WEBVTT - Legally Pay Less in Crypto Taxes! 0:00:00.150 --> 0:00:04.380 Imagine paying only 4% taxes to the government for your 0:00:04.380 --> 0:00:09.330 business income. And now imagine paying zero capital gains taxes 0:00:09.330 --> 0:00:13.180 for all of your crypto gains. Well, I don't imagine it. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:17.580 I live it legally. Sir Laura Travis is super busy today. 0:00:17.579 --> 0:00:20.340 So you've got me and my guest, Devin Michaels, here 0:00:20.340 --> 0:00:23.700 to discuss how the tax situation that I mentioned is 0:00:23.700 --> 0:00:27.479 real life and how you can surround yourself with high 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.540 performers that may help set you up for a very 0:00:30.540 --> 0:00:35.070 profitable future by joining us on the high seas. Ya 0:00:35.070 --> 0:00:38.159 sound exciting. Ahoy, matey. Come along with us on this 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:44.850 ride for episode number 693. Of the Bad crypto podcast. 0:00:44.860 --> 0:00:45.370 Five. 0:00:45.729 --> 0:00:58.800 Four, three, two, one, zero. Listen, who's bad? I. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.209 Welcome to the crypto podcast, Sir Joel. I'm here with you. 0:01:17.209 --> 0:01:21.709 Travis is getting ready to do some globetrotting and he's 0:01:21.709 --> 0:01:24.110 got a lot of stuff to do. He's very busy 0:01:24.110 --> 0:01:27.380 right now and so I'm rolling solo today, but not 0:01:27.380 --> 0:01:30.560 truly because I've got a guest with me. He's an 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.740 old friend, and we're just going to jump right into 0:01:33.740 --> 0:01:36.560 the interview because there's two things that I want you 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.130 to walk away with as you listen. Number one, how 0:01:40.130 --> 0:01:44.750 to pay less taxes legally and not just crypto taxes, 0:01:44.750 --> 0:01:49.850 but any type of gains taxes on your stock portfolio, 0:01:49.850 --> 0:01:55.610 taxes on your precious metals gains, crypto and more. And 0:01:55.610 --> 0:01:58.430 I want to invite you to come along with us 0:01:58.430 --> 0:02:02.060 on a vacation on the high seas. You're going to 0:02:02.060 --> 0:02:08.370 love this. Let's listen in. As you know, sir, Lord 0:02:08.370 --> 0:02:12.239 Travis and myself have been living in Puerto Rico now 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:17.549 for over two years. It's it's been really interesting, meeting 0:02:17.550 --> 0:02:21.810 ton of incredible people. But one of the gentlemen who 0:02:21.810 --> 0:02:26.910 is responsible for me being here is an old friend. 0:02:26.940 --> 0:02:30.570 His name is Devin Michaels. Devin's an entrepreneur. He's a 0:02:30.570 --> 0:02:36.990 crypto guy. And he was on episode number 382 of 0:02:36.990 --> 0:02:40.590 this podcast a little more than three years ago. But 0:02:40.590 --> 0:02:42.720 you might not know it because he was on the 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.710 same show as Dr. Ron Paul. Doctor Paul, of course, 0:02:46.710 --> 0:02:49.680 was the headliner. And then there was like, Oh, also 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.010 Devin and I wanted to give him the spotlight today 0:02:53.010 --> 0:02:55.200 because we've got a lot of really interesting things to 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.650 talk about. Devin Michaels Welcome back to the Republic of 0:02:58.650 --> 0:03:00.000 Bad Cryptopia sir. 0:03:00.510 --> 0:03:04.410 Mr. Joel, my dear friend of almost 15 years. It's 0:03:04.410 --> 0:03:05.670 great to be here with you, Mika. 0:03:06.030 --> 0:03:08.040 I think it might be longer than that. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:08.970 I think it might be too. 0:03:08.970 --> 0:03:13.470 If we had met around 2007. It's, it's 16 years now. 0:03:13.470 --> 0:03:14.040 Yeah. Yeah. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:15.929 We just taken it your way from me. 0:03:16.139 --> 0:03:19.260 Sorry about that. We just celebrated the 15th year of one, two, 0:03:19.260 --> 0:03:22.290 three employee. I was shooting a commemorative video for our employees. 