Host (2:28)

Exactly.

Guest (2:29)

And yeah, I think we were talking about how we met on campus and we talked about like, you know, obviously setting up a pod at that time. So to finally sit down and actually be here, it's an honor, man.

Host (2:39)

No, absolutely. Timing is always key with everything, right? Like it was meant to be at this time, this day. And I, I think we could provide a lot, a lot more value than when we were 19 years old, for sure. I mean, I'm curious what that probably would even mean, you know, but it's, it's awesome, obviously, to be here and I'm happy to share like, your story and your journey and love, like your message that you also promote on social media. You know, very positive message, very inspiring message and something I'm a huge believer in, like whenever, whenever I can put something out there that I think is value. I'm no pro at life by any stretch of the imagination, right. But it's like, should this kind of.

Guest (3:15)

Work for me, right?

Host (3:16)

And it's what's on my mind, right? So it's like, why not provide something to the people?

Guest (3:20)

I think negativity is there everywhere you look for it. Whether you turn on the news or not, or, you know, you're watching X, Y and Z, you always see something that's happening because he gets more clicks. Like the reality is people are gonna gradually try and see the messed up part of it, and they will. The uplifting or the happiness. I feel like misery loves company. So they find that little section and, you know, they run with the negative stuff. So if, if, you know, you can promote positivity, I can promote positivity, or, or just an inspiring message because, you know, you don't want to be the rah rah motivation guy. It's more about, you know, actual practical, positive results. When you look at your lens with rose colored lenses or whatever, you look through life in that lens. And there's more value there, I think.

Host (4:02)

Absolutely.

Guest (4:02)

And I think somebody did a study that, like, optimistic or delusional people have a certain percentage chance of being successful versus, you know, the realist or, you.

Host (4:11)

Know, whatever the case, definitely believer in that. Because, you know, like, I do think there's like, a. A level of. You have to have a level of, like, delusional optimism. Right. Because, like, without that, like, there's no hope.

Guest (4:23)

Nope.

Host (4:23)

Right. Like, hope is what. What we all lean into at the end of the day, you know, especially when things are not maybe going to plan. We're going to lean into that hope for things to get better. Right. And if you don't have some of that delusion in your head, then, like, really, what are you holding on to? Right. Like, you can. You can. I think there's a healthy level to all of it. Right. But at the end of the day, like, I need that in the back of my head that, like, hey, you know, I'm going into this decision, and I need to make sure that what I'm doing is the right decision. But I really don't know. Absolutely, you don't. And that. I think that's where it's, like, you could pick one side. Right. You could pick to think, like, if I make this decision, everything's going to go wrong, or if I make this decision, everything's going to go right, and I'm going to lean that way.

Guest (5:01)

I think the beauty in life is, like, there's always a million reasons not to do something, but you got to find that one motivating reason to do something, and then that usually, if that reason is motivating enough, you'll fight through hell and high water to get to that destination, you know, and you'll figure it out. You. You'll try step one. If that fails, you'll try another step. Like, being committed to the destination, but flexible in your approach, I think, is the key to finding that success in life and in whatever, you know, challenge you want to overcome.

Host (5:29)

Yeah.

Guest (5:29)

Or whatever opportunity you want to create. And. And, yeah, yeah. You know, there's believers in that because, like, this setup, this location, this doesn't happen without that vision. 100. The airplane doesn't happen without a delusional optimism about flying from one end to the other.

Host (5:45)

It's crazy that you bring up the. The airplane, like, concept because I. I did a pod at fiu infancy, infancy stages with this girl, Erica Gutierrez, and she's, you know, same wavelength. Right? Same wavelength, like, into, like, this whole, like, like, mindfulness and just, you know, manifestation and all that. And everything does originate from a thought, right? Like, nothing would exist right now without the thought of it becoming a reality, right?

Guest (6:13)

Absolutely.

Host (6:14)

So if you don't think it, then you can't. It can't come into existence. Right? And I think, obviously this is a testament. But, like, the airplane example you brought up, right? Somebody was like, damn, there's got to be a way that we can get a craft up in the sky and get it from there to there. Like, it wasn't even, like, obviously, like.

Guest (6:30)

Miami to London, right?

Host (6:32)

The evolution of a plane is ridiculous, right? But it came out with the thought of, like, hey, I can get a craft up in the sky, and it's going to get me from point A to point B. You look at the evolution of. Of what the plane has become, and you're putting 200 people in there, defying gravity and flying over the ocean, getting people across the world. It's a phenomenon. And I think it's like, if you believe something and you're willing to put in the time and effort to figure it out, it will come to be. And that's. And that's just the truth. And there's so many examples of that, right?

Guest (7:02)

Like FaceTime.

Host (7:04)

Exactly.

Guest (7:05)

I can talk to my aunt in India and see her live and have a genuine connection. Like, I think about it for my grandparents, my late grandparents now, like, they got to speak with so many of their relatives that they otherwise would have never seen unless physically being present in front of them, sitting down, having that conversation. So I think these things are like, somebody was sitting there, was like, yo, I want to talk to somebody in, you know, somewhere else, and I want to be able to see what they're doing and then be able to show how they're living. And they brought that concept to life. And it brings me back to a famous quote that I resonate with, like, from a long time. Somebody told me this, like, earlier. I think. I believe it was Keon Dueling. Keon Dueling, who played basketball, Broward legend, played, you know, all the way up in the NBAs. He said, if you could close your eyes and visualize it, you can open your eyes and realize it. And I think that's, like. I think that was my yearbook quote. I think I put that, like, I plaster that quote every. Every chance I get. Because it's. It's genuinely the truth. If you can close your eyes and. And visualize it, you can open your eyes and realize it. Now, that's not to say it'll happen tomorrow. I feel like you're a testament to that. Like what you would, you probably would have wanted this as a freshman at fiu.

Host (8:12)

Yeah.

Guest (8:13)

You know what I mean?

Host (8:13)

Yeah.

Guest (8:14)

But it doesn't happen that way. And, and eventually things do transpire. Like another famous quote is, you can, you can have everything. You just can't have everything at once. And you know, that's the beauty of life. You progress the way you progress through life and how you grow and, and.

Host (8:27)

Yeah, no, absolutely, man, absolutely. Like manifestation is a real thing. And if you believe it and you see it and you put in the time and the effort, absolutely good things will come. And, and it's, it's, it's really like, you know, everybody wants it now. Right. We live in this instant gratification world. And I get it. Right. Like I fall victim to that all the time. Right. And it's like I want this and I want this. And a lot of it comes from like comparing what other people have. But the truth is like, if you can control what you can control, right? And that's the work effort that you put into it. Your discipline, your time, your energy, right. Like those are things that you can control on a day to day basis. Your mindset, everything else will just take care of itself. You may want it now, but you have to be consistent in the craft to be able to achieve the things that you want to achieve. And it may, it's not a linear path. We know that. Right. It's going to be up, it's going to be down, it's going to be back up, might go backwards.

Guest (9:17)

Everything in life that's a straight line is man made. There's no. In nature. You can't go out. Find a straight line in nature, bro.

Host (9:22)

100.

Guest (9:23)

It's, it's up and down. It's like stocks.

Host (9:25)

Yes.

Guest (9:25)

Up, down, up, down. But if, if you're successful long term enough, it'll look like it's a linear path. That's not the case.

Host (9:31)

Yeah, no, that's a fact.

Guest (9:32)

You know.

