The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Studio

From Surviving to Thriving: Larry Rivera's Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journey

• Stanislaus State

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Larry Rivera, a Latinx entrepreneur proudly representing Modesto, California, shares his inspiring story in the world of business as the CEO and co-founder of Mango Crazy, a vibrant restaurant chain renowned for its creative fusion of Mexican street food and drinks. Larry recalls his humble beginnings in 2014 within the Central Valley.  Larry and his business partner Andy Lopez first started with just a few small locations around the Modesto area. But due to their shared endless dedication, hard work, and innovative thinking, they have propelled Mango Crazy’s influence and growth into the Bay Area and eventual establishment of future franchises.  

In this engaging episode of E&I Studio, Dr. Pablo Paredes Romero and Larry Rivera delve deeper into the qualities that define a successful entrepreneur. Reflecting on his upbringing in a challenging neighborhood, Larry discusses how the adversities and business dynamics of his community shaped his entrepreneurial mindset. His early experiences instilled in him the importance of unwavering determination and adaptability in the face of challenges. Through his journey, Larry exemplifies the power of relentless pursuit and perseverance in turning dreams into accomplishment. 

 

Co-produced by the Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation program and the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing at Stanislaus State. The E&I Studio is edited and recorded in the KCSS studios on the campus of Stanislaus State.
The views expressed by guests on this podcast are not necessarily those of the University.

Welcome to the entrepreneurship and innovation studio, where we explore the passion and the purpose behind some of the amazing people in our community, and above all, their stories. I'm Doctor Pablo Paredes Romero, and all my career, I've been fascinated by entrepreneurship and innovation. From the moment an idea is scribbled on a napkin, drawn on a tablet, whiteboarded, spoken out loud in the shower or in the car on the way to someone's nine to five, it's all about the work and the art behind the venture. Larry Rivera is neighborhood, not Hollywood. Although, to be fair, his journey to success does have a cinematic story arc. A Modesto native Latinx empresario and congenial advocate of community, first, Larry knows the nature of the hustle all too well. Self effacing, humble, and more like that really cool guy he went to school with. His story takes us back to the moments, the moments where you were faced with what you knew was a decision that would define your future, your destiny, or whatever seemingly colossal point on the horizon that awaited you. And you made that choice. Whether it's AI driven, large language models, synthetic biology, or ice cream, the art of the hustle remains the same, and Larry Rivera is here for it. I want to talk about community for a little bit. Can you tell me about the community in which you grew up? Yeah, I grew up in Modesto. I grew up in a really rough neighborhood. Modesto Gallo was a neighbor of mine close to my house. So I saw everything that they were doing in business growing up, how they expanded. I knew the employees personally. They never gave me a job, but I was there. What about that place made you, do you think? Made you who you are today? It was very, very difficult to grow up. There wasn't the easiest thing in the world. My parents came from a different country, came here to work, so it was easy for me to go to school. And the second I got home, nobody was there to. To watch me. So I pushed the front doors open, went to the street. So I got a lot of my education, not only from school, but the street side of things. So the street side of things in Modesto left. What in your DNA, would you say? Survival. Survival. Not giving up. Loyalty. What does the word community come to mean? Everything. You know, being born and raised in Modesto and getting to know every place in Modesto, literally. I know a lot of business owners, a lot of people that have come together to try to help our. Our city out. We do everything under the sun to help our community, and we have a lot of people that are doing that now they get no attention, but they're out there doing it. How would you say that the business community has evolved since the time that you found yourself entering it to what it is now? There's a lot of more groups that have been formed. People are actually trying to scale and help others scale. And I love it. I absolutely love it, because for the longest time, when we first opened our doors, it wasn't, you know, the Modesto chamber of Commerce was available to join. And now, obviously, the latino chambers is growing. I think Johnny's doing an amazing job getting everybody together and, you know, seeking out other resources. It's important. What would you say is the single most important thing that you could tell the young person who was compelled to start a business in the central California Valley? There's a lot of speed bumps. You have to have good people around you to guide you, especially when you get to a certain level. A lot of people don't have that experience to, say, manage 20 locations. It's very scarce. There's. The few people that have are the people that I hold on to because they've experienced the problems that I've experienced. What would you say has been your most powerful learning experience as a small business owner? Loss after loss after failure after failure. That's the best teacher people can tell you, but you won't listen until you actually go through it. You can't. When you can't get under it, you can't get over it. You got to go right through the middle of it, and that's great education. What was that first time like for you? It seemed like it was the end of the world, but it's not, and you have to have a stomach for it. A lot of people don't. At the first sign of resistance, people want to just sell their business and