Larry Rodriguez / Episode 3

Larry Rodriguez is an up-and-coming Marketing expert from El Paso, Texas. He's one of the best at what he does, especially for his age, but what does that mean for the future? Meet the media creator who's brings his bicultural perspective to work, trying to evolve how we do things to bridge the ever-growing gap between Gen X and Gen Z.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Alrighty.
We're here with Larry Rodriguez, the media extraordinaire, the one everyone has beenasking about to be recorded uh or to be interviewed.
They want to hear from you.
They want to know what you're up to.
Can you introduce yourself, Larry?

(00:25):
Yeah, um, guess Larry Rodriguez Shay, I don't usually do this part because I have apodcast of my own and I'm usually on the other side.
I guess my whole life journalistically, I've been the interviewer, not the interviewee.
So this is a pretty new introduction for me.
Um, 24.

(00:46):
You're 24 when you gosh, how long you've been 24 now.
for 22 days.
Wow.
Oops.
Happy birthday.
I don't know if you did text me after a day or not.
Probably should check, but...
I feel like you did.
let's not worry about that right now.
Let's just worry about being 24.

(01:09):
like men right they i made this joke to a lot of people i think it's true you don't reallyhave important birthdays like 18 25 35 like skips 10 years at a time every 10 years is
important and then anything after like 75 nowadays is like oh you made it you know whatmean but

(01:31):
yeah, after 75 is extra inning so you may get that far then.
You're in overtime.
Yeah, that's true.
It's like...
When was the last time you heard someone say like, yeah, I turned 24.
Super exciting.
I feel like it's like a weird...
almost never, you though are on.

(01:54):
cares.
You know, they're like, wow, you turned 30, you turned 35.
I'm not sure the older after after 30 it might be over time also depending on who you ask.
But that puts you at the precipice of a generation.
So are you are you Gen Z?
Are you millennial?
Definitely not millennial.
I don't identify with like anything millennial.

(02:16):
least I don't think so.
We're just asking factually.
So you're a Gen Z-er, right?
You're Gen Z baby.
What are some other terms for this generation?
Just off the top of your head.
Um, one of my favorite one is zoomers.

(02:38):
Politically that they say that a lot.
So you had COVID.
in what your last years of college?
Well, my first, second and third year of college was the COVID years.
Wow.
Looking back, it doesn't it doesn't look like it's been that long, or hasn't feel likeit's been that close, whichever way you want to look at it.

(03:05):
So you're 24 now, you spent half of your college career in the COVID times.
And now you're in the workforce.
Texas COVID, is that worse?
For all our non Texas listeners.
COVID is basically like people live in Florida, probably relate to it.

(03:26):
It wasn't that serious.
I feel like I mean, yes, it was obviously very serious.
Like the death count was in the millions.
However, people in Texas didn't take it very seriously, even though they should have beentaken it seriously.
And like comparatively to like a state like California that took it like super, superserious where they were on like very strict lockdowns for

(03:48):
you know, months on end, but like a Texas lockdown was like more of a suggestion than likea really strictly followed rule.
So that's what I mean by that.
I'm not trying to diminish the impact it's had, like millions of people died, was hardlylike nothing compared to like a California, strict it was in California, or it was even

(04:10):
less strict in Florida at the time.
Like Florida basically was like what they did, COVID never happened in Florida basically.
with how people acted is what I'm trying to say.
that now.
Just comparatively to these other places, we didn't have as strict of a lockdown.
yeah, we did it.
Yeah, I think.

(04:31):
other places where it was like felt for weeks and months.
People would like...
I remember people would wear masks into like a restaurant and then they go sit down attheir table and everybody takes their masks off at their table.
Which is like totally defeats the purpose of masking in the first place.
Like yeah you're separated by...

(04:51):
You you can't have two booths that are seated next to each other.
So there's like a booth, an empty booth, a booth.
But still you're like in an enclosed space for an hour, an hour and a half at a time.
So yeah it's...
I think it's a miracle that we didn't have more people die here.
I don't know how the state count, I just know the total death count was pretty high.

(05:13):
It's not small, but it's ironic that it is felt so right, depending on the day, it's likeit didn't happen.
So it's a really interesting situation that everyone probably felt somebody lost somebodyfrom COVID also.
But three years later, four years later on, it starts to diminish.

(05:39):
Do you feel like the classes you took?
that were over zoom.
Like did that have an effect was that that ended up being a bad thing at the end of thisall.
I think the biggest thing was it definitely prepared for prepared me for like remote worklike doing work remotely and then it also taught me a little bit more not taught but It

(06:05):
gave me a lot of confidence like in self-study because I taught myself calculus basicallywith like the guidance of the teacher like what was recommended but You know, it wasn't in
person or in class and I think I've been in person
sounds scary
It was not too bad.
oh
of those gifted minds.

(06:25):
No, I wouldn't say that either.
I don't think I got, I think I got like an 80 in the class or 79.
I literally got like a 79 in calculus, so definitely not gifted.
So I guess I'm do a good job teaching myself, but going into it, I definitely thought Iwas gonna fail the class.
I barely, I guess I barely passed.
I don't know, whatever you want, whatever you want, look at it.

(06:46):
But um.
we're gonna count that as not bad.
Yeah, I guess that's a good thing.
But no, don't think that...
obviously had an impact, but I don't think they were necessarily super debilitatingimpacts.
It was a good impact, I guess.
It prepared me for an inevitable future of remote work.

(07:11):
But what I see is an inevitable future.
I wonder how inevitable was 10 years ago.
So how much do you work remotely?
Yeah.
I was at St.
Mary's.
had a call.
We had a meeting.
So I was like an SGA or whatever.
We had a meeting with this guy and SGA stands for student government.

(07:33):
We had a meeting with this guy and he was like, Hey, our school's investing in this newtechnology called zoom.
And he's like, zoom will help for remote classes and online classes, et cetera.
He's like, we just invested in it.
This is like a new company.
We're actually like one of their pilot schools.
because we're going to be trying it out at large.
And he was really excited about it.

