Will AI Make the Trades More Valuable? | Esteban Legarrea :: Ep 297 Mostly Middle Tennessee Business Podcast bölümünün tam dökümü

going to be a need for it, and I think right now we we could be 72 00:03:51,370 --> 00:03:54,820 just going in reverse here. I mean, like yeah, like it's a 73 00:03:54,910 --> 00:03:57,310 shame that like it was like you said that the trades were looked 74 00:03:57,310 --> 00:04:01,530 down upon as far as getting in a career. I mean, like who wants 75 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,020 to who wants to date a plumber? You know who wants to date like 76 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,710 these these guys are you know they're I feel like that they're 77 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:09,390 ahead of the game and we're seeing the results of it now. 78 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:12,360 Especially I mean you brought up college. 79 00:04:15,810 --> 00:04:16,440 Well, you have kids. 80 00:04:16,980 --> 00:04:17,040 Yeah, 81 00:04:17,310 --> 00:04:20,330 you want your kids to go to college. Is that like you know, 82 00:04:20,450 --> 00:04:24,350 a I hang my own pride and ego on the fact that I could put a 83 00:04:24,530 --> 00:04:27,230 sticker on the back of my car. My child goes to you know that 84 00:04:27,260 --> 00:04:29,780 kind of thing because I think a lot of college these days is to 85 00:04:29,990 --> 00:04:32,240 satisfy and placate the parents' ego. 86 00:04:33,110 --> 00:04:37,700 If my son wants to open up someone's body for surgery, yes, 87 00:04:37,790 --> 00:04:40,990 I want him to go to school for that. But as far as getting a 88 00:04:41,170 --> 00:04:46,870 marketing degree or going into some sort of like I don't know, 89 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:52,750 I would probably encourage. I'll I'll get an idea of what he 90 00:04:52,870 --> 00:04:57,910 wants to do in life and see if he can just do it without 91 00:04:57,970 --> 00:05:00,900 college because it's just a. I mean, Quentin. Santino didn't go 92 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,020 to. Did he go to film school? He kind of just did everything is 93 00:05:04,020 --> 00:05:04,680 on his own, right? 94 00:05:04,830 --> 00:05:06,840 Well, it's funny because you and I talked about you know self 95 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,510 training, you know, especially when it comes to musical 96 00:05:09,540 --> 00:05:13,200 instruments. There's there's an element to where you you put 97 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,020 yourself through the you you have the discipline to learn on 98 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:21,440 your own and pull from different mentors and influences in 99 00:05:21,530 --> 00:05:24,230 various capacities, whether it's music, guitar, drums, 100 00:05:24,410 --> 00:05:28,610 electrical, hell, even you know the legal profession. You can 101 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:34,460 you can hang out in a law firm. Just put me in the law library. 102 00:05:35,150 --> 00:05:37,910 What do you need? I'll pull the case law. Let's do all these 103 00:05:37,970 --> 00:05:40,570 different things. Show me how the courtroom works, all the 104 00:05:40,660 --> 00:05:43,210 different processes and the order

of operations of how 105 00:05:43,390 --> 00:05:46,420 things operate. If you immerse yourself long enough in 106 00:05:46,540 --> 00:05:49,000 something in a situation like that, yeah, go ahead and take 107 00:05:49,030 --> 00:05:51,940 the bar. You know what I mean? It's if you pass the bar, you're 108 00:05:51,970 --> 00:05:55,330 an attorney. I mean, there's some states that actually I 109 00:05:55,390 --> 00:05:58,810 think it's Louisiana that does that, but why not? You're 110 00:05:58,870 --> 00:06:02,640 getting real world, you know, learn by doing type of approach. 111 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,150 It's not classroom, and you're not spending a fortune to 112 00:06:06,420 --> 00:06:07,350 acquire the knowledge. 113 00:06:08,280 --> 00:06:10,440 And not even in your lifetime are you going to be paying that 114 00:06:10,500 --> 00:06:10,920 debt back, 115 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:11,340 right? 116 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:12,510 And I 117 00:06:12,570 --> 00:06:15,690 know people that are over 100 grand in student debt. They're 118 00:06:15,900 --> 00:06:18,330 never getting out from underneath it. See, I got never. 119 00:06:18,570 --> 00:06:18,600 I 120 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:21,980 got lucky. I was a bad student, so like I I went to community 121 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:24,680 college and I didn't pay as much as the average person, but I 122 00:06:24,770 --> 00:06:29,930 just oh geez only a few years ago I paid that off yeah wow and 123 00:06:29,990 --> 00:06:31,910 the funny thing is with what you do and for those of you 124 00:06:31,970 --> 00:06:35,570 listening I know we're kind of we we have this new format where 125 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,480 I don't introduce the guest until we're about 10 minutes in 126 00:06:39,020 --> 00:06:40,550 but Esteban Legarea 127 00:06:41,450 --> 00:06:42,230 ooh nice 128 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,160 Legarea I got you. Got the rolling arm. 129 00:06:45,550 --> 00:06:46,060 Yeah, that's right. 130 00:06:46,660 --> 00:06:49,960 And you got. We met a couple years ago when we were selling a 131 00:06:50,050 --> 00:06:52,480 lot more lighting and stuff like that. We were looking for 132 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:55,510 distributors, and that's what you do. You sell. You sell 133 00:06:55,780 --> 00:06:56,530 electrical parts. 134 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:57,070 Yes. 135 00:06:57,460 --> 00:07:02,790 You know that's that's not a typical course of life that is 136 00:07:02,910 --> 00:07:06,330 talked about much, like you don't think that these parts 137 00:07:06,390 --> 00:07:11,070 have to be sold. You know what I mean. And by the way, this is 138 00:07:11,070 --> 00:07:13,320 the mostly Middle Tennessee business podcast from the It's 139 00:07:13,380 --> 00:07:17,280 Your show.co studios, powered by Muletown Bikes, right there on 140 00:07:17,310 --> 00:07:20,600 the square. Yeah, we got to do the e bike. I'm looking over 141 00:07:20,630 --> 00:07:23,120 your shoulder at the camera. Yeah, that's what I do. So, 142 00:07:23,690 --> 00:07:27,110 yeah. Well, wow, it's it's crazy. I I don't think anybody 143 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,680 in this industry, unless they had like parents or people that 144 00:07:30,710 --> 00:07:34,430 were that were in the industry already. Yeah, I think people 145 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,280 just kind of accidentally stumble upon it. That's what 146 00:07:37,310 --> 00:07:42,820 happened to me. I spent majority of my career, not I'm sorry, not 147 00:07:42,850 --> 00:07:45,940 career. I mean, I was waiting tables after high school and 148 00:07:46,300 --> 00:07:48,430 just trying to figure my life out. I thought I wanted to do 149 00:07:49,060 --> 00:07:52,030 music. I thought I wanted to do all these other things, and then 150 00:07:53,410 --> 00:07:57,160 I got tired of waiting tables. And somebody, an old friend of 151 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:00,340 mine, said, "Hey, I'm actually moving away. I had this position 152 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,820 opening up. You know, if you want to take my spot, I'll tell 153 00:08:02,850 --> 00:08:06,300 them you're good people, and started there. I started in the 154 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:10,950 warehouse, answering the phones from the counter, just seeing 155 00:08:11,070 --> 00:08:14,820 people walking in, getting parts every day, and I did not know 156 00:08:15,750 --> 00:08:19,230 that this was such a great business to be in. I mean, 157 00:08:19,380 --> 00:08:22,400 people need these this stuff. I mean, I thought people just went 158 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,100 to Lowe's and Home Depot to get their things. Didn't think this 159 00:08:25,130 --> 00:08:29,570 was going to be a somebody could just make a good living off of 160 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:36,110 it. I met a few salesmen, and one you and I both know him. I 161 00:08:36,140 --> 00:08:38,780 don't think. I mean, I guess should I can I mention his name? 162 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:41,590 Sure, Mike Harris. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he 163 00:08:42,070 --> 00:08:42,280 good guy. 164 00:08:42,790 --> 00:08:45,970 Oh, great! Yeah, I mean, this was about 10 years ago, I think. 165 00:08:46,030 --> 00:08:51,430 Yeah, he's he told me how much he made in a year, and I'm like, 166 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,690 wow. I'm like, yeah. I maybe if I stick with this, I can one 167 00:08:56,170 --> 00:08:56,230 day. 168 00:08:56,890 --> 00:08:59,740 And a lot of that, it's all. It's not really a long sales 169 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:02,520 cycle. I would say probably a short to medium sales cycle 170 00:09:02,580 --> 00:09:04,950 because if they need the parts and they like you, it's more 171 00:09:04,950 --> 00:09:08,010 about the relationship and the likability. Can are you 172 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:11,640 dependable? Are you going to get it to me when I need it? I would 173 00:09:11,670 --> 00:09:14,430 imagine those are the factors that you have to kind of satisfy 174

00:09:15,030 --> 00:09:15,840 in this type of role. 175 00:09:16,290 --> 00:09:20,420 I mean, there's there's many factors to it. I think getting a 176 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:26,720 meeting and getting a client is-it's hard, but it's also just 177 00:09:26,810 --> 00:09:30,290 as just as hard, if not harder, keeping them. 178 00:09:30,650 --> 00:09:30,800 Right. 179 00:09:31,130 --> 00:09:34,250 I mean, because people, you know, it's business, and it's us 180 00:09:34,310 --> 00:09:36,800 being in Nashville. It's-I mean-it's growing, and it's such 181 00:09:37,460 --> 00:09:39,410 a-it's such a slip-through industry too. So you just got to 182 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:40,160 be on top of 183 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:40,730 it. 184 00:09:41,390 --> 00:09:43,570 Yeah, you got to be almost a jealous girlfriend. You got to 185 00:09:44,170 --> 00:09:46,900 every opportunity that comes your way. You got to like ask 186 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:51,460 questions and ask for feedback. If there's this big lighting or 187 00:09:51,820 --> 00:09:55,210 gear project, you got to ask like, "Hey, who got this? If I 188 00:09:55,270 --> 00:09:59,200 didn't get it, who got it? And how how off how how much was I 189 00:09:59,410 --> 00:10:02,520 off?" So it's the only way you'll survive in this business. 190 00:10:03,390 --> 00:10:03,570 I mean, 191 00:10:03,630 --> 00:10:05,880 what's the what's the process like? Because I mean, a lot of 192 00:10:06,420 --> 00:10:09,930 it these things go out to bid. They're probably getting a lot 193 00:10:10,020 --> 00:10:13,050 better of a deal going through the distribute distribution 194 00:10:13,110 --> 00:10:16,230 houses than going directly to Home Depot or Lowe's. Home Depot 195 00:10:16,290 --> 00:10:18,630 or Lowe's are kind of like last minute. Hey, we need a couple of 196 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,740 outlets. We just need to go grab something, and we upcharge a 197 00:10:21,770 --> 00:10:25,970 client, and we're paying retail on top of retail. You know that 198 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 kind of happens, but in even in Home Depot, you're not dealing 199 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:34,700 typically with people that have actually done the work. You 200 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:36,290 know, does that make sense? That 201 00:10:36,350 --> 00:10:42,340 does make sense. Yeah, those are typically not the partners I'd 202 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:47,860 go after. Yeah, yeah. The people who can get their stuff, and 203 00:10:47,890 --> 00:10:49,900 sometimes when I'm cold calling, and then they say, "Well, well, 204 00:10:49,930 --> 00:10:54,160 you know, we usually just swing by Home Depot, Lowe's, or a city 205 00:10:54,190 --> 00:10:56,380 electric around the corner. Like, you know, they just just 206 00:10:56,470 --> 00:10:58,300 get parts around the corner. Then I'm like, "Okay, that's 207 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,050 fine. That gives me an idea that they're not really looking for 208 00:11:01,380 --> 00:11:07,950 partners, right? What I my job is to go after people who are 209 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,340 already involved in the bidding process. They know that they're 210 00:11:11,370 --> 00:11:14,640 going to need X amount of wire for this big multifamily unit 211 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,750 that they're starting, and I give them the budgetary numbers. 212 00:11:19,230 --> 00:11:23,420 And after they win the project, they come back to me. He says, 213 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:26,720 "Hestaban, can you put some money back in my pocket? I say, 214 00:11:26,780 --> 00:11:26,930 "Yes. 215 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:29,600 No, it's it's it's whale hunting. 216 00:11:30,050 --> 00:11:30,590 Yeah, is what you're 217 00:11:30,620 --> 00:11:30,860 doing. 218 00:11:32,060 --> 00:11:39,020 Yeah, it's yeah, yeah, it is. I didn't really, honestly, I 219 00:11:39,140 --> 00:11:43,990 didn't think I could do it. I've been doing it for going on four 220 00:11:44,170 --> 00:11:47,860 and a half years now. Out like well, account manager. I don't 221 00:11:47,860 --> 00:11:53,920 like outside salesman title. It seems kind of sleazy, but yeah, 222 00:11:54,010 --> 00:11:56,980 like a used car salesman. I don't know. I don't. I never 223 00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:57,970 like that type. There, there are 224 00:11:58,090 --> 00:12:01,440 good used car salespeople. Just used car salespeople that give 225 00:12:01,530 --> 00:12:04,920 other salespeople a bad name. I sold used cars, man. I mean, I 226 00:12:04,980 --> 00:12:07,980 guess really. Oh yeah, I just worked for Mercedes. What have 227 00:12:07,980 --> 00:12:10,080 we sold? We sold used cars. You know 228 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:14,220 what have you not done, Jim? Like I am so impressive. Like 229 00:12:15,090 --> 00:12:18,060 podcaster, drummer, car salesman, 230 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:18,930 business owner, 231 00:12:19,170 --> 00:12:20,670 business business owner, entrepreneur. 232 00:12:21,540 --> 00:12:24,320 Was in the phone business for when I first when I got out of 233 00:12:24,350 --> 00:12:27,230 college. It was a family business. I was an electrician. 234 00:12:27,830 --> 00:12:30,830 I was a I was an apprentice. I never made it to journeyman or 235 00:12:31,250 --> 00:12:34,070 got formally trained. But I also knew it wasn't what I wanted to 236 00:12:34,100 --> 00:12:37,070 do with my life at that time. And then from there, I went into 237 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:40,690 radio. So I know I was in radio for 17 years. What was that 238 00:12:40,690 --> 00:12:44,500 experience like with you being an electrician? At the time, it 239 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:49,480 was again. I looked at it as a job, not a career. It was great 240 00:12:49,540 --> 00:12:52,450 money. The company I worked for treated us very well. You didn't 241 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:54,430 have to go to them for raises. They would just come to you 242 00:12:54,580 --> 00:12:56,500 after, hey,

you've been here for three months. Here's a raise. 243 00:12:57,310 --> 00:13:02,400 Okay, really decent company. They were the non-union shop of 244 00:13:03,780 --> 00:13:07,440 a a family-owned business that was a union business. They were 245 00:13:07,590 --> 00:13:10,920 like the Lee Company of Connecticut. Oh, Rizzo Electric, 246 00:13:12,180 --> 00:13:15,120 they handled all the state jobs, the highways, lighting, all that 247 00:13:15,210 --> 00:13:18,990 stuff. And then they had Nikon, which was their non-union shop, 248 00:13:19,020 --> 00:13:22,580 which I worked for. That did you know whatever came down that 249 00:13:22,670 --> 00:13:25,730 didn't want to use union work, so they had best of both worlds. 250 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:30,020 They, it was cool. I mean, it was at the time it was kind of a 251 00:13:30,140 --> 00:13:34,160 dirge because I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do. I knew that 252 00:13:34,190 --> 00:13:39,230 I was I had an itch to scratch, and I was still kind of coming 253 00:13:39,260 --> 00:13:42,790 to terms of well, if it's going to be radio or television, radio 254 00:13:42,850 --> 00:13:45,610 I know doesn't pay as well as television, and I do want to 255 00:13:45,610 --> 00:13:47,950 make a good living. And eventually, I just kind of 256 00:13:47,980 --> 00:13:50,770 relented and went into radio because as soon as I got my 257 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:56,920 palate wetted, it was like, oh, this 258 00:13:57,820 --> 00:13:57,940 is me. 259 00:13:58,090 --> 00:14:01,230 I just knew it. This is I am in my element. I worked for the 260 00:14:01,290 --> 00:14:04,290 radio station, and for the first one that I worked for, I swore 261 00:14:04,350 --> 00:14:07,620 I'd never work for. But as soon as I stepped in the broadcasting 262 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:12,660 school, this is me. I totally get this. So that's you know, 263 00:14:12,900 --> 00:14:13,020 but 264 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,200 I don't want to jump. I don't want to jump ahead, but I am 265 00:14:16,530 --> 00:14:20,690 very. I would like to know your experience of being. Would you 266 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:23,690 call it? Would you and with magnitude was it 267 00:14:24,380 --> 00:14:25,970 consider yourself an OEM? Correct. 268 00:14:26,450 --> 00:14:26,960 Yeah, yeah. 269 00:14:27,470 --> 00:14:32,270 What was that experience like? Because I mean, sounds like you 270 00:14:32,300 --> 00:14:34,220 were busy. Sounds like you're. I mean, obviously you're you're 271 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:39,050 putting a lot of work into it. Yeah. But do you think the 272 00:14:39,140 --> 00:14:42,430 rewards were great? Because I mean, Nashville, you're dealing 273 00:14:42,490 --> 00:14:47,290 with a lot of big lighting companies, and that was-I mean, 274 00:14:47,500 --> 00:14:49,480 I would imagine that was very 275 00:14:50,050 --> 00:14:52,300 the differentiator was the fact that we were one of the early 276 00:14:52,690 --> 00:14:56,650 adopters in the colored lighting space with the DMX technology, 277 00:14:56,860 --> 00:15:00,420 like what you see around here in the studios. Is. Was our 278 00:15:00,570 --> 00:15:06,480 lighting, and in the space even more niche was the car wash 279 00:15:06,630 --> 00:15:11,220 business and that industry. So, making them harsh environment 280 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,820 proof and able to stand up to chemicals and things of that 281 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:17,850 nature, as well as water and all this different you know these 282 00:15:17,940 --> 00:15:20,220 different elements that could penetrate you know electric 283 00:15:20,550 --> 00:15:23,900 electricity. You don't want that to happen. So, working with our 284 00:15:24,260 --> 00:15:28,040 manufacturing partners in China, because I don't care what you 285 00:15:28,190 --> 00:15:33,680 say, every LED chip comes from in China. No matter as much as 286 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:36,890 you want to say it's made in the USA, it's not. And we were at 287 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,140 least honest about it, but that's a whole nother story. 288 00:15:40,820 --> 00:15:44,290 That was an experience because we we were in like an electrical 289 00:15:44,380 --> 00:15:49,480 business that the market told us where to go. We were selling 290 00:15:49,870 --> 00:15:53,050 white lighting, LEDs, and stuff like that, and doing conversions 291 00:15:53,170 --> 00:15:57,130 back in the late teens. Yeah, because the wave had yet to come 292 00:15:57,190 --> 00:15:59,950 to shore. You had the TVA that was incentivizing all the 293 00:15:59,950 --> 00:16:03,120 different switchovers and stuff like that. Never thought that my 294 00:16:03,210 --> 00:16:05,640 electrical experience would be relevant in my life ever again, 295 00:16:06,390 --> 00:16:08,940 but here we were. We were putting lights in. If the owners 296 00:16:09,030 --> 00:16:12,000 got to put a tool belt on, that so be it. You know, get up on 297 00:16:12,090 --> 00:16:15,660 the lift and start changing out lights. It's what we did. But 298 00:16:15,750 --> 00:16:19,740 you know, and it's funny because the the staff we have now, dare 299 00:16:19,830 --> 00:16:24,350 I say, loves working with me if I get out in the field because I 300 00:16:24,410 --> 00:16:27,770 was taught well. You know the company when I was working as an 301 00:16:27,830 --> 00:16:30,860 electrician, they they were very big on training and doing it the 302 00:16:30,950 --> 00:16:34,850 right way and taking pride in how the job was done. I mean 303 00:16:35,300 --> 00:16:38,300 they had to go and look at a circuit that I had worked on for 304 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:44,530 a string of lights in a project we did up in Ohio, and you know, 305 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:47,620 just to kind of trace a circuit, nothing that I did was wrong. It 306 00:16:47,620 --> 00:16:50,350 was just something with the circuit where it originated was 307

00:16:50,500 --> 00:16:54,040 wonky, and just undoing everything that I had put in 308 00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,580 there, like, oh my gosh, like what do you put? Are your hands 309 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:00,100 tired? I'm like, no. You you use your alignment and you tighten 310 00:17:00,100 --> 00:17:02,790 the wire nut, and that's how I was taught. You twist the wires 311 00:17:02,910 --> 00:17:03,540 together, and you, 312 00:17:04,290 --> 00:17:04,350 yeah, 313 00:17:04,650 --> 00:17:06,690 you know, and you make sure it fits in the box well, and you 314 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,200 make it look neat. Like we need you to come out on more jobs. 315 00:17:10,230 --> 00:17:13,650 I'm like, no, this is kind of like every now and then. I like 316 00:17:13,680 --> 00:17:15,990 this is how I like it, but if I need to, that's fine. You got 317 00:17:15,990 --> 00:17:16,710 to make it look clean. 318 00:17:16,980 --> 00:17:19,650 Yeah, yeah. You got to make it look. You got to take pride in 319 00:17:19,650 --> 00:17:19,950 your work. 320 00:17:20,430 --> 00:17:22,970 You know, it's interesting. I I took a break from electrical 321 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:28,700 distribution to work for a a wired cable OEM, and it's kind 322 00:17:28,700 --> 00:17:33,020 of fascinating. We were considered an OEM because we 323 00:17:35,180 --> 00:17:38,660 twisted the cables and then, or sorry, twisted the wires, which 324 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:41,500 turns into a cable, and then put the jacket on there, so we were 325 00:17:41,590 --> 00:17:44,770 considered the manufacturer, American manufacturer. Yeah, 326 00:17:45,010 --> 00:17:48,310 even though those parts came from I don't know Mexico. Yeah, 327 00:17:48,550 --> 00:17:48,700 there's 328 00:17:48,790 --> 00:17:51,880 elements of made in the USA that if you check the boxes, you can 329 00:17:51,970 --> 00:17:52,510 claim it. 330 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:54,790 Yeah, that's weird. That's kind of when you think about 331 00:17:54,970 --> 00:17:58,030 it. Yeah, sourcing the materials is a like if we made our own 332 00:17:58,210 --> 00:18:04,560 lighting shells and maybe sourced our PCBs here. If we had 333 00:18:05,490 --> 00:18:08,580 our drivers, I mean, most of the driver companies are out in 334 00:18:08,730 --> 00:18:12,600 China as well. Meanwell being one of the big ones out there, 335 00:18:14,010 --> 00:18:18,270 and you know the the software, the DMX software that we we came 336 00:18:18,300 --> 00:18:21,020 up with our own controller software. So that was made in 337 00:18:21,020 --> 00:18:23,870 the USA for sure. Yeah, but I mean, all the different rare 338 00:18:24,050 --> 00:18:26,510 earth elements that make an LED are coming from China. There's 339 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,080 no ifs, ands, or buts. There's no getting around it. They have 340 00:18:30,110 --> 00:18:34,130 the market cornered. Okay, when it comes to LED technology, so 341 00:18:34,610 --> 00:18:36,890 you know we've had competitors. Oh, we're made in the USA. No, 342 00:18:37,010 --> 00:18:38,630 you're not. Stop. 343 00:18:39,350 --> 00:18:39,410 Yeah, 344 00:18:39,650 --> 00:18:41,860 stop. Okay, what was 345 00:18:41,980 --> 00:18:46,960 your? I guess what was your pitch when you wanted to push 346 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,270 this material? I mean, like we obviously we had we had a 347 00:18:49,300 --> 00:18:53,080 meeting with distribution, yeah. But like, how often would you 348 00:18:53,110 --> 00:18:55,060 actually go out there and meet the contractors? I mean, like, 349 00:18:55,090 --> 00:18:55,630 and how would you? 350 00:18:56,170 --> 00:18:57,970 We were we're selling directly to the customer. 351 00:18:58,210 --> 00:18:58,300 Sure. 352 00:18:58,630 --> 00:19:01,800 Yeah. So a lot of the you know, they would see us at a trade 353 00:19:01,950 --> 00:19:05,760 show. The competitor that we had was a lot higher price. They 354 00:19:05,790 --> 00:19:08,970 also had a lot more longevity in the business. They were 355 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,820 considered to be one of the first in the mine in terms of 356 00:19:11,850 --> 00:19:14,520 that kind of technology. But I think they started getting into 357 00:19:14,610 --> 00:19:18,180 other verticals and still are that are outside of the car wash 358 00:19:18,330 --> 00:19:23,480 realm. So we ended up just by outlasting all the other 359 00:19:23,570 --> 00:19:27,320 competitors became one of the you know I think that's what 360 00:19:27,380 --> 00:19:31,430 attracted our buyer to the table is the fact that we lasted long 361 00:19:32,030 --> 00:19:34,040 and like hey you're still around obviously you're doing something 362 00:19:34,130 --> 00:19:37,610 right you you kind of passed the five year threshold yeah and 363 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,840 eventually that you know one thing led to another and you 364 00:19:40,870 --> 00:19:44,080 know they they wanted to buy us and so so on and so forth, but 365 00:19:45,550 --> 00:19:48,400 you know when we got in front of different people, it was mainly 366 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:53,170 hey we have a simpler system. It's scalable. It's made with 367 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,320 you in mind, so you don't have to figure stuff out. You could 368 00:19:56,380 --> 00:19:59,950 teach your staff on it if you want or not. It was mainly. 369 00:20:00,150 --> 00:20:03,300 Around the controller software and the the lights, just they 370 00:20:03,330 --> 00:20:06,090 just you know the less headache you gave them, the better off 371 00:20:06,210 --> 00:20:09,450 you were. So these they're not going to give you headaches if 372 00:20:09,510 --> 00:20:13,440 they do go out, which inevitably, invariably, they do. 373 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:15,090 Sometimes water just gets through. 374 00:20:15,660 --> 00:20:15,720 Yeah, 375 00:20:16,170 --> 00:20:18,630 we're going to replace it. Okay, we're going to be the

