Unbankable with Alex Shvarts

Welcome to Unbankable, the podcast for entrepreneurs who won't take no for an answer. I'm Alex Schwarz and today we're talking about something I see all the time. Successful entrepreneurs who don't just build one business. They build a multiple revenue stream across different industries. Because here's the reality. Diversification isn't just smart investing. It's smart entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Today I'm joined by Gina It, a multiaceted entrepreneur who's built businesses across real estate, wellness, fashion, product design. Gina is currently in the real estate space in Miami, but that's just one piece of her empire. She's also a founder of TLC Vitamins, Jellybox Ventures, and Big Old Fashion. What makes Gina different? She's not just diversified. She's strategic about how each business feeds into the others. And here's why this matters to our unbankable audience. When banks say no to funding one venture, having multiple revenue streams gives you the options and leverage. Gina is here to share how entrepreneurs can build and manage multiple businesses without spreading themselves too thin. [snorts] Gina, welcome to Hi. Thank you. The Unbankable podcast. Yes. I'm so happy you'd be here. Great. So, you know, they say that if you do too many things at the same time, you're uh you might just fail because you're all over the place and you are doing too many. I mean, not doing maybe not too many, but you're doing many things. How do you find that? You know, that cliche spreading yourself too thin might be a problem. Well, that was actually um I used to get that. I used to get told that by so many people and the more that I heard it, the more that I continued to do all my projects. [laughter] Okay. I I use that as fuel to um you know, I just pour a little bit of energy into everything. And sometimes when it start going, it would just go by itself. And while it was going by itself, I would jump over here and my creative side would start kicking in and I pour into that and just kind of juggle it all. and it and it just, you know, did its thing. All right. So, like most entrepreneurs and business owners, people in real estate here, no, no, no, no, no, no. This it's too much money. No, it's not the right property. No, it doesn't have enough closet space. No, it's uh the kitchen is too small. No, I don't like the appliances. And so, you hear a lot of no. How do you deal with no? How do you overcome no into a sale? You know, how do you close when there's so many nos? That's actually a really good question. That's something else that again um I I you know I got I dealt with a lot of nos growing up um in business and um there's always a solution to a no, [laughter] right? You know, there's um there's that's where the creative side kicks in. So that's where you have to get creative with you know understanding really understanding the person really understanding why they said no um and then looking at it also like well what you know proposing a a solution you know or looking for um you know okay that's okay you you know but there's also this that I could present you and then with all the things that are yeses and that's how I overcome my nose or you just give them some vitamins to make them feel better or something or But but look, the reality is there's probably real estate agents and real estate brokers probably have the highest um rejection rate, probably the highest um turnover of clients, the highest time spent on a client with no results, right? like like I know a lot of real estate agents. Very few make money, right? Um you know, not everybody's a sirand, right? Guy's amazing by the way. Got to bring him on my podcast one day. Um I think him and I would go at it for sure. Team call Ryan up. Let's book this done. Let's get this done. But if you think about it, um you know, real estate agents, it's a tough sale. It's tough. First of all, I mean, look, you don't always know. Oh, wait. Are you able to read if somebody's got money pretty quickly? If they can what they're looking at, they can really afford it. That's another [laughter] You got the scent for money? I And not not in a bad way. I just do. I just can tell, you know. And sometimes the guy that's not wearing the How much am I worth? Oh, I'm not even going to put that out there. I'll keep I'll tell you after. All right. [laughter] So, cuz I don't even know if I'm worth anything. But anyway, I don't know if you want the tax people to hear that. No. No. So, yeah. So you get a lot of rejection and uh and you just got to keep going, right? Like you just got to keep pushing away. Yeah. And you know, so out of like a hundred people that you show properties to, maybe one buys, right? Isn't the numbers really bad? Well, not not so much. You know, I lived in Vegas for a while. I worked in nightlife and um working in the industry and also when you're working like you know in uh sales say um you get a lot of nos. You get rejected a lot, but you got to be able to walk away and keep your confidence and know like it's okay. There's somebody else. There's somebody else. There's somebody else there, you know, cuz you got to pay your bills. Yeah. You got to be optimistic because, man, if