WEBVTT - ABRAHAM JANKANS - Rolling Up Second Chances

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today I'm very excited

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<v Speaker 1>we have a very special guest we've met years ago.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Abraham Jenkins, also known as AJ. So we

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<v Speaker 1>will not be referring to you as Abraham throughout the episode.

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<v Speaker 2>Whatever you want to call.

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<v Speaker 1>Me Abraham AJ. Sorry, see I'm already messing up. AJ

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<v Speaker 1>is the CEO of Launchpad Software. Yes, thank you, and

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<v Speaker 1>can you give our guests a little insight of what

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<v Speaker 1>launch Pad Software is.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I run a technology company. We're a software

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<v Speaker 2>company that helps government agencies, nonprofit agencies improve the lives

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<v Speaker 2>of people in the community. We work with a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of large cities and states. Los Angeles here in LA

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<v Speaker 2>is one of our customers and they use our software

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<v Speaker 2>to help deliver job training services, employment services, homeless services,

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

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<v Speaker 2>more innovative way to get services to people in the community.

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<v Speaker 2>And as an entrepreneur, technology was the first and best way.

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<v Speaker 2>But yeah, the technical term is where a SAS company

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<v Speaker 2>enterprise SaaS. For those business folks out there who are

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

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<v Speaker 2>you're unemployed, or if you've got a single mom out

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<v Speaker 2>there that maybe is housing and secure, or you have

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<v Speaker 2>a young guy we call them opportunity youth that's dropped

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<v Speaker 2>out of high school and needs some direction. There are

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<v Speaker 2>a lot of programs out there that these individuals can

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<v Speaker 2>get access to, and there's a lot of money that's

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<v Speaker 2>being invested in these communities, and so what we try

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<v Speaker 2>to do is use technology to make it easier for

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<v Speaker 2>these individuals to get these services, whether it's through a

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<v Speaker 2>mobile app, whether it's helping the nonprofits track all of

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<v Speaker 2>those individuals. We our software is tracking probably in the

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<v Speaker 2>tunes of several million individuals across the country internationally because

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<v Speaker 2>we have customers in the UK and Bermuda. But essentially

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<v Speaker 2>it's like you are falling on hard times. There is

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<v Speaker 2>a social safety net out there, that's social safety nets

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<v Speaker 2>at risk right now unfortunately, but there are billions of

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<v Speaker 2>dollars being invested to help you, and we want to

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<v Speaker 2>use technology to make it easier for people to get

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<v Speaker 2>access to those services.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, but Launchpad, your actual client is like a nonprofit

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<v Speaker 1>or a government agency, right, so what services do you

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<v Speaker 1>provide for that agency.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So primarily we sell to government agencies, so state

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<v Speaker 2>and local municipalities. I mentioned the city of Los Angeles.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, we have over three hundred government and nonprofit

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<v Speaker 2>agencies across thirty five state that use our software and

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<v Speaker 2>they A lot of this stuff is maybe more of

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<v Speaker 2>the technical and bold. But you think of companies like Oracle.

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<v Speaker 2>Oracle is the data base behind the Internet and now

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<v Speaker 2>the database behind AI. You think of Amazon Aws as

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<v Speaker 2>the cloud that runs all of your apps. Anytime you're

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<v Speaker 2>getting these services from the community, there's a there's a

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<v Speaker 2>cloud behind is a system behind it, and we're one

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<v Speaker 2>of those systems.

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<v Speaker 1>A cloud software applications. So you house all the data

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

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<v Speaker 1>like the stuff that we don't want to see or

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<v Speaker 1>be a part of, but you're the organization structure behind

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<v Speaker 1>it exactly in the cloud technic technically speaking, it's.

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<v Speaker 2>We're one hundred percent in the cloud. Yes, we're one

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<v Speaker 2>hundred percent in the cloud. We've always been in the cloud.

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<v Speaker 2>We were one of the first and that's why we

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<v Speaker 2>were really successful. When I started the company Gosh eleven

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<v Speaker 2>twelve years ago, we were one of the first to

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<v Speaker 2>bring truly cloud SaaS software to government agencies. Now we're

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<v Speaker 2>bringing AI into it, right, And think of it this way.

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<v Speaker 2>When you go to the bank and you're want to

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<v Speaker 2>know how much money is in your account or what

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<v Speaker 2>investments you want to get, there's software that runs all

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<v Speaker 2>of that.

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<v Speaker 1>Right.

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

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<v Speaker 2>So we're doing the same thing, but we're trying to

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<v Speaker 2>do it to have a social good. Right. If you

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<v Speaker 2>can have software that can help people with investments, get

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<v Speaker 2>a mortgage, buy a house, get healthcare, we want to

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<v Speaker 2>use the same strategy and technology to help people get

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<v Speaker 2>job training, get if they're housing and secure, get into

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<v Speaker 2>a house, get connected with grants, get job training or education.

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<v Speaker 2>We're doing all of.

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<v Speaker 1>That, but you guys catered to the companies, not the

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<v Speaker 1>end user, right, Yes, so I would just for listeners,

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<v Speaker 1>if you're in a housing deficit, you don't go on

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<v Speaker 1>launch Pad software to find housing. There are agencies that

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<v Speaker 1>support that are in business with you, and they're using

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<v Speaker 1>your services, not actual individuals on the street.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, actually, yeah, the individuals on the street are using

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

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<v Speaker 2>for example, like Detroit at work, the City of Detroit.

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<v Speaker 2>They're logging in that website. All of that's powered by

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

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<v Speaker 2>we have a little thing down there. But we are

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<v Speaker 2>not trying to be the brand to the consumer. We

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<v Speaker 2>want to help empower all of these agencies that are

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<v Speaker 2>really it's their job to do the work. We want

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<v Speaker 2>to empower them. So San Francisco's a job's portal. We

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<v Speaker 2>log into the City of San Francisco's jobs portal, which

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<v Speaker 2>is free. I don't want to say a competitor to

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

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<v Speaker 2>That's launch Pad. Wow.

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

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<v Speaker 1>like what? I just want everyone to understand fully like

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<v Speaker 1>what they're what Launchpad software really is, especially because, like

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<v Speaker 1>you said, you're not branding yourself to the naked eye,

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<v Speaker 1>so we really wouldn't know. But before we get into

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<v Speaker 1>all that, I go ahead. I can feel and sense

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<v Speaker 1>that oil is hot. But what are you going to

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<v Speaker 1>have me eating today?

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<v Speaker 2>Yes, so my understanding this is eating while broke yes,

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<v Speaker 2>thank god, I'm no longer broke, but I can remember

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<v Speaker 2>the days when I was starting, and so it is.

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<v Speaker 2>I saw a lot of people having fancy meals on

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<v Speaker 2>your show.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a handful of them.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, we're not gonna I'm not trying to impress

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<v Speaker 2>anybody with the food today because when but I think

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<v Speaker 2>people will definitely relate. We're gonna be doing chicken tiketos

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<v Speaker 2>today and we're gonna be cooking them, heating them up.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, it's not so much about the prep of

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<v Speaker 2>the food. I also want to highlight the condiments, what's

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<v Speaker 2>easy to grab, what's easy, and also maybe what's not

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<v Speaker 2>necessarily convenient, but what you had in your pantry, what

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<v Speaker 2>you could afford. So we got chicken tiketos these do

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<v Speaker 2>you want me to say where they came from? Are?

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<v Speaker 2>Probably not?

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<v Speaker 1>That's fine, yea.

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<v Speaker 2>So chicken tiketos gonna we're gonna cook these. And then

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<v Speaker 2>we've got obviously olive oil. I like to cook with

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<v Speaker 2>olive oil, and I do a lot of cooking at home.

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<v Speaker 2>But my kids will never eat this stuff. I'll give

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<v Speaker 2>them chicken tiktos. They want salmon, they want yeah, and

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<v Speaker 2>then we've got mayonnaise, so this is our sauce mayonnaise.

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<v Speaker 2>And then we got we're in California, we got to

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<v Speaker 2>have the top of to so we got top of

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<v Speaker 2>t O.

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<v Speaker 1>So it was just three ingredients. Yes, now I did

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<v Speaker 1>notice that you weren't making them fresh, so I take

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<v Speaker 1>it back in the day. They were frozen.

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<v Speaker 2>Also, they were frozen also, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I

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<v Speaker 2>was trying to understand who, when you're hustling and when

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<v Speaker 2>we're trying to build a business, who has time to

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<v Speaker 2>sit and cook. I gotta cook and I gotta go,

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<v Speaker 2>got to keep going. And I remember we we specifically

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<v Speaker 2>made these. I was living in a we had a

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<v Speaker 2>three bedroom house. There was five guys. This is down

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<v Speaker 2>in Orange County, the OC, and I was I just

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<v Speaker 2>got out of I got my first sales job, and

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<v Speaker 2>all of the guys that were living with me, my

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<v Speaker 2>brother was there. My brother shout out to Jeremy. He's

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<v Speaker 2>a college university profession now PhD in math. We we

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<v Speaker 2>were all just trying to hustle, so it was like, hey,

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<v Speaker 2>what can we buy. It's cheap. We bought the big

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

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<v Speaker 2>take the taketos, throw them out, cook them, eat them up.

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<v Speaker 2>I literally we all sit down like a family meal.

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<v Speaker 2>We'd have the mayonnaise and the hot sauce, okay, and

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

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<v Speaker 2>you know this is what we ate.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay. So I get started, Go ahead and get started,

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<v Speaker 1>because lunchtime in.

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

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<v Speaker 2>that is right. And one of the things I love you.

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<v Speaker 2>First of all, I'm originally from Oregon, Portland, Oregon, but

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<v Speaker 2>I really grew up in southern California. I love Mexican food.

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<v Speaker 2>I love Mexican food. My team will tell you. It's

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<v Speaker 2>like I've always wanted tacos or tiketos.

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<v Speaker 1>I like flouters. I was excited because originally I thought

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<v Speaker 1>you got to do flous and I was like, oh,

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<v Speaker 1>I love them.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh no, I'm sorry, sorry, I.

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

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<v Speaker 1>disappoint Yeah, that'll be for another day.

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<v Speaker 2>Another day. I think you got to have another spin

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<v Speaker 2>off of eating while not eating.

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<v Speaker 1>I know everyone wants to do the luxury, the luxury,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, I should do it because I'd probably lobs

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<v Speaker 1>during crab all the good food.

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

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

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<v Speaker 1>for sure. I know you already started talking about this,

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<v Speaker 1>about you and your four other buddies living in this house.

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<v Speaker 1>You said that this was when you got one of

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<v Speaker 1>your first sales jobs. So I take you and your

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<v Speaker 1>buddies weren't working on Launchpad. No, it was Launchpad even

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<v Speaker 1>a concept at that point.

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

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<v Speaker 2>is my third company that I've had and sold my

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

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<v Speaker 2>I started that in two thousand and six. So this

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

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<v Speaker 2>the nineties here. We were fresh out of high school.

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<v Speaker 2>Dropped out of high school. We'll get into that later.

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<v Speaker 2>Actually I didn't drop out. They kicked me out. I'll

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<v Speaker 2>make that distinction. But no, it was I was working

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<v Speaker 2>a So the backstory was in high school, I was

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<v Speaker 2>a troublemaker. Hands down. My son's here. I gotta be

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<v Speaker 2>careful what I say.

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<v Speaker 1>No, say it all.

