Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Show broadcasting Live Beautiful send One, Porto Rico. Thanks to
our friends in American Financing who, after building their Colorado
based company helping people get mortgages, Damien, who is from
Puerto Rico, we're gonna hear more of that story in
a second, decided to come back down here and do
some magic here, kind of like the magic he did
in the community in Colorado. Damien Maldonado, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you, thank you for thank you for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
By the way, I love love how oh yeah, it's
been so tough this week. It's been such a drag.
With the beach and the spicy margaritas and the really
good food and the beautiful student, it's been a real
labor Damien. I'm just kidding. It has been absolutely fantastic.
So Damien, a lot of people know about American Financing.
I talk about him all the time. Let's talk about
(00:46):
you for a little bit, because you are literally like
you're the great, You're the American Dream. Like the story
that you've created has been the American dream. Tell me
a little bit about how it got started. Like you
were born in Puerto.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Rico, Yeah, thank you all. I'm born in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Actually, then when my parents separated, it ended up in
Colorado and that's where we opened up American Financing in
ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But yeah, actually born.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We just jumped through a whole bunch of stuff, right,
I mean, your parents did not come from money. I
heard that you actually lived in a homeless shelter for
a while.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We did in the Samaritan House in downtown Denver. I
was like when I was eleven or ten, but I
didn't realize we're homeless, Like they have.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
These rooms where you can get free stuff, like, oh wow,
this is great.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So you did never realize how bad it was.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It wasn't that bad. I think it was all perception.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I think had I not gone through that, maybe I
wouldn't have been as hungry. So I think it was
like kind of listening to the skies. Maybe I don't know,
but it was. It was great that there's those type
of things in the US that you could actually like
get back on your feet.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Right. So when did you How old were you and
started American.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Financing twenty twenty one?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Oh my god, I mean I knew you were young,
because you're still young. It's you know, I had no
idea it was that young, like, how do you when
you're nineteen or twenty, how do you decide to be
the guy who's going to start a mortgage company? How
did that even come about?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
My brother got me reading these books. I'm a big book.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You're awakening a giant within that's like kind of like
before that, I wanted to be a garbage man, and
like my buddy was like fifteen dollars now hour, hanging
out drinking beer with your friends and like, and then
I read that book and I'm like, wow, you control
your brain.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You could do whatever you want and you create whatever
you want. And I'm like, oh, I got to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So it was like we used to promote health and
fitness clubs and basically around the country and also you know,
thirty some states Australia and New Zealand, England, and we
learned how to market things. And then I got he
got me a job at a mortgage company and called
terror funding at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I think they've went out of business since then.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And then we took those things that we learned marketing
health and fitness clubs and put in the mortgages and
then we like you know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Slowly grew up, but it took a really, really long time.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
You know, we've been in business a long time, and
he's focused on the customer, focused on doing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And one are the interesting things that's happened this week.
And you know, I was sitting in a group of people,
but you were talking to someone I believe who worked
for you, and you were having a conversation about a
location change, and you asked this this other young man.
You said, well, who is that good for you or
the customer? And it was an interesting point in question.
But I think it goes kind of the heart of
(03:07):
why you are successful, because it is not about making
it easier for you, it's about making it easier for
the customer. Where did that come from? Where did that
thought process come from?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know, I'm sure you've been in restaurants and you're like, man,
I would do this differently, and I do that.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I've done that all over this island. We just say
Puerto Rican service in restaurants is slow. It is very slow.
And I was, yeah, I was a former restaurant manager.
So it's been like okay, just deep breaths. I'm starving.
I gotta have a snack before I got to dinner.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
No, yeah, I love Puerto Rico. But yeah, people will
stop in the middle of road say hi to their
friends while you're behind them on the car, and you're like,
and they're chatting around.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So it's just as island time. It's a different vibe.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And then you know when you get when you lawyer
your hirer and you go, Okay, it's cool, I'm here,
I'm enjoying it. So but no, But like you know,
being in restaurants, you're like, I could do that different.
Then I always just put myself in that position. I'm like, wow,
why are they doing it this way? And then luckily
when you own that business, you can say, hey, can
we please do it this way?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, you guys have seen a lot of ups and downs.
