S2 E33 | Alex Delgado Beyond the Uniform: A Marine's Journey Through Entrepreneurship - Happy Hour Holidaze

Episode Transcript
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Sean Febre & Manny Febr (00:00):
Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, where
we cheers to life, stories,entrepreneurship and business.
I fucked up on that one, butanyways, I'm your host every
single week.
Manny Fresh, we got the resume,sean Fabre.
And in studio today we gotmotivational speaker author,

(00:20):
marine veteran.
We got a man that doeseverything serial entrepreneur,
alex Delgado.
Thank you so much for coming in, man.
Love the energy man, and youknow, I could see that you're a
guy that lifts people up, andthat's what we need in this
world, especially for peoplethat are trying to maybe make
that move to actually see thebest of themselves, which is

(00:40):
very tough, because you kind ofget into a comfortable zone and
you live life and then youforget man, I can actually do
more than what I'm doing today.
Yeah, not only that, but youalso mentioned off air that
you've started multiplebusinesses.
Not all of them succeeded, andthat's something that most
people will get down onthemselves and then quit trying.
You know, yeah, absolutely, Imean what kept you going?

Alex Delgado (01:01):
I think for me there's this element of really
want to aspire to do more, and Ifeel like it's okay to ask for
abundance if you have goodintent right.
And so for me, every time I'vestarted it and had this wacky
idea.
If it didn't work out, theinteresting part is that it
always kind of opened the doorto the next idea and it's kind
of always built off of theprevious one with lessons

(01:24):
learned, so that you don't makethe same mistake twice.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (01:26):
I'm wondering what was your first
business you ever started?

I mean I've done everything I had.
I've done well.
I started a hip hop clothingstore down in Miami which was
the worst idea ever.
But again, like everything, Ilook at it and I learn.
And the funny thing is the mainkind of catalyst for the
location was it was thebarbershop.
It was next door to thebarbershop where Pitbull takes
his kids at the time, right, andI knew everybody from the

(01:50):
neighborhood, everybody would gothere.
So I'm thinking, all right,yeah, we're going to sell hip
hop clothes, sneakers.
You know, we sold spray paintso we had all the graffiti
artists in Miami coming andbuying cans from us.
And then, you know, go figure,I was competing with the guy
who's also selling stolenclothes in the back of his trunk
, so that that business wasdestined to fail.
Um, but from that business,right, one of the ideas we had

(02:15):
in there was having the TVscreens with ads, and that was
way before that was more commonthan what you see today, like in
the back of the truck beds nolike.
No in the no like theadvertising on the screens of
your TVs inside the store.

Oh, inside the shop.

And so from that I said, look, I never want to be
in retail because, you know, inclothing things go out of style.
You need to figure out theright sizing.
I mean, it was tricky, it was avery difficult business, great
experience, but it wasdefinitely hard to sustain.
And I said I want to offer aservice, because the service,
you know there's some overheadup front, obviously, but you're
not going to have that, that.

(02:46):
You know constant revolvingdoor.
So I said I want to get intoadvertising, but I don't know
exactly what form of advertisingI'm running into.
And so at one point, when I wasjust really trying to like
figure out what was next, I sawthis this long, it was a 36 foot
pontoon boat out in in Illinois, so to go in the river of
Chicago.

(03:06):
I was like, oh man, I live inMiami.
And, mind you, I was an activeduty Marine stationed in Miami
trying to do a side hustle,right.
So that's not very common, youdon't hear that for a lot of
military people.
And so I got this idea of man,I live in Miami, we're the best
beaches in the world.
I got to do somethingadvertising on the water.
Then that led me to find thesehuge inflatable billboards that

(03:28):
were a nightmare.
But I got some huge clients.
I mean, I had Miller Coors, Ihad Red Bull, I had Chase Bank.
Where'd you put them?
We had them out on the beach.

We had these things that you would tow
Not floating in the ocean yeah,floating in the ocean, towing
it up and down in my dad's boat.

I mean it was a crazy shit.
So, long story short iseventually that boat that
inspired that idea.
That guy who made that boatsold it to some guy here in
Tampa.
The guy in Tampa couldn't getthe business to work and I
bought that boat off him.
So, full circle, I bought thatboat and I had it going up and
down Miami forever.
It was a great business.
We advertise all the nightclubsin Miamiami restaurants, you

(04:03):
name it.
You're the one driving the boator no?
My dad was a skipper.
Yeah, yeah, my dad was askipper and and we had um
casinos from las vegas, I mean,you name it ultra music festival
.
We had everything going onduring that time and eventually,
like anything right, mybusiness became obsolete when
they had the digital boats goingout and you see those even here
in, like clearwater beach andstuff like that.

So Are the single engine planes that
are?
You know that they fly with thebanners.
I mean, that was like my archnemesis, that was your arch
nemesis.

Yeah, so actually the funny thing is, like my, you
still see those out.
Oh yeah, I mean it's a goodbusiness you have, like it's an
antiquated type of business, butyou have eyeballs looking at
your product but I feel like,visibility wise, the boat is
definitely, you know yeah, youhave definitely better line of
sight and it's a little moremodern and you know it looks
cool right now.
I would, we would, we would getemails from people they'll be

(04:52):
like oh you ruined our vacationwith this eyesore.
I'm like, oh sorry, I'm like,but you looked at it, you know
like hot women on there justdancing?
nah, because it was far, youknow, as far away, right, so you
wouldn't be able to see thepeople per se.
But it was a good business, man, I I enjoyed it because I, you
know, I I made good money withit and I also got to include my

(05:13):
dad, my, my mom would go outthere, my wife would go out
there, you know, to takepictures and all this kind of
stuff and, um, it was a coolbusiness how much would you like
charge per ad?

yeah, so.
I would charge, so it was justlike one inflatable and it was
just one ad on both sides.
Were they the same ad on bothsides?
Yeah, typically, yeah, yeah.
But eventually when I they payfor the day.

They would pay by day and I would charge depends.
I would charge anywhere fromlike 600 bucks for the local
nightclub, because I just neededto fill in some days to two to
five grand a day.

Holy cow club because I just needed
to to fill in some days, to twoto five grand a day.
Holy cow, you're chasing allthe bigger hitters.

There were two or five that I would charge, you
know, up the ass.
And ultra too, right?
Oh yeah, definitely we.
We had all the djs, all theinternational djs that would
come around the for ultra.
All of them were my clientsbecause I, from the boat I
evolved to, they'd say, hey,alex, uh, we are interested in
doing the boat, but we're alsointerested in trucks.
I'm like, oh yeah, I got trucks, I got this too, and I got.

(06:08):
I mean, we did uh pressurecleaning the logos on the
sidewalk, we did everything youcan think of and I've presented
uh advertising campaigns to thebiggest DJs in the world David
Guetta, afro Jack, uh, you knowevery single one of those people
I've.
I've either presented them ordone marketing for them.
So what happened to the business?

(06:28):
It was just very fickle, right,like I mean, it's, it's event
driven.
What was difficult?
I would try to get like people,like most of your advertising
agencies who are the ones thatdo this type of advertising for
your big fortune 500 brands.
They're all based out of newyork, right?
So think of the mad men rightup in new york, and they
couldn't conceptualize thatmiami is year-round right,

(06:50):
year-round beach weather.
So they should think about thisas a strategy year-round.
They view it in terms of like,hey, this is a summer marketing
campaign and I I would try toconvince them like, well, in the
summer, yeah, it's great, butin the you guys come to Miami,
so doesn't it make sense?

Like bring it down here, right.

So it was just a hard business to sustain, like
full time.
Again, I was a Marine full time.
So you know, in my career I wasmoving around and it was easy
to manage remotely the clientinterface and all that stuff.
For the most part I'd never metany of my clients but it was
still just, you know, not enough, not enough business to to keep
it going full time.

And Alex, backtracking a little bit,
let's get into, like yourchildhood, like going into who
made you know, what made you whoyou are today, you know.
Let's just start, you know,pick up like maybe around I
don't know high school orsomething like that, like what
made you go into the Marines andthen what, what kind of
influenced your mom and your dad, you know coming I mean, I'm
I'm assuming they came from Cuba, right, so coming from Cuba.

(07:50):
And you know being immigrantsand and you know, making a life
for you and your brothers orsister, if you have any.

So I'm going to go back a little bit only just to
say that my, my parents havesuch a unique story in that my
father was part of OperationPeter Pan, which, if you know
your Cuban history right, thatwas the mass exodus of the Cuban
children that was sponsored bythe Catholic Church.
He had a very uniqueopportunity in that his aunt had
already came forward.
You know, she was already inMiami and she created a foster

(08:19):
home and he was able to leaveand go stay at her house,
Whereas most of the kids theyended up all over the world in
orphanages and places where theywere strangers when Castro took
over right.
Right, right, right when Castrotook over, and then my mom's
story as a young girl.
She left they were both veryyoung came to the United States,
they made their living.