(07:54):
And everybody was like, oh, this is kind of cool.
Like, I could see this being helpful in the future.
Like, we're just testing it out.
I'm not even kidding you, like 14 days later is when the shutdowns happened.
So, so he like literally was, we had the meeting and then two weeks later, the wholecountry or the whole world really shuts down.
I just wanted to tell that story because like I said, it prepped for the future of remotework, like we were saying, and the inevitability of it.

(08:20):
I oh work for a remote first, remote.
I have a very heavily remotely oriented team.
So my full 40 hours a week is remote.
And then on the top.
exactly what I was wondering.
Yeah, so the full 40 hours is remote.
There's no in office.

(08:42):
We do have in-person things like scattered throughout the year that we have a quarterlymeeting coming up pretty soon in San Antonio.
But other than that, like I said, it is fully remote.
oh And like remote for me looks different than most people.
It involves going to coffee shops, to libraries, to spaces like that.

(09:02):
I feel if you're remote worker, have to take advantage of that.
think if you're a social person or outgoing, uh take advantage of the fact that you havethe freedom to work from wherever you want.
And I mean, if your job is okay with it you're making enough money, I don't do this, butit's something that I'm sure everybody kind of fantasizes about doing.
Why not go work from Mexico or from Australia or countries that are on pretty similar timezones?

(09:28):
m
you've seen that opportunity out there.
you maybe an ad or some sort of real or to talk about overseas remote work?
Virtual, virtual Caribbean work.
Your office could be overlooking the Greek Mediterranean.

(09:50):
I think you see a lot of people on...
I don't personally know very many people that do do it, but I think it's one of thosethings you see online all the time.
That's like the beginning of hostile like I'm going out there for remote work and thenmissing a kidney two weeks later.
That's a really niche reference that I don't know if a lot of people get.

(10:10):
Hopefully they do.
They're well watched filmgoers.
for our listeners today comment whether or not you watched the movie hostile below in thecomments.
That would be today's question.
most terrifying movies in her life because it's a very real scenario right?
It's scary.

(10:32):
That's why the idea of doing something like that is daunting, because you don't youalready Okay, let me frame it this way.
And this is a part of why we're talking to you today.
We're talking about this after college, post college experience and that transition intoit.
And so it's already scary when you're graduating from college, it's already scary to goout into the workforce for your first full time job.

(10:59):
Now imagine trying to handle your first year at a new office and a new career.
And you're also trying to learn the local language, right?
There's something like that is what I'm imagining makes it so difficult.
Well, I would think for majority of people they should probably like, if you're everthinking about doing something like this, you should probably start in an easy country

(11:22):
where majority of the people...
But if not the majority, it's very easy to find people that do speak English if you're anEnglish speaker.
For a lot of people that I know, a lot of people that I know are Hispanic, so it's likeeasy for them to go to Mexico or somewhere in South America.
If they do speak Spanish or if not, the culture is pretty similar.

(11:42):
I wouldn't recommend, for example, Japan.
Japan is a very...
oh Yeah, one, you have to know Japanese, but two, they're not exactly very friendly totourists that aren't.
And especially tourists like this, if they are friendly to tourists or people that aretrying to live there, you have to be willing to assimilate.

(12:03):
If you're not willing to assimilate, they're not going to be friendly to you.
So if you're not making an effort to learn Japanese, to adopt a culture and practices andstandards...
Yeah, it's very different from like other countries.
uh
you're, you're willing to do.
You're willing to do, or we're willing to do.
oh Not to Japan.

(12:25):
mean, if money was no issue and also, we'll say, my bosses and people were totally coolwith it, I'd be down to go spend a month in Australia, couple of months in Europe.
There's a lot of different places that I would be willing to go to if money and time wasnot an issue.

(12:47):
and that sounds like in a world where you're acclimated well acclimated you're startingsomewhere where you got a little bit of traction maybe it's not your first month maybe you
you've gotten some time with the company and then you get to go spend a few months away acouple months away

(13:09):
yeah.
Unless you're super skilled, I don't think that's an ask you can make right away.
But if you're like a, let's say like a director level, you could probably say like, hey,I'm going to be remote and I'm going to be working from Europe or something like that.
Right.
It's a little bit.
this is realistically, think realistically, we're talking more to the 25 to 35 year old.

(13:35):
And that person who they probably got a little, they either starting or maybe they got alittle bit under their belt, but they're still not the top level big dog, honcho, able to
walk into office with their dicks swinging around.
And everybody in the face, I still got to ask permission and be polite and things.
So that's

(13:57):
I don't know, it makes a big difference.
I remember being that intern level and then being the director level, which is not it'snot about I'm glad we're not talking about me today.
But there's a big difference.
But then you take that away.
There's not even an office.
Where do you get to swing yours around?

(14:19):
You know?
So there's been like a lot of talk recently, like on articles and like, you know,Instagram videos or whatever, about like one of the benefits of, it's mostly from older
people.
like, it's a question of like how true it is, but they talk about the benefits of likewater cooler conversations and like talking to people in the work, in the workplace, going

(14:43):
out for a drink afterwards.
I do think there's a lot of value in those.
for the social life aspect, don't necessarily, I don't know if they're really advancingyour career a lot, because those are also conversations you can have.
If you have a very tech savvy team, those are conversations you can have over Zoom orSlack or, you know, a quick phone call, whatever the case is.

(15:04):
But I think for the socialization, it's really important.
oh Humans are inherently social creatures.
You know, it doesn't, even if you're an introverted person, you probably still want like,
one, maybe two social interactions per week.
So you have to find a way to still make those happen even if you are fully remote.

(15:26):
And it's something like, I have a friend that's a little bit younger than me.
He's about two years younger than me.
And he was making roughly 120, $130,000 a year.
They had a mandate that everyone had to go back to the office.
He literally quit the job.
He was, he wasn't.
He was making that much and he was living very well.

(15:49):
So they had a back to office mandate.
quit his job within like a week and found a different one.
do you learn?
Where do you learn the humility when you're making that much?
I guess you're working so much that you got you got to be sick at your fucking job.
So where's the the gratitude and humility slip in?
I'm sorry, I just probably
in computer science, I mean, he worked his ass off to get there, I feel like.

(16:13):
If anybody deserves it, it's like somebody who worked hard to get to this position.
He wasn't handed, like, he has no silver spoon, nothing like that.
Fair enough.
Fair enough.
I hope that people hear how I'm worked up a little bit because of this idea.
And it's the idea that in this world, it's like, right now you're either able to make itor, or you're not.

