Transcript
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Speaker: I grew up poor, so I was born in Vietnam and we used to live in a hut. Just an inner feeling where this is not where I'm supposed to end up.
Speaker: Like, I am supposed to be wealthy. I just get the excitement and adrenaline on building something new. Problem solving is just pretty much our job every single day.
Speaker: I think I approach realist in a very different manner. go in a place and completely visualize how it needs to be. i think integrity is a core value in business. It's a main currency, actually.
Speaker: You're still in integrity when you say, hey, like, I can't do this. I am a firm believer of how I dress and how I put myself together contributes to how I feel.
Speaker: if you have solid people who are hustlers, you're expanding yourself in a massive way. People are like, how do you do everything? There's teams. If you find the right key players and you set the systems in place, you can be hands more hands-off than people realize.
Speaker: No, it's a learning experience for sure. Laura, you operate in real estate. You operate in medical device distribution.
Speaker: You've done marketing. You've done a lot of things. Yes. What drives you?
Speaker: I would say my passion truly, in regardless, people are like, why do you, how do you do so many businesses? And my passion is just building them. I think I just get the excitement and adrenaline on building something new and in building a vision with my team and seeing it executed.
Speaker: I think that's the most gratifying thing is just a the growth step of it. Yeah, I totally feel the same way. i think building, creating is something that's obviously disruptive and can really affect a lot of people in the positive way. right And i um I always see the glass is half full.
Speaker: pray Trying to figure out a way to make make a bigger glass yeah so you can put more in it. Yes, yes. And seeing, you know, like the the transition from the beginning and just seeing the growth in each phase and all the obstacles and all the things we solve. Like just earlier, we were talking about problem solving. It's pretty much our job every single day.
Speaker: so so actually, walk us through a typical day for you. You know, we talked about this a little bit earlier, how life is kind of crazy. Give us a sense of what a typical day is for Yeah, so um it starts the day before, actually. So I have ah a to-do list of all the things that I need to whose tackle, um prioritized. And then in the morning, i um oh, throughout the day, I check off the list. The hardest things that I need to do, I tackle it first. Like if I need to make any sort of um calls or like any sort of cold calling, I do that the first thing in the morning. Yeah.
Speaker: And then throughout ah the day, I also have um all the different businesses or I have it organized in a document of tasks. So for instance, if my my thing on my to-do list is like, hey, um go back into real estate and see what you need to do. so I go into a real estate folder and i see the task or like lower medical, I go into a lower medical folder and see what's the next steps that i need to do.
Speaker: So, like, everything is organized within the business. And then i'm I've been utilizing this one um website called UseMotion. I've been using a lot of ai So what that does, it um it communicates with all the calendar, and it also uploads my tasks directly to my calendar. really Yeah. So if i don't if I don't finish, it automatically pushes to the next day. So it it staggers the task in between my meetings as well. What's it called again? Use Motion. Interesting. Yeah.
Speaker: It's been really cool. Interesting. Yeah. One of the things we do with this podcast is we obviously talk with successful entrepreneurs, business people about strategy, about the big picture, but it's also nice every once in a while to have some very tactical tools yeah to use.
Speaker: yeah and I'm kind of more old with school. I have like got like a Moleskine folder that I use, yeah but I'm i'm actually actively looking for more AI tools to automate my life really. Yeah, I spoke with another entrepreneur and he he really likes that concept too. Just being able to, so I use my folder too. I have a notebook, but that's more of like a general to-do task. And then if I need to dive deeper into detail, I go into motion and it tells specifically like what I need to do and within each business. And have you always been this way?
Speaker: No, it was learning experience for sure. I think one of the most memorable learning experience was, I remember was so embarrassing. It was one of those things where like it was on my, the meeting was in the calendar and I was supposed to meet this really successful um entrepreneur person to, you know, like potential collaborate do business with. I think he was a wealth manager, family offices.
Speaker: And um I completely, he he drove up to meet me and I completely forgot the meeting. And it was because wasn't at that point in time I didn't really operate based on my calendar as I do now, right? It was more like, oh, I'll write it down and I'm going to remember. It wasn't anything keeping me accountable to my schedule. And i feel like that was one of the pivotal moments from like just utter embarrassment. I'm like, I got to like be more organized on this. It's just so unprofessional of me because I'm very... adamant on like being on time, making meetings. So that was a time where I was like, okay, I'm going to really utilize Google Calendar.