hero. We 376 00:20:18,810 --> 00:20:23,660 even have stickers printed up. That Was hold it up to the 377 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:28,070 camera. Be the hero, and that was that goes back to when I 378 00:20:28,130 --> 00:20:31,820 worked with my dad. He says, you know, because I always being in 379 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,080 a in a white collar environment, growing up in Westchester 380 00:20:36,170 --> 00:20:38,600 County, Danbury, Connecticut, Fairfield County, in that part 381 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,220 of the country in the 90s and 80s. If you're a blue collar 382 00:20:42,310 --> 00:20:46,030 man, I mean, you were just looked down upon. You know, at 383 00:20:46,060 --> 00:20:49,030 least that's how I saw it. Yeah. You know. So going in and fixing 384 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:53,290 telephone systems in a doctor's office or a lawyer's office. I 385 00:20:53,410 --> 00:20:56,710 mean, you were like just. You might as well be scraping us off 386 00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:58,330 the bottom of your shoe, kind of feeling. 387 00:20:58,390 --> 00:21:02,880 Did you ever watch that South Park episode? The the 388 00:21:03,060 --> 00:21:09,540 Panderverse. Oh, just I love it. It's basically a quick just a 389 00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:14,520 yeah. The episode was basically talking about how the tradesmen 390 00:21:14,610 --> 00:21:18,300 or the new Elon Musks. They own everything because they're the 391 00:21:18,420 --> 00:21:20,570 richest people. Because no one we're in a society where no one 392 00:21:20,900 --> 00:21:23,780 knows how to do anything anymore, right? And they lean on 393 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:26,360 them, and they are just outbidding everybody, and then 394 00:21:26,450 --> 00:21:28,820 they have all this money, and then they're just buying 395 00:21:28,970 --> 00:21:31,730 rockets, and they just become the yeah, they become like the 396 00:21:31,820 --> 00:21:34,520 new Elon Musk. And I just thought it was so hilarious, but 397 00:21:34,550 --> 00:21:38,690 it's true. It is true. Amazing how things have turned a little 398 00:21:38,750 --> 00:21:38,930 bit. 399 00:21:39,230 --> 00:21:39,290 Yeah. 400 00:21:39,590 --> 00:21:42,250 Oh yeah. Going back to the AI conversation. Well, the 401 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:46,930 AI it's going to be a it's going to be an issue for people in 402 00:21:46,990 --> 00:21:50,050 white collar jobs. But again, my father, you know, he says when 403 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:54,070 you go in there, you can't have that mindset of being less than 404 00:21:54,850 --> 00:21:59,050 less than and go in there acting like you're their hero. Yeah, 405 00:21:59,170 --> 00:22:01,470 you're there to fix a problem that they can't fix. You know 406 00:22:01,530 --> 00:22:06,150 how to fix it. You're the hero, and I never forgot that. Did I 407 00:22:08,340 --> 00:22:13,080 embody it at the time? No, I was too young to fully appreciate 408 00:22:13,170 --> 00:22:14,430 what he was talking about. Did you 409 00:22:14,489 --> 00:22:15,629 tell me what your father did? I'm sorry. 410 00:22:15,750 --> 00:22:17,550 He was in the phone business. The phone business with the 411 00:22:17,670 --> 00:22:21,020 digital phone systems, PBX, all that stuff. I mean, I've hung 412 00:22:21,350 --> 00:22:23,780 and installed many a phone system. Probably still could. 413 00:22:24,260 --> 00:22:24,320 Yeah, 414 00:22:24,620 --> 00:22:27,290 I still remember the code to get into programming a Toshiba phone 415 00:22:27,380 --> 00:22:30,980 system, so I could actually initialize an entire system if I 416 00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:31,430 wanted to, 417 00:22:32,300 --> 00:22:32,510 which 418 00:22:32,570 --> 00:22:39,290 I might have done back when I when somebody pissed me off. Oh 419 00:22:39,710 --> 00:22:45,010 wow! And I'll just leave it at that. Oh, but I find with your 420 00:22:45,550 --> 00:22:50,410 with your positions very interesting because, man, it is 421 00:22:50,590 --> 00:22:53,890 one of those things that you do need to know what you're talking 422 00:22:53,950 --> 00:22:57,070 about. You need to know the parts, how they work together, 423 00:22:58,270 --> 00:23:01,200 what's the best solution for the customer, things of that nature. 424 00:23:01,980 --> 00:23:05,340 Do you need to know like the intricacies of the calculations 425 00:23:05,430 --> 00:23:07,620 and the math that goes involved with these types of things? 426 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,230 I mean, when I was when I was working the counter in the 427 00:23:10,290 --> 00:23:13,050 warehouse, I screwed up so many times where I was forced to like 428 00:23:13,170 --> 00:23:16,560 know not to screw up again. So, with yeah, when you send a 429 00:23:16,770 --> 00:23:21,210 customer the wrong part, it's even if it's like 20 cents, that 430 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,050 little part, you know, that's 20 cents. It's costing them 1000s 431 00:23:24,110 --> 00:23:26,810 of dollars every single time. They every single hour they 432 00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:32,060 don't have it. So I had to really like, I guess, put that 433 00:23:32,090 --> 00:23:37,790 in my. I had to be aware of that from a contractor's perspective. 434 00:23:37,850 --> 00:23:42,970 Like, okay, well, big deal. They like I messed up. So anyway, no, 435 00:23:43,390 --> 00:23:47,110 I messed up so many times that I can know how to not mess up and 436 00:23:47,110 --> 00:23:50,170 how to know how to the how to ask the right questions as far 437 00:23:50,230 --> 00:23:54,190 as like every element to the lock nut to the washer, asking 438 00:23:54,190 --> 00:23:57,670 the right questions to you know okay quarter inch half inch 439 00:23:57,970 --> 00:24:01,080 size. Okay, what's this going on to? What's the application? Does 440 00:24:01,110 --> 00:24:03,600 got to be weather resistant, like explosion 441 00:24:03,690 --> 00:24:03,930 proof? 442 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,980 Explosion proof,

yeah. Like that that went with time, but I'm I'm 443 00:24:08,130 --> 00:24:11,310 very fortunate enough now that I get to focus more on the 444 00:24:11,370 --> 00:24:14,130 relationship. But it does help that I've had that experience. 445 00:24:14,550 --> 00:24:16,650 Well, I mean, you you seem like one of these people that once 446 00:24:16,740 --> 00:24:19,290 you it only takes you one or two times to learn from a mistake. 447 00:24:20,490 --> 00:24:22,820 You know, like you're going to be so cognizant of it that 448 00:24:22,850 --> 00:24:25,010 you're going to, you're like, oh, you're going to, you're 449 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,320 going to, it's going to be so personalized. You're going to be 450 00:24:27,530 --> 00:24:31,040 so, ah, I don't want that to happen ever again. Is that 451 00:24:31,130 --> 00:24:32,000 something that's like you? 452 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:37,400 That's that's uh, that's that's very accurate. And um, you know, 453 00:24:38,630 --> 00:24:44,080 my my father was in construction too, so I grew up when I was a 454 00:24:44,170 --> 00:24:46,450 kid being the go-getter, picking up the trash around the job 455 00:24:46,540 --> 00:24:50,470 sites, and yeah, he was one of those. I'm you share, you know, 456 00:24:50,470 --> 00:24:52,240 I'm sure you feel this way about your father, man. Like there's 457 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,910 just nothing, you never see anything he couldn't do. 458 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:59,350 Yeah, he was. Yeah, my dad was like that. Yeah, wait a minute, 459 00:24:59,350 --> 00:25:02,700 you're gonna build a. What on the like? He literally, my mom 460 00:25:02,820 --> 00:25:06,330 had her hips replaced. One of her hips were replaced, and 461 00:25:06,360 --> 00:25:08,160 instead of like you know, most people would be like, "Well, we 462 00:25:08,250 --> 00:25:10,770 needed to figure out a way to get her downstairs, so we got to 463 00:25:10,860 --> 00:25:12,840 come up with this. You know, they make these things you sit 464 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,110 in a chair and it goes down the stairs. Yeah. No, he made it, 465 00:25:16,140 --> 00:25:19,110 and it would actually. It was a platform with a boat winch at 466 00:25:19,140 --> 00:25:21,560 the top of the stairs that she could roll the wheelchair on and 467 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,630 it would get her down, and he built like a platform that can, 468 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,290 dude. For us growing up, it was like, oh, we're just doing this. 469 00:25:27,500 --> 00:25:32,420 Now I look back on it and go, holy crap, who does that? Nobody 470 00:25:32,510 --> 00:25:32,870 anymore. 471 00:25:33,650 --> 00:25:38,900 Yeah, it's it's dad engineering. Yeah, while it's it's 472 00:25:38,930 --> 00:25:40,390 incredible. They just figure it out. 473 00:25:41,350 --> 00:25:44,710 They were big RV people. Like I grew up RVing and camping and 474 00:25:44,770 --> 00:25:47,590 stuff like that, glamping, if you will, because he was a huge 475 00:25:47,710 --> 00:25:51,640 fisherman and loved taking the boat to Lake Ontario, the ocean, 476 00:25:51,730 --> 00:25:56,800 whatever. But they would get an RV, brand new, beautiful RV, and 477 00:25:56,950 --> 00:25:59,290 pick it up on a Friday, bring it home. You know, I remember was a 478 00:25:59,410 --> 00:26:01,890 kid see the lights pulling in a driveway, and you wanted to go 479 00:26:02,010 --> 00:26:04,920 in there and smell it and everything. And then you'd eat 480 00:26:04,980 --> 00:26:08,400 breakfast the next morning, and you'd go into the new RV, and 481 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,780 he'd have the entire dashboard ripped apart. And it was like, 482 00:26:13,620 --> 00:26:17,700 oh my gosh, are you going to be able to put this back? I mean, 483 00:26:17,730 --> 00:26:20,240 why are like just a rat's nest? Because he's making all his 484 00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:24,380 modifications for CB radios and all that crap, and yeah, with 485 00:26:24,380 --> 00:26:26,510 him by the end of the day, it was all back together. There was 486 00:26:26,540 --> 00:26:27,200 always something to do. 487 00:26:27,500 --> 00:26:29,870 I bet he did. He wake you up in the middle, like 4o'clock in the 488 00:26:29,870 --> 00:26:33,080 morning, later on summers. She's like, "Hey, something to do, or 489 00:26:33,140 --> 00:26:34,850 "Hey, we're going to go to work. We're going to build something. 490 00:26:35,060 --> 00:26:36,440 We're going to do something. We're not just going to sit in 491 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:36,920 the house all day. 492 00:26:37,310 --> 00:26:41,560 I wasn't as ambitious as he was. I think he kind of, you know, 493 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,460 when his secretary or his receptionist would have a 494 00:26:45,490 --> 00:26:48,880 vacation during the summer, well, who are we going to get to 495 00:26:48,970 --> 00:26:52,870 cover phones? I guess we can get Jimmy down there. Then I 496 00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:55,390 literally he'd be like, "Hey, next week I need you down there. 497 00:26:55,420 --> 00:26:59,170 I'm like, "But it's my summer vacation, you know, and he'd be 498 00:26:59,290 --> 00:27:02,190 like, "And you know, my brother was working for him. You know, 499 00:27:02,190 --> 00:27:03,720 he had my older brother, and my father would. 500 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:04,350 Man, 501 00:27:04,710 --> 00:27:07,680 I need you on the phones. All right, it was like the most, 502 00:27:10,260 --> 00:27:15,240 like the the metaphor I used when he came in here. I'd rather 503 00:27:15,330 --> 00:27:17,940 go down a water slide full of razor blades into a pool of 504 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,450 alcohol than answer phones all day. Oh my god! 505 00:27:20,689 --> 00:27:22,189 That's a lot happening around that scenario. 506 00:27:23,870 --> 00:27:26,450 Look, it was awful. Yeah, you know someone, but you know what 507 00:27:26,450 --> 00:27:31,670 I did? I'd read drum catalogs,

and I didn't just imagine myself 508 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,100 playing these amazing drum kits that I'd seen in these catalogs. 509 00:27:35,210 --> 00:27:38,090 Yeah, couldn't wait till 5o'clock came around. We 510 00:27:38,180 --> 00:27:40,780 go back to our topic about the how blue collar was kind of 511 00:27:40,780 --> 00:27:44,560 looked down upon. Yeah, I mean, my my dad made a living on 512 00:27:44,620 --> 00:27:48,220 construction. I mean, he was super on the field, and he would 513 00:27:48,220 --> 00:27:50,110 always bring us out on the job sites. You know, we we weren't 514 00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:51,580 just going to sit in the house and do nothing. He would we 515 00:27:51,700 --> 00:27:55,330 would take take us out there, and you know, I was I was really 516 00:27:55,390 --> 00:27:58,690 rebellious against it, like being under the hot sun carrying 517 00:27:58,780 --> 00:28:02,460 lumber. I'm like, oh, not fun. No way. I'm not doing this. I'm 518 00:28:02,460 --> 00:28:05,400 gonna go work at Arby's. You know, I'll work at Arby's for 519 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,790 it, and I'll show them. And I guess I just didn't see it too 520 00:28:08,820 --> 00:28:12,180 long because now my brothers and my whole family-they're in 521 00:28:12,210 --> 00:28:14,760 construction now and they're doing really well. So I didn't 522 00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:17,610 see it back then. I was just like, I'd rather just go work at 523 00:28:17,670 --> 00:28:20,330 Arby's, and I won't be bossed around and sit under the hot sun 524 00:28:20,450 --> 00:28:23,690 all day. I'll show them, and yeah. So getting into this 525 00:28:24,230 --> 00:28:28,670 industry, I'm glad that I get to work with people and get to be 526 00:28:28,730 --> 00:28:30,830 in part of their project. So I feel like that was like that 527 00:28:31,010 --> 00:28:34,520 little gap that I was rebellious in. I just I missed out on so 528 00:28:34,610 --> 00:28:39,830 much during that time. But yeah, it's just just an interesting 529 00:28:39,830 --> 00:28:41,560 experience, man. Fathers are great, and it's great that you, 530 00:28:42,490 --> 00:28:45,460 you know, privileged to have those experiences too. To you 531 00:28:45,490 --> 00:28:47,830 know, because I still say to this day, I will never be up to 532 00:28:47,860 --> 00:28:51,070 my dad's ankles as far as like you know the things he can do. 533 00:28:51,430 --> 00:28:51,550 And 534 00:28:52,930 --> 00:28:53,770 is your dad still around? 535 00:28:54,250 --> 00:28:57,010 Oh yeah, yeah, he's definitely around, and I'll still make 536 00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:00,690 those phone calls too. Like my crawlspace flooded. What do I 537 00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:04,140 do? What's happening? I don't want to get screwed on pricing 538 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:05,400 here. I 539 00:29:05,460 --> 00:29:07,950 don't have that luxury. My dad will be gone 20 years next 540 00:29:08,010 --> 00:29:14,310 month, and I miss

him every day. I appreciate that, but he's he's 541 00:29:14,310 --> 00:29:17,460 he was definitely like if he wanted to be a good dad, that's 542 00:29:17,490 --> 00:29:22,070 that was his desire. He we he got to be our dad. That was his, 543 00:29:22,580 --> 00:29:27,500 I think, his disposition towards us. Not like, hey, you made me a 544 00:29:27,590 --> 00:29:30,470 dad. It was I get to be your dad. It was an outward thing, 545 00:29:31,190 --> 00:29:36,050 and you know, he did everything with us. He built model rockets 546 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,050 with my brother. We built model, you know, remote control cars. 547 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:42,190 One of the first big projects we did, I'll never forget it. You 548 00:29:42,250 --> 00:29:46,210 know, we're always using hand tools. I still have his tools at 549 00:29:46,270 --> 00:29:49,900 my toolbox in my house. You know, stuff that's probably 60 550 00:29:49,930 --> 00:29:53,380 years old at this point. But the first big project we did 551 00:29:53,410 --> 00:29:56,560 together was building a remote control car called the Monster 552 00:29:56,650 --> 00:30:01,680 Beetle back in 1986 or 87 on Memorial. Day weekend, or never 553 00:30:01,740 --> 00:30:04,200 forget it. Big old rainy Saturday. We sat at the kitchen 554 00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:08,430 table, just putting transmission together and linkage and all the 555 00:30:08,430 --> 00:30:11,610 stuff. And yeah, it was a lot of fun. Do you mean 556 00:30:12,030 --> 00:30:14,580 it's it's just amazing? Like that's that bonding is so 557 00:30:14,670 --> 00:30:18,180 important. Yeah, it really is. I mean, yeah. I mean, something 558 00:30:18,270 --> 00:30:21,080 just just depends. But I feel like deep down we really crave 559 00:30:21,110 --> 00:30:23,330 that. You know, you'd be like, "Oh, I don't want to get up. I 560 00:30:23,330 --> 00:30:27,080 don't want to do all this. Ah, I don't want. But like, I think we 561 00:30:27,230 --> 00:30:29,960 appreciate that as we're older now. Yeah. Well, I 562 00:30:30,020 --> 00:30:32,570 mean, again, going back to the job we did up in Parma, Ohio, 563 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:37,400 when we started j2, it was we were gone for eight days because 564 00:30:37,430 --> 00:30:43,390 it was a 550 fixture replacement job. So, and we had a full, full 565 00:30:43,510 --> 00:30:46,870 all hands on deck scenario up there, probably seven people. 566 00:30:47,380 --> 00:30:50,350 But there's only so many lights you can do in a day, you know. 567 00:30:50,500 --> 00:30:53,800 So you do the math on that, and that's kind of turned out to be 568 00:30:54,010 --> 00:30:57,760 where how we landed was about seven or eight days away. But 569 00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:00,220 even getting up in the morning in the hotel and just knowing 570 00:31:01,090 --> 00:31:04,620 the next 1012, hours is going to be a grind. Your feet are going 571 00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:06,960 to ache when you're done because you're not used to this. You 572 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,570 haven't done it in a while, but here we are. Let's get it done. 573 00:31:09,570 --> 00:31:10,260 Seriously, like the 574 00:31:10,710 --> 00:31:13,050 electrician's hands. You know the ones that are. Oh yeah. Oh 575 00:31:13,350 --> 00:31:16,290 man, they're built differently, man. They, you know, twisting 576 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,680 those wire nuts, installing that guy. There was a guy 577 00:31:20,070 --> 00:31:23,960 I worked with. He was a Hungarian guy at Nikon when I 578 00:31:23,990 --> 00:31:27,440 was, and he and I were buddies. He was a hard ass, but you know, 579 00:31:27,860 --> 00:31:32,330 I I matched his crazy matched mine, and being a good 580 00:31:32,510 --> 00:31:36,530 assistant, I could I got the gist of like I need to read what 581 00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,140 you're doing before you even get there to make sure you have what 582 00:31:39,170 --> 00:31:43,000 you have what you need before you even know you need it. So I 583 00:31:43,090 --> 00:31:45,490 was always good at be like, okay, he's going to need a, you 584 00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:48,370 know, an old work box and blah blah blah. And I mean, he's 585 00:31:48,370 --> 00:31:51,130 probably going to need an extra little bit of, you know, MC 586 00:31:51,340 --> 00:31:53,950 cable or whatever, and the clamps that go with it and the 587 00:31:53,950 --> 00:31:56,590 connectors, and he's going to need this tool. So I'd always 588 00:31:56,650 --> 00:31:59,500 just be right there. I just figured that out. You know, this 589 00:31:59,620 --> 00:32:02,460 my job is to serve you to make sure you have what you need. 590 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,670 You're the lead guy, so we'd be up on ladders middle of winter, 591 00:32:06,300 --> 00:32:08,850 and he would have this like sometimes the thumb would split 592 00:32:08,970 --> 00:32:11,730 on the ridge next to the nail because you'd be twisting stuff, 593 00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:15,060 and the cold weather would do stuff to your skin. That dude 594 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:19,320 had at least a quarter inch cut on his thumb. That you know 595 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,950 after a while he couldn't because he had gloves on and 596 00:32:22,070 --> 00:32:24,500 band aids. He just ripped the whole thing off because he 597 00:32:24,530 --> 00:32:27,890 couldn't get a grip on the the wire nut, and you could just see 598 00:32:28,070 --> 00:32:32,120 he's just in pain, just pushing through. I'm like, that shit 599 00:32:32,210 --> 00:32:35,240 doesn't happen anymore, man. You just don't see that anymore. 600 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:36,260 That kind of grit. 601 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,680 Installing one. I mean, I've installed a few receptacles in 602 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,570 my lifetime, but like I'm, I'm like, my hands get tired. I'm 603 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,000 like, oh man, there's people out there. Oh yeah, install

