Ep 8: From Russia with Love - Startups, Spies, and Kindness - Sergei Kopelev

Today’s guest is Sergio Kopelev, VP of Engagement Management at Stroz Friedberg, a cybercrime and digital forensics company. Sergio was born in Moscow and emigrated to the US as a Jewish refugee with his family in the 70s. He grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and after a scrape with the law as a gang member, went on to become a highly decorated police detective. Dubbed a ‘pioneer cyber cop’ by the Washington Times newspaper, Sergio created one of this country’s first Internet Crimes taskforces. He is now a consultant, screenwriter and serial entrepreneur in the process of creating two startups. “TradeMarket Adventures” is his “live like a spy” experience that trains people in certain life skills that NOCs (Non-Official Cover) government operatives/spies are trained in. 

In this episode, you’ll hear about Sergio’s family journey from Soviet Russia in the 1970s to living with eight family members in a one-bedroom apartment in a gang-ridden neighborhood in Brooklyn, his teenage scrape with the law as a gang member himself, his introduction to the NYC police department and subsequent career in law enforcement, and the impetus behind the creation of his “live like a spy” experience, Trade Market Adventures.

Authentic, inspirational and relatable discussions with inspirational business leaders, gaining insight into what inspires them and how they got to where they are today. These conversations offer actionable tips for listeners to create their own path to success and shatter whatever glass ceilings arise and overcome any obstacles on their personal journey. Jeanniey Walden, Founder of Liftoff Enterprises, is the award-winning marketing, business & workplace expert and host of the TV show "LiftOff with Jeanniey Walden." Jeanniey dives into compelling conversations with incredible experts of all backgrounds to understand what makes them tick and expose how you, the viewer can learn from these experiences and start to "LiftOff."

Discussion points:

• Sergio is a first-generation refugee, born in Russia, to a family of highly successful Jewish political dissidents
• Eight family members lived in a one-bedroom in Brooklyn
• The success of his parents and grandparents helped Sergio know “what success looks like” 
• After joining a gang for protection, a scrape with the law led to a career in law enforcement
• Mentors in Sergio’s government careers
• Startup Tradecraft Adventures - live as a spy for four days - learn skills that can help you in everyday life and work
• Putting kindness out into the world may not always be rewarded, but it makes your life better

Resources:

Sergio Kopelev LinkedIn

Stroz Friedberg Digital Forensics/Aon

Tradecraft Adventures

Jeanniey Walden LinkedIn

Liftoff Website

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Jeanniey Walden: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Liftoff Journey podcast. I'm Jeanie Walden. Your host Liftoff Journey is a part of Liftoff Enterprises. We're a full service and media company that also brings you the TV show liftoff with Jeanie Walden, and provides consulting services that help companies build their. And grow their bottom line.

In liftoff journeys, you can expect to be inspired by authentic conversations with real people who have made decisions along the way that have led them to exactly where they are today. And guess what? Those decisions cause them to take turns, change careers, fail, learn, and grow. But at the end of the day, these people are business leaders, inspirational leaders, and exactly where they need to.

I hope you enjoy liftoff journeys as we follow the journeys of so many great people and learn about how you can take your own journey as well. If you're ready, show am I. Let's get started with today's 

[00:01:04] Sergio Kopelev: episode.

[00:01:11] Jeanniey Walden: All right, here we are at our next episode of Liftoff Journeys, and I'm here with Sergio CoEB, a good friend of mine who I am thrilled, was able to come on the show today. Hey, Sergio. , 

[00:01:22] Sergio Kopelev: thank you for having me. It's very exciting. We're 

[00:01:24] Jeanniey Walden: so excited to talk to you. So, okay, so everybody here needs to know that Sergio is, first of all, one of the busiest men ever.

He's always up to at least seven things at the same time. In addition, he's one of the funnest people that you ever get to hang out with. So if you ever run into this guy on the street, Stop, hang out with him. He has great stories to tell and that's why he's a perfect guest for this episode of Liftoff Journeys.

We're gonna hear a little bit about what Sergio is doing today, but more importantly about his journey of how he's got to where he is in life right now and why nothing is happenstance. It all happens for a reason. So, Sergio, with that, I'm gonna turn it over to you to talk about what you're doing. , 

[00:02:05] Sergio Kopelev: you're very kind.