0:03:22.290 --> 0:03:24.960 So that's 15 years there. Wow. 0:03:25.139 --> 0:03:29.369 And for those of you watching the video version on YouTube, 0:03:29.370 --> 0:03:33.270 Rumble or Odyssey, that is a real background. Devin lives 0:03:33.389 --> 0:03:36.720 really a big stone's throw away from me right on 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.410 the harbor here in Palmas, Del Mar. And it's a 0:03:40.410 --> 0:03:43.230 beautiful day. It's a hot day. But you know, it's 0:03:43.230 --> 0:03:46.710 mind boggling to me is here we are closer than 0:03:46.710 --> 0:03:50.040 the rest of the states to the equator, and they've 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.400 been having a worse heat wave than we've been having. 0:03:53.410 --> 0:03:56.100 Yeah, not too bad here. Not too bad. Nice breeze. 0:03:56.340 --> 0:03:59.610 Beautiful Paradise all year long. Yeah. 0:03:59.610 --> 0:04:02.190 So for those of you that really want to go 0:04:02.190 --> 0:04:07.320 deep on the Puerto Rico connection and the tax benefits, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.320 I recommend you go back to the episode we recorded 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:15.240 three years ago. It's bad cosine forward slash 382. We'll 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:18.090 have that in the show notes for this particular episode 0:04:18.089 --> 0:04:21.270 as well. But I want to touch on it, Devin, 0:04:21.270 --> 0:04:24.960 before we get into some other things today, including we're 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:26.400 going to be talking about. So you guys want to 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.480 stay tuned for this and interesting opportunity to go on 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:34.770 a cruise with us in April. That's a little teaser 0:04:34.770 --> 0:04:39.510 for you. Let's let's start out with the the overarching 0:04:39.510 --> 0:04:44.910 benefits of why Americans are moving to Puerto Rico. 0:04:44.910 --> 0:04:48.719 Yeah, absolutely. So Puerto Rico is a territory. And if 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.020 you are a US citizen and you jump through the 0:04:52.020 --> 0:04:55.200 legal hoops and you make Puerto Rico your legal home, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.599 in other words, you live here at least half the year, 0:04:57.630 --> 0:05:02.520 then you essentially pay almost no tax. So we pay 4% 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:08.370 federal income tax. We pay 0% capital gains, we pay 0% 0:05:08.370 --> 0:05:12.000 in dividends. And it is truly a game changer. A 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.520 dear friend of both yours and mine and neighbor of 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.330 so many years, John Lee Dumas, who is an unbelievably 0:05:18.330 --> 0:05:23.490 successful podcaster, always says, I work 4% of the year 0:05:23.490 --> 0:05:26.490 for the federal government and 96% of the rest of 0:05:26.490 --> 0:05:28.109 the year for myself, he said. He works the first 0:05:28.110 --> 0:05:29.729 couple of weeks of the year for the government and 0:05:29.730 --> 0:05:33.690 then that's it. And that's that's a big game changer. 0:05:33.690 --> 0:05:37.440 So we lived in LA where we were paying between, 0:05:37.950 --> 0:05:41.640 you know, corporate and federal and state, and I think 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.580 I was paying about 63% in taxes and it was 0:05:44.580 --> 0:05:49.140 just absolutely ridiculous. And so we first moved to Vegas, 0:05:49.140 --> 0:05:50.910 got rid of the state tax, and then eventually moved 0:05:50.910 --> 0:05:53.520 here and got rid of most of it. But there's 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:58.289 so many more benefits, too. So, for example, one of 0:05:58.290 --> 0:06:00.270 the greatest benefits is is deal flow. And you were 0:06:00.270 --> 0:06:03.120 talking about that a few minutes ago, the amazing people 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:04.950 you meet here because you got to be a mover 0:06:04.950 --> 0:06:08.159 and shaker to to do this. You know, you have 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:09.990 a tax situation, right? You need to save money. You're 0:06:09.990 --> 0:06:13.320 doing well in addition to that, to to pick up 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.160 and move to a territory, you have to be a pioneer, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.270 which you are such a pioneer. And you and I 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.580 both have that pioneering spirit, as does everybody over here. 0:06:23.580 --> 0:06:26.820 And then what happens is you have to spend at 0:06:26.820 --> 0:06:30.000 least a half a year in Paradise. It just sucks, right? 