<b>[Music]</b><b>Welcome to GenX Adulting and today we</b><b>have Jacob with us. Welcome to the studio.</b><b>Thank you for having me.</b><b>We're thrilled that you're here. Our first question is</b><b>always what year were you born?</b><b>I'm 1996.</b><b>Okay, so you are actually a millennial.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Yeah, but you're also a zillennial.</b><b>So you're a zillennial millennial.</b><b>What is a zillennial?</b><b>Is this the same thing that all these guys are?</b><b>So the other guys are a little younger than him.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Like they were born in 97, 98, you're</b><b>96. So you're the youngest millennial,</b><b>but there's a little micro generation of late 90s babies</b><b>that are also like zillennials. So</b><b>you can relate to the older Gen Zs that</b><b>are like a year or two younger than you,</b><b>but you can also relate to the</b><b>millennials that are like in their early 30s.</b><b>100%.</b><b>So you're kind of in between.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And you have similar childhoods. So most of your childhood</b><b>was spent fairly technology-free,</b><b>social media-free. You kind of still had that old school</b><b>childhood experience. You guys had flip</b><b>phones.</b><b>I had the sidekick.</b><b>The sidekick.</b><b>I love that.</b><b>There you go.</b><b>And then Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram all kind of</b><b>showed up high school, right?</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So you got most of your formative</b><b>years before all that showed up.</b><b>Yeah, lots of bike riding and walking around the</b><b>neighborhood, causing mischief.</b><b>Yes, but without being tracked.</b><b>Uh, we had walkie talkies, but we weren't quite tracked.</b><b>Not by like your parents.</b><b>Yeah, we just had walkie talkies.</b><b>Right. So the kids now, you know, there's life 360.</b><b>You can, there's find my phone, all that. So when they go</b><b>out, we can see where they are.</b><b>Like our 15 year old, we know where he's at.</b><b>All the time.</b><b>Basically all the time.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's pretty wild.</b><b>Yeah. So you guys didn't have that. So you</b><b>kind of, when you were out, you were free.</b><b>I don't know if you guys know this,</b><b>but I have a younger brother, Josh.</b><b>Josh, who is 10 and.</b><b>Oh, no way.</b><b>He is like living in VR.</b><b>He's virtual reality.</b><b>He uses the Oculus all the time.</b><b>Does he really?</b><b>Does he?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Oh, cool.</b><b>So he's a Gen Alpha.</b><b>Is that right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Gen Alpha.</b><b>So he's not Gen Z. He's the next one after he's Gen Alpha.</b><b>Yeah. So he's that next group.</b><b>It's a pretty wild generation.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They still do school sports, but</b><b>like they don't quite do the same.</b><b>Like after school, everyone gets on the</b><b>bikes and rides to each other's house.</b><b>Now it's like, let's meet up in VR.</b><b>Really kidding.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>It's pretty cool.</b><b>Our youngest is 15 and he has an Oculus,</b><b>but he doesn't really use it that much.</b><b>He uses it sporadically, but definitely not socially.</b><b>No.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I've won.</b><b>I haven't found a ton of use for it.</b><b>It's cool.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm like, this is cool, but.</b><b>I almost wonder if they use theirs kind of how I know</b><b>Nathan, our older son, and even</b><b>Dylan Xbox, they're social on Xbox with their friends.</b><b>That's exactly how it is.</b><b>That's probably how it is instead of being on.</b><b>Are they, do they do Xbox?</b><b>They do.</b><b>So they play this game called, I</b><b>think it's called a monkey tag.</b><b>And he got me to play it once and you have to like use your</b><b>controllers and climb up trees.</b><b>And then you like run around this whole like 3d jungle and</b><b>you play tag with each other.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>So they're like running around in this 3d environment,</b><b>yelling at each other and playing</b><b>tag.</b><b>It's pretty wild.</b><b>And they're probably playing kids in the UK.</b><b>Oh yeah.</b><b>You know, the West coast.</b><b>So it's like Xbox, but it's just,</b><b>you're actually standing up and doing things.</b><b>It's kind of ironic because they're still playing tag.</b><b>That's actually really cool.</b><b>Well, that's a big age gap for you guys.</b><b>And I have an older brother who is 30.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Well, that's more you guys.</b><b>32.</b><b>That's more.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>That's like a few years.</b><b>So then you're, your younger</b><b>brother is more like Dylan is to our kids.</b><b>Kind of a bonus baby.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>In some ways.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah. The bonus baby.</b><b>So your brother.</b><b>I was 17.</b><b>I think when he was born.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>There you go.</b><b>Nathan was 13.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So your brother is a millennial.</b><b>Like he's definitely a millennial early thirties.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I always say the millennials,</b><b>um, got the best of both worlds.</b><b>You got to experience that old school childhood.</b><b>Um, and then you did get to experience</b><b>technology and before technology really</b><b>social media really took over</b><b>almost the birth of social media.</b><b>It was still fairly innocent.</b><b>There wasn't the FOMO.</b><b>There wasn't the getting gratification</b><b>from likes and all that type of stuff.</b><b>We had Myspace in middle school.</b><b>Oh, did you have Myspace?</b><b>I remember having a Myspace and having a</b><b>profile song and seeing people like future</b><b>profile and who your top 10 friends were.</b><b>Right.</b><b>Right.</b><b>That's a big thing.</b><b>Would that cause drama among friends?</b><b>Like if anyone was a little bit, yeah, there's a little</b><b>middle school drama for sure.</b><b>Like if you weren't top 10, you were pissing people off.</b><b>Very sure.</b><b>So, but with Myspace, wasn't</b><b>there more like coding in there?</b><b>Didn't you have to do a little more work for a little bit?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>For like to change your background and stuff, you would</b><b>have to like download templates.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Do you still use anything socially?</b><b>Any social media platforms socially?</b><b>Is it more just for your business?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm on Instagram, Jacob.Kirstine,</b><b>MyChappie, and Tara, Tara Outdoors.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And we'll put your links definitely in the description.</b><b>We'll put them right there.</b><b>We'll put everything.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We'll put everything on the screen and in the description.</b><b>Do you find you mainly use it for the business or do you</b><b>also use social media socially?</b><b>I have started posting personally less.</b><b>I want to post more, but it's a lot of work to post and I</b><b>really have to focus on posting</b><b>the best things I can for the business.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So that's kind of where I take my posting attention to.</b><b>And then with Chappie, that's</b><b>kind of a content machine and Tara.</b><b>So that involves hiring editors and</b><b>scheduled posts and hiring content creators.</b><b>Right.</b><b>So yeah, I mean, social media is</b><b>definitely a big part of my life.</b><b>Yeah, for sure.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>So where were you born?</b><b>I was born in Miami.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you're a South Florida boy.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And how long were you down there?</b><b>I was in Miami, I think, till I was one.</b><b>Then we moved to Jacksonville till I was three.</b><b>And then my first memories kind of start when we moved to</b><b>Tampa and I was in kindergarten.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you've been all over Florida.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And how long were you in Tampa?</b><b>I was in Tampa from</b><b>kindergarten to the middle of eighth grade.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And did you grow up with both parents?</b><b>Yes.</b><b>So my parents obviously started together.</b><b>Right.</b><b>And do you know how they met?</b><b>How did my parents meet?</b><b>I think it was their parents kind of set them up.</b><b>Really?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Interesting.</b><b>I think they knew each other.</b><b>Like family friend type things?</b><b>Or kind of like that.</b><b>I know.</b><b>I think the moms talked.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Something like that.</b><b>They're like, "Your son should meet my daughter."</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And I guess they hit it off and I</b><b>think they were engaged in six weeks.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Now is this in Miami?</b><b>Is that where they met?</b><b>This I believe was in like Miami, Aventura area.</b><b>And that's where they grew up.</b><b>That's where they're from.</b><b>My dad is, he grew up in Montreal, then went to New York.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I think back to Montreal and then to South Florida.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>My mom grew up in Miami.</b><b>So he's Canadian?</b><b>Pretty much.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>He doesn't have citizenship, I don't think.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>But that's where he, was he born in Canada?</b><b>He was born in New York.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>Then went to Canada.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I think he went.</b><b>Oh, interesting.</b><b>Oh, so he's an American citizen,</b><b>doesn't have Canadian citizenship.</b><b>I'm pretty sure.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Pretty positive.</b><b>And then your mom's from Miami.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So they met, they got engaged after six weeks.</b><b>That's amazing.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I love that first sight and married for 15 years.</b><b>Nice.</b><b>Till the middle of eighth</b><b>grade and then went separate ways.</b><b>And that's when we moved.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So when you were growing up in</b><b>Tampa, did you play any sports?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I played like football and baseball growing up.</b><b>And then I got into hockey, ice hockey.</b><b>Oh, cool.</b><b>Okay. I played ice hockey for eight years.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It was a lot of fun.</b><b>So you can skate pretty good then.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I still skate.</b><b>Cool.</b><b>I rollerblade now.</b><b>And were you in travel hockey?</b><b>Because I know that's very involved.</b><b>I didn't do travel.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I mean, part of it was I broke my ankle in sixth grade.</b><b>What happened?</b><b>When things started getting</b><b>serious in sports, I was skim boarding.</b><b>And one of my foot slipped off the board, got caught in the</b><b>sand, and I broke my growth plate.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>And yeah, I was in a wheelchair</b><b>for like three or four months.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>A wheelchair.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Not even a boot or crutches?</b><b>I guess it was eventually we got to</b><b>crutches, but it was a cast and wheelchair for like</b><b>three, four months.</b><b>They didn't want to take any chances with that growth.</b><b>I guess not.</b><b>It obviously didn't affect you.</b><b>It was very tall.</b><b>Yeah, it's so good.</b><b>But do you still feel any pain sometimes from that area?</b><b>Barely sometimes.</b><b>If I go for a run, sometimes it'll</b><b>tighten up and I got to stretch it out.</b><b>But it really hasn't been a problem.</b><b>Not quite like my neck has become a problem.</b><b>Well, is that age more than anything</b><b>else or did you do something to your neck?</b><b>I was shoulder pressing about four</b><b>years ago and I ruptured my C6, C7.</b><b>It's actually a crazy story, the whole thing.</b><b>So basically, I was scheduled for surgery a little over a</b><b>year ago and I was unable to put</b><b>on a shirt.</b><b>I couldn't put on my shoes.</b><b>Basically incapacitated living with pain.</b><b>Really bad.</b><b>And I had a ski trip plan that I already bought an Epic</b><b>Pass, I bought the Airbnb and the flights.</b><b>And my mom flew in because it was</b><b>like time for surgery consultation.</b><b>We went to the doctor's appointment and</b><b>we talked about going skiing and he's like,</b><b>if you go skiing, you could end up in so much pain that you</b><b>feel paralyzed for a little bit.</b><b>Don't go skiing.</b><b>And I was like, I'm going skiing.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>I'm sure your mom was like, what?</b><b>Me and my mom went at it.</b><b>She was very concerned for me.</b><b>There she was.</b><b>Right, Felicia.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>Yeah, so.</b><b>Well, obviously nothing</b><b>happened when you were skiing, right?</b><b>So it was a miracle.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So I'm literally in so much pain at the</b><b>airport that I'm laying on the floor face up.</b><b>Uh, baggage claim.</b><b>I remember I'm thinking, what am I doing?</b><b>And I'm on the mountain, I'm strapping on my boots.</b><b>I'm like, what am I doing?</b><b>And I go for a run and I love snowboarding.</b><b>Um, so I was like really happy.</b><b>But my neck started hurting on my second run.</b><b>So I was like, all right, like instead of, uh, riding, like</b><b>looking over my left shoulder,</b><b>let me try to ride to look over my right shoulder.</b><b>So riding regular to goofy.</b><b>And I started riding goofy and I fell</b><b>and I snapped my neck back into place.</b><b>No way.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Seriously.</b><b>That's hilarious.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's insane.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It makes no sense.</b><b>But now I go to the chiropractor.</b><b>I was going to say you, you're</b><b>like a candidate for a chiropractor.</b><b>I go to a chiropractor.</b><b>I love my chiropractor.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And so it does make sense to me.</b><b>I go to a Dr.</b><b>Dan in Boca.</b><b>If you know him, Dr.</b><b>Dan.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I go to Dr.</b><b>Fanno.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Do you know who Dr.</b><b>Fanno is?</b><b>No.</b><b>No.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But if you find a good chiropractor, you stay with that.</b><b>100%.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You're like, that's my man.</b><b>100%.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Or woman.</b><b>No, it does make sense because</b><b>that's the concept of chiropractic.</b><b>That's amazing.</b><b>It was adjusted.</b><b>You got adjusted on the slopes.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It felt so hard.</b><b>You adjusted yourself.</b><b>I remember when I fell, I was like, I</b><b>was like, first I'm like, am I paralyzed?</b><b>And then I was like, my God, I feel great.</b><b>That's amazing though.</b><b>And life changing because the pain was done.</b><b>The week I was going to come back,</b><b>I was scheduled to have an epidural.</b><b>Which is an X-ray guided injection to your spinal cord.</b><b>And then you need that before surgery for insurance.</b><b>And then following a week after that, I would have had</b><b>surgery and got my disc fused.</b><b>What a blessing.</b><b>You've sung the epidurals and stuff, right?</b><b>Well, when I gave birth.</b><b>No, but what about like pre chiropractor?</b><b>No, I did the cortisol shot.</b><b>Cortisol.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I had lots of those.</b><b>Yeah, I did one round and it was temporary.</b><b>And I have a herniated disc and</b><b>a bulging disc in my lower back.</b><b>And a few of my friends go to Dr. Fanno</b><b>and they were like, you need to go see him.</b><b>I'm telling you.</b><b>And it was intense.</b><b>An intense year of, I was on the board where they kind of</b><b>stretched you out a little bit.</b><b>I did laser and, but it changed my life.</b><b>I'm pain free.</b><b>And you know what the surgeon like</b><b>was like, do not go to a chiropractor.</b><b>Yeah, they don't.</b><b>General guidance.</b><b>Don't go.</b><b>Oh, there's a lot of people are</b><b>anti chiropractic and look at it.</b><b>It saved our lives.</b><b>I know.</b><b>Do you still go regularly now then?</b><b>I go every 45 days.</b><b>Oh, do you?</b><b>I try to go once a month.</b><b>That's what I, that's what I tried to do.</b><b>I haven't been in a few months because</b><b>honestly, we've been so busy with the podcast,</b><b>but I need to go in working too.</b><b>I am, but I can feel it, you know, and you can feel it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I needed about every 30 days too.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I can just kind of, I'm like, I need to go.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So I assume that when you're</b><b>lifting now, you're much more careful.</b><b>I'm much more careful.</b><b>The good news is, you know, I was told,</b><b>never lift anything over my shoulders.</b><b>And now when I do it, I'm super careful,</b><b>obviously, but I can do pull ups again.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I can do a full range of exercises.</b><b>I had a trainer that helped me kind of strengthen my, my</b><b>back and neck muscles up here.</b><b>So.</b><b>I feel pretty healthy.</b><b>I'm mostly living pain-free and working out.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And you know, and skim boards, like those things are crazy.</b><b>Like I think you hit an age too.</b><b>You were young, so that's kind of a freak</b><b>accident, but I feel like adults shouldn't</b><b>be on skim boards.</b><b>Probably not.</b><b>I think it's just asking for like wrist</b><b>breakage and you know, those, they're fun.</b><b>Oh, that's the thing at the beach, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You run full speed on your other board.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>I think we know someone who did that probably younger than</b><b>me, but they broke, I think both</b><b>of their, their wrists.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's just one of those things you're like, dangerous one.</b><b>I'm going to pass on that.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So, um, your parents got divorced</b><b>when you were, what was this 13?</b><b>I was, uh, I think probably just about 12</b><b>because it was right before my bar mitzvah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And, um, you know, they try to work things out before we</b><b>moved for probably like a year.</b><b>Mm-hmm.</b><b>And then you moved with your mom.</b><b>I moved with my dad down to South Florida.</b><b>Boca.</b><b>To Boca.</b><b>And then your mom stayed in Tampa.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And what about your brother?</b><b>He came with me.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And how come Boca?</b><b>Um, it's a good question.</b><b>So my dad was, uh, probably a year into</b><b>his relationship with, uh, my stepmom.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>You know, it was about time to get</b><b>married and she lived in Aventura.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And I think they just liked Boca.</b><b>Oh, the schools.</b><b>He loved Boca high.</b><b>He thought like it was, you know, it's graded pretty high.</b><b>So he's like, we'll go here.</b><b>So where did you go from middle school?</b><b>I went to Omni for half a semester.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So I, my personal opinion isn't middle school sucks.</b><b>I think middle school is the worst, um, as</b><b>a parent and as a child when I was a child</b><b>and for my children, I can't, and I'm</b><b>not saying that's true for everybody,</b><b>but I think there's a decent amount</b><b>of people that say middle school is not</b><b>their most favorite time of their life.</b><b>Um, I can't imagine moving in the middle</b><b>of eighth grade and starting a new school</b><b>and in a new town and a new part of the state after your</b><b>parents have gotten divorced.</b><b>How was that adjustment?</b><b>Uh, I remember when we sat down and we</b><b>were talking about like, should we move?</b><b>And I had a lot of friends at school and I did like Tampa,</b><b>but for some reason I was like,</b><b>let's go almost like too cool for school type of mentality.</b><b>I don't know where everyone else in my</b><b>family their reason, but my, I think,</b><b>like, when I think back then it was</b><b>like, yeah, let's get out of here, you know,</b><b>like, um, and things were, were tough.</b><b>Um, were you kind of ready for a new start?</b><b>It was, yeah, it was time to</b><b>time to seek new opportunities.</b><b>Something had to give.</b><b>You're like, okay, let's do this.</b><b>So, um, so yeah, we moved and then, uh, in eighth grade, I</b><b>was just the new kid, you know.</b><b>And how was that? Uh, did you, were</b><b>you able to make friends or was it tough?</b><b>Um, it was hard, but I like acting out.</b><b>I have fun causing reactions and stares.</b><b>So I, uh, I would do absolutely ridiculous things in class.</b><b>Um, you know, some, some of my</b><b>classmates would remember me just randomly,</b><b>like in the middle of class, picking</b><b>up an eraser and being like, hello,</b><b>and pretending to be on a phone</b><b>call and just shouting things.</b><b>So I made friends quickly and I,</b><b>you were like a class clown kind of.</b><b>Yeah. Okay. Yeah.</b><b>I hate the word clown. I would like to, um, entertainer.</b><b>I think you have a mutual class entertainer.</b><b>He did the same type of similar stuff.</b><b>I was a good kid.</b><b>No, but it's probably one of the ways that, um, it broke</b><b>the ice and you were able to.</b><b>Probably coping mechanism too.</b><b>Yeah, probably.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Little bit of a defense mechanism and.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>The laughter is the best medicine.</b><b>That's true. That's true.</b><b>I was just having fun with it.</b><b>And so, um, from there you went to Boca high.</b><b>Did you stay friends with some of</b><b>those kids from Omni into Boca high or was</b><b>Boca high just a completely new beginning?</b><b>So I, uh, I used to try to sit at the cool kids table</b><b>because that was important to me.</b><b>Um, I was like, who are the</b><b>cool kids? Let me go sit with them.