I mean, your mortgage business obviously is deeply affected by
the housing market. It's been an interesting couple of years
in terms of people buying houses and doing refrise. But
you guys are always innovating on what can we do
next to make this, to help this customer to do this,
And I think that's one of the reasons that, to
your point, the first mortgage company you've worked for is
(04:22):
out of business. How do you constantly Like, I mean,
you have a challenge, do you ever just get tired
of it? Do you ever just get like, oh that's it,
I'm giving up? Or is it something that just drives
you to solve the problems as they pop up.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, I'm constantly inspired by you know, different business people,
and I'm reading books and I'm reading stories and.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Like just learning.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And I think, you know, either you're going forward or
going backwards. There's no standing still. The world's moving forward.
So you have to move forward and learn as much
as you can and focus on like, hey, you know,
we just have to be better than ourselves. I don't
even know focus on a competition. I'm like, how do
we become better? How do we get our team better?
And I have great teams, so like they inspired me.
So if I have meetings, they're like they're giving me
ideas and we're talking about how do we do things?
(05:00):
And we're constantly that's our conversations. What do we how
do we make the customer experience better? How do we
make it better for employees? And that's you know, that's
the only way to a business.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And if you're not doing that, I think you're kind
of slowly dying.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Now you are a big kite surfer, So let's talk
about how you ended up with a kite surfing hotel
in Puerto Rico. What what was what? What what happened there?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I met my partner Dylan in a pilot Carmon in
Mexico and he had a kite school and I was
having some of my friends learn how to kite, and
then his hotel he was behind kind of like decided
to stop doing that program.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I'm like, hey, we should look at a kite
open up a high school.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
We're looking all around the Caribbean, and we were we
were in the Dominican Republic in Cabrette, and then all
of a sudden, my buddy goes, hey, what about Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm like, how did they not even think about?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You know what that is? I gotta tell you, Puerto
Rico has a marketing problem. They really have a marketing problem.
Because Mike and I were talking this like, there's like
been so many things that have just been so surprising,
and I feel like no one knows about Puerto Rico
and the United States.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, you know, well it's a challenge because Perto Rico
is like one of those. I love Puerto Rico, but
the government's not the most friendly with permits, and they
don't make it the easiest, and they don't where we're
the only beach bar in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh now, Monuna, and it's like there should be a
whole bunch of beach bars.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, it's crazy, and it's just like a little bit
like difficult to do business here.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Okay, Now, Damian, I'm gonna give you a tip from
washing politics. You don't want any more to beach bars.
So you want to be the guy who says no
more beach bars. No, I'm just kidding, because you have
a monopoly.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I love I love all about opportunities.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It should be like there's place, there's plenty of space
for everybody, right, It's like all tides rides together, or
both rides together with the tides, and like I believe
in that, So I think it's great. It should be
more like that, like I think. But it's this old
school money. I'm like new money here. It's like this
is a different vibe that I bring than what's already here.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, and I do think that that is that's definitely
a cultural difference. I mean, I was talking to one
of your wonderful people here, and we were talking about
the power like they're really their power grid is in
a bad way and they've got to do something about that.
And I said, I think that would dry. I'd be crazy.
And she said, well, it's just kind of a sign
to go to the beach for a little bit and
like chill out. So that's definitely a cultural difference than
(07:07):
what we would have in the United States, where we
would all be running around trying to find someone to
plug in, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So that's not all bad, no, you get used to it.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Like after Hurricane Maria, I was like obviously exclaming, debstaining
for the island, but people got used to like when
a power goes out, it's like normal, you don't even
think about it. But everybody's like the complaints like oh man,
no power, no water, and like so what it's like fine,
Like I.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Got the beach right there.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Wait a minute, I should be clear. We we most
most resorts probably have generators now, so it's not like
if you come down here as a tourist, you're going
to be sitting in the dark. That's not how things
are going. But I want to talk a little bit
about kitesurfing because I didn't do it this time. I
didn't try it this time because I was like the
last thing my work ethic would not allow me to
like hurt myself when I knew I had to do
a show the next day. But what is it about kitesurfing?
