You Only Need One Yes: Risk Taking, Moving Abroad and Building A Business with Gus Vidales

I am sitting here today with Gus Fadalas, who is incredible working with coaches. So if you're a coach or you're someone who just wants to broaden the horizon and have an expansive conversation about making shits on the money, basically, this is a conversation for you. Hi, thank you so much for joining us today. - It's a pleasure being here. Thank you for inviting me. - This is a very selfish podcast invite. I'm not gonna lie, 'cause I'm so excited to hear all of the things that are in your brain. Let's go back to the beginning and how you got to the place where you are, 'cause I know you have such an interesting story. Where did you grow up? - I was quite alright. I was born and raised in Colombia, South America, from a military family. So if you're familiar with a little bit of history, Colombia is a war-ridden country. At least not right now, or it's been for the last 50 years. So my dad and his dad and my great-grandparents have all been in military, right? So like I grew up in a four-minute-hour home, grew up in Colombia. I lived in very, very poor places, and that's where I grew up, essentially. In Colombia, moving around everywhere. So I didn't really have one set hometown or anything like that until I was in probably like sixth grade when I was in the city I was born, which was Cartagena. It was on the coast, it's beautiful city. That's where I grew up from, but I moved everywhere in Colombia. - How is that as a kid? 'Cause I imagine just moving around constantly, must make you feel, I don't know what the word is, like, unbased, I guess? - Yeah, because I grew up in it, I became dissensitized from not having a home base or not having friends because I was moving everywhere. For me, it was normal. So because I grew into it, I thought that was normal. But when I speak to people about my upbringing, I get questions like that. For me, which is normal. For me, seeing my dad leave the house in full equipment, to say, or camouflage and his guns and all those things, him living for work was normal for me when I didn't even know if he was coming back that day. For me, that was normal. So I grew up with that and then grew up with hearing horrible, horrible stories about what was happening. And stuff you see in the news, that was my day today, that now for me was normal. As I was growing up, when I say growing up, I was going into sixth, seventh, eighth grade, ninth grade, I started really resenting the fact that that was happening. And that led me to, and we'll get into it, that led me to completely like leaving. For me, because I was like, this ain't for me, man, this isn't okay. Right? So I left later, but for me, it was normal. I had to go to school with bodyguards. Yeah, I was crazy. Wow. So when you say you were resentful that it was happening, you mean like the state of the country or the fact your family had to do that? What were you growing resentful of? All of those, like seeing so much evil and seeing so much corruption and seeing so many friends of my dad being killed, kidnapped, helped for ransom. And that was just like normal. It just happened so often that it was quote unquote normal. But then I was like, this isn't good. Like this isn't okay. And that's not okay to live with that. And because I was growing resentful about that fact, that really ate me up inside in a way that I just didn't want to live with that hate in myself, with that resentfulness. So I didn't feel even though I grew up there until I was 17, I was born there. I didn't feel like that was home for me because it wasn't good. It wasn't. And seeing all that just made me feel not at home. Right? So that's why I grew resentful of it. And when it comes to your parents, your family wider, like were they feeling the same or were you almost an outlier within that feeling? No, I think my dad also, all of my parents are alive which I'm super grateful. They are, there's a reason why my dad joined the military, right? Because he was tired of the situation in the country that he joined to fight against that. So not that they're resentful, but they understand that it's not an amazing place to be in. So that's why they went against those things. And of course, you know, anywhere you go in the world, even me here being in Spain, people complain about Spain. If you go to France, people complain about France, like it's all these things. So not that they're resentful, but they understand that it's not the best as it could be. They're still living in all my families in Spain. Wow. So when you now look back at this period of resentment of a lot of fear in your childhood, how do you think that that changed how you show up now is an adult? This might sound very superficial and selfish in a way, but it's like, and some people who do have it easier than others. But it's like, if there's a situation you're in right now, you don't like it. You don't have to do everything you can do in your power to change it. And as much as I could blame everything outside of me, of like, oh my God, it's horrible country. It's so unsafe. It's all this. I could blame everything on that, rather than what I did, which was, fuck, I need to change this. Like, there's no way I'm going to stay like this. Right? So that's why the way now I see things, it's very pragmatic. It's like, I blame it on me. It's like, I have to change what happens. Like, I can't change what's happening outside of me. I can change how to see things, how to think about things. But anyway, it's like, the way I show up now, it's like, you gotta snap out of it and think of it from a logical standpoint of what can you do to change the way you're feeling, to change your conditions, to change how you are in life right now, to make it better for yourself, or at least try with your fullest intention with the most amount of how you can do so that there's no regret later. Right? So that's how I see it and that's how I show up. All the things I've gone through. Now I see life that way. It's like, it's very logical. If you don't like something, you gotta do everything in your power to change it. And I think the reality is for the most part, you probably can change it. I think if you put enough effort in, it's almost inevitable that at some point it will change. It just depends, I guess, how hungry you are from change. And I think I have a very different childhood to you, but very questionable and hard and completely different context. But I resonate with everything you just said so much. And I think I don't know if you would say the same thing, but for me, I turn down victim mentality so often that that is probably the sole reason I am where I am because it would be so, as you said, so easy to sit there and say, oh, this happened and that's so hard and et cetera, et cetera. It's so normalized, I think, as a society, to accept limitations. And I think someone like you or I can break through that ceiling only by stepping out of victim mentality. Yeah, forget where I saw this from. And a guy was saying what you're saying. He's like, well, you can complain all about it. And my answer to you complaining is always going to be, you're right. So what? You can complain about everything. And you can be right. But either you're right or you do something about it to change it. I can complain about everything. And I can just be like, yeah, you're right. Is that going to change? How you feel? Is that going to change your situation? No, we're going to do something about it. Like I said, there's people who have it easier than others. I'm not going to lie. But it is what it is. Yeah, I resonate with that. It's an interesting perspective being, because I'm in Cape Town, South Africa for the past three years. And it's really interesting because I've always had that drive for, OK, let's not sitting victim mentality when I was in London. But then you come here and you see just the depth of how hard some people have their lives. And still, I think if you have access to a phone and you have access to internet, you can probably change your life and get out of that situation. And there's not to say that it's not harder for you. Of course it is. It absolutely is. But you can and it's