Why Mindset Matters: The Psychology of Thriving in Real Estate

Brett McCollum (00:00.948)
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. I am your host, Brett McCollum, and I’m here today with Ernest Peralta. Today, we’re going to be talking about psychology and real estate. But before we do, at Investor Fuel, guys, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 2 5x their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Ernest, how are you,

Ernest Peralta (00:26.236)
I’m doing good, Brett. How are you doing? Thanks for having me on the show.

Brett McCollum (00:30.465)
Yeah, thanks for being here, man. This is great. I really enjoyed getting to know you a little bit. We were dealing with a little bit of tech issues, kind of behind the scenes here, guys. So we’re powering through it. But man, Ernest, I’m excited to do this. We’re going to have a fun conversation. Before we do, though, can you me a favor? Back up, give some context, some history, build out a little bit. Who’s Ernest Peralta?

Ernest Peralta (00:52.988)
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m actually from Washington state, so here in King County, Sammamish, Washington. I basically came up from a military background. My dad was in the US Army. I am a military brat. So at the age of nine years old, we traveled pretty much all over the world. And it was pretty much like that until the age of 18. And up until 18 years old, I was able to

Brett McCollum (01:14.86)
Wow.

Ernest Peralta (01:21.68)
see different parts of Europe, different parts of Asia, as well as throughout the United States. So it was a very interesting upbringing, to say the least, but I think it was a very good one, so that it allowed me to really connect with people from different backgrounds and nationalities, which I think is one thing that I could take away from that experience growing up. And after the age of 18 years old, my family and I and my parents,

We resided in Olympia, Washington, so the capital of Washington state. We’ve been out there pretty much for the last 30 years or so. So it’s been a nice change of pace. And I went to school here, I went to college here, I went to the University of Washington. I finished my master’s in business administration through technology management. And shortly thereafter, I got into corporate America.

Brett McCollum (01:57.018)
wow.

Ernest Peralta (02:13.596)
And I worked pretty much as a business analyst at a company you pretty much know, AT &T Wireless. I started off there. And I worked my way through different positions, through project program management. And I got into consulting about five years after I finished my MBA. And at that time, I was approached to get into consulting. And so I went into companies like Hitachi.

consulting their big national brand company as well as Slalom Consulting. And I spent about the next almost 12 years in that space. But throughout that time, I got into real estate. I dabbled into it in 2001. And I got my license, but I wasn’t a very active realtor. I actually got it because I started off as an investor. I got into fix and flips with a couple of friends at that point. And so I did that for a couple of years.

And when the economy hit, right around 2008, 2009, you probably remember this, Brett, the economy kind of went down. And so I thought, OK, it’s probably a good time to maybe not look at going into active full real estate mode, but maybe pivot and still stay within corporate. So I did. And I managed to stay there for the next nine years. And so right around 2019-ish, I started looking into getting into

commercial real estate because a couple of years prior to that, I invested in commercial properties. And these are multifamily properties that I got into as a limited partner. So I was a investor in a couple of those transactions. I really got intrigued by that because it allowed me to really understand the operating aspect of it, running it from and listening to the way the general partners run the business as well as limited partners.

And so that intrigued me to dive into it a little bit more. So fast forward a little bit here, I ended up making a pivot. My last role at corporate America was a vice president of business development. And so I had left that for entrepreneurship and I was working at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, sort of the big corporate companies out here that, that, that we’re used to seeing in the consulting world. Anyhow,

Ernest Peralta (04:35.612)
I made the pivot right around 2020 is when I decided to jump in full ship into real estate and that allowed me to get into real estate brokerage. Luxury residential is what I focused on as well as commercial real estate, so multifamily and land development too as well. And that brings us to where we are today.

Brett McCollum (04:59.807)
Man, that is a lot to unpack there, isn’t there? Yeah, all right, let’s back up, because I think there’s a lot to cover here. So you grew up military family, you said, is that correct?

Ernest Peralta (05:00.821)
It is. It is.

Ernest Peralta (05:14.288)
That’s correct, military family. And we pretty much started off in Hawaii. That’s where I was born.

