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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today I'm very excited

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Speaker 1: we have a very special guest we've met years ago.

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Speaker 1: This is Abraham Jenkins, also known as AJ. So we

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Speaker 1: will not be referring to you as Abraham throughout the episode.

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Speaker 2: Whatever you want to call.

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Speaker 1: Me Abraham AJ. Sorry, see I'm already messing up. AJ

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Speaker 1: is the CEO of Launchpad Software. Yes, thank you, and

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Speaker 1: can you give our guests a little insight of what

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Speaker 1: launch Pad Software is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I run a technology company. We're a software

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Speaker 2: company that helps government agencies, nonprofit agencies improve the lives

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Speaker 2: of people in the community. We work with a lot

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Speaker 2: of large cities and states. Los Angeles here in LA

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Speaker 2: is one of our customers and they use our software

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Speaker 2: to help deliver job training services, employment services, homeless services,

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Speaker 2: veteran services. So we're just trying to think of a smarter,

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Speaker 2: more innovative way to get services to people in the community.

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Speaker 2: And as an entrepreneur, technology was the first and best way.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, the technical term is where a SAS company

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Speaker 2: enterprise SaaS. For those business folks out there who are

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Speaker 2: in the technology space, that's what we do. Anybody, if

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Speaker 2: you're unemployed, or if you've got a single mom out

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Speaker 2: there that maybe is housing and secure, or you have

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Speaker 2: a young guy we call them opportunity youth that's dropped

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Speaker 2: out of high school and needs some direction. There are

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Speaker 2: a lot of programs out there that these individuals can

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Speaker 2: get access to, and there's a lot of money that's

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Speaker 2: being invested in these communities, and so what we try

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Speaker 2: to do is use technology to make it easier for

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Speaker 2: these individuals to get these services, whether it's through a

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Speaker 2: mobile app, whether it's helping the nonprofits track all of

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Speaker 2: those individuals. We our software is tracking probably in the

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Speaker 2: tunes of several million individuals across the country internationally because

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Speaker 2: we have customers in the UK and Bermuda. But essentially

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Speaker 2: it's like you are falling on hard times. There is

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Speaker 2: a social safety net out there, that's social safety nets

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Speaker 2: at risk right now unfortunately, but there are billions of

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Speaker 2: dollars being invested to help you, and we want to

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Speaker 2: use technology to make it easier for people to get

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Speaker 2: access to those services.

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Speaker 1: Yes, but Launchpad, your actual client is like a nonprofit

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Speaker 1: or a government agency, right, so what services do you

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Speaker 1: provide for that agency.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So primarily we sell to government agencies, so state

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Speaker 2: and local municipalities. I mentioned the city of Los Angeles.

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Speaker 2: In fact, we have over three hundred government and nonprofit

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Speaker 2: agencies across thirty five state that use our software and

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Speaker 2: they A lot of this stuff is maybe more of

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Speaker 2: the technical and bold. But you think of companies like Oracle.

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Speaker 2: Oracle is the data base behind the Internet and now

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Speaker 2: the database behind AI. You think of Amazon Aws as

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Speaker 2: the cloud that runs all of your apps. Anytime you're

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Speaker 2: getting these services from the community, there's a there's a

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Speaker 2: cloud behind is a system behind it, and we're one

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Speaker 2: of those systems.

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Speaker 1: A cloud software applications. So you house all the data

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Speaker 1: exactly okay, perfect, So you're like the encyclopedia behind a company,

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Speaker 1: like the stuff that we don't want to see or

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Speaker 1: be a part of, but you're the organization structure behind

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Speaker 1: it exactly in the cloud technic technically speaking, it's.

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Speaker 2: We're one hundred percent in the cloud. Yes, we're one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent in the cloud. We've always been in the cloud.

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Speaker 2: We were one of the first and that's why we

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Speaker 2: were really successful. When I started the company Gosh eleven

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Speaker 2: twelve years ago, we were one of the first to

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Speaker 2: bring truly cloud SaaS software to government agencies. Now we're

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Speaker 2: bringing AI into it, right, And think of it this way.

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Speaker 2: When you go to the bank and you're want to

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Speaker 2: know how much money is in your account or what

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Speaker 2: investments you want to get, there's software that runs all

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Speaker 2: of that.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: There's a great book out there called Software Eating the World. Right,

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Speaker 2: So we're doing the same thing, but we're trying to

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Speaker 2: do it to have a social good. Right. If you

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Speaker 2: can have software that can help people with investments, get

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Speaker 2: a mortgage, buy a house, get healthcare, we want to

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Speaker 2: use the same strategy and technology to help people get

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Speaker 2: job training, get if they're housing and secure, get into

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Speaker 2: a house, get connected with grants, get job training or education.

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Speaker 2: We're doing all of.

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Speaker 1: That, but you guys catered to the companies, not the

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Speaker 1: end user, right, Yes, so I would just for listeners,

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Speaker 1: if you're in a housing deficit, you don't go on

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Speaker 1: launch Pad software to find housing. There are agencies that

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Speaker 1: support that are in business with you, and they're using

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Speaker 1: your services, not actual individuals on the street.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually, yeah, the individuals on the street are using

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Speaker 2: our software. They just don't know it. So they're logging in,

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Speaker 2: for example, like Detroit at work, the City of Detroit.

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Speaker 2: They're logging in that website. All of that's powered by

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Speaker 2: our company. Okay, yeah, so they're using it, and sometimes

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Speaker 2: we have a little thing down there. But we are

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Speaker 2: not trying to be the brand to the consumer. We

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Speaker 2: want to help empower all of these agencies that are

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Speaker 2: really it's their job to do the work. We want

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Speaker 2: to empower them. So San Francisco's a job's portal. We

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Speaker 2: log into the City of San Francisco's jobs portal, which

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Speaker 2: is free. I don't want to say a competitor to

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Speaker 2: Zip recruiter. It's an alternative. You log into SF jobs portal.

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Speaker 2: That's launch Pad. Wow.

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Speaker 1: That okay, now I have a better understanding, don't You're

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Speaker 1: like what? I just want everyone to understand fully like

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Speaker 1: what they're what Launchpad software really is, especially because, like

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Speaker 1: you said, you're not branding yourself to the naked eye,

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Speaker 1: so we really wouldn't know. But before we get into

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Speaker 1: all that, I go ahead. I can feel and sense

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Speaker 1: that oil is hot. But what are you going to

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Speaker 1: have me eating today?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so my understanding this is eating while broke yes,

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Speaker 2: thank god, I'm no longer broke, but I can remember

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Speaker 2: the days when I was starting, and so it is.

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Speaker 2: I saw a lot of people having fancy meals on

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Speaker 2: your show.

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Speaker 1: There's a handful of them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we're not gonna I'm not trying to impress

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Speaker 2: anybody with the food today because when but I think

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Speaker 2: people will definitely relate. We're gonna be doing chicken tiketos

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Speaker 2: today and we're gonna be cooking them, heating them up.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's not so much about the prep of

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Speaker 2: the food. I also want to highlight the condiments, what's

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Speaker 2: easy to grab, what's easy, and also maybe what's not

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Speaker 2: necessarily convenient, but what you had in your pantry, what

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Speaker 2: you could afford. So we got chicken tiketos these do

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Speaker 2: you want me to say where they came from? Are?

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Speaker 2: Probably not?

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Speaker 1: That's fine, yea.

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Speaker 2: So chicken tiketos gonna we're gonna cook these. And then

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Speaker 2: we've got obviously olive oil. I like to cook with

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Speaker 2: olive oil, and I do a lot of cooking at home.

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Speaker 2: But my kids will never eat this stuff. I'll give

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Speaker 2: them chicken tiktos. They want salmon, they want yeah, and

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Speaker 2: then we've got mayonnaise, so this is our sauce mayonnaise.

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Speaker 2: And then we got we're in California, we got to

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Speaker 2: have the top of to so we got top of

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Speaker 2: t O.

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Speaker 1: So it was just three ingredients. Yes, now I did

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Speaker 1: notice that you weren't making them fresh, so I take

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Speaker 1: it back in the day. They were frozen.