accessible. I would love to know from you, when you stepped out of that victim mentality, you decided to change how old were you and what was the next step to that? Yeah, I think the first time I had that breakthrough, I believe it really happens multiple times, because there's history in life. But I think the first time that happened, I believe I was like 16 or 17 when I was still in high school. And the reality sat in where like, OK, I got to think about where I'm going to go to college. So I want to spend four more years, six more years in Columbia, or is there any way I can leave and do something else out there? And that's the reality that sat in where like, OK, I'm going to graduate. I would love to just go to the US and study there. So that kind of hit me back then back then sounds like I'm super early. When I was a senior in high school, it was more common for people to stay in Columbia. So like to stay and study and because they are good universities in Columbia, and it was cheaper and it was easier, it was more accessible. And because Columbia is a small country, if your parents knew somebody in the university, they could make their connection and you could get there, it's much easier. Change is hard. Me wanting to completely go somewhere out there. That's where I was like, OK, I need to leave. So I had to do an SAT. I had to go into like AP classes, like actually stand out, because I wasn't a star student at all. I was like, just going through the motions anyway. And at the time, I was playing football, slash soccer, whatever it was from. And my hope was to get some scholarship, school sports, to go into the US, but that didn't happen. It's for the other, but at least I gave me the motivation to study, to go to the university, when people come to your school from universities, like when you need shake hands to do this all the time, that's when you first happen. I was like, OK, there's absolutely no way I'm staying in Columbia to study and be with the same people, be with the same people complaining and people with the same concepts and the same, there's nothing changes. I can't do that. I need something new. So that's when it first hit me. And I applied to a bunch of schools. I sent videos of me playing football, and I didn't get a scholarship anywhere. I got married scholarship, but that's it. And I don't come from my wealthy family, so that for my family was a huge hit. Like American tuition is expensive as fuck. Like it's so expensive. I know I've heard. Yeah. So I made it happen. I was-- went to go to school in Tampa. So it was a city I've never been to. To a school I've never visited before. I just saw it from pictures and pamphlets and brochures and I made that life decision. It was better for me to leave somewhere I've never been. I've never visited, I've never heard of even Tampa. For me, that was like, Tampa for it. I was like, completely new. That was for me, it was better and easier than to stay. That's when I was like, I got out. Get the fuck out of here. - Oh my God. So you went to Tampa. Where is Tampa? I don't even know. - Exactly, exactly. I was like, if anything I knew Orlando or Miami, Tampa never heard of it. Tampa's on the West Coast of Florida and I love it now. I love it. - Really? - What are the purposes of that? - Yeah. - Okay, we're gonna put Tampa on the map. What is Tampa like? - Great. I mean, it depends on what you're looking for. But when I went there, that was 2012. I was 17 and I left to study. It's like a small big city. It's not capital, but it's the biggest city on the West Coast of Florida. It's not as quote unquote flashy or fake as Miami. It's not as party city as Miami. It's more quote unquote American. So there's, you know, it's more US. It's smaller. It's nicer now. There's a huge entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial like community in Tampa that's growing. And I really like it. I have friends. I still have friends in Tampa who own successful businesses and they rather be in Tampa than anywhere else because it's less fake than other places that you're probably familiar with. A little bit more genuine. It's a small city for sure. But better beaches than Miami, I would argue. And I just love it. That's where I lived, little in my entire 20s in the US. But from 17 to I was 28 or 20, yeah, 27, I don't know. I lived in the US for like nine years, 10 years or most. How has your mindset changing whilst you're there throughout your 20s? Because I'm paralleling this in my head too. I lived in London my entire life. I actually went to Union, the South Coast in the UK for a couple of years, didn't like it, quit uni, came back. But like basically in London for the entire time and the three years ago I moved to Cape Town. And I would say I've changed more in those three years than I have in my entire 20s. And I'm wondering if that was such a big kind of revolution of who you are at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Because your 20s are so important in your life. And you get to experience a lot of things. University in the US, it's such a fun experience. It's like what you see in the movies. It's experience of going to university and all those things. And many things happened during those years as well. But it's where I finally had a home base. I met my best friends in there. I traveled a little bit as much as I could. And that for me felt like home, 100%. Pampa for me, the US for me felt like home. I felt like this is my place, at least, better than what I had before, which was in Colombia. The city one from Cartagena, this is very small city. It may be a million people population. But the hub where everything happened, like school, where you live, where you're family, where you're friends, it's very tiny. And then I went to Tampa and it's like, well, this is huge. The highways, I hold the oldest stuff. It amount to people in my university, the amount of activities, everything. The gyms, everything was like super sized, literally everything. More freedom, more safety. So that for me changed me and it shaped me into like, okay, there's a whole world out there. So that for me was home at last. And that's why going from a, I hate this place. I can't wait to get out of here to why I love this place. That for me mentally was like such a pivotal moment in my life. And it changed me because I loved it. Yeah. Makes total sense to me. Did it also change your appetite for risk? Because that's such a huge risk taking moment and it worked out so well. Do you think that then positively impacts how you perceive risk in future? Looking back, I don't think so. Because for me, it wasn't a risk. For me, it was like the only thing I could do at the moment. Like there was no other option. My mom and my dad obviously saw it as a risk because they were paying. So it's like, you better make the most out of it. I didn't see it that way. And obviously they didn't like the fact that I was leaving. Not like, but they were sad that I was leaving. For me, I was just happy and excited. To then, if you're like a risk, now looking back into it. But then reality hit. I was in uni. I had to pay for my own stuff. I told my parents that I didn't want anything. I didn't want any help financially. I didn't want any help anything because they were already helping me with. You know, paying tuition, which is the most expensive thing when you're there. Everything else had to come from me. Since then, I was already living in this stress of I gotta make shit work. I gotta make it happen. My parents are putting me in this privileged situation. I gotta make sure I make the most out of it. But it didn't feel like risk. It just felt like responsibility. This is what I have to do. So you had, I presume, some work alongside. Are you building something alongside of what were you doing to make money at that point? So, man, the first four years of uni were very interesting because like I said, I wanted to go to the US and figure out a way to get to scholarship, right? Through football soccer. So my first year, they hold triodes. I was training. I was like, "Pick physical condition." That was my ticket, right? That was my ticket of telling my parents, "Hey, I got some scholarship for playing." So I was very