Brett McCollum (05:21.503)
Okay, so Hawaii and then how many moves did you make back in the day? Like, like, do you remember?

Ernest Peralta (05:28.988)
I, we made, let’s see, from Hawaii, we went to Korea, Korea to Japan, Japan to California, California back to Hawaii, Washington State, Hawaii, and then back to Washington State again. And Germany, Germany was in there too as well. I meant to throw in Germany, I forgot Germany. That’s it.

Brett McCollum (05:44.737)
That’s all. So that’s it, huh?

Yeah. And when, how old were you on the last move?

Ernest Peralta (05:56.774)
The last move, I was the age of 13. So I was just about still very young. Managed to stay there for a little bit, got to enjoy what it was like to pre-teens or teenager years in Hawaii. And then we went back here to the mainland.

Brett McCollum (06:02.229)
Okay, all of that at a very young age.

Brett McCollum (06:16.299)
Yeah, so different stories on my side, right? Where, but my family was more just the, little more on unstable side of things, you know, moved around a lot. But yeah, we actually, I tell people, like, yeah, I to 27 different schools, you know, and I went to four high schools in four years and like, but regardless, part of what we’re gonna talk about in psychology of things today is going and moving.

in different places all the time and learning how to adapt into different environments routinely. There’s a phrase that you’ve probably heard, it didn’t happen to you, it happened for you. But at a young age, you don’t really know why you’re having to do this, why are you like, I know mom and dad, know we’re in the military and we’re doing this and the other, da da da da da. But you don’t really get it, like why are we moving again? Why are we moving again? I don’t really.

And I remember even at a young age from mine, not military, but still, dad, why are we moving again? And for them, they thought it was the right thing to do and sort of thing. it’s hard at a young age doing that. you want friends, right? Like that’s a big deal at a young age. I’ve got four kids and seeing them play with their friends that they’ve had for years, it’s like, it’s one of the most fulfilling things in the world to watch them have.

friends at this age where I didn’t have it. And maybe I don’t know if you had much of it, like I don’t know. But like, what was that like back then?

Ernest Peralta (07:51.228)
Yeah, you bring up a very good point. A lot of questions I get about that is, what kind of stability does that give you growing up? You get to meet people, you travel a lot. Where is home for you? And how do you establish friends if you have to move every three years? To me, I think, and I look at it from this perspective, you build friends quickly. At a young age, you try to establish your core very quickly. And I think friends, you kind of gravitate towards those.

If, especially in the environment that I was in, we were all military kids growing up. So we knew at a very young age that, okay, we’re here for three years. That was pretty much how it was in the military. You stayed three years, timeframes within each place. And so we got to know each other fairly quickly and either you gravitated towards them and became friends or not, or just, know, little correspondence here and there in terms of talking to them.

But you knew eventually somewhere down the road because you travel so much that you might see them again. So you try to build that relationship. And at that time, we’re all writing letters to each other. didn’t have email back then. So just writing letters to each other and making sure we understood where they were living. And so I think friends in that respect, you can build friends. Friendship to me was I didn’t have a lot, but I had some that I developed really close relationships with just because I saw them.

once in Hawaii, then I’d see them again in Washington state. So I thought that was pretty cool. In terms of kind of building on top of what you said, where is home? Because you moved a lot too, Brett, in your childhood. So it would be kind of hard to even consider where your friends are, but where would you consider home? To me, that question, what’s home is, would say wherever you feel the most comfortable at that time. If it’s a…

Brett McCollum (09:33.313)
Right. What’s home?

Ernest Peralta (09:41.924)
a memory that you had where you developed good friends or you had a good experience in that area, I would say that would be considered home for me. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (09:50.922)
Agreed. Yeah, I agree. If it’s I want to look at continue down the line here in a second, but go a little bit deeper for a second here, because again, we’re going to talking a lot on the psychology of things. This is a little bit of a little bit deep here, and I like if we’re going too far, too fast. OK, you let me know and we’ll back up. Fast forward to now, you’re an adult, you know, and for me.