hundreds 604 00:32:46,030 --> 00:32:47,290 of these every single day. I'm like, 605 00:32:48,430 --> 00:32:53,860 man, now they have attachments for drills to do it. Really, you 606 00:32:53,860 --> 00:32:56,380 could put the little thing in the drill and screw the wire nut 607 00:32:56,380 --> 00:32:56,650 on. You talking 608 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,870 about those little easy connects, this little putt, and 609 00:32:58,930 --> 00:33:00,930 then they just put it in there and the screwed on, 610 00:33:01,380 --> 00:33:03,930 yeah, you know, has like a little like a a bit you could 611 00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,350 put in your your screw gun, your drill, Makita, whatever you're 612 00:33:07,410 --> 00:33:10,260 using, yeah, and it's like it goes right on this the wire nut 613 00:33:10,260 --> 00:33:11,490 and twists it on the wire for you, 614 00:33:12,030 --> 00:33:14,220 little pigtails, whatever. That's a little easy, yeah. I 615 00:33:14,340 --> 00:33:16,680 guess so. We didn't have that when I was coming. 616 00:33:17,100 --> 00:33:19,590 Well, what I do is I've subscribed to like Electrical 617 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:24,560 Today and these magazines, just little, little bedroom read, and 618 00:33:25,250 --> 00:33:27,860 somebody like gave me a device to do that, and now I've 619 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,350 subscribed to it, and now I just like flip through it on my free 620 00:33:30,410 --> 00:33:32,750 time. It's like, oh man, there's a little little product that 621 00:33:32,750 --> 00:33:35,450 they're making right now, make a cuts the cost of labor, get you 622 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:38,780 get the done job done faster. So it helps having those little, 623 00:33:38,870 --> 00:33:41,110 you know, when you're talking to a customer, just you 624 00:33:41,170 --> 00:33:41,650 know, you yeah. 625 00:33:42,010 --> 00:33:43,240 Everybody wants to save some money. If 626 00:33:43,270 --> 00:33:47,410 you ever actually get out and get on an electrical job, just 627 00:33:47,410 --> 00:33:48,880 to kind of see what these guys go through, 628 00:33:49,540 --> 00:33:55,600 all the time. In fact, when I was starting this out, I I was 629 00:33:55,690 --> 00:33:59,770 either sink or swim. They didn't give me. I wasn't given like a 630 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,340 salary or anything like that. I was just like 100% commission. 631 00:34:02,430 --> 00:34:04,440 Like, hey, you can either do this or you can't. And I 632 00:34:05,100 --> 00:34:07,470 basically had no choice. I was like, okay, I'm gonna go out on 633 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:13,080 job sites. I got myself a vest and a hard hat and boots and 634 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:16,170 gave myself a little pen and paper. So just to give myself 635 00:34:16,260 --> 00:34:19,980 the perception that I was there to you know check some stuff 636 00:34:20,190 --> 00:34:22,400 off, some some sort of inspection, and then I go other 637 00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,730 Connexes. I ask the right questions. I say, "Oh, so what's 638 00:34:25,790 --> 00:34:29,780 the the the electrical contractor? Where's their Connex 639 00:34:29,900 --> 00:34:31,880 at? You know, I'll go out there and I hand out my business 640 00:34:31,970 --> 00:34:36,530 cards. So yes, I did a lot of that. I still do. I mean, it's 641 00:34:36,530 --> 00:34:39,710 amazing. Just I passed through a few job sites on the way over 642 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,690 here, and then I see a pallet full of three-inch PVC. I'm 643 00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:47,290 like, oh, I get a little greedy. I don't know. I just oh no, 644 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,380 that's that's that's a good position. Yeah, I'm just 645 00:34:50,380 --> 00:34:52,000 thinking like, ooh, you know that 646 00:34:52,299 --> 00:34:52,839 used to that 647 00:34:53,260 --> 00:34:54,310 taking food out of my kid's mouth. 648 00:34:54,459 --> 00:34:56,169 That's the same thing that used to happen to me when I used to 649 00:34:56,199 --> 00:34:59,799 see temp tags on cars. It would drive me nuts, especially in my 650 00:34:59,889 --> 00:35:02,069 own. Neighborhood, yeah. I'm like, I'm not doing a good 651 00:35:02,069 --> 00:35:03,509 enough job to let everybody know what I do. 652 00:35:04,620 --> 00:35:07,080 And it's funny that you pay attention to things a little 653 00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:09,390 differently. Like, how many times have you gone to a 654 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:12,300 restaurant and you see just see the the light job that they do, 655 00:35:12,450 --> 00:35:15,300 or just think, oh, I see like the EMT ran through the the 656 00:35:15,780 --> 00:35:16,980 termination box. I'm like, huh. 657 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:19,860 That's the thing is that next time you guys are out in a 658 00:35:19,980 --> 00:35:24,350 Costco or a Lowe's, Home Depot. Look up, and you see those 659 00:35:24,470 --> 00:35:26,810 raceways, those pipes that they're usually like in like you 660 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:30,140 know just a bunch. There could be 10 of them running in the 661 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:34,220 same direction, and it's almost you don't appreciate it. At 662 00:35:34,250 --> 00:35:36,410 least I didn't back when I learned how to do it. 663 00:35:36,500 --> 00:35:36,740 Yeah, the 664 00:35:37,100 --> 00:35:41,500 art form. It really truly is an art form when you have to bend 665 00:35:41,590 --> 00:35:44,680 pipe and make it look a certain way, look neat, and they all 666 00:35:44,830 --> 00:35:49,090 bend together. I mean, it is a flipping art form. 667 00:35:49,570 --> 00:35:49,660 It 668 00:35:49,990 --> 00:35:51,550 takes a talent. I mean, 669 00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,990 it's it is, and then yeah, again, you just kind of see 670 00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,990 things a little bit differently. Oh yeah, like now I I'm when I'm 671 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,300 at a restaurant or at a table, I see a salt shaker, and this is 672 00:36:03,330 -->

00:36:07,860 kind of the beauty of sales in a way. I just look at that salt 673 00:36:07,890 --> 00:36:09,840 shaker, and I'm thinking, not only did somebody make money off 674 00:36:09,870 --> 00:36:12,900 that salt, but somebody made money off the container that's 675 00:36:12,990 --> 00:36:13,050 in. 676 00:36:13,350 --> 00:36:13,410 Yeah, 677 00:36:13,769 --> 00:36:16,379 you know, somebody made some money off of that. Everything we 678 00:36:16,559 --> 00:36:18,779 touch, something somebody made some money. Somebody had to sell 679 00:36:18,899 --> 00:36:22,489 it. Somebody had to sell it, and I just thought, yeah, this 680 00:36:22,549 --> 00:36:23,659 business is very fascinating. 681 00:36:24,259 --> 00:36:24,799 It really is. 682 00:36:25,219 --> 00:36:25,279 Yeah, 683 00:36:25,850 --> 00:36:28,880 I mean, I still, whenever I have to go shop for electrical 684 00:36:28,910 --> 00:36:29,930 components at Home Depot. 685 00:36:31,460 --> 00:36:32,240 Why don't you call me, Jim? 686 00:36:33,679 --> 00:36:37,249 Next time I will. But if I'm if I'm just browsing the aisle, 687 00:36:37,819 --> 00:36:40,369 there's just such a sense of possibility. 688 00:36:40,759 --> 00:36:40,809 Yeah, 689 00:36:41,650 --> 00:36:44,950 in just wandering around that aisle alone, I don't know why it 690 00:36:44,980 --> 00:36:47,920 is because there's so many different things you can do with 691 00:36:47,980 --> 00:36:51,520 electrical parts. You know, you can build mechanical things. You 692 00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:53,950 can you know things that you can hang from your ceiling and hang 693 00:36:54,070 --> 00:36:57,670 stuff off of. It's EMT. It's rigid. Whatever. It's it's so 694 00:36:57,700 --> 00:37:00,510 many different things that you could try and like a lot of 695 00:37:00,570 --> 00:37:03,870 solutions that weren't electrical derived from that 696 00:37:04,110 --> 00:37:07,410 aisle, as if that to make sense. You can't really do that in the 697 00:37:07,620 --> 00:37:10,770 plumbing aisle, you know, because you got PECs and you 698 00:37:10,770 --> 00:37:13,230 know things of that nature. Everything with the electrical 699 00:37:13,530 --> 00:37:17,910 aisle is so just ingenuitive, you know. 700 00:37:18,390 --> 00:37:19,080 Beauty of Ohm's law, 701 00:37:19,799 --> 00:37:24,259 yeah, yeah. It's really it's just something about it. Like 702 00:37:24,349 --> 00:37:27,919 even when I had to go do parts runs when I worked for Nikon, 703 00:37:29,809 --> 00:37:32,329 there was just I don't know, just a weird. It's hard to 704 00:37:32,359 --> 00:37:37,669 describe because it wasn't a bad time in my life. It was very 705 00:37:37,819 --> 00:37:40,309 fruitful. The customers we dealt with, you know, working with 706 00:37:40,459 --> 00:37:43,659 Alex Gratzel, the Hungarian guy, you know, I haven't talked to 707 00:37:43,659 --> 00:37:47,199 the guy in probably 30 years, or seen him if he's still even 708 00:37:47,259 -->

00:37:52,689 alive. But just good memories. Yeah, it was a good time in life 709 00:37:52,749 --> 00:37:54,909 to kind of be doing that kind of work, even though I knew it was 710 00:37:55,149 --> 00:37:56,139 for the short term. 711 00:37:57,069 --> 00:37:59,169 It's just amazing the type. Yeah, the people that you meet 712 00:37:59,199 --> 00:38:02,219 in this industry, like it's their different walks of life, 713 00:38:02,339 --> 00:38:06,149 and you just learn new things, and yeah, it's incredible. I'm 714 00:38:06,179 --> 00:38:09,209 pretty sure that your Hungarian friend they they did things a 715 00:38:09,209 --> 00:38:12,239 little differently in in Hungary, you know, as far as 716 00:38:12,269 --> 00:38:14,099 like applications go, and the way 717 00:38:14,190 --> 00:38:15,810 codes, codes, yeah, yeah, 718 00:38:17,220 --> 00:38:22,280 no, but yeah, selling is this very industry, and there's like 719 00:38:22,430 --> 00:38:27,110 really no there's no formula to it. It's just more of I've 720 00:38:27,140 --> 00:38:31,160 always just went the approach of just like understanding the 721 00:38:31,370 --> 00:38:33,980 contractor why they do what they do because everybody has a 722 00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:36,830 story, and who doesn't want to tell their story? I mean, I 723 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:41,830 think that's always that's always been a good like in is 724 00:38:41,950 --> 00:38:48,880 just having those conversations and asking what is my 725 00:38:48,970 --> 00:38:52,000 competition doing better than me? Yeah, you know what's what's 726 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,270 what are they doing? What are their wow factors? Is it rebates 727 00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:59,110 or is it the best price? You know, do they go to your church? 728 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,790 What's what's the story here. Otherwise, yeah, I I'm not 729 00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,520 looking to just sell you things at the bottom dollar. I want a 730 00:39:05,550 --> 00:39:09,180 partnership. You tell me what it takes to make that partnership 731 00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:09,540 happen. 732 00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:10,110 Right. 733 00:39:11,219 --> 00:39:12,029 Yeah. What are what 734 00:39:12,060 --> 00:39:15,420 are typically the common threads that you know the boxes that you 735 00:39:15,450 --> 00:39:16,950 got to check? Are there 736 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:18,210 well 737 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:19,140 to run all together? 738 00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:24,770 I well, one thing I just want to throw this out there: I hate 739 00:39:24,830 --> 00:39:31,070 golf. I'll say it again: I hate golf. Everybody in this industry 740 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:39,290 wants to golf, and I, I hate it. I hate talking about golf. Jeez, 741 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:45,940 I'm gonna get canceled. No, I. But I just, I, it kind of just 742 00:39:46,510 --> 00:39:52,270 the nuances of like selling has always been golf. Talking about 743 00:39:52,390 --> 00:39:54,760 golf, and I just like, oh my gosh, can we do something 744 00:39:54,850 --> 00:39:59,080 different here? So I just kind of get creative. Like I want to 745 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,760 talk about something else. That you know, and the last 746 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:05,040 thing they probably want to talk about is their. Yeah, 747 00:40:05,610 --> 00:40:07,710 I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, you got it. I mean, but that's 748 00:40:07,830 --> 00:40:10,590 the thing. I mean, a contractor or your customer can all they 749 00:40:10,650 --> 00:40:13,530 can like you all day long, you know. But doesn't mean you're 750 00:40:13,530 --> 00:40:15,030 going to get the business because you got to make the 751 00:40:15,060 --> 00:40:19,200 business make sense too. It's great if you have both sides if 752 00:40:19,230 --> 00:40:23,180 they like you and they want to buy from you, but sometimes it's 753 00:40:23,540 --> 00:40:30,350 either or. So crossing off the boxes is just understanding who 754 00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:35,690 they're selling to, because I have I have made it a point to 755 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,710 treat general contractors like a customer as well, because I know 756 00:40:39,830 --> 00:40:42,040 that's who the electricians are selling. They they need they 757 00:40:42,130 --> 00:40:44,560 want to bid the jobs and they want to win the jobs. And if 758 00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,020 there's a strong relationship there, then I want to make sure 759 00:40:47,110 --> 00:40:50,470 that I know what they're doing on the back end because 760 00:40:50,590 --> 00:40:52,480 otherwise, I'm just going to go in there like an idiot. Like you 761 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,410 want to buy some pipe for me? 762 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:53,980 Yeah, 763 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:57,220 some receptacles for me. Like what I'm saying is that you got 764 00:40:57,220 --> 00:40:58,480 to bring something to the table. 765 00:40:59,020 --> 00:40:59,170 Right. 766 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:01,200 You got to do something different. Well, because you're 767 00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:01,230 a 768 00:41:01,290 --> 00:41:01,740 commodity, 769 00:41:02,309 --> 00:41:02,369 yeah, 770 00:41:02,970 --> 00:41:06,990 yeah, you're in a commoditized position. Your your role is not 771 00:41:07,260 --> 00:41:10,320 dissimilar from that of an insurance agent, a car salesman, 772 00:41:10,980 --> 00:41:13,110 someone who sells mortgages, a real estate agent. 773 00:41:13,530 --> 00:41:13,770 Yeah, it 774 00:41:13,830 --> 00:41:16,320 really does come down to branding and personal branding. 775 00:41:16,709 --> 00:41:16,859 You know, 776 00:41:17,579 --> 00:41:20,539 especially if you're somebody who I would imagine who can 777 00:41:20,959 --> 00:41:25,129 empathize with that GC or the electrical company? Yeah, you 778 00:41:25,129 --> 00:41:27,469 know what I mean. You know exactly what their pain points 779 00:41:27,619 --> 00:41:30,289 are. You know

what it's like to live their life. That's why I'm 780 00:41:30,319 --> 00:41:34,669 like, like I would wonder if I had another life to do what you 781 00:41:34,789 --> 00:41:38,179 do, if my experience being an electrician at one point in my 782 00:41:38,299 --> 00:41:43,089 life would be helpful, because you could you could relate to 783 00:41:43,119 --> 00:41:43,209 them. 784 00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:50,110 Well, yeah. I wanted to talk about the lighting lighting game 785 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:54,730 here, and if you've, I know we talked about your experience, 786 00:41:54,820 --> 00:42:01,830 but yeah, it's amazing how it's lighting is just it's such a 787 00:42:01,890 --> 00:42:08,700 game changer now. It's with these companies, these reps. 788 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:17,880 It's I was told that back in the day, lighting people want to 789 00:42:17,940 --> 00:42:20,870 build relationships with distribution. It's not like that 790 00:42:20,900 --> 00:42:23,990 anymore. Lighting companies can just sell directly to the 791 00:42:24,050 --> 00:42:29,270 customer, and so we and distribution were forced to bend 792 00:42:29,330 --> 00:42:32,630 the knee. And you got to like take them out to lunch. You got 793 00:42:32,630 --> 00:42:36,110 to be got to be in their good graces because I mean they can 794 00:42:36,140 --> 00:42:37,820 just sell directly to your customer. They don't really need 795 00:42:37,940 --> 00:42:44,980 you anymore. But I think that I get it because it's amazing. 796 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:49,990 These guys, they or and women, they can go in and before the 797 00:42:50,380 --> 00:42:53,680 specs are even written on paper on the blueprints, they're 798 00:42:53,830 --> 00:42:56,950 already involved. They have already secured the job at its 799 00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:57,670 infant stage, 800 00:42:58,180 --> 00:42:58,450 which 801 00:42:58,990 --> 00:43:04,800 is kind of fascinating. So by doing that, they hold the cards 802 00:43:04,950 --> 00:43:09,660 and they can know which general contractor is going to get it, 803 00:43:09,780 --> 00:43:12,330 and then from there they can decide who the electricians is 804 00:43:12,390 --> 00:43:17,010 going to install the package. So yeah, it's just very very 805 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:17,850 fascinating and 806 00:43:19,079 --> 00:43:20,129 like how did that happen? 807 00:43:21,150 --> 00:43:25,400 Yeah, I mean, it's all politics at the end of the day. Like, I I 808 00:43:25,970 --> 00:43:29,000 kind of respect it in a way, but it's sometimes it's very 809 00:43:29,060 --> 00:43:32,870 difficult. But lighting people, man, they could be your best 810 00:43:32,900 --> 00:43:38,450 friends or your worst enemy because they are they're it's a 811 00:43:38,450 --> 00:43:42,250 little different for them. And my lighting friends will tell me 812 00:43:42,340 --> 00:43:46,360 this all the time. Like, they play for high keeps. I mean, 813 00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,450 they can win a million dollar job, but they have to win the 814 00:43:49,540 --> 00:43:49,990 whole job. 815 00:43:50,259 --> 00:43:50,319 Yeah. 816 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,830 If I don't win a lighting project, at least I have pipe 817 00:43:53,890 --> 00:43:56,800 and wire to go back to. I can still make money off of that. 818 00:43:57,189 --> 00:43:57,309 Right. 819 00:43:57,430 --> 00:44:03,450 But if they don't sell the job as a package, then that's it. 820 00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:06,780 They either win it or lose it. So I think you have to be a 821 00:44:06,780 --> 00:44:09,690 little cutthroat and vicious if you if the stakes are that high, 822 00:44:09,930 --> 00:44:10,140 right? 823 00:44:10,470 --> 00:44:10,710 Oh yeah, 824 00:44:11,249 --> 00:44:11,969 yeah. Because 825 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,820 I mean, if sometimes you're at least in our situation, because 826 00:44:14,850 --> 00:44:20,250 we could install our own stuff. When it came to the white 827 00:44:20,340 --> 00:44:24,530 lighting, you know, troffers, high bays, UFOs, things of that 828 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:28,700 nature. We wanted the install, or we, you know, we were happy 829 00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:31,790 to sell it to whoever was handling the purchasing of it, 830 00:44:31,820 --> 00:44:34,730 you know. Yeah. But on those prints, they would already have 831 00:44:34,850 --> 00:44:38,270 the, you know, whoever whatever manufacturer they were looking 832 00:44:38,330 --> 00:44:40,990 for already laid out. Now, when it came to the colored lighting, 833 00:44:41,500 --> 00:44:44,890 there was a lot more flexibility because there wasn't really a 834 00:44:44,980 --> 00:44:50,260 front runner company out there like you know Lithonia or 835 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,350 whoever that was you know directly supplying material to 836 00:44:53,410 --> 00:44:58,150 the end product or the end the end customer. We were for the 837 00:44:58,210 --> 00:45:01,530 colored side of things was a lot. Dare I say easier, but 838 00:45:01,620 --> 00:45:05,550 fewer and far between, because right now I think is probably a 839 00:45:05,580 --> 00:45:07,620 good time to be in the colored lighting business because 840 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,670 everybody's moving in that direction, and eventually, you 841 00:45:11,700 --> 00:45:13,680 know, the hotels have already moved in that direction. 842 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:15,570 Somebody's providing those lights. You see them at the 843 00:45:15,750 --> 00:45:19,950 airport in the parking garage now. Not done very well. We 844 00:45:20,100 --> 00:45:24,140 could do it a lot better, but you know, you got to have a name 845 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,310 to go along with it, and time and time, time and time in the 846 00:45:28,370 --> 00:45:29,480 trenches. Well, it 847 00:45:29,630 --> 00:45:32,570 gives you flexibility, like like the color selectables, right? 848 00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:34,640 They they

just like you don't have you can install it once, 849 00:45:34,670 --> 00:45:38,150 and then you can you know change it however you want. Like if you 850 00:45:38,210 --> 00:45:41,200 wanted a different shade, then you have to pop pop open that 851 00:45:41,380 --> 00:45:44,080 door, rip it out, and then apply a different, a 852 00:45:44,620 --> 00:45:46,570 different bulb and a different driver. Yeah, 853 00:45:47,349 --> 00:45:47,499 yeah, yeah. 854 00:45:49,299 --> 00:45:51,549 But I mean, the the system that we came up with was called the 855 00:45:51,789 --> 00:45:57,369 Attitude Lighting System, and that was the software. So a lot 856 00:45:57,369 --> 00:46:00,629 of the control systems, like we would see at these car wash 857 00:46:00,749 --> 00:46:05,969 shows, the the controllers would take up like half a wall, and 858 00:46:06,029 --> 00:46:11,489 we're like, why? You know, our unit is literally that big. You 859 00:46:11,579 --> 00:46:14,549 plug a data wire into it, goes out to a switch. You power it 860 00:46:14,639 --> 00:46:18,599 up, and the signal goes out to the lights. We've actually made 861 00:46:18,689 --> 00:46:21,829 most of the lighting product at one point wireless when it came 862 00:46:21,919 --> 00:46:25,219 to the controllability, so you didn't need all you had to do 863 00:46:25,279 --> 00:46:28,399 was put up a transceiver, and then you know throughout the 864 00:46:28,489 --> 00:46:33,019 tunnel, the floodlights would listen to a wireless signal. You 865 00:46:33,019 --> 00:46:36,289 wanted to change, do a show, whatever, and just put it was so 866 00:46:36,559 --> 00:46:39,859 just plug and play after a while. It's crazy. 867 00:46:40,129 --> 00:46:42,609 Should have gotten some contracts with submarines, man. 868 00:46:42,789 --> 00:46:45,219 It sounds like a missed opportunity the way you're 869 00:46:45,279 --> 00:46:46,959 talking. You know, I never even thought 870 00:46:46,990 --> 00:46:49,660 about doing submarines, but you know, we can get government 871 00:46:49,690 --> 00:46:51,940 work. That would have been good. Oh, because hell knows they just 872 00:46:52,090 --> 00:46:54,460 freaking piss money away. Yeah, 873 00:46:54,909 --> 00:46:57,249 you can control your margins. All all they care about is if 874 00:46:57,339 --> 00:47:00,219 you're on the you're on the list. You got to be on the list 875 00:47:00,249 --> 00:47:03,389 in order for you, and then you can make your you can make your 876 00:47:03,779 --> 00:47:04,739 money. That's but I would 877 00:47:04,740 --> 00:47:07,350 have to imagine like somebody in your position. You just want the 878 00:47:07,590 --> 00:47:11,160 people that you're dealing with. I want to make sure I don't have 879 00:47:11,250 --> 00:47:13,380 to. I've got enough headaches to deal with 880 00:47:14,550 --> 00:47:14,820 as it is. 881 00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:18,780 I don't need another one. I need you to handle you know late 882 00:47:18,930 --> 00:47:21,620 shipments if they come up. I need you to figure out if it's 883 00:47:21,620 --> 00:47:23,930 going to be too late and what's the replacement. What are we 884 00:47:24,110 --> 00:47:26,780 looking at? That kind of stuff. You're just basically you're 885 00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:29,900 being a hero, essentially, right? 886 00:47:30,590 --> 00:47:33,710 Love it. Yeah, I mean, I think if you were an owner of a 887 00:47:33,770 --> 00:47:37,190 company, I mean, like, yeah, you're right. You you have so 888 00:47:37,340 --> 00:47:40,040 much on your plate, and if you can partner with someone that 889 00:47:40,100 --> 00:47:43,360 makes your life easy. They don't even care about the price. 890 00:47:43,450 --> 00:47:45,520 Right. It will make you just like just take care of me. 891 00:47:45,850 --> 00:47:48,160 To answer your question, that was kind of our approach when it 892 00:47:48,190 --> 00:47:50,800 came to car washes. That like one of the things I would teach 893 00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:53,920 people that were doing interfacing with the client and 894 00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,830 my business partner was excellent at this. Look, we get 895 00:47:56,890 --> 00:47:59,680 it. The last thing you need to be worrying about is whether or 896 00:47:59,710 --> 00:48:03,240 not your lights are working. That's where we come in. Okay, 897 00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:06,840 that's where we got to make sure that you're being taken care of, 898 00:48:06,870 --> 00:48:09,900 and we got to be the hero when it comes to making sure that 899 00:48:09,900 --> 00:48:13,710 your light shows are going off. Because that was that became a 900 00:48:13,770 --> 00:48:16,620 huge part of the industry. It became a customer experience 901 00:48:16,770 --> 00:48:20,370 rather than just washing a car. You know, kids wanted to go. 902 00:48:20,430 --> 00:48:22,190 Let's go where all the pretty lights are, and that's why they. 903 00:48:22,430 --> 00:48:25,730 That's why all these car washes have light shows. Keeping up 904 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:30,020 with the Joneses. Now they're going to video walls. That's a 905 00:48:30,050 --> 00:48:30,380 new thing, 906 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:36,860 Jim. I want to compliment you quickly. It's just you know you. 907 00:48:37,460 --> 00:48:40,900 It's you're pretty impressive. You you just do it. You talked 908 00:48:40,900 --> 00:48:43,720 about so many things that you've done, and you at least at least 909 00:48:43,780 --> 00:48:46,930 tried if it worked, if it or if it didn't. But you just have 910 00:48:46,990 --> 00:48:50,410 that experience, and man, what are what's what's the younger 911 00:48:50,470 --> 00:48:51,820 generation doing now? Let's 912 00:48:52,690 --> 00:48:57,490 well hopefully you know my kids coming up watch their dad work a 913 00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:00,900 lot. My youngest daughter is helping me out with a couple of 914 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:04,590 things that