excited. But when I get there to the tryouts, the main coach, the first thing that he says, imagine this. It's like, 30 guys super excited to play their best so that they can get the opportunity to get a position to play. Mind you, the way the sports works in the US, collegiate sports, you have D1, which is division one, the 2, the 3. D1, you're professional, like they pay you a check. D2 is like, you know, still high level. My uni was D3, meaning you're not technically professional. You're still good. They'll still pay you for some tuition. So it was D3. So in my mind, I was like, okay, this is going to be easier. So I'm excited and hyped up. When we get there, the first tryout, the first thing that the head coach says is like, "Hey guys, thank you all for showing up." But just so that, you know, I'm basically forced to do these tryouts, but the roster is full. I'm not picking anyone today. I'm not picking anyone. So just play. Thank you for coming. - Suffered. - Yeah, I got a huge slap on my face and my ticket to court-on-quote redemption was I burnt in front of me. So I'm like, fuck, okay. So I said, I'll try out next semester. Same thing happened. Same thing. Hey guys, so sorry, roster is full for this year. So obviously I'm pissed. I go through that semester. I can't work. So I have to answer your question. I can't work legally because I'm on a student visa. Right, so I go back to Colombia for summer and I love playing soccer, football. I'll just name it soccer. Fuck it. So I go back to Carthagena for summer and I do train because my hopes are still up. And while I was training soccer, I was getting seen by some people who were scouts. Right, even from Tampa, people were seeing me and like we were in talks, blah, blah, blah, blah, but when I went to Colombia to train and I got scoured, things became a little bit more serious. And there's this guy that saw me and started having conversations with my dad because he scoured for a team in Brazil. This was still like a freshman in uni. So long story short, this guy scouts me and then I take another risk to fuck it. They see if I can make it pro. So they signed me, I was 18 at the time. They signed me to play a professional to go play in Brazil. And it's a small town called Precife. And I've multi, but at the time that team was division one. So highest level professional football in Brazil. And I go there, so I signed a contract and I'm a professional football player in Brazil. As a Colombian guy, a privileged Colombian guy who just comes from the US to play in Brazil. Obviously all these kids that are playing that are playing so that they can put foot under play and take care of their family. I'm there because wouldn't it be fun to be a professional football player? So reality, I went to Brazil by myself completely, didn't know the language to a very small city. And I'm living in a community house where four other kids in a room that's probably smaller than this office. We're showing our bathroom. And I go from being in Tampa to being in a very poor area of a very rural part of a very small town in Brazil. I was fun, I'm not gonna lie, I was fun, but I didn't last long there. Obviously I didn't last long. I think it was like maybe three months. So whenever I say I play professional, I try not to say because like did I really, I guess. - It's a cool story. - But, so that happened through my first four years of college. So I went to Brazil, played, I was like, now I'm fucked this, I call my mom, I can't do this, I'm so sorry, I go back to Colombia and spend the rest of the semester there, then go back to school for myself more year. So that happened in the first year I left Colombia. I left Colombia, went to the US, then went to Brazil, then back to Colombia, then back to the US, the whole mess. But I guess all this time is like me trying to pursue my dreams. Yeah. - It's funny because I'm listening to this and I'm like, you're a risk taker. I think this is generally the case, like if someone comes from a less privileged background that they have like, they don't have so far to fall and still everything is like, yeah, but you know, if that works out, that would be better than this. If that works out, this would be better than this and you're constantly like, you don't have so far to go down. I really noticed that. - The upside is infinite. You know what I mean? I've always hit bottom, but like we said earlier, it's like there's risks you have to take because then everything else is a what if, and I can tell you from experience that's horrible, you know, that's even worse than trying. Like, what if I did this, what if I'm like, I can cross that off my list of like, what if I played pro, okay? We try and we fail them, but it is what it is, you know? - And it's an epic story, by the way. Yeah, man, it was something I can tell you you asked me something to say that how was I making money in uni? I wasn't I was just being very stingy. I didn't go out with my friends. I stayed on campus So in the US, it's very common for you to sleep on campus. I have a lot of dorms. I slept on campus I didn't go out to eat all the food that I ate was on campus They didn't really have this college experience of going out drinking I mean I did my drinking I did my partying but I very Conservative, you know, where like I didn't spend any money So like the money that I was spending was the savings I had from Colombia Everything else wasn't quote unquote included in tuition But I paid for my for example for my own phone Which was nothing but at the time it's like I was doing this with my savings So I didn't make money. I just didn't spend the shit and my friends to this day make fun of me when we were having a pregame And we asked you to bring you know beers or whatever. I would just go in the fridge in my dorm or where I was staying at and There were like spare beers. I would just steal those beers from roommates and I would just bring them up Like hey, this is my pregame contribution and my friends still make fun of me because I was I had to be stingy There was no other way. It was either that or like I was struggle and I couldn't ask more for my pen That might be like a limiting belief at the time or but I was like my friends already getting me so much that it be apocritical of me to ask them for more. Hey, can you send me more money like what the fuck are you doing? The US your tuition is getting paid for so yeah, I just I didn't spend money and not at all not at all I get that understand that well I did the opposite of uni because I also come from a background where there just wasn't any money That wasn't really I was supposed to get a bigger like student loan that I did and I actually ended up getting the minimum Because of some paperwork issues. It was like a whole thing and I worked for like a year and a half in McDonald's putting myself through uni Which was so fun so great would hard recommend but yeah the grind of the uni student lives on I still wonder how much I learned from working at McDonald's that then like crosses over into like day-to-day life I think you learn how to do with like drunk annoying people very quickly like 5 a.m And everybody's like rolling in I was the till girl they're like hello. Welcome to McDonald's. How can I help you? Oh my god That's interesting. Can I take your order? That's so funny. Oh my god. Wow an icon an icon So you were in the US until 28 so what were the next few years like what were you working on what were you building and also Why did you leave the US considering you hold it and like such good regard? Yeah, I'll fast forward a couple years So I graduated a university with honors and I found an internship so they were paying me I found a paid internship and then as I graduated they hired me full-time. It was a startup and Love them to death. They taught me so many things. We went through so many things together But I believed too much on the projections that they had that I put all my eggs in that basket People who are watching this religion is don't really know in the US as an international student depending on what you study You get a work permit after you graduate college which is called the OPT So optional practical training and it's good for one year depending on