From Hating Sales to Real Estate Wholesaling: George Paredes on Rejection, Growth & Leadership

George Paredes (00:00)

I’m just a real estate investor, primarily wholesaling, finding opportunities. But before that, learning how to speak to homeowners that may be going through a tough time and seeing if we can work together to find a solution for them. And then getting it done and trying to repeat that process over and over again. But realizing that the money’s great, but the value is in the process of: can I really talk to this person? Can I go through rejection? ‘Cause before these four or five years, I hated sales. But now that I’m getting closer to God, I realize each and every day we’re selling ourselves.

Quentin Edmonds (01:06)

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited to be here today. I’m excited about my guest. Listen, from his own words, he’s just a neighborhood investor. But listen, he’s that, and so much more. I’ve listened to him talk. I love his vision. I love his outlook. I’m excited because we get to learn from his experience. Just glean from the things that he does and kind of put those into our tool belts. And so I’m so excited that we get to learn today from Mr. George Paredes. Mr. George, how you doing today, sir?

George Paredes (01:40)

I’m fine, Quentin. Thank you for the introduction, my man.

Quentin Edmonds (01:43)

Absolutely, my friend, man. I’m glad you’re here. You’ll probably hear me say this again. But I believe time is our most precious commodity. So I value you for giving us some of your time. I appreciate that, man. And listen, I’m the type, sir. I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And then tell people where you are in the world, man. People love to know where people are geographically, George, you have the floor, my friend.

George Paredes (02:14)

Man, here we go. Yeah, Quentin, like I said before, I’m just a real estate investor, primarily wholesaling, finding opportunities. But before that, learning how to speak to homeowners that may be going through a tough time and seeing if we can work together to find a solution for them. And then getting it done and trying to repeat that process over and over again. But realizing that the money’s great, but the value is in the process of: can I really talk to this person? Can I go through rejection? ‘Cause before these four or five years, I hated sales. But now that I’m getting closer to God, I realize each and every day we’re selling ourselves. And so it’s having the confidence within ourselves to do what we want to do. And as far as the vision, Quentin, it’s funny, I didn’t know where I was going. I just slowly just got closer to God overall and just started taking those steps and realizing those times when you’re down, that’s when you really lean on God, but also not forget him when you’re on the highs as well.

Quentin Edmonds (03:10)

Yeah, yeah. Well, man, you brought God into it. One of my favorite things to say is from a scripture that we make our plans, but the Lord determines the outcome. So it’s like I’m making my plan, I’m working, but I won’t lean on him because the outcome, and we talked about outcomes and we may get into more of that, but the outcome ultimately it belongs to him. And I gotta enjoy making the plan. I gotta enjoy doing the work and knowing that if I put the work in, the outcome is gonna come. And so I love that, man and always say George. Destiny has no wasted moments. We are learning from every leg of the journey, right? Yes, sir. I would love to know what has this journey revealed to you about yourself? Has it made you more disciplined? Has it made you humble? Has it increased your tenacity? What has the journey revealed to George about George?

George Paredes (03:59)

To be honest, Quentin I think looking at my past experience and past jobs, it is having the advantage or knowing that I can make money, but it’s shying away from those moments in those roles that I was shying away from being a leader, but having that position to be that leader and until now reflecting God was putting me in these different positions to be a leader, but no, I just want to be a follower. I don’t want the attention on me. And so I think it’s humbling knowing that obviously to be that leader, it does require a different thing to where having the confidence within yourself and knowing that I want to make these decisions. I know what I want. Now how do I go about it in getting it, but also knowing that I can’t do it by myself. So can I find the right pieces and processes that can help me get there.

Quentin Edmonds (04:45)

Yes, sir. Now I’m gonna tell you why in my gut I feel like you’re a good leader. Right? Now I ain’t saying you’re perfect because I don’t think nobody’s

George Paredes (04:55)

Perfect.

