Live Ordinary or Extraordinary? The Choice is Yours

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gary Sanchez. At the why Institute, we've helped over 40,000 people discover, make decisions and connect using their why. This show will be much more powerful for you once you know your own why. So head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why. Today you're going to meet one of the leaders who've discovered their why with us and is going to share their story and the powerful lessons they've learned.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. And so if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we bring on somebody with that why so we can see how their why has played out in their life. And so this week we're going to be talking about the why of right way. Now, if this is your why you believe that there is a proper and correct way to do things and that things should be done right, there is no point in skimping on the details or cutting corners. To achieve success, you must follow procedures that have been proven and use systems that have been developed and shown to work over time and adjusted and corrected on numerous occasions to produce the right outcome. You know that if you create structures and processes that work, the right results will follow. You believe in clarity and simplicity, operations that run smoothly because they have been tested. You generally show up on time because that's the right thing to do and appreciate it. When others respect a set schedule, you embrace order and instill it in your personal life and your business. You recognize that different departments in a business have different needs, and yet there is always a right way to get things done, even if it's not your way. And that part of true leadership is to bring that out in others. And so, for today, I've got a great guest for you. He's one of my good buddies. His name is Onesimo Vigil, but he goes by Mo. He's an entrepreneur. He's the current CEO of intellicare. He's the Vice President of Los Ojos de la Familia. He's the owner and CFO for Lava Rock Brewing Company and the author of Chicano Millionaires. He was raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mowat attended and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from UNM Dental Hygiene School and finished his postgraduate education by earning an MBA with a focus on E Commerce from the University of Phoenix. Now, Mo started his working career practicing dental hygiene. In 1996, after seven years in dental hygiene, he decided it was time to start his own home healthcare company and did so in 2003. Since then, Mo has built three very successful companies and published his first self help book in March of 2009. As an entrepreneur, speaker, author, business owner and CEO, Mo believes strongly in creating opportunities for others and is very involved in the betterment of his community. Mo believes the only thing better than having a dream is living your dream. Mo, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Hey, well, let's start out, get everybody up to speed a little bit on your story, on your life. Take us back to what it was like when you were a child, where you came from, and then kind of your story to where you are right now. Give us the, you know, the three, four minute version.

Oh, a three minute version. Okay, let's do that. So.

Was my parents had me at a very young age, so they were 17 when they had me. So when your parents have you at that age, you can kind of imagine what your life's like. I was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, but raised in Santa Fe. Raised by my great, great, my great grandparents and, and then we moved to Santa Fe when I was 5 and just attended public school and.

Grew up pretty much in different trailer parks until we built our first house, which was in junior high, my last year in junior high. And then at that point.

My parents were able to sell that home and take the profits that they made from that and purchase their first home. And we did that when I was a senior in high school. And so my senior year I got my own bedroom. I was fired up. I didn't have to share a bedroom with my brother anymore. And it was just me and my brother, so just two of us and we're five years apart, so a younger brother. But my parents did an excellent job. I believe in raising me and just showing me what, you know, just hard work. They taught me hard work would get me far. And you know, they were real big on education, which now I'm not so big on education. But that was something that they really pushed. And you know, I was one of the first to go to college in my family and so graduating college and then moving on. And so that's kind of a three minute little.

Well, you went to, you know, you went from high school in Santa Fe to unm and then you went into dental hygiene. What, what took you to dental hygiene? I mean, of all the things, knowing your past, you're you're not telling a whole lot about your past because you grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood. You had a. You had a pretty tough fighting, Fighting past.

Right.

It was not your basic, easy.

I've been in my share, my fair share of street fights, that's for sure. Yes. Yeah. All that's behind me now, so that's good. But no. So my parents always said, you know, if you could become a doctor, you'd make good money, you know, and they just, you know, pushed that in me. And so, you know, of all the doctors, I just was fascinated with teeth. And I really, you know, thought, well, I'd like to become a dentist and open up my own practice and do my own thing. And so dentistry was where I wanted to go. And, you know, unfortunately for me, at the schools that I attended, we didn't have very good counselors, so they didn't really explain that, you know, how that process worked. And so I thought, you just go enroll in college and you become a dentist. And when I got to unm, I found out that New Mexico didn't even have a dental school.