what you study because I studied International Business that meant I only got one year. I did my year with this startup betting on the fact that They would have grown so much in a year that they could quote unquote sponsor me So in the US you got sponsored there's many types of visa. There's you know h1b blah blah blah Which is the lottery all this stuff, but as I was working with them They told me they couldn't sponsor me. So I was in a fork road of Either one because if you don't get sponsored you gotta leave the country or else you're there illegally You either leave the country after you finish your year of work or you do some sort of continued studies So going on for a master's or whatever. So in my full nature I was like there is no fucking way. I'm going back to Colombia. Let me figure this shit out This work was in Tampa still and I was so lucky I didn't have a car either. I was so lucky that it was very close to a place where I was staying that my friend rented out for me As long as I could rent the other room, but all in all I went back to uni I knocked on that mission's door like legitimately knocked on her door and I was like I need your help I sat down on her office and I said here's the deal They're not gonna sponsor me because they can't sponsor me. I need to do some sort of container education What's the cheapest I think I can do here so I can stay in the US and not go back back home and she was super nice and she Looked out my grades looked up all this and because I got it with honors and because I had so many good grades Essentially she was like well like you have a really good background Why don't you apply be a student worker or some I don't I can't remember the specific name one story short I got it. I got full tuition paid for my master's degree a good master's degree And I got paid a stipend every single month as well. So I was like fuck I did it I did the promise that I made my parents which was just get me through my first four years full stipend full scholarship So that was great. I bought myself an extra two years I did the bare minimum credits every single semester That could still be a full-time student and just do the least amount so I could buy myself time Because then now I knew okay, I need somebody who could sponsor me So I'm not gonna take that risk of going for a startup. I need to do something better So I bought myself time and two years of master's degree I did a paid internship in Washington DC a friend of mine got me that position I'm so grateful for her. She's amazing She got me that I needed more experience. I needed because as an international student you're playing against a lot of odds Right, so you gotta be like way better than the Americans because companies rather higher Americans than pay You know all the lower And hold the stuff so at the end of my master's degree again Graduated with good grades now it was go time again holy shit I got to apply for a good position for a good company that could possibly sponsor me I applied for 300 something positions 300 something companies. I had an excel sheet name other company link of the position and LinkedIn or whatever Name of the contact extra contacts that I could call and message whole CRM Lauren I applied every fucking where I applied to positions in fucking Iowa Montana like the most I just needed something I needed something so out of those like 300 something jobs had maybe like 15 interviews And I got one yes and all you need in life is one yes And then I tell this to my clients to like you're one breakthrough away from Chaining your business and your life for me at the time it was that I got a yes for a really good advertising agency in Nashville Tennessee and in that interview they told me how fast can you start and if you don't know Anyone that is this thing at least then you select a date when you want it your OPT to start and from that They don't you have one year whether you like it or not a final interview that I have with them I believe it was the day my OPT started so it was maybe like a Monday or something they told me when can you get to Nashville The story beats itself a place I've never been I've never been to Nashville never even heard I was like what the fuck is not worried is that I had to go in in the map like oh Nashville's there got it They told me how fast can you get here and because my OPT already started time for me was ticking already and I said I could be there You know tomorrow or Friday or whatever they're like okay, let's make your first day next week Monday So I had maybe I forget the exact time frame But I had maybe like five days to pack everything up say goodbye to my old life in Tampa and go to a place I've never been before so I sold everything on Facebook marketplace I rented out a U-hole van where I could put my freaking bed and Few stuff that I had because I was moving around in college because I didn't have money to pay for a place I would stay like a French car just or whatever and if I've days I moved everything say bye to my friends and drove 13 hours from Tampa to Nashville in a U-hole truck to start my new life in Nashville And that's why I worked my second OPT for a year or I also had to find a place to live too So I had to find a nice close to work because yeah literally it was oh my god It was so stressful final place to live never been there's I don't know what zone or what neighborhood to live in I just needed to find a place close to the office because I didn't have the money to buy a car I just had to work there so I found a place on the lease Find the lease do the U-hole thing pack everything sell everything go there 13 hour drive Perfectly remember that U-hole truck didn't even have radio so I drove 13 hours in silence and I got to Nashville and it was one of the best experiences in my entire life no way Yeah, the work environment was amazing the people there the team the people I met in Nashville the city itself was Amazing incredible city. I love that really want to go. It's so fun. It's so freaking fun. Something out of this world Yeah, it's so good. You have to go. It's amazing. It's incredible and fun fact is like bachelor capital of the world So like you go there and everyone's wearing yeah, I swear to God. It's like the funniest thing It's not even Las Vegas. It's like national tennis is the funniest thing ever in Nashville. That's when I decided I just want to have a safe 9 to 5 so I don't have to deal with the shit anymore of having to find an OPT or do continue Like none of this bullshit. I was like, please God. Just let me stay here. I just want to save 9 to 5 I don't want to go anywhere else and then the culture then environment was so cool and the office was amazing And I don't know if you've seen madman and I think show where it is like this advertising guys in New York. Yeah, yeah We didn't have to dress up or anything but the vibes were the height like lines were like it was so cool Like it was the advertising at a full extent that I definitely applied for a position. I was not qualified for So I had to I have to learn so much. I had to yeah and I loved it. They were able to sponsor me. I had to obviously play my card right. I had to be a really good employee, which I was. We broke many records with the company. I had an amazing team and they were on board to sponsor me. So I was excited. I called my mom, I called my family, I called my dad. No, I feel like there is a bot coming. Hear me out. Hear me out. Okay. I'm not sure you're a question, but I have to tell those stories so I can give you a comment. Yeah, when my boss at the time, there are two bosses, great people, very, very, very people. The lawyer started the whole process and the good news for me at the time was because I had a master's degree, the way it worked back then, the company's applied for the H1B visa, which is the normal visa a lot of people are aware of. If you have a higher degree education so like master's degree from the US, you're able to apply twice in the same period, meaning the way it worked then was the first slots are given to people with master's degree. If you have a master's degree and you don't make it there, you're going to the next poll, which is the general poll. So I was like, dude, I have