Armando Tam

In this episode of Govies, Plutes, and Gangsters, Gary Acosta gives Armando Tam the behind-the-scenes details on his historic interview with President Obama at NAHREP at L'ATTITUDE 2022. 

Transcript

00;00;12;01 - 00;00;21;20
Armando Tam
How was it? Now that we're back, you were up there with President Obama 44. Before we talk about that, talk about the preparation.

00;00;23;02 - 00;00;47;05
Gary Acosta
Well, you know, preparing to interview a president is not like anything else. So because you do, you know, go through the questions, but that's not really what makes the interview. What makes the interview is the organic dialog that you have between questions. You frame the question. He answers the question. He's very verbose. If you didn't notice that.

00;00;48;01 - 00;01;09;02
Gary Acosta
But the response, the feedback, the follow up questions, that's what really makes the interview organic and authentic and gives the audience, I think, a really great experience. It's hard to prepare for that. So it's very hard to prepare for that because you don't know what he's going to say. And you have to kind of read the audience a little bit and read the moment a little bit.

00;01;09;11 - 00;01;29;26
Gary Acosta
So, you know, if it seems like it's a very energetic audience, you would probably ask the question differently than if it's a very kind of solemn type environment. But what makes, I think, an interview like that compelling, because I'm not a journalist, I'm not there trying to catch him in a moment or get him to commit on some policy issue.

00;01;30;05 - 00;01;47;20
Gary Acosta
I want to pick his brain and I want to be able to have an organic dialogue, even if that means me disagreeing with him at some point because he said some things that I thought, I don't totally agree with that. But you don't sit there and tell Barack Obama “You're wrong, yeah, I don't agree with that at all.”

00;01;48;07 - 00;02;18;01
Gary Acosta
You say, “Well, let me share another point of view with you.” I think these are little techniques that give an audience or an interview with somebody like that more comfort. And I think for the audience, it works better. And I think that applies to people in all different realms. If you're speaking to your CEO, for example, and you're an executive and you want to stand out or you want to show that you've got your own ideas, and sometimes you want to express that you think the company may be going in the wrong direction.

00;02;18;17 - 00;02;29;29
Gary Acosta
The way you deliver that comment makes all the difference in the world. Shows your maturity, shows whether or not you are a true candidate for the C-suite yourself. And those little things, you know, they go a long way.

00;02;30;07 - 00;02;36;18
Armando Tam
So let's talk about delivery. What are some of the ways that you prepare on delivery that you recommend?

00;02;36;19 - 00;02;49;15
Gary Acosta
Delivery? Well, I mean, like I said, you want it to look organic, right? You have this conversation like this, right? You have an audience that's out there. So you want to move between the president and the audience at times. You don't want to just lock yourself in.

00;02;49;19 - 00;02;50;29
Armando Tam
Because you acknowledge the crowd.

00;02;50;29 - 00;03;13;14
Gary Acosta
And you look at the audience sometimes and sometimes you get some feedback from the audience a little bit. And that influences your next question. But people were there to see Barack Obama, make no mistake. So for me to try to talk over him or to, you know, spend too much time really giving my own opinions around things I think would also have been very clunky.

00;03;13;15 - 00;03;36;13
Gary Acosta
So you want to tee things up. Let him say his piece, because that's what people are there to see. And then kind of providing a little feedback or some context or a different perspective that again, I think plays to a very good experience for the audience. But also, and here's the big sort of moonshot, might actually make an impression on him.

00;03;36;24 - 00;03;37;24
Armando Tam
True, True.

00;03;37;24 - 00;03;51;19
Gary Acosta
He's still a very influential guy. One of the most influential people in the world. And for him to kind of get a little bit more about what we're talking about and our attitude, it's a great opportunity. And you never know when he might reach back and use some of that.

00;03;51;24 - 00;03;59;20
Armando Tam
Yeah, that's true. You said read the audience at times. What were you what did you get from our attendees, our members in the stands?

00;04;00;08 - 00;04;28;05
Gary Acosta
Well, you know, first of all, it was a very attentive audience. You know, you didn't hear much talking. People were fixated in the conversation. You know, a president is actually, you know one-of-a-kind. You think that there are celebrities. Well there are celebrities and there are A-list celebrities and then there's presidents. You know, because the president we don't even realize is so familiar to us, to his voice, his mannerisms.