I can’t speak to your situation at all, but for me what had happened I found was we moved so often that it was I never let people get close enough to me because they’re we’re just gonna leave or they’re just gonna leave and Never letting myself have deep relationships with with people, you know, fortunately I met my wife fairly young and I you know, that was great But as far as friends go quote-unquote, it was they’re just gonna leave. Why do I need this? Why do we need to have that depth?

If they’re just gonna leave and that was something I I mean I probably Until I was probably 30 years old I I was just never letting people in because they’re just gonna leave Ernest They’re not gonna stick around like and I was pushing people away Like subconsciously, you know, and I didn’t realize I think growing up, you know through that and just it taught me like hey, this is my coping mechanism to

be able to like, hey, I’m friends with everybody, but I’m not gonna have depth with everybody. You know, and that was tough for me. Did you ever experience that at all? I know, typically I’m the crazy one in every, but was that ever, does that ever hit at all for you?

Ernest Peralta (11:36.678)
That actually resonates with me. That actually is pretty deep. It made me think about that too for a second, especially that question. So I’m married. I’m married for 21 years now. And we don’t have any kids. Our dog is our child. But to answer your question, yes, you’re absolutely right. I tried to be the, I was one of those kids in high school where I mingled with every crowd. I could hang out with the jocks. I could hang out with the preppies.

Brett McCollum (11:52.631)
You

Ernest Peralta (12:05.69)
I can hang out with other groups, various groups. But in terms of the depth of trying to really understand each person, you’re right. I didn’t really get to that, but maybe a select few, one or two, until I got married. So when I married my wife, one thing is that we started to develop other relationships with other couples. And at that point, I think is when I realized, whoa.

building relationships because we’re now cohesive as a couple, we’re bonding with other people. And I think the deeper bond as you get older, to your point, I think becomes a little bit more noticeable because as you get older, we tend to gravitate to having more meaningful relationships. And I’ve noticed that over the years is that over time,

You may not have a lot of friends, but the friends that you do have, eventually over time, you start to develop deep bonds with them. And I think my wife definitely had a big impact with that because with her, we were able to meet other couples. And now we have friends over the last over 20 years with some. And I always think about this too, Brett, is there’s the pyramid.

You probably remember growing up, you have a lot of friends. And as you get older, as you get to the top of the pyramid, you have very select few friends. And I think that’s the gold mine in terms of how I’ve started to see things in my life, is that you build meaningful relationships as you get in and exactly deeper. And those are the ones that are going to end up being your friends for many, many years. And I think.

Brett McCollum (13:28.567)
Right.

Brett McCollum (13:34.721)
deeper, more quality.

Ernest Peralta (13:45.076)
We’ve been fortunate enough now to have a very good group of friends that we’ve had for about 20 years. And I can’t really say that when I was growing up as well. So, yeah.

Brett McCollum (13:55.874)
Yeah. Well, and I think this would be a good nice transition point. So it’s interesting, though, growing up the way again differently, but moving is moving nonetheless and changing your, you know, where you’re at to where you’re going and new groups of peoples at that. part is the same. Right. Don’t you think it’s interesting, though, like and this is where we’re kind of dovetail things back into the professional here. You become a vice president of business development.

In business development, you’re meeting with new businesses and new clientele on the regular, developing relationships with people, and you need to develop deep relationships with them very quickly in order to do business well. Is that correct?

Ernest Peralta (14:36.668)
That is absolutely right.

Brett McCollum (14:40.011)
When I said that phrase earlier, it didn’t happen to you, it happened for you.

