Chris Ngo - Creating The Leverage

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What is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, we have Chris Ngo. Chris no is the founder of the Leverage. And on today's episode we talk about streetwear and how he got into the business. He attended his first trade show and sold over $50,000 of merchandise within that first weekend and absolutely crushed it. This has led into a more than 15 year career in the clothing business. And I learned so much throughout this story. We talked about the Last Dance, which is the Michael Jordan documentary going on, and how Michael Jordan inspired. Inspired him at such an early age. So that being said, make sure you check out the Leverage. Follow Chris no on Instagram. His link will be down below in the show notes of this episode. And that being said, makes you subscribe to the Rise of the Young podcast and enjoy the show. What is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, we have Chris no from the Leverage. Thanks so much for coming on, brother.

Thank you for having me, Casey.

Of course. I mean, we've been connected for quite some time now through Dee and all those guys. And it's been super cool to see everything you built. And I'm excited to go over today, man. But for those that may not know what the Leverage is, I'd love for you to give the people some insight into what you've built.

Okay. I mean, the easiest way to describe the Leverage is we're pretty much a fashion house. So we're a vertical fashion house that we own our own distribution. So I have a sales team that does all the wholesale logistics, the wholesale sales. I have reps in five territories and we work with like over 700 retailers worldwide. But along with that, we actually also own all the brands that we represent and we have our own logistics company that does all of our shipping, picking, pulling, everything there. We have designers in house, a marketing team in house, and also we have Our own factories we work with directly overseas in China and various other places too. But yeah, pretty much like we do everything from A to Z. So, you know, we manufacture the goods, we sell it, we distribute it, we do everything.

Got it. That's sick, man. How has. Cause I know you've been in the game for some time now, over 15 years. Where did. When did the leverage start and how did it start? Cause I'm sure you guys have added multiple, you know, different verticals into the business as it's evolved, but where did it start?

So, I mean, the leverage started in 2012. I mean, me, myself, I've been a sales rep in the industry for 15 plus years. I met my business partner Lee back in, I want to say, 090 10. And then he was a sales rep for a brand we worked at. And from there we got together and we're like, hey, we have all these relationships. We need to capitalize on it by selling more than just one brand. And in 2012, we were just like, hey, it's time for us to kind of go. And we were like, okay, cool. Let's just get a bunch of brands together and just offer it to all the guys that we work with. And so, you know, the rest is history.

When you say working with brands, can you give us some insight into what that looks like? So you guys have, you know, all these different brands that you guys own under the leverage. Do you guys focus on, you know, the. The retailers or distribution or where does your time get divvied up with, you know, how you guys have been able to build this entire brand umbrella?

Yeah, I mean, it all changed. It all changed as we kind of grew the business. I mean, when we first started the business, we were just a sales agency. So, you know, we will work with brands directly and we would just take a piece of commission on top of whatever we sold, you know, so, you know, you had a collection, you had a brand, you gave it to me and my team. We would sell it. Once you do it, once you deliver goods, you give us a percentage of your sal. Cool. That was all it was. It got to the point where we were just like opening up all these doors and these relationships and, you know, once they got in, they're like, okay, peace, you're out. You know, we got the rest, you know, and for us, it was like, okay, we were chasing another brand at every single time, just trying to keep on finding the next brand. And then over and over, there's no brand loyalty, especially when you're an outside Contractor. Me and my business partner looked at that and we're like, hey, you know what we need to do next is that we need to. I hate using this word, but pivot. You know, we need a pivot. Everyone in their aunt has been used the word pivot during this whole pandemic, so it's kind of funny. But yeah, so we, we were just like, hey, let's start our first brand. You know, let's start a brand. And so if we have this brand, it's not gonna go anywhere. We built it, you know, whatever we want to do, it's our brand. And so, you know, we focus a lot on denim and bottoms. That was our biggest business. You know, I did price point denim and I was selling, I was selling joggers at a time and, you know, when joggers were hot. Yeah, everybody and their aunt was like, okay, let me get a pair of joggers. And so for us, I always felt as if there was one item that would never, ever go anywhere, and that's denim. It doesn't matter what kind of denim it is. People are always going to wear denim jeans. Whether it's skinny, loose, baggy, distressed, biker, or whatever it is, people are always going to wear denim jeans. And so I wanted to concentrate on something that you can wear year round. So, you know, a category that you can wear year round is denim. You know, if you're focusing on stuff like say, a jacket, you can only wear a jacket a few seasons in a year, you know, and then not everybody in all regions are wearing jackets all year long. And so that's why we focused on bottoms and especially denim. Yeah. And so that's how it started. I mean, we had a concept and idea that we wanted to do. And the funny thing is it's right behind me right now. See that pair of jeans right there? Yeah.

