Episode 9: Ral West

Hey, everybody. It's Mandy McAllister with the Power of Your Life podcast. We just finished recording with REL West and this woman and her commitment to living the dream and her, extensive entrepreneurship background and the focus on working on your business rather than in your business resonates so much with me and every member of GoBundance Women. Anyone who's building, a big life, a big business, and and needs that space for their life, not just their business, you're you're really gonna get a ton of value out of our conversation with Raul.

But before we get started, let me tell you a little about a little bit about my new friend, Raul. She is a visionary business leader and systemization expert who employs her four plus decades of entrepreneurial expertise and her passion for business in her newest newest endeavor, Raul West, living the dream. See? I told you. Raul teaches entrepreneurs how to be an owner rather than an operator in their business so they can have a successful business and life that they deserve.

She and her husband have founded several businesses, one notably achieving 8 figures in annual revenue before being acquired by Alaska Airlines. Super interesting, exit there. Raul is a master at the at practical implementation of business theories to create effective progress that transform businesses and multiply success. She and her husband live in Alaska and Hawaii, and when they're not jet setting around the world, they go on tons of adventures.

So, more information can be found on rawest.com. So, let's dig in. Excited to show you this episode. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast. I'm Mandy McAllister.

And I'm Kelly Resendez.

And we could not be more excited today to have with us, Raul West. Raul, you have just, you are such a bright light. I am so excited to to dig in with you today. Why don't you kick us off by letting us know a little bit about your progression in your own words?

Okay. Well, it's a long story because I started my entrepreneurship over four decades ago. I'm much, younger. I mean, I started when I was like two, you know? Anyway, I, moved to Anchorage, Alaska in the early 1980s and started a little marketing consulting firm. And there I met my husband. He liked the idea of traveling to Hawaii, which is what I was doing to represent some of my clients. I I specialized in the tourism industry.

And so he started a business to, take people to Hawaii. And, I merged my tourism expertise with his expertise in selling and and creating product. And we grew a business together for twenty five years. Grew it to eight digits in annual revenue, and then we sold it to Alaska Airlines.

But before we did that, we worked ourselves out of a job. We figured out that we could not be the mom and pop running this business with our hands in every single pie and, you know, twirling all the plates ourselves. So we developed systems and nurtured our team and our culture and used leverage. And we got out of the day to day operation, bought a house in Maui, bought a yacht, you know, started living the dream while our company just grew and grew and grew. And it was, it was fabulous.

So we went on after that to, to enter into a couple of other industries after selling that business. We've been involved in buying and leasing and selling small cruise ships, and we've been involved in the multifamily real estate space syndications. We're partners in over 6,000 apartment units across the country.

And, then two years ago, I decided to start another business. So I said, and my adult daughter said, mom, you need to teach people how you have developed this life where you can run your businesses and still take six weeks to travel in Europe and do whatever you wanna do, go off on your yacht. Everybody wants to be like you. So I thought, okay, well, I don't know anything about this personal brand stuff, but, you know, hey, I'm young enough to learn. So I jumped in and started a business called Raul West living the dream. Oh, I did. And I did entrepreneurs how to do what we did, you know, get out of the day to day work on your business instead of in it. Be the owner, not the operator of your business. So that's what I'm doing. I have an online course and a newsletter on LinkedIn and I'm just going strong.

That's all you've done? I mean, you guys have done anything else? I mean, anybody listening is like, I wanna be raw when I grow up. Like it's crazy. There are a few other things that I've done, but those are the main ones. Oh, absolutely incredible.

I I love the living the living the dream moniker. You know? That that is exactly you choose to speak into existence what what you do.

But, you know, before this exit to, Alaska Airlines, before all these tremendous wins that you've had in your life, you know, there had to have been a time on that journey where you felt stuck, where there were times that you you didn't know what to do next.

Talk to me a little bit about any strategy or things that you do to get unstuck when you feel that way.

Oh my goodness. Where do I start? Yes. Well, there were times I'll just go back to the, the dark days of, you know, being exhausted all the time and working, you know, night and day, raising a young family. In fact, we joke that it took us ten years to have our second kid because we were too busy to, you know, do what we needed to do. So so we have two daughters ten years apart, you know. And so I was, you know, I was even hiring people to help me take the kids to school and and cook for us and so forth because I didn't have time for any of that. And, yeah, something had to change because my health was suffering. I was overweight. I was very out of shape. You know, the idea of having time to exercise just like, yeah. Right. You know? You know? Sleep comes first. Thank you. And then exercise.

