Latest / Winning With Winans! / Mike Delprado is our guest this week on, Winning with Winans!

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Mike Delprado is our guest this week on, Winning with Winans! · Winning With Winans!

• speaker-0: Well I guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winens. Let's go. And welcome to Winning with Wine is Las Vegas news and coolest financial show. I'm your host, Ken Winens. And for those of you who do not know me yet, I'm a nationwide financial commentator with over 25 years of experience with radio Forbes magazine. I've written five books. So let's say I've been in the trenches for a while. The most important thing, though, is that I founded a successful investment management firm back in 1992. Today, Wine is Investments is the only Morningstar topped ranked money manager based in Las Vegas, or as they say at the poker tables, read it and weep. Over the next hour, we will be covering important events that have been coming up, you know, basically the future, also what's happening now. And I am a news junkie. I follow nine publications, and yes, I still like newspapers. But anyway, let's see what's going on in the world. Let's look at the big picture: stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, and even cryptocurrencies. But winning with Winens is different than all the other shows you're gonna be looking about. They do daily broadcasts. We're gonna try to connect all the dots here. Okay. So let's jump into what's been going on. Wow. Well, for those of you who like space, SpaceX, we have that big IPO, one trillion dollars coming out. The good news, you're not gonna we're certainly I ⁓ we're gonna have a big news event here. Everything's gonna go great. Bad news, Elon Musk is not gonna give up that much stock, that much control. So that means It is going to be tough to find those shares out there for any of you who might want to buy it. So, a little tip: there's a lot of companies that you can buy that do work with SpaceX. Go buy their stock. Don't worry about SpaceX stock. But anyway, for those of you who might be interested, it's going to come out on June, ⁓ I think June 12th, if I remember right. And you know, here's just one other quick thing: hot IPOs. Every firm likes to promote these hot IPOs. I remember when Saudi Arabia Ramco went public. That was going to be a hot IPO too, because at the time they had most of the oil in the world. Guess what? The stock was still trading about the same place it was a year later. So don't be surprised that this actually ends up not being as hot as many people think it is. We'll have to see. Okay. ⁓ the Iraq war, or excuse me, excuse, my four pas. Iran war causing short-term production problems. U.S. investments are still in demand, though. This climbing this wall of worry in the stock market. But okay, we're gonna have to get used to the idea. Things such as motor oil. There's a big report that came out that said, hey, we might not be able to change our oil as much. So this is my advice to all of you. If you have concerns about it, you're going into the summer driving season. We all know Las Vegas being what it is. We don't like to put car maintenance off around here. Go check with your company, make sure they have it. Hey, things like fertilizer. ⁓ go talk to anybody who's in agriculture. That could be a real problem this year, but we'll talk about commodities in a moment. But bottom line, this all reminds me of COVID. I mean, we had the same shortage stuff going on then. Yes, we all noticed and we all remembered some of the store shelves are a little empty, but it all worked itself out. But I would also say this: it's not affecting the stock market. I repeat what I said a moment ago. Foreign stock ETFs are actually lagging this year. US investors don't have to venture offshore. They can buy good old-fashioned stocks here. Some other quick things in the news, and we haven't really thought about it. I've been asked by a lot of people why is cryptocurrencies not doing all that well this year? Well, one of our great fears has finally come true. Iran is using Beyonds to finance regime money finances. We in the old days called this a black market. This is bad. This brings in criminal elements, this brings in everything bad. So now the concern is crypto might be set back by a lot of concerns that the federal government will not let it be regulated properly, therefore banks will not be allowed to sell it. We'll have to see what happens, but it is a concern. one other quick thing, and I you know, again, I'm the comparisons to the Iraq war. There was a lot of talk about Iraq war having black markets. And Saddam Hussein having money offshore. Folks, we're gonna have this talk going on and on and on. And it goes on with every single military conflict. So something keep an eye. Okay, something positive. Earnings. All this concern that consumer sentiments are down, everybody's not spending money. Well, first off, I was on the strip this weekend. There are plenty of people out there spending money. I was at a hockey game. By the way, go golden knights, they're our team. ⁓ I think they're gonna win the Stanley Cup. Fun, but you know, bottom line, people are buying stuff. People are out there still spending money. Maybe they're doing on credit card debt, but they're doing it. So guess what? TGX and Ross stores beat their estimates. Wasn't even close. So the tariffs didn't matter. The war didn't matter. So I would just say that you if you want to start believing what's going on in the economy, do I trust government data or do I trust corporate reports? Folks, follow the stock market, look at the corporate reports. They're telling the truth because they have to be audited. They can't lie. They can't manipulate the data. They got to follow rules. Okay. Everybody's been talking about AI. Everywhere I turn, AI, AI, AI. Look, it's going affect everything. ⁓ many people are now using it. I use it certainly. Google AI is where I usually go. But here's the thing that gets interesting. They're talking about how we can coexist with this and not feel it as a threat. Well, one of the things that honestly is not a bad idea, I don't know if any of you have been to a govern government office lately or have had to go try to deal with anything. There's an awful lot of government workers. So there's a good chance that government bureaucracies with comp as governments, certainly the federal government, state governments are trying to cut their budgets, cut their debt. This might be a net benefit that we get rid of jobs that are quite frankly obsolete in that area. Other thing they've been talking about, academia. I'm not talking about teachers necessarily, but I'm talking about when you go into the all the administrators, the counselors, all that stuff. So there's areas that AI I think can actually help us, but in business, back offices are certainly all going to be part of the situation. Okay. ⁓ for many of you, you had been hearing from your wealth manager this thing called alts: ⁓ private equity, private debt, commodities, hedge funds, and the government. Is talking about letting you have access to this in your 401k. Okay, I'm just gonna be blunt here. Your 401k should not be a place to gamble. I mean, if you want to have a site account on the outside, that's fine. But now private debt is having some problems, whether it's you know especially on the on the debt side. So anyway, we'll have to see what happens there. I actually think the biggest news that I've seen this whole last week, and I think it's huge news, Avalon Bay communities. And equity residential are merging. Now, probably some of you have no idea who they are, but I'll tell you what, if you rent an apartment or you do a B B in an apartment, go look and see who owns it. It was probably one of these two companies. So we are now going to be looking at the biggest private apartment building owner in the world being merged. You don't even hear much about it, but it's it is important. And what it also tells me. Is that there are opportunities and we all talk about what's going on in real estate. Now Vegas is a little different than everywhere else. We're actually doing pretty well. But a lot of people have been complaining about what's been going on, especially out in California. But the migration is continuing. So the fact these guys merge tell me they want to take the cities and the s and the smaller towns and cities and merge them together as this migration of people moving to the Midwest, moving to Nevada. Moving to Florida, it continues. Okay, couple of last quick things that I think are so important. In spite of all that we've been reading about, the US dollar is stable. When I hear all these pundits on you you can name your channel, I hear it all the time, talking about how this inflation is so bad. This is like the 1970s. It is, excuse me, I ride horses. It's what I muck in the stalls. It's BS or HS. We do not have the 70s inflation spiral because back then the dollar lost a third of its value. Our deal, our dollar's stable. By the way, any of you planning to do a trip to Europe this summer are gonna find it's probably pretty cheap. Okay, last couple bit ⁓ pieces of news that I think are also actually somewhat important. ⁓ we have a new Fed chairman named Kevin Walsh. ⁓ he has a big job. Look, for those of you who remember, we had COVID. We had 2008, 2009. Who was the backstop on all these things going bad? The Federal Reserve. They had to buy all the debt to keep everything going. Remember all that? Yeah. The Fed's balance sheet is now at $7 trillion. You know what? They need to start paying that off. They need to get that down because the Fed's job is to be in that place of worrying about crisis. And you know what? Quite frankly, I've talked about a lot on this show. I actually feel the next boomerangs are in place. I'm a I'm an optimist at heart, but when I read the news coming out of states like Illinois, California, New York, massive debts, I really do think that's gonna be something that causes big problems going forward. The Federal Reserve, although they haven't done it before, I do think they're gonna have to step up and and basically maybe a backstop on a lot of municipal debt. So something we all have to kind of at least consider. Hey, look, talked about how good things are. We're doing trade deals, Europe, China. We're cutting oil ⁓ OPEC is breaking up. UAE left. Venezuela's next. US is going back to be in a control situation with energy in the world. We have new alliances with Canada and in Mexico. You know what? Things are not that bad. And I just would just say, hey, let's just go with the flow. Markets are going up. Okay. Let's get to something a little bit funnier. Have any of you by chance seen pictures? Of the new Ferrari $700,000 electric vehicle. I don't know what to say. I love Ferraris. I certainly love to watch what goes on. Let's just put it this way: the critics hate the thing. In my personal opinion, it looks like a Prius. I I that's the best way I can describe the thing. It does not look like a Ferrari. Well, the company immediately lost $5 billion in value. So ⁓ it's kind of interesting. We're gonna couple this with F1. F1's trying to go green. I was at the race over I was watching the race, the Montreal Grand Prix over the weekend out at our pavilion. And you know what? Those ⁓ those new green cars are very heavy. There were a lot of problems with them. We'll just have to see how it plays out, folks. But I'll tell you right now, ⁓ if you're gonna go to the Vegas Grand Prix, be surprised that those heavy cars might be spinning out if we have any rain. Okay, look, we have to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. I threw a lot at you. We'll talk when we come back to the next segment. We'll talk about what's the individual things in the stock market. So this is Ken Winens, Winning with Winens. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll talk in a moment. And welcome back to Winning with Winens, Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host, Ken Winens. You know what? I'm still kind of laughing with my team here about that new Ferrari that I talked about in the last thing. Go look at a picture of it. And look, just tell me, go look at the picture. Would you spend seven hundred thousand dollars on that thing? You know, compared to an old Ferrari. I don't know. ⁓ maybe I'm just not looking at it right, but that's just me. But listen, let's jump into the market scorecard, which is what I just talk about. Hey, what's going on with individual stocks? Well, you know, the stock market, again, with everything going on, you know, good grief. If you listen to the news, ⁓ and by the way, we even talked about it. We're in election year. We got midterm elections coming up. Depending on who you listen to. One says we're going we're nearly going to go into a depression. The other one thinks we're back in the roaring 20s. You know what? It's a little bit everything. But here's the thing, folks. The market climbs a wall of worry. It's an old Wall Street phrase. You know what? And I hate to say it because I'm a vet. Team members of my team here are vets. You know what? War is terrible. I I feel bad for the troops over there right now. But here's the thing the markets usually go up in wars, and it's so it's not a a surprise there. But now I am always been concerned with just paying attention to the Dow or the S P 500. I actually have my own stock index. And it to me, it's kind of like the great BS detector because the only way you make it to my index is you got to be publicly traded 40 years. It's kind of like the capitalist hall of fame. But this index is up 15% on the year. This is on track to be a 35% year. I'm not promising that, but I just know that at this point in the time of the year. With everything that's been hitting the market, ⁓ it's not a surprise to me that things are actually moving in the right direction. Okay, what's interesting though, and listen closely, the leadership has changed. I know you've all been hearing about the Mag 7, or we used to call them the Fang, or you hear about buying it, you know, worldwide stock markets. That's not what's moving up. You know what's actually moving up? Old technology, old tech, electronics. All the stocks that have been around for, like I said, 40 years. Guess who's leading this year? It's not Nvidia. It's not Microsoft. It's Intel. Now, you know what's really funny? They kicked Intel out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, I think, last year. This stock is up 200% this year. Nvidia is not even close to that. So again, here's an old company everybody had written off. And in fact, We might want to tease about the government making investments. Government has money in Intel. Hey, thank you, Trump administration. I'd like to pay back some of our debt. Okay, other big group. Not a surprise to everybody. Energy. Hey, energy stocks are up. They're up 25% on average. And remember, this is 25% at the end of May. I mean, we still have ways to go. Guess what we're doing again, folks? Big moves and offshore drilling. All those things. And now what we call the Gulf of America. ⁓ the big company, they're oceaneering, it's up 55%. They're involved in those offshore rigs. So here's my point. When you talk to your people that you turn to for money, if this is news to you, you need to have a little talk when they say, look, you want to buy what everybody else is not buying. Okay. Don't follow the herd. You want to make money. At the end of the day, it's about making money in the markets. Okay. Bonds and and I'm going to throw in their preferred stocks. Corey, all the talk about how bad bonds are doing, bonds are having this terrible year. Well, I have news for you. Corporate bonds are actually holding up very well this year. And this is in spite of all the volatility, concerns about interest rates, and the yields are at 6%. So for any of you out there that are scared, you know what? Go buy some good old-fashioned American corporate bonds. There's a lot of new issues out there, mainly industrial bonds. Big articles coming out about new pipelines in the fracking areas in the Midwest. Hey, go take a look at that. If you have a tax problem and you want to look for something that pays an income, but you don't want to pay the full amount on capital gains or an income tax, go look at preferred stocks. Many of them get preferential tax treatment and they have a dividend yield right now. You ready for this? 7.5%. A lot of them are bank preferred. So again, those some of those are my favorites. Okay, Muniland. I talked about it in the last segment about you know, municipal, especially blue state municipals. ⁓ I have news for you. The rating agencies, I talked about this actually on the radio the other day in Los Angeles. You know, Nevada is in great shape. We have a double A plus rating. We're one of the b strongest in the country, actually. And knock on wood, our government doesn't spend money, it doesn't have. But places like California, they're happening where they're having all the fraud problems, the rating agencies are gonna look at those fraud problems and probably bring their ratings down. So again, if you are a Muni bondholder and And maybe you're a former Californian, you just didn't bother to make changes. You might want to think twice and talk to somebody about where those bonds are. I just, you live in Nevada now, you don't get the full, you don't have a state income tax here. It doesn't make any sense to hold them. Okay, commodities. One of my favorite topics. Look, inflation is not good. We don't like inflation, but inflation is good if you are a commodity trader. Now, look, many of you, and I'm really kind of surprised, I still hear to this day. That people don't know much about this. And I find it funny because we're the silver state. We're the fourth largest producer of gold on planet Earth. Go north of here, you have cows, you have cattle, dairy cows, actually. We have agriculture. Yeah, we're a desert state, but we actually do grow stuff. But and I'm gonna bring this up. The dominant players, hey, it's not a big surprise. Energy is obviously a big player this year, crude oil, but it's also agriculture. Crude oil's up 60% year to date. Okay. We don't want to hear about that because we go to the gas pump and see what goes on there. But wheat is up 40%. Soybeans, which, you know, we all eat them, trust me, is up 55%. Cotton is up 33%. Folks, if you want to make money, that is handily outperformed the stock market. Again, you should talk to your advisors. If this is news to you, you should just really think about hey, look, maybe we need to talk to some other people as well. Or contact me and I'll tell you where to go. Okay, the silver and gold phenomenon that we all looked at earlier this year, you know, gold is going crazy. Everybody's buying gold coins. Well, let me tell you, the l the the the glimmer is off the metals for now. Copper's actually doing really well, but gold and silver have been trading sideways since the blow off. It's a lot of sellers, especially in the Middle East, they're having to sell a lot of their gold reserves to keep their budgets going. I I just think again, I I if you are a gold bug and you've got too much of it your portfolio, you might want to think twice and maybe put some of it on the side. I don't know, just something to think about. Okay, crypto. ⁓ crypto's new. I know it's chic. Everybody's been hearing about it. Here's a simple fact of it. Both Bitcoin and Etho or Ethereum or Ethos, however you want to call it, they're down big on the year. They're down seventeen and thirty-one percent. You know, I have a rule. You get to this point in time in the year, and if something's not moving up, I get rid of it. I think you have to take a good hard look at what's going on here. You know, I am but listen, I'm not anti-crypto. I am actually a certified cryptocurrency trader. I went and studied it. But I think you should put it in line with other commodities. And quite frankly, those are the things that are doing better. I think investors are are beginning to say, look, when I can do well in the stock market. Why do I want to worry about my wallet being acted? Or, you know, in the case of a Coinbase, I think they laid off 20% of their workforce. I mean, it's just not the same thing it was a couple of years ago. But going forward, I think the next big move in crypto is going to be if Congress says that they will allow it to go through. But I have to tell you, this news from Iran using crypto in the black market to finance their operations. That personally for me leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not in favor of it. I think it's something we all have to think twice about, but believe me, the government's going to, and we just have to be concerned. Okay, last but not least, real estate. We had a guest on during our last episode, or excuse me, a couple weeks ago. We talked about what's going on in real estate, and I mentioned, I just briefly mentioned, that we're gonna have the biggest apartment building owner in the world. The two ends are merging together. There's definitely green shoots going on, but folks, real estate is regional. It always has been. So if you were to look at nationwide, it's still down about 3.4% on the year. But I would just say this go look at where what regions are up. ⁓ believe it or not, the the Northeast, which is a shock to me because that includes New York. The West is up, but it's think about what's going on here in Las Vegas. We know housing prices keep going up. We have a shortage of land. There's a lot of things that are hurting here. But then it's offset by what's going on in California. But again, the areas like the South, it's having problems, you know, certainly with a lot of the weather-related stuff. There was the there's been talks about the housing bill that stops corporate companies from buying houses. There's a lot of government involvement in it right now to try to restart things. But I actually think the housing market's going to get better here in the not distant future. So again, we'll see what happens. Folks, we