January 17, 2024 • 62 mins
When Lou, a proud Marine Corps veteran and mover-and-shaker in the Houston Veteran Chamber of Commerce, recounts his leap from New Jersey to Houston, you can't help but feel the magnetic pull of new beginnings and the tenacity of the military spirit. This episode is a rich tapestry of life after service, with Lou's voice adding a note of authenticity as he talks about his transition, the power of networking, and the unexpected paths our lives take post-uniform.
We weave into the discussions the raw, sometimes conflicted emotions surrounding veteran benefits, with a firm nod to the importance of claiming what's earned without the shadow of guilt. It's not just about benefits; it's about understanding the value of continued contributions in civilian life, and finding a sense of purpose that aligns with the drive and discipline that service instills. William and I share our own experiences, including my early medical discharge, offering a mirror for fellow vets making similar journeys.
And what's a plan without action? We champion the value of incremental steps, the transformative power of reaching out to those who've climbed the ladder of success, and the essential practice of owning every choice we make. It's a conversation that's as much about the power of asking 'now what?' as it is about celebrating the victories, large and small, on the road to fulfilling aspirations. So join us, share in the energy, and be part of the Charlie Mike community—as we always say, the mission continues!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yo, what's going on everybody?
Welcome back to another episodeof Charlie Mike the podcast.
It's always.
I'm your host, raul, and yourco-host is William.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yo, what's going on y'all?
Welcome to the Paraland podcast.
Who do you look here, just outof Houston, texas.
It's so good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Man.
Hey, it's been busy, hasn't?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
it, it has been.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Bro, since you started making the calendar and
started lining people up.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh, is that what it is?
It's been amazing.
It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hey, so whoever doesn't know, william does it
all here.
Yeah, okay, because there'sanything that looks amazing, it
was done by William, and if itdoesn't look good, it was done
by Jelly.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So you can't defend yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, yeah that's why I said it yeah, man, so how's?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
everything going.
Hey, man, life is good.
I'm blessed, brother.
It's good to be back here andgetting on a roll again.
You know, like I was tellingour guests here, just that's
kind of what got us.
What guys started when we firstgot into the studio is exactly
what we were doing gettingguests in, paying homage to them
and just bringing you all outthere at good value.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think, as we continue to grow the studio,
it's not that we forgot, it'sjust we kind of put it in the
back burner.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You worry about everybody else.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We were both exactly, and that's a strength and a
curse.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you always want to over deliver for folks, and
then we do.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And you forget about yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, you're like, oh , dang it, man, we gotta make
sure we do this.
But that's that's what Istarted.
Bread and butter, that's whatwe tell folks.
You know you come in a podcastwith us because we podcast, we
podcast, we do this.
You know we want to help you dothis, we help you grow and and
if you're a vet out there andyou're looking to start a
podcast, man, there's a lot ofgreat free resources out there.
But hit us up, let us know.
(02:08):
You know we're down to tell youeverything that we've done
wrong, but especially what we'vedone right 100% no we say it
often.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We're not.
We're not just smoking mirrors,Like we've had folks call us
and say, hey, what did I do?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, that's stories.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So if you have any questions, reach out to me at
William at Charlie Mikeleadership dot com and I'll
answer everything you got.
Oh, was that the wrong email?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, that's a good email.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'll get you to the right people.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Man let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Go ahead brother.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, I'm going to tell you what I think we've.
Uh, we don't just bring anyoneon the show, we have to find you
interesting and, and that's onething that we find in our, our
guests coming up, we I thinkwe've tried to link a few times
and we've actually.
Who linked us?
The Houston.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Chamber, the veteran's chamber of commerce
Houston veteran chamber ofcommerce.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's right, and our guest is today is Lou Lou.
What branch were you in?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Marine Corps.
Marine Corps.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh man nevermind.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
We're having technical difficulties.
That's how we're going to startthis.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, all right, audio's out.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No, lou, and you first popped up a marmite d'art
too, from the veteran's chamber,and you weren't even in town at
that time, right.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I was so um from New Jersey where um, you know, in
case you didn't pick up um fromthe accent, where we drink,
where we drink water.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Water yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, it's my daughter sitting over there.
But, um, yeah, so when, when mywife and I knew that we were
going to be moving over here, um, eventually I came a year in
advance, so I got a small onebedroom apartment, um started
networking, building my book ofbusiness um, learning the lay of
the land.
Every weekend I'd be drivingsomewhere at Galveston and Katie
(03:59):
and and Sugarland and justdriving all around learning
things, um, and that's when Icame across the chamber, um, and
a bunch of other groups, butthe chamber was very obviously
um different.
You know um, and that's um.
You know the, the, the.
That's when, that's when I cameacross the stash you know
that's different, that guy'sdifferent yeah.
And um yeah, then went back homein March of this year.
(04:21):
All right, um got the houseready to sell, sold it and in
July, man um planted our flaghere.
Permanent Houstonians, brother.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's what's welcome man yeah, Welcome is a big,
it's a big difference.
What made you come out toHouston?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The um, the.
The firm offered me anopportunity, so I'm not just an
advisor for the firm, I'm alsoVP of admin affairs.
Um, we had decided years agoGod moved so many parts I mean,
this was not checkers, this waschess, you know um, when I was
41, I decided to go back tocollege.
Um, or, go to college as soonas they go back, and never went.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah 41.
, yeah, 41.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I'm gonna be 47 in February.
Man, yeah, my baby girl's 19.
She just wrapping up what?
I'm gonna break from freshman.
Her freshman year in college.
Dang, my oldest is 23.
He's teaching now, so that'scrazy.
Yeah, Wifey and I have beentogether damn near 30 years bro,
Congrats.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We've had a run of guests who have been together
for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, yeah I mean y'all say 30 years.
I had the last one was 18 years.
I'm gonna we're trying to 12months Bro.
We were there.
Bro, that's cute, we were thereyeah.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, man.
So the we knew it wasn't gonnabe Jersey for us in retirement
years, you know where, don'tknow when, god only knows you
know.
And then, as I wrapped upcollege and decided I wanted to
be a financial advisor andthere's a whole story why I
became that and changed I mean,I left a 15 year career for a
Fortune 50 company for to startover again, you know and then I
(05:57):
got into a conversation with theowner of the firm and he says
man, listen, you did everythingthat you did in a very short
time span and that everything ismy.
In just under two years I gotmy associates in general studies
, I got my bachelor's inbusiness management, I got my
life insurance licensing andstarted the process to get my
securities licensing to be anadvisor.
(06:18):
He said you did all that in twoyears.
Man, we could really use youhere.
And I'm like well, what doesthat look like?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, and that was the that was the genesis of
it all.
I love questions.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So yeah, man like yeah I would do.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You got to what's that look like.
You know in what capacity.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, that's a real question all day.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, for sure, you know, and, and we were wide open
to it.
I mean we literally, you know,we started looking at this
window probably the better partof three years ago.
You know we knew she was goingto be 1819, her freshman year in
college.
My son would be done doing histhing.
We don't need a four bedroomhouse with a big old backyard in
(06:57):
the pool anymore, it's just us.
So to open up a map and saywhere do we want to go, what do
we want to do?
You know that was, that was.
It was fun, yeah, it was reallyfun.
We started, obviously.
We started young, you know.
So, for 21st, for two decades,man, everything, every move we
made was foreign about them andfor the first time it's going to
(07:19):
be like what do?
we want, where do we want to go?
You know, and, and just as wewere asking these questions,
this opportunity was waspresenting itself.
So we started planning, bro,and two years, two and a half
years later, here we are.
Man, here we are.
I'm on your podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's dope.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
That's that man?
It is dope, that is dope, Iknow we, so we skipped a little
bit about your, your time in theMarine Corps.
Man, tell us a little bit aboutthat.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
What's your?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
service.
Why the Marines yeah.
Why the Marines yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Sorry, sorry, go ahead.
There's a pattern.
I see it.
I see it.
No man, I heard they eatcrayons there, so I was getting.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So I take in the ass fab.
In high school I was in a co-opprogram so I would work half
the day and then get out, or inschool half the day and then get
out and go to work and creditsfor working.
And part of that program wastaking the ASFAD Took.
That knocked it out, had nointentions on going to the
military, had a stepfather who Iwasn't we'll just say weren't
(08:25):
sympathical right.
And he was all about the armyand I just wanted no parts of
the military.
So fast forward.
I had a cousin and he and I,four days apart, like in
Berthesville.
We grew up like twins and hebarely made it through high
school, man barely made it.
But he made it right.
And he calls me up one day andhe lived two blocks from me.
(08:49):
He says, bro, come over.
I said all right, so I walkover and I'm like what's going
on?
He says I'm leaving next week.
I'm like where you going?
He said I'm going to Marines.
I said no, seriously, man,where you going?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
He said I'm going to Marines.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You nuts like have you ever seen full metal jacket
bro?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Like what are you talking?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
about hey man, what year is this?
This was 90, I went into 97.
Damn, I went into 97.
So he says no, seriously, bro,I'm leaving next week.
I said, if you do this, I willgo down and I'll watch you
graduate.
He's like all right, sure ashell.
He did it, and when I saw him,in no way did I recognize him.
I mean, obviously he'd shed afew pounds, stood up.
(09:29):
His belt was up, not around hisbutt.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It didn't recognize him in any way.
And now I was a kid that haddrive, like I was self-motivated
.
I've always been self-motivated.
What I lacked was direction,like I didn't know where I was
going to go, what I was going todo.
I knew, whatever it was I wasgoing to do the hell out of it,
but I didn't know what it was.
I said, damn, if the MarineCorps can do that for him, where
(09:57):
do I sign?
First thing?
Monday morning I'm knocking onthe recruiter's office.
He said how can I help you?
I said I want to be a Marine.
He said all right, great,you're going to have to take a
test.
Yada, yada, blah, blah.
I said I think I took that.
He said you took the ASFAB.
I said yeah, I took that.
He said what'd you get?
It was an 80-something.
He was like you can do whateveryou want to do, I was like, all
(10:17):
right, cool.
He said what do you want to do?
I said I want to be a Marine.
He was like bro, you have tohave a job.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
He said I want to cook.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I said I want to make sure he takes me out to date it
.
He takes out this big-ass bookman and he stumps through.
He says I need CFR.
I said what's that?
He said Crash Fire RescueSounds fun.
I'll do that, no clue.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
No clue.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I am in week nine, week 10 in boot camp.
That's my senior journalinstructor.
What it was, he said whenplanes crash and everybody runs
away, you run in.
I'm going to be a firefighter,he said.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
you're going to be a firefighter.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Ok, best thing ever, best thing ever.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But unfortunately, man and this is I often it
wasn't really until I came herethat I often talk about the
Marine Corps.
Because my stint was a cup ofcoffee long, I got a medical
discharge, oh wow.
So I was only in for two and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, you say only in , bro, that's a good amount of
time.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You know, it was quiet when I was in the first
before it was already over.
Yeah 9-11 hadn't happened yet.
You know what I mean.
So my unit was on standbyduring Kosovo.
That was it, and there is nosurvivors remorse or anything
like that on my part.
But I always the guilt comesfrom.
I got out of the Marine Corpsso much more than I was able to
(11:47):
give to it.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like I wasn't even able to.
You're still giving to it, man.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I am You're still giving to it.
That's where the chamber comesinto play, though, bro.
You know like when I cameacross the chamber, I was like
all right, you now got to dosome networking, and who better
to network within a bunch ofvets, right?
So I jump on the first call andI'm like, bro, this is like the
barracks, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
There we go.
This is cool as hell right.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So yeah, I mean I jumped in full bore and then
afterwards typical Marine, right, I'm in.
Now tell me what I'm in for.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, I saw what the chamber was all about and I'm
like all right, man, how can Ihelp?
And the president says well,what can you do?
Point the high nail, I'llhammer the hell out of it.
What do you need help with?
And this is when we weregearing up.
We were at the tail end ofgetting ready for the expo.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We are, bro.
We probably were about threeweeks away maybe and he said we
need somebody to runregistration, right?
So when people are coming in,they got to register and sign up
, all right, cool.
So what's going on with it?
He was like nothing.
We need somebody to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We're expecting like 2000 people.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It was like that sounds like a pretty high nail.
All right, I'm in.
And they gave me a good crewman.
I gave them all the credit andlined them up.
They hammered it, Everythingwas great.
And then they approached meafterwards, said listen, you're
super engaging with everybody,man, how would you like to be
the director of membership?
Sign me up?
I was like, all right, well,let's talk about the job
(13:21):
description.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Like talk about it on the way man, but what's my
first gig?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And so, yeah, I've been at that for, I don't know,
maybe three weeks A month max,let's do it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I think it's very I mean, coming off of the last
episode too, I see that we seethat a lot with vets, especially
because we were talking aboutwith Hector about pre-911 vets
and like the dead period, andsometimes I feel like my service
wasn't enough.
And it's funny because I knowyou and I feel the same way
sometimes and folks would lookat us like well, but yeah, with
(13:55):
your combat veterans, like itdoesn't matter, like I look at
the World War II vets like man,I didn't do enough, I could have
given back more to the militaryand we're both medically
discharged and I was at 13 yearsand he's at 10.