So, you know, it was through a series of, reading books and talking with our mentors and getting ideas for how to how to grow the business. And I I say that probably the biggest boon to that effort was a book that was recommended to us by Robert Kiyosaki himself. We had lunch with him on the Big Island back in 1994 or so, and he said, get the E Myth by Michael Gerber. Mhmm. And we picked it up that afternoon at the bookstore, and, you know, we still had bookstores back then. And we devoured that book and said, oh my god. This is what we need to do.

And Michael Gerber taught about how to create, duplicatable systems in your business, teaching other people to do what you do and, you know, duplicating yourself, making sure that all of your processes, all of your tasks and procedures and mundane things that that you do, that you feel like I'm the only one that can handle this. Nobody else can do what I do. And that's, you know, hooey and you have to figure out how to teach other people how to do it. So we worked on that. It did not happen overnight. It took us years to get ourselves out of that day to day and teach our team.

We had to work intentionally on the culture to to to build a team that was, empowered. And we developed some guiding principles that would be like, my husband would call it like the the snow fence. You know, we live in Alaska, so as long as you're on the road and in between the snow fences, you're doing good. So, you know, give them the parameters and allow them to make decisions within those parameters. And be okay with the fact that maybe some of those decisions aren't exactly what we would have done, but hey, does it meet the need? Does it serve the purpose? Is it serving our customers?

That's another thing that we did. We implemented total quality management to make sure that our our customers and delighting our customers was very much at the center of our entire culture and our organization because we knew that we needed repeat business. We were chartering wide body jets, taking people from Alaska to Hawaii. You know, there weren't enough people in Alaska to fill those jets over and over again. We had to get the same people going, you know, two or three times a year sometimes to to make our business successful. So that's what we focused on.

And, you know, yeah, there were a lot of, you know, head scratchers and I, you know, I don't know how we can do this and, you know, business is growing and we can't keep up, but you just, you know, take it one step at a time

And just work out. As you as you created those systems, as you delegated more, tell tell me a little bit about that journey then to start taking care of yourself. Did it give you the freedom then to be able to do that?

When did that come in to obviously, you are super healthy and one of the most present people. And and to even imagine you being different than that is a little bit impossible almost. So how did that journey go?

Yeah. It was not, an overpaid thing either. So I had fits and starts. You know? I, would get into exercise and, you know, it didn't happen until later in life.

And, I would say that, there were there were years that, you know, like a few years here and a few years there that I'd be okay. I'm really committed to to working out and that would go really well for a while. And then something would happen. I'd get injured or something and I'd I'd fall off and, you know, go back and the weight would come back on and all that.

But for the last, what is it's the last six years, I've been very, very dedicated to staying healthy and eating right. And I work out, in fact, right after this, I am going to the gym and working out in between doing a couple of podcasts. So, you know, I just I just make it a priority in my life now.

So, yeah, it's it's gotta be something that you put up at the top of the list and you don't compromise on it. And I'll tell you, there were days that, you know, I feel sick or I'm tired and I don't wanna go to the gym. I don't wanna do this, but, you know, you just just bite the bullet and do

it. So just don't idea exactly. It's the idea of if you say it's a priority. If you wanna know if it's really a priority, show me how you spend your money, show me how you spend your time. It sounds like health is actually really a priority right now.

And Kelly and I are cofounders of GoBundance Swim, and we're the tribe of healthy, wealthy, generous women who choose to lead epic lives. And so many things that you're going that you've talked about resonates so deeply with with every woman in our our group. The the setting aside your health and not making yourself the priority because you've got all these other mouths to help feed because of your business and the need to manage your way out of it, that is so incredibly important to every entrepreneur that's part of our organization. So thank you for for your insight there.

I'm also curious that, the idea of entrepreneurship in general, it's not the normal path. Right? It's not the what we're taught, like the go get good grades, like the Robert Kiyosaki message. Talk to me about, the idea of unconventional strategies that you've got, unconventional opinions that people might not agree with because you've gotta kinda have that air of, unconventionality to get into entrepreneurship.

How do you feel about that? Yeah. Well, I think I was lucky that I was born into an entrepreneurial family. So the idea of, you know, hey, just do it. Just take the chance and put yourself out there was, was part of our family culture. And I remember sitting down with my dad when I was wanting to start my first little business and, you know, his words were, Yeah, go for it. See what you can do. And, you know, if I failed, okay, then I failed and I would go do something else.

But, you know, it starts with having the belief that, you know, anything is possible. My mother had a little saying, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. And so I think I was just imbued with that kind of, attitude and, mindset. And I think that's the key to being successful really in anything, but particularly as an entrepreneur, you've got to have faith that you can make it happen. And you've gotta have faith in yourself.

And yes, there are very discouraging times. There's times when, gee, it's not working out the way I wanted, but you just have to, you know, pick yourself up and, you know, and then I also do a little deep digging into my, my soul and sort of ask my higher power, you know, what is it that I'm supposed to be doing? Should I be continuing this path? And, you know, time and again, I get the answer. Go for it. Go for it. Just put yourself out there.