I was going to ask about them.

Yeah. So that pair of jeans right there, embellish jeans, which is, you know, which is the brand we started came from a concept. We were just like one of our retailers wanted to get biker dead biker denim jeans. And this is before the whole fast fashion happen. You know, obviously Balmain jeans were big at the time, but no one could afford a twelve hundred dollar pair of jeans. And so, you know, we, we were able to sample a pair of jeans that look very similar to it, but we got the price down to like 1/10 of the price and they just ate it up. And then from there on, you know, it was a win. From there, I mean, we, we started that we ended up starting various other brands in our agency, and how can you say the rest is kind of history? So that's how we built that.

That's so sick, man. Yep. What got you into just the fashion world growing up? Was it a passion of yours or what led you to, you know, getting into this whole industry?

So the. I actually grew up in Orange County. Orange County. Right. And so Santa Ana, you might want to call it, like, the birth of streetwear, because obviously, one of the first streetwear brands there is is Stussy, and st Found it out in Santa Ana. Stussy's from. And I kind of grew up in that area. And so Stussy was big. One of my biggest influences when I was younger. Back then, obviously, the skate team was big with, like, Caballero Pau Peralta. You're talking quicksilver, you know, all that shit. That was huge. And so from that on, I was always into that as a younger kid, and I got into basketball young at, like, second or third grade. So, you know, Jordan's influence to fashion and streetwear was big. And so that's. That's pretty much how I got influenced into fashion at a very, very young age. And then just growing up as a basketball, like, I grew up playing basketball in high school, so that was, like, my whole spare time is. That's all I did is play basketball. So, you know, basketball and fashion was big. And so I collected sneakers. So collecting sneakers is pretty much my gateway into the industry. So as a young kid, even when I was younger, you know, when I was, like, 15, 16 years old, you know, bad kid. Being a bad kid, you know, you're always hustling stuff to, you know, buy shoes and sell. You know, I'm not telling you how I got them, got the money. I'm not telling you how I got the shoes. But that's. I got the shoe somehow. Yeah, that was, like, my gateway in is just sneakers.

And have you been. I know, just talking about Michael Jordan. Have you been watching the Last Dance recently? I wanted to ask you.

Like, hell, yeah.

Because, like, for example, I'm 19, right? I didn't grow up in that era, so watching it, it's like, super dope. And there's a lot of young people listening to this show. Like, you watching, as someone that grew up in that time and, like, you know, fell in love with streetwear as it was an emerging, you know, culture. Watching the documentary, like, how have you responded to it, being such a, you know, icon in the streetwear world now.

You know, for me, it's kind of like watching it and getting goosebumps because this is your childhood. You know, I posted the picture of like, how crazy I am. Like, I grew up. I love Jordan. I love Jordan. I love the bulls. I actually named my first born Jordan.

Oh, wow.

My daughter. So like, my daughter, her name is Jordan, spelled with a Y. I said that whoever my first, like, whatever my first born is, boy or girl, we're gonna name it Jordan.

That's sick.

Yeah. And recently, even for me, I posted a throwback Thursday picture on my Instagram, right? There's a picture of me wearing. I have two pictures my sophomore year and my junior year, and I'm wearing a pair of Jordan 13s and a pair of pippin up temples. So, you know, so like this era, this is like, this is me when I was like, I grew up with Jordan in 92, so I was like 11. So you're talking about me idolizing from 11 to 16, 17. That's when you're like, that's when you had heroes, you know. And so for me, watching this with all my friends were just like, yo, this is the greatest thing ever. And because we have the pandemic and the whole quarantine, everyone's glued to it too. It's the only sport you're watching.

