Unbankable with Alex Shvarts

Welcome to Unbankable, the podcast for entrepreneurs who won't take no for an answer. I'm Alex Schwartz and today we're talking about something that's becoming increasingly rare. a unique individual, very colorful, incredible storyteller. In fact, he walked in and the first thing he showed me was his eight pack, right? I was just blown away. The energy, the charisma this young man has and his accomplishments are going to be a real treat. I'd like to introduce a young man by the name of Sachi. And uh just a little bit about him. Asachi is a multi-industry operator and system architects in Miami. Started doing manual labor at 18. He now runs leveled up.ai, a software and system firm for mid-market companies and works with a sellside M&A advisory firm helping founders get the maximum value out or their exits. Across his venture, Sachi has hired more than 700 people. He's here today to talk about the fundamentals that actually drive business and why most companies fail when they miss them. Welcome, Saji. Thank you for having me, Alex. Yeah, this is a real treat. You're a character. I'm I'm going to tell you something. I mean, I got this guy Russell Bran, wannabe lookalike, walked into my office today. Great energy and we're going to have a lot to cover because um for such a young age um you've accomplished a lot. You've got this natural gift of Gab, right? I do. You do. Right. And but you've got good energy. You've you've got a good uh a good brain. You know how to put things together. You know how to get things done. So, we're going to go a couple of different ways. So, look, you are obviously someone who thinks that the road was paved for them. I mean, I could tell that off the first 30 seconds meeting you. Like the world is according to you and the world was created just for you. But you do get nos. People say no to you. Yeah. When's the last time you heard no? Oh, last time that I heard no, I think that um it's probably dealing with some import export business that I was doing. And um of course I would like to uh get absolute bottom factory pricing on every product that I ever touch even, you know, with the minimum order quantities and stuff like that. And so I often times get no, but when I get a no, it's always about finding that win-win and finding the road map to how it makes sense for whatever my desired outcome is and making that desired outcome for whoever the individual I'm discussing with and just trying to find that happy medium cuz I like to have targets. If I have a target, I'm not afraid to push and do what it takes to get to those targets. I like to have good targets to get to where I want to be. And so yeah, on the road thing I would say more so it's I never saw the road. Uh and that was probably a gift from my mom. My mom truly was like, you know, Sachi, you know, you're going to figure it out. This is your life. And it's like, mom, I'm 3 years old. You know what I mean? And my mom truly had this spirit of independence, support, and love, but really never told me how to be. And coincidentally, I think probably because of just the right tisms and the right blend, uh, I just saw the world in a different light. And so I would say it was more so I had to create my own road. And 32 years down that road, I don't know anything else. And that's often times where most people struggle is when they come off their path, they don't know. Well, I've always been making my path. And so, and you're from South Carolina. Country Boy from South Carolina. Country, believe it or not. South Carolina. You know what these things are? Yeah. I mean, they're they're vinyl records, man. Oh yeah. So I was thinking I don't have any I mean I have country music. Yeah. But I got to get like a signed Shania Twain record up here, right? Who's your I mean you know who my favorite country singer is, right? Who's that? Miley. Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus. Party of the USA. I mean come on. Who doesn't love Party of the USA? I mean I love Miley Cyrus. Right. I when that song first came out, my kids thought I was nuts. I was listening non-stop for four days. Yeah. My wife thought I was nuts. Often time people get confused. Melissa Ethridge. Remember her? Yeah. She was Was she country? I don't know. And that was all country pop back then. It was like the lines weren't drawn. Your favorite um I'm going be honest because of my dad. I just No, I just got caught in '90s alternative music. Man, I am Nirvana. Definitely audio slave, you know, Incubus. Yeah. I mean like I you look at me and we're in Miami, the city of electric music and I'm at the house just rocking out, you know? I mean, like I am I drive a 1965 Cadillac Deville droptop convertible. Everybody's in Lamborghinis down here. Put me in a classic car. Put some 90s alternative on. I am happy to be left alone. Spirits here, man. School. I graduated with a 69.5 so that I had to round up. I'm out of What's your IQ? Yeah. Yeah. Um I I basically What do you mean a 69.5? What's that? Well, a 69.5 rounds up to a 70, which is an F. And so I basically played school on minimum effort when I was in high school. And so I figured out the exact amount of work that I had to do. And so I would do zero homework to maximize time outside of school. And then I would pass the test with exactly as much needed. And when they would want to drop a test, I would already know my scores. And so I would like sign a test and turn in, they're like, "Please just fill it out." And so I played that game in high school and then I realized that uh I had to, you know, everybody's going to college and stuff like that. I had to get, you know, financial aid. I had to pay for myself. And so I moved into I went to a state um like a community college, got a 4.0 um at this point. Is that hard to do in a community college? Honestly, depends on who you ask. I mean, I got to write papers and read