Ernest Peralta (14:43.96)
Exactly. So you’re right. So it’s funny how circumstances work in life. think having that role forced me to get out of my comfort zone to start to develop those relationships. So tying back to what we just said earlier, in adulthood, as you start to get into your careers, especially in my case, that’s where the deeper relationships came into effect. So I had to work on myself quite a bit because it wasn’t one of those where you come in, you try to do business, and then

establish the business and then leave. These are long-term relationships that you want to hold. So it took a lot of me and a lot of preparation reading people’s biographies, just associating myself with people that have careers that, you know, transpired over many, many years. And it took me a while actually in my professional career to develop that really deep relationship. It wasn’t easy at first because it was wanting to come in.

get that sale and then move on to the next thing. And I think over time, you’re placed in a situation, not because you want to, but because I think life just puts yourself in there to give you tests. And I think this is one test that allowed me to transpire into building more relationships. And I think that role allowed me to develop other aspects of my life personally too as well.

Brett McCollum (16:07.277)
Truly. Yeah, and that’s why I think it’s so interesting being able to like now, like I’m talking to different people every single day. And if we do this podcast, well, it feels familiar. It feels like we’ve known each other forever. It feels like this. And like, I don’t think I would be able to do something like this had I not gone through all of that my whole entire life and letting like that adaptation. Right. But.

That being said, mean, obviously what you did on the professional side prior to on the entrepreneurial journey, extremely cool by the way, and like that’s, it’s fun that you did that. let’s talk about the psychology though. You’ve had that career for many, many years. It’s probably more or less comfortable. It’s predictable. You know what to expect from it more or less. When you went to the entrepreneurial side of it, there’s a psychology aspect to this too.

Where were you at on the mindset of, all right, it’s time to, jumping in. What was that like during that time?

Ernest Peralta (17:11.43)
jump into real estate. To me, it was one of those where I think if I took a step back and really analyzed where I came from and why and how did I make that pivot, one of the things that I started diving into when I was in corporate America is getting my foot into entrepreneurship. So as I mentioned earlier, I had to dabble in real estate as an investor doing fix and flips early in my career when I started corporate America.

I’ve always had something innate in me that wanted to do something more than corporate. For some reason, I just had this inclination in me to try to do things on the side. And I think that’s one thing about my personality is I really enjoy what I love to do, but I like to get my hands into other things to see what I can actually be good at. So I would say that was one aspect of it in real estate. Then another one that made me look into more real estate

was I got into the health and fitness industry and created a product called the Stealth-Align. was a, are you familiar with exercise foam rollers at all,

Brett McCollum (18:20.953)
yeah, definitely.

Ernest Peralta (18:22.748)
OK, so we created one a few years ago with the Center Channel. So that was one that we had patented and created with my business partner and I. And now it’s all over the internet. So let’s do Alibaba. That little patent with that little circle, we actually were the first ones to create that. We patented that. And so other companies started to take that concept and started developing it. So long story short.

Brett McCollum (18:35.041)
Yeah, I’ve seen it.

Ernest Peralta (18:48.396)
We did that for a few years and that really got my entrepreneurial mindset thinking, okay, maybe there could be something in this project. Exactly, my mind was flowing. So we sold that business and then I got into real estate again back prior to COVID in 2019. And that’s when I said, you know what? I think I’m gonna make a pivot here pretty soon. One was I was at a pivotal point in my career where I think I’ve reached sort of the pinnacle where I think I wanted to achieve.

Brett McCollum (18:53.879)
the juices were flowing at that point, yeah.

Ernest Peralta (19:18.132)
I thought that was good for my family and myself. But at the same time, it was, OK, do I move from comfort to something to where I’m going to totally different now, hitting the entrepreneurial route? It’s going to be uncharted territories. I don’t have that security. Should I do it? And my gut, and talking to my wife about this, too, she’s like, you know what? I’ve always seen you do this. I’ve seen you to where I think you have a lot more to provide.

Brett McCollum (19:26.7)
Yeah.

Ernest Peralta (19:45.594)
not only for yourself, but to provide service for other people. So with her confidence level in me, I decided this is about time to make that move. So about four and a half, five years now, almost five years is when I decided that would be the pivotal moment for me to get into real estate full time.

Brett McCollum (20:03.681)
Yeah, that’s incredible. That’s such a cool path and journey that you did and going through. So now today, what is the real estate business? What are you doing within that right now? What does that look like?

