Entrepreneurship is never a straight line. It’s chaos, deals that almost blow up, and the wins that make it all worth it. In this episode of Hello Chaos, JJ sits down with George Otel, CEO of U.S. Business Funding, to talk about the real side of financing for founders. From equipment loans to commercial real estate and SBA programs for buying businesses, George shares the strategies that fuel business growth even in unpredictable markets. He opens up about the challenges of scaling, the power of delegation, and why networking and focus are non-negotiables for success. Whether you’re looking to fund expansion, acquire your next company, or simply navigate uncertainty, this conversation delivers unfiltered insights every entrepreneur can use.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Financing Fuels Every Stage of Business
Whether you’re starting, surviving, growing, or buying, the right financing strategy can turn challenges into opportunities. From SBA loans to creative deal structures, founders have more options than they realize.
2️⃣ Own Instead of Rent
Commercial real estate is about control, stability, and long-term wealth. George shows how founders can often buy their space with SBA programs for less than monthly rent.
3️⃣ Do Your Best and Delegate the Rest
Entrepreneurship thrives on focus. George stresses the importance of delegating tasks, building strong networks, and measuring success by whether you are doing your best, not whether every deal closes.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the Chaos
01:35 The Journey to Financing
03:59 The Rewarding Stories Behind Financing
07:39 Navigating the Commercial Real Estate Landscape
12:39 Challenges in Scaling a Financing Business
16:32 Reflections on Growth and Future Aspirations
20:53 The Unpredictability of Deals
24:19 Opportunities in Business Acquisitions
26:08 Identifying Hot Business Opportunities
29:01 The Importance of Focus in Business
32:21 Building Transformational Relationships
39:01 Creating Value Through Curiosity
43:54 Embracing the Entrepreneurial Journey
49:02 Connecting and Collaborating for Success
🔗 Learn more about U.S. Business Funding and connect with George:
Website: https://www.usbizfunding.net/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeotel/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgeotel/
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:00.59)
All right, welcome to Hello Chaos, the show where founders, innovators and chaotic minds get real and unfiltered about the mess, the magic and the mayhem of entrepreneurship. I'm Jennifer, JJ, your host and fellow work in progress. And today we have George Otel, CEO of US Business Funding, known as the financing guy and my new buddy on LinkedIn. Welcome George, welcome to the show. Welcome to the chaos as we know it.
George Otel (01:19.785)
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:22.446)
What did you say right before we got on? If it's not chaotic, you're doing something wrong.
George Otel (01:22.646)
Yes, yes.
George Otel (01:27.712)
Yeah, thanks, JJ, for this opportunity. And I love connecting with the business owners and fellow entrepreneurs like yourself. yeah, I was confused. Like, what is this podcast about? Like, by the way, this is our lifestyle. It's the chaos. Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:46.286)
That's, it's what we do. Doesn't it speak to our world? Very much so whenever, you know, we were, we were polling and researching before we started OrangeWIP, which is the media company and Hello Chaos is one of the podcasts. But we were polling and surveying founders and entrepreneurs all over the country of kind of what words that come up most in their world, like their emotions, their fee.
and chaos probably came up more than anything else. But it was interesting. Some people, some of my team members were like, ooh, chaos, that means anxiety. But to founders and entrepreneurs and innovators, they look at chaos as like it's welcomed. It's part of the lifestyle, our script. So it was like, bring it on, chaos. And so that's why we're like, well, hello, chaos.
George Otel (02:42.484)
Yes, yeah, you gotta embrace it. You gotta work on it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:45.112)
Yeah, that's right. We got to do it. So how did you get into being known as the financing guy and running and do US business funding? How did that all happen?
George Otel (02:59.48)
So starting 2012, I migrated to the United States, started in logistics, got the trucking company running and I didn't like it because over there is chaos and stress. I like chaos, but I don't like stress. So I sold everything, moved to real estate, started doing short sales with a mentor of mine. So we were, I like real estate, I...
preferably like the financing side, the paper side, which is aligned more to my identity. has numbers of negotiation. And he was doing like 40, 50 houses a year from the bank. Then through the next couple of years, I started working with one of his buddies. He was doing financing for businesses. And that's how I started my company. He was business funding.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:28.054)
Yeah, it's numbers, numbers.
George Otel (03:54.08)
Since 2018, we help a couple hundred companies, sometimes same company with multiple loans, starting with just simple equipment, working capital, commercial real estate. So we do everything nationwide. Right now, my focus in the company is obviously controlling the chaos as much as we can and focusing on commercial real estate. We do equipment, we do working capital and commercial real estate, which is hard. It's like, it's the hardest thing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:14.765)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:21.816)
Okay.
George Otel (04:24.149)
ever right now.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:24.95)
Really? Well, it's just like what assets and just manage. Are you working with more like startup scale up or are you working with more legacy type of businesses that need to expand and need better working capital like.
George Otel (04:28.876)
Yep. Yep. Yep.
George Otel (04:42.55)
Yeah, we work with a lot of mom and pop business owners. It's who basically they need funding for, I call it, you always need funding. You need funding to open a business, you need the funding to stay in business, you need funding to grow the business, or you need funding to buy a business. Because we have some business acquisition transaction right now. So sometimes it's easier to buy something that is established rather than start from the beginning.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:57.326)
Great. Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:09.23)
So you guys are also within, you said you're acquiring businesses too?
George Otel (05:13.644)
We financed that through SBA, but I participated in multiple transactions myself, partner buyouts, different acquisitions, business acquisitions, and selling of the companies as well. And commercial real estate.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:15.692)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:22.584)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:26.069)
wow. So, what is the most rewarding part of what you do?
George Otel (05:32.044)
The most rewarding part is the stories. mean, because I'm going to make those money anyway, but the stories. So for example, I was working on a, so right now your podcast is aligning with a lot of situations. mean, starting with the financial markets, starting with commercial real estate, there's a lot of trouble, a lot of people upside down, a lot of people in trouble. Cause you know, it's, it was easy now it's because it was easy. Bad decision was made. So.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:01.197)
Right.
George Otel (06:02.36)
We were working on a deal, a complicated deal, it was a little bit distressed. And the story, what I'm trying to mention, I connected that with one of my lending partners. By the way, we have over a thousand lending sources. So I present this deal. It's a big Otel and it's over 20 mil. And I present this deal to my lender and we're the conversation. And he's, hey, by the way,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:16.246)
Okay.
