Latest / Story Scaling / Military Grit Meets Wall Street Goals

Transcript

Military Grit Meets Wall Street Goals · Story Scaling

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Storyscaling by Podcastvideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and family, I am bangled podcastvideos.com.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Thank you sincerely for watching these episodes.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: We just eclipsed 50 episodes, which is really exciting.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: And uh today I have a good brother of mine with me, Roy Blanchard.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: Roy, thanks for joining me, my guy.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, typically when I'm in an area, I'm one of the best dressed in the building.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: Not always, you know, not always number one, but I'm one of the best dressed.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: And then today you just walk in and kind of put me to shame with your fit, bro.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, hey man, I appreciate it.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: You look great.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, man.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Um Roy, we we met um, I don't know, less than a month ago.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: And uh immediately as as we were chopping it up, bro.
0:51
SPEAKER_02: Like you had just this presence about yourself that I thought was not only insightful, but um inspirational to some degree.
0:59
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, man, I gotta get you on the show just to you know converse more and learn more about your story.
1:03
SPEAKER_02: So absolutely.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining me, man.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it again.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, absolutely.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: I put together this bio, and so this is this is what the streets are saying about Roy Blanchett.
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: This is hopefully all good things.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think so.
1:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, I uh did some research, and you know, I want you to let me know, like, man, bang, this is spot on, or you know, tell me if I if I missed some steps here.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: It says today's guest is Roy Blanchett, a veteran, builder, and the kind of person whose reputation is rooted in consistency, service, and the real work.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: Roy is currently a finance student at the University of Arkansas, and he is already making a name for himself, not just for what he's pursuing, but for what he's creating along the way.
1:46
SPEAKER_02: Roy is the president and founder of the University of Arkansas's Merger and Acquisitions Club, a student organization built to develop talent, teach real thinking, and create a pipeline from Fayetteville to the highest levels of finances.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: Starting that club was not just a resume move, it was leadership and motion.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: He saw a gap and built something that helps other students rise along with himself.
2:10
SPEAKER_02: What stands out most about Roy is who he is off the page.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: He is known for being a hardworking guy, a great gentleman, someone who has lived the disciplines of service and responsibility through his military background.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: That experience shows up in how he leads, how he learns, and how he treats people.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Roy represents the kind of character you can trust in a room and the kind of momentum you can't ignore.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: In a world full of shortcuts and loud branding, Roy is doing it in a real way with humility, grit, and a commitment to the things that matter more than just what matters for himself.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, Roy Bletcher.
2:46
unknown: Whew.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: What'd you think?
2:48
SPEAKER_00: That's a good bio, man.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: That's a really good bio.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I mean, I I really appreciate the kind words.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I really do.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's you, bro.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: Like, I didn't I didn't make nothing up.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Like that, that's who you are.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, man.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: When you hear that, what what stands out most to you?
3:07
SPEAKER_02: When, you know, sometimes I feel like as people, we don't always hear ourselves celebrated in certain lights, or you know, you're so busy with your head down, you never really look up to realize.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: So when you read a bio or hear a bio like that, what kind of pops out to you immediately?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I, you know, um again, I'm I'm just like a regular college student, in my opinion.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was doing some um, you know, club work at the University of Arkansas and also, you know, just working really, really hard.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I do really enjoy helping people, and yeah, that's one of the biggest joys out of my life is helping people.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, it's it's nice to hear because you know again, you know, you just um the work you put in, a lot of it is like you never see you know the immediate result of your work, or you know, um, a lot of people don't like see it, so they can't really appreciate it.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, so it's it's kind to hear.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: It's good.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: You know, there there's a lot of things that that drew me to you personally when we were having a conversation because there's certain things that you hold value to that most people would be able to identify with when you hear the word like hard work.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: But I learned very quickly hard work means something different for you than it probably does to most people.
4:24
SPEAKER_02: And we'll get into that.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'm I'm curious, Roy.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: Tell me about just your background, your upbringing, and then we'll get to, you know, kind of how you are today and what made you into the the man that you are today.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, just tell me as as far back as you feel comfortable.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: This is now the Roy Blanchard show.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm originally from Louisiana.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, both sides of my family are originally from Louisiana.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I was born in West Monroe, Louisiana.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, when I was about like probably three or four, my family moved to central Arkansas where I grew up.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a little town called Morralton, Arkansas.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: It's like this little, you know, town of 6,000 people or something.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're driving on the interstate if you blank too hard.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, you could like pass it and not even know.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Moralton.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so I grew up there, you know, went to uh went to some different schools.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, my upbringing was really interesting.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: I didn't grow up with a lot, you know.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a Moralton, it is more of a rural impoverished area, and I wasn't impoverished by any means.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I didn't have to worry about the lights getting cut off or anything like that.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, now that I'm at the University of Arkansas, it's like, you know, some of the kids from Texas and stuff like that would consider me like bare bones poverty by just talking to them in the way they grew up.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, very, very humble beginnings.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my dad, he's a um, he's a college teacher at uh UACCM over there, the community college.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: My mother, she's a um, she was previously an academic advisor and more in the counseling space.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I grew up there my entire life.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: That's uh a little bit about my background.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: What did you think you were gonna do when you were growing up?
