I need to fight. We're grateful for the order we have, but that's, I think it's important,
you know, visionaries if, you know, starting right in with that alone, like visionaries,
if you got a bunch of tabs open, you know, and different systems for your tabs, you have
far more order than most people give you credit for.
Exactly. And it's bizarre because more often than not, I know where certain tabs are. Like
you build muscle memory. It's like, well, the ones that I've been saving for there are
there and it's interesting. It's almost a different kind of like loyalty metric to certain
products or brands or whatever you keep on there, you know.
I love that. I love it. So you were just talking to me about, you're teaching me about how
the order of your tabs is really in essence, the priority of the relationship. And because
we were talking about hang tight, I've had hang tight open since we met. When was it
two weeks ago, three weeks ago?
Give or take. It feels like a long time.
It feels like years. Yes, it does. And so like, I'm glad you validated that, you know,
like a lot of people would be offended. Like, man, like, well, one, why do you have so many
tabs open? Two, you know, like really? Like you didn't get to my stuff. You know, like,
what do you do with your time? You know, and you know, as somebody who's run companies
with 175 team members, like every day, there's a presentation of tons of priorities. And
so we don't always get to the things that we want to the most. And what do you, I guess
as a leadership, let's dive in a little bit prematurely. What, how do you advise your
executives when they're feeling, you know, like they're drowning and like they've got
so many wonderful things that they need to get done. They can't get to it all. What do
you tell team members like that?
I think it's a great question. And I think you're the first person asking that. I think
it's my approach is more about why are we even doing this? Right. It's going to the
core, the North Star, the why. And I think if you, if you happen to find yourself in
a leadership role, let alone an executive role, you're there for a reason. Right. Like
there's, it's not like, well, I guess we backfilled it with you. Right. No, because you're a leader,
you have potential and someone typically the co-founders, the CEO, the board had that instinct
that you're the right person for that job. And a lot of hope and faith was put into that
job. I just tell them like, remember why you're here in the first place. Right. I didn't bring
you on board because I knew that you could fix everything. That would be naive of me
to expect, but I brought you on board because I know you can figure it out and you know
how to bring the right resources. You know how to ask the help, you know, how to rally
the right team around it. And I think the whole swim or sink culture, right. It's, it's
too standard. And I guess regretfully, I don't think it's going to go away. It's just the
fact of life in any aspect, even beyond the C-suites and the boardrooms and all that in
life. Right. But I think we just have to keep going back to that core. Why, why are we doing
this? Why, why this job? Right. Of all the different things you could be doing in life,
you choose to be here. And more often than not, that will bring that aha. Like you're
right. Like it's not about making my numbers. It's not about improving this metric. It's
about the big picture. And when we can tie it to that, that vision, right. I think it
changes the paradigm and it just realigns the conversation. It's like, that's why we're
here. Now let's get to it. You know? Oh my goodness. I love that. Um, one of the things
that I love that you said too is while we're not going to eliminate the sink or swim culture
that's out there, we can't eliminate it from our home. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. We can eliminate
it from our brand. Um, and that's, that's the beauty of knowing like, you know, you
don't have to follow the grind or hustle culture. We don't have to do things one particular
way. We can find people who gravity towards the ground. I love that you said they are
here for a reason, right? Executives, you know, that question themselves, you know,
our hope is that you stop questioning yourself, right? Right. That's, that's already toxic
in and of itself. You end up becoming a self fulfilling prophecy by eliminating, you know,
your own value, but to you double down, he said, remember why you are here in the first
place, right? Like if you can remember that initial interview and all the obstacles that
you pass through and you're working with somebody who appreciates you, not because you get everything
done, but because of, well, one for who you are to for the reality of that you are being
productive to your max or your best capacity. Like that's something to honor, not something
to feel like you fell short just because there's a bunch of things that couldn't get done.
We can't get everything done in a day. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I fundamentally agree. And I
think when it comes to the reason you're here, what is working for someone at its core, right?
You are an extension of that person's track to success. So like if you're a, you find
yourself in a leadership role, you're there because the person carrying the biggest burden
and responsibility knows that you are going to help them reach their goals and justify
the reason for them to be there in that job. So I think it's all about reframing the situation
and realizing that you do play a big part in that mission.
This is huge. Okay. We're going to talk about three books or three resources right now that
you recommend for visionaries. I'm going to ask you to be super concise unless it's one
you created, right? Just book name, author name or whatever, because there's so much
value that I know you're going to be able to give the audience. And I got it to the
audience of who you are and where you came from and why I'm so excited to have you on
the show, but go, let's hit it quick. Let's hit it fast.
