The Power Of Paying It Forward: A Journey To Success with Jordi Ricart

He went from parking cars to owning the largest parking company in the United States. And I asked him, like, how did you do that? Now, instead of renting a Ferrari for 3,000 a day, they're renting it for $1,000 a day. How can I compete with that? It's impossible.

Choosing to believe that we are abundant and that when we give and we give with love and we give with no expectation, the universe will give us back tenfold.

So we became the number one client of vintage Lamborghini parks in the world. So Lamborghini called us.

Welcome to the Path to Purpose podcast where I share incredible conversations with amazing humans who went through a pivotal shift in their lives that have put them on their path of purpose, profit, and impact. My name is Zaraq Fatah. I'm a serial entrepreneur and life coach. I went through my own transformational journey where I'm now committed to living life of independence, inspiration, education, and empowerment. My intention is to share these conversations so they inspire you to also walk your path to purpose. All right, so today we're coming to you from Miami beach, and we are filming at the beautiful Sabia Wellness Retreat center. And I'm excited to sit down and have a conversation with my buddy, Jordy Ricard. He is the co founder of Curated, the largest vintage Lamborghini dealership in the world. And if you know anything about me, I love cars. I'm a big car guy. I've done gumball twice. And when Jordy reached out to me, we connected on Instagram. I was like, yeah, we gotta talk. And I had no idea that this man has such a fascinating backstory. I was just in love with the cars. I want to hang out with him so I can go roll around in some Lambos. We had a chance to get together and have a really beautiful deep dive conversation about his story, his come up as an entrepreneur. And I just knew that had to have you on the Path podcast to share your journey because it is truly inspiring for any of those out there who have hit your rock bottom and you're wondering, what can you do next? Where do I go from here? When you think you have really no options left, this story is going to show you that. Give it one more shot and you'll be amazed at what can happen if you try just one more time. So, Jordi, thank you for joining me here on the Path podcast. I appreciate your time and look forward to diving in with you, my friend.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Yes. So this is actually also Jordy's first podcast. So. And I'm sure there will be many, many more to come because when your book gets published and more people know about who you are and your story, and everybody's going to want you to come out and speak and share. So, you know, for the re, for the listeners, for the viewers who don't know who you are, you know, I'd love for you to share a little bit about your backstory before you became the co founder of Curated. You know, where, where were you 10 years ago before you big move to Miami?

So 12 years ago. Okay, so I moved to Miami in December 2012. Before moving to Miami. Okay, I'm going to start when, when I was a kid. No. So when I was a kid, due to my, my dad's job, I moved a lot around. Okay. So I remember being a kid. I remember like changing schools like seven or eight times, you know, and I always remember that first day at school, you know, so I was a shy guy, you know, I was the, I didn't know anybody. So that's what, that's one of the things that marked me from my youth. And then, you know, like, we ended up moving back to Barcelona. I ended up studying there. I studied two degrees, I studied law and studied business as well. And you know, my dad was a banker. I always wanted to be like him, you know, I wanted to be like, like he used to see my dad as a boss, you know, so he was tough as well. And I'm like, hey, like this is what, this is what business is. So, you know, like, I finished my studies, I had the opportunity to work the last two years of, of my university, and I had the opportunity to work for a jewelry company. It was actually one of the largest jewelry companies in Europe. They had the factory in India with 600 employees. And I was the assistant to the general manager for two years. Once I finished my studies, I became the operations manager. So I was like 24, 25 years old. I was supervising a lot of people for my age and my experience. And over there I learned a lot. But I also learned what I, I learned what I didn't want to have in my company. The day that I had my own company, I had a boss. Okay? He was, he was tough. He was super tough on me. He was tough on my employees. You know, he made me cry many times. He used to make cry all my employees. Every day there was somebody crying. And we even had a room called the colonoscopy room that it was like when your boss and the boss was Dorothy Come here. You know, it's like everybody's like, whoa, colonoscopy. So, you know, we even had that room. So imagine the, how toxic the environment was over there. I learned a lot on operations, you know, and doing business internationally with India. But man, like from a personal point of view, it was tough. That was tough. On the other side, while I was studying university and then working, I was involved in politics as well. Okay. I thought that I could change the world, you know, like being involved in politics. And then I realized that there's nothing the politicians can do, you know, like, it's, you know, like my friends, the ones that are the, the people that they were studying, that they were working, you know, they had good jobs, you know, like they didn't, they, they were not involved, you know, they were not as involved and they didn't have the opportunities that the people that didn't have jobs, you know, like, they were all, they're in the political party, so they were scaling within. So at the end of the day, the guys that were taking the lead, you know, they were the guys that, they were not ready, you know, to do that. So then is when I decided to focus full time my efforts in, in business and try to grow there. So, so after that, you know, after being like for four years in the jewelry company, I decided that I couldn't be there anymore. You know, like that guy was like, was putting me down, you know, I was like, bad. I was traveling personally, professionally. So I decided to leave the company, find a job in sales. You know, I always told to myself, like from when I finished my studies till I'm 30, I don't, I don't care about money. I just want to learn, learn, learn. So I spent four years in operations in that company. And then I'm like, now I need to get some experience in sales. So I left the company. I went to another company was in the, in the textile industry. We're buying yarn in Asia, selling it in Europe. So I did that for another like three years. And then I had a friend of mine, my best friend actually, he invested in a company in Miami. They started a car club. It was a membership program. You used to, let's say, pay $30,000 for a membership and then you can get access to cars, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and these things. So he started this company here with, with another friend from Spain and they started this business. And I used to tell them, hey, how are you doing? And he's like, oh, great, great. I'm doing great. So then One day he calls me. It was like 12 at night in Barcelona. It was 6am here. And he's like, jordi, I need to talk to you. I've been telling you for a year that we're doing amazing. This is a disaster. We started with 12 cars. We have six cars. I don't know what to do. I'm lost. My dad is going to kill me when he finds out. Could you come to Miami for a couple of weeks to help me? So. So then is when I decided to. To come to Miami for a couple of weeks.