They didn't guide me or direct me or mentor me or put me in the right path. And so I thought, well, they do. They did have a dental hygiene school. And I thought, well, why not do that? Because I knew it would help me become a better dentist. A lot of the hygienists that went on to dental school is a little bit of an advantage for them, and it helped. And so I thought that might be good, and it would also give me a chance that. Where I wouldn't be so far in debt and see if I like that, and if I liked it, then I can, you know, move on to dental school. But while I was working through dental hygiene school or once I got into dental hygiene school and got out and started practicing, you know, I worked for a lot of different doctors, and it seemed like their struggle always was running their business and managing their staff, very good clinicians, but had a very difficult time, you know, managing their practices and running a business. I mean, really, that's what it was back then. I mean, things have changed now with a lot of the doctors, but back then, it was. You ran your own practice. And so I thought, well, I don't want to be one of those doctors. So I went. That's when I went back to grad school and got an MBA and that, let's learn some business, so that maybe I might have a little bit of help in that. In that area. And so then the ironic thing happened to me is I hurt my wrist. And you know, right away what I thought is I don't want to get 2, $300,000 in debt going through dental school, come out and then not be able to practice but a few years. And so luckily for me, my first dad go round into the dental thing, into the dental school, I didn't get accepted, but I, you know, which was kind of a blessing for me because of hurting my wrist. And, and I remember one of my finance professors in grad school telling me that if I could do something that dealt with the elderly, it would be a really good business to do. And so that's kind of how it wound up that, you know, I left hygiene and I ended up starting my home health care company. And that was the first company I started.

So what did he say to you? I mean, just, just in passing, hey, Mo, why don't you, you know, why don't you look at working with the elderly? I mean, I can't imagine that little comment would have changed the direction of your life.

No, so it was two things. It was one, he said that if you, if you could get into some type of business that dealt with the elderly, that was one. And then the second was I was already in the medical field, so I was already kind of looking at different things in the medical field. And, and then my uncle was a nurse and had started his own home healthcare company. And so there were a lot of things that were leading me that way. So that's what got me to start looking into it. And I decided, you know what? This is exactly what I want to do. I want to take care of people and take care of them in their homes.

So how did that, how did you start. How do you go from being a dental hygienist? So the reason I'm asking you this, Mo, is because there's a lot of people listening to this and they're in a situation where maybe they don't feel like they're in the right position for them, something's happened and they're not really feeling like they're in the right place and they have to make a transition. You had already were married, right, and you already had some kids, so you had a lot of stress and overhead. You weren't given good guidance. And then all of a sudden you say, you know what? I think I'm going to go start a home healthcare business. Well, how the heck do you do that? You did it. How did you do it?

So I wouldn't. Well, obviously now you Know that I mentor a lot of kids and I help people with business. I, we're talking, this is a long time past, but going back, I definitely wouldn't probably do it the way I did it. I mean, that's a tough way to start a business. I basically, I was working for two different doctors at the time, a periodontist and just a general dentist. And I went into them and I gave them my resignation letter and they're like, what are you doing? And I said, well, I'm not going to dental school because I don't want to not be able to pay back my debt. I said, and number two is, you know, this isn't, you know, fulfilling me. I think there's more to me. And so really the thing that happened was as a hygienist, you see a lot of people coming in getting their teeth cleaned and, you know, a lot of business owners and lawyers and doctors and engineers and just different people. And this one guy came in and he was just like, you know, you seem too smart to just be in here cleaning teeth for the rest of your life. And he said, you need to make your move by the time you're 30. And so at the time, I think I was like 29. And he was an engineer but had started his own engineering firm. And so he was running business and had like 10, 12 employees working for him at the time. And he just thought that I would be a good entrepreneur, I mean, because of the conversations we would have and talking. And so, so all those things is what got me to say, you know what? I think this is what I need to do and I think this is what I want to do. And I started doing it part time because I had done home based businesses before and you can do those, have a job and do a home based business, but you can't really run a traditional business and have a job. You got to either go for it and do it or not do it. And so when I gave them the resignation letters and told them, listen, currently I think at the time I was making about 60, 65,000 a year, working five days a week, two different doctors. And I left that to make zero.

