Transcript
Speaker: The voice of growth, mastering the mind and market, timeless wisdom, proven strategies, and the deep work that creates lasting success. Like, and subscribe to stay aligned with what truly drives results.
Speaker: There's a huge value for investors and homeowners that want to turn their properties into these short-term rentals. These things make money. When you're, if you're talking about national, international, this space is gigantic.
Speaker: Companies who have sold for, you know, almost 200 million dollars. We're spiritual beings, we're creators, we create energy inside of us. Like, we can do it all, you know, you just have to believe you can.
Speaker: Leadership is about setting an example. What excites me, that's what I love about it i like I like looking at it and being being like, damn, I did that. When you raise your necessity level in life, you can see what you can really achieve.
Speaker: My message to the world is to be ethical in your life. I just grew up being a survivor.
Speaker: And I don't know what it was inside of me that decided, but I made a decision that I wasn't going to be a victim.
Speaker: I'd rather be powerful than weak.
Speaker: You started off in real estate. What made you think that the new thing you're doing is a bigger, more expansive market? You know, i've been in real estate my entire adult life.
Speaker: So from age 19, I was in property management for five years. I managed hundreds of long-term rental units. And then I started selling real estate, been doing that for 11 years.
Speaker: And i actually moved to LA and i didn't want to get rid of my house. I didn't want it to be a long-term rental. So I turned it into an Airbnb, a short-term rental.
Speaker: And I became kind of obsessed with it. Okay. And it was like every day I needed to like learn something more about the industry. I needed to learn you know how to rise through the algorithm, how to make this thing super successful. And I just found myself naturally wanting to do this and wanting to learn about this business. And long story as short, I became pretty much an expert in it and wildly successful in that property.
Speaker: And you know what? It just makes me happy. like It's fun. Is it? So tell us about what you're doing now that's so exciting. So what I love about what I do now is i can create things.
Speaker: So what I've, I used to think I wasn't creative until I actually, the weird thing is when I started working on myself. So my own personal development and just becoming a saner, healthier more level person unlock like a sort of creativity in me and so what i love about what i do is i can i can help an investor find a property that makes a lot of money and then i can design that property and i can have this whole vision for it from like the amenities to everything that comes along with it put it all together and then like sit back and look at my creation and watch it flourish and
Speaker: that's what excites me that's what i love about it i like i like looking at it and being being like damn i did that i like your idea about creativity it comes in different forms people think well i'm not creative because maybe they're not they're not artist or maybe because they're not a poet or they don't have a way with words or whatever but creativity can come in so many different ways right especially in business creative business models, creative marketing, creative branding. I mean, is it's massive, the idea the world of creativity in the business domain.
Speaker: Where do you see, well, first of all, you're doing property management for Airbnbs, is that a- For vacation rentals. Vacation rentals. So we we're not, yes, we're not just on Airbnb, we're on Vrbo, we're on booking.com, we have our own direct booking website, but for vacation rentals, yeah And what is the value that was that is gained by,
Speaker: There is at least, I can count at least three stakeholders. There is the person that owns the property. There's a person that is enjoying the property.
Speaker: and then there's your organization. Tell us the connection between those three value touch points. Okay. So first you have the investor and sometimes they don't start off as investors. Sometimes they're just homeowners, right? They don't want to get rid of their home. Their situation has changed. They want to move to another home. They still want to keep this property. So there's a huge value for investors and homeowners that want to turn their properties into these short-term rentals. um
Speaker: These things make money. So if you have the right property with the right amenities and the right design, you could make two, three, sometimes even four times more than long-term rental. Okay? So we have that aspect of it.
Speaker: Also, that owner can go back to their property anytime they want. They can book their own, you know, listing, right? They still have access to their home, which is really nice for people who want to come back. Maybe they moved away and they want to come back to the city.
Speaker: ah Then you have the guest. ah So we curate these properties that are like experiences for these people. They come in from the aesthetics to the pool and the spa and the amenities and the putting green and all of that, which is tremendous value. a lot of our properties are in the top percent, like top 10%, top 5% of all of these platforms, especially Airbnb.