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And I would just sit at this table every</b><b>single day and no one would talk to me and</b><b>I wouldn't talk to anyone and it would be like, I guess</b><b>like they'd all be talking the whole</b><b>time and I'd just be sitting there.</b><b>Like, you know, um, and one of the</b><b>kids, uh, that I'd always sit at this table,</b><b>ended up going to my high school.</b><b>His name's Riley and we're still friends today.</b><b>And he kind of remembered me as a new kid.</b><b>He would just sit at this table.</b><b>He's like, he would just sit down and try to chat.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Just absorb the whatever was going on.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, where else was I?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So you know anyone.</b><b>So you had Riley going into Boca high</b><b>in a way like you guys knew each other.</b><b>100%.</b><b>And then Boca high is a brand new beginning.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Um, I think Riley and my friend, uh,</b><b>Naim at the time, uh, also went there.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And how was Boca high?</b><b>How was your, how was your experience there?</b><b>Boca high was a lot of fun.</b><b>Um, I started in robotics class my freshman year and, uh,</b><b>Matt Gary, uh, one of my close</b><b>friends now, we just celebrated his birthday last night and</b><b>we became friends and, uh, we</b><b>would all like long board down 18th and go to McDonald's.</b><b>You know, that's just what we did back then.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Now they bike.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Or they got the hoverboard.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Scooters.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Did you play sports at Boca high?</b><b>I played hockey.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>How was the team then?</b><b>Um, I think we were all right.</b><b>Yeah, we did okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They actually did good this year.</b><b>Did they?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah. That's awesome.</b><b>I'm happy to hear that.</b><b>I always forget Boca high has a hockey team until I meet a</b><b>kid that's on the hockey team.</b><b>Have you seen that new ice rink they put in?</b><b>No, I haven't been there yet.</b><b>But do you know where it's at?</b><b>I've heard about it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Looks pretty cool.</b><b>I've, they do men's league, uh, at night hockey league.</b><b>My, my dad and my little brother go there.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And they have like the light</b><b>of bumper car things over there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So where Boca high practices now is down at, I think pan</b><b>the pan where the Panthers play.</b><b>I think that's really like sawgrass.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>No, no, no, no.</b><b>They're not practicing there.</b><b>I bet they're playing games.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because Luke, Luke goes down there.</b><b>I think the Panthers have a down there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>A different rank.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Now you're, so you're not saying no, just enough facility.</b><b>Yeah. It's close by.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Like, I think they, they definitely play</b><b>games down there, but I think they practice.</b><b>That's where, that's where I used to play.</b><b>I can't remember the name of the rink.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But I down there, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's a hall from here.</b><b>It's like answers.</b><b>I stand.</b><b>I think.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I think that's what they call it.</b><b>Something like that.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you played hockey.</b><b>You were into robotics.</b><b>Was there anything else you were into during high school?</b><b>So I also enrolled into drafting and design, which is kind</b><b>of what shaped the rest of my life.</b><b>Are you naturally artistic?</b><b>I like to think so slightly.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I try.</b><b>I mean, you either, like none of us are.</b><b>So I can tell you, I think if you can do that, you are.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You know.</b><b>I wouldn't say it's probably my best skill.</b><b>Um, like campaign.</b><b>I can't really draw, but I know like good graphic design.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I know like, uh, I can 3d model</b><b>engineering stuff, blocks and squares.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's artistic.</b><b>So, so more like the CAD as</b><b>opposed to freehand type of art.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah, for sure.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I've made some cool things though.</b><b>I took a sushi boat and made a wood table out of it.</b><b>And, uh, nice.</b><b>I painted some cool things.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Cool.</b><b>Oh, so what you did, um, did that kind of</b><b>spur and what you wanted to go for in college?</b><b>Well, it started from that drafting and design, uh, course</b><b>where, you know, for four, I took it</b><b>for four years.</b><b>Oh, wow.</b><b>We all just had a ball in there.</b><b>We'd just be on the computer and</b><b>putts around and it was very chill.</b><b>Was it ACE or AP or was it just like one, two, three, four?</b><b>It was just an elective.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>That was all four years.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And they taught me about 3d printing and, uh, that's kind</b><b>of where I was like, okay, I want</b><b>to 3d print an invention and make a ton of money.</b><b>And, uh, and that's kind of like, I</b><b>just got addicted to that concept.</b><b>And that started in high school.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I was like, well, if I can design anything and I can just</b><b>print it and I can make anything.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And that was pretty early, wasn't it?</b><b>In the 3d printing?</b><b>Cause it was that 2013, 2014.</b><b>They were expensive and slow as hell, I think.</b><b>Right.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Cause I don't think we'd even really heard of it.</b><b>I would say your dad made a good choice in Boca high</b><b>because the electives over there,</b><b>the opportunity for kids.</b><b>It's incredible.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's a really good school.</b><b>And it led you to what you want to do in college.</b><b>Their drafting program was awesome.</b><b>Absolutely.</b><b>The teacher was awesome too.</b><b>Mr Coletti.</b><b>I wonder if he's still there.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>I feel like I've heard that name.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So how did you decide where you wanted to go to college?</b><b>I had no idea what I wanted to do.</b><b>I remember people started</b><b>talking about college and that wasn't,</b><b>I don't think it was talked</b><b>that much about in, in my house.</b><b>So, you know, I know anything about frats</b><b>or sororities or really why college, but</b><b>I just, I guess I've always had like a really high drive.</b><b>So I was like, I want to go to Stanford.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I remember going to the</b><b>counselor's office and talking about like,</b><b>you think I can make it in Stanford?</b><b>Like what do I got to do?</b><b>And they sat me down there.</b><b>Like there's absolutely zero</b><b>chance you can get into Stanford.</b><b>I love it though.</b><b>I love the drive.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I wanted to do something cool.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I got a letter in the mail from Embry Riddle and it just</b><b>had rockets and airplanes on it.</b><b>And I was like, well, that's</b><b>gotta be the hardest thing I can do.</b><b>And I like drafting a design.</b><b>Let me, let me try this.</b><b>So I went into aerospace engineering.</b><b>So were you looking for, you said</b><b>that's gotta be the hardest thing I can do.</b><b>So are you, do you just have a natural, not need, but an</b><b>inclination to always be challenging yourself?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I feel like the limits are</b><b>like only what you give yourself.</b><b>And that started at such a young age in high school.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm curious.</b><b>You moved around quite a bit.</b><b>Do you remember why you were moving so much?</b><b>Was like your dad in military</b><b>or your parents in military or?</b><b>I think my dad switched jobs a few</b><b>times from when I was one to like five.</b><b>I think he switched jobs twice, three times.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And then that's just the job moves.</b><b>And then you said the college</b><b>wasn't discussed in your home very much.</b><b>Did your parents go to school?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Both of my parents have a degree.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So my mom just got her, her master's</b><b>while my parents were getting a divorce.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I helped her.</b><b>And she stayed in your life, even though she was in Tampa.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So it started off when they</b><b>first got divorced, it was 50 50.</b><b>So I think I was in seventh grade when that all went down</b><b>and I would go one week at my dad's,</b><b>one week at my mom's and back and forth.</b><b>When you were still in Tampa.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And then what about when you moved here?</b><b>When I moved here is just live with</b><b>my dad and then see my mom on holidays.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And are you and your mom close?</b><b>Yeah, we're really good now.</b><b>Okay, good.</b><b>Which is great.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because I'm sure that was hard with the distance.</b><b>It was tough.</b><b>Wouldn't recommend it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, that's good that you guys.</b><b>Well, it's funny.</b><b>You would think you're in the same state, but for people</b><b>who don't realize that Florida is a big state.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's huge.</b><b>Three and a half hour drive.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And that's if you're speeding.</b><b>That's if you're going pretty fast.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Which we all do down here.</b><b>I made that drive a few times.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So, so where did you pick to go to school to study</b><b>aerospace, aerospace engineering?</b><b>I went to UCF.</b><b>And they're known for that, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I got Fulbright Futures and</b><b>then accepted into the STEM program.</b><b>And, and the Excel or sorry, the Excel program.</b><b>So just like right off the bat, just thrown into advanced</b><b>math and meeting different people</b><b>that were into math like me.</b><b>It was kind of the first time I met people who had the</b><b>engineering profile, you know,</b><b>just kind of math minded.</b><b>More, more of my type of people, you know,</b><b>there's not that many engineers and there's</b><b>definitely not a lot of social engineers.</b><b>So it was cool to make new friends that</b><b>were interested in the same thing as me.</b><b>And we would just be up 24 seven, just grinding.</b><b>Was that the first time that you felt you really had</b><b>friends that were like minded like that?</b><b>It took a while.</b><b>I didn't feel that till sophomore</b><b>year when I moved in with my buddy, Sean,</b><b>Jeffrey and Creed.</b><b>And that was like the first time my freshman year of</b><b>college, I was actually severely depressed</b><b>for most of it.</b><b>Really depressed.</b><b>Were you overwhelmed with the</b><b>academic aspect or the social or?</b><b>I think I just, yeah, I was lost.</b><b>I was lost.</b><b>And I didn't really have many friends either because</b><b>there's not a lot of social engineers.</b><b>So a lot of the people that would</b><b>meet weren't really my type of people.</b><b>And then the people who were my type of</b><b>people were in finance doing frat stuff.</b><b>And I didn't really want to do that.</b><b>So I really just spent most of my freshman year in my room</b><b>working on a my first invention,</b><b>which was a smokeless and odorless vaporizer.</b><b>There's a lot of utility for that.</b><b>When you say just for clarification for anybody listening,</b><b>you mean you're a technical engineer,</b><b>but you're a social guy.</b><b>So you're with engineers who probably weren't as social.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>That's what I figured.</b><b>Yeah, that makes sense.</b><b>If you have any friends from Boca high that went to UCF.</b><b>I did, but they did kind of their finance group.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you kind of were focused on your</b><b>passion that year and use that as your outlet.</b><b>I was just like, I got to just</b><b>make a ton of money from an invention.</b><b>And this seems like the thing.</b><b>And then everyone I told it to, obviously a bunch of</b><b>college freshmen idea was amazing.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They're like, we'll buy that.</b><b>They're like, yeah, definitely make that.</b><b>Did you get it to market and sell it at all?</b><b>I got, we worked on it for I think six years.</b><b>It's when it finally wrapped up.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Really hard to pull that off, but</b><b>basically you hit it and then blow it back in.</b><b>And I invented like a filter</b><b>that was like the size of my thumb.</b><b>I raised money with an investor.</b><b>I had a partner to do the electronics.</b><b>So we had a few working prototypes.</b><b>Looking back, obviously there's no mistakes and regrets,</b><b>but I wish I worked on something</b><b>a little more productive, but I did learn a lot about</b><b>inventing and 3d printing and designing</b><b>for manufacturing and getting quotes from China.</b><b>I mean, it set me up for, for chappy.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So, so you worked on that</b><b>pretty much your whole freshman year.</b><b>And then for the next five years, you continued to work on</b><b>that as you evolved, did other things.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So your, your sophomore year is when</b><b>you kind of found your people, your grade.</b><b>So sophomore year, um, part of the STEM or Excel program</b><b>that I was in was touring different</b><b>laboratories.</b><b>Um, so I toured this, uh, center for microgravity research</b><b>at UCF and I just came in and went</b><b>to the lab director and I was like, I need to work here.</b><b>And so I got a job and they put me on, um, designing a, uh,</b><b>CubeSat, which is a satellite</b><b>that's like this big, um, which</b><b>is like two feet for listeners.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's about two feet.</b><b>It's a little cube and, um, they</b><b>had me 3d print the whole mock-up.</b><b>So I got to use my 3d printing skills.</b><b>Cool.</b><b>And then we turned it into a real thing</b><b>that went to space over the next four years.</b><b>No way.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And what did it do?</b><b>It studied, uh, particle collisions in, uh, zero G.</b><b>So we would have like little tiny marbles</b><b>and different grains of sand that would be</b><b>in this experiment cell that would shake.</b><b>And it would, uh, have a camera above</b><b>that would watch how the particles collide.</b><b>And then they would study how, um, the like transfer of</b><b>momentum between the particles</b><b>was different in zero G compared to earth.</b><b>Cause you can't really study that on</b><b>earth because there's gravity, but in space,</b><b>like the particles bounce off each other and, uh, they,</b><b>they conserve their momentum more.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>So how would that information be used?</b><b>To study how, um, asteroids hit,</b><b>uh, planets and craters are formed.</b><b>And then you can project like the size of</b><b>the asteroid just by looking at the crater.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.</b><b>I'm envisioning this and I'm thinking, so</b><b>on the camera though, the camera has to be</b><b>extreme magnification.</b><b>It was a GoPro and it was like, Oh, to get out of here.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>The GoPro went up into space.</b><b>What a tree.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>The, uh, the particles, I mean,</b><b>they were like a millimeter in size.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So, all right.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I was like a microscopic, I don't know.</b><b>That's what you think when you hear particles.</b><b>Totally.</b><b>So this was your sophomore year.</b><b>You're working on this.</b><b>This is sophomore year.</b><b>Crazy.</b><b>And then, so what did you do junior year?</b><b>Junior year I went to space X.</b><b>Seriously?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So how does that happen where, um, your work, you have your</b><b>freshman year, you work, start</b><b>your first invention, um, sophomore year, you are part of</b><b>something that goes into space and</b><b>then you end up at space X.</b><b>What, how did that happen?</b><b>Um, kind of just back to my drive of</b><b>just trying to achieve outlandish things.</b><b>Um, I applied to space X my freshman year nonstop, my</b><b>sophomore year nonstop sophomore</b><b>year.</b><b>I got interviews, uh, was rejected, but then I remembered</b><b>the interview questions for my</b><b>junior year.</b><b>And, um, I stayed up for like three</b><b>days straight preparing for that interview.</b><b>And I found one of the questions, I think</b><b>it's what got me the internship was like,</b><b>what do you do if you drop a tool in a fuselage?</b><b>Like, how do you make sure it's not damaged?</b><b>And someone posted this question online</b><b>and gave the answer and it's like, check ISO</b><b>1800 dash D three.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I got asked that question and I knew the answer.</b><b>And yeah.</b><b>So you leave at UCF.</b><b>Um, this was for summer.</b><b>So I flew to LA.</b><b>They put my car on a train and flew me out</b><b>to LA for three months and it was awesome.</b><b>Sure.</b><b>I was thinking that you might've because Orlando UCF's in</b><b>Orlando and it's pretty close</b><b>to both NASA and space X right on the East coast, but you</b><b>actually went all the way out</b><b>to LA.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So that's where their headquarters were for Falcon nine.</b><b>So they did operations at the Cape, but they did their</b><b>manufacturing and that was my role.</b><b>I was a production manufacturer engineer.</b><b>So you get out there and I</b><b>assume they got you an apartment.</b><b>Um, they, so the apartment story is actually wild.</b><b>So they pair you with other interns and then you make a</b><b>group chat and you find your own</b><b>long-term Airbnb.</b><b>So I was in charge for our group for the</b><b>Airbnb and I am about to get on the plane</b><b>and the Airbnb host cancels a</b><b>reservation, a two and a half month reservation.</b><b>I've heard of that happening for people.</b><b>She won't go to Airbnb.</b><b>She doesn't trust them.</b><b>It was so bad.</b><b>We were stranded in LA.</b><b>The four of us, we had nowhere to go.</b><b>You guys know each other before this or</b><b>just a group chat from all different parts.</b><b>Did they blame you?</b><b>Were they like, dude, what the hell?</b><b>They could have, but they didn't.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I appreciate that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Where were they from?</b><b>All over my, my good friend from there, Dustin was from</b><b>upstate New York and then there was</b><b>two others.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And then, so what'd you guys do?</b><b>Um, so I think we stayed in a hotel</b><b>in the hood that night for two nights.</b><b>I think for a week.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And a week in Long Beach.</b><b>It was sketchy.</b><b>Long beaches.</b><b>It was sketch.</b><b>I remember we were getting out to go to work one day and</b><b>there was someone, it was probably</b><b>6 a.m. 7 a.m.</b><b>There was someone like in a, in like</b><b>a tutu, like fully probably on crack.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Just ran with a balloon.</b><b>Just like, like we're writing down.</b><b>We were like, where are they?</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Almost got to go to SpaceX.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Right.</b><b>That's crazy.</b><b>You guys are just these really</b><b>smart kids going to work at SpaceX.</b><b>And here's the opposite of that.</b><b>The other, the other spectrum.</b><b>We ended up getting a great</b><b>spot, but it took a week to find.</b><b>We ended up getting a really solid spot.</b><b>That's great.</b><b>And then what did you do there?</b><b>I mean, what is SpaceX like?</b><b>So the first day I could not believe I was standing there.</b><b>And I'm pretty sure I told my manager that which probably</b><b>not a great thing to do to be in awe.</b><b>I had never had a job other than Carabas.</b><b>You know, the undergraduate research wasn't like a career.</b><b>That was research at UCF.</b><b>It's not a job.</b><b>Right.</b><b>It's a job, but it's not really like a corporate job.</b><b>So also these kids were from MIT and,</b><b>you know, the best engineering schools.</b><b>And I knew way more than I did.</b><b>And I probably was there too early.</b><b>But I remember walking in, you know, you</b><b>meet your manager, you meet your group,</b><b>and you walk in and it's just rocket hardware everywhere.</b><b>Like crew capsules being built.</b><b>They had a dragon hanging from the</b><b>dragons, one of the crew capsules.</b><b>They had it hanging from the ceiling in the cafeteria with</b><b>the char from reentry still on it.</b><b>And just like pictures of Mars blown up on the walls</b><b>everywhere when Mars terraformed.</b><b>And I mean, you walk in there and you're</b><b>like, this is like I'm living in the future.</b><b>Like what is pretty insane.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>I can't even imagine.</b><b>It was really fun.</b><b>And they had like a full full time coffee bar there.</b><b>They had gourmet food for everyone.</b><b>And the culture was just, it was</b><b>different for the full time for the interns.</b><b>The interns had to work 50 hours a</b><b>week, not a minute more, not a minute less.</b><b>And you had to get everything done in those 50 hours</b><b>because you couldn't work extra time.</b><b>So that was tough because we were young and we wanted to</b><b>have fun and experience California.