Speaker: And that's how I operate now is off of my calendar. Yeah, my calendar is my lifeblood. Yeah, I actually have. So I have multiple email addresses because I run multiple businesses. Right. And i have a tool called Shift but that in one desktop, it shows all of my emails.
Speaker: um So I can basically click here rather than open a new browser or a new piece of software. It's all in one. And that helps me out because I am juggling between times, but I do keep one calendar because if I have multiple calendars, I've actually tried to do that. Yeah.
Speaker: Disaster. work I had literally one time I triple booked myself oh like accidentally. Yeah. And I also have a ah booking website where I offer up certain amounts of time so that people can, especially when you're trying to organize a meeting, like, you know, between three, four people, I just say, here's my calendar, find an hour in there, find some time. And that's been very effective.
Speaker: Nice. I got to look into that shift. yeah okay With respect to one of the words I really, really love that I've grown to love is the word identity.
Speaker: Identity for me, for what I've studied is kind of like in a newer concept. Like we all kind of know about who we are or at least trying to figure ourselves out. And there's always that talk. But identity is also very much rooted towards who you are as who you show up as in your in your business world, right? Yeah. You show up, like you said, you're elegant, you're you're on time, you're you're professional, and you really, your entire identity is about that.
Speaker: Has there ever been a moment in your professional career where you felt as though you were in a room you didn't belong in for positive or for negative?
Speaker: A room that I didn't belong in.
Speaker: I think it's more than more of a room than... So let's let's reverse back. Like when I was... I've always had this feeling. I grew up poor. So I was born in Vietnam and we used to live in a hut, like a literal hut in your Vietnam. Like wooden walls, straw ceilings. We had floods. It was just horrible. Yeah.
Speaker: But regardless of how poor we were, i just have this, I don't know how to explain it, but it just an inner feeling where this is not where I'm supposed to end up.
Speaker: Like, I am supposed to be wealthy. Like, I'm supposed to make a difference. So I've always, I don't know what instilled in me. It wasn't self-talk. i mean, it wasn't like taught by my parents. It wasn't taught by, not that I can remember anyone that really sat me down and say, hey, like you can do anything.
Speaker: It was more like, I guess, screw up seeing so much information. Like from a single mom, like seeing how much my mom struggled, like seeing how poor we were, I just always thought like, this is not it.
Speaker: Like I'm not meant for this and I'm going to grow out of it. So like I've always um had that mindset regardless of whatever position or life stage that i'm in. um So in like the not belonging is, yeah, like in those instances, I feel like I didn't belong.
Speaker: in the situations that I that i was, i was like, hey, like, what can I do? What industry can I get in to dig myself out of this $200,000 debt? What, like, what would make the most commission that I can get myself into based on my education? That's how I got into medical device, you know? So it's like real estate was good commission, but it's not good enough. And I was here in the background, like pharmaceutical reps or medical device make so much money. So, yeah, that's that's my that's how I always view my identity.
Speaker: Yeah, that's great. I yeah feel kind of the same way. I've always felt felt special or different. it different yeah Different. And it doesn't mean better or worse. It just means different. I came from a small town on the border and my parents, we were, i wouldn't say we were well off. We weren't poor either. We were kind of middle, middle of the road. And it was a great upbringing.
Speaker: I had a lot of friends, a lot of family, a lot of love, a lot of, it was good. It was a solid like upbringing, but I always felt that something was not It's like missing. Missing. Right. And so my entire professional career, I've been chasing that. And I don't think it'll ever go away.
Speaker: Yeah. Because for me, I love to create. I think as entrepreneurs, I think we're creators. And sometimes creators mean destruction as well. Because you need to wipe something out before you put something else on there.
Speaker: Yes. Like in real estate. Yeah. Yeah. With respect to real estate, you have obviously rolled in the Scottsdale domain and you're talking with luxury homes, luxury home buyers.
Speaker: Is there a particular mindset or conversation you have with these high-end clients that nobody really knows about or hears about? I think I approach real estate in a very different manner. um And it's because of the business aspect of things. Because i I think in a way of...
