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Women in the Arena
Women in the Arena is the celebration of everyday women living extraordinary lives in plain sight. We seek to inspire, encourage and challenge you to reach for the great heights you're made for.
Women in the Arena
How Real Estate Trailblazer Trixy Castro Built an Unstoppable Entrepreneurial Empire
🌟 Ever wondered how a first-generation American builds an empire from scratch? Meet the incredible Trixy Castro, a powerhouse entrepreneur who has founded over 50 companies, including Genesis Capital and Hudson Marshall. In this episode, Trixy shares her inspiring journey from advocating for her mother as a child to launching her first company at just 14 years old. Her story embodies resilience, innovation, and the strength found in community support.
🔥 What You'll Discover:
🚀 Building an Investment Empire: From securing $250 million in equity to navigating the unpredictable real estate market.
💼 Breaking Barriers in Business: Trixy shares her experience as the only woman in boardrooms, overcoming obstacles and shattering the corporate glass ceiling.
💡 Lessons in Leadership: Gain insights on women's leadership and personal growth, as Trixy emphasizes the importance of authenticity and resilience in the face of adversity
🏆 Unprecedented Success: How Trixy sold her firms to giants like Goldman Sachs and Fidelity, redefining success on her own terms.
🎧 This episode is for you if:
- You're a woman in business or leadership looking to break barriers.
- You're seeking inspiration to pursue your own entrepreneurial dreams.
- You want to learn how to turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
Trixy's story is a powerful reminder that, with determination, innovation, and a relentless belief in yourself, you can achieve greatness. Tune in now to be inspired by her trailblazing journey!
https://www.trixycastro.com/
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***Last thing- This is my WISH LIST of interviews:
• Joan Jett
• Dolly Parton
• Viola Davis
• Ina Garten
Maybe you can help a girl out...***
Go check out all of our episodes on our website at: https://womeninthearena.net/
If you'd like to connect, reach out to me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***One last thing...I have an interview wish list because a girl's gotta dream
- Viola Davis
- Dolly Parton
- Ina Garten
- Joan Jett
Maybe one of you can help me out!
Thank you all for supporting this show and all Women in the Arena!
Welcome in everyone and thank you so much for joining me again this week. This week, there is not enough good things that I can say to you about my guest. First of all, this woman is self-made, and when I mean that she is self-made, I am very serious, very serious. My guest this week is Trixie Castro, and she has founded more than 50 companies, including Genesis Capital, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs, hudson Marshall, which was acquired by Fidelity National Title. She is a visionary leader and she is an official member of the Forbes Finance Council. She has made reinvention and making herself a success an art form. It is my pleasure and my honor to introduce to you Trixie. Trixie, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Trixy:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. It was like Christmas. I woke up excited to get to do this with you today and I very much respect everything that you're doing, really love it. Thank you for having me.
Audra:I am so excited for you to be here. I left the best part about what you do out of the intro because I did not want to give away the best part. I said that you were a self-made woman, and I meant from very early beginnings, because you were also a first generation American, which your story is so inspiring and, like I said, I don't want to give it away. So I would like for you to tell the audience about who you are and where you started from.
Trixy:Well, thank you, I really appreciate it. And, you know, in thinking about today and being able to say, hey, listen, I hope that my story can inspire and help anyone else or the things that maybe young Trixie would have wished to have known. That's the mission and I'm so grateful to be able to do that and to do it with you, another woman championing other women, kind of taking it a step back. My parents came here from Cuba and they're amazing people. I had all the love in the world, but there's limitations when you are in a new country, new language, new everything. One of those was education wasn't the priority. It's kind of cute. My mom actually was going through like a box of mementos a couple weeks ago and she says you're not going to believe this, trixie, I have a letter from your kindergarten teacher and I'm thinking, oh, that's so cute. Yes, I remember Mrs Weinstein. Da, da, da, da da. And I'm thinking it's about me, right? Oh, no, no, it was directed to her saying Mrs Castro, you need to bring your daughter to school every day. Like I didn't realize that you actually had to go every day, that that was really a thing, because if it was cold or you were tired or anything like, which didn't go and I'm like Mom, right. So that is it shows you right. Then, later on, of course, she became like the biggest champion for education and the likes.
