Latest / Your Thoughts Your Reality / Empowering Veteran Transformation: Zachary Leyden's Journey from Military Service to Horsemanship and Entrepreneurial Success

Transcript

Empowering Veteran Transformation: Zachary Leyden's Journey from Military Service to Horsemanship and Entrepreneurial Success · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: So you know I am super excited for today.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Zachary and I have had a couple things come up and we've made it happen.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: We're here, so I am just very pleased.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So Zachary is a veteran founder and director of Ocean View Stables.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: He combines horsemanship, technology and business.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk a lot about that today, started his military journey in 2009, where he developed strong leadership skills that have guided his entrepreneurial path.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: He's passionate about creating opportunities that bring people into the present moment, fostering a sense of calm and balance, and so thanks for being on man.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, happy to be here, absolutely.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So tell us a little bit more about yourself, if you will.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Sure yeah, I joined the military out of high school, did my thing, deployed to Afghanistan.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: When I got out of the military I went to college.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: I was going for human sites and I was riding horses professionally.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: I ended up meeting this Vietnam vet who tipped Mustangs and he gave me the opportunity to help me.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: It helped bring me back to sanity, helped me through my PTSD.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: At the time I didn't know I had it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Later on I realized it was the horses that helped me and I dedicated my life to them.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: So here I am, you know, over a decade later and several businesses later, and still riding horses, building businesses and helping military veterans.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Amen, man, and thank you.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you for what you've done, do and will do so.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Truly thank you.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So, if we can, let's kind of before I get into it, because I always forget this get in the conversation and totally forget.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: So on the right-hand corner, top of your screen, there's a blue QR code.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Please scan that.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: It takes you to empowerperformancestrategiescom for people listening on the podcast forums later on.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: There you go, empowerowerperformancestrategiescom, and it has all kinds of resources for veterans.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: It has some free eBooks I've written.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: It has some Facebook groups to get involved in.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: So just please check that out and be part of our community.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: So, with that said, what part of the journey you met, met the Vietnam veteran and what really made you say, hey, this is what I want to do, this is on my heart, this is drawing me or pulling me.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: What?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: What started the whole real process there to say, hey, I'm gonna be a kick-ass horseman, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna move forward, I'm gonna help veterans uh, yeah, uh, so I mean the horses in general started with a girl in high school.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I liked the girls, she liked horses, uh, so that was like the the start of me getting involved in horses, and uh, and then I joined the military and I was, you know, actively still trying to pursue horsemanship.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Uh, then I got out, was going to college, uh, was still trying, I was on the equestrian team, I was trying to be involved with horses there as well and, yeah, when this, when this opportunity happened, it really I think this guy saw that I was kind of a broken soul.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: He saw something in me that was like him when he was younger and so he gave me the opportunity to help him.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Um, you know, and, and it's, it turned things around for me because I was, I was pretty broken and lost.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: When I got back from afghanistan, I left the military, I no longer had purpose, I no longer had a team.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Uh, I had a lot of things that, uh, you know, uh, the military really puts structure in your life and you think getting out it's going to be exciting because you're going to be a civilian and go conquer the world, and, uh, you, you lose, you lose a lot leaving, um, and that hit me hard.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And then the horses they helped me get present again.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: And that presence and that, that feeling was something that I was just chasing.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: So, um, I, yeah, I, I, I couldn't.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I needed to be around the horses.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It was the medicine I needed love it, man, and I believe there's a, there's a song, something about, uh, you know, chasing your dream because it won't chase you back, right I was.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: I was thinking uh, you know, save a horse, ride a cowboy.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: But yeah, that one's good too there you go, um, and you know it's, it's so powerful when you run into that one person that changes your life.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: You know that one person that makes that impact, and when you look back, it's just, it's just insane.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: You know that you're how your life trajectory has changed because, well, the girl with the horse, obviously, our horses obviously, and my wife jumped on about the horses she's, she's from Colorado, so she's, she's, she's a horse lover too.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You guys, I'm sure we'll meet soon, uh, since you're so close especially.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: But, uh, it's, it's so impactful, man, that just those little things, and when you find that purpose, how it changes your life.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Right, so let's talk.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Know you, you you got out of the military and the pattern's very similar.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Right, you get out of the military, it's their honeymoon phase and it's like, oh shit, you know.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: So what?
