s that’s the opportunity. This is not it’s not a negative, it’s a net positive because again, I believe that God was giving me permission to really, you know, dive in and ⁓ do the thing that was on my heart to do. But I think even outside of that, the the real life-changing moment for me was in 2021

I after being in real estate for a year, ⁓ and you know, making ⁓ getting deals done and closing them, but struggling at the same time, I got to the point where over the course of in December 2025 was it? Yeah, December no, Decembe2020. ⁓ I went from living in a a a new construction in South Philly in the Queens Village neighborhood, you know, ⁓ driving a Mercedes Benz.

You know, have this business where, you know, working on getting deals closed to my roommate kicking me out of the house because his sister needed a place to stay, moving back into my parents’ house and ⁓ you know, maybe about a week into moving it back into my parents’ house in southwest Philly,

I ended up getting robbed at gunpoint by two, you know, black men ⁓ who ended up, you know, just

taking everything I own, my car, my keys. They stole my Mercedes Benz, held me up at gunpoint where one of the guys was just saying, Hey, let’s just shoot him and the other guy’s like, No, just take his stuff. You know, they end up stuffing me under, you know, a car that was ⁓ in the neighborhood, one guy pointing his gun at me while the other one goes ahead and starts my car. They take off with it and, you know, they took the car, but I was grateful to have my life.

And then it was at that point and, you know,

In the backyard of my parents’ house, I rededicated my life to Christ because I realized that in that moment, you know, the reason I’m alive is not because I went to church, even though like I grew up in a very religious household. My dad’s a pastor, my mom was always a person of faith. But me, I departed from it. So it wasn’t because I prayed, it’s not because I read my Bible, it’s not because I was faithful to the faith. The only reason I was alive was b because of grace. And the police

ended up finding the car two days later with thirteen bullet holes in it. ⁓ yeah. And I called my insurance company to, you know, file a claim and they said, well, Watson, that happened December fifteenth, 2021. And they said that my policy expired December 14th, 2021. So a day after my policy expired, you know, ⁓ I couldn’t file a claim, so I lost the car. And I think

You know, that moment was very pivotal, right? When you say you have to pivot, I had to pivot not just in really just starting life all over again, but I had to pivot with my perspective on life. And, you know, at at the time thirty six years old, you think that you have all the time in the world to accomplish the goals that you have to accomplish. But I realized that in that moment, if I had passed away, you know, the only thing I would have left behind for my family is a couple of dollars and a Mercedes Benz. And

And I think right now, ⁓ the real lesson that I learned from that is that I have to live life with a life of urgency. And I have to live life with a sense of wanting to establish a legacy. And if God gave me the opportunity to ⁓ continue to live, I need to give him a good return on that investment of time that that he’s giving me. So that’s my ⁓ perspective on that. That’s been literally life changing. And as a result,

I’ve taken my business more seriously. ⁓ I’ve taken time with family more seriously. ⁓ I went back to church and taking my faith more seriously. ⁓ and it’s been just nothing but fruitful. ⁓ obviously with its challenges, of course, right? Because no one’s perfect. But ⁓ I do believe that from that moment on I was I I was never the same.

Joseph Crooms (14:37)
You know, ⁓ I like to ⁓ acknowledge your grace that the Lord has afforded you. And I’m I’m grateful that you’re here and you’re still here. that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk o ⁓ about enough. And honestly, what separates the folks who just dabble in the ones who stayed in the game the long term. Let me ask you this.

Watson Saintsulne (14:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Joseph Crooms (15:43)
What are you focusing focus on solving or scaling next? What’s your next real goal for you?

Watson Saintsulne (15:51)
my my next real goal is to show solo entrepreneurs, owners and operators how to leverage AI to be their authentic selves. Right. I think ⁓ AI provides an opportunity to get work done that otherwise would have to be done by either you or somebody that you hire, right? So you can leverage AI to do the work of an employee.

Or replace your job as a founder, right? And I think that’s very, very important and that needs to be embraced today because a lot of times we tie our value and our worth to work that really is mundane, like admin work and ⁓ systems work that AI can do, and it keeps us away from utilizing the gifts and talents that God gave us that can really make an impact on people, right? So

that is that is really my mission. How can I use AI to become an authentic individual? How can you use artif artificial intelligence to become an authentic individual? Because if I use artificial intelligence to do the ⁓ marketing, to do the admin, then I can focus on solving problems for the people that God put me on this earth to serve, right? I can actually utilize the gifts and talents to do the thing.

Right. So I’m also a ⁓ you know, a professional Latin dancer. I saw I teach salsa, I teach bachata, and you know, I had a dance studio ⁓ you know, prior to the pandemic. And as much as I love to dance and I was proficient in it, I’m not good at admin, I wasn’t great at the marketing and creating the flyers. So I I wish I had AI at that point because I can use AI to get all that done and focus on the really the thing that I absolutely love.