</b><b>And we wanted to work 12 hours, four days in a row.</b><b>And then get off early on Friday and go explore the city.</b><b>I'd never been to California.</b><b>So yeah, it was a lot of hard work.</b><b>And at the same time, I'm still trying to develop the vape.</b><b>And I had this other product I was trying to develop.</b><b>So you're still working on your side and SpaceX.</b><b>Did you learn a ton?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I mean, I did all sorts of things.</b><b>I climbed inside the fuselage of a Falcon 9 and created an</b><b>inspection guide so they could</b><b>determine different glues and</b><b>sealants just by shining a UV light on him.</b><b>I qualified a sealant that protects water from damaging the</b><b>inside where the barrel meets the</b><b>wall.</b><b>There's a crevice and they want them to be reusable.</b><b>So they don't want water just staying in there.</b><b>So they created a sealant and I qualified that.</b><b>I made a drag for the grid fins that help it land.</b><b>I helped improve a flipping.</b><b>So the rockets made in sections and they have to work on</b><b>the bottom and the top of the barrels.</b><b>And they were using two cranes.</b><b>They were picking up a barrel, flipping it, putting it</b><b>down, rerigging it on the other</b><b>end and then picking it up.</b><b>And then I was like, why don't you just flip it midair?</b><b>And they were like, well, we don't do that for a reason.</b><b>So go figure out what that reason is.</b><b>And I'm like, I don't think</b><b>there's a reason you guys don't do it.</b><b>I just think you haven't thought about it.</b><b>And I got pushed back for a while, but they ended up doing</b><b>it and saved them a ton of time.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Did you get recognition for that?</b><b>No, not much.</b><b>But how old were you?</b><b>20?</b><b>19?</b><b>20?</b><b>At that time?</b><b>Junior year?</b><b>21?</b><b>22?</b><b>Did someone get credit for it?</b><b>Take your idea and run with it?</b><b>Not even.</b><b>No.</b><b>It's just, I think it's just</b><b>like, go and work and go faster.</b><b>It's wild that, I mean, that's cool that</b><b>as an intern, you had stuff expectations.</b><b>Oh, yeah.</b><b>Rather than high expectations.</b><b>Yeah, that's wild.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>I didn't end up getting a return offer.</b><b>Did other kids?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>My good friend Dustin did.</b><b>After doing all those things?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And it's because I screwed up one project.</b><b>Which project was it?</b><b>So the rocket lays on rolled rings.</b><b>And the inside of the rocket</b><b>has pressure vessels inside of it.</b><b>And sometimes they'll be more heavy on one end.</b><b>So it will want to kind of like spin.</b><b>And so they were trying to add, it's kind of complicated.</b><b>But up the rocket, they have all</b><b>the fuel lines and hydraulic lines.</b><b>And there's cutouts in the roll</b><b>rings where those lines run through.</b><b>So they wanted, there's different versions of the rocket.</b><b>There's Falcon Heavy and just a regular Falcon.</b><b>So the raceways are in different locations.</b><b>So they wanted to create these blocks</b><b>that you could clip on to the roll rings.</b><b>So that you could add extra</b><b>friction to the rocket when you turn it.</b><b>Okay. I don't know if you guys could follow that.</b><b>I kind of need a diagram.</b><b>I know, but I did.</b><b>I followed what you were saying.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>So what happened?</b><b>I know what the heck I was doing at all.</b><b>I wasted way too much time</b><b>designing and not enough time testing.</b><b>And I was just so focused on doing it</b><b>right the first time, which is a big flaw.</b><b>And I remember in my end of internship</b><b>performance review, they were like, you know,</b><b>because I was doing different</b><b>projects for different people on the team.</b><b>And I guess I wasn't communicating well</b><b>enough with one of the key stakeholders</b><b>about the status of the project.</b><b>And I know the blocks came in after I left.</b><b>I have no idea if they ever</b><b>ended up using them or what happened.</b><b>But yeah, I mean, I could do that project in a week now.</b><b>It took me almost a whole</b><b>internship to figure that thing out.</b><b>Was there something you learned from</b><b>that that you took forward with you?</b><b>Yeah, test quickly.</b><b>Instead of being so worried</b><b>about preparation and perfection.</b><b>Yeah, don't be a perfectionist.</b><b>Fail forward.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Just keep failing forward.</b><b>100%.</b><b>Yeah, that's a great lesson.</b><b>Yeah, it was a good lesson.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So are you going to ask something?</b><b>No, I was just going to say, why do</b><b>you think you could do it in a week now</b><b>that took you so long before?</b><b>Oh, because I haven't stopped thinking about it now.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>All right.</b><b>That's an awesome answer.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Did you meet Elon?</b><b>I walked by him while I was listening to his biography.</b><b>So they have an executive bathroom at</b><b>SpaceX where they have a bucket as a urinal.</b><b>And the legend has it that they</b><b>told Elon if he started SpaceX,</b><b>he wouldn't have a bucket to piss on.</b><b>So he installed a bucket for everyone to piss in.</b><b>No way.</b><b>So I remember repeating the bucket and</b><b>then I was listening to his biography.</b><b>And I was walking back to my desk and I passed him.</b><b>And I was like listening about his childhood.</b><b>I'm like, this is weird.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Talk about surreal.</b><b>Yeah, that was strange.</b><b>Yeah, that's a moment in life.</b><b>Yeah, you're not actually allowed to go up and talk to him</b><b>because he's kind of celebrity status.</b><b>This is 2017 now.</b><b>I'm sure it's even more strict.</b><b>Yeah, yeah, yeah.</b><b>But that's cool though.</b><b>Yeah, it was pretty cool.</b><b>Yeah, I think that's really cool.</b><b>So you spent a summer there.</b><b>Yeah, yeah.</b><b>I think it totaled three months.</b><b>And that was before junior year or senior year?</b><b>That was junior year.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So then you go back to UCF and you're still doing the same</b><b>stuff at UCF is when you left pretty much.</b><b>So we send up the satellite.</b><b>I think it was my senior year.</b><b>I started getting into propulsion systems because at</b><b>SpaceX, that's really what I wanted to do.</b><b>I wanted to work on the rocket engine.</b><b>So I tried to get into propulsion systems and we had senior</b><b>design and we made a rocket powered</b><b>glider.</b><b>And I started this, my first</b><b>like website business that flopped.</b><b>It was called bizkick and it was for</b><b>founders to be able to meet each other.</b><b>Kind of like Tinder for founders.</b><b>When you say founders, what do you mean?</b><b>Like entrepreneurs.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So it's kind of, okay.</b><b>So it's like you just said Tinder for entrepreneurs.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>All these things exist now.</b><b>Like the smokeless vape, there's a whole company around it.</b><b>Someone stole the exact idea.</b><b>It's like the packs, but it's</b><b>literally has a smoke filter in it.</b><b>It's got two nozzles.</b><b>It's exactly what I invented.</b><b>Yeah, there's a whole company around it.</b><b>And then the Tinder for founders exists too.</b><b>Do you think those were stolen from your idea?</b><b>I like to think so.</b><b>Probably not.</b><b>I mean, if you invented it though, maybe you still know.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Just to go back.</b><b>So when you're at UCF, UCF actually launches satellites.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So it wasn't in UCF's rocket.</b><b>They make rockets, but they're all suborbital.</b><b>But yeah, we sent a satellite up and also was flown out to</b><b>Puerto Rico and helped them design</b><b>Puerto Rico's first satellite, which was pretty cool.</b><b>When was that?</b><b>I think that was my senior year around.</b><b>Very cool.</b><b>How long were you in Puerto Rico?</b><b>I think a week.</b><b>I would just go in and just tell</b><b>them everything about what we did.</b><b>Did you get a chance to also see Puerto Rico?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They put me up in a nice spot on the beach and got to drive</b><b>around the island a little bit.</b><b>Nice.</b><b>Nice.</b><b>Now, did you spend any time at</b><b>the space center here in Florida?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So when I graduated, I got a job at NASA.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So wait.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So UCF junior year, senior year,</b><b>still working on the same stuff.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And then you graduate.</b><b>I have a super senior year.</b><b>You have a super senior year?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I did five years.</b><b>Oh, super.</b><b>I never heard it called that way.</b><b>Yeah, I have an either.</b><b>A senior year.</b><b>I like that.</b><b>That's better than fifth year.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's what I did on purpose.</b><b>I loved college.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I have a question though.</b><b>How did you get so smart?</b><b>I mean, seriously, like you're, this is</b><b>very technical stuff you're talking about.</b><b>It's semi-nebulous for the common folks, right?</b><b>How'd you get into it?</b><b>How do you learn it?</b><b>You know, did you sleep much?</b><b>Is it just a grind?</b><b>Is it curiosity?</b><b>I definitely grinded a lot in college.</b><b>You know, a lot of people would be out</b><b>partying and I would be in my room just</b><b>working on the next prototype.</b><b>But I think it was just, you know, I</b><b>used to build Legos when I was younger.</b><b>I had a whole shelf of Legos.</b><b>So I've kind of always been this way.</b><b>I remember taking apart my grandpa's cameras.</b><b>He would give me his old broken</b><b>cameras and I would just take them apart.</b><b>Just like study how they work.</b><b>And I think it was always this way.</b><b>So you're born this way.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Just the endless curiosity and thinking it seems like.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Math minded.</b><b>Math minded.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because you probably took like the</b><b>highest ACE and AP math courses at Boca High.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Took pre-calc, which I think is</b><b>the highest you go in high school.</b><b>I think they did Calc at FAU, but I didn't do that.</b><b>And in college, I did differential equations.</b><b>And the next thing up from that is linear algebra.</b><b>And then you get a math minor, which I wanted to do.</b><b>I should have done it.</b><b>Maybe I'll still do it.</b><b>What was your degree in?</b><b>Aerospace engineering.</b><b>And did you have a minor?</b><b>I didn't.</b><b>But it's interesting because so many</b><b>people are like, oh, why do I do this math?</b><b>It doesn't translate.</b><b>You're saying it does the advanced math.</b><b>I love math.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I love math physics.</b><b>What about reading and writing English?</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So it's that one side brain.</b><b>So which one works better for you?</b><b>SAT, ACT.</b><b>Because I know for if you're good</b><b>at one thing, you go for the one.</b><b>So they say I should have done better on the ACT.</b><b>But I did horrible on the ACT.</b><b>I did really well on the SAT.</b><b>On the SAT.</b><b>Because the ACT is more math and science.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's what they say.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's interesting.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm not a great test taker, I don't think.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So were your grades in school always registrades?</b><b>Awful.</b><b>Awful.</b><b>Not awful.</b><b>So A's and B's until high school.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>In Spanish.</b><b>I can barely do English.</b><b>So Spanish, I got a D in.</b><b>Is that the class you took with our son, Nathan?</b><b>I think so, yeah.</b><b>That was a fun class.</b><b>And how do we take that?</b><b>I think I met Nathan in my second year of Spanish.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>I think.</b><b>Because you only have to take two years language, right?</b><b>Unless you fail or get a D.</b><b>Right.</b><b>Then you gotta take three.</b><b>That's funny.</b><b>So yeah, I got a D in Spanish.</b><b>So A and B and everything else.</b><b>Normally like an A in math, B in writing.</b><b>And then I think I got a C my senior year of high school.</b><b>And then all through college, it</b><b>was mostly A's and B's and some C's.</b><b>And I ended up with a 3.000.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>In college.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But those are not awful grades.</b><b>Like when you say awful people are picturing like D's.</b><b>Yeah, that's true.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>To me, I was like, yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, I mean, at the level that you're thinking probably,</b><b>and maybe your peers too, that</b><b>anyone, it would be straight A's, right?</b><b>So maybe in your world, if you</b><b>got a B, that's like not so good.</b><b>But for like regular C's.</b><b>That freaks me out.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But getting to see your senior year by</b><b>then you already have been accepted, right?</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Because senior year is kind of</b><b>just like don't totally mess up.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Pretty much all your apps are in.</b><b>You're just waiting.</b><b>So as long as you don't totally mess</b><b>up, it's not going to throw anything.</b><b>100%.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You guys lost me.</b><b>Were you A's and B's in college or were</b><b>you just talking about all high school?</b><b>No, it sounds like you were A's and B's.</b><b>I was A's and B's until like</b><b>besides Spanish, got D in Spanish.</b><b>And then senior year, I got I think my first C.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Got it.</b><b>And then A's and B's in college, right?</b><b>In college, I was holding on for</b><b>dear life and ended up with a 3.00.</b><b>That's what I thought.</b><b>You were taking probably incredibly hard classes.</b><b>And I was working on building a set.</b><b>I was building a business.</b><b>So your grades, your college grades don't</b><b>reflect say your intellectual capacity or</b><b>because you were doing a bunch of stuff.</b><b>I never went to class.</b><b>Yeah, there you go there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I didn't really like obviously I wanted</b><b>good grades, but I didn't go to class ever.</b><b>Is your brain the type that you can look at something and</b><b>you already have it figured out</b><b>and it's almost like a pain to</b><b>have to do it and turn it in?</b><b>Um, depends on the subject.</b><b>Math depends on the problem.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Because I know there's kids that are so smart that they get</b><b>bad grades because they just don't</b><b>want to turn it in.</b><b>So it's like, I already know it.</b><b>You know, they already have figured it all out.</b><b>I don't, I wouldn't say that was me.</b><b>I'm not quite that smart.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I wish.</b><b>When you chose to go to UCF where you</b><b>knew Stanford was probably the dream, right?</b><b>But was it, where was that on your bump down?</b><b>Was it two?</b><b>Was it 10?</b><b>It was, um, it was an Ivy league</b><b>school, but it was where I wanted to go.</b><b>I got into FSU.</b><b>Oh, I really wanted to go to UF.</b><b>You have denied me.</b><b>Really?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's crazy.</b><b>I know.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Jeez.</b><b>Telling me legit though.</b><b>Oh yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Especially for what he does.</b><b>So he has a better aerospace.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I would think, uh, robot, like, so we toured.</b><b>UCF FSU UF did the whole thing.</b><b>I love UCF.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Um, because you could tell close partnership with the</b><b>business of the entertainment industry</b><b>at Disney universal, uh, probably Bush gardens, all the</b><b>rides, NASA space, what 50 miles away or</b><b>less than a hundred for sure.</b><b>So you could just, it had a great engineering vibe to me.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's, I mean, it was a great engineering school.</b><b>I learned a lot mostly through building.</b><b>Um, the classes were solid.</b><b>I definitely noticed when I got to space</b><b>X that it was not even close and I wasn't</b><b>learning anything.</b><b>These guys were learning really, um, which</b><b>was not fun, but yeah, I ended up learning</b><b>it at space X or NASA building.</b><b>Building is always the best way to</b><b>learn, especially for engineers, like hands-on</b><b>experience.</b><b>Otherwise you have no idea what you're doing.</b><b>If you're not actually building and you're just going to</b><b>class, I mean, there was kids</b><b>who got straight A's that never built anything.</b><b>And then, you know, that's your job to build something.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That makes sense.</b><b>So you did the super, what'd you call it?</b><b>Super spring, super summer or super senior senior year.</b><b>So while you're, when did you apply</b><b>or what, how did you end up with NASA?</b><b>Was that your goal?</b><b>Um, no, it was kind of my nightmare to be honest.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So what did you envision for yourself after graduation?</b><b>I thought I'd have a product takeoff.</b><b>I'd be, uh, I'd be in a good position to</b><b>start a company and then it would be like</b><b>a simple product and then I'd roll it into</b><b>like a big tech thing, maybe an aerospace</b><b>company flying cars.</b><b>I wanted to do something really big.</b><b>And then as you got closer to</b><b>graduating, um, what made you decide like, were you</b><b>applying for jobs or were you just</b><b>still focusing on your own thing?</b><b>I was applying places.</b><b>I didn't really want to go anywhere.</b><b>Um, SpaceX said, see you.</b><b>And, uh, I helped my friend get a job at NASA.</b><b>I wasn't really looking because I don't know.</b><b>I just, I couldn't come to grips with the</b><b>reality that this was actually happening.</b><b>It really was like my worst</b><b>fear to have to get a nine to five.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And, um, I helped a friend get a job.</b><b>I like told him everything I did with the satellite and,</b><b>uh, he ended up getting a job.</b><b>And then I was in a position where I needed something.</b><b>It was like, I don't know, maybe a month before graduation.</b><b>I had nothing lined up.</b><b>I'd been trying for months and I'm like,</b><b>you think you can get me a job at NASA?</b><b>So he's like, yeah.</b><b>So I got an interview and then we were both</b><b>interns there started as an internship and</b><b>went full time.</b><b>And then I, uh, my role there was to analyze the, uh,</b><b>launchpad structures for SLS.</b><b>So it turned out to be really fun.</b><b>I loved my time at NASA.</b><b>I had a great time.</b><b>And how long were you there?</b><b>So just under a year, I think.</b><b>So what were you like 23, 24, 24, right</b><b>around the time I met my, uh, now fiance.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you're only you're 24 and</b><b>you've already worked for space X.</b><b>You've already invented things and are working on an</b><b>invention and you're working for NASA.</b><b>Do you realize like what, what huge accomplishments all</b><b>those are at such a young age?</b><b>Yeah, I try to do better, um, to give</b><b>myself credit because I think that's important.</b><b>But a lot of the times I just minimize</b><b>what I do and just think about where I want to</b><b>be, which isn't totally healthy.</b><b>No.</b><b>Would you say back when you were doing</b><b>these things or at least working at NASA,</b><b>were you present and able to</b><b>acknowledge what a big deal that was?</b><b>Not at NASA.</b><b>At space X I knew space X I was like, but</b><b>you know what pissed me off is I would go</b><b>around in LA and we'd be out to bars.</b><b>It'd be like, uh, they'd be</b><b>like, Oh, so what are you doing?</b><b>I'm like, I work at space X.</b><b>What's that?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, no, no, no, no, no.</b><b>Absolutely no.</b><b>And then you tell me you're working on</b><b>rockets for like, Oh, well it's not NASA.</b><b>Like, what is it?</b><b>It's nothing.</b><b>What a trip.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I was space X was just starting.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Right around the beginning.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Now everybody knows.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Everyone in the world knows.</b><b>Everybody knows.</b><b>So you're at NASA and you're working with your friend.</b><b>Yeah. Like I had the job and then you met your fiance.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And what did she do there?</b><b>So I met her, um, right before my senior design project,</b><b>which is basically the last day of</b><b>college.</b><b>Was she at UCF?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And we matched on Tinder and,</b><b>uh, I slid in with, uh, guess what?</b><b>And she's like, what?</b><b>And I said chicken butt and she fell in love.</b><b>I love that.</b><b>She made me wait a month to meet her.</b><b>I ended up thinking I was getting catfished.</b><b>I'm like, this person's not real.</b><b>So you guys were talking and everything.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We were talking all the time.</b><b>I kept telling her, Hey, come to this,</b><b>come to this, come to this, come to this.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, no, no.</b><b>Can't can't can't.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And I would talk to my friends</b><b>about her and I'd be like, I'm like 90%.</b><b>I remember thinking if we don't hang out</b><b>in the next week, I'm like almost positive.</b><b>This is not a real person.</b><b>Right.</b><b>And I'm with my friends at the pool.</b><b>And I remember she's like, uh,</b><b>Hey, I'm out with my friends.</b><b>Do you want to come meet us?</b><b>I'm like, Oh my goodness.</b><b>It's happening.</b><b>It's like in the office.</b><b>You watch the office and when they're all like, Oh my God,</b><b>that was literally me and no one</b><b>wanted to come with me to downtown.