28. Karisya "Ysa" Moran Adames - Career, Service & Joy

Email: bidemiologunde@gmail.com

In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde speaks with Karisya "Ysa" Moran-Adames about building a demanding career in corporate banking while remaining grounded in service, curiosity, and joy. How do high performers stay dependable without surrendering their health or values? What does sustainable ambition look like beyond hustle culture? Ysa shares practical lessons from finance, community leadership, travel, and creative work.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Thanks for joining me once again on another episode of the Work Ethics Podcast. I have a repeat guest. She has been on my other podcast. Now she's coming on this podcast. That makes me a very lucky vote.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah, definitely. So hi, my name is Caricia Morana Games, but I also go by Issa Moran. Currently live here in the Tampa Bay area, native of Tampa Bay. Currently working in corporate banking at a bank here in the Tampa Bay area. And outside of that, some of my passion projects include Project Sondrisa, which is a nonprofit consulting and kind of coaching business that I have. And then my more recent project I've been working on is called SideQuest with Issa, which is my travel content page.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Nice, nice. Thank you for sharing that. And for those who are just meeting you for the first time, you are someone who has been very active in community development. You've given back to your community for as long as I can remember, um, from when you were in high school, basically, and then you went to the University of Florida, and then you continued some of those good works. And now you're working, but you still find time to engage quite a bit with your community. So to launch from that tangent, um, this work ethic podcast is basically about how dependable output is possible without having to sacrifice your values, your health, your joy, and all the different things that makes a person a person. So having said that, all these things you do on top of your career, what are those things that you use to help you stay focused, stay grounded, to be able to provide the best output in all these different areas?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah, no, that's a great question. I absolutely love it because I feel like it's so difficult for people to really get that balance that they need to be able to achieve everything they want in their lives. And so I think for me, the biggest thing that helps me to stay consistent so I can continue to be successful, not only in my career, but in my personal life, is really leaning on, you know, self-care and leaning on making sure that I am prioritizing my mental health and my physical health. Um, I meet with my therapist once a week. That is super huge. I go to stretch zone once a week to get professionally stretched. I get a massage once a month. And these are things that I think really help me to maintain my well-being so that I can continue to focus and give my full energy in the facets of my life that are difficult, like my career, working in the community, on my travel. So just really grounding myself in good habits and good routine is important.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Wow. Wow. And that's something I can definitely relate to because I go to the gym every weekday at 5 a.m. Shout out to F 45. Yep. Because I have three kids, three boys under the age of seven. That is the only time I have during the weekday to do that. So I go to the gym for it's 45 minutes, but then I drive to and fro five minutes each way. So I'm out of the house for like an hour before everybody wakes up. So I leave, everybody's sleeping, I'm back, they're still sleeping. And then I can actually start getting the ones going to school ready, and then I can actually prepare myself for work. And sometimes my middle son goes to swim twice a week, and he does that in the morning as well. So before you realize it, I've done so many different things. I've driven, I want to say 10 miles before 9 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

And then I go to work.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

So already that's so much in the day, and the day just started.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Right. So that's why 5 a.m. is when I can go to the gym. Literally, the only time I have in the 24-hour cycle to go to the gym, and then after school, after work, they all go to bed around 7:30, 8 p.m. And by the time everyone goes to bed, including my wife, then that's when I can do podcast episodes like this.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

And that's like Monday to Friday every week. So weekends are okay. Well, I sleep in, I don't go to the gym on weekends because I have to be able to recover.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

And that's when I even spend time with the family at weekends because during the week everybody's just go, go, go. And activities like okay, bike ride with my oldest, and sometimes we play chess, sometimes we listen to my podcast. It likes listening to my podcast.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Oh, I'm sure. Why not? They're so cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

So just different ways, and every week is different. It sounds like I'm saying my routine, but there is really no fixed routine because sometimes one child wakes up with a cough, that right there alters the morning routine. So we just kind of figure it out, work around it. Sometimes I myself wake up and I'm too not sick, but too sore to go to the gym. That alters the routine in some way. Or maybe it's after work and one guest can't make it to the podcast recording that alters my routine. So it's just, you know, trying to find it's like a daily self-awareness practice because what works on Monday for balance may not work on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yes, exactly. And I I like to think of it as like kind of an every hour like check-in kind of thing. I have to check in with myself every single hour. Like, how am I feeling? Am I good? And then okay, how can I adjust? Do I go to the gym tonight to get my mind off of things? Do I schedule a massage because I'm just really, really stressed? You know, it's just being able to check in with yourself is so important just to continue to thrive and you know keep grinding at the level that we are, you know?