two chances of getting it. But I'm so happy. I'm so excited. Long story short, as we go through the process again, super fucking stressful and as you're applying to this, you got to make sure your OPT doesn't end because if your OPT ends and you're still in the process, legally, you cannot work. So therefore you can't make money. So we applied my company puts in the application and we hear back from the first full of people and it got denied. I'm like fuck super confused. My lawyer is confused, everyone's confused. And she said, don't worry, we still have a second chance to do it. So we wait, we apply again or we what I don't know what the process is and it gets denied again. So I got denied twice. And my lawyer, my boss at the time because I got denied my OPT and I couldn't work. So I'm left kind of like in a limbo where I couldn't work, but I was still paying for my rent and I was like, what the fuck is going on? So my lawyer said there's something else we can do. We can apply for a third visa. But again, this had to come out of pocket. I had to pay for it. We applied for a third visa. And I remember vividly I was cooking and I have I still have this picture on my phone. I was so stressed. I couldn't sleep. I had no hunger. I was I don't want to say the price, but I was very sad. I was very turned down by holy shit. I got denied twice. This is all I wanted. All I asked God was I just need a save 925 and I'm gonna worry about the shit that we're again. And like what's going on? We apply for this all the visa. I think it was called the 0 1 A or 0 1 B whatever it is. Which is you gotta have like a note. I didn't know this at the time. You gotta have like accolades and awards which I didn't have. But it was kind of like a hell marry than the last thing we wanted to do. I was cooking and I was refreshing my fucking email all the time to see if I got an email boom boom boom. I refreshed it and as soon as I opened it, it said your status has been reviewed or your status has been updated. Please log in. I'm click the link. Put my login information in. Logged in and in bold. Blue letters. It's that your case has been denied. So I sent a screenshot to my lawyer and she said, well, there's all we can do. That's all she wrote. And I essentially got a letter from the US government saying, hey, your status is denied. I mean, if you're not already out of the country, you're illegally in the country. You have to leave. So my lawyer called me and she said, you gotta leave the country or else you're staying illegally in the US. And if you stay illegally in the US, the oldie and I your visa, you can't go into the US for like whatever 10 years. You'll be like then essentially. So in like three days, this was after Thanksgiving in the US pure COVID as well. I had to again sell everything, say goodbye to everyone and buy a one-way ticket back to Colombia. No. Because I essentially got deported from the US long answer to your question. I didn't want it. No, I love it. That's all I wanted. I wanted to stay and then my visa got denied three times. So you're really going through this whole thing like so much work, so many different hurdles. You're grinding, you're grinding, you're grinding and you end up back in Colombia, which is exactly what you don't want to be. Yeah. And see like the blessing and the skies is that because I failed at soccer, I found the gym and I found working out as like my passion and my hobby and I carried this through college and I started building quote unquote a personal brand for fitness in college. Do you don't know what I was doing? I had coaching clients in fitness and I wrote a nutrition book and I carried this to Nashville and it was like a nice hobby. And then when I was in Nashville, I went viral and ticked off many times through fitness. I drew my fitness account. I saw clients, I saw nutrition workouts, all this stuff. And through that, some people found me and when I was in this transition of like getting denied in visas, the people who found me were in Nashville and I met them personally. And these were the people who hired me to help them with marketing and all those things because that's what I was doing for us advertising. So I kind of connected both worlds of my advertising and marketing background to my passion and fitness and nutrition and all those things. And then these people found me and they were like, we altered into no worry, whatever stuff. We love what you're doing. We love the emails that you're sending out. We love all this. Let's have a conversation. That happened in Nashville when I was still in the limbo of like, am I getting denied? I'm not getting deported. So I met them got denied, got deported, got sent to Columbia, but because I was sent to Columbia, now I can legally work. So I was working part time with the agency doing some work for them and then working with these people as well. So at the same time, I was working. And then these people, the couple that found me hired me full time. I quit the agency and I went full time with them. They are still a consulting company for fitness coaches and health coaches. And at the time that they hired me, they were I think sitting at, I don't want to make up numbers. So take this with a grain of salt, but it was somewhere around 150 to 300 K a month. And throughout years after that, I was able to help them manage their paid media, their marketing, their messaging, their funnels, their emails, their automations. I was training all their clients to with the same stuff as well. And we essentially grew their company from 200 K to like a million bucks a month, which was a great amount of work there. So like I grew in the company. I had a position. I spoke on stage for them. I trained a bunch of their clients. Now we fast forward to two years ago. This was maybe two or three years, three years ago. I want to say just the context. How old are you now? I'm 31. You're 28 when you left the US. And there's been three years since then. Yeah. I think if my math is right, I was never an entrepreneur until very late. Literally until three years ago, I wasn't an entrepreneur worth noting. Now you see a lot of people who were like, fucking 20 years old, making a lot of money. And sometimes I hit myself hard because I'm like, oh my god, I wish I would have started earlier. But then none of this shit would have happened. It's kind of built me in who I am today. But I started late. This entrepreneurship stuff for me was new. This was not something I wanted to do. I wanted to have a safe nine to five, not to worry about anything else. And I was just put into this position where I helped this company grow. I met a lot of people. And I was forced into becoming an entrepreneur because I got fired after helping them and working with them. Very company, great people. I met a lot of great people there. But I helped them grow so much that I was like, okay, I want a piece of the plan essentially. Okay. Yeah. And then they didn't want to do that. Yeah, we didn't connect different ideas. So we parted at waste. It was an amicable parting up where AC wasn't like, if I can hit you, you fired. No, I was like, we met in different growth paths. And that so that was when I was like, okay, forcing to do what I kind of do now essentially. So you have all of this knowledge from in house that you've done gone, okay, what the fuck do I do of this? Let me help other people do this. And now you work with coaches in so many different spectrums. Can you give us some examples of the type of results that you've got for people? Yeah. Yeah. Of course, it's been three years of changing what I do. Again, risking a lot of money into learning to figure out how can I use these frankenstein of knowledge of different things into like one offer that I can help people. I recently realized that I can help coaches. And when I say coaches, it's fitness coaches, health coaches, I've helped admissions coaches, marriage coaches, holistic financial coaches, mindset coaches. Most of because I believe the impact that you can do through them is fucking beautiful. Because they're also helping people. And you ask kind of results, well, there's so many now. I've been blessed to help a lot of coaches. And the things that I'm about