Speaker 1: My fiance sent me a clip of John bon Jovie
Speaker 1: singing at a concert. It did not sound like him,
Speaker 1: like when a woman needs to know when to hang
Speaker 1: up her thongb Can bon Jovi not sing anymore? Or
Speaker 1: was it just a bad thing because he's not really
Speaker 1: that old? So like when does somebody fold it up
Speaker 1: and just be like okay if if I don't sound
Speaker 1: the same, or is it just another iteration and it's
Speaker 1: camping and you're just seeing the person? What is what's
Speaker 1: the expiration date on somebody? Like when do you say, Okay,
Speaker 1: the table ain't cold, I'm walking out of here. You're
Speaker 1: not grabbing every last dollar. But I just want to
Speaker 1: know did anyone else hear about that? Because my fiance
Speaker 1: sent me a video of bon bon Jovi and he
Speaker 1: was singing a song that like we all no, I
Speaker 1: can't remember which one it was, And I was like,
Speaker 1: who is what song is that? He said, It's not
Speaker 1: like shot? Is it Shot to the Heart? One of
Speaker 1: the songs that I think we all know. My guest
Speaker 1: today is Ukrainian ballroom dancer Max Schmerkovski. Before Russia invaded
Speaker 1: Ukraine on February, Max was best known for his work
Speaker 1: on Dancing with the Stars, but when he escaped Ukraine,
Speaker 1: the world came to know him as an advocate. He
Speaker 1: stepped forward to share what is really happening in Ukraine
Speaker 1: and what it felt like during the invasion, so that
Speaker 1: we could all understand the magnitude of this crisis and
Speaker 1: take action. His story is inspiring and a reminder that
Speaker 1: there's so much more work left to be done in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Here's our conversation. How are you? How are you? I'm well,
Speaker 1: it's so funny to um have reconnected with you. I
Speaker 1: don't years ago. I think he did my talk show.
Speaker 1: But how do we know each other? To begin with?
Speaker 1: Is that how we first met? I don't I really
Speaker 1: know you. I don't remember how we met, but I
Speaker 1: think you did the show, right, I honestly, I don't remember,
Speaker 1: to be honest, and I thought about it. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you very well. I speak of you on
Speaker 1: the first name basis. I have no idea why and uh,
Speaker 1: and I feel like we keep doing stuff together, but
Speaker 1: never really you know, we always kind of brush it
Speaker 1: off to like when we have time, we'll hang out
Speaker 1: and all that, but normally we just kind of like, UM,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I speak very highly of you. I
Speaker 1: think you are you know, great, uh, you know, entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: I look up to you know, success of people and yours.
Speaker 1: I remember for some reason that you know, it's one
Speaker 1: of those successes that I that I looked at and
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, this is this is very attainable.
Speaker 1: This is something that you know, industry can provide that.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm in the right place at the right time,
Speaker 1: around the right people, and you're people. So I don't
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like as far as what you asked, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like, well, we think of each other,
Speaker 1: we know each other. That's what I kind of feel like, I,
Speaker 1: you know, know about you. Well, I've always liked you.
Speaker 1: I respected you and your brother, and uh, I know
Speaker 1: many of the people that are on this show, and
Speaker 1: it is a lot about people an attainable success. So
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. But I don't really
Speaker 1: many of my friends have come on and very successful
Speaker 1: people like Mark Cuban or um Nar Cheryl Sandberg, and
Speaker 1: I didn't know that much about them until we have
Speaker 1: these deeper conversations. So I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about your trajectory because we were friendly a long time
Speaker 1: ago and we both moved on in our personal lives
Speaker 1: and professional lives. And I don't know exactly what you've
Speaker 1: been up to and what your journey is like you
Speaker 1: lived in New Jersey and now you live in l
Speaker 1: a full time. Yes, I do. Okay. So when you
Speaker 1: were dancing on Dancing with the Stars, were you living
Speaker 1: where were you living as your primary residence New Jersey?
Speaker 1: I was unfortly you are unfortly okay. Um, And do
Speaker 1: you consider where do you do you feel like Ukraine's home?
Speaker 1: Is that really where your heart is that? Do you
Speaker 1: have you? Or? And then in the United States is
Speaker 1: it more East Coast or West coast? Like where how
Speaker 1: do you feel inside? Yeah? Is I feel it inside?
Speaker 1: And I feel like it comes out more so than
Speaker 1: anything else. Is just Brooklyn? You know, it's not you know,
Speaker 1: it's not a cute thing to say. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: Val and I talked about this all the time, like
Speaker 1: when you know king stuff like you listen, I'm not
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not, admittedly, but I did grow up
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. That's my first sort of moment of entry
Speaker 1: into United States. And by that it's a huge point
Speaker 1: in my life. UM. And and to answer your question
Speaker 1: as far as when my heart is Ukraine and all
Speaker 1: that Ukraine is like you know, and I said it somewhat,
Speaker 1: Ukraine is like the parent that gave me up for adoption,
Speaker 1: you know. And and at fourteen years old, when I'm
Speaker 1: leaving you know, my hometown, my birthplace, we up and
Speaker 1: we left. We were never coming back. It wasn't like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's go move for a minute. Um. No, we were
Speaker 1: going away. Uh. And when we landed, it was sort
Speaker 1: of like the family kind of like model for us
Speaker 1: to just like, Okay, here we are. We're now making
Speaker 1: it here. This is not what it is, that's not
Speaker 1: where we are. So I took it as such. I
Speaker 1: fell in love with the place. Obviously, there's a lot
Speaker 1: to fall in love with New York. In New York
Speaker 1: City and you know nearby areas. UM had a lot
Speaker 1: of culture growing up. We landed in ninety four, so
Speaker 1: the second part of the nineties was like the renaissance
Speaker 1: in New York City was continuing, you know. And so
Speaker 1: I got a whiff of that. UM graduated Brooklyn High School,
Speaker 1: edward our model all the way went to Pace university, um,
Speaker 1: you know, did the things that New Yorkers do, and
Speaker 1: after a year dropped out because I had a business.
Speaker 1: I opened my dance studio in New Jersey and they
Speaker 1: were just completely interfere with my business and my dance
Speaker 1: career and all of that stuff. So I came to
Speaker 1: university said to my I remember it was like accounting
Speaker 1: one on one and the guy came in and said, listen,
Speaker 1: you got a value of time and it was like
Speaker 1: the first class of the second year. And I was like, damn, man,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm in a wrong place, like I should. I
Speaker 1: just I need to be paying more attention to my
Speaker 1: career as a dancer and my business as a dancing
Speaker 1: shot too interesting. It's funny that you said that you
Speaker 1: feel most connected to Brooklyn, because it is there is
Speaker 1: a soulful immigrant pride in broke places like Brooklyn, like
Speaker 1: the Lower eas Side of Manhattan, and there's a texture.
Speaker 1: I've been watching Boardwalk Empire recently, and there's a texture
Speaker 1: to places like this that is hard to really explain
Speaker 1: to people who didn't I grew up going to Brooklyn
Speaker 1: and Queens and it's just they're very multicultural melting pots.
Speaker 1: So there's so much passion and soul and striving and
Speaker 1: coming from nothing and making something. So you know that
Speaker 1: that that definitely makes sense with you. The Constitution and
Speaker 1: your pride as a man, as a person, as a
Speaker 1: you know, an American man like you definitely have that background.
Speaker 1: I can I can feel that texture. I think that's
Speaker 1: very interesting and Brooklyn is very much that. Um So,
Speaker 1: did you grow up poor, lower middle class? Middle class?