have to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. I am Ken Winans. You've been listening to me on Winning with Winens. We will be right back. Well, we're back with Winning with Winens, Las Vegas' newest and coolest financial show. But I can't believe I flubbed Las Vegas up, but every now and then it happens. I'm your host, Ken Winens, and you know what? Every guest we have has a unique story, but not all my guests are people that I smoke cigar with. And as you all know, yes, I wear cowboy hurts, I ride, I hunt, I shoot, and I also love cigars. So anyway, Mike Del Prado, who we have met through various events in veterans organizations. Mike is CEO, founder of Executive Options, a Vegas born company with an amazing story. Mike, my friend, how are you today? speaker-1: Very well. Thank you very much for having me. How are you, sir? speaker-0: Hey, I I hope it's gonna be one of many. I mean, I'd love to have a podcast in the future. We we'll like a little round table talk about speaker-1: As many as you like, just let me know. speaker-0: But you didn't bring any cigars today, so we have to focus on work. Yeah. I I and ⁓ yeah, and that humidor is awesome. Okay, let's talk about you because I love these Vegas born unique companies such as you and your wife Nellie have created. So let's talk about it. What is your company? speaker-1: In my humidor, whenever you're ready. So executive options is a business and technology transformation firm. ⁓ it it focuses on either project remediation and to an implementation of solutions, ⁓ company mergers, ⁓ and do we do represent organizations during ⁓ financial audits and also operational audits. So we've been doing that for quite a while. ⁓ We're almost hitting the thirty year mark in what we've been doing at exact you know, and i as as as a service and executive options when we moved here, we spun it up, a brand new set the new standard of of delivery because Nevada is the next hub of of true technological evolution. speaker-0: We share that. I mean, I mean, financial services, you name it. I mean, people worry about our diversification here. I don't worry about it one bit. I think it's just naturally going to show up here. The the the the the advantages to this area are so strategic. But then as we talk about it, you're also a veteran. So your background, you were in the Navy. Now and also now and you were born in Peru. speaker-1: Yes, sir. Correct. I was born in Peru. That's correct. well i I actually learned it more. So so I came from Peru when I was five I didn't come, I was brought to Peru from Peru when I was five years old. ⁓ obviously I spoke five year old Spanish, right? Okay. ⁓ so when when I grew up, ⁓ you know, with my parents, my mother would only speak Spanish to me and my father would only speak English to me. To this day, I'm in my fifties and I still talk to my dad only in English and my mother only in Spanish. It became the thing. speaker-0: So your Spanish is pretty good. speaker-1: Now, when I got into business, I realized that business Spanish is a totally different thing. ⁓ an example is ⁓ Dole Foods, which is a you know huge international company, was one of my clients. And when we were doing a a centralization of products from different Latin American countries, I had flew all Latin American countries to meet with me in Costa Rica. And we were having arguments of what a banana is called in Spanish. You know Really? It would say banana, banano, platano. It's Maduros and so everybody would argue, no, this is this is what we call it in my country. This is offensive, you know, this this is offensive word in my country. So then we had to come to terms that we're coming, we're gonna have a centralized system, you know, name and then or or code, and then every every region will have their own independent names. But that that's how complex it is, obviously. And you know, so I had to learn that as as as I evolved in my business. speaker-0: All right, so let me just get this straight. So banana. Yeah. So you go to all these different countries in Central South America and they have different names for a banana. speaker-1: ⁓ okay, yeah, that's ⁓ yeah, that's one of many products for sure, but that was just an example for yeah, so okay. speaker-0: Okay. Interesting. Wow, you just never think about that, but it's probably true, you know, it's just the way it plays out. speaker-1: You go to countries like you in China, there also different dialects, different different words for different things as well. So it is it is you know, interesting that, you know, we kinda centralize the language, but the the dialect behind it is is what's unique. So speaker-0: That's very true. And of course you gotta be careful how you word something because it might offend somebody. So you believe me, I have too, Mike. So no, I think that's the nature of business. You end up pissing people off. All right. So you've been all over the world. I mean, you literally, whether it's military, working for other people, your own business, you've been all over. So what's your take on things today? If you just I mean, you as an American citizen, business owner, how do you see things right now? speaker-1: I'm sure I've offended tons of people. Yes, I have. You know, ⁓ i if you haven't necessarily followed history, you're thinking you're in the most volatile time in history. The reality of the situation, it comes in cycles, right? ⁓ we're just in our new kind of maybe complicated situation, but it's not something that that the you know that us as an ⁓ as as Americans have not confronted in the past, have not evolved from in the past and have not improved. from in the past. But when we see only dire situations in our mindset and we see that this is this is a bad thing, the gas, you know, gas is up, our economy is, you know, and you know, struggling, we're in constant conflict with X. But then you look at, you know, more on kind of the, you know, the more kind of unit level type of kind of ⁓ you know, ⁓ you know, rationalization onto why something's happening and how it impacts, you know, and see it in more of a global perspective, not just in American lands, you see that there is a value, there is a a burden, right? And there is a benefit down the road. But you know, the reality of situation is it's not the end of the world. It's actually a you know an opportunity is here in Las Vegas for us to be able to kind of reassess ourselves and be able to improve as organ you know, as as individuals but also as corporations and companies as it as it grows. speaker-0: I'll tell you I'll tell you a funny story. Yeah. So we talk about AI and all the stuff that AI everybody needs to remember this stuff no this technology, these algorithms run on data. IT is data. And I was at a conference. Yeah, it's it's all about and the quality of the data. You know, I always thought I mean we you and I both like sports cars and I always tell people you put crappy gas in that Ferrari, it's gonna run like crap. You know, and that's the same way I see this stuff. But if the funny part of the story, I was at a conference, right? And they had the big Big booth on AI and the young guys. And they, you know, actually they were in hoodies. Believe it or not, they were actually in hoodies. So they live they lived apart. And I asked them, 'cause you know, with my books, I've gone way back in time. I said, so I'm just curious, guys, how far back did you go? I quote you, Mike, ⁓ we went way back. We went to nineteen eighty. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Okay, and this was just this is like a year and a half ago. And I said, okay, so the the algorithms you guys are building for AI think that the worst inflation ever in American history is now. And they they they I said, why didn't you guys go back to the 70s or post-World War II or post World War One or the Depression, talk about deflation? No. That just wasn't even in their thought. But it goes, What you said, it's history, it's how things cycle. speaker-1: Yeah, and and I can I can reinterpret their response as well, right? So if you're talking to a techie, ⁓ I I myself was a developer at one point in time as well, became very effective at it. That's actually helped me boom my organization and then I be then I took over more kind of an industrious ⁓ endeavors. But if you're talking to a tech technology person, you're saying, How far have you gone back in data? They're saying they're saying a timestamp a block of data that they're picking up from. But not necessarily not following the history. So the history from from the beginning of of data being captured isn't that far off, right? We're not terribly far away. You know, ⁓ so in the eighties is is kind of a a good starting point in that you're picking up history from the fifties, forties, thirteen, eighteen hundreds, whatever whatever you captured during those eighties, and then you're seeing the evolution of it over time and the reinterpretation of it over time. So that I I'm assuming that that's what they meant. I don't think it'd be silly know it'd be silly for somebody just to capture a subset. of history. Just it's it's a set of data that carries all the history. That's what I'm assuming. speaker-0: Well, the other thing that was interesting, and I know this is with my studies. I don't know what is so magical about March 18th of 1980, but a whole bunch of financial databases, that's when they start. I don't ask me why. Somehow that somebody just said, well, this is as far back as we have to go. But I think that the moral of the story is that, you know, getting good accurate data to make good decisions on. ⁓ it is hard work. You have to spend the time. And then you gotta you gotta filter the data. You gotta make sure, hey, anomalies, it did that really happen or was this d did somebody miss a decimal point? So you know those are things like that. speaker-1: So in every client that I've had in in the technology side, right, when they're transitioning from one t technology, a legacy technology, to a new technology, there is this component of the data migration. And within data migration, there is a thing called data cleansing. So they know in themselves in an organization that they've had, they've gone through iterations of processes, they've improved their processes, they're adjusted it, they've come with a merger, they adopted new things. So they know that the data's not crisp from inception to date. ⁓ sure. So when we do, when we do pull that data out, it is a practice of us cleaning our own data in a in an organization. Now on a macro scale, you're talking about everything, all data that AI captures, it's the same thing. So it it we are stewards of the information that's being provided to us. By AI. It's a just more expedient fashion. That doesn't mean that you're not going to have a conversation with AI and saying, hey, where did you get this from? Hey, clarify this for me where you know how how you came to this conclusion. And you're having it like you and I are talking, as you're feeding information to me, I will question or I will ask for clarification so I can better