Welcome to another insightful episode of "The JUSTIN RYAN BIZZARRO Show", where our host, Justin Bizzarro, engrosses in intriguing conversations with Alex Velez from Identity Labs. With Alex being a trailblazer in social media and brand development, this episode gives a candid glimpse into his unconventional journey as a young entrepreneur.
Starting off with his first job experience at sixteen, Alex shares the trials and triumphs of his entrepreneurial journey. Balancing the thrilling unpredictability of setting his trends, with learning from setbacks, this episode explores the resilience and vision required to conquer unknown terrains. The dialogue also emphasizes the importance of adaptability and documenting one's journey and the precious lessons learnt from failures.
The conversation extends to the importance of bartering, the role of mentors, and the fortitude to build robust, mutually beneficial relationships. Alex approaches the complexities of handling businesses as a young individual, breaking societal norms and living by his rhythm. He discloses his experiences with societal expectations and the hurdles towards achieving greatness. Further, he discusses how he uses his entrepreneurial journey as an opportunity to affect humanity and the planet positively.
In the concluding segments of the episode, Alex delves into the often-grappled elements of faith and spirituality in young adulthood. Through a heartfelt discussion, Alex narrates his spiritual journey and the integral role of faith in his life and entrepreneurial endeavors. The episode wraps up by encouraging the audience to rediscover themselves, maintain their enthusiasm, and seek spirituality in their journey.
Join us as we navigate through the fascinating world of social media, brand identity, entrepreneurship, and spirituality with Alex Velez. This episode promises a thought-provoking exploration of passion, resilience, determination, faith and reinventing oneself in the face of adversity. Tune in NOW!
IG: @a1exve1ez
Marketing & Advertising Entrepreneur [MAE]: Alex Velez
Hosted By: Justin Ryan Bizzarro (IG: @justinbizzarro)
Who is Justin Ryan Bizzarro? – Justin Bizzarro is a serial food, restaurant, technology, media and marketing entrepreneur, who helped build a 24-year-old group of food and restaurant related businesses, he created with his father and business partners out of his family’s basement, in 1998. He is a highly desired business management, personal and athlete growth, free market, food diversity, and entrepreneurial leadership speaker. Justin’s expertise are in human growth, motivation, leadership and management development, health foods and beverages, global lean manufacturing facilities, vertically integrating businesses, food marketing and advertising, supply chain creation and management, direct to consumer fulfillment, transportation and distribution, personal brand building, restaurant development and construction, and entrepreneur acceleration. Justin received his BA in International Business and Management from Dickinson College, in 2002, and his MBA from University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, in 2014. He is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity in Leadership from Denver Seminary. His leadership and entrepreneur podcasts have positively impacted millions of people across the globe.
Thank you Deborah Michas [ IG: @deborahmichas ] for pushing me to do this Podcast, believing in me so I could conquer this, and being my Co-Host for the first two years.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:18):
Welcome, everyone, to the Justin Ryan Bizarro Show. I'm Justin Bizarro.
I'm your host. That's B-I-Z-Z-A-R-R-O.
For anyone who's out there, you can find us on Spotify or wherever else you
grow yourself through podcasts, as well as finding the Justin and the Food Entrepreneur
Show and the Centurion Leadership Battalion Show.
So, I have Alex Velez back of Identity Labs. How are you doing today, Alex?
(00:40):
I'm doing great. Really excited to be here for part two. Yeah.
How's Charlotte, North Carolina right now? How's the weather there?
It's good. It's starting to get really hot. I always say how North Carolina
is bipolar because one day it could be 80 degrees like it is right now.
And then the next it could be raining and 30.
So right now it's good. And hopefully it stays warm. What about you over there in Colorado?
(01:01):
It's a little bit warmer today. You know, this is, I believe it's Wednesday,
April 3rd as we record this, even though it won't release until next Tuesday, this episode.
But it's, Colorado's great. We get 300 days of sunshine here.
And how I ended up back in Colorado, it's a long story. I've had quite the,
I've lived in many places over the last 16 months, I should say.
(01:24):
And but I'm back here rebuilding enjoying the
weather for sure and enjoying the altitude even
more I guess because it definitely helps with the the working
out and the exercise and and getting back into shape and and slimming down and
and building your lung capacity for sure so enjoying that but it's good life
(01:46):
is good and I can't you know I can't complain right now I as much as I I wish
things were different and pray for things to be different.
I'm living the good life, you know, so. But, yeah, the weather's great. So.
Before we get started, Alex, I just wanted to let everyone know that I've gotten
some questions and stuff.
Yes, GorillaBrave.love is where you sign up for the food and beverage entrepreneur group.
(02:09):
We will be increasing our prices here over the next two weeks.
So if you haven't signed up and you want the cheaper price, you should probably
do it now because over the next two to three weeks, those prices are going up
just because we have higher demand. We're We're starting to get more integrated.
We're starting to offer more programs and more training through there and the
(02:32):
ability to go back and look at trainings.
And so if you're interested in that, it is GorillaBrave.love.
You do want to get that done. I know I sound like a cheap advertisement there, but that is the truth.
We're starting to give a lot more content, a lot more information.
We brought on another business partner to help us that's heroic in the food franchising industry.
(02:56):
Restaurants and beverages in particular, and franchising businesses across the
country, some of the big names you guys all know.
So with that, we've had to expand our product that we're offering and expand
the offerings to all you food and beverage entrepreneurs out there.
The second thing is, I know a lot of people have been asking about leaders to
owners. We haven't made it public yet.
(03:16):
Our first group of, or our first cohort, I will say that's starting to go through
it. We've kind of handled that privately.
So that's why you haven't seen leaders to owners go public yet are out there for everyone.
I appreciate the questions, but that is for leaders in the food and beverage
industry who want to become owners, connecting them with investors,
(03:37):
connecting them with education,
giving them all the skills they need to be franchisees or even build their own
businesses if they haven't done so already as entrepreneurs.
So I just wanted to lay that out because I got some questions after some of
the podcasts have started releasing again.
So let's jump into this. Alex and I are going to have some pretty depth conversations here.
(04:01):
And, you know, again, thank you everyone for listening in. Thank you guys for
the questions and the support.
I just can't believe how fast all the podcasts are growing across the country.
I also want to give Alex some props. He gave me a lot of ideas.
He's helped me by just talking to him at the Evolve conference,
(04:21):
talking on the phone with him, texting with him, having conversations with him.
He's helped me really focus on my social media and my social media is up 3x,
you know, followers already in Instagram just by listening to you.
It's the weirdest thing. It was some of the most basic things and what to focus
(04:42):
on and what am I really trying to do with my brand?
And it's already mattered significantly, you know,
and helping me also with the podcast and how I use the information on my podcast
and how my team here now lays out the content in the notes versus the way we did it before.
So, Alex, that's all because of you, a 21-year-old here helping me as a 44-year-old
(05:06):
blow my social media out of the water.
So, and my podcast likes. And we're already doing well. well,
we have hundreds of thousands of downloads always.
But, you know, now what we're seeing is a lot of traction, even without with
taking six months off, you know, and even from the social media,
I haven't been doing the things that I should have been doing.
(05:27):
And now there's a lot of success there.
So thanks, Alec. Just wanted to give you that, those props.
So I appreciate that, man. There's nothing more that makes me happy to hear than that.
I absolutely really do appreciate that. Yeah, and it also validates your skill set for sure.
A lot of people give advice. A lot of people are like, oh, just pay me some
money. I'll do this for you. I'll do that for you.
(05:49):
But you and I have sort of bartered our way through this, helping each other
out, mentoring, coaching each other.
Giving each other business advice and it's worked for me for sure.
And so I appreciate that. And something I want to emphasize with everyone is
you, we have a lot to learn from the younger generations in business.
And if we don't, we go out of business.
(06:12):
So, so I'm going to say on that from an entrepreneurial standpoint.
Absolutely. And I love any situation that I can coin is like a,
you scratch my back, I scratch yours kind of scenario.
I, uh, I'm all for, I learned that when When I was first getting started in
digital media, when I was 13, 14, and I wasn't allowed to have a PayPal or anything.
So I had no way of doing any monetary exchange. So I had to figure out how to barter it.
(06:36):
But that showed me the value of actually building a relationship first and adding
value to each other versus immediately jumping right into a business transaction.
When I think part of it is you need to show that they can get value out of it.
And it's a book by Russell Simmons, who used to own Def Jam Records.
(06:56):
And I can't remember the name of the book. It's like the second book he ever released.
But one of the things he talks about is giving things away to show your value
and bartering your way through things because then once people see the proof,
they're willing to pay for it.
And it's a true statement that has been true in my life.
And it's like, gosh, it's like how to live a rich life or something.
(07:18):
I'll think of it in a second since I named it.
But I think, Like, especially as we're young, we have to show the proof of what we're doing.
You know, we have to prove that we have the skill set we say we do.
And it takes people doing that. It takes risks to do it.
It's the book's called Super Rich, A Guide to Having It All.
(07:39):
And that's by Russell Simmons. It's his second book he ever released.