Speaker 1: What was your family background? Proud right away to take
Speaker 1: that probably lower middle Uh no, and I'm not knocking
Speaker 1: the ones that didn't grow up poor, you know. Is
Speaker 1: if we're just gonna break it down, just feel like
Speaker 1: we all have different opportunities. You know. I had an
Speaker 1: opportunity to, you know, to learn the language in a
Speaker 1: certain way, you know, to get woven into the um
Speaker 1: the life of the United States as a country a
Speaker 1: certain way. You know. I got to I got to
Speaker 1: travel regardless of my financial status, which is a big
Speaker 1: deal because we consider travel to be vacation. Um I
Speaker 1: was traveling for my career as a professional dancer, you know,
Speaker 1: And so very shortly after lending us literally a week later,
Speaker 1: my dad parents decided that, um it is very important
Speaker 1: for the fourteen year old me to continue dancing and
Speaker 1: for the eight year old vow to step and start
Speaker 1: doing dancing as well, because that was the plan anyway,
Speaker 1: you know. And so this is what this is where
Speaker 1: the fish are anchored. Me down. I'm gonna speak for
Speaker 1: me alone. You know. It was eight year difference, sorry,
Speaker 1: six year difference with Valve, you know value. You know
Speaker 1: I'm too, but you know us a little bit differently,
Speaker 1: and you know, we have a lot of similarities, but
Speaker 1: some things are bound to be different. You know. I
Speaker 1: experienced it. I experienced immigration as a teenager going into
Speaker 1: sort of the years, right, um. But you know the
Speaker 1: thing is that I immediately moved on, right, so that
Speaker 1: the analogy of Ukraine being my birth mother who gave
Speaker 1: me up for adoption, US welcomed me, and I moved
Speaker 1: on immediately, you know. And so I proudly represented US
Speaker 1: from day one as a competitor. And now I'm flying overseas,
Speaker 1: now I'm representing a country. This was also the first
Speaker 1: time I got to do that, not because I didn't.
Speaker 1: I would not have gotten to do that in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: by the way, we don't know, um, But if I
Speaker 1: were to continue dancing I would have probably you know,
Speaker 1: fought for the same, but I felt like it was
Speaker 1: a big deal bestowed on me, you know, myself and value.
Speaker 1: We wrapped hard immediately, and so and wait, you were
Speaker 1: that you were that good, like in all of Ukraine
Speaker 1: for your age, you were that good. Like you were
Speaker 1: you would be ranked in the top you know tier
Speaker 1: like that. You were like you know, the Olympic athletes
Speaker 1: of dancing at that time, that we're just very good.
Speaker 1: But that's a big deal in the US. I was
Speaker 1: not very good in Ukraine, but I was great in
Speaker 1: US because in the US it was just the beginning
Speaker 1: stages of the teens and the youth as we know
Speaker 1: it now, you know, and today obviously we're Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars as a concept that came on television and
Speaker 1: mid two thousand's thousands five, you know, we had a
Speaker 1: big renaissance or ballroom in the United States, Like what
Speaker 1: is this? What do these people do? Like what do
Speaker 1: you mean? You know, I'm a US national champion, my
Speaker 1: brothers a seventeen time US champion, World champions, you know,
Speaker 1: all of these sort of like things started to come
Speaker 1: up and people realize it's a huge industry. You know
Speaker 1: that we didn't know about. So, you know, I was
Speaker 1: given this incredible opportunity. Came from Ukraine. I didn't speak
Speaker 1: the language, but had a skill dancing when I was four,
Speaker 1: Like I said, fourteen, I was not very good in
Speaker 1: Ukraine's standards. Everyone danced very hard. Competitive career too, you know,
Speaker 1: to follow. But I would have done it, but I
Speaker 1: got I was I had a different you know, I
Speaker 1: had a different path. Nice. Wow, Okay, well that's interesting.
Speaker 1: That's like when people go over to you know, play
Speaker 1: basketball and Israel or something. It's it's true, and then
Speaker 1: come and then come back and actually do because what
Speaker 1: happened is us in the way that it was at
Speaker 1: the time and the confidence that it was given us
Speaker 1: because the pool of competitors was much smaller. We were
Speaker 1: building the industry. We were then going out and representing
Speaker 1: us of the world, and we were doing amazing things. Well,
Speaker 1: that's interesting you're saying. If that's an interesting just note
Speaker 1: for people you're if you're in a cea of a
Speaker 1: bunch of people like you that are doing what you're
Speaker 1: you know you're doing, and you don't seem like you're
Speaker 1: shining to go be a big fish in a small pond.
Speaker 1: Then come back to the big pond. You might have
Speaker 1: a different bravado, a different confidence, a different skill set
Speaker 1: where maybe maybe even your your charm or your personality
Speaker 1: comes through or some other thing comes through, so you
Speaker 1: could succeed back somewhere where you were just flat. I
Speaker 1: mean they were jumping. But you know, as a young
Speaker 1: father to a five year old, now, you know, I
Speaker 1: think about this all at the time. What skills set,
Speaker 1: how do I use it? How what do I give him?
Speaker 1: You know, how do I boost his confidence? And then
Speaker 1: I get stuck on that boost his confidence. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I my confidence was boosted when I moved
Speaker 1: to us, and all of a sudden, dance became my
Speaker 1: you know, my high card. You know. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: I was caught one, like you said, I'm in the
Speaker 1: big seal of like a lot of fish. You know,
Speaker 1: I got this pond and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this opportunity and we were in with it. Um.
Speaker 1: And so the confidence, I was going to say, the
Speaker 1: confidence that you get from an opportunity where someone comes
Speaker 1: and says, well, you're great, You're special, this is a
Speaker 1: special skill and then you hear that, like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it is a special skill. And just because I'm in
Speaker 1: a in a class who in the city, on the
Speaker 1: country where it's super popular everybody does it does mean
Speaker 1: my skill is not special. People forget funny. So true.
Speaker 1: It's true with kids because I know some people who
Speaker 1: have kids and they're frustrated that they don't have a passion,
Speaker 1: like you can't just force that, and they're frustrated that
Speaker 1: they don't have some purpose that they funnel their energy into.
Speaker 1: My daughter is an artist and she is passionate about it.
Speaker 1: She'll sit in an art room for hours and hours
Speaker 1: and focus on it. So this is that's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thank you she made she made I think twenty five
Speaker 1: of these. She made twelve thousand Ukraine. But it's nice
Speaker 1: for kids to have something. It could be anything. It
Speaker 1: could be collecting buttons and just to sit in a room,
Speaker 1: not be on the phone or the TV, and to
Speaker 1: funnel and channel your energy. And so I foster that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, her teacher say she's the best
Speaker 1: in her I mean she's very good. But I don't
Speaker 1: know in the world. It doesn't matter. You just feed it.
Speaker 1: I keep feeding it. And you know, telling her how
Speaker 1: great it is, and you want to promote that because
Speaker 1: you want them to just feel special at something. So
Speaker 1: I agree with what you're saying because it boosts confident.
Speaker 1: I'm actually I'm actually just quoting Peter. I gotta admit that,
Speaker 1: you know, she brought a lot of what I never had,
Speaker 1: or you know, the perspective that I never had into
Speaker 1: my life. And when we got together, the you know,
Speaker 1: shy is is like a perfect I hope would be
Speaker 1: a product of the both of us. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: going to bring whatever I bring. I just feel like
Speaker 1: she levels me and she focuses my you know, this
Speaker 1: sort of spread out kind of energy drink. I'll go
Speaker 1: hard a where and she's like, well, why don't we
Speaker 1: just focus on things at hand? And amongst other ways
Speaker 1: that I feel. Now I'm realizing that she's controlling me
Speaker 1: to but that's yeah, but that's that's the reality is
Speaker 1: that you know, I know, hard upbringing. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say that our parents beat us. Now I
Speaker 1: got as a couple of times, but that was like
Speaker 1: not you know, I was loved and that's what made
Speaker 1: us not just survived. Brooklyn and the mid nineties, but
Speaker 1: you know, get better and and and grow and self
Speaker 1: educate or educate be you know, take things in. You know,
Speaker 1: we stayed passionate because we were coming out every day
Speaker 1: out of our apartment and we're like, let's go get it.