(08:39):
So I wanted to be a Marinesince I was eight years old.
Wow, yeah, it was something Iknew as a little kid.
I was in church and there was agroup called the Young Marines,
which is like the Boy Scouts ofthe Marines, and they were
there in their camouflageuniforms at the church, kind of
doing like a little display to,you know, really just promote
themselves.
I was like man, I want to dothat and I just became enamored

(09:01):
with the Marine Corps lifestyleand everything about it.
And I just became enamored withthe Marine Corps lifestyle and
everything about it and I justknew, like my path as a kid.
I was a high school athlete,you know I.
What did you play?
I was a baseball player, youknow, like every Cuban kid.

Except we went soccer.
My dad went soccer, oh, yeahyeah, because my parents, or our
parents, went.
Well, my mom came here to Miami, but my dad had to go to Spain
because there was nobody toclaim him here.
So they went to Spain andthat's where he found the love
for football.

And then you know whenever.

I'd play.
Everybody would be like Oye,cuba, what are you doing out
here, dude?

Go play baseball.
Yeah, no, I never played soccer.
And the funny thing is my sonplayed a little bit of soccer,
but so played baseball.
I always saw this funny storyLike and again I started working
at 13, umpiring baseball games,and I've always had a job.
I've always just beenfinancially relying on my damn
self.
And so as I got through highschool, I was at a girlfriend

(09:53):
who's not my wife, right, sowe're high school sweethearts.
And I was working.
Oh, you married.
Your high school Married myhigh school sweetheart.
Yeah, holy cow.
And I was also the class clownand the coaches were not fans of
my jokes, unfortunately.
So that impacted my playingtime and by my senior year I'm
like, hey, you know what?
It's not really working out.
So I stopped playing my senioryear and they won the state

(10:14):
championship, oh my God.
So I missed out on that.
Were you like a pitcher?

No, I was an outfielder, outfielder a
totally replaceable outfielder.

Yeah, so you know.
But you know you look back inhindsight.
You're like damn man, you know,like I'm going to work my whole
life and I missed out on kindof putting the priority on that
and I don't live with too manyregrets, but I do kind of wish I
would have focused a littlemore on baseball.

Get that little ring right here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know I missed out on the champion.
Yeah, I'm a champion.
So, um, so you're a champion inmy eyes, thanks, so, yeah, but
but so you know, as I, as youknow, as as a senior, does you
start to say, hey, what's next?
Because I know something isgoing to happen, whether it's go
off to college or or join themilitary or just go down any
kind of real career path.
But I was.
I was working at a grocerystore, right, so it wasn't like
I was continuing down the thegrocery route and I knew that I
was going to be a marine.
I enlisted, october 14th of1999, were you 17 or 18?

(11:13):
I was, I had just turned 18.
Yeah, I just turned 18.

Yeah, let me tell you something oh
yeah, yeah, I was gonna actuallyyou read my mind because I was
gonna say I want to know whatyour mom and your dad said.
Because my mom threw a fuckingfit because I told her I'm going
to be a Marine Because I playedsoccer.
I was shredded, I was fit asthings.
So I was like Mom, I've beentalking to the Marine at school.
I'm going to be a Marinebecause I want to travel the
world and I feel like this iswhat I want to do.

(11:38):
You know what happened?
They were all.
You know what happened Te va amorir.
Oh yeah, te va a morir, mio noway.
Crying and all this shit.
And I was literally.
I had gone into the office.
The next step was to take thetest to see where you fit in on
the Marine Corps and you know, Iended up not following what I
wanted to do for my journey oflife.
I have some regrets on that,but maybe it worked out better.

(12:01):
I don't know, but it was duringthe Iraq War.
I graduated 06.
Oh yeah, so it would have beenlike right in the heat of it.
Yep, so maybe it was a blessingin disguise.

Yeah.

Or maybe I mean I just have a
little bit of resentment becauseit was my journey in life.
It's all you know.
All our journeys are yours inparticular.

You get to choose what you want and I felt like
when my kids get older, I'm notgonna tell them hey, you know
I'm gonna give them advice, butI'm never gonna push them
complete and be like no, youjoined in 1999, yeah, which
wasn't too far off, well, so Igraduated in 2000, so I got, I
signed, I enlisted, right likesigned the paperwork, but while
I was still, what I'm saying isthat was before 9-11 happened oh

(12:42):
yeah.

So then, like you went through
training and then all hell hitor all shit hit the fan, yeah,
yeah, and you're like fuck.
Well, that's it.

I'm going to Iraq now.
Oh, yeah, yeah, or it wasAfghanistan.

Which one was it?

Afghanistan was where the military went first.
So I went to Iraq first andthen I went to Afghanistan.
But you know, to your point,though, like our parents, we
have to believe that one wasbest for us For sure, and we
naturally believe them, right?
I mean, we do believe them.
And so I think for me to answeryour question about how did my
parents react.

(13:14):
Well, my parents, of course,were concerned, but they were
supportive.
They knew that that's somethingI wanted to do, so they didn't
really put any roadblocks in myway.
They didn't put like anyemotional obstacles in my way
either.
They were both very proud andvery you know, just excited
about my, my career in theMarine Corps, and and I had an
incredible career- Just twoseparate, different countries?

(13:35):
Yeah, and and and so my parentswere, were supportive, and you
know they weren't.
We were in peacetime at thetime, so of, of course, they
weren't super concerned.
But I think just generally,like you think about, your
parents had your best interestsin mind, or so they thought, and
we believe them.
And that's where I think we asthe next generation then say,

(14:01):
well, how do I not repeat thesame mistake or not use it as,
hey, this was a mistake, but howcan I just look at this a
different way and react adifferent way?
Because it's kind of like youknow, I've been hearing a lot of
people saying if I want to be amillionaire, my parents are not
millionaires.

I shouldn't be.

I shouldn't feel like I'm insulting them by not
asking them for financial advice.

They have never accomplished that.
You know what?

I'm saying so like it's like hey, mom, I love you,
but you're not.
You've never done what I'mtrying to accomplish.
So I'm not coming to you foradvice, I'm coming to you for
love, for cariño you know allthat other stuff.
But for this specific topic.
You have to almost like and Ithink this is mainly a Latin
thing, maybe even more so aCuban thing but like we feel,
like we dishonor our parents ifwe don't go to them for

(14:37):
everything.
But there's some things they'rejust not qualified.

I get to the point honestly, alex.
I get to the point, alex, whereI tell my dad you guys are done
.
I'm not in an insulting way,but you guys are done.
I'm 37 years old or 36 yearsold, I know more than you.
At this point it's done.
You guys gave me everything youpossibly could, but at this
point I've surpassed you.
Oh yeah, I know it's tough forthem to hear, but at the same

(15:08):
time it's like, like you said,you're not a millionaire.
That's what I'm aspiring to be.
I can't come to you and be likehey, how do I get financial
literacy?
Yeah, even though in schoolthey didn't fucking teach you
shit and teach us anything.

Well, the funny thing too.
I always say too.

That's cool.

If my, if my mother-in-law my, mother-in-law
will give me a hard time aboutmy kids or whatever, and I'll
say I live with the, with yourkid, so don't be so judgmental,
because I live with your kid, isyour wife also Cuban?
No, she's actually a veryunique mix.
She's half Colombian, halfDutch.

Oh, that is super bizarre.
That's one of those very uniqueones.

And even more unique is that her mom, the
Dutch mom, was raised in theisland of Grenada, really, which
is a Caribbean country.

I'm pretty sure she has a pretty
unique story too.

She's got a really cool story.

So then, all right.
So now you're enlisted in themilitary, going through your
life here, you are now deployedand then you decide you want to
be an officer and you take aprogram right.

So here's the unique story there is as a
Marine you go into boot camp,you go into training for
whatever your job is going to be.
I was an intelligence analyst,so I went to school in virginia
beach.
Yeah, yeah, well so the funnything is that the recruiter
tells my does my dad, have youseen the movie the enemy of the
state?
That's kind of what like he'sgoing to be doing.

I'm like, oh shit man, I'm ready and
that was a great movie too.

Yeah, so I'm like, oh man, this is great.
It's not like that.
And and so I went from mytraining I my first like
assignment, because you getstationed somewhere.
You're typically there forabout three, three plus years.
My first duty station washawaii.
Oh, that's awesome.
So I'm a Miami kid, off toHawaii loving life.

(16:46):
Well, the reality is I wasalways gone, whether in training
I went to Iraq, I went toAfghanistan, went to all these
places, and then at a certainpoint I was like, eh, I'm just
going to get out, right, I'mdone, did my four or five years,
whatever, I'm going to get out.
And then I realized there wasan opportunity to actually be
stationed in Miami, which isvery uncommon.
There's not a lot of Marinesthere.
I didn't even know there was abase in Miami.

(17:07):
It's not like a real base, it'slike a headquarters, so there's
actually more federalcontractors or federal employees
and contractors than actualmilitary personnel.
But I was able to finaglemyself an assignment to Miami.
So now I'm a Miami guystationed in Miami, which is
dangerous right, becauseobviously we follow a different
set of rules as Marines.
So I got to balance being aMiami guy.

