Latest / Becoming / Behind Numbers: Building, Losing, and Rebuilding

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Behind Numbers: Building, Losing, and Rebuilding · Becoming

0:00
Speaker 1: You have soul companies, you're invested in companies. But if
0:04
Speaker 1: we have to go back, how did all this started.
0:07
Speaker 2: The investment that I put into it was my parents' loan.
0:12
Speaker 2: I want to hire the right people. I want to
0:13
Speaker 2: work with the best, and I want to make sure
0:15
Speaker 2: that when we put together something for that business and
0:18
Speaker 2: I get a system behind it so that we can
0:20
Speaker 2: have a systematized process that people can follow.
0:23
Speaker 1: Everyone is stating that you should be multitasking, but based
0:28
Speaker 1: on everything that you mentioned, it seems that you're not
0:32
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. Hello, and welcome to Behind Numbers.
0:37
Speaker 1: Today's guest is someone who has built, lost and rebuilt
0:42
Speaker 1: multiple times, and he's doing all of it while being
0:46
Speaker 1: also a father of it. Let's go behind the numbers
0:49
Speaker 1: with Bubba Paige.
0:50
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks Solesandro. I appreciate you having me on. This
0:54
Speaker 2: has been a wild journey, this whole idea behind being
0:57
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur and having eight children and seeing behind me
1:01
Speaker 2: I've got kids that are six years old all the
1:03
Speaker 2: way to sixteen, four boys, four girls. It is a
1:07
Speaker 2: beautiful chaos. I love to say that I never imagined
1:10
Speaker 2: even having eight kids, but we just kept feeling like
1:14
Speaker 2: there was another one, and then at the end we
1:16
Speaker 2: got twins. So boy girl twins made number seven and eight.
1:20
Speaker 2: And it's kind of like we're building our own little
1:23
Speaker 2: startup here. We've got all these little people running around
1:25
Speaker 2: and we're creating systems and processes, and just like I
1:30
Speaker 2: did with my startups.
1:31
Speaker 1: I feel that you just spoiled one of my questions
1:35
Speaker 1: because I am a dad too, but just of one
1:39
Speaker 1: and after a long day, I love her to death,
1:42
Speaker 1: but I'm so tired. So one of my questions would
1:46
Speaker 1: have been, how can you manage all this? How can
1:49
Speaker 1: you manage being a dead of eight? And if anyone
1:53
Speaker 1: is going to go through your link it in, they
1:56
Speaker 1: will see how many things you're doing right now.
2:00
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not doing it alone. So this is a
2:02
Speaker 2: big piece. I'm a big believer in systems. I'm a
2:05
Speaker 2: big believer in people and process and so when I
2:08
Speaker 2: build a company, I want to hire the right people.
2:10
Speaker 2: I want to work with the best, and I want
2:11
Speaker 2: to make sure that when we put together something for
2:14
Speaker 2: that business and I get a system behind it so
2:16
Speaker 2: that we can have a systematized process that people can follow.
2:21
Speaker 2: It's funny, but I do the same thing at home.
2:24
Speaker 2: It's if I'm going to interview my employees and my
2:28
Speaker 2: team members and we're going to do KPIs and we're
2:31
Speaker 2: going to do one on ones. I'm going to do
2:33
Speaker 2: that at home too. Why wouldn't I meet with my
2:36
Speaker 2: children one on one to see what are they struggling
2:39
Speaker 2: with and what are their roadblocks and what are their
2:41
Speaker 2: goals and dreams and be able to help them overcome that,
2:45
Speaker 2: and then KPIs in business, I would do that at home.
2:48
Speaker 2: So kids, what are you trying to accomplish? What are
2:50
Speaker 2: the goals you want to do? I try to block
2:53
Speaker 2: out my day and so in the morning, I'm going
2:55
Speaker 2: to the gym. I'm trying to take care of my body,
2:57
Speaker 2: trying to take care of my health because if my
2:59
Speaker 2: by he is moving and I'm eating and fueling properly,
3:03
Speaker 2: then I should have more energy throughout the day. Anyway,
3:07
Speaker 2: I'm not a big caffeine drinker. That's just not me.
