Ep #11-Conquering Challenges: Charlie Ervin's Journey from Real Estate to School Board and Authorship

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Have you ever wondered what it takes to bounce back from the brink, reinvent oneself, and grasp success in various arenas of life? Well, buckle up as Charlie Ervin, a powerhouse entrepreneur, school board member, and now an award-winning author, shares his riveting story. He takes us from a historical African-American community to conquering the real estate market, and beyond, teaching us the value of resilience, strategic planning, and community involvement. Charlie's deep roots in Palm Springs' Section 14 set the stage for a narrative that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.

Crafting a business that stands the test of time isn't for the faint-hearted, and Charlie knows this all too well. He candidly recounts the evolution from a corporate banking job to launching KO Notary and Taxes, navigating the initial hurdles of entrepreneurship with grit and ingenuity. Not only did he build a flourishing business, but he also took his commitment to service to new heights through coaching and eventually, school board membership. Charlie's insights into the trials and triumphs of community service, especially in the educational domain, underscore the profound impact of dedicated civic engagement.

In a creative twist, Charlie takes us through his extraordinary leap from business and community service to the literary world. His late-night musings blossomed into a children's book that champions equity, diversity, equality, and inclusion—a testament to the potential that lies in our dreams. The journey to publication wasn't smooth sailing, but armed with perseverance and a belief in his message, Charlie navigated the challenges of self-publishing, all while upholding his commitments as a school board member. His story is a powerful reminder that with passion, tenacity, and a bit of late-night inspiration, we can all turn our aspirations into reality.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate
inform and inspireentrepreneurship here in our
Coachella Valley.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome everybody, I'm Robert Mraz and this is Fina
Mraz.
And thank you for joining in toCV Hustle, the podcast dedicated
to educating, inspiring andinforming local entrepreneurs
here in the Coachella Valley.
Thank you for joining in to CVHustle, the podcast dedicated to
educating, inspiring andinforming local entrepreneurs
here in the Coachella Valley.
And, like you know, we'realways trying to get the most
illustrious guest possible, andtoday we've got a real great one
.
He's not only an entrepreneur,also a school board member, and

(00:44):
now he's an award-winning author, so you know, a true
renaissance man.
Our guest today is Mr CharlieIrvin.
Thanks for coming on, in, man.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Thank you for having me, bro, I appreciate it so good
to see you, charlie, I'm soexcited you're here and thank
you for making time to come andhang out with us.
Thank you, thank you, guys, forhaving me.
Yeah, we've been wanting to getyou on.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
We've been wanting to get you on for a long time, man
.
You're doing some big thingsfor the community, so we wanted
to kind of bring you in.
You're the epitome of what CVHustle is all about, man.
So thanks for joining us today.
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I appreciate it so we want to start.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, at the beginning, man.
You know where'd you grow up,what part of Coachella Valley.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Are you from man?
Palm Springs and I lived in oneof the predominantly oldest
African-American communities inPalm Springs, so born in Palm
Springs and lived in the DesertHighland Gateway Estates.
Father, our grandfather, was aformer Section 14 survivor, so,

(01:39):
my grandfather, we lived on thereservations at first, my
grandfather.
As the situation happened, aseveryone knows, in Palm Springs
we had to move and had torelocate, and so that's how we
ended up in northern PalmSprings.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Wow, so you're like your family's like, oh gee,
section 14.
I don't know if anybody in thenews has followed that story,
but it's a pretty interestingstory about the origins of the
African-American community herein the Coachella Valley and
definitely look it up.
It's in the news everywhereright now.
So you take it way back, man.
So you're like.
You're like OG, og.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, I moved here from Texas, grandfather moved
from Texas, moved here to PalmSprings.
We've been here our entire life, so I think that was around the
60s yeah, wow, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
So you've been here a long time, so you know you're.
Where did you go to high school?
Where did you get youreducation?

Speaker 1 (02:31):
you know when you're in your formative years, you go
to a local high school here yes,I went to uh palm springs high
school um graduated same year.
You did in 97.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, 97 all day.
I have a whole bunch of cousinsin palm springs yeah yeah.
So go indians, go Indians, huhyeah.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I went to PalmSprings High School Interesting.
I started college just likeeveryone else, you know, had a
great idea, had these wonderfulideas of what I was going to do,
talked to my counselor.
I wanted to do psychology, so Italked to my counselor and
talked to my teacher, found outhow much money they were making.
I was already in real estate,so I was making money and I

(03:15):
decided that school wasn't anoption for me because I was
already making what I wanted tobe in my career, which was I
wanted to be like a psychologist.
And so at that particular time,the psychologist made about
$50,000 a year.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
And at 19, 20 years old I was making money.
So you have your real estatelicense as well.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Well, I let my real estate license expire because,
you know, I ended up going backinto the mortgage side.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
But you, but you at least got your real estate, like
OK, so that's what started.
And then you were like OK, I'mmaking so much money doing real
estate, then I'll just stickwith that.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, so in the 2000s and things like that, you know,
it was like we had those pickuppayment loans and all those
different type of loans so youcould be in a transaction and
make $20,000, $30,000 in onetransaction.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Jesus, this is pre-2008.
Yeah, before the crash, youwere making your money before
that crash, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
so you put everyone in those 80-20 loans.
They put no money down Statedincome?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Did we do one of those?
I hope we didn't I don'tremember, but I felt bad.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Anybody who was in the business at that particular
time, that was a thing.
The 80-20 loan.
So you know, put five people ina household.
Unfortunately, I put fivepeople in one house.
And you know, as you know,stated income.
So if the interest rates, ifthey had a certain amount of
money or whatever, you can boostthe interest rates up higher.
So that's how we got points onthe front end as a loan officer

(04:44):
and boost the interest rates uphigher.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
so that's how we got points on the front end as a
loan officer and then yourpoints on the back end.
So you know the wild west thosedays.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Four or five percent on one transaction then also
doing the real estate side.
So you know it was really.
It was a lot of money beingthrown around.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
So zero regulation back then.
Right, it was just all you knoweverybody come and make some
quick money, quick buck right.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
yeah, my school that I wanted to go to was USC, so it
was a bunch of us at COD whowanted to go to USC.
My three friends that I had allof them went to COD and I was
supposed to I mean to USC and Iwas supposed to go with them but
started making money.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Too much money, man.
Too much money gettingcomfortable right, and I've
still never been the same, evergetting comfortable right.
Hey, but it all works out,right, it all works out.
So this is all pre-2008.
Obviously the crash comes.
How does that?
How does that affect yourbusiness at that point, man,
when the crash 2008 come,because we're, you know, you're
relatively young man at that-point right, we're still in

