Cigars, Surviving 08 Crash & Overcoming Fear I Rich Robledo DSH #396

Completely back to Square Zero.

Lucky I had a couple of mentors that helped me.

Somebody told me and I'll mess it up for sure.

I've been broke, but I've never been poor.

Broke is a small segment in time.

Poor is a mindset.

Right.

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And here's the episode.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got a Vegas local here today, Rich Roblito.

How's it going, brother?

Amazing, Sean.

Thanks for having me today, brother.

Absolutely.

Thank you for having me at your last networking event, man.

It was a blast.

I appreciate you showing up.

Everybody was like, that's Sean Kelly.

Yeah, Cigars and Conversations is what it's called, right?

Correct.

And what was the idea behind starting that?

You know what?

It all started, man.

I had three young guys last year reach out to me about smoking a cigar with me.

Yeah.

Right.

And it's difficult for me to make time to sit down with guys one-on-one.

And then this January, my wife goes, how difficult was it for you to ask somebody else to help you?

And I said, you're right.

So I called these three young guys.

I'm like, listen, let's smoke some cigars.

I don't see some of my friends.

So I'm going to invite some of my friends.

I put it on social media.

And it kind of, that's how it started.

Nice.

Right.

I wanted to help those younger guys to talk to older guys about business life and whatnot.

Yeah, that's cool, man.

Yeah, I saw both ages there, like both age ranges.

Yeah, so we're as young as

23.

We've got a couple of guys in there in their early 60s.

Yeah.

Everything from a bathroom attendant to nine figures.

Wow.

That is impressive mix.

And you don't know who's who.

Yeah.

Because some guys are going to be there in a pair of shorts.

and a t-shirt.

So

that's the same wardrobe for the bathroom attendant and the guy worth nine figures.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's cool, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's been, uh, it's been fun to watch grow and other opportunities come from that as well, right?

Like, um, some people were like, hey, we need to do an event here.

Let's do this.

How about a cigar bar in Florida?

So it's been kind of

fun to watch.

How long have you been in Vegas?

Because I know you're big on changing the public education system here, changing the city landscape.

Sounds like you've been here a while, right?

Yeah.

So the Air Force brought me in 1993.

Wow.

That's before I was born.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just turned 50.

Wow.

So I just turned 50, man.

And the Air Force brought me out here and I've kind of watched the city grow, right?

My wife's a school teacher and she was a school teacher at an at-risk school, right?

So I've seen

a lot of the city change, but I've also seen good and bad with it.

Right.

What's an at-risk school?

Well, 80% of the kids are title one, so they're on foods, on some sort of food substitute, right?

Not like many?

yeah.

So she had she had kids, Sean,

on Fridays, but get a backpack of food

because they didn't have enough food at home, yeah, right, called Three Square, an amazing program here in town, gifts to a lot of the communities, and

it's just tough out there for some kids, dude.

I can't believe it's 80% of kids.

Is it still that high, or was this back then?

No, it's probably higher.

What?

Yeah.

Thursday, tomorrow, cigars and conversation.

Yeah.

I'm bringing it out in Nevada homeless youth.

They have 53 apartments where they're helping high school kids that are homeless.

Dude, I didn't realize it was that big of a problem here.

I wonder why it's so high here compared to other cities.

Well, you know what?

I think it's high, man.

I think we look at Vegas and it's a diamond.

I love our city.

Yeah.

But in the service industry, which is 80%.

There's not a lot of people making money.

That's true.

Only the people at the top that are owning the casinos or doing entrepreneurial stuff, right?

Right.

So it's amazing to see.

It's kind of interesting to see some of the stuff that's going on in the city because there's so much struggle.

Like I literally walked into the, they've got a drop-in center off of Shirley Street, right, where the kids can come in.

