From cancer recovery to business success, Shanne shares how mindset and mission fuel his journey.
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In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Shanne Carvalho, Broker Associate at eXp Realty and Founder of Solid Oak Construction Co., about how a relentless mindset and a mission of service helped him overcome life’s greatest obstacles and build two thriving businesses.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
- The power of perseverance in both life and business
- How to bounce back from major adversity, including health and betrayal
- Why being of service is the foundation for long-term success
Watch Full Interview:
About Shanne Carvalho
Whether you are a buyer or seller, Shanne brings a wellspring of experience not only as a REALTOR®, but previously as a general contractor and mortgage broker. His negotiating skills are unparalleled (which explains his expert poker game) and he walks with a myriad of highly qualified stagers, subcontractors and tradespeople to streamline the process for you. He grew up on and studied the arts and skills of business persuasion.
His team is powered by the Exp Realty platform and has available all the necessary supporting crew in the fields of technology, communication, and advocacy.
Shanne is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, entertaining, music, fishing, soccer, golf, and travel
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today’s a very special episode. We’re bringing back onto the show, Shane Carvalho.
He is a broker, associate exp Realty and also founder at so solid Oak Construction Company. Shane, man, welcome back to the show. It’s good to see you. Yeah. Good to see you too. Man. Time just goes by like, I, you know what I mean? We’ve been trying to connect and yeah, it’s, it’s good that we actually scheduled these time.
Like I remember when we scheduled the meet today, it’s like, it just seemed like it was so far out and it’s like, just like that is here. Yeah, well, well, I know you already know the drill. We’ll start this episode the way that we start them all, and we gotta also talk about the, the book that we just recently relaunched together.
But before we get into that, we’ll start this episode with what we call our mission matters minute. So, Shane, at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts. That’s what we do. Shane, what mission matters to you? Honestly, it’s, you know, something that’s never changing.
I guess it just kind of, you know, mutates a little bit in the detail, but it’s always in service to our clients. I mean, it’s always, it’s always serving people, whether it’s, you know, on the sales side or you know, on the construction or just in general helping people, participating, you know, part of some of these organizations in the community and such.
And yeah, I would say that, you know, my mission is always of being in service or being of service. To my community, my colleagues, my family, and all my friends along the way, like it’s been a pleasure, you know, being part of your organization and knowing you guys, I mean, I’m always here to serve you as well.
Yeah. I definitely feel that. And just to celebrate, I mean, I have the book right here and just so everybody knows, we recently released our book together, our anthology series. This is our 11th edition of our bestselling business leaders book. I’m very proud and we as an organization, we’re excited to have Shane participate and.
Just to kind of, before we get into the book, Shane, maybe give a little bit of your, for, for the newer audience, the newer listeners that we’ve attracted and been blessed to have. Maybe give a little bit about your background and really how you got started in business and, and on your journey. You know, it just goes back to growing up.
I mean, my dad, you know, my parents are immigrants from Portugal. They came to the US and the good old American dream. So my dad started working for a construction company, ended up becoming his own general contractor at his own company. And you know, my mom ended up, you know, she was into like, you know, cosmetology, you know, she had a beauty.
She ended up having her own beauty salon, but they’re retired now. But my dad, you know, I worked with him when I was in. You know, teenager in high school and college and I spent all my free time in summers working in construction and you know, just learn the, learn the trades and took a lot of interest in that.
And on my journey, you know, got into mortgage lending outta college and real estate sales and you know, just. Early on, it just, this all started kind of forming, you know, right outta college. It’s like I just took the steps and one thing led to another, and here I am, you know, 26 years later, you know, licensed real estate broker for, you know, I’ve been licensed real estate for 26 years.
I, I’m a licensed general contractor. Been doing that my whole life. You know, there’s a lot of details I’m not putting in here ’cause obviously for the sake of time, but, but essentially, you know, I’ve brought the businesses to a point where. It’s full service. Like we can help you fix up your house to sell.
We have a warehouse and a stager that’ll will stage your house and make it like a model home. So, I mean, we could literally help you flip your own house. If you wanna buy a house, you wanna make it a second home or an Airbnb? We can. I. Come in and, you know, do all the remodel and even furnish it and you know, fill it up with everything you need.