Trixy:But to kind of give you an idea, and so my story starts with them, I saw hard work, I saw grit, I saw my mom really willing to say, hey, I'm going to do whatever it takes. And one of those hey, I'm going to do whatever it takes moments was I was three years old and she had an interview with a family to come in and be a live-in caretaker to take care of the grounds, the facility. The woman had Alzheimer's disease, lovely family, also immigrants from Italy. Anyway, she had to take me in the interview with her and she was mortified and she was like, oh my goodness, trixie, don't say anything, you know da-da-da-da-da. And I remember her being so nervous and doing this and just anxious. And I jumped in at three years old and said, hey, you need to hire my mom. And they said why? And I said because you get me, I want to learn what you did to live here, because it was the most beautiful house I'd ever seen. So to give you an idea, I didn't realize really I didn't register that that wasn't my home. So much so that housing became so critically important to me throughout my life and my career that everybody have an opportunity to really have a home. So at 14 years old, unfortunately, she passed away, the woman that my mom was taking care of.
Trixy:So we moved, we did the unthinkable. Moving in high school and I went out and I tried out for cheer and soccer made both Amazing. That's so great. Except for one fun fact Each of them was $1,000. I didn't want to be a burden and so now I panicked. I'm like, okay, let me figure out a way to make this money.
Trixy:Well, I didn't have a worker's permit. I didn't have a ride to work. What I had was old computer paper with the bubbles on the sides and my younger sister's magic markers. So it was at that moment. Am I going to get to make friends right in this new school and actually get in there, or am I going to be limited? Nope, went through and I created my first company called Trixie's Tutor Time. With my sister's magic markers I cut the paper in like six, went across the street to an elementary school that my younger sisters attended and went to the principal and explained what was going on, and he paid it forward by giving me an opportunity and introducing me to the teachers, and within one month I was making more cash than both of my parents combined.
Trixy:But what it taught me more than where there's a will, there's a way and that really resonated with me at that moment was that if you want it, go do it. There's people that are going to support you. But also, hey, let me make my sweet spot the second and third grade community, and I can hire the sixth graders, and now I can expand to another school. So this was like kind of my thinking. And now I can hire my mom to be my driver. So so, really, this is this is all true. And so I got so fascinated that I realized, my goodness, I love business. If this is what business is, amazing, sign me up. So I thought, okay, where, where can I go? Who can I speak to? That is going to teach me the rope so I can learn.
Trixy:And I remembered this family that we grew up, that I grew up with. They made all their money into things in finance, starting bank and real estate. So I marched into Wells Fargo and asked them for a job and they were like, what would you like to do? I said I don't know. Whatever the entry position is, give me that. And I did.
Trixy:And I started as a teller and I must tell you I was the worst teller on the planet. I talked too much, shockingly, and I really wanted to understand my clients and would ask them hey, what are you doing? How's your business? And I learned that my largest depositors consisted of gamblers, tech and real estate. So here I am, maybe 18 years old barely, and I think, all right, well, gambling, not in the cards for me, not trying to do that. Tech was still very new, so real estate it was.
Trixy:So really started to understand okay, what are these groups doing? They explained to me hey, what are these groups doing? They explained to me hey, we're going to the courthouse steps, we're paying in wads of cashier's checks, hence why we're here every day. We're hiring kids your age to go be the runners. And I thought, my goodness, like, if you're buying X amount of houses, why don't you get leverage and you can buy Y? And they were like, because we can't, because banks like you guys will only lend us up to 10 properties. Like, what do you mean? And that's where I started to realize, huh, there's this niche.
Trixy:So these business to business loans weren't really a thing. There was hard money, right, there was a very disorganized, fragmented kind of way of doing it, but there wasn't an institutionalized, formatted way that I was aware of that we can do it. So I thought this is amazing, let me learn this. While I'm living in a dorm room now in college, playing soccer, doing all the things and still working at the bank, let me really understand this and let me figure this out. And I realized this was such an incredible niche and that I could put something together where I could kind of kill both passions, meaning that I could align myself with these groups, help them scale their businesses, and I could feel really good about it because I'm providing housing to the next group. We could take some of these blighted neighborhoods and go back and look with pride of like, hey, we were able to fix that right. We were a part of that solution, helping families create generational wealth.
Trixy:So I set out to do that and learn the business. And you name it. I did it from originating to processing to answering the phone. It was Trixie, party of one. Basically right, I did it all, and today we call that crowdfunding.
Trixy:Back then it was fractionalized lending and so I realized, like my goodness, I have to take charge of this, because if I give the opportunity to the investors, they're going to take the riskiest, highest paying, you know deal and I'm like very risk averse, so let me put a fund together. And that evolved into a company called Genesis Capital and I truly the story is true I really started it with a phone and a desk in like the worst of the worst areas that I was into, where my brother used to have to come and walk me to my car on Fridays because I'd get robbed by a homeless guy every Friday and I mean it was just it's crazy to think about. And and I just loved it we put this together and with a little engine that could, and I'm going to these groups and I'm realizing, my goodness, I need to really get organized here. Right, it's a mess, it's. I can lend you maybe two or three, because that's all the money I have and I can't securitize a paper because it didn't exist on short term money at the time and I got to go raise the money and I got to do this and it was a whole thing.
