Marcela Marañon J.R. Martinez Brian J Esposito

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The following is a paid podcast.iHeartRadio's hosting of this podcast constitutes neither an
endorsement of the products offered or theideas expressed. Welcome to a Moment of
Zen. Time to sit back andrelax. As model, actress, mentor
and supermom. Zen Sam's takes youon a sexy and wild ride, covering

(00:20):
the latest in film, fashion,pop culture, cryptocurrency, fintech, cannabis,
and entertainment from the millennial mom's perspective. Here's your host, Zen Sam's.
Hello, my beautiful Tri State area. Welcome to our one hundred and
twenty second episode. It's always sucha pleasure to spend my time with you
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(00:42):
That truly does make it all worthwhile. Please make sure to follow me
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all episodes of A Moment of Zenare now streaming twenty four seven on
Kathy Ireland's Home TV and you canalways find us, of course on our
YouTube channel. We upload every Sundayat two pm Eastern. We have such

(01:06):
a great show lined up for youtoday, very exciting stuff. In our
Disability Awareness segment brought to you byNavvy Travel, We're featuring Marcella Margnon.
At twenty years old, she surviveda fatal car accident that killed her boyfriend
and left her paralyzed. She's apowerful activist for disability inclusion, a woman
well known for her solo traveling whileutilizing a wheelchair, and in February of

(01:29):
twenty twenty, she became the firstLatin disabled woman to climb mount killing Manjaro.
She's a pioneer and advocate for exoskeletontechnology. It's a technology that helps
people with spinal cord injuries to walkagain. She owns the Brave Woman shot
brand, where she donates funds tohelp underprivileged children and young adults with disabilities
around the world. She's here todayto chat disability awareness, defying all odds,

(01:51):
her secret to remaining so positive,and her latest projects and plans.
In our Healthy Minute segment brought toyou by Bchekuccina, today we're feature JR.
Martinez, an Army veteran, burnsurvivor, actor, motivational speaker,
and New York Times best selling authorand Dancing with the Star Season thirteen winner.
That's one impressive resume. He travelsthe world now spreading his message of

(02:15):
resilience and optimism and does it allwith a smile. He joins me today
to chat the power of positivity,disability awareness and demystifying the stigmas surrounding facial
differences. And of course, inour innovation and Tech segment, brought to
you by OGPA dot com, we'refeaturing Brian Esposito, ranked among the world's
top ten CEOs, founder and CEOof Esposito Intellectual Enterprises. It's an award

(02:38):
winning serial entrepreneur and business leader,and of course EIE currently consists of a
ton of entities, over one hundredand ten over two hundred joint ventures that
they've accumulated around the world and proudlyoperate. Today he joins me in house
to chat innovation, music, sports, the metaverse, and the disruptive.
The disruptive emerging industries making investors aton of money. Stay tuned for Marcella

(03:01):
Margnon lifestyle humanitarian and wheelchair access advocate, first disabled Latin woman to climb Mount
Kilimanjaro don't move a muscle. You'relistening to a Moment of Zen right here
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wore the voice of New York iHeartRadio. I'm your host, Zen.

(04:33):
Sam's up next in our disability awarenesssegment brought to you by Navvy. Today,
we're featuring Marcella Maragnon. At twentyyears old, she survived a fatal
car accident that killed her boyfriend andleft her paralyzed. She's a powerful activist
for disability inclusion, a woman wellknown for her solo traveling while utilizing you

(04:55):
guessed it, a wheelchair. Now. In February of twenty twenty, she
became the first disabled woman to climbMount Kilimanjaro. She's a pioneer and advocate
for exoskeleton technology and a technology thatyou guys have probably heard about or not
heard about, but I'm going toappease you. It's a technology that helps
people with spinal court injuries to walkagain. She owns the Brave Woman shop

(05:18):
brand, where she donates funds tohelp underprivileged children and young adults with disabilities
around the world. Now, throughher journey of a Brave Woman brand and
very large social media following, sheteaches others how they can access the world's
most amazing places as well as theirown communities more accessibly. Marcella is a

(05:39):
mom, an advocate, a businesswoman, and a mentor. She currently resides
in Dallas, Texas with her incredibledaughter, Mikaela. She's traveled all the
way to New York City today tochat with me, and she's here to
really talk about disability awareness, defyingall odds, her secret to remaining so
positive, and of course her latestprojects plans. Welcoming now to the show

(06:01):
is the amazing Marcella Marajan. Welcome, superstar. Thank you so much for
having me in your show. SinAbsolutely, you are so inspirational and so
full of life. Thank you forbeing you and spreading so much positivity and
helping others. God bless you.Thank you. Okay, so let's get
to it. Despite all the reasonsyou could have chosen to give up.

(06:25):
You are the brightest light. Walkme through when you first realized you would
never walk again. Well, whenI was told that I will never walk
again, I was twenty years soldand it was a very hard moment of
my life. Because I grew upwith no disability. I didn't know much
about being living a life with adisability, and it was like a big

(06:48):
crash. But I was able toadapt and move on and you know,
focus on what I want to do, and you know, after so many
years or you know, dis mydisablity is a part of me, but
it is not who I am asa person. So my dissavility doesn't defy

(07:11):
me. I lead my life onehundred percent with my disability. You are
so inspirational because when you think aboutthe limitations that a wheelchair could put on
somebody, it's excessive. And it'scurrently estimated that approximately one hundred and thirty
two million people. To put thatinto perspective for those listening, that's about
two percent of the global population actuallyrequire a wheelchair, and the statistics might

(07:34):
be even more. This is justwhat we have recorded now. As Charles
Lindbergh said, success is not measuredby what a man accomplishes, but by
the opposition he has encountered and thecourage with which he has maintained the struggle
against overwhelming odds. And that issuccess. And that is what you did.
Now you are a powerful activist fordisability inclusion, well known for your