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Speaker 2: Also, they were frozen also, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I

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Speaker 2: was trying to understand who, when you're hustling and when

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Speaker 2: we're trying to build a business, who has time to

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Speaker 2: sit and cook. I gotta cook and I gotta go,

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Speaker 2: got to keep going. And I remember we we specifically

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Speaker 2: made these. I was living in a we had a

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Speaker 2: three bedroom house. There was five guys. This is down

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Speaker 2: in Orange County, the OC, and I was I just

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Speaker 2: got out of I got my first sales job, and

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Speaker 2: all of the guys that were living with me, my

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Speaker 2: brother was there. My brother shout out to Jeremy. He's

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Speaker 2: a college university profession now PhD in math. We we

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Speaker 2: were all just trying to hustle, so it was like, hey,

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Speaker 2: what can we buy. It's cheap. We bought the big

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Speaker 2: box at Taketo's, and all five guys would eat. We'd

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Speaker 2: take the taketos, throw them out, cook them, eat them up.

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Speaker 2: I literally we all sit down like a family meal.

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Speaker 2: We'd have the mayonnaise and the hot sauce, okay, and

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Speaker 2: we'd have I won't tell you what we're drinking, but

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Speaker 2: you know this is what we ate.

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Speaker 1: Okay. So I get started, Go ahead and get started,

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Speaker 1: because lunchtime in.

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Speaker 2: Real time, guys, it's real time. That is right. Lunch today,

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Speaker 2: that is right. And one of the things I love you.

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Speaker 2: First of all, I'm originally from Oregon, Portland, Oregon, but

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Speaker 2: I really grew up in southern California. I love Mexican food.

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Speaker 2: I love Mexican food. My team will tell you. It's

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Speaker 2: like I've always wanted tacos or tiketos.

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Speaker 1: I like flouters. I was excited because originally I thought

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Speaker 1: you got to do flous and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: I love them.

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Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm sorry, sorry, I.

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Speaker 1: Was going to learn how to make them today. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: disappoint Yeah, that'll be for another day.

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Speaker 2: Another day. I think you got to have another spin

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Speaker 2: off of eating while not eating.

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Speaker 1: I know everyone wants to do the luxury, the luxury,

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Speaker 1: you know, I should do it because I'd probably lobs

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Speaker 1: during crab all the good food.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so I'm probably putting too many in here.

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Speaker 1: No, that's good, and I'll turn the heat out, Yes

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Speaker 1: for sure. I know you already started talking about this,

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Speaker 1: about you and your four other buddies living in this house.

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Speaker 1: You said that this was when you got one of

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Speaker 1: your first sales jobs. So I take you and your

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Speaker 1: buddies weren't working on Launchpad. No, it was Launchpad even

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Speaker 1: a concept at that point.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't. No, I started my first company. So this

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Speaker 2: is my third company that I've had and sold my

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Speaker 2: first one. Second company was more of consulting. I didn't start.

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Speaker 2: I started that in two thousand and six. So this

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Speaker 2: is and I'm dating myself, but we're going back to

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Speaker 2: the nineties here. We were fresh out of high school.

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Speaker 2: Dropped out of high school. We'll get into that later.

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Speaker 2: Actually I didn't drop out. They kicked me out. I'll

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Speaker 2: make that distinction. But no, it was I was working

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Speaker 2: a So the backstory was in high school, I was

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Speaker 2: a troublemaker. Hands down. My son's here. I gotta be

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Speaker 2: careful what I say.

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Speaker 1: No, say it all.

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Speaker 2: I gotta say it all. Yeah, so I did not

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Speaker 2: have a good high school experience. I was. I grew

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Speaker 2: up in a single parent household, my mom my dad, unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: and both my parents have passed. My mom actually passed

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Speaker 2: away back in July. Yeah, you said people might cry

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Speaker 2: on this episode. That will get me going. But grew

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Speaker 2: up in a single mom household. My mom raised five

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Speaker 2: kids on her own. She was disabled. She had a

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Speaker 2: brain aneurysm, and it was undiagnosed until nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, she moved, We moved from.

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Speaker 1: What are the side effects of a brain asroom? How

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Speaker 1: she was undiagnosed for so long.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Probably the most famous person who had a brain

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Speaker 2: aneurysm that we could remember recently as doctor dre If

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Speaker 2: anybody remembers, he was rushed to the hospital a few

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Speaker 2: years ago basically was having intense pain or I don't

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Speaker 2: know the symptoms that he was experiencing, but she was.

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Speaker 1: But your mom was experiencing symptoms like pain and all

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Speaker 1: that pain while she was raising the five kids. Yes, wow, Yes,

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Speaker 1: And then your father, just a lightly touch on did

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Speaker 1: he passed when you guys were young or something?

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Speaker 2: No, my dad passed in twenty ten and my dad

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Speaker 2: was an ex football player, played for and my uncle

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Speaker 2: both played for Arizona State. They were they're both in

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Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame bart and John Jenkins, and my

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Speaker 2: dad then went both of them got drafted to the

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Speaker 2: NFL early early days. So I'd sell this is this

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Speaker 2: was leather helmet days. I'm the youngest. I'm actually I

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Speaker 2: have a blended family. I'm a mixed race for both

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Speaker 2: mixed race. Yeah, yeah, I got a blended family. And

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Speaker 2: he so he was drafted Chicago Bears and played a

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Speaker 2: couple of years and wanted to get into urban planning.

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Speaker 2: So he got his degree from Arizona State and eventually

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Speaker 2: found his way up to Oregon and met my mom

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Speaker 2: and all that. But yeah, he was around, but he

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Speaker 2: wasn't in my life type of thing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So he was around your mom was, I guess

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Speaker 1: you got they were separated from early.

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Speaker 2: On or my parents never married. They I remember probably

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Speaker 2: my dad was in the house till I was about

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Speaker 2: five years old. And my dad was a wonderful person

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Speaker 2: and just an amazing, beautiful person. I think I got

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Speaker 2: a lot of my definitely got my entrepreneurial bug from him. Okay,

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Speaker 2: and because he started different ventures and different things. And

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Speaker 2: also from both my parents, I got the passion for

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Speaker 2: help in the community because my mom, when she was

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Speaker 2: healthy actually in the sixties, marched with Seesar chabez Andelos

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Speaker 2: witha in the farm workers movement. But yeah, my parents

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Speaker 2: never married. We were grew up in Portland. In fact,

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Speaker 2: when I was born, and I was born with a

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Speaker 2: disability as well, it's nothing that was, but I was

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Speaker 2: born with what I won't get too much into it,

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Speaker 2: but it was resolved at birth. But I was in

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Speaker 2: the hospital for six months and then when I got

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Speaker 2: out of the hospital, my mom and the family we

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Speaker 2: didn't have a place to live, so we lived in

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Speaker 2: a woman's shelter up in northeast Portland for many years

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Speaker 2: or not many years, but we lived there for several months.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And I take this as before your dad was

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Speaker 1: in the NFL.

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Speaker 2: Or yeah, because I'm the youngest of okay, Yeah, so

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Speaker 2: my dad he was in the NFL in like the

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Speaker 2: early seventies, Okay, because I'm the youngest of eleven and

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Speaker 2: so yeah, my dad had.

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Speaker 1: Eleven eleven kids and then five of them with your mom.

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Speaker 2: No, two of them were with my mom. My mom

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Speaker 2: had three other kids with other marriages.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, okay, so blended, definitely blended family. Okay, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you were saying blended, I thought you meant a biracial

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Speaker 1: that too. That's what I was thinking about. Okay. So

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Speaker 1: now we have a gist of your upbringing. You say,

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Speaker 1: now in high school you are a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a challenge. Can you can do? You know where that

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Speaker 1: challenging side of you came from?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent. So I'm the stereotypical grew up

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Speaker 2: with ADHD kid, you know what I mean. I was

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Speaker 2: like getting I got kicked out of I got expelled

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Speaker 2: or kicked out of every school, kindergarten. They gave me

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Speaker 2: my own desk or office in kindergarten, like when all

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Speaker 2: the kids were playing on the jungle gym and stuff.

