Selling Sunsets ft. Robert Drenk | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 38

0:03What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Coffees for Closers. Today we're going to welcome Robert Drink the dynamic owner of Optima First Mortgage and a notable figure from Selling Sunset. Beyond leading a premier loan company, one of the best in the country, Robert's an innovator in the financial and RV industries and the founder of the Ultimate Arm Wrestling League. Known for his relentless business drive and commitment to communication, Robert's a devoted father of three from Surf City, USA. Join us as we dive into his journey of financial empowerment, his ventures into reality TV, and how he balances his bustling career with family.

0:45Get ready for an insightful conversation filled with valuable lessons and inspiring stories. We welcome Mr. Robert Drank. Thank you for that intro, Joe. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. It's such a blessing to have you here, Robert. I'm stoked to have you. And I know I hit you up while we were in Phoenix to have you on the show. So I appreciate you making it out here. So we're going to dive right into it. You know, I've been tracking a lot of your success for the last couple of years. You've been doing some great things. a big, almost like a public figure in the mortgage space and been dominating many spaces.

1:21But one thing I want to ask before I even get into the conversation is the ultimate arm wrestling league. Totally different, right? I get that one a lot. It's more of a passion as a child. I think you're my age, so you probably watched that movie Over the Top with some Mr. Stallone, the truck driving one. So I grew up in that and grew up in a city called Lake Paris, California. so we didn't have a whole lot to do. So we arm wrestled, you know, and that was, that was our young, young, young age, nothing to do. So just go around the lunch table and arm wrestle all the kids. And you get sent home each day with a letter saying, Hey, Robert didn't pay attention to class, but he was arm wrestling.

1:57So, you know, I had this passion at a young age and decided to take it up later in life. So now where, where's the ultimate arm wrestling league? Like, where do you even do that at? Like, it's still going. I, you know, I headed the whole thing up with, I brought this business partner, Bill Collins on. He was a World Arm Wrestling Federation top referee and longtime badass arm wrestler, like world champion. Great guy. I'd met him at an arm wrestling competition. And I said, hey, I want to I want to be the UFC of arm wrestling. Let's do this together. So I brought him in on a 15 percent stake and held 85.

2:30And we did arm wrestling. I invested over three million dollars in it and got really, really close to bringing on a really big fish along with Fox Sports 1. But unfortunately, the owner of Legendary Entertainment, he backed out last second, and then the whole thing kind of crumbled on me. Lost the TV deal, lost everything, but it was really, really close. Oh, man, that seems so fun. So do you still air anywhere on television? Not on television. Not airing on television, but the events still take place today. My business partner, Bill Collins, runs it, and I just more took the focus back into the mortgage industry.

3:06But it's fun. I actually just went out and recently arm wrestled last year against this arm wrestling whisperer. He's got a huge following, a couple million followers or something. And he's really entertaining. He's a good-looking guy, so I think he tracks all the women, you know. And his stamina is incredible. Blew me out of the water how his stamina was when I went and arm wrestled him. I haven't pulled in a couple of years. But I beat him, I think, one or two of the rounds, and he beat me three. But entertaining match. Will arm wrestle and just get dominated here real quick? just for the audience.

3:39So I like to start the show with just an icebreaker question. And that was my first icebreaker to talk about the arm wrestling. But so you're a super busy guy, crazy life. How do you start your morning? What's your morning routine like? Oh, man. First thing I do, I obviously get up in the morning and I do a facial to myself. It's weird, but I want my skin to look good. And then I want my daughters to follow suit with that. So I do a skin routine first thing in the morning. Sounds odd, but that's me. He's got to keep your beauty going. Keep that skin looking young. And then I wake up and put my drink together in the morning with my BCAAs, and I go right to the gym.

4:15The first thing I do every morning is I get right in the gym to start my day off. So the beauty routine starts at what time? Usually about 5.30 in the morning. So I'm up between 5, 5.30 in the morning, take a shower, do my facial stuff just to wake myself up and feel good, and then I'm in the gym as quick as possible. Yeah, you've got some good skin, though. It's like whatever you're doing. It's working. It's working. The beauty routine, like I don't even know how old you are. I think you're – I can't tell with that beauty routine. Oh, you're funny. I'm 43, so – It's working. Yeah. It's working, yeah.

4:46So you start – what age did you start in the mortgage industry? So I started the mortgage industry in 2008. I just sold my RV dealership, and I thought, what space could I get into that's going to give me a further reach than just San Diego County? I wanted something bigger. And so I reached out to my business partner now. And I said, he's my high school friend. I said, hey, let's start a mortgage company. And that was 2008, end of 08, beginning of 09. Actually, I'm going to digress here. The RV company, because what, did you start Mike's RVs over there off the 405? Like, is that the one that we're talking about here?