Speaker: of numbers and i think a way of like hey if you buy this home it's a beautiful home but in the location it it is like there's so much potential growth or surrounding it so it's not just a home it's an investment um that that you run through your family and also like i discuss arvs like aftermarket values if you were to renovate if you buy a really nice home in a developing area where hey, the house is 1.5, but surrounding all the teardowns are $5, $6 million. dollars Like the potential just in that area makes a huge difference in just a few years in appreciation. So I talk a lot in in terms of numbers and luxury. And then um in addition to that,
Speaker: I've always been really into the arts and design and architecture. I'm not, I mean, I'm not specifically licensed in interior design or anything, but I self-learn um a lot. And since the age of 15, I've been in So my mom, she does fix and flips way back before the crash, like when I was 14, 15. And we couldn't afford to renovate multiple homes at one time. So we would buy a house and then fix it up, live in it, and then we'll sell And we do it every single year to the point that by 11th grade, we move like 21 times. Wow. Yeah, it was just, it was a lot. But that really allowed me like looking back to see, like my mom's a businesswoman too. So to see, go in a place and have it completely run down and see, hey, I need to knock down this wall and to expand this. I need to reroute it. I need to put this design. it's like, can visualize, like go in a place and completely visualize how it needs to be.
Speaker: And I think that ability makes me different, not only in the business mindset, but in the design, in the knowing how to renovate, knowing all the resources of contractors around Arizona. i'm It gives a lot of value to my clients.
Speaker: Yeah, I see what you mean by the difference, because i have a lot of real estate friends. Some of them think like you, but some of them think more transactional, more like this is what I have. these This is the menu of options, take it or leave it. Yeah. And it just really matters. The one particular group I'm talking about, he's I'm going to get him on the podcast as well. And You've got to have a certain mindset if you want to really scale. Because these these ones that are just doing the transactional you know menu of options, they they have a limit, right? And I see that limit.
Speaker: But the ones that have the mindset like yours and and Tanner's and his group, it's ah it's a way different mindset. Yeah. Do you run into the the other mindset a lot in Scottsdale, the ones that are just transactional and don't really look at the bigger picture? Yeah, there is. And I think sometimes like um a lot of ah realtors that go into real estate, we come from all different span of background. Right. And so a lot of times they come into it with like as their first business working for themselves, not having the structure. Right.
Speaker: and So I see like a wide span of realtors from all different sorts of backgrounds. And there's some of them where I'm like, wow, like I can really take a chapter from her book. Like one of them I went recently and see um she was a master of farming communities. And she um she mentioned like the things that she does for her community, just fun events like she has a flower cart or a coffee cart that she has in her community.
Speaker: And I think that's a cool like way to build community too. So yeah, I see from one, like some really bad agents who don't care about their their um clients to like some really creative agents to some really business savvy agents to some really bad-ass negotiators. So I think it's real estate has always fascinated me. I think it's a passion because you can see so many different facets of people in the industry. Yeah, absolutely. There's so many aspects to that. i had a person in that seat about a month ago who has 12,000 doors. Wow. and That's incredible.
Speaker: He's taken all that wealth and he's actually, he's 80 years old. He's actually applied it towards helping the homeless. Wow. The ones that really want to be helped. Yeah. Not the ones that that are in on the streets because of their choice. Right. Or running with drugs, all that. He has actually a really good program and he wants his legacy. I asked him that. I mean, his legacy could be,
Speaker: ah hugh I mean, billions of dollars. But no, his legacy wants, he wants that to be that I want to provide a pathway for those that that don't have any other way.
Speaker: And I thought that was like That's beautiful. Yeah. That's incredible. So with your clients, whether it's high-end real estate, whether it's medical stuff, whether it's marketing, whether it's modeling, whatever it is, you need to build credibility yeah and trust as soon as possible. Right.
Speaker: How do you do that? Being genuine. I think integrity is a core value in business. It's a main currency, actually, because once you have integrity, and even if delivering a bad news to a client, but you deliver it honestly, um you maintain not only through just that transaction, you maintain that relationship.
Speaker: For future businesses. Yeah. And most clients, it's not just one transaction type of thing. It's a relationship. It's with multiple transactions in the future or multiple businesses in the future. There's a lot of times, like my ceo CEO is really good at that too, is having that relationship with a client, with the doctors, where...
Speaker: one in one product might not be relevant to sell to that practitioner anymore. But because the relationship between our company and that client is so solid that they come back to us and say, hey, like, what's next? Like, what's coming up next? What's what's producing income? what can What else can I add to my practice that would generate red revenue? So, and that's all coming from integrity because we In um the space that we were for medical device, it was one of the most competitive because we did biologics and wound care. It was ah a lot of players that weren't compliant. There's a lot of players that did a lot of things that wasn't within the law. And we...