</b><b>And I just had to know if she was real.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I rode to myself, Chuck, Chuck, the</b><b>little vodka, put it in a little Gatorade bottle,</b><b>took an Uber by myself, 20 minute ride to downtown and</b><b>walked in to like 12 of her friends.</b><b>A brunch.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>A brunch.</b><b>Oh man.</b><b>And, uh, yeah, within the first five</b><b>minutes she was, uh, feeding me chicken tenders.</b><b>I was like, this is it.</b><b>I love it.</b><b>Listen, that's the definition of if he wanted to, he would.</b><b>I tell that to my daughter and her</b><b>friends, if he wanted to, he would.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>And I'm a big believer in that.</b><b>Guys, if, if he's interested in you, there's no confusion.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You'll know a hundred percent.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And that's the way it should be.</b><b>I think, you know, games are very common, but thank God we</b><b>never had that stage in our relationship.</b><b>So fortunate.</b><b>So, so after that, then was it</b><b>more frequent to see each other?</b><b>She didn't make you wait another 30 or 60 days.</b><b>No, no.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We, we literally were inseparable.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I don't think we spent more than, you know, a day apart for</b><b>since then.</b><b>And what are the chances of her also working in NASA?</b><b>So she didn't work at NASA.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>She worked at the basketball arena in</b><b>downtown Orlando where the magic play.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And do events there.</b><b>So she hospitality.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Which UCF that's great for that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's where you go.</b><b>So you were, because where were you, you weren't in Orlando</b><b>when you were working for NASA, were you?</b><b>Did you move?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No.</b><b>So we took a shuttle every day.</b><b>So I graduated.</b><b>I got the job and I was still in Orlando with my roommates</b><b>from college and we would take a</b><b>shuttle to NASA about an hour ride there,</b><b>hour ride back every morning at like 6 a.m.</b><b>I'd be up.</b><b>It was awful.</b><b>And I'd be in the bus on my laptop</b><b>trying to work on my side business.</b><b>It was so bad.</b><b>Maybe that's where I got the neck problems from.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So you're okay.</b><b>So an hour and that's five days a week.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's five days a week.</b><b>And that you did that for a year.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And you know, I saw so much of NASA.</b><b>There's so much built out there.</b><b>You know, I've got to go from the</b><b>catacombs, which is like tunnels under the launch pad</b><b>to the top of the tallest launch shower.</b><b>And you know, like 300 feet in the air.</b><b>Climbed.</b><b>I got certified to climb lightning towers.</b><b>So as a structural engineer.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>So they have three lightning towers.</b><b>I think they're like 350 feet up and I put on a harness and</b><b>we're just climbing this ladder.</b><b>Oh my God.</b><b>All the way up.</b><b>That's crazy.</b><b>It was nuts.</b><b>Are you not scared of heights?</b><b>I know.</b><b>I love adrenaline.</b><b>I couldn't do it.</b><b>Yeah, you couldn't do it.</b><b>I have height issues.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm like going on the roof.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I was scared of heights until I skydived,</b><b>which was during my internship at SpaceX.</b><b>We had like a week off because when I was there, they just</b><b>did their launch land for Pete,</b><b>which is like the first time they</b><b>landed a rocket and then relaunched it.</b><b>So they planned this big party and</b><b>then they had like a summer break.</b><b>The party was insane.</b><b>Elon went all out, rented Paramount pictures and had like</b><b>different EDM stages everywhere.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>And it was just insane.</b><b>And then we have summer break</b><b>and me and my friend fly to Hawaii.</b><b>And we're just so on top of the world.</b><b>It was 4th of July.</b><b>They had float Tilla or float Palooza or something.</b><b>And everyone gets on floats and parties in the ocean.</b><b>And that day there was a rip and we all got taken out like</b><b>a mile or two miles off the shore.</b><b>All of us on floats.</b><b>No.</b><b>100 people on floats.</b><b>That's crazy.</b><b>And the coast guard's just ripping back</b><b>and forth with Jet Skis rescuing people.</b><b>This is in Hawaii?</b><b>He is in Hawaii.</b><b>I bet you guys were on the news.</b><b>Maybe.</b><b>It was like a local story.</b><b>Yeah, for sure.</b><b>It was wild.</b><b>Were you freaking out?</b><b>Well, there's so many people.</b><b>We were the Florida kids.</b><b>We were like, this is cool.</b><b>Not the straight.</b><b>No, you were having fun.</b><b>And I think when there's so many people</b><b>in a situation like that, you're like,</b><b>okay, they're going to find us.</b><b>There's so many of us.</b><b>We're going to be fine.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And they were watching like they</b><b>had set up a perimeter of Jet Skis.</b><b>And if you floated past them, you were like pushed back.</b><b>That is so funny.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We were being watched, which was good.</b><b>And there were some like little sailboats and stuff.</b><b>So we felt pretty safe.</b><b>But yeah, I mean, you could not swim back.</b><b>You could not get back.</b><b>You had to be rescued.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No.</b><b>Just a totally different question about Elon.</b><b>Was he though a good like boss, would you say?</b><b>Like does he take care of his people?</b><b>So I never had a direct interaction with him, but I think</b><b>he's obviously very efficient</b><b>at what he does.</b><b>And I think a lot of that isn't based on people's feelings.</b><b>I think it's probably more based on progress.</b><b>So I wouldn't be a good person to ask if</b><b>he's a good boss, but he's accomplished a ton.</b><b>And you said you guys had like</b><b>a coffee bar and you had food.</b><b>Like he set up a good work department.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I mean, he threw crazy parties and we had great food.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Took care of his people.</b><b>It's a great answer you gave because he doesn't.</b><b>It's about progress and the food and the restaurants.</b><b>It's to keep people around.</b><b>He doesn't want you going home.</b><b>That's what's interesting about the interns.</b><b>50 hours no more, no less.</b><b>Very prescribed.</b><b>But I bet the FTEs that they ever</b><b>over there, they had no limit, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They're there all the time.</b><b>Seven days a week, probably.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's their life.</b><b>When it's, it depends.</b><b>They have slow seasons and fast seasons.</b><b>When you have to be there, there's zero excuses.</b><b>When you have to get something</b><b>stuff done, there's zero excuses.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That makes sense.</b><b>So you're an adrenaline junkie besides</b><b>skydiving and climbing up these towers.</b><b>So yeah, skydives in Hawaii.</b><b>That was the point of that where they filmed Jurassic Park.</b><b>So I was on top of the world.</b><b>It was insane.</b><b>That year is like a movie.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I can't imagine skydiving either.</b><b>Have you done anything else that's crazy?</b><b>Not crazy, but adrenaline.</b><b>Skydiving is definitely the craziest thing I've done.</b><b>Yeah, by far.</b><b>What's it like when you jump out of that plane?</b><b>So the Will Smith video does a</b><b>really good job explaining it.</b><b>It's like you're so scared the whole, I remember the night</b><b>before just having dreams about it.</b><b>Just really being freaked out in the day, waking up like,</b><b>"Oh my God, we're jumping out of a plane today."</b><b>And I was literally scared.</b><b>Like not really scared of heights, but I'd get like clammy</b><b>and planes and didn't love heights.</b><b>The idea of skydiving was like,"I will never do that."</b><b>But it was at a point in my life</b><b>where it was just like fake reality.</b><b>So let's go skydiving.</b><b>I'm in that camp.</b><b>I won't do it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I mean, that's how I felt.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And that's kind of how I feel</b><b>today, especially after doing it.</b><b>But you're so, so, so nervous.</b><b>And then you get up there and the</b><b>guide the whole time didn't love this.</b><b>Was just cracking jokes about God.</b><b>And you know, you're praying to God.</b><b>You're like, "Please keep me safe."</b><b>He's just cracking jokes that</b><b>like they were funny, but not really.</b><b>It's almost like, "Shut the fuck up."</b><b>It was like, "Dude, you're going to get us killed."</b><b>And then it's like, "All right, you guys ready?"</b><b>Jump and door opens and you're just up there and you're</b><b>looking out the window the whole time.</b><b>You're like, "Okay, I could jump from here.</b><b>Okay, I could jump from here.</b><b>Can we really even jump from here?</b><b>Like, can we survive?</b><b>Can we breathe?"</b><b>They open the door and we were at, I think, 13,500 feet.</b><b>And you look down and it's</b><b>just like, "How is this even real?</b><b>Like, how is this even possible?"</b><b>And you jump and my instructor was too busy cracking jokes.</b><b>He didn't tell me that you have to look up.</b><b>If you look down, the wind suffocates you.</b><b>If you look up, you can breathe and know that.</b><b>So I'm looking down and I'm like</b><b>choking and I fell for probably 20 seconds.</b><b>I also had a photographer, so</b><b>there's some pretty funny footage.</b><b>And I remember thinking,"If I don't take</b><b>a breath right now, I'm going to pass out."</b><b>Like, I was suffocating.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And somehow at that moment, I</b><b>always get lucky, I got a breath.</b><b>And then it was just, you don't</b><b>even feel like you're falling.</b><b>Really?</b><b>You're just on a cushion of air.</b><b>You're just like, "This is sick."</b><b>Really?</b><b>So you were able to be present?</b><b>Oh, yeah.</b><b>You didn't like blackout.</b><b>You can remember.</b><b>I almost did.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah. Now, as soon as I was able to get</b><b>air, I was just like not scared at all.</b><b>And that's kind of what Will Smith says is like the</b><b>greatest things are on the other side of fear.</b><b>How long did you drop for it</b><b>before you pull your parachute?</b><b>I couldn't tell you, but probably about a minute 30.</b><b>Oh, wow.</b><b>And did you have someone--</b><b>It was a drop, yeah.</b><b>Yeah, wow.</b><b>It's a drop.</b><b>Someone's attached.</b><b>You're with someone, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah, I had someone on my way.</b><b>Oh, you were?</b><b>Okay, okay.</b><b>And then once the chute opens, is it a jar?</b><b>Is it jarring?</b><b>Yeah, so that's kind of like the moment of faith.</b><b>That's where everything always goes wrong.</b><b>So the chute opens, and then</b><b>you're still strangely high in the air.</b><b>And there's nothing underneath you.</b><b>You're just kind of like--</b><b>It feels like someone's got you on a</b><b>hanger and is dangling you up in the air.</b><b>And you're just swinging around.</b><b>And then he was pulling on the handles, and he's like,</b><b>"Here, you pull here to turn.</b><b>You pull here to turn."</b><b>And he's like, "You want to drop a little bit?"</b><b>And I'm like, "Yeah, let's do it."</b><b>And he pulls really tight, and we spin, and then we just</b><b>fall like a couple hundred feet.</b><b>Oh, my gosh.</b><b>And I remember we landed, and I'm like, "Oh, my God.</b><b>That was so fun.</b><b>Let's go right now again."</b><b>I almost did it right there again.</b><b>Oh, my gosh.</b><b>Have you done it again since?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Do you think you would again?</b><b>Maybe for my wedding.</b><b>Now, is your fiancé into it?</b><b>She would do it with me.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Hesitantly.</b><b>Yeah?</b><b>She said she would do it with me.</b><b>Yeah. That's cool.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So, okay.</b><b>So, you do the year at NASA.</b><b>Did you see rockets go?</b><b>All the time, yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I've been so close to rocket launches.</b><b>They're pretty, they're really cool up close, yeah.</b><b>I mean, I imagine the things you saw,</b><b>you just really can't describe to people.</b><b>You absolutely have to be there to-</b><b>Yeah, like to VAB, where they built the space shuttle.</b><b>You know, it's like a 400-foot building.</b><b>It has its own weather inside it.</b><b>And-</b><b>Its own weather?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It can have like rain in there.</b><b>Isn't that weird?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That is, yeah.</b><b>They can get enough condensation</b><b>at the top that it rains in there.</b><b>Is it so they can test things in that weather?</b><b>No, they don't want that.</b><b>It's just that big that it-</b><b>That it gets its own weather.</b><b>That's what they say.</b><b>I mean, I haven't seen it, but that's what they say.</b><b>No, growing up in Florida-</b><b>Did you have a fascination towards NASA at all?</b><b>Because I know a lot of kids do.</b><b>We can see rockets on a clear day from here sometimes.</b><b>You know what's crazy is they didn't.</b><b>And me and my fiance were talking about this on the way up.</b><b>When I was a kid, I had a baseball wallpaper in my bedroom.</b><b>And my brother had a space wallpaper in his bedroom.</b><b>And I would always go to his bedroom.</b><b>And I remember looking at</b><b>Saturn and thinking it was so cool.</b><b>But no, I never really thought about aerospace until</b><b>Embry-Reddle sent me that pamphlet.</b><b>It was like, oh, that looks fun.</b><b>Challenging thing.</b><b>You're like, I'm going to challenge myself.</b><b>So after NASA, was it just a one-year stint?</b><b>Did you know it was only going to be one year?</b><b>I didn't.</b><b>I knew I didn't want to be there too long.</b><b>As a government job, the pay is not great.</b><b>So I got an invitation interview at</b><b>L3Harris from a friend that was working there.</b><b>And they offered like a 30% bump.</b><b>And it was back in the industry,</b><b>where it was a little more fast-paced.</b><b>You know, NASA is pretty</b><b>relaxed, totally different culture.</b><b>And I wanted something challenging.</b><b>So I took it.</b><b>And then I was at L3Harris designing hardware for</b><b>satellites for, you know, we did things for</b><b>Comcast and Space Force and different clients.</b><b>And was that in Orlando as well?</b><b>That was in Melbourne.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So same area.</b><b>Yeah, I did not like that.</b><b>Did you move to Melbourne?</b><b>I did.</b><b>So I moved to Melbourne.</b><b>I got a place.</b><b>And then that week that I joined the job, COVID hit.</b><b>And everyone left the office.</b><b>I was in Melbourne for one week.</b><b>So you could have stayed where you were.</b><b>So you could have stayed where you were.</b><b>I could have stayed where I was.</b><b>But everything happens for a reason.</b><b>And I was like, Melbourne, I never got to meet anyone.</b><b>I'm just by myself.</b><b>I don't even have to go in the office.</b><b>Like what am I doing here?</b><b>And my fiancé then girlfriend was</b><b>like 20 minutes north of Boga in Boyan.</b><b>So she had moved.</b><b>She moved here.</b><b>She moved here.</b><b>To work at the breakers.</b><b>No, she's from New Hampshire.</b><b>I heard New Hampshire.</b><b>Did she come down from New Hampshire to go to UCF?</b><b>She did.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So she came here to go to school and then stayed.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>She started at FAU actually.</b><b>Oh wow.</b><b>And then went to two years here and then went to UCF.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And she likes Florida.</b><b>Yeah, she loves Florida.</b><b>New Hampshire is beautiful.</b><b>It's really cool.</b><b>Yeah, we go visit all the time.</b><b>It's cold.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>In the winter.</b><b>It's a bit much.</b><b>But the summer is in the fall, please.</b><b>Yeah, it's really pretty.</b><b>Have you done the fall?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We've gone up a plenty of times.</b><b>You've seen foliage.</b><b>We've gone snowboarding up there.</b><b>We've done ATVing up there.</b><b>That's nice.</b><b>Both days up there.</b><b>She still has family up there.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah, cool.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So we do Christmas up there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Oh, so you get like a real Christmas.</b><b>Like cold weather and everything.</b><b>Yeah, it's cool.</b><b>Like a Hallmark Christmas.</b><b>Yeah, that's cool.</b><b>That's really cool.</b><b>So she moved down here and you're in Melbourne.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So after school, she got a job at</b><b>the breakers and moved to Boyton.</b><b>And I was at NASA and we would go back and forth.</b><b>Long distance.</b><b>And then COVID hit and I would</b><b>just go see her and stayed with her.</b><b>And then I ended up basically moving</b><b>in because COVID wasn't going away.</b><b>We didn't know what was going on during COVID.</b><b>It was like, how long is this going to be?</b><b>Is it going to be a week, a day, a month, a year?</b><b>End up moving in with her and her roommates.</b><b>And we ended up living together so quickly because of that.</b><b>Which I think was really great for our relationship.</b><b>Yeah, I advise anyone who's going to get married to live</b><b>together for at least a year.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I think it's so important.</b><b>You learn, you really learn everything.</b><b>So it's a safety net.</b><b>It's like, okay, if we can do this, we</b><b>need to test this out before we commit.</b><b>It's a must.</b><b>It's a must.</b><b>It really is.</b><b>It's interesting you're saying it's a must.</b><b>That's great advice.</b><b>It is.</b><b>I've told all the kids that you have to do that.</b><b>We did.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because you don't know the other person's habits and you</b><b>have to be okay with living with all of them.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah, absolutely.</b><b>Have you guys had a pet together yet?</b><b>Not yet.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I'm excited for that.</b><b>Maybe next year.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Did you have pets growing up?</b><b>I had cats.</b><b>She had a dog.</b><b>I love dogs.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Dogs are pretty cool.</b><b>They are cool.</b><b>We have three dogs.</b><b>I want a dog pad.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Is there a certain dog you want?</b><b>I think gold.</b><b>I wanted something super aggressive</b><b>that I could train like a German shepherd.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But that doesn't seem like a great idea.</b><b>So I think we'll go for a golden.</b><b>We actually have a German shepherd and he's</b><b>only aggressive if he feels he needs to be.</b><b>But they're so smart.</b><b>He's so smart that he's got a very good gauge.</b><b>So they're not nearly as say volatile as you might think.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>He's he's also a rescue.</b><b>So he's on a hundred percent German Shepherd.</b><b>I'd love to meet him.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, we'll let him out before we go.</b><b>They go nuts because we have three</b><b>and you could pick one of the other two.</b><b>I won't give up my one of them.</b><b>One of them's a bastard dash down</b><b>mix and she just barks like people.</b><b>So it's like she's talking.</b><b>It's a lot.</b><b>You saw the little one.</b><b>We rescued her from Puerto Rico.</b><b>Oh, very nice.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I love that you guys rescued them.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's that's kind of one of my things.</b><b>Like my kids aren't allowed to buy dogs.</b><b>They have to rescue.</b><b>That's great.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So many dogs that are out in</b><b>shelters that are just going to get killed.</b><b>And you can get so sad.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You can get breeds.</b><b>You can get breeds.</b><b>You can rescue every breed has a rescue.</b><b>So like golden retriever, you could</b><b>contact the golden retriever rescue and</b><b>people get puppies.</b><b>That's what we'll have to do.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Any any like it's amazing.</b><b>People think you can't get a breed,</b><b>but you can rescue breeds for sure.</b><b>But our neighbor, she walks the dog</b><b>that is he looks like a purebred German</b><b>Shepherd that she rescued.</b><b>Oh, there's tons of shepherds and he rescued.</b><b>But ours is a black German Shepherd.</b><b>Have you ever seen a black German Shepherd?</b><b>Is that like the standard police dog?</b><b>Kind of.</b><b>Pretty much.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's what he but he he has something else in him though.</b><b>I know most so many dogs down here a pit.</b><b>Yeah, I'm sure there's something and</b><b>they he looks so just like a black German.</b><b>I like pits.</b><b>I lived with a pit my sophomore year.</b><b>Yeah, they're sweet dogs.</b><b>Yeah, they really are.</b><b>I mean, unless really sweet, they're very sweet.</b><b>Like that's their natural temperament.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I remember my mom was really worried about me.</b><b>She's like, don't sleep with it.</b><b>It's too close to your face.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>It's going to eat you while you're sleeping.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Actually, that could be any dog that</b><b>could be any dog that a dog bit Nathan once.</b><b>And it was like this big.</b><b>It was a foot.</b><b>Oh, it happens.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Little dogs especially.</b><b>So but that'll be cool when you guys do that.</b><b>I'm excited.</b><b>Hopefully next year.</b><b>Yeah, for sure.</b><b>So when everything came to an end</b><b>at NASA, what was your next step?</b><b>It was L3 Harris where you already said that.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So then how long were you there?</b><b>I worked there for one or two years.