And the book is phenomenal just for anyone who's out there who likes reading.
You know russell simmons is a pretty impressive individual he's out of queens
new york also go figure that one out love queens so alex let's start off with some questions here,
(08:01):
absolutely if you could do it over again if you could start at 14 years old
all over again what would you do differently how would you do it and what advice
would you give yourself then that you know now.
Man, I honestly, I would, I would tell myself two words. I would say, keep pushing.
That's honestly all I would tell myself because had I not gone through the failures
(08:25):
and the lessons that I had learned, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
I wouldn't be who I am today.
And I truly believe that everything happens for us.
And because of that, I wouldn't have told myself to do anything differently
aside from documenting it more. I think that that's something that I feel like
a lot of people should be doing is documenting their journey,
whether it just be a quick video that you record on your phone or anything like that.
(08:47):
If it's in business or if you're trying to lose weight, whatever it is,
because when you can look back on the progress that you've made,
it's literally like a time machine where you're going back and you're feeling
the same emotions and energy that you felt in that moment.
And I think that the same can be done for the future as well.
So if I could go back in time now, I would tell myself to just continue to push
so I would have all of those lessons that I have now.
(09:09):
Love it. Role models growing up, like who had influence in your life?
What teachers, famous people, who did you look up to?
How did you, because you obviously had to know all of this was possible,
you know, and outlive and grow greater than your, than what has been your family,
(09:30):
because 21 years old, you're an entrepreneur, you have this mindset, you're going for it.
You know, it's not the safest path. So talk to me about role models,
influences, teachers, wherever it is.
Let's go through that list and just sort of lay it out for everyone.
Yeah, I would say the biggest thing for me, honestly, and this is why I'll speak
(09:52):
about the positive and negatives of social media, because I would say that social
media is where I was able to be exposed to the possibilities.
I wouldn't say that my role models were all on social media,
but it exposed me to what life could be.
And also growing up, I had technically four parents between two biological parents
and two step parents and seeing them go through those challenges and how they
(10:13):
lived life. it gave me that perspective.
So when I was just really thinking about like, what do I want my life to look
like? I was able to compare it to that.
And I definitely, one of the first people in my family to go and build something on their own.
So I didn't get the most support, honestly, even from my parents in the beginning of it.
(10:34):
So for me, a lot of the inspiration came from believing in myself and seeing what I saw was possible.
Also, I would I would say that what really solidified it for me was my first
job at 16 years old when I was working at a multimillion dollar insurance agency,
helping them build their social media,
getting to be inside of the CEO's office and get to, I even got to go on his
(10:57):
private jet with him and be in his hangar.
Since I was the social media guy, for example, I had to go to,
he had a whole private hangar that I would go to before everyone else so I could
capture things for the social media.
So in those times, I was able to be inside two private jets in front of me and
in this beautiful hangar by myself.
So I got to feel it and capture that moment as much as I could.
(11:19):
And that's what I do with every single scenario now that I'm in that I feel
like I will want to look back on and appreciate, even if it's not in business,
even if it's just something with my family. I always try and just remind myself
in that moment to appreciate this and capture this energy as much as possible.
Because when you can pull it back out, it emphasizes whatever it is you're trying to do.
Talk to me a little more about that. Talk to me about how do you vision? How do you dream?
(11:44):
How do you think about these things? Because as a young kid,
this is very different than what we would normally think, right?
That's true. I would say for me, being exposed to it at a younger age definitely
gave me an advantage because I was inside, like I was in school and I was able
to kind of see how it was structured to make you want to be a worker.
(12:05):
And I think that part of that, in my mind, I was processing it as like they're trying to control me.
I said this on the last episode, the time, money and energy.
When you go through the system, the way it's set up, you'll never have all three of them.
So for me, thinking about my future, even though I had no idea where,
how I would get to this point, I had a why and where I, what I truly value in
(12:27):
life, which is being able to impact people, have a family experience.
I think that having, I'm very grateful to have the moral foundation that I do
and understand the real value of relationships over material and things like
that, because that showed me that regardless of the vehicle that I'm driving
in, that destination the nation can never change.
That's always, that has to stay the same. So anytime I'm thinking about anything,
(12:50):
I'm always just, how can I maintain my fulfillment and freedom while still being
happy and doing something that's going to create impact?
What's your favorite part about your lifestyle right now? What are the things that you're enjoying?
And talk to me a little bit about that. You're on this endeavor,
you're 21 years old, most people are in college or trying to find the comfortable
(13:13):
job with the safety net, with the retirement package, with the insurance.
So what is it that you're enjoying the most and how do you keep going?
Those are two questions right there. Let's talk about what are you enjoying
the most, and then let's talk about this motivation and inspiration to keep
going and not take the easy path.
(13:34):
Man, I say what I enjoy the most is, honestly, it's what I enjoy and also what
I I would say I dislike the most, and it's the unknown.
You really don't know what's next, and I think that that's a beautiful thing
in life, to be able to experience so many different things, whereas if you plan
out your entire future, I'm going to go to college, I'm going to get a job,
work for 30 years, retire,
(13:55):
and so on and so forth, it's like you've got everything figured out. There's really...
Nothing exciting in that regard. So I would say for me, I really enjoy getting
to know that I can control what my day is going to look like.
And I don't know what my day is going to look like, but it's not going to be
determined by someone telling me, all right, you can go out to lunch now or I need you to do this.
It'll be determined by me. And I think that's another very big thing that keeps
(14:17):
me going is being able to control how I live my life and the way that I want to live my my life.
But at the same time, you know, I think it's really easy to think that being
a business owner and, you know, at my age is all fun and games and everything is beautiful.
But there are so many things that I really don't even discuss on social media
(14:41):
a lot that I deal with every single day because I'm 21 living alone.
So there are definitely negatives that come to that and figuring out how to
balance or find rhythm, I should say. I don't really like the term balance,
I want to say find rhythm.
That's something that I took from the Evolve event inside of life and that business,
because it's a completely different walk of life than if I were to go down the
(15:03):
path of going to college, like where most of my friends are right now.
And even in my family, no one has has done this at a young age.
So because I'm so young, I don't have an exact person to to replicate or to
look to. Everything is being created by me.
So I think a big part of it as well is even the weight of that,
knowing that the way that I see the world, my family hasn't.
(15:26):
So if I don't stop, that I will be the first person to break those beliefs for
them and create experiences that they didn't even think were possible,
which I think falls into the snowball effect that will then hopefully carry
on for generations and generations without me even needing to be here. I like that a lot.
You know, I think that so often people get frustrated or they hit bumps in the
(15:47):
road and they give up or they see their friends accomplish things young and
they want what they have and they don't think they'll ever get there by doing
it on your own or doing it on our own.
And so I think that's a big part of what you're saying.
I think humans wanting to be comfortable and wanting to live an easy life becomes
(16:08):
the obstacles that keep us from greatness or building good things or things
that may even help humanity down the road or God's creatures.
So I think that that's a big part of what we're talking about here is,
you know, is, okay, I'm going to build my family.
But ultimately, the extension of that is what impact am I going to have on humanity
(16:29):
as a whole for generations or God's creatures or God's planet,
or even, you know, whatever other planets we end up on.
So it's one of those things that I think it's so important in what you're saying
is that there's such a bigger picture here and it's hard for humans to think that big.
But we do we're capable of it and we're capable of creating things that are that big,
(16:54):
so it all starts with us yeah 100 and
i think that it's so easy to fall into to that belief because if you as i started
to grow up and just see how the system was set up in the ways that it would
indoctrinate us to think certain ways i realized that our minds think in ones
and zeros and like what you just said is a lot of people will chase that comfort
but if you don't realize that your mind really,
(17:16):
I just made a post about this, your mind really isn't on your side and it's
wired just like a computer is to think in ones and zeros and it doesn't know what's good for it.
It only knows what feels good to it.
So if that's how you operate and you solely go on how your mind,
how you feel, then going to the gym, you're never going to want to do because
your brain's only operating under, oh, I'm about to have to go put in this much
(17:37):
effort and experience this much stress.
It's not seeing what you're actually going to get out of it because it's such
a, it takes a long time to get to that point at that, that bigger picture,
like you're saying. Yeah, absolutely.
Like from a, from a career standpoint, from a professional standpoint,
from an entrepreneur standpoint, like where are you hoping this goes?
(17:58):
Where are you hoping identity labs goes?
Yeah. I mean, with me, everything that I do, I always want to change the stigma around it.
And I feel like right now in the social media world, there is a,
a lot of people that claim that they know a lot of things and claim that they
are the best at what they do when in reality they just started a month ago.
And for me, I know that there are a lot of people that are putting in a lot of hard work into it.
(18:23):
And I want to show that when you can do things right and still be a success
in life, you don't have to go and cheat and be a shark and step on people to
get to the top because I feel like it's very easy to believe that.
So for me, with what With what I'm building now and everything that I build
in the future, I just want it to be a beacon of light for people that are also
trying to get into a similar space or just trying to do something for themselves
(18:46):
to impact them in that regard.
