Embracing Vulnerability in Personal Branding: Insights from Oscar Garcia from @AspiraConsulting

Welcome back to the Ally from Corporate Podcast. This is going to be such a cool episode because I've got my co host, Rico Eggenberger and a very special guest, Oscar Garcia. Oscar is an introvert turned international speaker and a close personal friend of ours. So Oscar, we are so excited to have you. Thank you for joining.

Thank you, Allison, thank you, thank you for having me. And Rico, it's great to see you again, my friend because we had a great time not that long ago.

Oscar is a good friend of ours. He is one of the top leaders in on LinkedIn, actually talking about vulnerability and leadership. So we're super stoked to have him on as a guest and share his insights for all of our listeners. So if you have not followed him yet, you should 100% go follow him. His name is Oscar Garcia and that's how you can find them on LinkedIn. We'll drop the link down below.

Yes. So this episode we're talking about embracing the power of personal branding, specifically how to show vulnerability in personal branding. So Oscar, tell us a little bit about what personal branding means to you and your journey in personal branding on social media.

Yes, yes, let's get into it here. So, you know, prior to LinkedIn actually worked at the. I was the head of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce and I remember the small company at the time, Maybe roughly around 300 or so employees became a member of our chamber because LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View and I've always been one of those, I actually worked in the tech industry, startups to be specific. And so I've always been intrigued and kind of been consider myself like an early adopter of new technology, new things. So long story short is I set up a LinkedIn account and didn't do much with it like many people do. I joke around that Most people treat LinkedIn like a gym membership, but eventually I obviously moved on and started my own company. And when I look back, back at my journey, throughout my career, I've transitioned careers 11 times plus now going on nine years of having my own business branding, although I didn't know back then that's what it was called, but branding or professional branding has been so key to the my career journey, my business journey, and I like to keep it really simple. There's really four things from my perspective that I believe fall into our brand. Number one, your image, and that's whether it's in person or online, what you know, what are you conveying about yourself in person, that first impression when people meet you or online when they look you up. Number two, your mission. In this particular case, I'm referring to why do you do what you do? I talk about how there's two types of why. There's a personal why, why I chose to be on this podcast, and why you chose to invite me. And then there's the why. What's in it for others? The third part of the, of our brand is our values. Like, right. Like, what do we stand for? What's important to. To us? And then the last one is our vision. Like, where are we going? What do we want to accomplish? And can we convey that vision to others? And. And get others to buy into our vision? So those four things is what, how I define our personal, professional brand.

That's so great. I love that. So, Rico, you inspired me to start creating a personal brand for myself about 5ish years ago. And.

Yeah, 4 or 5ish. Yeah.

It's just like, what inspired you to. To push me to start doing that and us creating a brand like what you. Suddenly you. I feel like you woke up one day and you're like, we need to have a personal brand. Let's start making videos.

One day I saw Oscar. I saw. So me and Oscar go way back, and he started talking. He started talking about it, and he was a major motivator for me to start doing what I was doing. And I feel like people, when I see, when I. When I go on LinkedIn, it's all these success stories. Everybody, I got this new race. I got promoted. I'm making so much money now. And then I see Oscar's post, and Oscar's post is vulnerability. And he's like, this is, you know, immigrant. You know, I did this, this and this and how it came out of it. And it's just refreshing to see true content out there. And so I felt like we needed to replicate that somehow. And for me, what's really difficult is to shown that vulnerability, because my culture doesn't really like to show vulnerability. But Oscar got it so down to show vulnerability and be true. Because I feel like, Oscar, I now know you, and I know your online presence is your personal presence. And it's not like you made up this Persona that you're actually not. And so what I'm wondering is, how can you. You do that? How do you. How can you. How can you be so impulsive to. To be vulnerable, but not so much vulnerable that people think you're not the real deal?