Absolutely love dancing. I absolutely love helping people express themselves through that art form. And I think a lot of owners and operators and solo entrepreneurs, they’re passionate about their their audience and being the useful tool that their audience can use to so that the audience can get the result that they’re looking for, but they’re bogged down by, you know, ⁓ a lot of the necessary work that’s needed to grow and scale a business.

So my goal, if you’re asking me what do I want to scale now? I want to scale my influence to show people that you can use artificial intelligence to do the dirty work and so that that can ⁓ allow you to present yourself to your audience authentically to do the work that you’re called to do.

Joseph Crooms (18:33)
You know, Watson, ⁓ I thank you for that. Can you give us an example how AI has helped something in your job? Just give how you approach it.

Watson Saintsulne (18:47)
Yeah, you know, so for me, admin gravity is a real thing. And I define admin gravity as ⁓ you know, the work that’s necessary that keeps you from ⁓ doing the work that you want to do, right? So ⁓ when I use AI from everything from cleaning my computer to writing my emails to helping me find files, organize my my Google Drive when I have new deals under contract.

it saved me money because now I’m creating custom apps for myself. I went from paying three thousand dollars, around three thousand dollars for my CRM, ⁓ which I have to, you know, use what they give me to now building my own out and keeping track of things in my leads and my business in my wholesaling business the way that I that I want. So ⁓ for me, AI has really allowed me to ⁓ focus on the things that

are that are necessary for me to move the business forward, like getting on calls with sellers, ⁓ getting deals closed and really not have to worry about where’s this file? Or, you know, my computer’s not running. How do I, you know, ⁓ save space on it? ⁓ Yeah, so it’s really it’s really helping me in those ways.

Joseph Crooms (20:05)
Okay. ⁓ and and that’s you’re building up on your strength ⁓ in play. So thank you for sharing that. The next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now I know a lot of people listening are either early in their journey or looking to level up and I think they’ll benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network

What makes the biggest difference to you?

Watson Saintsulne (20:39)
Biggest difference is your capacity and your willingness to serve, right? So Tony Robbins says says ⁓ the secret to living is giving. what I say is that the secret to earning is serving, right? So ⁓ the way that you give to people and the way that you serve people will make the biggest difference on ⁓ your ability to grow in your business. So relationships are incredibly important. I think they’re absolutely necessary.

And the way that you build them is finding a way not to take from the person, but finding a way to serve the person, finding a way to create value to that person such that you know what you get in return is just a fraction of the value that you provide. Right. So one of my favorite entrepreneurs, his name is Myron Golden. ⁓ and his goal when he’s providing any service that someone is paying for is to make sure that whatever they pay is just a tenth of the value that they receive. So

You know, if you’re paying a thousand dollars for something, the goal is so that you get ⁓ ten thousand dollars worth of value out of that thousand dollars that you invest. And I think you can, you know, establish very great relationships if ⁓ people know that people know, they believe, and they actually experience a return on their in ⁓ on their investment with you, whether that be a financial investment that they make for a product that you have.

or a return of investment for the friendship or a return of investment in terms of just ⁓ you know an opportunity to network with you and you sharing a contact with them where you know that sharing of that contact gives them some sort of result that ⁓ that they that they want in their business or in their life. So I think that’s the key. Finding a way to serve people, finding a way to give to people, ⁓ and creating value for people and that’s how you build relationships in my mind.

Joseph Crooms (22:40)
I think that was an awesome statement you made. You really come ⁓ as genuine and so and you you can’t fake that. Relationships are everything in this space. So thank you for sharing that. So all right. Before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, or make a ⁓ collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way to reach you? Share with our audience.

Watson Saintsulne (23:09)
Yeah, you guys can reach me @iamwatson on Instagram. ⁓ I can also be reached you guys can go to my website, I am Watson, I as an indigo, asnmary iamwatson.io. And you’ll see all the things I have going on, everything from, you know, my dancing to the AI work that I do. ⁓ I am taking clients now and I’ve got a few where I’m leveraging AI to create

workflows and systems from marketing and getting leads for their business to managing, you know, ⁓ applicants for a property manager here in Philadelphia. ⁓ so yeah, if you want to reach me, the fastest way is through Instagram. You’ll first see the all the dancing videos because that’s what I’m passionate about. ⁓ but yeah, that’ll that’ll be the best way to get in contact with me. Or you can reach out to me via email, [email protected]. That is the name of the AI consulting business that I have. So those would be the great best ways.

Joseph Crooms (24:10)
So watch listen, I you gave a lot of information, but give your last one one more time. I just want to make sure ⁓ they get it.

Watson Saintsulne (24:18)
⁓ the last one, [email protected]. Edenville E-D-E-N-V-I-L-L-E Labs dot com.

Joseph Crooms (24:31)
Thank you. Perfect. Well listen, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. We need more people ⁓ in this space who’s doing it at the right way. Thanks again for being here. Yeah, and ask for you tuning in. If you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We got more conversations coming with operators like Watson, who are out building real business and we’ll see you at our next episode.