And it still feels like therewas something that was left
incomplete and so there'sprobably something to that.
You know those who have beenmedically discharged where it's
(14:16):
like, if you feel like youhaven't given enough, like
there's there's somewhere or anorganization that can use you to
finish that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah.
Oh no, I'm sorry, and you foundit with the chambers, yeah, and
that's one thing I wanted totell you, man, is don't, don't
discredit your service.
Bro, you did two and a halfyears.
That's a lot of time.
There's people out there sayinglike I would have, but I would
have knocked him out.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, I would have pushed that drill.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've gone back and forth with, with, with
many a service member man, johnCacolese.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That's a good dude yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
He's all right.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I said what I said.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He's one of my favorites man, yeah man, I mean
and he proved, point after point, valid point.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I'm like yeah, you know, it's still 41, 49% no.
You know 49% yes and and 41% no.
And the 51% no is is the factthat it's my feelings.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Man, you can't tell me my feelings are wrong, so I
don't care how right you are.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah Right, I'm 51%, you know, and that that
conversation stems from he'slike so you know what's your
percentage.
I don't have one, don't wantone, I get one.
Wow, you're entitled.
I came out whole.
You know my medical dischargehad nothing to do with the
Marine Corps.
I have a hard time takinganything else from and I
(15:41):
understand.
It's not that I'm taking, I'mnot taking from anyone else's
plate.
If I claim my bennies, I get it.
I get it.
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't feel in my heart like I justified rating it
, you know it's interesting man,and I think that's a that that
is exactly why we have theseconversations, you know, because
I'm someone out there feelsexactly the way you do.
We know, you know, we know thatmore than likely there's a vet
there's when we've talked tothem.
(16:10):
There's a few vets out therethat feel the same way.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
If I had, you know, had had, if anything would have
happened in the Corps that would, if, basically if, if my issues
were related to the MarineCorps in any capacity okay,
that's a different conversation.
I I've a lot of my, a lot of mybrothers have.
We all know, you know, some ofthe baggage.
My brother-in-law did threetours in the sand.
(16:35):
Took him a few years to getback to his normal up here.
Um, still physically has issues, right, um, yeah, I just I'm in
every capacity physically,mentally, spiritually,
emotionally.
I'm whole.
I just don't feel the needInteresting.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know.
You know.
It's one thing I noticed aboutyou no-transcript.
Even in your bio you didn'tmention anything about the
Marine Corps.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I know, I was looking it over.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that's different.
Most Marines you meet that'sthe first thing they say before
they say their name.
Yeah, I mean, I'm a ring oh bythe name.
My name is Jeff.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It's almost like it matters more.
Yeah, it's what I am right, youknow.
So, yeah, um, anything,anything more than 10% discount
at, you know, at Lowes man, youknow, it's like I just got a
hard time taking.
All right, I'll take your coolparking spot, appreciate you,
I'm good with that.
I'm good with that, you know.
(17:38):
But the chamber man, thechamber is my way of putting my
thumb on the scale and balancingthat out.
Now, you know, helpingveteran-owned businesses Get
that spotlight on them.
You know, now I'm helping yousucceed, making your bread and
butter, feeding your family,growing your business by way of
(18:00):
the military, because I served alittle stick, I'm in, I'm in
now.
That makes me kind of feel morecomplete.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Let's put it, let's put a little pin in that,
because I do, I do.
I love talking about thechamber when we both do.
I.
I'm curious, how was thattransitioned out?
Because you did say you got out, you had a medical discharge,
yes, so how does that transitionout, especially at that time
frame, and what have you foundhas helped you?
You know, I mean, we always saythat we haven't fully
transitioned yet.
Yeah, continuing like it's,it's a process even now.
(18:28):
So how did that go for?
Speaker 3 (18:30):
you.
Yeah, I didn't have a plan B,right.
So, fortunately for me, I livedin in South Jersey, so I was
half an hour from the casino, sofinding work was easy for me.
You know, I get a job the nextday in the casinos and I did
casino hopped, paying the bills.
My son was just born you knowwhat I mean just recently
married.
I Needed a paycheck, right.
(18:54):
So the grind was there.
I Got stuck in that, though,right, I just got stuck in the
gotta make it.
Gotta make it.
Okay, cool, made it to thisweek.
Okay, gotta make it this week.
You know, and and I was stuck inthat mindset man to just grind,
grind, grind.
And you know, there's somethingI wish I knew how or why it
(19:19):
happens, but we all do it.
We all forget the number onelesson that's ingrained in us.
They won in bootcamp and that'sgoddamn teamwork.
Yeah, bro, we get out.
I got this, I got.
I'm good, I'm good.
Where's all this I coming from?
(19:41):
They literally beat the eye outof you.
Where's all this I coming from?
Where's all this me?
Right, and and I was just stuckin that mindset forever and
Didn't realize it.
Really, like you know, peoplesay you go through a midlife
crisis.
Right, I went through a midlifeawakening, bro, it's very
(20:01):
difficult Sent me into a littlebit of a tailspin For the better
part of a year and at thatpoint in time, man, that at 40,
41, that was the first time Ihad a conversation with God.
I had no connection at all atall.
I Said, man, you know, I'm in agood place, right Like, I'm
(20:25):
making a decent dollar in mycareer, I'm healthy, beautiful,
healthy wife to great kids, I'msurrounded by people who love me
.
If this is all because of you,first and foremost, thank you,
appreciate you, you know.
But second, man, show me and itgoes to show my ignorance,
right, like, imagine going toyour parent or whoever raised
you and be like, hey, man, youknow these clothes and this roof
(20:48):
over my head, if, is this?
Did you do this?
You know, prove it, prove it,man, what you know.
It would have been a real shortconversation and a couple of
lumps, you know, but it justshowed my ignorance, you know,
to ask the father if this washim, and it took about six
months, eight months, and showedme he did, and he put the ball
(21:08):
in my court, said all right,it's time for me to start
growing, man.
You know, I don't know where, Idon't know how, but I'm gonna
start and that's when I that's,that's when I went to college,
that's when it's a college, soyeah, man, it's a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So can you?
What Brought on the realizationof teamwork again?
Was there a specific incidentor was it?
Well?
Do you want every conversationswhere you're like I'm not doing
this alone, this isn't just me,and who was it that you reached
out to?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
My, so one of my best friends, who's actually my boss
, who actually used to work forme.
I used to run a boys and girlsclub, like 20 years ago, and I
was unit director, and quadreWilliams goes by Q.
He was the director of teenservices and education there.
So he was my right hand andhe's he now owns the firm that
(22:03):
I'm the VP of, and there's noway on God's green earth that
this would be possible thisbeing the whole transition from
Jersey to Houston Without himguiding me through the licensing
, making, the I mean it Listen,it all takes dollars, right.
(22:24):
So a significant amount of, youknow, money had to move in a
lot of different ways to makethis possible.
It's my partner.
That's my partner, right, andthe things that we are trying to
do From a financial perspectivein black and brown communities,
you know that's.
(22:45):
That's just no way he can do iton his own.
You know and our magic goesback to that boys and girls club
the things that we were able todo.
I didn't know anything aboutboard a boys and girls club at
all, like I wasn't a club kid.
You know where I grew up.
They didn't have that.
You know, we just playedkickball in streets, but he's
very, he's a very electric,dynamic guy, right.
(23:07):
So when they offered me theposition I had, I was the
director of teen services ineducation here and he was a
supervisor there and they saidwe want you to be a unit
director.
I Need him to have my old jobthen, because without him I
can't do this and without therest of the team I can't do this
right?
So that whole team leaderaspect that goes back to the
(23:32):
core right, like who's the tipof the arrow, and then he's
gonna.
He's gonna get that shaft tothe point where now he becomes
the feathers and the team isdoing their thing.
I just had to put my team inthe best position to succeed and
that has just been continuously.
I left there somewhere else andthen eventually ended up at a
major company Corporation.
(23:53):
Same concept there.
You know, let me, let me buildmy team, let me train them and
let me let them loose, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I feel like we were just having that conversation
not too long ago about teamwork.
Do you remember who we'rehaving a conversation with?
Those powers?
Mean, you know, maybe it's it's, it's a, it's an important
factor that I went we we needvets to realize Is exactly that,
like yeah, we were made to bepart of a team, we are able to
run teams.
Actually, I think it was at theArmy Navy game when I was
(24:25):
talking to a oh, my soldier thatwas there and his baggy and he,
he's running the team at KW no,I can't remember which which.
Well, I can't remember whichbuilder he is, and he was, like
it's just running, running fivesquads.
That's how I treat oh it's anyveteran that comes out can, can
do this, and I like that's.
(24:45):
That's.
That's the thing that we allforget those soft skills that
were taught over and over again.
The military is One of thepremier leadership schools
organizations there is.
It's all built on leadership.
I can't influence you to gotake this bullet or fight this
fire.
There's no point, and we do itin such a way that when we get
(25:08):
out, we can do it again Withoutthe authority and for some odd
reason, man, we just it's likeall of a sudden everybody's a
damn sniper.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
We're just in the bush by ourselves, like.
I don't understand how thathappens.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Guilty of it, obviously yeah and we're talking
about that too, just right now.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah.
Yeah, you get out of service andyou feel like it's just you
yeah, yeah, and that's theothers, man, and it's like again
, fortunately I was, you know,my wife was waiting for me to
come out, you know, and and so Ihad something, I had someone,
and I see, brothers, this is whodon't, right, and that's a
(25:45):
whole tailspin.
Yeah, that could be, you know,because now, now you're building
walls that don't even need tobe there, you know, and that's
going to lead to to some darkplaces.
You know what I mean.
So, if I can be someone's light, sign me up, put me in a game.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Right in.
That's awesome and I so to.
To finish up that, thattransition do you feel like
you've, you're, you found a goodhome here now, like your
transition never stops right.
So do you feel like yourtransition now, your trend, all
(26:25):
those times you move, has reallymade you have this transition
successful to?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
yeah, I've, I've, I've.
You know, I've learned thatwhen I'm going through a hard
time, it's either preparationfor a storm that's coming um, or
tests right to To prove thatwhat I've gone through.
I'm up for this now.
So, either way, knuckle up andgo through it.
(26:55):
Right, I'm either built forthis, I've been prepared for
this, right.
You've been putting me throughthings that have gotten me ready
for this moment, so I'm readyto rock or this is preparation
for something that's comingeither way.
It needs my undivided attention.
So you know the what's thefastest way through a storm?
Straight through it, right.
So, let's go and, and that is100 percent, marine Corps right
(27:19):
there like go, go.
You can bitch along the way,but keep going, keep going.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
In going back to you know your job title of fighting
fires, I feel like that, youknow, we, we don't ever know how
it's going to affect us on theoutside like what is this
actually going to teach us?
Yeah, but for you to actuallyfight fires, you know, uh, when
there's a major life incident,do you think that prepares you
at all for what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, it makes.
It makes things um so muchsmaller.
Like, man, if I, if I mess thisup all right, you know I can, I
can unscrew it.
You mess up in a burn, yoursquad might be down one, you
know what I mean.
Like there is no margin forerror.
Everyone has to function A1like period, there, there is no
(28:09):
margin for error.
There, man, you could literallynot come out.
No, no, no, oversights, right.
So when you come out into thecivilian world, you know, and
obviously situation dictates,right, but, like I'm in a
financial space right now, amistake can cause someone to
lose some money, right, um, butI'm part of a team, so it's not.
(28:30):
There are several eyes On this,right, so it doesn't really
happen.
But if it does, you know, it'scool, we can make the money back
up.
Period, the end.
You're not gonna die, I'm notgonna die.
You know what I mean.
Um, and and that mindset, man,you know when, when my son was,
when my son was a baby, I wasworking.
(28:53):
Christ, if I worked 12 hours ina boat yard, it was a short
shift, you know, and that wassix days a week.
There was nothing compared tobeing, you know, in a hole in
the ground that I dug in NorthCarolina.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
In December, sleeping behind the damn bush.
You know, in a three-daysimulated war, when we were
combat training, like I gotfrostbite, first degree
frostbite on my damn toes.
You know what I mean?
I still can't feel half my bigtoe.
You know what I mean?
There's nothing, man, give mesome wires, I'll pull some more
wires.
Whatever, you know what I mean.
Just let me get something toeat, man, I'll keep hammering.
(29:28):
Yeah, you know Everything.
After that, man just becameespecially if you're talking
about from a physicalperspective like it's mind over
matter, and if you don't mindshit, just don't matter.
So keep going.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It's like doing the hard stuff.
You know, the more hard stuffyou do, the easier it gets.
Yeah, yeah, that's why coldtherapy is so important.
Right now, people are just youget the hard you do.
You push yourself to do thehard things.
After that it's easy.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So we're gonna put one here in the office.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Man, I'm down to do that.
Man, who were we talking torecently, talking about doing a
cold therapy session?
Oh, it was a proximity boys.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A proximity.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for real,that'd be good stuff, man.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Cold and hot therapy it happens.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I was kidding, but whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Clearly he's not right, no.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Man bro, as cold as you keep it here, you'll be fine
.
It's different, though.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I don't like my shower's cold bro.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I like my shower's hot.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
You know what I'm saying.