Speaker: We're very strict in doing things correctly, taking care of our practitioners to make sure they're protected with um callback insurance, with all the things that they trust us so much. It's such a solid relationship that they they choose to work with us and other things too.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that trust is so important. And what a lot of folks don't understand about trust, it's not like a monument, a stagnant monument. Trust is a o fountain.
Speaker: It circulates, it comes out, it can run dry as well. And I've been in situations where somebody that I really trusted and we had a business relationship for a long time, things in their life changed and that fountain ran dry.
Speaker: So I couldn't go back to that fountain. yeah And they'd come back to me later on and try to rekindle that. And I'm a very forgiving person to some degree, but I also have certain limits that I just cannot go past.
Speaker: right And that goes back to integrity, like you mentioned, which is, I think, and invaluable. Yeah. I think one of them, i went to Swarm program and they mentioned like, you're still in integrity when you say, hey, like, I can't do this.
Speaker: You know, like some people feel like they have to promise and enough to like deliver, which is part of integrity too. But if you are incapable, go back to that person and be like, hey, I really tried to deliver this, but I can't.
Speaker: And you're still integrous being integrity by doing that. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's ah very well understood by some people, but not everybody. Right. And I think when I do business, when I actually do coaching, when I do mentoring with yet with younger entrepreneurs or even students, I give talks and this stuff.
Speaker: And i always mention that you you really need to be bound by your word. At the end of the day, we have nothing else. We have our mindset. And what comes out of our mouth.
Speaker: Yes. And very few other things. You know, our hands, I guess, if you're working with your hands. But we don't work with hands typically. Yeah. But, yeah, I think your word is your bond. And it as much as possible to stick with that, even if it takes time. I mean, I had a, ah you know, I say that business is a full contact sport.
Speaker: Sometimes you get... broken bones and bruises and all that. yeah And I have a friend, a really good, deep mentor for a long time. We had a business deal that went sour and it it could have been for me. i was perceived as like, okay, this is part of but what happens. He saw it a very different way and we didn't really align for years.
Speaker: But a few days ago, actually last week, I had a conversation with him and we cleared the air. Oh, that's beautiful. He understood kind of where I was coming from yeah vice versa. And perception is so key as well. You know, you're sitting on that other side of the table and you see things differently yes than I do, although we're in the same space.
Speaker: True. It's kind of rumor. Yeah, it is. Talk to us about the invisible work. What I mean to say about that is you are extraordinarily polished.
Speaker: You are very smart. You're driven. You can tell that you bring an energy to the room, but there's invisible work behind the scenes. And I know because I'm the same. yeah What's the invisible work?
Speaker: oh I'm not always polished. So in the in the morning, I guess the invisible will work is like, people are like, oh, you're so skinny. Just the simplest thing, right? Or like, you because I had a baby 15 months ago. Like, how did you get back to this same shape? and Invisible work, for instance, is during the pregnancy, I did Pilates religiously 5 a.m. in the morning. 5 get ready and get to the get ready and get to the class at six a m um at least four times a week religiously all the way till like i delivered the baby like till a couple days before they delivered the baby and when we had the emergency c-section the doctor was like man this girl has like abs of steel what did you do wow but like to get back and then i kept it going um even till now i still do pilates so like those invisible work it's like hey it's not just
Speaker: Like being fit takes work, just like business takes work. um Building little habits of, of um it's not easy to operate in the calendar. You have to do it so many times to remember, hey, check your calendar in the morning to see what's going on for the rest of the day. Make sure like to follow up with clients to make sure that they they attend the meeting. Like those are little tiny incremental habits that's built upon years to get me to where how structured I am now. And I'm still not perfect. There's still a lot of work in progress that I can optimize and do better. Yeah.
Speaker: for instance, networking. Like one of my things that I need to work on is I go to a lot of networking events and of course gather a lot of business cards, like following up to with the business card with everyone and scheduling meetings with them or it wouldn't be, the event wouldn't be fruitful, right? So that's one of the things that I'm working in terms of habits and it's the background of it. It's like, showing like you said i look polished but some days i have bad days but i or i feel really sick and i don't want to put makeup on and but i do it anyways because i am a firm believer of how i dress and how i put myself together contributes to how i feel um for the rest of the day so i always i always try to look good when i go out Yeah, there's ah that's ah that's really good to share. There's a um this idea, of course, that a lot of the work we do now is mobile. We're running around. We're taking calls all the time. yeah and what's interesting is I was actually working remote starting in 2001. Wow.