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.150 I mean, look, look at this. It's just that's so hard, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.340 you know? So it's gorgeous here all year long. There's 0:06:35.339 --> 0:06:39.390 great food, great people. And the actual people who live 0:06:39.390 --> 0:06:41.909 in Puerto Rico, actual Puerto Ricans are some of the 0:06:41.910 --> 0:06:44.640 loveliest people in in the world. They will just give 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.430 the shirt off their back for you. They are so nice, 0:06:47.430 --> 0:06:49.979 so wonderful. And I'll give you an example. You just 0:06:49.980 --> 0:06:51.900 walk down the street and people are saying, good day 0:06:51.900 --> 0:06:54.030 to you. Good day, good day, good day. Well, we leave. 0:06:54.029 --> 0:06:56.430 We travel and and people aren't speaking to us like 0:06:56.430 --> 0:06:58.589 saying like greeting us on the street. We're like, gosh, 0:06:58.589 --> 0:07:00.990 you know, you get used to this, right? And then 0:07:00.990 --> 0:07:03.120 we greet people and they look at us like we're crazy. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:08.029 But there's also a lot more benefits than. Just tax benefits. So. 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.140 So the way all this works is, as Puerto Rico 0:07:12.140 --> 0:07:16.310 is a territory, they have their own tax authority. And 0:07:16.310 --> 0:07:19.280 it's not the IRS, it's Hacienda. And so if you're 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.350 a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, that's who you're 0:07:21.350 --> 0:07:23.870 paying your taxes to. You're letting the IRS know what 0:07:23.870 --> 0:07:28.370 you're up to, but you're paying Hacienda, and there's all 0:07:28.370 --> 0:07:30.890 these other programs that are available, too. They used to 0:07:30.890 --> 0:07:32.630 be a whole bunch of different acts. They've now put 0:07:32.630 --> 0:07:35.300 them under an umbrella called Act 60. When Joel and 0:07:35.300 --> 0:07:37.430 I got into this, it was called Act 2022, and 0:07:37.430 --> 0:07:39.800 we were just two of those acts. But now Act 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.760 60 brings them all together. And just to give you 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.400 some examples of some of these acts, I have a 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.420 car that is a plug in hybrid. It only gets 0:07:50.420 --> 0:07:54.560 19 miles on a charge. Okay? It's just it's just 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.650 a token thing. But because it has a plug, I 0:07:57.650 --> 0:08:00.410 was able to import it here tax free and save 30% 0:08:00.410 --> 0:08:06.170 in taxes. There's an entertainment tax here. My cousin Danny 0:08:06.170 --> 0:08:10.010 was just here shooting a pilot for Amazon. She got 0:08:10.010 --> 0:08:13.640 a 40% tax break of which you can cash in 0:08:13.670 --> 0:08:17.120 that tax break at 97 to 90 to $0.99 on 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.090 the dollar. So it's essentially cash back. There is a 0:08:20.090 --> 0:08:23.270 hospitality credit. If you have like an Airbnb that has 0:08:23.270 --> 0:08:27.080 at least I think it's 7 or 8 beds and baths, 0:08:27.710 --> 0:08:32.540 you get 40% back over four years. Many of you 0:08:32.540 --> 0:08:35.300 who might live in the US might be familiar with 0:08:35.300 --> 0:08:40.250 opportunity zones where you get amazing tax benefits, while 98% 0:08:40.250 --> 0:08:43.970 of this entire island is an opportunity zone. And this 0:08:43.970 --> 0:08:46.040 list just goes on and on. I learn about all 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.829 these new incentives every day, and I don't know all 0:08:48.830 --> 0:08:50.630 of them. But in a few minutes, we're going to 0:08:50.630 --> 0:08:53.059 talk about one way that I'm going to both you 0:08:53.059 --> 0:08:54.350 and I are going to learn all about them. And 0:08:54.350 --> 0:08:57.109 by the way, Joel, my guess is you don't know 0:08:57.110 --> 0:08:58.160 about all of them either. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:02.150 No, I don't. I know you know XD that's that's 0:09:02.150 --> 0:09:04.220 what I'm here on and you know what you say 0:09:04.220 --> 0:09:07.130 is so true. I came for the tax breaks and 0:09:07.130 --> 0:09:09.740 I did have friends already. I knew you and I 0:09:09.740 --> 0:09:15.710 knew Jld and had visited. In fact, I think that we. 0:09:15.710 --> 0:09:18.650 You're recording the last time you were on the show 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.460 was when I first visited you in February 2020. The 0:09:22.460 --> 0:09:25.309 episode came out the the following month and we were 0:09:25.309 --> 0:09:29.240 going to move to that May and then Covid hit 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.240 and everything became more complicated and we put it off 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.690 for another year. But I'm really glad that I pulled 0:09:35.690 --> 0:09:39.620 the trigger when I did. I came for the tax breaks, 0:09:39.620 --> 0:09:45.500 but I'm staying for the community. I have never in 0:09:45.500 --> 0:09:49.220 my life and I'm approaching 60 ever being in a 0:09:49.220 --> 0:09:55.700 community like this of high performers, of creative people, of 0:09:55.700 --> 0:10:00.230 good hearted people. And you have everything in where we 0:10:00.230 --> 0:10:04.520 live in Palmas Del Mar, from thousand heirs to billionaires 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.160 and from hanging out with people. You wouldn't know the 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.679 difference of who you're hanging out with because it seems 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.160 like the egos are largely checked at the gate and 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.550 people were all here kind of for the same reasons. Yeah, 0:10:16.550 --> 0:10:18.290 it's a yeah for sure. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.360 Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, it's like kind of a 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.760 flip flop and t shirt community, right? So how are 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:24.199 you going to be flexing? You know what I mean? 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.440 So it's nice. It's nice. People do check their egos 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:28.579 at the door. I think for the most. 0:10:28.580 --> 0:10:31.490 Part, there's all of these groups that we're in and 0:10:31.490 --> 0:10:34.490 signal and what's happened. There's always something going on. You know, 0:10:34.490 --> 0:10:37.699 I've become a pickleball enthusiast since I've moved here. Aaron 0:10:37.700 --> 0:10:41.600 is a big golf enthusiast. And, you know, we we 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:44.270 live on the golf course. So Holes five and six 0:10:44.270 --> 0:10:47.420 of the Palms course are right behind our condo and 0:10:47.420 --> 0:10:50.330 the beach is right outside the door. And so it's 0:10:50.330 --> 0:10:54.589 just there's always something to do. Yeah, we're going somewhere tonight. 0:10:54.590 --> 0:10:56.570 Are you are you joining us tonight? What's going. 0:10:56.570 --> 0:10:57.170 On tonight? 0:10:57.170 --> 0:10:59.600 I don't know. I have to ask Aaron. All right, cool. 0:10:59.690 --> 0:11:03.140 Cool. You check with your social director. I'll check with mine. Yeah, 0:11:03.140 --> 0:11:07.130 but like you said, I've never experienced anything like it 0:11:07.130 --> 0:11:10.640 except on, like, television, Right? These little, you know, these 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.340 TV shows that take place in this little small town. 0:11:13.340 --> 0:11:16.070 Everybody knows each other, and they're all like, best homies. 