Speaker 1: This is The Eds with Eddie Judge and Edwin Ado Jave,
Speaker 1: the husbands know Best two Teas production. Hey guys, welcome
Speaker 1: to The Ed's podcast. My name is Eddie Judge and
Speaker 1: I'm Edwin ari Jave.
Speaker 2: If you're listening to this podcast, you probably know we
Speaker 2: are the better halves of Teddy and Tamera, but not
Speaker 2: a lot of people know much about us other than
Speaker 2: what they've seen on TV. So let's get into it.
Speaker 2: We're going to start today with getting to know each other.
Speaker 1: Sound good? Yeah, no, it sounds great. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: get this thing started finally. Awesome. Awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, let's start with a few questions. I want to
Speaker 2: know a little bit more about you, Edwin. Where did
Speaker 2: you grow up? So?
Speaker 1: I was born in Bota, Colombia. My parents and I
Speaker 1: came to the US when I was six years old
Speaker 1: in search of that American dream. However, that American dream
Speaker 1: quickly became an American nightmare because, due to some unfortunate circumstances,
Speaker 1: my family lost everything we had, so much so that
Speaker 1: at the age of fifteen years old, I had to
Speaker 1: become the head of household. And at the time, I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to get a job working at a
Speaker 1: call center, which was probably not the best ideal type
Speaker 1: of job for me because I was very shy and
Speaker 1: I was very timid, But I quickly got the courage
Speaker 1: to do this job I did not want to do,
Speaker 1: just out of my desperation to help my family out.
Speaker 1: At this point, I was just tired of seeing my
Speaker 1: mom not be able to pay for the rent at
Speaker 1: the end of the month. I was tired of us
Speaker 1: running out of food at the end of the month
Speaker 1: because we lived on food stamps. I was tired of
Speaker 1: my siblings, mother, and I living in this tiny little
Speaker 1: bedroom without any windows. And finally, I was just tired
Speaker 1: of like roaches waking me up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. So really, the avoidance of pain is what
Speaker 1: caused me to take on something that really demanded more
Speaker 1: than I thought I was worth at the time. And
Speaker 1: at the time, even though I was very shy and
Speaker 1: I was very timid, the one thing that I did
Speaker 1: have going for me was I was a big dreamer
Speaker 1: man twelve years old. I remember my mom would go
Speaker 1: to work and I would just stay home by myself,
Speaker 1: and I would visualize how one day I was going
Speaker 1: to make one hundred grand a year by the age
Speaker 1: of twenty one years old. I didn't know how I
Speaker 1: was going to do it. I just knew I was
Speaker 1: going to figure it out, and it just kept thinking
Speaker 1: about it all the time, I became obsessed with it,
Speaker 1: and so sure enough, when I got the job at
Speaker 1: fifteen years old, I just started focusing on what I
Speaker 1: could control, which at the time was my activity and
Speaker 1: my attitude, and I just had faith that the right
Speaker 1: people would come in front of me to sort of
Speaker 1: make the impossible possible. Was sure enough, I became the
Speaker 1: youngest manager in company history. At that point. I started
Speaker 1: making some pretty good money at the time from a
Speaker 1: kid from hunting in Park I was. I started making
Speaker 1: about one thousand dollars a week. But more importantly, I
Speaker 1: became the right hand of the VP of sales of
Speaker 1: that company. And then three years later, he comes in
Speaker 1: in my office and he says, Hey, I'm going to
Speaker 1: start this home security company and I'm going to resign.
Speaker 1: And he says to me, I can't guarantee you the
Speaker 1: seventy grand a year that you make here, but if
Speaker 1: you make this work, you can possibly be double, triple,
Speaker 1: quadruple what you make here. And the first thing I
Speaker 1: thought was, well, first of all, you don't have to
Speaker 1: be that smart to be to make six seven figures
Speaker 1: a year or eight figures a year. You just have
Speaker 1: to have common sense and drive. And that's exactly what
Speaker 1: I did. I used common sense. I said, this guy's
Speaker 1: making two hundred and fifty grand a year and he's
Speaker 1: resigning because he thinks he'd make millions in this industry
Speaker 1: that's untapped. Second thing I thought was, man, if this
Speaker 1: guy's willing to mentor me how to start a company
Speaker 1: from the ground up, I'm like, this is exactly what
Speaker 1: I needed because I didn't graduate. I didn't go to college.
Speaker 1: I graduated with a one point eight gpa, and I
Speaker 1: just needed a mentor at the time. And then lastly,
Speaker 1: I was just a huge Like I said, I was
Speaker 1: a huge dream. I remember, I would always ditch school,
Speaker 1: which is probably why I ended get up with a
Speaker 1: one point eight gpa. But I literally would drive to
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills in Hollywood Hills. I did spif sixth period
Speaker 1: go to Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, and I was just
Speaker 1: I was like, WHOA, people look different here, people dressed
Speaker 1: different here, The food tastes better here. And what was
Speaker 1: interesting what got me to Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: was this is back in nineteen ninety five, and Ricky
Speaker 1: Martin was a big hit back then, Like all the
Speaker 1: ladies wanted Ricky Martin. So I remember reading this magazine,
Speaker 1: I think it was US Magazine, and it talked about
Speaker 1: Ricky Martin shopping at employ ARMANI. So I looked up
Speaker 1: in Poyamani. I'm like, oh, that's in a Dale Drive.
Speaker 1: Let me go drive over there, and maybe I could
Speaker 1: Maybe if I started dressing like Ricky Martin, maybe the
Speaker 1: chicks would pay more attention to me. So that's actually
Speaker 1: how I ended up on the West Side from the
Speaker 1: East side. And it was kind of like a pretty
Speaker 1: woman kind of scene in that I literally walked into
Speaker 1: Emporio Ramani with size forty two five oh one jeans,
Speaker 1: So my waist size was forty two five oh one jeans,
Speaker 1: some Harley's and a wife beater and and that's how
Speaker 1: I walked into the store. And funny enough, the guy
Speaker 1: that basically took care of me became a really good
Speaker 1: friend of mine and like started hooking me up with
Speaker 1: all these deals at emporio. So I started dressing nicer
Speaker 1: and and yeah, gross started paying attention to me once
Speaker 1: I started dressing a little nicer, so it kind of worked, right,
Speaker 1: But anyways, that's how it started. And so when I
Speaker 1: got that opportunity, I everyone told me I was crazy,
Speaker 1: because how are you going to leave this job that
Speaker 1: pays you, you know, seventy thousand dollars a year, with
Speaker 1: a four one K plan and all that good stuff
Speaker 1: for this unknown But my dream was bigger than any
Speaker 1: excuse that could make on why I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: take the opportunity. Another part of my dream is I
Speaker 1: promised my dad at ten years old that when he
Speaker 1: got out of jail, he'd never have to work a
Speaker 1: day in his life. And I promised my mom at
Speaker 1: twelve years old that one day I was going to
Speaker 1: buy her house. So again, my dreams were bigger than
Speaker 1: any excuse that I could give myself on why it
Speaker 1: couldn't happen. And I took the plunge and I went
Speaker 1: after it, and here we are twenty five years later.
Speaker 1: You know, the company's made over six hundred million, and
Speaker 1: just last year alone and did two hundred million, and
Speaker 1: we're just we're sort of just getting started. But it took.
Speaker 1: It took it definitely took a leap of faith.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, That's really incredible.
Speaker 1: One. I want to go back a little bit too.
Speaker 2: When we started about your story where you were with
Speaker 2: your family, and one of the first questions I had
Speaker 2: was did you have a mentor guide you through your dreams?
Speaker 2: Because having a dream is one thing, but you know,
Speaker 2: executing on that dream and figuring out how to get
Speaker 2: there is really the key, right. And you don't need
Speaker 2: a Harvard degree for that. You need, like you said,
Speaker 2: you need will, you need tenacity, and then you need guidance.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So you answered that question by telling me that this
Speaker 2: guy that took you under his wing and said, hey,
Speaker 2: you want to make a million dollars, let's go open
Speaker 2: up this business. My question to you is how did
Speaker 2: that work while you were still living with your parents?
Speaker 2: I mean before you started making the seventy thousand or
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars a week? Were you still living at home?