understand it. And then I correct it. Right. So that that's that's what we do. A lot of people, especially, you know, students and kind of you know, following that and that criteria as well. We'll take it as face value and then submit it. speaker-0: Yeah, they don't question and also the assumptions of it. Hey Mike, we gotta take a real quick break to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back with winning with wine-ins. speaker-1: In an inter Yeah, for sure. speaker-0: And welcome back to Winning with One. It's Las Vegas newest and coolest financial show. And I am Ken with a cowboy hat. And I am with my good friend and highly this guy in business, he's one of the best. Mike Del Prado, CEO and founder of Executive Options. And we've been talking about data and we started talking about what is going on around the world. So Mike, let's go around the globe right now. It is interesting as heck. speaker-1: It it definitely is interesting for sure. ⁓ but you know, it's it's like I mentioned before, right? It's nothing that we haven't experienced historically in the past. obviously technology and in the boom, like you were mentioning about AI, is a whole new thing, right? And and how we need to adjust and brace ourselves for that evolution. We're not stopping that train. We need to accommodate, jump on board and and drive in a different way. speaker-0: Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. So going on around the world right now, it's I mean, I look at it from a commodities standpoint, I look at it also from a currency standpoint. You know, it's it's so fascinating because, you know, all the pundits, and and unfortunately, it is a mid-year election year, midterm election, it's all beginning to get in a and I've I think I've told you this. It annoys me to know when I watch an ad and they've taken a data sample that's like a weird date. Because they're trying to, you know, they're trying to massage the data to fit their point. But what everybody missed the mark on was literally the dollar is up. The dollar is stable. The dollar is in a range it's been in for years. That has been missed by everybody. Everybody thought the dollar would be, you know, south of here, it'd be tr devalued badly. That didn't happen. Now, the part is that also that I'm gonna throw in there is that President Trump just came back from China. You know, here we have the war in Iran going on. We have all this. And he took all these business leaders, and according to what I read, they're doing deals. Everybody is still out there doing business. Now, what do you I mean, are you surprised that, hey, the march goes on, business goes on, we're not gonna let all this stuff get in the way? speaker-1: We didn't get this power for for not, you know, for ignoring that. So for absolutely we're there's always, you know, business is always going to happen, right? There's always going to be an opportunity to leverage, you know, you know, leverage up ⁓ the you know what is out there to be able to kind of evolve on. China, you know, is seen as we're we're either their you know, depending on the lens, right? We're either their biggest customer, right? Or, you know, we are a you know, in innovative arm of the world where China wants a piece of that action, right? So I think it's it's it'd be you know it makes perfect sense for the two countries to find some synergy continued synergy, not that they don't have a continued synergy on that business level. Political level, we might not see IDI. We won't see eye to eye ever, right? But ⁓ and business wise that we understand that we need to be able to continue to operate our our you know our countries ⁓ appropriately and effectively so we do need to continue to do business together. speaker-0: Well, you it's funny bring up ⁓ who do you see eye to eye with in the world from as a country standpoint? We don't see eye to with the Canadians, you know, even ⁓ countries that border us are vastly different. So even in the way people interpret ⁓ the ⁓ political process. Now talking about the big shakeup and certainly Venezuela. You know, now you you as you said you were born in Peru. We know that South America has always been this Very interesting place of the pendulum extreme swings of fascism and and communism. What do you think's gonna happen in Venezuela? If you had to make a guess. Ooh. speaker-1: Wow. Okay. ⁓ so ⁓ strategically, ⁓ you know, it's st still is it's a sovereign country. It still is, you know, up you know, independently run ⁓ with you know, without the behest of the United States. Nonetheless, our influence has become a little more predominant, a lot more predominant for that matter. I think we've ⁓ given open forum for the general populace that maybe felt ⁓ disenfranchised and inability to kind of express their voice, to now express their voice. ⁓ maybe giving them an opportunity then to find the right leadership and then the right path forward in in global partnerships as well. ⁓ you know, sometimes we are not when you feel disenfranchised well from the westernized nations, you start looking at other countries that might be somewhat adversarial to the United States standards, too close to our borders, right? So there is a there is this opportunity now to create, help them prop themselves up and get them to a position where they will find ⁓ independently the freedom that they've been looking for, to be able then to ⁓ partner with the right country. speaker-0: Well, I mean in your line of work especially. I mean, you do things you're one of the top guys in the world globally at what you do. I mean, I've got to believe when you have things like that happen, there probably lots of opportunities, especially with US companies trying to go back in there and reopen up their energy business. speaker-1: On the energy side for sure, I think there's true opportunity there. I have worked in, you know, in oil. I have worked in, you know, ⁓ you know, ⁓ natural resources, you know, we're in organizations like that. I worked in national security, right? So so you know, having jumped from industry to industry and having ⁓ tested those waters, I see the value proposition, you know, ⁓ for for Venezuela, for its people. And I also see, you know, the the rational synergy that needs to happen with the US. ⁓ it can't be adversarial. Sometimes the media takes it to a direction that it seems like we're, you know ⁓ creating more havoc than good. ⁓ but, you know, I would assume that there is a long term strategy and it's not just, you know, slap ⁓ in the face and walk away. So I I I have true faith that ⁓ we will find that that synergy in Venezuela will ⁓ you know, shine a brighter light because it's gonna be more independent from the people. speaker-0: Well, when you empower people and you enrich people, that generally things move in the right direction. For sure. So as you look right now around the world, where do you see the biggest opportunities for you in business? I mean, is there an area that you would say, there's gonna be a lot more coming my way from there? speaker-1: You know, it it's it's standout ⁓ currently what's gonna happen is going to be there has been exposed nerves just recently because because of the you know recent events. That doesn't mean it's not going to then kind of calm itself down. It happens. we right now, in ⁓ like I mentioned to you when I was in, you know, Eastern Europe, more Soviet era type of countries, ⁓ we did not necessarily see eye to eye and some of the US countries took a hit, right? Some of my clients took a hit. ⁓ but then it things smooth over, right? There is an absolute understanding of need technological the tech technological evolution that we come to bring to the table more than that antiquated sense. It is more cost effective to have, you know, ⁓ you know, US or Western countries to be able to help to help provide that support, but it's also seen as an oppressive presence to to people that are not necessarily fully informed on the why. But there's also people that have not done very well in representing us. You know, an organization. So I have to see it in both lenses before I walk in. And what I tell my ⁓ my clients, what I tell my employees, what I tell them, you them the veterans that I mentor is you never want to see it just in your single lens, see it on both sides of the fence. If you cannot find rationale behind their their you know, their their ⁓ you know their lens, then you're you're doing yourself a disservice because you haven't learned something. Yeah. The only way to negotiate in the art of negotiation is you have to understand the other person on the side of the table. So same thing when you're doing business. If I'm walking into another country. ⁓ for ⁓ doing a totally different type of industry operation, I have to respect why they're doing things, how they're doing things before I can change or adjust things for the better. speaker-0: Well, you know, Mike, one of your great p talents, you're a very good listener. I mean, I think it's a talent. Yeah, you are. Well, and your wife's not here to disagree with us on this, but but no, you are because I think it's a lost art. I mean, we're so busy talking over each other all the time. We do it on social media. You know, the the the we have thought When all this technological stuff was happening, that we'd have more information, better communication. In my opinion, the opposite's happened. We're we're literally sound biting each other, talking over each other, ⁓ and and allowing it to influence our emotions. You know, we you know, you and I have obviously gotten involved with ⁓ we need good leadership at all levels, business leadership, you know, ⁓ political leadership. And and for you and I, we know that Nevada's at a crossroads. It is now now. Real qu we have to we there's we we we don't have a lot of time, but your thoughts on Nevada. I mean, I know you share the same view I do. This place is gonna become a hub for so much. speaker-1: Yeah, you know, back in the day, back in our day, we saw like New York, California as kind of these metropolis melting pot type environments that were that were going to continue to cultivate ⁓ industry. And it and they are. I'm not I'm not gonna knock them, you know, politicians aside and everything else. There is true value in, you know, in how you might be able to leverage the the power that are those two states. But we are now the new gen, you know, melting pot. ⁓ you know, business hub, if we want to do it, right? Depending on how we approach ourselves and how we how we present ourselves to the ⁓ the broader, you know, United States, ⁓ there is true opportunity here. There's there we have, you know, we have ⁓ you know a good amount of resources and some might question the water issue, right? And how we might be able to there's answers to everything if we all kind of synergize and talk together and find out the right the right process and the stay in kind of the ⁓ the sequence of events that needs to happen. If not, if we're just throwing puzzle pieces on the floor, we're destined to fail. But this is right now we are in the