That's what's up, man. Yeah, that's so tight. Do you have, like, when it comes to, you know, being a sneaker collector, do you have like your favorite pair that, you know, you just point to as like your most prized possession when it comes to sneakers?

Funny story is that, you know, like years back when I was 21 or 22 years old, I collected the, I collected the Nike dunk. You know, the dunk is very popular now. Right. And so I was on like the Nike tops and ISS like pretty early. And so when I was flipping sneakers, I collected the dunk because it had the highest margin. So even at a young age, I knew about buy low, sell high, you know, so high. So I knew that, you know, you know, I can get these shoes for 70 bucks. I could flip them for 2, 230, 240. I'm making a three time profit. So even at that age, I was just buying as many pairs of shoes as I can. And, you know, I was a little bit smarter back then. So for me, the dunk is my favorite shoe because it's. It means a lot to me. It doesn't matter, like which type of shoe, but it's just the dunk itself.

Yep.

And so like, yeah, a crazy story about that was, was shit. I would just max out my credit card at that time. Max out my credit card for the whole month. Buy as many pairs of shoes as I can. Keep one pair, Keep one pair. And I know that, you know, I have no interest on a month, but I have to move everything within a month. So I sold everything, made my profit, and then paid off my credit card and went on to the next. So that was like, that was like my early hustle. Me.

That's what's up, man. Yeah, I want to touch on just like launching brands. I mean, there's a lot of young people nowadays that, you know, they, they want to launch a clothing brand. You hear it all the time. And I want to hear from you. You know, after launching so many brands, if you were to launch something new in 2020, what is your advice to someone launching a streetwear brand with it being such a, you know, saturated space?

Man, it's, it's funny, I always tell myself, I'm telling myself the same thing right now. Just having this whole, this whole issue with the whole world and everything right now. Would I launch a brand this year? I probably wouldn't. You know, I'm looking at this now and I've never thought to myself before, you know, you gotta launch something that's recession proof. Yep. No, that's recession proof. Where people are gonna, like, because now you think about it like, like, what's the only things that are recession proof right now? Medicine, food, gas. So like, like even thinking about what would I would launch this year, like, my answer is that, dude, I wouldn't try to launch a clothing brand in this space because in this space it's difficult as shit. Because right now the only way, and if you were to launch a clothing brand right now, the only way that you'd be successful in launching clothing brand is you'd have to be really, really deep into dtc. Direct to consumer. Because right now not a lot of, A lot of people that do know me and my business, we know that we do a lot of wholesale obviously with all the retailers we work with. But our issue is that we're kind of tied because none of the stores are open.

Yeah, I was gonna say just with retailers. I know that, like, obviously I remember like, you know, talking to Dee and Drama about this, how it's like so many retailers. So like, you know, the last five, ten years it's been a huge uptake, like a, you know, rise in E commerce and how it's overtaken the industry. So with you being, you know, working with distributors now, it's. I mean, retailers, they're closed. Like, how have you responded to that? And what's been, you know, the biggest takeaway from. From just this whole.

You know, we have a. Yeah. We have an online store as well for all the brands that we. That we ship, and all the brands we own, we ship here, too. For us, the online DTC has been like a bastard stepchild. You know, we don't kind of focus on it. We weren't putting money into, like, Facebook ads, analytics, any of that. It's just pretty much like, shoot content, throw it up, whoever orders it. Cool. I would rather make my money off of wholesale because, you know, it's bigger chunks at a time. And so for the last, like, 60 days, we haven't been open. We've been. You know, it was the first time I've actually looked. I actually spent time going on YouTube, reading. Reading about what, you know, Facebook ads mean, and then actually working with my guy. And I was like, wow, this is a lot of stuff that we were kind of put in the back burner.

Yeah.

And as wild as it sounds, our online store, amongst all the brands, it's been our busiest. Our busiest month since Black Friday.

Wow.

You know, so. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm thankful for that. Obviously. I learned a lot. I learned a lot during this whole thing too. And, you know, we're able to kind of focus on something that we normally don't focus on.

Yeah. That's super cool. What's. In your experience with, like, you know, what makes a brand successful? You have many successful brands, especially in the streetwear space. What do you believe makes a brand successful?