I do for voiceover. She's doing a lot of editing for 915 00:49:04,620 --> 00:49:08,070 me, and she's she's loving it. She's eager, you know. My son 916 00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:10,500 did it for me for a while, but he kind of outgrew it, and now 917 00:49:10,590 --> 00:49:15,000 he's there's an element of like the prodigal that happens with 918 00:49:15,090 --> 00:49:19,470 kids. That you know, what do you know, mom and dad? We're too 919 00:49:19,590 --> 00:49:23,270 close to you, and we know how you guys are. Therefore, your 920 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:26,630 opinions and thoughts don't carry as much weight as the 921 00:49:26,780 --> 00:49:29,840 world's do right now. Because you know, we all went through 922 00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:32,690 that. We all discounted our parents in terms of what they 923 00:49:32,870 --> 00:49:35,960 thought, and until we got to about our mid 20s and realized, 924 00:49:35,990 --> 00:49:38,360 you know, mom and dad kind of knew what they were talking 925 00:49:38,390 --> 00:49:42,040 about all along. And it's time to give them due credit for what 926 00:49:42,100 --> 00:49:45,520 they have been trying to impress upon us. Because early on in a 927 00:49:45,610 --> 00:49:49,900 child's life, you can shape them right from wrong. You can 928 00:49:49,930 --> 00:49:53,590 directly impact how they live, how what the decisions they 929 00:49:53,740 --> 00:49:56,740 make. You know, show them accountability. Show them the 930 00:49:57,250 --> 00:50:00,360 consequences of their decisions. They get into their. Teenage 931 00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,480 years, you could still have that that input, but you're kind of 932 00:50:03,570 --> 00:50:06,300 getting you're morphing and evolving into what I call a 933 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:09,390 consultant mode. And once the kids get older, you know they're 934 00:50:09,420 --> 00:50:13,410 adults. You're a consultant at that point. Hey, you know I see, 935 00:50:15,090 --> 00:50:20,070 you know my son, he's kind of a late bloomer, and I think COVID 936 00:50:20,220 --> 00:50:23,240 had a lot to do with that. A lot of I think it set a lot of kids 937 00:50:23,330 --> 00:50:26,960 back. So you know, even though he's 18, I think he's really 938 00:50:27,050 --> 00:50:31,340 probably mentally 15 or 16. So that maturity has still yet to 939 00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:36,320 take hold. I have complete faith that it's going to happen. But a 940 00:50:36,410 --> 00:50:40,420 lot of the things that the next generation and might this might 941 00:50:40,420 --> 00:50:43,750 be the you know get off my lawn comment of the conversation. 942 00:50:44,229 --> 00:50:45,159 I got plenty of those. Yeah, 943 00:50:46,089 --> 00:50:50,979 I think a lot of them are enabled by excuses. Well, I've 944 00:50:51,039 --> 00:50:53,829 got this condition. Well, I'm this. I'm I'm labeled this. I've 945 00:50:53,919 --> 00:50:57,789 been prescribed this. Therefore, I have this. This is becomes my 946 00:50:57,969 --> 00:51:02,099 identity, and now I can lean on that, and that can be my excuse. 947 00:51:02,219 --> 00:51:06,869 But eventually, you know, when the rubber meets the road, man, 948 00:51:07,169 --> 00:51:11,639 it's that shit doesn't matter. It's it's about it. Always comes 949 00:51:11,729 --> 00:51:14,249 down to grit. It always comes down to ambition. 950 00:51:17,309 --> 00:51:22,009 Yeah, yeah. I oh jeez, I fear for my son all the time, and you 951 00:51:22,099 --> 00:51:24,289 just nailed it. It's just, I mean, the key word there is 952 00:51:24,319 --> 00:51:28,309 accountability. Accountability of life. I mean, not everyone is 953 00:51:28,339 --> 00:51:31,819 going to hold your hand. Not everyone is going to show you 954 00:51:31,879 --> 00:51:38,089 the way. And then you're, yeah, no, you've, you got to have. 955 00:51:38,089 --> 00:51:41,979 That's the fear of the dad of being a father. Is like my my 956 00:51:42,099 --> 00:51:44,769 son, he'll hear a cuss like it's there. You know, if he hears a 957 00:51:44,829 --> 00:51:47,259 cuss word and he said, "Oh, I learned it from a student, you 958 00:51:47,289 --> 00:51:49,839 know, one of the kids I went to school with, he said this word, 959 00:51:50,259 --> 00:51:53,769 and I had to say, "Hey, you you know you're not supposed to be 960 00:51:53,829 --> 00:51:54,669 saying that word, right? 961 00:51:54,910 --> 00:51:55,000 Right. 962 00:51:55,059 --> 00:51:58,089 But if they said, "No, no, no, no, no, you you shouldn't be 963 00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,559 saying it, and it doesn't matter if you heard it, accountability. 964 00:52:03,329 --> 00:52:05,609 Yeah, we went through that, but we weren't exactly the best 965 00:52:05,699 --> 00:52:12,809 models because somebody in the room might have a little bit of 966 00:52:12,869 --> 00:52:15,479 a propensity of not having patience when it comes to 967 00:52:15,509 --> 00:52:20,129 certain things. So it's you know, for example, we came home 968 00:52:20,219 --> 00:52:23,539 from dinner one night, and my my kids were I don't think our 969 00:52:23,689 --> 00:52:26,809 Hallie was born at that point, but oh yeah, she was because I 970 00:52:26,839 --> 00:52:30,859 was I was fixing her crib. But we got home from somewhere, and 971 00:52:30,859 --> 00:52:33,829 the kids were still really small, and my son's running 972 00:52:33,949 --> 00:52:37,099 around, and he tripped on something, and he's maybe I 973 00:52:37,099 --> 00:52:40,989 don't know six years old at the time, maybe five, and he goes, 974 00:52:41,319 --> 00:52:49,809 ah, my wife starts dying laughing, and like she like 975 00:52:50,589 --> 00:52:52,869 really, I'm I have to deal with this now because you're 976 00:52:52,899 --> 00:52:55,449 completely in hysterics. I got to be the fuck you learned that 977 00:52:55,509 --> 00:52:59,019 word, right? And like you know, and we're like, I'm like, you 978 00:52:59,169 -->

00:53:05,129 can't because it's this little voice, you know, and you're 979 00:53:05,159 --> 00:53:12,749 trying to be like you-you cannot say that word, and you know your 980 00:53:12,869 --> 00:53:16,589 wife is freaking cackling in the background, and your son's 981 00:53:16,679 --> 00:53:19,919 looking at you like I'm confused right now because I should be 982 00:53:20,009 --> 00:53:23,959 taking you seriously, but everybody's laughing, and we're 983 00:53:24,049 --> 00:53:27,559 getting him ready for bed. And I bring him upstairs, and all of a 984 00:53:27,649 --> 00:53:31,399 sudden he comes up to me. He's like, "Dad, why can't I say? I'm 985 00:53:31,429 --> 00:53:37,129 like, "Dude, you just did it again. She hears it downstairs 986 00:53:37,519 --> 00:53:43,779 and all over again starts laughing, and I'm like, in my 987 00:53:43,869 --> 00:53:47,589 mind, going, "This is absolutely hilarious right now. But I gotta 988 00:53:47,619 --> 00:53:51,099 be the adult, you know. And then, you know, the next night, 989 00:53:51,549 --> 00:53:55,179 because they had the baby monitor in the our youngest's 990 00:53:55,419 --> 00:54:00,509 room, and I was lowering the the crib, and the person who keeps 991 00:54:00,569 --> 00:54:05,279 on putting freaking hex wrenches and screws into freaking kits? 992 00:54:05,969 --> 00:54:09,899 There's a special place in hell for you because I cannot stand 993 00:54:10,439 --> 00:54:13,739 hex bolts. And you know, here's the cheap little freaking Allen 994 00:54:13,829 --> 00:54:16,649 wrench, and it's like, dude, those things suck. And 995 00:54:16,739 --> 00:54:18,779 especially when you got you're working with machine thread 996 00:54:19,289 --> 00:54:21,409 trying to get the thing started, and you got like a you know the 997 00:54:21,589 --> 00:54:24,469 weight of the mattress and you're trying to you know hand 998 00:54:24,529 --> 00:54:27,109 you're trying to spin like five different plates getting this 999 00:54:27,139 --> 00:54:29,119 little frickin screw in there and keeping this stupid thing oh 1000 00:54:29,299 --> 00:54:32,989 dude don't get me started so naturally I would have a 1001 00:54:33,049 --> 00:54:38,119 meltdown that came through the baby monitor for all to hear 1002 00:54:38,209 --> 00:54:41,499 downstairs and you know my wife's like oh gee I wonder 1003 00:54:41,589 --> 00:54:44,049 where they're hearing all these words from, Jim. You know, I'm 1004 00:54:44,079 --> 00:54:47,049 like, "Dude, we're both guilty. But come on, yeah. I'm like, I 1005 00:54:47,109 --> 00:54:48,639 never swear in front of the kids. Yeah, you do. 1006 00:54:50,409 --> 00:54:55,419 It's, oh yeah. I mean, you're you're just protecting them from 1007 00:54:55,419 --> 00:54:57,159 the outside world. I mean, there's not everybody's going to 1008 00:54:57,159 --> 00:54:59,229 take kindly if you're just throwing the f bomb right 1009 00:54:59,289 --> 00:55:03,989 everywhere and. Yeah, no.

Childhood is that's very 1010 00:55:04,049 --> 00:55:07,409 interesting. I um I do you ever reflect on like how you were 1011 00:55:07,499 --> 00:55:12,209 parented, like and then you oh jeez, I was kind of an asshole. 1012 00:55:12,509 --> 00:55:14,909 Yeah, kind of a a little yeah. See, we 1013 00:55:15,209 --> 00:55:18,029 I don't think we were. I mean, that's my brother and I talk 1014 00:55:18,119 --> 00:55:20,509 about it. Like you know, mom and dad had it pretty good with us, 1015 00:55:21,199 --> 00:55:23,659 and this is how bold we are. You know, maybe we're missing a few 1016 00:55:23,749 --> 00:55:25,879 things, but we don't have our parents to talk to anymore. In 1017 00:55:25,939 --> 00:55:31,489 terms of maybe we're off, but yeah, I mean, we were there were 1018 00:55:31,849 --> 00:55:36,769 dumb, boneheaded things that we've done, but nothing like you 1019 00:55:36,799 --> 00:55:41,559 know police worthy. You know what I mean? I made some stupid 1020 00:55:41,589 --> 00:55:44,769 decisions when I was a kid. We all do, but I don't think ever 1021 00:55:44,829 --> 00:55:47,589 gave him a run for my for that was probably credit to how they 1022 00:55:47,679 --> 00:55:50,019 brought us up. Yeah. So 1023 00:55:50,259 --> 00:55:52,689 were there elements of your childhood that like I guess 1024 00:55:54,129 --> 00:55:57,009 drove you to do what you do today? I mean, like he if he can 1025 00:55:57,099 --> 00:56:00,039 really like go back. I mean, we talked about our fathers and how 1026 00:56:00,159 --> 00:56:03,269 they were great examples, and just accomplishing-not not have 1027 00:56:03,329 --> 00:56:07,019 any excuses. Just you know, like if you want something, you know, 1028 00:56:07,199 --> 00:56:09,959 do it yourself or try to accomplish it, try to figure it 1029 00:56:10,049 --> 00:56:16,259 out. But like you, if you can just take it away from, take it 1030 00:56:16,259 --> 00:56:18,929 to its primal state. Like you know, Jim. Like what what made 1031 00:56:19,169 --> 00:56:24,559 Jim who he is today? I mean, was this? I 1032 00:56:24,620 --> 00:56:25,250 think my father. 1033 00:56:25,670 --> 00:56:26,390 You know, I'm asking. Yeah, 1034 00:56:26,630 --> 00:56:31,670 my father was very. He recognized he recognized a lot 1035 00:56:31,700 --> 00:56:32,450 of himself in me. 1036 00:56:33,799 --> 00:56:33,949 Okay, 1037 00:56:34,519 --> 00:56:42,669 and my brother was a not not not like our our mom, but he was 1038 00:56:42,759 --> 00:56:47,559 there first, and they wanted somebody to go to college 1039 00:56:47,649 --> 00:56:50,619 because that was what they hung their pride on. You know, back 1040 00:56:50,739 --> 00:56:54,219 in that generation, it was kids got to go to college. That's 1041 00:56:54,399 --> 00:56:56,559 just there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You go to 1042 00:56:56,709 --> 00:56:59,649 college, and we want you to be the first one to graduate with a 1043 00:56:59,679 --> 00:57:01,829 degree, and this way, we can be proud of ourselves, and we know 1044 00:57:01,889 --> 00:57:05,159 we did something right. So my brother was that for them. I, on 1045 00:57:05,189 --> 00:57:12,029 the other hand, was the wild card, and I think my dad always 1046 00:57:12,119 --> 00:57:16,049 knew that. You know, for Dan, we have to make sure that he does 1047 00:57:16,139 --> 00:57:19,079 this because I know this is what the structure he needs. Jim, I'm 1048 00:57:19,259 --> 00:57:21,169 not worried about because he's going to figure it out because 1049 00:57:21,229 --> 00:57:24,439 he's like me. That's what I. That's what I found out later on 1050 00:57:24,499 --> 00:57:30,859 in life. But a lot of what we saw, a lot of what was what 1051 00:57:30,979 --> 00:57:34,939 raised us was what was caught versus taught. So seeing Dad 1052 00:57:35,059 --> 00:57:37,939 work all the time, not all the time. He he had a good work life 1053 00:57:38,029 --> 00:57:43,509 balance. He liked to play hard. He liked to work hard. You know, 1054 00:57:43,569 --> 00:57:45,939 we had the toys, we had boats, and all these things. Growing 1055 00:57:46,029 --> 00:57:51,609 up, we had a great childhood. I mean, my dad showed us a lot how 1056 00:57:51,879 --> 00:57:55,659 to do things, and as much as it pains me to say it, my mom 1057 00:57:55,839 --> 00:57:59,229 showed us how not to do things. There, there are people in life. 1058 00:57:59,829 --> 00:58:02,159 There are people in life that I think that we come across that 1059 00:58:02,189 --> 00:58:05,249 will show you, and you know this intrinsically with every fiber 1060 00:58:05,339 --> 00:58:08,099 of your being when it happens to you. How when you're in a 1061 00:58:08,129 --> 00:58:10,829 position like that, I know how to do it and I know how not to 1062 00:58:10,889 --> 00:58:15,959 do it. So my mom was very like. Remember, I said before, my dad 1063 00:58:16,019 --> 00:58:19,229 was like, "You, you, I got to be your dad. My mom had the 1064 00:58:19,409 --> 00:58:23,359 attitude of, "You made me a mom. Everything was inward. Like this 1065 00:58:23,359 --> 00:58:26,209 is what you did for me. You know, a lot of the language that 1066 00:58:26,239 --> 00:58:32,149 she used because I was always the class clown, if you will. Go 1067 00:58:32,269 --> 00:58:32,509 figure. 1068 00:58:32,899 --> 00:58:33,289 I know, right? 1069 00:58:33,559 --> 00:58:40,629 And I heard this one sentiment in the last couple years of her 1070 00:58:40,719 --> 00:58:44,619 life, he was always my entertainment. She would say 1071 00:58:44,709 --> 00:58:47,469 that to her friends, to her new husband. Your mother always says 1072 00:58:47,529 --> 00:58:49,899 that you were her entertainment. Like this is what I did for you. 1073 00:58:50,679 --> 00:58:50,739 Yeah, 1074 00:58:50,920 --> 00:58:53,170 you were always my entertainment. So the language 1075 00:58:53,260 --> 00:58:56,980 was inward.

This is what you did for me. My father, on the other 1076 00:58:57,010 --> 00:59:00,040 hand, was like, this is what I get to do for you. You see what 1077 00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:01,650 I'm saying, so exactly 1078 00:59:01,650 --> 00:59:02,190 what you're saying. My 1079 00:59:02,339 --> 00:59:05,549 father was-he never told us. He would always tell us when we 1080 00:59:05,549 --> 00:59:07,889 were growing up, "I'll never be afraid to hug and kiss you, 1081 00:59:08,009 --> 00:59:11,099 boys, and tell you I love you. And so my brother and I were 1082 00:59:11,189 --> 00:59:14,099 like, "Yeah, of course you're our dad, but that's because that 1083 00:59:14,159 --> 00:59:17,189 was not told to him. He didn't get that experience from his 1084 00:59:17,309 --> 00:59:20,449 father, and he decided to break the cycle with us. I'm getting 1085 00:59:20,539 --> 00:59:23,119 freaking emotional talking about it, but that's that was his 1086 00:59:23,209 --> 00:59:26,119 decision. That's that was the power he had, and that's what he 1087 00:59:26,179 --> 00:59:29,779 did. And that's you know he showed us how to be good, 1088 00:59:29,839 --> 00:59:32,899 productive adults with how he handled himself. He didn't 1089 00:59:32,959 --> 00:59:36,079 always do it right. He wasn't perfect, you know. 1090 00:59:36,770 --> 00:59:38,960 I don't think we're ever really doing it right. I mean, we can 1091 00:59:38,990 --> 00:59:41,890 always criticize ourselves, you know. Right? It's amazing that 1092 00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:45,160 we have that representation and example because we're always 1093 00:59:45,220 --> 00:59:46,750 trying to do better, right? We're always trying to do 1094 00:59:46,750 --> 00:59:49,570 better, and I think, I mean, well, if you're a good person, 1095 00:59:49,870 --> 00:59:50,650 yeah, there's no 1096 00:59:50,739 --> 00:59:53,649 such thing as a good person. I don't think they they exist. I 1097 00:59:53,739 --> 00:59:54,009 believe 1098 00:59:54,219 --> 00:59:58,929 I think you and my I I had four siblings. Well, me and my 1099 00:59:58,989 --> 01:00:04,289 brother were the oldest. Sons and yeah, him and I are so night 1100 01:00:04,319 --> 01:00:09,179 and day. I was, which is kind of like what I get fulfillment of 1101 01:00:09,209 --> 01:00:13,439 my job today, is because I was not an extrovert. I was very 1102 01:00:13,709 --> 01:00:18,239 afraid to talk to people. I didn't know how to do it. I was 1103 01:00:18,389 --> 01:00:24,619 very awkward, and I didn't have a lot of friends either. Like I 1104 01:00:24,679 --> 01:00:28,129 didn't really come out of my shell until I was like in junior 1105 01:00:28,189 --> 01:00:28,249 high. 1106 01:00:28,939 --> 01:00:29,029 Right. 1107 01:00:29,629 --> 01:00:31,489 I started getting a little more confident because that's 1108 01:00:31,489 --> 01:00:31,699 actually 1109 01:00:31,820 --> 01:00:31,970 early. 1110 01:00:32,690 --> 01:00:35,600 Well, I guess. Well, I

started playing music and I started like 1111 01:00:35,630 --> 01:00:38,090 learning how to play guitar and then I got a new, you know, 1112 01:00:38,270 --> 01:00:41,740 group of friends that were shared my interests. But yeah, 1113 01:00:42,010 --> 01:00:45,430 like my brother, um, he was just gosh, you can make anybody 1114 01:00:45,520 --> 01:00:48,520 laugh. He was just yeah, like a clown. Like he just knew how to 1115 01:00:48,910 --> 01:00:49,090 like 1116 01:00:49,450 --> 01:00:50,920 new timing, comedic timing. Yeah, 1117 01:00:51,490 --> 01:00:53,680 people hated. Some people loved it. Some people hated it. But 1118 01:00:53,680 --> 01:00:57,490 like, he was just a clown, and I just felt like, ah, man, if only 1119 01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:00,250 if I had that. I never had that, and I never understood it. But 1120 01:01:00,250 --> 01:01:01,320 that was a talent that he had. 1121 01:01:01,590 --> 01:01:01,650 Yeah, 1122 01:01:01,830 --> 01:01:06,240 he was a great. He was just a just so yeah. He knew 1123 01:01:06,300 --> 01:01:08,850 how to pay, how to check that box. Yeah, he was an 1124 01:01:08,849 --> 01:01:09,239 entertainer. 1125 01:01:09,510 --> 01:01:11,490 And when you measure yourself against that, I did the same 1126 01:01:11,550 --> 01:01:14,310 thing. My brother was a piano player, and because that was his 1127 01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:18,480 identity for a majority of his youth. You know, from elementary 1128 01:01:18,540 --> 01:01:21,110 school, middle school, high school, he was always the the 1129 01:01:21,350 --> 01:01:24,950 keyboard player guy, synthesizers, piano. Yeah, I was 1130 01:01:25,070 --> 01:01:27,170 always envious of that because I always knew I wanted to be a 1131 01:01:27,230 --> 01:01:31,850 drummer since I was probably six years old. And my mom, hey, what 1132 01:01:31,850 --> 01:01:33,470 do you want to play? You want to play an instrument like your 1133 01:01:33,470 --> 01:01:36,530 brother? Yes, I know exactly the instrument. What is it? The 1134 01:01:36,710 --> 01:01:41,290 drums. Oh, they're too loud. And again, inward language being 1135 01:01:41,380 --> 01:01:45,040 deployed on me, I always enjoyed the saxophone. You should play 1136 01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:49,540 the saxophone. I kid you not. I mean, this is this is a 1137 01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:52,270 revelation about the inward language concept I'm talking to 1138 01:01:52,270 --> 01:01:54,460 you about. This was revealed to me in the last couple of years 1139 01:01:54,550 --> 01:01:58,210 at what we were doing with her decline. That a lot of I'm like, 1140 01:01:58,210 --> 01:02:00,870 you know, holy crap! I've I never realized this before, but 1141 01:02:01,530 --> 01:02:04,170 listen to the language she uses. Everything is inward. This is 1142 01:02:04,170 --> 01:02:06,480 what you did for me. I want I want you to play a saxophone 1143 01:02:06,480 --> 01:02:07,410 because I always liked 1144 01:02:08,519 -->

