Carlos J. Malave: Author, Educator, And Entrepreneur | The Business Blast Podcast #310

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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Carlos J. Malavé with us. He is an author, educator, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. So welcome to the show, Carlos.

Thank you for having me, man.

Of course. Thanks for hopping on. Um, we'll dive into the first one, Carlos. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Well, the best story that I could come up with that's made me the person that I am now and doing what I'm doing now is me quitting basketball. When I was growing up, the biggest dream I ever had was to play professional basketball as a career, and I worked really hard to get there. Got a scholarship to play Division II basketball, and while I was in college, things didn't go work out the way I planned it out to. And insecurity started entering my mind, doubt started going into my mind, and I actually felt the fear of actually not being able to make it. And I kind of took control of that situation and kind of quit before I let fate decide what would happen. And as I'm going through life and building my own business and working in the professional world, and I'm seeing that it all connects. I still see those— I have that— I get those moments of fear, but I see the other side. I know what it feels like to not give up, and I'm thinking about it now, and I have friends that are playing professional now, and I've played against people that are playing in the NBA, and I think back, if only I just stuck with it or I kept going and just let it happen and continue to go and work harder continue to learn and grow, but I didn't. And I'm very— it took me a long time to get to this point to actually admit that to myself first and then to be able to talk about it to students and young people around the world when I go around and speak. But that actually helped me become the person I am now, because I know the other side. I felt the fear, and I understand what it means to get there and then actually know what happens if you don't, then say, okay, so I'm gonna just keep going 'cause, you know, if I put in the work, I can see it happen. I've seen it done with other people and I know what could happen if it doesn't. I don't wanna have any regrets and I don't wanna have anything not happen because of a fear of mine. So it kinda made me get over that fear with everything else. So whether it's writing books, speaking, building my business, teaching, I get that feeling And I push through now because of that experience that I had playing basketball and quitting on my dreams sooner than I should have.

Yes, thank you so much for sharing that story with us. The next one I have for you, Carlos, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

The most valuable piece of information I could give is to anybody is to Be true to yourself. Be honest to yourself with whatever you do, especially in my field of motivational speaking and putting yourself out there and being vulnerable and letting people actually, connecting with people and building relationships with people. People recognize real. You have to be yourself. Don't try to be something that you're not or talk about things that you haven't been through. And it takes some time, that takes experience. And you need to go through your own process and understand that your experiences will mold you into who you will be, and people want to hear that. Everybody has their own story, everybody has their own message, but it has to come from within. And if you stay true to yourself, your time will come, your success will come within your own time, and it will look different. And that's a lot of things that I talk about. My experience doesn't have to look like anybody else's experience. My success is gonna look different than other people's successes, but it is successful. It's all about perspectives. And you have to position yourself to be the best version of yourself in order to get to that point of success your way. And if you're able to do that in my industry or in any other industry, you will be able to see that apex of success in your field because you are true to yourself and you stayed on your path.

And so it might tie in with the next one, but the next question is, what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific. So if you have anything else to add, that's fine, but I feel like you kind of did answer it as well, so it's up to you.

Yeah, same thing. Being true to yourself, being honest, and finding your own way up. Main thing I would say is the way I built myself up, I've always added to my repertoire. Like, I added pieces of men and people that influenced me throughout my life, and I added a piece here, added a piece there, and I created myself, but I didn't try to be anything that I wasn't. I just took pieces that I thought were techniques or things, perspectives that I heard from other people, and I added it to my repertoire, and I went through life and I expressed my own stuff. So just being yourself, but, you know, learning from other people and growing and grabbing as much information as you can from everybody around you is a part of it.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Bad things happen, and it's how you react to it. It's not necessarily having this route that is so clean and clear-cut and nothing ever happens to you. Actually, life is a roller coaster. You have your ups and you have your downs, and it's all about weathering the storm. And the only ones that succeed are the ones that actually, you know, have that clear understanding of that and aren't bothered that much by the downs because they know they can get back up. And if anybody can understand that, they can be successful. So I would tell my younger self that exactly. Just keep going. The things that you're going to see that you feel aren't fair to you or shouldn't be happening are necessary for you to happen. It's just all about what you learn from it, what you take from it, and how you add that to being a part of you and your message and your character and everything to continue going on.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

