Luis Barraza's Insights on Overcoming Failures, Embracing Entrepreneurship & Strategic Pivoting

Ever wondered what lies beyond the success stories on social media? Is the entrepreneurial journey as glamorous as it seems?

Today's episode is all about the raw & real journey of entrepreneurship with none other than Luis Baraza. Luis isn't just any entrepreneur; he's a master of reinvention.

Dive in as Luis and I unpack his rollercoaster ride into the world of business. But this chat isn't just about successes and strategies. We get deep into the nitty-gritty of what it really takes to run a business - the unglamorous side that social media often glosses over.

Luis shares his insights on the importance of embracing failures, the reality check of social media in business, and the critical role of being transparent about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

Luis Baraza is a serial entrepreneur who's been making waves in the e-commerce world for the past two and a half years. Now he's the driving force behind a social media marketing agency @GalindoMedia helping brands and entrepreneurs amplify their online presence.

Key Takeaways:
Luis's journey into entrepreneurship included multiple failed business ventures before finding success in e-commerce.
The military was not a good fit for Luis due to his desire for independence and the ability to be his own person.
Social media often glorifies entrepreneurship, but the reality is that it can be challenging and not always financially successful.
Dropshipping and FBA are two different fulfillment methods in e-commerce, with Dropshipping allowing for selling products without physical inventory and FBA requiring the purchase of inventory before selling.
It is important to be open about failures and not let ego get in the way of admitting mistakes and learning from them.
Luis is in a position where he has enough liquidity to not work for a few years and be financially stable, but he is still pushing himself to make his businesses successful.
Many people in America are just one bad car repair away from financial trouble, highlighting the importance of financial stability and planning.
Luis acknowledges that he is in a good position compared to many others, but he still faces challenges and stresses in running his businesses.
Luis believes that failure is a lesson, not a loss, and that it is necessary to experience failure in order to become a winner in business.
Both Luis and Tawni discuss their own experiences with financial losses and the importance of being transparent about these failures.

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Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Fit and Frugal podcast. I am your host, Tawni Nguyen. You can find me on IG at Tawnisaurus. Today I have here with me my friend, Luis Barraza.

0:00:17 - (Luis Barraza): Barraza.

0:00:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Barraza. Can you tell me what you're doing?

0:00:23 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I mean, I'm in the e commerce space. I run a logistics company, and now I own this beautiful podcast studio. So, Podspot LV. Yeah, that's pretty much, you know, trying to make it out here in Vegas. New to Vegas. Been out here two and a half years.

0:00:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Originally from Sacramento, how long ago did you start entrepreneurship?

0:00:47 - (Luis Barraza): That's a cool story because I'm from Sacramento and I've always had a job throughout college. I went to college up in Sacramento, and I've always wanted to get into business, and I've had multiple small failed businesses throughout my through. While I was in college. While I was in college, one of the first businesses I ever started was a t shirt screen printing business.

0:01:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): So cute.

0:01:09 - (Luis Barraza): I spent like $2,000 on equipment, and then it just sat in my garage for the whole time. I never did anything with it except for make t shirts for my fraternity parties. But it was like, one of the first things I was like, I'm going to start a business. Failed. And then after that, I think I tried to do ecommerce, like Shopify, drop shipping for a little bit. Failed at that. And then I actually decided to just forget about business, and I joined the military.

0:01:36 - (Luis Barraza): And then while I was in the military, I realized I hated being told what to do, how to act, who to be, really, just like, I wasn't allowed to be my own person, right? When you're wearing the uniform, you're a soldier, and you got to be whatever. And pretty much I started googling how to make money online.

0:01:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): What's the first thing that came up at that time?

0:01:55 - (Luis Barraza): Well, really, it was drop shipping. It was just ecommerce was really. It was right around the time of COVID So I'm very new to the business side of stuff, so I always forget how new to business I am because I've only been in the game, really for like, two and a half years, three years, when some of my friends have been doing business for fucking 510 plus years. And I'm just a little. What's the word?

0:02:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Baby shark.

0:02:19 - (Luis Barraza): A little baby shark compared to these guys. But I feel like I have not to toot my own horn. I've come a decent way in two and a half years. But, yeah, that's how I got into business was I googled how to make money online, and I found drop shipping, and the next thing you know, I bought a course. And that was history. And that was the very beginning of COVID That was, like, February, march of 2020.

0:02:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:02:39 - (Luis Barraza): And then all of that led me to where I am now. I was in the military, googled how to freaking make money online, and then here I am.

0:02:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): How miserable was the military on your spiritual being?

0:02:50 - (Luis Barraza): I know some people love it. Or maybe not love it, but they need it. But for me, my personality, I couldn't stand being told who to be. I had to be myself. You know me, I'm very obnoxious. I'm loud. You put me in any room. I'm just, like, talking to everybody, and I'm like. And I just don't shut the fuck up.

0:03:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's how we became friends.

0:03:11 - (Luis Barraza): And then when you're in the army, it's like, you have to put on this hat, and you're like. And it was like, the complete opposite of who I was.

0:03:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you have a beard in the army?

0:03:18 - (Luis Barraza): No. You weren't allowed to. I was. I'm. I feel like beards are makeup for men.

0:03:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): It is.

0:03:23 - (Luis Barraza): I'm, like, very unattractive without a beard. I'm already average at best.

0:03:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I saw your ecom videos two years ago without a beard.

0:03:32 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. So I didn't have a beard. Didn't have any money either. Money came with the beard, I guess.

0:03:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Beard came with the money.

0:03:42 - (Luis Barraza): Sure. I bought it. About the beard.

0:03:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Is it overcompensating for something, or is it just amplifying your money?

0:03:49 - (Luis Barraza): I don't think it's compensating for it. I think I just prefer having a beard versus not having a beard.

0:03:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): Can't take that. I remember he showed me a video, and I was like, I can't.

0:04:00 - (Luis Barraza): It doesn't look like it doesn't.

0:04:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's, like, almost a doppelganger, but it's not.

0:04:04 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And I went through a phase where I had, like, long hair too. And then I go through phases. I think everybody does, but right now, I'm going through, like, a bald phase where I just. I'm shaving my head every week because I started thinning. And I'm like, you know what? I might as well embrace the bald. I don't want to be like that guy holding onto his hair when it's like, thinning.

0:04:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Britney Spears, 2008.

0:04:21 - (Luis Barraza): But she embraced it. Yeah. So I want to embrace it. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, you know what? I'm just going to be bald. If I didn't have a beard, I think I would try to hold on to my hair, but I think bald in a beard is a look.

0:04:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Is that why you're wearing a hat all the time?

0:04:34 - (Luis Barraza): Well, I've always been a hat guy.

0:04:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:04:36 - (Luis Barraza): But that's not really because of the hair. I don't know.

0:04:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. You know what's interesting is there's a lot of people that can't really handle failures or can't even admit that they failed at a business.

0:04:49 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:04:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what I'm saying? It takes a different mindset to go into entrepreneurship. It's not even the stomach to lose money or to admit that you failed.

0:04:56 - (Luis Barraza): It's an ego thing.

0:04:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's an ego thing, right? You can't even admit, like, all right, I fucked up, I lost money. Let's move on. But I think people really get stuck in that denial phase of like, no, I can make it work. I can make it work.

0:05:07 - (Luis Barraza): That's so fair, because I was just shooting a podcast with my friends, and we were talking about the same exact topic, how social media has glorified business, and even though has glorified entrepreneurship. And it's just like, it's not pretty. Right now, I'm burning through cash trying to make this other business run right. Like, I have a logistics company warehouse where I service ecommerce sellers. I have my own ecommerce store.

