From the Bronx to Billion-Dollar Rooms | The Juan Brea Story

Here's this kid from the Bronx that I never thought I'd be flying first class around the world impacting 105,000 employees worldwide. I wanted to be a doctor. I didn't just want to be a doctor I wanted to be a heart surgeon. Isn't that amazing? Like I wanted to be a heart surgeon since from a very young age What changed? I know how hard it is to be on the trip I know how it is to start something from scratch. I've done it more than once I know how it is to close a business that you love but I think the answer is guys Welcome back to another episode of the Steve Ray knows how podcast today. I'm super excited. I have a very special guest Juan Braia with me and If you guys only knew what we're working on I think we're gonna have a video in the future explaining breaking down Where you've been helping me out over the course of these past few months now But we've got something very special coming out. I wanted to sit down and Really tell you about his story tell you about everything he's done because if you see him on the street You would think nothing of him just a regular dude hardworking man But this guy's a killer. He motivates me in ways you guys wouldn't even understand And he's helping me out a ton today I want to tell his story and just give him a chance to introduce himself Thank you so much, Stephen. I am super excited to be here. I haven't done many podcasts. Oh You told me no sweat. Why come on walk you through it But yeah, not I'm very excited. I think that You know LPM radio is doing some amazing things and when you were telling me about it I just kept thinking how do I help you know how to be a service and I don't want to give away anybody's well give away your thunder so because we'll do another another video But I am really really excited about what's the future of LPM radio and and all the Possibilities right the opportunities we have in front of us. Yeah, so and the different and the different businesses that will come out of Of this endeavor. So super excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Of course It's honestly my pleasure. I'm so glad you could make it out because you've got to speak a little bit on the back End of things that and learn a little bit more about each other and the more I learn about you It's just the more interesting you become to me. I'll be from the beginning the first day. I met you Your excitement motivated me because I don't know if you remember the first Pretty much zoom call we had I was kind of more on the down energy like this is what I'm planning And you're like Whatever you have in mind double it regardless of what it is your goals double after seeing the studio through a zoom call We're just speaking about it I showed you would on a MacBook twisting it around the looked insane and you're like no you saw the vision Bigger and better than I did you know, so it's motivated me and ways. I can't even explain. I could only show in the future Well, that's great. I You were a little bit down I just think you had a lot on your mind. You know, you were trying to get it out and And you know, you're a very Visual so I know you you think things through a lot So I just wanted to get you excited and motivated because I saw the potential almost immediately Right and obviously I've been in a consultant now for a long time. Yeah, I say advisor more than consulting because consulting is like Is more telling you something and I'm more a mentor/advisor. That's what I like You know and helping you motivate you to build your vision and your dreams, right? And I do find that a lot of people like Themselves they do this automatically is they they have everything Yeah, and I so my first thing is always just double What you think you could do just double it. Yeah, right and I know once People get shaken, you know, wow, why can't I double it? Mm-hmm. You start thinking that way You know you manifest very different things and yeah, I'm a firm believer in manifesting And putting things out there for the universe then to pick up and help you produce it So yeah, what I really like about that mindset and something I've thought about in these previous months is if I aim for something and let's say at the beginning It's only half of what I believe I could actually achieve If I aim for it and fall short of half I'm falling really short, you know, I'm getting half of half half of half If I double it and fall short I got my attainable goal. I got them the 100% versus the 200% versus the 25% of half half And that's what's insane to me. It's because I've said this a few times on the podcast But when my brother and I grew up we shared a room for 18 years and one of the things we always spoke about Is we had all these dreams we wanted to achieve we wanted to go up to the moon grab a few stars You know, I mean come back down the earth and go again and just keep grabbing star And I felt like at one point in life I got really stuck and I just I wasn't Aiming for anything bigger. I got comfortable being comfortable You know, I had a decent job. I went to school. I did everything that I was told I was opposed to And then I don't know what happened to me. It was like a flip switch inside my head And I said I want to be a kid again. I want to dream again. I want to I'm way too young to not be going and grabbing the stars Just because I didn't achieve it at that point when I was 24 I didn't achieve it in 24 years doesn't mean I don't have the rest of my life to achieve it. Yeah, absolutely. I At 24 year Getting to dream, you know, yeah, I I Absolutely, I think I think that You should always be a kid you know, I'm 57 and I've I've I think life is just beginning. Yeah, and we'll talk about some of the things that I've done But I've only just begun, you know, I have another 50 years Yeah, I'm gonna make the best of it and I'm gonna keep dreaming. I'm gonna keep helping people. I'm gonna keep building and And I think that's that's the mindset It's like I was listening to the radio today and and I know that my partner my business partner was bet the row And I have talked about this a lot. We we have conversations around, you know, do you want to Do you want to be alive or do you want to live? Right, and those are two very different scenarios to lives, right? Because you can be alive You know, you have all these ailments about a hundred pills a week, you know, and you're alive You know, but are you living? You know, so and and to live is very different than to just be alive And I want to live, you know, and I want the people around me to want to live You know, because that's when it gets exciting, you know, when people are living And I've been around you is living and creating and manifesting like beautiful things and it's like wow You know, and that's how I want to I want to live the next 50 years, you know I could completely agree to that and relate in a sense because when I started my podcast one thing I've realized Where gonna hit going to hit the year mark and about two more weeks three more weeks and the most amazing thing has happened in this previous year the amount of people I've motivated to live like you said not just to be alive live It's been Honestly a blessing yeah a blessing and I couldn't have asked for more because I was the shyest person prior to this we speak about all the time. I'm a tech geek like I'm back end That's my dream to sit on the back end nobody hear me speak But god told me heck start a podcast get yourself in an uncomfortable zone Because you want to be the pillar and people's lives to motivate them to stand for something You know, I always when I was younger, I would look at things like oh, I want to do this with my friend If he doesn't do it, I'm not gonna do it I was always waiting on somebody else to start something to motivate me And I said why don't I start something to motivate others exactly and that's where the blessing comes in that now I have my personal friends. They've seen the growth. They've seen the hard work I put in and they've seen the time it takes to grow something and they're like let me start now Yeah, absolutely like you said I'm in my 20s. That's super young. Yeah, you got to put things in the perspective you got to realize it Yeah, exactly Exactly so it's a story I always tell one of my best friends he was here a year ago prior to me ever even recording a video And I told him I don't care if this takes 10 years to build I'll be 35 36 and then I'll have the rest of my life living out my dream I don't care if it takes me 10 years they get a dollar and start living I'm fine living in my parents basement suffering sacrificing because from 35 to the day I die I literally I was in retirement I never had to work a day in my life because I don't find this work I just just enjoy it meant but I don't want to talk too much. I want to dive deep into your story Okay, because I've already said it's an amazing story, but I want to start from the beginning Because you're Dominican just like me how does the culture influence your life because the funny conversation we had earlier was you live two lives since the day you were born At home you speak Spanish only Spanish and nothing else and then you leave the house and it's anglers You know and I feel like you put on it's not too mask, but it is a whole different world than unless you've lived it You don't really understand it so I want to dive into that and how that might have influenced you and early career decisions Early academic decisions. How I just influence your life as a whole. What did you feel like growing up? so I I grew up on Long Island Or at least the first phase because I have different phases of my life I call them I consider myself a Bronx boy at heart But but the first formative years I guess the first eight years of my life I grew up out on Suffolk County on small town on the border I was in centralized sub-slash hop hog on a border border street if you will and it was quite it was fun and you know neighbors riding a bike walk to school school, the usual. But at home, we were full-blown Dominican. Everything that that entails. I think it's come over the crazy, loud parties. My dad was a large-enun life figure. He was a throughhiestah. It's all of you, Dominicans out there. You know what I'm saying? I used to hang out when we drove to the city. We'd hang out with Ani Batrujillo, his kids. So, my grandfather was there and he was in the army. Fancy title in the army. I was with ten in general. He had a general title. My family is from Baní. They used to my great-great grandfather, whom the salt mines. La Salina. It was this whole story that I would hear, especially if my dad had a couple of drinks in him. I'd hear the whole story every time you had a couple of drinks. He had the whole story again. It was all different world for me because I lived in America. I could send myself an American. So we were Dominican first and then American growing up. Then somewhere along the lines it changed. I was American first in Dominican. But it was always family. I could always remember as a kid, it was always family first. Your family can do no wrong. You stood behind your family and defended your family and family first. That's very Dominican. That's beautiful. Then everybody's a cousin. No matter who came to my house, for some, I was like, "Boy, we have a lot of cousins." I had hundreds of cousins because everybody was a primo. I had a lot of primos. I couldn't figure out where they were connected, but there was a bunch of them. Then I realized that's just our culture. Yesterday I was at an event at Fordham University. I met this Dominican doctor. He had a doctorate in computer science, cyber security. It was a cybersecurity conference. Immediately he was like, "Oh, my family's from the next town over in the valley. We must be cousins." He immediately said, "Bremos." Rudy started another colleague of mine at our firm said, he started laughing because he did. That's the same thing I said. No matter where you go, if you're Dominican, immediately you're primo. I love that about our culture. Everybody's world. The other thing that I grew up with is you help people. You always help people. You talk about blessings. I feel my life is blessed. I try to help people as much as I can. Along the way stuff