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Building a Personal Brand in 2026: Copywriting, AI, and the Power of Connection

• Alex Thiakos

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In this episode, we sit down with Mia Meltzer - Social Content Manager for F1 Arcade and a seasoned voice in digital marketing to discuss the evolution of storytelling in a tech-driven world. Mia shares her journey from a college PR major to managing organic social strategy for one of the most exciting hospitality brands in the country.

Mia explains how the role of a copywriter has shifted from simply writing descriptions to becoming a "human filter" in an AI-saturated market. From the psychological impact of parental encouragement to the strategic use of AI as a "glorified assistant," we explore how staying authentic is the only way to win the battle for attention.

We dive deep into the reality of content creation for the "built environment" of hospitality, why personal branding is essential for founders, and the life lessons Mia learned from her father, entrepreneur David Meltzer. Mia’s insights prove that while technology can make us more efficient, the most successful brands are those that lean into human emotion, humor, and community engagement.

What to Expect:

  • The "Human" Element of Copywriting: Why AI can write text but can’t replicate the "flirty, out-of-pocket" personality that makes modern consumers stop scrolling.
  • AI as a Supplement, Not a Replacement: How Mia uses AI platforms to break through creative blocks and save hundreds of hours without losing her unique voice.
  • The F1 Arcade Strategy: A behind-the-scenes look at why "Lo-Fi" iPhone content often outperforms high-production video by making the guest experience feel attainable and real.
  • The "Bud Light" Approach to Branding: Why putting a face to a company is the ultimate way to build trust, and how founders can leverage personal brands to attract investors.
  • Gratitude and Accountability: Life lessons from David Meltzer on why waking up with "thank you" can fundamentally shift your business trajectory and personal happiness.

The Members Room is a space for founders, creators, and business owners to share their journey—hosted by Alex Thiakos.

Guest – Mia Meltzer

  • INSTAGRAM: /@miameltzer
  • LINKEDIN: /in/mia-meltzer

Host – Alex Thiakos

  • INSTAGRAM: /@alexthiakos

Members Room

  • INSTAGRAM: /@membersroom
SPEAKER_00

Well Mia, thank you for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00

You You've been in the marketing uh marketing industry for a while. Um you started out as a copywriter.

unknown

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Is that true?

SPEAKER_01

This is true. Um I didn't plan on being a copywriter. Um that was not in my that was not in my plan. I was about a sophomore going into my junior year of college and I was a public relations major, so always kind of planned on being, at least in some form of um writing public relations. So being a copywriter isn't absolutely crazy of me to um end up doing, but um I ended up with this incredible opportunity to um do copywriting in the world of fashion, beauty, tech, lifestyle, and um it ended up going really well. And so that's kind of how I got into the copywriting space. Um it was copywriting for affiliate marketing um Amazon articles. And so that's kind of how I originally got my um taste of both marketing and copywriting.

SPEAKER_00

And if you can explain copywriting to like a five-year-old, how would you explain it?

SPEAKER_01

Um okay. Um essentially it's it's writing. You're you're writing um absolutely anything. So when you see the slogan at McDonald's, um when you see um on Goldfish, the snack that smiles back, that's something that a copywriter wrote. Um to a high schooler, when you are scrolling on Forever 21 and you're trying to read the description that explains the mini skirt that you're trying to buy for your next party, that's something that a copywriter wrote. When you're at um when you're shopping online for a hardware tool and you're trying to understand what this hardware tool does, that's something that a copywriter has written. And for me, when you are scrolling on Google, you know, the, you know, it's February right now, the top 25 things to buy your boyfriend for Valentine's Day, and you come across an article with um, you know, a espresso machine and airpods and new shoes. Um, for myself, I was the copywriter who wrote all of the descriptions for those products. Um, but a copywriter can be anybody who writes absolutely um anything, any type of description, um, any type of marketing. Um it's really just somebody who writes.

SPEAKER_00

So you have to be really good with keywords to improve SEO search engine optimization. So if I'm a company and I want my products to be shown on as many different platforms as I can, or if someone's searching up, like you said, like a coffee machine, they'll be able to find it. Your yours, your product.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely, a hundred percent. I think that's a way better way of explaining it than I think I just did is you want to explain your product or explain um your description or your thing in the clearest, easiest, um, most findable way possible. Um and that's exactly what the SEO or um the search engine optimization does for you.

SPEAKER_00

So who did you learn the copyright from?

SPEAKER_01

Um so I get this question asked a lot, and um it I really didn't learn from anybody in particular. I think writing is something that always came easy to me. And I thought it was something that um came easy to everybody. And it wasn't until I went into high school, um, and I think this is uh a shared experience we all have when you go into the later grades in your life and you start swapping um essays in class. Your teacher makes you like peer grade. Is that something that you had to do? Um, and I started reading my peers' papers, and you were giving kids like D's and F's. I wasn't grading, I wasn't grading anything crazy like that, but I definitely was reading other people's papers and I was like, this doesn't make any sense, or this definitely sounds way worse than what my paper sounds like. And and I quickly started realizing, wow, not everybody is um as not writing does not come as easy to everybody as I guess it came to me. And I was always getting really um high grades on my writing papers. I was really um I was always getting really great compliments um from my English teachers, and um something that I that was always instilled in me from my parents was um the compliments from you know from my writing. And I always loved um something that I always loved is whenever I would get really great feedback from my parents, I it made me want to do even better. And so something that I remembered from when I was younger is my parents would always tell me, like, you are such a great writer. Like that's something that always stuck with me when I was younger. And so when it came to writing, I always wanted it to be my best because I I didn't want to let them down. Like they told me, like, Mia's our best writer, Mia's the best one.

SPEAKER_00

So you you felt like you had to live up to that.

SPEAKER_01

I had to live up to that forever. And so it's so ironic that I'm now like the copywriter in my family. Um, but they kind of instilled that in me at a young age, like that you were such a great writer. And so my whole life, as I would write every essay, every paper, um, and every assignment, I always made sure that I was doing it to the best of my ability. And so um, it is kind of ironic now to this day and age that I'm now a copywriter. Um, so I wouldn't say that anybody taught it to me necessarily, but both of my parents are absolutely incredible writers. They both love to read. And I think um being surrounded by an environment of people who encourage both writing and reading was extremely helpful to me. Um and I always was a reader, and I do think that the two correlate to one another. Um yeah, and so I would say that's kind of where it stemmed from. But I'm always practicing and getting better because um creative writing is hard, and you definitely get those writing blocks. So it it is a growth, it is a growth thing for me, and I continue to practice it because it doesn't stop when you graduate high school or college.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. And I just want to go back to what you said about how your parents were kind of instilling that in you by telling everybody, oh, Mia is such a good writer. Because I think this is like a psych psychological thing. It is. I actually saw a video somewhere where if you tell somebody, oh, this person's actually just the best, um, like the nicest person ever. Like if you if you're going out and telling people that and they hear you say that, you're gonna want to be a nicer person just because people are telling you you are that.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

You know?