0:05:31 - (Luis Barraza): I have this warehouse, and now I have this podcast studio. But it's like, I'm not making money. Technically, I'm running on a negative, but it's like, it's all part of the game, and people don't like to talk about it. The last two years, anybody could make money. It was just like printing money from the Internet. Everybody was spending money on everything. But then this little recession hit, and it's cool. Luckily, I'm fairly liquid, so I'm not worried about it. I know it'll work. It's just getting all your systems and processes in place.

0:05:57 - (Luis Barraza): But, yeah, I feel like people glorify business, and it's not fun. It's cool, and it looks good on social media, but it's hard. I got a kid on the way, and I'm barely able to be home right now because I'm trying to make this new business work. And it's tough, but I wouldn't trade it for anything because I would hate know. While I was in the military, I almost missed my first kid's birth because I had to be where I was told to be.

0:06:20 - (Luis Barraza): I wasn't in charge of myself, so I think it was a shark tank episode, Mark Cuban's. It was like a Mark Cuban quote. And he was like, I would rather work for myself, make $70,000 a year than work for anybody else and make millions. I was like, yeah. I think even I don't know what my goal is financially. I feel like it's more of, like, as cliche as it sounds, it's more of a journey, I think. I'm just having fun and everybody has a number. Like, I want to reach deck a millionaire. I want to reach this and that.

0:06:51 - (Luis Barraza): I don't really have a goal there. I'm just having fun seeing what happened then.

0:06:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): That comes with a lot of failures, too.

0:06:58 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, it's a lot of failures.

0:07:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): I understand that. And the ego thing.

0:07:05 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I think the ego thing for sure is a big thing with me because I'm fooling myself, but especially putting myself around these other successful people. Sometimes it's like a reality check. I'm just like, damn, I really ain't shit.

0:07:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you're like, damn, I'm just a baby millionaire compared to these.

0:07:24 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, it's funny. I'm in a group chat, group chat with a bunch of guys, and somebody jokingly said that the other day. They're like, oh. I pulled up next to so and so's cars, and I realized I wasn't shit, so I gave up, and I was like, fuck, that's accurate.

0:07:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): What do you mean?

0:07:42 - (Luis Barraza): I don't remember what car it was, but it was like, essentially, you always think you're hot shit until you look. There's always a bigger fish. So right now, I feel like my ego is really hard to keep in check because I'm like. Because I'm, first of all, not making any money. I'm burning cash. Luckily, again, I'm liquid. I have my rentals and everything, so I'm good. But getting a new business going is hard. So it's like your ego takes a big hit when you're negative cash flow. But it's part of the game.

0:08:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's part of the game, yeah. What's the difference between drop shipping and FBA?

0:08:13 - (Luis Barraza): Drop shipping is essentially a fulfillment method. So it's like, when you're drop shipping, you never touch the physical inventory. So I buy something from. So say I'm selling the screwdriver. This customer buys a screwdriver for me, but then I just go buy that screwdriver from another place and ship it directly to them. Versus with FBA you have to buy the inventory before it actually sells. So then I have to go buy the screwdriver, ship it to my warehouse, package it up nicely, send it off to Amazon, and then Amazon sells the screwdriver.

0:08:45 - (Luis Barraza): Does that make sense?

0:08:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:08:47 - (Luis Barraza): So with to. It's a little bit more capital intensive because you have to buy the inventory before you ever sell it. Versus with drop shipping, you sell it before you ever buy it.

0:09:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): I see.

0:09:00 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:09:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): What's the margin for profit?

0:09:04 - (Luis Barraza): For both, it's between ten and 15%. On average. You sell $1,000, you're probably going to make $150 ish. Yeah. So it doesn't really matter. Like, gross. So not including overhead and all that.

0:09:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): Other stuff and expenses.

0:09:18 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. Especially with the warehouse, there's a lot more. But with the warehouse, I'm a logistics company, so I service other people's products.

0:09:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. So with the fit and frugal, kind of like the values of where I wanted to take the brand, it's essentially looking at money and things around money in five different kind of pillars. Like, you got to make more money, grow it, protect it. You know what I'm saying? Save and learn how to spend it wisely, too.

0:09:45 - (Luis Barraza): Okay.

0:09:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because money isn't just, like a thing. It's a very tangible thing, but at the same time, it's not that tangible.

0:09:50 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, it's just numbers on a screen. Yeah, I remember hearing that, and I'm just like, that's really true.

0:09:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): You really look back, you have it in front of you like a ton of cash.

0:10:01 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. But even then, there's not that much. I think it's like over 90% of the money in the economy is not even available in cash. It's all just numbers on screen.

0:10:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): It is.

0:10:13 - (Luis Barraza): So that's crazy to think about because you're just like, that's your network. You're just doing things in the world to make these numbers on the screen go bigger because you never actually hold the cash. What was the last time you had, like, $20,000 cash?

0:10:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm asian, so it's a little different.

0:10:30 - (Luis Barraza): Not in your mattress. But most people don't ever touch cash. They'll pull out a few hundred bucks here and there. Yeah. When you're going to a vacation or whatever. But really it's all just numbers on a screen.

0:10:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:10:42 - (Luis Barraza): So it's always a trip to me to think, like, we're doing all this shit to make these numbers on the screen go up. It's weird.

0:10:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Especially, like, you say you're running in the red and burning cash, but you're not really burning cash. You're burning kind of like a part of yourself, too. Once I start losing money.

0:11:01 - (Luis Barraza): My ego is taking a hit for sure. But I think being able to talk about it is like, a lot of people don't want to do that because everybody's like, yeah, look at me. I'm making all this money. It's like, bro, you know, I net.

0:11:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): A couple mil last year.

0:11:15 - (Luis Barraza): Nobody's talking about their losses. Nobody's talking about, everybody likes to fluff shit up for social media, which, including me, I've done it. I'll fucking post the good months, the revenue on Amazon or whatever, and then.

0:11:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): Not post the bad months and other bad months. What are you doing? Are you eating cup noodles like me at home or what?

0:11:32 - (Luis Barraza): I mean, no. Luckily again, I had a good couple of years, and I wasn't very, how do I say it nicely? I wasn't an idiot and I didn't go blow all my money. So I had a good couple of years, and I put a lot of it into real estate. So I have cash flow, so I have rentals, I have my VA disability. So I'm good. I'm taken care of every month. It's just like my business isn't making money. I'm still making money, if that makes sense. But the business isn't.

0:11:59 - (Luis Barraza): And the business doesn't mean it's not growing. It's just we're burning cash to get everything in place. There's a lot of systems and things that go into building a warehouse. We got to buy equipment, forklifts, we got to buy pallet racks. All that stuff is expensive. So it's like coming from somebody who's only ever done Internet business. A buddy of mine, well, Steve, I think you know Steve, or I've mentioned it before, he actually told me, dude, like, Internet business, it's easy because your overhead is a know everything is done from your.

0:12:32 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, you're starting like a legitimate brick and mortar business. You're going to burn through a lot of cash. You're going to do all this. It's just setting it up. You can't be discouraged that you're losing all this money because you're not. I mean, you're just tying up money in equipment. You're tying up money in your systems and processes, like, I'm tying up money, obviously, in employees, ads, all this other stuff.

0:12:54 - (Luis Barraza): And we're not producing a positive cash flow. We're. We're. We're on a slight negative. It's not too, you know, I'm building every day and I see the progress. So it's like, he's like, if you see, I talked to Steve a lot. He's like, if you see progress and just keep going, he's like, don't give up too soon. Time horizon, it's like, it's only been like half a. And for a new business, that's like, not even that much.

0:13:18 - (Luis Barraza): Six months. So it's like, a lot. This is why I'm starting to see a lot of people throw in the towel around six months. And it's like, yeah. You get discouraged when you see that your cash reserves go down trying to build a new business.

