The Untold Truth About Ambition, Money & Legacy | Karim Zaouk

Success leaves clues… and this episode is full of them.

In this powerful episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Karim Zaouk, Sales Consultant at Bet-David Consulting, for an authentic conversation about ambition, sacrifice, entrepreneurship, identity, leadership, and what it actually takes to build a meaningful life.

Karim shares his incredible journey from growing up in Lebanon, adapting to life across multiple countries and cultures, moving to the United States, navigating corporate America in New York City, and ultimately stepping into the high-performance world of entrepreneurship and consulting.

But this conversation goes far beyond business.

Eric and Karim dive deep into:
• The mindset behind high performers
• Why adversity often creates stronger people
• Confidence, insecurities, and personal growth
• Entrepreneurship vs corporate life
• The pressure of chasing success
• Balancing ambition with future family life
• Why relationships and community matter
• The hidden cost of success
• Leadership, discipline, and sacrifice
• Building a meaningful life instead of just making money

This episode feels less like an interview and more like two entrepreneurs having an honest conversation about life, business, purpose, and the pursuit of greatness.

If you’re building something, chasing bigger goals, or trying to become the best version of yourself, this episode is for you.

Featuring:
Karim Zaouk, Sales Consultant at Bet-David Consulting

Hosted by:
Eric Winegard, CEO of Rare Blue Moon Marketing & Host of the Gold Coast Podcast

Subscribe for more conversations with entrepreneurs, creators, business leaders, and high performers!!

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

You know what I love about your guys' company? It's how diverse you guys are. Yeah. Like, do you guys got any just like American white boys in there? You got any of us? You guys are racist towards. You're Italian. You're not an American white boy, you're Italian.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

It's cool. You guys are super diverse. I'm like thinking about it. Who do we have? Like the guys that we have, like, everybody's either first or second generation.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

You know?

SPEAKER_04 0:26

What are um what are the two sisters? I feel like they're Puerto Rican. They're two pretty sisters, Natalia, and.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Where are they from?

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah, Puerto Rican. Patrick himself is he ain't a white boy. Mario's not a white boy. We got any just good old-fashioned American girls. Taylor? Taylor. Michigan white girl. De Grande? Yeah. But she's got a well, when I hear de Grande, I think, you know, she's not Smith. Yeah, that's true. You know? Okay, Taylor's from Michigan. Michigan, yeah. Midwest. Who else? Who else are all my people? Let's go through them all. Let's let's see where they're from. What's that? Nobody.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Dalton's Jamaican. Yeah. Aaron, Peru, Antonio, Florida, but first generation Italian. Yeah, yeah. Second generation.

SPEAKER_04 1:19

No, it's actually, you know, I've always really respected it, you know. Um, you know, where I'm from in Rochester, New York, it's like if you like if you like the company I used to work at, 95% white. Were they 98% white? Nothing wrong with the with it, but it's the culture of it, right? No, it was. It was different. Yeah, it was different. You know, the the guys who ran the company were white dudes with gray hair, and everybody they hired were white dudes. I I no, I just I respect the diversity. I I do do you think do you think it helps Patrick that he's do you think because he's on the verge of almost like famous now, right? Like, wouldn't you agree? Yeah. Like like next level fame, you mean? Yeah, like like where most like if you ask mo like if you ask a guy from the middle of Texas or the middle of Kansas, do you know who he is? They go, no, but then if you scroll down the video, they're like, oh no, I I've seen it.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

They recognize the face more than the name. For sure. Right now, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

But yeah, like that next because if you're in the conservative space, most people are gonna know him. But by like talking worldwide, it's still it's not there yet. Yeah, he's not the rock yet, right? Justin B, but like Trump. Yeah. Like some of these hands.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

He could be. He could be someday. But do you think his Iran Iranian, right? Yeah. Do you think his Iranian descent kind of has helped his popularity in a way?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

No, I think his messaging does. Like there's a lot of guys Iranian descent that don't have, you know, like the popularity. Then there's a lot of guys that have the popularity that are just white or you know? Yeah. I think it's just kind of the messaging, the processing, the authenticity with that also is a big thing. See, I feel like in a little way it does help.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Let me just give you no, just my perspective is um, do you remember you remember the Jubilee thing? Is that what it was called? Like like he was debating with one of the kids, and I can't one of them said something like, Yeah, all the rich people are tall white people. And he looks at her like, like, like, but I think he could like I think there's an unspoken, I think there's an unspoken thing when you meet Pat that like oh no, no, no, I'm not a white guy from the suburbs here, dude. So I think I think it does help. The story does for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

I see that perspective. Yeah, for sure. Resonates with more people. For sure. Like more people can resonate with that story.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Like I heard him when he was uh like I heard his rebuttal to Tucker today. Did you watch it? I haven't watched it yet. Came across my face. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, put it out last night. Yeah, it was good. And and he he said, no, no, no, I was poor. Like, you know, my family had nothing in uh Iran. And uh so no, I I think that helps because you know, because no one all right, let me give you an example. I grew up poor. I grew up with a mom on welfare, I was in a homeless shelter when I was seven years old, I was in foster homes, I um didn't graduate high school, I started doing drugs and was a party guy as a young knucklehead. Today, you know, uh what most people consider successful, right? By most people's standards, you could pull the white privilege card with me if you wanted to. You could say, oh, well, of course you made it, right? Like you're but like bet with him, you can't you you just you there's no um you can't can't use it. You can't use it. So I think it's I think it does help him. I'm not saying it's what has got him. I see your point. Yeah, it makes sense. You can't pull that card. You can't pull that card. Yeah, he's got brown skin and he's from the slums, you know. So it's like so. I love it. I think I think it's great. And and uh I love that you guys have a culture of uh you know diversity. It's great, it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

But for you also, like once you share your story, people can't pull that card anymore. Yeah, not as much, at least. Once you share your story, how you grew up, they can't really pull that card because it's not white privilege, it's like you worked.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

Just a hustler. So to tell me, I want to hear about your upbringing. What what who was Kareem? Uh, who were you in high school? Yeah, in high school, or whatever schooling you guys have over there. I don't know what it's called, what if it's similar.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

So in high school was funny because I lived in two different countries during high school. So when I grew up, we grew up in Lebanon uh my whole life. So triple E, born and raised, me, two brothers, so three brothers total. When I was 13, 13, yeah, my dad moved to Qatar. So his job moved and everything. So we ended up moving with him at 14 years old. So high school I did three years there in Qatar, and then I moved back to Lebanon for my senior year. So I kind of did high school in both countries. Who I was, um dude, I was I grew up a fat, chubby kid. Yeah. So like in middle school around that age, I was just fat and chubby. My mom was such a good coach, she still is, and I was I was just eating. So definitely was a little like had some insecurities back then. Like I was just short, chubby, so but now you're tall, dark, and handsome. So it makes it good now. Now we get away with it. But when I like around 15, that's when I just start shooting up like with height, and I started losing some weight. So when I was in Qatar, I like didn't really fit as much. Like I fit with some people, but then I didn't fit with like the cool kids those first two years, because I went from Lebanon, like I had all my friends, to now you're moving a kid that's 14 years old to a new school, and that new school is not only Lebanese people, but it's people from France, from Germany, from Spain, from Belgium, from Africa, from uh Japan. So now you're in a diverse situation, and you're 14 years old, you don't really resonate. It's hard to kind of transition that at a young age. So that's where I felt some insecurities at first, but that actually helped me adapt and learn a lot about dealing with different cultures, right? So that was probably one of the best things that happened. Then after that, in high school, at senior year of high school, I was just love to have fun. Like I would just I had a lot of great friends, I moved back to Lebanon.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

What was your version of fun? Your senior year and high school?

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Everything. Like we were in Lebanon, like you would get in trouble for so many things. You wouldn't get in trouble, but you would just do things. So my senior year, I moved back to Lebanon, I lived with my grandma for a year. Wow. So my parents were in Lebanon, I lived with my grandma. My grandma was like, you have to be home at 10 p.m. And at 10 p.m. she locks the door, I sneak out, and I'm out. But you know, your high school kid, we used to just what maybe I had like a 2.2 GPA in high school. Yeah, like nothing crazy. We were just skipping school, doing anything crazy stuff, right? So that's kind of who I was in high school. I was never smart, I never had good grades. I was only good at math. That was the only thing I was good at. Everything else I well, you can be smart and not get good grades.