00;04;28;09 - 00;04;42;21
Gary Acosta
His style of speaking, his attire is like that is so ingrained in our head because we saw it every day practically for eight years. We don't even realize it. So when he's there in the flesh, it is a little surreal. And you could see the audience really sort of trying to process that.

00;04;42;22 - 00;05;05;20
Armando Tam
Yeah, I see that. I was one of them. So where did you even come up with the audacity? You're from East L.A., you're in the mortgage business, obviously NAHREP. Where did you have the audacity to say, I want to interview a president of the United States now. This is your third presidential interview. But where does that When did that first that I could do this?

00;05;06;10 - 00;05;28;03
Gary Acosta
Well, it's not it's not something that necessarily occurs overnight. It is a process. It's a journey. I mean, you can really make the case that I started with a mortgage brokerage with three people and somehow parlayed that into NAHREP, L’ATTITUDE, L’ATTITUDE Ventures and all these different things. And I'm the only one who's, you know, taken something small and turned it into something much bigger.

00;05;28;04 - 00;05;32;23
Armando Tam
You're one of the few Latinos to interview three Presidents of The United States, so quit being humble.

00;05;33;26 - 00;05;49;11
Gary Acosta
Perhaps. I don't know. I've always thought in my mind that I need multiple things going on. So I have to have my business and I have to, you know, take care of my family. So I need to do that. I can't, I'm not the type of person that's willing to put it all on the line all the time.

00;05;49;19 - 00;06;12;02
Gary Acosta
But I also have to have my moon shot, right? Something has to inspire me not to just to get up in the morning, but to actually try to continue to achieve and, you know, to be interviewing a president is kind of the ultimate. Right? And, you know, so when I sort of said, hey, let's invite Bill Clinton and see if we can get Bill Clinton to come to our own event,

00;06;12;11 - 00;06;21;25
Gary Acosta
and I'd like to have a dialogue with him, it sounded like a long shot at the time. And it was. But, you know, I think there's a lesson there to a certain degree.

00;06;21;25 - 00;06;23;07
Armando Tam
So that moon shot is what it is.

00;06;23;14 - 00;06;46;20
Gary Acosta
You always have to have a moon shot. You always have to have a dream. In my view. Certainly certain people do. I'm wired that way. But I'm not the type of person who who is irresponsible with that. Who's always chasing pipe dreams. I think you have to have some foundational business or thing going on, but simultaneously, you have to always be going after that moonshot.

00;06;46;21 - 00;06;48;24
Armando Tam
You teach us that at NAHREP, all the time.

00;06;48;24 - 00;07;05;22
Gary Acosta
But here's the thing, too. Here's a different thing, right? So people tend to follow the same dreams. They all follow the same dreams. You know, I want to be a movie star. I want to be a billionaire. I want to be you know, whatever. And those are dreams that I think a lot of people have, but they're not original, Right?

00;07;05;29 - 00;07;26;22
Gary Acosta
So for me, also, the moonshot has to be something that is entirely original. That's what really inspires me, right, not just I want to make a lot of money someday. I want to be a billionaire. I want to own my own jet, whatever the case may be. Not saying that I don't have some aspirations along those lines, but for me, it's always doing something that's never been done before.

00;07;26;23 - 00;07;42;18
Armando Tam
At what point of your career did you start thinking like this? Because I remember one time you're like, “If you [Armando] want to be the food and beverage manager at NAHREP I got bigger plans for you,” right? So at what point did you think, I have to be original. I have to have an attainable moonshot. Because most people get into an industry to work.

00;07;43;27 - 00;08;08;16
Gary Acosta
I don't know. I think probably books that I read, people that I met along the way, the ones that impressed me the most, weren't always the richest. You know, they weren't always famous per se, but they were trailblazers. Those are the people that fascinated me the most, you know, whether, like I said, whether it was just reading a magazine article about somebody.

00;08;09;14 - 00;08;16;28
Gary Acosta
I just really am impressed with people who are able to make something out of nothing, to think in a way that other people typically don't think.

00;08;17;03 - 00;08;28;27
Armando Tam
It takes humility to think like that, though. Someone like you who's achieved and built so much to still learn from any place, any person, any anything. So does it take humility to think like that, to be open, to learn?

00;08;28;28 - 00;08;42;24
Gary Acosta
100%. 100%. You know, there's a lot of very smart people who don't have that humility, who don't realize you can learn from, you know, the person who sits at the front desk. And I think that humility does go a long way.

