What is Cultural Intelligence? Brian Calabro's Insight

Hello, my friends, and welcome to another exciting episode of Negotiate Anything. This show is produced by the American Negotiation Institute and with over 5 million downloads and listeners in over 180 countries, listeners just like you have made this the number one negotiation podcast in the world. Hi, my name is Kwame Christian, and I am the founder and CEO of the American Negotiation Institute. Here at A&I. We believe that the best things in life are on the other side of difficult conversations. And we are passionate about providing you with the best content that will help you to make your difficult conversations easier, both at work and at home. Lastly, I want to remind you that we offer consulting and conduct trainings both virtually and in person all around the world. Our focus is in three main areas. First, negotiation and conflict resolution. Second, leadership. And lastly, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Check the link in the description below to learn more about how we could work with you and your team. And now, without further ado, let's jump into the interview. Brian, thanks for joining us today.

Happy to be here.

So how would you get us started? By telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Sure. Brian Calabro lives here in Dublin, Ohio, not too far from the director here himself. I am a director of sales for a global packaging company located here in North America. We are very large provider of all types of flexible packaging, kind of all across the gamut of packaging in general.

So listeners, just full disclosure. Brian and I are buddies, so we're neighbors. And we're using this as an opportunity to hang out in the middle of the day and also talk about things that we like to talk about. So Kai and Brian's son, Adrian, they're best friends on soccer teams and flags. Soccer buddies, classmates crushing the competition. It's been fun. And so today we're going to talk about cultural intelligence in negotiations. And this is something that's really important, but I think not talked about enough. And I mean, I have to take some responsibility for it. We have 800 episodes and I think we've talked about it like three times. So unforced error on my part, but we're doing our best to overcome that.

Right.

Not sure if this is going to.

Hurt or help, but we'll give it our best shot either way.

We'll see. We'll see. So when you think about cultural intelligence in these negotiations, what does that mean to you?

You know, I think it's truly trying to understand at a fundamental level the person on the other side of the negotiation table, not just the. The goal you're trying to accomplish, but but it's, you know, connecting. And I think, you know, what's. What I love about the business world and negotiation is, you know, it brings in people from all walks of life, all areas of the world world, and, you know, kind of gives us a forum to get to know each other, express our thoughts and our ideas. And I think, again, really trying to connect on a fundamental level is super important. And really trying to understand the nuances of kind of what makes us all different from a cultural perspective, from a professional perspective, personal lives, where we're from, tying that all into what is the kind of common ground goal that we're trying to accomplish here at the table. So it's. It's very interesting.

Absolutely. And I love that you started off with understanding the person, and you specifically said, we want to understand the person and connect, not just focus on the goal. And I think a lot of times we think about empathy and understanding just as a means to an end for the actual negotiation. But it's more than that. Just human to human, we need to connect. And we're not thinking of them just only through the lens of the culture that they're in. We're getting a better understanding of culture so we can get a better understanding of them as a person. I think that's such an important place to start.

Maybe this is a. Maybe this is a fault, but I truly can't help myself in the fact that, you know, most of my clients are my friends as well. And sometimes it can make it difficult if you're at an impasse or you're. You're kind of. You find yourselves disagreeing on something, but it's just something inevitably that that happens to me is that, you know, I think of my customers as not only customers, but they're my friends. And, you know, I want to connect with them. I want to get to know them. I want to understand what's happening in their lives, you know, in and outside of the professional space. So in my opinion, it's. It's helped me, especially when it comes to having difficult conversations and having, you know, kind of more tense negotiations, that I have a connection.

Yeah. And you know what's really funny about hearing you say that. I didn't need to hear you say that to know that's the way you approach it.

You know me.

I know. Listen, okay, everybody, I'm sure this will come out at some point. Like Brian, Brian and Ashley, their house. It's the party house on the block. Everybody hangs out there. Everybody's Brian's friend. So I'm not at all surprised.

We've had to negotiate with law enforcement maybe on more than one occasion.

Listen.

You know, nothing dangerous, just, you know, maybe a noise ordinance or two.