0:13:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): This is right around the time that I'm letting go of one of my business that I think I was sharing with you, too. Yeah, that's an interesting take on it, because I think when I met you, we're still flipping. And, like, months later, you're like, fuck flipping. I can't do it anymore. I'm doing way too many.

0:13:42 - (Luis Barraza): Well, that's a funny story, because I got to Vegas and I had no friends. I didn't know anybody here. I didn't know you. I didn't know was I was doing ECoM. And ECoM's cool, but it's lonely because you're just on your laptop in your room or in your office. Right. Because everything's online.

0:14:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): You don't like a cam girl.

0:14:02 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, exactly. So when I got to Vegas, I was like, I'm going to flip houses. Let's go. Because my wife was, she's a realtor and she was going to get involved in real estate out here. And I was like, cool, I'll just flip houses during the day and do ecom at night because ECOM is twenty four seven. The Internet doesn't close. Right. So that didn't work because then I started getting just distracted and then from my ecom with the flipping, so I just stopped flipping. But yeah, when we met, I was flipping like one or two at a time. I think I only ended up flipping like five or six houses.

0:14:30 - (Luis Barraza): And I made some money off of it. I'm not mad that I did it, but I think ultimately it distracted from my main bread and butter, which I was already good at. Why was I trying to get good at something that I never had done before when I was already making money with the Ecom stuff?

0:14:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Did you ever lose money on a flip?

0:14:44 - (Luis Barraza): I lost money on the last flip I did with the partner yeah, with the partner.

0:14:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): How much?

0:14:53 - (Luis Barraza): I lost, like 35 40k.

0:14:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, is that individual or together?

0:14:57 - (Luis Barraza): That was just me. It was a very messy deal. His name will not be spoken. But essentially, I got into business with this guy, and we thought everything was going to be cool. And then we ended up buying at the peak of the market, like July of last year, literally as the market was turning. And it's just as expected, the market took a little dip. And that terrible timing, we couldn't sell the profit. Not able to sell the property at a profit.

0:15:28 - (Luis Barraza): We were pretty much going to take a loss on it, and he didn't want to take a loss. And I was like, dude, it's part of the game. I'll take a loss. Let's just sell it and get rid of it and wipe our hands clean. But long story short, he ended up buying it at cost. So pretty much whatever we were into the property for, he refinanced out of it or something. And then I just took my loss, and I walked away with my. So I lost. I lost 35 40k.

0:15:50 - (Luis Barraza): He at least got a house with equity, which cool for him, but I ended up taking a loss on supposedly a 50 50 partnership. And then pretty much we didn't talk after that flip. And I kind of got blamed for it, saying that I went over budget. But I was like, dude, we just bought the house at a terrible time. We bought it at the peak of the market. I knew that shit was looking too pretty, and I was like, bro, it's not a good time to buy. And then I just got.

0:16:15 - (Luis Barraza): I just did it. But at the end of the day, we all got to take our own losses, and we all have to take our own lessons. And I learned that just because you're a really good friend with somebody doesn't mean that you need to go into business with them.

0:16:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, let's talk more about that. Because I think people, I think have this gloss over them to where it's like, oh, I vibe with this person, we should go into making money and stuff together. What kind of like, that was a big.

0:16:40 - (Luis Barraza): There's a video that I watched. It was Alex Shamozi's video. And he talks about how your partner is damn near should be, like, the opposite of you. Right. Because you don't want to partner with somebody who's good at the same shit that you're good at.

0:16:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): You just want an echo chamber.

0:16:55 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. Because then it's like, why bring somebody on and give them 50% of the fucking profit or whatever the percentage is when you're going to do the exact same thing. So most of the time it's like you can be friends with somebody and do business, but make sure that you guys are good at different aspects of the business. Me and this guy were just very similar. We just hit it off from the day we met and we kind of became like butt buddies for a solid couple of months.

0:17:22 - (Luis Barraza): Hanging out all the time, whatever. We ended up going out of town for like a minute. Cool, whatever. Again, I still like the guy, but I would just never do business with him. That was kind of that. But I would say a lesson there is just because you're friends with somebody doesn't mean that you have to do business with them.

0:17:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Do you see that friendship recovering?

0:17:42 - (Luis Barraza): I don't know. Right now it's just like I'm so busy building my other businesses now that I don't even have time to really talk to people that aren't helping me build my business right now.

0:17:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): He hasn't reached out or anything to try?

0:17:55 - (Luis Barraza): No, we see each other here and there, but it's not like we hate each other. We're just not like. I don't know.

0:18:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is being able to talk about money and losing money like one of the first steps in vetting someone that you can potentially partner with?

0:18:12 - (Luis Barraza): No, I don't think so. I think the biggest thing is just making sure that expectations are set, which we kind of did, but not really. And then one of the thing is just, again, making sure that they're good at other aspects of the business. That's it. I think when people are too similar, they're not going to be good partners.

0:18:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, like you guys underwrode together.

0:18:35 - (Luis Barraza): You guys did numbers kind of, yeah, that's another thing. It's like we were just all over the place. I think we did the numbers, like not even on a legitimate spreadsheet. It was just like, just kind of like semi ballparking shit. Yeah, it was just like, whatever. It was so unorganized. And that was kind of on me because technically the numbers side was supposed to be me.

0:18:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you're the logistics person.

0:18:57 - (Luis Barraza): That was background, but he was like heavy construction side because apparently he had a construction background, but then he was estimating a certain cost and then we went over budget and somehow that was my fault, is what he said. But anyway, again, just because you like somebody doesn't mean you do business with them. But let's move on.

0:19:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are you going to cry? No, I want to make sure you cry on this podcast.

0:19:27 - (Luis Barraza): You can't make me cry unless we talk about.

0:19:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): When we're sitting here. When I was talking to Jay and stuff yesterday, too, we're admiring this space. How did it come to you that, like, hey, I want to make a podcast?

0:19:46 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. I mean, I'm very impulsive, and somebody told Mike I was talking to this kid, and he mentioned it, and I had the extra space because this was essentially just my office. I had just my desk in this corner, and it was cool, but I was like, you know, what can I really do to maximize the value out of this place? And I always wanted to start my own podcast. And initially, that wasn't the intent behind the studio. It was really just the way that I saw it was, it's a one time investment, and after that, it's going to provide semi passive income, and it'll just have me meet cool people, because I've already had a couple cool podcasts just meeting people in here, and it's not even my podcast. Like, you had Jay in here.

0:20:33 - (Luis Barraza): That was cool. I'm sure you'll have other people and so on, but I think it's just a good networking tool. And again, the biggest thing was, it's a one time expense. Most of the things that I bought still hold their value. I can sell everything in here if I really change my mind. And it's just cool to have, and then it's a one time investment, and it's just going to provide a semi good return passively, because I'm not really planning on pushing it too hard. It's really just like a fun little side thing.

0:21:02 - (Luis Barraza): And if it does turn into something cool, if it doesn't, I have zero expectations. If this room makes $0, I'm almost okay with that, as long as it doesn't take my time. Obviously, when it starts taking my time, I need to make some money.

0:21:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:21:13 - (Luis Barraza): But, yeah, it wasn't like a huge, like, oh, I need to make this work. It was just like a little side passion project. I was like, fuck it, let's do it.

0:21:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Because eventually you're going to need to rent out space anyways. And from the coast, I've been telling you what other people roughly are ballpark charging. That comes out of our pocket.

0:21:34 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And I started doing the math, and it's pretty cool because it was just to be very open with the numbers. I spent about ten grand. That's it, like, furnishing it, buying all the cameras, the computers, the equipment, everything. And the only thing I already had was the couch. This couch, everything else I bought just specifically for this studio. And I was like, cool. It's a $10,000 investment. The average market rate for other studios is like four to $500 an hour.