SPEAKER_01

I I just had this conversation with my partner about how when I raise my children when I'm older, it is so important to me that whether it is a skill that they're doing in school, and obviously you don't want to lie to your child. You definitely don't want to lie to them, but it is so important. And this is might be a little bit off topic, but right now, Beast Games is out. I don't know if you're watching Beast Games or if you're a fan of Jimmy at all, but Mr. Beast, he's expert marketer. Oh my gosh, he's absolutely incredible. But Beast Games is out right now, and something that they do in Beast Games, um, it's one of the craziest challenges that they do is they send somebody up to the top of this super high thing, and um they each are a leader of their team. And um this person is basically responsible for their team. And what Jimmy does is he starts throwing money up at the board, and it sounds like something he would do.

SPEAKER_00

Right, money.

SPEAKER_01

And what happens is is if the money gets to a certain point and one of the leaders presses the button, that leader gets to take all of the money home.

SPEAKER_00

I did see that clip.

SPEAKER_01

But whoever that leader represents, whatever team he represents, that whole team is kicked off the show and they have to go home. And what was happening is you have some of the teams instilling a strategy where they're like, you've got this, you're he would, you would never do this, you're way better, you know. And they're instilling this idea in their leader's mind where they're telling them, you're way better than to ever let us down. You are way too good of a person than to ever disappoint us. You are way too good of a human than to ever take that money and only think about yourself and to only be that selfish. But then there's this one team that's like, oh, he's gonna take it. He's so selfish. And it's so ironic because at the end of this episode, and I hope I'm not spoiling this for anybody, but it ends up being the guy who everybody doubted, who ended up taking all the money and his team got sent home. And so I know this is a little bit off topic from your parents and sealing something in you, but I really do believe that if you tell somebody like you would never do that, and because you are such a good person and you know, you're so smart, and you hold somebody to that standard, they try as at least as hard as they can to live up to that standard. To keep that, yeah. And my parents did that to me my whole life. They always told me, you know, like, you know, Mia is such a great public speaker, Mia is such a great writer. And so my whole life, it w it was just instilled in me that I had to do that and that I had to live to that standard. And to this day, I like still tell myself, like, well, my parents told me that I that is what I am. And so I try as best as I can to live up to that.

SPEAKER_00

For sure. And an another kind of thing and a similar topic to that, another kind of thing I try to do with friends, my parents, my sister, is whenever I'm gonna tell them if that if they should like change something or something they're doing bad, I'll start with a positive. Yeah. Say, I really love that you're doing this, but and then you go. Because then they they're kind of like braced for the negative because you already gave them a positive.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, it's it's the compliment and then like the two negatives. You know, it's the it's the no offense, but.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01

But it's a little bit better for that.

SPEAKER_00

Um so we'll go back to copywriting for a second. Um, how did you what are some of the keys that you learned through all your time copywriting to make the best copy?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. So times have changed so much since I started. I started copywriting, I want to say in 2020, um, which doesn't feel like that long ago because it's 2026 now. Um, but so much has changed since then. Um back then I struggled so much when um whether it was, you know, something as simple as writing an essay for college all the way to writing my articles for websites like CNN and Pop Sugar to Rolling Stone. Um, but I would have days where, you know, creators block is a real thing. Having a creative block is is completely real. And so something that I had to teach myself really early on as a copywriter, especially a copywriter in marketing specifically, is how to get out of those creative blocks. Um, and for me, it was removing myself from the situations in which um I was being blocked. And so um, you need to find the things that, you know, get your creative flow moving again. So for me, it was getting outside. Um changing your environment. Changing your environment. And so um I know that everyone has their own kind of mojo that gets them grooving again. Um, unfortunately for me, I went to school in Indiana, so going outside half the year was a little bit difficult as it is for us in Chicago right now. But um, changing my environment was always helpful for me. Um, reaching out to my friends and family and getting reinspired was always helpful. Um, but this sounds so crazy to say, but in 2026, we are so lucky to have so many different resources that are kind of able to rejuvenate us and kind of boost us back into that creative mode again. And this kind of leads us into an AI conversation that I could.

SPEAKER_00

Which I wanted to, I definitely wanted to get into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

We could talk about that for hours, but um, I am such an advocate for um AI, and that is only because people do say, oh, AI sucks the creativity out of people and it, you know, it's gonna take away copywriting and blah, blah, blah. But for me, one thing that AI supplemented to um in my copywriting career is it has saved me hours, hundreds of hours of my time, not because it does the copywriting for me, because I won't let it, because that takes away the creativity of my job and that takes away the successful marketing of my job. But one thing that AI has helped me with is when I'm in that writer's block, it gives me that connect. It gives me the gives you ideas to kind of spark the juices again.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

My brain just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You just need that one word, that one click.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And in I just think about as somebody who I don't like to self-diagnose, I do like to self-diagnose myself myself with a million things, but I get so distracted. I am the kind of person where if I forget my thought while I'm writing, I'm just gonna pick up my phone and start scrolling. And if I'm in the middle of an article, there goes that article. It's gonna take me three hours to finish it. When in reality, if I stayed focused that whole time, I could write it in an hour. With with an AI platform, if I lose my train of thought or I can't think or I don't know what to write next, if I can just get that one little push or that one little help, I can be done in 45 minutes because I'm able to stay on track. And I think that it's all about how you're utilizing those types of platforms and utilizing that help rather than making it do all of the work for you. Because if you're making it do all of the work for you, that's not gonna help. It's going to do your job for you. And eventually that's what's going to take your job away. And that's how you're gonna let someone take your job away, is if you prove that this machine is just gonna do the same job for you. But if you use the machine to supplement to your job and make you do your job even better, that's how you make it worth it for you.

SPEAKER_00

Do you think there'll be a point where AI does take over copywriting? Because I could just type in, write me a copy for this kind of article for blah, blah, blah. And it will. So, what differentiates the AI and the real person?