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Speaker 2: I had a cubicle in the kitchen at kindergarten.

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Speaker 1: And then did they know you had ADHD at the time. No,

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Speaker 1: you discovered that later.

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Speaker 2: This was the eighties. It was just he was the

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Speaker 2: bad kid, he was the troublemaker and so yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: and then in second grade they that school kicked me

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Speaker 2: out and I had to go to what was called

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Speaker 2: a farm school, and this is out in Oregon Portland,

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Speaker 2: and so it was a little more rural, rural. And

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Speaker 2: I went to a farm school for a year and

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Speaker 2: it was like we had cows and it was in

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Speaker 2: a farmhouse and these were all the quote unquote bad kids.

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Speaker 2: And went there for about a year and then I

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Speaker 2: went back to the school that I was at, and

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Speaker 2: then the family at that part started breaking apart. My

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Speaker 2: dad left I was six or seven. He was in

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Speaker 2: and out of the house, like permanently left, and my

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Speaker 2: mom at that point decided we were living pretty hand

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Speaker 2: in mouth. At that point, we were living in my

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Speaker 2: grandfather's house. But it was like an old house that

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Speaker 2: was like literally was needed to be condemned. It was

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Speaker 2: like they're going to tear this house down. So my

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Speaker 2: mom was trying to figure out, like what to do.

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Speaker 2: I know, she got a little bit of mone from

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Speaker 2: the selling of that house because her and her siblings

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Speaker 2: had owned the property and so they sold it. Got

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Speaker 2: a little bit of money from that, and with that

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Speaker 2: we lived on that for about a year. We moved

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Speaker 2: to an apartment in Lake Oswego, Oregon. If anybody my

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Speaker 2: Oregon folks out there, and I remember going to that apartment.

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Speaker 2: We had no furniture. We had one TV in the corner,

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Speaker 2: and my brother and I slept on mats on the floor.

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Speaker 2: We couldn't afford furniture. Yeah, and so yeah, that it

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Speaker 2: was for us. It was adventurous.

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Speaker 1: Your mom positioned it as we're going through a new adventure.

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Speaker 1: She didn't highlight that you guys were struggling.

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Speaker 2: We always struggled. There was no frame of reference of

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Speaker 2: not struggling. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like, oh, this

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Speaker 2: was just my mom's Hey, this is what we're doing.

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Speaker 2: We're going to move through this apartment. And what she

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Speaker 2: was doing actually, which was amazing, I'm gonna grab my

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Speaker 2: water down here, which was I think, which was a

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Speaker 2: blessing and really what I think my mom for my

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Speaker 2: mom was a scrappy Scottish woman. She was like that

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Speaker 2: time she actually worked as a computer engineer. She was

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Speaker 2: one of the first software engineers for this company called Tectronics,

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Speaker 2: and they literally told her they didn't hire women, and

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Speaker 2: she just pushed and pushed her way into this job. Paul,

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Speaker 2: while she had this brain aneurysm that was undiagnosed. Mom

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Speaker 2: found a way, you know what I mean, I really

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Speaker 2: see it as like the beginning of this California dream

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Speaker 2: for us because my mom was dealing with and I

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Speaker 2: mentioned earlier off camera. My mom passed away in July,

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Speaker 2: and she was eighty four years old, and I think

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Speaker 2: the story of her life was her bringing us out

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Speaker 2: of Oregon. Nothing wrong with Oregon. I love Orgon, it's

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00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,080
Speaker 2: my roots. But she brought us to California, and this

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Speaker 2: California dream just became a reality. We were I know

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00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:50,800
Speaker 2: she was going through depression while she was up there

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Speaker 2: taking care of us. My oldest brother was out of

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Speaker 2: the house. He was like sixteen at the time or

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Speaker 2: something on his own. My two sisters, who are half sisters,

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Speaker 2: their father was abusive, and so she left that and

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00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,320
Speaker 2: tried to get the girls, but lost the girls and

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00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,359
Speaker 2: was not able to get them my older sisters, so

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Speaker 2: they became alienated from my mom. And my older brother, Tristan,

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Speaker 2: who's an amazing guy, said to my mom, and he

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Speaker 2: said this at the funeral. He said, he calls her Gene.

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Speaker 2: He said, Gene, you've got to take care of these

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Speaker 2: other boys, these two boys that you have, me and

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Speaker 2: my brother Jeremy. And so she applied to schools all

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Speaker 2: throughout the United States to study get her master's degree

353
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:35,320
Speaker 2: and a PhD. One because she's an academic. She loved

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00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:37,960
Speaker 2: to teach. And then two she knew that it would

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Speaker 2: be a livelihood that she would be able to take

356
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:43,160
Speaker 2: care of us because she would get school loans and yeah,

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00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:45,840
Speaker 2: and we wouldn't be on the streets anymore. So she

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00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:49,560
Speaker 2: applied to three universities, or she got accepted to three

359
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Speaker 2: Texas University of Texas, Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine. Okay,

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Speaker 2: And my uncle, her brother at the time, had a business.

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Speaker 2: He was also in technology space. He had a software

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Speaker 2: company that he started in Irvine, and he said, you

363
00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:06,600
Speaker 2: need to come to Irvine. You need to come down

364
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:10,480
Speaker 2: here to Irvine. Shout out to Irvine, the IVC, Yeah,

365
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:12,000
Speaker 2: the Tech Post.

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Speaker 1: I have a cousin that went to that school.

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00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:16,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, you see, I shout out. And it was just

368
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:19,120
Speaker 2: amazing because I remember one day we packed everything up

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Speaker 2: in the back of a nineteen seventy six Volvo and

370
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:25,280
Speaker 2: did one of those small little U haul trailers. Yeah,

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00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:28,639
Speaker 2: and we're She's like, all right, we're leaving. And she

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00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,720
Speaker 2: didn't tell my dad, she didn't tell anybody. She just

373
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,320
Speaker 2: packed everything up, me and my brother, Like they said,

374
00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 2: the older the other kids are out of the house,

375
00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,399
Speaker 2: and we just drove down from Oregon, down the five,

376
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,520
Speaker 2: down the one on one, all these little scenic routes.

377
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,600
Speaker 2: I just remember driving through these little towns and stuff.

378
00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,040
Speaker 2: And I remember one time my mom saying, she's just

379
00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:49,960
Speaker 2: she's the guys, I spent all the money we have

380
00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:53,760
Speaker 2: on this. She's we're gonna make it. Wow, We're gonna

381
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:54,040
Speaker 2: make it.

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Speaker 1: Did you guys end up going to live with your

383
00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:56,680
Speaker 1: uncle at that point?

384
00:18:57,720 --> 00:18:59,680
Speaker 2: I never lived with my uncle. Oh, okay, No, I

385
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:05,040
Speaker 2: never I lived while my mom was stuff ready. Yeah, No,

386
00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:05,960
Speaker 2: she took us with her.

387
00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,200
Speaker 1: No, she took you guys. But it's Irvine. But you

388
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,160
Speaker 1: said your uncle had a company out there.

389
00:19:11,520 --> 00:19:14,280
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, I didn't go because he had a

390
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:17,280
Speaker 2: company out there in the eighties and then he sold

391
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,080
Speaker 2: it his share and then moved to San Diego.

392
00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:21,400
Speaker 1: Okay, but she came closer this way.

393
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,400
Speaker 2: I recommended coming to Irvine. He was, so they had

394
00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 2: a conversation. She came down. In fact, this earlier in

395
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,280
Speaker 2: the summer, if I recall, she came down to San Diego,

396
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,560
Speaker 2: and I went and stayed with my dad for a summer,

397
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:36,800
Speaker 2: which was an amazing It was like that's where I

398
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:38,240
Speaker 2: really started to connect with my pops.

399
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Speaker 1: Okay, but technology seems to be running fluid in your family.

400
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,679
Speaker 2: I think technology does. I come from a family of

401
00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,600
Speaker 2: builders though my construction My dad was an urban planner

402
00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:52,920
Speaker 2: development over him. When I did have time with him,

403
00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 2: we would drive around. At least I didn't go and

404
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:56,960
Speaker 2: I would drive around. He would drive me around in

405
00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:59,639
Speaker 2: his pickup truck and we'd drive around MLK Boulevard and

406
00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:01,960
Speaker 2: all and he'd have these houses that he's designing or

407
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,160
Speaker 2: building and stuff. And we had success with some things.