Speaker: well Way back in the day, i was a ah basically a sales engineer working in Tucson and the corporate company was in Austin. And we had, this is even before- so so That's way before COVID. This is before it's COVID, before Skype even, I had a voice ah over IP, VoIP phone, an email, and that was it. And basically we had conversations of like, okay, next slide. We'd be walking like walking through a slide set, but we would have to push the button to go to the next slide.
Speaker: And what I remember is and don't remember who told me about this, is was doing training to be in this role. They basically said, whatever you do, get up in the morning, get ready as if you're going to go to work because it shifts your mindset.
Speaker: but And I did. I'd get it up at whatever time, I'd shower, I'd get cleaned up, I'd put on nice clothes, and I'd go from my bedroom across the hall to my office. And I'd sit down in my office, and my office was it was impeccable because I needed to have that space. yes And i would make my bed, like I would do the whole process, and my commute was rather than 15 minutes, was 15 seconds.
Speaker: And ever since that, I'd try to maintain that. Although sometimes I might be getting ready for bed, I might send a quick email and all that, but I try not to. i try to be try to create some some some separation between these different aspects. Right.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's important. and It just makes us feel better and more energized, right? Obviously, you're a hustler. You hustle. You move. You make things happen.
Speaker: But you mentioned earlier you have systems in place. You have your your calendar, you have these AI tools. What would you say the the balance or how much you spend just raw hustling versus building systems that do it for you?
Speaker: So...
Speaker: I would say the balance is I use my weekday to do productive tasks that would carry the business forward or things that needs to be done for the businesses. And then the weekend to build systems.
Speaker: Right. And I should take I do Sunday is like my day off off. But Saturday, try to like put some time in um to build like SOPs for real estate, which is what I'm focusing right now for my team. um And then I'm also a very blessed that um our company has very tech savvy um leadership team. So like there's our CTO is incredible for AI. and We just had a new person coming into the company that's also great at ops.
Speaker: And then our um previous ceo is stuff a CEO is part of our company, too. So there's a lot of very structured people in our company. And then the CEO and myself are more like visionaries um in terms of like what to to to do to take the business forward.
Speaker: So, yeah, like one of the things, like I mentioned earlier, um the networking thing, because I'm my role right now is to get new potential partnerships within the medical space to utilize our marketplace.
Speaker: So whether it's like peptide compounding um pharmacies or distributors um to utilize our software. Um, so I do a lot of networking and, um, our CTO is building this one thing called command center. So what that does is that it optimizes all the, so I go, I take a picture of, um,
Speaker: someone that meet at networking event um and their business card, it gets into the system, it ah reaches out to that person, schedule a meeting for me so that I don't need to do that like mundane task and then I get to show up and actually meet the person face-to-face or through Zoom. So I'm trying to optimize the portion that's just like repetitive tasks I don't need to do.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I say that AI won't replace you, but AI, people that know AI might. Right. You know, AI is making things really move much faster than they have been. And as much as you can really understand that soon and make changes, I have a lot of friends that are that are still only doing ChatGPT, and I have a few that don't do anything and that They're like, why do i need relearn anything? And I'm like, dude, even though you're gonna retire soon, like you still have to understand the way of the world.
Speaker: It boggles my mind. And I have other people that I know that are using it like crazy. yeah We had a ah guest here, Blaine Wilson, he was using, he knows all these elements and he's he's on these threads and he's like, he knows what's coming around the corner.
Speaker: And so if I ever have a question about like how should I do things or structure things, yeah he knows what the tools are. ah that's cool. do that So it's really, really good to have people like that. Yeah, sometimes I feel bombarded when it comes to AI. It's like so many apps, so many tools and what to use in certain scenario. It's good to have someone like that who's been obsessive within that that niche to learn it, right? Yeah.
Speaker: In in ah your real estate play, i'm using these two as big examples, your real estate play and your medical device distribution company, you're you're really, they're kind of different markets in some ways, right? yeah Are there any things that you've learned from one market that's applied to the other market?