books and do math. I mean, that's it's pretty straightforward across the board. But then I got into the state school and I was paying for my own tuition. Well, I'm sitting in orientation with a bunch of 18 year olds. I'm 21 at this time and I have a bunch of 18-year-olds like, "Mommy, I'm I'm scared to go to I'm scared to go to school by myself. I'm making $400,000 a year at this point. I have 60 employees and I'm like, I don't think this is for me, you know, and I I basically checked off the box, got an associates degree, and have been unemployable ever since." I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Has shortcuts always worked for you? Never shortcuts, man. I think that uh there's a smart way to do things and there's a minimum viable way that you have to check certain boxes. So shortcuts would insinuate that you're not doing things that you need to do. You have to do you might be, but you just figured out a shortcut how to get there faster than most people. Yeah, I would say. I mean, look, if we go back to school, you said, "Look, I did just barely enough to get get by." Right. That's a shortcut, right? for me because you felt that it's not important. It was the authority. I was really an entrepreneur from the beginning. From the beginning. What's your what was your first uh hustle? What was your first gig? My my first my first gig was flooring with my family and my How old were you when you started to do floor? Like laying down floors or 14. Oh wow. And so we were they did commercial work. So construction's been in my family. And I would work for them for $10 an hour. And then it was after about like 2 years I was trying to figure out when I was going to get paid uh because I'd never been paid. They didn't pay you? No. No. But I was making $10 an hour supposedly. And so after about 2 years it was like uh where's my money? Yeah. Yeah. Where's my money? Exactly. Exactly. And so it was a uh Yeah. It was an eye opener and I saw the hard work. I saw the the pros and cons of entrepreneurship with my family. We went through 2008 with the recession. you know, construction market was hit very heavy, the housing market sure and the commercial side. And so we had like a little blip of my life where it was like 2008, you were like 12 years old. I was paying attention. Oh yeah, I was paying attention. Okay. Yeah. And so it went up and we had so much money for about a year, right? And then it was we we lost three houses, we lost five cars, I'm on free lunch. But it's what made me me and it's what gives me good discipline for managing finances. I'm always the partner in the business who's like, "No, we don't need the basketball goal in the conference room. No, you don't need to buy this version. We can buy the cheaper version. Yes, we can take 30-day terms on it." You know what I mean? And do the math on the actual, you know, interest that we would pay for some of these deferred credit lines. And so, I was always the strict financial guy. And I attribute that to the struggles that I have. And I think that as a person, not even as an entrepreneur, the struggles are what teach you. You're like, you're my kind of guy. I'm going to tell you why. Right. Because you're self-made. It seems like you'll do anything. If it if if it has good intention behind it. Yeah. Good intention. I mean, by But I mean, in business, you'll do anything. Like you if it makes money, it makes sense. I'm talking about business. Like you'll you'll you're you sound like a hard work. I mean, you definitely have the skill set of a mouthpiece. I mean, for sure. Or yeah, it could go both ways. But you're definitely someone that I mean in sales you you're you're a killer. I can tell the bat never even struggled. Just the best in the country. Yeah. Oops. Second best. Yeah. Yeah. I was Oh, yeah. I was waiting for you. You only got a couple more years. You only got a couple more years and then they're putting me on the side. You know what I always say? You know what the number one killer in America is? What's that? Overconfidence. Yeah. I've been waiting to die. No, I mean that is true and I think that I have a personality about me and it's fun. It's fun for guys like us and I think the only time you run in and encounter something where people have a problem with it, it typically stems from a lack of self-worth or something like that. And I hope to be more of an example of being confident in yourself. Okay. How you all right? Listen, you're at a good age. You're doing well, right? You could tell Ian and and and with a guy like you and if you're not doing well, nobody will be able to see it cuz you don't wear your your your struggles. Y you're very good at um for now. As you get older, it's going to be a little bit harder. Take it from me because it does wear you down after a while. So, I mean, it's not a bad age to start giving back and showing other younger people how to make it, how to be successful. Are you doing any of that yet? And if you're not, that's okay. No. No. Um I actually you know there's always more to give and to much is given much is expected and we are meant to give back and that is a deep purpose of mine. I spent the better majority of my 20s I mean the entire majority literally trying to bring the entire city and town that I grew up in with me down here. No just up in terms of intellect, mindset, capability, work ethic and I would find and I would adopt. I'm sure as you have done so many young guys that it's like how big is a city you're from? I'm from Lexington. It's like 20,000 but Lexington, South Carolina. Yeah, Lex, South Carolina. And so, but right outside was the country. So, you know, 20 minutes down the road. And so, I've always been a guy who is sort of an outcast in terms of my walks of life. Yeah, I could tell. And so, you know, I was raised You're not an outcast. You're just You're just different. You're different, man. You got like