When we're outside, I don'tcare, I don't know about yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
God, you gotta do the hard stuff.
See, that's the problem youdon't do enough hard things.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I can't do that whole hot shower thing man.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Oh man, what I mean.
My wife comes out to showerlike her skin is red.
Yeah, that's me Like.
She's like come on in, it'slike playing double dutch right.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Hold on.
It's like, definitely not.
That's it.
Well, I'm ready.
That's a different word.
If we don't got two showerheads, I ain't joining you.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
You know what I'm saying I miss that man.
So when I renovated my house inJersey, she mentioned that she
was like can you do two showerheads?
I was like the wall's going tobe gutted open.
I'll do whatever you want, bestthing ever.
Oh my God, like I was like,this is what I've been missing
in my whole.
Oh my, this is nuts.
Oh, it was insane man.
(31:18):
It was insane.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'll never take another shower again.
New goal unlocked.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I'm going to get that double shower head, now Game
changer?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, it definitely is bro Game changer for sure.
I'm rethinking my whole pieceof shit.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
man hey did you get that wink.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Yeah, this town's been great to me, man, I mean.
Where about you staying at I'mup in spring.
Oh shit, yeah, bit of a hike tocome here man, yeah, yeah, man,
we appreciate you coming.
As do I, bro.
When I got that message, I waslike yes, I made it to the big
time, man.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I tell you, man people that we have on the show.
Like I said, man, we got tohave some kind of interest in
you and me and William talkedabout you a couple of times
offline.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I was like man, what the fuck is this?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's exactly right, yeah, yeah, I don't know, man,
but yeah, I thought we wereolder than you so I was like who
the fuck is this kid bro?
Oh, that's funny man.
That's funny man, yeah, now.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I was.
I've been outside man the wholefirst year that I was here, man
.
I was just, I mean, north ofI-10, I was there from Katie to
Galveston, bro, and as far northas Conroe.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Do you love it?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
A lot of it.
I'm bored a lot of it.
I still use GPS to go to the US.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Oh, I will forever use GPS I mean just for traffic
purposes.
Right, like it'd be a whole redline and then it'd find a
shorter route and some roads Inever heard of, through some
neighborhood, Tarzan, turningleft and right.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
All right cool.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Save 10 minutes, man, because that's traffic is a
monster.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I still use GPS from here to the VA.
I know where it's at, I just doit yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I know where it's, at Expressway.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Expressway yes one shot all the way, bro.
Yeah, man, yeah but I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I stay in the city, man, I stay in Paralel.
Yeah, Only time I actuallyleave to the Houston area would
be for a restaurant or two or asporting event.
Like I don't even go see myfamily.
Man, Yo, y'all want to see me.
Come to Paralel.
You know where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Come to Paralel, I like it down here man.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
It's nice down here, it's cool.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, no, my office is in Soria Heights, so Okay,
okay.
I go there maybe once a week,twice max.
The beauty of what I do I canwork remotely, so I'm home a lot
I'm home a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
That's what's up, man .
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So tell me what brought you into the financial
industry.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, you mentioned it a little bit.
So when my son was gettingready for college, you know, and
at that time I hadn't even goneto college myself.
So as far as I was concerned,like I'm doing this dad thing
right, like my son's about to goto a major university right now
, so we go into theadministrator's office and we're
(34:03):
doing the registration and weget to the financial part of it
and she goes all right.
So do you have any investments?
That's rich people.
I don't know how manyinvestments we're talking about.
She was like no 401k, four,three B, five, 29.
I don't know what these numbersare.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I was sitting in front of the South.
What's up?
No?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Two-some Jersey, bro.
Yeah, you know, south Jerseyyeah.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, we do this.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
You know I don't have any of that stuff.
No, you know, I don't even have$529.
She was like no, a five-29 is acollege fund.
I was like college fund, it'sup to the trust fund, it's rich
people stuff.
No, I went in there, bro, and Iwas like higher than the
highest high right and I leftthere.
I was like yo, I am losing.
I am 40 years old, I don't knowa damn thing other than how to
(34:53):
make a dollar and, even worse,I'm raising my kids the same way
.
Same way.
Right, Like I'm failing bro.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So I go to and I won't say the name of the
company but I walk into.
You know a name we allrecognize from a financial
planning firm.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And I'm like listen man, I need to learn about money
Now.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
mind you, I was making probably $90.95k at the
time, but I also built thelifestyle that was like kissing
that you know what I'm saying so, there wasn't much
discretionary income at the endof the month.
Go to a bank, tell them youwant an IRA, who's an IRA and
why don't want to give IRA mymoney?
Like no an IRA.
(35:33):
Can you teach me?
You say no, it doesn't workthat way.
You got to have money, okay,and that was a common theme.
You got to have a minimumbefore they'll start talking to
you.
Right, and I get it.
They got to make money too,right, it's not a nonprofit.
Right, but can you steam me in adirection, bro, you know, other
than just get an IRA, you know.
So I found out afterwards thatit's financial advisors industry
(35:59):
standard is a 1% commission,right.
So they have like a $50,000minimum, $100,000 minimum.
I've heard as high as a milliondollars before.
The smallest I've heard of is10 grand Never found one, but
that's the smallest.
And you have to have thateither in cash or manageable
assets, a 401k that you'rerolling over, something for them
(36:19):
to work with, so nobody wouldwork with me.
This is the same point in timewhere I'm like, going through
this, I haven't fulfilled whatI'm supposed to be here, what
I'm supposed to be doing, kindof a thing.
And long story short, man, itwas my spirit just screaming out
like you know, go, like, stopholding yourself back.
(36:41):
Coincidentally, q says becauseI had trouble childhood, like we
lived in an abandoned house fora couple of years.
You know it was pretty rough.
You ever think about going to atherapist?
I'm like what for?
And he was like just to go.
And I was like bro, I'm fine,like all of my daddy issues,
(37:01):
like I'm cool.
Me and my father were like thisNow we fixed everything.
I was 21 when we fixed it, allthe negative things that have
happened to me growing up.
I poured all that into the kidsat the Boys and Girls Club,
like I was.
I was happy, you know.
And he says and I still want topunch him in the face for this
but he says, don't you, don'tyou work out.
(37:22):
I say, yeah, man, doing alittle treadmill action, my
little light weights, whateverhe was like why, what's wrong
with you?
I said nothing, I just want tostay son of a bitch.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I see what you did.
Yeah, all right, I'll find one.
Two shape, two shape.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Took me about six months, man, and I found I found
a therapist and man.
She unlocked some shit, youknow.
Long story short, everythingthat I'd gone through led me to
living a super conservative,zero risk life.
Yeah, right, like we're cool,everything is great, don't move,
(38:01):
don't touch shit, you mightbreak something.
Everything is fine, right.
So there was like no growth inmy life, right Again, happy with
, with the kids and the wife,and I mean shit people.
How many people want to bemarried for 20 years, right, and
have stable, come home tostability every day, like people
died for that and I understoodthat and I appreciated that and
(38:23):
I was content with that.
Like I said, I'm, I've, I'vepeaked, I'm 40.
I made it, you know, because Ibroke every cycle that I'd been
raised with.
You know what I mean.
And and when she said that it'slike you're just, you're
holding yourself back, and I'mlike that's what's screaming in
(38:43):
me.
I have all this untappedpotential.
What can I do?
Let me, let me ramp thiscollege thing up.
They told the.
My academic advisor said thethe average duration to get the
associate's degree in theprogram that I was in was two
and a half years.
I said I'm going to do it intwo.
I did it in 10 and a halfmonths.
(39:06):
Bachelor's degree she saysaverage is about three years.
I did that in 10 months, so,and and I've since then, really
for the past few years.
It's really strange, but I'mnot operating on goals, which is
so counterproductive of what I.
It's against everything I do asa financial advisor right, but
(39:26):
a context is everything, man.
So I'm trying to find what mylimits are, because I've been
setting goals my whole life andhitting them.
That's telling me I'm settinggoals at a two damn low Right,
like I'm not the shit bro, likeI'm not that great, right To
where it's like everything I do,no, like my goals are just too
low.
So what am I capable of?
(39:47):
How far can I go?
How many people can I impact?
How many souls can I shine somelight on?
Once I kind of get a vibe ofwhere I'm at.
I'm like, all right to the 10thpower.
That's going to be my goal now.
That's going to be my stretchgoal, right?
You know we're going to put anexponent on that.
But right now I use the analogyman.
(40:07):
I do a lot of public speakingand I use the analogy of you can
get into a car, you can getinto a car, you can get into a
car.
You can get into a car on anopen track, right.
And you can say, all right, I'mgoing to do, I want to do 200
miles an hour in this thing,right, that's what indie cars
can do, that's what I want to do.
I want to see how fast it cango, period.
(40:28):
That's my goal.
I want to red line this thinghow fast can it go?
Then my limit.
You know that whatever's pastthat, that's going to be my goal
.
So right now I'm just kind ofdigging see how far I can go.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Shit Calm down, Moana .
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Geez Dang it and you got to have kids.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I know that reference , sorry, ro.
I have kids, but I don't havekids.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
What are you going to have?
Young kids?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, how far will I go?
How?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
is that Anyways?
Speaker 2 (41:01):
calm down Whatever Now, man, I think that's amazing
because we've said that beforeon the show.
Like this, this is just thebeginning, right?
And then this is for and I lovethis because one of the things
that we're so passionate aboutis, like man, veterans come in
all shapes and sizes and agesand we're always transitioning
and trying to get better.
(41:21):
And you, like you, helpeddepict that for us because you
know, everybody gets a taste ofRo and I all the time.
But to see someone from theoutside pre-911, coming from the
north side of town I mean thenorth side of the States you
know picking up and moving andchanging and saying, like you
know, it was 41 and I want to gosee a therapist and I didn't
start going to college until Iwas in my 40s like, and to see
where you've come and go now,like, that's the example that we
(41:44):
want to share.
You know, this is the kind ofexposure we try to get everyone
else to see.
Like man, you know the bestcomes in all shapes and sizes
and your potential is not evenunlocked yet.
You know, no matter whereyou're at, even for yourself,
like I can see you like man,you're not even unlocked yet you
know you've only been here sixmonths Now.
Imagine what you'll be in thenext six months.
You know exactly what you'resaying.
Like you're going to hit thatred line and then you're going
(42:05):
to be like you know what thatred line ain't even my red line,
like that's only first year.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
That was red line for third year.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Exactly Like we've got time to shift again and
forget what we're going next.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
That's dope man, it feels good, yeah, I mean, I got
asked from.
So networking virtually metsomeone who runs a nonprofit in
Atlanta.
We sparked a conversation.
He asked me to come on hispodcast, went on there, talked
about finances, but from adifferent perspective.
(42:35):
Like nobody wants to sit thereI shouldn't say nobody, but I'm
not even the type to want to sitthere and just listen to
investment talk.
Like how does it impact yourlife, bro?
You know what I mean.
Like I tell people I don't careabout how much money you make,
I care about what you want to dowith the money that you do make
.
That's what matters to me,Right?
So we got to talking about alot of things and he was like
man, would you like to be on myboard?
(42:56):
I'm like well what does thatlook like?
Yeah, you know he's like.
Well, when it comes to makingbig decisions for the nonprofit,
you know you have a vote, youhave a say Sounds pretty cool,
man.
And the nonprofit's calledRemand.
It works, you know it's basedout of Atlanta and it's about
helping black men break cyclesright and apply that accordingly
(43:20):
.
It doesn't matter where you arein life Like you can be a
successful CEO and still havesome, you know, some stigmas and
some, some, some, some things,some things to break right.
Or you could be young and upand coming, you can be right.
Now we're looking into trans,helping men transition from the
prison system.
Yeah, right, and what does thatlook like?
That's dope man.
(43:41):
That's so I do.
You know we're doing.
Thank you, brother.
So you know I work, do workwith there.
I do a lot of work up in theCleveland prison with the prison
entrepreneurship program.
You know these are guys that Imade a mistake when I was 28.
My daughter my wife, was on bedrest with my daughter and had
(44:02):
to brush my first brush with thelaw Did a lot of dumb shit
growing up, like we all did, butnever had the right to remain
silent.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Bro, look at the definition over here.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Hey, man.
So that was, that was my firstbrush, man, you know.
And a detective said listen tome, man, if you, if you listen
to me and you do what I tell you, you'll be just fine.
And you know, young and stupid,you know, I ain't no snitch bro
, and it's like no, it's notthat, I just need you to own it.
And I lost that like somesomewhere in my life, like I
(44:35):
lost a sense of of owningeverything that I do what I did
right Mine.
Yeah, like I did it, you know,and I'm like that's all I got to
do.
And he was like, yeah, it'slike I remember how to do that.
I didn't do that, you know, andI did fast forward now and I'm
looking at these guys and I'mworking with these guys in the
(44:57):
prison system.
They didn't have that.
Nobody was there to say, bro,stop, do what I tell you to do
and you'll be okay, right.
So they landed where they are,they are what they are, they're
owning what they've done.
But now what?
Now what, right?
So if that's where I can touchtheir souls, that's where I'll
(45:17):
be.
So that's I do.
I do a lot of work in thatspace in the prison system.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Man, it's dope because you got to control what
you can control.