0:22:00 - (Luis Barraza): So I'm like, cool. Mine's not going to be the greatest, but I'll only charge 300. And I did the math. It's like 25 or 30 hours to make my money back. I'm like, okay, that's fair. So I'm like, okay, 25, 35 hours to make my money back. And after that, it's just free equipment, and then I can use it to do my own podcast. And anybody who wants to keep coming back, they can shoot their podcast. And a lot of people don't know they want to have their own studio at home, but they don't know half the stuff behind the scenes on how to do it.

0:22:28 - (Luis Barraza): And that's like the value play for people. That's why you're here. You go to other studios as well. But it's like, because you just want to show up and talk. You don't want to have to deal with everything else.

0:22:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): I started mobile, actually. Like, my first twelve episodes has been mobile.

0:22:42 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:22:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): So it's been like the mobile.

0:22:44 - (Luis Barraza): A lot less work, right?

0:22:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): You would think so, but.

0:22:47 - (Luis Barraza): Oh, no.

0:22:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. It's because you got to find the venue. It's pretty much like coordinating an event of the day. How many times? Coming from logistics. Like, I came from logistics of event planning. So it sounds easy to me. But when I looked into the logistics of setting up an entire studio, I'm like, I don't want people at my house, first of all. Yeah, first of all, I don't want people coming in my house. We ain't that close.

0:23:07 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You don't mind spending money to just show up and talk?

0:23:11 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:23:11 - (Luis Barraza): And then it simplifies your life. How much time are you getting back now that you don't have to go and find a venue? Do that. And this. And that's not just you, it's other people, too. I'm like, that makes sense. And then the whole podcast industry is kind of blowing up. So I'm like, okay, it's a good little side opportunity, which I still kind of don't regret, but I feel like it might be distracting me from the main thing. But at the same time, again, it's not like a huge project.

0:23:36 - (Luis Barraza): It's just for fun. And I wanted to have my own podcast, so I'm like, cool.

0:23:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Do you feel like that's a trait for entrepreneurs? It's like a slight adhd of.

0:23:45 - (Luis Barraza): And that's not good.

0:23:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's not good. I have it. It's fine. We can sit here and openly talk about it.

0:23:49 - (Luis Barraza): The shiny object syndrome or whatever.

0:23:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Terrible.

0:23:52 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. I think being able to control it has been something that I've been working on flexing that muscle because there's been a lot of things that I've wanted to do in the last three, four months. I'm trying to just stay on track with the logistics and the ecom stuff, and I was good. But then again, the only reason I did this was because it was a one time investment, and then it's semi passive. Once it's built out, there's not much to do. If it gets booked out, cool. If it doesn't, whatever, I don't care.

0:24:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): You have a nice office.

0:24:24 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. I'm not relying on this to pay him anything. This is just extra for fun. So that's the only reason I did. It's like, I don't want the stress of having to push it. Obviously, it's still a business. I want it to make money, but it's not a business that I'm like, I need to make this work like my other ones I'm stressed out about. Right. I'm trying to make them work. This is just like, oh, it's cool. It's fun.

0:24:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:24:47 - (Luis Barraza): So it's more like a business project or how would I say it? Like a business. It's still a business, but it's like a fun business. It's not like one that I'm really relying on. I'm just doing it because it was a cool idea.

0:25:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. And plus there's about probably like five to ten that's about to pop up right now because everyone that I'm talking to like, oh, you have a podcast. I'm thinking about starting a podcast, too. How'd you do it?

0:25:11 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I'm like, yeah, well, my way. Oh, you mean like studios or you mean just people starting a podcast?

0:25:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Just starting a podcast. Topics and everything. And then kind of like what we talked about.

0:25:22 - (Luis Barraza): We have referral fees at podspot. No, but, yeah, no, exactly. That's what I mean.

0:25:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I think that once people see other people doing it, it's not like they're incapable, but it's just the material behind it. Do you want to invest in a camera person like I did? I love the editor. I love the creative aspect of being mobile just because it gives me the flexibility. And then I'm grateful for the relationships of the venues that I've been using. It's because it doesn't look so, like, I don't know, like the same all the time.

0:25:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): If you're going to watch all, like, 15th of my episodes so far, it's in light 1234. Like, six different settings.

0:26:02 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:26:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): So it looks kind of cool. So I'm testing it out to see what my vibe is and what I like because I'm still in the experimental stage.

0:26:08 - (Luis Barraza): I agree and disagree. Can I tell you why? I disagree a little bit. So your brand, right? It's like, what's the big podcaster? Rogan. Same set every single day. It's because people want. When you're essentially, you want it to become part of your brand or whatever. So it's like if you have different things all the time, I think it's almost going to be distracting from your message.

0:26:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's what I figured out, too, because a lot of the settings on the first couple of episodes, like, the sound sounds different.

0:26:42 - (Luis Barraza): Exactly.

0:26:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Echo sounds different.

0:26:44 - (Luis Barraza): You got to worry about different.

0:26:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, I'm sitting in a different chair every time.

0:26:49 - (Luis Barraza): Another thing is, I like this podcast set up when you do, like, the couches and stuff, because I feel like the guests get more comfortable versus, you know, the podcast set up where it's like a table. It's like a table with the mics on it. I feel like it's very stiff, and you're just like, hi, I've been there. Yeah, I don't like that. I was on one podcast where it was like a table, and we're, like, face to face, and it just felt very like an interview versus right now. It's like I kind of get, like, a chill vibe, and I feel like it just really loosens people up to just want to talk.

0:27:22 - (Luis Barraza): And it's a comfortable couch. It's cool. But that's my opinion. Some people like the whole table, one that would have been way cheaper to do. If I just got a table and threw some mics on it, that would have been way easier. But I thought it was cooler to kind of make it, like a space, make it, like a little vibe.

0:27:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I did the whole table thing, the headphone thing. I've shot one in the car. Like an actual mobile one from a.

0:27:43 - (Luis Barraza): Car while you were driving.

0:27:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, that's very risky.

0:27:48 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:27:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): So it's mostly, like, learning, I think, your brand, too. What do I like? What do I have time for? And that's why this week's kind of, like an alignment is because I'm like, I just got to show up and talk like no one else. That's it. Yeah.

0:28:02 - (Luis Barraza): That's why I feel like if you can do it, it's, like, the best to be able to. Just like tomorrow, you said you're shooting three. If you have the energy for that, by all means. I feel like that's the most efficient way, is just fucking bang them out. But I did one today as a host, and I was like, I'm tired. It's like, okay, no one a day as a host unless it's like, I have a lot of energy that day or something. But hosting is like.

0:28:30 - (Luis Barraza): It's a whole different. How do you say it? You have to make the conversation flow. You have to make it like, yeah.

0:28:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): You actually have to listen to people.

0:28:38 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. Number one thing right now, I'm just like, kind of shooting from the hip. We'll see what happens. But this is your job, right? It's your job as a host to make the conversation flow. And as a host, it's so much. It's so different.

0:28:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Exactly. I've shot with people where it's really hard to connect with them, and I feel like I'm interrogating them almost, and they're just.

0:28:56 - (Luis Barraza): When it's very stiff.

0:28:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Awkward.

0:28:58 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:28:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): My first one, I was really stiff, too. It's just because I'm like, fuck, that's a lot of cameras. That's a lot of lights pointing at me. And I've never been in that setting before, and it's very noticeable that it's there now. Lately, I'm like, it's a candid conversation.

0:29:12 - (Luis Barraza): Conversation.

0:29:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's a conversation. And the first time, I was just like, oh, my God.

0:29:16 - (Luis Barraza): My name is Tony. Yeah, I get it.