Speaker 2: Were you inspiring your family? Were you driven by trying
Speaker 2: to get out of that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So I was a great question. Yeah I was
Speaker 1: driven because at ten years old. So what happens when
Speaker 1: we first came to the US. Two weeks after coming
Speaker 1: to the US, our home got raided by law enforcement,
Speaker 1: and that day both my parents ended up in jail,
Speaker 1: my sister and I ended up in a foster home.
Speaker 1: And then eight months later my parents get acquitted of
Speaker 1: all charges, and now my sister and I think that
Speaker 1: this nightmare is over. However, the nightmare was just beginning,
Speaker 1: because every year after that, our home would get raided
Speaker 1: at least once a year. And then finally, when I
Speaker 1: was ten years old, so my dad would go to Columbia.
Speaker 1: They couldn't catch them. He'd come back and back and forth. Finally,
Speaker 1: when I was ten, they were able to arrest them,
Speaker 1: and this time they put them away for a long time,
Speaker 1: and the cops were nice enough to allow me to
Speaker 1: talk to him before they took him in, and his
Speaker 1: last words were, son, you need to become the man
Speaker 1: of the house. And when I turned fifteen, I could
Speaker 1: finally legally go after a job. I just started applying everywhere,
Speaker 1: and the thing was, no one would hire me because
Speaker 1: I was so shy and timid that during the interviews
Speaker 1: I'd get so nervous that i'd start stumbling my words,
Speaker 1: and then I'd sweating, and then so they probably thought
Speaker 1: I was on drugs. So finally a buddy of mine
Speaker 1: that knew my situation says, hey, when I found this company,
Speaker 1: they hire anyone, just show up and I promise you
Speaker 1: that they're hire you. I'm like, are you sure. It's like, dude,
Speaker 1: I sent the last seven people there, They've all gotten hired.
Speaker 1: So I of course get all excited. I drive down
Speaker 1: to this job interview, and at the time, I had
Speaker 1: a Nissance Central that had no air conditioning and had
Speaker 1: those roll up windows, so it was kind of a
Speaker 1: hot day. So I get in there and I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: oh man, I'm already hot, some kind of sweating, but
Speaker 1: not too much. And I'm like, I hope I don't
Speaker 1: sweat in this interview. Well, sure enough, two minutes into
Speaker 1: the interview, the guy is handing me over a paper towel,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking to myself, oh shoot, he's noticing that
Speaker 1: I'm sweating. So then, of course the sweat just comes
Speaker 1: full throttle. I look like I ran a marathon. And
Speaker 1: this is why whenever I do speak on stage, I
Speaker 1: never see me dress in white, because that day I
Speaker 1: had a white shirt and you could see through the
Speaker 1: entire shirt. Is that's how much I sweated during this
Speaker 1: interview and I don't get the job. So I remember
Speaker 1: walking back to my car and I was just discouraged
Speaker 1: as heck. And I go into the restroom to kind
Speaker 1: of clean myself up, and I just start pointing to
Speaker 1: God at the time. I just say, hey, God, I
Speaker 1: need a shot. Just give me a shot. I promise
Speaker 1: you if you can find if you can help me
Speaker 1: find a job, I'll work harder than anybody's ever worked.
Speaker 1: And I promise you I'll always praise your name on
Speaker 1: an opportunity if you just give me the opportunity. And
Speaker 1: sure enough, as soon as I get out of that restroom,
Speaker 1: there's a gentleman outside and he says, hey, kid, when
Speaker 1: do you start? I said, I don't start. You guys
Speaker 1: are completely full and he starts laughing. He's like, who
Speaker 1: told you that? I'm like, well, the guy just interviewed
Speaker 1: with it takes me over to the HR room. He says,
Speaker 1: I need you to hire this kid. I need him
Speaker 1: to start tomorrow at three pm. And I started it
Speaker 1: the next day. But here's the crazy part. That same
Speaker 1: person is the same person that's six years later helps
Speaker 1: me start the security company. So I'm literally I'm a
Speaker 1: firm believer that in life, people just need one shot.
Speaker 1: They need a system, They need to believe, a leader
Speaker 1: that believes in them, that's going to be patient with them,
Speaker 1: that's going to show you how to do it. And
Speaker 1: that's It's exactly what happened to me. So I always
Speaker 1: tell people like, look, guys, if you guys want six
Speaker 1: seventy figures a you're whatever you want to make, you
Speaker 1: need two things. You need to find an opportunity that
Speaker 1: allows you to make that kind of money. Because if
Speaker 1: you can't find an opportunity that it allows you to
Speaker 1: make that kind of money, what makes you think you're
Speaker 1: going to make that kind of money? And then the
Speaker 1: second one, which is the hardest one, is you need
Speaker 1: to find someone who's done it before, who has a
Speaker 1: vested interest in your success that's going to help you
Speaker 1: do it. And if you could find that person, you're
Speaker 1: pretty much going to make it unless you just don't
Speaker 1: work hard. But the hard part is most people that
Speaker 1: make that type of money aren't going to take you
Speaker 1: under their way and show you exactly how they do it.
Speaker 1: So you know that was my story. I'm literally the story,
Speaker 1: like person gave me a shot and I ran with
Speaker 1: it and I never looked back. That's amazing. And do
Speaker 1: you ever wonder.
Speaker 2: Why this person gave me that shot or did it
Speaker 2: just kind of manifest as the journey began? And I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously you ask God, and God placed him there and
Speaker 2: he gave you. He answered your your prayers. But uh,
Speaker 2: what was this guy seeing your did?
Speaker 1: Did he? Did he ever tell you?
Speaker 2: Like I saw your your potential, I saw your energy,
Speaker 2: I saw what you have or what you wanted.
Speaker 1: I honestly think that the whole time they did hire anyone.
Speaker 1: It's just that I got so nervous that the guy
Speaker 1: in the HR room probably honestly thought I was on drug.
Speaker 1: This kid breaking? Why can't you stop sweating? What the
Speaker 1: hell is wrong with this kid? Yeah? And I just
Speaker 1: think when he saw me, it was more of like,
Speaker 1: we need bodies in here, let's get this guy in here.
Speaker 1: And then I just you know, I took on this
Speaker 1: like mindset of an overachieverer. I just was I was
Speaker 1: going to outwork you. I was gonna I got obsessed
Speaker 1: with like repetition and you know, instead of getting I
Speaker 1: got energized by it and I was gonna outwork you.
Speaker 1: I was gonna you know, I took I went to
Speaker 1: all the I basically just I started showing up to everything.
Speaker 1: Like most of the people that were way more talented
Speaker 1: than I was, they would always they'd never show up
Speaker 1: on Fridays, they definitely never showed up on Saturdays. I
Speaker 1: like showed up every day. There was these leadership development
Speaker 1: programs that they had, they never showed up. I always
Speaker 1: showed up. I remember I just went up to the
Speaker 1: top guy in the whole company and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: I went with my little radio shock recorder and I
Speaker 1: was like, can you just record your pitch for me?
Speaker 1: And he recorded it. I literally learned that thing verbatim.
Speaker 1: I learned it word for word, and I basically kind
Speaker 1: of took his confidence. I started to talk like him,
Speaker 1: I took his tonality, I started to basically walk like
Speaker 1: him like everything. And I got my confidence from that,
Speaker 1: because really in life it's just confidence. The more certain
Speaker 1: person is always going to influence the less certain persons.
Speaker 1: So that's how I kind of got my start.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, that's truly a you know American dream story
Speaker 2: where you know, rags the riches, you just worked your
Speaker 2: ass off, And I can't emphasize enough how important that
Speaker 2: is for people that don't have the opportunities to grow
Speaker 2: up with money and you know silver platter and you
Speaker 2: know Ivy League schools and all that. It really is
Speaker 2: a combination of hard work and tenacity.
Speaker 1: What I think a big part of that too is
Speaker 1: we did have some money and then it all got
Speaker 1: taken away, because again, can't improve on something you're not
Speaker 1: aware of. But I think you know, growing up, I
Speaker 1: did have a taste of what having some money felt like,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, like we don't even
Speaker 1: have enough money for food. Whereas like if you don't
Speaker 1: know any better, like you don't know the difference, and
Speaker 1: you don't know what you don't know, right, But once
Speaker 1: you know, you're like, wait a minute, this is why
Speaker 1: I want to work my butt off. Like you know,
Speaker 1: you've never flown first class, Like you're probably not going
Speaker 1: to know what that feels like, so why would you
Speaker 1: want to go work your butt off to go get
Speaker 1: it right? But like once you do, you're like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, this is kind of where I belong. I
Speaker 1: need to go work my ass off to go make
Speaker 1: that happen. Let's hear about you, man. I know you
Speaker 1: have an awesome story as well, so would you grow well.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Anaheim. I was born in Mexico.