00;08;43;00 - 00;09;02;06
Armando Tam
Got it. So the approval process, it's not easy. You can't just DM somebody and say, hey, can you get the President of the United States, right? Talk to us a little bit about that because for the culture, for other traits, for other business organizations, for other aspiring Latinos out there. Talk to us a little bit about the approval process. Well, what you can say.

00;09;02;07 - 00;09;33;11
Gary Acosta
I may be wrong, but I'm pretty confident that Barack Obama has never spoken at a real estate event before. He rarely speaks at conferences in general. He does some, you know, private speeches around the world. And this is not a guy who's looking for work per se. But I think that we have assets. I could not, like 15 years ago, have gotten Barack Obama to come to our event.

00;09;33;16 - 00;09;56;11
Gary Acosta
So I think the platform that we built, the reputation that we built, some of the relationships that we acquired along the way, political business, relationships, the media and so forth, all of that gave us a lot to work with. And the fact that we are a unique organization, right? We are the largest Latino business organization in the United States.

00;09;56;22 - 00;10;20;15
Gary Acosta
And when you come to an event, you're going to see something and experience something that's very different than what people are used to in that regard. So when you have something like that to work with an asset, it does open doors and you can't be afraid to call in favors, you know, and to ask people to do something for you, especially people who are in a high position.

00;10;20;21 - 00;10;46;20
Gary Acosta
You know, for whatever reason, I've never been afraid to ask people, you know, for help, for advice, you know, for some degree of, you know, commitment. And I think if you do that and you do it well and you have a real asset to catapult you to a certain degree, I think you can do great things.

00;10;46;26 - 00;10;57;07
Armando Tam
Absolutely. That's the vetting process. Now, let's talk. You got approved then it’s submission of questions, right? Because you didn't want to give them an assist or do anything because it's not right. So.

00;10;57;19 - 00;11;20;23
Gary Acosta
Yeah, I don't want to be critical here, but there is a process. You have to send in questions in advance, and those questions have to be approved by his staff. I don't know how much Barack Obama's involved in that process. Maybe not at all. Or maybe he is. I don't know. But, you know, they don't necessarily want him want to put him in an uncomfortable situation.

00;11;21;06 - 00;11;53;06
Gary Acosta
So they want to have questions that are, I think, substantial but not necessarily inflammatory to a certain degree, if you know what I mean. They won’t talk about real controversial stuff or stuff that's potentially going to embarrass him or put him in a bad spot. And so they also try to water down the questions, and they try to they suggest that you ask a lot of, you know, personal questions about, are you a better golfer now than a basketball player and stuff like that.

00;11;53;26 - 00;12;11;08
Gary Acosta
I think that's fun for the audience. I think that has to be part of it. But it can't be the core of the dialogue that you have. When you have a moment with the president, you want it to be. So the process is intensive. There's a lot of back and forth. I stood my ground on the questions around immigration, which were originally rejected, by the way.

00;12;11;12 - 00;12;30;03
Gary Acosta
Yeah. And I explained to them the context of the event and the way we go about dealing with that issue. And I thought it would be disingenuous, not to mention the fact that immigration reform did not get done during his presidency. Well, at the same time, I did acknowledge on the stage that he got DACA done and that did impact people in a lot of different positive ways.

00;12;31;13 - 00;12;46;00
Gary Acosta
But yeah, that process is thorough. And, you know, every element involved, including who takes the photographs, including, you know, who introduces us, to the--all of that has to be approved way in advance.

00;12;46;00 - 00;12;47;21
Armando Tam
Absolutely, shout out to Danny Hastings.

00;12;48;18 - 00;12;49;22
Gary Acosta
I was a little worried there for a minute.

00;12;49;22 - 00;12;51;29
Armando Tam
We were. He called me. He said, did you text Danny.

00;12;52;00 - 00;12;55;24
Gary Acosta
They asked me, can you send, is this the correct spelling of Danny Hastings?

00;12;58;07 - 00;12;59;26
Gary Acosta
And I thought shoot, man, they're going to kick him out.

00;13;01;12 - 00;13;17;04
Armando Tam
So you said something. You acknowledged that DACA got done, but immigration didn't get done. So that means you're not out there to just say you didn't do this and just complain. That's great that you did that. Why is it important to not do where you're playing the blame game?