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<v Speaker 2>I gotta say it all. Yeah, so I did not

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<v Speaker 2>have a good high school experience. I was. I grew

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<v Speaker 2>up in a single parent household, my mom my dad, unfortunately,

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<v Speaker 2>and both my parents have passed. My mom actually passed

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<v Speaker 2>away back in July. Yeah, you said people might cry

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<v Speaker 2>on this episode. That will get me going. But grew

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<v Speaker 2>up in a single mom household. My mom raised five

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<v Speaker 2>kids on her own. She was disabled. She had a

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<v Speaker 2>brain aneurysm, and it was undiagnosed until nineteen ninety five.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, she moved, We moved from.

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<v Speaker 1>What are the side effects of a brain asroom? How

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<v Speaker 1>she was undiagnosed for so long.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Probably the most famous person who had a brain

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<v Speaker 2>aneurysm that we could remember recently as doctor dre If

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<v Speaker 2>anybody remembers, he was rushed to the hospital a few

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<v Speaker 2>years ago basically was having intense pain or I don't

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<v Speaker 2>know the symptoms that he was experiencing, but she was.

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<v Speaker 1>But your mom was experiencing symptoms like pain and all

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<v Speaker 1>that pain while she was raising the five kids. Yes, wow, Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>And then your father, just a lightly touch on did

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<v Speaker 1>he passed when you guys were young or something?

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<v Speaker 2>No, my dad passed in twenty ten and my dad

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<v Speaker 2>was an ex football player, played for and my uncle

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<v Speaker 2>both played for Arizona State. They were they're both in

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<v Speaker 2>the Hall of Fame bart and John Jenkins, and my

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<v Speaker 2>dad then went both of them got drafted to the

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<v Speaker 2>NFL early early days. So I'd sell this is this

0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.120
<v Speaker 2>was leather helmet days. I'm the youngest. I'm actually I

0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.199
<v Speaker 2>have a blended family. I'm a mixed race for both

0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.080
<v Speaker 2>mixed race. Yeah, yeah, I got a blended family. And

0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.240
<v Speaker 2>he so he was drafted Chicago Bears and played a

0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.640
<v Speaker 2>couple of years and wanted to get into urban planning.

0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.000
<v Speaker 2>So he got his degree from Arizona State and eventually

0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.840
<v Speaker 2>found his way up to Oregon and met my mom

0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.000
<v Speaker 2>and all that. But yeah, he was around, but he

0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:42.559
<v Speaker 2>wasn't in my life type of thing.

0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.560
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So he was around your mom was, I guess

0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:49.880
<v Speaker 1>you got they were separated from early.

0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:54.880
<v Speaker 2>On or my parents never married. They I remember probably

0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:56.400
<v Speaker 2>my dad was in the house till I was about

0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.680
<v Speaker 2>five years old. And my dad was a wonderful person

0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.120
<v Speaker 2>and just an amazing, beautiful person. I think I got

0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:07.120
<v Speaker 2>a lot of my definitely got my entrepreneurial bug from him. Okay,

0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.440
<v Speaker 2>and because he started different ventures and different things. And

0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.280
<v Speaker 2>also from both my parents, I got the passion for

0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.800
<v Speaker 2>help in the community because my mom, when she was

0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:21.119
<v Speaker 2>healthy actually in the sixties, marched with Seesar chabez Andelos

0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.680
<v Speaker 2>witha in the farm workers movement. But yeah, my parents

0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.000
<v Speaker 2>never married. We were grew up in Portland. In fact,

0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.160
<v Speaker 2>when I was born, and I was born with a

0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.640
<v Speaker 2>disability as well, it's nothing that was, but I was

0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.600
<v Speaker 2>born with what I won't get too much into it,

0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:36.679
<v Speaker 2>but it was resolved at birth. But I was in

0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.559
<v Speaker 2>the hospital for six months and then when I got

0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.880
<v Speaker 2>out of the hospital, my mom and the family we

0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:43.640
<v Speaker 2>didn't have a place to live, so we lived in

0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:47.040
<v Speaker 2>a woman's shelter up in northeast Portland for many years

0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.720
<v Speaker 2>or not many years, but we lived there for several months.

0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.440
<v Speaker 1>Okay, And I take this as before your dad was

0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:53.600
<v Speaker 1>in the NFL.

0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.280
<v Speaker 2>Or yeah, because I'm the youngest of okay, Yeah, so

0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.440
<v Speaker 2>my dad he was in the NFL in like the

0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.000
<v Speaker 2>early seventies, Okay, because I'm the youngest of eleven and

0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.680
<v Speaker 2>so yeah, my dad had.

0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.679
<v Speaker 1>Eleven eleven kids and then five of them with your mom.

0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.080
<v Speaker 2>No, two of them were with my mom. My mom

0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.920
<v Speaker 2>had three other kids with other marriages.

0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.679
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, okay, so blended, definitely blended family. Okay, Okay,

0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.000
<v Speaker 1>you were saying blended, I thought you meant a biracial

0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.959
<v Speaker 1>that too. That's what I was thinking about. Okay. So

0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.680
<v Speaker 1>now we have a gist of your upbringing. You say,

0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:29.760
<v Speaker 1>now in high school you are a little bit of

0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.559
<v Speaker 1>a challenge. Can you can do? You know where that

0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:35.400
<v Speaker 1>challenging side of you came from?

0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, one hundred percent. So I'm the stereotypical grew up

0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.640
<v Speaker 2>with ADHD kid, you know what I mean. I was

0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:44.559
<v Speaker 2>like getting I got kicked out of I got expelled

0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:49.120
<v Speaker 2>or kicked out of every school, kindergarten. They gave me

0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.760
<v Speaker 2>my own desk or office in kindergarten, like when all

0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.839
<v Speaker 2>the kids were playing on the jungle gym and stuff.

0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.080
<v Speaker 2>I had a cubicle in the kitchen at kindergarten.

0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.760
<v Speaker 1>And then did they know you had ADHD at the time. No,

0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:00.920
<v Speaker 1>you discovered that later.

0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.000
<v Speaker 2>This was the eighties. It was just he was the

0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.880
<v Speaker 2>bad kid, he was the troublemaker and so yeah, yeah,

0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.280
<v Speaker 2>and then in second grade they that school kicked me

0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:12.640
<v Speaker 2>out and I had to go to what was called

0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.080
<v Speaker 2>a farm school, and this is out in Oregon Portland,

0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.720
<v Speaker 2>and so it was a little more rural, rural. And

0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:19.680
<v Speaker 2>I went to a farm school for a year and

0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.720
<v Speaker 2>it was like we had cows and it was in

0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:25.960
<v Speaker 2>a farmhouse and these were all the quote unquote bad kids.

0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.840
<v Speaker 2>And went there for about a year and then I

0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:31.600
<v Speaker 2>went back to the school that I was at, and

0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.080
<v Speaker 2>then the family at that part started breaking apart. My

0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.240
<v Speaker 2>dad left I was six or seven. He was in

0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.840
<v Speaker 2>and out of the house, like permanently left, and my

0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:44.680
<v Speaker 2>mom at that point decided we were living pretty hand

0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:46.160
<v Speaker 2>in mouth. At that point, we were living in my

0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:49.720
<v Speaker 2>grandfather's house. But it was like an old house that

0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.560
<v Speaker 2>was like literally was needed to be condemned. It was

0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.480
<v Speaker 2>like they're going to tear this house down. So my

0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:58.480
<v Speaker 2>mom was trying to figure out, like what to do.

0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.600
<v Speaker 2>I know, she got a little bit of mone from

0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.680
<v Speaker 2>the selling of that house because her and her siblings

0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.640
<v Speaker 2>had owned the property and so they sold it. Got

0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.960
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of money from that, and with that

0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.400
<v Speaker 2>we lived on that for about a year. We moved

0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.760
<v Speaker 2>to an apartment in Lake Oswego, Oregon. If anybody my

0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.960
<v Speaker 2>Oregon folks out there, and I remember going to that apartment.

0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.440
<v Speaker 2>We had no furniture. We had one TV in the corner,

0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.440
<v Speaker 2>and my brother and I slept on mats on the floor.

0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.760
<v Speaker 2>We couldn't afford furniture. Yeah, and so yeah, that it

0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.320
<v Speaker 2>was for us. It was adventurous.

0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.920
<v Speaker 1>Your mom positioned it as we're going through a new adventure.

0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:36.680
<v Speaker 1>She didn't highlight that you guys were struggling.

0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.720
<v Speaker 2>We always struggled. There was no frame of reference of

0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.680
<v Speaker 2>not struggling. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like, oh, this

0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:47.920
<v Speaker 2>was just my mom's Hey, this is what we're doing.

0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.640
<v Speaker 2>We're going to move through this apartment. And what she

0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.000
<v Speaker 2>was doing actually, which was amazing, I'm gonna grab my

0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.440
<v Speaker 2>water down here, which was I think, which was a

0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.480
<v Speaker 2>blessing and really what I think my mom for my

0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.400
<v Speaker 2>mom was a scrappy Scottish woman. She was like that

0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.320
<v Speaker 2>time she actually worked as a computer engineer. She was

0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.160
<v Speaker 2>one of the first software engineers for this company called Tectronics,

0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.960
<v Speaker 2>and they literally told her they didn't hire women, and

0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.360
<v Speaker 2>she just pushed and pushed her way into this job. Paul,

0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.760
<v Speaker 2>while she had this brain aneurysm that was undiagnosed. Mom

0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:21.760
<v Speaker 2>found a way, you know what I mean, I really

0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:23.920
<v Speaker 2>see it as like the beginning of this California dream

0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.800
<v Speaker 2>for us because my mom was dealing with and I

0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.280
<v Speaker 2>mentioned earlier off camera. My mom passed away in July,

0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.200
<v Speaker 2>and she was eighty four years old, and I think

0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.000
<v Speaker 2>the story of her life was her bringing us out

0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.240
<v Speaker 2>of Oregon. Nothing wrong with Oregon. I love Orgon, it's

0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.080
<v Speaker 2>my roots. But she brought us to California, and this

0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.480
<v Speaker 2>California dream just became a reality. We were I know

0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.800
<v Speaker 2>she was going through depression while she was up there

0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.880
<v Speaker 2>taking care of us. My oldest brother was out of

0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.160
<v Speaker 2>the house. He was like sixteen at the time or

0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.000
<v Speaker 2>something on his own. My two sisters, who are half sisters,

0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.719
<v Speaker 2>their father was abusive, and so she left that and

0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.320
<v Speaker 2>tried to get the girls, but lost the girls and

0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.359
<v Speaker 2>was not able to get them my older sisters, so

0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.400
<v Speaker 2>they became alienated from my mom. And my older brother, Tristan,

0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.320
<v Speaker 2>who's an amazing guy, said to my mom, and he

0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.679
<v Speaker 2>said this at the funeral. He said, he calls her Gene.

0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.560
<v Speaker 2>He said, Gene, you've got to take care of these

0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.520
<v Speaker 2>other boys, these two boys that you have, me and

0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:29.160
<v Speaker 2>my brother Jeremy. And so she applied to schools all

0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.240
<v Speaker 2>throughout the United States to study get her master's degree

0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.320
<v Speaker 2>and a PhD. One because she's an academic. She loved

0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.960
<v Speaker 2>to teach. And then two she knew that it would

0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.040
<v Speaker 2>be a livelihood that she would be able to take

0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.160
<v Speaker 2>care of us because she would get school loans and yeah,

0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.840
<v Speaker 2>and we wouldn't be on the streets anymore. So she

0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.560
<v Speaker 2>applied to three universities, or she got accepted to three

0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:54.879
<v Speaker 2>Texas University of Texas, Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine. Okay,

0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.800
<v Speaker 2>And my uncle, her brother at the time, had a business.