Even the dishes, the kitchen stuff. And hand you a key, you know, I mean, we can do relocations, corporate relocations. We help the bank get rid of assets. I mean, we do investment stuff for ourselves. Mm-hmm. Help clients complete big, you know, 10 31 exchanges and you know, help do, like, we just did a big. For one of our really good clients and friends, you know, we just did a massive build out on a commercial space for a financial services company.
Completely just built out the whole space to, you know, to the end. Mm. So, but anyway, that just, that’s kind of where, where we’ve gotten, right? So the journey started, you know, in the trenches, little construction and just kinda little by little lending. And then just, just progressively really learned the industry and really kind of found my way.
And it’s interesting because I had a dream early on. Early on I had this dream that someday I would have this whole thing. Mm-hmm. And it’s interesting because that dream became a reality. And, and that hit me. I think I might have told you previously, a couple years ago, I was driving down the road here, close to home, and it just really hit me at that.
I was like, oh my God, I, I had this vision. So many years ago, and it’s just amazing when that, you know, materialized. Yeah. I wanna go further into your, into your career and really one of the things that I know, and we’ll get into the book as well, so a lot of different things you could have written about, and I’ll read off the the title of your chapter.
So an entrepreneur’s mindset is never finished. So a lot of angles you could have went why this, why now? Like when you’re doing something you love and you know you’re doing well or you’re progressing, like for me, it’s interesting because you keep wanting to go to a higher level. Like, it’s like you wanna get into the bigger game, you wanna be challenged.
And like, I have such a passion. Like I, I love doing this stuff. And, and it’s like I’ve gotten to a point now in my career where I want to share my knowledge and try to help other people to have the same passion. Is that kind of, am I kinda going in the right direction with what you’re asking me?
’cause I Absolutely. Okay. Mm-hmm. For some people it’s like, there’s the trade secrets I’m not gonna share. It’s like I, you know, do my thing. And some people just aren’t really people, people, they just do their thing and move on. For me, like, I don’t know, I just, I’ve, like I said earlier, like being someone of service.
Mm-hmm. I just love helping people and you know, for me the vision of how to be successful. It’s such a reality, like mm-hmm. You know, for some people it’s like, it’s hard to sell even a house or it’s hard to like, but for me it’s like so simple that I’m trying to bridge the gap between being brand new or being just challenged or whatever, to like, having the success and just trying to help people bridge that gap.
It’s not, it’s not this big, you know, ’cause it’s like. I don’t know. It’s like there’s this, it’s like almost like people imagine that there’s this big wall of resistance or something. People feel like we’re like, ’cause I mean like in real estate, like 10% of us do like 90% of the business, right? So it’s like in reality it’s like, sure, some of us might have certain talents, so whatever.
But at the end of the day, it’s like just showing people that through sheer work ethic, determination, and commitment, anybody can achieve anything they want. And I fully believe that. And so it’s like. I’m trying to bridge the gap, like by trying to help people along, trying to show people that, hey, it’s not like this overwhelming thing.
It can be done and this is what I’ve done. You could do the same thing and you know, you can lead ’em to water. You can’t make ’em drink, but hey, I do my best every day in the book. I, I feel like your chapter was very personal. You talk about, you know, beating cancer, about perseverance and really clawing your way back.
Can you, can you speak on that a bit? Yeah. I mean, look, I, I think that, you know, we, when we set out in life, especially at an early age, we’re so focused on making money and being successful. We don’t really think about, like, we always feel like we’re invincible, and I don’t know, we just, mm-hmm. I don’t think a lot of us, or maybe some people do, but speaking for myself, I mean, I always thought about.
What do I gotta do to build wealth and be successful, and how can I have this big mansion and all this stuff, right? I mean, mm-hmm. Obviously, my vision of what I want has changed a little bit over the years. It’s not so materialistic now, or so much about the mansions and the fancy cars. But I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re so like laser focused on having that success that you don’t think about like the pitfalls or the things that can happen.
You also have such a strong vision on how you are and the kind of person you are. You also don’t think about. How other people can behave or what other people can do. And you know, like I just, unfortunately, you know, we also don’t think about the fact that ’cause we’re healthy, we work out, do what we do.
Yeah. We don’t really think about, oh, I could have cancer, I could have this, or I could have that. It just, it’s not really something you think about. And so when you get hit, at least I didn’t think about that stuff. Mm-hmm. When you do get hit with adversity, you know, my first one was obviously I went through, I know a lot of people have gone through divorce.