SPEAKER_01

100%. It it's it is the personality, the emotion, the humor, and I think the touch that a person brings to things. So I think that AI has already taken away tons of copywriting opportunity. Um, I've heard stories of it. I know um personally people who it has affected. Um, and I think that it is really unfortunate. Um, but with that being said, I think that if you are in a position where you are a copywriter or you are in marketing, or you are in a position where you do fear that your job may be at risk because of something like AI, um, you need to prove how this tool only supplements your job and how it only makes you even better at your job and more efficient at it, and not why it takes away from your job and why it does your job for you. Because um, I feel like in all the different roles that I've held throughout my career, um, it has only made me um better and more successful at everything I do. Um, it is never, I've never seen it once be able to just do my job. Um, and I think that if you are, if you ever feel like you are at risk, um, you need to prove why you still are more valuable than this robot, you know? And I think that um there definitely are roles that it will take and um there are things that it can do um and roles that it can do that people do for a living, and that itself is um extremely unfortunate. And we see that a lot with virtual assistants, and I think that we've seen a lot of VAs take over um in a lot of companies. Um, but I think that there's always um different ways to find yourself more useful and utilizing this tool to supplement to what you can provide.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. If you can take AI nowadays and use it to improve the work you're doing and make it, at least from what I use it, is to make my job more efficient. Help me write emails better. I ask it questions, what do you think about this, this, this? It's it's kind of it should be like a glorified executive assistant to you.

SPEAKER_01

100%. That's how I use it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Which I really hope it doesn't. I think there, like you said, there will be jobs that get taken away, but in general, I think if you're doing a good job, you should use it as like a supplement to make work more efficient, I guess. So from a from a today in today's day and age, attention and the you know, three seconds of um per scroll and everything with social media, what makes someone write a good copy to keep that attention, although it's very short, the attention spans these days, how do you keep someone's attention on online?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I actually think that this can even go back to that AI conversation. You need to be human. You know, people the internet is so filled with AI and it's filled with generic copy, it's filled with the same stuff over and over and over again that you need to find what is going to make somebody stop and be like, there's that's different. There's no way I just read that or ah, that's kind of funny. Um the other day I just got a message from Aloe, um, the Afleisure brand, and they said something about like something about like your your situationship, um, just you know, like it slid out of bed and blah blah blah blah blah. And it was, I wish I could remember more in depth of what it said, but it was something a little bit out of pocket, it was a little bit flirty, it was and it was something different, like just the word situationship and like a little marketing message. Like, I think that's so funny. And whatever that copywriter did there, um, I thought it was creative, it was different, and it and maybe Chat GPT did help them with that, but whatever it was, it was different. And we we have surpassed um the part of marketing and the part of copywriting where you can just write the same thing that everyone else is writing and it's gonna stick and that people are just gonna buy your product now. And um, you really need to find what is going to stand out, and I think we see that a lot with brands like um Dunkin' Donuts and everyone knows Duolingo. They're the funniest brand out there right now. Um, there's so many different brands out there that have found a way to use copywriting, but do it in a way that makes people scroll back and be like, Did I just read that correctly? Um, because you need to make people scroll, stop, scroll back, and make people think like, wow, that was different. That is not the same thing that I read every day. And same thing with email marketing. Who even reads their email anymore? But imagine there's there's still emails that I open that I'm like, that's kind of funny. Because you need to find a way to stand out. And I think it's about finding words and ways. And it has to be, it goes back to the first thing we said when we started this is those it might it doesn't even have to necessarily be about SEO, but those key words, those those words that stand out for me in my aloe text I got the other day, it was situationship. I'm like, what in the world? Text message am I getting about situationships today? Like that's hilarious, and I think that that is how you stand out these days when it comes to copywriting, is just making making those little those little tweaks to catch somebody's eye.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I think it's a good segue into like hooks, yeah, uh, content creation. I saw this one video, you probably have seen it. It's been redone a lot where someone is driving in their car, the video is on their dash, and someone throws a cup of coffee at the windshield. Yeah, and then they walk over to the window and they say, Oh, you should buy my thing. Like, because that's the hook right there, throwing at the coffee because if you throw coffee at the windshield, people are like, Whoa, what does he have to say? And you walk in and like, yeah, that gets the attention, I guess, going. What do you think is the best kind of way? And I know there's a lot of different ways to do it, but to get someone's attention within the first three seconds. Like, how would you go about your content creation if you were doing that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, um, in terms of being a social media manager right now, um, I think you have you have three different options. Um, and this goes for me, I I think about it in three different ways. I have my text overlay. Right now, my strategy includes a lot of text overlay. So this goes back to our copy. Um you need to have the text overlay either say something that's gonna catch somebody's eye. So um, you know, the um the Super Bowl's coming up in a couple weeks. So I was just working on something today. Like, what can I say that is going to catch somebody's eye immediately when they watch this video? That's gonna be like, okay, like right away they're gonna be like, what about the Super Bowl? Or, you know, like um, like POV, I'm only going to this party for X, Y, and Z. Or what about a party? Or B, is the hook about this video going to be the thing in it? Am I gonna start this video off? Um, you know, I run social media for this restaurant and bar, and we sell cocktails that light on fire. So is my first clip of this video going to be the cocktail that lights on fire? Or should I use the other cocktail that has bubbles coming out of it? Um, so I is that gonna be my hook? But because I don't need both. I don't need the text, the crazy text overlay and the cocktail on fire. That's like a lot going on at once. And then the third thing that you can use is in your caption because sometimes people are just reading your captions. There's different kinds of social media users, and you want to make sure that you are engaging all of them. And the one thing I will say is with the text overlay and the thing that you're including in your video, that fire, that bubble, you don't want to overcross the two. But what you can do is start the video off with a fire and have an engaging hook of a caption. You almost always want to have like a hook of a caption. And so I would say those three things are always what I am always considering when I'm trying to start my hooks. Um lately for me, the first thing I prioritize is that like that obviously that first clip, that first clip of a video. And I love to start off with like a quick movement. Everyone loves a quick movement. Um, everybody loves like a quick beat drop. Everybody loves stuff moving. Everyone loves stuff moving. Something that um I struggle with a lot um as someone who makes a lot of food and beverage content is how do you add movement to a food and a drink when no one is in the content, right? So um I want to show off these delicious tacos, but it's just a plate of tacos. Like, but like it's kind of gross to show someone like biting into it. Um, so lately I've been working on like, okay, like someone squeezing lime over the tacos, or um, if it's a plate of steak, like is someone gonna like cut the steak? That's always really engaging. Or um we have these like um these like uh croquette um sticks, like have someone pull them apart for the cheese. Everyone loves a cheese pull. Adding the movement, adding the satisfaction to it, that's always a hook. Um another great hook that I I saw the other day, it was um it was like the one that always is like this video is for this person and this person only, or like it's like I have a serious problem with X, Y, and Z, and this is why. And then you're like, why do they have a problem with this? Um it was this New York influencer, and she was talking about like some bar in Paris, and I'm like, I've I'm no plan to go to Paris, and I rarely go to the bar, but like I'm dying to know why she has a problem with this bar because people love drama, too. You know, people love the drama. If you can create the drama, like you want to know, and so um if or like even gossip, like exactly if someone's if someone in their video is like, uh I just lost my job and here's why. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You won't believe why did they lose their job?