(07:58):
solo traveling utilize in your wheelchair.And I'm going to reiterate this. In
February of twenty twenty, you becamethe first disabled Latin woman to climb Mount
Kilimanjaro. And those of you listeningagain, Mount Kilimanjaro, for those of
you are not aware, is adormant volcano located in Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania,
and it has three volcanic cones,Cibo, Mawenzi, and Shira and

(08:22):
it's the highest mountain in Africa andthe highest single freestanding mountain above sea level
in the world. Now, Marcella, what inspired you to take on the
challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and howdid you prepare yourself physically and mentally for
the climb? Well, okay,so this is a question that many people
ask me. How do you feelabout it? And I climb these mountain

(08:46):
in twenty twenty and I still kennadespress how I feel. I think it
is incredible to be able to getto one of the tallest mountains in Africa
in e my wheelchair, you know. But um, I I just want
to say that I didn't do thisaccomplishment alone. I had a group of
people that trouble with me. Iclimb it with three other disabled people.

(09:11):
And I feel like, you know, sometimes when we want to achieve something
like a goal, it takes avillage. And this is the this this
climbing was to send a message tothe world that, um, the world
is better when it's accessible for all. So and that was like my goal

(09:33):
when I got there, that wasthe purpose. I mean, I had
to prepare physically. I mean,I like, I had to work out
a lot mentally. I am verystrong, so I didn't have to um.
I didn't have a hard time withthat. But I think that the
most hardest the hardest part of me, um climbing the mountain is give up

(09:56):
my independence sometimes because the there wereparts of the mountain that was so a
steak, that were so steak,and I needed my porters and my guides
to help me with the wheelchair andsometimes I feel like, no, I
wish I can do this. Youknow myself that it was very hard,
so I had to give out theseAnd also you know that lesson that I

(10:18):
learned is that to learn to trustpeople you know, like and that's what
one of the things that I learned. I learn to your trust to the
people around Yes. And also,um, you know, one of the
things like when we all work togetherwe can takes a village. It takes
a village. And it's interesting becauseit's your Peruvian background. It takes you

(10:43):
know, that strong will to succeedand also sticking together in your Peruvian culture.
That it takes a village. Modelgoes a very long way because that's
how things are done in Peru.It takes a village. And you have
that mentality and you've done it andyou've carried through and you've done incredible job
and made a lot of people proud. Now, given the unique challenges you
face, what advice would you giveto other disabled individuals, regardless of their

(11:09):
background, who aspired to take onextraordinary challenges. I will say that to
do not give up, to donot stop, and to find the strength
to do what they want, whatthey feel to pursue their dreams. I
mean, I know that we livein a world where we feel excluded.

(11:33):
We are you know, it's notwe don't live in We live in a
world where people with these abilities arenot being seen much. We and if
we are seeing, we are beingseen as a barden, you know,
like like if our life was miseryand bad luck. But no, I

(11:54):
mean we are extraordinary people like everyoneelse, who have dreams, who work
very hard, who have families,who raise amazing children. And I think
that, um, you know,despite of the challenges we we go through,
I think that we need to keepgoing and use our voices to make

(12:18):
a difference for future generations. Becauseif we get stuck and we stay on,
you know, on a stage wherewell nothing is going to change,
the world is not doesn't accept us. Um, we will never do anything.
Um, you know, we willnever accomplish anything. But my advice
is just to keep moving forward togrief, to cry as much as the

(12:41):
day one, and once they're donewith that, you know, to track
through. Yes, it's true becausethe tests, the tests we face in
life's journey are not to reveal ourweaknesses, but to help us discover our
inner strength. And we can onlyknow how strong we are when we strive
and thrive beyond the challenge as weface. And all the energy in the
universe is evenly present in all placesat the same time. We don't get

(13:07):
energy, we in fact release energy, and the triggering mechanism to release energy
is desire. When you have strongdesire to do something, you will always
have the energy to do it.And yeah, that's what you've done.
Now, you're a huge proponent ofexoskeleton technology. Powered exoskeleton also known as

(13:28):
powered armor or powered suit, orfor those of you out there listening,
augmented mobility is a mobile machine thatis basically wearable, powered by a system
of motors and hydraulics that delivers partof the energy for limb movement. Tell
me about your involvement with this tech. I know you've been testing this out
since two and seventeen and what you'rehoping to accomplish. Well, I've been

(13:52):
testing these technologies in two thousand eleven, oh my band seventeen. Yeah,
and I got my own unit intwenty fourteen. So this is a mobility
device that allows me to stand,walk climate stairs. But for me,
it is more than walking. Youknow, I am very happy in my

(14:15):
wheelchair, but I need this technologyto reduce the health secondary health issues of
my injury. So I think thatthis is a very important technology that needs
to be supported because there are alot of people with a spana core injury
that would like to walk and usethis technology, but it is not accessible

(14:39):
because the insurance company do not wantto pay for it. There is a
lot of medical data that shows thatit reduces health problems for spina core injury
people, but they still don't wantto pay for it. So I hope
that this is this technology that Itry to promote a lot in social media,

(15:00):
is reachable for those who really wantthat technology. It's extremely important.
I know there's a lot of differenttechnologies out there. Rewalk is one of
them, but basically what she's describing, what you're describing is a wearable robotic
exoskeleton that provides powered hip and kneemotion to enable individuals with spinal cord injury
to stand upright, walk, turnand limb and climb and descend stairs,

(15:26):
so to speak. But it's there'sa few of them that are out there.
I think one of the first exoskeletalexoskeleton to receive FDA clearance for personal
and rehabilitation use in the United States. May have been in fact rewalk is
that leading leading exoskeleton device. Yeah, and now yesterday actually I was with

(15:48):
this is like a fresh new technologyfrom France that yes, moved to New
Yersey and these exoskeleton is amazing becauseit will not only change the lie of
people with the spina core injuries,but I also will uh you know,
do a stroke, patience or anyother disabilities. So I was a changer.

