Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Almost Famous In Depth with Connor Saeli

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Almost Famous In Depth with Connor Saeli · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This is Ben and actually I almost famous in depth.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. This is an in depth episode.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: If you've never heard an in depth before. This is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: something Actuley and I started a few years ago, taking
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: fan favorites, people that were intrigued by and just digging
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: into their life. The Bachelor obviously come up because it's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a part of your life, but we really want to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: learn about you. So thanks for doing this with us.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, thank you all for having me. I love
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it because I think, you know, you see these people
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: from the show on on TV, and you only know
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: so much from the little snippets that you see, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I think there is a lot kind of behind the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: scenes that you don't really get to know about um
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: various contestants. So I think it's cool to kind of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: be able to talk more to that. Thank you. That
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: was the whole point of the content. Yeah, I love it.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I love it. Could you imagine if we did an
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in depth episode with everybody, every contestant before the show started? Man,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: we should and ABC should pay for us to do that.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: That'd be awesome. That'd be really good. Um, it's why
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: they did well. Hey, Connor, let's kick it off with
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this tell us about your childhood. We're both from the Midwest,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: pretty close to each other. You're from Michigan and from Indiana.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: What kind of childhood you have, Yeah, good old midwesterners. Um. Yeah,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: so from Birmingham, Michigan. Initially. UM, I was the youngest
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of four kids. So I feel like I always, um
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: kind of like looked up to my siblings, And I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: think that's part of the reason I'm a bit quieter
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and more reserved of a person, just because I feel
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: like I looked up to my siblings and they would
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: not necessarily speak for me when I was younger, but
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: would kind of just like follow their lead, UM versus
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: be like the crazy sibling. So I think that kind
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of contributed a lot to like who I am now. UM.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And I think, you know, all my siblings like did
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: very different things throughout their lives, and I'm kind of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: like a mesh of all of them, which I think
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is it's really cool. But UM had amazing parents. They've
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: been married for almost forty years now, UM, so they
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: were a great influence on me, and UM, you know
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: kind of like what I'm looking for in a relationship
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and a partner. UM, So you know, really just like
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: a great, great family, a lot of fun growing up
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in Michigan, but it was pretty pretty cold and chili
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: up there, because I'm sure you know from being from Indiana,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: and that's why I ended up moving down to Texas.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: When did you move down to Texas? Um? So, I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: went to SMU for college, So just whenever I went
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to to college eighteen and then ended up working in
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Dallas for a couple of years after and then um,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I found myself on The Bachelor. A former Warsaw High
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: School Tiger played basketball at SMU probably the same time
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you were there, Nick Moore, he's in a legend. Oh yeah,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: yeah he was. He was a point guard, right, he
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: was the point guard. Yeah, all conference. He played high
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: school basketball, same place. Yeah, that that was a pretty
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: exciting time at SMU because Larry Brown was the coach
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and um the program got really really good and it
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: got to the point where you had to camp out
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: for tickets and stuff, which it was like a cool
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: environment to be around around campus. So that was that
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: was a really neat time. You had a couple of proms.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Speaking of sports, you were a college swimmer. Yeah, so
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I swim in high school. Um, my brother swim in
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: college at Duke, and like swimming was always a big
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: part of our family growing up. Basically started swimming I
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: was three years old, and when I went to college
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: it was kind of over it, just because swimming is
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: such a demanding sport and why do they make you
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: wake up so early for something. I still laugh myself
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that today, but it's just like, well, fortunately, in high
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: school are high school is one of the only schools,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I want to say, in the country. We did not
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: have morning practices, so we would just have one three
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: hour practice at night. At my school, they were swimmers,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: they had to be at the pool, like at the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: pool at five am. Yeah, it's it's ridiculous. I don't
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: as like, as a high school student, I don't know
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: how one even could do that. No, that just sounds miserable.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I was sleeping all the time because I was growing
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in high school, so you're just tired, and so like,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: what did you go to bed at eight o'clock? Which
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not against now, but in high school, I'm not
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: trying to go to bed at eight o'clock. I know,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I don't even know how you'll be able to function
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: throughout the day in school, let alone, Like, I can't
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: even imagine swimming laps at five am. It would just
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: be like I'd just be like a robot. So did
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you end up swimming in college? Yeah? So, so when
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I graduated high school or I guess when. When I
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: was looking at colleges, I had been talking to some
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: schools about swimming there, but ultimately I just like didn't.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: It was kind of over it, um because it's just
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: like such a demanding sport and it had been part
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: of my life for eighteen years basically. Um. But when
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I did get to college, I had made friends with
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: some of the swimmers and I just really missed it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And I think what I missed more was the competition
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: versus the actual sport. And I still love the sport
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: of watching it and everything, but I like I just
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: missed like competing with people. And I ended up. Um.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I talked to the coach and he was like, yeah, come,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: you know, come like try it out if if it