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Rico. You know, here's. Here's the thing. Is. And it goes back to my natural personality being an introvert. And, and, and the thing, though, is that as an introvert, it's not that we don't like to be around people, that we don't like to have friends. Yes, of course we do. Right? I mean, we're humans, we're social beings. And I, early in my career, going back to when I worked in the tech industry, I remember going to conferences and you're staffing the booth there, and people come up and you try to scan their badge and come up with all the slick lines to ask the right questions. For me, all that type of stuff was overwhelming. I'm just trying to get comfortable just saying hello to you, and now I have to figure out what the right angle is. And I went back to what I just said about being an introvert. I'm like, wait a minute, I'm a friendly person. I mean, I like being around people, just, you know, not that many at the same time. And I said, you know what? It really comes down to being a friend. And by being a friend, if you think about just relationship building, how do you really begin to develop stronger, deeper relationships? Is when we start sharing a little bit more about ourselves, a little bit more vulnerable, being a little more vulnerable. It's like, it's like imagine this, these steps, you know, kind of like a pyramid, right, that's going up. And you both, both people start, you know, right here at this, you know, basic like, hi, I'm Oscar Garcia. Oh, hi, I'm Rico. You know, I'm Alison. Great. And then I share something maybe, you know, I get a little bit comfortable, I share a little bit more personal, right? And I, and I kind of go up that next step, and if you come up with me, it's because you probably shared something a little personal. And we kind of keep going up like this. And at the end of the day, isn't it about relationship first, business second?

Yeah, right, but.

But all of a sudden we get into this, like, freaking corporate America, you know, bs, you know, in terms of business, and it becomes transactional.

And we put a mask on when we go to work and we say, hi, good, how are you?

Yeah, but pay attention, pay attention next time when you ask people, hey, how you doing? Good. Like, what the heck does good mean? It's robotic for nothing or good for a lot. Like. Right, but it's just like, that's. We just automatically say that when you asked me this right now when we come. Came on, and you're like, hey, Oscar, how you doing? I didn't say good. I'm like, I'm kicking butt, taking no prisoners. And I know that sounds kind of weird because no one ever says that, but right off the bat by me saying that I'm standing out, you're like, damn, this, this dude already has energy. Like how many ripples has he had?

When did you figure that one out? So when did you, when did you kind of figure out that that's how you can bring it to the next level? When did you, when did that click?

So. So Enrico, because, you know, you pointed it out, you know how I share a lot about like my culture, my upbringing and so forth. You know, what really happened when I lost both my parents, about first my dad and then my mom, now going on like nine years. And what I mean by that is that, you know, I just started doing some self reflection of my childhood, my parents, you know, the way I was raised and so forth. And again, going back to us introverts, we talk to ourselves a lot. Like we're very introspective, right? We analyze things. And so that's what I started to do, right? I just started to think back and it was like. Well, I learned from my parents about the importance of relationship building. When my parents passed away, I mean, my dad was a dishwasher, my mom worked in housekeeping. By society standards, they were nobody. But when they passed away at the, their funeral, it was standing room only, packed. And again, stuff like that, I just like start reflecting on what does it take to really build relationships and combine that with your, your career, developing a business. Right. That's where I, how I started to reflect on all this.

Wow, that's really inspiring. So Oscar, you're from Mexico, right?

Well, I was actually born in California, but my parents were from Mexico.

Okay, and are you a first generation business owner?

Yeah, well, my parents were actually entrepreneurs. They had a business back in Mexico. My dad was a butcher and kind of Rico. You know how when we were walking through Thailand, like the open market, you know when you see those. Yeah, that was my dad and my mom back in Mexico. They had their own business like that. And then when they came to the US when I was around 11 years old, fifth grade, for about six or seven years, we would go on the, the weekends to the local slaughterhouses here in the Bay Area and slaughter pig, cow, goat, and sell fresh meat the way they do it back in Mexico without a health permit. They got busted a few times by health department, but yeah, so, so technically, no, I'm not a First gen, you know, like entrepreneur. I'm a first gen college graduate and professional.

Got it. Cool. So, okay, so that's your, your background. Rico, you're from Switzerland and you shared that your culture is not so keen on sharing things, especially out loud online.

So vulnerability is numb. Yeah, I've noticed vulnerability is like, that's like weak. Why would you show weakness? You know, it's like why would you show weakness?

Yeah, that's so interesting to me. So can we talk about. So in the academy, our job search academy, I'm encouraging people to post online, create a personal brand because there are stats out there that say that you get noticed way more by recruiters and hiring managers when job searching, especially if you're living out loud like this. So let's talk about a couple examples of what is appropriate to share online while making a personal brand and showing vulnerability and maybe some things that we don't think is appropriate to share online and maybe is too vulnerable or vulnerable in the wrong way. So what would be some examples of some good things that people could share online showing vulnerability?