0:29:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): I didn't do any intro or outro.

0:29:21 - (Luis Barraza): I just did that on the last one that I saw with Steve. I was like, hey, this is whatever. And then, okay. Because it's a fucking camera. It's weird, right?

0:29:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, you have to look at it, and it's like, which one do I look like? Which one do I talk to? Yeah, which was funny. Tell me about your podcast, Wieners. Only.

0:29:39 - (Luis Barraza): I mean, that's a very new project as well. And that's just, again, I feel like I'm using it kind of in a selfish way, which, just to be honest, I think I know enough people in business to have some high level guys on it where I can be selfish with the questions and get their advice and their mentorship, I guess for like, an hour, I can have them on, talk about their story, talk about whatever we want to talk about. But then I can selfishly, I get an hour of their time for free, maybe if I don't have to pay them to be on the podcast. But I selfishly can use those podcast interviews, or whatever you want to call it, to kind of answer any questions that I may have, that they might have the answers to.

0:30:23 - (Luis Barraza): And I think that's cool. And the name of the podcast is winners only. Not just because I only want to have winners, but it's like winners at everything. Not just business, like, just people at life, relationships, whatever the case may be. And, yeah, that's pretty much it. I've only had two people on so far, and so far so good. But again, I don't expect it to go anywhere. I'm doing it mostly for fun.

0:30:45 - (Luis Barraza): It's not like, same thing with the studio. It's like, I'm just going to do it, see what happens. I'm not expecting to make a dollar from it. I'm not anything like that right now.

0:30:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think that's another thing with starting a business, too, that you can't really be expecting it to make money from day one. Got to learn to play the game and eventually kind of attract that energy towards you. Just be authentic about it. Because I've seen some people on their podcast, I'm like, oh, you are uncomfortable on your own.

0:31:10 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, as the hose.

0:31:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are you breathing? Are you okay?

0:31:14 - (Luis Barraza): I think another thing is just, like, knowing when to walk away and being okay with taking losses. It sucks, but some businesses don't work out. I lost a lot of money in some businesses, and it's just part of the game.

0:31:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): Same, man. I'm losing money sitting here right now. I got to take that loss.

0:31:31 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, it's hard, but it's like. Yeah.

0:31:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I totally get that. I think that should be a free therapy session. So of that value, of course, you're bringing value to me, too. It's because you're providing me a space, because I hit you up. Hey, this is what I'm doing.

0:31:46 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, right.

0:31:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): And you always want to support your friend's business regardless of the monetary exchange or whatever.

0:31:51 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I guess we can touch on that, because you actually mentioned it yesterday through text. You were like, I don't want any miscommunication. And it's always hard to do business with friends because you feel awkward asking them for money or something. Like, one of my friends, she has a business in Sacramento, and it was like an event planning business or something like that. And she was helping us plan a baby shower.

0:32:15 - (Luis Barraza): And I remember just doing it. And we were just doing it as friends that she forgot to ask for payment. And then I was like, wait, we never paid her. And then I talked to her, and she was just like, I just didn't know how to ask. It was weird. And it's like miscommunications happen all the time when friends do business because people feel weird asking for money. But it was funny because I remember that baby shower, and I was like.

0:32:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. I was very direct over text.

0:32:46 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah, these are the rates. No, I asked, give me the money. But it was like, yeah, because obviously we know each other outside of this business and everything, so it's always weird to use your friend's business if you don't make sure communication is very upfront.

0:33:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, you know what? Speaking on that. Because I used to do events too, and there's a lot of friends who became family or whatever. They just expect me to do shit for free. And after a while, I'm like, this is really awkward, but you got to start paying me.

0:33:17 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:33:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): And they're like, oh, but just help me out. I'm like, me helping you makes me lose thousands of dollars because event planning is not cheap. And they're like, show me your real invoice. I'm like, this is how much I actually charge. And they're like, yeah. I'm like, anyways, if you want to pay half of that, that's cool.

0:33:32 - (Luis Barraza): But then that's another thing. It's like, if they're your real friends, they won't ask for a discount if you offer it.

0:33:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cool.

0:33:38 - (Luis Barraza): But when they start asking for discounts, I'm like, you're not?

0:33:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, they ask for help. Yeah, they're like, oh, can you use your skill to help us with this thing?

0:33:47 - (Luis Barraza): Can you use your debit card to swipe it here?

0:33:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think it was last year that I helped a friend out too, and I forgot to ask for payment. And you just reminded me of a really awkward situation because I just talked to him recently.

0:34:04 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:34:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I was like, fuck. I never got the payment because I flew straight home after that.

0:34:09 - (Luis Barraza): And it's been like, you never asked for it?

0:34:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): I never asked because I fucking forgot.

0:34:14 - (Luis Barraza): But from the very beginning, he was expecting to pay.

0:34:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, we talked about rates. We talked about all of this stuff.

0:34:20 - (Luis Barraza): Too, but the fact that he never reached out, that's shady. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know who you're talking about. And I'm probably friends with them, maybe.

0:34:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, we're all friends with this. I just forgot.

0:34:31 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:34:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): And now it's been like, I don't know what the statute of limitations.

0:34:35 - (Luis Barraza): We can pay. Is it Ed? Come on. Is it for the bartending weddings?

0:34:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:34:48 - (Luis Barraza): Why did I know?

0:34:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): Fuck. Because we're friends.

0:34:53 - (Luis Barraza): And I love Ed. So it's like, I don't think he did that on purpose. I think maybe it was just a miscommunication. Yeah.

0:34:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I think that was my fault too, because I kind of forgot too, because I was distracted with other things. And now that it's been, like, six months, eight months, whatever. And I'm like, oh, this is awkward. And I wanted to catch up with him when he's here. Yeah, we'll bleep that part.

0:35:13 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, moving on. Yeah, I get it.

0:35:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): But that's why with the miscommunication thing.

0:35:21 - (Luis Barraza): I'm making a mental note to know when to cut it out.

0:35:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. No, when I even do business, I'm speaking not just as a woman, but it's not like all girls do this, but I just don't be expecting shit for free because I know that that's a big thing out here. I don't want to generalize everyone and everything, but once you kind of step into a business, they're like, oh, why are you even paying? Like, you're a girl, you're attractive. Ask for discounts. I'm like, I was like, I don't know if I'm doing it wrong as a girl, but I've never asked for anything. I'm like, what is it?

0:35:52 - (Luis Barraza): Even when they ask, I think it's better than when they assume. I feel like when people assume it's an issue when they ask, cool, maybe they're not like, yeah, whatever, but don't assume. I would at least ask, yeah, but sometimes when people assume, it's like a.

0:36:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): Whole different, like, you can still negotiate. Like we negotiated. Yeah, this is what I want to do this week. Boom, let's make it work. I'll meet you in the middle.

0:36:15 - (Luis Barraza): We haven't even really finalized everything. Because I trust you. Also, it's like, if I didn't trust you, it'd be a whole different.

0:36:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): You don't know where I live.

0:36:21 - (Luis Barraza): You can't find me, so that's a whole different thing. It's like, yeah, I think it's also who you trust and who you don't trust. But, yeah, I think doing friends with business is like, that's fine, as long as you get. Again, communication is very upfront from the beginning, and the stage is set from the beginning, like, this is it. Cool?

0:36:39 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:36:40 - (Luis Barraza): Do you think I did a good job at setting the stage with us, with this studio?

0:36:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:36:45 - (Luis Barraza): Okay, cool. Because with one other friend, they assumed that they were just going to use it for free just because they were my friends. And I was like, what? No, that's not how it works.

0:36:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:36:57 - (Luis Barraza): And I'm not going to say who it is, but it was like, is that really, like. I don't know. It was weird.