Host (9:32)

So tell me a little bit about, you know, your, your journey. Right. Obviously you're very entrepreneurial. You've been, been that way for a while. When we met, you know, you had the clothing brand Confident.

Guest (9:43)

Yes.

Host (9:43)

And it was like a perfect way to kind of like match who you are and like what you represent from like a message standpoint, but also like wanting to start something of your own.

Guest (9:51)

Yeah, I think so. I came into the University of Miami in 2015 and at that point basketball was my my one and done, like, in my mind, I had, you know, this is what I want to do. This is it. And somewhere along that journey, I realized, like, I was going to class and I was learning about business. I was, you know, can we curse on this podcast?

Host (10:12)

Yeah, of course.

Guest (10:12)

Like, there's a bullshit degree that I had called entrepreneurship, where I was being taught by teachers who didn't never built a business. They were teaching you how to build a business. And I contemplated dropping out a lot, which I'm sure, like, everybody who has an entrepreneurial mindset at some point is like, yeah, I don't want to do school.

Host (10:27)

I remember having that conversation with my mom, like, junior year, and it wasn't even, Like, I wasn't even starting this yet. I was like, in the fitness space, and I'm like, I'm seeing how this all works. Like, I can go make 5k a month training people right now and doing my own thing, and I'm wasting $5,000 a month in school right now, and I don't really care for it.

Guest (10:47)

It's funny you mentioned junior year, because around that same time, I had the same conversation with my parents. Literally sat them down. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, I come from a little bit more of, like, an Indian family, so everybody has this expect. My mom's like, you got to get a degree.

Host (10:57)

Yeah, give me a degree. Cuban.

Guest (11:00)

Exactly. We have similar values. Similar. Give me a degree. I was like, all right, cool, Whatever. Fine. I'll figure it out. And so I went through that, you know, experience, but during the time I was like, I got to do something because this class is not cutting it, and then you can only play basketball for so many hours a day, and you feel like the rest of the hours, like, true. Especially when you get to, like, I was 20, 21 when I started confident, and I was like, I got to do something. And I've been around business my entire life because my father started what, like, he built his. He started doing, like, entrepreneurial stuff very early, and I got to see him build that. I got to see him go from an employee to, you know, leaving that job and then figuring it out slowly but surely, and, you know, and being in, like, an entrepreneurial household, you. It's inconsistent because, you know, you. When you work, when you're. Let's say you're a kid of, like, somebody who's a doctor or somebody who's an engineer, somebody who has, like, a. A paying job, every second week, you're getting paid.

Host (11:51)

Right.

Guest (11:51)

Or you're getting paid monthly. There's certain income that's coming in when you're in an entrepreneurial household and you see this, you know, when you're growing up and is inconsistent, there are months that are really good, and there are months that may be really, really bad. There may be months at a time. They may be really, really bad.

Host (12:04)

Exactly.

Guest (12:05)

And so, you know, you get a feel for that early on. And that's kind of like, I was obsessed with that because it felt, like, very competitive, like, almost athletic, like, almost like an athlete. It's very competitive. You got to build. You got to. You got. You're kind of in control of your own destiny. And I resonated with that a lot. And so I always wanted to build my own thing. And it started in the form when you're in college and your only influx of income is whatever allowance you're allowed to have at that time or whatever you ask your parents, like, hey, can I get a little bit in my account? I needed to buy food or whatever, Chipotle real quick. And I had all this, like, birthday money put aside. And my partner, who at the time, like, it was so funny, we sat down and kind of like an area like this, like a. Like a lounge area at, um. And I was like, I'd seen bro, to be honest, I'd seen this brand called Entrepreneur, and they took all the vowels out. And I was like, yo, this seems relatively easy to do. What can we. You know, like, let me start a clothing brand. What does it take? So I came in one day, and I was literally, I'm the type of person who thinks about things a lot, and then I'll voice it to certain people that I trust. And my best friend was sitting kind of just like where you're sitting. And I brought up the idea of confidence. I was like, we'll do confident. Take the vowels off, and we'll just promote, like, a positive lifestyle. A positive meaning, a being confident in who you are. And kind of like we talked about before we started the podcast, like, kind of being where your feet are, like, appreciating that moment and working towards what you want to create. And that was kind of like the meaning behind confident. And, you know, I sat here, I told him the idea, and he didn't say anything. I was like, okay, maybe he doesn't mess with it. And I kind of, like, in my own head, maybe was like, ah, maybe it was not that cool of an idea. And I get home, and he sends me, like, three different designs. Literally sends me a message of, like, three different designs. Hey, this is what I was thinking. This is before you could go on chat GPT, right? Which a lot of the viewers now, it's like super easy to go on chat GPT, create me a T shirt.

Host (13:46)

Five logos in 10 minutes, five logos.

Guest (13:48)

And, you know, you have an assistant working for you full time. But at that time, he was like, literally had built three, four different designs. And I was like, now I'm seeing like a vision of my head actually come to reality. And, you know, I went to everybody I knew and, you know, maybe it was an ego thing, but the one person I probably should have approached was my father. And I didn't approach him about the business thing. I went to, like, I went to this guy I knew who built the gym. I went and asked him, how do you start an llc? How do you do all this thing? Because I was like, I don't want to ask for any favors or this. That I kind of want to build this on my own. And. And that's literally what I did, man. I went in, I literally probably have it on my phone now. The notes of, like, how to start a business, which is you need an llc, you need like a tax. You need like a tax id, a tax id, you need the, you know, resale certificate and all that type of stuff. And literally, like went top to bottom, hit everything. We, we ran into Dime Life, which is pretty prominent in Miami. People know about that brand. We ran into the owner at UM, which is like, I guess the beauty of college and its reality is its networking ability is how close you are to people of all walks of life, especially if you go to like a solid college, like a UM where you have high profile alumni that can be on campus or, you know, you just. You're able to run into so many different people from different walks of life. And he had built Dime Life. So we literally cold approached. He's sitting there with his, you know, drinking whatever he was drinking at that time. I forget what it was, but he was sitting there just relaxing, enjoying the weather. And we literally popped up on him like, hey, you know, we're big fans of Dime Life, and you know, we want to know if you could give us any tips on how to build a business. So he pointed us in the right direction, told us about Shopify. At the time, Shopify was still in its infancy. Like, now everybody uses Shopify for sure, but it was in its infancy. We had Shopify. He told us about, like, different mailing techniques, how to mail product out, different selling techniques, different marketing techniques, put us in touch with his print guy, put us in touch with his blanks. Like, he laid the whole process down literally. And you know, you think like, oh, somebody who's made it, they're not willing to share. But usually the people who've made it, they're the most willing to share. They want to bring other people up. And so he literally sat down, gave us a whole blueprint, and we ran from that point. You know, we took off, we started making shirts. And at that point, our process was more Miami related. We wanted to make stuff related to fiu, um, Miami, the.

Host (16:02)

The.

Guest (16:02)

The Heat. Me and my friend joke a lot about it because we brought the Vice shirts before the Miami Heat brought the Vice shirts and made like, Vice popular again. And we joke about that. Obviously, we were nowhere near as big to influence an organization like Miami Heat, but we like to feel that way, right?

Host (16:15)

For sure.

Guest (16:16)

And, you know, maybe they saw a post or something at some point, they're.

Host (16:19)

Like, that's pretty cool.