Honestly, the thing that makes the brand. The thing I feel that makes the brand successful is, like, two things, right? It's. I would say it's. I would say the biggest thing is product, you know, because at the end of the day, if you have a good product that sells itself without telling the story, which we do. I'll tell you this right now, I sell denim. You know, denim is my biggest things on various brands. If you took off all of our. You know, if you took off all the branding, the looping and everything too, and you put it side by side to some of the best denims. Denims in the industry, you couldn't tell which is which, you know, and our pricing is amazing, and I just feel as if you. If you have a good product, it could sell itself. But the thing is, you also need, like, you also need a distribution, which you need retail partners that, you know, that, know that have places for you to fucking sell a product. You know, like, for us, all of our product placement is organic. The reason why is because we have so many retailers that are in so many places, like, you know, obviously Atlanta, nola, Chicago, New York, and these places where, you know, where athletes, celebrities shop and it's organic. They come in there, they see a product, they buy it, they wear it, and I'm like, oh, cool, it's, you know, replacement.

How did you build relationships with retailers early on?

I mean, to be honest, to be honest with you, just to be persistent, you know, Persistent. When I first started, I was 22 years old and I just came from a telemarketing job. And so I took full advantage of just being on the phone calling every single retailers every single day. You know, I tried my best to build a relationship with them, know exactly, you know, what they do, you know, talk more than just clothing. And I kind of knew, you know, for me, for me, my love for sports was one of the main things I always kind of used for my advantage. I know sports. I know about every goddamn sports race. I'm a big sports guy, so I know that every buyer in every city is a sports guy, you know, so we always connected through that and they'd always remember me through that. And so, you know, through the phone. And the biggest play back then is trade shows. Yep, trade shows are huge. Trade shows is the place where you can actually dap somebody up. You can say, what's up? You know, guys that you've been chasing for a long time, you can kind of meet them, see them face to face. And honestly, I enjoy that. You know, I enjoy the face to face business because you could, you could tell somebody's truthful, right? The way they look at you. Die. Yeah. And another thing too is visiting these stores. Like my sales team, we actually physically, four to six times a year, go to the stores that we work with and show them product and have line showings and meetings with the stores. And even myself, me and my business partner, we visit, we traveled, we traveled, we went to like every single store that we worked with, just speaking to them face to face. So that's the reason why, I mean, we've been doing it for 15 years. So they do have a face. They do have a face, a name.

Totally. That's super cool. Regarding, like, trade shows, you know, how there's no more events happening right now. Do you believe this is something especially, you know, in your industry will be pushed back until, you know, late next year or how is that going to affect the industry when it comes to just the trade shows and in person?

I think the trade show industry is gonna get, it's gonna get hurt because, you know, the trade show industry says it's gonna go down to people visiting the show.

Yeah.

And so traveling is going to be scarce. If traveling's gonna be scarce, that means buyers aren't gonna come. If buyers aren't gonna come, then, you know, brands aren't gonna pay to show themselves, you know. And so I kind of feel as if it's gonna be, it's gonna be a, it's gonna be a trickle down effect, you know, so, like, it's gonna start from the top. So it depends on, like, when the travel restrictions are out, you know, when we can actually see each other with how, like what, like how far you can talk to somebody. So it's gonna be very, it's gonna be very, very, very, very different in the near future. I can actually see the trade shows skipping a season for sure. And that's gonna be in August. Got it.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

That's crazy. Looking back, like, did you plan to get into this industry early on or what were some of your goals when you were like, you know, 18, 18, 19 years old, coming up in your.

Career, you know that, you know that. You know, the thing was, it's like when you're 18, 19, not a lot of kids at that age know exactly what the hell they're gonna do. You know, you just, you know, you had no obligations at all. I mean, besides, you might have a cell phone, you know, you might have to pay your, like, gas. But other than that, like, what other, what other obligations do you have, you know? And so me, I got kicked out of the house early. So, like, I moved out the age of 19. So I was living in like a mobile home at the age of 19, you know, and I'm like, okay, I got to pay for school, I got to pay for my own place to live. And so I just got to make it work. I got to figure out whatever money I can bring in because I come on my own, you know. And so for me, I always looked at it like, okay, how could I make the most money and not own a brand? Right? And so I always felt that way. I was like, sales is the only one where you're not capped off with your salary. And so it's pretty much like, unless they cap you off on your commission, it's endless. So I always knew that being in sales was going to be the best way for you to make any type of money. And it doesn't matter if you're good at sales, you can sell any product. That's how I kind of felt. Yeah. So at, like, I want to say, at 19 years old, you know, I finally, I went to my first commission based job and I was, as crazy as it sounds, I was selling women's shoes at Aldo.