And we're doing a gift card drive for those guys tomorrow because they give these kids food and now they're asking for gift cards to like fast food places because the kids can't carry cans in their backpacks.

because it's too heavy yeah right because we don't want them walking around with utensils because you don't know what people are going to do with that stuff yeah dude i had no idea what this was going on because you see the school rankings state by state and we're always last and i always wondered why but this makes a lot more sense to me now yeah there's a so i'll tell people like my wife is a school teacher she was a food counselor first, therapist second, and then she could teach.

Wow.

So she got to do all of that.

Yeah, because the kids are coming to school hungry.

So you got to make sure that they get that free breakfast, right?

There's certain breakfasts there.

Yeah.

Wow.

It's odd.

So I took my son to school a month ago and we went to safety and we're at a great public school.

Okay.

Right.

But the drop-off is 30 minutes before school starts.

And my son, dad, my son goes, dad, what's this?

I said, well,

some parents need to drop their kids off before school.

And then some parents need to wait till they're off of work to pick the kids off.

Right?

My son goes, we don't have to do that.

I'm like, no, because we're blessed.

But some parents are dropping their kids off 30 minutes, 40 minutes before school starts.

Right.

And then picking them up when the parents can, one of the parents can get off work.

Is there an aftercare there or no?

Well, it's safe key.

Right.

Kind of like that.

Okay.

Yeah, I went to aftercare because my mom had to work till like five or six or whatever.

Yeah.

We didn't have that entrepreneurial freedom.

Like you can work whenever you want, right?

yeah yeah yeah so our school system right it's one of the things i'm

and it's skewed because the elementary school my kids go to is phenomenal right so there are some amazing public schools but because there's so many bad ones it brings the got it it brings it down you picked one of the best ones yeah we bought our house because of our elementary school wow That's how you know you care about your kids' education.

That was it, right?

And that's the big thing, man.

Like for their career day they had a uh and i got a video i'll post but they had a helicopter pilot fly a helicopter and land it

at the school that's super cool right so i asked my kids do you guys want me to talk they're like no

we you're not cool enough yeah yeah i'm not i'm not cool enough because this guy is bringing in a helicopter yeah and just set it down you know in their uh recess yard yeah so when was that financial breakthrough for you what were you doing what was the the business?

So the business for me, man, has been real estate, right?

And it's been interesting in the last three years to see, because of real estate, to see other opportunities come from meeting people that are coming into town.

Right.

So looking to get into other businesses right now, looking to do some different things to try to increase my wealth and legacy for the family and kids.

But it was real estate first.

So you were doing that for how long after you got out of the Air Force right away?

Yeah.

So I got out of the Air Force, then I did cable sales, right?

Thinking I was going to go to college.

And then I bought my second house from a friend of mine in 2001.

And he goes, Rich, if you stop doing everything else you're doing, you'll make more money in real estate than everything else.

And I'm like, I'm just buying my second house, man.

Like I'm doing fairly well.

Yeah.

And I said, why would you think that?

And he goes, because people love you.

People don't like me and I make really good money.

Right.

So that was that mentorship or that, that person who's like, man, you should try it, right?

Which I think is important in our lives is finding somebody who sees something in you that you don't see in yourself yeah that was my buddy so i got into real estate in 2002.

it's early man so you went through that 08 crash then

oh man what was that like

seven friends committed

what

holy

that's crazy man yeah and for me it started in 2007 There was a thing called the condo craze.

Okay.

So that happened before.

What was that about?

It was about all the Manhattanization of Las Vegas, all of these high-rises being built all across the valley.

And those went under first.

Correct.

They always say that real estate's kind of one of the first cities to

indicate recessions.

Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So that came first in 2007.

Stock market was 2008.

REOs was 2009.

What's REOs?

The real estate-owned.

That's where all of the bank-owned properties are foreclosures.

Yeah, I saw that in the news.

The banks went under, it.

Yeah.

I mean, Las Vegas made the cover of several magazines during that time because they were saying that the ghettos are in the suburbs

because a lot of these master plan communities were oversold.

And that's where investors were going to sell properties.

They give it to renters.

I mean, there is that movie, The Big Short.

Yeah.

It's a good movie.

Damn, dude.

So how did you survive that?