And just started doing it full tilt boogie and got myself about $14,000 in debt. My wife, she cashed in her 401k at the time and pretty much she was just supporting us. She was working at a bank at the time. And we just did everything we possibly could to survive. And eventually we got one client and two and three and four and started growing. And then you know, if you can live on zero, you definitely can live on a thousand. And if you can live on a thousand, you can definitely live on 1500. And so after about eight months, I started paying myself, I think about 1,500amonth. And then after about a year and a half, I was paying myself about 2,000. And so at that point we were able to live at least, and then started expanding it and growing it at that point. But I mean, that's not, I wouldn't, you know, recommend people do that. I mean, that's really a no plan B. It's, you're either gonna make it or you're not. And it was 80 plus hour work weeks for the first three years. I mean, it was pure grinding. Nobody saw me for three years. And I mean, we. From the ground up. So it was very, very difficult. And at the time, you could do that with not a lot of startup capital. So I had a business partner who, we did it together and we were 50, 50, and he put in about 15,000. And then I put in 15,000, which most of my money was debt and credit card.

And it was rough, you know what I mean? And, you know, today I wouldn't look back and, you know, I appreciate what I went through because, you know, it provided me with the life that I have today. And, you know, and that's how I'm able to mentor and encourage other younger people. I've got several young kids that I mentor. When I say young kids, they're in their late 20s, early 30s, and. And they all have started their businesses and are doing very, very well. I don't think business is for everyone, but I definitely, you know, if you, if you, if there's something. So growing up, my dad always said, business is where it's at, Business is where it's at. I mean, he must have told me that a thousand times. And, you know, he never was a business owner. He worked for the state and retired, working for the state 28 years. And so the fact that he just always told me that must have just sunk in my brain or something must have happened. I don't know how that happens, but I believe it was a mixture of all those different things. You know, the finance professor telling me, do a business that does that, you know, going to business school and then talking so much about business, working in a dental field where the dentists are running their own business. I mean, I was surrounded by small business. Surrounded. And so my uncle starting his own company and doing that, and he was a nurse and he was still in the healthcare field. And so I think it was a combination of all that. And then as a child growing up, always hearing my dad say, business is where it's at, Business is where it's at, business where it's at, that it finally got me to say, I think business is what I want to do now. 17 years doing business. Love business. You know how much I love business and how passionate I am about business. So it's just how it happened for me.

So let me. You know, again, I know Mo really well, and we spent a lot of time together, but one of the things I notice about you, Mo, is you ask a lot of questions and you pick a lot of brains and you find people and you seek them out and you ask them to. You ask to spend time with them and. And you ask them a lot of questions. What's going. Questions. You go through that with so many different people. Why do you do that?

Well, so I think that the reason I do that and I give a presentation as, you know, to help out.

People that I mentor, and they're always asking me, you know, what's the key to success? Or how do you. How can you become successful? Or how can I start a business? Or these are the questions I get asked a lot. So.

To answer your question, I truly, truly believe that there are six things that an individual can do, and it's these six things that will help them with that and that might help us answer your question. So, you know, let me just explain these quick six things. The first one, and I call this the six things to give you a better life or to help you find purpose or to find out, because earlier what you just said was, there's a lot of people that will be listening to the podcast and they don't know if they're doing what they should be doing. And let's help answer that question. I think these six things will help answer that question. So for me, it's about a better life, right? It's not to say that you can't have an amazing life being a dental hygienist. I could have done that for 30, 40 years, retired, and that would have been my life. But that wasn't my purpose. And so the number one thing I think that is most important for everybody is to put God first. You just got to put God first in your life. And I think that kind of sets the foundation. The second thing, and this is to answer your question, because you asked me, well, why do you do that? And why do you ask all these people These questions and do all that. And it's, you got to find yourself a mentor. And growing up with my childhood that you're very familiar with, I didn't have a whole lot of really good mentors in my life, and I didn't have that skill set to go out and find myself a mentor. So when I teach my young people to go out and find a mentor, it's not to go look up who's the most successful person they know and then bombard them with emails or phone calls and say, can you mentor me? That's not how you do it. How you do it is you. You meet them, and you can do that in so many different ways. And then you just get. You spark up a conversation. And then typically, if you start talking business or something that's of their interest, you guys will have a connection, and it stirs up a dialogue. And then at that point, it's like, well, why don't we grab coffee one day? Or why don't we go, I'd love to show you my office? Or, you know, I'd love to come see your office. And most of the time, these guys will be like, absolutely. They get excited because people are interested about that. And so you introduced me to some of my mentors, you know, and I've gone out and had coffee, and next thing you know, we're doing business together. You know, I mean, and it just kind of works like that. So I think, you know, finding yourself a mentor is very, very important how you go about doing that. If you're passionate about sports, find yourself somebody who's really good at sports and go talk to them and spend time with them. If it's a dentist and you want to go into dentistry, find yourself a really good dentist, go meet them, talk to them, intern at their practice and go from there. If it's teaching, find yourself a really good teacher. And, you know, I mean, so it doesn't matter what it is that whatever it is that you're interested in, you find someone who's really good at that, and then you go spend time with them.

