EXPERIENCE 51 | Greg Petri, Founder of One Business Connection

Today's episode was with Greg Petrie, the founder of One Business Connection or 1BC. One business connection has over 60 groups virtually meeting every month, over 40 groups meeting live every month, and they've been in business for 25 years and have over 600 members. One BC is a networking and connections organization, and Greg does that better than anybody I've ever met. He recognizes me every time I visit a chapter, we've only been a member for a year, and he is a savant in knowing how to keep pushing toward that victory that your business deserves. And so we learn a lot about Greg, his philosophies, and we find a lot of connection in this conversation. So listen in, listen up. Greg is a great guy that's built a great business, and you'll enjoy it. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Local Experience Podcast. I'm your host, Kirk Bear. This show is produced by me and my team, and sponsored by my small business, local Think Tank, and sometimes others. Episodes feature a range of local and regional business and community leaders as guests in a conversational interview format. Our guests are interesting and successful people with unique business journeys, and the more business education and unbarnished truth we can uncover, the better. You'll feel like you really know our guests after each episode, and if I'm doing my job well, listeners will find business principles and tips from their journey, and a greater appreciation for each of our guests. Woven into these long format experience episodes are occasional thoughtful episodes. Topically focused snippets of five to fifteen minutes where our guests unfold important and timely business truths. And also I'll read the local perspective blog posts, because I'm lazy to infer to listen and read, and maybe you do too. Thanks for tuning in, and if you'd like to show a please subscribe, review, and share it with your favorite people. Welcome back to the Local Experience Podcast. This is your host, Kirk Bear, and I'm here today with Greg Petri, and Greg is the founder of One Business Connection, or One BC as most of us know, and it's an amazing Colorado-based networking organization, and Greg, why don't you just set the stage and describe One BC a little bit today, who the clients are, what your activities are, and just kind of what, give us a bird's eye view. Well, I tell people, actually told it in one of our networking events today, there's some numbers, 60, 40, and 25, and people go, what the heck is that? And what it is is we do 60 virtual networking events a month, 40 live networking events a month, and we're just about a couple months away from hitting our 25th year in business, right? And so the goal is to connect you as an entrepreneur, a business professional, a business owner, or a sales professional of any size organization, that's kind of our target market, with people that can help you grow your business, or can be good referral partnerships, or even people that can just inspire you to say, wow, I just didn't believe I could go that big or do those things. So it's really a connection organization. Learning from each other in a different way than our people do at local think tank, but still inspiring that connection for learning. Yeah, well, I haven't been to your local think tanks, I need to find out what you guys are talking about. You do, you do. So tell me about virtual, I confess I've only been to one virtual event, and that was kind of an unusual one. So when you say a virtual event, is that like an educational event, or is it more networking focused? Well, you've been to our regular networking events, and the live meetings. And we do those for many, many years. So I just love doing them. I really do. They're just exciting and fun, and get to know people. And each person gets to talk about what they do, and what is their business, and what are good referrals, what are good connections, what are ideal clients for that. And the virtual platform just replicates that, it really does. And I think I told you this earlier that, you know, five or six years ago, I was on a Zoom call for an entire year with a business consultant, well, she was a mastermind professional. Her name was Karen Greenstreet, and I was on there to learn how to run Zoom calls. Right. And so well, also to learn how to run masterminds. She was out of Philadelphia, so we had people from all to the country. You know, many years ago before this whole thing happened, you know, with the change. And so when, you know, that COVID, I guess you want to call it, hit, we, you know, we just, you know, we just turned on a dime and started doing virtual meetings, and I felt really comfortable with them. And I really like them. They really are a future. I use Zoom a lot more, not necessarily for our meetings, but just for getting to know people, you know, it's really a lot more personable, and you can reach such a larger audience. So, okay. And those virtual meetings, are they segmented? Or is it like, this is the Longmont chapter, but it's a virtual chapter, so it's mostly Longmont people, but they're on their zooms. Or how do you, like, 60 of them, it's a lot. Well, we do different kinds of Zoom meetings. For example, this morning, we did one on wealth expansion. And it was all about how are you going to expand your assets? How are you going to expand your business? I can expand your cash flow. So a lot of our calls are topic focused. We do a Zoom call on leadership based on John Maxwell's, you know, information. We do another Zoom call on consciousness, which is really fun. And the woman that runs it is out of Los Angeles or Southern California. And she has a doctorate in consciousness. So it's on abundance and prosperity. So we do a lot of those types of meetings, but we also do the regular networking meetings, where, okay, we do an East Coast networking meeting on Monday. And so 10 a.m., you're going to get people, a lot of people from the East Coast, from Florida, from Long Island, you know, from different areas. But anyone as well as welcome to join, if they're a member. So you might get somebody from Oregon that still goes to the East Coast. Right. And we're starting a new Western regional networking event. So, you know, we want to catch people from Oregon, you know, Nevada, California, Arizona. So we do them in different ways. And are a lot of your clients B2B then, or both B2B and B2C? They're both. They're both. But we got a ton of B2B. Like we do a Thursday morning networking event that's strictly business to business. So commercial business to business. And it's really one of our best attended, you know, because, you know, these are people that just want to connect. And many of them want to connect nationwide. I'm just in Colorado. Well, congratulations. I mean, it's, it's amazing to see so many people impacted. And do you share how many members you have these days? You know, I don't know for sure. But I'd say six, seven hundred. Okay. Yeah. That's a nice number. Yeah. Yeah. Now we want to go way beyond that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's kind of like anything. When you do something for a while, just go, I'm only scratching the service. Yeah. That's possible. Right. Yeah. Well, let's talk about like 25 years ago, what month is your birthday coming up or already passed? You mean for when since the first one BC? Yeah. No, it was somewhere around May or of 1997. Okay. So we're coming up on it pretty quick. Yep. And it started in Boulder. Okay. You know, I actually Louisville, which is right next to Boulder. Okay. But our first networking event was in Boulder. Well, describe the, describe your life at that time. Like what were the circumstances that led up to that? Had you been involved with other networking organizations or things like that? Were you new in mortgage lending and you needed to build a group? Like tell me about the state. What inspired one BC's first meetings? Well, the fun part of the story is I've got a degree in creative writing. Okay. And so I love writing. And usually I write every day. And I think sometimes it's really fun. You know, I don't know if you've ever heard of that book called Eat That Frog. Yeah. You know, by Brian Trace. And he said, do the most difficult thing in the morning. And then everything takes care of itself. And and so that's like eating the frog. So he said, if you have two frogs to eat, always eat the ugly one first, right? Now, I'm kind of from a different point of view. I'm from the point of view, is do something extremely creative in the morning. And that's what I do. I write. And I just, and when you do that, you start opening up new opportunities and your mind starts thinking differently about what's going on during the day. So every day I write and it's creative writing. And so I was writing in 1996. I was writing this stuff called dang near cowboy poetry. Okay. Because I grew up in a small town up in the mountains called Gunnison. Okay. And a lot of my friends were ranchers and you know, things like that. And so people loved this cowboy poetry because I was publishing it in a humor newspaper in Boulder. Okay. And the reason I, you know, got to publish it there was because I was doing all the sales for the newspaper. So I was doing all the ad sales. And so one day I went to the guy go, you know, I'm making all the money here. You're just sitting home and you're in your, you know, get your computer. I won't be graphic, but he really did just sit there in his underwear, his computer, and I did all the work. And he goes, I go, let me be a partner. And he goes, no, I can never make you a partner. I is my company. And I go, okay. So then I start thinking, well, there's got to be a better way to serve business owners. And just saying, oh, all you need is an