happens, things just play out. The key is to understand that everything happens for a reason. I've always believed that. Everybody's family and you always help people is the backbone of how I grew up. There was always a lot of food. On a matter of 10 friends, they all ate to their hearts content. My mother would just cook. Where's this food coming from? You could bring all your friends and then they all eat. They still food left over. You want to say, "Mah, there's only five of us." How can we feed 12 people? It's always cooking for a lot of people. I think that's also part of our culture. You cook a lot of food just in case. That's what I remember growing up. When you were growing up, what did you envision your future of looking like? Did you see yourself where you are today? No, I wanted to be a doctor. Really? My whole life. I didn't just want to be a doctor. I wanted to be a heart surgeon. Isn't that amazing? I wanted to be a heart surgeon since from a very young age. What changed? Then I went, I was a solid B+ student. I say B+ because I didn't study. I never opened the book. Pretty much through elementary and junior and definitely in high school. I would just sit there and I could, if I looked at the board or whatever, I understood. I could just stay in my head. I have one of those memories that I just see things in pictures. I could always just take a test and just think about what I saw on the board and pass with a solid B. Sometimes an A, you know, B. Then I went for a year to Oneon to State University because my parents couldn't afford to send me to a fancy school. I did miserable. I couldn't depend on just sitting there. There was a lot of information. I don't know, maybe it was God. Somebody told me, "Look into the army." I looked into the army and I enlisted and my parents disowned me. They were not happy. Let's just look at that. I enlisted in the army. I enlisted in the army reserves. I had to go through training and then on the job training. I had to go to boot camp and then on the job training. Then I mean, to the MOS training, which is your skill that you do and then on the job training. All of that was like a year and a half or a year and almost two years through all that training. It wasn't really that long. Then I stayed in the reserves for another 10 years after that. I did almost like 13 years altogether in the service. The reason I went in is I wanted to see if I could withstand the cytoblid. I wanted to be a doctor, but I've never done anything to be a doctor. So my MOS was I was a 91 Bravo first. The 91 Bravos, they taught you how to stick people, like injections and patch them up. Keep them alive. So in the time of war, you go in and your patch. When the bullets are coming at you, you got to go towards them to get your guy out. You got to get them out. Hopefully alive. As you patch them up and you take them out. I was a 91 Delta, which in time when there's no war, I was in the OR room. I was like, you would call probably in the real world, you would call like a nurse. Somewhere between an RN and an LPN. You assist the doctors in the surgery. And then I was in long enough. I got promoted to a sergeant, what you call a non-comm, non-commissioned officer. So then I was running eight operating rooms. So I had to make sure that people in the 91 delters, they reported into me, not to make sure they were skilled up, and that we were running the operating rooms efficiently. And I could run up to eight. That would be my responsibility and schedule all the surgeries that we're going on. And in time of war, we'd do the same, but it would only be four. And it would be because it was a lot more chaotic. And it would be I would be doing triage. And then my guys would be, my folks would be in the room helping the doctors to triage. So for the audience that might not know what triage means. What it? Triage is you decide who's going to be a prioritization. Who's going to go into the operating room first, second, third, depending on the level of injury. Yeah. So and sometimes if they're bad enough, you like, if they're not going to make it, you're not going to spend the time right to even try. So they get they get triage to the side. Yeah. So it's a tough it's it's it's hard. It's a hard process. It's easier for if you just have to like patch somebody up and get them back out. Because remember the job of the soldier is you patch them up and you get them back to the to the field, right? To shoot more as long as they can shoot, you got to get them back out there. Yeah. If they can't shoot, right? For whatever reason, then you got to stabilize them and get them because we were in a field hospital. So you stabilize them and you get them to a general hospital. Yeah. So that then they can you can do more extensive procedures on them. But you keep them alive, right? And then they're the ones that you just you know they're not going to make it to the general hospital, right? So so you're not going to spend the time and they call that whole process triage. It happens in regular hospitals today when you're in an emergency room. Yeah. Some people have to wait hours. Some people get brought in immediately. That's I mean, that's what triage is. They're not telling you to your face. But they're doing it, right? Yeah. You hear the people complaining. But they're complaining because somebody has decided that they can wait that their injuries are not as extensive. They can wait longer than the people than somebody else who came in maybe after them. Yeah. But have more more their injuries are more severe. So so that happens today in regular hospitals. It's just in in in in military and in time of war. It's it's it's it's more right? It's more it's life and death decisions in real time. Yeah. Yeah. So we're trained trained to do that. That's amazing. It sounds so hectic. I wanted to ask you because you're saying time of war. Do you so you thankfully I did not serve in time. Well, I'm very grateful. I was not I was not called for the first Persian Gulf War. Okay. Desert wasn't desert storm. It was the one before forgetting I'm forgetting the name. So I was on call 72 hour notice. At this point I was working at American Express. I had a corporate job already. And I had all my stuff ready, my paperwork ready. 'Cause if they call you, when you're on call, the term on call means you have 72 hours notice. So when you get the call, you have 72 hours to show up to where they tell you to show up. And if you don't, then you're AWOL, right? And you don't wanna be AWOL. AWOL means absent without permission, essentially. Yeah. And absent without leave is the exact term. But it's the same thing. You don't have permission not to show up. And if you don't show up, if you show up at 73 hours, like for that one hour you were AWOL. Wow. You gotta show up at 72 within 72 hours. So it's very serious. Did you ever experience somebody go AWOL? I didn't, we had, on one year we did drills and one soldier of party did a little bit too hard. We were up at Fort Drum and they crashed the car and I got a call from the police. They were technically AWOL because they didn't show up for roll call in the music in the morning. So there was a mad scramble because I was, I happened to be the sergeant of the day, right? Every day there's a sergeant of the day. So I was sergeant of the day for the entire platoon, right? And one of my guys, right, doesn't show up. So he had gotten into a car accident. And he was technically AWOL, but we had a call from the police. So once we knew that he was, went to the hospital and then to the police station. So we had to go get him from the police station. So there was a whole lot of time of paperwork that he filled out after that. But yeah, he was AWOL, but not, he didn't deserve it. He was AWOL because he had gotten into an accident. Yeah. What was the biggest lessons you learned from being in the army? How did you transition? I loved my time in the army. Yeah. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was hectic. It was tough. It was also, you have so much responsibility. It's like the only place where you can show up, kid from the Bronx, you know, still went behind the ears. And all of a sudden they say, you know, here's, you're now responsible for this. And it's like all this equipment or all this, the hospital unit or whatever. And they assume you're going to, they've taught you the right way. And you're just going to perform. Like the assumption is you're going to perform and you're going to perform well. There's no. And you have to do that. Like you have to perform and you have to perform well. According to standards. And that's exhilarating, scary, but very exhilarating because people are trusting you with their lives. And in some instances, right? Especially in my role as a 91 Delta, Bravo and then Delta, right? And so that was a huge learning or a great feeling that I had. The other, the other thing is discipline, you know? I need a discipline in, I've needed discipline badly, I would say. And I realized that after I went in and it gave me an enormous amount of discipline. And that's when I realized that, you know, you could do anything you said, you could set your, your mind to, right? And I remember having to repel from a 40 foot tower. And they make you repel backwards, right? And then forwards, like you're walking down a foot, and I don't know if you've ever walked down a 40 foot tower. But a 40 foot tower is, is, is, is high. And walking down like you're walking the side of a building, a center of 40, maybe a five story building, it's a 40 feet, five or six story building, right? And you're what? Imagine walking down, you have a rope. Yeah. So they teach you and walking down that, I remember the first you go backwards because it's a little bit easier. But walking forwards is harder because you're looking around, you're rather not seeing where you're going to fall if you don't make it, right? Because you're not going to, you know, you're going to hurt. If you survive, you're going to hurt depending on where you fall. So that, I just remember doing that was just an amazing feeling, finishing that, you know, and then, and then setting up a claim or mine, you know, I know you see in the movies, claim more minds. Like, you have to explode or throw in grenades. Like you have to do all this stuff, but it mess up. Like you can kill yourself and you're a drill sergeant. Yeah. Like you got to throw that grenade out that way. So kind of so scared. Like they dropped a grenade. Like they're in their fox hole. So, so things like that make you, because it's not just, life is not just about doing the task, right? It's about doing the task right, right? Because, you know, throwing a grenade doesn't sound that complicated. You pull the plug, you push, and then you let go, right? Yeah. And, and hopefully you throw it at least like 50 feet that way, so you don't get the blast back at you, right? But some people, but it's nerve-wracking to throw a grenade, right? Yeah. And, like, do we need to explode this thing, drill sergeant? And he's like, we're not gonna explode all of them, but we are gonna explode one, because each one of us, it was like 30 guys in our platoon. And each one of us had to learn how to set up a mine. And you got to set up the mine so that the fragments go out, right? Not towards you. And you, you laugh, right? But you'd be surprised when you're doing that for the first time that, you know, you put in the mine, these guys are, they're so nervous with the mines that they're putting the backwards upside down inside out. And so, so you do learn that being precise and being meticulous and being quick, all have its advantages in real life, right? So when there are so many skills that are transferable between the military and civilian life for corporate world, right? And when I got out, I landed, maybe that's why I did well in the corporate America, because I got out of boot camp in my old, like a couple years later, right? And I needed a job. And I landed a job at an American Express in the following. So I know we're gonna talk about that. But those are the main, the main skills I, I got, I disciplined the ability to believe in myself and then I can accomplish things bigger, small and, and a sense of teamwork and camaraderie. These are people that are