Speaker: And then you have our company. And obviously we benefit from that by, ah you know, we we make money. We take a portion of the revenue and we just provide an incredible service where everyone's happy.
Speaker: So it's a nice little. And not only that, what I figured out about my business is that we provide value for so many more people. Like we feed families. families from the contractors to the cleaners. We have so many vendors that you know want to work with us because we have so much work for them. And that's something that I realized recently is like my company doesn't just feed my family, but it feeds many others.
Speaker: Yeah, I love your vision and your approach. Ever since I first met you, I've sort of been looking at what you what you're doing. So one of the exciting things about this podcast and the reason why I wanted to bring you on board to have this conversation is first of all, to tell your story, to understand sort of where you came from and all that, because that's important. That's about the podcast, right?
Speaker: But also to get a bit of a trajectory or an arc. Because I've since we've been reengaged over the past six to nine months, when you started of doing this and starting to gain more more momentum, I want to come back in 18 months. Yeah, that'd be fun. To see where things are going, because you're already doing so well.
Speaker: Give us an idea of how big this space truly is. It's huge. I mean, when you're, if you're talking about national, international, this space is gigantic.
Speaker: This short term rental space. I mean, this is going on all over the world. And um i really got inspired by some companies who actually went public you know as a management company and other companies who have sold for you know almost $200 million. dollars So it can become really, really big. And um my vision for it is just to build a really, really well oiled machine. Like right now, i think our clients are really happy because they get me.
Speaker: And they get my business partner and we're very hands on and they feel really, really well taken care of. And my vision for the company, I want to grow it. But how do you grow it and still have your clients feel that way?
Speaker: Right. So we have to lay the groundwork right now. Like what exactly do I do personally in my on my hat, my post in my company? And how can I replicate that where people don't have to get me? You know, once once we're, you know, under a thousand units under management, not everyone's going to get me. Right.
Speaker: But they need to have the same experience. And that's what we're really focused on as we scale, because I do see this becoming a ah really big management company that can provide value in many different markets.
Speaker: Yeah, like when I've stayed at Four Seasons hotels across the the world, you get the same experience from the bellhop, concierge person behind the desk, the housekeepers. It is like a machine. right And there's other ones that have that have done some level of replication of that. The Hilton brands have tried to do that, you know the the Marriott, the upper end ones.
Speaker: but they still struggle because they're so massive. I think the Four Seasons in particular is they're massive, but they're like right sized. So literally it is a ah common experience going to dove Mountain here in Tucson to one of the ones in Chicago or other places.
Speaker: I mean, high touch and you're not dealing with the same person, right? This is a way to replicate yourself. So how do you how do you plan to do that? How do you plan to to take that next level and provide the experience when you're not necessarily the one providing it?
Speaker: So I think it's just like building it brick by brick because there's things that I do in the company that I need to actually document and create policies and procedures around because there's things I do, you know, as the CEO of the company and a new company wearing multiple hats, I'm like, okay, I just do it naturally, right? But it creates this really, really good experience for people. Okay, now document that what is actually the process that I go through with onboarding somebody or, you know, the conversations I even have with owners when we do our check ins, right? Our, you know, going over reports with them, going over their revenue.
Speaker: So it's about documenting and then writing policies around that and then being able to just replicate what I do and what you know we have been doing that has is working really well. And I like that you talked about right sizing.
Speaker: My property management company is not for everyone. we we're not gonna just pick up any property and manage it, right? We are for a certain type of homeowner. We are for a certain type of investor. We are like that white glove service. We're that high end. um We are for the ah the clients who want to put their full trust in a company.
Speaker: and know that it's going to be operating well and it's going to be making money. And we also, you know, my company is called Gem Stays, right? We want gems in our portfolio. And I think that's what is going to set us apart with the actual guests that are staying with us. So our branding is around that. You know, when we have people come to our website to book directly with us, we want to know we want them to know that there's a bunch of gems that they can choose from.