you, you know, if you get stuck on the last no and you can get a lot of nos. Yeah. Yeah. So, you just keep pushing through. That's a true entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is going to keep pushing through the rejection, the nose, and um you know, how many times did you um count the money in the bank and the deal fell apart? They couldn't get a mortgage or some [ __ ] happened or am I allowed to say [ __ ] on this on this? Uh yeah, some some crap happened along the way, man. You were counting your money and you're like, "This was a big deal." And all of a sudden it falls through. Happened to you, right? Oh, it just happened like right before Christmas. I um closed a deal. Um I guess I don't want to drop names. No, no, let's not drop [laughter] names, but it was a big one. And but I mean, if you didn't close the deal cuz they bullshitted you, we need to let the world know like don't do let's let's let's let let them live. Let them live in peace. It was a pretty bad one though cuz I closed the deal. A friend of mine bought the condo, new development without even seeing it. She just signed it and um bought it. That's what friends are for. Exactly. She was a great friend [laughter] and um you know this is it was a probably a new development. So was like a 9% commission. Um like it was 6% commission and um everything was signed done. Um she came to visit, loves it. She's she everything was set in stone. Um like two 3 months later, we get a call from I guess the developer. I didn't even know I didn't even know this was possible. That's why I needed our our lawyer friend over there um Chris. But um the development changed the floor plan, her floor plan that she purchased and um they it was now going to become a twobedroom and it was going to be double the price or she can move down seven floors. And who does that? It was just the it it hurt her so bad. If she entered into a contract, they could just still change all that. Yeah. Yeah. People should know this out there that you got to you got to make sure you pay attention to that because not only did she feel like she broke up. So, wait, but you could probably sue because you sold what they were offering. Yeah. You need a good lawyer, Gina. Good luck to you. I hope you get paid, man. That's cuz that's not even the buyer's fault or your fault. Yeah. That was shady developers. Mhm. We're going to have to talk about that. [laughter] All right, Gina, you're running a business in real estate, Vitamins, Fashion, and Product Design. That's a lot of moving parts. What's your main revenue driver right now? And how do you prioritize your time? It took me a lot to shift my focus to real estate. And um it used to be all my all was Jelly Box, which is a a product I designed um tech like a phone case accessory that bounces. It's it is super cool. But funding wise for marketing, I was um I collaborated with um Monster Products back then and they went through this big lawsuit and then um I kind of fell apart. So funding wise, I decided I needed to focus on um something that I also enjoy and love and that has to do with design and all the new stuff that's coming out here to Miami just like super inspired me and um you know and I saw a lot of wealth that was coming in from real estate and I was like hey so I kind of dove into that and use my creative side to build that business that's also a startup you know you have to start that business and create a business in real estate. And um and on the side, I'm relaunching the Jelly Box. And the Jelly Box is a a bouncing it's a bouncy phone case. It's squishy in your hand. And um I launched it um a while back. I think uh husbands should buy that for their wives. Well, I actually cuz a lot of wives throw their phones at their husband. And this one created it. This one is a little softy so it might not hurt as much. Right. That's why I created it. That's the back back end story. Throwing it at my Yeah. My boyfriend at the time was driving me crazy and it just instead of breaking it would bounce off the walls and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I need a prototype." And that's why I called to China and I started working on that. And so you you know, you mentioned funding, right? So it was hard, right, as an entrepreneur and and that's why you went to partner with Monster. Yeah. They were the they backed me um with the development and put me in all the big factories in China with like Bows and Beats by Dre and um Monster Products and um they you know I kind of piggybacked off them and traveled the world learned so much. They were like I mentored with Nol Lee who is my partner is my partner and good friend and um I learned a lot opened up a lot of doors got my inventory and got very close to actually the the marketing is another capital which was another investment coming in and then they got in a lawsuit with Apple because what was going on with um Beads by Dre and Monster they they uh it was a big lawsuit that way and I got kind and I got kind you know, and I I have an Apple product, so it didn't really work. It's like they took the air out of your sponge cases, right? Yes. Terrible. Yes. Um but but let's talk about that more. Was this was that your first uh