George Otel (06:31.52)
we are, they did the structure of the project that is going to be the tallest building in the United States. So no matter if I close that deal or not, the story is I have access to that, to the guy that, so that's the story. And I see people going into bankruptcy, I help them come in out of bankruptcy. I have some clients, I help them to buy assets from someone else going into bankruptcy. it's, it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:43.691)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:00.558)
You're just helping move money, like dealing with money. So that when you say like, that's why you get the moniker, the financing guy. you're the...
George Otel (07:03.382)
Yeah,
George Otel (07:08.96)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And not just, you know, get alone like a we structured deals like nobody happens. Recently, we had the deal. I was there at the closing. the chaos. So the other deal, we got lucky to close it like a week before the SBA changed the SOP. So basically, we got lucky. It was like I believe in luck. And I enjoy to send good vibes to my clients because
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:29.275)
yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:37.58)
Right?
George Otel (07:38.008)
You know, it's a teamwork. So he closed on Friday. He sent a picture with the keys in hands like it's like big facility, like 40,000 score fit. And next day, like it was full, like five tables of barbecue, live music. Like, yeah, like this is the chaos. Like you you barely slept two weeks to close the deal. Now he's bringing the music. Let's embrace. Yes. Embrace the chaos. Embrace it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:48.906)
okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:02.414)
Now he's having a party. Celebrate!
right. And you got to celebrate that. I that's a to some business owner that's a huge milestone. I mean I remember when we bought our building in 2015. Actually we bought in 2014 but we moved in at 2015. I mean it was we had just started the company in 2013, bought it in 2014 and it was it's like you forget sometimes you just you're moving at that you know 100 miles an hour and somebody's like well you
George Otel (08:09.108)
and
George Otel (08:14.422)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:36.876)
aren't you guys gonna celebrate that? It's like, yeah, which we did like a year later of we're gonna do an open house. Let's, cause you know, you think that's not a big deal. And then you kind of step back and go, yeah, it is a big deal. It is a big deal.
George Otel (08:49.622)
you got to celebrate. got to celebrate. it was, it was at that party, it was a banker, because obviously, so the banker is like, he was doing financing for commercial real estate. And he's like, tell me the details. So basically, shared some of the details I can share. And then some other people approach us and he's like, Hey, my name is here, representing his name. And he's like, I'm a banker. This is George.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:57.218)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:02.339)
Yeah.
George Otel (09:16.268)
He's a magician because like, I don't know how he made these things happen. like that's the whole idea is like going through mess, going through a lot of structuring deals and cause look, transaction gonna happen. The question is, are you going to be part of those transaction or you're going to say everything is bad? Cause I mean, it was COVID then something else, then tariffs, then inflation. And you can just say, you got to move, you got to adopt, you got to, you know, make the decision. And a lot of commercial real estate.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:26.872)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:31.8)
Right.
George Otel (09:46.078)
is due now. So because of the rates, everybody's expected, like 90 % of people expected the rates to be lower. Now, there is a lot of balloon payments. So you wake up one day, you got to face the reality. you got to refinance. Now the rates are higher. So that's the chaos, know, because sometimes
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:53.57)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:04.182)
Yeah. Did you see because we I know we noticed that here in our in our area after Covid and it didn't like not during Covid. It was like the year or two after people were selling their bit going, I don't need a physical space. And so so much commercial real estate became on the market like it was flooded the market. But now we're seeing people coming back.
physical are you are you seeing that trend nationally is it I mean I know we saw that here locally I didn't know if that is that a national trend
George Otel (10:40.992)
Yeah. So I in Chicago, I'm working on seven projects right now, commercial buildings. The most of them are industrial and out of seven, three are waiting, are looking for buildings for five, six months already now, because there's no inventory. Yep. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:59.49)
Wow, they're just, they can't find anything that fits their needs. Are these like plants, like manufacturing plants, or is this more like headquarters? Like.
George Otel (11:07.402)
more industrial like transportation hubs, like parking service shop office in one facility. that's it's industrial. So industrial is the hot right now the hot potato thing. And yeah, I even have a basically a surge filter for for your city. So it's I see all that was going on on the market. And yeah, for Greenville. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:11.284)
Okay. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:30.795)
Easy.
George Otel (11:34.264)
I have those coming like to me every one of weekly basis. I'm looking at checking the market. So it's like so interesting that you asked me that and I see those you have you have some deals on the market because over here there's no deals. I mean, I have clients ready fine with the financing lined up to just buy that there's nothing to buy. I mean, especially now with tariffs, it's going to be they got to go higher. There's nothing goes down. It's just higher.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:34.424)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:56.515)
D
Even yeah. I know I know. Do you see these in your data? Are you helping? I'm fascinated with what you're doing. So are you seeing people come in? You're like, hey, there's nothing in, you know, our region. But here's hot pockets of like you. Do you guys want to move your company to the southeast or to Texas or like?
Are you also helping them figure out these are the places that have the the property you need at the you know and then you help them structure that deal or is it really they come to you and go I want to be here find me something in this you know area.
George Otel (12:39.0)
I didn't have
George Otel (12:45.516)
I have a of brokers that I work with. They do a lot of deals nationwide, but basically I'm doing the financing side. you find, you show me what you want to buy, I'm helping you with the financing options. I give you multiple options, different structure, what you want to, you know, it's basically I'm doing the financing side. You want to show me what you want to buy and I'm helping you to acquire that or to cash out or to how to structure.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:04.461)
Yeah.
George Otel (13:14.552)
I to answer the question, I don't help you find the deal. I help you finance that. But I have people I have connections nationwide. I have a book of business with top brokers in every city that I connect you with that. it's a teamwork. It's I it's this is commercial real estate. It's a teamwork. You can do it alone. for but the the most interesting thing right now
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:19.778)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:29.624)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:36.462)
That's
George Otel (13:41.816)
We have a lot of business owners, they're renting the space. So I help them buy actually the building. So if they lease it for at least 12 months, I have programs that they can buy with 100 % financing, or if they look into expanding to a new facility with 10 % on payment. And the most interesting thing, recently we had a deal. They were paying $10,000 a rent every month as a business.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:45.24)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:01.336)
Nice.
George Otel (14:10.134)
Then I got them a loan SBA through government with 10 % down payment and the monthly payment for mortgage was like 9,000. So they paying less and they own the building.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:20.834)
Yeah, and they can lease it out to other and get suddenly, you know, to and make an income off of that. If they have the space, yeah.