I, I really appreciate it. Um, yeah, it, it's, it's interesting, like I do so many different things in so many different areas and, you know, the joke is, you know, it's, it's attention deficit, right? And, uh, I've learned how to take my disability and, and turn into a superpower. Always keep that in mind that whatever makes you unique is, makes you unique, right?

Um, so you're very kind. And yeah, if people run into me, most likely it's gonna be in a Las Vegas casino now, um, where I spend most of my time, uh, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Uh, but no, I live in Vegas 

[00:02:38] Jeanniey Walden: now. Cause you live there. Let, let's just hold on. Let's just interrupt and say it's because you live in Vegas now, not because.

You have a need to 

[00:02:46] Sergio Kopelev: not leave. No, no, no. Yeah, totally. Because I live in Vegas. Uh, I mean, my journey, my journey is, is sort of an interesting one. Like I came to the us I don't look like the part, but I came to the US as a refugee. I'm a first generation refugee. I was born in Soviet Russia. Um, we were Jewish dissidents for a bit.

My family's highly political. Um, you know, my grand, my grandfather's had a much more interesting journey than I, than I did ever. , um, my, my great-uncle, you know, fought with, fought with, with Lennon against Stalin and so and so when we came to the us for me as a kid, it was a real shock because, you know, I, when I was in Russia, I was, I was quite a, quite mu quite idealistic about the fact that, you know, Soviet Russia was good and then my whole world turned upside down.

What? I've learned that, no, no, that's all a lie. And so I came to New York and lived in the hood. Eight of us lived in a one bedroom apartment, uh, where, um, yeah, separated the living room, separated with a curtain. So my grandparents had had the bedroom. My aunt, uncle and my cousin had one half of the living room.

And then we had the other half. Uh, my, my parents and I, and so small family. Um, and grew up really in, in play, like in, in the type of poverty where it's just, we don't talk about it in, in, you know, polite society. And fortunately for me, I was able to get out, you know, a little education, a little good luck, a little hard work.

When you combine altogether, it produces results. 

[00:04:21] Jeanniey Walden: Now how old were you when you came over as a 

[00:04:23] Sergio Kopelev: refugee? I was eight. We came in the seventies during the second wave of Russian immigrants. Jimmy Carter. Good thing he did, you know, he made a deal with Brene Russia. So in the seventies, Russia had a horrible, uh, famine.

And so, um, Brene or, um, um, I think, I'm trying to think who, I guess it was. back then made a deal with Jimmy Carter, where they, he would allow Jews out of Russia to reunite with families that were separated during World War ii. Um, and the idea was to go to, . And then when we all left Russia, we wound up in Austria kind of in a holding spot and, and if somebody said, I wanna go to Israel, you'd be on the next plane to Israel.

So, but my grandmother, Israel in the seventies was having quite, quite a diff and my grandmother, who's been through, she said, I've been through one war. I'm not doing another one. She, she, she went through World War II with two infant kids and she said, I'm not, I'm not going to another war zone. And so we decided to come to the.

Then we had to apply to be into the US refugee program. So we had to spend a year while we were trying to get the US to accept us. Cause we had no documents, we had no money, we had no nothing. So, um, we finally got here, um, we finally got here right before 1980 and, um, moved, you know, into sort of, we didn't even move to the Russian area of New York because it was too expensive.

We moved into the hood, uh, just because we didn't have. . And then, um, we eventually got, we eventually, my mom got a job, my dad got a job, my dad did everything imaginable, uh, at first, but then wound up working for Kaz Deli in, in, in Manhattan, of course on Houston and Street Santa Salami to boy in the Army.

And so my dad made sandwiches for a living. So, I mean, uh, one of the things, so I'm pretty successful now, right? I, I, I have a date. I have a, I'm a vice president of a multinational consulting. Um, I came out of the big four. Um, I came out the, I was in the government first, then I came out of the Big four.

And the government, you know, I ran a federal task force out of the, out of main justice and I've spoken to co in front of Congress and so fairly accomplished and, and it's really interesting to think about like how I got here, right? Because I literally, we, we came from nothing but that being. . I sometimes, you know, I, I do, I do a certain amount of media and talk to people and I teach college now, and so I always sort of talk about the fact that if you, if you put in hard work, you can make it.