Were you completely back to square zero?

Square zero, man.

Lucky I had a couple of mentors that helped me.

There's a proverb.

Somebody told me, and I'll mess it up, I'm sure.

I've been broke, but I've never been poor, right?

Broke is a small segment in time.

Poor is a mindset.

Right.

Right.

So it's just like, you just make adjustments.

Yeah.

Make adjustments.

And then you realize

that

all the gifts I had before I lost it all were from God.

And all the gifts I've gotten since I've made it back are still from God.

And I don't get attached to anything.

So religion played a big role in your mindset and your success.

That's cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because you figure out like during that time, you want to blame yourself.

You're looking to blame others, and it's just outside situations and circumstances that you can't control.

Right.

And you've, I don't want to say I found it, but I got reconnected.

That's a great mindset because there's certain things completely out of your control, and people like to dwell on what happened when they couldn't do anything to begin with.

Correct.

Correct.

Right.

So

great quote, man.

He goes, if you live for the cheers, you will live by the booze.

And that is outside acknowledgement.

Yeah.

Right.

And that's routine's a big thing for me.

I get up in the morning, I ask God for help.

Right.

I practice gratitude

and then I go out and

I tell myself how I want to feel.

Right.

Because at any given time, whether it's the hot water not working at the gym this morning,

right?

It just little things just can set me off.

And I got to remind myself, I said, how lucky am I to be able to go to the country club and complain about hot water not being there?

First world problems, right?

First world problems.

Yeah.

Right.

Compared to what some kids and families are going through today.

Absolutely.

How long were you in the Air Force for?

Four years.

What was that like?

Federal time.

What?

Yeah.

That's what.

I'm trying to.

So

that's what I consider my federal time, right?

It was just like I was a young kid, right?

I was academically, athletically gifted, had parents, didn't know what to do with me, right?

So I was always in trouble.

And then when I got into the Air Force, it gave me a routine.

And it was literally, they told you when to wake up, when you're going to eat,

what you're going to do,

everything just like prison.

So I'll tell people, it's my federal time.

And that's what I did for four years.

So you hated it?

Hated it.

Why were you there the whole time then?

Because I didn't want to get discharged.

Oh, so you have to do four years.

I had to do four years.

And during that time, Sean, I had one of the top jobs in the Air Force.

So I worked on the F-15,

everything with electronics on it, right?

And I was stationed at Nellis, which is what brought me out here.

Yeah.

And I was able to see all the cool stuff that the Air Force does, right?

Like

the helmets that these Y-22 pilots are using now started in 94.

Wow.

But you would see them come out with something like this.

And then each session, the helmet would get smaller.

Now the helmet is form-fitted for each pilot.

It's close to six figures.

Each helmet has three visors.

Just for a helmet, it's six figures?

Yeah.

What?

But what this helmet does.

Connects to your eyes.

So you just look around.

Oh, yeah.

It does everything for you.

It's like Google Glasses.

Correct.

Yeah.

And then you can look down and you can see, it's like you're looking through your legs and you can see below you.

No way.

That's sick.

Like the government and some of the stuff they can do with technology and just, I mean, it's amazing.

And this was in the 90s?

Yeah.

Wow.

That is awesome.

Yeah.

So I worked on some amazing stuff.

Yeah.

Right.

And so I had one of the top electronic jobs in the Air Force.

That's cool.

Did you know how to fly too?

I didn't know how to fly.

Okay.

But what I figured out was I hated it.

They would put me in a hangar for weeks at a time diagnosing electronic issues.

So it's kind of like my federal time plus my college time.

Because if I had gone to college for electronics and then started my job and hated it, it would have been the same thing.

I just figured out early on that I hated electronics.

I hated being by myself and

got out and then I got into sales.

Interesting.

Was there any lessons or mentalities you learned there that you still use today?

Yeah,

politics.

Right?

Like

I've had when I was in basic training, you always figured out that if you get in good with leadership, you can

be given some, you know,

some lessons, right?