a different energy drive. So they got like a little Sachi expressway named after you or No. Yeah, they got some signs up on some buildings. Some of them have been cheated over banned banned from this bar. They had they had they had a picture of me, but it's new hair now. It's new hair. So they don't even know. Yeah, I can still go. I can still go. But um but no, I I spent a lot of time trying to bring others up. And I think that I used to be very attached to the outcome of helping people. having known that I had a gift and an ability to help people, not having had that when I was a child and wanting to be that for others. Just what happened? One morning you woke up and it just showed up, knocked on your door. I have this gift just how'd you figure that out? When I was like in like second grade, I remember I was doing multiplication tables and I was doing them my own way with math in my head and I was trying to go to the teacher and I explained to her how I was doing it and she told me, "No, no, you're doing it wrong." And I was like, I have the right answers. And that was a flag moment in my life where it was like, hm, I'm not really going to listen to you if it doesn't make sense now. I have a very open That's the difference of the high confidence is like I have a very tall wall for BS. I have a very easy to open gate for when things are actually true. And I I think one of the biggest things Stop right there. This is for entrepreneurs and business owners. Yeah. So, right on that point, cuz that's the way you said it. I have a very high wall for BS and a very open gate for the truth. The truth. How do you and that's that's an that's an amazing phrase you just said, right? Let's tell our audience. How do they develop that instinct of as busy as they are to be able to gauge that, you know, have that high wall for BS? Like what tools could you share with them to be able to quickly identify that this is BS and this is the truth? Like for you it's kind of natural because you've you've you're just that kind of person. I'm a pattern recognition person. Pattern recognition. And so I think there's one thing that we all do to ourselves and we have an expectation and expectation is arguably the root of all of our human suffering because we always expect that we are in control and we know how it's going to be and we want it to be this way. oftent times as an entrepreneur you find sometimes your biggest mistakes and failures lead you to your best opportunities and your your biggest growth opportunities. And so for me I think the best thing to do is to just keep your eye on the goal but don't be married to it. Be flexible on the details and allow yourself to see how it works. If you love this business partner or this guy that works for that you've known since a kid, but he keeps screwing up over and over and over and his skill set maybe isn't to be your bookkeeper, it's okay. You can still love him. You can still have him as some sort of part of your business or you can still just have that relationship with him without him being a part of our business. And oftent times we get so focused on the vision that we miss the variables that are actually going to prevent us from getting there. So I'll tell you my my side of that you know the the high wall of BS and knowing the truth you know we actually have organs for it in our body really yes the pendic so our brain is the last to react y because our brain reacts to learn behavior and experiences and it also tries to protect us you know when something is hurting your brain is kind of telling no no it's okay don't die so your gut and your heart. I go with trust your gut and follow your heart. Those are the two things that will tell you I I by the way my wife I was saying it in my own way and my wife said stupid it's trust your gut and follow your heart. Those we have them they keep us alive. Yeah. That's why yes but you know and it's actually true. Your gut and your heart will tell you much quicker if something feels right is right. It's the right thing to do. if you're making the right decisions a lot faster than your brain will. Same thing in sales, same thing in closing a deal. You just know right away if you're going the right path or the wrong path, right? Um and that's what people need to start to do more. It's less of listening to what somebody taught you what to do to more of your the way you adapt to things, the way you read things and and what what's the inside saying, right? Is it you know, are you trusting your gut? Are you following your heart? Are you feeling what you're doing is the right thing? And then things fall into and if not, you can't like you can't close a deal um if you're not not 100%. How many deals go according to the playbook, you know? It's it's a lot of a lot of things do go according to the playbook, but it's already a play usually it's a playbook that is is is perfected. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Right. That that it's it's a good playbook, right? But not certainly not everything. Um, interesting. All right. So, what are you doing now? Like, what are you building now? So, you got this AI company. What What I Yeah, I'm getting old, man. I'm not like as you, you know, my attention span two seconds, right? Yeah. Um, so right now, um, having come from South Carolina, having scaled up to the employee count that we did doing construction, you know, I always quantify it. You have really different calibers of employees. Uh, you know, inflation's kind of hell nowadays, but I uh I would say a $40,000 employee, an $80,000 employee, $120,000 year employee, and a $200,000 year employee. Well, love South Carolina, but in the construction world, what we were doing is we were dealing with a lot of $40,000 a year employees, right? And you could only expect so much. You know, you get what you pay for at the end of the day. And I didn't have a lot of talent in