George Otel (14:26.168)
Yeah, if they have extra space, but the goal is to have the owner occupied. it's not this is the hard thing. Like, clearly the banks saying hey, buy the commercial real estate, because it's the business is more solid, and you can sell the business and keep the building. So it's not like owning a multifamily. It's like you, you do a triple net. So you take care of the roof and the parking and that's it everything. And you have the lease for 10, 5, 10, 15 years and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:31.864)
there.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:43.182)
That's right.
George Otel (14:55.786)
It just works much better than just apartments.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:58.136)
That's right. So flipping it to then to your how you structured your bit, what's been the biggest challenge? mean, obviously, you're you know, numbers and financing and all that. What's been the biggest, which is a lot of time the the founder owner CEO that's been that's usually the biggest challenges is managing numbers, right? Understanding their financing. And since you know, this is that's your core. What what's been your significant challenge?
for operating, running your business, scaling your business? What walls and barriers, what's your shit moments?
George Otel (15:35.864)
It was a two situations. So, moment, it was in the beginning. So I didn't have a lot of lending sources that I can go. And it was tough for me because I was limited to what I can do. So it took me a couple of years to structure, to build up partnerships and to build up the lending sources basically. So we have over a thousand lending sources now starting from SBA commercial.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:42.168)
Yeah.
George Otel (16:06.328)
conventional basically private money, family office rate. So you name it, we have it with we've done multiple deals. And now in the last 12 months, we have this got to focus on building up the pipeline with the clients. So having a lot of clients is like much better than solving the client pipeline. It's going to solve you a lot of other problems. So
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:30.968)
Yeah.
That's right.
George Otel (16:33.432)
Because having one or two clients is the worst thing. You don't have a business model. You don't have a business model. Clients.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:36.866)
You gotta fill, you gotta fill the drain. So it's, yeah, so this business development, I think is, And you're using LinkedIn for that. yeah, yeah. This one.
George Otel (16:44.46)
Yep. Yep.
George Otel (16:49.962)
I use LinkedIn, use podcasts and it's helpful. It's helpful and this is the way to go. I had a media agency before, generally needed for my business. I like podcasting more. I'm doing like three, two, three. Last week I had seven in a week, seven podcasts as a guest.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:11.806)
my goodness. That's fantastic. That's right. I love-
George Otel (17:15.104)
This is the way to go if you're an entrepreneur, you got to be because you got to provide value. And it's, it's I even I'm doing business acquisition with a host right now that I was like a month ago I was so they buy in a business I'm financing a business so it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:29.24)
So, you.
He was like, you were on my podcast. Let's talk. So what would you be doing if you had no fears? Would you still be doing this in real estate and financing? Would you be living in, because you said you're calling out of, was it St. Louis? Milwaukee. Would you be in Milwaukee? You would be in Yeah, wouldn't we all?
George Otel (17:35.702)
Yeah, yeah.
George Otel (17:42.56)
Yeah, probably five times more and bigger.
George Otel (17:51.224)
I'm walk it. I'm gonna walk it. Yeah. No, I'll be in Bali.
George Otel (17:59.596)
Yeah, I gotta basically optimize my office, my management, my calendar, and I'll be able to just travel. Yeah, yeah, because I don't need to see clients unless it's like a hundred million dollar deal and they want to see me and feel me or shake my hands because everything is done online.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:12.024)
Can you work from anywhere? Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:19.628)
Right. But you do. Yeah, yeah.
George Otel (18:25.185)
Unless they want to invite me to dinner or something, otherwise it's...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:28.366)
That's right, you're just setting the deals. So if you had to hit rewind, knowing what you know now and you've gotten a decade experience, would you do anything differently? Like if you had to go, man.
George Otel (18:45.432)
Yeah, I basically buy more assets and would go, I don't want to say the bad word, but like more aggressive on investing and not be afraid. Because, well, I'm a conservative now, considering what I know. But I had opportunities that I was right, but I was kind of skeptical. So it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:13.954)
He didn't want to take the risk. Yeah.
George Otel (19:15.296)
Yeah, I took some risk. Sometimes it took way too much risk. But still, there was I left a lot of things on the table. So it's that's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:19.318)
You
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:25.55)
So better like you've honed your negotiation skills in the deal. Yeah. So if I gave you a magic wand, obviously I think I know the answer to this, but if I gave you a magic wand, what two things would you change about your business today?
George Otel (19:44.185)
Basically, I will start focusing on bigger transactions and focusing on what's the most painful in the market because that's the biggest basically I'm working only with serious clients that willing if I tell look I can help you if you want me to help you so I mean
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:08.451)
Right.
George Otel (20:09.592)
We're not shopping around. It's like you have a problem. I'm the solution. I'm the best solution. And I'm like not just selling them. I'm providing them options and we're moving fast. We're moving quick.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:14.35)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:20.504)
So don't put me in a bid situation. Right? Yeah.
George Otel (20:23.542)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't provide that. At the same time, I was kind of in the mindset of, yeah, I'm going to do everything myself. now, right now, I'm working on basically with the assistant to take 70%, 80 % of my work that I do. So I'll be buying more time for my life so I can focus on jobs that I get. Yeah, yeah, Bali.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:46.626)
Right.
Go into ba- go into ballet.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:55.566)
Okay, so if we met a year from now, what would we celebrate? What would be celebrating for you? What milestone?
George Otel (21:02.968)
We'll celebrate a lot of things. First of all, growth of the company. then we're going to celebrate probably the new achievements. Right now we grow like every month with doubling and stuff. it's crazy. It's like Usain flying 100 miles. I think right now I'm like at 800 miles an hour.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:30.888)
my God. Do you see it slowing down or do you think it's just? Yeah.
George Otel (21:31.596)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, no, no, like, no, like, so I'm going 800. And then the next like, even like, supersonic or something.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:42.862)
What's been the key to that? Like what triggered that? Is it just you getting out there and people kind of networking or is it because of the market, like the market's grown and you're just like capturing it?
George Otel (21:50.294)
Yeah, yep, yep.
George Otel (21:54.806)
The market. Yeah, yeah, my experience, I invested the years of my life and a lot of resources, hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn to understand, to make the deal happen, actually close deals. And now it's, it's a lot of opportunity for us to provide liquidity, to provide funding. At the same time, in the last 45 days, I was at three conference. I speak with a lot of clients, I was on
12 or 15 podcasts, I forgot the number. It's like back to back. Today I was at one, yesterday and tomorrow. I mean, worst case scenario, I have like two. The most I had was seven podcasts in a week. So yeah, yep. So just massive action, massive action. And I just got to implement the system in a company. So that's the best.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:26.286)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:36.91)
So just getting the word out, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:46.648)
That's next thing is right. You gotta do the system so that it can operate. You gotta build the engine, right?