gonna die with you, for you, you know, and you're with them day in and day out. And knowing that, that you're not only, your life is in your hands, but these, you know, 30 other guys that are with you, their lives are in your hands as well, is, is, is, is, is, is a lot of sense of responsibility and you learn, and you learn to, you learn that in the military. I tell you, I, I tell everybody I speak to that, that if you have an opportunity, you should do two years service, you know, two or three years in the service and, and get that experience because it really does, especially if you're directionless, it really, it really gives you focus and direction, you know. So I can't say enough good things about, about the military. And I was in at a time when they actually hit you. Now they don't hit you. The trills are just, I actually got punched in the chest a couple of times because I was hard headed. Now, now I understand that they can't do that, which I, it's probably a good thing. I have two statements and then two questions. And then we're going to, first in my first statement is I'm petrified of heights. So looking down from a 40 story building would just not happen any time in my life. I would just honestly put myself for a lack of better words. And then one of my questions was, how long did you serve? I did two years, I, well, yeah, I did like two, two years active because I had to go through on the job, I had to go to boot camp, I had to go to, to training, my, what they call I moist training. And then I had to go, and then I had to go to, to, to, on the job training, which you actually I was in an OR. I was at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. I did my, my, my M.O.S. training in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Okay. So I spent, I spent about a year in Texas. I spent about two months, maybe three months in, in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in boot camp in the summer. That was, that was also, you know, an experience. And then, and then I got out and I did reserve drills in the Bronx with, uh, it was the 74th field hospital. I was doing drills in the Bronx with the 74th field hospital. And then I went to, then that got converted and I went to a general hospital, 43rd, uh, combat support hospital. So, um, yeah, being in the hospital unit is like, the field hospital was, was like mesh, mm-hmm, quite frankly. So I did total of 13 years altogether, almost 13. Like 12 and a half. I, I got out in, in 1999. Wow. So, so my second statement was, thank you for your service. Thank you. I truly appreciate everybody. I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. I'd gladly do it again, honestly. And then my second question is transitioning into what I would say is you're next step in life. You came out and you said you went into the file room at a American Express, which, I needed a job. Yeah. But I needed a job. I got out. And my sister worked as, as, as a counselor in a 10 page seat. And she said, she said, oh, I could get your job. you know, in, at American Francis Files, a three-day assignment. So, for three days, and she said, "It was paying $3 an hour, but I could try to talk them up, you know, so I want to get you $5 an hour." Mm-hmm. This is 1989. So, 5,000 hours, decent chunk of change, back then. And I said, "Great, you know, I was just a three-day assignment, but I needed work, so. " So, I was there, day one, so it turns out I was in the Files Room for Human Resources up on the 12th floor of this building in West Village, in the East Village, and the old one I make a building, I remember. And I'm sitting there doing the Files, and I finished all the Files by like, "Noon, you know, like all of them, though I was supposed to take three days, I did three hours." Oh my god. So, my sister says, "Well, slow down, halfway through, I'm like, I'm gonna be done by noon." She's like, "Well, slow down, because it has to be three days, you know, you're gonna. They want you for three days. But I didn't slow down, I went to the. I finished it, and I went to the. I reported to the secretary, and I said to the secretary, I said, "Look, I'm done with what these Files can help you." So, she taught me how to answer the phone. Now, this phone was a big giant thing on the side of the desk that had a whole bunch of buttons. Yeah. I mean, this thing looked like it was scary, you know. But she said, "I'll just put this up. If somebody calls, you need to put them on hold to click here, do this." Right? It's got. I had like 30 buttons with lights, and I thought for sure I was gonna mess that up, you know. I was like, "I'm not gonna be able to answer this fucking ridiculous." But within. But she went. She said, "Okay, I sit here, because I gotta go out to lunch." She goes out to lunch, a liquid lunch. I was back like two hours later. Oh, good. Amp sourced. But I had already figured out, you know, through trial and error, how to do all the buttons. So, I was answering the calls. I was responding to calls. I was doing this. I was doing that. And then in the afternoon, there was a. The guy that was responsible for compensation. He was about to retire. But they had just put in this new compensation system on the old system 38 computers, IBM. So, I don't know if you remember those computers, but they were green screen and then you'd have to put the numbers. And he couldn't see, and he didn't know how to type. And he was about to retire in like two months, anyway. So, he didn't want to do it. So, I said, "I want to teach me. I'll do it." And so, he taught me how to do that. Right? How to slowly do this, do this, do this, do this. Ta-ta-ta. So, I did. And he had to do like 250 employees entries. So, that was going to take him all week, right? So, I'm still on day one. By the end of. By five o'clock, I had done all the files. I had answered the phones for two hours. And I'd keyed in his 250 compensation things in the system. But now I knew three different tasks that I didn't know going in. So, they want to me back for the next day. So, I continued. So, that was what happened. And then the secretary realized she can. She can have me there because I had money in the budget and do even less. So, she taught me more stuff. Right? And then I was helping the HR people do benefits. And I don't know. I ended up doing like five different jobs, as a temp. And that temp assignment lasted nine months instead of five at three days. Yeah. And then I got hired permanently as a personnel assistant down in the first floor answering, you know. So, at American Express, I started in '89. And by the time I left in 2000, a little bit after 2000, I had had, I think, 13 jobs. Wow. Within American Express. Yeah, within Amics. All Progressives. With the last one being a global. I was. It was an executive responsible for a night. It was a nice chunk of the company. I don't know. I think I had 90, 95 employees. It just. And I got my. I went to NYU. I got my undergraduate from NYU while I was going to school. And doing military drills. So, I did military drills on the weekends. I went to NYU. And they worked around my day school hours at work. So, I didn't sleep that much during that time. But I did accomplish all those things. While getting promoted at the rate of about one. So, once or twice a year. You know. That's truly insane to me just because the way I see it is this day and age. The youth. Anybody around my age. It don't work that hard anymore. And from the beginning of the story, what I was hearing is, you were taking initiative in building your skill set. How can I further? How can. Okay, I could be lazy. Honestly, if I was in that position, I would have probably. At 21, 22, 23, I would have probably lasted the three days doing the mail room. Even if I knew I could do it in a few hours, extend it. That's just, I guess, how my generation grew up to an extent. Not have a different mindset. But you were like, no. F that pretty much. I'm going to tear this out. And then you could have sat in the corner and not done anything. Like, let me go learn something else. Let me build another skill set. Let me make myself important. I think that's key for somebody who wants to grow is put yourself out there, take advantage of the opportunities. Don't be afraid to learn and don't be afraid to fail. Because like you said, these buttons were intimidating. You said it does not. I hung up on a number of people. But yeah, don't be afraid. Definitely don't be afraid to fail. And I think as we get older, the fear of failure becomes more. Because the ego, you're a big wig and you're going to fail. Whatever you want. But I try to remember, I have a great business partner who reminds me very often. Just keep moving forward. Don't think about it. Good going too. Because you need a good support system too. That's the key to anything in life. You need to have friends and family and associates that build you up. It's not just, because it's hard to maintain a certain level of ump or excitement or every day. Right? So one of the things, like you said, one of the things I view helping people and tripping doors is motivating them. Yeah. Motivating them when they can't motivate themselves. Because I know how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. I know how it is to start something from scratch. And I've done it more than once. I know how it is to close a business that you love. Because you just don't have any more money or clients or whatever the situation is. But I think the answer is not to focus on the failure, but to focus on what did you learn? Right? What did you learn? And when I was at AMICs, man, I mean, I mean big mistakes. Like big things. But I also had huge successes. Multimillion dollar successes that wiped out those big mistakes. And I worked on global re-engineering projects. Here's this kid from the Bronx. Right? That I never thought I'd be working, you know, flying first class around the world. More over 30 countries, you know, impacting 105,000 employees worldwide. You know, that's something where I never thought of. That wasn't even a dream. I didn't even know corporate America existed. You know, when you said, what were you thinking about it? Seven or eight? Wasn't I'd get a corporate job and be like this corporate executive? No. I had no clue a corporate. The first time I learned what corporate America was was in that follow-up. Putting those files in the folders, you know, that was the first like, wow, they're paying me to put files in the folder. Isn't that amazing? And then I remember getting my first job, like permanent job at AMICs. I was a receptionist. Yeah. They paid me 20,000, 19,500 dollars in 1989. So I went from five dollars, which was really three, but my sister thought to get me five dollars in dollars. Right? To almost 20 to 19, five, right? In nine in a nine month period. Right? I thought I had died and I said, you're not going to believe this. Like they're paying me to answer the phone. Is it going to be like, how much do you think? 