(17:29):
I got to balance being backaround all my family and friends
, and still my military serviceand, of course, to make things
complex, I'm a guy who's gotyeah, a husband and a father too
.
And then, yeah, all those thingsstarted to happen after that,
the sequence of that started tohappen there.
And so then I got to Miami andthey said, alex, you have two
options.
You can be part of the Columbia, and I was single at this time.

(17:51):
Right, I was single at the time.
So my wife and I we didn't staytogether the whole time, we had
some separation.

And then we got back together.

So I get to Miami, I'm a bachelor, and I'm a
bachelor, and they say you havetwo options.
One is you can go be on theColumbia team, which means
you're going to go to Bogota for90 days and then come back for
90 days, just over and over.
And I'm like, oh man, thatsounds great.
And then they said, well, theother alternative I ended up
choosing is in thecounterterrorism team.
I said, well, tell me whatthat's like.

(18:25):
He's like.
Well, you're going to be here.
I said, man, I gotta go toschool, I have to get my
education.
I said so.
I said fuck bogota, I'm goingto school.
And I still look back at that.
I'm like man, it probably wouldhave been pretty cool but but
who knows, you know, maybe Iwould have been married might
have been walking away withsomething more than you
bargained for so.
So I went to school full-timeman.
I I worked from like 6 am to 2pm because I worked.
By the time I got out I wouldrun to school.

(18:47):
I would arrive at the MiamiDade College, I would work out,
I would run, I would swim andthen I'd go to class all night
and you'd have to be in yourfatigues right.
No, no, no.
Once I'm off work and go toschool, I'm like a regular
person.
But I'm like a regular person.
But I was older is the point.
I was an older guy who realizedlike, hey, it's never too late
to get your education done, andfor me especially, I'm taking

(19:09):
advantage of the militaryeducational benefits, so I'd go
do that every night.
I finished my associate sotwo-year degree at Miami Dade
while I was stationed in Miami,so didn't get to enjoy Bogota.

Got my schooling done.

And then I applied for a program where you know
thousands of people apply formaybe a few hundred slots to get
to go become an officer, whichmeans they'll let you go finish
school.
So I was selected for thatprogram and I went to Florida
State, finished my two years ofschool, but again, like I was
telling him earlier, I'mwondering why you didn't go to
UM.

I know it's a private, it's probably,
but does the military programstill cover to UM?
I know it's a private, it'sprobably, but does the military
program still cover the UM.
I mean because I mean Well.

So the thing is, I had to go to a school that had
a naval ROTC program Because yes, I know you were in the.
Marines?
Yeah Well, because they're theones that facilitate the program
and getting you to officercandidate school and all that
kind of stuff.
So that's like the onestipulation, but I like the one

(20:07):
stipulation but I could havewent to Harvard.

I don't think I was going to get
in, but I could have went toHarvard, like that was a program
, that was a school that was inthat program and military paid
for all of it.

right, you didn't have to spend any money, man.
No dollar, no books, no,nothing, nothing.
Wow, I was a full-time.

Marine .
I mean, you did give years ofyour life away.
I paid, yeah, I paid with.

I paid for that through my time and my sacrifice
to going to these places.
But you know, that was the.
I mean, I took advantage ofevery single benefit that I
could get out of the Marines,you know, and they took
advantage of my ass too.
So we're even I walked out withan even, you know, with clean
bill of health there.
And so, yeah, man, I got to goto school and then, right after

(20:42):
that, I got a master's degree infrom fiu, which is in miami and
then later on, and what may Iask, business?

so I got an mb.
Oh yeah, businessadministration, you had to go.
Did you have to go to floridastate physically, or was it yeah
?

I was there.
Oh yeah, I lived in tallahassee.
Oh, you live in tallahassee.
Oh yeah, so you?

weren't the.
So you got your bachelor'sthere and then you got your m in
FIU.
Yep, okay, gotcha.
You went to three differentschools.

Yeah, and then again.
So then you know, fast forward.
So I did some time as anofficer and they're deciding,
hey, it's time for me to get outand move on and start up a real
job, as they say.
And I ended up in Detroit,which was incredible.
And I think what I'll sharewith you about that story is I
have a brother that passed awayand he lived in Michigan and him

(21:25):
and I had kind of an estrangedrelationship.
Just you know, we kind oflifestyles were different and
didn't see eye to eye on certainthings.
Well, I had these opportunities, post-military, to go all over.
Most of these roles were likein New York, you know, finance
roles in New York, I mean allthese really cool companies,
different locations.
But I ended up with this healthcare company called davida

(21:51):
dialysis company in detroit, andso, of all places I ended up in
detroit, I got to go be with mybrother, kind of patch things
up with him, and then only a fewmonths later he would pass away
oh, but I look at that as likeit's divine intervention, man so
liketo your earlier point, there was
a reason why you didn't go tothe Marines.
There's a reason for every stepof our life man is every step,
every hair on our head iscounted and I'm a firm believer
of that.
That moment for me, I think,was and I've always had a strong

(22:14):
faith.
I think for me, religion is oneof those things where I kind of
go up and down on religion, butfaith, my faith, has never been
stronger than what was probablythe biggest tragedy that I've
ever experienced right, which isto lose my brother.
And you know, I look at thatand say, man, there still has to
be a positive to that, and thepositive, of course, was, after

(22:34):
all the places I've lived andthen all the places I could have
ended up, I ended up there andwe patched things up.

That's a great story, you know like
when it comes to the end of itand, like you said, you know
divine intervention.
You never know what the nobodycan really write their destiny.
They can only try to move.
You know pieces, but greatstory.
We got the Alex Delgado storyfucking hitting hard and when we
get back with happy hourholidays we'll continue the Alex

(23:01):
Delgado story.

It's the Tito's.
You know, we'll continue theAlex Delgado story.

It's the Tito's.
You know We'll be right back.
All right guys, we're back withHappy Hour Holidays.
Just appreciate everybodytuning in and listening to us.
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We got Alex Delgado in thestudio today.
He's sharing an awesome story.
We got the resume, sean Fabre,here.
And so, alex, we left off rightwhen you get to Detroit.
Yeah, and so, alex, we left offright when you get to detroit

(23:27):
yeah, we felt like divineintervention.

That's what you had said.
Your brother had just passed.

Yeah, yeah you got a good chance to
make amends, which feels goodyou know, because I mean, you
know, with family we're bloodbut at the same time, you know
you want to make sure that Ifeel like it sucks to have a
barrier between siblings yeah ohyeah, I mean, it's like,
especially in a spanish family,I feel like it sucks to have a
barrier in between siblings.

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

I mean it's like, especially in a
Spanish family, I feel like youknow that when, when you're not
getting along with a sibling, itkind of takes a little bit of a
toll, especially if it's like apsychotic sister or something
like that.
You guys have one of thosespeaking from experience for,
like her and I didn't speak forlike a year and a half, oh yeah,
that's tough, yeah, yeah, andthen, uh, her kids would always

(24:08):
where's uncle Sean, where'suncle Sean?

Yeah yeah, you know, I, I definitely I mean
we're speaking now.
Yeah, that's good that's it andthat exists in every family.
That exists in every family andthat's, and and I think you go
through these ebbs and flows ofall that stuff.
I think what I took away fromthat is like and you just never
know when your day is my brotherpassed away when he was 36
years old.
Was it what was?
Was it natural cause?

yeah, yeah, I mean, you know uh yeah,
something like that you know was.

it was just one of those scenarios, man you don't
think it's going to happen toyou.
I don't think it's going tohappen to you.
Somebody you know and man, heretoday, gone tomorrow, right
here today, gone tomorrow.
So you, you, you have to like,if your relationship there's
friction in it, find a way tocome and create some kind of
happy medium, because it's notworth it, right?

(24:55):
It ain't worth it to to havethat animosity linger and, and
just you know, hold on to thosegrudges you think what is it?

would you put that same thing with
friends too, or would you sayit's just?
Like friends you get rid ofpretty easily.

Yeah I think, friends especially if they're
toxic if they're good friendsand of, and the relationship is
worth repairing.
Yes, I do think one of thethings that I stress a lot is
there's people in your life youhave to do like I've heard
somebody say I love the term,it's a friendventory.
A friendventory.
At a certain point you have tostart saying is this a person
that I need in my life?
And sometimes, unfortunately,you got to kind of like move on

(25:31):
from certain people and that'snot like hey, does this person
add value to my life?
Like I need something from him.
But is this person bringing medown?
Is this person putting me atrisk?
Is this person you know onlygood to be around to do things
that I shouldn't be doing orshouldn't be around?
Or perhaps is just going to getme in trouble, right?
So at a certain point you dohave to be very strategic with

(25:52):
who you spend your time with.

I agree with that.
I mean, I got rid of a shit tonof friends when we started this
company and I mean honestly Idon't speak to anybody, but like
more than this many people ahandful of friends.