SPEAKER_03 7:44

Yep, yep. So you are a Mexican, Dominican, American.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yes, yes, that is correct.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

And you grew up in the Tampa Bay area.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

How has your family, culture, community shaped your relationship with being ambitious?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, honestly, this this is such a great question. I was even asking like my dad earlier because I I had like this idea of what I wanted to say, and I wanted him to like give me some feedback. And I think it really, my family was huge in shaping my ambition. It seeing my parents do the things that they did from such a young age really pushed me. And being able to have my grandparents live with me my entire life to take care of me while my parents were out there working their butts off. Um, I always saw my parents grinding and trying to achieve more than what they had growing up. Um, my mom went to the military just so she can get her citizenship, just so she can go and get an education. And so my dad can get an education as well. I remember my mom, you know, being in the military, also going to school, also working full-time, and my dad working construction while also going to school, while also working a job. So I just always saw them working hard. And now here they are, years later, with a beautiful home and so much love and so much that they can give to us, not only physically, but also in terms of just love. So they kind of pushed me to be ambitious, like, okay, they're always dreaming big. I'm gonna dream big. This is what I want to do, because my mom always said I can do whatever I put my mind to and that they'll always support me. So that was a long-winded answer, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

No, no, that was really good. And of course, it's something I relate to also as an immigrant. Um, I wasn't born in the US. I came 14 years ago for grad school. And I came when I was already older than 21, which is a big difference. And something I've noticed from my own friends' group and even some family members who travel to another country, but from a young age, that difference in when you relocate to another country, how old you are at that age is makes a big difference. Because if you relocate when you are still in your formative years, you imbibe more of that new culture than if you relocate from when you were much older. So it's more of okay, well, people listen to me talk and they say I still have an accent, maybe because I came later.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

And some of the as far as ambition goes, you tend to remember more of your old culture if you relocate later. And of course, that plays a role in your ambition, your drive. Not like one is good or the other is bad. No, it's just the template you have that you now have to build on is vastly different, depending on what age you move to a new country. Definitely, much less an immigrant family who have kids in the US, like I do. Now my kids only know the American culture, and that's what, of course, we're gonna teach them both cultures at home, but it's very different from them being born somewhere else and having to come to the US. They will just have a different grasp of the same word, ambition. So I see that everywhere I go, every even like co-workers, even within the US, someone moves from one part of the country to another part of the country, there is a culture difference. Yeah, East Coast to West Coast, Midwest to the southern southeast or southwest, and so on. So that's why I like asking that question saying, wherever you are, whether you are born here, you are Hispanic or African American, and so on, what is the role, your family, culture, and community? It's like the three main things. What do those three things have to say about how you think about ambition? And we can substitute the word ambition with everything else. How you think about raising kids, how you think about finances, how you think about your career, how you think about your community, and so on and so on.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah, no, I think I think it's definitely like it's easier to assimilate, especially if you're younger, if you come to the country. Like my parents came when they were both in elementary school. So they were able to assimilate to the culture much easier, I feel like, than you, for example, coming after the age of 21. Just you have this whole other lived experience that the people around you here in the US aren't going to be able to understand because of just that cultural and geographical difference in large, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah, yep. And some of your background has um seen you occupy different roles. I remember there is this conference you go in California all the time. HEF.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