Trixy:So let me figure out a way to make it look like where I come from the institutional world. So that's what I set out to do and raise money and 5 million, 10 million, like, started at old school. Like I think my first investment was $25,000 from an investor and, by the way, a lot of my investors are still like part of my family today, if you will, in my chosen family. I realized I couldn't raise the money fast enough. I needed to go to a large well, but in order to do that, to get from here to there, I needed to have something else to keep these clients wanting to work with me.
Trixy:I decided to head down on a post-it note, start sketching out an online auction model, because my view was okay, if I can provide the gold, the REO, the short sale at the time, the distressed real estate, then I have a reason for you to hang on with me while I raise the money, because I'm going to raise the money. And so I mean truly old school put that model together, and that was a company called Genesis Auctions that later became Hudson and Marshall, and I had one client and that one client. We were going to give it our all, and it was just. I mean, it was something like out of a movie, right, our first auction, the website, and it crashes and I'm like, okay, don't worry.
Trixy:Ran to the bathroom, threw up, nobody knew, came back and kept going, right, and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, like what, what right? And so, in you know, I look back and I think the, the desire to succeed, the ability to say we're just going to put our heads out and do it, I'm not not going to let this go, I think, is what drove me to say, okay, I'm going to go raise the money and I'm, no matter what, it doesn't matter if I've gone to these groups and they're not ready to hear it. I'm ahead of my time. You name it, I heard it. I was at this point like immune to it, right, like you don't let me in through the door, guess what? I'm coming in through the window.
Trixy:And so um, got my, got Oak tree capital out of downtown to be the first, to my knowledge in this space, to kind of really come in as an institution, gave me the first $250 million in equity and we scaled that to a couple billion dollars a year of loans. So this little company that started with a phone and a desk and a homeless guy turned into this machine and the auction company the same thing. So now we're humming right, we are going, we are cranking, I am hiring people that are far superior than myself, and I'm okay with that because I love to learn. But now it's its own set of challenge. Now you're growth mode, you're scaling.
Trixy:So everything you could possibly have encountered or done wrong, I did it. So feel free to call me, and I mean and truly, and that's how I learned. All of that being said, realized no-transcript, like drop the mic. That's why Because we all are the best at what we do To be able to empower others and to pave the way for women to say hey, you be, you, never let somebody come in and tell you to be different, because I could do three podcasts with you on that part. You know on how many people were. You know adversaries that presented themselves in sheep clothes, right, and so you know you don't realize until you realize. Anyway, sold those companies like you mentioned one to Goldman Sachs, one to Fidelity within nine months of each other.
Audra:So talk about like quite a period. This sounds like a whirlwind. So I want to pause for a second because I am just blown away, because this started as just a curiosity, a curiosity in money and investing. And you went to work for a bank and it started with conversations, curiosity and conversations on how people make money.
Trixy:It makes me tear up. It really brings tears to my eyes because it is the American dream and we have every opportunity to do that for ourselves every day and as kids. I was so young, you have stars in your eyes, right. So what's the difference now as an adult? Usually it's because we listen to the outside chatter, the outside noise.
Audra:that is irrelevant anyways don't the the adults get on got in the way and you just didn't have that. You didn't. No one told you the, the uh, adult version of it, so you didn't have that. So you just went after it. So you started having these conversations and started building these things. So nobody told you the limitations, so you didn't realize there were any limitations. So you started putting these things together. No one told you that you were too young, that it hadn't been done before, so you just did it, yeah, and put it together.
Audra:Yeah, and they told me I didn't hear it, I'm going to put it together and put together these companies and sold this to Goldman Sachs I mean, goldman Sachs, this is, and folks, she didn't just sell it to them for $2. I mean, I assure you this was quite the investment. And selling her other auction company to Fidelity National this is a cornerstone of their business. And selling her other auction company to Fidelity National this is a cornerstone of their business. This auction site that she sold is a cornerstone of their business because it had never been done before and she wasn't told that there were any limitations, so she just built it. She just built it because it wasn't there before, so she did it. She just built it. She just built it because it wasn't there before, so she did it. And the point of this is that she's done it being her and I wanted to stop her because I know that a lot of us are told who we should be or what. Oh, that doesn't fit, or you should be this, or you shouldn't be that, or you're too much this, or you're not enough that Trixie didn't listen to any of that. She just did things that she felt that she needed to do the way she needed to be. Like I said, she's a self-made woman.