Yeah, yeah, I think you have to keep your
circle close, you know.
That's not to say that youdon't want to make acquaintances
.

Yeah, you want to meet people.

You want to have associates, you want to have a
good time.
You know, let's get a beer withthis person, go hang out with
that person, whatever.
But like the the people thatyou're going to go to for advice
or that you're going to talk toabout your you know areas where
you're struggling.
You can't open that up to acommittee, right like you can't
have a ton of people that thatare involved because you're
going to start to.
You know you're going to get.
You're going to get to.
You know you're going to getbad advice.
Yeah, you know you're going toget bad advice.

I feel like you always need to get
advice from people who've eitherbeen through it or where you
want to be.
Yeah, it's really good too.
So then you're in Chicago.

No, detroit, detroit, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry.

You're in Detroit.
What are you doing in Detroitagain?

So I worked for a healthcare company called DaVita
and I was oh, so you're out ofthe Marines?
Yeah, I'm out of Marines.
Oh, I was still in the reserves.
So I did finish up my timethere in the reserves and I was
supporting the Marine Corpsrecruiting district in the
Detroit area as a reservist.
And now I'm working inhealthcare and of course people
are like I don't get it.
How are you in healthcare?
Did you do healthcare stuff inthe Marines?

I'm like no, I was.
I was a leader.
I lead people, I lead process,I lead and.

I, and I'm an action oriented person who gets
results.
What's that?
No, no, no, I'm general managerover like a bunch of different
healthcare clinics, oh yeah, somy responsibility again is full
PNL, like profit and loss,responsibility over these
clinics, business development,hr.
You know, there's just anelement of all the you know all
of general managementresponsibilities in this role.

(27:42):
And then I've done that indifferent settings throughout
the country.
And again, well, people say well, how does this make sense if
you were a Marine for so long?
Like, because I've had to leadpeople, I have to.
At the end of the day, I'm nota nurse, I'm not a doctor, I'm
not.
I'm not a nurse, I'm not adoctor, I'm not any of these
things.
But you have an MBA.
I have an MBA, but what I haveis the ability to sit down and
say we need to get to this end,state All right, and the way

(28:07):
that in which we're trying toget there now is not working.
What's a better way?
Well, usually it's a veryobvious answer, but a lot of
times people just don't want to.
They don't want to go that way.
Maybe it deviates from thestatus quo and that's a little
bit harder.
So my job is to figure out.
Okay, so how do I create theleast amount of friction to get
to the end state, or at leastget as close to that end state
as possible?
And that's that's been my kindof my life's work really.

(28:30):
I mean, just get, get people todo something they probably know
they need to do, but they won'tdo it unless somebody's holding
them accountable to it orshowing them the best way to get
there.
And you did that for nine years, right, I've been doing that.
Well, I'd say I would say I'dbeen doing that for 25 years
because I had to do that as aMarine too, yeah.
Now now, in terms of just my, myrole now healthcare executive.

(28:51):
Yeah, it's been about nineyears that I've been in that
type of role and you're still init, right, still in it.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep,still still I'm so.
So I'm a healthcare executivewho was an entrepreneur, who was
an author trying to get intomotivational speaking.

I'm a runner.

I'm a fitness enthusiast.
I mean, I got a milliondifferent hats.

Yeah, let's talk about the cause.
I've authored a book.
I have it out on Kindle andAudible.
What made you want to do that?
What made you want cause?
I'm pretty sure this was allfair, that you were talking
about this, right?
Yeah?

What made you want to do that?
Because I wanted to live alifestyle that is a little bit
different and a little bit moregrand than what the Marine Corps
lifestyle provides.
So I've always wanted to kindof exceed that in that realm.
And so as I've progressedthrough life, I've said man,
I've always got to havesomething else to help
supplement my income, supplementmy lifestyle.

(29:50):
And at one point I was againlistening to this guy talk who's
really, really bright, and hesaid man, myron Golden, I think
he's a Tampa guy.
Myron Golden, yeah, he's aTampa guy.

He lives in.

Tampa yeah.

We need to get him on Myron, if you
look at this.

He's got his own platform.
He's doing great things andlistening to him talk to me, I
was really inspired and in andhe and in one I was in the gym
listening to him talk and hesays you have to find ways to
make, to create revenue streamsthat are that are creating
income in your sleep passive,passive income.
Picks up a book, he goes I makeabout thirty thousand dollars
off this book, he goes, which ispeanuts.

(30:28):
This guy's a multi-millionaire,he says, but what this book has
created is other opportunitiessuch as speaking engagements,
content creation, all all thesedifferent things that just
continue to drive revenue forhim.
And I'm like I'm going to writea book.
And that was it.
So I attribute the idea solelyto him and I said I'm going to

(30:48):
do this book.
And so I again started theprocess of figuring out what
does it take to write a book?
Right, and I also viewed it asa challenge for myself.
Like people, look, it's a veryelementary style self-help book.

Yeah, what's it called?

It's called the Four Fs.
Yeah, so I should say the FourFs Seeking Self-Mastery in Faith
, family, fitness and Finances.
And when I thought about, oh,I'm going to write a book, what
should I write about?
Like it just became verynatural to me because I enjoy
self-help books and I was likethese are if somebody applies
some intention to these fourareas, they'll live a good,
balanced life, successful life.
I believe strongly.

(31:25):
So go through that process and,um, you know, what I never knew
about was obviously themarketing of it and how do you
really get this thing off theground and how do you really
promote this thing.
But the idea for the book wasto help me get to a point where
it then turns into speakingopportunities, and so that's
where I'm kind of at right now.
It's like the book is out.
It's on Amazon.

(31:45):
you know, all my friends andfamily have bought it which is
you know now that was the peakof the sales right, and now it's
trying to figure out like howdo we now leverage this book to
create content?
Get out there.
Did you do an Audible for it?
I haven't.

I need to, I need to.
Yeah, yeah, and Audible has alot of facilitators that will.
How long is the book?
How many words?

Oh gosh, I don't know exactly how many words, but
it's like about 200 pages,maybe a little bit less, so
around like 40,000 words, maybesomething like that.

They'll charge you around like $600 to
do that.

And what is that?
So somebody else will read it.

Yeah, somebody else will read it.
I mean, $600 is a small priceto pay.
My book was 50,000 words, itwas a science fiction novel and
I paid $600 and they read theentire thing, provided the audio
files in accordance withAudible.
And the contractors areactually listed on the acxcom
website nice, and peopleactually bid on it.

(32:39):
So they bid to be able torecord.
Yes, yes, and they'll record afive minute sample, 15 minute
sample, and, uh, send it to you.
You listen to them and wheneveryou want the one that you like,
you say okay, then you startnegotiating, then they send a
request for an invoice, you payit.
Two weeks later you got anaudio book and then it's.

(33:00):
Yeah, I need to do that yeah,it's cheap, man.

The funny thing is , I thought I'm like I should
probably, I should probably readit.
That's what I would think too,man.

I thought the same shit, but then
mine's, mine's, you know, mine'sfiction, my science.
I think for him he definitelyyou probably as motivational on
the, but you want to sit thereand because you wrote the book,
you're gonna read your book andyou'll probably tear it apart.
I mean, you're not.
You're not a professionalreader like these guys are.

These guys are voice actors, right, right,
right yeah, because I've I'vetried to even look like
everybody, right, you try tocreate a little bit of content
at home and you could hear, likethe you know the gasp, gasp and
the you know like.
So yeah, that makes sense.
I mean, and that's, and that's.
So.
That's one thing I'll say too,like the, the guy Myron Golden.
What he talks about too is likedon't think you have to do
everything yourself, pay peopleto do it, so so look, I've had

(33:48):
that book out since Septemberand I'm slipping Cause.
Yeah, I wish I would havethought of that.
So thank you for the tip,because I'll go on.
I'll go home and do that todayand think about it.

Do you listen to books when you're
working out?

not, really no, I like to actually read physical
books oh, but you said you wereworking out listening to.

Well, I was listening to like a
podcast oh yeah, he's got like apodcast so then, all the books
that you have read, you'veactually bought the physical
book well, I stopped buyingbooks and I just go to the
library.

Oh, go to the library.
Yeah, yeah, I like, I like tohave the hard book in my hand.

So like when we were, uh, when we
started this company, we werereading a lot of books, but we
weren't reading the books, wewere buying them on audible and
listening to them on the cardrives.
So I mean, if you're in a car,say, 16 hours, it's only going

(34:37):
to take you four days to consumeall that knowledge while you're
driving?
Yeah, because most peoplethey'll listen to podcasts or
they'll listen to which alwayslisten to podcasts, especially
happy hour holidays yeah, that'sright, especially this episode,
um, but I mean, you don'treally have time to read outside
of driving.
So audiobooks, in my opinion, isthe best and most efficient way
to consume.
Knowledge depends how you learnyeah, I like I like to read.

