Life After A $5.5 Billion Dollar IPO: How Building A Foundation Can Change The World

Join The Standard: thestandardmen.com 

Steve Maher is a technology executive, entrepreneur, investor, and CEO with nearly 30 years of experience building and scaling enterprise software companies. Throughout his career, he has helped grow multiple SaaS businesses through acquisitions and public offerings, including a company that achieved a $5.5 billion IPO. Beyond business, Steve is the co-founder of The Maher Foundation and AutismHelp.ai, organizations dedicated to helping families navigate the growing challenges associated with autism and neurodiversity.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The mindset required to scale companies and create long-term wealth
• Why networking becomes more valuable as your career advances
• The difference between public market investing and private market opportunities
• Building meaningful relationships with high-net-worth individuals
• The personal story behind The Maher Foundation and AutismHelp.ai
• How autism is impacting millions of families across America
• The future role of AI in business, sales, and entrepreneurship
• Redefining legacy through impact rather than personal recognition

About the Podcast

The Legacy & Wealth Podcast, hosted by Mitchell Clark and presented by The Standard, features conversations with entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and high-performing men building wealth, leadership, and legacy. Each episode explores the lessons, principles, and experiences that help successful men create meaningful impact in business, family, and life.

Timestamps

00:00 The moment Steve's life changed forever
01:07 Introduction to Steve Maher
01:47 Building and scaling enterprise software companies
02:42 Why Steve created The Maher Foundation
03:21 Discovering his son's autism diagnosis
05:05 The $5.5 billion IPO and unexpected success
06:08 The autism services cliff facing families
07:36 Building a foundation that creates lasting impact
09:31 Wealth management, philanthropy, and legacy
12:17 How The Maher Foundation evolved over time
15:29 Creating AutismHelp.ai
18:36 Using AI to simplify autism support services
23:12 The biggest challenges families face today
27:32 Philanthropy as a wealth-building strategy
30:34 Why successful people should consider giving back
31:00 How philanthropy builds powerful networks
34:01 The hidden networking advantages of charitable work
38:38 The realities of raising a child with severe autism
44:09 Stories from families impacted by AutismHelp.ai
48:16 Why the autism crisis is growing
53:35 Advice for parents raising children with autism
56:11 Building wealth and creating opportunities
57:18 The four pillars of success
01:00:14 Why AI is changing every industry
01:03:02 How AI is transforming sales and business
01:06:33 Hard work versus networking
01:08:19 How the ultra-wealthy think about investing
01:10:46 Accessing private market opportunities
01:14:38 Why Steve joined The Standard
01:16:14 Redefining legacy through impact
01:18:12 Final thoughts and AutismHelp.ai

About The Standard

The Standard is a private, in-person membership community for six-figure men who want to grow in their wealth, health, and relationships by surrounding themselves with other high-performing men operating at their level or above. It is designed for men who have outgrown their current environment and need a structured system of proximity, personalized strategy, and accountability to continue growing across every area of life.

Learn more:
https://thestandardmen.com

Transcript

0:00

Ended up having an an an an IPO of five and a half billion and gave us an opportunity to give back to the community. At first it was my legacy's destroyed because my son has autism. Now that I've gotten older, I realize like it's okay that my son will be here forever. It's something that it took a long time, you know, probably the better part of a decade to for me to come to terms with. Even with all of those, you know, kind of resources that we have, both financial and also access, it's been very hard for us to navigate. If if it's hard for us, what about folks who don't have the access we have or if they don't have the means we have? But we started a foundation, a public charity, helping people and their families that are impacted by autism. And it's called the Mar Foundation. What do you think is more important to building generational wealth? Networking skills or hardworking skills? My really powerful network, the names that you know of in both media and business and politics, those relationships are because of my Welcome to the Legacy and Wealth Podcast, a show for proven high-earning men who value wealth, character, and a lasting legacy. Brought to you by the Standard, a private membership community for high performers. My name is Mitchell Clark, and today I'm joined by fellow Standard member Steven Maher. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Yes. Well, I want to congratulate you. We are in a different studio than we normally are. You're getting the red carpet rolled out for you. So yeah, with uh the beautiful skyline in the back and everything else. But yeah, how are you doing today? I am fantastic. I'm fantastic. I love it. This is absolutely amazing here. Uh, how are you today? I'm good. I'm good. Well, we have a lot to cover today. I know that you have a lot of great things going on in your life right now that you want to talk to the audience about. But before we get started, let's just go a little bit into like your background, what you do. For those of you that don't know who you are, give us a little background about who you are and what you currently do right now. Yeah, so my name is Steve Marr. And uh my day job, I am the CEO of a big software company. And I've been working in technology for the better part of 30 years and take companies that are mid-size, typically enterprise SaaS, software as a service companies, uh, and grow them to a point of either acquisition or uh IPO into public markets. And so I'm currently doing my fifth company. And so really, really exciting. And along the way, you know, have have really enjoyed doing that, have been, you know, very blessed uh financially and in many other ways. Uh, we started a foundation, a public charity, helping people and their families that are impacted by autism. And it's called the Mar Foundation, my last name and the foundation. Um, and we'll talk lots about that, but that's who I am. Okay. Well, actually, that's the first topic we'll get into. We'll go into more of your background and what you do and kind of how you got to this point. But I know this is a really a very heavy topic for you. It's a personal topic for you. So I want to start with why did you create the foundation in the first place? Like what were some of the things that led you to go down this path? There's so many different things you could do for like a foundation or giving back to the community. Why this? Yeah, you know, it's interesting. Um there were these two sort of converging paths on my life uh that happened um almost 12 years ago. And it and so I have three kids uh that are gonna be 18, 15, and 12 respectively this year. But the day before my youngest was born, we actually found out that my middle child, my son, had autism. And I didn't even know what that meant. And I I I at the time I was an executive at a big Fortune 500 technology company. Um, we had lived all over the world and uh had an amazing life. Uh, but everything sort of crumbled that day. And so, in addition to worrying about what was gonna happen with my son and his future, uh, I also worried about my soon-to-be-born daughter the next day. Is she gonna be autistic? What does that even mean? Um, and you know, sort of kind of had an early midlife crisis uh and quit my big executive job and researched where the best autism care was in the country, which was in Texas. Okay. Uh, one of the things that Texas did very early was forced insurance companies to cover autism. Uh, and so, you know, 12, 13 years ago, that wasn't normal. And when the payers pay, the providers come, right? So insurance companies cover it, then you'll get actually the best providers. And so they had amazing um, you know, therapy centers here, schools were starting to like think of autisms as a different, a little bit different than other uh other conditions. And so moved the family here and uh with a with an infant, and then went and took a job at a startup in uh Silicon Valley, making about 85% less than I did before. So I I'm luckily not divorced and the family stuck with me. But really, what I said was I have to worry about taking care of my son for the rest of his life, right? Because he's gonna need potentially care forever. Uh, and it turns out my son is very severe in the spectrum and will need care forever. And so, you know, took a very big gamble. And and the irony is that the company I went, it was sort of the first of the five of growth stage companies and uh and ended up having uh an IPO of five and a half billion and gave us an opportunity to give back to the community. Awesome. And so the the I sort of like the dichotomy for me is the thing that created a lot of wealth. Uh, I'd give it back in a second if my son would be okay, right? And so um, but even with all of those uh, you know, kind of resources that we have, both financial and also access to all the people we have access to, it's been very hard for us to navigate this. It's confusing, it's challenging. And so um we realize that, hey, if if it's hard for us, what about folks who don't have the access we have or that don't have the means we have? This is something that's gonna be impossible. And what what what really exacerbates the situation is right now, uh in 2026, there'll be about 100,000 kids in the US that'll hit what we call the services cliff. And I'll talk more about that later, but think of that 18 to 21, where they're out of the school system, they can't be on their parents' health insurance, all of these amazing services go away like a light switch. In about 15, 20 years, that number's gonna be in the millions. And so I think it was in 2025, uh, one in 31 kids uh in the United States is diagnosed with autism. If you're a boy, it's one in 20. Oh, wow. And so this is not a coming problem. This is right now, it's very acute. And when we actually started the Marr Foundation, it was really just my wife and I. And it was her, you know, it was her brainchild. She's the uh, you know, the the work behind it, and and I am on the board and I help sort of you know manage things with her. But it was really sort of focused uh initially on, you know, our family money and then which is you know private family foundation. And and when we decided to make it a public charity, which is you know, you know, accepting donations from the masses, uh, it was under the condition that everything we did would help everybody that had this problem. Uh and so that was uh you know a really, really important thing for us, uh and also something we're really excited about. Okay. So, well, I