And in some ways I feel a little bit like an imposter when I say that because while it's true, we came here with nothing, no English, no education, no, you know, American education. My grandmother was a physician in Russia. My grandfather was a PhD scientist in Russia with several. , my mom, um, you know, taught college in Russia.

So in some ways, while it's easy to say, yeah, I'm like a se self-made man, you know, my dad made sandwiches for a living. The reality is my family has all been very successful. So in the, in the mindset, and this has really been, I knew what success looked like, right? Because, uh, I don't really play golf or play or play baseball, but if you listen to golf players, And if you listen to baseball players, what they'll tell you is unless you can see in your mind the bat coming in contact with the ball, the club coming in, contact with the ball and that ball sailing over, over the, the fairway, uh, you're never gonna hit it.

You're never gonna hit a home run if you can't see that, that ball coming in contact with a bat and then that, that, and then going over over the wall and. I never really understood that until probably the last four or five years. But one of the things that my family has allowed, you know, allowed me to do is to know what success looks like, even if it's not in front of you.

And then you can plot it as people, when you stand up, you have to stand up with your head first. And so I'm a big believer that we create our own reality. And if you think it, if you build it, it will happen. Um, and so I really do, you know, physically it works that way. You can't stand. Unless your head is, is is the one that going up.

And I think, you know, thematically or emotionally, you are never gonna be successful un unless you can see your head moving up. Unless you can see that bat coming in contact with that ball and you can see that ball going over the fairway or going over, you know, the wall or at Wrigley field. And I think that's the key to, to.

Um, 

[00:08:51] Jeanniey Walden: you know, it's fascinating that you take that all the way back to how successful your family was in Russia. My grandparents on my mom's side came over from Italy where they were very successful in the banking industry and of course here in the US they were building a lot of the bridges and tunnels in Pittsburgh and doing a lot of day labor and putting lots of family members through schools.

Paying for their support, but previously they had been, you know, very well to do and, and I don't think a lot of people go back to their lineage as much as they could to know that they were born into an incredible. Opportunity or a family that's already pre laid the demonstration of success and all they need to do is, as you said, you know, stand up, put your head first, envision it and move with it.

So I love that. I think that's a great perspective. . 

[00:09:46] Sergio Kopelev: Yeah. And, and so I'm, as much like I have friends who are like, oh my God, you know, look at what you've accomplished. Right? And, and, and, and, and I, I don't know, I feel a little bit like an imposter. It's different than when you grow up in Appalachia and your parents couldn't read and now you look at the per uh, uh, and she's the c e o of a, you know, of a.com and finish Harvard or whatever.

Like, that's impressive, right? Because I, I was a lot very, for. That I had a successful family, so as much as it sounds like we came from nothing, and I lived in poverty, so I just didn't want to be an imposter when we talk about it. But yeah, I grew up in poverty where, you know, where now it's all hipsters, but back then it was all section eight housing.

It was, you know, it was a terrible crime ridden neighborhood that was controlled by gang. , uh, because it just, it wasn't really suitable for, you know, for human, human residents. But that's what the, that's just the neighborhood in Brooklyn that we, we happen to move into. And, and it's a, it is a great story that, hey, I came from the, from the other side of the tracks.

But the reality is, is that fam my family at least, gave me a little bit of a, not financially, but, but sort of emotionally and intellectually. They gave me the ability to see success and to know. success is there. 

[00:11:04] Jeanniey Walden: As you, as you, you know, grew up here, did you have an idea of what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Are you one of the types of people that likes to explore everything? Did you follow a passion? You know, for a while I wanted to be a cashier. because I liked cash registers, . So we're all very grateful that I didn't go down that route permanently. But I was a cashier for a while, so I did live out my dreams.

I also wanted to be a veterinarian and I wanna be a teacher and all these other things. What did you wanna be as you were growing up? Did you have an, an idea? 

[00:11:36] Sergio Kopelev: That's a great question. Not really. So, so I came, so I came, uh, you know, sort of in, in elementary school and I, and I was very little. I've always been, I'm five seven now.