First one, start with why, right? Simon Sinek. I think that one fundamentally shifted the
way I think. It forces me to ask why in any given situation. I was going to say I'd be
remiss if I didn't see it on your show twice. I need to have multiple copies that I just
give to people as it comes in the moment. The second one would absolutely have to be
the alchemist, Paolo Coelho. And that's fiction. But at the end of the day, I mean, what better
book about having a vision, about trusting in the universe, about taking those steps
in the proverbial desert, right? I guess in the book they are in the desert. But moving
forward with that conviction and that confidence that it is written, there is a path forward.
Even if you can't see it, you have to trust that you are taking those steps forward. And
I read that one years ago when I stepped into the real world after college and the corporate
world and finance, and I needed to read that to believe that every single minute and second
of drudgery working for the big corporation would lead me somewhere. I look back now and
it's like, yeah, hindsight, right? It all made sense that it would get me to where I
am today. I just had to have that faith that I would get there.
The third book is called Backable. I forget his first name, but it's like the last name
is Gupta. Amazing, phenomenal book. Backable. I read this about two years ago. The key takeaway
about it is figuring out why certain people get backed by the big leagues, by the big
investors, by the big production companies, by whomever takes a big bet on someone. And
it tells a very compelling story, very geared towards startup founders, what it really takes.
And not to spoil it, but conviction, right, is a big part of it. You may not know what
it is you're doing, but if you have the right vision and you have the right amount of passion
and love for that vision, you can move mountains in a very magical way that defies logic for
most people. I love that. Sunil Gupta. Sunil Gupta. There
you go. There you go. I cheated. I looked it up. But it's, again, somebody who, as somebody
who has helped hundreds, if not thousands of businesses scale and grow and get off the
ground Armando, I can see the power in the recommendation of that book. It will be on
the shelf soon enough. Visionaries, be prepared for an amazing episode. We will be right back.
All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live. With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host. We'll
be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there. What is up, Vision Pros? I'm so excited to be here today. Welcome to
another episode of Vision Pros Live. I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO
of First Class Business. I am so blessed to have my new friend and brother, Armando Vera
Carvajal. Oh, I did it, man. I was going to get it. Carvajal. He is on the show today.
Two times founder, co-founder, one of those companies growing from he started within the
first five employees, took it over 175 employees. Even more impressive with that, there's two
factors that I'll, and I think it's just two that I'll really hit on. One is they scaled
within 3.5 years from zero to 2.5 million dollars in monthly recurring revenues. And
he has the least presumptuous personality I've seen in a long time, meaning he is like
your everyday awesome person who cares tremendously about people. And it's funny, a lot of these
great companies, a lot of these great success stories come with people who you would never
know how relatable they are. And he's just been an absolute delight to get to know.
The, the company that he was scaling, by the way, is a company that was helping startups
and businesses get funded, get finances, understand the process of scale. So I've scaled some
pretty cool companies and with some great leaders, but we weren't focused on 100% driving
the foundation of those businesses forward. We were assisting with marketing and we were
doing something here or there. We were helping with really cool video ads and stuff like
that. But there's a huge difference in somebody who's dedicated their life and time to learning
all about like how to help businesses succeed from different angles at the very foundation
of what matters. And it's not about the love of money. It's about the appreciation that
the resource of finances and money is what will be the vehicle that ultimately most of
the time determines your success. In addition to what he already shared in terms of wisdom,
your conviction, your passion, your tenacity, and then book packable. Before we bring Armando
back on stage, we're going to talk a little bit about these sponsors too, because they're
also incredibly helpful sponsors for people that are out there. Number one is the law
spot with Melissa Gray. Melissa had a show with us as well. You're welcome to go and
see that. I'm going to, I'm going to skim past that a little bit because I know that
I'll have the chance to introduce Melissa and Armando later as well and see what they're
up to. It's really cool. But if you don't have proper legal counsel or you're worried
that you might be paying a higher return than you should be, or you don't really know how
your legal protection works, I highly recommend listening to her episode. And I highly recommend
checking out her program for the Spot on Business Blueprint that she's coming out with right
now as well. And just getting to know her as a person, it's so important that we're
wise stewards of our ventures, which means protecting ourselves. In addition to that,
taking care of our mentalities and understanding where we have needs and vulnerabilities, I've
also got Recovery Unplugged on here now as a sponsor. I've been super impressed with
Andrew Sosin, who's the founder of Recovery Unplugged. He also had an episode with us.