(07:51):
And explain what kitesurfing is for somebody who is, you know,
in Colorado about to go skiing but has no idea
what kite surfing is.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Kite Surfing is my favorite sport and I recommend it
to everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Is basically you're getting.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Pulled by a kite on a board like for those
stoneboarders out there in Denver. You know, it's a twin
tip type of board, so you can go bi directionally,
go either side.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And your wind, the wind is pulling the kite and
it is pulling you and you could.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Kite is literally like a little mini parachute. Yeah, that's
what it is, a little mini parashote. And where is
it attached to your body? Because it looks like a
lot of upper upper body strength.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Thing to me, No, you have you have a waste
harness and your's very gentle sport, like to jump and
do certain types of tricks. You have to have a
little bit more strength, but otherwise it's a very passive sport.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You can chill it once you learn how. It's not
that easy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, I mean it looks it looks a little challenging.
But I talked to multiple people this this morning that
were older than me that are out there kite surving.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I mean one of my good friends, Richard Branson's seventy
four years old and he kites.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
We've kited.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Not normal, Like you can't use Richard Branson as a
normal seventy four year old, Like you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I mean, I think he should be a He's an
example for the world of what you can do, and
I think people should follow that. Like I preach up
because whenever somebodys talking about their age, I'm like Richard
seventy four, I've climb on block with him.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
What are you doing? And I say that with kiting too.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
If you're not kiting and you live in Putrico, what
are you doing with your life?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Damien Maldonado is my guest. Well we get back. I
I gotta take a quick time out, but I want
to talk about this space, the space that we're in
right now, and sort of the dreams and aspirations that
you have to create more opportunity here in Puerto Rico.
We'll be right back after this on Kwa, one of
(09:33):
the founders of American Financing, and now he is back
in Puerto Rico and really doing some really cool stuff
down here. So you came down here to open the
kite surfing school that we just went over. And by
the way, what is the kite? What is it when
you only have like a little baby kite, You don't
have the big string with the parachute, what's the little
baby kite that you hold onto? What is that?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That's wingfoiling? Wing foiling, wingfoiling. It's a great sport.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
It's a there's multiple different types of boards of foil
that has a bottom wing on the bottom and kind
of floats.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You go three times the speed of wind with that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I'm not gonna lie. That just sounds terrifying to me
at this point in my life. But I'll try it
next time I'm down here for sure. Let's talk about
so now you have the new Maruno Beach Hotel. Now
did the kite school come first, or did the hotel
come first?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, the hotel was already there and we bought it
about six seven years ago in.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Order to make it a kysurfing school.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The whole goal of moving to Puerto Rico was to
open up a kysurfing school. Luckily, we found this property
that is now Uno and we didn't even know what
we were buying when we bought it and ended up
being just one of the coolest spots.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It's a super cute little property. It's a small hotel.
It's like clean and comfy right on the beach. I've
had my workstation, which you need to put a little
Nu Marona workstation plaque right above that little little thing
right there. It's just been Your staff is fantastic. The
spicy margaritas are literally the best spicy margarita I have
ever in my life. Had I got to show me
(10:59):
how to make them today with just incredible. But what
are we sitting in right now? We're sitting in this
beautiful studio that's like loungey and you know, people can
come down record stuff. What are we doing in this
building over here which is a little bit off the beach.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So I chat gdp'd like a media company. I'm like
it's basically content creation. So we're basically building content creation
to do movies, podcasts. So you know, I'm sure those
you've heard of tiny desks. We want to do a
tiny desk of podcasts. So when people are recording in
Puerto Rico, they come, they see this background and we'll
change it up for different like yourself, and people are
(11:35):
coming to do their show here.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And then we have housing. I have about sixty eighty
rooms in this area. I have counted in a while.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
But so you could just come, bring your toothbrush, be
productive and have a cool environment. And that's the goal
here is like to do different content creation from movies
to videos to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Aside from those kinds of opportunities, how much of this
is also about sort of amplifying Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Well, I love Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I think the way you fix world problems my opinion
as jobs and by creating jobs.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Everybody, you know, what's that saying the given.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
For a day, teach them to fish.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, And that's my kind of philosophy and life. It's
all about creating jobs and creating cool things. But the
majority is like building something to do cool stuff with
cool people and that's the plan. I don't have a
business plan, have been it down and we're figuring it
out as we go.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So what if somebody wanted to come down to be
a part of this, how would they even go about that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Well, for for the booteek hotel dot com, check that out.