the$120, $200,000 a year employee in South Carolina. And so having run a very operational peopleheavy business um great business um lot of moving parts I built a skill for not only hiring sales logistics but systems because to run an efficient company you have to have systems and I really took a liking to that. And so when I moved down to Miami, I uh saw these kids that are 19 years old that are running a a $30 million startup and and they've got four employees. And I'm like, whoa, now country boy want to find out how how does this thing go? How does this work? Cuz I want to get in on this business coming from a very operational heavy business. And so I uh I was like, "Hey, let me start doing development." Well, what did I know about development? Nothing. What do I still barely anything? But I pursued it and um hired a bunch of developers. I had a little bit of money to burn and so I just started hiring guys same way I always did and and kind of just stuck my head in and you know in the process and said hey we're going to figure out and I love that moment. I attribute that that feeling to to a lot of my success. Like I love the process man if I don't feel at what point is loving the process become secondary to making money from that process. Is it still about learning and do and building or is it listen I got to I got to monetize what I do. Yeah I would say that that that is a that is a hard line probably for me if I'm being honest is sometimes are you ever not going to be honest? No. Stop saying I'm going to be honest. Okay. I um I like I mean you only said it once but I always tell people you're in a meeting you're doing business you're having a conversation don't say I'm gonna be honest with you because it it it leads like or to tell you the truth. Yeah. I mean hey like what everything else you said was [ __ ] So I don't I think there there are verbal cues that people give that could could sway one way or the other. Could could really make it go a bad way. So don't use words. People use these to emphasize something important. You don't need to. Yeah. Everything out of your mouth should be important. I'm not, by the way, you're you're a very great speaker. The energy, man, the vibe, it it's fantastic. That's the funny thing is communication. We have 7,000 words to explain a blend of billions of emotions that we're trying to relate to each other. We have 7,000 words. Something like that. I never really tried. Just make that [ __ ] up right now. It sounds about right. I think we have like we have 7,000 words. I think we have like 7,000 Hey Siri, how many words are there in the English dictionary? There are around 600,000 documented entries, including modern, historical, and obsolete words. 600,000. I only know 7,000. The sentiment stays the same. It's that it's that we have these different associations with words. When I say happy, it means something different to you than it does to me, than to your team. And so, we just try our best in communication to relay a feeling. I am stuck. You're stuck. I'm stuck now. I'm saying to myself, how many words do I think I know? Yeah, right. I got you. Yeah. Like, I'm going to have to count. Like, I'm going to have to sit there and like You're missing a lot of them, I bet. I mean, am I going to start like repeating every word I know and start counting how many words I know? Yeah. Wow. Like, you just I But I think about things in that frame of context of like, okay, we have these words. What do words mean? You know, this is the beauty about you, right? This is this is the skill you have that that's amazing. You could just say something and you say it with such conviction that people sit there and they believe it, right? Like you had me for 30 until I thought about it, right? You had me believing that there are only as the way you said it, there are 7,000 words to describe the emotions or whatever whatever the hell you just put there together, right? That little thing. And I was saying, wow, only 7,000 words. Like, you had me, right? That is a gift that not a lot of people have in sales, especially. And by the way, and if you don't have that gift, that's okay cuz that gift can work for you. Yeah. And to some people, they're going to sit there and listen to you. They're not going to trust you because you're too smooth. You're too you're too perfect in your delivery, right? You're you're going to like people are going to say, "Oh, this guy's just a great talker." So you know works what works might not work for others but no it's it's a gift. Go ahead. But no on the uh on the side of things of how I ended up and I end up with development for what I'm doing right is I pursued development in the hopes of a better simpler higher level of employee that I was going to be dealing with. That basically brought me into going from being the owner, the operator in full to something that was more of like a special forces type team for systems because we all know what it takes as an entrepreneur. Your first 6 months to a year, you got to have your head in the game. You got to be 247. You have to do it. I love that process. This company is going to be 11 years old next month and I'm It's like my first 30 days. Never ends. Never changes. And then and then you have you have these evolution stages of business and no matter what industry you're in, you have these evolution stages. I like that stage having done 0 to 60 days so many times. I love coming in and taking that experience and help people who are on their first 12 months, right? because your first 12 months in business, you've learned a lot about discipline, grit, communication, finances, documents, softwares, and and I I like coming in at that stage cuz I feel that's where I'm better to lend guidance cuz I feel like the first 12 months it either makes or breaks you. And and that's really the thing that cuts the teeth of a true entrepre, you know, for such an