Now, he called on you not because you're a car guy, but more so your financial background and your business education training.

Exactly. It was because of that. So he needed some help. So.

And you had never been in Miami before?

Never. Okay, I am lying. I was in Miami in 2006. So since I was involved in politics, I was the. I don't remember how we call it, but like the international office or something like that. So I used to travel a little bit. Okay. We were part of the international liberal youth and the linemakers, like the European liberal in Europe. So in 2006, there was a Young Democrats of America convention, so I went to Dallas, and then we stopped in Miami for, like, a couple of days partying.

Got it. Okay. So you're in Spain. Your friend calls you up, hey, I really need your help, you know, can you come for a few weeks? Now, at that moment, you had a choice to make, and you thought you were just coming for a few weeks. Obviously, it turned out to be much longer than that. What was going on in your head at that time where you're thinking, you're just going to go for a few weeks, you're going to go help your friend out, and, you know, you're going to get involved with the business that you actually don't really know anything about.

So I always wanted to leave Spain, you know, like, at least, like. So I studied in. In London for the summer school in London, you know, Like, I. I did like, two, three months, you know, it was in Malt as well, studying some English, and I. I enjoyed so much. So I always wanted to do something like this. But I had my girlfriend, you know, and it was like, she was not the type of person that wanted to leave. At some point, I was engaged with this woman. I was 25, you know, I ended up finding out that she cheated on me. So it was a disaster, as you can imagine. Disaster. So it was.

She did you a favor.

I agree 100% today. 100% but, you know, like, it was like, it was a tough times for me as well in Europe. So I had that job, that boss, you know, this thing happens, you know, personally. So I was like, it was bad, you know, it was, I was, I was lost. So then this, the friend of mine calls me. He's like, hey, why didn't you help me? So I was like, let's go. So I came here for a couple of weeks and then, you know, I soon saw the situation. It was bad. So we sent the guy that was managing the company here, we sent him back to Spain. And the goal for me was like to liquidate the company at the end of the day. So I started meeting with all the dealerships in Miami, finding out how much they would give me for the cars. And then, you know, like. But I saw an opportunity. I'm like, hey, maybe we could do something with this thing. So I started meeting with all the, the company people that were renting cars. I. We didn't have clients, but I'm like, I offer them like, we had six cars. Like, yeah, I have these cars here. Like, why don't you use them? You know, I'll give you a wholesale rate. So now, you know, in a week, you know, everybody starts calling me. So we start renting cars.

Wow.