0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.119
<v Speaker 2>He was also in technology space. He had a software

0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.320
<v Speaker 2>company that he started in Irvine, and he said, you

0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.600
<v Speaker 2>need to come to Irvine. You need to come down

0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.480
<v Speaker 2>here to Irvine. Shout out to Irvine, the IVC, Yeah,

0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:12.000
<v Speaker 2>the Tech Post.

0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:13.760
<v Speaker 1>I have a cousin that went to that school.

0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.439
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you see, I shout out. And it was just

0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.120
<v Speaker 2>amazing because I remember one day we packed everything up

0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.320
<v Speaker 2>in the back of a nineteen seventy six Volvo and

0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.280
<v Speaker 2>did one of those small little U haul trailers. Yeah,

0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.639
<v Speaker 2>and we're She's like, all right, we're leaving. And she

0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.720
<v Speaker 2>didn't tell my dad, she didn't tell anybody. She just

0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.320
<v Speaker 2>packed everything up, me and my brother, Like they said,

0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:36.040
<v Speaker 2>the older the other kids are out of the house,

0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.399
<v Speaker 2>and we just drove down from Oregon, down the five,

0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.520
<v Speaker 2>down the one on one, all these little scenic routes.

0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:44.600
<v Speaker 2>I just remember driving through these little towns and stuff.

0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:48.040
<v Speaker 2>And I remember one time my mom saying, she's just

0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:49.960
<v Speaker 2>she's the guys, I spent all the money we have

0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:53.760
<v Speaker 2>on this. She's we're gonna make it. Wow, We're gonna

0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:54.040
<v Speaker 2>make it.

0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:55.679
<v Speaker 1>Did you guys end up going to live with your

0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:56.680
<v Speaker 1>uncle at that point?

0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.680
<v Speaker 2>I never lived with my uncle. Oh, okay, No, I

0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:05.040
<v Speaker 2>never I lived while my mom was stuff ready. Yeah, No,

0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:05.960
<v Speaker 2>she took us with her.

0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.200
<v Speaker 1>No, she took you guys. But it's Irvine. But you

0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:11.160
<v Speaker 1>said your uncle had a company out there.

0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.280
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, no, I didn't go because he had a

0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.280
<v Speaker 2>company out there in the eighties and then he sold

0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.080
<v Speaker 2>it his share and then moved to San Diego.

0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, but she came closer this way.

0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.400
<v Speaker 2>I recommended coming to Irvine. He was, so they had

0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:29.240
<v Speaker 2>a conversation. She came down. In fact, this earlier in

0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.280
<v Speaker 2>the summer, if I recall, she came down to San Diego,

0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.560
<v Speaker 2>and I went and stayed with my dad for a summer,

0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:36.800
<v Speaker 2>which was an amazing It was like that's where I

0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.240
<v Speaker 2>really started to connect with my pops.

0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:42.640
<v Speaker 1>Okay, but technology seems to be running fluid in your family.

0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.679
<v Speaker 2>I think technology does. I come from a family of

0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.600
<v Speaker 2>builders though my construction My dad was an urban planner

0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:52.920
<v Speaker 2>development over him. When I did have time with him,

0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.760
<v Speaker 2>we would drive around. At least I didn't go and

0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:56.960
<v Speaker 2>I would drive around. He would drive me around in

0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.639
<v Speaker 2>his pickup truck and we'd drive around MLK Boulevard and

0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:01.960
<v Speaker 2>all and he'd have these houses that he's designing or

0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.160
<v Speaker 2>building and stuff. And we had success with some things.

0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.600
<v Speaker 2>He never had breakout, Yeah, multi million dollar business, but

0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.880
<v Speaker 2>he got houses built. And what I got from my dad, Colleen,

0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.600
<v Speaker 2>was he never tried to just do it for a profit.

0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.480
<v Speaker 2>He built houses. He wanted to train people. In fact,

0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.320
<v Speaker 2>I remember he would take me and he would go

0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.680
<v Speaker 2>and get homeless guys and teach them the construction trade

0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.040
<v Speaker 2>nice and put them on the job nice.

0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.960
<v Speaker 1>I like that. Yeah, So let's skip ahead. So you

0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.399
<v Speaker 1>getting your first sales job. We skipped high school. High school,

0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.359
<v Speaker 1>you were labeled, I'm guessing a problem child.

0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.280
<v Speaker 2>So I not just a problem child. In high school.

0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:45.639
<v Speaker 2>I got arrested four times in one year in high school, Okay,

0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.400
<v Speaker 2>and it was And I'm just saying this because I'll

0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.080
<v Speaker 2>say the message that I want to do and people

0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.960
<v Speaker 2>I really want to speak to are those young kids

0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:55.520
<v Speaker 2>who are feel like they're on the wrong path. I

0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.040
<v Speaker 2>really want them to understand that sometimes there's a turning

0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.439
<v Speaker 2>point in your life. And so I got arrested four times,

0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:03.879
<v Speaker 2>and I got arrested on school. That was the it

0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.520
<v Speaker 2>for me. It was my junior year. Got into a fight,

0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:08.639
<v Speaker 2>was running with I would say I was running with

0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:10.320
<v Speaker 2>the right crowd for sure. These are guys that I

0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.720
<v Speaker 2>still hang out with today. But because we were black

0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:16.000
<v Speaker 2>and brown, we were in a community that didn't look

0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.760
<v Speaker 2>we didn't look like that Irvine. They and I got

0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:22.280
<v Speaker 2>into a fight and the teacher tried to break it up,

0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.600
<v Speaker 2>and the teacher claimed I punched him, and I don't

0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:27.200
<v Speaker 2>recall doing that, but I'm just going to say I

0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.720
<v Speaker 2>didn't do the right thing. Yeah, And so we left,

0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.080
<v Speaker 2>all of us just scattered. I came back to the

0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.280
<v Speaker 2>school and the principal pulled me into the office and said, hey,

0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:37.560
<v Speaker 2>we just want you to wait. We want to find

0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.360
<v Speaker 2>out what's going on? They didn't. They called my mom,

0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.040
<v Speaker 2>but they didn't let my mom see me. And I

0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.520
<v Speaker 2>waited till the end of school to get out, right

0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.680
<v Speaker 2>until the bell rang. The bell rang, police officers walked in,

0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.520
<v Speaker 2>handcuffed me, purp walked me in front of the entire school,

0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.440
<v Speaker 2>my girlfriend at the time, my friends, they were just shocked.

0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.200
<v Speaker 2>And I got arrested. That was like my fourth arrest,

0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:05.200
<v Speaker 2>I don't remember. And they I had like a literally

0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.399
<v Speaker 2>like a hearing at the school. It was a I

0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:09.159
<v Speaker 2>don't know what you call it, like a court case,

0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.879
<v Speaker 2>and they said you're expelled from high school. And I

0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.919
<v Speaker 2>was sixteen years old, and I'm like, what the heck? Like,

0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:17.480
<v Speaker 2>I didn't want to leave high school. Yeah, I was

0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.959
<v Speaker 2>a terrible student. I didn't study. I was d's and f's,

0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.000
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't want to leave. Yeah, So I got

0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:26.199
<v Speaker 2>expelled and they, fortunately my mom at the time and

0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.200
<v Speaker 2>some other guidance people, I got put into a school

0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.480
<v Speaker 2>with the gang members and the pregnant students, and there

0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:35.320
<v Speaker 2>was a teacher there. Her name was Marcy, and she

0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:39.640
<v Speaker 2>was like, AJ, you're different, you don't need to be here,

0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.320
<v Speaker 2>and she mentored me and literally from then on I

0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:45.040
<v Speaker 2>got straight a's.

0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:46.040
<v Speaker 1>Wow.

0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:48.240
<v Speaker 2>Straight a's. I never had as in my life.

0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:48.920
<v Speaker 1>Wow.

0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.440
<v Speaker 2>And come to find out, and we talked about the

0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:55.760
<v Speaker 2>ADHD thing. I was evaluated when I was in first grade,

0:22:56.080 --> 0:22:58.960
<v Speaker 2>and they said, yeah, he's got behavioral issues, he's got

0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.200
<v Speaker 2>all this. I was two grades I tested in first grade,

0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.080
<v Speaker 2>two grades ahead in math and language. But all along

0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:07.520
<v Speaker 2>everybody told me I was a bad kid.

0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and you started to really believe that.

0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.360
<v Speaker 2>You believe it, you become it. You're trying to survive

0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:16.560
<v Speaker 2>how people.

0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:17.480
<v Speaker 1>Are receiving you.

0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:20.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the teachers are treating you that sort of thing.

0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.639
<v Speaker 2>So I started getting straight a's and I'm like, I

0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:26.679
<v Speaker 2>was doing all my own. I'm like, this is easy. Yeah,

0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.720
<v Speaker 2>and fortune I did so well that year I went

0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:32.240
<v Speaker 2>to the other high school in Irvine and I reapplied

0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:34.919
<v Speaker 2>and they gave me a shot. They said, well, it

0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:37.399
<v Speaker 2>was Irvine High School. I'm gonna put people on blast

0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.879
<v Speaker 2>year University high School and Irvine expelled me, guys, but

0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.000
<v Speaker 2>Irvine High School said, hey, we're going to give you

0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:46.280
<v Speaker 2>a shot. And that was an amazing year for me

0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:49.080
<v Speaker 2>because not only then I got straight a's in high

0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:53.000
<v Speaker 2>school like a normal high school. I had two jobs.

0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:54.879
<v Speaker 2>I worked a job in the morning and buildings. I

0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:57.040
<v Speaker 2>went to school, and then I worked a job in

0:23:57.080 --> 0:24:01.000
<v Speaker 2>the evening, and I bought a car, and I was

0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:03.800
<v Speaker 2>the first one in all of my crew, literally because

0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:07.680
<v Speaker 2>my mom said, hey, we were on welfare all this time,

0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:10.760
<v Speaker 2>and she's I don't want you guys on welfare when

0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:12.639
<v Speaker 2>this summer I was seventeen. She said, you guys have

0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:16.520
<v Speaker 2>to move out. So I was seventeen when I graduated

0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:18.520
<v Speaker 2>high school. I graduated when I was seventeen.

0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:20.800
<v Speaker 1>She didn't watch a welfare but she kicked you all out.

0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:23.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, She's like, you got to go make your own way. Okay,

0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:25.960
<v Speaker 2>So my my brother came to me, and he's because

0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:28.280
<v Speaker 2>he had graduated a year earlier. He is a year older.

0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:30.919
<v Speaker 2>I told you, I like stuff overcook So I'm going

0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:33.040
<v Speaker 2>to turn this down, probably turn it off.

0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:33.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:36.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I had a job. I just bought my first

0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:38.960
<v Speaker 2>car h school and paid cash and had a couple

0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:41.920
<v Speaker 2>other little businesses I was doing. And I graduated high school.

