This is Under Pressure, a podcast where we dive into the untold stories of entrepreneurs and business owners who have conquered adversity to achieve greatness. And now here's your host, Nick Staten.

Welcome to episode 11. I'm your host, Nick Staten. This is the Under Pressure Show. Today's guest, we have Robert Ortiz. Robert, if you don't mind explaining to us a little bit about your background and where you come from and stuff like that.

Nic Staton

Yeah, man. My name is Robert Ortiz. I'm based out of South Florida. Always been between South Florida and New York my whole life. So I got to make sure of both those cultures a little bit. Everybody's like, man, you seem like you're from New York. And some people are like, man, you're from Florida. But man, I'm in real estate, man. We flip land. and got into flipping land about three years ago, bro. And, uh, we started mixing around a little bit. We started flipping land and we started flipping houses and then we back back to flipping land again. Um, and before that, man, I was in e-commerce. I don't know if Amazon automation or Walmart automated. You got a smile going on. Oh, bro, we made a lot of money.

Robert Ortiz

I lost like 30 grand fucking doing this shit.

Yeah, man, I've lost some money doing it as well, man. We made a lot of money, but... Just at the time when I was doing, I was like 24, 25 broke up a years back and I, bro, I was just being silly and I wasn't running it like a business and we just started taking losses on it. And, uh, man, it forced me to level up in my, my real estate business, bro. So it's, it's been a good, uh, good last four or five years, bro.

That's what's up. How does that go with, uh, with flipping land? I've never heard of that. I just honestly always thought that fucking it was houses.

Yeah. So here's the thing, man, listen,

You just caught my interest.

Oh, bro. Listen, it's something that so many people are like, what, how the hell are you doing this? So, um, we all know these big builders, man, Dr. Horton, holiday builders, American builders, all these guys. And, um, they go into certain cities and they're looking for land. because they want to build homes. The way builders make their money is they build homes and they go sell them. And what we do is we'll go on Zillow and we look for all the past transactions that happened in the last seven to 30 days of new construction homes, 2024. And we see who builds them up. We call them up and we're like, hey, we see you just sold 123 Banana Street. Are you guys still buying land here in Orlando? And they're like, yeah, absolutely. We're buying this zip code, this zip code, and we're buying it for $75,000 per quarter acre. Perfect. All we need to know. Then what we do is we have a marketing team. We go pull all the data and those zip codes. We start co-calling all these people, text messaging, uh, text messaging them, sending out mailers and things like that. And we'll lock up a contract with the seller, right? For 50 K. We'll go sell that contract to the builder at 75 K. We'll make a $25,000 spread on it.

Nice. Can't beat that. Yeah.

Oh, bro, we were running the whole thing off of a damn laptop, bro. It's crazy, man. We do this off a laptop. We got VAs in the Philippines who help us out and do all that stuff. And bro, we just we do it all day, man.

That's what's up. So how did you how'd you start your business?

Yeah, bro. So at the time I was in e-commerce and one of my buddies invited me out to a to a convention out here in Orlando. So I drove up to Orlando and some guy was talking about wholesaling. I'm like, that shit is a fucking scam. I'm sorry, I don't want to curse on here. I was like, that stuff is a scam.

No, you can curse all you want. I curse all the time.

Okay, I'm like, man, that is a scam. I'm like, I'm like, who's gonna sell their house to me over the phone? Right. And the guy up there on stage, he was talking about it. And he's like, I own the red Lamborghini outside. I'm like, okay. I was like, maybe it might be rented. Maybe it might be owned. Let me go talk with him. And he's like, man, $5,000 to mentor you. Like five grand. Like bro, I don't know you from anywhere. How do I know you're not gonna just run off with my money? Then I'm not gonna run off with it. Bro, he's like, Pray to God on it and we're going to make this whole thing happen. And I put up the five grand, I think like maybe two or three weeks later, I got my first deal for like, I think it was like $2,500. And then from there, bro, it was just nothing but trials and tribulations. Because I'm like, at this time, I'm 25, I'm 28 now. So yeah, three, four years ago. And bro, it's just I'm like, how the hell do I talk to sellers? How do I find buyers? How do I how do I hire people? I'm getting this money? And how do I manage the money? I have no clue how to manage the money. How do I start an LLC? I'm like, just I'm just bro randomness in motion. But yeah, essentially, that's how I started it, bro. And every day, I just put one foot in front of the other. And I'm like, all right, we're just going to find a deal. We're just going to keep rocking.

