Latest / The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell / #43 - Brewing Coffee and Building Community with Abby Cleary

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#43 - Brewing Coffee and Building Community with Abby Cleary · The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What is up?
0:01
SPEAKER_00: My name is Flint Mitchell, and this is the Seeking Authenticity Podcast, hosted by iAline, helping you create a better life in less than 60 seconds a day.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: So I look forward to seeing you all there on the platform creating more aligned lives in a more aligned world.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: In this episode, I talk with Abby Cleary, a friend of mine that I made last year when I moved to San Diego.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: She owns Rosemont's Cafe near Windensea Beach in La Jolla.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you're ever in San Diego, I recommend you go check it out.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: It's a great gathering place, a fun community, there's lots of great people to meet.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Abby has lots of interesting experiences from her travels all over the world, supporting herself in sales roles, and entrepreneurship.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: I highly recommend you stay till the end and listen to what she has to say.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: Enjoy.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Seeking Authenticity Podcast, Abby.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: We met because you opened a cafe that's down the street from me, and I always love a local small business coffee shop.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Um generally because they create a really strong community and a place that I enjoy being in.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: But also over the past year, I have learned in conversation with you that your twenties were filled with quite a few travels.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: I was wondering if you could tell me uh a bit about what led you to traveling so much and what was that what that was like for you.
1:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I think when I was like really young, I just did um I'm from Massachusetts and we'd go to Florida and New Hampshire pretty much, family vacations.
1:47
SPEAKER_03: Uh we went to like the Bahamas once.
1:50
SPEAKER_03: Um then when I was 20, I had planned, oh no, sorry, when I was in high school, my senior year, there was an exchange trip with my Spanish class, and I begged my parents to go to Spain for it was less than a month, maybe three weeks, to do this exchange trip.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: Leading up to the trip, as it got closer, I didn't want to go because it was my senior year in April vacation.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to stay behind with my friends.
2:19
SPEAKER_03: And I went and had the best time, thought Spain was the best country in the world, even though I really hadn't been to any others other than like the Bahamas, which doesn't count.
2:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, so that opened my eyes to traveling.
2:31
SPEAKER_03: I lived with a host family, um, but never met the parents of the host family.
2:35
SPEAKER_03: So I lived with an 18-year-old guy, my host brother Lolo.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: And my best friend in high school came with me on the trip.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: She took French, so she knew no Spanish.
2:45
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
2:45
SPEAKER_03: Um we when we like wrote letters into these potential hosts, um, we made our letters the same, hoping to get with like friends, because we were friends.
3:00
SPEAKER_03: So my best friend did get with Lolo's best friend as a host family.
3:05
SPEAKER_03: And it was pretty much the four of us teenagers um at Lolo's alone, no parents the whole time for all these weeks.
3:14
SPEAKER_03: Uh, so we had a lot of freedom there um in another country in Spain.
3:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, our host brothers didn't speak any English really, like it was very bad.
3:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, so it was pretty much her and I got to do whatever we wanted.
3:25
SPEAKER_03: So that was really cool.
3:26
SPEAKER_03: Uh it opened my eyes to like other countries.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: And then when I was in college, I planned a backpacking trip with another best friend.
3:36
SPEAKER_03: We spent like months planning it.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: Then it got close to like time to book, and my dad said I couldn't go, even though it was my all my own money, but he wanted me to like stay and work for the summer and not go backpacking through Europe.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: When was this in college?
3:50
SPEAKER_03: This was when I was 20 years old.
3:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
3:52
SPEAKER_03: So this was like 2009.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Junior year or something after?
3:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, probably or sophomore year.
3:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, so then I didn't go.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: My friend went Oh, so you didn't go?
4:03
SPEAKER_03: I didn't go on that.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: My friend took other friends on this trip that I had planned.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Heavy.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Where was it supposed to go?
4:09
SPEAKER_03: Um Croatia, Greece, uh, where else?
4:15
SPEAKER_03: I forget.
4:16
SPEAKER_03: Italy, like that side of Europe.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: So my dad wouldn't let me, yeah, because he wanted me to stay home and work and save my money.
4:23
SPEAKER_03: So she went with other friends.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: I was so jealous.
4:26
SPEAKER_03: The next year I was like, I don't care if my dad says I'm going.
4:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:29
SPEAKER_03: So she said she'd go another time with me.
4:31
SPEAKER_03: Her parents gave her money, so it was easy for her.
4:34
SPEAKER_03: I saved everything I could.
4:36
SPEAKER_03: We planned another trip.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: I told my dad I was going anyway.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: I went.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Did he resist the second time?
4:42
SPEAKER_03: He uh took me off the family plan with the cell phone.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: And he also took away my gas card.
4:48
SPEAKER_03: And I never got another dollar out of my dad after that when I was 21 years old at the time.
4:53
SPEAKER_03: So that was when I was just thrown out into the world with no help financially, and uh, he was upset that I went.
5:00
SPEAKER_03: But um, it was worth it.
5:01
SPEAKER_03: We went for a month and a half backpacking around Europe.
5:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, my mom ended up meeting us just so last minute in a couple of the countries, and then another college friend met us too.