Speaker 2: Came at the age at I think age two, and
Speaker 2: this is going way back, but I'll condense it. I
Speaker 2: I think this is one of the reasons why my
Speaker 2: wife loves me because of this story. Came to America
Speaker 2: with my family, and I'll never forget. We lived in
Speaker 2: a garage with you know, a bed, and it was
Speaker 2: my aunt, my grandmother and myself and these family in
Speaker 2: Fullerton was kind enough to allow us to live there
Speaker 2: for about six months.
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 2: I don't know the exact timing because I was so little.
Speaker 2: You know, everything you know just happens. But fast forward.
Speaker 2: We worked our way up to an apartment and then
Speaker 2: from an apartment to a house, and then moving from
Speaker 2: city to city. But for me, I think what lit
Speaker 2: a fire under my ass was my aunt telling me
Speaker 2: at the age of thirteen, saying, hey, you know, you
Speaker 2: got to start contributing.
Speaker 1: You got to get a job.
Speaker 2: And I'm like a job, I'm thirteen, Where am I
Speaker 2: going to get a job, just like go down the
Speaker 2: street and start mowing lawns or something.
Speaker 1: But you need to work. And I'll never forget that day.
Speaker 2: That's actually when I met my adopted dad, and we
Speaker 2: share this story together all the time. We talk about
Speaker 2: it because we were in business together at one point
Speaker 2: and I'm sitting there on my bike looking at him,
Speaker 2: asking him for a job, and he's like, a job,
Speaker 2: what do you want a job for? You play with
Speaker 2: my dogs all the time and you're always having fun.
Speaker 2: You're just a kid, like, well, I need to make
Speaker 2: money and I'm all your lawn And he's like, okay,
Speaker 2: well what do you want to get paid?
Speaker 1: Like, I don't know, you tell me what I want
Speaker 1: to get paid.
Speaker 2: And it was that conversation that we had at that
Speaker 2: moment that we always go back to and we have
Speaker 2: our stories that we talk about, you know, how we
Speaker 2: met and I said, how about ten dollars? And I
Speaker 2: started mowing lawns for ten dollars and then doing jobs
Speaker 2: here and there, throwing the paper Sundays sock because the
Speaker 2: paper was so big, and then and then he started
Speaker 2: renovating his home, so he hired me on the summer
Speaker 2: and I picked up one of my friends and go
Speaker 2: work with him. And we were just standing this old
Speaker 2: nineteen built, nineteen sixties home down to the wood and
Speaker 2: just working our ass up to make a living so
Speaker 2: we can go hang out and pick up chicks. You know.
Speaker 2: Everything was driven around you know, what motivates you, and
Speaker 2: at the time, of course girls were motivating. But he
Speaker 2: was my mentor was he just graduated law school.
Speaker 1: He was doing very well. He was working all the time.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I told myself when
Speaker 2: I was a kid is I.
Speaker 1: Never want to work that hard.
Speaker 2: I never want to work, you know, twelve hour days,
Speaker 2: sixteen hour days, and have no life. And it wasn't
Speaker 2: until I graduated high school and I went to go
Speaker 2: get a job that I realized I don't have any skills.
Speaker 2: I don't have anything, you know, to give to anybody.
Speaker 2: So nobody would hire me. And I got to the
Speaker 2: point where I went back to work with my now
Speaker 2: father and he gave me the opportunity to go to school.
Speaker 2: So I went back to school, started working on business
Speaker 2: and I was, like you, very shy. I was afraid
Speaker 2: to talk to people, you know, I had somehow I
Speaker 2: had opportunities, but always very shy. And I took a
Speaker 2: course in college, funny enough, for acting. And the reason
Speaker 2: I took that course is because I wanted to get
Speaker 2: my confidence standing in front of an audience and talking
Speaker 2: about whatever I needed to talk about. Because my vision
Speaker 2: was one day, I'm going to be standing in front
Speaker 2: of people in a nice suit, talking business whatever that means.
Speaker 1: But you know, that was my vision.
Speaker 2: And so the acting classes really gave me that self confidence,
Speaker 2: especially drama. Drama really helped me get into myself and
Speaker 2: what makes me tick, what makes me emotional. And it's
Speaker 2: really hard to cry on the spot, it really is,
Speaker 2: but those are the skills that I picked up that
Speaker 2: really got to know who I am as a person,
Speaker 2: what makes me happy, what makes me sad. And I'll
Speaker 2: never I'll never regret that moment where I learned who
Speaker 2: I really was because of these acting classes. Now I did,
Speaker 2: I did do some acting and you know, some show
Speaker 2: I was on stage and all that that contributed to
Speaker 2: my confidence and it was a lot of fun. I
Speaker 2: got what we will call the acting bug, you know, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I want to be on stage. I want to be
Speaker 2: you know, a lead singer. I want to be a
Speaker 2: lead role. And then I tried acting for the camera
Speaker 2: and that was nerve wracking. I just I there's something
Speaker 2: about a big lens looking at you in your face,
Speaker 2: you know, going Okay, do something, and.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: And and and it's and I struggled with it. But
Speaker 2: from there I just went on and started working with
Speaker 2: my father. We started building his practice from the ground up.
Speaker 2: I think we started with like four employees or three employees,
Speaker 2: and by the time I left the firm, we had
Speaker 2: about thirty five employees, over three thousand cases, maybe four
Speaker 2: poor attorneys working for us, and I was, you know,
Speaker 2: I was leading that business.
Speaker 1: It really taught me so much.
Speaker 2: I started from being a file clerk to you know,
Speaker 2: working on cases, to managing a team to you know,
Speaker 2: managing the firm. So it gave me a huge It
Speaker 2: was it was like one of my girlfriends at the
Speaker 2: time said, that's your MBA. You just got your MBA
Speaker 2: running a business like this. So for me, the thing,
Speaker 2: the biggest takeaway from that was the complete opposite of
Speaker 2: what I thought as a kid, I don't want to
Speaker 2: work that hard, you know. When I got to the
Speaker 2: point where like, I got no other option but to
Speaker 2: work that hard. That's when my life changed. That's when
Speaker 2: I started working hard. And that's when I realized, even
Speaker 2: if I have to work twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 2: is I'm going to have to do it because I
Speaker 2: have tasted the finer things in life. I do want
Speaker 2: a nicer car. I do want to fly first class.
Speaker 2: I do want to go to the finer restaurants, you know,
Speaker 2: And that was exactly what motivated me at the time.
Speaker 2: I want to be, you know, wealthy. Growing up with
Speaker 2: nothing was a big part of it too, Like, hey,
Speaker 2: I didn't have anything growing up, barely had any clothes
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't even have hand me.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to wear my aunt's clothes, right, and
Speaker 2: she's only a couple of years older than me. But
Speaker 2: the struggle was, I think what led me to push
Speaker 2: myself to always work my ass off, and it got
Speaker 2: to the point where, you know, I think it took
Speaker 2: us about thirteen years to build this practice up, and
Speaker 2: it gave me the confidence that I could do anything,
Speaker 2: anything I want to do.
Speaker 1: And then that's probably when I.
Speaker 2: Met my wife, you know, it was it was a
Speaker 2: life changing moment for me because she's here, she is
Speaker 2: on this national television show, and she's telling me she
Speaker 2: wants to open up a business. She doesn't know what yet.
Speaker 2: It's either a fitness business or a bar. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about alcohol and being a health
Speaker 2: not all my life. I don't really want to, so
Speaker 2: let's go with the gym, even though I know it's crowded,
Speaker 2: crowded space. I did do personal training, I think in
Speaker 2: my early eighteen nineteen years old, and again I learned
Speaker 2: real fast, this is not going to pay the bills.
Speaker 2: This is a great business. I love helping people, but
Speaker 2: it's not going to pay the bills. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's for me. It was it was being hungry
Speaker 2: and wanting the best for myself or my life because
Speaker 2: I really didn't have a father that was there for me.
