Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Jim Franco: Be Good to People - 116

Episode Date: September 16, 2019

In this special episode of Inside Look, “Peter’s” first ever mentor, Jim Franco, stops by for a long awaited reunion. Jim tells about how he started his first couple businesses and walks us through his failures and successes. He tells us to trust the process and to never stop going after your dreams! We also get to hear the secret to being happy!    “You can either be fixed minded… or open and growth minded.” “Trust the process.” - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover: 21:02 - How Jim lost his first customer 23:11 - What it took Jim to start making software 24:30 - Jim’s first computer costed him more than his house 29:25 - What Jim’s first side hustle was 30:33 - How Jim acquired the company he worked for. 48:10 - What life is all about   “There’s more opportunity today than ever in mankind.” “I saw the vision.” “It just takes dedication and hard work.” “My employees are happy.” - Jim Franco   Follow me on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Make sure to review us on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theempireshow   Youtube: https://youtu.be/y5NOa3h6_Bc

You've got a very special treat today because on the Empire show, we've got my mentor and my rich dad, Jim Franco. Hey, friends, welcome. This is a very special episode of the Empire podcast show. And, well, I got to tell you, I haven't been nervous interviewing some of the greatest speakers, Super Bowl athletes, entrepreneurs on the planet, but I'm a little nervous today. And the reason for that is I've got a very special guest. His name is Jim Franco. If you read my book, Man Up, then you heard me talk about Jim Franco. He was like a mentor to me. Well, he was my first mentor. Still is, you know, when you look back 20 years, you realize he was also a father figure. And he actually came down to the FitBody Boot Camp headquarters here in the Empire Studios.

And so I'd like to introduce you all to my mentor and friend, Jim Franco. Jim. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Welcome to the show. Pete, nobody calls you Pete except family and me. That's true. I'm here to go, Pete, who you're talking about?

That wrong building. By the way, I should. should tell you all, everyone watching and listening to this episode, you'll hear Jim call me Pete. So my name is Bedros and that is St. Peter. It's the biblical translation of, in Armenia, it's the biblical translation of Peter. And at the gym at the health club where I was a personal trainer, I went by Pete because no one could pronounce Pedro. It's funny. Once you get famous, then they, you have a little fame, then they can pronounce your name. But until then, everyone was like, Pedro? I said, no, it's not Pedro. It's Pedro.

I go, yeah, just, just fucking call me Pete, you know, and that's how Pete stuck. Okay. Yeah, so Jim and a few family members still call me Pete, and I think that's very nostalgic. So you and I met in, what, 2001, 2001, yeah. Yeah. And you came into LA Fitness and La Habra for a workout. I did. And I did.

How did that go? Just getting out of my third divorce. Oh, God. And I had to get back in shape. Yeah. And I said, it's time we got a really good point. personal trainer. I met this guy and he was a super salesman, had a super positive attitude, and definitely sold me on, I think I did two or three thousand dollar contracts. I don't know,

but I had fun. That's the most important thing. And what I remember about when LA Fitness opened up had ballet parking. Remember that? Yes, I do remember that. And I used it. Yeah. Yeah. And I used it. You did. So Jim would roll up Monday, Wednesday, Fridays at two or three in the afternoon for his sessions. And you would, it was either the Mercedes or the escalade that you would drive. And I would see through the glass. I didn't have a lot of money back then. I was struggling to get by. But it was neat to see that someone could own multiple cars.

Up until that point, I didn't know anyone that owned multiple cars. I know it sounds crazy. But I didn't know anyone that owned multiple cars. And I was like, this guy has multiple cars because he just stepped out of a different car today. And a couple years later, when I bought my first new car with the car, all the commissions I made from the personal training job there at LA Fitness. It was a Chevy Tahoe, which is the lower, lesser version of the escalate that I would see you drive in with. Until today, I still drive. I drive to Denali now. I'm not, because the new escalates are a little

too flashy for me. The Denali is just right. It's aggressive. It's more like what I'm looking for. But interestingly, sticking to cars real quick. So I've known Jim for 20 years, going on 20 years here. And interestingly enough, three years ago, could have been four years ago. I was in Pointe Park, which is about 30 minutes from the headquarters here. And I happened to be in town in that area. And I decided to pull into your headquarters, auto log headquarters. And I've modeled everything about you so much the way you speak, the way you set up your office. I showed you my office. It's all glass just like yours was. It's gotten stuck in my subconscious. That's super. That's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Man, I've modeled so much that I pull up in my GTR, my Nissan GTR, and I see an identical silver Nissan GTR parked in your spot. And I said, man, Jim's going to be pissed because someone's parking his spot. And then I realized, of course, it was yours. But the fact that I would go out and buy a, and I didn't know you had a silver GTR. Here too. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's crazy how we're on the same wavelength now after all those years. So can I ask you how old you were when you were training with me? If you take 20 off of 76, I was about 56, 57 years old. 56, 57. And you would come in with so much enthusiasm, so much energy, like you would roll in with thunder. Most people in their 30s and 40s have given up on life. How were you in your late 50s rolling in with so much enthusiasm and thunder and passion to your workout? Well, I could go into a long story, but I'll make it kind of short.

Sure. I've been very, very blessed by having a large amount of energy, drive, and passion about life, but mostly business and people. And I've kept that passion my whole entire life, and I'm still the same way when I walk into the gym. You are? I'm still the, yes, I'm still the guy walking. My dad called me boom, boom, because I'm always in a hurry. My company calls me, oh, look out, Franco's got another ID. Here we go again.

But it's, I've had a very blessed life. You have. And it hasn't even changed a bit since I met you. It's just been fun. So you said you're 76 now. 76 now. Going on 39. Going on 39.

I know that for sure. I walked into the guys, I walked into the headquarters here. And Jim had all three of our video team laughing and Joan there behind the counter laughing. And the same energy. As soon as I walked in, it's just that same Jim Franco energy. You've got more energy now, in fact. you did in your 50s, which speaks volumes, I believe, to also how your mom and dad raised you. And I met your mom once.

I met your dad several times because he was in charge of watering all the plants and making yours and your sisters, Phyllis's lunch. At 12 o'clock sharp. At 12 o'clock sharp, tuna and crackers. Because when he first came working with us, he would watch, we wouldn't have our lunch because we're busy. We're trying to build the business because it was pretty young back in those days. And, but he would make us, he would come and get both of us and make us come over the table, sit down, and he had this beautiful avocado tree in his backyard.