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: What was that thing that said?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: You know, I need this help and I don't want to get deep into this right now, but you know, people need to hear this to understand when they're in place.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: So what was it?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Hey, I need some help.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: I need to make a change because we're at yeah.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: So that's a that's kind of an interesting question because, uh, it wasn't the um, the initial impact that made me realize that I had a problem.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: The horses were fixing it.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: It was actually years later looking back on it, because there was just something there.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what it was and the horses made me feel good and it was just like I'm chasing whatever this feeling is and I didn't want it to leave and I didn't want.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I thought maybe horses were just magic and I still think they might be and once I was in it for a while I was like, okay, other veterans need to feel this too.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: And so veterans ride for free at my facility.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: They always have that's a give back that I always have given.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Um, so if you come to San Francisco and you want to ride down to the beach, veterans are always free, go ahead and do it.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Uh, so, so years after I was um, you know I was in I was, uh, you know, riding and training horses.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: I I started letting veterans come to my facilities for free, and then I looked back on it and I was like, wow, you know I'm not the kind of person who would have said I had PTSD, I wouldn't have to.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: I was too headstrong to you know whatever you call it to agree to go to the VA and say, hey, I have a problem and I need help.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I wasn't that guy, I wasn't going to do that, and so I don't know what the thing is.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: But later on I looked back and saw that horses were killing and they killed my PTSD.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: And so veterans coming to Red for Free.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: There's no red tape, they don't have to prove that they have a problem, they don't have to go to the VA because I want to help those people like myself that have a problem, that didn't know it and won't know it until later.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: So yeah, and that's.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say it's the norm, because that's not correct at all it's.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: It's the pattern.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: You know, people don't know until they know.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: So.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: So thank you for being vulnerable, obviously, talking about that.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: And, and you know, as a military veteran, you're conditioned right.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Don't ask for help, figure it out, be headstrong, because it's important, you need to be that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: So I'm glad you brought up how it helped you after the fact, you know, and so on.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: So let's kind of dive into more of the business aspect and finding purpose or fulfillment.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: You know because I know, you know you have multiple businesses and you know that that that success is not just business but it's your whole being, if you will.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: So why don't we talk about that?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: So what as far as the business aspect of, and helping veterans, of course.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: But what's?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: What part of the business aspect did you say, hey, this is for me.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: Now I'm going to kick ass and I'm going to move forward.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I'm going to kick ass and I'm going to move forward.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to start another business.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: And you know what?
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I'm going to start another business.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And, of course, how tech helped.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: We'll get into that in a minute.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: But what was it that drew you into hey?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Business and purpose.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: This is the purpose.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the horses were the purpose, the business is the fun.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: In my opinion, they're both fun, but I really I like challenges and there's nothing more challenging than trying to make a high level profit with horses, like the big, you know, saying is, we want to make a million dollars with horses, start with two.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: There's not a straightforward path to success in the horse industry, which was kind of exciting for me as well.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: You know, you leave military, you leave a war environment and you're always chasing that high adrenaline rush and business and negotiations and creating systems and SOPs that work in an industry.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: That's, you know, typically not something that you can break into with no money.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: And and create a multi-million dollar facility, uh, in the bay area, uh, so, and, and you know, less than eight years, I went from, uh, bootstrapping this and and strategically finding, you know, people that would, uh, let me use their pastures to eat down the fire danger and put my horses on it and then train the horses on that land as well, and, uh, and, and, and develop from that to to to facilities and keep growing and expanding.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Um, yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's extremely fulfilling to, to, to win at this.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: And then I've tried other businesses, uh, which are great, super simple.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Once you can succeed in the horse industry, uh, you know, storage is easy.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: You know real estate's easy.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Whatever else you want to do, it's all easy after that.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: So that's, that's awesome.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: So, um, you know, and the cool thing is, first of all, does everybody see how it lit up he got when he was talking about it?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: That's passion, everybody, that's passion.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I mean literally the smile, just everything was awesome to see.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Um, so, when you, you found your success uh story, if you will, or or your path of success, right and you can duplicate it, you know so.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So let's, let's, let's.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Before we get into that, let's talk about all right, I'm a veteran.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I have no idea what the hell I want to do with my life.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: You know the honeymoon phase is over.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: You didn't pre-plan, you didn't have a plan going.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: You know, out of the reintegration period, the honeymoon's over and, as Les Brown says, life be lightning right.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: You know, life's kicking, you, you know, and it doesn't stop right.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: So what are some tips, thoughts and what did you do specifically to find that fulfillment?