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: works out, like, we'd love to have you on the team.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Try it out for a little bit. And they ended
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: up having me on the team and I did it
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: for like a year and a half, um, And it
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: was a Division one team. So it was a really good,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: good swimming school to be a part of UM. But I,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I kind of just had that realization of like, Okay,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I think I just like the competition more than the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: actual sport. Let me see if I can take that
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: competitive side of myself and put it towards something else,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: like a you know, like a job or whatever. That was. Yeah, well,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about your jobs here coming up intil
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: a second, because you have an impressive resume if this
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: was an interview for a job, but you also up
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to some new projects now. But let's kind of frame
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: this season of your life then up until college. Talk
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: about you in relationships? Were you, uh, did you date
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a lot? Did you have a long term girlfriend or
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you know, were you just focused on the sports and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: kind of the social life. Yeah? No. In high school,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I was like the hopeless romantic guy for sure. Loved relationships,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: loved dating UM, loved like Nicholas Sparks movies and all
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: that stuff, like the I really believe in like the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: fairy tale, you know, And I think a part of that.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: And I will say my sister was a big Bachelor
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: fan growing up, and she's four years older than me,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and um, she would always watch it, and I feel
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: like the show used to be more of like a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: fairy tale type situation, Like I don't know, to me
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: when I would watch it with her, I actually really
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: believed it. Um not that it's fake or anything. Maybe
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but um like I remember watching year
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: season then and I was like, Wow, you know this,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it's like a cool dude, you know, finding like a woman.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: This is amazing, and um like I just like really
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: believed it. And I feel like that kind of contributed,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: just like the whole fairy tale thing that I was
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: looking for. He used to play cheesy, soft rock songs
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: during the proposal and then they would like end with
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: this amazing montage that was like so Disney. It was
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: more romantic. The show changed. We've talked about it. The
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: show has changed. I mean I could even look back
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: on my time there and there was nothing about that
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: experience that was not very real for me. I mean,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I'll see you today and say, like, there's nothing about
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: that that I mean, even if you know, since it
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: didn't work out, but like the growth from it, the experiences,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: like the tears within it, the emotions within it, it
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: was very real for me. I wonder if somebody today
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: would say the same thing. I don't know, Yeah, I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: don't know. And it's funny. Um there's actually a moment
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: in the episode of this past week when I was
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: watching it, whatever music they played with like the girls
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: walking into the nighttime part of the date, I was like,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: is this is this love Island? I don't know if
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: you know what part I'm talking about, but I like,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I literally said that because it just looked like that,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and um, I don't know, I feel like it has
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: changed it. But yeah, And in high school, I was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: always just like very kind of the hopeless, romantic, fairytale
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: type guy had to like longer term girlfriends or over
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a year. And um, one one went into when I
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: was in college, so it was my senior year of
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: high school and then into college, and then the other
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: one was my whole junior year of high school. So
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and honestly, it's it's interesting because those were the last
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: two relationships I had and then didn't date anyone the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: rest of college, so sophomore year through senior year, and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: then didn't date anyone for two years after college, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: then I went on the Bachelorette. So it was just
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: like an interesting time. I feel like after those relationships,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I kind of just had like maybe an idea of
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: what I was looking for, like that feeling that I
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: was looking for with someone, and I just never really
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: found it. Did you do you feel like you you
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: manifested then this bachelorette experience, Like was this something coming
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: out of college and being single that you thought because
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: of your you know, your time watching it, your respect
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: for the show, that you were like, I want to
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: do this. Uh no, no, no, I definitely didn't like
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: work worker towards being on the Bachelor. But um, I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: think that kind of just happened from like the point
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I was at in my life and you know, I
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: was I was like twenty four at the time, single. Um,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I was like trying to do some cool
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: stuff and I I felt like the thing that was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: always missing for me was just someone to do that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: stuff with and just like that that other person in
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: your life and I had never really found that. And obviously,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: like going the Batch was a bit, you know, not
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: thinking that like a bit of an extreme situation to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: go to to to have to find somebody. Um, although
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: it does work, out for for a lot of people
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: like you actually, but um, I just thought it was
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: like a really cool opportunity. And it's funny because there's, uh,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: you know, I used to watch the show when I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: was younger in high school with my sister she went
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: to college, and then I would watch it with this
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: group of friends that I had at home, and when
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: we were younger, it was always a joke because I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: was that like fairy tale you know person, and they
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: all knew that, like I loved, loved that stuff. And
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: they're like, Connor, when you're you know, like and single,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: like we're gonna like, we're gonna nominate you to be
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: on the show. And um, I remember I was, you know,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: like finally twenty four. In the group chat I have