It is yeah, you've done whatyou've done.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Right, the gavel came down, you know, and here you
are.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
So I mean, we think about a lot of time too, where
it's like you know, don't judgeus by what we did, you know.
Just remember what I'm tryingto do.
Yeah, look at where I'm tryingto go.
Like I got it.
You know I messed up, yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
You know that's for it.
Now what?
That question is so simple.
Right Now what?
And I use that all the time,whether it's great or my
situation's horrible.
Now what?
Right, because what that does,bro, you hit the lottery.
Right, millions of dollars,okay, cool, congrats.
Now what?
Because you lose it.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Yeah, right Now, what ?
Okay, now what, now, what?
Right, because, now what?
When you ask yourself now whatit forces you to continue to
move, you can't be stagnant.
You got to answer the question.
Direct question.
Direct answer Now what?
All right.
Now I got to do X, y and Z, allright.
(46:32):
So how do you do X?
We'll get to Y and Z, but howdo you do X?
Well, I got to do this firststep first.
Okay, let's do that first stepand it will keep you moving.
If you consistently askyourself now what, you'll never
be stagnant.
A Daniel life.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So now what, charlie?
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Mike baby Continue.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, now, man, it's powerful stuff, you know, and
this is this is for.
I mean for you, listen anywhere.
You know, there's so much thatthat you can do.
You know, and having big goalsand dreams is great, but let's
take X at a time.
What's the next step?
What's my best next step?
What's the one thing that?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
I can do One bite at a time, bro.
Yeah, how are you dealing withit?
Speaker 2 (47:15):
And there's so many, there's so many resources Like I
keep going back to that becauseI'm trying to think of who's
listening to this and that's theveterans.
Like you know, if you just lookat our guest Lou here and where
he started and what he's doingnow, you know there's nothing to
say that you can't do.
That too, you know you canchange at any moment.
You just have to own it andthen put in the work.
You know, because if you'relooking to invest, or if you you
(47:36):
know you're looking you have akid that's getting ready to like
you know, we'll put Lou'sinformation down and you can
contact him and won't likelyonly answer the phone and be
like this is where you got tostart, this is what we got to do
.
You know, and oftentimes that'swhat it takes is just that
conversation to be like hey,this is what you got to do next?
Speaker 3 (47:51):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you just have to ask the
question.
Don't look at something right.
You see someone with with nicecar, nice house, vacations.
Don't say must be nice.
Ask them how.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Because they might answer.
Right.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
They might answer the damn question, and then you'll
know how.
And now the onus is on you.
But until you ask, there's noownership.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I don't like that question Must be when people say
, oh yeah must be now, man.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
you got a nice studio here, man.
This must be nice.
Work my ass off to get thestudio.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
You see what these cameras, bro, y'all didn't see
when we started in the closet,like you know what I mean.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Man, it must be nice man.
You got a thousand subscribersand this, this, and that it must
be nice man?
Yeah, it is.
You want to know how I canteach you?
Do you want to learn or do youwant to just sit back Right?
Ask the question, that's all.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Nah, that's real man.
I want to tell you, man, youknow, like the fact that you
said you know you work with,with the prisons and things like
that, it speaks.
It speaks a lot about you as aperson, because I think we've
all you know, I've struggledwith addiction and I'm on a
board for addiction recovery now.
(49:09):
You know what I mean.
So so it's what we've.
It's something I truly believe.
You know it's not.
People judge you a lot of timeson your mistakes and you know
not, not your.
I don't know, man.
I don't know what I'm trying tosay, but props.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Ditto, keep going, man, ditto, keep going, bro.
I think I think you're on there.
You know it's it's about.
You know, not just yourmistakes or the addictions that
you've dealt with.
It's like well, what have Iovercome?
You know everybody's dealt witha different path.
You know everybody's dealt withsome type of privilege one way
or another.
You know, I mean, folks look atus as vets and they're like oh
(49:49):
yeah, I must be nice.
You're like dude, therecruiter's office is open to
everybody.
You know what I mean you couldhave joined, you know, at any
moment.
You know, and you know I wouldbring it back to to Lou is like
you know I, I I didn't noticethat too, that you didn't put
your vet, but I mean you arepart of the veteran stream for
commerce, you know, and it'slike that those little decisions
(50:11):
are paying off now and that'swhat I've seen too, when it
comes to being being a vet, likeand we're all hit on it, like
more than just a veteran, youknow, like we love that more,
more than a vet, but to stillidentify as that vet because it
is and what shaped me to be whoI am now.
But I encourage you to keepgoing, man.
(50:31):
I think that was you werereally onto something.
I know you sometimes are worseescapee.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
I was just about to say that that's what it is.
It's it's you can.
You can see it Right, um, andwhat I explained to my clients
is you don't have a goal untilyou have a game plan.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Right Before then.
It's a hope, it's an aspiration.
You can see it clear as day.
Whatever your purpose is,whatever your objective is,
whatever everything that youwent through it's for a reason.
Right, Probably for a myriad ofreasons.
(51:09):
But where you are right now iswhen you're gonna draw on all of
that.
Right, you just gotta visualizethat path, bro.
And a path is made up of whatObjectives?
Right, there's more than onerung on the ladder, no roof, or
jumps from the ground to theroof.
(51:30):
Right, Just gotta see thoserungs and get to that final
objective.
And then, once you get there,you're gonna say oh damn, this
is a two-story house.
All right.
Now what?
Right?
That's how hopes and wishes anddreams become reality by a
(51:52):
series of objectives that makethem actual, attainable,
measurable goals.
That's all it is, bro.
That's all it is Dang.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Now, what, now, what yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:04):
Apply accordingly bro Whether you're talking finances
, whether you're talking life,it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Doesn't matter.
That's what's up.
Man, I'm dope man.
I'm glad you came in today, man.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
William, I know that people are struggling with
something.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Yeah, if you are out there and you're struggling,
don't forget the number is 988.
You can press one if you're amilitary veteran, or you can
text the number at 988.
We're huge advocates for it.
We all go through tough times.
The number is there for areason.
Your awards fighting for andyou're struggling with problems
that face you.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
Well, would you got any closing comments?
Call to action anything withall those lines, so before no,
no you're good, bro.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
I always say two things.
First, thank you for your time.
We really appreciate you makingthe time and being here and
being president and with all thethings that are going on to
really clear out your calendarfor us.
We really appreciate that.
So how can someone follow alongwith you?
What are some ways they canstay in contact?
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Yeah, super, super active on social media and on
Facebook primarily Threeaccounts.
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
It's nuts bro.
So I've got my personal accountand I'm always throwing out
things there.
I might be talking about lifeinsurance, I might be talking
about finances, I might betalking about whatever in
addition to all of my personalstuff that I put out there.
So that's Lou Rosado Jr.
And then I have my business,one which is strictly investment
related or insurance related.
That's my government namedLouis Louis Rosado Jr, l-u-i-s.
(53:39):
And then I also own a virtualtax and bookkeeping business, so
I have that one that's calledAltruist Taxes and more so.
I got three pages.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yeah, dope man.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
But it's you know I mostly get hit on my hit up from
Perfect Strangers.
On my personal one, I get DMsall the time.
Sometimes it's financiallyrelated, sometimes it's not
because of the content that Iput out there.
If something's on my heart, I'mgonna let it out right, yeah,
yeah yeah, so I might be on mytreadmill, man and have a
(54:11):
thought, and I'm gonna prop upmy phone while I'm on the
treadmill I'll speak my peace.
I feel better.
If it gets one, like, cool,that's one person who saw it.
If it gets a million, great,that's fine too.
It's gonna touch who it'ssupposed to touch.
And I've gotten man.
I've got one client.
Never met her before, but shesaw something I put out there
speaking to single moms aboutfinances, right, because that's
(54:35):
what led to our situation.
My mom really didn't knowanything about finances when her
and my father divorced and welost everything, you know,
sheriff, put a padlock on thehouse and everything.
So I made a quick video, spoketo that.
A single mom teacher out inDenver hits me up, can you help?
I was like we can have aconversation.
What's going on, you know?
(54:55):
And she asked the question,right, and yeah, we were able.
You know, I was able to dosomething for her to at least
get her in a direction and helpguide her in a way that no one
did for my mom.
You know, single moms kind of,when it comes to my clients,
single moms hold a very, veryspecial place.
(55:17):
As they should, yeah man, youknow it's like, man, listen, I
might make a buck, literally abuck.
That's fine, right?
Because as far as I'm concerned, I operate with two bank
accounts, bro, one to pay thebills and one's a spiritual bank
account, and I got to depositinto both of those.
Equally Damn, or I'm not livingright.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:38):
You know what I mean, because don't get me wrong all
the good deeds in the world Ican do at the end of the month,
comcast still wants their moneyright or I'm not gonna have my
internet.
So I got bills to pay too.
But yeah, like there are thingsthat I'm supposed to be doing,
half of which I don't even knowyet.
The other half I probably won'teven see Like some of my goals
(55:58):
I know for a fact I'm not gonnabe around to see.
When I work with some of myclients, they don't even have
kids and I'm like one day you'regonna have a kid and that kid's
gonna have a kid, and they'renot gonna know anything about
your struggles.
Right now, like right now,we're literally pinching pennies
to start in IRA Start.
They're gonna be born with one,they're gonna have 529.
(56:23):
Then I got to worry aboutstudent loans.
All these things that you canbarely even speak on is gonna be
dinner table conversations andI'm not gonna be around to see
that.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
Right, Like I've accepted the fact that some of
those goals I know I'm not goingto be here, but I also know I'm
gonna hit them Cause I'mputting into work.
Cause I'm putting into workGoes back to the start.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
The ripple bro, that's it you gotta be the
ripple starter.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Bro, I'm gonna use the two bank accounts joint.
That was dope, that boy overthere, he's dropping droves man.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
And you were here for the previous interview.
So my last question is Charlieand Mike means continue mission.
So what does that term Charlieand Mike mean to you?
Speaker 3 (57:12):
Yeah, man, and again, context is everything.
So what I've gone through, whatI'm, where I am, you know.
And for the short window thatwe're all here, you know we're
one grain of sand on an endlessbeach, bro.
You know it's this millions ofbillions of years old.
You know what I mean.
We're here for what?
80 in a good life, right, it'snothing.
(57:33):
Continuing that mission from melooks like a little black kid,
little brown kid that doesn'tknow the struggles that
financial illiteracy bring.
Right, because that's what Igrew up around.
(57:55):
Right, that cheese that doesn'tmelt, that you got from the
government, that just getsgreasy when you, when you, nuke
it, right.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Spam .
I still miss that shit though.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
God bless your soul, bro.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
My throat closes up thinking about it, and you know
Al bro, you give me on a spamsandwich any bit, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
I can't do it anymore .
You know that man and ChefBoyardee and Campbell Soup man.
Like though I know, the moreplatforms that God gives me to
speak on, the greater my reachbecomes to touch more souls, to
make a bigger difference, tocontinue that ripple effect.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
Damn, I got chills when we were talking about that.
Bro, I really appreciate yourtime, man.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
I really do.
I appreciate you guys reachingout man.
I'm telling you I got excitedwhen I got that direct message.
I was like I made it mama, I'mhere, I'm here, welcome.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Welcome, Chef.
What's so?
The best way for anybody toreach you is social media.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
Yeah, just DM me, man .
My Facebook is wide open.
Shoot me a DM if you haven't.
The biggest thing, man, I tryto fight is assumption.
People assume so much infinances.
Oh, life insurance is tooexpensive.
How much is it?
Man?
Rich people got that stuff.
Let's run a quote.
Let's run a quote.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:22):
You could be right, you could be wrong.
I can't tell you how many timesI've run a quote and they're
like that's it, yeah, that's it.
You know how much do I need tostart an IRA?
Can you afford $25 a month?
It's open account right.
You may not die a millionaire,but your son might.
Speaker 2 (59:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:47):
And your grandson definitely will right.
Gotta ask the questions, gottastart, Gotta start, man, I love
answering questions becauseworst case scenario and I have
these consultations all the timewhere it's like, listen, right
now, bro, I'm an expense to you,right?
So you're not gonna hire me,but here's a list of things I
(01:00:08):
need you to do.
If you do all of this, in sixmonths to a year you're gonna be
in a whole different position.
Then you're gonna hire me,right?
Call, do this, call me if youhave any questions, If anything
changes, call me.
I'm here.
I love answering questionsbecause nobody would do it for
me.
I heard that.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Nobody would do it for me.
Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
So now I'm in a place and I'm sorry, I can just get
on my soapbox.
No, you can, but now, like,because I've worked to get here,
so now I'm in a place where Ican do it.
So I look at other advisors andI listen you don't wanna do it,
that's fine, god bless.
You go do what you gotta do,man, you know.
But do me a favor, move out ofmy way.
Yeah, cause I got something todo you heard it Get out of the
(01:00:54):
way.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Yeah, man Dang those dope episodes man.
I appreciate it, man droppingjewels and stuff hey.
Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
What happens, brother ?
Yeah, I know, as always, man,if you haven't checked out my
man, William, on all his socialmedia platforms.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Be sure to do that.
That's TikTok, IG, Facebook,Instagram at Mustache Wisdom.
I think he's got a feet bottom.