0:37:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I was transparent. I'm like, this is how much I'm paying. This is how much the other studio wants.

0:37:06 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And I was like, I'm way fucking cheaper. No, but again, we talked about it from the beginning and it wasn't, like, a weird thing.

0:37:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Money shouldn't be weird between friends.

0:37:16 - (Luis Barraza): But this thing, this conversation happened. They're like, oh, when is it free and when can I use it? And I'm like, oh, yeah, just let me know when. And I'm like, they're like. And I think I failed to bring it up, but it was just like, they showed up, and then I was like, okay, so these are the rates. And they're like, oh. And I'm like, what did you mean? What do you mean? I'm taking time out of my day to do this. I have another business to run.

0:37:39 - (Luis Barraza): And to be honest, it was like middle of the day. He showed up at, like, 02:00 and I was like, yeah, that's cool. That's fine. It was scheduled, but I think the expectation that he was going to be paying was not because I have to take time out of my other business to do this. So it's like, yeah, it was funny. And I was just like, dude, what are you doing? And then he left. But I was like, all right.

0:38:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Even between two guys, I'm hearing that there's always miscommunications because you can't be.

0:38:08 - (Luis Barraza): Assuming guys are bad communication.

0:38:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Needs, wants, expectations. Got to be upfront.

0:38:12 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I need this.

0:38:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like I said, I'm like, I need this. And you want this because you're payment. I'm like, how do we meet? In the middle?

0:38:18 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And then one other thing is that you told me that you were already, which I'm assuming you're friends with the people who own the other studios that you were using. But if I ever have that opportunity where if I'm already paying for a service and my friend starts a business as soon as I'd rather support my.

0:38:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): Friend, then I sent that text to you, right?

0:38:36 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. I think you said that you're like, I'm already spending on this anyways, so I was like, yeah, cool.

0:38:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): You should pull up that text. I'm just here to support you, bro.

0:38:45 - (Luis Barraza): I don't know.

0:38:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Just frame it on the wall.

0:38:48 - (Luis Barraza): I'm going to put this text in the friggin thing.

0:38:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are you going to crop out this exact segment of how I'm actually paying you?

0:38:57 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, exactly.

0:38:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): As a public. She's actually paying me. There's no affiliate marketing, which there should be.

0:39:03 - (Luis Barraza): There is, though. There is, though. We have referral fees. Are you going to the event next week with that influencer?

0:39:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): That is very generic.

0:39:15 - (Luis Barraza): The very big one in Vegas.

0:39:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): Okay. No. Okay. That is a very generic question.

0:39:21 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. Where we met, I guess.

0:39:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Okay.

0:39:23 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because I think that's next week. But I'm trying to have a bunch of them because I may have a lot of friends that are still in that mastermind and I'm marketing a lot of them for the podcast room, but I don't think that I'm charging their asses. I'm not going to just let it out. Yeah, but the tv happened again. Just grab the remote and just turn her off. I don't know why it keeps doing that.

0:39:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): How do we turn on the screen?

0:39:48 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, just the little power button. Don't trust him. What?

0:39:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): How do we turn it back on the screen? Turn it back on.

0:39:56 - (Luis Barraza): You want to just pause? We can just keep recording and then crop it in. Okay. All right.

0:40:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'll be back. That's for your editors to worry about, not me.

0:40:05 - (Luis Barraza): It's, like, weird. It keeps doing that. Yeah, but it's the tv that timed out and it's not supposed to because I have it. Maybe there's a timer.

0:40:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:40:26 - (Luis Barraza): Angle still look good.

0:40:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's got, like, five chins now.

0:40:31 - (Luis Barraza): And we're back. But we never let my zippers down.

0:40:38 - (Tawni Nguyen): I didn't even look at your crotch.

0:40:39 - (Luis Barraza): The whole time, dude.

0:40:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): My bad friend.

0:40:41 - (Luis Barraza): Or where were we at? And crop it in right here. Cool.

0:40:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): But, yeah, so when you said you still have liquidity because you have a kid on the way, too, and you.

0:40:54 - (Luis Barraza): Have your card, he can literally be due today. Tomorrow. He's due, like, any day.

0:40:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, my God. That is so stressful, dude.

0:40:59 - (Luis Barraza): I know.

0:41:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): What the fuck?

0:41:01 - (Luis Barraza): My phone's on silent. What if she's in labor right now? She's like, fucking do any day. Roman ace.

0:41:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): Roman Ace.

0:41:11 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:41:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): What's the inspiration behind the name?

0:41:14 - (Luis Barraza): I love when people ask that because it's literally just that it sounded badass.

0:41:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Roman ace. And Ryder.

0:41:20 - (Luis Barraza): Ryder. Cash. Ryder. Cash. Roman. Ace.

0:41:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, you got pre tatoos.

0:41:26 - (Luis Barraza): You mean this one's already born.

0:41:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): I know, but you got that?

0:41:30 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, yeah.

0:41:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): So you planned the name before the tattoo?

0:41:34 - (Luis Barraza): Yes, I got the tattoo as soon as we decided officially on the name.

0:41:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, holy shit. So with the business and everything and you have your cash flow, do you know exactly how your lifestyle is with two kids and a wife?

0:41:47 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I mean, I think for the most part, again, the business is burning cash and everything, and we're getting it going, but I'm liquid enough to not work for a few years and be chilling. So if I really can't make it work in three years, then I really should be stressing out. But if I can't make it work in three or four years, then I deserve to fail. I feel like a lot of people, I'm very grateful for the position I'm in, and, yeah, I think I still get stressed out, and sometimes I push that stress onto Lexi where I'm like, oh, we're burning cash, but it's like, really, we're fine.

0:42:27 - (Luis Barraza): Most people, I mean, statistically, I think it's, like, over 90% of America, like, one bad car repair, and they're fucking upside down, and they're behind on their mortgage.

0:42:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:42:36 - (Luis Barraza): So it's like, I am in a good position, and I'm not, like, ultra filthy rich, but I'm comfortable enough to. I could take a few years off, really, but obviously, I would never do that, because then essentially, you got to use that time to build the next thing if the first thing isn't working. So I'm like, yeah. Again, the best way that I can phrase it is I'm not comfortable. I'm definitely, like, swimming hard, but I'm not, like, drowning.

0:43:08 - (Luis Barraza): I'm essentially using my life reserve. My boat. I got a life raft on right now. Yeah, I got a life vest. Yeah, I got a life vest, and we're good. But it's also just like, I don't got the boat yet.

0:43:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): You don't have the yacht yet?

0:43:21 - (Luis Barraza): You're terrible analogies. But, yeah, I got the lifesavers on the life vest, and I'm swimming to the boat right now.

0:43:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think a lot of people don't share that too, right? Yeah, because they only see the glamorous.

0:43:35 - (Luis Barraza): Especially when your friends are still doing well, even during these recessions or whatever the fuck you want to call it. It's like, yeah, but at the same time, it's like, a lot of it's just all smoke and mirrors also. They're just faking. A lot of your friends are just pretending to make money right now. I feel like a lot of people's egos don't let them really tell the truth. And I'm cool with telling the truth. I'm like, yo, bro, shit's hard right now.

0:44:02 - (Luis Barraza): I'm trying to learn this other shit, because the last two years, it's been so easy to sell anything. I could post an Instagram story and sell shit because everybody had extra money. Like, stimulus. You had fucking all this money being printed. People were getting their unemployment, which was like four or five grand a month, I think, when what? Unemployment during COVID was, like almost four grand a month if you qualified for it, I think, yeah, it was like, a lot. People were getting just.

0:44:31 - (Luis Barraza): People were just getting free money. So imagine not having to work and you're getting four grand a month. I was able to sell everything on Instagram just through social media. So I've never been a good marketer. I never ran ads. I never did any of that shit.