408
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,600
Speaker 2: He never had breakout, Yeah, multi million dollar business, but

409
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:12,880
Speaker 2: he got houses built. And what I got from my dad, Colleen,

410
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 2: was he never tried to just do it for a profit.

411
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,480
Speaker 2: He built houses. He wanted to train people. In fact,

412
00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:21,320
Speaker 2: I remember he would take me and he would go

413
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:25,680
Speaker 2: and get homeless guys and teach them the construction trade

414
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,040
Speaker 2: nice and put them on the job nice.

415
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Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah, So let's skip ahead. So you

416
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,399
Speaker 1: getting your first sales job. We skipped high school. High school,

417
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,359
Speaker 1: you were labeled, I'm guessing a problem child.

418
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,280
Speaker 2: So I not just a problem child. In high school.

419
00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:45,639
Speaker 2: I got arrested four times in one year in high school, Okay,

420
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,400
Speaker 2: and it was And I'm just saying this because I'll

421
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 2: say the message that I want to do and people

422
00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:52,960
Speaker 2: I really want to speak to are those young kids

423
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:55,520
Speaker 2: who are feel like they're on the wrong path. I

424
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 2: really want them to understand that sometimes there's a turning

425
00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:01,439
Speaker 2: point in your life. And so I got arrested four times,

426
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:03,879
Speaker 2: and I got arrested on school. That was the it

427
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:06,520
Speaker 2: for me. It was my junior year. Got into a fight,

428
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:08,639
Speaker 2: was running with I would say I was running with

429
00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:10,320
Speaker 2: the right crowd for sure. These are guys that I

430
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:12,720
Speaker 2: still hang out with today. But because we were black

431
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:16,000
Speaker 2: and brown, we were in a community that didn't look

432
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 2: we didn't look like that Irvine. They and I got

433
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 2: into a fight and the teacher tried to break it up,

434
00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:25,600
Speaker 2: and the teacher claimed I punched him, and I don't

435
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:27,200
Speaker 2: recall doing that, but I'm just going to say I

436
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,720
Speaker 2: didn't do the right thing. Yeah, And so we left,

437
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:33,080
Speaker 2: all of us just scattered. I came back to the

438
00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:36,280
Speaker 2: school and the principal pulled me into the office and said, hey,

439
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:37,560
Speaker 2: we just want you to wait. We want to find

440
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:40,360
Speaker 2: out what's going on? They didn't. They called my mom,

441
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 2: but they didn't let my mom see me. And I

442
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 2: waited till the end of school to get out, right

443
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:49,680
Speaker 2: until the bell rang. The bell rang, police officers walked in,

444
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:54,520
Speaker 2: handcuffed me, purp walked me in front of the entire school,

445
00:21:55,119 --> 00:21:58,440
Speaker 2: my girlfriend at the time, my friends, they were just shocked.

446
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 2: And I got arrested. That was like my fourth arrest,

447
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,200
Speaker 2: I don't remember. And they I had like a literally

448
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 2: like a hearing at the school. It was a I

449
00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 2: don't know what you call it, like a court case,

450
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 2: and they said you're expelled from high school. And I

451
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,919
Speaker 2: was sixteen years old, and I'm like, what the heck? Like,

452
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 2: I didn't want to leave high school. Yeah, I was

453
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,959
Speaker 2: a terrible student. I didn't study. I was d's and f's,

454
00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 2: but I didn't want to leave. Yeah, So I got

455
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,199
Speaker 2: expelled and they, fortunately my mom at the time and

456
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 2: some other guidance people, I got put into a school

457
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:33,480
Speaker 2: with the gang members and the pregnant students, and there

458
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:35,320
Speaker 2: was a teacher there. Her name was Marcy, and she

459
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 2: was like, AJ, you're different, you don't need to be here,

460
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:44,320
Speaker 2: and she mentored me and literally from then on I

461
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 2: got straight a's.

462
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 1: Wow.

463
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 2: Straight a's. I never had as in my life.

464
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:48,920
Speaker 1: Wow.

465
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:51,440
Speaker 2: And come to find out, and we talked about the

466
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 2: ADHD thing. I was evaluated when I was in first grade,

467
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 2: and they said, yeah, he's got behavioral issues, he's got

468
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,200
Speaker 2: all this. I was two grades I tested in first grade,

469
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:06,080
Speaker 2: two grades ahead in math and language. But all along

470
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 2: everybody told me I was a bad kid.

471
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you started to really believe that.

472
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,360
Speaker 2: You believe it, you become it. You're trying to survive

473
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 2: how people.

474
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:17,480
Speaker 1: Are receiving you.

475
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, the teachers are treating you that sort of thing.

476
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 2: So I started getting straight a's and I'm like, I

477
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,679
Speaker 2: was doing all my own. I'm like, this is easy. Yeah,

478
00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 2: and fortune I did so well that year I went

479
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 2: to the other high school in Irvine and I reapplied

480
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:34,919
Speaker 2: and they gave me a shot. They said, well, it

481
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 2: was Irvine High School. I'm gonna put people on blast

482
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 2: year University high School and Irvine expelled me, guys, but

483
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 2: Irvine High School said, hey, we're going to give you

484
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,280
Speaker 2: a shot. And that was an amazing year for me

485
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,080
Speaker 2: because not only then I got straight a's in high

486
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 2: school like a normal high school. I had two jobs.

487
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:54,879
Speaker 2: I worked a job in the morning and buildings. I

488
00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 2: went to school, and then I worked a job in

489
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 2: the evening, and I bought a car, and I was

490
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 2: the first one in all of my crew, literally because

491
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 2: my mom said, hey, we were on welfare all this time,

492
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 2: and she's I don't want you guys on welfare when

493
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 2: this summer I was seventeen. She said, you guys have

494
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 2: to move out. So I was seventeen when I graduated

495
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 2: high school. I graduated when I was seventeen.

496
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: She didn't watch a welfare but she kicked you all out.

497
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, She's like, you got to go make your own way. Okay,

498
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,960
Speaker 2: So my my brother came to me, and he's because

499
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 2: he had graduated a year earlier. He is a year older.

500
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:30,919
Speaker 2: I told you, I like stuff overcook So I'm going

501
00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 2: to turn this down, probably turn it off.

502
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:33,680
Speaker 1: Yeah.

503
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:36,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a job. I just bought my first

504
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 2: car h school and paid cash and had a couple

505
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 2: other little businesses I was doing. And I graduated high school.

506
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 2: I had an apartment my first we had four guys

507
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,639
Speaker 2: in there. Yeah, but I had my own apartment. I

508
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,160
Speaker 2: had two jobs, I had a car, Like I was doing,

509
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 2: I was doing. Never looked back.

510
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:56,400
Speaker 1: All right, So that the lady that mentored you are

511
00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:58,199
Speaker 1: do you still have a decent relationship with her.

512
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 2: I don't know where she's at, but she was.

513
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 1: A pivotal yeah, point in your life. I'm sure your

514
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: mom was just beyond relieve that someone cracked.

515
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 2: The code exactly. Yes, she said, something clicked because I

516
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,400
Speaker 2: got arrested the year before, I got arrested in Santa Ana.

517
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 2: I got arrested in Irvine twice. I got arrested. I

518
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,360
Speaker 2: told you what on college campus or on my high

519
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 2: school campus. I don't like to say this, but I was.

520
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,399
Speaker 2: I was at a I threw a party out in

521
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 2: Orange County, and I was always in the scene and a

522
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 2: lot of music. Loved hip hop, and unfortunately, one of

523
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:33,399
Speaker 2: the guys that came there, we had a bunch of

524
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 2: gangsters that came and one of the guys got killed

525
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 2: at my party.

526
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's not good.