Ernest Peralta (20:19.578)
Yeah, so right now I am with a company called EXP Realty, and I am a luxury real estate broker, so residential on the residential side. But I also do commercial as well. So commercial meaning anything from multifamily to land developments, large land developments, or working with investors to create some commercial property on that real estate.

Another thing that I also work on is also investing as well. So I still contribute as an investor in real estate right now, mostly LP, limited partnerships. So I get myself into different properties outside of the state of Washington. I’ve got investments in Las Vegas. I’ve got investments in Texas at the moment. And then also a couple here throughout Washington state. So.

Brett McCollum (21:10.732)
Thanks.

Ernest Peralta (21:12.764)
But they’re small, small things here in Washington. But that’s where I am right now. And I really enjoy it. I think it’s great. And I think the background that I provide could help. A lot of people that want to get into real estate, think I’ve got different aspects that I can pull from my

Brett McCollum (21:27.395)
definitely.

Brett McCollum (21:32.238)
No, most definitely. And I think that you’re coming into it from a more non-traditional approach to how most people get into real estate. And some people like me, I actually got into it as a beautiful accident. And then it evolved into something. You coming from a…

I don’t know the whole situation obviously, from what it sounds like anyway on paper, like from a successful career into real estate, most people are trying to find real estate to then become successful, right?

And that’s, so you have this differential of an outlook of saying, you know, it’s probably more service-based. It’s probably more, you know, how do I provide value to the community? How do I, instead of like from the front end, most, again, psychology, most people in a, because we all say it’s all sales, right, at the end of the day. How can I get the sale to make as much money as I can? You know, and so they’re chasing a sale versus serving a person.

That shift, when people get it, is where I see the most successful real estate professionals, is when they realize that it’s not about chasing a sale, it’s about the service that we’re providing our community. I think it’s really cool to see you do that. I did have a question for you though on the luxury side, because we don’t, on the podcast here, we do lot of conversations with investors, and you’re investors as well, but on the commercial luxury side, what is that landscape largely looking like for you guys right now?

Ernest Peralta (23:08.88)
Yeah, so here in Washington state, we have a lot of properties now over the million dollar mark, especially here in the King County area. So luxury, in a sense, a loose term because luxury at this point is, I think, over a million dollars is pretty much standard here now. Luxury is right around the $5, $6, $7 million dollar range, I would say the extreme luxury.

But luxury real estate to us is anything over a million dollars. Look at prime real estate on golf courses, by the waterfront, or near downtown Bellevue or Seattle area, especially those hot areas like Sammamish, where we’re at. You’ve got Redmond Bellevue. You’ve got Hunts Point, Mercer Island. These are all areas where they’re drawn. A lot of people want to stay there. when a property goes up, it doesn’t really last very long.

Brett McCollum (23:40.364)
Yeah.

Ernest Peralta (24:05.86)
out there, you know, it may be less than 30 days on average for these properties to be on the market, if that.

Brett McCollum (24:13.697)
Yeah, okay, yeah, very cool. That was more of a me question and curiosity kind of a thing. Now moving forward, you mentioned LP stuff and GP. Are you looking more heavily into the syndication thing? Or what does that look like for you today?

Ernest Peralta (24:20.06)
Thank

Ernest Peralta (24:33.404)
Yeah, absolutely. So my whole intent is to not only do transaction brokerage, this is why I’m a broker, but also passively to it. Well, I have a five year to 10 year outlook on life is where eventually I’d like to transition more into a more passive investor or passive income. Eventually over the next couple of years, I’d like to transition outside of full-time brokerage, meaning the transaction production piece.

and just focus on trying to build more of that passive income. Because I think at this point in life, my wife and I really enjoy traveling, spending time with family. Our parents are getting older. So I think that is something that we’re really trying to look at. And I’m really focusing on building that aspect of the business as well. So investing, to your point, Brett, I am looking at trying to generate some syndication opportunities now.

potentially getting more as a GP or general partner at this point.

Brett McCollum (25:33.198)
Yeah, truly. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And it’s kind of what we kind of, when we let off that, you know, in our intro, remember, and it was the lifestyle that you’re trying to like that. That’s the whole purpose of for a lot of us in the investor side is like.