George Otel (22:53.024)
Yep, yep, the engine and delegate, delegate a lot of stuff because it's yeah, I'm good. I'm good, but not as good as I want to be. So I'm working with having like someone that is going to take my inbox. Basically, I'm not going to touch my email. They're to report to me. They're going to have like be like extension of myself. So it's to this extent because I, I there's not enough time. Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:56.556)
Yeah, how are you at delegating?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:06.925)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:18.254)
Can't scale if you're the bottleneck,
George Otel (23:21.176)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm the problem. the person in charge and I'm the problem.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:27.246)
But the fact that you've identified it, that's the biggest thing. Yeah.
George Otel (23:31.576)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing is, I know what to do. I know how to do it. I just need to do it. But it took me years, years. So I'd say it's painful, but you have to go through. Like, I mean, any self-employed, it's you got to find someone. I'm willing. Like, so before I was like, oh, I don't think if I want to pay like a thousand or fifteen hundred to an assistant now, like I'm thinking to pay even premium hire to get the best one, the most creative, the most detail oriented.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:37.142)
Yeah. Yeah. It's.
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:56.845)
Yeah.
George Otel (24:01.304)
And you know, everything shifted because like, look, if you make, let's say 100,000, and I can pay 25,000 a year to do all the work. mean, that's just a portion of the work, but I can make, you know, you can make like three, four, five times that money. it's, it's crazy not to do it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:09.868)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:20.866)
That's right. good. I love the success.
George Otel (24:22.91)
And basically you have an option to hire someone to give them a salary. why you take that? They're going to love more than what I do. So whatever I don't like to do, they're going to do it and they're going to be happy. It'll be paid and I'll be more free.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:28.12)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:38.104)
That's right, freedom. What keeps you up at night?
George Otel (24:45.676)
Well, when deals are falling apart, when deals are blowing up, that's... We had something recently, was like two weeks away from closing and like boom, bananas, bananas everywhere, like explosion of bananas.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:58.806)
It's so unpredictable. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:05.326)
Does it, do you have some deals that you can't like, it explodes and you can't recover? Is that a normal thing or is it like, it explodes and then you're like, all right, it's chaos, but we're gonna put these pieces together and it's still on the table. Okay.
George Otel (25:12.898)
Well, it's...
George Otel (25:18.68)
Yeah, yeah, this this one still so we're gonna lose time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but you just got to find something else because I mean, it's a problem with the seller. So we just need another property. yeah, there is a situation when it was like we were like in a he was a complicated deal. It's like he was limited time to do it was like
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:30.031)
and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:43.502)
Too fast.
George Otel (25:45.078)
bankruptcy, fire sale, so we had to move fast and the client came to us too late. Because one of the main problems, clients come to me when they needed money yesterday. So it's too late. I tell clients, look, you got to look for funding when you don't need it. Because when you need it, you're not going to find it where it's too expensive. So I encourage everyone, hey, reach out to me a couple of months in advance or
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:52.75)
Hmm.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:01.472)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:07.31)
Waaah
George Otel (26:15.19)
I tell people I reach out to us every three, six months and I say, hey, George, what's going on in the market? What's new, any products? Because we have a list and we update our clients with what's going on with refinance options.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:28.598)
Yeah, that's good advice. We always hear through founder, entrepreneur networking as business owner, get a lawyer, have a lawyer, have a really good accountant, and have a banker, finance guy on your side. You need to have those relationships, those three. But I think people need to look at financing not just as the bank down the street, but
George Otel (26:47.21)
Yeah, here we go.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:58.126)
to someone like you that brokers helps with deals just in general, just yeah.
George Otel (27:02.88)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when somebody comes to me, a business owner, let's say the first conversation, like 10, 15 minutes in the conversation. So I'm looking at the deal as a business owner, because I had multiple businesses myself. Then I'm looking at the deal as a bank, from the bank perspective, then I'm looking at deal as an investor, because I can help you get the financing or I can help you structure the deals. Or now
we're gonna see a lot of distressed property from the banks and we're gonna have access to that. We're gonna be able to facilitate access to distressed assets that off market and most likely you're never gonna see them on the market because we're partnering with some groups, some funds that they just buy cash and it's big numbers and you you buy a portfolio of...
hundreds of thousands of score footage and like different areas and sometimes multiple properties bond alab. So it's even businesses for sale. It's a lot of businesses gonna be for sale. I have this on my screen. It's $10 trillion worth of businesses gonna change hands in the next 10 years. A lot of baby boomers are retiring and the sad part, their kids, don't wanna.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:10.734)
Right.
Yeah, that's true.
George Otel (28:26.476)
take the business, which I think is crazy because I'm the first generation immigrant and I don't understand that. I I came here with $3,000 and I'm doing financing now. So it's, yeah, it's a lot of transaction going to happen, a lot of opportunity. I encourage people to listen to your podcast to understand what to do and how to do it. mean, you're in much better position to buy an existing business.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:38.236)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:55.15)
That's right.
George Otel (28:55.48)
then start your own. I even have one of the clients, he's like, hey, I'm thinking to open this business. I'm not gonna say what business because it's non-disclosure. And he's like, basically I found something for sale that is gonna cost me like 500,000 less. So he's acquiring that. any business, any business, any brand you see, you go in downtown or drive this across the city.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:57.826)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:06.476)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:13.41)
Yeah, it is a smarter, much smarter move.
George Otel (29:23.736)
All the brands, all the businesses are for sale. So you want to buy a franchise, a McDonald's, a Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, you just need 10 % down payment. So you buy the business and it's a nice cash flow, juicy checks, and you optimize that properly and you have a nice lifestyle. you don't need to, I mean, you need the cash for down payment, it's only 10%.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:47.747)
Yeah.
George Otel (29:50.616)
but it doesn't need to be your cash. You structure the deal, right? You take some time to learn, to study, to understand how it works, how it operates. You put the financing together, you bring an investor with the cash, you give them, let's say, 15, 20, under 20%, they are passive investor. They facilitate the down payment and you control the deal. Because look, I mean, everybody can buy a business with money, but you gotta buy with no money. it's, you use...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:17.228)
Right, because I think that's, people don't know about that part.