business experience like launching your own brand? No. No. So, right before Jellybox, I had um VGO Fashion um which is the it's a fashion line. Um, it was also creative. It was just the idea that came to mind of uh showcasing art pieces down the runway instead of just looking at uh going to the art gallery and looking at the art around the walls. I wanted to come to life. So, it's before people were doing anything. What is that? Like somebody walking up Picasso down the runway. Yeah, pretty much. That's exactly how I would say. And um I fillet model where like a Mona Lisa or Yeah. So, I would take my father is Salvador Dolli's apprentice back in the day and I apprent Your father was Dolli's apprentice. Wow. So, I went Salvador Delhi. Salvador Delhi. Oh my god, that's pretty cool. So, I I mentored with my dad a lot and then I came up with this idea um to file a man's shirt like the one you're wearing, open it flat like a cowhide, paint it, and then put it back on. When you put it back on, button it down and walk down the runway. So, imagine painting like having a Mona Lisa and then wrapping it around and going out. Could you paint a six-pack on this so I could walk down? [laughter] Absolutely. I need like a te I needed like a dress shirt with a six-pack. That's what I had a guy in here like with a 12pack the other day, man. He actually took it off and started showing. Couldn't believe it. I could do one for you or I could give you the peptides. [laughter] Oh yeah, everybody's trying to give me some peptides. I'm just I'm still sticking to Tides. The laundry detergent tides. Yeah, it's it's working for sure. Okay. um walk us through like a specific like a typical week for you, right? So, you know, you're still managing, you're doing the real estate, you're working on uh relaunching the the safe jelly box, the jelly box. And and is VGO still around? So, I got invited to Paris Fashion Week this October and they want me to showcase, but I don't think I'm ready yet because um I'm I'm really pushing on this. I'm really right now I'm focusing on I just How do you know they're going to invite you again? A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake fear I'm not ready yet. You know what I would tell you? Get ready. Okay. What do you mean you're not ready yet? Fashion Paris fashion week is a huge opportunity. I was just going to say even if you fail, right? You're still you're going to meet people. You're going to be in front of people, right? How do you pass that? You're not ready yet. What is that? Well, maybe I am ready. you have to be ready. Maybe I am ready. Maybe I needed you to tell me that. No, you don't need me to tell you that. You just um you know um you don't pass those things up in my opinion because sometimes you'll never be ready. You know, a lot of like a lot of people are perfectionists and life just goes by cuz they're never not ready. It's not perfect enough. Right. That is so true. Okay. Yeah. So, um, so managing multiple things in a week, how does that work for you? Oh, it's messy. I'm just do it. I just I don't think about it. I don't, you know, my biggest struggle, which everybody, which is I'm going to accomplish this year, is time. My timing cuz I I was late today, right? Um, but timing. So, I just I just do it cuz whenever I when my brain just starts going and I focus on on uh I'm working on real estate and then all of a sudden I'll something jelly box will pop in like some colors or um I need to contact this person to check on the material and then I'll just do it so I don't forget and then I'll jump back to what I was doing and then I'll work on continue on my real estate and it just all kind of goes together. I don't know. I I just I just let it I just go with the flow. I don't know. Is it organized chaos? It is organized chaos. [laughter] I don't structure it at all. I just And the r and the bell just rang. You know what happens when the bell rings and you hear that? That's a merchant got their money. Merchant got funding in their account. I love that. That's when they ring the bell outside, right? I love that. Um. All right. So, how do you maintain relationships? So, real estate, you know, you close a deal. um you know I mean most people don't buy more than you know one condo or apartment or a house in a long period of time right how do you maintain that relationship so 10 years later they still call you and do they what's the average I mean how many times do people actually buy something I don't know in Miami it's probably what um I mean Miami they could buy a couple Miami you ask them when I'm working in the Douglas element in the in the front desk when I go outside and they're looking at a picture I'm like so how How many do you want to buy? Oh, [laughter] yeah. Because it's like a pre-construction and all that. It's all But that's more um Yeah, I get it. But that's more um like um an investment type of properties, you know, that they're trying to flip or something could be. But an average person, the place they live in, like primary residence, I don't even know what the status is. Is it like I mean, a lot of people are coming here, you know, especially from I say I mean, I don't want to just say New York, but a lot of people are coming