crossroads, like you said, and it's true opportunity for growth and true opportunity to make Nevada, you know, the proper, you know, footprint that it that it that it ⁓ merits in here in the United States. speaker-0: I mean, we both know the mining ⁓ is coming back to life in a big way. I mean, the financial the service, whether it's IT or financial services. Hey, I want to talk real quick about your foundation because it is so cool what you're doing with this thing. For sure. Tal talk about the foundation. speaker-1: ⁓ Charlie Mike Foundation. ⁓ it's not Charlie and Mike, but Charlie Mike is a military vernacular for continue mission. I've been asked that, so I have to say it, right? So so so it is continue mission. My continue mission is that once we got out of the military, once we got out service, our mission has not stopped. It's changed, right? Yeah. It's changed not for the greater good of the country, but for our our internal growth, our better our greater good as well. I don't want to see veterans coming out and kind of raising their, you know, their shoulders and saying speaker-0: It's not like Ben and Jerry's ice cream. speaker-1: What I do now I'm gonna work work at a gas station. It's look, you've done your time. I'm not asking for anybody to give provide handouts to my veterans. I'm giving my veterans the tool bag and tools and the direction needed to be able to kind of you know find the, you know, that landing spot, their interpretation of what success is in their career. And that's what I do. And I also work with young veteran entrepreneurs to start their own organizations and their businesses and they flourish. And I it's not about just giving them the tools, but also taking them to those industries. meeting the people that have met success, found success and giving give them the true vision of what it is. And also then, you know, enter you know, ⁓ expanding their network with my network. And it's worked miraculously. And I want to continue to do that. And we don't do a massive cattle call type of environment. We do a one on one sessions with everybody. Yeah. Right. And give them their due attention. speaker-0: Well that's how you and I'm at. I mean we have a a marvelous community of veterans. Absolutely. You know, look at the work UNLV's doing with veterans. I mean the fact that we have people, you know, getting out of the Air Force, they many of them stay here for a reason. No, it's that's again something special about Las Vegas. speaker-1: Tell you something about Nevada in itself, right? No, no, so so I I've been to most states here in the union, right? And in relation to veteran organizations, the collaboration is much higher here in Nevada, right? We don't we're not here to in it for ourselves. We're not this, you know, we're not trying to find, you know, yeah, trying to find our footprint and make our brand bigger than somebody else's. If a veteran comes to me, And I know another organization has a better profile on how they handle that specific situation. We will make a call and introduce them to it. And that synergy is gold, right? And I've not seen it in any other state. Now, that said, ⁓ there is a there is a statement I know I get a rolled eye sometimes that ⁓ Nevada is a net zero state, meaning that there's enough veteran organizations that support 100% of the veteran community. The reality of the situation is that yes, there are a lot of them, ⁓ but there is there are gaps. ⁓ there are ⁓ redundancies, thus the gaps. ⁓ so w as we start talking together as organizations and finding opportunities where their strengths are, then we're able to diversify how we might be able to help that veteran. At the end of the day is that one guy that stepped out, he needs to he needs to succeed. Let's make that our mission. speaker-0: Well, and it's not about ego. It's not, you know, and ⁓ and a couple of quick things on that. You know, I I love our friend Lester. Yep. Lombard. He said, look, it is not about how many ribbons you have. It is not about what you did. If you were a dog tag, you're part of our group. I mean, that because you you you went through that same bearing of stuff. Mike, we're almost out of time. So, real quick, if people want to get a hold of you and learn about your business, how's what's the best way? speaker-1: ⁓ they can go to our website. ⁓ in relation to my business, it's ⁓ executiveoption.com. In relation to the veteran organization, it's Charlie Mike Foundation.org. Okay. And ⁓ and again, I'm I'm happy to share my contact information. Whoever looks there and and you know ⁓ does a contact us kind of page and just enter their information, you will hear either from my associate or directly from me. It's not you're not gonna be a number, you're not gonna be anything else other than the person that I respect and you're a peer to me and I wanna make sure that you find success or I give you the answers you need, or I learn from you. speaker-0: Or or contact us if you want to get a hold of Mike. And because we we fully support each other. We as friends. We collaborate where we can. But folks, we're we're out of time. We're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back with Winning with Oneins. And welcome back to Winning with One is the Las Vegas news and coolest financial show. I'm your host, Ken Wyce. Hey, I hope you enjoyed our guest. You know, I've known Mike a long time. He is a true Las Vegas success story. I mean, and God bless him, his time in the military, what he's done with his family. Anyway, please go back and watch it. Play it for any of your kids who want to talk about success stories, just coming up from nothing. I just absolutely love it. But anyway, listen, this segment. We'd like to talk about local stuff. This, you know, and you all know how proud I am of of Las Vegas. Las Vegas continues to blow me away. And yes, our hockey team is soon to be best in the world again. Let's think about this for a moment. This is one of the newest teams in the NHL. They're they've won the Stanley Cup once, I think soon twice. They've been in it three times. ⁓ you know what? Everybody else in the NHL, read it and weep. But we've become that sports town and just wait till we get the A's here. There's going to be a wind fever going on. But anyway, let's talk about business-wise what's going on in Las Vegas. Hey, Caesars just got sold. Caesars Entertainment, 18 billion bucks. It's gone private. ⁓ which is kind of interesting because it has a long history being a public casino on the strip for a very, very long time. I think we're going to find more and more of this private casino. ⁓ basically privatization of our casinos. It makes it a little more difficult to gauge what's going on, but we'll just have to see. ⁓ for those of you who've been on the 15, I've always wondered about Prem. You go back and forth, you see the roller coasters, you see the casinos, and yeah, I've always wondered this the the history behind how they thought it was a good idea to stick it out there. But guess what? It looks like a private company is going to buying that out. They're going to be building it up. This is why. That 15 corridor, we talk about Bureau of Land Management releasing land. Because we're talking about that we're going to have more rail running down that corridor, both freight, possibly the Bright Line train, which I'll talk about in a moment. Anyway, long story made short, ⁓ I I think you're gonna you're gonna see that whole prim thing be redeveloped. Something unique's gonna be popping out of it. We'll have to see how that all works out, but it is interesting that somebody stepped up and bought it. Okay, of interest. ⁓ I've been spending a lot of time. I'm very active with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. There's a whole economic development forum going on right now. With I'm literally, I guess they're having one this week about transportation issues w within the valley. But what's interesting is that what is coming up is reformulating the way the state does business. And one of the big things, which by the way is bipartisan, is having a whole new business court. Which means that it will be easier to resolve issues that come up in commercial. ⁓ it's gonna be kind of like arbitration, but it's gonna keep it out of our criminal court system and our civil court system. A lot of talk about solar panels, a lot of talk about new solar technology. Go up the 95, go look at all those new, very, very high-tech ⁓ transmission lines that are being ⁓ being put in place. One of the things that we're realizing is that it's not just Vegas versus Reno any longer. It's a state. We all know that, but it but the powers of beer are waking up to it. We're talking about you know water issues from a state level. But here's the other thing that's interesting. It's not just about the Colorado River, because the Colorado River does not affect Reno, it does not affect northern Nevada. But we're talking about our groundwater. Now, this is where it gets kind of interesting. I don't know if many of you probably know our state and our city. We get beaten up a lot in the press. I don't know why. According to these people, we're about ready to run out of water. The mob still runs the town. ⁓ you know, whatever else they come up with, or business environments bad, that people aren't going to the strip anymore. It's all BS. But it I think it's actually the economic development people who work for these other states who I think quite frankly are jealous of us. ⁓ but anyway, they talk about water. Hey, let me tell you something. I wouldn't trade our issues. With Arizona's issues for all the money in the world. Arizona has managed to drain two trillion gallons of their aquifer to water alpha alpha. ⁓ I don't know who thought that was a real smart move to do that in the middle of the desert, but they did. We haven't touched our aquifers yet, folks. And then here's something else to think about. Talking about the Colorado River. Okay, Hoover Dam went in in the nineteen thirties. This has been, you know, what thing was being built even in I think is ⁓ early, I think actually nineteen thirty. That groundwater has been saturating all these years. So it's not what's above the ground at Lake Mead, it's what's underneath Lake Mead now. It's what's underneath all these other areas along the Colorado River. Our aquifers, we haven't even touched them yet. Las Vegas, we haven't touched it. So here's my point. We're pretty darn good with water. And the good news is the federal government just stepped up and told everybody we're sick of those seven states bickering about. The fact that the Colorado River's not as strong as it used to be, they've set the rules. And it was specifically said Nevada was better than everybody else on water management. So anyway, I'm very proud of, you know, we can beat up on politicians all we want, but our guys have actually done a pretty good job of handling the water issue. I'm ⁓ another big issue that came up, housing. I know I talked about in the ⁓ before we jumped to this episode. Let me just say this. I know that we all have concerns about the