SPEAKER_04 8:49

That's true. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Cool. Um, you know what's interesting? I'd be curious to hear your perspective on this. You know, there's there's two types of people. There's there's people that had little resistance in their childhood, and then there's people that had a lot of resistance in their childhood. And like, like for me, I had a lot of resistance, but I was like, I was always like the good athlete, and you know, like uh, I never had an issue with girls. Like I would win, like, you know, when I was young, I would win like most handsomest, you know, when I was in like seventh grade. So like, you know, my confidence was always really high, you know, and and I and I think that did contribute to like you know my confidence today, but but um you know, I I feel I feel like there's people that like you, maybe you were, you know, pudgy, you know, maybe the girls didn't like you as much when you were like 10, maybe they weren't like slipping you notes, you know, in class, right? Right, but but like so you had to overcome insecurities, and I think a lot of times those people become like the tougher, stronger person. Like, like, you know, me and my Alexis, who just walked in here, by the way, how you doing, babe? Hi, honey bunny. Look at that belly boy. Um you know, we always joke around about like, you know, these young guys that are these stud athletes, and you know, they're handsome and they're fit, and then and then when they get into the professional world, all of a sudden they're a lot of times they're they're kind of culture shocked and and confidence shocked, and you know, because now it's like you know, can you go from being um having athletic confidence and looks confidence to being professionally confident, which is way different, and a lot of times they struggle. So I think it's good to I think it's good to have some resistance early on.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah, you know, I think that's 100%. And someone said, I don't know, like I watched I heard that somewhere, but someone said the people that have the most insecurities, they end up working the hardest so they can hide them or like overcome them. So that's a great point. Like if you came up being the stud the whole time and you never took a beating, like mental beating, you know what I mean? Like yeah, that's what I mean. Um when life hits you later on, you're gonna you're gonna be able to struggle more.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

So dude, they think about the paradox, and I think that's the right word, of the I try to throw big words out there every now and then. Something will go by. Yeah, think about think about okay. Let's use uh Michael Jordan versus LeBron James. And you know, Michael Jordan grew up, uh he was don't get me wrong, he's obviously a great athlete, like, but he didn't make his varsity team as a 10th grader. Um and you know, in college, um, you know, he uh he had a little he had this whole episode where his coach wouldn't promote freshmen, so like he wasn't on the cover of the magazine. So he wasn't told his whole life, you're the best, you're the best, you're the best. He had to prove to people he was, and he did it. Whereas LeBron, he was the chosen one when he was like 14 years old, and he's uh and you know, he even has a tattooed on his back, so he's been told his whole life that he's great, and I think there's some insecurities with LeBron. You can clearly see insecurity with LeBron, and you can see just supreme confidence with Michael, yeah. It's a good point. You know, great point, right? So you can see it there. Tom Brady's another good example, had to had to earn it. What number pick?

SPEAKER_00 12:45

He was like 100 and some pick, 199, 1900. Yeah, but let me ask you, how much of that is also who's in your ear? Because you have some guys that also come up like they are the chosen ones, like Messi. He's always been the chosen one since he was a kid in Barcelona, and he's still the chosen one.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

So how much of it is also who's in your ear, telling you, oh, you're so good, or who's in your ear also keeping that anxiety and paranoia?

SPEAKER_04 13:12

Yeah, usually these, you know, like if you look at Tom Brady or Michael Jordan, or um, I'm trying to think of other athletes, I don't know. Um uh Tiger Woods, you know, these guys when he was an athlete, right? They did have a good, they did have a good home. Yeah. You know, Tom Brady always talks about how unbelievable his parents were. You know, Michael Jordan had great parents. Um, you know, Shaquille O'Neal had a great uh talks about his uh stepfather really stepped in. He was a military guy, um, you know, stepped in as a great father. He did a freaking rap song about it. Did you ever? No, I haven't. Really?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Oh, I gotta Americanize you a little bit. It's called My Biological Didn't Bother. He has a whole rap song about it. You gotta listen to it. But they usually have a good foundation. You're right. Yeah, they usually have a good foundation, and it's not to say that if you have a bad foundation, you can't be successful, but clearly if you have a good foundation, you got a better chance of being successful.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Better chance, but you also have a good chance of being a little bit arrogant and entitled, right? So it's also more like for Messi, it was probably more his coach, you know.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Like I and I don't know, I don't know soccer that much, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So Messi, like for example, he came up and he was always short when he was growing up, but he had talent, so they ended up recruiting him and his parents sent him to Barcelona camp at I don't know what age, probably Alejandro would know what age, but probably like 13, 14, 11, 11, that's when he went to Barcelona camp from Argentina.

unknown 14:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

And then from there, he was just being developed in that camp, and he started playing professionally with the team, I think at 18 or 19, somewhere around that time. And he was a chosen one at 18, 19, like this is gonna be the next person. And he kept doubling down on it. He didn't just slow down after two, three years. So he did come up like, hey, you're always short, but that was at 10, 11 years old. And then he had the right coaches in his ear to just maximize his potential, too.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

So after high school, did you like I like what was your what was your what did Kareem want out of his life when he was 18 years old?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

That's funny. Um I actually always wanted to be in hotels. Like my dream was to go to like a hot hospitality hotel school in Switzerland. Like that was my goal. Like I wanted to go to one of those. I didn't get accepted in either when I applied. Even when I applied to the US, I didn't get accepted to college right away. Because even though like the system I was in, the French system, schooling, high school system, is way tougher than the American system. So even if I have a 12 out of 20, that if you move it to a GPA, that's 2.1 out of 4, which is pretty awful. But if you actually the type of content and how much you know, you're probably around like a 3.2, not a 2.1. So when you flip it, you're like, no one's gonna want to get you in their schools. So I actually ended up not going to any schools. I didn't even want to leave Lebanon. I was like, I just want to stay there. All my friends are here. My dad forced me to go. He was like, you're not staying here. Forced you to go to the states. Yeah, he's like, you have no choice. I was like, I just want to stay in Lebanon. He's like, zero choice, you're going. So he's like, you go to a community college, you do a semester or two there, and then you move to the University of Tennessee where I was. He's like, you cannot stay in Lebanon. He mapped that out to Tennessee. He said community college to Tennessee? Yeah, because I didn't get in Tennessee right away.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Yeah. Okay. If I got in Tennessee right away, he would have been like, that's the goal. But because I didn't get any, he's like, you go to a community college your first semester or two, you get a good grade, then you move. But he didn't not want any of us stay in Lebanon. No. That's probably the best decision. Why did your dad not want you in Lebanon? The opportunity is capped. Like even now, I look back and some of my friends in Lebanon, like, yes, they're great people, they want to learn, they want to develop. A lot of them are just trying to build their own businesses. Some people are still in college, some people are still like studying, some people are still like going through that. Once they go through that, then your opportunity is capped in terms of income and revenue and just the whole economy. It's not the American dream. Yeah. Where we can talk a lot about that, right? Also with PBDC and him, that's the American dream. And then with my dad, he saw that because he went to school here, he went to college here, and then he moved back to Lebanon. So he didn't want us not to have that experience. So why Tennessee? And that why were and were there other options on the table? Not for the US. That was the that was the one option. So why Tennessee? Going back, I'm gonna go back a little bit in uh time. So my dad is also has two brothers. So he they're three boys, and me and my brothers are three boys. So when the war happened in Lebanon in the late 70s, 1970s, my grandma had a friend of hers that escaped the war ten years before and moved to Tennessee. So she was living in Tennessee. Okay, so when the war hit in Lebanon, my grandma was like, You guys have to leave Lebanon. So my oldest uncle, he went to France. My middle uncle, the second oldest, went to Tennessee, and then my dad followed him to Tennessee to stay with my friend, my grandma's friend. Okay, they ended up living there. My dad lived there 14 years, and then he met my mom and he moved back to Lebanon, and my uncle still lives in Tennessee. So my uncle's been there since the 80. So, because of that, my dad was like, he went to Tennessee, my uncle went to Tennessee, my aunt went to Tennessee, like University of Tennessee, my cousin went to University of Tennessee, my older brother went to University of Tennessee, I went to the University of Tennessee, and my younger brother did. So it's kind of like a cool family thing now where everybody went to Tennessee.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

Well, Tennessee's I love Tennessee, by the way. It's awesome. Yeah, no, Tennessee's great. Like it's one of it's on the short list of a few places I can live in this country. Yeah. But it's just a random place. So random. Yeah, it's like, because normally you think New York, Miami, LA, maybe Chicago or Houston, like like one of these big metros. It's just interesting. Like, like what was I'm curious when you were 16, 17, you had never been to the States, right? I've been to the States twice or three times. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Three times by 17. What was your like per like what was your perception of American culture? The first time I came to the states, it was also like not the first time I came to the states was 2006, and that was because we escaped the war in Lebanon, and we came to the States. So I was eight years old, my dad, my not my dad, my older brother was 10, and my younger was six. And the war happened between Lebanon and Israel back then, and they shut down the airport of Lebanon. Lebanon has one airport, that's it. It's not like if that airport is done, you're you're done. Right, right, right. You're screwed. You don't just drive 60 miles up to PBI or Fort Lauderdale. You can't do that. So my dad couldn't leave Lebanon because he was just he just couldn't leave his house, he couldn't leave everything. But he wanted to make sure we were out of the country. Right? So we took a cab and my mom and three boys, and then my uncle was there at the time with his kids, and we took a car, we drove through Syria, so we had to go through the borders, we had to go through Syria where Syria wasn't a safe place back then, go to Jordan, and then from Jordan fly to the US. Yeah, and we stayed in the States for six months until the war kind of calmed down, and then we moved back. So that was my first experience. So we went from you had three Lebanese kids and you threw them in a school in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we were just it's being rebels. So did you uh did you go to the football games on Saturdays? Uh when I was there for college, yeah, every Saturday. Every miss one. I didn't miss one game. Yeah, pre-game. Yeah, you got $10 uh $10 tickets for student tickets.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

You're there at every single game. You do tailgating, this, that, you did everything.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