And if you want to get kite surfing lessons, which
I highly recommend. And by the way, it's a green
sport once you know how, Like skiing is great, I
love it, but you need a ski lift, you need
to go to the resort. Kiting you just need wind
and your kite. And once you know how, the world
is your oyster. You go kite all over the world.
You could travel with the gear or all the water
(12:53):
is a giant playground.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So yeah, because the gear kind of folds up, I
mean the the are the words inflatable?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No, but you put it in the golf like golf
bag like you see people traveling golf bags.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And basically like a snowboard back too work as well. Okay,
so it's about the same size. So I put the links.
By the way, not only Junia Maruno Beach Hotel, but
also your Airbnb page. They have some condos that are
right upstairs. That are beautiful. I mean they are so gorgeous.
And we sat out on the patio last night with
(13:23):
Willy B and his wife and we laughed and had
a great time and it was just fantastic. Damian Maldonado,
you're like building an empire, but like the most chill, cool,
laid back empire in the history of empires.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Thank you. I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It is. I mean, you know, I I've enjoyed the
heck out of it, so I can't wait. Honestly, I
can't wait to see what comes next.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I'm excited to have you guys back.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
It's been awesome having you guys really nursing yourself like
it's been great.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think we've all loved it. We've just all loved it.
It's just been a really great experience saying thanks.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
For stopping by to thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
All right, we'll be back with news, traffick, and weather
to wrap things up, and Zach has promised to give
Chuck and me a really easy Jeopardy category after the
week we've had playing off the day. That's all coming
up next right here on Koa
Show broadcasting Live Beautiful send One, Porto Rico. Thanks to
our friends in American Financing who, after building their Colorado
based company helping people get mortgages, Damien, who is from
Puerto Rico, we're gonna hear more of that story in
a second, decided to come back down here and do
some magic here, kind of like the magic he did
in the community in Colorado. Damien Maldonado, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you, thank you for thank you for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
By the way, I love love how oh yeah, it's
been so tough this week. It's been such a drag.
With the beach and the spicy margaritas and the really
good food and the beautiful student, it's been a real
labor Damien. I'm just kidding. It has been absolutely fantastic.
So Damien, a lot of people know about American Financing.
I talk about him all the time. Let's talk about
(00:46):
you for a little bit, because you are literally like
you're the great, You're the American Dream. Like the story
that you've created has been the American dream. Tell me
a little bit about how it got started. Like you
were born in Puerto.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Rico, Yeah, thank you all. I'm born in New York.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Actually, then when my parents separated, it ended up in
Colorado and that's where we opened up American Financing in
ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
But yeah, actually born.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We just jumped through a whole bunch of stuff, right,
I mean, your parents did not come from money. I
heard that you actually lived in a homeless shelter for
a while.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We did in the Samaritan House in downtown Denver. I
was like when I was eleven or ten, but I
didn't realize we're homeless, Like they have.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
These rooms where you can get free stuff, like, oh wow,
this is great.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So you did never realize how bad it was.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It wasn't that bad. I think it was all perception.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I think had I not gone through that, maybe I
wouldn't have been as hungry. So I think it was
like kind of listening to the skies. Maybe I don't know,
but it was. It was great that there's those type
of things in the US that you could actually like
get back on your feet.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Right. So when did you How old were you and
started American.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Financing twenty twenty one?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Oh my god, I mean I knew you were young,
because you're still young. It's you know, I had no
idea it was that young, like, how do you when
you're nineteen or twenty, how do you decide to be
the guy who's going to start a mortgage company? How
did that even come about?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
My brother got me reading these books. I'm a big book.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You're awakening a giant within that's like kind of like
before that, I wanted to be a garbage man, and
like my buddy was like fifteen dollars now hour, hanging
out drinking beer with your friends and like, and then
I read that book and I'm like, wow, you control
your brain.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You could do whatever you want and you create whatever
you want. And I'm like, oh, I got to do that.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So it was like we used to promote health and
fitness clubs and basically around the country and also you know,
thirty some states Australia and New Zealand, England, and we
learned how to market things. And then I got he
got me a job at a mortgage company and called
terror funding at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I think they've went out of business since then.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And then we took those things that we learned marketing
health and fitness clubs and put in the mortgages and
then we like you know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Slowly grew up, but it took a really, really long time.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
You know, we've been in business a long time, and
he's focused on the customer, focused on doing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And one are the interesting things that's happened this week.
