In this profound and enlightening episode of the Stuck In My Mind Podcast, host Wize El Jefe welcomes the trailblazing entrepreneur and master storyteller, Jorge Olson, for an in-depth conversation that traverses borders, industries, and the very core of what it means to be resilient, innovative, and authentically driven. Titled “From Tijuana to Wall Street: Jorge Olson on Branding, Capital, and Entrepreneurial Grit,” this episode is not just a window into the highs and lows of startup life, but a masterclass in mindset, storytelling, and the relentless pursuit of creative freedom.
Jorge Olson’s journey reads like a modern hero’s tale. Raised in impoverished conditions in Tijuana, Mexico—without running water or electricity—he grew up surrounded not by business plans, but by art, literature, and philosophy. Jorge shares how these formative years did not teach him about money, but gave him the more foundational qualities required for success: compassion, honesty, hard work, and above all, an insatiable hunger to change his circumstances. He candidly recalls hauling buckets of water as a child, rejecting the idea that poverty was his permanent reality, and forging a vision that would eventually span across borders.
As the conversation unfolds, Jorge unpacks the evolution of his mindset from survival to success, culminating in his rise as an executive and his subsequent realization that financial achievement as an employee did not equate to true freedom. For Jorge, time and creativity—not just the grind—are the true currencies of freedom. This pivot to entrepreneurship, he explains, wasn’t just about making money, but about crafting a life where daily pursuits of writing, art, and imagination could take center stage.
Transparency about adversity threads deeply throughout the episode. Jorge openly discusses the impact of a traumatic brain injury that dramatically altered his capability, drive, and self-perception. From leading companies and clocking marathon days at trade shows, he was forced to reconstruct his routines and ambitions around limited physical and mental energy. Yet, rather than succumbing to grief or limitation, Jorge reframed his priorities: making every hour, every creative act, every single interaction—not just sufficient, but deeply meaningful. This raw vulnerability becomes an uplifting call to listeners struggling with setbacks: You are not alone, and there is power in redefining what “winning” means.
When it comes to branding, Jorge delivers actionable wisdom rooted in decades of success launching over a thousand products and taking five companies public. He advocates for an outcome-driven process, starting with the intended result and the customer avatar, before meticulously working backward through audience research, pricing, and emotional connection. He outlines practical branding strategies through real-world examples, such as his upcoming beverage brand, Calmara, aimed at fans of meditation, anime, and Japanese culture. The secret sauce? Forging emotional resonance through storytelling, community engagement, and delivering experiences that turn customers into brand advocates.
Jorge doesn’t shy away from the hard truths behind raising capital, either. He reveals what truly moves investors: a compelling story, not just financial projections. He stresses the importance of knowing your target investor, crafting kitchen-table pitches for early-stage deals, practicing your delivery, and never relying on empty clichés like “capturing 1% of a massive market.” Jorge recounts common pitch failures—such as obsessing over NDAs and lack of preparation—and emphasizes that founders must know their numbers inside-out and be able to articulate a realistic, ambitious, and credible vision.
A hallmark of this episode is its exploration of creativity and execution. Jorge describes his process of managing multiple ventures, writing several books simultaneously, and treating every p
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Episode Transcript
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(00:42):
and welcome to another episode of Stuck in My Mind
podcast. I am your host, W I Z E. And
my next guest is the entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur. A master. A master storyteller who built empires with
grit, creativity, and unapologetic
authenticity. As the co founder and CMO of multiple
(01:04):
publicly traded companies, he's helped launch over a thousand products,
raised more than 100 million in capital, and taking five companies
public. Welcome to the show. Jorge
Olson. Hello. Thank you very much. Oh, man. Thank you
for being a guest, man. I greatly appreciate it. You're so welcome.
All right, so how did
(01:26):
growing up in Tijuana shape your entrepreneurial mindset?
Oh, that's a good one. Because we didn't talk business at all when I
was in Tijuana. I was a kid carrying
buckets of water home, and in my
house it was all art, philosophy, literature,
all humanities. No business
(01:49):
per se. Although the foundations of what you need for a successful
business were there. Kindness, compassion, honesty,
hard work. They were all there. It's just that we were poor
and we didn't have access to capital.
Entrepreneurship was not a thing back then, especially not in Mexico.
Only the rich had access to money investments.
(02:13):
Now it changed a little bit in Mexico, but not a whole lot.
So what it shaped was the hunger.
It's like a boxer, right? They say the boxers has to have to
come from the hood. It's difficult to get a boxer from Bel Air.
And I think that was the. The shaping. It was the
hunger, number one. From not having any money,
(02:36):
not having running water or electricity in going from there
to having it where it lived required a lot of money
because you had to pay for it. You had to pay for the infrastructure, the.
Not the government. So that was one. The other. The hunger for that.
Then it was the challenge.
Instead of looking at as something
(02:59):
intimidating or fear, it was
challenging. How. How can I get to that? The other
thing was, I do not accept my reality. I think that was a big one
as well. I looked around, I looked at my house and I said, this is
not my house. This is not permanent.
This is a step that I need to take to get out of here
(03:21):
as fast as I can. So that's what I wanted. Those
were my goals as a kid. Living in Tijuana and even growing up and
going to college, I crossed the border. So I kept that
mindset for a long, long time. You
know, let's say training for my boxing matches, let's say. So I was
training. However, something interesting that
(03:44):
I didn't think about this before until today.
There's foundations for everything that you do in life. And
I didn't have the foundations in
money, entrepreneurship, running a business,
or even managing money, but I did have them
(04:05):
in treating people. My mom is a master
communicator and she makes friends like
nothing. She's extroverted. I learned from her those
things that helped me in business quite a bit.
What does freedom mean to you and how do you build businesses that
(04:25):
protect it? When, when I
started making money, I started making money as a non. Not
as an entrepreneur, but as an executive. I moved very
fast through the ladder. I didn't know how to start a business
because of what I said. However, I
wanted to be a CEO. That's what I thought meant success.
(04:49):
And of course that means 12 hour days.
So I got the business. I mean, I got the job part
and I was making the money that I wanted. I achieved my
financial goals as an employee in my 20s. And
then I looked at my life and I said, I already
achieved my goals. My mom and my grandma are retired.
(05:12):
I lived in the U.S. i have a new car.
My, my company pays for my car, for my apartment
in La Jolla. Why am I working so hard?
And I think this is a trap that, that a lot of people fall
into. Now, if your goal and your passion is to go to the
office is to. And that's freedom for
(05:34):
you, I respect that. That's not freedom for me.
Time is freedom for me. And I spend most of
my time not in business.
Creativity, I like, I love writing. That's my
passion. Writing books, especially fiction and
nonfiction. I like painting, art, creativity.
(05:56):
So I do that every day as well. And that's true
freedom for me. However, money got me that
freedom. I have to confess. Of course, money got me that
freedom. And it wasn't employee money, it was business
money that got me that freedom.
What was your first breakthrough product and what did you learn
(06:18):
from launching it? I think, I think it wasn't a product.
I think it was my first job. Okay. I think it was
when I. I was living in
Tijuana, graduated from San Diego State University,
and I couldn't find a job. Fast forward,
I found myself as a software consultant in
(06:41):
Germany with an incredible mentor that taught me how
to work, taught me how to make money as an employee
and move up. And by the time I, we both left.
Because I left when he left. I was CEO of US
of North American operations at 28 years old.
Getting hired to that company was my big break in
(07:05):
life because I went from Tijuana. No running Water, no
electricity to. I retired my mom and my grandma
in a month with my, actually in two weeks with my first
paycheck. So I felt
the greatest high that I felt in my life when I sent half
of my paycheck home. Oh, half your paycheck home.
(07:28):
Wow. How did your
traumatic brain injury change how you approach leadership and
creativity? Yes, that was, that was a big,
a big change. I have brain damage.
I lost the ability to speak English, to drive,
to travel. I couldn't get out of bed for two years.
(07:51):
It was, it was bad. The pain. I still, I'm still in pain. Every
day I'm in pain now. I'm in pain no matter what it. Just
what level of pain I have at that particular moment.
Managing pain now is
difficult and it's part of my life. I had to give up
most sports, teaching martial arts, doing a
(08:14):
lot of things that I love, especially active things. I
played basketball, which is a context sport, no matter how you see
it, of course, martial arts, it's a contest sport.
In business and in management,
I didn't have the energy. I couldn't go all day. And
(08:35):
it was so difficult to change that because when you, when you have it
in your brain and in your mind that you can go all day.
I would go to, to a trade show in Las Vegas and spend two
weeks back to back to back, right? Three trade shows
entertaining people. We would rent a suite and Entertain people
till 2 o' clock in the morning. You know, razzle dazzle.
(08:58):
I was bartending, saying hello, telling stories, telling jokes.
And then you have to get up at 6 to be on zoom meetings with
investment bankers from New York and then get it to show at 8.
On your feet all day, like in, in like nothing.
Like, like nothing. That was easy. I
had so much energy. I thought everybody had this
(09:21):
energy. I thought this was normal. And then
I went from that, from that to I couldn't get out of
bed. So my, my brain was playing tricks on me,
was telling me a story, my body was telling me a different story.
It took me a long time to realize that
(09:41):
I can only do very little every day
and I have to make it count. So now
it is. My management style became with my own
life, with my health, with my writing in business,
in everything. Let's say I have an hour for writing.
How can I make it count? I, I come
(10:04):
here to speak with you. How can I make it count? This is
going to be my thing for the day. I need to make
it the best thing that I do today without
mourning the things that I lost today because I was
mourning every day. I was mourning everything that I couldn't do,
(10:25):
man, I can't go lift weights, man. I
can't go shoot baskets, man. I didn't spend time with my mom
and my cousins, man. I can't go out for a drink with
my friends. So I was mourning everything that I couldn't do.
And that's. That's not healthy. So I had to change that to,
Wow. I went into a podcast. It was fantastic.