00;13;17;18 - 00;13;36;09
Gary Acosta
Well, I think that first of all, you don't want to get him on the defense in a situation like that, which is why the first thing I said was I'd like to talk about immigration for a second. And I wanted to acknowledge for the record that DACA got done on your watch and that it's impacted hundreds of thousands of people positively.

00;13;36;09 - 00;13;55;22
Gary Acosta
And I want to thank you for that and the crowd applauded, right? Yeah. So now that sort of sets the tone a little bit, but it was never intended to be a permanent solution. He nodded his head, Yes, I said. We've had a lot of trouble getting immigration reform done. We didn't get it done during your administration.

00;13;56;00 - 00;14;22;07
Gary Acosta
In fact, we haven't gotten it done since Ronald Reagan was president in any significant way. And I think part of the problem is the fact that it's framed too frequently as a social policy issue and we don't talk enough about the economic reality that immigration reform plays for the well-being of our entire country. Right. So I think framing it that way helped, even though he did squint at me a little bit when I said it didn't get done during your administration either.

00;14;23;03 - 00;14;40;02
Gary Acosta
But I think it turned out to be fine. He got to say his piece. He talked a little bit about the challenges we've had with, you know, Republicans, you know, in the way they've moved so harshly against immigration in recent years. But I think it went well. I think the audience needed to hear that.

00;14;40;09 - 00;14;41;06
Armando Tam
You’ve got to speak on Latino issues.

00;14;41;12 - 00;14;56;28
Gary Acosta
If you come to a Latino event, Barack Obama comes to a Latino event, and immigration reform is not mentioned and not discussed? I mean, it just seems like I mean, you know, yeah, that's obviously a major omission. Yeah. That just seems, you know, incomplete.

00;14;56;29 - 00;15;17;13
Armando Tam
You had him talking about Latino issues, even mentioning the word Latino in a different kind of conversation. You know, talks about relevance. He mentions Bad Bunny and reggaeton. So are you feeling now at this point like okay, this is--you've met someone like, okay, this guy is really working the crowd. He speaks eloquently. What was your moment when he did that?

00;15;17;14 - 00;15;20;13
Armando Tam
Because that was the first time you like actually laughed out loud.

00;15;22;00 - 00;15;40;29
Gary Acosta
There is a rhythm that you hope happens during an interview. You know, in the beginning it's like a boxing match, right? You're kind of feeling each other out a little bit. And then there's a rhythm that takes place when there's real chemistry up there. So the fact that he started to go down that path, that we had that really great moment.

00;15;41;00 - 00;16;03;20
Gary Acosta
Talking about Manu Ginobili. Yes. And, you know, I got to work in the fact that I played for Gregg Popovich also. All of that was very organic. I think the audience maybe even thought that that was scripted because it was like too perfect. Right. But it just showed that we hit that rhythm. And you really want to you know, when you feel the rhythm, when you feel the momentum and I've said this in my blogs, I've said this many times, that's when you have to double down.

00;16;04;02 - 00;16;19;23
Gary Acosta
Right. And so when he started to loosen up and really start to have fun up there, even when we were talking—That was a serious conversation. We were talking about the misinformation out there in the media. And he started to have that conversation in a in a way that was more engaging, a little bit fun.

00;16;20;15 - 00;16;28;08
Gary Acosta
That's when, you know, he's relaxed. That's when he's having a good time up there. And then you want to double down on that. Right. And not let that moment go away.

00;16;28;11 - 00;16;37;19
Armando Tam
Exactly. You did have a differences in opinion on the Latino vote. And talk a little bit more about that.

00;16;38;01 - 00;17;14;15
Gary Acosta
Yeah, So, you know, I was talking about it. I think it was this was coming off the heels of the immigration conversation. And Obama said something that I think this is his very classy way of pushing back on my my statement that he didn't get immigration reform done, right. And and what he said was Latinos have to get alignment around these issues first, because if Latinos aren't aligned on issues, they are never going to rise to the top of the priority list

00;17;14;16 - 00;17;34;14
Gary Acosta
for policymakers essentially. I'm paraphrasing what he said, but that's basically what he said. He's like, hey, it's you too. It's not just on us. And I responded, I think in a way that I don't regret. But I will say that since we had that conversation, I started to reflect more on what he said, and I actually started to understand it more.