That's what's up to be 28 years old and to have a drive like that. Most 28 year olds are fucking lost and fucking running around.

Literally it's crazy. It's crazy. But yeah, so yeah, I started doing that bro. And then, uh, man, one deal after the other and I saw houses, I'm like, man, we're going to go get into doing some houses. And then, um, the thing with houses, the transactions just were a little too long for us. So we jumped back and land where we're supposed to land in two, three weeks, bro.

Nice. You can't beat that. So why did you, why did you start this?

Oh, shoot. So I broke in high school. I mean, I feel like everybody has a little part of them in high school, man. I'll go to high school, like purely to talk to girls and try to make some money. Right. I don't want, I don't want to hear about geometry. I don't want to hear about algebra, bro. It's funny because I started outsourcing in high school. This is where I learned the skillset of outsourcing. I would be in the back of the room. I'll be in the back of the room and I'm like, I don't want to do this work, but I know there's people in here who would like to have some money. If I could find the money and hire them to do my work, I could have good grades. I could get all this off my back. And bro, I would be hiring all these nerds to do my work in school for me. And bro, my grades would just be skyrocketing. I'm like, this is freaking great. And bro, cruise through high school doing this thing, man. Cruise through high school doing this thing. And I was a little scared when I graduated because my mom and my mom, my parents are divorced. But my mom, my dad always had one thing. I'm like, you're gonna go to college and you're gonna get a good degree because they didn't go to college.

So I'm like,

the hell I'm about to do in college, man. I don't want to be a police officer. I don't want to be a lawyer. I don't want to be a doctor. For sure, I don't want to be a doctor. And I read this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, bro. And have you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad?

I've read a little bit of it. I have to listen to books more than I do reading. OK. Still solid. Still solid. That's the only way I can really soak them in. Because, man, reading, I just don't have reading comprehension very well. So when it comes to things, I have to like hear somebody say it or either it just doesn't register into my brain because I mean, I'll, I'll say shit wrong.

Yo, you, me and you had that in common, bro. Like I'll, I'll, I read it. I try to read a book a week, but there's sometimes I got to read the book two or three times just to fully grasp everything to understand it, bro. It's nuts. But I read that book, man. I read rich dad, poor dad, and he's talking about real estate. He's like, man, I make a hundred thousand dollars doing nothing. I'm like, Oh, I'm like, no way. And at this time, I was like 14 or 15. I went on the internet, downloaded it for free. And in my mind is always, I'm like, man, I'm gonna get into real estate. I'm gonna get into real estate. But then I always got sidetracked by jobs. I'd do sales for certain people. I'd go do all these other traveling jobs and stuff like that. And I just didn't have the courage to get into real estate, bro. But I was like, I'm not going to go to college. I ended up going to college. I went to college for two years, got my AA, graduated right before COVID. And I made myself one promise. I'm like, you're not going back to school, but you're going to read a book every day for the rest of your life. And I have not given up, bro. I think I'm like 200 or 300 books in.

You're very driven and very dedicated to what you do. You can tell by your Facebook posts and stuff like that. You're very consistent.

I appreciate that, bro. But yeah, I mean, that's been the biggest thing, man. Like, so like, that's once I found out about real estate wholesaling, that's what it's called. I'm like, man, I'm not I'm not. I'm not letting up on this.

There you go. What's been the hardest part so far?