be out. What would you say more than anything else, drove that awareness that this was. Not the end of the world, not giving up. Just the leaders that I looked for for, like, as mentors taught me that. And there's a lot of things on the Internet now. Now you can go on TikTok and just see all these entrepreneurs talking about all the problems and keep going, and the education is there now. But ten years ago, it wasn't that easy. I'm sure ten years ago, you had to get kicked in the mouth a few times before you could figure things out. What does lifelong learning mean to you? It's everything. I mean, you're learning something every day. If you think you have all the answers to everything, you're you know a lot less than you think you do. You know that's the truth. What do you feel has been your greatest teacher? There's been a lot. There's been a lot. One person that I hold on to is one of my friends, Matt. And he's gone through so many things, and he teaches it forward in a way that is, that you can understand. He's not brutal where he's pushing you through things. He's not soft where he's not telling you the truth, but it's just right there. And the way that he presents it and the way that, you know, it's easy to listen to. It seems like you've taken a lot of stock, as it were, in the power of network. Oh, yeah. Network is your net worth and everybody that you have associated with. And people will step up and help if they believe in what you're doing, and they see you got skin in the game and you're killing yourself. Like people are wanting to dive in. It works the opposite, too, for people that may want me to go invest in their business, and I don't see that not going to do it. I see a lot in our communities and Latinx communities especially, a lot of kind of distrust of networking, of joining chambers and stuff like that. What was it for you when you first joined a networking group of that type? Were you hesitant at all? Very. And I think that that's a very cultural thing. So when I go back and I look at the history of our culture, there's always the fear of, oh, somebody's gonna rob you, somebody's gonna take what you got. Don't trust this person. Everybody's out to get you. There's no friends. In reality, it's the opposite. In reality, there are good people out there. People do want to help you. People aren't going to steal everything that you have just because you go and join the chamber. It's just not going to happen. But historically, what we're taught growing up as a young mexican man is like, if you got some money, keep it, save it, hide it, rather than, you know, think maybe somebody can help you with that money. Do you think we operate from like, a scarcity mentality? Mexico's very different than it is here. Dog eat dog there. Somebody sees you have something, they try to probably take it. I'd never live there, but I imagine, you know, from the stories that I've. Heard and stuff, like it happens in Latino America. Yeah, there's definitely, when we come here, we bring a lot of our, I guess our experiences I always get kind of on the topic of research for all the obvious reasons, due diligence, et cetera. What role do you believe research plays in your everyday life? Every day I'm doing some kind of research every single day. It. It comes with the territory. If you're not doing research on topics or doing research on. On, you know, the future, what's coming, you're not doing it right. What have you done recently? Geeking out on AI here. AI, I mean, you have to dig deep with AI. You got to use the tools. You have to do it, because sooner or later, it's going to take over everything. In so many ways, it's a great force multiplier for solopreneurs. What does the word innovation mean to you? Mandatory. You have to always be innovating because somebody's always catching up to your level. So you have to be evolving, innovating, creating something different to stay relevant. What do you think in terms of the Central Valley we need to do to develop and foster and maintain not just entrepreneurship, because we have that, but of innovation. Honestly, there's, the Bay Area is. I feel like it's cutting edge when it comes to innovation, and I think they're our neighbors, and I think that we need to work together to maybe take some of their ideas and bring them to the Central Valley. Same with LA. Seems like they're all ahead of the Central Valley that's just squeezed right in the middle. You know, we're still considered a farming town, you know, when it comes to big cities. So partnering with our neighbors, I think, is important for innovation. There are ideas and then there are innovations. Take me back to a moment where you were part of some type of innovation, and you knew that you were onto something before most people. Well, I mean, just speaking for Mango Crazy, You would always find locations like ours, predominant in predominantly hispanic neighborhoods. And so to take that out of there, clean it off, bring it to mainstream America, I think we were probably one of the first ones to do that, in my eyes. And it worked. It's been working for us, and I think Chipotle does the same thing. Instead of it just being like a taqueria or something, they just brought it out to mainstream, you know, exposed it, talked about the ingredients, made it a healthy tip, and they're doing really well. What do you think the word application should mean in the context of a business education? It's a great question. I would think if somebody was coming in to be an entrepreneur and they knew nothing about it, I suggest they apply themselves with somebody that's already in business, first, go through the process, get some experience, see what people truly go through, and then make your decision. Because if you're not applying yourself or being involved in day to day business, they think it's easy, and that's sort. Of like where the magic is made, like this smaller enterprise you see, without any type of buffer. Sales, business development, accounting, operations, logistics, it's all there. Was that part of your journey? Not in the beginning. In the beginning, it was just getting there and work, because