0:44:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): No PPP or whatever.

0:44:45 - (Luis Barraza): Now I have to really work for people's money, right? So I need to give them a reason to give me their money, because now it's, like hard earned money for the most part. So now I have to figure out how to run ads to start marketing. I'm trying to figure out how to do other marketing channels for the business. Whether it's cold, dms, whatever. I'm trying shit out. I'm learning. And it's like, people are so scared to talk about eating shit because eating shit sucks.

0:45:09 - (Luis Barraza): It's like, yeah, I'm eating shit right now. And then I'm over here fucking. I still have two or three clients that I'm trying to service their store. So I'm like, I'm eating shit for other people. And now it's like, I got other money, other people's money on the line. So it's like, yeah, it's hard, but at the same time, again, most people would still kill to be in a position that I'm in, to be able to fail and still be fine.

0:45:33 - (Luis Barraza): And again, I don't even call it failure. I think it's like, l lesson l is for learning, not for losing. Yeah, winners only, right? Yeah, winners only.

0:45:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Another step.

0:45:45 - (Luis Barraza): Being a winner is as cliche as it sounds. I think you got to lose a lot to be a winner. Nobody just started winning day one, because.

0:45:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): If you make two grand, you probably lost ten grand, something. You make two mil, you probably lost ten mil. Before that.

0:45:58 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, exactly. What's that saying that you got to lose thousands to make millions? Lose millions to make billions, whatever. So that's where I'm at right now. It's like, yeah, I'm throwing money at this thing and just not this podcast room, like, the businesses in general and just trying to make more, but if they don't, then I can always pivot in a year. So I did give myself, like, a time frame, essentially. I gave myself a year to see if I see any progress.

0:46:22 - (Luis Barraza): And if I don't see anything happen from a year from now, which I'm at four months, technically. So essentially just this year, January, by December. So we're about six months left. If I don't see any sort of progress or light at the end of the tunnel type thing, I'm just going to pivot. We'll see what happens if I have to leave ECOM in general.

0:46:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cool.

0:46:41 - (Luis Barraza): I'll leave ECoM again. Luckily, I have my rentals and I have my other things that keep me afloat. So I'm like, okay, well, we'll see what's next. I'm 28. Also, people always like, I always feel like I'm old, but I got so much fucking time. Yeah, there's guys that I know that didn't start doing anything till they were in their mid 30s. I'm like, you got time, dude. Got time.

0:47:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's still young, too, because there's a lot of people in their forty s and fifty s that's restarting their life over.

0:47:06 - (Luis Barraza): So it's like, all right, I got time to fuck up. Like, this is fuck up time. And, yeah, it's scary to time to fuck up with two kids, but at the same time, it's like, yeah, just.

0:47:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like yesterday, I was like, hey, I'm fucking up. This is how much money I'm fucking losing.

0:47:21 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, we were talking, but it's the.

0:47:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): First year that I'm not doing anything else.

0:47:24 - (Luis Barraza): Sincerely apologize, because I actually got you involved in that business. But it's like, I ended up losing over a lot of money in that business right now. I'm not losing money in that business, but I'm floating. Yeah, it was a bad timing. And the shitty part is, it was a lot of our friends.

0:47:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): I need to cut the cords. That was me. That was. See, that's the accountability that I had to take. I should have just followed my gut. But since it's speaking, I'm like, oh, I'll give it six months. Because I gave myself a timeline, too. And then once the six months hit last month, I should have fucking pulled. And I'm on the end of the six months.

0:48:02 - (Luis Barraza): It's funny because you said you talked to our other friend. He's like, dude, I broke it off a lot a while ago. Yeah. And again, it was a lot of my friends that I got involved. How do I explain it? I would have never got my friends involved if I didn't think it was a successful business model. Right? So it was Ed, I think Renee, Ed's partner, bought a couple stores.

0:48:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are we cutting this part out or what?

0:48:25 - (Luis Barraza): I don't care. I talked to the outcomes that we can if we want. But again, multiple people bought stores for me, and now it's like, I feel bad because they lost money.

0:48:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm like, oh, wow, that's part of business, too.

0:48:38 - (Luis Barraza): And it's like, your reputation is on the line also, because now I don't feel comfortable selling anything right now until I get this new business going. So it's like, I want to get back into coaching and teaching people how to make money online. I don't think I'll do automation again, but I think I will do, like, a handheld service. Like, hey, let me help you run your own store versus do it for you type thing.

0:48:59 - (Luis Barraza): Because of that, I had a bad situation. It was really good for like a year and a half, two years, and then it just all went Downhill in a matter of, like, six months.

0:49:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I think everyone I talked to, all their shit set on fire all.

0:49:09 - (Luis Barraza): At once was, if you talk to anybody in the end of it was like, middle of the summer last year, everything just fucking went up in flames. It was like, oh, Amazon's fucking shutting everybody down. Walmart shut everybody down. So we lost all this money, we refunded Walmart clients. And again, it was a nightmare. And it was like, and not to talk numbers, but you got the homie discount. Some people played 2030K, so that was a lot more money.

0:49:38 - (Luis Barraza): And those guys are in the same position that you are. So again, it was a nightmare, and I still feel bad about it, and it's almost awkward to talk about it with other people. And it's like, sorry, I don't think.

0:49:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): People even have the stomach to even talk about losses. It's because it's hard, too, even for a girl. It's like, we don't like losing money like no one does. But I've lost much more money before that, so it kind of got me to here. So it kind of softens the blow a little bit. Because it builds my skin. Because before the first time I lost money in business, oh, my God. I cried for like months.

0:50:11 - (Luis Barraza): What was the business?

0:50:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): It was bad. It was the people. No, that one. I was making a lot of money.

0:50:19 - (Luis Barraza): It was something rich.

0:50:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): It was the people I should have never been involved with just making some bad moves and never woke up the same. It was like a trauma that kind of stuck with me forever.

0:50:30 - (Luis Barraza): That was like my last flip, and.

0:50:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): It still haunts me. And I'm like, can I trust myself to make this decision is because you don't really understand how soul sucking it is to take a loss and then realize you took a loss and then lived in denial. I lived in nile for like, two years. I'm like, I can't believe I did that. And it's gone. This numbers on a screen, it's gone. If it blows up, it's gone. What are you going to do?

0:50:51 - (Luis Barraza): Just numbers gone?

0:50:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:50:55 - (Luis Barraza): I don't know if this is invasive. How are you making money right now? What's your business, your main business right now?

0:51:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): I cut that off and we're going to multifamily. And then now I'm doing this podcast.

0:51:08 - (Luis Barraza): Okay.

0:51:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I'm on my life vest right now.

0:51:10 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah.

0:51:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I'm finally doing something that I feel more connected to and intuitively guided towards.

0:51:17 - (Luis Barraza): But in the multifamily, you're just trying to buy, like, apartments or something?

0:51:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:51:21 - (Luis Barraza): Okay. Are you just raising private capital?

0:51:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:51:23 - (Luis Barraza): Okay. Do you have any of your own houses right now? Your primary? Right? You own your primary? Okay.

0:51:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. So that's why I was going to talk to you, like, off camera. We can sit here and talk about that shit all.

0:51:35 - (Luis Barraza): We can talk on camera.

0:51:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. So that's why I understand the six months on the life vesting, because there's months like this to where I'm fine. I'm so grateful that I have a life vest that most people don't.

0:51:47 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. How did you make your life vest? What was the business that you were able to stack some cash away?