He's not a paying client. He's not necessarily a friend. I'd call him a friend. But we've
only, we've met a couple of times and I'm just so impressed with what he's done to create
addiction recovery programs for people that are out there and need help. And a lot of
entrepreneurs suffer with pretty extreme addictions. I'm going to throw that out there. I'm also
going to own, I have an addictive personality myself. And I've had to learn lots of things
throughout my life to help put me in a position to where I pursue the most wonderful things
in life. That could be an addiction to drugs or alcohol. It could be an addiction to Netflix
or apps on your phone. There's all sorts of things that can distract us. What Andrew has
put together and in terms of also going to Tony Robbins program, 22 years in a row and
driving more than a thousand people to that, I've just been absolutely impressed with his
project. He's scaling this nationwide. He's now scaling it virtually as well. And if any
of you have, could use some benefit from understanding more tools that can help you stay on standpoint
with your greater purposes out there and avoid any type of darkness or distractions that you
have, I highly recommend looking and seeing what he's doing. I hope that helps at least
one of you. If it does, it was worth my time to talk about that. The water project is the
next object. I don't have my water bottle on me. I usually do for this segment. But that's
also the reason why I talk about the water project. We are so blessed. Those of us listening
in to have access to clean drinking water, I can walk downstairs to my kitchen. I can
get it and go to my bathroom sink and get better water than most people have access
to in life. And I don't ever want to take that for granted. So if you have it in your
heart to share the message of the water project, please do. If you know somebody who might
be interested in it, tag them. And if you're inspired to give back to then please do. The
cool thing about giving back to the water project is you get to select the community
that you're going to help. You get to see how many people are affected by it. And you
get to watch it come to fruition because they social media track. They show you the
posts of what they created. And you get to see these kids' lives change. And the generational
impact that we can have on our world, on our earth, by helping people get access to the
resources they need is something that is absolutely worth meditating and pondering. They specifically
pick remote areas of Africa that are also very, very hard to get to. And so our future
dream and ambition as a company is we would love to go to one of these sites where this
is happening, take a filming crew with us as well to further promote and showcase what's
happening with the resources, how are we creating change and bringing the people with us too.
I want my kids to come to that, my oldest kids specifically, my 12 year old. I want
her to see things like that because that will inspire her as well to look at life through
a new lens and say, you know what, what visions can I help produce results for while she also
helps us with that project? So lots of great opportunities there. And with that said, Armando
Vera Carvajal is going to be here to help us do the exact same. Dude, thank you so much
for joining us in the midst of South by Southwest for heaven's sake.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's such an honor and pleasure to be here, Jackson. And yeah, I
mean, South by Southwest is finally here in Austin. Just so much jumping from thing to
thing to thing to thing. But I have to admit, this is the one thing that I've been looking
the most forward to this week. So I'm just very happy to be here with your community.
Oh, dude, that's so big and huge. And as we talked about a little bit beforehand, I'm
looking forward to launching a very similar style event in San Antonio. It's one of my
big ambitions to pull off is an event aligned with passion pro dot org, which will allow
all the passionate people to come in and participate and create the whole fun vibe and music style
event and all that. But also in combination with the Academy of First Class Business and
vision pros will be a part of it. And I, yeah, I look forward to sharing that vision with
people like you. So Mike, you just have people that can help bring those types of realities
together.
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I'm in Austin, right? So you can always count on me. I'm more than
happy to be a part of that. Let me know how I can help. I love that. So yeah.
Absolutely. So those of you who aren't familiar with South by Southwest SXSW, go ahead and
look that up and go find like a highlight reel of what it is. It is the world's largest
music video business festival expo. And over 2000 musicians like famous musicians come
into Austin, Texas and perform at the same time, you know, all in different different
restaurants, bars. Like it's just not as a huge party with a ton of production and startup
and bidder capital stuff all built around it, too. That's that's my synopsis of anything
else you would add about it.
I mean, I think it's when we have South by it's like two weeks of the world coming to
town. And like you mentioned, it's a it's a syncretism of music, film, tech startups.
It's something for everyone. Right. And I think if you're if you're an entrepreneur,
you're in a business like this is the place to be to meet the right connections, to enter
doors to rooms that ordinarily would be very difficult to access online. You just meet
a lot of key decision makers in a very casual environment. So it's always an amazing event.