you don't have the time. When you're operating a business seven days a week, and you're the first one and the last one to leave, you don't have the time to go outside of that. I want to say, Andy and I worked for a year and a half straight, seven days a week except for Christmas. And so to get outside of that and to get knowledge from somebody outside, you have to bring people in the right way. And I say the right way because we did everything backwards. What do you mean by that? We started not knowing how to even save receipts when we made purchases. Like, we started, like, from straight grunt work, just going in every day, cleaning the shop, doing the shopping before the store opened, operated regular business hours closed, and did that every single day. So to do things the right way, we should have had applicants coming in, doing interviews, the whole process. You end up learning more than you would learn in an MBA class by actually being involved in doing the work. It's powerful statement. Yeah, because think about it. You got to learn accounting, you got to learn hr, you have to learn workers comp. I've drawn blueprints. I've done things I never thought in my life I would ever do. You know, reading leases, doing, like, all this stuff that somebody else should probably. Be doing, you know, now I am the architect. I'm the architect. You know, I'm out there with the, you know, measuring tape, and I know what to do now after making so many mistakes. If that was the launchpad, if that's where it started, when did you have the sense that it was all starting to come together? And what made that evident to you? Well, there was a couple different thresholds. So the first one was at our first location when we started getting the lines coming in, and we couldn't keep up, and we'd have, you know, say, six employees, and we still couldn't catch up. We knew that that was the time where we had to go open up another location, because then it would split between the two, and then that happened. Again with the next two. So then we split again. And so those are indicators. Those are indicators that you need to expand and you need to make some changes, because. And things are going to break repeatedly. Every time you do it, things break. You start all over a completely different payroll system because now you have more than ten employees. And then, you know, whole other insurance, everything that you can imagine has to break all the time. All the time. What was it like when the realization began to dawn upon you that, okay, now we got to hire a specialist? Yeah. So after, like, the fourth or fifth location is when we started deciding that we need to bring people in that have the experience. However, that's not always a solution, I'll tell you, sometimes it's better to hire from within and teach them how you want things to be done. Sometimes when you hire from the outside, they have their own ways already set stone. And sometimes it doesn't work for you. Going back to hiring from within at that point, it's a great cultural move. You know, you've got people that have been with you from the very beginning, they understand the norms, folkways of the organization. So that's a power move. Exactly. Cause you can bring in somebody to do your hiring, but they don't know what it's like to be inside one of the shops, so they don't know what a rush is like. They don't know how to peel mangoes themselves. So when they actually step in and start doing the hiring, they know what it takes to do that job. So now you hire differently. A little more strategic goes a long way to retention. Who is Larry Rivera? In my younger days, I always knew that I wanted to do something for myself. Never once did it cross my mind that I had to work for somebody else for the rest of my life. Has it been easy? It's been the hardest thing I've ever done. Even today. Like, people invite me to these podcasts and they go, you know, he's this entrepreneur and this and that. But I don't look at it that way, Pablo. I look at it like I'm just another dude in the struggle, man. Like, it's far from easy, and I don't think it gets easier. That's always learning, always. And so who I am, I'm a survivor. That's who I am. Neighborhood in Hollywood. Yeah, for sure. And that's interesting, too, because even just in my own travels, ive noticed that there are moments in crossroads in an entrepreneur's own education development, where you start to see the role evolve, the person evolve, the way they look at and process the world around them. Evolve, change. Was it a conscious act for you? Is there something that youve told yourself, ive got to keep myself grounded. This or whatever, maybe in the face of all these things? Or is it something that doesnt even. Like, enter you every day? Its in my head every day. Stay sane somehow, somehow I gotta, like, maintain who I am too. And my family life and, you know, my friend life, like, when you're trying to build something, it looks horrible to other people because my friends are used to having that access to me and being like, hey, let's hang out, let's watch football. All that's out the window. When you start a business, it's not glitter and cupcakes. How people imagine it to be. It's very difficult. And so when you stop answering this call right now, you know, my phone's, people are calling me and I'm, you know, I'm busy. And a lot of the time when I'm helping in the service, it's, we're in a service industry. I can't go pick up my phone. They're watching me. Then I got to go wash my hands. There's a whole process. So when I don't answer my phone, people take that person, they don't understand. I've had people tell me straight up, like, you can't be that busy. They don't live that lifestyle. It's hard to make somebody understand the lifestyle that we live to have a business. I want to go back to Larry in his early career, what was he like? The story that I like to tell my partner Andy, he's in the thick of it with me. That guy's a workaholic, man. And my early careers, I gave up a career that I had here in Turlock. I was an administrator for, it was an assisted living facility, and I was an