Or they will look past some of those things, right?

So you got to see, you know, I saw that.

Listen, I should have probably been kicked out.

Wow.

But because I was so good at my job, they allowed me to stay in.

So I got here.

I wasn't 21, but I was drinking.

So one of my tech sergeants allowed me to go to sleep when I was supposed to be at work.

And one of these guys was like, you have to write him up.

He goes, he's a young kid.

Like, he's just doing what we all did.

Right.

So let him.

figure that out.

So I always figured out, man, early on is to respect your elders.

That's cool.

I actually heard a lot of people in the military military drink, man.

Yeah, it's uh

it's stressful, man.

Yeah, and you figure a lot of us go in and we're young, it'd be like going to you know, like getting that freshman 15, right, for people going to college, yeah, right.

So, you kind of wild out and you're staying on base, literally, you're staying on base, you have no

costs, right?

No debt, so you're gonna get in trouble.

And there's no girls, right?

There are some girls.

Oh, there are

okay.

Is that when uh, you met your wife around that time?

No, no, man.

I just met my wife in 2009.

Oh, so recently?

Okay.

Recently.

So you were single for a minute.

I enjoyed everything Vegas has to say.

I coached these young guys, right?

And I'm like, man, listen, like, for me,

I wasn't ready for marriage or kids until I was almost 40.

Wow.

That's kind of late.

Well, it's all relative, but.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's late, right?

To the point to where my daughter comes home early this year and she goes mom

paisley's mom is only 26

why are you and dad so old that's funny right so my daughter's in third grade and she's putting age together right so i was that late bloomer so i i i partied hard in my 20s

enjoyed everything in vegas had to have

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During that period, got into real estate when I was 29.

Early to lose it all in my mid-30s, right?

And then met my wife late 30s and got married.

Wow.

So it's been.

It's been a fun ride.

I just turned 50 a couple of weeks ago.

That's cool, man.

It's cool to see you not not regret it and it's just a part of who you were and embrace it.

Yeah, it's those lessons, right?

So I had during that period of recession when you had those seven friends of mine, you know,

commit,

right?

There's a lot of lessons learned along the way that helps the gratitude and appreciation really

settle in.

And then the reflection.

Now it's time to give back.

Where can I give?

Who can I help?

Who can I introduce to?

How am I a value to my family, to the community, to my industry, and to myself?

Your network's some of the best I've seen in Vegas, man.

I appreciate that.

I told a friend of mine that you do an amazing job, man.

Like watching you, meeting you through Blake.

Yeah.

Watching, you've helped me.

You've introduced me to some great guys, right?

Like for you to be doing it at such a young age.

as the L guy, right?

Watching you, very impressive.

I love that.

Thank you.

Yeah, Blake's another kid that also amazing networker.

Yeah, yeah, Blake's like, Richie, I got you.

We're just texting today.

He was like, where are you at?

I'm going to do an introduction.

I'm like, I love it, right?

Because I think friendship should bring value.

For sure.

When he had us at that suite, I was like, this is such a good networking opportunity.

There's a game.

This is fun.

This is a great environment.

And that was my first game I went to, that soccer game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's a, I mean, Blake is doing

a lot of great stuff, man.

And to see him connecting people and then providing the experiences he brings, right?

That

dinner at Barry's, you know, cigars at the eight lounge.

Like he is

doing an amazing job of just connecting people.

And that's what he says.

He goes, My job as a business owner in Vegas is to connect people that normally would not connect to see what we can do for our valley

and to help each other.

Absolutely.

That's one thing I've learned from Vegas is the hospitality.

Yeah.

We're probably the best in the country and just picking up on it from different people in the industry has really helped me be able to take care of friends when they fly in.

You know what I mean?

It kind of messes that up, though, when we travel.

Yeah, it does.

We get treated terribly when we go.

I mean, here I just text a GM at a restaurant, best service ever.

Best service.

Mr.

Keller, we have your table.

Really appreciate you stopping by.

And then the follow-up afterwards.