(10:49):
I hope one person, one person can
get inspiration. For example, right now that we're talking about
brain damage and traumatic brain injuries, I hope there's one
listener out there that is going through this and says,
oh, my God, I'm not the only one. I'm not alone. All of
these weird things that are happening, happening in my brain
(11:11):
now. There's somebody who understands and they can live
their life with it, so I can do the same. So that's my win for
today. And that's the way I had to change my management
style in everything. Same with business, project management,
editing books, creating art.
Everything is now under management, under new management.
(11:40):
What is, what's your personal process for branding a new product
or person? Oh, that's a. That's a good one.
The. I'm going to jump to, to. To what we want.
And that's how I start, by the way. I start with what we want. What's
the outcome with a product? Consumer good.
(12:00):
Let's say we have a beverage or a book or an electronic
or a piece of clothing. Right? A consumer good. Or
we have an executive. It can be a creator, it can be a
lawyer, an accountant, or it can be a business owner. Can be
somebody looking for capital, which I, I do a lot.
I always go to the end and say, what
(12:23):
is the end? What. What do we want? Then I go into the
audience. Who is the avatar? Who are we doing this
for? We are not doing it for the product. We are not doing it
for the person. We are doing it for the
consumer. We are doing it for the end
consumer. Not even the retailer, the wholesaler, the
(12:44):
distributor. If we're talking about beverages, let's say it's
the consumer, the person buying it in the store or an
Amazon. If it's a person,
they are delivering a service. Let's say, who is
the customer? Well, everybody can benefit. That's the problem. Right?
We have to get into a niche. Let's go and get
(13:06):
doctors or lawyers or insurance salespeople or real
estate agents or roofers. What are constructor
construction companies. What is the avatar? I call it.
So I start with the outcome, then who is going to get
this outcome? And then I move backwards into the branding
from there. And not only into the branding, but as
(13:28):
we move into the branding, we move into how much
can these people afford. So now we get into pricing
strategy and pricing theory. What would we name
this? If it's a product, we go into naming theory.
So it's very specific and developed with.
With every step of branding,
(13:51):
every step all the way back into
how. What is this product going to look for, what are the
look like, what are the colors we're going to use? So it goes into the
artwork. If we're talking about, let's
say a beverage, I'm working on the beverage right now.
Calmara is the name. It is a beverage company for people who
(14:13):
love meditation, Zen and
Asian culture, specifically Japanese culture. So
that's the avatar. So we already know the avatar. We already know
they love going to Japan. They love. Maybe
they practice martial arts, maybe Brazilian jiu jitsu or maybe
they're anime fans. For sure they're
(14:35):
anime fans or manga fans for sure. I want those.
How old are they? Well, they're young, they're not my
age. They're. Of course there's outliers, but most of them are 16
to maybe 30. And then yes, you have
older people, but that's okay. You focus on the target market
first. So then we develop the brand for
(14:58):
them. So what am I do it doing for them? I'm developing
something that will trigger an emotional connection which is the
holy grail of branding. How can I develop an
emotional connection with my end consumer with the
avatar? In this case, we're going to do it with storytelling
by placing a manga character on every can
(15:20):
and then interacting with other characters
of other cans by telling stories with graphic novels
and comics, for example, then it will be
engaging with the consumer. So we have the feedback,
immediate feedback. And we say do some
fan art for us if you like drawing. And we're going to do a contest,
(15:44):
do some videos, some dress up, dress as your favorite
character from our manga comics. And we're going to do
contest, maybe a trip to Japan or swag
a T shirt or a Japanese inspired hoodie
or maybe a katana. Right. If the. If the
insurance company allows it. So that would be how
(16:06):
we develop an emotional connection where
they're not just consuming this product. They're telling your friends,
you're playing, you're dressing like the characters.
Maybe we go to the comic conventions and we interact with the
consumers and they come dressed as their favorite character, and we give
them swag and prices and take pictures with them, upload them to
(16:29):
social media. So this is how we would develop a
brand for a beverage for. For
this particular beverage company, Calmara, who comes
out in about three months. If, if, if it's
a person, how can we tell your story as a
hero's journey? That's. It's always the same. It's
(16:51):
easy. It's a formula. All of your listeners can use it. I've
done a lot of personal branding
projects, and I always recommend to start with the
book. It's intimidating, but it's not difficult.
I've done it a lot of times. So when you have somebody holding your
hand, it becomes very easy because I can interview you,
(17:14):
and by the end of the interview, you have a manuscript
if you know how to write. In a Hero's Journey. Just so happens that I
write fiction and I edit. So I'm an editor as well.
And I spent 20 years, more than 20 years, because I started
at 12, writing, but. But in Spanish, and then 20 years in English.
No, 25 years in English. I've published
(17:36):
15 books then for other people
doing this pro process. And I'm writing now a lot of fiction
novels, fiction, science fiction, fantasy. And
there's a formula, and it's something like this. You
are the hero in the hero's journey. That
becomes the teacher. Because in the hero's
(17:59):
journey, you need a mentor. It's a wizard, it's a
teacher, it's a master Jedi, whatever you want to
call it, depending if you have Harry Potter or if you have
Merlin and Arthur, or if you have Luke
Skywalker, it's the same story, all of them. It's this how to train
your dragon. Whatever you're using, it's always the same story. You have a
(18:21):
protagonist and you have a mentor. This is the
mistake. When you think you're always going to be the
hero, that's the mistake. Your customer is
the hero. Right? This is
important. Your customer is your. Is the hero. You start as the
hero for empathy. Empathy.
(18:43):
Empathize with your customer who is suffering, who has a problem
that you will solve when you become the mage.
So in your hero's journey, you become the mage.
How? With all of the struggles, whatever the
alcoholism, divorce, your kids,
left the house for a year. You got fired from
(19:06):
your job. We all have something in our life. Yeah, you know, a death in
your family, a disease, a traumatic brain injury.
Growing up with no money. You name it focus
on mistakes. People tell me, do I have to talk about my mistakes?
That's all of what we're going to talk about. Because
(19:27):
storytelling, if there's no drama, there's no
story. And as we evolved, you become
the mage because you are learning from all of these mistakes.
And then tell your customer, you will save,
I will save you from making all of these mistakes and
(19:48):
spending all this money because I became the
mage now. And if they see you as the mage, they
will come sign your contract, they will not negotiate
anything, and they will pay you up front. And that's a
dream for when you're doing personal branding.
(20:08):
What role does storytelling play in
raising capital effectively for startup?
Yes, in raising capital. Just like anything else that
you do, it's all about the story. Yes,
they say, show me the financials, do this and that.
Yes, they want to check the box. But really, if they don't buy the
(20:31):
story, they will not invest. You also have to
consider your target market. Let's go back to your avatar.
Are you going. Who is investing in your company? Are you going to be a
publicly traded company where you have. I have a company with 50,
000 investors. For example, one of my publicly traded companies has
50, 000 investors. And it's hard
(20:53):
because if you have, if you have 500 that
are angry at you, that's a lot of people that are angry at you.
However, in the big scheme of things, it's not because you have 50,000
investors. So who, who are you going for? Are you going for
venture capital? Big firms, angel
investors? Are you going after your neighbors and your friends
(21:16):
and your family? Are you going
through networking events and getting funding that way? Or are
you hitting a specific geography? Lawyers or real
estate agents or real estate investors or
doctors, all of those are different. Once
you have your avatar, you have to craft
(21:38):
your story. I recommend that
whoever you're solving the problem four
would be your perfect investor, for starters. Or whoever
can distribute it or whoever can sell it. So it's
who is benefiting, benefiting, Benefiting from your
solution economically or with the solution
(22:01):
itself. If you have a medicine, who will use this medicine
even if it's over the counter for cough or, or for
something like that, who will, who will benefit it? Go after them
or the distributor or the retailer. And then
to your question of storytelling.
When I've done a lot of pitches and I've sent
(22:24):
five companies public and I've done, I
don't know how many pitches, maybe 100 pitches,
but I used to do consulting for
Investors. So investors would call me in, in the
beverage industry, in fast moving consumer goods and for
investing in Mexico. So if they wanted to invest in Mexico and
(22:46):
they don't know anything about Mexico or even if they just want the Mexican, they
would call me and ask me questions about usually a big publicly
traded company, not a startup.
And I found out what they're looking for because that's what
they would ask me. So I have a little bit of inside knowledge
because they told me I'm, I'm thinking of investing
(23:09):
in this company. This is what I think of asking them.
Right. So with that, I found out
how to craft a story for them as well for institutional
investors. And yes, they say they want the numbers and everything,
but at the end of the day they would tell me, okay, what's the
story? That's what they would ask at the end. What's the
(23:32):
story? When here's a shocker for
you or for your audience. Most of investment done in
the US Most of the deals, not investment but
deals are done through kitchen table deals,
through venture capital firms. So if you're looking for
investment, the, the,
(23:55):
the most likely to invest is not a venture capitalist
because they usually wait until the first or second round to
invest. So it's going to be somebody in your community investing.
If you go to. I used to be a fund manager as
well. I managed an investment fund and I would go to the
(24:15):
venture capital shows in
Silicon Valley and they would tell me that they
only invest in two or three deals. Imagine if you have two or three
deals to invest in and there's 200 people in the audience.
Yeah, that's, that's hard.
Absolutely. Can you share a time
(24:38):
when a pitch totally failed and what you changed
after that? Okay,
so when a pitch fail a lot, a lot of times,
I think all of the time, the first time it fails because you're, you're
working, you're working at it. But let me tell you what I see as failure
(24:59):
time and time again. Number one, asking for NDAs,
right? So that's a failure because you're not going to get the investors,
they don't sign NDAs. I don't sign NDAs. I Don't ask for
people to sign NDA because we cannot do business.
I, I get, in the beverage industry, I get maybe 20 deals
a week. I can't sign your NDA because I've done a hundred
(25:23):
deals. The next
deal is going to look like your deal and then I can't do it
because you're going to say, oh, it's also a beverage. It also has water. It
also has vitamin C. No, there's no
real IP in the formula. Right.