</b><b>And you were living down here.</b><b>In two years.</b><b>Remote.</b><b>Fully remote.</b><b>Down here living with her and her roommates.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So as COVID started to end, they started saying, you know,</b><b>people have to come back to work.</b><b>It was a big struggle to get people to come back.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I fought that pretty hard and I</b><b>would go up every two weeks or every week.</b><b>I was going up, I think two days a week.</b><b>So one night, so I'd drive up like Wednesday morning and</b><b>sleep there at a place that's been</b><b>like $60 a night.</b><b>Super, super dirty and uncomfortable.</b><b>Awful.</b><b>So you had it in committed to Elise</b><b>when you first moved to Melbourne.</b><b>You had it.</b><b>Oh, thank God.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's huge.</b><b>I think I was in for a month.</b><b>It was like a month to month thing.</b><b>That's perfect.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I thought you had left Elise in</b><b>Melbourne and moved down here.</b><b>So that's good.</b><b>You didn't have to do that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, just one month because I never really want, there's</b><b>not, I mean, it's just not my type of</b><b>place.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I get why people like Melbourne,</b><b>but I like a lot of stuff to do.</b><b>And I did not want to move there and they</b><b>just kept trying to bring me back there.</b><b>And eventually one day they were like, you know, so I</b><b>started Chappie and Chappie had</b><b>already had a few good years and they</b><b>were like, you have to move back your purse</b><b>permanently.</b><b>It was like a major decision point in my life.</b><b>And I was like, sorry, but I'm not moving back.</b><b>So you let that job go.</b><b>I quit.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So did you start Chappie during COVID?</b><b>I did.</b><b>And can you explain to our listeners what Chappie is?</b><b>Sure.</b><b>So Chappie is a vacuum insulated container that prevents</b><b>all your cosmetics from melting.</b><b>And we have five different sizes.</b><b>Our most popular is the Chappie OG</b><b>that prevents lip balm from melting.</b><b>And then it goes on.</b><b>I'm going to swing to me for a second.</b><b>That's what this one is, right?</b><b>Yep.</b><b>That's OG.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And then we have a slightly larger</b><b>size, the plus, which is for lipstick.</b><b>And then we have the max, which</b><b>you can fit a bunch of stuff in.</b><b>Excuse me.</b><b>And a pro and a 10 for pretty much everything.</b><b>Deodorant, phones.</b><b>If you're on the boat, you don't</b><b>want your phone getting wet or hot.</b><b>So that exploded.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's amazing.</b><b>So how did you think of this idea?</b><b>What triggered it?</b><b>Actually, my first friend from</b><b>Boca High in my robotics class,</b><b>he knew I had been inventing for so long.</b><b>And I was working at Harris and</b><b>he's like, he calls me up one day.</b><b>He's like, Hey, some girl at dinner</b><b>said there should be a Yeti for lip balm.</b><b>First thing I thought was that stupid.</b><b>And I told my girlfriend at the time about it.</b><b>And she was like, you have to do that.</b><b>You have to, you have to, you have to make it.</b><b>And then she told her friend Alec and he called me.</b><b>He's like, you have to do, you have to do it.</b><b>So I 3D printed a mock-up of it and</b><b>I went on TikTok and talked about it.</b><b>And it got a hundred thousand views overnight.</b><b>No kidding.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>It blew up.</b><b>So I was like, Oh my God.</b><b>There you go.</b><b>And I had all that experience with the vape and all the</b><b>other stupid things that I tried.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That I knew exactly what to do right</b><b>after that and launched it into a pre-sale.</b><b>Amazing.</b><b>So how did you figure out what you</b><b>needed to make it out of so things won't melt?</b><b>Well, that idea was always vacuum insulation.</b><b>That's kind of the idea that was pitched to me.</b><b>So I just looked for a manufacturer who makes water bottles</b><b>and said, can you make a smaller one?</b><b>Interesting.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you were going to ask a question.</b><b>No, I was going to say we were talking a little bit about</b><b>this and I'm not the biggest chapstick guy,</b><b>but so many times and we'd be out on like the lacrosse</b><b>field and your lips start to get chapped.</b><b>I would bring it in.</b><b>It's this melted mess and that's the problem that solves.</b><b>If you throw your chapstick in</b><b>here, you don't get that melted mess.</b><b>Oh, there's so many uses the boat, the beach, the pool.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But it's like perfect for here in Florida, but now we enter</b><b>summer in other parts of the country.</b><b>And not just Florida.</b><b>Like there's places that are also hot</b><b>year round, but then everyone in the summer.</b><b>No, and I love the deodorant.</b><b>That's also an issue.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>For gym bags and stuff.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Go to the gym and then come back to their car in the summer</b><b>and their deodorant is just liquid.</b><b>And also phones.</b><b>You're right.</b><b>Because your phone will get that thing where it's</b><b>overheated and it won't let you use it.</b><b>Medications too.</b><b>Like people put their happy pens in the pros.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>So when did that really...</b><b>What year was that when that really started</b><b>taking off when Chappie started taking off?</b><b>So I launched the presale on my birthday, March 29th, 2021.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And it was pretty much just a TikTok as a Facebook ad and a</b><b>really rough Shopify website with some</b><b>3D modeled pictures of it.</b><b>I was like, let's see if we can sell any.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And they were selling.</b><b>So I put it into production and it didn't go as planned.</b><b>I got scammed.</b><b>Someone, I guess, hacked the manufacturer's email and</b><b>pretended to be the manufacturer.</b><b>This was after like months of talking.</b><b>No.</b><b>Were you talking with the hacker, do you think?</b><b>Or were you talking with</b><b>someone and then became the hacker?</b><b>They changed the email by one letter and</b><b>in the middle of talking through emails,</b><b>I didn't notice.</b><b>It was like instead of manufacturer at gmail.com is</b><b>manufacturer maybe like with the A and U.</b><b>With two weeks or something.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And so they sent me the wire info and</b><b>I sent the pre-order money and bye-bye.</b><b>I was like, so guys, how's it going?</b><b>And they're like, we're working on it.</b><b>And I'm like, you know, a few</b><b>weeks later, hey guys, how's it going?</b><b>We're working on it.</b><b>A few weeks later, guys, is there any progress?</b><b>Send me some photos or something.</b><b>We're working on it.</b><b>It's going to come.</b><b>Give us a few weeks.</b><b>A few weeks later, guys, what is going on?</b><b>And then I think they just stopped answering.</b><b>And that's when I realized the letters were switched at</b><b>some point in my conversation</b><b>like a month or two ago.</b><b>They were answering all.</b><b>So what would they would do?</b><b>They would receive my email, send it to the manufacturer,</b><b>have the manufacturer respond.</b><b>They made a fake email on me to have the</b><b>manufacturer respond, send it back to me.</b><b>So I was able to communicate with</b><b>them through the design process.</b><b>And it wasn't even that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Do you have any idea of the</b><b>country of origin of the hackers?</b><b>No.</b><b>Part of me thinks maybe it was a</b><b>factory pulling a fast one on me.</b><b>We produce in China.</b><b>So it's anyone's guess.</b><b>It probably wasn't.</b><b>It probably was a hacker and they could be from anywhere.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's crazy.</b><b>So how incredibly disheartening?</b><b>Oh my God, it was horrible.</b><b>So I remember I was at a fork in the road</b><b>and it was either invest my life savings</b><b>that I built up through NASA and other</b><b>Harris, you know, only a year or two.</b><b>So not much, but it was everything</b><b>I had or returned the pre-sale money</b><b>and lose everything I have anyways.</b><b>So I filed a report with the FBI, the</b><b>FTC, the bank, the inter-management bank,</b><b>the Chinese bank, the Chinese FBI, whatever that was.</b><b>I filed like so many reports.</b><b>I was like, I'm going to use my own money.</b><b>So I put out like a thousand requests.</b><b>I send my design to every manufacturer in the world.</b><b>I was like, can anyone make this?</b><b>And a bunch of people were like, I remember then I got</b><b>paired with a new manufacturer.</b><b>We were like, we can make it.</b><b>We can make it.</b><b>They gave me a quote and then they couldn't make it.</b><b>They were like, we can't, we</b><b>can't bend the metal this type because</b><b>chappy's so small.</b><b>It has manufacturing issues.</b><b>So the bend radius on the metal makes the metal crack.</b><b>So they couldn't make it.</b><b>And like nine months went by.</b><b>I'm going to be a kid while you're talking.</b><b>What was that?</b><b>I'm going to me while you're talking.</b><b>The little chinga chinga that you can hear.</b><b>I mean, if you look on your website,</b><b>it's like perfectly sized for chapstick.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So it is tight.</b><b>That's interesting.</b><b>So trying to bend it, it's hard to bend.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Interesting.</b><b>So this manufacturer finally reached</b><b>out to me and was like, we can make it.</b><b>And I was like, okay, how long for a sample?</b><b>And I told them my story and they were</b><b>like, we're going to just send you a sample in</b><b>two weeks for free.</b><b>Two weeks later, I had a sample.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>So I was able to tell customers nine</b><b>months later that they were going to ship</b><b>and we delivered, which was awesome.</b><b>So you didn't do like a Kickstarter, but</b><b>you just did pre-sales on your website.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>If I did a Kickstarter, I</b><b>probably wouldn't have got the money.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So how were people about waiting the nine months?</b><b>They were mad.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They were like,</b><b>did you explain to them what happened?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>I did. I mean, what are you going to do?</b><b>Many people, many customers.</b><b>We love all of them, but they have high expectations.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, let's keep in mind during COVID</b><b>supply chain issues impacted the entire world.</b><b>So starting it, you have this great idea.</b><b>You get screwed by the one manufacturer.</b><b>When did you, when did you say get that second round with</b><b>the manufacturer said they could do it?</b><b>Then actually saying you the sample was it.</b><b>It's like six months later after</b><b>I, after the pre-sale launched.</b><b>So like September 2021 or something.</b><b>September 2021 around when I launched in March, it was bad.</b><b>I felt terrible.</b><b>And if I sent the money to another manufacturer for a</b><b>sample and they scan me again, I'd be out</b><b>my savings and all the pre-sale money.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And then I'd have a bunch of</b><b>people that paid me no product.</b><b>So is it, is this the same manufacturer you still use?</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Really, really, really nice person to this day will do</b><b>everything they can to make sure</b><b>Chappie successful.</b><b>That's wonderful.</b><b>And we probably wouldn't be around without them.</b><b>I mean, that's the key, right?</b><b>That's creating a team, a strong team</b><b>and your manufacturer is part of that team.</b><b>Oh yeah.</b><b>And yeah, I mean, she helped us develop the cooler too,</b><b>which was kind of like, you know,</b><b>after Chappie got some traction, I was</b><b>like, okay, I want to do something for me.</b><b>Like, how can I invent something that I would really like?</b><b>And I spent two years designing this cooler here and she</b><b>helped with the manufacturing with it.</b><b>Why don't you pick it up?</b><b>You've got to see the cooler.</b><b>I went online.</b><b>I was checking it out.</b><b>That thing is cool.</b><b>It's going to be rebranded to</b><b>Terra very soon, but it floats.</b><b>You know what?</b><b>Throw it to me.</b><b>I have a better angle.</b><b>It's heavy, sir.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>All right.</b><b>That is so cool.</b><b>It's got the speaker in it.</b><b>So it's called Coolio.</b><b>So here's the speaker, right?</b><b>Yeah, the speaker compartments up top.</b><b>And you can put your iPhone there, I think, right?</b><b>You can charge through inductive charging on that battery.</b><b>Yeah, that comes with it.</b><b>And the side straps carry towels.</b><b>The whole thing floats, which is my favorite feature.</b><b>So it floats.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So you can take it in the water on a boat day and play</b><b>music and swim out to like an island and</b><b>have all your cold drinks with you.</b><b>So the video on your website, where's that filmed at?</b><b>It looks like it's Boca Lake Boca.</b><b>We have a lot of videos.</b><b>Which one was it a boat day?</b><b>Yeah, maybe.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Most of the boat day footage is from Miami.</b><b>I think it was floating around in the water.</b><b>Yeah, probably Miami.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay, cool.</b><b>So the speaker is waterproof.</b><b>The speaker, that's a JBL.</b><b>It's mostly waterproof.</b><b>We also sell a waterproof speaker.</b><b>That's an add-on.</b><b>But you can float it with the speaker.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>JBL, that's a great speaker.</b><b>It's a great speaker.</b><b>Yeah, it's perfectly sized.</b><b>So we didn't want to put a speaker built in because a lot</b><b>of people have their own speakers</b><b>that they like.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I charge them for a speaker and then</b><b>if, you know, it gets wet and it breaks.</b><b>Oh, so they order it.</b><b>And then if they want the speaker, you put the speaker.</b><b>They can add the speaker or you can use your own.</b><b>Oh, or you can put your own speaker in there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm doing it just this year by showing it this way.</b><b>Are you sure?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It looks good.</b><b>And then those are cup holders.</b><b>Right.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And it floats.</b><b>That's what I noticed.</b><b>The one.</b><b>So you can put all your food in there.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Everything.</b><b>That would be great for moms.</b><b>If you're listening moms, this would be a great thing.</b><b>If you, you know, you take your kids out</b><b>in the tubes and on the things they jump on</b><b>and you could bring this and</b><b>bring all the food for the toddlers,</b><b>the snack food for your kids.</b><b>That's huge.</b><b>I love it.</b><b>I use it every single time I go to the beach.</b><b>I mean, really what was first of it.</b><b>I didn't know it floated when I first designed it.</b><b>Oh, it's funny.</b><b>I just wanted a really great beach bag that had everything</b><b>I needed when I walked to the beach</b><b>because I used to be able to walk to</b><b>the beach when we lived up in Boyan.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I was like, all right.</b><b>Well, I always forget a speaker.</b><b>My phone's always dead.</b><b>I always want to go for a walk on the</b><b>beach, but I'm scared to leave my valuables.</b><b>And I always want cold drinks, but they get warm.</b><b>So let me build everything into one.</b><b>It even has a bottle opener, right?</b><b>Yep.</b><b>It's got a bottle opener.</b><b>There's a lock on the top.</b><b>So that's dry storage up here.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And you can lock, you know, your phone and stuff in there.</b><b>So you're saying this is dry storage up here.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You can open up that zipper and kind of peel that open.</b><b>Oh, yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>So there's a phone in there.</b><b>That's mine.</b><b>Yeah. So like you're saying, if it was say you</b><b>and your fiance or anyone, if someone's by</b><b>themselves or if like parents want to go out in the water</b><b>with their kids, you could put</b><b>everything in here and just bring the cooler with you.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's smart.</b><b>And the towels on the side and the towel.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because there's so many times we've</b><b>done it where we've gone into the water and</b><b>every two minutes I'm looking</b><b>to see is our bag still there.</b><b>And even on my local beach, I wasn't</b><b>even, yeah, I didn't piece that together.</b><b>Bring this with you.</b><b>Bring the cooler with you.</b><b>Yeah, you can.</b><b>You're not going to lose all</b><b>your shit from some jerk walking by.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And you can just, you can still be enjoying the water, but</b><b>your, and your stuff is there</b><b>and you don't have that anxiety.</b><b>Cause I know, and I know other moms are like this, you're</b><b>always looking as the still there.</b><b>You can never totally relax.</b><b>So that would just be like, you could just be present.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>It allows you to be.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That I speaking as a mom, that's huge.</b><b>You could actually probably hug it and help.</b><b>You actually can.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Can you?</b><b>You can use it.</b><b>I mean, not Coast Guard approved,</b><b>but you guys have a floatation device.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So one of the kids could be holding onto that.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I've done that multiple times.</b><b>Brilliant.</b><b>This is brilliant.</b><b>I love it.</b><b>How do you, how do you design this?</b><b>How do you get this from idea to market?</b><b>So that's the big leap, I think.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And it's not easy and it's been a</b><b>learning lesson and this is going to be our first</b><b>summer where we're starting to see some</b><b>traction where it's like starting to pay off</b><b>because it's until this summer and I've been working on</b><b>this, I guess for three years now.</b><b>It's been not good.</b><b>Not fun.</b><b>The product's always been amazing, but</b><b>the business element has been really tough.</b><b>So I started off with an AI design.</b><b>I was like, uh, as TragedyPT, I was</b><b>like, make a futuristic speaker that</b><b>or futuristic backpack cooler that has a</b><b>speaker and cup holders and battery in it.</b><b>And I came out with like this</b><b>design and I tried to copy exactly that.</b><b>And I got my first version and it was terrible because it</b><b>wasn't thought through practically.</b><b>Like the speaker was right above the cup holders.</b><b>So you had to like fiddle your cup in there.</b><b>And then when you wanted to pull it</b><b>out, you'd spill it and the sound wouldn't</b><b>play through the mesh very well.</b><b>It wasn't the right match.</b><b>It did another iteration, another iteration.</b><b>There's always something wrong.</b><b>This went on for a year.</b><b>I made, I think five or six versions.</b><b>So this is the final design that eventually, you know, it's</b><b>still, there's always something</b><b>to improve, but kind of the lesson from SpaceX is like, if</b><b>it's good enough, let's use it.</b><b>And I think it's really good.</b><b>I love where it ended up.</b><b>And we have another version, a</b><b>newer version coming out soon.</b><b>This one actually has some of the upgrades</b><b>where like the hardware would rust because</b><b>it didn't have the right coding on it.</b><b>So the lock and whatnot and the beer</b><b>bottle opener wasn't the right material,</b><b>didn't have the right coding.</b><b>So we upgraded that.</b><b>We upgraded the structure of the front.</b><b>We're going to add drain holes into the dry</b><b>storage because sometimes you'll be floating</b><b>with it and you'll forget to zip</b><b>it, which I've done a few times.</b><b>Water gets in and it's hard to get it out.</b><b>So, you know, just a little improvements here and there.</b><b>We're about to produce 1400 new</b><b>ones under the new brand called Terra.</b><b>No kidding.</b><b>So it's no longer going to be called Coolio.</b><b>I don't think so.</b><b>So originally I had it under the Chappie brand.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And I was like, all right, well,</b><b>Chappie makes insulated products.</b><b>What can I make them passionate about?</b><b>How about a cooler?</b><b>How do I make the world's best cooler?</b><b>And then I launched it to Chappie's 50,000</b><b>customers and turns out people or coolers</b><b>and chapsticks, there's not really any correlation.</b><b>I had like three purchases out of 50,000 people.</b><b>Interesting.</b><b>I was like, something's not right.</b><b>So then I broke it off onto its own website and I'm like,</b><b>Coolio is great for a cooler,</b><b>but it's not great for a brand.</b><b>Like I want to build an ecosystem around</b><b>it of outdoor tech is kind of the vision</b><b>that I had.</b><b>And then I moved to Miami and I met this kid named George,</b><b>who's now my partner on the cooler.</b><b>And he's an incredible photographer and</b><b>videographer and, you know, can really create</b><b>a really good brand identity.</b><b>So he came up with the name Terra, and then we came up with</b><b>a logo and we started selling</b><b>the cooler under the Terra website, where it's branded as</b><b>like really awesome travel stuff.</b><b>And I really like it if it's a cooler a</b><b>lot better than the brand image of Chappie.</b><b>And how have you guys been doing on the Terra website?</b><b>It's starting to crush.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>It's starting to crush.</b><b>And it's been so when I first came out</b><b>the cooler, I wanted to test the concept.</b><b>So I did a presale sold 100 in like May of 2022 or</b><b>something 23, maybe this was last year.</b><b>So 24 times a little squish, but yeah, 24 of May.</b><b>We sold like 100, then I stopped</b><b>selling them and I wanted to just produce 500.</b><b>And that took months.</b><b>And by the time I had the coolers, it was like September.</b><b>And if you go on Google Trends and you</b><b>look at the search history for coolers,</b><b>like April 17th, it starts going up.