To kick off this new page PEOPLE OF THE IE, I decided to start with someone who’s led a life of adventure, loves people and helped many. Tony Gonzalez, known in Norco as Cowboy is a top real estate producer and also teaches courses at two of the largest Real Estate competitors in the Inland Empire.
Besides these awesome credentials, what is unique about Tony? I have to go back to the beginning when I first met him.
I had reached a point in life where I was looking for new opportunities and pursuing change. I’m a huge believer that change is necessary to thrive. It’s the human condition to long for stability, find that safe place and then relax. But, I haven’t met a person yet, that reached that goal. Life will also give you a nudge, sometimes a kick to get you going. So, I prefer to be proactive. This belief spurred me take a real estate course. I went to a well-known national chain with several local offices and my instructor ended up being Tony.
The class was in the evening, after work and we had a small group of hopeful individuals wanting to better their lives by selling Real Estate. I anticipated a very business like, maybe boring person, to lead us through the course. We sat around the table chatting until a guy, dressed like he was going to the rodeo entered the room. He was loud and commanded our attention at once. He was articulate with a slight accent and happened to be trilingual. He proceeded to start talking about music, guns, cars and then real estate. He was funny, hilarious, talented and knew his stuff. Several of the students and myself attempted to challenge him, but he knew the subject backwards and forwards. And he was humble about it. He kindly put us in our places with encouragement to keep challenging him and learn. He was nice to everyone and genuine. His friendliness wasn’t a facade. He remembered our personal details and our personal motivations for being in his class.
I found him to be fascinating and it really piqued my curiosity how he became this successful, yet kind and giving person. He was willing to lead students through difficult and sometimes boring tomes of information. It was obvious that he didn’t see barriers or stereotypes. Everyone was fair game. It was all about teaching Real Estate and making it real for all of us. Giving us a vision of success.
So this post is about how he became the person he is today and the good work he is doing for the community and business world out here in the Inland Empire.
It all started in Los Angeles. Tony was the youngest of four children and only son of Juan Palomo, famous mariachi and Mexican national treasure. Juan Palomo was from the famed Guanajuato, Mexico. Guanajuato is best known in Riverside as the home of the Reyes family who commissioned the Reyes Retablo housed in the Saint Francis Chapel of The Mission Inn. Countless celebrities and people of fame have been married in front of this priceless piece of art that is over 300 years old. Tony’s ancestry also traces back to Sweden. His maternal great grandfather, Stephen Green, immigrated from Sweden to Mexico, landed in Baja and decided to establish is legacy there.
Juan Palomo eventually moved to Los Angeles to purse the American dream. He worked there for several years and then for health reasons decided to buy a farm and move back to Mexico, closer to family. He bought a 250 acre farm in Mexico and began his recovery. The farm was successful. His crops were alfalfa, wheat, and there were some dairy cows. There was also a drilling business. This is where Tony’s love of ranching began and would eventually morph into a dream to travel the world, visit ranches and write about them. He dreamed of ranches in Australia, Alaska and Argentina. He found he carried the musical gene as well and learned to master the guitar, piano and harmonica. When he told his father he wanted to continue his schooling, become a writer and travel around the world, his father would tease him and tell him to climb to the top of the drill rig where he could see the world.
Eventually, Tony moved back to the US and stayed with family there to finish his education. He went to Veterinary school and then decided to live his dream and become a cowboy. He was able to secure a position on a ranch in Montana and began to ride the range and work with cattle. He loved the outdoors, even the bitter cold. As he worked on the vast Montana ranch, his dream to see ranches around the world and photograph them continued to grow.
Photo by Chris Murray on Unsplash
His next move was to the 12,284 acre Avenales Ranch on the California Central Coast. At that time, the Avenales Ranch was owned by Jim Stinton. Jim Stinton held a degree from UC Berkeley in agricultural economics. He was deeply involved in agricultural research and executed many projects and experiments that advanced the science of ranching. Jim Stinton was a friendly and kind man and well-loved in his community. He shared information with the ranch hands and rode side by side with them over the range; teaching and working the range. At the Avenales Ranch, Tony worked the land and became an expert on wildlife and game, while working under the tutelage of John Arnold, the ranch manager and his Uncle Humberto Castro from the neighboring ranch, Las Piletas. There was a broad range of wildlife that included bears, mountain lions, elk and several species of snakes. The impact of Jim Stinton’s, as well as John Arnold and Humberto Castro’s teaching, stayed with Tony and inspired him to become a teacher and mentor later, when he became successful in Real Estate.
While working on the Central Coast, life happened and Tony met his beautiful wife and started a family. Along with that came the demand to settle down and provide a good life for his wife and three sons. First, they moved off the remote 12,000 acre ranch to a town nearby. Here, Tony took on additional work at a veterinary clinic. He settled here until an opportunity to start a tech business in Mexico arose. He moved back to Mexico briefly, learned the business from the ground up and then Y2K hit, which led to his return to the United States and the Inland Empire. In the Inland Empire, he was introduced to selling Real Estate by a friend. He took to selling land, like a fish to water, and soon became an award winning top producer in the Inland Empire, selling millions of dollars of Real Estate.
Fast forward today and Tony’s role as a teacher and mentor to Real Estate students. Not only is the work philanthropic in nature; but it provides networking, access to new trends in the industry and consulting opportunities. This as a whole benefits the industry.
I asked Tony why he teaches. He responded he really enjoys it. He loves meeting people and finds the teaching process fun. He loves helping people succeed and see them improve their lives. He keeps inspired by following motivational speakers on Ted Talks and is a big fan of self improvement. He loves to pass this on in his classes.
My last and favorite question for Tony was, what is the meaning of life to you? He quickly responded that he believed everyone was here for two reasons. He liked to think those reasons were to learn and grow and to make the world a better place for future generations. He believes that life is always changing and had not really ever considered retiring, but restructuring his life. This would be a balance of dividing his time between selling Real Estate, teaching, traveling and spending time on a small rural property that is not a working ranch.
Meanwhile, you can reach Tony at: www.norcolife.com