Audra:I started this interview by explaining that she is a self-made woman. She built herself and her companies from the ground up, doing this her way on her own. And I guess her name is Trixie, and she walks into boardrooms and she's the only woman in the room. She's the only woman, she's the only Hispanic in the room. Her family's from Cuba and, as the first time she and I met, she says and my name is Trixie, how do you think people greet me? So I'm not going to let, I'm not going to give that away. I'm going to let her tell you how she has been greeted and how she has not let that stop her. So, trixie, I will let you say how people have greeted you and how you have not let those obstacles stand in your way.
Trixy:Well, if they greeted me at all, right, if they greeted me at all, it was very much. Hey, can you get us water coffee? You know whatever, sure, I'm happy to get you tea, water, coffee, I'll bake you a cake, whatever it is that you want. But I'm actually here to get a deal done, right? Your meeting's actually with me and they were like no, no Right.
Trixy:And it was either you fit this norm or you don't. And if you don't which I didn't, clearly it was you know why should we work with you? And it was like, well, hey, at least give me a chance. And then I could see, after the first five minutes, 10 minutes, then I could see the understanding in their eyes. It was kind of like this oh, my God, she really knows what she's talking about. So then it was, you know, because I can't tell you how many times it was well, you don't look like what I expected or you know, and whatever.
Trixy:It was always a comment of that. I didn't look or sound or, on paper, fit the mold. And so I mean, it got to the point where I was like, yeah, you're right, I don't look like you, you're a hundred percent right, I'm not a man or I'm not a this or I'm not like you're a hundred percent right and I am totally okay in my own skin and I had so many times where I had people, including women, try and say to me well, you need to go in and put your hair in a bun and no makeup, and flat shoes and a double-breasted suit, and that's amazing and that's great and I love that. But that was not me. I'm pink, I enjoy being feminine, that's just my thing, right. And so, basically, I was being told don't be yourself, come fit and conform to this and go figure out how to try and make yourself be someone else. Well, I can't. I can't rewrite my history. All I can do is use that to fuel me. All I can do is say hey, listen, I've been there. I understand what it's like to have literally less than nothing and see somebody and think to yourself at three years old why do they live in the main house and I live in the guest house? What's the difference? I wasn't bitter, I was curious to your point, so let me go figure out how to do that. And so to me. I ended up looking at it and laughing inside, thinking I'm going to use this all the way to the bank, meaning you're going to knock me on my name tricksy, or that I don't do this, or perfect, no problem, because at the end I know we're doing something together and I'm the one cashing the check, so happy to do it. So it just became something that just didn't let bother me.
Trixy:And I remember asking my dad why did you name me Trixie? You know all the names and my dad's name is, in Spanish, is Enrique. And he chose Henry. And he said to me you know, trixie, we were new to this country, I didn't read the language. Your mom goes into labor. She thinks you're going to be a boy. So she had chosen a boy's name. And here I am and you're a girl. And she was kind of like you did this to me, you figure it out Right?
Trixy:Went to the nurses and I said can you help me? What should I name this baby? And they gave him a name book. Well, he was reading the opposite side of the page, because that's what they were telling him the meaning in Latin. And in Latin it meant bringer of joy. And he said that's why I named you Trixie. And he said to me something I'll never forget. He said you are your name, you make your name, and I stuck to that hook, line and sinker because that is so true of all of us. We are, we make our own name in whatever capacity that we want to. And those were words that, as simple as they sounded, they resonated with me, and so much so that you know you use it to fuel, to fuel what you're trying to accomplish, to fuel what you're trying to accomplish.
Audra:That is why I have admired you for so long, and it has just taken us 10 years to get to know each other. What I didn't say in the beginning is that Trixie and I actually worked for the same company over a decade ago and we just never got the opportunity to meet. I had wanted to, just circumstances didn't allow for it, and it was just by complete coincidence maybe divine intervention, you call it whatever you'd like that we got introduced through this medium. And that was the first thing I said to her. I said, by the way, I've admired you for a long time, and I was afraid she thought I'd be a weirdo, but, much to my delight, she did not. She did not.
Audra:I said I admired you because you have built yourself from the ground up, and I really, really admire women that build themselves from the ground up and don't let anybody or anything dictate who they are and don't let society try to tell them who they're supposed to be or how they should shapeshift or any of that. And that was one of the things that I wanted to get across to all of you, because that is something that I have personally struggled with, because in this crazy world that we're in. There's so many rules and so many messaging that we get that we're just trying really hard to just make a success of ourselves and there's just so many things and so many different messaging that we get many things and so many different messaging that we get. And I'm fine For me personally, I'm finally feeling comfortable, at the ripe old age of 53, of finally comfortable, of being in my own skin and being totally okay with it and showing everybody that this is me. If you don't like it, that's just too bad.