And the other thing is, if you think somebody can go and
(25:45):
do your business model that fast, it's a bad business model.
If you think somebody's gonna copy you, it's a bad business model.
The other thing is not practicing your pitch.
You. You need 10 slides, and
you need to know your stuff, and you need to practice. Practice
(26:07):
with people. Not just by yourself. No
ooms. Know your numbers. Know how you got to
those numbers. Show your work. What math teachers used to say,
show your work. You have to show your work. If you're in, in the beverage
industry, how many stores can you get? What's the cost of opening
one store? What's the cost of opening a thousand stores?
(26:29):
Don't say, I'm gonna capture 1% of the market. That's also a red
flag for investors. Never say, oh, my. My
niche is $50 billion. If I only capture
1%, we're all going to be millionaires. Okay, what's 1%
look like? How many employees?
Yeah. What's your supply chain like? Right. If you knew
(26:51):
that, you wouldn't tell me. I need 1%. You will tell me the
exact numbers that you're going to sell at every stage of the
operation, and that's what you need to know. That's number one.
Number two is your valuation and where you are
as a company. I also do software. I started
my career in software, and I do some software AI right
(27:14):
now, specifically. And what I'm. I'm
working with one AI company that we're looking for
funding. And this, we're looking for institutional. So not mom
and pop. We're looking for, this is a solution
for, for Boeing and Airbus and big companies
in the aerospace. So we're looking for those companies to invest.
(27:37):
So we need somebody inside and somebody who
knows the software, the numbers, the supply chain.
All of this is before they pitch. So, for example,
before, before we came on, I got a text from them that said, we're
gonna, we're gonna do a. A whole week of work, and then
we're gonna do a whole week of testing or pitch on Saturday. Eight
(28:00):
hours. So if you think you're practicing with 20 minutes, these guys
are doing eight hours to get it right. And so when
it comes, when they come to me, I already know
they're ready for prime time. And usually when they
come, when people come to me, they think they're ready and they're
not ready. So those are red flags. And, and you
(28:23):
should know your numbers. You should have a terrific story.
Awesome. Awesome. How do you
maintain clarity and focus while managing multiple
ventures?
That's. That's a very interesting question
(28:47):
because I. I write three or four
books at the same time, for example, and I can be
involved with five beverage companies, two
AI companies, and work on personal branding for
five executives and have a mastermind for
authors, another mastermind for fast moving consumer goods.
(29:10):
That's how my brain works, and that's what makes my brain happy.
When I had my traumatic brain injury, for example, that was out of control.
I had what I can describe
as a thousand roulettes running in my head all
at the same time, just going and going and going, never
stopping. So that's the bad part. The good
(29:33):
part is that it's a lot of fun to have all of these
projects. And the way I keep them
in my mind is with creativity.
I see all of them as creative projects, and
they're fun because I'm using my creativity with
them. When it becomes only about the numbers, it's not fun for
(29:55):
me. I need the creativity part with all of them. So
I get involved with packaging, I get involved with art
direction. I get involved with all of that because that's my favorite thing to
do. And I've learned to have
a very organized mind as well, where I can put
them in drawers and open them when I need them, close
(30:17):
them, even if it's five minutes or 10 minutes. So it's
practice.
What. What are some of the biggest branding mistakes you see new
entrepreneurs make? Ooh, I like that one.
The biggest branding, branding mistakes entrepreneurs make are
copying fortune or global companies.
(30:40):
That's for sure. Number one. I want to be like
Nike. I want to. Oh, this is one I hear
once a day. I want to be like Apple. I hear it
once a day, right? I want to be like Apple.
I think the right, the right thing to do is I want to be like
Apple when they were a startup.
(31:03):
That's the right attitude. That's not a mistake. If you say,
I want to be like Apple when they're a billion dollar company,
okay, how much money do they spend to be like Apple?
So be like Apple when they had $100.
Be like Apple when they were scavenging for parts.
(31:25):
That's the way you need to think. Be like that
beverage company when they had $1,000
and they were knocking on doors. Please, please, please
try my product for free. I'll leave.
I'll leave this with you at the convenience store on Consignment
and I'll come back in a week because I can't sell a single case.
(31:48):
Be like that beverage company when they were doing that, that's the number one
mistake. And it's also a mistake that we get from school because
in school those are the case studies that we learn
because they're easily available. They're publicly traded companies. They publish
this. You get them at the Mat Edit Inc.
Magazine. Yes, but you need the, you
(32:11):
need the startup version. You need to go and fetch the
entrepreneur of Dell when he was
selling from his door, from his dorm room and how
he created culture when he was
putting the computers together in his room with no money.
Pre order pay 50% so I can go buy the parts.
(32:34):
Learn from that. Copy that not. I want
to be like Dell now. Right. So I think that's the number one
mistake. What's, what's your daily routine
look like now compared to when you, when you first started out?
A lot of my routine is, is
(32:56):
aimed or managed or, or limited
by my pain and by my brain damage.
So before my routine was
a lot of sports. I trained three to four hours per day.
I was addicted to exercise, lifting
weights, swimming, martial arts. I was
(33:19):
teaching martial arts. So that was hours per day. A couple
of hours per day. And then swimming, basketball,
all of that writing. I wrote a thousand words a day before my
accident. And that's a lot in the writing world. I've
written millions of words. Now
I want, I want to do things that count. I
(33:41):
have a very strict diet. Again because of my injuries.
I have to do a lot of physical therapy, which is not the heavy duty
exercise that I did before. It's very focused because
besides my brain damage, I have torn
shoulders and knees. I already had neck surgery.
So I have to work a lot on my shoulders not to be in the,
(34:03):
in the operating room. I have to work a lot on my
knees, which means my quads and a lot
of my shoulders with, which means a lot of pulling, pull ups and things
like that. Lateral races, scapula,
a lot of scapula work. So a lot of physical therapy, a lot of
doctors visits. I was getting, let me see, like
(34:26):
maybe 30 injections per week.
I'm, I'm getting maybe 30amonth right
now. But if I'm going through a lot of pain, I have to, to
have like 30 injections per week just to function in society.
And what I like to do is I read a lot.
(34:48):
So I, I have to do it with audiobooks
because I can't see very well, after my accident. So I do a lot of
audiobooks, hours per day, a lot of
maybe an hour, two hours of physical therapy per day. And then
I have to do, by prescription, artistic things. So I
write, I paint, and I do other creative, creative
(35:10):
endeavors. And then I only use an hour or
two a day for the thing that we're doing now,
which is speaking on. On the microphone
or on a video call. So I do an hour or two a day of
that, which is now a day's my work. And
that can be with. With partners, with clients, etc.
(35:36):
How do you balance creativity and execution in your companies?
Creativity and execution? I think
it's very difficult to execute, especially for
artists. Let's take the writing.
(35:56):
I have a saying it's not. And it's the saying I use for, for me
also, not just for other people. It starts with me. It's not
how many books you write, it's how many books you publish. And
yes, the process is magnificent. I recommend that if you don't write,
if you listen to this, do not write, start writing. It'll make you
more intelligent, it will give you clarity,
(36:19):
ideas. It will help you in your business and your
personal life. So write, write about yourself, about solutions, about things
you see in the world, about kindness, about whatever you
want. So that, for me, is publishing now, because
publishing is a goal. That's why I have this saying. It's not how many books
you write, it's how many books you publish. Let's say my mom. My mom has
(36:41):
a very difficult time publishing. And I'm always on her.
I edit her books and I always summer. She already gave me
one book that I published for children. She's working on two more,
but she's been working on them for five years. She's working on two
novels. And I read a little bit, gave her notes, and it's
been a year, and this was like a week of work.
(37:03):
So the execution of that is very difficult. With
artwork, let's say painting, same thing.
I have a goal of one project per day, which is very
aggressive, but they're very small projects. Maybe the size of
double the size of an iPhone. So if you take two iPhones and you
put them together, that would be the size of my painting, let's say.
(37:25):
So it's small, so I can do it in a day. And I.
I recorded in case I want to sell art
or do a store, an Etsy store or something like that,
or print. And. And for me, it's finishing it.
Not only starting it, but finishing it and then getting rid of it.
So I give it as gifts so that I don't have it
(37:48):
in my house. It's out of the house, hopefully making somebody
happy. So I manage it
with number one, with
goals. Having goals. Like I'm going to do one a day and I'm going to
give it away. That's number one. I take a photo because I want
to put it later as a print or something on the store. So that's one
(38:11):
goal. The other goal is, I mean goal is
one. But then you need a ritual. That's another thing that you need.
You need a ritual. Artists, writers, we all need a ritual. Sit in
the same chair. If I go to a coffee house, I sit in the
same chair, go to the same coffee house. I want the, the, the
same barista every time. And I have a goal. I'm going to write a thousand
(38:33):
words, let's say. So that's my ritual. And
that's very important for execution.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Because I, I actually
released two books this year. But
the journey started three years ago when we self
published my nephew's book. And at that point I
(38:56):
was like, I don't think I'm ever gonna write a book or whatever. And then
I got involved with his book and started
helping with his book and it kind of like opened the creative juices for me
and gave me an opportunity. And I just released two books.
We self published it ourselves. We did the COVID work, everything,
and it's on Amazon. But
(39:19):
I learned from the experience we had with publishing
his book and the money we invested towards
that where we learned like, okay, now we know how to do this, do this
and do this. We'll save money now. Now we're like, okay,
we can save money on this because now we don't have to
(39:39):
spend what we had to spend there because now we have tools to help us
with editing, help us with spell checks and all this
stuff. Where to have someone editor,
proofread and everything. But let's be honest,
it's not cheap. That's right. No, that's right.
That's amazing. Two books is amazing.
(40:02):
Congratulations. Thank you. What are they about?
The first one I wrote is called the Power of Purpose. Living with
Clarity, Passion and intent. And it's.
It. Okay, so let me tell you
about me.