Speaker: Absolutely. rootly um i would say from, so in the past four years, we we scaled the medical um distribution company. I've learned a lot in terms of structures and sales and and working with virtual assistants and so um delegating certain tasks like cold calling, marketing, um just scaling in a marketing and sales strategy through the medical portion, I'm utilizing it to scale real estate. is Essentially, what what we've done is we're just a salesforce sales force, sales and marketing force. like We used to have um a marketing agency that does influencer marketing and social media and ads. So the ad play applies to any businesses that we do. And we utilize ads for or a real estate too. So i was like, why not? you know My time, people are like, how do you do everything?
Speaker: There's teams. If you find the right key players and you set the systems in place, you can be more hands-off than people realize. And it's just, for my real estate, it's like I bring in the resources for all the contractors if anyone wants to renovate. I bring in like the knowledge of marketing and know how to regenerate. And then setting up the system for my team to tap into that that network and um and keep it brand consistent. I'm really big on branding too.
Speaker: Yeah, branding is huge. Branding is huge. And I love that you just said about building teams. I think that team building is one of the most underrated aspects of business.
Speaker: Yes. As entrepreneurs, especially as jen Gen X, you're probably a little, you're younger than me a lot. Millennial. yeah As Gen X, like we are all about going at it alone.
Speaker: yeah Some people describe us as the nomad generation. Yes. And the idea of like, I'm going to do this on my own and um I don't care. I don't need anybody else. No, if you want to go, if you want to go far and you know, there's this whole saying, right? if you want to go far, um bring somebody along with you.
Speaker: Yeah, it's true. And that's what I learned from the medical device business, too, is the team. The team can really, of course, it takes a little bit time to get people up to speed for training.
Speaker: It takes a little time, a little time more time to grow, because when you do it things, of course, you do it the way you want it to be done. Right. But even if you hire like an executive assistant, there's ah a time span where you have to train them. For them to learn exactly how you like things to be done. So there is time invested in creating systems. But once this done it's done, so gratifying to see it being played out.
Speaker: And also like just a little less commission on sales. Like that's fine. You're utilizing other people's time. It's essentially when you have team because you only have X amount of time a day. And if you have solid people who are hustlers, you're expanding yourself in a massive way.
Speaker: Yeah. Do you have any stories for us regarding when you've had to fire somebody or let somebody go? yeah yeah our company yes um i remember we uh there's a lot of people when we learn um interviews very well but when comes down to it they don't they especially sales they just don't live up to what what they have pitched and it's like the 80 20 rule is like 20 percent of the people do really well and the rest of 80 don't
Speaker: barely perform even if they at all interview well right so one of the things that we did is we hired a um a sales manager that it had interviewed really well and within like a couple of months like nothing was really panning out as why he has pitched and we had to let him go and it's um it's a learning experience to to see um Because that was like, we paid a lot for to get him on board at a time where we were just starting off.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's so painful. Yeah. I had somebody... in my one of my previous companies that we chased him for almost a year. he was a PhD, really high level guy. yeah and And he was really supposed to be the glue that really took us to the next level, brought everything together. And we brought him on board and he was hard to get you know into the door. We had to pay him a lot of money.
Speaker: And he had this prima donna mentality like he would because he had this very ah specialized PhD, he thought he was everything. Yeah. And what happened is over time, i gave him a lot of extra space because I was like, we invested so heavily to get him in. Right.
Speaker: Even though the red flags were there early. Yeah. And we should have cut our loss really early, but I kept on holding on. And these are mistakes we make. Yeah. And if you're smart, only once. Right. So so after he was there over a year, we should have fired him after 90 days. Yeah.
Speaker: And he didn't, it he still performed, but it wasn't at the level. That you were expecting. No. We were expecting, you know, Michael Jordan basketball and we got like Michael Jordan baseball.
Speaker: Oh, no. And it just didn't work. And I never do that again. I mean, now if somebody doesn't work, I'll give them 90 days to get settled in and all that. But if it doesn't on that 91st day, if they're not really operating where they should be, it's ah it's a matter of fit.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what we learned too, hire fast higher fa and fire fast. And it's also being um really aware of our company culture and mission and making sure to keep that sacred where like they say like one bad lemon spoils the whole pool. like it's It's true. It's just a negative person really affects the morale of everyone else. So our team right now is very positive, very like...