When I was really young, I was really little, you know, for my age. And so my, when I first came to the US in fifth grade, it was awful. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I got my ass kicked constantly. I got picked on by everyone in school. I couldn't, I didn't even know, like I didn't know enough English to know when the kids were making fun of me.

And so it was, it was horrible. And so, I started, uh, running with a local Hispanic Street gang, uh, for, uh, because for protection, for survival. And then, uh, I got in trouble, pretty, pretty substantive trouble when I was, um, I guess it was when I was just getting ready to go to high school. Um, and, but that time I was already kind of a baby gangster and a, and a pretty bad guy.

And when I got in trouble, Fortunately, instead of going to juvie, they were gonna put me in juvie till my 18th birthday, and that would've been bad. But fortunately, I went into a diversion program where, um, it was they intended to divert at-risk youth. instead of going to prison, uh, to divert, to try to see if we can make something ourselves.

And it had two elements to it. One was the four H Wilderness Challenge, where they took us out into the woods and taught us how to repel and confidence courses and do all this outdoorsy stuff, which as an inner city kid, I was like, yeah, it's fine. It gets me out in like, you know, I don't have to be in Brooklyn for, for, you know, a weekend.

But then the other part was the police Explorer post. And the police explorer. I got introduced to law enforcement, and I say this, that uh, in pretty much a few days, I met the biggest, toughest. , best equipped, best funded, best armed, uh, tightest gang in the city of New York, the New York City Police Department.

And after that, I didn't want to be anything else but a cop. So I'm, I'm I, I'm career law enforcement. I've always sort of felt like a cop. I liked who I was as a cop. My first job at high school, I was an EMT on a New York City ambulance, which I loved as. . Um, and it made me feel good and I didn't want to be a victim.

And so for me, a big driver of who I was and, and maybe even to today, was the reason I wanted to be in law enforcement is because they were the ultimate. They, they ruled the streets and I didn't. And so I was like, well, yeah, the gangsters like you are, you're protected. Like I didn't get my ass kicked once I started, once I started with, uh, with my friends, but the cops still messed with.

but nobody messed with the cops. So my goal from fairly young, I was never in trouble again. Um, I, I kept two jobs to pay restitution because I, there was, there was some, I had some issues from that. Um, I had some police officers who really took a, took um, an interest in me. Um, and, uh, so I, from a fairly young, you know, from from high school years, I decided that I wanted to be in law enforcement because it was the.

Job, you know, that I could imagine where I would never be picked on. And I think that's been a driver for me for a very long time. Um, and then when I left law enforcement, um, I, and I came to San Diego. I got into consulting cuz I got recruited to it by, by a former boss's boss who was a FBI agent or an assistant director of the bureau and sort of stayed in that same field for quite a while.

That's 

[00:15:01] Jeanniey Walden: great. So do you feel like you were mentored by the police and different people in. 

[00:15:08] Sergio Kopelev: Yeah. So, uh, one of the sort of, uh, one of my accomplishment when I was in law enforcement is, um, is, and my parents split. I, we, there's a lot of excuses people can come up with. Like my parents split and maybe that contributed to it a little bit.

And you know, my dad was kind of out of my life at that time, and then I got close to 'em when I be, when I finally grew, you know, became an adult. But, um, for me it was really, you know, like their parents were like, oh my God, my kid is never gonna accomplish anything. I'll give you my mother's phone number, right?

Because if I could accomplish something as difficult as I was, anybody can. So yeah, there was a, there was a guy named Sergeant Don Amos, um, who took a lot of interest in me and spent a lot of time with me, and I think that was a very positive male influence in my life. And so because of that, I sort of am who I am.

Um, but I also will, will credit my mother for, for my mother as a studious person. My dad was brilliant and never, and really made sandwiches for a living, right? But he was from a street smart standpoint. He, he, he was a very street savvy kind of guy and could really, he knew somebody, he knew somebody who could get anything.

And that's very much me, right? I've never met a stranger and my dad, and that's all that all my dad, my mom might not have been as smart intellectual. , but she was very accomplished because, you know, in RU in Russia it sounds better, but basically some people accomplished things with their heads and some PE people accomplished things with their, with their behinds by sitting in a chair and doing it right.