In 2008, I lost my first wife in a car
(40:23):
accident and I was spiraling out
of control. I was very self destructive,
self medicating, drinking. And it was.
And after that it was just like the following year I reunited
with my Father. After not being with him after 28
years. Right. I go to Puerto Rico to go see him.
(40:46):
Father's Day weekend. I arrived Friday. Saturday morning,
he passes away. This is a year and a month after my wife. Oh, my
God. And then. And then it was just.
I buried two brothers, my uncle, my aunt,
all this within six years.
And I was lost. I was angry
(41:08):
with God because I was like, why me? Why.
Why is all this happening to me? And. And
then one day, it was like, this isn't your path. This isn't what you're
supposed to be doing. Like, I didn't do
this to punish you. This is. This wasn't to be. This wasn't to punish
you. And when I started realizing that, I went and
(41:31):
I sought help. I went to therapy, started turning my life around,
got into security and
met my wife that I'm with now. And things started
changing for me. I came. I moved to Pennsylvania with my.
I moved my family from Brooklyn, New York, up to the Pocono Mountains in
Pennsylvania, helped them get settled here.
(41:54):
I turned my life around. I am now. I started at
a casino as a security guard. I am now
a pit boss at the casino. Wow.
I was able to turn my life around. And so I did have
a story to share, and I did have something to put out there.
Wow, that's an incredible story. And hero's journey.
(42:20):
It's a tough one. It's a tough one, but
it's one that now you can help people
with grief. Yeah. And. And
we're going through grief right now in my family. And. And it's something.
It's so strange and so strong because it is
(42:40):
strange. The feelings are strange and.
And strong. They're stronger than us sometimes. Oh,
listen. And last. Well,
last year was a rough year. My mom passed away last year in February.
But prior to that, the
prior two years to that, she had, like, she. She was
(43:04):
diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, and she just
deteriorated fast. Like,
in no time. Like, we celebrated her 80th birthday,
and then years later, she just started declining in health.
And. And it was the dementia and Alzheimer's started
affecting her where she really couldn't do things herself.
(43:28):
So last year, in February, she passed away, and
it kind of brought back some of the pain from the
past. Yes. This is. This is a woman who,
like, was my mother and father for so long.
She was that guiding light for me. Yes. And to have that
(43:49):
extinguished was, like, hard.
Yes. That's. That's.
I think you have a lot of tools now to help people
with grief. With, with your platform,
with your podcast. People listening now.
Yeah. That are going through grief or a traumatic brain injury or
(44:12):
both. Because maybe, you know, the traumatic brain injury
feels like loss. I feel I lost
myself. I'm a different person and I miss that
person. And I, I, I
have grief that I don't know how to deal with
from what I lost and what I can't and cannot do. It's
(44:36):
very strange, but it feels like somebody
died. It's the same sensation in
my brain. The brain doesn't know the difference between
somebody dying and that part of me dying. It, it thinks
somebody died and, and it, it, it gives me
the, the chemicals of grief, which is very, very strange.
(44:59):
Yeah. You've helped celebrities launch products.
What separates them from everyday entrepreneurs?
The divas? I think. No, I, I've met some
entrepreneurs who are divas too. So, so, yeah, it's not that.
What, let me see. What, what, what is it like and what's the difference
(45:20):
between working with celebrities? I think it depends on the level of celebrity.
I, for example, Dennis Rodman, I did
a product with Dennis Rodman, the basketball player. For those younglings that
don't know. Yeah. Hall of Famer, probably one
of the best or the best rebounder and defensive player of all time.
(45:42):
Crazy, crazy guy. Great for,
great for media, because your eyeballs on. You are on.
You know, this is the guy who went to Las Vegas,
married himself. Yeah. In the middle of
the playoffs. So he was
drinking the whole time. And when I met him,
(46:04):
he was drunk and it was 9 o' clock in the morning. He was partying
and he was already drinking. He was very
hands off. He was dressed like Dennis
Rodman, you know, leather, all leather, leather vest, nothing
underneath, you know, earrings and tattoos and
(46:25):
orange hair, I believe. So he
was, he had his, his personality, his
right. And it was very easy. It was very
easy because he, he says, hey, I know how to play basketball. You know how
to do beverages, you know, branding. I know basketball. He said, I know how to
brand a basketball player. I don't know how to, how to brand
(46:47):
a beverage. So that was easy. I did a project with,
I helped them projects with other basketball players, Camilo Anthony
and other players as well. But I dealt with their
representatives and not with them. With Dennis Rotman, I met in person
(47:08):
with Steve Young. I did a pro, A project with Steve Young. I didn't meet
him. So, so I, I only worked with whoever
was managing that project. Same with like three or four other
athletes and
with musicians, with, with musicians, for example, I met
Rick Ross several times. I went to his house, we sat down around the
(47:32):
table. We did a photo shoot even with him.
That was cool. He has a, like a mansion in Atlanta.
Like from the movie. Actually it is from the movies because they rent it for
the movies. Yeah, he has a big festival over there like
every year. Yeah, we went to that one as well.
(47:52):
A car. We went to the car show here. We went to the car show.
So he was cool. He told us his story.
So he has a story also. And he told us his story with
seizures and how CBD and
THC helped them a lot. Help them stop smoking
tobacco, cigarettes as well. So that was cool that
(48:14):
it was easy. We worked with Rap Snacks, which
is his partner and they are also
famous and deal with not only Rick Ross, but some
of the best rappers in everywhere
because they have the biggest rappers in each one of their products.
(48:34):
So James is his name. He's an incredible cool
guy. I did a podcast with him as well
and with James and we, we. He even took
us to one of his production facilities for the. I'm a potato chip
addict. So I'm like, are we gonna eat some potato chips? He's
like, oh, you can eat. I'm, I'm in. So we went to
(48:58):
his factory and There were like 30 trucks lined up that
were gonna leave because he just got on into Walmart Smart at that time.
And if you're not familiar, if listeners are not familiar with rap
snacks, they are. They have a
rapper in every single flavor. Not
like a fourth tier rapper like Snoop Dogg.
(49:20):
Yeah, yeah. Every rapper, like if. Right, like every
rapper. So I met a few. Oh, and he has a
yearly festival as well. And, and, and I
went there. So I met all of his partners, which are
producers. Like we had like 30
bodyguards there just so you can get an idea. So that was cool.
(49:42):
Let me see. Snoop Dogg is super chill. Of course
I met him. I didn't talk business with them,
but he, I worked with
his CEO and that was
very, very professional. I was the art director,
brand manager. I produced like 50 SKUs
(50:05):
for him. So a lot that was the most I've done for one product or
for one person. Like 50. It was very
easy, the project management flow because usually
with other clients to do four, it could take a year.
And he wanted 50 like in three months. So
my, my staff was working like 14 hour days to get all the
(50:27):
products done. But the workflow was very fast.
Fast approval or fast changes, change this, change
that, boom next day. Not a week,
not two Weeks to hear back. No, next day. Like,
like almost texting. Do this. Cool. Do that. Let's meet in
person. These changes, you know, I smoke this and this was
(50:48):
very good. This way. I didn't like the taste, I didn't like the people. We
were doing papers, we were doing cones, we were doing gummies. We were
doing everything that you can imagine. So I need. We even did
the gummies are
house. A house of a dog house.
Yeah, yeah. For the. For the dog pound. Oh,
(51:12):
so that was cool. Like a Snoopy type house.
Yeah, yeah. So that was very cool with the bone. And
so that was very fast and.
And furious because we were doing so many products so fast.
Yeah, it's not. I work with
(51:32):
rockers, like from the 70s, like big hair
and you know, they went to the office, we took pictures. Hands off.
Completely hands off. Like, what's the product? What's the flavor?
They were there for the pictures again. They had bodyguards and
the whole shebang. I met one of Snoop Dogg's kids
because he's. He was on the board of directors, he had a bodyguard. He
(51:55):
came to the office, same thing, gave us his opinion. Very
professional, very down to business. You know, we
did what we needed to do. He left
then. Chichinchong.
They were just funny the whole time. We spent maybe four hours with them.
(52:16):
They were high, like a different level of
high the whole time, but just joke. Like
we were on the floor and these guys are like the
anti divas. We were sitting like we were in the back,
in the, in the back. Somebody's backyard. I don't know who.
Right in the hood because we drove to la, so I don't
(52:38):
know where we are. It's the hood. And they were sitting on the floor. On
the floor. We were all sitting on the floor and they were just like. They
were doing bits back and forth, back and forth, just
making us laugh. They can help it. And then they had
the. Their famous lowrider car there in the
studio. So when they get on the car and we were doing papers for
(53:01):
them, smoking papers and I think gummies and other things for them.
So, you know, once they had to turn it on, no
second take. They had a full production team there. One take,
one take, one take. They knew their lines. Even though they were high,
they knew their line. What's next? What's next? Now we're gonna do a
beverage. Now we're gonna do a gummy. Now we're gonna do a paper. Now we're
(53:24):
gonna do a T shirt. And then in between takes Just
funny, funny, funny. But this is the best thing. They
finished, we're done, and they go, we don't have a ride. Can
somebody take us home?
That was cool. Oh,
(53:46):
man, this has been wonderful. It's been
great. Thank you for being such a wonderful guest. But before we leave, right,
I'm gonna give you some time to, to plug away and let everybody know where
they can find you. But what do you hope your legacy is for the next
generation of entrepreneurs? That's a. That's a
great question. And it worries me. That worries
(54:08):
me. And I want to leave a legacy. I think for me is going to
be my books, because they're
immortal. Yes, I have videos and I record a lot of
videos and audios and things like that. But with the books, the
ideas are thought of, organized, and expanded.
So I hope, I hope I can, I can have inspiration for
(54:29):
entrepreneurs in especially minorities
in the US And Mexico
because those are my countries, that those are the countries where I've lived.
I write in Spanish as well, so I hope
I can inspire entrepreneurs to change their life.