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: with my friends, they were like, all right, you know,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: like I think this is this is the year for you, Connor,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and they actually sent him like a nomination for me,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: and then it kind of led to that. So it's
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: just funny how the whole thing kind of came full
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: circle from you know, being younger to actually finding myself
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: on it. That's awesome. I feel like our stories are
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: very similar since I was also that like dreamy romantic
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and we always joked about it too, and it was like, well,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I guess this is the time. We're just gonna go
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: for it. What happens. But meanwhile, you were working at
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Goldman Sacks and listen, I don't know a lot about
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: finance and stuff, but I know when you dropped the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: name Goldman Sacks and it means like you're doing something right.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So what was your job before the show? So I
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: was there's kind of like a secretive group within Goldman
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: called the Special Situations Group. And so obviously you have
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: like investment banking, that's the one a lot of people know, um,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: but with in the firm or even a little deeper,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: it's the Special Situations Group, and we would actually invest
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Goldman's money into essentially like startups and middle market companies. UM.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: So it was like a really cool group to be in.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And they have an office in Dallas and New York,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and you know, the office in New York is just
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: full of like Harvard M. I. T. Pen, like all
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: these incredibly smart people. And then they have this little
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Dallas office which does the same exact thing, part of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: that same group. UM. But it's all like S M
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: U U T TCU. So it was like such a
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: unique and cool opportunity to essentially be in like one
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of the better groups within the firm at Goldman Um
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and just be surrounded by like all these cool people
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: from Harvard to m I T and then like you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: have a little Dallas outpost of all the s m
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: U TCU people. Uh So it's a really really unique
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and cool spot to be. I think the thing for
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: me is I had always like grown up and gone
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: through college thinking that I really wanted to do finance
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and my dad used to do finance. My oldest brother
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: he does a lot of stuff with investing in finance.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: My other brother did a lot of stuff within finance,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and so going through college, I was like, this is
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: this is what I need to do, like to be successful.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And that was like really heavily pushed to SMU, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: finally when I got there, got into the job, I
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: think it was maybe threte months into the job, I
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: was like, I I hate this. This is like the worst,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: this is like the worst thing ever. And I don't
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: know what it was or like what specifically it was
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: with the job. I think I just really didn't enjoy
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: it and it was really frustrating. And I think a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: lot of people go through this when they graduate colleges.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: You go into this career and you're super excited to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: get there. You finally get there and it's not all
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: what you thought it was gonna be. And it takes
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of like soul searching, or at least it
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: did for me to figure out, Okay, what what do
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I really want to do? You know? Um, I basically
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: spent four years of my life trying to work towards
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: this career, and now it's not what I want to do,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Like how can I pivot and really get into something
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I want to do here? And that kind of started
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: like the more entrepreneurial journey for me. Um, I just
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: reached the point within the job where I got so
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: frustrated and waking up every day it was just in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a way like miserable. I was just so unmotivated to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: go to work and and do that job. And it
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't because of the people or anything. There were great
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: people that worked. There was just that I wasn't excited
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: about it. And um, I ended up meeting some great
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: people in my life that kind of like mentored me
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and helped lead me in the right path of like
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: inspiring me, I guess with stuff that they had done
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: within starting a business and and all that, and it
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: really just inspired me to kind of take action myself
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and like fully just just go for it. And it's
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: funny because all this stuff kind of happened around the
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: same time. Like, I uh, when I realized I wanted
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to leave Goldman, I didn't know what I wanted to do.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I just knew that like I wanted to maybe start
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a business, didn't know what it was, but had the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: right people around me in order to make that happen.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And the week after I quit is when I got
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: a call from The Bachelor, um asking, you know, saying
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that I had been nominated, asking me if I wanted
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to kind of like go through that process. And so
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it was just like really bizarre how all these different
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: pieces started to fall into place in my life. And
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I think, to me, it was kind of like the
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: second I started to almost take action, um and instead
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of like living a passive life is when things started
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to actually like happen for me. So it was kind
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: of a cool, cool thing that happened for me. It
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: was it was it was the question I was gonna
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: ask me, I worked in finance after I was the bachelor.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: So I was. I worked in finance for three years
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the bachelor. That happened because sabbatical, came back, worked for
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: another year after I was the bachelor, and then to
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: pursue some stuff that I was dreaming of doing. Um,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and my job would not even be on a scale
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: of wonder, It wouldn't be rated compared to having a
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: job at Golden Sacks. I in fact probably serviced a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: lot of what you tried to do. So I was
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: like the guy in the back end, helping you as
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: best I could. Um. But I was nervous to leave
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that job. So I was gonna ask you, were you
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: nervous to leave this job to go onto a reality show?
