In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Luis Martinez, an advocate for entrepreneurship within the Black community. Martinez shares a pivotal story from his 2016 professional basketball practice where a teammate’s aggressive behavior led the coach to intervene, prompting Martinez to retire from basketball and pursue entrepreneurship. He emphasizes the importance of being authentic and consistent, especially when facing microaggressions and skepticism both outside and inside the Black community. Martinez advises entrepreneurs to always put agreements in writing to avoid handshake pitfalls. Reflecting on his younger self, he suggests taking life less seriously and lightening up. He defines happiness as doing work you love, warning against staying in unfulfilling 9‑to‑5 jobs. Martinez recommends the book The Lean Entrepreneur by Grant Cooper, highlighting its message to persist and not give up on creative ideas. His favorite quote, taken from the film Scarface—“I tell the truth even when I lie”—captures his perspective on navigating truth in interactions involving minorities. Finally, he directs listeners to his Instagram handle @the_entrepreneur for further connection.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Luis Martinez with us. He's an advocate for entrepreneurship in the Black community. So welcome to the show, Luis.
Thank you, thank you for having me on.
Of course, man, we're pumped to have you here. We'll dive into the first one, Luis. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I'll say my first, I'll say, hmm, the story that I have is kind of unique. So it's when I was playing professional basketball and I was at practice. This is recently as 2016. And so there was a guy who basically he was scoring all the points on our team. And this is a practice, not a real game. And we had another American on the team, he's from Chicago. And so he ended up switching on him, and then he said basically that he's not going to score no more, but he's being very aggressive about it. Make a long story short, the coach basically stopped the practice and kicked him out of the gym. And I asked the coach, well, why did you kick him off? Why did you kick him out of practice? And he basically was like, because he was being too mean and You know, we're all about, you know, bringing each other up. And so that's when I decided, you know what, it's time for me to retire and move on to different things. And so I basically was trying to find that same feeling ever since, and I found it in entrepreneurship.
Ah, yes. And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Be authentic and be yourself. I could say many things, but I'll say be authentic and be consistent. You know, a lot of times, especially in the Black community where, you know, they're so used to failure, failure, failure, and a victim type of mentality that when you come across these platforms such as tech and innovation and really any space, you know, you're going to deal with microaggressions, you're going to deal with you know, people not believing in you. You're even going to deal with people in your own community and that may love you not believing in you. And so, um, you just have to stay strong and just be consistent.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry specific?
Put everything in writing. I mean, I can't stress that enough. I've seen too many handshake deals go wrong. And so as soon as you draw something up in the dirt, whether it's a startup, a mom-and-pop, put everything in writing so everyone can be happy. It can, you know, smooth everything out. There won't be any issues. So definitely I would say put everything in writing.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I'd say take myself take myself less serious. So I definitely would tell my younger self that, you know, I was definitely way too serious. And I played basketball in high school and in college and professional. And so growing up in New York playing basketball is equivalent to playing football in Texas or Florida. And so everything was all serious, stone-faced, you know. I grew up in Brooklyn, so I definitely would say lighten up a bit.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness is just finding what you love to do. If I tell everyone, if you're happy working a 9 to 5 and it's what you want to do, fine. Then I'm probably not going to be talking to you. But if you're complaining about your 9 to 5 or your situation and you're not happy, then you should definitely do something about that. So—
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I'm actually in the process of reading it now and only because I actually met the author. It's called The Lean Entrepreneur by Grant Cooper. And so he just talks about all this— that book was written in 2013. And so everything that's kind of happening now You know, he talked about that then, and, you know, everyone kind of laughed at him. And one advice he basically gave is just don't give up. If you have a creative mind, seek it all the way through, because you don't want to wake up, you know, 10 years from now and say, damn, you know, I didn't try. So—
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My actual favorite quote is the name of my podcast, actually. I tell the truth even when I lie. And the reason why is I actually got that from Scarface. And, you know, everyone talks about the, you know, "Say hello to my little friend" line, but I think there's a lot of truth in that statement with "I tell the truth even when I lie." So even when I deal with people that may not be friendly toward minorities, there's a little truth to even what they're saying because their world and their environment That's how they view minorities, you know, Mexicans or Blacks or whatever ethnic groups. And so that's how they feel. So that's their truth. It's not my truth, but, you know, I have to be self-aware of that. And so we're the whole truth, even when I—
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. 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 on Instagram. You can find me. It's called my, my handle is called Lucito, L-U-I-S-I-T-O, the_entrepreneur on Instagram.
Awesome, man.
Thank you again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
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