(54:50):
I hope that's my legacy. That's my next goal, is to write my
book in Spanish. You can translate them? Yeah,
just translate them. You already have them. It's easy. Yeah, yeah.
But thank you so much. But now we've come to the part of the show
where you get the solo screen and you get to plug away and let everybody
know where they can find you. Check out your website, everything.
(55:12):
Sure. To find me, you can go to
www.jorge olson.com.
that's my name. J O R G E O L S O
N. And you can find me on LinkedIn and all of the social
networks. I'm big on LinkedIn, so you can hit me there with an
email if you have something urgent to tell me.
(55:33):
If not, go to my website, sign up,
and you'll receive videos, audios and other things,
webinars that you can come into or for free with information
on branding, sales, personal branding, how to launch beverages and
other products. It's a lot of fun. It's always interactive, so you can
ask questions in these settings.
(55:55):
Thank you very much and thank you for having me. It's. It's been
phenomenal. Thank you, man. I greatly appreciate you
stopping by and sharing the stories and sharing your knowledge with us. I
really do appreciate it. You're very welcome. But don't leave just yet. Let me
close out the show and we'll chat a little bit off the air. But thank
you once again for being such a great guest. You got it.
(56:18):
All right, everybody. Another great episode is in the books.
If today's conversation moved you, challenged you, or lit a fire under you,
don't keep it to yourself. Please share this episode with someone who needs it.
Subscribe Leave a Review Let's. Let's keep building a
great community where truth, transformation, and purpose collide. Until
next time, stay hungry, stay humble, and above all, stay
(56:41):
real. It's your boy. W I Z E. Peace out.
It.
and welcome to another episode of Stuck in My Mind
podcast. I am your host, W I Z E. And
my next guest is the entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur. A master. A master storyteller who built empires with
grit, creativity, and unapologetic
authenticity. As the co founder and CMO of multiple
(01:04):
publicly traded companies, he's helped launch over a thousand products,
raised more than 100 million in capital, and taking five companies
public. Welcome to the show. Jorge
Olson. Hello. Thank you very much. Oh, man. Thank you
for being a guest, man. I greatly appreciate it. You're so welcome.
All right, so how did
(01:26):
growing up in Tijuana shape your entrepreneurial mindset?
Oh, that's a good one. Because we didn't talk business at all when I
was in Tijuana. I was a kid carrying
buckets of water home, and in my
house it was all art, philosophy, literature,
all humanities. No business
(01:49):
per se. Although the foundations of what you need for a successful
business were there. Kindness, compassion, honesty,
hard work. They were all there. It's just that we were poor
and we didn't have access to capital.
Entrepreneurship was not a thing back then, especially not in Mexico.
Only the rich had access to money investments.
(02:13):
Now it changed a little bit in Mexico, but not a whole lot.
So what it shaped was the hunger.
It's like a boxer, right? They say the boxers has to have to
come from the hood. It's difficult to get a boxer from Bel Air.
And I think that was the. The shaping. It was the
hunger, number one. From not having any money,
(02:36):
not having running water or electricity in going from there
to having it where it lived required a lot of money
because you had to pay for it. You had to pay for the infrastructure, the.
Not the government. So that was one. The other. The hunger for that.
Then it was the challenge.
Instead of looking at as something
(02:59):
intimidating or fear, it was
challenging. How. How can I get to that? The other
thing was, I do not accept my reality. I think that was a big one
as well. I looked around, I looked at my house and I said, this is
not my house. This is not permanent.
This is a step that I need to take to get out of here
(03:21):
as fast as I can. So that's what I wanted. Those
were my goals as a kid. Living in Tijuana and even growing up and
going to college, I crossed the border. So I kept that
mindset for a long, long time. You
know, let's say training for my boxing matches, let's say. So I was
training. However, something interesting that
(03:44):
I didn't think about this before until today.
There's foundations for everything that you do in life. And
I didn't have the foundations in
money, entrepreneurship, running a business,
or even managing money, but I did have them
(04:05):
in treating people. My mom is a master
communicator and she makes friends like
nothing. She's extroverted. I learned from her those
things that helped me in business quite a bit.
What does freedom mean to you and how do you build businesses that
(04:25):
protect it? When, when I
started making money, I started making money as a non. Not
as an entrepreneur, but as an executive. I moved very
fast through the ladder. I didn't know how to start a business
because of what I said. However, I
wanted to be a CEO. That's what I thought meant success.
(04:49):
And of course that means 12 hour days.
So I got the business. I mean, I got the job part
and I was making the money that I wanted. I achieved my
financial goals as an employee in my 20s. And
then I looked at my life and I said, I already
achieved my goals. My mom and my grandma are retired.
(05:12):
I lived in the U.S. i have a new car.
My, my company pays for my car, for my apartment
in La Jolla. Why am I working so hard?
And I think this is a trap that, that a lot of people fall
into. Now, if your goal and your passion is to go to the
office is to. And that's freedom for
(05:34):
you, I respect that. That's not freedom for me.
Time is freedom for me. And I spend most of
my time not in business.
Creativity, I like, I love writing. That's my
passion. Writing books, especially fiction and
nonfiction. I like painting, art, creativity.
(05:56):
So I do that every day as well. And that's true
freedom for me. However, money got me that
freedom. I have to confess. Of course, money got me that
freedom. And it wasn't employee money, it was business
money that got me that freedom.
What was your first breakthrough product and what did you learn
(06:18):
from launching it? I think, I think it wasn't a product.
I think it was my first job. Okay. I think it was
when I. I was living in
Tijuana, graduated from San Diego State University,
and I couldn't find a job. Fast forward,
I found myself as a software consultant in
(06:41):
Germany with an incredible mentor that taught me how
to work, taught me how to make money as an employee
and move up. And by the time I, we both left.
Because I left when he left. I was CEO of US
of North American operations at 28 years old.
Getting hired to that company was my big break in
(07:05):
life because I went from Tijuana. No running Water, no
electricity to. I retired my mom and my grandma
in a month with my, actually in two weeks with my first
paycheck. So I felt
the greatest high that I felt in my life when I sent half
of my paycheck home. Oh, half your paycheck home.
(07:28):
Wow. How did your
traumatic brain injury change how you approach leadership and
creativity? Yes, that was, that was a big,
a big change. I have brain damage.
I lost the ability to speak English, to drive,
to travel. I couldn't get out of bed for two years.
(07:51):
It was, it was bad. The pain. I still, I'm still in pain. Every
day I'm in pain now. I'm in pain no matter what it. Just
what level of pain I have at that particular moment.
Managing pain now is
difficult and it's part of my life. I had to give up
most sports, teaching martial arts, doing a
(08:14):
lot of things that I love, especially active things. I
played basketball, which is a context sport, no matter how you see
it, of course, martial arts, it's a contest sport.
In business and in management,
I didn't have the energy. I couldn't go all day. And
(08:35):
it was so difficult to change that because when you, when you have it
in your brain and in your mind that you can go all day.
I would go to, to a trade show in Las Vegas and spend two
weeks back to back to back, right? Three trade shows
entertaining people. We would rent a suite and Entertain people
till 2 o' clock in the morning. You know, razzle dazzle.
(08:58):
I was bartending, saying hello, telling stories, telling jokes.
And then you have to get up at 6 to be on zoom meetings with
investment bankers from New York and then get it to show at 8.
On your feet all day, like in, in like nothing.
Like, like nothing. That was easy. I
had so much energy. I thought everybody had this
(09:21):
energy. I thought this was normal. And then
I went from that, from that to I couldn't get out of
bed. So my, my brain was playing tricks on me,
was telling me a story, my body was telling me a different story.
It took me a long time to realize that
(09:41):
I can only do very little every day
and I have to make it count. So now
it is. My management style became with my own
life, with my health, with my writing in business,
in everything. Let's say I have an hour for writing.
How can I make it count? I, I come
(10:04):
here to speak with you. How can I make it count? This is
going to be my thing for the day. I need to make
it the best thing that I do today without
mourning the things that I lost today because I was
mourning every day. I was mourning everything that I couldn't do,
(10:25):
man, I can't go lift weights, man. I
can't go shoot baskets, man. I didn't spend time with my mom
and my cousins, man. I can't go out for a drink with
my friends. So I was mourning everything that I couldn't do.
And that's. That's not healthy. So I had to change that to,
Wow. I went into a podcast. It was fantastic.
(10:49):
I hope one person, one person can
get inspiration. For example, right now that we're talking about
brain damage and traumatic brain injuries, I hope there's one
listener out there that is going through this and says,
oh, my God, I'm not the only one. I'm not alone. All of
these weird things that are happening, happening in my brain
(11:11):
now. There's somebody who understands and they can live
their life with it, so I can do the same. So that's my win for
today. And that's the way I had to change my management
style in everything. Same with business, project management,
editing books, creating art.
Everything is now under management, under new management.
(11:40):
What is, what's your personal process for branding a new product
or person? Oh, that's a. That's a good one.
The. I'm going to jump to, to. To what we want.
And that's how I start, by the way. I start with what we want. What's
the outcome with a product? Consumer good.
(12:00):
Let's say we have a beverage or a book or an electronic
or a piece of clothing. Right? A consumer good. Or
we have an executive. It can be a creator, it can be a
lawyer, an accountant, or it can be a business owner. Can be
somebody looking for capital, which I, I do a lot.
I always go to the end and say, what
(12:23):
is the end? What. What do we want? Then I go into the
audience. Who is the avatar? Who are we doing this
for? We are not doing it for the product. We are not doing it
for the person. We are doing it for the
consumer. We are doing it for the end
consumer. Not even the retailer, the wholesaler, the
(12:44):
distributor. If we're talking about beverages, let's say it's
the consumer, the person buying it in the store or an
Amazon. If it's a person,
they are delivering a service. Let's say, who is
the customer? Well, everybody can benefit. That's the problem. Right?
We have to get into a niche. Let's go and get
(13:06):
doctors or lawyers or insurance salespeople or real
estate agents or roofers. What are constructor
construction companies. What is the avatar? I call it.
