19: Family Tragedy to Latin Radio Star & TV Announcer // The Story of Alberto Sardiñas

And then as I'm driving back home, really sad because of everything that was going on, then I hear a police car and I hear the siren and I'm like, is this me? No, please don't let that be me. Barrah. It was me. I was getting pulled over, basically for going about eight or nine miles over something pretty mild. I would say it was just a little beyond a warning right before a ticket. And when I saw myself going through everything that I was going through and I see myself just holding the wheel like this, and I'm like, you know what? God, it's whatever you say. Find that value. Find that power in your story. We tend to dismiss our stories a lot because we just think everybody has gone through that or maybe it's not significant. Make sure that you go to sleep tonight feeling proud of everything that you went through, because it has taken courage, it has taken being brave, and it has taken a lot of work to be where you are right now, even when you feel that you don't have everything you're looking to have. Just be proud of the journey, be proud of the accomplishments, and be proud of overcoming so many difficulties because we've all been through several difficulties. So just feel proud and realize that your story has a lot of power. And I feel that the more we can all acknowledge that we all go through rock bottom moments and we can rock it as well, the better we will do as humanity in general.

Welcome to From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. I'm your host, Eric Gilbert Williams, and this is the podcast where we explore personal stories of people who hit absolute rock bottom, then got back up, wiped off the dust, kicked failure to the curb, and now they're rocking it like you'd never believe if you didn't hear it. Live right here, we cover subjects in business, sports, and life in general. If you like this podcast, please share it. These interviews are intended to inspire, to motivate, to give hope and vision. So please share this episode with someone who needs it. Use your Instagram account, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Hand signals, trained pigeon sent smoke signals up in the air. Use Morse code, whatever you like. Just share the love and share this episode. Also, email me anytime. Podcast ericgilbertwilliams Send me questions you would like to have asked of future guests and I will incorporate them. Or just send me some suggestions on how to run a better podcast. Or just say hello, I'd love to hear from you. That's podcasterrickgilbertwilliams.com I know you're going to love today's interview. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone. With us here today on From Rock Bottom, the rockin it all the way from Florida is one of Radio Inc's 2012 Rising Stars, Radio Personality of the Year 2014. I'm talking about Alberto Sardines. Alberto has been interviewing people for his 2.8 million social media fans for many years. And we've snagged him here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it today for a little special episode, interviewing the interviewer. Now, people all over the world have been looking to Alberto to hear his amazing stories of people that he interviews. They're fascinating stories. And today we get to hear a little bit from his perspective. Alberto, thank you for coming on the show. How are you doing, man?

I am doing great, Eric. I'm excited and I'm very grateful for being here.

Oh, great. We were just talking a little bit before clicking the record button here, and I was saying that you had the best microphone that I've seen so far. And you're telling me about you capitalized on some hidden opportunities. And you're saying that the background here. Do you know what this background is that I have on my screen?

No. No, tell me about it. I was very curious about that.

This is the famous painting about if you see there's Aristotle and Plato discussing philosophy. So this is one of their discussions that the pupil and the student having a conversation about the meaning of life. And I thought it would be very appropriate for interviewing the interviewer.

I love it. I love it. I love the idea of having a conversation and just sharing thoughts.

Right now you're out in Florida, is that right?

Yeah, Miami, Florida.

What's happened? I mean, this isn't a show about COVID but I just have to ask. The stats look pretty crazy out there. What's life like out there?

Oh, my God. You know what? It's been so difficult because we thought it was getting better, like almost everybody in the country. And suddenly we started seeing those numbers going up. And then you could say, well, they're testing more people. But then you start seeing that the percentage of positive, which is what's concerning, has just gotten a lot higher. So we've been seeing authorities backtrack a lot on the stuff that they were doing as far as opening up. And we're right now in the middle of a curfew again, which was over a couple months ago. So we're seeing the 10pm curfew and the beaches closed for certain periods. So it's one of those things where we have to really pray that everybody takes personal responsibility. It's not about blaming others. I get frustrated. I see people not doing the right thing, et cetera. I have to remind myself constantly, like, okay, listen, as a family, we're doing the best we can. I'm blessed to be able to work from home. I mean, it's not the usual thing. I've been doing radio and television for almost four months now from home, which has been big challenge. It sounds like less work, but it's actually a lot more work. But, you know, praying for the best, my friend. Praying for the best and hoping that we all understand how important our own role is in this whole thing.

Yeah. And speaking of your own role, other than doing your working from home and doing the radio show four months there, what's the day in your shoes look like? What are you up to these days?

Right now I have a very long, you know, broadcast day, so I'm usually up by now that I'm home. I'm probably up by 5. Usually it's at 4am because, you know, I need time to get to the studio, but I'm usually up by five, starting working on the TV show at five in the morning, and then I switch to radio at about 10:00am So I go from TV into, you know, live TV into live radio. I do four hours of radio, so I'm usually done at work by 3 o'.

Clock.

And then I start doing this new crazy project, which is something that I'm very excited about, which is the Passion Accomplished Podcast. As you know, for years I've been creating content and inspiring people in the Spanish language community. So the Passion Accomplished Podcast is the first time that I actually create content and do interviews in English, which is not my native language, as I'm sure you'll be able to tell by this point. And it's a long day. I have a very patient wife. I. I have an awesome daughter, and they're very supportive. And now that I'm doing everything from home, you know, I'm trying to just find little pockets of time just to go for a walk around the block, you know, take Sophia out bike riding. She's six. Just try to find that balance that everybody's working on. Yeah.

And I think you're from Venezuela, is that right?

Yeah, Caracas, Venezuela. I mean, my family is a whole mix, Eric. It's so interesting because my dad is Cuban and they left from Cuba to Venezuela in 61, fleeing Castro and everything else. My mother, who passed a few years ago, born in Chicago, raised in Colombia and South America, and my parents met in Miami when they were both coming to go to college. But if you go back then my mom's family has, aside from the Ukraine, my grandmother, and from Romania, my grandfather. So I come from this interesting background, but also I come from a background of a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, which has also given me an interesting perspective on things.

And you have this book, I think it's called the Power of youf Story. Is that right?

That is correct.