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: But I mean it was already set up for you,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Like it was already kind of like the doors are
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: wide open. It sounds like, yeah, Well, I mean I
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: think for anyone leaving a job, it's incredibly nerve racking
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and honestly terrifying to do it just because you're stepping
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: out of this comfortable situation where you're making a paycheck.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: UM two totally unknown and UM, at that point in
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: my life, I just you know, and I hadn't even
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: heard of going on the batch or at that point
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: too that that kind of happened later on, So it
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: was really really like an unknown situation. I think it
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: was more so like Okay, do I care more about
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: my happiness or collecting this paycheck and saying I work
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: at Goldman sacks every week, and I think I just
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: reached I reached that point. I was like, you know,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm a human. I think humans have a great
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: way of when your back is against the wall, you
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: figure out a way to make it happen and like
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: get stuff done. And I felt like I was just
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: too comfortable in my life working at Goldman, getting that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: paycheck every week. You know, things were like, on the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: surface going really well for me, and if if someone
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: looked at my LinkedIn or my Instagram, they're like, wow,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: you know, this guy's living the life right, But in reality,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: deep down, it just wasn't there for me. And I
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: felt I felt like I needed to put myself in
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: a very uncomfortable situation in order to grow um and
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to me, the only way to actually do that was
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the quit um, go do a little bit of soul search,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: figure out what that business was that I wanted to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: start or what I wanted to do. Maybe I wanted
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to work somewhere else, But I needed to like remove
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: myself from that environment where I knew I wasn't happy,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking clearly, I wasn't thinking straight. Just remove
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: myself from that so I could get more clarity. I guess,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I'm what do I really want to do with my life?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Do you ever regret it? Though? I mean, looking back now, Connor,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: obviously it's a huge risk. Obviously you gave up a
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: stable income. You're a few years removed. Now people are listening.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's somebody listening, going, yeah, you know, I'm
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: thinking about leaving my job. I'm not happy, I'm not fulfilled,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: but I'm scared. Uh what's been in your emotions wrapped
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: around it since then? Yeah? I I mean at this point,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I definitely don't regret it. I mean, I'm I'm super
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: happy right now. Things are really going well. But there
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: were moments where, you know, especially during COVID, I think
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that was a tough time for everyone when that first started. Um,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: where it's like what am I doing? You know, like
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the like this really good job? Um, I had other
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: like job opportunities to within the finance space from different
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: firms that you're trying to like poach people away. And
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I left all of that too, essentially like start a business,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: which I did, but like because of COVID and everything,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it wasn't going that well. Um to like go on
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: this TV show. Ultimately it was you know, that was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: definitely a big soul searching time for me too. But
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I think looking back on it, the only thing I
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: would change is I think when I was working at Goldman,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I think I would have been more thoughtful in trying
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to think through what I wanted to do next. And
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to me, the way to do that is just networking
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: with people, um and trying different stuff. And I used
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to love doing that in college. I did a really
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: good job at that. I think that's largely the reason
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: I ended up working at Goldman to begin with, just
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: from like the people I met and talked to and
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: just being good at the networking process. But um, I
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: seem to like stop doing that when I got to
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the job, and I think it just leads back to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the comfortability standpoint, and I wish I just would have
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: put myself in more uncomfortable situations, trying to meet other people,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: learn what they're doing, um, and see like what am
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I really interested in? What do I want to do?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: And I think once I did make the leap to quit,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I would have maybe had better clarity on what I
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: wanted to do next. I think ultimately, because I didn't
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: do that, it maybe took a little bit longer for
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: me to end up there. Uh, it took a couple
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: of years or a few years, but I would say now,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: at least in my life, I'm I'm super happy and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: thankful I made that decision. Let's talk about the Bachelorette
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and how you responded to that process. Did you feel like,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: how would you get out of it? Um, that's that's
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a great question. I feel like, you know I was.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: I'm the kind of person I take a long time
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to warm up two people and be comfortable like talking
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to them and living with them. So the first couple
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: of weeks in the mansion were like super uncomfortable for me,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: just like around all these new dudes. Um, I don't know,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it was just like a weird environment. And um, it
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: wasn't until we got to Rhode Island and we had
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: this like rugby group date where that was when Luke
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: p was kind of turning into like the villain of
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: our season and I was just like this little quiet
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: guy the whole time. And then when we were going
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: out on the field before the game started, we like
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: huddled up in the middle and I gave like our
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: team to pump up speech and no one expected. I
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: remember Mike and Dylan were looking at me just like
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: eyes wide open, there what is going on? And I
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, let's like kill this guy. Like
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I was like camped up, ready to go.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And that to me, that was like the whole change
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: of the season and the experience for me, and I
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: just actually felt like I was able to get to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: know people better and make friends and actually enjoy it um.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But I think one of the big things for me
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that I learned and it's frustrating being a contestant because
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of times, like the time you spend with
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the lead isn't really in your control. But I think
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: what it made me realize is like when you do
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you have that time or those moments, like you really
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: have to make the most of them. And I felt
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: like a lot of time in my life I was
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: just living very passively kind of just like letting things happen.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't until right before the show where I
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: had like maybe taken back a little bit of control
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: in my life. And so I think it kind of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: just reiterated to me, is like, Okay, you know, if
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: you want to make things happen in your life, you
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: gotta go like go do it, you know, Like and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I there's moments on the show where I wish I
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: had maybe done that more. Um, But I think that
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: kind of reiterated to me of like I need to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: actually follow through and do that stuff, and then when
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I do have those moments to make stuff happen, to
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: like really make the most of that. That was that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: was probably the biggest takeaway from me, and I feel
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: like since then, I've really tried to take that to heart.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Are you glad you did it? Then? I mean, looking
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: back now we're just talking Bachelorrette, We're gonna talk Bachelor
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and Paradeston just a second. But are you glad you
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: did the Bachelorette? Yeah? I mean it was such a
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: cool experience. I am so thankful for the whole thing
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and like everything that came from it. Um, I would
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: say it's interesting, like obviously a lot of cool opportunities
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: come from from the whole show and everything, but like
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: people have asked me and we'll talk about it in
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but the business I'm doing now, I
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: think I would still be doing that whether the show
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: happened or not, taking me longer to get there, But
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: really being on the show hasn't necessarily impacted how successful