SPEAKER_01

You won't believe what happened last night in Philadelphia, and then the story ends up being like nothing, nothing at all because you're being guessed. But you stayed for the first. Um and so when that goes into more of like those talking videos, um, when somebody is you know more like talking to the camera, um, you gotta get up and up close and personal, you have to get loud. There's this TikToker, I absolutely love her. Her name's Darcy McQueenie. She started at the University of Alabama making TikTok hauls, and now she like merely barely makes videos of her opening packages, but she's known for just like standing in front of the video with her eyes wide open and she's like, oh my god, and she just screams and um and it works, and she's killing it. She has millions of followers, and um, you just need to find your niche. And it doesn't hurt to try a few different hooks. And um, sometimes you have to post 10 different hooks before you figure out what hook works best for you.

SPEAKER_00

I see a lot of people do like a question, they they go to the somewhere in the middle of the clip where it's like the crazy part of the clip, they put it up front and then they start the clip.

SPEAKER_01

100% because then you have to wait the whole time engagement rate.

SPEAKER_00

Like I can't believe this happened at this Miami Club. And then they go into the whole the rest of the video or the from the start to the beginning.

SPEAKER_01

100%.

SPEAKER_00

And just so people know, because we didn't even hit this yet, uh, what do you do for work currently?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. So I currently am the social content manager at F1 Arcade. Um, for those who aren't familiar, F1 Arcade is um it's a restaurant bar F1 racing simulator experience. So it's competitive socializing. It's not just for um Formula One fans, it's for absolutely anybody who enjoys racing. We recommend um mainly for people who are seven years old and up, just for you know racing simulator purposes. Um, but we have these incredible racing simulators. You can do head-to-head mode, team modes, um, but we also do private parties, um, birthday parties, celebrations. Um, we have these incredible cocktails. Um, they're made by Netflix season one um drink master winner LP O'Brien. So these cocktails light on fire, they have bubbles coming out of them, smoke coming out of them. Um they're absolutely incredible. I mainly go for the food and beverage just because I'm not the best um simulator driver, but people usually go for the sim racing. Um they have all these different kinds of tracks. So you can race on like a simulator version of like the Las Vegas LVGP track, um, the Monaco track, the Silverstone track. There's all of these incredible different kinds of tracks you can race on, and there's um different kinds of modes. So you can do beginner to elite. Um and it's really just this full experience of um fun and competitive socializing, and um we're really excited about it. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So they don't want they don't have one in Chicago yet, but they're opening it in the end of the summer?

SPEAKER_01

Correct. So we have locations, two in the UK, we have a couple um around the US so far Denver, Las Vegas, Philly, DC, Boston. Um, but we will be opening in the summertime in Chicago.

SPEAKER_00

It's probably pretty big in UK because F1 is much bigger in Europe than it is in America, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So that's where we started. Um we opened up one in London and Birmingham, and it is huge in the UK. I mean, there is huge Formula One fans out there. So we're really excited to bring um Formula One here to the US, and we're still trying to, you know, form the fan base. Um, but we host watch parties for every F1 race, no matter what time of day it is. And it is so much fun, no matter seriously, what time of day it is. We'll serve brunch, we'll serve normal food, and people come out, we'll cheer on the teams, and it is incredible. And it's been fun to kind of get the US involved and kind of watch these different communities grow into F1 fans. And um, you'd be surprised to see how many F1 fans we're starting to get out here in the States.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was gonna say it's definitely great for the brand to start doing these little sh stores in different big cities to get the following in America to become a lot bigger. Um so what kind of content do you make for them exactly?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I focus um specifically on organic social media. So I run everything from our Instagram, Meta, Facebook, and then as well as LinkedIn and TikTok. Um I love making very lo-fi iPhone content. So I keep it very basic. We found our strategy um to work really well um to keep it as simple as possible. People don't want to see something that looks like you were talking at them. People don't want to be sold to. So something that we've seen work for our strategy um is iPhone content. We want it to look the same way as if you went in with your iPhone, you took photos of the food that you were served, um, you took photos with your friends, you took photos at the watch party you attended because we want it to be your POV. We don't want it to look any different than the experience that any other guest would have when they come into our venue. Um, we really want to show the experience that anyone would have on any day that they would enter our venue. Um and that's exactly what works when we share it on our social media. Um, and it's been working really well for our strategy. Our engagement rate is extremely high. Um, and it's because people get really excited when they see what we're sharing because um that's the experience that they get when they come to our venue.

SPEAKER_00

And do you do travel around because Chicago doesn't have the um the F1 arcade yet? Do you travel and do content at different locations around the country?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. So I've actually been really lucky so far. I've done a ton of traveling. I recently just actually started my job back in May of 2025. My first day on the job, literally my first day. Um, I was blessed enough to be flown out to Philly and I was a part of the Philly opening. Um, so we opened up the Philly location, we did our launch there. Um we actually had the Philadelphia Eagles attend that um opening, which was absolutely insane. And I was like, okay, I think this is the coolest job ever. Um, and then after that, um, I got to go out to our um Denver location prior to the opening as well as our Las Vegas venue just to capture like that pre-opening content. And then I attended both of those openings when we did open the doors for them. Um I got to go to Vegas for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which was my first Grand Prix I ever attended. Um and then since then I've been um traveling as well just to get some content. And then we're opening up in Atlanta on February 6th. So I've been going back and forth to Atlanta the last few weeks, and I'll be heading there on Tuesday for our big opening.

SPEAKER_00

Nice. Whenever they have F1 events in America, I I assume you're always going to those, right? So uh I don't know how many have they had since you started.

SPEAKER_01

So they've had a couple, but I so far I've only been to the LVGP. Um and it's really cool because at the Las Vegas venue at the Las Vegas F1 arcade, um the the view from our terrace, you can kind of just see like a tiny little sliver of the um the race cars go by. And so it's so cool. It was like I felt like I was kind of at the race. Um I didn't actually get to attend a race, but I was in the venue and we hosted a ton of parties. Um we did a watch party for the LVGP, and um it was just so cool to just even be like slightly a part of that experience. Um, because I never thought I would like even be able to attend anything like that before.