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: number one and what were the first steps you took?
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so first thing was, you know, again, I started with this gentleman who gave me this opportunity.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Then, from there, I went into Intel, started gathering information, trying to figure out how other people succeeded.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I went and worked for somebody who had a horse business that was successful, for free, for a year, a whole year.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Every extra moment that I had I spent with this guy, and because I was working for free, he felt a value that he owes to me, so I was able to drive around with him.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: He always talked to me and explained what he's doing and how he was doing.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: You know, I would be the guy that if he needed to go wrangle up some horses at two in the morning up the hill somewhere you know far away, I would go with them because I'm free when his other employees passed him.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: So you know, I was able to spend a lot of time with the guy who makes it happen and with that I was able to gather all the information to make it happen myself.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Now, I didn't just go into it for free.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I said, hey, like I will work with you, but in return I want you to help me build a business at the end of this, I'll give you a whole year.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: And he ended up not doing that for me.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: So that was, you know, he, he actually, towards the end, was like I, honestly, the contract I told you I can get you was like I I honestly, the contract I told you I didn't get you.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: I I did not expect you to with him, with with stan, a whole year, so I don't actually have the ability to do that.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: And so we cut, cut ties.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, it kind of broke the, the our, our story, which for my case, it was for the better, um, but that was if I would have done it over and over and over again, because the I learned what to do and what not to do from his success and failures, which is huge.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Then the other thing I did.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: So first you need to figure out what it is you want to do, and I suggest you find something you can do for free.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: If you can't do it for free, you can't do it forever.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: So find something that you're passionate about, something that doesn't matter what it is.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: You follow the passion, the money comes.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: I'm in horses, I made a lot of money.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: So the idea from there is.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: You know, I now had an idea.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: I learned all the things I needed to do and I was broke out of the military.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: You know, with a couple of horses which eat better than I do, I was living off Top Ramen.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: So my next strategy was how do I come up with capital?
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: Uh, so I decided to leverage college.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: Uh, to come up with my capital, I had the VA, which would pay me housing.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: So now my housing is taken care of.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Uh, more so, um, and then I had, um, you know, I was broke at the time.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: So I had the FAFSA and I can grab the loans that you don't have to pay back until you're done with college.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So I was able to stack those loans, stack the VA benefit money, stack the FAFSA, all of this stuff, and in a short few semesters I had enough money to get all of the equipment, all the things I needed, to start a packing business where I could pack people in for honey trips, and so that was the first venture.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: And then that I rolled all the money back in, kept even top rounding until I got the next business scale, and then I kept scaling and to this day I've taken almost nothing from my horse business and I've rolled it all back into other businesses.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: So my wife and I found a way to stay frugal throughout this whole thing.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Her way of staying frugal is she only sees some of the money and she's allowed to spend that.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: My way is I roll it all back into other ventures and other things.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, that was a part of the success story.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: There's a lot more to it.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Well, let's stop there for just a second.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: I want people to really understand because my story is similar.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Again, the pattern is very similar.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: You know, I dropped out of school right after eighth grade.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I went down a dark path.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: I went, you know, through all of that stuff and I'm not saying that because it's an issue.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: It's made me who I am.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I learned from things like you did right, because it's an issue, it's made me who I am.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I learned from things like you did right, everybody you know.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I found those mentors you know in construction and I learned and soaked in every single thing I possibly could about that.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And then a business and this you know and it's grown into you know a successful construction company and other businesses as well.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: So I want you to just stop and think about that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying don't go to college.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Everybody, I'm not.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: You know your choice and your passion and what what fits for you is is right.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Just learn from mistakes, because that's how you grow.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Learn from other people that are successful and it's you know, for me, for you, obviously, we, anybody that has that success pattern and they're proud of who they are and they've learned and they're successful.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: I promise you, people that are passionate, coming up, we will share, we will get you further, faster, and it's so much easier than making all the same mistakes yourself over 20 years that you can learn in a year.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: And the last thing is you know, be resourceful, just like Zachary here.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: I mean that is success period.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Now with the college thing.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: I leveraged college to build my business, but it took me a decade I finished.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: And the thing is, I believe anything you do and if you can build a character trait in yourself to, if you put something in the universe, you finish it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: If you could do that one thing, your whole life will change.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, you say you're going to wake up at a certain time.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: You wake up at a certain time.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: You say that you're going to.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, it doesn't matter, like for me, I wanted to be the top percent of earners in the horse industry and and I made it there, completely failed and then made it there a second time, because you know, it's not just make it there, but it's make it there.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, put your hat up at that moment of success and everything that I put my mind to, like I said I'm going to get the degree.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: I don't care if it takes 12 years or 20 years or 50 years, that degree is going to happen.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: That degree is going to happen.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: It's still in my trajectory.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: If I say it, if I put it in the universe, I finish it.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Um, and it wasn't a part of my normal path, but I did it and you know.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Again, pay attention to what zach zachary, sorry is saying.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: It's discipline, right, and do the hard stuff.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Get your ass up at 6 am and go do what you need to do, you know, because that fills 5 am, that 4 am, whatever.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: If you're the Rock, it's like 2 or 3 or whatever you know.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: But the hard stuff builds the discipline.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: And here's I'm recording just for a second.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Guys can't help myself.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: But when you, even when you get up in the morning man put a smile on your face, it releases all of those good hormones and everything and your brain is saying, hey, what just happened?
