What is one story or the story behind your why of what you do?
Yeah, that's a great question. So the story for me has always been like, I remember as being a kid
and always wanting to help people, right? That's like why I'm in the business I am in right now.
I just didn't know at the time when I was a kid or when I was a teenager, you know, I just knew
I wanted to help people somehow some way. I didn't know exactly how I was going to do it.
And eventually as I grew older, my teenage years, my adulthood, that's when I went through,
you know, a lot of mental setbacks, dealt with depression, suicide. And when I overcame that,
my why got so much stronger. So I think it's just my own personal, you know, story,
really, right? So it's one thing to say, I want to help people because I see these
different things in the world. That's amazing. But when you kind of find yourself at that rock
bottom, so to speak, and then you kind of find your way out, I think it kind of increases this
fire, this fuel in you more. It makes you want to help people even more. It's what fulfills you even
more when you actually do it. You know, so my story comes from being able to go from depression,
suicide to all of a sudden finding the beauty, right? Finding the purpose. And then when I had
that moment, it was like, I had this light bulb go off. It was like, God, the universe, the higher
self, right? It was communicating with me. It was saying, hey, this is how you're going to help
people. This is what you're meant to do. So let's get to work, right? And that's kind of like a brief
story of why I do what I do. You know, it started from childhood, but then eventually I feel like
I was meant to kind of go through these trials and tribulations. And then from the other side,
it kind of just fueled even more and just put more passion behind service.
Thank you for sharing that. If I were to ask you, Carlo,
where do you think you're going with your vision?
Yeah. So I've had this like manifesto, right? I've had this master plan in my head over the last,
I don't know, four or five years. And my whole objective is I just want to help people in the
best way possible in like all areas of life, right? Because I come from a personal training
background and I knew that a part of being a personal trainer required a lot of mindset work
for the clients I helped, right? Because there are so many psychological issues or things holding
people back that in a sense kind of resulted in their weight gain, right? That's why they're
unfit. That's why they're so unhealthy. So I realized that there was a lot of mindset work
that needed to be done when I was a personal trainer at the time. And then just made me think
more and more and more just about people in general, about help, about mental health,
about physical health, about everything. So my end game, so to speak, is I want to build a platform
where people can go, people can subscribe to, people can become members of, essentially like
better help, but expanding that philosophy, expanding how we can help people. So two things
really came to my mind really. The first thing was I understood that people thrive in community.
People thrive when they're part of a tribe. That's just how civilization started, right? When we were
cavemen by ourselves, fending for ourselves, obviously we weren't doing the best, but as we
kind of built civilizations throughout history, that's where we started to thrive. And now,
civilization's at its peak because so many advancements have kind of happened throughout
the years. So I took that lesson to heart. I learned that in like sophomore year history.
And for some reason, it just stuck with me that people are stronger when they're together.
So I took that and I kind of wanted to combine it with the second thing I wanted to mention
is the different areas of life that people can definitely use help on that can help them live
a better quality of life, right? So I think everyone should be seen to a therapist. I think
everyone needs a personal trainer. I think everyone needs some type of life coach, fulfillment coach,
peak performance coach, whatever you want to call them. And I thought to myself, what if I just kind
of combine these two concepts together? And what if a client, a subscriber, a member had a team
specifically working for them, dedicated to them, dedicated to their goals, help them improve their
mental health, help them improve their physical health, help them achieve the goals they want to
achieve in their lives, whether it be, you know, start a business or find the dream job, or just
kind of discover more about themselves, what they really want to do, what really fulfills them.
And that's kind of, you know, where I'm taking my business in the future is how can I build a
platform where I can help people in every area of their life? That is amazing.
That's true. I thought about it for a little bit.
You talked about people thriving community. What is your community?
My community is my family, you know, so it's really funny because I'm not somebody who has a lot of
friends, you know, as maybe surprising as it may seem, you know, my fiance tells me I'm a very
social butterfly, which I am, I'm very extroverted, but she's like, you know, you don't really have a
whole lot of friends. I'm like, honestly, I like it that way. You know, I don't need a million
friends. You know, I have three solid friends, but I have my family. You know, I have my brothers,
I have my sisters, I have the dog, my fiance, like I just, my parents, I just have everybody.
And this is like, that's just how I grew up. You know, everything I did, of course, I would hang out
with friends here and there, but I spent so much time with my brothers and sister when I was growing
up, you know, and I grew up in my family's restaurant business and I was always surrounded by them.
And that was just this community that we kind of had under one roof and we did everything together
and I loved it. So as the family started to grow, you know, my brother got married, my sister got
married, I'm about to get married, you know, and then kids are coming to the picture, you know,
I'm an uncle and it's just so fun to see this family grow and just see this community grow,
but us still staying so united, so close and just having so much fun with each other, you know, so
I can see what community really does on a smaller level, right, in one household when you grow up
and then eventually when your family grows. Just imagine what that would be like on steroids,
you know, so the initial community for me is my family and those few very, very close friends I have.