here and they live here for 6 months. California, Texas, all different places for 6 months and then they go back. So Oh, so they they've got multiple homes. I have friends that um buy, you know, 11 million houses to park their yacht and then they have a young girl that just watches the house and the yacht and that's it. Um are a lot of your clients friends first or do they become friends later? Um, well, a lot of them are my friends and then the friends refer me to their friends and then their friends become my friends and then real estate's a big referral business, right? Yeah. And I think it's a lot it has a lot to do with friendship and really um getting to know, you know, not just the client, but it's your friend. you know, I pick up my my friend, my friend's friend at the airport and her cat and drive her like 10 minutes down the road and um and we hang out and we uh play pickle ball. We, you know, we go out and have drinks and and hang out and she's here for only 6 months. She goes back to the Hamptons. So, but that's my friend and then she bought a you know, $2.6 million condo at Andre. So, just because she's only here six months out of the year. though. No, but you know friends there I I would say they're always for me there it's always uh you know they always become a friend you know. All right so like TLC Vitamins, Jellybox Ventures, VGO Fashion like they're completely opposite of each other like they're very very different industries. So like what's the strategy here? Is it let me try until something hits? Is it, you know, are you building one? Try to sell it. Go on to Cuz like I'm just trying to Or is it like I'm in the mood to to create vitamins today? Let me go create. A lot of entrepreneurs do this. They're And I don't say this in a bad way. They're doing multiple things at the same time. They're all over the place. So what what is it for you? So and they don't sometimes they don't really perfect one thing and make it explode because they're all over the place, right? So what is it for you? So the vitamins um also came to me from a friend from Natalie Nicole. She's um you know very inspiring woman entreprene entrepreneur um and I met her at a friend's event and she's um she was very successful with the vitamins and she also takes them and loves them and we hung out one day she said you got to try these vitamins and I think um you know well I don't think I was actually hung over and when I tried them and it made me feel incredible I was hooked on them and I was like what are these and she's like well I run you know she told me all about so I jumped on board right way and um then I just word of mouth just you know sharing it with other people my own experience and I truly enjoy taking them and I see a difference um they have you believe in your so you get high in your own supply is that what it is totally totally [laughter] all right uh all right um you're big on Instagram yeah I've yeah I I guess how many followers how many followers do you have um I think it's like 5 510 somewhere thousand. Yeah. Wow. So then the question is is your Instagram presence since it's important for a lot of entrepreneurs and it's not easy building a following, right? I still have like the same two people that like every post that I put. But um is the Instagram helping you drive more business and awareness or is it the other way around? So like I mean utilizing and it's a lot easier for women than than most guys. Like I mean good-looking women, they start putting pokes post up um pokes that was the old Facebook, you [laughter] know. Um so Botox, no po, you know, women put up, you know, nice pictures and they get a following, right? Like I mean that's the reality. Now does that help you drive and and um have you have you found a a direct correlation from your Instagram presence to real estate clients to Jellybox to Beagle to all of this stuff? Do you see that you're driving more business because of your Instagram? Absolutely. I started Instagram. I remember I was the first one when it started coming out putting little posts but I use it to to show you know my creative [clears throat] side all together with everything that I've created. So I kind of and I have fun with it. So it's not like I do it for you know I do it for fun and I actually it turns into a sale or it turns into um people relationship or yeah relationship. So, so okay. So, a lot of new entrepreneurs that are building a business, they're paying a lot of attention to their Instagram, right? Oh, you know, I got, you know, I'm doing all for just actually there's a couple little parts to this. First part is they start putting up content and they have no followers and no, you know, no [clears throat] followers, right? Yeah. And that's a big problem. to like and like like me, you know, like I'm I'm putting up content, you know, and you worry because you want followers, you want people um to like what you're doing cuz then it validates what you're doing, right? How much attention should an entrepreneur or someone who's building a brand pay to the the beginning stages when you're putting up content, you're putting up stories or pictures, and you know, they might like it, but you're not getting too many people to follow