Shoot, bro is not giving up. Yeah. You know what? But yeah, that's something I've overcame last year, bro. Because there'll be times where I'll go like two or three months without a deal, bro. And that's no money coming in. When you don't have money coming in, you're starting to like, shit, I'm not even good at this. Man, do I quit? Do I go back to school? Do I go to work? Like, fuck people, I think my old job will take me back. I'm like, what are people going to think about me? I posted so much on Facebook about doing this shit, and then they're going to see me over here working back over here. They're going to be like, what's this guy doing? And that's always been the hardest part of quitting. And bro, it's so crazy because the the correlation, bro, I found out was like, at the level, obviously you operate is at the level of the results you receive. Right? So I'm like, man, I had to start really sitting with myself and always brainstorm. I'm like, man, why am I operating at a low level? Right. And it's because I had the low level habits, a little mindset. You know what I'm saying? I had the low, I had low tolerance, I had the high tolerance for the bullshit or for the, for the hard shit. So like, I'll be like, oh, this shit's too hard. Let me go do something else. You know? And bro, that's been my biggest, that was my biggest struggle. Now, bro, like I look at it, I'm like, bro, if I quit, I wouldn't be on this podcast. If I, and we don't know who's going to listen to this podcast, they might be like, yo, this shit changed my life. Thank God that Nick started this podcast. Right? So, um, bro, I started, I started really realizing, like, if I quit, I can't help my family because I want my family in a really good position. If I quit, I can't help people who look at me on Facebook. If I quit, Not only do I like lose respect for myself, I lose all my confidence and courage I've gained this far. And I'm like, and then Stumann says it too, he's like, man, at the highest level you quit, that's the highest you're ever going to go. I'm like, I'm not, this ain't the highest level I'm going to go.

Yeah. Always keep yourself learning, because I mean, once you stop learning, then that's where you're going to stop at. Yeah. Then going along with what you were just saying, I like to say that we were fish in a pond where the bigger fish were blocking the stream. And eventually someone came along and showed us the stream and we went out to the ocean and became sharks.

Oh, I like that. I like that.

Because the regular water ties into the oceans, but a lot of times those are all blocked off by bigger fish that don't want to see you shine or see you succeed, or their insecurities tell you that you can't do something whenever you're sitting there saying that you can. But then eventually find that stream to that ocean and you get that confidence to become the shark.

That's a crazy way to put it, because that's literally how it is, bro. Yeah. And it's so funny because, you know, the craziest thing is, is like right now you could be doing good right now. We're like, man, we're doing some solid stuff. We didn't know what we knew five years ago today. Right. And you know, the crazy thing is there's still big fish out there right now blocking the pathways for you and I to grow. And it just takes that one person to have that courage to be like, man, get out of the way, bro. Yeah, we got some heavy hitters coming through.

And then you get that confidence of, you know, of eating more and eating more and eating more. And then eventually you're like, man, I'm fucking unstoppable.

That's it, bro.

Because no matter what obstacles come at you, you're fucking leaping them.

And you know what, man, like it's almost it sounds crazy bro but i'm like it almost gets boring when there's no obstacles like when i have a deal that goes through pressure gotta have things coming at you because otherwise just just like what the fuck bro we had a deal come through so uh one of my builders the other day this was we'll say sunday this was like thursday morning he texted me he's like rob we need we need more land in uh citrus springs it's like this little city like in

Central North Florida somewhere around I've never even been there, bro Is that up there like Crestview because that's where we're working at right now is in Crestview, Florida. That's the north Northwest part of it up there near Alabama

Oh, no, that's too far out. No, no. This one's like more like towards Ocala, maybe. Okay. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm like Citrus Springs. I'm like, bro, I don't even know where that is. I'll be like, what the heck? I went on Facebook made a post and like one of my real estate groups, like my one of my real estate lane groups. And this kid brings us a deal. And like my buyers, like I'm buying for I'm buying a lane at $14,000 over there. Kid brings us a deal for 10k. I'm like, Oh, shit. That's a $4,000 spread. Right? Bro, never done this stuff. We're closing on this deal on Friday. Easiest transaction I've ever done in my life, bro. I'm like, there's no way this shit is this easy. I'm like, there has to be a hiccup somewhere. Because when stuff gets too easy, it gets too boring, bro. I like facing those struggles a little bit, because I'm like, man, how am I going to get around this? What am I going to do? Because I know, bro, like Student says, man, struggles make you stronger. I'm like, man, those struggles make it a little more fun.