(16:08):
Yeah, it's a game changer.So I was here, um you
know, filming with them a campaignso I can promote it. I love
exo skeleton technology and like I say, it's more than walking, it's about
you know, reducing the pain.And yes, now what current projects are
you working on? Because I wantto be mindful of the time. Okay,

(16:30):
So I am working. My projectis in Tanzania. My friend Teresa,
who is a doctor in Germany andI we want to build a recovery
center for children with birth effects.And it's gonna be amazing because this is
a place where children will get umyou know, after care, they're gonna
do receive educational advice on how tolive with a disability. Also, it's

(16:56):
gonna be a place where the parentswith these children can be educated on how
to take care of them. Andmost of these kids have spina bifida and
hydrocephalus. And I was there lasttime. I was a month ago,
or I monted a half ago,and I was able to interact with the

(17:18):
families and meet the children and reallysee what they need. And I am
some you know, working on thisproject where I can help fund raise the
money so we can build these forthese kids. Do we have a website?
Do we have a name? Yeah, well, I'm gonna release everything
in August. So actually the GreatWoman's Shop. My brand is my merch

(17:41):
brand. It's a very simple brand. And what I do is that every
every T shirt that I sell,that money goes into helping a project in
some part of the world. Soduring the pandemic, my brand donated you
know, a lot of food forfamilies with children with disabilities. I also

(18:04):
donative ramps in India and donative wheelchairsfor kitts in Tanzania. So my brand
is like you know, it's onehundred percent. This is how I give
back to my community. For allthe blessings I have so I were yeah,
thank you so, thank you somuch for coming on. This was
an incredible interview. You are soinspirational. I want to I want to

(18:27):
get out there now and climb amountain because of you. But thank you
for coming on. It's very lifechanging. I believe you, I see
you. That was our disability awarenesssegment featuring Marcella Marignon. Definitely check her
out at the Journey of a BraveWoman. That's her Instagram handle. You

(18:47):
can also go directly to the brandat the Brave Woman's Shop. Definitely check
her out. She's the first Latindisabled woman to have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
You're listening to a Moment of Zenright here on seven ten WO are the
voice of New York iHeartRadio. We'llbe right back after this. A Moment
of Zen is brought to you byyour Home TV. Hi visus Kathy Ireland.
Here on a Moment of Zen,brought to you by your Home TV.

(19:11):
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seven ten w R, the Voiceof New York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen. Sam's up next in ourHealthy Minutes segment brought to you by

(19:56):
bch Kujina. Today we're featuring JR. Martin as an Army veteran, burn
survivor, actor, motivational speaker,New York Times best selling author, and
Dancing with the Stars Season thirteen winner. That is one impressive resume. Jarre
now travels the world spreading his messageof resilience and optimism and does it all
with a smile. Today, hejoins me the chat the power of positivity,

(20:19):
disability awareness, and demystifying the stigmassurrounding facial differences. Now, having
a facial difference can impede the basicfunctions one needs to survive and grow,
and those affected often experience social isolationor even bullying. In the US alone,
one in seven hundred children is bornwith an orofacial cleft, and one

(20:41):
in one thousand, six hundred isborn with facial asymmetry, amissing ear,
jaw deformity, or a defect ofthe skull nerves or even facial bones.
Furthermore, each year in the UnitedStates, one point one million burn injuries
require medical attention. Approximately forty fivehundred of these people die. Up to
ten thousand people in the US dieevery year of burn related infections. Welcoming

(21:07):
now to the show is the amazingJR. Martinez. Welcome superstar ah Man.
Thank you for that introduction. It'slike, how can I record that
and essentially use that and put iton loop every time that I just walked
through my house when I wake upin the morning. You said it,
So, now let's walk the audienceback. In two thousand and three,
you sustained severe burns to over thirtyfour percent of your body while serving as

(21:29):
an army infantrymen in Iraq, andsince your recovery, you've traveled around the
country speaking about your experiences to veterangroup schools corporations. Can you tell the
circumstances that led to your burn injuriesand what were the most significant challenges you've
faced during your recovery and rehab process. Yeah, thank you. You know,
So, on the fifth of Aprilof two thousand and three, obviously

(21:51):
this is early on in the youknow, the war in Iraq, and
we were patrolling through a southern partof our southern part of a carbala.
We were essentially given a task thatwe had to go to another part of
the area to secure this area.And I was a driver of the humby.
There was three of the troops inthe vehicle with me. And you
know, I always tell people,when you're away from freedom and family and
friends, the thing that kind offeels that void is humor. And we

(22:12):
found ourselves, you know, justkind of clowning, just passing the time,
and you know, just kind ofallowing moments to go by, and
all of a sudden, my friendleft tire run over our roadside bomb.
Immediately, the other three troops werethrown out of the vehicle. They all
walked away with minor physical injuries.I was trapped aside and I was completely
conscious for the next five minutes whilethis humby was engulfed in flames. And

(22:34):
you know, my team couldn't comeand pull me out any sooner because we
had AMMO in the humby, andof course with the heat, it was
just you know, shooting rounds offeverywhere. And so you know, the
war is a game of numbers,and you know, as much as you
know, you know you want tosave you know, one of your own
and in this case me, youalso can't jeopardize two or three or four

(22:56):
other people. And so you know, they had to wait for things to
kind of cool down and for themto set up a parameter and figure it
out. By that time, likeI said, it had been five minutes,
and you know, listen, Iwas screaming the yell at the top
of my lungs. I was inpain. I was I mean, I
literally thought I was going to dienumerous times over the course of those five
minutes. And you know, likeanybody that has had a similar experience will