SPEAKER_00

And what do you try to push the most in your content? More so the racing gaming aspect or the drinks or the partying?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What do you kind of try to capture?

SPEAKER_01

That's like the coolest part about F1 Arcade is it's seriously, it's it's racing for all. So anyone can come to race, but if racing isn't your thing, we also have food and we also have the beverages and we also have a DJ some of the nights. So um we really do focus on covering all aspects to our content. Um, you know, the experience is the stage. And so um I try to equalize my content. I don't want to just show the simulators because as someone who goes into the venue and I get a little bit intimidated by the simulators, um, I don't only want to post the Sims because I know that not everyone is gonna want to race on them. And um, and then same thing with the food. You don't just want to post the food because people are gonna be like, okay, so it's just a restaurant, and then they're and then they walk in, they're like, oh my gosh, there's 68 simulators in here. Um, so I really do focus in every video. If I'm showing a ton of simulators, I at least try to show one drink and one food. And then if I'm trying to promote food that week, I always make sure to show a couple of the Sims as well because um it really is the full experience. And um, if you go in for Sims, I highly recommend you at least get an appetizer. Um, and if you're going in for appetizers, try to hop on for at least one race. Um, so I really do try to cover all the different kinds of content. Um, and then when we host events, we always um if especially ticketed events, most of our ticketed events are almost always like unlimited sim racing too, because we really want all of our guests to experience the sim racing. That's nice, yeah. It's so cool. Like it's just such a fun experience to have. And so um I I really try to offer the full experience when I post on our social media account because I really think that our guests deserve to see the full experience. I think it would be such a letdown to only see one part of it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And if you could if you had to restart and F1 told you you can only market on one platform, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01

That's so hard. Um I think right now it has to be Instagram, which I can't believe I'm saying that because I was such a TikTok girl. Um, and that comes from and I think that's biased because I um I started like my social media career on TikTok. Um we actually, I think you and I have talked about this. Um we were talking about this earlier um before we started, but um I it's so important to put yourself out there, right? And when I was younger and TikTok first became a thing, I started posting myself on TikTok and it was so easy for me to build a platform on there. I think I built my community up to about 30,000 followers on there. And um, and I loved the community on TikTok. And then when um I first started at F1 Arcade, we had great success on TikTok. We had our first viral videos on there um when we were posting about our openings in Denver. So I was very biased to TikTok. But with that being said, I do think that Meta is the growing platform, and I think that there are a lot of opportunities to reach different niche groups on there. And so I think that if there was one platform to post on right now, I think my focus would be on um meta specifically on Instagram. Um, I know that there are different strategies to posting on there and they're always switching their things up, but the cool opportunity about Instagram is that you can do your statics, but it's also and it's very normal to post static, but the reels are growing and they're growing rapidly. And I think that now is the time to post your reels on Instagram um and test out those different boundaries. And so I'm excited to continue to grow our account on there. And we've had great success so far, and so I'm excited to keep doing so.

SPEAKER_00

And if anybody wants to start a business, would you recommend them to start a personal brand as well? And how important is a personal brand?

SPEAKER_01

I think a personal brand is the most important thing in 2026. I think the Bud Light approach to a company is um so important. The Bud Light approach. So um the bug light approach essentially is um a bug light approach is where the um like the leader of the organization or the CEO or um the spotlight of the company is um is spotlighted within the organization. So I think putting the CEO or the founder as the bug light to the organization, and I think putting a face to the brand is extremely important.

SPEAKER_00

People, yeah, no, that makes sense. People instead of just like a name of a company or a business, yes, if you can connect with a face, an actual person.

SPEAKER_01

100%. So let me rephrase that. The bug light approach is putting a face and a name to a brand or a company, and so that people can feel more related and connected to the brand itself. Yeah, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so I think that it's really important that people can feel connected um as you're trying to build a brand. And then I also think that as someone's trying to build a brand, also building your personal brand gives you a second platform um to vouch for yourself and to um, and it gives you like a second space to um speak on behalf of what you're trying to do. Because when you're building out your brand, on your brand's page, you're advocating for your brand. You're talking about what your brand's goal is, you're talking about what your brand is, what your purpose is, what you're trying to do, who you are, what your name is, you know, what those guidelines are, who your team is. But when it comes to building your personal brand, you're advocating for yourself and you're putting trust behind who you are. And so, for example, if someone were to look at, okay, what is F1 Arcade, right? They're gonna come to our Instagram, they're gonna look at it, okay. And let's say we're looking for investors, right? Like they're gonna look at our, they're gonna look at our accounts, they're gonna go to our website, et cetera. And then who's the leader of, you know, who's our CEO? They're then gonna go to our CEO's LinkedIn and then they're gonna go look at him. Wow, I really like this guy. I like what he stands for, I like how he leads his team. And like it all, it all is one big tree of what represents the brand because brands aren't just the brand itself, it's the people who lead them, it's the people who are a part of them, and that's why it's important to have a personal brand. And the brand is it's not the only thing that you know, a brand isn't all you have. Because one day, what if your brand's not there anymore? Your personal who you are is the most important thing that you have because you only you are going to represent yourself. And at the end of the day, only you have your back. And so, you know, different people come and go in a brand and different things can happen to a brand, but at the end of the day, like only you can represent you. And I think that that is the most important reason why you always need to have a personal brand.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Whether it's five followers or five million.

SPEAKER_00

And and you know, it's not even about it's not even about just marketing for your company and trying to get sales for your company, it's also about the connections you make. 100% because people see what you're doing, like you said, on on social media, they want to work with you. Then you have all that demand for people wanting to work with you. You can pick and choose, you know, who you want to work with.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, a hundred percent. And you never know where a personal brand can lead you, you know, or lead to your company.