Guest (16:22)

So regardless, we built it that way. And then in 2018, one of our best friends passed away, which was my partner's brother as well. And that was huge. At that time, we didn't want to make because at, like, it felt meaningless. We were kind of just building shirts and promoting it for. Just to make a quick book. It didn't feel like we had a heart in it. So we obviously went through that greeting process and somewhere along the lines, we changed the whole brand to like, identify with one message, which is love always. And even if you. You see it in my bio, you'll see it in my wife's bio, you'll see it in his bio. It's like love always is kind of the theme that we've stuck with entirely for that time, right? And, and that's what we built it around was a heart that was like a little damaged. It was not fully ripped apart, but it's like a heart that's gone through some stuff, but it's staying together because that's what you can expect from, you know, when you go through life and you have all of these turmoils. It's ripped, but it's never fully ripped off. And really like that idea, we kept it because it added more meaning to it. It was about love always. We want to promote love. We did a whole marketing campaign. We went on the beach. We asked a lot of people, what does love mean to you?

Host (17:26)

I remember that.

Guest (17:27)

And we asked everybody, and everybody had like this beautiful message. It did really well. Also our largest investment to date because we had to order from China. And we found like these blanks. And my partner was a savage at this. He found the exact blanks Kith was using and literally went to the source. And, you know, at that time was our biggest investment because China Requires, was it 200 or 300 shirts at one time. And you know, we were like, this is like all of our money that we've made up until this point. We did it. And along the, along the way, like, we've had a lot of journeys. We, we, we busted a lot of missions to make one off pieces for Bad Bunny for Osuna ended up getting them in the hands. You know, it was a very cool experience. Like, through that, we got to experience a lot of cool stuff too. Like Bad Bunny, he gave us seats, like front, front row at one of his shows. And because we gave him the sweatshirt after, you know, our best friend passed away, he was actually there at the first hoodie that we gave him, which is in the back alley of a nightclub called Story at the time. And we were in the back alley waiting for him to pull up for three, four hours after his concert. And he came and we were literally there. You know, here's a hoodie for you. He took a picture with us and like, our best friend, his brother was there. He was standing with us and whatever. And you know, fast forward some time. He passed away. So the next time we decided we wanted to do it again, but we wanted to honor, you know, our friend, our brother who we lost. And he, we, funny enough, he brought us backstage, he listened to what we. Our spiel. He was like, hey, he was here with us last time we did this. We wanted to give this to you again. We, we did that two times. And he ended up giving us, you know, front, front row seats to one of his concerts. And, you know, it was before Bad Bunny was as big as he is. Obviously he's the biggest artist in the world right now. But at that time, you know, like, I've always been a fan of his and I'm continue to be a fan of his just because he, you know, he honored us with that moment. That was something that we shared at that time. Like, we felt like our ascension in the business world was kind of like his ascension in music kind of came out of nowhere, became the biggest thing on the block.

Host (19:22)

And.

Guest (19:22)

And that's something you can aspire to. Like, the same reason I kind of mess with Drake and all of these other artists that, you know, you, you have this, like, they, they promote the, you know, if you want to make a lot of money. You want to be, you know, you want the best of the best in life. And like, that's kind of the message even he portrays. And he does it from a more wholesome angle than, you know, I would say even Drake, right. He's about helping his people, lifting people up, putting, you know, a concert in Puerto Rico influence or impacting the economy, like $300 million or something like that, just from tourism that came in to do is, you know, for 60 shows. Unbelievable. Like, so I'll forever be a fan of. Of his. And, And. And so that was confident. And then slowly, you know, as we both graduated 2019, we graduated and my, like, I went in the real estate route, my partner went towards, you know, music and, And. And festivals and things like that. So confident, kind of got lost in the. In the mix there. We got, you know, kind of call it like growing up, becoming adults, finding something that we felt like would, you know, and confidence still there, but we haven't really done anything for it. So, like, if you order something, it'll still. We'll still ship it out to you and stuff like that, but it hasn't, like, we haven't really put anything. And we've debated about going back to it.

Host (20:30)

Yeah.

Guest (20:31)

Now that we're, you know, a little bit more established in what we're doing and, and putting some money more there, so who knows, maybe it'll come back. But that was our first, you know, entrepreneurial endeavor. Taught us a lot about business. And from there I went into real estate. He got his law degrees, become a. You know, he works. He works specifically for one firm that does managing artists and tour tours and stuff like that. But he does more than just being a lawyer. He's like. He's kind of like also the manager of, like, these events and stuff like that. So he's doing really cool stuff as well. And we kind of like built, you know, like this. We've established ourselves in a way now we can always revisit confident should the time absolutely, you know, call for it. So.

Host (21:07)

Yeah, and, and, you know, you go through that. I mean, the lessons that you learned in that journey. Right. Like, you know, one, you're. You're losing a brother in that process. Right. Which that in itself is tough, but it's also like you're going through trying to figure out how to run a business and like, make money and apparel stuff. Right.

Guest (21:24)

Like, I would say even today, it's the easiest business to get into, and it's the toughest business to get into because it's. You're competing with everybody. Any Joe Schmo can start a. With a laptop and Wi Fi network can start a brand, right? And there's many ways to go in about it. You don't necessarily need a physical print. There's a lot of companies that offer, like, print order, right? So it's even more hard for you to go and purchase inventory, hold inventory, because it might be better quality. But somebody else is building, like, a catchy slogan, and they're selling it within minutes of a viral moment, and it's.

Host (21:53)

Just like, boom, click, buy and sell. And that's it.

Guest (21:56)

That's it. So it's. It's the toughest thing to compete in, to build a brand in, but at the same time, like, the rewards can be fruitful because the margins are great, right? You know, if you can build it successfully, the margins are great.

Host (22:06)

100%. It's a volume play at the end of the day. So, you know, and a brand play.

Guest (22:11)

Like stage, you know what I mean? So that you build. You built this brand, and it's built on the brand. It's not built on, like, I'm trying to make. Which is why we wanted to convert Confident from like a quick, um, shirt or, like, you know, very.

Host (22:22)

But that's how it starts, right? Because you're like, I just spent $400 on buying these shirts. Oh, I got to go make a thousand.

Guest (22:28)

Now, we used to do. We used to do on March 5th, which is three or five day, we used to mark our shirts for $3 and 5 cents. And we used to have our biggest sales days. You would sell thousands and thousands of dollars because everybody wants a shirt for $3.

Host (22:39)

Yeah.

Guest (22:39)

Now, we'd mark up this. The shipping price a little bit, of course, so we can make our. Our cost and make whatever difference in the margin. And, you know, it was always, you're working on pennies on the dollar, but you're. Anything is something, you know, and that builds to the next drop, to the next drop, to the next drop. So you learn a lot about that business. And if you want to, you know, if I want to start or if somebody else wants to start, I have a breath of knowledge that I can give to them on how to, you know, build a 100%.

Host (23:04)

And I think that in itself, right, like, whether Confident comes back or not, right at the end of the day, you now, now have like, that infrastructure and that blueprint, right? To say, hey, I can help you, right? Like, maybe I, I can help you at least from Here to here. Right. And I'm gonna tell you everything that I felt, everything that I dealt with, everything that was an obstacle and a challenge along the way. But through those obstacles and challenges, now you have lessons to be able to tell. Right. And I think that in itself is so rewarding. Right. Because you, you know, you had some guidance along the way, but it wasn't like there was someone there right next to you the whole way saying, don't do this, do this, do that. You know, like, you're figuring it out as you go. And I think that's. That's the beauty of entrepreneurship. Like, you legit are figuring out as you go. Yeah, there's people always blueprints and there's books and that. But, like, there's no, like, exact recipe to all this, bro.