</b><b>And then by September, it's over.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So stuck with 400 coolers and they're big.</b><b>400 of those takes up a lot of</b><b>room and you got to pay storage fees.</b><b>And because the first design has the</b><b>battery included in it from production,</b><b>when we shipped it from China to here,</b><b>it's a hazardous good and shipping doubles.</b><b>So I lost a lot of money with the product.</b><b>So a lot of learning lessons.</b><b>Because is the battery something you could do here?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So we're going to ship them separately</b><b>here and put them together in the US now.</b><b>Literally say it was like $20,000.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>A big mistake.</b><b>But I mean, that's all part of learning, right?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>As a business owner.</b><b>So you went, so you've got Chappie</b><b>going and then you started designing this.</b><b>And now this is going.</b><b>So since you quit the job in Melbourne, have you only been</b><b>working on Chappie and then Tara?</b><b>So yep, they went Chappie then Tara.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And now I have three other things.</b><b>I do way too much.</b><b>Four other things.</b><b>Is it all umbrella under Chappie or</b><b>you're saying Tara is totally separate?</b><b>Financially, yes.</b><b>But operationally, no.</b><b>And the other three things are all separate too?</b><b>Four things.</b><b>Four things are all separate.</b><b>All separate.</b><b>So what are the other things you're doing?</b><b>I'll just touch on all of them</b><b>and then you can tell me which one.</b><b>I'm over here fixing my stuff that</b><b>that cooler toss through me for a loop.</b><b>I even like adjusting things for like a good five minutes.</b><b>I'm good now.</b><b>Or you can move the mic a little bit away.</b><b>At least it didn't hit the sound board.</b><b>Yeah, no kidding, right?</b><b>It's well, I mean, this thing's legit.</b><b>The cooler is totally legit.</b><b>Like people who are Yeti fans.</b><b>Yeah, it's got nothing on this cooler.</b><b>Oh, it's got nothing on it.</b><b>Nothing at all.</b><b>The zippers are are legit.</b><b>The just the quality.</b><b>Yeah, the quality.</b><b>And the move your mic.</b><b>It's good.</b><b>It's actually an interesting story with the</b><b>zippers because Yeti's famous for their very</b><b>thick strip zippers.</b><b>And so I have them in there because that's one of the</b><b>things that I debated upgrading.</b><b>I'm actually curious.</b><b>You guys thoughts on this?</b><b>You have the zippers in there.</b><b>Yeah, like the new zippers.</b><b>The really thick ones.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>That Yeti has.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So they have like a special factory that makes these</b><b>special zippers because they have to</b><b>be waterproof too.</b><b>And so to add it would be$15 for retail.</b><b>Just and for the zipper just to</b><b>buy one zipper for one cooler.</b><b>It's 15 bucks to me.</b><b>I'd have to pass that on.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I don't know if it's worth it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I think this zipper works pretty well.</b><b>The zipper is legit.</b><b>Are you saying it's not waterproof?</b><b>It is.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>It is.</b><b>It's just people like the really big zippers.</b><b>Can I show you guys?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Go get that.</b><b>Go get the zipper.</b><b>I'll come back to me.</b><b>I'll keep talking about this thing while he's getting it.</b><b>You got yourself together now.</b><b>I'm back in action.</b><b>All right.</b><b>Let's see these zippers.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>All right.</b><b>So you're saying this is the new zipper.</b><b>This is like a Yeti zipper kind of.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Exactly.</b><b>What's adding the 15 bucks?</b><b>Is it this little handle?</b><b>I think it's just the construction of the zippers.</b><b>Expensive to make.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I prefer it to be waterproof too.</b><b>I'm going to test this out.</b><b>Interesting.</b><b>This is the first time we've been interacted with.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>This zipper is completely fine.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>This is a good zipper.</b><b>That I would replace.</b><b>Oh, the cooler zipper.</b><b>That was fine to open.</b><b>It's like is it worth 15 bucks to have a really big zipper?</b><b>I don't think so.</b><b>I don't know.</b><b>I'll keep talking since we're doing some demo stuff.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>We're doing some product development.</b><b>I just zipped up the cooler.</b><b>I mean, this zipper is good.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So I think we'll probably keep</b><b>it and keep the cost cheaper.</b><b>It'd be more.</b><b>It's more.</b><b>I think it's more of an aesthetic thing.</b><b>I think it's an aesthetic thing too.</b><b>I think it's an aesthetic thing because it's that.</b><b>If you're watching this, let us know what you think.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>This thing's cool too.</b><b>I mean, there's nothing wrong with this.</b><b>So if you could negotiate, you know,</b><b>a better price, it's probably fine.</b><b>If you're watching on YouTube, we're showing it.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>No, any zipper manufacturers lower your price manufacturer.</b><b>Why is this $15?</b><b>I could see aesthetically this would be sharp.</b><b>It is sharper.</b><b>I think it's definitely sharper.</b><b>I think aesthetically this, could it not be offered as an</b><b>upgraded option or is it one of those things?</b><b>Yes, the whole dogs are cooler though.</b><b>Well, I'm wondering, could you offer both options?</b><b>Probably.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Like have.</b><b>We could have some with the</b><b>upgraded zipper and see how it goes.</b><b>Maybe we'll pre-sale it.</b><b>If it was me, I would do that.</b><b>But it's just not like people</b><b>aren't buying it for the zipper.</b><b>No.</b><b>So it's hard to advertise.</b><b>This one's $15.</b><b>It's just like, excuse me.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I got this cooler and I love it.</b><b>And the zipper is probably</b><b>something no one ever talks about.</b><b>You know, I've got an igloo</b><b>backpack cooler and I do like it.</b><b>But it's pretty vanilla.</b><b>The last thing I'm concerned about are the zippers.</b><b>I'm more concerned about the fit.</b><b>Does it fit?</b><b>Does it leak?</b><b>100%.</b><b>My stuff cool for a while.</b><b>I don't have any of these extra,</b><b>like the speaker stuff is cool.</b><b>The iPhone stuff is cool.</b><b>The charger I was looking on your website.</b><b>You can put your phone on there and it charges.</b><b>Yeah, that's amazing.</b><b>It also has four built-in cables for iPhone, micro-USD.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>That stuff's huge.</b><b>And again, I'm a lax dad guy out on the field.</b><b>And then a South Florida going at the beach type of person.</b><b>This cooler is awesome.</b><b>Especially for the lax field,</b><b>you could throw that in your wagon</b><b>because we all have wagons.</b><b>You could easily fit it in the</b><b>wagon and the width of it is right.</b><b>I wouldn't go any wider.</b><b>It would fit vertically in our wagon</b><b>and then be very, everything's accessible.</b><b>Well, and you can play music on the fair.</b><b>Tara has wagons now.</b><b>Tara has wagons.</b><b>Yeah, wagons.</b><b>That's great.</b><b>I'm telling you because for youth sports, which, you know,</b><b>is just completely taken off travel sports and all that.</b><b>Everyone has a wagon.</b><b>Everyone's on the field.</b><b>You could play music.</b><b>Like this is an interactive experience.</b><b>Or wagons on the come up.</b><b>I feel like everyone has a wagon now.</b><b>I mean, I'll tell you with</b><b>youth sports, everyone has a wagon.</b><b>And we have two.</b><b>And when we travel, even just the two of us,</b><b>we went to St. Augustine a couple of weekends ago.</b><b>We bring the wagons because we put all of our stuff in it</b><b>to take up to the hotel room.</b><b>So you're not dealing with the carts</b><b>at the hotel or you're not slipping.</b><b>They're great to have.</b><b>They're great.</b><b>You just put everything in it.</b><b>So we, yeah, wagons are definitely a thing.</b><b>I feel like they're on the right.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'd be curious to see your wagon.</b><b>Because I definitely could give you</b><b>feedback on the wagon in terms of,</b><b>you know, when you go to a lacrosse</b><b>tournament in Orlando, you go to the,</b><b>what's that place we go to?</b><b>The field, it's the resort.</b><b>Omni.</b><b>The Omni.</b><b>So the fields are like a half a mile from the hotel.</b><b>And you got to go down a hill and it's a hike.</b><b>You got to have a wagon.</b><b>And the heavier duty, if the wider the tires, it helps.</b><b>100%.</b><b>You know, I've got the skinny ones and they're fine,</b><b>but I get a little wagon envy.</b><b>But I'm already in.</b><b>The thick tires are huge.</b><b>I will say though, real quick to go back to the zipper.</b><b>I mean, I get it.</b><b>I get the aesthetic appeal of it.</b><b>But for that price point, for$15, that's crazy.</b><b>Cause you have to push that onto the</b><b>consumer and it would be more than $15.</b><b>Probably up to 25.</b><b>So you're adding $25 to the</b><b>price, the cooler for the zipper.</b><b>That makes no sense.</b><b>I can't justify it.</b><b>No.</b><b>Yet he does.</b><b>You know, they're coolers with $300.</b><b>So I think it's something that I could</b><b>see down the line you guys messing with.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>Maybe we have a premium version.</b><b>I like the idea that we could have.</b><b>Premium version.</b><b>Cause there are people that will</b><b>buy the premium version of anything.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Cause they just want the best</b><b>thing, the best of whatever it is.</b><b>Right.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Why the hell?</b><b>We don't own any yeti.</b><b>Well, we own yeti cops.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Nathan owns a cooler, but no, but what I</b><b>mean is people will buy the premium option.</b><b>You know, so if you have four sweatshirts</b><b>and they're at four different price points,</b><b>there's people that will</b><b>always buy the highest price point.</b><b>For me, I'm not really a consumer.</b><b>I don't really buy anything.</b><b>Um, so it's always, I would buy this cooler, but it's</b><b>always surprising to see people spend</b><b>like $500 from a brand that</b><b>they're just now hearing from today.</b><b>We had a $500 order.</b><b>They bought two cool coolers, some travel products.</b><b>I'm like, Oh my goodness.</b><b>Like they must really like the brand.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So cool.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>I mean, that's gotta feel amazing.</b><b>Especially after now going through two rebranding.</b><b>You know, we're on the chappy brand.</b><b>Then we went to cool your brand.</b><b>Now the terror brand.</b><b>To see that the brand's cohesiveness and identity is</b><b>starting to resonate with customers is really</b><b>rewarding.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>I like Tara.</b><b>It kind of feels like an outdoorsy word.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It makes me feel like camping or something.</b><b>It's like a Terraform or Terra, I think like Earth.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I mean, I mean, I could see this at REI being sold at REI.</b><b>I would, I would hope we could get into wholesale.</b><b>That's been a really, really big struggle with chappy.</b><b>It's been very difficult to get chappy into wholesale.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Chappy as well.</b><b>All of that for the outdoor stores.</b><b>Why is that?</b><b>What's the resistance or friction of the barriers?</b><b>So our dream store for chappy would be CVS and Walgreens</b><b>because they sell the most chapstick.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>And they just, their products that they have up there are</b><b>super well-established brands.</b><b>Like when you think of front of checkout or the lip balm</b><b>section, it's like Burt's Bees.</b><b>Eos, you know, by front of checkout,</b><b>they have like chocolate bars and stuff.</b><b>They have their thing the way they like it.</b><b>And my product would have to outsell one of those massive</b><b>brands that has massive appeal.</b><b>And I just don't think that they see that.</b><b>So I think we have more luck in niche retailers.</b><b>Hair salons love chappy.</b><b>Surfshops love chappy.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>The cooler, maybe we could figure it out.</b><b>But again, we'd be taking</b><b>shelf space from Riddick and Yeti.</b><b>So I think you really have to push your brand identity so</b><b>that people go into the store</b><b>and understand what you're selling and</b><b>what your brand is without seeing an ad.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Have you ever done pop-ups?</b><b>It's just, we probably should,</b><b>but it's not a scalable thing.</b><b>So I could do a pop-up and sell</b><b>some things, but it requires my time.</b><b>So maybe I hire someone.</b><b>It's hard to scale in a pop-up.</b><b>I was going to ask you, that's one of</b><b>the questions I have for you really is,</b><b>how are you scaling this?</b><b>If you think in terms of what phase</b><b>you're in, in terms of a life cycle,</b><b>where would you say you are?</b><b>And how do you scale all of this?</b><b>So chappy is, it grew 20% last year.</b><b>And it grew 5x the year before.</b><b>So it had like curve and now we're kind of like plateaued.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>The next play would be retail.</b><b>That would be a big jump for us.</b><b>Global expansion.</b><b>Almost got scammed trying to do that.</b><b>Oh yeah.</b><b>Lots of scams.</b><b>You guys got to watch out for the scammers.</b><b>That's a crazy story.</b><b>What happened?</b><b>These guys told me, they guaranteed</b><b>me like a million dollars in sales</b><b>over the next three years, expanding to Hong Kong.</b><b>I had a whole fake company, a bunch</b><b>of fake employees based out of Israel.</b><b>And they wanted 15k upfront for their marketing.</b><b>And then they were going to be my</b><b>distributor in Asia and the Mediterranean.</b><b>And I sent them samples and they had a whole fake review.</b><b>And the whole thing was fake.</b><b>They worked with other brands.</b><b>Other brands were fake.</b><b>The websites were fake.</b><b>The reviews were fake.</b><b>Their LinkedIn's were fake.</b><b>Everything was fake.</b><b>But a whole facade you would</b><b>never know until you dove into it.</b><b>And yeah, they tried to get</b><b>$15,000 from me and I almost did it.</b><b>But you didn't.</b><b>Thank God.</b><b>Because there's no way to figure it out.</b><b>How do you protect yourself from stuff like that?</b><b>You have to do your due diligence.</b><b>People are sneaky and evil and they want to harm you.</b><b>And you just have to make sure that you don't allow that to</b><b>happen because it will happen.</b><b>They're predators.</b><b>Yeah, there's a lot of predators.</b><b>And they spend all their time just</b><b>obsessed with trying to scam people.</b><b>It's crazy.</b><b>How could you do that to someone?</b><b>Why do you think you're entitled to my money?</b><b>It's absolutely insane.</b><b>You haven't written any checks</b><b>to anybody from Nigeria, right?</b><b>Not yet.</b><b>Not yet.</b><b>Come close.</b><b>So what are the other brands you have going on?</b><b>So there's four different things</b><b>that I do other than Chappian Terra.</b><b>One is an AI app.</b><b>One is my brother's a doctor, so I'm</b><b>helping him launch a supplement brand.</b><b>Another one is a marketing agency.</b><b>And another one is coaching e-com.</b><b>So you're doing all those things right now?</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Do you want to say that?</b><b>Do you want to plug any of those?</b><b>Or are those still in the</b><b>beginning stages and you're not ready?</b><b>I'm going to go somewhere further than others.</b><b>So the e-com thing, I'm working</b><b>with one of the best in the industry.</b><b>His name's Nathan.</b><b>And he sells a course where we help</b><b>you become successful in dropshipping.</b><b>So I'm just starting that.</b><b>I'll have my first students probably next week.</b><b>Very excited for that.</b><b>Is that all virtual?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So he has a prerecorded course and</b><b>then there's monthly coaching sessions.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>What made you get into that?</b><b>Getting into that?</b><b>Well, it seems like everyone that I help is better than me.</b><b>I've had a friend that started a</b><b>multimillion dollar gym bag company</b><b>that I helped him set up everything.</b><b>One of my interns that I hired for a</b><b>social media marketing company in college,</b><b>because I tried that in college</b><b>before I knew anything about marketing.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>He became very, very successful in Amazon.</b><b>So I think people that I help coach and work with do well.</b><b>And it would be a fun side gig.</b><b>I'm going to try it for a month and see how it goes.</b><b>And hopefully I can help a little bit.</b><b>I've heard and I do a lot of e-books and</b><b>I've heard you should always have a mentor</b><b>and be a mentor, at least partially.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So this will be fun.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>For me, I think.</b><b>I'm very different than what you've been doing.</b><b>Very different.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Very different.</b><b>It feels like a step back, but I</b><b>know that it's going to help develop me.</b><b>No, I think it's growth.</b><b>You know, and it's all a well, you're creating a</b><b>well-rounded experience for yourself.</b><b>It should help with the marketing company</b><b>to just kind of keep establishing myself</b><b>as an expert in the field.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So the marketing company, is this your marketing company?</b><b>Me and my friends.</b><b>So the photographer from Terra and</b><b>a good friend of mine from Tampa,</b><b>and now lives in Miami.</b><b>We all live in Miami.</b><b>We all have great skills that businesses really need.</b><b>So we've just kind of worked together.</b><b>It's kind of a side project, but you know,</b><b>anyone who needs help, we're here to help.</b><b>And we have a really, really strong team.</b><b>What's the name of the company?</b><b>Specularis.</b><b>Specularis?</b><b>So everything that Jacob's talking about, we're going to</b><b>put the links to in the description.</b><b>You'll be able to find everything.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That'll be great.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So Specularis is the marketing company.</b><b>And then Go Mode AI.</b><b>There's the two biggest things.</b><b>Well, before I do that, let me</b><b>talk about my brother's thing.</b><b>Very excited about his thing.</b><b>He's a doctor, but he's really, really good on camera.</b><b>And he gets huge audiences on TikTok Live.</b><b>And he wanted to formulate a pill that</b><b>helps people that he talks to on Live.</b><b>Like everyone complains about pain and stuff.</b><b>So he came up with an all</b><b>natural formulation for a supplement.</b><b>It's called True Motion.</b><b>And we just put it into</b><b>production and we'll be selling very soon.</b><b>True Motion.</b><b>And is it for pain?</b><b>Is it?</b><b>It's for pain and joints and arthritis.</b><b>I'm not on the medical side.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But for people listening, neither are they.</b><b>So to sum it up, it's to help with pain with your joints,</b><b>yes, muscle aches and pains, that type of stuff.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Trying to think if I've come across as Live,</b><b>because what you're saying sounds familiar.</b><b>It's very possible.</b><b>The same last name as you?</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I think I'm, I feel like I maybe have just like, just, you</b><b>know, how you see them come up.</b><b>It's very possible.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's very possible.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Now I will.</b><b>I hope to answer medical questions for everyone.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'll have to really keep, I'm</b><b>going to pay some better attention.</b><b>I'm going to switch him up actually.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So he's mainly on TikTok.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>He's a performer.</b><b>He's awesome at getting people's attention.</b><b>I can't do that stuff.</b><b>I'm not, I'm not great on camera.</b><b>Well, you're doing fine.</b><b>You're doing pretty good for yourself overall.</b><b>And then, and then what was the MPI app?</b><b>Podcast is also a lot different than going on in the end.</b><b>This is true.</b><b>Check this out.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>This is true.</b><b>This is true.</b><b>Tough for me.</b><b>Very true.</b><b>So he's a salesman.</b><b>Oh, yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>He's an entertainer and a salesman.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Go mode.</b><b>Go mode is an AI app where it's</b><b>going to be a marketplace for AI agents.</b><b>So it's for entrepreneurs and</b><b>startups that want to automate their tasks,</b><b>especially solo founders.</b><b>So it's like, I want to start a clothing</b><b>brand or I want to start literally anything.</b><b>You can tell your goal to the AI.</b><b>It'll help you drill down.</b><b>Why do you want to do it?</b><b>What niche do you want to do it?</b><b>How much do you want to make?</b><b>How short of a time?</b><b>I'll ask you some questions and</b><b>I'll come up with a checklist for you.</b><b>And then you'll be able to either do the task yourself or</b><b>have Go mode do the task for you</b><b>through a genetic AI.</b><b>And we'll be a marketplace where we don't want to be in the</b><b>race of developing different agents.</b><b>We want to be the connection to people's agents.</b><b>So there's a bunch of different companies working on really</b><b>great agents for customer service,</b><b>really great agents for graphic</b><b>design, a really great agents for outreach.</b><b>We want to have all those plugged into</b><b>our backend and then hold a front end</b><b>where we store your payment</b><b>information, your ideal email for account sign up,</b><b>your ideal password, your</b><b>brand identity, your brand colors,</b><b>how you like to speak with your</b><b>customers, how big of risk you like to take.