Now, on a specific level with social media, I want to be able to help people
blow up their brands past places they never even thought imaginable and see
things that they didn't even think were imaginable and believe because it's
so easy when you're posting and you're posting and you just listen to generic advice.
So just post content and it'll work, but you're not doing anything with intent
(19:07):
or structuring it properly.
It's so easy to just be like, all right, it's just a, it's all a lottery and
only a few people will really do it right.
So I want to be able to show people that you can also, you can do it right and
you can do it in a good way.
And how do you, I mean, let's talk about that a little bit. What is your strategy behind that?
We talked in the last episode a little bit about snowballing and gaining momentum,
(19:30):
but let's talk a little bit more about how you help people do that.
How do you help someone comes to you, they want help with their social media,
whether it's a business or a personal brand, how do you go about effectively
leading them through it for success?
100%. That's literally in the name Identity Labs.
(19:52):
That's exactly why I wanted to name it that because first, it all starts with
figuring out what their identity is in that current moment.
If they don't already know it, they have nothing established.
Or if they do have something established, where are they at?
And what are the holes that need to be filled? Because everyone's got different
problems and different needs.
But there's always going to be a foundation for doing everything right. Right.
(20:12):
So anytime I want to work with someone, I first see where they're at,
see what their goals are and really understand that.
I mean, you can copy and paste trending audios and dances, but that's not going
to get someone to their end goal if you're not paying attention to it.
So figuring that out is a really big part of it. And then from there,
like I said, it's filling the hole.
(20:33):
So whether they need a funnel built and they don't understand where to even
go to build that funnel or how to build the funnel or if they need better content,
but then they don't know how to create the content or where to find an editor
to create the content or how to find a good editor, for example.
So there's so many nuances to actually developing a social media presence.
And my goal is to help fill the gaps of any of those for any business owner,
(20:53):
regardless of what level they're at, to help them get to the next stage.
So, I mean, the identity is part of the message, right? Once they establish
that, you have to almost create your photos, create your content around that
identity. Is that what you're saying?
Right. So for example, if someone wanted to be a fitness coach,
(21:15):
but they were only posting pictures of them after their workout,
and that's what they believed was going to work, then helping them adjust their
content to say, hey, you really want to position yourself as the doctor that
can cure your client's pain.
So when you're creating content, create it around problems that your people
are having and then make solutions to them so they see you as that.
What you were talking about earlier is giving away as much value for free so
(21:35):
then they're willing to buy it so they actually have the proof that you can do what you say.
That's what I tell people to do in their content is position yourself as that
person as much as you possibly can, showing up on stories, going live and interacting
with your audience and actually being genuine about that interaction as well
so you can foster a community of, I would call them super fans.
So instead of people that just see your content, like it, and they follow,
(21:57):
you're actually replying to their messages. You're replying to the comments.
And that turns them into a super fan where now, wow, this person really cares about me.
So they're going to continue to support you. And that, oh, I always go back
to the snowball effect, continues to snowball more and more and more.
And then as you get to those next levels, that's when you can start implementing new things.
So after you started to get some traction in your audience, and then you want
(22:18):
to drop your offer, there's a way that you can go about structuring it and creating
a promo mouse cycle, having a funnel landing page built out that's properly
structured to optimize for sales, things of all of that nature.
So it just depends on the level that that person is at, but it always starts
with creating content that will actually solve the problems of your audience.
(22:38):
I love this. You know, I think one of the things that, that makes it special
is you're, you've been doing this, you're 21, but you've been doing it for seven years, you know?
So you started seven years ago where, you know, let's, that's 2017.
Instagram was already around for quite a while by them.
If we're going to talk about Instagram and other social medias,
(23:01):
but what you were able to do is take something that already existed and excel at it.
And I see you're building multiple pages, you're experimenting yourself,
you've divided yourself into your identities, whether it's photography,
social media, whatever else, which I think is important as well.
It's not if this is who I am and this is my personal brand, this is what I represent personally.
(23:25):
But then there are sub parts of that that are broken out into other social media
accounts, which I think is no different than building subsidiaries as a business.
Once you build your main business, sometimes you got to break it out into subsidiaries
to support it because that business creates multiple identities sometimes.
And you need to be able to break it up so people stick to the culture of those identities.
(23:47):
Absolutely. And the more the social media has developed, the more that it's
become very good for those kinds of scenarios to be used.
And so if you have two accounts, let's say you have your personal brand where
this is where people attach to you as a person, but then you have your business
page as as well, you can now do collab posts.
So it'll be to both audiences, but you can still segment the content a lot more organized.
(24:11):
Awesome.
Let's talk a little bit about, we started talking about spirituality in the last episode.
We talked about you've got John Maxwell Bible, all that stuff,
rediscovering your spirituality, having someone back in the day tell you that
you can't be an entrepreneur and someone who goes to church.
(24:35):
Like they contradict each other, which actually I think they complement each other personally.
But let's talk a little bit about where are you going now?
Where are you hoping your spiritual journey takes you as an entrepreneur and
as a follower of Christianity, you know, of Jesus Christ and someone who believes in God?
Where are you hoping this takes you? Because you're so young as an entrepreneur, no offense.
(24:59):
Offense, but what I'm saying is you have a lot of enlightenment as an entrepreneur
and as a Christian in your spirituality comparatively to people your age.
So what I'm trying to do here is anchor with people that listen in their early
20s is this is possible for you.
It is okay, and you're still cool as an entrepreneur and as a believer in God
(25:24):
to do this in your early 20s.
You don't have to turn away from God or turn away from entrepreneurism or turn
away from business because the cool thing is to be safe and liked and find belonging
in the secular world or in the normal place.
The sacred world should also be the secular world where we're taking spirituality
and bringing it into entrepreneurism and bringing it into school and bringing
(25:47):
it into our everyday lives.
So let's talk a little bit about where are you hoping this goes,
why the spirituality now.
Now, I'm just going to give you the mic, Alex, and I just want you to sort of
go down the rabbit hole of this again and elaborate from what we had on the last episode.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you letting me share.
(26:08):
And this is, it's definitely been a long journey. And on the last episode,
I was discussing how my path of Christ has been very divided in a sense where
my parents weren't religious.
So I was exposed to pretty much every denomination of Christianity.
I even studied with Jehovah's Witnesses and to see all of these different things,
it left a lot of confusion for me and I had a lot of questions.
(26:28):
And so growing up, it was always something that I tried to get into and then it struggled with.
And around high school, I felt myself really starting to be called to it.
And then I was really diving into it a lot more and feeling that just learning
about it. Because like I said, I was not exposed to a direct line of Christianity
or a direct line with God. It was extremely divided.
(26:50):
And then I had an experience, like you're saying, where I was given an ultimatum
between entrepreneurship and God completely pulled me away from God.
And over these last few years, I've been trying to just continue to tap back
into it in our conversation that we had at Evolve to help me piece together
things that no one has ever been able to help me piece together as far as what God was doing for me.
(27:11):
And now, every time I pray, I ask for guidance and clarity.
Those are those two things. Because at the event, for example,
there was a question asked towards the end about what do you guys do whenever?
How are you brave? What makes you so brave? And one of the answers and one of
the most common answers I hear to this question is faith.
And I just realized that to get to the level of impact that I want to have in
(27:36):
life, I have to have faith that it is for a higher purpose and that I am being worked through.
So what I hope to happen is that as I continue to to redevelop this relationship
with God again, that he continues to to speak through me and use me even more
to create impact, because that's truly what I want to do.
But I know that with God by my side, that I'll be able to 10x that impact.
(27:58):
So I've just been trying to remind myself a lot of things. I believe I mentioned
this, whether it was on our last episode or in our conversations about how people
it's like when you're on a plane, knowing God is like being on a plane with
turbulence and you're sitting next to somebody who they don't know the pilot.
You know the pilot. You know they've been flying 15 years, their entire life.
They're a pro. They're the best in the world. But the person next to you,
they don't know the pilot at all. The plane experiences some turbulence.
(28:20):
They're going to be anxious. They're going to be shaking. They're going to be
so worried about what's going to happen next.
But you're going to be calm and you're going to know exactly these guys got
it. I'm not even worried about it.
And I think that that analogy fits perfectly to the relationship or what a relationship
with God will do for you in life and all of the turbulent moments that you have,
it's such a beautiful thing to be able to lean on and have someone even when you feel alone.
(28:44):
And I feel like for me, that's exactly what I've truly been needing since I've
been living on my own now, since I don't really have a lot of people to vent
to and to talk about the things that I mentioned that I deal with,
it's being able to talk to God and know that.
What I am being told and what I am feeling is valid and to also get guidance
(29:05):
and clarity from it is my ultimate goal.
Because I know that anytime I'm talking to someone or when I compliment somebody
in the back of my head, I can always remind myself that it was God using me to impact someone.
And I think there's nothing more fulfilling than being able to truly impact
somebody, whether it be on a business standpoint or a life standpoint.
(29:28):
But I think that this idea of being super mysterious and not being transparent
and authentic with the people around you, it's become this trend to have this kind of personality.
And being a man of God, you can't be that kind of person.