Guest (23:55)

You're never gonna learn. Entrepreneurship is very point blank, period. Which I recommend. If you're going to college and you get an entrepreneurship degree, like, you might as well just like, college is such an interesting. Like, I know we've gotten a degree and it's very. It feels very hypocritical to say this, but unless you're in college to become a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, where you need certain certifications to actually go to college, it's really not worth it.

Host (24:14)

Yeah.

Guest (24:15)

Because you're spending all you. If you have a scholarship, it's a different story. But don't go to college. Try to figure out what you want to do. I think I recommend that, like, that's not a good, like, profit loss analysis. If you can make.

Host (24:26)

Like, it's just like, there's no ROI on that.

Guest (24:29)

Exactly. There's no. The return on investment is very, very slim versus you just sitting in your room for a weekend and just like mapping out a year of what you want to try. Probably be cheaper than spending right. X amount. Your parents spending X amount, or you spending X amount to go to college and then figuring it out, especially in today's day and age where AI could build something in a matter of minutes, even literally build you a plan in a matter of minutes.

Host (24:50)

100.

Guest (24:51)

Yeah. I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Like, tell me things to figure it out. It'll literally give you an exercise.

Host (24:55)

It's so good, bro.

Guest (24:56)

It's amazing. As long as you prompt it the right way. Like, you have to phrase it like, hey, pretend you're a life strategist or a business counselor. And, and, and I'm coming to you for advice. You have 15 years of experience. Like, you got to kind of fluff it up, right. So you can get the value from AI, because AI is like a tool, but unless you give it the right recipe, it's going to give you absolutely the wrong answer. So, you know, that's, that's like, it's such an easy time for you to build something from nothing.

Host (25:20)

Yeah. I think Gary, I saw a clip from Gary Vee the other day, and he was like, he's like, I spent. Was it. How much time was it? He's like, I had a conversation with Chad GBT for like six hours. And. But like, you can, like, it's like, you want to go to a business coach, you want to go to a life coach, you want to go to a therapist. You know, I'm not saying to replace those things with Chad gbt, but it's a great foundational piece to do it. And like you said, like, if you layer it the right way and you utilize it to the capacities that it.

Guest (25:49)

Can even, even it's intelligence replacing therapists or any of them, but a lot of people don't have access to that either. The barrier, the price of entry is very high.

Host (25:57)

So true. So true.

Guest (25:58)

So if you can initially get yourself out of a rut or whatever the case may be through chat gbt, to where you get to a point, let me hire a business counselor, let me hire a, A therapist or whatever the case may be, like, it'll help you get there at least.

Host (26:10)

And then ask it like, yo, provide me the resources that I can use so that whatever you're giving me, I can go. And There's a million YouTube videos and a million, you know, websites and different tools that are out there that, to your point, are a fraction of the cost that, like, it's not accessible for everyone at the end of the day. And that's a whole other topic in itself, because those things should be more accessible to people. Right. Like we talk about, of course, you're talking about college and education and all that and not knocking college at all, because there are a lot of those resources available. And universities do a good job for providing therapy on site. Right. So, like, there's infrastructures there, but at the end of the day, it's like, how can we make the right tools as accessible as possible for people so that they know where to find them and how to use them at the, at the full capacity.

Guest (26:54)

Yeah. 100.

Host (26:56)

So now, you know, now talk to me a little bit about, like, life now. Right? I know you had the pizza spot. Yeah, real estate. Yeah, real estate. You've been in the whole real estate game. So talk to me about that.

Guest (27:08)

So I think around 2017 as a family we went to a little bit after I started confident, we went to a seminar because, and this is not my story to share, but I'll share it briefly. My father used to do short sales and foreclosures fix and flips at that time. And around 2016, 2015, 2016, like it kind of slowed down. It wasn't as crazy as it was in 0809 when everybody was kind of, you know, selling their stuff for really cheap and you're fixing, flipping it for a lot more. So you know, we, we had to figure it out as a family of like what, what the next direction is going to be. And we went to this seminar. It was free. It's always free like for like a weekend seminar, right? Like they'll do like a Saturday. Hey, we're doing a. Now nowadays it's webinars and lives or whatever. It's like free, live free webinar. But really we went there, sat in a hotel like ballroom with like 35 other people and they were, they were pitching basically rementor, which was real estate investing on multifamily commercial centers. Things of that, how to underwrite this. And third, obviously on a day seminar they don't give you any other recipe. They try to pitch the three day paid seminar that you can go to and you can learn. And so we kind of went to the three day and then from the three day we went to like a week long one which was like underwriting and all of the basic principles of like finding a deal, finding investors, all that type of stuff. And 2017, I'm still in college so the only help I could give was basically underwriting a bunch of different deals. And that's kind of how like I got my start was underwriting different deals, seeing if it makes sense. Because you learn this like it's almost like a script. You kind of learn the numbers you're looking for. You kind of learn like, you know, what you, what you want it to look like, what you don't want it to look like. And then that's kind of what got me started. So I was doing a lot of the deals, underwriting a lot of the deals. And then 2019 comes, I graduate, I'm still trying to pursue basketball full time. My dad's like, look, go for it. But you got to kind of figure it out when it comes to training and stuff like that. So we got to, you know, you got to find your. Your way. And I was like, you know what? Say less.

Host (28:59)

Yeah.

Guest (29:00)

And so obviously graduated May, I think I locked down my first deal, got an alloy under contract in July, closed in November. And so that kind of set me off. It was a 32 unit in Tallahassee. Wow. And, you know, just seems like a pretty big beginning. But like, I felt like I'd been around real estate for so long, it felt like kind of small.

Host (29:19)

Yeah.

Guest (29:20)

My dad and my older cousin had been doing it for, for many years before that, up until that point. So they were always good resources to have. And I feel like I'm very fortunate to have started at that point. A lot of people start with no help, no mentors, nothing. And so obviously I feel like I got like the upper hand on that. But at the end of the day, you're. You're equal to the work you put in yourself. Right. So the amount of work that I put in to get that deal done and then slowly moving forward, fast forward to now looking at like 900 something doors. And, you know, we're in a place now we're trying to get, you know, refinance, get investors out and try to either sell or hold the deal. And. And it's kind of like that's kind of the place that I'm in in terms of real estate. Somewhere along the way, 2020, it's. It's still yet to be considered whether that was a great move or a bad move. But we ended up getting into a pizza business. It was called Marco's Pizza. Some of you may have heard of it. A lot of people still, they're more familiar with the Papa John's, the, the Dominoes, the Pizza Huts. But Marcos is on the come up, I feel like, as a brand. And we got into that in late 2022. So we started, I believe, December 29, 2022. My grandmother was the first order. Which is funny. This is a funny story. Like, we were, we've been getting calls all week before we opened about like, you guys open yet? Trying to order some pizza. You guys open yet? We're like, no, we haven't gotten our co yet. We haven't gotten, you know, we're not ready to open. And funny enough, we had this order come in literally 30 minutes before we opened. And we had to call him because we wanted our grandmother to be the first order. So we called him like, hey, like, we're still not open yet. Even though we were. Yeah, we're like, we're not open yet. Like, please call again. In like 40 minutes. So they're like, all right, cool bet. But like you got an order coming. But that was like a really difficult decision to make because you're like, do you lose this customer right now right here?

Host (30:57)

There's no guarantee. Come back, he wants pizza. He doesn't want pizza in 40 minutes. So.