appreciate you going the story with that. Now, as far as actually starting that up, because I know you know, after the IPO, there's a lot of different ways you give to the community. So why build sort of this foundation? Like, why do you feel like making this foundation was the proper way to kind of help solve this problem? Because it sounds like what you're telling me is you're not just solving a problem now, you're solving a problem that you foresee becoming an even greater issue in the future. So why this strategy? Yeah, so the the so this is kind of, you know, I'll I'll I'll give you two very different answers. And um, I think for for the viewers, one is when when you come into a large sum of money, you're gonna sit down with financial advisors and estate planners and all kinds of different lawyers, and they're gonna give you all these different strategies for not just what you should do now, but for you know, protecting your legacy, one, two, three, you know, X generations in the future. Um, and it's all it's all very predicated on on these two events, you dying and your spouse dying. It's like there's not these, you know, it's it's not not the funnest conversation. And one of the strategies, uh, regardless of your sort of view on philanthropy, is uh, you know, having a 501c3, which is the IRS designation for a nonprofit in the US. And so we often refer to nonprofits as 501c3s. So that is a strategy for both, you know, doing good, but also tax sheltering and kind of wealth protection, both for you and generations to come. So I think that's how it was introduced to us. I mean, at the time, it was really, okay, you know, we're we have the financial means to take care of our son. Okay, we're good, right? That's why I quit my big executive job and took, you know, kind of went to the went to this world. Um, and then what we realized is this, you know, strategy that came to us from financial advisors is actually a mechanism for us to do good. Uh, but the truth is, is it started as a financial strategy for sort of tax savings. And, you know, I would encourage anyone, um, even if you don't know what you want to do, there are amazing ways to kind of look at nonprofits, even if you're creating a private foundation, uh, you know, amazing tax benefits where you can kind of maximize uh liquidity and capital today, um, you you will give it away eventually, but ranging from you know private family foundations to public charities, which are which are a lot, and even like donor advice funds and things like that. So just from a pure kind of wealth management strategy, I would I would encourage everyone to look at it. But then, you know, typically uh both as you get older and you know, also if you have something that you're really passionate about, what you find is wow, what is legacy for me? Right. And we were we were chatting about this earlier. You know, at first it was my legacy is destroyed because my son has autism. And now that I've gotten older, I realize like and I, you know, I have two daughters, one older and one younger. I want them to go do their own thing, right? I don't, they don't necessarily have to do my stuff. And you know, my eldest is an artist, and you know, maybe she'll be in the business and and whatever they do, as long as they're happy and you know, they they they they are, you know, their life is fulfilled, and it's okay that my son will need care forever. I kind of, you know, it's um, you know, it's it's something that it took a long time, you know, probably the better part of a decade to for me to come to terms with. And so the ability to help other people, though, that has become sort of the legacy that I care about. Um, and it's really, yeah, it's it's been really exciting. So we talk about legacy too, because obviously this is helping them for your children. Um, in terms of it lasting beyond your lifetime or even your children's lifetime, how does that it's 501 uh C, right? Yeah, 501c3. 501c3. How what happens after you pass away and child about like is there is there a possibility of it lasting for longer than afterwards? And what does that mean tax-wise? Yeah, so so a a nonprofit uh is a company and uh and uh the what the Mar Foundation is, is it's a public charity. So it is just like a public company, and it has a board and it has officers, and and you know, the board gets to vote who the officers are, so it is not mine, right? And so the money that we give to it and and the money that's donated, it goes to this entity. Yeah. Uh and everything that we do from the how much we have to how much we give to how much our overhead is, is public information, just like any company that's publicly traded on the stock market. Right. So this will last forever. Uh, and so when uh either when we are choose not to do it, hopefully I could do it until I'm capable of doing it anymore, or we're no longer valuable, uh, or the board decides that you know we're not fit for for it anymore, it will go on to hopefully the next generation who can take it to the next level. So hopefully it will last forever, um, which is really which is really, really cool. Or maybe said differently, uh, hopefully we'll have a cure for autism and a way to treat it so that it doesn't need to last forever and we'll solve another problem. But but maybe the foundation can help with that. That's exactly that's great. Well, now we know like generally what it is. How did it develop? Like what were some of the steps you took? Like what was the first step that you take? What was the journey from starting it up to now it becoming a publicly, you know, a publicly funded entity? What did that process look like? Yeah, so so it started out with really with um, okay, we're gonna we're gonna give some money to to the foundation. And so and and actually one ended up, you know. How long ago was that? So this is probably 22, okay. Right. When we actually formed the foundation, we said, okay, um, what we'd love to be able to do is we one of the things that is part of our wealth management strategy is investing in private companies and typically earlier stage private companies that have have the ability to uh you know multiply their you know their value over time. And so let's let's just say illustratively, if you have $100,000 of stock in private company A, and I donate that stock to the foundation, I get a tax deduction on my from for my personal self, right? My wife and I's personal income, uh, and that $100,000 then goes to the charity. Now let's say that that becomes $2 million one day when the company grows. That charity doesn't have to pay taxes, right? So charities don't pay taxes. So now instead of you know me getting that money and then donating it after taxes, it's grown inside the foundation. And so that was really that was sort of the original part of our strategy. Ancillary benefit being you kind of get some some tax deductions, recognizing you do have to give, right? It's no longer yours, right? You've given it away. Um, so that was really what the strategy was. And we actually we started out wanting to build facilities. And so one of the things, you know, our son is is on the very severe side, he's nonverbal, uh, has a lot of behavioral issues, uh, physically, physically very healthy, but um uh, you know, but from a from a sort of a developmental level, kind of, you know, just you know, we'll need care forever. And so there's not a lot of facilities out there. Yeah. There's some amazing, there's some amazing ones here, but there's not a lot out there that handle um, you know, behavioral issues. Like your billion, for example. No one likes talking about it, but it is a reality. And, you know, he has he doesn't understand concepts of the world and you know, right or wrong and things like that. So um, so we said, all right, we're gonna just pile pile money away, uh, you know, give, you know, put out put out grants for some places that need it in the short term. So eventually we would go and build these communities. And when we actually started looking into this and and finding some facilities that existed, we're like, we have no idea how to do this, right? Um, my wife, my wife runs the foundation and the family and I run software companies. I have no idea. This is a horrible idea if we do, right? It's a horrible idea. So that's when we said, okay, well, what do we want to do? And, you know, we we sat down and said, okay, let's come up with sort of three rules. The first rule is it has to help everybody, right? The second rule is it has to be something that what we call is an acute problem. An acute problem means that not not only is that is it a um the consequences of not addressing the problem massive, but it's a problem that's you know getting worse and worse every year. And then the the third piece is like we have to have an impact, right? We it can't be sort of fluffy and there has to be some some sort of tangible benefit that you're applying. Yeah, we have to provide some kind of tangible benefit. And so that's when we we created the concept of autismhelp.ai. Okay. And so this is our site, autismhelp.ai. Which I was gonna say, you having kind of grown software companies, I was gonna ask something. Is there an AI component to it? Yeah, tell me a little bit about how how that all works within your company. Yeah, so let me tell you about um autismhelp.ai, what it is, uh, and kind of some of the cool technology components to it. And and so the the thing what we focus on is called the services cliff, right? So this is the point in time, usually between 18 and 21, depending on the state, that that these kids age out of services. So if you're in a school system, you have an IEP, uh, if you're on your parents' health care, uh, or even if you have, you know, sort of state or federal run services, they they almost go off with a light switch, right? When you hit that birthday and it's really dramatic. And so you there are there are things that you need to and your your family needs to do for your kid uh that are um critical, right? Like just to have health insurance or care, et cetera. And some of these things have wait lists that span decades. And uh I think so we but the real question is what happens, right? So now that this this this kid is becoming an adult, what do they do? So we think about three pillars. The first one is living with uh your family, right? Or your caregiver. And so this is probably 80 plus percent of child of kids with autism, they're gonna stay living at home with their parents or their caregiver. Uh, the second pillar is what we call independent or semi-independent living. So you're you're typically more high functioning. You can potentially have an apartment or a house, even a job, potentially go to university, right, which is real, which is really exciting. And the third pillar is what we call enhanced care. So this is more like my son, where you will need typically residential care uh at some point in your life. And the way that we think about these pillars is they're doorways, they're not um labels. And so, you know, for example, even if you're living at home with your parents, and this is