19,000, my mother almost passed out. [LAUGHTER] They're paying me 19,500 dollars to answer the phone. She's like, really? [LAUGHTER] You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I couldn't believe that. Right? This is in 1990 now, 1989, 1990. What would you say, 19,000 equates to like, 60, 70,000? Maybe now. Probably three, so probably like 60. Yeah. Like 60 now. Yeah, that's exciting. To answer the phone. Yeah. That was to answer the phone. Like I didn't hand out applications because people would come and want a job. So I had to give them an application. But that was your way of getting your foot in the door. Yeah, that was my first job. I had three jobs that, yeah, I got promoted three times in a 12-month period. What? Yeah, it was crazy. [LAUGHTER] I did the-- I did the answering the phone really well. [LAUGHTER] But the recruit, I had to hire a lot of jobs. So I learned what skills she was looking for in the applicants. So then I'd kind of have my little-- I'd have conversations with people because I was outside. And then you had to go through a door. And that's what the recruiters were. So I'd have a-- So if you applied for a job, I'd have a conversation with you. Everybody tells the receptionist everything like, they just let down their guard. So I'd have a conversation with you, you know, how you doing? Well, wow, this net, right? Then I go to the recruiting. Yeah, this one's a key. Yeah, this guy's a done. And I was helping her out to move more people through. Then she taught me interviewing. So I did-- she had to go out and leave. She got sick or something. I did recruiting. So I learned how to recruit. Now I'm recruiting for a Fortune 50 company. I'm still the receptionist officially. But I'm doing recruiting. And then she came back. I had to go back to my receptionist desk. But the lady in the back that did all the job postings, like the internal postings for employees, she went out. out sick and never came back. So while she was there, I got that temporary position. So I went to the bag and I'm in the bag and had a temp in the front. Right. So I'm going up, right. So I'm learning all this stuff. And I'm having little interviews with employees now and give coaching them on how to get the job. Like these are the skills that the managers are looking for. Yeah. And this is what you need to do is what you need to say, is how you need to present yourself. Like I was in a lot of many coaching sessions, right? And these guys started getting jobs. So I was mentoring people. I'm brand new, right? I'm like less than a year here, right? That this company. And I'm coaching people twice my age on how to land a job within the company. They were already there, but how to get promoted and all stuff. So I'm coaching them and doing it. So, you know, like I said, you make the best of whatever situation you're in. So that year I had-- so I got officially-- that job was officially given to me. And then they closed down that center. I went down to headquarters. And then headquarters-- forget it. I made a name for myself there. At that point, it was just meteoric. Everything I did, I talked to people. I did reengineering. I did-- like I just kept getting promoted because I just worked. And if there was any work that needed to be done, I was the first one to volunteer. I'd roll up my sleeves. You know, it'll be a 10 o'clock a night. No problem. You know, be at the 10 o'clock a night. Yes, I didn't really. And I don't know if you can even do that these days anymore. I don't think it's the same. I don't think people will do that. But I also don't think you have to do that with all the technology and the efficient ways of doing business. So it really is a different world. But I think the basic skills that people are looking for is to have that I-- that can do attitude. Yeah. And I think that if you have that, people are looking for that. Definitely. I know I look for that. The knowledge-- you don't need to have knowledge, per se, specifically to that area, whatever area it is. You need to have experience and you need to have drive. And I'll take experience and drive, or at least similar experience of not in the same area, but definitely drive. And there's a word I'm looking for. It'll come to me. But I'll take that. Gumption, I guess, is just resiliency. Because things aren't going to go your way. And how you deal with that is Will define how successful you are or not, right? How you deal with adverse situations. And I think people that know how to deal with adverse situations will always be successful, because they just have that drive to, OK, it's a setback. We're going to move forward. Does this setback? You're going to move forward. And if you look at all the great executives, it's a setback. What do we need to do? How do we move forward? I completely agree with what you're saying. And I have two points to make. One is you don't need to have the knowledge, because we're sitting in a room that was built. I didn't grow up learning audio. We spoke about it when we first met. I came out of school and I went into a private tax firm. I studied economics, finance. That's my background. So for us to be sitting in a studio with video, audio, everything running smoothly. God bless. That happened from-- I'll show you a hard drive. I have a USB drive, probably over 1,000 pages of manuals that I had to learn. And we spoke about it earlier. These cables, one then, it's XLR, the other one, it's cat5. That was manually stripped in the cables down, soldering a trial and error. And I realized that once I build this project to where I envision it being, and I build out my team, I'm not necessarily going to be looking for the person who has the four point out of the person who executed and might have all the knowledge. I sometimes rather prefer the guy who's willing to fail, because that's going into my second point. Failure is truly amazing. I wake up hoping I could fail as many times in a day as possible, because that means I'm one step closer to that big win. With every failure comes a lesson. I learn way more from failing than I do from winning. So I prefer to fail 50 times in a day for a five-month, six-month street, and then get one win at the end. Because if you're winning all the time, then what are you learning? Yeah. You get bored. Yeah. And then you get into trouble, because Idle hands, right? Yeah. So absolutely. Yeah, no. And it's once again insane just here in the store, because like you said, maybe times have changed to where if people are doing it, they might not be able to move up as quickly, but it does go noticed. And the thing is, nowadays, I feel like there's a lack of that effort. There's a lack of that drive from the public, not the public, from the general population. And the reason I say that is because nowadays, it's so easy to be great. And I tell all my friends that. And I tell myself that every time I wake up, because your competition is sleeping. Your competition just isn't trying as hard. Like the general public, 90% of people in the nowadays are not working that hard. They care less about getting a promotion, being great, whatever it is. So in reality, the way I look at it nowadays is not hard to be great. You just need to be consistent, not be afraid to fail, and really just stay true to yourself. Like what matters to you? Yeah. Woody Allen had a quote that I've always, that I've always, I've never forgotten. And I'll say it. He said, regardless of how you feel about Woody Allen, I love this quote. 80% of success is showing up. Yeah. And I totally, totally, totally believe that. Just show up. Show up for your friends. Show up in your own life. Show up, you know, your family, right? Just show up. Yeah. And if you just, at your work, show up. Yeah. And if you show up, right? That's 80%. You know, 20% is small. Like 80% is a bee, man. You're like already there to be great. You're an A, right? So you got 20% to be great. And the easy part is you come up with a new idea or a new thing, or just think about work. Because, you know, we are, I started a firm with my partner, Liz Beth. And it's called a Bonse, a Bonse Global Advisors. And we, we look at processes and systems that owners, you know, founders, CEOs, owners, entrepreneurs, you know, are doing. And it's so easy to, to help them improve and make more money. Very easy, right? Because we just ask, okay, what's the process? Right? And then you have people working that doing this process. And we asked them, you know, why do you do this? Oh, because this is the way I was told. You know, oh, because it's the way it's been done. We go to the, oh, because that's the way I started doing it. 15 years ago. Yeah. So, so it's like, we call it low hanging fruit. Yeah. Because it's the fruit so low, it's probably touching the floor. So, you know, whenever somebody tells you this, because this is the way we've always done it, you know immediately that that process needs to change. Yeah. Whenever you hear that, it's immediately, you know, okay, flag this, because this is going to change, you know, for the better, right? Because you know, you can improve it. You've been doing a process for 15 years, five years, right? With all the change in technology and work processes and whatever, if you're doing the same thing five years ago, you better start questioning. Yeah. Because you won't be there another two years. Definitely not. Right? So, so to me, I'm trying to scare people. I'm just saying, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not that complicated like you said, to do something even, even, you know, great as one thing, even mediocre. You know, will still help you keep your job. But if you're just phoning it in, you know, day in and day out, I got news for you, you know, I don't have to tell you, you just have to look around you. Yeah. So, yeah, I think, I think that that being motivated and showing up everything I, I think that, that that takes you so far. And I don't consider myself the smartest person in any room. Right. So, I always try to be in the room with all the really smart people, right? Because I always feel okay, a little bit of, or rub off, right? It's something, if something lands, falls off a plate, I'll get some of it, right? So, so I try to put myself in room with, with some real, some real heavy headers, right? And, and it seems to work, right? I learned, I know a few things. So, definitely. I wanted to go a little bit deeper into a bonsai. Oh, sure. Yeah. Let's go step by step first. What made you want to start it? Because earlier we spoke about, you've been, you see yourself more as an advisor, as pretty much a mentor towards business is prior to a bonsai. And then we'll go into what was your role advising or other people? How did you get started in that line of business? What are you interested in? Yeah. So, so I, I left American Express to, because I found the blue, we just called it the blue box, right? because the logo is in a blue box. Yeah. So, at least the blue box, employees call it the blue box. And I found the blue box too confining for me, because I always thought outside the box, right? Yeah. And you can think outside the box up to a certain point, but when you become an executive, you got to go into that box, because now you're the higher up you go, the more boxed in you are. Yeah. And I just decided that I didn't want to be that boxed in. Well, the company is, I love the company, great company. And if you can survive there three years, you're ahead of the gate. I was at 13, I mean. Wow. Yeah, 13 years is not normal, because that Amix is a tough place. Oh, those with a tough heart and a tough mind can survive. It is the best. It is the best. It's up there. It's up there with, with, you know, you have what you have, you have like federated maces, right? You have you have Citibank, like American Express, right? Goldman Sachs, like these are top companies in their field, in their space, right? Amazon, right? And so the fortune, we call them Fortune 50 companies. So if you have the opportunity to last three years in any Fortune 50 company, you're, you know, you got what it takes. Yeah. If you last over 10 years in anyone, you're a glutton for punishment is all I can say. (laughs) So, but it was time for me to move on. I'm still friends with a lot of senior level folks there. I still speak to them and, and then, you know, the people I would call friends. And we get together every, you know, few months. Some one group is like every quarter, another group, you know, every few years. But, you know, when, when, when I left there, I became COO of a $200 million consulting firm. Yeah. And, and I was absolutely miserable. So they made a lot of money, right? But I was not happy. For a number of reasons I won't get into it, but it wasn't what I expected. And it's a big difference going from a $25 billion company at the time to a $200 million company. Even the $200 million sounds like a lot, right? It's just a big, it was a big difference. So while I had a fancier title, right, which I liked became COO, I, it didn't feel the same and I didn't have the same, the same impact that I could have. So, I left and went, took a couple of months off, kind of meditated in Central Park, figured out, okay, God, what do you want me to do? 'Cause, you know, this was a complete disaster, you know? And I didn't want to go back to Abmex, right? I could have, I guess, but I didn't want to go back, you know? Maybe ego-wise. So, so I enlisted, so I went to, I signed up for a business school. So I applied to Stern, and I only applied to two, Baruch, which was called Zicklin School of Business, and NYU. 