(16:36):
And if you're able to make it, it's because you're, you're lucky or you're a nipple babyof some sort, you know?
So he took, he went from about 130 to about 80,000 just to remain fully remote because herefused to go back into office.
And he literally told, he told me, he was like, yeah, I took about a 30, $40,000 pay cutjust to stay fully remote.

(17:01):
It's 2025.
I can't imagine a company having a full on office, a fully in office all the time type ofthing.
For his type of work, for tech work, it doesn't like,
For tech teams especially, there's no reason for anyone to be really anywhere as long asthe work is getting done.

(17:22):
For our field, yeah.
For even our field, like marketing, like there's even less of like, other than actuallycapturing content, there's no reason to be in what market you're serving.
You know, I'm running...
we have a lot more software.
I'm running ads for a client in a city in the middle of Wisconsin that I've never been to.

(17:42):
Like, you know what mean?
There's no reason for, like I said, for anyone, for most jobs that are like corporate techbased or just say like blue collar jobs, there's not really reason to be anywhere.
I can think of a couple where you do have to be somewhere, but you know, tech, marketing,even some types of sales.

(18:08):
sort of out of all the sort of things that were supposed to be achieved by making it tothe future.
I'm glad that that virtual remote work is one of them because you know, it's not like wehave flying cars or anything but I went to college and I can do my job that I went to

(18:29):
college for
away from an office.
I can do it virtually.
I can 100 % do it in my chunis and the office at home if I wanted to.
But you don't it's balanced.
mean, can it be balanced though?
I guess is what I'm wondering too, where there is still a need to go into the office,right?

(18:51):
So like I said, I think the primary benefit of going to the office is socializing.
don't really...
Socializing and maybe like if you're a really tight team, like you really need thingsturned around quickly and fast, like quickly, very fastly, it makes sense to be able to go
down the hall and knock on someone's door and be like, need you to look at this like rightnow.

(19:12):
But at the same time, that could be kind of toxic if you have a work environment thatheavily relies on fast, quick turnaround deadlines.
Wow.
If you're doing Let's say you're a marketing company and you're running a campaign for weuse basketball as an example the NBA finals just finished and the two poster boys of the

(19:35):
finals were Shy Gildes Alexander and Tyrese Halliburton.
Both of them have sneakers that are getting launched Tyrese is with Puma and no yeahTyrese is with Puma and then Shy is with
Wait Oh my gosh, i'm forgetting i'm messing the brands up regardless one of those withpuma One of those with puma the other one is with like new balance or jordan or his own

(20:01):
brand I forget Oh, okay.
Tyrese is the pumas shy is the other I forget his brand.
I think it's like his own brand actually or new balance.
I forget We gotta have one of those people that like looks things up like this Butregardless
I would love that a little Joe Rogan helper, not that we'd be like Joe Rogan, just thehelper assistant person is convenient.

(20:26):
basically, right?
So they had this
up.
Let's see, Shia Giles Alexander, shoe brand.
I'm just curious.
No, I forgot.
He's with Converse.
How was I supposed to remember that?
So it's-
time we've ever had Larry on a person like Larry on where he's he's in depth, you know, toanother degree.

(20:47):
We had creative on we had a doctor on and now we have a professional on not that theothers aren't professional but you're more specifically professional you went to college
for this specific course of action.
I actually didn't, but I did, I'll bring it back right now.
So, and Tyrese both have signature shoes that are set to come out later this fall.

(21:10):
They're in the finals.
It's the biggest stage for their respective sport.
Their marketing agencies are salivating at any moment to announce the shoe, to show thenewest colors, because in general it'll drive sales, Especially if you're a player like
Shy Gillis Alexander, one MVP.
He was the Western Conference MVP and then he won the Finals MVP.

(21:32):
So at every single moment, he had a Converse shoe with him saying like, this is my newshoe promoting it.
That's marketing that you can't plan for that.
You can't plan on, okay, we can plan to release the shoe, we can plan the commercial, butwe don't know if they're going to win the game.
And if they do win the game, here's what we're going to do.
So they won the game and they had an ad out within minutes.

(21:54):
Within seconds of the game being over, Puma released a thing.
or not Puma, Converse released an ad saying Shy Gilles Alexander, the new shoe, blah blahblah.
That ad wasn't turned around in...
Basically what I'm trying to say is that ad wasn't turned around in one day because theyknew like, oh, they won, he won the game, we need to push this out the same day.

(22:20):
No, that was probably planned months ago.
Like literally everything was probably planned months ago except for maybe the finalvisual.
because that's something that could change as the basketball goes on, you have bettermoments, etc.
So what I'm trying to say is like, even for really high stakes stuff like that, this isprobably a multi-million dollar campaign, a multi-million dollar plan, a lot of people are

(22:42):
involved, literally millions of dollars, dozens of people.
That has a really tight turnaround, but that tight turnaround is like, okay, the finalsgame is going to be in a month.
We need this turned around within the next two weeks so it's ready to go in a month.
It's very rarely going to be like, hey, we need this today.

(23:03):
In the world of advertising, I can only think of very recently Heinz.
Heinz had a very rapid turnaround because somebody tweeted out on Twitter that they werelike, our kids need to stop using such and such and you start using Heinz.
They're trying to say something completely different.
So Heinz jumped on it literally overnight.
But
A lot of the creative was probably already there.

(23:24):
They just capitalized on like, this is a moment we're going viral.
Let's push out a campaign earlier than we anticipated.
Once again.
part do you play in that process?
Professionally, what part are you playing in that process?
I'd love to be at like the director level of all that, but right now, yeah.
we're interested in where you are today because you're you're so close to others who arecoming up graduating or you're among people who are trying to figure it out.

(23:54):
I would say right now we're probably like at the somewhere between entry and I guess youcould say so I'm going to break it down like this.
It's intern entry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's
it was what part do you play in the process?
What part does Larry play in that process?
how I'm framing it.