I think the next thing that you got to do, and this is number three, is you have to make a commitment. And I think people struggle with that, is, you know, they don't really understand what a true commitment is. And I'm talking about a commitment, meaning that no matter what, this is what you're going to do 100%, you know, like, you know, I'll give you an example. Maybe getting married. When you get married, you know, that's a commitment, right? You, you make a commitment in front of all kinds of people. You, it's, you know, it's very serious, right? Through good, through bad, through sickness, through health, through rich, through poor. I mean, it's a, that's a commitment. And if you break off that commitment, you have to get a divorce. And that's a big, big deal, right? So, so before you get married, you have to really ask yourself, is this what I want to do? Because once you do it, there's no going back. And the only way you go back is you get a divorce. So when I say commitment, that's the kind of commitment I'm talking about. And then after you make that commitment, and you know, you're a hundred percent sure that this is the commitment I'm making, then you got to develop a plan. And I think that's where a lot of people.

You know, fall short, is they just, they're not able to develop a plan. They don't know what to do and then they won't stick out their plan. So, you know, because the next step after you develop that plan is you have to do the work. And like, you know, when you asked me the question about when I started as my own business, I mean, you can imagine from the ground up, I had to have a commitment, I had to have a plan, and then I had to do the work. And the work is where pretty much the bulk of people will give up because they're not willing to do, put in 80 hour work weeks. And I was putting in 80, 90 hour work weeks. I did that for three years, you know what I mean? And doing that for $1,000. I mean, if you do the math on that, it's like $2.13 an hour. So I wasn't making a whole lot of money. So when people tell me, you know, they tell me all this stuff about the minimum wage, I said, hold on a second, let me talk to you about minimum wage. I can talk to you about that. So the last thing is if you're able to get through those steps, right, you put God first, you find yourself a good mentor, you make a commitment, you develop a plan, and then you end up doing the work, right? Which for me was three years, right? 80 hour work weeks. Then what you do, the next thing. And this is how you can become an expert in anything it is that you do. And I think you'd agree with me in dentistry and developing the why and consulting and, and anything it is that you want to do, it's practice, you Know, if you put in the practice, and I think Malcolm Gladwell says this best in his book outlier 10,000 hours to become an expert. So think about that. If I'm doing 80 hour work weeks and I keep doing 80 hour work weeks, 80 hour work weeks, 80 hours. Once I get to 10,000 hours in whatever specific thing that I'm doing, I can almost consider myself an expert. And if people will do those things, it's amazing. Your life will change.

We're taking a quick break to give you a chance to find clarity in your life instead of just listening. Ready to put an end to your frustration, ready to unlock the code to your personal and business success. I know you can, because I have, and I'm giving you my exact system. It's time for you to discover your why, how and what. Head over to why institute.com and get started. Let's get back to the show.

You know, for everybody that's listening. You don't know so much about Mo's background, but how did you go from where you were at, the way you grew up with the people you were hanging out with, with the things that you were doing, to stopping that stuff and saying, hold on a second here, I got to get on a better path. I got to find the right way to do this. What was that moment in your in time for you that you took a different turn because you could have gone the same? You got lots of friends that are in not such good places, right?

Correct.

You have lots of friends that aren't even here.