(05:38):
their 20s, almost at that point,right.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
So my broker.
The thing that my broker toldme, the number one thing he
always told me.
He said char Charlie, make surethat you save your money.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,okay, okay, oh, it's cars, it's
whatever I get to get my handson.
You know, I'm just buyingwhatever I can, cause I mean
you're young and young and dumbman and you know, go and show

(06:08):
them one or two houses and dothe loan and I'm making twenty,
thirty thousand.
I'm like, oh, this is nevergoing to end.
So I'm just spending money likecrazy and boom, literally in
2008,.
One day I have four loans inthe pipeline.
For the day of when they, whenthey started to do that, where
they counseled, where theystopped the loans, the day of
the interest rates andeverything, you weren't able to
get finance.
I had appraisers out for thehouses, everything, and just

(06:32):
stopped literally that day.
So that is a real huge pivot.
So my experience that I had, Iknew how to do all of the
back-end stuff as well, soentered Wells Fargo so I went in
and try.
I had to go get in the backoffice because I couldn't do
anything as a real estate agentand it was really really, really

(06:55):
dark at that particular time.
You know you couldn't doanything, you couldn't sell any
houses, nobody could.
So I went into the back officeand started as a processor,
worked my way up to become aloan officer and an underwriter,
and so I got over there atWells Fargo, and that was the
beginning of everything.
You know Wells Fargo.
I got rid of doing all of thereal estate stuff, got into a

(07:16):
real comfy job and corporateoffice.
So I was in.
I used to drive from here toPalm Springs, to San Bernardino
every day.
Wow, yeah, every day, every day.
And so when driving there itwas so crazy though, too,
because I had a son and so atthat particular time I couldn't

(07:36):
take him to school or anything,because as soon as I left in the
morning, I was an hour and ahalf on the road.
Then I do an hour and a halfgoing back, then two hours of
overtime because we had so muchwork, because you know, at that
particular time everyone waslosing their houses, so we were
doing mediation and all kind ofstuff like that.
So overtime was crazy.
So by the time I leave and comeback, you know I wasn't present

(08:00):
.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
You know what I mean.
You missed a lot.
How long did you do that for?

Speaker 1 (08:05):
About.
I wasn't present.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
You know what I mean.
Missed a lot.
How long did?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
you do that for About six years.
Oh wow, that's a big chunk,yeah, a lot of time, a lot of
time, a lot of time, and WellsFargo was really interesting
also.
That's another thing.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
The corporate ladder.
You were climbing there for aminute.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
I love Wells Fargo and I hate Wells Fargo.
I mean because we've got, we doa lot of business with them,
but they wouldn't give us a loanfor something.
I'm like what the heck?
And then we were like yes,super conservative bank, and
hold on, I'm going to tell you asecret right now.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
So as a loan officer, they decided Wells Fargo.
I'm sorry.
They decided sometimes that ifthey wanted to push the loans we
would push them.
If they decided they wanted tohold them, we would hold them.
So sometimes we weren't reallyeven, we didn't have work.
So we would just be in thereplaying around watching videos,

(08:59):
doing different things.
So it wasn't anything that youdid or anything.
Your loan wasn't difficult oranything.
It's just, at certain timesWells Fargo decided that they
want to push loans, andsometimes they didn't want to
push Wow, so just all timing.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Look at the draw.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
basically yeah, wow, get your loan officer on a good
day, pep and his step and bigcup of coffee.
Let's work.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
We had a closed loan.
So they would come in literallylike once a week.
And they would come in and sayall right, today we've got to
clear out this pipeline, Wow.
And you had to run through allof that stuff and we would get
yelled at also if we didn't meetour numbers.
So we were really number drivenas well.
So sometimes when we werereally pushing, we were pushing,
and then, when we weren'tpushing, we were really like we

(09:46):
were told not to do anything.
When, when you were doing thatwere you, did you get any
commission?
Uh, no, so we, um, we're allsalaried, so we would you know,
we would work there and then ifwe met our numbers, we would get
paid.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, get bonus for the numbers.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Oh wow, that's why.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
why salary work overtime, all damn day yeah, get
that 20 percent, so we're atwells fargo.
So this from 2008 to what?
14?
Around that time you said sixyears, right?
So when does theentrepreneurial bug kind of bite
you and say, hey, man, I'm sickof this corporate shuffle.
You know, I'm ready to kind oftake a chance on and do my own

(10:23):
thing.
When?
How does that kind of occur?
Because I mean you, you'reliving a pretty cush life doing
the loan.
You're saying it's not hardwork, making good money.
Well, how does, how does howdoes that go from?
You know I'm comfortable tolet's be uncomfortable and start
something new.
You know well um.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
My son had told me that I was never home.
So, um, you know, I was alwayscommitted to the job and so I
was never home.
I was never able to pick themup from school, never take them
to school.
So what I did was I decided totake everything that I got from
there and then come home andstart my own business.
Wow, so you're doing double.
Yeah, so they sent me to schoolto do taxes because I had to be

(11:03):
able to read documentationsfrom people's.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
So that's where the tax comes in Smart, use their
money to go to school.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
So the notary kicked in as well.
So I had to notarize documents.
So they sent to school fornotary as well.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
So I got my notary license there.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
So everything I got was there at Wells Fargo and
then, you know, they decidedthat they were going to move the
office and they kind of madethe decision for me, kind of a
little bit.
So they decided they were goingto move their office to Irvine
and I was like I can't keep.
And then, shortly after beingin Irvine they decided to move
to Arizona.
So I was like I just can't keepup with this business.

(11:39):
So you know I had to make adecision and you know the
decision was to come home andbring everything.
It was really really difficultto make that jump because you
know where your money's comingfrom forever and I got
comfortable before I had thegrind and the hustle part in me.

(11:59):
Then I got corporate and so itwas comfortable, like you know
what I mean.
So I had to go back to thegrind, but I know how to do that
.
So that's something that I'vealways done my whole entire life
.
So the grind is something thatI've kind of lived in and it's,
you know, it's passed down fromgeneration to generation.
My grandfather also owned hisbusiness, as well as both my

(12:19):
uncles, you know they ownbusinesses.
So it's in our genes to not becomfortable.
So, um, just came home, uh,opened an office.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
The hardest part about business is the first year
right, we talked about thatbecause there's so many firsts
yeah right and it's just like,oh my gosh, and you're learning
along the way and you know, andyou're getting hit with all
kinds of new things.
Like we always talk about thenice tax bill we got hit with
yeah, things like that.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
First year was like what in the hell we're used to
getting a refund what?

Speaker 1 (12:55):
but see that's.
That means, you guys are doinggood, though I mean, you think
right, you think right yeah, sothat's the doublehead.
So you guys are doing good but,like for me, it was a struggle.
So the the hustle part wasbuilding the name being
consistent, being available.
It was the hard grind work.
And so that was the hard partfor me was to.