That's cool. That that's like I will say, one of the cool experiences in this country is to be a college kid at a big school, big football or basketball school, especially football on a Saturday. That's awesome. That's so cool. It was awesome. Yeah. All right. So you go to UT, they call it, right? UT. Because I always get uh UT is Texas too. We're like the real UT. The real UT Morgan Wallins making it the real UT. He is singing about it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Um, okay, so so would you study at UT? So at first I got into finance, so I was just doing finance uh because I was like business, like I just want to do finance. And then my goal when I was in college, I wanted to go into investment banking. So I was doing finance so I can go into investment banking.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

So my junior year, when I started like applying to investment banking internships, I wouldn't get accepted anywhere because they're like you didn't come from a big school for investment banking, like you want to come from NYU, college. Columbia, like all these schools to go into Wall Street. So I just was getting zero opportunities. So my senior year, I ended up flipping my major, and I went, I had accounting first and then finance as a secondary. Okay. Because I was like, accounting, I can get into accounting, and everybody needs accounting no matter what you do. Even if you start your own business, you're gonna need accounting.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

So I ended up doing that. I got my master's in accounting. I got my CPA license. I did all that. Uh like I ended up saying an additional year to get my CPA license and everything. And from there moved to New York and uh worked at a big four accounting firm and hated every single moment of it. But uh but that's kind of it created more of that fire what to do. How long were you in New York? Two and a half years. Oh, I you know, I forget about you. Okay. Now, where were you living in New York? On 36 between Madison and 5th. That was my second year, my first year when I moved to New York. My brother was already living in New York with his roommate who's Lebanese. So they were living on 17th and 5th in Manhattan. They had a two-bedroom, small apartment. And then when I moved, I was like, I'll just stay on the couch with you guys at first. I was like, I'm not in the rush to find a place right away. I'm just starting a new job. So I ended up staying on the couch with them, and then the roommate's brother ends up moving to Lebanon too, and he ends up joining the couch with me too. So we lived six months in a small New York apartment, two bedrooms, four Lebanese guys, and two of us were sleeping on the couch.

SPEAKER_04 23:29

So where Alexis and I are from, it's kind of like everybody's dream to go live and work in New York. Like when you're in your young 20s, you know, that's like the big move. Awesome. You know, and like, but what happens to these kids, like, unless, you know, unless you got a rich mommy or daddy, dude, you're tough. Yeah, you're like you're struggling to live. Let's struggling to get by. Uh, it's only gonna get worse. I mean, cost of living's not gonna come down. Like, there's no I don't see it happening. Unless you put four guys in one apartment. So yeah, no, and and your life sucks. Like, I you know, life life's tough to live like that. It was amazing for those six months.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Yeah, for the yeah, it was fun. Yeah, like we're all like we grew up together. Like all the us four of us, we grew up together in Lebanon. But imagine you living like that now. Oh, no way, no way. That's what I'm getting. At 22, I could do that. Yeah. Not at not at this age, maybe 28, 28. 28. 28, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Like eventually it's like, oh crap, dude. Like, we should probably get our own bed. But part of it, like, you should be making more money eventually, right? Where you can afford depends what you do. So that's true.

SPEAKER_04 24:36

So um was there anything about anything about New York you missed? Was there any like cool restaurant or like was there any meal?

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Yeah, because there is some unbelievable world-class dining, you know? Like New York as a country, uh not a country, as a city, like it has so diverse cultures, right? Like, and think about it. I went from Lebanon to Tennessee, yeah. That's a big switch, yeah, and then from Tennessee to New York. So that was another balance where I kind of found myself in the middle, right? But New York, I was able to get a lot of my culture back that maybe I missed while I was in Tennessee. So I had a lot of Lebanese friends, we had a lot of Italian friends, we had a lot of Middle Eastern, European friends, South American, Asian, everybody was there. You don't get that in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

And I love that. Like it's awesome to have. Like right now in Florida, we have you do get a lot of the Italian, you do get a lot of South American, but you don't get as much of the European and Middle East Middle East a little bit, but not as much as I did in New York. And the Italian influence here is really the New York Italian.

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not people coming over from Sicily, you know. But New York has the best food. New York City, there's just everything.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:58

Um, all right, so how okay, so two and a half years there. When did this infamous phone call or like like didn't she get like a was the next move valuetainment?

SPEAKER_00 26:12

So the next move right after was value attainment. Okay. So when I started, and the reason why I went into corporate, because my brother was in corporate, my dad was like, hey, corporate is the best way to do it. Like, my mom was like, Yeah, this is the only thing I should be doing. I always had a piece of my mind where I was like, I want to do my own thing or I want to control what I can bring home. Yeah, which part of sales and being your own business owner is you control it, but also the stress and everything that you're also taking on is not easy.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

So that's why you're getting paid what you get paid. But once I started in corporate, literally within a week, I was like, this is not for me. Mentally, I was like that. So in my mind, I was like, all right, I'm not gonna quit because I gotta give myself two weeks, uh, two years.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Because in my mind, I was like, whatever I'm doing, just give it two years. What if something changes in two years? And then I'm like, okay, this is actually better than I thought. Yeah, I don't want to make an emotional decision. Um, so once I started, but part of my mind I was like, all right, what if it's not gonna work out? I have a feeling it's not, but I'm gonna give it two years. I started looking up online, how do I start my own business? How do I become an entrepreneur? How do I do this? How do I do that? And that's where I started stumbling uh across PBD's content. Yeah, the old YouTube videos. Yeah. So the whiteboard videos, 20 rules for young men, how to be an entrepreneur, what kind of business to go into. And I started just feeding myself that content over those next two years where I didn't know it at the time, but I was getting my mind ready for if I wanted to start my own thing or go into something else. Yeah, so and I got into the podcast, got into all that. May 2023. I was like, I'm ready to quit my job. So I ended up actually doing a sabbatical and then I quit, but I technically quit. I bought a ticket to the vault in May 2023. I was like, I'm done. I kind of quit the job. I bought a ticket to the vault, and I bought my hotel and I bought everything that month for the vault that was in August. Because in my mind, I was like, if I'm gonna go three months without an income, just trying to figure stuff out, I'm gonna make a million excuses why I shouldn't buy a ticket and not go to the vault.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

So I was like, let me just buy everything now and then I'll figure everything out. Where was this vault? Diplomat. That was the Mike Tyson and uh Tom Brady one.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Was it Tom Brady? Yeah, Mike Tyson, Tom Brady will Ghadara. You were at that one too.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

I think I can't remember. I I went to one with Ryan, our buddy Ryan, I remember, just for like a day.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah, it might have been the one before. Yeah, the one before they told me about. So I bought my ticket to the vault, and then I moved to Lebanon for two months because I was like, I can't pay rent in New York, I can't do this. I gotta move back, just live with my parents for a couple months, just figure stuff out. Yeah, so I started dabbling around with different friends, some of them had different businesses, and I was just like, let me learn some skills. I started watching some kind of sales videos online. I was just trying to learn. I'm like, I don't know what's going on. And I ended up stumbling around like in July, I was just looking on LinkedIn. I was like, what if I just find like a remote sales job just so I can learn sales and sell something on the side, 1099, and make some money. So I stumbled, like I easy applied on valuetainment, they had a sales job. I just clicked easy apply and forgot about it, and I kept going. And then one of the recruiters reached out to me end of uh end of July, beginning of August, and she was like, Hey, we're hiring, we're looking to do this. Are you open for a position? I was like, hiring for what? Like you guys do podcasting and uh and maybe a couple events. What are you hiring for? Yeah, I'm not a videographer, I got a little film. I had no idea what they had going on. I was like, sure, that's valuetainment, I'll love pad, and let me just explore what could come out of this. Um, so I jumped on a Zoom and she was telling me, hey, this is where we are today. It's for a small company, PBD is still like exiting his previous company, but we're looking to become the most influential consulting company, we're looking to build something big. So yeah, great. Send me the website, send me this. We didn't have a website, we didn't have nothing at the time. But for me, I just had a gut feeling. And then I interviewed with Mario after that. He's my second interview. And he was like, Why do you even want to come down here? If you're coming down from New York, because you're moving, you're moving out of New York. Why are you coming down here? Like, you're gonna move, you're gonna do this. I don't want you to come down here, and then after a month, you quit and go back. I don't want that. So he kind of challenged me on not coming. Yeah, he's filtering you. He was filtering me for sure. Uh it made me even want it even more. So I ended up packing everything. I was down here within a week, and I started working with the company five days before the vault. Instead of coming as an attendee, which I had my ticket for, I started working with them a few days. Did you get that refund? I never asked for it, to be honest. My parents were like, you should ask for it. And I was like, I just don't want to ask for it. It's like I'm here.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

I think I think you should uh expense it today. I just look back right now, be like, Can I get a refund? Yeah, yeah, it's cool. Cool. So I I feel it's obvious you're ascending. So congrats on that. It's clear as day, right? Um are you officially a manager now? Didn't that congrats. As of April 1st, officially. Wow, cool. Congrats. Thank you. Yeah, that's that's uh so like when you guys it's I'm curious about your career now. Like when you become a manager, is that a is that a decision based on numbers or is it a decision based on your influence in the company? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Make sense? I think it's a mix. It's a mix. Okay. Um, and you'd see like for us, everything is also about how aligned are you with the company, right? Like, are you aligned with the vision and what we're doing? And then if you're aligned with that and you believe in the product, then it's also uh the eater, the healer that we talk to, and obviously you've seen at the event it's effort, attitude, leadership, innovation, results, and how aligned are you on that? So if you have good alignment on the vision of the company, you have good alignment on you're representing what the company is looking for in a manager, in a salesperson, and somebody to be there, and then at the end, you have results, then you can start being considered. Then once you're considered, you do your interviews with the executive team, and based on that who's the executive team you gotta do the interviews with for that. You've got Tom, Pat, oh, it goes all the way up there. Paul, yeah. So our CTO, HR, president, and at the end with the CEO.