ad in a humor newspaper. Right. So I came up with an idea of calling the company one business connection where business owners can come to get the connections they need to grow their company. And it didn't matter any kind of marketing. So a lot of times what I call our organization is an alternative chamber of commerce focused on marketing. And so anything that has to do with marketing, people, I just say, hey, you know, if it works, good for you. You know, effective marketing is like free. It really is. You do it right. And so we started, somebody once said then, or during that time period around 1997, somebody said, well, why don't you start these lead scripts? Right. And I go, okay. And I started them and people just start coming to them. And so we just did one, two, three, four. And then we just kept doing more and more and more. But we always have that element of doing marketing because I do believe there's so many different ways to market your company and be open to new ideas, new things that are happening in the marketplace. Yeah. You know, well, and people think about marketing and networking as being kind of two different things like marketing is kind of what you do. So you don't have to get out there and meet people and stuff like that. And networking is, you know, what you do when you do want to do that kind of activity. But that's not really so. Am I? Well, I mean, my opinion and the way I look at marketing is it's this giant umbrella that is over everything. So underneath that umbrella is networking. Underneath that umbrella is sales. Underneath that umbrella is SEO. It's, you know, social media. Anything that has to do to promote you is marketing. And so networking is a subset of marketing. It just sales is a subset of marketing. Yeah. And and someone once told me many years ago, you know, you want to get three legs working in your marketing, kind of like a stool. Okay. So that stool will, you know, stand perfectly. And so I do think people should be very, very excited about different kinds of marketing that can work. Oh, you might not know what those three legs are. There's three out of 15 different legs kind of. Well, yeah. And it doesn't have to be three. It might be 10. It might be 15. It might be more than three. But more than one. But yeah, ultimately, but yeah. Yeah. So like sales, people think sales is not networking. And I tell people, if you can sell and you're good at it and you have a positive energy around sales, you'll do better at networking. You just will. So a lot of it just combines together. And, you know, like in two days from now, we're going to do an event. It's a virtual event. And it's on, it's on sales funnels. All right. And the kid that's going to be one of the speakers is 23 years old. He did $800,000 of business last year for his company. I mean, he's the owner. Right. And he was homeless when he was a kid. Wow. And he was in a mastermind with less brown. Have you ever heard of that? I don't know who that is. Yeah, less brown is like a real famous motivational speaker. Okay. And and so he's going to show people how he can take a company that's doing maybe $100,000. And he did this with a company last year and he brought him to $800,000 just for sales funnels and online and, you know, buying ads and organic searches. But why not? If it works, it's great. Yeah. And kind of testing a lot of things. So, you know, which one which ones work for your business, right? Right. Right. Fish where their fish are. But you don't necessarily always know where their fish are. Well, exactly. And so like split testing and figuring out which ones work better. Yeah. I was when you were talking about your writing earlier, we were talking about a Samuel Clemens quote, our Mark Twain quote earlier. And one of my favorite quotes of his that I share is I'd have written a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time. And I think when we write, it's, you know, it's so hard to be concise and oh, yeah. So like, does that happen like one month, two month, three months, four months that you started these leads group? And did you already have like a brand and stuff where you were like, I'm one piece, one business connection and come to the bank of whatever. And we're going to be in their meeting room on such and such a day. You know, it's been so long ago. I don't think I can remember. Really? But I do know that there was many renditions of the name like it was one one bolder solutions and a bunch of different names. Okay. And I don't know if people have ever wanted to choose a name for their company, but it's not easy. And you got to go and it took me hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. And finally I came up with one business connection and it just stuck. And then I went, wait a minute, that's really what we're doing. You know, what's the, you know, I wrote a book too called The Power of One Business Connection. And it's how to work by referral. But, you know, once we did that, it was not easy. You know, I don't know if you've heard of certain businesses that they start and they're an automatic success and you can't even believe it and they're knocking down the door. I see them occasionally. But they don't have her own. No. Yeah. And I grew up in Gunnison. I don't know if you know where that's at. Yeah. You know, up by Crescue. Yeah. I had an alternate or go out of my old Jeep in Gunnison one time. Oh, did you fix it up there? Well, my mom and dad were both entrepreneurs and my dad owned a plumbing business and my mom on day, they started an Italian restaurant. And when they started that Italian restaurant, it was like that that people were beating down the doors. I mean, it never stops. Right. It never slowed down. It was under-restraunted period. They had good food at good prices. Yeah. And to this day, which is, I don't even want to tell you how many years later, it sold a couple of times and it's still the same way. It's just, it just goes. Now, my business was not like that. I mean, it was a lot of work and my first member I ever got was in Longmont, Colorado. And he wrote me a check for the whole amount of my membership was and I actually cried for like a whole year. Yeah, for a whole year, which was what? Yeah. It was like back to that. It was like a couple hundred bucks. Right. Yeah. And I was like, I actually cried. I didn't think somebody would actually do that. Right. Because they were paying me these little monthly fees and I was doing everything I could to survive. Right. But sticking with it, and I think you know, and I think most people know persistence is the key determination is the key and we're giving up. Perseverance. Perseverance. No, perseverance. Oh, yeah. Perspiration and perseverance. Oh, yeah. It's actually true. Hard work for a long time. Right. So tell like were you swimming naked? Like not metaphorically, but you didn't have a job. You didn't have other income. You're just slinging these. Got these three or four kind of networking groups together. And it's 20 bucks a month or 30 bucks a month for these people. Yeah. Exactly. Wow. And then doing everything I could to stop by a retail store and pick up my little check for the month. I mean, yeah, that kind of stuff. And, and, and then, you know, trying new things. And, you know, over the years, we've done, you know, inspirational events. We've done masterminds and different things. But the majority of the revenue does come from networking. People do like to pay for network. Yeah, they pay membership fee annually, typically probably. Well, we do both, you know, we do both. We do monthly and we do annually. But it's, yeah, it's just, it's just people, you know, it just keeps growing and growing and growing. And the vision kind of gets bigger and bigger. Yeah. Can we, um, let's, before we talk about the vision too much, let's talk about that like evolution a little bit more. Like when did it start to bear fruit? You know, was it, when you were finally around 10 different groups or things like that, whether it was, you could actually, you know, make your rent payment and fill the fridge up with groceries and that kind of thing. Or how many years of, of perseverance did it take? Um, I don't know. I really don't. I mean, you know, because when you're building a business, at least when I was, yeah, and, you know, was not funded, you know, I came out of a pretty much zero money. Right. And so it wasn't like I had a lot of resources, you know, we owned a house. Um, and you know, it's like in that era, you, you borrow from your house. Say we, you had a wife. Yeah. Why children as well. Yeah. And they wanted to eat every month. They kind of did. It was weird. Yeah. They wanted, they wanted to like, you can eat today. Okay. So you'd borrow from every little resource, borrow from life insurance, borrow anywhere you can to survive. And then, you know, after a number of years, yeah, you start saying, okay, what are my goals for the month? What am I going to head? What are my revenues? How do I beat that? And then it just starts growing and growing and it's still never easy. It's not like, okay, we're on easy street now. Yeah. But it's, it's a lot more stable. There's a bigger foundation. There's a group of people that have been members from 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And so there is a lot of stability. So to answer your question, I think it's really a good way to answer it is through the, the book, the EMF by Michael Gerber, which I'm sure you run across. And he said, the, you know, I'm pretty sure it was in that book. He said 80% of businesses will fail in the first five years. Yeah. So getting past the five year mark for everyone, I think it's, it's a big milestone. And once you get past five years, another quote is that 80% of those businesses will fail in the next five years. So those