3:09
Speaker 2: I don't like soda and caffeine. I don't need it.
3:13
Speaker 2: But the only reason I'm not needing it is because
3:14
Speaker 2: I try to get a reasonable amount of sleep at
3:17
Speaker 2: the end of the day. Six and a half, seven
3:19
Speaker 2: hours is where I'm trying to hit every night and
3:21
Speaker 2: it doesn't always happen. And I get that, especially when
3:24
Speaker 2: you have little babies. I was hardly getting any sleep
3:27
Speaker 2: when I had twins, and that was really hard. But
3:30
Speaker 2: sleep and health is so critical. It's vital because when
3:34
Speaker 2: you get triggered by something, Let's say it's something simple,
3:39
Speaker 2: but the kid is making loud noises, doing X, Y
3:42
Speaker 2: and Z things in the home. There's a few different
3:44
Speaker 2: ways that you can either react or respond if it's
3:47
Speaker 2: triggering to you because you're sensitive to that sound and ah,
3:51
Speaker 2: you can't handle it. You can do some breeding exercises
3:55
Speaker 2: to try and get yourself composed and regulate that nervous system.
4:00
Speaker 2: You can respond in a way, for example, that if
4:03
Speaker 2: they're pounding on the piano doing what they are practicing right,
4:08
Speaker 2: and or their trumpet, or they're on the drums, like
4:10
Speaker 2: all my kids are playing all these instruments right, And
4:14
Speaker 2: if it's getting irritating to me, I ask myself, why
4:17
Speaker 2: am I irritated? Because it's not them, because I've loved
4:22
Speaker 2: listening to them, I've loved hearing them play. I'm grateful
4:24
Speaker 2: they're practicing because I've asked them to practice. So why
4:28
Speaker 2: why am I irritated? And if I think for a
4:31
Speaker 2: second and wonder why, I look back and say, Okay,
4:34
Speaker 2: have I eaten? Did I get enough sleep? Because am
4:38
Speaker 2: I irritable? Right? Have I taken care of my body
4:42
Speaker 2: in a way? And my mind is to me? It's
4:44
Speaker 2: such a big piece when parents can come in the
4:46
Speaker 2: home with somewhat of a cleared mind and a focused
4:51
Speaker 2: energy that can be present, which means you have to
4:54
Speaker 2: put your phone away, You need to turn off the notifications,
4:57
Speaker 2: and if there's an urgent matter, of course, you can
5:00
Speaker 2: let the family know that there's an urgent matter. But
5:03
Speaker 2: as soon as that's done, you go back. It'd be
5:07
Speaker 2: present in that vein. And sometimes many times I've had
5:11
Speaker 2: to put the kids bed and get back on the laptop,
5:13
Speaker 2: get back on a phone call. But I like to
5:16
Speaker 2: focus those last few hours of the day. Those are
5:19
Speaker 2: with my kids. That's my family time. It's family dinner,
5:22
Speaker 2: it's playing outside, throwing the ball around, it's wrestling with
5:25
Speaker 2: those kids. It's finished helping them finish their homework or
5:27
Speaker 2: a school project. These are the pieces where I get passionate.
5:31
Speaker 2: You know, I love it.
5:32
Speaker 1: I love it, And you mentioned more than once the
5:36
Speaker 1: word focus, because now everyone is stating that you should
5:41
Speaker 1: be multitasking, but based on everything that you mentioned, it
5:45
Speaker 1: seems that you're not doing the same thing.
5:49
Speaker 3: So do you think that multitasking.
5:52
Speaker 1: Is better or it is better to just focus on
5:54
Speaker 1: what you're doing right now and as you mentioned, then
5:58
Speaker 1: close it and go to the next thing.
6:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, some people are not going to agree with this.
