Chief Change Officer
#109 Ral West: From Sky-High Ambitions to Championing Entrepreneurial Freedom
Wed, 18 Dec 2024
Ral West is one of those people whose story stays with you. Over four decades as an entrepreneur, she’s seen it all. In her mid-twenties, she took the plunge and started her first business. That bold move led to running a charter air service between Alaska and Hawaii for 25 years, flying wide-body jets with her husband. Selling it to Alaska Airlines was a career highlight—but far from the finale. Since then, she’s owned small cruise ships, invested in real estate, and continued building her legacy. Now, Ral dedicates her time to helping other entrepreneurs achieve what she has: balancing business success with a fulfilling life. Her journey is real, raw, and packed with lessons for dreamers everywhere. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Challenging Generational Norms “Early in my career, working for my father, I hit the glass ceiling. He came from a different generation, and his views were, let’s say, a bit old-fashioned. But I decided, ‘Thanks, Dad—I’ll take it from here.’ And I broke away to chart my own path.” Juggling Act: The Exhausting Middle Years “Between 35 and 55, I was stretched thin—running a business, raising young kids, volunteering. Sleep felt like a luxury. My health suffered, my marriage struggled, and I couldn’t do it all.” The Breakthrough: Building Systems and Letting Go “I learned the hard way that trying to do everything myself wasn’t sustainable. I created systems, implemented processes, and built a team I could trust. Using metrics and data-driven management, I structured my business so it could run smoothly—whether I was there or not.” The Slow Burn of Transformation “Building systems, processes, and a reliable team didn’t happen overnight. It was years in the making. I started small—reading books like The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, going back to college, and studying with mentors like Robert Kiyosaki. Each step added a piece to the puzzle.” Bite-Sized Delegation: Starting Small “You don’t need massive financial success to start delegating. It starts with breaking down your daily tasks into bite-sized pieces and identifying what you can transfer to someone else.” Turning Intuition Into Systems “One of my toughest challenges was documenting decision-making processes—like when to increase advertising spend. It took weeks of introspection and trial and error before I realized I was relying on sales trends over a three-day period. Once I had clarity, I turned it into a system my team could follow, even when I wasn’t there.” Creating Culture: Embodying Values and Principles “It wasn’t just about systems and metrics; it was about building a team that shared my values. From customer service to feedback collection, we worked hard to create a culture that prioritized our principles.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Ral West --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.20 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1% Podcast.Top 5 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>180,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What inspired Ral West to become an entrepreneur?
It was a business that operated charter air service between Alaska and Hawaii with wide-body jets. And after 25 years, we were able to exit the business by selling it to Alaska Airlines. In other career pivots since then, we have owned small cruise ships. We have invested in multifamily real estate syndications, and we are still doing that. So a varied career for, as I say, over 40 years.
And that brings me to today where I have yet another business that I've started where I'm teaching entrepreneurs business. how to accomplish what I have and that you can run your business and have the life that you want at the same time.
You mentioned you grew up in an entrepreneurial family. So that vibe, the mindset of building and creating was part of your education from an early age. Then in your 20s, you stepped into the game yourself, starting your own ventures. You've been involved in various businesses since. I'm curious, how do you decide which area to focus on?
Is it a lot of strategic calculation, following trends, gut feeling, or just going where the money is? What's your thought process when choosing a business to start or invest in? And what lessons have you learned along the way?
To start with, I was raised in a tourism family, so that was my initial business was related to tourism, and I was helping businesses with their marketing and advertising, businesses that were involved in tourism in Alaska. I wasn't born in Alaska. I was born in Seattle, but I moved to Alaska in my 20s, and that's where I decided I to launch out onto my own because I saw an opportunity.
And I think that's the main criteria is that there was an opportunity because there were many small tourism businesses that didn't know how to get their product out to market. And I had the experience doing that in the work that I had already done in tourism. So I thought, hey, I can offer them this service and I can provide them with what they need to get their product to market.
So I did that to begin with. Then the business that my husband started was a spinoff of that. He was in real estate and he decided that he wanted to make these free trips to Hawaii like I was doing because some of my clients were in Hawaii. And she said, okay, I'm going to represent Alaskans who own condos in Hawaii and I will market the condos for them.
Then I added to that with, okay, but you need to also add the rental cars and the air and make a whole package out of it because that was my experience in tourism. So you need a whole vacation package. So together we built that company and it was basically a merger of his expertise with my expertise and we ran with it. Along the way, we started investing in some real estate on the side.
And later on, when the time came to sell the business, that opportunity arose because we knew that Alaska Airlines was planning to enter the Hawaii market. And we knew that their pockets were deeper than ours. And it just made sense for them to buy our company rather than for us to duke it out in the marketplace. And we both lose a lot of money.
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Chapter 2: How did Ral West's charter air service business evolve?
We had one ship left and it got tied up to a dock because no cruise ships were operating anywhere in the world. So that was a pretty obvious sign to us that it was time to pivot away from cruise ships. So we sold that last ship. And then we spent a fair amount of time studying the landscape of world economy. Where were the opportunities? Where was the world going next? What would be the outcome?
After COVID, we would listen to podcasts and we would read. We would attend workshops. That's when we decided that the future seemed possible. to be going in the direction of real estate, and particularly multifamily real estate, because buying an individual home was becoming more and more cost prohibitive, which meant that people were going to be renting.
So we decided that that would be a good place to put our money, and we started investing As a general partner, limited partner in various syndications where we were involved in purchasing complexes that had 100 or more apartment units in a complex. And we now own over, or we're part owners anyway, in over 6,000 of these apartment units in five states across the U.S.,
So it's a combination of seizing opportunities, but also just keeping your eyes on what's going on around you. The world is changing all the time. And if you're not staying aware and keep your eyes open to what's going on around you, you can miss some of these opportunities. So that's the main key.