0:11:16.070 --> 0:11:18.770 But I've never experienced in real life until moving to 0:11:18.770 --> 0:11:19.580 Puerto Rico. 0:11:19.580 --> 0:11:21.410 I think part of it is, you know, when you're 0:11:21.410 --> 0:11:25.459 in the city, like we came from Denver to orchestrate 0:11:25.460 --> 0:11:30.110 somebody's calendar with yours in multiple couples calendars, you get together, 0:11:30.110 --> 0:11:32.989 it's a big deal. It's an event here. There's so 0:11:32.990 --> 0:11:35.720 many people and so many friendly people that it's like, Hey, 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:37.400 what are you doing for dinner tonight? Hey, we're having, 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.100 you know, karaoke at our place this weekend. We're going 0:11:40.100 --> 0:11:42.950 to the Beach Club on Sunday. And and people just 0:11:42.950 --> 0:11:46.069 continue to get together to the point where we have 0:11:46.070 --> 0:11:52.400 now had two since we've been here, vacations with groups 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.699 of people from here. So we basically just pack up 0:11:55.700 --> 0:11:57.679 Puerto Rico and we put it on a cruise ship 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.449 and taken on the road. And we'll talk a little 0:11:59.450 --> 0:12:01.250 bit more about that here soon. By the. 0:12:01.250 --> 0:12:04.309 Way, are you going to Rusty's root beer float party. 0:12:04.309 --> 0:12:05.730 Tomorrow? Yes, I am going. 0:12:06.580 --> 0:12:09.209 To hit that, too. But we have another party. Simultaneously. 0:12:09.210 --> 0:12:11.860 So we're going to be jumping back and forth. Yeah. 0:12:12.059 --> 0:12:15.810 So let's you know, we kind of hit on the 0:12:15.809 --> 0:12:18.600 governmental programs, the things that are available here. And we'll 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.490 try and find a website for you guys that has 0:12:20.490 --> 0:12:23.819 all of the different acts so that you can take 0:12:23.820 --> 0:12:26.100 a look at those. Let's talk a little bit about 0:12:26.100 --> 0:12:29.429 some of the services on the island and the things 0:12:29.429 --> 0:12:30.990 that people are working on. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.800 Yeah. So what's interesting is, well, okay, so let me 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:39.060 start with my own personal experience. So I always I 0:12:39.059 --> 0:12:40.709 felt that when we came here, we were going to 0:12:40.710 --> 0:12:45.090 approach this as we are a guest in this territory. 0:12:45.210 --> 0:12:48.270 And and so I don't, you know, try to push 0:12:48.270 --> 0:12:53.069 my opinions or agenda on anybody. And my goal was 0:12:53.070 --> 0:12:56.190 to make this place a better place than when I 0:12:56.190 --> 0:12:58.140 got here, right. To to make a difference and make 0:12:58.140 --> 0:13:01.830 an impact. And I like, I kind of an impact junkie. 0:13:01.830 --> 0:13:03.870 So I really like that. And a lot of people 0:13:03.870 --> 0:13:06.809 are doing the same thing here. And, you know, you 0:13:06.809 --> 0:13:08.610 can you could actually come here and say, I'm not 0:13:08.610 --> 0:13:09.809 going to do any of that. I don't want to 0:13:09.809 --> 0:13:11.430 have any impact. I'm just going to do my time 0:13:11.429 --> 0:13:12.900 and so on and so forth. And you would still 0:13:12.900 --> 0:13:15.120 impact the economy because you'd hire a ton of people 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:16.590 to help you with a bunch of different stuff and 0:13:16.590 --> 0:13:20.429 you put a lot of money into the economy. And 0:13:20.700 --> 0:13:24.750 so I'm involved in a lot of projects here. One 0:13:24.750 --> 0:13:29.069 of my favorites is I am a member of Partnership 0:13:29.070 --> 0:13:31.709 for Modern Puerto Rico, which is the think tank that 0:13:31.710 --> 0:13:36.310 was created by Alberto Barco, who's the former secretary of 0:13:36.330 --> 0:13:41.040 commerce to Puerto Rico. And he actually, if you came 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.770 in on our program, Act 20, 22, several years ago, 0:13:43.770 --> 0:13:45.570 he would have signed the decree because it was he 0:13:45.570 --> 0:13:48.960 and his regime, if you will, that that ushered in 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:53.189 Act 2022. And it has had such a huge impact 0:13:53.190 --> 0:13:56.790 on the on this island. So many things are happening. 