Unmasking Greatness
Join Fitness/LifeStyle Expert & Mentor Chris Kakouras talk about maximizing your health, business, mindset, and overall life! Let's get better together as I bring on amazing guest to interview and learn from!
Unmasking Greatness
Cooking Up a Legacy: Lazaro Montoto Journey to 15 Restaurant Locations
Lazaro Montoto, owner of Tropical Grill with 15 locations across South Carolina, shares his remarkable journey from washing dishes at age 14 to building a restaurant empire while prioritizing faith, family, and health.
• Starting as a dishwasher in Miami at 14 years old to help his single mother
• Learning culinary skills from mentors who taught him discipline and integrity
• Pushing himself out of his comfort zone to learn front-of-house operations
• Growing from one restaurant to fifteen locations through systems and teamwork
• Maintaining unwavering commitment to food quality despite higher costs
• Prioritizing health and fitness after experiencing business-related anxiety
• Crediting his wife as the driving force behind their business success
• Finding strength through faith and developing a personal relationship with God
• Creating balance between business growth and making family memories
• Offering mentorship and guidance to others regardless of competitive concerns
"If there's one thing I desire for my kids, it's that they meet their best friend, marry their best friend, and are able to go through the ups and downs of life together."
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Welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, Chris Kikoris, a lifestyle fitness coach and mentor. This podcast is about unmasking your greatest potential, finding your purpose and crafting a life worth living. Health and fitness has been the gateway drug to all of my success. My continuous drive to keep learning and surround myself with other high achievers forces me to level up, which has developed my mind to something I never thought was possible. This podcast is here to share what I've learned and continue to learn with all of you. This is your sign to take back control of your health, mindset and personal environment. Strap in as we are recharged and always find value in the show. Please subscribe and share, as we can all get better together. Let's go. What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, Chris Kikoris, and today's episode. I have a very special guest, one that I'm actually really excited to talk to Lazaro Montoro, owner of Tropical Grill, a franchise in South Carolina, correct, yeah, All South Carolina.
Speaker 2:Yeah, currently, yeah, just South Carolina currently.
Speaker 1:So I'm super excited for this one. I've heard of your name for a while. Let me say that People are like oh, you know, Laz, you know, Laz, I know Tropical Grill. Just being in the fitness industry, I know Tropical Grill and so, coming to Carolina Iron, the gym that I'm at, that's where we linked up, I gym that I'm at, that's where we linked up I got introduced and you know everybody's like, oh, you got to meet this guy. So, and I did.
Speaker 1:I think Zeno, one of our coaches, introduced us initially and you know, from there we just kind of every time I see you I say what's up? Like nothing, nothing crazy. But I did, I watch people from afar and I see you, I come in, you come in, you do your workout and it's pretty regular and I was like, okay, this is cool, you got someone that has a healthy, conscious restaurant that also works out. It makes sense. So, coming from my family being in the restaurant business too, that's initially how we ended up talking, because I was asking you just in general.
Speaker 1:I thought it was really really impressive that you have now currently 15 locations Right In my family. One was enough, maybe two, you know. So that was kind of where our initial conversation started, and then you kind of told me a little bit more about your background too. That was really like it had my wheels turning and also I was pretty inspired with it. So I really want to kind of touch on that and also I was pretty inspired with it. So I really want to kind of touch on that. I want you to kind of give the people like a little bit of like where you came from, how you got into, like the food industry Was that even the plan for you?
Speaker 2:Definitely was not the plan. I'll say that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But yeah, going back to what you said earlier, one is more than enough, Definitely enough. You're going to be crazy to do more than one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got a crazy person next to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes I wonder. But no, the restaurant business is just something that kind of just happened to me. I was a young kid, 14 years old, growing up in Miami, florida, and single mother and just trying to do my part as a kid to make her to reduce some of the stress in her life. So you know, I went out looking for a job and the first job I can get was in the restaurant business as a dishwasher. And you know, I took that on and, you know, enjoyed it and had an opportunity to, you know, be next to some great chefs and I was just, I would say, probably annoying enough to get their attention and finally get a guy that wanted to kind of teach me a little bit. So, you know, after harassing the chef for so long, he finally decided to take me under his wings and then I realized what made me fall in love with the restaurant business then was, you know, the cooking, the kitchen aspect of things. And it was kind of a journey because this guy was a.
Speaker 2:I worked with a couple different guys that were super instrumental. One was a French guy, another one's another guy from Miami, but the French guy, man Patrick, he, when I first told him. I wanted to get in there and do some of this stuff and you know, I saw the glamorous side right. He was the guy with the nice chef coat. You know the recognition and I thought that was super cool as a 14 year old and um, you know, I wanted, I wanted to experience that. So the first thing he does is hand me a bag of a 150 pound bag of carrots and tells me to start cutting this thing.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah it's not what I signed up for I'm I'm a chef yeah, yeah so you know, you have to cut these carrots, man.
Speaker 2:And one of the first lessons that he taught me was this guy was super, super meticulous and I'm cutting these things and this guy was so difficult If it wasn't exact, I mean, he'd throw that whole thing away and I'd probably spend an hour cutting these carrots and he came in and started looking at them, threw the whole thing away and told me to start over and then gave me a deadline on it and I was like, oh shit, yeah, I don't know about this. No, but you know, uh, I I at some point I realized you know what, what his intentions were, and you know it was something as simple as just teaching me knife skills. At that moment, you know he was teaching me knife skills and teaching me integrity and doing things a certain way and doing it right. Yeah, and eventually, you know, long story short, I became a chef at that restaurant and got an opportunity to cook for a ton of celebrities and you know, I got to experience a little side of what he did and really enjoyed it and realized that if I was going to have a career in the restaurant business, I needed to get outside my comfort zone. I was kind of an introvert hitting in the kitchen. I enjoyed kind of looking through these double doors out there but not getting out there and getting too far out there. So I knew that if I was going to be in the business for any significant amount of time I would have to learn the front of house and I eventually pushed myself out there and started learning what it was to deal with customers, one-on-one and the simple things like serving that are fundamental to the restaurant business because that's where you hone your skills.
Speaker 2:Just for service, and without service, I always tell people you can have great food in a restaurant with poor service and your restaurant closes. But if you have great service with even okay food, you can have a line out the door. So service is that important. Great service with even okay food, you can have a line out the door. So service is that important. Yeah, and I learned that from those guys and you know eventually became restaurant manager and, you know, started growing in my career and um worked for a steakhouse in in South Beach. Uh, smith Walensky's still have great relationships with those guys there.
Speaker 1:And that's super cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of like the beginning of the journey on the earlier part of my career and kind of how the journey started.
Speaker 1:Start from the back end. That's how I was. You know my father having the restaurant. You know, being the son, he could have put me on a pedestal if he wanted to. Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:But it was not.
Speaker 1:He's like in the dish pit pit and I've always been. I don't know. I think I have a little bit of competitive nature. So even being back there, it was like I'm gonna be the fastest dishwasher ever. It's just like I was young, it thought it was like fun and so. But I started there and, similar to you, like I enjoyed the backend, the kitchen, the prep work, cooking Honestly, like when people if you ever look on like social media, some people will be like these, like panic clips in the kitchen and like tickets are just like rolling out. It was exciting, you know, like highly stressful but super exciting there's nothing better than that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, but I just like I thrived off that kind of stuff, and especially if you have a good team. Yeah, when everything's clicking and people are moving, it's so nice, and when it's not, it's just chaos, you know.
Speaker 2:It is, but we thrive in that chaos for some reason. It's something that brings the best out of us, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and when you're done it's just like it's just a really good feeling.
Speaker 2:Oh the best.
Speaker 1:But I just love the whole kitchen back end stuff. But like you, I was I don't want to say terrified of the front. I just didn't want to go out there and talk to people because my dad was always out there, Right, you know, he was the people person, part of the community, and I felt like I was like in his shadow. So I was just like I don't know. I felt super uncomfortable. Eventually I had to get out there.
Speaker 1:But being and learning the whole business it's a lot. It's a lot to manage. Employees are hard to get, they're hard to get in and come in time, and with my father he didn't really have standard operation procedures, you know what I mean. It was very kind of like go here, do that, do this, do that, and it worked for him. But I just don't see and maybe you can elaborate on that, I don't know. That's just. In my opinion, it's not possible to scale something like that, you know, because it's just, it's almost like it's dependent on you being there and so there's not, there's not 15 of lads is running around here, you know so. So let me back up a minute. So you got all this experience through this one location and then you kind of test it out. But when was kind of like, okay, I'm ready to start my own thing, Was there something that got you to a point where you're like, okay, I'm ready to dive head into something.