So I think there's two things. Number one, it's because I had God in my life and I was very spiritual. And so God was always leading me and guiding me. Even I wasn't, you know, attending church regularly or I wasn't reading the Bible or, you know, I just being that I grew up with my great grandmother who prayed the rosary and took me to church every single day. I mean, think about that. When you're, you know, three years old, two years old, and you're just a little kid, like, church is not the place you want to be. You want to be out playing, having fun, and to go to church every single day, you know, and then when you go to bed, she's praying the rosary with you and praying the rosary and just praying to you and telling you all these things. Like it just something must have happened that it, you know, it really put the Holy Spirit in me. And so when I had that, even knowing I wasn't practicing my faith or really good with my faith, in these really bad times that I had, you know, adolescence, teenage, right after college, you know, all that turmoil that I went through, having kids at a really young age, you know, being a dental hygienist, working. I mean, I remember we used to put a quart of oil in my wife's car and we had to, I mean, we bought it off my friend for $1,500 and we had to put cardboard on the floor because it was leaking oil everywhere. But it was all we had, right? And we were living In a little 1200 square foot home, three bedroom, with a family of five. And you know, it was just rough. And so the moment that you're talking about was, you know, all these people would come in and I'd be cleaning their teeth and they just got back from the country club, they just got back from a cruise they took, they just got, they just bought a new house in Primrose, you know, and it's like $800,000, $900,000 house at that time, you know, they just bought their wife a hundred thousand dollar wedding ring, you know, and they're coming in, they're showing it to me and talking about this, and you know, I'm putting a quart of oil in my wife's car. And I. So I told myself, you know, being a star athlete, having a scholarship, going to college, I did what my parents said. They said, if you go to college, you'll get a good job, you'll live a good life. That wasn't happening. And so I had to come to Jesus talk with myself right then and there and said, life has got to be better than this. This is not my path, this was not my destiny, you know, and destiny is a matter of choice, not a matter of chance. And so right then and there, I decided to make the choice that I'm going to do something and I'm going to build my empire and I'm going to create a better life. All the kids that I mentor these days, I say, listen, that's the beauty of what we do now is that we live in a country that's free freedom, we have freedom here. People come to this country with nothing so that they can accomplish something. And the beauty of that structure is that it's choice. And so I tell them straight up, I said, you guys have the choice to live an ordinary life or you can live an extraordinary life. And the choice is yours. And once people truly understand that and believe that to their soul that it is their choice if they want to become a multimillionaire it is their choice. If they want to have a company with 500 employees, it is their choice. If they want to travel the world, then that is when the magic can happen. So to answer your question, when I was sitting in that operatory and I had 800 bucks in my bank account, and we're putting a quart of oil in my wife's car, and these guys are coming in and their life was a lot different than mine, and I didn't think they were much better than me. I made a choice, and that choice was that I was going to create a better life for me and my family. And I did. You know, my kids went to private school, you know, very expensive tuition that I paid because I wanted them to have a better life. They could go to a. You know, not to say that, you know, public schools are bad, but, you know, schoolings typically are based on where you live, Right. Housing costs more money if it's in a better schooling district. Right. So if you live in a really low income area, chances are the schooling you're gonna go to is gonna be that type of schooling. And so that's what we did. And, you know, we're very blessed and fortunate now. And, you know, we still got some life left in us, so we can do some amazing things. But the other thing, Gary, that I think is real important for your audience to understand and know is that I truly believe that we were put on this planet to serve other people. And I think that what you're doing with the Y Institute and your consulting, I mean, you've been in the industry of serving people your entire life. I mean, fixing their teeth, fixing their mouth, getting them healthy, making them have a better smile, a better life, you know, and now you're doing the same thing with the. Yeah, I mean, you've changed my life and telling me my why. Several years ago when you came up with it and you said, what is your why? And when you found out, it's interesting to me because like my company, with my healthcare company, we have three rules, right? Three golden rules. And you ask any employee what our golden rules are, and they'll tell you what they are. Don't be late when you make a mistake. It's how you go about fixing that. And the last one is, business is simple. Do the right thing. Well, my business has been around for 17 years. The Y Institute started after that. Right? So, I mean, isn't that coincidental that my why is to do the right thing? And that's even one of my golden rules for our Company.

Yep. I love that. Hey. Well, I don't want to. I want to go back to something you said because you hear it all the time. But I want you to elaborate on this. You said, whether you live an extraordinary life or an ordinary life is your choice. What do you mean by that? I'm listening to that and I'm saying, yeah, I've heard that. I get it. It's a choice. Okay, how do I. What do I do with that?

So my parents chose to live an ordinary life, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? Blue collar workers. My dad worked for the State Department and 28 years and retired. And now they're retired and they're just living out their life. And to me, I would consider their life an ordinary life. You know, it's nothing extravagant. It's not extraordinary. By no means. When I tell them some of the things that I do, they're just like. They don't even comprehend or understand it. Right. You know, when I told them I bought a car that cost 385,000, they're like, they can't. They can't. They don't even. Like, they don't get it. They don't. They don't. They're like, why would you spend 385,000 on a car? You know, I mean, when I told them I bought a $40,000 watch, they're like, a $40,000 watch. Like, they make watches that cost 40. I said, Mom, dad, they make watches that cost 200. They make watches that cost a million dollars. You know, I mean, so, like, you know, when I tell them I fly on private planes and I've been, you know, to places where I've heard some of the most amazing speakers. I mean, I just got back from an Opus Day retreat, which I think I told you about, and how I even got invited to even go to that, like, I mean, it's. That to me, is extraordinary. So ordinary is, you know, my mom and dad waking up and going, having breakfast at the Spick and Span. And again, there's nothing wrong with either. Either one. They're great. But the beauty is that you have the choice to choose which one you want. You know what I mean? And on the side where I'm at, I get to do both, right? Because if I want to spend, you know, time with my parents, I can drive down to Las Vegas. I even thought about doing that today. I was going to drive down to Las Vegas, go have breakfast with them at the Spick and Span, and just spend the day with them. And then come back to Albuquerque. You know what I mean? And so that's what I mean by ordinary and extraordinary. It's your choice.