You have to be as authentically you and want to truly create impact on this planet.
(29:50):
So for me, if I embarrass myself or whatever the case may be,
I'm not worried about it at the end of the day, because I know that we're on
a planet with a million other planets and a bunch of other galaxies,
whatever you want to call it.
But at the end of the day, God's got us.
And if you truly hold that close to your heart, I feel as though it will take
(30:12):
you to places that you couldn't have even imagined, but you've got to truly, truly believe it.
So I'm I'm currently working towards grasping that again and truly feeling and
anchoring it within myself.
So when I talk about it, talking about it from a place of pure confidence and certainty.
I like that a lot. How do you educate yourself in your craft?
(30:34):
How do you grow your understanding of social media? How do you educate yourself in business?
How do you grow spiritually?
What are the strategies or the ways you go about that?
I would say for social media, it is honestly simply being on there and analyzing
(30:55):
things, developing the eye for actually when you see a piece of content that
works, understanding what the fundamentals of why a video works were,
because I'll see people that will, they'll post on social media and the comments
will be like, your videos, they relax me for some reason. I just don't get it. It's crazy.
But when I'm watching the video, I'm looking for the sound design and the shot
selection and those little tiny details that actually made it super relaxing
(31:18):
or whatever the case may be.
So as far as developing my craft with social media and in marketing as a whole.
It's analyzing, and I use this term a lot too, reverse engineering what other
people have done successfully so you can understand it, take bits and pieces
of it that have worked, and then add your own little spin to it and make it
even better so you can take it from there.
And as for everything else in life, I honestly, I try and approach every person
(31:42):
and conversation that I have with the mindset that I can learn something from them.
And I am not afraid to ask questions or admit that I'm wrong or ask for a suggestion
on a technique of, you know, my golf swing or something like that,
or whatever the case may be,
because I am willing to admit that I have so much to learn.
I think a lot of people don't want to say that, but I know that I have not been
(32:06):
exposed to so many things.
And I continuously search to be exposed to those things and to learn other people's
perspectives, because that's the only way in life that you'll be be able to
grow is seeing it from a different lens.
So however many lenses I can collect, I feel like that is just what increases
my ability to learn and soak in that knowledge.
(32:29):
Absolutely. Alex, well, very, very glad we did another episode for sure,
because there's a lot of content in here, a lot of golden nuggets,
not to be confused with the Denver Nuggets, but there's a lot of nuggets here
that are very valuable for those out there.
(32:50):
And one of the things that I think is your superpower is your confidence.
Like you are not afraid to go out there and do things. And if you are, you don't show it.
You've willingly seeked out your reverse engineering or whatever to try to help
understand how you can better the things that you do.
And you have a hunger for constantly bettering yourself and bettering your crafts
(33:15):
and your businesses. is.
And I think that that's a big part of why your light or your Holy Spirit is
shining so bright right now,
because you are fully tapped into this is what my purpose is right now.
This is where I want to go.
And if I'm going to honor God, I need to be able to turn up the volume as bright
(33:38):
as I can, you know, or as loud as I can.
And so that being said, that's why you're such an impressive of human and your
advice, I'm telling everyone you need to work with this guy.
The impact on the social media, the impact with your photography,
that impact is really big for anyone who's out there trying to build a personal
(34:01):
brand or build a business that wants to use social media.
It's definitely worked for me big time.
So I want to talk about that. Let's talk a little bit about about goals,
family goals before we wrap up here.
I mean, we've talked about relationships, you and I personally,
(34:21):
and you've talked about being in relationships.
As a 21-year-old where everyone's trying to rush in and find relationships and
get married and settle down or what the future's going to hold,
maybe not everyone, but that's definitely on the path when you're that age.
Where do you see yourself in terms of a relationship or finding a special human
(34:42):
for you? Like, let's talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, that's a that's a really good question. And I completely agree.
I think that a lot of people do rush into a relationship and think that it's
absolutely necessary and want to jump into it.
And I saw a lot of people in high school doing that. And, you know,
I went to an early college that had 32 students in my grade.
(35:03):
So even if I wanted to be going around and dating a lot of people,
then I wouldn't have had the opportunity. But that was never my personality.
I always valued having deep connections with anybody that I was talking to on
any level. So for me, I actually just very recently got out of my first relationship
that I had ever been in. It lasted over a year.
(35:24):
And I was very selective about doing that because I knew it was such a big thing for me.
And I learned a lot through that experience and what love truly is and how important
it is to constantly be working at it and not think that the soulmate is everything is perfect,
fine and dandy and that love is a choice. And that was a big lesson for me.
(35:46):
So, you know, going forward, I would say the time that I really wanted to say
right now, especially since it's relatively fresh for me that I got out of this relationship,
I want to leave it up to God and say that whenever that time is right for that
person to be in my life, that I will accept that.
And in the meantime, I'm going to do the absolute best to hold myself as authentically
(36:09):
as possible and make myself as good of a human as I can for that person.
Because I know that that's what's truly going to make the difference.
And that's all I can control right now.
So I want to be able to be able to give that person the best version of me and
just continue to serve in the meantime. time.
(36:32):
How are you finding yourself? I think, you know, I don't know if you have an
answer, but I think a lot of 20 something year olds and well,
even 30s and 40 year olds, maybe even 50 year olds.
But I think this is a good question for anyone out there that's your age or
in their 20s and 30s is how are you going about discovering who you are before
you enter into these relationships?
(36:54):
For sure. And I would like to say, I honestly think that I'm not so much looking
for myself anymore as I am inventing what I hope to be and what I want to be.
Because I would say, for me, I try and stay in touch with my inner child as much as I can.
And I feel like that's how I have discovered myself or found myself.
(37:16):
Because when you go through the ebbs and flows of life, it's really easy to
not have that childlike wonder anymore.
So for me, all the things that I did as a kid for, you know,
the biggest example for me is, you know, I'm still a WWE fan.
And I honestly, I stopped watching for so long and just recently started looking
at it again because it was something that I was so into as a child.
(37:36):
And that's allowed me to stay in touch with that childlike wonder and to continue
to maintain that innocence in myself as much as I can or stay in touch with
that innocence that I had as a child before being exposed to life as we all have been.
But as far as going forward, like I was saying earlier, since I don't feel like
I've had a direct role model that I can look to as far as in my family that
(38:01):
has carved a path like the one that I want to carve, for me,
it just comes down to inventing that.
So it's a stressful, it's definitely a stressful thing. And that's why I said
earlier, there's a lot of things that I I don't discuss.
And especially being alone all the time, I have a lot of time to think about these things.
So just trying to identify exactly who I want to be and how to get there. I love it.
(38:25):
Alex, where can they find you online? Yeah, absolutely.
I'm mainly on Instagram. My name's Alex Velez, and then the L's are ones.
That's where I'm most prominent on that account. Feel free to message me.
I'm always down to help, and I like taking my time whenever I can provide insight
to someone. So please reach out if you have any questions at all.
(38:45):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have you on for a part three and definitely going
to ask you a lot more questions. But I think one of the things that I really
want to emphasize is you're on a journey.
You have a surrendering attitude where you're trying to invent yourself,
but you're allowing what's the Holy Spirit to guide you.
(39:06):
And you're also knowing what seeds have been instilled or planted in you that need to grow.
And so the inventing of yourself, I agree 100%. Who do you want to be?
But there's also this balance between your spirituality that's going on there in that invention.
So it's really neat to watch. It's really cool to be a part of.
(39:29):
And I'm looking forward to working with you, obviously, outside this podcast
as we continue to work with each other and help you grow your business and help
grow you as a human. And it's going to be phenomenal what you're going to be able to accomplish.
You have such superpowers and such maturity and emotional stability.
(39:50):
It's very impressive. And on the note of a relationship, anyone's going to be lucky to have you.
I just want to say that because your head is on straight, you're discovering
who you are, you have balance,
and you're not in a rush to identify yourself in a relationship or identify yourself in...
(40:12):
Marriage or identify yourself as your business.
You're looking to be who you are, which is why I love the name of your business,
Identity Labs, but it also encompasses your maturity as a human.
So well done there for sure.
So thank you, Alex, again. Yeah. Thank you. I'm excited for part three.
I really appreciate it. That's more than you know. Even love to dive into the
(40:35):
balance of spirituality and inventing yourself on the next episode.
Yeah, let's dive into that because for sure there's a lot of guidance there.
There's a lot of biblical guidance, a lot of theological guidance as well on all that.
And something that I've learned a lot recently in Denver Seminary and pursuing
my Master's of Divinity in leadership is that there's a playbook that we can
(41:00):
go by. It's not only in the Bible.
There's a lot of theological resources out there.
But we can build us and find our purpose and find success in life,
especially in God's kingdom, and even in this lifetime,
through a lot of these spiritual practices, through a lot of the decisions we
make, through a lot of the temptations that we avoid.
(41:22):
And that's pretty significant. Like, you know, it's something I wish I would
have dove way more into 20 years ago.
But I've always had God and spirituality as a part of my life.
And it's a lot of the success that I've had.