And avocados as big as melons, unbelievable. And we'll have an avocado or some soup or a salad, whatever he fixed for us, every day at lunchtime. But he was, but what he was, he was my hero. He was the guy that just supported the heck out of me. No money, no education, but I was his son. It was huge. Little story. He was worked for Dixie Cup company for 37 years.

He worked in the printing department. He ran 15, 20 guys in the printing department. And that's how we got from Eastern Pennsylvania to Canada to California. He came to one day and he says, why who? That's Italian for boys. They're going to take my people away, put me on swing ship. They've got these little young college kids coming. And you know, these big corporations.

and I can't handle that. Going to work at, you know, 8, 9 o'clock at night and getting off at 6 in the morning. I said, Dad, how long have you got to before we retired? He says, about six years. I said, do me a favor. Go to the office and find out what you would get at 65 and what they would give you today. If we retired early. You got to years in to retire.

He goes, okay, it was, this long time ago, it was $475 difference. Wow. I said, Dad, do me a favor. Quit. Now, so he went on Glory. Believe it or not, the plant actually folded six or seven years later. All the guys are retired, all died because they have nothing to do. He said, I want to come work with you.

But he said, the deal is no employees, no time clock, I just want to help. I said, okay. So even my auto parts stores, we used to run conduit and build shelves and all kinds of stuff together. But we got to work together for 30-some years. Holy smokes. Holy smokes. Huh? And my sister, now both my daughters and my son-in-law are in the business with Severate

mother family members. It's, wow. And he, you know what he taught me mostly? One, the ability to really do a good day's job. He taught me how to work. Number two, he would give the shirt of us back to anybody. He sure would. He sure would.

He was the friendliest man. I met when I would come into your office. Is that amazing? Yeah. Yeah. Just absolutely friendly, watering all the plans. He'd greet me with a smile. We'd yuck it up until I had to meet with you for the business that we had started together. I'm curious. Was he in there? Because I would only come to your office two or three times a week to meet for the high tech trainer business that we started together. But was he working there five days a week? Was he in there full time? He was there at 5.30 in the morning every day. No kidding.

And after he fixed us lunch, he says, okay, I'm going to the couch. Yeah. He take off in the afternoon and do whatever. But in the beginning, he did all the landscaping, he hit all the window washing, he vacuumed, he did all the trash. He completely kept my 18,000-foot square-foot building in Buena Park. Yeah. Tidy. But as he aged, we took more and more of the responsibility away from it.

Sure. But 95 years old. God bless him. And you know what? No ills. No. bad carmas, just one day. I had a casserole, a Sunday, and I'd bring it over to him and knocked on the front door. Mom had already passed away six months before, at 94. Knocked the front door

and after that, so I walked in the backyard and he was sitting in a lounge chair underneath this beautiful gigantic avocado tree, just asleep. Someone over there, Dad! And he had gone to see the Lord. And it was okay. You know what I'd be like? Perfect. No suffering? No. They've been. phenomenal life. And he was your part. Every day, walking my off and said, I'm so proud of you. Every day. He says, I know that you've been upside down a couple of times in your life. In fact, I, did you ever not tell him when you were upside down? Oh, no, he knew. No, no, he was there. He's my best friend. He knew when I was sometimes hundreds of thousand dollars upside down. Let's go all the way back when I first got my service date, 18 years old. I'm in high school,

pumping gas in the service station. They hired me. I became a, the night manager and I saw two union all dealers go broken at that same service station on beach boulevard and contella and stand bottom line these two guys went broke so you the big union all guy comes out and talked to me about what do you think I said well these guys are running off the the truckers they won't give the discount the place is a mess they don't have anything in the back room they don't market I said can I had this service station he said huh I'm sorry you're only 18 years old no but I told him how I was going to make this a business. So he leaves, goes back to you to know the next day,

he calls me up and says, you know what? If you can get your dad to co-sign, who lets you have the service station? 18 years old that I took that service station, doubled and triple the gallanties, filled up the back room, but on the way, when I'm not a really good businessman yet, learning and growing, OGT to call on job trading. I'm still waiting from high school diploma, but don't tell anybody. Let's just reiterate that real quick. OGT, on the job training. They don't have that these days. No, they don't. They don't. And I learned everybody bubble wrapped. A couple of things I learned in it, but let me finish that little story. So my dad co-signed a low forward for $2,900. I get my service station. Went balls of all had a ball. What I learned?

First of all, because I didn't know the business. I didn't know if I was going to make it or not, because it broke two of the dealers that were old and smart and had money. I worked from six to morning to 12 o'clock at night. I opened and closed that service station by myself for six months. I lived in Anaheim, so do the math. Yeah. There's a 30-minute drive each way. Yeah, to Stanton. I had about four and a half hour sleep every single night.

But when it was time, two things happened. I would wash windshields and make them spotless. I had cloth spray bottles in those days, not the squeegey things. And I would make it a personal drive to make that windshield perfectly clean. A lady said one day, says, why I come here is the way you want? watch my windows. So click, click, click, customer service. Because you can get gas anywhere. Customer service. See what I'm saying? You can get gas anywhere. Even have your windshield

kind of wash anywhere. But I watched windows all the way around. We sometimes vacuum the cars. We walked out with our shorts and bow ties on one of the Sparklego program three years in a row. But when I'm building a business, whoops, I wasn't watching my receivables. I pretty soon couldn't fill my tanks. They called my dad at work and said, your son's in default. My dad's says, I'm sorry, I don't have any money. You know, it comes to me and says, what do you want to do? I said, let me work it out.

It took me two and a half years to dig out of that. In those days, it was only 10 or 15 grand I was upside down on. But in the 60s, 10 or 15 million and. Right, right. It might as well have been. You know what I mean? It's a huge money. So Carmen, your dad, Carmen, has really had your back since day one.