something that no one likes to talk about, it's very morbid, but it's real. Most of these kids are gonna uh live longer than their parents. So at some point you have to deal with it. And if you wait to the last minute, it's gonna be a really big problem. Sure. Uh, and and so, you know, being able to talk to we want to just educate folks, hey, there's there are residential care places, how to think about them. So the site is structured that way, and it's meant to be an information source. So we don't create information, but we curate it. Um, so every state program that's available, every federal program that's available, tips and tricks about assurance. Um, and not only what the program is, but how to navigate it, how to deal with it. And so everything sort of exists, it's completely free. Um, it's for everyone to go and visit. So you're trying to make a complicated process a lot simpler with not one place to go to to figure out what do I do next. Exactly. And so here's a statistic. So that there are, you know, kids without health insurance can can get onto Medicaid before they're 18. If you're not managing that administrate administrative process correctly, uh over 25% of those kids get booted off, half of whom never get back on. So they have no health insurance simply because of an administrative error. And so what the AI component is, um, you know, everyone here is familiar with, you know, ChatGPT or Claude or Perplexity or Gemini. And these are large language models that effectively, you know, create content or also also go out to the internet uh and find information. And one of the cool things about them is they're very smart and very sophisticated. And if they don't know the answer, then they will go make educated guesses and usually get pretty close. But when you're dealing with federal and state systems, 95% is, and and here meet potentially kids' healthcare is in the line, 95% is not enough. You have to be 100% accurate. So what we do is we have what we call a small language model. And so every piece of content that we have is vetted, right? We're not practitioners or lawyers or doctors or right. So, but we we take vetted information, we put it into our small language model, and that information is then guaranteed to be accurate. So when you ask autismhelp.ai is AI, what is the answer? If it doesn't know, it'll say I don't know. And the cool thing is it lets us know, the team, and then we go and find the answer. We vet it, we make sure it's accurate. So the key is there's always 100% accuracy. I like that. Yeah. But the types of things that we're gonna do, so obviously we're um uh as sort of time goes on, is folks will be able to come to the site. And so this is our future functionality, you'll be able to come to the site, just give us your information. How, what, how old is your kid, what states you live in, you know, what are sort of the circumstances, and then we'll be able to like navigate the whole process for you, get the paperwork, recommend what programs that go on, uh, get folks on lists, right? The most important thing, if anyone takes anything away from this, go to autismhelp.ai, look up your state, get on these lists early. Some of them, like I said, are decades long, some in Texas are 15 years long. Yeah, uh, you can always decline services later, right? It's better to have them and and not need them than need them and not have them. And so this whole process, we we kind of drive for you. The other thing that the other thing that we do is provide like tips and tricks and guides. And you know, one of the things that our son did is he would uh you know uh run away or let the dogs out. And so we would have to, you know, turn locks upside down or he'd start lighting things on fire on the stove. And so we had to get, you know, a stove key installed. So just little things like that, and then also providers that are, you know, very kind of neurodiverse friendly that'll work with you and shit like that. So is it accurate to say that the the idea behind your platform is it's more of an area to go that will point you to the proper solution, give you a bunch of solutions, and then point you and help you get started along that route. Not necessarily like like you don't own the the facilities where they go, okay. Like you own the facilities where they'll go get the care. You don't own like these things, but you're kind of the connective tissue that brings all these resources together to figure out how to treat it. Exactly. We're we are we're bringing everything together and we're gonna help folks navigate the process, right? Was that intentional as opposed to like a locking in on a very specific treatment method uh and just being sort of like a a cultivator and say, was that? Deliberate decision or it was a very deliberate decision. Uh, I think for a few reasons. One, because we, my wife and I don't have a background in in medicine or caregiving, right? And so and the second thing is we we realized that then we'd be limited to only those folks that we we treated. And and like I said, our first tenant was it has to help everybody. And so what the the a thematic problem that we found is that this is so hard to navigate. And you know, the and and so even there's Medicaid has home-based services, things like respite services and home care services. There's 710,000 kids on these waiting lists right now, and that's between three and 10 years based on your state. Jeez. And so if you don't get on the list early and you know how to m navigate the paperwork, and by the way, you might get booted off if you're not following up every six months, and these are like snail mail stuff. Um, so we realized that this is this is this is a really, really big problem, just kind of navigating this complexity and my background in technology and being able to run businesses and Jen's background being, you know, a mom around these things and in the community helping other moms. We thought that this would sort of be the best use of our uh, you know, of our time. And and the yeah, the reception has been been really positive. What are some of the most common questions you get from families that are looking on the site trying to get your services? What are the most common things you're seeing? Yeah, so I we I guess certain things like, okay, this is you know, how much does this cost? Right. Sure. Uh it's completely free, right? Awesome. Autism help.ai, completely free for everybody. Um, you know, we we saw we say go to the site. The first thing you do, if you do it, nothing else, there's a really cool thing called find resources is a picture of the US. Pick your state, it'll tell you all the services available. Go sign up for those services. It's the most important thing. Um, that then we we show you how to manage that process, right? Because signing up for it, you want to stay on the list, you want to stay involved. We we kind of make it really, really simple. Uh, and then finally we say, hey, this isn't for everyone, but if you have the means to give, please give everything that goes into the foundation. We give back to the community. Um, you know, we're we're super low overhead and um, you know, we want to make a difference. So what's on the site? Like if I were to click on it right now, what's on the website right now and how is it structured? Yeah, so you'll see uh the three pillars. So you'll see living at home and a whole bunch of content on living home, everything from um, you know, how to how to handle uh emotional events to uh how to handle legal issues, how to handle financial issues, you know, how you know what's what kind of guardianship do I need? What are the differences? What kind of, you know, do I need a special needs trust? What does that even mean? Um, you know, how do I deal with behavioral issues? How do I um if I'm look if I'm in the independent living or semi-independent living pillar, how do I look for uh you know a job for my kid? Uh how do I, how do I think about um, you know, what kind of care facility? And if you're in the enhanced care, we need residential care. Yeah, you know, what questions should I ask when I'm, you know, how do first of all, how do I find a place? And then what questions should I ask? So there's tons of guides that kind of take you from uh how do I handle my child when I'm at home in these different situations to legal and financial and and um you know everything in between. And then every time there's something new in the world, we're constantly saying, we're constantly like keeping our eye out for new information and we we try to we vet it, make sure that it's accurate, and then we share it with everyone. So well, I was gonna say because I've been on a lot of, I've used to work for the government as a military guy, and uh I can tell you most of these sorts of sources are usually very outdated. The websites aren't updated very frequently, it's definitely not interactive. What would you say would be a pleasant surprise for people visiting your site as opposed to some of these other like uh trying to help out with whatever the issue is? But yeah, and I think, well, first of all, thank you so much for your service and sacrifice. I I think I think that um because of my background running technology companies for a long time, yeah, uh paying attention to user interface, user experience, these are really important things. Making sure data is up to date is really important. Um, you know, because my wife and I have kind of given so much of our own money to the to the foundation, we're starting at a point of like building a world-class enterprise site. And so what you'll find is it's really the only place where you can go and find out every federal program, every state program uh that's available. And we're updating that um in near real time. Uh and so the information is current, the information is vetted and accurate and really easy to really easy to find. And again, completely free. If there was one thing that everyone in the audience that they need to know about your website and just your services, was the one thing you would tell them. So super simple to remember autismhelp.ai. Yep. I say if there's one thing, pass it off to uh a friend, a family member, someone who needs it. That's the we do a good job when the masses come to the site, right? That's why we built it. We want more people to come. If you or your family has someone affected by neurodiversity, uh go and click on your state, look at the services available, sign up for those services. That's the the second thing. Uh, and then the third thing is, you know, if you can give, please give. Okay. No, that'd be great. Well, and I and I appreciate you telling us that I also appreciate that you've, I mean, this is essentially your fund the entire thing. And but now you're going public right now, hence why we're talking about it right here. Um, I wanted to kind of go a little bit into sort of the the business and economics of this or kind of the behind the scenes, because you hear about like foundations and stuff all the time with you know, whatever people are doing. Is it difficult to create a foundation? Is this