It's also when I haven't followed those paths or I've let some ideas or I've
let temptation or the wrong voices into my head, it's led to failure.
(41:44):
So, you know, that's part of what we're going to get into. And I know you and
I are going to talk a lot more about that, even offline, Alex.
But for the audience, I think it's important that you really dive into these
things and in this time, because it's the time to do it.
It's the time it's needed the most. and businesses and communities and families
(42:06):
are going to thrive on these principles right now, these principles that we're
talking about, these spiritual principles.
So when we live by them in every part of our life, not just on Sunday or not ever,
if you don't even attend church or have any spirituality, if you're starting
to live by it in every essence of your being, in every second of your life,
(42:27):
it will change your life for the the better.
So I've seen it. I am it. I've witnessed it.
Picking yourself back up with God's help, it happens. You're going to get knocked down.
But who you become and who you're transformed into during the down periods,
when you allow God to do his work and fix the brokenness and rebuild you,
(42:50):
it's pretty phenomenal.
So abundance is very much there when you allow that.
So thank you everyone for listening in. I love you guys. You can find us on
Spotify or wherever else you grow yourself through podcasts.
Check out GorillaBrave.love, anyone who's out there as we're building that page
out and expanding our offerings. It's going to be awesome.
(43:11):
And keep an eye out for leaders to owners.
And if you want to find me, you can find me at JustinBizarro,
B-I-Z-A-R-R-O on Instagram. So thank you everyone. And we're.
Music.
Music.
(00:18):
Welcome, everyone, to the Justin Ryan Bizarro Show. I'm Justin Bizarro.
I'm your host. That's B-I-Z-Z-A-R-R-O.
For anyone who's out there, you can find us on Spotify or wherever else you
grow yourself through podcasts, as well as finding the Justin and the Food Entrepreneur
Show and the Centurion Leadership Battalion Show.
So, I have Alex Velez back of Identity Labs. How are you doing today, Alex?
(00:40):
I'm doing great. Really excited to be here for part two. Yeah.
How's Charlotte, North Carolina right now? How's the weather there?
It's good. It's starting to get really hot. I always say how North Carolina
is bipolar because one day it could be 80 degrees like it is right now.
And then the next it could be raining and 30.
So right now it's good. And hopefully it stays warm. What about you over there in Colorado?
(01:01):
It's a little bit warmer today. You know, this is, I believe it's Wednesday,
April 3rd as we record this, even though it won't release until next Tuesday, this episode.
But it's, Colorado's great. We get 300 days of sunshine here.
And how I ended up back in Colorado, it's a long story. I've had quite the,
I've lived in many places over the last 16 months, I should say.
(01:24):
And but I'm back here rebuilding enjoying the
weather for sure and enjoying the altitude even
more I guess because it definitely helps with the the working
out and the exercise and and getting back into shape and and slimming down and
and building your lung capacity for sure so enjoying that but it's good life
(01:46):
is good and I can't you know I can't complain right now I as much as I I wish
things were different and pray for things to be different.
I'm living the good life, you know, so. But, yeah, the weather's great. So.
Before we get started, Alex, I just wanted to let everyone know that I've gotten
some questions and stuff.
Yes, GorillaBrave.love is where you sign up for the food and beverage entrepreneur group.
(02:09):
We will be increasing our prices here over the next two weeks.
So if you haven't signed up and you want the cheaper price, you should probably
do it now because over the next two to three weeks, those prices are going up
just because we have higher demand. We're We're starting to get more integrated.
We're starting to offer more programs and more training through there and the
(02:32):
ability to go back and look at trainings.
And so if you're interested in that, it is GorillaBrave.love.
You do want to get that done. I know I sound like a cheap advertisement there, but that is the truth.
We're starting to give a lot more content, a lot more information.
We brought on another business partner to help us that's heroic in the food franchising industry.
(02:56):
Restaurants and beverages in particular, and franchising businesses across the
country, some of the big names you guys all know.
So with that, we've had to expand our product that we're offering and expand
the offerings to all you food and beverage entrepreneurs out there.
The second thing is, I know a lot of people have been asking about leaders to
owners. We haven't made it public yet.
(03:16):
Our first group of, or our first cohort, I will say that's starting to go through
it. We've kind of handled that privately.
So that's why you haven't seen leaders to owners go public yet are out there for everyone.
I appreciate the questions, but that is for leaders in the food and beverage
industry who want to become owners, connecting them with investors,
(03:37):
connecting them with education,
giving them all the skills they need to be franchisees or even build their own
businesses if they haven't done so already as entrepreneurs.
So I just wanted to lay that out because I got some questions after some of
the podcasts have started releasing again.
So let's jump into this. Alex and I are going to have some pretty depth conversations here.
(04:01):
And, you know, again, thank you everyone for listening in. Thank you guys for
the questions and the support.
I just can't believe how fast all the podcasts are growing across the country.
I also want to give Alex some props. He gave me a lot of ideas.
He's helped me by just talking to him at the Evolve conference,
(04:21):
talking on the phone with him, texting with him, having conversations with him.
He's helped me really focus on my social media and my social media is up 3x,
you know, followers already in Instagram just by listening to you.
It's the weirdest thing. It was some of the most basic things and what to focus
(04:42):
on and what am I really trying to do with my brand?
And it's already mattered significantly, you know,
and helping me also with the podcast and how I use the information on my podcast
and how my team here now lays out the content in the notes versus the way we did it before.
So, Alex, that's all because of you, a 21-year-old here helping me as a 44-year-old
(05:06):
blow my social media out of the water.
So, and my podcast likes. And we're already doing well. well,
we have hundreds of thousands of downloads always.
But, you know, now what we're seeing is a lot of traction, even without with
taking six months off, you know, and even from the social media,
I haven't been doing the things that I should have been doing.
(05:27):
And now there's a lot of success there.
So thanks, Alec. Just wanted to give you that, those props.
So I appreciate that, man. There's nothing more that makes me happy to hear than that.
I absolutely really do appreciate that. Yeah, and it also validates your skill set for sure.
A lot of people give advice. A lot of people are like, oh, just pay me some
money. I'll do this for you. I'll do that for you.
(05:49):
But you and I have sort of bartered our way through this, helping each other
out, mentoring, coaching each other.
Giving each other business advice and it's worked for me for sure.
And so I appreciate that. And something I want to emphasize with everyone is
you, we have a lot to learn from the younger generations in business.
And if we don't, we go out of business.
(06:12):
So, so I'm going to say on that from an entrepreneurial standpoint.
Absolutely. And I love any situation that I can coin is like a,
you scratch my back, I scratch yours kind of scenario.
I, uh, I'm all for, I learned that when When I was first getting started in
digital media, when I was 13, 14, and I wasn't allowed to have a PayPal or anything.
So I had no way of doing any monetary exchange. So I had to figure out how to barter it.
(06:36):
But that showed me the value of actually building a relationship first and adding
value to each other versus immediately jumping right into a business transaction.
When I think part of it is you need to show that they can get value out of it.
And it's a book by Russell Simmons, who used to own Def Jam Records.
(06:56):
And I can't remember the name of the book. It's like the second book he ever released.
But one of the things he talks about is giving things away to show your value
and bartering your way through things because then once people see the proof,
they're willing to pay for it.
And it's a true statement that has been true in my life.
And it's like, gosh, it's like how to live a rich life or something.
(07:18):
I'll think of it in a second since I named it.
But I think, Like, especially as we're young, we have to show the proof of what we're doing.
You know, we have to prove that we have the skill set we say we do.
And it takes people doing that. It takes risks to do it.
It's the book's called Super Rich, A Guide to Having It All.
(07:39):
And that's by Russell Simmons. It's his second book he ever released.
And the book is phenomenal just for anyone who's out there who likes reading.
You know russell simmons is a pretty impressive individual he's out of queens
new york also go figure that one out love queens so alex let's start off with some questions here,
(08:01):
absolutely if you could do it over again if you could start at 14 years old
all over again what would you do differently how would you do it and what advice
would you give yourself then that you know now.
Man, I honestly, I would, I would tell myself two words. I would say, keep pushing.
That's honestly all I would tell myself because had I not gone through the failures
(08:25):
and the lessons that I had learned, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
I wouldn't be who I am today.
And I truly believe that everything happens for us.
And because of that, I wouldn't have told myself to do anything differently
aside from documenting it more. I think that that's something that I feel like
a lot of people should be doing is documenting their journey,
whether it just be a quick video that you record on your phone or anything like that.
(08:47):
If it's in business or if you're trying to lose weight, whatever it is,
because when you can look back on the progress that you've made,
it's literally like a time machine where you're going back and you're feeling
the same emotions and energy that you felt in that moment.
And I think that the same can be done for the future as well.
So if I could go back in time now, I would tell myself to just continue to push
so I would have all of those lessons that I have now.
(09:09):
Love it. Role models growing up, like who had influence in your life?
What teachers, famous people, who did you look up to?
How did you, because you obviously had to know all of this was possible,
you know, and outlive and grow greater than your, than what has been your family,
(09:30):
because 21 years old, you're an entrepreneur, you have this mindset, you're going for it.