The key to happiness, that is a very, that's a very good question. I've thought about that a lot. There's a lot of different things to be completely happy because everybody's different. So what I would say is be able to be vulnerable with yourself. Be in touch with your feelings. A lot of people neglect their own feelings when they're going through things or feeling like, for example, me growing up, I seen a lot of men always saying, oh, you're not supposed to cry, you're not supposed to feel like this, you're not supposed to act like this, and a man is supposed to be a certain way. And I think all that is baloney, like that doesn't make sense. To actually be happy, you have to be vulnerable with yourself, you have to be in touch with your feelings, you have to connect and talk to yourself. It may sound crazy, as many times I'm in the car talking to myself or in the mirror talking to myself and just building my spirit up and trying to get myself out of a situation. And then having people that you can actually trust in and connect with to kind of get through it as well. My wife, I talk to my wife about everything and I'm totally vulnerable and I give myself up and she gives herself up to me and we, We kind of help ourselves get through things. So first I had to do it with myself, and then I was able to do it with other people. And I think true happiness comes when you're able to do that, you know, be in touch with your feelings, let yourself just be and feel and actually address situations. A lot of people don't address situations or things they go through, and they neglect the feelings, and then it builds up and it leads to depression. And anger, and in my case, seeing people use substances to deal with the pain and not actually addressing it. So being vulnerable, in touch with your feelings, to actually address situations with yourself and then be able to communicate with others will actually create true happiness in my eye.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

The best book that I read was The Alchemist. I've read it 3 times already. It's one of the best books I've read. It's actually the first book that got me into reading when I was in college. I read from COVID to cover. And it's just what I got out of it, the best message that I got out of it, you can search all through this world for what you think is your own gold or your own thing that you need, and it might be right in front of you the whole time. And that's the— at the end of the book, it kind of came full circle because he went through this world looking, searching for gold that it would change his life, this and that, and all of a sudden he goes back and the gold was exactly where he was when he started. And it's all— and I thought about it in that way, it's all perspective. You need to understand what's in in front of you and value that in order to kind of like value anything else. You can't be happy with gold if you're not happy with what you have right now. That's why a lot of people that make it on big scales professionally or whatever kind of crash because they think, oh, the money will change everything. Money doesn't change. Buy you that happiness. It doesn't make you happy. It could buy you things, it could get you places, whatever, get you experiences. And you see a lot of people, like, not being happy. We've seen a lot of celebrities commit suicide or go into deep depression or have situations that people are shocked about. Like, oh my God. And it's just like, because a lot of what I said, they don't value what's in front of them. They keep a lot in. They're not vulnerable with their own feelings or whatever and handle their own situations, and that causes that. And that book made me see that more. And I read it 3 times. I kind of— because I thought there was underlying messages and all that. And that kind of inspired me to write my book. And I kind of wanted to write something that kids could connect to and see something like that and be like, oh my God, like, I had that experience, or I had, like, a light bulb moment. And that's what inspired me to write my own book. So The Alchemist was my favorite book, still is, and that is the message that I got from that.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Well, my favorite quote, I have many. Let me see. I'm gonna be biased. This is a quote from my book that I say it all the time and I truly believe it. Because I've been going through some things and it helped me see this as well recently. Every generation is supposed to be better than the last. Your obligation is to be— to make your name greater than its past. And that has a lot of meaning to me now. And I wrote it a year ago, and then now I'm going through things now with family and everything, and I'm kind of I'm starting to see that quote, like, kind of come to fruition, and I'm, like, thinking about it a lot lately. Like, damn, like, you know what I mean? With everything, people may not agree with it, people may not accept something that you're doing or whatever, but you need to stay true to yourself and understand what's the whole purpose. My parents created me to be better. My job is to make my name greater than this past and for my daughter to have a better point, starting point where she can continue to grow and make her life way better than mine, and then her grandchildren's supposed to be better than hers. So that is my favorite quote in a biased way because it's my quote. Yes, man.

Thank you so much for coming on, Carlos. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

You can find me all over. If you Google my name, I have a lot of, I have a lot of stuff online, whether it's podcasts, My book, YouTube channel is my name, Carlos J. Malavé. I have a lot of, I have 13 videos up. CJmotivation.com is my website where everything's on there. I'm very big on Instagram as well, CJ Motivation, where I post daily about things that I think kids or people are going through or could connect with. I'm very open, I answer back. Facebook, same thing, Carlos J. Malavé. Twitter, all the social media stuff, you can basically find me, Carlos J. Malavé. Once again, my website is www.cjmotivation.com. And if you find me, I'm always open to build a relationship. Communicate back with the people that reach out.

Perfect, man. Thank you again for coming on. We appreciate it.

No problem, man. Thanks for having me.

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