It's so funny every weekend. It's so much fun. But it makes so much sense, man, because again, for us to be able to get to that level of friendship, we have to have some kind of understanding. Just as a person. You don't get to that level of rapport by accident. Like it takes a deeper understanding.

Absolutely.

And what's cool about your approach too is that this isn't just based on some kind of, you know, kumbaya type of methodology where you're saying like, hey, we should just, just love on each other because that's what people do. You know, that's, that's a nice thing. But you're an international businessman. Like you have high level conversations with a lot of money on the line. But we're still starting on that personal level, actually understanding the person. And one of the things we were talking about before is that when it comes to your level of cultural intelligence, you've had to earn it through the school of hard knocks, through experience. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Absolutely.

Through personal experience, professional experience. But, you know, so in my career I've had the luxury of, you know, working in the packaging industry is interesting because it kind of exposes you to all different parts of the world just by the sheer nature of what we do and who we do it for. You can find yourself in some really interesting places and meeting really interesting people. So I've had a couple of experiences in dealing with some colleagues from Europe and just knowing it well, knowing, not knowing at the time, but knowing now just how much culture plays into the way people perform and behave in the business world. And you're truly a function of your environment and where you're from and who you are as a person. So, you know, one example in dealing with some colleagues from Great Britain, from the uk, I didn't know that, you know, typically business setting over there, they like to chit chat for, you know, 10, 15 minutes before any business, business is actually discussed. And you know, if you skip over that part, it's rather offensive to them. And so, you know, as Americans, I feel like, you know, we're always in a hurry and we're always tied really hard to our agendas and we're, you know, we're stacked with meetings and you know, we kind of want to cut right to the chase and jump right into the, you know, to the meat of it. And, you know, my colleagues in the UK politely told me that, yeah, that's really not how we do it over here. We like to, we like to talk a little bit and get to know each other and, you know, kind of set the stage. And I thought that was really interesting. And so now I try to, even when I'm not dealing with the Brits, I try to do that, you know, before hosting a call or before hosting a meetings, you know, let's take five minutes and just talk and, you know, how you doing? How's your family? How's everything? How's your weekend? How are the holidays, vacations coming up? You know, because at the end of the day, to your point, we're just still people, right? And we're still trying to connect, you know, person to person. There's always time for the business, right? So that, that was a UK experience. And then dealing with some colleagues from Italy and France, where it's seemingly a little more laid back. Great, great people. And I love dealing with my colleagues from those countries, but it's not uncommon for them to be casually late to a meeting. 10, 15 minutes. And again, as Americans, you know, we are very much prompt and on time. We try to be. And that's kind of a sign of respect and everything over here in our culture. But over there, that's. It's very common to be 10, 15 minutes late, very casual, and it's openly accepted. So it took me a minute to realize that it shouldn't be offensive. You know, welcome them in and it's totally fine. And so now in those conversations, you kind of have a grace period or a grace window of, okay, we're going to wait maybe 10 minutes and then make sure everybody's present and then we'll start our talk or our call. So, so just kind of, you know, interesting things in learning how you know the different behaviors and the different commonplace traits of how you negotiate in different cultures is interesting 100%.

And so let's tie this all back to what you said at the beginning. We're connecting, we're understanding the person and connecting with them on a personal level. And what we're talking about here isn't any kind of like hardcore business negotiation strategy, a tactic X's and O's that'll get you an edge in a negotiation and in like a, like a strategic sense per se. But we're recognizing that deals and conversations and relationships are much better when we have a strong relationship as the foundation. And two things that you mentioned a couple of times. So you talked about respect and offense and unintentional disrespect because we perceive it as disrespect if somebody's late. But if we have a better understanding of the cultural context, we realize it's nothing personal about us. That's just the way that they do things. And then when you were talking to your friends from the uk, they were, they felt a little bit offended that you wanted to go straight to business. You weren't trying to be disrespectful, that's just the way that you operate.

And it's interesting to your point. I thought I was being respectful of everyone's time and it was actually ironic that no, we, we appreciate that but we kind of do this little social thing before we, we get down to business here. So yeah, it was absolutely, you know, I chalked it up to, you know, rookie mistakes in terms of negotiating internationally, but taking those learnings and now kind of applying them.