Speaker: forward thinking yeah and i'm very i'm always talking about my ceo like we need to keep that like as we're expanding we need to be conscious about that because it could push us back um if we hire wrong you know and yeah Yeah, we learn a lot through through sales. And now what I'm trying out to um is new talent. I think we spoke off camera a little bit as college students, as interns. There's so many untapped, especially in the AI. They're so forth thinking. there's they're already They're driven. They're hustlers if you find the right one. And um they make great you know great company employees. I'm looking into that a whole lot from ASU.
Speaker: Well, I can definitely help with that. I've got a lot of resources at both ASU and U of a Yeah. I would say that one thing that's happening right now in the industry is there's not as many lower end jobs that used to exist for these students for a couple reasons. First of all, ai we all know that. Yeah. Second of all, which people don't really see this,
Speaker: Some older, more experienced, more qualified personnel can't find jobs and are taking the lower end jobs. So it's creating this massive bubble of resources untapped that really want to do more, but there's no place to go.
Speaker: So there's a huge untapped market there. I was a part of this judging panel a few weeks ago for something called the Holt Prize. And, um, there was a bunch of different teams that presented.
Speaker: One of those teams reached out to me and I spoke with them yesterday and they were so eager to talk with me and they're so eager to take notes. And they were, I made, I gave them all kinds of suggestions and they were like on point. yeah You could tell they're dialed in. They want to really make a success for themselves and they will. There's no doubt whatsoever.
Speaker: e Yeah, it's incredible. Their their minds um these days and opportunity, you know, like I feel like when you give opportunity to the right type of people, they'll take it thousand miles. yes Yeah. Totally agree.
Speaker: Talk to us about risk and decision making. When you need to make a decision that could be very risky or either time, money, reputation, resources. Right. Could you lose those things? Yeah.
Speaker: What's the process you go through to make these big decisions?
Speaker: The process is is, and this is another learning experience too, um over the years, I don't make decision immediately regardless of whether I feel like it's a fit decision. I absolutely have to think over um depending how big of a scale a decision, like a couple of days to a week.
Speaker: um to multiple weeks like by especially purchasing a business there's a lot of due diligence I talk with my financial advisor I see what the um target demographic is in that area I do research of like similar businesses around the area I even go into the business and I see what's going on so like the um a lot of forward research before we decide to purchase a business.
Speaker: um That's something that I didn't learn until before. And I'll tell you a learning story. So during COVID, we opened a selfie museum called Pixie Pros. We're on Fox News. We're on Auburn News, the first selfie museum in Arizona. And what it was is that people go in, because Arizona was open. We didn't have to wear masks. Yeah. So there was nothing to do. It right next to ASU. So it bunch of college students getting, you know, free money pretty much from the government at that time. um So they yeah we built this like 18 little booths, all different types of themes. So people buy a ticket and come in and take pictures. Did really well. Like on the first day, we cash flow because we utilize um influencer marketing from around the area.
Speaker: And um we made like $2,000 a day the first day. and then like $20,000, $25,000 a month. And there was no inventory. It was just like you had to repaint the booth every few times. Kind of a fun business. And there was another competitor that came into um into town that was ah they were a national franchise, right? Yeah. And they moved into a mall of a location that is a better location than us.
Speaker: And so we got afraid. So my CEO was like, we need to we need to scale faster. We need to like expand to a like let's go look at other malls and see. So within a month, um just looking at a different location, we choose to open a second location. Literally, we know most of the times a second location is like the the loss. Yeah. Right. We didn't know that um being new business owners. and We didn't do much research either. It was like, oh there's so much foot traffic where we're not going to need to marketing. Marketing works well for this previous location. So it's going to work well for this. It put us in so much debt. Like we we almost cried the first day when there was no one walking in like one person.
Speaker: all the money we put to build the build out the monthly rent of $11,000 to be in a mall the marketing wasn't working so it was a learning experience of hey like worst case scenario is not making ah enough to pay rent worst case scenario is making zero worst case scenario is making negative amount you know so like that was a learning experience of of doing the due diligence Yeah, and making decisions and taking time to make really important decisions.
Speaker: Did you eventually close that down? Yeah, we closed both locations down, put us into $200,000 in debt. And those are the two years of really hustling before we got into this um medical device. Did Airbnb, we did Turo. My partner did like Uber, DoorDash. Like we did everything because our monthly debt was $20,000 without owning the business credit card debts.