Speaker 1: Because every night when we come home, every evening, and
Speaker 1: I feel like, oh, you know, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: have need friends, I don't have a social life. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel depressed as a teenager. I'm already depress and
Speaker 1: I'm depressed not in the speaking the language, you know,
Speaker 1: and all of these things. I would come home, I'd
Speaker 1: get a hug, a hot meal, you know this constantly.
Speaker 1: There was love, a lot of love in the house
Speaker 1: and so you know, they struggled and we didn't know.
Speaker 1: We we knew, but it would kind of like everybody struggles,
Speaker 1: sort of like we made it normal and you know,
Speaker 1: let's go great to come from something, To come from
Speaker 1: something like that, the pride, to build something, to see
Speaker 1: it on the other side now, to then see your
Speaker 1: parents differently, I mean, all of that is really makes
Speaker 1: creates a texture in the personality. And I'm seeing it
Speaker 1: three with you and I'm we'll get to Ukraine. But
Speaker 1: I'm I've seen it, you know, Like I said, I
Speaker 1: don't know you that well, but I'm seeing this come through.
Speaker 1: You do need to be harnessed in different areas. We
Speaker 1: even talked about that within relief, you wanted to do
Speaker 1: everything and you've got to be really focused to make
Speaker 1: an impact. But by the same token, I'm seeing that
Speaker 1: all of this purpose sort of coming to fruition in
Speaker 1: your life. At the same time, it's overwhelming. I get
Speaker 1: it too, you know. You sure, we only have so
Speaker 1: many years on this planet. You're trying to figure out
Speaker 1: exactly how to focus and channel your energies on bullshit,
Speaker 1: on money, on this, on that, on philanthropy, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, on relationships. Um so dancing with the Stars coming.
Speaker 1: You didn't come to this country for Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: You came because of dancing, and you know it did
Speaker 1: create this resurgence or almost a beginning for ballroom dancing
Speaker 1: in this capacity in this country. So it's weird this
Speaker 1: this intersection of luck and your skill and the entertainment
Speaker 1: industry that all came together. Probably for a lot of
Speaker 1: the people on this show, it must have been like,
Speaker 1: holy sh it, we're just dancers and no one cares
Speaker 1: what we're doing. We're in this niche, little weird world
Speaker 1: and now this becomes this mega, crazy, really household name hit.
Speaker 1: So how did that whole thing come together? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't think that that way, you know.
Speaker 1: So the timeline is now, uh, two thousand five is
Speaker 1: eleven years after we've arrived in the US, and so
Speaker 1: in the eleven years leading up to UM, you know,
Speaker 1: we've done a lot, We've grown up. I'm now a
Speaker 1: professional who's basically retired from competitive ballroom dancing by going
Speaker 1: on Dancing with the Stars. I didn't know it at
Speaker 1: the time, but that's how it happened, right, And I
Speaker 1: was ready for that two thousand five, you weren't. The
Speaker 1: first season though it was a ready a success or,
Speaker 1: it was not a success No, no, Well I missed
Speaker 1: the pilot season which was during the summer six episodes,
Speaker 1: and then the second season when it was coming around, UM,
Speaker 1: I would get the same call. And the way it
Speaker 1: was made, these calls were made this by Now this
Speaker 1: is the ballroom dancing is an industry. It's an industry
Speaker 1: in the United States, and it's a well represented industry
Speaker 1: by US. Valle is now a two time world champion.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm now a big time you know, professional,
Speaker 1: but in the world, none of us. But I've been
Speaker 1: signing autographs in Germany since since early two thousands, you know,
Speaker 1: because because outside of the US, were a big deal.
Speaker 1: And so now you've got this ballroom dancing come to
Speaker 1: the big the big screen the television right at the time,
Speaker 1: and so people are looking at it like this is dope,
Speaker 1: this is awesome. I like it. It's corny, it's cute,
Speaker 1: it's funny, it's interesting, it's athletic. There they all have accents.
Speaker 1: Why is this guy on my television speaking the way
Speaker 1: he's speaking and saying just weirdly constructed sentences, you know,
Speaker 1: But then he does the church and I did it.
Speaker 1: So it's a good description. That was just listen. You know,
Speaker 1: somebody told me one time that like the success of
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars is in the fact that it
Speaker 1: was never number one. It was always like top two three,
Speaker 1: two three, two three, And so if you're number one,
Speaker 1: if you don't retain number one, you'd be like when
Speaker 1: you're two or three, it's like, okay, it's not for
Speaker 1: that show to go Dancing with the Stars that's somebody's
Speaker 1: favorite pastime for generations at this point. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're competing with Monday night football for damn
Speaker 1: near decade and a half. Amazing. But and what's but
Speaker 1: what's jumping off the page? It's funny because years ago
Speaker 1: I was going to Apprentice, and when I did that show,
Speaker 1: my friend said, they didn't show that you were funny, like,
Speaker 1: because it's all about the competition. It was about the competition,
Speaker 1: and even more so obviously on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: Your personality, I don't even think ever comes across like
Speaker 1: you're cute, you're funny, you're handsome, you're you could be
Speaker 1: a little tough, you know whatever, you're you're good looking,
Speaker 1: but like you're fine. I mean, even the way you
Speaker 1: just describe that, like they should have had you doing
Speaker 1: the promo, I don't think your personality, even to this day,
Speaker 1: and even within with the relief work, you're so intense
Speaker 1: about it because it's obviously not you charming, but you
Speaker 1: have a really funny personality and a really good way
Speaker 1: of putting thoughts together. In my opinion, you're a good communicator.
Speaker 1: Now that you know the subject is popular and we
Speaker 1: can talk Ukraine, but this the city I'm from, Adessa
Speaker 1: is actually a known for its comedic backgrounds in former
Speaker 1: USSR and just in general in that in that community.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, we just have fun sense of humor.
Speaker 1: And if you lead with self deprecation, you can just
Speaker 1: go straight up be a stand up comic if you
Speaker 1: just fabulary to follow it. So um, look I should
Speaker 1: try it. I have a couple of moments in my
Speaker 1: illustrious uh D answering with the star's career that are
Speaker 1: still famous for its just I can't believe this guy
Speaker 1: just said that, Like what, I cannot believe he just
Speaker 1: did that, you know, and so and this was naturally
Speaker 1: coming out. But you know, I was gonna answer your
Speaker 1: question about like people don't know me. I agree with
Speaker 1: that because there was a moment when somebody I was
Speaker 1: just completely always disappointed with the way I'm looking. I
Speaker 1: look at the packages. At some point there was a
Speaker 1: period of time when I was you know that moment
Speaker 1: they showed before you dance and I'm like, wow, I
Speaker 1: look like an asshole, you know, Like why am I
Speaker 1: constantly this d bag? Right? Like? Why am I? Why
Speaker 1: is this? This is not my this is now have
Speaker 1: a field. It's now I feel neat. I'm proud and funny.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, swap but as a joke and
Speaker 1: this is never serious. But anyway, the someone told me
Speaker 1: at that time one of those high end exacts in
Speaker 1: charge of all this stuff, and I remember, you know complaint.
Speaker 1: It's like, look, if you don't say it, we don't
Speaker 1: have it. I'm like, okay, cool. So at the moment,
Speaker 1: I was like right, But then I followed up with
Speaker 1: but I give you fifty hours of rehearsal time at
Speaker 1: that time, unregulated. I have a person that just needs
Speaker 1: a lot of time, and I dedicate my self. I
Speaker 1: give it forty good hours. Or I'm in the room,
Speaker 1: I'm rehearsing and for thirty second piece, you're gonna choose
Speaker 1: only that, right, No think So for a long time
Speaker 1: I thought it was on me. It's not. It's under
Speaker 1: way that they need to have been the character that's
Speaker 1: told dark sess nonsense and it's like, is the you know,
Speaker 1: not per se guest stone because you never really feel
Speaker 1: bad for him. But I'm like that antagonist character that
Speaker 1: was chosen to be and I didn't know. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that it was right, But well, I don't know
Speaker 1: because I think, like me, you have a resting bitch face.