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So yeah, I mean it's, it's extremely valuable and I think at the negotiation table, the more you can be self aware and prepare ahead of time for who are the parties involved and where do they come from, what is their setting, what is their work setting just kind of helps ease the tension and kind of get it. Let everybody kind of drop their guard a little bit. Set everything on a nice vibe, you know, to kind of kick things off.

Absolutely.

I think it puts Everybody at ease 100%.

And let's talk about self awareness too because I think this is, it's underappreciated when it comes to this because a lot of times when you, especially when we think about challenges that we have with cross cultural conversations, we think about it in terms of the right way versus the wrong way. But we don't take the time to realize like hey, I'm in a culture as well, and there's a way that I just happen to do things too.

No, it's, it's a learned skill in my opinion. You know, it's having self awareness in all aspects of life, right? You know, professionally and personally and just making sure that, you know, you're aware of the message you're sending out and you're aware of, you know, what you're receiving from the people around you in the setting and the environment that you're in. And you know, you and I obviously were talking before we started this kind of joking around. You know, we both like fitness. We're fitness guys, right? We like to work out. And it's kind of like the difference between walking into the yoga studio or walking into the weight room. The common goal between the two is fitness, but their approaches to that common goal are very different. And I think, you know, you have to have that level of self awareness to know, okay, as a guy who spends a lot of time in the weight room, when I walk into that yoga studio, my just my sheer physical appearance might be a little intimidating or a little off putting to the crowd that normally hangs out there. So maybe I dial my intensity back a little bit, make sure that I'm smiling a lot and make sure that I'm, you know, friendly and not grunting going through my workout. You know, the things that you might do in a weight room that are completely acceptable, you know, might be a little off putting to the yoga studio and then like vice versa. When that person who probably does a lot of yoga walks into the weight room, they're probably feeling intimidated already. And making sure that, you know, you're not adding to that, that fear and that intimidation, you know, as someone who's there a lot, I think it's important and I think it's just, you know, it all starts with kind of a, this basic level of self awareness, 100%.

I love that example too, because it shows us that culture comes in different ways. Because we think about big C culture, which is like geographic nationalities, those types of things where we have this country compared to this country. But then we have small C culture, which could exist within a community. The general way that we do things at a yoga studio versus at a gym, which is. Right, the presence that you bring is going to be different. Like at a gym, you're often trying to take up space and there's a bit more of a respectful, more community focused vibe that is completely different in a yoga studio that you have to learn and I think a lot of times when it comes to cultural intelligence, one of the most important things for us to know about it is that if you're culturally intelligent, it doesn't mean that you have all of the answers. It's that you are humble and self aware enough to know that this is a point where you should stop and ask a question.

And absolutely. No, I think it's having the ability to recognize I may be in a position where I can learn some things by asking some questions or just stop talking and just listen, right. And just kind of picking up on the behaviors of the people around me. And it's just, you know, it's kind of checking that. A little bit of that arrogance of, well, I know what I'm doing, I've been here before. You know, this is, this is where I hang out all the time. Take a little more observatory approach, you know, and kind of, kind of take it all in, if you will.

One of the things that you mentioned earlier when we were just chatting was the, the ability to kind of pause and kind of take the temperature of the room to understand. Essentially. It's kind of like a blend between emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence. Like every relationship has its own little culture in a type of, in a sense. But then we also have to blend that emotional intelligence to recognize people's perceptions and their emot are going to be different. We have to figure out what that is. And so, like in a business context, when you're pausing to take the emotional temperature in the room and kind of get your footing to understand, like where we are and where we stand, what does that look like for you?