outgoing guy, right? Like you you love to talk, you're you're great. You have a very very low social media presence. Why is that? Oh man. Uh I feel like the piss off a lot of people along the way and like you're hiding a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Uh no, no, man. I um you know what I mean? Like there's there's very little like you know I see social private eyes couldn't figure out who the hell you are. I mean I'm just you know. No, I mean I see social media as a great platform with the right intention behind it. At the same time, I see a lot of people that are using it as a crutch for validation. Right. True. And I heard something when I was younger and it was, you know, that the real work doesn't happen on a movie or in a TV or, you know, on a high platform like that. The real work, I think, from people to people and what I believe my purpose to be is done at that personto person level. And oftent times I I actually met, you know, the guy that connects here, Moch. I met him out in LA at a billionaire's house on the beach with my buddies who are Red Bull athletes. They were like my little brothers and we went and traveled the world with Red Bull. And it was awesome and it was fun. But I felt I was I was in a room with a lot of souls that just didn't really love themselves as much as I wish they would have. And they were awesome people pushing for a lot, but they never thought that they did enough. And for me, I just really believe that, you know, real people are rare. And I feel like I can keep a very genuine approach about me if I never allow that mass external validation to start driving me or give me some sort of something that I don't think is going to keep my intentions or my goals as pure as possible. And thankfully, I have a great platform of wonderful people that I don't know from social media. I know in real life, I know from experiences, I know from projects, I know from trips, I know from travel. And that to me, that is what we all want. Even the big social media guys like yourself, you know, when you have a good connection, big social media guy, you know, legends even, we we all just want that person to person connection cuz that's what we really I think that's that's more important. There's a lot of noise on social media. Um, for sure. So, South Carolina, now you're in a big city like Miami, right? Which is a little faster. Yeah. Very diverse, different people from different parts of the world, right? Um, and you speak you speak any other languages. I am so dyslexic. I barely speak English. I only thought there were 7,000 words. How do you I mean, in in Miami, by the way, if you don't speak Spanish in Miami, like your hand signals and body language, right? you know, I just hit him with the dance. So, how was that? Like, why Miami? How did you choose Miami? And how did you wind up here? Very much on a whim. I uh I grew up in South Carolina and then I moved out to LA for a year and a half. And I'm very East Coast. I really don't have the the [ __ ] in me. And to my experience, West Coast was very polite and kind. And I'm like a rough neck from South Carolina. doesn't know when to shut up sometimes and and doesn't know how to be maybe pleasant at at that age. And so I didn't really feel it was it was my city. And so I moved back. That's when I buckled down very heavily into solar and scaled up my uh my residential solar business. And then uh I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina because again, small town was really wearing on me after we got past those first 2 three years of operations and things were running smoothly. I went to Charlotte, North Carolina, a financial city, you know, educated people, everybody's pretty happy, no one fights, you know, great night life and beautiful women. And so, it was a definitely a big upgrade from South Carolina. I went there and honestly, I lived there for 3 years, four years almost, and I just outgrew it. I I met my ceiling and you grow as big as the container that you're in. And one of my buddies wanted to move to Miami with his girlfriend. And she was like, he was he was a short king. And and he was a what? He was a short king. He was a short guy. And uh it's relevant. You took your buddy's girlfriend and moved on to random. No, I took my buddy from his girlfriend because I I lost that. His girlfriend was a supermodel who would bully him all the time. And I was like, actually, that girl's really mean to you. And uh I'll move with you to Miami cuz she doesn't want to. And so it was it was two weeks of a whim. I was bored again and uh I was like, "Yeah, Miami, they got sun and stuff like that. It seems pretty nice." And I moved down here, man. And and the second I got here, you know, people ask me, "Do you like Miami?" And I would say, "Miami likes me, you know, cuz I was this in South Carolina." That doesn't go over so well when you're, you know, walking job sites out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Miami is a perfect place for you. It loves me, man. It's a It's a very good city for me. I think I found my place, coincidentally. Yeah, definitely. All right. So, um, a lot of dreamers in Miami, right? Just like LA. Yep. Right. How do you protect yourself by identify? I mean, you said you have good intuition and you could read people well and you know, but um, a lot of hype and a lot of BS and, you know, a lot of fake Ferraris here in Miami and you know, like you just don't get it. So, how do you quickly what do you do quickly to identify and as most entrepreneurs they get caught up in the game and the talk and the flash? What do you what tools could you share with with our audience on how to quickly identify you're wasting time? Having have gone down a lot of those rabbit holes and really feel like I I earn these these badges to to kind of figure this stuff out is always the time- tested thing. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. Um, tried a lot of hot markets. You'll see them. If I have an experience that, hey, if you're seeing a ton of it on social media, if a guy is trying to sell you a course for it, the market's probably a little matured because that's where they move to normally. Oh, I hate courses. And so, yeah. And so, these guys, man, I always say like, you know, they're all going bankrupt right now. They're all selling courses like like do you see Elon Musk selling courses? No. No. You see Bezos I mean you see Gates selling vaccines but other than that like do you see any of these people do this? No. Like if you're successful in business you're running a business. Yeah. Right. And then you got these guys that are selling these seminars. Like I I mean I'm very suspect of that. Now there are guys like Tony Robbins who always sold seminars but they were they were the original guys. Yeah. like you know say best psychiatrist ever right but then you've got these guys they real estate selling real estate course and they talk about these big portfol dude if you got a big real estate portfolio you ain't got no time you don't have time to do one-on-one coaching so to me I don't I don't I don't like I would never waste time going to see those guys yeah and I think I think and people fall for that because they're good sales people a good filter is is like there is very rarely any good fast money. You know, very true. You're going to have to put in the work one way or the other and often times is it really for you if someone else is telling it's for you? That whole trust of your gut, following your heart, is this opportunity what you want to do? I see a lot of guys get into different industries chasing a dollar sign and it's like, hey, what is your work life quality? You're you're having conversations with people. You're getting them money when they need it most. You're solving a problem and you're watching them grow and scale and building long-term relationships with them. That's great. Being the repo man probably doesn't reap that much benefits in terms of how how it drives you to keep going forward. And so, it's really about finding your own path, I believe, as an entrepreneur. And like we said, just kind of closing out some of the noise. You don't need a million different hustles to be successful. You need one that you are happy to be with for the long term that you feel that you are naturally inclined towards and stick with it and no matter the industry you can really turn that into remember a minute ago we talked about like you have a very low profile on social media, right? And I just I just thought about it and you know like in a place like Miami where you know every other car is a Ferrari or a Lamborghini and these young guys show up to meetings and these cars and they got these social media profiles. Right. And a lot of people fall for this. Yeah. Right. Like they fall for it. Right. I've been at meetings with some of the most successful people in the country if not and some in the world. They don't show they don't pull up enough for Camry's baby. No, they they don't they don't flash money. No, their their their social media accounts aren't about all any of that because they're working, right? Not only that, they the most successful people don't need to. Now, look, if you're really a celebrity or an athlete, that's a different story. But they're not doing that. So, I always say to people, if you're looking at somebody's social media profile and they're flashing money, like it's not good. I mean, it doesn't it it's probably the opposite because the real guys don't do that. The real established people don't do that, right? So, and that you see that and people get lost in that. I saw Tim Cook step down. Tim step down and apparently the new guy has no social media presence. Love it. Um, interesting. I don't even know who he is yet, but that's what everybody's talking about. Um, it'll be interesting to watch. What a great company. I mean, Tim Cook wasn't my favorite CEO to be honest, but he was consistent. Yeah, he did. He kept the ship on course. He kept a serious I mean, grew it so well. Over 100 billion in in profits a year or something. And yeah, he did great as the CEO, but um I feel like the innovation at Apple kind of stopped about when this guy Ivy left who was the the main designer. Doesn't matter, but it'll be interesting. the new CEO of Apple is a mystery like nobody there's nothing on there so it'll be interesting to us and this goes back to our you know our thing about you know what is your social media and I like the fact that what you said that you know it it's it's a false sense of validation well I think and I've seen this with partners I've seen this with my top sales guys you know if you want to work and make a bunch of money that's great But I don't know if I'd recommend being an entrepreneur because financial management big deal. I mean, man, the stories, the times myself, the times for all the people that I work with, I mean, like you, I'm sure a lot of people come to you when they need money, you know, and that's why they're they're talking to us is is because they need money. I mean, I think you can have a consistent strong business, but at the end of the day, there's always going to be es and flows. And if you aren't prepared for a little bit of a winter, a little bit of a political shift, a supply chain slowdown, and you don't have the funds stashed away for that, that can jeopardize 5 years of hard work because you wanted to drive a Porsche because you wanted to buy a tell you what at the club and look cool. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to. That's just you need to balance. Listen, you said you have a sales team and people. So, top three things that help you deciding when to hire someone. Oh, this is a good one. Obviously, it's role dependent, but what you want is you want to find somebody that reciprocates the energy that you put into them. And so, you have realistically a few different kind of archetypes that you have when you're hiring people, but you have the people that just want a job. And I never really am trying to hire a guy who just wants a job. I'm always trying to hire the guy who's eager to learn and who wants to build into something because if you have the right comp plans, which is very key to keeping top talent, give your guys a road map to how they can make more. And often times I see people structure their comp plans and take a top performer like myself who gets into the company and try to lock me into 5% 10% of the margin. If I'm smart enough to be your top performer, I'm smart enough to figure out the other A, B, C, and D of this business. And so it's it's really important that you identify and try to hire the guys that want to learn and then through that kind of filter those real A players and give them a fair comp plan. And if you do that in the right way, you actually have something that's scalable. Otherwise, if you're cutting yourself off on the comp plan, you'll just have the turnover from the top performers. And give it give it proportional to revenue. I'm if a guy makes me $3 million a year, well, I'm happy to give him one.9. You should give him 2.9 million. He's usually happy with a million. Most people are trying to package them into 250,000. You know what I mean? We'll trickle it out. And hey, you can you can get 1.5. Very good points. Yeah. When do you fire? Oh, you ever fired people? If you structure a good comp plan that is incentive based and start them with a low enough base that they can't survive, but have them earn enough through the comp plan that they can make a ridiculous amount of money for their position in their industry, you never really have to fire because the ones that don't work. Have you ever fired anyone? Oh, I'm always the guy who has to fire them. Yeah. When and how do you fire? What what makes you fire someone? You know, I think firing is an avoidant thing that a lot of business owners do because they really fall in love with the family of the business. And that's one of the most rewarding things. But I think that if someone if you're looking at someone to fire, it's in some sort of way that they're not fit for that job, right? And you are actually, you know, don't don't think that that person doesn't know that they're not fit for that job. They know that and they're in this anxiety state and they're struggling and they're just trying to make ends meet. And sometimes you have to look at firing as a setting free for both you and that person. You can do it with love. You can do it with good intention. You could help them find a better suited job. You know this guy. You know what he's going to be good at. Maybe he's not good at being your accountant, but maybe he's a damn good brick layer, you know? And so, I think that you need to not hold on to it for that short-term uncomfortable confrontation. I think that it's going to be better for you and for them if you guys part ways, but you can do it in a lovingly way. And it just needs to be genuine and honest and avoiding it and having this weird energy going on for 3 months while you're floating around each other. It's just it's not good for business. You play chess? Uh I did when uh yeah when I was when I was younger and I I play a little bit now. You good? Uh depends. Me and me and my roommates when I had a roommate, it's been a few years, but we would play every night just cuz I liked, you know, kind of kicking his ass in it. But I haven't played in two years to be honest. But uh when I was a bad kid in school uh you know they told my mom that I had to be in therapy and so they put me in therapy and the only uh I would make up outlandish ridiculous stories and just drive the therapist insane just to be like I was just kidding at the end of the session. And the only one that ever got through to me actually taught me how to play chess when I was like seven. And so um it was he he he got my brain focused on something and was teaching me and I was interested and then he was able to kind of get somewhere with me. But I do love chess. And I love this the the stat that chess players at competitions burn like 1,800 calories in a day. Really? You didn't know that? Now it might be 1,600. It might be. I played a lot of chess growing up. Yeah. And um I was chubby. I don't think I burned enough calories playing chess. Well, it it's it's to the fact of that when we burn our brains, I mean, I'm sure you have a lot of days on the computer. We're in the modern age now where we do a lot of computer work. We love people. We love people, but we got to do the computer stuff because we love people. No. Uh but but no. Um yeah, they burn like 1,800 calories a day at these chess competition. It's so interesting. Is that like the same [ __ ] with the 7,000 words you came up, man? Cuz like like I don't know, with you like you're so convincing in everything you say. Now these are foundational things I believe. And so even if they're like not if if it's 1,600 it's only 50 calories000 6,000 calories. Oh look under under promise and overd deliver. Now we're here plus one minus one calories a day playing