Speaker 2:I don't know that anything prepares you for this necessarily, outside of jumping in and getting your feet wet. You think you're prepared, right, and it goes back to what you were just saying with your dad, right? He kind of just kind of flew by the seat of his pants, essentially right, yeah, yeah, single operator and he can get away with that. And you go into this mentality. It's the only way you know you. Just things happen, problems come, you solve them, yeah, you get it done and you keep moving, right, and you can get away with that with one restaurant. And I think that's where where it starts to get difficult when you go to two and even three, um, getting the two is extremely difficult because now you're like you said, you can only be at one place at one time and divide yourself, so, um, and then as things start to happen, you're not there to fix those instantly. So it's, it's just part of any business, right? You, you know what you know and when you don't know, you're going to have to figure out the hard way sometimes. And as you start to grow a business, you know there are things that you get into that you realize the hard way. You know, you figure it out and you're like dang. I wish I would have known that sooner. That would have saved me a ton of headache, a ton of time and money and effort and all kinds of things all kinds of heartache really. So you know, unfortunately that's life in a lot of ways, and how you adapt to those situations, how you react to those situations, is what really determines whether or not you're successful. You know. So, learning on the fly, man, I mean it's really no different than what your dad had to do, it's just on a bigger scale. So hopefully, eventually you're smart enough to figure it out and put policies and procedures in place to help you not fall into the same situation more than once and you start to kind of navigate things in a way that you don't fall into those traps and situations. You have a game plan for them. So you know, are you ever prepared?
Speaker 2:I don't know that you're ever prepared, I mean honestly. I mean there's a lot that helped me get to the point where I was prepared for a lot of what was getting thrown my way. You know I was able to deal with people. I had good people skills at that point. I had a good understanding of the kitchen. I knew how to set up a kitchen. I knew how to operate a line and flow efficiently. I knew how to do the operation side of things I knew how to do. But as a business owner and I'm sure we'll get into it a little deeper but I mean I got into this because of my love for food and people. That is not what you do as an owner.
Speaker 2:You get to do some of that but as you scale, I mean you better be prepared for the other hats that you have to wear, and there's a multitude of hats that you have to wear, especially early on in your business when you can't afford to bring people in that you know might already have that experience that you need on your team. Yeah, yeah so 100%, I think.
Speaker 1:honestly. I feel like that's a really good way to get into it, because I knew when I was in the restaurant business, I wanted to know how to do everything, every position, oh yeah, from the dishwashing to the grills to to the frying, to, like the front house. I wanted to know how to do everything because there was times where you know people call out, you got to fill in a gap. You know what I mean. Or you have and I know you've heard this too that ain't my job. Oh yeah, that ain't my job, man, you don't pay me to do that, you're right. You're right. You're right. You ain't got a job, no more. So you might as well go ahead and leave. Yeah, I mean, we used to do that all time. That used to be the worst thing I've ever heard. I'm like you know what, you're right. This ain't no prison, you're free yeah, goodbye.
Speaker 2:You know the reality of that is that, that it sounds good on paper, right, because that's your initial thought. But when you got a line out the door, if you let your ego get in the way, that's in that moment. Now you're shooting yourself in the foot. So sometimes you got to take a deep breath, analyze that situation. Hopefully cooler heads prevail when you have a one-on-one and try to figure out if that's a genuine philosophy that this person has. Is this their actual outlook on life and how they want to do things? And if they are at that point, I think you have no choice but to move on.
Speaker 2:But maybe a good conversation and I've experienced this with some of the younger generation early on. I just feel like younger people are a little more open to change and you know, hopefully a lot of times I've been able to have these conversations and I've told them. I said listen, man, I don't care what happens after here. Like this is a job for now, you're in high school, man. Like this is not your career, you're just kind of going through time, but thinking 10, 20 years from now, man, if you continue with that mentality, you will absolutely fail at everything you do in life. So catch it now and you know, just get it done, man, do what you got to do. Outside of making you go outside and paint the building, you know, I tell these guys straight up outside of making you go outside and paint the building, you paint the parking lot. I mean, we're in a restaurant, man, anything that applies to this business is your job period, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Some people get it, some people don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's part of being like a good team leader and you being a good influence on them. That was one thing that I had to really reconstruct. One of the reasons that I was really good in the kitchen is because the people I had back there I built good relationships with Right and it's because I'm I'm in the weeds with them. It's not like just pointing fingers. They. They had a little more respect for me, a ton, you know, because I'm in there doing it.
Speaker 2:I'm not just, you know, throwing orders around and yelling at people, which my dad was notorious for you know, if you're old school greek, like you know how those guys are, you're not really from the restaurant business if you can get a pot or pan that is, uh.
Speaker 1:There's a funny story to that one too, More than a few. So all these are you. I mean you're sole owners. Do you have partners? Is your, your family's involved as well, or how does that work out?
Speaker 2:I mean I have. We founded it, my wife and I, with my mom and my stepfather. We got into the first one together, okay, and we launched this brand. And we got into the first one together, okay, we launched this brand. My mom's they're both a little older have different desires and aspirations in life. They just kind of were looking for something to get by and do their thing. At some point they decided they would stay with our second location and they would manage that one. We had desires to grow and keep doing this thing. We're younger and had a little different things going on in our life that we were looking for, so we kept growing the brand it's basically they have the second location and then we've taken on everything else.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, Okay, that's a lot dude, that's a lot to handle.
Speaker 2:It is. It is, but we have a great team and we've had great people throughout our journey. There have been times where you know we haven't and you know we've had struggles because of that, but you know I love the team we have right now and you know, I think the outlook looks great and you know I'm looking forward to continue growing this brand with the people we have and I'm sure as we grow we'll continue to add more and more people and find people that will fill holes that we don't even know we have or that we have a need for. I got you.
Speaker 1:So here's a question. This is kind of a two-part question, okay, as you're going from one location to two to three, the first one is did you have a mentor or someone that was helping you guide more of the business strategy? And then the second as you're growing, you have to hire and now you're getting more into I don't know if you want to call it like a corporate setting you know, having people that are helping you know marketing or strategically in the backend business. Are you finding and outsourcing people? Or did you have people that were already working, that you saw really good qualities and you're like hey, you know what? I think you'd be really great to grow with me, because that's essentially how we brought on our coaches. They were clients that were already qualified and then we talked and they're like I want to work with you. So it was an easy transition for me to find people I trust.
Speaker 2:I would say it's been a combination of both for your second question. For your first question, I have have mentors. There's somebody that I talk about all the time is henry delgado. He's um right now. He's um an owner at smith olinsky. He has a couple locations, uh, the one on south beach and then one in london, and when I got there he was the assistant manager, just to give you an idea of his growth, um, and and what an amazing person he is and the things that he's been able to accomplish.
Speaker 2:But he was somebody that I was able to watch.
Speaker 2:It wasn't even so much about what he said. He said a lot of things that were great, but his consistency just the way he went about business every single day, uncompromised, was something that I really really looked up to, and he's one of those mentors in my life that you know I'm blessed to have a relationship with to this day, and he's one of those mentors in my life that you know I'm blessed to have a relationship with to this day, and he's probably a resource that I could have used more. I think I pulled a lot from him just watching him in the time that I was able to work for him, and I probably could have reached out. But I think the culture has shifted so much in these last probably five or so years, maybe a little longer, where people are actually going out and looking for mentors and hiring mentors and hiring coaches. You know, our business is different in the sense that it's super competitive and people are not really open to divulging a lot of information and helping each other.
Speaker 2:I've always tried to be different when it comes to that for that reason because in reality I never had anybody just come out and volunteer information to me. I had people that I could have reached out to and probably should have in a lot of parts in my career and things that we were going through that I had to figure out the hard way and they would have been more than happy and willing to do it. But I think the culture has shifted a lot and you know, I think that's more readily available. But I still believe in our space is still that competitive that people kind of feel like, oh, a new restaurant is coming, man, this guy is going to take my business.
Speaker 2:I've never been that guy. If you were to ask about me to some of the local restaurant people and some people that you know were initially starting and now have grown into multiple locations and have done great, anytime my phone has rang, man, I'm like an open book Because for me it's not about the knowledge I have, it's about the places where I've struggled right and I've overcome and I'm like all right, don't do this. So I literally tell them all the don'ts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then there's some things that I might be like yeah, this works. But I think, from that standpoint, as far as mentors, I really didn't have people that I could pull from for that reason, so I've always tried to be the opposite when it comes to that. For your second question about people, it's always our desire to grow from within. That's the best situation on paper, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right and and it's something that sometimes I feel like, and in a lot of ways it was a mistake I try to push that so hard because I wanted that to be the case so bad, because it just feels better to grow from within and see people that started from the bottom and maybe they were, you know, a cook and now they're a gm another district, another. We have some of that we have. We have some people that have been with us a long time that have been able to do that and do it successfully, um, but I also had situations where I try to pull people up and they weren't ready to be pulled up and didn't have that level of dedication needed. And a lot of times if you force people just for your own personal sake of trying to, you know, do something good, it can really backfire on you. So, you know, I've had a nice healthy balance of both where I've been able to promote from within. But you know, one of my best people I pulled from, you know, from another state.
Speaker 2:You know, so I think you have to be open-minded to both. You can't be so fixated on doing things a certain way that you put yourself in a bad position Because I'm telling you I did that. I did that. I tried to force it numerous times with people, just for the sake of man. It'd be super cool to see this person grow, but in reality, the red flags were there, you know, and you try to pull people into something that they're not ready for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like how you say that. I think that's. I think it's a character trait that I definitely see in you and also I have a little bit of that as well, where you see a lot of potential in somebody, you see it and you want to get in there and get your hands dirty and help them. But if they're not ready, if they're not willing to put in the work, put in the time, now you're just burning yourself and it's like okay, where do you draw the line? Because I have a lot of coaches reach out to me too and kind of like you, I'll say whatever you know, whatever you want to know, I've tried to help.