to say, like this is all publicly documented like you can go to my YouTube and watch the interviews with them. It's changed their life. There's a guy in Colombia that essentially he got referred to me from another client. And we go through this conversations. And again, I charge in dollars. So that is like 4x the amount in Colombia. So this guy, amazing story, a lot of knowledge. He just needs to write guidance without me knowing. And this is in interview. I'm like, they didn't really check. I'm like, what the stuff? I had no idea you were doing this. This guy went into debt, like maxed all of his credit cards to work with me and have me help him. No way. This guy is a hard worker. He's a machine. Loving to death. Now a good friend of mine too. And he, from being a doctor, basically making, I don't know, 3k in a year from being a doctor. He now is making 20k months. And he's helping so many people. And now this week he's coming by. from Mexico because he's able to travel and go with his girlfriend and travel. He's been to Bali. He came to visit me here in Spain. He was surfing in Mexico and like he doing all this stuff because I remember vividly one of the goals he had was I want to be able to travel the world while I help people with their health and we did that. Now he's not making a billion dollars a month but he's went from essentially zero to 20 km on so that's one thing. I had another guy who came to me extremely smart guy in the US. He was maybe making 30 km, 40 km up and he didn't have the guidance or the structure or the mentorship or anything to package his knowledge into something that he could sell. So essentially he sells like very specified knowledge, like nutrition, hormonal peptide knowledge to other fitness coaches. So he makes things smarter in a way. Yeah. He didn't know how to do that. So we came together, we partnered up and I acted as a consultant and as a fractional C3 for coaches. Essentially I don't do programs, I don't do modules, I don't do any of that. I'm essentially a high level consultant for all my coaches. Everyone needs a different thing. Essentially for him we went from like 30, 40 km to 100, 120 km he crushed it and then I had a mission coach. Essentially in a whole year she made 10 km with me in like four months. She used now making 20 km as well and now she's being able to make like more than what she used to make us a lawyer. Now she's making more as an admissions coach to help students get into college. Last time we spoke she's helped students save a total of like $3 million in scholarships, which is amazing. So all this impact is just so beautiful to see because it's empowering. I can use my knowledge of other people, help other people and there's many stories like that. I got a guy who was a teacher in school and he was a fitness coach for moms because he saw his wife struggle with health. His mission was to change that, change the narrative. And I was able to have him quit his full-time teacher job to fulfill his vision of helping moms in fitness and had his wife quit her job too. And now he has time to play with his kids and all this stuff and now he's making like 30 km and that's beautiful. There's many cases like this. That's incredible. And it's like no, it's not just fitness coaches, it's mission coaches, there's another marriage coaching offer in Colombia. So the impact with them, they triple their businesses but they help thousands of marriages. They save thousands of marriages. They've saved thousands of families. So it's beautiful. It's a work that I'm still mastering but I can with full confidence say that any coach that comes to me, I can help them in some way shape or another. And it's so fulfilling and it's so beautiful and I'm blessed to have that. It comes with its own struggles too. I'm still learning, I'm still applying, I'm still trying to grow my business too, but it's fucking awesome. It's incredible and I love the knock on impact that you're having there and you're able to really say like, oh, we helped save thousands of marriages or hell, thought whatever. Like I really resonate with that. As you know, like for me, I've been working on the brand side of social media so much and always tried to angle to work with brands that are having good and positive impact. But over the past year, I've been stepping more and more towards founders and their personal brands for exactly that reason because not only do you want to have the impact on the services that they are offering and mentoring that they're offering further on, but you want to look at that person and say, okay, that person is able to be a more present parent because of that or they're able to travel to places that they never would have been because of that. And you can really, it's very tangible and it's such a beautiful, you must find it the same. It's so motivating to watch people's lives change and be like, oh, we helped you do that. Like that's really cool. I love it. It really like lights are fire under me. Do you mind if we get a little bit more into the specifics of how you would help a coach? Yeah, you can ask me anything you want. Well, I would love to know if a coach comes to you today and say there's someone in-house and they have skills that have high-asset skills, they're very tangible skills and they've never put that into practice for someone in the outside world. They've never done that for themselves. What are the next steps there? How do you take them from A to B as in working for themselves? Give me an example. So like somebody who let's do fitness because I think it's easy. So somebody who's being able to transform their life, change their life through fitness health, I know he wants to take or she wants to take that knowledge into helping other people. So that's a question. Yeah, perfect. One of the things that I like to do and pride myself over doing is my job is a consultant. It's sent to give people more homework or more things. It's essentially making things simpler. So the example that you're giving me, it essentially means there's somebody that's a very beginner. So as beginners, you get very overwhelmed by the amount of things that you can try and do or tools you can use to grow. You know, there's AI, there's books, you can do school, you can do a community, you can do low ticket, to high ticket, there's a billion ways of conducting business and the advice I give is so boring. It's not very shiny. It's not like, yeah, you can create a software and do this. It's like it's not exciting. It's finding what resonates with who you are as a person. What's the best way for you to teach? What's the best way for you to get attention or eyeballs? What's the best way for you to sell? What's the best way to fulfill? And what's the best way for you to start building a business? Everyone's different. So like all the examples I give you, none of those share one specific growth strategy. Everyone had something different. My admissions coach, client, she did in-person events and has like a low ticket school community and upsells from that. The other guy coach who made 100 something came months, he's all through the DMs. My doctor coach, he has a VSL. Everyone's personality has a different way of working with them. So to answer your question, it depends on the specific person, but just to like have a hypothetical example, let's just say this person loves to do, it's very vocal, it's very outgoing, has a really snappy personality as a very cool person. I had a sales call last week. Same thing. A coach, smart person, smart guy has a good mission, has a good why, but just didn't know where to start. We have to find what should it factor, what makes you different. Whether it's your story, we're of teaching, the way you speak, the way you appear in camera, we just have to find that and we can't find that until we put data out there in the marketplace to see what's sticking. So with somebody that's very, very new, it's like, okay, what do you want to help and why? And let's just make every piece of content about those struggles, internal external struggles, put yourself out there to see what sticks. That's the first thing we need attention because if you don't have attention, if you don't have eyeballs, or if you don't