Okay, can you tell me about that a little bit? What's the premise? I mean, this show is about hearing people's stories. For me, from rock bottom to rockin. It is about finding that courage to deep down and look deep down inside you and find your own story and let it out, get it off your chest, put it out there so that other people can hear that you're not alone.

Right.

Hear that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And for me, the power of a story is immeasurable. And so I like the title of your book specifically because of that. So if you can tell me and people listening, what is the power of your story book about?

Absolutely. So I have become really passionate about personal stories. That's my thing. I just feel that if we're able to understand other people's stories, then we're able to understand our own path, our own mission, our own trajectory and our own difficulties. I mean, at the end of the day, aren't we all, like, looking for a little bit more happiness, a little bit more Zen, if you like to call it like that, a little bit more fulfillment in different ways. So when you look at other people's stories, you realize that first. Sometimes you realize that you don't have it that hard. Although we can complain as much as we want about how difficult and challenging our life is, but then you also realize that everything happens for a reason. And when you're going through a certain path and you're like trying to wonder, why is it that something just doesn't happen? Why is it that this problem is coming back to me? Why is it that I never find a girlfriend, a boyfriend, or why is it that they always do the same thing to me? Then you realize that everything happens for a reason. Now, the Power of your Story is a book that I published a few years ago, and I first published it in Spanish. And it comes from one of the two radio shows that I currently do. It's a weekend syndicated show. It airs coast to coast around the US in 25 markets. And it's been very successful for Like, I wanna say probably close to 14 years, which is pretty crazy. Cause, you know, times goes by so quickly. But if you have a moment, I'll tell you the background story of how I ended up doing this show, which drives into the book.

You know, I want to hear your story. Let's dive into your story. What's your story about? The story.

The story about the story is. I love it. The story about the story is that I've been doing radio for many years. I had moved to the US From Venezuela. I was pursuing my MBA at the University of Miami. And, you know, I was studying really hard, but I wanted a radio job. So I found a radio opportunity in a company and I was very happy there for about four years. And then the competition pretty much said, hey, this guy's interesting. He's doing good work on air and off air, let's look into him. And they basically stole me and brought me into the company that I currently work for. I had just started this new job and they told me that they were hiring me to be a producer and co host of a new morning show. As I started with this new company, three months into it, my brand new show that I had jumped to the competition for gets canceled. And the reasons were many. It had to do more with corporate stuff and strategy that I just couldn't control. Now as I'm going through this turmoil of what's going to happen with me, my boss said, listen, I want you to be a producer for a while. This is a show you're going to produce. Sit tight. I like your work. We want to keep working with you, so don't freak out. So I'm going through this and I'm also going through some issues in the relationship that I had back then, had a girlfriend of almost three years, and things got really rocky. So I go through the cancellation of the show and then I go through also the breakup in a relationship where I thought, you know, marriage was just going to be part of that, the destiny of that relationship. And then the next thing that happens is that it's the hardest blow in my life, definitely, which is that my mom had been battling breast cancer for close to 10 years back then, and we thought she was getting better, but she wasn't. Like, we're hopeful, we're very praying that everything was going to be all right. But she started deteriorating a lot faster and within 90 days after having the show canceled, also having gone through the breakup and the difficulty in the relationship, then I lost my mother to breast cancer. So I'm in this very dark place, I just don't know what to do. It really felt like rock bottom to me. Although it would be unfair to compare it with the rock bottom stories that you've shared on your podcast of people that have gone through other things. You know.

Yeah, it's relative because. And this comes up a lot when a story is shared here. And I don't mean to interrupt you, I want to get right back on, but you raised a really interesting point here. That's important that I think that people listening have this perspective. There is no comparison from a rock bottom to a rock bottom. We're talking about a mental experience, an intellectual and emotional experience. And if I'm feeling rock bottom because of something that happened in my life, it's the same feeling that someone else might have for rock bottom in a completely different scenario. And you're not less of a person because your story perhaps wasn't as dramatic or as traumatic. Maybe there's differences in details that are fair to say aren't the same at all. That's true. But the experience of a rock bottom moment, everyone can relate to what a rock bottom is. And it's so easy to discredit the power and the emotional turmoil that you go through just because someone else went through something that seems worse because in their life they're thinking, oh, shit. Well, I'm glad that my story wasn't as worse as someone else's. Right. It's always relative. And so I just wanted to put that in there, that everyone's story is extremely powerful and no matter what you're going through, it has equal impact on your life and on people around you. So, anyways, I had to say that.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I agree with you. I mean, sometimes I like to be respectful of other people's rock bottom moments, but I feel like someone who has been very blessed. I mean, I can go on and on with the story of sadness and difficulty, but I also feel that I've being able to find a purpose from all of that and all the difficulties. So I'm at a point in which I actually appreciate the rock bottom because it's just brought me so many lessons and so many situations that I'm grateful for.

So.

So what's really interesting, and the turning point of this story is that I'm just going to work borderline depressed and just dragging myself to work. I was, you know, grateful. I still had a job, but I felt very empty. And one day I get a call from my boss. He calls me to the office. I'M like, oh, my God. Now he couldn't find anything else for me. I'm probably going to get fired here. What's going on? Guy tells me that he wants to develop a radio show, an evening radio show, where the host of the show would actually listen to people's stories between songs. The host of the show would listen to people's stories and would offer some type of advice based off of the person wanting some input or not, and based off of what was happening in that particular story. So I'm in production mode, right? And I'm like, okay, you know, who are we doing? Are we doing a casting? Do you want to test out a couple of people? Do we call a doctor, psychologist? What's in your mind? And he's like, no, no, no, no. I want you to host a show. And there was this moment, awkward moment of silence, Eric, where I'm like, come on. You want the most depressed person in this building to actually listen to people's stories and give them encouragement? I need to be calling the show, is what I said. I should be calling the show. I need a show like that, just to vent of how bad I feel. And then I say, why? Why do you think I should do this? I said, well, I just feel that you have. And I remember he said, I feel you have the depth. And that's all. He said, I just feel you have the depth to do it. Now fast forward, and then suddenly I start hosting this show. The lines were full, ratings were great. And not only that, but I started exploring everything that has to do with the inspirational field. And a couple of years into it, not only am I hosting this radio show, but I started being invited as a contributor in network television to talk about inspirational topics. I signed a book deal, I started touring as a speaker in different markets across the US and the show became a syndicated show. So from the darkest moment of my life came one of the brightest and best professional moments in my life. And add to that, as I was touring, I made a stop in San Diego, California, for a conference, and I met someone who is now my wife. So none of that would have happened. And then the power of the story, to go back to your question, is a compilation of the most impactful stories together with some of my personal experiences that I've heard on the radio.