Speaker 1:I had a guy that I had a friend message me about a guy and he's like you've got to meet this dude. He's great, he's got a great back story, he wants to do what you're doing. He's trying Maybe you guys can work something out, okay, cool. So I talked to him and uh, you know, he's like Chris, I don't have any money to pay you and I'm like all right, well, listen, I was like I, I value my friend. He said you're a good person, we'll work something out, I'll help you get. Uh, you know, let me get you your first five clients and then we'll work out a deal If you want me to continue helping you, right? What do we do?
Speaker 1:A couple of weeks go by, he gets five clients and at that point and maybe maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong with this I never asked him for anything. I expected him to say something because that was our agreement. Right, I was and be like okay, chris, like I'm ready, I want to keep going. And, uh, because I told him, I was like I'm gonna tell you what to do, finish it, come back. Finish it, come back. And he kept doing it. And then, once, once, I realized how many clients he had. He, he kept asking I'm like you know, what are we doing here? What are we doing here?
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, it's unfortunate. Yeah, so you know I stopped communicating and we just kind of went our separate ways. So you know, I do my part where I can, People do that man.
Speaker 2:They burn bridges, they don't see the big picture. Yeah, and it's unfortunate. Yeah, and it's unfortunate. I like to say we live in a in a pay me society Right Nowadays. I come from a show you society, right. So like when, when I was growing up, I had the observe me, there's zero chance. I'm not going to grow Zero chance Now if you put yourself in a situation where you're in a company that can't see your efforts, that's tough. But I think a lot of this generation now is like pay me and I'll show you. I can't get on board with that man. You got to show me so. Even with family members or my own kid, oh, dad, I can't get on board with that man. You got to show me so. Like even with family members. Or you know, my own kid you know, oh, dad, I'm ready to do this, I'm ready to do that. Show me Show me, you're ready, you know.
Speaker 2:So those are hard lessons that you have to have convictions on and stand on, and in that process you're going to have people not like you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. But everybody says they're ready to do this, ready to do that, but show me, yeah, show me the consistency and the reason being is right, because I'm the type of person man like if I bring somebody on, especially some young people, and they say, man, I want to open up a restaurant, right, a lot of people in my position, they will not hire you. This guy's future competition that's reality, man, happens all the time. Yeah me, me. If you sit down in an interview with me and you tell me you want to open up your own restaurant one day, I'm like, okay, cool, all right, show me.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm going to bring you in and I need you to show me and, based on their effort, determines what they get out of me. So if they show me that they're really about it and they want to do this, man, I'm there, I will show up on their shifts and I will teach them little things, man, and I'll go in with them. But if they show me they're lazy, they show me they have no integrity, no discipline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good luck, buddy. You can almost see that, like you can see their future, whether they're going to be successful or not just by their character traits. So, but you know I'll say this. You know I don't think I ever told you this, but for whatever reason it stuck with me. There was one day we were at the gym and it was you.
Speaker 1:It was your son, nephew, I think it was your nephew was here and I went back. You guys were hitting some legs and I was talking to you and your son came up and he said something to you and he said hey dad, I know I'm working two days, but I want to do three days. Like, can I do three days? And um, I think you said yeah, when you work in, you know something like that, and so, and then we just started talking about something else.
Speaker 1:But I remember leaving that conversation and I thought that was really really cool because I was like you know what I was, like you have grown your business to a point where more and I'm just assuming your kids don't have to work. If they don't want to work you know what I mean and so you could have, just, you know, give them a salary. Some people give their kids salaries or whatever, and uh, you know, but he's in in there like working and wants to work. I thought that was really really cool and really impressive and that also showed me I was like you're a really good parent and a good father, because if you give your kids everything and they don't work for it, they're going to be a lost cause.
Speaker 1:Even if you left them everything, they would lose everything. Oh yeah, Because they don't have a man.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. So that's one thing. I will say that I've learned from my father, which you know, when I was younger, I was just like you know what.
Speaker 2:I didn't understand it. You didn't get it. Why?
Speaker 1:I was like Dad, give me a skateboard. You know it's 50 bucks. You know, dad give me a skateboard.
Speaker 2:Pick up a shoe.
Speaker 1:No, he's like you got to wash some dishes, and in my mind when I'm younger I respect that, you know, because I wouldn't feel like I have to work for anything and I wouldn't have what I have either, you know, but I thought that was really cool. I don't know if I ever told you that, but I remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, you know, that's something that you know. These kids, they don't come with an instruction manual, right? So you got to take it as you go. And you know, I think what, if I go back and I say what has given me the drive I have, what has made me successful? For me, it's always going to be god, first and foremost, right, we've had those conversations.
Speaker 2:That's just how, where I give the glory to first, right, but, um, I go back to my childhood, right, um, and the need is really a big motivating driver behind everything we do, right, um, having nothing really, you know, growing up and having to figure it out day to day in a lot of ways, push me to figure it out. Yeah, so if I take that away from my kids by just handing it to them, you know what happens when we're not here. You know how do they get up and go figure it off for themselves. They won't, it really won't. So I'm the type of parent that in my heart, man, I want, want to give my kids absolutely everything. I want to give them everything. So I'm constantly fighting that and fighting the fact that I need to teach them how to, you know, go out and fend for themselves. Yeah, so a lot of times, even early on, like when they were younger, my wife wants to be in the world. You know I'd be like yo, I'm with you.
Speaker 1:But we have to say no, we have to say why we it's fine, no, no, no. I've got to say no, yeah, like there's.
Speaker 2:They have to hear no, it needs to be part of their regular thing and they need to understand that. They got to get up and they got to go make it happen. You know, as an example, that was my, my oldest right and, unfortunately, the oldest. They always get all the. They get it the hardest man, because we're, because we're trying to figure out how to do this thing and you know we're using them as an experiment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:My daughter at one point, you know, we get her a car right, which was super cool. It was a huge blessing in our lives, man, to be able to do that for them, because neither one of us had that growing up right. So it was like a cool moment for us, as cool as it probably was for her. I guarantee it was 10 times cooler for us that we were able to do that and they'll never be able to really distinguish that how much cooler it was for us. But you know, at one point or another you know you're 15, you get a schedule, you go get a job. And she actually got fired from her job, right, she? She wasn't being disciplined, she wasn't coming into her schedule, she was calling out.
Speaker 2:So she has this car, right, she's living life, she's all around town, she's doing this, she's doing that, going to the football game, hanging out with her friends, doing the whole thing and all of a sudden she loses her job. Right, it wasn't a big deal to her. She felt like she got away. It's like, okay, cool, now I don't have a job and I can go do what I need to do. Well, dad, I'm going to the football game and I don't have no money for gas. I'm like, oh damn, looks like you're not going to the football game, you know? Yeah, so I hope somebody's picking you up because I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, what do you mean? And I see my wife like she wants to jump in. Why don't you have a job? Well, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know, mariah shout out to mariah, mariah fired me. Um, no, mariah didn't fire you, you lost your job, you know. So there's a difference. So, you know, kind of teaching her that. And then eventually, when, when she started to feel the pain of not being able to get up and go when she wanted to, because before she had her her own gas money, yeah, that's the, that's something they have to handle on their own right. It's just the first little bit of responsibility they get to feel for themselves. And she got out there and she had to go and ask for her job back and initially she was like Dad, talk to Mariah. I'm like, no, no, no, no, it has nothing to do with me. Oh, you're the owner, so what?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you go talk to Mariah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go talk to Mariah, you make sure that she feels comfortable and if she decides to give you a second chance, then you'll have a job. Otherwise, you need to go and apply to all the other places that are applying. They're not going to put up with your nonsense.
Speaker 2:So you know, it was such an amazing lesson man Like. After that she just became such a much better employee. She understood things differently, on a different level, and she was amazing ever since then. I mean, she was just one of our superstars. I worked for a long time, and continues to be, and you know, we, we, we, we took the best out of her by teaching her a little bit of a hard lesson.
Speaker 1:So you know these are things that you learned, yeah, yeah. So wait a minute. She got fired from a tropical grill. Oh yeah, do you know? I'll tell you this. That is something that is unfortunately like in many Greeks that I know. Um, they're typically the sons, you know. They're in the restaurant and they are the worst person to be there. It actually hurts the business, but the father will not let it go. You know they will keep them there. You know they'll put them somewhere, whatever.
Speaker 2:And uh, yeah, they're like. You know this dude, put them somewhere, whatever, Everybody in the building hates them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like you know, this dude doesn't do anything or he's messing things up, and I think you know as hard as it probably was for you to like do that with her. It's probably the best thing ever, oh man.
Speaker 2:It was two lessons, right, because Mariah was young in her career. She was somebody that started off with me as a she was a cashier. She was just like the best we've ever had to this day, man. She was amazing and still somebody that we care about and love and doing great things in her life. But this young girl man, you know we she starts off as a cashier, super young. She becomes an assistant manager, becomes a GM. So now she's managing one of my stores and she has my kid to deal with, right, and I'll never forget her phone call.
Speaker 2:She's like lads, I gotta talk to you. What's going on? What's about maddie? I'm like, okay, all right, uh, well, what's the problem? She goes, well, she's not, she's not doing her job, man, and you know she's talking out all the time.