Some people aren't audio like, even when I'm like
on, like if I have like a bigproject, I like to print stuff
out, pencil it, you know, likereally like see it and touch it.
But reading for me is alsoleisure, so I'm I'm usually
reading about two books at atime.
One will be for like, like, uh,like a self-help, true

(35:18):
self-help, and then another willbe like a notable memoir, like
a biography or something likethat.
Like, I like to read about veryimportant people, successful
people.
I like to hear their stories,right what's your favorite one
so far?
um gosh, that's a good question,one that is john d rockefeller.
They're andrew carnegie thoseare good.

I have not read those.

Uh, there's a good question, one that is john d
rockefeller.
There's a recording.
Those are good.
I have not read those.
Uh, there's a guy named richroll which has podcasters.
You guys should check him out.
Rich roll, he wrote a bookcalled finding ultra and he was
a successful, uh, swimmersuccessful parents, goes off to
college, becomes an, analcoholic and then he realizes

(35:56):
he's you know, struggles withaddiction, struggles with
alcoholism, and he turns hislife around and becomes this
ultra marathon runner.
He did a race that was like atriathlon and all five of the
islands of Hawaii in five daysand the guy's a total beast and
so his story was prettyincredible and he's got a really
good podcast.
I would definitely check hispodcast out.

(36:17):
Really good stuff.
He's got like really goodguests on there, so his book was
really good and I mean everyone of these books you pull
something out of it.
You know, that's the one thingtoo.
Like one thing, if anything.
One thing Usually it's onething per book it's the one
thing that you can pull out ofthat book.
That's the one thing that youcan pull out of that book.
And again, like I read a bookrecently.
It was called oh God, what wasit called?

(36:39):
How to Invest, and I wouldrecommend everybody to read that
book.
Who's the author?
Rubenstein, david Rubenstein.
And the funny thing is, this isgenius.
The whole book is thetranscript of podcast interviews
.
No way the best podcastinterviews that he's done,
depending on what that type ofinvestment is.

(37:00):
So, for example, he's got areal estate guy, he's got a
crypto guy, he's got every formof investment that you can think
of.
He took the champion of thatand basically transcribed the
interview and turned it into abook.

That's fucking genius.

And yeah, and so by reading that book, so he
didn't actually have to writeanything, no, no, basically, and
it's an amazing book and, again, depending on what your
financial literacy level is, itstill just opens up a new idea,
right, it makes you think ofinvesting differently and I
think that's one of the areaswhere I don't talk so much about
the investing part.
So when I talk about and allthe content I create, talk about

(37:36):
the four Fs, I think I hone ina lot on the fitness piece.
What are the four Fs?
Faith, family, fitness andfinances.
And it's in that sequence onpurpose, right, you got to get
your faith on point first.
So God first.
That's how I believe.
Like I've even gotten to thepoint where my habit in the
morning is I pray.
The minute I open my eyes and Iget, and the first thing I

(37:58):
listen to is like a prayer,right.
So I and I don't check mysocial media and I and I could
be like man, I'm waiting forthis guy to write back to me and
I will not look at it until Ilisten to that prayer.
And that's a way for me to justbe grateful and say God, I'm
going to give you my attentionfirst, and then there's moments
where I'm like man, I want tospread it over man, I want to
read that email, you know, but Igot to give, I got to give it

(38:19):
to God.
First, right, and then family.
Of course, you have to get yourfamily on point, and you know,
you, you, you will struggle inthe other areas if you can't get
your family life right.
Fitness, I think, then, isthat's that's on you, right,
like it's up to you to determinewhat your fitness levels are
going to be and your health andall that stuff.
And then the finance piece.
What I'm trying to reallypromote is finance and financial

(38:44):
literacy, and investing is notexclusive to people who are
already financially literate andinvesting Anybody can do it.
And in this day and age, thetechnology exists, the apps
exist, the literature exists Togo out and do something.
That's really what I'm tryingto promote.
I'm not trying to promote thisbizarre idea.
I don't get on here and talkabout these crazy money-making

(39:06):
schemes or anything like that.
It's like just do something andfind what works for you, find
the advice, find the person whocan coach you.
You just gave me a hell of atip.
Pay somebody to do that If youdon't know how to do something,
pay somebody.
You can pay somebody $100 anhour to teach you.
Hey, what should I invest mymoney in?

(39:27):
So you know it's out there.
So for all the people, thatwant to see self-improvement,
seek self-mastery.
like I say, it's out there andthey can find it in the 4F.

They can find it in the 4Fs.
Did you use your full name asthe author?
How can they find it on?
Is it on Kindle?
It's, it is if it's on, if it'son Amazon, it's on Kindle.

Yeah, I had to think about that because it's,
it's not, it's only on.
Can they order a?

Sean Febre & Manny Fe (39:48):
paperback Yep, yeah, they can also, and
it's been published sinceSeptember 27th, 28th, yeah, 28th
whenever it is, it came outjust a little after that, but
yeah.
As the journey goes on.

(40:11):
Alex, you made this anotherbusiness, the laser hair removal
, which is huge, I mean,especially for us guys over here
that look like gorillas.
I could probably grow fuckinghair all the way around my damn
eyes, but I already do.

How did you end fucking hair all the way?

around my damn eyes, but I already do.
How, how, how did you end upgetting into the laser hair
removal business or the industry?

Yeah, so.
So again, my my nine to fiveprofessional job has been
healthcare and managinghealthcare locations all over
the country, and so I'veobviously seen that that's an
extremely lucrative business.
But of course, I'm not a doctor, right, I'm part of the
business side of medicine and Iknew that, as I wanted to

(40:51):
continue down thisentrepreneurial path, that I've
also matured right.
So I wanted to go down a moreviable business and I realized,
when I started looking intoperhaps purchasing like
healthcare practices and tryingto roll them up, I was like
that's something that wasoutside of what I could truly
afford on my own, likefranchises and stuff Like you do

(41:12):
physical therapy, you'd besurprised.
There are doctors in any settingthat are selling their
practices right.
So what I envisioned was findthese practices, roll them up,
and now you've got multiplepractices rolled under one
umbrella, very expensive, verycomplicated, and so I said, well

(41:32):
gosh, how can I do somethingthat's similar but a lot more
kind of like cost effective?
Something that's within theballpark for what I can afford
and my wife had a passion forlaser hair removal because she
had done.
She had started doing that inMichigan when we lived up there
and she's been up.
You know what is it like?
The I'm not only a president,but I'm a client.
She's one of those, and so wesaid, man, this, she was so

(41:56):
passionate about the device.
The laser that we use is calledthe Alma Alma Soprano, is
called the alma alma soprano,and she's like this, is it like?

this machine is like the golden goose
, right.
Well, it's got soprano.
It's the gold standard.

Yeah, the gold standard I said all right, well,
let's, let's figure this wholething out.

So did you buy a franchise, or just no
, no we bought the machine.

We started our own business within like a week.
We were like, let's go, like wejust freaking move forward to
also rent a space, I'm assuming.
So we rented a space.
It's in Oldsmore, right, it'sin Oldsmore.

What's it called?

It's called Soft Touch Laser Hair Removal.
It's inside of Salon Lofts,which is right on Tampa Road,
and we have our little spotthere and we're basically open
six days a week, you know,mostly by appointment only, and
we've done great.
We're just about to hit the oneyear mark with the business.
Again, she's the face of thecompany.
She's kicking ass.
If you see her social media,she's, you know, doing some

(42:51):
really, really funny, inspiringthings and just really created
this awesome network.
I'm so proud of her because mywife has always been always a
very personable person, ofcourse, but a little bit bit
introverted, and this hastotally taken her out of her
shell.
She's networking with otherentrepreneurs.
She's networking with otherbusiness owners a lot of just
female business owners and a lotin the kind of the beauty and

(43:13):
the aesthetics industry andpeople are coming from all over
the place to come see her, youknow.
So it's.
It's really been a neatopportunity to watch her really
blossom and grow, and the coolthing is like this business is
all about her.
Most of the things that we'vedone in the past has been
centered around me my crazyideas or whatever and this is
like.
This is like her baby.

So what would you attribute the
majority of her?
The success for that laser hairremoval business.

I think it's her outreach.
You know she's-.

Is she in like BNI groups and stuff
like that?
No, she's like.
She says she's networking a lot, she's going to a lot of these
female networking events, notlike a BNI.

I'm familiar with BNI, but nothing like that,
which I don't like BNI, by theway.

No, I mean, I think there's some value
to that.

But I think, yeah, at a certain point you kind of
you get diminishing returns onthat, but she's just meeting
people of all walks of lifeshe's got.
You know she created apartnership with the Bucks
cheerleaders USF dance team, usfcheerleaders softball teams, I
mean you name it.

So is she like targeting mainly women?

Oh, yeah, basically, oh okay, yeah,
basically.
I mean, you know, if you lookedat like the patient or client
breakdown is like 99 to 1 womento to to males, really females.