So we're making some money. Then I started meeting with, with some of the clients of the potential members that they had met with. And, you know, and I realized that these guys, they were not closing because they didn't like this guy, you know, the guy from Spain, he was a little arrogant, you know. And then they met me. We closed one membership, we closed another membership. We start Clos membership. I'm like, wow. So, so, so when my friend came to Miami with his general manager, I told, I told him, like, guys, there's two options here. One is we liquidate the company. Okay? And you're going to take back like probably 50% of your investment. And two, maybe you can you continue this? So. So I gave them the two options. I remember like my friend's general manager. Next day, it was 5am he couldn't sleep. But he woke me up. He's like, let's go for a walk. And he told me, like, hey, would you stay? And I was like, I'd rather invest another $100,000 and try it than just like shutting it down and losing 50%. So I remember at the time, I was shocked because, like, it was February, it was Miami. Imagine I had been here for like two, three weeks. Sunny. I was Single. So you see all these, you know, like, beautiful women everywhere.

You were highly motivated.

Exactly. You know, so I'm like, wow, this is crazy. So I'm like, why not? You know, maybe, like, if it doesn't work, I'll go back to Spain.

Right.

So let's try. So I decided to stay. And what I was telling you, you know, I started meeting with all these potential members. They start closing, closing, closing. So we close, like, five, six memberships. You know, we're talking, like, 25 to $30,000amembership. We start, like, wholesaling these cars, you know, like, the rental, and. And the company's, like, starting to take off now.

How many cars do you have at this time?

At that time, we had, like, six cars.

Okay.

Yeah.

What kind of cars were they?

It was a Ferrari 458. Lamborghini Gallardo. It was a Maserati. What else? We had a Range Rover. Forget there was something else. Okay.

What year was this?

That was 2000. 2013.

Okay. So probably one of the first luxury car rental companies. Because in 2013, I. I don't remember there being a lot. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but what. Did you have much competition at the time?

So there was some competition. They were like, some, like, smaller companies, but everything was like, you know, I was meeting with the owners of all these companies, and, like, nobody was, like, a business person, you know, like, so. So I saw that, and I'm like, wow. But there was a company in Miami that they were doing amazing. It was called Lulavi. So I used to look up to them, like, wow, look at these guys. Crazy marketing. Amazing marketing. So when I started selling memberships, and one day, boom, I met somebody, one of the partners of Lulavi. And I tell them, like, I have this character concept. They're like, wow, we love this. Like, we would love to buy you. So I called my friend, like, listen, there's an opportunity to sell if you want, if you guys. His dad was putting a lot of pressure on my friend. He didn't like the business. So as soon as his dad found out, he's like, sell this thing. So I'm like, okay, guys. Like, I think that there's an opportunity here, but if you guys want to sell, whatever, let's sell it. So I thought that I was going to sell it and I was going to go back to Spain. So I sold the company to this group, Lulavi. And then they asked me, like, no, no, no, you're staying with us. You know, like, this is the. You're managing the club. So we want you to manage a club for us. So that in that is where I met my current business partner, John Tamarian. John Tamarian was the founder of Lulavi. He had some investors. So. So then he's when I met him. So I met him the day that we were signing the transaction. Okay. So I was. I did everything with his business partner. So imagine John didn't like me at the time like this. There was a big crash of egos. Like, imagine John was like. He was, you know, he had a big ego. He was like this, like, cool guy, you know, like, from Miami. And I now. I was like this guy that was speaking broken English and didn't know a lot. So. So. Yeah. And so this is how everything started in August 2013 is when we merged both companies.

Okay, nice. And with this clash of egos, you know, you coming with your skill set, John being the co founder, wanting to do things his way, how are you guys able to emesh and I guess develop a synchronistic partnership? Because I know what that's like when you're kind of forced into a partnership with someone who maybe you don't align with. And of course, a partnership is like a marriage. So it's almost like, what do they call it? An arranged marriage where you and John are now together and now you have to raise this child, this company together. So what was that like, the two of you? Because you both, from what I know, but have very different personalities too.

We're super deep. Like, they're like, look, this is the way I dress.

Yeah. I've seen John. I see style. He's like. He looks very la. Very. Exactly. So very different personality types. But that's what works, right? The yin and yang. I remember my partner Ralph and I, we've been partners for over 20 years. And people would say, I don't know how you two work together because you're just so absolutely different. Polar opposites. But that's what makes it work. So tell me about your partnership with John and how you're able to make it work.