And, you know, it's, it's easy to say the worst thing that can happen is that you can fail. And, you know, those of us who, you know, fail as a four letter word, you know, I don't want to do that, but you do have to get comfortable with, you know, making mistakes and it not being perfect. The goal is not perfection. And, you know, being a, people sometimes call themselves recovering perfectionists.

I would be me. You know, yeah. I'd call myself that. Yeah.

So we really have to, you know, cure ourselves of that because it's not gonna be perfect. It's not gonna be pretty all the time. So you just have to just have to go for it. And I I think that's the key is just, you know, just try one thing after another and don't give up.

I remember when, in our business, we had a really disastrous situation where the the the airlines that we were using to get people to Hawaii is before we start chartering. They pulled out of our market. We had no way to get our our passengers, our customers to Hawaii. And we sat down over lunch and said, you know, maybe we should just close the doors. We don't we don't owe anybody any money because we started with nothing, just just ourselves.

So, you know, the answer came to us, no, this is a service that's really needed. It's a product that people in Alaska really want, so we have to find a way. So I just said, you know, there's no such thing as a dead end. We're gonna make this work. We're gonna figure something out. And before long, John had found an airplane that was available to be chartered, and people thought we were crazy.

You know, you were talking about, you know, the naysayers. What are you doing? We were gonna charter this plane in the summertime in Alaska. And people, you know, said, people don't go to Hawaii from Alaska in the summer, summer is when everybody wants to be in Alaska. Why would you charter this jet in the summer?

And I I looked at my numbers. I I studied the spreadsheets of what we'd actually produced over the previous years. And I said, no. We've got the numbers. We can fill this one plane. We can do it. And so we did. And John's an amazing salesperson, and we filled every seat. And particularly, he was motivated because we used his mother's retirement account as collateral for the charter guarantee.

So Wow. Motivate you. So that's another aspect of being an entrepreneur is that you you gotta take a big gulp and take some risks sometimes.

Yeah. So next question here. Like, one of the things that we've noticed, especially you know, you you know, you've done for yourself now and putting yourself first is there. But are there other things that you've always done that really you attribute some of your success to?

Well, I am a planner and an organizer, and I live I used to create lists, you know, of things to do. And I'm sure you, you know, sticky notes everywhere, you know, that kind of thing. But, quite a few years ago, probably over a dozen years ago, I got into some software that helped me organize everything. And that's my my bible, my my go to. I call it my brain. You know, if I don't have that, you know, I I can't do anything.

So, last thing every night, first thing every morning, I check what it is that I need to be doing, what are the highest priority things, and I shift things around to make sure that I've got the time to do the things that are the most critical. So I'm I'm constantly working that, and this, app keeps track of everything for me. Not just business, but all my personal life. You know, birthdays, Christmas, you know, you name doctors Wow. Everything.

So I What is that? I'm like, which app is that? Little marketing here for them. Right? Well, it's called OmniFocus.

But it you know, it's been around for a long long time and there are many many others that are newer that are just as good. But, you know, I'm into this one and it would take me Yeah. So many hours to, you know, to transition everything to another app. Figure as long as this one's working, you know, why throw it out? Yeah. Yeah.

But it keeps growing. They keep, you know, improving the app. And, you know, it just it organizes things by project. So you can, you know, look at a particular project and see what's coming up.

You know? You can you can say It's like that which project board is the best or which CRM is the best. The one you'll use

is the best. Yes. You know? So just making sure you're fully engaged. Some people just use their calendar or the the little reminders app. And I'm like, yeah. Okay. That's fine.

But my life's a little bit more complicated than that. I don't think that my little reminders app could keep up with everything. So, I mean, I I use it to, remind myself when to pay property taxes and, you know, everything.

So That's awesome. Yeah. My name is have a digital twin platform

that we are we're launching and and one of the things you said, it's it's called a brain. It basically takes all of your content and and uses it so that even when you're own tired, you're tired, you can even ask your AI brain, like, what would I do in this situation?

So, I think a lot of us that are that are very productive and have a lot of different things that we're focused on. We need that support and it's not, you know, it's not weakness. I think it's a strength that we can lean on some of these other technologies

as well. Yeah. Although I do get teased a lot for, you know, being sort of a a slave to this to this app. Your brain is meant

What's that? Absolutely. Your your brain is meant to, like, use information to move it through, not meant to hold things. So having that second brain to hold things clears things up so that you can, you know, really think things through.

Oh, yeah. I I know. And my daughters tease me all the time about how my memory's not as good as it used to be. And I said, yeah. That's because my hard drive is full.