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: that's better or anything. It's it's just all been through
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: other means. So I think it's kind of cool, Like
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: obviously very thankful for everything from the show, but still,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I would like to think I'm the same
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: person I was before as I am after. That makes sense?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Does that? Does I mean? With Generous? You know, I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: started it four years ago after my time on the show,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and I mean it's it's a great launching point for
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a business. But today, you know, the people that have
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: heard about Generous through my social or whatever have already
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: heard about it, and so you know, i'd like to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I've asked myself that question, would I'd be doing this
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: without the show? So part of me and says no,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the show definitely give to me the the platform to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: do it. Um, but I would like to hope I
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: would have tried. And so we're gonna talk about your
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: business in just a second. Um let's take a break here,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: we come back, we're gonna talk about Bachelor in Paradise
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and what Connor is doing today. I just want to
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: go off of what you're saying about, like kind of
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: like finding your groove on the Bachelor at for a second,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: did you find that you grew it all or like
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: gained confidence, like any personality traits that you think came
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: through through the process. I think definitely gained confidence. And
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I feel like, I mean you all can probably speak
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: to that too, especially like coming off the show and
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: starting to watch it on TV. I think, you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: just like hearing all the love and everything people are
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: giving you, Um, it definitely like boost your confidence. And
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: so I mean, I know we'll talk about Paradise in
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the second, but I feel like going from the Bachelorette
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to Paradise, remember going into Paradise just like super confident.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I felt. Honestly, I felt like I was on top
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: of the world. But um, I would say confidence was
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: definitely something I gained, and I think that was maybe
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: something that was lacking for me before the show. Just
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: because I hadn't found you know, that person for me,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not the most like the biggest party or anything,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and so I wasn't like going out that much, um
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the years leading up to being on the show, So
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: it was really hard to like meet people, I guess, um,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and so hadn't been in a ton of dates or anything.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously a few here there, but um, like
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: just confidence is definitely a big, big one that changed
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: for men. I can totally reliate to everything you just
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: said there. Did you know this? Actually? With that, Connor
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and I have a little bit of a big night together,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: do you know this? Ah? So Jessica and I go
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: down to Bachelor in Paradise the year that Connor is
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: going to be down there. If you remember, right from
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Connor's time on The Bachelor as a fan of his,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I thought he was probably gonna be chosen. And uh,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Connor is in line walking into the wedding of Chris
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and Crystal right behind Jessica. This is Jessica's very first
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: time around TV stuff, so she's freaking out. I mean,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the girl is just a mess um and she still
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: would be if we did it again. But Connor standing
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: right behind us since we're making small talk, and I
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: was like, Oh, how's the show going for you? He's like,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: it's uh, well, it's not going. It was like, what
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: do you mean. He's like, I've been quarantined kind of
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: what is it ten days at that point? Yeah? Man,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: that was miserable quarantine for ten days. Yeah, what the
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: worst part about that is? And I guess Ben, you
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: you didn't go to Paradise, but Ashley, no, you just
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: you go to that hotel beforehand. And I flew in there,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I think the day after filming and started, and I
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I feel like I was told maybe that I was
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: going to go in like a day or two later.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: She would have made sense for you to be part
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: of the original cast. And just to clarify, guys, we're
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: not talking COVID quarantine. We're talking bachelor quarantine to keep
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you in the room for a couple of days. Yeah,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And so I was like amped up, ready to go,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: fired up for this whole thing. And then the producers
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: came in my room like a few days later, and
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: they're like, hey, just so you know, some things like
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: changed down on the beach, um, and we don't want
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to send you in yet. So you're gonna mean this
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: room for another week and there's a special a week. Yeah.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: So in total, I was stuck in this room for
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: ten days. Um and uh, I mean honestly, I feel
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: like I reached a bit of a groove towards the
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: end of the ten days, like just had a routine down,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you know, wake up. The sun would hit the balcony.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: This is what time out. This is exactly what I
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: was gonna say. I still remember the exact words you
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: told Jessica and I because jess at this point is
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: so confusius, like you're kidding me. They have you in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: a room for ten days, and you go, you go,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it's not that bad. At two pm the sun reaches
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: over the other hotel and yeah, and she's like this
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: is ridiculous. Yeah, it was like one or two pm
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the sun would reach over the other like the I guess,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the top of the building, and then I could get
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: I could get sun for like four hours, and so
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: I just go like laying the balcony is close to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the edge as possible so I could hit it, and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: then uh, I'd wake up, order room service. I mean
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: I probably wrapped the room services unlimited guys and they
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: let you get drinks and stuff. I mean, I had
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: some real introspective moments locked in that hotel room for
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: five straight days. Like I like, I was just so
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: in my head. I was talk about just getting to
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: know yourself. That's what happens well for sure, and I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: will say, Okay, So I did try and go. They
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: told me that because I was there for so long,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: they let me like do some stuff they don't normally
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: let people do, to go to the pool a little bit.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: So they took me to the pool one day, two days.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: They took me to the spa a couple of days,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: which is like the other thing. They were like, oh,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: you know, do you want to go golfing? I was like,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'd love to go golfing. And I ended
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: up not being allowed to go golfing because, um, Chris
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: was golfing like the whole time. I guess they didn't
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: want Chris to see me, so I couldn't go golfing
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: because of that. So you just mentioned this, Connor uh
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And we have a couple more minutes left with you here.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: But you said they told you, hey, there's gonna be
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the special event, and what do they what do they
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: mean by that. So ultimately they meant that it was
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: going to be Chris and Crystal's wedding that I was
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be walking in at. And at the time, I
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: had no clue what they were talking about. I didn't
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: know there was a wedding plan or anything. So I,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: you know, for a week, I was just kind of
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: sitting in the dark having no clue. But um, the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: wedding ended up being the kind of the event that
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: we walked in at. And I walked in with Chase
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: McNary and then I'm blanking on his name. He's uh
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: he was on the show a while ago. Brooks. Yeah,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the three of us walked in and um, that's when Matt,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: you Ben and actually were you there? I did meet
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: you that I met you that day. Yeah. My my
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: my moment from that wedding was that I fell off
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a chair. It's the second I got it. I remember that.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: You remember that. It sounds like actually making an entrance. Uh. Well, Connor,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: your time in Paradise maybe was shorter than expected, but
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: still impactful. You became somebody that people love from that,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in fact, so much so that you have a very
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: active TikTok following now. Are you meeting anybody through TikTok? Uh?