demons of of the past, meaning 2008, 2009. Look, we all remember what happened. It was a disaster. We way overbuilt. ⁓ it was not done smart. And then we had something hit nationally. The housing market in Las Vegas today is very, very different. And we have different people here now than even we had back then. Look at everybody who's moving here. Look at the diversification of the economy that's going on in Las Vegas right now. The housing market's different today. Now, I'm not saying it's always going to go up, but I'm just saying that if you're holding off on buying a house because you think it's too high right now and you're waiting for it to come down, you're waiting for that next crash. You know what? I would just tell you be smart, but also be aware that it might not pull back because the demand is so strong. Okay. You know, I've got to beat up on my former state a little bit. I'm a former Californian. I moved here three years ago, had business here for seven years. But listen, we've however we may feel about the place. We do have to stay in touch with our neighbor to the West. It's a big part of the pie. We, you know, we obviously have people come and love to enjoy our city. Many people are moving here still. But something came up in the press that alarmed me a little bit. Everybody has been talking about the Bright Line private train that's gonna run from Vegas all the way down to Rancho Cucamonga, which is not too far away from LA or Orange County. Now, I happen to like trains. My family's all from the East Coast. I rode trains as a kid when I went back to visit them. But the point is they have to make sense. And I've been I've raised concerns about us partnering with California because of that disastrous San Francisco to LA train they were trying to put in that I think they spent $128 billion on, never laid a rail of track. But now there's talk that the company that backs the Bright Line train might be having financial troubles. You know, look, it is an election year. If there's ever a time to get our politicians to pay attention to us, you need to ask your elected officials, whether it's state level or federal level, look, who's on the hook for this and who's watching this thing? Because what we don't want is what happened in California with their dream train. And I don't think any of us want it because look, ⁓ we need to we need to continue to build out our roads. We need money going in a lot of direction, but we just need to be aware that something could be going on there. Okay. ⁓ the talking about roads. They are gonna widen the ⁓ finally California's gonna widen the I-15. Thank goodness. Here's the but here's the funny part of the story. They wanna have HOV lanes. Okay, why do you need HOV lanes in the middle of the desert? I did not know there was a problem out there. Anyway, I know they've often worried about the desert tortoise, but let's see what happens. By the way, they're still moving forward with that wealth tax. I just was in California a couple weeks ago. They're gonna pay, you know, people are saying they've had enough. They're getting out of there. So they are gonna continue to come. Okay. Funny story: Gavin Newsom is making the state, ⁓ just just came out the other day on their budget. He's making the state pay $33,000 for his portrait. To be hung in the state capitol. Are you kidding me? Okay, the guy's rich. We can argue about where his money came from, and his aunt, Nancy Pelosi, is also rich. You know what, guys? Maybe your auntie can buy you the picture of Governor Newsome, but why are you making your state pre pay for this? That just seems like it's ridiculous. Okay, listen, we're almost out of time. I want to give a big thank to our sponsors, Wine is Investments, Wine is Commodities. And listen, if you're interested on being a sponsor. Or a guest on future Winning with Wine and shows, hey, email me at winningwithwine.com. Hey, I have had several of our guests say that they're getting watched. They get to use it on their own ⁓ websites and their own social media. You might enjoy doing it. So give it some thought of giving us a try. We're a lot of fun. ⁓ if you miss this show or you want to share it with your friends or family, go follow us on social media. We're on all the major platforms. I also write for Forbes. I just wrote an article about ⁓ two weeks ago. Go check it out. Just enter put my name down, Forbes.com. I've also written my books. They're on financial history. I do think history is important. You should monitor it. You can also download the ebook on Amazon.com. It's called Investment Atlas 3: Creating Wealth Using Historical Trends. And by the way, I have to give a plug for my company. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. We've done a good job. We've made our clients a lot of money through the years. If you're looking for Las Vegas only Morningstar top rank manager, give us a call. And if we can't help you, we'll certainly point you in the direction of somebody who can. Because at the end of the day, we want people to be successful in our valley. We want everybody to continue to watch this episode. So listen, good n good luck next week with your money. There's a lot of crazy things going on in the world. It's certainly not boring. This is Ken Wynans. Enjoy your week. Take care. Well, here we are with the Winnie with Winens ⁓ bonus with questions from our audience ⁓ to special guest, Mike Del Prado of Executive Options. So I I hope you watched the first part. But let's, Mike, if you're okay, I want to ask you a couple of questions from the audience. ⁓ I nothing too ⁓ crazy here, you know. ⁓ Just name, rank, and serial number if it gets too crazy. Okay, so you know, we talked a lot about your background and how you started things. When d at what point did you, I guess, say, number one, I just want to be my own business guy. I just want to be an entrepreneur. I don't wanna work for anybody else anymore. Was there a moment? speaker-1: ⁓ yes, absolutely. Okay. There was a moment. So ⁓ I just celebrated my my twenty-seventh year ⁓ wedding anniversary. My wife, her and I have been together thirty years, right? And the reason this is the backdrop of the response. ⁓ after the service, I felt I didn't have the support I needed. I was an ignorant young guy, still out of the service. ⁓ I decided I gave it up with I gave up with the world. I went to Peru and I went and opened up a little chicken chicken restaurant. And ⁓ in that in in walks this beautiful woman and all of a sudden we hit it off. So be it. She left everything to sleep on the floor. Of a room I rented with me. I had laying down on my peacoat, my military-issued peacoat. And then we kind of slowly worked our way to where we need to. ⁓ we decided to come back to the US. ⁓ and from there, I still had nothing to do. I know that because of the way I think and the way I operate, I was I was somewhat in my mind, ⁓ unemployable for a good job. So I started from the ground up. I I got ⁓ you know, I worked in many jobs, types of jobs, right? From bus boy to ⁓ you know, working in restaurants to and then getting a job as a computer operator. Now you're talking back in the early 90s as a computer operator, they have these spools and spools of paper that are printed out, just massive amount, tapes and reels and everything else. They just take it to the vault and save it, and that's basically my whole job. And then after that, I've got, you know, I s I seen I saw programmers developing products and I said, ooh, I want to do that. And ⁓ nobody would teach me. No, and ⁓ after I taught myself, nobody would want to give me a job. So programmers would say, You can come try to break my logic or my code. And I became so proficient at it in breaking their code that I became a much better developer because I now I knew the gaps and the telltale science. I didn't have the formalized education, so common sense and pragmatic mindset and scenario-based understanding came into play back in those in that early time, which would make me a broader, kind of more notable figure. And then everybody was clamoring to hire my services. I became independent then, right? ⁓ and then I saw how ⁓ projects were being managed when they hired me to do these things and they were being dealt. They weren't necessarily seeing the better interest of the client more than their bottom line and how they can extend this or how the client is not thinking straightly without communicating directly to them. I said, ⁓ you know, if if if I if I'm paying for something, I wish you would come back to me and tell me your your thoughts or interpretation, your education, your your whatever you have, they bring to me. And so we can discuss it and negotiate the next path forward. But if you're just talking behind their back and doing all this stuff, it's not good. So then I started then ⁓ venturing into leading projects, leading leading, you know, ⁓ you know, technology projects, and then slowly went into business transformation. Then over time, then we became noted as a people to call when fire hits. So if you're talking the companies like the big four, the Deloitte's Ernst Young, PWCs that come in, ex exceptional companies, but everybody hits a Hits a roadblock or trips over themselves occasionally, clients will call me to fix their mask. And now we were known for that for for a few decades. And then, you know, we're out where we're at now, right? So, you know, here in here in Nevada, we we focus on employing my veterans, not because they're prepared or completely understand what we do and how we operate, but so we can cultivate them and teach them. So long as they're patient with us, we'll be patient with them. We'll introduce them to the industry. And it could be the worst thing in their life, they're gonna be bored. Or they're gonna be excited, you know. So I've traveled the world and experienced things that I've never would have experienced, you know, if it wasn't for me having my own organization, my own business. speaker-0: Well, I think too. I mean, I I get asked quite a bit. And I always say, look, it's never just about money. It's about independence. It's about the ability to do things because I know this is the right way. Absolutely. You know, and I I I would make f I mean, I I know probably the same with you. When I started Winins, I I took a huge pay hit. I mean, I took a huge pay hit. And people thought my my own father thought it was crazy. He says, What are you doing? Why'd you leave Merrill Lynch? Anyway, all right, and I that brings our next question. Leadership. Now There's a phrase we often hear, leadership by example. I mean, we've it's ingrained into us, you know, during our tenure in the military. Do you follow that? Do you see that as important in in your organization yourself? speaker-1: For sure. even in my own company, in my corporate building, right? You know, you'll never see my door closed, right? So I I invite everybody, all my employees, all my staff to walk in to when I'm in the middle of a meeting, in the middle of a negotiation, in the middle of a difficult conversation, to sit there and listen