1. What was your life like before you launched your own title company?
I came from a very impoverished family. My parents were working-class people, so I was always the poor kid in school. But I did have the best of both worlds because I had upper-middle-class grandparents. Being able to saddle what the good life was and what the hard knocks life was per se, I decided that I would never live my life the way my parents were living. I will do whatever I need to within my power to live a better life that was similar to how I saw my grandparents and many others living. They were hard workers, and I knew that that was imperative and important. Hard work, drive, and ambition were means to an end. And so, coming from that atmosphere and that environment, it really sculpted me to be a go-getter. I wasn’t afraid to have nothing because I had nothing, so the only way to go was up. I worked hard and rolled up my sleeves. One
opportunity after another, I put myself in a position where I now have my own title agency here in Texas.
2. It’s safe to say that you started your career from scratch. What encouraged you to go into the title sector of real estate?
I really liked that title had a more legal aspect to it. It is a lot of investigative work. I appreciate that we are not just selling the houses like the realtors because we are also closing transactions and helping people with integrity and confidence in us to complete the last piece. I ended up staying in title because I enjoyed working with the people. It helped me understand that every transaction is different in the real estate industry, and I got the best of both worlds. I can witness the closing piece of it and see the people at the closing table get keys and pass money to the sellers when they sell their homes. I really enjoyed the investigative piece of it and being a resource to many people in the business. I wasn’t just interacting with realtors. I was interacting with appraisers, surveyors, and all types of people in our industry, which didn’t limit me to my sphere of growth. That has been able to help me overall with my connections. I like being a respectable resource. The title company is a pillar of integrity, and it’s one of the most respected pieces of the real estate transaction. The title
company is where it all happens. I earn the respect of everyone in our industry and yet still run a business. It’s an important legal and research type of business, and it’s more of an executive, administrative piece of the real estate industry.
3. As the agency executive, can you break down what your job entails?
I am the company’s leader. I am the backbone, the pillar of strength, and the go-to for major decisions on implementations in the company. I am also involved with staffing, compliance, and regulatory pieces of our business. I oversee multiple executives in our company to make sure they are motivated and that they are replicating and instilling the company’s culture and our company’s procedures in all the offices. Because there are so many of us, we need to shape the atmosphere of all the teams in a way that our team members feel that they are a partner and that they are appreciated and valued. We continue to insert those values in every single office. I always stay innovative and evolve within our industry by going to conferences and networking to keep our company relevant and keep ourselves up. It is a little bit of everything – managing, leading, regulatory compliance, sales. Everything that involves leading a company, you can pretty much say I have a little hat in all of that. I am very hands-on, but I do have others leading too. I’m just here as a resource of information and leadership. My role is to lead this company and keep morale up, making sure that I’m instilling adaptability, flexibility, and culture to all of my leaders so they can go and lead our company as a whole. My job is to mold our leaders, who in return, mold our team members, so that we can be the best we can be in our industry.
4. What are some insightful business concepts you apply not just in your career, but in your personal life as well?
I value everyone who works for our company, which has been a huge part of my success. Every person wants to go to work and feel valued and appreciated for their efforts for showing up every single day to do their job. They’re not an employee, they’re a partner. Your frontline affects your bottom line. I apply that principle in my business, and I play that principle at home – my children are my frontline, and if they’re not doing good, that affects my bottom line. In my company, my frontline men affect the bottom line because if they’re not doing what they need to do, then they’re not doing their job. It’s going to affect the whole office, and result in a trickle-down effect. My frontline – my receptionists and my assistants – they’re the ones who are interacting with the client base, and they’re the ones that are helping grow their relationships. I do put a lot of
emphasis on my frontline personnel, because the experiences that come from them are always going to be significant.
Number two, when I started the business and was in phase one, I tried to always invest in myself because I am the business. Many business owners starting businesses put everything they have into the business, which is natural, but then you become your business. If you’re not taking care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally, and you’re not centering and balancing and just overly self-sacrificing yourself, your company is not going to have the best you every single day. You are not taking care of yourself in the process. I think that’s something that many business owners do – they sacrifice everything for the business, and in the end, they end up running ragged, and then the business doesn’t have the best version of them to lead. Thirdly, I always live beneath my means and save for a rainy day. That’s something that I have always done, and it’s served me well in my personal and business life. If it’s a need, I get it. If it’s a want, I pass. I have always balanced my needs and wants, and it has been imperative to our security, growth, and stability. Some business owners open a new business and they want a big shiny office with plasmas and glass doors, but is that really needed to be a successful business? What’s needed to be successful is good customer service, good people skills, and everyone
giving their 100% every single day. You don’t know what the climate is going to be in business as well. You need to be sure that you have reserves to carry your business and your payrolls for at least three to four pay cycles.
5. Would you say that you have always been a natural-born leader or a made leader?
I am a natural-born leader. It’s just embedded in me, and I have always been the leader of the pack. I am very ambitious, and I have high confidence in what I can do as a leader for everyone else. I am not here just to have my own. I’m really thinking about the people I’m leading, and how I can add value to their life so they can add value to mine. With that perspective, viewpoint, understanding, and empathy for people that you are working with, you lead with respect and integrity.