00;17;34;27 - 00;18;14;18
Gary Acosta
What I responded with is I said, You also have to give Latinos something to vote for. And I think that there are issues that Latinos are aligned around. But I think I said to him, as a moderate Democrat, I think what the Democrats get wrong too often is they talk a little bit about us or to us about socialists or a little too much about immigration from a social issue standpoint, not enough about economic issues, not enough about economic prosperity, which at the end of the day is why most Latinos love this country, are in this country in the first place.

00;18;14;21 - 00;18;38;11
Gary Acosta
It's the economic prosperity opportunity to create a better life that drove us here in the first place, not social issues. So he didn't disagree with me because when I said that, the crowd actually yeah, actually applauded. And so he nodded his head and then he somehow tied it to the Black community, which I thought was a little bit, you know, a little bit different than I expected.

00;18;38;11 - 00;18;39;18
Gary Acosta
But anyways.

00;18;39;18 - 00;18;47;23
Armando Tam
You talked about looking back at that answer when he talked about immigration, the Latino vote and being aligned. Have you watched the interview since then?

00;18;48;16 - 00;18;52;01
Gary Acosta
Honestly, I have not.

00;18;52;19 - 00;18;55;11
Armando Tam
Yeah. See, I watch my cooking videos all the time. You don't even watch your own interview.

00;18;55;11 - 00;19;20;18
Gary Acosta
So I have not watched any of the three presidential interviews. Believe it or not, I should. Yeah, and I've seen clips of them, obviously in soundbites, but I've never sat and watched them from beginning to end. Mm hmm. And I don't know why. Maybe because I was there. And I know it's pretty clear in my head, and maybe I would get even, you know, a little better at the interviews if I did, but I haven't yet.

00;19;20;28 - 00;19;27;23
Armando Tam
Okay. Did anything he say throw you off from your preparation?

00;19;28;24 - 00;19;39;17
Gary Acosta
Well, I wouldn't say anything he said threw me off. I would say that when I looked at the clock and I saw that almost 20 minutes had passed and we were still on question number one.

00;19;39;21 - 00;19;42;14
Armando Tam
[Laughter]

00;19;42;20 - 00;19;49;03
Gary Acosta
I think that threw me off a bit. And I thought, okay, so how do I get back into a rhythm? Because I don't want the interview to be two questions.

00;19;49;06 - 00;19;53;26
Armando Tam
I was illegally filming. So I'm like, This is ruining my reel.

00;19;54;03 - 00;20;13;13
Gary Acosta
Okay, so but you have to roll with that because I was not going to interrupt him. You know, I think some other people would have, but I was not going to do that. If he wanted to take 20 minutes to answer a question, I had to roll with that. And maybe I could frame the next question differently,

00;20;13;13 - 00;20;29;05
Gary Acosta
that wouldn't necessarily be so brought up to where he had to feel like he had to answer it from a 360 degree standpoint. And maybe that's what I was thinking in my head at the time. But yeah, that was the one thing that I thought. I literally looked out of the clock and and said 42 minutes. That was in question number one.

00;20;29;25 - 00;20;31;07
Armando Tam
I do remember that moment.

00;20;31;21 - 00;20;32;00
Speaker 3


00;20;32;16 - 00;20;40;19
Armando Tam
One of the many things, you know, leaders have is that passion for family. How was it afterwards, the feedback from your family?

00;20;41;19 - 00;21;07;00
Gary Acosta
Well, I mean, it's a great privilege and opportunity. In fact, immediately before the interview, when we were backstage, I had Aaron back there with me. And I just wanted to give Aaron that moment to talk to Barack about basketball, just about basketball. And they had a conversation. He asked about Point Loma and asked about his game. And they had their moment about just basketball in general.

00;21;07;00 - 00;21;17;27
Gary Acosta
And Obama loves basketball. He's very knowledgeable when it comes to basketball. So they had a great, you know, three minute conversation about basketball, which I'll remember forever.

00;21;17;29 - 00;21;21;14
Armando Tam
Yeah. Your dad. How was having your dad there?

00;21;22;16 - 00;21;50;17
Gary Acosta
Well, let me say that my dad drove a train from L.A. to make it. He came with his high school best friend. His best friend from high school. They reconnected, I don't know, 30 years later, they became golf buddies. He is a former police officer, LAPD, Black, African-American. And I told my dad, I said, do you want see the interview?