So I start with the outcome, then who is going to get
this outcome? And then I move backwards into the branding
from there. And not only into the branding, but as
(13:28):
we move into the branding, we move into how much
can these people afford. So now we get into pricing
strategy and pricing theory. What would we name
this? If it's a product, we go into naming theory.
So it's very specific and developed with.
With every step of branding,
(13:51):
every step all the way back into
how. What is this product going to look for, what are the
look like, what are the colors we're going to use? So it goes into the
artwork. If we're talking about, let's
say a beverage, I'm working on the beverage right now.
Calmara is the name. It is a beverage company for people who
(14:13):
love meditation, Zen and
Asian culture, specifically Japanese culture. So
that's the avatar. So we already know the avatar. We already know
they love going to Japan. They love. Maybe
they practice martial arts, maybe Brazilian jiu jitsu or maybe
they're anime fans. For sure they're
(14:35):
anime fans or manga fans for sure. I want those.
How old are they? Well, they're young, they're not my
age. They're. Of course there's outliers, but most of them are 16
to maybe 30. And then yes, you have
older people, but that's okay. You focus on the target market
first. So then we develop the brand for
(14:58):
them. So what am I do it doing for them? I'm developing
something that will trigger an emotional connection which is the
holy grail of branding. How can I develop an
emotional connection with my end consumer with the
avatar? In this case, we're going to do it with storytelling
by placing a manga character on every can
(15:20):
and then interacting with other characters
of other cans by telling stories with graphic novels
and comics, for example, then it will be
engaging with the consumer. So we have the feedback,
immediate feedback. And we say do some
fan art for us if you like drawing. And we're going to do a contest,
(15:44):
do some videos, some dress up, dress as your favorite
character from our manga comics. And we're going to do
contest, maybe a trip to Japan or swag
a T shirt or a Japanese inspired hoodie
or maybe a katana. Right. If the. If the
insurance company allows it. So that would be how
(16:06):
we develop an emotional connection where
they're not just consuming this product. They're telling your friends,
you're playing, you're dressing like the characters.
Maybe we go to the comic conventions and we interact with the
consumers and they come dressed as their favorite character, and we give
them swag and prices and take pictures with them, upload them to
(16:29):
social media. So this is how we would develop a
brand for a beverage for. For
this particular beverage company, Calmara, who comes
out in about three months. If, if, if it's
a person, how can we tell your story as a
hero's journey? That's. It's always the same. It's
(16:51):
easy. It's a formula. All of your listeners can use it. I've
done a lot of personal branding
projects, and I always recommend to start with the
book. It's intimidating, but it's not difficult.
I've done it a lot of times. So when you have somebody holding your
hand, it becomes very easy because I can interview you,
(17:14):
and by the end of the interview, you have a manuscript
if you know how to write. In a Hero's Journey. Just so happens that I
write fiction and I edit. So I'm an editor as well.
And I spent 20 years, more than 20 years, because I started
at 12, writing, but. But in Spanish, and then 20 years in English.
No, 25 years in English. I've published
(17:36):
15 books then for other people
doing this pro process. And I'm writing now a lot of fiction
novels, fiction, science fiction, fantasy. And
there's a formula, and it's something like this. You
are the hero in the hero's journey. That
becomes the teacher. Because in the hero's
(17:59):
journey, you need a mentor. It's a wizard, it's a
teacher, it's a master Jedi, whatever you want to
call it, depending if you have Harry Potter or if you have
Merlin and Arthur, or if you have Luke
Skywalker, it's the same story, all of them. It's this how to train
your dragon. Whatever you're using, it's always the same story. You have a
(18:21):
protagonist and you have a mentor. This is the
mistake. When you think you're always going to be the
hero, that's the mistake. Your customer is
the hero. Right? This is
important. Your customer is your. Is the hero. You start as the
hero for empathy. Empathy.
(18:43):
Empathize with your customer who is suffering, who has a problem
that you will solve when you become the mage.
So in your hero's journey, you become the mage.
How? With all of the struggles, whatever the
alcoholism, divorce, your kids,
left the house for a year. You got fired from
(19:06):
your job. We all have something in our life. Yeah, you know, a death in
your family, a disease, a traumatic brain injury.
Growing up with no money. You name it focus
on mistakes. People tell me, do I have to talk about my mistakes?
That's all of what we're going to talk about. Because
(19:27):
storytelling, if there's no drama, there's no
story. And as we evolved, you become
the mage because you are learning from all of these mistakes.
And then tell your customer, you will save,
I will save you from making all of these mistakes and
(19:48):
spending all this money because I became the
mage now. And if they see you as the mage, they
will come sign your contract, they will not negotiate
anything, and they will pay you up front. And that's a
dream for when you're doing personal branding.
(20:08):
What role does storytelling play in
raising capital effectively for startup?
Yes, in raising capital. Just like anything else that
you do, it's all about the story. Yes,
they say, show me the financials, do this and that.
Yes, they want to check the box. But really, if they don't buy the
(20:31):
story, they will not invest. You also have to
consider your target market. Let's go back to your avatar.
Are you going. Who is investing in your company? Are you going to be a
publicly traded company where you have. I have a company with 50,
000 investors. For example, one of my publicly traded companies has
50, 000 investors. And it's hard
(20:53):
because if you have, if you have 500 that
are angry at you, that's a lot of people that are angry at you.
However, in the big scheme of things, it's not because you have 50,000
investors. So who, who are you going for? Are you going for
venture capital? Big firms, angel
investors? Are you going after your neighbors and your friends
(21:16):
and your family? Are you going
through networking events and getting funding that way? Or are
you hitting a specific geography? Lawyers or real
estate agents or real estate investors or
doctors, all of those are different. Once
you have your avatar, you have to craft
(21:38):
your story. I recommend that
whoever you're solving the problem four
would be your perfect investor, for starters. Or whoever
can distribute it or whoever can sell it. So it's
who is benefiting, benefiting, Benefiting from your
solution economically or with the solution
(22:01):
itself. If you have a medicine, who will use this medicine
even if it's over the counter for cough or, or for
something like that, who will, who will benefit it? Go after them
or the distributor or the retailer. And then
to your question of storytelling.
When I've done a lot of pitches and I've sent
(22:24):
five companies public and I've done, I
don't know how many pitches, maybe 100 pitches,
but I used to do consulting for
Investors. So investors would call me in, in the
beverage industry, in fast moving consumer goods and for
investing in Mexico. So if they wanted to invest in Mexico and
(22:46):
they don't know anything about Mexico or even if they just want the Mexican, they
would call me and ask me questions about usually a big publicly
traded company, not a startup.
And I found out what they're looking for because that's what
they would ask me. So I have a little bit of inside knowledge
because they told me I'm, I'm thinking of investing
(23:09):
in this company. This is what I think of asking them.
Right. So with that, I found out
how to craft a story for them as well for institutional
investors. And yes, they say they want the numbers and everything,
but at the end of the day they would tell me, okay, what's the
story? That's what they would ask at the end. What's the
(23:32):
story? When here's a shocker for
you or for your audience. Most of investment done in
the US Most of the deals, not investment but
deals are done through kitchen table deals,
through venture capital firms. So if you're looking for
investment, the, the,
(23:55):
the most likely to invest is not a venture capitalist
because they usually wait until the first or second round to
invest. So it's going to be somebody in your community investing.
If you go to. I used to be a fund manager as
well. I managed an investment fund and I would go to the
(24:15):
venture capital shows in
Silicon Valley and they would tell me that they
only invest in two or three deals. Imagine if you have two or three
deals to invest in and there's 200 people in the audience.
Yeah, that's, that's hard.
Absolutely. Can you share a time
(24:38):
when a pitch totally failed and what you changed
after that? Okay,
so when a pitch fail a lot, a lot of times,
I think all of the time, the first time it fails because you're, you're
working, you're working at it. But let me tell you what I see as failure
(24:59):
time and time again. Number one, asking for NDAs,
right? So that's a failure because you're not going to get the investors,
they don't sign NDAs. I don't sign NDAs. I Don't ask for
people to sign NDA because we cannot do business.
I, I get, in the beverage industry, I get maybe 20 deals
a week. I can't sign your NDA because I've done a hundred
(25:23):
deals. The next
deal is going to look like your deal and then I can't do it
because you're going to say, oh, it's also a beverage. It also has water. It
also has vitamin C. No, there's no
real IP in the formula. Right.
And the other thing is, if you think somebody can go and
(25:45):
do your business model that fast, it's a bad business model.
If you think somebody's gonna copy you, it's a bad business model.
The other thing is not practicing your pitch.
You. You need 10 slides, and
you need to know your stuff, and you need to practice. Practice
(26:07):
with people. Not just by yourself. No
ooms. Know your numbers. Know how you got to
those numbers. Show your work. What math teachers used to say,
show your work. You have to show your work. If you're in, in the beverage
industry, how many stores can you get? What's the cost of opening
one store? What's the cost of opening a thousand stores?
(26:29):
Don't say, I'm gonna capture 1% of the market. That's also a red
flag for investors. Never say, oh, my. My
niche is $50 billion. If I only capture
1%, we're all going to be millionaires. Okay, what's 1%
look like? How many employees?
Yeah. What's your supply chain like? Right. If you knew
(26:51):
that, you wouldn't tell me. I need 1%. You will tell me the
exact numbers that you're going to sell at every stage of the
operation, and that's what you need to know. That's number one.
Number two is your valuation and where you are
as a company. I also do software. I started
my career in software, and I do some software AI right
(27:14):
now, specifically. And what I'm. I'm
working with one AI company that we're looking for
funding. And this, we're looking for institutional. So not mom
and pop. We're looking for, this is a solution
for, for Boeing and Airbus and big companies
in the aerospace. So we're looking for those companies to invest.
(27:37):
So we need somebody inside and somebody who
knows the software, the numbers, the supply chain.