George Otel (30:20.034)
That's it's SBA loans. mean, you use SBA loans by business up to $5 million. And you know, if you buy two, $3 million, it's bringing enough cash to hire an operator to run the business. And you just basically strategize and grow the company. yeah, it's basically the down payment. You get the down payment, all the money back in the first 18 months.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:35.47)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:40.824)
Get the checks. Take the check.
George Otel (30:48.488)
and it's a good way to, there is a lot of business for sale. It's just much easier than real estate.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:55.79)
Do you see a category of businesses that are hot, that are hitting the market, that are good deals? I was like, is that a common question?
George Otel (31:05.143)
Previous owner asked me the same question. Yeah, The previous owner was the previous host that I had today, like two hours early. He was actually, yeah, I have a deal. I have a laundromat. I'm looking. So he was running the numbers like, like talking with me on the phone is like I ran the scenario like, and he asked me what's hot. what's hot? It's hot service.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:14.844)
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:26.062)
Well.
Like HVAC, pest control, that kind of service, okay.
George Otel (31:32.824)
Yep, landscape. call, well, some people they don't understand what's really hot. The gas stations, look, I mean, those are convenience stores. So they make 30, 40%. So if you, mean, yeah, you're selling gas, but if you're gonna be test light, you're gonna plug the car and like have the facility. it's a convenience. You're selling convenience. You don't sell gas. You don't sell diesel. You're selling convenience.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:43.843)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:50.254)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:55.714)
Right, and you're selling the convenience of the snacks inside. That's where you make the money.
George Otel (31:59.764)
Yes, yes, yes. You got a coffee and a good food, barbecue and stuff. And there are so many multiples you can add. And it's like 30%. I mean, you know, restaurants, make 15, 20%. But how many people you need to run the restaurant? With the convenience store, you need two people in the store. And it's in a good neighborhood. you know, you do a lot of things and everything is,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:11.372)
Yeah, ten, like maybe, maybe. Mark, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:25.228)
Yeah. Enter. Yeah.
George Otel (32:26.282)
It's different. Those are cash cows. So anything is for sale. It's accessible and you can buy it as a business owner. It's much better than just have a job. I mean, I had my first job. I was employed. But since then, just been business owner, multiple business, some blow up, you know, my wife, she's like, another LLC. Hey, George, another LLC. Like another business idea.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:37.644)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:48.524)
them.
How many are you managing? That's right.
George Otel (32:55.392)
Yeah, he's like, I'm tired of your business ideas. yes. Not sometimes. No, sometimes we...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:57.966)
Is she your biggest cheerleader?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:04.854)
Is she not your hype crowd? Or is she more of the let's ground ourselves? Is this gonna work?
George Otel (33:15.608)
Yeah, because I was the way you saying then I had like way too many things because not right now I'm kind of like shutting down stuff that doesn't work before I was like opening a lot of stuff and like I was younger I had like more energy but now I'm like trying to focus on on things that bring the most cash and it's more enjoying and you can grow much better so it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:29.4)
Gotta test it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:40.408)
Yeah.
George Otel (33:41.152)
Yeah, I think the biggest mistakes not to try to own your business or let's say if you're working for a company, you can buy an existing business because the transfer is happening right now. I mean, it's going to happen for the next couple of years. And it's, it's all depends because if you know what you're doing and you've structured the business right, it's a good way to, to buy yourself more time and have a good cashflow.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:54.702)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:09.442)
That's Now that's good. So you talk about, you focus. We always say that focus clarity. It makes a world of a world of difference in generating business, scaling your business. It is and it's hard for for us sometimes to maintain that focus. So OK, so what would be
What would our listeners be surprised to learn about you? It's not on your resume, it's not on LinkedIn. What's something interesting that people would be surprised to learn about you?
George Otel (34:48.984)
About me or my business or...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:50.316)
Yeah, about you personally. Yeah.
George Otel (34:53.794)
They'll be surprised to find out that I've been working so hard for so many years. a lot of people believe, I they, I am lucky. Yeah, I believe in my own luck. I create my own luck. But if I have to do something, I don't care about sleep. I don't care if I don't eat. mean, I just grab a snack at was like 2 p.m. and I just grab something and like, okay, it doesn't matter. Like I'm not hungry. I don't even think about it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:11.192)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:22.574)
That's right.
George Otel (35:23.336)
and whatever it takes, just do whatever it takes. I got the mindset, whatever it takes. things gonna happen. Things like just, you know, and you gotta believe in yourself. You gotta believe in yourself and whatever problem you have, whatever situation I got this mindset is like the worst case scenario, there's at least two solutions. So it's at least two solutions.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:44.526)
That's right. There's always one way to do the right thing, and that's two ways.
George Otel (35:51.776)
Yep. And, yeah, it's working harder, but now working smarter. like, it's like, I, my energy is draining. Like, as you mentioned, this week, next week, next two weeks after this, it's blocked, my calendar is blocked. I'm not taking anything, just focusing on my business. So the goal is to optimize it and to buy more time. So I will just be able to think on a to work on it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:55.116)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:59.649)
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:17.421)
Yeah.
George Otel (36:20.536)
things that pays me a thousand bucks an hour. Yeah. So I came here with a $3,000. It cost me the whole trip in 2011. The whole thing is like, it was hard to get those monies. It's in Eastern Europe. It's tough. And when people say here that it's tough, like, Hey, let me take you there. Let me show you what's real tough. It's, and now I'm focusing on things that is going to cost me three, like a thousand bucks an hour. it's, that's, that, I mean, that's the most interesting thing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:22.627)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:32.864)
yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:39.936)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:46.894)
Yeah, that's.
George Otel (36:50.232)
people didn't know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:50.55)
Yeah, well, it's like, well, usually, you know, you've got to have the right mindset. This is this life is not for everybody. The whatever it takes, the grit, you know, somebody was like, Trevor, you're so hopeful. And I was like, yeah, but hope, hope is an action word. Like, you can't just it's not just an emotion. It's truly an action. You got to make things happen. You can't just go, you know, I think that's a so you can be hopeful, but.
George Otel (37:06.39)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:19.692)
You gotta do something about it.
George Otel (37:21.578)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it's like, okay, in this situation, like, whenever something's on fire, because as my wife said, like, with you guys is never boring. Something is on fire, something's blowing up. So like, okay, what's going on? What's the problem? What solution we have? So we start action because like, as you mentioned, hope is like, the hope, I still have time to fix things, right? It's like, I still have time, there's still option, but I gotta move, you gotta move, you make things happen through the chaos.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:40.323)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:48.91)
You got it. You have to. That's right.