Did you have an experience?

What did your guests think?

Yeah.

Right.

All of those small things that I think in hospitality we can do in all businesses.

Yeah, you don't get that in other cities.

No, no, no.

We'll go somewhere nice and my wife will make the comment.

All of our stuff is nicer in Vegas, whether it's a Waldorf or a Ritz, because it's the small things that the employees do here.

Yeah, man.

Ever since I moved here, I've been on a few vacations.

I want to go home.

Yeah.

By like the third day.

Yeah.

I'm like, I miss Vegas.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm super excited to see what Fountain Blue does tonight.

Yeah, that'll be fun.

All I've heard is the amazing stuff, right, of just the interiors, right?

The finishes.

It'll be exciting to see how that place does for the city.

Yeah, I already booked my staycoming there for my birthday, man.

I'm pumped.

Like, Komodo is one of my favorite restaurants in Miami, so I'm very excited.

It seems like there's some good food there.

Yeah, everybody's talking about poppy steak.

Everybody's like, yeah.

Einhorn's coming on the show this Friday.

But dude, it seems like every year there's a big thing.

Like we just got the spear.

Resorts World was last year, right?

Yeah.

And then Durango even just opened up this year.

There's so much going on here.

I'm going to Durango station after this.

I went last night.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I saw that.

So I told my buddy, I'm like, hey, we're going to do this show.

Let's go.

You haven't been yet?

I haven't been yet.

Pizza Spot's good.

Burgers were surprisingly good.

Sushi Spots, okay, but you'll have a blast.

There's a Filipino restaurant in there I want to try.

And the guy's making fun of, he goes, we're not Hawaiian.

Oh, we're a Filipino restaurant.

So I want to.

I thought it was Hawaiian.

Okay.

I saw it there.

Yeah, yeah.

So I saw your post on the way down.

I told my buddy, I'm like, hey, let's go grab lunch off.

Yeah, you'll love it.

Text me how it goes.

Vegas is just, there's always something exciting in Vegas, whether it's a show, you two at the spear,

a conference.

I love it here, dude.

Yeah, I mean, Vegas is the city for connection.

Yeah.

Right.

And you're starting to see us become that sports city.

You're starting to see a lot of people move here, right?

Our population is continuing to grow.

Now we have the NBA team.

We have the Oakland A's coming.

Rumor is about, you know, baby Hollywood coming out as well with Sony Studios in Summerlin.

Like there is so much happening at one time and happening rapidly

that it's amazing.

Man, I think it's only going to be good for the city as long as I'm a real estate guy, right?

I'm a business guy.

Yeah.

As long as we have the social services in place to help all these people

coming in, right?

So that's the catch 22.

I love selling the houses.

I love helping the businesses, but we need to make sure that we can take care of the people that have been here the longest.

That's true.

Yeah.

And you mentioned 80% of the jobs are hospitality.

I saw they just announced a tech hub coming to Vegas.

Did you see that?

I haven't seen that one yet.

Yeah, so it seems like they're announcing that, which is cool.

And the city is going to start funding that.

Yeah.

We'll start getting some tech companies out here.

Yeah.

I know there was a big summit.

A friend of mine spoke at it.

They had it at the summit, right?

To have these tech guys coming in

to bring their businesses and do that.

But I haven't heard of what you're talking about.

It should be fun, man.

I think Vegas is the best city in the country right now, to be honest.

A lot of people don't agree with that, though.

Yeah.

I call Las Vegas the city of second chances.

I like that name.

Right.

I call Las Vegas, you know, city of second chances, but it's where you can get connected with the people who make decisions within typically one or two good relationships.

Right?

Yeah.

Like Cigars and Conversation, we had the governor out.

That's crazy.

The governor spent 45 minutes with these young guys.

After he spoke, right, I told him, I'm like, because of the relationships we have in Vegas, we get to have special guests like this.

Yeah.

Right.

And it's, um, you know, it's an amazing city where in Boston, Miami, New York, there's legacy families that you can't get access to unless you went to that high school.