SPEAKER_00

Like, for example, this podcast, I I've met a lot of good people, connections, referrals, and I would have never thought I would have, and I'm I'm still a very small podcast, but I would have never thought I would have met the type of people that I've met through this, you know. Absolutely and had the connections through it, I guess.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And your your father also is pretty big in personal brand as well.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

What was his what's his kind of like plan with his personal brand, I guess?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, his his personal brand is his it's his whole entire thing. Um, his personal brand and everything he does is what he stands for. His goal and his mission is to empower over a billion people to be happy. And so everything he does um every single day, it's driven by that goal. Um, and it's really interesting because um he used to run a a different company, and it's actually really interesting because I what we were just talking about is things his company actually ended up evolving into his personal brand. So now he runs a company called Dave Meltzer Enterprises, and that whole company has become his personal brand. And this personal brand has turned into podcasts, TV shows, um dinners, and he's created a whole entire company off of his personal brand. And I think that is proof itself that you can your you can turn anything, including your personal brand, into a company. And um, whether you start with five followers um and turn it into five million, you know? And um it's been really interesting to watch him um grow that personal brand. I remember when I was in high school, he had like 30,000 followers on Instagram and I was like, what the heck is happening? And I think now he has on Instagram alone almost 900,000. And um it's so cool to watch somebody um build that personal brand. And he himself, um, him and his business partner back in um the early, you know, mid-2000, I think it was 2015, I watched them kind of take the um bug light approach to their company Sports One Marketing and kind of watching them do that um at the very early stages to now who he is as an entrepreneur from writing his first book to um, you know, he's on book like six or seven and hundreds of podcast episodes later and five TV shows. It's really interesting to see.

SPEAKER_00

And I think it's really funny watching our parents' generation kind of get into technology, social media, and stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

How how was what was his transition and how was how funny was it like seeing him getting into like Instagram? You're like, Dad, are you doing Instagram? I I absolutely get more followers and you're like, Dad, like what are you doing?

SPEAKER_01

Like I absolutely love this because back in the day, I don't think this he knew, I don't think he understood anything that was going on. And he had a whole team behind him who was taking care of everything for him. And we would give him advice too. I've worked for him at one point in my life, my sister works for him, um, and we've all given him our two cents. And um, and he had a he has a wonderful team behind him who has grown this incredible brand for himself. But back in the day, he did not know anything, he did not know what he was doing, and it was just so funny. And we would tell him things and he just like did not understand anything. But it's so cool now because now we sit down at dinner and we have full-blown conversations about all sorts of things, meta and Instagram and TikTok. And and he goes, my dad goes live on Instagram every single morning at the same time every day. Um, and he he's How often do you tune in? Um, I try to tune in at least once a week. Um, but I'm at work now, so it gets a little bit difficult, but it's not because I don't want to be there. And um, he goes live every single week and every single morning, and he sets up his tripod, he gets his ring light going, he has like three iPhones up for himself um on all different platforms so that everybody can tune in for free. And um it's really cool because he used to like not know how to do any of this for himself, and he fully has learned um so many different things about all of these different platforms. And um, it's been so cool to like watch him learn all of these different things and how to run all these different platforms for himself. And um, I've loved watching him um grow on all grow physically on all these different platforms within his community, but also he watched him learn so many different things about these communities and he He knows so much about strategy now and He's probably giving you a lot of advice.

SPEAKER_00

He does.

SPEAKER_01

And his team gives me so much advice too. But we have so many conversations and he gets it. And it's so cool. And I love that he cares. And I love that he it's really cool to see. And before his team used to run his whole Instagram for him. Whereas now I'll catch him at the dinner table and I'll see him scrolling on his phone and and he'll he'll be liking things on his Instagram. And it's things that are teaching him more things about how to one help his Instagram and help his brand. And and I love seeing him utilize all of these different platforms to one help himself and help his brand. And um, it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_00

Which I think social media can be a really, really bad thing, or it could be a really good thing. Depends on how you want to use it, you know.

SPEAKER_01

And it's done both for me. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Um just a funny side story um about our parents getting into like technology and stuff. When when I started using AI for work, I I started out just using it for writing emails and stuff. Yeah. And I am notoriously not the best writer out there. So greeting your papers back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was I was getting they were peer grading me F's. But I would, and I I worked for my father, and when I he told me to write an email to this one uh supplier. So I wrote this really nice long email with ChatGPT. And I sent it, copied him on it. He calls me up, he's like, Alex, I don't know what happened. This was the best like email I've seen anybody ever send. How did you do it? Like, is this you? And I'm like, Yeah, it was. And then I told him like an hour ago or an hour later, I'm like, oh no, it's this thing called ChatGPT. Now he uses it more than me. That's it. He like loves it. Yeah, that's like his assistant.

SPEAKER_01

That's exactly like my dad. He he uses all AI now and he absolutely loves it, and he teaches me more about AI than I've ever taught him. And he has he gets these cool images made by AI. It's amazing. And I think that's so cool though, because you give I gave him like an inch and he's now he's made a mile. Um that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's probably cool too that he can use his team to kind of tell him what's good with AI, what's good with social media and everything. Absolutely. He's got a social media team behind him, because I mean it would be nearly impossible to run all that stuff by himself.

SPEAKER_01

I couldn't imagine. I could not imagine.

SPEAKER_00

Um what what are some of the lessons? We'll get into life and business, but some of the lessons social media-wise, your dad has taught you, like because he's so big on the social media. What is he any advice he's given you?

SPEAKER_01

Oh my, yeah. I mean, we've we've gone through so many things. So um AI for sure. He's been teaching me uh all sorts of different um AI platforms that um we've been running through together. Um all things AI. I mean, he's been throwing me a million different AI platforms recently. Um I think social media-wise community, he um he's taught me about engaging with your community is the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00

Commenting on your posts, replying comments. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

He taught me that at a very young age. And in fact, um when I was in college, he actually had me engage with his community. So every day when I was in college for about an hour a day. On his account? On his account, I was responsible for engaging with his community. So I would open up his account and I would respond to every single comment on every single post and then respond to every single DM. And he it he just expressed that um just the importance of making sure that every person knew um that this is a real account and that this is a real person engaging with them. And um, and it's so funny because I've now instilled that within the account that I run today. And it's so funny because I don't run a a human, like a person's account. I run a company, I run like a restaurant's account. Um, but it and it's and it's funny because I respond to people in the DMs like I'm a person. I'm like, you look so great. Like this looks so fun. And I'm I have to remember, I'm like supposed to be responding like we're a restaurant, but um, but that's how brands respond these days. And um, I think that's one of the most important things that he's taught me is just um how important it is to engage with your community and build a community. I've I don't think I've met anybody who's built a stronger community than that man. He um he travels to hundreds of cities a year, and in every city he goes to, he hosts these meetups. And he hosts these meetups by sending messages um in his text community, and he's built this text community by his social media community, and he, you know, he has his um phone number in his bio, and on social media, you can just text the phone number and then you join the text community. And um, in every city he goes to, he hosts meetups and he just texts the phone number chat like, Hey, I'm gonna be at um In N Out Burger on the corner of Fifth and you know, whatever. And then these people from social media who follow him come to the In N Out Burger at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and they see him and he brings his books and he hands them the books for free and he talks to them and he answers their questions, and that's the end of that. And I think that that's the most important lesson that he's taught me is when you engage with your community, um, they engage with you and they show up. And whether that means that it means that they show up to your venue at F1 Arcade or um they show up to your meetup at In and Up Burger on a Tuesday night in a blizzard, um, they show up. And I think that that is really important. And I've brought that into every client that I've managed in my social media career. Um, and I will continue to do that for the rest of my career on social media.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. And and do you do you run each F1 Arcade Instagram page individually, each city's? Like do you have access to all of them, or is it just one general?