All of this is before they pitch. So, for example,
before, before we came on, I got a text from them that said, we're
gonna, we're gonna do a. A whole week of work, and then
we're gonna do a whole week of testing or pitch on Saturday. Eight
(28:00):
hours. So if you think you're practicing with 20 minutes, these guys
are doing eight hours to get it right. And so when
it comes, when they come to me, I already know
they're ready for prime time. And usually when they
come, when people come to me, they think they're ready and they're
not ready. So those are red flags. And, and you
(28:23):
should know your numbers. You should have a terrific story.
Awesome. Awesome. How do you
maintain clarity and focus while managing multiple
ventures?
That's. That's a very interesting question
(28:47):
because I. I write three or four
books at the same time, for example, and I can be
involved with five beverage companies, two
AI companies, and work on personal branding for
five executives and have a mastermind for
authors, another mastermind for fast moving consumer goods.
(29:10):
That's how my brain works, and that's what makes my brain happy.
When I had my traumatic brain injury, for example, that was out of control.
I had what I can describe
as a thousand roulettes running in my head all
at the same time, just going and going and going, never
stopping. So that's the bad part. The good
(29:33):
part is that it's a lot of fun to have all of these
projects. And the way I keep them
in my mind is with creativity.
I see all of them as creative projects, and
they're fun because I'm using my creativity with
them. When it becomes only about the numbers, it's not fun for
(29:55):
me. I need the creativity part with all of them. So
I get involved with packaging, I get involved with art
direction. I get involved with all of that because that's my favorite thing to
do. And I've learned to have
a very organized mind as well, where I can put
them in drawers and open them when I need them, close
(30:17):
them, even if it's five minutes or 10 minutes. So it's
practice.
What. What are some of the biggest branding mistakes you see new
entrepreneurs make? Ooh, I like that one.
The biggest branding, branding mistakes entrepreneurs make are
copying fortune or global companies.
(30:40):
That's for sure. Number one. I want to be like
Nike. I want to. Oh, this is one I hear
once a day. I want to be like Apple. I hear it
once a day, right? I want to be like Apple.
I think the right, the right thing to do is I want to be like
Apple when they were a startup.
(31:03):
That's the right attitude. That's not a mistake. If you say,
I want to be like Apple when they're a billion dollar company,
okay, how much money do they spend to be like Apple?
So be like Apple when they had $100.
Be like Apple when they were scavenging for parts.
(31:25):
That's the way you need to think. Be like that
beverage company when they had $1,000
and they were knocking on doors. Please, please, please
try my product for free. I'll leave.
I'll leave this with you at the convenience store on Consignment
and I'll come back in a week because I can't sell a single case.
(31:48):
Be like that beverage company when they were doing that, that's the number one
mistake. And it's also a mistake that we get from school because
in school those are the case studies that we learn
because they're easily available. They're publicly traded companies. They publish
this. You get them at the Mat Edit Inc.
Magazine. Yes, but you need the, you
(32:11):
need the startup version. You need to go and fetch the
entrepreneur of Dell when he was
selling from his door, from his dorm room and how
he created culture when he was
putting the computers together in his room with no money.
Pre order pay 50% so I can go buy the parts.
(32:34):
Learn from that. Copy that not. I want
to be like Dell now. Right. So I think that's the number one
mistake. What's, what's your daily routine
look like now compared to when you, when you first started out?
A lot of my routine is, is
(32:56):
aimed or managed or, or limited
by my pain and by my brain damage.
So before my routine was
a lot of sports. I trained three to four hours per day.
I was addicted to exercise, lifting
weights, swimming, martial arts. I was
(33:19):
teaching martial arts. So that was hours per day. A couple
of hours per day. And then swimming, basketball,
all of that writing. I wrote a thousand words a day before my
accident. And that's a lot in the writing world. I've
written millions of words. Now
I want, I want to do things that count. I
(33:41):
have a very strict diet. Again because of my injuries.
I have to do a lot of physical therapy, which is not the heavy duty
exercise that I did before. It's very focused because
besides my brain damage, I have torn
shoulders and knees. I already had neck surgery.
So I have to work a lot on my shoulders not to be in the,
(34:03):
in the operating room. I have to work a lot on my
knees, which means my quads and a lot
of my shoulders with, which means a lot of pulling, pull ups and things
like that. Lateral races, scapula,
a lot of scapula work. So a lot of physical therapy, a lot of
doctors visits. I was getting, let me see, like
(34:26):
maybe 30 injections per week.
I'm, I'm getting maybe 30amonth right
now. But if I'm going through a lot of pain, I have to, to
have like 30 injections per week just to function in society.
And what I like to do is I read a lot.
(34:48):
So I, I have to do it with audiobooks
because I can't see very well, after my accident. So I do a lot of
audiobooks, hours per day, a lot of
maybe an hour, two hours of physical therapy per day. And then
I have to do, by prescription, artistic things. So I
write, I paint, and I do other creative, creative
(35:10):
endeavors. And then I only use an hour or
two a day for the thing that we're doing now,
which is speaking on. On the microphone
or on a video call. So I do an hour or two a day of
that, which is now a day's my work. And
that can be with. With partners, with clients, etc.
(35:36):
How do you balance creativity and execution in your companies?
Creativity and execution? I think
it's very difficult to execute, especially for
artists. Let's take the writing.
(35:56):
I have a saying it's not. And it's the saying I use for, for me
also, not just for other people. It starts with me. It's not
how many books you write, it's how many books you publish. And
yes, the process is magnificent. I recommend that if you don't write,
if you listen to this, do not write, start writing. It'll make you
more intelligent, it will give you clarity,
(36:19):
ideas. It will help you in your business and your
personal life. So write, write about yourself, about solutions, about things
you see in the world, about kindness, about whatever you
want. So that, for me, is publishing now, because
publishing is a goal. That's why I have this saying. It's not how many books
you write, it's how many books you publish. Let's say my mom. My mom has
(36:41):
a very difficult time publishing. And I'm always on her.
I edit her books and I always summer. She already gave me
one book that I published for children. She's working on two more,
but she's been working on them for five years. She's working on two
novels. And I read a little bit, gave her notes, and it's
been a year, and this was like a week of work.
(37:03):
So the execution of that is very difficult. With
artwork, let's say painting, same thing.
I have a goal of one project per day, which is very
aggressive, but they're very small projects. Maybe the size of
double the size of an iPhone. So if you take two iPhones and you
put them together, that would be the size of my painting, let's say.
(37:25):
So it's small, so I can do it in a day. And I.
I recorded in case I want to sell art
or do a store, an Etsy store or something like that,
or print. And. And for me, it's finishing it.
Not only starting it, but finishing it and then getting rid of it.
So I give it as gifts so that I don't have it
(37:48):
in my house. It's out of the house, hopefully making somebody
happy. So I manage it
with number one, with
goals. Having goals. Like I'm going to do one a day and I'm going to
give it away. That's number one. I take a photo because I want
to put it later as a print or something on the store. So that's one
(38:11):
goal. The other goal is, I mean goal is
one. But then you need a ritual. That's another thing that you need.
You need a ritual. Artists, writers, we all need a ritual. Sit in
the same chair. If I go to a coffee house, I sit in the
same chair, go to the same coffee house. I want the, the, the
same barista every time. And I have a goal. I'm going to write a thousand
(38:33):
words, let's say. So that's my ritual. And
that's very important for execution.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Because I, I actually
released two books this year. But
the journey started three years ago when we self
published my nephew's book. And at that point I
(38:56):
was like, I don't think I'm ever gonna write a book or whatever. And then
I got involved with his book and started
helping with his book and it kind of like opened the creative juices for me
and gave me an opportunity. And I just released two books.
We self published it ourselves. We did the COVID work, everything,
and it's on Amazon. But
(39:19):
I learned from the experience we had with publishing
his book and the money we invested towards
that where we learned like, okay, now we know how to do this, do this
and do this. We'll save money now. Now we're like, okay,
we can save money on this because now we don't have to
(39:39):
spend what we had to spend there because now we have tools to help us
with editing, help us with spell checks and all this
stuff. Where to have someone editor,
proofread and everything. But let's be honest,
it's not cheap. That's right. No, that's right.
That's amazing. Two books is amazing.
(40:02):
Congratulations. Thank you. What are they about?
The first one I wrote is called the Power of Purpose. Living with
Clarity, Passion and intent. And it's.
It. Okay, so let me tell you
about me.
In 2008, I lost my first wife in a car
(40:23):
accident and I was spiraling out
of control. I was very self destructive,
self medicating, drinking. And it was.
And after that it was just like the following year I reunited
with my Father. After not being with him after 28
years. Right. I go to Puerto Rico to go see him.
(40:46):
Father's Day weekend. I arrived Friday. Saturday morning,
he passes away. This is a year and a month after my wife. Oh, my
God. And then. And then it was just.
I buried two brothers, my uncle, my aunt,
all this within six years.
And I was lost. I was angry
(41:08):
with God because I was like, why me? Why.
Why is all this happening to me? And. And
then one day, it was like, this isn't your path. This isn't what you're
supposed to be doing. Like, I didn't do
this to punish you. This is. This wasn't to be. This wasn't to punish
you. And when I started realizing that, I went and
(41:31):
I sought help. I went to therapy, started turning my life around,
got into security and
met my wife that I'm with now. And things started
changing for me. I came. I moved to Pennsylvania with my.
I moved my family from Brooklyn, New York, up to the Pocono Mountains in
Pennsylvania, helped them get settled here.
(41:54):
I turned my life around. I am now. I started at
a casino as a security guard. I am now
a pit boss at the casino. Wow.
I was able to turn my life around. And so I did have
a story to share, and I did have something to put out there.
Wow, that's an incredible story. And hero's journey.
(42:20):
It's a tough one. It's a tough one, but
it's one that now you can help people
with grief. Yeah. And. And
we're going through grief right now in my family. And. And it's something.
It's so strange and so strong because it is
(42:40):
strange. The feelings are strange and.