Yeah, yeah, really, there's a guy out
there with the back hair and allthat shit, but so that's where
she's this.

She's smart, so she's now creating almost like
this new brand that's just goingtowards men, because you know,
men, I mean, look at our lessinclined yeah, we, we need it,
but we're like less inclined todo self-care and our you know,
our, our, you know.
Routines are a little bitdifferently, but I mean there is
, there are men coming in.
I mean we're shooting contentto attract male clients.

(44:52):
Um, and we've got, you know, wegot male clients coming in all
the time I am one.
Yeah, oh yeah I've done my backI've done my neck, yeah, so.

So basically, could you do a
permanent edge?
Yeah?
So like, like the way I'm edgedup right now everything else
and then I never have to get anedge ever again.
Yes, and how many treatments?

Everybody's different.
Okay, every body part isdifferent.
How thick your follicles are.
Yeah, it's like six to eighttreatments typically, but you're
going to definitely see resultsafter the first one.

And I'm sure prices vary.
But what is the range?
It's probably dependent on area, right?

yeah, depending on area, so anywhere from like 100
to like 600, yeah, per session.
Per session, yeah.
And then you know you there'spackages and you know stuff like
that.

But right now.
I gotta you know and I gottatell my barber hey, listen, I
don't need a haircut, no more.
Yeah no well, maybe a haircut,but not an edge yeah, yeah, I
mean, it's it.

There are, like I said, I've done the this part of
my neck that I haven't shavedin.
I can't even remember when thelast time I shaved and if not,
I'm prone to like yeah, I getthe rash and razor burn and all
that stuff.

Yeah, no, that's the way.
I am too man With the Spanishpart of it.
That was one thing that I wasalways self-conscious about.
I was like when I got a highscore, I was like, man, I really
want to get the laser hairremoval so I don't have to deal
with any of the hair.
But I think I was selfinflicted because my mom was
like you know it wasbodybuilding, so it's like I'll

(46:25):
shave whatever half and then,all of a sudden, you start
learning that women actuallydon't mind hair.

Yeah, yeah, you know what it's like, everything
right, it's like everybody's gottheir own preferences, it's all
different.
It's all different I don'tthink anybody likes back hair.
No, I can't say that.
No, I can't say any woman goes,damn, I like that guy's back.

No, no , that's 100 all right, when we
get back with Happy HourHolidays, we'll continue with
Alex Delgado.
Man Really appreciate himcoming on and sharing his story.
We'll be right back.
Make sure you like, comment andsubscribe on Facebook,
instagram and everything else wegot.
We appreciate all our fans andall our people out there.
We'll be right back, all rightguys, and we're back with Happy

(47:05):
Hour Holidays here with alexdelgado.
You know, one of the biggestthings of the four f's was
fitness and obviously you're avery fit guy, you know and, uh,
what got you?
Obviously the marine corps issomething that you have to be
fit for.
There's no, there's no nfsabout it.
You got to be able to be, uh,carrying some heavy ass book
bags.
I know that for sure you know,like 80 pounds.

Yeah, it could be pretty heavy yeah so what got
you?

what what like oriented you from the
beginning into fitness.

So I've always been an active kid, right.
My whole life I was an activekid.
And then, of course, the MarineCorps demands it of you, right?
So that's not something you dofor leisure, it's demanded of
you, it's part of the jobdescription is you can't be in
this club unless you're intofitness and you maintain a
certain level of fitness.
And then after getting out ofthe Marine Corps, of course I

(47:49):
was always a pretty activeperson, still worked out, maybe
ran a little bit here and there,but I really started to take it
serious within the last fewyears, like really really just
being more disciplined about myruns and my workouts and then
also my nutrition, right,because that's where the most
important, especially at my age,it's your nutrition.
Now, I still love pizza, I loveburgers, I love beer, right,

(48:11):
but I gotta be like everythingin moderation, right.
So that's something that isimportant to me and I really.
The way I started getting intorunning all these races that I
run was with a big group ofMarine buddies of mine that we
were all friends.
We're all hispanic from that.
We were all stationed in hawaiitogether and um said hey, we're
gonna have a reunion, but it'sgonna be in our, we're gonna do

(48:32):
a race as well.
And so I did my first halfmarathon in nashville with these
guys and I had only once ranany.
You know that, that length ofdistance which is 13, 13.1 miles
, and I was like you know what,if that length of distance which
is 13, 13.1 miles, and I waslike you know what, if I can run
a half marathon, I'm just goingto keep training and I'm going
to run a full marathon.
And so my first full marathonwas the Clearwater marathon.
It was hard as hell, hardestthing I've ever done.

(48:53):
And then I've just gotten intorunning all these different
races and I just finished mythird marathon.
Uh, about two or three weeksago, it was the Coast Guard
Marathon.
So I've done the Marine CorpsMarathon, now the Coast Guard
Marathon.
A lot of swimming on that one.

Huh, no, no swimming, no, swimming,
no, no, it's all right.
That's an Ironman.
Yeah, you're thinking of anIronman.

So I'm trying to complete this.
It's called the Armed ForcesSeries Challenge, which is
Marine Corps Marathon, CoastGuard Marathon, the Air Force
Marathon, which I'm going to runin September, and then there's
the Army 10 miler is inWashington DC, and then the
Space Force 10 miler.
If you complete all those,you're like oh, you did all the
military races.
So I don't know why the Navydoesn't have one.

So you're training through like in
different, or what's yourtraining regimen Like?
Are you running like five milesa day?

So every day is different, right?
I work out probably about fourto five days a week and I run
probably about three to fourmaybe, sometimes five days.

Are you doing that on like the
treadmill, or are?

you actually going out?
I just go out and I run outsidein my neighborhood.
So cool thing is, and I'llsegue into I'm trying to start a
running club by my house.
It's the Oldsmar Running Club.
I I, you know running club.

I I, you know I think what is the
first step to?

starting a business is go get the logo done
.
So I got the logo, got theInstagram page and now I need to
find the actual runners and uh,so trying to figure out ways to
make it.
You know a neat way for peopleto socialize come and do
something healthy and then, ofcourse, you know, you crack a
beer after and, uh, you know,just just network and mingle
right.

Are you ultimately trying to make
money from that?

No, not at all, no .
So what I want to do with theOldsmar Running Club is use this
as a way to raise money for mylocal charity, which is Oldsmar
Cares.
Right, and so I don't have anydirect connection to them at all
, but I view it as an easy wayto say hey, let's get together,
we'll do something fun.
We, let's get together, we'lldo something fun, we'll do
something healthy, and there'ssome charity involved.

And it would make sense to like, maybe
partner with, say, a brewery.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that's what we're trying todo.
We're trying to figure out, youknow, different, different kind
of sponsors, partners.
We're in conversation withTampa Bay Brewing Company, which
you know very early stages,right, there's no, no real
commitment there, but that'ssomething that I envision Like,
like.
So what I tell you about myruns is those give me the time
to come up with my best ideasand you're just out there,

(51:13):
you're by yourself, you'rethinking, you're I pray, I
sometimes cry.
Man, I'll sometimes be outthere crying while I'm running,
right, cause I think of you knowthe things with my brother or
just life in general.
Man, that's, that's my outlet,right, and uh, so I've got this
vision.
If you're familiar with theOldsmar area, right, this is a
beautiful trail and I run thattrail every week, right?

I'm on there, philippe Park.

No, no, it's just the old, it's called the Oldsmar
Trail and it's where theMicrolumen headquarters is.
That's a medical tubing companybased out of Oldsmar, and so
I'm trying to kind of partnerwith them and their employees
and say this is like a fit, youknow, like a fitness activity,
wellness activity for theiremployees to come out one night
a week, come out, run a coupleof miles and then socialize

(51:51):
after and um.
So yeah, the vision was to tryto like create something with
the Tampa Bay Brewing Company,cause they're right around the
corner.
So, yeah, try to figure it allout.
You know, like anything right,it's, it's, you know, like
anything right.
I don't have a ton of hobbiesother than running, being a dad,
an entrepreneur, you know, anauthor, all that stuff, a
husband, and I view this as likethis would be a cool hobby and

(52:11):
I think it could have a goodpurpose, right, it could have a
good mission and help people andI think just get people out.

So that, like essentially, what
you're describing is somethingthat you can organize on
meetupcom.

Have you heard of meetupcom?
I have.

I haven't used it in a long time,
but yeah, it sounds like I couldprobably definitely use.
So I was uh out in uh new tampauh probably while I live out
there.
But I was at p bodies and I'mshooting pool with a buddy of
mine and all these people comeup and they're all wearing a
name tag with their name on it.
I'm like what the is this?
oh yeah, we organized this for,uh, people that want to meet up
and talk about.
It was like I don't know, Ithink dungeons and dragons or

(52:51):
something like that but therewas like a good 60 people there
and they were just meeting up totalk about dungeons and dragons
or whatever game it was.
I mean, this is a good avenue.
I know, I thought that websitewas dead but apparently people
still use it.
It could be a good avenue, uh,for you to organize runners in
that area.
Now, being from tampa, I knowoldsmart is kind of a place para

(53:15):
los viejitos yeah, it's alittle sleepy town.
Yeah, a little sleepy town Imean like yeah, I mean getting
fit runners to run.
How long is the Old Smart?