5:22That's what it was, yeah. Right out of high school, I ended up working for this company called Metropolitan Home Mortgage with my best friend from high school. And we both went to work there. and after like 90 days, I'm like, this isn't for me. I'm out. And so I found an RV dealership at 18, 19 years old. I'm like, I'm going to go work there. And it was Mike Thompson's RV. I walked in in shorts and a flip-flops and ran into the general manager. I didn't know who he was at the time, but he was a GM. And I'm like, hey, I want your job. And the guy had to have been laughing his ass off. I'm actually doing a loan for his daughter right now.

5:54But Mark Rosenbaum ended up being a really great mentor for me and took me under his wing and kind of built me up in the RV industry. and I did every damn position from 19 to about 25 years old. And then eventually I went out and opened my own RV dealership. You ended up, so, but Mike Thompson's RV, you started there and then, then you left there and started your own RV dealership in Huntington as well. No, I took off. So there was an area in San Diego. We'd go to these meetings and Mike Thompson's at the time was the biggest RV dealership in the world. I think he still is. He's top, top five.

6:25I think right now, top three, I think lazy days and a couple other ones are a little bit bigger, but he was the biggest at the time. And we had three locations and I went to work there as a salesman and quickly became a finance manager. And then ended up being a finance director, a used motorhome manager, and then eventually as a GM and sitting in these meetings and learning about what areas had the most opportunity, it was San Diego. So I was constantly in these meetings here in San Diego, San Diego, San Diego. And I was like, screw it. I hopped in my, I had a Dodge Viper. I'm 25 years old, you know, and I was making good money at the time.

7:00I'm driving down to San Diego. I'm going to go buy my own lot, basically. I'm going to start my own RV dealership. I was just a young kid with big aspirations, really. You know, looking back, I just had no fear. That's all it was. Just a no fear thing. And I drove down there, and I ended up finding a lot. And there was this old guy. I actually was driving down, and there was a sign that said NAI San Diego. And it said Chula Vista. And I'm like, oh, shit, that's Mexico. I was kind of like, oh, where am I going? So I get off the freeway and I walk into NAI San Diego and I meet this guy, Mark, and he's like, hey, what are you looking for?

7:30I said, I'm looking for a lot I want to buy. I want to do an RV dealership down here. And he goes, let me take you in my office and I'll show you an aerial map. So I look on it and I see this little RV square off Mission Gorge Road. And I'm like, what's that? He goes, oh, that's World RV. This guy, Bob Jacobs owns it. I said, great. How do I get there? I drove down there. I park. I get out. I walk on a lot and I see this old guy on an elliptical in his little office, right? And I'm like, what's this guy doing? And he walks out. And I'm not kidding you, two and a half hours, three hours later, I hit it off with this guy.

7:57He owns the company. And I asked him, I said, hey, have you ever thought about retiring? And he goes, yeah, in a few years. And later that day, I gave him a deposit. We opened escrow and I bought the company and closed in 30 days. Dude, that's awesome. That's awesome. Big aspirations. The kid crushed it. So what age did you sell the RV company? So I bought that and kicked it off at 25. And I owned a home in Irvine. I ended up selling the home in Irvine. I moved down there and I lived on the lot for like 90 days. I was just living in an RV, right there on my lot, just a toy hauler. And you know, it's a sacrifice.

8:31You got to sacrifice to grow sometimes. And that was it. I took my dad down with me and my wife at the time. And we just went down to San Diego, never been there in my life before. So I started the RV dealership. And within three years, I ended up buying, it was a boat dealership across the street. It wasn't doing very good with a huge indoor showroom. I bought that and then took it over and put motorhomes over there. So I had two RV dealerships. And then three years later, I ended up selling them. Wow. Did you buy the land too? I didn't buy the land. No, they were just leases. Yeah, you bought the business though.

9:02That's awesome. And you crushed it and then entered the mortgage space after. Yep. Went big. So I like to refer to you and I said this to you on text, like you're like the real mortgage Howard Hughes. You know, you like, you got into flying. You're always flying. You're always jet set and you got the cool cars. And it's like, this guy's living the dream. When did you start flying? Uh, it was about five years ago, five, six years ago. I was, you know, I was chartering airplanes and doing that whole thing here and there. And I hated waiting for people. Yeah. Time is the number one valuable thing that we have as a human.