01:02:08,609 it. 1145 01:02:08,640 --> 01:02:13,530 You know what I mean? So yeah, I played the saxophone from I 1146 01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:15,480 don't know fourth grade. That was it. 1147 01:02:15,630 --> 01:02:19,020 Well, I have to I have to admit that I think I am like your 1148 01:02:19,050 --> 01:02:21,560 mother in a lot of ways when it comes to parenting my child, 1149 01:02:21,590 --> 01:02:24,560 because there are things that we bond over, we bond over, we bond 1150 01:02:24,590 --> 01:02:27,890 over music and bond over things. I mean, I'm a musician, and I've 1151 01:02:28,100 --> 01:02:31,070 thought about getting him into like you know, try the drums, 1152 01:02:31,130 --> 01:02:33,920 try the guitar. You know, like it'll, I'll enjoy it because 1153 01:02:34,010 --> 01:02:37,730 it's the a bond, a new bond I'll have with you. So I have to 1154 01:02:37,790 --> 01:02:39,800 check myself every now and then because I do. I I 1155 01:02:40,729 --> 01:02:42,189 as long as you don't force it on, 1156 01:02:42,910 --> 01:02:43,570 yeah. If there's 1157 01:02:43,630 --> 01:02:48,610 if there's an intrinsic, my son was always musical, and because 1158 01:02:48,730 --> 01:02:51,190 dad played the drums, he wanted to play the drums, and then at 1159 01:02:51,250 --> 01:02:54,430 some point he got it in his head that well, you just want me to 1160 01:02:54,490 --> 01:02:57,010 play the drums because you play the drums, yeah. And I said, 1161 01:02:57,070 --> 01:02:59,890 nobody, that's not it at all. I'm telling you right now, I'm 1162 01:02:59,920 --> 01:03:02,550 not forcing you to do it. I'm making you do it through middle 1163 01:03:02,610 --> 01:03:05,730 school and be part of band because you are fantastic at 1164 01:03:05,820 --> 01:03:09,240 this. I see this talent in you. Your mother sees it. Your uncle 1165 01:03:09,330 --> 01:03:13,140 sees it. Your your siblings see it. You're the only one who 1166 01:03:13,230 --> 01:03:16,620 doesn't. You're the only one in the band that's dancing. You're 1167 01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:19,020 the only one in the band that takes that. That's on the drum 1168 01:03:19,140 --> 01:03:24,020 set. You're the one driving the band, buddy. That's all right. 1169 01:03:24,830 --> 01:03:26,810 You, he could have gone into high school, been part of the 1170 01:03:26,870 --> 01:03:30,020 drum line without an audition. That was offered to him, and he 1171 01:03:30,020 --> 01:03:35,000 was like, "Nope, because you want me to do it, right? Okay. I 1172 01:03:35,060 --> 01:03:37,430 mean, literally, I'm not going to force you to do it. 1173 01:03:37,880 --> 01:03:37,940 Yeah. 1174 01:03:38,149 --> 01:03:40,389 Our agreement was through middle school. I figured by the end of 1175 01:03:40,509 --> 01:03:42,549 middle school, you'd be you'd kind of have a knack for it, but 1176 01:03:42,549 --> 01:03:46,689 if you want to be that stubborn about it, fine. That's not my 1177 01:03:46,779

--> 01:03:49,569 cross to bear; that's yours, and you're gonna have to learn that 1178 01:03:49,599 --> 01:03:52,689 at some point. And I hope that you know it'll never be too late 1179 01:03:52,719 --> 01:03:56,139 for you to pick it up again. But imagine all the time that was 1180 01:03:56,259 --> 01:03:58,719 lost. How much further you could be if you just stuck with it? 1181 01:03:58,779 --> 01:04:02,519 You know, he he tried piano, dude. We got him a piano for for 1182 01:04:02,639 --> 01:04:07,799 Christmas, and my my brother is a piano player. Christmas Day, 1183 01:04:07,979 --> 01:04:09,779 he was playing it like somebody's been playing it for 1184 01:04:09,809 --> 01:04:10,289 nine months. 1185 01:04:10,590 --> 01:04:10,650 Yeah, 1186 01:04:11,309 --> 01:04:14,939 just instant gravitation towards it. I film it, send it to my 1187 01:04:15,029 --> 01:04:17,489 brother. I'm like, check this out. He's never played before. 1188 01:04:18,269 --> 01:04:20,959 Look at him. My brother's like, oh my gosh, he needs to keep. He 1189 01:04:21,049 --> 01:04:22,639 says, "Don't force it on him. I said, "No, I'm not going to 1190 01:04:22,639 --> 01:04:25,159 force it. Yeah. But every time we told him, "My gosh, buddy, 1191 01:04:25,219 --> 01:04:27,109 you're really good at yeah, you think so? Yeah, you're amazing. 1192 01:04:27,169 --> 01:04:31,759 Okay, I'm going to stop. Okay, don't do it because I'm telling 1193 01:04:31,849 --> 01:04:34,609 you, dude. That's so. That was like the frustrating thing that 1194 01:04:34,639 --> 01:04:36,349 as a parent, you got to realize that. All right. 1195 01:04:37,940 --> 01:04:39,920 Do things become? I mean, in your experience, I mean, do 1196 01:04:39,980 --> 01:04:41,440 things become calloused or 1197 01:04:42,099 --> 01:04:42,159 no 1198 01:04:43,390 --> 01:04:43,810 mundane. 1199 01:04:43,960 --> 01:04:50,380 You have that choice to make. So again, my kids. I am also hyper 1200 01:04:50,470 --> 01:04:53,290 aware of what my kids see. I know they see me lose my 1201 01:04:53,410 --> 01:04:56,770 patience and my temper. I completely get that. But guess 1202 01:04:56,980 --> 01:05:01,080 what? Also, they get to see. They get I. They have seen me 1203 01:05:01,260 --> 01:05:08,190 apologize more than I care to admit. I apologize. I'm sorry. 1204 01:05:08,310 --> 01:05:10,200 You shouldn't. You shouldn't have to see your dad do that. 1205 01:05:10,530 --> 01:05:15,030 That's not fair to you. No, Dad. It's okay. No, it's not. I need 1206 01:05:15,060 --> 01:05:15,510 to be better. 1207 01:05:15,630 --> 01:05:16,650 Being reactive. Yeah. 1208 01:05:17,160 --> 01:05:19,950 I need to be better about this, and I'm working on it. I thank 1209 01:05:20,010 --> 01:05:21,710 you for your patience, and I thank you for your 1210 01:05:21,740 --> 01:05:24,680 understanding. But I want you to know that I'm apologizing to 1211 01:05:24,740 --> 01:05:26,510 you. They need to see that. 1212

01:05:27,169 --> 01:05:27,229 Yeah, 1213 01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:27,950 you know. 1214 01:05:28,429 --> 01:05:28,489 Yeah, 1215 01:05:29,749 --> 01:05:32,269 that's a big thing because a lot of parents are like, "Well, this 1216 01:05:32,269 --> 01:05:36,199 is my way, and this is how it's done, and blah blah. Okay, good 1217 01:05:36,259 --> 01:05:36,409 luck. 1218 01:05:38,090 --> 01:05:38,120 Oh, 1219 01:05:38,629 --> 01:05:39,919 you got to read the room sometimes. 1220 01:05:40,819 --> 01:05:44,229 Yeah, I mean, you're the you're you're the only person that can 1221 01:05:44,259 --> 01:05:47,169 really show them how to do that too. If you don't show them, 1222 01:05:47,259 --> 01:05:49,179 somebody else will, and they probably won't like it. 1223 01:05:49,299 --> 01:05:52,089 They're gonna see their father. I know three things right off 1224 01:05:52,179 --> 01:05:54,429 the top of my head that they're gonna see their dad do. Yeah, 1225 01:05:54,609 --> 01:05:57,249 see him work really hard for the family. They're gonna see him 1226 01:05:57,699 --> 01:06:01,229 love their mom, and they're gonna see him own up to when he 1227 01:06:01,259 --> 01:06:04,949 makes a mistake, and he'll be there to teach you if you're 1228 01:06:04,979 --> 01:06:07,529 willing to learn. Because I mean, you know, when the student 1229 01:06:07,529 --> 01:06:10,769 is ready, the teacher shall appear. That's a big thing that 1230 01:06:10,769 --> 01:06:12,899 you got to keep in mind as a parent. It could be frustrating, 1231 01:06:13,799 --> 01:06:16,109 but eventually, you know, we're all going to have that day where 1232 01:06:16,619 --> 01:06:19,919 our kids come to us. I need help. 1233 01:06:20,189 --> 01:06:20,239 Yeah, 1234 01:06:20,839 --> 01:06:23,929 I need your help. We've all done it. We've all realized our 1235 01:06:23,959 --> 01:06:29,779 parents might actually have some value. That's a natural order of 1236 01:06:29,869 --> 01:06:30,139 things. 1237 01:06:31,219 --> 01:06:33,529 Jim, I don't want to call this like imposter syndrome, but like 1238 01:06:33,619 --> 01:06:36,559 I'm gonna. Oh, sorry, I went a whole different direction there. 1239 01:06:36,649 --> 01:06:40,629 That's good. No, I mean, I don't know if you ever feel this way? 1240 01:06:40,689 --> 01:06:43,089 But like, there are times where I'm just like, oh my, I can't 1241 01:06:43,149 --> 01:06:45,819 believe I'm doing this. I didn't think that this was even 1242 01:06:46,299 --> 01:06:52,659 possible for me. I really set my expectations low because I was 1243 01:06:52,749 --> 01:06:56,109 not the smartest. I was not the social. I was. I wasn't really 1244 01:06:56,139 --> 01:06:59,319 that social. Didn't have a lot of friends. I struggled 1245 01:06:59,409 --> 01:07:06,119 academically. I struggled a lot, and I I gave up on myself a long 1246 01:07:07,199 --> 01:07:10,079 time ago. I get it. Yeah, I thought, okay, well, if I don't 1247 01:07:10,139 --> 01:07:13,469 make it in music, if I don't become a you know rock star, 1248 01:07:13,709 --> 01:07:17,699 then I'm screwed. I'm gonna have to find a gonna gonna flip 1249 01:07:17,729 --> 01:07:19,139 burgers probably. Well, 1250 01:07:20,160 --> 01:07:23,720 there's a there's a notion out there that I've heard from a lot 1251 01:07:23,720 --> 01:07:25,100 of different gurus. No offense to anybody who flips 1252 01:07:25,190 --> 01:07:26,000 burgers for a little sorry, 1253 01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:28,910 you know thought leaders and stuff like that that use this. 1254 01:07:29,180 --> 01:07:35,420 You are the best person for who you were. So the people that are 1255 01:07:35,570 --> 01:07:38,390 listening to this, or people you come across that are that it's a 1256 01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:42,400 common thing to have imposter syndrome or feeling like you're 1257 01:07:42,430 --> 01:07:45,220 not doing enough, or you should be in a certain place. 1258 01:07:46,090 --> 01:07:52,330 Comparison is a thief of joy, and also, I like 1259 01:07:52,420 --> 01:07:53,680 that. Comparison is a thief of joy. 1260 01:07:54,010 --> 01:07:54,100 It 1261 01:07:54,490 --> 01:07:55,510 is. I've never heard that before. 1262 01:07:55,990 --> 01:08:01,650 I would compare my my my spot in life to where my dad, like what 1263 01:08:01,680 --> 01:08:05,910 came at 50 years old, dad was here. I'm 50 years old. My not 1264 01:08:05,970 --> 01:08:10,350 my age right now. When he was 51, he was back in the trenches. 1265 01:08:10,650 --> 01:08:16,710 He was back in a truck. We had a big recession that hit our part 1266 01:08:16,710 --> 01:08:20,070 of the country pretty hard in the early 90s. It was it was 1267 01:08:20,160 --> 01:08:23,390 very devastating. I mean, we we went from probably a 1516, 1268 01:08:23,960 --> 01:08:26,990 employee business down to just my dad within a matter of 1269 01:08:27,050 --> 01:08:31,580 months. Because I mean, money just got the flow of money got 1270 01:08:31,700 --> 01:08:34,310 turned off. And being in the phone business, we're not a 1271 01:08:35,390 --> 01:08:38,630 we're in need, but we don't we don't we don't need to upgrade 1272 01:08:38,720 --> 01:08:39,350 the phone system now. 1273 01:08:40,940 --> 01:08:41,230 We don't have 1274 01:08:41,290 --> 01:08:44,110 the money. We could make these work, so we had maintenance 1275 01:08:44,170 --> 01:08:47,140 contracts and things of that nature that would help feed. But 1276 01:08:47,140 --> 01:08:50,500 the new portion and the new system sales were off, just 1277 01:08:50,620 --> 01:08:55,750 non-existent. So my my dad had to get back in a truck and climb 1278 01:08:55,810 --> 01:08:58,330 ladders again after you know building a business that was 1279 01:08:58,420 --> 01:09:00,570 kind of running itself, which is the dream of all business 1280 01:09:00,690 --> 01:09:05,280 owners, yeah, and you know, for a majority of the early '90s, he 1281

01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:13,200 was back to doing grunt work, and I'm not there, so I look at 1282 01:09:13,260 --> 01:09:16,470 that and I knock on wood. Am I willing to do it? Of course, but 1283 01:09:16,920 --> 01:09:20,540 I used to compare. Well, Dad, at his late 40s, was at least doing 1284 01:09:20,660 --> 01:09:22,670 this, they were taking vacations, and I I can't even 1285 01:09:22,670 --> 01:09:26,360 afford that, so I would do that a lot to myself. But confidence 1286 01:09:26,420 --> 01:09:29,120 is a memory of success, and a lot of what you're talking 1287 01:09:29,150 --> 01:09:31,550 about, your brother being funny, 1288 01:09:31,880 --> 01:09:32,090 yeah, it 1289 01:09:32,150 --> 01:09:35,240 was an identity. You being a guitar player, bass player, 1290 01:09:35,480 --> 01:09:38,960 musician was an identity, and if you don't have identity early 1291 01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:39,830 on, that's tough, 1292 01:09:40,280 --> 01:09:40,340 yeah, 1293 01:09:40,910 --> 01:09:44,980 because my identity was wrapped up in you know before I played 1294 01:09:45,040 --> 01:09:51,070 the drums it was RC cars and not exactly a hit with girls, but as 1295 01:09:51,100 --> 01:09:54,580 soon as I started playing the drums, I knew I was the fricking 1296 01:09:54,670 --> 01:10:00,900 man because it was so it was such a natural thing for me. I 1297 01:10:00,990 --> 01:10:04,530 just knew how to play, and as soon as I put myself out there 1298 01:10:04,560 --> 01:10:06,030 and playing with other people and getting into those 1299 01:10:06,090 --> 01:10:08,790 communities, and then doing it in school, and then all of a 1300 01:10:08,880 --> 01:10:11,790 sudden, these people that never talked to you before see what 1301 01:10:11,850 --> 01:10:14,070 you can do, and they're like, "Oh, wow, you're really 1302 01:10:14,190 --> 01:10:18,270 talented. And I became the drummer in high school, the one 1303 01:10:18,330 --> 01:10:18,390 guy 1304 01:10:19,020 --> 01:10:19,890 became your hyper focus. 1305 01:10:20,490 --> 01:10:23,090 It became my focus. It became my identity. It was a great 1306 01:10:23,150 --> 01:10:26,780 identity to have until it played out, and then I, you know, got 1307 01:10:26,840 --> 01:10:29,330 out of high school, went to college, lost my identity 1308 01:10:29,420 --> 01:10:33,440 because I wasn't having any successes, and eventually, you 1309 01:10:33,470 --> 01:10:37,730 know, my father brought me into his business, and he ended up 1310 01:10:37,790 --> 01:10:40,960 retiring. I learned it, learned the electrical trade, learn, you 1311 01:10:40,990 --> 01:10:44,710 know, wasn't me, but again, identity revealed itself once I 1312 01:10:44,740 --> 01:10:48,130 got in the radio because this is me. I knew I'm in my element, 1313 01:10:49,000 --> 01:10:52,750 and a lot of life is that. A lot of people go through feeling 1314 01:10:52,900 --> 01:10:55,420 less than because they're not doing what they're meant to do. 1315 01:10:56,560 --> 01:11:00,490 I think a lot of white collar people that took the beaten path 1316 01:11:00,670 --> 01:11:02,250 to college. Well, this is what you're supposed to do. 1317 01:11:03,180 --> 01:11:03,600 This is what you 1318 01:11:03,660 --> 01:11:07,410 want to do. No, that's why a lot of people around the age of 40 1319 01:11:07,590 --> 01:11:11,220 have these crises moments. You'll find. How old are you? If 1320 01:11:11,250 --> 01:11:11,850 you don't mind me asking. 1321 01:11:12,510 --> 01:11:14,250 How? Whoa, turning 35. 1322 01:11:14,490 --> 01:11:14,610 Okay. 1323 01:11:14,850 --> 01:11:14,910 Yeah. 1324 01:11:15,780 --> 01:11:18,660 So you're entering the age. You, but I think you're satisfied. 1325 01:11:18,720 --> 01:11:19,050 I'm too young 1326 01:11:19,110 --> 01:11:20,160 to not remember my age. 1327 01:11:21,300 --> 01:11:24,050 I think you're satisfied in knowing this. You feel like 1328 01:11:24,110 --> 01:11:25,400 you're in your element doing what you're doing. 1329 01:11:25,820 --> 01:11:25,880 Yeah, 1330 01:11:26,330 --> 01:11:29,660 you feel like this satisfies me. I've got to. I'm confident about 1331 01:11:29,660 --> 01:11:32,360 it because I've been successful at it. That that ties into all 1332 01:11:32,390 --> 01:11:35,060 these different things. But a lot of people who got out of 1333 01:11:35,120 --> 01:11:38,960 college in their early 20s, don't forget, dude. 20 to 40 1334 01:11:39,230 --> 01:11:43,840 sucks. It's the summer of your life. You've got. I've got to 1335 01:11:43,930 --> 01:11:47,680 find a career. I've got to find a spouse. I've got to meet all 1336 01:11:47,710 --> 01:11:50,260 these expectations. I've got peer pressure. I got to make 1337 01:11:50,350 --> 01:11:53,500 sure I'm making financial decisions. I got to buy a house. 1338 01:11:53,830 --> 01:11:56,770 I got to have kids. I got to figure out how to be a dad. I 1339 01:11:56,920 --> 01:11:59,650 got to figure out my kids. I got to figure out how to be a dude. 1340 01:11:59,830 --> 01:12:05,520 Oh my gosh, we never realize that we never freaking put two 1341 01:12:05,610 --> 01:12:11,340 and two together and realize 20 to 40 can really suck. Okay, 1342 01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:14,970 until somebody like me comes along and points out it's okay, 1343 01:12:16,380 --> 01:12:19,050 it's gonna suck. But as long as you're aware of it, it'll 1344 01:12:19,050 --> 01:12:19,680 probably suck less. 1345 01:12:20,280 --> 01:12:20,330 Yeah, 1346 01:12:20,660 --> 01:12:22,820 you know what I mean. Oh yeah, and then eventually you just 1347 01:12:22,850 --> 01:12:26,600 kind of-that's why a lot of people get to like 37 to 43, and 1348 01:12:26,600 --> 01:12:30,350 they have a big shift in revel. This is not what I want to do. I 1349 01:12:30,350 --> 01:12:33,470 don't want to be a CPA. What the hell am I doing? I'd rather do 1350 01:12:33,650 --> 01:12:37,310 woodwork. I'm going to go work with

my hands. That's why you 1351 01:12:37,370 --> 01:12:40,070 see a lot of people doing that point in their life. They switch 1352 01:12:40,190 --> 01:12:44,320 seasons. I see it all the time. Happened to me. 1353 01:12:45,430 --> 01:12:48,010 I think it still. I think it still happens. Yeah. There are 1354 01:12:48,070 --> 01:12:50,440 days where I feel like, oh god, I don't want to do this anymore. 1355 01:12:50,500 --> 01:12:53,800 But then I get a phone call, and then I'm like, oh my god, I I 1356 01:12:53,980 --> 01:12:56,920 just bailed that guy out. I I provided a solution for that 1357 01:12:56,980 --> 01:12:59,890 guy. Right. My spirits are right back up. I mean, it's just it's 1358 01:12:59,890 --> 01:13:02,070 such a roller coaster, and that's sales too. I mean, it's 1359 01:13:02,130 --> 01:13:05,580 just like ups and downs. It's like a toxic girlfriend. It 1360 01:13:05,700 --> 01:13:07,800 really is. I mean, it can be, and you're still 1361 01:13:07,980 --> 01:13:10,020 early in the game. You're only four years into doing this. 1362 01:13:10,560 --> 01:13:13,020 Yeah, well, in the industry for like 10 years, but this is my 1363 01:13:13,230 --> 01:13:17,700 like four years in like outside sales, and people have told me 1364 01:13:18,060 --> 01:13:21,320 that oh man, this is it's not it's not wining and dining. It's 1365 01:13:21,380 --> 01:13:25,820 not going out to football games or doing dinners, happy hour. 1366 01:13:26,030 --> 01:13:29,060 Like that's not what it is. Because people, in my 1367 01:13:29,120 --> 01:13:31,040 experience, they'll gladly take a free lunch. 1368 01:13:31,490 --> 01:13:31,610 They'll 1369 01:13:31,760 --> 01:13:34,400 they'll take a free dinner. They'll they'll take a free 1370 01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:37,880 whatever. But that does not guarantee you a sale. You have 1371 01:13:37,910 --> 01:13:40,400 to make sure that you're persistent on that. 1372 01:13:40,850 --> 01:13:41,140 Right. You 1373 01:13:41,140 --> 01:13:45,100 have to you you have to justify that money that's being put 1374 01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:50,140 towards, yeah. Oh yeah, whatever schmoozing you you you're what 1375 01:13:50,170 --> 01:13:50,350 you do. 1376 01:13:50,530 --> 01:13:52,840 It's got to be cost justified. Yeah, absolutely. 1377 01:13:53,380 --> 01:13:53,470 And 1378 01:13:54,160 --> 01:13:56,320 it's got to turn into some sort of business at the end of the 1379 01:13:56,320 --> 01:13:56,380 day. 1380 01:13:57,130 --> 01:14:01,830 Yeah, that's somebody told me that, which is I've I've worked 1381 01:14:01,830 --> 01:14:05,010 for so many distributors, and yeah, I mean, I I heard a lot of 1382 01:14:05,250 --> 01:14:08,370 stories, a lot of uh, yeah, I mean, they said that yeah, this 1383 01:14:08,490 --> 01:14:13,500 it's this is not the reality, and I am, yeah, I can see it 1384 01:14:13,500 --> 01:14:19,050 now. I I definitely see it because yeah, you can go after 1385 01:14:19,080 --> 01:14:23,750 that big fish, and you can eat for a long time, but man, when 1386 01:14:23,780 --> 01:14:26,900 they that fish is done, then it's like you have to start all 1387 01:14:26,990 --> 01:14:27,350 over. Oh yeah, 1388 01:14:27,860 --> 01:14:31,640 00 to zero. Car business was the same way. Yeah, I mean, you 1389 01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:34,550 always try to get 15 to 20 cars sold a month, which is probably 1390 01:14:34,610 --> 01:14:37,670 at this point low. But at the Mercedes dealer, that was a good 1391 01:14:37,880 --> 01:14:39,680 paycheck. That was a great paycheck. 1392 01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:44,980 It's kind of like a hunter and a gatherer. I mean, like where I 1393 01:14:45,130 --> 01:14:47,890 still don't know where I am in that spectrum, but I mean, like, 1394 01:14:47,920 --> 01:14:51,550 yeah. Do you want to gather and then you know just live 1395 01:14:51,700 --> 01:14:54,400 comfortable, or do you want to hunt? And 1396 01:14:54,910 --> 01:14:57,460 have you run across people that are in their 40s and 50s that 1397 01:14:57,700 --> 01:15:00,960 you know constantly have business coming their way? And 1398 01:15:00,990 --> 01:15:03,810 it's like, man, how do you get to that position where they're 1399 01:15:03,870 --> 01:15:04,620 constant? Not until I 1400 01:15:04,680 --> 01:15:05,130 came around. 1401 01:15:05,880 --> 01:15:08,100 But I mean, that's a lot of that, you know. Because in the 1402 01:15:08,190 --> 01:15:11,730 car business, I ran into people that had committed to it like it 1403 01:15:11,730 --> 01:15:16,290 was a career. And every business owner I've had on this podcast, 1404 01:15:16,290 --> 01:15:20,750 there's about a five year runway time of when you realize you've 1405 01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:24,410 got some, okay, am I getting traction in this, or is it time 1406 01:15:24,440 --> 01:15:29,570 to bail? You're four years into doing essentially what amounts 1407 01:15:29,630 --> 01:15:31,490 to starting your own business. When you're in sales, you're in 1408 01:15:31,520 --> 01:15:31,940 your own business, 1409 01:15:31,940 --> 01:15:33,410 100% 1410 01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:37,010 right, 100% You're the face of it. People need to trust you 1411 01:15:37,100 --> 01:15:40,250 that you're gonna, you know, not only with your like working for 1412 01:15:40,580 --> 01:15:44,380 Mercedes the way I did, I knew I had I could have confidence in 1413 01:15:44,860 --> 01:15:48,610 our in our shop that no matter what car went through our shop, 1414 01:15:48,730 --> 01:15:52,390 that it would be a really good car for our pre-owned offerings, 1415 01:15:52,780 --> 01:15:58,780 certified or otherwise, because our shop was just they took it 1416 01:15:58,810 --> 01:16:02,310 seriously. The guys in that in the in the in the bays were just 1417 01:16:04,110 --> 01:16:10,140 there was just like lightning in a bottle until it wasn't. But as 1418 01:16:10,170 --> 01:16:13,350 a salesperson, I had