00;21;50;19 - 00;22;05;09
Gary Acosta
I'd love for you to come and see the interview. He says, no, absolutely. Can I bring Rodney? And I said, Yeah, you can bring Rodney. What I didn't tell my dad was that I got him and Rodney approved for the photo line to take a photograph with President Obama.

00;22;05;17 - 00;22;07;14
Armando Tam
And even then, your child. I love this.

00;22;07;14 - 00;22;34;04
Gary Acosta
I didn't tell him. I told my dad the day before just because I didn't want him not to know that. But he chose not to tell his best friend at all until they were there. Yep. And that was really cool to be able to do that for my dad. I just, you know, I can't put it into words entirely, but I will tell you that right after they had finished the photo line, I was waiting for them when they came there.

00;22;34;15 - 00;22;39;16
Gary Acosta
And I talked to Rodney, asked him how it was. He didn't answer me.

00;22;39;16 - 00;22;39;24
Speaker 3


00;22;40;19 - 00;22;44;24
Gary Acosta
And my dad goes, he's still in shock Gary.

00;22;45;00 - 00;22;58;06
Armando Tam
Oh, yeah. The Arizona Compass team, the Veritas kids, they're still in shock, you know? So let's, the Manu moment. So Popovich reached out to you, you know, and tell me a little bit, why do you think that happened?

00;22;59;16 - 00;23;23;11
Gary Acosta
Well, obviously it happened because Manu went back to him and said, hey, do you remember Gary Acosta? And it turns out Popovich remembered me very well. And, you know, actually told Manu a couple of things about me and and that was very cool. So Manu Ginobili getting him to the event was a big deal. This is the first Latino who is in the basketball Hall of Fame.

00;23;23;19 - 00;23;38;23
Gary Acosta
First one. Incredible, Right. And it just happened a couple of weeks before the conference. Right. And so fortunately, we have some mutual friends who was able to reach out to him. I got a chance to speak with him in a Zoom call about a month before the event. I told him about it. You know, I shared with him some links.

00;23;39;02 - 00;23;50;15
Gary Acosta
He said, I got to see this, I’m in, count me in, whatever. Very, very humble guy, you know, did not ask for anything, did not ask for, you know, didn't provide us with a list.

00;23;50;16 - 00;23;52;14
Armando Tam
He would ask us for the agenda, the breakouts.

00;23;52;14 - 00;24;22;18
Gary Acosta
Yeah. No, he was he was more interested in the business sessions than he was in the basketball classic, which is what we invited him for. And he did. So anyways, so obviously Manu being there and really seeing him become inspired by the quality of the event and the participants who showed up at the event, people who he looks up to like Lin-Manuel Miranda and stuff like that, that he told me he's like one of my idols, you know, that made a huge impression on him.

00;24;22;29 - 00;24;37;12
Gary Acosta
So he went back because, you know, he's on the staff for the Spurs and told Pop, Gary Acosta says he played for you and over. And so Pops sent me a note and and asked me for my cell phone.

00;24;37;12 - 00;24;44;18
Armando Tam
And so there were a couple of things he said about you. You got to get those out, man.

00;24;45;05 - 00;25;09;22
Gary Acosta
So so he said two things. He says, So when I saw Manu at the gala, he said, I talked to Pop this morning and I said, Gary Acosta. And he said, What the f is Gary Acosta doing? And Manu told him and he told me, he says I remember two things about Gary is that, number one, he spoke Spanish worse than any other Mexican I've ever met.

00;25;10;11 - 00;25;12;17
Gary Acosta
And secondly, he had a good jump shot.

00;25;14;02 - 00;25;29;21
Armando Tam
So Coach Pop, we look forward to seeing you at one of our events, man, it’d be an honor coach. Let's talk some serious stuff. Gary, There was some resistance from some of our members when we announced that we were going to have President Obama. Yeah. How did you handle that?

00;25;30;17 - 00;26;05;07
Gary Acosta
Well, politics is, you know, difficult, right? Well, you know, it's a very polarizing environment. There's not the kind of, I think, intellectual debate that maybe there once was between, you know, the two parties. It's all about demonization. You're a bad guy. You hate America. These people are trying to destroy our country. It kind of goes both ways. And so any time you bring a political figure, especially one as significant as a former president, you're going to have people who are going to basically be put off by that.