Yeah, that's fascinating. So there's a few things here to unpack. So you're in this rock bottom moment, and out of left field, this random opportunity pops up out of nowhere that you never would have expected. And you could have stayed in that dark place. You could have said, I'm not ready for this or I don't want to do it or I need to be alone for a bit or fill in the blank. You could have found any reason at all not to take that leap of faith. And it was a leap of faith. Right. You weren't ready for this. Why would you do it? Why would you go swimming again right after the shark bit you?

Good one.

Right. So there's a lot of reasons to justify and explain why you should not have done that, but you did it anyways. And what made you take that leap of faith? Because I think it is a bit of a leap of faith. Why did you do this when you could have and perhaps even should have just said no, you're not qualified because you're in a bad place and the host needs to be in a good place. What made you make that decision?

Well, one of my favorite books ever is a very. It's an old book by now. It's probably been out there for 15 years or more. And it's by Mark Burnett. Remember Mark Burnett? Can you think of Mark Burnett? Does it ring the bell at all?

I have to say no, and I hate saying no. But it's the truth. So there it is.

No, but I'll tell you some of the product of his work and you'll realize who the guy is. The guy was a creator of Survivor, the reality show. He was a creator of the Apprentice with Donald Trump. He was a creator of the Contender. He's been the creator of some of the most successful reality shows in the world. Right? Yeah. So the guy, you know, migrated from the uk, went to California. I want to say he started somewhere in the beach selling T shirts. Right. And then he got involved in the world of marketing. But he was a paratrooper, you know, in the army back home. And then somebody started talking to him about television and he started exploring an opportunity. But what's really interesting is that the name of this book, the title is Jump in, even if you don't know how to swim. And it's the analogy of jumping in, as you mentioned, when the shark already bit you and you still jumped in. So it's one of my favorite books and it's basically his personal story. That's just it and lessons. But what's really interesting is that I decided in my life that I wanted to have a jump in mentality. And at the end of the day, where would have saying no taken me if I was already just down there? I mean, this was just being an opportunity. This was somebody being enthusiastic about something that he felt I could do aside from a job. I really had nothing to lose. It had to go right. I can't imagine what would have happened if that would have been a lame guy who wouldn't know how to tackle people's stories when they're sharing them with you. But he saw something in me that maybe I hadn't even seen. But it's interesting how I just said yes take on that is that we need to have this yes mentality before we have a no mentality in terms of opportunities. I mean, there's a lot to say no to in this world, and we have a really hard time saying no. As you just said, it's not the answer we're looking to give to anybody. But I think that in terms of opportunities, there should always be a yes until there's a real reason to say no in the middle of the road. I mean, you've experienced this, you're a business guy, and I'm sure you've been able to say yes or no many times to different opportunities. And I just believe that when you have a yes mentality, you're just a lot more open to trying things that may work.

The second part is this guy that reached out and offered you an opportunity. You said you had this choice to say yes or no, and you chose to embrace this yes mentality. Kind of like that yes man movie with Jim Carrey. Anyways, but side subject, really funny movie. You had someone reach out and he offered you help, and I want to ask you about that and learn more about who this person was and how you felt when this happened. That when we come back from the short little break. Thank you so much for sharing this show and spreading the love. Every time you click that share button or put it on your social media, it makes a big difference to those who listen to it, to the guests that I have on here as well, and to me personally, this is a passion project in. And so all of your help, sending me feedback, sending me an email, clicking that contact me button on my website, all of that is amazing and it really touches my heart because when I was little and struggled, I dropped out of school, I got into drugs and violence. It was very difficult and I hit rock bottom. My own rock bottom in that context was when I was around 17 years old and I thought I was going to jail for a long time. I didn't know what was going to happen and I got out because people reached out to me and helped me. People picked me back up and gave me motivation to move forward, just like you're hearing in these interviews. So this really is a passion project for me and I'd love it if you checked out my book as well. I tell my whole story on there. You can find it on my website, ericgilbertwilliams.com just click on my book. I would love for you to download a free copy of the intro and prologue. It's there right now anytime. There's an audio version as well. And now we're going to go back to the interview. Talk to you guys soon. Okay, we're back now here on from rock bottom, the rockin it. Alberto, thank you for being here and sharing about your story. It was your old boss that reached out and gave you that opportunity.

Exactly. I mean, I still work for this company, but he's no longer there, but is someone who has become a friend.

So you're in this dark place. Your mom is really sick, you're feeling a bit depressed. You don't know what's going to happen. And someone offers you this opportunity, they just reach out and say, hey, here's an olive branch. Here's a little boost for your life if you want to take it. And a lot of people say no. And a lot of people also don't recognize what's happening. People don't recognize when people reach out for help. I can think of people in my own life that have been in rock bottom moments, and sometimes I reach out and say, hey, you want to hand with something? In fact, actually, just two weeks ago, there was a guy that was struggling with some employment issues because of COVID And I offered him a really cool opportunity. And I don't know that he really recognized the power of that opportunity and what it was. Instead, he kind of just stayed in his little shell. And it's sad because I'm trying to help, but you can't force someone to change. Someone has to recognize that opportunity on their own. Like you did. So how did you feel when your old boss offered you that opportunity? Was it scary? Did you recognize that it was actually a great opportunity? Was it a hey, what the hell, let's just give it a shot? Or what was going through your mind when this opportunity popped up while you're in a dark place?