Speaker 2: I had an adopted father that I you know, took
Speaker 2: me under his wing and taught me what I needed
Speaker 2: to learn, which was to work hard. If you want
Speaker 2: the finer things in life, you got to work hard.
Speaker 2: And nine to five is not enough. That's not working hard.
Speaker 2: And and I think that was what my prayers, how
Speaker 2: my prayers were answered. I was just thinking, how am
Speaker 2: I going to do this? I can't get a job.
Speaker 2: I can't nobody's going to hire me. I have no skills,
Speaker 2: and you know what am I going to do? And
Speaker 2: it took meeting the right people in my life path
Speaker 2: to get the answers and see the path right and
Speaker 2: getting there. But that's that's I think that's the biggest
Speaker 2: lesson I learned in my life and businesses. You can
Speaker 2: have all the energy and desires and dreams and visions
Speaker 2: you want, but if you don't know what route to take,
Speaker 2: it's going to be a tough route. It's going to
Speaker 2: be a really tough route. But when you meet the
Speaker 2: right person that sees your vision, whether it's one person
Speaker 2: or many, you become very powerful, very very powerful.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well there's there's someone you said there that
Speaker 1: I relate to, you know, I think you know what
Speaker 1: I've realized is what gets people to sort of move
Speaker 1: and finally take action towards what they really want to
Speaker 1: do is number one, the avoidance of pain, right where
Speaker 1: something's just hurting you so bad that you just you're
Speaker 1: not tolerating it anymore, or like the pleasure of where
Speaker 1: you're going. So for me, it's always been both, right,
Speaker 1: the avoidance of pain, Like I was just tired of
Speaker 1: roaches waking me up in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: I was tired of us sleeping in that bedroom.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But the other thing I did, which sounds like you
Speaker 1: did as well, was knowing the pleasure of where I
Speaker 1: was going. And I called that like touching the dream
Speaker 1: before you have what you need.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned that you got a little taste
Speaker 1: of kind that good life, and it's what sort of
Speaker 1: made you think, Okay, well I need to go back
Speaker 1: there because it's a lot different from them from where
Speaker 1: I came from. So, and then the other question I
Speaker 1: had for you, can you still cry on camera? No?
Speaker 2: I never was able to. That was the problem. So
Speaker 2: I needn't become an actor because I couldn't cry my camera.
Speaker 2: The instructor was like, yeah, you're not going to make it.
Speaker 1: You got to that point.
Speaker 2: It was the hardest thing. I mean, what I could
Speaker 2: do ed when was singing dance. That was my fun.
Speaker 2: I could do that all day long because that was
Speaker 2: In fact, I do remember distinctively getting the bug after
Speaker 2: a show and people there's nothing more exhilarating so far
Speaker 2: in my life than getting this any evasion from an
Speaker 2: audience after you just perform your ass off. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe speaking public speaking would be the same, but it's
Speaker 2: such a rush. It is an incredible feeling. You feel
Speaker 2: so successful and you feel so admired, and it's.
Speaker 1: A great feeling. It really is. So speaking of that,
Speaker 1: it's so funny. So at seventeen years old, I was
Speaker 1: a background dancer for a drag queen and we were
Speaker 1: called the Pretty Boys, and we would basically go to
Speaker 1: all these nightclubs in Hollywood and we would perform at
Speaker 1: twenty one and over clubs, and we're probably the worst
Speaker 1: background dancers ever, but it was Yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: you're on stage, you kind of get that feeling. You're
Speaker 1: like wow, and then you know, at that point, like
Speaker 1: chasing women was like my thing, you know, so it
Speaker 1: was like, Yes, I want to do this. Whatever is
Speaker 1: going to get me close to women, I want to
Speaker 1: do it. That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2: So how do you think your culture has helped you
Speaker 2: and your success? I mean you touched them a little
Speaker 2: bit about if if you were you had money at
Speaker 2: one point and you lost it and you made it and.
Speaker 1: You lost it.
Speaker 2: How has your culture really helped you, you know, drive
Speaker 2: in this world in America?
Speaker 1: Basically yeah, I think, yeah, No, I think for me,
Speaker 1: even though like it was rough growing up, the one
Speaker 1: thing that my mom did that was great for me
Speaker 1: is she always gave me a lot of love. My
Speaker 1: dad gave me a lot of love. So and they
Speaker 1: put me in sports, and you know, that taught me
Speaker 1: how to compete. That kept me distracted from all the
Speaker 1: bad things that probably could have gotten into living where
Speaker 1: I grew up. But you know, showing me that love,
Speaker 1: I think really and showing the you know, one of
Speaker 1: my da would always tell me like, hey, you got
Speaker 1: to take care of your mom, Like, no matter what,
Speaker 1: you got one mom, You're going to take care of
Speaker 1: her and no excuses. And at a very young age,
Speaker 1: I just got the culture was like you take care
Speaker 1: of your family first. And I've always been very close
Speaker 1: with my family. You know, my siblings are kind of
Speaker 1: like my kids. I've been taking care of them since
Speaker 1: I was fifteen, and I've been taking care of mom
Speaker 1: and dads for a while. But it's what drives me today.
Speaker 1: You know, I think, you know, if you live for yourself.
Speaker 1: You can settle for less, but if you live for others,
Speaker 1: it requires all of who you are. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think if you're just living for yourself, eventually it
Speaker 1: gets old. But when you got people depending on you,
Speaker 1: it's it's that nice little push that that you need.
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, and obviously the food's great.
Speaker 2: So you know, I have the exact same answer because
Speaker 2: my family didn't have any money of a stuff obviously
Speaker 2: growing up, and they also put me in sports.
Speaker 1: I had Pop Warner football.
Speaker 2: When I was I think seven or eight, and I'll
Speaker 2: never forget we showed up to sign up for football
Speaker 2: and they said, oh, well, his age group is all full,
Speaker 2: but the next age group up is available, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I want to play.
Speaker 1: Sure enough.
Speaker 2: I was the scrawniest little kid on this team, but
Speaker 2: I was kicking ass because you know, I want to play.
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget that day. Even my grandma was like,
Speaker 2: you sure you want to do this as me whole
Speaker 2: because they're bigger than you are going to run you over.
Speaker 1: Like, I don't care. I want to play.
Speaker 2: But the most important thing that you said just now
Speaker 2: that really stood out is the biggest thing I got
Speaker 2: from my culture and my family is love. That just
Speaker 2: one thing, that unconditional love that this family brings to
Speaker 2: my life. And I mean that in a way where
Speaker 2: because I had uncles that were into drugs and taking drugs,
Speaker 2: not selling drugs, but just doing drugs, were just not
Speaker 2: really great for society, and this is what I had
Speaker 2: to look up to, right, So I don't know, at
Speaker 2: one point, I just didn't want anything to do with that,
Speaker 2: and I thought I got to get out of this situation.
Speaker 2: I don't I admire especially my grandmother, who's ninety eight
Speaker 2: years old now, she still talks about her children, these
Speaker 2: adult children, as their little miholes, right, no matter what
Speaker 2: they're always going to be. She's living in a home
Speaker 2: right now, and she's talking about bringing them to live
Speaker 2: with her so she can take care of them. Right.
Speaker 2: Growing up, of course, I would be around all kinds
Speaker 2: of people, you know, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the druggeries,
Speaker 2: the smart people. You know, it's just the athletes at jocks.
Speaker 2: And for some reason, I always enjoyed the different types
Speaker 2: of friendships. But I never really was involved in doing
Speaker 2: the drugs or selling the drugs or I would literally
Speaker 2: go to my friend's house and and watch his parents
Speaker 2: do drugs on their living room table. That's how I
Speaker 2: was introduced to drugs, not because you know, my family
Speaker 2: was doing them, but I was like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to do that. I don't want anything to do with that.
Speaker 2: So it's funny how your your your your situation is,
Speaker 2: You're You're presented with this thing in front of me,
Speaker 2: and you're like, well, what am I going to do
Speaker 2: with it? Right?
Speaker 1: Do I punt? Do I sweep?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Do I turn around and run away? What do I do?
Speaker 2: And as a kid, I I fortunately made the right decision,
Speaker 2: and that was to you know, avoid all the all
Speaker 2: the illegal stuff that was presented to me in front
Speaker 2: of me.