Thank you for sharing that. Something you don't know about me, I'm actually born and raised in
India and if you know much about India, there's a sense of community or a family that stays together
quite a bit, like you can find generations of people living under the same roof in a big house,
etc. That's very common in India, but that comes with two sides of the story. That comes with if
that community or your family is there to support and help you, that will help you, but if they are
not there to help you or not encourage you or not be those pillars that you can go to, it's going to
be detrimental to you and I commend you for choosing the right people in your life to surround
yourself with those people. I come into the United States, I've longed for that, I've built that
around my wife and my family. I'm fortunate enough that my sister lives pretty close by from my house,
like she lives like a mile down the road with my niece and my brother-in-law and we talk pretty often
and my in-laws, they live across the freeway of the town, so like five minutes or 10 minutes from here.
But my parents though, I wish I, I think that's something that would include in my community per
se, would be in a new country, they're in India still. So yeah, that's, I think that's your on point
with that or if you have the right community of people, you don't need to be a social butterfly,
you don't need to do all these things, you will have that people in place that you can rely on.
Of course and another thing that I think is really important too is that like, you know, of course
my answer was family, but I've been very blessed to have a very supportive family, a very tight-knit
group, right, but like you mentioned, there's some families out there that might be very
discouraging, you know, those who one might call toxic, right, and aren't very supportive. One thing
that I know that can help people thrive or kind of crumble is within their environment, you know,
and that also includes the people you hang out with and you surround yourself with people that
also includes the people you hang out with and you surround yourself with because I'm a firm believer
that you are the average of the five people you hang out with, just like Jim Rohn would say,
and I'm sure you know that as well. So if you are in that situation where, you know, your family may
not be super supportive, they may be quote unquote toxic and not very helpful to you, your goals or
what you see for your life, and they're always trying to kind of mold you in their vision and
what they want you to do, even though it's probably out of love because they probably fear the unknown
and they're probably doing it out of love, even though it may not seem like it's from our perspective,
but if it is truly toxic, truly harmful, you can choose your family, you can choose your community,
you can choose who you hang out with to elevate yourself. I think that's a very important point
that people should be aware of. Thank you for sharing that. I think you're absolutely on point
with that. My next question for you, Carlo.
If you have any tips for early entrepreneurs. Yeah. Oh God, there's like so many, like there's
so many, a book can be written. I'm sure there are plenty of books about this, but
I would say the number one thing is that understand you're in this for the long haul,
right? And that may be a cliche answer, but sometimes the cliches are true, is don't think
about, I've had problems with this myself, you know, obviously I've learned from it, but it's like,
don't think of it as, okay, in one year, I'm gonna hit all of my goals, right?
You should really think about, okay, what am I gonna be able to sustain this 10 years from now?
Do I want to sustain this 10 years from now? Do I want to be doing this 10 years from now?
If your answer is no, or you feel hesitant to even answer that question, then I'm not saying
entrepreneurship may not be for you, but that particular business may not be for you,
right? So I remember when I started early in my entrepreneurial journey, you know, before I became
a personal trainer, coach, started that business, you know, that's when I kind of got bit by the
entrepreneur bug, and I saw everything, I saw, oh, make money from Amazon FBA, you know, make money
from, you know, what's the word, like transcribing, you know, make money from that, you know, do
Shopify, do real estate, like do all these things. And I was spreading myself so thin, because all I
wanted was entrepreneurship, money, freedom, right? But I was getting into things that, you know,
it seemed cool at the time, but it's like, it fizzled for a little bit. So what I would say
mainly is do what you love, obviously, because that is going to sustain you for the long haul,
but also, just because you're not getting the results you want immediately, doesn't mean you
failed, doesn't mean that entrepreneurship isn't meant for you. It just means that it's going to
take longer than you want it to take. So I'm not saying that entrepreneurship is meant for you,
but it's going to take longer than you anticipated, right? Of course, there are those success stories
that people make, you know, six figures in a year. That does happen, but at the same time,
that doesn't happen for every entrepreneur. But if you can start and stay persistent and endure
the loneliness of entrepreneurship, because that does happen, the hardship, the celebrity beliefs
you have about yourself, oh, am I good at this? Should I even be doing this? If you can endure,
sustain, overcome those obstacles, stay in it for the long haul, because you will thank yourself
later. And eventually, when you are on this mountaintop, you're going to look back at the
road you traveled, at the journey you kind of went through. You're going to not only thank yourself,
you're going to be grateful for it. You're going to be much smarter, because one thing I've
understood as an entrepreneur is every step I take, when I look back, I learn something from it.
And I make sure everything that happens in my life, not just entrepreneurship, I try to find
the blessing in it. I try to find the learning lesson in it, because that's just how I program
and rewire my brain, is if I can look for something positive in it, if I can look for something that
I can grow from, that's only going to help me in personal life or in entrepreneurship. So that is
kind of like a long-winded answer to the question, but kind of to boil it down, to put it in a summary
in a nutshell, is just keep going, right? It's a marathon, not a sprint. 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 Pro yourself.