HSF, yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

HSF, right.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

And some of those have actually shown you to be someone who embraces leadership roles. So my question now would be: at what point did you realize you have leadership potential? Was it during your Kiwanis phase? Was it at UF and so on?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, so that's that's another good question. I would say it was probably when I was like in high school with Kawanis and Key Club. That was kind of where I first kind of realized, huh, I'm not too bad at this. Huh. I guess people like listening to me. That's weird. Okay. Um, so it was it was really kind of a surprise that I was a good leader, but it wasn't a surprise to the to the adults around me. They always kind of saw it and knew it and would kind of position me in spaces where I could lead. And, you know, it honestly started with my dad from a little kid playing soccer. He made me like the team captain. And I thought it was just um his daughter kind of thing. But later on, I came to realize that it was, you know, the way I communicate and the way I'm able to bring together people, that it kind of changed that. Um, but it really took hold in Key Club and Kiwanis in high school, where I was kind of in charge of this club of I think like over 200 students or something. It was a lot of students and trying to get them community service hours so that they could get that bright future scholarship for college. And so that was kind of the main focus. And it wasn't that I wanted to be a leader, I was just like, I need community service hours. Someone else probably needs it too. And I just kind of had to step into the role because no one else was kind of there. Um so yeah, I feel like when it comes to leadership, it was it was a surprise for sure. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

So um Tony, okay. Where do I want to go with this? HSF and ALPFA. How do you pronounce that? Alpha. Alpha, okay. Those are those are okay. For those who are not familiar, what is HSF and what is Alpha? And then I'll continue with my question.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, definitely. So HSF and Alpha are two organizations that are professional organizations. One is geared more towards students, and then the other one is kind of faceted at both. So HSF stands for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, but they're open to more students than just Hispanics. They do not discriminate in who they select for their nominations and everything. So HSF was a program that I got involved in in high school, actually. They had a conference available for students going into their senior year of high school just to learn how do you apply to college. And so that was my first introduction to the organization. And over the past, I don't know, like eight years, I've been to like nine conferences with them. And so I definitely believe that the organization has a lot of good to give the world. And so they, their biggest thing is giving scholarships and providing opportunities for um lower income students and providing conference conferences like the ones I've been to. So that's HSF. And then Alpha stands for the Association of Latino Professionals for America. Again, not only for um Latinos or Hispanics, open to all demographics. And I got involved with them in college, but I'm still involved with them now in the professional chapter. And so Alpha, very similarly, they hold conferences, they provide scholarships for students. Um, but the biggest thing that they provide is that professional network and being able to connect to alpha members all over the country and being able to apply to job opportunities and stuff like that. So both are really great organizations.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Nice, nice. So my follow-up question would now be um, what does a good professional community give you that a job title cannot?

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, so I would say the biggest things that a professional network can give you is belonging and connections. So the belonging, I think, is like the biggest thing, having a community where you feel safe to ask your questions about school or work that you might not be feel safe to ask back in your own university or at your own um company, stuff like that. Um it provides you with um events that you can go to to connect with people with, um, that gives you more um opportunities within the community. And um I would say my brother always makes fun of me when I say this phrase, but I learned this phrase from HSF actually, and it's called your network is your net worth. And I used to say that all the time. I used to like my brother got so annoyed with me because I said it all the time, because I realized it's the people that you know that help you to grow, that help you to move forward in your career, in your community, in your life. It's all about the people you know, and that's the biggest thing a professional network can give you is access to so many more people that you would not have had the opportunity to meet if you hadn't been in that organization.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

Right. And I definitely 100% agree with that, because for me personally, even before I started the podcast, I've always prioritized um as much as I can attending conferences. And when people hear that, they were like, so you have to fly somewhere or no, conferences happen everywhere, including 20 minutes away from you, if you know where to find them. Because most conferences are once a year, and if you don't know, by the time you know about one conference that is close to you, the deadline for registry might have passed, or the conference itself might have passed. So now it comes down to well, maybe set up an alert on Google to let you know when a conference about this particular topic opens up 50 miles from you, 20 miles from you, or if you are have the opportunity to travel, then maybe travel once a year to attend one conference. And then when you attend the conference, that's like half of the old um networking. Actually talk to people at the conference because you'll be surprised at how many people attend a conference and you just you know get their registration badge and sit down for it, listen to a speaker and then go listen to the next speaker. And before you know it, they've attended one day of conference and they haven't talked to one person.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah, no, it's so important. That's the biggest thing. That's the whole point of going to a conference. Or, I mean, getting the knowledge from the speakers and the sessions, of course, is another big part of the conference. But the connections is pretty huge, too. Being able to meet people and like that's my favorite part about going to conferences. I've gone to two conferences this year so far, and I'm hoping I can go to a few more if I can find the time. And one was in New York, one was in LA, and both honestly like mind-changing experiences really opened my view up to different things, and not only that, but helped me connect to so many great people that I hope to have in my net in my network forever, you know.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Right, right. So um, let's talk about your creator side. Um you travel quite often.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

