and they were able to raise two boys and put them through college and always instilled in us that you know whatever you do there is opportunity so that is something that i've always taken to heart is whatever i'm doing make sure that you're always keeping your eyes ears open for any opportunity that may come and always give it your all for the my business kind of came by chance really  i came in to ship a package at our post net that i own today and i'm not really sure what he said but he said it would you like to work here and at that time i looked around i said how this could be easy i think i can do this as a first job and fast forward five years later college didn't really work out but i was still a hard worker he gave me an opportunity to come back he sold the business to another absentee owner who i i managed it for for a little bit and then they wanted to move on and they said hey john you know the business is doing ok it's not doing great and we're either going to close the doors or we want to sell it to you and you only and this was my first job in high school and i said i don't want to see the doors close i want to really make this thing successful so i took that leap of faith and i said you know what we're going to do it we rebuilt the way we do business we hire good kind people who are entrepreneurial in spirit and together we've transformed a store that was on the brink of closing to a top thirty franchise in the country today and it's opened so many doors for us so while you do you see something very interesting and that is the power that's a tough question you know it's really our mindset you have to first be able to spot the opportunity and once you spot the opportunity you have to figure out you know what what do i want to get out of this opportunity it takes some strategy but the more you change your mindset the say you know this might be a bad thing right now that maybe it's a bad experience but i always look for that silver lining even if it's you know i made a mistake or my staff or my team member made a mistake how can we learn from this is an opportunity to learn so it's always just constantly looking for that opportunity and figuring out where is that silver lining and what can we learn from it wow i love that no i'm responsible for people and their their livelihood and that's to me that's what keeps me going is knowing that these people have dreams and i want to make sure that i help them fulfill their dreams and i know if i are some people or they lose sight of what success really means to them and why they got into a business or a situation in the first place maybe you know they they got into the business and they hit immediate success and they're like oh well i have all this money but what about how did you get that money you know what why did you get into this business that in the first place for me success is not money it's seeing the people around me speak successful it's seeing that i'm making a positive difference in the community and with the people that are surrounding me so for me it's are some matter of keeping my foot on the gas and never losing sight of you know why i got there or why i got to that or why i got into this in the first really and look at take a step back sometimes out of the business and say you know what have we accomplished today even if it's the most stressful day ever take a look back and say what did we learn you know who did we touch who did we affect today by our decisions and that's really i really just tried my best to stay humble and keep the people around me in mind this best as i can but home by being home where you mean h people go see the you are doing well or you know humble being i'm very proud of everything that i've accomplished and i think people can see that i'm very confident but staying humble as far as there's always the next level you know there's always more people that we can help there's always new new adventures or new ventures that are that we can still accomplish for real us listen to us right now you say you're very confident how do and see how do i word this by celebrating every success small or large you know even if it's a small as you know i got up on time today i didn't hit the snooze button extra time that that to me is super important just taking a step back and looking at it from a macro level and saying wow we accomplished so much today even though it didn't maybe feel that poster that used to be a pack and ship but we've seen in the marketplace that there's a need for small business marketing services so we what we've tried to do is really built a network up and marketing to me as owning a marketing agency is kind of like owning a or building a chamber of commerce because everyone is your customer or so for me but i always keeping in mind how can i create opportunities for my other people how can i connect my clients with each other for them to do business that in turn has opened up new opportunities for us to get into new ventures always looking out for the other person for your customer or for anyone out there that has really helped us create opportunities for ourselves and put us in position to be able to call on people when we need help ask for advice from the right people but it really is all about putting people first and that sets you up to be in position to jump on opportunities when they do arise do get repeated customs absolutely so how do you what makes them keep coming back to it's the culture that we create  it's yes we do great marketing services but it's how it's hey hey derrick oh how is your trip what was successful about your trip building more of a personal relationship with our clients more than just thank you for your order our c e o and i see here you know we really do have a personal relationship with almost all of our customers before they walk in the door we see them in the parking lot and we get ready to greet them so it's the culture that you create which is  ask