Speaker: um So we were personally liable. Yeah. Yeah. People don't see that side of being a ceo or a hard-driving entrepreneur. and then they Just the outside.
Speaker: yeah There's this really great graphic that that I've seen around, and you might have seen it as well. It has a stage of people. And it has steps to the stage.
Speaker: So the stage can't see the steps up there. And on top of the stage is a man that is juggling plates. Huh. Yeah. Behind the stage of what you can see, there's there's plates everywhere.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. All of the hard work, all of the risk, all the that is that has really created that person. You just see that perfection juggling plates. but Yeah. reality There's so much back there that people don't see. They don't see the hard nights. They don't see having to write personal checks to cover payroll.
Speaker: they They don't see the the hard conversations with mega powerful people that you might have crossed, like the one I just told you about. yeah And I'm glad that we were able to, to you know, bear the hatchet. Yeah. it like Business, life, man, we don't get out of here alive, so might as well yeah jump in. Right. Right.
Speaker: right A couple more questions here. And this has been very good, by the way. I really appreciate your insights. Yeah, thank you. If you had the opportunity to share a meal with somebody, like a nice dinner, conversation, like a half day with somebody, anybody ever that's ever lived in the world. Yeah.
Speaker: Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. Just because we're, and my obsession right now is the marketplace for medical devices. And I say it's the Amazon for for medical devices.
Speaker: And that's my vision. I think one of the things that's really um impactful for me a few years ago, i saw a video when Jeff Bezos was just selling books, right? And I think someone interviewed him and asked him like, what's your vision for Amazon? He said, well, i's sell everything.
Speaker: I want to sell everything. And he made it. Like, right now, Amazon has little grocery warehouses. They have warehouses for pharmaceuticals. Like, they... I think... um For him to be able to be a visionary and his processes and warehouse and logistics is just so incredible.
Speaker: It's so right? I think it's such an incredible mind. um I would love to sit down and just pick his brain for like a couple of hours or a day. And i I love learning. So like any entrepreneur, he's just one of the many entrepreneurs.
Speaker: um I find really fascinating. Yeah, that'd be Yeah, Warren Buffett, too. Oh, yeah. I had the the distinct pleasure of going into an Amazon warehouse about five years ago.
Speaker: This is really before. i mean, now it's everywhere and it's crazy. Five years ago was was sort of up and coming. Yeah. But I was impressed. Yeah. by how these warehouses were operating.
Speaker: And especially in my engineering mind, and i've been involved with manufacturing and i kind of and have a ah good understanding of how things operate just in time manufacturing and all that. yeah This place was like, at the time, five years ago was like, wow.
Speaker: yeah I can't imagine what it is now. Now they have lasers that scan everything. Everything's timed and robots. Yeah. It's crazy. yeah Yes. Um, if someone's trying to build themselves and to recreate themselves from humble roots, like you came from, that has come into and a new environment, maybe be younger, what would you tell that person?
Speaker: how How to succeed. They want to they want to grow. They want to be somebody. and Whatever, right. yeah Self-develop. Always be curious and learn. I think now, like, especially compare, like, Vietnam to here, right?
Speaker: the United States have so much opportunity. There's so much access on YouTube. There's no restriction if you want to be someone and do something to self-develop yourself, whether it's a skill, whether it's whatever industry, to learn it and then take action.
Speaker: um That's another thing is like a lot of new entrepreneurs or people who want to leap from employee to business or just starting a business for the first time, they get stuck in the face of keep doing research, but they don't take the action. I think what i learned through entrepreneurship is we,
Speaker: we learn through actions like we learned to just massive failing and i think that's the thing it's like it's fine it's fine to fail it's fine to like fall on your face and get up and if it's that whatever business you don't work is fine like you learn from that you start a different one like life still goes on you're not having a chronic disease like so Everything is irreversible, right? um And then just be consistent and persistent too.
Speaker: um Just keep at it And eventually it'll come to be a first business fail, second business fail, third business fail. Fourth business could make you multi-million dollars. And I have a friend that happened to him, like just the case. He's like, well, he felt, you know, like it didn't pan out, but then it finally did.
Speaker: So keep going at it. Yeah, that's why I would advise him. That's really good. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been a great conversation. Yeah, thank you for having me. coming down I didn't see the Ferrari outside today. Next time. Next time. Too far. not too far.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