Speaker: Let's do a little pretend game. okay Let's pretend that I have a property that has been on Airbnb. We'll just use that one as an example. okay And you're we're having a conversation and you're going to sell me on the business on your business and why I should move my property management, if you will, vacation management from me myself,
Speaker: calling, cleaning people to come in and dealing with all that to having you handle everything. Okay. Okay. I love it. Sales guy. stupid um Okay. So i why do you want to turn your property into a vacation rental?
Speaker: I'm only here half the year. And I think that there's some value I can extract if I'm able to rent it out for the other half. Okay, got it. So you want to stay in Tucson for half the year, rent it out when you're not and make money, right? Correct. Okay, great. And then you want to be able to come back to your property anytime you want. Okay, good. Are you more of like a hands-on type of person or would you prefer that your property just runs for for you and it makes money and it's in the hands of someone you can trust?
Speaker: I'm typically hands on, but I'm letting go of the reins because I've got other things that my hands need to be on. Okay, got it. So the second thing you just said. Okay, awesome. So what we do is we're perfect for your situation. We have managed people who literally have purchased a property and move to Europe three days later and their property runs, makes money, and they don't even have to think about the day to day, the headaches or anything. Those calls usually don't even get to them. They receive their their money every month and that's what makes them happy. So that's the type of service that we bring. We bring the white glove service. are We have
Speaker: um systems and processes in place where our owners can be totally hands-off and they know that it's running perfectly. And one of the ways we do that is we're super transparent with you.
Speaker: So what we do is we have what's called an owner's portal. So our owners can log any time they can see exactly when their property is booked, for how much, what nights are open, where those bookings are coming in from. And what we find is giving all this data to our owners kind of just like takes the weight off your shoulders and allows us to build more trust with you.
Speaker: What do you charge? We charge 20% the revenue. which is actually really good. very straightforward. It's it's very straightforward. It's very good. a lot of companies that offer the same service are charging 25 to 30%. So ah we believe it's a tremendous value.
Speaker: Give us an idea, of let's rewind the clock a few years. Okay. Let's rewind the clock to Leah in high school. Okay. yeah <unk> It's just a short while, just a few years. Yeah. Okay. I'm not going to say how much. You don't have to say how much. I can guess how old I am. But let's rewind until, you know, you are basically transitioning out of high school into the big, bold world.
Speaker: What did you think you were going to be doing back then? So in high school, I was like, I'm going to be an international businesswoman. And I just had that in my head.
Speaker: and I thought I was gonna go to college for international business. Like that's what I really, really wanted to do. And um have friends in high school that remember me saying, I'm gonna be in real estate.
Speaker: So right out of high school, I was pretty much on my own. My family moved to Colorado and I was not gonna go with them.
Speaker: I was like, oh hell no, I'm not going to some little town where I don't know anybody. So I stayed in Tucson and I was like, I'm just gonna figure it out. um I knew that I had to survive.
Speaker: So i and I knew I, at that time in my mind with my limiting beliefs or whatever it was, I didn't think I could be a real estate agent right off the bat because it, I was what, 18, 19 years old and it takes time to make money selling real estate.
Speaker: So I got a job in property management. and I was a leasing agent and I killed it. I crushed it. There was like this apartment complex that was about 200 units that I worked in and it was like 75, 80% occupancy, which was really, really bad. And as a leasing agent, I got that thing filled up 95, sometimes occupancy.
Speaker: And then I rose through the company and I became a manager and I started managing my own properties. and And then, you know, five years later, i was like, okay, I'm gonna sell real estate now.
Speaker: And I just quit my job and I had a mortgage to pay and had you know I had to survive. And I was like, you know i make this happen no matter what. And I just started my real estate career.
Speaker: So that's it that's what I did right out of high school. Yeah. were you hungry? I was super hungry. I, you know what? When you raise your necessity level in life, you can see what you can really achieve.
Speaker: It's like, if you want to do more, raise the necessity level. Mm-hmm. quit your job when you have a mortgage to pay and you you can see what you can actually do and what you can actually produce when you need to survive.