6:03
Speaker 2: I think multitasking is a fallacy. I think it's impossible,
6:09
Speaker 2: And it depends on the definition of multitasking. Right now,
6:13
Speaker 2: I am speaking and looking at the camera at the
6:15
Speaker 2: same time and talking to you and thinking about what
6:17
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say. Is that multitasking Maybe? But if I'm
6:21
Speaker 2: trying to do a project here and then another project here,
6:25
Speaker 2: and then talk to somebody here and then interrupt with
6:28
Speaker 2: this and then try to exercise in between, that I
6:31
Speaker 2: know for me, if I'm going to go exercise, I
6:33
Speaker 2: need to exercise, and if I have my phone out,
6:36
Speaker 2: I'm not going to get the exercise I came there
6:38
Speaker 2: to do because I'm distracted by the goal that I had. Now,
6:44
Speaker 2: can I listen to an audiobook an exercise or a
6:47
Speaker 2: podcast an exercise? Yeah? And so the way I try
6:51
Speaker 2: to do it is I compartmentalize and I block out
6:54
Speaker 2: my day. I'm in a place where I have people
6:57
Speaker 2: that can help me, and so I'm able to delicate
7:00
Speaker 2: eat certain tasks, but I'm able to block out the
7:02
Speaker 2: time necessary for this specific piece. Now, for example, I
7:09
Speaker 2: am getting out a deal to my investors, and I
7:12
Speaker 2: knew that today would not be the day I could
7:14
Speaker 2: get out the deal to my investors because I'm focused
7:16
Speaker 2: more on content creation. Let's say, so today is more
7:19
Speaker 2: of the content creation type environment, and so I've blocked
7:22
Speaker 2: out and I've focused on that content creation. And so
7:26
Speaker 2: what I have scheduled is on Monday, that is my
7:29
Speaker 2: day that I'm going to be reaching out and connecting
7:31
Speaker 2: with those investors who invest alongside with me in influenc VC,
7:36
Speaker 2: and so I'll get that project done before I move on.
7:40
Speaker 2: And then Tuesday Wednesday, I'm doing a lot of the
7:42
Speaker 2: coaching with the business BOOKIEMP dot com. So anyway, it's
7:46
Speaker 2: a tough question. Some people are going to agree disagree.
7:48
Speaker 2: I know for me, this is how I've had to
7:50
Speaker 2: make it work to keep my sanity, to have the
7:53
Speaker 2: lifestyle that I've wanted. I want to be able to
7:58
Speaker 2: clock out and the time with my children, have the
8:02
Speaker 2: family dinner, practice with them their musical instrument or sports
8:05
Speaker 2: whenever go to the game. And then if I need to,
8:08
Speaker 2: I can come back to the computer or the phone
8:11
Speaker 2: after I put those guys to me, And only in
8:13
Speaker 2: those emergency circumstances and I try to get on a
8:17
Speaker 2: phone call wild'ing around the kids. I just it's very
8:20
Speaker 2: rare to try and do that.
8:22
Speaker 3: And I'm really curious right now.
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Speaker 1: You to have companies, you have sold companies, you're invested
8:29
Speaker 1: in companies.
8:30
Speaker 3: But if we have to go back, how did all
8:33
Speaker 3: this started?
8:36
Speaker 2: So I was a college student at BYU, bringing me
8:38
Speaker 2: Young University, and I had some friends who were importing
8:44
Speaker 2: office furniture of all things from Taiwan where they had
8:48
Speaker 2: served their volunteer missions, and they were importing this off
8:52
Speaker 2: furniture and they approached me and said, we want you
8:55
Speaker 2: to come and help us with sales. That was the
8:57
Speaker 2: only life still I had at that time, and so
9:00
Speaker 2: they allowed me to join as a co founder of
9:03
Speaker 2: the business. It wasn't my idea. I wasn't the original founders,
9:07
Speaker 2: but it opened my eyes to entrepreneurship. I didn't have
9:11
Speaker 2: family members who are entrepreneurs. My dad is a physician,
9:14
Speaker 2: my brother's a physician, my other brother's an attorney. My sister,
9:18
Speaker 2: who was more in business, she was going to do
9:20
Speaker 2: an NBA kind of think. She married a dentist. And
9:22
Speaker 2: so I had zero entrepreneurs that were influencing me, and
9:26
Speaker 2: I didn't even know that word. But when I got
9:29
Speaker 2: involved as a college student, which I think is a
9:31
Speaker 2: phenomenal time to get involved as entrepreneurship, I was able
9:36
Speaker 2: to end up selling my ownership to my co founders.