And you so your creator side shows a different side of you. Curiosity. Exploration, restaurants, travel destinations, even local experiences. I believe we met at Synapse conference here in Tampa. What year was that? 2023?

SPEAKER_00 23:36

I think so. Probably maybe 24.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

It's it has to be 2023. Was it?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Okay, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Because the last podcast we did was in March 2024. So maybe we did that shortly after the conference.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Maybe. I can't remember. It was either 23 or 24. Because I came back home to Tampa in 23. So it might have been right after I got back. Who knows?

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Okay. Okay. So what does travel give you that work and community service doesn't?

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah, I would say the biggest thing that travel gives me is an escape and a chance to breathe. That's not saying that some trips, you know, can be exhausting, of course. And just the planning and the stress behind it can also weigh on you. But no matter what, every time I go on a trip, the second I get on that plane, I'm just like, oh I'm on vacation. Like, ah, I can breathe. And um I travel fairly often and it's not related to work at all. Like, all of my travel is leisure. And I would say I do that very intentionally because I need a break with how busy my schedule is, with how stressful everything can be that I'm juggling. I kind of need the travel. I've noticed that like I kind of start itching for a trip after a couple of weeks or about a month or so. I'm like, okay, I need another trip.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

So having said that, how do you know that work is becoming stressful? Because for me, how I know is I start losing focus. And I don't mean like I'm working and I'm not focusing. What I mean by that is on a normal day, on a typical day, I mentioned how I go to the gym, 5 a.m., and then I get the kids ready for school. By the time I'm done with all of that, I actually look forward to going to work. Because in a an in an upside-down way, that resets me from dad mode to work mode.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

That literally sitting down if I'm working from home, sitting down in front of the work computer, I have like a little routine I do. I put on my reading glasses, I get my headsets turned on. Maybe I don't have a call immediately, but I just play like jazz music or you know, like something to help me focus, but at the same time, I'm not distracted. So not like I'm listening to a podcast that I have to focus on. I'm listening to something else that I don't have to focus on. So how I know I'm getting stressed is after dad mode, I don't look forward to work. That's how I know, okay, it's time for some reset. Maybe take a day off, or maybe take half a day off sometimes, yeah. Or even just let my teammates know for the next three hours, nobody should call me for any meeting. I'm still working, yeah, but I'm just I'm not gonna be doing anything that is mentally tasking. So if I don't have to be on this call, please do not invite me onto the call. If I don't have to contribute to edit a document, please don't invite me to edit a document. I'm just gonna do other things. So yeah, how how do you know when work is becoming stressful?

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Yeah, no, honestly, I'm kind of going through that right now. And last week, um, I've been pretty overwhelmed with just um the workload. We have my the way my role works is on a quarter system. So quarter end just passed on June 30th. So it's been work, work, work, work, work. Um, so last week I kind of realized like, okay, um, my head is hurting way too much every single day. Um my chest, my chest starts to hurt. Like I get so much anxiety that my chest starts hurting. And I I just start getting angry, like little things, like an email or a message, will just I'll just be like, what?

unknown 28:08

What?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

And I'm a very happy, calm, go with the flow person. So when I start to see just I'm quick to anger at little things, that's when I know that okay, I need to take a step back and just breathe for a bit. And so last week I kind of just told my managers, like, I'm gonna take the rest of the day off. I'm not gonna, um, I was supposed to work on July 3rd, but I ended up just taking the day off as a holiday because I needed the rest. My brain could not continue to perform at the function it had been performing any longer. I was completely out of fuel. And so I just kind of took a few days to reset and now I'm feeling a lot better. Um, but yeah, that it's definitely physical changes for me, is when I notice that work is overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Right, right. So for whenever you travel and um, of course, you post some things on social media. What parts of your life do you not post on social media?