Trail Depends right, but it's not that long.
It just depends, where yourstarting point is, but I
envision a three-mile run.

Oh, that's not bad.
Here's what I'll say.
Is that a 2K?

That's like a 5K.

A 5K.
Yeah, yeah, that's it, huh.

Yeah, it's a short run.
I mean that.
That, I think, is what mostpeople, a lot of people in this
day and age, that's about.
That's about their max.

Because they'll do a 5k, like I don't
know if you remember like theyhad a 5k for the old Gandy
bridge before they tore it downand or the new bridge that they
no, it was the Crosstown andthey had a 5k run there.
Like, when you're enteringthese competitions, are you
trying to like place first orwhat are?

(54:07):
You typically placing.

So I'm typically trying to place this is how
funny right.
I'm typically trying to placein the top 10% of my age group.
So I know I'm not going to themarathon and winning it.
That is not happening.
And in marathons I'm notplacing even in my age group,
because that's a hard race andyou have that.
Like, my age is one of thefastest ages at this point for

(54:32):
runners.

What is your age?
Because you have a much.
I'm 43.

Yeah, I'm 43.
So the 40 to 44, a lot of timesthose are the winners of the
races.
That's when these people havereached their peak, yeah.
So in those marathons, likewhat's their time looking like?
I mean they're doing it in liketwo hours, two, and some change
hours.
What are you doing?
I'm doing it like four hours.

Holy fuck.
Four and some change hours.
Yeah, there's a huge difference.
You're telling me like thesepeople are twice as fast.

Yes, 100%.
And I'm not even like ashamedof it.
I'm league.
I don't I don't aspire to.
Of course I always want toimprove on my runtime or
anything like that, but for themost part it's like I'm
competing as myself.
Yeah, you know I'm competing asmyself.
Nobody knows me, nobody.
You know you get to these racesand you know you might run into
people that you've oh, I ranthis race, I saw you last time,

(55:16):
or whatever, but it's, nobodygives a shit.
Nobody cares what your fuckingruntime is.
They, they, they.
They go there like we all do.

We can get the picture, get the
t-shirt walk away with a medaland you get one free beer at
every race.

That's what it's all about.
For me, it's a fun atmosphere.
If you've never been to theGasparilla races, I've done
those now three years in a row.
Man, it's a party vibe.
It's a party vibe, yeah.

It's a party vibe, yeah, yeah, so it's
really fun.
A lot of people I'm alwaystrying to drag my A lot of
chit-chat, you know people arethrowing no, not that type of
Gasparilla.

The Gasparilla race is separate from all that
stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was joking, yeah,
yeah.

But it's a fun atmosphere and again so for me,
what I'm trying to create in toOsmo is bring people together.
You know, of course you'regoing to run into scenarios
where is there ways to promoteyour business, like maybe we can
promote our laser hair removal?
Yeah, sure, of course.
Is that the main goal?

(56:12):
Nah, yeah.

Well, it's networking.
I mean networking is fun.

It's you know it'll be.
It'll be interesting to seethat I bet you I'm going to
struggle with.
On the first run the onlyperson who's to be there is my
wife, and then maybe on the nexttime it'll be somebody else and
hopefully it'll grow.
But like these running clubshave grown, I mean, and you're
seeing, look, diplo's got oneNoriega, you know the drink
champ himself is.
You know they're doing runclubs and and it's drawing

(56:38):
people in that wouldn't havedone it otherwise.
I mean, I took my son to arunning club race not a race,
but a run at the Tampa BayBuccaneers training facility.
They brought a football player,one of the football players I
don't remember who it was, butthere was.
There was easily a few hundredpeople there.

Oh shit, I mean I seen them at Hyde
Park Cafe.
I mean I saw a whole, a wholegroup of people just finished
running and go to eitherMaloney's, I think, right there
on the corner and they all had abeer afterwards and you're
talking about, I mean that's, Imean for tampa bay brewing.
I mean the bigger it gets, Imean that's a lot of good
business there no, it's a highpark.

Oh, high park.

I was like yeah running from the
casino all the way.

Yeah, so it's.
I just view it as like a neatway to connect to the community,
to to get people out.
You know, like I think whatwe're and this is where it's
it's interesting to try to tocreate like a like a persona on
social media, which is what I'mtrying to do to to grow my

(57:40):
impact and influence on theworld and while still telling
people, like, get off yourfucking phone, right, but you
use that.
So there are some advantagesand positive, you know,
obviously advantages to socialmedia and the phones Like man,
people are spending so much timeon that they're not getting
outside and actually beingconnected, right, so like we're
in a connected world but we'resuper disconnected.

(58:01):
We're on social media but we'reantisocial.
Like we just I want to use thisas a way to like bring people
together in person so they caninteract.
Now, of course, they're goingto take pictures, selfies,
post-it, whatever, and the wayyou get the word out is through
social media, but I think thisis just another way to like try
to get people out of the house,man.

And I think one of the biggest things
that you said, alex, is likefitness.
When it comes to it, I mean,when I'm sitting in the sauna I
get up four, 15 in the morning,I go.
Obviously the biggest problemwith me is beer, so I'm not like
really on the diet part.
I got to get, get on that.
But, um, you know, I get in thein the gym four times a week
and I wake up at four, 15.
I sit in the sauna when I getthere at five and it's a time

(58:42):
for me to really brainstormabout and it's it's not only
about business, it's also areflection on yourself.
Yeah, what are you doing?
What are you doing wrong?
You know it's, it's, it's big,you know that that part of it
and I mean, if you're not outthere doing some kind of fitness
, I think you're missing out onself-reflection, because there
isn't really a lot of time, likeyou said, with your phones I

(59:04):
mean literally any, any littletime that you have to.
You're on your phone and you'renot really reflecting on who
you are and what you're doingwrong in life and what you're
doing right and what you couldbe doing.
And that's another thing thatbrings me back to the
motivational videos is that yousee so many different opinions
on how somebody should be andyou start analyzing what you're

(59:26):
doing on a day-to-day basis andnow you're like, okay, well,
this is where I can improve,this is my personality traits,
where I'm seeing okay, I sawsomething pointed out there that
I am doing, that I can dobetter and it's it's really good
.
I mean, that's why for fitness,you know and I played soccer my
entire life and I blew out myknee twice maybe a little bit of
the reason for the weight gain,but I'm not going to make that

(59:48):
excuse because I could have donebetter.
But either way, I mean I stillgo out there lift weights.
You know I want to do somethingactive, I want to do something
competitive, and that's why Iwent into golf too.
Golf is out there, you're,you're in the middle of nature,
you have birds chirping and it'sjust a very serene moment for
yourself.
And I, you know, I feel like ifyou're not doing something

(01:00:10):
that's active, even walkingaround your neighborhood, that
time of reflection is huge and Ifeel like it improves me as a
person every single day Ahundred percent.
Yeah.

Alex Delgado (01:00:18):
And the, the noticeable, like if you're
having a bad day, you go for awalk, you go for a run, you are
going to feel better.
You may be not a hundredpercent better and maybe you
didn't solve whatever the issuethat was, but you're going to
come back with like, almost likea fresh perspective on it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (01:00:34):
I love it man, I do too.
I feel like every time I leavethe gym and it's seven o'clock,
I'm like everybody's stillsleeping, doing whatever they're
doing or getting ready for work.
I'm like I already accomplishedthis part of the day.
I already accomplished thispart of the day, and I feel like
a whole new person has grown tostart the day, yeah, you know.
So it's something that I feellike for all you listeners out
there, people watching thepodcast, is you know, just do

(01:00:56):
something active because it'llif you can make it a hobby it's
going to be very impactful onyour personal self growth.

Yeah, yeah, I don't do anything physical.

You need to, bro.
No I golf, but I wouldn'tconsider that too physical.
But I mean, being outside isnice.
I mean I just got a dog and Itake it for a run.
I don't run, I sit in the golfcart and I hold a leash and let
the bitch run.
Yeah, yeah, you know what'sworking out this foot right here
.

You know the gas pedal?
Nah, it's.
You know, and this is the thingtoo like there's a million
different things that people cando, you got to find what works
for you.
Yeah, I mean, you know, it'scrazy how many people play
pickleball.

Oh, I know.

Man, that game is no joke.

Talk about a big game that has you
know just like the fastestgrowing game in America yeah.
Oh, growing game in america?
Oh yeah, because I mean you'retalking about how this growing
game, but it's also, uh, youknow, a lot of people play force
.
You know you have like each ineach quadrant, but it's not too,
too impactful.
Or like tennis, where you it'sone.
You know it's a lot of runningthere, but this could be

(01:02:00):
manageable because it's with awiffle ball, so the ball's not
going too far, but at the sametime you're moving.