I see you as a fairly successful self-made business person. someone who has steadily built wealth over time with discipline while spotting opportunities along the way, how would you describe your approach? In your own words, what kind of business person are you?
I think that I definitely am a risk taker. And that comes from my family culture as well and coming from the entrepreneurial background that I have. But I do take calculated risks and I do the homework and I run the numbers and I do some research and investigate the market. And I've learned along the way because sometimes I didn't do my research and my homework. as well as I should have.
And that was a big learning experience that was painful. So I don't want to do that again.
And then now in this particular, my newest business, it's more of, as you said, making a contribution and giving back and sharing my years of experience and knowledge with entrepreneurs so that I can offer them the guidance and the wisdom and help them cut out a lot of the pain and learning experiences that I had. make it easier for them.
In your entrepreneurial journey as a woman, have you faced challenges that might differ from those faced by men in similar positions? I ask because even today, in a tech-driven world, it's well known that women, regardless of age, still face unique hurdles. For instance, female tech founders struggle with raising money as easily or in the same amount as their male counterparts.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Ral face during her entrepreneurial journey?
And that was a very complicated thought process to come to that conclusion. And after a few weeks of trying to figure it out, I decided that I was watching the metrics of the sales. And I was able to discern that if the sales were decreasing, like over a period of three days, that meant we needed to beef up the advertising. But you need to be able to document
All of these things, and that takes time to be introspective and figure out how it is that you're running this business and get written policies, procedures, training manuals, build a team, train the team, create a company culture that embodies everything that you feel is important. your values and your principles and have that carried out throughout the organization.
And there are just so many aspects. We needed to improve our customer service. We needed to make sure that we were collecting feedback from our customers so that we could provide the level of expectation that they wanted. And because we depended on repeat business, if we didn't keep our customers happy, we wouldn't get that repeat business. So there were so many aspects to it. And we had a team of
two or three or four dozen people. So it wasn't a huge business, but it wasn't real tiny either. And I had the ability to delegate and create processes and systems with our teams. Could you share some specific examples where you built a system for yourself? There are many examples. I'm trying to call the one that would be the most relevant.
And I think one thing that might be relatable is that our business involved taking reservations for our air service over the phone. So we had reservations agents who would answer the phone and take a booking by using our in-house computer reservation system and book. No booking was taken without somebody being on the phone to take that booking.
So as time went on, we were realizing that this was not a very efficient system. And we invested a huge amount of money and almost two years to develop an automated reservation system.
and that system once we pulled the trigger on it and it went live it was able to take the bookings um 24 7 without any of our reservation agents talking on the phone at all whether you are a travel agent or a customer you could go online and book your trip entirely online that was a huge transition for our company and it made a gigantic difference in our revenue
by being able to automate that reservation system. So just like with what you're talking about in terms of your podcast, the more you're able to automate some of your processes and so that you can repeat your systems over and over again in less and less time, that enables you to increase your productivity and hopefully your revenue as well.
You've reached a point where traditionally you could retire Stop working, travel around the world, dive into hobbies. But the concept of retirement has changed. In today's world, it's not always about stepping away completely. I'm curious, what's your personal take on retirement? Would you consider retiring in the conventional sense? Or do you have a different vision for this stage of life?
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Chapter 4: How did Ral West pivot her business after COVID-19?
Chapter 5: What lessons has Ral learned about delegation and building systems?
I just want it because it's my passion. It's my joy. And I don't see that age has any bearing on whether or not I continue to work. You know, as long as I love it and I can do it, I'm going to.
The idea of retirement is evolving rapidly, is no longer about just stopping work and living off savings or pensions. Financial independence now means people have choices, whether to keep working, pivot into a passion project, or even take breaks to recharge and come back stronger. From your perspective, with financial freedom at your disposal, how do you view retirement?
When you think about this for the border population, how do you see the concept shifting? If we put on the Futurist hats, where do you think retirement is headed in the next decade or two? I'd love to hear your vision for how this concept may evolve.
I think that people need to be able to pivot and that the pivot will depend on what their inner desires and motivations are. And I think that I personally am an advocate of people following their heart and following their passion. If they love what they do, why not keep doing it? Financially, I think it's great to make sure that you have
a consistent source of income, whether that be some kind of retirement account that's generating some income for you or you have passive investments like our real estate. They are considered passive investments because they earn money while we're sleeping. So that's an important aspect of being able to be financially independent.
and live the life the way you want to live it, whether that means working or not working. We have friends who are just totally enjoying their retirement. They have the financial means to do what they want, and they travel or they play golf or pickleball or do volunteer work, whatever they want to do. And I think that the traditional retirement
definition of retirement of reaching age 65 and then you quit your the job that you've had for 30 or 40 years and you're hanging up and go home and sit on the couch that's gone i don't see that happening i think that people can reinvent themselves and develop new ways to keep themselves occupied and follow a passion and maybe that passion will be generating some income or maybe it won't
But you do have to have some financial wherewithal to be able to live the life that you want. I think that's important. I think that people nowadays have an opportunity to create so many more opportunities for themselves, and there are really no limits. You mentioned AI earlier, and with the digital age, there are just so many things that people could do, so many opportunities.
If you look around and see what... where people need to be served and you can provide that service, why not do that? And be creative, be bold, be confident, and don't let your age or your situation stop you. And I just believe that people need to go for it. That would be my final word.
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