SPEAKER_04 32:40

Sounds like a well-run, well-oiled machine. Cool. No, I just wasn't sure because like there is uh, you know, like when I I used to work at this other company, and when I worked at this other company, I was just I as the salesperson, yes, I was the best salesperson. There's probably 50 salespeople, and I was roasting everybody. And uh what's that?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

A little competitive isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 33:07

A little bit, a little bit. And uh, I didn't tell people how competitive I was, I did it with a smile. I don't either, huh? I don't either. Yeah, I know you're a sickle like that. I love it. But I uh I was obsessed with being number one, right? And uh, but I became, you know, it took people usually, I think the average length of time was like 12 or 13 years to become a vice president. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, at the time back then, and and I did it in like in five years. Because I there wasn't like a number or a metric, but you know, the the CEO of the company based off of instinct goes, oh, Eric's clearly also the leader, too. You know, but I I I get from I think one of the hardest things to do as a CEO of a sales company is you know, you guys talk about platoon leaders and I forget the other or uh snipers and platoon leaders. You know, people tell me that you know snipers don't always make great uh platoon leaders, but they can evolve into it, you know, like like you might you know be a sniper and a killer and a closer and a finder and a deal maker, and but you're just not being incentivized to be a platoon leader. That's true. You see what I'm saying? So so sometimes it's like, well, how how do you know if they're like like you're incentivizing them to go hunt? Like, so so if there's no incentive to be a platoon leader, then then I probably am going to continue to shoot and kill, right? So so I I believe that if if I do believe the best salespeople can become the best platoon leaders, I do. It's just do you want it? Like, do you like you know if I incentivize you this way, are you going, you know, just see how they act and behave, right? So I I think it's I think a lot of it's based on incentive. I really do. Um, and and and don't get me wrong, are there salespeople that are killer salespeople and are uh poor communicators and people don't like them? Of course, you get that too. But no, I I was just curious if you guys promote, is there like do you have to hit a benchmark? Like, like, is there a certain numerical thing that you guys have to hit before you get promoted, or is it kind of off of management's instinct?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

No, it's super clear. Okay, like super clear. PBD at the beginning of this year, you just launched the whole plan. If you want to go from performer to manager to VP to principal to uh partner to senior partner, what that's gonna look like, how much you need to get, how much how much you need to close, how many people you need to develop, and once you do all that, what's your salary is gonna be for each one of them and how so it's a clear compensation. And for us with PBD, right, we're looking to build the most influential consulting company in the world, which we will, and part of it is we need leaders to get to that point. So in his mind, and PBD is a master at this in terms of sales leadership and incentivizing, the plan is to incentivize us wanting to become better leaders and do that part. So you're 100% right. If the plan is incentivizing you to close more deals, then build other leaders, you're gonna run to that.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

Yeah, and I listen, I this might sound cold here, but when you grow up the way I did, like, you know, I was living off, I've always felt like I'm in survival. Yeah, even today. You know what I mean? That's just how I operate, you know. And uh I remember thinking to myself when I was young, I'm like, I remember the CEO would have conversations with me. What do you want? And I would say, where do I, what's the quickest path to wealth? I go, if you tell me right now that being a graphic designer is gonna make me a millionaire, bro, I'm about to get so artistic. Right? That's just me, right? So you gotta learn whatever skill you need. Yeah, like telling me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn it. I'm gonna learn it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna I'm gonna stink at it at first, and I'm not gonna be embarrassed about stinking, stinking at it at first, but I'm I'm just gonna go get it. Um yeah, you know, I uh you know, I've gotten a lot of value from you know being involved with you guys. The number one value I've gotten from being involved with valuetainment is like, and once again, I don't want this to come off the wrong way, but dude, like everybody's my friend now, right? Like, how many of our friends? It's obscene. It's obscene, and not just bros, like husbands and wives. Yeah, like tonight we're going out to dinner with Chris Nichols and his one. Awesome. That's my dude. Yeah, I love Chris. Oh, is he is he oh you're the rep. Okay, yeah. So like when you put like, watch this. When you put me in the golf group with Sarkis, Chris Nichols, Kiro, and Kiro, who are all my clients now, by the way. Thank you. Um, like, like you what? What? No, they're they are thank you guys. Um, no, no, they um like it was like you put me in a group with guys that are like all I'm like, oh yeah, these are already my boys. I wonder if like-minded. Well, no, but I wonder if you even knew that me and Chris were buddies yet.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

You know, you may not have even known that, you know. Oh, interesting. Like, you haven't hung out that long, maybe, right? Is that where yeah, yeah. Okay, like you've known each other, you've seen each other, you've had conversations, but you haven't spent a whole day to be like, oh, like I actually really, really clicked there.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Awesome. Yeah, really clicked. Like, wait, where are why aren't we now partying and going to dinners together and stuff? Uh, but we have some mutual friends too, like uh the guy Hello that I brought around to you guys. Um, he's good friends with Chris. But yeah, no, like um, you know, there's like at the gender reveal, it how revealing was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Jeff was awesome, yeah. Oh, yeah. You guys gotta talk too. I think uh she has to know something about you and your daughter. Um Sophia with an F. Really? With an F. You guys doing a PH. Yeah. Okay. So but that gender reveal was awesome. Like it was intimate, and first of all, I appreciate obviously being there because now it is more, and again, that goes back to the business side where a lot of salespeople sometimes they're just more transactional. Where the people that are gonna win long term is all the relationship. Because you're only gonna do business with people you like, first of all. Even if it's transactional, you're not gonna do business with somebody you don't like, rarely, maybe, but then long term, you know you want to be around these people and their good values, good principles. Like you want these people to be around your family, of course they're gonna do business with you because it's gonna go vice versa.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Like, yes, maybe he's doing marketing with you. You might do some wealth management with him, right? You also never know what's gonna happen because you trust them.

SPEAKER_04 40:04

Yeah, I try to um like whatever I like when I hear the term networking, I don't just think closed deals. No, you know, I think, I think, um, uh, I'm not gonna name names, but I saw a guy, I was on when we went to Patrick's house that day on that Saturday, BBD's house, I was on the bus with a guy. And the guy in the bus told me he does this one thing. And I go, Oh, I know a guy in the community who's having a problem with that thing. I said, Why don't I just text you guys, right? And I put them in text thread with each other. Now they're doing business with each other. So I didn't get anything from it. I'm not looking for a referral fee or anything, right? So I'm always thinking, never just thinking transaction. That's the worst way to do it. Um, I also think who in here has something I can buy that's gonna accelerate my company 100%. You know, like what do I not know, right? Um, and I don't know what I don't know. But then of course, organically, when you treat business like that, people go, Well, what Eric, what do you do? And I go, Oh, you know, I got this little marketing thing, you know, that I that I do. And they're like, Well, I'd love to have a conversation with you. And I try not to have those conversations anymore. I truly try not to. But there are certain, you know, when it's CEO, like in the CEO room, I I should have the conversation with them. Does that make sense? Yeah, and not pass them down to I don't want to say pass them down. That's probably a bad term, too. Um, like like we have one billion dollar company, a twenty well, I'm gonna say these numbers, but tens of billions of dollar company, you know, the company that we're doing marketing for, and we're about to get another billion dollar company that we're doing work for, which is wild to me. That's awesome. It's wild to me.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

That CEO wants to talk to me 100%, and you should talk to him for sure, for sure. Like, yeah, he shouldn't talk to anybody else on the TV. No, no, no. That's not no, no, I know, I know. No, I know, no, I know. Um but that's the best part. Like, you wanna like when you say also networking, part of where my mindset is in networking is being obsessed to get into that next room, you know? Yeah, like for me, yes, I want to network, but it's also who do you want to network with? Like, if I'm gonna network, is that gonna help me access and open another door that maybe I haven't had access to?