have the money to put into ads, then we're invisible in the market. That's the first thing that we need to figure out for some people, it's ads, for some people is organic, for some people is ticked off, for some people is YouTube, for some it's a combination. I have to help you find that. So what I do with clans is we build the entire content strategy and the ore ads strategy both together to see how can we generate attention, reach impressions. That's the first thing. Then the second thing would be, okay, now that we can have attention on our brand, on ourselves, on our business and our offer and we're generating some sort of buzz, the next logical step is that we need to find a way for us to sell. Many ways we can do this, but depending on the find how they like to sell, how they like conduct business, etc. Selling is now the way of how we convert attention into paying customers. Many ways of doing that, there's a billing ways. If somebody tells you there's best way of doing things, they don't know what the fuck they're talking about, cause you can sell things in many different ways. So selling is the second thing, it depends on the coach and the person. Many people like to do sales goals. I have clients, the webinars, life classes, all these things. So most people do sales goals. But that's the second thing. The third thing, which is I think the one I'm the most passionate about and the reason I'm passionate about this is because I've been scammed, I've been burned, I've had clients who've been scammed, I've been clients who've been threatened, I've had horrible experiences in the coaching space and everyone knows that there's so many scammers out there. So the third part is the part I'm the most passionate about and it's the one that's the most important out there. It's a client fulfillment. You have to deliver and you're fucking promise. You can't tell somebody, you're going to help them if you can't let them do that. So client fulfillment is the most important. Everyone has heard the old story of it's cheaper to keep a client than to get another client. That's true. So we have to make a process where we almost can guarantee some sort of results. So I built a process in a framework that's called guarantee client results. The process I walk all my clients through so that we can deliver on the promise. So now you have attention, now you can sell and now you have a process, a repeated process and a framework done for you that yours is unique. They can walk clients through so that they can get results. They can stay with you for longer. They love you. You have higher LTVs, you have higher referrals, more testimonials, all these things. And you actually create a business that is legit, not a business that's only out there for cash or striped screenshots for all this bullshit because the last thing you want to have is a reputation that's horrible reputation in the industry because you can't buy yourself out of that. So true. And if you're ready and that people are calling you a stammer and ready, good luck. For principles first, you have to be able to deliver to your clients. In the last four pillars, when I take my clients to the fourth pillar, kind of encompasses a little bit of everything, which is as you grow and as you have strong foundations, good clients results, good sales processes. It's okay. One now are the systems in place that we can put to help you with your biggest struggles, your biggest constraints, your bigger obstacles. One now can we do for you as a CEO to start working on softer skills like hiring, interviewing, managing a company, managing the ups and downs of businesses. So that's the fourth pillar, which is essentially I call it orchestration, which means you turning your back and orchestrating the entire thing, the systems, the people that you're hiring, your VA's, your classes, your managers, yourself, as a CEO, your mindset, all those things. So once we do all those four things, and I've done this repeatedly over and over in light, 20 plus different niches in three different languages from agencies to marriage counselors to all this, wants you to all these things, individualize to do. each person and a specific coaching business. Every time I've done this, every time my coaches and my clients have grown exponentially. So that's my philosophy and higher growth clients. I love it. And how to consult people. I love it. And I love how direct you are about the fulfillment side of things is what I think that's so often we focus on like how to grow the brand and how to get people through the door. And we forget that you know true impact, both for that person and for the people that they're helping is really the name of the game. And actually what we should all be angling towards is the specific things that you look for and the people that you work with. I'm sure you have lots of people come to you. Do you ever turn people away? I do last week. I turn away to people. And the reason I turned them away was because they were complete beginners. Now the only reason I don't take complete beginners and I usually say I'd like to work with people who are at least making at least making 10k a month or more or at least have had one 10k months is because I need to see that you have some skin in the game and you're not just in here to make like a quick cash. That's one thing. And also because complete beginners just take longer to see results. And in my experience from helping complete beginners they get frustrated very fast. So it depends on the person. I haven't accepted some people because I can tell. You know, so I look for a good mission and a good why. I don't need like a I want to change the world why but I want to want to hear a story of like why are you doing what you're doing what you want to do and why you want to do it. And I also look for people who are willing to put in the work. There is no such thing as a shortcut as corny as that sound. So if you're looking for that you can be my client. We're gonna work and I'm gonna be in the business with you. I'm not going to put you to watch videos and models. I'm not gonna have you in a group coaching calls. I'm gonna be working with you one on one. So I have to like you as a person too. We're going to work on this together. I'm a fraction of C suite for a company. I'm gonna be sitting at the same set of the table with you looking at the problem that we're trying to solve. So that's where I look for a lot of synergy between between my clients and more often than not my clients become friends and I help them in and it's such a fun project. So to answer your question. Yes, I sometimes deny people and it most happens because they're just complete beginners and they have the idea of I want to go I want to be a coach inside. Okay, work through that process. Let's see that there's some approval concept at least and then we can work together. I really resonate with that actually and I think I've noticed in the past year or so working with founders or creators more directly. There is such a difference between someone who's really pretty established but is feeling perhaps a little stuck and needs a little direction versus someone who's very very new and I think much like you said I resonate with the idea that I think newbies they get frustrated faster. I think that's a really good way of phrasing that and they get I don't know how to describe it. They get more like why isn't it happening now? Isn't it supposed to happen? Yeah, like why isn't it happening now? And I'm like, babe, you started posting like two months ago. Do you know what I mean? Like let's just give it a hot minute. I think a lot of people don't recognize when you're growing a business or a personal brand or whatever it is. Like you're looking at these people that are saying, yeah, you know, I made a hundred K this month and like this is how I did it and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, but they also have been doing it for like three, four, five, I don't know, however many years before that. I was talking to someone yesterday, a new friend of mine in Cape Town. She's incredible. She's gonna come on all the podcast in a couple of weeks. So come back for that. But she has like 400,000 followers and