(13:16):
I knew once because readingthousands of different books
about business, if you make itpast that first year or two then
you have a successful business.
So I just knew that I had tomake sure that I made it past
that point and before then Itried little businesses and
failed.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
So you know, um but those failures taught you along
the way, right?
I mean, when you, when youfinally got something that hit,
it was like, okay, I know whatnot to do now right, but.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
But the funny thing is, I started a cleaning service
and so uh you started acleaning service.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
We're getting all the stories today.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
I started the cleaning service first, and what
happened was I spent a wholebunch of money for advertising
and so, right when I started toto crack, I ran out of money.
So all of the money I spent,all of the stuff that I spent,
if it didn't come quick, I waslike, ok, credit cards are maxed
out, everything is getting tothe point to where I got to fold
it and go back to work, and soI just that was a lesson that I

(14:18):
learned.
I learned that the first year Ihave to have all of my expenses
, all of my money, my bills, mymortgage, everything all
together, and then be able tohave that amount of money to be
able to float me over for thewhole year.
And that's what I learned fromthat first one.
But I was so mad too, I finallyhad got into where I wanted to
be.
I was spending money inmagazines, doing billboards, all

(14:41):
kind of stuff, and then Ifinally got there and I ran out
of money and back to the drawingboard, basically back to
scratch go back to work for alittle bit build up some money.
Then I build up some money andgo back out and do it again.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
So I don't think cleaning was for you, that's no,
it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
I say no, there's something else better, yeah it
wasn't, but I just you know, Imean I it because you know my
mom used to do it as well, andso I seen like they get paid oh
yeah, it's not cheap, man, theymake money.
Yeah, that's not like a platejob.
We're talking like $40, $50 anhour.
Yeah, absolutely, and that's onthe Lord, and so I'm it going,

(15:30):
and you know it's nothing, Iwent over there and did it with
my mom.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
And we're making up beds and putting sheets in the
washroom, dryer, mopping andsweeping.
I was like I know how to dothis.
Yeah right, you're training meall my life.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, so I went and I got it going, but just the hard
part of the consistency andbeing able to float yeah
everything through, so.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
I had to fold that up .
So when you okay, so WellsFargo is over, you come back and
then you start what business?
The bookkeeping and the what isit?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Taxes.
Right, it's tax and notarybusiness.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
And what's the name of that.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Oh, the name of the business is KO Notary and.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
LiveScan KO.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yeah, that's right and KO, that's right and KO
stands for knockout and thebackstory from that is my son.
I gave my son the option tochoose a name, since it was his
idea for me to stop working,nice.
So, it was either going to beD&D, which is going to be Daddy
and Devin Aww, or either it wasgoing to be KO, and so he went
with knockout.
He liked the way it looked.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
And so that's how he ended up with Knockout.
And then did you immediatelylike rent that little spot.
So you and Bobby were neighbors.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
That's how me and Charlie got close, but yeah, he
had been around a lot longerthan we have he's been.
You've been around since.
So give us the backstory on KOKO, notary and Lasquez.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
So that was you know, we did, we do fingerprints
there at the office, we do taxesas well, and, um, that was, you
know, um, we did, we dofingerprints there at the office
, um, we do taxes as well, andthen we do notary.
So, um, I took that there andthen, you know, just went with
the taxes, cause that was themajority of my business was
taxes.
You have to be good at what youdo and you have to know all of
the tax laws and all of the goodstuff.

(16:59):
So, um, that was some of thestuff that I enjoy, because I'm,
like you know, like from themortgage standpoint.
In the real estate, everythingis a journey, so it's it's like
a constant, like up and down,and I love that about the real
estate and the mortgage.
So I found that in the taxes.
So it was a chase to find outhow I can save you some money or

(17:22):
how I can be able to do this.
So all of that came into placeat that particular time and so
that's how the taxes got started, and so I'm pretty good with
numbers and stuff like that.
So I did very well with thatand started that business and
I've been there probably since.
I say I'm coming up on nine, 10years.
Yeah, I was going to say 10years at least.

(17:43):
Man, you've been there for atleast 10 years, so you.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Your cleaning business basically led you to
the successful business rightyeah.
And then, but then, but it kindof resets you to get to pivot
real quick.
And then let's go try this.
I've got the training, I've gotthe background.
Good with numbers.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
It's a natural fit.
And then boom, you just foundyour little niche and took off
from there.
Man, I mean, because you'vebeen doing, you've been tax
season, I mean you're a busydude, man, right.
And then I got some othertaxpayers in Arizona as well.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
So now you've got a team right.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
You've got a couple of people going, I've got three
people in Arizona and then methere in Palm Springs, and so
this year was really great.
I'm so happy to finally be doneand actually be able to breathe
right, because literally peoplethink that it starts in like um
january.
No, heck, no, like I go, Istart.
People start calling me in likelike november, asking I'm like

(18:38):
oh, like the text they haven'teven released the forms yet.
Guys, come on we can't hold onlike I don't have no answers.
I don't know what the new taxlaws are anything they just you
know they're just ready, so callstart in november, december I'm
like um prepping everything toget everybody going and from
december on is go yeah and I'mliterally waking up with the

(19:01):
laptop, going to sleep with withthe laptop.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
It's a green light, yeah, okay.
So let me take it back realquick, because you mentioned you
put all your money intomarketing when you started the
cleaning business and all thatand you said, okay, I'm not
going to do that again.
So how did you get KO going?
Who were some of your firstclients?
How did you get those clients?

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Did you spend all your money on marketing again?

Speaker 1 (19:32):
No, social media is wonderful.
Yeah, it's free too.
Social media is wonderful.
So what I did was okay, Istarted the business there on
social media, and then what Idid was I had the business pay.
Oh, I might should not betelling the secret, because this
is my little secret oh, youdon't know yeah so social media
was really good.
So, um, you'll be surprised atthe people who entrust in you

(19:52):
once you that's awesome, that'sgreat.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
And then, once you start with them, they usually
just stick with the same right,because ours it's like
reoccurring right, like once youget somebody, they're happy.
They're happy with what you didlast year.
They're just going to come backbecause you already got the
information.
You just need the updatedinformation.
Yes, so it's like almost buildson itself every year, right?

Speaker 1 (20:10):
yeah, and so it really helps to be good at what
you do, and so you know a lot ofmy work really was studying, so
I had to study everything andtry to get as much as I can,
because at the end of the daypeople people just care about
how much money you're going tobe able to save them how much
money you can get them.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
And as legal as possible.
I want to make sure to say thatit's always important to be
legal.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to Okay, so
CPA do you work with CPAs?
Oh right, because we've got aCPA and it's like oh my gosh,
and I'll tell you what I loveabout her.
I pay her throughout the year.
That's the best thing, becausethen I don't get hit with this
big bill on top of my tax bill.