And you know, I was sitting in a group of people,
but you were talking to someone I believe who worked
for you, and you were having a conversation about a
location change, and you asked this this other young man.
You said, well, who is that good for you or
the customer? And it was an interesting point in question.
But I think it goes kind of the heart of
(03:07):
why you are successful, because it is not about making
it easier for you, it's about making it easier for
the customer. Where did that come from? Where did that
thought process come from?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know, I'm sure you've been in restaurants and you're like, man,
I would do this differently, and I do that.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
I've done that all over this island. We just say
Puerto Rican service in restaurants is slow. It is very slow.
And I was, yeah, I was a former restaurant manager.
So it's been like okay, just deep breaths. I'm starving.
I gotta have a snack before I got to dinner.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
No, yeah, I love Puerto Rico. But yeah, people will
stop in the middle of road say hi to their
friends while you're behind them on the car, and you're like,
and they're chatting around.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So it's just as island time. It's a different vibe.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And then you know when you get when you lawyer
your hirer and you go, Okay, it's cool, I'm here,
I'm enjoying it. So but no, But like you know,
being in restaurants, you're like, I could do that different.
Then I always just put myself in that position. I'm like, wow,
why are they doing it this way? And then luckily
when you own that business, you can say, hey, can
we please do it this way?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, you guys have seen a lot of ups and downs.
I mean, your mortgage business obviously is deeply affected by
the housing market. It's been an interesting couple of years
in terms of people buying houses and doing refrise. But
you guys are always innovating on what can we do
next to make this, to help this customer to do this,
And I think that's one of the reasons that, to
your point, the first mortgage company you've worked for is
(04:22):
out of business. How do you constantly Like, I mean,
you have a challenge, do you ever just get tired
of it? Do you ever just get like, oh that's it,
I'm giving up? Or is it something that just drives
you to solve the problems as they pop up.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Well, I'm constantly inspired by you know, different business people,
and I'm reading books and I'm reading stories and.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Like just learning.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And I think, you know, either you're going forward or
going backwards. There's no standing still. The world's moving forward.
So you have to move forward and learn as much
as you can and focus on like, hey, you know,
we just have to be better than ourselves. I don't
even know focus on a competition. I'm like, how do
we become better? How do we get our team better?
And I have great teams, so like they inspired me.
So if I have meetings, they're like they're giving me
ideas and we're talking about how do we do things?
(05:00):
And we're constantly that's our conversations. What do we how
do we make the customer experience better? How do we
make it better for employees? And that's you know, that's
the only way to a business.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And if you're not doing that, I think you're kind
of slowly dying.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Now you are a big kite surfer, So let's talk
about how you ended up with a kite surfing hotel
in Puerto Rico. What what was what? What what happened there?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I met my partner Dylan in a pilot Carmon in
Mexico and he had a kite school and I was
having some of my friends learn how to kite, and
then his hotel he was behind kind of like decided
to stop doing that program.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I'm like, hey, we should look at a kite
open up a high school.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
We're looking all around the Caribbean, and we were we
were in the Dominican Republic in Cabrette, and then all
of a sudden, my buddy goes, hey, what about Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I'm like, how did they not even think about?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You know what that is? I gotta tell you, Puerto
Rico has a marketing problem. They really have a marketing problem.