So many things were going through my mind, actually when this happened. My mother had just passed a couple months before, so I was, you know, in the middle of grieving that or grieving the breakup in the relationship of still trying to process you know, why is it that they had canceled that first radio show that I was so excited about? But what went through my mind was it was just a hunch. I mean, it was just mentality. I mean, they say, you know, that luck, when opportunity and preparation interject. And I think that probably applied to that situation in terms of just having the right attitude. I mean, I was. I was going through a really bad emotional situation, but now that I look back at it, I was not thinking about this back then, but I feel that I had enough of a base, enough of a core that would allow me to make the best possible decisions during difficult times. So my answer was yes, and I didn't think about it much. But you know what? That brings me to a point that I think it's really important to bring up, which is that as we are doing well, we need to know that we're preparing ourselves also for the most difficult situations. And we're going to have to react to crisis, to, God forbid, illness in the family or ourselves or our bad economy or Covid or anything else. So this is also a message of what is it that you're doing while you're doing well to prepare for when things are not doing that great. And I just feel that I had enough of a core that allowed me to make that decision. So that would be my message and the lesson I found during that situation.

And when I think about. All right, so people right now that might be having their own version of a rock bottom moment and they're listening to the podcast or they're watching this little video, what would you recommend or how do you suggest for people that are having their own rock bottom moment to be able to better see opportunities that are around them? Someone's in a rock bottom moment, they're in a dark place, and it's easy to get in that negative spiral. And how do you help someone open up their eyes? Or how can you suggest or encourage someone to start finding those little glimmers of opportunity, start keeping your eyes open for the people that offer the helping hand and recognize it for the beauty that it is. What do you think on this subject?

I think that there's a big topic that we can talk about for a long time, which is a topic of personal responsibility. When we think about COVID we tend to think about something that's very external, but we can't control it. So we could focus on Covid, and we can focus on our bosses or them having the wrong mentality, or we could focus on the fact that, oh, you Know, the company had 100 employees and they only laid off 20 people. And I should not have been included there because I'm very productive. I mean, we start just talking about the environment that caused or generated our current crisis. Whether that's maybe somebody, God forbid, is diagnosed with COVID and they're starting to say, okay, oh, it was probably my cousin, it was probably. You know, we tend to just blame others a lot. And there's a lot of responsibility in other people to our circumstances. But, you know, I had actually a good friend who taught me something that was so powerful to me, which is what he called the concept of the 1% and the theory of the 1%. So what he taught me was that as much as you can blame somebody for something or the environment or the world or a pandemic for what's going on in your life, try to not give them more than a 99% responsibility. And then since you can't do a lot about it, then focus on your 1%. And this 1% theory has been so useful in my life, Eric, that you have no idea why. Because there are situations, nothing is guaranteed. I mean, people don't do well in relationships and they talk about the ex wife or the ex husband and they did that and they this or they cheated. I mean, things seem pretty obvious, but since we can't control other people, what we can control is ourselves. So try to find that 1% that will give you control over your life because it will make you realize what you can do better. So if you're struggling because of the economy, because of COVID because of your interaction at home, now that we're, I say, you know, us married people suddenly gain a full time wife or a full time husband, which we never signed up for, by the way. Right, because nobody thought you were going to spend 24 with your significant other. But just try to pick up on that 1%, which is the personal responsibility, and wonder what it is that you can do better. And then as you take on that responsibility, then think about the action items that you can put on the list that will take you somewhere. And start also thinking about your blessings, because that's also very important. When we're down, when we're depressed, when we're frustrated, we tend to globalize. I mean, people in psychology call it a globalizing, that depression or even the sadness if it's not a diagnosed depression. But we tend to make it global. So we're having issues because of COVID or we're having issues because of our significant other or our jobs, and then we think everything else is wrong. But when you turn around, even the worst of the crisis, if you have a roof over your head, if you have some food on the table, if you're able to feed your kids, if you're able to maybe have a job, although you're having a crisis in your marriage or anything, you know, like the opposite, whatever that is, there are blessings to be counted and there are many things that you can be grateful for. So if you take personal responsibility and wonder, what is it I can do better? And then if you can also count your blessings, those two will be a great starting point that will start taking you towards a new plan, a new path, and a new way to get out of crisis.

I 100% agree. My own words on this topic I've mentioned a couple times in previous interviews and previous shows, is that we don't have control. I don't have control over what happens to me. External events and other people's decisions. Those things, they do happen to me, and I don't have much control over that at all. But I have 100% control on what I'm going to do about it. Doesn't matter what happens to what degree. I lose an arm, I go bankrupt, I get dumped. Fill in the blank. I can't control that. But I have 100% control of what I'm going to do tomorrow in response, right? And if anyone thinks they're going to keep me down, they're wrong. If life thinks it's going to win, it's wrong. It's that old famous Rocky speech, right? It's not about how hard you can hit, it's how many hits you can take and just keep on getting up. And there's nothing that's going to keep you down. So, anyways, I love that you picked up that subject. There's so much power that every individual holds inside them. It's just more powerful than anything else. Our will to live and overcome, I believe, is stronger than the will of anyone else who means anyone harm, whether it's on purpose or it's an accident or maybe just in circumstance. So I love that you embraced your own personal power and that you found it and that you remembered that you do have a lot of personal power. Now, if we apply this into, all right, you're going live on air and you're in a shitty mood. You are not happy, you're down, and you know that someone is expecting and hoping for you to help bring them up. They're actually reaching out. They have the Courage to reach out and ask you for help.

That's crazy, right?

And there you are, not in a place to give it. But then you have this opportunity, okay, well, what am I going to do about this? Here's the scenario. What am I going to do? Tell me about the time that you had to go live on the air that you absolutely were not ready for. It was the lowest rock bottom that you had before going live on the air. What was that?