527
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,159
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not good. No. I watched. I was sixteen

528
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 2: years old, and I watched this young guy. In fact,

529
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:43,920
Speaker 2: I was like talking to him before the party, and

530
00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 2: I watched this young guy get murdered. And my brother

531
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 2: and I we tried to save them, and there was

532
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna say which gang or whatever of that,

533
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,520
Speaker 2: but there was a bunch of gangsters around and I

534
00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 2: pulled my brother and said, we're not like, we can't

535
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 2: do anything. Yeah, And so I was in a lot

536
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 2: of I would say the devil or whatever it was,

537
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 2: definitely had was trying to pull me back. So life

538
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 2: is crazy. Yeah, life is crazy.

539
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 1: So after the high school you start pivoting your life

540
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: in a positive direction, where does the entrepreneurship start to

541
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,159
Speaker 1: creep in because you're working jobs.

542
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I'm one of those that was born

543
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur because I had businesses, like official businesses where

544
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 2: I register corporation. I didn't do till I was twenty

545
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:29,400
Speaker 2: three point four, but I had businesses all throughout height.

546
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 2: I was that kid in school that was selling something

547
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:32,520
Speaker 2: to somebody.

548
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

549
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I would say I was born an entrepreneur.

550
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:36,040
Speaker 1: Okay.

551
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 2: Yeah.

552
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,160
Speaker 1: And at this point, you're on your own, you're living

553
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: with these guys, you have your first sales job. At

554
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: what point does entrepreneur twenty three twenty four start taking over?

555
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 2: Yeah? It was so I worked at a job in

556
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 2: high school. It's FedEx now, not the delivery part, but

557
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 2: like the office part, and it used to be called Kinkos.

558
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 2: And I got a job that summer that I was

559
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 2: out of school, or that year that I was doing

560
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 2: homeschool and applied and I went in there every day

561
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,840
Speaker 2: for like weeks actually his months. And another lady by

562
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 2: the name of Marci. I don't know what it is

563
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 2: with Marcy's our angels out there, but she's, man, you

564
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 2: just keep coming in here. We can't get rid of you.

565
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm just looking for a job. And

566
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 2: so they created a job for me and I would

567
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:23,480
Speaker 2: be working on the copying machines, I clean up, I

568
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 2: did all of these things. I saw. The guy who

569
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,919
Speaker 2: owned he Kinkos was owned by another guy in Santa

570
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,879
Speaker 2: Barbara and he sold it for over a billion dollars.

571
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 2: But there was a friend. There was a group of

572
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 2: Kinkos in Orange County that were privately owned by another group.

573
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 2: Guy's name was Rolin and oh gosh, Rollin and Charlotte,

574
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 2: I think, not quite sure. They lived in Laguna Beach. Yes,

575
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,639
Speaker 2: Rollin would walk in and he was like this six

576
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 2: foot nine tall, older white guy with a ponytail, and

577
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 2: literally would have a stash of one hundred dollars bills

578
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:57,480
Speaker 2: his sert pocket. I'm like, who does that? And so

579
00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 2: I would meet Rolin. I'm like, I'm like asking questions

580
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 2: and all that, and he just pull out one hundred

581
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,200
Speaker 2: dollars bills to pay for stuff. And he had these

582
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,479
Speaker 2: two other guys that would come in and they were

583
00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 2: dressed in like nice shirts and ties, and I'm like,

584
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 2: I want to be like these guys. And I would

585
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 2: and I'd ask, we're all on, what do they do?

586
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,720
Speaker 2: And they're at sales? Oh, yeah, they're in sales. And

587
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay. And then my mom said to me

588
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 2: one time, she said, hey, she goes, you need to

589
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:27,119
Speaker 2: go into sales because one day you'll be a CEO.

590
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: Okay.

591
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 2: And when I won't get into my mom's relationship, we

592
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,479
Speaker 2: were not we were close because she provided for us,

593
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,199
Speaker 2: we weren't. I think she had lost a lot in

594
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 2: her life pustionally, and so we were not close emotionally.

595
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:41,640
Speaker 2: But the one thing she said to me, she's you

596
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:43,280
Speaker 2: need to go into sales because I think you could

597
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,320
Speaker 2: be you be an entrepreneur. Yeah, And that was the spark.

598
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 1: And looking at that statement, that's a very I think,

599
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: very factual statement that if you are going to go

600
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: into entrepreneurship, being able to sell is definitely like a

601
00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: number one skill.

602
00:28:58,760 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 2: You gotta sell something you got.

603
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: You got to be able to sell you all.

604
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:03,719
Speaker 2: I've got to sell and sell yourself.

605
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're in sales's okay, your first company? What

606
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: is that first company?

607
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 2: Yeah? So that was launch Pad Career. There was a

608
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,480
Speaker 2: staffing company I started in two thousand and six, okay,

609
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 2: and I had worked in. I got into staffing worked

610
00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 2: in so anybody who's familiar staffing, it's employment services. It's

611
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 2: helping people find jobs, very related to what we do now.

612
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 2: And I worked at this company since two thousand built

613
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 2: myself up. Actually became the top sales rep in the country.

614
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,200
Speaker 2: They had an annual war and I had no idea.

615
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 2: I got invited to this thing in Newport Beach and

616
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 2: it was out at the Higatt in Newport Beach. They

617
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 2: surprised me. The CEO of the company called my name out.

618
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 2: He's their top sales rep, Abraham Jenkins. I'm like what Yeah,

619
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: I was blowing like like this is crazy. He did

620
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 2: really well in sales, and I'm like, I want to

621
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,920
Speaker 2: start my own company. So I went to the owner

622
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 2: of the company, or not the owner. Bob McDonald was

623
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 2: the owner of Remedy Staffing. He had passed away. Paul

624
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 2: Mike Has took over as the chairman, and then Greg Palmer,

625
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 2: who was a mentor of mine, was the president and COO,

626
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 2: and I went I approached them and I'm like, hey,

627
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 2: I want to own I want to buy a franchise.

628
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 2: I'm like, I know you got franchises. I want to

629
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 2: buy one. I went around and raised money to buy

630
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 2: the franchise, tried to negotiate with a couple of locations,

631
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 2: and the Las Vegas location was the one that became

632
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 2: like the best chance. I had everything ready to buy

633
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 2: this franchise. I had the money lined up, I had

634
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,600
Speaker 2: the systems, I had where I was going to go,

635
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 2: all of that, and then last minute the guy pulled out,

636
00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:35,560
Speaker 2: he's I don't want to sell. Oh no, yeah, yeah.

637
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: That must have been devastating. So then my guess is

638
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: that's when you were like, ah, now that I raised

639
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: the money, might as well going business for myself exactly.

640
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 2: And my investor at the time was still it was

641
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 2: also an investor in my software company. Let's just do

642
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 2: our own thing.

643
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: Okay.

644
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 2: So I packed up everything, drove out to Las Vegas

645
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 2: where we were going to open up, and like literally

646
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 2: drove out to got an apartment, drove out, and then

647
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 2: the next day I'm out there calling on businesses And.

648
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 1: Did you become that guy's competitor at that point? Oh yeah,

649
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 1: did you put him out of business? No? Today I

650
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: had to go for God, but you became his competitor.

651
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 1: So okay, yeah, that's good. That's good enough. Are you

652
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: going to feed me today?

653
00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 2: I'm waiting for you to say feed us. Okay, So

654
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 2: let me give me your plate, and I probably should

655
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:23,360
Speaker 2: taste it first to make sure.

656
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: That it's ready to go, but I'm pretty sure it's good.

657
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 2: I'm start with you. I gotta do the condiments and

658
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 2: all that stuff. We got to do the whole thing.

659
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stand up again.

660
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:33,239
Speaker 1: Okay, you're going to stand up?

661
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 2: Okay, all right? All right? Yeah, put that there. Let

662
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,360
Speaker 2: me get your plate ready. So back to the food,

663
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 2: chicken teketos. I'm excited about this because I would eat

664
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 2: this today.

665
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: You go today.

666
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 2: So the mayonnaise, Okay, again, this is not fancy food.

667
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,719
Speaker 2: Anybody out there thinks if you're struggling, you're having fancy

668
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 2: food here.

669
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 1: I'll try to do it on this plate too. This

670
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:57,320
Speaker 1: is your plate, I know, I'll just okay, so you

671
00:31:57,360 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 1: got the mayo.