Oh yeah. So this will go along with the next question. Um, when you find yourself under pressure, how are you dealing with it?

Bro, I'm going to be completely honest with you because I'm pretty sure I've asked this question to people too. Like that's one of my questions when I, when I see somebody winning, I'm like, bro, how do you handle the pressure? They're like, man, we just get through the work, bro. That's what we do, man. We just get through it. I'm like, I don't want to hear that shit, bro. That's cute on stage. There's more to it than that. I need real life, bro. I need real life. And bro, listen, I go through this little, I go through a little princess stage, bro. Right. I think in January, we probably lost over like 40K worth of deals, bro. And I was pissed the fuck off. And I was like, man, and I went through this princess stage, I was pissed off, I'm upset, I'm angry. So I'll go through that little stage for a little bit. I only let myself go through that stage for like 10, 15 minutes, like get all that shit out of your body. And then the next thing I do is I'll get a piece of paper, bro. This is just my personal exercise. And I'll write A to B, right? What are we currently facing and how the hell do we get over it? Right? And bro, we start, we just start mapping it out. And I'm like, okay, we lost this, but maybe if we ramp up our marketing, we can go, go get back another 40 K. Right. Okay, cool. We lost this employee. Maybe we can get another employee and we got it. We got to look for this, this and this. That's how I've always dealt with the struggle. And, uh, well, once I really learned that strategy, I'm like, okay, cool. Cause bro, you can let stuff roam in your head as long as you want to. And that shit's just going to bother you and bother you and bother you.

If you don't come up with solutions for your problems and you're always going to have those problems and always stewing on them.

And brother, you know, so we that that's just what I've always found out when that pressure is on, bro, I let myself get all that anger and all that negativity out. And I got a piece of paper and I started mapping everything out, bro. And it's so much more clear, bro, because your emotions, you the thing with your emotions, bros, your emotions will take like a level two problem to a level 10 problem. Oh, yes. When you put it on paper, it goes from a level 10 to a level two.

Nice i like how you do that putting it on paper and stuff like that because it's always about you know when you have a negative thought replacing it with a positive thought so you're having these negative things that are popping up in your head but you're turning around and writing out the positive things and the solutions to those problems So then you're training your mind and your body to actually go towards the positive way and get rid of the negative and not sitting there basically letting it sit in your head.

Oh, bro. Yeah. Cause you, I used to be in that and I'll be in that brain for weeks, bro, where I'm like, I have this problem. What the hell do I do? You know? And I hate, I hate that.

Gym and all that helps out too, because you can go to the gym and release a lot of it. And then you're like, man, what the fuck was I even doing? Why was I even thinking that way?

Yeah, move some weight real quick, man. You're like, man, I'm feeling good. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's one way of me another way, man. I try to I try to calm I try to like Because that's one piece of it. Another piece of it is I always like to take accountability and blame, bro. Because I know that if I'm in the mess and I'm in the problem, somehow, someway, I was the one who made that happen as well. Even if I really didn't make it happen, I'm like, man, maybe I should have just not been there at that moment at that time. Or maybe it was this person I hired and they screwed it up this way because I didn't set up the SLP correctly. Right. Right. So I also like to sit and brainstorm and really go back and be like, how the hell did I create this thing? Because I don't want to repeat it. Right. You know what I'm saying? I do that. Lock in. I meditate. I pray to God. And that's how I handle the pressure these days. Before, bro, I would just be completely crushed. I'm like, man, I suck. I'm terrible. Like, I don't even got to go back to school. Got to go back to work.

Because you were telling yourself that, that that's what you were actually getting. Cause you were like, man, I suck. I ain't getting this. I'm not doing that. So you put that, that, that vibe and that motion towards the negative side. And now you've learned how to change it. So how are you dealing with your mindset and managing that?

Like from negative to positive.

Yeah.

Oh, brother, I feel like it's all input on my phone. It's funny, before we got on this, I was just reading, I read all these things. So I have belief statements, bro. And I have about 50 of them. You have about 50 of them. So I mean, like, for example, conflict avoided is conflict, conflict multiplied, there's opportunity and the uncertainty, right? So I'll read things like that every single morning, bro. That's like, I'll drink my 20 ounces of water and I'm straight to my belief statements, bro. Because that's the that's the pre programming for the day.