Speaker: So that was a blessing in disguise, that struggle. The struggle people don't understand the power of burning the boats. Yes, burning the boats, right? You can't you burn the boats. You're on that island, baby. you you cannot take that boat back out. you You'll make it happen.
Speaker: We are capable of so much. You know, we're we're creators, you know, like going back to what we were saying earlier. We're spiritual beings. We're creators. We create energy inside of us. Like we can do it all. You know, you just have to believe you can.
Speaker: I've seen so many success stories by by that. I think that this day and age is looks down upon it generally. the idea of burning the boats or iron sharpens iron, right? When you get into a a crucible situation where there's no other way but to go up, there's so much power in that.
Speaker: And there's this big pull. don't know how much you're in the in the mix with this. I see people and I talk to you all the time. And there's this very much a ah contentment, with maybe my generation a little bit more, we're like, okay, your job is to go out and get a job for the next 40 years and you know get four or 5% raise every year.
Speaker: And then you know two weeks of vacation and then you retire 40 years later with, a they give you a Rolex and that's it. you know And that's it. And you're really, you're valuing um stability.
Speaker: How stable is your situation right now?
Speaker: you know You know why? Like just you asking that question makes me think like I have always thrived in unstable conditions. Maybe I like it Some people need it.
Speaker: Some people need it. And the thing that's crazy is I ask this question because I think to myself of ah of a few friends of mine that went into academia.
Speaker: because they wanted a stable situation. And those two friends, one of them still works for in academia and the other one was laid off who from a university. yeah So it can happen. It's not like a bedrock. I mean, it is still shifting like anything else. Okay, you know, this is how I define my own stability.
Speaker: I am stable, not because of the circumstances in my life, not because of the way things are set up, not because of my family, my significant other, my business, nothing like that.
Speaker: My stability comes from knowing who I am, trusting myself, and believing in myself. That to me is true stability because it doesn't matter what external factors happen to you.
Speaker: If you have those things, you you know that you're gonna survive no matter what. And at the end of the day, that's why i feel stable.
Speaker: Yeah, it's all about the mindset and the know-how. Have you ever been ice skating? Yeah. It's terrible. It's super unstable. you use the walkers? I'm not going to say they're not at dinner mats, but I'm a big guy, 250 pounds, six foot three. You don't have a low center of gravity, that's for sure. I don't. The first and only time I went ice skating I was I felt like a giraffe that just popped out of the womb. It was like Bambi trying to stand up. Yeah. yeah And i talked to a guy yesterday who, you know, his son is in in hockey. These hockey players are my size or bigger and they're whipping around the the damn ice like it's nothing.
Speaker: and And I guess the difference between and the analogy here is that. It doesn't matter what what' what this is, it's a matter of what's happening in your in your head and how you're able to manage that and understand. it's i have the capacity to become a ah solid ice skater.
Speaker: The problem is i don't have the desire. right I have very little desire because I have other things I wanna do. What is it that you desire for yourself Is it that gem is a means to an end?
Speaker: Is it satisfying something directly? Or are you trying to build it up for its own thing? like what is the What is the desire for gem and for your yourre being in general?
Speaker: I don't think there's, i think that everything that I create is not a means to an end. It's like a snowball, right? Like if we go back to creativity, especially like as business people,
Speaker: we can do so much. I don't ever think there's just like one lane and this lane goes right there. You know, our journey is ever changing. And I think that with GEM stays, I certainly have goals for it, you know, and targets that I want to achieve. But then where does that lead to right?
Speaker: You know, that can lead to so many other creative avenues. courses and more investments, right? Bigger real estate portfolios. And not only that, like when you have capital and you have resources, what can you do with that?
Speaker: You know, we have more dynamics in our life than just business. Like we have our self, like first of all, our self, right? Taking care of our own survival. We have our significant other and our family. We have our work.
Speaker: There's mankind. Sorry, but we are part of mankind. I am a member of mankind, right? That that is part of my group. We have the physical universe, we have our spirituality, and we have, you know, our relationship with God. And i think that work is such a big part of all of those dynamics.