(23:17):
tell you, time slows down andyou have nothing but time but to process
and think about and and everything thatthat that you were experiencing in that moment,
what your life was will not becomewhich you wish you would have done,
the people you love, the peopleyou miss, all those things.
And sure enough, five minutes later, I was pulled out of the humby.
I was put into um you know, taken to a medic local medic

(23:40):
station set up in Iraq where Iwas put into a medical induced coma.
From there, I was taken tolaunch TI Germany went into emergency surgery when
I got there, and then theybrought me back to the United States and
I went to the Burn Center forthe Military, which is in San Antonio,
Texas. And you know, Iwas nineteen years old when this happened.
And as anybody that is listening rightnow that you can recall when you
were nineteen years old, you're stilltrying to figure out who you are,

(24:02):
which you are. A keyword thatpeople like to use is identity. What's
your identity? Who you are?And where do you fit in in your
world? Whatever your world may be, your your city, your town,
your state, this this, thiscountry, the world, et cetera.
And um I was no different.And you know, I came out of
my coma three weeks later and Isaw my face in my body and as
you can imagine I was like,wait a minute, I don't know that

(24:23):
individual, because the individual that Iknew, Um, I relied on the
I relied on my looks. Irelied on my physical appearance. That was
what I had my entire youth.No one ever came up to me and
said, you have an amazing personality, Like everyone was like, oh,
you're handsome, you're cute. Well, you know, that's the kind of
stuff you throw around these days,and you know that that was all gone,
literally and it was literally all gone. I mean I was a completely

(24:45):
brand new person and didn't recognize thatindividual in the mirror. And I mean
what people are seeing now is verydifferent than what I was twenty years ago.
And then also too, I hadwhat role did your military training and
experience play shaping your mindset during yourrecovery? None of it, No,
I mean honestly, I mean atthat point, at that early in the
process, you were thinking you wereone hundred percent in the victim's space,

(25:08):
one hundred percent. You are theonly one. You cannot think clearly.
You are not thinking logically, Youare not thinking that there is possibly something
positive you're going to come out ofthis, and that process for me at
least, I know there's some otherpeople that you know immediately are able to
turn that switch. And but Ididn't have the extensive amount of military training.
Listen. I joined in September twothousand and two, I was deployed

(25:32):
in March of two thousand and three, and I was injured in April.
I mean seven months. I mean, I didn't have a lot of military
training behind me, and so needlessto say, but one of the things
that was instilled to me in thatshort amount of time was this concept of
service at being a part of themilitary. I loved it, and like
every other service member that has beeninjured, I asked my doctor the question,
when can I get to the hospital, When can I recover? When

(25:53):
can I go back? And that'swhen he told me that I was not
going to be allowed to stay inthe United States Army because of the injuries.
Now, that was more of likethe believe it or not the final
punch that I took. That tome, it was like, you're taking
away both of my identities, meaningthe physical identity that I have and also
the identity of being in the military, of being of service, being in
uniform, and yeah, that musthave really been jarring. Now we have

(26:15):
six minutes. I want to getthrough this because this is like a double
segment. Now I want to pointout your acting career, So I'm going
to fast forward to two thousand andeight. You were cast on ABC's daytime
drama All My Children, and yourcharacter also served in the army in Iraq
and was injured in combat. Andthen you appeared on the season sixth finale
of Army Wives as a physical therapistcheating injured vets, so you were able

(26:37):
to relate to that character. Andin two and thirteen you began on the
syndicated Staff three portraying a Los AngelesCounty firefighter paramedic. And then you went
on to Dancing with the Stars.Now that was epic, And of course
you want how did your experiences asof course a burned victim influence your Hollywood
career and how do you really copewith any underlying physical or emotional difficulties that

(27:00):
resulted from those injuries while you're infront of the camera. Well, I
gotta tell you, I was incrediblyblessed that all of those opportunities were willing
to incorporate a lot of my reallife experiences and that made it real.
So in some cases I really wasn'tacting. I was just telling the story
of myself and a lot of identityI was. I was essentially telling the
story of all of us. Andso you know, I was allowed to

(27:22):
authentically just kind of be myself.I just had to figure out how to
really act it out. Meanwhile,I'd been living in my entire life up
at to that point, and soyou know, listen, I think you
know a lot of what I've beenthrough has prepared me for those big stage
entertainment opportunities as a speaker. Now, when I'm in front of audiences,
when I'm in public and people arelooking at me, I think you developed

(27:45):
this ability to where you have tosay to yourself, if I give the
power to every single individual that looksat me and does a double take,
and you know, stares at meand never comes up to me and ask
me what happened or what's your nameor hello? They just want to stare
at me from a distance to pretendthat I don't I don't see them.
What that does. What I've learnedover this injury is that I learned I
learned how to take the power backfrom those situations, I learned how to

(28:07):
dictate the conversation. I understand like, if someone staring at me, I'm
going to approach that individual because it'slike, you're making me feel very uncomfortable
and you're making me even more selfaware about the things that I am carrying
on my body. So I'm justgoing to go up to that individual,
take the power back, and I'mgoing to say, Hi, how are
you doing today? What's your name? And literally, and when you do
that, people are like, oh, hi, my name is you know,

(28:29):
and you start a conversation and thenbefore you know it, however long
that conversation lasts, you end it. You never touched on what happened to
you? You never touched on what'slife like? You never touched on how
did you overcome it? You touchedon you connected as a person, You
connected as a husband, you connectedas a parent, you connected as an
entrepreneur, you connected as a loverof coffee because you're in a coffee shop
waiting in line, like, that'swhat you connect on. And so for