(24:15):
The way I see the ladder is intern, entry, senior, director, executive.
We'll say something like that.
I would say in between entry and senior.
I'm like somewhere in the middle.
What part do I play in creating campaigns?
At my current company, because it's a startup, I do everything.
So I basically, the executive or the director level, uh

(24:40):
on paper, you know, but.
do you find yourself doing more because it's a small company and it is a startup, right?
Yeah, we only have six employees that I counted today.
ah Yeah, so if you were working in any other type of marketing company, agency,advertising, you might find yourself just working in one very specifically siloed thing.

(25:07):
You might be the email marketer.
You might just be the social media marketer.
And see, you just...
Like we'll use social media as an example because I think it's easy to understand.
Let's say you're part of the social media team.
Like your job on the social media team might literally just be writing Instagram captions.
That's it.
Like you have an overall input on the final product, but you probably just write captionsall day or all month or whatever.

(25:34):
for anyone on the outside looking in where you don't really know what a marketer does.
Well, you could be a social media marketer and you're going to be primarily focused onpieces of social media, product graphics, captions, anything that you would see out there,

(25:56):
somebody's got to piece it together somehow from a design perspective, perspective or
planning perspective, which is the other half of things like you can make produce anddevelop or you can plan coordinate, right schedule, you get the picture.
Yeah, like an entry level social media person might be writing copy for all the graphics.

(26:21):
Let's say at a bigger company, you might write copy for the posts.
You might write copy for the captions.
You might schedule everything and that might be the full extent of your job.
ah You might have visual input, but you might not be making the graphic, deciding whatcolors it's going to be, what logos you're going to use, what the words are going to be.

(26:43):
Because even then, like at an entry level,
Your words might be like the basis and then somebody's still probably going to change it.
It's going to go through at least another edit or two.
So it might not, it can literally be almost completely different from what she wrote.
The tone of message will be the same, but yeah.
you do more than that.
You do.

(27:04):
You are spread out.
So you're touching both sides of that aisle.
Yeah, to use a word from like the tech industry, would say I'm like a full stack marketer.
That means that like I do everything that's involved in the marketing process rather thanjust like be siloed in one thing.
They say full stack because like on the tech side of things, some people make like thevisual, what you see, and then somebody makes it work in the background.

(27:31):
And it's the same thing that I do.
I make everything work in the background and I do everything you see in the front.
If you could, would you specialize or do you like being able to do both or touch bothsides, touch all of it?
I like to touch on sides of it.
For my ambition, what I want to be in the future, they say that that's what you'resupposed to have.

(27:55):
You're supposed to have a well-rounded taste across multiple mediums is how you become acreative director.
ah There's things that I'm not good at.
I'll admit that graphic design and video editing are probably my weakest strong suits, aremy weakest points.
ah There are things that I'm better at.
But you know, it's impossible to find someone that's good at everything.

(28:17):
And if I was good at everything, we might not even know each other.
I might be living in the Bahamas rich because I'm just so fantastic at every aspect of ourchosen career fields.
I would hope so, but no, you're right.
You wouldn't be here today.
That's what we want people to get.
wants to talk?
I'm too good for that.
I have all these skills and accolades because I'm just fantastic at everything.

(28:41):
That's not saying I'm not that way.
But I'm saying like if that's what I tell people, like if you were that good ateverything, at everything you would know.
Like if you were so fantastically good at every single little thing, you would alreadyknow.
But I think it's necessary to recognize that you're not fantastically good at everythingand that there's weaknesses that you have.
And that's where collaboration comes in.

(29:02):
And like, that's when you ultimately get a better product, whatever you're trying to do.
So.
that it applies personally and to the thing we're working on the thing that we're makingour career we can be better at that too.
That's what I'm I think about a lot is like the 22 year old 23 year old who's going intothe workforce and what their mindset is and if they can handle it for their own sake.

(29:30):
I don't want to speak down on anybody.
I don't want anybody to hear that and make it feel like
I'm worried about something I shouldn't be worried about, but I also see this culture thatis different from mine was when I was that age and we were just, don't know.

(29:51):
We were, remember us being 21 year old interns, six or seven of us going into this officeand just being so buttoned up in different ways.
And yes, sir.
No, sir.
But then again, there was this one guy.
I'll say his Will Klein.
wonder, I don't know where he is now, but he was a copywriting intern and he was sofucking suave.

(30:14):
He would say off the wall shit, but his dad was a copywriter.
So right.
was, you know, he was there, but
you know, and maybe none of that's changed at all.
Um, they say that this is the worst time to be looking for a job.

(30:35):
I anecdotally know, I know a friend who was unemployed for two years.
Like he lost his job, but he was, he was smart enough to save up like a lot of moneybecause he had very, very low expenses.
So he saved up a lot of money.
He would door dash to like kind of make ends meet door dash Uber, whatever.

(30:57):
Um.
to make ends meet here and there, but he was literally unemployed for almost two yearswithout a job in his specific field.
And his parents also, this is part of like an issue too, his parents were smart enough torecognize that, eh our kid went to college, he graduated, you know, good degree,

(31:19):
everything.
There's no reason that we should like force him out, try to kick him to the curb.
He's struggling, it's hard to find jobs right now.
Because he told them like, hey, if you guys need help with money, I'll go to work at likeJack in the Box as like a manager or something like that or assistant manager, whatever.
And they told him no, they're like, you didn't go to college to go work at Jack in the Boxis what they told him.

(31:40):
That's why I would have been like, man, I don't know if you can get, become a manager thateasily.
because he already was.
He was at one point already in his life.
So he basically be getting his old job back.
So that's what I'm trying to-
the rest of what you're gonna say but I have to ask to what what is the I'm hoping thatthere's a thing you can point out to us that this person was had been doing that we can

(32:05):
avoid right is there a reason is there something that they were doing that we could avoidthat was preventing them from getting a job
The only thing I would say that, and I don't, if he hears this, he knows, he already knowsI'm talking about him, but if he hears this, I think he would agree, hopefully he doesn't
get mad.
The one thing that I think he didn't do enough of is he wasn't applying to as many jobs.

(32:28):
Unfortunately with, and then the second thing is impossible.
It's nothing to do with him.
It's a lot of it comes down to networking, which kind of sucks.
Like your guy you talked about earlier, the son of the copywriter.
He has a bunch better network than you did at the time.
know, whether or not he was more skilled or not, he does.