Speaker: And because it's such a big part of our life, like we spend so much time on it. So if your work is struggling, you're probably going to struggle struggle in all those dynamics. But if your work is thriving, you're probably gonna do better on all of those dynamics. And so what I see with Gemstays is the more successful it becomes, the more successful my business becomes, that I can impact those other areas of life and at a higher level. Let me guess, you you can't turn it off.
Speaker: Hell no. yeah i I can't, you know. It's fun. This is a game. I like to play games in life.
Speaker: And I think that when we when we stop playing the game of life is when we stop having control over our life. Like you gotta to play the game and it doesn't have to be just building a business.
Speaker: There's so many games we can play. Yeah, my my favorite day of the week, actually I'm gonna ask you what's your favorite day of the week and gonna tell you mine afterwards.
Speaker: I don't think I can answer that. i do oh I do like a lot of the same things every single day. But you know, i love honestly, I love Monday just as much as I love Saturday.
Speaker: Because I'm doing something that I like to do. which is a lot different than a lot of other folks that live for the weekend, right? They they love Fridays, love Saturdays. for sure And they dread Sundays because Monday is really cool.
Speaker: I love Sundays the most because i'm I get ready for, I'm the same way, I'm working kind of all the time, but The world works on a different scale, a different level. So Sundays for me are, let's get ready to crush it. And I get excited Sunday nights.
Speaker: I just can't wait for the next day. And I go to sleep giddy and I wake up grateful and I attack the week. So Mondays are great, Tuesdays I mean, I love it. I had a ah CEO I worked for that told me some information that I'm gonna share with you that I've shared it with this on this podcast before, but it's so powerful because of the core value of what it really provides.
Speaker: This guy was a CEO of a $100 million company, maybe 200 actually. He was healthy, fit. He had a really good family life, you know beautiful wife and kids. And he was just like a whole person.
Speaker: um But he also took time to have a hobby. He was a woodworker. And he i mean he was like working out all the time. He had all these things. And I asked him, Mark, like how how is he balanced at all? How do you balance it all?
Speaker: And he looked at me right in the eye without skipping a beat. And he said, balance is bullshit. It's all about harmony. Harmony.
Speaker: So in like an orchestra, you're having woodwinds, you have the, you know, the brass, you have the drums, you have all these things operating like independently, but there's harmony between them that makes it beautiful.
Speaker: Balance is difficult. He was like, how easy is it for you to walk on a tightrope? Crazy hard. Same thing with life. So I like the word harmony because it it speaks to me in in a different way.
Speaker: I think that's so true. Like, it's like, we're when we're when we're doing things just every day, are we doing everything at the same time? And it's it's all? No, of course not. We're like, making calls, and then maybe taking care of our body and doing this. And then, you know, we can comes in, it's like, okay, family, right? Because that's part of our job, too. So I love this idea of harmony. I think that's so true. and You just have to like find enjoyment in all of the things I feel like in order to have harmony. Otherwise, your your orchestra is going to clash. You know, it's going to produce a sound that's not pretty.
Speaker: yeah Tell us about leadership. What does it mean to you? And how do you feel that you are a good leader? I leadership is, i think the best leaders, they show up, they do what they need to do, and above all, they're ethical.
Speaker: And by ethical, I mean doing the right thing in every situation that is going to produce the greatest amount of survival for all of your dynamics, those dynamics I just talked about.
Speaker: and uh you know what produces the greatest survival sometimes the most ethical thing to do is the hardest thing to do ethics is not it's not easy it's not easy to do the hard things that we need to do you know as a leader like sometimes firing somebody is the most ethical thing to do right is that easy no it's never easy to let somebody down or whatever But I think leadership is about setting an example and making decisions day by day that are going to push the survival of yourself and your team and showing up as that.
Speaker: That's great. How do you, if you are to close your eyes and think about Leah in 20 years, maybe a little bit more gray in your hair. What do you think?
Speaker: What do you see?
Speaker: I can see myself as super healthy. Hopefully i don't age too much. you know We have peptides these days for that. okay um i I see myself having a family.
Speaker: i see myself hopefully, you know, using my life to help others and have done work in my life that has made an impact.