(28:52):
me, I really try to takethat power away from those external, you
know, energies that try to,you know, try to dictate how my
day is going to go. Becauseif I allowed them to essentially have that
power, I would be I wouldbe controlled, and my energy would be
dictated, and I wouldn't I wouldjust be triggered every every time I step
outside of my house. And sofor me, I was like, I'm

(29:15):
taking control. You are and that'swhat I love about you, because you
are the definition of how success isnot measured by what amount accomplishes, but
by the opposition he has encountered andthe courage with which he has maintained the
struggle against overwhelming odds. And that'swhat you did. Now, how do
you how do you maintain a positiveoutlook and continue to inspire others despite all

(29:38):
the challenges that you faced. Listen, I'm gonna tell you one of the
one thing I did not touch onI think it's important to touch on is
the Obviously, the physical recovery wasincredibly difficult, but the most difficult part
of the recovery process for me wasthe mental was emotional. Um, you
know was It wasn't easy and itdidn't immediately happened. When I got out
of the army at twenty two yearsold and I went into the civilian world

(30:00):
as we refer to it, andI just was like, I'm happy,
I'm positive. No, I putit on. I put on a front,
and behind closed doors I was Iwas unhappy. I was oppressed,
I was drinking a lot. Iwas not in the best place in life.
And it my life really changed whenI finally understood what it meant to
be vulnerable and I found the rightpeople that I could be vulnerable with.
That's when my life really changed.But to your question as far as like

(30:23):
how do I stay positive, Listen, I practice positivity daily. I mean
it is not something that I justwake up and I'm just like, here
we go, it's gonna be agreat day. No. Like, I'm
a human being and there are thingsthat try to beat me down every single
day, like all of us.The biggest thing that I try to focus
on and the thing that keeps mein that space of being positive most of
the time is I sort of youknow, people say never look back,

(30:45):
Well, I tend to look back. I look back every now and then
because I look at a situation thatI overcame before. I look at a
situation that I didn't think was goingto work itself out, and it did.
I think about everything that I've endured, everything that I've overcome, and
so what I do is I applythat to this very scenario where things aren't
necessarily going my way. And Icould sit here and say, you know
what, but you're good, You'regood, just stay with it. Just

(31:06):
trust also to listen. I'm notgoing to sit here in front. I
pull energy from you and people outthere in the world that have incredible stories,
incredible experiences. This isn't a thingthat I can navigate by myself.
I am being motivated by people thatare out there in the world that are
sharing their stories with all of us. And I see that and I'm just
like, life is beautiful. Andthe biggest thing I keep telling myself,

(31:32):
no matter what it is that I'mgoing through, from a career standpoint,
from a relationship standpoint, from whateveryou name it, I always say to
myself, this isn't it. Thisisn't it. And that was one of
the biggest things I told myself whenI was nineteen years old, after I
saw it understood the severity of myinjuries, I kept saying to myself,
this isn't it, This can't beit. There is more to life.
This isn't. This isn't where I'mgoing to be placed to be stuck.

(31:53):
And and because I just believe that, and I just kept paying attention to
different things out there in world andthings that people would perceive as coincidences,
yet I don't perceive them as coincidences. I believe that that's a sign there's
a direction there for me. Ithink it's what's led me to get to
this point, and I think it'swhat's going to allow me to continue to
succeed. And so I think,you know, anybody listening, this is

(32:15):
the perfect part. Beauty is really, this is what we talk about.
Beauty is having a beautiful soul whichthat manifests on the outside. And the
most beautiful people I've met really arethose with scars. I mean you in
sars. My scars tell a story. They tell you that I've been through

(32:36):
something, but they also telling youthat I'm still going through something. But
they're also telling you that I'm willingto show up every single day. And
so whatever that scar may be,whatever cause that scar doesn't matter, own
it, embrace it, like whocares if somebody Because if you're worried about
somebody else, and like oh,how are they going to perceive that.
Let me tell you something that anindividual eat has a much of scars that
they don't want to show because they'renot completely comfortable yet. But like everybody

(33:00):
has it. And here's the crazything. And I know you probably thought
hold that back an extended segment becausewe've run out of time here on live
radio, but I just want todirect people. Told you I talk a
lot. I know we're going todirect people to your social media handle,
but we will come back for extendedsegment. And guys, if you want
to hear more of what we're talkingabout, you can also check out the
extended segment on the YouTube channel,of course, and on OTT and OTA.

(33:21):
But definitely check him out. JR. Martinez, Army vet Burden,
survivor, actor, motivational speaker,New York Times bestselling author, and of
course, Dancing with the Stars Seasonthirteen winner. Check him out on the
gram at I am JR. Martinez. You're listening to a moment of Zen
right here on seven ten, worethe Voice of New York iHeartRadio. We'll
be right back after this. AMoment of Zen is brought to you by

(33:42):
Caldwell Solmes Incorporated, investing globally intransformative businesses like Original Digital Corporation or ODC.
ODC develops advanced consumer and commercial fintechsolutions such as ogpa, which will
transform the way you manage your moneyfrom sending and receiving money globally for free,
paying for goods and services in personand online pay bills, buy and
sell digital currencies, all while earninginterest. Ogpa is easy to set up,

(34:06):
FDIC ensured and your information is secured. Checkout ogpay dot com. Welcome
back, beautiful Tristate area. You'relistening to a moment of Zen right here
on seven ten wore the voice ofNew York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen. Sam's up next in ourInnovation and Tech segment brought to you by
ogpa dot Com. Today, we'refeaturing my dear friend, Brian J.