things of having those milestones and saying, hey, if I stay with it and I create and, and keep setting my goals and, and, you know, I walked in here today and I just see your, you know, you get a lot of books, you know, we're really advocates of reading those empowering books to help you to grow personally. And as you do that, your business grows. Yeah. I was, I was just thinking to myself, how many people I know and like people think of me as like Mr. Fort Collins and it curt knows everybody. But you've got to know, like, that's one of the reasons I'm fascinated by you is you've got to know like 10 times as many people as me or maybe more than that. Well, you know, the, the thing that I have the most fun with these days, yeah, it's just meeting people. I mean, you just, you know, I, I, I use a lot of LinkedIn. Yeah. And I call LinkedIn the magic portal. Right. Because some of the most powerful people I've ever met for, or from LinkedIn. But it's, it's just getting a hold of different people and going, oh my gosh. Yeah. I can't believe what you're doing. I met a guy today, or yesterday from Canada, that would be a good connection for you. And they're doing phenomenal. They're getting a thousand to two thousand new clients every month. On this, this program that serves the same target market that I do, you know, I met a person by the name of Preston Weeks, who's out of Arizona. Yeah. And he's a member of our network. And I can't tell you the whole story, right? But he has direct connections to Mark Victor Hanson, which wrote all the chicken soup with the soul. Right. Right. You know, and so you start meeting these people that are doing massive things. And you just go, this is so fascinating. Yeah. It's so interesting. And then these connections that we're gathering or I'm gathering, I can go, hey, this is a great connection for you. This is a great connection for you. Right. And that's where your first instinct is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And like you've already introduced me to three or four people, or maybe half doesn't even. And like you know me every time you see me and stuff. And yes, I'm special. But most of your 600 members or 700 members or whatever are kind of similar, right? Like you kind of know them. You know their business. You kind of remember how long they've been around your organization. You got some kind of weird, super computer brain for that kind of connectivity. Well, I got a really good short-term memory. Okay. Long-term, I doubt. Okay. But I do remember names really well. And but there are a lot of members, you know, over the last few years that I have never met. Right. You know, or that I don't know or they don't know that much about. And that's always kind of fun. You know, because you have an organization that's actually producing without you. Yeah. Yeah. But generally you want to know these people because they're just interesting people. But most of the people on our network, they have one common denominator, which is they are a positive uplifting, inspiring creative people that really do always look for what's possible. And that's kind of a cool piece. Agreed. Yeah. It's part of the language shift, not shift, but intentional language I've been using when I'm talking with potential local think tank members. Right. Is generally I'm curating or vetting these prospects. And and they're almost all people that I would like to have at my backyard regularly. Right. You know, and those are the kind of people that I think that you want to be around. Well, and and it's just more fun. Right. You know, instead of doing a business, I'm just going out there making friends. So talk to me about systems. Because you strike me as kind of like me where you know all the people and you got a gift of gab and you're connecting and making connections. But like managing 600 or 700 memberships has got to be kind of challenging. And like what kind of technologies do you use? Do you have a staff that helps you keep track of a lot of that stuff? How what was the evolution of the business of 1BC? I guess. Well, I mean, there's so many ways to look at it. But one is I don't like doing in systems. I'm I just it's not my strength. But I know the value of it. Why am I working with the the the guy that's 23 years old? Right. He was making, you know, about $70,000 a month through systems and not having to work. And he got bored. It's like the money keeps coming in because I created all these systems. So we got a lot of systems. But I can get a lot better at the systems. One of the systems, of course, as you know, number one is the accounting. Got to have the accounting done correctly. And you know, we use QuickBooks and all that sort of stuff with accounting. But once you get a system like that, you have to put energy and time and people and resources into it. Because just because you use QuickBooks doesn't mean you're using it to its full capability. Right. Right. You know, and then I have a a what do you call it a personal assistant? Okay. Virtual assistant. All right. Then from Venezuela. Okay. And she does probably a hundred and twenty hundred and thirty hours of month working all the online stuff. So when a new member joins, you got to have an onboarding process. Sure. Sure. You know, we send out e-cards. We send out regular cards. We do all kinds of different things. She works a lot of my LinkedIn connections. But you know, here's that organized person kind of that's really keeping track. And here's your one when your anniversary is coming up. Whatever. Exactly. Is she going to when I get my card? Because I think I'm approaching my one year anniversary here soon. Yeah. Yeah. I'll probably get my card and my invoice. Yeah. Yeah. Probably do. But probably card first. Yeah. But she likes that stuff. And she's really good at it. And she's focused on it. And she kind of keeps me focused. Sure. So that that's another system. And then I have a stepdaughter that does a lot of our meetup groups and online and some of the Instagram Facebook stuff. I just hired a new company out of Florida that does Facebook and Instagram and Google and all that. I just don't want to do that stuff. Right. But it's important. Right. It's really important. So you were doing most of that stuff before or who you with. I wasn't doing it at all. Right. You know, I don't I'd never did. I do LinkedIn. Yeah. I love LinkedIn. Yeah. But all the other stuff I just don't do. That's kind of my platform too. Yeah. So we need it. But you have systems. Anything that we can do to system ties what we're doing. But keep the personal element going. Yeah. Because it's so important. Well, and I think one thing I've seen is that you invite people with special skills to share or talents or whatever you were talking about your topical groups on consciousness and wealth and stuff. And it sounds like they actually have like almost like a group leader that shares content every week or maybe there's a team of people that can speak to that. So you're doing a good job empowering others to share into that space as well. Yeah. I mean, I can get better. Leadership is a weird thing. I mean, it really is. And to be an effective leader, we just, you know, it takes a lot of study. Yeah. And you know, I was reading this book by a person I was telling you about before we got on here. Yeah. And he had passed away a couple years ago. And he was in his late 70s. His name was Larry Vellante. And he had taken Samsonite luggage, you know, which is a Colorado company from two billion to four billion in three years at the age of 27. And I'm going, I want to work with this guy. So I got to work with him for, you know, two years where, you know, and he mentored me. And so there was just so much information to learn from minds like that, you know, on systems, on ideas. And he's the one that's, you know, the quote by, you know, Mark Twain about tell the truth because then you don't have to remember anything, right? And it's in his book. But it's a lot about building people. And he said in that book, he said leaders are born. They just are. And you can learn the traits of leaders, but they really are born. And you know, whether you want to believe that or not, it takes a lot of energy and a lot of time and a lot of study and a lot of effort to become a better and better leader, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's important. Yeah. My last boss had a little plaque on his desk that said something like, it is only as we develop others that we find true success in life or something like that. You know, and so inspiring other people to be leaders, I think is a pretty amazing thing. Yeah. And you know, that's like one of my goals this week. I need to at least put five hours of minimum into our leaders because it's the training that will help them to succeed. And when tell me about those people, those leaders, those are the kind of almost like different chapter leaders that they're kind of the main, they're always there and Greg is only sometimes there kind of thing. Well, it depends. You know, I think my biggest limitation is that I love running the meeting so much. I hate to give them up. But in order to create the growth I need, I need people to run these meetings. Yeah. And you might have heard it before, that if you can find somebody, they can do what you do at at least 80%. Let them do it. Totally. Right. So I don't do that. But you know, we have a leader in Colorado Springs. You know, we have a leader for our leadership mastermind. Right. And we have a leader for our wealth, you know, our abundance mastermind. And you know, we have leaders in Windsor, you know, Matthew Powell. I don't know if you know him. Yeah. You know, and so these people, they need to, I need to spend more time with them. Yeah. I really do. And say, hey, these are certain things that you