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Like now I want to be next to the billionaires. Now I want to be next to the multi-billionaires, now I want to be next to those people, and that's really networking for me. It's like who do I need to meet? And not in a bad way, it's just who do I need to build a relationship with that I know I'm gonna end up being because I belong in those with those people in my mind. So it's just a matter of time to get into those sources.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Damn, you're past me mentally already, dog. I'm just that's impressive. He's like, where are my multi-billionaires at? It's trying. I think there's why are you so cute? So we um I'm like, does this always just go live or you just you cut it up? No, no. I dude, I I I listen, I'm I'm forging this path my own way. I'm gonna do it the Eric way. Yeah, I'm I'm cool with that. I was just curious. No, no, no, but I this is like, so like, you know, because you're you're involved in such a massive podcast brand, is what I'm saying, right? That's why I'm so there's what I've realized in life and in business is that anytime I've tried or tried to be someone I'm not, okay? Or um just you know, just just not be comfortable in my own skin. I'm not my best. When I'm just do things the way I know how to do them and and I'm Not saying don't take risk, but what I'm saying is, like for this podcast, I want this to be the most authentic, organic, natural podcast on the planet. Sure, I'm gonna do some other cool things, but you know, it's gotten up to like 8,000 subscribers already, which is really cool. And I got some other stories I'll tell you offline. I'm so excited about, but um, but you know, I'm not PBD, I'm not Joe Rogan, and and I don't know if my podcast will ever get to a high level, but I'm just gonna be Eric, you know, and and if that's my wife coming in and handing the dog to me and kissing me, you know, I think people are gonna resonate with it because just people are craving authenticity.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

And that's that's the number one thing. Like, even to be honest, I didn't even realize when we even started. I got you because we just got into a conversation, I was like, are the cameras even on, right? But that's also the good part where you just flow into the conversation and yeah, you set it up in a way where you let somebody flow authentic authentically into it. Yeah, where it's not like live, we're just like we just kind of went into it. But I love it. Everybody has their different style. You like them? Everybody has their different style, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 45:07

And then what I do, ready, so um is at the end, like, oh, thanks for tuning in, like and subscribe. And then I do the intro. Afterwards, yeah. Because after I've gotten you know how to edify you. Now I know how to edify. You know, I just learned that word a year ago. It's so cool. I've I'm I've always been a natural edifier.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:27

No, I have always been a natural edifier. You are, you know. Um, but now, like, now I'm thinking systematically, I'm like, all right, I gotta introduce Joe and Tim. I can edifications. One family, one business, one hobby, one family, right? I'm like thinking, but no, you know what, you know what I so this is what's cool. This is what's cool about that. So edification, I've always done naturally and organically. It's just who I am, it's my personality. But you know what that taught me is that I need to teach it. The system part of it is teaching it. Yeah, I've never taught it. I've never been like, hey, when you introduce somebody, don't just say, hey, it's Joe and Tim. Say, you know, boost them up, you know, elevate them, right? I never called it, you know, uh edification. But so now I know to teach it because it doesn't come natural. No, not for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Yeah, it's not natural for people.

SPEAKER_04 46:18

Yeah, not at all. Um what's your favorite thing about Patrick?

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Most or what do you admire the most about him? A couple different things, right? One of them, a lot of people will say the authenticity, where offline, online, you've been around PBD a lot. The same person. One thing, yesterday, for example, we had our uh Max 7 meeting, right? We do our Max 7s every single week. That's uh like basically the top seven every month that get qualified to get weekly mentorship with Pat. And that's part of SLS content that we talked about. And uh I was asking him because you know he he tore his uh ACL and uh MCL, right? Did you hear that? No, oh Patrick? Yeah, I didn't even know that. So he spoke about it on the podcast, he shared it at the lounge yesterday or two days ago. And part of it, because we were playing soccer, what, last Saturday, and that ended up happening, and the mindset of kind of who he is is like back to business. Like that Saturday night, he had some friends, he promised some people to be at UFC, he was at UFC. The next day he was doing his thing with family Monday morning at the office doing the podcast, and that's somebody with a torn ACL and MCL, right? Like he needs surgery, and he's just been every single day at the office going at it. Wow, and you won't even hear one complaint, you won't hear nothing. And yesterday I asked him a question because I was just curious. I'm like, whenever I'm around people that are successful, I'm curious to just hear your mindset. I do that to you. I ask different people, I'm like, just I'm just curious to see what I can pick up. And I asked him afterwards, I was like, because now you're recovering doing that part. Did you at any point like the thought of uh maybe I shouldn't have jumped in the last game to play in soccer? Did that even cross your mind? And without even flinching, he was like, No way, no way. The game was 1-1, it was super freaking competitive. You think I wasn't gonna jump in that game? Yeah, I was like, that's the mindset. Yeah, and I was like, I'm gonna get better, I'm gonna I learned a few things from it. It doesn't mean I'm not gonna get healthier, I'm not gonna move and change a few habits, but that mindset of it, I was like, damn, that's why you are who you are, too.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

Well, not that I am in position to give Patrick Bat David any advice, but let me give you a little advice, Pat. You're in your late 40s, the ACLs ain't working like they used to. Dude, I I was playing basketball. I used to be a heck of a basketball player. You got injured before, didn't you? Yeah, dude. I tore my yeah, you told me that. Yeah, I saw there's these young kids on the court, you know, they're playing. I was like, you know, I'm like, no, I still got it. Um, you know, remember? I was like, no, I could still do this. When was that? I think four years ago or something. Okay, so you were okay. Yeah, I was like, all right, I'm gonna go. So I started going. Three minutes into it, dude, just bow, tore my tore my ACO, man. And that was uh, that was uh it was an eye-opener that this like listen, I'm all for when people say, you know, mind over matter, and but it, you know, like eventually, you know, there's no a hundred-year-old dude out there playing basketball. Clearly, your body declines, and uh, you know, so I had to learn the hard way. Like even my workouts today, I go 70%. You know, because I want to keep doing it. Like I trained with my buddy Ian today. He brought up a real cool idea, dude. I I could get a couple UFC. You guys should do like a like an MMA training thing at at the uh at the lounge? No, at the headquarters or something.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Well, you know what's going on at the lounge on Thursday. We got Vitor Belfort and we're doing like a UFC night, VT Sports and UFC.

SPEAKER_04 50:06

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

I'll talk to you after this. On Thursday night.

SPEAKER_04 50:10

What what is what what UFC is Thursday night?

SPEAKER_00 50:12

It's not UFC, but you know Vitor Belfort? Yeah, of course. So Vitor's gonna be there with our VT Sports channel. We're just gonna do like a like an athlete night. Vitor's there, meet and greet. We're gonna try to invite a bunch of UFC guys and everything. Oh cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:26

Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Uh is Al Ayacunta your guy or no? Uh Russell. Oh, he's he's he's my buddy. I think he might be trying to come down here too. So move? No, just for the next week.

SPEAKER_04 50:36

Oh, really? Yeah, oh, he's another client of mine now and friend. Awesome guy, awesome dude. Did you ever watch that fight with him and Kabib?

SPEAKER_00 50:45

I've watched highlights of it. It's been a while because that was six, seven years ago. Six years. Probably seven, yeah. He gave Kabib his toughest challenge. His toughest, the toughest fight going distance what with him, no? Yeah, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

Go watch the fight. Khib can't take him down. He can't do it. He can't, and you could see it frustrate Kabib. He's like, damn, I just gotta stand with this dude. And but but Al was, you could tell he was so like, I am not gonna let you take me down. So it's not like his hands were always right here.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

He was just hands were a little low, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:19

So he's getting caught up, touched up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Um but just kind of circling back and tying that point with the mindset, right? The mindset is where it starts because that one thing obviously told me more about everything else, yeah. But also, like going back to PBD, like whenever it comes to everything that he does, like he has moral authority in every single space, and that's what I really admire and I appreciate because that's somebody that's always recreating himself, and when it comes to you probably heard these four things, he always says, I'll strategize, I would improve, I'd work, and then out last people. And he's doing every single one of them. He reads a freaking book a week, so he's always learning, he's always strategizing, he's always working harder than everybody else, spending time with the family at the same time, being around his kids, going to soccer games, doing everything else, and that's like when I'm looking at it, he has that mix where it's not only business and then you have a messed up family and your kids hate you. It's not like your kids love you, but then you don't have anything to pay for, right? And you don't have a good life. But he's running all of those simultaneously and making it look easy, which is the crazy part.

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Yeah. Well, I I know it's not easy. I know, you know. Oh, it's definitely not, yeah, yeah. But he makes it look easy. No, he does, yeah, yeah. No, you know, uh, you know, you you know the stress that that goes into it. Oh, yeah. And and there's I'm sure there's some products that you guys have released that maybe are disappointing that aren't as doing as good as you'd like. I don't know, right? But it seems like everything's doing great. Like, I'm sure he wants Minect to be, you know, the top social channel in the world, and sure, maybe it will be one day, right?

SPEAKER_00 53:05

Um and that part, and that's one thing with PBD, he's not scared to pivot. Like, if we launch something because it was a great idea and it doesn't work, he's not scared to just move on.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

And we've done it, and I think he spoke about this publicly. I'm not sharing anything like inside, right? But we launched a few years back a drink called the vault drink. I don't know, I'm not sure if you remember that. Yeah, I saw it. But that was like a neuro, new, I don't know what you call that neuro, new something, neuro drink, like to help you like kind of think and get clear mindset. And we launched that because he was like, it was a cool idea at the time, and he thought it could hit. But then after that, he was like, This is just becoming more of noise and a headache, yeah, and it's not feeding anything in our flywheel. He cut he cut his losses and he moved on, right?

SPEAKER_04 53:51

So I think one of the coolest things uh you guys have done is I remember this is just me, my uh my little brain, but I remember when he did the shoe launch or release, you know, he announced it at the boardroom, whatever, maybe a year before. He made the announcement, and I was like, Oh, this ain't gonna work. I'm like, it's I'm like, I'm like, I'm like selling shoes. Come on, who's this guy? I think he's Michael Jordan, right? And uh, and even Dr. Cena looked at me. I don't want to pull up Dr. Cena's spot. He goes, guys gonna sell shoes. Love you, Cena. And then a week later, Cena's like, I think I should start a shoe. He's like, I'm gonna call him Dr. Dr. J. Talk about Dr.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

J.