And strong. They're stronger than us sometimes. Oh,
listen. And last. Well,
last year was a rough year. My mom passed away last year in February.
But prior to that, the
prior two years to that, she had, like, she. She was
(43:04):
diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia, and she just
deteriorated fast. Like,
in no time. Like, we celebrated her 80th birthday,
and then years later, she just started declining in health.
And. And it was the dementia and Alzheimer's started
affecting her where she really couldn't do things herself.
(43:28):
So last year, in February, she passed away, and
it kind of brought back some of the pain from the
past. Yes. This is. This is a woman who,
like, was my mother and father for so long.
She was that guiding light for me. Yes. And to have that
(43:49):
extinguished was, like, hard.
Yes. That's. That's.
I think you have a lot of tools now to help people
with grief. With, with your platform,
with your podcast. People listening now.
Yeah. That are going through grief or a traumatic brain injury or
(44:12):
both. Because maybe, you know, the traumatic brain injury
feels like loss. I feel I lost
myself. I'm a different person and I miss that
person. And I, I, I
have grief that I don't know how to deal with
from what I lost and what I can't and cannot do. It's
(44:36):
very strange, but it feels like somebody
died. It's the same sensation in
my brain. The brain doesn't know the difference between
somebody dying and that part of me dying. It, it thinks
somebody died and, and it, it, it gives me
the, the chemicals of grief, which is very, very strange.
(44:59):
Yeah. You've helped celebrities launch products.
What separates them from everyday entrepreneurs?
The divas? I think. No, I, I've met some
entrepreneurs who are divas too. So, so, yeah, it's not that.
What, let me see. What, what, what is it like and what's the difference
(45:20):
between working with celebrities? I think it depends on the level of celebrity.
I, for example, Dennis Rodman, I did
a product with Dennis Rodman, the basketball player. For those younglings that
don't know. Yeah. Hall of Famer, probably one
of the best or the best rebounder and defensive player of all time.
(45:42):
Crazy, crazy guy. Great for,
great for media, because your eyeballs on. You are on.
You know, this is the guy who went to Las Vegas,
married himself. Yeah. In the middle of
the playoffs. So he was
drinking the whole time. And when I met him,
(46:04):
he was drunk and it was 9 o' clock in the morning. He was partying
and he was already drinking. He was very
hands off. He was dressed like Dennis
Rodman, you know, leather, all leather, leather vest, nothing
underneath, you know, earrings and tattoos and
(46:25):
orange hair, I believe. So he
was, he had his, his personality, his
right. And it was very easy. It was very
easy because he, he says, hey, I know how to play basketball. You know how
to do beverages, you know, branding. I know basketball. He said, I know how to
brand a basketball player. I don't know how to, how to brand
(46:47):
a beverage. So that was easy. I did a project with,
I helped them projects with other basketball players, Camilo Anthony
and other players as well. But I dealt with their
representatives and not with them. With Dennis Rotman, I met in person
(47:08):
with Steve Young. I did a pro, A project with Steve Young. I didn't meet
him. So, so I, I only worked with whoever
was managing that project. Same with like three or four other
athletes and
with musicians, with, with musicians, for example, I met
Rick Ross several times. I went to his house, we sat down around the
(47:32):
table. We did a photo shoot even with him.
That was cool. He has a, like a mansion in Atlanta.
Like from the movie. Actually it is from the movies because they rent it for
the movies. Yeah, he has a big festival over there like
every year. Yeah, we went to that one as well.
(47:52):
A car. We went to the car show here. We went to the car show.
So he was cool. He told us his story.
So he has a story also. And he told us his story with
seizures and how CBD and
THC helped them a lot. Help them stop smoking
tobacco, cigarettes as well. So that was cool that
(48:14):
it was easy. We worked with Rap Snacks, which
is his partner and they are also
famous and deal with not only Rick Ross, but some
of the best rappers in everywhere
because they have the biggest rappers in each one of their products.
(48:34):
So James is his name. He's an incredible cool
guy. I did a podcast with him as well
and with James and we, we. He even took
us to one of his production facilities for the. I'm a potato chip
addict. So I'm like, are we gonna eat some potato chips? He's
like, oh, you can eat. I'm, I'm in. So we went to
(48:58):
his factory and There were like 30 trucks lined up that
were gonna leave because he just got on into Walmart Smart at that time.
And if you're not familiar, if listeners are not familiar with rap
snacks, they are. They have a
rapper in every single flavor. Not
like a fourth tier rapper like Snoop Dogg.
(49:20):
Yeah, yeah. Every rapper, like if. Right, like every
rapper. So I met a few. Oh, and he has a
yearly festival as well. And, and, and I
went there. So I met all of his partners, which are
producers. Like we had like 30
bodyguards there just so you can get an idea. So that was cool.
(49:42):
Let me see. Snoop Dogg is super chill. Of course
I met him. I didn't talk business with them,
but he, I worked with
his CEO and that was
very, very professional. I was the art director,
brand manager. I produced like 50 SKUs
(50:05):
for him. So a lot that was the most I've done for one product or
for one person. Like 50. It was very
easy, the project management flow because usually
with other clients to do four, it could take a year.
And he wanted 50 like in three months. So
my, my staff was working like 14 hour days to get all the
(50:27):
products done. But the workflow was very fast.
Fast approval or fast changes, change this, change
that, boom next day. Not a week,
not two Weeks to hear back. No, next day. Like,
like almost texting. Do this. Cool. Do that. Let's meet in
person. These changes, you know, I smoke this and this was
(50:48):
very good. This way. I didn't like the taste, I didn't like the people. We
were doing papers, we were doing cones, we were doing gummies. We were
doing everything that you can imagine. So I need. We even did
the gummies are
house. A house of a dog house.
Yeah, yeah. For the. For the dog pound. Oh,
(51:12):
so that was cool. Like a Snoopy type house.
Yeah, yeah. So that was very cool with the bone. And
so that was very fast and.
And furious because we were doing so many products so fast.
Yeah, it's not. I work with
(51:32):
rockers, like from the 70s, like big hair
and you know, they went to the office, we took pictures. Hands off.
Completely hands off. Like, what's the product? What's the flavor?
They were there for the pictures again. They had bodyguards and
the whole shebang. I met one of Snoop Dogg's kids
because he's. He was on the board of directors, he had a bodyguard. He
(51:55):
came to the office, same thing, gave us his opinion. Very
professional, very down to business. You know, we
did what we needed to do. He left
then. Chichinchong.
They were just funny the whole time. We spent maybe four hours with them.
(52:16):
They were high, like a different level of
high the whole time, but just joke. Like
we were on the floor and these guys are like the
anti divas. We were sitting like we were in the back,
in the, in the back. Somebody's backyard. I don't know who.
Right in the hood because we drove to la, so I don't
(52:38):
know where we are. It's the hood. And they were sitting on the floor. On
the floor. We were all sitting on the floor and they were just like. They
were doing bits back and forth, back and forth, just
making us laugh. They can help it. And then they had
the. Their famous lowrider car there in the
studio. So when they get on the car and we were doing papers for
(53:01):
them, smoking papers and I think gummies and other things for them.
So, you know, once they had to turn it on, no
second take. They had a full production team there. One take,
one take, one take. They knew their lines. Even though they were high,
they knew their line. What's next? What's next? Now we're gonna do a
beverage. Now we're gonna do a gummy. Now we're gonna do a paper. Now we're
(53:24):
gonna do a T shirt. And then in between takes Just
funny, funny, funny. But this is the best thing. They
finished, we're done, and they go, we don't have a ride. Can
somebody take us home?
That was cool. Oh,
(53:46):
man, this has been wonderful. It's been
great. Thank you for being such a wonderful guest. But before we leave, right,
I'm gonna give you some time to, to plug away and let everybody know where
they can find you. But what do you hope your legacy is for the next
generation of entrepreneurs? That's a. That's a
great question. And it worries me. That worries
(54:08):
me. And I want to leave a legacy. I think for me is going to
be my books, because they're
immortal. Yes, I have videos and I record a lot of
videos and audios and things like that. But with the books, the
ideas are thought of, organized, and expanded.
So I hope, I hope I can, I can have inspiration for
(54:29):
entrepreneurs in especially minorities
in the US And Mexico
because those are my countries, that those are the countries where I've lived.
I write in Spanish as well, so I hope
I can inspire entrepreneurs to change their life.
(54:50):
I hope that's my legacy. That's my next goal, is to write my
book in Spanish. You can translate them? Yeah,
just translate them. You already have them. It's easy. Yeah, yeah.
But thank you so much. But now we've come to the part of the show
where you get the solo screen and you get to plug away and let everybody
know where they can find you. Check out your website, everything.
(55:12):
Sure. To find me, you can go to
www.jorge olson.com.
that's my name. J O R G E O L S O
N. And you can find me on LinkedIn and all of the social
networks. I'm big on LinkedIn, so you can hit me there with an
email if you have something urgent to tell me.
(55:33):
If not, go to my website, sign up,
and you'll receive videos, audios and other things,
webinars that you can come into or for free with information
on branding, sales, personal branding, how to launch beverages and
other products. It's a lot of fun. It's always interactive, so you can
ask questions in these settings.
(55:55):
Thank you very much and thank you for having me. It's. It's been
phenomenal. Thank you, man. I greatly appreciate you
stopping by and sharing the stories and sharing your knowledge with us. I
really do appreciate it. You're very welcome. But don't leave just yet. Let me
close out the show and we'll chat a little bit off the air. But thank
you once again for being such a great guest. You got it.
(56:18):
All right, everybody. Another great episode is in the books.
If today's conversation moved you, challenged you, or lit a fire under you,
don't keep it to yourself. Please share this episode with someone who needs it.
Subscribe Leave a Review Let's. Let's keep building a
great community where truth, transformation, and purpose collide. Until
next time, stay hungry, stay humble, and above all, stay
(56:41):
real. It's your boy. W I Z E. Peace out.
It.
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