9:33And I'm like, wow, why am I waiting for pilots? Or why am I waiting for this? Like, I want to just do it myself. So I flew out to, uh, God, where was Oklahoma? And I bought a brand new airplane and I hired a CFI and I said, fly back with me. And it took us three days. Uh, we're flying home. This airplane only went 120 miles an hour, right? It's a little 2019 or 2018, 2019 Piper Archer. And we had a hundred knot headwind one day. We have a hundred knots to the head and the plane goes 20, 120. So I'm going 20 miles an hour. The cars underneath me are passing me. But I was like, oh my gosh. So that was my first experience.

10:09Uh, I bought the plane, flew it home with a CFI and then I was dedicated to it. You flew it home from Oklahoma with a hundred knots against you, a hundred headwinds? short period of time. Yeah. Probably took a, like a three days. Oh my gosh. So you, how do you fly for three days straight? Well, you know, you fly for, you know, three hours and then you stop and then you get fuel and then you stay at a hotel cause you're exhausted. And then you get up and you do it again for three hours and then stop at another airport, get back up in the air, fly for another three hours. Cause you got to use a restroom, you know, the, that little airplane doesn't have a toilet.

10:41Yeah. Yeah. How, how, how fast does your plane go now? Um, right now the airplanes that I'm flying are anywhere from 350 to 400 knots. Man, that's amazing. It's amazing. I know, you know, you always have like, you're like, I'm on cat life number nine now. I think I am really, you know, you're like a walking miracle, but it's an inspiration though. Thanks. It's an inspiration. Now, out of all the industries you decided to enter, which is, why did you enter the mortgage industry? The riskiest business of all, where you would make no money for the foreseeable future? Oh, that's a good question. So in the RV business, you know, the mentor that I had, Mark, ran Mike Thompson's and the owner, Frank DeGallis, great guy, still owns the company today.

11:25He's a good friend. What I learned is I wanted more. You know, he's wealthy. He's very well off. He lives a great life, but he's still in that RV dealership every damn day because his reach is only so far. And I thought to myself back then, like the richest people in the world are reaching millions of people. They're not reaching Orange County, San Bernardino County, and San Diego County, right? They're, they're reaches across the United States, across the world. And so, you know, sports athletes, musicians, they're making pennies or dollars off millions of people instead of 20 ,000 bucks on one RV in Orange County, you know?

12:01And so I thought, what can I do that gives me a bigger reach so I could have bigger success in life. And I thought the mortgage business. And so the way I looked at it was it's a bigger risk, but it's going to have a bigger reward. And I just went for it. That was it. I sold the RV dealership and I said, I'm, I'm going mortgage. Who told you about the mortgage industry? Well, remember when I was 18 or 19, I worked, I got into the mortgage industry and my best friend, he worked for his cousin. We both went to work there and I saw that and I just, you know, got out of the space because I didn't like it at the time.

12:35I like to sell face to face and we were doing everything over the phone. So I just hit him back up when I sold the RV dealership and I said, Hey, look, let's, let's do a mortgage company. And at the time he had quit his cousin's shop and he went and got a broker's license, him and one, one other person. And they were working in this little tiny office. And I said, look, I've got all my ex finance managers. We sold, you know, $500 ,000 RVs. It's the same financing shit. So why don't I bring all these finance guys in, I'll fund the company. We'll hire some processors. My ex-wife at the time, she did all my stuff in the RV industry.

13:07My dad worked for me. So I took everybody that was in key positions that understood it. And I said, let's start this mortgage company. So my best friend and I went 50-50. I funded the company. And in three months, I got all my money back. That's awesome. You know, your entrepreneur journey is like really fascinating. And a lot of people don't know, like everyone sees like Robert Trank, the Howard Hughes of mortgage, like fancy cars, planes, but they don't know what you put in, like your entrepreneur spirit. Like, what do you think has been the biggest source of your, that drove you to be an entrepreneur like this?

13:39Oh man, I really, I think it just goes back to my childhood. I like change. I'm not afraid of change. There's no fear for me and that, and I, and I give that to my dad. You know, growing up, I grew up, I went to 13 schools, you know, so I had to adapt to change. We lived in Florida. We lived in Lake Paris, Moreno Valley, Huntington beach, then do a different part of Florida. So it was constant change. And as much as I, I'd like to say it's a great thing, which it is, it also comes with some downfalls, you know, but the change is probably my biggest strength into what made me a great entrepreneur is not being afraid.