Yeah, no, you know, like that. That's cool. You got a whole list of different things of situations that probably have occurred and stuff like that. So you can kind of go back to certain, certain ones and get yourself out of situations a lot faster.

Yeah. Not only that, bro, the more you repeat it, the more your brain, it's like, uh, I think Napoleon Hill says it's called auto suggestion. Right. So once you, like, for example, you have a problem, I think a lot of us don't like facing problems, but once you have a problem, right. everybody's natural reaction is to go the other way. They're like, fuck, I have a credit card payment pass, dude, I'm gonna go eat pizza. This is to get it out of the way. They don't wanna go through it, but I'm like, but that's that statement. Conflict avoided is conflict multiplied. So I'm like, if I don't make that payment, I'm gonna go get late payments. I'm gonna accrue interest. My credit's gonna get shot. You know what I'm saying? So that right there, I'm like, okay, we have to go head in towards conflict. So things like that, that fill up my mindset that every day I run with it, bro, and you just gradually increase.

Nice. So what's kind of been like your best part of this whole journey of you going out on your own and stuff like that and getting all of this going?

Bro, the best part of the whole, I mean, man, there's so much. And you know, the crazy thing is not even the money. That's the crazy thing. That's what I wanted to get into this whole business for. I'm like, man, money. But bro, I've created some great relationships with people, bro, all over the U.S. where, like, for example, I'm flying out to Tennessee in June. One of my boys was like, man, stay at my place. I'm like, bro, I totally forgot you stay out there in Tennessee. You know what I'm saying? I've created such crazy relationships that I'm always learning things through, bro. Just through a relationship, that's how I got into Apex. I'm like, man, this is freaking nuts. So the biggest thing, man, is that through all this stuff, I create so much relationships. I think one of the best things I'm about to start doing here soon is I'm actually starting to teach people how to flip land. And we're building the community out of it. And so far, bro, like I'm on like three, four, five, like coaching calls every day, helping these people flip land, getting their first deals, getting their first checks. You know what I'm saying? Like that right there, that bar has been like the best part of this whole journey where I'm like, I thank God I didn't quit back there because I wouldn't be able to enjoy helping people over here. Right. You know?

That's what's up. That's cool as shit. I mean, you caught my interest on the whole land flipping thing because you ain't even got to worry about the houses or none of that stuff.

No termites, toilets, none of that stuff, bro.

And I'm actually that's actually what I want to do is buy more land, even if I don't sell it or whatever, just buy more land just to have.

Yeah, I think in one of your episodes, you're saying you I think you say you own a farm.

Yeah, I own a farm. I own 20 acres on South Fulton of Georgia. It's one of the last little royal areas of Fulton County. It's very nice right here. I'm pretty much on like a gold mine. I bought the property and it's already well over doubled. Because yeah economy went because I bought it in 2019 and then everything just started going up and up and up and up My interest rate was really high when I first moved in and it was 7.5% I was paying $2,800 a month for all of this two years later that when the pandemic went the way that it did and all the interest rates went down and It got down into the two percents. I didn't catch it in the two percents, but I did catch it when it went right back up into the three. So I'm at 3% now and I pay $600 a month for 20 acres and you can't fucking beat that with a stick, bro. You want. And then on top of it, because I have the goats and livestock animals on my property and utilizing them for sell purpose, my property tax went from six grand down to 2K. So you can't beat that either. Yeah. Now you're winning. I'm in a perfect spot. I have a lot of people all the time wanting to buy this property and stuff because of the area that we're in and how they're starting to kind of develop around here. But I'm going to hold out and hold out and hold out because I know that at some point, commercial is going to start building up around this area. And it's a high possibility that my area could be right there in that mix. And if that's the case, I'll make way more off my property for that.

Somebody's going to come cash you out, bro. Trust me, these builders are not shy.