(20:55):
It's just a slow leak that Idon't feel as much, so that's
kind of good.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, and see once again, whenever you're saying,
saying that, that means thatyou're doing well.
So if you, if you're, if you'redoing that, then that means
your business is doing great.
Sometimes people's businessesare not doing so great.
So, um, I do it, you know,yearly, quarterly, sometimes, as
needed, right, yeah?

Speaker 2 (21:21):
you just hey, I'll do it, and here's the price.
Right, basically.
But you're, you're, you're justconstantly building, though,
right?
I mean, it's like you'restacking, stacking every year.
It's just getting bigger andbigger.
Hence the need to hire people,right?
Yes, yes, and that's awesomeman.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
And see, and that's the problem too, Like I was
talking to you before about that, it's tough to find somebody
who will represent your businessthe same way you will.
Oh, absolutely.
And so we always talk about howhard it is to find somebody and
trust them with your keys inyour office and passwords yeah,

(21:57):
and make sure that they're doingthe job and not just sitting
there watching TV or playingaround.
Yeah, so I got to work on beingable to release a little bit
more, because that's my problem.
I'm like I work so hard tobuild up an identity and I can't
have you ruining my business.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
What is it?
Higher fat.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Higher, slow fire fast.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
It's true.
That's why you have aprobationary period.
You know what it's just notworking out.
You know like.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
It's got to go.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
But we mean, you've had conversations about this
because it's hard man.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
It's hard to find somebody.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's hard.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
How did you?
Find somebody and I was in thesame boat as you because I'm
dealing with people's financialinformation all day too, so it
was hard to like find thatcorrect person to kind of, but
you have to do it.
You know why you got to do itit's because you can't grow
without doing it.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
I know, and on top of that, it puts years on your
body too, because it's so.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Stressful man.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yes, it's so stressful so I'm like I got to
do it Every year.
I say they told me to do Indeed.
So I started with Indeed andthen I run an ad and I get them
in there and I'm like eh, notfeeling it, nope, not feeling it
.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (23:10):
though you have been so lucky.
I've been very lucky Dude.
I was like what the heck he'sbeen so lucky.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
They're better than me at everything.
Now, man, like it's gone to thedays when I was next to you and
we only had one person.
You know, it's like now I got astaff of six.
I've seen that it's like youknow, everybody has their own
role and department.
And you know, I've been reallylucky knock on wood.
My staff is amazing.
Man, they're amazing.
Oh, what are you going to tellhim?

(23:48):
I don't even know what you'regoing to say.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
No, but when he interviews, he pre-calls them
yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Right, we do a pre.
Yeah, we pre-call, so that'sthe first interview.
Okay, so the process is which?
They don't know it though.
So the process is we call them,then we give four just standard
questions.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
If they can't answer those, and they're automatically
don't answer to that, then webring them in for a physical
interview.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Once they do okay on the physical interview, the real
interview is we have a testbecause we deal with numbers and
common sense.
Yeah, we have, we created atest.
It's not hard.
But it's just like if you havecommon sense, you'll, you'll do
excellent, but if you can't, ifyou can't do this test, then you
know, to the back of the line,you know you're not, you're
probably not going to be,because we're detail or advanced
.
So we do have a process and wedo have a process in place and
it's been very successful, butright now we're just trying to

(24:37):
use technology to grow.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
I'm not trying to hire people, no, more man.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
I'm trying to keep our team small, them, them
well-paid and them happy, andthen we just build on with
technology, cause, you know, youbring one person in cause.
We went through this a littlewhile back where we brought the
wrong person in and they kind ofshook the office, just one
person, because they were.
They were just kind of a littlebit, you know, a little bit too
much drama so and that can ruinyour whole, that can ruin your

(25:02):
whole gig right there.
Yeah it really is true,especially in a smaller office.
So that would be my advice.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
And sometimes you'll get some of those people that
come in as well that want to beyou yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
They want to be the vice president in their second
week on the job Tell everybodyelse how to do everything else
Like wait a minute.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Hold on You're just supposed to be working.
You're not supposed to betelling everybody what to do but
yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Isn't that?
That's a great idea.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
And I think a great idea and I think it's really
helped him like streamline the,the.
You know, the last couple girlshave been great.
Yeah, well, we've been, we'vebeen lucky too.
We've just, we've got some goodpeople we've got, and you know,
if you.
Another thing is, we try, and Itell our gm too, who helps me
hire these days is like we'rehiring people first character
like if you can sense, like andit's hard to tell, you know,
with the little interaction youhave, but you can tell as they
get into the spot about theircharacter, if they're always
late and they always got anexcuse so how long do you allow?

(25:57):
there's a 90-day probationperiod for every, every position
.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, because then you can just let them go without
any like hr issues or anythinglike that.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
But if you, if you notice it right away, you just
want to fire quickly, just get,just move on, just thank them
for their time.
It's not going to work out.
And move on, because that'sthat's going to be your best.
If you keep them too long, it'slike you know you're playing
with fire my luck has beenindependent contractors, yeah,
you can do that too.
It's just you gotta, you gottawatch, that you know.
As as it get bigger, though,you know so you can.

(26:26):
You can get away with it whenyou're small, but as you get
bigger, you to kind of come talkto me and I'll give you some.
Yeah, I'll hit you to some gameon that.
Yeah, I need to know some ofthose secrets.
So KO's taking off now, sowe're doing well with that
Entrepreneurship.
You know you found your vibeand what you're going to be
doing for the next 20 years, butthen so that's not the only

(26:49):
thing you do, though, and so Iknow me and you had always
talked about like communityservice and you kind of trying
to give back to your community.
So where does the school board?
You know, when I heard when youtold me you were on the, you
know, going for the school board, I was like wow, that's amazing
.
But I didn't even know you werethinking like that.
So kind of give us a story howthat all went down.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
So the school board kind of was a little different
because I was actually doing theplanning commission for the
city of palm spring.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Oh, so you were already kind of in, yeah, yeah,
in that arena, all of that camefrom my father, like my
grandfather and all of those.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
You know that, that story that I told you about the
section 14.
All of that comes from the workand seeing them be strong and
courageous and always seeingthem push forward and fighting
for things.
So a lot of that came from that.
And so what I always said was,if I ever was able to make it
out of the situation of what Iwas in, that I would do
something to help somebody elsebecause there were people along

(27:45):
the way to help me.
And so first I started withjust caring about sports.
So I was a football coach, so Iwent out there and I'm out
there running around with theyouth kids, my son out there in
the football team, and I'm just,you know, learning to like kids
and just enjoying everythingabout being with the kids and
watching them grow.

(28:07):
So I started to think that I wasnot really helping them,
because I watched some of thekids go to high school and then
they get back into situationsand they get into drugs to get
into, you know, differentsituations in the back of the
neighborhood, and so I was likeI got to do something else
different.
And so I was like I got to makesure that some of these kids
are being able to go to college.