George Otel (37:51.096)
through the chaos, doesn't matter. So that's the hope. He's like, oh yeah, I'm going to sleep when I wake up, there's no problem. No, it's not like that. You have time? Yeah, nothing's passive. Nothing's passive. Nothing's passive. I mean, nothing's passive.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (37:57.378)
Right.
No, it's not a passive. It shouldn't be a passive word. Yeah, nothing. Because we put things in action. We make things happen. So what's the best piece of advice that you've received or you've read or heard about that you've really taken to heart that has impacted your business?
George Otel (38:15.319)
Yep, correct.
George Otel (38:29.442)
So the idea is to ask the right questions and to create a not transactional relationship, but transformational. It's having like a meaningful relationship. Let's say the mentor that helped me with the business finance introduction. I went to him and say, hey, what do I need to know about your business to bring you more clients? I didn't say, hey, want to learn how to do financing. And you know, cause that's not.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:57.112)
Right.
George Otel (38:58.712)
So basically we Yeah, it's like nobody cares about you they care about themselves because everybody's selfish and when you when you face the reality that's how things happen and like and if you need something you got to provide some value before you ask for something and if you actually try to do it real transparency and Actually, the person is gonna ask you. Hey, how can I help you? Like I mean
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:59.63)
I want to learn about you. Right. Yeah.
George Otel (39:28.332)
they're gonna ask you without you asking for that. They're gonna ask you how to help you and if opportunity is gonna happen. it's a smart way to do it. mean, my business is our relationship. I started with banks in 2018, calling banks to get funding for my clients. And they say a lot of them like, George, you're too young and don't have enough time in business.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:31.246)
Pray,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (39:39.118)
That's right.
George Otel (39:54.538)
Now they call me, they say I got invited for private events. Some banks, they introduced me to software engineers that they working on new softwares. They want me to test those things. I get invited for cocktail hours and stuff like that. It's like it didn't happen overnight. mean, every weekend that I've been reading, I've been working on my business, it's impacted the situation. it's, it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:19.779)
Yeah.
George Otel (40:21.536)
Be willing to ask. mean, I love United States. I feel like I was born in Europe, but I was made in America. it's, you ask and something's gonna happen. mean, banking, financing is one of the most complicated things. By asking the right questions every day, every week, every month, you're gonna get to your destination. And even right now, there is a lot of things that I don't know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:32.942)
So I like that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (40:47.395)
Yeah.
George Otel (40:51.16)
And do I have a strategy? I just go and ask a lot of people and some of them, they're just going to tell me opinions or insights or something from their experience and it's going to help me to create something. So that's,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:04.238)
Yeah, we call it curiosity as a strategy. It definitely is. It is the best. You not just learn about the businesses, but the people. As you said, it's transformational. I read somewhere, I don't know if I heard it, I'm a podcast junkie and I'm Instagram, like I'm in the reels. But somebody said, like you said, you gotta add value.
George Otel (41:09.27)
Yeah, yeah, it's the best.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:33.954)
Like give value. And somebody was talking about like, what does that mean? And it was framed in a way that really, I was like, we know it, but it was the way that this guy framed it. He was like, give value around, tell them, if someone asks your advice, tell them what your advice, like give them that advice. Tell them what to do, why they should do it that way. But.
George Otel (41:34.989)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:00.14)
where your value, where you need to sell is when they ask, okay, now how do I do it? That's when you insert yourself to go, now that's gonna cost you. Like I will give all the advice on around the what and the why, but when you need to know the how, that's when you need to pay me for that. And I was like, that's great. That's exactly what we do.
George Otel (42:19.26)
One of my mentors
George Otel (42:24.148)
One of my mentors, see, because I want to mention two things. So first thing, I took a couple of years of my life to study to understand how business works. Like as any business goes through the same process, marketing, sales, people and product. a business also is doing two things, solving a problem and make sure you make money. that's, but the idea it's, see, I'm running too fast because I'm losing the thoughts.
The thing is, I'm not concerned about my selling myself because I don't even sell myself. I provide value. I take time to study that. So I took time, couple of years to study how business works. And I tell them, I'm trying to listen to them in 10, 15 minutes when I have the first conversation and I provide different structure, short term, long term.
And they like, wow, I never thought this is possible. This guy is possible. It's real. So they like, you know, they feel like a kid in candy store because like, hey, can I have this? Yeah, can have everything. Everything is available. And like, I'm the person. So the second thing is, as my mentor in finance told me, like, hey, I'm sure I'm telling you how I do it. But I'm not telling you how I'm doing it. I'm telling you what I do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:30.744)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (43:46.05)
Right. What I do and why I do it and I can tell you give you that advice. But when it comes to the how that's where our secret sauce is right.
George Otel (43:47.98)
But I'm not telling you how I do it.
George Otel (43:57.068)
Yeah, it's a so people ask me like, what is the difference them going to the bank or coming to me because I'm like, I'm not just giving you a loan and a fee, like interest and sometimes look, sometimes the probability of closing the financing to getting the right finance is more important than just a couple basis points difference. And when when something is on fire, you don't care about one or 2%, it's just you want to get things done.
And when you're losing your portfolio, you're losing $10, $15 million because of the bad decision, two or three points is not going to change anything. Because I ask them, look, what is more important, to eat less or to starve? Because it's, you know, first, you have a problem. That's why you call me and I'm willing to provide because we're not greedy. We're just trying to make sure we get compensated properly for our effort. And I tell people, look, I'm telling you everything to do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:51.267)
Right.
George Otel (44:55.288)
I just go and find top 30 banks that do the specific thing that you're looking for, right? Yeah. So it takes your software. You pay a thousand bucks a month, right? Then you need to know how to use the software. Then you got to reach out to those banks and you got to present yourself as a sophisticated client. they willing to do, they willing to work with you without having a broker because
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:10.446)
Right.
George Otel (45:23.84)
If they don't understand you, they're going to be able to finance you. So the same thing is like, that's, that's, that's who we come. And at the same time, you got to call them. And, cause if they did something last year, that doesn't mean they do it this year. So there's, there's 8,000 banks, seven or 8,000 banks reporting to FDIC from those seven. Do you have enough time to reach out to them to understand who does what and how that works? No, that's why we provide the value.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:26.798)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:47.886)
All right. Now. Now.
George Otel (45:51.672)
And as I mentioned, probability of closing is much more important than just an interest, like a couple basis points, because I can sell you all day long and I can make you so sweet you're going to fall in love, but it's not going to solve your problem. actually, I'm trying to solve the problem and tell you the reality. And that's how it is. That's how you provide value.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:14.03)
That's the relationship. That's right.