I mean, that was, that was a real rough patch about 15 years ago. Yeah. That was very tough time with the market too, as the market crash. It was just a tough time to go through all that. But that was a big. A big deal. But this last thing in the last few years was brutal because not only was it cancer, it was also, you know, the, the maximum betrayal by a business partner, you know, partner, friend.
And it wasn’t the only one. It was like there was a handful of people that just really, you know, did me dirty and you know, it’s like. You’re already fighting for your life, you know, trying to, you know, go through. I mean, look, cancer, that was a huge surprise. We don’t really have cancer in our family, and that was, I mean, I’m fortunate that I was so busy that it didn’t hit me like it should have.
Mm-hmm. Honestly, it was one more thing to put on the to-do list. I know that sounds ridiculous. Oh, man, that sounds crazy. Yeah, that, but I mean, for real, I just had this conversation the other day. It was like if I was like living on top of the world and things were great and like I wasn’t hustling, I was like on an island somewhere on vacation or something.
And, you know, retired or whatever. I think it would’ve been harder to deal with. I think it would’ve been devastating because I think I would’ve focused too much on the fear and everything else. But it’s like I had so much going on already and I was kind of going through a hard time with this business partner and stuff.
I just, I didn’t really have time to like really sit there and worry. It was like, okay, what do I gotta do? What’s next? Well, five weeks later I was in surgery. Wow. So it just, like, it happened so fast. I, I still remember the morning that I got to the hospital. I was so nervous. I had never had a major surgery.
I was like so nervous. I was like, but then it was crazy because like you go to sleep and then I feel like no time passed. So I woke up in the recovery room. I don’t remember very much ’cause I was pretty drugged, but I just remember waking up, like no time had gone by. I still remember opening my eyes in the, in the recovery room.
And it’s like, but I guess what I wanna say about that though was that getting through that was not as devastating as getting betrayed by the business partners and all the stuff went through in recovery. Mm-hmm. And so I think that, you know, talking about. You know, the personal comeback and everything else is that there’s a lot of regret at first about like, should I have like, you know, had more crossed my T’S dot i’s a little better on the contract.
Should I have been a little more specific? Should I have not? Yeah. You know, should I just have been more careful? Like you always kind of question like where you could have done things better so you wouldn’t get screwed, but it’s just like when you don’t think that, I don’t know, like I would never do that to somebody, so I just.
Never really protect, like I don’t protect myself against things I wouldn’t do, which is not good. I should really be more, you know, protective about all this stuff, which I am now with whoever it is, family, friends, whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s all gotta be, you know, in contract. But, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that I.
You know, I was really in the dumps. I mean, cancer was very depleting. Like, I was just like, no energy. Lost my muscle. Like just, no, this, I could barely walk half a block. I mean, I was put on a bunch of weight after the surgery. It was just a tough recovery for me, and I was just not, it was miserable. I mean, everything was just not going well.
I mean, I had to like just really just start taking it one day at a time and it was hard to, it was hard to start to come back. It just felt like. Like you couldn’t see the finish line. Mm-hmm. Like everything had kind of just fallen in and it was like, I couldn’t even envision, like after going through kind of the recovery to a certain extent from divorce and just the challenges life throws at you getting hit with all of this later in life.
I mean, I just turned 50 in January. Getting hit with all this just was really overwhelming and it like took the wind outta my sails. Like I, for the first time ever, like I didn’t know if I had the energy to come back. Mm-hmm. I mean, I wasn’t suicidal or anything, but it was like. More just like, how am I ever gonna get back on my feet?
How am I right? You couldn’t see the end. Yeah. I just, I couldn’t see the finish line and it just felt overwhelming. It’s like, man, I just lost 60 pounds in the last like year and a half. And it’s like, I like good man. Yeah, you look good. Thanks. Thanks man. But it’s like I, you know, like it’s the example is this, like at the beginning of like the weight loss, it just seems like, oh my god, there’s so much work to do.
Like, it just seems overwhelming. So it’s interesting because reading books. Had really helped me, like instead of trying to have that I instant gratification or get it all in one shot, reading books like, you know, pound of Stone Chop Wood Carry Water, the Compound Effect, all those kind of books talk about doing a little bit at a time.