9:39
Speaker 2: I walked away with a ten x return on my investment,
9:43
Speaker 2: which was unbelievable. I can't believe that actually happened. Now.
9:47
Speaker 2: To be clear, the investment that I put into it
9:50
Speaker 2: was my parents loan. They loaned me five thousand dollars.
9:54
Speaker 2: I put that into the business. That was part how
9:56
Speaker 2: I bought my equity, and then I got fifty at
10:00
Speaker 2: the end, and I paid my parents back plus interest,
10:03
Speaker 2: which I think they were shocked that they got anything back.
10:07
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure they thought that was a donation. And
10:10
Speaker 2: then I was able to move on and I started
10:12
Speaker 2: my next business just a year and a half later
10:15
Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine, and then ended up selling
10:18
Speaker 2: that one in twenty twenty. But the entrepreneurship side was
10:21
Speaker 2: that fire was sparked inside me at that young age
10:24
Speaker 2: in college, and I knew that's what I needed to do.
10:28
Speaker 2: I had plans of going and getting an MBA. That
10:31
Speaker 2: was the plan, That's the track I was on, and
10:34
Speaker 2: once I stepped foot into the role of an entrepreneur,
10:38
Speaker 2: I couldn't go back. I absolutely loved it. And so
10:41
Speaker 2: people look at me sometimes online like on LinkedIn, They're
10:43
Speaker 2: going to see that I'm an investor and I've invested
10:45
Speaker 2: in about thirty companies and a bunch of funds and
10:48
Speaker 2: all these things, and so sometimes they look at me
10:51
Speaker 2: as the title as an investor. I'm an entrepreneur through
10:55
Speaker 2: and through. I've been lucky to be able to invest
10:58
Speaker 2: in some amazing companies that have done well, and right now,
11:02
Speaker 2: out of a little under thirty companies, I have five
11:05
Speaker 2: unicorns in my portfolio, and that's an unbelievable blessing. I
11:11
Speaker 2: feel like I was lucky to work with these entrepreneurs
11:15
Speaker 2: and to be able to be involved, and from a
11:17
Speaker 2: numbers game, those are pretty dang good odds. Most of
11:20
Speaker 2: the time, angel investors have a hard time making anything
11:24
Speaker 2: with their investments, let alone having some of that. So
11:27
Speaker 2: that's been a huge blessing, and it inspires me to
11:30
Speaker 2: do more and to want to invest in more and
11:32
Speaker 2: to mentor more and to help people however they can.
11:35
Speaker 1: How do you generally choose which of the companies that
11:38
Speaker 1: you believe that they do have a shot.
11:41
Speaker 2: Whoo, this is the magic question. I wish I could
11:46
Speaker 2: say all of them were a success. I've lost some
11:49
Speaker 2: money too, right, And so let me actually do the math,
11:53
Speaker 2: because I have my little spreadsheet that I keep track
11:55
Speaker 2: of all these things. Of these I need to remember
11:58
Speaker 2: if it's twenty eight or twenty nine. Let's say it's
12:00
Speaker 2: twenty eight of these twenty eight companies that I've invested
12:03
Speaker 2: in individually. So I have funds that have invested in
12:07
Speaker 2: twenty companies with my money or whatever, and so I'm
12:10
Speaker 2: spread over maybe one hundred and fifty companies or something
12:14
Speaker 2: because of the funds I'm involved in. But my specific
12:18
Speaker 2: personal investments. Out of those twenty eight companies, I've lost
12:22
Speaker 2: four so far, and so four of them have they're
12:26
Speaker 2: dead right. Five of them are unicorns, meaning they have
12:31
Speaker 2: higher than a billion dollar valuation, and then a bunch
12:34
Speaker 2: that are still in the process of growing. Now some
12:36
Speaker 2: are going to fail. That's just part of the plan, right,
12:40
Speaker 2: and you won't get anything back. But number one, I
12:43
Speaker 2: live for people. People is who I bet on. That's
12:46
Speaker 2: the number one thing. When I saw for example, Taurus,
12:49
Speaker 2: Taurus has been on the Time magazine is one of
12:51
Speaker 2: the most innovative companies. They're soaring their revenue numbers and
12:55
Speaker 2: their valuation is their unicorn on a multiple what I
13:02
Speaker 2: saw them early on. The reason why I got so
13:04
Speaker 2: interested was because I really liked the founders. And so
13:09
Speaker 2: what's funny is I reached out to the founders and said, hey,
13:12
Speaker 2: I love you guys. I've seen what you've done in
13:15
Speaker 2: the past. I would love to invest in what you
13:17
Speaker 2: guys are doing now. Well, they didn't need my money.