Day one. Day one. Day one. I've seen so much influence from Carmen on you having me. met Carmen so much. Let me tell you a funny story. So guys watching this and hearing this, when I started my first company, my first business, you were there mentoring me. And it was called high tech trainer. It was supposed to be online personal training software. And we were loading up workouts on Palm pilots that people would take into the gym. Me, you and your wife would

go out to gyms and actually record them and put them on the pilots. Yep. Yep. And so, when we started that company, you gave us a little two desks in your office. You were kind enough to give us a corner to work out of. Well, you had that section over there on the left side of my building. And it was great. We got to work out of there and it was the first experience I got into like, hey, this is technically the high-tech trainer corporate office. And we weren't making any money yet. It was just all an idea and you were funding it and you were so kind enough to do that. But one day Carmen walks in through that back door, your dad and we get to talk and it was around the holidays. And hey, Carmen, what do you got going on this holiday for this Christmas? He's like,

well, you know, in the years past, I would wear, and I think your mom May was there as well. Your mom's name was May. May, huh? Your mom might have been there as well, because I remember them walking in together. And said, hey, what do you guys got going on for the holidays? Carmen says, you know, well, in years past, I would wear a Santa suit and make everybody laugh and have a good time, etc. And then May turns to him and she goes, yeah, I made that for you. And then Carmen turns to your mom and says, no, May, it was storebot. And before you know it, they're bickering right there in front of us. Oh, yes. And me and I who are newlyweds are looking at each other like, this is going to be us like 50 years from now. No. No, that's the old Italian way they just

argued a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yell and the screaming each other. That was their personality. You understand that? Yeah. Yeah. That's how they communicated. That was how to. And I didn't get it. It upset me a lot, but what are you going to do? What are you going to do? So anyway, that was one of my fondest memories of your father and your mom arguing. Your mom said, no, I made you that Santa outfit. He goes, it was store-bop-may. And till this day, me and die, still every Christmas, we see Santa, I go,

store-bop may, you know, to die. So anyway, man, you've helped me with high-tech trainer. We built high-tech trainer up. And do you remember the time we went to Chicago? No, sell high-tech trainer. Trade show? No, no, to sell high-tech trainer to Bally's total fund, the gym, the health club chain. Now they're out of business, but we went there to sell them that.

And that was one of the first times I'd been on an airplane and taking a business trip. The only other time I'd been on an airplane was when I was six years old. We came to America in the Soviet Union, and then you fast forward. I'm now in my late 20s, you know, 26, 27 at the time. And you said, hey, I got you a ticket. We're going to Bally's. We're going to sell them high-tech trainer. And I was excited for that.

And I was like, all right, I get to see Jim Franco at work, like the ultimate salesman. And we went and we met with them. We did our thing. And on the way back, somehow I remember the fact that you took off, you flew off to California, and I was stuck. And there was something wrong with my ticket. And I remember you yelling from the other side of security, don't worry, you'll be fine. And I'm thinking, I know I'm a grown adult and I should be fine.

But I'm nervous and scared because it was my first time flying on my own. I was like, yeah, okay, Jim. I was like, shit, what do I do now? So that's the first thing I remember. The second thing I remember about that trip was the morning that we were going to wake up and go and negotiate with Bally's, we stayed in the same room. We had gotten a room that had two beds. We stayed in the same room, and I think he had gotten up an hour or so before me.

And as I woke up, I could smell something. And all of a sudden, as I sit up... Coffee, obviously. It wasn't coffee. The bathroom door opens, and it was like a snoop. dog video guys. Like, like, literally all this like smoke comes out of the restroom and Jim Franco is coming out. Like, he was smoking a joint, like getting his nerves right, just relaxing before we went to negotiate. I thought that was cool as shit, man. That was so fucking cool.

I could do that when I was younger. Now, you were almost 60. But now it's only for medicinal. Medicinal in the evening. Not in the morning. I can't do it in the morning. I can't do it in the morning. Only an evening. Do you smoke daily? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Me and my wife both. Good for you. Listen, I model success, man.

It's a nostalgia for both of us, and we get to have a good night's sleep. And the next day, I'm mowing fire back at my company making a difference. Good for you. It's all good. Well, I'll tell you, I certainly know how to model success. That's all I'll say about that. So, Jim, obviously, you've gone, if I remember correctly, you had like gone under twice?

Actually, I was at a birthday party, one of my daughters, and this guy was talking about business and success. He said, well, you're pretty darn successful, but let me ask you a question. First time in my life, somebody asked me this, how many times you've been broke? I go, you know what? Nobody's ever asked me that.

I said three times hard. Three times. Three times. Service station, couldn't fill my gas tank. Yeah. Got dug out of that one, paid it off. became a bit of his been doing that, opened an auto parts store. Another little quick story.

Once again, my parents had no money, no education, okay? My grandfather owned a farm, he passed away. My mom got $20,000 inheritance. At that particular moment time, I was just about getting that service station, been there for five years. Here I'm still at 10 o'clock at night. I'm pumping gas. It's raining and it's cold. The wind's blowing the rain right through my canopy.

My buddies are pulling up outside. Hi, Jim, on the way to Hollywood. Okay, see ya. Now I'm locking up, the lights are half out. My buddies come back, pull up. Hi, Jim, how you doing? Great. I want to be with you guys, where it is.

So I said, what else can I get into that I don't have to work nights and weekends? You know who makes all the mind? Those done guys in the auto parts business. I'm going to open me an auto parts store. If you love the store, I went down, the auto parts guy I bought from. He was an old guy. He said, don't do it. There's no money in this business. You can't make your money. You won't be successful in one ear out the other. Bottom line, my mom loaned me $10,000 American parts system, put $20,000 in parts. And that's I got started in 1965 in my own auto parts store. What city? Fullerton. Fullerton. Yep, Commonwealth and Magnolia. So in Fullerton. Okay. Not too far from your offices. Right around the corner. I'll tell you that story, I graduated over there.

So I get in my, and now I've got a brand new auto parts store. No customers come to the front door. In fact, the very first customer, but I know automobiles like the back of my hand. I've been working on it for five years. And before that, I was working my side job with my kids from school. I walked in the front door and said, I need a thermostat for my Chevrolet. Now, I know what it looks like. I know where it goes.

I know about what they sell for. I think I can find it in my auto parts store because it's brand new. I'm looking through the books, opening boxes. Sorry, sir. I can't find the thermostat. Oh, shit. I mean, that was honest and God truth. Now, let's fast forward.

Your first customer walked out without. Walked out the door without buying anything. What a lesson. What a lesson. Now, what is the lesson of that before you? I'll tell you the lesson than that. The auto parts business, excuse me, American parts system, say, Jim, what we usually do is we have a person come and work in our warehouse for three to six months to understand the part numbers, the auto parts, the business,

the manufacturers, the codes, all the stuff you got to know about being an auto parts of business. I said, I had a service station. I mean, parts are parts or parts. That's a waste of my time. Wrong. I should have done that. But in my eyes, I'm wasting those four to six months. So the lesson there is no matter what your business is, trust the process.