Speaker 2:I'm like okay, and I just paused and she's like well, you know what? What do you want me to do? I said what do? What do you mean? What do you want? What do you want? What do I want? What do I want to do? No, what do you want to do? She's like well, what do you mean? It's your daughter, like, what do I do? I said Mariah, you're the general manager of the store. I gave you that title for a reason. What do you, you to do your job? So she's like, okay, you sure I'm like dude, do your job, do your job. You get paid to do a job, do your job.
Speaker 2:And um, it was a lesson for her man. Like you know, if you're not doing the job, you're not doing the job. Man, you know what I'm saying. I always tell them sit down, talk to them, give a little grace, especially the kids in high school and stuff. Yeah, school is most important. But you know, with mine I was going to be just a little bit tougher. I had to be a little bit tougher because I knew very well that there was nothing. Her priorities weren't on right, you know, weren't right at that moment in her life. So, just little things going a kid and I have the ability to teach her a lesson that will hopefully stick with her the rest of her life, and it did, and she appreciates it to this day. So you know, hard lessons learned, yeah yeah, no, that's super cool, man.
Speaker 1:I want to shift another little bit because we had a conversation prior actually probably one of the first real sit-down conversations together yeah, and I asked you a little bit about your faith. Yeah, because that is, you know, at the time I was telling you I'm still working on it, you know, I'm still trying to figure things out and this is actually really for everybody else to listen to, because you said something that has like again, there's been a couple of things I've been watching from you, but there's something that you really stuck with me because growing up I went to church every Sunday. You know, I went to church every Sunday. I went to Greek Orthodox church. My mom would take me, my dad would work. You know he never went. You know he'd work out on Sunday, so, but I would go.
Speaker 1:I couldn't understand anything that they said. You know, the majority of the sermon was in Greek. I didn't speak Greek. So I'm there and, you know, as a kid, I just I didn't want to go. I was like, what am I going for? I just I'm dressing up in a suit to sit there, you know, and I'm a kid too, so, so I didn't really ever learn, I guess the things that I need to learn or, you know, get what I'm supposed to be getting and building my faith up. So now that I'm older, there's been a lot of things that's happened in my life Sometimes I don't know, you make some they call it like a sign or a series of events and certain things that have kind of like pulled and tugged a little bit on my heartstrings too. But when I was talking to you, you mentioned a little bit about your faith and I asked you, uh, how I know you? You obviously built your, your faith up, but how did you start? You remember what you told me?
Speaker 2:I don't.
Speaker 1:All right. You tell this is what you told me. You said, and it was. I don't know, it sounds so simple. You said speak to him.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's it. Yeah, like I mean, there was no like elaboration. Hey, you need to read this or start here, do that? It's like just speak to him. And I thought that was like I've never heard anybody say that to me. Yeah, you, you know, start with this part in the chapter or the Psalms and things like that, but I've never heard anybody say that and I thought that was like the most powerful thing ever because, you know, it just hit me in a way that was like yeah, why don't I talk to you, right? You?
Speaker 2:know. It's one of those things like I remember early on when I first started kind of trying to get to know God. Right, I would hear these guys you know on TV talk about God's voice. Oh, god said this and God said that. I'm like why isn't God telling me anything? Why isn't he talking to?
Speaker 1:me.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm not worthy of it. You know, and I heard something a long time ago and it stuck to me and it's something that I always go back to, especially when somebody's you know where you are or even in a position where they don't even never even heard of God. Right, how do I hear his voice? How do I? How do I get to know him? I always use this example. I said if your mom called you right now from a block number, said two words to you, how long is it going to take you to know that it's your mom? Probably after that first word.
Speaker 2:As soon as she opens her mouth, you're going to know that's mom. Right, it's no different with God. The reason you're able to pick up on your mom's voice immediately is because you spend time with her. You build a relationship with her. You've become accustomed to hearing her voice. So with God it's no different, man, if you spend time with God and God.
Speaker 2:People want God to speak, but he's really, in reality, he's already said everything he needs to say. All you got to do is go to the book and find the red letters right and you'll find everything he needs to say. It's all there. Everything that applies to your life is right, there, right. But the reality is that God will speak to you in your situation, in your circumstance, in your life. But if you haven't spent the time to get to know him, know his character, know his voice, by spending time with him, then you won't know he could speak to you and you won't even know it's him.
Speaker 2:It's relationship, man, it's no different. Like I mean we've gotten to know each other and I mean you can call me from a number at this point and I'm going to be like, oh okay, that's good, I can hear it in his voice, you know. So being intentional and spending that time and I would almost dare people to go into it with a closed mind prove him wrong. Go into it, talk to him and prove him wrong, that he doesn't exist, right in a sense. And if you go into it, you're going to speak to him and he's going to reveal himself to you. It's just something that's absolutely going to happen, 100%. So even if you go in with a not, he's not offended by that Cause, he's, he's he. He knew you before the foundation of the earth and he loved you before you even knew who he was.
Speaker 2:So you know, it's one of those things that he'll blow your mind.
Speaker 1:That's powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you, do you feel like um your faith? Have you always had your faith? Or was there something that was kind of like similar to me, where you start like seeing different things and you kind of start leaning more into it? Or were you just in a low, low where you're like, ah, why are we going through this right now together?
Speaker 2:you know, man I think, at least with my walk and a lot of people that I know man it's funny because you could be standing firm on your faith, man, and then all of a sudden, something happens in your life and you're shaken and you question everything. It's just part of life, man. I think we're human and sometimes we're vulnerable, and my initial introduction to God was very simple and unexpected and not something I was even looking for. I didn't grow up in church, man. I was just flipping through channels. One day and I stopped at a channel and this guy was talking about God and I felt the Holy Spirit and I didn't even know what it was. I really genuinely didn't know what it was, but I felt it physically and I knew that something happened that day. I couldn't explain it Right.
Speaker 2:Going back to being a dishwasher, I used to get in there early and just to be able to get in there in time to watch a specific pastor. I would get there 30 minutes early, watch him every single morning, and I learned a lot from this guy and, you know, my faith started to grow and I started to kind of understand. For a long time, there he was the guy that would talk about hearing God's voice and I'm just like I'm not hearing it, you know. So eventually I was able to hear it, right, and and I think we, we would all say I wish we would hear him more, you know, but in reality you have to go back to the word, because he's already said everything he said. His word never changes, it's true, you know, it's all there for you, right? So sometimes, when we're, when we're seeking certain answers or certain direction in our life, all we really have to do is just go back to the basics, go back to the book, see what he had to say about. You know a situation and you know to answer it more directly, man, it's been a journey, right, it's been a journey.
Speaker 2:There's times where you know my faith is unshakable and there's times where I've needed somebody to pick me up and be like yo, get back to the basics. You know God's got you. None of this is a surprise to God, right. There's circumstances in my life that I've gone through where I'm just like man and I have to be reminded. None of this is a surprise to him.
Speaker 2:He didn't just wake up this morning and be like, oh look what happened last, like I got to go fix this. No, he knew it was coming. You know he knows the beginning from the end and he's just kind of watching us go through something he's already watched. So he's there for you and you know it's a journey, man, it's a journey and it will always be a journey and I'm sure there's still things yet to come that can shake me and have to put me back to my knees. And sometimes that's the best place to be in life, man, because if we cruise through life, unfortunately we're human and we get comfortable and we really start to. We might even pat ourselves on the Lord, because if I don't and I start falling away, he loves me enough to put me back on my knees.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be out of my will, it's going to be out of just circumstances that I'm going through that force me to get back and look back at Him, and I'd rather do it willingly than forcibly.
Speaker 1:Of course. Yeah, I think that gives you some peace. You know when you have that relationship Because, again, I mean, life is, it comes in all different directions and sometimes people don't understand why things are happening and the timing, and sometimes it could be a test of your strength. You know, a test of your faith, and are you going to push through? Are you going to crumble Right? You know, like where? Test of your faith and are you going to push through? Are you going?
Speaker 2:to crumble.
Speaker 1:Right, you know like where is it going to go? Yeah, and so that's, I think, another reason why, like, I've been leaning a lot into it too, because, again, I feel like there's been a lot of times where I would almost even say like I'm lost, right, I'm like where are we going? What are we doing, you know, and trying to reel it back in. I'm like you know what? No, this is happening for a reason, you know, and so I try not to dismiss it, I let it, I acknowledge it and I'm like, okay, like get back on the line. So, again, I'm still working on it as well. But, like, having people like you I've had jeremy come in here and talk and and other people, um, I felt like that was not by accident for sure. You know what I mean. Yeah, it's just my no coincidence for sure so it happens by mistake.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, I I'll say that in this journey, there's things that we're going to pray for right, and I can tell you in my life there's things that I prayed for that never happened the way I wanted to, right, and I've been able to go and look back years later and be like, thank God, you know. So sometimes an unanswered prayer is truly a huge blessing. Yeah, so we have to, you know, really just trust and allow time and be patient, because God is not going to move when we want him to move. He's going to move when he's ready to move and he knows better than we do. So that's what faith is man just going through it, praying for something it not happening and still being okay with it. I think long-term he'll show you that there was a reason for that. There's a no, no different than any parent. There's a reason why we have to say no to our kids sometimes. No different.