0:51:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's overall, I still have residual, even though I did lose a lot of money, but I still have enough liquid to carry me through months like this. It's because I live pretty frugally. I never really. Weird, right? That's the value. It's because I was blowing a lot of money in my 20s, because I was making so much money that I became really. No, I wasn't here, dude. I was never a bottle girl. But I think those values kind of stayed with me because I lost my ways for a few years when I started making a lot of money, and then I lost my ways for like, four years and I looked back.

0:52:28 - (Luis Barraza): Well, luckily, it's not too mad because, again, not a lot of people have that life vest. And if this had happened at the beginning of my business career, I probably would have been spooked and just went back to having a job. So it's like, again, I can understand why a lot of people get scared of the business thing because if you have a really bad mess up at the very beginning, it could just scare you away from business in general, and you'll just be like, you know what? I'll just going to do a good job.

0:52:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:52:57 - (Luis Barraza): Luckily, while I was finally getting into a successful business, I was still in the military. So I had not passive. I had that check from the military coming in every month, and that covered my expenses. So I could run the business and just fuck up and learn and learn and learn. But if you don't have that and you have a regular job, and then you fuck up the business and you're losing all your money, and then it's like, that's the very first time you'll never do a business again. Yeah.

0:53:22 - (Luis Barraza): And I know a lot of people that got spooked, and then they're like, fuck this. I'm just going to get a job.

0:53:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Because they're like, entrepreneurship.

0:53:26 - (Luis Barraza): You get addicted to that paycheck. It's like, nice. You're like, it's guaranteed.

0:53:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's not the money. It's the stability.

0:53:32 - (Luis Barraza): Who the last person to get paid for get paid in this warehouse is you. Me? And it's crazy. I'm like, that makes sense. And it's like, yeah, the business owner has the biggest risk, so they should get the biggest reward, but it's like, I got to pay rent. I got to pay utilities. I got to pay the employees first. I got to pay inventory. I got to pay materials. All of that has to get paid for before I can even pull a dollar out.

0:53:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:53:53 - (Luis Barraza): So it's like, fuck. And everybody glorifies being a business owner. I was like, I'm the last motherfucker to get paid. Yeah, it's not fun.

0:54:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): You're leading an entire business and a team, too.

0:54:04 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. And I'm like, okay, it's all cool, right? It's all cool on social media. Like, yeah, whatever, business owner. But shit's rough, especially right now.

0:54:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. And that was my failure is that I was an operator in the business, and once I removed myself I realized there was no business because it was.

0:54:21 - (Luis Barraza): Me the whole time.

0:54:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): And as much as I was, like, consulting, having other people do my stuff, like, outsource everything, I miss being in it. It's because I'm like, what the fuck.

0:54:30 - (Luis Barraza): Do you essentially owned a job is what they say, right? It's a business.

0:54:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I enjoyed it.

0:54:35 - (Luis Barraza): But you're like, you own a job. And that's what I was doing too at one point. If you can't remove yourself from the business, I think everybody says it's like, it's not a business. And I'm like, yeah, it is. It's just you're fucking working in it.

0:54:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): I mean, if you enjoy it, there's no problem being an operator.

0:54:50 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, as long as you're happy. Operator. I like operator.

0:54:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): Exactly.

0:54:53 - (Luis Barraza): But at the same time, it's like, why do people get into business, right? They want to make money. Why do you want to make money? To have free time. Why do I want to time because you want to hang out with people you fucking want to hang out with, want to have a life, family, love, whatever. So it's like, yeah, I want to hang out with my kids and the family. So it's like, yeah, being an operator is cool, but if it really just takes 25, run your business, then it's not worth it. Yeah, that point, you might as well get a fucking job.

0:55:19 - (Luis Barraza): But I don't know. That's my opinion.

0:55:21 - (Tawni Nguyen): Everybody has six months. I might come work here, bro.

0:55:23 - (Luis Barraza): I might be bankrupt by then. Might not be a job. Yeah, but I mean, talking about bankruptcy, I don't think that that's a bad thing. We live in a country where you can just hit reset. Yeah, your credit is fucked, but you can just rebuild it. It takes five, six years. But look at it. In a long enough time horizon, it's like no other country in the world. Not that I know of.

0:55:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): I was like, once you leave the.

0:55:53 - (Luis Barraza): Country and too busy, can you fucking hit the reset button? No, you're stuck with that shit here. You can go into all the debt, fucking take all the risk. Worst case scenario, you fall bankruptcy and you start over. Starting over isn't that bad. If you already know how to run a business, you can file bankruptcy and just keep some cash in. Cash under the mattress so they can't take that away and then start over.

0:56:20 - (Luis Barraza): And that's scary for sure because it's so hard to get a loan. It's going to be hard to get. It's going to take you five to seven years just to get back on your feet. But you can hit reset. Not a lot of people. Especially if you have, like, a partner that you're not married to. Motherfucker. One of you file bankruptcy, and then you're good. You got to play chess. But, I mean, I would if I wasn't married. I'd be like, yo, look, this shit didn't work. I'm going to file bankruptcy. We're going to use your credit to survive and shit. Dope. Yeah, but anyways, that's just my two cent.

0:56:49 - (Tawni Nguyen): We should probably throw a disclaimer that this is not financial advice.

0:56:52 - (Luis Barraza): Financial advice. Do what I say. But anyway, you don't. Actually. Not financial advice. I'm poor, but, yeah. I don't know.

0:57:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): The realest conversation ever, I guess.

0:57:08 - (Luis Barraza): How long have we been talking?

0:57:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): I don't know.

0:57:09 - (Luis Barraza): I still want to get sued. That's not bad. It's an hour minus, like, five minutes of me getting up and stuff.

0:57:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): And your zipper.

0:57:16 - (Luis Barraza): Was there anything else? Did I tell you my instagram got deleted?

0:57:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, yeah, I was there. I was like, hey, some Instagram user tried to tag me.

0:57:26 - (Luis Barraza): Well, that was me, because I got to have to make a new one. I am Luis Barraza.

0:57:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, well, that's what I was going to ask you at the end, but, yeah, no, I just want to thank you anyways. You cut that out. Your editor is going to watch this. Like, what the fuck is this?

0:57:42 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, you got anything else? Touch on. Feel like. What is it called? How do I explain it? Never mind. I'm blacking.

0:57:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are you blacking out?

0:57:59 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, leave that in there. Anyways, podcasting is not for everyone. I quit.

0:58:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Three episodes in, I quit. Yeah, no, I'm excited to hear your podcast, dude.

0:58:13 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, I'm excited, too. I think it'll be cool. I think I got a lot to learn as far as being a host, but I think it'll be super cool to just learn to be a host and start reaching out to people. Have people on.

0:58:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. 1% better every day. That's all I can hope for. For me.

0:58:29 - (Luis Barraza): Turned off again. Just turn it off. Outro.

0:58:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. No, I just want to acknowledge you for being here today, and thanks for your time. Valuable resource, of course. Might get matching bankruptcies later on.

0:58:44 - (Luis Barraza): Who knows? Hell, yeah.

0:58:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Let's not get there.

0:58:47 - (Luis Barraza): No.

0:58:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): Let's swim to that boat together.

0:58:50 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah, exactly.

0:58:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): So, yeah. So I hope you got some value from today. I know we shoot the shit a lot, but at the same time, it's really enlightening to actually talk to another entrepreneur. That is open and transparent about the failures and all of the hardship it takes to actually pursue entrepreneurship, because it is for everyone, but it's not for, I guess, what is that called? Like, the weak stomach or something?

0:59:14 - (Luis Barraza): Yeah. You got to have a strong stomach. Yeah.

0:59:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): So thanks for tuning in. Stay fit. Stay frugal. I am Tawni Nguyen. You can find me on IG at Tawnisaurus, and you can find him on.

0:59:26 - (Luis Barraza): Instagram at I am Luis Barraza. Peace.