something that like every wealthy person should do, even outside of just an altruistic perspective, from a financial perspective, is it a good strategy? Yeah. So two, like I said before, two types of uh nonprofits. There's private family foundations and public charities. Uh, the this is my non-lawyer answer. The thing think of it as if it's your if it's just you or a small group, private family foundation. Okay. If it, if you're collecting money from the masses, public charity. Uh, both have pretty stringent reporting requirements. Okay. So if you can go on any, you can go the to the IRS and the government, look up the Marr Foundation. We also have Steven and Jennifer Mar Family Foundation, that's our private foundation. And you can see uh how much money people take for salaries, how much money we have, how much money people give away. So all of that is public. It's like a public company. So that so you have to have you know complete transparency and governance. Um, anyone could start one. So if it's something that you are ready to, it's a lot of work, okay, right? A lot of work. And if you're if it's something that you're ready to do, sort of you know what your cause is and you want to go and raise ray, you know, kind of collect donations and gifts from the masses, that would be a really good public charity. If you're not sure, right, and either philanthropy is important to you, but you're not really interested in and you know, some tax benefits, but you're not really sure what your cause should be. They have things called like donor advise funds where you can actually go out there, give a chunk of money away, and then and then in the fund, and then every year it sort of spreads it out to maximize your tax savings. It's like an index fund for for foundations or something like that. That's right. And then, and then that that fund actually will give just enough in that given year to maximize your tax savings. Okay. And then you can sort of pick what causes make sense to you, right? So maybe you're not sure. Uh, you know, it's uh these are the things that matter to me. Um, and and then, you know, one of the things that one of the things that we did when we first started thinking about this is um, you know, I grew up, we at Christmas Eve, we would always give, you know, kind of the kids would open up a one, I get to open up one present. So we did that with our kids like Christmas Eve, they get to open up one present. We did Christmas Eve Eve, and that was sort of philanthropy time. Okay. And so what I would do is I would put um, I would write a story down. And that story would be like, imagine, you know, you're cold and you don't have a place to live and you're homeless, et cetera. And then we would give however much we chose to give to uh, you know, a um a nonprofit for the homeless or you know, for disabled veterans, or for something that mattered for us. And so it became sort of part of our our family. Okay. So that was before the you know donor-advised funds existed, or at least I knew about them. Um, and then I think for us, when we started our nonprofits, we knew what our cause was, right? We we obviously have this issue at home with my son. And so that that was really important. And so I think that, you know, from just from a pure wealth management perspective um and and a doing good karma perspective, I think, I think it it's important for everyone to really consider philanthropy. And the other thing I'll say from you know, a pure business perspective, uh, I've been a you know a C-level executive for a long time. Sure. Uh, you know, big global companies all over the world. I have an amazing network, as you would imagine. Um, but my really powerful network, right? The the names that you know of um in in both media and business and and um politics, those relationships are because of my philanthropy, yeah, not because of the fact I'm a CEO of a company. And so for folks that, and you know, my business, my business guidance for anyone is um manage your network, pay attention to those relationships, understand uh how don't don't think about how someone can help you today. Think about sort of the relationship over a longer period of time and and building that and making it less transactional. And so that so pe people really respect, especially the folks that you want at that level, yeah, uh giving back. Um so if you want to connect with high performers like today's and previous guests, I want to invite you to apply to join the standard. We are a private membership community that improves the health, wealth, and relationships for six-figure earners who perform at the highest level physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and financially. What we offer is simple. We will give you a vetted local brotherhood of men on your level or above. We will give you a customized plan to build true generational wealth. We will give you a personal liaison to achieve all of your goals. If you are tired of being the most successful person in your circle, frustrated with always pouring into others and not having anyone to pour into you, or you want to have conversations like the ones you're hearing today in person on a weekly basis with fellow higher performers, go to thestandardmen.com to apply. That's thestandardmen.com. Hit the link in the description below. Now back to the episode. Well, so with the relationships you have, were they all people that you knew previously, or has this foundation kind of opened up doors for people that you wouldn't have met otherwise to come and invest? Because I, you know, this is not just tax managers, there's benefits for you. There's there's benefits for everybody, not even just tax managers, but altruistic. I mean, it sounds like a good cause. It sounds like it's solving a very, very important problem that you have the expertise to solve. So, how how has this helped you in leveraging more relationships? Yeah, and so no, these are relationships that I've that I built uh because of the philanthropy. Okay. And when you um, and this isn't that you know, this is this isn't true necessarily with everyone, but for the most part, when you're when you're kind of networking with high worth, high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals, we don't really want to talk about our day jobs. Fair enough, yeah. We do that. I yeah, I love to talk, you know, I love talking about a company, it's an amazing company. Uh, it does a lot of really cool things. We're at the cutting edge of AI and all kinds of fun stuff. But when when I'm not, you know, I work seven days a week, I'm always working, sure, traveling constantly. So when I'm out in a social setting, that's not what I want to talk about. Yeah, yeah. The problem is I work seven days a week. I don't really have, you know, I have sports, I don't have that much else to talk about. And this is really true with sort of some of these other folks, but but not not everyone, but I'd say 99% of the folks in that same sort of socioeconomic will have some type of foundation or philanthropy that they do. And that's what we like to talk about. So even if it's just breaking the ice, like what do you do? Oh, I, you know, this is my cause. This is why it really matters to me. This is how we think about it. And then you build a relation, first of all, it's sort of just like a national, uh, sorry, natural conversation topic that comes up when you're around those types of individuals, then. Yeah, it's very it's it it it qualifies you, yeah, right? It puts you, it's you're not just another rich guy or another CEO or whatever. Exactly, yeah, exactly. And um, and it sort of puts you at a level very, very similar to like, you know, flying private, for example. I was a pilot, right? So when you when you're in that sort of space, it's different, right? You can't kind of fake that. It's expensive. And so having, you know, when when you have your own charity and it's and you know, it's known and you can kind of look at it, people, people understand that you're in sort of a different level. And 100%, that has opened up business opportunities for me, especially around investing. Uh, right. And so the family office that we run separately from our foundation or or my day job, that has benefited amazingly from those relationships. So, so for those out there, I would say, like, for first of all, it's just an amazing thing to do to give back to a cause that matters is the most important thing. Um, but and and yes, the immediate, immediate tax benefits are are and you know, the and the capital that gives you for enhanced wealth creation if you invest it the right way, that's nice too. But the ability to have a network that can open up business opportunities for you, uh, that's what really, really matters. And uh and and you know, I think like I said, I we started talking about this 10 years ago, right? So, and then you know, we we form we formed it in 22. So it doesn't, you know, you don't have to kind of like pour a ton of money into it right away, but pay it, but pay attention to it as that three-punk three-prong strategy, right? Right. Because you say you're talking about just building the framework back in like 2016, right? So this is not just something that you flip to switch and it's happening overnight. For most people that do start something like this, are they usually just kind of self-funded enterprises that they're making, or how often is someone like you make it and then make it a public foundation? You know, it that it varies. Uh, and so some sometimes what happens is you'll get um a lot of times you'll get someone, a group of people that are doing something small, and then you'll have a private family foundation. So think of you know, hundred millionaires and billionaires out there, right? Uh, that they they give to other foundations, right? And so they'll say, look, uh, and we started doing that. That was how kind of what we did in the early days. We look, we looked at other foundations, like they're doing some really amazing things. Let's donate to them. Okay. Um, and so that's something that you can always choose to do, but it's also that that's typically how some uh, you know, I'm a small local group in Ohio, for example. I'm doing this. That's how they can, you know, expand nationally. Uh, and so you don't always have to start with a bunch of capital. And um, but other times it's you know, folks that that have the means to do it, they put it in themselves and then they prove they prove it out, they build the business model just like you would any company. Sure. Um, you know, you have you have sort of business sense, you bring on people that can help you that know how to do it, and then uh and then then you scale from there. Well, when you made it, were you inspired by someone else that was kind of doing something similar, or was this just a pure original thought in your mind when you're making this? It was a pure original thought. Okay. It was a and I and I had no idea uh that it would open up the door for things. Um, you know, my I think my wife initially was guarded about our son. Sure. And you know, I mean, the some, I