0:13:56.790 --> 0:13:58.439 I'll give you an example. In this enclave that we 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.410 all live in, there has not been new development here 0:14:01.410 --> 0:14:04.410 in two decades, in 20 years, because it was overbuilt 0:14:04.410 --> 0:14:09.320 in the heyday prior to 2008. Now there's new construction here. Um, 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.569 and people are benefiting. One of the things that is 0:14:12.570 --> 0:14:15.870 included in the Act 60 program, not in my decree, 0:14:15.870 --> 0:14:19.560 but in the current decree is that you have to 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:21.690 buy a property within two years. So you can come here, 0:14:21.690 --> 0:14:23.400 you can rent a place, you can check it out, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.230 see if you like it, but eventually you have to 0:14:25.230 --> 0:14:27.920 buy something that is so great for the economy. You know, 0:14:27.930 --> 0:14:32.220 it's fantastic. You can see it. You can see things 0:14:32.220 --> 0:14:35.700 changing here and you can see that there's a lot 0:14:35.700 --> 0:14:38.430 of collaboration between, you know, people that grew up in 0:14:38.430 --> 0:14:43.260 Puerto Rico and us transplants. And it's pretty cool to 0:14:43.260 --> 0:14:46.470 to see it in real time. Um, I happen to 0:14:46.470 --> 0:14:50.760 be involved with several charitable projects. We gave 1500 toys 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:55.110 to the orphans last year. Um, and I'm working on 0:14:55.110 --> 0:14:56.580 something really cool. Matter of fact, I think we should 0:14:56.580 --> 0:14:59.820 talk about this. So. Yeah, I think it's making news. 0:14:59.820 --> 0:15:00.239 Here we go. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.210 For the big reveal. What's up? So we moved to 0:15:03.210 --> 0:15:07.140 Puerto Rico five years ago, five months after Maria. We first. 0:15:07.380 --> 0:15:09.210 And if you don't know what Maria was, it was 0:15:09.210 --> 0:15:11.790 a once in a hundred year hurricane. There's such a 0:15:11.790 --> 0:15:14.880 thing as a Cat six. That's what hit Puerto Rico. 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:16.680 As a matter of fact, when it came onshore, it 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.130 came onshore right here, right here in Palmas, Del Mar, 0:15:20.130 --> 0:15:24.240 right behind me, 210 mile an hour winds. Unbelievable. And 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.480 it was it was devastating for Puerto Rico. It was interesting, though. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.140 I was in a meeting yesterday with Alberto and Luis Lumba, 0:15:31.260 --> 0:15:34.680 and we were talking and they said, you know, one 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.020 great thing about Maria is they put us on the 0:15:37.020 --> 0:15:41.040 global map. People didn't know about Puerto Rico until Maria. Now, 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.050 a lot of people think that Puerto Rico still doesn't 0:15:43.050 --> 0:15:44.970 have power and it was knocked out by Maria and 0:15:44.970 --> 0:15:47.670 that that's not the case at all. But I guess 0:15:47.670 --> 0:15:51.210 it did draw attention to to Maria. So our two 0:15:51.210 --> 0:15:54.000 Puerto Rico excuse me. So anyways, when I moved here, 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.470 nobody was here. The lights were out. Um, and I 0:15:58.470 --> 0:16:03.030 started a little cigar club. Um, and later it just 0:16:03.030 --> 0:16:05.460 became a social club. We, you know, cigars were kind 0:16:05.460 --> 0:16:08.290 of optional. Um, and we would have maybe 5 or 0:16:08.290 --> 0:16:10.920 6 people that would show up and we do them 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.700 once a month. Fast forward five years later, we have 0:16:14.700 --> 0:16:17.370 almost a thousand people