you. I say I'd say um maybe somebody could relate to this. If you if if you cook food, if you're if you cook food and you don't put your heart into it, like you don't love you're not into it, it's not going to taste good. So when you do when you're creating content and you got to enjoy it and it's how you express yourself and and the more that you do it because for me I'm an artist and I it's creative, it's fun, I enjoy it and I can express that's how I express everything that I do to people and it shows. So, I feel like you got to put that. My question is more about um should people get discouraged because they're not getting a following like they're not getting a lot of followers and likes. There's little tricks to to it too like also commenting on a lot of people like going on other people's pages and commenting. So, I need to be commenting, right? Yeah. Should I say nice things? Yeah, of course. Support them. Maybe that's what I'm doing wrong. And then they come back and support you. Oh, okay. Yeah. There's the little things like that, interactions that help people engage and you be make friends cuz I'm sarcastic, you know. Maybe that's why nobody follows me. All right. Um, do you pay attention to the DMs? Like when people, you know, you put up a nice pick and I'm sure, you know, always. I know this guy Mo, he stalks every pretty girl. Just puts stuff on it. Oh, really? Um, you know, he's putting messages on. Do you like how do you deal with that? [laughter] Not with Mo. I mean, uh, folks, my friend, but, uh, no, but saying like you probably get a lot of messages and like, okay, you do. I entertain retards annoying me, right? No. No, I I I actually, uh, respond. I'm pretty good at responding cuz I do engage and um, and then and I'm respectful even some people are not respectful. Just depends on what you get. You get all kinds of different stuff on there. So, you know, I do try to respond and um engage and let them know that I, you know, thank you for for, you know, paying attention, following my page, and a lot of people like to see my journey, you know, you know, if you're getting value from this conversation and you want me to follow you on your Instagram, please leave a comment, please be engaging, subscribe. You know, we're bringing you more industry experts, people who understand what it means to be unbankable, to get funding, to grow your brand, and succeed, even if you're all over the place today. So, Gina, let's talk about money. How do you fund multiple businesses? Are you using your real estate commissions to fund the other ventures or they all or do they all need to be independently profitable? Oo. Well, in the beginning, I had investors that backed my products, my brands. I would built um I did not go to school for it or learn how to do like investor pitch decks, but I learned and I surrounded myself with people that do and helped me. I had a whole team. Um, so I got funding for for the jelly box and then from there I would put pour it into um the VGO fashion which I got sponsored to go all we did a fashion shows all over the world with my publicist. So it was sponsored and then I made sales and my my paintings started at 150,000 up to like I say 750,000 150,000. Yeah. [laughter] For a shirt with Amazon. It's an art piece. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. It's a art piece that you could wear. Imagine taking your painting off the wall and then walking to like a, you know, a red carpet event and putting your It's not like you're wearing a Rolex. Like this is an art piece. This is something that's nobody else has. It's not, you know, you can't even That's very cool. I'm not um You can't copy it cuz I worked with a mathematician to get the right formula so that you cannot copy it. We know which one is the original one. So we would be able That's very cool. Yeah. Um so the that the now so one thing feeds into another and yes I kind of pour into a little and then um after the whole like there was a little break with things four years and I kind of redid my branding um real estate now is what is funding my projects. Maybe I will go I I am open to funding for um to bring my jelly box back. I have to I do want to um get this bouncy material um sourced out a mega bounce out of China. So, and it takes time and money. So, I do want to go after another round of funding for the jelly box. Um but to keep me afloat is the real estate commissions. It keeps my lifestyle me. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe enough in all of those other things that you're doing? Cuz I mean, look, you're making great money on the real estate stuff. Could live a nice life, put money away, buy your own more, invest in more real estate, build assets. Why are you doing all this? Why are you taking these chances? Because there's such cool visions. And I feel like everybody needs to have a jelly box. Like it will make you smile when you drop your phone when it bounces. So you see, you are a typical entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur has this vision of fantasy. But a fantasy without a plan is just a fantasy, right? Right. It's daydreaming. It's daydreaming without laying down on a pillow. You're always in the dream. So, do you have a