13:20
Speaker 2: They didn't need it at the time, and so I'm
13:23
Speaker 2: like begging them to let me give them money. They
13:26
Speaker 2: didn't need my money, and at the time they didn't
13:29
Speaker 2: take it. And I'm so frustrated because what I didn't
13:34
Speaker 2: need a chance to invest they were at ten times
13:37
Speaker 2: the valuation that they were, or maybe a little less,
13:40
Speaker 2: maybe five times evaluation that what I wanted to get
13:43
Speaker 2: in it was Number one, as the founders who they are,
13:47
Speaker 2: what is their integrity like, what is their work ethic like?
13:51
Speaker 2: How do they respond and talk to people? How do
13:53
Speaker 2: they manage and work with people? And then number two,
13:56
Speaker 2: I always want to make sure if it's if I'm
13:57
Speaker 2: writing a check, I needed to be a venture backable business.
14:01
Speaker 2: In most scenarios, a window washing company that's doing the
14:04
Speaker 2: neighborhoods around town is not a venture backable business because
14:08
Speaker 2: venture backable business means that I'm seeking a ten times return.
14:12
Speaker 2: If I give someone one hundred grand, I expect and
14:14
Speaker 2: hope that I will get a million dollars back. And
14:18
Speaker 2: unless they become a national, nationwide window washing company, that's
14:22
Speaker 2: not going to be a venture backable business. And so
14:24
Speaker 2: when people approach me and they haven't really done the
14:27
Speaker 2: investor thing before, I want them to realize that you
14:30
Speaker 2: need to have a business that has a large enough
14:32
Speaker 2: market that when you do go to market, you can
14:36
Speaker 2: scale from whatever it is a million dollars your revenue
14:40
Speaker 2: to one hundred million dollars revenue. Can you scale and
14:43
Speaker 2: grow the business at that size? Otherwise you may not
14:47
Speaker 2: be a venture backable business. Now, it doesn't mean that
14:49
Speaker 2: there's anything wrong with being a lifestyle business. And when
14:55
Speaker 2: I'm mentoring entrepreneurs, especially first time entrepreneurs, I want them
14:59
Speaker 2: to start with a lot lifestyle business because I want
15:01
Speaker 2: them to learn the ins and outs of how a
15:03
Speaker 2: business works. I suggest early stage entrepreneurs starts with something simple,
15:09
Speaker 2: something that's service oriented, service based business that can be profitable,
15:13
Speaker 2: and that doesn't cost you a ton to get started.
15:15
Speaker 2: Because if you'd have a success early on, then you
15:18
Speaker 2: can start looking into more complicated businesses and you can
15:22
Speaker 2: start doing things that leverage investor dollars or debt or
15:25
Speaker 2: things like that. But I out the gate. I think
15:27
Speaker 2: it's a lot easier to start simple, have some wins,
15:30
Speaker 2: and then move on from there.
15:32
Speaker 1: It is really great that you mentioned more than once
15:35
Speaker 1: that the most important thing is people. How can you
15:39
Speaker 1: choose or which are the trades that you're looking in
15:42
Speaker 1: a person to actually say that's the right fit, that's
15:46
Speaker 1: the right person, that's a person that I can trust.