Quentin Edmonds (04:56)

Why I feel like you’re probably a good leader. Cause I always tell people there’s a difference between being self-aware and self-conscious. And they both heighten awareness of who you are. So a self-aware person. They know their strength, they know their weaknesses, they know what to do. Yes. At the complement of everybody else. Meaning if I know my strength and I know my weakness, I’m not going to try to be strong where I’m weak. I’m going to make sure that I can build community with somebody to help me and get some support. Now, a self-confident person, they’ll know their strengths and weaknesses, but act like they got it all together. When they’re weak, they’ll try to act like they’re strong and be robust. So just listen to you talk. Is your awareness and no? I’m self-aware. I know, where my struggles are, but I also know where to get support. And so that’s why in my gut, I can see the lenses of a good leader sitting in front of me. Absolutely.

George Paredes (05:46)

Thank you, Quentin.

Quentin Edmonds (05:47)

Absolutely. So, listen, man, of course, we know we’re building businesses, we got to build systems, operations, right? So, George, I would love to know, sir, which operational thing you’ve put into place, let’s say the last year, that has really helped you be successful.

George Paredes (06:41)

I would say going back to the sales part of really owning, am I doing a good job of sharing the vision? Am I doing a good job of learning how to set the expectations? But also in those times of that individual not doing what needs to be done, can I find out what is it that they need from me to help them succeed? Is it jumping in a dialer and saying, Hey, look, it’s pretty easy, but I do understand that it’s four years to build this muscle, but as you can see, it’s all right to fail. It’s all right for somebody to hang up on you. And don’t worry, I’ve been there. I’m still struggling through that on the other side when it comes to closing these transactions. There are so many steps within that process.

Quentin Edmonds (07:21)

No, you’re absolutely correct. I thought I coined this phrase, but to research it, because I was gonna put on some T-shirts and all this stuff. But I realized I wasn’t the only one saying it, but I often say failure is fertilizer. That’s all it is. We all fail, but it’s just fertilizer. A lot of times it’s mixed with dirt. It can be manure, it can be dung, it can be mess, it can be stinky.

George Paredes (07:44)

But

Quentin Edmonds (07:44)

You allow that thing to get planted, allow the thing to work the way it’s supposed to, eventually you can develop fruit out of it. You can develop fruit trees out of it. That thing that we don’t like, that’s messy, that’s stinky. If we allow it to plant and give it the right nutrients, it can grow into something very, very beautiful. And so we should not be scared of failure. It’s fertilizer, it’s par for the course, right?

George Paredes (08:09)

I like how you said that, Quentin. It reminds me, I think I heard this in church that sometimes we forget that we want to seek the fruit before seeking the roots.

Quentin Edmonds (08:17)

Come on, man. I gotta write that down.

George Paredes (08:20)

Sometimes we want to seek the fruits before seeking the roots. And like you said, the process of, taking an acorn, for example, it has to come out of a seed, it has to push through the dirt and eventually become a tree to then spread more acorns.

Quentin Edmonds (08:34)

So good. So good, man. Man, when you talk like that, my mind just opens up on so many different fronts. So I don’t want to talk too much, but I will say this. My dad’s a pastor. He’s been pastoring over 40 years now. And I went to his house sit with him and talk. And before I can say anything, he said, son, you ever seen a tree eat his own fruit?

George Paredes (08:55)

Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (08:56)

What? What are you talking about? Have you ever seen a tree eat his own fruit? And I say, no. He said, because it’s intended for the tree to grow the fruit for somebody else to pluck from it. Yes. But here’s the thing, somebody is growing a tree that you can go and pluck from. And it was just reminding me that we all have our way to nourish, different people. So when I hear you say, sometimes people seek the fruit before the root, I gotta be rooted. In order for it to grow because if I don’t grow it right, can’t nobody eat from it. I had to say that man. You brought that up. That just made me think about my dad. But it stuck to me, man. So what’s next for you, Mr. George? What’s your next real goal? What are you looking to solve next, sir?