Audra:And Trixie's been doing it, naturally, all her whole life because she didn't listen to the rules and it was really important that we reinforce that to all of you because she's done this successfully and we don't want the rest of you, the younger generation, the younger generations coming behind us, not to make the same mistakes that I've made and many of the other women that are in my same generation that we have made, just because we got bad information. We got really bad information, not for anybody's fault other than we didn't know any better. People told us the wrong thing. Trixie was fortunate enough that she had blinders on. I didn't always get blinders, I just got really bad information and a lot of us got really bad information, which is why I'm such a big admirer of Trixie's that she was just like I'm single-minded, I am curious.
Audra:I am curious about how other people make money, and she had the foresight to start asking questions, and I think that that's remarkable. When you're asking these questions and you're building businesses and you're still building businesses, by the way, I mean, even though you have sold off other businesses you don't just sit on your laurels and go yeah, I'm good, you still have a curiosity about other businesses. I mean, you're not one to just go. Hmm, you're going to keep going because that's just your personality. What do you tell other women when they're like you know, this doesn't feel comfortable, I want to keep building something. What do you tell them when they're like I have this nudge to build something, but I just don't know quite what it is. How would you advise them? So?
Trixy:to me. I look at it and see two things. You can look at opportunity and if you get stuck there because sometimes we do look at the problems what are the problems that are being faced? What are the challenges? So in my businesses, for example, when I have a challenge and an issue, I'm thinking, okay, we have this challenge and this issue that I would assume others do as well. So what type of a solution can we put into place that helps our immediate today need but also helps others for when they come through this? And voila, you've got another, either revenue stream or company and truly you end up looking at the world that way and you see opportunity everywhere. It's rethinking and reshaping how you view everything.
Trixy:I tell women all the time look. The best example I can give you is we love to beat ourselves up. So before we even go into a tough situation, we're mad at ourselves for something and we're juggling templates. Let's say, juggling kids, work this, whatever the templates are. And we're juggling templates. Let's say, juggling kids, work this, whatever the templates are. But we're juggling them, okay, and we drop one. Of course we're human. We drop one, maybe two, and we focus on that for so long that we go into the battlefield, so to speak, already at a disadvantage, with that voice in our head and this familiar tape of like all the negativity.
Trixy:And I tell women all the time stop, stop right there. The opportunity is right in front of you. Focus on the fact that you were juggling 10 and you were juggling eight very efficiently. How many people can say, hey, I can do that? Not that many. And you didn't drop them. You focus on the eight. That's amazing. I have eight plates that I'm juggling and I think if we change our mind, shift as women, as people, it's by nature. You change it in your business or in your workplace, or you give yourself permission at that point to really use your creativity to then go and launch out on your own, because until then, it's right here. That is where we're stopped and, yes, I got very lucky that I was so young and I had a win at 14, because somebody was willing to take a shot on me. We have to then be that somebody to be willing to take a shot on somebody else.
Trixy:But the story would be very different if it was failure after failure after failure. It would be a very different story, perhaps very similar outcome, because you know you grit and you white knuckle it, but it wouldn't have been the same formation. Why would we do that to ourselves and just focus on the negative, the negative, the negative of what we missed? To give you an example, I was in a room full of young entrepreneurs, midsize entrepreneurs and everybody, and I said okay, we're going to write down everything that we want to improve on as a person. First, we'll get to the business Pages and we're actually physically write it down Writing, writing, writing, writing.
Trixy:People asking for more time. Truly, okay, we got it. Now flip over the page, or here's three new pages because you wrote so much. Focus and write down the things that you know you do. Well, crickets, people wrote down on average two things. Two, are you kidding me? You're juggling 30,000 plates every day and you're two. And it broke my heart and I thought my goodness, we have our work cut out for us. We need to shift how we, as women, view ourselves, because if we don't, we are setting our own limitations. So forget about even starting something, because we can't even get off first base, because we don't believe that we can. So that's my biggest advice to women Change the narrative in your head. They're just tapes playing in your head anyway. Let's just put a new one in. Forget the noise, forget the drama, forget the negativity, let's just put a new one. And it starts with us.
Audra:Yeah, it's just it's. It's the old, it's old feedback that unfortunately, we inherited. I've said that a lot in on different shows is that it's just we've inherited this, this old cultural dialogue that there's something wrong with us. There's nothing wrong with us, that's. We're actually pretty damn awesome. If you got an, if you want to know the truth. We are the bringers of life. Let's face it. We bring life and that is pretty remarkable when you get down to it. We've just been culturally conditioned to think there's something wrong with that. There's walk into any store anywhere and it's a store and aisles full of products. That's convinced women to feel like there's something wrong with them. They're just trying to sell you something. They're just trying to sell you something. That's it. So change the mindset.