And so I was very fortunate that, that I got both from my mother and from my dad. Um, and so I, you know, once I figured out that that school was a good thing, it was great. Right? But, you know, it is a lot of positive role models. A lot of it is drive. , a lot of it is a g A D and I was never happy with anything and I was never focused on any one thing.

And I just kept driving. And every time, you know, you reach top of the mountain for whatever reason, I see the next, the next mountain, and I wanna climb that. Um, and so I don't, you know, so I was very fortunate that that drive was built into me from the time I was a, I was a little. . 

[00:17:13] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, that's great. So you, you've built this whole career and it's been pretty phenomenal with some twists and turns along the way.

But even today as a successful leader at a large company, you still enjoy other hobbies that get to kind of challenge you to think differently or follow your passions. Right. 

[00:17:32] Sergio Kopelev: Yeah. Uh, very much so. And, and, and I don't know why that is, but yeah, I mean, and it all sort of, it sounds so odd, but it's also sort of organic.

Like I have, I have two startups that I'm help that I'm with my friends because I enjoy it. Right. I have a, I have a travel startup, which is a kind of a big play called vi Versai, where um, Diversity. We're building a community and marketplace where individuals can securely combine resources to achieve travel they couldn't on their own right.

It sort of combines the best of Meetup and, and, uh, Airbnb. Um, in, into one. Right. And then I have another startup, which is a spice school startup called Tradecraft Adventures, where we, we give people a chance to spend four days, uh, all inclusive living the life of a knock. Right? In intelligence community, there's two types of supplies.

There is a, there are case officers who train at Langley or, or in Quantico, or they train at the farm or in Quantico. and they're official, like they're, they're paychecks. They're generally associated with, with, with the agency or the fbi. They're sworn agents. And then there's knots, which are nonofficial cover, uh, folks who never touch, who never touch, uh, an the intelligence establishment, but they get trained in, in safe houses and they then spend their life working for banks and universities and different things, but they have their career.

Right. They're non-official cover operatives, which they're real spies. And so, um, all of our, we give you that experience of being a knock for four days. Where you get to Little, little, 

[00:19:12] Jeanniey Walden: I love both of those companies. I, I think they're both brilliant. You know, especially Wei uh, you know, my husband Vince is trying to plan a vacation and, and was looking at, if you go individually, this is how much it costs.

If everybody pulled their resources together, look what we could do. And, and there's such a need for that right now, especially now that kind of covid bands are lifted and everybody can work remotely or hybrid and, and get to explore that. That's cool. And the spy thing. It sounds amazing to me. 

[00:19:42] Sergio Kopelev: Are you, you'll be, you and Jenin will have, we'll have you and Vince that we, we are doing it in two places.

One in Louisville, Kentucky and one in, um, uh, in Las Vegas, Nevada. And so, um, we'll have you out. I, when I was in law enforcement, I spent, I spent some time undercover. And so when I was undercover, my, my case officer was a guy named Terry Rancor, who's a legendary undercover. We spend, you know, Terry has trained pretty much every uc the FBI has put out the last 20 years and ran the both FBIs, um, ran one of the, uh, undercover training programs, um, and also used, used to work in their black bag squad.

Just an amazing, amazing guy. And we've been lifelong friends since we worked. Um, and then one day while I was in Mexico and bored on vacation, really all of these things happened because, you know, after three days I was like, oh, okay, I've, I've drank enough mojitos and spoken off cigars where there's gotta be something fun to do.

And I just started playing around and we came up with this trade graphic adventures concept because I remember having that experience of being undercover and living another life, and it was kind of exciting. But most people don't get that experience and those skills that you. , um, have a value to it. You know, one of the things that we talked about, like tradecraft, like it's fun because we, for four days, you get to experience another life, right?

You still, you, but we teach you, uh, and you, you live the life of a knock. Well, what would happen if you, if you weren't, you know, uh, a celebrity and you were, you were, uh, you were a knock, right? And then, uh, and that's fun. But the reality of it, there's a reason why retired. Are in such high demand, right?

There's a reason why my, in my corporate job, in my day job, I get paid a lot of money to do what I do. Because of the skills that I've acquired during my time in the government. And that goes across the board. We have, you know, we have a group of mentors that, that, that we, that are gonna be our mentors for, for our, for, for the, for the clients that are pretty amazing.