00;26;05;07 - 00;26;31;11
Gary Acosta
“NAHREP is now leaning left. And you know, this guy, his policies, you know, made the country worse,” and all this kind of stuff. So you look at things from a basically risk reward standpoint. So there is risk and you try to manage that risk. But you look at, is the reward greater than what the risk potentially poses?

00;26;32;04 - 00;26;51;23
Gary Acosta
And I didn't just make that decision on my own, as you know. I discussed it with our board. I got a chance for everybody to weigh in on that. I actually reached out to people outside of our board as well, just to get their feedback to share with them. From my point of view, why it was important, but not try to influence them too much because I kind of wanted the feedback.

00;26;52;13 - 00;27;13;18
Gary Acosta
At the end of the day, you know, the reward of having somebody like Barack Obama at the conference, you know, just greatly outweighs any risk. If you remember, you know, we had Lin-Manuel Miranda, we had CEOs of Nike, we had, you know, other celebrities at the event, 5:00 in the morning, people were lining up for the Obama Yes, 5:00 in the morning.

00;27;14;01 - 00;27;17;19
Gary Acosta
There were 3000 people in line for 1800 seats.

00;27;17;20 - 00;27;21;03
Armando Tam
Yeah, I woke up to like 200 DMs. It’s not a nightclub, people.

00;27;21;03 - 00;27;27;06
Gary Acosta
So I think that validated that we made the right choice. There's no question the reward outweighed any risks.

00;27;27;23 - 00;27;32;27
Armando Tam
So third president, what does that do for the organization?

00;27;32;27 - 00;27;46;10
Gary Acosta
I think that hopefully, hopefully and I think it's true for the most part, I think people now view NAHREP is not just another minority real estate trade association. Right. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

00;27;47;01 - 00;27;47;09
Armando Tam
No.

00;27;47;23 - 00;28;13;15
Gary Acosta
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Right. But as you know, we've tried to become more than that. Yeah, we want to be a great Latino business organization, but we also want to inspire people from a cultural standpoint. We want people to think bigger. We want people to imagine things in ways that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise. We've never had anything like that within the Latino community.

00;28;13;26 - 00;28;40;19
Gary Acosta
We've never had a platform like this where we can showcase the best and the brightest that we have in all these different sectors and give people a great experience and have a great time and be able to meet people in the foyer that they wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise. So I hope that people start to see NAHREP as this anomaly, as this phenomena of sorts, because I think that's exactly what we are.

00;28;40;21 - 00;28;55;03
Armando Tam
Yeah, no doubt. It definitely impacted everybody. I hadn't seen that. You know, looking back now, rethinking everything, is there a question you wish you could have asked that you didn't?

00;28;55;03 - 00;29;24;03
Gary Acosta
You know, I felt pretty good after the interview, mostly because I felt I was in the moment. Right. That I wasn't just speaking from a script, that there was real chemistry on stage and that I was present, that I was listening to his answers as well and processing those answers and then utilizing those answers to provide some feedback or some commentary.

00;29;24;03 - 00;29;51;05
Gary Acosta
So from that standpoint, I think it went about as well as it could have went. I think I would have liked to have more conversations about what Naroff is all about. Yeah, you know, and gotten his his feedback on that. Talk a little bit about the stuff that we do, the programs we do, the initiatives we pursue, and how that might compare to other things that he's seen in the past and what he might have in the way of opinions around those things.

00;29;51;25 - 00;29;59;22
Gary Acosta
You know, I wanted it to be a broader conversation and not a narrow conversation. But I do regret that I didn't get a chance to talk more about that.

00;29;59;24 - 00;30;13;22
Armando Tam
Yeah, it's not easy. You're dealing with the president. United States. Yeah. The CEO. What did you want to get out of this interview with 44? What did you want him to get out of it?

00;30;13;22 - 00;30;41;09
Gary Acosta
So I wanted him to see Latinos maybe in a different light than he has in the past. And obviously, President United States probably seen things that 50 lifetimes, you know, wouldn't have the opportunity to see. But I think he has in his mind what a Latino organization looks like, right. And it's probably more civil rights-y than NAHREP and L’ATTITUDE is,

00;30;42;13 - 00;30;57;21
Gary Acosta
maybe a little bit more partisan. And maybe less, and I say this with all due respect, less professional. I mean, if you walk into L’ATTITUDE you see this is a world class production.

00;30;57;21 - 00;30;58;00
Armando Tam
100 percent.