I get that. Now. How do you make the choice to go from ordinary to extraordinary? What does that mean? Okay, I got to make a choice. Okay. What actionable items do I do to make that happen?

So then that's when you fall. So if you decide, you know what, I don't want to live an ordinary life. I don't want to work an 8 to 5. I don't want, you know, to make $60,000 a year and get a retirement and live in an average neighborhood and just have my kids go to public school and just live that life. I don't. That's not what I want to do. Okay, you don't want to do that. Then you got to do these six things and those six things that I told you about, you got to do them. And like I told you, when you get to number three and number four and number five, usually people fall off at number five. Because in order to live an extraordinary life, you got to be willing to do those 80 hour work weeks, and you got to be willing. Remember I told you for the first three years we were living on $1,000 a month? Mm. Not many people can do that. If you're making $60,000 a year, which is a pretty good life, right? Go eat where you want. You can, you know, you can drive a pretty nice car. You can, you know, you can take vacations. You can do pretty some things, you know, now you got to give all that up to live on a thousand dollars a month. I mean, what can you do with a thousand dollars a month? Yeah, I mean, our friends used to call us and invite us to all these places, and we'd have to come up with an excuse that we couldn't. Well, the excuse was we didn't have no money.

Mo was working 80 hours a week. He didn't have time.

So price to pay.

It's a sacrifice, you know, I mean, but if you make that sacrifice for a short period of time, then comes, you know, a more extraordinary life.

So you got to make the choice to follow the six steps in order to have. You got to delay your gratification.

You got to delay it. You can't want it tomorrow. You know, if you work out six days a week and you eat right, and you're very good about getting the proper rest, you know, in six months, a year, two years, you're going to see some serious results. But most people can't do that for that time. You know, after two months go by, they're kind of, some people, after a week or two, it's like, ah, you know what, I'm going to go have some beers, I'm going to eat what I want. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to skip a workout. I don't really feel like working out today. It's not going to happen. And you know, so I use that analogy a lot with people because, you know, people see some of these people up on stage and they got these amazing physiques and stuff. Well, that didn't happen overnight. That took some serious discipline. It took some serious dedication. And I guarantee you those people were following these six steps. They were following it in that industry and that aspect. And so to me, that's what it is, is that you, you have to be that driven and that discipline, otherwise it's just not going to happen.

How did you get that driven and that disciplined?

That's a really good question. I guess I've never really thought about that. But.

I think that one of the things is that my parents, they really did a great job in telling me that there wasn't anything that I couldn't do. And they would always tell me that. Always. And so, you know.

At the end of the day, we're all just human beings, right? I mean, granted there's some of us that get some God given talent. Like you take LeBron James and he's 6 foot 8 and he's 270 pounds and. But they say he works harder than any other player in the NBA. So not only does he have the God given talent and the size, but he still works that hard. You know what I mean? So I'll tell you a story about a guy who's pretty amazing. And you and I both know this guy. His name's Nota Begay and he's a phenomenal person. And so, you know, he went to Albuquerque Academy and I went to Cabo. So we both played on the golf team. And you know, they always put him as the third player, even though he was the best player, but they would put him on the third player. And I was the third player for Capital. So I always got to play with him. And he was just phenomenal. And I'll share one story with you. We were playing at Ladera. The tournament was going to be at Ladera one day. So me and a couple of the players and the coaches, they drove us up so that we can get a quick practice round in before the tournament the following day. Well, Noda, they said, there's Noda. And he was like a star right already at the time. He was nationally recognized and he was good. And so he was sitting on or he was standing on the putting green and he had about a, I want to say maybe about an 8 foot putt that he had stringed out and a bunch of balls and he was just, you know, making that putt. We played a round of golf and when we got back, he was in the same position doing the exact same putt. And that's what I'm talking about. I mean, that kind of focus, that kind of dedication, that kind of discipline, that's what it takes if you want to be great.