Guest (31:02)

So we called them. Thankfully, they were very understanding. My grandmother came through the door, placed this very large order, paid in cash. The dollar bill is still in that store right now. And you know, thankfully, that other order and then an influx of orders came. Many orders came after that. So, you know, thankfully we started that. Now we're in the process of getting out of it. We got a new buyer going through, you know, the last few details before we sell it. But it was definitely an enjoyable journey. I think. I recommend to everybody that whether you can. Obviously nobody's going to start out and go buy a pizza or a restaurant.

Host (31:34)

Yeah.

Guest (31:35)

But either work in a restaurant or be a part of like some type of service based, hospitality based business helps in terms of like just perspective and being in the real world and appreciating, you know, people who work and do that type of work. Because you know, there's so many times you go, go to a place and they mess up your order and you're like, man, like, couldn't they figure this simple thing out right? Until you're behind the scenes, right? Whether you're working it or you're actually, you know, owning it and you're, you're seeing like what little things can go wrong to cause big things to go wrong. All of a sudden the person complaining, they don't understand that like the cash register hasn't been working for the past 30 minutes because of whatever reason. And you know, the order taker took one thing down wrong and they sent you a pineapple pizza instead of a mushroom pizza or whatever the case may be. Right. So you learn these things when you're actually behind the scenes and you know, you get. And I feel like everybody should operate this way from the beginning. I always try to give grace to everybody regardless of any situation. But you know, you get definitely more gratitude and perspective for people when you are out and about. Somebody might mess up or something might happen. It's just we're all human, right?

Host (32:39)

100.

Guest (32:39)

There's no reason for people to throw a big fit and, and create a scene just because somebody might have not gotten the right information. A lot of times before the person comes out and gives you the food. There's three, four people who've like it's like a telephone game, right? One person says this, this, and all of a sudden like the person delivering it to you has no idea what the original order was because they're just handing it out. So, you know, you learn a lot in that, in that business and, and, and in terms of just being service based and you know, providing value creating, you know. There was a story, brief story that I can give on our journey. Somebody ended up, it ended up being a local review. We had no idea, right? You go above and beyond for people without what they can give you in return. They brought their kid in, it was like 10, 15 people, kind of last minute came in, they're like, hey, we have this large order, it's actually our son's 10th birthday. And like in that moment, I'm like, this is so beautiful that they're spending this kid's 10th birthday pictures that they'll take here that'll last the kid a lifetime. Because you look back on this moment, let's make it especially. They didn't have a cake. They didn't have, you know, they didn't know. They're like, hey, you guys got any desserts or anything? Like, hey, we got like a chocolate brownie is the closest thing we can give to a cake, right? And so we, we put that order in, put the brownie on the house. They didn't even know about it. They were like. Because they, they were unsure whether they wanted to spend the money on a dessert or whatnot. They got enough amount of pizza for the 10 people there, quickly threw the brownie in the thing. I ran out, I got my car, drove to the nearest dollar store, got a candle, got a, got a lighter. I believe we had a lighter or had to get a lighter. One of the situations I don't remember clearly now, came in, basically presented it to them. They came, they sang, we all sang Happy Birthday for the little kid. It's a random story. It must have been like a Thursday, middle of the day. Like the kid was probably enjoying his day off from school, you know, with, or whatever. And they were celebrating his 10th birthday, which I think is like a milestone. You're hitting a double digits, like you're excited 100%. So we wanted to make that moment special for him. And like after that they, they wrote like this long review on our, you know, Google reviews. And, and they said like, the owners are so cool. And they went out, out, out, out, like above and beyond what we had expectations and, and you know, we recommend eating here. And they put up A picture of the. The, you know, brownie and all that stuff. So, like, that. Those types of things, like, I feel very grateful, absolutely, to be a part of and take part of and provide some value. So, you know, those things, like, they. They stick with you.

Host (34:49)

Absolutely. It's crazy, right? Because, like, we talk about, like, being a good person and, you know, doing good in the world, right? And it's like little simple things like that, right? You drove to the Dollar General, cost you $2 to go get a candle, and you made, you know, this kid's day and the family's day, right? Like, and. And you never know what people are going through, right? And I. I think that's. That's something that I always, like, you know, keep, like, in the back of my head. Right. Like, today I was driving over here. I had some tunes on. Weather's Nice.

Guest (35:17)

Weather's super nice. Windows down.

Host (35:19)

Yeah, literally, windows down. Blasted some tunes. I don't even, Like, I found, like, this playlist. It wasn't even in English. It was, like, Japanese, but it was like, Japanese vibes are good. Vibes were high, bro. I'm like, this is. This is awesome right now. So I'm there just in traffic, bumper to bumper. I live, like, three miles away, but in the morning down here, it's like, bumper to bumper, right? So I'm there chilling, and I'm just hearing all these horns being honked, and. And I'm like, in my head, I'm just like, I don't know what's going on.

Guest (35:49)

It's.

Host (35:49)

It's eight in the morning. Like, I hope, like, this isn't, like, the testament of, like, how your day goes. Like, I don't know what's going on in your life. I don't know what's going on. Like, no one's life's perfect. That's so crazy.

Guest (35:59)

Bring that up, bro. Because, like, a lot of people would let. And there was a famous quote on Instagram or whatever that they said, like, would. Would. If somebody ever stole 10, like, $10 from you and you had 86, 400, would you spend all of the 86,400 to get the $10 back? No. Yeah, but a lot of people lose 10 seconds of their day, whether that be through car traffic or, you know, like, road rage or whatever the case may be. Maybe somebody said something and it ruins their entire 86, 400 seconds that you get.

Host (36:27)

Exactly. You don't realize that that 10 seconds is gonna impact the rest of them.

Guest (36:30)

And because a lot of people. And this goes into Mindset. And a lot of people aren't disciplined in the way of their environment. They let the environment control them rather than them being in control of their environment.

Host (36:41)

Exactly.

Guest (36:41)

Getting up on time to have a morning routine to set your tone, like, this is how I want to approach the day. This is how like, you know, Tony Robbins gives this story about how like they did a study where they brought somebody like a cup, whether it was warm coffee or cold coffee, and then 10 seconds later they came with like the same paragraph for everybody. And they, you had to tell whether the person was, you know, a genuine warm soul or like cold hearted and snaky. And the people who were handed something cold said the person was, I think the numbers were like 80% of the people were handed something cold, said the person was sneaky. And, and cold people were handed a hot coffee was like 86% said that the person was warm, genuine, and versus like the 14 12% that said he was sneaky. So like these things prime your mindset. Even though it was like 10 minutes apart. Like, you don't realize the things that prime your, that condition your day. And so it's true unless you take control of that moment. But again, like a lot of times, even in that moment, we don't know what those people are going through. Somebody could be dealing with a divorce. Somebody could be dealing with, you know, a loss of a loved one and life's just going, you know, at the wall. So like 100. A lot of times you just learned, you know, you, you send prayer and blessing, like you said, like, I hope today doesn't go this way for you. Like, you send that love to them and, you know, you move on with your day and you don't let it affect you.

Host (37:54)

Right.

Guest (37:54)

It's easier said than done. Everybody has their moments. Of course I'm human.

Host (37:57)

Yeah.

Guest (37:58)

I've been involved in your road rage.

Host (38:01)

There's no reason to, to say like, don't get upset, don't get upset or don't get frustrated. Like we're nor it's normal, human, normal emotions. Right.

Guest (38:07)

But as long as you don't let that control you for too long because a lot of people will let that road rage moment turn into a bad night, a bad day.