You know, it's interesting that you say that, and there's a good example of that. So we were negotiating a contract for one of our large clients several years ago and they're a great relationship. We've been doing business with them for quite some time, but they had merged with another very large company. And so as part of that merger, they were asked to kind of, you know, elicit a full scale rfp. All of their suppliers bring us all in one at a time and kind of do a little sit down and kind of roll through, you know, current terms and just, you know, build the, build the new contract, if you will. And I would like to say that we probably had one of the better relationships in their, in their entire roster of suppliers. We probably had one of the better relationships, but they had to follow this protocol. And I could tell that they weren't real happy that they had to do it this way. But it was just what they were asked to do. So I remember being ushered into this meeting room, and, you know, it's a fairly small meeting room, and we had way too many people in there for the size of the room. And it was just very stuffy and not comfortable, very formal, but very, very informal and uncomfortable at the same time. And it was almost kind of like trying to give us the feeling they didn't know us at all when we knew that was not the case. And so to. To your point, we're kind of in this discussion, and it's in. You know, at some point, we kind of lean back from the table and. And. And just. Can we take a real quick break here and just, you know, let's. Let's go grab some water. Let's, you know, restroom break, you know, and just kind of break the tension in the room. And it almost kind of let everybody just reset a little bit. And then I ran into one of my clients in the hallway, and we were just kind of joking around, and I said, man, this is really weird, like, awkward feeling. He goes, I know, I know. He's like, we're just kind of. We're placating them for what they're asking us to do, but thank you for bearing with us here. And, you know. And again, the negotiation ended up coming out fine, but it was just so funny how they used that tactic to kind of squeeze us a little bit, if you will. And it just took a little bit of emotional intelligence to kind of get a read on everybody in the room and say, let's take a quick break here real quick and run out, take a breath, come back, wrap this up. And it worked, you know, and it was kind of one of those things where you had to just observe to pick up on it. And I think everybody in the room kind of sighed a collective relief, like, yeah, I wanted to do this, but I didn't want to be the one to ask. It's just like, you know what? We just kind of said, let's just do this. But, yeah, so sometimes you find yourself in those situations where you take the temperature, you read the room, you look at body language, you look at people's facial expressions, and you can kind of get a sense for, how's this going? You know, is it time to take a breather, or do we proceed?

I think this is a great story for so many different reasons, because it perfectly demonstrates the blend between cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence. Because from working with the company, you understand the. The typical culture that they. They had before, now there's the merger. You are sensing a difference, and then you're sensing something's off in the room. We don't exactly know what it is, but we know something's different. And it takes a lot of confidence and at the same time, humility to be willing to say, hey, let's pause for a second. Let's just reset. Because like you said, some of your colleagues, they might have been afraid to do that because they feel like it might reflect poorly on them. Like, does it look like I'm unprepared? But the culturally intelligent thing to do would be say, to say, I need to reset. This is deviating from what I originally thought it was going to be. Let me pause, reset before I say or do something that puts me in a bad position and let me gather myself and then move forward. And then when you had the opportunity to make a one on one connection, you could make a deeper connection where the person's a little bit more comfortable being vulnerable away from their counterparts.

One on one. One on one.

And just say, hey. Just stating the obvious. Just saying, hey, this feels kind of weird. Does it feel weird to you? Yeah, it feels weird to me. And so did. Did you feel like just that little interaction felt like you. It brought you Two closer?

Oh, 100%. 100%. And. And then going, you know, when we reconvened, it felt like he was on our side, you know what I mean? Even though he couldn't, you know, outwardly come out and kind of say that I knew, okay, I got my guy back here. You know what I mean? He gets it. He's advocating for us. And I'll be honest with you, you have to also consider what is your credibility in that situation already with the client? Because we had a great relationship with this particular customer because they knew us really well. We are one of their best suppliers and we know that we felt comfortable doing what we did. Had that been a situation where we were the new guy coming in the door, I probably would not have chosen to do that because I haven't earned the right to do that. I haven't earned that respect. So I think that's, again, self awareness. We're a credible guy here. We've been in the game for a while with these guys. We been in the trenches with them. We've earned the right to kind of say, hey, let's take a, let's take a little breather, let's step out, let's grab some water, let's, you know, bathroom break. But again, you know, if we were the new guy coming in, I don't think we have the respect in the, in the, in the. We haven't earned that stripe. Yep. To do that. So I think that was a big, you know, maybe the reason why it was. It went over the way it did and it was okay and it was accepted is because we the ones asking and we had that relationship.