George Otel (46:17.208)
I have those marketing people approaching to me and I enjoy the creativity. I have some people, they take a video of my website, say, I can improve this, I can improve that. Yeah, that's value. Because like, well, I'm never going to hire you, you provided me like the concept. Let's say if I never talk to you or never going to hire you, you provided me some value because like you give me an insight. So next time when I'm considering hiring, who I'm going to...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:35.032)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:41.838)
That's right.
George Otel (46:45.26)
hire the person that sent me the video because like they I'm a stranger. Yeah, yeah. So that's that's how it works. And I had the situation, somebody called me like, George, I speak three languages. So he's like, Hey, what about how I do this? And I feel like he's he's trying to get a lot of things fast and run away. He's like, Bye, George, I love you. Bye, George. And I'm not gonna never gonna see you again.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:47.33)
Right. They gave you value.
Oh, go ahead.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:07.139)
Right.
George Otel (47:12.236)
So like, okay, I'm providing like as I mentioned, I'm gonna give you the idea what I do. And he's like, he was shocked that I actually gave him value. So I never deal with him anymore, but he sent me some clients say, hey, George is the guy to go. So, cause like I didn't expect nothing in return. And I don't know like they're gonna work with me or not, but I was trying to do my best. So in any situation.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:17.88)
He's testing you, he's testing you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:37.71)
Great. That's right. Always.
George Otel (47:41.494)
You gotta ask yourself, am I doing my best? Worst case scenario, am I doing my best? Because a lot of people are in the same situation. A lot of people are, you know, growing and they have those problems. A lot of people, our business are distressed and like we are in an environment that it happens with all of us. So, I mean, it's raining outside. Yeah, stay inside, enjoy the hot chocolate and have a podcast or something. Just don't go outside. Be happy. You have a house and it's not raining and it's...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:59.192)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:06.286)
I don't know what
Yeah, but I think that's great. That's a that should be on a t-shirt George of are you doing your best whether it's worst case scenario or best case scenario. Are you are you giving your best? Are you doing your you know, I think that's a that is a wonderful philosophy. Yeah.
George Otel (48:10.91)
It's the...
George Otel (48:18.731)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
George Otel (48:27.16)
in each situation it's distressed. mean, I had a couple of days ago, woke up like 3 a.m. I couldn't sleep because the deal was blown up. yeah, bananas, a big explosion, fireworks of bananas. And I was like, well, there is nothing I can do right now. Let me go to sleep. Let me have a nice rest. And I wake up and solution gonna happen. So I wake up in the morning.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:36.334)
The bananas everywhere.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:43.402)
You
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:51.373)
Yeah.
George Otel (48:56.086)
my body from the bank. He texted me, hey, check this out. We can do this, we can do that. And I called other people and things gonna happen. it's all we create our own problems basically. But asking yourself, because I have like, of like, I just optimizing your brain is like, am I doing my best when I'm scrolling? I have 15 minutes across the social media. So
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:05.934)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:10.318)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:16.642)
Yeah.
George Otel (49:23.128)
Because look, I mean, if you're scrolling more than one hour a day, I mean, you're working for free for Facebook and Instagram and they don't pay you. I mean, you're eating the ads, you're eating the ads and, but I create content. So it's like, you either create or you consume. it's, I ask myself for social media, when I'm social media, like what I'm doing here, where I'm actually, cause like I open it to check some message, right? And then, real, let me see this real, one real and that's it. And then next boom.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:29.422)
That's right. That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:38.83)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:43.96)
Great.
I check messages, yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:52.515)
Yeah, or I give myself like my doom scrolling if I can't sleep at night, I'll go through doom scrolling. But typically I'm like you, I have focus time, I schedule out, block time on my calendar to produce content, and then I just go in and just check messages or I need to get better at that. Sometimes I'm a little slow of like, oh crap, I have a bunch of messages I need to check. But yeah.
George Otel (49:52.972)
So I.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:19.35)
I can get, it's easy to get caught up in that, but to stay focused.
George Otel (50:22.84)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there's never been so much opportunity in our lifetimes in many years, hundreds of years. But at the same time, there's never been so much destruction, so much destruction. So like, hey, let me check. Yeah, that's it. So much, so many things, so many bad things, so many good things happening and news and stuff. It's like, no, I don't have, I don't watch TV. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The question is like, hey, this brings
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:28.354)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:36.056)
There is so much chaos in our landscape.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:44.994)
Right. No, I can't be in there. It's gonna bring me down.
George Otel (50:52.908)
this is money time, business time, this brings me money. No, I mean, then I don't have to check it. It's just do it full letter. I mean, it's whatever situation when you go into chaos, like think for the small wins, small wins, you got to be in good, you got to be in good energy, positivity, good energy, small wins, like for you got to pump up your energy. So look for the easiest things to do. So to get like a
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:58.03)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:07.63)
That's right. Gotta celebrate those. Gotta celebrate those.
George Otel (51:22.744)
like attraction to get something going. mean, at least let's say you want to try to check a product. So I, if I have a problem, I just call some of the banks and say, Hey, how you deal with this problem? And they give me the insights. One of them, they give me like the lawyer that deal with that problem. So it's like, here we go. Like it's just ask. So do your best. Are you doing your best? Yes, I'm doing JJ. Are you doing your best? Yes. Thank you for this podcast. It's, it's good.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:24.579)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:41.25)
That's right. Are you doing your best? I love it. I am. I try every day. Yeah. This is good. OK. I've got I've got my last two questions for you. You ready for OK. Because I ask every entrepreneur that comes on here if you had to sum up your journey of being an entrepreneur what word describes that journey.
George Otel (51:55.522)
Yes.
George Otel (52:07.518)
hell yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:09.12)
I'll help you.
I love it.
George Otel (52:13.704)
I have stories, so many stories, many things and like, it's the, you gotta be pumped. You gotta be, cause it's, I was on a podcast and my goal was to learn talking in public. So going to podcast helps you. And one of the, the host is like, Hey, would you be interested to come to speak to a private circle of high-end individual? Like, of course I love you. It's of course I'm going to come.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:31.506)
yeah, yeah. Helps.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:43.018)
Yeah, that's the hell yeah. It's the it's the saying yes. Hell yes. The power of yes. All right. So if you look to the next chapter in your journey, what word defines that chapter?