in the San Juan Social Club 0:16:17.370 --> 0:16:20.580 and we do events once a month, a curated locations 0:16:20.580 --> 0:16:23.490 across the island. And my whole vision for that, it 0:16:23.490 --> 0:16:26.310 was not complex at all. It was basically I wanted 0:16:26.310 --> 0:16:29.610 to bring Puerto Ricans together with transplants, people like us, 0:16:29.610 --> 0:16:32.100 and just to to have cocktails and break bread and 0:16:32.100 --> 0:16:33.780 get to know each other and have a dialogue and 0:16:33.780 --> 0:16:36.690 have fun. And I'll tell you, I would like to 0:16:36.690 --> 0:16:39.570 take full credit for that inspiration. But actually it was 0:16:39.570 --> 0:16:43.080 somebody else's. So we used to live in LA and 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.150 I used to have this friend, Brian and Brian had 0:16:45.150 --> 0:16:47.470 this networking group and I think it was called like 0:16:47.490 --> 0:16:50.820 Networking at Night or After Dark or something like that. 0:16:50.820 --> 0:16:53.250 It was like a happy hour, a thing. And he 0:16:53.250 --> 0:16:56.640 would really build this as this serious networking group. And 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:58.560 we used to make fun of him because what it 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.810 really was, was a bunch of young professionals getting together 0:17:00.900 --> 0:17:03.870 to like hook up. I mean, but it was super successful. 0:17:03.870 --> 0:17:05.730 It was like he would he put it in nightclubs 0:17:05.730 --> 0:17:08.730 and he'd pack them out and it was great. And 0:17:08.730 --> 0:17:11.190 we would just poo poo on him. But he was 0:17:11.190 --> 0:17:16.050 one smart cookie. And. And fast forward decades later, he 0:17:16.050 --> 0:17:20.100 has the biggest incubator in Los Angeles that was born 0:17:20.100 --> 0:17:23.430 out of that. And so so I just started doing 0:17:23.430 --> 0:17:25.890 these events. I didn't charge for him. It's just, you know, 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.490 fun getting people together, knowing that, you know, it would 0:17:29.490 --> 0:17:32.129 it would create some cool stuff on the island. So anyways, 0:17:32.820 --> 0:17:34.050 you know, now we get a lot of people that 0:17:34.050 --> 0:17:37.139 show up to the events and it's super awesome. And 0:17:37.140 --> 0:17:39.629 I had another inspiration that I can't take credit for. 0:17:39.630 --> 0:17:42.570 So Joel, as you know, for the last decade, I've 0:17:42.570 --> 0:17:45.149 spoken on a cruise called The Marketer's Cruise. You never 0:17:45.150 --> 0:17:47.580 came along, right? Never try to get you right. Okay. 0:17:47.580 --> 0:17:50.220 So the marketers Cruise is all the top marketers from 0:17:50.220 --> 0:17:51.780 all over the world. They get together on a cruise 0:17:51.780 --> 0:17:53.760 once a year, about 450 of us. And I would 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.520 speak on that cruise every year. And the byproduct of 0:17:56.550 --> 0:17:58.770 that was three things. One, I made a lot of 0:17:58.770 --> 0:18:02.220 money from the deals that I made to all these 0:18:02.220 --> 0:18:05.430 joint ventures I did with a global audience. They went 0:18:05.430 --> 0:18:08.580 back to their respective countries and they were thought leaders 0:18:08.580 --> 0:18:10.620 in those countries and they spread my word and kind 0:18:10.619 --> 0:18:13.290 of made me a global brand in my space. And 0:18:13.290 --> 0:18:17.040 then lastly, now it's a decade later. There's not much 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.350 money for me to be made. I'm already doing business 0:18:19.350 --> 0:18:21.780 with all of these people. There's a little fresh blood 0:18:21.780 --> 0:18:23.790 every year, but that's about it. But now we just 0:18:23.790 --> 0:18:26.190 go every year because now our best friends are there 0:18:26.190 --> 0:18:28.109 and we know that if we didn't take the cruise, 0:18:28.109 --> 0:18:31.500 we wouldn't see them. And that's what happens when you 0:18:31.500 --> 0:18:35.699 have time with people. Time equals depth. The more time 0:18:35.700 --> 0:18:37.380 you spend with somebody, the more you get to know them, 0:18:37.380 --> 0:18:39.570 the more money you can make with them, the deeper 0:18:39.570 --> 0:18:43.170 your friendship and bond becomes. And so I always wanted 0:18:43.170 --> 0:18:45.270 to do a cruise. But five years ago, as soon 0:18:45.270 --> 0:18:46.710 as I got to Puerto Rico, I had the idea. 0:18:46.710 --> 0:18:50.280 But the timing wasn't right. Now, five years later, we 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.850 are launching the San Juan Social Club cruise. 