Because Mike and I were talking this like, there's like
been so many things that have just been so surprising,
and I feel like no one knows about Puerto Rico
and the United States.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, you know, well it's a challenge because Perto Rico
is like one of those. I love Puerto Rico, but
the government's not the most friendly with permits, and they
don't make it the easiest, and they don't where we're
the only beach bar in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh now, Monuna, and it's like there should be a
whole bunch of beach bars.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, it's crazy, and it's just like a little bit
like difficult to do business here.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Okay, Now, Damian, I'm gonna give you a tip from
washing politics. You don't want any more to beach bars.
So you want to be the guy who says no
more beach bars. No, I'm just kidding, because you have
a monopoly.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I love I love all about opportunities.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
It should be like there's place, there's plenty of space
for everybody, right, It's like all tides rides together, or
both rides together with the tides, and like I believe
in that, So I think it's great. It should be
more like that, like I think. But it's this old
school money. I'm like new money here. It's like this
is a different vibe that I bring than what's already here.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, and I do think that that is that's definitely
a cultural difference. I mean, I was talking to one
of your wonderful people here, and we were talking about
the power like they're really their power grid is in
a bad way and they've got to do something about that.
And I said, I think that would dry. I'd be crazy.
And she said, well, it's just kind of a sign
to go to the beach for a little bit and
like chill out. So that's definitely a cultural difference than
(07:07):
what we would have in the United States, where we
would all be running around trying to find someone to
plug in, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So that's not all bad, no, you get used to it.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Like after Hurricane Maria, I was like obviously exclaming, debstaining
for the island, but people got used to like when
a power goes out, it's like normal, you don't even
think about it. But everybody's like the complaints like oh man,
no power, no water, and like so what it's like fine,
Like I.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Got the beach right there.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Wait a minute, I should be clear. We we most
most resorts probably have generators now, so it's not like
if you come down here as a tourist, you're going
to be sitting in the dark. That's not how things
are going. But I want to talk a little bit
about kitesurfing because I didn't do it this time. I
didn't try it this time because I was like the
last thing my work ethic would not allow me to
like hurt myself when I knew I had to do
a show the next day. But what is it about kitesurfing?
(07:51):
And explain what kitesurfing is for somebody who is, you know,
in Colorado about to go skiing but has no idea
what kite surfing is.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Kite Surfing is my favorite sport and I recommend it
to everyone.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Is basically you're getting.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Pulled by a kite on a board like for those
stoneboarders out there in Denver. You know, it's a twin
tip type of board, so you can go bi directionally,
go either side.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And your wind, the wind is pulling the kite and
it is pulling you and you could.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Kite is literally like a little mini parachute. Yeah, that's
what it is, a little mini parashote. And where is
it attached to your body? Because it looks like a
lot of upper upper body strength.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Thing to me, No, you have you have a waste
harness and your's very gentle sport, like to jump and
do certain types of tricks. You have to have a
little bit more strength, but otherwise it's a very passive sport.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
You can chill it once you learn how. It's not
that easy.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, I mean it looks it looks a little challenging.
But I talked to multiple people this this morning that
were older than me that are out there kite surving.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I mean one of my good friends, Richard Branson's seventy
four years old and he kites.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
We've kited.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Not normal, Like you can't use Richard Branson as a
normal seventy four year old, Like you can't do that.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I mean, I think he should be a He's an
example for the world of what you can do, and
I think people should follow that. Like I preach up
because whenever somebodys talking about their age, I'm like Richard
seventy four, I've climb on block with him.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
What are you doing? And I say that with kiting too.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
If you're not kiting and you live in Putrico, what
are you doing with your life?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Damien Maldonado is my guest. Well we get back. I
I gotta take a quick time out, but I want
to talk about this space, the space that we're in
right now, and sort of the dreams and aspirations that
you have to create more opportunity here in Puerto Rico.