5:13
SPEAKER_03: So, and this is like a childhood friend of mine that I went with.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, and it was just amazing.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: So, this was a three-month trip?
5:21
SPEAKER_03: No, this was like a month and a half.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: And that spurred on the desire to continue going back.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: What were your 20s like then?
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, were you consistently traveling around the world?
5:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:33
SPEAKER_03: So I had that backpacking trip for like a month and a half.
5:36
SPEAKER_03: It was like maybe the summer before senior year of college.
5:41
SPEAKER_03: Um then, sorry, I was just thinking of something.
5:48
SPEAKER_03: Um then I had senior year of college.
5:51
SPEAKER_03: I was dating a guy from Canada.
5:53
SPEAKER_03: He couldn't stay in the States in work after college anyway.
5:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, but he went to my school, and so him and his other friends from Canada were talking about doing a year in Australia on a workers' visa, which a lot of Canadians and like British people do.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:10
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was like, oh, I'll go to like, you know, we wouldn't have really had a relationship after college anyway, if he couldn't stay in the States.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: So I decided to go, one of my other college buddies came.
6:22
SPEAKER_03: So my friend Stefan is his name, and I went to Australia first.
6:26
SPEAKER_03: Then my boyfriend at the time and his two buddies from Canada came and met us.
6:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then we had a year-long workers' visa there, and then while in Australia, we learned about like Southeast Asia and New Zealand from like other backpackers, and so we had a bunch of trips there.
6:42
SPEAKER_03: Then I got back to the States for maybe two months, then moved abroad again, um, and lived in a few other countries after that, and then always just like took trips in between.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: What was the culture like of the year abroad workers' visa group in Australia while you were there?
7:00
SPEAKER_03: Um well, so my job I was a nightclub promoter.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: So very nice.
7:06
SPEAKER_03: Um I was Were you in Sydney?
7:10
SPEAKER_03: No, uh Surfer's Paradise, the Gold Coast for half of it, and then the other half in WA and Scabra Beach.
7:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: Like outside of Perth.
7:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Wow, West Oz.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: I uh when I was traveling, yeah, I spent a decent amount of time in Kulangata.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: So cool area.
7:27
SPEAKER_03: Surfing?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: The super bank.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: So what was the culture like though of your working as a club promoter?
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Who are the people you're hanging out with?
7:36
SPEAKER_00: What are the maybe first stories that you remember?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: What were you guys doing?
7:41
SPEAKER_03: Um so I like, I mean, I'd say I guess I was into partying, but not any more than anyone else that was 22 years old.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
7:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I wasn't like going that crazy.
7:51
SPEAKER_03: As a club promoter, the job I had was commission only, so I made no hourly wage, just commission.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
7:59
SPEAKER_03: But the money was so good, and the people I worked with were like crushing it in sales.
8:06
SPEAKER_03: So I really enjoyed the job because I was so motivated by the money and trying to like learn sales.
8:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, the people I hung out with are still my friends today, like I still keep in touch with them.
8:18
SPEAKER_03: So one specifically is a girl from Switzerland, one's a girl from England.
8:22
SPEAKER_03: They're two of my closest friends still that I met back in 2010 when I was there.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, we were all just addicted to traveling and addicted to the money.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: And we were making such good money that we were traveling all the time and like bawling out as 22-year-olds, like able to afford these really nice trips and go wherever we wanted and take time off whenever we wanted.
8:43
SPEAKER_03: And with a commission-only job, like your boss can't really force you to stay anyway.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: You're not they're not paying you.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tell me a bit about that.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: What was this your first experience doing professional sales, making money from sales?
8:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
8:58
SPEAKER_03: So the I think I started the job in like August or no September, and I didn't make any money, like it wasn't good, but I kept hearing of everybody else like on in our company, like making good money.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
9:12
SPEAKER_03: Um, we had like booths like at like main like crosswalks in Surfers Paradise, Australia, which is sort of like a little mini Miami beach, sort of.
9:21
SPEAKER_03: So it's small.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good analogy.
9:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
9:23
SPEAKER_03: So we had like booths there that we could like stand at that made us look legit when we were stopping people on the street to try to get them to come talk to us and sell them tickets to uh it was a club crawl, like a like a pub crawl, but for bars, lounges, and clubs.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: So there's better locations than others.
9:42
SPEAKER_03: And because I was new in the company, like everyone else in the company had been there for years, like they had all known each other for a long time.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: It was sort of cutthroat, it was very cutthroat, actually.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Really?
9:51
SPEAKER_03: Um, and people like you either stuck with it or you didn't.
9:56
SPEAKER_03: Like there was a lot of turnover, but the people that stuck with it were like I said, crushing it.
10:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I got the really bad locations in October because I was new.
10:05
SPEAKER_03: Um the end, but I kept trying.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: In the end of October, there was like a race car um event in Surfers Paradise called I forget the name of it, but um, it took place in Surfers Paradise every October, and it was just a popular like weekend for Surfers Paradise.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: I was given a location um that was pretty bad compared to everybody else's, but there's so many people in town that I made decent money.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: So now I got like really excited, like, okay, cool, I can do this.
10:37
SPEAKER_03: Then a few weeks after that, there was there's this time in Australia called Schoolies.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: It's like our spring break.