I have no fear factor. I’m willing to roll the dice and do what we need to be relevant. Throughout the years, the people who have been with me have seen that time and time again. I weathered every adversity and obstacle that has come to us in our business, walked away with minimal collateral damage, and still grew an organization that’s strong from within and out. I’m a natural born leader, with the perspective of leading others to glory.
6. What is the best advice someone has given you in regards to running a business?
Always have your bookkeeping and paperwork ready and in a position to be acquired by anybody that will come with an offer to buy. I think that most business leaders do not have an order. The best advice that I have been given is that you should always have your company’s accounting and bookkeeping in order, in case someone offered to buy your company tomorrow, and told you that this is all the paperwork I need from you. Even if you aren’t planning to sell, you should have your company packaged and buttoned up so tightly that if someone ever wanted to purchase your company, you are ready to sell it.
Most people don’t think about that until they are ready to sell. It has proven to be very beneficial to us with audits and if anyone requests any paperwork from our bookkeeping piece of our company. Your accounting, bookkeeping, and profits and losses are crucial parts. I can’t say that I knew all my profits and losses at the very beginning of my company. We were just trying to survive. And then, as we grew, we got those things in order, which has let me see our company and how efficient and inefficient it is.
7. You’re currently in the works of launching your own institution to teach others about title real estate. How has the process of starting your own school and creating a curriculum going so far?
I have been assigned to a couple of council committees with the Texas Land Title Association, which is a big education pillar here in Texas for our industry. It is aligning our school to be a preferred education outlet because it will be the first of its kind here in Texas. With that being said, I’ve been able to chair a couple of major committees in the Texas Land Title Association, which is also positioning our education platform. It’s a pillar of excellence for me to be a member of an organization that teaches the other professionals in our industry.
They’ve approved our curriculum, and I got my committee assignment. The institution will be launching soon, opening for the fall semester.
8. You’re also leading innovation within real estate by working on making cryptocurrency a valid form of payment for properties. What do you foresee within the future in regards to cryptocurrency in your industry?
In August, we are having a big legislative committee, which I am a part of, to finalize how our industry will implement it. We are going be there with title attorneys who write law for the Texas title industry and industry leaders who own some of the largest title companies in Texas. We are almost there, and we’ll be drafting legal forms on how we’re going to be able to integrate that into our industry for 2023 to make cryptocurrency an acceptable payment.
9. While being an established leader within title real estate, you also own side businesses to generate passive income. What is some advice you would give to entrepreneurs in regards to earning income this way?
I own an event venue, a medical imaging business, a real estate investment firm, a real estate flipping firm, and the title company with the Title and Escrow Institute coming soon. With your side business, make sure it’s something that you’re passionate about, and that what you’re doing is meaningful to you more than just the value that it is bringing to your bank account. I think that it’s really important to earn extra income from a passion because it will take the remainder of your time. If you’re doing a side business just for the money and you don’t have any drive behind it, it may not be as successful because there is no real drive to make it successful within you as the leader and owner.
A side income doesn’t mean there’s no effort. Every extra income on a side business is extra effort. Most people think that running a side business is going to be effortless to get side income. I think that is a facade sold to a lot of people. You can’t just open an Amazon business with no effort. Your side business is only going to be successful if you prepare to put in the effort.
10. Being Latina and a woman are obviously very important attributes to your identity. Did you feel a constant need to prove yourself within the early stages of your career? How did you
overcome this?
Yes, I did, and I still do. I overcome it by being the most powerful version of myself and putting myself in uncomfortable positions to prove a point of my presence in my business. If it is a group of commercial real estate men or a ‘rancher’ event, I’m going to be either the only woman or one of a few women there to make a point that I’m here doing business. I’m a pillar of power to be reckoned with.
I put myself in a position of discomfort in my industry to make my presence known, and what I’m doing to prove myself. I’m going to go because I want to be known as the Latina running the title company over in Houston and Dallas, who is making waves. I want people to know who I am and what I bring to the table that I have sat at to prove myself over and over again. I’m challenging myself to venture into the unknown to be seen and respected.
In our industry, we’re creatures of habits. No one wants to go to some place where they’re uncomfortable or don’t know anyone outside their area of comfort. I try to challenge myself and to meet people that I feel that I need to meet, but probably wouldn’t have done otherwise if I wasn’t a leader trying to prove myself and my business.
Remember to be passionate about what you do. When you’re a business leader and you’re running a business, you have to really believe in what you’re doing every single day, and what your goal is. For the average person who is building themselves, there are these great overnight success stories, but that’s literally 1% while the rest of us are out here getting it done every single day.
Business is easy, but it’s the people who are hard, and you’re dealing with people. It’s very important that you’re passionate about what you’re doing. Really believe in where you’re going. Be powerful, be passionate, and be the best version of yourself every single day.
Business is a battlefield baby!