Wow.

Unless you went to that college or unless you knew the family.

And here,

I believe that the new legacy families are being formed.

Yeah.

And there's some billionaires here, too.

Yeah.

I think the founder of PF Changs lives here.

Correct.

Station casinos guys are out here, right?

Yeah.

There's some great networking.

How'd you pull off the governor?

I got to hear that story.

Man, so I've been involved politically for 10 years.

I believe right now there is, you know, a vacuum in leadership between 23 to 34.

And I've been given and I've helped him before.

So I made a phone call.

Wow.

That's simple.

Yeah.

Do you think the governor would like to talk to

some different people?

That's cool.

And they're like, how long do you want?

You know, and they had promised me, Sean.

Yeah.

He'll be there for like five or ten minutes.

He's going to talk and then he's going to

leave.

He's going to bounce.

And he ended up hanging out for like 35, 40 minutes.

Wow.

And my assistant was

by the front door when he exited.

And as he exited,

he kind of looked at the group and he told his chief of staff, he goes, how come we don't hang out with more people like this?

Yeah, politics is a nasty world, man.

It is, it's difficult, man.

It can eat you alive, as I said.

Yeah, yeah.

They don't, you know,

it's uh, it's a tough space out there, right?

But we need more people getting involved, having the conversations, right?

I tell people I lean certain ways in different areas, but I got friends in all areas.

That's cool.

Yeah, some people let politics divide their friendships, but that's cool to see you have that perspective.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm like that too.

Like, I don't really care.

At the end of the day, if you're a good person, that's all I care about.

That's it.

And that's the thing about politics.

Let's hire the right person.

It doesn't have to be the right party.

That's why it's fun to watch what Robert F.

Kennedy is doing.

Yeah.

I was never, I never even would have voted Democrat before him.

Yeah.

Never.

Yeah.

For him to, you know, but he's engaging the youth.

He's talking about, you know, common sense stuff and he's speaking the language for the voters that we need to get involved.

Because you can't complain about something if you're not involved.

Right.

That's the one thing in politics I'll say, I'll tell people.

I'm like, well, who did you vote for?

Well, I didn't vote.

Then your opinion matters nothing to me.

Yeah, so many people don't vote.

Yeah.

I'm like, if you want to complain about a problem, but you have no solution.

Yeah.

You're not even taking the time to vote or be educated in the issues.

Like.

There's a lot of those people on social media.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I kind of tell them, I'm like, if you haven't voted or if you haven't donated or haven't gotten involved, then I don't want to hear what your opinion is.

Now, if you've done any of those, I'd love to have the conversation with you.

That's cool.

What's the Caldera Club about?

The Caldera Club, man, is a new PAC.

I just started.

Right.

So

I've got some young, I've got some young guys.

I was on a similar previous pack,

and it was all luncheons and dinners.

Yeah.

Right.

And I've had this, I had two or three young guys approach me.

They're like, listen, we're not going to go go there, but if you start something, we'll follow.

Like, we want to smoke cigars, shoot guns, have dinners, do fun stuff instead of doing that stuffy, conservative, Republican stuff that everybody does.

So I started the Caldera Club three months ago, man.

And that's where.

at Cigars and Conversations, I've brought different people that are important to me to kind of speak.

Power to parent, right?

Parental choice.

The governor was there.

The Nevada youth homeless, right?

Stuff that's important for me to show up.

And the Caldera Club has kind of gotten to the place to where we are going to start fundraising for candidates.

Nice.

Right.

A lot of people don't know is that in the state legislature, we're one assemblyman away from a supermajority.

Which side?

D.

Oh.

It's that bad.

Wow.

It's that bad.

So there's only one left?

Yeah.

So there are a couple of seats that we're looking to keep so that the Democrat,

no political party wants full control of the houses, right?

Because then it makes the governor, the governor can't do much.

Right.

So we are that close.

But a lot of people don't

talk about politics, don't want to get involved in politics, don't know about politics.

It's a touchy subject for certain people.

