Ral West’s resume reads like an adventure novel. She’s been an airline owner, a cruise ship operator, a real estate investor, and now, a mentor for entrepreneurs looking to turn bold ideas into reality. After selling her Alaska-Hawaii charter airline to Alaska Airlines, she didn’t slow down—she just switched industries. In this episode, she shares her wild ride through decades of entrepreneurship and the lessons she’s learned about balancing ambition with a fulfilling life.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.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Ral West and why is her story unique?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest, Raelle West, is the kind of person you meet and immediately think, wow, she has lived such a full life.
Over 40 years as an entrepreneur, her story is full of twists and turns. In her mid-20s, she took a leap and started her first business. That was just the beginning. For 25 years, she and her husband ran a charted air surface between Alaska and Hawaii, flying wide-body jets. Eventually, they soldered to Alaska Airlines, a huge milestone, but not the end of her journey.
She has owned small cruise ships, invested in real estate, and kept building. And now she's helping other women entrepreneurs figure out the same thing she did, how to run a business and have a life with sustainability. Her story is real and packed with lessons for anyone chasing big dreams. Let's dive in. Well, good afternoon. Welcome to our show. Welcome to Chief Change Officer.
You and I have the longest time difference, 17 hours. Thank you for coming on board.
Thanks, Vince. And I love the distinction of the time difference.
Time difference reflects distance. So far, among all my guests, you are the most distant one. The very first guest from Alaska I've never visited Alaska. The closest I've been was a transit stop when flying from Asia to Toronto, Canada. But now I finally have the chance to connect with someone from Alaska. I'm so excited to learn more. Let's get started with your story.
Walk us through your career journey, your history, the major transitions, and the key moments of evolution. Then we explore different elements in our conversation.
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Chapter 2: How did Ral West transition from aviation to other industries?
Okay, Vince, in a capsule, 40 years plus, I've been an entrepreneur. And before that, I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. So I think it ran in my blood. So in my mid twenties, I opened my first business and went on to have a serial entrepreneur, if you will, had many different businesses. And the primary business was one that I ran with my husband and we ran the business for 25 years.
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. And 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 how to accomplish what I have in 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. Yes. 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?
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Chapter 3: What strategies does Ral West use to choose her business ventures?
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 to launch out onto my own because I saw an opportunity.
And I think that's the main criteria here. 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. She was in real estate and she 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 work at 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. Cause 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 just 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'd both lose a lot of money.
So we convinced them that buying our business was a lot cheaper than winning the market from us. So the pivot that came next was again a spinoff because my family's business that I had not been involved in personally for several years was involved in small cruise ships in Alaska.
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Chapter 4: How has Ral West's entrepreneurial journey been influenced by her background?
And we had a different idea as to how to present cruises to people visiting Alaska instead of just going from port to port. We felt that they would have a better experience of Alaska by leaving from a port and going out into the wilderness, getting onto a skiff and playing with the whales, going kayaking, going ashore and taking hikes in the forest or even walking on a glacier.
And these things were things that we were enjoying on our own boat in Alaska, because by that time, my husband's a boataholic, so we had to have boats up here. And so we found a couple of cruise ships that were bank owned. They had been owned by a company that went bankrupt. And so the bank held them and they were sitting at a dock rotting. So again, it was an opportunity.
And we seized that opportunity and bought those ships out of rather low price point and fixed them up and bought them.
found somebody to operate them for us and then later there was another company that went bankrupt and we bought some more cruise ships so we ended up having five small cruise ships under 100 passengers each that were operating in alaska and providing the kind of adventure that wilderness experience that we felt that people would really enjoy in alaska so that lasted for about 10 years and we were selling the vessels one by one to the company that operated them
But COVID happened then. 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 to be in going in the direction of real estate and particularly multi-family 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.
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Chapter 5: What challenges has Ral West faced as a woman entrepreneur?
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 is 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.
Reflecting on your experience across the different businesses you've built and run, what were some of the key challenges you've encountered as a woman business leader And now, as a coach, how do you guide younger women to navigate and overcome similar challenges, learning from what you faced and learned?
I think that early in my career, actually, when I was working for my father, I experienced more of the glass ceiling and the prejudice against women. And once I went out on my own and said, yeah, thanks, Dad, I'm going to do this myself. Then I was able to break away from that because he was a bit chauvinistic. He came from another generation. And so I said, not going there.
I'm not dealing with that. I didn't really experience too much in the way of discrimination or any obstacles because I was a woman. I think I... Maybe I just had a lot of confidence and I just didn't let it stop me. I was just bearing to go and I just knew that I could do a better job than most anybody else let me at it.
So I'd say that for women, all women, whatever age, you have to believe in yourself and you have to have the confidence that you know what you know and you can do the job.
i think that women when i was between 35 and 55 i was juggling young children and a business and volunteer activities and i was exhausted and overwhelmed and i was stretched so thin sleep was a luxury and i the relationship with my husband suffered and My health suffered and I just couldn't do it all.
So I think that I can relate to women who are in that period of their lives where they're trying to juggle so many things. And what I learned the hard way was how to create the systems and the processes and build a team around me, use leverage and get out of that, that stress and overwhelm by a
building a real system and structure around me so that I could operate the business, whether I was there or not. And I developed metrics and data based management, and it all allowed me to have more freedom to do what I wanted to do. So by the time I was about the end of that time period, by the time I was 55 and the kids were, you know, grown,
I was able to take off and do whatever I wanted to do because I had a team in place. I had managers in place. I was free. And that's what I would like to share with other women that they can do that too. Doesn't matter if you're male or female. So don't let that stop you. So that's what I would give as advice to any woman.
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