So how did you get that? How did you get go from this fighter on the streets to a kid that was, you know, going nowhere possibly to having the drive, the commitment, the plan, the mentor, the whole thing. How did you go from where you were to saying, you know what, this isn't going to work for me. I got to go here. What was that moment in time for you?

So it's the same thing that Alcoholics Anonymous and drug addicts and those kind of people, you know, you can throw all the money in the world at some of those people and they'll still be doing what they're doing. You can put them in the best rehabs you can, you can do all that stuff, right? And it's not going to change. But what will change is when they hit rock bottom, when they hit a point in their life where.

This is, this, this doesn't work anymore, or it is just too tough, then they make a change and they say, you know what, I don't like this. And I think that when we were putting a quart of oil in my wife's car and we had 800 bucks and we couldn't take any vacations and I could barely pay child support and we were just struggling just to make our mortgage. To me, that was my rock bottom. You know, everybody has a different rock bottom. But to me, I thought I worked so hard to go to school, so hard to get accepted to dental hygiene school, so hard to get out, so hard to get, you know, jobs with really good doctors that had good reputations. I'm working as hard as I possibly can. And we're in the rat race, just scrambling to make ends meet. We could not get ahead. Credit card debt, we're just, we're a mess. And you know, you wake up that day and you say, life's got to Be better than this. And so that was my rock bottom. And I think when a person hits their rock bottom, they either just give up and die or they make a change. That was the day that I decided to make a change. And it just had little helps with people saying, like, you know, you got to make your move by the time you're 30. I wasn't 30 yet, so I made my move 29. And then the finance professor saying, you should do something with the elderly population. It was a good time to get into the industry that I got into, you know, and so if you don't walk around with blinders on, there's a lot of things that are telling you, do this, do that, do this, like, and it's God just putting things in front of you, but you're just not paying attention. And so they were all there for me. I just wasn't paying attention. And when I hit rock bottom, I started paying attention real quick because I just didn't want to live that. Continue to live that life anymore.

Wow. So then you went on and you developed in telecare, and then you. Did you write your book after that?

Yeah. So that's a great story as well, because, you know, all these stories are involved with my wife, every single one. And I'm so fortunate to have had her because, you know, she's been my rock. She's been my support. She's been pretty much everything for me. And so she said, wow, like, you really have an amazing story to tell. And I think that's what you're getting at because, you know, my upbringing and, you know, some of the struggles and the things that I went through. And then you see me now, and you're like, two totally different lives. I mean, it's totally different, you know, which is nice, though, because it gives hope to other people that may grow up the similar life. Right, right. My wife said, you really have a nice story to share, and you have some great information that can help other people like you. Right. Who maybe weren't, you know, born into money or guaranteed a path of success. And so she said, you should write a book and share all that information. And I told her, well, you're really in shape and you look great and you're all into exercise. You should run a marathon. And I thought I was kind of safe because she wasn't a runner. And so I thought, she's not going to run a marathon. And so she bet me, she says, okay, if I run a marathon, you'll ride a book. And so I said, well, That's. I'll take that bet all day long. So I took the bet, and I lost. Because what she did is, you got a book, she got a heart monitor, she got the proper shoes, she got a partner, she started training. And again, following all those steps that I told you about, she did all that stuff, trained 18 weeks, ran the marathon. Then I saw, wow, I got to live up to my end of the bargain, and I got to write this book. And I'm not a writer. And when you read the book, you'll realize pretty quickly, he's not a writer.

But if you read the book with open mind and you say, well, there's some good information in here and some stuff that he talks about that can really help me and help my family, and then you'll get more out of the book. And so that's what I did. I would get up every morning on Sundays at five in the morning, because I didn't want to. I was already working so much that I didn't want to have my family sacrifice even more. And time, because time is important. I mean, you can have all the money in the world, but you're not guaranteed time. Time is very, very important. So I would do that, get up at five. I'd write for two, three hours, and I put a little dive, kind of put an outline together. What I wanted to talk about, the true education. And I wanted to give people, you know, how to find their four best friends. Like, if they want to start a business, you got to find your four best friends. And I talk about that in my book. You know, your cpa, your accountant, your financial person, and your banker. You know, you need those people, and those people will help you with your business. So, you know, I just give them all that stuff. And then I interviewed four of my friends, all local guys, all Hispanic, and all of them multimillionaires. And none of them came from a family with money. And they all had different paths. And I thought it was important to share those paths. And so that's what I did to help people.