Speaker 1:He knows that they're like your children.
Speaker 2:There's also been times, man, where I've prayed for something right and the signs were there to not move forward, but out of our own ignorance, we decided to push through anyway. And those are hard lessons learned, man. Hard lessons learned so like in my world, something that I'm trying to do better in, because I'm far from perfect man. I make mistakes all the time, man, I fall short of his glory every day and I need forgiveness every day. But even in just doing life right, I've tried to get myself to a point in a situation where I get a lot of opportunities to come my way in business, right, I get calls all the time hey, this opportunity is available.
Speaker 2:In the past I would walk into a building, for example. I'd look around it's got a hood, it's got a walk-in, it's got this, it's got that. It looks perfect. Man. I'd fall in love with that situation immediately and then I'd go pray to God about it. So what I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to walk in a building, not get emotional about it. Try to walk out of there with a clear head, go pray about it before I fall in love with it, because if I fall in love with it before I bring it to God man. I've already made my mind up. I don't even need his opinion at that point. I've already made my own opinion, and and that'll usually backfire on me from one, from my experience.
Speaker 1:So let your emotions get the best of you. Yeah, that's an interesting concept. I mean, you do it so often you start to realize what's going on yeah, especially when you're passionate about something.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, you know with the um.
Speaker 1:So let me, I'm gonna kind of shift a little bit too now, with the restaurant being Tropical Grill right, obviously, cuban-style food. Healthy alternative right, these are all healthy foods which we now like. I've been on it now. I've been doing your meal prep, dude. I don't want to cook, I don't want to clean any of that kind of stuff. But you know, again, I see you here working out all the time in the gym. Have you here working out all the time in the gym? Have you always been in the gym or has this kind of how did you? How, when, when did that happen? Where this is just like part of your routine now?
Speaker 2:It's always been a part of my life, going back to probably 11 years old, Okay Sports, working out things of that nature.
Speaker 2:Right I have, I've always been a part of my life to some extent or another, right, yeah, but as I started to build business, it became something that I threw on the back burner. Right, it was something where I was very inconsistent with, to the point where, you know, with all the responsibility comes a lot of stress. Right yeah, and I think I told you a little bit about this. But I allowed myself to get to a point some years ago where the stress was so heavy, the weight was so heavy of all the responsibility, taking every single phone call.
Speaker 2:I'm a people pleaser, so I try to. You know, if somebody wanted to meet with me, I'd meet with them. But whatever it was, literally even if I knew it was going to be a waste of my time, I had a hard time saying no. So I got to the point where everybody was dictating my schedule. So my schedule was literally made for me daily, with different vendors, different deals, different things, that people wanted to sit down with me and have a conversation with me, and it was always on their time, right? So, oh man, let's do coffee. I don't even drink coffee.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. There I was in a coffee shop. What am?
Speaker 2:I doing here.
Speaker 1:With a water bottle, literally with a water bottle, literally.
Speaker 2:And you know, I always wanted to please people and I would put myself second and it got to the point where the stress and the weight of everything we had going on got to me. Man, it really did get to me and I started to experience anxiety for the first time in my life. I didn't even know what it was, I didn't even know. That was the thing, you know. I heard about it but I didn't really know what that was really, how significant that is and how it can really crush somebody. I have a lot of respect for that and a lot of sympathy for people that go through it. And once I was able to really pinpoint what it was and it took a lot of intervention, man. And it took a lot of intervention, man. It took a great friend.
Speaker 2:Dr Bovey is somebody that I will always give that one to because he's a chiropractor man, but he's somebody that I love and somebody that's just. We're super lucky to have this guy here in Greenville. Man, he's a phenomenal guy and such a big heart. He was a customer of ours man. He was once a week minimal, you know. Everybody knew his order. Customer of ours man. He was um, once a week, minimal. You know, everybody knew his order. Just a great guy. And I'll go to this guy and um, and I said, man, like there's something here, like can you adjust me because I'm having trouble breathing? Yeah, I'm not sleeping well and you know, I think the first two times that he saw me in two weeks, two times in a row, like twice a week, and he starts to develop a pattern with me, he's like last and finally he's like last. He's like dude, you're dealing with anxiety, you need to slow down. Man, you're crazy. Just just fix this rip. Yeah, and there I am the next week.
Speaker 2:Two, two, two three times seeing him and he's like he starts to get concerned. He's like last his anxiety, and I did not want to hear that man. So I got to the point where, finally, you know, he got a little more serious with me and he's like listen to me, like I need you to listen to me. It's anxiety, you need to chill, you need to slow down, you need to make some time for yourself. So I heard him, man, I heard him and I did a 360 and I put parameters up and I stopped taking anything. Literally before 10 o'clock I would not take anything unless it's a 9-1-1 man, like I'm not doing it, you know. So I started to prioritize the gym and and I saw a huge, huge difference. So I come to the gym, man, first and foremost, I get in there, I throw my ear, my head and things in, whatever you call them. My wife always makes fun of me because I never say the right word the iPod.
Speaker 1:The iPod, the AirPods, the.
Speaker 2:AirPods yeah, yeah, I call them earpods, but I get in there, man, I try to get in my word, man, and that's my hour, hour and a half, sometimes two to really just get right for the day and get my health right. Hopefully I can gain some muscles out of it. That's cool too. You know that's not even the main objective, man. You know, um, I'm really enjoying doing that and prioritizing that, and you know it's become a part of my life now that I don't compromise on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so non-negotiable, completely. Yeah, it's almost like your therapy session. I tell you're probably the same similar to me, because you know I'm at the gym a lot I mean, this is I look forward to this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But, uh, if you ever see me, the majority of the time I work out by myself and, um, yeah, I just that's, that's me time, you know, will I work out with other people? Sure, like, every once in a while I'll work out with people, but like I don't want a regular workout partner, I just I like to be with my own thoughts, I like to, you know, hit the weights and push myself, and it's just me time, you know. And I just feel so much better afterwards and it helps kind of lower my stress, my anxiety, I feel good and I can get more productive. So, do you find that to where? Like, because I'm sure people are like yo Laz, you want to work out, you want to go work out together.
Speaker 2:Not only that, like I'm able to watch people, with the time I spend in the gym, I'm able to watch your clients right and see how their physique changes man, in such a dramatic way in a short period of time. You know, like I've watched Jeremy, for example, just his turnaround, his transition, man has been incredible to watch and that's because he's with the right coach, right, and I see the value in that. And a lot of times I'm tempted to jump in and do something like that, man. But for me, in my situation, this is only for me. It's what you said, man, I need that time alone. Man, that's my piece, right, yeah, yeah. And if there was a way to balance that and there probably is, right, You've got to have the right people, the right coach, I would say right, that can understand what your needs are in that moment and, I'm sure, can facilitate that at the same time and make it work right, yeah, but yeah, man, I mean for me it's just that that's my time, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So I've had people that have offered me, even free, this and I'm just like that's my time, yeah. Yeah, I think everybody needs something different. You know something with with us. Doing everything online is great because we can design the programs, your nutrition plans, all that stuff and, and they can. So, yeah, the app. They got the workouts, so they just go in and execute. You did some of the workouts as well, dude. That's my new cheat code, right?
Speaker 2:there Using that app and being able to get in there and have you in my ear and watching your form. It's a cheat code, man. I have that thing there and it's been extremely helpful. These last couple months that I've been using it, I've seen a dramatic difference Mentally. You're pushing me, you're forcing me to do one more in there and um, yeah without even being there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's just like in business too, like if you don't have a plan. Oh yeah, that you're. You're just kind of kind of drift, you know. You're just, ah, well, I'll do this machine one day three sets. I'm good, you know, but if you came in there and I got to do this, I got to do this, and then you're just, you're just moving, you're not wasting any time, I'm finding myself man because I'm looking at what I did last week.
Speaker 2:Yes, I did 10, 800 and whatever I need to get, whatever I need to go up and win.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. So it allows me to really keep it on my phone, man, it's super easy. It just makes life a lot easier, and what your app has done is also challenged me to get out of my regular routine and do something different that I sometimes avoid. Yeah, because sometimes I'll get on there and I'll look at a specific workout routine that you put together. I'm like damn, I hate you, chris. Yeah. And it's almost like I feel like you're watching me.
Speaker 1:He's going to know you can't skip that. You got to do that, so I get in there and I'll do it, and I hate it.
Speaker 2:But the ones you hate are the ones that make the difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you're pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's been. I mean I'm glad you enjoyed it. I mean a lot of our clients they love it. But there are people like Jeremy specifically, and has he? Yeah, he has just done the app before, but when I came to Carolina Iron, he was the first one Like Chris, are you doing you in person, chris? And I was like I don't know man. He's like please, like come on, let's do it. And I was like, all right, let's do it. And Jeremy can push himself. But I can tell when he's here with me he's more on it, he's more dialed in, not even just in the gym, outside of the gym, that's where people mess up. It's not coming in and working out. It's like what are you eating? Are you, are you drinking your water? Are you active? Are you sitting in front of a desk all day? And then you know with us and we'll talk about this like partnering with you guys.
Speaker 2:Jeremy's a regular customer to your new location right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that guy's there. Yeah, my name man. Yeah, yeah, and they know exactly what he wants.