15:49
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. So integrity for me is number one.
15:53
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that when the person says
15:54
Speaker 2: they're going to do something, they do it. And number
15:58
Speaker 2: two for me is accountability. It goes along the lines
16:01
Speaker 2: with integrity too. When you make a mistake, own it.
16:06
Speaker 2: Own the mistake, don't hide it, don't try to keep
16:09
Speaker 2: it secret, but own it. And so when I think
16:13
Speaker 2: about integrity, and this is when if people pitch me
16:16
Speaker 2: for me to invest, I need them to know that
16:19
Speaker 2: I'm most likely not going to write them a check
16:21
Speaker 2: on that first phone call. That's just not how relationships work.
16:26
Speaker 2: It's as if we're getting married in a business sense, right,
16:29
Speaker 2: I am now giving you my heart earned money and
16:32
Speaker 2: banking that you're going to return it back to me tenfold.
16:36
Speaker 2: I need to get to know who you are, what
16:38
Speaker 2: kind of a person are you? What do other people
16:40
Speaker 2: think about you? How have you proven that you know
16:43
Speaker 2: how to do this type of thing you're promising that
16:46
Speaker 2: you can do. And so when they get on a
16:48
Speaker 2: phone call with me, sometimes people are shocked when I say, hey,
16:51
Speaker 2: the business looks great. I'd love to get to know
16:53
Speaker 2: you for a little while, and they look at me
16:55
Speaker 2: kind of confused, aren't you just going to give me
16:57
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars? And I'm like, no, no, I'm not.
17:00
Speaker 2: I'm gonna watch. I want to watch. So you've told
17:04
Speaker 2: me what you're going to do over the next X
17:06
Speaker 2: amount of time. Right, I'm gonna sit back and I'm
17:09
Speaker 2: gonna watch, and I want you to see if you
17:11
Speaker 2: can do what you said you're started going to do.
17:14
Speaker 2: And I would love for you to give me an update,
17:16
Speaker 2: whether it's monthly, every six day, weeks, whatever it is,
17:19
Speaker 2: and you give me the good, the bad, and the ugly.
17:21
Speaker 2: I want to hear all of it. I don't want
17:22
Speaker 2: to hear just the sugar coating of it. I want
17:24
Speaker 2: to see. So the deal I'm doing right now with
17:27
Speaker 2: Influence WC, I met with them over ten months ago,
17:33
Speaker 2: and I've been watching, watching and meeting with them and
17:36
Speaker 2: talking with them and getting updates, watching to see if
17:39
Speaker 2: they can do what they say they've been doing. When
17:42
Speaker 2: they finally launched and they started generating revenue, I was
17:45
Speaker 2: watching closely. And the wonderful part about it is they've
17:50
Speaker 2: actually done what they said they were gonna do, even
17:52
Speaker 2: more than I expected. And so now it's a no
17:56
Speaker 2: brainer for me to want to write a check and
17:58
Speaker 2: get them, get them and my other friends and investors involved,
18:02
Speaker 2: because I have a much higher confidence rate with someone
18:07
Speaker 2: that I've been able to get to know and see.
18:09
Speaker 2: So I do love to invest in people I know,
18:11
Speaker 2: love and trust. That's the easiest way. I'll give you
18:14
Speaker 2: an example. I invest in in a Marco Polo competitor
18:19
Speaker 2: with a friend of mine that I just loved dearly.
18:22
Speaker 2: And the business was going and growing and I loved
18:24
Speaker 2: the product. It was awesome. But in the end it
18:27
Speaker 2: didn't pan out and I lost my fifty thousand dollars. Now,
18:30
Speaker 2: I remember talking to that entrepreneur, a good friend of mine,
18:34
Speaker 2: and I said, look, I know it's not you. You
18:36
Speaker 2: didn't do anything illegal, you did nothing against your integrity.
18:39
Speaker 2: Sometimes businesses just don't work out, and I understand some.