(32:49):
But applying to jobs, unfortunately, is like...
admit this.
But I got I'm sorry, just real quick.
I don't again, I don't have to steer towards my history.
Try it.
This is a an easy alignment.
But I couldn't get a call back from my first agency.

(33:10):
I couldn't get a call back.
couldn't get a call back.
I emailed I thought about showing up.
I had my cousin who worked there who
After all those months after I asked him or talked to him once, I finally got that callback.
So, you know, I hate, but I also hate that because that's not a good answer to the personwho doesn't have that context, right?

(33:36):
All you can do is tell them to keep going and doing it and doing it and maybe, show up tothe place, but that's not, I don't know if that's a good enough answer.
are you supposed to go for like my company?
For example, we have a corporate address.
It's a PO box.
What are you going to do?
I think it's more than a PO box, but like, I think it's literally just a mailing address.

(33:57):
I don't think anyone's ever there.
So like, what are you supposed to do?
But he wasn't applying to enough jobs.
That's what he was doing.
It was maybe one or two a week and
It gets very discouraging when there's jobs you maybe feel like you should get, and youdon't.
And then it got super discouraging.

(34:18):
He applied to a job.
Oh, I'm not going to get there.
He applied to a job.
It was a publicly funded job.
He applied.
He got hired.
A week later, Trump was president.
The funding got cut for the job.
Almost like after two years of being unemployed, he finally gets something.
funding gets cut because at the beginning of Trump's term, he cut funding for a lot ofpublic programs.

(34:43):
So he lost his job.
oh Thankfully that friend found another job and tying a nice bow together, he got itbecause it was a referral.
So he has a friend that works at the company and she referred him, said that, you know,hired my friend, blah, blah, blah, et cetera.
Now that worked, that's exactly what happened.
oh So his story is a perfect example of what

(35:07):
people are going through, a lot of people, I said, anecdotally, I know a lot of peoplethat are very unemployed, that they're door dashing, they had money saved up, they're
living at home, I think that's a bad thing, trying to find an answer.
Uh, a, I'm sorry that you told your friend's story because Trump's probably listening nowand he's probably gonna take his job.

(35:33):
So sorry, my bad, but it's worth it because now we all learned.
We all learned.
Yeah.
Just like that.
And secondly, would really, really suck, but I don't think we're that big yet.
Don't worry.
made a joke when he got his second job that next thing you know, Trump is going to outlawparalegals as a profession because basically what he is, he's a paralegal.

(35:54):
Exactly.
He's just man.
This isn't a political podcast.
Anyway, this is about the community.
But you know, a lot of lot of people in the community, I know, like feel a certain wayright now.
So it's easy to talk about.
But like you said, his story is unfortunately, you know, it's crazy.

(36:16):
I actually had four different friends that were affected by the budget cuts at thebeginning of the year.
All either seeking employment, were currently employed or were like, you know, it waseither seeking employment or were currently employed.
All of them were affected by it.
Their jobs are funded by grants, cetera.

(36:37):
That's the theme of today's episode in different ways is about I feel like the hardgetting to speak to you and knowing how hard you work to get the job you have right now,
how hard you work to get the job right now.
People need to think about that statement for a second.
How hard does a person need to work to get a job?
What are you willing to do?

(36:58):
And what part of your education are you are you willing to use or to push yourself towardsto get it in?
Ladies and gentlemen, Larry worked really hard for the position that he's in.
So there's a lot to talk about in that regard because people, I, I, hear people worriedabout it out there.
I have this friend and I don't know if he'll listen to this, but he, know, there's achance he could.

(37:25):
He's from a country that is under risk of deportation.
One of the three or four major, um,
deportation, like heavy countries from South America at the moment.
He's not sure what's going to happen next.
And it's really hard.

(37:45):
It honestly is hard to tell a person not to worry about that when you're not sure what isgoing to happen.
And you're only, you can only say what you would do to not worry about it.
And that's what we're doing here too.
Like that's a that's there's a that's a lot worse, right?
But there are other people who just can't find a job and they're worried, what can I whatelse can I do to get a job?

(38:10):
How do I how do I manage this?
The question I was gonna ask you really quickly.
This is a shorter, they'll shorten it out.
Is it okay to work for Uber Eats or door dash right now?
If you're just trying to make ends meet?
have a lot of friends that you have to pick, unfortunately, because of the society we livein, the way things are set up, you're going to have to pick something.

(38:34):
You live in a society that's heavily driven by how much money you have or how much moneyyou don't have.
So you have to pick something like whatever you're okay with.
Are you okay with working at McDonald's or working at Walmart?
Are you okay with selling cars?
That was what I was doing when I was trying to make ends meet.
went to the car dealership.
Um, are you okay with just door dashing or Uber Eatsing?

(38:59):
I have a lot of friends that had to do that.
And it's also, mean, not to knock door dashing, Uber Eats at all.
You know, we have people, if you make a full-time job out of it and you drive eight hoursand eight, nine hours a day, five days a week, six days a week, you can make some pretty
decent money.
Also you.

(39:21):
In the same way that I have, you get to choose kind of like where you work from and howoften you work.
You know, it's like, you know what?
we have some sort of hang up with it, don't we?
Is that part of what it is?
Like there is a hang up with working a job like that.

(39:41):
Subconsciously, it's probably because a lot of people associate it with being poor.
If you're poor, you have to do that.
You're struggling so much.
You know, it's the same thing.
It's the same thing like if you're going to a McDonald's or a Walmart or, you know, we'llsay like jobs like that, like, you know, we'll say like retail, fast food.

(40:05):
You typically associate it with like, you're not educated, you messed up in life, youknow, whatever.
I don't feel that way, but I feel like that's how a lot of people think about those typesof things.
And so if you tell someone like, yeah, I'm door dashing.
Well, hold on, let me specify.
I feel like that's how your generation and above sees things.

(40:27):
I feel like if you talk to people in my generation, that's not how people respond.
A lot of people my age, I think would be like,
they're just trying to make it work because we're all living in a similar economic andlike socio-economic reality.
So we're aware of like, damn, I had a hard time finding a job.
Someone else had a hard time finding a job too.
They're just trying to do what they got to do, you know?