Speaker 1: That's my just like you don't understand inside on the inside,
Speaker 1: I'm cute and cuddly. I just you're intense. I may
Speaker 1: be very cute and cuddly too, but I'm intense. And
Speaker 1: so when people see your resting bitch face or how
Speaker 1: intense you are, listen, I saw how you were during
Speaker 1: what went on with Ukraine, and it's intense. You're hyper focused.
Speaker 1: It's the only thing you're focused on. And that's how
Speaker 1: you are with dancing. So good because it's hard to
Speaker 1: for people listening who are into business. You can't be,
Speaker 1: you know, a jack of all trades. When you're so
Speaker 1: intense about business. It's very serious. It's money when you're
Speaker 1: doing relief for it's very serious when you're dancing at
Speaker 1: that competitive level. So you are, you are intense in
Speaker 1: that way, and that's what comes across and frankly, that's
Speaker 1: what the show was about. It was about the competition.
Speaker 1: That's why I mentioned it because I went through that
Speaker 1: with the Apprentice. It was not it was not The
Speaker 1: show was not that was to me, that was my
Speaker 1: intensity and that was the root of all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: The show is to entertain I get it. I didn't
Speaker 1: know that. I thought, oh damn, I was given an opportunity.
Speaker 1: Here you go, what do you do best? And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I go for a wind. That's my best quality. Like
Speaker 1: you put me in the front start line. And if
Speaker 1: the end result is who finished this first, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give them my own, you know, and then there's no dispute. Right.
Speaker 1: But if but then there was another component, this is entertainment,
Speaker 1: and another component it's not about value, right, and another
Speaker 1: component the judges. And this is also not about anything.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's just a lot of things that
Speaker 1: I was not ready for. That side, Well, it's all
Speaker 1: about the Benjamin's baby. It's all about business. It's all
Speaker 1: about ratings. So if that's entertainment, if that's a competition,
Speaker 1: if that's sex sells, that's what it is. That's what
Speaker 1: it is on Shark Tank, that's what it is on
Speaker 1: The Apprentice, that's what it is on all these shows.
Speaker 1: That's what it is on Housewives. It's about the money
Speaker 1: and the selling. So how are you bringing people into
Speaker 1: your store? So whatever it is that people are doing
Speaker 1: they have a store, those are the windows. How are
Speaker 1: you decorating your windows? And if it's you being that guy,
Speaker 1: then that's how that window gets secorated, and that's what
Speaker 1: you're portrayed to be. It didn't have somebody telling me that.
Speaker 1: I had somebody tell me that probably along the way,
Speaker 1: but no one really set it down like listen, you're
Speaker 1: not listen. You let just listen to what the war's up.
Speaker 1: Because I heard like, hey, you can't be this, or
Speaker 1: hey you shouldn't be that, and then my Grandma's like,
Speaker 1: m know what, you know, why would you say that?
Speaker 1: You know? So it was never like hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: you can do that right. You can express yourself. You
Speaker 1: can continue running your brand right what I understand now,
Speaker 1: But you can do it in the way that everybody
Speaker 1: doesn't cringe, you know on Monday night when they relaxed
Speaker 1: after a long day of work and they don't want
Speaker 1: to see that. That's a different program. Right, Even in
Speaker 1: non entertainment, even in regular business, people have to stop
Speaker 1: the stand back and recognize that. When I wanted to
Speaker 1: be on the Apprentice and I met with Mark Burnett,
Speaker 1: I was about the business. I'm successful, I'm not successful.
Speaker 1: I'm smart, I'm motivated. Whatever they wanted, yes, you had
Speaker 1: to check that box to get in there. Just like
Speaker 1: the dancing, you can't not know how to dance, but
Speaker 1: they wanted entertainment. And in business people, the people that
Speaker 1: are going to sixty it is the one who's going
Speaker 1: to be a bit arismatic in the meeting or the
Speaker 1: one who's a little bit intense. Are the one who
Speaker 1: gets their thoughts across or the person who everyone wonders
Speaker 1: what they're thinking. It's the same thing. You have to
Speaker 1: be compelling to get your point across one way or
Speaker 1: the other. I mean, I have people that have worked
Speaker 1: with me, assistance and staff. If they're pleasurable to be around,
Speaker 1: if they're entertaining, if they're fun, if I enjoy them,
Speaker 1: that's gonna work better than somebody who's not pleasurable to
Speaker 1: be around. So it's interesting how it works in so
Speaker 1: many different ways. Even if it's not entertainment, it's about
Speaker 1: what's drawing people in. And by the way, in philanthropy too,
Speaker 1: you know what's the message. I bet you saw this,
Speaker 1: and it's frustrating philanthropy for many people. Um philanthropy is
Speaker 1: is marketing in many ways. So ten different people want
Speaker 1: you to bring money into their places, right, and many
Speaker 1: of them are middle men and women. Many of them
Speaker 1: these celebrities, now you probably know so much more than
Speaker 1: your new a year ago. I've been doing this for
Speaker 1: a while. Celebrities link here and donate here. But that
Speaker 1: celebrity does it know what that thing is that's to
Speaker 1: another place. So now you've stopped on a stop and
Speaker 1: you're giving money. But they're saying, what, I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell you to give money to me, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to give it to them. Well, I want to talk
Speaker 1: to them, so I tried to be with them, meaning no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm in control of the money. So this is where
Speaker 1: the money is going. Being transparent talking about the problem.
Speaker 1: As you learned, you were telling about the problem in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Then you were trying to direct people. But as you
Speaker 1: saw people get over it. It's cool for a week.
Speaker 1: It's cool, just like it's cool to watch Johnny Depp
Speaker 1: this week, but not next week. It'll be somebody else's divorce.
Speaker 1: Last week it was cool that j Lo was getting
Speaker 1: engaged someone else next week. So it's weird because philanthropy,
Speaker 1: which you just got a real intense dose of is
Speaker 1: also marketing. It's a not for profit business, but you
Speaker 1: have to find your way in and no one to
Speaker 1: pull in. So anyway, I want want to hear more
Speaker 1: experience with that. Yeah, I had a crazy entry left
Speaker 1: entry way into philanthropy, into world of fundraisers and charitable life.
Speaker 1: If you will, UM back in a day. You know,
Speaker 1: I just started playing golf and we are hot on
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars. This is like eleven, twelve and
Speaker 1: thirteen fifteen, I don't even know, years ago something like that.
Speaker 1: And I literally just hit the club for the first time.
Speaker 1: I had no business plan on the on the course,
Speaker 1: and uh, A friend of mine calls me. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I was supposed to do this golf tournament. You go, Like, sure,
Speaker 1: I went, and it was for fundraiser of celebrity golf
Speaker 1: tournament for child health and I had no idea what
Speaker 1: that is. And so I got there and I see
Speaker 1: this expensive experience of golf golfing, and then you get
Speaker 1: together and there's an auction and then there's a night
Speaker 1: after and the gal and I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: the really raising money for these in battle you know, abuse,
Speaker 1: severely abused kids. Um I'm like, I want to see that,
Speaker 1: and I don't know. It just irked me. When we
Speaker 1: were talking about this, I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: this got really down for a second. I've never been
Speaker 1: to these functions before. You know, it's fun. It's everybody's
Speaker 1: communicating and boomed down and fundraising starts and they say
Speaker 1: that stuff and you're like, you look around the room
Speaker 1: and like, it's not the right entertainment, you know program.
Speaker 1: At the moment, I thought, I was like, what do
Speaker 1: you meaning. It's it's it's tone deaf to be here
Speaker 1: with all these celebrities at the highest level talking that
Speaker 1: thing you'd direct. They started, they started announcing like here's
Speaker 1: the you know, the pictures, and you know, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is really dark, and I'm like, is this event
Speaker 1: kind of like for that? But then so I got
Speaker 1: really confused. Anyway, so I wanted to follow up and
Speaker 1: went out and I visited one of the villages and
Speaker 1: it just blew my mind. You know, once you see
Speaker 1: kids that were severely abused. She's tagging on your leg
Speaker 1: and she's like nine, it's village. Oh so so child help.