Audra:I have been threatening for six months now to start a journal and writing things down, and do you know what that works? I know people have been telling me I've had experts on my show telling me for months to write down things in a journal that it works, it works, it works. Okay, I'm not great at this, but you know I finally did it. I'm stubborn. I'm a slow learner. I don't know what to tell you, trixie, I'm slow, but I finally did it. And you know what works. It really does To reprogram the things that you say to yourself. It works, and the way that you talk to yourself starts to change how you act on the outside. It's the strangest thing. But then people start to notice and it starts to get contagious.
Trixy:It's the most interesting thing. You're 100% right. I love that. I love that, and there's something about that process of writing it down and reading it and seeing it and writing. It's almost like you open up the possibilities of huh. I have choices here. What am I going to choose to tell myself? And I always ask people would you speak to someone else other than your significant other or your spouse? Would you speak to someone else the way you speak to yourself? The answer is always no. So if we can work on that, if we can change that, then I think we can accomplish anything, because I truly believe that we are smart enough to figure out what it is that we want to do, work backwards from there, and there's a business and, like I said before, you're always building something.
Audra:But what I love about what you're building is that not everything you build is a success, but it's a constant trial. You don't let just something that doesn't necessarily take off as a success. You never say, oh, this has crushed me, I'm a failure, I'm never doing this again. You're like, okay, well, that is one way that didn't work, let me try something different that maybe it will work. How would you advise women that are like maybe they're not building a business, but maybe they're trying a different way to be successful at work? How do you advise women that are like I've tried this, but this doesn't feel good, or I've tried this and it doesn't feel like it's working? How do you advise them when they're like I'm still feeling stuck and you, like I said, you are the queen of reinvention, you have made it an art form and there's no one better at it? How do you advise them with that? I?
Trixy:advise them to take a step back and let's identify what the problem really is. Okay, let's start there. So a lot of times I like to whiteboard because I can see it. Okay, however, works for you. That's what I tell people to do. But take a step back and realize, okay, what is the problem If you're in the workplace and you can't further your career and you've gone to your boss three times, or you're in a business and you can't scale it to the next level, whatever the issue is, take a step back.
Trixy:Identify the issue Okay, and there's usually subsets of it, or there's two things, but it's not a hundred things. Like it feels, because it can feel very overwhelming. The walls are caving in, the world's just falling apart. That's how it feels. That's a feeling. That's not a fact. So, identify the issue and then take responsibility for that. So like when I, to your point, I've had many failures, everybody has but I don't just like sweep them under the rug. I want to know where did I miss? Let me actually learn from that. I missed here, here and here. There's your areas on improvement. I don't dwell on it, no, then go and make the next machine bigger and better. So, identify the issue. Take responsibility for okay, I can improve these little things, whatever it is. Make sure it's not a them issue, meaning a lot of times what we take on, especially as women, is someone else's problem. We just take it on because we're trying to make everybody around us happy, because, didn't you know that's also one of our plates that we're supposed to do. So make sure that it's not a them issue. Make sure that it's really real and if it is a them issue that is impacting your life or your business or your workplace, address it the exact same way. Let's take a step back. Let's look at what it is. Let's come up with some solutions, what would work, and then seek wise counsel.
Trixy:At that point, when you've identified it and you understand, go find somebody that you respect. What they've done, whether it's in life, in business, whatever. Go speak to a couple of people, find wise counsel, inform yourself. How have others done it? Don't be afraid to ask People that are on the journey or have made it or whatever. They're very willing usually to help. You're not asking them for trade secrets. You're not asking them to do something. You're just asking, talking, ask. Don't be afraid of that. Ask right.
Trixy:Sometimes you feel like I don't want to be an imposition. Oh, I don't want to bother them. Bother be an imposition because they'll do it to you. So for that second, be a little bit selfish and say, hey, I want to pick your brain about this. You know how much I've learned from people, to the point where I'll go to a dinner and I have my little moleskin you know notebook and I'm taking notes because I'm there to learn, right, I want to understand where, how did you go through this, or what did you do, or how do you suggest that I can do that?
Trixy:And a lot of times you might say, well, I don't really have that, I don't really have that circle. You actually do. You have it at your resources, right, you have it at your fingertips. We can look it up. We can ask just take a look at who are the people you're working with. Are there, you know? Is there counsel, is there legal? You have that, you really do. When you take a step back, you're efficient, right To be at that point where, even thinking about these things, you're an efficient, qualified woman. So you do have resources. You're savvy enough to go find more, because a lot of times the resources in our friend group and our circle may be here and we need it to be here.