George Otel (52:43.288)
So it happens.
George Otel (53:01.432)
I'd say it's not a good word to say no, but say no to a lot of things that doesn't elevate me to the next level. It's key. it's saying no to short term things that impact my long term vision. So I just come up with that by the way. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:11.917)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:19.662)
I it. Yeah. That's good. So I was like, this podcast helps reveal things that have been buried inside of people. We pull it out.
George Otel (53:32.182)
Yeah, but the next the word is like, it's amazing because you get to a stage is like, as entrepreneurs, you're to fail multiple times. Don't don't feel sorry. Don't feel bad. I had years I've been losing three, five, six hundred thousand dollars a year. know, I had the family and like I had to support. So that didn't affect my lifestyle. I was like, I don't care. Like, you know, I have friends that they're making millions. And now I'm I didn't feel a second bad.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:46.168)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (53:59.288)
Right.
George Otel (54:02.36)
Now, you get to the point that all those losses, years losses is going to just do a couple of deals and you're done, you're set. But you have the experience, you have the knowledge and you're not afraid of you ask me like, yeah, and they're going to don't be afraid to fail. It's just fail fast. mean, okay, it doesn't work. Just knock it off, move next. And you're not going to repeat that. It's so it's amazing. Like let's say
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:11.971)
right.
Just keep moving forward, right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:23.766)
And learn, learn.
George Otel (54:31.966)
If I'm going to tell you in your lifetime, you have to make 30 big mistakes, how fast are going to make them as soon as possible? Because you're going to learn. I mean, obviously you want to make rational mistakes, not the stupid ones. I mean, you can cut that. Yes, you cut the recordings. So we're all going to make mistakes because we have opinions and experiences and
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:40.12)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:46.094)
We try.
George Otel (54:59.404)
You know, it's going to influence the way we act and take decision. But eventually you're going to get more knowledge because you got to build up some data, experience. You can buy experience.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:09.006)
That's right. And competence and sometimes you don't get the competence until you failed. Yeah.
George Otel (55:14.092)
Yeah, yeah. mean, and you by standing up and getting back is going to be, it's going to fuel the confidence. It's like, and you get to the point, like, it's like, dude, like I went through this, I went through that. Like, this is like, this is like nothing. like, It's like, that's why like I'm flying like 800 miles an hour. It's like, and now I'm about.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:20.94)
Yeah, it's amazing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:28.582)
I'm unstoppable man, like, bulletproof.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:35.342)
That's right. You're on the hell yeah jet.
George Otel (55:39.16)
And next, it's amazing because like you hit this supersonic speed like boom. That's yeah, like look, do I lose deals? I look, do I lose 5,000, 10,000 deals? Yeah, because I'm focusing on $50,000. So it's yeah, I'm gonna miss appointments. I'm gonna miss podcasts. gonna, I'm gonna F up. I'm gonna F off a lot of things. But as far as I'm staying consistent, focusing on most important, it's
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:46.21)
near there.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:50.51)
We out.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:59.598)
That's right. We do our best.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:07.512)
Yeah, that's right. You gotta prioritize and you're right. You focus on the things that make that matter the most to you and yeah, you do your best. That's all you can do.
George Otel (56:07.8)
It's the most important thing, so.
George Otel (56:12.342)
Yeah, do your best.
George Otel (56:20.935)
Do your best. Yeah, because look, mean, worse, bad situation gonna happen. So me asking is like a testing, testing myself every day. Am I doing my best? Yes, I'm doing my best. okay, something happens. Like the deal falls apart. Did I did my best? Yes, I did my best. I did my best. I don't feel bad at all. I don't feel sorry at all. I did my best. It didn't happen. Look, I mean, I came from Europe one day, was early like a couple of years ago and like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:36.463)
happens all the time sorry right
George Otel (56:50.168)
It was like 70 % of my deals, they blow up in one day. Boom. And yeah, we're about hundreds of thousands of my money, basically. And I said, do I feel bad? you know, take a step back. Do I feel bad? No, because like, look, those deals went through my hands. least I touched them. So next time, they're going to close. So I mean, worst case scenario, I still down those deals.
I mean, something happened. I mean, it's an experience. Now I just got to do more LinkedIn content and go more podcasts to get more deals and things are going to happen.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:25.55)
And then, that's right. Oh, this was great. I love talking to you, George. This was so much fun. I appreciate you hanging out and chatting, but where, before we go, where can people get ahold of you? Where do you want them to connect with you and learn more about what you do and how you can help them?
George Otel (57:43.992)
Yeah, it's they can find me on LinkedIn, George Otel, like hotel with no "H". And usb is usbizfunding.net or us business funding.net. It's my website one a couple of my websites. And yeah, don't don't feel shy to ask questions, reach out. We have a lot of things going on a lot of working with a lot of business owners, multifamily.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:50.208)
Yeah.
George Otel (58:12.844)
We have a group on Facebook, multifamily investors nationwide. It's 27,000 people who is investing in a multifamily as well. So it's a great time to be alive. A lot of opportunities. World is getting better. Use AI as an extension for yourself. Learn it, embrace it. Don't run away from it. So it's cool. It's awesome. I love it. Thanks for your time, dedication to create the podcast.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:31.83)
Yeah, learn it. Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:37.762)
Ha.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:41.368)
Thank you. And the Mr. The Financing Guy. People need to connect with George.
George Otel (58:47.288)
Yeah, as JJ said, you need a good accountant, you got a good lawyer and a good financing guy, because a banker is representing just their bank, I'm representing thousands of banks. So it's much better deal that no matter what you're doing, if you're a business owner or real estate investors, buying, selling, liquidating anything I can help. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (58:54.062)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:01.122)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:09.518)
More solutions. I mean, that's just like, you're not just getting one, you're getting more solutions, more opportunity. Yeah. Well, thank you, I appreciate it. We'll have to stay in touch, George, now that we're LinkedIn buddies and connection. But that's a wrap on today's chaos. But the journey doesn't stop here. If you found yourself nodding along or laughing or maybe even yelling, same, I'm a hell yeah too.
George Otel (59:15.36)
Yep, yep, yep.
George Otel (59:23.874)
Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:36.334)
at us, make sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a five-star review on Spotify or Google or Apple. Or you can dig deeper into founder and entrepreneurial resources that we have or more episodes over at orangewip.com. That's orangewip.com. And that W-I-P stands for work in progress because that's what we all are.
So until next time, stay curious, stay scrappy, and remember, we are all a work in progress. I'll see you again next week.