Speaker 1: This organ is sayation has three villages in the United States,
Speaker 1: the big communities where they bring the kids, um, rehab them,
Speaker 1: do their back. And so the point of this whole
Speaker 1: thing was this is a ninety plus million a year
Speaker 1: type of fundraising organization. So it's a big deal, Devans.
Speaker 1: It's a big because I learned a lot and I
Speaker 1: understood the value of entertainment as part of this, because
Speaker 1: you've got to give somebody, you know, an opportunity to
Speaker 1: donate because they have such a great time. I learned
Speaker 1: the fact that you can't, you know, really frown upon
Speaker 1: the way people donating because who cares why he writes
Speaker 1: to check and with what face? As long as he
Speaker 1: writes to check or she writes to check, and this
Speaker 1: goes to you know, the foundation, so you know. But
Speaker 1: then I learned the business side of this whole thing,
Speaker 1: and the dirty side of some other stuff, not through childhood,
Speaker 1: but through just in general, you know, fund raises and
Speaker 1: everything else. I helped old foundations and organizations. I left
Speaker 1: some because it was like, that's not the way, you know.
Speaker 1: I like this to be organized, and that's your way
Speaker 1: of doing it, and I want to be part of this.
Speaker 1: When Ukraine tragedy happened and I would happened to be
Speaker 1: a judge on a TV show in Ukraine, a judge
Speaker 1: on a TV show I have at that time. You know,
Speaker 1: I spent like eight nine months actively working in Ukraine
Speaker 1: since last year, since twenty one, and I've started to
Speaker 1: you know, taking a lot of relationships and I created
Speaker 1: a lot of new relationships, and I you know, that's
Speaker 1: why not to jump out. But for me, this war
Speaker 1: has faced his names, last names, my manager who's now
Speaker 1: a refugee with our kids. I mean, this it's just
Speaker 1: a lot. We'll get that. But you know, now I
Speaker 1: was there for consistently long enough and deeply rooted enough,
Speaker 1: every connected back and now that you know, I've rekindled
Speaker 1: and we've made it up with my birth mother. I
Speaker 1: still love my mom because that's us. For me, that's
Speaker 1: that's my home. I'm from, you know, that's where I met.
Speaker 1: But you know, this is now a relationship I want
Speaker 1: to continue, you know, and I want to continue figuring
Speaker 1: figuring out. I was welcomed by the country, I was
Speaker 1: welcomed by the people, and I had a great time.
Speaker 1: The war starts, and so I feel like it was
Speaker 1: that moment when you know, I was for the first
Speaker 1: time in that child health village where it just shocked me.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a moment when the little girl
Speaker 1: tagged on my leg and she couldn't have been older
Speaker 1: than nine and kind of give me a look sleft
Speaker 1: me on the butt, said something sexy. I just blew
Speaker 1: my mind. And then they took her away and the
Speaker 1: gentleman was explaining to me like, yeah, she was, you know,
Speaker 1: great since it was a little girl and so she's
Speaker 1: like in rehab, and it was just like, my god, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's a crazy story. That's a crazy way of getting
Speaker 1: into understanding why, no matter what, it is important to
Speaker 1: raise funds for this organization, for this type of foundation,
Speaker 1: because that's what they're dealing with, that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1: So now it made sense to me. I was in
Speaker 1: I was committed cut to and you're you're you know
Speaker 1: that's years ago and now you're connecting to Ukraine kid
Speaker 1: and I'm now professionally, you know, committed to charitable opportunities
Speaker 1: because why else, because I'm a TV personality, what do
Speaker 1: I do for the world, you know what I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: how do I paid forward? How do I earn that karma?
Speaker 1: You know, it's not the chart because you make I
Speaker 1: made you feel good, yes, but what else? You know,
Speaker 1: it's not enough. And so I created the sort of
Speaker 1: subworld of just you know, helping and being charitable. I'm
Speaker 1: in Ukraine, got to February and I'm shooting a TV
Speaker 1: show dance then your world of dance in Ukraine, and
Speaker 1: I wake up in this war, you know. And so
Speaker 1: then I got stuck whatever that process was. Then in
Speaker 1: the process and now communicating with the people that I
Speaker 1: judged yesterday at dance competitions and today he's at the
Speaker 1: front line with the gun and I can't even connect
Speaker 1: the two and I can't process it. Then the bombing started,
Speaker 1: Then Bucher started. Then you know, all of that nuns
Speaker 1: and started. By the time I got out of you,
Speaker 1: of of Ukraine and made my way back, and I
Speaker 1: was in war. So it was full blown. It was
Speaker 1: a war, and it was war on the people that
Speaker 1: I now this is these are my people, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm proud of these people. You know. The Brooklyn
Speaker 1: is my people that you will ask me, you know,
Speaker 1: you know me. You love me, you love me. You
Speaker 1: love me in Kentucky, you love me. In Alabama, you
Speaker 1: love me because I've traveled this country, because I've done it.
Speaker 1: If you don't like me, I love you too. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying I've been here. This is you know, I'm
Speaker 1: figuring out. I'm exploring other people and have some made
Speaker 1: this crazy connection and it happens to be where I'm from,
Speaker 1: and we speak the same language. And they're getting bombed
Speaker 1: and then bomb shelters so quickly, the executive producers of
Speaker 1: my project and bomb shelters. I can even call him
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, get me out of the country
Speaker 1: because I'm like, what kind of presson? She's got kids.
Speaker 1: You gotta deal with that first. You know, it's crazy
Speaker 1: to right, they're the ones in charge to like help
Speaker 1: you as a talent, but in everts every person for
Speaker 1: themselves because and I try to like get myself off
Speaker 1: of anyone's response stability. You know, the rest is sort
Speaker 1: of history now and sort of like I made my
Speaker 1: way out to Warsaw, I look back and I'm like,
Speaker 1: there's no way that this is the end of me.
Speaker 1: And relation to that, there's no way that I'm going
Speaker 1: to wait this out and get back to like guys,
Speaker 1: call me when the show is back on. It feel
Speaker 1: bad for you, Like, there's no way that that's my step,
Speaker 1: like regardless of what I feel and how maybe I
Speaker 1: was just too stressed and this is a crazy experience.
Speaker 1: Trust me, will trust me for the people that are
Speaker 1: in it. You know, we're not we're talking levels, right,
Speaker 1: But for me, it was like an entry level experience
Speaker 1: in the war. You know, thank god I didn't get shot.
Speaker 1: We've been shot at, but it was terrifying to be
Speaker 1: anywhere in the vicinity of that. Oh no, you gotta
Speaker 1: complete wake up call that life, and whether you're Ukrainian
Speaker 1: or from Boklyn, it's it's just crazy that you experience that.
Speaker 1: And then you came home and I know because we spoke,
Speaker 1: and you just wanted to be of service, and you
Speaker 1: wanted to go back because everybody's goal is to get
Speaker 1: the hell out of there. So you got the hell
Speaker 1: out of there, and then you felt like, wait, now
Speaker 1: you know you shall shock post traumatic, so you go
Speaker 1: back and I know that you've connected with my team
Speaker 1: and other teams and we're there for how long when
Speaker 1: you went back? So you know, before I went back,
Speaker 1: I was you know, we spoke and uh and and
Speaker 1: and I literally just wanted to hear, what what am
Speaker 1: I doing? What is this? How do I process it?
Speaker 1: And you are you know, kind to just explain stuff
Speaker 1: and put everything in perspective and also give me a
Speaker 1: look into the business side of that too, because now
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be productive in the new era, in
Speaker 1: the new direction, taking with me everything that we have
Speaker 1: and that I've learned about, even business. You know, my
Speaker 1: dad was so successful with the fourth Leade in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: you know um set up and then the sort of
Speaker 1: the sale of bar and over twenty seven the organization
Speaker 1: that we started because we were able to, you know,
Speaker 1: apply all the tools and elements of running our own
Speaker 1: you know, multilocational corporation of them, because you're not gonna
Speaker 1: scaling it. You scaled a small business. You're trying to
Speaker 1: scale a small business. And that's what I was trying
Speaker 1: to say to you that like with philanthropy, there's only
Speaker 1: one you, and you have a voice and you have
Speaker 1: millions of people listening to you. So you could go
Speaker 1: do this one thing that is going to be lovely
Speaker 1: and nice and go into one house and help one person,
Speaker 1: or you could scale this, which is what we've done.