George Paredes (10:13)

Got it, Quentin. I see right now in the process of learning, it’s to your point, knowing my weaknesses, I’m not the best cold caller, I’m not the best at every position, but can I bring in the right people and can I learn similar to the tree analogy, be patient enough to find the right pieces, but also learn that the outcome I shouldn’t be attached to it. So if I’m doing a good job sharing the vision, sharing the expectations, and they don’t meet the quota. Letting them go, but not shutting that door either, just saying, hey, Mr. Quentin, man, I appreciate everything. And it looks like you may not be a good fit, but I would love to work with you one way or the other in regards to that. And I would say the next step, Quentin is being able to have those roles filled out and then really dive into the leadership part where I think I’m destined to do it is being more of a one-on-one personal development coach of being able to share the things that I’ve been slowly learning. And see who out there may need that because what I notice in these big groups, you can pay this, you can pay that, but then sometimes you’re like, man, nobody’s gonna hold my hand. Well, can I be that person at this point in my stage where I’m not trying to charge you X amount, but I’m willing to work with you because I’m learning this craft as well, but I’m also learning that I do have value and so I have to learn how to price that out, but also let the market dictate if they wanna work with me or not. But while having the wholesale to where now I’m stabilized, I learned having a W-2 was great, but was I really happy? Was I really fulfilled? ‘Cause I’ve been working since I was 15. So making money’s no problem. It’s how can I generate that without me being in and facilitating those roles per se?

Quentin Edmonds (11:48)

So well said, yeah, man. I’ve been working since I was 14, so I feel you. Like, we know how to work, we know how to make the money, but it’s changing the mindset, right? Yeah. So I love it. And I love what you just said about I’m gonna kind of paraphrase, but not burning a bridge. Understanding that we may have connected this way, but right now it’s not working the way we thought it was gonna work, and being able to confront that because confrontation is not negative, confrontation is literally. It means to turn towards. That’s what confrontation means, right? So if there’s an issue, I don’t turn away from it. I turn towards it and I talk about it. And that’s confrontation. It doesn’t have to be contentious. It doesn’t have to be tense. It just has to be we gotta talk about what needs to be talked about. I love the way you talked about that, because I’m gonna ask you about the word relationship. Everybody that comes on, I want to hear their unique perspective when it comes to the word relationship. So, Mr. George, what is your unique perspective when it comes to relationship building, healthy relationships within business, healthy relationships with your clients? Just give me your overall perspective when it comes to relationship.

George Paredes (12:53)

Well, other than our relationship with ourselves, I think for an example, I’ve been with my wife for 16 years. So she’s seen the stubborn George, the selfish George. And every time she would bring something like, Well, if I’m the problem, go away and I ain’t going nowhere, luckily she stood long enough to where I started looking at my own reflection and realizing, wow, in order for me to love. I can’t be selfish. I need to learn how to be more understanding, be more empathetic and listen, and then being able to do things without needing to be said to do those things. Yes, sir. And so taking that within the business as well, understanding, hey, this is pretty much a copy-and-paste industry, but what can George add to it? And how can I take that relationship at home and bring it into my business? Yes, sir. Or businesses.

Quentin Edmonds (13:40)

Come on, man. I literally wrote this word down. I heard it when we were talking, and you just elaborated so clearly on it. I wrote down the word accountability. I literally wrote that word down. And it’s funny because just before I got on with you, I was on a call with one of my accountability brothers. And I literally was saying to him what you just said about my wife. I’m learning now that there’s tension that I hold with my wife. The tension is on my side because I have to love her the way because you and I we talking about God. I love her the way God is telling me to love her. Yes. Sometimes the tension is I don’t want to love, I don’t want to submit and love her the way God is telling me to do it. I want to be selfish. I want to do things my way. And it’s like, no, that’s not the case. And so that’s how it is with business as well. Accountability is such a piece. And that’s why I say I believe I’m talking to a self-aware leader because I have to be accountable about the things that are in my purview. And sometimes that means, hey, I need help with this. I’m being selfish. Let me fall back. How can I, get out of my own way? And so love, man, your perspective on relationship. Absolutely, man. Yes, sir. George man, we’re gonna get to how people can get in contact with you? But before that, is there anything else that you feel like you want to tell the people about your business, about yourself. Maybe you had something on your mind, I want to make sure I talk to people about this. Maybe even in your notes, I want to make sure I talked about this. I want to make sure we don’t miss anything. So is there any other information, education, motivation, anything you feel like you wanted people to know? I want to open it up for that.