18:43
Speaker 2: I've had mine that I've had to shut down. But
18:46
Speaker 2: I said, the next time you do something, I want
18:48
Speaker 2: to invest in you because I love you as a
18:51
Speaker 2: human and I believe in you as a person. So
18:55
Speaker 2: this was a tech business that I invested in prior.
18:58
Speaker 2: He went from being a tech on entrepreneur multiple times
19:02
Speaker 2: to being a consumer product company. And it's called Josh's Pickles.
19:06
Speaker 2: And I love him to death. And I was one
19:09
Speaker 2: of his very first checks to support him in his
19:12
Speaker 2: pickle company. And you know what's wild to me. Number One,
19:16
Speaker 2: people either love or hate pickles. Right, So it's fascinating.
19:20
Speaker 2: But he started to take off on TikTok. The market
19:24
Speaker 2: for pickles is massive and so because it's pickles all
19:27
Speaker 2: over the world and there's only a few key competitors
19:30
Speaker 2: out there. So he created this product. It's like fifth
19:34
Speaker 2: generation Bridmaster from his ancestors, and he's had this he's
19:37
Speaker 2: always loved doing pickles. But I invested in him because
19:40
Speaker 2: I know love and I trust him. Even though the
19:43
Speaker 2: other one didn't work and I lost money there, I
19:46
Speaker 2: still took a bat and I invested here and it's
19:48
Speaker 2: killing it. He's in retail stores now, he's getting accepted
19:52
Speaker 2: into some of the big box retailers. Very soon you'll
19:56
Speaker 2: be able to find Josh's pickles all over the country.
19:59
Speaker 2: And I'm so happy to be a part of it,
20:01
Speaker 2: even though it wasn't what I normally had invested in.
20:03
Speaker 3: You know, what a great story. What a great story.
20:08
Speaker 1: And Baba, we're always closing the podcast with one question.
20:13
Speaker 1: So if you could go back and change just one thing.
20:16
Speaker 1: It could be a decision that you made, It could
20:19
Speaker 1: be a mindset, it could be something that you wish
20:23
Speaker 1: that you would have known.
20:24
Speaker 3: What would it be and.
20:25
Speaker 1: Why, oh oh.
20:29
Speaker 2: My gosh, there's so many I could write a book
20:31
Speaker 2: on how many things I wish I would have known.
20:32
Speaker 2: One of the things I wish I would have known
20:34
Speaker 2: as a young entrepreneur is where my priorities are is
20:39
Speaker 2: what matters. Where I focus my attention is where I
20:44
Speaker 2: will have success. I early on in my career, I
20:49
Speaker 2: don't believe I had the best priorities. I was confused
20:53
Speaker 2: to think that making money was the ultimate priority, and
20:58
Speaker 2: that's what my job was as a husband and as
21:01
Speaker 2: a father, was to be the provider. Now I believe
21:05
Speaker 2: that I should be the provider, truly believe that. But
21:08
Speaker 2: I started putting some of the most important things in
21:11
Speaker 2: my life not in the correct focus, and so my maker,
21:17
Speaker 2: my God. Although I would keep communication, it was not
21:22
Speaker 2: as intentional my spouse, although loved her dearly loved her children.