14:13So you're fearless. Yeah, basically. And that's because of change and people are scared of change, but that it's like, it kind of goes back. Like now you're like marketing, you know, you're on bank rate. Like you don't want to change from that though but but i'm fearless right yeah i'm no i'm i'm just going bigger in that space yeah i know that space yeah you know as you get a little bit older i'm gonna be honest you know now there is a little bit of hesitation on certain things i think i'm a little older and a little wiser now yeah so i'm not quite as uh wild and crazy as i once was i used to risk no fear so how big how important is taking risks now for you still it's still very big you have to take risks if you're not willing to take risks somebody else is and they're gonna beat you yeah that's it so yeah you're gonna eat your lunch yep so um you know i i like to ask this question but we kind of answered it you know but you know when you start a business there's this element of like you're crazy right like what do you think like why were you crazy enough to start your own business what do you think is it is it the fearlessness is it i just wanted more i want of freedom.

15:21That's the same reason why I fly, right? It's freedom. It's being able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. And I don't believe anybody does it any better. So why rely on somebody else? Like go do it yourself. And, uh, and you know, when it came to leaving the RV industry and wanting something bigger, it was, if I back up to 2008, I knew that I saw the market crashing. I saw it coming, right? I was like, oh crap, this is coming, you know? And, uh, I saw a lot of my buddies that went out and opened their own RV dealerships failing and not paying the banks and going belly up. And once you go belly up, you can't get back in that space.

15:55Once you burn a space, you're out. Right. And I didn't burn it. I got out of the space and I got out successfully. And I remember thinking, God, in the mortgage industry, there's a lot of people burning space. Right. And, um, you know, like one of them, the guy, Daniel Sadek, great guy did big things, I guess. And some Lambos, some Lambos, had some fun Ferraris and had some fun. and I knew like he couldn't get back in the space. So if a bunch of these big guys can't get back in the space, I figured I'm going to jump in and take that risk and have the reward that comes with it. Love it. Now, you're like very resilient.

16:30You went through a lot of tumultuous times in your life, flying, different business. What do you think is the source of inspiration for your work ethic, your grind? Like you got crazy tenacious grit. I think just growing up with nothing, right? I think when you have nothing and you want something more in life, that you're going to do whatever it takes to have what you want. And, you know, I grew up in a 900-square-foot house with seven kids. You're one of seven? Yeah. I have six sisters. Wow. Yeah, so growing up on a couch and fighting for one bathroom, maybe that's what it was, right? Wow, I didn't know you were one of seven.

17:09Yeah. Six sisters. You've got a lot of nieces and nephews. I've got a few, yeah. I got a few. Matter of fact, one of my nephews, I got him into flying and he's in college right now, just passed his commercial license. So I got him doing something. Yeah, I think I saw a post about that one day. Man, six sisters. That's amazing. I would love that. You just don't see families like that nowadays. I got four kids. You got three? Yeah. So even like three, that's a lot of kids. Yeah, that's a lot of work, man. Three kids, let me tell you. I got three and then my ex-wife's a she's my fourth one so she's the hardest that's like you sound like my wife with me like i got five kids actually um so uh what do you think like what do you think were some of the biggest challenges this two-fold question when you started the rv company and then when you started the mortgage company what are the two biggest challenges yeah that you face starting those both those businesses because you were you were 25 you were a kid i was young yeah i remember Starting your own RV company.

18:10That's a big deal. It was a big risk. I mean, I really didn't have that much. I thought I had way more than I had, but I really didn't have anything. I had enough to get it going, and I didn't even realize, like, I guess how risky that was at the time. But I took everything I had, and I just went for it. But if you believe in yourself, like, you're going to win. And that's really what it comes down to. How much do you believe in yourself, and what are you willing to sacrifice? Like I said earlier, I slept in an RV for 90 days, a toy hauler, right? Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to put all of your eggs in your own basket?

18:42And if you are, then you're going to win. And if you aren't, then you're going to lose. Don't second guess yourself. So I think the biggest thing was taking the risk and then secondly, making sure you hire the right people. Having the right people around you makes all the difference. So when I worked at Mike Thompson's, I put all the key people around me and every job aspect that I knew needed to be done. And it wasn't just because I thought I was eventually going to go up on my own, but I just like having people around me that are my people, right? Key people that are good, that work, that understand what I'm doing before I'm going to do it.

19:16So I don't have to go back and go, hey, you know you should be doing it this way. No, you know how I'm going to do it, so you do it that way. and I put those people in these key positions had all these basically basically everything covered so when I went to open my own spot every everybody just went that was it that's awesome that's awesome so when uh and the same thing applied in the mortgage space you did the same thing both rv and and carry that same philosophy I've got guys that still work at the mortgage company that worked for me in the rv space and it's same thing here actually it's funny you say that i had a company in 2008 american mitigation or 2007 and they're still here it's like it's almost 20 years they're family right yeah you build these relationships with people and they become family and you want them to be successful and rise with you so yeah yeah that's awesome that's awesome you treat people like family you treat them with love and it's like they're there they've been with you forever um now like what sort of specific skills or mindsets do you think are imperative for success right now in the mortgage industry?