George Paredes (15:17)

I would say, yeah, Quentin good example. I would say lately as I’m branching out into, more of the one-on-one personal growth part in relation to seeing how the JV is so similar to coaching, I would say obviously in this world, it’s hard to meet somebody and say, is this worth it? But at the end of the day, are you worth it? And are you getting the things out of that you want? Because before I was paying for XYZ, XYZ, but then I was all quiet to where now hey, hold on, I’m paying X amount. Somebody better answer my question. I’m loud. But before I wasn’t like that. But I would say, yeah, just being able to know you’re gonna spend your whole life investing yourself, whether it’s monetary or just through relationships, but knowing that those outcomes are gonna be way greater than what you thought, but it is taking that next step of are you worth it? And I think that’s a great question. Or something lately, Quentin that I’ve been sharing, whether it’s within my business or on the coaching side, is asking, what’s more important to you? Is it personal growth? Is it recognition or money? And so that kind of helps and also knowing, where do you see yourself in six to eight months to where now I can’t really plug you in the right spot, crap, my team is full. I don’t have time for that. Can I help you in this way? But going back to what we talked about earlier, whether it was before the podcast, but really not being attached to the outcome, but taking the time and really understanding the individual and seeing what options make sense and can we do this together? Can I be your accountability Brother, or can I be your cheerleader? Say, hey, let’s get there. Come on.

Quentin Edmonds (16:47)

Man, my friend, so well said, George, man. I thoroughly, enjoyed this conversation. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, sir?

George Paredes (17:01)

I think my main place where I’ve been sharing is Instagram. Okay. I don’t know if you can see it ’cause sometimes I get confused. When I see it, it looks backwards, but hopefully you guys can see it. But on Instagram, it’s Mr.BuyYourHom3 — ‘Mr.’ with a dot, and instead of an E, it’s a 3. Through Instagram, and that’s where I’m learning to share more of my journey by whatever book I’m reading. I’m out here working out, trying to shred that weight and then trying to put it into my business.

Quentin Edmonds (17:26)

I see the Instagram, also see the YouTube

George Paredes (17:29)

I’ve got a couple of videos out there that pretty much do a similar process that you shared with us, Quentin, and thank you for making me feel comfortable and sharing. Hey, this is just a talk. I want to hopefully highlight you, highlight how we met and how people can connect with you.

Quentin Edmonds (17:44)

Absolutely. Tell the YouTube, George, so I can get it transcribed from it. Yeah.

George Paredes (17:48)

It’s gonna be @TheGeorgeParedes

Quentin Edmonds (17:52)

Perfect. George, let me say these three things to you sincerely, sir. One, again, thank you for your time. I think all of our time is valuable and precious. So I value you for giving us some of your time. Secondly, man, thank you for what I call the gift of your integrity, the gift of your authenticity. I would even say the gift of your vulnerability. I believe when we tell our story, we cast seed out. And that seed can take and be rooted and go down at any given time, man. And so really thank you for coming and casting some real seed, man. I appreciate that. And then lastly, man, thank you for your mindset, sir. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you coming on today, sir.

George Paredes (18:34)

Likewise, my man. Thank you.

Quentin Edmonds (18:36)

Absolutely. So, listen, Y’all heard from my friend, Mr. George. His information is in the show notes. So please click, get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here. ‘Cause I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Mr. George Paredes. So, sir, I say thank you again and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.