feel like that's a natural reaction. Yeah. Of course. And and where I was different. I wanted to, I'm like, how's anyone gonna learn? It's probably the CEO and me, right? How's anyone gonna learn if you don't tell them what's actually going on and coach and provide guidance and and just visibility, right? If you see this happening, sure, um, you'd be, I mean, so many, there's so many ridiculous scenarios. And you know, my now that my son's almost 15, we've been we've been through them all, but just how people respond. Some very nice that's surprising to you, some very mean, that's also surprising. Um, but every time what I try to do is even when you don't want to, right? Even when uh I want to react badly, uh, it's like, you know what? I'm gonna take this as an opportunity to educate you because um I think it's important. And most of the time it actually people are like, oh my gosh, I had no idea. I just thought it was you had a misbehaved kid. And um that's unfortunate. Well, you know, it's we're we're talking about this. We can kind of get a little bit more personal. So at my church, I I work with a group called the Fellowship, which is like an adult special needs class. And most of them are pretty high functioning, but there's a couple in there that, you know, they do require a lot more uh special attention, not like particularly violent necessarily, but um, you know, when I talk to the parents and I talk to people that are the primary caregivers, um, one thing that I like about our little thing is it gives the family an hour, hour and a half to kind of decompress, you know, go be in worship by themselves and whatnot. And even this being with him for like an hour and a half, I'm like, I can't imagine having to be with this all day, every day, you know. And you, it sounds like, you know, you you have a lot of resources at your disposable. If anyone in this world would be equipped to handle them, you know, I would imagine you would. But even for you guys, it's still difficult within the family setting. So, I mean, how how does that, I want to say like impact your family life, but how how has your family's family managed to deal with that and kind of come out of the other side swinging? Yeah, I mean, look, you have the choice. Yeah, right. You have no choice. And and I think, and you know, one of the things that my wife Jennifer is really passionate about, and you see it all over autismhelp.ai, it's it, you know, it's got her blueprint on it, is sort of the the emotional side of this, or like, you know, how to how to cope with yeah, you know, something these things happen. It's not just just logistical support, it's understanding the emotional element of it as well. And it's one thing to have a cute little kid that um is is you know non-verbal and has behavioral issues and you can control them. You know, my son now is the second biggest person in my house besides me. Yeah, he's still not fully potty trained and he kicks holes in the walls, and like, I mean, it is it, you know, it there there are like there are safety concerns and other things. And so it and it's probably like if you were to come in and not know, it would be very shocking. Sure. And and we have the we have the means to sort of you know sequester him. He he's he's has access to all the things, but he's got his own little wing in the house and all that other stuff. But um, if it when folks come in um and they see it, it's like wow, that's we did no idea. We had no idea that's what you're dealing with. Um for us, I think it's it's like anything else, right? You you sort of over time you gotta get used to it. You know, my wife always worried about what it would mean for our daughters, right? And how would the older one and the younger one, I think it gives them grit, right? Uh I mean it and but plus it is what it is. And and so how have you seen it impact your daughters? And we're gonna talk a little bit more legacy in a little bit, but you know, not only that they they're dealing with this at home, but they're also seeing their parents do something about it, not just for the benefit of their child, but you know, other people that are dealing with this. Like how has this impacted their worldview and how they, you know, go and treat society? You know, I remember I uh the one that's it's not funny, but it's kind of funny. Uh years ago, I found I I caught the girls calling churches trying to give him away. And so um, I was really they're gonna be able to do it. You didn't take though, right? So that okay, yeah. It did not take uh they got in big trouble for that. Uh but I mean, so look, the there it the other thing is he's also a teenage boy, yeah. Right. So, you know, by definition, he's kind of you know a dick. And so and he's just see the testosterone's flow and he's being a boy for sure. And you know, I and you know, I have a preteen and a teenage daughter, and so there's you know, they they butt heads for sure. But but truthfully, um, even though they would never say it, um, they they really do take such good care of him, and you know, he he respects the big one because that's all he's known. He's known uh he's known her his whole life, and and you know, she'll take him to the store and she'll do things for him. And uh his little sister gives him he's like he takes a lot of medication, right, for all the things. Um, and so she he like he'll take medication from her, he listens to them. Um, and you know, I I think it really gives them I worry all the time about their lifestyle, right? And getting to travel over the world and fly on private jets. And I can't, you know, you can't you can't control the situation they're in. And like, am I am I just making them just so removed from the reality of life? Because I grew up, I didn't grow up my parent, you know, my parents, you know, I great good middle class, I thought we thought we were really wealthy until I, you know, and got a little bit of money, realized it was just a good middle class house. And and but it but it is what it is, and it's obvious what our lifestyle is. I think this this creates a level of humility for them that that I'm hoping will translate into kind of making them better people and and not assholes. Good. Hey, that's all you can ask for, right? Well, I think that's something, you know, we've talked about this on the podcast a lot of people of like how how are you instilling like lessons in them? Because I think for a lot of like more high-performing people, they tend to come from areas where they didn't always have a lot, you know, growing up, and then they've kind of made something of themselves. And so they want to make sure that they're instilling the lessons that made them who they are into their children as well. Um, it does sound like this kind of adds that extra, I want to say like adversity, but like you said, it's it is humbling, right? And I it sounds like you're seeing that in your daughters and the way that they're treating him and you know, treating everybody else. I wanted to ask you in terms of like the families that you know this are helping, what are some stories? Do you know any stories off the top of your head about like some people that the the the foundation has impacted so far? I know it's still newish, but yeah. So I mean, so many good, so many great stories. We share a bunch of them in like little vignettes. Okay. We so we're we're very careful to you know to uh about privacy and and you know protecting kind of confidential information. Uh we only collect information if you choose to share it and join our newsletter or things like that. Um, but really for me, the powerful ones are the ones where there wasn't a catastrophic event because of what we did. Okay. It was um, wow, um I didn't realize that I needed to get on these lists so early. Thank you so much, autismhelp.ai, for helping me do this. Or um I I thought that once I once I completed this form, I was good. I didn't realize I had to check up. And what would have happened would have been catastrophic for that. I mean, imagine, you know, you have no health care. Like I, you know, my son needs to be anesthesized every time he goes to the dentist, right? And and even with really good health insurance through my my my job, it's very expensive. Sure. But Medicaid, you know, that's a different, that's a different ballgame and do with different rules, and it gets much harder. But if you have nothing uh and and you know, no services and you need them, uh, you know, these are just really horrific stories. And so um it's it's and and unfortunately, once you're sort of down that path, there's not much to do uh without, you know, you know, without kind of spending a fortune. And so the the metric that or the statistic that's really staggering, uh in today's dollars, it's like it costs two and a half million dollars uh for to to care for a child with autism across their life. And and for most people, that's just um, I mean, it's impossible. And so, but if you get the services early, there are amazing benefits. Um, I I will say, people ask me too why, why this is one kind of that I get all the time. Why does it take uh 15 years for a wait list? Because these programs are they're the costs are capped, right? They're they're legislated and they're they're amazing people that work at some of these programs, but you may need a staff of 20 and there's a staff of two. There's just not not so many resources. There's not enough resources. And so one of the things that I think is in um my my good friend Jeff, who who who's done several companies with me, but he's also on the board of the foundation, um, and and he has access to a lot of um, you know, kind of political figures. That that's something that we we're we're not sure we want to do, but we think about in the future, like can can we help influence legislation uh or certainly provide a um certainly provide a different lens that's more of a business lens on some of these things. Uh and so that's something how we think about we can help in the future, which is how do we change what's coming? Because um, you know, the the problems today are gonna be they're gonna be they're so they're exacerbating every single year. And like the system will crumble if something is not done about it. So I think the short-term stories are we're helping folks and the families come and they say, hey, we didn't know. Now we know if we didn't have it here, this would have been crazy. And then, or some of them say, Um, I'll hear I'll, you know, even stuff that we started a few years ago, we hear people go, Wow, we we got on this list five years ago, but we just heard about it from the school. Now we would have been five years too late. That's crazy. So those are the fun, those are the fun ones. Um, I think the the the ones that are, you know, kind of really scary for me are the ones where they it's too late. And so that's why I always say the like one of the reasons why we're pushing autismhelp.ai out to the masses, and I'll put you know, tons of marketing dollars behind it, I'll kind of go big, is because the more people that are aware of it, the more we can help. Then