Trixy:Okay, that's a different situation. Let's figure out how to get that. For me that was very much the case. I didn't have exposure. I didn't have the right room to walk into. I didn't even know the right room existed, let alone how I'm going to get in there. So once you start to see that and you have more exposure, your world starts to change because you start to realize, huh, other people have gone through this too, I'm not the only one. And when you have that moment it doesn't feel so scary and intense. That's when you can actually solve it. But until you have that, huh, I can you know others have I can get through this. Nothing's going to change, no matter how much you want it to, because it starts with your own thinking.
Audra:This is why I admire her so much. This is why she's built so many companies and has evolved and changes, because the problems to solve are really not as big as that we make them out to be. It's scaling it all down to something that is much smaller than what we think it is and solving the smaller problem first and then worrying about the bigger problems, because it really is the smaller problem that's in front of you that needs to be solved, and then, from what I'm hearing, it's a domino effect and the larger ones get can get more easily solved after that core problem is solved first, which is, I think, is how the opportunities happen, too. Correct, absolutely, absolutely.
Audra:What's the biggest surprise of this journey that you've had in this amazing career, which I know that you didn't plan? This has just been through, like I said, curiosity and excitement and wanting to have more than than what you that you came with. You wanted. You wanted more for your family and your family wanted to have more than what they had had in Cuba. So what has been your biggest surprise?
Trixy:So there are so many right, there are so many things that are unexpected. But as far as a surprise, I think that I was surprised to see that business is business, meaning you could take good business practices and principles and apply them throughout all industries. That was surprising to me because, to our point of what we were talking about earlier, you get so linear in your thinking in your own little box, in your own little industry, in your own little whatever right, own little industry and your own little whatever right, that it's hard to take a step back, probably similar to like a kid realizing it's a big, great big world, not just my little friend group or my little soccer team or whatever. It's kind of like that right. So I kind of felt like, oh, I mean, I heard this a million times but I had never experienced it. So I was very surprised that some of the things and some of the tools and some of the good habits and some of the knowledge transcended into other spaces and that was so exciting because that was not just validating for me, that was validating for my team.
Trixy:Right, like, here we are, we built something out of nothing and guess what? That something can also be applied and help other entrepreneurs in their journeys. That was a huge surprise. It's one thing to hear it, it's one thing to have experienced it and continue to do so, to your point, like I'm never stopping. I'm working on five companies right now. You know what I mean and I love it. I love it. I see a challenge, I see an opportunity, and here you go, we have an ecosystem of sorts.
Audra:And you work with the same team that you've had for over 10 years.
Trixy:Yes, almost 20, if you can believe it. Yeah, it means 20 years. They just keep coming with you. You see each other through. You know graduations, deaths, divorces, children. You name it. You name it. So you really get to understand what leadership can be built into. Right, and they don't need me anymore. These women are powerhouses, they don't need me. We just choose to work together because we see things in a very similar light. Right, we're very like-minded wasn't always that way with others, you know, or whatever, and as you grow, you expand and evolve, but being able to do it together is such an incredible, such an incredible feeling and opportunity to do it.
Audra:I think what you just said was really amazing of that sentiment of you don't have to, sentiment of you don't have to, you choose to. You have built a team based on integrity and trust of this core group of women that you don't have to do this, you want to. It is a choice that you enjoy each other so much that you trust each other so much that it is a joy to get to work with each other each and every day. It is my hope that we all get to find that. I think that is something that we all aspire to get the privilege of doing, and I hope I get to do that someday. That is what I try to do every single day. I think that's a lot of what I have tried to create with this platform is that it is a joy that I get to do every single day and hope that it inspires other people to do things that bring them joy too.
Trixy:Oh, absolutely. You are doing it every day and you'll never know the full impact and the ripple effect that you have. With what you're doing, you're creating a platform that really changes people's lives, not just their businesses or their thinking. It changes lives because that ripple effect of that woman and her kids and their friends and and and I mean it's incredible. So what you're doing is incredible, it's incredible.
Audra:So what you're doing is incredible. Well, like I said, I started this interview because I wanted you all to know Trixie. I wanted you all just get a glimpse of her life, because she is an amazing woman. You just got to get a glimpse of her and I just wanted you to get to know her. That, until you can get to know yourselves a little bit better because it doesn't matter your background, your education, your origins, nothing, it doesn't matter what your challenges are, what pitfalls are in front of you, nothing matters. You can create whatever it is from wherever you are, wherever you are.