can do to build your group because we know how to build groups. So really in some respects, those leaders are more responsible than headquarters kind of for for growing those groups. Like they've got ownership, quote unquote, ownership over their territory or whatever or almost. Well, yeah, it depends on how you how they're empowered. Yeah, they're empowered, but they also get a percentage of everything they generate. So they get they get revenue. Okay. Produce. Good. Yeah. So you, yeah. So you've kind of empowered other people to have an income stream, even if it's moderate. Like Matthew's a great example because he's a realtor, right? Right. Like he's going to benefit from being able to have a network of people around. So it's kind of a win-win, but administering, you know, sending out emails and making sure people read the fact that the chapter has moved over to this other new location. Let's paint in the ass and people don't want to do it for a long time with there's no money involved. Yeah. And, and you know, if you ever talk to Matthew and it really is fascinating, the biggest value he's gotten out of our organization is just pointing him in the direction of connections that have helped him in his family, his business and things. I mean, just, you know, like how to set up a trust in Wyoming. I mean, just crazy things that he just values the connections that we've made that have helped him so much. Yeah, I actually realized I don't know Matthew from your organization. I know Matthew from the golf thing he's involved with that I used to be. Anyway, so let's talk about what's next. I mean, you've kind of headed toward to do what we want to do with one BC. I'm going to have to stop going to so many meetings and and take myself out of that space a little bit. What like in the five-year plan, what would one BC look like if you were to say, yeah, we did a good job. Well, I mean, like I'm reading this book by that guy that passed away a couple of years ago. Yeah. And he said you just have to create an exceptional, amazing organization that does what it says it's going to do on time and on budget. And sometimes we get a little lax and it's like, okay, what can I do to create this exceptional organization that will deliver what it promises to deliver? And every time, not just when we feel like it. Right. And so that that's not easy. That's a that's a lot of thought. That's a lot of planning. That's a lot of process. And I think coming back to that one thing, which is vision. And I read a book, you know, I'm sure many people have and you've probably heard of this book called As A Man Thinketh. And you know, James Allen, which was written over a hundred years ago. And he said visionaries are the saviors of this world. And that's a really good way to look at it. That's why I think the entrepreneurial spirit, the people that are visionaries, they're the ones that will make the positive impact that we need in this world. And so going back to your question is getting clear and clear on my vision. Yeah. And what does that vision look like? You know, it's still formulating. Yeah. You know, one thing the vision is is to be the number one live business connection platform on earth, where people can go daily and get people's contact information, get their phone numbers, and see them, you know, rather than like LinkedIn, what let me message you, let's go back and forward, let's set up a meeting on and on, where they can actually go to a place and meet people on a daily basis all over planet earth. That's interesting. So that's really the big vision and inspire these people in all different countries to become entrepreneurs, to use the creative mind. And that because you can transcend all political issues and all governments through the entrepreneurial creative mind, you really can. Yeah. I do believe that. I would say the sector it. Yeah. So maybe you need to buy some virtual real estate in the meta. And it could be like one BC court in the metaverse. In the metaverse? Yeah. I have a guy in Texas I talked to a lot and he was real big into buying gold. And actually a network marketing company. I forgot what it was called. Carrot bars. I don't know if you ever heard of it. I think so. Yeah. And he's now into the meta. And the metaverse. And he's got a lot of interesting that is going on there. So it is kind of fascinating. No, I can see why there would be a lot of demand for that kind of thing. You know, like this different reality where things aren't really the same, but I can kind of create digitally whatever life I want. You know, I don't have to be born short bald and ugly. Yeah. I can be super cool guy, you know. Yeah. And I don't know that much about it. I really don't. But I do know that I have a 16-year-old and she's in there already. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. It's some aspect of it. Right, right. Well, and that's the question right is how much of our lives, how much of our lives being digital will harm us? Yeah. And how much will it help us? Right. You know, because you know, a lot of these kids are so creative because they're so they're they're so plugged into this digital. Yeah. That they they they it stimulates their brain. Totally. Really does. So there's a lot of good things. But then it goes way back. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to say, imagine if like me and you could have a conversation like this, like the appearances would feel like we're here talking, but you're actually in Japan. You know, and we're and we can talk about business and how our two companies could combine these two things to create a different product or whatever. Like it, like there is that opportunity, I guess, for the social medias and the digital real estate to transcend the physical limitations, I guess, of humanity in a lot of ways. You know, I mean, I don't know. I know that, you know, there's we we can do this now, of course, you know, and there's so many different ways to do it. But I do think that I use a quote by Jim Rohn. And Jim Rohn was one of one of the greatest absolute speakers in the world. Yeah. And he said, change your philosophy, change your change your life. And I go back to philosophy because I think philosophy is really, I mean, what are human beings really looking for? Are they looking to make more money? Are they learning really? I think they're they're into one thing. And that is happiness, you know, and peace. And where does this all come from? Go back to the basics of humanity. And it transcends digital. I just think it does. And that is go study Socrates, go study Aristotle, go study Lao Tzu, study the great masters, study the transcendentalist, which I'm really into, like Emerson and Thoreau and and Wallace Wattles and, you know, Ernest Holmes and these guys. And it all comes back to, you know, being in alignment with universal laws that are always there. Right. And can the digital world enhance that kind of transcend it? You know, I don't know. I think, you know, the more things change, the more they say the same. Well, you know, maybe. But like one of the things I heard on a podcast recently is that the kind of, and they were drifting right into our politics segment of the show almost. But is that this trans female or whatever trend, the trans woman trans man kind of thing is almost a precursor battle for the trans humans that you're, you know, not fully human. You got some digital elements to you or whatever. And maybe even there's, you know, it might, can I be a different person inside the metaverse than I am here? And maybe I'm just strapped to my couch eating sugar cookies. And, mostly I live in the metaverse. And is that going to, I don't, I think we're too biological for that not to fuck us all up, I guess, to be fine. And going back to what you're saying is to me, it's all about being content with yourself in this world. Yeah. And when you're content, and I wrote another book called B, just BE. And it's a, it's a beautiful, beautiful, heartfelt book about, about the power of being in the moment, which is really what it's all about. Because, you know, you can go to the future, which is not really, you can go to the past, which is not real. And even this book, you know, from the sky that's, you know, passed away a couple of years ago, somebody said, live for today. Yeah. Today's everything. And, and when people spend a lot of time in nature, and they spend a lot of time out in the, the, the pace of nature, it transcends all digital. I'm sorry. Yeah. Maybe it's just my age and my, my thing. But I really do think it transcends everything people are searching or trying to find through the digital world. And go, go spend, you know, 10 days in the middle of nowhere in nature. I'm telling you, it'll change the way you, you relate to the universe. I, uh, I should have introduced you as founder of one BC and author. Oh, yeah. Um, but yeah, I was thinking about that kind of that notion of a human being versus a human doing. And we're always doing, especially today, right? Like, even if we're in front of our TV, we're watching the TV, you know, and we don't, most humans don't even read books anymore. But if we can just be and be present in the thing that we're doing. And, and I, I try that actually in the shower is where I think of it the most. It's like, Oh, yeah. Don't think about the whole day. Just scrub your armpits, dummy. Just like be here scrubbing your arms, you know, or whatever. And just be taking this shower, not be like everywhere at the same time. Well, yeah. And that's what my whole book's about. And I could go way into how it was written and everything. But the, today I was doing the same thing. I was shaving. And I'm going, there's really no such thing as a habit. Everybody goes, you got to change your habits. You got the good habits and you got the bad habits that it takes 21 days to change your habit. There's no habit if you're 100% aware. Because even if I pick this up the same way all the time, it's not a habit if I'm 100% aware of what I'm doing and being there. So, so I was thinking about sort of similar thing. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. That's pretty fun. So if we were going to have like a, you know, because I would consider you almost one of the gurus of network and marketing in this region. Like if you're going to do a segment on, okay, I'm ready to quit my dumb job. I'm part of the great resignation. And I'm going to start a business, right? And a rational business. I don't know what that business is or whatever. You know, we don't have to have it be a startup software company or whatever. But I'm going to open up Pizzeria. I'm going to do this thing or whatever. Like do you have like things that everybody must do if that everybody must be maybe even or do to be ready for that moment. Well, I think some people have the courage to be ready for that moment and some people don't. Yeah. Some people will never do it. Yeah. I'm that people that say, I'm going to start to start this and they never do it. So it takes courage, but it also, it takes introspection because you don't want to do something that you don't love doing. You know, and you know, if you're working for a company and you know, there's, we have a lot of corporate fallout in our organization. You don't want to ever go back to that world of being, you know, told what to do all the time and worked really hard. You want to do something you love to do. So I don't think it's so much about the business is, are you going to like this? Is it going to be fun? Do you really like it? Now, does it mean it's always easy and you got to quit as soon as you hit a rough spot? No. But you got to search your soul to go, what can I add to the human race that will benefit the human world that I love doing. Yeah. And then monetize it. And then, of course, once you get a little bit close to that, then start reading some of the greatest books ever written. You know, I mean, read the masters in business, read the thinking grow riches, read the Napoleon Hills, you know, read the, you know, the, the Jim Rohn and the Brian Tracy and, you know, and again, one of my favorite is Kevin Trudeau. I just love Kevin Trudeau. You know, he's had a lot of crazy things happen to him, but go to the people that have done it and know how to do it. But Greg, I've started a new business. I don't have time to read. Well, then you will definitely have time to fail. It's true. Yeah. It's really true. Well, I think one thing you said was really important is, you know, where is it where your interests line up with things that people need? Right. You know, it's great that you love whatever supplements. But do people need that? And do you know enough of those people and do you have enough of a heart for like running around and selling supplements all the time to actually make this work? Or is that not as good of idea? Right. Well, yeah, but see the, you know, I'm listening to the CDs that I was telling you about. Do you hear something? Yeah. What's some CDs, Greg? And that you've been listening to? Yeah, they're called your wishes, your command. I don't know if you ever heard of that. I don't think so. And it's by Kevin Trudeau. Okay. And Kevin Trudeau, he was thrown in jail. And it was for fraud. And I am not believing that's really why he was thrown in jail because he fought against the tyranny of corporate suppression and government suppression. Okay. And there's a whole theory behind it. But if you listen to these CDs, it really is stuff that can help any entrepreneur. Okay. And and Kevin Trudeau, if you've ever studied him, he has generated billions of dollars. Okay. So you kind of want to take advice from people that have done these things. Yeah. And it's a lot of it is based on going back to the idea of starting your own business. You can do it. It's just the thoughts that you think. And what he would say in the CDs is don't worry about the how. So many people are frozen in fear because they don't know how to do it. You don't need the how. What you need is the vision and the excitement of what you want. And the how will start happening. And you know, you can call it the law of attraction. You can call it secret. The secret. But there are certain things that are elements in the CDs that they don't have in the secret. Okay. They don't have and think I grow rich that they don't have in some of the masterpieces that supposedly what he says anyway, they took the information out so that you could only get a little bit of success not too much. So Kevin would say. Yeah. That's what we kept him would say. And I kind of agree with him. I can't agree with him. So a lot of it is going back to universal law. You know, there are universal laws that we can tap into. And even Andrew Carnegie, he called it infinite intelligence. Yeah. You know, once you incorporate and align yourself with this higher level divine mind, everything works. Well, and it seems as though, like without question, the lockdowns and some of the mandates and things have been more problematic to small businesses and the entrepreneurs that are forging their own path will say instead of being part of a large organization. And I can imagine a place where that like that could be almost intentional. Like the we don't really want people to be so independent minded. Right. Oh, no. And again, if you study like I study a lot of the conservative points of view, there's so many conspiracy theories. And you can go down so many rabbit holes and you just start wondering what's real. What's not real? Right. And especially when you come to the news media, you know, what can you you trust? What can you believe in? So that could be real. And maybe it's not real. I don't know. But I do know that that someone said if you go back 20 years and do a study, how many entrepreneurs and business owners are in the United States, and how many there are now, there's a lot less. Right. So so the pace of business creation has fallen off dramatically. Right. And again, it goes back to philosophy. I mean, what's the only thing that holds us back from creating anything we want? And to me, it's fear and doubt. There's nothing else. And there's there may be powers. Well, lack of talent sometimes. No. Well, you know, I'm not sure if that's really as important, you know, because I've read many, many people that say, you know, average people with a mon, monomaniacal. What does the word maniacal? No, not maniacal. Mono mono like a very focused. Like a one one focus. Monocular. Yeah, like that. Anybody that has that kind of focus and their average will run circles around geniuses that don't have that focus. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not so much about talent. And I use a quote by Buckminster Fuller a lot. I don't know if you ever studied him. He was one of the supreme geniuses of the 20th century, he invented the geodesic dome and was a physicist, a poet, a philosopher. And he said, and it's really kind of true. Everyone is born a genius. The world just has a way of de-geniusing us. Right. And it goes back to what you're saying is there's probably certain elite powers in this world that don't want you to read. They don't want you to be successful. They don't want you to be independent minded. Because if you can control the people, you can control the flow of commerce. Right. And a lot of it is about money and a lot of it is about power. So I don't doubt that. I wondered when, so when I was in, I guess high school would have been when George H.W. Bush was president. Maybe. That's probably right. I don't know. Early like, yeah, early 90s, 88, who was the president was president 88 to 92? Was that H.W. or just George W. Bush? I don't remember. It doesn't matter. Either way, I remember coming to the conclusion that, oh, wow, the president is not any smarter than me. Or anybody, generally, like it's just another job kind of and how you get there. And, and who our leaders are. And like, it's not like their magic walking on water kind of people in the world. Right. There are some geniuses, certainly, and Buckmeister Fuller may have been one. And there's a lot of geniuses that never even make it to that status, because even though their words are wise, they don't have that charisma that can attract a following. Or, you know, there's this mixture of things that makes somebody potent, right? Yeah. It's a good way to look out. And I think that's probably even in entrepreneurs, there's probably a certain level of necessary potency for them to, you know, it's that perspiration and that perseverance and that inner genius and their desire to do this thing. But they still have to be able to deliver, especially these days, to get a startup business off the ground. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no doubt about it. But I do think that anyone can create what they want with the right mindset, with the right control of their thoughts. Because I think the whole thing has to do with one thing we can control. We can't control the government. We can't control a lot of the things that are going on in politics. We can't control many of the things. But we can control the thoughts that we think. Yeah, that's fair. And the thoughts that we think create the reality that we want. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, actually, my mind just shifted to, there's a business owner in town that has a very successful now like three or four employees business. And I'm not even going to say the industry. But to my eyes, she's probably, you know, on the down spectrum or, you know, slow development kind of thing just based on, but she's 50 years old today or whatever. But like, she's got a great business now because she's singularly focused on executing her business. And she's got high integrity and her customers love her. And she delivers the goods. And you're probably right. There's probably nobody out there that has a vision. If they have a vision for what they're trying to create and they're willing to put that effort in and have that courage, they can probably do it. Well, and again, you know, is reading the books. Reading the classic, the empowering books, the people that have gone before us, you need that. Yeah, I think any entrepreneur needs that. Learning from other people's mistakes is definitely more manageable than making them all for yourself every time. Well, and also getting the creative mind to start vibrating at a higher level because it's getting creative and optimistic information into it. And that's when you do that, you up level your energy and your frequency. Right. And then if we just watch the news, and it's always about the newest city that had a cop killing, it makes it harder for us to. Oh, it'll kill you. You're the ones. Yeah. Anything else you want to say about business or one BC? Who should, I guess, we'll get your contact information at the end, but like the business journey, anything that really strikes you is that we've shuffled past on the way. Well, I just think that that a lot of people should start their own business because it's extremely creative because a lot of people you run into that don't know much about business or they're trained in maybe the educational system and they've been teachers. They think that the entrepreneurs or people that are scummers that take money from people and all they care about is money. And once you're getting into the real world, it's an incredibly creative process. It's as creative as painting pictures. It's as creative as writing, you know, massive novels. And when you get involved with it, there's books that will inspire you beyond you can ever imagine. They're not these boring books. Oh, no, I got to read a business book. Oh, my gosh, people are missing the power of what's really going on in the business and the entrepreneur world and how exciting and fun it really is. I like to say there's so many ways to create a business. There must be a million different kinds of businesses in the world, if not more. Yeah, there's pizza shops, but then there's also Chinese herbal things and there's all the, you know, whatever, there's so many different. What's the strangest couple of businesses that come to mind for you in your one BC circles? Well, you know, one business I thought was real fun. It's a franchise and it's a Vietnamese French sandwich shop. Oh, and so they they sell Vietnamese sandwiches. Okay. And then they sell all these French pastries. And it started in France. And it's really an interesting combination. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And they have the greatest pastries. They really do. I'll be looking for it. Yeah. But I just do think there's so many, the advantage of networking and I would encourage everyone to network. Don't say I'm too busy or I'm beyond that. And I think the statistics are, you know, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies network 64% of the time. It's important to network because you're exposed to ideas and new things that are going on in the marketplace. Yeah. Because most business owners there in the isolation factor, they just, you know, they have this auto body shop and they stay there and they're not exposed to all this new stuff. Right. So good out to network to meet new people and to see what's possible. And what might, you know, stimulate your mind to go, oh, wait a minute. I could put a business doing that together or I can combine this with this and create something new that's never been created before. Yeah. There's not that many new ideas, but there's new combinations all the time. Exactly. Just like food, right? Like there's only so many ingredients. You know, it's surprising and sad to me sometimes that for the most part, we've got, you know, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, lots of fishes, but you know, there's only really like three or four different kind of fishes, really. There's just different textures and whatever. But you put them together in all these amazing ways and all these different plants and there's berries and there's fruits and there's yeah. Yeah. And I tell that to people is that I really think I'm a genius when it comes to synthetic genius. And I think it's called synthetic genius. And what that is is, you know, there's geniuses that can come up with absolutely pioneering new stuff. Yeah. But there's also this other genius called synthetic genius where it's combining things. So you take one thing here and here and you put it together in a way that it's never been done before. And I'm really good at that. And it's fun. But it's a different kind of genius. Yeah. I wonder if I might be kind of the same because I think when I think about what I think tank it's like parts of things I'd seen before. All right. And then you put it together in a unique way. Yeah. All right. So now's when we jump into the faith family politics. Okay. Whatever you want to talk about any of those things and you can go in any order. Oh, okay. Well, I we could start with faith. Sure. Because I'll probably be alienated on some level, but I'm not real religious. Yeah. I'm not at all. I'm I'm I've I believe that there's there's a divine nature. There's a God and that we all are are aligned with that. Yeah. And however you want to believe is okay. Yeah. But don't don't judge me if I don't believe exactly like you. Right. Because I just I'm probably not. It's not from a Christian background necessarily not from a Buddhist or a well, I mean, I was raised a Catholic. Okay. But and all my sisters are very, very faith based in the Christian world. Okay. But I just think that there's, you know, there's a book. And I don't know if you ever read this book called The Outweeting the Devil. Okay. Yeah. And it's by it's by Napoleon Hill. Okay. And you know, who read Thinking Grow Rich. Sure. And the fun story behind that book is he wrote it in the 1930s. And they have a Napoleon Hill foundation. And you know, he of course he died, I think, in the 70s or early 70s. And he told the foundation, you cannot release this book until 2011. And so it's a fairly, I remember reading about that story, but I never read the book yet. Oh, yeah. So the book is really gives, it's more of the philosophy that I have where, you know, is there a real devil and and whatever the real force is in the nature? And when you read it, it really does. I kind of align with that. Yeah. But if you go to faith, there's nothing more important than God and in the divine energy. Right. Like when you're in the bathroom and you're saying, be here now. And why am I thinking about what you're really doing is you're existing with divine energy. Right. Because that's where it exists. So everything is created from the divine mind. And my idea or my, my knowingness is that you just align with that. Yeah. And everything works. It kind of grips out from that tube then almost even Andrew Carnegie. He said the infinite intelligence and it's the same stuff. You can, you can call it Buddha. You can call it whatever you want to call it. But it's, it's the same for everyone and align with that because that's where you don't need to know the how and you don't need to know how it's going to happen because there's a power much smarter than us that is really putting things together, talk about combinations in ways you don't even know how it's going to happen. So don't try to forget it. That's kind of part of my philosophy, I suppose, is that that notion of like manifesting or what was not the, not the secret, but that prior book that you mentioned, not the one, anyway, where you draw things to yourself kind of based on what you're and prayer. You know, they're basically adjacent concepts. Yeah, same stuff. Right. Same stuff, different context. And even a lot of the Buddhist kind of practices and awareness of self and whatever. And so to me, it's like everybody's got a fuzzy lens on the notion of the universe and what that universal consciousness looks like. And my perception is that Christ gives a clearer lens than many, unlike kind of what that ideal human type looks like. And so, but part of my philosophy is that all power corrupts and certainly with the Catholic Church, but also with general religion, it's corruptive. It makes it hard for the people that have a lot of power in that capacity to not be more working for the devil than they are for that universal positive consciousness. And again, the other thing is if you can control people by being in an organization where they have to think a certain way, controlling people, but is it, is there a reality to, to, you know, like a book I just read that is one of the greatest books I think I've ever read. And I've read it twice. It's called The Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Holmes. And he's a pastor. And he quotes the Bible all through the book, but it's more metaphysical, you know, Christianity, which I could align with a lot. But again, the first thing we all should always at least, I think, we should all, or I should at least, is align yourself with God because there's nothing else in this world except that. Well, and have some kind of a value system, I think. Yeah. Like that's one thing that I think is an advantage of, I guess traditional faith perspectives is, okay, here's our values. You know, they're listed right here, whereas kind of people that have rejected church generally, like, okay, now what are my values? You know, and you've done a lot of exploration, you've read a lot, and I don't doubt that you've probably even got like a list, like here's my values kind of thing going on. But like having a lens from which you are frameworking your experiences is pretty important versus not having that framework, I think. Well, yeah, but you know, kind of like Buddhism, you know, when you're aligned with the divine mind, you know how to act. You know how to do the right thing. Yeah, you really do. It's like right action, right doing because if you are a kind and a giving and a loving individual, you'll automatically do the right thing that may supersede values. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. And arguably that aligned with the divine mind is basically the same statement as in the in communion with the Holy Spirit. Well, yeah. Right. Like it's all the same stuff. It doesn't really matter. You know, you can you can put it in any way you want, but it is a power that is is in control of us or at least is guiding us. So I think I'm imagining that through either creating like by writing or whatever your creative medium is or by consuming the creative work of others is at least one way that we can like open ourselves to that divine mind. Absolutely. Because you know, you can call it whatever you want to call it. It's all the same to me. Right. And it's it's it's God and God is creative. I mean, you start looking at how this universe works. You start looking at the atoms and the electrons and and you know the frequencies and how everything is put together. It's all creative. Right. And you go, I don't know how the heck this was ever invented and figured out. Right. But when we are creative, we are emulating God. Yeah. Because God wants us to be creative. Because God is a creative energy and a creative force. And that's why a lot of times sometimes I don't get too worried about all the political things. Because there's something way beyond all of the political realms right now that people just have to have faith in. Yeah. You know, so yeah, being creative is really, you know, being made in the likeness of God, we kind of are. Yeah. For sure. Anything else from a faith perspective that like is there things that churches should do to be more appealing or you know, like what what has been your journey of exploration in that realm? Like did you put a toe in lots of different things or yeah, just talk to me about that. Well, I think I think that people should read the great works of all religions just so you know what's going on. You know, and what are the great works where you got the barge of the Gita, you've got the Quran, you've got, you know, you've got the Bible of course, you've got, you know, Lao Tzu, you know, one of the greatest masters of the world. And it's kind of the fan of the Stoics. Yeah, Stoics. That'd be cool. But read a lot of these people and start seeing, you know, the common ground because there's so much common ground and all that sort of stuff. And and but it to me again, it comes back to the oneness of God because that is going to serve every human being on planet earth, but not just humans. It's it's it's it's all living forms are connected to it. Yeah. And it's part of it, you know, so yeah, I think that I and plus I studied a lot of the Eastern philosophy stuff. So I have a lot of that and I've traveled a lot to, you know, different countries like India and, you know, and, you know, Nepal and the Himalayas and a lot of different things. Yeah. Taoism is something that was always kind of more particularly attractive to me than Buddhism, if you will. But Taoism is is Lao Tzu. Right. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And and I love Lao Tzu. And one of my favorite quotes I think, you know, I love quotes. I really think my favorite all-time quote is by Lao Tzu. Okay. And it's it's not that we have to make sure everything turns out well instead realize all is well. Yeah. So when anybody ever asked me how you doing, I said all as well. Yeah. Yeah. Because when you're staying in that all as well state, you can create more, do more and go beyond anything that is you think is holding you down. I like to when somebody says, how's it going? Oh, doing good. Doing good or doing well, you know, because there are two different things kind of and which one are you spending more time on? Yeah. Yeah. But no, the faith is, you know, that's why I love this country because it's embedded on our dollar and God, we trust or whatever. I mean, you got to trust in something that is much bigger than us. Well, either that of the state, the government is the, well, there's well transition in the politics, right? Because that's, do you ever listen to Douglas Wilson? I don't know who that is. Yeah. It's a podcast, a blog and may blog. He had a whole exposition episode last week where he said, well, basically, you know, if God isn't at the pinnacle, then what's at the pinnacle is the state. Like, there isn't really another positive substitute for that. And if the state is at the pinnacle, then the state can do no wrong. And so God is dead. So welcome to the state. But anyway, I digress a little bit. But like, talk to me about politics in general. And I mean, maybe about the state. You know, I just, I think that on some level, I believe that there are no good governments. You know, I really do. I think that the governments, just in the nature of how they are, they try to do good. But there's too many corrupt people in government. It just is. And government is really more designed to hold people down by saying, I'm helping you when they're really not. So I mean, I don't know. We're so hard to manage. Like human beings. Yeah. We don't take vaccines when we're supposed to things like that. And we just run around doing our own thing, you know, starting businesses and going to whichever education seems best for us and whatever. Yeah. But I do think that governments, and I guess we should talk specifically or I want to talk specifically about the American government is I have a flag on my house that is not the American flag. Oh, yeah. And it's the, well, it is the American flag, but it's the Betsy Ross flag. The 1313 things. Oh, yeah. Because I do that intentionally because I believe in the values of this country. I believe in how this country was started and what the premises were. And do I believe in the way the government is right now? Not that much. Yeah. But I believe in in the ability to gather, you know, like even in our networking groups, I would not stop gathering because it says you have you have the right to gather. It's like in the First Amendment, right? And so even though people were shutting down and other large organizations, which I won't name any names, I have no respect for, they just wouldn't do live meetings. Right. And we kept doing live meetings almost exclusively through this whole thing. Yeah. Give people and was it easy? No, because we were kicked out of restaurants. Right. We were kicked out of places that said you can't come here any longer. And so we find places that we could come to. But give people the right to gather, give people the right to be free and to be independent and to pursue happiness. I mean, all that stuff is real stuff. It's good stuff. That's what the company's founded on. Like epoch times. Have you ever read that or epoch or whatever it's called? You know, it's pretty out. It's pretty good. Yeah. But it started by a guy from China. Oh, really? Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah. And he came to the country going, oh my god, look at this freedom we have in this country. And so even though he's from China, he goes, we need to get this out to the people. So freedom to me is, it's, it's really, there's a bunch of ways to look at freedom. But one thing is, I don't want to be mandated. I don't want to be told what I have to do and what I can do and what I can't do. Yeah. And so I fight against it. And when I was growing up, you know, many, many moons ago, we had a saying and that was question authority. Right. They don't question authority anywhere. It was encouraged among the liberal people back in the day question authority. Don't just go along with everything. So should we be rude and mean and difficult and hate? No, no, not at all. But should we stand up for what we believe? Yeah. I think we should. Yeah. And in a government where this country has a lot of good people that want to do good. One of the things I observe with people that helps them see like why I call myself a libertarian is that like a hundred years we had a hundred regular workers for every government worker. Yeah. And now we've got like six. It's crazy. And what does the government do? I mean, it's the largest employer right in the United States. Yeah. And then if you talk about it all levels for sure. Yeah. Or even city of four Collins is amongst the top 10 employers or five employers in the city of four Collins. Right. And does the government do good? Yeah, it does. There are some good things and I want to be completely cynical. But why not give people the freedom to create and do more and to innovate and why stop that? You know, I have a personal assistant that is in Caracas, Venezuela. Yeah. And she's been raised in communism. Right. And and you can tell they do not encourage you free thought. They just don't. They want to do the opposite. And they want to create as many followers as possible. This country is for non followers. Yeah. It should be. Yeah. And that's why I love the entrepreneurial spirit and the abdominal spirit of humanity that we can transcend all political realms and all governments with the creative mind, which is God. Well, in Colorado, like has historically been really kind of a strong suit of that in some ways, right? Because people would come to make their their way in Colorado was for those adventurers, for those people that were bold and courageous enough to leave whatever behind and come