0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:44.280
<v Speaker 2>I had an apartment my first we had four guys

0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:46.639
<v Speaker 2>in there. Yeah, but I had my own apartment. I

0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:50.160
<v Speaker 2>had two jobs, I had a car, Like I was doing,

0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:52.320
<v Speaker 2>I was doing. Never looked back.

0:24:53.359 --> 0:24:56.400
<v Speaker 1>All right, So that the lady that mentored you are

0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:58.199
<v Speaker 1>do you still have a decent relationship with her.

0:24:58.680 --> 0:25:00.760
<v Speaker 2>I don't know where she's at, but she was.

0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:03.960
<v Speaker 1>A pivotal yeah, point in your life. I'm sure your

0:25:04.000 --> 0:25:07.240
<v Speaker 1>mom was just beyond relieve that someone cracked.

0:25:06.960 --> 0:25:10.399
<v Speaker 2>The code exactly. Yes, she said, something clicked because I

0:25:10.440 --> 0:25:13.400
<v Speaker 2>got arrested the year before, I got arrested in Santa Ana.

0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:18.159
<v Speaker 2>I got arrested in Irvine twice. I got arrested. I

0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:21.360
<v Speaker 2>told you what on college campus or on my high

0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:24.040
<v Speaker 2>school campus. I don't like to say this, but I was.

0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:26.399
<v Speaker 2>I was at a I threw a party out in

0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:28.760
<v Speaker 2>Orange County, and I was always in the scene and a

0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:31.800
<v Speaker 2>lot of music. Loved hip hop, and unfortunately, one of

0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:33.399
<v Speaker 2>the guys that came there, we had a bunch of

0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:35.840
<v Speaker 2>gangsters that came and one of the guys got killed

0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:36.520
<v Speaker 2>at my party.

0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:37.800
<v Speaker 1>Oh no, that's not good.

0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:40.159
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's not good. No. I watched. I was sixteen

0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:42.200
<v Speaker 2>years old, and I watched this young guy. In fact,

0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:43.920
<v Speaker 2>I was like talking to him before the party, and

0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:47.200
<v Speaker 2>I watched this young guy get murdered. And my brother

0:25:47.200 --> 0:25:49.320
<v Speaker 2>and I we tried to save them, and there was

0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:51.119
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna say which gang or whatever of that,

0:25:51.160 --> 0:25:53.520
<v Speaker 2>but there was a bunch of gangsters around and I

0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:55.800
<v Speaker 2>pulled my brother and said, we're not like, we can't

0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:58.480
<v Speaker 2>do anything. Yeah, And so I was in a lot

0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:00.560
<v Speaker 2>of I would say the devil or whatever it was,

0:26:00.560 --> 0:26:04.520
<v Speaker 2>definitely had was trying to pull me back. So life

0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:06.720
<v Speaker 2>is crazy. Yeah, life is crazy.

0:26:07.119 --> 0:26:11.000
<v Speaker 1>So after the high school you start pivoting your life

0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:14.960
<v Speaker 1>in a positive direction, where does the entrepreneurship start to

0:26:15.000 --> 0:26:17.159
<v Speaker 1>creep in because you're working jobs.

0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:19.240
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I think I'm one of those that was born

0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:22.920
<v Speaker 2>an entrepreneur because I had businesses, like official businesses where

0:26:22.920 --> 0:26:26.240
<v Speaker 2>I register corporation. I didn't do till I was twenty

0:26:26.240 --> 0:26:29.400
<v Speaker 2>three point four, but I had businesses all throughout height.

0:26:29.440 --> 0:26:31.800
<v Speaker 2>I was that kid in school that was selling something

0:26:31.840 --> 0:26:32.520
<v Speaker 2>to somebody.

0:26:32.760 --> 0:26:32.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:35.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I would say I was born an entrepreneur.

0:26:35.720 --> 0:26:36.040
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:36.919
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:40.160
<v Speaker 1>And at this point, you're on your own, you're living

0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:43.080
<v Speaker 1>with these guys, you have your first sales job. At

0:26:43.080 --> 0:26:47.000
<v Speaker 1>what point does entrepreneur twenty three twenty four start taking over?

0:26:47.240 --> 0:26:50.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? It was so I worked at a job in

0:26:50.400 --> 0:26:53.760
<v Speaker 2>high school. It's FedEx now, not the delivery part, but

0:26:53.880 --> 0:26:56.600
<v Speaker 2>like the office part, and it used to be called Kinkos.

0:26:56.880 --> 0:26:58.879
<v Speaker 2>And I got a job that summer that I was

0:26:58.920 --> 0:27:01.080
<v Speaker 2>out of school, or that year that I was doing

0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:04.120
<v Speaker 2>homeschool and applied and I went in there every day

0:27:04.480 --> 0:27:08.840
<v Speaker 2>for like weeks actually his months. And another lady by

0:27:08.880 --> 0:27:10.639
<v Speaker 2>the name of Marci. I don't know what it is

0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:13.399
<v Speaker 2>with Marcy's our angels out there, but she's, man, you

0:27:13.480 --> 0:27:15.760
<v Speaker 2>just keep coming in here. We can't get rid of you.

0:27:15.960 --> 0:27:18.280
<v Speaker 2>And I'm like, I'm just looking for a job. And

0:27:18.359 --> 0:27:21.000
<v Speaker 2>so they created a job for me and I would

0:27:21.080 --> 0:27:23.480
<v Speaker 2>be working on the copying machines, I clean up, I

0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:26.200
<v Speaker 2>did all of these things. I saw. The guy who

0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:29.919
<v Speaker 2>owned he Kinkos was owned by another guy in Santa

0:27:29.920 --> 0:27:32.879
<v Speaker 2>Barbara and he sold it for over a billion dollars.

0:27:33.160 --> 0:27:35.320
<v Speaker 2>But there was a friend. There was a group of

0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:38.080
<v Speaker 2>Kinkos in Orange County that were privately owned by another group.

0:27:38.200 --> 0:27:43.080
<v Speaker 2>Guy's name was Rolin and oh gosh, Rollin and Charlotte,

0:27:43.119 --> 0:27:45.800
<v Speaker 2>I think, not quite sure. They lived in Laguna Beach. Yes,

0:27:46.200 --> 0:27:48.639
<v Speaker 2>Rollin would walk in and he was like this six

0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:52.159
<v Speaker 2>foot nine tall, older white guy with a ponytail, and

0:27:52.280 --> 0:27:54.280
<v Speaker 2>literally would have a stash of one hundred dollars bills

0:27:54.280 --> 0:27:57.480
<v Speaker 2>his sert pocket. I'm like, who does that? And so

0:27:57.520 --> 0:28:00.560
<v Speaker 2>I would meet Rolin. I'm like, I'm like asking questions

0:28:00.560 --> 0:28:01.920
<v Speaker 2>and all that, and he just pull out one hundred

0:28:01.920 --> 0:28:05.200
<v Speaker 2>dollars bills to pay for stuff. And he had these

0:28:05.240 --> 0:28:07.479
<v Speaker 2>two other guys that would come in and they were

0:28:07.560 --> 0:28:10.200
<v Speaker 2>dressed in like nice shirts and ties, and I'm like,

0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:12.600
<v Speaker 2>I want to be like these guys. And I would

0:28:12.640 --> 0:28:14.240
<v Speaker 2>and I'd ask, we're all on, what do they do?

0:28:14.400 --> 0:28:18.720
<v Speaker 2>And they're at sales? Oh, yeah, they're in sales. And

0:28:18.760 --> 0:28:21.520
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, okay. And then my mom said to me

0:28:21.560 --> 0:28:24.520
<v Speaker 2>one time, she said, hey, she goes, you need to

0:28:24.520 --> 0:28:27.119
<v Speaker 2>go into sales because one day you'll be a CEO.

0:28:27.760 --> 0:28:28.119
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

0:28:28.200 --> 0:28:30.359
<v Speaker 2>And when I won't get into my mom's relationship, we

0:28:30.359 --> 0:28:33.479
<v Speaker 2>were not we were close because she provided for us,

0:28:33.480 --> 0:28:36.199
<v Speaker 2>we weren't. I think she had lost a lot in

0:28:36.240 --> 0:28:39.840
<v Speaker 2>her life pustionally, and so we were not close emotionally.

0:28:39.960 --> 0:28:41.640
<v Speaker 2>But the one thing she said to me, she's you

0:28:41.680 --> 0:28:43.280
<v Speaker 2>need to go into sales because I think you could

0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:47.320
<v Speaker 2>be you be an entrepreneur. Yeah, And that was the spark.

0:28:47.680 --> 0:28:50.360
<v Speaker 1>And looking at that statement, that's a very I think,

0:28:50.480 --> 0:28:53.000
<v Speaker 1>very factual statement that if you are going to go

0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:57.160
<v Speaker 1>into entrepreneurship, being able to sell is definitely like a

0:28:57.280 --> 0:28:58.200
<v Speaker 1>number one skill.

0:28:58.760 --> 0:28:59.960
<v Speaker 2>You gotta sell something you got.

0:29:00.880 --> 0:29:01.880
<v Speaker 1>You got to be able to sell you all.

0:29:02.280 --> 0:29:03.719
<v Speaker 2>I've got to sell and sell yourself.

0:29:03.880 --> 0:29:08.160
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you're in sales's okay, your first company? What

0:29:08.320 --> 0:29:09.280
<v Speaker 1>is that first company?

0:29:09.440 --> 0:29:11.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? So that was launch Pad Career. There was a

0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:14.480
<v Speaker 2>staffing company I started in two thousand and six, okay,

0:29:14.760 --> 0:29:18.200
<v Speaker 2>and I had worked in. I got into staffing worked

0:29:18.240 --> 0:29:21.680
<v Speaker 2>in so anybody who's familiar staffing, it's employment services. It's

0:29:21.680 --> 0:29:24.720
<v Speaker 2>helping people find jobs, very related to what we do now.

0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:28.480
<v Speaker 2>And I worked at this company since two thousand built

0:29:28.520 --> 0:29:31.200
<v Speaker 2>myself up. Actually became the top sales rep in the country.

0:29:31.240 --> 0:29:33.200
<v Speaker 2>They had an annual war and I had no idea.

0:29:33.240 --> 0:29:35.360
<v Speaker 2>I got invited to this thing in Newport Beach and

0:29:35.560 --> 0:29:37.920
<v Speaker 2>it was out at the Higatt in Newport Beach. They

0:29:37.960 --> 0:29:40.560
<v Speaker 2>surprised me. The CEO of the company called my name out.

0:29:40.560 --> 0:29:43.880
<v Speaker 2>He's their top sales rep, Abraham Jenkins. I'm like what Yeah,

0:29:44.000 --> 0:29:46.360
<v Speaker 2>I was blowing like like this is crazy. He did

0:29:46.360 --> 0:29:48.440
<v Speaker 2>really well in sales, and I'm like, I want to

0:29:48.440 --> 0:29:50.920
<v Speaker 2>start my own company. So I went to the owner

0:29:51.280 --> 0:29:54.040
<v Speaker 2>of the company, or not the owner. Bob McDonald was

0:29:54.080 --> 0:29:57.080
<v Speaker 2>the owner of Remedy Staffing. He had passed away. Paul

0:29:57.120 --> 0:30:01.080
<v Speaker 2>Mike Has took over as the chairman, and then Greg Palmer,

0:30:01.160 --> 0:30:04.840
<v Speaker 2>who was a mentor of mine, was the president and COO,

0:30:05.320 --> 0:30:07.080
<v Speaker 2>and I went I approached them and I'm like, hey,

0:30:07.120 --> 0:30:08.800
<v Speaker 2>I want to own I want to buy a franchise.