Audra:Trixie just said that she has run into so many pitfalls and I know that she has also fallen flat on her face. I know that because she has told me it doesn't matter. You can start from wherever you're at and create whatever you want. That is why I wanted you all to meet Trixie, because she has done it over and over and over again. She is the master of her own destiny and if she can do it, each and every one of you can do it. So, trixie, what gets you up in the morning? Because, like I said, you are the master of your own destiny. But what is it that gets you up in the morning to do all that.
Trixy:I absolutely love it because I think of how many lives can it impact, how much good can we do In whatever vehicle, in whatever fashion. It's a part of building something and trying to be a value add in everything that you do. A passion for me and it's always been to be able to say, hey, if I can inspire the next person, if somebody can say a young kid or a young girl or a young, whomever, can look at it and say, huh, I have similar challenges. I'm first generation, I don't have the resources. I wasn't even thinking about going to college or whatever the situation may be. I'm living proof. Yes, you can. You can do all of it and I know you can do all of it, you will do all of it, and if I can be helpful in any little piece of that journey for them, it's a huge win. So to me, that's the everything, that's the why.
Audra:So what's next for you?
Trixy:Well, I've got all sorts of things going on, very much real estate and finance related. You know, I can't help myself back at it again with a lending company. We've got a bunch of different things, but you'll see, I've got some stuff that is really exciting because it's different industries, but it's solving a solution right, it's solving a problem, excuse me, with a solution, and I'm really excited because I've gotten to now align with really interesting people same team, right, aligning with others, and it's a new experience for me on some of these, because it's building someone else's dream that I've come on board, right, I've got an engineer and he and I are working on something right, and so there's all sorts of different things that I'll be showing on my website and, you know, making aware and available to everybody over the next few months. But I can't help myself. I cannot help myself. I love it. It's my form of art. I will always be an entrepreneur, like. I just can't help myself.
Audra:You know what. That's what makes you so, so special. That's what you were put on this planet to do. You were plant. This is this is what you were put on this planet to create. You were put on this planet to create other businesses and put and create wealth for other people. I mean that there is. There is dignity in that. You've created small businesses. You've created the American dream for other people. There is a lot of integrity in that. I hope so. So there is an amazing, amazing gift in that, and that is just like I said. You are a self-made woman and there's not enough good things I can say about you. Before we go and I want to make sure everybody knows where to reach you I always give an opportunity where you get to have an intimate moment direct with the audience, without me interrupting you and asking you a bunch of questions. So I'm going to step back from the mic and let you have that moment. So the mic is yours, thank you.
Trixy:My biggest, biggest piece of advice is remember one thing you matter, you are the business. You 100% deserve the best, not the end, the scraps of the end of the day when we're exhausted. Invest in yourself. Do the things that make you feel good, whether it's a workout, meditating, whatever it is. Make yourself that priority. Unlock that way of thinking so that you can focus on the eight plates, because I'm sure those eight plates are really 25 plates and there's so much more that you will continue to unlock about yourself. That, in terms of the dollars follow, the money follows. That's all great, but it's being free in yourself to be able to get out there and be creative in whatever avenue that you want. And it starts with our thinking and our putting ourselves first, completely opposite of what we're taught every day. We're taught make everybody else a priority, make everybody else happy. Do all the things I'm not saying. Don't do the things I'm saying. Just make sure that you remember that you matter, that you are the business. Focus on building yourself, making yourself happy. The rest will follow.
Audra:Thank you, but thank you for the reminder, because we forget, yes, we forget. We're so busy doing all the things and the priorities that we're supposed to do that we forget. So thank you for providing me to us when can we reach you if we want to know more about you, if we want to talk to you, if we're curious, we want to know what you're working on. Where can we find you?
Trixy:Well, I'm new to being front facing, meaning all these years I've been just building companies, so I've got a website, trixiecastrocom, and I'm new to being front-facing, meaning all these years I've been just building companies. So I've got a website, trixiecastrocom, and I'm getting better at putting all the things and making it very interactive and all the things. So more to come on that, but TrixieCastrocom will take you to everything.
Audra:I'll make sure that that link is in the show notes so it'll make it easy for them to get to you. And as you get social media, I'll make sure that we're all tagged so everybody can get to that as well. Yes, please, thank you, and, trixie, thank you again for being here. Thank you for being so vulnerable and transparent and sharing your story with us, because it is inspiring and it is important for everybody to know what they're capable of, because everybody is truly capable of brilliance if they just allow themselves. So thank you for being here and sharing your story with them.
Trixy:Thank you so much for having me truly, Really, it's an honor.
Audra:Thank you so much. Thank you, and thank all of you once again for listening and we'll see you again next time.