Yeah. So, um, see, first of all, first of all, like here's the thing, right? Like, like who really defines what is professional, what isn't, right. Also, different industries have different sort of boundaries or tolerances, whatever you want to call it, right. Like I, I, I've done in the past some, some coaching with folks that are in the financial services industry, which is highly regulated industry and it company creates their content and that's pretty much, and they have these very strict guidelines on what you can and can't post and stuff like that. And so that type of industry or some of them, that's pretty tough. Like you're, you know, you, your kind of hands are somewhat tied to what you can and can't say. So but I understand that, I get it, I understand that. But here's the thing. First of all, in terms of what you can, can and I'll give you some example here in a minute, but I think it's important that we understand sort of what I was alluding to. What is the industry that you're in? Okay. Or that you want to go into because there's going to be some guidelines, some rules, etc. And so forth. And if you really want to go into that industry, then guess what, you're going to have to play by those rules and if you don't, then go find something else. Like for me I got like it's about self awareness too. Like for me what I realized is like I Want to be able to speak from my heart. I'm not going to be a jerk and just say random stuff and, you know, and so forth. But guess what? I mean, I couldn't go work at the financial services company because I want to talk about whatever it is I want to post. Period. Okay, that's. And there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, exactly. So one, understand what industry that you want to get into. Number two is that the other thing too is what is your objective with that post, that content that you're going to share? And what I mean by that is, is are you here to educate someone? Are you here to inspire them? Are you looking to bring in new business, you know, or attract a new job and, you know, a career opportunity? Like, what is your objective? Right. So having said that, what are some examples. Okay. That you can pose? So, and Rico, you touched upon this too earlier is, let's say, for example. Oh, here's a good example. So I have a, I have a, my own, you know, podcast in LinkedIn lives that I do. About a couple months ago, three months ago, I had a college president, a Latino college president on LinkedIn Live. And I asked him about a simulation and you know, has he, did he ever experience any of that? And you know, and so forth. And he went on to talk about his childhood experience and into his professional life, of how he had to assimilate and how his name is actually is Juan Carlos, but over time it got changed to John Carlos. And, and see, that might be just on the surface, might be like, okay, it's no big deal, but this is a college president, he's got a doctorate, he is around very influential people. He has, you know, many people that report to him that he's responsible for. And something as simple as that is telling that little story there for the rest of us that are looking to climb the corporate ladder, the business or maybe when some, some people want to aspire to be a college man, the fact that you have this person of influence bringing it down and breaking down, saying, listen, I've experienced this, that gives you hope, that gives you relatability. It's like he came down from that ivy tower and now we're sitting on the sidewalk busting open a, you know, some beer, you know, and just chit chatting there. And see, most people prefer that leadership. They don't do that.

No.

Yeah.

Like to your point, we go and announcing, all they do is talk about all the good stuff.

Yeah, that's very inspiring. When you see people actually like relate and come off their ivory tower, as you said, and then show like, hey, you know, I just, I was at one time. So most of these people that are, you know, are in their career at one point didn't come up. They didn't, you know, start off as a vice president. They started off at the bottom and they work their way up. And so then they back related. And I feel like it's hard for especially younger people now, I feel like, to. To relate to these VPs, you know, because they don't have the work experience, you know, and then they're starting off and they just see it as a rat race.

Yes, yes, yes. I. You know, the other thing too, that I see, I see sometimes too, Alison, and is sometimes people. And it goes to your question too, like, what. What is not appropriate over sharing stuff where you're oversharing in terms of, like the relevancy of what you're sharing? You know, how is that adding value to others through what you're sharing? Are you. Are you. Because the thing that I share, I'm looking to add value to help someone okay. With it. And I'm not here to vent. I got my therapist.

That's it right there, venting.

I'm not. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not here to vent. Like I said, I have my therapist where I can go vent. Okay. I got my punching bag, you know, kick the you know what out of it. Okay. But not online. And from that I'm not. That's just not my style.

Yeah. I would say if somebody is listening to this or watching this on YouTube and they're thinking, but I really love Tavenne, it makes me feel better. I would say they could embrace the Star method. Have you guys heard of this? For explaining answering behavioral questions and interviews. So situ explain the situation you were in briefly with relevant details. What was your task? What's the action you took? What was the result? Like, what was the lesson you learned? That if you want to turn a rant into something like that, where it's a productive conversation, that's one way that people could turn something that could be inappropriate into something that is showing vulnerability and being.

Yeah.

Relevant and. Yeah.