Got a feet bottom too, Ha, ha,ha ha.
But, as always, we appreciateit and be sure to check out
Charlie Mike Military Apparel,cause that's what makes this
possible, as always.
Thank you, and Charlie Mike, Yoyo yo.
(01:01:38):
What's going on?
Everybody, it is me, SojaHarbour, Red Con One Music Group
, and thank you for listening toCharlie Mike the podcast.
Yay.
Yo, what's going on everybody?
Welcome back to another episodeof Charlie Mike the podcast.
It's always.
I'm your host, raul, and yourco-host is William.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yo, what's going on y'all?
Welcome to the Paraland podcast.
Who do you look here, just outof Houston, texas.
It's so good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Man.
Hey, it's been busy, hasn't?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
it, it has been.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Bro, since you started making the calendar and
started lining people up.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh, is that what it is?
It's been amazing.
It's been amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hey, so whoever doesn't know, william does it
all here.
Yeah, okay, because there'sanything that looks amazing, it
was done by William, and if itdoesn't look good, it was done
by Jelly.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So you can't defend yourself?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, yeah that's why I said it yeah, man, so how's?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
everything going.
Hey, man, life is good.
I'm blessed, brother.
It's good to be back here andgetting on a roll again.
You know, like I was tellingour guests here, just that's
kind of what got us.
What guys started when we firstgot into the studio is exactly
what we were doing gettingguests in, paying homage to them
and just bringing you all outthere at good value.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I think, as we continue to grow the studio,
it's not that we forgot, it'sjust we kind of put it in the
back burner.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You worry about everybody else.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We were both exactly, and that's a strength and a
curse.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you always want to over deliver for folks, and
then we do.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And you forget about yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, you're like, oh , dang it, man, we gotta make
sure we do this.
But that's that's what Istarted.
Bread and butter, that's whatwe tell folks.
You know you come in a podcastwith us because we podcast, we
podcast, we do this.
You know we want to help you dothis, we help you grow and and
if you're a vet out there andyou're looking to start a
podcast, man, there's a lot ofgreat free resources out there.
But hit us up, let us know.
(02:08):
You know we're down to tell youeverything that we've done
wrong, but especially what we'vedone right 100% no we say it
often.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We're not.
We're not just smoking mirrors,Like we've had folks call us
and say, hey, what did I do?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, that's stories.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So if you have any questions, reach out to me at
William at Charlie Mikeleadership dot com and I'll
answer everything you got.
Oh, was that the wrong email?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
No, that's a good email.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'll get you to the right people.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Man let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Go ahead brother.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, I'm going to tell you what I think we've.
Uh, we don't just bring anyoneon the show, we have to find you
interesting and, and that's onething that we find in our, our
guests coming up, we I thinkwe've tried to link a few times
and we've actually.
Who linked us?
The Houston.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Chamber, the veteran's chamber of commerce
Houston veteran chamber ofcommerce.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's right, and our guest is today is Lou Lou.
What branch were you in?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Marine Corps.
Marine Corps.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh man nevermind.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
We're having technical difficulties.
That's how we're going to startthis.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, all right, audio's out.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
No, lou, and you first popped up a marmite d'art
too, from the veteran's chamber,and you weren't even in town at
that time, right.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I was so um from New Jersey where um, you know, in
case you didn't pick up um fromthe accent, where we drink,
where we drink water.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Water yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, it's my daughter sitting over there.
But, um, yeah, so when, when mywife and I knew that we were
going to be moving over here, um, eventually I came a year in
advance, so I got a small onebedroom apartment, um started
networking, building my book ofbusiness um, learning the lay of
the land.
Every weekend I'd be drivingsomewhere at Galveston and Katie
(03:59):
and and Sugarland and justdriving all around learning
things, um, and that's when Icame across the chamber, um, and
a bunch of other groups, butthe chamber was very obviously
um different.
You know um, and that's um.
You know the, the, the.
That's when, that's when I cameacross the stash you know
that's different, that guy'sdifferent yeah.
And um yeah, then went back homein March of this year.
(04:21):
All right, um got the houseready to sell, sold it and in
July, man um planted our flaghere.
Permanent Houstonians, brother.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
That's what's welcome man yeah, Welcome is a big,
it's a big difference.
What made you come out toHouston?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The um, the.
The firm offered me anopportunity, so I'm not just an
advisor for the firm, I'm alsoVP of admin affairs.
Um, we had decided years agoGod moved so many parts I mean,
this was not checkers, this waschess, you know um, when I was
41, I decided to go back tocollege.
Um, or, go to college as soonas they go back, and never went.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah 41.
, yeah, 41.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I'm gonna be 47 in February.
Man, yeah, my baby girl's 19.
She just wrapping up what?
I'm gonna break from freshman.
Her freshman year in college.
Dang, my oldest is 23.
He's teaching now, so that'scrazy.
Yeah, Wifey and I have beentogether damn near 30 years bro,
Congrats.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We've had a run of guests who have been together
for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, yeah I mean y'all say 30 years.
I had the last one was 18 years.
I'm gonna we're trying to 12months Bro.
We were there.
Bro, that's cute, we were thereyeah.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, man.
So the we knew it wasn't gonnabe Jersey for us in retirement
years, you know where, don'tknow when, god only knows you
know.
And then, as I wrapped upcollege and decided I wanted to
be a financial advisor andthere's a whole story why I
became that and changed I mean,I left a 15 year career for a
Fortune 50 company for to startover again, you know and then I
(05:57):
got into a conversation with theowner of the firm and he says
man, listen, you did everythingthat you did in a very short
time span and that everything ismy.
In just under two years I gotmy associates in general studies
, I got my bachelor's inbusiness management, I got my
life insurance licensing andstarted the process to get my
securities licensing to be anadvisor.
(06:18):
He said you did all that in twoyears.
Man, we could really use youhere.
And I'm like well, what doesthat look like?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
You know, and that was the that was the genesis of
it all.
I love questions.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So yeah, man like yeah I would do.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You got to what's that look like.
You know in what capacity.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, that's a real question all day.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, for sure, you know, and, and we were wide open
to it.
I mean we literally, you know,we started looking at this
window probably the better partof three years ago.
You know we knew she was goingto be 1819, her freshman year in
college.
My son would be done doing histhing.
We don't need a four bedroomhouse with a big old backyard in
(06:57):
the pool anymore, it's just us.
So to open up a map and saywhere do we want to go, what do
we want to do?
You know that was, that was.
It was fun, yeah, it was reallyfun.
We started, obviously.
We started young, you know.
So, for 21st, for two decades,man, everything, every move we
made was foreign about them andfor the first time it's going to
(07:19):
be like what do?
we want, where do we want to go?
You know, and, and just as wewere asking these questions,
this opportunity was waspresenting itself.
So we started planning, bro,and two years, two and a half
years later, here we are.
Man, here we are.
I'm on your podcast.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's dope.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
That's that man?
It is dope, that is dope, Iknow we, so we skipped a little
bit about your, your time in theMarine Corps.
Man, tell us a little bit aboutthat.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
What's your?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
service.
Why the Marines yeah.
Why the Marines yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Sorry, sorry, go ahead.
There's a pattern.
I see it.
I see it.
No man, I heard they eatcrayons there, so I was getting.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
No, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So I take in the ass fab.
In high school I was in a co-opprogram so I would work half
the day and then get out, or inschool half the day and then get
out and go to work and creditsfor working.
And part of that program wastaking the ASFAD Took.
That knocked it out, had nointentions on going to the
military, had a stepfather who Iwasn't we'll just say weren't
(08:25):
sympathical right.
And he was all about the armyand I just wanted no parts of
the military.
So fast forward.
I had a cousin and he and I,four days apart, like in
Berthesville.
We grew up like twins and hebarely made it through high
school, man barely made it.
But he made it right.
And he calls me up one day andhe lived two blocks from me.
(08:49):
He says, bro, come over.
I said all right, so I walkover and I'm like what's going
on?
He says I'm leaving next week.
I'm like where you going?
He said I'm going to Marines.
I said no, seriously, man,where you going?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
He said I'm going to Marines.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
You nuts like have you ever seen full metal jacket
bro?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Like what are you talking?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
about hey man, what year is this?
This was 90, I went into 97.
Damn, I went into 97.
So he says no, seriously, bro,I'm leaving next week.
I said, if you do this, I willgo down and I'll watch you
graduate.
He's like all right, sure ashell.
He did it, and when I saw him,in no way did I recognize him.
I mean, obviously he'd shed afew pounds, stood up.
(09:29):
His belt was up, not around hisbutt.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It didn't recognize him in any way.
And now I was a kid that haddrive, like I was self-motivated
.
I've always been self-motivated.
What I lacked was direction,like I didn't know where I was
going to go, what I was going todo.
I knew, whatever it was I wasgoing to do the hell out of it,
but I didn't know what it was.
I said, damn, if the MarineCorps can do that for him, where
(09:57):
do I sign?
First thing?
Monday morning I'm knocking onthe recruiter's office.
He said how can I help you?
I said I want to be a Marine.
He said all right, great,you're going to have to take a
test.
Yada, yada, blah, blah.
I said I think I took that.
He said you took the ASFAB.
I said yeah, I took that.
He said what'd you get?
It was an 80-something.
He was like you can do whateveryou want to do, I was like, all
(10:17):
right, cool.
He said what do you want to do?
I said I want to be a Marine.
He was like bro, you have tohave a job.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
He said I want to cook.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I said I want to make sure he takes me out to date it
.
He takes out this big-ass bookman and he stumps through.
He says I need CFR.
I said what's that?
He said Crash Fire RescueSounds fun.
I'll do that, no clue.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
No clue.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I am in week nine, week 10 in boot camp.
That's my senior journalinstructor.
What it was, he said whenplanes crash and everybody runs
away, you run in.
I'm going to be a firefighter,he said.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
you're going to be a firefighter.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Ok, best thing ever, best thing ever.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
But unfortunately, man and this is I often it
wasn't really until I came herethat I often talk about the
Marine Corps.
Because my stint was a cup ofcoffee long, I got a medical
discharge, oh wow.
So I was only in for two and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, you say only in , bro, that's a good amount of
time.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
You know, it was quiet when I was in the first
before it was already over.
Yeah 9-11 hadn't happened yet.
You know what I mean.
So my unit was on standbyduring Kosovo.
That was it, and there is nosurvivors remorse or anything
like that on my part.
But I always the guilt comesfrom.
I got out of the Marine Corpsso much more than I was able to
(11:47):
give to it.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Like I wasn't even able to.
You're still giving to it, man.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I am You're still giving to it.
That's where the chamber comesinto play, though, bro.
You know like when I cameacross the chamber, I was like
all right, you now got to dosome networking, and who better
to network within a bunch ofvets, right?
So I jump on the first call andI'm like, bro, this is like the
barracks, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
There we go.
This is cool as hell right.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So yeah, I mean I jumped in full bore and then
afterwards typical Marine, right, I'm in.
Now tell me what I'm in for.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Yeah, I saw what the chamber was all about and I'm
like all right, man, how can Ihelp?
And the president says well,what can you do?
Point the high nail, I'llhammer the hell out of it.
What do you need help with?
And this is when we weregearing up.
We were at the tail end ofgetting ready for the expo.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We are, bro.
We probably were about threeweeks away maybe and he said we
need somebody to runregistration, right?
So when people are coming in,they got to register and sign up
, all right, cool.
So what's going on with it?
He was like nothing.
We need somebody to do it.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We're expecting like 2000 people.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It was like that sounds like a pretty high nail.
All right, I'm in.
And they gave me a good crewman.
I gave them all the credit andlined them up.
They hammered it, Everythingwas great.
And then they approached meafterwards, said listen, you're
super engaging with everybody,man, how would you like to be
the director of membership?
Sign me up?
I was like, all right, well,let's talk about the job
(13:21):
description.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Like talk about it on the way man, but what's my
first gig?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And so, yeah, I've been at that for, I don't know,
maybe three weeks A month max,let's do it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I think it's very I mean, coming off of the last
episode too, I see that we seethat a lot with vets, especially
because we were talking aboutwith Hector about pre-911 vets
and like the dead period, andsometimes I feel like my service
wasn't enough.
And it's funny because I knowyou and I feel the same way
sometimes and folks would lookat us like well, but yeah, with
(13:55):
your combat veterans, like itdoesn't matter, like I look at
the World War II vets like man,I didn't do enough, I could have
given back more to the militaryand we're both medically
discharged and I was at 13 yearsand he's at 10.
And it still feels like therewas something that was left
incomplete and so there'sprobably something to that.
You know those who have beenmedically discharged where it's
(14:16):
like, if you feel like youhaven't given enough, like
there's there's somewhere or anorganization that can use you to
finish that.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah.
Oh no, I'm sorry, and you foundit with the chambers, yeah, and
that's one thing I wanted totell you, man, is don't, don't
discredit your service.
Bro, you did two and a halfyears.
That's a lot of time.
There's people out there sayinglike I would have, but I would
have knocked him out.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, I would have pushed that drill.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, I've gone back and forth with, with, with
many a service member man, johnCacolese.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That's a good dude yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
He's all right.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I said what I said.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
He's one of my favorites man, yeah man, I mean
and he proved, point after point, valid point.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I'm like yeah, you know, it's still 41, 49% no.