We'll be right back after this on Kwa, one of
(09:33):
the founders of American Financing, and now he is back
in Puerto Rico and really doing some really cool stuff
down here. So you came down here to open the
kite surfing school that we just went over. And by
the way, what is the kite? What is it when
you only have like a little baby kite, You don't
have the big string with the parachute, what's the little
baby kite that you hold onto? What is that?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
That's wingfoiling? Wing foiling, wingfoiling. It's a great sport.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
It's a there's multiple different types of boards of foil
that has a bottom wing on the bottom and kind
of floats.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You go three times the speed of wind with that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I'm not gonna lie. That just sounds terrifying to me
at this point in my life. But I'll try it
next time I'm down here for sure. Let's talk about
so now you have the new Maruno Beach Hotel. Now
did the kite school come first, or did the hotel
come first?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, the hotel was already there and we bought it
about six seven years ago in.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Order to make it a kysurfing school.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The whole goal of moving to Puerto Rico was to
open up a kysurfing school. Luckily, we found this property
that is now Uno and we didn't even know what
we were buying when we bought it and ended up
being just one of the coolest spots.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
It's a super cute little property. It's a small hotel.
It's like clean and comfy right on the beach. I've
had my workstation, which you need to put a little
Nu Marona workstation plaque right above that little little thing
right there. It's just been Your staff is fantastic. The
spicy margaritas are literally the best spicy margarita I have
ever in my life. Had I got to show me
(10:59):
how to make them today with just incredible. But what
are we sitting in right now? We're sitting in this
beautiful studio that's like loungey and you know, people can
come down record stuff. What are we doing in this
building over here which is a little bit off the beach.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So I chat gdp'd like a media company. I'm like
it's basically content creation. So we're basically building content creation
to do movies, podcasts. So you know, I'm sure those
you've heard of tiny desks. We want to do a
tiny desk of podcasts. So when people are recording in
Puerto Rico, they come, they see this background and we'll
change it up for different like yourself, and people are
(11:35):
coming to do their show here.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And then we have housing. I have about sixty eighty
rooms in this area. I have counted in a while.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
But so you could just come, bring your toothbrush, be
productive and have a cool environment. And that's the goal
here is like to do different content creation from movies
to videos to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Aside from those kinds of opportunities, how much of this
is also about sort of amplifying Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Well, I love Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I think the way you fix world problems my opinion
as jobs and by creating jobs.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Everybody, you know, what's that saying the given.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
For a day, teach them to fish.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, And that's my kind of philosophy and life. It's
all about creating jobs and creating cool things. But the
majority is like building something to do cool stuff with
cool people and that's the plan. I don't have a
business plan, have been it down and we're figuring it
out as we go.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
So what if somebody wanted to come down to be
a part of this, how would they even go about that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Well, for for the booteek hotel dot com, check that out.
And if you want to get kite surfing lessons, which
I highly recommend. And by the way, it's a green
sport once you know how, Like skiing is great, I
love it, but you need a ski lift, you need
to go to the resort. Kiting you just need wind
and your kite. And once you know how, the world
is your oyster. You go kite all over the world.
You could travel with the gear or all the water
(12:53):
is a giant playground.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So yeah, because the gear kind of folds up, I
mean the the are the words inflatable?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No, but you put it in the golf like golf
bag like you see people traveling golf bags.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
And basically like a snowboard back too work as well. Okay,
so it's about the same size. So I put the links.
By the way, not only Junia Maruno Beach Hotel, but
also your Airbnb page. They have some condos that are
right upstairs. That are beautiful. I mean they are so gorgeous.
And we sat out on the patio last night with
(13:23):
Willy B and his wife and we laughed and had
a great time and it was just fantastic. Damian Maldonado,
you're like building an empire, but like the most chill, cool,
laid back empire in the history of empires.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Thank you. I'm here for it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It is. I mean, you know, I I've enjoyed the
heck out of it, so I can't wait. Honestly, I
can't wait to see what comes next.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I'm excited to have you guys back.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
It's been awesome having you guys really nursing yourself like
it's been great.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I think we've all loved it. We've just all loved it.
It's just been a really great experience saying thanks.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
For stopping by to thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
All right, we'll be back with news, traffick, and weather
to wrap things up, and Zach has promised to give
Chuck and me a really easy Jeopardy category after the
week we've had playing off the day. That's all coming
up next right here on Koa
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