administrator there. And I gave it up to open up this ice cream shop dream that we had. And people laughed at. My own friends laughed in my face, are you going to buy an ice cream shop? Ha ha. Right in my face. I mean, if you hear that coming from a guy like me, you'd probably laugh too, you know? But my vision was greater than that. My vision was greater than what the critics were listening to. So when, when Andy and I first got our first location, we were slow. We had nobody coming in. And I got offered another job, a really, really, really good job. Pablo and I took the call outside and they go, hey, you know, we want to give you this position. And if you want to take it. And I look inside, nobody's there. I'm not making money. I'm a new dad, just married. And I look inside, and my buddy's in there, and he's washing dishes. We ride or die together. He's my neighbor in our neighborhood, so you don't leave anybody behind me. So at that point was the point of no return. That moment was like, this is it. I gotta make this work. There's no choices. There's no plan B. There's no going back. I talk about this all the time in my podcasts. But one of the most amazing stories I've ever heard, and they taught it to me at Stanford, at the hellban program there. And it was about the. When the Spanish came to conquer Mexico and the Aztecs, you know, Cortez came over, and his soldiers were outnumbered by millions. And the guys were like, hey, let's just go back. They were scared. They knew they were going to die. So what he did, when all the soldiers were asleep, Cortez went and lit all their boats on fire. No going back now. And they ended up conquering Mexico. Why? Because the mindset of no plan B. No, you can't. You're not going to go back home, dude. You got to deal with it here. Same thing happened to me at that point. That one moment was like, that's it. I'm committed. Let's go. Where did Larry then see himself now? I knew that I wanted multiple locations. I knew that that was the long term idea. I just didn't know how or how we were going to get there. Had I achieved that? I didn't even know how to get a lease. Things I didn't know about business in the very beginning. And so I just knew that I wanted to be able to scale something to multiple locations. That was never a question in my mind. But a lot has changed in me. Like, I've changed a lot. Just to give you an example, like, say, money, for example, right? Like, it takes a lot of money to expand a lot. I've built one location here for, like, 350 grand. I paid out, so it's very expensive. So when you scale these things, like, you scale, a, put all your profit into getting bigger, and b, you need some kind of financing from somewhere. I believe everybody walks around with a credit score on their chest. No matter who you are. You know, you're walking around and people look at you and like, oh, he's. He's good for it, or he's not good for it, whatever. So, Ed, there's times where you got to become this guy where, like, you know, hey, you'll get a loan and then be like, hey, I'm going to have to pay you later or something, you know, like, you have to become that person. And it's hard for me because for me, like, your word is everything. And there's times where that doesn't work the way you want it to work. And I read a lot. I read a lot about Starbucks. I read about all these other companies and the things that they've gone through. And Starbucks in 2008, for the first time saw a decline in revenue. And so I wanted to know what they did at that time, because two years ago, man, go crazy at year eight, hit the same plateau, if you will. And so what do you do? What do you do at that time? And I read what Starbucks did. They brought in their mobile app. They had millions of dollars backing them, so it wasn't hard for them to do it, you know, Howard Schultz, they had money. And when you try to grow this thing organically, it's very different. It's very, very different. You got to do it from the gut, like, from the dirt, man. Like, it's a struggle. And I never thought I would be that guy. Who are your earliest allies? Employees, supporters, mentors. The people that I looked up to were, you know, my early employees that believed in what we were doing just as much as we did. Henry, one of our early GM's, he shed blood, sweat, and tears for the growth of this company. And that motivated the heck out of me to think, man, these guys, they believe in me just as much as I believe in myself. And sometimes you need those people around you, because sometimes it gets difficult where you question everything about yourself. Question it, question, man, am I doing the right thing? Is this the right thing to do? Is it? Every day there's different battles, man. And, like, you question it. And when the people around you believe in you, they're just reminders. You know, you look at them every day and they're like, they're getting up with you. They're going to sleep with you after 36 hours or something. And they believe in this thing as much as you do. It motivates you. It's like, I can't quit. I got to owe it to him, you know? Oh, to everybody that, you know, reposts us on Instagram. Because you'd be surprised. The people you think will support you don't. And the people you least expect to support you support you the most. You talked about asking yourself hard questions what was the hardest question you ever asked yourself? Do I keep going? And I think that crosses everybody's mind, not just mine. Everybody's, everybody who's in business. When things get hard, it's easy to be like, keep going. Do I not keep going? What do I do? What are the answers? You're looking for these answers, and nobody has the answers to give you. That's where you dig deep. That's where you're like, all right, this is a question for Larry for sure. Does it become sort of a different thing that you go to when you ask, when those questions inevitably come? Sometimes, is it interchangeable? Is it your own pride? Is it other people? Is it family? Is it community? That's a million dollar question. It's probably a little bit of everything comes into play now you a dig deep for yourself, for your