You know 49% yes and and 41% no.
And the 51% no is is the factthat it's my feelings.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Man, you can't tell me my feelings are wrong, so I
don't care how right you are.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah Right, I'm 51%, you know, and that that
conversation stems from he'slike so you know what's your
percentage.
I don't have one, don't wantone, I get one.
Wow, you're entitled.
I came out whole.
You know my medical dischargehad nothing to do with the
Marine Corps.
I have a hard time takinganything else from and I
(15:41):
understand.
It's not that I'm taking, I'mnot taking from anyone else's
plate.
If I claim my bennies, I get it.
I get it.
I just don't.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't feel in my heart like I justified rating it
, you know it's interesting man,and I think that's a that that
is exactly why we have theseconversations, you know, because
I'm someone out there feelsexactly the way you do.
We know, you know, we know thatmore than likely there's a vet
there's when we've talked tothem.
(16:10):
There's a few vets out therethat feel the same way.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
If I had, you know, had had, if anything would have
happened in the Corps that would, if, basically if, if my issues
were related to the MarineCorps in any capacity okay,
that's a different conversation.
I I've a lot of my, a lot of mybrothers have.
We all know, you know, some ofthe baggage.
My brother-in-law did threetours in the sand.
(16:35):
Took him a few years to getback to his normal up here.
Um, still physically has issues, right, um, yeah, I just I'm in
every capacity physically,mentally, spiritually,
emotionally.
I'm whole.
I just don't feel the needInteresting.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You know.
You know.
It's one thing I noticed aboutyou no-transcript.
Even in your bio you didn'tmention anything about the
Marine Corps.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, I know, I was looking it over.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that's different.
Most Marines you meet that'sthe first thing they say before
they say their name.
Yeah, I mean, I'm a ring oh bythe name.
My name is Jeff.
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It's almost like it matters more.
Yeah, it's what I am right, youknow.
So, yeah, um, anything,anything more than 10% discount
at, you know, at Lowes man, youknow, it's like I just got a
hard time taking.
All right, I'll take your coolparking spot, appreciate you,
I'm good with that.
I'm good with that, you know.
(17:38):
But the chamber man, thechamber is my way of putting my
thumb on the scale and balancingthat out.
Now, you know, helpingveteran-owned businesses Get
that spotlight on them.
You know, now I'm helping yousucceed, making your bread and
butter, feeding your family,growing your business by way of
(18:00):
the military, because I served alittle stick, I'm in, I'm in
now.
That makes me kind of feel morecomplete.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Let's put it, let's put a little pin in that,
because I do, I do.
I love talking about thechamber when we both do.
I.
I'm curious, how was thattransitioned out?
Because you did say you got out, you had a medical discharge,
yes, so how does that transitionout, especially at that time
frame, and what have you foundhas helped you?
You know, I mean, we always saythat we haven't fully
transitioned yet.
Yeah, continuing like it's,it's a process even now.
(18:28):
So how did that go for?
Speaker 3 (18:30):
you.
Yeah, I didn't have a plan B,right.
So, fortunately for me, I livedin in South Jersey, so I was
half an hour from the casino, sofinding work was easy for me.
You know, I get a job the nextday in the casinos and I did
casino hopped, paying the bills.
My son was just born you knowwhat I mean just recently
married.
I Needed a paycheck, right.
(18:54):
So the grind was there.
I Got stuck in that, though,right, I just got stuck in the
gotta make it.
Gotta make it.
Okay, cool, made it to thisweek.
Okay, gotta make it this week.
You know, and and I was stuck inthat mindset man to just grind,
grind, grind.
And you know, there's somethingI wish I knew how or why it
(19:19):
happens, but we all do it.
We all forget the number onelesson that's ingrained in us.
They won in bootcamp and that'sgoddamn teamwork.
Yeah, bro, we get out.
I got this, I got.
I'm good, I'm good.
Where's all this I coming from?
(19:41):
They literally beat the eye outof you.
Where's all this I coming from?
Where's all this me?
Right, and and I was just stuckin that mindset forever and
Didn't realize it.
Really, like you know, peoplesay you go through a midlife
crisis.
Right, I went through a midlifeawakening, bro, it's very
(20:01):
difficult Sent me into a littlebit of a tailspin For the better
part of a year and at thatpoint in time, man, that at 40,
41, that was the first time Ihad a conversation with God.
I had no connection at all atall.
I Said, man, you know, I'm in agood place, right Like, I'm
(20:25):
making a decent dollar in mycareer, I'm healthy, beautiful,
healthy wife to great kids, I'msurrounded by people who love me
.
If this is all because of you,first and foremost, thank you,
appreciate you, you know.
But second, man, show me and itgoes to show my ignorance,
right, like, imagine going toyour parent or whoever raised
you and be like, hey, man, youknow these clothes and this roof
(20:48):
over my head, if, is this?
Did you do this?
You know, prove it, prove it,man, what you know.
It would have been a real shortconversation and a couple of
lumps, you know, but it justshowed my ignorance, you know,
to ask the father if this washim, and it took about six
months, eight months, and showedme he did, and he put the ball
(21:08):
in my court, said all right,it's time for me to start
growing, man.
You know, I don't know where, Idon't know how, but I'm gonna
start and that's when I that's,that's when I went to college,
that's when it's a college, soyeah, man, it's a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
So can you?
What Brought on the realizationof teamwork again?
Was there a specific incidentor was it?
Well?
Do you want every conversationswhere you're like I'm not doing
this alone, this isn't just me,and who was it that you reached
out to?
Speaker 3 (21:42):
My, so one of my best friends, who's actually my boss
, who actually used to work forme.
I used to run a boys and girlsclub, like 20 years ago, and I
was unit director, and quadreWilliams goes by Q.
He was the director of teenservices and education there.
So he was my right hand andhe's he now owns the firm that
(22:03):
I'm the VP of, and there's noway on God's green earth that
this would be possible thisbeing the whole transition from
Jersey to Houston Without himguiding me through the licensing
, making, the I mean it Listen,it all takes dollars, right.
(22:24):
So a significant amount of, youknow, money had to move in a
lot of different ways to makethis possible.
It's my partner.
That's my partner, right, andthe things that we are trying to
do From a financial perspectivein black and brown communities,
you know that's.
(22:45):
That's just no way he can do iton his own.
You know and our magic goesback to that boys and girls club
the things that we were able todo.
I didn't know anything aboutboard a boys and girls club at
all, like I wasn't a club kid.
You know where I grew up.
They didn't have that.
You know, we just playedkickball in streets, but he's
very, he's a very electric,dynamic guy, right.
(23:07):
So when they offered me theposition I had, I was the
director of teen services ineducation here and he was a
supervisor there and they saidwe want you to be a unit
director.
I Need him to have my old jobthen, because without him I
can't do this and without therest of the team I can't do this
right?
So that whole team leaderaspect that goes back to the
(23:32):
core right, like who's the tipof the arrow, and then he's
gonna.
He's gonna get that shaft tothe point where now he becomes
the feathers and the team isdoing their thing.
I just had to put my team inthe best position to succeed and
that has just been continuously.
I left there somewhere else andthen eventually ended up at a
major company Corporation.
(23:53):
Same concept there.
You know, let me, let me buildmy team, let me train them and
let me let them loose, you know.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I feel like we were just having that conversation
not too long ago about teamwork.
Do you remember who we'rehaving a conversation with?
Those powers?
Mean, you know, maybe it's it's, it's a, it's an important
factor that I went we we needvets to realize Is exactly that,
like yeah, we were made to bepart of a team, we are able to
run teams.
Actually, I think it was at theArmy Navy game when I was
(24:25):
talking to a oh, my soldier thatwas there and his baggy and he,
he's running the team at KW no,I can't remember which which.
Well, I can't remember whichbuilder he is, and he was, like
it's just running, running fivesquads.
That's how I treat oh it's anyveteran that comes out can, can
do this, and I like that's.
(24:45):
That's.
That's the thing that we allforget those soft skills that
were taught over and over again.
The military is One of thepremier leadership schools
organizations there is.
It's all built on leadership.
I can't influence you to gotake this bullet or fight this
fire.
There's no point, and we do itin such a way that when we get
(25:08):
out, we can do it again Withoutthe authority and for some odd
reason, man, we just it's likeall of a sudden everybody's a
damn sniper.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
We're just in the bush by ourselves, like.
I don't understand how thathappens.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Guilty of it, obviously yeah and we're talking
about that too, just right now.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah.
Yeah, you get out of service andyou feel like it's just you
yeah, yeah, and that's theothers, man, and it's like again
, fortunately I was, you know,my wife was waiting for me to
come out, you know, and and so Ihad something, I had someone,
and I see, brothers, this is whodon't, right, and that's a
(25:45):
whole tailspin.
Yeah, that could be, you know,because now, now you're building
walls that don't even need tobe there, you know, and that's
going to lead to to some darkplaces.
You know what I mean.
So, if I can be someone's light, sign me up, put me in a game.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Right in.
That's awesome and I so to.
To finish up that, thattransition do you feel like
you've, you're, you found a goodhome here now, like your
transition never stops right.
So do you feel like yourtransition now, your trend, all
(26:25):
those times you move, has reallymade you have this transition
successful to?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
yeah, I've, I've, I've.
You know, I've learned thatwhen I'm going through a hard
time, it's either preparationfor a storm that's coming um, or
tests right to To prove thatwhat I've gone through.
I'm up for this now.
So, either way, knuckle up andgo through it.
(26:55):
Right, I'm either built forthis, I've been prepared for
this, right.
You've been putting me throughthings that have gotten me ready
for this moment, so I'm readyto rock or this is preparation
for something that's comingeither way.
It needs my undivided attention.
So you know the what's thefastest way through a storm?
Straight through it, right.
So, let's go and, and that is100 percent, marine Corps right
(27:19):
there like go, go.
You can bitch along the way,but keep going, keep going.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
In going back to you know your job title of fighting
fires, I feel like that, youknow, we, we don't ever know how
it's going to affect us on theoutside like what is this
actually going to teach us?
Yeah, but for you to actuallyfight fires, you know, uh, when
there's a major life incident,do you think that prepares you
at all for what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, it makes.
It makes things um so muchsmaller.
Like, man, if I, if I mess thisup all right, you know I can, I
can unscrew it.
You mess up in a burn, yoursquad might be down one, you
know what I mean.
Like there is no margin forerror.
Everyone has to function A1like period, there, there is no
(28:09):
margin for error.
There, man, you could literallynot come out.
No, no, no, oversights, right.
So when you come out into thecivilian world, you know, and
obviously situation dictates,right, but, like I'm in a
financial space right now, amistake can cause someone to
lose some money, right, um, butI'm part of a team, so it's not.
(28:30):
There are several eyes On this,right, so it doesn't really
happen.
But if it does, you know, it'scool, we can make the money back
up.
Period, the end.
You're not gonna die, I'm notgonna die.
You know what I mean.
Um, and and that mindset, man,you know when, when my son was,
when my son was a baby, I wasworking.
(28:53):
Christ, if I worked 12 hours ina boat yard, it was a short
shift, you know, and that wassix days a week.
There was nothing compared tobeing, you know, in a hole in
the ground that I dug in NorthCarolina.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
In December, sleeping behind the damn bush.
You know, in a three-daysimulated war, when we were
combat training, like I gotfrostbite, first degree
frostbite on my damn toes.
You know what I mean?
I still can't feel half my bigtoe.
You know what I mean?
There's nothing, man, give mesome wires, I'll pull some more
wires.
Whatever, you know what I mean.
Just let me get something toeat, man, I'll keep hammering.
(29:28):
Yeah, you know Everything.
After that, man just becameespecially if you're talking
about from a physicalperspective like it's mind over
matter, and if you don't mindshit, just don't matter.
So keep going.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
It's like doing the hard stuff.
You know, the more hard stuffyou do, the easier it gets.
Yeah, yeah, that's why coldtherapy is so important.
Right now, people are just youget the hard you do.
You push yourself to do thehard things.
After that it's easy.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So we're gonna put one here in the office.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Man, I'm down to do that.
Man, who were we talking torecently, talking about doing a
cold therapy session?
Oh, it was a proximity boys.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
A proximity.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for real,that'd be good stuff, man.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Cold and hot therapy it happens.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I was kidding, but whatever.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Clearly he's not right, no.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Man bro, as cold as you keep it here, you'll be fine
.
It's different, though.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I don't like my shower's cold bro.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
I like my shower's hot.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
You know what I'm saying.
When we're outside, I don'tcare, I don't know about yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
God, you gotta do the hard stuff.
See, that's the problem youdon't do enough hard things.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I can't do that whole hot shower thing man.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Oh man, what I mean.
My wife comes out to showerlike her skin is red.
Yeah, that's me Like.
She's like come on in, it'slike playing double dutch right.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Hold on.
It's like, definitely not.
That's it.
Well, I'm ready.
That's a different word.
If we don't got two showerheads, I ain't joining you.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
You know what I'm saying I miss that man.
So when I renovated my house inJersey, she mentioned that she
was like can you do two showerheads?
I was like the wall's going tobe gutted open.