Yep. Oh, this is so good. Because shows that when you think about blanket negotiation advice, there's no such thing as blanket negotiation advice. It's all going to be circumstantial. Depends on the relationship and the dynamics of the interaction. So it's important to know what are the elements of the interaction that you have to pay attention to. But then it takes a lot of experience and knowledge to, to be able to understand which way to go with all of that information. Which can be overwhelming sometimes.

Absolutely. We are in a current negotiation now or we're in the very early stages of one with another higher profile customer where we don't have as lengthy of a relationship. So we have to be a little careful on how we approach that and what we ask for and kind of how we handle that. Because we haven't earned the right to maybe be as confident in our requests, maybe be as direct in our requests as with this other client. And again, it's all recognizing who's at the table. What's the overall situation, you know, what are we trying to accomplish here? What's the current state? Right.

Yeah. And so when you think about blending all of these really foundational negotiation skills that are more like just human to human, the ability to connect. We have cultural intelligence that helps us get a better understanding of the individual. We're not just stereotyping them, we're understanding the cultural context, know them a little bit better. Right. And then over time, you continue this iterative process, build more trust and the relationship gets better. And then you get to a point where you can be a little bit more confident and assertive with your request because you've earned it, like you said. And so your negotiation strategy will change along with the depth of the relationship. And the deeper the relationship, the, the more assertive you can be with the requests. Because now the relationship is strong enough to handle that.

Exactly. And I think it affords you the ability to take some liberties. Not in a disrespectful way, but it affords you the ability to take some liberties that you might not otherwise take. I would, in looking at a negotiation with a 10 plus year relationship versus a one year relationship there may be some requests and some things that, that I would like to either take out of the contract or add it into the contract that I feel comfortable asking for in that ten plus year relationship. In the one plus year, I may just have to kind of roll with, you know, what's, what's on the table until I've earned the right to make some changes. So. And again, I think it's just, you know, having that awareness to know when it's appropriate to ask and know when it's not appropriate to ask.

Yes. Oh, this is so.

And I think, and I think the client appreciates that if they have any level of self awareness themselves, they're going to appreciate. Thank you for recognizing that you didn't have the right to ask.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

Yeah. And so let's go deeper into this because it's so fascinating. So let's add a little wrinkle to this that doesn't exist. But just for the sake of this thought experiment, so let's say there's a junior salesperson who's following you and they see the way that you've interacted with a bigger client that you've had a ten plus year relationship with. They're like, okay, yeah, so Brian made this confident ask. That's what I'm going to do in my next call with the person. I just going, absolutely.

And again, it's a great call out. And you know, I think self awareness comes with experience.

Yeah.

You know, I've been doing what I do now for almost a little over a decade and it took, it took a while to get comfortable with that. Right. And I won't lie, sometimes it's a title. You know, sometimes at a certain title you don't feel comfortable asking and it may not be appropriate to ask for certain things. You know, there are times when, you know, we'll be in a context of something and I say, you know what, I think we need to add a little bit more horsepower to this conversation or a little bit more, more horsepower to this meeting. I'm going to pull in a couple of vice presidents here. I'm going to pull in one of my C level suite, you know, executives. It, it's all about appropriate. Right. And who has the appropriate, you know, kind of clout to ask for something like that. And it may be something where I know exactly what we need to do. I just don't feel comfortable being the person to ask for it.

Yep.

Right. And so, you know, you're, you're kind of playing the hierarchy game there a little bit. But in the business world, I think it's, it's still a very legit thing and some companies very much respect that. And you know, unless you are, unless you have a certain acronym in your title, you don't get to make requests, you know, and that's still a very, you know, real viable thing. I'd like to think that as the younger generations come in, that's changing a little bit. I think merit is based, you know, more now on, you know, what you can accomplish and what you can get done as a group versus, you know, what title you carry. But you know, you know, it's just again being self aware to know, hey, am I the, am I the right person that should be asking for this or do we need to pull some other people in here?