Speaker 2:They facilitate everything for him. Super cool. He even did a video where he he was going out of town and came in early and and I just love when my team does the right thing because it's the right thing to do they didn't like oh, you know, it's 30 minutes before opening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, like be human, and they did. And that was super cool to see it, because that wasn't on my instructions, I had nothing to do with it, they just did what they should do. Yeah, yeah, and that I got to brag on that kid because I told you a little bit about our initial interaction. Right, he came out and did some work in my house and he's just one of those people, man. I just saw so much potential in this guy man. Him and his brother were out there and you could just see they just want to do things right.
Speaker 2:You know, integrity was crucial to him, hard working man.
Speaker 2:And you know I was difficult on him a little bit because for me it was an opportunity to get, you know, just have some little lessons here and there as we were working together. But you know, at the end of the day, like his commitment, his work ethic, his integrity, like he did such a phenomenal job for us man, and he was really just kind of getting started and exploring different avenues of his business and doing things. And you know, I was just super, super impressed by the job that he did and how he kept on time and when we hit him with a curve ball man. He was just like, oh man, he would just do it, man. So you know. And then watching him now prioritize his health, you know, which is something that took me a lot longer to do. I just love watching. I think that's why I you know. It's cool where he's at, that he's able to get there at this point in his life, and the transition he's made with you, man, and the time he's been with you has been impressive to watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, I tell him all the time. It's really cool, Cause for both of us I mean him starting his business and as, as we were trying to grow mine, we kind of see both of our growths and the struggles that come along with it too. Because, you know, we've talked about it, I've talked to him about it, I've gone through it where you know you start seeing, you know the growth in the business and you want to go hard. You're like, oh my God, things are working and in the background you're letting things fall off the shelf. You know what I mean, Like things of spending time with your wife, with your kids. You're like I'm doing this for you, but are you doing it for you, you know, or who are you really doing this for? You know, and it's a, it's a fine line where, even for myself, I've had to, I had to set those boundaries. I'm like, all right, and I, if, if and I say this a lot, some people think this is weird I put on my schedule when I'm going to be with them.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's my time with them. Yeah, you know, this is my time. We're doing this podcast, our time to do the podcast when I'm doing coaching calls. I do coaching calls, but like everything's got its place and and I'm all in. You know, I'm all in. Um, I heard this. You know this analogy of like if your, if your life was a house, you know what I mean how could you? You have rooms? For a reason, right, right, right. There's boundaries, you have business, you have family, you have your faith, and how could you possibly be in all the rooms at once? Right, all in Right. You have to pick one. You do, and that's how I'm able to kind of structure my life. And I still have to, you know, work on it too.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We all to yeah, I mean, if I wasn't, I might not be married right now. Yeah, you know, she would have left me, you know, and that's my fault.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you know, and it's just part of the world we live in, right? Because the world tells us that we have to push, push, push and we have to hit all these goals, and the only way that we're going to be great is if we're hitting all these metrics and we're thriving here and thriving there, dude. How successful are you, dude, if you got all the money in the world? Your business is thriving, but your marriage is falling apart. Your kids don't know you. Are you successful, bro? I don't think so.
Speaker 2:That's not success in my book, man, I wouldn't trade that. Nah, no chance man.
Speaker 1:But I can see it when I train people or when I watch people. When I train people or when I watch people, the way they are in the gym and the consistency and the discipline, I can automatically correlate. That's probably how you are outside of the real world, you know. So it makes sense to see. You know, you in here, jeremy, and other guys that are just like consistent. But Jeremy, he, there's people that just like the in-person, you know, and I'm fine with it, I like it too.
Speaker 1:So, but, yeah, you know, we, you know, and I'll touch on the fact too, we, we did a little promo commercial together. Uh, what, two, three months ago? Um, which is super cool, because that was, uh, when we first were kind of talking. You know, we, we got on the restaurant thing and then, you know I'm, you saw me starting to set up shop in the gym, you know, setting up this office space, and you're like, yeah, chris, I see what you're doing. You know, if you ever want to talk about some sort of idea or whatever he's like, as long as it's mutually beneficial.
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:You know I'm cool and it's funny because, like you kind of crack the door and I was like yo, I'm in, Like I'm about to put both feet in and let me put something together, Because I think in a week I came back and I was like I got this idea, Let me just throw it at you. You ran with it. Yeah, I took it and ran and I think it was that was probably. We've done a lot of things with other local businesses too, but for whatever reason yours hit, I mean I think it was just like a good blend because you know, with fitness, the nutrition is so important For sure, and so if we can get people to train and they know what they're eating, they know how much they're eating, the quality food is good. Like you can't really mess up. You know what I mean, and so, and then you start tying in the fact that really, like you'd be saving money. People think eating like eating healthy is expensive. It is not.
Speaker 2:Right If think eating like eating healthy is expensive. It is not right if you know what you're doing. You've proven that, man. You've proven that even to me, man.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, some of the stuff you put on like dang. You cried the cold. You got a cheat code. Yeah, it is a cheat code things you're doing.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah I think we're making money there well, I think I messaged you.
Speaker 1:I was like, are you sure you're making money doing this, dude? But, uh, but yeah, because I, you know, I started our clients. Now, like a lot of our clients, they're doing what I'm doing yeah, because I show them. I was like, look, you can do it this way, and if you break up the meals like this, you'll get this much calories and protein, but it's only like this much. And then they're like, well dang, I was like I can't go out and eat by myself for that much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't, man, and you know, and so, and you know, the food quality is good. You know things are portioned. It's really foolproof. And then that's why we put you in our app too. So, just in case, like people are, you know, wondering what to eat, what to grab, it's super easy. You just kind of plug and play it. So I will say that you know us doing that. I was, I was really excited, for that was something I felt like I wanted to do as like a project, um, and, and even to this day, like I think it's uh, that was just kind of the tip of the iceberg. There's some other things that I have in mind that I think could, could really crush. But, um, I I'm super appreciative of you even entertaining the idea because I'm I can only imagine like tons of people reaching out to do things with you in the fitness space specifically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was something I told you that day, man. I see with you for sure, in the fitness space specifically. Yeah, there was something I told you that day, man I see the passion in you and what you do and it's genuine, and for me, I wanted to align, align myself with somebody that had that level of passion and integrity and, you know, was doing it for the right reason. And I think I told you 10 times in that one conversation um, as long as you benefit from it, because what I, what I kept hearing from you from my vantage point, was like I'm gonna, going to do this and it's going to be beneficial for your business, and I'm like, no, no, no, it has to be beneficial for you as well. Man, I wanted to make sure that there was something out of it that made sense for you, and that was my main objective, and then, in hindsight, it was freaking awesome for both of us, which is not a win-win situation. That's a good partnership right there when everybody wins For.
Speaker 2:So, for sure, yeah, it was. It was super cool and, like you said, just a tip of the iceberg yeah, yeah, we can do together.
Speaker 1:So it's got to be I mean, it's always got to be mutually beneficial, I guess from like a business standpoint. But for me, like I always looked at things like if I can provide value to, to what you're doing, people will see it, people like it, and people will just. Then they'll see me. Right. You know, it's like now I'm in the picture, I'm getting in front of the people that already know you, that trust you, and then, vice versa, people I know they're like oh yeah, I've seen it.
Speaker 1:I haven't really gone there, or I need to try it again, or I haven't been there in a while Because you guys have been around for a long time For sure, for sure, and so it just kind of brought everything back to a relevance in the fitness community. So so I don't know, I've been, and even to this day, man, every Monday and Thursday I'm hitting up Verde. I need my chicken and rice and all that stuff. And especially for everybody that's listening, that's like, if you're busy, if your life is hectic and you really don't like going to the grocery store, you don't want to cook, you don't want to clean, this is not just a hack from a financial standpoint like a hack in life for time, because most of those people are super busy. Their time is probably the most valuable thing ever. So if you can compress that and get people to do things, and it saves you on a dollar too. Like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what I can guarantee you from my end, man, what I'm always going to try to do for anybody that walks in that door, is I'm going to try to bring the best quality products that I can find right. And there's things in my business, man, when you're the CEO of a company, you have to make decisions and sometimes you're going to make decisions that people don't understand and are not on board with right. So you know, we've had transitions in our chicken, for example. Right, I eat there first and foremost, my family eats there. Right, yeah, but I have to serve a product that I'm proud of, man, and we used to do these big old chicken breasts, right, and we used to cook those off on the flat top or whatever, and you know people love that. And then we kind of transitioned to a smaller. It's still off of a chicken breast, right, but the breast market is weird. I'm going to get into something that people probably don't care about.
Speaker 2:but just a little bit of insight on that. Right, I saw the quantity of the breast market go down because something changed somewhere with regulations and people were starting to sell absolute garbage, right. So what seemed to a lot of people as a rash decision took a lot of thinking in my part in planning. Right, we buy over a million pounds of chicken a year, right, so I can't just get up and go to any farm I want to go to. So when I started to see that some of these farms are compromising on the quality that they were sending us, man, I had to. I had to react quickly and and it just happened to be timing and and again, I always thank god for those type of things, because when this this was not something I could physically control, it just kind of worked out in our favor.