You know, it's not the safest path. So talk to me about role models,
influences, teachers, wherever it is.
Let's go through that list and just sort of lay it out for everyone.
Yeah, I would say the biggest thing for me, honestly, and this is why I'll speak
(09:52):
about the positive and negatives of social media, because I would say that social
media is where I was able to be exposed to the possibilities.
I wouldn't say that my role models were all on social media,
but it exposed me to what life could be.
And also growing up, I had technically four parents between two biological parents
and two step parents and seeing them go through those challenges and how they
(10:13):
lived life. it gave me that perspective.
So when I was just really thinking about like, what do I want my life to look
like? I was able to compare it to that.
And I definitely, one of the first people in my family to go and build something on their own.
So I didn't get the most support, honestly, even from my parents in the beginning of it.
(10:34):
So for me, a lot of the inspiration came from believing in myself and seeing what I saw was possible.
Also, I would I would say that what really solidified it for me was my first
job at 16 years old when I was working at a multimillion dollar insurance agency,
helping them build their social media,
getting to be inside of the CEO's office and get to, I even got to go on his
(10:57):
private jet with him and be in his hangar.
Since I was the social media guy, for example, I had to go to,
he had a whole private hangar that I would go to before everyone else so I could
capture things for the social media.
So in those times, I was able to be inside two private jets in front of me and
in this beautiful hangar by myself.
So I got to feel it and capture that moment as much as I could.
(11:19):
And that's what I do with every single scenario now that I'm in that I feel
like I will want to look back on and appreciate, even if it's not in business,
even if it's just something with my family. I always try and just remind myself
in that moment to appreciate this and capture this energy as much as possible.
Because when you can pull it back out, it emphasizes whatever it is you're trying to do.
Talk to me a little more about that. Talk to me about how do you vision? How do you dream?
(11:44):
How do you think about these things? Because as a young kid,
this is very different than what we would normally think, right?
That's true. I would say for me, being exposed to it at a younger age definitely
gave me an advantage because I was inside, like I was in school and I was able
to kind of see how it was structured to make you want to be a worker.
(12:05):
And I think that part of that, in my mind, I was processing it as like they're trying to control me.
I said this on the last episode, the time, money and energy.
When you go through the system, the way it's set up, you'll never have all three of them.
So for me, thinking about my future, even though I had no idea where,
how I would get to this point, I had a why and where I, what I truly value in
(12:27):
life, which is being able to impact people, have a family experience.
I think that having, I'm very grateful to have the moral foundation that I do
and understand the real value of relationships over material and things like
that, because that showed me that regardless of the vehicle that I'm driving
in, that destination the nation can never change.
That's always, that has to stay the same. So anytime I'm thinking about anything,
(12:50):
I'm always just, how can I maintain my fulfillment and freedom while still being
happy and doing something that's going to create impact?
What's your favorite part about your lifestyle right now? What are the things that you're enjoying?
And talk to me a little bit about that. You're on this endeavor,
you're 21 years old, most people are in college or trying to find the comfortable
(13:13):
job with the safety net, with the retirement package, with the insurance.
So what is it that you're enjoying the most and how do you keep going?
Those are two questions right there. Let's talk about what are you enjoying
the most, and then let's talk about this motivation and inspiration to keep
going and not take the easy path.
(13:34):
Man, I say what I enjoy the most is, honestly, it's what I enjoy and also what
I I would say I dislike the most, and it's the unknown.
You really don't know what's next, and I think that that's a beautiful thing
in life, to be able to experience so many different things, whereas if you plan
out your entire future, I'm going to go to college, I'm going to get a job,
work for 30 years, retire,
(13:55):
and so on and so forth, it's like you've got everything figured out. There's really...
Nothing exciting in that regard. So I would say for me, I really enjoy getting
to know that I can control what my day is going to look like.
And I don't know what my day is going to look like, but it's not going to be
determined by someone telling me, all right, you can go out to lunch now or I need you to do this.
It'll be determined by me. And I think that's another very big thing that keeps
(14:17):
me going is being able to control how I live my life and the way that I want to live my my life.
But at the same time, you know, I think it's really easy to think that being
a business owner and, you know, at my age is all fun and games and everything is beautiful.
But there are so many things that I really don't even discuss on social media
(14:41):
a lot that I deal with every single day because I'm 21 living alone.
So there are definitely negatives that come to that and figuring out how to
balance or find rhythm, I should say. I don't really like the term balance,
I want to say find rhythm.
That's something that I took from the Evolve event inside of life and that business,
because it's a completely different walk of life than if I were to go down the
(15:03):
path of going to college, like where most of my friends are right now.
And even in my family, no one has has done this at a young age.
So because I'm so young, I don't have an exact person to to replicate or to
look to. Everything is being created by me.
So I think a big part of it as well is even the weight of that,
knowing that the way that I see the world, my family hasn't.
(15:26):
So if I don't stop, that I will be the first person to break those beliefs for
them and create experiences that they didn't even think were possible,
which I think falls into the snowball effect that will then hopefully carry
on for generations and generations without me even needing to be here. I like that a lot.
You know, I think that so often people get frustrated or they hit bumps in the
(15:47):
road and they give up or they see their friends accomplish things young and
they want what they have and they don't think they'll ever get there by doing
it on your own or doing it on our own.
And so I think that's a big part of what you're saying.
I think humans wanting to be comfortable and wanting to live an easy life becomes
(16:08):
the obstacles that keep us from greatness or building good things or things
that may even help humanity down the road or God's creatures.
So I think that that's a big part of what we're talking about here is,
you know, is, okay, I'm going to build my family.
But ultimately, the extension of that is what impact am I going to have on humanity
(16:29):
as a whole for generations or God's creatures or God's planet,
or even, you know, whatever other planets we end up on.
So it's one of those things that I think it's so important in what you're saying
is that there's such a bigger picture here and it's hard for humans to think that big.
But we do we're capable of it and we're capable of creating things that are that big,
(16:54):
so it all starts with us yeah 100 and
i think that it's so easy to fall into to that belief because if you as i started
to grow up and just see how the system was set up in the ways that it would
indoctrinate us to think certain ways i realized that our minds think in ones
and zeros and like what you just said is a lot of people will chase that comfort
but if you don't realize that your mind really,
(17:16):
I just made a post about this, your mind really isn't on your side and it's
wired just like a computer is to think in ones and zeros and it doesn't know what's good for it.
It only knows what feels good to it.
So if that's how you operate and you solely go on how your mind,
how you feel, then going to the gym, you're never going to want to do because
your brain's only operating under, oh, I'm about to have to go put in this much
(17:37):
effort and experience this much stress.
It's not seeing what you're actually going to get out of it because it's such
a, it takes a long time to get to that point at that, that bigger picture,
like you're saying. Yeah, absolutely.
Like from a, from a career standpoint, from a professional standpoint,
from an entrepreneur standpoint, like where are you hoping this goes?
(17:58):
Where are you hoping identity labs goes?
Yeah. I mean, with me, everything that I do, I always want to change the stigma around it.
And I feel like right now in the social media world, there is a,
a lot of people that claim that they know a lot of things and claim that they
are the best at what they do when in reality they just started a month ago.
And for me, I know that there are a lot of people that are putting in a lot of hard work into it.
(18:23):
And I want to show that when you can do things right and still be a success
in life, you don't have to go and cheat and be a shark and step on people to
get to the top because I feel like it's very easy to believe that.
So for me, with what With what I'm building now and everything that I build
in the future, I just want it to be a beacon of light for people that are also
trying to get into a similar space or just trying to do something for themselves
(18:46):
to impact them in that regard.
Now, on a specific level with social media, I want to be able to help people
blow up their brands past places they never even thought imaginable and see
things that they didn't even think were imaginable and believe because it's
so easy when you're posting and you're posting and you just listen to generic advice.
So just post content and it'll work, but you're not doing anything with intent
(19:07):
or structuring it properly.
It's so easy to just be like, all right, it's just a, it's all a lottery and
only a few people will really do it right.
So I want to be able to show people that you can also, you can do it right and
you can do it in a good way.
And how do you, I mean, let's talk about that a little bit. What is your strategy behind that?
We talked in the last episode a little bit about snowballing and gaining momentum,
(19:30):
but let's talk a little bit more about how you help people do that.
How do you help someone comes to you, they want help with their social media,
whether it's a business or a personal brand, how do you go about effectively
leading them through it for success?
100%. That's literally in the name Identity Labs.
(19:52):
That's exactly why I wanted to name it that because first, it all starts with
figuring out what their identity is in that current moment.
If they don't already know it, they have nothing established.
Or if they do have something established, where are they at?
And what are the holes that need to be filled? Because everyone's got different
problems and different needs.
But there's always going to be a foundation for doing everything right. Right.
(20:12):
So anytime I want to work with someone, I first see where they're at,
see what their goals are and really understand that.
I mean, you can copy and paste trending audios and dances, but that's not going
to get someone to their end goal if you're not paying attention to it.
So figuring that out is a really big part of it. And then from there,
like I said, it's filling the hole.