(28:28):
And so I started getting moreinvolved into school stuff and
aspects of trying to figure outwhat was going on in our
district.
And so what I would do is Iwould go to school board
meetings for, like you know,like every other week, and so I
go to the school board meetings,sit in there and look and I'm
like do you just go into schoolboard meetings just to see what
they're discussing?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, before.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wow man, that's yeah before.
Wow man, that's prettyadmirable man, but the cool
thing about it is that you willgo to a school board meeting and
it will be 15 people in thereand 14 of the 15 people will
actually be school board uh,school employees like principals
, administrators, and so what Isaid was like palm springs, for

(29:10):
example, was dealing with a $500million budget.
Well, as a parent, you don'tcare about how they're spending
$500 million or what your kid islearning at school, and so, you
know, I figured I had the time,since I'm, you know, on my
business, so I have time to beable to do this.
So I started going there.
I was sitting in there andlisten.
I'm like, wow, they're, youknow they're working on things

(29:33):
like these are the books thatare coming in our school, these
are the, the different type ofprograms, these are, you know,
I'm just watching and just justpaying attention and just being
a student but it's all in-house,yes, so you're like there's no
there's no outside influence,it's all.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
It's all teachers and principals and making me start
going to our school, I ourschool.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
I know, right, I'm like geez, I better go start
paying attention.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
So what they do is they'll run the meeting and then
the meeting will go and it'llbe like some important stuff on
there and they'll go from A to Zand then one vote and I'm like,
oh, they just voted oneverything that happens the
books, the pens, the laptops,we're using the technology.
Everything was just in one voteand I was like, wow, like

(30:15):
people don't understand howimportant are the decisions that
are made, and we are a part ofthe public.
We are the ones that put thesepeople into positions.
We are the ones that tell themit's okay to spend this money
but, no one ever attends orshows up to school board
meetings.
And so I was just like, OK,forget it, I'm just going to
keep going.
And so after I started going ina while I started seeing that

(30:38):
there were certain issues.
So I start bringing up issues.
I say, hey, you know, I noticedthat there's no minority.
You know, we don't have acertain amount of minority
representation.
Right, we have 70 percent of ourschool district is Hispanic,
let alone 20% of our classifiedand certified staff are Hispanic
and we have 11% white in ourdistrict students and we have

(31:02):
60% of our certified andclassified staff are white and I
was like this discrepancy iskind of a little weird.
I start going to the board.
And then once I start going intothe wildpancy is kind of a
little weird.
Like so I start going to youknow the boy, and then, once I
start going into the wild, Ifeel comfortable to get up and
speak, sure.
So I go up there and I say, hey, you know, I looked at the
studies and looked at thesenumbers that you guys are
presenting.

(31:23):
Why are we not hiring people ofcolor?
And, furthermore, why do we nothave women?
And so I just kept going andkept talking to them and kept
telling them everything.
And then after a while theyjust said you know, hey, man,
you know you're doing like a lotof the work, you know you're
like a busybody, so why don'tyou just decide?
Think about running for schoolboard.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
I was like nah.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
I don't want to do that, like I don't want the
responsibility.
So I just left it alone andthen I just kept on going about
my business because my mindsetwas how can I make a change if
I'm part of the, the the groupthat's?
yeah so that was my battle oftrying to figure out how I was
going to get on to the schoolboard.
Was that do I want to continueto keep making a change and

(32:08):
bringing up things that that areimportant, that matter, or do I
want to come and just becomfortable and be part of the
school board?
So I didn't want to become partof the school board because I
wanted to continue to fight forpeople who couldn't speak for
themselves.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
But you were still coming in as a parent.
Yes, right, so like if, even ifyou're part of the school board
once you're, like you know, becoming in as part of as a parent
and kind of going taking itfrom that perspective, coming in
as part of as a parent and kindof going taking it from that
perspective.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, you would think so.
That's really that's.
I would say it.
Once you become a part ofsomething, you kind of start to
act like something.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Start morphing into it.
Yeah, start turning into that.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yes, right, you start saying well, no, the school
district is doing everythingthey're supposed to be doing and
you guys are wrong.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
And it's so, you know , you start to become part of
what you do.
So it's a million, yes, amillion.
Well, you also see the otherside too, right, because if
you're on the other side, yousee how it actually how the how
the sausage is actually made isnot what we think, just from a
parent's perspective, right?

Speaker 1 (33:05):
yeah, a lot of a lot and they have a lot like a lot
of people don't understand thata school board is really like a
business.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
And so when you get in there, you say, oh, we're
worried about the kids.
Yeah, we're worried about thekids, but also we have to figure
out how to run the district andthe district has to stay afloat
.
We have to make sure to manageour budget Right.
We have to make sure ournumbers are where they're
supposed to be.
Our budget right.

(33:33):
We have to make sure ournumbers are where they're
supposed to be.
So sometimes we have to maketough decisions about tough
things, because it's it's thedistrict has to keep going.
Sometimes those decisions haveto be made like, for example,
cuts have to be done becauseit's just you can't.
If you're losing funding from,uh, the state that you normally
get, then okay, where do we makeup this money?

(33:55):
Right, it doesn't just grow ontrees, as they say.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Right, it's like there's a hole in the budget and
we got to cut something out.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
I mean just from us to having our boys like in
private school.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
In the beginning we were supplying all kinds of
everything you know and donatingto the school.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
When they started going to public school, we
didn't have to pay for lunch.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
We didn't have to pay for all of these things.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
So, like I asked all the teachers, like, if there's
anything you need, let me know,Because I know a lot of them are
out of pocket.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
And with those private schools and things like
that they fundraise.
So as you know, you knowthey're going to knock on your
door hey, we need a little extramoney.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
You got to kick in and those are a lot of those
fundings that the state don'tgive those private schools, so
the public schools get thosefunding and so once the state
says no more of the funding,then now we got to go back and
have a discussion or we need toreview or slim down something

(34:56):
that we have a little too muchof, and that's the difficult
part don't?