Bingo. Yeah. And again, you have to, when you think about this through the strategic lens too, this is something that has a significant impact on not just the quality of the outcome, but the quality of the relationship. And cultural intelligence will play a big role into that too because you have to consider how the other person will perceive the message. Right. Because sometimes it is the messenger, right? Not the message, the messenger. So it's like, okay, will they think it's disrespectful if I ask for it? Do they need to see that title? Would that based on their culture, would that be perceived or received a little bit better? Again, that there's no specific right answer for it. We just have to be able to develop the skills to ask the right questions, make the right reads. But it starts again with that self awareness to even know that this is one of those inflection points in a negotiation.

Yeah, it's funny you say that. It makes this, what you just said makes me think to an intercompany meeting that we were having based on some negotiation skill training. And I was with some colleagues from, from another part of the world. I noticed that they, they were all on one side of the table in this mock negotiation. I noticed that only the highest ranking person would speak for the group, which I thought was really interesting. And on our side of the table it was a free for all talking over each other. But, but it was a lot more collaborative and on their side of the table they would kind of huddle internally to discuss things. And then there was one spokesperson that would talk for the group and it was the highest ranking individual, like actually legitimately the highest ranking individual. So I was curious about that and I noticed it. And then I asked one of my colleagues afterwards, you Know what, what was up with that? Is that just kind of the way you guys chose to do that? And they said no. In our culture, that's how we do this. The highest ranking person typically is the voice of the group, which I thought was really interesting.

Yeah. And that's within your company?

That's within our company, exactly. I don't have a lot of interaction with that group on a day to day basis, you know, outside of some of our, you know, kind of, you know, gatherings, intercompany gatherings as a business. I don't work in that sector, you know, predominantly. But I thought it was just really interesting that that's, that's how they did that. You know, they would discuss internally as a group, kind of huddle together and then everything was communicated across the table by one person.

Right.

The highest ranking individual there. So it was sort of like, you know, I almost kind of equated it to like the military and like the general will speak for the troops. Yeah, right, the troops. Everybody kind of collaborates and, and discusses things internally, but the outward communication to the other side is from that highest ranking individual.

So. Fascinating.

Yeah, it was, it was really fascinating. And then, you know, it's just, you know, and that's interesting. You know, I wonder how that plays into ongoing negotiations. And you know, I, I would assume that same culture that, that, that's probably true in, you know, other organizations that they work with. But then you take it outside of that culture and, you know, it's kind of interesting.

Yeah.

And I don't know if I was the only one that noticed it right now.

Oh, this is good. Okay, so check this out. So one of the words that you used about four or five times in that response was interesting. And then you said, I wonder how it would play out in other situations. So one of the, one of the, four elements of cultural intelligence is CQ drive. Like cultural intelligence drive, that's just the motivation. The drive, the desire to learn more about different cultures, different people. Like, you find it interesting. And one of the greatest indicators of somebody who's going to develop deeper levels of cultural intelligence is just how curious they are in general.

Intellectual curiosity. Bingo is a big piece of it. Right. If you have the, just the natural inquisitive nature and just, you just want, you just curious. Right. And, and I've always been that way. My son Adrian is the same, you know, we, we live a mile from the school. And I'll get 35 questions from the time I leave my house and the time I drop him off about all sorts of things, but he's just a curious individual. Probably takes after me.

But.

But I. I think truly, it's probably why I love doing what I do so much is because of that curious nature in learning. Why are they doing that that way?

Yeah.

Is that a cultural thing? Is that a company philosophy thing? That's just interesting. I want to learn more about that. Different than the way we do it. It's different than the way I do it. So just. It's just fascinating. And I think that people who maybe don't have that level of curiosity, not necessarily are at a disadvantage, but they might miss out on really, you know, getting that deeper understanding of why things are happening the way they're happening or what. Why this went a certain way or, you know.

Yeah. Now let's. With the last five or so minutes we have here, let's ask the questions that everybody's really wanting to know. So for Brian and Ashley Calabro, as the, like, the gathering place, you are the cultural center of our neighborhood, or.

Like Grand Central Station is probably more description.