SPEAKER_04 54:37

I'm gonna call him Dr. Jay's. But what you know, but but where he was really smart, this is where you you it was an obvious move. My belief, my observation of Patrick, because I've been one of his followers since like, dude, I was probably the 2000th follower on YouTube, because the salesmanship that I was learning at this company, I knew wasn't it had some good elements, but I knew it wasn't perfect. So YouTube became an easy way to access information. So I started following Cardone, I started following Patrick. Cardone's got some great sales skills, right? And there's a bunch of guys that have great sales skills. Jordan Belfort has great sales skills, but of course I looked at, you know, uh Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy, and I observed a lot of people, but I really, really admired Patrick, right? Because the content that I saw that he was putting out was he was talking to his insurance agents, and I was like, oh, I can relate this to my stuff, right? This is great, right? Because I became the VP of sales, right? For this uh other firm, right? And uh so multiply me times, I don't even know how many people follow or watch PB podcasts. Multiple I became, I was a salesperson, I became an entrepreneur. So his following is very unique because it's an entrepreneurial following. And I believe, and I could be wrong, I don't have like the access to all the data and stuff, but I believe he has a bigger entrepreneurial following than just about anybody. And and he started getting political, and you know, and that's fine. Like he he he drew his line in the sand about who he is, so now the people that follow are like, well, well, damn right. Like I'm drawing my line in the sand too, you know. Me drawing my line in the sand was moving moving from upstate New York to Florida, like I'm voting with my feet, yeah, right? And um, so the shoes, yeah, people want, yeah. We're we we all have a couple dollars. A lot of his followers do. They want something nice, they want a nice pair of shoes.

SPEAKER_00 56:53

100%. And but you know why he came up with the shoes, and that's also like a good backstory, like everything that products-wise that we come up with with Pat that he comes up with, right? Him and the executive team, is because it was a product that he needed at the time but didn't exist. So for the shoes, because he used to speak at obviously at the vault and different conferences, vault, PHP, his previous company, and he's always on stage for three, four days at a time, right? You've seen him at the vault, like he's nonstop 10 hours a day on stage. So two, three years ago, whenever that was, he was on stage and he had to take breaks and he has a chiropractor in the back just to help him because his back hurts. And if you're wearing some uncomfortable dress shoes, dress shoes aren't the most comfortable, right? So his back always hurt and his feet were like destroyed by day four. So in his mind, at the vault, backstage, while he was like, My back hurts. His mind was like, What if? And that's the most powerful quest. Uh, two words, what if there was a nice dress shoe that I can wear at the vault or when I'm going to different meetings, that's also very comfortable. And that's where the idea started trickling in. And the foam is like the encloud foam, but it's a nice dress shoe that you can wear too with a suit at a in a business meeting, and then obviously with our slogan the future looks bright. So now it's like the future looks bright, and someone sees you in a meeting, and it's like, do those say future looks bright? Like, yeah, they do. So that's the idea behind the shoe, and that's the idea with everything that we do. It's like, what if we need this or we need this? What if we create it and then we realize our audience actually want it, and that's we start opening it up.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

So yeah, and um, and it's turned into a lead magnet, like duh. You know, if a dude buys a hat for 20 bucks, like, all right, dude buys a pair of shoes for 600 bucks. It's like, oh, okay. Excuse me, sir, can I uh help you with anything else, right? Like it's a great lead magnet, it's very smart, very smart, and it's gonna get even bigger. Let me ask you that this is what I'm getting at. How does your company culture handle like what would happen if you were a single father? Like, let's say you met a girl, and I'm not saying you're gonna do this, right? And then you become a father accidentally, and you know, oh no, I'm I don't love this girl, whatever. Or maybe you have a single mom, like like Taylor is does Taylor, does Taylor have a significant other or anything? She's not married, yeah. She's uh about to get married. She's okay, she's engaged, okay, cool. So what happens, you know, she's obviously ascending, right? Like like I I think what I'm saying is is I'm trying I'm tiptoeing around it. It's if you have a child, there is a struggle, and I've seen it, with how much time do you spend at home, how much time do you spend at work. What's kind of the the mindset around that? Like, like at valuetainment. Like, like I'll give you an example. There are people I've had some single moms that have worked here, and it hasn't worked out for them because my my expectations and standards are are way too high, right? So it's it's very hard for a single single mom to work here. It's very hard, it would be hard for a single dad to work here. I'm sure it would be hard for single, you probably don't have a single mom that works there, right? Trying to think. Not in sales. And and maybe I'm just answering my own question as a leader. Maybe it's impossible. Because it's not a like if it's a remote job and it's like a remote closer, but it's tough, dude. You can't it's because you have you work probably a minimum of 60 hours a week.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:44

That that's that's rookie numbers, Eric. Those are rookie numbers. 60 hours a week is what 12 hours a day? Five days a week, yeah. 12 hours a day, five days a week. Yeah. So it's what, seven to seven? No, that's rookie numbers. Wow. I'm working on the office latest eight, sometimes seven thirty.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

I'm working up until 10:30, 11. So you're working 14 hours a day? Yeah. How many days a week? 12 to 14. That's at least four days a week. On Fridays, 12 hours a day. And then Saturdays, I put in another 10 hours, eight to ten hours. So eighty-two hours a week. Yeah, maybe Sundays sometimes. Well, maybe three hours as a prep. You do a zoom with somebody that oh, that's tomorrow me and Sarkis have a zoom at 9 a.m.

unknown 1:01:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:31

Because you know he's busy, he's doing his thing. Sunday's the only day we can do it. 85 hours. Yeah, probably around that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Yeah, no, I But I'm young and I'm single and I'm working. Like I don't have a family, I don't have kids. And for me, is I put in that amount of time now because I know when I have a family, I can be putting that time, the hours. My 85 hours is tough, yeah. My 85 is gonna go to 60 because the other 20 is going with my family. So in my mind, I'm like, I don't want to do it the other way around. I want to make my money now, put into work now, so I can dedicate whatever hours I need for my family down the road.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:06

Yeah, I told I told Alexis the other night, kind of casually, because I'm late to the game with a family, you know, 45 years old, and I'll be 46 when my daughter's born. I told her, I said, you know, hey, you know, I got a three to five year like thing I gotta do, right? Like I got I like we have this actual window of opportunity to really get this done, like something wild, bigger than I ever even possibly thought was a a reality younger when I was younger. And uh, but I recognize, I do recognize that when my daughter's eight and my son is six, it's gonna be hard to do what I plan on doing the next few years. Like it is tough. Is what what I'm asking is this like you you already acknowledged that right now I'm going 85 hours a week. If if I had you know more responsibilities in my family life, it would go down to 60, which is still a great number. Is that like a unknown, like almost like uh what's the word I'm looking for? Like an unspoken known in in the culture where when Kareem settles down, he's probably gonna work a little less? Or is that just a personal thing with Kareem?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

I haven't thought about it uh in that way because I'm still not even close to being that position, you know? Like I'm still just just working, you know, the big like some people make it work. Like we have some guys, like my, for example, he's always working, but he's also spending time with his son. Yeah, he brings his son to the office, he does his thing, right? Where he's nonstop. Sometimes you see him playing with his son, but he's on the phone. So he's doing both, but now he's also finding the time to be present on weekends, some weekdays, like you have to just find a way to mix both and be present during both. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:57

So I'm just I'm I'm just listening this is a this is uh listen, I grew up with a single mom. So you know, yeah. You know, like and I'm sensitive to it though, too. And just so you know, like, but I but I err on the side of you gotta be the provider. 100%, right? Because my mom, as much as that we struggled, you know, she never went to any of my football games, never went to any of my basketball games. She just wasn't there. But she wasn't out partying and drinking or gambling, she was working, and she had to. So, you know, when I was a young kid, I was like, you know, I wish it'd be cool if my mom could see me. Like I was the quarterback of the football team. It'd be cool if she could come to a game and see that I'm the man. Like, come like your son is the man, come check me out, you know. Um, or like I played varsity basketball in ninth grade. Like that, that's a huge accomplishment, right? Like, you know, she never came to a single game my entire life, but she was working, but she had to. Um, so I I don't I think when I was a a young boy, I was like, damn, Mom, it'd be cool if you could come to a couple games. But as I got older, I realized, oh, she's working and providing. So I'm I do believe you got to provide first. But if you get to the point, you personally, I'm just asking you personally, if you're making three million dollars a year, do you take the gas? You know, when you got a husband or husband or wife, um, you got a wife and kids, do you take the pedal off the metal a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

I think once you get to that point, but you're not taking it like you might have taken off a little bit off business, but you're putting that time into the family, like you're saying. But now once you're at that point, you have the right people around you to get more done. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

So I think it's just priorities at the time. Like it's just how can I make it all work?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:50

Well, you do it the right way.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:52

You're you're you know, I th I think one of the biggest mistakes people do have is is when they have a child at twenty two, twenty three and then they're like Yeah. Yeah, they're not established yet. You you do you and I'm not saying you can't make it work. I don't know. You know, I'm not a parent yet. So I'm just these are just things going on in my mind right now. These are questions I have. I'm really just I think I'm just trying to have a therapy session for myself right now. Like, what? No, these are things I'm thinking about because I don't want to be an absent father. No way. But I also have a big vision. But I also heard Tom Brady say one of his biggest regrets is not spending more time with his kids. That's I know that's eaten on him a little bit, you know, but he accomplished this thing, and now he's got plenty of time to build a relationship with them now. But is it too late? But is it too late? You know? Because that wasn't providing. That was more than providing what Tom Brady did. Yeah. That was achieving his thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