No way.

Okay, but, but hear this out. So although at the time had about, I want to say they had about five to 600 employee stores worldwide.

Okay.

I was the number one sales rep in the whole world by volume for the hour.

Wow.

At south coast Plaza. At south coast Plaza, there was close to, I want to say there was close to like over 2,000 employees, sales reps, period. Yep. 500 stores. And yeah, I was number one. And I knew, I knew that at that point I was like, okay, sales is what I'm going to do. And so after the, after sales from Aldo, my first year, I graduated college, I took a job in the mortgage industry as a loan officer. Right. So as a loan officer, you know, they start you off by being a telemarketer, like a junior loan officer. So you're sitting there to, you know, picking up the phone, you're just dialing 2, 300 calls a day. And then when you get somebody interested in a lead, you'd hand it over to the main loan officer. Right. And he closes the deal. You'll get lucky. You might get like a shitty little, shitty little stipend or a low commission off of him, whatever he makes. But the loan officers making all the money. Yep. So I had to do that. So I had to do that for two months. And whoever sent over the most leads would eventually become a loan officer. So, you know, after two months, I became a loan officer. And in my third month, I was the highest grossing loan officer in the whole company. Wow. And all at the age of 22 years.

22 years, a sales beast.

Yeah. Yeah. So. So I took that knowledge and, you know, in 2000, I want to say, I want to say it was like 2000, 6007. The industry just went to shit, you know, and so we got laid off. And then I went to the trade show because one of my buddies owned a clothing brand pretty much. He said, hey, come out. Help me out, you know, help me out and just do this for me. You know, I have all the, I have all of the clothes here. This is the booth, you know, if anybody asks a question. Cool. Do what you can do. And so, yeah, my first trade show, I was actually sitting there just helping out, answering questions. And a buyer comes up and he's like, yo, this is tight, you know, So I explained to him, I explained to him, we're talking, we start talking about, you know, our one love together, which is the Nike dunk. I'm sitting there just spinning game with them on the Nike dunks, whatever. I see him outside and he's like, you know what, man? Want to place an order? I like you. I was, alright, that's cool, come back in. And he's like, yo, let me write a 5, 10, 10, 5. Which is at the time, I'm like, what the fuck is a 5, 10, 10, 5, right?

Yeah.

He's all starting at small. And so my buddy Joe, who owned the brand was like, yo, he means 5 smalls, 10 mediums, 10 largest, and 5 extra larges across the board means every single style. And so my first order I've ever wrote was a $15,000 order. And my buddy Joe's like, yo, I'm gonna pay you 10% of this. And I was like, word. And he was like, just sit here and do this for the rest of the fucking weekend and you're good to go.

That's tight. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. So, yeah, so that weekend I wrote about like $50,000 in orders, you know, made a nice little five stacks. Yeah. And then I just, I didn't know exactly what to do after that. And he was like, listen, all the guys that you spoke to just, you know, grab their business cards, follow up. And so, you know, I had just got off of doing, you know, telemarketing this. It's easy. I took all the business cards, threw it into an Excel spreadsheet. I had my fucking phone on, I had my hands free phone. And I called every single person, bugging them over and over and over. And I want to say the first season I booked about 150k in orders, and the previous year he only wrote 80,000 in orders.

Wow. Even a season.

Yeah, I did that in a season.

Okay.

So that was it. I've been in the industry ever since.

That is so tight, man. So it seems like you just from that experience, you know, when you went to go start your own brand, you already had that side of the business dialed in with retail, everything.

I mean, it's a relationship business, you know, And I knew that I had all these relationships already. I'm a sales rep, you know, I'm saying. So they were buying whatever I was selling, just Based off the relationship. And then I. And then I thought about it with my partner. He's a sales rep as well. We're just like, hey, we started our own brand. We don't have to worry about them leaving. And instead of just taking 10% of the cut, we take the whole thing. And so we're just like, after our first brand, we started, we were like, okay, we're not representing anybody else unless we have equity in this brand or unless we own a majority of this.