confidence in everything I sold. Not so 1419 01:16:13,410 --> 01:16:15,720 much at the Honda dealer there where I started because like 1420 01:16:15,900 --> 01:16:19,080 yeah, let's just put it out. Yeah, but did you change the 1421 01:16:19,080 --> 01:16:23,810 oil? No, no, not yeah. We gotta. I gotta deal with the freaking 1422 01:16:23,870 --> 01:16:29,120 headache of this if it blows up. Okay, you know what do we do 1423 01:16:29,300 --> 01:16:31,580 here? Do we make sure we make sure it's safe? Okay, what does 1424 01:16:31,580 --> 01:16:33,980 that mean? Well, the turn signals work, the brake lights 1425 01:16:34,070 --> 01:16:37,790 work, you know, the brakes work. What else you need? That the 1426 01:16:37,910 --> 01:16:40,480 engine's not gonna fricking catch on fire. Yeah, you know 1427 01:16:40,480 --> 01:16:44,170 what I mean? At Mercedes, it was a different. You felt confident 1428 01:16:44,200 --> 01:16:46,690 as a salesperson. That that's a huge part of it. You know, 1429 01:16:47,200 --> 01:16:51,760 because that your integrity and your reputation is only as good 1430 01:16:51,850 --> 01:16:52,780 as what's backing you up. 1431 01:16:53,890 --> 01:16:53,980 Yep. 1432 01:16:54,070 --> 01:16:54,400 You know what I mean? 1433 01:16:54,700 --> 01:16:58,360 Oh yeah. Would you encourage the younger generation to sell cars 1434 01:16:58,420 --> 01:17:00,370 these days? Oh, absolutely. Really? I 1435 01:17:00,430 --> 01:17:03,300 told my kids that I said if if all else fails and you need 1436 01:17:03,360 --> 01:17:07,530 something to do, go wait tables, go oh yeah sell cars, go go sell 1437 01:17:07,650 --> 01:17:11,550 something. Okay, go my my daughter. You know again, 1438 01:17:12,240 --> 01:17:15,150 confidence being the memory of success. She had a rough go of 1439 01:17:15,210 --> 01:17:18,120 it the first two years of college. Came home this past 1440 01:17:18,180 --> 01:17:22,100 summer, got herself a job at a new restaurant in Cool Springs, 1441 01:17:22,910 --> 01:17:28,460 and they love her, absolutely adore her, and she's always the 1442 01:17:28,640 --> 01:17:31,670 front person taking the orders. She always got a big old smile 1443 01:17:31,760 --> 01:17:37,580 on her face. I'm like, Kim, hate to tell you this, but you're a 1444 01:17:37,700 --> 01:17:41,200 salesperson because you're good at this, 1445 01:17:41,860 --> 01:17:45,520 yeah. I still just can't. I can't get over that word. Well, 1446 01:17:46,750 --> 01:17:50,110 I guess we. It's okay. I just don't like the word sales. Like 1447 01:17:50,200 --> 01:17:53,830 it's just embrace it. I know. I guess I could 1448 01:17:55,720 --> 01:17:58,150 embrace it. You might as well. That's what it is. 1449 01:17:58,449 --> 01:17:59,199 Sounds villainish. 1450 01:18:00,130 --> 01:18:02,700 No, it's just you know, as long if you're you're getting people 1451 01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:06,240 to buy things that they don't need or want. Yeah, yeah, okay, 1452 01:18:06,420 --> 01:18:09,210 yeah, that's a good point. If you're helping them, you know, 1453 01:18:09,420 --> 01:18:12,780 somebody coming to a car lot and and wanting to buy a car, look, 1454 01:18:12,900 --> 01:18:16,080 you're here for a reason. Okay, my job is to try and figure out 1455 01:18:16,200 --> 01:18:18,840 what's the best option for you and explain all the things to 1456 01:18:18,870 --> 01:18:21,830 the best of my ability, and make sure that everything looks good 1457 01:18:21,860 --> 01:18:25,880 and it's copacetic for your finances, and that's it. But 1458 01:18:25,880 --> 01:18:28,820 again, you know, it depends on the institution you're working 1459 01:18:28,910 --> 01:18:31,880 for. When I worked for Mercedes at that particular point in time 1460 01:18:31,940 --> 01:18:38,480 in Cool Springs, it was a we didn't dare I say we had a term 1461 01:18:38,540 --> 01:18:40,930 in the in the business called jicky jacking, and that was 1462 01:18:40,990 --> 01:18:44,560 basically, you know, jicky jacking. So basically, trying to 1463 01:18:45,100 --> 01:18:47,410 finagle the customer into something that you know, and 1464 01:18:47,470 --> 01:18:49,300 tell them whatever they needed to hear in order to get the 1465 01:18:49,420 --> 01:18:50,590 sale. Well, that's not what we did. 1466 01:18:50,890 --> 01:18:51,010 Okay, 1467 01:18:51,460 --> 01:18:54,460 we were a gentleman's floor. We honored and respected each 1468 01:18:54,610 --> 01:18:57,070 other. We didn't try to snake deals from one another. We 1469 01:18:57,160 --> 01:18:59,470 always tried to go above and beyond to help each other out if 1470 01:18:59,500 --> 01:19:01,590 we needed something. It was a good culture for a minute, 1471 01:19:02,250 --> 01:19:02,340 and 1472 01:19:02,340 --> 01:19:04,170 then all of a sudden it just kind of went the crap. But 1473 01:19:04,170 --> 01:19:08,880 that's a whole nother story. But when we sold cars, it was I 1474 01:19:09,060 --> 01:19:11,670 wasn't going to tell you everything. I learned my own 1475 01:19:11,820 --> 01:19:15,210 voice in that situation that I could put my head on a pillow at 1476 01:19:15,270 --> 01:19:17,820 night and be and be good. That's what that's what mattered to me 1477 01:19:18,300 --> 01:19:21,680 because I've heard some doozies from other salespeople. Oh yeah, 1478 01:19:21,830 --> 01:19:23,600 you could totally get the incentivized rate, and I'd be 1479 01:19:23,660 --> 01:19:27,020 like, dude, I even know that you shouldn't be telling them that. 1480 01:19:27,140 --> 01:19:31,310 Did you pull damn credit yet? Well, we want the incentivized 1481 01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:33,560 rate. Okay, do you want to go ahead and start a credit app 1482 01:19:33,650 --> 01:19:36,650 right now? This way, we can see where you you you you size up, 1483 01:19:37,610 --> 01:19:39,440 and I can tell you it's a possibility. I'm not going to 1484 01:19:39,470 --> 01:19:41,950 tell

you you're going to get the incentivized rate, because 1485 01:19:41,980 --> 01:19:44,020 that's up to the bank. That's up not up to me. 1486 01:19:44,650 --> 01:19:44,710 Yeah. 1487 01:19:45,070 --> 01:19:47,290 So those were the different word tracks I would use. That I'd be 1488 01:19:47,350 --> 01:19:49,720 like, that was honest. You know, 1489 01:19:49,900 --> 01:19:50,320 integrity. 1490 01:19:50,470 --> 01:19:53,290 Integrity. That I was being honest. That's how it how it 1491 01:19:53,620 --> 01:19:56,050 works, and that's what earned me a lot of sales. Is because I 1492 01:19:56,080 --> 01:19:58,570 would just simply shoot from the hip, say things that they 1493 01:19:58,660 --> 01:20:01,860 weren't expecting. Well, you know, you add points to the 1494 01:20:01,950 --> 01:20:03,270 financing, and yeah, do we do? 1495 01:20:04,350 --> 01:20:04,410 Yeah, 1496 01:20:04,650 --> 01:20:08,730 we do. Well, can why can't I? You can you can go to the bank 1497 01:20:08,760 --> 01:20:11,190 and get a buy rate yourself, but dude, this is a profit center 1498 01:20:11,250 --> 01:20:13,410 for us. This is how we how part of how we make money. 1499 01:20:14,100 --> 01:20:14,160 Yeah, 1500 01:20:14,520 --> 01:20:17,220 and they'd be like, oh, yeah, we're a business. We're not a 1501 01:20:17,280 --> 01:20:19,320 nonprofit. You know, 1502 01:20:20,070 --> 01:20:21,860 you you bring up a really good point. I mean, like um, yeah, 1503 01:20:22,190 --> 01:20:25,640 maybe that's why I get the ick from the word sales is because 1504 01:20:25,700 --> 01:20:28,940 yeah, it seems like I'm selling some people a product or 1505 01:20:29,150 --> 01:20:33,140 something that they don't need. Right. But and I think in a way 1506 01:20:33,350 --> 01:20:38,120 I feel like it's a it's a and it's a disservice to what I do 1507 01:20:38,210 --> 01:20:41,020 on a daily basis. Like I'm not just selling product. I'm 1508 01:20:41,380 --> 01:20:47,530 managing. I'm managing, managing emotions, finding the right 1509 01:20:47,590 --> 01:20:52,750 solutions, whether it's rebates or bottom dollar partnerships of 1510 01:20:53,110 --> 01:20:55,960 products that make sense for their job applications. I mean, 1511 01:20:56,020 --> 01:20:59,260 like the list goes on, and it just it's a big thing. And then 1512 01:20:59,500 --> 01:21:02,550 you got to chase money. You got to chase money. Sometimes people 1513 01:21:02,610 --> 01:21:08,280 are not. They can. It could be smoke and mirrors. Oh yeah. In 1514 01:21:08,340 --> 01:21:12,510 my experience, I've seen customers or clients that are 1515 01:21:12,720 --> 01:21:17,610 just look like they hung the moon, and then you put all your 1516 01:21:17,640 --> 01:21:21,890 eggs in one basket, and you're just you're left. I'm speaking 1517 01:21:21,890 --> 01:21:23,540 from experience. Yeah, you got this kind of just start all 1518 01:21:23,630 --> 01:21:25,790 over. But it was good. It's good. I mean, and guess who did 1519 01:21:25,790 --> 01:21:25,820 the 1520 01:21:25,970 --> 01:21:28,940 selling in that situation? Ever think about it that way? 1521 01:21:29,480 --> 01:21:30,560 Who did the selling in the situation? 1522 01:21:30,710 --> 01:21:33,200 Yeah, somebody they think hung the moon and they look great on 1523 01:21:33,260 --> 01:21:35,510 paper, and all of a sudden they can't pay the bill. You got 1524 01:21:35,570 --> 01:21:40,130 sold. We're in a world of you're a seller be sold. This is the 1525 01:21:40,160 --> 01:21:43,060 world in which we live-it's a sell or be sold world. You're 1526 01:21:43,090 --> 01:21:44,980 either doing the selling or you're being sold. Yeah, that's 1527 01:21:45,040 --> 01:21:50,650 true. To try and apply other terminology to what it is that 1528 01:21:50,740 --> 01:21:54,220 you do is being intellectually honest. Think about it that way. 1529 01:21:54,580 --> 01:21:56,500 You're a salesperson, man. That's what it is. You're either 1530 01:21:56,560 --> 01:22:00,220 a good one or an intellectual, honest one. Yeah, one that you 1531 01:22:00,250 --> 01:22:04,200 know people will send other. The biggest thing, if you know 1532 01:22:04,290 --> 01:22:06,600 you're a good salespeople, salesperson, is if your 1533 01:22:06,630 --> 01:22:09,870 customers send other people. You know, you're doing it right when 1534 01:22:09,900 --> 01:22:13,230 that happens. They give you referrals because they trust 1535 01:22:13,290 --> 01:22:13,350 you. 1536 01:22:13,890 --> 01:22:14,340 I love that. 1537 01:22:14,580 --> 01:22:16,320 No, that's a win. 1538 01:22:16,830 --> 01:22:16,890 Yeah, 1539 01:22:17,760 --> 01:22:19,590 and if that's not happening, you got to figure out what you're 1540 01:22:19,620 --> 01:22:19,830 doing. 1541 01:22:22,020 --> 01:22:24,950 Well, I still love it. I love the industry, and I think the 1542 01:22:25,100 --> 01:22:27,560 goal for me-and I'm just going to put this out in the 1543 01:22:27,620 --> 01:22:31,040 universe-I would like to be a coach of some sort. I mean, I 1544 01:22:31,100 --> 01:22:34,490 would like to just share my experience of like what worked 1545 01:22:34,670 --> 01:22:35,840 and what didn't work. Yeah, 1546 01:22:37,010 --> 01:22:40,270 earn that. Earn that. Yeah, you need to earn that. Yeah. Okay, 1547 01:22:40,330 --> 01:22:41,980 because there's so many people out there that are trying to be 1548 01:22:42,130 --> 01:22:45,040 gurus, thought leaders, coaches. Well, you know, I've had two 1549 01:22:45,160 --> 01:22:46,780 years of life. I'm going to be a life coach, dear. 1550 01:22:48,190 --> 01:22:49,990 No, no, no, no, no, not life. No, you need 1551 01:22:50,260 --> 01:22:53,230 good. You wait till you're in your mid 40s, then start 1552 01:22:53,320 --> 01:22:55,870 coaching, because you got to get beat up. You got to get some 1553 01:22:55,900 --> 01:22:58,480 black eyes. You got to get some bruises, guts and scars, and all

1554 01:22:58,600 --> 01:23:01,110 the different things. You get your life has got to look like 1555 01:23:01,800 --> 01:23:04,620 they got to get they. Your life has to look like electricians' 1556 01:23:04,740 --> 01:23:09,630 hands. Okay, time in the trenches, that you know, gritty, 1557 01:23:09,990 --> 01:23:13,950 rough, sandpapery feel, scar. I call them trade tattoos. I got 1558 01:23:13,950 --> 01:23:16,650 them all over my hands when I worked in the in the business. 1559 01:23:16,800 --> 01:23:23,060 Even when I I cut my thumb open a couple weeks ago, opening up a 1560 01:23:23,060 --> 01:23:27,110 a package of XLR cables, and I called that you know adventures 1561 01:23:27,140 --> 01:23:30,440 in podcasting. I didn't go to the I didn't go to the ER and 1562 01:23:30,470 --> 01:23:33,560 get it. I wanted it to grow back as a scar because I'm proud of 1563 01:23:34,430 --> 01:23:34,520 it. 1564 01:23:35,780 --> 01:23:36,260 You know what I mean? 1565 01:23:36,500 --> 01:23:38,060 Yeah, I would have the I would tell the 1566 01:23:38,150 --> 01:23:38,420 story. 1567 01:23:38,570 --> 01:23:40,150 I know. Well, I would have done. You should have seen the other 1568 01:23:40,210 --> 01:23:41,590 guy trade 1569 01:23:41,710 --> 01:23:43,630 tattoos is what I call them. It's a big thing, 1570 01:23:43,870 --> 01:23:43,990 you know. 1571 01:23:44,680 --> 01:23:44,740 So, 1572 01:23:45,250 --> 01:23:50,080 well, anyway, I um again for viewers what what I what I do. 1573 01:23:50,200 --> 01:23:53,920 I'm an account manager for electrical distribution. Um, 1574 01:23:54,460 --> 01:23:57,670 yeah, when I tell people that, they they like, what what is 1575 01:23:57,730 --> 01:24:00,090 that? How do you? That's corporate gobbledygook. Yeah, 1576 01:24:00,300 --> 01:24:01,290 yeah, yeah. I sell 1577 01:24:01,350 --> 01:24:05,310 electrical parts with integrity, and I solve my customers' 1578 01:24:05,400 --> 01:24:08,400 problems to the best of my ability. I believe that 1579 01:24:08,910 --> 01:24:13,260 everybody needs a good supplier on their side that's got their 1580 01:24:13,410 --> 01:24:15,900 back that's going to try and reduce the amount of headaches 1581 01:24:15,930 --> 01:24:18,780 that they're already dealing with. That's a great way to 1582 01:24:18,870 --> 01:24:20,930 approach what you do. Well, if somebody asks you what you do, 1583 01:24:21,530 --> 01:24:22,370 tell them what you believe. 1584 01:24:23,360 --> 01:24:23,450 Okay, 1585 01:24:24,230 --> 01:24:27,380 I believe that every single GC out there, an electrical 1586 01:24:27,470 --> 01:24:31,040 company, needs somebody on their side that's looking out not only 1587 01:24:31,100 --> 01:24:34,130 for their bottom line, but also getting them the best parts, the 1588 01:24:34,250 --> 01:24:41,350 best service, the you know, the the best marketable products 1589 01:24:41,380 --> 01:24:44,110 that we can get in their hands as quickly as possible,

so they 1590 01:24:44,230 --> 01:24:47,290 can get the job done for their clients. That's what I do. 1591 01:24:47,680 --> 01:24:50,830 What do you say to someone that's like? I mean, I know I'm. 1592 01:24:50,860 --> 01:24:53,860 I'm still. I guess I'm kind of young, but from somewhere 1593 01:24:53,890 --> 01:24:55,990 between their 20s and 30s, they're just still trying to 1594 01:24:56,020 --> 01:25:01,170 figure life out. I guess there's. So many different 1595 01:25:01,500 --> 01:25:06,030 variables to this. I mean, like I would say, if you don't like 1596 01:25:06,120 --> 01:25:10,830 your job, but you're good at it and you don't, it's not 1597 01:25:10,830 --> 01:25:13,170 something you feel like you want to do. Find another avenue that 1598 01:25:13,200 --> 01:25:18,240 you could still do this field, but not have to do the everyday 1599 01:25:18,540 --> 01:25:20,570 grunt work that you're doing. Like try to find different 1600 01:25:20,600 --> 01:25:24,110 avenues where you can sort of develop a core, and then just 1601 01:25:24,230 --> 01:25:26,840 sort of see where it takes you from there. Instead of just 1602 01:25:27,020 --> 01:25:29,540 dropping what you're doing just to try something different. 1603 01:25:29,570 --> 01:25:31,520 Like, does that make sense? And not asking it in a form of 1604 01:25:31,550 --> 01:25:32,030 question. You got 1605 01:25:32,030 --> 01:25:33,350 to have a little bit of overlap. 1606 01:25:33,770 --> 01:25:33,830 Yeah, 1607 01:25:34,010 --> 01:25:36,710 you know, hey, I want to evolve where that's always a natural 1608 01:25:37,280 --> 01:25:40,840 desire, the human of us to want to evolve what we're doing, we 1609 01:25:40,960 --> 01:25:45,100 want to feel like we're moving forward. To be stagnant is not 1610 01:25:45,190 --> 01:25:49,690 not a good feeling. If you're in a position that you know you're 1611 01:25:49,750 --> 01:25:52,600 not, like we know it intrinsically. Like when I was 1612 01:25:52,660 --> 01:25:55,810 working as an electrician, I, as much as I enjoyed the work, I 1613 01:25:55,930 --> 01:25:59,980 knew it wasn't me then. I knew I had something else to do. I had 1614 01:25:59,980 --> 01:26:03,150 an itch to scratch, and I knew it had to do with broadcasting 1615 01:26:03,360 --> 01:26:06,300 or music or whatever music. I wasn't going to pursue because I 1616 01:26:06,300 --> 01:26:09,780 had no idea where to begin. Now that I see people in that 1617 01:26:09,840 --> 01:26:13,230 industry living the life, it's not a life I would have wanted. 1618 01:26:14,610 --> 01:26:19,080 But going into broadcasting and radio ultimately was my element, 1619 01:26:19,140 --> 01:26:22,040 and I was lucky enough to know that and be aware of it at the 1620 01:26:22,130 --> 01:26:24,890 time. A lot of people didn't understand it. My parents didn't 1621 01:26:24,920 --> 01:26:27,590 understand it until I moved here, and they saw the awards 1622 01:26:27,680 --> 01:26:31,730 I've won and how people just we had such you know respect for 1623 01:26:31,850 --> 01:26:35,030 one another inside the building, and like they literally said, 1624 01:26:35,120 --> 01:26:37,340 "Wow, you were you really are good at this. I'm like, "Yeah, 1625 01:26:37,370 --> 01:26:40,900 I've only been doing it for 10 years, but glad to finally see 1626 01:26:40,990 --> 01:26:44,860 that I've got your nod of approval. So that was a thing. 1627 01:26:45,250 --> 01:26:48,880 But when you what to to your point, there's got to be stages 1628 01:26:49,180 --> 01:26:51,700 if you want to move. If you're not, you know you're good at 1629 01:26:51,760 --> 01:26:54,760 what you do, but you can't stand it. Then it's incumbent upon you 1630 01:26:54,790 --> 01:26:57,400 to make the choice that I'm going to find the one thing that 1631 01:26:57,430 --> 01:26:58,090 I like about 1632 01:26:59,260 --> 01:26:59,350 it. 1633 01:26:59,410 --> 01:27:01,440 I'm going to find the one thing that gives me joy about 1634 01:27:01,590 --> 01:27:04,710 it-that's that's my responsibility because I've got 1635 01:27:05,610 --> 01:27:08,430 my backs in the corner. Okay, I've got a house payment, I've 1636 01:27:08,520 --> 01:27:10,950 got kids, I've got a wife, I've got the insurances, the car 1637 01:27:11,070 --> 01:27:14,580 payments. It's bigger than you at that point. Now you can 1638 01:27:14,640 --> 01:27:18,060 either choose to be grumpy about it, or you can choose to get 1639 01:27:18,180 --> 01:27:21,440 great at what you hate and turn it into something that you like, 1640 01:27:22,430 --> 01:27:24,740 and then figure out what the next step is. Like you're 1641 01:27:24,770 --> 01:27:27,560 talking about, if it's not selling this, then what are the 1642 01:27:27,590 --> 01:27:30,740 selling? You're good at selling. You could sell something. What's 1643 01:27:30,770 --> 01:27:34,250 something I'm passionate about selling? Is it guitars? Is 1644 01:27:34,339 --> 01:27:34,429 it 1645 01:27:34,850 --> 01:27:38,300 musical instruments? Is it working for GC Pro and making a 1646 01:27:38,360 --> 01:27:41,500 ton? Because those those guys make good money. Not the guys in 1647 01:27:41,530 --> 01:27:43,510 Guitar Center, but the guys who are doing the commercial jobs, 1648 01:27:43,930 --> 01:27:47,380 selling studio equipment to studios. That's something I 1649 01:27:47,440 --> 01:27:48,010 would excel at. 1650 01:27:48,160 --> 01:27:48,220 Yeah, 1651 01:27:48,820 --> 01:27:51,160 but this is my this is my element. This is my superpower. 1652 01:27:51,220 --> 01:27:53,890 Doing what I do here, and I know that, and I'm good at 1653 01:27:55,270 --> 01:27:55,930 it. I second that. 1654 01:27:56,200 --> 01:27:56,980 Yeah, thank you. 1655 01:27:57,370 --> 01:27:57,430 Yeah, 1656 01:27:58,180 --> 01:28:00,810 but that's the key to a lot of things. Is just if you're aware 1657 01:28:00,930 --> 01:28:05,430 that you're not