Speaker 3 (35:00):
doesn't?
The schools get money becauseyour kids go to school and
that's why, like, attendance isso that's why attendance is the
first thing they do every dayyeah.
So like I wonder, like how?
Much of that is is funding forthe school.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Well, that's a large portion of it, because you know
no butts in the seat.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
No, they don't exactly they don't need.
They don't need it if theydon't have no kids at school.
They don't need funding, rightyeah?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
so we have to have the funding.
That's funding is how thedistrict runs.
So we have different type of uhtitle.
We got different type of titlesof different type of funding
and grants that the state give.
Um, you know, there's certainones that are even like with
students who have disabilitiesand things like that.
There is a certain amount umwith us as a district in palm

(35:44):
springs.
Um, I believe we're over um 70percent or no, no, sorry, over
90 percent of our students areat or below um standard for
income.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
So that many, yeah, you would never think that, huh
oh, I think we're at 92 percentwow I mean, so I I do volunteer
work with fine food bank andthey there's so many people that
are food insecure, you justdon't know.
It's crazy and it's sad, it'slike.
So I'm glad that you're inthere doing that and yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
So a lot of the funding comes from that.
So once, um, we have a schoolthat's considered, uh,
classified as as sociallyeconomically challenged, that's
when the state comes in andgives us some money.
So that's how we were able toget money that way as well.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
And then people would never believe it.
But 20% of our students areconsidered homeless 20%.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Yeah, that's one in five, yeah, and homeless could
be living with a brother orsister.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
In a car or in a car, yeah, wherever that they have,
they don't actually have aphysical.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
That is amazing, yeah .
Wherever that they have, theydon't actually have a physical.
That is amazing yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
That is amazing, but yeah so 20 percent man, 20
percent homeless.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's crazy.
You would never think that.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
And then also there's another stat that's kind of
jaw-breaking and kind ofsurprising to see as well is
that over 70 percent of incalifornia, from k to three,
cannot read what 70 I believe it70 are either at or below level

(37:23):
70 in california.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Oh my god they have all kinds of reading programs or
people huh right, older, older,like, well, not older.
Any volunteer goes out and likehelps the kids read in school
and things like that.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, Read With Me is .

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yes, that's the one.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
So they volunteer, so Read With Me.
They take books and they go andvolunteer and they have
volunteers and they give out thebooks to the school district to
help the kids improve whatthey're reading.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
That's amazing.
That's an amazing stat, I think.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
But yeah, and math is not too far behind.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
I can't even do math but surprisingly Well, you went
to Coachella.
Yeah, I got street smart.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
That's like averages.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
That covers a whole lot it does.
But another thing 65% ofstudents through K three cannot
do math.
So they're either at or belowstandard for math in California
as well.
So we got 65% of our kids whocannot do math.
We got 70% of our students whocannot read.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
So you're telling us our public school system is
struggling right now?
Oh yes, all over the world.
I mean like in California.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yes, all over Californiaifornia.
In terms of the stats, I meanyeah, so you know they can't and
that's why you're there, rightyeah I mean.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
So how?
So?
Go back to your story.
How did you so?
You're, you know you're.
You're a parent, you're goingto meetings, you don't want
there hey, come on, join us andyou're just like, nah, I'm good,
how I'm good, when does thatswitch go off?
I'm like, okay, I'm going to goand throw my hat in the street.
It's a lot man.
It's a lot of work, man.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I know it is the gentleman that was running our
district.
He came to me and he said hey,charlie, I think that you would
do a wonderful job and I thinkyou should take into
consideration running for schoolboard.
And I was like, yeah, okay.
And then he called me again andhe kept calling me, kept

(39:18):
bugging me.
I'm like, bro, like are youreally going to?
Just, I mean like are you goingto leave me alone, or what.
And he's like no, I reallythink that you should do it.
And if you do it, you know Iwon't run, wow.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Unopposed.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Persistence.
And so I was like okay, um,okay, whatever, yeah, okay, I'll
, just I'll put my head in there.
I mean I'll.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
I'll do it.
I didn't think I was going towin.
You have to run for.
You had to run for an electionright, you were like you had to
put your politician shoes on andgo out there and shake hands
and kiss babies and all thatright so I thought that he was
gonna play and he was gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
So I'm like I'm not gonna win, so I'm just gonna go
do it and he's gonna eventuallystay in there and get in the
race.
But he never did.
So he, he never did.
And he told me you know,charlie, I just think that you
can do the job much better thanwhat I can, and I've seen you
work and you've been, you, youknow, been doing it so far, so I

(40:13):
think that you can handle it.
And I was like okay, and so.
I ran and he didn't run, and soI ended up winning on the post.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
What year was this?
Uh, two years ago.
So two years 2002, 2022.
Yes, wow, so you've been on theschool for two years now Yep,
yep, coming up on two years.
Wow.
So what's that experience beenlike, personally for you, I know
you're trying to do God's workout there, but sometimes-.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
It's a lot.
It's a lot, it's a lot, it'sfast, and just I mean when
you're dealing with, like I said, with a half a billion dollar
budget budget.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yeah, like it's packets coming through, big old,
hopefully the person doing it.
You have to read all thosepackets.
Can I get?

Speaker 1 (40:58):
the cliff notes.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yes, but see that's where ai should kick in somehow
on something like that, becauseabsolutely that's we're really
going through all these papersand reading all this stuff
summarize this proposal for me.
I know right, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
So yeah, but yeah, I have to read all that stuff and
be ready.
Um, they get it to us maybelike a week in advance, so we
run through it 72, you know Ithink 72 hours or something like
that.
So we have to run througheverything, look through
everything and then we kind ofjust we can't talk to each other
or anything like that.
That is the most difficult partthat I've seen so far.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
In it like uh, you have like a gag order on huh.
Like you can't talk to othermembers.
Well, you can't with the board,like it's.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
It's a conflict of interest and it has to be in a
public setting so you cannot do.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
That's tough, though, because I sit on non-profit
boards and so does she, and wehave to talk all the time about
yeah, no, we can't, constantly.
It's not at that.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Yeah.
So basically, if we talk to oneperson, that's it.
We can't talk to three people,because then it would be like
having a meeting for the meeting, right.
So we could talk to maybe oneperson and, like you know, kind
of run our idea, but for themost part everything is alone.
So you don't know what's goingto happen when you go into the

(42:11):
meeting.
You don't know what anybodyelse thinking, you don't know
anything.
So just go in there, sit downwith your notes and then you
just kind of just say whateveryou saw in your mind, and then
you know you might get lucky.
And somebody you know, someone,will say yeah, charlie, I agree
with that, you know.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
And then you, but you don't know, though, no, until
that moment so and and that'sthat's the battle.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
It's really.
It's really lonely, like youwould never think it was that
lonely, like working in adistrict is as a school board
member, it's really lonely.
It's like an individual kind ofa thing like you would think,
like siphoned off from the world, yes, and you can't really talk
about anything.
So if something confidentialcomes through, I can't talk to.
You, can't talk to your wife no.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
your kid no.
I can't talk to you.
You can't talk to your wife no.
You can't talk to your kids no.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
I can't talk to nobody.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
That's hard man.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Jeez, I have to sit there and wait.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
That's an FBI guy.
Yeah, you can get nationalsecurity secrets over there, man
.
Well, you know, I mean it's abig budget.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
It's a big budget man , you know, lose my position.
I signed an oath.
I had to stand in front ofeveryone, put my hand up and say
that I agree that I was underthe perjury.
You know I would not, so I hadto do all of that stuff.
So when they tell you that youcan't talk like you could
actually literally get fined andgo to jail.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Oh, man, I commend you.
Man, I commend you.
I don't think I could do it.
You're a better man than me,man, and the pay the pay is not
great at all.
You're talking to a ex highschool football coach a penny on
the dollar.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
For my time, I approve a higher budget.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I approve a raise for myself.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
You can't do any of that stuff it's just basically
like volunteering, and the factof the matter is making a change
and you know I had like theartist who illustrated this book
.
She was a school board member.
And so how the book came intoplay.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Well, let's get into the book, because I mean, true
renaissance man here doesn't sitstill.
I mean, between running abusiness and being on the board.
How did Charlie Irvin, theauthor, come to be?
I mean, I didn't even know youwere writing books, man.
I mean this is.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
He came home.
He's all did you know?
Charlie wrote a book.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
I was like man this guy don't ever sleep, so go into
the story of how this book cameto be.
I mean, it's a pretty coolproject after I did some
research on it.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, that's interesting that you say that,
because the sleeping part youdon't sleep.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
I don't sleep that good, that's a life man, the
entrepreneur man.
So what happened is?