Yeah. Again, I'm not passing any judgment of people. I mean, because I, you know, the first one to admit I've made many mistakes. And yes, there are times when you know as much as you know what I'm sharing. There's been times too where I've slipped and I'm like, oh, my gosh, you know, made a comment or something. Right. Kind of reactionary. But for the most part it's about being cognizant. Right. About what we're doing here in. Sometimes I hear people say, you know, oh, I'm just going to, you know, give them a piece of my mind. And my attitude is, no, I'm here to give you a piece of my heart.

Yeah.

Oh, I love that.

It is, it is really inspiring because like when I scroll to LinkedIn lately, I see like, you know, like questions that recruiter says, oh, be prepared to tell me your weakness. Tell me where you struggle. And I feel like it's for somebody like you. If I asked you this in an interview, where have you struggled? You can just spit it out and you're just like, because you're already posting about it, like, these are my weaknesses, but I'm working on it. But yeah, how would you tell that to somebody that gets that in an interview that's 20, 22, 25 years old and, and like freezes be like, oh, I wasn't prepared for that.

Yeah. So first of all, and I, and I love the work that you're, that you're doing because you are, you're educating, you're training job seekers, people are looking to transition careers and so forth. But one thing to know is that the job process, it's really, it doesn't, it doesn't happen when you get laid off or the minute you decide to apply for a job, it's about managing your career. And to your question, because it's about practicing and being sort of that top of mind and what you're doing those, because those people, and in my opinion, there's only a small percentage of people that actually really manage their career. Okay. But, but, but yeah, it's important to, to, to always be managing your, your career. Now what do you say to someone or how do you help someone, you know, in terms of that, that question, you know, what's your weakness? And, and so forth. Well, one before that hopefully that this person has done some research not only on the position and of course the company, but the industry as well. Those three things. I always encourage people, you know, the position, the company and the industry. And then, then the other piece of it is obviously the job seeker. You, the job seeker. How do you fit into these three areas? How? What, how can you help your skillsets, your value, expertise, your knowledge. How can it help? And by knowing that again, yes, we all have our weaknesses. Right. And so by understanding what your weakness is or weaknesses are, not only can you address that weakness from a You know, say about with confidence, but you can also turn it around. You know, kind of what you were mentioning earlier, Alison, that star method. But you can turn things around to say, hey, yes, this is an area that I struggle, but let me show you how I. In the past, I've overcome something similar. Like, for example, when I worked at before or when I was applying for the position at the Chamber of Commerce, my honestly, honest to God, I really did not know what a Chamber of Commerce was. I just heard the name Chamber of Commerce, and like most people, you're like, you hear it, but you don't really know what a Chamber of Commerce does. That was me. My competition had 25 years of chamber experience. She was the interim chamber CEO, and the board loved her. Like, seriously, like, what were my odds? Like, I have. What's today, Thursday. I have a better chance of probably winning the lottery on Saturday. Okay. And I. And I got the job. And it was because of what I just shared with you that I did. But it was also because I started talking to past Chamber executives, past board members, other groups, organizations that engage with the Chamber to try to understand the ins and outs. What are the strengths and weaknesses? What is the. Where does the community want the Chamber to go? And so one of my weaknesses was finances, like the accounting, budgeting. But I was able to overcome that weakness with this other knowledge information that I had and also letting them know that, hey, you have an accounting. Or I'm happy to take an accounting class at the local community college to come up to speed and learn how to read budget spreadsheets and so forth. Yeah.

Yeah, that's perfect. So you also just. I don't know if either of you noticed this, but, Oscar, you just showed some vulnerability in that story you mentioned that you did. You didn't know what the Chamber of Commerce was, but you do now. I think it's so important for people in leadership positions to share. Hey, I didn't used to be good at this. Here's how I got better. Or if you need a resource, I recommend this. But that's another way to show vulnerability is to acknowledge that you started from somewhere. And we're not these all knowing, you know, business leaders. Sometimes they. They seem like gods to me. I used to be so intimidated by people's titles at work, but they were nobodies at, like, professionally at one point, we were all nobodies. We were all entry level at one point. So I love that. And then can you define Chamber of Commerce for us? Because now I'm curious if I know what it is. It's been a while.