You know what? I can think of many moments, both in radio and television, where people are expecting you to be smiling, where people are expecting you to have a good energy and everything else. And I can't tell you of a particular moment, to be absolutely honest. I will tell you that the first time I went on air was very hard. It was very difficult. But then something I learned many years ago is that when you are doing anything, I mean, you were mentioned at the beginning, you know, interviewing the interviewer. And when you're doing this, there's a lot of people that tend to focus a lot on their own performance because it's all about, okay, you know, I did do it right? Did I ask the right question? Did I do this? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I remember a story of someone that definitely lend me a hand when I was about to go on stage in a very large concert at the American Airlines arena here in Miami. So it was a station concert. I had been doing this for a while, but now I was going to be introducing some artists in front of probably 12,000, 10, 12,000 people, being on stage for a couple of minutes, just entertaining them, et cetera. And I was very nervous. And then somebody told me that when you get nervous about your own performance, when you're going to interact, when you're going on air, when you're doing anything that you do for the public, you're making it about yourself. Now, the moment you stop making that about yourself and you start making about the people that you're impacting, the people that are listening, the people that are watching, then everything absolutely changes. Your mood changes, your bad day changes, your crappy mood, because you just had an argument with somebody in a parking lot over a parking space or whatever, anything that could have happened to you. But when you realize that what you're about to do is not about yourself, but it's about the people that you're impacting and the people that are there to listen to, watch you, to see your performance, if you're a singer, for example, then, I mean, the anxiety goes down significantly and the bad mood also goes down significantly because then you're becoming someone who's mission driven, someone who's actually trying to wonder how to impact other people and don't make it about yourself. So you're a lot less conscious, you're a lot less anxious, and you start actually trying to fulfill the needs or the possible needs of those who are listening or watching.

I've been racking my brain trying to remember where it came from. I don't remember if it was a Gandhi speech or if it was a Native American quote. I don't remember. And I'll have to look at that and put it into the show notes. The subject was, if you need help, then help someone else. If you're looking for a friend, then be a friend to someone else. If you're looking for healing that helps someone else heal. And I never really thought about this subject very much, but when you bring it up, it comes flashing in my mind. Why do you think when you make it about them that you end up being a beneficiary? What's that about? What's the psychological explanation you think there? I don't know the right answer. I'm just curious.

Yeah, you know what? I'll be curious as well in terms of the whole psychological aspect of it. But I will tell you that helping others saved me, that's for sure. There's no question about it. I mean, there was this miracle, this energy, this God sent thing. I'm not a very religious guy. I'm a big believer in God, although I'm not very religious. But I think that there was a plan there to change things around for me. So I noticed that the moment I started listening to people's stories and the moment I started just giving them my opinion, just giving them some perspective on what they were going through, it saved me, Eric. So I learned that early in the game in terms of this new stage in my radio career when I, when I started doing this show. But I have applied that and I have said that so many times, I could not agree with you more. When you are going through a difficult time, go ahead and make sure that you help somebody else, even if it's absolutely unrelated. I mean, it can be a neighbor that needs some help with some repair work or whatever, or someone that needs to be connected with somebody else because they're trying to pursue a job at a company that you work for. Just try to help out. It'll make you feel so much better. You know, it's interesting because I had someone on the podcast on The Passion Accomplished podcast recently, and his name is Faroz VR. He's originally from India, and he's a top executive of a very, very large corporation, SAP, and he's out of Palo Alto, California. He started in India with the company 20 years ago. And one of the biggest things he told me recently on the podcast is that giving has to hurt a little bit. And I love that quote from him. And the reason why he believes that giving has to hurt is because when you give just a little bit, when you give just enough to make you feel like you gave, then that's probably something you're doing just to fulfill your own aspiration of what giving means. But when it really hurts, it's when you put in more time than you expected, when you give a little bit more money than you expected, when it becomes a little bit more complicated and you get involved in the situation, you're like, oh, my God, my neighbor is not receiving whatever delivery she was expecting, and she's in her early 80s. And then I have to call the company, and then I spend an hour with her. You know what I'm saying? Giving has to hurt a little bit. And I think it's a great concept. And at the end of the day, it does make us feel so much better.

This show's hurting a little bit. So much more work than I ever imagined. That's just me being honest. You know, I thought, hey, let's just make a show and interview some great people. It'll be easy, you know, no big deal. It's not going to cost that much money. Yeah, no, no, it costs a lot of money. It takes a hell of a lot of time. Way more than I ever imagined.

It hurts, right? A little bit.

It does hurt, but I still love it. I mean, I'm not going to stop. And I'm not complaining either. I'm just relating to what you're saying. Yeah, interesting. So as soon as we come back from this short little break, I want to explore your rocking it moments. I want to hear about when you were on top of the world and you're like, wow, looking back at yourself when you were in your darkest moment. What did that look like to you? When we come back from this short little break, Eric here. I hope you're enjoying the episode today. This is a passion project that I put together. I really wanted to do this. I really want to help people out there. I had so many people reach out to me when I was younger and when I was having a tough time and struggling. I've written a book about it. You can check it out on my website. Please do. But most importantly, reach out to me. Give me some feedback. What could I do better with this podcast? What am I doing that I should say stop? What am I not doing that I should do? Tell me your experience, give me some tips and suggestions. I really want to design this to suit your needs. And all you got to do is send me an email. It's ericericgilbertwilliams.com or use the contact me button that you'll find on my website. Just send me an email. We'll have a phone call or we'll chat online. Doesn't really matter. I would love to hear from you and figure out how to make this show even better with your help. So please reach out and don't be shy. All right, we're back now here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it with Alberto and Alberto. Again, thank you for sharing your stories. Now we're going to switch tone and go into the rockin it moment. So I'm talking about the time when you look back at your life and thought, wow, how did I get this far? How did I come this far? Look at what I've accomplished. And you know, I'm on the air, I'm on tv, I'm winning these awards, I'm interviewing amazing people, I'm changing people's lives. I got my book. What was your rockin it moment?

You know, it's interesting because, you know, just as I can think of a couple of rock bottom moments, I can think about, you know, making many rockinnit moments. And I think that a lot of that comes more from the personal side, which is interesting. Now that I think about it, there isn't a moment that I've enjoyed, you know, more than when Sophia was born, for example, you know, when our six year old daughter was born. Like the level of excitement, the energy, you know, just the anticipation. I mean, it was just really unique. And I know that anybody who is already a parent can relate to that. I want to say, I mean, she'll probably, you know, kill me for not remembering how long this was. But I want to say that my wife probably spent a good Me see, I want to say 16 hours in labor, which is crazy and not very common. And Sophia was born.

I'm lucky to be a guy.

Yeah, we are. We're very lucky to be guys, let me tell you.

Yeah.