20:19Just staying positive. The biggest thing you can do is believe in yourself and stay positive and understand that this business comes with ups and downs. So no matter what you do, as long as you stay positive, you're going to, you're going to end up positive, right? And if it's kind of like snowboarding, you know, I train a lot of people out of snowboard. I love to snowboard and you want to look where you want to snowboard. If you're looking down, you're going to fall on each shit. If you're looking up and And you're looking where you want to go. You're going to go that way. It's the same thing in business.

20:48You've got to stay positive. If you start getting negative, you're going to end up negative. So I stay positive. Nice. So you're good at snowboarding too? Arm wrestler, snowboarder. I'm decent. I ride one ankle. I'm decent. What do you mean one ankle? I've got one ankle that's just completely shattered. I crashed a car two years ago and it shattered my ankle five surgeries. Oh, yeah. When you crashed the Ferrari. Gosh. that's that was scary that was a scary moment that was that was a that was a life changer for me honestly really yeah what did it what do you what lessons do you think it it taught you oh god so many honestly um a to be thankful for everything you have because you just never know like one minute everything could be over that's that's really so the biggest thing is just being thankful and living in every moment and i think you know you you said something earlier about I'm constantly doing something and that's because I'm thankful and I'm grateful for everything I have but I know I have one life and I only have so much time so I try to balance everything the best I can you know getting up early at you know five in the morning five thirty in the morning getting to the gym right away so that I can come home and then spend an hour with my daughter and get her off to school my oldest daughter lives with me full-time basically so I try to spend that morning with her but if I wait to six thirty or seven I'm not gonna have that time with her or you've got to choose, Jim, but I need the gym to get my mind right, then come home and be fresh with my daughter, get her off, and then get into the office.

22:18Love it. Now, after all your success and failures and then life-changing moments, how do you continue to find motivation? What do you think inspires you the most? Gosh, that's so many things. I think my kids inspire me probably the most right now. I think it changes. I can't say it's always my kids. Sometimes they drive me nuts. I hear you. Yeah, I don't know. I just probably my kids. I want my kids to enjoy life that I didn't have when I grew up. So I try to do as much as I can with them. We just went to Vegas this weekend and took their football team and the coaches on a private jet, went to the mansions and had just a phenomenal time with everybody.

22:58And I wanted the children to see what life can be if you really want it bad enough. Nice. Now, I want to kind of pivot the conversation. Are you and I I know we briefly mentioned this, but are you starting to see any implementation of AI in your business or on the underwriting side, on the origination side? Or how do you think it's going to impact what you're doing right now? Well, I think it's definitely coming. I have not done a good job with that. AI, I couldn't tell you the slightest thing. I know it's definitely going to make things much more efficient and cost effective in the mortgage industry.

23:32I definitely know it's coming, but I let people like you figure it out first and then I pick your brain. Yeah, we got to adopt quick. you know you got to be early adopters and that's that's one of the things we get to sit down and and chat about it and you know you realize where some of the deficiencies are when you mastermind with all the best of the best right and that's why we we attend these events and just kind of pick pick people's uh brains but one thing i really admire about you is how you're fostering talent like give me some like how do you think you're fostering talent you're you've you've created family relationships with these guys what are some of the other things you're doing and really foster these guys that's what you got some great talent you invest in your people you know And it's not just work or being there for them.

24:10I answer my phone 24-7 because communication is key. And when your people need you, you need to be there for them. And you've got to treat them like family. I do it with my daughters and my son. If they call, I don't care what I'm doing. I answer the phone. And I try to do that with the people I work with so that they know they're important. So you've got to give them your time. You've got to show them the care and concern. And then you've got to be personal with them. And I try to do that with my employees and family at work. We go out to lunch. I take different people to lunch every single day and just talk to them about their day and what they're doing.

24:41And, you know, you cut out to lunch every day with someone wanting to build those relationships. That's awesome. That's awesome. Do you have like any specific mentors in your life? I've got a few. You know, like I said, Mark Rosenbaum from Mike Thompson's RVs, one of the sharpest men I've ever met in my life. Mike Ansich was also one of the guys that worked there. uh very close to him and obviously you know i talked to matt ishbia probably every couple of days so yeah he's uh he's incredible that guy's definitely the smartest guy i've met in my life yeah he's been an inspiration of both of us you know he's helped me i meet with him all the time and he's just fires you up oh he fires you up and and you time management right that's the one thing that i can definitely tell you i've learned from from ish is his time management is incredible and every minute's worth tons of money, right?