to how I navigate them. Then I want them to question me. It's why would you say this? Common sense would say that you answer it this way, you approach it a specific way. One, it allows me to then right to be able to justify or rationalize how I say things and how I approach things to help them understand the strategy behind it because it's a chess match. It's not a straight conversation. ⁓ or I learn from them. I said, shoot, I didn't think about it. And that that that also kind of you know invites them to be able to lead and to be able to communicate as peers. And I would I tell everybody that I that I come to you know to terms with whether my clients, my my mentees or my employees is we're all peers. We're all we're all on different levels ⁓ of understanding, but we're all in independent, you know, walks of life and experiences that I've probably never touched on either. So we want to learn from each other. And if you're ever in a conversation with me or you're ever in a project with me and you have not learned something new or I haven't learned something new, we failed. Yeah. So that's where you cultivate speaker-0: Well, and I I've often I mean I tell people too, look, I don't mind a complaint, but come with a complaint with a solution. I don't want to hear griping just because of that. And you know, and and also you have to justify your existence in every organization. I mean, you have to show how you're making that input. For sure. All right. Now your family. Now we've talked a little bit about you and Nelly. We know that your family is everything. And and I so you have built this magnificent life in the in Las Vegas in Nevada. You've cultivated these amazing relationships. Mike, somebody moving here, what would you tell them is unique about Nevada as far as building up relationships? speaker-1: It it it is a a a big, you know, a big small town. It has a still kind of, you know, it's a big ⁓ enterprise, right? It's a large, you know, it's a large state, it's a large city, ⁓ but it is a small town feel to it. You are able to create a broader network, ⁓ find more collaborative figures, like-minded people. and ⁓ you know, when I lived in California, I would have never had the governor in my house. I would have never had, you know, I would have never ⁓ you know, ⁓ had at business lease and like when I worked in California, I've had major, you know, major, you know, C level clients come to my house and we'd enjoy time, but it wasn't as personable as it is here. We are we are unique because we don't see ourselves in that grandiose view, right? We're not a this major metropolis mentality, as much as as much potential as this as the state has, we respect. You know, we respect ⁓ each other in the in a specific and unique way that I haven't seen in many, many states. speaker-0: I'd add add a couple of things. Nobody's from here. I mean, most people are not from here. There are a handful of ranching families or Mormon families, or but really, and there's not a pecking order. That you know, you don't find these clicky little groups like you do find in, you know, is both of us found in California. ⁓ the other thing I would also add, I found it interesting, and I I people cannot help themselves. You know, the that we if somebody gone to a top elite school. I always joke in my industry, you'll find out in about 30 seconds that they went to that school, even though they couldn't get in there today if they tried. Here, it's not where did you go to school? It's did you go to school or did you serve in the military? So it's a it's a whole different question. And there's a blend here of blue and white collar wealth. You know, you and I know people that, you know, they own warehouses or automotive garages, and they've done great. They've done fantastic, you know. speaker-1: And and y you know, ⁓ when we had that event at my house, right? We had ⁓ Joe you know, Governor Joe Lombardo there and we you know, we one of the things I mentioned and I mentioned it, you know, when I was it was my turn to talk, was that, you know, I don't qualify a person by the party, I qualify him by the man, by the woman, right? By the person and what you bring to the table for our community. ⁓ so I do value that. I do value the diversity, you know, that that ⁓ that this this city has. And ⁓ and ⁓ to be honest with you, in other states it'd be it'll be a An argument, or you wouldn't invite people because they see same something they don't see eye to eye. Reality, we can bring everybody to the table and we're all civil and we respect each other, respect each other's views. You know, so I appreciate that. And and in business, it's the same thing, right? You know, I might tell a CEO that he's wrong, but that but I'm not saying it in a very eloquent way and respectful way because I'm thinking for the better interest of his organization, right? And that's how we see things, right? I'm not, you know, we're not kissing rings, we're not doing that, not here. speaker-0: Well, you the thing too, we haven't lost our sense of humor here. No. I mean, people here can make fun of each other. I mean, you know, you and I have friends from both political parties. I I can make fun of them. I, you know, they can make fun of me and we go back and forth, and it's never taken personal. No. It's never ever taken personal. Yeah. It's just I find that to be very interesting. All right, let's see here. What's the next question? What are some of the lessons you've learned from working with executive businesses? You is there anything particular that you'd learn from these guys? speaker-1: So, you know, one thing that, you know, I could say I've done several gold mines. I'm gonna give you that as an example. Right. Oddly enough, I have in different parts of the world. and you can't come with the mentality that you've already done one, so you know it. Every operation is different. Be it be it you name it, I've done it. ⁓ but if I come with the mindset I've done this before, so I have all the answers, you've already partially failed the program. ⁓ the reality is you do need to listen, you do need to rationalize, you do need to take that historical value from your past experiences and blend it into the proper solution for your clients. speaker-0: Yeah. Well that's that's interesting. Cause I mean we did talked about earlier that like we joked about the banana thing. Yeah. But you but you can't assume a banana means banana, you know. Or God help you, you know, it might get yourself in trouble. Okay, let's see here. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. speaker-0: Good question. ⁓ how do you think people can better create trust, opening doors and building long-term professional relationships? And I which and I'll add part to that. We just talked about different cultures, people's different education upbringings and or or just different biases. For sure. How do you do it? speaker-1: ⁓ you know, ⁓ I think one, you have to be bold, respectful, and tactful in how you approach things, right? And by I mean that is that you you you know, we sometimes as as younger people tend to kind of bite our tongue and not speak up because we're afraid of maybe the repercussions or the response. Be bold, right? ⁓ you want to be tactful as well, meaning that don't just blurt things out because you want to be bold. ⁓ you want to study it? Like you just mentioned, I've been in different parts of the world. You better believe I study their norms before I walk in and open my mouth, right? So the week before me traveling to a Middle Eastern country, the last thing I want to do is talk about Santa Claus and crosses, right? So the reality is I want to be mindful and respectful of their environment. My beliefs and my thoughts can be completely different than wherever I'm going. And I wanna respect that. And I need to then address you know, make sure that I get them I the response I need tactfully and respectfully, right? So and and that's how we evolve and that's how we learn. speaker-0: Well, and I think too, y when you go around the world and they say, Well, where do you live? Las Vegas. Who doesn't like Las Vegas? I mean unless you I mean, I'm that doesn't mean you you we like it to the same degree, but there's not this, you know, ⁓ gosh, what an awful place, blah, blah, blah, blah. At least I've not found that to be the case. speaker-1: It's a globally recognized name. Yeah. Right. Like it, not like it, have opinions on it. Even in the United States, you know, you know, different states might have opinions on it. But you know, ⁓ it's similar to ⁓ Amsterdam, right? People think, you know, ha you know, ⁓ the Netherlands or Holland is just Amsterdam, but the reality is beautiful farmland outside. But the met the metropolis that is Amsterdam has a unique value. See in Las Vegas, here in the city. It is a booming, you know, you know, again, technological hub, like you said, beautiful things. But you won't you go out and you see people like you or I, people that are going out, you know, from lots, going to school with their kids, going to restaurants and enjoying life. ⁓ and it's just like any other town, but it's ha it's got its unique feel. It has a more you know, for me in my eyes, has has a wealth of opportunities if you seek it and you respect the path, you know, the path and meaning that you respect the people you're communicating with it, understanding that we see in a different we come over different different walks of life and understand things maybe uniquely, but through communication, you know, ⁓ respectful communication, we all evolve and become that much better. And the state is is perfect for that. speaker-0: That and that's our next question. I mean, what do you see as the next opportunities here? I mean, and and which I'll add for you. I mean, I I don't see you ever retiring, Mike. I just well, maybe not doing the same. I mean, you're you run a very high powered company right now. But I mean, I don't see you. I mean, you have your foundation. I mean, you're ⁓ our definition of retirement, people like you and I are vastly different than some other folks. I would agree with that. But where do you see where where's the next big thing here, do you think, in Vegas? speaker-1: Yeah. In Vegas, you know, ⁓ I know there's been big talk about kind of expanding the data centers, right? ⁓ there is opportunity that logistical stuff is as well. Casino game, you know, is I think we we owe it to the casino industry, to the gaming industry to do, you know, to expand ⁓ that those opportunities as well, right? Different ⁓ so I think that's where it's going. On the data side and technology side, people are very fearful of it because they hear automation, they hear artificial intelligence and then there's some kind of fear related to that people are gonna lose their job. I think as a small community field that we have, we can express the word and and educate and expand people to understand that we need to re kind of think how our success is going to be with the new tools and technology that's coming our way and not fear it. But But become part of that ride and then drive