21:30
Speaker 2: I worked a lot, and I put that focus on
21:33
Speaker 2: being the provider and not the presider in the home,
21:39
Speaker 2: and early on I didn't realize some of those mistakes
21:44
Speaker 2: that I wish I would have and that I would
21:45
Speaker 2: have prioritized. Even my health. I was not as healthy
21:50
Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form early on in my
21:52
Speaker 2: career because I was just work, Go, Go, Go build,
21:55
Speaker 2: Bill build, thinking that sacrifice was going to bring the
22:03
Speaker 2: pile of gold at the end of the rainbow. And
22:07
Speaker 2: although it did bring financial success, I felt like I
22:13
Speaker 2: lost some of the pieces that I wish I would
22:15
Speaker 2: have had. And life is complicated and we learn things
22:20
Speaker 2: as we go along. But I know, for example, those
22:23
Speaker 2: first five to ten years of my career, I wish
22:26
Speaker 2: I could have gone back and said, Okay, God You're
22:28
Speaker 2: number one no matter what, because I can't take any
22:32
Speaker 2: of these worldly possessions with me when I die, so
22:36
Speaker 2: I need to put God number one and allow him
22:38
Speaker 2: to guide my life and be the focal point. And
22:44
Speaker 2: in a relationship, I believe if you put God first
22:46
Speaker 2: and both spouses look to God as the primary source
22:51
Speaker 2: of truth, that closer you get to God, this triangle
22:56
Speaker 2: with God at the top, the closer you are as
22:58
Speaker 2: a couple. I believe in that, and that's something I
23:02
Speaker 2: wish I would have focused on with my children. I
23:05
Speaker 2: have always been an engaged father, but I worked a lot,
23:09
Speaker 2: and I was even gone for a few months for
23:12
Speaker 2: a business opportunity, and that put a lot of strain
23:17
Speaker 2: on my wife, on her and our relationship. It was
23:20
Speaker 2: really hard. And I looked back and it was a
23:23
Speaker 2: business opportunity that we had agreed upon as a couple.
23:25
Speaker 2: That's something that I would do. But I look back
23:27
Speaker 2: and I wonder, you know what damage did that cause?
23:32
Speaker 2: And everything happens for reasons, and I know God's involved
23:37
Speaker 2: in every detail of our lives. But if I could
23:39
Speaker 2: look back, and if I'm talking to myself twenty years ago,
23:42
Speaker 2: I would say, Bubba, put the right priority on the
23:46
Speaker 2: things that matter most, and then fill your calendar appropriately
23:51
Speaker 2: with boulders the most important things locked in. Then stones
23:57
Speaker 2: put in there, and then pebbles, and then say and
24:00
Speaker 2: then water. You've heard maybe that metaphor before. Yeah, And
24:05
Speaker 2: if you get those boulders locked in and you make
24:08
Speaker 2: sure that those are those priorities, you may not become
24:11
Speaker 2: the next Elon Musk. You may not become the next
24:14
Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos. And to me, that's okay because the life
24:19
Speaker 2: that you're building you can impact millions of lives or
24:24
Speaker 2: even the life of just you and your family, And
24:27
Speaker 2: in God's eyes, that's incredible that you prioritize that piece
24:32
Speaker 2: first and look and if God has bigger things for
24:34
Speaker 2: you to do, hear him first. So you got to
24:37
Speaker 2: put him there to be able to hear what he
24:39
Speaker 2: has for you. But anyway, I know people will not
24:41
Speaker 2: agree with this, and that some will say, look, in
24:44
Speaker 2: order to do anything big, you have to sacrifice, and
24:47
Speaker 2: there is reality in that, and so you have to
24:49
Speaker 2: pick what are you going to sacrifice, and hopefully you've
24:51
Speaker 2: put those things in order.
24:53
Speaker 1: There should always be a balance between what you're going
24:59
Speaker 1: to choose and what then you will get at the
25:02
Speaker 1: end of the day. But it seems that it turns
25:05
Speaker 1: out pretty well for you and Baback. First, thank you
25:10
Speaker 1: so much for being on Behind Numbers. It was a
25:13
Speaker 1: pleasure to actually have you.
25:16
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you. If anybody wants to reach out,
25:18
Speaker 2: please find me on LinkedIn. There's not too many Bubba pages.
25:21
Speaker 2: If you're on Instagram, I'm fairly active on Instagram, so
25:24
Speaker 2: you can find me at bubble page. So happy to
25:27
Speaker 2: connect with anybody in it's here that we can see
25:29
Speaker 2: if I can help it anyway.
25:31
Speaker 1: Fantastic, fantastic, And for everyone listening, thank you so much
25:36
Speaker 1: for joining us. If you've enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget
25:40
Speaker 1: to follow Behind Numbers for more stories from leaders that
25:43
Speaker 1: shape the future of business and finance. I am Alessandra
25:47
Speaker 1: COTTI thank you and see you next time.