Speaker 1: And so it takes a little while, and I had
Speaker 1: to learn that too. You get sucked down every drain
Speaker 1: and you go and you want to help every single
Speaker 1: puppy and every branch and every child, and you got
Speaker 1: to pick your spots because comes a scalable business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because what people don't realize is in the conflict in war.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to confuse war with conflict. But
Speaker 1: in the situation this of this magnitude. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know how they say every little bit helps, I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. Like every little bit makes it a
Speaker 1: messy situation. I'm so glad. I can't believe you just
Speaker 1: said that. No one said that except for my partners Michael,
Speaker 1: who you know and I people all the time, people
Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry, very successful people. I want to
Speaker 1: bring my son over. We have a trunk full of
Speaker 1: clothes we want to bring. I'm like, and I don't
Speaker 1: mean to be rude, I'm like, we have a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollar operation. If you know someone at
Speaker 1: toys Rs. That wants to send me ten million dollars
Speaker 1: in toys, I can distribute those, But a trunk full
Speaker 1: of clothes I can't help you with. Or people we
Speaker 1: want to go over there. I want to bring my
Speaker 1: child to go over there. I'm like, okay, so when
Speaker 1: you get there, let me well, like, how do you
Speaker 1: coordinate it? I'm like, I'm not running like a team tour.
Speaker 1: I've got you know, so the little things sometimes and
Speaker 1: what I mean to not be negative to people who
Speaker 1: want to help, because I was listening, Go to your
Speaker 1: local school, church, get organized, collect everything sorted, get volunteers
Speaker 1: for that. Then be like, we have this, we have
Speaker 1: a hundred T shirts in this these sizes, and then
Speaker 1: we can merchandise it. But but you are scaling a
Speaker 1: small business. You just said that. You know, you're talking about, Hey,
Speaker 1: why don't we organized right there? Pause? Because that's not
Speaker 1: what she wanted to do. And to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna have to call out some people
Speaker 1: because now I have that experience too. We're collecting over
Speaker 1: two hundred fifty thousand pounds and yeah, you know, uh
Speaker 1: with gam and be strong and Mike. It's a small
Speaker 1: fish in a big sea. But now I'm sort of
Speaker 1: understanding the process. I know how to funnel it the
Speaker 1: right way. We have collected two hundred fifty pounds and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna tell you he's talking about aid.
Speaker 1: He's collecting eight and then it's about distributing it. It's
Speaker 1: like literally like any other businesses, marketing, sales, marketing, distribution.
Speaker 1: He's got the aid, now he's gonna have to distribute it.
Speaker 1: But I was gonna say that I want to call
Speaker 1: out people who sent us stayed clothing and I'm talking
Speaker 1: staying like peace, things like it smells you know who
Speaker 1: sent us uh past do food? You know who sent
Speaker 1: us past do? I don't even know how you find
Speaker 1: that hand sanitizes. You know that I like expired some
Speaker 1: crazy things that would expiration data was like years ago.
Speaker 1: And the call out is this, like if you decided
Speaker 1: to use this way to clean out your closet, don't
Speaker 1: do that. You're not helping who are you helping. You're
Speaker 1: talking about people who lived a very you know, successful
Speaker 1: life in a in a in a in a European
Speaker 1: country that have now fled, and you are saying, here
Speaker 1: you go, you're welcome with with with something so degrading.
Speaker 1: You're not helping with the process. You you're hurting the process.
Speaker 1: You sort of like say something Max, this is the
Speaker 1: thing that I try to tell people because they want
Speaker 1: to help people think because they can't give money that
Speaker 1: they want to help in this way and people's voice
Speaker 1: is more important. There are major corporations like Amazon, like Goya,
Speaker 1: like kind Bar, like Delta that will help if you're
Speaker 1: a credible relief effort. Okay, so we have those people,
Speaker 1: so you're we we implore you to be the voice
Speaker 1: the communicators. The switchboard Max is one voice. I'm one voice.
Speaker 1: If you communicate what we're doing, those big companies will listen.
Speaker 1: So rather than dump out your trunk full of clothes,
Speaker 1: which will have to sort and it's not helping, your
Speaker 1: voice is worth millions of dollars because your vice voices
Speaker 1: who these big companies are listening to, and that's when
Speaker 1: they'll then give us millions of pounds of aid that
Speaker 1: we can distribute. That's why people have to be educated.
Speaker 1: Though they don't know. They just think, let me give
Speaker 1: them anything. They're desperate and they don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know people, Yeah, I mean, yeah, you're right. I would
Speaker 1: also say that, you know, if you are an organization
Speaker 1: like us and you decided to scale and you have
Speaker 1: this you know what they say organic attachment to the
Speaker 1: to the to the to the process. Um, you know
Speaker 1: we are Ukrainian. Baranova is a street and address in
Speaker 1: Odessa that's literally getting bombed right now where I was born,
Speaker 1: my dad was born. Baronova is the name of the street.
Speaker 1: That's literally our address of place of birth in Ukraini.
Speaker 1: So that's the name of our effort. Yes, So I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: with the experience of you know, entertainment industry that I have,
Speaker 1: it made sense. With the experience of the business uh
Speaker 1: set up and failures and lessons in business that we have, um,
Speaker 1: we're able to grow this if you are just a
Speaker 1: very very sort of philanthropic person by nature, and you
Speaker 1: feel from a very far away I'm not facetious about this.
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of trying to describe the most of
Speaker 1: the people, you know. When I flew back from Warsaw
Speaker 1: too Los Angeles, I realized how far away I am,
Speaker 1: you know, and how far away all these people are.
Speaker 1: So unless you're into politics and geopolitics and nervous about
Speaker 1: you know, economic downfall and inflation and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: you're far away. You live your life, you might not
Speaker 1: be connected. So if you're very philanthropic in that sense,
Speaker 1: and you saw this on the news, and you want
Speaker 1: to help send five dollars to to just five dollars
Speaker 1: to an organization you trust to do this, right you me,
Speaker 1: Mike us whoever, just five bucks you help more than
Speaker 1: if you send a lot of stuff that isn't something
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna follow ze because now I'm in costing
Speaker 1: me somehow some way to dispose of it if I'm
Speaker 1: not smart enough and I have somewhat common take me right. So,
Speaker 1: like now we're working with other organizations that unrelated to
Speaker 1: your relief efforts, you know what maybe related to like
Speaker 1: you know, we just literally dumb clothing we don't need
Speaker 1: back into the now it comes a whole I get
Speaker 1: exactly well, So you're learning that it's very much like
Speaker 1: running a successful business. And the thing I want to
Speaker 1: say about that before we get onto your business is
Speaker 1: you can't trust every organization or relief effort, just the
Speaker 1: same way that you can't trust every business. If you
Speaker 1: think that every single business is run well and successful, great,
Speaker 1: then that's what you think of charity. But if you
Speaker 1: realize that every business is not run well and successful,
Speaker 1: you will realize that every philanthropic effort is not. So
Speaker 1: do your research. The way that you're investing your money
Speaker 1: to invest in philanthropy and someone who's doing it themselves
Speaker 1: like you are and passionate is a good start for sure. Um,
Speaker 1: your business, So you went to for nine months to
Speaker 1: Ukraine and we're on this show. You're still an entertainer.
Speaker 1: You're still working in the entertainment industry. What is your
Speaker 1: core business? How do you support yourself? What's your goal?