So it's just interesting because just the anticipation and the energy and everything else and the emotional roller coaster, you know, I mean, you go through all these things. And I'm sure you'll experience them hopefully at some point, in which I hope so, too. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where you're like, okay, so how are you feeling? You're doing great? Oh, yeah, I'm doing good. Okay. No, there's a lot of pain. And then the lady with the epidural wouldn't show up. And then you have to go through the hallway. And then suddenly I'm going through the hallway trying to find out and see what they're taking so long. And I had to say, give me the epidural now. I need it right now for my wife, that kind of thing. And then suddenly I realized that in the middle of a hallway of a hospital, barefoot, which I don't even know how I ended up being barefoot. You know what I'm saying? Like, one thing after the other. But it's definitely, you know, when we got to that moment at around 10 o' clock at night, and things started really early. And then we saw our baby, we saw Sophia, and then we started this awesome stage. So that was very much of a rocking moment for me in terms of finding that big change and seeing that miracle, you know, which is a miracle of life.

It is a miracle.

Yeah.

I love that. Of all the amazing things that you've experienced being on air in your book and traveling and amazing stories, and you kept it really personal. Now that's your rocking it moment. And it's a beautiful thing, family and seeing what you've created. And, I mean, what's more important, really, at the end of the day, right?

Absolutely. And not only that, I mean, I've had amazing moments in my career. You know, when we launched the power of your story, the Spanish version, we had a beautiful event. I mean, we had friends and family and media, and just there was a lot of attention and I enjoyed it. I mean, it was a big production. It was between the publisher and then my wife also was involved, and we made it very personal and nice. And we had like 300 people in a bookstore that usually only held like 60 or 70 people in the room. And it was very exciting moments. So I can relate to that. I can also think of our wedding going back to the personal, which was a lot of fun. It was a whole weekend. It was a nice getaway for everybody. So there are many moments now. I think that in terms of my career, I make sure that I try to enjoy the process more than a specific moment or working towards a specific thing, but I just enjoy the process of just working for things and seeing things not working and then realizing that you have to turn around and find another route. So that's more of a day to day thing, which has, by the way, a lot of frustrations, a lot of difficulty, a lot of anger sometimes. But the big picture, I have to say, it's been pretty good and pretty blessed.

I'm a single guy and I'm out here traveling the world. Right now I'm in Cupertino, California because I'm doing a tech startup and that's really fun. I grew up a single mom. My dad wasn't really in the picture. And I told you before a little bit about my story. I didn't get along very well in school. I had basically no friends, dropped out of high school really early, never graduated, did my own thing, was by myself, got lost for a while in the drug scene and then had to leave all those friends again to change my life and get in entrepreneurship. So what I'm getting at is for me, I've always been this kind of on my own type of a guy. And when I started this show, I anticipated that when I asked people about their rockin it moments, that it would always be something external like, oh, when I accomplished this thing or when this big giant event happened or when I climbed that mountain. You know what I mean? What I'm noticing more and more when I talk to people on the show here is that people are often just similarly to what you just did now are looping back to the family and at home you're the birth of your daughter. And there's a bunch of other episodes too, where it's building a solid family and having a wonderful spouse and these personal, just simplistic. But the most powerful types of rockin it that could be out there. And it's finally, I think, anchoring in my mind that rockin it moments aren't always the big giant. I just made a trillion dollars or I just climbed Everest or whatever it happens to be. Maybe that would be more significant to some people. But often the rocketnut story is the personal one. I'm just happy at home and I have this good family and I find that heartwarming.

It's interesting because I am a very career driven guy. I love what I do. I love doing radio and TV and doing the podcast and I love finding new challenges. I'm sure I could be doing Spanish language radio and television for many years to come. And then I'm crazy enough to say, no, I want to do something in English. Which has been a stretch for me in terms of time and effort and the delivery and the communication and everything else. So I'm always challenging myself in my career. But what's really interesting is that when I turn around, Yes, I mean, the personal side of things is really important. And it's a combination of factors because at the end of the day, you want to have that financial stability. You want to make sure that if you have a family that the family is hopefully provided for in the best way possible, that you can make choices, that you can make decisions, that hopefully you can travel, that you can provide your daughter with the best you can give to her. But at the end of the day, I think it's a combination and also one of the things that I've learned. I'll tell you this. Before I met Faye, my wife, and even we were still dating long distance. She was in San Diego, I was in Miami. So we would see each other but once a month, one month I will fly to San Diego, one month she'll fly to Miami, et cetera. But I used to work all the time, Eric, and I still do, by the way, don't get me wrong. But I always had this. I don't know if it happens to you as a single guy, but I had this sense of urgency that I needed to make sure that things were moving along. So as much as I had the full time job, I always had projects where I was writing, not back then the book, but I was writing something or I was coming up with an idea, or I was working on something that would keep me busy somehow in some way. And one of the things that I learned is that it's okay to pause and not be working. That concept to me was non existent. Like I didn't really know what not working felt like. I'll be super honest with you, because also I enjoy the work. It was not being a workaholic that's grumpy, that's having issues at the job or anything. I just really enjoyed it. So, you know, on Saturday we come around and maybe I partied on Friday I went out and then maybe I got up at 10 or 11 in the morning and then I'll be like, okay, so this project, so let me get into it again. You know, I would still try to find a balance. I'm back then dating, etc. But what I'm trying to get to is that marriage and you know, being in a relationship and marriage and family has reminded me and my wife has been very good about that. And I'm grateful for that, has reminded me that it's okay to stop and enjoy. I have a lot of projects and I have a lot of things that I'm working on and I'm exploring and I'm researching and I'm really good at like following up with different people, different projects, et cetera. But the weekend comes about and then she reminds me, hey, okay, so what's the plan? There's not a lot to do now because of the pandemic, but what park is open? How can we do this? Is it okay to get together at a distance? The whole conversation about what else are we going to do aside from work? And by the way, mind you, nine o' clock at night on a Saturday comes around and everybody fell asleep. Or at 10 o' clock I'll probably put up my laptop and you'll see me working because I like it. But marriage and family have also taught me that it's important to pause and to give your brain a little bit of the fun, which I honestly wasn't that much into before.