00;30;58;00 - 00;31;23;07
Gary Acosta
Not just, you know, some cool people on stage, it's a world class production. So I wanted him to see that because I truly believe that he has probably never seen anything like that before. And if that had an impression on him and the next time he's in a conversation or having, you know, a strategy meeting about anything and Latinos business, the economy comes up,

00;31;23;07 - 00;31;24;22
Gary Acosta
I hope he thinks about us.

00;31;25;05 - 00;31;35;15
Armando Tam
Absolutely. You've been an advocate for that for years. Remember the conversation you had with Howard Schultz? Yeah, right. You were talking there. And what was his response when you gave.

00;31;35;15 - 00;31;41;20
Gary Acosta
He said that I've never heard it framed that way before, and could I use that talking point? Yeah. Yeah. And I tell him, You good. Yeah.

00;31;41;23 - 00;31;56;01
Armando Tam
Can I use that talking point? I'm going to be on Barbara Walters. But so third presidential interview. Give me one word that describes each one. So let's start off with Clinton.

00;31;56;01 - 00;32;15;08
Gary Acosta
Very measured. So the conversation was very you know, it was hard to break through and really get him to relax. He's a very political guy and he's very cognizant of his words and the impact that they have. So he measures those words very, very carefully.

00;32;16;04 - 00;32;19;11
Armando Tam
George Bush.

00;32;19;11 - 00;32;39;11
Gary Acosta
Casual, friendly, very engaging, almost like he doesn't want to talk about anything serious, wants to just go up there and have fun. I would ask serious questions, but he would find a way to make every answer, you know, a little bit fun. And so that almost the opposite of Clinton in that regard.

00;32;40;25 - 00;32;43;14
Armando Tam
44.

00;32;43;14 - 00;33;14;21
Gary Acosta
Very, very polished. One of the few people in the world that can really, I think, talk to people in almost every quality of life from the highest level of the geopolitical world to the most sophisticated business and science conversations down to—I don’t want to say down to—over to hip hop culture, entertainment, sports, you know.

00;33;15;01 - 00;33;16;09
Speaker 3


00;33;16;17 - 00;33;39;29
Gary Acosta
Just those very subtle nuances of style, fashion. So when you're talking to somebody like that, it's very hard to have a conversation where you feel like you're showing him something or teaching something that he doesn't already know or hasn't already seen. Very, very tough in that regard. I like that. but I think somehow we find a way to find a great rhythm in the conversation.

00;33;39;29 - 00;33;41;24
Gary Acosta
So it was my favorite, one of the masterpieces

00;33;42;04 - 00;33;43;18
Armando Tam
Give me your three favorite cities.

00;33;45;10 - 00;33;48;09
Gary Acosta
Three favorite cities in the world or in the US.

00;33;48;10 - 00;33;48;23
Armando Tam
US.

00;33;50;12 - 00;34;08;29
Gary Acosta
So I'm not going to say San Diego because that’s where I live, right. So I would say definitely New York City, probably Miami. And then I would say probably Las Vegas.

00;34;09;18 - 00;34;09;28
Armando Tam
Okay.

00;34;09;29 - 00;34;11;15
Gary Acosta
Mostly because of the food.

00;34;11;19 - 00;34;26;29
Armando Tam
Which president would you like to go to NYC with? Who would it be cool to be in New York with and what would you be eating? Not the restaurant, because they didn’t pay us, just kidding. But what president would you say, Let's go to New York. You got to try this dish. Which president?

00;34;28;12 - 00;34;49;07
Gary Acosta
Well, definitely not George W Bush for New York City. And I don't mean that any weird way, I just can't picture him hanging and chilling in New York City. So I would probably say that, first of all, I'd rather go to all three cities with Barack Obama. But if I had to pick that way, I would say New York City probably Bill Clinton, Miami, Barack Obama, and then Las Vegas.

00;34;49;07 - 00;34;51;11
Gary Acosta
I think I could have a good time with George W in Las Vegas.

00;34;51;11 - 00;34;53;25
Armando Tam
There you go. We can’t take Danny Hastings and Omar everywhere,

00;34;53;25 - 00;34;54;02
Armando Tam
so that’s why I said which cities, man.

00;34;55;23 - 00;35;01;27
Armando Tam
Nice. It's been an honor. And looking back, I can't wait till we watch that interview again, you know?

00;35;02;06 - 00;35;10;29
Gary Acosta
All right. Thank you.