(40:50):
there.
And then I know people who have been a waiter as a career, who put their kids throughcollege being a waiter and waiting tables full time.
of my closest friends is, or not I guess I'm one of my closest, but a very good friend ofmine is a professional bartender.
And you might think like, he's a bartender, whatever.
I think he makes as much, if not more than I do like annually.

(41:14):
Cause I've, I've told, he's told me before, he's like, I made, he's got made 3000 thisweekend.
Like in one weekend, you know what I mean?
Like he had, most people you're making, if you're making three G's in a weekend, you'reprobably not working again for the rest of the month in some industries, you know?
I guess yeah, if I were to make that much in this week, and it was probably because I hadto sleep with somebody who's twice my age.

(41:38):
Once again, the type of people you discriminate against, sex workers get heavilydiscriminated against too.
Well, that's not discrimination.
That's just us.
That's just the truth.
No, I, I don't have an issue with that.
But I think there's probably still a large part.

(41:59):
It's like, why did you send your kid to college?
You don't want them doing sex work.
So there's still a rub there.
yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I'm saying the real issue is like, let's say like somebody who, for example, there's a barhere in El Paso, if anyone's from El Paso, they probably know where I'm talking about.
There's a bar and rest, a bar and grill here in El Paso, and all the girls that work thereare college.

(42:26):
In college, they're all, they all for some reason, they're all the nursing, the nursingprogram.
It's like a pipeline.
It's like,
that is.
It's one of the doctors.
Apparently, yeah, or they're in a medical program or something like that.
They're paying their way through school as a waitress.
So this is okay because it's supporting young women.

(42:50):
I don't know.
It's funny because I just probably not the point you're trying to make when I'm likespinning it for the joke partly.
But wow, like these young women have to be performative in order to, you know, like makeit in this system.
If ever talk to them, that's when you realize just how performative they're being.

(43:12):
Because you talk to them and then you start realizing, I've had a lot of conversationswith people like that that are waitresses, bartenders, whatever, people in those types of
fields.
We'll say like service industries.
oh And I'll talk to them and then I'll say something.
And then they'll respond with like, yeah, I know how to set up an ad campaign.

(43:35):
And they'll be like, wait.
That's not something a normal person, once again, the biases are showing.
That's not something a normal person would say like, you must be educated on this topic.
yeah, I'm going to UTEP, I'm in student for marketing.
But have to like, but when I'm at work, I have to dumb it down because most of mycustomers, they don't want to talk about this.

(43:58):
They want like a dumb girl that's just going to be like, here's your drinks.
And then it helps them get a better tip or whatever.
So they're just playing the game, you know?
And it sucks because like,
Hopefully this doesn't make me sound like sexist or misogynist or anything.
Like what I'm trying to say is I'm trying to call it out is that there's guys that go outplaces like this that expect, this is just some dumb girl.

(44:18):
It's going to bring me my beer.
But then you never know like what she's actually going through, what she really is.
But then we frowned upon it.
You know, from the outside looking in, you're sitting at your table with your friends.
You're like, man, poor girl.
She has to be a waitress.
Little do you know, she's waitressing her way through a
medical program, doctorate, whatever the case is.
yeah, that could be a good like a positive catch 22 or whatever you want to call it.

(44:44):
But at the same time, it could still be that yeah, she's having to do the thing to make it
by the general audience.
Hopefully everyone...
I think I've clearly said what I'm trying to say.
I think I've said what I'm trying to say, yeah.
You're not misogynist.
The ladies know you love them.

(45:05):
He's no the ladies know you love them.
Don't worry.
They'd like the Larry.
of memes about this type of stuff right now about performative men.
right now I've seen it.
But people will want to know what you think about it and what you you know, it's like, isyour response to it?

(45:26):
That is real.
You may not be able to stop misogyny, but how does Larry live with misogyny out in theworld?
Like, you swat away at it?
I think we get to live a little bit more and find out luckily.
So don't have to have an answer right now.

(45:47):
Everyone preaches, a lot of people tend to preach to a higher ideal.
They say like, if I, you know, the world is perfect, this is what I would do.
Or they assume, you know, one of those, the quote from Greg Gatsby, the quote from GregGatsby, which is, yeah, the first line of the book, everyone assumes themselves to be

(46:08):
guilty of one of the seven virtues, which preaching to a higher ideal.
It's like the second or third line.
Okay.
No, because I thought the first line of the book was like, the eyes were overlooking.
I thought it was like the eyes on the billboard type.
What that was that reference?

(46:30):
my gosh.
everyone says that they're guilty of one of the virtues.
I'm the most honest person I know.
I'm the most charitable person I know.
like something a liar would say.
Yeah, exactly.
That's the point I'm trying to make.
You preach to this higher ideal.
So what I'm trying to say is like, yes, I think the best thing you can do is be awareabout it.

(46:52):
You have to have dialogue around it.
Combat it when you can, when necessary.
But even then, I'm sure like everybody else, this is me preaching to the higher ideal.
I'm sure like everyone else in the world, I've had moments of, not sure, I know it'shappened.
I've had moments of...
biases come up where I've probably taught the same thing too.

(47:12):
The same vein where it's like, that person though works at McDonald's, must not be in agood position in life or whatever the case is.
oh How do you break through the programming?
You have to be aware of the programming.
And it unfortunately requires a little bit of preaching to a higher ID, like I said.
You gotta act like everything is perfect and fine in order to like...

(47:37):
work your way towards it.
That's interesting.
That's why I always assume that everything is broken and like there's a hidden, likeeverything, there's a lie underneath every surface because for me, having that sort of
point of view, it allows me to find good more often than not.

(47:59):
You're surprised by the world instead of let down.
So I tend to just assume the worst so that I get to see the better, but
a...
You grew up on the Matrix and Blade Runner.
Yeah, that too.
Grew up in a very distrusting time.

(48:20):
I grew up in the post Chernobyl era.
If it makes any difference, which is to, anyone who grew up before that, they're like,what, you know, come on, you've not seen anything.
It's only, it's all been sort of soft since then.
As I say this a couple of days after we trade missiles with Iran.