happy, or it's incumbent upon you again, 1658 01:28:06,210 --> 01:28:11,190 reiterating, find out what the joy is, find out what it is that 1659 01:28:11,310 --> 01:28:15,900 you're you're good at, and and find if you can. I tell my kids 1660 01:28:15,960 --> 01:28:20,690 this: find the one joy, and you know if that one joy is the 1661 01:28:20,780 --> 01:28:25,400 lampstand in the dark dark room. Then great, cling to it. Maybe 1662 01:28:25,400 --> 01:28:29,390 the other things will light up, and it's not just like throwing 1663 01:28:29,420 --> 01:28:31,460 a towel. And oh, this is what I'm doing. Oh, there's other 1664 01:28:31,550 --> 01:28:34,730 things that you can do. Watch out for opportunity when it 1665 01:28:34,730 --> 01:28:38,450 comes along, and if it's congruent with what you do, go 1666 01:28:38,540 --> 01:28:41,470 for it. So, that's my take on it. 1667 01:28:42,610 --> 01:28:42,970 Thank you, because 1668 01:28:43,030 --> 01:28:43,450 I've been there. 1669 01:28:44,020 --> 01:28:44,080 Yeah, 1670 01:28:44,650 --> 01:28:48,400 you know, I got out of the electrical business because my 1671 01:28:48,760 --> 01:28:53,590 foreman came up to me, and I admittedly I was a little bit of 1672 01:28:53,650 --> 01:28:56,650 a cancer, probably in the organization because I had one 1673 01:28:56,710 --> 01:29:00,120 foot out the door, and he basically said, "Look, you know, 1674 01:29:00,120 --> 01:29:06,090 I need you to kind of be better at not expressing your disdain 1675 01:29:07,200 --> 01:29:12,900 for the industry and what you're doing, or leave. And I said, I 1676 01:29:12,930 --> 01:29:18,090 appreciate that. I think I think I'm going to leave, and I left. 1677 01:29:18,390 --> 01:29:22,430 Well, okay, so I was hesitating in bringing that up, but um, and 1678 01:29:24,290 --> 01:29:27,020 so this was back in 2014, I 1679 01:29:27,530 --> 01:29:27,680 believe, 1680 01:29:28,250 --> 01:29:33,140 2014 15. When I was a, I was a counter guy for a small 1681 01:29:33,200 --> 01:29:40,190 independent supply house, and this was around the time that we 1682 01:29:41,210 --> 01:29:47,650 got this new person in office, and I was in a different 1683 01:29:47,650 --> 01:29:52,690 direction. And man, it was just so discouraging. I mean, I don't 1684 01:29:52,690 --> 01:29:55,030 want to turn this into a political conversation, but it 1685 01:29:56,680 --> 01:29:58,810 was hard for me. And I would consider myself young and naive 1686 01:29:58,930 --> 01:30:04,080 back then, like just. Hearing every day people that would come 1687 01:30:04,140 --> 01:30:09,000 in and get their coffee, and they-it was tough. It was 1688 01:30:09,090 --> 01:30:13,410 really, really tough. And then I, it affected my work a lot too 1689 01:30:13,470 --> 01:30:19,110 because I would have to hear it. And when they, when he said this 1690 01:30:19,230 --> 01:30:24,740 thing about Mexicans, and I was just like, ah, being Latino that 1691 01:30:24,740 --> 01:30:27,110 was kind of hard. And but maybe I just took that way too. 1692 01:30:27,290 --> 01:30:29,000 Looking back, I think I just took that way too personally, 1693 01:30:29,390 --> 01:30:34,550 and it was a part of something that I held too much as an 1694 01:30:34,640 --> 01:30:38,150 identity. But anyway, what I'm saying is that that really, 1695 01:30:38,240 --> 01:30:41,170 really affected me, and I that's kind of where it got me 1696 01:30:41,290 --> 01:30:43,840 discouraged. I don't want to do this anymore if I'm going to be 1697 01:30:43,960 --> 01:30:48,670 surrounded by people like that. And I mean, over time, I think 1698 01:30:49,390 --> 01:30:52,300 it shifted a little bit. Like it's it's as far as like how I 1699 01:30:52,990 --> 01:30:55,360 handle myself and how I present myself. I don't have to agree 1700 01:30:55,390 --> 01:30:57,490 with everything you say, but like I mean, I I can't. I do 1701 01:30:57,610 --> 01:31:02,040 have control of how I present myself and how I contain myself, 1702 01:31:02,130 --> 01:31:06,420 and so yeah, I mean that is I almost left the electrical 1703 01:31:06,420 --> 01:31:08,910 distribution the industry because of that. No, 1704 01:31:09,809 --> 01:31:13,019 there was one thing like the car business was the college for me, 1705 01:31:14,309 --> 01:31:16,889 and I learned so much in that business. One of the things was 1706 01:31:17,129 --> 01:31:19,169 you know exactly what you were talking about. You said the key 1707 01:31:19,349 --> 01:31:24,409 word, guy. I concentrate on what I can control. You know, you 1708 01:31:24,499 --> 01:31:30,559 can't. I had a podcast client that was politically opposed to 1709 01:31:30,829 --> 01:31:35,179 what I believe, but I still love her. I still talk to her today. 1710 01:31:35,779 --> 01:31:37,609 Yeah, I don't agree with her politically. You know, at the 1711 01:31:37,729 --> 01:31:42,909 time that you know Trump was elected again in 2024, she came 1712 01:31:42,999 --> 01:31:45,399 in. The first thing she said was, "I hope you know what 1713 01:31:45,429 --> 01:31:48,789 you're getting into. I'm like, "You don't even know who I voted 1714 01:31:48,879 --> 01:31:53,979 for. Yeah, this is how vague I've been. Okay, but yes, it's 1715 01:31:54,099 --> 01:31:56,259 obvious that you and I are politically opposed. I said, 1716 01:31:56,259 --> 01:31:58,989 "But that doesn't mean we can't get along. We need to start 1717 01:31:59,049 --> 01:32:01,259 having empathy for each other. This is where the country needs 1718 01:32:01,289 --> 01:32:05,009 to go, and I have control to embrace you. Yeah, I said, but 1719 01:32:05,069 --> 01:32:07,529 you know, at the same time, I will say, what happened to all 1720 01:32:07,559 --> 01:32:08,759 your voters? But that's a whole other 1721 01:32:09,840 --> 01:32:13,050 point. I mean, isn't that kind of what separates us from from 1722 01:32:13,500 --> 01:32:16,350 animals?

You know, like we were actually able to sit down and 1723 01:32:16,350 --> 01:32:18,450 have a conversation. Yeah, I think that's what makes this 1724 01:32:18,480 --> 01:32:21,380 country so great too. And I'm just, you know, I learned that a 1725 01:32:21,380 --> 01:32:25,730 little bit later because I was just so bitter. Like I don't 1726 01:32:25,730 --> 01:32:27,800 want to. I didn't want to have a conversation with somebody who 1727 01:32:28,430 --> 01:32:32,300 who had different different point of view that I had. But we 1728 01:32:32,630 --> 01:32:39,770 mentioned Mike. Mike Harris. I he he had a great perspective on 1729 01:32:39,830 --> 01:32:43,720 life, and he and I were at that time. I was a dumb liberal kid, 1730 01:32:44,350 --> 01:32:48,700 but he was a very conservative Republican. Yeah. But he said a 1731 01:32:48,730 --> 01:32:51,250 lot of things that make a lot of sense to me, and I was able to 1732 01:32:51,310 --> 01:32:55,180 sort of shape my views from him. I mean, I do give him a lot of 1733 01:32:55,210 --> 01:32:58,720 credit. I would listen a lot of things. I'm like, well, I at the 1734 01:32:58,750 --> 01:33:01,680 end of the day never looked at it that way. Right, and then 1735 01:33:04,620 --> 01:33:06,720 yeah, I guess I from that point I kind of stopped surrounding 1736 01:33:06,750 --> 01:33:09,210 myself with people that are just like super negative or very 1737 01:33:09,300 --> 01:33:13,560 one-sided and are not willing to have a conversation. And amazing 1738 01:33:13,650 --> 01:33:13,800 when 1739 01:33:13,830 --> 01:33:14,790 that happens. It's amazing 1740 01:33:14,940 --> 01:33:18,570 what you can accomplish. Yeah, I wish we can go back to that as a 1741 01:33:18,570 --> 01:33:18,990 society. 1742 01:33:19,920 --> 01:33:22,160 We're we're getting back to it. The book, the book over my 1743 01:33:22,310 --> 01:33:25,310 shoulder. I always point to Pendulum. It it actually 1744 01:33:25,430 --> 01:33:29,240 outlines everything that we're going through with eerie timing, 1745 01:33:29,960 --> 01:33:32,540 like where we're we're supposed to be right where we are right 1746 01:33:32,600 --> 01:33:32,660 now. 1747 01:33:32,900 --> 01:33:34,220 Is it Pendulum or Pendulum? 1748 01:33:34,280 --> 01:33:34,730 Pendulum. 1749 01:33:35,150 --> 01:33:36,620 This one, right? This this 1750 01:33:36,710 --> 01:33:37,190 book right here. 1751 01:33:37,430 --> 01:33:37,550 Okay, 1752 01:33:38,600 --> 01:33:40,630 and it basically talks about everything we're going through. 1753 01:33:40,780 --> 01:33:44,740 It goes back 3000 years with patterns of societal attitudes 1754 01:33:44,770 --> 01:33:48,910 and things of that nature. We're right on schedule with how 1755 01:33:49,090 --> 01:33:52,360 things are, and it's actually the darkest swing point of the 1756 01:33:52,390 --> 01:33:56,440 pendulum that we just went through. So every 80 years, we 1757 01:33:56,560 --> 01:33:59,920 go through something that's really dark, and typically ends 1758 01:34:00,040 --> 01:34:03,780 up in a bloody reset. So, 80 years ago was World War II. 1759 01:34:03,960 --> 01:34:06,570 Before that was the Civil War. Before that was Revolutionary 1760 01:34:06,630 --> 01:34:10,230 War. At least here in the you know Western side of things. But 1761 01:34:10,260 --> 01:34:15,390 it's almost like clockwork because generations dictate how 1762 01:34:15,570 --> 01:34:18,420 we kind of look at life. You know, Vietnam went the way it 1763 01:34:18,480 --> 01:34:21,290 did because of the juxtaposition of the attitudes of the 1764 01:34:21,350 --> 01:34:24,050 generations. You had a lot of people who served in World War 1765 01:34:24,260 --> 01:34:28,730 II who had national pride and honor, and and we we defeated 1766 01:34:28,730 --> 01:34:31,580 the bad guys and the Nazis and the Japanese and blah blah blah. 1767 01:34:33,080 --> 01:34:39,710 That turned into cynicism in 20 years because, well, why are we 1768 01:34:39,830 --> 01:34:42,730 getting involved with Vietnam, we didn't know why. It's like 1769 01:34:42,730 --> 01:34:47,170 the Ukraines and the Russians. I think a lot of the Russians had 1770 01:34:47,230 --> 01:34:50,380 a run for their money in these recent skirmishes that they've 1771 01:34:50,470 --> 01:34:54,040 had, battles and war and stuff like that. Because a lot of the 1772 01:34:54,100 --> 01:34:57,310 Russians are going, why are we doing this again? I honestly 1773 01:34:57,400 --> 01:35:01,470 think that's a big part of it. Like we're Putin. Wants this? I 1774 01:35:01,530 --> 01:35:03,300 don't get why we're doing this. Why are we going after our 1775 01:35:03,360 --> 01:35:06,120 neighbors? I'll do it because that's what I'm told to do. 1776 01:35:07,320 --> 01:35:08,520 World War II, we knew why. 1777 01:35:09,330 --> 01:35:09,390 Yeah, 1778 01:35:10,350 --> 01:35:13,740 that's what united the entire thing. Vietnam guys were going 1779 01:35:13,770 --> 01:35:17,760 over there, is going, why are we doing this again? Why are we 1780 01:35:17,820 --> 01:35:21,380 losing 55,000 people, and then coming home to get you know 1781 01:35:21,710 --> 01:35:23,930 being called baby killers and having fruit thrown at us as 1782 01:35:23,960 --> 01:35:27,350 we're walking off the plane, why am I doing this? Because you 1783 01:35:27,350 --> 01:35:30,020 were drafted, you know, people had to be drafted into it, 1784 01:35:30,110 --> 01:35:32,990 forced to do it. So there was you know a lot of these things 1785 01:35:33,050 --> 01:35:36,590 kind of flip flop throughout history, and typically around 1786 01:35:36,590 --> 01:35:40,540 that 80 year mark where we are, we have a calamity. So sort of 1787 01:35:40,690 --> 01:35:43,030 you know everyone's talking about civil war and you've got 1788 01:35:43,240 --> 01:35:48,070 all these nuances, all these concepts, left versus right, men 1789 01:35:48,190 -->

01:35:52,510 versus female. You know what is a woman? You know trans men in 1790 01:35:52,600 --> 01:35:57,460 sport. Every which way they can divide is happening right now, 1791 01:35:57,820 --> 01:35:58,090 man. 1792 01:35:58,720 --> 01:36:00,900 But the one thing they're not talking about, they're kind of 1793 01:36:00,930 --> 01:36:03,300 talking about it, and I love the fact that the property tax 1794 01:36:03,360 --> 01:36:05,580 argument's gaining traction in Florida because that could 1795 01:36:05,610 --> 01:36:09,000 spread like wildfire like that. The next conversation to have is 1796 01:36:09,000 --> 01:36:12,360 the IRS and federal income taxes, and I want that to happen 1797 01:36:12,450 --> 01:36:16,470 because they got it. Stop them! That's one thing we can all 1798 01:36:16,620 --> 01:36:21,650 unite around. That is something that we can all get behind and 1799 01:36:21,860 --> 01:36:25,940 unite and and just be like shut down the flipping IRS and end 1800 01:36:26,090 --> 01:36:29,600 the federal income tax permanently. Nobody ever wants 1801 01:36:29,660 --> 01:36:31,580 to do it because they don't know how. They don't know how to 1802 01:36:31,670 --> 01:36:34,220 rally. Well, how are we going to fund the government? I don't 1803 01:36:34,340 --> 01:36:38,150 care. When we have enough money to send billions of dollars to 1804 01:36:38,150 --> 01:36:43,870 come to other countries, we're being taxed too much. I think 1805 01:36:43,990 --> 01:36:44,620 that's my rant. 1806 01:36:46,360 --> 01:36:49,540 I think at this point, jeez, I'm actually having a 1807 01:36:49,630 --> 01:36:51,250 vein pop out in my head. My gosh, 1808 01:36:51,460 --> 01:36:55,690 I see it now. You have two. I think I don't know. I think 1809 01:36:56,050 --> 01:36:57,610 we're just so desensitized now, and 1810 01:36:58,600 --> 01:37:01,110 well, we got to reverse that because we're okay with too much 1811 01:37:01,260 --> 01:37:06,870 bullshit. We are okay with being taxed to the hilt. There's, you 1812 01:37:06,900 --> 01:37:09,450 know, what my income is government noneya. It's none of 1813 01:37:09,510 --> 01:37:13,470 your business. None of your business is how much how much I 1814 01:37:13,560 --> 01:37:15,630 make. That's the way it should be. That's the way the 1815 01:37:15,750 --> 01:37:18,540 forefathers wanted it, and that's where we need to get back 1816 01:37:18,630 --> 01:37:21,500 get back to. But nobody talks about that because that's a 1817 01:37:21,590 --> 01:37:25,700 uniting thing. We can all agree on that, for the most part. 1818 01:37:26,060 --> 01:37:28,700 Yeah, I mean, isn't that the goal? I mean, do we want to be 1819 01:37:28,760 --> 01:37:32,840 united or do we not, or do we want to have a purpose by 1820 01:37:33,740 --> 01:37:38,270 dividing because it feeds our ego or feeds our our identity? 1821 01:37:38,600 --> 01:37:40,670 The more you divide, the more controllable you are. 1822 01:37:40,820 --> 01:37:43,120 And once you agree, you see that on both sides. It's just yeah, 1823 01:37:43,210 --> 01:37:45,250 they don't want peace. I mean, because it's like everything 1824 01:37:45,370 --> 01:37:47,830 that they've built their character on. Like you know, I 1825 01:37:48,070 --> 01:37:52,420 this is me. I voted red, and this is me. I voted blue. I I 1826 01:37:53,140 --> 01:37:58,150 had different pronouns, so I use this as my shield. And I don't 1827 01:37:58,180 --> 01:37:58,810 know, like what's the 1828 01:37:59,320 --> 01:38:04,530 they're inconsequential tertiary concepts that really have no 1829 01:38:04,770 --> 01:38:05,250 bearing. That was a 1830 01:38:05,370 --> 01:38:06,330 big word, Jim. 1831 01:38:07,080 --> 01:38:11,640 They have no bearing on what really happens and how it 1832 01:38:11,640 --> 01:38:16,530 affects us. But yet, nobody ever makes the equation that for 1833 01:38:16,860 --> 01:38:20,180 three months to six months out of the year, you work for the 1834 01:38:20,300 --> 01:38:26,510 government, ever think about it that way? That really pisses 1835 01:38:26,630 --> 01:38:29,660 people off. Oh, I never thought about it that way. How much of 1836 01:38:29,720 --> 01:38:32,450 every dollar you make has to go to their freaking pockets? Oh, 1837 01:38:32,630 --> 01:38:38,660 by the way, you have to prove it to them, and you're guilty until 1838 01:38:38,780 --> 01:38:42,940 proven innocent. Because if they come to your door, what happens? 1839 01:38:43,930 --> 01:38:46,480 You get a letter from the IRS. Your heart jumps into your 1840 01:38:46,570 --> 01:38:49,540 throat. What the crap? Why am I? Why are they sending me a 1841 01:38:49,600 --> 01:38:51,430 letter? It's never for anything good. 1842 01:38:52,270 --> 01:38:52,330 Yeah. 1843 01:38:54,070 --> 01:38:57,250 Am I right or wrong? Nobody gets pissed off enough about that. 1844 01:38:57,730 --> 01:38:58,210 No. Because 1845 01:38:58,210 --> 01:39:02,550 they're all afraid. That's how we're controlled. How do we get 1846 01:39:02,610 --> 01:39:03,240 on this tangent? 1847 01:39:03,600 --> 01:39:07,020 I don't know, Jim. I was. I mean, you can either choose 1848 01:39:07,110 --> 01:39:09,480 leave it in or cut it out. I don't care. I always leave it 1849 01:39:09,480 --> 01:39:09,540 on. 1850 01:39:10,020 --> 01:39:10,590 Well, I mean, as 1851 01:39:10,650 --> 01:39:19,170 far as like composure goes, you know, it's about how you react. 1852 01:39:22,800 --> 01:39:24,680 I'm just gonna yeah say this right now I'm kind of going 1853 01:39:24,710 --> 01:39:27,350 through that with my son like with a 1854 01:39:27,560 --> 01:39:27,860 how old is 1855 01:39:28,610 --> 01:39:32,930 he? He's he's nine he's nine years old, and one day he told 1856 01:39:32,960 --> 01:39:39,260 me, "Daddy, I'm a they them. I'm like, I know what it meant, but 1857 01:39:39,290 --> 01:39:41,410 like he's like, well, what does that mean? I'm

like, oh well, 1858 01:39:41,470 --> 01:39:46,000 like I don't. I'm not a boy or a girl. I'm a, I, I'm, I'm either 1859 01:39:46,150 --> 01:39:50,980 or. I'm like, well, son, why do you? Why did you say that? Why, 1860 01:39:51,070 --> 01:39:53,200 what makes? I mean, again, like, what makes you think that? I 1861 01:39:53,680 --> 01:39:57,160 mean, well, I like to, I like to wear nightgowns. I like to paint 1862 01:39:57,220 --> 01:40:02,070 my nails, and like. Well, your son, you're just experimenting. 1863 01:40:02,130 --> 01:40:06,480 That's fine, you know. I mean, I used to grab my mom's makeup and 1864 01:40:06,720 --> 01:40:10,470 make Kiss paint my face look like Kiss. You know what I mean? 1865 01:40:10,530 --> 01:40:12,360 Like, you know, I was experimenting. You know, like 1866 01:40:12,390 --> 01:40:15,420 that's nothing wrong with that. You doesn't have to. You don't 1867 01:40:15,420 --> 01:40:18,690 have to put a label on it. And I just think that this just, I 1868 01:40:18,780 --> 01:40:21,110 don't know. We just seek too too much comfort in labels. 1869 01:40:21,650 --> 01:40:28,100 Well, I think a lot of it's it's the world. The world's going to 1870 01:40:28,160 --> 01:40:31,310 speak into your kids' lives, whether you like it or not. 1871 01:40:31,580 --> 01:40:31,640 Yeah, 1872 01:40:32,000 --> 01:40:33,710 they're going to find a way. If you tell them not to do 1873 01:40:33,860 --> 01:40:36,560 something, they're going to find a way to do it anyway. So our 1874 01:40:36,650 --> 01:40:39,890 biggest thing with our kids is communication, open lines of 1875 01:40:39,920 --> 01:40:42,820 communication, knowing that they could talk to one or both of us 1876 01:40:43,600 --> 01:40:47,620 without any repercussions, that it's going to be a conversation. 1877 01:40:48,070 --> 01:40:50,560 Look, we get it, your kids, you're going to mess up. Doesn't 1878 01:40:50,560 --> 01:40:52,480 mean you're not going to be without consequence or 1879 01:40:52,480 --> 01:40:54,910 accountability. Yeah, but we could talk through these things 1880 01:40:56,020 --> 01:40:59,590 for your son who's nine and be like, I think identifying what 1881 01:40:59,650 --> 01:41:02,850 you're hearing from the world versus what you're hearing from 1882 01:41:03,180 --> 01:41:05,520 us, a big thing, and I learned this from a friend of mine who 1883 01:41:06,330 --> 01:41:09,000 he's got a nonprofit called Stronger Than My Father, and 1884 01:41:09,000 --> 01:41:12,060 when his kids kind of go and echo things that they hear from 1885 01:41:12,150 --> 01:41:16,920 it, he uses, "Hey, well, you didn't learn that from us, and 1886 01:41:16,920 --> 01:41:19,290 he really, you know, especially as they get older in the teenage 1887 01:41:19,440 --> 01:41:21,470 years and they're more susceptible for influence and 1888 01:41:21,500 --> 01:41:26,630 stuff like that. Audit where you're marinating your mind, and 1889 01:41:26,630 --> 01:41:28,940 that's one of the things that my kids have heard me say as a 1890 01:41:29,000 --> 01:41:31,640 concept: marinating your mind and good stuff. Since I was 1891 01:41:31,880 --> 01:41:34,730 self-employed, essentially, and they used to make fun of me for 1892 01:41:34,940 --> 01:41:37,670 it. Oh, marinating my mind! I said, well, you know. And 1893 01:41:37,730 --> 01:41:39,650 Courtney, my wife, would point out, she's like, but they're 1894 01:41:39,770 --> 01:41:42,670 repeating it. They're the concept is there. The seeds are 1895 01:41:42,730 --> 01:41:44,470 planted. They're going to understand what it means to 1896 01:41:44,530 --> 01:41:47,740 marinate their mind. You can choose to marinate your mind in 1897 01:41:47,800 --> 01:41:53,590 what the world's telling you, or listen to your inner voice, Holy 1898 01:41:53,680 --> 01:41:57,100 Spirit, if you will, or however you're. There's there's 1899 01:41:57,190 --> 01:41:59,500 something in our gut feelings that there's something wrong 1900 01:41:59,620 --> 01:42:05,640 with this. Okay, the world tells us one thing, but intrinsically 1901 01:42:06,120 --> 01:42:09,870 we know there's something off. So, son, you can either listen 1902 01:42:09,870 --> 01:42:12,480 to the world; you have that choice, or you can listen to 1903 01:42:12,510 --> 01:42:15,270 what your gut's telling you, or you can learn from what your mom 1904 01:42:15,330 --> 01:42:18,360 and dad are telling you because you're still nine years old and 1905 01:42:18,420 --> 01:42:23,360 still, dare I say, programmable at that point, that's the world 1906 01:42:23,720 --> 01:42:25,790 getting past the defenses. 1907 01:42:26,630 --> 01:42:29,870 Yeah. Well, thank you for listening, Jim. That was kind of 1908 01:42:29,900 --> 01:42:31,880 like a yeah. That's something I'm kind of struggling with 1909 01:42:31,940 --> 01:42:35,390 right now. That's you're not alone. It's it's not just that 1910 01:42:35,720 --> 01:42:39,740 the pronouns. It's not just that. I mean, it's just it's 1911 01:42:39,770 --> 01:42:46,030 just the fact that it's forced, and I just want my son to have 1912 01:42:46,090 --> 01:42:46,660 accountability. 1913 01:42:47,170 --> 01:42:49,150 Just probably want your son to have a good, fun childhood. 1914 01:42:49,960 --> 01:42:53,620 Be just be a normal boy. No, I mean I don't know. I think I 1915 01:42:53,620 --> 01:42:55,750 don't want to use the word normal, but like just like you 1916 01:42:55,750 --> 01:42:55,810 know, 1917 01:42:55,930 --> 01:42:57,100 just be a just be a kid. Be 1918 01:42:57,340 --> 01:43:00,040 a kid. This is too heavy of a concept for you to consider 1919 01:43:00,129 --> 01:43:00,369 right now. 1920 01:43:00,820 --> 01:43:00,970 And 1921 01:43:01,840 --> 01:43:03,750 and even telling them, look, dude, you're nine. You have no 1922 01:43:03,930 --> 01:43:06,930 idea what's freaking up and down right now. You have no idea. 1923 01:43:07,770 -->