SPEAKER_01

So we run um, we only have one US account, and then boom, we have it for Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and um all others. Yeah, but no local pages.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell When you were saying how you would reply to people through your business account, it reminded me of like, I don't know if you remember like Wendy's would post funny tweets. And it's kind of funny to think who's that person that's messaging that? Because it's like, you know, it's a business, but there's a person behind there.

SPEAKER_01

And it's a lot of messages. Like we we only have about six locations right now in the US. We get hundreds of messages a day. How many followers do you guys have? Um we just hit 85,000 um as of this week. Wow. So we're growing. Yep. And then like 4,500 on TikTok, but we just started that page up.

SPEAKER_00

And is there someone in the UK with the exact same position as you?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Do you talk to them?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we talk every day. Oh, okay. Yeah, we're bounce ideas off each other. Yes, we work together quite frequently and we're currently working on a global strategy as well.

SPEAKER_00

Nice. And uh growing up with an entrepreneurial father, uh, I can relate to as well. Growing up, did you have to go and work with him? Would he bring you like pull you into work? Like my dad, when I was like 13, would be like, I'd be winter break or something. He's like, You're coming to work with me. Like, wouldn't it let me just sit at home?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like I always had to.

SPEAKER_01

I wouldn't say that he ever like forced us to go to work with him, but I loved going to work things with my dad. And I still love going to them to this day. Um, but I see them more as like opportunities now, whereas like um, and I think I might have maybe pretended to not like them as much when I was a kid, but I always loved it. I loved getting dressed up. Um and I've always loved the team members who he worked with. Um, a lot of the people who he worked with um and has been on his team um when I was in like middle school and high school, they still work for him to this day. So um I absolutely adore every single one of them. They're so wonderful. And so I loved going to his work stuff. Whether like if my mom was like, you have to go to your dad's Christmas party tonight, I'd be like, oh, that's so stupid. It's a Friday night. I loved it. I loved every second of it. Um and we're so blessed now because he takes us um on all of his work opportunities. He gets to go to so many cool things like the Masters and the Super Bowl. Um we just went somewhere most recently now, I can't remember, but we're always going to such cool opportunities with him. And um, and I think because we were always so keen to um experience all of his um you know, his speeches and all of his different opportunities when we lived at home and um he was working that he now you know he treats us to all of the cool experiences that he has now, and I feel so blessed to do that. Yeah. Um but yeah, I I we definitely sat through some work stuff and um yeah, I mean he's a public speaker, so we we sit through lots of dinners, lots of speeches, but um it's funny because I could hear him speak like a hundred times, and every time I just sit there and I'm like, Really? I've never heard this story. It's something new. I learned something new every time. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

We definitely appreciate now that we're older, the things that happened when we were younger. Oh, I I mean I definitely wanted to, you know, sit home and play video games when I was 13 and said I want to work, but yeah, I do appreciate it now that I did go and all the things I learned. What were some of the business and life pieces of advice that he taught you growing up?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, there's a couple things. Um the first one, he has these core values that he doesn't just install in all of us as kids, but um his team members um as well. He teaches um gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication um as just life lessons. And it's actually really strange. When I went off to college, he moved out of his um when I was in college as a freshman, COVID happened. So then I had we had to like go back home. But um his office, he moved, he decided to close his office and just work from home. And his office also just his team got smaller. So, anyways, he had a lot of like office decor. Somehow my bedroom became like the place where he put a lot of his office decor. So when I came home from college, he actually hung up this gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication on my bedroom wall. So I could literally can never forget it. But he preaches these four things um to have gratitude, um, to take accountability, um, to speak effectively and um, you know, and effective communication. And um I just think that it was so annoying when I would hear it back in the day. I found it to be so annoying. But I look back on that now and I try every day to wake up. He says, um, he tells everybody, he says this in all of his speeches, um, to try to wake up every morning and say thank you, and then when you go to bed at night, try to say thank you again. And it sounds so silly, and you're like, oh, I can do that. I can easily do that. That's like so stupid. Um, but if you actually tried for 30 days to wake up every day and say thank you, and when you go to bed at night, just say thank you, it's actually really hard and it's hard to remember. And um, that's something else that he taught us.

SPEAKER_00

And yeah, I I love I love the gratitude the most. That's something I try to live by is if you have gratitude, you there's it's like almost impossible to be sad. It's like impossible. That's because if if you're uh grateful for something, like you can't be mad about anything or be sad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I forgot who said this, but um if I I heard someone say this online, it was like if you can go if you go to go to some a cancer patient who's on their deathbed and tell them your issues and they feel bad for you, sure feel bad. That's almost impossible, right? Yeah, like you can't you can't like someone has it worse than you, so be grateful that you're not there.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And I I try um every single day to just gratitude, and it's it's so easy to be grateful. Um, and then I think another one is just um, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. My whole entire life. Um, I could come home from school and tell them a story like, oh my gosh, my friend so and so, we were in class and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And he would just look at me and he would say, Show me your friends, I'll show you your future. Or and I'd be like, Oh, or I'd be like, Oh my gosh, like you won't believe what my friend did last week. And he'd be like, Show me your friends, I'll show your future.

SPEAKER_00

And um Did you take this literally, or like when he's when he would say this, you're like, maybe I should reconsider being friends with these people?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know. I would get so annoyed sometimes.

SPEAKER_00

And Or'd you be like annoyed that he would say it?

SPEAKER_01

I would get so annoyed sometimes, and you know, he would say you were the five people who you surround yourself with. And I would get so annoyed, but it it wasn't until I grew up that you really do realize that you are the sum of the five people you surround yourself with. And um he would say things like, you know, be kind to your future self. And I think that those two sometimes go in tandem with each other. Um, show me your friends or show your future, and be kind to your future self. Um, and though and all of these things can have so many different meanings to them. Um but the the be kind to your future self, um, he ends every speech with that. He he says, Be kind to your future self and do good deeds. And I think that um that is just the most important thing.

SPEAKER_00

Is that more so like a kind of like a love yourself kind of thing? Like be or be kind to your future self.