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Celebrate the little victory, celebrate.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: I got up at 5.00 AM again, I got up.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: Whatever I did this, I, I am moving forward.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Celebrate it, because your brain is literally looking for it more and it'll be easier and easier to do faster to create that discipline.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: So I just, I just needed to get in there with that.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: So so, resourcefulness, man, let's, let's talk about that for a second because, again, like you, the construction company you, you know amazing had that dip.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: But we have that, we know the success pattern.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: We can grow it back right and literally grew back more successful in less than a year.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: So be resourceful.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: So tell us how you're resourceful and then we'll move on.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: But I want, I want people to understand, because not everybody has the resources right.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: You figured it out because you don't stop looking and I want to hear more about how you do it.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, early on, when I had the horses again, learning from this person that gave me a year of his knowledge, I saw how he was able to control thousands and thousands of acres and not have to pay for it.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: He just basically cold called by knocking on everybody's door that had land that was overgrown and said, hey, I can eat that down, I can fix the fence and I'll put some horses on there.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: It's going to be beautiful.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: And he would just keep rotating them and he'd have a whole list, a book of lists of you know pastures that he could rotate his horses on.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: And it was.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: It was genius and um.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: So I, I followed that that you know game plan and was able to grow pastures and and control land that I can rotate horses on.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: So that was one way.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Uh, another big thing, the the number one thing that made me blow up in the horse industry and make a success, is I was the first person to put a book, online software, into my uh website for the horse industry, so in California, like there was nobody else doing it, and so I was in the middle of nowhere, absolute middle of nowhere, like three hours away from anywhere, and I put together a website developed.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: It put a book online software in there.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: And I woke up one morning and there was bookies and I was like, okay, let's see if they'll even show up.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: And they showed up and I had lessons going and in trail rides and before you knew it it was a success and I was able to to pivot, do a 1031 exchange move into a more populated area with the systems I put in place.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: At the second place, I already had some sops in place.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Everything you do twice you write down.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: So if you do it once, fine, but if you do it more than once, you write it.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: So if you do it once, fine, but if you do it more than once, you write it down.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And once you have SOPs for everything, then you can replicate the system.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: So the second place I had SOPs for most things and then at the second place, I had a makeshift appointment system and I had a makeshift SOP system on Excel and Docs.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: And then I transitioned to creating an ERP system from an open source process, again still going to school for computer science, one class at a time, still learning and putting it to action, and then from there I was able to put all of this, zachary, really quick, I'm sorry.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: What is ERP?
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's Enterprise Resource Planning Software.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: I was able to put all of this Exactly, really quick, I'm sorry.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: What is ERP, yeah?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: So it's an enterprise, it's enterprise resource planning software and it's basically like, like for your business.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: You probably have a tech stack, right, yeah, to run your business.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: So an ERP is all of that tech stack in one spot, with one login, a 360 view of the entire business, from your website to your CRM, to your quotation sales, to your procurements, to your project management, to your social media marketing, your email marketing, literally your HR the entire thing in one spot.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: And so that's a game changer, because you're not trying to rotate your tech stack to make things happen.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: You can see everything with everybody and and and it's uh, you know, with an organizational system like that, you're, you're down to win, um, and and grow.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, I just wanted people to hear and I learned something too, yeah, and it so.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: So, from the one that I created, I ended up getting the place in San Francisco and then I put it together at a higher, grander scale there, and then the company that had the open source, they ended up hiring me to be a business advisor for them.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: So now I set up businesses that want to scale into ERPs.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: I now do that for them and I help them set up the system and, uh, you know, give them a demo for it and and and yeah, it's uh, um, uh, very fulfilling.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: It's a whole nother aspect of of my, uh, my, career, and now that I'm in it, I put a very high goal in corporate America that I now have to hit uh, separate from my horse industry.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: So you know?
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fantastic man.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing that.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I interrupted, I'm sorry You're you're um.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: You were talking about um.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Um, I'm sorry you're talking about, uh, resourcefulness and that kind of thing, yeah, uh.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: So as far as resourcefulness, um, you know, I I came into it with nothing and I found ways to afford to have the horses and, yeah, I was able to find a way to make a difference by again putting software in a system a horse industry where nobody else had it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: That was resourceful.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: I leveraged the college degree that I was getting, even though I was doing it over a very long period of time.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Leveraged college to be able to build my business by getting those loans and using the GI Bill, and any extra money that I didn't need to survive was going towards the horses.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and then another big thing is being willing to suffer.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I rolled everything back into the business and for years and years and years, I live a good life now, but it took a long time to get to the point where, you know, I have a dozen staff members that run almost everything and we're expanding and growing, and you know, but without me having to be there every single day.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's for most businesses.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I think that is the beginning, right, but you want to be at some point.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: You want to be an owner, not an operator, and which you're successful at doing, and that's the key.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: In the beginning, yeah, you're going to put in the time, you're going to build things, and it can be so exciting and I mean, I thrive on that kind of thing, I absolutely love it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: So, but at some point, or say, and at some point you want to be able to step away and enjoy life and not be a slave to your project.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: You know, unless it's something else you're excited about, of course, because if you're passionate about it, you're not worth it.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Well, see, I still train the horses because that's the passion, and so they call me in and I have all the horses tacked up, ready to go.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: They tell me the issues that they're having that week.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: I jump on each one of them, you know, work on the issues and then I leave and it's a beautiful thing.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: I put myself in a position to do the thing I love the most, and I also do the marketing and some of the things that I just have a niche for, and obviously I oversee the ERP system to make sure that everybody's doing their job right.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: But those are my news.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: Those are because I want to, because I'm a micromanager, not because I need to.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: My manager, she is amazing and she could do this without me micromanaging.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, excellent.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: I love that you again have found and still do what you're passionate about, because it's important, especially when you have a business for 10, 15, 20 years, to still find the pieces that you love, so that you're still passionate about it.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: You know it's, it's super important.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: So, if you will, let's, let's.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: You know we got about five minutes left.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: So, if we can, if I want to, you know again, the people that I try to help the most obviously are reintegrating veterans.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: So you're getting out of the military.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: You don't know exactly what you want to do with your life.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: How do you find the passion?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: But how do you suggest finding what you love?
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a that's a really hard one.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: I just, I know a lot of people, a lot of veterans, that come out, um, uh, a little empty, and they get to ride and some of them just stay and they they end up, uh, being a cowboy and you know, changing the identity of that and that's great, but, um, it's, it's hard.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that that was going.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: I always had it in my my soul and I always had horses in my life.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: Um, I didn't know that I was going to be able to to revolve my life around it the way that I did.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Um, but then when I I finally, at one point I looked at it, I was like I don't have any responsibilities, I don't have any soldiers underneath me, I don't have anything going on.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I'm, I am just a single person that exists in this world that uh has an opportunity to do whatever the heck I want.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Right now, with the GI Bill giving me the ability to make enough money to live while going to school, all I have to do is keep my grades up and then I choose to do whatever I want with the rest of my time.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: It was just a unique experience, and it's unique to military veterans coming out.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: If you leverage college appropriately and you use that GI Bill, you can focus the rest of your time, do the minimum credits you need to be able to get the money you need to live through that GI Bill and do some soul searching.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I was able to do a lot of things and I always fell back to horses and so finally I was like, well, jump into it, let's do it.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I'll never have a better time.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I'll never have less responsibility than right now.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: I love it, absolutely love it.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: And just a suggestion you know, sometimes talk to people around you hey, what do you think lights me up?
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Hey, what do you think just gets my fire burning?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: What seems to keep me up late and get me up early?
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: And the people around you sometimes will see it and you know, generally people will know and sometimes they just need someone else to say, hey, what about this?