it and own it. Right. So I I personally when I talk to my veterans, say, look around you, look at the landscape, look at what's coming down the road and prepare yourself and don't just be impacted and feel like you're victimized by it. Yeah. And and that that doesn't go for my veterans, that goes for the whole community because we are resilient. We've we've demonstrated that. decades and decades and decades here in Las Vegas, right, in Nevada, that we can handle, that we can handle it with less water than any other state. We can handle, right? We can handle things that people say is impossible. And that that right it comes back to our community resilience. So that's why we live here. That's why we love it here. And that's why we're happy to see it grow. speaker-0: I'll add, I'll add to a couple of things. I think this is one of the easiest places to get a business license. This is one of the easiest places to send money and get a license and go to work. You know, there's less red tape. And they're and according to what I saw at the ⁓ Vegas Chamber of Commerce economic development ⁓ meeting, the this new business court they've opened up, it's gonna ri it's gonna eliminate a lot of the more antiquated stuff. For sure. ⁓ Again, just ⁓ everybody here came here w from a different background. ⁓ you know, I think we we also know people here have, you know, everybody has a past. Sure. You know, judgy not, as the good book says, you know, let people prove themselves to you right now, right here. And then at the same time, like you just said, tough people. I mean, I look at some of the kids that come out of UNLV, you know, their idea of a summer job is gardening. In the middle of the or or work in the four PM or four a.m. shift at the casinos. ⁓ how many kids in California would do that? Not that many. Yeah. You know, I would also just say, too, that as you and I both ⁓ raised with, you know, strong values, you know, a lot of folks here go to church. I mean, I find an awful and and different churches, not not all, you know, many people might think it's just a Mormon town. No, it's not. Very different than Salt Lake City. For sure. Mike, what else? What else should what what would you like to add as our as our as our encore to the the Mike Del Prado podcast? You're gonna come back again whether you like it or not. speaker-1: You can have me as many times as you want. speaker-0: With cigars next to it. With some cigars. We'll try that Trump wine that I keep talking about. speaker-1: It's cig we'll have cigars and a drink for sure. Get it done. Absolutely. I'm curious, dude. I didn't want to open it up because I only have one bottle, but next time I would definitely open couple up. speaker-0: Are your are your kids gonna enter your business? If you don't mind like what do you see for your children? speaker-1: So I you know, one of the things that I didn't want to do is kind of press on, you know, what they're going to do in life. ⁓ my son, ⁓ also a veteran, was a corpsman and then became a surgical tech, he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan for a while. I I I'm so proud of, you know, how he found his own self and then got a job here at the state. Right, ⁓ in the technology side. He worked for me for a brief period, but I think he wanted to s show his own metal and create his own thing, right? So that's one I see that he's kinda got a techno you technology, although he's got the medical background and I'm always ready to pursue in any direction he wants to. ⁓ Alexa, my middle child. She ⁓ she she graduated from UNLV, ⁓ got her got her bachelor's year, got her master's degree at USC. ⁓ and then she came back and now she's starting to work for me. So she's ⁓ potentially heir to the throne. She's been now in the trenches with me for a few months, and I and that's why I gave her like two years, pretend spaceship is going to haul me away. Right. So what's gonna happen? You gotta prepare yourself. So I'm telling you, I always give my my staff is to pretend I'm gone in a couple what happens, right? So I always wanted to have that angst and that preparation. And it gives them that same feeling that I've had when I started I you know my daughter has spoken to me personally and said that I feel I got imposter syndrome. So yeah, I I feel that every day and I'm I'm in my fifties. But that that that incentivizes you and pushes you to long as you use that energy appropriately and not in a negative way. And then my youngest one is following the medical route. You know, she just started college, she's got straight A's, I'm so proud of her, you know, and ⁓ she's already getting kudos from the you know from the ⁓ her instructors and professors. So it's it's you know, she's a better student than I ever was, right? I was a solid D student until I even joined the military. Right. So, you know, I'm not I'm not shy to say it, right? I just it just wasn't my mind. You know, my mind was more in a kind of different, you know, how I I learned different things. I learned through experience. Getting beat up a lot. Right. So ⁓ but you know it is refreshing to see that each one of them has made up their mind on how they approach life. and you know, whether executive options being operated directly by them or indirectly by them, I'm just happy that they're happy in what they're doing. speaker-0: Now your daughters, I'm just we're curious, did they ever even consider the military? Was that even in the I knew your son obviously did, but did they think about it? speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ the youngest one, ⁓ she used to kind of just look at my scars and stuff like that and she said, Dad, I wanna I wanna join the military, I wanna be a Navy SEAL, I wanna do this shit. Let's do it. Right. So so, you know, she's she's ⁓ you know, physical phenomena, if you would say that, you know, in her in her life. Luckily she you know, her mind has adjusted now to be in, you know, in the go to the medical field. I don't I say luckily, but I say I th as a dad, as as you know, I'm I might be tough exterior, but I'm just ⁓ you know, the just you know terrified, you know, of decisions that they might make that might put them in harm's way. But nonetheless, I respect it as well, right? That we all do that. We all kind of sacrifice that way. But ⁓ you know, she does one hundred push-ups, you know, she does, you know, wow hundred and seven pounds, does over five hundred and sixty-pound hip throw. She's she's a machine, right? Well, wait, how and you can let she's not that big, she's a tiny little skinny thing, but she's just nothing but power, right? And and I attribute that to Nelly, to my wife as well, right? She's you know, she's a tiny little thing, but she just doesn't know how to give up, right? So when I when we train and when we run and we do, you know, we do, you know, whatever we do, she wants to keep up and she wants to push forward, even if she's gonna drop at the end, right? So speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I appreciate that kind of mentality, right? You don't know how far you're going to, you know, grow if you just keep, you know, trimming back and, you know, pacing yourself. Push yourself. Push yourself. Fall down on your face. Right. And what I d I just finished a speech earlier today and a speaking event. And I tell people, look, I have a shiny book of success, really gold, gold leaf, beautiful book of success. I have a full library full of failure, right? These failures are you take them the way they they that they're meant to be as as training tools. is opportunities to grow, to evolve. Every scar we have physically or mentally or emotionally, you can either leverage it as a crutch, as a deficiency, or you can see it, this is an opportunity for me to evolve and learn from it and maybe teach others. So that's how I see things. speaker-0: Do you think what last question do you think your kids are gonna stay in Las Vegas or do they look out at other places? speaker-1: You know, I I see I see where they they they find value in Las Vegas. And I'll give you kind of a brief kind of history later. When I moved them here, and the reason I moved them here is that my youngest one saw a house that she really, really liked when we were tourists from California, and she said, Dad, can we move here? I was traveling all over the world and I said, So long as we're close to an airport. So much to the chagrin of the rest of my family. And my son was all in a station, Okinawa was just basing my wife and other daughter. ⁓ went ahead and leased the house here and kind of just moved. And then I was flying, you know, and I I forgot what country I was in. And I get a call from the kids and my wife and say, We hate it here. We want to leave. I can't, I can't handle it. I said, you know what? Fine. When I when I finish my my you know my engagement, we'll go, we'll move back to California. So I finished and I come back and I said, Okay, guys, you guys ready to I said, No, we love it here. We we we found it. So they found their roots. It takes a little bit of time. It is a culture shock. Whenever you go somewhere, it's not just in the Las Vegas, any part of the world. It's gonna be a light culture shock. And then so long as you're patient and then you start understanding the value proposition of why you moved here, one, the the economy, two, why you're gonna pay these mad amounts of taxes, right? And then also, you know, the community feel that that that exists here in Las Vegas, why would you go anywhere else? Right. But if they do decide to go it, I'll respect it and I'll appreciate, you know, their decisions for sure. speaker-0: There's the reason asked you that question is that one of the things I'm trying to tell the kids, the young people at UNLV, or for that matter, UNR. Yeah. You don't have to leave. You're you can find a future here. This does not have to be your college town. This can be your home. And so I th that's it's it's important to us. Again, the education, the veterans, all the educational things. We've got to continue to own that base. Mike. I cannot thank you enough, my friend. Appreciate your time today. I know you're busy and I just again, we'll have another one soon. speaker-1: Anytime. I'll bring you cigars next time. speaker-0: There go. All right, everybody. That wraps up this segment of Winning with Wine Ins with Mike Del Prado. Again, if you want to get a hold of Mike or me, please go on the website. We'll certainly ⁓ and we can tell you what what good cigar bars to go to. Absolutely. Just don't tell your wives. Shh, no. Take care, everybody. See you next week. Boy, that time went fast. I hope you had as much fun as I did during this segment of Winning with Wine Inns. Make sure and tune in next week for another round of guest and interesting topics. And if you miss this. speaker-1: Cheers. speaker-0: Make sure and check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or go to our website, winningwithwin's dot com, where there's a lot more information for you to follow. So good luck this next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care.