And they're all very accomplished, very success people. So you gotta ask yourself, why is it that spies under such high demand and are so success? Whether they, whether in the government work or in the private sector. And the reality is that having these skills help people get better jobs. It helps because those skills are useful in business and sales and, and other things.

It helps them in, in interpersonal interactions, right? It, it, and, you know, it helps you talk to the opposite sex. It helps you be confident enough and to ask the right questions helps you know when people are lying to you. Right? All the useful things for social interactions. You know, personal relationships, whatever you want to call it.

And then number three, it helps you be safe, right? So the goal of this training is to have fun, right? It's four days of fun. But I really focus all of our mentors and the fact that we are, we are looking to give skills to our clients that will serve them beyond just the four day adventure. Like you go on a cruise, it's great, but then you come home, oh, you have these pictures here, you get actual skills that you can use going forward.

to, you know, get a better job, have better relationships, and then stay safer where you know how to spot a, a secret camera. When you check into an Airbnb and you recognize that when you check in a hotel and you think it's your space, there's a hundred people Have access to your room and be aware, being aware of those things and knowing what it looks like when you're leaving the mall during Christmas time and you think somebody's, all of a sudden you recognize that somebody's.

right now, they're not following you because, because they're, you know, they're Russian spies and Right. But they might be following you because they wanna mug you. And so he gives you those skills, teaches you what to do if that happens and how to avoid that and and so on. 

[00:23:27] Jeanniey Walden: That's so fascinating. And when you know when your friend gets trade craft ready to go mainstream, let me know.

I'll have you on the TV show because. It's an incredibly helpful and useful, I think product and experience. 

[00:23:40] Sergio Kopelev: Yeah. We just at, except at, at the, at the risk of being too pitchy, we just, um, we just, we just launched, uh, we just launched our website officially and so we're starting to, our first adventure is set for, um, the in per.

We have a couple different, uh, we have a way for, we have the in-person sort of. The flagship adventure, and the first one is gonna be beginning of April in Las Vegas. Um, but we also have an online training component because there's a lot of folks that might want to have that experience and might want to have the training, but they just don't have the resources to go to Las Vegas for four days.

And it, it's inexpensive. I mean, it's, it's a $5,000, uh, vacation and so they might not have that, that ability. So we have an online component, we have an on demand component, so there's different ways for people to get involved. So yeah, we're pretty awesome. We're pretty. . 

[00:24:29] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, we should talk about that more later.

I've, I have a completely random question for you. So, uh, there was that movie a few years ago, and I can't remember what it was called, but it was about Chuck Berry, who was, uh, supposedly a knock that was also a TV show host from The Gong Show. And it, and there was a whole movie that followed his life where he supposedly had this double life where you.

by day. He's TV show host On the weekends at night, he's doing, he's running all of these spy campaigns and even gets caught. . I don't know if you saw that movie or not. I'm curious if you did, if you think, you know if it's real, but you're saying no. So you didn't see It's not, I, I, I 

[00:25:14] Sergio Kopelev: didn't see it. It's interesting.

It's, I mean, the things that happen most of the time, right, most of the time. A Knox wind up being serving overseas and have specific focus and specific missions. Right. Uh, they work in, they, they work for Citibank, um, in, in, you know, in Moscow, right? Because their job is to develop local, you know, intelligence, local assets, uh, just like.

Like one of our mentors, um, the part of the program is a guy named Jack Barsky, who's a, who's actually the, the American word is knock. The, the Russian term for it is illegal. Right? So if you've seen the show, the Americans, Jack did that for 10 years during the Cold War, right? He was a, he was a, he was German.

Um, just like the, just like the characters actually, I think, uh, in the Americans he was. Um, he was recruited by the Stai because he was a scientist. He was a chemist and he had the right ideological outlook in life. He was a dedicated communist, uh, and he got recruited by the Stai to work on behalf of the KGB in the us.

So he came to the us, assumed a fake identity, and lived in it for 10 years and sent coded messages back. To Russia and, and you know, traveled using dead drops and fake passports and all the, all the things that we were gonna teach. But, um, he had a very specific mission and then to under, to really report on American culture, cuz Russia had a misunderstanding of kind of how this country worked.