Yeah. You get letters all the time. You get phone calls all the time. And people are fucking there. Some of their fucking, some of their shit, bro. You're like, what the fuck? A hundred thousand dollars for this property. You're crazier than hell. I ain't not buying. Like they think you're fucking about to lose your property or something. I want to just give you like pennies for it. And it's like, nah, that's the hardest thing.

That's ours because that's what we do bro. We go to we go to the landowners, but we do infill lot So we don't do we don't do acreage acreage. Is it that's a different game. We just do infill lot man They're in and out but when you own land, bro, you're not hurting. No, that's what people forget when you own land, man You're not hurting but when you have a house and your house is ran down you you're hurting a little bit.

Yeah, you know There's some other people that they should be bothering not me I Yeah, you know what? They call me and then they're like, hey, would you be interested in selling your property? I'm like, yeah, $2 million.

They're like, oh, hell no. What the heck? You getting phone calls from the VAs in the Philippines, man.

One person sat there on the phone. He goes, let me talk to my boss and I'll call you back. He never called back.

Nah, they ain't calling back for like $2 million.

You probably went to the boss and said, hey, that man said $2 million for his 20 acres. Ah, fuck him.

Yeah. He's like, get the fuck out of here.

Oh man. What's been your, uh, what's been your best part of, uh, of 2024 and what you looking forward to also, man, 2024 bro has been really interesting, man.

We got into, we got into multiple new markets. Um, we've, we've done, I want to say already just in the last couple of months, we've done way more deals than we've done in like the last two years combined. Right, which is fantastic. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know we've we surpassed and we're just running and gunning right now. But I'm like, I think. I don't know, we've done a whole lot, though, but that's pretty good. We're building the team like crazy right now. We're building the coaching side with the community side as well, which is freaking out that that's like the part I'm like super excited for, bro, because you're getting to help other people actually, you know, catch on to that that drive that you have. Yeah. And it all started from that one post on Facebook, bro. I'm like, if I could have free training out there, you know, about how to flip land, that thing exploded and everybody started, Hey, can you drop a course? Can you do this? Can you do that? Can you do here? I'm like, I just made one post and now we're building off that whole thing. So we're excited for that, man. But then at the same time, man, we're getting into a learning about development. I want to really learn how to develop these houses, bro. And how to go buy the land myself and put houses on there and flip those houses. Um, I think that's an interesting game as well, bro. So that's what I'm really excited for this year. That's one of our next moves moving forward is learning how to develop. Cause we have, we have getting the land on lock, bro. Right, you know like that's that's not hard but like where we are at like we can go from making five to ten K flipping a piece of land but if we Raise private money. We learn how to develop we can go from making five to ten K to making like fifty to a hundred There you go You know, I need to do a couple of those flips. You're doing good.

Yeah, it's all puzzle pieces putting them all together figuring out trials and tribulations what works what doesn't work and doubling down, tripling down on the things that I actually do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's what I'm pretty excited for, bro. I mean, I've been super dialed in this year, man. Like I came in this year and I'm like, man, we're not doing nothing low level, man. Everything we're going to do, we're going to be making solid moves and there's going to be no excuses made and there's going to be no low level mindsets and we're just going to keep running and moving forward.

There you go. With a mindset like that and drive, there's not much you can't accomplish. Yeah. How can everybody find you? on social medias and stuff like that.

So on Instagram, it's at official Rob Ortiz. And then on Facebook, it's Robert Ortiz. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Facebook one is harder to give out, man, because it's probably a million Robert Ortiz. Oh, yeah. Robert Ortiz on Facebook.

OK, nice. You have a website or anything like that that they can. Find you on as well or meet with Rob dot com with Rob dot com. Meet with rob.com. Oh, meet with rob.com. Okay. Nice.

That's what's going to, that's going to be like where all the links are at for everything.

Okay. There you go. Oh, all right. Well, shit. We're going to go ahead and end that right here. I appreciate you getting on here and explaining all of this to our guests that follow us. That is the end of episode 11. If y'all don't mind going, subscribe on all the platforms and we will be back with another episode. Peace. Boom.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. And remember, pressure doesn't break you, it makes you. Until next time, friends.