(48:45):
Yeah.
I was just telling my little cousin, he was asking me about it.
And I told him, was like, we've been at war with Iran.
This is the summary of it.
I was like, we've been at war with Iran slash Iraq since your dad was your age, if notyounger.
You know, the weapons of mass destruction, you it goes on and on.
I think Netanyahu first said that Iran was two weeks away from nuclear capabilities in1987.

(49:13):
was very first time that that was said, like in public.
So that's what I told my cousin about it, that's all we talked about.
I didn't get into it with him.
It like 14, that's why I didn't get into it with him, I was just like, he's like, did yousee that, you know, we bombed at RAND and they bombed us back because they attacked the
Qatari air base today or something like that.

(49:36):
And then I responded.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised too.
And he asked about it, he was like, what do you think about all that?
And I was like, hey man, put it simply, to put it simply and not get into it, because wewere like walking into the gym and I didn't want to like walk into the gym while just
having this discussion.
I told him like, you know, we've been at war with Iran, Iraq, since your dad was your age.

(50:01):
The first time that, the first time that Iran was accused of having nuclear weapons was in1986, 1987.
Don't quote me on the date, but it was in the eighties.
You know, they were two weeks away from nukes then, and they're two weeks away from nukesnow.
Wait, so is a part was a part of that questioning fear on his part?

(50:23):
Like, do you sense that?
he scared?
Yeah, I have another cousin that's about 18 years old and she's pretty fearful too, likeshe was worried.
Because if you go on the media, depending on where you get your news from or where you getyour media from, yeah, like our generation, we were making memes about it.

(50:43):
were like, yeah, we're going to World War III, time to get drafted.
People were literally making videos like, these are the things that'll get you drafted andthese are the things that won't get you drafted.
So was like, if you've ever been in a mental institution, you can't get drafted.
If you're obese or overweight, you can't get drafted.
What?
any of that.
I've been been busy to the point where I've been able to work straight, literally over thepast 48 hours been taking time off and staying off of social media or working straight

(51:15):
through to the point of not seeing anything like that in real time.
Still seeing the news but not memes.
So I didn't didn't I didn't realize that we were reacting that way.
Like
And I could totally imagine my age group and those older Gen Zers reacting that way.
Because it's a coping mechanism.

(51:36):
that's true people over a certain age were a lot of people like I would say your age groupwill say like 30s to like 40s they uh they remember I'm sure you remember you know oh Iraq
has weapons of mass destruction we're gonna go to war with them
and then they did it.

(51:57):
So your generation is saying the exact same thing.
They're like, oh, I know this one.
Like I've seen this story before.
The same thing happened when I was a kid.
Our generation is living through their version of it while also having like the smarts andawareness to know, recognize like what your generation went through.
Older generations are all over the place.
You know, this is what I was, I was going to make this point earlier, but this is a veryrelevant point.

(52:20):
Time to bring it up too.
Talk about surviving in the modern era.
You have to move at the speed of the internet.
which is almost impossible to move at, especially...
That sounds like it's a buzzword jargon now.
used to I mean, maybe that was a lot more doable five years ago.
But now that sounds like a buzzword, like move at the speed of the internet.

(52:42):
How could anybody do that?
To put it simply, you just have to move at the speed of information.
Like you have to be able to.
You just gotta mainline it.
Just, yeah, put that.
If you're able, we'll use this, if you're used as like a, let's say like a Reddit, you'relike on a Reddit, you're like a Reddit person, you could scroll through Reddit and consume

(53:04):
weeks worth of news in like 20 minutes.
You know, we go on Instagram, through Instagram, depending on what your feed is like, orsocial media, we'll say TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Shorts, Reels, whatever.
You're watching Reels, you're watching Shorts.
in 30 seconds, a minute of time, maybe two minutes, you could have consumed a week's worthof information.

(53:27):
uh Unfortunately, and this is why it's like our industry sucks sometimes, is our industryrelies on capturing information and capturing your attention.
And then also slipping in rot somewhere in there.
you just follow a bunch of meme accounts, you're not going to have any idea what's goingon.

(53:50):
But you're going to know like the latest buzz, the latest meme words, the latest words arelike, are the kids saying?
Quote, unquote.
Um, but if you use it for other purposes, you can, like I said, you could consume a lot ofvaluable information, good information.
Processing the information is a whole different story.
If you're consuming and processing, you know, at that speed, that's insane.

(54:12):
I don't think a lot of people do.
Yeah.
just too much.
You'd go insane.
You'd be like...
this type of conversation shows you like the conversation we've had.
We've covered like eight different topics, nine different topics in an hour or so.
And that kind of shows you like the speed of the internet.

(54:35):
That's what I'm trying to say.
This conversation is a good example.
at the speed of the internet.
So do you looking back on your college career?
How would you do?
Are you?
Are those you were in a fraternity?
Are the guys who came after you in the same sort?

(54:58):
Are they following the same sort of path as you?
Um, to my knowledge, maybe like one of them.
And I, I think culturally and generally, no, I would say they're very different for me,which is a good thing.
They should be different and they should be different and better.

(55:19):
Um, like a specific path that I'm trying to follow.
could think of like one guy that he's like working his ass off, trying to like get hisname, get, make a name for himself, do things, et cetera.
Um.
And think he's doing a good job at it.
But the rest of them are kind of doing to the beat of their own drum and they're doingtheir own thing, which is a good thing too.

(55:40):
Um, the one thing I would say, if any of the guys are listening to this or if you're in asimilar position, like we'll say early career, 18 to 26, or maybe you're changing is don't
be afraid to have like a mentor and ask for help.
Cause I feel like that's like the biggest thing.
Um, I really like, I, I,

(56:01):
go to Larry for help.
No, not me specifically.
Go to someone that's better at...
Better than whatever it is that you do, go find them.
Like I'm...
to this, Larry will answer all your questions.
In fact, that's, we'll have a uh Larry episode where you come back and answer questionsthat we gather.
I would say there's only like one thing that I'm objectively better than some people atand that's photography.

(56:29):
Like I could give you mentoring advice on photography, everything else, I'm just kind ofgood at it or a little better.
you sure?
Are you sure?
What do you think?
you sure?
Are you sure about the photography or about me being the episode?
that was, I'm just joking.
oh

(56:53):
with their results.
So like...
You
You know, like, I guess it's like a, I don't know that's a good measure, but I've hadmultiple like $2,000 plus contracts that have been fulfilled and they've been happy with
it and they paid.
exactly.
So it's a
serious interviewer should do, make fun of his interviewee by doing a dance about himmaking money.