Yeah. Chambers of commerce are. Technically, they're nonprofits, but they're C3s, meaning that they can advocate on behalf of their members. So chambers of commerce will do. Usually it's local, state, and some county advocacy for their chamber members, and most of them are businesses. But you also have some nonprofits, some schools and other organizations that are members of the chamber. The goal is to. To bring together the local community and create just a vibrant business environment for the local businesses in the area. And I mean, there's. Yeah, chambers of commerce are great organizations. I really had a great time there, and they do a tremendous, good work.

That's awesome. It's also. So I used to be involved in one of them, and it's also a great opportunity to practice networking, because I think a lot of Chamber of Commerces have free events that you can go to and just talk with people. They have name tags. Hello, my name is.

Blah, blah, blah.

So if anybody listening to this wants to practice networking for free and maybe get a free glass of wine or whatever, Chamber of commerce is near to that. Any city.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Nice.

Because. So when I. When I hear this story, it's so inspiring to hear Oscar talk about his experiences, because I feel like a lot of people wish that. That more people shared what your. What you've been through, rather because you shared the journey from I didn't know what it was to. I networked with people. They told me, hey, these are the needs. And then you took that and said, hey, I've been talking to all these people in the interview. You know, I've had a conversation with all these. I networked with him. This is what we're lacking. This is how we're going to fix it. And I feel like people don't tell out that huge bull park where they're saying, this is what I did to get here. They're just like, oh, now I'm here. And congratulations. And they update their title. And then people are like, congrats, Congrats. And people aren't like, hey, I did this. So it's really refreshing to hear you talk about how you got there. Not a lot of people do that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. So, Oscar, what are you working on nowadays? I know you're. You're doing Aspira. Tell us a little bit about, like, what you guys are doing and who you help.

Yeah. So like many businesses, we've gone through our share of evolving and figuring things out. And. And then also, as I mentioned earlier too, just my own personal self awareness of what I like to do and what I don't like to do as well. So today our focus is in providing culturally relevant career leadership programming. At the corporate level we work with employee resource groups, particularly the Latino employee resource groups. So with them it's more like leadership programming. And then at the college university level, we work with a lot of first generation underserved, excuse me, student groups through the college and university, like the career services and providing that culturally relevant career readiness programming that we offer. And I mean that fortunate do it here. Of course in the US that's most of the business comes here from colleges, universities in the US but also international too as well. I've done trainings and Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Mexico and Germany.

How are they different from the US to like all over the world? Because I know you did some stuff across the globe and how, yeah, what's the difference?

So you know, there's actually more similarities, Rico, than there are differences. The, the, the difference, just off the top of my head, the, like the biggest difference is because I do talk about LinkedIn too as well because you know, usually it's, it's against career leadership type training. But the difference is that in most other countries LinkedIn, the adoption of LinkedIn or using as a platform, it's less obviously than here in the U.S. but that's, that's really like the biggest, the biggest difference. But there's more similarities actually. And the similarities is like what you were saying earlier how like in Switzerland, like being vulnerable. Oh, forget it. That's something that happens across many countries too as well. Even actually in like in Mexico and Latino culture, you know, it's a very patriarchal culture. And you know, I grew up being told that only girls cry. You know, boys don't cry, we suck it up and all that. And the only time I saw my dad cry was when he was drunk, totally wasted. Then it was okay for him, you know, to cry. And what's the message? Get drunk. Because then that, then it's okay if you cry like bs. Okay, like seriously. But anyways, there's, there's more similarities in terms of, you know, some of the things that we deal with here, the challenges, that vulnerability or you know, what are people going to say that type of stuff. It's like, it just, it happens across many other countries too as well.

It's so funny that you bring it up because when I was in Switzerland, you know, Switzerland was heavy in finance, so it's black or white. You either make A profit or you don't make a profit. And so when you, when, when you're taught. When you, when you've been taught about that, it's like, I'm gonna share with you just as much as you need and then no information more. And there's no vulnerability, because in Switzerland, it was just. It wasn't. It didn't add that much to the, to your personality or your, to your job, because they said if you can do it, great. If not, then you're out. And it wasn't like a whole package thing. And I feel like that gets lost a lot in, you know, in translation over there in Switzerland. Right?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I get it, I get it. But, yeah, so that's what we're. Yeah, that's what we're working on, you know, and of course, you know, just expanding the programming that we offer to more colleges, universities, and then also, also at the corporate level.

Amazing. Very cool.