They figured it out, right? So if 2016 and, and 2020 taught us anything, is that, that Russia's got is, is got it figured out now about what we're all about and how we function. So it's, it's interesting. Um, so I don't know if Chuck Berry was a, was a knock. I don't know if I would, if really I would utilize a TV show host, cause I don't know how much access they have to, to, to individuals with, with proper intelligence.

If you watch the movie, Argo, Argo is based on a true story where the CIA set up a moving company in order to, to rescue, um, hostages. So, yeah, uh, I would use Argo mode of an, of an example. Than, um, than Chuck Berry, but I'm cur, I'm now I'm gonna watch that movie and see what, like, 

[00:27:28] Jeanniey Walden: you're gonna have to watch the movie.

Yeah, yeah. It was just fascinating. All right. Yeah. I wanna know if he was really a spy because you watched this whole movie and, and the people, of course, people behind the scenes, it's the standard, you know, after that kid, you know, robbed the house. I knew he was always a bad boy. I saw him not being nice to the cat after it was done, you know, but we'll see.

We'll see what happens. Yeah. That's it. I So your, your journey, Sergio has been driven by security, success, safety and creating a world that's a better place, which I think is a phenomenal journey. And it's great to see that it's really been consistent. Your, your entire life. You've done different adventures and you're always involved with different adventures, but they've all evolved around, you know, a couple key principles.

I think that's very, 

[00:28:18] Sergio Kopelev: Yeah. And, and I and honestly think, and, and, and this is sort of a philosophical thing, and I'm not the deepest philosophical guy, like that's not what I'm known for, right? I work hard, but if, but in recent, his, in recent years, I've been a little bit more philosophical, and I will tell you that one of the things is, is that like, I don't know what you, I'm not a religious person, right?

I'm Jewish, but more cultural than religious. And I will tell you is it doesn't matter what you. , um, whatever power of the universe, right? Some people call it, call it, uh, Jesus. Some people call it the universe. Some people call it, um, whatever life force, right? Some people call it Yahweh. And you know, Muhammad, it doesn't really matter what you call it, but there's some, there's some sort of order to the universe.

that, that if you put in good things into the universe, good things come back to you. Right? And, and really, like, I really struggle with the fact, is that true? Why do good things happen to bad? Uh, why do good things happen to bad people? And why do bad things happen to good people? And, and then my personal thing, like, I don't know if any of that is true, like the, that the fact that if you do good things, the universe will reward you.

But what I will tell you in my experience is that if you approach life with that in, from that direct. , it doesn't matter if it's true, it just makes your life better. Right? It doesn't matter whether it's real or whether it's just our own fictional self-belief that when I'm, uh, when I feel good about myself, good things happen.

Right? And ultimately that's, that's I think why I've been successful because I have this sort of a casual relationship. And because it costs nothing to be nice to somebody. Like that's the reality is, right? We, by being nice to somebody else, it costs me nothing. . Right. It doesn't, it, it, it like, just saying something nice.

There's no cost, there's no opportunity cost, there's no, there's no time cost. You just, you'd be nice, right? Being nice to the, to the waitress, being nice to the, to the clerk, being nice to somebody that, that you're sitting next door on an airplane. Right. So it costs nothing to be nice. And ultimately what you get out of it is, is, is, uh, is, is, is a great benefit.

And so overall, like my, I think that a lot of my success could be attributed number one to other people. I've been extremely fortunate that that folks have been very helpful. And I think the reason folks are helpful is because I try to be nice to people, right? Not, I don't always succeed, but, you know, and, but, but, and that if I, if I could leave one.

It is the fact that it costs you nothing to be kind. Um, and if everybody's kind to everybody else, we'll have a much better world. 

[00:30:58] Jeanniey Walden: I love that. It's such a great note to end on. Thank you so much for being our guest on Lift Up Journeys. 

[00:31:04] Sergio Kopelev: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It's very flattering. Like I, it really is.

It's very, very flattering. 

[00:31:10] Jeanniey Walden: Absolutely. All right. Bye.

Well, there you have it. Another episode of Liftoff Journeys. Are you inspired? I hope so. Tune in next week to listen to another journey from another incredible business leader and learn how to follow your passion down the road to success. And most of all, you know that this podcast is gonna be absolutely incredible because it's produced by the team at Casto Productions.

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