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Um honestly, I've been I always knew I was gonna go into like business or finance growing up.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, ever since I was a child, my mother could tell you this.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: I've been trying to get a dollar off of everybody since I, you know, was like three years old.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Really?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was always scheming with something, whether whether it be like a lemonade stand, selling magazines, it was just it was just in me.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, to always be trying to find a way to scale, make money, you know, when I couldn't even get a job, mowing lawns, doing something to get a dollar off of somebody, yeah, yeah, you know, for what I could for what I could do.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:00
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
7:00
SPEAKER_02: So when you found out about like finance and banking as a profession, it was kind of a no-brainer.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: That definitely came a little bit later in my life.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm still pretty young.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm 21.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Um doesn't feel like that with the army and stuff like that.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: I feel a lot older.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that that came a lot later.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, when I when I was 17, I joined the army.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I've almost been for five years now, which is crazy to think about.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's gone by so quickly.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was about 17, you know, joined the Arkansas Army National Guard.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: And my whole thing was, you know, I wanted to be um in the Army for the rest of my life, 30 years.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: I I wanted to make it my full life, my full career, and I really couldn't see myself doing anything else.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: So um yeah, corporate finance kind of came in way, way later in my life.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: How do how did you get to the army?
8:03
SPEAKER_02: Like what was the decision?
8:04
SPEAKER_02: You know, you're 17, relatively young.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like you said, you're 21 now, bro.
8:09
SPEAKER_02: Like you so kind of still young, you know, with with you know, plenty of experience, but what makes you say, like, okay, I'm gonna go to the the service, and then this is gonna be my career path.
8:20
SPEAKER_02: Like, what what what led you there?
8:22
SPEAKER_00: So I I have a really big military family.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: So I'm fifth generation army.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, five generations of you know, my family been in the army, including myself and you know, my younger brother, he's in the Air Force actually right now.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: So we have a pretty big military family, so that's always been something on my mind.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, life for me was really, really weird during like 1617 because COVID happened.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: COVID happened when I was 15.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was a sophomore in high school, and then I turned um 16 like a month into COVID.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So that really ruined, not ruined, but just really changed, you know, the ending of my my high school years.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I was in lockdown for probably a year and it was just driving me crazy.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be honest.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: As most people my age who are like, you know, sophomore, junior, senior in high school during COVID, it just really just ruined the high school experience for us, you know?
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, dude, I gotta, I gotta do something.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I got I gotta do something.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to get my college paid for.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: My dad, he did the same thing.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: He was in the Louisiana National Guard.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: He got his college paid for by that way.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, well, I got a year left of high school, and I really do not want to do this online stuff anymore.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: So I dropped out of high school when I was 16, got my GED, uh, and then pretty much less than two months after I turned 17, I joined the army.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: So, and that that's kind of what made me want to do it.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: When you talk about that COVID season of life, like explain some of the the things that you were experiencing in that time.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: Like, because it's interesting.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: By the time COVID happened, I was already out of college and working, you know what I mean?
10:24
SPEAKER_02: But you're the second person I've spoken to in recent history that was saying, like, man, I was in high school during this time, and it just changed everything, you know what I mean?
10:33
SPEAKER_02: And so, like, what were some of those things that you were you were saying in in you know, during COVID?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it was just um, it was really strange for me.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: It was really, really strange, and it was also strange for my parents because and grandparents too, you know, in the past three generations of America, we really haven't been through a pandemic like that, you know.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was like Spanish flu and stuff like that in the 20s, but we had never been through something like that before.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: So we were really unprepared, and you really can't be prepared for something like that.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And it it was just um, it was very, very strange, you know, social isolation was creeping up on a lot of people my age.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people my age at the time, you know, flocked to social media or different things, and it was just it was just really, really strange what kind of happened during COVID.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like something in our culture shifted almost during COVID.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I feel like things became a lot more politicized.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: We couldn't, you know, there was no more middle ground where we couldn't come together as people anymore.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: It was either, you know, very, very far left or very, very far right.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: It's like almost the middle ground completely disappeared during COVID for me, you know.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: And that that was really sad for me to see that how you know politicized things have become and how we couldn't even have um a middle ground anymore.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what I was seeing.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Wow, yeah.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's interesting.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: I I I feel that I feel I feel the weight of that.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: It feels like what I say is it seems like there's no more gray area.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Like nuance just feels like it's hard and it doesn't really exist anymore.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: It's either this, only this, or this, only this.
12:21
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, man, what about every single thing in between?
12:24
SPEAKER_02: And so I I resonate with that.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's so much gray.
12:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:28
SPEAKER_02: So totally.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: So you you go you go to the service, and what tell me about your experience there?