questions listen and so many people don't listen these days they just talk talk talk and they they don't they forget that everyone shares different experiences and there's so much that we can learn from each other  for me it's knowing when to just shut my mouth yes and listen to what people are saying and then filter it know not everything is going to be what we need to hear what we need and at the time but kind of training yourself to say ok i'm going to take everything in and filter out the stuff that i really need and make sure that i hold on to that and apply that to my to my life to my business for us to be successful and more success most one of my favorite things is coffee and i spend so much money on coffee at the starbucks next door i figured you know what why don't i open up a coffee shop so we are working right now and opening up a coffee shop hopefully by the end of the year and also pursuing my passion for entrepreneurship and i love seeing start up businesses grow and succeed so next to our coffee shop we hope to open up a co working space where people can get launched and get a head start and i can share my knowledge and we can all work together to be more successful wow you see this something behind this glory which is your story one that i love about what you just said is that you know you go to these live store like starbucks buy coffee but you can you know you can also all eat right so i think it's something that view was should listen to you know sometime you see that you think that you have a lot of challenges  don't what i do like is speaking to people like you ok surrounding myself with people with similar vision i always say in our business that not everyone is our customer even though everyone could be our customer or we only want to work with people who are hustlers who are passionate about their business and really the best way that i learn is by sharing experiences with other people and making their brains to witness to go how to go think about who you want to be in the same room as and research where they're going you know where if i'm looking to hang out with o s and upper level executives i'm going to figure out where do these people hang out and you know that saying fake a team make it it's actually pretty true you know you have to put yourself in this position what was that saying it's your your net worth will be the average of the people around you kind of something laura that's very true you know if you are in a room with top level c e o s and you build relations with those they're going to want to help  spear i think fear keeps people stagnant a lot of times that's really the maybe more the fear of being of unknown they haven't tried it but maybe they don't like really social settings like that it's a little awkward for them i guess because they do a lot of this so sophia i know feel it's a very big problem trust you know a lot of people they have something in there but they are free to release it does sort of free to let people know what they have and i would it can match if correct so do you think that oh let me ask the question this way what can we do ok what can we do for people to them or take them with us to certain opportunities that you know that are outside of their comfort zone you know gently push them and say hey go go do this you know you can do this what are you afraid of and open conversation and dialogue with people i've noticed that being honest so scarred me out of the worst situations but the more honest that you can be with people the more human you become i really feel like if you just have an open conversation and push them and say hey you can do this you know maybe that will help them get out of their comfort zone and won something so one of the first things that i've learned when i became a business owner that someone said that stuck with me always is  comfortable being uncomfortable and it isn't it plus when as a business owner you're going to be in a lot of situations where you're not very comfortable but you're going to have to start becoming comfortable because if you're not if you're comfortable with any awkward situation something's wrong correct or you know fear is just a natural feeling for people so you have to start becoming comfortable being uncomfortable i love that and i love that it's very important that what i love t satisfied with what you've done for them do what you do for them how do you how do you manage people like that how do you manage people do is difficult people if you make a mistake do you do the right thing make it right no matter if it ends up costing you money they trusted you to do a job if you did if you made a mistake we're human and everyone makes a mistake so do everything that you can't make it right for that customer so that they feel that you you know this to have open conversation again like i said you know being honest and truthful with our clients and with everyone around me it has gotten me out of the toughest jam sort of toughest to dream and to purse of year because there are going to be a lot of times when to accomplish your dreams you have to persevere through some hard difficult challenges but if you stick with it and you were determined and don't lose what you go through all what you went through yeah i mean i was not spoon fed you know the opportunity to be a business owner i worked hard to get to this point i did so absolutely i have persevered through some tough times and even with opening up these two new ventures there is a lot that i have to persevere through before i even get the doors open w does that mean that you spend might work can you spend might work and they would give is sacrifice you know is that to accomplish your dreams you are going to have to make some sacrifices and mostly that is time you know time is go is the one asset that we can't have more of but in order to accomplish your dreams you have to sacrifice a lot to make it happen joel nailed it you know power o