Speaker 1: What are you building towards? What's your business now? What
Speaker 1: do you do for a living? I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's interesting because you know, we have to also mention
Speaker 1: that we're just coming out of craziness for a couple
Speaker 1: of years that we've just lived through, you know, with pandemic.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I know, and I'm changing my entire career too.
Speaker 1: But I'm asking for something. What would they do? I'm
Speaker 1: a dancer, I say, you know, when people ask me
Speaker 1: like what do you do? You know I'm a professional dancer.
Speaker 1: Oh great, Oh it's like that show. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I haven't seen you on it. And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I don't. I'm not on the number. What do
Speaker 1: you do now? Okay, well now I own a chain
Speaker 1: of dance studios. You know, we have fourteen locations high
Speaker 1: end social dance studios that are called Dance with Me
Speaker 1: in eight states. We're very proud of that. Weeds my brother,
Speaker 1: my dad, and a business partner, and and the team
Speaker 1: of people that we've worked with for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Some of them, you know, some of whom were my
Speaker 1: ex students who became at some point part time than
Speaker 1: full time. Now they're like, you know, corporate directors. So
Speaker 1: you know, we have a great company that we built
Speaker 1: from scratch, like I said, learned a lot on um.
Speaker 1: And again the beauty of that is it's in eight states,
Speaker 1: and that that gives me an opportunity to experience every
Speaker 1: kind of person in the United States, you know, and
Speaker 1: and understand every kind of market in the United States.
Speaker 1: And also maybe we set ourselves up for a little
Speaker 1: bit of like economic you know, ups and downs that
Speaker 1: we can regulate because we are not just in the
Speaker 1: New York State where you know, for example, COVID laws
Speaker 1: were a little different, but we also have five locations
Speaker 1: in Texas where COVID laws were a little different and
Speaker 1: allowed us to continue staying afloat. So we did some
Speaker 1: things that you know, we're proud of. What well, I
Speaker 1: guess that's good for me to um the last question,
Speaker 1: which is your rose and your thorn of your career?
Speaker 1: The high and the low of your career? Um, the
Speaker 1: higher and the low. I think you know, if you
Speaker 1: talk about career and the business and it's finance and finances,
Speaker 1: you know it has to be financial, you know, the
Speaker 1: highest you know I have, I'm I'm in two most expensive,
Speaker 1: hardest to succeed cities, you know, New York City. I
Speaker 1: have a you know mentioned and you know cars, and
Speaker 1: I'm supporting my parents and you know, my brother in
Speaker 1: a way. And then you know, I'm also in l A.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like this the Bachelor on at at
Speaker 1: some point top TV show, you know, for a period,
Speaker 1: for short period of time, we were like the top
Speaker 1: TV show in the country, and probably you know, probably
Speaker 1: ran sort of like you know, the reality genre of TV,
Speaker 1: you know, landscape at that time, right, And so I
Speaker 1: have my life in l A and the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, I'm feeling I'm feeling that, right, and
Speaker 1: then and then I feel the confidence and I'm like bamm,
Speaker 1: and then the wings spread, and that's what I realized.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the confidence the cockiness, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: like everyone has that, and it was literally I was
Speaker 1: watching somebody else who's super successful. Oh shock, you know, shock,
Speaker 1: You're asked shack. He's like, he's literally just said that.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you think you're perfectly not perfect,
Speaker 1: and then he says, you know, Penny Hardaware relationship was awful,
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant relationship with Big Mistake. This is the guy
Speaker 1: who at the time was pumping himself in the chest,
Speaker 1: I'm the best that you're nothing about me. And I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's so familiar. You know, today we respect the guy
Speaker 1: for his entire career, everything he's done right, but he's
Speaker 1: admitting to the stuff that we were witnessing, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that kind of seems wrong, Like don't you think and
Speaker 1: you know, I have to look to drink your own
Speaker 1: kool aid. I'm saying everyone dreams their own kool aid.
Speaker 1: I'm saying everyone who gets into this and loses their
Speaker 1: head with the success drinks the kool aid um. I
Speaker 1: don't have that. I don't have the mension, I don't
Speaker 1: have the whips on both sides. That's how you know,
Speaker 1: I was saying in b k UM, I don't have
Speaker 1: that part of my life right. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, pre pandemic, things exploded, you know, personally,
Speaker 1: not you know personally, but like business exploded, there was
Speaker 1: some other things just exploded, and things that I felt
Speaker 1: secure about not and things that I felt insecure about
Speaker 1: became the sort of the life the refts. Right, it's
Speaker 1: all just very a little trivial, but it's all personal.
Speaker 1: But it's again it's describing what everyone goes through. Whether
Speaker 1: you're you know, in finance and you know you had
Speaker 1: money in the wrong stock, you know, and and then
Speaker 1: this happened, or whether you and you know me and
Speaker 1: I don't know whether if you're a professional athlete and
Speaker 1: you I don't know, God for a bit broken me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying like that, That's how I
Speaker 1: look at it, Like I had a financial career that
Speaker 1: took a hit, you know, and I needed to and
Speaker 1: I got depressed, and there was points and there were
Speaker 1: law in life, and then I was just starting to
Speaker 1: come out and then bank pandemic and again would feel like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, the world is coming to an end.
Speaker 1: This is very why me at this time? That's how
Speaker 1: you by you, why the whole planet and so and
Speaker 1: to us, it gave us an opportunity to come Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: Well you know what this is too crazy? You and
Speaker 1: your brother? Are you and your father? Are you in
Speaker 1: your whole family? Just me by myself, Me and my
Speaker 1: had to you had But this is what you've done.
Speaker 1: You had to pull yourself up in your bootstraps and
Speaker 1: figure the ship out. And you did like you got
Speaker 1: you got organized, and you like did what everybody did
Speaker 1: in the pandemic. You got your shipped together and shook
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah. And and and I feel like I
Speaker 1: you know, I feel I feel different. I speak different,
Speaker 1: and my train of thoughts different, and I look forward
Speaker 1: to different things differently, you know. And again that's and
Speaker 1: again just bringing the soul back, and then the fam
Speaker 1: and it's again end of the world. We're in war.
Speaker 1: What is happening? You know what I'm saying. And then
Speaker 1: once again and now you and I was just an
Speaker 1: exercise of of don't lose your head, you know, no
Speaker 1: matter what, and every down follows by up, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just natural way of things. Um, and you know
Speaker 1: the black stripe and white stripe. They you know, So
Speaker 1: there's certain things you're in control of, certain things you're
Speaker 1: not in control. I'm in control of every single reaction
Speaker 1: that I that I make. You had, you hit multiple
Speaker 1: back to back doses a reality, but the final dose
Speaker 1: was the war, which made you realize that none of
Speaker 1: the ships you were even worried about mattered, and that
Speaker 1: life and death mattered, and that child trafficking matter, and
Speaker 1: the family mattered, and being safe mattered. And so you
Speaker 1: really I think that's the whole reason for you having
Speaker 1: some PTSD, all of the things you just described, not
Speaker 1: just the war, but personal, a personal low, financial hit,
Speaker 1: a pandemic, a war. And now you're coming out on
Speaker 1: the other side. Yeah. And the perspective is like, listen
Speaker 1: to five minutes that I was negligent with, you know,
Speaker 1: spending with my son. Oh, that just don't be negligent,
Speaker 1: because when is that Like you're gonna look in the
Speaker 1: bank at some point metaphorically and be like, you know,
Speaker 1: I wish I had all those five minutes, yes to
Speaker 1: gether right now, you know, and and had more of
Speaker 1: that time. You're gonna feel that way at some point
Speaker 1: not being philosophical about this something you know, you can't
Speaker 1: you can get that the money, who cares about the money.
Speaker 1: You can get the money, but you can't get the
Speaker 1: time back. You cannot get the time back. And so
Speaker 1: it's quality of time, quality of time for me at
Speaker 1: the moment, multiplied by you know, just quality of time
Speaker 1: with the multiplied by the right people. You know, really
Speaker 1: because then you you know, you get something out of it.