How many brands do you guys have under your umbrella? It's a lot, right?

It's a lot. It's a lot. We own. We own majority of a lot of brands. We also have licenses. You know, we have embellished crisp denim, House of Junior, which is a kids line, lifted Anchors Carter Collection. We just launched Club Paradise. We licensed out in Noir. And then I just locked in the deal with your buddies too, from Diet Starts Monday.

Oh, Davin.

Yeah, so.

Oh, no way.

Yes.

That's what's up.

Yeah, so we're working with that too, you know, and, you know, and we have a handful of other ones, but, you know, the ink's not. The ink's not dry yet, so I'm not gonna even announce that.

Yeah, totally. No, that's. So. Yeah. I've known David and them. It's funny, I met Davin at this place in D.C. actually, with drama and stuff, and that's what. Actually, I got connected with you just through Dee and those guys talking streetwear and everything. And that's so tight, man. So when you work with. I'm curious. I want the people listening to understand, like, you know, when you do. I've had David on the show from Diet Starts Monday. Like, when you work with a brand like Diet Starts Monday, you guys are overall just helping them get more bigger orders. Is that correct?

No, no, no, no, no. Because myself, I handle the sales. I handle the sales side. My business partner handles the production and design side. And we have factories that we work with over there too. And so we're able to help with margins, buying product overseas, the whole logistics. So, like, let's just say like a record label. Like we. I always say the same thing. Podcast is. We're pretty much like a record label. The artist is the designer. All he has to do is manufacture the sound, which is the look, do the rest. We do the distribution, we do the marketing, we do the manufacturing, making sure it's in the right stores, just like the venues that he does. And so for us, you just got to do what you do design, AKA like an artist sync, and we'll do the rest. So. Yeah, so click, click. So we. So pretty much we do everything. I mean, we just pretty much do everything and you just got to do whatever you got to do.

Yeah, that's super cool, man. If there's like, you know, someone listening that they're young. I know that you talked about on these podcasts where you always have people like, hey, if you have a brand, like, hit me up. I want to. I want to check it out. Like, how often are you guys looking at different brands to, you know, to incubate, to bring on or just quote, unquote, sign, like a record label?

All the time. Like, I on. I honestly act like an exec and I pay attention to every brand. Come on, like, diet starts. I've been talking to Davin since he was doing premium, like, long. And so I always told him the same thing. You got a great product, you just need to make sure that we can, you know, launch it to look a mass. Like, even some of my other partners that we're working with right now too. Like, for instance, who am I talking about here? Like, Club. Club Paradise. Like, Club paradise is another one that we're doing at dtc. And you know, the kid behind that is Louie and Matt. So Louie, you know, he's a. He's an influencer that works with like, stadium goods, and he was the one that did all, like, influencer marketing for. Geez, what was it for? Stockx. Okay, so I look at it like, okay, what do these. I have. I know what I can offer. What are some of the things that these guys could offer besides just designing? Do they have a platform? Do they. Can they do certain things? You know, and so we can do, you know, pretty much we look at it like what we could provide for them, what can they provide for us?

That's sick.

Yep.

That's what's up, man. How. How have you been spending your time on social media throughout this journey? Because I know obviously you put out content on there and that's how we've been able to stay in touch. How are you, you know, looking at building a personal brand and just utilizing social with everything that you have going on?