plan? Are you executing on a plan that will eventually pay off for the risk you're taking? Absolutely. I have a great business plan, a nice detailed. Yes, I do. I always follow like, you know, you know, that's very important. That's one thing that keeps me, you know, the the do a little bit of this and that scattered all over, but the business plan is the business plan. So, and real estate, I have a business plan also. Good. Good. All right. So, you're in Miami, which has become a major entrepreneurship hub. How has the environment influenced your business strategy and what opportunities do you see here? Miami. Um, I've tried to leave for two years. I went to Austin, Texas, and everything died. was not inspired. Something about the the the lights and the culture and the when you step outside, it's like you hear music playing. It just the creative side of me thrives out here. So, um Miami keeps all my projects alive, keeps me alive, keeps me smiling. It's a lot of energy here. A lot of good energy. Yeah, definitely. All right, here's a tough one. Okay. If you had to shut down all but one of your businesses tomorrow, which would you keep and why? And what's your core competency? Um, well, I kind of had to make that decision um recently, not too long ago, but I I would focus I would stick with the real estate. I'm the longer the more I've been in it, the more that I'm learning and seeing and watching and just like all the excitement of what's coming here and even in Fort Lauderdale what's coming like the you know 2.0 of Miami is out there and it's just so exciting and it's so it would be real estate right cuz it's stable for you. Yeah. Yeah. And it's exciting like but you're not ready for just stable yet. You like taking risk. I do. As an entrepreneur, you want you want to do all of these things because I mean, you're still doing it, right? I mean, you're still doing it, right? Yeah. At some point, you had to start a business, right? What did you do? How did you get money? How did you get your first money to start a business? I didn't really like plan it like that. It was kind of uh I was working in the nightlife business in Las Vegas and um um I told my I was breaking my phone and I told my dad, "Hey, um I just scred up a couple dollars and we I said, "Hey, find somebody in China so we can get a prototype of this phone case. I have this idea." And he's um super smart and we mocked up a 3D image and we were able to get a prototype and we played around with the material. It was just kind of like a crazy idea. And then when they sent it to us, we're like, "Oh my god, we need samples." And then I just scraped up a couple more dollar, you know, it was like the $1,000, $1,500 little bits at a time to get the samples. And then we were crazy. And and I was like, "Dad, I'm going to sell these for $100 a case. Watch me." And I did. [laughter] Oh, wow. That's good. So I sold I had like a thousand of them. And I was I was go out. You sold a thousand of them? Yes. I was going, "Holy shit." We go outside and throw them in. You should have just been on Shark Tank the following week. See, but I get scared. Throw one at Mark Cuban or something. I should have. And a lot of people whatever Mr. Wonderful. No, I I got I guess I get nervous to go and talk. I don't know. I just I don't know why I didn't do that. I did get Yeah. I was still learning. I didn't have any like business background or you know, I was I still didn't have all the pieces together. You know, I'm driving with my daughter. I think this both my daughters like two years ago. But we're driving in the car and my daughter comes up with this brilliant idea. I don't know why we haven't executed on it. And she said, "You know, Dad, we should create a business called angryhotline.com [laughter] and people should be able to just call and scream and they're going to pay for it. You know, $3 a minute. Just call, scream, argue with someone, curse somebody out, right? Or have somebody scream back at them." I thought it was fabulous. It's like I registered [laughter] the website. I don't know why we still haven't done it. Instead, we're like screaming at each other. But, you know, that's great. Um, but um that that was I think I might do that now. I'm going to call my daughter and say, "Okay, let's let's do this. Let's give people the opportunity to call scream at someone and yell at someone and argue with someone." Right? Anyway, um throw phone cases at somebody or throw phone cases. You know, it it's better to scream at somebody on the phone than actually scream somebody, you know, anywhere. That's very true. Um, so what's the future like for you? You're going to Paris. We know, we already established that, right? Yes, I am going to Paris. Um, you're going to keep selling more real estate. Yes. What are you afraid of as an entrepreneur? What are you afraid? Are you afraid you might run out of money tomorrow? No, I don't I don't get I mean I've not had money and then I have money. [laughter] You're not afraid of I I I can go from top to bottom and I would rather stay stable on the top, but that doesn't I'm not scared. That doesn't scare me. No. What scares me is just being bored. I don't like I don't like I always like a challenge and you