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Yeah, so I would say I definitely do not post about work um just because of clients and just the nature of my role. Do not post about work. Um, and honestly, I I don't I used to post about relationships when I was in one, but now that I'm not in one and I'm not necessarily planning to be in one, I don't like posting about relationship stuff. Um, I just feel like that's a part of my life that people try to intrude on already. I'm not gonna provide them access to it willingly. Right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

For me, it's mostly kids, not even just my own kids. If for any reason I go to my son's friend's play date or birthday party, and we take a bunch of pictures, well, I'm not even posting any of those on social media. Pictures of me and the kids are when we hang out alone, and I'm not even posting their faces. So I could post maybe I take a picture of them playing in the far-off distance, and that's what I show on social media. Or I like posting shadow pictures. So I'm taking a walk with them.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

That's so cute.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

I take a picture of our shadow, and then I post that because it's, I mean, people that know, okay, well, I'm taking a walk with one of them. They don't even know who because they can't tell from the shadows. Yeah, uh, whenever we go to the park and my oldest is into soccer and basketball, and I just post a picture of him doing something with his back turned toward me, or maybe his shadow kicking the ball, something like that. Yeah. Because I like, okay, well, it's cybersecurity. I know what it means for privacy, especially for kids. They cannot give consent. But a lot of parents think, well, he's my child. I can post him. Well, not really. Because what if he turns 18 or she turns 18 and then she looks back and says, Okay, well, you shouldn't have posted this. So, where does that leave us? So it's and just for privacy reasons, people that know me well should be the ones that have my family's pictures, yeah, not the entire Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah, no, I completely agree, especially considering that you're in the cybersecurity space. That definitely makes so much sense why you are hyper-vigilant on trying to protect your children's digital identity, you know. And I think I definitely need to do a much better job at protecting myself. But, you know, when it comes to like, I gotta post this, I gotta create this content, I kind of um forget the digital safety aspect that is required, but I definitely need to be better at that for sure.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

And it helps with some of the things you already do, having separate accounts, because that's one way you can keep your personal accounts private. Like literally, people have to request before they can see your pictures. For me, I only have one and I post about the podcast anyway. So if I ever have to post any family pictures with the kids' faces not showing, that goes on the story. And it goes away after 24 hours.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Makes total sense. I completely agree.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

So moving on to I want to be mindful of your time. Um, you've described all these different things you do. What are some systems that help you stay consistent without being consumed by productivity?

SPEAKER_01 33:09

I would say the biggest systems that I use to kind of stay consistent in productivity would definitely be um like the notes app, and then like on the to-do app on the iPhone. I have all of my different like priorities, like things related to the community, things related to work, things related to travel, things related to just money, things related to health. They each have their own like to-do list. And so that's like my biggest thing. Like, I feel like my life is an endless to-do list. There's always more to-do list and more to do. And so that's like my biggest um tool and resource that I use. And then I would say definitely the calendar. Um, I've been trying to get better at putting the different activities into their respective calendar rather than just putting it all on one calendar. Um, just so it helps me to organize better. Uh, so yeah, I would say those are the two biggest things. And just, I mean, time management, being able to prioritize what needs to get done immediately, what can wait a couple hours, and what can wake up wait a couple days kind of thing. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

For me, it's I use calendars, I use notepads, um, the notes app.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:42

I use physical notebooks, like writing things down. Yeah. Because sometimes I have an idea and the physical act of writing it down helps me think about it. It's I guess the way my brain works. Typing doesn't do as much as me having maybe it's like I'm moving my hand, it's sending signals to my brain. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

So yeah, yeah, no, I completely agree. That is, I'm pretty sure like that's something like the kinesthesiology or something of doing, I don't know, something like that. I remember hearing that.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yep, yep. So um, for anyone who is listening to us right now, and they are trying to build a strong career, they're trying to contribute to their community in a meaningful way, and they want to have a real life, a balanced life outside of work or outside of their business and so on. What can you recommend as a most practical step, a most practical first step that they should take?