To be honest, man, I'm just trying to keep it light, you know, I'm just trying to keep it light. I always say the same thing. Like, during this whole thing, I've seen so many people just complain, argue, whine, and bitch and moan. You know, at the end of the day, we didn't do this, you know, like, we weren't responsible for this. You know, the only thing we could do is just honestly sit back and just take it day by day. Because, like, I'm seeing, you know, even on other platforms, like your Facebook, you know, you got a friend that probably might be the dumbest person in high school, but now he. He knows everything about. He's a scientist now, politician now. You know what I'm saying? It's funny, but I'm like, dude, you barely graduated high school. You know, you were. You were. You were probably one of the dumbest people there. What are you talking about? You know, so I try not to get baited in to argue with anybody because it becomes, like, a whole bait, you know? You know, I do the same thing, obviously, the day I have a family, I have kids, I have a wife, you know, I got guys that are looking at me for, like, inspiration. So the only thing I try to do is just keep a light, you know, I'm saying I'm not. I'm not trying to bait anybody to be pissed off, because right now, it's a touchy subject. Like, in the day, I know I'm blessed, you know, I know if I don't have to work, then I'm okay. But there's somebody out there that every single check, like, every single day they don't work is like a check or a meal that they can't afford. And, like, you know, everyone's not in the same position, so I have no right to bitch about anybody or how they. Or how they run their life.

Yeah, 100%, man. That's what's up. I have two more questions, Chris. Just one of them being, you know, just. I want to ask you. It's different for everyone. Just what is your definition of success?

Oh. Oh, that changes a lot. You know, honestly, that changes a lot. You know, that changes a lot. I honestly feel my definition of success is being financially stable, that in a situation like this, working for so long, you're okay. You know, all the material things, it's nice. You know, cars, whips, you know, cars, whips, watches, you know, jewelry, all that's nice. But at the same time, all that could go away. You know, I'm saying if you're not financially stable and can take care of yourself, I don't think you're truly successful. You know, being successful is defined differently, like, every single time. For me, it's defined differently. Now, being able to take care of yourself during situations like this, you're successful. Love that.

I want to talk about time to wrap it up. One of my favorite things that I've seen you post was this past Christmas you posted about buying your entire team a Rolex. Right. And talking about the value of time. I'd love for you to dive into that story and, you know, tell the people what the lesson was there. Because I know when you were posting about that last Christmas, I was watching and staying up to date, and it inspired me to really just, like, look at it where I'm like, okay, when I have a team of, you know, 20, 50 people to instill a lesson like you did, it taught me a lesson just from afar. So I'd love you to touch on that and tell the listeners why you did that and what the lesson was.

Yeah, honestly, for me, I could have easily been like, okay, these are my upper management guys, some of my employees that I've worked with for the longest time, all right? And I kind of felt I could have definitely just given them like, money, money, but what are they going to do with money? You know, obviously pay a bill, go on a trip or whatnot. And I kind of felt as if I wanted to give them something where, you know, every single time they looked at it, it was like, wow, you know, it meant something. And for me, obviously, buying a Rolex is a huge, like a huge trophy to yourself. You know, not a lot of people are gonna buy a Rolex ever. You know what I'm saying? And I know that. And to me, I look at these like, these guys could have been anywhere the last four or five years. You know, they couldn't have worked at Ikea, Costco, a lawyer's office, aaa, at an insurance agency, you know, but they actually spent their time working with me and helping me build this, you know, build this platform, this empire or whatever it is. And to be honest with you, to be honest with you, there's a lot of people that I gave that out to and their jobs I can't do, you know, I can't do their jobs. I don't know, you know, what the freight forward bill looks like. I don't know how to pay certain credit cards. I can't log on to our back end system. I don't know which celebrity's address that I'm supposed to send this out to. I don't know what size Lonzo Ball wears. You know, like, you know, there's these guys that did all that and helped build that. And I told them in this letter, I was like, you know, you know, every time you guys look at this, watch Just know that I appreciate your time because you know, time is like time. You can't. You can't put a dollar on time. And so that's. That was the whole thing that I tied the whole watch, the Rolex and time to love that.

That's what's up, man. Well, speaking of that, I want to be respectful. Respectful of your time today, Chris, and say thank you so much for coming on last thing. Just where is the best place for everyone to stay up to date with everything you have going on? And where can they check out the leverage?

Oh man. I mean, you can go my personal IG page. It's Chris underscore the leverage. The leverage. T H E L E V E R A G E Got it.

Love it. And last but not least, I just want to say thank you again, my man. It truly means the world. I know that we've been meaning to do this for quite some time now. And when the ears up, we'll have definitely have to swing by the office and check it out.

Yeah, for sure, man. Thank you for having me, bud. Legacy of Monsters An Apple original Series the world is on fire. I decided to do something about it. On November 17, this place, it's not ours. Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise. Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.

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