10:44
SPEAKER_03: Like in March, we have spring break in America.
10:46
SPEAKER_03: So Schoolies is where all the 18-year-olds, because you can drink earlier, go to pretty much Surfer's Paradise and party and go to the nightclubs and are trashed.
10:53
SPEAKER_03: And um, I was given a bad location during that, like it wasn't even a normal location, but I was put up basically this really cheap, shitty hotel parking lot, like sort of far away from like the strip, but it was such a cheap hotel that it was all schoolies checking in.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:09
SPEAKER_03: So I was the first person to talk to these group of 18-year-olds before they went out into like, you know, the ended up being a good location.
11:17
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
11:18
SPEAKER_03: It ended up being a good location.
11:20
SPEAKER_03: I think I had a day where I made$3,000 in one day in the beginning of schoolies, and this went on for weeks.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: So that's uh that switches flip for you.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I can make money.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: And I'm 22 years old, making$3,000 in a day.
11:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, like anything I could to get the sale, because they'd come with like friends of 10 of them and they'd go check into the room.
11:41
SPEAKER_03: They didn't want to talk to me.
11:42
SPEAKER_03: I was like, well, what room are you at?
11:44
SPEAKER_03: Like I'll I'll come meet you up there and and I'll tell you all about it.
11:47
SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, then I just like I said, I just got addicted to the money and was like, okay, I can do this.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: And then that just set you up for the rest of your twenties.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, pretty much sales and traveling.
11:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, then throughout the rest of my twenties.
12:02
SPEAKER_03: So then when I got back to the States, I ended up going to Las Vegas and lived there.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: As a club promoter?
12:08
SPEAKER_03: As a club promoter.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: Then I'd go travel, live in other countries for months at a time, um, then go back to Vegas, make money, go back to other countries, go back to Vegas.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Was it ever in Miami?
12:22
SPEAKER_00: It's it sounds nonstop.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: During these years, were there ever moments where you were questioning what we were what you were doing, or was it just so fun?
12:32
SPEAKER_03: My parents were questioning what I was doing, but um no, it was so fun.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: Like I had the best life in my 20s.
12:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, there is no social media.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:41
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, my photos that I do have from my trips are even buried away.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: I hope they're still existent somewhere.
12:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we're at like traveling other countries, like looking at real maps, hitchhiking a lot, asking travelers like where'd you come from?
12:56
SPEAKER_03: Where's cool, where should we go visit?
12:58
SPEAKER_03: Because going to an internet cafe would even get like expensive to try to research where the next place to go should be.
13:05
SPEAKER_03: And you don't want to sit in an internet cafe all day where the internet's really slow to figure out where to go next.
13:10
SPEAKER_03: So it was like all just meeting travelers and just sort of going the path that they came from or that they're about to do.
13:16
SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, I just wanted to see every country.
13:20
SPEAKER_03: So I started, I got so ahead in countries that at a certain age I had done that same amount of countries, so then I was like, okay, the older I get, like I'm 30 years old, I need to hit 30 countries type of thing.
13:32
SPEAKER_03: So that's where I'm still at.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: How many are you're at 30 right now?
13:36
SPEAKER_03: I think I'm at 32 and I'm 35 now because the new business uh has set me back a little.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Plural, I would say.
13:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: That is quite the life.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to hear that you didn't feel compelled or feel anxious about stopping that.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: It seems like it was a really worthwhile experience to adventure to all those companies.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: The entire time were you supporting yourself through sales jobs, like at in Miami or in Vegas?
14:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
14:05
SPEAKER_03: So I've never had like help since I was 20 and went on that first trip.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: That was the last time I got help from a uh financially perspective of kind of the timing of this.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: You would work like three months in Vegas and then go travel for a month and then come back and do the same thing?
14:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I'd find other jobs in between too.
14:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I like moved to Italy, Austria, and Ireland and found jobs there, but they didn't really like make me money, but it was like enough to live, and then I had gone with money that I made like pretty much as a club promoter.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Looking back over these experiences, what would be maybe one of the largest lessons that you learned from traveling to so many different places and supporting yourself doing I think um well like at the time some of the places I went to just like people couldn't believe that, you know, at the time that I was going to Thailand or Malaysia.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Now we see it on Instagram and we hear of it and it's more common.
15:09
SPEAKER_03: But back then it wasn't like a thing, or Honduras and Central places in Central America, you know, they thought it was so dangerous.
15:17
SPEAKER_03: Um it's everything's like easier than you think it's gonna be once you start it and once you just go.
15:24
SPEAKER_03: Like you just gotta like book the flight and you're there and you'll figure it out.
15:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, same with even like starting a business.
15:31
SPEAKER_03: Um you just gotta like start and then you'll figure it out.
15:34
SPEAKER_03: So I'd say that's like the biggest lesson.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think there are a lot of different sayings that draw parallels to that.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: The first step is always the biggest, or it only takes 20 hours to become somewhat proficient in a new skill, but people never take spend the first hour.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Um Do you have any moments looking back of uh anxiety over a decision to go to a country that was that seemed uh like one of these far off, distant, mythical places like Malaysia.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 15 years ago, maybe there weren't a lot of people going there.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: So did you experience any anxiety making the decision to say, all right, I'm going to go try out this new place that I don't know anything about?