0:18:53.850 --> 0:18:56.010 Remind me the URL, I'm going to go and pull 0:18:56.010 --> 0:18:57.149 it up so we can show it. 0:18:57.150 --> 0:19:02.340 Yes. If you go San Juan. Social Cruise. Com. San 0:19:02.340 --> 0:19:11.040 Juan Social Cruise. Yep. And so the idea behind the 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.890 San Juan Social Club cruise. It's for residents of Puerto 0:19:13.890 --> 0:19:17.129 Rico and people that are interested in Puerto Rico that 0:19:17.130 --> 0:19:20.790 want to network, make friends and learn about all of 0:19:21.270 --> 0:19:27.180 Puerto Rico's amazing resources, benefits and opportunities and those resources, 0:19:27.180 --> 0:19:29.940 benefits and opportunities. I kind of put it into three buckets. 0:19:29.940 --> 0:19:32.310 One is governmental, which is a lot of the stuff 0:19:32.310 --> 0:19:36.780 that we talked about today. Two is all the cool 0:19:36.780 --> 0:19:38.910 stuff that guys like you and I are doing all 0:19:38.910 --> 0:19:41.940 over the island. Things from like investments to like renewable 0:19:41.940 --> 0:19:45.750 projects to you name it. And then lastly services, all 0:19:45.750 --> 0:19:48.899 the different services that are offered on the islands, banking services, 0:19:48.900 --> 0:19:54.149 accounting services, hospitality, different services like that. And so we 0:19:54.150 --> 0:19:57.810 set sail April 13th of next year. We announced it 0:19:57.810 --> 0:20:00.870 three weeks ago. We've already had 150 people register and 0:20:00.869 --> 0:20:03.060 it looks like we're going to cap it at 300. 0:20:03.060 --> 0:20:05.490 I don't want to, but they don't have enough room 0:20:05.790 --> 0:20:07.830 on the boat. They don't have an event space big 0:20:07.830 --> 0:20:09.600 enough for us. So I think we're going to cap 0:20:09.690 --> 0:20:14.070 it at 300. We are on virgin virgins. Brilliant lady, 0:20:14.070 --> 0:20:17.340 which is not even in the ocean yet, right? They 0:20:17.340 --> 0:20:19.530 drop it in December and then Joel and I and 0:20:19.530 --> 0:20:21.600 a few friends are going to go test it out 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.649 in February. And then in April we do the big cruise. 0:20:25.650 --> 0:20:28.470 So we'll be on Virgin's brilliant lady. If you're not, 0:20:28.470 --> 0:20:31.230 I mean, you've probably heard about Virgin Cruises, but you 0:20:31.230 --> 0:20:33.629 may not know it's the hottest cruise line on the 0:20:33.630 --> 0:20:38.040 ocean right now. Everybody is raving about Virgin. It's all adult. 0:20:38.430 --> 0:20:40.170 It's super fun. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.070 The ship the ship just looks absolutely beautiful. I've done 0:20:44.070 --> 0:20:46.800 a lot of cruising and I feel like Richard Branson 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.800 is next level. This stuff and this boat is going 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.380 to be sparkly, brand new. And I'm excited because we 0:20:52.380 --> 0:20:55.290 leave from San Juan, which is real fun. So wherever 0:20:55.290 --> 0:20:57.510 you're coming from, you just fly into San Juan, spend 0:20:57.510 --> 0:21:00.720 the night downtown, maybe get a little early, see Old Town, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.080 San Juan, visit the fortress, right? Do a little touristy stuff, 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.240 and then we take off. We spend a whole day 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:09.899 at sea on our way to Aruba. Beautiful island. Then 0:21:09.900 --> 0:21:13.050 we bop over to Curacao. I haven't been to Curacao 0:21:13.050 --> 0:21:15.420 since I was a little boy, and I've been wanting 0:21:15.420 --> 0:21:18.030 to go back ever since then because I remember it 0:21:18.030 --> 0:21:21.500