But you're also at a phase where I know you're still building, you're still going the next few years, but it's all about intentional planning. Like, obviously, you guys are also great at managing expectations, just doing that part. It's all about planning it up front. And that's just I don't have a family, so it's like I'm just talking from what I've seen with some people that I'm around that make it work. It's like just intentionally planning your weeks, your month, your years, in terms of vacations, family time, what days I'm at home, what days I'm not, what days I'm working late, and just trying to figure it out ahead of time.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:24

So there's like no uh, I don't know what that word is, but you you see what I'm going. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:31

No ambiguity or confusion. Yes. So like I'll give so here's my home life with Alexis. She lets me do my thing. If I tell her I've been gone all day, I gotta go to the boardroom, I'll be home at midnight. She's fine. She's not go smoke cigars with Kareem. Yeah, she's she doesn't, she doesn't, and the other night I came home late because I was actually having a blast and like you know to leave without saying bye, but it's okay. Uh dude, I was well, me and Mario had a little half hour heart to heart um in the other room.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:01

But um you find Marcus at least. No, he left. Oh, he left. That's what it was. He left. Because we were sitting down, and then Erica's like, I just gotta go find Marcus. He's somewhere here, and he f he left you. I thought he, you know. Rookie.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:19

Rookie.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

My mom said that she thought he thought Eric left because he couldn't find Eric.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:24

You don't miss Eric. Come on.

unknown 1:08:27

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:28

I'm out. We're giggling somewhere with somebody somewhere. No, I I think um, well, so Alexis is the most supportive wife ever. That's good. Ever. She has the same dreams and aspirations I do. She married me because she saw that I had that potential, right? And talent. Like, let's get let's get that out of the way. But if it's 8 15 at night, and I've been doing my thing all day, and she's been doing her thing all day, she will politely take my laptop and go like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:02

You know what I'm saying? Politely. Yeah, yeah. Just no, she's been good. I've but let me ask you, talk about that. Like, what's once you have that, how much do you do that? How much do you keep working? Because that's actually a great question. Where a lot of people that go into relationships, they kind of get that confused. They're like, oh, I gotta stop working, I gotta start going home at seven or eight because I have to spend time. So did you guys manage that expectation up front, or you were just like, nope, just do your thing the whole time?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:32

I think, you know, I know it's good. I I think I think we've I think we've this is great. This is great content. No, no, because I think I think this is listen, if if a woman wants to be with a high achiever, he's not gonna be home 24-7, right? And but I've seen women that want their guy home every day, but and they also want a high achiever, like what? Like it's impossible. Like, and but I will say she's as supportive as every as as any woman could be. Um, do we talk about it? I think I think we do a relatively good job. I think what what we found out our balance is is I genuinely don't like TV shows anymore. She thinks, oh, it's because you're addicted to your phone. It's it's no, I'm I'm just not, I'm actually just genuinely not interested in it. I'm not either. I'm not, and I'm just not. And so now what the new move is at 8 15, we're on the couch, and I try to, you know, we got the two dogs, and I have my hand on Sophia or belly, you know, Lexus's belly, and we're cuddling up, you know, on the couch. She's watching her show. I have one, you know, headphone in on my phone, the other headphone, you know, the other ears available for her, and I'm just going down Twitter or working, just yeah, just answering emails or doing little proposals or emailing the team about something, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

unknown 1:11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:04

Yeah, right. So and I think where my head really goes is is that I know she's gonna allow me to work and do my thing. And and you know, Monday to Friday at five, like I'm gonna be locked in, but Friday, and and when I'm home, be home. You know, in the morning, right? When I'm home, be home. I think that's the big thing. Yeah, so I don't know. So because here's here's the other caveat, too. Here this is the sick part about entrepreneurship and and you, you're a sicko. I asked you what's a good year, and you go, Oh, you didn't even answer. You go, in the future, this will be a good year, right? Like you're just thinking, we got a massive vision, and I love it. But if you would have said to me five years ago, Eric, you're making what we're making today, I would have been like, huh, I'm I'm wealthy as heck, like I would have signed up immediately, right? But now I'm here, it doesn't feel exciting. It's just like, oh, I'm in the middle of the fight, right? So, so whatever that thing is that I'm chasing, right? That that greatness that I'm chasing, in three years, when we're let's say we're a nine-figure business, right? Nine figures, and we're taking half of that off the table for us. That's a lot of money. I know it's not gonna feel like the way it feels right now to me. Because it's just gonna feel normal. So now the next thing is, oh, I gotta make a billion-dollar company. Yeah right, and oh my god, that would be so amazing. Then you get there, and then you're like, oh, this is the new normal. So I think where I struggle, and this is just me having 18 years on you, or whatever, almost 20 years on you, is is being in the moment, what's what's right for that moment, that right time in your life, and and is it really worth I'm not gonna miss Sophia's dance recital. Never in a million years. I don't care what business meeting it is, I don't care what it is, I'm not missing that. So do I sound crazy? No.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

Okay. But the thing is, why not have it all? It's not easy, but why not?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:30

No, I I think I'm just I'm I'm going, I'm charting unknown territory. That's why I'm all these questions are coming up for me personally, you know. That's all. And yeah, you're right. I see Mario balancing it. Obviously, Patrick balances it. Because I know I'm not gonna stop. That's the thing. Like that's my whole neither are you. You're not gonna stop. You're making three, you get to a point you're making three million a year. Maybe you are, I don't know. You get to a point you're making three million a year, now that's just your new normal. Yeah. You're not just like, woo, yay, I made it, guys. Like it's not how it works. You know, I for some people it is. Yeah. Then what happens to them? They slow down. They get comfortable. One of the first guys I met at uh that what's the what's the one in DC where we first met? CXO. CXO. One of the guys there, I'm not gonna name drop him, said to me, Awesome guy, we follow each other on social. He goes, Yeah, I sold half of my company for $35 million. You probably know who I'm talking about. He goes, and he goes, Young guy, young stud, right? And he goes, The reason I'm here is because I'm so bored, and me and my wife are fighting every day now because we have nothing to do. And and I feel like he has probably refound himself.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:55

He's doing awesome now. Okay, good. He's going at it, he's in the best shape of his life. Yep. I see him posting in his office, working every single day, okay, yeah, traveling with the family. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:05

Good. So he he he he he refound it, great. But but a lot of people that they get there, you know, it's just I've seen unhappiness, right? So like I feel like there's never, it's not, oh, when I make a million dollars, or oh, I make 30 million dollars, or oh, I make a hundred grand. It's not, oh, then I'll be happy, then I'll be satisfied. It's no, how do we find our existing lifestyle or our existing situation to to be fulfilling and satisfying? And and the truth is it's the journey, it's the climb. That's what it's all about. It's about that next ladder, that next rock on the climb. It's all about the journey. It's not it's not that end result.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:00

It's awesome how one perspective could change it, right? Again, obviously, if you're in survival mode, it's hard to look at it that way. Where you're like, I just want to make the million bucks, or I just want to make the few million if you're in survival. But once you start like, okay, I got some money in the bank, then it's easier to have that perspective, right? Where it's just a game, you're having fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:20

This is literally just a game. Sales is a game.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:25

And you've gotten great at it.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:26

So let's talk more about that. So talk more about that. What is who is uh talk more about BDC consulting? Because most people, like if they're watching this, they know value taintment. Patrick even talks about it. They don't even know people don't even know about BDC consulting yet, and it's I'm assuming it's a nine-figure thing. I I don't know the numbers, but um unpack BDC consulting.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:50

For sure. And why people don't know because we haven't fully advertised, like we haven't gone full advertising mode on that yet. We're still we're building, we're in the build mode of all the different companies. Um, but with BDC, how it started with Pat is obviously, you know, with the valuetainment videos, he was doing a lot of those videos, and a lot of the people that were watching the content, some of them were like, the vault started because of that. Because people were like, hey, why don't we do an event? Why don't we do something? Pat was like, once we hit the first million subscribers, we'll do an event. 2019 happened, he threw the first vault. That's the story behind the vault, how it started. On the consulting side, around, I think it was around that same time. One of the people that were at the vault was like, Pat, can I just can I just pay you to sit down with you and just have a strategy session? So he told Mario that, and then Mario told Pat, like, hey, this is what the person wants. I don't know, just charge five grand an hour, say something rebo crazy. Something outlandish. Yeah, say something crazy, five, five, five grand an hour. And the guy went back and he ended up booking Pat for three hours at the time. And Pat was like, okay, interesting. They had that session, and he probably made that guy 17 million bucks that day. The guy told him that four years later, you made me 17 million bucks that that session. So in his mind, I was like, one, I freaking love that three-hour session because it's just solving problems. And that's where PBD's literally, because now you see him playing a game, now he's just having fun. And for him, it's what's the biggest problem we can solve? And it's critical thinking. So from there he's like, I love doing this, and that's where really the consulting started kind of trickling in. And from there, went from doing a few hours into doing different masterminds into obviously the events, and now it's trickling down. Where on the consulting side, we work with over 10,000 different businesses worldwide, not even nationwide. Right? You've met some people from Dubai, people that come from Europe and everywhere, which is awesome. And we help them either scale their businesses, exit their companies, succession planning, legacy planning. Um, and it really depends. Now it's like going to software, AI, calibrations, hiring, events, consulting. But the big piece of it is what do people want? Community. Like you said, you want to find new friends, new relationships, be around some people that are gonna just not only try and sell you, but they're also gonna be around you because they understand what you went through. You probably have some crazy stories when you started the business, maybe you were no money, maybe you lost this, maybe you lost everything and coming up into it, where it was probably some stressful, sleepless nights, right? So, but how many people actually resonate with that? And for us in the community, you're like, dude, everybody I talk to kind of resonate with the same thing, they go through the same thing, so it makes it normal, and they're all trying to have their own families, they're all figuring out how to do family, business, life, marriage. So it's making it normal in the community, like why not have it all? But then at the same time, if you want some new advice on hey, how do I build a sales team? How do I develop leaders on the sales side? How do I create a compensation plan? How do I grow the business? How do I hire somebody? How do I pay bonus structure and it keeps going on on the consulting side? But the big idea is how can we solve the biggest problems together? And when it comes to that, we want to build an army of obviously people in the community of a million business owners nationwide and worldwide. Because once we're able to do that, say now you go from 55 employees, 60 employees that you have, and we share a couple values, we share a few things, and now that you go to 100 employees. But basically, what you did, you just supported another 45 people, and you just support another 45 families, say it's two to three people in each family, do the math. That's 150 people that you just, you know, change their lives.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:45