SPEAKER_01

I think it can mean so so many different things. I think um be make good decisions that are gonna benefit you today, tomorrow, and in your future. Um I I thought about something. Um I think this is this is less business, but I when I think of be kind to your future self, um, a great example of this is um I when I was in college, I went on a vacation during spring break to visit my friends abroad, and um I visited my girlfriend, and her um my girlfriend's her boyfriend was visiting her, and so and he brought his buddy with him, and um I he was so cool and we had a great time together, and I, you know, I shared um he asked to borrow some things of mine and we had a nice time and whatever. And um, but that was the last time I really saw him, and um, we had a nice time together, and he was a nice kid, and uh, didn't really think much of our time, whatever. And fast forward two years later, a year later, actually, um, I had been seeing um this guy and things were going really well. Um, and but things were getting serious, and we didn't really know what we were gonna do. Are we going to date or are we gonna kind of stop seeing each other because we're about to graduate? Um, we're gonna, I'm supposed to move to New York, he's supposed to move to Chicago. Um and he ends up calling this guy who I'm seeing, he calls um the his buddy up. His buddy ends up being this guy who I was on the trip with, who I guess we had, you know, calls a buddy up and he's like, hey, um, I don't know what to do. I really like this girl, and um I just don't know, like, you know, should I ask her to be my girlfriend or should I just like let her go? And he goes, you know what, man? That girl was so awesome, and she was so cool to me when we were on that trip together, and um, I really didn't know her that well, and she shared some things with me, and um I just had such a nice time with her. You should really go for it, man. You should ask her to be your girlfriend. And to this day, he's now my boyfriend. We've been together for three years, and to this day, he always tells me, he's like, Kevin is the reason that we're dating. Um, you were just so nice to Kevin that um he just told me that I couldn't not ask you to be my girlfriend. And I always think about that, like, wow, thank God I was like such a great person to this random guy who I like never thought I was gonna see again. Um and like to me, that is like a be kind to your future self, right?

SPEAKER_00

I agree.

SPEAKER_01

Help the people around you, be a good person to the people around you. Um always be the best version of yourself because you never know when it could come back and bite you in the ass, right? What if I was a what if I was like not a great person to this guy? And he was like, no, dude, that girl sucked.

SPEAKER_00

Or we like saw some things, it's like, you know, and I saw yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Be kind to your future self.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um and just set yourself up for success. So like do your homework and don't procrastinate. Um and do your research and um just uh set yourself up for success and be the best version of do things that your future self would be proud of. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Like that they would tell you to do.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And that if someone in a room with you had to speak to someone in your future about you, that they would speak for you, you know, and be proud of you for. And I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_00

This brings me back to something that that I kind of try to live by is always look 30, 40 years. If you have any any decision I make in life, if I'm like, oh, I don't know if I should do this, whatever, I'll look, say, hey, does the seven-year-old Alex would he do it? Would he want me now to do it? Kind of looking at the future self saying, because that kind of makes it easier because it limits the regrets you have in life. Which I don't think you should ever regret anything because everything you do makes makes you who you are. But I think if you ask your future self, which it sounds funny to say, but go into your mind and say, like, what would he what do you think this is a good thing if I went and went, did this, you know? But yeah, going back to what you were saying about um being nice to everybody, if you if you are your true self to everybody and treat everybody with respect, nice to everybody, you never know what door it'll open, um, if they'll say something nice about you. There's a referral, like like you with your boyfriend. Exactly. There's a referral, like, hey, um, so you never know who people are gonna talk to.

SPEAKER_01

100%.

SPEAKER_00

And if people don't like you for who you who who you're being, screw it. So be it. Seriously. That's how that's how I see things. Um if you have one piece of advice for yourself to give to the younger generation, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01

Um I think that it would be to not get so caught up on what you what you think you're supposed to be doing. I think that I think that when I I think that when I was in high school, I thought I need to be doing this, and then when I was in college, I thought I need to be doing this, and I'm always I was always so caught up on like this idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. And instead of just living in the moment and experiencing all the different opportunities that were coming my way and being open to the different opportunities that I could potentially be having. Um there's so many different things that I've experienced within the last year and a half that were never on my bingo card, um, things that I didn't know that I wanted to do, or things that I never thought I would do. Um, and I think that that is totally okay. Um, I also think that there's this path that is constantly being pushed at the younger generation that they're told that they have to do. You have to go to college, and you have to graduate in four years, and by May, you have to find a job, and then you have to make 60 grand for three years, and then you have to find a way to like buy a house by the time you're 30 with this like no money that you made, and then you have to do this, and you don't need to do any of those things, and you don't need to do it in any of that timeline, and even if everyone around you or it feels like everyone around you is doing that, it is okay, it is totally fine because you can do things on your own timeline, and I think most importantly, and I left this out of your question when you asked me something um life advice that my dad has given me. Um it is okay to ask for help. I think that so many people shame people who ask for help.

SPEAKER_00

Well, people have egos too. People like they don't wanna they don't wanna I don't need I don't need your help.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And it is it is okay to ask those around you for help, your neighbor, um, your friends, those who um work in places that you want to be, those in higher spots that you want to be in, um, those who do what you want to do, it is okay to ask for help. Um and if you need a moment to take a step back, and if you need to if you have a parent, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, um, a family member, a neighbor, um, somebody who you need to rely on for a second um before you get back on your feet too, that's all right too. Um, I think that that's kind of looked down on. I think maybe you can relate to that as well as someone who works for their parent. Um I worked for my dad for a second as well, and I think that there's this um there's this like weird stigma around people who work for um like family members or friends of friends and things like that. It is okay to do whatever you want to do and what is going to make you happy. Ask for the help, work where you want to work.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01

Do what doesn't feel like work every day.

SPEAKER_00

Which it was so I I've never I've never really told anybody this, but I was very against working for my dad because of that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like, oh, what are people gonna say? But having got the opportunity to work with him, and it's been one of the greatest blessings that I've ever had in my life. And I like to do that.

SPEAKER_01

It's something that not many people get to experience. Um, and it's a time that you two will never like you will forever cherish and you will never forget.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm sure he will he loves more than he'll ever express to you.

SPEAKER_00

Definitely. And it it it helps him a lot because he's getting older and I take a lot of burden off his plate and exactly he rarely comes in the office now. Exactly. Because yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I totally agree.

SPEAKER_00

Do you wanna work with your dad any any time in the future?

SPEAKER_01

We talk about it. Um I think that we we do things together here and there. Um I loved running um and doing his community engagement. I thought that the social media stuff was really fun, but I think we'll collab. In the future. We'll see. We'll collab.

SPEAKER_00

Cool. Well thank you for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.