employees, for your family. Like, pride. You know, some people say, man, you know, you got a lot of pride to keep going. I'm like, it's not pride. It's like, all the work that you've put into this thing, why let it go? What would Larry now say to start a conversation with Larry then? Then it's okay. Breathe. You know, in the beginning, all your problems are huge. Later, they're. They become specks because you grow callous to problems. You do. You grow very callous to them. And you're like, oh, I've dealt with that already. That's easy. So, I mean, not to put so much pressure on yourself either. Like, things are going to be all right no matter where you stand. You know, you could be in the worst situation. You could be in the best situation. They always cross paths at some point. You know, there's points where I've had so much money, haven't known what to do with. Both are true. It's like you gotta just stay, keep working, stay at that same mindset to keep going. And so whether you're your highest point or your lowest point, it's, you still gotta keep going. In some cases, I find, and I meet people in my travels that are just by nature, personality, background, environment. Like, they know what it is to tolerate an ambiguous environment. Like, to navigate uncharted waters. And I meet others that sort of don't have that, and they learn it quick. Is there one that you lean more towards? I learned the hard way. Everything for me is the hard way. I don't know why. The only way to really learn it is to fall down and hurt yourself. When I was learning to drive, a cousin of mine used to say, when I was like, backing my car up. I was like, am I close? Because before cameras, right. And dating ourselves here, before cameras, we had to rely on our own skill and luck, I guess going back, I'm like, do I have room? Do I have room? Do I have room? And then they would say. She would say to me in Spanish, el golpe habisa. If you hit something, that'll let you know for sure. I've ran into people like friends and that I hadn't seen in a while. Okay, how are things? Like, you know, the economy's a little weird, things are a little rough. First thing they say is, oh, you grew too quick. Like, okay, so you know me. Like, so you know everything I'm going through. Like, you know everything. Like, no. Like, I don't regret. I'm not regretful of pace, because I think that if you don't take that chance, you'll never know. You have to take those chances, man. So, like, speaking again, going back to what you said, speaking to a younger Larry, is just, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Nothing's gonna happen to you. Like, just go through it. Good or bad, go through it. What does mango crazy come to mean in the telling of your own story? I mean, it's become a part of me. Say I'm on my deathbed. There's no way. I cannot bring it up. It's ingrained in my blood. There's no backing out of it. Blood in, blood out, you know? So it's become a part. It's taught me a lot about myself. And life is very similar to business. And you're gonna. Times you're drowning, there's times you're doing great, and that's just life. That's life. But it's enhanced when you have a business, it's enhanced you deal with those every day. You characterize it as being a part of you, a significant part of you. And I've known people who, at one point or another, in time, they have a hard time differentiating between the worker and the work, the artist and the art. Has it ever become so big and so all encompassing that Larry sort of gets lost in it? For sure? My family will be the first to tell you that. Like, you know, I could be with them during a family event or something. And I'm always taking calls, doing stuff. Like, it just becomes a part of you, just the norm. You could never really escape it unless you set it up to escape it. So, like, if I'm going to take a few days off, I'm going to be like, all right, I don't want any phone calls, guys. Be prepared for this. Be prepared. Like, I have to set it all up to be able to forget about it for a couple of days. That's the lifestyle I choose to live. What does it mean to be a latino leader in the current business climate? It's difficult. We have a much harder time to get to where we need to get to than a lot of other people. It's difficult. And, you know, people may discredit that, but it's the truth. I live it. You know, ever since I was young, in my old neighborhood, you know, I had the sheriff's office, the sheriff's officers coming to us and putting guns to the back of our heads, and for no reason, you know, we're playing sports, we're trying to do the right thing. And that was a constant, was, you know, police harassment for us. And even Andy, you know, Andy's like six years younger than me, and he was. He was threatened with guns our entire lives growing up, you know, by the people that are supposed to protect and serve. I don't. I don't blame him. I don't. I don't hold anger in my heart at all. I support the sheriff's office. I love them to death. They're great people over there. But when I was growing up, it was a different. It was a different vibe, you know, it almost made you become somebody you didn't want to become, you know? And for us, we were completely innocent at the time. The first time I went to jails, 15 years old. 15 years old. And for doing absolutely nothing, I think a normal person would probably carry that heart, that. That reality with them. But I'm not going to do that, man. I'm not going to blame anything or anybody. Things happen. Who knows what kind of reports they were getting from other people. I don't know. That they would come to us. Where's the guns, guys? Where's the guns? I'm like, dude, we're playing soccer, you know? So, I mean, and in business, it's the same thing. You know? It's like, people don't want to see you gain traction. They want to hold that back for whatever reason, you know? There's still people to this day that don't. They don't acknowledge what we've accomplished. In business, they won't do it. You know? And it's like, you tell me, who else got 20 locations out of Modesto, California? Out of the dirt, man. Out of the