So you've developed the right way to get results.

Your six steps.

Sounds like it.

If you just follow this, it'll work.

And it does every time. Every time. But you got to be disciplined, and you got to do it.

So you spent your childhood and your early adulthood figuring out what is the right path to make things happen. And then you do it over and over and over again now in every one of your businesses.

And, you know, I owe a lot of it to. I give my wife A ton of credit. But I give my parents so much credit as well. I mean, both my parents are just the most hard. I mean, they taught me hard work, and that's one of my. I mean, that's the number five rule in my plan. And basically they taught me that my dad used to put in 17 hour days, and I would see him doing that, and when he did that, we would get overtime. And when there was overtime, we were getting our layaway out and we were getting food on the table and better food. And, you know, I was able to go buy the nice, cool shoes for the basketball team. But one of the things that my dad taught me was he said, son, you're not going to be very tall and you're not going to be very big. And so you're lucky. You're going to be fast, because I was fast. He told me, so you're going to be fast and that'll help you. But if you want to be a star athlete, he said, you are going to have to really focus on fundamentals. Forget all that fancy stuff. It doesn't work. He used to tell me, fundamentals are what work. And so with basketball, he had me shooting thousands of free throws. He had me doing layups. Right hand, right leg, left hand, left leg, dribbling, you know, no fancy passes, none of this stuff. It was all fundamentals and, you know, shortest guy on the team, you know, smallest guy on the team. But, you know, my name's on the gym because I was the athlete of the year and I was the best one. So how does that work? Well, it worked because I went with all the fundamentals.

Wow. I love that, man. So, Mo, if there's people listening and they want to follow you, they want to learn from you, they want to connect with you, they want advice from you.

How should they get ahold of you? How should they find you? Or is that even anything that you're doing? I know you're awfully busy with all of your businesses right now, but is that something that you do or.

So what I've done now is, you know, the book's over 10 years old, and people have told me to write a second book to cause things change, right? And there's stuff that's in the book that applies today, and it works. But there's stuff that, you know, the world has changed. Look at the world we're living in today. There's going to be a lot of things that change even from coming out of this pandemic. But if people want to get a hold of me. I'm very easy to find. They just Google my name and they can get a hold of me. And I'd be more than happy to help any of your viewers or anybody because again, the most important thing that you and I can do, Gary, is to serve other people. And there's so many different ways you can serve people and that. You know, one of my mentors is amazing guy that I met several, several years back. He told me, helping up people get what they want, you'll get what you want. I mean, that has stuck with me forever and I'm a firm believer on that. And so I'm easy to get a hold of. People can get a hold of me.

Awesome.

I've taken the book off the.

I used to have my website and I used to do a lot of that, but, you know, now I'm kind of flying under the radar, so I'm just kind of enjoying my time and, you know, staying under the radar and, and that's really what's, what I'm passionate about now. So a lot of the people that I mentor are actually people that work within my companies. And so I'm showing them and teaching them and helping them. And if they want to expand and do their own company, I encourage them. You know, that's a great thing. We need more people out there. I've always told my staff, look, we're not trying to be the biggest company, we're trying to be the best company and we're trying to service people and help people the best that we can. That's what I try to do with everything that I do.

Love it. Mo, thanks for taking the time today to be on. I've been looking forward to, you know, sharing your story and letting people hear, you know, the six things that you've developed to help people find the right way to get results. And if they follow it, it's going to work, right?

Oh, I love it. And thank you for having me on your show. I mean, it's awesome to have somebody local and just low level like me. With all these superstars that you have on your show. You send me listen to this podcast. I listen to him like, wow, these guys are incredible. I mean, they're just, I mean, they're, they're me times 20, you know, but it's cool to have somebody like me who's just an average guy, you know, really low key and let people know that, you know, there's, there's all different kinds of levels, you know, so that's great. And so I appreciate what you're doing, Gary, and thank you for making our world a better place. Appreciate that.

Thanks, Mo. We'll be in touch.

Take care.

Take care.

Thanks for listening to today's show. But before you go, let me ask you a question. Would you like all of your communication to be easier and more productive? Take the essential first step to clarity now@yinstitute.com. i'll catch you on the next episode.

Sam.