Ernest Peralta (25:41.307)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (25:47.906)
how do we create this thing that we’ve now, because here’s what happens I find a lot of times. This is what’s so interesting. Again, it’s all psychology. You get into this, you come out of corporate America, you’re starting your own thing, and you got into it to create lifestyle, ideally, and then we turn it into another job.

Ernest Peralta (26:05.254)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Brett McCollum (26:05.613)
And it’s like, man, that’s not what I’m trying to do here, golly, you know, like, that’s not the goal. So I’m glad you said, I love that you said that, because like, is absolutely all it should be in my opinion, all of our intent and focus. Now, if I have to guess though from, albeit the limited interaction you and I have had together.

even if you went and became more passive, quote unquote, on the investor side, I have to believe you’re still gonna try to pursue something actively too, just because I think you’re wired that way to, I gotta be doing something. Am I crazy to think that?

Ernest Peralta (26:42.938)
No, don’t doubt that. Actually, I say that to say it, but actually, I will do other things too as well. And you’re right. I am wired like that, as I mentioned earlier in my career. I wanted to make sure I was doing other things that I was really enjoying. And I think I will end up picking something else too as well. But as long as I can establish those core areas that I just mentioned earlier, that is the overall goal. But of course, I’ll do other things on the side to keep me busy.

Brett McCollum (27:11.509)
No doubt and and knowing the power that real estate can afford us to make those decisions to create that is so cool and I’m excited that you Eventually you landed there and what you’re doing at a very I mean honestly like 29th like yes you started in like the one you did some flips and did that sort of thing and You’ve already kind of you’ve always had your toe in the water so to speak but really and truly since 2019 is not that long You know, it’s only it’s funny though covid I think kind of messed us up on our timeline and mental our mental timeline of life

but it’s only, it’s been six years already, which is crazy, but like, 2019 felt like just like a year or two ago, kind of, but it’s been six years, but like dude, six years in, and you already have this like, I have this foresight to go, I have a path in five years that I can see myself achieving. That’s pretty, I don’t know of other.

Arenas where you can say hey if I jump into this VP of development I can see myself retiring in five years not retiring, but you know passively moving something I don’t see us. I don’t see us being able to do that in another arena I’ll say this this is kind of a bad joke. I apologize outside of selling drugs I Don’t see another path where people can make the kind of income that we can do inside in real estate

Ernest Peralta (28:33.316)
Yeah. Honestly, people can grow exponentially. And they always say, there’s no cap in what we do in this arena. And I wholeheartedly believe it. Yes, exactly. When you have that mentality, especially in the corporate arena, I’ve been there for so long that I can already see where my peers are. And I automatically think, is that where I want to be? And I see where they’re at. And I’m like, if that’s what I’m looking forward to,

Brett McCollum (28:41.857)
Right. Your mind sets your cat.

Ernest Peralta (29:02.448)
I don’t know if I really want to follow that route. I mean, they’re doing well. They’re doing extremely well. But the pressure that they’ve got, they actually have to report to somebody else. And the pressure is extreme, as you know, with your background too in corporate, that you understand that the higher up you go, the more pressure you have. It’s just there’s a lot more at stake. And at the same time, you try to value, OK, is it really worth the time and energy?

Brett McCollum (29:11.585)
The pressure, no doubt. Yeah.

Ernest Peralta (29:31.462)
to sacrifice what I need to do to have a quality life with my family. People actually stick with it because one, they are comfortable. They don’t want to disrupt what they currently have because everything is in place. They have a family, have stability, they have insurance, they have all of that. But then if you sacrifice that for not wanting to achieve something that you think you can do more,

You know, there’s just something that allows us entrepreneurs to think there’s got to be more. I know there’s more. You got to believe in yourself first to really make that pivot. If not, stay. I think corporate is good for many people. And I don’t want to dissuade that, hey, you have to go this route. It’s not. Some people are wired to stay corporate, which is fantastic. We need that. But then we also need entrepreneurs to also run different aspects of the community, the environment. And it comes full circle.