And being here in Austin, it's it's right there.
Absolutely. Now, everybody is listening. I hope you take the sincere time to learn about
Armando's background. You'll be able to do that on your own as well. Go to his LinkedIn
and see that. I have great conversations with him about his dad and his dad's ventures and
what they did to go from Mexico City to the border and crossing that and integrations
of new cultures and all that, too. And of course, his background in business. Just know
that when I named this episode, when wisdom scales, I did that extremely intentionally
based on the wisdom that I got to learn from so fast just by spending about an hour with
Armando. So Armando, what is your vision right now for those that you serve?
Yeah, I mean, I think you're one of the first people to ask me that question in general.
And it really stood out to me. And the vision that I have is to help humanity heal. Right.
At a top level, I think for many years, I've wanted to make a difference. I've wanted to
make an impact in the world. I want to leave my mark for the better and help humanity achieve
that. But it's this discovery and exploration process where you don't really know how you're
going to go about that, how you're going to eventuate it into people's lives. I think
for me, it's come down to what do I have to offer to people? Right. I think I have experiences.
I have unique perspectives. I've been through a lot. I've taken crazy risks, not just in
startups, but also in hobbies, right? Mountain climbing and doing very, very crazy things.
And through that, I've learned that it's the power of that story, the power of showing
people that someone as ordinary as myself, right, can achieve things if you believe it.
I think you look around, right? We're seeing a very sad reality with a lot of people everywhere,
right? Where people don't believe in themselves. People don't think that they can heal and
they don't think that they have what it takes to save themselves, let alone those around
them and their communities. And I think the answer is quite simple, right? The answer
is usually within us. And if we take the responsibility and the duty to help ourselves out, it becomes
a lot easier to help others. And once I started internalizing that mentality, it became very
clear as day and night that helping humanity heal my way is through my talents, right?
Tech startups, entrepreneurship is one of the things that I've had a calling for for many
years. It comes naturally. And I think startups in particular have an inordinate amount of
potential to really make an impact, like really, really make an impact and structurally or
fundamentally change the way people lead their lives. You can obviously do that through government,
through institutions, albeit a little bit slower, but tech in today's day and age can
really change the paradigm. And that's why I'm going about it with what I'm doing.
I love it. And hang tight, by the way, if you guys want to look at the app while we're
talking about this at the same time, what what Armando is building with, and I don't
want to disrespect the buzzword AI with the reality that when AI is done right, you know,
that's where you get the series and Alexis and the things that like have monumentally
changed the way we do basic things in our life and beyond. Armando's got the background
to be able to implement this in a way that most people don't. So that tool in the right
hands is amazing. And in this program for Hang tight, I haven't dove into it. And I'll
explain exactly why I am so blessed and fortunate to belong in a strong community already, where
I already have a ton of events with a ton of people that I absolutely love, very well
organized and assistant to help me maximize my schedule for kids that I take care of.
You know, there's there's so that I get to be with as well. There's so many reasons why
the app isn't a necessity for my life. But there are many people out there who don't
have that infrastructure of support who feel alone or who don't have the organizational
capacities as well and beyond. Like I know the value of what you're building with this
solution. And that's why I can't wait to eventually like, OK, I want to I want to have the time
for this. Because once I see it, too, I'll probably have an effect on me, too, where
I'm like, oh, this will still make everything easier. But so before we dive into your personal
vision, talk to me about Hang tight. Let's take a look at it.
Yeah, absolutely. So Hang tight is that it's core and AI powered mobile app that is transforming
the way people come together. And we're very, very focused on helping communities come together
faster, right? Boosting engagement, simplifying that event planning process, really, really
removing a lot of the guessing work from how groups come together. In the very beginning,
when we launched Hang tight, we wanted to kind of just go after a broader vision of
making it easy for people to hang out. I think that still remains part of our long term vision.
But we realized that because of the cold start problem and the need to achieve liquidity
in the network effects, it was better served targeting groups and not just any kind of
group, but the particular groups that are currently trying to foster better engagement,
better relationships within their communities. So we've focused a lot in the university
ecosystem. It's a place ripe for disruption. It's a place where the new generations, Gen Z
and so on and so forth, they really want the tools to strengthen their relationships to
better engage with their communities, also discover new communities to which they can
belong and also meet people in a much more intentional manner. That's a big part of what
we're doing. We've been around for give or take almost two years coming up in late April.
And it's been it's been a journey, right? But it's been one that I'm very proud of and
one that is very much aligned with my personal vision.
