IAM1183- CEO Provides Short-term Financing to Real Estate Investors

We Lend's Managing Partner, Ruben Izgelov, started his first job at the tender age of eight, distributing flyers on the streets of New York City, and to this day still takes his incredible work ethic with him everywhere he goes.

With over a decade spent in the real estate industry – acquiring, flipping, developing, and financing over $350 million worth of real estate – Ruben has quickly become a renowned real estate expert, speaker, and guide for many professionals in the industry. 🧗🏼

After financing himself, he quickly saw the innovation desperately needed in the private lending space and decided to spearhead it by co-founding We Lend.

The rest, as they say, is history.

• CEO Hack: (1) Books- How to Make Friends and Influence People (ii) Scaling Up by Verne Harnish (2) Staying organized
• CEO Nugget: Everything always comes back to you in one way or another
• CEO Defined: Having the responsibility for many lives

Website: https://welendllc.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welendllc/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/welendllc/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-lend-llc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeLendLLC/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw9gZzKkGiRRcWSgm_DxuAg
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@welendllc?lang=en

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.

00:20 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:48 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. At Ruben Escalab of WeLand. Ruben, it's great to have you on the show.

00:57 – Ruben Izgelov

Same here. Thank you so much for having me.

01:00 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Ruben so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And WeLand's managing partner, Ruben, started his first job at the tender age of 8, distributing flyers on the streets of New York City.

And to this day still takes his incredible work ethic with him everywhere he goes. With over a decade spent in the real estate industry, acquiring, flipping, developing, and financing over 350 million worth of real estate, Rubin has quickly become a renowned real estate expert, speaker, and guide for many professionals in the industry.

After financing himself, he quickly saw the innovation desperately needed in the private lending space and decided to spearhead it by co-founding WeLend. The rest, as they like to say, is history. Ruben, Great to be a part of history. Super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:50 – Ruben Izgelov

Absolutely, super excited. Definitely happy to bring any, in all the experience that I've had since 8 years old to this podcast.

01:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, Absolutely. And what I wanted to do to kind of kick everything off, which here is a little bit more about not necessarily eight-year-old Robin, but probably in between there and what led you to start all the awesome things you're doing. Can you tell us your CEO story?

02:12 – Ruben Izgelov

Yeah, of course, of course. So, you know, we immigrated from the former Soviet Union back in the 90s. And it was very, very humble beginnings. My father was a cab driver and so was my older brother. My mother was a babysitter and cleaning lady for many, many years. And it was just really a school of hard knocks, living in a one-bedroom apartment with 12 people, always having people coming from all different parts of the world to stay with us because they had no other place to stay.

So it was really the School of Hard Knox that propelled me and forced me and motivated me to really take it to the next level as I was growing up. I am a former high school dropout, but then quickly realized that education is key, education is everything, not all people, not everyone needs an education, in my opinion, but I felt like I was the kind of person that kind of needed it. It kept me grounded. It kept me, you know, kind of focused.

Ultimately I went, got my GED, then got my bachelor's, graduated with honors, and ultimately went to law school. Thought I was going to be the best attorney in the world. Turns out law was not for me after 2 weeks of working in a law firm. I quickly realized after 200, 000 student loan debt that the law was not for me. And here we are starting WeLend, but in between undergrad and grad school, I was also buying, selling, flipping, and developing real estate. And that kind of transitioned over to starting Wheeled.

03:39 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate you sharing the story, especially here in the humble beginnings that you mentioned. So I think so many times we don't hear about those stories you hear and see all the success that you're having, but we don't see all the behind the scenes, the journey, because you probably still kind of remember that probably fuel you with everything you do, I imagine.

03:56 – Ruben Izgelov

You can never forget some of the things that you've experienced. I mean, there were times when I was driving on a donut, right on a vehicle of mine, and I didn't have the money to even actually fix the tire. So I had to drive a donut for a couple of months. So those small things, they really kind of humble you.

When you look back, it feels so long ago, although it really wasn't, it feels so long ago because you've accomplished so much, you've progressed so much. But just looking back at those things definitely helps you kind of keep your feet on the ground and make sure that you stay leveled and know exactly where you need to go and where you came from.

04:34 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And the phrase you used earlier, staying grounded and making sure that you do remember those things so that you can continue to kind of take it to that next level, as you said so well. And so I know taking it to your next level, including WeLand. Could you take us through a little bit more about what that is, what you're doing, and how you're making a dent in the universe?