672
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 2: Got the mayo. Look, top of tier makes everything better.

673
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 2: Top of TiO if you want to. If you want

674
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 2: to sponsor me, we're playing down for that. Yeah. I'm

675
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,320
Speaker 2: loyal to brands. I am very loyal to brands, and

676
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna show you just as well. If you

677
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 2: can't get Top of TiO, go get yourself some delferno

678
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 2: from Del Taco. Ok Look, I got my.

679
00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: Brain, brought all the ingredients I brought.

680
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 2: I brought all the ingredients. I asked for extra. If

681
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 2: you are struggling, don't go out and buy Top of TiO.

682
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 2: Go to Del Taco, get yourself a seventy nine cent

683
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 2: or a dollar twenty nine taco and ask for extras.

684
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: Nowadays they charge for these extra sauces, do they? I think? So?

685
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 2: Okay, that's up here in LA in Orange County, we

686
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 2: still give state away.

687
00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:40,960
Speaker 1: They sail charge and ask for extra anything.

688
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, let me get this was your plate?

689
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: Okay, hair, let's switch and I put do.

690
00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 2: You like spicy food? Because that delferno is a little bit.

691
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:49,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try it. I'm just gonna mix it.

692
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can mix it up. I'm gonna put delferno

693
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 2: on mine.

694
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,600
Speaker 1: I'm hungry and I'm excited to eat these. Even though

695
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 1: I thought these were gonna be freshly made. It's fine.

696
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 2: I could have made him fresh you know what I

697
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,239
Speaker 2: could have gone. That would have taken longer us.

698
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna go like this.

699
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 2: You're doing that the right way?

700
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 1: Is that how you do it? Really?

701
00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:11,000
Speaker 2: When you do it?

702
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: Okay?

703
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 2: Now this is health conscious.

704
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 1: Now you don't eat this every day?

705
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 2: Yeah? This is cheers, this is yeah. Oh man, the sauce. See,

706
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:32,719
Speaker 2: people don't know the man, I'm telling you. Wow, did

707
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 2: you go home with the sauce we made? We invented

708
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 2: this sauce. There's mayonnaise and hot sauce. Wow, it was

709
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 2: really good.

710
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:46,960
Speaker 1: I would eat this.

711
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 2: I missed this.

712
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 1: Would you make your son try it?

713
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 2: Of course? Yeah?

714
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, he loves and I would love to see his

715
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: reaction trying this. Eat this sauce though.

716
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, my kid love spicy food. Okay yep.

717
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: AJ does not get a rating on the food because

718
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 1: he did not cook it fresh. But as far as

719
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 1: this sauce, guys, if you do not have salsa in

720
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: sour cream at home, or if you just want to

721
00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 1: switch it up Mayo with the top of Teo and

722
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,920
Speaker 1: the Del Taco sauce, this is a definite win. I

723
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: would have never thought to do this.

724
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have a point behind making it fresh.

725
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 2: And I said this off cameras. I didn't have time

726
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 2: to cook. Back in the day, we did not have time.

727
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,799
Speaker 2: It was school, it was job, it was business. It

728
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:38,279
Speaker 2: still is like that for me now, but I have

729
00:34:38,360 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 2: I'm not going to both have people that cook for

730
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 2: me now and kids that people watch the kids unless

731
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 2: I'm wanting to do like a Friday nights. I like

732
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:46,799
Speaker 2: to cook. Friday nights. I like to cook. But we

733
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:49,399
Speaker 2: did not have time. Everybody was like in the house.

734
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 2: Nobody was sitting in the house, sitting around. Everybody was like,

735
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:53,560
Speaker 2: I gotta be here, I gotta be there, gotta go.

736
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: So your first company, the staffing company, the.

737
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 2: Launch Launch Pack Career Careers.

738
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: That company is around for how many years?

739
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,560
Speaker 2: That was from two thousand and five. We incorporated in

740
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,319
Speaker 2: two thousand and five and exited the business in two

741
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 2: thousand and seven.

742
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: Okay, so you sold the business.

743
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 2: Yes to our customers. So our customers we were having

744
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 2: we would send people out on temporary assignments, and we

745
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,319
Speaker 2: basically got offers from the customers, our clients that said, hey,

746
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:22,360
Speaker 2: we want to buy out all your contracts, and so

747
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:24,600
Speaker 2: we had an opportunity to just sell out all of

748
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 2: the people that were on assignment. And it's not quite

749
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 2: what we would consider an aqua hype. It was more

750
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 2: of they just bought out all the contracts and we're like, yep,

751
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 2: And the Great Recession was starting to happen too, so

752
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 2: it was a it was a good timing for us

753
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 2: because we knew it.

754
00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, recession, Yeah remember that.

755
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 2: Yeah.

756
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 1: So after that, you get this chunk of money. You're

757
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,520
Speaker 1: feeling yourself. I'm sure, chunk of money. Money, you're feeling yourself.

758
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 1: You're in Vegas.

759
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:56,279
Speaker 2: So at that time I opened three offices, so we

760
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 2: had Las Vegas and we had two in Orange County.

761
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,720
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, so you're out here, you sold this company.

762
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 1: What's your next play? And I know you're not just

763
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 1: sitting relaxing for the next year.

764
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 2: No, it was it was not a chunk of mons.

765
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 2: This was the Great Recession, and everybody, I think was

766
00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:13,319
Speaker 2: just shocked at what's going on, and we were too,

767
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 2: But at the time, I was also involved in politics

768
00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 2: at the time campaign and a lot of the government

769
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 2: agencies because they knew I knew employment and how to

770
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:24,400
Speaker 2: help people with getting jobs and careers, a lot of

771
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 2: them reached out to me because Orange County, Ana Anaheim,

772
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, San Francisco, all of these government agencies or

773
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:35,239
Speaker 2: city governments were trying to help people get employed because

774
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:39,240
Speaker 2: it was just massive layoffs. And so I, through my network,

775
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:42,880
Speaker 2: started getting consulting engagements. So that's when I started a

776
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 2: company called Workforce two point zero, which was to consult

777
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:50,760
Speaker 2: with these agencies to help them get people reemployed. Okay, yeah,

778
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 2: So we ended up getting contracts in Orange County in

779
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 2: Los Angeles too, and this is when I learned about

780
00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 2: workforce development and how they actually do help you with

781
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 2: job training and employment. And so I got these contracts,

782
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 2: and one in particular we got with the County of

783
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,360
Speaker 2: Los Angeles to help people who are on welfare get reemployed.

784
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:12,960
Speaker 2: Set up an office in South LA. We would drive

785
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,720
Speaker 2: in South LA every day from Orange County and would

786
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 2: help basically people would come in that are on welfare

787
00:37:19,160 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 2: and we'd go find them a job. Okay, And I

788
00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:23,360
Speaker 2: did that for about a year and a half. We

789
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,719
Speaker 2: got a bunch of contracts and at that point, this

790
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:29,359
Speaker 2: is when I started the technology company because I had

791
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 2: software in my staffing company. We ran the business with software. Yeah,

792
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 2: and so I realized like I should be doing the

793
00:37:35,719 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 2: same thing in this consulting engagement. Ok So we built software.

794
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 1: Keep saying we, I'm sorry, why are you keep saying

795
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: that we? Are you referencing the company? Are you referencing

796
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: a partner the team?

797
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 2: I have partners. Whenever you're doing something, you're doing it

798
00:37:49,160 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 2: with we you're doing it with.

799
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: I just wanted to clarify, I thought, But I was like,

800
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 1: just make sure.

801
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got partners. Ian Connell is our CFN. He's

802
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 2: an investor and owner, and then Melissa as well as

803
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 2: my business partner, and so they but I also had employee.

804
00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,279
Speaker 2: I had a guy named Charles at the time, and

805
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:07,799
Speaker 2: then Alyssa. When I say we, it's it's your team,

806
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:09,640
Speaker 2: it's a team. It's a team, especially when I'm talking

807
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 2: about the things that we're doing. Right, I started a company, sure,

808
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 2: but we're building this thing.