0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:11.320
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, I know you got franchises. I want to

0:30:11.320 --> 0:30:14.840
<v Speaker 2>buy one. I went around and raised money to buy

0:30:14.920 --> 0:30:18.680
<v Speaker 2>the franchise, tried to negotiate with a couple of locations,

0:30:18.800 --> 0:30:21.640
<v Speaker 2>and the Las Vegas location was the one that became

0:30:22.000 --> 0:30:25.160
<v Speaker 2>like the best chance. I had everything ready to buy

0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:27.280
<v Speaker 2>this franchise. I had the money lined up, I had

0:30:27.280 --> 0:30:29.600
<v Speaker 2>the systems, I had where I was going to go,

0:30:29.720 --> 0:30:31.840
<v Speaker 2>all of that, and then last minute the guy pulled out,

0:30:31.920 --> 0:30:35.560
<v Speaker 2>he's I don't want to sell. Oh no, yeah, yeah.

0:30:35.840 --> 0:30:37.920
<v Speaker 1>That must have been devastating. So then my guess is

0:30:37.960 --> 0:30:40.160
<v Speaker 1>that's when you were like, ah, now that I raised

0:30:40.160 --> 0:30:42.560
<v Speaker 1>the money, might as well going business for myself exactly.

0:30:43.000 --> 0:30:44.800
<v Speaker 2>And my investor at the time was still it was

0:30:44.800 --> 0:30:47.320
<v Speaker 2>also an investor in my software company. Let's just do

0:30:47.360 --> 0:30:47.880
<v Speaker 2>our own thing.

0:30:48.320 --> 0:30:48.640
<v Speaker 1>Okay.

0:30:48.720 --> 0:30:51.160
<v Speaker 2>So I packed up everything, drove out to Las Vegas

0:30:51.200 --> 0:30:53.640
<v Speaker 2>where we were going to open up, and like literally

0:30:54.000 --> 0:30:57.640
<v Speaker 2>drove out to got an apartment, drove out, and then

0:30:57.680 --> 0:31:00.400
<v Speaker 2>the next day I'm out there calling on businesses And.

0:31:00.320 --> 0:31:03.480
<v Speaker 1>Did you become that guy's competitor at that point? Oh yeah,

0:31:03.600 --> 0:31:07.680
<v Speaker 1>did you put him out of business? No? Today I

0:31:07.720 --> 0:31:11.160
<v Speaker 1>had to go for God, but you became his competitor.

0:31:11.200 --> 0:31:14.400
<v Speaker 1>So okay, yeah, that's good. That's good enough. Are you

0:31:14.440 --> 0:31:15.320
<v Speaker 1>going to feed me today?

0:31:15.840 --> 0:31:18.400
<v Speaker 2>I'm waiting for you to say feed us. Okay, So

0:31:18.800 --> 0:31:22.080
<v Speaker 2>let me give me your plate, and I probably should

0:31:22.080 --> 0:31:23.360
<v Speaker 2>taste it first to make sure.

0:31:23.200 --> 0:31:25.680
<v Speaker 1>That it's ready to go, but I'm pretty sure it's good.

0:31:25.720 --> 0:31:28.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm start with you. I gotta do the condiments and

0:31:28.760 --> 0:31:30.520
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff. We got to do the whole thing.

0:31:30.560 --> 0:31:31.560
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna stand up again.

0:31:31.720 --> 0:31:33.239
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you're going to stand up?

0:31:33.440 --> 0:31:36.840
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right? All right? Yeah, put that there. Let

0:31:36.840 --> 0:31:39.360
<v Speaker 2>me get your plate ready. So back to the food,

0:31:39.600 --> 0:31:42.520
<v Speaker 2>chicken teketos. I'm excited about this because I would eat

0:31:42.560 --> 0:31:42.960
<v Speaker 2>this today.

0:31:43.640 --> 0:31:44.560
<v Speaker 1>You go today.

0:31:45.400 --> 0:31:49.440
<v Speaker 2>So the mayonnaise, Okay, again, this is not fancy food.

0:31:49.720 --> 0:31:52.719
<v Speaker 2>Anybody out there thinks if you're struggling, you're having fancy

0:31:52.720 --> 0:31:53.280
<v Speaker 2>food here.

0:31:53.320 --> 0:31:55.000
<v Speaker 1>I'll try to do it on this plate too. This

0:31:55.040 --> 0:31:57.320
<v Speaker 1>is your plate, I know, I'll just okay, so you

0:31:57.360 --> 0:31:58.240
<v Speaker 1>got the mayo.

0:31:58.440 --> 0:32:00.920
<v Speaker 2>Got the mayo. Look, top of tier makes everything better.

0:32:01.080 --> 0:32:02.440
<v Speaker 2>Top of TiO if you want to. If you want

0:32:02.440 --> 0:32:06.560
<v Speaker 2>to sponsor me, we're playing down for that. Yeah. I'm

0:32:06.600 --> 0:32:09.320
<v Speaker 2>loyal to brands. I am very loyal to brands, and

0:32:09.360 --> 0:32:11.240
<v Speaker 2>I'm just gonna show you just as well. If you

0:32:11.240 --> 0:32:14.440
<v Speaker 2>can't get Top of TiO, go get yourself some delferno

0:32:14.960 --> 0:32:17.120
<v Speaker 2>from Del Taco. Ok Look, I got my.

0:32:17.120 --> 0:32:18.960
<v Speaker 1>Brain, brought all the ingredients I brought.

0:32:19.560 --> 0:32:22.200
<v Speaker 2>I brought all the ingredients. I asked for extra. If

0:32:22.240 --> 0:32:24.400
<v Speaker 2>you are struggling, don't go out and buy Top of TiO.

0:32:24.920 --> 0:32:28.440
<v Speaker 2>Go to Del Taco, get yourself a seventy nine cent

0:32:28.560 --> 0:32:31.040
<v Speaker 2>or a dollar twenty nine taco and ask for extras.

0:32:31.400 --> 0:32:34.880
<v Speaker 1>Nowadays they charge for these extra sauces, do they? I think? So?

0:32:35.080 --> 0:32:37.400
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's up here in LA in Orange County, we

0:32:37.440 --> 0:32:38.360
<v Speaker 2>still give state away.

0:32:38.400 --> 0:32:40.960
<v Speaker 1>They sail charge and ask for extra anything.

0:32:41.040 --> 0:32:42.720
<v Speaker 2>Yes, okay, let me get this was your plate?

0:32:42.800 --> 0:32:45.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, hair, let's switch and I put do.

0:32:45.280 --> 0:32:47.680
<v Speaker 2>You like spicy food? Because that delferno is a little bit.

0:32:48.160 --> 0:32:49.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna try it. I'm just gonna mix it.

0:32:49.720 --> 0:32:51.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you can mix it up. I'm gonna put delferno

0:32:51.840 --> 0:32:52.440
<v Speaker 2>on mine.

0:32:52.920 --> 0:32:55.600
<v Speaker 1>I'm hungry and I'm excited to eat these. Even though

0:32:55.600 --> 0:32:57.600
<v Speaker 1>I thought these were gonna be freshly made. It's fine.

0:32:58.560 --> 0:33:00.480
<v Speaker 2>I could have made him fresh you know what I

0:33:00.480 --> 0:33:02.239
<v Speaker 2>could have gone. That would have taken longer us.

0:33:02.880 --> 0:33:06.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna go like this.

0:33:07.680 --> 0:33:08.720
<v Speaker 2>You're doing that the right way?

0:33:09.040 --> 0:33:09.960
<v Speaker 1>Is that how you do it? Really?

0:33:10.280 --> 0:33:11.000
<v Speaker 2>When you do it?

0:33:11.560 --> 0:33:11.840
<v Speaker 1>Okay?

0:33:12.320 --> 0:33:14.120
<v Speaker 2>Now this is health conscious.

0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:16.280
<v Speaker 1>Now you don't eat this every day?

0:33:16.520 --> 0:33:26.400
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? This is cheers, this is yeah. Oh man, the sauce. See,

0:33:26.960 --> 0:33:32.719
<v Speaker 2>people don't know the man, I'm telling you. Wow, did

0:33:32.800 --> 0:33:35.480
<v Speaker 2>you go home with the sauce we made? We invented

0:33:35.480 --> 0:33:44.080
<v Speaker 2>this sauce. There's mayonnaise and hot sauce. Wow, it was

0:33:44.120 --> 0:33:44.560
<v Speaker 2>really good.

0:33:46.280 --> 0:33:46.960
<v Speaker 1>I would eat this.

0:33:47.440 --> 0:33:47.960
<v Speaker 2>I missed this.

0:33:50.080 --> 0:33:51.520
<v Speaker 1>Would you make your son try it?

0:33:52.000 --> 0:33:53.040
<v Speaker 2>Of course? Yeah?

0:33:53.080 --> 0:33:56.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he loves and I would love to see his

0:33:56.040 --> 0:33:57.920
<v Speaker 1>reaction trying this. Eat this sauce though.

0:33:58.240 --> 0:34:03.200
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, my kid love spicy food. Okay yep.

0:34:04.200 --> 0:34:07.360
<v Speaker 1>AJ does not get a rating on the food because

0:34:07.360 --> 0:34:10.319
<v Speaker 1>he did not cook it fresh. But as far as

0:34:10.320 --> 0:34:13.719
<v Speaker 1>this sauce, guys, if you do not have salsa in

0:34:13.800 --> 0:34:16.400
<v Speaker 1>sour cream at home, or if you just want to

0:34:16.440 --> 0:34:18.960
<v Speaker 1>switch it up Mayo with the top of Teo and

0:34:19.000 --> 0:34:21.920
<v Speaker 1>the Del Taco sauce, this is a definite win. I

0:34:22.200 --> 0:34:23.319
<v Speaker 1>would have never thought to do this.

0:34:23.760 --> 0:34:26.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I have a point behind making it fresh.

0:34:27.280 --> 0:34:30.200
<v Speaker 2>And I said this off cameras. I didn't have time

0:34:30.239 --> 0:34:33.200
<v Speaker 2>to cook. Back in the day, we did not have time.

0:34:33.239 --> 0:34:36.799
<v Speaker 2>It was school, it was job, it was business. It

0:34:36.880 --> 0:34:38.279
<v Speaker 2>still is like that for me now, but I have

0:34:38.360 --> 0:34:40.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm not going to both have people that cook for

0:34:40.080 --> 0:34:42.680
<v Speaker 2>me now and kids that people watch the kids unless

0:34:42.680 --> 0:34:44.640
<v Speaker 2>I'm wanting to do like a Friday nights. I like

0:34:44.680 --> 0:34:46.799
<v Speaker 2>to cook. Friday nights. I like to cook. But we

0:34:46.840 --> 0:34:49.399
<v Speaker 2>did not have time. Everybody was like in the house.

0:34:49.480 --> 0:34:51.719
<v Speaker 2>Nobody was sitting in the house, sitting around. Everybody was like,

0:34:51.719 --> 0:34:53.560
<v Speaker 2>I gotta be here, I gotta be there, gotta go.

0:34:53.840 --> 0:34:56.520
<v Speaker 1>So your first company, the staffing company, the.