It's a touchy subject for some people.

It's a touchy subject for my wife.

She goes, stop.

Don't talk about it.

Let's just do this.

I say, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But we have to talk about it.

So this earlier this year, man, I had a friend of mine.

We were just having a conversation about something.

And I told him a little bit about

me.

And he called me up.

And he goes, man, I'm like,

I would have never known that you were raised like that.

He goes, I saw you.

I just thought you were an from the country.

And I'm like, well, I'm an

and I belong to the country club.

but I don't tell a lot of people about what I do or whatnot because

we're taught to not talk about it.

Yeah.

Right.

And it was Tyler Gray, right?

Special Forces guy.

And he goes, here's the problem with guys like us, Rich.

I'm like, what's that?

He goes, a friend of mine told me is we need to learn to be silent, not quiet.

He goes, when we're quiet, Nobody knows where we stand.

He goes, and when we're silent, we raise our voice just enough so it finds other people, so that somebody can come to you and ask you questions so that they can learn.

I like that.

The problem is, is too many of us are quiet and you bite your tongue.

And that's really, that was in February, man, when I started to share more stuff politically, where I stand with schools.

I've lost followers.

I've gained followers, right?

I've made good friends.

I've lost some friends, right?

Because everybody has their opinion.

They think their opinion is right.

And I will listen to anybody's opinion.

Right.

Because I might learn something from you that I don't know.

Right.

But also with opinions comes, you know, past history.

So you have this opinion.

What, why is it?

What happened to you to make this opinion there

so we could try to talk.

I like that, man.

But like you said, too many people bring emotions.

Correct.

And then as soon as there's yelling or voice raises, I just can't take you serious.

I can't.

I can't do it, dude.

Yeah.

Like, let's be objective.

Let's lay out some facts, some past histories, and debate or converse.

Yeah.

Too many people don't think like that, dude.

Yeah.

They're like, well,

no, let's just talk.

And then if it gets heated, let's walk away and come back.

At the end of the day, I still want to hang out with you.

Let's try to figure out this.

If this is such a big thing for you.

Let's figure out how you can get comfortable with how I feel.

Absolutely.

And why this is my opinion.

Yeah.

We'll end off with community connection.

What's that about?

Community connection, man, it's a little like community rent, right?

I feel that our obligation as humans is to help each other, right?

And we can help each other, you know, with the schools.

We can help each other connecting each other to provide value in the industry.

And that's something that I think that we just do by networking, right?

Community.

connection is something that we do every day, but we got to think about it for it to be intentional.

We got to go back to those local community style neighborhoods, man.

Yeah.

Because I miss those.

Growing up as a kid in one and seeing now it's just one big community instead of just pockets.

Yeah.

So I grew, I was raised in a small Texas town, right?

And the center of our community was the church and the school.

Right.

But because of private schools, it's difficult for kids to get in, you know, involved and engaged.

Our

house is right next door to our school.

My wife substitutes there, and she'll have kids in her neighborhood run up to her and give her a hug.

Wow.

That's awesome.

We're at the grocery store, and parents will say,

You're the best substitute teacher that my daughter talks about.

That's amazing.

Right.

So it's this thing that we need to do valley-wide, right?

But it also means involvement.

Yeah.

When you go home, if you see your neighbor, wait outside.

Don't just go right inside.

Right?

There's that small things that we get so rushed in life that we need to kind of slow down and enjoy where we are now and who we see.

Yeah, absolutely.

Rich, it's been awesome, man.

Anything you want to close off with or promote?

Uh, no, man, you know what?

Well, two things: Caldera Club, new pack just started.

Cigars and Conversation is the second Thursday of every month.

Cool.

Keep an eye out.

Follow us on social media.

And kudos to you, man, for what you're doing.

It's amazing to go out.

And literally, when you were at cigars, like, yo, and John.

So kudos to you, man.

Great job.

Yeah, thanks so much for coming on, man.

Can't wait to collab on future events with you.

All right.

Thanks, brother.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.