01:43:11,910 These concepts are completely way out of your purview. You 1924 01:43:11,940 --> 01:43:14,430 know what you think you know versus what is reality are two 1925 01:43:14,520 --> 01:43:17,880 entirely different things. Okay, if anybody else is in your 1926 01:43:17,940 --> 01:43:19,830 school telling you this, I want to know about it. 1927 01:43:20,040 --> 01:43:20,120 Yeah, 1928 01:43:20,480 --> 01:43:24,500 you know, there's a lot of, and you know, I'm probably showing 1929 01:43:24,530 --> 01:43:26,540 my hand, but just by having this conversation, but I don't really 1930 01:43:26,600 --> 01:43:29,210 care because it needs to be said, my kids are at the point, 1931 01:43:29,240 --> 01:43:32,930 like again, per the pendulum. What started out 20 some odd 1932 01:43:33,020 --> 01:43:35,570 years ago in the tipping point of a pendulum seems like a good 1933 01:43:35,630 --> 01:43:38,900 idea, but when we come to the zeniths of the swing and the 1934 01:43:38,930 --> 01:43:42,520 pendulum swings, a good idea gone too far, and that's where 1935 01:43:42,580 --> 01:43:44,740 we are right now. Doesn't everything seem like 1936 01:43:44,830 --> 01:43:47,050 everything's gone too far? Right? 1937 01:43:48,970 --> 01:43:51,520 It feels like a fight fire with fire society. 1938 01:43:51,970 --> 01:43:52,030 Yeah. 1939 01:43:52,480 --> 01:43:53,320 Ah, I am 1940 01:43:53,620 --> 01:43:56,080 like the concepts of what we're talking about. Well, I'm you 1941 01:43:56,110 --> 01:43:58,840 know I'm a man and I want to be playing women's sports. Okay. 1942 01:43:59,110 --> 01:44:02,790 What? Wait, what? You know what I mean? That's that's the kind 1943 01:44:02,790 --> 01:44:05,760 of thing. Like that's taking a concept too far. Like, well, you 1944 01:44:05,790 --> 01:44:09,180 just got to be okay with it. No, I don't. No, I. You know, and 1945 01:44:09,180 --> 01:44:12,900 that this the the when you have these types of conversations in 1946 01:44:13,020 --> 01:44:19,860 the world, my even my own kids are starting to see the 1947 01:44:20,040 --> 01:44:22,760 ludicrousness of what we're dealing with in the world. 1948 01:44:23,780 --> 01:44:26,090 So you have hope that it'll sort. It'll come back around the 1949 01:44:26,180 --> 01:44:26,570 pendulum. 1950 01:44:26,810 --> 01:44:27,440 The pendulum. The 1951 01:44:27,440 --> 01:44:31,190 pendulum. You know, even they're starting to see. You know, my 1952 01:44:32,900 --> 01:44:39,680 dare I say, liberally minded college attending daughter had a 1953 01:44:39,830 --> 01:44:45,130 recent Interaction with her quote friends of the same 1954 01:44:45,460 --> 01:44:49,510 political bent that was unsavoring, and her one 1955 01:44:49,600 --> 01:44:53,620 conservative friend, who's like a cherished friend, is like you 1956 01:44:53,650 --> 01:44:58,870 know she's starting to realize oh I'm starting to get it, and 1957 01:44:58,900 --> 01:45:02,700 it just. Sometimes just got

to let it play out and have faith. 1958 01:45:03,090 --> 01:45:05,670 Yeah, I used to use the saying all. I mean, I was really 1959 01:45:05,760 --> 01:45:09,150 liberal until liberals ruined it for me. I'm sure people who are 1960 01:45:09,450 --> 01:45:13,860 conservative too say the same thing. I was conservative. Well, 1961 01:45:14,040 --> 01:45:18,270 I mean, with what I do, I depend on a good. You got to have a 1962 01:45:18,300 --> 01:45:20,900 good economy to like survive in what I do because people got to 1963 01:45:20,990 --> 01:45:25,220 build, people have to. We anyway. 1964 01:45:25,760 --> 01:45:25,970 I know. 1965 01:45:26,510 --> 01:45:31,250 Yeah, I mean, I'm not a. I am. I have not. I. I don't know what's 1966 01:45:31,280 --> 01:45:33,590 going on, Jim. I'm. I'm not going to speak on politics. Like 1967 01:45:33,620 --> 01:45:37,610 I don't know what's going on. I chose to, like, find peace in my 1968 01:45:37,700 --> 01:45:41,080 life in other ways. But I think this will kind of come back 1969 01:45:41,200 --> 01:45:46,720 around. What I do understand is behavior. Yeah, I can understand 1970 01:45:46,750 --> 01:45:52,240 that. That makes sense to me. I think you know anyone can do 1971 01:45:52,330 --> 01:45:55,240 that. There's nothing significant, but like, and I 1972 01:45:55,270 --> 01:45:58,390 think kind of kind of goes back to the home, you know, in your 1973 01:45:58,480 --> 01:46:02,340 childhood. Like, I mean, I remember we were poor. We didn't 1974 01:46:02,370 --> 01:46:05,910 have a lot. We, but we we didn't know that though. We were just 1975 01:46:05,940 --> 01:46:09,510 having fun. I mean, like, oh, you know, mom was making a 1976 01:46:09,750 --> 01:46:12,150 hamburger helper. Yeah, I love hamburger helper. You know, 1977 01:46:12,780 --> 01:46:16,830 yeah, we had a good child. We got we got fed, and we we didn't 1978 01:46:16,980 --> 01:46:22,280 know what was going on because I think you know our parents. They 1979 01:46:23,090 --> 01:46:25,070 they've they didn't throw it at you. They they didn't they 1980 01:46:25,130 --> 01:46:27,920 didn't unleash their stresses of every day. I mean, like it's 1981 01:46:28,010 --> 01:46:32,360 your job to make your kids feel safe. Right. And then all of a 1982 01:46:32,450 --> 01:46:35,780 sudden, we started you know a quality of life has changed a 1983 01:46:35,810 --> 01:46:38,060 little bit. We started having things. We started doing little 1984 01:46:38,150 --> 01:46:45,340 things, and you just appreciate it. And just So, yeah, I'm. 1985 01:46:45,820 --> 01:46:49,840 There was something to that, and I'm. I think I just got lost on 1986 01:46:49,870 --> 01:46:50,950 that, Jim. I apologize. Are you 1987 01:46:50,980 --> 01:46:51,100 good? 1988 01:46:51,610 --> 01:46:51,670 Yeah, 1989 01:46:52,210 --> 01:46:56,890 I think what you're trying to say is the fact that not not 1990 01:46:56,980 --> 01:47:00,250 blissful ignorance, but you just were happy with your situation 1991 01:47:00,280 --> 01:47:03,690 growing up, and then more exposure to the world can be 1992 01:47:04,650 --> 01:47:09,450 typically a tough adjustment if you don't have good foundation. 1993 01:47:10,170 --> 01:47:10,230 Yeah, 1994 01:47:12,090 --> 01:47:15,090 you know, biblical to say, you know, I'm on this on this rock. 1995 01:47:15,120 --> 01:47:15,990 I shall build my church. 1996 01:47:17,010 --> 01:47:17,070 He 1997 01:47:17,160 --> 01:47:19,950 built it on a rock for a reason, okay? Because it's got stable 1998 01:47:20,010 --> 01:47:22,430 foundation. You build your house on sand. What's going to happen? 1999 01:47:22,430 --> 01:47:25,880 It's going to fall down. So, having those foundations, having 2000 01:47:28,490 --> 01:47:33,620 harbors to kind of be able to go to, and having an anchor that 2001 01:47:33,710 --> 01:47:37,070 holds you tight in the storm when storms happen is important. 2002 01:47:37,280 --> 01:47:42,580 And a lot of people, I think, are lacking that these days. And 2003 01:47:42,910 --> 01:47:46,030 a lot of it to me comes down to faith. You know, I'm a believer, 2004 01:47:46,240 --> 01:47:49,300 not a perfect one by any stretch of the imagination, but I know 2005 01:47:49,540 --> 01:47:55,930 what the truth is, if that makes sense. And that's that's my 2006 01:47:56,050 --> 01:47:59,470 anchor. You know, at the end of the, you know, at the end of all 2007 01:47:59,560 --> 01:47:59,680 this, 2008 01:48:00,730 --> 01:48:00,790 yeah, 2009 01:48:01,300 --> 01:48:04,350 I know who wins and who loses. Okay, and a lot of these things 2010 01:48:04,410 --> 01:48:08,310 are starting to come to light. You know, I'll control what I 2011 01:48:08,370 --> 01:48:11,550 can control. If I can convince somebody to not pay their taxes 2012 01:48:11,610 --> 01:48:15,030 or fricking not file or or claim as many dependents as possible 2013 01:48:15,090 --> 01:48:18,540 and flip off the government, then great. I think that should 2014 01:48:18,570 --> 01:48:22,310 happen. All right, Institute a national sales tax. I'm good 2015 01:48:22,340 --> 01:48:25,520 with that. Fair tax, beautiful. I don't want to have to be, you 2016 01:48:25,550 --> 01:48:30,380 know, reconciling to the some alphabet agency. Tangent. 2017 01:48:31,280 --> 01:48:35,360 Yeah. I tell everybody it's your world. I'm just passing through. 2018 01:48:35,480 --> 01:48:39,230 You're right. Yeah. Well, anything else you want to talk 2019 01:48:39,290 --> 01:48:43,840 about or bring up? We've had a multitude of topics. Yeah, 2020 01:48:44,470 --> 01:48:49,720 I mean, I'm nice and relaxed now. Yeah. Anything else we want 2021 01:48:49,720 --> 01:48:51,550 to talk about? I would say, 2022 01:48:54,550 --> 01:48:54,730 hmm, 2023 01:48:58,900 --> 01:49:03,750 no to college if it makes sense, if it makes sense, yeah, I 2024 01:49:03,840 --> 01:49:05,580 think. But I would never. 2025 01:49:06,450 -->

01:49:09,090 If some, if somebody else is paying for it, yeah, and you 2026 01:49:09,180 --> 01:49:10,980 know why you're going, great. 2027 01:49:11,370 --> 01:49:17,610 Well, Ivy, my stepson, for an example, he is in Missouri to. I 2028 01:49:17,700 --> 01:49:19,950 know he's gonna hate me for saying this, but like, yeah, 2029 01:49:19,950 --> 01:49:22,550 well, he's studying acting, and he's a good kid. I think he's 2030 01:49:22,610 --> 01:49:26,390 got his he's got things figured out. But I remember telling him 2031 01:49:26,510 --> 01:49:31,430 like, well, instead of going into debt for college to be a 2032 01:49:31,490 --> 01:49:33,860 Broadway actor, why don't you just 2033 01:49:34,130 --> 01:49:34,610 go to Broadway? 2034 01:49:36,080 --> 01:49:38,210 Go to Broadway. No, well, no. Now I was gonna say, like, why 2035 01:49:38,210 --> 01:49:42,700 don't you just invest maybe $5,000.06, $6,000 on camera 2036 01:49:42,700 --> 01:49:45,010 equipment, lighting. Start making your own films. Like, 2037 01:49:45,040 --> 01:49:47,320 start making, start doing things like that. I mean, I think 2038 01:49:47,620 --> 01:49:50,800 that's a lot cheaper than going into hundreds of 1000s of 2039 01:49:50,800 --> 01:49:53,200 dollars in debt. But anyway, I could be off on that. But I 2040 01:49:53,230 --> 01:49:53,410 mean, 2041 01:49:53,950 --> 01:49:57,100 there are a lot of people that are like the next generation 2042 01:49:57,190 --> 01:50:01,440 crop of actors and creatives. They're all on Tik. You know 2043 01:50:01,560 --> 01:50:02,070 Instagram, self 2044 01:50:02,130 --> 01:50:02,610 monetize, 2045 01:50:02,940 --> 01:50:06,300 right? There's a there's a woman named Manon Matthews. I think I 2046 01:50:06,360 --> 01:50:11,100 hope I'm saying Manan, but she started out making vines back in 2047 01:50:11,190 --> 01:50:14,670 the day that were comedic. She had a natural talent, and then 2048 01:50:14,940 --> 01:50:17,400 it's kind of evolved into what it is now, and she's making a 2049 01:50:17,460 --> 01:50:19,800 living at it. And a lot of people, you need to get the 2050 01:50:19,890 --> 01:50:22,340 Saturday Night Live, you you'd be perfect for Saturday Night 2051 01:50:22,550 --> 01:50:24,320 Live, and she says I'd love to be on it, but I don't need 2052 01:50:25,010 --> 01:50:25,340 it. So 2053 01:50:25,460 --> 01:50:27,500 she's got the leverage, you know. I've already created this 2054 01:50:27,530 --> 01:50:30,530 thing for myself. It's paying my bills. I don't need to be a 2055 01:50:30,560 --> 01:50:32,900 struggling actor. If they if they'll have me, great, I'll do 2056 01:50:33,230 --> 01:50:33,440 it. 2057 01:50:33,500 --> 01:50:33,830 You know, 2058 01:50:34,250 --> 01:50:35,840 what doesn't mean I'm going to stop everything else I'm doing. 2059 01:50:36,410 --> 01:50:38,720 What's one thing on your fee that you just like? Oh my God, 2060 01:50:38,720 --> 01:50:41,230 that's just that's incredible,

and that required literally no 2061 01:50:41,350 --> 01:50:45,580 money to do, and it's just interesting. Mine is is cooking, 2062 01:50:46,180 --> 01:50:52,120 is cooking meals. That is is a reference to a movie scene, like 2063 01:50:52,270 --> 01:50:55,060 a Pulp Fiction, the burger scene. Right. Then you got 2064 01:50:55,090 --> 01:50:59,260 somebody flipping a burger, creating that big Kahuna burger. 2065 01:50:59,530 --> 01:50:59,590 Yeah. 2066 01:51:00,550 --> 01:51:02,880 While it's like I guess like a dual screen, and then you have 2067 01:51:02,910 --> 01:51:04,560 that scene, and then you're making the burger at the same 2068 01:51:04,650 --> 01:51:09,270 time. I love those, and you just you just cook a recipe, and you 2069 01:51:09,300 --> 01:51:12,330 can just monetize on that. Like those are fun. Those are just so 2070 01:51:12,420 --> 01:51:13,230 fun to watch. I have 2071 01:51:13,260 --> 01:51:15,570 a podcast that's been sitting on a shelf for the past several 2072 01:51:15,630 --> 01:51:17,640 years now called Capes and Hammers, and it's us just 2073 01:51:17,640 --> 01:51:21,770 talking about you know the DC Marvel universe stuff and you 2074 01:51:21,800 --> 01:51:25,790 know, Avengers and stuff that I you know kind of got into late 2075 01:51:25,820 --> 01:51:28,730 in life. That all of a sudden it overtook like that was like a 2076 01:51:28,820 --> 01:51:32,030 hobby, and it was so much fun to talk about all the different 2077 01:51:32,060 --> 01:51:35,120 nuanced plot lines and all the detail work that went into these 2078 01:51:35,240 --> 01:51:38,750 movies, and how everybody in the country in the world seemed to 2079 01:51:38,870 --> 01:51:40,780 fall in love with these characters all over again 2080 01:51:41,590 --> 01:51:44,290 because of one little movie, Iron Man, that started all the 2081 01:51:44,290 --> 01:51:48,610 whole thing, and it's like even the the bobbing and weaving and 2082 01:51:49,030 --> 01:51:52,540 improvising that you know Kevin Feige and all these guys that 2083 01:51:52,570 --> 01:51:56,440 were in charge had to figure out in order to make you know a 23 2084 01:51:56,710 --> 01:52:02,040 movie saga that of of awesomeness. You know, if you're 2085 01:52:02,070 --> 01:52:05,340 really into that, I I was never in the comics growing up, but I 2086 01:52:05,520 --> 01:52:08,400 started a podcast talking about it, dude. It's we haven't put 2087 01:52:08,460 --> 01:52:11,880 out an episode in years. It still gets downloads. That's 2088 01:52:11,910 --> 01:52:13,860 something I should, you know, we really need to revisit and 2089 01:52:13,920 --> 01:52:17,550 revive. But you're not wrong. I mean, there's there's people on 2090 01:52:18,300 --> 01:52:20,100 the electricians on Instagram. 2091 01:52:20,520 --> 01:52:20,700 Yes, 2092 01:52:21,180 --> 01:52:21,620 right. Oh 2093 01:52:21,740 --> 01:52:21,800 yeah. 2094 01:52:22,010 --> 01:52:24,770 They'll set up a camera

up at a tripod and do like a time lapse 2095 01:52:24,800 --> 01:52:27,350 of somebody dressing out a freaking panel. That's 2096 01:52:27,740 --> 01:52:30,890 fascinating to watch. It's really cool. 2097 01:52:31,220 --> 01:52:31,280 Yeah. 2098 01:52:31,550 --> 01:52:33,920 You know, especially all the women that are getting into it. 2099 01:52:34,220 --> 01:52:38,420 Awesome. I love it. I love the fact that you know women are 2100 01:52:38,510 --> 01:52:41,620 getting into playing the drums because thank you, Annika from 2101 01:52:41,830 --> 01:52:44,980 Rush, and you know they're getting into the trades. 2102 01:52:45,370 --> 01:52:45,460 Come 2103 01:52:46,300 --> 01:52:48,400 on, let's let's make it work. I think it's great. 2104 01:52:49,390 --> 01:52:49,630 I love 2105 01:52:49,900 --> 01:52:51,970 it. And you know, women are seeing that. Like, hey, I can do 2106 01:52:52,060 --> 01:52:56,440 this. Absolutely, you don't have to go to college. Go to learn a 2107 01:52:56,500 --> 01:53:00,420 trade. Yeah, learn how to run wire. Get dirty like the rest of 2108 01:53:01,920 --> 01:53:02,040 us, 2109 01:53:02,820 --> 01:53:07,410 you know, yeah, yeah, Jim. I think that's all I had. Yeah, I 2110 01:53:07,500 --> 01:53:16,380 think why I why I love doing what I do, it it's allowed me to 2111 01:53:17,070 --> 01:53:20,340 fill in the holes that I felt like I was lacking in my in in 2112 01:53:21,120 --> 01:53:24,500 me growing up, I was able to become a problem solver. I was 2113 01:53:24,530 --> 01:53:30,470 able to build relationships. I was able to understand urgency, 2114 01:53:31,520 --> 01:53:37,880 and at the same time, learning about a trade. Yeah, till this 2115 01:53:38,090 --> 01:53:41,440 till this day, I still love what I do. I love I love the 2116 01:53:41,530 --> 01:53:45,580 connections I make, and I just being able to bail somebody out 2117 01:53:45,640 --> 01:53:47,020 from a phone, like just a phone call away, 2118 01:53:47,770 --> 01:53:47,950 buddy. 2119 01:53:48,520 --> 01:53:48,580 Yeah, 2120 01:53:48,880 --> 01:53:50,800 I'll leave you with this. My brother once told me, he says, 2121 01:53:50,830 --> 01:53:53,050 if you're getting out of bed every morning wondering why you 2122 01:53:53,080 --> 01:53:56,290 have to go do what you're going to do again, and you're finding 2123 01:53:56,320 --> 01:53:58,570 it really tough to put two feet on the floor from your bed, 2124 01:53:59,290 --> 01:54:01,680 that's not a good place to be. Yeah, if you find yourself in a 2125 01:54:01,710 --> 01:54:03,780 situation like that, it is incumbent upon you to figure 2126 01:54:03,870 --> 01:54:06,750 something out. You got to figure something else out. That's no 2127 01:54:06,840 --> 01:54:10,500 way to go through life. So, if you're getting out of bed with a 2128 01:54:10,590 --> 01:54:13,290 spring in your step, eager to get to work, you're in a good 2129 01:54:13,320 --> 01:54:18,420 position. It's a balance, pros and cons. As long as there's 2130 01:54:18,480 --> 01:54:18,900 more pros, 2131 01:54:21,900 --> 01:54:23,660 677. 2132 01:54:24,530 --> 01:54:27,590 With that being said, if you got any value out of this particular 2133 01:54:27,650 --> 01:54:32,330 episode, as always, share it out. mmtbp.com is a website to 2134 01:54:32,390 --> 01:54:34,670 go to. You can apply to be on the show. You can do all sorts 2135 01:54:34,670 --> 01:54:37,730 of stuff. Download latest episodes. Watch the episodes if 2136 01:54:37,760 --> 01:54:40,510 you want to watch these things. Clips are there. All those fun 2137 01:54:40,570 --> 01:54:44,440 things. How can people find and follow you, mr. Esteban? Are you 2138 01:54:44,470 --> 01:54:45,880 on social media doing anything? 2139 01:54:46,720 --> 01:54:47,170 Um, you 2140 01:54:47,230 --> 01:54:47,410 should be. 2141 01:54:47,770 --> 01:54:51,730 I am on LinkedIn, and I will share that that name with Jim 2142 01:54:51,820 --> 01:54:52,960 after the after the episode. 2143 01:54:53,860 --> 01:54:56,140 The other aspect of this is like, dude, you know how many 2144 01:54:56,230 --> 01:54:59,890 products can you can you review? You can make a whole channel out 2145 01:54:59,890 --> 01:54:59,950 of. 2146 01:55:00,360 --> 01:55:04,230 You know what, Jim? I did. I attempted that, and I made one 2147 01:55:04,230 --> 01:55:08,310 episode, and I never got back into it. This is what I got out 2148 01:55:08,340 --> 01:55:10,860 of this. Is I'm going to start doing that. I got to do more of 2149 01:55:10,890 --> 01:55:10,980 that. 2150 01:55:11,100 --> 01:55:12,870 You might you might be overcomplicating it. We could 2151 01:55:12,900 --> 01:55:13,440 talk about that. Yeah, 2152 01:55:13,590 --> 01:55:13,710 yeah, yeah. 2153 01:55:14,520 --> 01:55:17,250 We'll unpack that after we're done here. Anyway, guys, thanks 2154 01:55:17,250 --> 01:55:20,900 for listening. MMTBP.com. That is the website where you can go 2155 01:55:20,930 --> 01:55:23,120 to mostlymiddletennesseebusinesspodcast.com, 2156 01:55:23,120 --> 01:55:25,040 which is a lot longer to type. It's up to you. 2157 01:55:25,520 --> 01:55:30,770 mmtbp.dmmtbp.com. I am Jim McCarthy, your host. Esteban, 2158 01:55:30,860 --> 01:55:33,230 thanks for coming out, brothers. is long overdue. Thank you so 2159 01:55:33,290 --> 01:55:34,040 much, Jim. I appreciate you.