Trust the process. Trust the mentors. Trust the people that are more knowledgeable of you. glean from that information. Rather than be the information. Right, right. So, bottom line, two years into that, I'm building the business,

buying more parts I'm supposed to. Pretty soon I'm upside down. I think it was only 50 or 60,000, but once again, in the 70s, that's a lot, a lot of money. It took me three and a half years to dig out of that one. And I'm still building a business, still building inventories.

Now I've got three locations, 37 employees doing a couple million dollars a year. I was rock and rolling. I had a machine shop building 300 heads and 150 motors a month. Oh, holy smoke. We were a rock and rolling after 22 years in the auto parts business. So I'm guessing then it was because of those auto parts stores you had that you go, I got to start doing software. No, let's go ahead and tell you how it really worked. Okay. Here I'm in this auto parts store and I've got a card system. That's how you did inventory control on those little cards. I got two, sold one, turned upside down, call the warehouse, and call in order. Number two, counts as evil. I had a tablet with a carbon piece of paper.

I wrote the invoice number and the amount down. By the way, for those of you watching listening, a tablet is not the tablet like electronic iPad like today. They're thinking tablet. Like, we're talking paper tablet, like a fucking notepad. Stenopad. A stenopad. A piece of paper that pulls over. over the piece of car. Right. So you can't just hit send and have it. No, no. You wrote it all out.

You had it all out. Put the tape with it, put it in an envelope and send it out. Hope you got paid. The words transferred into this generation, but it's a whole different device down. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

So once again, it worked with them. It took me three and a half years to dig out of that. But at the same time, I was still building the business and making it work. It takes a lot of gumption and a lot of balls. So here I am with a card system. manual stuff, writing out invoice and putting the date and the time every time on it. So here comes a company called Triad comes along with an auto parts computer. Now computers in those days, only the big bad boys had computers because they were very, very expensive.

How expensive? In 1973, I paid $56,000 for a computer from my auto parts store, and my new home was $34,000. Let's just say that again. In 1973, you paid $56,000 for a computer store. more computer system. That, by the way, did no point of sale, no accounts receivable. It was just an inventory electronic card system. So really, the first iPhone that came out in 2007 had more computing power than that computer. And homes at that time cost $37,000. At least your home did. The one I bought brand new was $37,000 and I bought a computer for $56,000. Folks, watching and listening

to this, how hard do you have it now when you think about it? Like this guy's one computer that, did nothing, did nothing but manage inventory cost $56,000, where his home cost $37,000. Right now, you've got devices and connection to the world. And if you think that you have a problem marketing, a product, you've got problems yourself up here. All right. I agree. There's never been people say, everything's a little story I heard.

In 1951, some professional at the patent department. said, I say that everything has been invented has already been invented. We're all done. There's no more inventions. Now, what, every 15 months, technology quadruples? Unbelievable. There's more opportunity today than ever, ever in mankind. Isn't that nuts? There's another great lesson there. That was in 1951, right? In 1951, he says someone in the patent department. See, guys, many of you weren't, I wasn't alive back then. But in 1951, Jim says that, Some cat in a patent department says, you know what? Everything that's going to be invented has been invented.

So we're good. Let's just close the doors. And today we're inventing faster than ever. And this is a testament too. You could either be fixed-minded, closed-minded, and that guy was closed-minded. Absolutely. He just did not have any vision. Or he can be open-minded and growth-minded and go,

how do I send a Tesla up to the moon? Because that's what Elon Musk is doing right now. He's got a rocket with the Tesla in it going, I'm sorry, not up to the moon, to Mars. to Mars. Now, that's ingenuity. We'll get to that in just a moment because I know we're going to talk more about cars. So you've got your $56,000 computer. Triad has come up to this model. And I bought this thing. And now three different times, because I'm forward thinking, come on, guys, if I can get this out to point of sale, then you don't have to write out an invoice. It prints it. Legible. And when the prices it, it prices it correctly. You don't have to look at a book.

and flat finger and use a calculator, etc. It takes away the human error. Three times I tried to put that out in the front counter and it was so cumbersome, so computer in those days. The guy said, you want me to sell parts to Mr. Franco? You want me to work on this thing. You call it a computer system. Pulled it back in the back office.

It took me a few years to act. Actually, the software had to get improved by triad. I had to adopt it. I was in on the committees to help design what it needed for the auto parts business, etc. Then how did I get in the auto parts business? I mean the computer business. You love this story.

So here I am. Three locations. I have a triad. Safeguard scientifics came along and says, Mr. Franco, we're looking at designing computer system for the auto parts business. And we've done a research and we found out you're pretty aggressive because not only do you have a computer system, you've got a phone system that rings weird

and everybody says, you got a calculator that costs $1,500 for a calculator. Not electric. That's just absurd. Yeah, an abacus that costs $1,500. $1,500 for a calculator. I could fool. Anyhow, my first phone was in my car. $3,600 mounted in my car.

Like Miami Vice. Right. Yeah. Then the guy walked in their front door one day and had a motorola flip phone. I called that's, I wondered when I could put in my pocket. That big thing you walked around with. I paid $2,700 for the first Motorola flip. Holy smokes.

$2,700 for a Motorola flip on. We pay, what, I don't know, what, near $800, 900, $900 for an iPhone now? 22 bucks a month, yes, exactly. Fun, fun, fun, stuff. But Safecoercrots, Tartagnitvians says, we would like to fly you back east from your committee to actually design the system. He said, you already have us. He said, yeah, but I need this.

It should do that. should do this, it should do that. So I actually helped design the first auto law computer system back in 1978. Came back. They said, why don't you get rid of that triad? We'll put systems in both the auto parts stores for free if you'll become a distributor.

I go, well, come on, I'm running auto parts stores. What do I know about the computer business? He says, you don't have to know anything. All you got to do is show the people what you do, and they'll buy it, you sell it, will ship the equipment, we'll ship me the wires, all you got to do is go out there

and install it and train the guy. And I said, wait a minute, so I have no accounts receivable, no employees, and you're going to pay me 30% of $40,000, $50,000 systems for me to do that? Deal. So on the side, we're in an auto parts store

with 37 employees, I started this little computer company called Unlimited Computers because my auto parts is called Unlimited Auto Parts. Makes sense. So at that point, you had your first side hustle. That's what they call it today.

There you go. A side hustle. Side hustle. Right, right. But as it developed, and now you got more involved in it, I had my biggest year in 1984 with computers. I had three salesmen. I did three quarters of million dollars in sales.