Speaker 1 (44:42):
I didn't used to sleep, so what I would do is
like, at two or three o'clock inthe morning, I just wake up and
I'm like dang, I cannot go backto sleep.
So I just sit up and like foran hour or two and I'm just
fighting to trying to go tosleep.
So what I started doing is Itook my phone out and I just
started writing.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Really, so your insomniac led to a book, like
journaling, yeah, and so what Idid was I jotted down and all my
great.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
But to be honest with you, my whole entire life
that's been my.
That's how everything hasmanifested for me, like in the
middle of the night.
I'm weird like that.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
I'll wake up in the middle.
Best ideas come to the sleepman.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
No that happens to me all the time.
I'm designing stuff and I'mlike, oh, I can do this, you
know, or what have you?
So it's great.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
So that was a crazy thing.
So before I used to alwaysfight it, I used to be like I
got to go to sleep and so Ifigured out that I need to use
it to my benefit.
So before I used to try to holdon to it.
But when I went back to sleepand remember to go do it during
the daytime, so the phone thingstarted to be a thing, and so
what I would do is I would justtake the phone and just go at it

(45:49):
and just start writing likesome of the business ideas, all
the stuff like that.
That's what it was, and then sothe book came.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
And what's the name of the book by the?

Speaker 1 (45:58):
way, the name of the book is called.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Equity Diversity.
We'll show it on camera herefor people on YouTube Check it
out, and then we'll also beputting it in, dropping it in a
link so you guys can check itout on the episode notes.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
But go ahead.
So it's called.
It's called Equity, diversity,equality and Inclusion for Kids.
It's as simple as one, two,three, and so the concept of the
book is to take those big,difficult words that a lot of
adults and people are using andthe children don't understand,
and so I took them and put themin a simple term and also used
them as a definition.
so that's where the idea of thebook came from okay um, I have

(46:34):
had this in my phone forprobably about maybe six years
really just in a note in yourphone, just a note, it was just
a note like so I right nowcurrently I have probably about
seven books in my wow that Ialready done.
That's awesome, man.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
I didn't know you were the authoring type man.
I just it just.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
You don't just talk, you know, you don't even think.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
I got a football story too yeah, I got a football
book coming out.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
I got, I got a football story, so we'll co-sign
on that football story aboutjohnny no, the story about that
one is my son is is skinny, somy little son is skinny.
So the story is going to be alittle skinny kid trying to
convince his father and his momthat he can play tackle football
.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Ah, that's awesome, man, that's awesome.
So you have it in your phone.
That's a big leap to actually.
Hey, I want to publish thisthing and get it out to the
world.
I mean, that's a big leap,that's a scary part of it right.
To actually put it out there.
How did that come about?

Speaker 1 (47:32):
So there again the school board comes into play.
So the illustrator, her name isMariah Young she happened to be
a student school board memberfor the district and so she was
there and we really didn't talkmuch.
And so the last day that shewas there as a school board

(47:54):
member, she came up to me andshe told me how important I was
in her life.
And I'm like holy crap, Like Inever knew, Wow.
And she was telling me, you know, like, how amazing I was and
you know how, you know that shelearned from me and that I just
don't know how important it isto see someone who looks like
her on the stage.

(48:14):
And I was like wow, I had noidea.
So me and her, you know, end uptalking for a little bit and
you know she goes on.
So she's at graduation and youknow she graduates and she tells
me me, you know I'm an artistand I'm like what?
Do you know how long I've beensitting on a bunch of words on?

Speaker 2 (48:35):
paper.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I can't find a it's like the universe aligned right
that's just how god works.
He works in mysterious ways.
So I'm sitting here, I've beentrying to get this, this image
of what's in my head, on paper,and so, um, you know, she goes
on.
I'm like, okay, I give her acar, you know what I mean.
She goes away.
Um, you know, I, you know, Inever thought that, you know, I

(48:58):
was gonna hear anything back,because it's thousands of people
to tell me that they, they candraw and no one ever, you know
doesn't follow through.
Yeah.
So I was like yeah, okay,whatever.
And then one day, like likealmost a year later, she calls
and says Mr Irvin, do you know,remember who I am?
Like no, I don't.
And so she started telling meand she was like you know, are
you still interested in havingsomeone to do the book?

(49:20):
And I was like yeah, likeforever since about six years,
yeah.
And so she was like okay, um,you know, I would like to give
it a shot.
So I give her the first likethree pages because I want to
see if she can do it.
So, like here's three pages,see what you can do, see what
you come up with.
And she got started and like,literally, she was thinking

(49:43):
exactly what I was thinking.
I was thinking the photos, theimages, the mixed nationalities,
the different disabilities,everything that I wanted to
capture, the glow.
She did the cover everything.
Wow, she exactly got everythingthat I was thinking.
So she is really the person whoactually made my dreams come

(50:04):
true, because if not, they wouldhave just been inside of the
book.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
They're just still sitting there.
Yeah, that's awesome man.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
And so I was able to give her a scholarship because
she was going to COD, so for herI was looking for someone to be
illustrator and I was going topay someone to do it.
So I was able to pay her with ascholarship and give her a
scholarship.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Wow, win-win.
What a story, man, win-win,what a story.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Isn't that funny, how stuff just kind of works out
like that it was so hard, like Iwas just sitting there and I
was like I'm never going to everhave a book, like it's just
going to be something that I sayI always wanted to do and never
be able to do it.

Speaker 3 (50:40):
That's awesome, man, but what?
And you can just keep on going.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
And the hard part about this.
Okay.
So after she gets withillustrating, and we get
illustrating together which tooklike a couple of months because
you know you have to find theperfect thing and the perfect
match so after she gets theillustration, the real work
starts to happen.
So now I have to figure out howto get this script and this

(51:06):
book to the masses.
Yeah, get it published, right,yes, so I go and I try to go to
all of these companies no, no,no, no, no.
So all of these no's come about.
So I have to go into deepresearch study about how I can
figure out how to start aproduction company.
You know, I have to go doeverything, oh my gosh.