Yeah, you're. You're literally changing the world with your, you know, with your vulnerability. I see You've exploded on LinkedIn. I see every day when I go on there. I see you're inspiring more and more people and you're following and your audience sees that. And so I was like, man, I gotta have Oscar on the podcast tell. Tell his journey because it resonates with, With, I think everybody. Because there's just so much. Everybody has their own, like, story. Like you have, you know, like, with, with your parents. Everybody goes through that, but people get stuck up on and they can't push through it. And so it's so inspiring to hear you talking about what, you know, like, how you push through it. I think that's so amazing.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Rico. No, no, I. Yeah, it's. It's a process. Everyone but being, you know, showing is. Is a process. It's not something that just automatically, you know, jump off the cliff. And it's like, you know, we're not base jumping here. Okay, but. But it is a process. But, but, you know, if. When I look back also at, At. At this journey, because it's, it is a journey in terms of my vulnerability. 1. 1. I think that whatever it is that we share, we have to give ourselves some grace and, and share it when we feel we are ready. And, and what I mean by that is where there's. If there. If it's something, you know, like a wound or something, like we need to be at least have that scar over it so that, you know, when it gets touched, it's not painful, right? It. It's. It's a scar now. And so you healed from that. The other thing, too, that, for me, that I've done is even some. Just take small steps, even. I remember again when I was in tech and we would have these company meetings, and so we'd go into the conference room, and no one sat in the front row, not even the extroverts. Everyone either sat in the middle or in the back or, like, the extroverts, the cool ones, they stood up against the wall with their foot up against it, you know, just kind of like acting cool. Right? And again, told you, as an introvert, pay attention to all this. Right? I'm analyzing. I'm like, wait a minute, why isn't Bob, you know, salesperson of the year? Why aren't they sitting in the front row? Like, oh, it's because I probably think that, you know, the boss is going to call on them or something, ask him a question.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

So what I started to do is I started to play a game with myself and I said, you know what? I'm going to sit in the front row. And just that little simple act of sitting in the front row, I turn it into. I gamified it, okay? Where it's like, oh, by the way, I got the. My Starbucks Phuket. But imagine, imagine, you know, this. This coffee mug here. And. And every time I stand that front row, I. It was a little grain of sand, a point, you know, that went into this cup. Well, listen, I've been out in the workforce now for, like, a little over 30 years. This cup is overflowing with sand. I have a beach full of sand here. And just those little small steps, everyone is looking for, like a big quantum step to do. Or we overthink, you know, we compare where we are to where someone is 30 years from now. It's like freshman year, dude, in college.

Yeah, yeah.

Thinking like, you have to write your thesis paper right on senior year. And, like, you're worrying about it, like, during welcome week of freshman week. Dude, that beats slapping you up in the head. I'm like, chill, okay? Like, relax.

I feel like society puts that on us, though, you know, I feel like, yes. The pressure of my parents. You know, like, when you. When you're growing up in the US they'll tell you as a little person, you better go to college. And, you know, you hear these people, like Shaq o' Neill that says, you better bring two degrees or you're not getting any of My money. And so I feel like you probably heard it right. You need 2 degrees before you even think about asking me for anything.

Yeah.

And so the pressure stare and it, it's hard, right?

I mean, you're right.

You know, it's like, what, what, what would you do if I, if I, if I told Oscar as your dad, you got to get 2 degrees before you even thinking about it. That's going to shape you somehow. Right.

And you're absolutely. Yeah.

Small. Yeah. Yeah.

Rico, you just hit upon something too again that I reflect back on my parents. So my parents were never. That they didn't know the educational system here in the U.S. okay, so that's one thing. They didn't understand it, they didn't know it. But the other thing too, my parents were never one to say you have to go to college. But they also didn't say you don't need to go to college, just go get a minimum wage job. They didn't say that. They. What they did is they trusted me to just do what I felt was best for me. Okay. Now of course, I was also motivated. Right. Kind of competitive, like, okay, I'm going to go for more. All right. And I'm not saying my parents style is the best way to do it. No, no, no. I'm just explaining my situation the way my parents were. So. Because they didn't put any pressure one way or another. They do, don't do I. That was one less thing that I had to not have to deal with. Right. That pressure that I need to. And that's actually something that I've learned also. And I passed on to my kids. I mean, my daughter works with me. They're grown up. They're. My kids are adults now. And like with my daughter who works closely with me, if one day she wants to take over the business or start her own business. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. But I do not put that pressure. Yeah, do not put the pressure on her and say, you know, honey, you need to do this. No, whatever it is that she wants to do. Okay, whatever, you're good.