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Where did TikTok come from? For you? Tell us about
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: life now a little bit. Yeah, So I don't know.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like you all might be able
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to relate to this, but I feel like Instagram, Uh,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: it's just not like fun for me, you know, I
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: feel like a lot of times and you know, you
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: guys are probably better at posting and everything than I am.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm absolutely terrible, but um, I just like can't.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I don't like taking pictures. I don't like doing any
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: of that, and so when it comes to like posting
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, I can never do it. But TikTok, to me,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it just seems like more of a fun like safe place,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and I feel like I can have fun
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: and be a little silly, to be stupid. And it
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: didn't really start until covid started and I you know, obviously,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: like everyone started dancing on there, and I'm a terrible dancer,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: but I would just like, you know, start doing a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: little bit of dancing to the trends or whatever, and
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I just thought it was funny and uh ended up like,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: you know, doing some cool stuff with it. So it's
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: It's been a lot of fun being on there, and
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I feel like it is more of a kind of
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: a safer, more fun, enjoyable environment for me than Instagram
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: is UM and it's it's led to a lot of
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: cool things with UM, you know, the business that I
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: ended up launching, and we've we've really only been doing
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: stuff on TikTok for that, so UM it's kind of
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: been cool to you know, to be a part of
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: that newer platform. Before we jump into your business, you
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: want to talk about your roommate situation, because we had
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Mike on the podcast. He was telling us the last
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: time he was here that you guys were going to
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: be living together in awesome, but you who told us
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes that you're no longer living together. Um
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: he is living in where he is living, I believe
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: it is Porta Irata. Um. He's he's learning, he's learning
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Spanish down in Mexico. He's gone back to his paradise roots.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: He has his parents is right around the corner. Maybe
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: he's just waiting until the next summer to pop back
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: down there. I don't know. Is this split. Was this
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: a good roommate split? It was it was Mike. Mike
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: was a great roommate. Loved living with him, Um, and
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I would hope you would say the same thing about me.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I will sound more of a messy guy. And Mike's
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: very tidy mentioned that. Yeah, so although we were roommates
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: on the show, so he knew what he was getting
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: into a little bit. Um, but I think he it
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: was really cool living with him because we have a
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: very similar kind of outlook and everything on life and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: business and what we're trying to do. And um, I
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: think we you know, really motivated each other. And before
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: we even like moved in. I remember I drove down
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: to San Antonio to visit him, and the whole weekend
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: we just like wrote goals and everything we wanted to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: achieve we were living together and everything, and it's cool
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: to see, you know, some of those goals came true. Something't.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: But I think we've really like planted some good seeds
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: to have a successful year this year and going forward.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: And you know, obviously, like I'm I'm super thankful to
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: have lived with him, And um, I would hope he
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: would say the same about me. But we we had
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: a great time together and Austin was like a great
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: city to live in, and it's I'm excited to be
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: back living here now. Well, you know you mentioned a
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: little bit ago, you've mentioned it throughout the podcast, a
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: huge part of your life. In fact, you just got
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: back to Austin because you're in l a for a bit.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Tell us about what you're doing now, just give us
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the rundown, the greatest sales pitch you can on your
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: new business and where you hope this goes. Yeah, So,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: m I met my friend Mike back in December, a
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: little bit over a year ago, I think, right, yeah,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the two years gosh, keep keep forgetting. But I met
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: him and he had this idea to create kind of
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: like a hangover hydration products, more of not necessarily for hangovers,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: but just a hydration product, and we, you know, just
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: clicked and started working on this thing. We ended up
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: um manufacturing it in Los Angeles. But before we even
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: manufactured it, we uh just started making some TikTok videos
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: on a business account that had no followers. A couple
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: of them went viral, and um they we decided to
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: do a pre sale for the product before we even
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: had it. We ended up selling out all of our
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: initial inventory and about thirty minutes when we opened the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: pre sale, and so it was just like crazy seeing
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: this thing evolved. And that was in May UM and
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: we didn't get more inventory until August and now we're
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you know, getting into some really big production runs with it.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: But it's just been crazy to kind of see this
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: thing grow. And it's it's always been like such a
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: dream of mine to um start a business and grow
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: it and like really grown into something big and um
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: make a big impact on people. And it's it's honestly
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: just been like surreal being a part of it. UM.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: What's the name of it. It's called water Boy. Water Boy,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: But right now we have a it's a it's more
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of a hangover hydration product. And so a lot of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the hydration products you see in the market have a
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: lot of sugar, UM don't really have that many electrolytes,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and we took a different route, no sugar, more electrolytes