The bonus I got that year for selling, I bought the company the next February for the bonus they gave me. You bought the company that you were doing this. I bought the company that I was doing it for. How do you like that? That's how I got in the computer business. How do you like that? They came to me and says, listen, Mr. Franco, we've been losing a million dollars a year for the last six years.

Maybe because they're paying you all those bonuses. No, because they had IBM sales and they didn't have a freaking clue what they were doing. I'm an auto parts guy. I knew the auto parts business. Consequently, I was the top distributor in the entire United States. I got plaques in my wall, all that good stuff. But when they say they were going to close this thing down, I said, don't do it. This is one of the best systems out there.

If you want it so bad, buy it. I said, well, I haven't got much money. He said, we'll finance it for you. So I flew back east. And with the bonus money, by the way, they gave me $50,000. I had a 5% kickback. And I had 200 sales in the share with. My share is about $25,000.

When I flew back east to buy the company, I used the same money. They just handed me two weeks before as my down payment. It was $750,000. As a note, I had to pay off over the next five years. But now I'm in the computer business. And if I remember this story correctly, Jim, that's when you loaded up a U-Haul with all the equipment and drove it across country to California. That's correct.

From fucking A. From New Jersey? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Because they were in New Jersey based. They were in Jersey base. Right.

That's what I used to help and design it. Three years later, I actually bought the company. Now, when I bought the company, six employees doing about $750 grand a year. I ran it with my auto parts store. for about a year. Then through that divorce, now I'm up in that area. So I got, this is divorce number one. This is divorce number two, but it was counting. The first one I got married when I was 18 years old. That doesn't count. When I was a kid, we haven't had a clue and we're divorced four years later. Any marriage before the age of 25, 25,

20, sorry. Any marriage before the age of 25 doesn't count. No, don't work. No, they're too young. You haven't got a clue. I'm just busting balls. Yeah. All right. So you move that. I mean, guys, let me just talk to our audience here for a moment. There's so many lessons here to be learned. The man has so much confidence in himself. And we heard where the confidence came from, right? Dad, his original mentor, who always said, son, I believe in you. I know you can do it. I've got your back. Decides that I'm going to take this bonus check this company gave me and give it back to them as a down payment so that now you've got a $750,000. debt you got to pay off over the next five years to own that company. And really while you were selling their product, you didn't know anything about software and computers. You're an auto parts store. I'm an auto part store. I'm a user. You saw an opportunity and you went for. I saw the vision. Yeah. I saw the future. Yeah. And so you bring it back to the to Southern California. And is that when you changed the name to Autolog? No, it was already called Autolog data systems in New Jersey.

Okay. So I just reincorporic called Autologue Computer Systems. That's the that's the company. That's still the mother load today. Yep. Yep. And I think you bought Datatron at some point, right? Well, through the, actually, just like your book said, which you had to go through, once I actually moved to Buena Park my location, and my auto parts store was two

block, two and a half blocks away, close it down, moved it over there, got a divorce, sold my auto parts stores, did the settlement, and I went over there with my Mercedes, my Pantera, I did have a pantera. What year was it? 74. September. 3.51 rear engine. Last thing was fast.

I'd be going down on the freeway at about 60 miles an hour. Look at the guy next to me. I pulled it back in the second gear and I could actually light the tires up on the freeway. The guy would look at me going, wow. It was an unbelievable car. Never mind. I love cars. Those days, I love cars.

Where was I? I was talking about. Oh, we were talking about Datatron and how we moved it. Yeah. So for the first 10 years, it was tough in the computer business. I had to build the business. Now, what years are we talking about here? This is a 1985 to 95.

Okay. So at this point, 10 hard years. Okay. I was up. There was a recession at that. You were going right through a recession in the 80s too. And it was so bad, so bad that my sister Phyllis worked with me. Yeah.

Six rate other employees. Jim, I can't make payroll. You got to go sell some. I would get my ranchero out, load the computer in the back of it, and go on site and have to sell a computer system and make payroll. It was tough. And some days, those days, well, we're overdrawn $30,000. And so called the bank and just send back these two and I will have them pay those. And can I be the bank by 2 o'clock in the afternoon?

Not for a week or a month. Years. Years. Years. It was the ulcers, the pain, the agony, it just, I couldn't, couldn't push over the top. And I would agonize over these beautiful double-truck ads that my competitor and Shriad was doing. Because now I'm a competitor to the guy I bought. Right.

I mean, I'm the guy that I bought a system from back in 73. And they're big bad boys and doing multiple millions of dollars. So one guy said to me one day, he says, you want to move the needle? Look at acquisitions. I go, really? He says, you'll be surprised. So ironically, this company in Macon, Georgia, believe it or not, called Service Triads, we negotiated, my sister and I flew down, and she actually wrote a check out of her personal checking account for $150,000. We made a deal to buy his company at $1.6 million.

And she said, I don't have an end in my account. He says, that's all right, just write me the check. That's your doubt and paying when you can back, put the money in there. and that's how I did my first acquisition. And since that time, I've done 17 acquisitions and took the company from six employees to 100. And I'm in Mexico, Canada, and the entire United States, corporate offices in Buena Park, Chicago, Chicago, Iowa, New Jersey, and Tijuana. How about that? 30, 40 people offsite, just doing customer service, et cetera.

So let's go back into that period of where you were upside down, you're putting in, you're putting computers in the back of your Ranchero. Ranchero was a Ford, if I'm not mistaken. It was. Yeah, the Rancher was a Ford. And so if those of you want to know what the Ranchero look like, it was like the, it was almost like the El Camino, Chevy's El Camino, right? Like a sedan with a pickup truck back. And I put a little hood on it.

Yeah. And believe it or not, I bought a gurney. I really, I'm in this gurney. Okay, ready for this. Expensive a shit is like $100-some dollars in those days. But I could pull the little, I put the computer on it. And that, by the way, I'm laughing because. Folks, the computer, and I'm not exaggerating, this big and this thick with an eight-inch floppy that went in the front of it.

Oh, man. Okay. Go Google floppy disk, guys. Yeah, Google floppy disk. And then you go, then when I bought my $56,000 triad, I had the 56-inch platter that you take the thing out and put it in to do the backup, take it back in and out. noisier and shit, didn't do anything. Now I had an 18, remember the 810 I don't.

T-I's, printers? No, but one of those wrong there. Is this that ZZZ? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you got it. But the big, the big 8-10. They're still sitting in the, in the, are they an out-alogue?