</b><b>We want it to know you so that it can</b><b>pass this information on to AI agents</b><b>and you don't have to like,</b><b>redescribe what you're doing every</b><b>single time you have an AI agent.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>I think that could be like a billion dollar idea.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But really, really hard to pull off.</b><b>And you guys are working on that right now?</b><b>Yeah, we have the app and desktop version created.</b><b>And we just did interviews for our UX guy.</b><b>And we have a really promising candidate to do like,</b><b>you know, really streamline UX where</b><b>you're not wondering how do I use this?</b><b>It's just super intuitive.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>And we're going to launch.</b><b>How did you develop the app?</b><b>Like who did that? Did you guys?</b><b>My friend's dad.</b><b>So the same kid, Gary, who gave me the idea of Chappy.</b><b>This was his company that he's been</b><b>working on with his dad since college.</b><b>It was called Atlas.</b><b>And it was basically like task, like you</b><b>write down stuff that you want to accomplish.</b><b>And then as you accomplish it,</b><b>you get like, it's called Ws.</b><b>It's like in game tokens and rewards.</b><b>And then it's the social network.</b><b>So you can see which one of</b><b>your friends is like super dialed</b><b>and doing what they say they're going to do.</b><b>And then they had tried to make that work for a few years.</b><b>And he asked me if I would come on board for marketing.</b><b>And then we were talking about, you</b><b>know, building the ground from that,</b><b>from the building the app from the ground up.</b><b>And, you know, now with AI, we</b><b>don't have to make to do this anymore.</b><b>We can have AI do it.</b><b>So then we were like, all right,</b><b>let's have AI do a perfect to do list.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>And then we had all the tasks and</b><b>we're like, well, AI can do these tasks.</b><b>And then we're like, okay, let's make it a marketplace.</b><b>And so it's kind of been forming over time as we've been</b><b>working together over the last month.</b><b>That's amazing.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>So you have all these things</b><b>going on and that's you're able to,</b><b>at a point in your life where you can</b><b>devote your time to all these projects.</b><b>Yeah, no kids.</b><b>It's my only thing that I do.</b><b>I work, you know, 12 to 14 hours every single day.</b><b>Probably not every day, but at least three days a week.</b><b>And I love it.</b><b>It's stressful, but it's a lot of fun.</b><b>I'm thinking about selling Chappie, to be honest.</b><b>Really?</b><b>Probably sell like 90% of it so that I</b><b>can focus on the new brands and reinvest.</b><b>I mean, but how cool though that you,</b><b>this is your job is what you've created.</b><b>It's crazy.</b><b>It's my dream, you know, and you're 28.</b><b>29 now.</b><b>29.</b><b>So before you're 30, you're able to support yourself off of</b><b>what you've invented and created.</b><b>Yeah, it's strange.</b><b>It's amazing.</b><b>It's a dream for many people and that you've been able to</b><b>accomplish this at such a young age.</b><b>It's huge.</b><b>I hope you've taken time to appreciate it.</b><b>And I probably, I don't know if I never will.</b><b>I tried to, but I just, you know, I</b><b>look up to Zuckerberg, Bezos, Elon.</b><b>You're always challenging yourself.</b><b>Like, why aren't I there?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, that's probably what's part of your drive.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You know, you have insane drive, obviously.</b><b>I think it's a blessing and a curse for sure.</b><b>Right.</b><b>I mean, you probably have to work on</b><b>the balance of, do you, do you reset?</b><b>Do you have time every week where you don't touch anything</b><b>of the business and you go touch</b><b>grass basically and kind of reset?</b><b>I work out a lot every day.</b><b>I do five K's.</b><b>I do cold plunges every day.</b><b>But I would say through all of</b><b>that work is always on my mind.</b><b>Now, does your fiance help you balance?</b><b>She was a hard worker too.</b><b>She's, she works a lot as well.</b><b>She works for the Ritz now.</b><b>So she, she inspires me.</b><b>I mean, she was getting her MBA up</b><b>until she graduated like a few months ago.</b><b>So, wow.</b><b>She works really hard too.</b><b>I mean, obviously when we go out, it's, it's nice.</b><b>I get away from it sometimes.</b><b>I, you know, I have a lot of fun, but I</b><b>pretty, it's pretty much always on my mind.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Everywhere.</b><b>It's probably, it's in my dreams.</b><b>An obsession.</b><b>My nightmares.</b><b>You know, what's interesting, just listening to you and</b><b>your, I know people that are serial</b><b>entrepreneurs.</b><b>It makes sense for you to sell chappy in some ways.</b><b>You probably started it, you built it.</b><b>Maybe it's time to sell it and</b><b>move on and go to the next thing.</b><b>Cause you're never going to stop thinking.</b><b>Right.</b><b>So it's almost in not that chappy's boring</b><b>in any way, but I could, I'm this way where</b><b>I get into something.</b><b>I hyper focus on it.</b><b>I can totally relate to what you're saying.</b><b>And then I kind of get there and</b><b>I'm ready to go to do something else.</b><b>And it, I can see where, I can see where, I can see where, I can see where</b><b>maybe that's your, that becomes your stick.</b><b>You're a serial starter incubator developer.</b><b>Sell it.</b><b>Maybe I don't know.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>And I'm still finding out, you know, what I'm doing.</b><b>Cause I'm not even sure.</b><b>Hey, you know, neither are we.</b><b>And we're in our, that doesn't change.</b><b>I'm here.</b><b>There's no, there's no thing you get.</b><b>There's a finish line and there's no point you get.</b><b>You're like, Oh, I know everything now.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>It never happens.</b><b>That's what I hear.</b><b>It's all about the journey, right?</b><b>It is.</b><b>And I do try to focus on that a lot.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And, and trying to recognize where</b><b>you're at because before you know it,</b><b>you're 10 years later and you're like, wait, hold on.</b><b>What did I just do?</b><b>So it's, it's taking those moments to take stock.</b><b>You know, it's important.</b><b>Yeah, it is.</b><b>And it's something I need to get better at.</b><b>Just something in me just always tells me it's not shit.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>To be honest for some reason.</b><b>And so is that, is that a self-esteem thing do you think?</b><b>Or is it just you have, so is it</b><b>a belief in yourself or lack of?</b><b>It's just, you know, I guess from when I was really young,</b><b>I kind of had like a death, like</b><b>life is not real type of crisis.</b><b>And I was just like, so what's the point of it?</b><b>And I just want to make a huge impact for good.</b><b>And I think that's probably what drives me.</b><b>And if I feel like I'm not doing that,</b><b>chappies affected a lot of people's</b><b>lives, hopefully mostly in a great way.</b><b>But, you know, so there's a formula Elon talks about.</b><b>It's how much good have you done?</b><b>And for how many people you do a</b><b>little bit of good for a ton of people.</b><b>That's great.</b><b>If you do a lot of good for a little bit of people,</b><b>that's great.</b><b>So I guess I'm just always trying to</b><b>find the way I can do the most good</b><b>and be as useful as possible.</b><b>And if I feel like I'm not doing that, it drives me insane.</b><b>So you're finding meaning of life</b><b>through this in some ways and also self-worth.</b><b>Definitely.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I've never really been able to disconnect from that.</b><b>All right.</b><b>So then when you're not doing it,</b><b>then you're kind of having to stop.</b><b>You don't have that busyness in your brain.</b><b>You kind of have to be present,</b><b>which might be more stressful.</b><b>It's always like a combination of things.</b><b>So yeah, like I can detach a little bit.</b><b>And that's always great.</b><b>That always feels good, especially with good company, you</b><b>know, watching the Super Bowl,</b><b>you know, there'll be some times, you know, the theme park,</b><b>die diving.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>There are ways to detach.</b><b>But yeah, it's partially finding meaning through it.</b><b>It's partially because I'm just obsessed with building.</b><b>I love building.</b><b>And I've always had expensive tastes.</b><b>Like since I was a kid, I remember</b><b>my parents used to always tell me,</b><b>"You have expensive taste.</b><b>You're going to be in trouble."</b><b>We'd go to like Chili's.</b><b>I'd want like the steak or whatever.</b><b>Yeah. So I know someone like that.</b><b>Nathan does that too.</b><b>We could be at Denny's, you know, when</b><b>he was like 15 for breakfast or something,</b><b>he'd order the steak.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's trying to be crazy because I'm</b><b>like, dude, at the steak where at Denny's,</b><b>it's not going to be that good.</b><b>And it's a blessing and a curse because the blessing is,</b><b>yeah, I guess you get the things you like, but the curse is</b><b>now you got to find a lifestyle</b><b>that keeps up with what you like.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, it's so true.</b><b>So, and you know what also may help you balance is,</b><b>I don't know if you guys are planning on starting a family.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>But if you do, children have a way of doing that.</b><b>Oh, I bet.</b><b>They do.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's coming for sure.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>They have a way of helping you get out of your own head</b><b>because you have to because it's all about them in a way.</b><b>Not that you lose yourself, but it</b><b>just is a natural thing that happens</b><b>and it kind of brings some balance.</b><b>I am nervous about it.</b><b>I'm excited.</b><b>I want to have like 10 kids.</b><b>Oh boy.</b><b>What does she think about that?</b><b>Doesn't love the idea.</b><b>She says three.</b><b>That sounds more reasonable.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's, you know, I always tell people,</b><b>I'm, I am a believer.</b><b>I'm very spiritual.</b><b>And so I tell people, God made</b><b>you to be that child's parent.</b><b>And so whatever you do is how</b><b>it's meant to be because you're</b><b>specially made to be that child's parent.</b><b>I love that.</b><b>And you have to trust that.</b><b>You just have to trust that no one else</b><b>can do what you're doing with that child.</b><b>Except you.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And it'll come to you.</b><b>And so whatever you do will be right.</b><b>It'll be okay.</b><b>I love that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's really beautiful.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I also believe in God.</b><b>I'm, I'm Jewish, but I believe</b><b>overall in, in God, not so much.</b><b>And, you know, this is the only right</b><b>way, but there's definitely something more.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And that also helps with the</b><b>feeling that like, we only have this life.</b><b>And what we do right now is so important.</b><b>Right.</b><b>The thought that, you know, there could</b><b>be something after and hopefully there is.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And faith would make you say, yeah, there definitely</b><b>is something after this.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>So that takes that pressure off.</b><b>It does.</b><b>I find faith to be a gift, you know, and it's up to each</b><b>person if they choose to use it or not.</b><b>But I think it's sitting there.</b><b>And I think psychologically, it's a</b><b>huge outlet that people don't use.</b><b>You really, it really can relieve a lot</b><b>of anxiety if you give it the opportunity.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I, I try to get involved as I can.</b><b>I try to pray a few times a week.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I always tell my kids, just</b><b>talk to God like he's your friend.</b><b>Like, just like you would talk to your friend.</b><b>There's no special thing you have to do.</b><b>We're Catholic.</b><b>We have all the rituals and we</b><b>don't, you have to do all the rituals.</b><b>Just got something to say.</b><b>You say it.</b><b>I read this Passover.</b><b>I feel so guilty.</b><b>Well, so, okay.</b><b>You have a big thing coming up this summer, right?</b><b>In July.</b><b>You're getting married, right?</b><b>September.</b><b>Oh, it's September.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Sorry.</b><b>I'm off by a month.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So you have in the fall.</b><b>Like, what the hell am I doing?</b><b>What am I doing?</b><b>I just totally threw you off.</b><b>He's like, Oh no, what am I doing in July?</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So how long have you guys been engaged?</b><b>We've been engaged for two years.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>And do you want to share when you asked her?</b><b>It was July.</b><b>And, but how did that go down?</b><b>How did that go down?</b><b>Story.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Everyone loves that story.</b><b>That is an awesome story.</b><b>So, um, I told her I didn't want to get engaged for many</b><b>years and I told her family that too.</b><b>And I remember we were in Canada celebrating and I had to</b><b>lie to all of them and say, yeah,</b><b>it's going to be like two or</b><b>three years just to throw them off.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because I didn't want, I wanted it to be a surprise.</b><b>And I flew to Europe for her birthday.</b><b>We're in Barcelona having a blast.</b><b>And in the morning we're supposed to fly to Ibiza and I</b><b>have someone in a car ready to pick us up,</b><b>bring us to this cliff.</b><b>It's like a very spiritual cliff where like all these</b><b>amazing things have happened.</b><b>So they say, and the guitarist will play</b><b>our song and a photographer and the 10.</b><b>So it's like 4 30 a.m.</b><b>in Barcelona and we wake up and we're</b><b>back in our bags to get on the plane.</b><b>I get a text.</b><b>Hey, I got a flat. I can't make it. I'm like, what?</b><b>I'm like, excuse me.</b><b>Oh, no.</b><b>I had a hotel picked out for us to celebrate the five star</b><b>hotel that I was going to surprise</b><b>her with.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>And wait, you had possession</b><b>of the ring still though, right?</b><b>I did.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Yeah, I had the ring, but I had no transportation.</b><b>I had no plan.</b><b>And I had a hotel that I had to explain.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>A five star hotel. That was a surprise. So I had a hotel. A five star hotel.</b><b>That was a surprise.</b><b>So we land in Ibiza and I'm</b><b>texting him like, can you rent a car?</b><b>Like I'll pay for a rental.</b><b>I'll pay for AAA.</b><b>Anything.</b><b>I know.</b><b>Sorry.</b><b>Sorry.</b><b>Sorry.</b><b>Like, how could you do that?</b><b>Yeah, crazy.</b><b>So still crazy to say that that happened.</b><b>So get to the airport and I'm on the phone with the hotel.</b><b>I'm like, listen, because</b><b>they're going to say congratulations.</b><b>Right room is decorated.</b><b>Oh, listen, change of plans.</b><b>We're coming.</b><b>Remove everything from the room.</b><b>I had like stuff set up in the room.</b><b>Remove everything from the room.</b><b>Oh my goodness.</b><b>Make sure to tell the staff not to say anything.</b><b>And so we check in and I'm like, it's a birthday gift.</b><b>It's like a two week early birthday gift.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Or two days.</b><b>And she was like, oh, awesome.</b><b>And I sent her to the spa.</b><b>And meanwhile, I'm like calling people.</b><b>I'm like, can we rent the restaurant?</b><b>Can we do it on the cliff?</b><b>Can we do it here?</b><b>Like, how do we get a guitarist?</b><b>I need a photographer.</b><b>End up getting the front desk to be my secret photographer,</b><b>renting the rooftop of the bar.</b><b>They gave me a really good deal.</b><b>And they had the guitarist go up there.</b><b>And I told her we had a reservation.</b><b>And we go to dinner and we walk up up top.</b><b>And this is like, honestly, one of the most beautiful</b><b>places I've ever been in Ibiza.</b><b>And the ocean is just split by two, like 200 foot cliffs on</b><b>each side with the sunset coming</b><b>down the middle.</b><b>And it was perfect.</b><b>I mean, talk about everything happened for a reason.</b><b>It was so much better than the original plan.</b><b>And she was completely shocked.</b><b>That's the best.</b><b>That is the best.</b><b>You got her.</b><b>I got her.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>That's awesome.</b><b>And then you guys called her family, I'm sure.</b><b>And it was all.</b><b>Face time to everyone.</b><b>Face time to everyone.</b><b>Yeah, it's exciting.</b><b>You just pissed off a ton of men.</b><b>The bar has been raised.</b><b>Yeah, you just set the new bar.</b><b>Where are you guys getting married?</b><b>Santorini.</b><b>Where?</b><b>Santorini.</b><b>Where is Santorini?</b><b>It's in Greece.</b><b>Okay, it was Greece.</b><b>That's my first thing I wanted to say.</b><b>So you're getting married in Greece.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Santorini.</b><b>And the Mediterranean.</b><b>Wow.</b><b>It should be very pretty.</b><b>That's amazing.</b><b>Yeah, we have 60 people coming out with us.</b><b>Lovely.</b><b>It's going to be nuts.</b><b>That is lovely.</b><b>And that's a perfect number of people.</b><b>I feel like it's perfect.</b><b>Yeah, we wanted like 50, 60.</b><b>Yeah, we had 65 at ours.</b><b>We got married in Vegas.</b><b>Nice.</b><b>We almost did that.</b><b>Yeah, we did.</b><b>We had the Golden Nugget Hotel</b><b>and they shut down the pool area.</b><b>And we had the wedding there and the reception.</b><b>But we didn't want a huge wedding.</b><b>We wanted it kind of intimate and</b><b>we had 65 people and it was perfect.</b><b>It's perfect.</b><b>I feel like it was nice.</b><b>It was like everyone you went there was there.</b><b>100%.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And you got to spend time just being</b><b>present and not greeting people all night.</b><b>150 people.</b><b>Yeah, yeah, yeah.</b><b>There's no friends of friends of friends of friends.</b><b>Right.</b><b>You knew everybody.</b><b>What day?</b><b>Our anniversary is in September.</b><b>That's why.</b><b>September 25th.</b><b>Okay, we're the 17th.</b><b>So that's really cool.</b><b>Are you guys ready?</b><b>Is everything planned?</b><b>Done?</b><b>No.</b><b>The invitations themselves took like three hours.</b><b>Not three hours, three days.</b><b>Yeah, I put a lot of way too much time into that.</b><b>And now we have so much planning to do.</b><b>There's so much to do.</b><b>Especially for international.</b><b>I mean, it's a lot.</b><b>I guess it's probably the same here.</b><b>I've never planned a wedding.</b><b>Yeah, it's a lot.</b><b>It's a lot.</b><b>How long are you guys going to be over there?</b><b>So we're doing five days in Santorini,</b><b>then we're taking a ferry to Mykonos,</b><b>and then we might do Oktoberfest.</b><b>Oh, cool.</b><b>That's cool.</b><b>That would be pretty fun.</b><b>Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.</b><b>And the weather over there is probably</b><b>amazing in September, I would assume.</b><b>I think so.</b><b>I think it's supposed to be like low 80s.</b><b>Yeah, definitely increase.</b><b>Maybe not Oktoberfest.</b><b>It might be colder.</b><b>It might be colder.</b><b>Yeah, assuming you're going to Germany, I would assume.</b><b>Yeah, it'll be chilly.</b><b>Very exciting.</b><b>You got to bring a mix of clothes for sure.</b><b>Yeah, no, that's so cool.</b><b>I'm so excited for you guys.</b><b>Tara.</b><b>Thank you.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Right.</b><b>Do you have any clothing in</b><b>your Tara line for cooler weather?</b><b>We want to.</b><b>Actually, yeah, yeah.</b><b>We have the heated jacket.</b><b>Yeah, we have the heated jacket.</b><b>That's how we started.</b><b>Oh, okay.</b><b>Heated jacket.</b><b>It was cool.</b><b>We coolio and the cooler were separate.</b><b>And then we were like, all right, let's</b><b>try to drop ship something during winter</b><b>because no coolers are selling during summer.</b><b>Smart.</b><b>So we tried a heated jacket,</b><b>heated socks, heated scarf, heated vest.</b><b>And we had some traction with the heated vest.</b><b>The hand warmers were selling on Amazon.</b><b>They were selling like half a million hand warmers a month.</b><b>Electric hand warmers.</b><b>Normally, it's like the ones you open.</b><b>Yeah, yeah, yeah.</b><b>So they were ripping on Amazon.</b><b>We tried to sell them.</b><b>We couldn't sell any.</b><b>Got a little bit of traction</b><b>with the vest, but I mean, by then,</b><b>it was like February or winter was over.</b><b>So are you done with that line?</b><b>Or do you saw it?</b><b>We're going to bring it back.</b><b>We're going to make improvements on all</b><b>the products and bring it back next winter</b><b>and launch a lot earlier in season</b><b>where people are buying winter gear.</b><b>And, you know, we want to be a full outdoor company.</b><b>It'll be cool.</b><b>Oh, that's so cool.</b><b>That is so cool.</b><b>It's fun.</b><b>And that's another thing I could see</b><b>with travel sports on the sidelines.</b><b>Everyone wears a vest.</b><b>I could see the heated.</b><b>You should try to market some of</b><b>the stuff to travel to youth sports.</b><b>Travel parents.</b><b>Yeah, we saw it when we were shooting the heated vest.</b><b>We were in Miami.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>Very hard to continue.</b><b>We had to be on the snow.</b><b>I've never felt so dumb in my life, to be honest.</b><b>I went to the football stadium park there that they have.</b><b>And I'm in a heated vest, a snow cap, like jeans.</b><b>It is like 90 degrees.</b><b>Everyone's looking at me like nuts.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And I have the vest turned on.</b><b>So I'm really getting hot and I'm on</b><b>camera trying to sell this thing like it's cold.</b><b>And I'm just sweating.</b><b>How could you?</b><b>I'm sure you had sweat dripping.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Yeah, it was tough.</b><b>It's a tough.</b><b>That was a tough thing to do.</b><b>We're going to have to fly up north.</b><b>I was going to say next time you visit her family.</b><b>Yeah. Just bring everything with you.</b><b>I ended up doing that like late February.</b><b>So we'll have the content for next year.</b><b>Yeah, that's good.</b><b>That's good.</b><b>Do you have any before I ask my last question?</b><b>Just to go back, you mentioned you cold plunge every day.</b><b>What are you using for a cold plunge?</b><b>I'm about to do a DIY on it.</b><b>I use a gym.</b><b>I go to it's at my gym.