that leads me to the next question: was what scares you most about kids with autism? Like what what's you you outlined one of your fear scenarios. What are some other fear scenarios that plague people with autism today? Yeah, it's well, so first of all, the thing that scares me the most is the math. And I mentioned before, one in 31 kids are uh as of last year um have are on the autism spectrum disorder. One in 20 if you're a boy. And and so while there's a hundred thousand kids this year in the US hitting the services cliff, uh over the next 10 years it'll be 1.2 million. And then now you're getting into like the millions and tens of millions. And so when you're dealing with services that at 100,000 kids are breaking, what happens when it's in the millions? What happens when it's in the 10 millions? This is an acute, acute problem. And you know, I'm I I am friends with CEOs of Big Pharma, and I know all the like I know people are really trying to figure it out. That's not what I can solve for. What I can solve for is we're not gonna have a solution. These kids will turn into adults and they need help, and we have to we have to help them. And the and the the problem isn't coming, it's here now, yeah, but it is gonna get so much worse. Uh and the day, the data, you know, the data doesn't lie. What other solutions are other people working on, kind of in conjunction with you, to kind of tackle this problem? Because it sounds like you're providing the knowledge base and connecting them to the different connective tissues that can help them solve the problems. What are some things that other people in your space are doing to try to solve this? Yeah, there's some amazing things. I think the bulk of the bulk of autism care uh out is is either educating schools and making sure that schools have programs that'll help with behavioral issues. Uh, and so widely accepted um standard is called uh ABA, which is behavioral therapy, uh occupational therapy for folks who need that, um, and then speech therapy. So those types of things. And so you have uh practitioners out there that are offering these services either in conjunction with the local schools or in um uh or kind of instead of the schools. So that's where a lot of the causes are going. I think those programs are becoming more advanced. Um there we're getting better trained, better quality people kind of that that are that are you know participating in those things, which are really important. And so I always I'm gonna give you an example. If if you're someone who needs enhanced care and you're looking at a and you're looking at like residential support, one of the things you need to go ask is, you know, what's your turnover rate? Right? The average turnover rate, meaning attrition rate for employees is 43%. And and so most folks are I'd imagine that's such a hard job working. It would have a high turnover rate. And and you know, are you really are you are you just having people babysit these folks? Yeah. Are you training them in like actually autism and you know, neurodiverse issues? I know healthcare in general has in general high turnover rate. I would imagine for something with special needs, it'd be even higher. 100%. And so the these are the things that matter. So we're we're we're seeing, you know, better, better pay, uh, it's still not even close to where it needs to be. These are these are like salt of the earth people that deserve much more. But I think so. I think a lot of a lot of care goes into the the early years. What doesn't exist, and this is something that the that autismhelp.ai and the MARA Foundation really cares about, is what happens when you sort of reach adulthood. And, you know, look, people have had, you know, intellectual and developmental disabilities forever. Um, and you know, but they so there's places to go, but they are they're not equipped at scale. And there's places very specific for neurodiverse and autistic people, but they're not there's they're we're not equipped at scale to handle like this mass thing that's coming. And so that's where we're really focused. And so I I'm really am impressed, even from you know, the the time my son was diagnosed to now, which is 12 years, the the the the the level care across all 50 states. And I mean it uh and and it makes me proud that that we're advancing there, but it's still very focused on when you're early. And the good the good news is that look, there there are I no ceilings for these kids, right? I mean, autism is a subjective diagnosis. You don't get a blood test, right? There's not you can't figure it out. Someone looks at you and most of the time just says you have autism, so you get care, right? But every kid is actually different. And what they'll need and the help they need will be much is much more individualized. And so that's where I that's where I really hope the direction is. And and it doesn't stop, right? Imagine you're getting um you're getting tons of care with both therapists and your school districts, et cetera. Well, just because you turn 18 or 20 or 21 or whatever, you still need those things, right? You still need people working with you every day. So that's something that Autism doesn't go away just because you come adults, yeah. Exactly. So that's something that we really are are working, you know, we we're working towards with providers that um can hopefully start doing that. Because right now, um, most of these providers exist, right? The ABA, the ABA facilities is what we typically call them, because insurance insurance pays them, right? So you have you have kids, you know, and uh but the but that doesn't really the the the level of that care it still exists when you're an adult, but it's much, much smaller, and that's a big problem because all these kids, right? The millions of kids, they will be adults and they will still need care. Yeah. Uh and then you know, a very small subset of them will be able to be, you know, independent on their own. And you know, that's amazing. But the ones that can't, what are you gonna do for them? Exactly. Well, I'll ask you, she kind of put a bow on the specific like autism world specifically. So I have a sister, she actually has um a kid that's on the that's on the spectrum, um, a little bit more on the severe side. Um, and so if you were, if she was watching this right now, you could give her just a couple pieces of advice of like things to look for in the future to kind of set herself and her kid up for success. What are the three things you would tell her? Yeah, other than go to autismhelp.ai, go go look at her programs, right? She's on the screen. Go sign up for the program. That's it. The most important. I think I think really what I would say is this um do not put a ceiling on your kid. And because uh it's it's really it's really interesting because I have uh a teenage daughter that's three years older, and you know, all the fun things about having a teenager, it sometimes it's hard to separate just being a teenage boy from like autism, right? It could just be a teenager, yeah. And so and so right, and and they like insert any age range, right? Am I just being a five-year-old or is it autism? And so don't like don't put ceilings on your kids, uh, and and don't stop trying new things. They and and whether you're on the really severe side, which is sort of what we're living with, or uh, or or you know, the not so severe side or anywhere in between, it's still really hard. Um, but there's new things, there's new techniques and and and technology and um you know medication so so that's coming out that are helping. So keep keep working at it, keep trying, build a community. Um that's the other, that's the other thing. I see a lot of um parents of with kids with autism can be isolated. They're super isolated. And my wife talks a lot about that. So we try to um, you know, we try to, you know, bring bring my son, his name is Xander Alexander, we try to bring Xander with us places and travel with him. It's not easy. I gotta, it's like a lot of a lot of work to to do that. And and maybe it's not the most enjoyable trip for the family, but we do make sure we do one of those a year. And um, and so just you know, bring you know, don't don't keep them isolated and and make sure that you're not isolating yourself too. Okay. Man, I appreciate all the work that you're putting into this. I really do appreciate for some of the other people that are on here, they want to reach the level that you're at. Like I think a lot of people, not only in the standard, which is our private membership community, but also just people watching this, they want to eventually get to a level where you're at. So some of the next uh line of questioning would be kind of like, hey, how do you point the line? How do you reach this level where you're able to pour this much into a foundation and give back to the community and all these different things? So here, my first question for you would be we have a lot of people that they're working in W-2, it's a normal job, um, but they want to build something for themselves in the future, where I think someone gave me this line that the CEO will never pay you enough to live in the same neighborhood as him. So if you're a guy that's in your late 20s and early 30s and you're trying to like get yourself established, what are some where do you think it's impossible? Do you think it's real estate, do you think it's easier today than it is before? Like how do you how what would be your some of your pieces of advice to them? Yeah, so two I think two things. The first is um a lot of people say that they want to be successful. And there's one thing that I would that I would say, which is make sure you're willing to give up the things you're gonna need to give up to do that, because um it's that sacrifice that matters, right? And so I think about um I think about sort of four things, okay, right? So the first one is you gotta be smart. Now, smart means a lot of different things. You could be really good at um, you know, an idea you have or a profession you have, or just general, you know, street smarts or book smarts, doesn't matter. Um, but but you have to like care about, you know, kind of an improving your knowledge, whatever that is. Okay. Um, the second one is uh I I I call it drive or intrinsic motivation, right? Like you have to be naturally um like wanting to work hard, right? And without that, just forget about it. It's not gonna happen. Um the the third one, this is a hard one, right? I call it growth mindset. And growth mindset is um being coachable, right? And not having a victim mentality. Oh, you know, this didn't work out, or my, you know, my boss is wrong, or this happened, or right. And you know, true or untrue, take it, take the opportunity to learn from it. I uh I can't, you know, in in all the companies and the successes I've had, I vaguely remember the things I did right. I definitely remember all the mistakes I made in their Bell Auto mistakes, and I especially remember how I felt when I made them. And each company that I do that has, you know, been more successful than the last, in