Speaker 1: You you give a lot and and you don't you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to digress. But I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that really helped is that is that
Speaker 1: the circles. The circles also change, and I think it
Speaker 1: comes with you know, now you have a kid, you're
Speaker 1: a different person. You know, you're a different person. Will
Speaker 1: get married, you're different person. We have a child, you're
Speaker 1: a different person. Where you have to because now you
Speaker 1: come back out like guys are back, you know, and
Speaker 1: then everybody's like, now we just now got our first
Speaker 1: so we only started. So you know, for me, a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff is also relevant. My circle of
Speaker 1: people changed a little bit. People that are in my
Speaker 1: house every day, I'm not the same people that used
Speaker 1: to be you know, and so it's just this interesting.
Speaker 1: Life is incredible. Well, life is incredible. It's an amazing
Speaker 1: place to end. But it's funny because you made you.
Speaker 1: You expressed that your rose and thorn are one. They're
Speaker 1: like a circular reference, the high and the Without that, Hi,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have hit that low. But that low is
Speaker 1: now turning into a new high because it's more like
Speaker 1: it's with perspective. So I think it's life is beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's a great place too. And I appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate the discussion and now really getting to know you,
Speaker 1: because now I can definitely say I know you. And
Speaker 1: I appreciate all the awareness you've raised for Ukraine and
Speaker 1: being so passionate about it and finding that new side
Speaker 1: of your life, and your wife being my the one
Speaker 1: who is communicating with me, my switchboard operator to talk
Speaker 1: to you no and listen. I thank you so much,
Speaker 1: And again I just want to have to say mentioned
Speaker 1: thank you. Mike. Mike Caponi is a big dude, and
Speaker 1: it's like as a big it's a big influence. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm I've yet to know him as a person. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie he's talking about my partner in
Speaker 1: relief for who's on the ground still in Poland. Months later,
Speaker 1: he dedicated his life to philanthropy, had a very screwed
Speaker 1: up life and pulled himself out of the dumps of
Speaker 1: life on his own, and he's dedicated his life to
Speaker 1: philanthropy and he worked together and found each other. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it's incredible what what you guys have done with Jim
Speaker 1: be strong and then and and the lastly, you know,
Speaker 1: the war in Ukraine maybe overstune may not, but the
Speaker 1: damage is unprecedented. And unprecedented is not a word you
Speaker 1: can't say a lot, right when I say I'm precedented
Speaker 1: is yeah, but we had World War Two, Yes we did.
Speaker 1: We didn't use things as he has been used now,
Speaker 1: and the destruction was kind of different type of destruction.
Speaker 1: And uh, I feel like there's no comparison, and it's
Speaker 1: not about that. But my generation has probably never seen that,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I feel like, uh, the reason
Speaker 1: why I need to continue doing this is because for
Speaker 1: a very long time after the relief effort that I
Speaker 1: chose to be a part of, the humanitarian is going
Speaker 1: to have to continue. Oh no, well, we we always
Speaker 1: say we're there long after the headlines fade, and unlike
Speaker 1: a hurricane, which stops and then you're dealing with the aftermath,
Speaker 1: which is horrifying. And we've seen so much in Haitian
Speaker 1: the world. This is still ongoing. It may not be
Speaker 1: at the same favorite pitch, but once it stops, you're
Speaker 1: dealing with what you were dealing with after Hurricane Katrina,
Speaker 1: but you're dealing with lives and relocation and crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: And not everyone is interested in this all the time,
Speaker 1: which is why, uh, my unsolicited advice to you, Max
Speaker 1: is pick your time to talk about it and make
Speaker 1: it really compelling, because effectively, you are marketing. You have
Speaker 1: to get people interested in. If they hear it too much,
Speaker 1: they zone out because they want to hear about what
Speaker 1: somebody wore to the Grammys. They don't want to hear
Speaker 1: about People don't want to hear about death and destruction.
Speaker 1: It's sad, but it's true. You have to. That's that's
Speaker 1: my next that's my next level of understanding and compartmentalizing
Speaker 1: my efforts and making sure that I'm still putting out
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, Michael wants to post five times a
Speaker 1: day every day, because that's what he's doing and that's
Speaker 1: his main thing, and he is a core group that
Speaker 1: wants to hear that when he wants me to, I
Speaker 1: actually lose followers, believe or not. If I post a
Speaker 1: picture of myself in a bathing suit, it will do
Speaker 1: very well. But you post a picture yourself in a
Speaker 1: bathing that I promise you will do very well. You
Speaker 1: post a picture of Ukraine. Right now, they're full. People
Speaker 1: are there might be a cool thing that happens tomorrow
Speaker 1: where there's a fire somewhere, and that's the cool thing
Speaker 1: to talk about. And it's sad to discuss it this way,
Speaker 1: but that's the fact of the matter. So I say
Speaker 1: to Michael, I'm not posting right now about this because
Speaker 1: people don't have the bandwidth for it. Will do better
Speaker 1: if we wait until they're digesting it and have something
Speaker 1: important to say and some takeaway, and then we can
Speaker 1: raise money again. But you have to just remember you
Speaker 1: have to go with the EBB and flow. It's you
Speaker 1: can't change people. This is the way that it is,
Speaker 1: and that's why you can be successful. What you are
Speaker 1: successful in these efforts because you apply the marketing know how.
Speaker 1: The marketing steals. People are yelling at me NonStop, screaming
Speaker 1: at your phone. They're judging you for what you just said, Like,
Speaker 1: how can you say that these people are dying? Yes,
Speaker 1: you're right, but that's why I'm doing it this way
Speaker 1: because that can make bigger impact and big time exactly
Speaker 1: how to utilize my voice. Everybody's talking about how healthy
Speaker 1: avocados are. We are, well, avocado is healthy, it's a
Speaker 1: healthy if. Every day they're telling you about avocados, You're like,
Speaker 1: I don't want any avocados anymore. So you have to
Speaker 1: you know, it's anything. It's there are people dying in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: their kids going to traffic and their orphans. We've extracted
Speaker 1: hundred fifty million dollar effort. People don't want to hear
Speaker 1: about right now anymore than they want to hear about
Speaker 1: my business, my television career anything. So there's just a
Speaker 1: way to do it, and it's just it is what
Speaker 1: it is. So that's why I said a little bit that'
Speaker 1: to your wife and to you because you're passionate about it.
Speaker 1: But going in and out and finding your way will
Speaker 1: be really really amazing and you've done amazing things. Thanks
Speaker 1: Thanks Max, have a great day. Okay, So that was
Speaker 1: that was really interesting. I met Max through my superficial
Speaker 1: life of entertainment and reality television. We uh stayed in touch.
Speaker 1: When I got deeply involved in an effort in Ukraine,
Speaker 1: I realized that Max was there, maxim was there and
Speaker 1: connected with him and connected with his wife and was
Speaker 1: concerned about his safety and what was going on and
Speaker 1: how he was getting out. And then he wanted to
Speaker 1: get involved in philanthropy there. And we have a massive effort,
Speaker 1: uh more than a d fifty million dollar effort that
Speaker 1: will take months and months to continue with and we've
Speaker 1: extracted orphans and we have multiple warehouses and my partner
Speaker 1: Michael Capone and JEM, which is Global Empowerment Mission, are
Speaker 1: still on the ground uh and doing the heavy lifting,
Speaker 1: to be honest. And Max went and visited our warehouse
Speaker 1: and he became connected and we've helped him a little
Speaker 1: bit too to kind of give him some of our experience.
Speaker 1: So he's had an interesting life. I think it's nice
Speaker 1: how he was humble about taking a financial hit in
Speaker 1: his life, a career hit, uh, trying to rebuild and
Speaker 1: getting hit with the pandemic, trying to rebuild and getting
Speaker 1: hit with a war and just being honest about the struggles.
Speaker 1: So it was a different type of interview, a different
Speaker 1: type of guests, and I'm really glad for the conversation,
Speaker 1: appreciative and I think you'll enjoy it.