You know, just kinda little bit of progress and just love the Compound Effect. Darren Hardy, that’s a big one. I love that one. Yeah. So like look, I mean, I. Me and my, my operations manager, I mean, we’re really good friends. We worked together for years. We worked together a previous company as well, and we’re good friends.
I mean, she’s obviously an employee, but we’re also someone who cares about me and stuff. And it’s interesting because you know, she was really instrumental in helping me in the comeback because, you know, we got to the point where it’s like, okay, look today, like go for a walk around the block. Like get outside, go for a walk around the block, and then let’s write five things down on a notebook.
Accomplish these five things today and you’re successful. That’s literally how bad it was or how basic. Mm-hmm. That’s how basic it was. Trying to come back from all this and this in the last like two and a half years. This isn’t like years ago, like this whole I. Transformation to comeback has been last.
I mean, it started putting one foot in front of the other. I mean, now, I mean, shoot, I’m pretty much at my fight weight. Like I’m in great shape. I, I go run four or five miles in the morning on the beach. I work out every day. Like I, what a blast. Tennis, like I did play tennis match for two and a half hours.
I’m even tired. I mean, just like I’m in phenomenal shape. I am so energetic. I’m energetic throughout the day, even at night, like I’m. So fired up. It’s hard to go to sleep at night and then I can’t wait to get up in the morning and get after it. You know? It’s like, and it’s like I found this new level.
These challenges took me to a new level that I didn’t know I had, like early in January, I was running on the beach. I love running on the beach before sunrise. I love catching the sunrise in the morning and it’s almost like the whole David Goggins thing. Like I wanted to be cold, miserable, just nasty.
Like I want to just, I wanna feel the pain. Like I come back some mornings during the winter, can’t even feel my hands. My hands are numb ’cause it’s so cold. It’s like in the early low thirties. And it’s, you know, like running in the low thirties for, we are out there for an hour or whatever. It’s like, you know, just it, it’s kind of miserable some mornings, but it just really fires you up.
But there was one morning, early in January where I just had this weird breakthrough and I realized that everything was gonna be okay, that I was gonna make it, and I was gonna be successful again. That things are gonna be even better. Hmm. The other thing that happened mentally that I didn’t even know was possible is I leveled up, like nothing derails me.
Like I feel like I could be derailed before, like, oh, it’s a shitty client, or it’s this, or it’s that, or a bad situation, or you’re upset with somebody. It’s like things could really impact you and being an emotional person. Yeah. When you’re good in sales. You’re a very emotional person, and so it’s easy to, in this case, you’re like, well, it’s not cancer, it’s not surgery.
It’s not like being betrayed by a business partner. It’s not like all these horrible things that he’s not a divorce. It’s not like all these things that you listed that were, you know, very impactful. Right. Well, you’ve also conquered, like, you’ve also conquered everything, so it’s like, I, I don’t know. It just, it’s, it’s hard to explain, but it’s like I.
Look, I still feel feelings and I still like, you know, we had one of our team members passed away recently that was devastating. So it’s like you still feel your feelings and you, but it’s just, you deal with things differently. Mm-hmm. Like you grieve, but it’s not gonna change your course. ’cause if you, every time something happens, you can emotionally flow.
You’re never gonna be in a positive light because I mean. Seriously. Things happen every day. I don’t follow the news and all this stuff. People are so wrapped up in the news and so emotional, everything going on in the world. I don’t get caught up in all that stuff. Like you literally, like you could literally be miserable every day about something or you could be stressed about something every day.
I just, I found, I finally found my own secret sauce to just really just being on this, just stoic, just line where you feel feelings. Everything else, you still care. You’re still the same person. But you’re just not derailed. And, and then the other thing I found was just this relentless drive, this relentless energy.
I’ve always been driven. But this is a fire I’ve never had before. Like, this is on another level. Like I get excited even saying that. Like, it’s like I’m fired up, like every day I’m fired up. And and your business has shown too, right? You’re growing man. I’m on your, I’m on your newsletter or something.
I don’t know where I was in, but you’re closing deals. It might have been Instagram, that’s my, where I seen some things. But give us, give us some updates on the business, man. ’cause you’re also doing it big. Well, look, I mean, it’s. You know, we’re not at the finish line, but we’re never, that’s the name and that’s the name.
Hold on. That’s the name of your chapter, man. We already know that. I read the name of the chapter. The Entrepreneur’s Minds never finished. We know that. Well. So it’s like, but it’s like we’re, look, I mean, I’m really thankful. I recently went through another surgery, which was not big deal. It’s fine. Mm-hmm.