16:15
SPEAKER_00: That's people are telling me is dangerous, but maybe isn't.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: No.
16:21
SPEAKER_03: Um I like liked the more the less like popular of a destination it was at the time, the more I liked it and wanted to go and was like excited to go.
16:33
SPEAKER_03: So I never had any anxiety traveling.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Why was that?
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Um not the anxiety part, but why did you enjoy the places that were less popular?
16:44
SPEAKER_03: Uh the a lot of the times I ended up being cooler, and like places that were popular, you meet, and and all my friends from other countries will say it's so American, but you meet these other travelers that are excited.
16:58
SPEAKER_03: It's sort of like, you know, maybe the first or second trip, and it's more of like for bragging rights, and it's like I've done all of this 20 times, like you know what I mean.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: Um so places that I went to that were less like popular, uh, just you found like more interesting people.
17:22
SPEAKER_03: Like everyone, a lot of people have been to Bali now, right?
17:25
SPEAKER_03: Like I was there in 2010, and at the time it was still a place that was like glorified and talked about and popular, but only in Australia.
17:39
SPEAKER_03: Like for a lot of Aussies would go to Bali, like not Americans, because it was so much closer.
17:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
17:44
SPEAKER_03: So if I went to Bali back then, it was cool to like my American friends, like.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: But not to your Australian fans.
17:50
SPEAKER_03: No, they had already been 15, 20 times, you know.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, that's why I think I liked going places that not as many people went.
17:58
SPEAKER_03: You just met more interesting people, not Americans.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: You're just trying to avoid Americans.
18:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was actually for a while.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that's valid if it's the place you're coming from.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: I think that's can be a general theme, not just in traveling to distant countries to to find new cultures beside the one you came up in, but also people who grow up and go to college in a different place or find jobs and move into a new location.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to likely, in a way, break away from your home community and even maybe your family.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That's a big part of growth in our twenties that I think a lot of people maybe miss out on if they stay.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: There's I'm not saying you can't become a remarkable person if you stay in your hometown by any means.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: I just think that it requires a little bit more intention to separate yourself from the things that are comfortable.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you move to a new state or country, not to say I've moved to another country, uh you are forced to make all the small decisions by yourself and find new people to support you with those ones.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: I think a a big element of that are when people when you get sick.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: When you get sick, there's a sense of isolation that is very real, even if it's a mild sickness.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: I think it's very easy, at least for me, to feel disconnected from people.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: And so when I was sick while traveling or living in other areas, it forced me to ask the question of who around me is gonna support me in this situation, like if I'm really incapacitated.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, that hasn't happened.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Um but you have to ask all the little questions that make you that help you support yourself.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Did you have any experiences while you were traveling where you really questioned where you were at and made you want to go home because of the comfort?
19:49
SPEAKER_03: Um I mean definitely like there was times that were like financially really hard.
19:58
SPEAKER_03: Uh like when I was living in Austria, I went there to snowboard and I worked at a pizzeria making pizzas and washing dishes.
20:08
SPEAKER_03: I was like 22 or 23 years old.
20:10
SPEAKER_03: I think 23.
20:12
SPEAKER_03: Um, but it was like the best season for snowboarding.
20:15
SPEAKER_03: All the locals even said that.
20:16
SPEAKER_03: Like I was so happy to get on the mountain all day, every day, like literally got up the mountain every single day, and that's why I was there.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, but the owners of the restaurant like didn't pay me anything.
20:27
SPEAKER_03: They didn't speak any English, which is really hard and got frustrating.
20:30
SPEAKER_03: They let me eat there for free, but they definitely took advantage of me as a worker, like we do in America here with immigrants, um, especially being that I was working under the table.
20:42
SPEAKER_03: You know, they knew that I like was relying on them.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: Um so I just remember just like literally having no money.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: I think that whole, you know, maybe I was there seven months.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: I don't think that I ate out at another restaurant more than once or twice.
20:58
SPEAKER_03: Every day I just ate the free food I was allowed at the restaurant I worked at.
21:02
SPEAKER_03: I bought like just pastas all I could afford for dinner.
21:06
SPEAKER_03: I would, I stole a big toilet paper roll from the mountain, the ski mountain.
21:12
SPEAKER_03: Like that doesn't even fit on like a toilet paper roll that we have at home.
21:14
SPEAKER_03: Like the big industrial toilet toilet paper rolls.
21:17
SPEAKER_03: I brought my backpack, I took it, that was all I needed was toilet paper, and I had food at the restaurant.
21:23
SPEAKER_03: Like it was financially tough, but um, I lived with seven people in a two-bedroom house.
21:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, no one was from America.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, there's no Wi-Fi anywhere, there's no iPhones, there's, you know, not much even internet in the village.
21:39
SPEAKER_03: No one in the village spoke English.
21:41
SPEAKER_03: There was um, there's like this traveling group called Contiki um for like 18 plus.
21:48
SPEAKER_03: It's just like a bus that goes all around Europe and like 18 plus can stop in this little town I lived at.
21:54
SPEAKER_03: So every week there was some English speaking people coming through and then leaving, and the next week coming through and leaving.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And large, you were on your own.
22:01
SPEAKER_03: I was on my own.
22:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:02
SPEAKER_03: So um there was times then that I was like, home would be nice.
22:07
SPEAKER_03: I want someone to cook for me.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: I want someplace warm.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: The shower would get cold in two seconds.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: What have you then learned, not about yourself, but how have you learned to better support yourself when you are feeling isolated like that?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Because I think, and it's important to put some context on that.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: The world has probably never felt more isolated than it is right now through and after the pandemic.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: More people than ever are disconnected.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh our jobs are remote, our relationships are remote.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of isolation going on in the world.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I think many people would be curious to hear your perspective coming from these experiences where you were forced into maybe not isolation, you were with people, but you were very much supporting yourself and by yourself in your like your own support system.
23:02
SPEAKER_03: Um well, I didn't have enough money to go home even if I wanted to.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: And like I said, I didn't have like, you know, if if I begged my parents, they like would have helped me.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: But how do you deal with that emotionally?
23:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: Um, I didn't want to like fail and like be the loser going back to my hometown, like after trying to do another, like, you know, living abroad thing.
23:26
SPEAKER_03: So I forced myself to stay for that reason.
23:28
SPEAKER_03: Like, I didn't want to come home before the snowboard season ended, and you know, it just looked like a failure.
23:36
SPEAKER_03: So I just forced myself to stay, and then I stayed and I was happy I stayed.
23:40
SPEAKER_03: And then I moved to another country after that, and that had hardship too, but happy I did it.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: And so it was this cycle of moving to a place, experiencing it, having a great time, sometimes it's experiencing some sort of difficulty that made you want to leave, but pushing through partly because you enjoyed it, partly because you didn't want the image associated with you that you didn't weren't capable of doing it.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: And then pushing through that barrier, it started to be enjoyable again, and you'd be like, Alright, I'll do this again in a new country.
24:11
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
24:12
SPEAKER_03: I didn't know I didn't I knew that I didn't want to go home and have like a real job, like a corporate job either.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: And I had graduated college and that's what all my friends were doing, and I just had zero interest in that.
24:25
SPEAKER_03: So it was like, okay, if I have like another trip planned, another trip planned, like the more I could avoid going to some corporate job where back then, especially, because now you know there's a lot of entrepreneurs.
24:38
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
24:39
SPEAKER_03: But back then, that's what you do.
24:41
SPEAKER_03: You you get out of college and you get a job.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are the drawbacks of that perspective?
24:48
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Like of not wanting the of wanting to travel and do this thing that you're doing and not wanting the corporate job.
24:59
SPEAKER_03: For me back then, it was not feeling like I could relate to back then it felt like Americans.
25:08
SPEAKER_03: Because I at that point in my life at 22 years old, I'd already been to like probably 17 to 20 countries and had had friends from so many different countries, like better friends from another country that I was staying in touch with more that I had met years prior than you know, I always have my childhood friends, but better friends than pretty much my American friends.
25:30
SPEAKER_03: So whenever I would go back to the States, and if I started talking to someone about my travels, it was people didn't really know.
25:40
SPEAKER_03: I mean, no one had really experienced what I had experienced.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: So it's just like, what's your favorite country?
25:44
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's so cool.
25:45
SPEAKER_03: And they had nothing else to relate to, and like, you know, my mind was just blown with all these amazing adventures that I had had.
25:54
SPEAKER_03: So that I think at the time was why I didn't want to like go back to America and get settled on a job.
25:59
SPEAKER_03: It's just everything about that felt boring because what I was so passionate about, which was traveling, like no one else would could relate to me.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: To be clear, I asked you the question, what are the drawbacks of that perspective?
26:14
SPEAKER_00: And you replied with the the reasons for why you felt like you didn't want that life, which I don't consider avoidant.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: I would say you uh clearly are so passionate about, or or at least were so passionate about what you were doing that uh even if there were drawbacks, they were not enticing enough to really be uh pay awareness to because you were so uh into the traveling that you were doing and the new experiences that you were participating in and exp appreciating the perspectives that you were gaining.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Why did you stop this traveling era of your life and come back then to this place where you've consistently kind of talked about the American perspective as something you were somewhat avoidant of?
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Why did you come back and start building this um meal prep business or Rosmont's?
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
27:18
SPEAKER_03: So with the meal prep business, I kept traveling.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: Um with Rosemont's and having a business now, it was actually the pandemic that slowed down my traveling.
27:29
SPEAKER_03: So I was kept going until 2020, like was still doing a lot of abroad trips.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: Maybe they'd be shortened into three-week trips.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, but still a good amount of traveling every year, you know.
27:41
SPEAKER_03: I think in the year 2020, I took 22 flights.
27:45
SPEAKER_03: I remember counting.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: In 2020, when the whole world shut down, I flew 22 times.
27:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was still all over the place.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: But then when the world sort of shut down with COVID, um I had really bad anxiety.
28:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, my anxiety is just bad in general, but I was just nervous.
28:06
SPEAKER_03: All my grandparents were alive at the time.
28:08
SPEAKER_03: I didn't want them to get sick.
28:10
SPEAKER_03: My mom is an emergency room nurse.
28:13
SPEAKER_03: I didn't want her to get sick.