Yeah, that's amazing. And let's let's dive into that too. Let's dive into your personal
vision. What what are your personal vision?
I think at the end of the day, I mentioned and alluded to earlier, I think helping community
heal. I think that that translates across everything I'd like to do in life. Startups
are a very big part of it professionally. But personally, I I'm a visual creative. From
a young age, I've had I've been told that and I didn't say others have told me I have
an eye for photography. I have an eye for art. I like to paint art abstractly. I also
like to write a lot fiction, nonfiction. I think all of that creative process ties into
my desire to to help humanity heal. And I think I can do that by telling the right stories,
by helping bring people the right kind of content that is relatable, that is not just
designed to drive clicks and conversion, but that will actually help them push through
whatever is holding them back in life. I love that. It's it's interesting. I had a gentleman
on our show. Golly, he was he was an amazing leader. I'll have to think back on his name
because you know, you like you meet amazing people. You're like, man, I just want to spend
the rest of my life talking to that person. And then you got you got different paths.
You got different missions to go on. But he taught he almost apologetically said that
his focus was on on ending the suffering. And I like that you're not apologetic about
it, too, though you realize and value the fact that, you know, many people out there
are suffering. In fact, I would I think most of us in some regard are suffering, you know,
or have something to heal from. And having that as a vision and a mission, you know,
to me, it it shows in your demeanor that that's your focus, because I see somebody who is
centered, who's present, who values relationships. And sometimes leaders of businesses lose sight
of that. I don't think it helps them with the growth of their business. Diving into
a little bit darker version of that that conversation. What would you say your worst leadership
experience ever is, meaning one that you've had one that you've seen, one that you've
been a part of? Yeah, I mean, I think, wow, no one's actually ever asked me that. And
I love how you always ask these questions. That's my job. Thank you. I think I am. I'll
put an interesting twist on my answer here. When I was working at my spouse company, not
to brag, but a lot of people wanted to work with me. They wanted to transfer to work under
me. I want to work with you. I get that. Yeah, they're and, you know, through the sort of
the the water cooler, I try to figure out why I like why do they really want to work
in one of my teams? And it came down to me trying to foster the culture that I never
had. Right. And and I would say this if people are like, how is it that you're not, I guess,
the terrible boss that is so proverbial out there in the real world? And I said, well,
I've never had the boss that I actually wanted. I always had pretty bad leaders, pretty bad
managers. And for good measure. Right. I think it showed me it gave me a lot of that perspective.
People that in some regards did not see my potential whatsoever. And oftentimes, the
worst part of it was that that wasn't tied to some external factor that we could perhaps
control like performance. Oftentimes, it was tied to assumptions, prejudice, the way I
look, the way I talk, where I'm from, what I intel. How do you control that? Right. Especially
when you're in a situation where you need the job, you need the opportunity. I remember
at a young age, my dad told me, like, when you're young, you need to be in a position
where you let people use you. Right. You need to earn your favors. You need to work your
way up and earn your spot in in that organization, that structure. And I think it's right to
an extent. But then it comes to a point where you have to draw the fine line and say, what
is right for me? And how am I going to be a part of the solution, a part of the change?
I want to say the worst leadership experiences I've had were all the past ones. And obviously,
there's good to everything, right? There's always ups and downs. But at Hang Tide, right,
I want to foster a place where people genuinely, they're here because they believe in it. And
if they believe in it, they believe in me. Right. And they believe in who I am and what
I bring to the table as a human, not just as a guy who signs paychecks, right, as somebody
that they feel they belong. I didn't get that a lot. I got a lot of prejudice, a lot of
racist remarks, a lot of discrimination. But hey, you learn from that. And you use that
as the motivation to be the change in others' lives.
Absolutely. You know, there's sometimes those realities come full circle in the best of
ways. It doesn't always happen. You know, sometimes two people are stubborn, you know,
and they stay different. But I've had so many occasions in my life where it did come full
circle, you know, and it would have been easy to be like, screw you, you sucked. You know,
you were awful. And because I didn't, a lot of those relationships have restored. Sometimes
I was the one who would go in and say, hello, look, I just want to apologize because I know
it's difficult. You know, at that time, and I know that I had a lot to learn. And, you
know, there's things I was frustrated about, but I also know you had every right to be
frustrated with me, blah, blah, blah. And then next thing you know, we're having a very
wonderful conversation. Or one of those managers is like, you know, one of them was like, oh
my gosh, you were hell to deal with. And I was like, I laugh. I was, I know. And they
didn't necessarily gravitate towards, you know, oh yeah, let's be buddies or let's build
something again together. But a mutual respect was established. And did they do things wrong
in their set? Yes. But some of those have become some of my like long-term partnerships
again, where I like, I know for a fact, we're meant to work well together, but the discrimination
I faced wasn't the same as, as a racist discrimination. One of the ones I got often was you don't
have a degree. So, you know what, you know, like we always have to take like Jackson,
you know, they got a good point. Like why should they follow your strategy? You know,
you didn't finish schooling. It was like a constant like, oh my gosh, like I hate being
right. You know, but.