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: You know, a couple of years ago we were winding down our construction company.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I was like, what am I going to do?
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I'm 51 years old, what am I going to do when I grow up?
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Right, and my wife was like you, love helping people and coaching people and doing that kind of stuff.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: And, man, my life has changed so much.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: You know, just like, just like you, right, it was always there and then you found it and it's, it's amazing, when you find that purpose and that fulfillment, how that's wealthy to me.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: You know, money's there, great houses are there, cars, all that stuff.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: But what really makes you happy?
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Really, just take a minute and lean into it and figure that out for yourself.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: That's my big suggestion here.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Like Zachary did, it looks the best because of the passion and the resourcefulness.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Congratulations to that Truly man.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: It's not over yet.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: Please come out to San Francisco and check out our place.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: We got this one a year and a half ago.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: We're putting studios in the back of it 10 of them pods where you can stay overnight.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: The food truck is a permanent aspect on there now, with a beer and wine license, we're building a deck around it so you can come eat food, stay there, stay overnight, ride horses down to the beach, do lessons with us.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: It's a whole guest ranch experience in San Francisco.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Fantastic man, and so how do people reach out to you, how do people find you and that experience- If you are interested in business and you want an ERP system or you want to build a business in the equestrian or agriculture world, I'm absolutely excited to help you.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Go to zaleoducom.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Just email me on that.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: That's zaleoducom and oceanviewstablescom.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: Fantastic and I got to tell you I understood what an ERP was.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Didn't know the term.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Let's talk after the show.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll set it up for you.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's going to make your life easier.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah amen, easy, easy is good, easy is good it gives you the time to do the stuff.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: Uh, z-a-l-e at o-d-o-o dot com.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: Susan, say it one more time.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: O-d-o-o dot com.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: I'll just put it in there, okay awesome, fantastic, thank you.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Yep, there it goes fantastic.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: So, um, if can.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Of course, you know we always look for three tips to get veterans and their families further faster.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: What do you got?
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, further faster when you get out of the military.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Leverage the GI Bill appropriately.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: Whether you want a degree or not, it is a magic ticket to a better life, I promise you, um, it does.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: If you've done a tour, uh, if you've spent six years in the military, um, don't be afraid to go to the VA and don't be afraid to give them your medical packet.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: You might not think that you have something there, uh, but the way that they judge that is not the way you and I would think it's judged, and I, you know, was a stubborn person at first and somebody really pushed me into it, gave it to them, and that was another value added to my military career.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: I served, I went overseas.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Whether you did or not, you may have jumped out of planes, you may have fallen off of a you know a vehicle.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Trust me, what you think the wear and tear on your body is, it's probably worse.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: The military really takes a toll on you.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: So go in there, get checked out.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Use your GI Bill, even if you don't want a degree.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: You might want a business.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: Leverage it for that or leverage it for a little bit of freedom, because 12 units is not a lot.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: You can go in there and take any classes you want.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Uh, use that gi bill, get money so that you have a little bit of time with your family or you have time to really focus your mind on what it is you want to do next.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: That gi bill is a leverage point for you to just get yourself propelled to the next steps.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Third is if you say you're going to do something, do it.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: If you put it out in the universe, stick to it.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Amen, man.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you how great those tips are, zachary, honestly, there are so many areas that you can be resourceful with GI bills and the medical thing man.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: We've had Dr Monica Sanford on here and that's what she specializes in Make lists.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Ask your friends, make sure you're making those lists so that when you go in, don't go in and say I don't know, go in there with some information.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Fantastic, amazing, my friend, thank you so much for being on.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I just want to say time is the most precious resource we have as human beings.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: We could not get it back.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for spending the time with me, our audience and spreading your wisdom, my friend.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: I feel fortunate that you wanted me on it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: This is cool.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I feel like you're going to be on again.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Hey, let's do it.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Let's put a panel together at the stables.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: We'll put a couple horses in there too, or we can do it on horseback.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: We can put all the people on the panel on horses and we can have the conversation.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Okay, but I need some help first.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Love the invite Honored, and Susan and I will definitely come down.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: And again Danny O'Neill with Warfighter Overwatch and Michael Hall with Hold the Reins.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: They're amazing people that I think we all need to connect, so I'd love it All right let's set it up.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: I'm happy for it.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Awesome man, I love it.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you again, and everybody we're out of here.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your Thoughts your Reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.