Speaker 2:Right, we ended up switching to a company which is the only company that is still doing hormone-free, antibiotic-free small chicken that has integrity behind it. Right, and the way that door opened up was there was another huge company, which I won't name, that went away from that standard, and by them going away from that standard, I was knocking on that door for years and finally they called me and they said, hey, we have a slot for you, we can fit you in now, because so-and-so left, do you want it? And I'm like heck, yeah. I'm like heck, yeah For me when I tell you, from a cost structure, from a business standpoint, worst decision a business can make, because I can't make up those margins, because the quality is so much better but the price is so much higher, yeah, so I'm super proud of the product that we're serving now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I always was. It's just something changed and I couldn't stand behind that anymore. So I to make a, an adjustment, and I'm telling you, man, we, we have a product now that's, it's the best we've ever had. Um, that comes with a, with a sacrifice from us, because it's a lot more expensive, right, so, yeah, yeah, but I have to be proud of what I'm serving. So, and anything we do, man, I'm always going to try to look at these little things, right, and we're your healthy alternative, right, but I'll still sell you a burger. You want to come in and eat a burger?
Speaker 1:man yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a freshly made burger. We're going to round it up and patty it up.
Speaker 1:It's good too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I'm not going to sell you crap. I'm not going to get some frozen crap there and sell it to you right so to when I bring something in, whether it be our salmon, you know, which is, um, you know, wild caught, you know little things like that. Yeah, I can easily save a ton of money, man, by compromising on on the quality of the product that I'm serving. Man, my chicken alone.
Speaker 2:man, I can, I can, man, I can save so much money bro, you have no idea, but I just I won't do it, I won't do it. So you know that's my commitment to anybody that comes through our doors. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:I think that's also why I'm such an advocate for pushing you guys too, because originally, like yeah, you're talking chicken, rice and steak and stuff like that. So I'm just like, right, you know, most people are putting food coloring in rice and you know whatever else they want to put in there, and uh, the things that you were doing I was like, oh, this is kind of yeah, people don't know this no no, you know people don't know this and I think, uh, a lot of people you know, being as a fitness professional, they're like Chris, you know we're talking calories, we're talking macros, the proteins, fats and carbs but, like, food quality really matter.
Speaker 1:Like, if I'm hitting my calorie goal, does it really matter? Not right now, yeah, exactly, I mean that's. I tell people it does. It does matter. And honestly, I know you're thinking even longer, but if people compared a week or two of just eating, just yeah, your calories, but it's highly processed, not good quality food, versus like very clean, healthy, organic food, the body looks and feels different.
Speaker 2:So, and again it starts to mess with your digestive system and when we're younger man we think we can get away with just about anything. I'm sure there's guys out there that can have a mcdonald McDonald's diet and get shredded because they're hitting all the macros right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, I don't know what that does to you long term.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll let everybody else figure that one out. Yeah, it matters, man. What you put in your body matters and you know that's for me, I know that that's for me. I have to, first and foremost, like I said, man, I eat there, my kids eat there, man, so you know I'm not gonna serve something, yeah, proud of so. But we got, we got to take care of our health, man. You know we talk a lot about business and about some of the goals in life, but if you're not taking care of your health, if you're not doing the right things to keep yourself healthy, nothing matters you know, none of it matters, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, none of it matters. Where do you now with you guys, having you just opened up your most recent location?
Speaker 2:which is 15.
Speaker 1:Where do you see the vision at this point? Do you feel like, okay, this is enough, or do you see more expansion? I know you have not just Tropical Grill, you have Pasta Project, that we've talked about One location right now right One location, one location, so one location, right now, right one location.
Speaker 2:So do you do you want to continue like growing and scaling, or um? On the, my easy answer is yes, I do want to continue to grow, um, and you know I'm actively looking for locations, right, but, um, I'm going with the flow, man, I'm allowing the opportunities to come to me and I'm being patient about it and I don't have the urgency that I had at one point Not to say that we're not going to grow. And you know, for all I know, you know three great opportunities to come tomorrow and all of a sudden I'll tell you, yeah, I have three on the contract, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that can happen, but I'm being diligent about what I do, moving forward, and I'm being diligent with my time and, and I'm being diligent with my time and just overall, I just want to make sure that I'm making the right moves and that I don't compromise my ability to, you know, spend the time that I need to spend with my family, you know more than anything else.
Speaker 2:That's the most valuable thing to me creating memories, man. After that, I gave up a good part of our over the last couple years, um, working hard and for a long time it was seven days a week and, you know, days and nights, and I'm trying to get some of that time back selfishly. I'm super blessed that I was able to do that alongside my wife. We've worked together, um, and and have been together. I think there's like I can probably count on my hands, on one hand, the amount of times that we've been apart for a day. You know, wow, since we've known each other man going back to, you know, it's almost 25 years now and each time it's been something like you know, maybe the kids had something going on, a field trip or something that she has to go on. So I've had that time. But at the same time, like cool, we've been able to work together and be together and we've made the most of that and we have. We've created memories even in that. We've had fun times and you know.
Speaker 1:But, uh, I want to get out and I want to get more memories in in my my book, you know.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, I can look back and say, all right, you know, I lived life, didn't let it live me, so I'm being a little more careful man yeah about the growth.
Speaker 2:but yes, we're going to grow, we're to keep growing and as long as I have the right infrastructure in place and the team in place, then we'll keep pushing. That's always been one of the biggest motivating factors behind growth is, you know, I have people that are depending on me, like you said earlier. You know that are looking for opportunities and I want to make sure that I've created those opportunities for them. So you know we'll keep on pushing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Do you think that opening up, let's say, your second and third one is harder than trying to open up a 16, 17? For sure, yeah, a thousand percent man. I figure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's just one of those things where you know, now you have policies, procedures in place, you've, you know, learned some things the hard way and and gotten through those, and it just it makes it a lot easier. I think this last one, um, our team did such a phenomenal job in in that way to have the location that I mean, I practically wasn't needed at all, I was there just for fun, you know, because I wanted to get in there, get my hands uh dirty yeah that's fun, like these people kick me off the line.
Speaker 2:Like you know we don't need you right. You need you right. You know we got this. I'm like I know, but let me have some fun, man, Just tell me you need me?
Speaker 1:Just tell me yeah, yeah, yeah, let me get in there, make me feel good.
Speaker 2:I've always said it, man, I really do. I have enjoyed the restaurant business. Take over the line, man, sometimes I just need to have a line, a ticket, uh, one of them little. You know, I'm talking about the little line full of the tickets and just dive into that and get lost in there for a little while and just I love that man. The busier, the better man, yeah you know, so yeah sometimes I'll just push him out the way and jump in there to have a little fun and take a break.
Speaker 1:You know we could have done this about you.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, I, yeah, I know, but let me have some fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's how you know, that's how you know you love it. So shifting gears to business is definitely a massive learning curve. It definitely was for me, because you can be a great line cook, you can be a great, you know front-end manager. Get mentors to help me, because I'm a I know that I'm a good coach, I understand you know working out and nutrition, stuff like that right but the business like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:well, people don't just come knock on your door and you, they come in and they're like hey, yeah, I want to work with you. Oh, yeah, it does not work like that, you know. That's why a lot of people in our space they just they don't make it because they think that's how it works.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And now it's so oversaturated Like you have to get even more dialed in with the things that you're doing, if you're going to survive out here, oh yeah. So there's plenty, plenty of people, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So but I tell people, man, think about your business, whatever passion you have, Look further down the line. Think about what it's going to take, what hats you're going to have to wear. I talk about hats all the time, man, because it's super important. Initially, you're everything. You are the CEO, the CFO, the guy that washes the dishes, the guy that cleans the toilets. You're out of it right. As you grow, you have to start handing out these hats, and then the CEO job becomes a little more real when you have, you know, a hundred employees versus having 10, you know first, start off, all of a sudden things get a little more real and you have to understand a lot of other things that you know.
Speaker 2:You just don't. You don't know. You know, especially if you come from zero and you and you start from the bottom and you really don't have the education behind it. And even with education, man, you go to college and still not know every law, every book and you know. You learn things the hard way in a lot of ways because you just don't know until you're faced with them, right.
Speaker 2:So think ahead, plan ahead, think about the different roles that you're going to have to play in your business and get rid of them when you can. You know, when the time allows, hand over that hat to somebody that has that experience, bringing somebody more knowledgeable than you. Don't be afraid to let go of control. You know those little things you have to. Yeah, it's super hard, extremely hard. Um, I remember my first time leaving my pelham rose store. Um, I was leaving it, excuse me, I was even in very capable hands, but even then me getting away and not being there every single night and I was paying for the position already, but I was still showing up Like, what are you doing here? I'm like, I'm here, I don't know anybody.
Speaker 1:That's funny. Yeah, I want to add to that too, because from an outsider in in general not just you when you look at people that have success, sometimes people say, man, you're lucky, dude, you're lucky. And my thing is this and I don't want to disclose anything right now, we've talked about it too but I think when you plan and you prepare and when the opportunity presents yourself, you're ready. Yeah, you know, that's, that's real luck. Quote unquote like you've been working for something to where you're ready for it, because so many people want, like they want the success now, they want the business now, they want the clients now, they want the money now.