(51:28):
So I went.
I have to go do everything, ohmy gosh.
So I went from the ground uponce again.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
So you have your own production company.
So, you produce this yourself.
Oh my God, that's awesome.
There is no no's there.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Yes, right, right.
So then that way I'm able to beable to get it done, because
all of the big major companies,they would tell you no, because
they have a list of a millionbooks that they possibly can
come out with.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
So they're not really interested in a local you know
story giving you a chance atthat right so, so I was like
okay, being the creator that Iam, I'm gonna create this whole
platform.
Wow, I'm gonna have to talk toyou because I'm gonna write my
book and yeah, produce it for me, yeah absolutely.
It's already in the works.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Yeah, I'm telling you it's the greatest feeling to be
able to see your work or yourimagination come to fruition
Absolutely, and know that it'sgoing to live on past you.
That's true.
So once you pass on, your bookis still going to be here for
kids and anybody else to be ableto read your work.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Yeah, and so you know where do you, where do you, can
you find your book?

Speaker 1 (52:33):
I'm on Thank God.
I'm on Amazon.
Ok, I'm on Barnes and Noble.
I'm on Target, I mean Walmart.
I'm in the local bookstores.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Awesome, and so are you.
Are you on the school boardslibrary?

Speaker 1 (52:50):
I can't.
No Conflict of interest.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Oh, we're not we're not a conflict of interest.
So we're, going to throw allhis links into the show notes.
So everybody, I adviseeverybody to go support, support
our local author andRenaissance man, mr Charlie
Irvin here.
I love it, mr Charlie Irvinhere.
We're running up against time,charlie, so there's a couple of
questions that we always like toask our entrepreneurs.
Shoot it.
I think you already know what'scoming.
So some of the best businessadvice you've ever gotten.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
The best business advice I've ever got.
Okay, so when I was in realestate, my uncle so I, my uncle
was in business first and so myuncle told me.
He said hey, charlie, look,when I started real estate I had
a Honda Accord.
Okay, my uncle said you aregoing to be Honda Accord, you're

(53:38):
going to meet those type ofpeople.
If you don't get this, if youdon't get something, A better
car.
Yes, I was like, but I own ahouse already.
You know what I mean.
I'm looking at buying anotherhouse.
I'm like I got.
I like you know, I got a wealthof knowledge.
He says, son, they're nevergoing to find out who you are,
they're never going to know whoyou are because the first thing

(53:59):
they do is see what you looklike.
And I'll be dang.
I went and got a stupidMercedes.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
And those same people that I tried to talk to before
were oh yeah, you know whatyou're doing.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Oh, you're great, I couldn't even talk to them at
first, but as soon as I got thatdumb car, like instantly I
started to become like the go-toperson to talk to about real
estate.
It was really crazy, wow.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
That was a good piece of advice.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You were in sales at that point, right.
That was a good piece of adviceat that point, right.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Yes, and man and I was, and I was like, why can't I
sell like a 600 000?
He was like boy, you pulling upin a honda accord like that
doesn't say success.
I was like dang, like I gottareally do that.
And he was like, yeah, yougotta learn how to, how to look
like you, something, yeah.
So then I went and got allthose clown suits and all that
stuff and you know what I mean.

(54:49):
It was a write-off too and itworked it did and it worked, it
did.
So that's a magic tip that Iwould say to anybody who's out
there watching.
Yeah, look the part right yes,you gotta look like you are
selling what you sell it lookthe part there.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
You never get a second chance to make a first
impression that's right, that'sright.
I've heard that a million times, but it's true, that's true.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Okay, so you're giving us the good advice.
Now what about the worst adviceyou've ever gotten?
I know you got some bad adviceabout business.
We all have.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Don't cheat the IRS.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
Well, yeah, that's some bad advice too.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Don't take them on.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
They will win.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
They some bad advice too Don't take them on.
They will win.
You will never beat the IRS.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
They're like the casino they're always going to
win you will never, ever everbeat the IRS, and they're going
to find you.
And when they find you, they'regoing to take it to you.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
It's regardless, my worst advice?

Speaker 1 (55:43):
I don't know, because I'm really strong, I kind of go
into a shell.
I really don't listen to muchand follow anybody else.
So you know, like when anyonestarted to tell me, like, what
it takes, I knew that that don'tsound right.
There's no way.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
No ring of truth there.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Yeah, that's not.
That's not really.
I'm not going to be able totake no shortcuts and be able to
do nothing.
Really, I'm not gonna be ableto take no shortcuts and be able
to to do nothing.
You have to take the long way.
There's no shortcuts, there'sno get with, uh, get rich quick
schemes, nothing like that's afunny thing.
One of the things I tried towhen I was younger is all of

(56:22):
those ponzi schemes, all ofthose little pyramid things,
yeah all those different, thosedifferent things I thought I was
going to be able to do, and so,oh yeah, I got this wine that
I'm selling and it's this, andit never worked, never worked.
None of that stuff ever workedand it took a whole lot of time
trying to sell something thatwas never going to sell, and so

(56:43):
that was.
That was one of the bad adviceI had.
Don't take any shortcuts anddon't listen to anybody telling
you that that business andsuccess is quick.
It's never quick.
It's never just a magic potion.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
It's hard work, right , absolutely no substitute for
our work, man.
Yeah, no, our work is veryimportant.
Well, I want to thank you forcoming in.
Where can our uh listeners andpeople watching here find you
and your work?
And, you know, where can theyreach out to you if they've got
questions for you.
What's the best place to kindof reach you?

Speaker 1 (57:14):
The best place to reach me is we have social media
accounts, on Instagram as wellas Facebook, and it's Irvin
Holland Publications, so you canfind like the books there.
You can find we have websites.
Just type in irvin and hollandpublication or just type in
charlie irvin and you'll seelike all kind of different

(57:35):
things about me uh, anywherefrom school district stuff to
the book to coaching, everything.
I didn't even get to talk aboutthe championships oh yeah, wait
till your podcast comes out.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Season two Season two we're going to do the football
episode, part two.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
We didn't get to talk about how our youth football
used to kill everybody out herein the desert.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
So now we're having a little tough time.
Indio, you guys are coming upwith these programs.
We're trying, man.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
We're trying now with the desert league, yeah, but
we're cheating because we'regetting everybody from
everywhere, but that's what yougot to do.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
That's what you got to do.
So you know.
Thanks for coming in.
Man you truly are.
You know what CV Hustle is allabout man Totally and all of
your community service.
Man, I thank you.
You're doing God's work outthere.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks for listening.
Yeah, thanks for listening.
If you found some value intoday's conversation, go ahead
and like and subscribe and we'llsee you next time.