Host (38:14)

Take it home with you.

Guest (38:15)

Take it home with you. You put it out on your kids or your, your significant other or whatever the case may be. And that's where things spiral. But I forgot what we were, we were going with originally with the story. You said you were driving here.

Host (38:26)

Yeah. No, and I mean it's just a concept of, like, you know, the reality is, like, things are going to get thrown at you, right? And it's like, you know, kind of like going back to your story of. Of at the pizza shop and bringing, like, the candle. It's like that whole compassion and kindness goes a long way because you don't know how much that little effort and that little energy that you put into that. Because reality is. It wasn't like this insane gesture, but it is an insane gesture at the end because.

Guest (38:51)

Because at the same time, you could just be like, hey, we, you know, we got a brownie. Oh, you guys don't want the brownie? All right, fine. Like, you know. Exactly. Here's the pizza. Happy birthday.

Host (38:58)

Yeah. And it's like, you know, just that little effort, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just.

Guest (39:02)

That's the normal reaction. But at the end of the day, when you go a little bit above and beyond, like, it does. It doesn't hurt me to go down the street two minutes away, go to the Dollar General, get a candle, get a lighter, come back, light the candle 100%. I want this kid to have a special moment because in my perspective is like, they chose my store to be the location where they want to celebrate the 10th birthday. And a lot of people may not look at it that way. They may look at it like, oh, they could have, you know, could have picked it or whatever. They. It's just the 10th birthday. Or people can downplay it, however. But in that moment, to me, it was like, how can I provide the most value to them? Because now, I mean, who knows? I haven't done the metrics. I haven't looked back and seen how many times they've ordered from our store again. But what ends up happening is these people treated me nice. I'm gonna try and come back and put more people on.

Host (39:46)

Absolutely.

Guest (39:46)

And because you. And we don't. I tell people, don't. Don't do kindness with some expectation in return. But usually what ends up happening is you get 10x back when you are a good person.

Host (39:57)

So karma is a real thing. Good or bad, right? And good or bad, right? Like, you put bad energy out, you're gonna get bad energy. You put good energy out, you're gonna get good energy. Like, it's just. It's just how the law. Law of physics, you know, it's true. It's absolutely science. And I. I think the world would be a better place. I think. I know the world would be a better place. If we could just find moments to do, like, little acts of kindness, like, the, the smallest things go such a long way. And you see, you know, obviously, like, like we talked about it a little bit with, like, the news and politics and all this stuff. And it's like, I think we've almost forgot, like, at a surface level, like, what humanity is really all about.

Guest (40:38)

Don't even get me started on this. You know, a lot of times it's not being kind to somebody else outside of your house. Sometimes the people in your house, oh my God.

Host (40:45)

I mean, that's where it should begin. Like, you can't expect to be kind to a stranger if you can't even be kind to the people that live.

Guest (40:49)

In your own life. It's like when people are like, oh, and I have a billion dollars. I'll give a hundred million away, right? It's like, if you can't give a dollar out of $10, don't expect to give 100 million out of a billion, right? That's not going to happen.

Host (40:59)

Absolutely not going to happen.

Guest (41:00)

You're not wired that way. So it's when you can give, when you have nothing else to expect. There's so many times, man, even in college, when I didn't have, like, the money to worry about, like gas or food, where I gave that dollar to somebody else who may have needed it or they were, you know, they're asking for help and they're at the whims end, and you just, you have to help. Like, you're their source of help. And you're like, you know what? Here, 100, you know, the amount of times where I might have been hungry and you go to a gas station, you see somebody sitting there, and they're, they're, they're homeless or whatever situation life has presented them with, and you go inside and you buy them something when you necessarily don't have the money for your own lunch. You know what I mean? But you, you're still, you have to look at it like you're helping somebody else out in a moment of need where they may not. Like, at least you can figure it out, right? Like, I could have at that point called my parents, hey, like, I need 10 bucks for, for lunch.

Host (41:48)

It just shows, like, you know, what your problems are at the time, you know, not necessarily as big, you know, and not. And it's not to make a comparison as, like, my problems are bigger than yours or yours are lesser than mine. Exactly. But it's realizing, like, what you really are, like, worried about or you Know whether that's financially or health wise. Like, it's like, there's always a solution to it, right? And you. You look back probably at that moment, right? It's like, damn, I don't really have much to give, but I'm going to choose to give either way. Here you are, you know, five, 10 years later, and you're like. Like, I'm good. Like, everything's fine, you know? And you're still giving to this day, bro.

Guest (42:22)

It'll be. And it'll be like, my. It'll surprise my wife at times, because we'll pull up to I love Taco Bell. There'll be times where, you know, the whole family wants Taco Bell. And the order is like, 80, $90. And you're, you know, three, four cars behind are like, yo, this guy's taking forever. Like, the order's not coming out.

Host (42:36)

Yeah.

Guest (42:36)

I'll be like, all right, what are. What's the order for the next two cars? Or whatever the case.

Host (42:40)

I love that concept.

Guest (42:40)

And, you know, and. And you take care of that, and you move forward and. And if they are cursing you out, let's say somebody's, like, on the horn, like, yo, get your order. Leave. Like. Like, yeah, at that moment, they'll get that, and they'll be like, it'll be a. A shift.

Host (42:51)

Yeah.

Guest (42:51)

They're like, oh.

Host (42:52)

They're like, damn. I was honking at this guy.

Guest (42:55)

Just hooked it up.

Host (42:56)

Yeah.

Guest (42:56)

You know what I mean?

Host (42:57)

Yeah.

Guest (42:57)

And then I'm not looking at for that from that perspective. Like, I never try to, like, turn the car and, like, look to see whether they notice. Like, I paid for the order. I'm done. Like, it's my kindness, and I want to give to people.

Host (43:06)

Yeah.

Guest (43:06)

There was a moment, God rest his souls, and, like, somebody who was working for us, he ended up passing away. But at the time, he was down on his luck. His kids weren't in his life much. Older gentlemen, like, I always feel very sad when I see older people, like, still trying to make ends meet. He was, like, two, three months behind on his car payment. I paid the car note. You know, don't, you know, worry about that. Like, focus on this. He was dealing with some other family issues, some health issues, and, you know, when you're in a position to do more, I feel like you should do more and give more and be more. And it may not necessarily be like, I'm sending 20 grand to charity of my choice or sending this amount of money to, you know, and you're flexing to Everybody else. These are things you don't tell people.

Host (43:43)

Right.

Guest (43:44)

But you do.

Host (43:46)

Exactly.

Guest (43:47)

Somebody's life. Yes. 100 especially somebody that, you know, you know it's going to make a drastic input on, you know, whatever they may be going through. 100 and you know, it's just being a, a good person. Like you mentioned about health, bro. Like, a lot of us are dealing with problems that aren't real.

Host (44:01)

Yeah.

Guest (44:01)

They're not real. Like the per. A successful rich or, you know, healthy person has a thousand dreams, but an unhealthy person only has one dream.

Host (44:09)

Yeah.

Guest (44:09)

They just want to be healthy.

Host (44:10)

Exactly. What is everything else worth if you're not healthy?