'Cause I got into NYU undergrad, Stern School of Business. So I got into both, right? So, and then it was just a price thing, and I decided to go to Zicklin. It was the executive program specifically, 'cause they catered towards, you know, adults and people would experience. So I got into the executive program at both places, and I decided to go with Zicklin, because while it wasn't ranked number one or number two, which was NYU, it was ranked like at the time eight or nine. So I was like, okay, it was the best decision I made, 'cause it was half the price, and my half of my professors were from NYU. - Really? - They had a, they would share, you know, subject matter. So some of our professors taught at NYU, and some NYU professors taught at Zicklin. So it was great for me. I mean, I got the same level of education, I would say. Now I think Zicklin's education program is like number three or number four. So the value of my degree had gone up. I got my MBA in entrepreneurship and finance, right? And I started a couple of companies while I was in B School with some of my B School partners, which I still keep in touch with a few of them. One of them is actually a co-founder at Amonse, Moin. And some of them I closed, some of them just peed her out, couple of them I had to like shut it down, never bankrupted, and one of them I sold, you know, made a few bucks with the colleague. But I realized that I liked building businesses, and I had a knack for whether they last or not. I did learn a lot. And then I would go back when I was running low on money. Or actually, I made so much money from that move to the consulting, the COO job, that I was able to ride through 2008 without having to worry too much about money. And then 2008 the financial crisis. I had to go back and get a job, a paying job. Because when you're starting businesses and stuff, you're investing, you're making some money, you're not making a lot of money. If you can cover your cost, great. A lot of times you're not even doing that. So you try to find funders and investors. But I started before that, between 2000, when I left in 2008, I was just started like four businesses. I raised $2 million for an internet startup. So from VCs, I did that whole pitch thing and whatever. I mean, that was cool. It was based on trunches. So we got the first million dollars. And then we were going for the second trunch. We hadn't had some deliverables. We missed a couple. But they said we can't give you the second trunch. Because they saw it in 2007. At the end of 2007, they saw that what was coming down the pike, the VC firm. And they said we can't. We're going to pull our commitment. And then 2008, you know, Lehman Brothers goes under, you know, the rest is history, right? And for those of us that understand, understood finance, like it was a very dangerous place in the world. Because credit froze everywhere. So overnight credit, which is how transactions happen. Yeah. Between companies, corporations, like if Amix needs a hundred million tomorrow, they'll get an overnight credit note from city. That says we got you for the hundred million. Well, that all dried up. So everything, like, like, and that's how that's the lubricant economy. That most people don't understand. And when that dried up, that was really scary. You know, because that means enterprise stops. Nobody trusts anybody. And when enterprise stops, there's no lubrication. And there's no lubrication in the financial system. Transaction stops. Right. And I don't need to tell you after that, you're back to trading pigs and cows and sheep. You know, so it was close. It was close and companies went out, like if somebody like, even but this goes out overnight, but that's a whole other conversation. So so I, I've always had a desire to help other people. And I think mentoring and coaching and building businesses is my way of doing that. And then I'd go, I'd go, I'm a COO, right? Design earned, earned. Nobody gave me those titles. I earned every, every wrong. So I can, I can walk into a room and see, look at the P&L, the balance sheet, the income statement, right? And be able to say, okay, this is a picture of your business. And this is, this is how, you know, this is what it looks like. Right. And you can try to paint it anyway. You can paint it. But if you're keeping an honest business, right? If you're doing the finances, right? The finances tell you a picture, as you know, in the background. Like you could, it's almost like a, like a 3D picture. Right. So you look at those numbers and you're like, yeah, you're saying one thing, but all these numbers don't say. You're saying. So something's off, right? And then you kind of help them bring that business back to health. Until I'm, look, we got to figure out how to close this down without too much pain. Yeah. You know, it's one of the other, right? You're either going to bring it back to life or you're going to like, okay, let's, let's try to sunset this thing before it gets too crazy for you, you know, financially. So, so I like, I like talking to people like helping people. We, our team is a dynamic team. With, with a bunch of, with, with folks that have a lot of industry knowledge in a, in a lot of different industries. So I've mentioned Liz before she's created at operations, right? So she has operations in like for three different industries, right? My, my friend and colleague and actually my business, a business school partner, Moyne, he's great at, at a technology. So I think you chatted with him a little bit at an event. Yeah. So he's, his expertise is in big data, you know, and big data management. So, so big data analytics. So he's just a human machine, you know, around that. Myself, I like, I like strategy, you know, and growth. I like, I like, I like looking at businesses and, and figuring out with, with, Liz Beth and, and Moyne are, how do we grow and how do we strad, how do we create a strategy and a vision that aligns with the growth of the business and then have the, the operations and the data necessary to be able to, to execute, measure and then, and then track, you know, create the, the dashboard that allows you to track on a daily basis, whether you're on track or not, right? And that stuff fascinates me. I love dashboards. Yeah. I love dashboards. Yeah. Yeah. So, because when you have a good dashboard and then you can hone in, right? If a number is not good, you should be able to just click in like Microsoft BI has, right, data analytics that you can then drill down. And you can get to a soft spot, right, in a product line or a skew, you know, down to the skew level. And you can say, yeah, the skew that was supposed to be in this store in California, you know, on Friday didn't arrive. Or arrive late, right? You can get to that level of detail if your data is set up properly. Yeah. And that's how business, that's how Walmart runs businesses. And that's how, you know, Macy's or, you know, NBC Universal with commercials, right? My friend Moines. So, so I think we all love, we have a passion for, for that and for working with business folks. And some of that you saw it at the event. Yeah, it was amazing. How passionate people are. Yeah, it was, it was amazing for one of two reasons. And one of the reasons I thought of while you were speaking is, everyone plays an important, almost pivotal role. You understand where your strengths and weaknesses are. And then you surround yourselves with other people who pick up the slack and those certain aspects, but not pick up the slack just a little bit like 10% they're doing it at an elite level. Yeah, which is really cool. You could get to that point. Yeah, because that's one thing in me furthering my entrepreneur journey. I want to be able to build a team and I've been able to take notes from everybody I meet doing great things and see, okay, if I wanted to build my team, how would I need to execute that? What would I need to do originally? I wasn't even thinking about, oh, maybe somebody else could pick up the slack for me. We spoke about it earlier. My logo, my opinion doesn't look the best. It's not that creative, very plain, simple, but I created it. I, when I started this, I said, I'm going to do everything and I'm going to start doing everything. So I know how to do it. And then when somebody comes in and helps me, they need to do it how I say so. And then after a year of working on it, I realized I cannot do everything. You know, I need to have people come in and pick up the slack in areas that I might not be so great in. And maybe they could teach me a lot of new things. Maybe I might enjoy being a little bit more creative about connected with somebody that helps me out. So that's one thing I really loved hearing about it. And then I really, what's your focus in the business now, because you said it's your passion, which is so cool. I think we speak about it all the time. People need to pursue their passions more. And if it turns into a business, it's truly amazing, because you're living your dream. Like you don't have to work and it's something I explain to everybody. Like when I come in in the studio or I'm editing or whatever I'm doing, I am not working. I am just living my life, living my passion. And that's cool. And like you said, early on, you might not be making money, but barely be making ends meet, but it just I believe in the process. I believe in what I'm building. And for me, money isn't everything. I've had to learn that the hard way, but I'm still very young. So for me, I tell all my friends, I've told them on the podcast, I just really want to build relationships focus on the relationships I already have with my parents, with my siblings, with my personal friends. And then continue building great relationships because in the end of the day, those are the people that are going to like be there for me. We talked about it earlier building that system around you that you could fall back on that could help you out when you're down and out, maybe when you're up, you also need them to motivate you a little bit more. But that's what I'm really focused on that building my relationship with God, of course, just the things that truly matter because you know better than I do money comes and goes. So you're focused on money. It's it's going to be very difficult to grow and it's going to be very stressful. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know which way to go with everything you just said because I agree. I think that that relationships are key. It's the most important. The most important thing you can focus on, building those relationships and business relationships different than work, than home, family and friends. Business relationships, it's almost harder because you need to be, look, you can't pick your family, right? Your family. You stuck with your family. And your friends, you know, their strengths and their weaknesses, right? You kind of want them to be your friends or you wouldn't have them, right? But business people, you may not like them, right? But they're your associates and they may be good at what they do. They may be the best at what they do. So you have to decide like what what are the tradeoffs like what are you going what are you going to focus on what are you going on and hone in on? Yeah. And one of the things that I say every morning is Lord, you know, I pray every morning, you know, for God to put the right people in my path and take the wrong people out of my path. And I like God and make the decision of who's right who are the right people and who are the wrong people because he or she or you know, whatever you believe, right? They know who's right and wrong for you. Right. So I like take take that energy and leave them at the leave outside. I don't want to meet them. Yeah. I don't want to even say hello. Right. So that strategy has kind of worked for me for a bit, you know, which is just, you know, like God be, right? And say that prayer and, you know, meet the right people and if you get like some vibes from people, it's like, look, you know, you don't need to work with everybody. And if you're going to have, you know, even if even if they're going to give you a large contract or a large gig, right? Or want to do five five casts a month. Right. They're going to pay you book who