I was talking to her like, how did you get there? Like how did that happen? And she was like, I've been doing this for eight years. Like God, it's just like obvious. It compounds after one and she said for the first three or four years, she was stuck at like 4,000 followers on Instagram and then all of a sudden it just picked up speed in it went. But up until that moment, like it just didn't happen and nothing was happening and it was really, you know, she was struggling and going up against it. I think a lot of us, if you're listening to this probably need to recognize that it takes longer than you think and you have to, yeah, be willing to nail down and get under the hood and really get in there. Yeah. And one of the things I I like to tell people, you do this too, which is for anyone listening, but before we started recording, we were talking about this. It's like, you're not trying to find a shortcut. You want to find a way to compress time. So when it comes to mentorship, you're essentially borrowing on somebody's success to not make the same mistakes they've done in the past. So instead of something taking you a decade, it might take you three years. The same with books, right? You're compressing time. That's what mentorship is all about. Whether you are looking for a fitness coach or you're looking for a social media coach or somebody that can point the way and help you with your brand. You're looking for time compression of shortcuts. And it's a huge distinction to make looking for shortcuts is horrible. You're going to basically train your mind to look for the easiest path possible when normally the hardest path is the path that's essentially going to get you to where you want to be. That should take time, man. So when it comes to mentorship books, education, you're compressing time, but not shortcuts. And that's so important to know. So you're a friend with almost half a million followers. It was time, right? It took her while and I'm sure she failed many times. Many. She now has the expertise and the strict cred of like I've done this for many years. And now I can assure you she can help other people not achieve happen willing for us because that's a huge number, but she can achieve exponential results in less time because she's already has that knowledge. The important part here is like it'll take time. Regardless, whether you compress time or not, it's going to take time. And most of the time it's going to take longer than you think. Yes, I mean, hard to agree with that. God, I could actually literally talk to you all day, but I've just seen the time and I've got just of your time. What an incredibly inspirational story. That's crazy. There's a question that we always ask everybody on hindsight around a reading list that we are compiling collectively. I literally go away and read every single book that everybody says. It's very helpful for me. Is there a book that has had really big impact for you? It can be a business, it can be fiction, whatever comes to mind. You're looking at the big stack of books next to you. Yeah, yeah. Can I give you a couple of of options? Yeah, please. You could give us 10. Go for it. I can go for hours about books. But not like this. Give you and people are watching this and into this. Some good advice. So right now, all my desk, I have these books because I'm rereading all of these. Okay. Okay. Don't recommend this right now for people because they're general. You can read them at 10. 100 million dollar leads, all first-money models, etc. Those are great books. But I'm going to tell you the ones that changed. How are you soul things? Okay. First ones is this. It's a classic. So I think I can grow a rich button up on Hill. It's a very much classic. I think a lot of people have read this. Great book. That's one. The reason you're not going to see me recommend business books is because entrepreneurship is more of an internal growth pattern or growth journey than external business acumen. It's like, you're an entrepreneur. You're going to go through so much shit. You got to be able to manage the internal state of things. So I'm just trying to find a book that you haven't read because I want you to read a book. Great. Have you read the one thing? No. Okay. So read the one thing. The one thing. I think it's my killer. So that's a book that I recommend all my clients read. And the slide edge is also another book that I gift. I recommend my clients to do the slide edge. Now for me, the personal book that I always carry means this. This is a Bible. And this is the hardest book you're ever read because it will give you lessons you don't want to know about. Like it's very hard. It will shine the light on things that you might not know about, but you don't have to do how to act. I will speak to people how to do the hard things. So I think the Bible is the most complete book on everything you can ask for. And right now I'm going through the book of Proverbs, which is a short book. I think regardless of your beliefs, religion, anything, Proverbs is just a good book to read on how to act as a human. I will be a good person. What to look for and just be a good human overall. So for me, the Bible, for sure, it's the hardest book. I still struggle to read it. It's still deep business wise. The one thing, super easy book and the slide edge, which talks about time and results. The one thing talks about focusing on the thing and not everything, which is very hard as entrepreneurs. We want to do everything now with AI. We want to do everything. We want to build dashboard. It's like, bro chill, like, relax. Wow. That's such a beautiful answer. I haven't had anybody recommend the Bible before. I love that. You thought about that, right? That was very smart. You had that in my back of your mind. Like, this is the one. I love it. It's always next to me. Yeah, I had it in my back on the mind. So I have it here on my left. Wow. Okay, so it looks like I'm going to read the Bible. That's what's happening here, because I promise to read every book. So here we go. Read problems. Just read problems. Okay, dear. I will. Okay, cool. Is that a part of the Bible? I don't even, yeah, I grew up with no religion in my awareness to be honest. Yeah, yeah, so the Bible is a combination of a lot of books. Or verbs is one book inside of all the books. I did not know that. If you also didn't know that, please can you DM me? Because I am the only person you didn't know that. Yeah, it's a combination of a lot. It's not just one book. It's a combination of a lot of books from Wow. I believe 40 something different authors in different timelines in different continents. They all speak about the message, essentially. And it doesn't speak about religion. It speaks about a way of carrying yourself in life. And proverbs is legitimately just life advice. And it's really good life advice. Like legitimately, it's good advice. So proverbs would essentially be a very good self-help book for a lot of people. Yeah, it's not religion. It's not like a showing religion. Your story is just like it's good life advice, man. It's really deep. I recommend. Okay, I'm going to report back on that. I'm genuinely going to read. I'm very curious. One of my beautiful friends is very religious and tells me he reads the Bible most days, if not every day. And I see the way that he shows up in his life. And yeah, they're just beautiful to watch, really inspiring. So I'm game. I'm I've been curious for a while anyway. And this was like, this was the notch. So thank you for that. I appreciate it. And thank you for your time today. That was genuinely such an inspiring conversation. You know what? I came on to record this podcast with like something business wise going on in the background that is not so pleasant. And now I'm sitting here like, ah, that doesn't matter. Nothing matters. Let's just keep like forward momentum. Let's go. That was very well timed in my life. I hope it was for some of us as well. Thank you. Really, thank you so much. And we can always do a second part of business, just business if people want it. I'm more than happy to do it. We'd love. What a great idea. I would love that so much. OK, thank you so much. I will hold you to life. Thank you for having me.