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: than any other products on the market. Ginger and camm
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: meal for stomach nausea athening which relaxes you, and then
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: vitamin B and C and so everyone that's tried it
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: loves it. So far, I will say we've kind of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: refined to taste a little bit, so it tastes a
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: lot better. Um. And then we're launching two more products,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: uh probably within the month. So um. It's been a
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: pretty pretty exciting time for all that and just honestly
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: been really cool to make it happen. I wish I
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: would have had this um when I was throwing up
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: every day. Um, mainly because I felt like liquid ivy
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: was too sweet and plus it didn't have anything like
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the ginger to use the stomach. Yeah. Yeah, And what
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I will say, no knock on liquid ivy or I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: do love liquid ivy. Yeah, yeah, it is a It
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: is a great product and polite to a lot of
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: people take that for hangovers. But I don't think a
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: lot of people realize when you buy liquid ivy, se
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: of what you're buying is sugar, um, And do you
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: really need that for hydration? No you don't. Um. And
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: so we really just packed it with like everything that
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: you need that is essential. And um, it really works.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: It really does a good job. And you know, people
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: have loved it so far. But we'll have to send
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: you something to try out. We have some some good
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: flavors going on, actually big on TikTok also, yeah, you
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: can get some TikTok followers big on TikTok. Now you
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: need to be on TikTok for sure. You gotta you
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: gotta get on TikTok. You. Mike and I had a
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: rule for TikTok dances. It was more so my rule,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: but I think a lot of people spend too much
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: time thinking about like doing a dance and getting it
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: really good before they post it. My rule is one take.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: You watch the video of the dance for one minute,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: one and then you do one take and you post it,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: even if it's terrible and so Mike and I have
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: some pretty bad dances out there. It's my fault, but
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like it it makes it more fun because
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: it's it kind of like makes you laugh at yourself
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a little bit because it's just so bad. I like
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: that that probably works for two single attractive men, like
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a married couple. I don't know if that's too funny
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: or too engaging. I think y'all can do some good
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: stuff on that. We we've got some ideas too. We
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: just feel like we're just like production people or we're like,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: oh my god, it will take us like four hours
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: to do it. TikTok and then we'll we'll argue about
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: it because like some because I'm so bad at acting
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and he's so good and it takes me forever and
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: he could do it one tape. Wonder anyway, that sounds
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: like my nightmare. Well, hey, we got to talk about
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: his love life. We will, we will, but before we do. Here, Connor,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: last time you're on, And if there's a sore subject,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I still think it's worth talking about. You were creating
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: uh some gummies. Um I believe they were apple. They
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: were like vinegar apple cider vinegar gummies. Right, yeah, yeah,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: so we had we had a sleep gummy. And is
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that still going on? Or is that has that been?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: That's that's an interesting one. I actually uh so I
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: was pumped to start that, put so much time and
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: energy into it, and then Covid started and it was like, oh,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: this is the worst time to launch a business. It
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: ended up being like somewhat of a good time, I
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: guess because online products and sales and well and stuff
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: did really well, and so it did start to do well.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I think I just reached the point where I was like,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't really think through this before I started it.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: If I was actually like really interested in doing this,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: kind of just hit it, and um, I it was
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: December of I was like, what do I want to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: do next? And I honestly wasn't sure what that business.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: But it ended up being perfect timing because some people
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: reached out and actually wanted to buy it from me.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: So I ended up selling that business in December. And
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: that's kind of when this whole water boy thing started it.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: And um, you know, I was kind of trying to
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: think of like the next chapter in my life of
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: what I wanted to do, and the hydration stuff was
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: actually the other thing I was considering of starting when
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: I started the gummy Thingum it was just the gummies
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: were easier to make at the time. So um it's
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting how it's come full circle. But yeah,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I wonder I can not take Apple's shot. So those
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: gummies are Yeah, I've tried the goalies. Yeah, yeah, they're
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: not bad. It's not bad. Well, obviously actually has some
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: questions for you about your love life. And then every
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: time we end and in depth actually want to prep you.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Now get your questions together. We're gonna do a rapid
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: fire around. So one more, two more questions here and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: then rapid fire, We'll get you out of here. Connor, perfect,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, there are rumors that you're dating someone
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: named Jenna Palack. She has um a pretty good social
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: media following. She also lives in Texas. The spell it
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: Jenna Jay okay, Um, can you could infirm or deny
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: any um any relationship there? Um? You know, I will
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: say I am off the market currently. I think that's
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: that's kind of all I can give you at the moment.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Not not that I'm trying to hide anything. I just