04:52 – Ruben Izgelov

Absolutely. So, you know, prior to starting WeLand, we were, like I said, buying, selling, flipping, developing real estate here in the New York City market. And we realized that there is essentially a void in the market. Essentially what we do today is we're an alternative lender for real estate speculators and investors. We provide short-term financing on their investments. I'm sure many of you watched HDTV where you've seen guys buy properties and girls buy properties, fix them up, and then ultimately flip them.

And that's kind of what we do. We help those types of investors by providing the financing that they need because ultimately a lot of the financing that they're looking for, can't be found in a conventional type lender like Wells Fargo, Chase, or Bank of America, for a number of reasons. So what we do is we bridge that gap for them by providing enough financing and being able to close on properties that other lenders would never even touch, look at, or would take too long to even finance. And we finance them within you know 7 to 10 business days.

05:54 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that and I think you mentioned you know how impactful education was it's not always the same education and knowledge but I think a lot of people may not even know that that is an opportunity that they see something that might be an opportunity, but they can't get the financing in other ways. But it sounds like you provide that other avenue that if you have the knowledge and awareness of it, you can take advantage of.

06:14 – Ruben Izgelov

Exactly. As I said, education is key. The network is your net worth. As they say, you're always, like I say, one introduction or meeting away from blowing up your business to the next level. So that's kind of what helped us here. Before we even started, we learned what we were looking for was a cheaper source of financing for our own projects. And we went to an event in Arizona to find that source of capital.

And ultimately we came in as developers and speculators and real estate investors, And we left that event as private alternative hard money lenders. And the way in which that happened is again, just that 1 meeting, that one conversation that we had took us to the next level that we never thought was possible.

07:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that so much because I remember I read something and you hear about the most, quote-unquote, successful people and how are we to find it. A lot of times that success comes because they're willing to read one more book, they're reading to listen to the podcast, and they're willing to go to this event. And sometimes those things that happened that kind of laid the foundation for their success happened just because they set themselves up, you leave themselves open to those opportunities.

07:28 – Ruben Izgelov

They engulf themselves in anything and everything possible. You know, there's an opportunity to everything you do, whether it's a thing that didn't go the way in what you planned or did, there's still an opportunity. It's just a matter of finding it and looking for it and being positive in that perspective.

07:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. And so I want to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself personally, the business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:57 – Ruben Izgelov

You know, it's surrounding yourself with people that you can trust, that you can rely and that are loyal. I think that's been key to us. We were fortunate enough to be able to surround ourselves with key employees, and key partners that helped us take the business to the next level. I think if I were to go back and redo some of the things, I think what I would do is kind of refocus my energy on the people that I surround myself with and the people that I employ.

Also, a lot of the people that we did: employed, may have been amazing. They may have been very good at what they do. I think what we were missing, the formula, was to equip them with the ammunition that they needed to take it to the next level. And I think if I were to go back, those are the 2 things that I would look at is, again, making sure that I'm hiring the right people, but also equipping them with the same ammunition or ammunition that they need to take it to the next level.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:02 – Ruben Izgelov

So I gotta tell you one thing, the book that I've read probably maybe about 5 times was by Dale Carnegie, How to Make Friends and Influence People. I'm telling you, I probably read that over 5 times, an amazing book, highly recommended, Not only can it be used in your personal life, but also in business. And I think it kind of helped me take it to the next level. Another book that I've recently read was Scaling Up by Vern Harsh, I believe it is. Exactly. Amazing book. It helps you stay organized.

It helps you kind of write out all your motivations and make sure that you have the meetings that you need, make sure that you're able to keep people accountable. And so I think that was an amazing book. But also I think staying organized, you know, You have as a leader and a CEO of a multi-million dollar company, I mean, you have to, there's a lot of moving parts, right? There's just a lot going on at one given moment.

And I think, for me, what's been helping me is really just staying organized with specific to-do lists and quadrants within that to-do list to know exactly what I'm working on the morning of, the day of, the afternoon of, the evening of that specific day, rather than just working on what's the first thing that comes to mind and what's the first call I get or what's the first email that I see on top of my email box. I think that, don't get me wrong, that is effective in some sense, but I think staying focused and knowing exactly what needs to be done that specific day on that specific hour, at that specific minute kind of helps you take your business to the next level.