Yeah. I always I tell my my nannies that, oh my god. I used to be so smart. You know? And then all of this business stuff and the family and all of the things, I I feel that in a big way.

Yeah. You know, that leads us into larger hard drive. I I know. Gotta get an upgrade.

This leads us into, like, a an another really important piece that I think is an actionable actionable potential nugget for our listeners. When when you're lacking clarity, when you don't know the decision to make, you know, getting really clear on where you're going is the best way to get to where you wanna go. But when you're lacking that clarity, tell me a little bit about what you do to gain clarity so that you're headed in the right direction.

You have to stop for a little bit and, you know, slow things down and, you know, think about it. And I remember being told by one of my mentors, if you can't make the decision, then don't. You know, sometimes, sometimes you're just not ready to make that decision. So wait until it becomes clear to you. And I think sometimes we we push it. We force ourselves to, I gotta make this decision. I gotta choose. Well, you know, sometimes that answer is not clear. Maybe you need more data. Maybe you just need more time. Maybe you need a good sleep. I don't know whatever it is, you know? And so do give yourself the opportunity to get that clarity, and it's not gonna come just because you will it, you know?

So, and then another thing that I learned along the way is that when you're operating in chaos, it's like being in the middle of a windstorm and the leaves are just whirling all around you. You can't think. You're you are not thinking straight. You can't. So you have to slow things down and take one leaf at a time and just pick it out of the air and put it down and and create what's called stable datum and, you know, get clear on just one or two, you know, and then again and again and again until that chaos kind of settles down. And then things become more clear. So, you know, give yourself that opportunity to get the clarity, but take it one piece at a time.

So sometimes, you know, you have ten, sixteen, 20, whatever things going on at once. We're, you know, especially females, we're so good at multitasking. Well, sometimes that's not a good thing to do. So sometimes you just need to slow it down and say, okay. What's the one thing that I can actually handle and get done right now? And then then that leads you to the next thing and so forth. Love that. I feel like you're speaking into my soul, Ralph.

Absolutely. Holy moly. So, man, there were just so many amazing, you know, ideas and actionable steps that you've given us today. But I think for me what's really resonated is is just slowing down and listening and waiting. A lot of times, you know, I I have a lot of faith. And and like you, just I I do wait sometimes for that guidance, but we do need to slow down enough to do it.

Some other things that you've said is anything is possible. That unconventional belief. So many of us have just played it safe and have taken the easy route of just certainty. And I think uncertainty is where the magic happens and that willingness to fail. So those were just really the top highlights for me. So thank you so much for that. Mhmm. And be

I I completely agree with those. The anything is possible and then just go for it. I I mean, a very building block of entrepreneurship is figuring out how to work on your business rather than in it. And that's slowing down that thinking time, the the ideas of how do I affect change and create these SOPs, so things that are recreatable without my hands is the only path to scale.

And I I also really loved I say a lot that, if you wanna look at any problem, the easiest way to solve it is to to get as close to truth as possible. I love that you went to the numbers. When people were saying, oh, it can't be done, you just went to the truth. You went to the numbers and you showed that it could, and then you went for it. That that is incredibly commendable.

Well, thanks. And that's one of the principles that I teach is tracking your numbers.

You know? I love it. Many people don't do it. You know? Yeah.

It it it also matters so much to us at GoBundance Women, at the Power of Your Life podcast, that you you've been part of this wisdom on us. And we want to be able to have the chance to lift you up too.

So tie maybe tell us and tell our listeners what is, an introduction or a resource that if you had it, would be life changing or ballgame changing for something you're working on.

Okay. Well, what I offer is, my course, obviously, the, overcome overwhelm, create a smooth running business with less stress. And if if you wanna learn a little bit more about the course, the free way to do that is to, look at my webinar. It's on my website and you just sign up for well, the website is www.rowlwest.com and there's several places that you can sign up for the webinar. It's free. You can watch it anytime. It's not like a a set time. And it's like forty five minutes long, and it has really actionable tips and strategies that you can use right now to help you in your business. And it's an introduction to what's in the course as well.

And and another thing that you can do, and I know I'm not supposed to offer too many items, you know, too many choices, but, LinkedIn, I have a newsletter on LinkedIn that's free. Love it. Just subscribe to my newsletter. It comes out once a week, and it's just jam packed with with actionable strategies and tips and things that you can do right now to improve your business.

I love that. So check her out at rawwest.com and it has been such a blessing having you here helping all of our listeners power up your life. So if you love this episode, feel free to share it, like it, comment, and we'll continue to just bring amazing guests like Raul West, to the table and just grateful that you've all joined us here today.

Thank you, Raul, so much for for giving us your wisdom and time today. Just so incredibly impressed with everything that you've done. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone for joining us and hope you power up your life.

See you next

week.