12:36
SPEAKER_02: Like, and and then getting out or you know, I'm still in.
12:40
SPEAKER_02: Okay, you're still in.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: I am so you know, going into the army, it grows you up really, really quick.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: So I went in at 17.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I did basic training at Fort Lunawood, Missouri during the fall and winter time.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: It was the coldest I've ever been in my entire life.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, but really going into the army, it really taught me just, you know, the basis of who I am and how I operate to this day of leadership and um doing what you say, integrity at an all-time high.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: You have to have it as a leader.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: You really have to have high integrity, you know, to keep yourself in check.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's also in um to make others have confidence in you.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Because if no one can trust what you say or what you do behind the scenes, they're not gonna trust your leadership.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, it also taught me a lot of hard work.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: A lot of hard work.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: And so after basic training, I went to um, you know, I was a heavy equipment operator before I got into combat arms.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I also did my job training at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And then came home.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, well, I want to go active duty at this point.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: So to kind of get a little taste of active duty, I volunteered for a deployment.
14:03
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, volunteered for a deployment.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, I deployed with the 39th Infantry Brigade combat team to um to Europe.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: I was in Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland, uh, about 45 minutes off the Ukrainian border.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And we uh we trained about 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers when I was there.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I was there for from like 18 to 19.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in Europe for like over 10 months.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: That was something.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: So when you think about, when you look back, I got a couple questions.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: You know, was basic training the hardest thing you've done up until that point?
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, I wouldn't say so.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, yeah.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh basic training was um, it was difficult.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's a lot different than how it is now.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, the army was is definitely been putting a lot of restrictions on um, you know, what drill sergeants can and can't do.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, one of the famous lines from one of my drill sergeants, he was, you know, he was complaining about some kind of the rules that the army was giving down about what the drill sergeants could and can't do.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And he just looked at us with just this the most terrifying glare that I'd ever seen before in my entire life.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: He said, word for word, I don't care what kind of regulation comes down, I will do whatever I want, and it'll take an act of God to demote me.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, whoa, whoa, okay, and that was like my first week in the army, and that was like, I was like, whoa, yeah, okay, yeah.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, it it was difficult, but you know, I I I grew up in Morralton as you know, a very, you know, not a lot of opportunities.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like the most difficult thing I'd been through at that point.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it definitely like reinforced just um, I don't know, those values that I need, and I think for all for all people, you know, you need.
16:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:07
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, it it was difficult though.
16:09
SPEAKER_02: How much of it is is a mental thing and how much of it is a physical thing?
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a good mix of both.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, you do have to go in, I would say physically fit, you know.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: So like we would be, I mean, you know, the army they call it smoking sessions where you know they pretty much work you out.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, in the very, very beginning, I mean, it was hours.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: It was hours a day.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: It was morning, afternoon, night, before meals, after meals, you know, you mess up once, you're getting taken out of your bed at you know, 9:30 at night, getting smoked in the mud outside, have to go back up, can't take a shower, sleep in your bed dirty, wake up, and then at like four and then PT again, you know.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: So, but also it is it is a lot of mental because you know, you're not around your family.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people who are young like that, like me joining, we didn't, you know, we grew up around our families, very, very close.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: And then you couldn't see them.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, you couldn't see your girlfriend, you couldn't see um, you know, your people that really just kind of made you who you are.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: So it it was definitely a mental game, too.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it definitely was with sleep deprivation and all that stuff.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It was definitely a mental game.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Then you you deploy, you volunteer for deployment.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that was that was something.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: Tell me about that.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Like what what got you to make that decision?
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, I wanted to go active duty.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, my big thing was I want I really wanted to go active duty.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I knew a deployment was coming up, so I was like, okay, get me on.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: So I wasn't ready to go back to college at the time.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: I really wasn't.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I was I wasn't ready.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: So I want to go on a deployment.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And I volunteered for a deployment.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: So that was just um it was something, you know, it grows you up very, very quick.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I thought basic training was hard, but deployment was very, very difficult.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: What were some of the the the most difficult things you encountered?
18:19
SPEAKER_02: Like I know you talk about even that basic training missing your family.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: I I can imagine you know, being on the whole other side of the world.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure that plays into it.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: What else were you experiencing that was like, man, this is tougher than I thought.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was just um being away from home.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and also I feel like growing up you see a lot of like black and white scenarios or things are one way or another.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But once you're on a deployment, there's so much gray.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: There's so much gray going on, and especially dealing with what I was dealing with with Ukrainians, there was a lot of black and gray.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, you know, just there was just gray everywhere.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the media is gonna tell you something, and a lot of people are gonna tell you something until you get over there and you're like, uh, this is not anything like what was being talked about on the news.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Totally.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: So it was just so much gray, and it was very hard to like deal with.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: You know?
19:25
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: So you make a decision.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: When do you decide to go back to school?
19:30
SPEAKER_02: Like walk me through going from deployment, then you get back, I imagine, and now it's like it's time to go to school.