So on this subject of pausing for a moment and not always pushing really hard, if I loop back to when you were struggling, when you were having your rock bottom moment and you decided to embrace this opportunity to go on radio and to go on air, a little short story and then a question. So there was a time I was probably in my mid-20s and I had my construction company back then and things were booming, we were doing great, we were making sales. You know, we were always hiring people all over the place and of course firing them too, because that's part of the business. I sold the job that it had a different product than I was used to working with. It wasn't particularly complicated or dangerous. It's just, it was a little bit of a different twist to what the normal day to day routine was. So sold the job, got it all ordered, we're in the middle of the project and the crew that I had on, they struggled to install the product as perfectly as they would have with a different product. So I was like, okay, well that's not a big deal. We'll just remove a whole bunch, you know, we'll pay and put on some new stuff. It's not a big deal, right?

It's.

It was part of the, the learning curve. But someone that owns a house, they don't want to go through a learning curve. They don't want to have this type of. What do you mean you're taking off what you just installed? What you know, are you not qualified like, so they had these huge string of doubts that popped up that were overwhelming to them and they didn't want me there anymore. And it was the first time that I ever had to stop working on a job because of client satisfaction. And I'm sharing it because it definitely was a rock bottom moment for me at the time. Like, I cared. I wanted to fix it. And they're like, no, you can't. You failed. That's the end of the story. I'm not giving you a chance to fix it. Get the hell off my property. And it was a horrible experience. It was very scary for me. And so we sorted it out as amicably as we could, and I think it was a pretty good resolution. No hard feelings. We did a handoff with another contractor. But in that rock bottom moment, I could have sat there and said, we shouldn't use that product again, or I need to fire this crew, or, oh, man, what a failure. Or I shouldn't have sold it in the first place. I could have gotten stuck in there. And instead what I ended up doing was I sold another project with the exact same products within two weeks and made an instruction video on the roof using a camera to teach people how to install it properly.

Hello.

We did an awesome job on that product. It was powerful. We got tons of referrals from the customer. And more importantly, the video went viral online. We got like 150,000 views pretty quick. And more so the manufacturer noticed the video and started using that video to teach other contractors how to install the product.

That's amazing.

So to me, that was a mini rock bottom to rocknet experience. However, it raises the question, when is the right time to actually just sit back and heal and take a moment without moving forward continuously, endlessly, obsessively? When is it right to not take that step forward?

Right.

You jumped on the opportunity. You got under the air. When someone opened it up to you, you dove right in. You didn't take an extra year of time to heal, but sometimes it's actually a good idea to not push and to just heal for a second. How do you differentiate the two? What's your thought on that?

I just think that it's a very, very unique answer and it's very particular and really depends on each person that is faced with the dilemma of whether or not they're ready to move forward. I see this all the time when I listen to people's stories and they talk about their relationships. I mean, they go through something really hard. They go through a breakup, they go through infidelity themselves, or somebody else was unfaithful, whatever, and they're like, well, I don't know, I want to find someone, blah, blah, blah. And then you notice that you just have to do things for the right reasons. And a lot of people get into relationships immediately after their big bad breakup without even realizing what happened because they just don't want to be alone. And for example, I always tell people, if you're trying not to be alone, then it's not a good idea to try to get into a relationship because you have to deal with that loneliness and you have to deal with that particular fear that you have. I really feel it's about self awareness and it's about how much you're willing to admit in terms of your weaknesses. Because we're not always strong, we're not always at our best, and we're not always the best, the best person for the job, et cetera. So I think that when you capitalize on the opportunity of having it done wrong and then realizing that you want to get it right and you take it to the next level by doing a video and then that video goes viral, it means that you are ready to admit of anything that was a failure, which doesn't mean it was the most terrible failure in their career, but it was just done not perfectly or not at the customer's expectations. And then you were ready to turn it around in your mind. But sometimes we're just not ready to turn it around in our mind. And sometimes we want to say, okay, well, I'm going to forget my ex right now and I'm going to go and get into another relationship. No, I tell people, go party, have a good time, meet people, hang out with friends. And then when you feel okay being alone, then you go ahead and you find somebody else. When you feel good about yourself. So you want to find an opportunity and you want to capitalize in any opportunity that may be thrown your way. When you feel that it's okay, when you feel that you won't be hurting others, when you feel that you're not, that it's very likely you can't control everything, as you well said before. But when it's more likely that you're not going to hurt someone or do a poor job or just make a fool of yourself. So I think it's a very unique answer depending on the situation and the person. But it comes back to that 1% that we're talking about. Okay, am I looking at my 1%? Am I looking at why is it that this breakup, although she was the one that had another guy behind my back or whatever, or this job, I got laid off. And I know that it was a company that they didn't have any more money that I had to get rid of people. Okay, but what could I have done better? And when you have gone through that process of self awareness, then you can start finding a new opportunity. So the pause is really up to us.

So another short story here before we wrap up and another question. In that experience that I just shared with you, my motivation at the time, when I was a teenager going through elementary, high school, all that stuff before I dropped out, to me my perception of myself was that I was a failure, that I was worthless. I mean, I had low self esteem. You know, I got beat up a lot. You know, I got made fun of a lot. You know, I got robbed a bunch of times. And so my self esteem was shit. It was horrible. And getting to build a company and see the success was me reestablishing my identity. And when this customer, when this job went bad and went sour, it brought up all of the fears and negative self image that I had been battling against my whole life. And to me, I equated. Failing on this job meant failing in life. Getting kicked off this job meant I was a worthless piece of shit. And I struggled deeply with internalizing that failure. And so my motivation to dive right back in and do another product or project like that, with the video and all that stuff, it was desperate. I was terrified of facing perhaps the truth that maybe I was worthless. I was scared that that might be true. Right? So maybe my motivation wasn't very healthy. I think the outcome was healthy. But to me, I think my conscious process at the time, my thought process at the time was that it doesn't matter what I do, I can't get stuck in the negative cycle and the negative spiral that was happening. And I don't care what it is, it's going to break it. Something needs to break it because staying there is a dangerous thing and I'm not going to do that to myself. So maybe my motivations weren't as healthy as I'd like to say. But regardless, it did break the negative cycle. And once the negative cycle was broken, then positive things were able to happen and creation and beauty and fun was able to come out of it. So my question here is when I go back to your rock bottom moment when you were handed this opportunity to come on the air, what was your conscious process? Did you know at the time that by helping Others you're going to benefit. Did you know at the time that you were going to break a negative cycle by doing this? Did you just walk into this with open eyes not knowing what's going on? What was your thought process back then?