0:34:56.560 --> 0:34:58.560
<v Speaker 2>Launch Launch Pack Career Careers.

0:34:58.760 --> 0:35:00.719
<v Speaker 1>That company is around for how many years?

0:35:01.040 --> 0:35:04.560
<v Speaker 2>That was from two thousand and five. We incorporated in

0:35:04.560 --> 0:35:07.319
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and five and exited the business in two

0:35:07.320 --> 0:35:07.960
<v Speaker 2>thousand and seven.

0:35:08.200 --> 0:35:09.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you sold the business.

0:35:09.560 --> 0:35:13.320
<v Speaker 2>Yes to our customers. So our customers we were having

0:35:13.640 --> 0:35:17.319
<v Speaker 2>we would send people out on temporary assignments, and we

0:35:17.400 --> 0:35:20.319
<v Speaker 2>basically got offers from the customers, our clients that said, hey,

0:35:20.360 --> 0:35:22.360
<v Speaker 2>we want to buy out all your contracts, and so

0:35:22.400 --> 0:35:24.600
<v Speaker 2>we had an opportunity to just sell out all of

0:35:24.640 --> 0:35:27.239
<v Speaker 2>the people that were on assignment. And it's not quite

0:35:27.280 --> 0:35:29.120
<v Speaker 2>what we would consider an aqua hype. It was more

0:35:29.160 --> 0:35:32.120
<v Speaker 2>of they just bought out all the contracts and we're like, yep,

0:35:32.360 --> 0:35:34.960
<v Speaker 2>And the Great Recession was starting to happen too, so

0:35:35.040 --> 0:35:37.600
<v Speaker 2>it was a it was a good timing for us

0:35:37.640 --> 0:35:39.160
<v Speaker 2>because we knew it.

0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:43.480
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, recession, Yeah remember that.

0:35:43.719 --> 0:35:45.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

0:35:45.600 --> 0:35:48.560
<v Speaker 1>So after that, you get this chunk of money. You're

0:35:48.560 --> 0:35:52.520
<v Speaker 1>feeling yourself. I'm sure, chunk of money. Money, you're feeling yourself.

0:35:52.880 --> 0:35:53.759
<v Speaker 1>You're in Vegas.

0:35:54.320 --> 0:35:56.279
<v Speaker 2>So at that time I opened three offices, so we

0:35:56.280 --> 0:35:58.320
<v Speaker 2>had Las Vegas and we had two in Orange County.

0:35:58.400 --> 0:36:01.720
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay, so you're out here, you sold this company.

0:36:01.840 --> 0:36:04.239
<v Speaker 1>What's your next play? And I know you're not just

0:36:04.280 --> 0:36:05.839
<v Speaker 1>sitting relaxing for the next year.

0:36:06.000 --> 0:36:08.719
<v Speaker 2>No, it was it was not a chunk of mons.

0:36:08.960 --> 0:36:11.080
<v Speaker 2>This was the Great Recession, and everybody, I think was

0:36:11.120 --> 0:36:13.319
<v Speaker 2>just shocked at what's going on, and we were too,

0:36:13.520 --> 0:36:16.160
<v Speaker 2>But at the time, I was also involved in politics

0:36:16.200 --> 0:36:19.000
<v Speaker 2>at the time campaign and a lot of the government

0:36:19.040 --> 0:36:21.799
<v Speaker 2>agencies because they knew I knew employment and how to

0:36:21.800 --> 0:36:24.400
<v Speaker 2>help people with getting jobs and careers, a lot of

0:36:24.440 --> 0:36:27.480
<v Speaker 2>them reached out to me because Orange County, Ana Anaheim,

0:36:27.640 --> 0:36:32.319
<v Speaker 2>Los Angeles, San Francisco, all of these government agencies or

0:36:32.400 --> 0:36:35.239
<v Speaker 2>city governments were trying to help people get employed because

0:36:35.280 --> 0:36:39.240
<v Speaker 2>it was just massive layoffs. And so I, through my network,

0:36:39.320 --> 0:36:42.880
<v Speaker 2>started getting consulting engagements. So that's when I started a

0:36:42.920 --> 0:36:46.560
<v Speaker 2>company called Workforce two point zero, which was to consult

0:36:46.600 --> 0:36:50.760
<v Speaker 2>with these agencies to help them get people reemployed. Okay, yeah,

0:36:50.760 --> 0:36:53.520
<v Speaker 2>So we ended up getting contracts in Orange County in

0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:56.640
<v Speaker 2>Los Angeles too, and this is when I learned about

0:36:56.920 --> 0:37:00.680
<v Speaker 2>workforce development and how they actually do help you with

0:37:01.000 --> 0:37:04.680
<v Speaker 2>job training and employment. And so I got these contracts,

0:37:04.760 --> 0:37:07.480
<v Speaker 2>and one in particular we got with the County of

0:37:07.480 --> 0:37:10.360
<v Speaker 2>Los Angeles to help people who are on welfare get reemployed.

0:37:10.600 --> 0:37:12.960
<v Speaker 2>Set up an office in South LA. We would drive

0:37:13.000 --> 0:37:16.720
<v Speaker 2>in South LA every day from Orange County and would

0:37:16.719 --> 0:37:19.160
<v Speaker 2>help basically people would come in that are on welfare

0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:21.600
<v Speaker 2>and we'd go find them a job. Okay, And I

0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:23.360
<v Speaker 2>did that for about a year and a half. We

0:37:23.400 --> 0:37:26.719
<v Speaker 2>got a bunch of contracts and at that point, this

0:37:26.760 --> 0:37:29.359
<v Speaker 2>is when I started the technology company because I had

0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:33.120
<v Speaker 2>software in my staffing company. We ran the business with software. Yeah,

0:37:33.160 --> 0:37:35.719
<v Speaker 2>and so I realized like I should be doing the

0:37:35.719 --> 0:37:39.000
<v Speaker 2>same thing in this consulting engagement. Ok So we built software.

0:37:39.120 --> 0:37:41.560
<v Speaker 1>Keep saying we, I'm sorry, why are you keep saying

0:37:41.600 --> 0:37:45.040
<v Speaker 1>that we? Are you referencing the company? Are you referencing

0:37:45.040 --> 0:37:46.120
<v Speaker 1>a partner the team?

0:37:46.160 --> 0:37:49.000
<v Speaker 2>I have partners. Whenever you're doing something, you're doing it

0:37:49.160 --> 0:37:50.319
<v Speaker 2>with we you're doing it with.

0:37:50.680 --> 0:37:52.680
<v Speaker 1>I just wanted to clarify, I thought, But I was like,

0:37:53.040 --> 0:37:53.520
<v Speaker 1>just make sure.

0:37:53.640 --> 0:37:56.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I've got partners. Ian Connell is our CFN. He's

0:37:56.480 --> 0:37:59.040
<v Speaker 2>an investor and owner, and then Melissa as well as

0:37:59.040 --> 0:38:02.719
<v Speaker 2>my business partner, and so they but I also had employee.

0:38:02.840 --> 0:38:05.279
<v Speaker 2>I had a guy named Charles at the time, and

0:38:05.280 --> 0:38:07.799
<v Speaker 2>then Alyssa. When I say we, it's it's your team,

0:38:07.840 --> 0:38:09.640
<v Speaker 2>it's a team. It's a team, especially when I'm talking

0:38:09.640 --> 0:38:12.440
<v Speaker 2>about the things that we're doing. Right, I started a company, sure,

0:38:12.440 --> 0:38:13.680
<v Speaker 2>but we're building this thing.

0:38:13.800 --> 0:38:14.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:38:14.480 --> 0:38:17.680
<v Speaker 2>So we set up an office in South LA and

0:38:18.000 --> 0:38:20.719
<v Speaker 2>basically we built the software. And this is when I'll

0:38:20.719 --> 0:38:23.160
<v Speaker 2>talk about companies we worked with. We ended up building

0:38:23.160 --> 0:38:28.360
<v Speaker 2>the software on Salesforce, and we as we started getting

0:38:28.600 --> 0:38:32.239
<v Speaker 2>more and more traction with these consulting engagements and using

0:38:32.280 --> 0:38:35.080
<v Speaker 2>this software and showing, like the City of Long Beach,

0:38:35.160 --> 0:38:37.799
<v Speaker 2>City of LA, how we were helping all these people

0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:38.360
<v Speaker 2>get employed.

0:38:38.440 --> 0:38:38.960
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:38:39.000 --> 0:38:41.040
<v Speaker 2>They were like, we love what you're doing with the program,

0:38:41.200 --> 0:38:42.680
<v Speaker 2>but we love the software even more.

0:38:43.120 --> 0:38:45.720
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And at the time, you guys were using Salesforce.

0:38:45.320 --> 0:38:47.600
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, and we are still on Salesforce.

0:38:47.160 --> 0:38:49.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, because I was gonna say Salesforce is hey, miss, Like,

0:38:49.520 --> 0:38:53.279
<v Speaker 1>I've worked with Salesforce within organizations and it does the trick,

0:38:53.320 --> 0:38:55.440
<v Speaker 1>but then sometimes it doesn't do the trick. It can

0:38:55.480 --> 0:38:56.440
<v Speaker 1>be a little funky.

0:38:56.719 --> 0:38:59.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So we use them. Same as people build software

0:38:59.320 --> 0:39:02.400
<v Speaker 2>on Amazon Oracle, or if they're building on Google Cloud,

0:39:02.520 --> 0:39:05.160
<v Speaker 2>or if they're building it on Microsoft. We decided to

0:39:05.200 --> 0:39:08.520
<v Speaker 2>build it on Salesforce. And its actually was really successful

0:39:08.560 --> 0:39:11.640
<v Speaker 2>because at the time they were just getting into the

0:39:11.680 --> 0:39:14.400
<v Speaker 2>government space and so we were able to ride that

0:39:14.440 --> 0:39:17.320
<v Speaker 2>wave a little bit and exactly what you talked about,

0:39:17.520 --> 0:39:20.760
<v Speaker 2>Calleen is that they weren't building it for these specific

0:39:20.840 --> 0:39:23.440
<v Speaker 2>program That's what we did, Okay, So we designed it

0:39:23.480 --> 0:39:26.560
<v Speaker 2>and we built our own IP on top of it. Specifically,

0:39:26.640 --> 0:39:30.880
<v Speaker 2>IP is intellectual property for anybody out there, own your software,

0:39:31.320 --> 0:39:31.680
<v Speaker 2>own your.

0:39:31.640 --> 0:39:34.560
<v Speaker 1>So I didn't know. So you built on top of Salesforce?

0:39:34.800 --> 0:39:35.600
<v Speaker 1>Is that what you're saying.

0:39:35.680 --> 0:39:38.120
<v Speaker 2>I only get too technical. There's contracts and all of

0:39:38.120 --> 0:39:40.719
<v Speaker 2>that stuff that's related to it. I'm not that could

0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:43.600
<v Speaker 2>go down another path, but the short answer is it's

0:39:43.640 --> 0:39:47.160
<v Speaker 2>our software, it's our IP. And people do the same

0:39:47.160 --> 0:39:49.839
<v Speaker 2>thing when they build on Google Cloud or Amazon. They're

0:39:49.920 --> 0:39:52.960
<v Speaker 2>just the infrastructure, but we're sitting on top of that.

0:39:53.160 --> 0:39:55.640
<v Speaker 1>Wow. Yeah, I love the tech industry for that though.