No, you can still see them, and believe it or not, some airports. Oh, okay. That's almost like a museum. Believe it or not, see, people say, oh, your software's getting old. You've got to upgrade it a whole bit. I said, you understand that the,

The airline industry is still running on old cobalt green screen. If you look behind the counter, you can see the login down here, but they've done a dashboard. Here's the pretty airplane, the blue seats, all the information you want to know. So they put it because they're all running on PCs. But down here is an emulator running 50-year-old cobalt. The banking business, most people don't know this, banking businesses running on 60-year-old but it just works.

It's tough. Yeah. All right. So let's talk about this for a moment because, you know, we often talk about paying your dues. Like there's a serious amount of time and energy and money one must put in to get to where you are today, to get to where we are. It's not an overnight thing. Overnight success doesn't happen. I first heard you say it.

You said, hey, I'm a 20-year overnight success. And I remember first hearing those words back in the day thinking, holy smokes. Because look, man, I would just see you pulling up in an escalate and then pulling up in a Mercedes sedan, working with a personal trainer three times a week. That ain't cheap. And then you also said earlier, and you're out here at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Don't you have a job? Right, right, right. I got a whole business.

What did that do to you? Beep, I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to be him. But we just see the end result. Like right now, the young generation just sees the end result of he's got multiple cars. He shows up when he wants to the gym. work out, three days a week with a personal trainer, the backstory of suffering for a decade

plus at a time, ulcers, divorces, God knows, depressions, right? That's paying your dues. And we talk about that today about paying your dues, but I think the young kids today think paying your dues is starting a social media account for three months. And if it doesn't hit 10,000 followers, then they, you know, they shut it down. They go, I paid my dues for three months. what do you say to that don't give up get your dream stay on it work at it hard make a dream come true i mean it just takes dedication hard work oh another thing people say to me you're so lucky jim you get a business you can just tell everybody what to do and sit back and just do nothing and count the money i go you know what when you're in business you work the longest hours you work with the least amount of pay

and you've got to be an example to show people, you've got to build the culture. Yeah. Got to build the culture. Let's talk about that. Let's shift gears and talk about culture, leadership. I mean, you've got an amazing culture. And I remember coming to, walking into Autologue

and just seeing the culture that you have. And people would just freely walk into your office and talk to you and thinking, oh, okay, that's what it's about? So what is culture in a business? How do you develop that? You know, and it took a lot, a lot of OGT to understand it. On the job training. When I was young, it was hustling for the buck.

Yeah. I mean, it was almost borderline too much hustle. Too much all about the money. Too much about that guy's too expensive. Let's get somebody cheaper in here. I bought in all that the way the corporate runs. But as I grew in my business, especially in the computer business, I tried to surround myself obviously with great people and smart people.

Because if I don't have a high school education, obviously, I don't have a Harvard degree. I had to actually get some talent around. By the way, to that point, do you have a high school degree? No. You don't have a high school degree? No, it's in the mail. They promised me they're going to send it to me. I just...

So I did a whole episode about why college is a waste of time. Unless you're going to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, the college is a waste of time. There was such a big backlash. You know what he says? What's that? The best education, the most economic education, get you on the road to be successful. The trade school. Yeah.

Yeah. And if you got the balls, get into a business. There you go. Because that's your own destiny, but it's not easy. 80% fail in the first couple of years. Yeah. Got to pay attention. All right.

So let's get back to culture. Yes. It was on the job training for you. When did you learn that culture was important? Well, I kind of learned it all the way back of my service station because my first employee. Okay. Let's talk about that for me. My very first point of my service station, I said, okay, I need help.

I don't know nothing about HR. I haven't got a clue. I just know I can pay somebody $1.35 an hour to help me do what I'm doing. Remember, I'm working 14-hour days. So I hired this guy, and my concept was this. If I can teach this guy do what I do, then I can do more. So it was an employee. It was a partner I was hiring.

It was a friend. I'm going to mentor this guy to have him be as good. No, I want to be better than me. And I wasn't afraid to have that person and do that kind of mentoring all the back my very first. So what I learned then is how to really treat employees. And I've been fortunate. Right now, I've got 98 employees of my tenure is 14.6 years.

Wow. That means I just don't. Nobody leaves me. And the ones that come on board are, you know, Youngsters, usually the people are trying to get in his apprenticeship type positions because my crew is obviously after being a business for 35 years. So my program is getting up there in their 60s and 70s, and I've got to look at getting some youth coming in. But let's continue on the culture. I'm at my son's graduation party, and one of my daughter's friends, he works for the union and he's a welder.

I'm making $52 an hour working hard they take so they have much money out I'm trying to get into the corporate more so maybe I can get out of actually being a worker and get into management he started teaching

so now he's teaching welding but now it's two degree at two different pensions because when you're working you're looking at what's the pensions so he kept talking about and he said sideboard

and it's all corrupt and I says, well, isn't Wall Street? He says, absolutely, they're corrupt also. And I said, watching television lady, what's our government like? They're corrupt also. I looked at my daughter, she works with me now for 10 years, and I said, I am so blessed, so fortunate to have created a culture that is good. My employees are happy because they give them their birthdays off. We have a credit card.

every one of my employees is a visa reloadable credit card auto log on it in their wallets. Every single day, my daughter comes in, she's responsible for this. Every single day she comes in my office and reads me off the emails that came in from customers

complimenting employee, peers complimenting something employee did, somebody worked over and above after hours, whatever it is, and we'll go ahead and gift them $25, $100, $200 on their card. But the magic Is that email that came in from that customer about this employee goes out to everybody.

So I've created a positive input, not what's wrong with the business, what's right with the business. Yeah, yeah, what's going right. How can we, and I challenge my employees, I put them under pressure, but I treat them with dignity, I treat them with honor, I treat them with respect, I make sure they all know they're smarter better than me. I did a presentation. you've seen the pyramids business where here's the CEO and here's the all the middle management and here's HR and here's the admin people and here's the customers. Well, I did a presentation. I turned a pyramid upside down. I said, ladies and gentlemen, the customers want to pay our bills.

Carnegie told me that in this speech. They're the ones that write that check, our customer. They're number one. Okay. You're in face the, number two is admin. middle management, I'm here at the bottom. Holding up the pyramid. Absolutely. And I will do anything in this company. You see me in the back, up on the ladders, changing light bulbs. I have, actually.

I'm a hands-on entrepreneur. And my office is wide open. My customer will call me any time. I'm an accessible CEO entrepreneur. And that gives my employees faith in the company. We're profitable. repair bills. No disgruntled customers, no lawsuits, no labor liens, no tax liens, none of that stuff. Because you know why? We just do business right. Just do it right. It ain't that hard

to do it right. It ain't that hard. In fact, it's easier to do it right. You sleep better. Somebody told me a long time ago, Jim Frank, if you put your energy into, I'll do some laundry right now, the drugs, the women, the alcohol, the gambling, you take that energy you got and you fold. You focused on a business and a woman, you're going to be a successful guy. And I did that. You did that. I did that. I cut all those other vices out and concentrate on one very valuable tool. So people say, what really is the value? What am I here for? What's life about? And I fortunately got it figured out. What's life about, Jim? Being a blessing, making a difference. period, period, period.

Joel said, I told you a little girl today, I just heard him the way over here today. Joel and Steve, listen to him all the time. He says, you want to be happy for an hour? Take a nap. You want to have you for a day? Go fishing. You want to have it for a month?

I didn't like what he said. He said, get married. I'm going to change it to go on a vacation. I want to tell it again. You want to be happy for a year, win the lottery. You want to be happy for the rest of your life? Be good to people. Make a difference.

Make a difference. Help somebody be all they can be. And I'm doing it every single day. I've got 100 employees. I got 5,000 customers and I got family members. You know what? Hand of another philosophy you might like. And I can share with these guys out here.

There's two worlds, ladies and gentlemen, that we live in. Two distinct worlds. One world is the world that you get to touch. Your family, your friends, the crosswalk person, the person of the restaurant, your employees, the people that you touch and feel on a daily basis. That's your world. Where you can make a difference.

You can be a blessing. You can smile on somebody's face. You can create a business to create with employees. You can create wealth in your world. The other world out there, ladies and gentlemen, is what they call the media, politics, the news. I do not watch television. I do not listen to the news.

I do not want that negative crap in my brain. I want to see the good stuff. So what's the two worlds? Guess what? The world out there, you've got five minutes every four years. That's it. The rest of the time talking about everything that's going on in the outside world is a waste of your time, waste your mental energy, waste your voice.

Think about what I just said. Because too many people are sitting around talking about Trump and this and that and the stuff in the schools and abortions and all this stuff, you have no control of, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, worry is a state of mind you have no control of or hasn't happened yet. Memorize that phrase for the rest of your life. Worry is a state of mind that hasn't happened yet or you have no control of. Well, then don't worry because it hasn't happened or you've got no control.

Let it go. Let it go. Let the Lord guide my steps each and every day. I got to tell you, man. I didn't know how this interview was going to go. You and I've got such long history, whether we go months or years without seeing each other, or it's just a quick phone call. By the way, I love that you all should know that Joan and Jim are the only two people who I'll pick up the phone,

unless it's scheduled. If I have a scheduled call, I'll pick up the phone with a client. But otherwise, you don't text much. And I think instead of sending a text, you just do a call because that's how you roll. And I love that. But only you and Joan is when I pick up that. What's that? I can tell you the stories.

Now I've got a computer company, right? I've got computer and people all over the United States. The emails, the back and forth, this and that, trying to figure out stuff, I said, every once I'd go, anybody just pick up the phone? Watch. George, five, right. Okay, got it. Thank you very much.

Now, done. It's done, guys. Pick up the phone. You just send email each other 15 times for two days. Crazy concept. Anyhow. Before we wrap this up, Jim, there was a story that you told me 15, 20 years ago. I'm probably going to get it wrong, so I need you to clarify it.

The message behind it was to show up different, and the way you showed up to this auto parts store, there was either to make things right, something had gone wrong, or you were trying to get their business. You showed up with a box of donuts to an auto parts store. Yes, I did. With a regular basis. Yeah, tell us about that. Why would you do that?

What's the point? What's the purpose? I know the lesson behind it is to show up different and win the customer. But why don't you go into one of those stories? I just learned along the way that if you did something a little extra, a little special, the person to either remember you or appreciate you or be thankful. One of those three things, positive thing. And stopping by and getting a box of donuts and walking in there with a box of donuts,

it just lights up people's eyes. Anything you can do like that. I had a salesman. I had a model part store, a 3M guy. Every time he came in, he had some little goody. It's a new type of tape or a stick on this, whatever. It was always fun to have items like that. Sure.

And I remembered that. So I try to adopt that same concept. By the way, when I ever sign a contract, I hand the guy a really nice one of my pens, signed the contract. That's for you to keep. Keep the pen. Thank you.

I mean, it's not big. It's just the gesture. Yeah. To that point, I remember the pen seeing, I saw a pen on your desk, and it was a Mont Blanc. I didn't know what a Mont Blanc was. Those of you don't know what a Mont Blanc is, look it up.

It's got a five-pointed star, white star up top. It's got an amazing story behind it. Do you know the story of the Mont Blanc? I don't. All I know is there's about $3,400 each. So here, yeah, they're very expensive pens. So here's a story. That's a five, that's the star of David.

Oh. That's the star of David. I did not know that. And apparently Hitler's regime had hired, well, hired, commission. because they weren't paying him, a young Jewish man to make the best pen possible for Hitler. And he set out to make this pen. He was an amazing craftsman. And he set out to make this pen. And he hid the star of David, the five-pointed star, on top of that pen, which is obviously a nod to the Jewish culture, right? And so they're Hitler and all the entire knotts.

party had a pen made by a Jew with the Jewish star on top. He got the last laugh. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was a powerful thing, but that's how Mont Blanc came to be. But again, modeling success. I remember seeing your Mont Blanc on your desk, and at some point, I used it for something. I like, holy smokes, this thing right as well. I know. And the first treat that I got for myself. Couldn't afford a watch or a nice car at that point when we were still starting out together. I went and got myself like the Mont Blanc and that thing was just everywhere with me. I can't tell you how many contracts and deals that I've signed with that. A few years ago I lost that and I ended up getting another one. But yeah, I love those Mont Blancs. And again, it's just another example that you

led with. Let me throw something in that's really important for these audience, these youngsters, okay? The mistake that business people make, They don't understand that the money you're bringing in, 90% of that money, 90 cents on every dollar, goes back out. What happens to small businesses, that money coming in, it gets distorted in their brain, and they start using that money for personal things. And pretty soon you build up your personal monthly nut to where it's out of control about what you're coming in. So one of the advice that I'll give to everybody, put your energy. effort money into building a business, keep your personal life expenses low. Guys, you hear Gary Vaynerchuk.

Vaynerchuk talks about that all the time. Make it easy. Yeah, he beats that drum to death. So Gary Vaynerchuk is a gentleman on the social media platforms and stages, et cetera. And he always talks about, hey, man, you could either buy the Porsche now or you could save and buy the Porsche dealership later. And I really love that mindset. that mentality, which is something you've instilled in me from years ago.

I've done it. Properties. This building, do you remember? I said, I do not. Whether it's my auto parts store, it took me five, eight years to buy that one. Yeah. The big building I'm in now. I was paying three partners, what they call that money every month just for the opportunity for right of refusal.

But that money was going towards it if I bought the building. If I didn't buy the building, it was just throwing in a toilet. I did that for six years to buy the 18,000 footer. Good for you. Because I knew that, by the way, once again, if you get into business, please try and buy the property. Because over the 10, 15, 20 years you're in business, pretty soon you got a building that's worth half a million, million, million, half dollars. And that, most people retire on. When they're small business, they get done.

Well, they retire and they got their buildings. That's big, big, big news. and you're paying rent, paying the payment, it's about the same. Now, if I had rented this building instead of buying it, my rent was going to be $16,000, my mortgage is $17,000 a month. Why not buy it? Exactly. And now it's already gone through the roof and value.

Absolutely. And your rent today would have been $20,000, and you're still only paying $17. And ladies and gentlemen, the right-off, the depreciation, the interest, and the expenses on buildings is, Huge in your tax returns, by the way. Huge. Yep, yep. And renting, you get nada.

Nothing. Jim, let's finish off with one thing. Obviously, you've been a very successful entrepreneur. You are a very successful entrepreneur. Offices all over the country, employees all over the country, you've done well in life. You're 76. You're going strong. Why not retire?

People are asking, why not retire, Jim Franco? Are you kidding me? That would be the biggest waste of my personal. precious time that I could ever. How can I continue to be a blessing and make a difference? I've got another acquisition lined up. Sometimes my acquisition take three to four years to nurture. Sure. Because how I did most of those acquisitions, Pete, there were competitors, same exact business I'm in, which is computer business with recurring revenue. Okay. I say them getting slowing down, maybe getting old. I'm friends with all of them, and I tell every one of them,

I really like buying companies and help out the owner. retire and I'll take the employees and the customers and where we go the way I bought them I didn't have any money so I talked I meant to I give you a hundred or 200,000 down and carry that million and a half two three million dollars or a five to seven year period and they get to retire and I pick up phenomenal talent employees customers with for 15 20 years and products I wrap my e-commerce products around it put my marketing on it and I lift those companies up I don't tear them apart I lift them up.

Very successful. Brilliant. Brilliant. And to that point, yeah, retiring is the fastest way to death. I'm sorry. Let me finish.

My father, 95 years old, he worked every single day of his life to get the 95. Five of his best friends in Dixie Cup, when he retired in his 60s, 65 area,

five of them died within eight years after they retired because they had nothing to do. Yeah. They got nothing to put their teeth into. They had, nothing to feel the satisfaction of getting up every single day. I'm going to retire never.

Good. Never. Good. Now, I would, I, when I was young, 12, 14 hour days. I'd explain those to you. Right now, because I'm this maturity and I'm, I, you know, there's seasons in life. As long as you understand and respect those seasons, who you are, what you are, what, sorry, I got my microphone every once in a while, but I recognize who I am and where I am.

I go to work at 8.30. I'm done at 1.30 in the afternoon. I only work four days a week. So I'm working about 25 hours a week. But I've got more energy, more balls, more drive, more ideas, more creativity in those six hours in the morning than all the rest of my crew put together. Amen. What time do you wake up? 536. 536. Automatic, no longer looks. And by the way, news for everybody. You want to really have a really fine life at my age every single day around 233, o'clock, I take a 45 minute to an hour of power nap. And I've learned how to relax myself with biofeedback, self-abnosis, relaxing techniques where I can actually relax my body. I can

slow my heart rate down. I can slow my breathing down and go to, it's almost like a trance. What a renaissance man you are? Well, only because then I wake up and I love to cook, so I'll cook a full-blown meal for me and my wife most every evening. I like to think all that was because of your awesome trainer 20 years ago. Or not. There you go. Hey, by the way, what time of the day do you work out now? I, and you have to go home.

Very honestly, I take my power nap. Yeah. About 4 o'clock. I get up on usually Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, three times a week. And I'm a gold gym. It's right down the street from me with my new insurance card. It's all free, so sorry, boot camp, I don't have to pay anything. I go to any of those gyms.

Do you have a personal trainer? No. No. Well, come on. You taught me. After me what he did. How about this? I got two titanium knees. Right. I've got three, four, and five fused in my back.

Yeah. Because I was very athletic horses, race cars, racocles, racquetball. You name it, I did all the sports. So I kind of was hard on my body. So I've been with this personal trainer. I mean, not, excuse me, they're not personal training. Physical therapist, probably. There you go. And they have a nice little gym over there,

and he's obviously talking to some technique. So what you've taught me, what they've taught me and I got it. Good for you. I know how to do the reps and I know how to do that stuff. Now, how to do the jacuzzi and how to do the steam room. I know how to do this really, really good. You know you have wisdom when you call it a jacuzzi and not a hot tub.

I love that. I love that. Just the cool ways that you drop nuggets that really show your wisdom in years of maturity, like, you know, jacuzzi is a brand. That's true. It was such a popular brand. like Kleenex and Xerox. Coca-Cola and-Cola.

Right? Yeah. But really, it's, jacuzzi is no longer popular, but because of the generation that you're from, it's the jacuzzi. I get it.

I get it. But we call it a hot tub, and I can call it both because I can straddle both sides of the fence. Jim Franco, man, this was an amazing opportunity that you gave us to interview you.

I know that this was a neat ride going back in time with you. Number one, number two, my audience, I can tell you loved it because, you know, We've sold almost 40,000 copies of my book. It's become a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Your name has been read by so many people, and for them to actually see the person, meet the person. I know it's a, you've bestowed a lot of wisdom on my audience as well. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you, Jim. Peter, thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure and fun. And by the way, your facility is to die for.

Good job. Guys and gals, thank you so much for watching this episode of the Empire Show. I know you really enjoyed this episode. I want you to do one thing. I want you to take a screenshot of it, post it, tag a couple of friends. I want this episode to be the most watched and listened to episode of all of our shows.

Have a great one.