19:35
SPEAKER_02: Walk me through that process.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: So it was a little bit um longer than that.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: So I got home from deployment.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: I had really no idea what I wanted to do.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Because after coming off my deployment, I knew I wanted to get out of the military.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: I did not want to make it my career anymore.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh I really didn't.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: And um, there was just a lot of things with the army that You know, I I'm still in, so obviously I can't say like too much.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Um but really it's just how the army deals with people who are coming off deployments.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: I feel is very I think they need to do a better job at it, I'm gonna be honest, because you know, we did um a seminar of you know two days after we got off deployment, and a lot of it they were just talking about how to use your, you know, military benefits, you know, on how to, you know, go back to college or you know, use your, you know, military benefits to get money off plane tickets.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: And you know, in my mind, it's like, guys, like you're talking to a bunch of like broke young people who are coming off deployment, and then at the very end they did like a 30 minute to an hour seminar on you know reintegration in society.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like uh I I really didn't like that.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Um so after that, I kind of just decided to move my focus more to the civilian career.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: And I moved up to Bentonville uh with my little brother at the time.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, we we lived in Bentonville and decided to go into real estate.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Oh, cool.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: So I got I got into real estate because I was just, you know, driving around the area and, you know, my mind is like trying to get a dollar off everybody.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: I saw a lot of houses for sale and I saw a lot of really, really nice properties.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, why not get into it?
21:36
SPEAKER_00: What made you come to Bentonville in the first place?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Did he convince you?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: What was that year decision?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, he was going to college at the University of Arkansas.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And he was um gonna be moving to Bentonville, and I was like, well, I gotta get out of Moralton.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is like there's no opportunity here.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna be like stuck here for the rest of my life.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't do something.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: So I moved to Bentonville based on that.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: It was a couple days after I got off deployment where I moved in with him into our apartment in Bentonville.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And then immediately from there, I started, you know, studying for my real estate licensing.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: And it was just, it was a lot of that was like, I feel like that's when the grind really began.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:20
SPEAKER_02: I think that is is I know some some buddies of mine that are realtors, and you know, is that grueling?
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Like, is it a crazy yeah?
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: A lot of, you know, real estate brokerages are gonna tell you, you know, there's a lot of great money to be made and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's all true.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: That that is very true.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of good money to be made.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: But they don't tell you your first year is your hardest.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, your first year is the most grueling year.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really, really difficult.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, because you're working off 100% commission, 100% commission.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, for me, I was working probably over 80 hours plus a week.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, from the time I got home from deployment.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, even now, I'm working about 80 hours a week.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was just very, very grueling and it was hard, you know, dealing with, you know, I was trying to do at least three to four open houses a week.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And also, you know, doing my cold calls, prospecting, you know, things for other agents.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And I got about like two grand in six months on the start of that year.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm gonna start that year.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, thankfully I had some money saved from deployment.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was it was really, really challenging.
23:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: It really was.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: So you get to a point where you're like, okay, this is not sustainable.
23:49
SPEAKER_02: I gotta make a pivot.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's exactly what happened.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: It was just like, okay, I am I'm going around in circles here, and I hate not making money.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the thing I really hate.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I gotta go back to college.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, during the end of my real estate, I kind of got involved in uh commercial real estate.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: And I was uh talking to a lot of commercial real estate brokers, and I was learning more about the financial modeling side of like a commercial real estate deal, you know, where it was like, okay, you know, what's the gonna be the return on buying this property?
24:26
SPEAKER_00: And you know, looking at all that, and I really, really enjoyed that analytical side of it.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, after I was discovering that, and I was like, okay, well, I want to go back to college.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: So originally I wanted to go for economics, but you know, looking more into economics, it's like I gotta find something that makes more money.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Um so I just looked up career.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, what can make me a great amount of money?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: What will have me, you know, helping people, and what will have me, you know, working on a large, large scale, you know, large impact.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, what also involves like a more analytical side to business, and it was investment banking.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how I came across investment banking.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: And I immediately got started in the uh in my finance degree at um, you know, went to the community college at um that my dad worked at because my scores were so low I couldn't get into the University of Arkansas originally.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: I got rejected from the University of Arkansas and I had to work my way up through a community college before I got to the University of Arkansas.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I was working as a retail bank teller at the time.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, right after that, pretty much I got involved in investment banking, which is crazy in itself that I actually got the opportunity to do that.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:52
SPEAKER_02: Is that a competitive field?
25:55
SPEAKER_02: Is that, you know, you don't I I haven't met many investment bankers.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: Um, and is that because it's just not as common?
26:04
SPEAKER_02: Is that because it's a super difficult uh, you know, job to acquire?
26:09
SPEAKER_02: Like it's difficult.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's extremely difficult.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: It's hyper competitive.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: It is probably one of the most challenging, you know, careers in finance to one get into and also make a career out of.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: It's very, very difficult.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, thankfully, I got this really niche opportunity at the firm I'm currently interning with over, it was about over a year ago when I first, you know, introduced myself to them.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: But it was um, yeah, it's extremely difficult.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: It really is.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: The career is extremely difficult, hours are difficult.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I love it.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love it, you know, and I love the firm I'm currently interning with.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: It's been a great learning experience.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: I've you know, absolutely it's been great.