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>It's called Anatomy in South</b><b>Beach and they have two plunges.</b><b>One's at 45 and one's at 35.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>He's obsessed.</b><b>They're awesome.</b><b>I was doing it religiously in the</b><b>winter because I would just hop in the pool.</b><b>And that was great.</b><b>But then it's heated up.</b><b>But actually, I think I'm going to do a DIY.</b><b>I'm buying a chest freezer.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And I'm going to probably do that.</b><b>I've seen those.</b><b>Where they seal them up and use them.</b><b>Yeah, that would be sweet.</b><b>I want one of those.</b><b>When I get a house, I'm</b><b>definitely going to get one of those.</b><b>As I said, as long as you make it look nice on the outside,</b><b>you got to build something.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I just don't want it to look like a freezer.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>One of the things that comes to</b><b>mind is when I'm cold plunging,</b><b>I'm with you that I never stop thinking.</b><b>I never stop thinking.</b><b>That's why I don't sleep well</b><b>because I just think and it's not all bad.</b><b>It's just I've got stuff on my mind.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>When I cold plunge, if it's cold enough, I get there.</b><b>I can turn off the senses.</b><b>Do you feel that at all?</b><b>Are you still?</b><b>It's crazy.</b><b>It's like I can pair the pain to</b><b>the pain I go through and work.</b><b>So it just ties right back to work immediately.</b><b>I'm like, I can get through this pain.</b><b>I can get through work pain.</b><b>So I'm still thinking about where I'm still thinking.</b><b>Same with running.</b><b>I'll be running and just dying.</b><b>And the thought process is if I can</b><b>get through this, I can get through work.</b><b>So your brain is not setting down.</b><b>What's causing you the pain though at work?</b><b>What?</b><b>I work a lot.</b><b>It's horrific.</b><b>What's that?</b><b>It's horrific.</b><b>But what is it though?</b><b>Like I'll give you an example.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Of how bad things can go.</b><b>So.</b><b>I have to be careful with names and leave names out.</b><b>Yeah, of course.</b><b>So we sell seasonal chappies and we have</b><b>winter collections and holiday collections.</b><b>And in December, peak season,</b><b>a TV show reaches out and says,</b><b>"Hey, we would love to have you for April."</b><b>And I'm like, yeah, okay, let's do it.</b><b>I say, this is what I have in stock.</b><b>This is my winter collection.</b><b>And I won't have any like Easter spring colors for April.</b><b>Can you guys accept this?</b><b>And it's like ugly Christmas</b><b>sweater, cotton, candy cane, and snowflakes.</b><b>And, you know, all very, very</b><b>Christmas winter stuff for April.</b><b>They say this.</b><b>They save $60,000 worth of inventory that</b><b>I don't sell during peak season for this.</b><b>April comes around.</b><b>We're about to air.</b><b>Spent like two weeks building the site with the team.</b><b>Two days before they're like,</b><b>"Hey, these are Christmas colors."</b><b>This is spring and Easter.</b><b>We're canceling your sale.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>Cancel the sale.</b><b>And now I'm stuck with $60,000 worth of winter stuff.</b><b>And, you know, a lot of these</b><b>bulk purchases I take out loans for.</b><b>So I'm carrying the interest now for a</b><b>year because I can't sell it in spring.</b><b>Oh my gosh.</b><b>And to me, I was like, no, like you're not doing this.</b><b>We're going to figure it out.</b><b>So I sent them an option for us to do</b><b>our spring colors that I had coming in.</b><b>So the show is April 14th.</b><b>And then my spring colors were coming in like April 20th.</b><b>Or I'm sorry, this is March, right?</b><b>Yeah, March.</b><b>So the show was March 2nd and my collection</b><b>was supposed to come in like end of March.</b><b>And I'm like, if I rush overnight, ship</b><b>it and spend an extra two and a half grand,</b><b>I can get it here in time.</b><b>They said, yes, show went on.</b><b>So now I've lost half of my inventory for summer.</b><b>Now I have to buy more inventory for summer and I still</b><b>have $60,000 worth of winter inventory.</b><b>Yeah, this stuff, this is all on my birthday, by the way.</b><b>Yeah, I'm screwing up the dates bad.</b><b>My birthday is March 29th.</b><b>So the show was April 2nd.</b><b>And the inventory was supposed to come in mid-April.</b><b>And you got it there by April 2nd?</b><b>Yeah, you asked how could work be that bad.</b><b>My manufacturer tells me everything</b><b>will be there the day of the sale.</b><b>Day of the sale comes in.</b><b>I have everything except for three colors.</b><b>That is literally half of all orders.</b><b>Oh my goodness.</b><b>I'm like, Ziv.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>You told me you're sending everything.</b><b>I can't ship orders if I don't have everything.</b><b>I'll have to refund half the sale.</b><b>So then I have to tell the TV show that I</b><b>don't have these orders and I have to get</b><b>a message approved for customers.</b><b>I have to overnight ship another batch, spend another</b><b>couple thousand, get that stuff over.</b><b>Like by the time this is all over, I'm going to break even</b><b>and just still be out of inventory.</b><b>What you're describing is just the pure chaos of running a</b><b>business and being an entrepreneur</b><b>and having to deal with buyers and</b><b>sellers and customers and the whole thing.</b><b>It's a lot.</b><b>I get it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's a lot.</b><b>It's a lot and that's why I run until my heart explodes.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because so much is also out of your control.</b><b>So yes, for sure.</b><b>But Jackal Williams has that book, Extreme Ownership.</b><b>I love that book.</b><b>I've never heard of that book.</b><b>I mean, the moral of the story is</b><b>there's nothing out of your control.</b><b>Oh, interesting.</b><b>Everything is your fault.</b><b>Oh really?</b><b>Is that a Bezos line of thinking as well?</b><b>Do you know?</b><b>Because if you read anything about the early days of</b><b>Amazon, his whole focus was the customer,</b><b>no matter what the customer.</b><b>And he would do things where they</b><b>wouldn't make money just to satisfy the customer.</b><b>So he's playing that continuous long game.</b><b>100%.</b><b>I wish I need to become more customer focused.</b><b>Sometimes I'm too focused on the business side.</b><b>But yeah, I mean, the line of thinking is</b><b>like, it doesn't matter what happens to you.</b><b>There's always something you could have done.</b><b>So in my situation, I could have confirmed with them.</b><b>Are you sure?</b><b>Like I could have, and I didn't want to do that because I</b><b>didn't want them to go back on it.</b><b>But again, that's something I should have done maybe</b><b>because I should have anticipated that.</b><b>And I should have, you know, maybe had a packing list with</b><b>my manufacturer where they could have</b><b>checked off everything I told them to send, you know, like</b><b>there's always, and then you also,</b><b>it's also powerful because not only do</b><b>you have to take ownership over everything,</b><b>but you can also really, when you put</b><b>things that seem out of your control,</b><b>because it does seem it's like I didn't do anything.</b><b>Everyone else is screwing me over.</b><b>Right.</b><b>But when you put things in that</b><b>lens of everything is preventable,</b><b>you can start to think about</b><b>how you could have prevented it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Have you ever heard of Carl Jung?</b><b>So he has a theory of the internal locust of control and</b><b>the external locust of control.</b><b>And the internal locust of control is where you are in</b><b>control of your happiness, your reactions</b><b>to life. And the external locust of</b><b>control is everything else going around you.</b><b>You react to whatever's going on around you, and that</b><b>gauges your happiness and contentment in life.</b><b>Does that make sense?</b><b>So what you're talking about is, if I'm</b><b>understanding correctly, is the importance</b><b>of having an internal locust of control.</b><b>For sure.</b><b>And not reacting to this manufacturer and</b><b>that TV show and all that, but figuring out,</b><b>okay, I'm going to go inward and figure out all these</b><b>tentacles. What could I have done?</b><b>What do I have?</b><b>Yeah. What could I have done or what</b><b>can I do to control each of these things?</b><b>100%.</b><b>Each of these situations.</b><b>So even though there's sometimes there's things you just</b><b>can't, no matter what you do.</b><b>100%.</b><b>You can't. But at least like you gave some examples.</b><b>You can start to figure out what you could have done.</b><b>Yeah. So I'm sure you learned from that.</b><b>Yeah. I mean, what is the lesson there? A few things.</b><b>After a while though, it's like, how many lessons, right?</b><b>It's like, okay, I got it.</b><b>Dude, on my birthday too.</b><b>So I just, I mean, not only did that inventory get stuck,</b><b>but I just lost all the profit and sales</b><b>that would have been. So you know, most times it by two.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Because it's both the negative and I didn't get the</b><b>positive. So the Delta is like,</b><b>was like 140k on my birthday. I'm supposed to go to a</b><b>birthday dinner. I had to text all my friends.</b><b>Hey guys, I'm like devastated. Honestly, I was devastated.</b><b>I'm sure.</b><b>A lot of money.</b><b>I'm sure.</b><b>It's a lot. Yeah. It's a lot and out of nowhere.</b><b>Was that recent?</b><b>Yeah. It was.</b><b>Was that just this past birthday?</b><b>My birthday was March 29th. Yeah.</b><b>Oh man.</b><b>A couple weeks ago.</b><b>A couple weeks ago.</b><b>That sucks.</b><b>Yeah, but the sale went on and we made good profit.</b><b>There you go.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>Good.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Two things early. That book there talks, that's the Carl</b><b>Jung book that you're referencing right</b><b>there.</b><b>Yeah. The one at the end of the cast.</b><b>What's, you've had some lessons, right? What would you say</b><b>is your number one or two big ones that</b><b>you've learned in your entrepreneurial days?</b><b>It's a good question.</b><b>The biggest thing is faith.</b><b>I think faith is so powerful.</b><b>When you have faith that you'll</b><b>figure it out, things will get better.</b><b>You have potential that you can do it.</b><b>I think that changes everything.</b><b>And I think when you start to lose that faith, that's,</b><b>that's when you start to lose control over</b><b>where your life goes.</b><b>So keeping the faith that you can figure it out is massive.</b><b>And you got to hold on to that for</b><b>your life because it is tested a lot.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And the other one kind of goes online.</b><b>It's just never give up just no matter what.</b><b>Just keep pushing.</b><b>How do you hold on to continuing to believe</b><b>in yourself and not care about what anybody,</b><b>what others think and just continue focusing on your dream?</b><b>I just, people have always been supportive.</b><b>People always think it's cool and get inspired by it.</b><b>So I've never been worried about that.</b><b>And in terms of like getting myself out there on social</b><b>media, I have not been as successful.</b><b>I worry a lot about what people think in videos, mostly</b><b>because they're up there pretty much forever.</b><b>And then people just judge you.</b><b>Right.</b><b>And I'm still working on that.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But I think it's important not to care what people think.</b><b>Yeah. It's kind of letting go in a way of eagerness. Yeah.</b><b>It's kind of letting go in a way of ego and knowing your</b><b>intention of what you're putting out there</b><b>is real and authentic and coming from a good place.</b><b>And so you're just going to put it out there and whatever</b><b>anyone decides to do with it is none of</b><b>your business.</b><b>It's just you're putting out there and then it's theirs.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>So it really has nothing to do with you anymore.</b><b>And whatever they decide, they're just</b><b>projecting from what's inside of themselves.</b><b>So if they judge you, that's coming from their bad place,</b><b>but it has nothing to do with you.</b><b>Yep.</b><b>Does that make sense?</b><b>It does.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I try to keep that in mind.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It has nothing to do with you.</b><b>That's them.</b><b>I think I judge myself too.</b><b>Well, yeah.</b><b>I see myself on video and like, oh,</b><b>I talk funny, you know, or something.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's part of getting past that.</b><b>That's part of believing.</b><b>It's ego.</b><b>And it's part of believing in yourself too.</b><b>And it's part of your brand and</b><b>the culture you're trying to create.</b><b>It also needs you there to be, to show up.</b><b>It needs you to show up.</b><b>That's been really hard for me.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Especially for Chappie because it's like a female audience</b><b>and it's really a female product.</b><b>And then to have a guy come.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Just I'm not the right face for Chappie.</b><b>For Tara, I'll probably get a little better at it.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I guess so.</b><b>You know, I think that I think you have it in you.</b><b>I definitely think that you</b><b>could sell this to women for sure.</b><b>Especially if you cover all different bases, like girls in</b><b>their twenties that are going</b><b>to Pilates or going to the gym or</b><b>going to the beach, going on the boat.</b><b>And then you have a whole group of moms and that's a whole</b><b>family, the way it ties into family.</b><b>You know, so it's more, you know, not seeing them as</b><b>necessarily like females and relating</b><b>to female, but relating to where they're at in their lives</b><b>and how Chappie can help them</b><b>in the stage of their life.</b><b>And that can be men or women,</b><b>but you're saying most of your.</b><b>It's like Chappie is like 90% women.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I could see that.</b><b>We just came out with a carbon fiber Chappie though.</b><b>So well, there you go.</b><b>I was like, what's happy with I use?</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Well, I mean, Chapp's that those things melt for guys too.</b><b>It's not like it only.</b><b>I mean, this is this is part of the product line.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And this is awesome.</b><b>I love the bottles.</b><b>I wish we did like a straw or a chugger cup cap.</b><b>The cap.</b><b>So these water bottles talk about</b><b>lessons through entrepreneurship.</b><b>You know, we had the Chappies.</b><b>We had the OG, the plus and the pro.</b><b>And I was like, all right, let's do a water bottle.</b><b>And I was thinking, let's make the</b><b>water bottle look like the Chappie.</b><b>So it's all on brand.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>But there's no straw and the thing clacks a lot.</b><b>And, you know, I just there's things I could have done</b><b>better and I bought 2000 of them.</b><b>So I've had them for a long time</b><b>and they're really a slow seller.</b><b>So now we do buy a hundred bucks worth</b><b>of Chappies, get a free water bottle.</b><b>A lot of people love the water bottle for its simplicity.</b><b>They love that it doesn't leak.</b><b>It keeps things cold for a long time because it's big.</b><b>And there's a lot of great things about the water bottle.</b><b>I mean, it's the only one I use.</b><b>The fact that it doesn't leak.</b><b>You know what I also like is I've</b><b>never seen one like this this size.</b><b>This is big.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>It's pretty custom.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>No, this holds a lot.</b><b>And, you know, speaking as a woman,</b><b>we have our emotional water bottles,</b><b>emotional support water bottles we take everywhere with us.</b><b>And we want it to hold a lot</b><b>because we're constantly drinking.</b><b>So if it's like one of those smaller</b><b>ones, you're always having to refill it.</b><b>A hundred percent.</b><b>Where this actually you could say, okay, yeah, I could,</b><b>this will last me for what I'm</b><b>doing for the next three hours.</b><b>And because there's no like crazy</b><b>straw or sipping cup or anything,</b><b>it's really, really easy to clean.</b><b>You know, like you have a really clean bottle.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>And you can throw it in a bag.</b><b>The no leaking is huge.</b><b>Can't tell you how many things I bought that leaked.</b><b>It ruins everything.</b><b>So I love it.</b><b>You know, I can't wait to use this.</b><b>So many of these too.</b><b>I get these from vendors.</b><b>You know, it's got their logo on</b><b>it and stuff and they are small.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And they it's like, okay, three sips and you're done.</b><b>You're having to find another refill.</b><b>No, this size is awesome.</b><b>How many ounces is this?</b><b>It's a liter, I think 64 ounces or something.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>32 something like that.</b><b>Maybe 32 ounces.</b><b>Does it hold vodka?</b><b>Well, I'm sure it does.</b><b>Yeah, you can probably fit a bottle in here.</b><b>That's what the women want.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Or some white wine.</b><b>Depending on the day.</b><b>Yeah, I'm sure you could put a</b><b>750 milliliter bottle in there.</b><b>For the bottle.</b><b>Why not?</b><b>I would say, I mean, it feels like</b><b>this stuff should just sell itself.</b><b>The whole concept of the melting chapstick is to me is big.</b><b>The other, the tin you were</b><b>mentioning to hold your deodorants and stuff.</b><b>It's such a utility.</b><b>The pro.</b><b>Yeah, it's such a utility.</b><b>Makeups not cheap.</b><b>I know that makeup is not, he doesn't know.</b><b>Makeups not cheap.</b><b>And you don't see it all.</b><b>So you have like expensive lipstick and it's ruined.</b><b>That's devastating.</b><b>100%.</b><b>And it mostly happens in the car.</b><b>So the pros really good at being in the car.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Have you, have you gone to IWS here down in Deerfield?</b><b>I used to work there.</b><b>Oh, really?</b><b>As an intern.</b><b>Have you shown them chappy?</b><b>No, I should though.</b><b>You totally should.</b><b>I know.</b><b>There's another one.</b><b>There's too much going on.</b><b>Sometimes I'm like, I'm working on too much.</b><b>Yeah, no, it's true.</b><b>It's true.</b><b>But that definitely.</b><b>I should definitely get an IWS.</b><b>You should for sure.</b><b>And there's another one in Boynton that everyone goes to.</b><b>That one's cool.</b><b>Right on A1A.</b><b>Oh, there's one in Boynton?</b><b>Yeah, not an IWS.</b><b>It's a different shop.</b><b>Nomad.</b><b>I've been to Nomad.</b><b>I tried to get in there.</b><b>Yeah, you tried?</b><b>No luck.</b><b>But I tried, I don't know,</b><b>right when I started the company.</b><b>Come on, Nomad.</b><b>Local guy.</b><b>Come on, Nomad.</b><b>Let's go.</b><b>And also IWS.</b><b>You worked there.</b><b>Come on.</b><b>I know.</b><b>You know, I can totally see this at</b><b>the cash register that when you pay,</b><b>I could see that that would fit</b><b>in perfect and the water bottles.</b><b>100%.</b><b>You were right up there with the chapstick.</b><b>Someone buys the chapstick.</b><b>They're going to buy this.</b><b>Yeah, absolutely.</b><b>Did you have any other questions</b><b>before I asked my last question?</b><b>I think I'm good.</b><b>Yeah, he gets mad because I go right into my last question.</b><b>He's like, I had more questions.</b><b>So now I check.</b><b>I think I'm good.</b><b>Okay.</b><b>So my last question is always,</b><b>where do you see yourself in five years?</b><b>Good question.</b><b>Kids, probably in Boca with a house.</b><b>I can't wait to watch this in five years.</b><b>Hopefully running a tech startup.</b><b>And Tara, that would be the goal and close to family.</b><b>Those are great goals.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Those are wonderful goals.</b><b>Like just close family, financially</b><b>independent, and pursuing my dream.</b><b>You know, that's wonderful and appreciating it.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>And recognizing it.</b><b>Hopefully.</b><b>Yeah, we'll see.</b><b>Five more years.</b><b>Every year I tell myself, you know, soon.</b><b>Yeah, yeah, yeah.</b><b>Hopefully maybe in five years, you'll see it.</b><b>I hope so because you should be so proud of yourself.</b><b>It's amazing what you've accomplished</b><b>and it's such a young age and what you've</b><b>done, your experiences between SpaceX</b><b>skydiving and Hawaii, working for NASA,</b><b>the things you did at UCF and</b><b>honestly figuring out or discovering your</b><b>interests in high school.</b><b>Very few people do that.</b><b>You know, a lot of kids just go to</b><b>college and they still don't know what</b><b>they want to do with the fact that</b><b>you in the drafting class, you were able</b><b>to find such passion.</b><b>You know, it's such a journey and you're still so young.</b><b>So, you know, I'm going to say you're doing a great job.</b><b>Even if you don't say to yourself, you've done a</b><b>phenomenal, phenomenal job in life.</b><b>Thank you.</b><b>Honestly, you really have.</b><b>And it's very impressive.</b><b>I do my best.</b><b>My proudest accomplishment is my fiance.</b><b>And that's, there you go.</b><b>You know what's funny?</b><b>Good man right there.</b><b>What's funny to me is you said you're not much of a</b><b>consumer, but everything you just</b><b>described, you're going to be a consumer.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>With the wife, the kids.</b><b>Yes.</b><b>Get ready buddy.</b><b>I'll be a consumer.</b><b>Oh yes.</b><b>Especially with children that just never ends.</b><b>So, and we would love to have you back on in three years,</b><b>five years, and kind of do a check-in</b><b>and see where you're at, you know,</b><b>and where your life is at for sure.</b><b>That'd be fun.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>I'm looking forward to it.</b><b>So thank you again.</b><b>Yeah, this has been great.</b><b>Thank you guys so much for having me on.</b><b>Of course.</b><b>Thanks for coming.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>And we will put links to Chappie, links to Tara, links to</b><b>everything in the description.</b><b>We'll put it on the screen for YouTube off and on.</b><b>So for our listeners who are interested,</b><b>you can find where you can buy all of the</b><b>products that Jacob has made and the new</b><b>things he's working on and all of that.</b><b>So yeah.</b><b>And please leave us any questions or comments.</b><b>We love to hear from you.</b><b>And we will see you next time.</b><b>Bye.</b><b>Bye guys.</b>