Guest (44:14)

Exactly. And you're. You're not. Like, we look at basic problems. Oh. Like, you know, you'll see on Instagram and it's so flawed because you look at Instagram and you look at other people's problems. Well, they'll be talking about like, how the server didn't give them the right matcha that they wanted. Or, you know, it's just the craziest. Or I'm at like, there's this drama going on on TikTok right now about like, um, micro influencers. She wasn't posted in the top three of the micro influencers on campus. She made like a long rant about it. And I'm literally looking at this video. I'm like, yo, like, you're so priorities fucked up. You're like, and I feel for the next generation because at least we got to grow up where social media wasn't as big.

Host (44:48)

Yeah.

Guest (44:49)

Imagine going through high school now.

Host (44:50)

No.

Guest (44:51)

With social media being a prevalence now. Like, God forbid, you're not even the cool kid. You don't even have followers.

Host (44:56)

Like, bro, no, no, no. There's like, what's that show on Netflix? God damn. Black. Black Mirror.

Guest (45:03)

I think so.

Host (45:03)

Yeah, yeah. Black Mirror.

Guest (45:04)

The one that's like satirical to like the extreme.

Host (45:06)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And every episode's not necessarily connected to each other and they're all their own thing, but there's an episode and it's strictly based off of like your. Your worth is essentially identified by like your, your ranking. Right. And how many people follow you and like, and like you and all that stuff. And like, your worth is like that. But the people that are like, highest ranked and like the wealthy people and all this stuff are all these people that like, are just doing stuff for the likes because they know that their self worth is attached to that. Then there's the people that are like, like the poor People, the nobodies. Right. That are like, maybe the truck driver, that he's not really like going out there for the likes. Yeah, but he's like the good person. He's like the regular guy. He's. He's taking care of his family. He's not trying to be this fake person. And not to say that everybody's like that. And that's how, you know, the, the Persona of social media is. But that is kind of like what is evolved through the evolution of social media, where it's like you are tied to what people see you online. Right. And, and it's like you people have got so focused on it. Like the example of a micro influencer worried about not making a certain ranking, where it's like, if you're worried about that, your priorities are all messed up. Right. And I think as, like, as a.

Guest (46:22)

Humanity, I think a lot of people. And not knocking that influencer, but like, of course they're. They're so privileged to the point where they don't know their privilege.

Host (46:31)

Yes.

Guest (46:32)

And they're realizing like, these minor things are like, humongous in their life because they've never been rejected. They never had to deal with failure or they've never had to like, put themselves out there and not go well because of whatever, you know, whatever they post, whether the way they look or if they're, you know, I think everybody who's gained some following, they deserve it because they have something that. The Internet response, of course.

Host (46:54)

Yeah.

Guest (46:54)

Whether that be looks, whether that be the amount of work they put in their fitness, whether that be they built a business, whether they, you know, and whatever. Like, like. And even, even the people who are scamming the followers. Right. Like, more, More power to you. That's your hustle. I don't get it, but that's your hustle. But you got to understand that those aren't. That's not reality. The reality is there's people that are failing to make ends meet on a daily basis. There are people that. The last thing that they're worrying about is how many followers they have because they gotta figure out, like, how to get. How to pay for rent the next month or, you know, how to make gas and the credit card bill. So, bro, it's like to worry about something like that, like, you really are completely out of touch of like, what people are actually going through. And this is what people are going through in America. Like, if you just take America out, we are the 1%.

Host (47:37)

Yeah.

Guest (47:38)

At the bottom. Bottom. Bottom person in America is the 1%.

Host (47:41)

Yep.

Guest (47:41)

You go to other countries, people are living on two, three dollars a day.

Host (47:44)

Exactly.

Guest (47:45)

Exactly a day.

Host (47:46)

Yeah.

Guest (47:46)

It's crazy.

Host (47:47)

It's a perspective shift. Right. Like, you know, and I don't think the more you connect with like the outside worlds essentially and really kind of look at the grand scheme of things, like, you really realize, like, we're blessed. Like we're so blessed. And you could. There's obviously tears to all of this, but in the grand scheme of like this universe, like we are blessed to one, be here and two, to live the lives that we have. Like to your point, there's people that are waking up without a roof over their head. There's people waking up just trying to literally survive. Right. Like on a day to day basis. And here we are complaining about like, this guy cut me off in traffic. You know, like it. When you look at the whole scheme of all of this and I, and I think it's important to do that like as, as a, as a society is look at the whole scheme because like, usually what we're complaining about is not really worth it because, like, I.

Guest (48:38)

Mean, like, I forget who it was. I think it was Dean Grazios. He brought up like the whole traffic, the road race thing. Like if I spend my whole day worrying about this person cutting me off in traffic, my problems are really small.

Host (48:48)

Yeah.

Guest (48:49)

That means I haven't built a business big enough. I haven't built, you know, big enough.

Host (48:53)

To where those are the things you're worrying about.

Guest (48:54)

Exactly. Right. If I'm spending my whole day worried or not even whole day or hour or whatever, on the fact that somebody cut me off and how can I piss that person off? Would that be cutting them off again? Like you're worried about something way too. You don't have you, you haven't expanded yourself absolutely. To a point where you have problems that are bigger than that. And I think like when you're building something or you're trying to achieve the unachievable, like, that will always be at your forefront rather than like, who cut you off.

Host (49:18)

Yeah.

Guest (49:18)

These are so such small things in the grand scheme of life. And you're trying to build like an empire state rankilo. If you want that to be like worldwide, a household name, you're not worried about like, yo, somebody cut me off, or you know, somebody cussed me out. It's the last of your worries.

Host (49:32)

Yeah.

Guest (49:32)

You know what I mean? I'm not saying take disrespect, but at the same time, like, you know, don't let that bother you to the point where, yeah, that's revolving around your day's revolving around that 100.

Host (49:40)

You know, it goes, it goes back to that whole energy thing. Like where you put your energy is where you're going to get that return. If you're putting your energy into something like that, your day is probably not going to be a good day, right? But if you're putting it into worrying about things that are like, meaningful and impactful, you're going to see the results of that, you know, that the fruit be bared from that, from that energy you're putting in. Well, before we kind of wrap it up, I know, you know, confident, right? Is like, was a, was a big theme, like of your life, you know, of this conversation. What, what does it mean to be confident?

Guest (50:09)

It o. That's a great question. And it's funny you mentioned that because just yesterday I was looking at a tik tok where somebody was talking about just a guy on New York who asked people, hey, you look really confident.

Host (50:18)

Like, what do you, you know, what.

Guest (50:20)

Does it mean to be like, what makes you confident? I literally, in my mind, I was running. If I, I was in New York, I ran into this guy. What my answer be? So I kind of have something prepared. I think it's when you do the things you say you're going to do, I think that's confidence and that comes from a level of preparation, comes from a level of discipline. It comes from doing the little things that you've already told yourself that you're going to do. Because if you don't, don't do that. Your mind will self check you when you say, when you make big claims, right? Oh, I'm gonna build this. But your mind's like, yo, you said you were gonna make your bed, but you haven't made your bed four out of the seven times this week. Like, what's going on here? That those little things. So like when, when somebody's like, how do I become more confidence? Just doing the things you say you're gonna do. You're gonna work out at 5am, get up and work out at 5am because that will build the resources that you need for your mind to tell you you are who you say you are. And that's, you know, Drake has this like, I am who I say I'm like a lot of people, we say a lot of big things, but we don't necessarily enact right those things. And that's where the disconnect happens. And whether we like to believe it, we can Fake it only for so long. At some point, your actions, your disciplines, your words, something's going to tell you you're not who you say you are. And the only way to do that is if you actually put in the work that you've promised yourself that you've told yourself you're going to do. Whether that be waking up early, whether that be working out every day, whether I be eating the right foods. That's literally looking at that. You know, there's so many times I've done a 21 day fast where I've had to go into meetings or networking events and you're sitting or not a 21 day fast, but it's a detox. You're kind of on a strict diet where you've gone into places like, I'll tell you this, went to Rocco's Tacos. I love their chips. Their chips are gas. The chips came right in front of me, sat right in front of me the whole three hours we were there for dinner and I didn't touch them. Because that's you setting that discipline of like, this is what I told myself I was going to do. I'm going to do the 21 days without cheating. That's it. Yeah. Because if I break that, then let's say a few months later I decided to do the 21 day fast again. Your mind's gonna be like, you didn't do this the last time. What makes you think you're gonna, you're.