mud. Tell me. Oh, wait and you're not going to celebrate that? Like, how? Why? I want to know. I want answers. I just keep working. I just keep pushing it. There's narratives, there's tropes that are sort of sustained. I think a lot of times, it's the soft tyranny of low expectations. Yeah. You're so articulate. Thank you. Adversity, being on the ropes, it's all part of the story. Take me back to the first moment that you realized you may not be able to deal with this challenge, whatever. That was, from our first location to our second location, which was a drive thru on Kansas. The city did not let me open my shop for three months there because their claim was that they needed to have a mop sink. Somebody had just left there. No mop sink, didn't survive in business. We took it over. And now I need to do this. This place has been in business for how many years? Why me? Why are you gonna shut me down for three months? Paying my lease, you know, having everything ready to go? I had to get people that, some powerful people in Modesto to be writing letters for me. And all of a sudden, okay, I was like, this is the type of fight that I'm going to have to see every day. Every day of my life, I have to see a fight. If I accepted the word no in my life, I'd probably only have one location right now. It's a good thing. There's moments where, after the storm, you know, things go back to normal. You start getting back on track. Things are moving. I think that even if they're insincere, they'll want a front run just to say they've been there since day one, and then you sort of have to accept that. Exactly. But I think because I wasn't classless, I could have been. I could have cussed up a storm. I could have handled the situation differently. But in the famous words of Tupac shakur, I learned to think ahead. So I write with my pen. It's the same thing. What does intentionality mean to you? Purpose. If you're intentional about doing something, you do it. You do it. If you're not intentional, if you're not building the steps to get there, you're not going to get there. There has to be a system, but you got to figure that out. The steps that it takes to achieve and to be intentional, you have to have goals. The road to those goals aren't always linear. Nope. You know? But if you follow those steps, you'll get to each one of those steps. To reach your goal. How or when did you feel the most creative in your career? In the beginning. Because as a CEO, you tend to work on problems rather than progress. And the problems are big, and your attention has to go there rather than being creative and pushing things forward. And for me, it's difficult to go outside that space now, because as you grow, you have all kinds of problems. You know, the problems are, some are big, some are small, but you still have to attend to those because nobody else is going to do it. Nobody else knows how to do it. So my time is appropriated to being the biggest problem solver there is in my business. And hes the one that gets more creative, and hes the one that is able to go. And he takes the time, he structures his time well to where? If hes not working on other problems, then hes working to innovate, to change, to evolve. He works on our marketing, too. There's no way I'd be able to do this by myself. Impossible. Impossible. You know, the bigger and better your team is, the further you go. That division of talents to solve problems, to address future concerns or strategy, marketing, did that evolve over time, or did you guys pretty much from the beginning go, you know what? I'm gonna do this, and you go do that? Yeah. It's funny because it's changed so many times. Pablo, in the beginning, um, when we first opened our first shop, we didn't know what, what we were doing, man, we had no clue. I naturally gravitated to the front to deal with the customer. And Andy was really shy, so he stayed in the back and focused on nothing but quality. So it just naturally worked out for us. Now I go where the problems are. So I gotta go resolve this or write this letter to defend us. Here, there. Cause when you get, like I said, when you get to this level, you deal with lawsuits, you deal with all kinds of stuff that happens. And my time, in my mind is here. We go wherever the holes need to be filled. There's no plan. We just go. What role has your family played throughout your journey? Everything. My family, my wife, my kids, they have had to learn to be self sufficient a lot of the time, because if I'm busy at work now, it's better. But in the beginning was all sacrifice. It was rough. And then the late nights. My wife was tired. She has a career too. Nobody can teach you what it's like. And, you know, and I had two kids. They're 16 months apart. But, you know, my wife has kept me in line. She's very smart. I learn a lot from her. You know, she teaches teachers, so she's all about structure, and I'm the complete opposite. Pablo. Book or film that changed your life? Film, goodwill hunting. That's going. It's a great movie. My best friend's like, you got to watch this movie. I'm like, bro, come on. And then I watched it, and I was like, oh, man, there's a lot you can take from that. So your story is distinguished in so many different ways. Too hard, too many to count. One of them that stands out to me is that your educational journey encounters two things, or two significant actors, if you want to call them actors and personify them. Stan and Stanford. I went to MJC after high school, and I failed miserably my first semester, I was just partying. I was doing my thing, and first, like, real sense of freedom on whether or not I wanted to go to class or not, and most of my friends didn't make it. As a matter of fact, all the friends that I started going there with didn't graduate MJC, because you can go get a job and actually start making real money, and, you know, what's the purpose of going to school for if you're already making decent money? And I think that that was where people found an escape. That's where they left school. So I went to MJC, and I know, you know, there were some teachers that had influence on me there. I changed my