27:01
SPEAKER_02: Talk about the there, there's a part of you that I caught on to pretty quickly that doesn't view um what most will consider failure the same way.
27:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: So I feel like you have an uncanny knack for pushing through even when a door seems to be shut, whether that's you know, you encounter some friction or some turbulence in the service, whether that's you didn't get admitted to the university the first time, but you kept knocking, you know what I mean?
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Like, talk about that part of you.
27:32
SPEAKER_02: Where does that resilience slash just kind of stick to itness come from?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I have to give that one, that one to my mom.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, I I have to give that one to my mom.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: My mom really, you know, my mom, I I mean, her story is absolutely amazing.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, she's a great woman.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: She grew up on the south side of Monroe and, you know, single mother household.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's the first person in her family on her side to get her bachelor's degree.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Also get her master's degree.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, she really enforced resilience in me because, you know, one of her quotes that I I have these days is like, um, you know, when success is your only option, it makes it pretty easy, you know?
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: So like it doesn't matter to me what happens.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: And um it really doesn't.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna push through and I'm gonna find a way to make it happen.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's an unconventional route.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I really don't believe in conventional thinking.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I think the most American thing is to be unconventional.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Because look, you know, if we wanted to stay conventional thinkers, we would still be owned by the British.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, nobody in their who was probably quote unquote in their right mind at the time was like, yeah, let's start a revolution and let's become our own people.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: That was some unconventional thinking right there.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I absolutely love that.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: And I've always had that my entire life because my story's not been conventional.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: You don't see many, you know, I'm not trying to tune horn or anything.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: You don't, you don't see many high school dropouts who join the army uh, you know, going into investment banking and doing all this stuff.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: So I I a hundred percent believe in um unconventional thinking.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I I just learned from an early age, if you want something, you have to get it.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: There, I I don't I've never believed in a handout my entire life.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Every single connection I've ever had in real estate and um, you know, corporate finance, I've had to develop myself.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: I've had to go out and get it because, you know, no one's gonna give me a handout.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna knock on my door at eight o'clock in the morning wearing a suit saying, Hey, you know, I don't know you, but I would love to give you a job.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: That's never gonna happen.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: And life doesn't work itself out.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have this opinion that you, you know, can't be intentional or you shouldn't be intentional because you know, life will just work itself out and everything will be great.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: That is not real.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's not reality.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and also I feel like a lot of people, you know, especially from like the social media age, they have this mixed misconception, you know, that social media is real and that, you know, success just happened.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, you see 21-year-olds, 20-year-olds driving around in Lamborghinis and Ferrari, Ferraris who are making a lot of money, you know, or you know, they may be sponsored by some gambling app where, you know, oh my gosh, I made$50,000 in one day.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's all rigged on social media.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they don't tell you they have managers who are renting out the Ferraris or, you know, setting up rigged gambling games to where they can win a lot of money so that other people can get involved in the gambling game, these online games, and lose a lot of money in return.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, a lot of people just see this quick success and they get you know really bogged down when it doesn't come to them immediately.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: It's hard work at the end of the day.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: If you if you want to be successful more than you want to sleep, more than you want to eat, you're gonna be successful.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we gotta let that just breathe for a second.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
31:34
SPEAKER_02: I so now we're getting we're getting to the the part of the conversation that I feel like is what you know made me connect with you.
31:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, because you said something that I think is profound and also troubling to me.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: But with my generation and even your generation, there is this maybe false sense of hope and security that things just play themselves out.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: And I think to so I think you can hold that belief to some degree.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but like, I mean, it's it's extreme.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: You find people who really think that they can do nothing at all, yeah, and everything will fall into place exactly like they want it to.
32:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:18
SPEAKER_02: And it's it's interesting to me because I'm like, oh man, you know, we might be in trouble.
32:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: Like if more people start to hold that belief where it's like, I mean, you can think about getting dressed in the morning.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: Like, if you don't get up and put your shirt on, then you're not gonna have a shirt on.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
32:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, at some point you have to do something.
32:41
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of how my brain breaks it down.
32:42
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, I'm all for optimism and hope and belief that things will work in your favor.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: Like, I I believe that.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: But it's also like, but at some point you have to do something.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: You gotta put in the work.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:55
SPEAKER_02: And so where, where, I mean, even that, like, why don't you believe that?
33:01
SPEAKER_02: Like, why don't you see it like everybody else in the social media age of like, man, it'll just work out.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: Like everything will, you know, what was your rude awakening or your wake-up call to to, you know?
33:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: I've just always had hard workers in my life.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: I've never I've never had people in my life who have never been hard workers.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, my my grandfather, he was a traveling salesman for Procter and Gamble his entire career.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, he he was a workaholic to a fault.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually, um, you know, as he got older, he got into um addiction recovery counseling, which is what he really wanted to do with his life, and he was great at it.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, he did that.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: And then my uncle, he's an extremely hard worker in Louisiana.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: My father, to his own, you know, his certain way when it comes to projects and, you know, creating his college courses.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: He's an extremely hard worker.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: My mother is one of the hardest working people I've ever met in my entire life.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just crazy.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she built herself from nothing.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: Nothing, you know, growing up in the south side of Monroe and then just working herself through college.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she worked a full-time job going to college full-time, no scholarships and nothing.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: That woman had to live in her car, you know, to make it, and she made it, you know, and it's just like so incredible.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: So I've always had people in my life who have always told me hard work is important and hard work is necessary.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've never had people, you know, who were from generational wealth or anything giving me handout ever.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've had to get everything, you know, through my family and on my own, you know, through their sport.
34:51
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting because, like you said, you know, we we teach this almost like smoke and mirrors.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like social media, I have to remind myself, like, it's not a full picture of a story.
35:03
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
35:04
SPEAKER_02: Like, we've seen recently people in those exact scenarios, like a guy's driving a nice car, and then the rental company will comment on the post and be like, Did you enjoy this man?
35:16
SPEAKER_02: Like, make sure you turn it back in.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
35:18
SPEAKER_02: And so it's uh, you mind if I throw in a zen?
35:21
SPEAKER_02: No, no, you're you.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, do your thing.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Like, I got to, dude.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: I got to.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, do your thing.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: I I just think honestly, part of it's a psychological operation.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be honest.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: If we want to get into more uh conspiracy theory level stuff, come on.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's a lot of lies that the rich people tell, you know, people who are impoverished to do to keep them poor.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: And that that's extremely true, whether it be um, you know, buying the newest car immediately, buying the newest phone, don't worry about, you know, getting your family out of debt, don't worry about anything down the line or generationally.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Think in the moment.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's a poverty mindset of living day to day, not thinking, you know, 20 years down the line.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like a lot of this mentality comes from these companies and, you know, extremely wealthy people who don't want to see impoverished people get out of poverty.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's just like a lottery ticket.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: It's just like a lottery ticket.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, why why do they have gas stations in every single poor neighborhood with a bunch of, you know, scratch offs and liquor?
36:39
SPEAKER_00: They want to get you drunk and they want to get you to, you know, get in this moment and thinking of get rich quick, you know, and they just want to feed that mentality.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: So the middle class continues to dissolve and the separation between impoverished and you know rich people gets gets even farther.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I believe it's definitely part of a bigger, a bigger motivation, you know, and you're not gonna make, you know, tons of money off, you know, some gambling app or anything like that.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, unless you're like doing some nerdy stuff, like studying probability for like blackjack or something, yeah, and putting a lot of hours into it.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: No, I I a hundred percent believe it's a psychological operation from these, you know, larger companies and stuff like that to keep keep the poor people in that mentality.
37:31
SPEAKER_02: What's your insight or your encouragementslash advice to a person who it has that way of thinking of like, man, things are just gonna come to me?
37:39
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to to, you know, no, you gotta really go out and work for it.
37:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, what would you say to that person that's that's stuck in that mindset of like, you know?
37:50
SPEAKER_02: Has it worked before?
37:52
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I would say.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, has it worked for your family in the past?
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Has it has it worked for you?
37:59
SPEAKER_00: What would what would you say to your children if they're blowing through savings and they're just sitting around on their couch playing some gambling game or you know, doing this or doing that, expecting life to work out?
38:11
SPEAKER_00: What would you think?
38:12
SPEAKER_00: You probably wouldn't think any better.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: And every person wants their children to have a better life than them.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, whatever, fine.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: You want to have the mentality, you don't want to get anywhere.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Do you really want your children to suffer because you have that mentality?
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Do you really want to blow through your savings and not leave your child anything because you want to live for today and not think about 30 years from now?
38:38
SPEAKER_00: You really have to think about that stuff.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, if they want to continue to have that mentality, you know, it's like you can lead a horse to water, but you can't, you know, make him drink.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can you can only help people so much until it's just like you gotta, you gotta let go, you know?
38:57
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I love helping people.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the biggest parts of myself, is especially with this club and you know, some of the people I've helped mentored in the space, is like, I'm gonna help you, but if you're not putting in the work and if you're wasting my time, then we we gotta call it quits at that point.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: And you gotta figure it out.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, so that that's what I would say is just has it worked before?
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is always no.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: No, yeah.
39:23
SPEAKER_02: It's always no.
39:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:25
SPEAKER_02: You know, tell me about the club.
39:26
SPEAKER_02: How do we get started in uh mergers and acquisitions?
39:29
SPEAKER_02: What made you, yeah, you know what I mean, even launch that and then talk about some of your proudest moments so far?