You brought up an excellent point that is so understated. And I think it's the one about
not burning bridges. I learned that one not late in life. Fortunately, I learned it earlier
on where in those moments where it feels so unfair, when the scale is not balanced and
you're getting the end of the stick all the time, you want to burn those bridges. You're
looking, you're fantasizing that you're leaving and throwing the F you and F you. And it's
like, I didn't do that, but we all want to do that.
Right, right. There's a part of us that's like, oh, we feel justified in doing it.
Yeah. But the thing is like to your point, you never really know when those relationships
will come back. And then I've found myself in that situation where like, you know, on
either side of the table where I need someone that I might have burned a bridge with or
they need me. Right. And it's one of those situations where it's not like, well, there's
a large pool of options. They might be the only option for what I need in that moment.
And that's where you really have to appeal to the human side of humans. Right.
It could not be more timely of a conversation either, because last night I had one of those
exact moments and the weirdest of ways. So here I am. I drive the wrong way because I
just moved apartments. So I drove to my old apartment, 25 minutes out of the way, you
know, and I realized, oh crap, I have to drive all the way across the city. I get a phone
call that at like 10 PM and I can't get off the phone. It's like 11. The guy's talking
like crazy. And I enjoyed the conversation, but like, I'm trying to get off for 30 minutes.
Finally get off and I'm parked in this gas station wanting to go home. I decided to go
in and get a drink. I don't even want to drink. I just like, I feel like I had to go in at
this point. You know, so I go in and literally my ex boss is walking out of this random gas
station in the middle of San Antonio and Dallas at 11 PM. He lives in the far Northwest side
of San Antonio. And, you know, I'm like, Hey, you know, like, it's great to see you, Natech.
And I give him a big hug. And he's one of the best CEO leaders I've ever worked with.
And when we started working together, our, my main condition was, you know, if you throw
the degree in my face, we're done. You know, like it's, it's not happening. And we, you
know, his team had a challenge and they wanted the blog post to be 900 words. You know, it's
like, no, we want our blog post to be valuable. Oh, I mean, a lot, it's not a trick game for
Google. It doesn't work the way people think. And well, what does he know? He doesn't have
a degree, right? It became a challenge. And I ended up at video power marketing because
of it. Thank goodness. But that, that separation that occurred was a difficult one for, for
him, you know, for me leaving, I did team up with two project managers that worked with
him for like a year and a half, but there was always this kind of like, ah, like we
didn't like how it ended. And at the same time, to be able to acknowledge those realities
and still maintain the friendship and the respect for the virtues that are there and
be able to potentially build on in the future, you just never know what you're going to see.
And he works with my best friend, my best man, continues to develop software with him
and stuff. So, um, it's always helpful to have the, the leadership attitude of, of being
able to restore being, being the person who restores. And I know that Natasha would have
done the same thing. Um, and I'll like, regardless of whether it was me or not, let's dive into
more best leadership experiences. Um, what, what would you say your best leadership experience
has been? Yeah, I want to be a model because I'm going to, I'm going to give you credit.
I'm going to give you a trophy right now for best leadership experience, because you are
creating that you are actively making that the goal of your mission to lead by being
the best you can for those that you serve. What's an external opportunity where you've
seen that done pretty well.
Mm hmm. I think, um, and thank you by the way. Um, I think an example of it where I,
I lived it directly was, you know, when you're in a leadership position, you have to make
very difficult decisions and you have to make them fast. Right. That's I guess why they
paid big bucks. But I think, um, I was in a situation where in my past company where
we were scaling rapidly, right. You mentioned five to 175. It actually was a little bit
closer to 200. Um, and you know, it's things like a million month, you recurring revenue
within three and a half years. That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, if you told me at the beginning
of that journey that we would be there and give or take three ish years, I'd say you're
crazy. Right. But that's how you're doing 36,000 a month. The recurring revenues within
three years at restaurant connect. Yeah. But I think, um, in that scenario, there were,
you know, there are these, these have been flows where you have the possibilities, but
then you need to constrain them to like stay within budget and so on and so forth. And
I think there were points where, you know, inevitably like you have to make cuts, right.