I mean, I’m recovering, well, it’s been about six weeks, but it’s but it’s interesting because I was down in LA so I was down there for about three weeks. Solid. I’m usually back and forth. You don’t stay down there as long and, you know, it was the first time in a long time that the team was on their own.
Mm-hmm. And I’m just really thankful to have such a great team. Like literally they ran the businesses flawlessly. They hardly even needed me. You know, I mean, my job is to, you know, bring in the business and do negotiations and do the high level stuff. Like they, they were like. Taking pro, putting properties on the market, taking properties that closed and closing ’em out and getting properties, you know, staged and inspections and getting, I mean, we’re on track.
Like we’re, we have a really good system in place and we’re climbing, we’re, we’re climbing up to, you know, back to kind of the good old days. But I mean, I think we’re gonna climb even better than that. Is the goal. And starting to grow again a little bit. I would like to grow a little more. I just, and in the construction we’ve really, you know, taken the construction into kind of its own, it’s kind of become its own thing.
It actually has a kind of a life of its own with, you know, some additional work and things that we’re doing that originally were not part of the game plan. And so, so yeah, I mean, I’ve structured a couple of businesses that are doing well. And I’m going in the right direction. I did, you know, I’m the kind of person that always wants to take care of business and, you know, my partner did, did, you know, burn some of these investors and stuff.
And I just you know, I’m the kind of person that, you know, I know investors take risk and stuff, but I don’t want people to get burned on my watch. And so I, I’ve taken upon myself to make sure that they get paid off. And and so, I mean, look, I mean, I have to hustle and grow and do what I do to, you know, not only build my success in my retirement and help all these people feed their families that work for me.
Yeah. But I’m also, you know, in, in a bit more pressing to grow because I really wanna get these people taken care of and, you know, move on to the next chapter in growth and investment. Man. That’s great. Shane. Man, this is so, it’s so much fun catching up with you, and I’m just so thrilled and excited to have you be part of this book.
For everybody that’s watching, we’re gonna have a link in the show notes to this most recently released book that again, business leaders. Volume 11 where you’ll get to read more about Shane, his background. I know we touched on the, on the chapter today, and then his writings, but there’s a whole lot more, Shane.
That being said, if somebody is listening or watching this and they wanna follow up, they wanna learn more about your work or connect with you on social media or otherwise, how do they do that? Well, I mean, honestly like on, a lot of people talk to me through like Instagram, which it’s the Shane Carvallo Recore team, and I mean, and it’s a team being that we’re full service.
Like, so when I refer to a team, it’s not like a team of agents. I mean, we do have agents that work with us, but it’s essentially. Just this whole team I have of the support and the decor. And the repairs. And so anyway, that’s kind of like our main thing. And you know, we we’re working on actually building out a site now for the construction separately.
We just, that’s in the works, but that’s the best way to reach for whatever investment, real estate construction. I’m constantly monitoring that inbox. And then, you know, my, my shoot, my mobile number’s always, I’m always fine with sharing my mobile number as well. Like I don’t have any issue with, you know.
Texting, calling, whatever. Love to, love to help her, love to network. You know, I love to, yeah. Help people grow their businesses. Like, well, you know, like you refer me, I refer you. Like it’s, I love the whole collaboration and, and what’s the number? 8 3 1 5 8 8 2 3 7 4. Fantastic. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the link to Shane’s Instagram and the show notes, so you can just click on it and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow a button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Shane, man, I’m so excited to have you in this most recently released. Book. Now we gotta, we gotta promote, do what we do, sell some books and have some more fun. So congrats on everything you’re doing and all your success and thanks again for coming back on the show.
Yeah, no, and thanks for, I mean, obviously, you know, it’s been great meeting you guys and thanks for, you know, helping me, you know, build this part of the business. I mean, this is something I’ve always wanted to do and I’d, I’d like to launch into like. Full on book. I mean, that’s kind of the, oh man, he’s hooked.
Everybody heard it now First, first announcement here. Shane’s doing a full book, man. I love it, man. Thank you. Well, it’s been, I mean, it’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for years. It just hasn’t quite been the right time, but it’s, this is a good first step and in going that direction. So I thank you guys for actually giving me that opportunity.
Awesome. Well, game on.