(34:28):
Esposito, ranked among the world's topten CEOs three years in a row.
He's the founder and CEO of EspositoIntellectual Enterprises, an award winning serial entrepreneur,
of course and business leader. EIEcurrently consists of over one hundred and
eight entities over two hundred joint venturesthat have been accumulated around the world and
proudly operate in over twenty five industries. They have an arsenal of IP technology,

(34:52):
products, solutions and services supported byexceptional management, accounting, compliance,
legal and private security. Today,he joins me inhouse to chat about innovation,
music, sports, the metaverse,and the disruptive emerging industries making investors
a ton of money. Now tohelp you get a sense of how vague
them the metaverse can be, here'san exercise not tally replace the phrase the

(35:15):
metaverse in a sentence with cyberspace.Ninety percent of the time, the meaning
won't substantially change. And that's becausethe term doesn't really refer to any one
specific type of technology, but ratherabroad and often speculative shift in how we
interact with technology. And in fact, I say that it's entirely possible that

(35:37):
the term itself will eventually become justas antiquated, even as if the specific
technology it once described becomes commonplace.Now, we're going to welcome to the
show, the amazing Brian Esposito.Before we get started, my friend,
welcome to iHeartRadio. Thank you Zanappreciate being here so much. Absolutely so,
let's chat music, entertainment, andip xyz dot network. So I

(36:02):
went through this ip x y zand they are clearly leveraging the power of
web three to ultimately allow artists controlover their music copyrights. And of course
this is going to boost ongoing profitsand discover the limitless, really new limitless
business opportunities here, because this iswhere we're headed in this industry. But
the problem with the music industry isthat more creators and co creators enter the

(36:27):
market each day, and most ofthem can't sustain their activity. Centralized structures
in the music business and data economylead the hardship and devaluation of IP assets.
Creators do not control their own destiny, even though legal framework is in
place and current revenue models are inhibitiveto value creation. So tell me,
Brian, how is ip xyz thesolution? Oh, thank you so much

(36:50):
for bringing that up in that greatoverview. Well, we've done with ip
xyz is put the power into thecreator's hands for the first time ever.
They're going to have a real dashboardto where their music is being consumed,
how it's being consumed with a country, which region, and actually have full
control and ownership of their IP onan hourly, real time basis. We're
able to do that because amazing expertsin industry leaders such as Stefan Schultz,

(37:15):
my co founder, and John carrosT Balmore, and these are people that
have led digital rights and the evolutionof the music industry since the late nineties
up until today. Music industry,like many other industries, it really is
a relationship based play. You can'tmake major moves in banking, some sports,

(37:35):
gambling and music unless you know theright people get blessed to be able
to do things like this, andthe timing is now, the power is
now. There's over one hundred millioncreators out in the world that are putting
music out into the world or somesort of content and IP there's over twenty
thousand new IP pieces of music contentcreated each day. Is as massive amount
of content. Now to have adashboard like this that's not centralized, that's

(37:59):
able to cross platform because in reality, Sony doesn't talk to Warren or Warden
doesn't talk to Universal. Everything isso siloed. And in order to properly
value that music and that IP andhow it's being consumed, you need something
like this. The music industry needssomething like this, and we're going to
prove that the music industry is completelyundervalued because it doesn't know where this music

(38:20):
is being consumed and properly monetized.So when these catalogs are being sold for
tens of millions, hundreds of millionsof dollars, we think there's a lot
of money being left on the table. And we're also giving a beautiful tool
for independent artists that are going intothis field to have all of their IP
in one location, to do itright from the beginning, and to have
complete ownership of that IP along withwhoever they may have co written that lyric

(38:42):
with or that music with. Ilove it, I p x y Z
baby, Let's take it home.And so what you're saying is it's this
creator centric, secure, open platformto protect, manage, and basically monetize
all their IP and data, youknow, with their peers in real time
anywhere in the world. It's fantasticstick and that's the kind of disruptive emerging
industry technology that I love to hearabout. Now, let's chat sports,

(39:07):
entertainment and the metaverse. Now,one of the companies in your portfolio is
metasports Arena dot Com, bringing novelcapabilities to the traditional ways sports teams and
entertainers and brands and fans interact witheach other. Another one of my favorites,
so metasport Arena is a company behindsam Marina and sam Marina is the

(39:27):
first sports and entertainment binance blockchain basedmetaverse. How long do you think,
Brian, it will be before massadoptions? And are these tech startups generating
any real return on investment just yet? So great question. When I go
into businesses or get behind businesses likemetasport Arena, I always look at the
founders or vision, their experience andwhat they're trying to accomplish, and I

(39:52):
no longer do anything in the hopesof having a return. We actually build
in real life, realistic business modelsat generating earnings, put businesses on a
positive momentum for cash flow and growingfrom those cash for those getting these startups
off of this raised money, runningout of money, raised money, running
out of money hamster wheel, whereultimately there have no more equity left to
raise. They're working for their investorsand they lost complete control of their business.

(40:15):
What I love about metasport Arena andtheir founder, Julian Savada is an
amazing, beautiful person, an incrediblestory of why he wanted to create this
and bring experiences to six children.Originally, he unfortunately went through an awful
situation where his wife was pregnant withtwins. He was in the hospital.
There was a just a bad outcome. One of them had lost their life.