(20:33):
So whether they need a funnel built and they don't understand where to even
go to build that funnel or how to build the funnel or if they need better content,
but then they don't know how to create the content or where to find an editor
to create the content or how to find a good editor, for example.
So there's so many nuances to actually developing a social media presence.
And my goal is to help fill the gaps of any of those for any business owner,
(20:53):
regardless of what level they're at, to help them get to the next stage.
So, I mean, the identity is part of the message, right? Once they establish
that, you have to almost create your photos, create your content around that
identity. Is that what you're saying?
Right. So for example, if someone wanted to be a fitness coach,
(21:15):
but they were only posting pictures of them after their workout,
and that's what they believed was going to work, then helping them adjust their
content to say, hey, you really want to position yourself as the doctor that
can cure your client's pain.
So when you're creating content, create it around problems that your people
are having and then make solutions to them so they see you as that.
What you were talking about earlier is giving away as much value for free so
(21:35):
then they're willing to buy it so they actually have the proof that you can do what you say.
That's what I tell people to do in their content is position yourself as that
person as much as you possibly can, showing up on stories, going live and interacting
with your audience and actually being genuine about that interaction as well
so you can foster a community of, I would call them super fans.
So instead of people that just see your content, like it, and they follow,
(21:57):
you're actually replying to their messages. You're replying to the comments.
And that turns them into a super fan where now, wow, this person really cares about me.
So they're going to continue to support you. And that, oh, I always go back
to the snowball effect, continues to snowball more and more and more.
And then as you get to those next levels, that's when you can start implementing new things.
So after you started to get some traction in your audience, and then you want
(22:18):
to drop your offer, there's a way that you can go about structuring it and creating
a promo mouse cycle, having a funnel landing page built out that's properly
structured to optimize for sales, things of all of that nature.
So it just depends on the level that that person is at, but it always starts
with creating content that will actually solve the problems of your audience.
(22:38):
I love this. You know, I think one of the things that, that makes it special
is you're, you've been doing this, you're 21, but you've been doing it for seven years, you know?
So you started seven years ago where, you know, let's, that's 2017.
Instagram was already around for quite a while by them.
If we're going to talk about Instagram and other social medias,
(23:01):
but what you were able to do is take something that already existed and excel at it.
And I see you're building multiple pages, you're experimenting yourself,
you've divided yourself into your identities, whether it's photography,
social media, whatever else, which I think is important as well.
It's not if this is who I am and this is my personal brand, this is what I represent personally.
(23:25):
But then there are sub parts of that that are broken out into other social media
accounts, which I think is no different than building subsidiaries as a business.
Once you build your main business, sometimes you got to break it out into subsidiaries
to support it because that business creates multiple identities sometimes.
And you need to be able to break it up so people stick to the culture of those identities.
(23:47):
Absolutely. And the more the social media has developed, the more that it's
become very good for those kinds of scenarios to be used.
And so if you have two accounts, let's say you have your personal brand where
this is where people attach to you as a person, but then you have your business
page as as well, you can now do collab posts.
So it'll be to both audiences, but you can still segment the content a lot more organized.
(24:11):
Awesome.
Let's talk a little bit about, we started talking about spirituality in the last episode.
We talked about you've got John Maxwell Bible, all that stuff,
rediscovering your spirituality, having someone back in the day tell you that
you can't be an entrepreneur and someone who goes to church.
(24:35):
Like they contradict each other, which actually I think they complement each other personally.
But let's talk a little bit about where are you going now?
Where are you hoping your spiritual journey takes you as an entrepreneur and
as a follower of Christianity, you know, of Jesus Christ and someone who believes in God?
Where are you hoping this takes you? Because you're so young as an entrepreneur, no offense.
(24:59):
Offense, but what I'm saying is you have a lot of enlightenment as an entrepreneur
and as a Christian in your spirituality comparatively to people your age.
So what I'm trying to do here is anchor with people that listen in their early
20s is this is possible for you.
It is okay, and you're still cool as an entrepreneur and as a believer in God
(25:24):
to do this in your early 20s.
You don't have to turn away from God or turn away from entrepreneurism or turn
away from business because the cool thing is to be safe and liked and find belonging
in the secular world or in the normal place.
The sacred world should also be the secular world where we're taking spirituality
and bringing it into entrepreneurism and bringing it into school and bringing
(25:47):
it into our everyday lives.
So let's talk a little bit about where are you hoping this goes,
why the spirituality now.
Now, I'm just going to give you the mic, Alex, and I just want you to sort of
go down the rabbit hole of this again and elaborate from what we had on the last episode.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you letting me share.
(26:08):
And this is, it's definitely been a long journey. And on the last episode,
I was discussing how my path of Christ has been very divided in a sense where
my parents weren't religious.
So I was exposed to pretty much every denomination of Christianity.
I even studied with Jehovah's Witnesses and to see all of these different things,
it left a lot of confusion for me and I had a lot of questions.
(26:28):
And so growing up, it was always something that I tried to get into and then it struggled with.
And around high school, I felt myself really starting to be called to it.
And then I was really diving into it a lot more and feeling that just learning
about it. Because like I said, I was not exposed to a direct line of Christianity
or a direct line with God. It was extremely divided.
(26:50):
And then I had an experience, like you're saying, where I was given an ultimatum
between entrepreneurship and God completely pulled me away from God.
And over these last few years, I've been trying to just continue to tap back
into it in our conversation that we had at Evolve to help me piece together
things that no one has ever been able to help me piece together as far as what God was doing for me.
(27:11):
And now, every time I pray, I ask for guidance and clarity.
Those are those two things. Because at the event, for example,
there was a question asked towards the end about what do you guys do whenever?
How are you brave? What makes you so brave? And one of the answers and one of
the most common answers I hear to this question is faith.
And I just realized that to get to the level of impact that I want to have in
(27:36):
life, I have to have faith that it is for a higher purpose and that I am being worked through.
So what I hope to happen is that as I continue to to redevelop this relationship
with God again, that he continues to to speak through me and use me even more
to create impact, because that's truly what I want to do.
But I know that with God by my side, that I'll be able to 10x that impact.
(27:58):
So I've just been trying to remind myself a lot of things. I believe I mentioned
this, whether it was on our last episode or in our conversations about how people
it's like when you're on a plane, knowing God is like being on a plane with
turbulence and you're sitting next to somebody who they don't know the pilot.
You know the pilot. You know they've been flying 15 years, their entire life.
They're a pro. They're the best in the world. But the person next to you,
they don't know the pilot at all. The plane experiences some turbulence.
(28:20):
They're going to be anxious. They're going to be shaking. They're going to be
so worried about what's going to happen next.
But you're going to be calm and you're going to know exactly these guys got
it. I'm not even worried about it.
And I think that that analogy fits perfectly to the relationship or what a relationship
with God will do for you in life and all of the turbulent moments that you have,
it's such a beautiful thing to be able to lean on and have someone even when you feel alone.
(28:44):
And I feel like for me, that's exactly what I've truly been needing since I've
been living on my own now, since I don't really have a lot of people to vent
to and to talk about the things that I mentioned that I deal with,
it's being able to talk to God and know that.
What I am being told and what I am feeling is valid and to also get guidance
(29:05):
and clarity from it is my ultimate goal.
Because I know that anytime I'm talking to someone or when I compliment somebody
in the back of my head, I can always remind myself that it was God using me to impact someone.
And I think there's nothing more fulfilling than being able to truly impact
somebody, whether it be on a business standpoint or a life standpoint.
(29:28):
But I think that this idea of being super mysterious and not being transparent
and authentic with the people around you, it's become this trend to have this kind of personality.
And being a man of God, you can't be that kind of person.
You have to be as authentically you and want to truly create impact on this planet.
(29:50):
So for me, if I embarrass myself or whatever the case may be,
I'm not worried about it at the end of the day, because I know that we're on
a planet with a million other planets and a bunch of other galaxies,
whatever you want to call it.
But at the end of the day, God's got us.
And if you truly hold that close to your heart, I feel as though it will take
(30:12):
you to places that you couldn't have even imagined, but you've got to truly, truly believe it.
So I'm I'm currently working towards grasping that again and truly feeling and
anchoring it within myself.
So when I talk about it, talking about it from a place of pure confidence and certainty.
I like that a lot. How do you educate yourself in your craft?
(30:34):
How do you grow your understanding of social media? How do you educate yourself in business?
How do you grow spiritually?
What are the strategies or the ways you go about that?
I would say for social media, it is honestly simply being on there and analyzing
(30:55):
things, developing the eye for actually when you see a piece of content that
works, understanding what the fundamentals of why a video works were,
because I'll see people that will, they'll post on social media and the comments
will be like, your videos, they relax me for some reason. I just don't get it. It's crazy.
But when I'm watching the video, I'm looking for the sound design and the shot
selection and those little tiny details that actually made it super relaxing
(31:18):
or whatever the case may be.
So as far as developing my craft with social media and in marketing as a whole.
It's analyzing, and I use this term a lot too, reverse engineering what other
people have done successfully so you can understand it, take bits and pieces
of it that have worked, and then add your own little spin to it and make it
even better so you can take it from there.