large part is because I learned from those mistakes I made. So, so you know that that's the other beauty. And you have like I'm still learning. I'm happy to be wrong all the time, right? So so that I surround myself with people that can, we can be right together. Right. Um, and then the fourth one is valuing others, right? And so you're never, you know, you you your network matters. I don't care if you're the CEO and you have people underneath you or you're or you're just starting your career and you're you're interacting with your colleagues. Um, you know, how you value others from your your family and friends and colleagues to your customers, sure to whomever you interact with that really matter. So you so those are sort of the four things. And that second one, I talked about that intrinsic motivation, it comes with sacrifice, sure. Right. So if you want to be, if you want to be really successful, you're probably not like going out with the boys or the girls, right? And and you know, you're gonna you're gonna have to give things up and you're you're gonna have to like say be you know get get really comfortable being uncomfortable. Um so that's kind of the first one. The second one is man, I I felt so lucky. Um I wasn't when I was a a a freshman and I went to the University of Michigan uh studying mathematics. So I mean a math professor. And so you had the smart pillar down. There you go. So the meat anyway. As soon as you said smart, I'm like, well, it takes me out. No. No, I probably I probably would have a horrible math professor. Um yeah, and I but what's what's interesting is there's this thing that was coming that everyone was starting to talk about called the internet. And I'm like, what's this? Uh and then I heard and and insert every dystopian thing that's that you hear with AI, every disintermediation thing you hear that. It's funny whenever people talk about AI, I'm like, it's just another iteration of technology. The same thing they're talking about AI now is the same thing they're talking about the internet back in the 2000s, like it's just another thing. 100%. And look, I um, you know, we my company has been working with AI since it was called machine learning. And and you know, we're at the sort of the the the forefront of all things agentic. And um, that this this is different. This truly is the coolest thing I've ever seen. And I share that because what regardless of what you do, right, if you're in technology or not in technology, this will touch you. And so there's no greater time to to to sort of think about the future of your career, the future well to answer your additional question than right now. So you have to have those things, right? You have to be driven, you have to be smart, you have to value other people, you have to have a growth mindset, no victim nonsense. If you hear yourself blaming other people, there's only one person to blame, look in the mirror. Um, you have you have to have that. But there's no, I don't think there's a better time than there is today. Because even in, you know, even in my company, I look around that like traditional roles, you know, like a salesperson or a marketing person or a customer person or you know, a software engineer. These um, these roles will be completely different in a year. Uh, and and not necessarily in a bad way, I mean, but the the profile that it's gonna take to be successful is gonna change. And it's, I mean, I think it's awesome. I'm already experimenting a lot with with helping with marketing. It's like, well, I can replace a lot of the activities I can do, just automate a lot of it. I'm already trying to work on integrating my cloud into like my emails and the hub spot and this, where I like I asked one question and it's automating all these different tasks so I can focus on like the bigger picture. I'm like, what is my strategic objective? And you hit this, and you hit this. Well, what would you say would be like if if you were someone, let's say, in sales of integrating AI? Because I think a lot of businesses are like, oh, we need to include AI, but that's that's such a buzzword at this point. Like, what would be a more strategic way of implementing AI into today's workplace? Yeah, I'll I I'll give you an example. Okay. Before I give you an example, I'll say one thing. If you're afraid of AI, and is it gonna take my job? What's gonna happen, all these other things? What I'll say is not the current my current company, but my last company was a cybersecurity company, and we sold it very successfully in 2024. When I was a kid in college, there's no such thing as cybersecurity, not really, right? And so new industries will emerge that we've never even heard of before. And so, so don't get stressed out about oh, it's gonna take this away. Probably will, probably will. Uh, but there will be new things that'll be cooler than we've ever heard of, and and those things will be prolific and amazing. Um, but let's talk about sales. And so, because I got my start doing enterprise software sales. Okay. And and so when, and I'll give you the software example. So, what it used to be is you go to a meeting, you'd have, you know, Google Slide or a PowerPoint, and you kind of go give your presentation, and then I would, you know, demo my software for you, right? Let me go show you my stuff and how it works. And um, and so in in today's world, in you know, our the technology, the company I have today, um, kind of integrates with our with big huge companies' digital platforms. So your website, your mobile app, and things like that. So I'm not, I'm no longer showing you a deck. I'm no longer showing you a demo of my software. I'm using AI to make a replica of your site. I'm putting my software on that replica of your site, and I'm showing you in real time how your consumers and all the different archetypes are gonna interact with this and the value that they'll see that they'll see across the board. And it is come and the building that custom demo, building all those things now takes, I don't know, 45 seconds. And so the the concept of like, hey, I'm gonna have a business development rep go generate pipeline for me, and then I'm gonna have some kind of pre-sales person or you know, a solution architect, solution consultant build demos and create a solution hypothesis for me. And then I'm gonna have a quota carrying account executive or salesperson, you know, build the relationship, do the work. Those days are gonna be gone very, very soon. You're gonna have one person that the 80% of that will be automated by AI. I mean, we're doing it already. And so you'll have one person that I think spans across all three of those roles. They'll be able to do that. You will need a human in the loop. They will be able to do the 20% that is that remains there. Sure. Um, and so no, that makes a lot of sense. Like for right now, what I'm using is I'm using it to kind of help me develop a general strategy and then scrape some information off the internet of like phone numbers and emails that I can reach out to and kind of audit like like I'm accounting executive right now, so I'm using it to kind of help me with some of the prospecting modes as well as some of the customer service on the back end. So I kind of see what you're saying where like all those different roles from like the prospector to the closer to the account executive to the back end customer sports are all kind of getting condensed into a single person where AI is just able to kind of help you run from start to finish. Is that an accurate assessment? Yeah, and and you know, uh there is a there is a TV show back in the day called Mad Men, right? And it was about right, the Madison Avenue advertising executives back in the I think 50s or something. Uh but I mean basically they would like drink whiskey all day, they'd have one meeting a week with a customer, or just you know, so one big sales pitch and prep for it. And then you know, web-based technologies came and email came and all kinds of stuff. And then you know, your velocity increased. You can do tons of meetings, you can, and then you know, Zoom came and Google Meets and and Microsoft Teams, and now you can you know deal things remotely. And so what I'm seeing with AI is like velocity is gonna be. Absolutely through the roof. And so think about any task that you can automate. And I think you're doing it the right way. Start automating those tasks. And what's left over is the ability to be much more cerebral because you we will need what we call in the AI world a human in the loop. There's going to need to be a human in the loop. Um, but also, even if you have your own agent and I have my own agent, and our agents can do business together and go shopping and do all this other stuff, we will want to have the human experience. And so things like storytelling and right, relationship building, and those are gonna become really, really important. Almost more important now than it will be back. That's just such a good point. And I want to go back a little bit because you're talking about all the different pillars of success when you're talking about like hard work and networking. I'm gonna ask you a question. What do you think is more important to building generational wealth? Networking skills or hardworking skills? Like which one would you rather have? Um look, I I I'll take the hardworking person all day, every day a thousand times over, uh, because you can teach them the networking stuff. Okay. And I will tell you about the networking stuff. Every day, seven days a week, uh, I take uh an hour in my morning and I manage, I I just spend it on my network. Okay. And I and I've automated it, right? But I even with AI, I'm I try to make it personal and and pay attention to it. But you know, you can think about you can think about people and like their proximity to you. You know, are they involved in you know the current company I have or the foundation or any of these things? Um, but but even just knowing and you know, even if it's a a benign thing like I know that, you know, my my buddies in New York Knicks fan and they, you know, they won the other night, just sent a little quick note, right? Congrats. I don't want anything, I don't need to talk to you. You're busy, I'm busy. Just like paying people like, oh, they remember. Steve's in Dallas, he doesn't even know that's cool, that's cool. So little things like that. But the my point is is I can train someone how to manage a network really, really easily and train you how to build the network, but I can't train you how to work hard. Okay. I can't train you how to not get distracted by things. Okay, so question for because you've obviously played, I would say, very much in the big leagues where you're running, you know, a really large business and everything else. What are some what are some elements of creating deals and building the sort of networks that you've made that maybe most middle class people don't understand? Are there certain I want to say rules, that's a little baity, but are there certain things that the ultra wealthy think about in these matters that regular people don't