I'll do whatever you want, bestthing ever.
Oh my God, like I was like,this is what I've been missing
in my whole.
Oh my, this is nuts.
Oh, it was insane man.
(31:18):
It was insane.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'll never take another shower again.
New goal unlocked.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I'm going to get that double shower head, now Game
changer?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, it definitely is bro Game changer for sure.
I'm rethinking my whole pieceof shit.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
man hey did you get that wink.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Yeah, this town's been great to me, man, I mean.
Where about you staying at I'mup in spring.
Oh shit, yeah, bit of a hike tocome here man, yeah, yeah, man,
we appreciate you coming.
As do I, bro.
When I got that message, I waslike yes, I made it to the big
time, man.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I tell you, man people that we have on the show.
Like I said, man, we got tohave some kind of interest in
you and me and William talkedabout you a couple of times
offline.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I was like man, what the fuck is this?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's exactly right, yeah, yeah, I don't know, man,
but yeah, I thought we wereolder than you so I was like who
the fuck is this kid bro?
Oh, that's funny man.
That's funny man, yeah, now.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I was.
I've been outside man the wholefirst year that I was here, man
.
I was just, I mean, north ofI-10, I was there from Katie to
Galveston, bro, and as far northas Conroe.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Do you love it?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Yeah, a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
A lot of it.
I'm bored a lot of it.
I still use GPS to go to the US.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Oh, I will forever use GPS I mean just for traffic
purposes.
Right, like it'd be a whole redline and then it'd find a
shorter route and some roads Inever heard of, through some
neighborhood, Tarzan, turningleft and right.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
All right cool.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Save 10 minutes, man, because that's traffic is a
monster.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I still use GPS from here to the VA.
I know where it's at, I just doit yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I know where it's, at Expressway.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Expressway yes one shot all the way, bro.
Yeah, man, yeah but I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I stay in the city, man, I stay in Paralel.
Yeah, Only time I actuallyleave to the Houston area would
be for a restaurant or two or asporting event.
Like I don't even go see myfamily.
Man, Yo, y'all want to see me.
Come to Paralel.
You know where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Come to Paralel, I like it down here man.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
It's nice down here, it's cool.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, no, my office is in Soria Heights, so Okay,
okay.
I go there maybe once a week,twice max.
The beauty of what I do I canwork remotely, so I'm home a lot
I'm home a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
That's what's up, man .
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So tell me what brought you into the financial
industry.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, you mentioned it a little bit.
So when my son was gettingready for college, you know, and
at that time I hadn't even goneto college myself.
So as far as I was concerned,like I'm doing this dad thing
right, like my son's about to goto a major university right now
, so we go into theadministrator's office and we're
(34:03):
doing the registration and weget to the financial part of it
and she goes all right.
So do you have any investments?
That's rich people.
I don't know how manyinvestments we're talking about.
She was like no 401k, four,three B, five, 29.
I don't know what these numbersare.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I was sitting in front of the South.
What's up?
No?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Two-some Jersey, bro.
Yeah, you know, south Jerseyyeah.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, we do this.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
You know I don't have any of that stuff.
No, you know, I don't even have$529.
She was like no, a five-29 is acollege fund.
I was like college fund, it'sup to the trust fund, it's rich
people stuff.
No, I went in there, bro, and Iwas like higher than the
highest high right and I leftthere.
I was like yo, I am losing.
I am 40 years old, I don't knowa damn thing other than how to
(34:53):
make a dollar and, even worse,I'm raising my kids the same way
.
Same way.
Right, Like I'm failing bro.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So I go to and I won't say the name of the
company but I walk into.
You know a name we allrecognize from a financial
planning firm.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And I'm like listen man, I need to learn about money
Now.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
mind you, I was making probably $90.95k at the
time, but I also built thelifestyle that was like kissing
that you know what I'm saying so, there wasn't much
discretionary income at the endof the month.
Go to a bank, tell them youwant an IRA, who's an IRA and
why don't want to give IRA mymoney?
Like no an IRA.
(35:33):
Can you teach me?
You say no, it doesn't workthat way.
You got to have money, okay,and that was a common theme.
You got to have a minimumbefore they'll start talking to
you.
Right, and I get it.
They got to make money too,right, it's not a nonprofit.
Right, but can you steam me in adirection, bro, you know, other
than just get an IRA, you know.
So I found out afterwards thatit's financial advisors industry
(35:59):
standard is a 1% commission,right.
So they have like a $50,000minimum, $100,000 minimum.
I've heard as high as a milliondollars before.
The smallest I've heard of is10 grand Never found one, but
that's the smallest.
And you have to have thateither in cash or manageable
assets, a 401k that you'rerolling over, something for them
(36:19):
to work with, so nobody wouldwork with me.
This is the same point in timewhere I'm like, going through
this, I haven't fulfilled whatI'm supposed to be here, what
I'm supposed to be doing, kindof a thing.
And long story short, man, itwas my spirit just screaming out
like you know, go, like, stopholding yourself back.
(36:41):
Coincidentally, q says becauseI had trouble childhood, like we
lived in an abandoned house fora couple of years.
You know it was pretty rough.
You ever think about going to atherapist?
I'm like what for?
And he was like just to go.
And I was like bro, I'm fine,like all of my daddy issues,
(37:01):
like I'm cool.
Me and my father were like thisNow we fixed everything.
I was 21 when we fixed it, allthe negative things that have
happened to me growing up.
I poured all that into the kidsat the Boys and Girls Club,
like I was.
I was happy, you know.
And he says and I still want topunch him in the face for this
but he says, don't you, don'tyou work out.
(37:22):
I say, yeah, man, doing alittle treadmill action, my
little light weights, whateverhe was like why, what's wrong
with you?
I said nothing, I just want tostay son of a bitch.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I see what you did.
Yeah, all right, I'll find one.
Two shape, two shape.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Took me about six months, man, and I found I found
a therapist and man.
She unlocked some shit, youknow.
Long story short, everythingthat I'd gone through led me to
living a super conservative,zero risk life.
Yeah, right, like we're cool,everything is great, don't move,
(38:01):
don't touch shit, you mightbreak something.
Everything is fine, right.
So there was like no growth inmy life, right Again, happy with
, with the kids and the wife,and I mean shit people.
How many people want to bemarried for 20 years, right, and
have stable, come home tostability every day, like people
died for that and I understoodthat and I appreciated that and
(38:23):
I was content with that.
Like I said, I'm, I've, I'vepeaked, I'm 40.
I made it, you know, because Ibroke every cycle that I'd been
raised with.
You know what I mean.
And and when she said that it'slike you're just, you're
holding yourself back, and I'mlike that's what's screaming in
(38:43):
me.
I have all this untappedpotential.
What can I do?
Let me, let me ramp thiscollege thing up.
They told the.
My academic advisor said thethe average duration to get the
associate's degree in theprogram that I was in was two
and a half years.
I said I'm going to do it intwo.
I did it in 10 and a halfmonths.
(39:06):
Bachelor's degree she saysaverage is about three years.
I did that in 10 months, so,and and I've since then, really
for the past few years.
It's really strange, but I'mnot operating on goals, which is
so counterproductive of what I.
It's against everything I do asa financial advisor right, but
(39:26):
a context is everything, man.
So I'm trying to find what mylimits are, because I've been
setting goals my whole life andhitting them.
That's telling me I'm settinggoals at a two damn low Right,
like I'm not the shit bro, likeI'm not that great, right To
where it's like everything I do,no, like my goals are just too
low.
So what am I capable of?
(39:47):
How far can I go?
How many people can I impact?
How many souls can I shine somelight on?
Once I kind of get a vibe ofwhere I'm at.
I'm like, all right to the 10thpower.
That's going to be my goal now.
That's going to be my stretchgoal, right?
You know we're going to put anexponent on that.
But right now I use the analogyman.
(40:07):
I do a lot of public speakingand I use the analogy of you can
get into a car, you can getinto a car, you can get into a
car.
You can get into a car on anopen track, right.
And you can say, all right, I'mgoing to do, I want to do 200
miles an hour in this thing,right, that's what indie cars
can do, that's what I want to do.
I want to see how fast it cango, period.
(40:28):
That's my goal.
I want to red line this thinghow fast can it go?
Then my limit.
You know that whatever's pastthat, that's going to be my goal
.
So right now I'm just kind ofdigging see how far I can go.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Shit Calm down, Moana .
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Geez Dang it and you got to have kids.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I know that reference , sorry, ro.
I have kids, but I don't havekids.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
What are you going to have?
Young kids?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, how far will I go?
How?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
is that Anyways?
Speaker 2 (41:01):
calm down Whatever Now, man, I think that's amazing
because we've said that beforeon the show.
Like this, this is just thebeginning, right?
And then this is for and I lovethis because one of the things
that we're so passionate aboutis, like man, veterans come in
all shapes and sizes and agesand we're always transitioning
and trying to get better.
(41:21):
And you, like you, helpeddepict that for us because you
know, everybody gets a taste ofRo and I all the time.
But to see someone from theoutside pre-911, coming from the
north side of town I mean thenorth side of the States you
know picking up and moving andchanging and saying, like you
know, it was 41 and I want to gosee a therapist and I didn't
start going to college until Iwas in my 40s like, and to see
where you've come and go now,like, that's the example that we
(41:44):
want to share.
You know, this is the kind ofexposure we try to get everyone
else to see.
Like man, you know the bestcomes in all shapes and sizes
and your potential is not evenunlocked yet.
You know, no matter whereyou're at, even for yourself,
like I can see you like man,you're not even unlocked yet you
know you've only been here sixmonths Now.
Imagine what you'll be in thenext six months.
You know exactly what you'resaying.
Like you're going to hit thatred line and then you're going
(42:05):
to be like you know what thatred line ain't even my red line,
like that's only first year.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
That was red line for third year.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Exactly Like we've got time to shift again and
forget what we're going next.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
That's dope man, it feels good, yeah, I mean, I got
asked from.
So networking virtually metsomeone who runs a nonprofit in
Atlanta.
We sparked a conversation.
He asked me to come on hispodcast, went on there, talked
about finances, but from adifferent perspective.
(42:35):
Like nobody wants to sit thereI shouldn't say nobody, but I'm
not even the type to want to sitthere and just listen to
investment talk.
Like how does it impact yourlife, bro?
You know what I mean.
Like I tell people I don't careabout how much money you make,
I care about what you want to dowith the money that you do make
.
That's what matters to me,Right?
So we got to talking about alot of things and he was like
man, would you like to be on myboard?
(42:56):
I'm like well what does thatlook like?
Yeah, you know he's like.
Well, when it comes to makingbig decisions for the nonprofit,
you know you have a vote, youhave a say Sounds pretty cool,
man.
And the nonprofit's calledRemand.
It works, you know it's basedout of Atlanta and it's about
helping black men break cyclesright and apply that accordingly
(43:20):
.
It doesn't matter where you arein life Like you can be a
successful CEO and still havesome, you know, some stigmas and
some, some, some, some things,some things to break right.
Or you could be young and upand coming, you can be right.
Now we're looking into trans,helping men transition from the
prison system.
Yeah, right, and what does thatlook like?
That's dope man.
(43:41):
That's so I do.
You know we're doing.
Thank you, brother.
So you know I work, do workwith there.
I do a lot of work up in theCleveland prison with the prison
entrepreneurship program.
You know these are guys that Imade a mistake when I was 28.
My daughter my wife, was on bedrest with my daughter and had
(44:02):
to brush my first brush with thelaw Did a lot of dumb shit
growing up, like we all did, butnever had the right to remain
silent.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Bro, look at the definition over here.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Hey, man.
So that was, that was my firstbrush, man, you know.
And a detective said listen tome, man, if you, if you listen
to me and you do what I tell you, you'll be just fine.
And you know, young and stupid,you know, I ain't no snitch bro
, and it's like no, it's notthat, I just need you to own it.
And I lost that like somesomewhere in my life, like I
(44:35):
lost a sense of of owningeverything that I do what I did
right Mine.
Yeah, like I did it, you know,and I'm like that's all I got to
do.
And he was like, yeah, it'slike I remember how to do that.
I didn't do that, you know, andI did fast forward now and I'm
looking at these guys and I'mworking with these guys in the
(44:57):
prison system.
They didn't have that.
Nobody was there to say, bro,stop, do what I tell you to do
and you'll be okay, right.
So they landed where they are,they are what they are, they're
owning what they've done.
But now what?
Now what, right?
So if that's where I can touchtheir souls, that's where I'll
(45:17):
be.
So that's I do.
I do a lot of work in thatspace in the prison system.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Man, it's dope because you got to control what
you can control.
It is yeah, you've done whatyou've done.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Right, the gavel came down, you know, and here you
are.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
So I mean, we think about a lot of time too, where
it's like you know, don't judgeus by what we did, you know.
Just remember what I'm tryingto do.
Yeah, look at where I'm tryingto go.
Like I got it.
You know I messed up, yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
You know that's for it.
Now what?
That question is so simple.
Right Now what?
And I use that all the time,whether it's great or my
situation's horrible.
Now what?
Right, because what that does,bro, you hit the lottery.
Right, millions of dollars,okay, cool, congrats.
Now what?
Because you lose it.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Yeah, right Now, what ?