Speaker 1: You mentioned you were shy, you were timid. How much
Speaker 1: of your confidence came from women started to pay attention
Speaker 1: to you. You mentioned when you were young, you started
Speaker 1: like liking women, and you know basically what every teenager does.
Speaker 1: Was that a thing for you? Women started liking and
Speaker 1: you got some confidence from it.
Speaker 2: I think, if I go back, I had women that
Speaker 2: liked me, but I never had the money to take
Speaker 2: them out right, because it was you need money to
Speaker 2: have a girlfriend, and I didn't have a confidence I
Speaker 2: didn't have the job.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any of that.
Speaker 2: But what I started doing is working on myself.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's the reason why I started working any job I
Speaker 2: can to make money and to hopefully build some confidence,
Speaker 2: because now that's the element I'm missing, right, And it
Speaker 2: wasn't enough. It wasn't until after high school when I
Speaker 2: started lifting weights and getting into bodybuilding and really and
Speaker 2: of course acting classes and getting into who I am
Speaker 2: as a person, what's going to drive me? That's what
Speaker 2: gave me the confidence. That's when I started. You know,
Speaker 2: I had the money, I had the looks, I had
Speaker 2: the body, I had the car, and I started getting
Speaker 2: the attention. But it opened my eyes to realize that
Speaker 2: the woman I want to spend the rest of my
Speaker 2: life with does not have to be a supermodel anymore. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: she just has to be attractive and she just has
Speaker 2: to't like me.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's funny. It's so funny you mentioned
Speaker 1: this because the thing that Teddy gets pissed when I say,
Speaker 1: I mean my wife. I think she's beautiful, right, but
Speaker 1: I always say, like, the reason I loved you is
Speaker 1: your marriage material?
Speaker 2: Well what age did you meet Eddy? Because you know,
Speaker 2: I agree with everything you're saying, and for me, as
Speaker 2: you're talking, I'm like, it took me till thirty five
Speaker 2: years old to figure that shit out. I mean, when
Speaker 2: I met Tarma, I was like, I'm over it. I
Speaker 2: don't want to date any hot shakes in Newport Beach anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to make a bunch of money and
Speaker 2: when I get old there I'll have a young hot
Speaker 2: chick next to me and that's it.
Speaker 1: That's my life.
Speaker 2: You know, I've given up and suddenly this beautiful girl
Speaker 2: falls into my lap. And it's a great story. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you about it. But I don't think I settled.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't settle. I mean, our wives are
Speaker 2: pretty damn hot, right, and they are model material, but
Speaker 2: they're just incredibly smart and incredibly driven, and they're so
Speaker 2: unique in that. I can't speak for your wife because
Speaker 2: I don't know her that well, but I know my
Speaker 2: wife had her struggles. She had her first child at seventeen,
Speaker 2: and she had that struggle as a single mom for
Speaker 2: years and years and years, and it's a tough life
Speaker 2: and that drives you to want to be more. You know,
Speaker 2: she had a great upbringing and her mom and dad
Speaker 2: were awesome when we just had this conversation, but it
Speaker 2: wasn't until she was an adult that they got divorced
Speaker 2: and that's when it really affected her. But here's a woman,
Speaker 2: I think she's just turned forty one years old. I'm
Speaker 2: thirty five and thirty six and we just meet and
Speaker 2: it was love at first sight. I can't explain it
Speaker 2: to you. I've only heard about it. But what happened
Speaker 2: was my best friend, Marcos was he was my fitness
Speaker 2: instructor when I started getting into teaching classes and all
Speaker 2: that twenty some years ago, and he calls me and
Speaker 2: he says, hey, bro, I need to borrow your house
Speaker 2: cause I just bought this house where I live in
Speaker 2: Right now, we're filming the show The Real Housewives of
Speaker 2: Orange County and we're just looking for a house. And
Speaker 2: I had furniture from my condo that I moved into
Speaker 2: this place and there was rooms with no furniture, and
Speaker 2: he's like, we're just filming, looking for a house to
Speaker 2: move into, and I'm like, when did you get into filming?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, wait a minute, are you bringing Eva
Speaker 2: Longoria to my house?
Speaker 1: Is this what's going on now?
Speaker 2: I'm excited, and he's like, no, no, no, bro, wrong show. Sorry,
Speaker 2: it's the Real Housewives of Orange County. I don't know
Speaker 2: what that is. But Mikasasukasa, I'll be here. I'll open
Speaker 2: the door, and sure enough he comes, knocks, opens the door.
Speaker 2: I look at this beautiful blonde. I see hearts, I
Speaker 2: see sparkles, I see fireworks and and and my heart
Speaker 2: rates starts just running and I'm like, what is wrong
Speaker 2: with me right now? What is going on? And we
Speaker 2: just locked eyes for I don't know, it felt like
Speaker 2: one hundred years. And and of course she said the
Speaker 2: same thing, like she thought I was not wearing a
Speaker 2: shirt when I opened the door. On what I was,
Speaker 2: and and Marcos always says, yeah, I had to kick her, like,
Speaker 2: you know, stop you know, gazing because a you're married
Speaker 2: and the cameras are on. It's like, oh god, it was.
Speaker 2: It was such an interesting experience. And the sad part
Speaker 2: is that she was still married. But that didn't stop
Speaker 2: me from flirting a little bit, you know, asking, you know,
Speaker 2: getting questions and sending her a Facebook request. And she
Speaker 2: calls Marco's and tells him, tell him to take it back.
Speaker 2: I can't take a Facebook creek Press because my husband
Speaker 2: at the time, you know, he's he's watching every step
Speaker 2: I take. And I'm like, all right, I guess I
Speaker 2: was gonna help. It was a good looking guy friend
Speaker 2: requested her too. That probably doesn't help. That doesn't help. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So fast forward about six or eight months. The holidays hit,
Speaker 2: and of course Marco's being the nucleus in our in
Speaker 2: our circle, we start running into each other at some
Speaker 2: of the same parties, holiday parties and all that, and
Speaker 2: I start getting to know her a little bit more.
Speaker 2: But we kept running into each other, and we kept
Speaker 2: you know, locking eyes and smiling and talking, and it
Speaker 2: was it was literally like we were meant to be,
Speaker 2: but we couldn't because we had this guy that was
Speaker 2: in the middle of it. And then I think New
Speaker 2: Year's happened after that. She left them, and three days later,
Speaker 2: Marcus says she's available, and I'm like, okay, we're going
Speaker 2: to start dating. And it was probably a month after
Speaker 2: because she had to get through this whole transition from leaving,
Speaker 2: you know, her ex. It was about a month later
Speaker 2: we had our first date in La Joya. I said,
Speaker 2: we got to go somewhere where nobody knows you and
Speaker 2: nobody knows me, you know, because I don't want anybody
Speaker 2: to know this, you know, because.
Speaker 1: You're you know, you're on TV.
Speaker 2: Then we went to this nice little restaurant I knew
Speaker 2: about in La Joya walked around and I think somebody
Speaker 2: saw us but didn't really say anything. They recognized her,
Speaker 2: but we just kept walking. And it was then that
Speaker 2: I realized, Okay, my life's about to change. This is
Speaker 2: this is craziness. But being with her in public and
Speaker 2: trying not to think about it, you know, trying to
Speaker 2: have a regular, normal relationship conversation with this woman. I
Speaker 2: think that was what really helped her understand that I'm
Speaker 2: not after her for her TV status. I really want
Speaker 2: to get to know her. And that's I think what
Speaker 2: gave her the confidence, like maybe I'll give this guy
Speaker 2: a shot, you know.
Speaker 1: Because.
Speaker 2: It's a weird situation. Even today, it's hard to make
Speaker 2: friends with people because she's shot on TV and you
Speaker 2: never know why they want to be your real friend, right,
Speaker 2: I always question it. I mean, she's taught me to
Speaker 2: do that, but I'm pretty open. I will except for
Speaker 2: I'll accept anybody for who they are, what they drive,
Speaker 2: and what they do until they screw me or prove otherwise. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I'm just open like that. So my wife though,
Speaker 2: taught me you got to be careful with you know
Speaker 2: why people want to be your friends.