bucks. And I had no, you know, the vibes not right, you know, for whatever you trust that, you know, because you'll get, you know, the next person, whatever a month later, they want to do 10 podcasts a month and then the people right up your alley. And they believe in the same things you believe in. Yeah. And I've had enough of that happened in my life. You know, that that I just let God be, you know, say, look, help me out here. Now I'm telling you, I'm saying this, you know, because I'm not like the most religious person by any stretch. I would prefer to call myself a more spiritual person. And even that sometimes I don't, I think I could be more. But you're looking at a guy that's had four heart surgeries. So I'm here because of the grace of God. And I believe that I understand that and I believe that. And and and I trust that. I'm here for a reason, right? Or else I wouldn't be here. And, you know, so I, I'm a little bit more comfortable and secure. So I have, you know, 40 years of work experience, right? Or whatever. Yeah, 38 years of work experience. So I've seen a lot of ups and downs, right? But but I think you and and and my partner is, you know, reminds me of that too. And I'm like, that's why you got to have great people around you, right? When I'm feeling like, oh, my God, you know, we need to get another client or we need to do this. We need to market or, you know, we'd like to do this other thing. You know, you have somebody that's now, you know, everything's happening the way it should. Yeah. And everything is happening the way it should, right? Or else it wouldn't happen. So you just have to like truly believe that. And I'm just going to go ahead and say, I know we're on open and don't work with jerks. Yeah. It's a life is too short. It's not worth it. You know, it really isn't worth it. And even if they have a lot of money, you know, definitely don't work with them. So, you know, and you know who they are, you know, those people are. And if you are one of them and you're listening to this is like, don't be a jerk. You know, like life is so much better when you're nice to people and you try to help as many people as possible. You know, and just shift that mindset, you know, to try to help. Can we all be jerks at some point? Yeah, we can all be jerks, but you know who I'm talking about. Yeah. You know, when you're a jerk, like more than 90% of the time, or 80% or whatever, 50% of the time, right? You know, then you don't have to do that. And you don't have to be that way. And, and it goes so much like I tell you, because I early on in my career, I had a little bit of a big hit and you go, you know, when you're 20 something and you're flying first class around the world, you know, you think you think you're you're the catch me out. Yeah. At 57, I could tell you I was never the catch me out, you know, at 27 and doing all the stuff that I was doing. I think I thought I was the catch me out or at least on occasion, I definitely thought I was the catch me out. Yeah. You know, but I had drinks with the pilot while we were in air. And I was sick and sipping cognac in the cockpit with the pilots. Yeah. Before, before all these rules, right? Yeah. So I've done like so much stuff like fun stuff and crazy stuff and then stuff that just wasn't fun at all. But, you know, so, you know, when when I'm coming at you or talking to you with this with that experience, you know, it's you can do all that stuff in that picture. Yeah. So I'm saying, so yeah, so try to keep those people as you grow your business, try to keep those people aside and pray to God that he helps you with that process. It's not to say they're not going to be putting your path, but that he gives you the knowledge to then be able to walk away, you know, and the intestinal fortitude to say, yeah, I don't need the money that badly. Yeah. So, so I would say that I would, yeah, so I'll have to say on that. Coming from a Dominican background and working in a top US corporate role, how did you identify sometimes or other people? Did it help that you were Dominican and maybe one of the few and only might light skins in the office, you know, or did it interview sometimes? Did it mentally, hinder you or did it? Did you see people treat you differently? What was it like? You know, I don't know if it helped or hindered. I know, actually, I think it helped not so much being Dominican but being minority. Because it was so few of us at the time, you know, in this company that whenever there was like a diversity and whenever they wanted to show, like have the picture that had more color, right? I was always invited. (laughing) So I got to meet people, you know, I got to be at events and stuff, like that were big and because they needed more of a flavor to the event, I didn't take that personally. I was like, oh great, I get to see such and such. But I did develop a relationship with the key people in the company because I also had the opportunity to start the first Hispanic network in 1996, 1997, I can't remember, maybe it was '96. 'Cause I had '96 and '97. I had American Express, we called it Aura. And I funded it because I was able to add money, right? Because I was able to fund it for my budget. And we would throw a few like kick ass events, you know, (laughing) with Spanish flavor, salsa, midengue, you know, and all that and introduce people to our culture, which was Hispanic, right? Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, you know, South American, Peruvian, Argentinian, like we had like a, events centered around the different cultures, the Hispanic culture, 'cause we all wrapped up into one, but we're all completely different people. - Yeah. - Like the Minicans are very different than Puerto Ricans. And I know some people say there's some kind of animosity or all competition between the Minicans and Puerto Ricans. And I'm going to tell you my best friend, you know, my best friend is like my brother, Fernando Cignon, and he's a banker here in New Jersey, a bank of America. He's Puerto Rican and he's my brother. I mean, he's amazing, right? And so to me, it's not, there's no, you know, I have Peruvian friends, I'm a Argentinian friend, so I don't view the culture very differently. We're Hispanic, right? - Yeah. - Kind of lumped into a bucket here in America, but we're all so different, right? And I know like when we talk, whatever, what for Nandles perspective is going to be, I know what my perspective or other Dominican's perspective is going to be on an argument, right? Because girls are transparent. - Yeah. - You know where Dominican stands, like the second you meet them. - 100%. - Yeah, because it is, right? Puerto Ricans the same way, you know, Trinidadian, you know, my business colleague is Trinidadian and Venezuela, I mean, she's a hodgepodge of everything, but like me, but identifies as Trinidadian, and South American, right? And my moin, or the co-founder, he's Pakistani and Indian. - Wow, really? - Yeah, and that usually doesn't happen, that's a rare mix, but the parents met before. Before the Brits like changed the border. - Yeah. - And one of them was on one side, and one family was on the other, and there they go. - Yeah. - So that sort of, so, you know, to me, it's people, right? Like I hone in on people, and the cultures are almost all the same. Like anybody who's had the opportunity to travel, and to travel to different cultures, outside of European culture, like South America, Asia, or different areas of Asia, and India, right? There's an Israel, Israelis, right? There's more of what unites us in Palestine. I had a great Palestinian friend, a freaking amazing guy. You know, there's more that unite us, than separate us. You know, you know, you know, keep it? - Yeah. - Right? Keep it as Moroccan. It's more different than more. So keep it as like a Dominican product, right? - Yeah. - So I'm telling you, it's not. So if you look up, anybody out there, you know, if you're the Dominican look up, keep it, right? And see the background of keep it. The more it comes from the middle. And there's a keep in Moroccan, like that, the version of keep it. Like you could just see the different version. Yeah. So something like that, right? - Yeah. - And you're surprised how much of our food that we eat at a daily basis is from different parts of the world. You know, so it's all one big melting pot, you know? And that's, I think, how I've, as I've grown up, you know, and expanded outside of my family, right? 'Cause as a kid, I just thought, you know, everybody was Dominican, right? Or American, right? 'Cause I straddled two worlds. - Yeah. - But I didn't know all these different, I didn't even know the meaning of culture or all these different things. And now as I get older, I'm like, you know what? There's more of what unites us than is what separates us. And I think it's just us. Our thoughts are what creates the barriers between us and other people. So how can we, you know, change that? Because I don't think God wants to focus on our differences. You know, I think God doesn't focus on our similarities. But that said, yeah, Dominicans have their own flavor. Right? It's just like eating different flavors. Right? We have our own distinct, and I love Dominican food. You know, but that just comes from my upbringing. - Yeah. - Rice beans and meat, like any kind of meat. - I can eat that every day. - Every day. - Every day. - Every day. - So. - I wanted to transition a bit. - Yeah. - Because I feel like this would be really cool for the audience to hear. I recently got to figure this out. You built a $40 million building in the heart of Manhattan and Gulliver's Gate. Break that down for me. I need to hear everything. Like, how does that even happen? Like, I've had a loss for words. You said, yeah, I built. You said it so nonchalantly to me the other day. And you're like, yeah, just search it up real quick. The first thing I see is fat number, $40 million. I'm like, oh my God. I started sweating at the thought of even like investing or even managing $40 million for my own company myself. How does that go down? - So I was running Dr. Oz's foundation, like the Dr. Oz. - Yeah. - So I was running his foundation. And I promised him two years that I was there six. And I needed to move on. My brain, you know, atrophies, right? I have this whole thing about I just need to keep doing different things and new things, which is why advising like and mentoring is great for me because I get to talk about different things and think about different things. So I go to a barbecue. This is how strange the world is. I go to a barbecue and this guy that I never met. But my wife was friends with his wife. Is that the barbecue? And he says, oh, you should meet, he says, he says, we were talking about what we do. And I said, I run Dr. Oz's foundation of COO. Like, oh, you should meet the CEO of this company of God of His Gate. You should meet him. He'll love you. You know, you should come like for us. But they're looking for a CFO. I'm like, I don't want to be a CFO. I don't like the job. I don't like the title. And I was like, but you've done it, right? I was like, yeah, I've done it, but I don't like it. I don't really want to do it. But thanks, thanks for the offer. That was it. I say goodbye. You know, I don't want to do that. And then, and then, so that was at the beginning of the summer. That was Memorial Day. They're not the end of the summer, right? I've met a Labor Day picnic barbecue. Yeah. Same guy's there. He's like, would you let me set up a meeting with you and the CEO of God of His Gate? Because I really do think you'd be great. We're still looking for this CFO. I'm saying, you're going to keep looking because I'm not a CFO. But do you mind talking to him? You know what? I don't mind talking. I'll talk to anybody. You know, you seem like an interesting person. So, so, you know, he set up a meeting at a restaurant bar in Broadway in the theater district. And, and I get there early, open up a tab. And I'll have a glass of wine. I'm not a big drinker, but I'll have a glass of wine. So, I ordered a glass of wine and I waited for him. He came in. He was on time. I was early on purpose. And I said, oh, let's, let's just sit here. And he said, I told him we're having dinner. And I was like, well, why don't we have a drink first? Let me buy you a drink, right? And he's like, why? Why don't we just sit down for dinner? I said, look, I don't want to waste your money and my time. I said, I said, I'm really not interested in being the CFO of Gallup is gate. And Tim, this is the gentleman who's so insistent, right? Did I figure, you know what? Let me meet you. Let's have a drink. Let's get to know each other. And maybe I perhaps across in the future, whatever. They said, but I'm really not interested in a CFO position of a startup company, you know, in the middle of building something in the middle of my hat. So, he said, well, will you let me, so we talk. We get to know each other. He asked me questions. I ask him questions. And we kind of like, we're jiving, right? Is it, can I buy you dinner? I'm like, okay, as long as you understand that, I'm not a CFO. I'm not going to be a CFO. Like, I don't want to be committed to, you know, because you buy me dinner. Yeah, no, no, no, no, it's okay. No strings attached. Okay. So we went to pay for the drinks. I know the drinks were on me. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't want to take your money. So I paid for the drinks. We said that only we have dinner. And he says, okay, you don't have to be the the the so I said. So we talk about it. It sounds like a great project. At the time he told me he had almost full funding. Mm-hmm. Right for the project. 20 million dollars. 20 million. He had 20 million of the 40. So he was halfway there, but he had another commitment or whatever. So he's almost three quarters of the way there. Yeah. So he makes me an offer. And I said, well, I don't want to I told you I don't want to be CFO. And he's like, okay, you don't have to be CFO. You'll be the COO. It's like I'm number two. He says you're number two. Because I didn't want him hiring a CFO over me, right? I have to be number two or I'm not. Right. I want to run the show. Because CEO is always outward facing. Yeah. The COO always runs the company. So I wanted to run the company. And I said, so I'm number two. He's like, you're number two. But you'll have finance on the you. So I knew there was a catch. Yeah. So I took finance onto me. And I said, as long as I get higher, you know, a solid finance person. And then yes, I'll assume that you said you could hire you could hire your finance person. So I hired my finance person. Who's on my team? Our team, I'd kind of mind say his name is Yarmine Sawyer. So he does strategic finance for a vanse as well. And he works at a VC firm. He does finance. So we accept, I give Dr. Ross two and a half months notice, which I'll never do again. Not because Dr. Ross for any company. Yeah. I thought I was doing the right thing giving them advance on its own number two. But man, it was rough. It was rough seeing everything you put together. Like start to get taken apart while you're there. Right? Because I'm no longer number two right. I'm leaving. Yeah. But I had hired my replacement. They're one I'm still friends with. And we just just had to know what the yesterday. Michelle. So so we're sitting there. And and I get to hire this this my finance person on the COO. And we have five they had already rented the space. It was 50,000 square feet on 44th street between 7th and 8th. It was the old New York Times building. Wow. So we had the the first and the in the second floor hole. Second floor. The old New York Times building. 50,000 square feet. And and we I was an employee. I think number seven six or seven. And we had to we built that team to about 150 employees. My goodness. Yeah. And and we had to demolish the old jekyll and hide was in there. And so we had to there was all this scripts and scary stuff hanging out and blood and headless people and all this. I was crazy. So we had to demolish that. There was some still old New York Times stuff. They they had done a good job of taking that stuff out. But there was still some old New York Times stuff. Yeah. That we had to get rid of as well. So we had to we had to what you call white club the 50,000 square feet. And then at the same time we're building the models the world around the world. So we built we built New York in Brooklyn. We built South America and right outside of Buenos Aires in Argentina. We built China in in China Asia actually all of Asia we built in China right outside of Beijing. The USSR. Now Russia. We built in in outside of St. Petersburg. Israel the Middle East we built in Israel. So we had model makers around the world building building the models. Iran that CEO was responsible for that. So he was outward facing and he was a model. He had the eye for the model making. So he contracted all the teams around the world and he managed that and I managed everything else. And then we realized that the people that had committed to the 20 it was like 10 of the 20 pulled out. So then I had to like start fundraising with with the partners. So while we were running all this and like four different construction crews we were which all reported into me into the COO. We were we were raising money in real time. Wow. Yeah that was so I slept there sometimes. It weren't that I didn't mid-pounds. So it was easy for me to run home take a shower and go back. So that was that was an incredible project. And you can see some of the videos on on on YouTube. Yeah. Which is very fascinating. So we built the entire world in one to 87 scale. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was fascinating. This is insane. I want to go back to a little bit because we kind of clawed over it because you said the doctor is where did that come from? Where were you doing for doctor is and what kind of experience is that overall? And then I also actually I waited after that. Oh okay I'm sorry. Yeah it was out of chronology. I was I I thought a lot of things in my life. So yeah. What to tell you I was running. So my daughter goes to one to an elementary school in Chelsea. And they needed to to hire they needed to to raise money. Well they want they were looking for a PTA president. I didn't want to be president. So I became treasurer. But as I was treasurer the one thing I noticed was that that the conversations were very trivial. The school was only raising like $25,000. And and $25,000 was was really like a rounding error for for this for this school right for what we could do for the kids. So I volunteered to be president the following year. And I got accepted or voted in. And the first thing I did was was say our goal is $250,000. 10x. I always say 10x because 10x is impressive. Whatever you're doing you should do 10 times more. Yeah. Right. So if you only do five times more than at least you're a lot further ahead. So I said 10x. They thought I thought I was going to get lynched by this this PTA board which consisted of 10 women and two guys. Friend who was at the time he was winding down who was my treasurer who was the treasurer of the board who was winding down a trillion and a half thousand bad dad at city CFO right me right. So we're like are we the only two that believe we could do this. Yeah. And so we so we set that goal and to make a long story short because I don't want to belabor that we raised $24,000 that first year as president. I was president for five years. Yeah. And by the end of the fifth year we were at almost $600,000 in the year. Well that we raised $587,000 my last year as president. Needless to say that the kids got everything they want. We hired we hired consultants to play, teach them how to play efficiently. We hired math coaches. We hired English coaches. We hired I mean these kids had the better notebooks pads whatever you know well everything that money could buy we bought for these kids and they did really well. My daughter who happens to be who I did this all for is now in veterinary school you know I Cornell so it had an impact on all the kids rising tide raises all boats. So if you want to know more about that that time in my life you can go to the New York Times there was an article written about me in the New York Times that that focused on PTA dads. So I'm there as a picture. You can google that and it'll show up. But while I was doing that the reason I say that because what I was doing that I met this lady named Michelle Bouchard who's the president of health core. Don health core doctorizes foundation and it focused on teaching physical fitness resiliency and mental health physical fitness mental health and resiliency right was two three three columns and she was amazing like she was a powerhouse I was trying to recruit her to help me raise money for the board and then I ended up working for her for free at this nonprofit like doing COO type work. Yeah. And then next thing I know I'm having lunch with this guy who I have no clue who he is like literally no clue like this said I don't lunch and this is and Michelle says this is Dr. Ross. I'm like oh okay hi one brave nice to meet you I thought he was a doctor right yeah and she's like and then and then he says yeah I'm Dr. Ross you know like no reaction from me I have no clue what this guy is. So the third time I heard his name I said I went like this is it time out it said who are you you know obviously I must know you but I don't really know you yeah oh he's been on Oprah 50 times order and I said ah that's it I watched CNN. So I said if you were Sanjay Gupta I wouldn't have any words yeah so so he said he's like oh I know Sanjay he's a good friend of mine and I said and I said oh can I meet him. So so that was my my doctor on story but I want out to run, they presented me to the board. I became the COO of Elkhore and I ran that for a promised him two years and I ran it for six months as a COO. So that was really fun. We impacted a lot of lives over a million kids' lives over those six years. It was amazing. Yeah. And we helped them, you know, like do things that were healthy, mentally good for you, physically good for you and teaching them how to be resilient as people, as human beings, you know. So it was a great time. It was a good feel, good, and we increased the revenue from that nonprofit at the time. We were at like two and a half million when we started, when I started it. But at the time I left, we were at 10 million a year for the nonprofit, which is a good number, nonprofits are very, as you know, it's hard. It's an interesting, I love nonprofits, but they're also like, they tend to compete with each other where I don't think they should be competition. I think they should get together and have more of an impact. So I've been like promoting that because it's almost like they're racing there. If you're a nonprofit nonprofit and this person's given money, like I try to get it for myself and nothing for you, you know, because it's like all or nothing. And I think there's got to be a different way to fund nonprofits because a lot of them are doing good work. They just underfunded and over committed, you know. So that's where I was before I went to the other person's gate. But I've had the opportunity, these opportunities just land on my lap. Yeah. I can tell. You know, it's where, you know, some people call it the universe, I say, God, like what do I have to do next? Yeah. Right? And kind of like that's my path. But it's almost, it's almost a product of all your hard work adding up because these opportunities don't just fall on anybody's lap, you know. If you didn't line up your skills in a position to be able to take advantage of these opportunities, it doesn't matter if those opportunities landed on your lap. You weren't going to be able to take full advantage of it, you know. And in a lot of ways, you lined up those opportunities for you, for God to give you those opportunities. If that makes sense. I'd like to say, I didn't have anything to do with it, but I do agree that you have to show up. Yeah. I showed up. The 80%. You know, I showed up. You have to show up. If your 16 year old self met you today, what would surprise him the most? That's, I think that's a deeper question. That's the people that surprised him the most. Yeah. I think that that I have accomplished as much as I've accomplished. I didn't think at 16 that I would have traveled, you know, to all these countries that I would have managed all these projects that I would have, you know, two