Speaker 1:If somebody were to just give it to you all now, do you really think you could handle it? Probably not. You know, if I started my business, I'm like here tomorrow you got a hundred clients, I'd be thrilled and I would also just bomb everything. You know they'd all leave me because I don't have nothing put in place. So you know, my thing is like I've always, always worked, always trying to put pieces together, have systems in place. So cause I always feel like at some point things will like really start to progress a little more, when I don't know, you know, but I'm I'm still moving in a general direction. I'm not sitting duck just waiting for things to happen.
Speaker 1:Um, I joke about this all the time. I'm just like yo, I'm just casting lottery tickets every day, just casting like one of them one's going to hit one day, you know, uh, but, but I think, but I think that's the reality of it is that there's no luck. You know, there's no luck, I mean, and anything that is lucky is never held onto for long. You see, all these people that win the, literally I'm talking about lottery tickets. People win the lottery ticket and, bankrupt, lose it all I love what Pitbull says about luck man.
Speaker 2:He says something to the effect of the funny thing about luck the harder I work, the luckier I get Facts.
Speaker 1:It's not such a thing? Yeah, it is. You got to go out there and get it. It's true. You got to hustle for it For sure. Well, I respect everything you do, man. I think it's really cool. I'm glad that we're able to do things together and continue to Absolutely. And you're blocking off some time for the podcast. Easy man, you know, like I said, I was enjoying it. I tried my best, you know. Shout out to your wife too. I think I take up a lot of your time when you come in here in the gym.
Speaker 1:She's like come on, we got to work out.
Speaker 2:She's a stickler of the schedule. Yeah, I'm going to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm like so I put the stopwatch 30 seconds. I got 30 seconds, she's so regimented man, that's cool though.
Speaker 2:Thank God for her. Man, I mean, you talk about one of the most important decisions you'll make in your life. Man is the person you marry. Man, oh yeah, literally. I've seen so many people with so much potential men and women marry the wrong person and put themselves in a bad spot. Man, I'm just lucky I married the wrong person and put themselves in a bad spot. Man, and I'm just lucky I married the right person. Man I really am.
Speaker 2:We were kids and a lot of what we've done, man, we've figured out the hard way and we got thrown into life and things that we probably weren't even ready for, but we did it and she's just somebody that is. She keeps our life together. Man, in so many different ways, even from a young mother man, like she's so impressive. So many different ways, even from a young mother man, like she's so impressive Even then, like being a wife in every sense of the word, while being a CFO and going after everything that moves and having the guts to go after things when I didn't have them. You know, oh, wow, yeah, she's the one that pushed us into getting into business for ourselves. To begin with, she knew I had a certain skill set, she believed in me, but there was zero chance that I would pull the trigger without her. Zero, absolutely no chance in the world that I would own a business if it wasn't for that girl. Because when I'm thinking about it, she's signing loans I mean leases and freaking contracts and I'm just like I'm still thinking about it. She's like, well, you can keep thinking about it all you want, I already signed. She's phenomenal man. She's, um, truly, I married my best friend, man, and, and and that's something that is super important um, that decision there, man, it really shapes the trajectory of your life, man, and I just I hope that my kids are able to find that man. If there's one thing that I desire for my kids is that they really genuinely meet their best friend, marry their best friend and are able to go through the ups and downs of life knowing that it don't matter what happens.
Speaker 2:Man, like that girl. At one point, when we almost lost it all, man, she literally told me. She said I don't care if we end up under a bridge, we're going to end up there together. You know, and I believed it, and I know that that was the truth behind her, because she's that person, man, as much as she likes nice things, man, and people see some of the things she has and the material things and things like that. That girl could care less man, If her family's good, I'm good man, like that's really what she cares about in the big scheme of things. And you know she'd throw it all away for that in two seconds, no questions asked. So that's cool man. She definitely keeps our lives together, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:I love that I say the same thing. And then you said it best friend, you marry your best friend. I say that all the time, like I married my best friend.
Speaker 1:You know you don't do it out of like just a sexual appearance or lust or anything like that. There's like a I want to do everything with you. I want to be with you all the time. I want to travel with you, see the world with you. I want to experience life with you. It's just another level and uh, you know that's uh, that was one of the things too. You know, I think it's great that you guys have been able to work together, because you know my, my wife, has great ideas and she has helped me with things, but I keep my business separate. She takes care of our kid, does that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:She's a real hard worker. Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1:I mean some sanity when my son was like that, two years old and stuff. She's like Chris, you realize, the majority of my day I'm talking to someone that doesn't even talk. He's talking, baby, to you. And I was like, oh yeah, I guess so. But as as and this is the same time that I started my business one one thing I heard. I was I heard uh, I wish I could remember who said it they're like, as, as you're growing, don't grow too fast. Where you outgrow, yeah, your, your, you know your wife, your lover, whoever you know, because sometimes they can feel left behind or you feel like you're too far ahead. So you got to make sure that you're carrying them and keeping you guys together, and so I always try to keep my wife in the loop of you know what we're doing. You know I've taken her to some seminars. It's not for her, you know it's OK, that's my thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's my thing, and that's cool. But we've learned each other and it's something we continue to work on. But through our—we've had hardships too, you know, especially with, like our families and stuff like that, which just made us even closer.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:But we've proven to each other that, like we're in this together and we come first. Yeah man, you know we come first and then everything—everybody else they can come after. Because if we're not good, nothing's good.
Speaker 2:Best picture I've ever taken. It was a spontaneous situation. I have it somewhere in my Facebook probably, but it's my hand, my wife's hand and then my kids' hands, and I took a picture of that one day. And that picture means more to me than anything else in the world, man, because that really is the foundation of my life, of my life, man, like right there, that's where it all starts and ends, right there, and then you can kind of see the cross in the picture, which represents, you know god, for me and to me, that picture just really tells the whole story of what's the most important thing in my life, man, and you know, um, we're super blessed man to have that, because a lot of people don't have that.
Speaker 2:You talked about best friend To marry your best friend, man, that's critical. I always tell people, man, if there's ever, ever, ever, anything you want to be envious of me of, because there's some people out there that are envious and they're choosing the wrong thing, man, they'll look at cars and they'll look at this and business. No, man, if you really want to be envious of me, man, this is where you need to be amused. Right here, my family, man, my wife and my kids, man, those relationships right there, man, that's all that matters. Everything else is is a bonus man.
Speaker 1:So yeah, unfortunately I do like that. That's my weakness, because you know we will argue about some stuff and then my mind don't work right, like I can't focus, I'm like and and I gotta.
Speaker 1:I gotta like get my headspace back together and like, chill out, and I gotta hurry up and go go mend whatever I said or whatever it is, because I I can tell like if our relationship's not good, it affects everything else in my life. It does, man, I don't want to mess with anything, I don't want to talk to nobody like, yeah, it's just not good. No, I don't know, you can't even focus.
Speaker 2:I've even told my kids that man, I've had the, the little games you know kids play, especially when they're a little older. Oh, mom, dad, who's more important to you, me or mom? I'm like mom, like what, like that's so against what culture tells you?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:And like what do you mean, mom? I'm like yeah, mom, what are you crazy? I said listen, you're going to get. Man, if me and your mom are not good, then nothing is good, nothing is good. So that's my most important relationship I have is your mom, after God, you know, and um, and they get it. They get it now, yeah, yeah, they fully now in their age and they're.
Speaker 2:I hope you're able to say that one day, because that's going to make the biggest difference in your life, man, in how you live life, and nothing matters. Material things don't matter, man, none of that stuff, man. It's cool to go out and go to certain places and have certain access to things, man, but in reality, man, you can scale down a little bit. Still take that vacation, maybe not stay in a five-star, stay in a freaking three-star. Scale down a little bit, still take that vacation. Maybe not stay in a five star, stay in a freaking three star, but at the end of the day, if you're in a five star hotel with people you don't love, what does it matter, bro?
Speaker 1:What are you doing?
Speaker 2:You know. So, for me, it's about the company you're with the people around you, man, and you know. Everything else is a bonus, man. Truly, what matters, bro, what matters, is making memories of the people you love. Yeah, that's my only focus in life right now, man. I'm telling you right now yeah, you asked me about my, my, some of my plans and some of my. I'm trying to create memories, man. Yeah, I still have to work, I still have to grind yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm still going to grow but ability to create members of my family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. Yeah, you don't have to have everything, just make the best of everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly 100%. I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. I hope a lot of people get to hear your story and share it Again. I do this podcast selfishly because I want to hear people's story and learn from them and I learn a lot from you and I hope people tap in. A podcast has affected my life. It's a. Obviously it's a free resource too.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But again, when you hear people's stories and where they came from and the struggles, I hope it just expands people's mind to what's really possible if you keep pushing, keep pushing forward.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man, and get in the room, I'm a resource man, anybody out there that's listening to this thing, that wants to speak or has a question man, like I said, I don't know, I don't have all the answers, man, I just know where I've made mistakes and sometimes that's the only value I bring. But you know, if I can bring that man and keep you from bumping your head in that same place, man, then I'm the guy that will be more than willing to do it. I don't care if you're opening up a restaurant right next to me. My blessings are my blessings, your blessings are your blessings. Man, I never look at it like well, this person is going to take from me. I just don't believe I serve a God with limitations. So what he has for you, he has for you. What he has for me, he has for me. Man, yeah, I respect that.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, man, I appreciate it. Maybe we'll do another one another time. We'll see in the