Speaker: I really care about the world. You know, I really care about the sanity of this planet. And I want to do things that make the world a saner place and business is just one avenue where you can help people.
Speaker: So above all, i I don't, you know, I don't imagine myself like with this house and this car and this and that, like, great, you know, sure. It's all going to come with it. But really it's like, what impact did I make? Did I fulfill my purpose?
Speaker: Am I fulfilling my purpose? Do you believe in quote unquote manifestation? Oh yeah. How do you, how you, how does it work for you?
Speaker: I call them flows. Are my flows open or are they closed? And I feel like the flow of energy or just like opportunities, like things coming, there has to be an exchange.
Speaker: So I need to flow out in order to have a flow that comes in. I don't believe in just sitting here and closing my eyes and thinking that something's gonna come to me. I take action.
Speaker: ah And that's how i I know this. That's how things come to me. And there's times where I'll just think of, you know I can think of somebody, they'll call me.
Speaker: I was in Miami and um I told my friend, i was like, I wanna go on a boat tomorrow. She was like, okay. So we went to the beach with a brand new friend, her neighbor.
Speaker: boot Yeah, this is Rosette. Rosetta Boone. Maybe some of you guys know her because she's like Tucson famous. um We went to the beach with her neighbor and then her neighbors, brand new friend. and She's like, what are you guys doing tomorrow? I said, I don't know, but I want to go in a boat. She's like, okay, great. I have a yacht tomorrow.
Speaker: Things like that happened to me, you know? but I also flow out. I pour into others. I give, I do things right where I can have that come back to me. That's what I believe about manifestation.
Speaker: Yeah. I kind of, I tend to agree with your, your vision of it. yeah I also see this play out a lot because I have children and I have to be very
Speaker: What's the right word here? I have to look at the way I look at things. If that makes any sense. And I want to look at the way that other people look at things. So the other day, we i went to watch the World Cup at this bar that was completely full, except for this really long table where there was like four chairs.
Speaker: sort of kind of in a weird place. So I sat, you know, in the two chairs and then um there was two other open chairs, but there were like other people on this like long table. So people, so I saw a few folks walk in the door and they're like struggling to look, you know, where's the place to sit? The hostess like was like, like not even paying attention, like didn't understand what's happening.
Speaker: And it's hard to walk away about to leave. And I'm like, they can sit next to us. it's It's one long table, it's fine. So I took it upon myself to go and tap her on on the shoulder and I said, hey, listen, you and your your boyfriend can sit here next to us and it's fine.
Speaker: And the reason I tell the story is because around me, there was other people that had similar situations. There was like openings in other tables. And what does it cost me to have other people at our long ass table?
Speaker: Nothing. What did it cost them? What did it provide for them? Everything. Now they're able to it. The whole experience. The whole experience. And then the place where we were, Trident, they got to experience more people, right? Another $100 tip or $100 bill for for the for the restaurant.
Speaker: So I like to be very active in my my pursuit of manifestation, but I do agree. You've got to like put it out there too. You can't wait. You know, some people are like waiting for stuff. No, you got to get out there and and web it to move. You got to get out there and get get in motion. Yeah.
Speaker: I think you have to be in exchange with the universe. You know, it also like that's such like such a great example. Like, look, you did something.
Speaker: It provided value for people, right? For others, not just for the people that you helped, but also the restaurant. And it doesn't actually feel good to receive, to receive, to receive, to receive, to receive. That does not feel good.
Speaker: Like who takes without giving something in return? Like who in this, if you bring it down to like the lowest level criminals. yeah Right? We as good people, as you know, we want to be in exchange.
Speaker: We want to give, right? And only, it receiving only feels good when you know you're giving. And in business, it's like receiving whatever you're getting paid for is only right and we can only like feel really solid about it when we're giving the value in return. And I think like that's the same with attracting opportunities to ourselves. We give and then we get That story right there, that example reminds me of a story that for me was very defining. You know, we're we're all defined by things that happen in our life, you know, nature, nurture, kind of both working in combination. There was ah a few times when I was a kid, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, kind of like late adolescent. and my mom, single mom, my dad died when I was very young, one one years old.