And it comes down to like, well, can we justify people and so on and so forth. And I think
for me, it always came down to a little, well, can you take these people on? Can you like
give them a second chance that I guess no one else at the table sees a chance for them?
And I think I always look at the potential of the person. And that makes me think about
what you were just sharing the credentials. I will admit, and as unpopular as this opinion
is, I don't really care about your resume. Um, I, in the past, you know, I get tons of
resumes. They're nice to have. They're nice to skim. I really do just skim them very fast
to be like, what is the pattern that I'm seeing? Is this person technical? Is this person biz
dev? Is this a relationship builder? Do they make mistakes on their presentation?
Is it too good to be true? Right. I just want to get sort of the reason for that. And, but
what is the potential? Where can we go from here? And I think that mindset helped me a
lot in those situations where it's like, well, this person does not have the skillset for
the job that could save them from getting laid off. But they certainly have the potential
to learn it fast. And I've seen them in other projects and initiatives, not mine, but I've
heard about it. And I think having the ability to quickly discern the potential in someone
is a very key trait of leaders. Um, it's at the end of the day, what you have to do, right?
Leaders at the end of the day, they lead, right? They can't just lead to an empty room.
So being able to figure out, can this person do it? Have they done it? Will they do it?
Is something that I learned a lot at that time. And at the end of the day, the people
that I was able to give a second chance and effectively repurpose in different jobs, they
succeeded in those tremendously, right? Because I took a bet and a risk on them that no one
else was willing to do. And they're in great places now in life.
It's mind blowing how the opposite of advice, right? Can often be the best and the best
advice you ever receive. And I know so many people like their mind blows on that. They're
like, I don't want to hear that. Like the book by Daniel Pink, I think it's by Daniel
Pink. It's the think fast and slow, thinking fast and slow.
It's like, whoa, wait a second. You just say that. And Gary Vaynerchuk taught me right
through YouTube, my little YouTube mentorship. I heard one video where he said, I am not
allowed in the HR department because I see the potential in everybody.
Oh yeah.
And so I'll give a job to anybody. And then next thing you know, we got people who aren't
doing the job because I saw what they could be, not who they are. And again, it's not
to be taken and saying, well, okay, good. I better just hang on to the word yes and
never use the word no, right? There's a balance to be had. And so I love that you bring that
up because the potential is possible to fulfill. It might take a little bit longer or the process
of unlocking it might take a little bit of a unique path to figure out. But once you
do, the trajectory is often phenomenal if you have that gift to help people do that.
We're running out of time. And I want to make sure that this question gets hit, Armando,
because it's my favorite question when people actually internalize it. And that's if this
was your last chance, open your mouth, last chance to teach something, what would the
powerful lesson be for other visionaries that they can learn from your experience?
I would say have the courage to believe that it's you, right? Have the courage to believe
that the shoes that you're filling right now are meant for you to fill. And I think I was
at a panel at my alma mater, University of Texas the other night, I got invited by the
alumni network to give a talk with a handful of other select alumni and students bushy
eyed, right? They're like big, big questions about life, about picking a path, et cetera.
And they asked me, Armando, like, what's the one thing that you wish you could have learned
sooner? And I would be like to believe in myself, right? And I think it's such a powerful
lesson for visionaries because we are our worst enemy. At the end of the day, we see
the world, we experienced it from the vantage point of our limitations, of our ideas or
biases. It's all fabricated in here. And I think if you knew me as a kid, as a student,
as a newbie, a rookie in the corporate world and startups, you'd know for a fact that Armando
is always the person that is doubting himself. Overworking himself to death, working harder
than everyone, trying to do it as best as possible, quality, quality, quality, but still
don't feel like it's good enough. Still feel like I'm an imposter and I shouldn't even
be here. And why am I even here? And why are people applauding and saying that I'm doing
good when I don't feel it's good enough? And I think it comes down to that belief that
maybe I don't belong here, right? And that's the biggest lesson that I think visionaries
should have is that you do belong. You do belong and you have to believe in yourself
because more often than not, it's not even about yourself. I think the biggest impact
to make in people's lives is not about who we are. It's about the opportunity, the insight,
the realization that we deliver them. And we are the conduits of that message on this
planet in this lifetime. How many lost opportunities are wasted every single day because people
just don't believe in each other, right? Because people are so swarmed and bombarded by false
narratives on social media telling them that you should do this, you should do that, you
should be this, right? When in reality they should be listening to their gut and saying,
I could do this, I could be that, right? And I think it's a very sad waste of potential
on this planet. People don't believe in themselves and this world would be very different if
they did.