28:15
SPEAKER_03: I just kept thinking the worst case scenario, because as we all did right in the beginning of it.
28:21
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
28:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I went home to Cape Cod.
28:24
SPEAKER_03: I was living in Colorado at the time.
28:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, I went home to Cape Cod, thought I'd be home for two weeks, and it ended up being months that I stayed home.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: And not being able to see anyone or staying away from people anyway, and just having to be me, my mom, and my dog was so nice.
28:40
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't realize the opposite of what you were gonna say.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: I didn't realize how much like I guess I enjoyed just being alone and no over stimulation.
28:56
SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, it was just really nice.
28:59
SPEAKER_03: So that like slowed me down a lot uh because I liked it.
29:03
SPEAKER_03: So I didn't know I liked it.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of people have this idea that um those who are traveling in their 20s are trying to escape something.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't sound like that was true.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe a little bit for you, in the sense of trying to find something new.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say that I would categorize what how you talk about travel as a um escaping life.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's amusing then that since you was something that you enjoyed so much you didn't even realize that there was maybe another way of living until you were forced into it by the pandemic.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
29:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, but a lot of people would bring up thinking I'm like escaping things.
29:54
SPEAKER_03: Uh after I did that like month and a half around Europe, I came back and a week later my best friend died, and he was killed in Afghanistan.
30:05
SPEAKER_03: And in that moment, I was like, Yeah, I gotta get out of here.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm from a small town, Cape Cod.
30:13
SPEAKER_03: All my friends from there I've known since I was five.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: All their parents have known my parents since they were in elementary school.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: And I went to college in Florida, but I knew I would never like live in Florida.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
30:26
SPEAKER_03: So it was all, you know, after college, you're gonna go home.
30:29
SPEAKER_03: But I was definitely avoiding being home after he died because this was like my best friend in the world that I spent all my time with when I was home.
30:38
SPEAKER_03: So uh even to this day, I've only been home for Christmas one time uh because Christmas Day 2008 was the last time I saw him.
30:47
SPEAKER_03: So I have not been home for Christmas since 2008 because I still am avoiding it.
30:54
SPEAKER_03: Here we are, you get a long time later.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: What uh but yeah, so what is something that your friend taught you or gave to the community around him?
31:09
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like he was a sp special man um and gave his life to protect our country.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: What is something that he gave to the people around him that he's remembered for?
31:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, in high school, he actually got an award, a superlative for Desmos for others.
31:28
SPEAKER_03: So our graduating class like awarded him, you know, you vote on people to get superlatives, and he got desmos for others.
31:34
SPEAKER_03: So he was known in high school as the mayor of DY.
31:38
SPEAKER_03: DY is the high school we went to.
31:40
SPEAKER_03: Um so everybody loved him.
31:42
SPEAKER_03: He was friends with like every type of person in high school, nice to everybody, you know, didn't matter if someone was popular or not, someone was good at sports or if somebody was nerdy.
31:55
SPEAKER_03: He was friends with everybody, all the teachers loved him.
31:58
SPEAKER_03: So he really brought together a community uh when he died because we just had everyone from high school there to support him, support the military, support each other.
32:10
SPEAKER_03: It was hard for any 21-year-old to go through, but like my community, and especially of all of us 21-year-olds, like we're going through it together.
32:19
SPEAKER_03: You know, 20 and 21.
32:20
SPEAKER_03: Like he was three months into being a 21-year-old, so we were young.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Very, very young.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Do you think then before this podcast, we were talking about your current business, Rosemonts Cafe, and how you consider it to be a gathering place.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Or it's not that you can just consider it to be so, it's something you have intentionally tried to create is a place of community and a place for the local community to gather and enjoy themselves.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Places a place where they want to pu pop their heads in, even if they're not getting a coffee, just because they're walking by which also I would say draws a parallel to who you are in La Jolla right now, is it feels like you're so connected because of the way that you connect with other people or the way you socialize with other people, the community that you built at Rosemont's.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Community clearly is a important thing for you, but really it seems like it's something that you find yourself intentionally trying to create.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that part of your emphasis on connection with the local community and with the people around you is or was affected by this friend of yours?
33:35
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
33:36
SPEAKER_02: It's so long ago now.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: Not so much the community I'm in now.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: I just meant your emphasis on create or believing that community is important, not necessarily this geographic one here.
33:55
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how to answer that.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: That's completely valid.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Then I guess following up on that question, uh looking at Rosemonts, why is it that you find it important to build a place that people feel so comfortable coming into besides the financial benefit of people wanting to come?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I get like told all the time like how happy people are that I'm open.
34:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:31
SPEAKER_03: So it definitely keeps me going.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, there's a seven-year-old that comes in all the time who literally writes about Rosemont's Cafe in school and in class.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, we have an autistic customer who the whole neighborhood has gotten to know so well because he's in every single day, usually twice a day, but he never, ever, ever, ever misses one day ever.
34:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, he has told me how much Rosemont's means to him, and he's very anxious if it were to shut down someday, and he is constantly bringing up the connections he's made through the cafe.
35:12
SPEAKER_03: So you have, you know, seven-year-olds to people with disabilities, to families, high school kids, people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, like every type of person, age, demographic, like everybody is just so happy that Rosemonds is there.
35:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's what I forget now your question, but uh that's sort of what why does that bring you joy?
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Because you're smiling when you say out.
35:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because well, people love it.
35:39
SPEAKER_03: And I made it.
35:40
SPEAKER_03: So it's because of me.
35:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: In my team, my team's awesome.
35:46
SPEAKER_03: So in the neighborhood's awesome, just people, maybe because they've not traveled, you know, they people don't know how to connect with other people now.
35:54
SPEAKER_03: When I'm in another country and I don't have a phone or internet and I don't know where to go and buy food or I can't speak the language, it's not hard for me to approach somebody and make friends with someone and try to talk to somebody.
36:07
SPEAKER_03: Like I know how to talk to people uh because I've had to do that all traveling.
36:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think a lot of other people don't know how to do that, but they can come into a coffee shop and they'll see the same face, they'll recognize the same face a few times a week and then more throughout the month, and then you know, my whole team, we have so many regulators, we know everyone, we can say, like, hey Flint, have you met Bram?
36:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, Bram, have you met Joe?
36:29
SPEAKER_03: Joe just moved to the neighborhood.
36:31
SPEAKER_03: Have you guys met Wesley?
36:32
SPEAKER_03: You're not gonna forget Wesley, like.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: Is that then what you use to are these stories and these connections that are being created and that you're creating what you use to motivate yourself to keep going when you are facing long days or long weeks or long months trying to build this small business?
36:56
SPEAKER_00: That'll hopefully be a large business business.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I love the customers.
36:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, they make me so happy too.
37:01
SPEAKER_03: Like this morning I was in and already laughing, and it's like 7:45 in the morning because of uh just a customer that got us all laughing, the whole cafe laughing.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:12
SPEAKER_03: Um, so it's definitely what is like motivating to see the same faces.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: And if I've had long days, like I have customers come and give me a protein bar, or um, you know, be like, have you eaten yet?
37:25
SPEAKER_03: What can I help you with?
37:26
SPEAKER_03: I've had customers, you know, regulars, I should say, come in the back and just take out the trash for me because they can tell I've had a long day and I'm busy and it's messy back there.
37:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, taking the sign from me, just help me with things because they want me to be there.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: So it's definitely what keeps me going, knowing that everyone else wants it.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: What else do you because you have a level of tenacity that a lot of people probably aspire to, if I'm being honest.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: What's tenacity mean?
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Tenacity is a like level of, I wouldn't say aggression, but a passionate desire to overcome obstacles.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: And so I would say that in your travels and in your entrepreneurship, you faced uh uh uh quite a few hurdles, whether they were financial hurdles or hurdles of isolation while you were traveling, or um maybe emotional or more existential hurdles of what do I do next?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Why do I start a business?
38:30
SPEAKER_00: Should I start a business, etc.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: During these times when you're experiencing lows, maybe not lows, but more uh battles with inertia, like how do I keep going or how do I get started on something new, besides the clear satisfaction or fulfillment you get from the community that is being created?
38:53
SPEAKER_00: How do you yourself keep yourself going in the low moments?
38:56
SPEAKER_00: How do you stay tenacious?
38:58
SPEAKER_00: How do you stay kind of passionate about what you're doing?
39:01
SPEAKER_03: Well, I owe a lot of money to I actually just paid a friend back um on Monday.
39:10
SPEAKER_03: He let me borrow So your answer is debt.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
39:14
SPEAKER_03: Five grand.
39:16
SPEAKER_03: Um my friend Nick, who was my boss when I worked in Las Vegas as a club promoter.
39:22
SPEAKER_03: He was also in Australia, but years before me, so I didn't know him in Australia, but did the same job.
39:27
SPEAKER_03: I opened a nightclub branch of his company with him, just me and him in Miami.
39:34
SPEAKER_03: Uh this friend Nick is very entrepreneurial.
39:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, but he let me borrow money a year ago and I just paid him back yesterday.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: Totally, completely, the last thousand dollars.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, um it's the debt that keeps me going.
39:49
SPEAKER_03: I don't have an option.
39:50
SPEAKER_03: So I want to be out of debt, I don't want to owe people money.
39:53
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then once I've paid everyone back, then I'll be traveling probably again.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Really?
39:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: So that is the end goal, is to get back to the lifestyle style you were in.
40:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like leave for like a month or more and be abroad and then come back and see all these familiar faces and friends and acquaintances and neighbors and regulars, um, and then go away.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because quite a bit of this conversation I've felt that community was or a sense of connection was one of the internal drivers for you.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: And I do believe that that's true.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: But what comes back more consistently is actually the desire to explore.
40:37
SPEAKER_03: Explore.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Like your uh passion to explore new places in the world or new experiences, meet new people seems to be one of the central driving forces for you to push forward and try to create financial success or overcome hurdles as you want to establish a sense of maybe freedom in your life.
41:01
SPEAKER_03: What was that word you just used that I asked him and again?
41:03
SPEAKER_03: Tenacious.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Tenacious.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Tenacity.
41:06
SPEAKER_03: Tenacity.
41:07
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so that I like that description, but I have thought that for some reason I just like to put more stress on myself, and I just only know how to live in this state of stress ever since I was a kid.
41:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, that's was when I was really young with my good grades and all the sports I played and clubs I did and extracurricular activities to then traveling to all these places, to then starting businesses with financial stress and exploring.
41:36
SPEAKER_03: It's just what else can I add on to my plate?
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Type of funny enough, I would actually consider this is a bit of a generalization, but I would consider that to be a very American thing.
41:49
SPEAKER_03: Is especially East Coast.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: I go to the Bay Area and you'll say it's the West Coast too.
41:56
SPEAKER_03: Or yeah, spend some time in Boston.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: What I find amusing there, or a bit ironic, maybe not ironic, but you've spent a decent amount of time searching for other cultures, kind of getting away from American tourists, quote unquote, and maybe American culture, and yet I would say one of the central, almost toxic tenets of American cultures to overwork yourself or to create extreme levels of stress, uh and I say you, I mean us, not you necessarily, um, but out of a desire for some sort of kind of ethereal success or goal.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Um so it's like you've uh escaped parts of our culture, but they still dramatically affect you.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
43:01
SPEAKER_03: For sure.
43:01
SPEAKER_03: That is true.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean it affects us all.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: Um and it is a it's a double-edged sword, right?
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Is that building a business in America is one of the better places in the world.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Not not necessarily always the best, but one of the better places in the world to do that.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: But it comes with the the negative side of this sword, which is the level of stress that is put onto entrepreneurs, um, not just financially or like from a practical standpoint, but also from like an existential existential standpoint of what it means to be successful in America is very different from what it means to be successful in other countries.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: Um so then where are you gonna travel when you go when you're when you're free again, when you've created financial success with Rosemonts?
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Malta.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: That's fun.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: What would you What do you say then for the people who don't understand your passion for travel?
44:07
SPEAKER_00: Like who who listen to you and say this is all fine and wonderful, but I like my they just don't know better.
44:17
SPEAKER_03: They don't know better.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
44:19
SPEAKER_03: They've not done they've not done trips like, you know, maybe they go to Tulume and they think they're traveling.
44:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:26
SPEAKER_03: You know, I I heard about Tulum twelve years ago.
44:29
SPEAKER_03: It was a really cool spot to go 12 years ago.
44:32
SPEAKER_03: Now people think it's cool because they've heard of it.
44:33
SPEAKER_03: They see it on Instagram, but imagine 12 years ago what it was like.
44:37
SPEAKER_03: Just like Bali.
44:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, even when I went to Bali so many years ago, that had already been cool for 10 years to Australians.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
44:47
SPEAKER_03: So people that, you know, they just don't get it, which is totally okay.
44:51
SPEAKER_03: I feel a little bit sorry for them.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, it's okay.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and that is I think that can be similar in a lot of different areas of life, is until you've experienced something, you don't don't necessarily know what the you don't know the way it can dramatically alter your perspective.
45:12
SPEAKER_03: And what you're missing out on.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:14
SPEAKER_03: But some might think that people who have families and kids and stuff that I don't have, they might think I'm missing out.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: I think you're extremely correct in that statement.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: It's we always look at people on I think it's an inherent human bias to look at people from the perspective of what you have versus what they have, right?
45:37
SPEAKER_00: We compare ourselves all the time.
45:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that is especially an American thing.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: It's a very individualistic culture, but we have a tendency to maybe say, I have X, and I don't think you know I don't think you can stand in my shoes because you don't have X, right?
45:54
SPEAKER_00: You haven't done this, you haven't done that.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: But then it's funny enough, right?
45:58
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be looking at you the exact same way with whatever perspective they have.
46:01
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
46:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I love this neighborhood that we both live in.
46:05
SPEAKER_03: I love the walkability.
46:07
SPEAKER_03: I have s no interest at all in getting a car.
46:11
SPEAKER_03: I don't want a car.
46:12
SPEAKER_03: Even if I had all the money in the world, I like, you know, this morning I walked at 5 a.m.
46:16
SPEAKER_03: to the gym, went to the grocery store.
46:19
SPEAKER_03: Like, I like walking everywhere, I like being outside, I like the calmness of that, how peaceful it is.
46:26
SPEAKER_03: I know that there's a lot of people that want to save their money for a big house in another car, in a two-car garage, in an at-home gym in their house, in a big yard, and that I have zero interest in.
46:41
SPEAKER_03: Like I would rather live in my 400 square foot little cottage where I can hear the ocean waves crashing in this neighborhood and be able to walk everywhere and not leave this bubble.
46:52
SPEAKER_03: But then when I do leave the bubble, go into a much bigger, faraway bubble.
47:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I like my life and I don't want anyone else's.
47:05
SPEAKER_03: More money would be nice if Rosemonts is bringing it in.
47:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: To finish this conversation, what is one lesson you would take away from this conversation that we've had that you would want a listener to go away with?
47:21
SPEAKER_00: One thing that you feel like is important about what you've talked about?
47:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think people need to do things that seem scary.
47:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah whether it's traveling or starting a business or whatever it might be to them, it's you just gotta start it.
47:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then you'll get through it.
47:43
SPEAKER_03: And if you if the outcome of that isn't what you hoped or wanted to be at first, you'll realize that whatever you learn from it, you you've gained more out of the just trying.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming on.