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: So I um I got to the University of Arkansas, it was earlier this year.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I'd already been interning in investment banking at my firm and uh mergers and acquisitions, and you know, it's called the product crew.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, every, you know, different kind of company, I'm just purely mergers and acquisitions.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: It's what I've always done in the field.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And I noticed there was really no club or organization or anything at the University of Arkansas that, you know, filled that need of people wanting to go into that field.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, you have the investment banking club, but I feel like that club is very, very generalist.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was part of it.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, was an officer in the organization, but it's very generalist.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, people think of investment banking as, you know, primarily mergers and acquisitions, but investment banking is so many different things.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's helping a company go public.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, help uh facilitating the buying and selling of companies.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, helping either raise money for a company, whether it be debt or equity.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's such a large field, yeah.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I was like, okay, this a lot of these clubs are going off assumptions about what the field actually is.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: They have no experience, they have, you know, no idea what they're doing, and you know, they don't they can't give any real world insights because they don't have any.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Right.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: And that's not like shaming anybody.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: It's just I'm in a very weird position because most people my age have only had three months, two months internship.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: I've had a full year of doing the actual work, right?
41:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, more of an associate level role.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: And um in the firm, it's like nobody has that.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to get back to people who wanted to do that.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: So I started the um the organization early in the summer.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: I was building it out.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: That was also when I was doing my full-time internship, taking 11 hours worth of college in the summer and also building out the club, you know, getting probably three to four hours.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: I was about to sleep.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: How many hours were you working at that time of day?
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Um roughly, not to deter too much, but I mean, it was probably 18 to 20 a day.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was a horrible amount of hours.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: It really was, but it was almost like obsessive, the amount of hours I was working because I knew it needed to get done.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: I knew it needed to get done, and it was just like, okay, I don't have a girlfriend, I don't have a wife, I don't have a child right now.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Right now is the time to be selfish and to build everything out.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: So I built the club out, and then, you know, I I have an excellent team who helped me with it.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my um, my second command, Spencer Garing, and also one of uh the directors over there, his name is um, you know, Sam Boris.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, those two guys have really helped build this out to in in more than what I could have ever dreamed it could have been.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Spencer and Sam.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shout out to those guys, like seriously.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, one of my guys, he um, you know, Sam, he uh recently got an offer at uh PNC.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: All right.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna be working there in their uh corporate banking Phoenix.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to him.
43:02
SPEAKER_00: He he worked really hard for that.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, this club is really getting people prepared for investment banking.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I I really do a lot of things out of spite, and I really enjoy that.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people say don't work out of spite.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: I say do work out of spite because you know, I I've talked to some, you know, Ivy League guys, and their opinions about people from Arkansas, I mean, a lot of it is just really gross.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be honest.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, they see us as a flyover state, they see us as this or that.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: And Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, you know, great institutions, but a lot of them only hire from Ivy League institutions.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: They directly go from there.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: And I saw Arkansas as a really underserved community.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Really did.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, you know, we have so much talent here, and I know we can do better than them.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, this organization that I've helped create and founded, it's only taken the best of the best, the people who want it.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And some of my proudest moments in the organization is when I've taken a freshman in college, and they knew nothing when we first started working together.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, they're they're putting together financial models.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, their their knowledge is so great.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, their knowledge is almost that of a junior in college, what they're doing right now, and they're operating at a level that when I was their age of like 18, I wouldn't even be thinking about.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I wouldn't even know how to do.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: And so I see these guys going from, you know, not knowing anything to knowing so much.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: And then now they're getting out of space where they want to help other people.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's also one of the things about leadership is that you also you always have to be thinking about a replacement plan.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Always, because if you don't, the organization's gonna die with you.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: And that's been one of my biggest things is not gatekeeping information, is that I'm always setting up a plan to where I know eventually my time at the organization will come to an end.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: I would love to stay involved, but you know, it's it's gonna come to an end eventually, where I can't have that much influence on it.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: So I got to train these guys up to where guys and girls, to where, you know, they're operating on my level by the time I leave, to where, you know, we can just continuously grow, get bigger and better, and really just make Arkansas a hub for investment banking.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: And I think we can really, really do that.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: And Stevens Investment Banking has done a wonderful job at that.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Stevens, shout out to Stevens, shout out to Stevens honestly.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: Stevens Investment Banking, I mean, they they started in Arkansas, they are an Arkansas-based investment bank, and I mean, they have just done such good things for the Arkansas community and Arkansas businesses and Arkansas students, especially.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
46:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's kind of my the stuff about the clubs.
46:14
SPEAKER_02: I love it, bro.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: And I and I love to hear your your pride in this area.
46:18
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
46:19
SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people do see us in a certain light.
46:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think some of that's cultural.
46:26
SPEAKER_02: I think some of that's how we're marketed by media.
46:29
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
46:29
SPEAKER_02: But it takes people, you know, that are saying, like, nah, we do have a different story to tell.
46:34
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
46:35
SPEAKER_02: And this is now the narrative.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
46:37
SPEAKER_02: 100%.