Brett McCollum (30:07.501)
That’s right.

Brett McCollum (30:17.217)
We need that,

Ernest Peralta (30:25.724)
And I think you’re absolutely right. One of the things that I wanted to make sure is that I step into an area where I can say, you know what, if I do it and I succeed, awesome, then I actually had reached the potential and the vision that I wanted. If I fail, then at least I know I tried. And I could maybe go back and pivot into corporate America or just adjust and continue until I reach the goal that I want to achieve.

Brett McCollum (30:43.639)
That’s right.

Brett McCollum (30:51.213)
And I think that’s right. It’s the end of the day when if I fail, at least it was on my own merit and my own thing. And in corporate, like you said, we need it. As a matter of fact, all of our corporate offices we work for, they’re entrepreneurs at some point. We need that. And ultimately, I would imagine like…

you know, creating opportunity. Maybe it’s not with 100 employees or five million employees, you know what mean? But maybe it’s our employees, so to speak, are people that we serve and touch and reach and do and impact. To me, that’s like a, would rather work 100 extra more hours doing that for the world than, you know, with what, because what you did mattered over in the other arena too. It’s not that, it’s just my direct impact is…

easily touched from what I do on my own versus my indirect impact working at a larger organization. And that was just for me like a mindset of like, know what I’m doing right now. Because I saw the customer that I served and looked them in the eye, shook their hand, fulfilled my obligation, did it. And then I go to the other side, I like, I never see the customer. I’m just doing, I’m meeting KPIs and I’m doing different things and I’m tracking and I’m doing it and they’re telling me I’m doing a good job by giving me a bonus or something like that.

Ernest Peralta (32:13.372)
Thank you.

Brett McCollum (32:13.423)
But it never felt the impact.

Ernest Peralta (32:16.048)
You’re absolutely right. Yes. You actually hit the pin right on the head there. That’s exactly the thought that I had too is at the end of the day, you’re doing the work in corporate, you know that there’s a client, there’s a customer at the end. If you don’t see that, then it’s just tedious tasks every day. But when you see the end result and actually meet the customer, just like what you said, and you can satisfy it, you meet with them and you see that

hey, I delivered something. They’re so happy. That’s just a different feeling. And I think you understand that. And I think that’s kind of what we try to strive for is the end result and actually meeting the client at the very end and meeting them in person. And it’s just a different feeling. And I think it’s just a different mindset overall.

Brett McCollum (33:06.421)
No, I, I, perfectly, yeah. Ernest, if people want to reach out to connect with you in some way, get to know you a little bit better, follow along, that sort of thing, what’s the best way for that to happen?

Ernest Peralta (33:17.616)
Yeah, I am actually on a few various social media platforms. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn at Ernest Peralta. I’m also on Instagram. My handle is Ernest underscore Peralta underscore. I’m on TikTok. Same thing. Ernest underscore Peralta underscore. And on YouTube, just search me for Ernest Peralta. And I’ve got my channel there as well. So those are the various channels you can reach out to me at.

Brett McCollum (33:45.101)
Yeah, and guys, we’re gonna make sure, of course, that we put that into the show notes. I strongly encourage you, somebody that actually is, Ernest, you’re a pro, connecting with people and doing it the right way. You’ve proven that, obviously, in your corporate career, but now on your journey as an entrepreneur and doing that, it’s really special to see. Again, we just met, sometimes you can just tell. And so guys, I strongly encourage you to follow along there.

you won’t be sorry that you did, but man, Ernest, I really enjoyed our show today. Thanks so much for being here with me.

Ernest Peralta (34:22.916)
Absolutely. Thank you, Brett. I really enjoyed it. until the next time, it’d be great to catch up again. Thank you.

Brett McCollum (34:27.97)
Yeah, absolutely, no doubt. Guys, to you as well, thanks so much for hanging out and spending your time with us. We appreciate you, and we’ll see each of you on to the next episode. Take care, everybody.