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny I think when you know you
Speaker 1: really like someone, when the last thing on your mind
Speaker 1: is having sex with them, Yeah, Like you're so into
Speaker 1: getting to know them, You're so into the conversation, You're like,
Speaker 1: you know, the sex will probably come, that's not even
Speaker 1: But like, if all you're thinking of sex sex from
Speaker 1: the get go, that probably means you know, you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna like her very much, or you probably don't
Speaker 1: really like her that much. When the last thing on
Speaker 1: your mind is sex, you know you like that person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I think you hit the nail on
Speaker 2: the head right there, totally. So how did you meet Teddy?
Speaker 1: Well? Ironically, so with Teddy, it's actually pretty funny story.
Speaker 1: So I was we were both we met at a nightclub,
Speaker 1: and we were coming out of a nightclub fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: We were both beyond wasted, so much so that the
Speaker 1: next day, when we woke up together in bed, we
Speaker 1: didn't remember each other's names nor did we remember if
Speaker 1: we had slept with each other or not? Like we
Speaker 1: we sort of thought we did, but we really couldn't
Speaker 1: confirm it right. And what's funny is that the next morning,
Speaker 1: she's driving me home and she looks at me and
Speaker 1: she says, and I don't think we like hats said,
Speaker 1: And I said, why are you so certain? She's like, well,
Speaker 1: I normally don't date guys like you. You're just not
Speaker 1: my type. You're like wearing this low V neck, you
Speaker 1: got long hair like and like I normally date like
Speaker 1: blonde guys with blue eyes, and you're just not my type.
Speaker 1: So I didn't acknowledge the statement, and I just thought,
Speaker 1: in time, I went her over with my wit and
Speaker 1: my charm, or so I thought, because literally eight months ago,
Speaker 1: so this whole time, I'm thinking she was never really
Speaker 1: that into me. Yeah, so about ten months ago, I'm
Speaker 1: going through photo books and I run into Teddy's scrap
Speaker 1: book when she was in high school. It's like a
Speaker 1: vision board scrap book. So I started looking at this
Speaker 1: scrap book and I'm thinking, oh, how cute. These are
Speaker 1: all the things that Teddy was into when she was younger.
Speaker 1: And I run into the page where she has cutoffs
Speaker 1: of the people that her dream guys. And you can
Speaker 1: only imagine my surprise when staring back at me was
Speaker 1: Enrique Iglesias and Antonio Sabato Junior. And I'm thinking of myself,
Speaker 1: what the like, what the heck? I thought she was
Speaker 1: only introduced with blonde hair, like she totally nagged me
Speaker 1: on purpose, totally played me. So I called her up,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you aren't. You are into some dark
Speaker 1: haired guys, you know. But the whole time it was
Speaker 1: just funny seeing that. But anyway, that's how we met,
Speaker 1: and a little similar story to yours in that she
Speaker 1: was in the middle of getting a divorce and I
Speaker 1: had just had a baby three weeks prior to meeting Teddy,
Speaker 1: and but it was from a previous relationship and we
Speaker 1: just we had sort of a bad breakup where we
Speaker 1: just weren't going to get back together. And when I
Speaker 1: met Teddy and she dropped me back home, were hanging
Speaker 1: out and she's like, is that ultrasound yours? And I
Speaker 1: remember getting so nervous because what am I What was
Speaker 1: I supposed to say? Like, what is she going to think?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: And I said I think and she said, well, how old?
Speaker 1: And I told her six months because I just got
Speaker 1: so nervous, right, and she meets her, I think a
Speaker 1: month into our relationship, and she's like, Edwin, this isn't
Speaker 1: a six month old baby. This is a month old baby.
Speaker 1: But immediately she just I mean that's part of how
Speaker 1: she won me over. I mean, she took care of
Speaker 1: my daughter as if it was hers from the get go.
Speaker 1: And and she's known my daughter, you know, from the
Speaker 1: get go. Basically she met her a month, which she
Speaker 1: was a month old, and so anyway, so that was
Speaker 1: kind of my moment. But then another great moment with
Speaker 1: Teddy was again, I grew up in Huntingdon Park. So
Speaker 1: Huntington Park. Don't get it confused with hunting and beach,
Speaker 1: polar opposites. A lot of people don't get it confused
Speaker 1: with Hancock Park. Huntingdon Park is Southeast LA. It's the
Speaker 1: opposite of hunting and beach, right, And I took her
Speaker 1: to you know, I still hang out with some of
Speaker 1: my old friends that I grew up with, and I
Speaker 1: remember taking her to one of my buddies party that
Speaker 1: he had in Huntingdon Park. And this is like an
Speaker 1: old school kind of call it, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: it was just the way we grew up, and I thought,
Speaker 1: this girl's not going to last here an hour. In
Speaker 1: an hour, she's going to be like, all right, we
Speaker 1: gotta go. We gotta get out of this freaking place.
Speaker 1: We stood there six hours. She didn't complain. She just
Speaker 1: had a great time, and she treated everyone with so
Speaker 1: much respect where she didn't think she was better than them.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Okay, this is it. She is
Speaker 1: the one, yeah, because you know, especially when you meet
Speaker 1: someone in the West Side, you know, you take him
Speaker 1: to the East Side and they're like, Oh, give me
Speaker 1: the heck out of here, I'm too good for this place.
Speaker 1: Right now, she was which again. And then especially with
Speaker 1: her background, with her dad being John Mellencamp and stuff,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was awesome to see her
Speaker 1: treat everyone with so much respect, and and I knew
Speaker 1: that was she was the one, you know now speaking
Speaker 1: to nagging. So when she told me that her dad
Speaker 1: was John Mellencamp, She's like, do you know who that is?
Speaker 1: I actually said no, But the reality is I did
Speaker 1: know who he was because when I lived in Huntingdon
Speaker 1: Park in those apartments, we used to like steal cable,
Speaker 1: and I forgot how I used to do that, but
Speaker 1: I used to get all the VH one videos, and
Speaker 1: John Mellencamp's videos were always like number one, and you
Speaker 1: know they had the top twenty, and I would always
Speaker 1: see the John Mellencamp video.
Speaker 2: So I knew exactly who he was. But did you
Speaker 2: know he had a daughter? Oh?
Speaker 1: I had no clue that he had a daughter. But
Speaker 1: when she mentioned, oh, that's my dad, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to say yes right away because I didn't want her
Speaker 1: to think, oh, now he just likes me because I'm
Speaker 1: John Mellencamp's daughter. So I was like, no, But I
Speaker 1: knew who he was, right, and I just again, I
Speaker 1: loved how down to earth she was. And I remember
Speaker 1: when I first met him. That was a nerve wrecking
Speaker 1: be I go to Indiana and we meet at.
Speaker 4: A McDonald's and all of a sudden, we's wait, I'm
Speaker 4: sorry to cut you off, but how long were you
Speaker 4: dating before you met him? I think, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 4: it was about five months into our relationship a ship
Speaker 4: or four months into our relationship.
Speaker 1: Yes, i'd be nervous too. Yeah, And we go to
Speaker 1: Indiana and then all of a sudden, I don't know
Speaker 1: why we met in a McDonald's, but I just saw
Speaker 1: three subs and I'm not exaggerating, like three subs, dark subs,
Speaker 1: tinted windows. He would have thought it was the CIA,
Speaker 1: and like three dudes in a suit come out, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, it's John Mellencamp dressed in
Speaker 1: black with his shades, and he's like, I'm John. I
Speaker 1: was like anyway, and then he gave me some ship
Speaker 1: that that week. He's like, when you see these guys here, man,
Speaker 1: you mess with my daughter, come get you so you
Speaker 1: better break my daughter's heart.
Speaker 2: And every man has to say that's that's like require
Speaker 2: with a stone face.
Speaker 1: Like he didn't say jokingly either, he was, And I
Speaker 1: was like, don't you worry? How long did it take
Speaker 1: you to win him over? Brought a couple of years, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: a couple I mean he was never route too, but
Speaker 1: a couple of years definitely. Yeah. Yeah. There was a
Speaker 1: couple of times where he's like, how is this Edwin
Speaker 1: guy making the kind of money he's making, Like is
Speaker 1: he fucking drug dealer or something like?
Speaker 3: So there that so anyway, but he was always nice,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I would say it took a couple of
Speaker 3: years to kind of gain his respect and know that
Speaker 3: I was really gonna, you know, take care of his daughter,
Speaker 3: which I probably would have done the same.