normally think of? A couple things. Okay. So the and some of this may may be crass, but I I think one one thing is that um a lot of the investments that most folks have access to, they're not the right investments. Okay. Uh we're not as if the right investments are true. Um they're not they're not the ones that are gonna take you to the next level. Okay, right. And so um, you know, we talk about public markets. Um most things uh that the the ultra wealthy work in are the private markets that most people do not have access to. And so access is very restrictive. And it's not just and it's not just the money thing, although that is table stakes. Um it's it's who you know and have access to it. But but it doesn't mean that you have to have a ton of capital to participate in, but it means you have to have access. You could start with a $25,000 or a $50,000 investment, which I know that's a lot of money for most people, uh, but it is it is palatable. It's possible to go and save if you're you know, if you if you're in sort of you know middle class, upper middle class, to go and save $25,000. What you could do with that, right, if you put it into an investment that is um, you know, that's sort of for the masses, then you're gonna get your returns that are similar to the masses. And you know, you can do a basic map problem or have AI do a map problem, tell you where to go. Sure. But having access to the private markets and and to companies, um, to companies that others don't have access to, that's that's really special. What are the private markets? Like explain that a little bit. Private markets would be um, you know, people that are currently investing in open AI and SpaceX and, you know, all these different companies out there that aren't available for anyone to go buy in the stock market. They're private companies or things like private credit, where you know, you have um, you know, you're lending money to businesses, uh, although that's been that's not been great for them recently. But these but these are the so these are opportunities. How do I invest in a really, really cool company? Maybe not a startup that, you know, my buddy's starting a startup company, and that's probably another good idea. But hey, this is a multi, multiple-time founder, they have a really good idea, they're already doing, you know, 10 or 20 million in revenue annually. Um, you know, they're raising capital from a prestigious private equity firm or venture capital firm. How do I get in on the friends and family deal there? How do you get in on that? To know somebody. Okay. Yeah. And so, and and and typically those are people in the investment community. Uh, and in the investment and community, there are typically like power players in in the different firms. And I'll tell you, they are um, you know, they rule the world. And so being being involved in being involved in that world is um, you know, the it's it's game-changing, life-changing. How would you get started? Like, let's say you're someone, you know, for a lot of people in our audience, they're like upper middle class, but maybe they don't have quite that network. What would be some starting points to help them get in with that? Yeah. So the the first the first thing is um, you know, make sure that you're managing your finances in a way that when you have access, because it often comes very quickly. Like when I get investment opportunities, it's they're not, hey, in six months, Steve, this might be happening. It's hey, you went in, you got like uh 24 hours to decide, you got to wire money right away. So you have to have right the the ability to, you know, you have to have liquidity enough to do that. So that's number one, right? To be able to play in the game. Number two is whether you're it look, I know a lot of very successful people and a lot of very wealthy people that have W-2 jobs. That's okay. But but you should you should have something else that you do, or more importantly, that your money does on the side that's making money for you. It could be real estate, it could be investments, it could be private market, it could be anything, right? It doesn't matter. There's lots of really good stuff out there, but start getting into the habit of my primary source of income isn't necessarily my day job. And so I think for me, that that probably happened. Um, that probably happened, gosh, even probably before I, you know, maybe 10, 12 years ago, where you know, the investments were making way more money than you know, my salary and and all that, even as a big executive. And so that's really, really important. For I started out when I was a kid getting rental properties, right? I was a slumlord in New Jersey. And so there we go. I'd have these like four unit properties. Slum dog millionaire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had 40 something properties and maybe I made 150,000 a year, which is a lot for a kid my age, and it was a ton of work, and there's lots of easier ways to do it. But the point was you're getting into, but I had a day job, right? So you're getting into the habit of passive income. Everyone's heard about passive income, what to do there, making sure that you have capital with liquidity, and then it's all about building your network. And you know, groups like the standard are amazing ways to do it. Look, look for places where you have like-minded people that are excited to sort of share their network, also be critical, right? Just because someone's like, hey, I've an investment and you're finally in the world, you know, learn. So the other thing is not only should you have should you have the capital ready to go, but do the research. Understand how, if I were to go and invest in a business, what are the things that I would look for? Right. And and so if you don't understand the basic natures of kind of you know, being able to look at, you know, the you know, what they they call them, you know, just think of it as like an investor deck. If I can't look at investor deck and understand what these what these terms mean, what metrics mean, what what good, what's what good looks like, right? Um, that then you need to learn, right? And every industry is very different, right? And uh so educate yourself on financial metrics. I think that's really, really important too. So that when an opportunity does come, you're able to look through this and be uh and and really make sure that it's a good decision for you, right? What what are um, and I can rattle off a million of them, but what what are good trends in this industry, right? Whether it's technology, whether it's um uh healthcare or or food industry, anything. So those are those are important. Well, you mentioned the standard, which is the the community that we're in right now. What made you want to join? Because you're a relatively newer member, you have all this cool stuff going on. What made you want to become a part of something like this now? Well, it was exciting, you know, for two reasons. I think the you know, from a selfish reason, um, you know, my job, I travel 130 nights a year uh all over the world. And yeah, it's I mean, it's really like to travel. And um like to or have to? You have to. You have to like yeah, you have to. Um you're not you're not going to Cancun every weekend, you're going for work. Yes. Yeah, I will I'm going for work. And look, like it's there are really cool aspects of it. Sure. Um, I I, you know, and you get to go to cool places, and then there's other times where it's like, I'm you're it's like going to work at one in the morning, right? But um, but it but often means you're sort of sacrificing it's it's hard to build a community locally, right? Because I'm you know, I have friends all over the world, which is great, but um, you know, when I'm home, I'm just you know, I'm with my family and things like that. So, you know, having a group of folks that are that are here in Dallas was really important to me. Yeah. And and the second reason was I thought that I had um, I have a lot of things that, you know, both good and bad, successes and failures that I wanted to share. Yeah, um, that I could be helpful. And obviously, you can tell from the philanthropy stuff that giving back means something to me. So that was the other reason. Okay. No, I appreciate that. Well, look, we went over a lot of topics today. I think you had a lot of great wisdom to share. Um, we've I will I usually end with talking about legacy, but frankly, if we've been talking about the foundation, that seems to be the primary legacy that you're gonna be leaving behind. Has the foundation changed your outlook on what kind of legacy you're leaving behind? Has that changed? Because I know that's a big topic within the community that we have, but what does it mean to you now versus what it meant to you probably like 10 years ago or so? Yeah, you know, 10 years ago, it was all about um a combination of you know, me and what I wanted to leave behind, and then also my also my kids. Like I really wanted my kids to sort of participate in the stuff, you know, creating a family business, this, that, right? Um, and as they've gotten older and as I've gotten older, um it's it's it's really matured into impact. And I think to me, uh uh whether whether my name is remembered or not remembered is is kind of irrelevant to me. What is very relevant is have I done something in my life that will have an impact uh when I'm gone and continue to have an impact. And that matters to me. Whether I'm associated with or remembered or not is less relevant to me. Uh, and I think, I think, you know, it's an it's not an easy journey to get there, right? Because we we you know, we really want to, you know, like, oh, um, you know, I the the the the tactical answer is, you know, my my daughters may take you know, may take their husbands' names and and you know, my my son's not gonna have kids. And so, you know, well, tomorrow name, you know, and and you're at least this version of it. Um, I don't care about that anymore, right? What I care about is am I doing something that that helps people? Um, will people's lives be better? Because uh I've put some work in and and and really tried to help them. I've been blessed way beyond my work ethic again, you know, and and way beyond any what anyone should be. And and so that matters to me more than anything. Okay. Well, here now the closing conversation. If people, and I know you plugged in a couple of times, so people want to get a hold of your foundation or you or however, how can people get a hold of you? Autism help.ai. Super easy. Autism help.ai, go to the site. If you have anyone that has friends or family affected by any kind of neurodiversity autism, share it with them. There's tons of useful information on there. It's completely free. Um, get on the list uh as early as you can. If you have questions, fill out the contact form. It comes to our team. We'll get back to you right away. Uh, and then my final comment is if you have the means, please give. It goes to a great place. Okay. Hey, I appreciate your time and I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.