Host (52:14)

Not able to build that, like, you know, that confidence essentially because you told yourself you were going to do something and you're not acting through it. And, and I think it's like, it's a, it's a cliche saying, but you know, actions do speak louder than words. Right. Anybody can do. Or, you know, you could be on.

Guest (52:29)

Your phone all day telling you you're gonna do this, that, and the third, and.

Host (52:31)

But if you don't follow those words with those actions, it's gonna be impossible to build that confidence. Yeah.

Guest (52:36)

And it comes with preparation. I think when you're prepared to do the work, that's where confidence comes from. A lot of people, like somebody said, this was really profound. I resonated with when I was doing, you know, whether that be presenting a project or something in class, where it's like, if you feel like you're not prepared for a class presentation means you, or, sorry, you don't feel confident enough to speak in front of the class without like looking down at notes or reading, that means you haven't prepared Enough. That means you don't know the material preparation, you're just reciting it. So unless you, you need. If you know the material, you. And I think back about it, I'm like, yeah, like if I knew what I was talking about in, I don't know, economics class, and I'm in front, I'm presenting a project. If I knew exactly what I was talking about.

Host (53:13)

Yeah.

Guest (53:13)

I don't need notes, I don't need to worry about whether, how the presentation is going to go because I'm gonna get up there, I'm gonna speak like I know what I'm talking about.

Host (53:20)

Well, yep.

Guest (53:21)

And that's how, like, that's, I think the, the greatest definition of confidence. Doing the work that you told yourself you were going to do.

Host (53:27)

Yeah.

Guest (53:27)

And doing it.

Host (53:28)

Yeah. No facts. I mean, and I think a perfect kind of like analogy and all this, like. Yeah, I always like sports as like analogy. In this, right. Where those guys are prepping seven days out of the week for that one game, but they're also prepping months before to get their body right, to get their mind right. You know, everything.

Guest (53:44)

Recovery has to be on point, the sleep has to be on point, point the mind.

Host (53:46)

And they wouldn't be confident if they're not doing those things right. If they're not in the gym and they're not reading the playbook and they're not watching film and they're not doing all those things. You're going to go into that game and be like, dude, I don't know if I'm going to play well today.

Guest (53:58)

I think a lot of it also has to do with like self. What is it called? Self development when it comes from reading books, reading audiobooks, putting yourself in that environment rather than, you know, we love music. I'm not saying music is bad, but a lot of times if you're. All you're listening to is music, especially I'm at a stage now. We just talked about this off podcast too. We hit 30 the stage now, like where if I'm driving someplace, like I'm putting a book on or I'm putting a podcast on or I'm putting. I'm listening to somebody. Even on the way here, I was listening to, I think it was like a short 30 minute video about like 15 or 20 tips from billionaires. There's a guy school of hard knocks. Yeah. He, he goes around asking people like, what did you do? How'd you make your money? And it was a 20 minute. And he was just giving the tips that he Got from, like, different billionaires. And those are the things that started for me very young age. My dad used to drop me off at high school. High school was like 40 minutes away. He'd put on Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Secret how to Become, like the Millionaire Mindsets or Millionaire Secrets and Tony Robbins and, you know, a bunch of different books where at the beginning, I'm like, I'm just trying to, like, trying to listen to music before I get to school. Like, I would like, fake falling asleep so you could change it. And you'd be like, nah, get up. It's my car. You're listening to this.

Host (55:04)

Wow.

Guest (55:04)

And before you realize it, you start to resonate with what you're listening to. You get in front of class, you're all of a sudden, you're walking to school, your chest a little bit higher, your head's a little bit more in the sk guy. You know what I mean? You're. You're thinking about, like, self development. You're thinking about how to better yourself. You're thinking about how you can be better. And as long as that part doesn't change when you have a wife, when you have kids, when you have other responsibilities, as long as that's like the mentality that you. You constantly still focus on your self development, your self growth, I think you. The sky's the limit. Not even the limit. There's no limit. Like, you could just go. You could take it anyway.

Host (55:38)

I gotta feed the brain with good.

Guest (55:40)

Feed the brain with good.

Host (55:41)

Amen to that.

Guest (55:41)

Amen to that, bro. Yes.

Host (55:45)

Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Enjoyed the conversation, and I think there's so much more that we could do, so. But no, I appreciate it, bro. Again, like, long overdue. And I. And I enjoyed the conversation, and I hope everybody did as well.

Guest (56:00)

It's an honor to be here. Hopefully people got something out of this. And, you know, I'll be back anytime you want me to, bro.

Host (56:07)

Yes, sir.

Guest (56:08)

That's it.

Host (56:08)

We'll make it happen.

Guest (56:09)

Need a filler podcast on there. Not to seem too available. All good. But no jokes aside. Like, there's. There's so much we can, you know, so much value you're giving to people just by bringing people on and sharing people's secrets, bro. Everybody's got something that they can learn from.

Host (56:22)

Absolutely.

Guest (56:23)

And I think that's a great approach to have. You can learn something from the janitor, you can learn something from the CEO.

Host (56:26)

It's amen.

Guest (56:27)

You know, everybody brings value. Fifth grader, you learn something from a kid. I have Nieces and nephews that are little kids. I learned from them every single day. Day.

Host (56:33)

Exactly.

Guest (56:34)

And it's like they're speaking from God because they're saying things that they don't even realize. Like. Like, it's.

Host (56:38)

It's like, why don't you believe in yourself?

Guest (56:39)

You know what I mean? You're like, you're right. Why don't I. Am I doubting myself?

Host (56:42)

So simple.

Guest (56:43)

So simple.

Host (56:45)

I mean, it is fascinating. Like the mind of a child. Right. Like, I always think about that. It's like they're so innocent. Like, they're not filtered by, like, the world or anything like that. So it's like. Gotta almost like tap into that energy.

Guest (56:56)

I always think, like, old people, elderly people and. And kids.

Host (56:59)

Yes.

Guest (57:00)

When they speak, I feel like it's God speaking through them. And not to be exaggerated or whatever.

Host (57:04)

But I. I believe, like, points.

Guest (57:06)

And you'll be like, I don't know why I didn't think of that. You know what I mean? There was something I was sharing. I was like, I don't know if I could do that. And my little nephew was like, how do you think you can't do that? And he looks up to me, right? Like, he thinks I'm the coolest person ever. So, like, for him, it was, like, devastating. He's like, this person thinks he can't do something.

Host (57:22)

No, don't think like that.

Guest (57:23)

Literally.

Host (57:24)

That's amazing.

Guest (57:25)

That's awesome.

Host (57:26)

I love it, bro. Appreciate it again and appreciate you having. We'll run it back soon.

Guest (57:30)

Yes, sir.

Host (57:30)

Yes, sir. All right, guys, peace.