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: kind of like, and y'all can probably relate to this.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: It's nice to have like a little bit of privacy,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: uh for for a bit on some of that stuff.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: And so I think it's it's not trying to hide anything.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I just there's like certain things it's kind of nice
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: to like, at least for now. Keep that to myself.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: But I will sig him off the market at the
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: moment um and just just very happy spending time with somebody. Well,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Jess and I kept quiet for probably five or six months,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: and it was the best five or six months. At
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: some point people are like, you know, you need to
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: come out and tell people and I'm like, why it
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: doesn't It doesn't you know, it adds a whole new
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: level pressure. Well, if it's not with Jenna, this conversation
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: just got really weird for whoever is with Um. Okay, well,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: I guess I won't pry anymore. Um, Yeah, okay, fine,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I want I won't pry anymore. But you're happy and
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: you're dating someone and that person lives in Texas. Yes,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: but I'm not going to pry anymore, but I probably
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: trying without pride. Okay, fine, Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, okay, Um,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: And now should we do rapid Fire? Ben, do you
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: have a question before we go around? No, before we do.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: This is how we'll send it off. Connor, thanks for
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: joining us today. Thanks for doing this in depth. It's
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: great to learn more about you. Um. All jokes aside,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: We were very happy that you're happy. Best of luck
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: with water Boy and to the new things coming out.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: But this is where I pass it off to Ashley
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: for rapid Fire, So Ashley take it away. All right?
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: These are all fun questions, Alright, it favorite favorite bachelorette
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: memory that didn't make air? Um, probably hanging out with
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: hanging out in the kitchen, with John Paul Jones late
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: at night and him talking about his greatest fear. I
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: can only imagine. Honestly, I've told this story so many times,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: but I just forgot what his greatest fear was. Oh
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: my gosh, I have to ask him. Yeah, you'll have
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: to ask him. Okay, Um, who's your celebrity crush on? Oh,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: that's a good one. That's a very good one. What's
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: your favorite movie? Um, you name a few I love.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: I feel like this isn't a good one. I might
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: get after this, but I love like National Treasure. That's hilarious.
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: I never saw it. I feel like people always laugh
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: at Nick Nick Cage, but I you know, I love those.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: I love Treasure. What's your favorite chain restaurant? Um. I
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: used to be a big Taco Bell guy. Great one
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: used to be. You know, I'm trying the whole gluten
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and dairy free thing, so it's not very conducive, certainly not. Okay, Um,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: what's your f food pizza? Do you do the dairy
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: free and gluten free food? I do? I do? Um?
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: And what is your um m hmm. What's your best
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: memory from the past year. Um? In the past year, honestly,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I think, I think just like living think with Mike
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: was a really cool experience. Um, just like the whole
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the whole year. I think I learned a lot about myself.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: He did too. He did a lot of cool stuff.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I actually one of the more fun things as we
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: went to uh to Loom for a weekend with another friend,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: and that was that was just like a really good time.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: And I felt like it was cool for both of
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: us to maybe branch out of like the business, everyday
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: life of living in Austin, like going a fun little
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: adventure a tving around Mexico. Um. So that that was fun.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: It was a good time. Okay, So what was the
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: worst part of Mike being your roommate? So, Mike, Mike
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: is like a He's like a natural alarm clock. Every
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: morning when he wakes up, he yells as loud as
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: he can. He does like the whoa he does that thing.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: I could hear him. Our rooms were on like very
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: separate ends of this apartment we lived in. I could
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: hear him like he was right next to my ears.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: It was so loud. So whether I wanted to wake
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: up or not, it was like the same time every
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: day he wakes up jumps in a cold bath, yells
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: WHOA punches the wall three times and gets his butt
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: outside that Basically, Basically, I will say one thing I
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: love about Mike, and this is a great memory that
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: I have. I bought these like affirmations on Amazon that
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I like. They were like wall decals. Um. I was
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: told I'm like one of those live laugh love girls.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I have like signs all over. But I put this
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: up right next to our door and it was five
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: different affirmations, and whenever we would invite someone over to
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: our house, we would make them yell the affirmations and
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: it was like it was like you were in like
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the huddle of a football game or something. We would
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: just like hype each other up and yell him every
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: morning sometimes like get amped up. There's a funny Instagram
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: post on Mike's Instagram. Actually we like took a video
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: of us making this one of our friends do it,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and it was I just like loved love doing that
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: because it just brings so much good energy. Wow. This
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: this feels like a very very energetic house. Um trying
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: to make it. That's your right, hey, Connor follower lead here. Uh,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: you're gonna understand in a second, just repeat after us,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: but use your name. This has been Connor Saley on
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: an in depth episode with the Almost Famous podcast I've Been,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: I've Been Ashley, I've Been Good. Job bye. Who follow
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the Bennon Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeart Radio
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts