Digital Social Hour - From Strip Club to 7-Figures: How One Mentor Changed Everything | Stephen Martinez DSH #967

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

From strip club to 7-figures: Stephen Martinez shares his incredible journey of how a chance encounter at 3AM changed everything. Watch as he reveals how meeting his mentor in an unexpected place launched him into building successful conferences, writing books, and becoming a leader in the Latino business community. 🚀 Stephen opens up about growing up with immigrant parents, helping his mom clean houses before school, and how he transformed from an introverted master's student into a confident business leader. Learn how he identified a massive opportunity in the Latino contractor space and built The American Dream conference from scratch. Discover powerful insights on finding mentors, building genuine relationships, and why the Latino community is positioned to dominate the business world. Stephen shares candid stories about working with billion-dollar entrepreneurs, scaling events, and the importance of providing value before asking for anything in return. If you're ready to build genuine connections, scale your business, and learn from someone who's living proof of the American Dream, this episode is a must-watch. Stephen proves that success isn't about where you start - it's about being prepared when opportunity knocks. 💪 #digitalnomad #employmenttrends #personalfinance #howmoneyworks #istheamericandreampossible CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:35 - Recognizing Opportunity 05:09 - Finding a Mentor 10:07 - Challenges of Running Conferences 13:31 - Importance of Community 16:50 - Benefits of Attending Events 19:10 - Origin of the Book 21:14 - Trademarking Your Unique Brand 22:32 - Best Marketing Platforms 23:31 - The American Dream Event 26:24 - Diversity in Events 27:55 - Karros Re Week 28:30 - Fastest Growing Demographics 31:10 - Overcoming Fear 32:20 - Initial Financial Losses 32:55 - Seeing Results 34:10 - Characteristics of a Good Podcast 34:50 - Energy in Podcast Hosting 36:05 - Connecting with Stephen APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Stephen Martinez https://www.instagram.com/stephen_martinez/ https://www.youtube.com/@STEPHENMARTINEZTV LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shifted it to a different market and we just made it bigger and better. A lot of the minutes you learn more from him than your master's degree. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think the master's degree now, I saw a study on it.

I think it was on Instagram or TikTok. It's like 86% of college students regret their bachelor's. I saw that yesterday. I saw it yesterday too. And that's just people self-admitting, so it might even be higher. I think so. Because who wants to admit that they wasted money and time?

Mm-hmm. All right guys, from Houston, Texas, we got Steven Martinez here. We're going to talk the American dream today. Yeah, we are. And you're living proof of that. I'm trying my best, I'm doing my best, brother. So when did you start realizing this opportunity was out there? Man, that's a good question

To answer that we have to go back a little bit before the American dream the whole Conference the event the podcast the book was ever a thing. I Think we have to dig into the roots of my parents. So my mom and dad immigrated from Colombia Pretty much coming here for an opportunity like anyone else right everyone comes here for the land of opportunity just to have a better life Fast forward a little bit my family got divorced mom and dad got divorced when I was 12 13 so I was with my mom and I mean she didn't speak the language right so she was just hustling yeah and I was the middle child of three and she was cleaning houses and she would wake up at

like 5 a.m. 5 30 a.m. just to go clean houses and I would voluntarily like hey mom I'll come with you so before school I'd go help her clean houses take out the trash this and that and then she would tell me she would say Steven you know you're gonna be the person that can get us out of this out of the situation. You have so much potential. And then I'm like, you're just my mom. You're just saying that because you love me. But it did resonate, especially the whole school thing. School was very big for our culture. You know, go to school, get your bachelor's, get your master's. So I got my bachelor's, got my master's, and then COVID hit. And I was like, man, I was like, okay, I can still do online. But then like the whole workplace thing froze, so no one was working.

I don't know if you remember this, but during COVID you couldn't go to Target, Walmart, H&M, all those stores. So I was doing Uber Eats, but it's not Uber Eats, but you did groceries for people. So you'd go to the store, Kroger, whatever, do the groceries, deliver the groceries. And then my buddy hit me up and he was like,

hey man, it's my birthday. And there's this one spot during COVID that pretty much lets you go out and have no social distancing type of thing, really low key spot. So I'm like, sure, it's your birthday. We go out, we celebrate. I'm in school, I'm just working hard doing Instacart.

That's what it was called at the time, just hustling, making money, trying to make ends meet. And then after the bar, he's like, let's go to the strip club. And usually I just say bar, but to be transparent, I feel like it's important for people to know where I met my mentor at the time because of the environment.

And you never know who you meet. And they say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. And I was there at 3 AM, just having a good time, minding my business. And I see this guy in a professional suit, like corporate style. You could tell he's not doing anything shady or this or that.

I'm like, damn, that must be nice. 30 minutes later, we start talking. And he's like, this or that. I'm like, damn, like, that must be nice. 30 minutes later, we start talking. And he's like, hey, man, you know, I'm in the blue collar industry. So we have an online training platform, a big event for contractors. If you're serious, get my number down and call me in the morning.

Now, this is where I could have gone left or right. Left as in like, OK, this guy's weird. Like, it's 3 AM at a strip. I've never met this guy before. But then right as in in like, OK, this guy's weird. Like it's 3 a.m. at a strip. I've never met this guy before. But then right as in, you know what, there's an opportunity that I think might be something. Why not go for it? So I went all in on that.

Called him in the morning. He was like, hey, we're leaving in an hour to Lake Charles. This was during Hurricane Laura, Sally Delta and Charlie. This was like four or five years ago. And I didn't know anything about the industry. I didn't know what a shingle was nothing. I just knew people I knew relationships I knew kind of the lingo for business from school, but that was about it, and I called my mom It was Labor Day. I said mom. There's an opportunity that I don't think I can miss like this is serious

She's like good luck. I love you go all in Set and done I went all in and then that's what pretty much created the American dream I learned everything wow instead of me learning a cub pretty much created the American Dream. I learned everything. So instead of me learning a cubicle from a nine to five where I'm just doing marketing, now I understand sales, I understand production, quality control, admin, HR, systems, procedures, SOPs, how do you build and scale a company to 20 million? And because of him was what pretty much helped me create my concept, and then we shifted it to a different market and we just made it bigger and better. I love that, man.

So you learned more from him than your master's degree? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think the master's degree now, I saw a study on it. I think it was on Instagram or TikTok. It's like 86% of college students regret their bachelor's. I saw that yesterday. I saw yesterday too.

And that's just people self-admitting. So it might even be higher. I think so. Because who wants to admit that they wasted money and time. Kick off an exciting football season with Bet MGM, an official sports book partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down,

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What are you waiting for? Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Like, 866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. But I think people are waking up. I think, like when I have kids, I'd rather them get a mentor, whether it's me or someone else, than go to college if they're gonna be an entrepreneur.

100%. I think the hardest part about it all, with a lot of people asking me specifically, is how do you find these mentors? And as simple, I mean, I guess that situation and that environment was very scarce, right? Very limited, it's tough to find a mentor on a street at 4 a.m. on a random night out.

But I think if you provide value and you find a way to get yourself in the door, no matter how or what way you can, it doesn't necessarily have to be monetary value. I could be providing value through, perfect example, my editor. I get like 20 messages on Instagram saying, hey, let me edit your videos, let me edit your videos. I charge this, I charge that. So before we really kind of developed a good strategy, I needed an editor.

And then this kid messaged me saying, hey, I'll work for you for a month for free. He's providing value. I don't have nothing to lose. Crushed it, killed it, has been working with me for three years. Wow. So that's the essence of getting yourself in the door, providing value, meeting the right people. And the moment you do that, you start to create proximity.

And then that's how you can find mentors, like-minded people for different areas because don't get me wrong there are mentors for different areas you're not gonna go to an overweight person for gym advice right you need mentors for your physical health financial mental health emotional health all sorts of aspects of life I got like seven dude like yeah basketball health I got a spiritual one I got religious one I have a business one, mindset one, there's so many.

Yeah, you don't want to listen to just one guy for everything, that's how you fail. And that's what people think mentors are, I think. Exactly, and then you get bad habits too, indirectly. Like my first mentor, dude, genius, but he had bad habits. And then that like kind of, The strip club was one of them?

Yeah, exactly. So you know what I mean. So it's like, I need to step back here, self-reflect, and find people that are good at different areas. We just totally defined because everyone's people, we're all humans, that's what makes us special. And it's understanding that. So you're 100% right on that part. Yeah, I get asked that all the time, finding

mentors. It's definitely like, there's no one set answer for that. But I think just putting yourself in the right situations will help the odds of you finding one. 100%. Going to events like your conference or whatever, you know, for your instance, it was a strip club. That was the best. Yes, I could have done man. That was my first time actually going to one. Oh really? That's his destiny at that point then. It really is and I'll tell you something that I've told very few people and a lot of people believe me or don't it's totally it's totally fine but before that whole scenario happened I was with friends and I was dressed

really nice and they're like why are you dressed so nice? I was like you never know who you're gonna meet but like in my head I'm thinking I'm gonna meet a pretty girl. Turns out I actually ended up meeting my... You manifested it in a way. I believe in the law of attraction 100%. What were some things he taught you that sort of got you on your feet? Man, marketing. He's a marketing genius. I was in sales with him and I understood relationships very well. For example, if I had a client, I wouldn't call him a client.

I'd call him my friend. I wouldn't utilize people monetarily. I would do him my friend. I wouldn't utilize people monetarily. I would do it as I would play the long term game with people. For example, Tommy Mello. He was brought into me when he was with Anthony Delmedico, my first mentor. And he was doing the conference and all this good stuff. And Anthony wanted to sell him on something.

He was like, I want you to close him. And me and Tommy created a really great relationship. And then Tommy on the side was like, hey man, you're cool. I appreciate it. He's like, don't sell me that. I don't like to be sold. I was like, respect. Said and done.

I didn't sell him anything. We just built a friendship. I love that. And then we went to dinner one time. And then I told the waiter, hey, let me go to the restroom. I got my card out. I paid for the tab. Because a lot of successful people like to pay for the tab and I was like I don't want him to feel used

Because I'm not that type of person and obviously him with his caliber. I want to provide value anyway I can't even if it's a simple dinner classic and waiter comes back tab is paid He's like confused. He's like what and she was like, yeah He paid for it and then Tommy ever since then it was like skyrocketed friendship and he'd thank me for dinner So I'd have a billionaire thanking me for dinner when I'm like 21 22. Yeah early making sick I bet he's the one paying for most dinners So a hundred percent for him to get that the other way around was huge I bet you I think you know how it is to when it comes to those people, right?

They always they don't mind which is totally fine But you know, I'm the type of person that I really want to stand out and make an impression If it's doesn't necessarily have to be monetarily or I could be anywhere in shape or form of me totally fine, but I'm the type of person that I really want to stand out and make an impression if it doesn't necessarily have to be monetarily, right? It could be anywhere, shape or form of me helping you, whether it's connect you to someone that I know, or X or Y. But I think that's kind of the secret sauce

that he taught me. So back to your question, it was the sales slash relationship end game and then monetizing that through marketing, understanding how to brand, how to scale, and how to create a brand. Because we had to create something from scratch that never existed. We had to create an event, a conference that never existed with no proof of concept. So I think that was the toughest bit for sure. Conference is a tough space, dude.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of them lose money just off the conversations I've had with people that run conferences. So you need to have a good back end, you need a good sales team and everything. You know what I tell people? So we're doing our third event next year and the gentleman you had before is a construction roofing. So you can be in the roofing industry for five years and have three to four horrible years and then then a storm hits, and then skyrocketed, you're doing five, six million. Totally normal, you see that all the time.

With events, it's a one-stop shop, you have one opportunity, either you make it or you don't. Because if you miss, you're not gonna have attendees, you're not gonna have vendors, sponsors, no proof of concept will ever be delivered. So it's literally like sink or swim. And you're developing and creating something that hasn't been done. There's no name to like, concept will ever be delivered. record, no proof, no nothing. So you really have to understand your target, your niche, your product, your service, how to brand, how to market it, and how do you make it unique

really? So the way we made it unique was by hitting a specific demographic, which is a Latino community. So you saw a hole in the market. You didn't see these people being catered to at other events? 100%. We do RoovCon, Win the Storm. My mentor had Win the Storm before he sold it. He had around 4,000 people show up. Holy crap.

Contractors. And then I'm looking at all these contractors. I'm Latino. I'm fully Colombian. And I'm like, dude, I see the white people. But then funny enough, 80% to 90% of the home service space, they speak Spanish. You see a laborer, they're Latino.

A lot of these people are immigrant. And I'm like, it's like a kind of like a light bulb moment. I was like, why has no one created or promoted or targeted our market when it's the predominantly main market and foundation for this industry? So let me make a concept, apply it to a different market and make it better. And that's when we just went all in.

That's so true, dude. 80% of my contractors are Latino or Spanish speaking, that's a good point. So that's like the entire market pretty much. No one's done it before. And no one's targeted them, that's crazy. Especially to this magnitude, I mean I'm sure maybe they've done like small events, but our last event had

around almost 400 people and we more than doubled from the first one. Nice. So we're expecting to hopefully hit seven, 800 people with the consistency that we're doing. That's incredible. Yeah, so you're doubling almost every single one Mm-hmm. Imagine what you'll be in a few years That's what everyone says but I think it's it's one of those where you take it one step one day at a time All right, you know, I don't like to project it You know, it's for example the first of and if I was like, oh man

I need to get 100 people here without creating anything, it's not gonna be possible. No. I start off by doing the simple stuff first, such as going to an event, talking to a vendor, talking to a sponsor, connecting with someone, reaching out with my previous relationships from sales, seeing if people want to support what we're building

and structuring, stuff like that. Yeah. But I think that's the main secret one day at a time. I've had 14 networking events in the past six years. My first event had 30 people. Now I could have walked away from that like super like, you know, piss and not had another event again. But I saw that as a good sign to keep going. You're crushing it now. Yeah. Now they have like 400 or 500 people. That's awesome. And it's a blast every time. Now is it all organic whenever you're doing your events or no paid ads, dude

Wow, so imagine if I wanted to go that route, but I like that community aspect So that's where I differ from most events where people are just trying to fill in the door I want quality people at mine. So my events are pretty much invite only or you got to know someone to come in Yeah, but that's how you build community man Communities everything I think you're right on that part, too coming. Yeah, I love that. But that's how you build community, man. Community is everything. I think you're right on that part, too. I've noticed that a lot of people like to build their own community slash network type of thing. Right.

Like Tommy has he just had an event to home service freedom, I believe, in San Diego. So he had around a thousand people show up as well. And like these people are super devoted to him. I mean, he's very disciplined, of course, which is awesome But you're 100% right on that aspect of it Creating that community is very important for anything. Mm-hmm Absolutely, and those connections when you're having events because normally these speakers are gonna want to speak or fee

But if you've provided value to these guys, they're not gonna charge you you save a hundred grand right there. Yep I've had I've had instances where we've had speakers try to charge. I mean, you know how it goes, right? Some people pay to play type of thing. They want to charge. But when you're doing your first event ever, you're not really going to have that much capital to fund that type of stuff.

And I was like, hey, look, this is bigger than me. It's always been bigger than me. It's about helping the community, helping bring financial literacy, level the playing field. At the same time, you can help your personal brand, grow your personal brand, your company brand, whatever you want to do. You know, really see it from that aspect of it, not just so personal from that side of it like, hey no man, like I'm too good for school, I charge 15k like either I'm in or I'm not, you know. But

we've been very lucky and blessed to have the right people support us Have you heard of Renee Rodriguez by chance? Yep. He's been on the show. He spoke on my first event and I saw him on tik-tok. Mmm, which is the power of social media is insane. By the way, that's how I found him Really? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah that one video with the whole I think yeah some viral video Yeah, that's how I find a lot of my guests actually take and Instagram and YouTube girls. You gotta be on top of the trend Yeah, that's the way to do it. I agree So we had a call and he was trying to sell me Yeah, he's like, hey man, like I love what you're doing But you know, I charge X amount and I'm like brother like this is our first one like we're trying to make this really special

You know, I want you to see the big picture. I told him the backstory to it my family. He's Cuban He has a similar story as well. It was like man scratch that I'm in. Wow. So it comes to show. Shout out to Rene. Yeah, seriously. Great friend of mine. Actually I'm gonna see him in October going to Minnesota. Yeah he's a solid dude man. He's brought a ton of guests to the show. Really? So and for no money like he just is a good person. That's awesome. So I surround myself with people like that man. And that's uh. That's the way to do it And that's someone I'm probably gonna hire in the future to coach me with public speaking. You should come to the event, man.

Yeah. I saw October 14th through the 16th. In Houston? No, it's in Minnesota. Minnesota. It's at his place. He's doing a little like small thing. Yeah, let me check it out.

If I'm not filming those days, I'm down. Yeah. But he coaches all the top speakers in our space. It's super impressive. Justin, Justin Waller, all the guys I spoke at Limitless. Haven't been. Was it good? Yeah. It was in Utah, right? Yeah.

Limitless was solid, dude. I try to go to at least five to 10 conferences a year or events. What do you benefit from it whenever you're going to these big events? Usually it's just connections. I don't really watch the talks, if we're being honest. I went through that motivational phase, though, when I was younger. So I used to blast Gary Vee and David Goggins

when I was in college. But now I'm at the phase where that doesn't really motivate me anymore. I've found my purpose, so I don't need those videos anymore. But I used to blast those TED Talks, man. Now I just go for connections and just to have fun. I think that's the way to do it. Makes a little business with pleasure. You have to, yeah. Because I used to just be straight business. I was robotic. You wouldn't even want to be friends with me.

You seem pretty easy, man. Pretty easy going. I've had to develop into that. Really? Yeah. Were you more introverted? I still am. Yeah, I just took a test last week. I'm still easy going. I've had to develop into that. Really? Yeah. Were you more introverted? I still am. Yeah, I just took a test last week. I'm still heavily introverted.

I know what I am. And it's like, I'm an introvert extrovert. So if I don't know you, I don't talk to you. Which is, I guess, in the aspect of networking, kind of sucks, right? Because you're like, I need to network. You mean people I've never met before? Yeah. Definitely was a challenge at the

beginning too when I'm trying to create something and I have to meet people I'm like I'd suck it up you know I used to be way more introverted I think the success helped the confidence so now I can um yeah I don't really get nervous talking to anyone anymore like it could be Grant Cardone sitting there it could be the president I'll do I'll be a nervous, but I won't be like freaking out or anything. As soon as we start talking, they'll go away. Yeah.

I agree. We're all people, man. I think that's what differentiates us from being successful or not to us. Because sometimes we see success as this kind of like facade or this perception of it being unattainable because we see it on social media. But really, it comes down to just treating people like people because when you're in the business aspect an entrepreneur not corporate

You're doing business with people right so they want to know who they're doing business with do you take care of yourself are you healthy? Are you in shape? Do you have good habits? Alright cool now that I like him as a person alright now. I'm interested in this product or service as well So I think that has a big play with that as well hundred percent Yeah I tell people not to really idolize or look up to people and like fanboy in person because it's a huge turnoff For me like and for a lot of people I talked to you like it's the level of respect just isn't there anymore when you fanboy I agree. You know I do there's better ways to approach someone

Agree, you know, I do there's better ways to approach someone Have the book start was that after the conference or before good question actually so Tommy and Anthony Wrote a book as well and a lot of my mentors have books actually have this little small Mini shelf of books and it's all of my friends books. Don't ask me if I've read them all. I have them. Just more of support and I think it's awesome. Like it shows your proximity. Hey like all my friends have wrote books. Tommy one time told me and Anthony too that kind of said it similar ways but essentially the best business card anyone could ever have is a book. You know you give someone a physical

card. I mean I don't think anyone really uses that. You throw them out or you lose it or whatever. You could use the tap or dot one where they tap it, save it, whatever. But that's tangible. You know, that's gonna be there forever. You're not gonna lose it, you're not gonna throw it away. If you put it in your shelf or you put it in your home or you know, then someone signs it, makes it personal.

You're gonna remember that. I feel that, because even if you don't read it, it's still there on the shelf. You see the name. We're actually getting a shelf here because a lot of guests have books and we're gonna display other work there make it pretty Yeah, man. I'm a fan of that. Yeah. Yeah, you won't forget the book when someone gives you it, right? I agree something it could be a book or even if you know and any honestly anyone can write a book I hate when people put me on a pedestal sometimes like hey I wrote a book at 24 was 24 when I wrote it like oh man, you wrote a book. I hate when people put me on a pedestal sometimes like hey I wrote a book at 24 hours 24 when I wrote it. They're like oh man you wrote a book congrats.

I'm like well anyone can write a book. It's like a thesis or a dissertation. It's just being disciplined with it. That's all it is and then obviously you'll have the publishing. Amazon publishing direct is a good one. You'll get it get the title all that good stuff but anyone can do it and if you don't want to write a book and you want to make an impression, something as simple as a t-shirt. Even someone a t-shirt, hey man, or a backpack

or some sort of swagger. Something that makes them subconsciously remember you. Oh, like, hey, that's the guy with the book. That's the guy with the shirt. I saw your action figure there. That was cool. I was like, dude, that's awesome. You got to brand yourself as much as possible.

I wear merch every day. Branding is so important. People don't understand that. Mm-hmm I think that for helps me I got asked that earlier today. I've had it since since I can remember Yeah, my dad had one too. So I guess it's genetic, right? Yeah, my kid has one is it on like do you style you just wake up and then boom? I just wake up Yeah, I used to use gel back in the day, but I'm super like holistic now So I don't use any fake products on my body. Do you got a trademark the hair? I'm I have to can you do that?

I didn't Jennifer Lopez trademark her butt or something. What I'm pretty sure I'm like 99% sure and then boxes like trademark her Their hands to they register them. So if anything happens to him, like oh, yeah, they get insurance Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, like JLo has that with her. But yeah Floyd tried to get it I don't know if it got approved the commanding pack. Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, like JLo has that with her. But yeah Floyd tried to get it I don't know if it got approved. I think Manny Pacquiao tried to get that too. I'm sure if you did with your hair, man Million dollars from that. Yeah, imagine some people stack those trademarks. Like that's a full-time job these days Yeah, or they'll buy the domains to domains patents. Uh-huh. What's that big one with Facebook someone was it Facebook? The username handles something like that Yeah

They bought something and then they bought it for like five dollars because someone on the Facebook team didn't buy it on time And now they saw that yeah, that might have been Twitter. I think it was Twitter. Yeah. Yeah, I think Elon just ended up taking it though Shout out to Elon. What platform are you? Liking the most right now for For what? Just for branding and marketing. Man it depends on the product or service I'll tell you what. If you ask me Steven monetarily how do you do more, where do we get more of a return on organic traffic is Facebook. Because the event space for the construction industry is 30 to 50 or 25 to 50 years old. So a lot of those people use Facebook and we have a pretty good foundation and

client base on Facebook. Now, when it comes to just branding, building your brand type of thing, Instagram is solid as well. TikTok, we're building it. We've been building consistently. It's kind of hit or miss, but it's just being consistent with it, right? So we're just building it. Our guys do three posts a day or three reels slash shorts. YouTube's been picking up a lot as well.

We want to funnel it all down to the brand, the book, the event, the podcast, everything just falling into the brand. And then that goes into the event because the event and the scheme of the event is the American dream. And we want to encourage any American. So what at first used to be a specific event for the Latino community to come and learn our last event, we had a lot of African-Americans, surprisingly. And I was like, well, like, maybe I should focus more on the minority side. And I was like, light switch.

Let's do it on all Americans. Because we're all immigrants in some way, shape, or form. And that's what we've been targeting and blowing up ever since. Love it, man. And it's about, obviously, we grew up from the home service space. But we have people coming in from everywhere now,

from garages, roofing, solar, real estate. We had a guy's name's Gabriel Nanjeras. He has no arms, no legs. He came and spoke. Wow. Just about providing value, motivational. But you go to all these events, too. And like you said, I'm kind of over the whole motivational

stuff. So we want to emphasize, too, on networking, building those organic relationships. And the most important is the experience. I've noticed that in the event space, experience is so important. It's king. Yeah, you have to make everyone feel important

and like you care. There's some events, I'm not gonna name who, but they don't even like introduce themselves to sponsors that spend 30, 40,000. Holy crap. They think they're too cool and shit, they have all their chains, this and that. It's not a good look.

I mean, for me at least, I was raised to be more humble and respectful to people, and it's taken me a long way. Like our last event, all the vendors signed back up for the next one. That's a great sign. It's a great, fantastic sign. Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm always thinking on how to provide value to my attendees.

So even, I'm still doing it. Two days ago, I made a WhatsApp chat of all the people that have ever bought a VIP ticket, and I put them in a chat So it's like 120 people. It's just like a mastermind chat Like I don't make anything off it, but those guys are gonna connect now outside of the events How many events do you do throughout the year? I do about three to five a year Small or big they get like 300 to 500 people Wow

Yeah, so I do three to five of those a year in a new city every time. But I've been doing a lot of Vegas lately, just because there's a lot of big events here. We got F1 coming up. We just had the Sphere, UFC had the Sphere. But dude, I think you're gonna crush it because when I go to certain conferences, I was just at Tucker Carlson's conference.

How was it? Dude, I was like the only Asian one there. Yeah, there you go. It was all white people. Like literally, my friend Spencer and I stood up and we said, whoever can find the only Asian one there. It was all white people. Literally, my friend Spencer and I stood up and we said, whoever can find the first black person wins. We couldn't find a single one. Why do you think that is though? Let me ask you that.

I think part of it's like, people don't wanna go to these alone. They wanna go with a friend and they wanna go with people that they're comfortable with. So I would honestly say some people are intimidated to go to certain events just because of that. And then I don't know if pricing's a factor or whatever some of these conferences charge a lot so who knows but I think that I would be kind of scared to go if I was you know a minority and saw white people. Do you think the speakers have to do with it too if it's like let's

say an all white speaker panel or something like that? Yeah so that event actually now that you said that was all white speakers as well so yes probably the speakers there's no representation speaker panel or something like that. 100% we we have a CEO. Well last year was the CEO Latino panel now We're gonna call it the CEO American panel So we have people from different backgrounds different stories and just encourage people man I mean, we're all we're all living life for the first time right and it's all about working together in unison understanding How we can get through our day-to-day as well becoming the best version of ourselves Yeah, and it comes down to discipline, consistency. Like I started actually doing cold plunges.

I love those. I love those cold plunges and sauna in the morning. And I realized this, I said, okay, the secret to being successful isn't waking up and doing a cold plunge. It's not, right? It's not gonna make you money, but it's gonna instill good habits.

Yeah, there's benefits to it, but most importantly, it's the discipline and consistency with it. You say, nah, shit, I don't wanna do it, but you do it. That's what life is, right? There's gonna be moments where we're not always gonna be happy. It's impossible to be happy 24-7, but it's about having that consistency.

That way we can obtain and develop and become better and better people. Agreed. I love that man. Have you had Carlos Reyes speak at your event? We did. Shout out to Carlos. Yeah, he was at our first one. He was at our first one. I met Carlos through Tommy actually. Love it. What about this guy? I had him on yesterday. Moses Heredia? No. Look into him. Moses Heredia. Yeah., he's gonna be the face of the Latino community I told him what service or industry is he came in processing and he's if he's not a billionaire already. He's on its way Yeah, I need to talk to him for sure

I'll connect you guys But I think between those two you and a few others the Latino community is really gonna explode man I'm excited to see it. We're actually the fastest growing Demographic in the US right now in terms of like population oh really yeah I think there was a I saw a post it's always social media there was a census saying like by 2030 like we're gonna be like 45 to 50 percent of the US is gonna speak Spanish Wow so it comes to show right right? It's a predominantly strong language. I mean, when I'm on flights out of Miami,

it's all in Spanish. Oh yeah, it's Miami. No, but I see it everywhere now. Even in Vegas, they're starting to creep in. Spanish commercials and everything. Yeah, man, we're a strong work ethic. We have a good community, good foundation, good morals. We're family driven.

And we wanna come here for the same reason that anyone wants to come to this country, amazing country, just to be better. Yeah. It's cool to see that next evolution though, rather than you guys being workers, being business owners. Because I saw, I'm dating a Latina and I saw her family. Oh wow. And they were so smart, but yeah, they just worked non-stop. Where's she from? They didn't know how to take, her mom's from,

wow, I should know this, Bolivia, her dad's from Paraguay. That's awesome. Yeah, but I saw them work their ass off. Her mom was a cleaner, similar to your mom, clean houses, and then her dad was a landscaper. But they could never take that next step of being a business leader. And I think it comes down to financial literacy.

Because a lot of people in our culture, we have the money, we have the liquid, but we don't have the understanding on where to put this money, how it works. Not necessarily a language barrier anymore, because I think there's a lot of people that are bilingual, stuff like that. It's just about applying yourself and understanding it. But financial literacy plays a big, big role

in the Hispanic community. Right. I think we're just afraid. We live in this shelter in this bubble where, which is unfortunate and it's very true. Carlos even spoke about this a while ago, but we think everyone's against us. You know, I'm here, like I'm by myself. I'm in this country, like everyone's out to get me. But the secret to money is networking and working together. It's not a competition, it's a collaboration. I have no competition with anyone. The only competition is myself when I wake up in the morning.

I promise you that. That's interesting. I didn't know they thought that way. But yeah, that would be counterintuitive to being collaborative with that mindset. Yeah, because they're thinking, what is he out to give for me? Because they think everyone's trying to get something.

But at the end of the day, maybe we are in the longer scheme of things But maybe at the same time we want to help and build a relationship so it's mutually beneficial, right? That's what they have to understand. Yeah, they need to be more willing to work together, right? There's there's that fear when you're living in fear. It's tough to grow It's almost impossible. That's a lot of people man. That's a lot of people I lived in fear, too The the first time we had our first event it was it was tough It's almost impossible. That's a lot of people, man. That's a lot of people. I lived in fear too. The first time we had our first event, it was tough. I did a lot of mistakes.

I learned a lot from my mentor, because he had big events. But for example, our first venue was $80,000. Dollars? Holy crap. But then this is what I understood, though. I purposely knew what I was getting into, even though it was a nightmare and a headache.

But creating that proof of concept and going all in on something, understood though I purposely knew what I was getting into even though it was a nightmare and a headache but Creating that proof of concept and going all in on something no matter that you're gonna lose money and knowing it and just being devoted to That will create something that will create a legacy Because the people that saw that they're like, yo This kid didn't even like try to milk us for money or splurge us because if people that do events just to give quick in And I'll get a buck and out That's not how we did went all in and they're like wow He it was at the Bayou Music Center in Houston. It's one of the big ones. We'll have little Wayne Eddie Murphy, so we went all in with that

We had a crazy VIP event great speakers as well Tommy was also one of the speakers Carlos was one of the speakers Renee was one of the speakers as well. So Just the fear of it too, man, is just putting that to the side and just not being afraid. Yeah. You can't. Can't, dude. I lost money in my first 10 events.

Let me ask you a question. I'm curious. Like when you started this amazing thing, were you scared the first? Oh yeah, I lost money the first six months. I was out a hundred thousand dollars. Really? And I was introverted,

didn't know how to talk to people correctly I mean if you look back at my first ten episodes, it's so cringe Yeah, they're on the YouTube I'll never delete them because I think it's important to see where I started but yeah, dude I was nervous whenever you start something that you're not comfortable in you're gonna be nervous So you just got to fight through that. When did you kind of have that momentum push where you're like, all right, like I'm building something, I'm creating something. It's slow, slow, slow. But then just I would say the first profitable month, which was seven months in, I was like, okay, now I can maybe recruit my money, maybe even make money. Let me keep pushing because I almost I wasn't going to quit, but I was going

to really take a step back because I invested almost everything I had at the time. So it took you almost a year of consistency to see results. I would say so, yeah. Wow. Yeah, at least a year. And for me, a year is most people's five years because I was filming 50 episodes a month. I was going to ask you that.

So for me, a year doesn't sound like a lot of time, but for most people it probably would be because I'm all in. Fuck yeah. You know? How many episodes do you have now to this date? We're past a thousand now I don't air every single one I film but I've filmed almost 1200 So I think I'm gonna release about 800 900 of those So almost a thousand did Pretty crazy, right? Yeah, man, I'm like 40 or 50. Yeah?

Yeah, I mean, we started like three, four months ago. Nice. And I'm trying to get good quality people, which I think is a little tough too sometimes. In Houston, it'll be probably tougher than Vegas, yeah. Yeah, and then the thing that we're in-house, so it's like, oh, do you do virtual? Like, nah, brother.

Hell no. Podcast is the podcast, human to human interaction, I think is important as well. There's very few shows that could pull off virtual Which ones do you think could pull off virtual? There's one called my first million. Okay, I watched every episode of that I think Tim Ferriss's might be virtual but he started so long ago that his audience was already used to that Mm-hmm, and then the all-in podcast just cuz there's four billionaires. It's hard to get them all in person So they that's with Carlos, right?

Carlos no, is it it might be I think so. I know Chamath is on it. He's the only one I know There's four billionaires, it's hard to get them all in person. So that's with Carlos, right? Carlos? No, is it? It might be. I think so. I know Chamath is on it. He's the only one I know. I think Chamath and David something. But yeah, not many shows.

So don't don't go against the grain. You know what I mean? Don't try to stand out. There's always going to be outlier examples in any situation. You're 100% right. I think what you're doing is absolutely incredible, by the way. Thank you, dude. It's that's not easy. 50. That's a lot of energy. People don't understand because they see it through obviously social media and stuff, but the amount of energy that you exert in one show, it's you're tired. I,

oh yeah. I come home drained some days for sure. But then that's where the biohacking kicks in. Like you said, the sauna, the cold plunge. Yeah. Um, good. I started doing oxygen therapy lately Happy beric. Oh, yeah. I mean those are super expensive So if I could find one then yeah, but if not, I'll use the mask with the cycle you do the hydrogen water, too Yeah, I don't work. Uh, I don't know to be honest Who knows but I know the power of belief and manifestation is so strong And I even if it doesn't whatever like I drink out

A glass I'm paying four times the price, but who knows if it actually has significant results. Yeah Placebo, I mean now but you're right. I might have a lot of friends to that drink through glass and organic and all this stuff Yeah, I mean the microplastics is pretty concerning. They're finding in every organ, but even if you're drinking out of glass It's still gonna find its way in every organ, but even if you're drinking out of glass, it's still gonna find its way in your body. So yeah, as I'm drinking, Acrofino, which is like one of the worst ones, but dude, it's been fun.

It's in your fridge, bro. That's on me. I'm kidding. Where can people find the event, the book and. Yeah, brother. Instagram, Steven underscore Martinez, S-T-E-P-H-E-N underscore Martinez. And then on TikTok, Steven Martinez,

all together with 2Zs. And then on YouTube, if you put the American Dream podcast by Steven Martinez, it should pop up. Perfect, we'll link it all below. Thanks for coming on, man. I'll see you in Houston. You will. Yeah, see you guys.

Thank you.