10:38 – Gresham Harkless

And so you might have already touched on this as well, but I want to ask you for what I call now a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client, or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

10:51 – Ruben Izgelov

Everything comes back to you in one shape, form, or another, you know, something that you may have done today and you thought you got away with and you thought you did, you know, the right thing for the business, but, or for yourself rather, but you haven't done the right thing for the other person on the other side of the business, it's gonna come fight you right in the ass, in my opinion.

So I think it's very important that people understand that whatever goes around always comes around and the people that you're doing business with today expect to see them 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and so on, because one way or the other, you're gonna cross paths again. So I think in my opinion, always doing the right thing at the right time to all the people, regardless of what position you're in or they're in, I think will take your business to the next level. And that's kind of helped us in a number of ways.

11:41 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I think that's such a great CEO nugget, but also a life lesson that we sometimes forget. As you were telling your story, you talked about how it doesn't feel like it's been a long time, but it might've been a long time. You know, just the journey that you have, you never know where somebody else is going along their journey as well.

And sometimes those journeys overlap more than once. And if you are consistent and you consistently take care of people and you have good values and all of those things and high morality, it allows you that opportunity to be consistent so that if that person comes back into your life or into your business, you still have that opportunity to kind of leave a good impression.

12:19 – Ruben Izgelov

You can show your face. Exactly. You can show your face and not be humiliated about it. So I think that's key. I think that's key.

12:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. We are running a marathon, not a sprint. That's the thing we have to kind of keep in mind. And so I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Ruben, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:41 – Ruben Izgelov

It means having many lives, and responsibility to many lives. I mean, you know, the people that work for us and with us, you know, you see one person, but then once you get to know them, you realize that they have so many people depending on them. You have, they have kids, They have parents, they have wives and husbands and so on, and aunts, uncles that truly depend on them. And I think, you know, your success in a business, that's the way you view it is, all right, I want to grow my business, I want to scale my business. But it's also the success and the certainty and the execution for the people who work with you and for you.

Not only for them but the people who depend on them. And I think that really is key and understanding because when you look at it from a perspective of, oh, I want to grow, I want to make money, I want to do this and that, that's great and all. But once you start looking at it from a higher level perspective, look how many people depend on you, look how many people actually rely on this specific job or this specific task or your success, that's when it helps you take it to the next level.

13:44 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, it becomes a different level of responsibility. And I was kind of envisioning kind of like if you're in a lake or something, you're throwing rocks, you see the ripple effect and imagine that the ripple effect that you have with what you're doing creates a ripple effect for somebody else, which creates a ripple. And it just starts to kind of see the impact that you're making is so much more than the thing that you're doing on a day-to-day basis.

14:04 – Ruben Izgelov

It's a tsunami, baby. It's a sin.

14:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. In a good way. Hopefully, of course. Well, Ruben truly appreciates that definition. I appreciate your time as well. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best I can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

14:26 – Ruben Izgelov

Look, I'm assuming there's a lot of people that are just starting out in business and they, or people that are still working on their business and they're hitting roadblocks, they're not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. But I can tell you one thing, it's there, right? The light at the end of the tunnel is there. It's just a matter of making sure that you work through it, ram through it, don't stop, don't let anything, you know, lose your motivation or stumble you in any way, just keep ramming through it, keep your head up high.

And sooner or later, you'll get there if you are already there. And you might not even realize it. You are already there, right? Many of us are. They sometimes just don't realize the success and the accomplishments that you've made because guess what if the Mr. Jones effect is right we're always looking at someone else in the business who has been in the business many years ahead of us or Before us so you know I think that in and of itself can hurt you but also can keep you motivated So I would just say just keep ramming through, keep your head up high, and just stay laser-focused on what you're doing, not what everyone else is doing.

15:27 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. I love that. And Ruben, for people that want to get a hold of you and all the awesome things you're doing. What's the best way?

15:32 – Ruben Izgelov

They can visit our website at www.welandllc and they could also visit us on any of our social media platforms. We're on all major social media platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and our handle is at welandllc.

15:48 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information and the show notes. I love that last piece of what you mentioned. I think so many times the quote that was coming to mind is that it's always darkest before dawn. So sometimes when we're going through those difficult times, the dawn might be right around the corner if you continue to kind of push through. But I also kind of reminded of us dreaming of certain things that we're living through now.

I think so many times we don't give ourselves credit for the work that we've done, especially if you're type A, you're driving through the next thing after the next thing. So taking time out to realize that once upon a time you were dreaming of what you're doing now is a huge thing. So I love and appreciate that reminder. Of course, appreciate your time. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of that.

16:28 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]