Speaker: And she was a single mom basically working as at a waitress job. And then she did this and then she did that. So she was hustling all the time. And she provided a nice home for us. She provided a lot for us.
Speaker: she has She had cousins that were her same age. So this she must've been like 20s or thirty s that that I'd interact with on an occasional basis.
Speaker: And these were all male cousins, by the way, like three or four of them. They were all unemployed and they were all laughing one time and and carrying on and like high fiving each other for how they were able to to basically get stuff for free from the government.
Speaker: And I, it was like literally a branding iron on my psyche for the rest of my life. Cause here's my mom busting her butt to try to provide for her small family, doing a great job at it.
Speaker: thank All thanks to my mom and her cousins mooching off the government, laughing about it. That for me was definitive for me.
Speaker: Like there's no way I'm ever gonna rely on anything except for what I can provide for myself. yeah Was there a moment in your youth that was definitive in some way for you?
Speaker: I'm not sure that there was an exact moment like that, but there were lots of moments. There was lots of experiences. You know, I come from a home where my dad was a chronic gambler.
Speaker: So even though he had a decent job, we were essentially poor. We were poor. Like, thank God for my both of my grandmothers on both sides because when we didn't have food, we went over to Lola's house or Nana's house and we ate, you know?
Speaker: um I watched, you know, my mom try to survive. My dad passed away when I was young. You know, he took his own life. And i just grew up being a survivor.
Speaker: And I don't know what it was inside of me that decided, but I made a decision that I wasn't going to be a victim. So, you know, all of these things happen and my my mom did the absolute best she could, you know, in the circumstances that she was she was in and I can see that now.
Speaker: And what was different about the way I chose to live my life despite of the circumstances was I just decided that every day I was gonna look in the mirror and I was gonna be at cause over the situation.
Speaker: over my life, meaning what can I do? What can I do next? What can I do next? What can I do next? And I didn't do a lot of finger pointing. And I'll tell you that served me in life because if I sat there all the time and said, you this and you that, and you that means I have no power.
Speaker: Like that would mean i have no power. Everybody else controls my life. And the only reason why I have gotten this far in life is because I decided I'm just going to take responsibility for my life.
Speaker: And that's it. Like I'd rather be powerful than weak. That's a great story. Yeah. It's very, very definitive in your life. And I think that for me, this podcast is a way to,
Speaker: get different insights so that other people might see a way, a new way through. And certainly like when I tell stories, it's not like, oh, look at me.
Speaker: And in the sense of look, pat myself on the back, it's more like, hey, look, I did something uncomfortable by reaching out to those people and saying, can you want to sit here? That's mildly uncomfortable, but people do it all the time. Or people see, you know, we went to that breakfast this morning, the panhandling situation.
Speaker: somebody is struggling with their dog or whatever, side of the road, it's hot and they're asking for money. It's also kindness to say, I'm sorry, can't help you. Or if I see somebody at like ah like a convenience store, I'll buy them a hot dog and a bag of chips and a soda and I'll hand it to them on the way out rather than give them a $5 bill because that's a different thing.
Speaker: Right. Ready for the final question? Yeah. Okay. Or final thought, whatever. Sure. If you had a way, to activate and give a message to the entire world?
Speaker: Like it'll just pop in people's heads of a message about being human, about living, about sales, about business, or about whatever. What would it be?
Speaker: My message to the world is to be ethical in your life. Do the right thing. even when no one's looking because we all want to survive.
Speaker: We want our businesses to thrive. We want ah our bank accounts to grow. We want our families to do well. We want to survive. We want our bodies to be healthy.
Speaker: And the only way that you can survive at the highest level is to do the right thing for survival. And that would be my message to the world. That's message.
Speaker: Well, thank you so much for your time, Leah. I really appreciate it Can't wait till we do it again in about 18 months, two years, because want to see where you've taken gym stays and what other things you're going to add to that.
Speaker: Thank you so much for having me, Manny. I really appreciate it. Cheers. Cheers.