Speaker 2: So after winning him over, and you know that was
Speaker 2: five months, two years, no you met him and when
Speaker 2: you were dating five months you won him over? In
Speaker 2: two years, how long in your relationship was it before
Speaker 2: you both were casted if you will, or cast for
Speaker 2: the Real Housewives. So we dated for two years, got married.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the dad, So I never thought I was
Speaker 2: going to get married, Like I was always just so
Speaker 2: scared of get married because everyone I met I was
Speaker 2: getting a divorce. And I was so scared to get
Speaker 2: married that I was just trying to push, push and
Speaker 2: not get married. And at one point I remember just
Speaker 2: telling today, we didn't just have my baby.
Speaker 1: We don't have to get married just baby, and she's like,
Speaker 1: you're freaking nuts, are you stupid? That's literally what she
Speaker 1: told me, And yes, I did ask. Well anyway, one
Speaker 1: day out of nowhere, she's like, hey, what if we
Speaker 1: just get married in Paris. My dad's going to be
Speaker 1: touring and let's just last minute get married in Paris
Speaker 1: and I remember always thinking that if I ever did
Speaker 1: get married, it was probably going to be last minute.
Speaker 1: It was probably going to be out of the country
Speaker 1: where I didn't have to worry about who do I invite,
Speaker 1: who do I not invite, And it just made total sense.
Speaker 1: And then we got married. That was in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: We had our first child in twenty twelve, our second
Speaker 1: child in twenty fourteen, and then twenty the end of
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen is when she got approached to do The
Speaker 1: Housewives show. And the first thing I thought was I
Speaker 1: immediately got scared because I hate the freaking cameras. Like
Speaker 1: I've gotten a little more used to them lately, like,
Speaker 1: but back then, I was really fearful of cameras. How
Speaker 1: does she present it to you? She just said she
Speaker 1: had this opportunity, there's this show called the Housewives, and
Speaker 1: you know they're looking you know, she they're looking an audition,
Speaker 1: and then she nailed her audition, and then I just
Speaker 1: told her, look, I think you're gonna probably end up
Speaker 1: getting it based on who she told me that they
Speaker 1: were also looking at, and that I remember just thinking
Speaker 1: to myself because it scared me so much. I'm like Okay.
Speaker 1: I always like things that challenge me, so that I
Speaker 1: liked and then I went to go ask my you know,
Speaker 1: my friends, you know, people in business colleagues, like, do
Speaker 1: you think I should do this show? Everyone said no,
Speaker 1: They're like, that's going to end your marriage. What the
Speaker 1: hell are you doing? Your business is doing well, like
Speaker 1: that's the last thing you want to do. And at
Speaker 1: the time, Teddy and I weren't in a good place either,
Speaker 1: Like we were a very very bad place. Wow. And
Speaker 1: we were such in a bad place that at the
Speaker 1: time I was thinking, Okay, well if she gets the
Speaker 1: show show because at the time, you know, she she
Speaker 1: was just staying at home and she had just started
Speaker 1: all in so she was starting to kind of get
Speaker 1: her life back, you know, as far as like when
Speaker 1: she had the babies, like she stopped working, she stopped writing,
Speaker 1: and she became more dependent on me all the time
Speaker 1: to come home, and like she didn't really have a purpose.
Speaker 1: Not that raising kids is not, because that alone is
Speaker 1: a job's hearing shaft. I think she was so used
Speaker 1: to being independent and working and doing her thing that
Speaker 1: you know, we just she kind of lost herself. We
Speaker 1: started to kind of separate as far as like we
Speaker 1: weren't connecting, and again we were such in a dark place.
Speaker 1: Then I'm like, well, maybe if she gets the show,
Speaker 1: she gets a little purpose and then and then I
Speaker 1: won't maybe I could just go. You know, that's how
Speaker 1: bad it was. But you know what's interesting is that
Speaker 1: when you don't do something for a long time, you're
Speaker 1: gonna dislike it. And like, if you don't go to
Speaker 1: the gym, if you haven't gone to the gym for
Speaker 1: the last two years, I promise you, you probably hate
Speaker 1: the gym. Right, you haven't gone since eighteen years ago,
Speaker 1: you probably hate the gym. Right, So at some point,
Speaker 1: like nothing stays the same, you're either getting better or
Speaker 1: you're getting worse. Right, And at the time, we just
Speaker 1: working on a relationship. Like it was like I was
Speaker 1: doing my thing, she was kind of doing her thing.
Speaker 1: And what the show did, at least for me, it
Speaker 1: made me focus again in the relationship because I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well I cannot I can't come out here and look
Speaker 1: divided because that's going to be a shit show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I don't want to live that, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to see my kids. I don't want
Speaker 1: my kids to see that, and I remember, just okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to work on this. And funny thing, when
Speaker 1: you start working on your relationship, you realize like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: our relationship is actually pretty pretty damn cool, and it's
Speaker 1: just getting better and better and better. So you know,
Speaker 1: I kid with my friends. I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of people know that, but most people say that housewives
Speaker 1: ruined Well, the thought is that the housewives have ruined
Speaker 1: your marriage. For Teddy and I had actually saved our marriage.
Speaker 1: We're actually closer than we've ever been, and uh, definitely
Speaker 1: is that's commonly. Yeah, it's just crazy, but again, it
Speaker 1: made us both work on something and again you start
Speaker 1: to realize, wow, like this is why I fell in love.
Speaker 1: But when you're not willing to work on the relationship,
Speaker 1: then you just start growing apart.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But if you just stop working on it, like you're
Speaker 1: gonna get worse. Yeah, right, because again you're either getting
Speaker 1: better or're getting worse. But it's not gonna stay the same.
Speaker 1: If all of a sudden you're not trying to improve
Speaker 1: that relationship and it's staying stagnant, I promise you, it
Speaker 1: starts to decline, but it certainly takes a team. It
Speaker 1: takes both of you to see the same thing.
Speaker 2: Right. I'm sure she did her part and you did
Speaker 2: your part to bring this relationship back together.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: That is an interesting point because from my experience watching
Speaker 2: the show for so many years and being part of it,
Speaker 2: I've seen more divorces on this TV show.
Speaker 1: Then you know, then Court.
Speaker 2: But that's amazing that it brought you guys back together
Speaker 2: and really solidified your relationship. Do you think it might
Speaker 2: have been because somebody put a microscope to your relationship
Speaker 2: that you thought, I'm not going to lose this. I'm
Speaker 2: I'm a winner. I Am not going to lose this,
Speaker 2: and I don't want I don't want an outside force
Speaker 2: to you know, ruin what I have. You think that
Speaker 2: had a part in it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think you know what was interesting
Speaker 1: is once the cameras are on, you like it brought
Speaker 1: accountability to me. Yeah, you know, it was you know,
Speaker 1: back fire to that there's nothing on Like if I
Speaker 1: wanted to do something and I wanted to do it,
Speaker 1: I could say could right, nobody knew who I was.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think once the cameras were on, like
Speaker 1: it's like, oh now now you're you're accountable, right, Like,
Speaker 1: if you do something, the whole world's going to see
Speaker 1: it and all your kids are going to see it, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that's what like made me, you know,
Speaker 1: really focus on the relationship. And when I did, I
Speaker 1: was like, whoa, this is what the hell was I
Speaker 1: even thinking? You know, I was just in a dark
Speaker 1: place myself.
Speaker 2: So for me, I was single when I met Dema,
Speaker 2: and I had to I had to figure it out.
Speaker 2: Bro I you know, the first year, I'm like, what
Speaker 2: am I getting myself into? And I went in it
Speaker 2: like like I do with all my relationships, just open arms,
Speaker 2: white eyed. Let's just you know, I'm up for a challenge,
Speaker 2: and like you, when I feel fear, I go after it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: That's that's one one indicator that I know I have
Speaker 2: to overcome. Anything that scares me. I have to overcome.
Speaker 2: And if it doesn't scare me, then it's probably not
Speaker 2: worth and it's it's been proven over and over that
Speaker 2: if it's not scary, it's probably not worth it. Anyways,
Speaker 2: So when I was involved in the show, the first
Speaker 2: year was a great experience and un till it wasn't
Speaker 2: you know, because they made me, they made me look
Speaker 2: like the Knight in Shining Armor right coming in to
Speaker 2: say that.