Okay, now what, now, what?
Right, because, now what?
When you ask yourself now whatit forces you to continue to
move, you can't be stagnant.
You got to answer the question.
Direct question.
Direct answer Now what?
All right.
Now I got to do X, y and Z, allright.
(46:32):
So how do you do X?
We'll get to Y and Z, but howdo you do X?
Well, I got to do this firststep first.
Okay, let's do that first stepand it will keep you moving.
If you consistently askyourself now what, you'll never
be stagnant.
A Daniel life.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So now what, charlie?
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Mike baby Continue.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, now, man, it's powerful stuff, you know, and
this is this is for.
I mean for you, listen anywhere.
You know, there's so much thatthat you can do.
You know, and having big goalsand dreams is great, but let's
take X at a time.
What's the next step?
What's my best next step?
What's the one thing that?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
I can do One bite at a time, bro.
Yeah, how are you dealing withit?
Speaker 2 (47:15):
And there's so many, there's so many resources Like I
keep going back to that becauseI'm trying to think of who's
listening to this and that's theveterans.
Like you know, if you just lookat our guest Lou here and where
he started and what he's doingnow, you know there's nothing to
say that you can't do.
That too, you know you canchange at any moment.
You just have to own it andthen put in the work.
You know, because if you'relooking to invest, or if you you
(47:36):
know you're looking you have akid that's getting ready to like
you know, we'll put Lou'sinformation down and you can
contact him and won't likelyonly answer the phone and be
like this is where you got tostart, this is what we got to do
.
You know, and oftentimes that'swhat it takes is just that
conversation to be like hey,this is what you got to do next?
Speaker 3 (47:51):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you just have to ask the
question.
Don't look at something right.
You see someone with with nicecar, nice house, vacations.
Don't say must be nice.
Ask them how.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Because they might answer.
Right.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
They might answer the damn question, and then you'll
know how.
And now the onus is on you.
But until you ask, there's noownership.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
I don't like that question Must be when people say
, oh yeah must be now, man.
Speaker 3 (48:21):
you got a nice studio here, man.
This must be nice.
Work my ass off to get thestudio.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
You see what these cameras, bro, y'all didn't see
when we started in the closet,like you know what I mean.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:31):
Man, it must be nice man.
You got a thousand subscribersand this, this, and that it must
be nice man?
Yeah, it is.
You want to know how I canteach you?
Do you want to learn or do youwant to just sit back Right?
Ask the question, that's all.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Nah, that's real man.
I want to tell you, man, youknow, like the fact that you
said you know you work with,with the prisons and things like
that, it speaks.
It speaks a lot about you as aperson, because I think we've
all you know, I've struggledwith addiction and I'm on a
board for addiction recovery now.
(49:09):
You know what I mean.
So so it's what we've.
It's something I truly believe.
You know it's not.
People judge you a lot of timeson your mistakes and you know
not, not your.
I don't know, man.
I don't know what I'm trying tosay, but props.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Ditto, keep going, man, ditto, keep going, bro.
I think I think you're on there.
You know it's it's about.
You know, not just yourmistakes or the addictions that
you've dealt with.
It's like well, what have Iovercome?
You know everybody's dealt witha different path.
You know everybody's dealt withsome type of privilege one way
or another.
You know, I mean, folks look atus as vets and they're like oh
(49:49):
yeah, I must be nice.
You're like dude, therecruiter's office is open to
everybody.
You know what I mean you couldhave joined, you know, at any
moment.
You know, and you know I wouldbring it back to to Lou is like
you know I, I I didn't noticethat too, that you didn't put
your vet, but I mean you arepart of the veteran stream for
commerce, you know, and it'slike that those little decisions
(50:11):
are paying off now and that'swhat I've seen too, when it
comes to being being a vet, likeand we're all hit on it, like
more than just a veteran, youknow, like we love that more,
more than a vet, but to stillidentify as that vet because it
is and what shaped me to be whoI am now.
But I encourage you to keepgoing, man.
(50:31):
I think that was you werereally onto something.
I know you sometimes are worseescapee.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
I was just about to say that that's what it is.
It's it's you can.
You can see it Right, um, andwhat I explained to my clients
is you don't have a goal untilyou have a game plan.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Right Before then.
It's a hope, it's an aspiration.
You can see it clear as day.
Whatever your purpose is,whatever your objective is,
whatever everything that youwent through it's for a reason.
Right, Probably for a myriad ofreasons.
(51:09):
But where you are right now iswhen you're gonna draw on all of
that.
Right, you just gotta visualizethat path, bro.
And a path is made up of whatObjectives?
Right, there's more than onerung on the ladder, no roof, or
jumps from the ground to theroof.
(51:30):
Right, Just gotta see thoserungs and get to that final
objective.
And then, once you get there,you're gonna say oh damn, this
is a two-story house.
All right.
Now what?
Right?
That's how hopes and wishes anddreams become reality by a
(51:52):
series of objectives that makethem actual, attainable,
measurable goals.
That's all it is, bro.
That's all it is Dang.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Now, what, now, what yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:04):
Apply accordingly bro Whether you're talking finances
, whether you're talking life,it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Doesn't matter.
That's what's up.
Man, I'm dope man.
I'm glad you came in today, man.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
William, I know that people are struggling with
something.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Yeah, if you are out there and you're struggling,
don't forget the number is 988.
You can press one if you're amilitary veteran, or you can
text the number at 988.
We're huge advocates for it.
We all go through tough times.
The number is there for areason.
Your awards fighting for andyou're struggling with problems
that face you.
Speaker 1 (52:44):
Well, would you got any closing comments?
Call to action anything withall those lines, so before no,
no you're good, bro.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
I always say two things.
First, thank you for your time.
We really appreciate you makingthe time and being here and
being president and with all thethings that are going on to
really clear out your calendarfor us.
We really appreciate that.
So how can someone follow alongwith you?
What are some ways they canstay in contact?
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Yeah, super, super active on social media and on
Facebook primarily Threeaccounts.
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
It's nuts bro.
So I've got my personal accountand I'm always throwing out
things there.
I might be talking about lifeinsurance, I might be talking
about finances, I might betalking about whatever in
addition to all of my personalstuff that I put out there.
So that's Lou Rosado Jr.
And then I have my business,one which is strictly investment
related or insurance related.
That's my government namedLouis Louis Rosado Jr, l-u-i-s.
(53:39):
And then I also own a virtualtax and bookkeeping business, so
I have that one that's calledAltruist Taxes and more so.
I got three pages.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yeah, dope man.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
But it's you know I mostly get hit on my hit up from
Perfect Strangers.
On my personal one, I get DMsall the time.
Sometimes it's financiallyrelated, sometimes it's not
because of the content that Iput out there.
If something's on my heart, I'mgonna let it out right, yeah,
yeah yeah, so I might be on mytreadmill, man and have a
(54:11):
thought, and I'm gonna prop upmy phone while I'm on the
treadmill I'll speak my peace.
I feel better.
If it gets one, like, cool,that's one person who saw it.
If it gets a million, great,that's fine too.
It's gonna touch who it'ssupposed to touch.
And I've gotten man.
I've got one client.
Never met her before, but shesaw something I put out there
speaking to single moms aboutfinances, right, because that's
(54:35):
what led to our situation.
My mom really didn't knowanything about finances when her
and my father divorced and welost everything, you know,
sheriff, put a padlock on thehouse and everything.
So I made a quick video, spoketo that.
A single mom teacher out inDenver hits me up, can you help?
I was like we can have aconversation.
What's going on, you know?
(54:55):
And she asked the question,right, and yeah, we were able.
You know, I was able to dosomething for her to at least
get her in a direction and helpguide her in a way that no one
did for my mom.
You know, single moms kind of,when it comes to my clients,
single moms hold a very, veryspecial place.
(55:17):
As they should, yeah man, youknow it's like, man, listen, I
might make a buck, literally abuck.
That's fine, right?
Because as far as I'm concerned, I operate with two bank
accounts, bro, one to pay thebills and one's a spiritual bank
account, and I got to depositinto both of those.
Equally Damn, or I'm not livingright.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (55:38):
You know what I mean, because don't get me wrong all
the good deeds in the world Ican do at the end of the month,
comcast still wants their moneyright or I'm not gonna have my
internet.
So I got bills to pay too.
But yeah, like there are thingsthat I'm supposed to be doing,
half of which I don't even knowyet.
The other half I probably won'teven see Like some of my goals
(55:58):
I know for a fact I'm not gonnabe around to see.
When I work with some of myclients, they don't even have
kids and I'm like one day you'regonna have a kid and that kid's
gonna have a kid, and they'renot gonna know anything about
your struggles.
Right now, like right now,we're literally pinching pennies
to start in IRA Start.
They're gonna be born with one,they're gonna have 529.
(56:23):
Then I got to worry aboutstudent loans.
All these things that you canbarely even speak on is gonna be
dinner table conversations andI'm not gonna be around to see
that.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
Right, Like I've accepted the fact that some of
those goals I know I'm not goingto be here, but I also know I'm
gonna hit them Cause I'mputting into work.
Cause I'm putting into workGoes back to the start.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
The ripple bro, that's it you gotta be the
ripple starter.
Speaker 1 (56:56):
Bro, I'm gonna use the two bank accounts joint.
That was dope, that boy overthere, he's dropping droves man.
Speaker 2 (57:04):
And you were here for the previous interview.
So my last question is Charlieand Mike means continue mission.
So what does that term Charlieand Mike mean to you?
Speaker 3 (57:12):
Yeah, man, and again, context is everything.
So what I've gone through, whatI'm, where I am, you know.
And for the short window thatwe're all here, you know we're
one grain of sand on an endlessbeach, bro.
You know it's this millions ofbillions of years old.
You know what I mean.
We're here for what?
80 in a good life, right, it'snothing.
(57:33):
Continuing that mission from melooks like a little black kid,
little brown kid that doesn'tknow the struggles that
financial illiteracy bring.
Right, because that's what Igrew up around.
(57:55):
Right, that cheese that doesn'tmelt, that you got from the
government, that just getsgreasy when you, when you, nuke
it, right.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Spam .
I still miss that shit though.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
God bless your soul, bro.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
My throat closes up thinking about it, and you know
Al bro, you give me on a spamsandwich any bit, I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
I can't do it anymore .
You know that man and ChefBoyardee and Campbell Soup man.
Like though I know, the moreplatforms that God gives me to
speak on, the greater my reachbecomes to touch more souls, to
make a bigger difference, tocontinue that ripple effect.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
Damn, I got chills when we were talking about that.
Bro, I really appreciate yourtime, man.
Speaker 3 (58:47):
I really do.
I appreciate you guys reachingout man.
I'm telling you I got excitedwhen I got that direct message.
I was like I made it mama, I'mhere, I'm here, welcome.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Welcome, Chef.
What's so?
The best way for anybody toreach you is social media.
Speaker 3 (59:00):
Yeah, just DM me, man .
My Facebook is wide open.
Shoot me a DM if you haven't.
The biggest thing, man, I tryto fight is assumption.
People assume so much infinances.
Oh, life insurance is tooexpensive.
How much is it?
Man?
Rich people got that stuff.
Let's run a quote.
Let's run a quote.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:22):
You could be right, you could be wrong.
I can't tell you how many timesI've run a quote and they're
like that's it, yeah, that's it.
You know how much do I need tostart an IRA?
Can you afford $25 a month?
It's open account right.
You may not die a millionaire,but your son might.
Speaker 2 (59:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:47):
And your grandson definitely will right.
Gotta ask the questions, gottastart, Gotta start, man, I love
answering questions becauseworst case scenario and I have
these consultations all the timewhere it's like, listen, right
now, bro, I'm an expense to you,right?
So you're not gonna hire me,but here's a list of things I
(01:00:08):
need you to do.
If you do all of this, in sixmonths to a year you're gonna be
in a whole different position.
Then you're gonna hire me,right?
Call, do this, call me if youhave any questions, If anything
changes, call me.
I'm here.
I love answering questionsbecause nobody would do it for
me.
I heard that.
Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
Nobody would do it for me.
Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
So now I'm in a place and I'm sorry, I can just get
on my soapbox.
No, you can, but now, like,because I've worked to get here,
so now I'm in a place where Ican do it.
So I look at other advisors andI listen you don't wanna do it,
that's fine, god bless.
You go do what you gotta do,man, you know.
But do me a favor, move out ofmy way.
Yeah, cause I got something todo you heard it Get out of the
(01:00:54):
way.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
Yeah, man Dang those dope episodes man.
I appreciate it, man droppingjewels and stuff hey.
Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
What happens, brother ?
Yeah, I know, as always, man,if you haven't checked out my
man, William, on all his socialmedia platforms.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Be sure to do that.
That's TikTok, IG, Facebook,Instagram at Mustache Wisdom.
I think he's got a feet bottom.
Got a feet bottom too, Ha, ha,ha ha.
But, as always, we appreciateit and be sure to check out
Charlie Mike Military Apparel,cause that's what makes this
possible, as always.
Thank you, and Charlie Mike, Yoyo yo.
(01:01:38):
What's going on?
Everybody, it is me, SojaHarbour, Red Con One Music Group
, and thank you for listening toCharlie Mike the podcast.
Yay.
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