Seriously. So. So seriously, though, when it comes to your ability to be that. That space, like, what are those things that you keep in mind when you have all sorts of different neighbors with all sorts of backgrounds just coming and hanging out at your place, like, for hours?

I think it's just about being very welcoming and accommodating, and it's just like, hey, everyone's welcome here. We love all of our neighbors for a variety of different reasons, from the arrangement of the chairs on the driveway, around the fire pit, to the music that's playing to the beverages that are. That are around. It's just like, hey, help yourself. Come in, Relax. Enjoy yourself. We like to think of our neighbors as our family, our extended family, and it's, you know, maybe that's my Italian heritage and the fact that that's just kind of how I was raised. And the. The Italians are very welcoming people. If you know anything about that culture. And, like, you're part of the family, the first time you meet, typically, an Italian family, they bring you in, they're hugging you, they're kissing you, you know, sometimes to your detriment. But. But that's just how they are. They're very welcoming people, you know, and they want you to feel welcome in their home. So I think that's just an extension of kind of how we are, and we truly enjoy it. We love it. You know, that's why we always are volunteering to. To kind of host the gatherings at our place. And. And, you know, hope everybody comes down, brings what they want to bring, and brings their unique personalities and stuff with them.

Right, man, it's cool. It's something I really admire. It's something I really admire.

Now we're just going to have to figure out how we can stay, you know, coherent enough to remember everything you talked about, because that's been a problem. At least for me, you know, you're.

Better at it than I am. We had great conversations. Don't remember a thing. Let's have everybody back.

We're probably having the same conversation over and over because nobody can remember what.

The hell we're talking about. It's so much fun. No, man, I really respect it. We appreciate it. Because when we moved into the neighborhood, we're like, okay, well, we moved in the middle of COVID so, like, everybody was distant for that purpose. But yeah, it was really cool helping us to get acclimated to the neighborhood, you know, so we appreciate that. I think everybody else does, so. Yeah, it's. It's impressive, man.

No, we appreciate that. And we, again, we. We love you guys and it's been so much fun just, you know, kind of watching you guys meet the other neighbors and kind of. I always enjoy. One of the things I really, truly love is being a connector. I really enjoy when my friends meet other friends through me and connect. Bringing you guys over and then having you meet some of the other neighbors. And then I think I saw you talking to my next door neighbor across the street for like a half an hour. Yeah, like the new, newest, new people. Right? That was you guys, like, a couple of years ago, you know, and you probably wouldn't have met him otherwise.

Yeah.

And that's just cool, you know? And then hopefully you two now have a connection and, you know, who knows where that goes, right? So I think it's just fun to be like the hub and just, you know, just a connector of people.

You know what's funny, Brian? It's not until you said that, because you. You said you like introducing people to new people. You're the reason I know people in this neighborhood. I don't think I would know anybody.

Yeah. And it's just, you know, I enjoy that. I really do. I think Whitney has met some people through Ashley that. That, you know, she may not have otherwise crossed pathways and. And now, like, she knows her sister and, like, they're talking and, you know what I mean? So it's just. It's cool. And it's, you know. Wow.

Yeah. Okay, so this is. This this. Sometimes I make notes in the podcast that I can review, like, later so I don't forget. Yes. So you're the reason we know anybody in the neighborhood. And then you're also the reason for Kai's best relationship in the neighborhood, Adrian. And then you're also the reason that Kai's on these awesome football team, like the flag football team and the soccer team and everything. Who knows? He might have been on a losing team, Brian, otherwise. So this is cool, man. Well, I appreciate this. This was great. I think there was a lot of great takeaways. Listen. Yeah, man, I appreciate you coming down. And listeners, make sure to connect with Brian on LinkedIn is the best place. Trying to get him into the social media game. I'm trying to get him to start a podcast. Listeners, if you liked this episode and you're like, hey, I want to learn more from Brian. Connect with him on LinkedIn and be like, hey, bro, start a podcast.

I know a guy who might know a thing or two about it, so we could probably make that happen.

Yeah, man. Well, dude, I appreciate you and we'll definitely have you back because this was exceptional.

Can't wait to do it. Appreciate the opportunity and look forward to the next chat.

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