Speaker 1: The first year or half of the season, and then
Speaker 1: they turned on you, or was it the first year?
Speaker 1: You were just like the first The first three quarters
Speaker 1: of the year, it was. It was the perfect couple.
Speaker 2: And then they turned on me at the end of
Speaker 2: the season, and I had to make a hard decision, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: first of all, I have no control here. They can
Speaker 2: edit it any way I can. Unfortunately, because I had
Speaker 2: a legal background, I read that contract. So that was,
Speaker 2: you know, that was good experience. And then every year
Speaker 2: after oh wait, let me go back to where they
Speaker 2: they they turned on me. Yeah, and it wasn't you.
Speaker 2: It wasn't necessarily that they turned on me. I don't
Speaker 2: think that's what happened. What happened was I was filming
Speaker 2: with my wife and I think it was Vicki and Brooks,
Speaker 2: and we were going to go film at the Catalina
Speaker 2: Island and I was working all day. It was a Friday.
Speaker 2: I skipped breakfast, I skip lunch. I was just trying
Speaker 2: to get all my work done because I couldn't work
Speaker 2: that weekend, right, and come five o'clock, okay, I finished
Speaker 2: my work, nothing in my stomach, jumped in the limo,
Speaker 2: had a drink. By the time we got to Long
Speaker 2: Beach to the ferry, I was drunk and got in
Speaker 2: the boat. Halfway to the island, somebody said something stupid
Speaker 2: or she said some stupid and it just made me
Speaker 2: so mad. I lost my cool, I lost control, and
Speaker 2: when we got to the island, she was kind of
Speaker 2: elbowing me, like stop getting so angry. You know, cameras
Speaker 2: are on you. And I was like, I don't give
Speaker 2: a I I just want to get off this island.
Speaker 2: I don't want to do this anymore. And I slept
Speaker 2: on it. The next morning I was fine, of course,
Speaker 2: and on the way back to the mainland, I was like,
Speaker 2: I have to make our decision here, you know, because
Speaker 2: I honestly do not want to do this ever again.
Speaker 2: And if I don't do this ever again, then I
Speaker 2: don't know what's going to be with this relationship because
Speaker 2: this is a huge part of her life. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is her reality. And I had to flip a switch.
Speaker 2: It was a big mental moment for me in my life,
Speaker 2: where you know what, I don't want to do this,
Speaker 2: but I want to see what it is with her,
Speaker 2: and I flipped a switch in my head and I said,
Speaker 2: just do it, enjoy it, don't drink, and stay out
Speaker 2: of the camera, right, And that formula worked for me
Speaker 2: until today. I you know, like you, I just run
Speaker 2: from the drama. I know, it's it's not part of me.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be a sixth house wife. I
Speaker 2: don't want to be a part of it. But I
Speaker 2: want to support her one hundred percent any way I
Speaker 2: can and see her shine. And she's just been amazing,
Speaker 2: you know, all these years, just not just in her skills,
Speaker 2: but tolerating this whole experience. You know, it's just drama.
Speaker 2: It's completely the opposite. It's exactly what I stay away
Speaker 2: from in my life. You know, I do everything to
Speaker 2: stay away from drama. And then it wasn't until she
Speaker 2: got fired. I think it was three years ago. She
Speaker 2: got fired and it really put her world upside down.
Speaker 2: I mean, twelve years doing this, it was her whole identity,
Speaker 2: and she was pretty much traumatized. I mean it took
Speaker 2: me a year to talk her off the ledge. Like
Speaker 2: you know, there's more to life than the housewives and
Speaker 2: the whole experience. You know, from the moment it happened
Speaker 2: when they told her they basically kicked her to the
Speaker 2: curb and she had to pick herself up and I
Speaker 2: had to help her and just be there with her
Speaker 2: and help her, you know, figure out other ways to
Speaker 2: make money. Fortunately, influencer marketing was big at the time.
Speaker 2: She was doing really well with that. And then a
Speaker 2: year later, they tried to get her back on the
Speaker 2: show as a friend and I said, no, don't do it.
Speaker 2: You're just evaluing yourself. You're not going to be happy
Speaker 2: if you do this. And we got into a little
Speaker 2: fight about it because she was adamant, like, this is
Speaker 2: what she wants to do, this is her opportunity to
Speaker 2: go back, and I said, think about the setting, babe,
Speaker 2: you're going back to do the dirty work or another
Speaker 2: cast member on the show, and that's what you want
Speaker 2: to be known as. And we didn't talk for a day.
Speaker 2: The day came and went. The very next day, she's like,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for not letting me do that.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for you know, being there for me.
Speaker 2: And it was a tough moment, but it really helped
Speaker 2: her grow and realize what her true worth is, what
Speaker 2: her value is. And then I think about six months later,
Speaker 2: she got asked to go back on the show a
Speaker 2: full time and I'm like, well, it's your call, you know,
Speaker 2: this is your life. I'm here to support you anyway
Speaker 2: you want. You're a lot smarter now you've gone through
Speaker 2: hell and back with them, And yeah, I agree, you're
Speaker 2: really good at it. You are really good at it.
Speaker 2: So if that's what you want to do about, let's
Speaker 2: do it. You know, I'm here for you. But and
Speaker 2: that's how she came back, and I regretfully came back.
Speaker 2: But I also had to you know, change my attitude again.
Speaker 2: You know, I said, I have to be a part
Speaker 2: of this, and I tried to be a little bit
Speaker 2: more engaged this this next round, primarily because the negative people.
Speaker 2: When those people were fired, that's when I felt more comfortable,
Speaker 2: you know, participating, you know, being you know, engaged and
Speaker 2: asking questions about it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So it's it's been a crazy, crazy experience.
Speaker 1: I don't know what.
Speaker 2: It's it's going to be, but for me, I mean,
Speaker 2: we got a wedding special out of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which on the next show, we've got to talk
Speaker 1: more about that wedding special and how that all came about.
Speaker 1: And I mean, we got so much to talk about.
Speaker 1: It's funny. I had the same thing Eddie where I second.
Speaker 1: I think it was the second or third episode. Again,
Speaker 1: I was so shy and timid. Now I don't really
Speaker 1: have to do that anymore, but I would drink shots
Speaker 1: before I would start filming. So one day before we
Speaker 1: started filming, I took a bunch of shots and I
Speaker 1: was so wasted that at the end of the night,
Speaker 1: Teddy and I got in probably one of the biggest
Speaker 1: fights in our entire lives. And they never showed it.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking it's because Teddy thinks there was cameras
Speaker 1: in the car. I don't think there were, but she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they just didn't want to show it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: they could have made me look really, really bad, but
Speaker 1: I think that first year they tried making me look
Speaker 1: good or us good. But the funny part about that
Speaker 1: is the next day we're going to film, so I
Speaker 1: go downstairs to go get my nineteen forty two start
Speaker 1: serving myself some shots and I'm like, this is water,
Speaker 1: and Teddy had refilled the whole thing with water. I
Speaker 1: don't want you drinking on this a freaking show again.
Speaker 1: And that was pretty much the end of me drinking
Speaker 1: before we started filming. So smart, very smart.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I figured to show that as we end the show. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: good talk man, that was awesome. I think not a
Speaker 2: bad warm up, right, not a bad warm up, not
Speaker 2: a first time, not a bad first time. I think
Speaker 2: we're going to have some questions for our listeners. I
Speaker 2: think they're going to have a lot of questions for us.
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you enjoy the show and you have
Speaker 2: questions for us, please send them our way via email
Speaker 2: or Instagram. There's there's a lot of ways to send
Speaker 2: them over, even through our wives because they're the ones
Speaker 2: that rupped us into this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and please leave a review, and again, you could
Speaker 1: ask us any questions from face, Family, Fitness, finance, fun
Speaker 1: like anything you want, Like just anything you want and
Speaker 1: leave a review and when they say hold back with
Speaker 1: our answers either.
Speaker 2: If you and joy the show, please share it with
Speaker 2: your friends. That's what's going to help us continue the show.
Speaker 2: So we're doing it to just share our experience, give
Speaker 2: you the male perspective on this whole housewife life.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, we'll see you next time. Oh and
Speaker 1: don't forget leave a review.
Speaker 2: It's very important for us to know if we're doing
Speaker 2: something right or something wrong.
Speaker 1: There we go, We'll talk to you later then