And as for everything else in life, I honestly, I try and approach every person
(31:42):
and conversation that I have with the mindset that I can learn something from them.
And I am not afraid to ask questions or admit that I'm wrong or ask for a suggestion
on a technique of, you know, my golf swing or something like that,
or whatever the case may be,
because I am willing to admit that I have so much to learn.
I think a lot of people don't want to say that, but I know that I have not been
(32:06):
exposed to so many things.
And I continuously search to be exposed to those things and to learn other people's
perspectives, because that's the only way in life that you'll be be able to
grow is seeing it from a different lens.
So however many lenses I can collect, I feel like that is just what increases
my ability to learn and soak in that knowledge.
(32:29):
Absolutely. Alex, well, very, very glad we did another episode for sure,
because there's a lot of content in here, a lot of golden nuggets,
not to be confused with the Denver Nuggets, but there's a lot of nuggets here
that are very valuable for those out there.
(32:50):
And one of the things that I think is your superpower is your confidence.
Like you are not afraid to go out there and do things. And if you are, you don't show it.
You've willingly seeked out your reverse engineering or whatever to try to help
understand how you can better the things that you do.
And you have a hunger for constantly bettering yourself and bettering your crafts
(33:15):
and your businesses. is.
And I think that that's a big part of why your light or your Holy Spirit is
shining so bright right now,
because you are fully tapped into this is what my purpose is right now.
This is where I want to go.
And if I'm going to honor God, I need to be able to turn up the volume as bright
(33:38):
as I can, you know, or as loud as I can.
And so that being said, that's why you're such an impressive of human and your
advice, I'm telling everyone you need to work with this guy.
The impact on the social media, the impact with your photography,
that impact is really big for anyone who's out there trying to build a personal
(34:01):
brand or build a business that wants to use social media.
It's definitely worked for me big time.
So I want to talk about that. Let's talk a little bit about about goals,
family goals before we wrap up here.
I mean, we've talked about relationships, you and I personally,
(34:21):
and you've talked about being in relationships.
As a 21-year-old where everyone's trying to rush in and find relationships and
get married and settle down or what the future's going to hold,
maybe not everyone, but that's definitely on the path when you're that age.
Where do you see yourself in terms of a relationship or finding a special human
(34:42):
for you? Like, let's talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, that's a that's a really good question. And I completely agree.
I think that a lot of people do rush into a relationship and think that it's
absolutely necessary and want to jump into it.
And I saw a lot of people in high school doing that. And, you know,
I went to an early college that had 32 students in my grade.
(35:03):
So even if I wanted to be going around and dating a lot of people,
then I wouldn't have had the opportunity. But that was never my personality.
I always valued having deep connections with anybody that I was talking to on
any level. So for me, I actually just very recently got out of my first relationship
that I had ever been in. It lasted over a year.
(35:24):
And I was very selective about doing that because I knew it was such a big thing for me.
And I learned a lot through that experience and what love truly is and how important
it is to constantly be working at it and not think that the soulmate is everything is perfect,
fine and dandy and that love is a choice. And that was a big lesson for me.
(35:46):
So, you know, going forward, I would say the time that I really wanted to say
right now, especially since it's relatively fresh for me that I got out of this relationship,
I want to leave it up to God and say that whenever that time is right for that
person to be in my life, that I will accept that.
And in the meantime, I'm going to do the absolute best to hold myself as authentically
(36:09):
as possible and make myself as good of a human as I can for that person.
Because I know that that's what's truly going to make the difference.
And that's all I can control right now.
So I want to be able to be able to give that person the best version of me and
just continue to serve in the meantime. time.
(36:32):
How are you finding yourself? I think, you know, I don't know if you have an
answer, but I think a lot of 20 something year olds and well,
even 30s and 40 year olds, maybe even 50 year olds.
But I think this is a good question for anyone out there that's your age or
in their 20s and 30s is how are you going about discovering who you are before
you enter into these relationships?
(36:54):
For sure. And I would like to say, I honestly think that I'm not so much looking
for myself anymore as I am inventing what I hope to be and what I want to be.
Because I would say, for me, I try and stay in touch with my inner child as much as I can.
And I feel like that's how I have discovered myself or found myself.
(37:16):
Because when you go through the ebbs and flows of life, it's really easy to
not have that childlike wonder anymore.
So for me, all the things that I did as a kid for, you know,
the biggest example for me is, you know, I'm still a WWE fan.
And I honestly, I stopped watching for so long and just recently started looking
at it again because it was something that I was so into as a child.
(37:36):
And that's allowed me to stay in touch with that childlike wonder and to continue
to maintain that innocence in myself as much as I can or stay in touch with
that innocence that I had as a child before being exposed to life as we all have been.
But as far as going forward, like I was saying earlier, since I don't feel like
I've had a direct role model that I can look to as far as in my family that
(38:01):
has carved a path like the one that I want to carve, for me,
it just comes down to inventing that.
So it's a stressful, it's definitely a stressful thing. And that's why I said
earlier, there's a lot of things that I I don't discuss.
And especially being alone all the time, I have a lot of time to think about these things.
So just trying to identify exactly who I want to be and how to get there. I love it.
(38:25):
Alex, where can they find you online? Yeah, absolutely.
I'm mainly on Instagram. My name's Alex Velez, and then the L's are ones.
That's where I'm most prominent on that account. Feel free to message me.
I'm always down to help, and I like taking my time whenever I can provide insight
to someone. So please reach out if you have any questions at all.
(38:45):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have you on for a part three and definitely going
to ask you a lot more questions. But I think one of the things that I really
want to emphasize is you're on a journey.
You have a surrendering attitude where you're trying to invent yourself,
but you're allowing what's the Holy Spirit to guide you.
(39:06):
And you're also knowing what seeds have been instilled or planted in you that need to grow.
And so the inventing of yourself, I agree 100%. Who do you want to be?
But there's also this balance between your spirituality that's going on there in that invention.
So it's really neat to watch. It's really cool to be a part of.
(39:29):
And I'm looking forward to working with you, obviously, outside this podcast
as we continue to work with each other and help you grow your business and help
grow you as a human. And it's going to be phenomenal what you're going to be able to accomplish.
You have such superpowers and such maturity and emotional stability.
(39:50):
It's very impressive. And on the note of a relationship, anyone's going to be lucky to have you.
I just want to say that because your head is on straight, you're discovering
who you are, you have balance,
and you're not in a rush to identify yourself in a relationship or identify yourself in...
(40:12):
Marriage or identify yourself as your business.
You're looking to be who you are, which is why I love the name of your business,
Identity Labs, but it also encompasses your maturity as a human.
So well done there for sure.
So thank you, Alex, again. Yeah. Thank you. I'm excited for part three.
I really appreciate it. That's more than you know. Even love to dive into the
(40:35):
balance of spirituality and inventing yourself on the next episode.
Yeah, let's dive into that because for sure there's a lot of guidance there.
There's a lot of biblical guidance, a lot of theological guidance as well on all that.
And something that I've learned a lot recently in Denver Seminary and pursuing
my Master's of Divinity in leadership is that there's a playbook that we can
(41:00):
go by. It's not only in the Bible.
There's a lot of theological resources out there.
But we can build us and find our purpose and find success in life,
especially in God's kingdom, and even in this lifetime,
through a lot of these spiritual practices, through a lot of the decisions we
make, through a lot of the temptations that we avoid.
(41:22):
And that's pretty significant. Like, you know, it's something I wish I would
have dove way more into 20 years ago.
But I've always had God and spirituality as a part of my life.
And it's a lot of the success that I've had.
It's also when I haven't followed those paths or I've let some ideas or I've
let temptation or the wrong voices into my head, it's led to failure.
(41:44):
So, you know, that's part of what we're going to get into. And I know you and
I are going to talk a lot more about that, even offline, Alex.
But for the audience, I think it's important that you really dive into these
things and in this time, because it's the time to do it.
It's the time it's needed the most. and businesses and communities and families
(42:06):
are going to thrive on these principles right now, these principles that we're
talking about, these spiritual principles.
So when we live by them in every part of our life, not just on Sunday or not ever,
if you don't even attend church or have any spirituality, if you're starting
to live by it in every essence of your being, in every second of your life,
(42:27):
it will change your life for the the better.
So I've seen it. I am it. I've witnessed it.
Picking yourself back up with God's help, it happens. You're going to get knocked down.
But who you become and who you're transformed into during the down periods,
when you allow God to do his work and fix the brokenness and rebuild you,
(42:50):
it's pretty phenomenal.
So abundance is very much there when you allow that.
So thank you everyone for listening in. I love you guys. You can find us on
Spotify or wherever else you grow yourself through podcasts.
Check out GorillaBrave.love, anyone who's out there as we're building that page
out and expanding our offerings. It's going to be awesome.
(43:11):
And keep an eye out for leaders to owners.
And if you want to find me, you can find me at JustinBizarro,
B-I-Z-A-R-R-O on Instagram. So thank you everyone. And we're.
Music.
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