major so many times, I never thought I was going to graduate with an english degree ever, not a million years. But when we started sitting there in english class and we started reading these books that were just incredible, and then we go into them and start discussing them as a class, and, you know, all the purpose behind these words, and I just blown away. This is me. I got to do it. You know, I thought MJc was a very, very difficult school to graduate from. And then I came to Stanislaus, and I did it really quick, and I met a lot of really great staff here, and they helped me, and they cared, and it's what got me through school. And I was running amok, man. Outside of school, I was doing a lot of things I shouldn't have been doing, so I lived, like, these two completely different lives. You know, on one side, I was in the street, and I was doing all this stuff, and on the other side, I was coming to school in my backpack on talking to professors like they were my best friends, it's wild, man. Was that duality lost on you at that time in your life or were you aware of, like, man, I really am living two lives. Were you thinking that then? Oh, yeah, dude, the things I've done in my life just to survive have been. Can you believe me if I told you so? You know, by night, I find myself doing wild stuff, and by day, I find myself coming over here and reading books and two completely different groups of friends. I was in a fraternity. I was greek here. You know, I have all these guys that just partied the same as my street friends, exactly the same. Had a great time. They had direction and family backing. To know you had an avenue that, you know, that you needed to go down to get to what you needed to get to. Where my other friends success was probably going to jail. That was successful. That was like, hey, man, he did time. Now we could respect, you know, like, that's the way it went. Different social capital, different outcomes. Yeah. Song you've heard that made you say, that's my life, that's me. Oh, man. I mean, could open up a can of worms, but it's, you know, a lot of music by Tupac and a lot of music by biggie. They're very special people. You know, I've read their biographies and I know, you know, they're really brilliant growing up, and something always tied them to the street life. And, you know, that feeling is a feeling people chase, for sure. What aspect of leadership do you feel came most naturally to you? I mean, I think confidence growing up. You know, my uncle was, you know, one of my best friends growing up. Did a lot of things with me, and he died on my birthday when I was, like, seven. And so if you can imagine being a seven year old and having an uncle pass away on your birthday. I've dealt with a lot of death. And so I think a lot of my personality is like, do it now. Who cares? That's coming for you that you can't stop it, just keep going. And not only that, but living, leaving a legacy is important. You know, leaving something that you built on this earth that is going to carry your name for a long time is valuable stuff for your kids. And to get to that level and everything that I had to go through, their witnesses, I think, is going to give them a hint into what the real world is like without having to say it. Complete this sentence. Recently, I've learned that there's light at the end of the tunnel. And what I mean by that is, you know, winter was rough, this. The economy's weird, winter was slow. It's rained a lot. But yet, you know, even through the storm, even through the bad times, I'm still about to franchise my business, and that's huge for me. And it's been a road that has been zigzagging all the way through, but you rise, you keep going, and you will accomplish. You will, and it doesn't matter what the roadblocks are. At a certain point when you know that you've gone through so much and you're getting through it and you're like, dude, I beat that. I could beat anything. The longer I do what I do, the more I. The more that I fail, the better I get. The more that I fail, the more clear the path becomes. Anybody that wants to get to this place of having multi locations has to go through everything that I've been through. There's a lot to that statement, you. Must go through this together. Yeah, you can't go around it. You got to deal with it, and it's hard. Just get out there and crush it. Bridging cultures begins with getting to know. One another well, understanding one another, communication, organizing. I think that brings people together. To know me is to love me. And I'm sure it's the same for a lot of people. There are always people who we're going. To hate progress, always, because you're working longer hours, because you're putting in the time, and people don't want to do that and expect everything given to them, and it doesn't work that way. Life has taught me to be patient. Don't lose your mind. Don't make decisions on emotion is a very important lesson. My mantra is, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Winning teaches you kind of bad for you. If you win early on, it doesn't teach you the lessons you really need to learn. Losing teaches you everything. Every. It's the best teacher. Mentoring means. I read this article once that said that you get to a certain age in your life where you want to start passing things on, and I've reached that where I know that I'm not invincible, that one day, you know, I won't be here anymore. And I think that mentoring is the key to fulfilling certain needs in me. It's a very powerful distinction. Being a father makes you. Makes me a kid again. Me and my kids have so much fun. We. We do it all. Sports learn together, we ride together, and we do a lot of things together, work together. Is it a new lease on life? Almost. It makes you want to work 50 times harder. The hardest thing about learning to trust your instincts or intuition is outside. Opinions. They're deafening. People have ideas for you that don't go with what your vision is. You gotta trust what you're doing and trust the process. Partnership, true partnership demands work ethic, because. For Andy and I, there's a lot of pride involved.