kids. I didn't think I wanted any kids and to great, you know, growth daughters. I just didn't, yeah, I just think that my family life and how the type of dad that I am and the things that I've done would certainly it's like it's different life, like completely different lives. I mean, I was a Bronx kid. You know, at 16 I was on the Grand Concourse, you know, thinking that was the, in Fort Emerald, like that's the world, right? Yeah. And then I got the opportunity, you know, by 20 mid 20s to see the world, you know, something I never thought, never. It was even a dream in my mind that I'd be in Paris and, you know, Hong Kong, Australia. Yeah, you know, flying first class to all these places. I would have thought, yeah, that's crazy. Like never. So that's, that's what I, that would be my answer. We spoke earlier about how big of a role of discipline played in your career. If discipline built your career, what role did curiosity play? Almost as big as as discipline, I think. I'm a very curious person and I read a lot. But I read, I like to read like a complex thought subjects. Like I'd like to think about the things people don't think about. So I like quantum physics. I like quantum mechanics. I like, I like, like, like, gene genetics, right? And epigenetics and, and ethics, like the ethics around, you know, the subject matters. Things, things that, that people don't, don't really, you know, spend time thinking about. Yeah. I like to think about also leadership and leadership. What creates, I was asked an interesting question from a, Liz and I were asked an interesting question from a potential client. And you know, he asked, what does leadership mean to you? You know, which is a deep question, you know, I think I answered it. We'll see if we get the gig. But yeah, so I think about, you know, what's, what's especially in this day and age, when there seems to be a lack of leadership at the highest levels in this country, you know, I think that we need to, we need to define for ourselves, what do we think is a good leader, great leader, and how do we become leaders in our own society community, you know, our little microcosm of the world, you know. So yeah, those are some of the things I think about. So what would you say is the hardest truth about leadership? People don't want to hear. That it's not about being nice or making the most popular decision or the, or the, the people, the decision people are going to like, right? People don't need to like you, right? They like you. It's great. But they need to respect you, right? They need to, you need to earn that. You need to earn people's respect and you earn that respect by, by being consistent and then making the consistent decisions consistently, you know. And once you earn people's respect, then they could begin to start to like you, not the other way around, right? Because they're liking you for things that they may not necessarily should be liking you as a leader, right? As a business, and I'm talking about business leaders, right? So if you look at any leader that you've thought was a good leader, you probably respected that first. And then maybe you became friendly with them. Maybe you never became friendly with them, but you just thought, wow, you know, they, they led this team or they led this project or they led this, you know, and they weren't worried whether I liked them or not, but they worried that, you know, they took care of the group, the team, right? Being a leader is not fun, right? It's the loneliest place in the world. As a COO, right? It's the loneliest number two, number one and number two. They're lonely jobs, you know, they're lonely jobs. It's a tough job. And until you, people understand, they want the title, right? They don't want to, the responsibility that that title bears. And it's a, it's a lot of weight. It's a lot of weight, you know, so, yeah, that's that. You know, how do you define fulfillment at this stage? You know, I, I, I think being fulfilled is, is, is different for different people. Yeah. Right? It's what drives you. Like, if you would have asked me this question 15 years ago, I may, I may have said, you know, I want $10 million and I want to be retired by 56. Well, I'm 57 and I don't have $10 million. But, but what, what I think fulfillment is to me, I, I want to be able to help people, really achieve their aspirations in a manner that affords me to do that from anywhere in the world. And I want to follow the sun, right? So wherever it's warm, that's where I want to be, you know, on a beach, but helping people. So how do you create? So our challenge has been, you know, or our challenge, the co-founders that I want to say is, we want to build, we're building a team that has, that is self-directed, right? His response is responsible. We're small, but responsible team of professionals, executives that, that can work from anywhere, right? At any time, and, and, and, and our accountable, our accountable for whatever the outputs need to be for X, Y, and Z client. And that's, that's, that's my goal for this next third, I say the next 30 to 50 years, right? Because that's what I plan on living. Yeah. So what is your measure of success personally? And how has that changed or shifted over time? I mean, I, I think, I think with, with what do I want to accomplish, right? Or how do I define success? To me, that, that would be my measure of success if, if I could build. I'm, I'm my biggest critic, right? So I guess, I guess, yeah, I'm my biggest critic. So how do I challenge, keep myself challenged, you know, in a way that allows me to learn, right? The studies are out, right? You have to keep learning no matter what your age is. 60, 70, 80, 90. You have to keep learning and you have to keep moving. Those two things are irrefutable, you know. You keep moving. You don't end up on a couch watching, you know, days of our lives, right? An atrophy. Yeah. And because your muscles do atrophy and you lose muscle mass every 10 years, right? That's in the last, you have to be able to, there's like certain exercise you need to be able to do. That's going to be on my, my health and wellness podcast. But you also have to, you also have to learn to protect the noggin. So you, so you don't have one of the various forms of dementia that are out there, right? So those two things are irrefutable. So to me, I want to keep, keep learning, keep growing, keep, and then I want to stay engaged. How do you best way to stay engaged is to work with people. That's another thing that they say, having a circle, friendship circle, a social circle. So if, if I'm doing consulting to businesses around the world, big social, right? Would people I like? I'm not going to work with the jerks. I already said that right. So I'm going to be working with people I like. Yeah. So you have three of the main things covered. You have relationships. You have your brain is working. You help and helping people, right? And you have revenue coming in, right? Because you can charge for that knowledge. You can charge for that knowledge. And then you have, and then you're moving, right? Because you're traveling and hopefully working out, right? So that's that's that's how I define success. And obviously if you're doing all that stuff, you'll have money, right? To pay for those things while you're traveling and eating and whatever. But to build up this huge nest egg to then die and leave it to somebody else. You know, it's noble. But you know, use your money here. Make sure that your kids are well taken care of. You know, well set up, right? Yeah. Earn their money, right? Which is what I'm trying to do now, pushing them. But I think that you need to like spend to your time and your money and your energy, you know, to do things that are fulfilling to you. And that's what would be fulfilling to me. Because I want to continue. I'm not, I don't think I'll ever retire. Yeah. As long as my brain is working, you know, there's no reason to retire. So I wanted to end it on that. No, I just really wanted to thank you for your time. I mean, if you lift it up to me, we'd be speaking for four or five hours. Your story has been truly amazing and inspiring. I mean, I look forward to growing the relationship we have because like I said earlier on to begin the podcast, you have truly been an inspiration and motivation to me. And just hearing your story helps me understand you more and also understand our relationship more, you know, and how much this truly does mean to you and how passionate you are about helping me and other businesses, which is, I can't say to not truly amazing because the humility you have, the passion you have for what you're doing is once again inspiring. I truly love to be surrounded with individuals like yourself. And I can't say this enough. I'm just blessed to live the life I live to have the opportunity to speak to you. Hear your story. Take a deep dive into it. And once again, I'm truly honored to get to know you, get to call you my friend, to get to absolutely really just be able to pick your brain on any subject and my friend and a mentor, you know. And I have to say, once again, the humility is absurd. Like you said, when you were younger, you're walking around like this big head, Han Cho, you know what I mean? But honestly, the other thing you've done, who's the blame? I would still be walking around like the head, Han Cho. And you pretty much run the world at one point. It's been an interesting life, you know, so far. And I want to say I'm halfway through now. I'm 50/7. I want to say I'm halfway through, less than halfway through. I got a lot to live for. And I think that's the key, right? I think to live and not just be alive, you know. And when I meet people like you that also want to live, right? It's heartwarming, you know. And you're a very humble person yourself. And that's your, your also an inspiration to me, you know, because you're building a business and, you know, I love entrepreneurs. You know, it's a different mindset. It really is. You have to be willing to sacrifice everything for that one thing, you know. And you know, I've done it more than once. I'm still leading. You know. So, you know, yeah. So, I just, I feel very blessed to be alive and to live in this time. And to live in a time when, you know, people say, oh, the American dream is ended. It's over. I think the American dream has always been, you know, and will always be. You have to work hard. You have to stay grounded. And you have to do what's right, you know. And you do that with passion, humbleness and, and persevering. A grit, right? And I think you follow that. And, and, and a little divine inspiration. I'm not going to say it doesn't. So always ask God for, for help in, in whatever you're doing. Because I think that is, is that God helps. If we're nothing else to encourage you and motivate you and keep you grounded. So thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I feel like I've talked forever. And, and yet I feel like we've only touched the surface of all so much. But I have so many things going on in my head now of things that you've reminded me. Just come. But like the fun stuff, like I remember riding my bike with a duper friends on, on, on, in Long Island. You know, and thinking about I lived in a road called Half Mile Road. Wow. And all that stuff just came into my head, you know, early life and fun. You know, remembering to have fun. Yeah. Remembering to have fun. Did leaving Saturday morning at eight in the morning and getting back at like six o'clock at night and you've riding your bike and exploring and making fighting mountains and windmills, you know, and, and then going back and having dinner and hanging your mama at the best day. I haven't eaten anything since eight in the morning. So, so, you know, that's living. Definitely. And, and keeping that, you know, when you're 57, yeah, 87, you know, and having that same zest for, for life is, is, is a goal I aspire to. You know, so thank you again, Stephen. Of course. Opportunity and LPM radio. And I know we're going to make this huge heck. Yeah. Heck yeah. This is, so this is only the beginning. Yeah, exactly. And I'll say for the audience, this is only part one because I look forward to a few other episodes down the line because there's so much more to go into. Thank you.