(40:37):
But he saw all of these kidsin that hospital wing that we're looking
out their window, and he sawthat they're not going to experience life,
They're not going to experience great momentsin music and sports. So that's when
he set off of his other pathworking with Formula one and other great industries
like European football to create metasport Arena. So he had me hooked, like
what can we do to actually makethis viral realistic and actually make a different

(41:00):
friends. And what I love aboutthis play is that anybody can access it
from any device. You don't haveto have the expensive VR goggles, because
that's the biggest hurdle to barrier rightnow is how do you experience the metaverse
and all these great experiences If youdon't have the equipment, or you feel
inferior, you don't feel confident withyou don't know how to use it,
and you just you ultimately give upso step one to get what you're saying

(41:20):
from mass adoption. You can accessit from any desktop, laptop, or
mobile device. And then it's buildingcities around sport. Just like every major
city, there's a stadium there andthere's businesses that are thriving. There's restaurants,
there's all different types of other experiencesaround that stadium, and those other
businesses have ancillary benefits when there's ashow in town, when is a sporting
event. So replicating real life experiencesin the metaverse is the first step to

(41:43):
getting people to understand it that it'sno different than walking around in real life.
The key is and how I alwayshave to loop it back into real
life. People need to drink water, they need to get real food,
and they need to buy real clothes. You can't live in the metaverse twenty
four seven. So how do weenhance experiences for brands metasport arena, How
do we engage fan base and havea better experience for that game or that

(42:06):
music event, and how do webring them back something in real life?
So that's the loop. It's gota fullback in real life. It's got
to enhance the entire model in theexperience and I'm often talent companies don't throw
out that you're in Web three.You don't throw out that you're in a
metaverse. If you can't properly supportit the communities in that world, they
will abandon your brand in real lifeif you're not actually participating correctly, not

(42:29):
necessarily handling over your social media leads, and you're delaboratising people, they're not
necessarily the right people that should handleyour brand in the metaverse. You need
to go out and cultivate and bringin new talent to handle that segment because
it is entirely different worlds entirely different. You said it, and Forbes named
the metaverse in Fact one of thetop ten trends anybody must be ready for

(42:49):
in twenty twenty three, Global spendingon VRAR, the metaverse's foundation technology,
is expected to rise from are youready twelve billion, which was the number
in twenty twenty, to seventy threebillion by twenty twenty four. Now.
Because of this, obviously, leadersand industries like gaming and retail, and
arts and healthcare and blockchain are determininghow to position themselves to your point as

(43:14):
critical players in this emerging ecosystem,and you need to be a critical player,
otherwise you lose. So let's chatvirtual stacks. Okay. So,
virtual stacks are digital trading cards verifiedon blockchain and issued by talented people from
various industries on the exchange. Andthe exchange is the first global exchange for

(43:35):
backing talent, essentially accessible through theStacks app. And the exchange basically provides
people, to my understanding, withthe opportunity to fund their own dreams,
monetize their popularity, and cultivate afollowing of loyal fans who can participate in
their journey to the top. Sofans can buy and sell, and trade
and collect the digital trading cards throughthe stack through the Stacks app. Now

(43:59):
to my understanding, whether you're arising star or superstar, everyone can leverage
virtual stacks to create this awesome digitalexperience that essentially the platform is selling.
But people from all passions of life, right be it athletes and actors or
celebrities or musicians or influencers and entrepreneursare able to issue their own stacks.

(44:20):
But how can one benefit from astacks ownership as a fan? That's what
I want to know. Great questions. A virtual stacks is one of my
favorite holdings, one of my largestholdings. It's supported and powers turn coin,
which is the first of its kindregistered sec digital security. So we've
spent five years twenty eight million inprivate strudgic capital building this correctly, working

(44:43):
with regulatory and building the business modelwhich you mentioned as virtual stacks. We
have the full support of icons asour ambassadors like Patrick Mahomes, Von Miller,
Kim Jordan, Drew Brees. Weannounced Luke Bryant as our music ambassador.
And so when you launch a platformlike this and you want to do
a correct and do something that's neverbeen done before, you have to make
sure you have all the legal blessingsacross multiple countries to be able to operate.

(45:06):
We've achieved that. Then, toanswer your question, you need to
have credibility and giant reach, andwe've achieved that with these great ambassadors that
are supporting us and then believing us. And they do believe and they've vocalized
it that this is the future ofhow you enhance and empower rising stars.
So if you are a Mahomes,it's a great new liquidity event, new
revenue stream for you to connect toyour fan base. You have given the

(45:29):
opportunity to hold that virtual trading card, to have a closer proximity other utilities
and perks, and also benefit inthe upside and the supply and demand of
his career to continue to excel andpeople to want more and more of him.
I eat more and more ownership ofthose virtual stacks. Therefore, the
share price should go up, orthat virtual Stacks trading card should go off.
Now why I got involved in whatI loved about it is what you

(45:51):
were talking about about the amateurs andnovices in the world. To me,
I look at it like it's ago fund me and a person go on
public in the same regulated exchange formwhere they can issue virtual trading cards of
themselves. So if they're not yetat Patrick Mahomes, but they want to
be the next Mahomes and they're inhigh school, they can issue virtual trading
cards to their local community. They'refan base, their friends, their family,

(46:12):
coaches, teachers, and say,hey, back me, support me.
I am going to continue to goafter my career in dreams and I'm
not going to give up on it, and I need your financial support.
So people that are backing them,they're part of their journey now. They're
actually with them, rather than justliking a post that they put on Instagram
or seeing a great YouTube clip ofthem. They can actually be part of
their journey. And as that player'spopularity increases and their demand increases, the

(46:36):
price of that virtual trading card wouldincrease because more and more people want it.
So as you're backing people and scoutingpeople and giving people the opportunity to
succeed, you actually can have afinancial upside if they make it and when
they make it. And this appliesto every aspect of life. You want
to be the next Billy Joel andbeing the greatest piano player, but they've
got no money for a keyboard orlessons. You throw some virtual stacks into

(46:58):
our platform and bring in some money. You want to be in the next
Derek Jeter. You have no moneyfor a minute, same exact money,
just really, and you convert likesinto dollars. Really, it's got me
thinking so many more questions. ButI only have like four minutes left,
So now I'm gonna chat revenue streamsthat you're just obviously talking about these incredible
revenue streams, right, So everyoneis talking about how celebrities are jumping on