I clap for your change, not the sad world that we're in. No, guys, I'm not a narcissist,
but visionaries, you are the visionary of your life. All of you listening in, like Armando
believes it, I believe it. That's what it's all about is being able to unlock that truth
within you and be able to follow it. And my hope too, I've never shared this with the
audience, but we do have a group called First Class Businesses. Now our Facebook group is
pretty much limited to people. We only tell people who come to the show experience about
it, that hey, we have this group and it's a designed process to bring visionaries together.
We have about a hundred people on there now that people have been on the show that actually
use Facebook, they're in there and we're quiet. There's not a lot of noise that goes on in
there because we're also all producers. We're all producing on our own journey and our own
path and we're not consumers of content. We produce results, but being able to go back
to that hub and find my little black book of people who are actively believing in themselves,
people who are actively producing, being able to go to some of those and say, guys, today
I don't feel like I can do this. Today I feel crushed by the world and what's going on.
Brad Powell of Awesome Video Makers calls it the seven minute call. That call where
you can just call and say like, dude, help me. I feel stuck. Formulating friendships
like that, a network of people like that. That is one of the most powerful assets I
would add to support that belief that you don't have to build that belief alone if you're
there right now and that's your network. And consider the wise words of Gary V to build
your inner circle of five and 10 of people who truly believe in you and want to see you
be your best self. Look for those people.
Adam Skelter You are the average. You are the sum of the five people with whom you spend
the most time, period. So you can either sink or swim with those people. So if you're going
to be the average of those five, pick wisely, pick people who believe in you and have the
courage to keep propelling you forward and upward.
Brad Powell I love it. So those of you who are looking for mentorship, mentors love to
have mentees too. So don't hesitate to reach out to Armando on LinkedIn and on other platforms
as well. If you have comments, leave them in the, you know, if you're busy, just leave
a comment right here so we can get back to you. You know, if you want to be on the show,
then as you go to the landing page and you certainly you'll see the action steps. You
can see hang tight and download it and see what Armando is building with that. If he
has other action, if you have other action items, Armando, things that you want to reference
to people, then let's certainly leave them a path to where they can go for that. We'll
put all that on the landing page. In the top right corner, there's a button and it says
be our guest. If you have a vision to help and serve people, it doesn't matter if you're
Richard Branson, doesn't matter if you're Ed Sheeran, doesn't matter if your vision
is local and based on a smaller community, if it's virtuous, we want it on this show.
We want to be talking about it with the world. But Ed Sheeran and Richard Branson, we'd love
to have you too. Don't forget you can come and join us. But Armando, thanks for joining
us today. Any final, any final things you want to leave with the audience?
I mean, I think if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner, I think you have
to take advantage of the resources you have, like this community, right? I think the, the
entrepreneurship process is a very, very lonely one. It's something we hear a lot. It's something
you actually get to experience when you're doing it. Very, very few people can relate
to what you face day to day. We love to hear about the fairy tale resolution, right? The
happily ever after when the company's been acquired.
$2.5 million in month of recurring revenues.
Everyone, everyone, everyone believes in you when they believe in you. But in the beginning,
no one believes in you. And it's very hard pill to swallow. And I think you need to surround
yourself as you were just saying, with the people who believe in your potential. And
as a founder, it's very hard. So I would say, don't, don't do this journey alone. Find more
people, find the mentors, a support network to do it. Because every success out there
went through a very similar journey where it was dotted with failures. It was dotted
with setbacks. It was dotted with moments where they thought there's no better option
to just give up and turn around. But behind every one of those critical decisions, there
was someone who said, no, you got to keep going. So find those people. And I think this
is the right place to start.
Thank you, Armando. That's right, visionaries, come and join us. Come be part of this, this
movement, these movements, all of these. Feel free to reach out to any of our past guests.
Of course, let's go hang tight with Armando as well. We'll put that link in there. Everybody
have a fantastic rest of your day. We'll see you on the next episode. Peace.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll
invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a vision.