809
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

810
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 2: So we set up an office in South LA and

811
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 2: basically we built the software. And this is when I'll

812
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 2: talk about companies we worked with. We ended up building

813
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:28,360
Speaker 2: the software on Salesforce, and we as we started getting

814
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 2: more and more traction with these consulting engagements and using

815
00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:35,080
Speaker 2: this software and showing, like the City of Long Beach,

816
00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 2: City of LA, how we were helping all these people

817
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 2: get employed.

818
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

819
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 2: They were like, we love what you're doing with the program,

820
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 2: but we love the software even more.

821
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,720
Speaker 1: Yeah. And at the time, you guys were using Salesforce.

822
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,600
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, and we are still on Salesforce.

823
00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: Okay, because I was gonna say Salesforce is hey, miss, Like,

824
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 1: I've worked with Salesforce within organizations and it does the trick,

825
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 1: but then sometimes it doesn't do the trick. It can

826
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: be a little funky.

827
00:38:56,719 --> 00:38:59,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we use them. Same as people build software

828
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 2: on Amazon Oracle, or if they're building on Google Cloud,

829
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: or if they're building it on Microsoft. We decided to

830
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 2: build it on Salesforce. And its actually was really successful

831
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:11,640
Speaker 2: because at the time they were just getting into the

832
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,400
Speaker 2: government space and so we were able to ride that

833
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,320
Speaker 2: wave a little bit and exactly what you talked about,

834
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,760
Speaker 2: Calleen is that they weren't building it for these specific

835
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 2: program That's what we did, Okay, So we designed it

836
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,560
Speaker 2: and we built our own IP on top of it. Specifically,

837
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 2: IP is intellectual property for anybody out there, own your software,

838
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 2: own your.

839
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: So I didn't know. So you built on top of Salesforce?

840
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying.

841
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:38,120
Speaker 2: I only get too technical. There's contracts and all of

842
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 2: that stuff that's related to it. I'm not that could

843
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:43,600
Speaker 2: go down another path, but the short answer is it's

844
00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 2: our software, it's our IP. And people do the same

845
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:49,839
Speaker 2: thing when they build on Google Cloud or Amazon. They're

846
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 2: just the infrastructure, but we're sitting on top of that.

847
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, I love the tech industry for that though.

848
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 1: I feel like it's very much like open source built

849
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:02,360
Speaker 1: that's not as much hater raid as I'd say other industries.

850
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I'm just going to tell everybody this, especially

851
00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 2: we're here in LA and the media technology is taking

852
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:08,800
Speaker 2: over everything.

853
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:10,800
Speaker 1: Oh yeah it is and it has been for a while.

854
00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 2: And don't sleep on AI. Yeah, don't sleep on AI.

855
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:16,600
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's sleeping on it now. People are

856
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: like hooked to it.

857
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're hooked to it as a consumer. Yeah, but

858
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,279
Speaker 2: thirty five percent of white collar jobs are going to

859
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 2: be taken over by AI, the restaurant industry media. I

860
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,439
Speaker 2: was just we're driving up here and listening to listen

861
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 2: to Big Boy and they were playing songs that were

862
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:31,960
Speaker 2: one hundred percent AI created.

863
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:32,319
Speaker 1: Yeah.

864
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, the game has changed.

865
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 1: The game has changed. Now, how do you feel about

866
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,759
Speaker 1: the plumbing and electrical and the AC and all these

867
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 1: other careers that are going to be booming. Do you

868
00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 1: think that the demand and the costs for these jobs

869
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: are going to be a lot more because it's going

870
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: to be one of the few industries that are like

871
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: you can't I doubt AI can replace it.

872
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think there's two things. Yeah, people are

873
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:01,319
Speaker 2: flooding into the trades. People are flooding into trades. One,

874
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 2: you don't have to get a four year degree, and

875
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 2: you can make six figures and above in the trades.

876
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 2: And I've got a guy who's an exterminator comes to

877
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,880
Speaker 2: my house every quarter and I'm sure he's probably pulling

878
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,839
Speaker 2: in above six figures, you know what I mean? So

879
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 2: you know, do what you love first. Yeah, but just understand,

880
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 2: if you're just looking for a job somewhere pushing paper.

881
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 2: You're going to be unemployed. Not in five years, You're

882
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,399
Speaker 2: going to be unemployed this year or next year. It's

883
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,840
Speaker 2: coming fast. I know people, and I'm not trying to

884
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 2: scare people, but I wanted to talk about this is

885
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,840
Speaker 2: under in under a year. In under a year. I

886
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:36,839
Speaker 2: know folks who work for Taco Bell and who are

887
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 2: developing the AI drive through, and they're piloting it right.

888
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: But even though okay, they can do the AI drive through,

889
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: but who can actually prepare the food?

890
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 2: The machines are going to prepare the food? You think

891
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 2: so hundred percent you didn't need me to cook this thing.

892
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 2: By the way, the machine will cook this thing eventually,

893
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. There are restaurants now that are one

894
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:59,239
Speaker 2: hundred percent automated in terms of making the burger one

895
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:01,160
Speaker 2: yes and Sam Francisco. I don't know the name of it,

896
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:02,200
Speaker 2: but there you know, I was.

897
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:03,880
Speaker 1: About to ask you. People are going to out be

898
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:05,320
Speaker 1: out there right now, Google.

899
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 2: Automated under they're going to be making the food the

900
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,919
Speaker 2: restaurant into We're not talking about fine dining, we're talking

901
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 2: about entry. And so I came from a conference up

902
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 2: in Monterey and we were talking about this is that

903
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 2: the entry level job is being eliminated. I talked about

904
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,680
Speaker 2: the entry level job that I got into, the entry

905
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 2: level job we all had one. That job is being eliminated.

906
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:30,800
Speaker 1: I believe that. So I tell my friends, like marketing,

907
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:34,759
Speaker 1: I have a marketing sales background. Marketing and sales, we're done,

908
00:42:35,520 --> 00:42:38,399
Speaker 1: let's go become a nurser. Do this because we out

909
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:40,720
Speaker 1: we got about six months left.

910
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:42,799
Speaker 2: I don't think so on marketing and sales because you

911
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 2: can use the AI tools to do. If you can

912
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,560
Speaker 2: use the AI tools in your career, you'll be able

913
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:51,320
Speaker 2: to ride the way.

914
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,560
Speaker 1: But I will say this though, companies and organizations like

915
00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:57,479
Speaker 1: remember your photoshop and now we have Canva with shout

916
00:42:57,480 --> 00:43:01,200
Speaker 1: outs to Canva genius lady. Now companies are like, we

917
00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:04,439
Speaker 1: can have our intern creator now. So that's why I say,

918
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: like marketing, like some of those things are definitely going

919
00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 1: to be if you're a company, just shove it on

920
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:10,800
Speaker 1: your intern.

921
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,200
Speaker 2: You can't be a graphic designer, you can't be In fact,

922
00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:16,239
Speaker 2: we just updated our website, launched a new website, and

923
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 2: I had one guy do it. Yeah, we had contractors,

924
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 2: but it was we used AI to create images, write content.

925
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:27,000
Speaker 2: We did so much, so it's the world is crazy.

926
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 1: It's going a trick question though. I have a love

927
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 1: hate relationship with social media, But now that everything is

928
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,040
Speaker 1: automated and everything's AI related, I'm my hope is that

929
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 1: social media disbands eventually because all you're going to see

930
00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:43,960
Speaker 1: is populated content AI content from AI photos to AI

931
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,240
Speaker 1: video to and did Drake really say this? Did Biggie

932
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,800
Speaker 1: really say this? Because they have all these voices and stuff.

933
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 1: Now this platform that used to be like organic is

934
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: now going to be we all know it's a consistency

935
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 1: numbers game. Eventually, I would imagine that it would fade

936
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: to black. What are your thought that.