see if they could figure it out here. Yeah. Yeah. Where did you come from? Well, I guess that's politics. We did faith and politics already. Is there anything else there? But let's talk about family, maybe, huh? Oh, yeah. No, I'm I'm I was born in Pueblo, Colorado. And I go back five generations. Oh, wow. So my great grandmother was born in 1890 in Pueblo. Oh, wow. And where her father was from, I really don't know. But I mean, he was from Italy because I'm all Italian. Yeah. But I don't know how long he had lived in Colorado. Your name wasn't as Italian. It was more Eastern European, right? No name was Petraniani. Oh, that was totally Italian. All right. And they changed it. You know how they shortened it. Yeah. And so but yeah, no, I'm on my dad's side, though, he's from New York City. Okay. So my mom's from Colorado, but my dad was from New York City. And he came here to play football for CU as a quarterback. But then he flunked out and got sent to Pueblo where he met my mom. How do you flunk out? I don't know. I thought they had people to take your test for you and stuff if you're the quarterback. I don't know, but he was a good guy. Sure. And but yeah, no, I believe in I believe in family. I believe there's nothing more important than our families. Yeah. And you know, my daughter is 16. You know, I have a couple, you know, we have yours, mine and our kids sort of. Okay. And we have them from 35 down to 16. But it's so hard for me. And I know she better not listen to this. All right. So don't let my daughter listen to this. Is it so hard for me to encourage her to do well in school? It just is. It's just like you're so indoctrinated. You're so trained to be a follower, to sit in these chairs, to memorize facts that don't matter. The school systems are not promoting entrepreneurialism. Her first and second, they're not promoting creativity. And so someone said, and I think it's worth repeating is if your child's not doing well in school, they might be an entrepreneur. Right. So it's really, she's not doing really well in school, but she's a creative, outgoing, fun loving child. Is it always easy with her? No, it's not. But I just really, we need a better educational system and we need to give her more options. Well, and a system that tries to inspire that I, I actually heard a stat and shared it just recently that the average millionaire in the US, their GPA was like 3.1. Yeah. And it's because most of the millionaires are entrepreneurs, at least now, right? Like maybe in the future, that won't be the case because there's far fewer entrepreneurs. And it's, you know, a million dollars doesn't go as far as it used to. So anybody that takes a good corporate job out of college should become a millionaire by the time they're 50. Well, and you know, you don't want to be a millionaire. That's for sure. You want to be a multi, right? Or you know, like, what's the guys? A million doesn't buy you freedom anymore. Richard Branson, you know, and he's one of my favorite people. I like this. He said, you know, if you want to be a billionaire, you have to quit thinking like a millionaire. Yeah. Just got a truth. I don't want to be a billionaire. Right. But it's fun to have millions and millions. And, and, you know, money is to help things. It's to help grow things and help do good in this world. It's really what it's for. It's not just pay taxes. Yeah. We have ways to not pay as much as we know. But yeah, I pay taxes. I'm sure you do. So one thing I enjoy. So you said you have yours hers and yours together. Whatever your daughter is obviously the youngest. She's kind of on the edge of that. But I like to do encourage a one word description of kids. Of all kids of just of your last of your daughter here. Can you come up with a one word description of her of my daughter? Yes. She is. She is incredibly expressive. I mean, I'm sure I'm gonna have to be better words on that. But she'll listen to this by the way, you know, she will. Oh, yeah, I doubt that. Hey, let's talk about your wife too. This is a this is a second marriage for both of you. Is that right? Yeah, pretty much. And are you married? Not even. Well, it's long story. Very tough. Tell me about that love story. Like, why did you? How did you fall in love a second time? Well, a third time. No, a second second. But no, I just respect her a lot. She she's a business professional. Okay. She works for pinnacle assurance if you've heard of them. Sure. And she loves business. She loves going out and meeting business owners. We get a lot of common there. She's you weren't together when you were starting one BC and you were no, we weren't like living on like 17 members and yeah, yeah, yeah, living on, on, on, on, hoping a prayer. Right. But now we've been together for quite a while. Yeah. And, you know, 20 years. Okay. And she's, she's just a great mother. She says she does a lot. Is it easy? Always time. No, it's not. It's a relationship. Yeah, right. But she, she is a good human being that really puts up with me. I just got it true. If she was here right now and I asked her what's the main reason she puts up with you, what would she say? She'd say because I probably make it laugh. Yeah, you know, fair enough. So faith family politics got those out of the way. Have you thought about your local experience? What's that craziest experience of your lifetime that you would like to describe? And it might be a moment. It might be a week. What changed you? What, what's really memorable that's worth sharing? Well, I think I have one experience. Okay. And I do think people should live more for experiences than they should for achievement. I really think there's a truth to that. And in Zen Buddhism, there's something called a satory. And I don't know if you've ever heard of the term. I have. But yeah, satory is in say Catholicism. It's like a revelation or an epiphany or a harm moment. And so in 1996, before I started one business connection, I had this, this satory. And it really was a complete understanding of everything that's going on in the universe. And it lasted for two weeks. And all I could do is walk around and laugh. And, and I wrote my book B in one month from that experience. Okay. And the only way I can explain it and it's impossible to explain because it's an experience is that everything's one. And we are all eternal beings. And we don't die. And that time is an illusion. It's not even real. And that, you know, that's really only the way I can explain it. And so from that experience, I started one business connection. And that's really the roots of. So the roots of one BC is a spiritual organization almost. We really are. We really are. We're we're we're we're tethered together. We're united. We're unified. You can call it anything you want. But that experience was like I was sitting in a soccer field watching my son play soccer. And this vision just came over me. And it was like, oh my gosh, every part of this universe is all a giant God. That really is. So that's where one business came from. That's where my B book came from. That's where the idea of my whole philosophy is there's nowhere to go. Stay here. Be here. Because this is where you're going to create the most good is right here at this moment. That's good stuff. And I was just thinking, you know, weird way about like, when I think about myself of the Kurt bear, right? Like, yes, I've got a beginning and I'll have an end. And I've got this life and stuff. But time isn't really relevant to the Kurt bear, except for as that evolution. And if you start thinking about the universe as the same kind of thing, like right, there's within me, there's millions of billions of cells, but there's also all these little critters like bacterias and protozoos and all, right? I'm like, I'm like a, a patriotic. But if you think about the universe in that same way, whereas you're just, just one little microorganism in the midst of this great giant being, yeah. And that's one way to look at it. But the other way is to really believe we are universal souls, you know, that we do have consciousness and that we do persist. And we do go on. And even astrophysicists agree that time is an illusion. And I asked a woman one time, I said, well, I have a hard time understanding that time is an illusion, but then there's linear time like you're talking about. We were born and we die, right? So there's this linear time. And she said, and I was a really good way to look at it. She said, it's just two sides of the same coin. Yeah, kind of cool. Yeah, interesting. Yeah. Well, you are an interesting duck. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. And I'm really happy to have you here in the local experience studios. If people want to learn more about one business connection or contact you, how would they find you? Well, really the three ways in our website, onebusiness.com, spelled out, you know, O&Ebusiness.com, two is email, Greg at onebusiness.com, or three, my cell phone, which is 303-818-2460. You're going to get so many spam calls after this. Now, you know, the thing is I like to be accessible. A lot of people aren't. Yeah. But, you know, hey, call me. Maybe I won't answer, but I'll give back to you. Yeah. Because that's what I do. That's my business. Well, and the robots won't be listening to this podcast. I presume anyway. Okay. The spam bots. Oh, good. God bless you. Well, no, thank you for doing this. And thank you for doing this on this day. And it was a lot of snow out there. Yeah. And I wanted to turn back many times and go, no, not today. And I go, no, I made a commitment. I'm going to be there. And I'm going to do this podcast. I don't care how much snow is on the ground. And I really think if we all do that, we can create anything we want. Yeah. Just do true and be. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. Godspeed.