Saw the video of her on at a class and she has that Oscar spirit, you know, the doctor let me say she has the Garcia spirit, you know, the voice, the presence, it's just noticeable. And she, and she has like also that, you know, that when I, when I see you and her talk, I feel like it's just like empowering. It's like truly from the soul. And I feel a lot of people do that. And so I hope that listeners can take A slice of out of your book and say, hey, it's okay to show some.

Show some vulnerability. Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you. It's so funny, Rico. Yeah, I think. Didn't you say you're an introvert? Did you say an introvert? Are you an extrovert, Alison? Oh, that's right, Allison. You're the. You're the introvert too. So. See, you notice how Allison's over here analyzing us, Rico?

Okay, whenever we go to a gas station or to charge our electric car at a charger in public, Rico goes and finds a stranger and has a full blown conversation with them.

And you're like my brother.

Rico, I am not like that. I don't like having phone calls with my parents. Love your mom, love your dad. But like, I don't want to talk to anybody. I just want to lay in bed and cuddle with my dog. I'll be on video all day. I'll do this film myself all day long because I'm by myself. Even though even if I'm talking to millions of people, they're not here, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, and, and Allison, you did your TEDx talk. So, I mean, right? Go figure, you know, an introvert going out there doing a TEDx talk. That's awesome. That's awesome.

I would not have been able to do that without some serious breath work and meditation techniques. I was so nervous to get in front of people. I'm like, I'm usually, you know, working from home and my blouse on top and my pajama bottoms on the bottom, and I'm like, I gotta get dressed up and talk to people in real life. But it was such a cool experience and it pushed me and I was. I like, didn't know if I was gonna live through the experience. And then I made it out the other side and I was like, oh. And like my confidence and self worth grew a little bit. Like, oh, look at that thing that I did. I guess I could do it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? If you haven't done so. And I don't know. And if you should do. If you haven't done that, you should. I think you should do a podcast where you are talking about your journey to doing a TEDx talk and like, share like what you just shared part of it, you know, a little more. That vulnerability. I think that would be awesome because, I mean, I would love to hear that because again, like with anyone that does any like a TEDx talk or you know, speaks on a big stage, you see all the cool Stuff. The prestige. Right. That comes with that. But it's. I, like, would love to see the behind the scenes, man. I would like to see how many times you had to go to the bathroom before you went on stage, girl. Okay. You know, you get all nervous. Me, that's me. Like, even. Even to this day before, I. I don't care who it is I'm going to talk to, I still get nervous. I tell people the difference between 20 years ago, 25 years ago and today is today I can control those butterflies. Before, I couldn't, man, I was lost, but today I can. I. But I still have those butterflies because.

I see you speak. I. Oscar, I've seen you speak. And I could have never, ever imagine that you're have that. That you're that nervous because I. Because you can hide it. You. You hide it and you're so passionate about it.

Yeah, yeah. It's. I tell you, it's. It's practice. You know, I talked. I think I did a post not that long ago about. This one is about embracing fear. You know, some people are like, oh, you know, eliminate fear, get over it, or this and that and so forth. And I was like, I'm like, no, it's not about eliminating fear. It's learning how to embrace fear. Because, like, my. My brother is a police officer and he's shared stories of where he's been in situations, literally gone out and, you know, just needing to just. But knowing how to control yourself in those situations, and that's a skill. It takes time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think, well, we're reaching the time here. It was such a pleasure of having such a heavy hitter on our podcast, Oscar Garcia. Follow him on LinkedIn, Instagram will drop it all down below. And yeah, hopefully I can have your daughter on next time with you. I get her on this time and she said she's busy, so we'll definitely rearrange that. I would love to ask you some questions about how is the family dynamic in a business like that from Spot. Because we, me and Allison are also a family. And it'd be interesting to see your perspective from. From husband to wife to father and daughter. And I think that would be also super valuable, hopefully, to have that. I give you the last words. Yeah.

Thank you so much, Oscar, for coming on. Yeah, this is great.

No, you're welcome. Thank you. Thank you guys for, for having me. And yeah, love again, the work that you're doing and keep it up because we need more good people out there sharing good content, helping others, job seekers. So thank you. Thank you.

Sounds good. All right, we'll talk to you later.

Okay.

All right, everybody.

Okay, Bye. Bye.