0:39:55.760 --> 0:39:59.000
<v Speaker 1>I feel like it's very much like open source built

0:39:59.040 --> 0:40:02.360
<v Speaker 1>that's not as much hater raid as I'd say other industries.

0:40:02.560 --> 0:40:05.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I'm just going to tell everybody this, especially

0:40:05.080 --> 0:40:07.960
<v Speaker 2>we're here in LA and the media technology is taking

0:40:08.000 --> 0:40:08.800
<v Speaker 2>over everything.

0:40:08.880 --> 0:40:10.800
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah it is and it has been for a while.

0:40:11.239 --> 0:40:14.120
<v Speaker 2>And don't sleep on AI. Yeah, don't sleep on AI.

0:40:14.440 --> 0:40:16.600
<v Speaker 1>I don't think anyone's sleeping on it now. People are

0:40:16.600 --> 0:40:17.200
<v Speaker 1>like hooked to it.

0:40:17.320 --> 0:40:19.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're hooked to it as a consumer. Yeah, but

0:40:20.000 --> 0:40:22.279
<v Speaker 2>thirty five percent of white collar jobs are going to

0:40:22.360 --> 0:40:25.799
<v Speaker 2>be taken over by AI, the restaurant industry media. I

0:40:25.880 --> 0:40:28.439
<v Speaker 2>was just we're driving up here and listening to listen

0:40:28.520 --> 0:40:30.520
<v Speaker 2>to Big Boy and they were playing songs that were

0:40:30.520 --> 0:40:31.960
<v Speaker 2>one hundred percent AI created.

0:40:32.120 --> 0:40:32.319
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

0:40:32.520 --> 0:40:34.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the game has changed.

0:40:34.600 --> 0:40:37.200
<v Speaker 1>The game has changed. Now, how do you feel about

0:40:38.160 --> 0:40:40.759
<v Speaker 1>the plumbing and electrical and the AC and all these

0:40:40.800 --> 0:40:43.640
<v Speaker 1>other careers that are going to be booming. Do you

0:40:43.640 --> 0:40:45.960
<v Speaker 1>think that the demand and the costs for these jobs

0:40:45.960 --> 0:40:48.279
<v Speaker 1>are going to be a lot more because it's going

0:40:48.360 --> 0:40:50.440
<v Speaker 1>to be one of the few industries that are like

0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:55.600
<v Speaker 1>you can't I doubt AI can replace it.

0:40:55.680 --> 0:40:58.640
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, I think there's two things. Yeah, people are

0:40:58.640 --> 0:41:01.319
<v Speaker 2>flooding into the trades. People are flooding into trades. One,

0:41:01.360 --> 0:41:03.520
<v Speaker 2>you don't have to get a four year degree, and

0:41:03.560 --> 0:41:05.960
<v Speaker 2>you can make six figures and above in the trades.

0:41:06.400 --> 0:41:08.520
<v Speaker 2>And I've got a guy who's an exterminator comes to

0:41:08.560 --> 0:41:10.880
<v Speaker 2>my house every quarter and I'm sure he's probably pulling

0:41:10.960 --> 0:41:13.839
<v Speaker 2>in above six figures, you know what I mean? So

0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:17.719
<v Speaker 2>you know, do what you love first. Yeah, but just understand,

0:41:17.760 --> 0:41:20.520
<v Speaker 2>if you're just looking for a job somewhere pushing paper.

0:41:20.600 --> 0:41:23.880
<v Speaker 2>You're going to be unemployed. Not in five years, You're

0:41:23.880 --> 0:41:26.399
<v Speaker 2>going to be unemployed this year or next year. It's

0:41:26.440 --> 0:41:29.840
<v Speaker 2>coming fast. I know people, and I'm not trying to

0:41:29.840 --> 0:41:31.880
<v Speaker 2>scare people, but I wanted to talk about this is

0:41:32.360 --> 0:41:34.840
<v Speaker 2>under in under a year. In under a year. I

0:41:34.880 --> 0:41:36.839
<v Speaker 2>know folks who work for Taco Bell and who are

0:41:36.840 --> 0:41:40.759
<v Speaker 2>developing the AI drive through, and they're piloting it right.

0:41:41.000 --> 0:41:44.080
<v Speaker 1>But even though okay, they can do the AI drive through,

0:41:44.080 --> 0:41:45.960
<v Speaker 1>but who can actually prepare the food?

0:41:46.360 --> 0:41:48.480
<v Speaker 2>The machines are going to prepare the food? You think

0:41:48.520 --> 0:41:51.319
<v Speaker 2>so hundred percent you didn't need me to cook this thing.

0:41:51.360 --> 0:41:53.520
<v Speaker 2>By the way, the machine will cook this thing eventually,

0:41:53.560 --> 0:41:55.520
<v Speaker 2>one hundred percent. There are restaurants now that are one

0:41:55.560 --> 0:41:59.239
<v Speaker 2>hundred percent automated in terms of making the burger one

0:41:59.360 --> 0:42:01.160
<v Speaker 2>yes and Sam Francisco. I don't know the name of it,

0:42:01.200 --> 0:42:02.200
<v Speaker 2>but there you know, I was.

0:42:02.160 --> 0:42:03.880
<v Speaker 1>About to ask you. People are going to out be

0:42:03.960 --> 0:42:05.320
<v Speaker 1>out there right now, Google.

0:42:07.080 --> 0:42:10.200
<v Speaker 2>Automated under they're going to be making the food the

0:42:10.280 --> 0:42:12.919
<v Speaker 2>restaurant into We're not talking about fine dining, we're talking

0:42:12.960 --> 0:42:16.279
<v Speaker 2>about entry. And so I came from a conference up

0:42:16.320 --> 0:42:19.200
<v Speaker 2>in Monterey and we were talking about this is that

0:42:19.280 --> 0:42:22.399
<v Speaker 2>the entry level job is being eliminated. I talked about

0:42:22.400 --> 0:42:24.680
<v Speaker 2>the entry level job that I got into, the entry

0:42:24.760 --> 0:42:27.600
<v Speaker 2>level job we all had one. That job is being eliminated.

0:42:27.840 --> 0:42:30.800
<v Speaker 1>I believe that. So I tell my friends, like marketing,

0:42:30.880 --> 0:42:34.759
<v Speaker 1>I have a marketing sales background. Marketing and sales, we're done,

0:42:35.520 --> 0:42:38.399
<v Speaker 1>let's go become a nurser. Do this because we out

0:42:38.719 --> 0:42:40.720
<v Speaker 1>we got about six months left.

0:42:40.920 --> 0:42:42.799
<v Speaker 2>I don't think so on marketing and sales because you

0:42:42.840 --> 0:42:48.160
<v Speaker 2>can use the AI tools to do. If you can

0:42:48.280 --> 0:42:50.560
<v Speaker 2>use the AI tools in your career, you'll be able

0:42:50.560 --> 0:42:51.320
<v Speaker 2>to ride the way.

0:42:51.360 --> 0:42:54.560
<v Speaker 1>But I will say this though, companies and organizations like

0:42:54.680 --> 0:42:57.479
<v Speaker 1>remember your photoshop and now we have Canva with shout

0:42:57.480 --> 0:43:01.200
<v Speaker 1>outs to Canva genius lady. Now companies are like, we

0:43:01.239 --> 0:43:04.439
<v Speaker 1>can have our intern creator now. So that's why I say,

0:43:04.480 --> 0:43:06.920
<v Speaker 1>like marketing, like some of those things are definitely going

0:43:06.960 --> 0:43:10.239
<v Speaker 1>to be if you're a company, just shove it on

0:43:10.280 --> 0:43:10.800
<v Speaker 1>your intern.

0:43:10.880 --> 0:43:13.200
<v Speaker 2>You can't be a graphic designer, you can't be In fact,

0:43:13.239 --> 0:43:16.239
<v Speaker 2>we just updated our website, launched a new website, and

0:43:16.480 --> 0:43:19.960
<v Speaker 2>I had one guy do it. Yeah, we had contractors,

0:43:19.960 --> 0:43:22.800
<v Speaker 2>but it was we used AI to create images, write content.

0:43:23.760 --> 0:43:27.000
<v Speaker 2>We did so much, so it's the world is crazy.

0:43:27.560 --> 0:43:29.719
<v Speaker 1>It's going a trick question though. I have a love

0:43:29.760 --> 0:43:33.000
<v Speaker 1>hate relationship with social media, But now that everything is

0:43:33.080 --> 0:43:37.040
<v Speaker 1>automated and everything's AI related, I'm my hope is that

0:43:37.360 --> 0:43:40.200
<v Speaker 1>social media disbands eventually because all you're going to see

0:43:40.280 --> 0:43:43.960
<v Speaker 1>is populated content AI content from AI photos to AI

0:43:44.080 --> 0:43:47.240
<v Speaker 1>video to and did Drake really say this? Did Biggie

0:43:47.360 --> 0:43:49.800
<v Speaker 1>really say this? Because they have all these voices and stuff.

0:43:50.200 --> 0:43:53.239
<v Speaker 1>Now this platform that used to be like organic is

0:43:53.280 --> 0:43:56.080
<v Speaker 1>now going to be we all know it's a consistency

0:43:56.160 --> 0:43:59.080
<v Speaker 1>numbers game. Eventually, I would imagine that it would fade

0:43:59.120 --> 0:44:00.560
<v Speaker 1>to black. What are your thought that.

0:44:01.719 --> 0:44:04.120
<v Speaker 2>The world is still about attention and getting It's how

0:44:04.200 --> 0:44:06.279
<v Speaker 2>do you get people's attention? I do think and I'm

0:44:06.280 --> 0:44:08.320
<v Speaker 2>gonna believe it like you, I think the in person

0:44:08.400 --> 0:44:11.279
<v Speaker 2>is going to be much more valuable. I think in

0:44:11.360 --> 0:44:15.319
<v Speaker 2>person events, in person media concerts, people are gonna want

0:44:15.320 --> 0:44:17.880
<v Speaker 2>the real thing. I think it's unfortunate a lot of

0:44:17.880 --> 0:44:20.279
<v Speaker 2>people are stuck in the consumer mindset, just stuck to

0:44:20.320 --> 0:44:23.839
<v Speaker 2>their phones and doom scrolling. So those folks, if they

0:44:24.080 --> 0:44:27.960
<v Speaker 2>we're going to have a separation between the haves and

0:44:28.000 --> 0:44:30.440
<v Speaker 2>the have not. So that's gonna get worse. It's gonna

0:44:30.480 --> 0:44:34.680
<v Speaker 2>get exacerbated, and the consumer class is going to They're

0:44:34.680 --> 0:44:37.600
<v Speaker 2>going to lose their jobs. Government is probably gonna have

0:44:37.640 --> 0:44:40.440
<v Speaker 2>some form of ongoing welfare what they call it, but

0:44:40.480 --> 0:44:44.759
<v Speaker 2>it's basically based based universal basic income UBI. So you're

0:44:44.760 --> 0:44:46.160
<v Speaker 2>gonna have a lot of folks that are just going

0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:48.320
<v Speaker 2>to be consumers, and the ones who are going to

0:44:48.360 --> 0:44:50.280
<v Speaker 2>be able to be in the middle class and hopefully

0:44:50.320 --> 0:44:52.640
<v Speaker 2>in the upper class are going to have to be

0:44:52.840 --> 0:44:56.640
<v Speaker 2>creators and use these technologies, use these tools. Yeah, it's

0:44:56.960 --> 0:44:58.600
<v Speaker 2>it's getting scary out there. I don't let my kids

0:44:58.680 --> 0:45:00.760
<v Speaker 2>on social media. I don't let them on I just talked.