So, like, if he works till 10:

00 p.m. One day I work till eleven, the next, if I work till eleven, then he wants to work till twelve. And so what can you really say in a partnership if you're doing that, if you have that attitude, there's nothing but respect there. Do you inspire each other to elevate each other's game? For sure? Always. It's a very team feeling that when you're winning, things are great. When you're losing, people tend to point fingers. We've never done that. We've worked through it, and that's so important. So, because I've seen a lot of people, once things start falling apart, so does the partnership. That's when your partnership needs to be stronger. It's not the easiest task in the world. It's hard because there's pressure coming down on you. But that's when you really get to know somebody, too. Legacy at this point in my life, means to me, I mean, completing the. Franchising is important for our legacy. I think building something that has, say, over 100 locations, I think is worthy of some kind of legacy. People always ask me, how long did it take you to reach your goals? Or what's success feel like? To me, none of that exists yet, Pablo. You know, it's success lasts 30 seconds when you're cutting a ribbon to a new location. But that's when the real work starts. You know, that's where you really got to start getting going, and it's going to be stressful. And so it's not success at that point. I think successes comes at the exit, you know, I think success is when somebody cuts your check and says, you know what, Larry? You built this to, you know, 100 locations. You just check for $100 million in, then maybe I'll drink a glass of champagne or something. But until then, it's an uphill fight. You know what that means? Also, right after that glass of champagne. Go right back to work. Hopefully not with too much champagne. You'll be it. Yeah, I might take a couple days off or something then, and then go right back to work. I have plans for a lot of other things. When I catch myself becoming too close to the work to make an ideal decision, I step away and I breathe. And I take patience. I'm patient in making decisions. I've made too many bad decisions. Moving quickly. And I realize that I don't have to have an answer overnight to anybody. Random association you know the rules. I'll say a word and you say the first one that comes to your mind. Critics funny vision long offer accepted belief God Latino strong horizon the world Chico. Scale big build continuous time short second chances always passion never ending redemption mandatory. Sacrifice always knowing learning completion never and now we come to the part that we affectionately call the eleven. What is your favorite part of starting something new? The excitement. It's always exciting to start something new. What is your least favorite part of starting something new? Figuring out the team. It's not easy. What interests you the most? Family. What interests you the least? Problems. This is a radio station, after all. What music, artist, genre or song reminds you most of your early days in entrepreneurship and innovation? You know, it's funny because when we were at work all those seven days a week for a year and a half, radio just was like on repeat. It was like being in jail. And you just listen to the things over and over and over and over again. Those like these love songs that would come on and me and Eddie would look at each other and be like, again, like you were just tired of listening to these songs. Just over and over and over again. What food or beverage reminds you most of your memories or your early days in entrepreneurship and innovation? Panda Express was right next door to you can only eat so much ice cream until you start going crazy. So we ate a lot of Panda Express. What profession, non entrepreneurial, do you admire the most? Either mechanics or contractors. It's just cool to see somebody build something, like, with their hands. I'm not that. So to me it's a. I love it. I love to see other people doing it. What job prior to entrepreneurship did you like the most and why? I've had a lot of jobs. The job that I liked the most, though, was probably teaching autistic kids. Yeah, it was my heart, so it was very self rewarding to see them, like, progress. What job prior to entrepreneurship did you dislike the most and why? I worked at McDonald's, and it was when they started their 29-39 cent hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and I was the guy on the grill in the back while people would come in and place. I'll take, you know, 30 burgers. I'm like on the grill, you know, burning my arms, my hands. It's rough. I never stopped to think about how horrible that must have been, because on the other end of it, I was like, $0.29 for hamburger. I'm gonna eat for a week. Yeah, I was on both sides of that, you know, so I was the one grilling all those, and then I was the one eating all, too. So it was good and bad, but that it was. It was hard. It was a rough time. And last but not least, if heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? You conquered all the problems. I put Freddy immediately thereafter. What idea or innovation would you like to pitch him her? They it with the universe as your marketplace. It's a great question. I don't know. World peace, figuring out how to make everybody happy, doing the right thing, teaching integrity. It's a task. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Studio. This podcast is part of the Warrior Entrepreneurship and Innovation program, affectionately known as the we. Our series is recorded on the campus of Stanislaw State at the KCSS radio station and produced by Frankie Tovar. Follow and subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. I'm Doctor Pablo Parades Romero wishing you the best of everything. Always.