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Oh, that's such a tough question. So I feel like first, the biggest thing is a question you need to ask yourself rather than a task or something you need to do right away. And I would say is what really makes you happy and what are you really passionate about? And kind of let that guide where you're prioritizing things. Of course, money is huge. You need to prioritize your job, but you don't have to put in your full energy into your job. It how much energy can you put in that you are still um meeting your requirements and still being successful at your role, but you can still give some energy away to other aspects of your life? And once you kind of ask yourself that, the real first practical step is what do you need to cut down? Is it, you know, less time like watching TV so that you can focus a few more hours on, you know, making content like I do? Or um, you know, is it that you need to prioritize more of alone time and you know, not focus as much in the community or something? Like you need to be able to find that balance, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Yeah, yeah. I agree with everything you said. And to add to that, the best analogy I like to use is if someone is trying to make a budget for their finances, they would on one side write their income per month, and then on the opposite side of that paper, they would write everything they spend money on per month. So income minus expenses would give you a very literal picture of okay, at the end of the month, do I have some money left or am I in the negative? So the same analogy is now being applied to well, I want to be able to do all these things work, business, hobbies, and so on. How much time do I have per day? Yeah, what do I spend that time on per day? So time 24 hours minus whatever it is I spend time on would give me a literal picture at the end of the day. Have I used my time efficiently? Because if okay, well, nobody has 24 hours in a day. At some point, we all sleep. Yeah, so maybe that reduces it to maybe like 16 hours. Okay, well, out of 16 hours, how much time do I spend moving from one place to another, driving somewhere, getting ready for something, and so on? That cuts 16 hours down to another number. And then maybe I spend some time eating, or I spend some time literally at work. That makes 16 hours way less than most people think. So at the end of the day, maybe I have five hours to myself. Out of that five hours, how much time do I spend scrolling on Instagram? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, because that's where people start to realize oh, wait, I picked up my phone to do something. One hour later, I realized I haven't done that thing, but I've been looking at people's stories. That's one hour that you cannot account for.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

So that's the advice I give to people. Well, look at where you spend. And the good thing is, these phones we have, there is an app called Screen Time. Yeah, every phone has it, whether Android or Samsung or Apple. So that you can literally see what apps you spend the most time on. For a lot of people, it's social media, for a lot of people, it's other apps like Slack, messages for work. Some people it's Microsoft Teams, some people it's Zoom because they take Zoom calls on their phone. Some people it's messages, yeah. Some people it's email. So that gives you a good idea of okay, well, I spent most of my time doing X. Where can I reduce for me personally? I set time limits on apps I use.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

For my Instagram, I set it to 15 minutes per day on Instagram. That sounds too drastic. Well, that's how I want to not use Instagram. I would post about my podcast and everything, and I would just close the app.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

So when I get the time limits exceeded, it gives you options. Extend it for the rest of the day, extend it for 15 more minutes, or extend it for one more minute. I don't extend it. Because before you know it, you're extending, extending, extending, and you spent two hours because they know how to get you. Yeah, other apps as well. Zoom, I have time limits on Zoom, I have time limits on all the email apps. Literally every app I use, that's that's how my brain works. Yeah, otherwise, I wouldn't have time for this recording we are doing right now, almost 40 minutes into it. That time was carved from something else.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Exactly. And I I honestly I always think of opportunity costs from like economics.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Like, what time do I have to give up now for this opportunity? Is the cost worth it? Same applies to financial things. Is going to this event in California worth it more than staying home and saving money? And so I really think of everything as like an opportunity cost at the end of the day. Am I gonna get more value out of going or doing something or being a part of something than I will of not doing it? Yep. And that kind of guides me as well. And you know, I'm back to what you said on social media. I'm kind of the same. Like I post a lot, but I don't actually go on social media. Like I literally only go on there to post and then like I'll maybe go on for like 20 minutes during the day to like reshare all of my friends' stuff, make sure I comment and like my friends' stuff. But I really like I don't really go on my phone too much. My phone's been on do not to serve for like four days straight.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Wow, wow. So um to kind of start wrapping up here, uh looking at the next chapter of your life right now, what would success look like, even if it doesn't look impressive from the outside?