That's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:46

So for us, the backbone of America is business owners and entrepreneurs. So the more we can support entrepreneurs on the business side, you're gonna keep growing your companies, and we're gonna be able to make bigger impacts on the policies in your cities, in your country, and then with the whole country at some point, because that's the real fire behind it.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:04

Uh yeah, the biggest flex, I've been saying this over and over, is not, you know, I don't want to show off my car. You know, I want to show off I have uh 500 employees. 100%. Right? And that's how many people have a great, not just 500 employees, but 500 employees that are happy to come to work, that feel fulfilled, that are providing for their families, that are the leaders in their families, right? And uh, yeah, that that's the biggest flex. Like you you could be a crypto millionaire and have a car, like that's cool, but like what what do you you know, what type of impact and what type of uh generational um you know influence do you have? And I think I think that's what Pat's actually really after, is he don't care about the money no more, it but influence, influence you know, there's people that are way wealthier than him, they don't have his influence, and they come to him for sure advice, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:03

That's influence. That's that's because he has a media presence, you're able to deal with hate. Everybody gets hate on media. You probably start getting some hate just because you're posting some stuff where someone over media is gonna do that. A lot of people on a bigger scale, it's harder for them to handle, right? Like some clients that maybe are having articles with Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and that part, that's a lot of hate that could come to you, right? So it's also how do you handle that? Also, how do you handle being a father at the same time while running your business? How do you run your business? And that's really where PBD is making is able to be that person to go to because he's helping with all those areas and not just one.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:47

Yeah, you know, you know what I like about Patrick and his moral authority, as um, you know, um we've seen these companies that you know they say this and then you find out, ah, you're actually totally full of it. You've been a scam the whole time. You've been, you know, there's um, you know, uh, who was it? Ty Lopez isn't involved in a Ponzi scheme. And you know, that it's it's more than refreshing, it's uh comforting to have, you know, someone that really kind of stands by his um his own teachings, right? And and is it like what's the percentage chance that a guy like that actually has a drug problem or a gambling problem or is uh sleeping around, you know, and and you can just, you know, I don't I don't res I I don't get along with those type of people anymore, you know, and and you can't have moral authority or influence kind of being a dirt bag, which is cool because 20 years ago you could. Today it does, it's not working, it's not flying. I think people are just kind of my point is I think people are fed up with the the scams and the uh lack of moral authority. So I think there's a new wave of you know people that that want to follow the the righteous path. 100%, you know, and and I feel like valuetainment is a community of that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:25

Yeah. Towards the end of the day, you're meeting great people. Like for me, also, yes, it's we're building something big and it's exciting and it's fun, but I'm also creating so many relationships and friendships along the way that I'm like, where else would I have met all those people? Not a lot of places. For sure. Not a lot of places.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:43

No, I had a guy, um I don't want to name drop because you might listen to it, but but a guy that I've known just casually, he talked about doing some marketing with me, and you know, we've just been playing like phone tag, no big deal. Big big uh owns a big construction business here in Palm Beach County, and he was at the boardroom the other night. Somebody invited him, and uh he crushes. I can't remember who he was there with, but I saw him. I was like, hey, how are you doing, man? He's like, Oh, what's up? I go, hey, are you thinking about getting connected? And he goes, I think so. I go, why? He goes, I can't, he goes, the problems I have at work, I can't tell my buddies about it. Like they they don't even like relate. They think, oh, really? That's your that's your problem. You know, they can't relate to it. But in that those rooms, you know, I mean, you got you got people selling hundreds of millions of dollars of toilet paper in there, which is cool, right? Um yeah, cool. I mean, no, you guys, you guys are great. Like, if anybody, if anybody's listening to this right now, um, and they're thinking about getting involved with BDC consulting, like I I can confirm with you the experience I've had over the past few years. I've never been pitched something that was something that I didn't think was going to be of value. I think what you guys do a great job of is really under covering what what a business really needs. And hey, this is the product or this is the portfolio for you. I think you guys do an excellent job of that. So I would highly recommend getting involved. Um, you know, I've personally gotten a lot of a lot of business from it, a lot of friendships, and a lot of uh, you know, um some a good compass reading from Patrick. You know, he always kind of every time I go to an event, I always get my compass adjusted a little bit, which is nice, which is good. Sometimes my compass gets a little, you know, it says it's north, but it's actually east, and I always get my compass adjusted there, which is really good. Um, but cool. Do me a favor. This was fun. It was very fun. This is awesome. Appreciate you having me. Yeah, thank you for being on. A couple hours? Yeah, probably saw an hour and a half. Well, but I have a bunch of clips here for you, too. Uh, I should do some rapid fire questions for um. All right, I'm gonna ask you some rapid fire questions and just answer them. And if you don't want to answer it, don't do it. What is Patrick Bett David's biggest non-negotiable?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:19

The non-negotiables are values, principles. Like, hey, if you're around other people, other peers, how are you respecting them, their wives, their families, and everybody? And then being casual. If someone is casual around PBD, that is we don't like that. That's a no-go. Like, if you're like, hey, I made it, I'm entitled, like that entitlement, casual language and mindset. Yeah, casualty is like when someone dies. Yeah, it dies. I kind of just realized that happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:46

All right. What's something that Patrick Bett David has done that shocked you at first? Shocked me, but you asked me something.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:53

ACL is pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:55

The ACL one? I feel like that's pretty crazy. It's okay. Uh how intense are Patrick Bett David's meetings?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:03

Pretty intense.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:04

Scale from one to ten.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:05

Nine. Eight, nine? Compared to Who Too, right? So that's also a good question.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:10

Oh, I've seen it where like my first uh event he was telling people his his employees, turn that laptop off, turn that thing down. This meeting's for you too. Like he gets intense for sure. But then he's like, I always describe him as he's more intense than I had imagined than I imagined. Like the no-P breaks, and then and then, but like even more regular behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:35

Yeah, but then it's all about he's doing that in the respectful way. That's all that matters. So, which is good.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:40

Do you think Patrick Bett David plays offense or defense?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:44

Both. He's very good at both. He's very good at playing offense. So he's very good at strategy, right? So offense, he's an offense guy. But he made sure that he brought the right people around him to play defense for him. You know what I mean? Like he's a very good quarterback, he's very good at throwing the ball and just finding new ideas, finding new routes to run, and that's where we want him. But then also that's where he brings in the right executive team and C-suite to make sure that he has the right offensive lineman in front of him, if that makes sense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:16

You s you said you work 85 hours a week. How many hours a week does Patrick Mett David work?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:22

He's probably up there. Like he spends time with his family and everything. Obviously, he's at the office at least 12 hours a day. At the office. You think he's working more than 60 hours a week? Easy. Easy. Not even a question.

unknown 1:29:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:36

Not even a question. I love it. It's good. Um how fast does he make? How fast does Patrick Bett David make decisions?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:44

Once he's once he's sold on a decision that he wants to make, it's like this. Once he's obviously if he's assessing a situation, we're going back and forth with the team. But once everybody agrees, that decision is made right away.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:00

And I keep saying Patrick Bett David because I want I'm hoping some of these clips, right? Um you work with Patrick Bett David. What drives him more? Money or legacy?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:12

Legacy.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:13

Prove it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:14

Not even a no-brainer. Exit this company for a quarter billion. It's more money than a lot of people need. But now it's what am I doing next? And why when you say legacy, if you have 10, 11 different companies that you're building and you're always talking about the vision and where we're trying to go, and you're giving up equity to a lot of your employees, that's a legacy play.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:34

What's one thing people would be surprised to know about Patrick Bat David?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:39

Surprised to know.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:41

I thought he had those two cute little foo-foo dogs.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:43

He did have two dogs.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:45

I thought that was funny. I was like, oh, he's got two little GGs.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:49

Yes. Yes, yeah, two of those. And yeah, you wouldn't expect a man six feet three. Yeah, uh, businessman doing that part to have two small dogs. But they're adorable.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:01

No, that was cool, dude. Thanks, thanks for coming on. This was fun. Yeah, it was fun, guys. Thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast podcast. Make sure to like and subscribe. We'll see you again.