(57:19):
But that's what a family does.
Larry helped me with XYZ, chances are that I'm like, not super amazing at it.
Like I said, most people aren't super amazing at everything.
But you do go you do help out a lot you help out in a lot of different ways.
And if you don't know something, you're pretty good about sending people in the rightdirection.

(57:42):
So thank you.
Sometimes people, like sometimes a mentor or a coach, the real value they provide is thatit's someone else telling you to do the things that you already knew you should do,
especially if you pay for it.
like, personal, so like if you go, you go to the gym, YouTube, chat GPT, the internet,that's all you would need.

(58:07):
How do you do a bench press correctly?
What type of workout should I be doing?
What type of food should I be eating?
you can find all that online for free pretty easily accessible.
However, if you're like, let's just say you're by yourself, you don't have a gymmembership, you want to lose weight, I'm gonna diet.
Okay, well, yeah, you're probably gonna so-so diet unless you have a lot of willpower.

(58:29):
But if you're paying someone, let's say 50 bucks a month to meet with you once a month totalk to you about your goals and to coach you through them.
I bet you you're gonna do it if you're paying someone $50 a month.
If you're paying someone $50 a month just to tell you to eat better and you know youshould be eating better, you're gonna do it because nobody in this world has $50 to just

(58:53):
set on fire like that.
I want to say we'll see.
And I leave it open ended, because I think that's a brilliant approach.
But then I have on a little bit of a resistance and hesitance because I've seen peoplethrow their money away.

(59:13):
After you think the exact same thought where Oh, well, there's no way there's no way theywouldn't join the session.
They pay me every month.
So of course, they're going to make the status call.
that's
then you once in a while you run into a client where it's like, gosh, how did they notcare?
Right?
How did they or what's going on where they can't communicate?

(59:34):
They paid me for this.
And I do the thing, but then they don't have any sort of like finger on the pulse.
It's crazy.
This is no tapping into it.
And so they
specifically I would say that that's like that's what people do pay you they pay you sothey can set it and forget it and ideally they're a little bit more involved right but if

(59:56):
you're paying like a coach to help you lose weight you can't exactly set it and forget itlike unless they're cooking all your food for you right
I better be waking me up in the morning.
Hey, come on.
up.
Get to it.
weight and workout, the coach is going to come wake you up in the morning, make yourbreakfast, lunch and dinner for you, take you to the gym.

(01:00:18):
That's the said it and forget it type of coach.
He's going to assist you on every workout, but really they're doing the workout all year.
just tie me up to each of his body parts and I'll hang off of him and he does the workout.
There you go.
that's a set in and forget it type of fitness coach, I guess.

(01:00:38):
If I was gonna pay for it, that's what it would be.
It would have to be that.
See, that's my type.
Or you have to be like a super, I mean, like if you're like a super, super rich person,you can pay for like a secretary or executive assistant to like run every aspect of your
life.
All your meetings, know, birthdays, they buy the gifts for you.

(01:00:59):
Um, you know, the type of like archetype I'm talking about.
end up being good at having seen, um, agency owners utilize assistance.
It really do end up using them on these weird blended personal professional roles that arejust, you have to have a lot of money to get away with.

(01:01:20):
Well, I was saying that you have to have a lot of money to get away with because here'sthe thing you make a certain amount of money.
If you don't make a lot, you have to be professional, you have to be professional, have tobe professional.
But there's a certain point where you make a certain amount of money that you get to dropa certain amount of professionality.

(01:01:41):
It's got to be a lot of money.
But it's true.
After a while, you get to lessen your professionality, the more money you make, it's not100 % like, but there's there is a there is a slow
Mark Cuban goes everywhere wearing t-shirts and jeans and you would figure that he's abillionaire, probably wears whatever.

(01:02:07):
And people ask him like, why do you wear t-shirts and jeans everywhere?
He's like, because I'm a billionaire, I don't have to care about anything.
You know what mean?
That's what it comes down to.
Mark, if you're listening, you go, girl.
sponsor, sponsor Greg's podcast.
Give them a, this episode was sponsored by the fabrics.

(01:02:28):
And it is actually and if I get sued for this well oops.
Thank you for coming on the show.
That's pretty we're coming to the end of the time but I think this is a good reason whyyou got to come back just we barely scratched the surface.
I feel like I need to do my podcasts again.

(01:02:51):
That's what my takeaway is.
gonna do my podcast actually.
like, I'm not coming back, we're not, because I need to do my episodes.
You should.
think it's when you get into the rhythm of it, it makes a difference and people willsurprise you.
They'll listen to it.
People are going to listen to this episode and you're going to be surprised.

(01:03:13):
Somebody is going to tell you something that you didn't think would that they heard, butthey did.
We got like...
I think the most views we got on any our episodes was like 55.
And it's like, oh, that's not a lot.
But if you like visualize 55 people, that's a lot of people.
That's a...
Why don't you go ahead and close out by don't lose us now.

(01:03:38):
Why don't you go ahead and close out by telling us where we can find you at least wherecan we start finding you on socials and what are some channels that are worth going to
follow you on right now.
best channel to follow me on because it's kind of like the aggregate for all my stuff ismy Instagram, which is Niela.

(01:03:59):
N-I-E-L-A creative.
It's all one word.
So it's at Niela creative on Instagram.
That's where I post the writing stuff that I do, the photography as more work comes along,it gets posted on there too.
If and when the podcast relaunches, that's where you'll find it.

(01:04:20):
It'll get posted on there.
It has its own channel, but you'll hear about it on Yellow first before you hear about iton its own medium.
He's been getting up to his open mics for writing again.
So I know he's creatively active right now, aside from everything we've already talkedabout.
He's creative on top of that.

(01:04:41):
Follow Larry at Neilacreative right now on Instagram and look for the link tree.
Go ahead and contact him about any photography needs and we will have you back, I swear.
It's only a matter of time, especially with how much we talked about today.
Let's let everybody listen.

(01:05:03):
And there we go.
100 on the 100 episode anniversary, we'll have you back.
Well, I'll come back.