SPEAKER_01 43:15

Yeah, so I I think about this a lot, honestly, because my definition of success has changed a lot over my professional career. I started off at a very big bank, at a very high up position. And I was so excited, and I thought that's success, being at the top, at a top bank, having a great job, making a certain salary. And I soon realized that you know it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth the personal sacrifice that I was putting in to have that perception of success from the rest of the world. And I was really broken for a while. And I thought, oh my God, I'm not gonna be successful. My life is ruined just because I was no longer going to be at that job. And so I've kind of changed my focus now that success really is grounded in just having time and having the ability to do what I want to do. And maybe people don't see me posting as much because I'm with my family, just hanging out. Maybe people don't really see, you know, how well my stocks are doing, but they don't really need to know about that because that's my personal business. So I would say success in the next couple of years for me just means having the freedom and joy to do whatever I want and without any time constraints or financial or physical constraints either.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

Right, right. And I totally agree with that because at this stage of my life, I've come to the understanding that, well, The time spent with your loved ones, friends, family, and everybody else that fits that description is what's most important. And I've had that realization for a while, way before now, but it's just starting to get become clearer. Because, like I said, I have three boys under the age of seven. They really don't care whether I had a bad day at work or not. Because they come back from school, they want to hang out with me and their mom. So taking out how my day went at work on them, first of all, it's not fair. Second of all, it's wrong. So knowing how to, I guess, separate certain things and knowing what priority, like I described to my friends whenever the conversation comes up, my primary job is to be a good human being to the people around me, family, community, and so on. My career is to support that. Some people put their career first, which I guess, depending on where you are in your life, that might be necessary, but not to the detriment of everything else.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

So that it's like, okay, well, there is this mango at certain points in life, priorities shift, which is the word I like to use, shift, not change. Because even throughout the course of a day, I might have to prioritize being a husband over being a dad. Throughout the course of some days, I might have to prioritize being a dad over being a husband during the same day. Not to now mention, okay, well, over the course of one month, I shouldn't prioritize career 30 days in a month. That's just me.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:28

Because we work five days a week for a reason. Of course, people have different work schedules and so on, but on aggregate, 24 hours times 30 days, those number of hours, there should be something that should be number one priority. Maybe there's something that is a close second, 1A, 1B. So maybe like family 1A, work 1B.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 47:57

So when you now look at it, over the the longer the time frame, let's say you work for 40 years, would you say you were prioritizing work for 40 years? Maybe not. But the shorter the time frame, okay, let's say the cost of 9 to 5. Well, I would say I prioritize work for an eight-hour time window.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:22

But for a 40-year time window, work should not be priority.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

That is so true. I completely agree.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

So it's all about the time frame, zoom in, zoom out, and so on.

SPEAKER_01 48:34

So yeah, no, I I completely agree with that. And I think, like you said, it comes in different stages of your life, what you're going to prioritize. For me in college and that first year out of college, I was so focused on building up my career and just trying to be a top banker and all that. And now my focus has turned into I don't mind if I'm an all right banker. I could be okay. As long as I'm able to, in my free time, travel as much as I want, hang out with my friends and family all the time, and have the opportunity to give back to my community. That's what matters. I don't need to be number one at work. That's just not what it needs to be. I can still have a successful career and not be number one. And I think that's something I had to kind of be okay with just growing up and just in college and high school, I was, I was just always at the top. And I always wanted to be at the top, and I always wanted to be the best. And it took a real, you know, big knock in the head to be like, no, Issa, being number one is not all it's cut out to be. What really matters is your health, your family, and your friends.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

Wow. Wow. And that's the best way to wrap this up. Uh thank you so much for all the insights. And of course, it's always fun talking to you. And this is, I believe, the second episode we've done together.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:21

So much fun. I always have a blast doing this. Thank you so much again for inviting me back on. This was such a great opportunity, and I really enjoyed the discussion.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Talk to you soon. Bye.