937
00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:04,120
Speaker 2: The world is still about attention and getting It's how

938
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:06,279
Speaker 2: do you get people's attention? I do think and I'm

939
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,320
Speaker 2: gonna believe it like you, I think the in person

940
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:11,279
Speaker 2: is going to be much more valuable. I think in

941
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:15,319
Speaker 2: person events, in person media concerts, people are gonna want

942
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,880
Speaker 2: the real thing. I think it's unfortunate a lot of

943
00:44:17,880 --> 00:44:20,279
Speaker 2: people are stuck in the consumer mindset, just stuck to

944
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:23,839
Speaker 2: their phones and doom scrolling. So those folks, if they

945
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 2: we're going to have a separation between the haves and

946
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 2: the have not. So that's gonna get worse. It's gonna

947
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 2: get exacerbated, and the consumer class is going to They're

948
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 2: going to lose their jobs. Government is probably gonna have

949
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:40,440
Speaker 2: some form of ongoing welfare what they call it, but

950
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:44,759
Speaker 2: it's basically based based universal basic income UBI. So you're

951
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 2: gonna have a lot of folks that are just going

952
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:48,320
Speaker 2: to be consumers, and the ones who are going to

953
00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:50,280
Speaker 2: be able to be in the middle class and hopefully

954
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 2: in the upper class are going to have to be

955
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:56,640
Speaker 2: creators and use these technologies, use these tools. Yeah, it's

956
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 2: it's getting scary out there. I don't let my kids

957
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,760
Speaker 2: on social media. I don't let them on I just talked.

958
00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 1: To a girl before you came in who influencer, and

959
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:06,479
Speaker 1: she said that her thirteen year old has all these

960
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:09,839
Speaker 1: issues and a lot of the challenges are coming from

961
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 1: just exposure to social media. I'm like, WHOA. But I

962
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:17,360
Speaker 1: also think YouTube kids is not becoming safe either, because

963
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: I'm seeing my daughter who's four say words like kill

964
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:24,359
Speaker 1: or something. I'm like, oh wow, I'm like, where has

965
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: anyone ever used that word? Like the little words where

966
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 1: You're like, where do you even find that word or

967
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 1: how do you use that word? And so I was like,

968
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:35,319
Speaker 1: it's got to be. And this young lady was saying

969
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:38,040
Speaker 1: earlier that it doesn't matter how many restrictions you put.

970
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: Still stuff is sliding through.

971
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 2: You just can't put them. You can't let them have

972
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 2: the devices. And I'm older than you, but I grew

973
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:45,240
Speaker 2: up we had no devices.

974
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: No we didn't.

975
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't have We're going back and you talk

976
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 2: to parents that their kids go to school up in

977
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 2: Silicon Valley, the Bear, they're on paper and pen they're

978
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:58,279
Speaker 2: doing every like the private schools of these kids, of

979
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:03,280
Speaker 2: the kids of the techies. Yeah, they're offline, Yeah, because

980
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,719
Speaker 2: they understand that they have to be able to build

981
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:06,920
Speaker 2: those foundational like.

982
00:46:07,080 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, And I will

983
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 1: say this, so back what they what you were saying

984
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 1: about the techies. I had my daughter in private school Montssori.

985
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: This year was the first year I'm putting her in

986
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:25,280
Speaker 1: public and my gosh, you can actually see the difference immediately,

987
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:28,840
Speaker 1: just in the regiments, the teachings. The bar is so

988
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 1: much lower. And it's like, on one hand, you're saving money,

989
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: but you look at the difference and you're like, oh

990
00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 1: my gosh, is it even worth it? Like, in my

991
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,319
Speaker 1: personal opinion, definitely not. You do what you gotta do

992
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 1: in that moment. But I see it, and I'm like,

993
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: so that's that's what I was paying for. Okay, see

994
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:51,080
Speaker 1: it's different. But yeah, just the second second what you

995
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: were saying. But thank you so much for taking time

996
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,920
Speaker 1: out of here crazy schedule to come all the way

997
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 1: down here. You had a nice drive.

998
00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 2: Uh it's la So no, we didn't. No, yeah, we

999
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,799
Speaker 2: came a long way, but we did that for you.

1000
00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 2: Congratulations on your podcast. I really remember seeing you five

1001
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:10,560
Speaker 2: years ago or something, and you've built something truly amazing.

1002
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:12,920
Speaker 2: And so I'm a big fan and I'm a supporter,

1003
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:14,319
Speaker 2: So thank you for inviting me.

1004
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:16,240
Speaker 1: I appreciate you joining season five.

1005
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 2: Yeah five, you can't wait season ten And yeah, I

1006
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 2: don't know if.

1007
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 1: We're going to go all the way to season ten.

1008
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 1: There's only so many executives. But I will say this,

1009
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,680
Speaker 1: I am working on a book and I've been taking

1010
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: I've been spending the last couple months with the help

1011
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 1: of a it's definitely cut it down transcribing all the interviews.

1012
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,720
Speaker 1: And I was telling my little brother the other day, Well,

1013
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:41,840
Speaker 1: all of you guys collectively have in common when it

1014
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:45,759
Speaker 1: comes to what the secret ingredient is to growth. Out

1015
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:49,320
Speaker 1: of one hundred and fifty interviews, I would think that

1016
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: what's the foundation to growth?

1017
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 2: I guess that's how I think it's perseverance or persistence.

1018
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:57,719
Speaker 1: I was thinking perseverance. I've had people come up to

1019
00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:59,600
Speaker 1: me like, oh, the book definitely, faith is the number

1020
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 1: one consistent thing. And I told my brother the answer

1021
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:05,839
Speaker 1: to this and then he was like, ohh and I've

1022
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 1: told other people because I thought it was very interesting.

1023
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:14,840
Speaker 1: The number one foundation to growth is honesty, truth, radical

1024
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 1: truth with self. And I was like, but then if

1025
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:19,040
Speaker 1: you think about it, in order for you to grow,

1026
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 1: even with you being labeled as a bad kid or

1027
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:24,120
Speaker 1: what have you, right, at some points you sit down

1028
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: right and you have this raw.

1029
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:28,239
Speaker 2: Radical truth, self awareness.

1030
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,960
Speaker 1: Self awareness like no lying, no buffer, with just you.

1031
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 1: That is actually the foundation. And then obviously the other

1032
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 1: things that you're listing are definitely relevant. But I just

1033
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,799
Speaker 1: thought it was very unique that the gospel was.

1034
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 2: That's a spiritual conversation and I know you're at time,

1035
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:48,239
Speaker 2: but it's there's a bigger you out there and there's

1036
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 2: a bigger you in there if you can have that

1037
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:54,560
Speaker 2: self awareness and you can really self actualization, and that's

1038
00:48:54,600 --> 00:48:56,840
Speaker 2: a journey we're all on. I'm a person of faith.

1039
00:48:57,160 --> 00:48:59,840
Speaker 2: That's my journey now, is like this. We all have

1040
00:48:59,880 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 2: a bigger dream and a bigger vision, and if you

1041
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,480
Speaker 2: ask yourself why you're not achieving it, then the answers

1042
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:07,279
Speaker 2: start to come to you. And I'm a personal face,

1043
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:09,840
Speaker 2: so I pray every day over myself, but over my

1044
00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 2: family that will have those breakthroughs.

1045
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:14,879
Speaker 1: Do you think in your journey though, there was those

1046
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:17,080
Speaker 1: moments of radical truth with self.

1047
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 2: When I got expelled from high school was a big

1048
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,480
Speaker 2: radical truth. And I think over the past few years,

1049
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,160
Speaker 2: with my family and all of that, I've had another one.

1050
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, so I love it all right, cool,

1051
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,719
Speaker 1: Thank you guys for tuning in. You guys can I

1052
00:49:31,719 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 1: guess you will be going on different random sites and

1053
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:37,080
Speaker 1: you will not even know you are using launch Pad software.

1054
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 1: But it does exist. And the companies that you guys

1055
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 1: cater to are more mission based, aligned with your mission.

1056
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 2: They're all aligned with our mission.

1057
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:46,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're all aligned with it helping the community.

1058
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:48,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just go out there if you're needing help,

1059
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:52,719
Speaker 2: if you're unemployed or whatever. There's resources out there for you,

1060
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 2: and you can always connect with me online and I

1061
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:56,319
Speaker 2: can help connect you.

1062
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,640
Speaker 1: All right, guys, thanks, peace out, all right,