46:38
SPEAKER_02: I think that's beautiful, man.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: That that's your your stance.
46:40
SPEAKER_02: What do you see?
46:41
SPEAKER_02: Best case scenario, next five years for you, what happened?
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Next five years.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I I would definitely like to get involved in community theater again because I was definitely I'm a big artsy guy.
46:55
SPEAKER_00: Most people don't know that about me.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm a big poetry guy.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: I love acting.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: See, I wouldn't have guessed that.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't have flagged you for that.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of people just see, you know, me as some kind of yuppie or something like that as and do an investment banking.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I'm a very big artsy guy.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, I would love to still be involved in community theater because that's what I also grew up doing is being involved in theater.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: And if, you know, you uh search hard enough, you can you can find some real stuff in community theater.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I would love to graduate college, you know, very, very soon, get my uh MBA and continue to work in investment banking.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: That's what I really want to do.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: And also just find a way to where Arkansas students can just become the best they can.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: And just, you know, if that's eventually setting up a foundation or, you know, something like that for education, really just building out the Arkansas corporate finance sphere in Arkansas.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what I really, really want to do over the next five years.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, on a you know, more personal level, you know, probably be married, have children, start my family in the next five years.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: That's really important to me.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: Family is always important.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's kind of where I see myself in five years.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
48:18
SPEAKER_02: That's a great question, man.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: Um because I know you recently got married.
48:23
SPEAKER_02: We talked about that.
48:24
SPEAKER_02: I did.
48:24
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to the missus, love you.
48:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, we got a lot of similar interests.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: I got a heart for people, I got a heart for what I would consider.
48:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, I heard a man, uh uh artist out of New Orleans.
48:36
SPEAKER_02: His name is B.
48:37
SPEAKER_02: Mike.
48:38
SPEAKER_02: He has a community uh center down there where he teaches kids how to paint, and he invests a lot into the community that is under resource.
48:45
SPEAKER_02: And so what he says is you gotta paint where it ain't.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: And so you gotta just bring those resources and you know what I mean.
48:51
SPEAKER_02: And so definitely some in the next five years, I would like to be curating some more community events, music, food, entertainment, just connecting people over art.
49:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, I would love to be working for you know this company in a different sector in five years.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, we're franchising pretty soon.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: And so in five years, hopefully.
49:14
SPEAKER_02: Really?
49:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I'm talking about like effective processes now.
49:19
SPEAKER_02: Like we're in the process.
49:19
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
49:20
SPEAKER_02: Man, it's so fun.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: And so hopefully by that time we done popped up a few more of these, you know, just in the region and and beyond.
49:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I'll be overseeing some of that.
49:30
SPEAKER_02: Um making a lot more music, like you.
49:33
SPEAKER_02: I'm a poet, I'm a writer, and so like, you know, and I do music and so making a lot more artwork and being able to travel and see some different things off of that artwork and and figure out the line between uh creativity and commerce.
49:46
SPEAKER_02: I think it's interesting when you are a creative, it is, you know, you got the music business, and so music and art is one thing, and business is one thing, and they typically don't marry what yeah, but the the most impactful and successful artists figure out how to stay true and hold the integrity of their artwork while you know being able to make commerce.
50:09
SPEAKER_02: And so right now I'm in the middle of what does that look like along with the social media age that we talked about?
50:14
SPEAKER_02: How do you show up authentically and you know, honor yourself while still putting yourself out there?
50:19
SPEAKER_02: So I know that's high, high level, not super practical steps, but uh in five years, the the hope is to be doing a lot of what I'm doing now, just on a larger scale.
50:29
SPEAKER_02: You can do it.
50:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
50:31
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do it.
50:31
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna do it.
50:32
SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
50:33
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna revisit this combo in five years.
50:35
SPEAKER_02: 100%, you know, and look back on you know what we've been able to accomplish.
50:39
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, man.
50:40
SPEAKER_02: You got this, dude.
50:41
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you, brother.
50:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I believe in you, dude.
50:43
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, man.
50:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh I believe I feel that, and and it's reciprocated, bro.
50:48
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm I'm looking forward to continuing this dialogue and continuing this friendship and just you know, seeing what happens for both of us.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: But thank you for joining us today, my man.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me on.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if anybody, you might if I do a little Please.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: I was just about to say where we can follow you, like anything you need to shout out, drop it.
51:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, if you're a person interested in investment banking, if you're a college student, you know, at uh UCA, University of Arkansas, wherever you may be at in Arkansas, hit me up on LinkedIn.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: I would really be happy to have any conversations with you if you're interested in joining the Army, um, you know, whether it be officer level, enlisted level, I'd love to give my insights and help whatever I can.
51:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I'm always down for a coffee chat or just a conversation on investment banking, or you know, if you need somebody to give you some motivation or anything like that, on you come from a rural area like myself, and you need someone who is uh just want to give you some motivation or even talk to about that stuff, please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: Why are you the man, brother?
51:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate this.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me on.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.