[ __ ] good sport. That is something interesting to see because we oftent times are so tired and you're not doing physical labor like we exude a lot of energy when we're figuring these problems and processes out. I could bet pretty much that I could put you anywhere into any situation into a business that you've never sold and with I would take over and in 30 seconds, right? Yeah. Give me uh with the solar company I was working at, I actually went to my manager after two months there and I was like, I'm better at this than you. I'd hired everybody in the office at that point and I was like, you need to quit because I'm better at this. And two weeks later he resigned. And then I kept getting my middle management guys fired. I just kept finding ways to get them fired. And then I was like, actually, I'm just going to do my own solar company. You guys keep trying to make me read books. But I was always a stubborn kid like that. A little too smart for my own good. But thankfully found business. And you know, it's a it's a wonderful space where you can really grow and develop. And that's all I ever hit a wall. Burnout. You asked me before 27 would I burn out? And I was 90 hours. It was more of a burnout than it hit a wall, right? Yeah. It was it was a burnout and I think it was attached to that expectation. That was one of the big lessons is like I wanted this, I wanted that, I wanted more growth, I wanted happier people, I wanted all the variables, I wanted that perfect situation. And sometimes in business, you stay stagnant. How much is enough for most people?

12 to 14 million for argument sake. If you have bigger plans to change the world and have higher purposes, you need to fund those things. But I think it's more of a consideration of how much energy do you put into something for the margin that you make out of it, right? And so when I look at industries now, and this is years of entrepreneurship in many different industries, is how can I get 80% of the revenue while doing 20% of the work, 20% of the work. And so I mean, that's always been that's always been the thing because that creates more scalability. And so for me, I tell you something, 14 million in Lexington, South Carolina is a lot of money, man. Who wants to be in Lexon, South Carolina? Be like a land owner and uh Yeah. couple of farms. Yeah, man. 14 million in Miami. You're like a you're broke. You're broke. Yeah. You're you're you're nobody. You're you're Yeah. You're borrowing money to to go out on the weekends. I mean, that's how it happens. That's the reality of the the the gap in different parts of the world in the country. Of course, it's pay to play down here, but that filter, you know, it's it's a nice filter. I I I don't know this this whole perception of pay to play. I think you have to be real of who you are, where you are, there's always that's going to be somebody richer than you, smarter than you, making more money than you. In our case, I'm more handsome. So, I mean, you're always going to have this, right? just accept. Be happy for what you have. Do your best at achieving your goals. And um just don't give up. There's no losers. There's only quitters. You know that, right? Yeah. And I think a lot of people too have this like linear path towards a billion dollars. And actually your goal is to just stay in business until you are a billion dollar company, not necessarily go there linearly. And so with financial management, investing in ads, looking at your marketing, everything about your business, the goal is is to find some sort of growth, pour as much capital into your people and the system as possible to where it can grow and just continue to double down until you are a billion-dollar company. I think often times people spoil themselves with lifestyle. They spoil themselves with lifestyle. They get to a comfortable place. And I I love the uncomfortable. That's what that's what keeps me going. That's what that's where the fun happens. I'm not I'm not I don't do well with comfortable. I get bored easily. Me, too. So, if um our audience here, and by the way, thank you for listening. Please subscribe. If you're enjoying this conversation with Mr. Sachi here, uh please subscribe, drop some comments. So, if if the audience wanted to reach out to you and find you and I don't know, hire you for a modeling gig or a comedy show. I do take brand deals or maybe like, you know, people just need some flooring. Yeah, right. How would they reach out to you? You could find me. Uh, it's not a very impressive LinkedIn, but you know, Apple CEOs making headlines for it. It's Sachi B on LinkedIn. You'll see the guy with the hair. It's got a yellow background. You can message me there. I might check it once or twice a week. You know, I had hair like that when I was like 17. I had straight hair, but I had it done in an afro. No joke. I got to find pictures. These curls, they're real, these curls, or you work on them? Oh, no. This is me out the shower. This is you out of the shower. That's why I have long hair. God gave me this. I got I can't like disrespect, you know. I got to I got to rock it, man. I got to let it flow. So, you know, Miami, it didn't work so well in South Carolina. I used to put the put the hat up and, you know, tuck it in. You know, the chances are, and I I hate to tell you this, right? Like I don't want to ruin your day or anything, but what I've seen with people have that kind of long hair after 40, man, disaster. Thank Thank goodness. I'm just I'm just telling you it starts to go. You know, thank God by the time you're 50, my grandfather is uh is French. He's 84 years old. And and he's got long hair, solid hairline, still curly, 84. And not even like still salt and pepper. Not even white. Not even white. He's He's like He's like 25% white. So the hair jeans and the family. So you got lucky. I What I'm really hoping for, my dad went, you know, that's could be our revenue stream. You know, people grow their hair then they sell it for wigs. And I don't think people could afford this. You know, I think the the wig the wig off this thing. You are you are a riot. Sashi, thank you so much for joining me. It was a great energy conversation. and you're someone um people it's it's worth watching you. That's what I think you try to get me on stuff. I think it's going to be fun to see what you what you evolve into, especially when you go bald. A wizard. Hopefully a wizard. That's kind of my target. Yeah, the wizard of Lexington. There you go. Nice. Thank you for coming on, man. Appreciate it. Appreciate