0:45:00.600 --> 0:45:03.440
<v Speaker 1>To a girl before you came in who influencer, and

0:45:03.520 --> 0:45:06.479
<v Speaker 1>she said that her thirteen year old has all these

0:45:07.120 --> 0:45:09.839
<v Speaker 1>issues and a lot of the challenges are coming from

0:45:10.000 --> 0:45:13.640
<v Speaker 1>just exposure to social media. I'm like, WHOA. But I

0:45:13.680 --> 0:45:17.360
<v Speaker 1>also think YouTube kids is not becoming safe either, because

0:45:17.400 --> 0:45:20.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm seeing my daughter who's four say words like kill

0:45:20.160 --> 0:45:24.359
<v Speaker 1>or something. I'm like, oh wow, I'm like, where has

0:45:24.440 --> 0:45:26.920
<v Speaker 1>anyone ever used that word? Like the little words where

0:45:26.960 --> 0:45:29.960
<v Speaker 1>You're like, where do you even find that word or

0:45:30.000 --> 0:45:31.880
<v Speaker 1>how do you use that word? And so I was like,

0:45:32.080 --> 0:45:35.319
<v Speaker 1>it's got to be. And this young lady was saying

0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:38.040
<v Speaker 1>earlier that it doesn't matter how many restrictions you put.

0:45:38.360 --> 0:45:40.040
<v Speaker 1>Still stuff is sliding through.

0:45:40.520 --> 0:45:42.120
<v Speaker 2>You just can't put them. You can't let them have

0:45:42.120 --> 0:45:44.120
<v Speaker 2>the devices. And I'm older than you, but I grew

0:45:44.200 --> 0:45:45.240
<v Speaker 2>up we had no devices.

0:45:45.400 --> 0:45:46.000
<v Speaker 1>No we didn't.

0:45:46.320 --> 0:45:48.799
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we didn't have We're going back and you talk

0:45:48.920 --> 0:45:51.600
<v Speaker 2>to parents that their kids go to school up in

0:45:52.000 --> 0:45:55.040
<v Speaker 2>Silicon Valley, the Bear, they're on paper and pen they're

0:45:55.080 --> 0:45:58.279
<v Speaker 2>doing every like the private schools of these kids, of

0:45:58.360 --> 0:46:03.280
<v Speaker 2>the kids of the techies. Yeah, they're offline, Yeah, because

0:46:03.280 --> 0:46:05.719
<v Speaker 2>they understand that they have to be able to build

0:46:05.760 --> 0:46:06.920
<v Speaker 2>those foundational like.

0:46:07.080 --> 0:46:10.640
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, And I will

0:46:10.640 --> 0:46:12.879
<v Speaker 1>say this, so back what they what you were saying

0:46:12.880 --> 0:46:16.560
<v Speaker 1>about the techies. I had my daughter in private school Montssori.

0:46:17.239 --> 0:46:19.000
<v Speaker 1>This year was the first year I'm putting her in

0:46:19.040 --> 0:46:25.280
<v Speaker 1>public and my gosh, you can actually see the difference immediately,

0:46:25.560 --> 0:46:28.840
<v Speaker 1>just in the regiments, the teachings. The bar is so

0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:32.440
<v Speaker 1>much lower. And it's like, on one hand, you're saving money,

0:46:32.520 --> 0:46:35.200
<v Speaker 1>but you look at the difference and you're like, oh

0:46:35.239 --> 0:46:38.120
<v Speaker 1>my gosh, is it even worth it? Like, in my

0:46:38.160 --> 0:46:40.319
<v Speaker 1>personal opinion, definitely not. You do what you gotta do

0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:43.040
<v Speaker 1>in that moment. But I see it, and I'm like,

0:46:43.760 --> 0:46:47.080
<v Speaker 1>so that's that's what I was paying for. Okay, see

0:46:47.760 --> 0:46:51.080
<v Speaker 1>it's different. But yeah, just the second second what you

0:46:51.120 --> 0:46:53.560
<v Speaker 1>were saying. But thank you so much for taking time

0:46:53.600 --> 0:46:55.920
<v Speaker 1>out of here crazy schedule to come all the way

0:46:55.920 --> 0:46:57.120
<v Speaker 1>down here. You had a nice drive.

0:46:57.719 --> 0:47:01.000
<v Speaker 2>Uh it's la So no, we didn't. No, yeah, we

0:47:01.040 --> 0:47:02.799
<v Speaker 2>came a long way, but we did that for you.

0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:06.640
<v Speaker 2>Congratulations on your podcast. I really remember seeing you five

0:47:06.719 --> 0:47:10.560
<v Speaker 2>years ago or something, and you've built something truly amazing.

0:47:10.640 --> 0:47:12.920
<v Speaker 2>And so I'm a big fan and I'm a supporter,

0:47:13.200 --> 0:47:14.319
<v Speaker 2>So thank you for inviting me.

0:47:14.480 --> 0:47:16.240
<v Speaker 1>I appreciate you joining season five.

0:47:16.640 --> 0:47:20.120
<v Speaker 2>Yeah five, you can't wait season ten And yeah, I

0:47:20.160 --> 0:47:20.560
<v Speaker 2>don't know if.

0:47:20.520 --> 0:47:21.799
<v Speaker 1>We're going to go all the way to season ten.

0:47:21.840 --> 0:47:25.440
<v Speaker 1>There's only so many executives. But I will say this,

0:47:25.520 --> 0:47:28.680
<v Speaker 1>I am working on a book and I've been taking

0:47:28.920 --> 0:47:32.040
<v Speaker 1>I've been spending the last couple months with the help

0:47:32.040 --> 0:47:35.640
<v Speaker 1>of a it's definitely cut it down transcribing all the interviews.

0:47:35.719 --> 0:47:38.720
<v Speaker 1>And I was telling my little brother the other day, Well,

0:47:38.960 --> 0:47:41.840
<v Speaker 1>all of you guys collectively have in common when it

0:47:41.880 --> 0:47:45.759
<v Speaker 1>comes to what the secret ingredient is to growth. Out

0:47:45.800 --> 0:47:49.320
<v Speaker 1>of one hundred and fifty interviews, I would think that

0:47:49.520 --> 0:47:51.120
<v Speaker 1>what's the foundation to growth?

0:47:51.640 --> 0:47:54.640
<v Speaker 2>I guess that's how I think it's perseverance or persistence.

0:47:55.160 --> 0:47:57.719
<v Speaker 1>I was thinking perseverance. I've had people come up to

0:47:57.760 --> 0:47:59.600
<v Speaker 1>me like, oh, the book definitely, faith is the number

0:47:59.680 --> 0:48:03.680
<v Speaker 1>one consistent thing. And I told my brother the answer

0:48:03.760 --> 0:48:05.839
<v Speaker 1>to this and then he was like, ohh and I've

0:48:05.880 --> 0:48:07.840
<v Speaker 1>told other people because I thought it was very interesting.

0:48:08.480 --> 0:48:14.840
<v Speaker 1>The number one foundation to growth is honesty, truth, radical

0:48:14.880 --> 0:48:17.279
<v Speaker 1>truth with self. And I was like, but then if

0:48:17.320 --> 0:48:19.040
<v Speaker 1>you think about it, in order for you to grow,

0:48:19.280 --> 0:48:22.040
<v Speaker 1>even with you being labeled as a bad kid or

0:48:22.080 --> 0:48:24.120
<v Speaker 1>what have you, right, at some points you sit down

0:48:24.680 --> 0:48:26.080
<v Speaker 1>right and you have this raw.

0:48:26.040 --> 0:48:28.239
<v Speaker 2>Radical truth, self awareness.

0:48:27.800 --> 0:48:31.960
<v Speaker 1>Self awareness like no lying, no buffer, with just you.

0:48:32.560 --> 0:48:36.319
<v Speaker 1>That is actually the foundation. And then obviously the other

0:48:36.400 --> 0:48:39.600
<v Speaker 1>things that you're listing are definitely relevant. But I just

0:48:39.600 --> 0:48:42.799
<v Speaker 1>thought it was very unique that the gospel was.

0:48:42.840 --> 0:48:45.200
<v Speaker 2>That's a spiritual conversation and I know you're at time,

0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:48.239
<v Speaker 2>but it's there's a bigger you out there and there's

0:48:48.239 --> 0:48:50.680
<v Speaker 2>a bigger you in there if you can have that

0:48:50.760 --> 0:48:54.560
<v Speaker 2>self awareness and you can really self actualization, and that's

0:48:54.600 --> 0:48:56.840
<v Speaker 2>a journey we're all on. I'm a person of faith.

0:48:57.160 --> 0:48:59.840
<v Speaker 2>That's my journey now, is like this. We all have

0:48:59.880 --> 0:49:02.120
<v Speaker 2>a bigger dream and a bigger vision, and if you

0:49:02.160 --> 0:49:05.480
<v Speaker 2>ask yourself why you're not achieving it, then the answers

0:49:05.480 --> 0:49:07.279
<v Speaker 2>start to come to you. And I'm a personal face,

0:49:07.280 --> 0:49:09.840
<v Speaker 2>so I pray every day over myself, but over my

0:49:09.920 --> 0:49:11.960
<v Speaker 2>family that will have those breakthroughs.

0:49:12.760 --> 0:49:14.879
<v Speaker 1>Do you think in your journey though, there was those

0:49:14.960 --> 0:49:17.080
<v Speaker 1>moments of radical truth with self.

0:49:17.920 --> 0:49:20.120
<v Speaker 2>When I got expelled from high school was a big

0:49:20.440 --> 0:49:22.480
<v Speaker 2>radical truth. And I think over the past few years,

0:49:22.520 --> 0:49:25.160
<v Speaker 2>with my family and all of that, I've had another one.

0:49:25.440 --> 0:49:28.640
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, yeah, so I love it all right, cool,

0:49:28.760 --> 0:49:31.719
<v Speaker 1>Thank you guys for tuning in. You guys can I

0:49:31.719 --> 0:49:34.120
<v Speaker 1>guess you will be going on different random sites and

0:49:34.160 --> 0:49:37.080
<v Speaker 1>you will not even know you are using launch Pad software.

0:49:37.120 --> 0:49:40.240
<v Speaker 1>But it does exist. And the companies that you guys

0:49:40.360 --> 0:49:42.760
<v Speaker 1>cater to are more mission based, aligned with your mission.

0:49:42.920 --> 0:49:44.480
<v Speaker 2>They're all aligned with our mission.

0:49:44.560 --> 0:49:46.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they're all aligned with it helping the community.

0:49:46.800 --> 0:49:48.799
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I just go out there if you're needing help,

0:49:48.880 --> 0:49:52.719
<v Speaker 2>if you're unemployed or whatever. There's resources out there for you,

0:49:53.120 --> 0:49:55.440
<v Speaker 2>and you can always connect with me online and I

0:49:55.440 --> 0:49:56.319
<v Speaker 2>can help connect you.

0:49:56.400 --> 0:49:58.640
<v Speaker 1>All right, guys, thanks, peace out, all right,