Well, I'll give you another story that happened a couple of months before that that will give you the answer to that. So I would say that what I've shared with you, it's a rock bottom moment, but it's more of a stage, right? I mean, when I went through a few months and a few weeks and call it about 90 days or so of real darkness and difficulty now, there was an instant, there was this moment that was really bad, really, really bad for me. And it was just an instant. It lasted, you know, five minutes that I will never forget and really allowed me to put things into perspective when I see it now. But it was very dark back then. You know, my had already gone through the cancellation of the show. I was struggling in the relationship, and I had temporarily actually moved to help my mom, who was not doing well. So she had already been sent from the hospital home and she was pretty much, you know, she had been sent back home because there was really nothing else we could do about it. So, you know, we were going through a very difficult time in which, you know, she was in the living room because her bedroom was, you know, on the second floor of the house. So we had her in the living room, medical bed. Really dark stuff that I know a lot of people have gone through when they're in the process of losing a relative. And this is a tough one, Eric, because I remember that she was now using adult diapers. Right? So nothing else to do. It was just part of the reality. But we realized that we had run out. So it's probably 10 or 11 o' clock at night. You know, I decided I'm gonna go, you know, to the pharmacy, whatever, just to get them. So I'm driving out of my house, go to the pharmacy, pick up a pack of what we needed, and then as I'm driving back home, really sad because of everything that was going on. Then I hear a police car and I hear the siren and I'm like, is this me? No, please don't let that be me. Barrah. It was me. I was getting pulled over basically for going about eight or nine miles over something, you know, pretty mild. I would say it was just a little beyond warning right before a ticket. And when I saw myself going through everything that I was going through and I see myself Just holding the wheel like this and I'm like, you know what? God, it's whatever you say. I can't do anything else. I was not spinning like a madman or anything. I remember, you know, police officer, just knocking my window, lowering the window, and I was just like, in such a. I felt so defeated. Not because I was getting pulled over for eight or ten miles an hour over, but I just felt so defeated at the combination of things I remember. Just like I didn't fight it. I was like, oh, officer, I'm sorry. I wasn't really going that bad, you know, that fast. Please give me a break. None of that, you know, it was just like, I remember just getting my wallet, getting license, registration, handing it over, not saying a word, guy going, checking my stuff, giving me a ticket, put the window up and kept going. But that moment felt very, very much like a rock bottom moment. But it was also a moment of faith in which I realized that there was this large amount of things that I could not control. And I just said again, in a very God believing way, not that religious, but I just said, God, I mean, please show me a way and show me proof that this whole madness and this instant that I just went through makes any sense in my life. Any sense in my life. So the reason why I bring this up is because it was such a dark moment, but it was also a moment of faith in which I said, there are so many things that I cannot control that I better leave that to a bigger force. Because being here in the middle of the road, pulled over while I'm doing this for my mother who's dying, it cannot get any darker for me than this particular instant. And I believe that when I had that moment, it was a connection with faith in which I said, you know what? You can't control everything. And then when I was presented with the moment, back to the moment that turned my career around, when I was presented with that moment, it was also a moment of faith in which I said, okay, God, the other day I asked you to take over because I can't do anything else about my life. And here's the answer that I think I'm seeing. So I'm going to say yes to this.

Right? It's powerful. Thank you for sharing that.

Crazy. I still get emotional. And this was 50 years ago.

Yeah, I feel it. And I thank you for having the courage to dig down deep and share your story. So when people want to check out your book, they can get it on Amazon, I believe. Is that right?

Absolutely. And they can Check out the power of your story. But what I'm mostly excited about is about what we're doing on the Passion Accomplished podcast, which is gathering stories, gathering amazing stories. And I hope people can give that a chance and check it out as well.

Yeah. And anyone listening to this, find your story, figure out what it is, and clarify if you think it's right for you to share your story. Reach out to us, reach out to Alberto, reach out to me, and we'll do a little shout out. We'll hear your story, and we'll be that listening ear. And maybe there's something that comes of that. Who knows? So I challenge you to find your story and find that clarity and find that passion. Figure out what it is that 1% you can control. Figure out how you want to respond to the events that are happening around you and embrace it with everything that you got. And that's my final words here. As we wrap up here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it, there's gonna be a link to Alberta's show on the show notes to this episode. So you can just, when you're on my website, just click on it. It'll direct you right over. You can check out his podcast. It's a great show. I'll be on there at some point. I believe so. Yeah. And any last words here, Alberto, before we wrap up?

Find that value, find that power in your story. We tend to dismiss our stories a lot because we just think everybody has gone through that or maybe it's not significant, but even if you don't share it, even if you don't reach out to Eric or if you don't reach out to myself or anyone, to say, hey, I have a story that I'm proud of. Make sure that you go to sleep tonight feeling proud of everything that you went through, because it has taken courage, it has taken being brave, and it has taken a lot of work to be where you are right now, even when you feel that you don't have everything you're looking to have. Just be proud of the journey, be proud of the accomplishments, and be proud of overcoming so many difficulties, because we've all been through several difficulties. So just feel proud and realize that your story has a lot of power. And thank you, Eric. I've really enjoyed this a lot and I'm enjoying what you're doing on the podcast. And I feel that the more we can all acknowledge that we all go through rock bottom moments and we can rock it as well, the better we will do as humanity in general.

I 100% agree. I have nothing else to add. That was very well put. You're the pro. All right, guys, have a rocking it day. We'll talk to you next time. Bye for now. And that's it, my friends, for this episode. We will see you next time. Please send me an email, say hello, give me some feedback, let me know what you think. Give me some tips and suggestions. I'd love to hear from you. Also, please share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, doesn't matter. Just get it out there. I really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it. Have a rockin it.