Yeah, you're, you're getting out there I went
to.
It was like the first time Iwent to.
This is a new pickleball placein in in Oldsmar.
It's in right, right behind theflea market.

I love that flea market.
It's like an open warehouselike a.

You know, I'm sorry.
Like a they they transitionedthis warehouse.

On racetrack.

Mm track, yeah, and it's got like 10 courts
inside, super nice, and I'malways been an athletic guy,
cocky.
I'm like, oh, I can playpickleball.
I played racquetball as a kid.
I played wall ball as a kid I'mgonna show up and and let these
people know what time it isright, and I go and I sign up
because these people take theirscores seriously and they're
ranking all this shit and Idon't really know the rules.
But I'm like I'll figure it outand I show up and I'm like I
signed up to play in theadvanced and I'm like, watch,

(01:02:51):
I'm gonna show these guys thetime.
It's man.
So you then get paired.
Like there's people that showup in pairs so they play
together.
But then you know you mightplay with people you never met.
So I pair up with this one guy,guy and we lost as fast as you
could lose.
And they all three looked at melike get the fuck out of here,
go to the beginners.
Like you ruined our game.

(01:03:12):
You know, I'm like, oh man,sorry, I didn't mean to blow it,
but like I just I wasn't asgood as them.
Yeah, they were awesome and I.
So I took my ass over to thebeginners and played with the
beginners and I whooped alltheir asses so you're right
there in the middle man, I'm inthe middle, but I need to figure
out the rules.
That's the bottom line.

What's like the score too?
I don't know, I figured it outI don't know.
I gotta read or watch a YouTubevideo isn't it just where you
stand in a square and you hit itto the other side?

yeah it ain't rocket science, but it's.
There's still like a scoringsystem.
And again, these people, theyhave like there's an app and
they upload every match theyplay.
And let's say, you and I playagainst each other and your
score is a 4.5 and I'm a 4.5 andI beat you.
So I put that in the app andnow my rank goes up.

That's how we do it with golf too.
It's a gin, yeah, with the gin.
Every time I'm a pretty, I'minto golf, so I mean every score
that I do, I put into my gin.
There you go and I have my.
You know what my handicap is?
And it's big because if you'replaying with people and you're
like I could beat your ass andit's like, all right, how many
strokes am I going to get?
Because this is my handicap,this is your handicap.
But that time I was just likeall right, well, what can I do?

(01:04:25):
Doc, he's like I hope you likeplaying golf because after you
fucked up your knee lab bad.
He's like you're gonna be uhdoing that.
Even that is, it's tough on my,on my uh leg, but I enjoy.
I just want to be competitive,I want to keep getting and
that's, I think, the biggestthing we're working out.
It's not so much as like, hey,I'm doing it to be fit, I want
to be fit, but at the same timeit's just to keep that competing

(01:04:45):
against yourself.
Yeah, competing against myself,but also to get that confidence,
Because you know what Workingout and playing sports and being
competitive that's what keepsyour confidence up and it's good
, you know, because it takes itto the bedroom.
Oh yeah, I already saw that onecoming.
There's no Jen for that.

(01:05:06):
Let me answer my score 20seconds 20 seconds, one minute,
the two minute caliber.

Do you golf at all or no?
So I'm not.
I'm not much of a golfer, but Iwould like.
Yeah, I'm not a golfer, but Iwould like to.
I would like to get moreserious about golf.

I went to Valspar, the other day, for
the first time, it feels likeeverybody in Tampa went to
Valspar and it was one of thebest ones too.

First time ever.
What day did you go?
Super fun, it was Sunday,Saturday.
I think it was Saturday yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny Feb (01:05:36):
Saturday , it must have been packed.

And it was great.
Who did you follow?
I don't, probably.
I probably saw about twominutes worth of golf.

Yeah, yeah.
That's why, like we've been thepast four years and this year I
was just like man I don't wantto fucking go.
Yeah, because you realize it'smore walking than watching.
Yeah, unless you'restrategically placed.
Which shout out to VictorHovland for winning.
I mean, fuck man, he shouldn'thave won JT.
You failed your fans again.

(01:06:11):
You failed your fans again, bro, you always lose.
So, what's next for AlexDelgado?
Now we're talking about thebook.
We're talking about thebusinesses that you've created.
What's next in your story?

I would say I want to see our small business
continue to grow, right.
So multiple locations is theend state for me.
Um, continuing to progress inmy fitness and continue to run
these races.
I want to get more intentionalwith the public speaking right
and using the book as a way topromote that.
And then I want to, I reallywant to take the, the run club

(01:06:47):
and just kind of see that thingtake off.

Yeah, no 100, that's a.
That's good.
And then, obviously, themotivational speaking that one
we definitely want to see,that's exciting.
So for, for everybody out there, we always like to finish off
with final words.
What do you have to tell theaudience?
You know somebody who's inbetween, maybe comfortable with
the, with their maybe nine tofive, and they're really wanting
to break free and show theirfull potential.

(01:07:09):
What do you have to say tothese people that are teetering
on greatness but they're justscared to make that first step?

I would say seek a coach, right.
If you were a golfer or apickleball aspiring pickleball
player like myself, right, andyou wanted to get better, go
find a coach, and there's noshortage of people right now
that can sit down and give you avery tactical plan.
I think very often, you know, Imight speak and talk about
things in general terms, butwhat people need today is a very

(01:07:36):
specific plan, right.

Do you have a?

coach?
I don't have a coach.

I need to take my own advice.
He is the coach I need to takemy own advice.

He is the coach I mean, I'm seeking opportunities
to help, mentor and coach people.
But you're right, yeah, that'sthe way to put me on the spot,
man because I should take my ownadvice.
I need a coach if I want totake myself to the next level.
But that's what I would startwith, right, because I feel like
I've paved a pretty decenttrail on my own.
But, yeah, I might haveplateaued too right.

(01:08:05):
It's time for me to now taketake the my, my own self to the
next level.

So I didn't mean to put you on up,
but you're right though you'reright so, so don't edit that out
, because you're right, you know.

Take your own fucking advice, you know like,
like, but, but I think, for forme, I'm very decisive.
Sometimes, though, it's a it'sa decision that's been brewing
for a long time, and now is Ineeded some certain things to
happen in order to take thatnext step.
I think a lot of people staystuck because they think they
need to go from here to here,and the reality is that you just

(01:08:36):
need to get to here, and if youneed to know how to get there,
a coach is a good way to helpyou get to that spot.
So I would say it's not a lotof money.
A lot of times when people say,oh, you spent all this money on
this, that or the other, Ialways go back to drinking.
How much money did you waste onalcohol this month?
Right, I bet you one round ofdrinks, depending on where you

(01:08:57):
go right, is enough to get yourfoot in the door with that coach
and get that process, get thatconversation started.
So a coach is where I wouldstart.

Yeah and Alex, how can people find
you?
Like, I know you started doingsocial media.
What's your social media handle?
What's the laser hair removal?
What is that handle?
Let's you know.
I want to get all yourbusinesses out there so people
can contact and websites oranything.

My.
My Instagram for all my fitnesscontent and and the coaching
content is at Alex R Delgado.
That's D, e, l, g, a, d O.
The Oldsmar Running Club is atOldsmar Running Club Very, very
new.
Oh yeah, yeah, we got that.
And then for the laser hairremoval, it's at soft this is a
long one, so make sure I saythis right it's at Soft Touch

(01:09:39):
Laser Hair Removal.

That's fantastic.

So pretty simple.

And they got.
And Hair Removal has a website,right.

Correct SoftTouchLaserHairRemovalcom.

And they can book directly through
the website.

Book through the website.
You can book through Instagram.

Pay on the website.

You can pay on the website.
Yep, we take cash, we takeBitcoin.
We take whatever, we'll takewhatever, but yeah, so yeah, you
can find me.
The book is available on amazon, so so go check it out.
And uh, what's the name of thebook?
The four f's seekingself-mastery and faith, family,
fitness and finances.
I love it man.

Thank you so much, alex, for coming in
and uh for happy hour holidaysand sharing your story and you
know, motivating everybody outthere as well.
You know you can.
You can do anything you want,as long as you got a good coach
and you got the want to.

Yes If you don't have the want to get up off for
your ass and find it, you knowso that's the biggest thing, man
.

But you know all the audience out
there, man really appreciateeverybody tuning in to happy
hour holidays.
We're going to continue tobring great guests like Alex
Delgado here that are reallyshaping our industry and also
shaping the way we think aboutlife and how we want to continue
to do self growth to get better.
So thank you guys out there andyou know, keep tuning in, we're
going to keep bringing thatgreat content.

(01:10:55):
Peace out, man.

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S2 E33 | Alex Delgado Beyond the Uniform: A Marine's Journey Through Entrepreneurship

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S2 E33 | Alex Delgado Beyond the Uniform: A Marine's Journey Through Entrepreneurship