know I like to work on things. A lot of entrepreneurs actually share the same thing. they they're afraid of being bored. That's why they they there's a drive, right? You know, like the thrill, the excitement, um it's a very common um uh gene that I think a lot of entrepreneurs share in uh the drive and all of that. So, uh and I don't think a lot of entrepreneurs really think about failure. No, because I think if you think about failure, you're just not going to start. You're not going to do it. So, what advice would you have for an entrepreneur that says, "Oh, you know, I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to diversify into different businesses. I want to launch, you know, I'm selling um cupcakes now. I want to sell bathing suits." I mean, like, people do that. I mean, I look, I deal with so many different types of businesses, right? At Funkite, we've processed over uh 350,000 business applications for funding. Wow. I've talked to I've seen probably 95% of business industries and ideas and I've uh and we've funded so many different businesses and sometimes man I I come across an idea and I'm like my god the amount of money these people are making the idea is brilliant. and and I never say why didn't I think of that or let me go do the same thing because it's it's not what we do here. But I also see a lot of people all over the place. You know, they've got one successful business and now they're opening something else totally different and it's not working and it's being a a drain on their cash flow, but they don't give up. So, you know, what is smart diversification for you? I would um say to get one up and running where you're um seeing a return of your investment and then using that to put it into your other project. Get that up and going so you can see a turnaround and then continue on. You know when would you tell someone don't do it? You know I struggled a lot sometimes where I didn't see any movement with with let's say my jelly box was I didn't realize that technology is one of the hardest industries to get into. I was like, "Oh." And it was it was a lot of really hard times. Um, but if you really believe in it and you really see the vision and like where you're going with it, then go for it. If you know, if you're putting everything into it and it's just beating you up and it's starting to like ruin your life and make you super depressed and angry, then give it a break. I had a friend after CO that created guy always creates amazing stuff. Um, he has great ideas. He hasn't executed on them yet, but he called me after co and he said, um, I created something. I go, "What is it?" He goes, "It's a little microwave for your cell phone and you'll put the cell phone in there and it will just kill all the germs." I said, "That's freaking brilliant." I said, "Who the hell's going to walk around with that thing?" Right? In fact, if you think was the last time you washed your phone or, you know, disinfected your phone, right? Like, nobody does that. And it's probably the dirtiest thing we have because we put it everywhere. Guy has a great idea. But I said, "Look, it's a great idea, but um obviously he called because he didn't want me just to say it's a great idea." Um he wanted me to bring it to plan to action. Um and I don't do that. I don't uh well, it was a great idea, but very hard to execute because people aren't going to carry out carry around this thing. Um but I find that like for me, I know my limitations. I know what I know. I know what I don't know and I also know that there are things I don't even know yet. So, I try to limit myself and the time I spend to things that I know and I know I can do best like listen to vinyl music like you know I know how to listen to music um or execute on our business plan here at Funkite. Um, so what advice would you give somebody my age who's been around, who's older, that maybe wants to go and be an entrepreneur and some start something completely different, something they've never done before. It sounds exciting. I would say go for it. Really? Yeah. So, I mean, you never know unless you try. Yeah, give yourself you give yourself a time limit and then you somes you might have to put it down. Give yourself a little break and re-evaluate. Go over your business plan and then decide, you know, what you want to do. Some people are made for it. Some people aren't. It just How do you know if you're not or how do you know if you are? You don't know unless you try. So, you got to try to put all your all into it. But if it's making you angry, not happy, and putting you I think we're going to come out with a new original phrase right now. Yeah. Are you ready? Just do it. [laughter] Just do it. Okay. Get out of here. You know what it is. And I I say this to hopefully everyone listening to us. There's no failure in trying. Yeah. Um there are no losers. There are just quitters. Okay. Go try it. Go give it your best shot. Know when to quit or take your cut your losses. But don't ever wake up one day and say, "Damn, I should have did that." That you can change, you know. Gina, thank you so much for joining me and good luck to you on all your ventures. It's It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. I'm so happy.