(47:22):
the blockchain, metaverse, crypto world, NFT, whatnot. But some say
beware, They say the metaverse introducesinnovative ways for musicians, of course,
to monetize their work, you know, from virtual merchandise to NFTs and in
world sponsorships and these new revenue streams. To your point, they supplement traditional
income sources and they help artists reallyachieve financial sustainability in this ever changing industry

(47:45):
landscape. And it's really ever changingnow. While the support from numerous A
list celebrities expedited the NFT boom intwenty twenty one and twenty twenty two,
some promoted unvetted projects to fans withoutknowing if they were legitimate or scams,
and they ended up in a tonof heat. Often this is referred to

(48:05):
as NFT shilling. Now, weclearly need more regulation here, Brian,
what do you say to this.I mean it's great that the foundation was
based. I mean, I thinkthe boom happened for multiple reasons. There
was a global shutdown, so peoplewere thriving to do something, so that
was a big reason why that explodedso quickly. And those communities were built
so quickly because people were trapped intheir home. So you had that happening,
which made a huge impact into theindustry. Secondly, a lot of

(48:30):
I don't a lot of talent,and I talked about this even when Kim
Kardashian got into some heat about herback in one of those those tokens or
those those cryptocurrencies. It's not theirfault. It goes into their management.
They don't have the right legal advocatesthat understand this space. So a lot
of celebrities got pushed into an opportunitywhere they're taking the heat, but it
really was not their fault. Therewas a there was a movement happening,

(48:52):
there was excitement. There was nogames going on, there was no concerts
being played, there was no reallife events. So this was another way
for these celebrities or icons to beable to connect with their fan base and
more importantly, keep bringing them moneybecause they tend to have expensive lifestyles and
they don't want to see the spoutstop spitting out water. So that's what
happened. But going forward, whichis why I always surround myself with a

(49:14):
proper legal accounting and appliance. Dearfriend and colleague and even our chief legal
officer, or at virtual stacks andturn cooin. Mister Royal Campos, previous
Commissier of the SEC. There's alwaysopportunities out there. Just be smart about
it. Ask questions and if don'tfeel stupid, if you don't know the
answer or you don't want to askthe question, surround yourself with people that

(49:34):
understand what you can and cannot do. Never operate in a grayer and think
you can just throw your hands upand say I'm sorry, I didn't know.
It's enough education, there's enough experience, there's enough literature out there.
If something's a security, it's prettyblack and white. If it generates some
kind of return, it's an assetbase, it's backed by something. It's
very obvious what the security, whatis not Now. I love the NFT

(49:54):
idea. I love what it cando for fan bases and a close proximity
to maybe a celebrity or an icon, but it's got to provide real value.
It's got to provide some sort ofreal utility that gives it something of
substance and all access past to maybesomething that that's noise, that that didn't
have legs as we saw, whichis why there's been a little bit of
a correction, but going forward,the model works. The technology is fantastic

(50:16):
as far as blockchain and what youcan do with these assets and in the
digital asset environment. Just make sureyou actually provide real value. Otherwise the
industrial fall and it's flip on itsface. We need every project that's going
into the market to succeed. Yeah, exactly, no more ftxs. The
bad apples need to stay away.And interesting because if you talk about shilling,

(50:37):
right, the word it's actually aname of currency from the Old World
English coinage from like the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries, and shill is also a
word used in casinos for a longIt's been used for forever, and it's
interpreted to mean like a stooge,and shilling sometimes has like a bad rap
to It is the terms associated withmisleading or disrupting a game, you know,

(50:59):
in a casino, but it's usedfor a gambler who plays using the
casino's money in order to keep thegames going when there's not sufficient players,
which is an interesting analogy to thewhole ecosystem of NFTs and needing mass adoptions
and needing sufficient players. But Ithink to your point, they did it
blindly, not knowing the repercussions,and the SEC finally woke up and the

(51:22):
regulators said, hey, hey,hey, you know, take a step
back because we need to, youknow, check some boxes here and dot
some eyes and cross some teas properlybefore we proceed. And I think mass
adoption and regulation are key. Nowwe are out of time. Brian,
it was such a pleasure chatting withyou. You are amazing. Trying to
keep up with you, but Iappreciate the kind words. Well I found

(51:43):
my twin. Definitely definitely check outBrian and all those amazing companies. You
can head directly on his website atEIE dot rocks. It's Esposito Intellectual Enterprises.
He's CEO and founder. You canfind them all over social media at
Brian j Zero, Brian Underscore jEsposito and definitely head to virtual Stax dot

(52:05):
com or you can check out ipx y Z dot Network. That was
our innovation and Tech segment brought toyou by OGPA dot com. You're listening
to a moment of Zen right hereon seven ten war the Voice of New
York iHeartRadio, will be right backafter this. A moment of Zen is
brought to you by Caldwell Solmes Incorporated, investing globally in transformative businesses like Original

(52:27):
Digital Corporation or ODC. ODC developsadvanced consumer and commercial fintech solutions such as
OGPA, which will transform the wayyou manage your money from sending or receiving
money globally for free, paying forgoods and services in person and online pay
bills, buy and sell digital currencies, all while earning interest. OGPA is
easy to set up, FDIC ensuredand your information is secured. Check out

(52:49):
ogpay dot com. Well that's arap, my dear friends. Remember to
join me right here on seven tenwar, the voice of New York iHeartRadio,
every Saturday night from nine to tenpm, or you could head to
seven ten woar dot iHeart dot comforward slash a Moment of Zen. Also
remember that we're live on Traverse TVSundays at one pm Eastern YouTube Sundays at
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(53:14):
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You could head directly to our channelthere at MX dot your hometv dot com
thank you for listening to a Momentof Zen. It's been an absolute pleasure
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(53:36):
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