At the beginning, it was difficult. It was tough. You know, I was trying so hard, but he. I don't know, Like, I don't know what he had in his mind, you know, but it was difficult. But then, you know, like, the company was. We had like 25 cars. We had everything. It was massive. But I. I always saw, like, John giving out checks and checks and checks. I'm like. Like, I didn't know. I didn't know the financials. But I could tell that the. The company was losing money for sure. Like, were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on everything. SEO, Google Ads. And I'm like, I could see all the leads that were coming in, and it was not that much. So one day I sat him down. I'm like, hey, John, I need to talk to you. So I sat him down and I told him, like, I got a big piece of paper. I'm like, write down everything that you do. And he starts writing. Okay, like, accounting, marketing, this, that. And he wrote down, like, 18, 19 things, huge list. I'm like, okay, now tell me what you like to do. And he says, like, marketing BAP clients. You know, it was like, four things. I'm like, exactly. Like, why don't you allow me to do the rest? Because at that time, I was just managing the membership program, so I was doing more sales program. Like, let me manage a company. You focus on your things, and let me do the rest.

So did he receive that?

I think that, you know, like, he had a lot on his shoulders, and he saw that as an opportunity to, like, oh, yeah, okay. You know, so it was. Yeah. I don't know how I had the balls to say. To tell him that at the time, you know, because. And then. And then he took it, like, oh, let's do it. So at the beginning, it was like, there was, like, some friction. Sure, okay. But we started working together. What happened? And I think that this is what helped us. It was a disaster, but I think that helped us. It was that, you know, 60, 70% of our business was coming from Brazil. It was crazy. Like, everything was from Brazil. So in 2014, 15, like, Brazil got into a huge crisis. So overnight, like, in a period of, I would say like a couple of months, we lost 70% of our business.

Wow.

So we went from, like, because, like that year, you know, when I. When I. When I started with John, I took over, like, the management of the company. Okay. I found out that the company was losing, like, $800,000. So I started, like, pushing like crazy, like my old boss used to do.

Right?

Okay. Like, that's what I knew. I started pushing the employees. I started pushing the everything. Like, and even John, sometimes he was afraid of me. You know, it's like, bro, you cannot do this. You shouldn't do this. I'm like, I know. But so that next year, okay, we made 80k. We made $80,000.

So in this, so negative 800 one year to positive 80,000. So almost a $900,000 yes, but I.

Would pushing, like, like an animal. But I. You can imagine, okay? Like, my employees were not happy. John was not happy, I was not happy. Nobody was happy. But that's what I knew, and that's what I thought that I had to do to get to that point. So imagine we're making 80k. We're excited. We're like, oh, let's open New York. So we sent Anna, one of our. She's like our sister. We sent Anna to New York to open New York. We start opening New York, and then it's when Brazil disappears and boom, we lose all our business. So from nothing to making some money to losing everything again, Anna comes back, we shut down the New York. I was like, what do we do now? So, you know, John and I, we struggled so much together, you know, that I think that that started, like, making, like, a big bond, you know, like, we were, like, crying together, you know, at night. We were texting each other, we were calling each other. Like we didn't have anybody else. So, you know, we went through that period that it was so crazy that I think that that's what's got us together. At the end of the day, you know, we were supporting each other. And in this period of time, okay, when, you know, like, John, he knows about cars. Like, he's. That's his passion. His grandfather was a mechanic. His father was a mechanic. You know, he grew up around these cars. So in this. In this period of time when. When we didn't have anything, you know, like, at some point we decided, like, we had to pay rent, we had to pay the employees, we had to. We had to pay insurance. So at the end of the day, like, if we had to pay all these things, there was not more money. So John and I, we decided not to take a salary, you know, and for five, six months, we didn't take a salary. So in this period of time, you know, John ended up, like, handing his watch just to pay rent. You know, I had at some point, like $150 in my bank account. It was a disaster. But in the spirit of time as well, you know, when this crazy opportunity show up. So I see John buying an old Ferrari for like 20 or $30,000 on lease, you know, putting 10% down. And I thought that he was crazy. I'm like, brother, are you insane? We don't know, like, if we're going to take a salary next month. And now you're buying a old Ferrari.

You know, what was it, the value of the Ferrari?

So that's the thing I didn't know, for me, it was like, for me, a car wasn't a depreciating asset. You know, my, my cars in the, in the, the brand new cars were depreciating 20 to 30% a year. So he's like, no, no, I. I got it, I got it. You will see, I'll sell it for a lot of money. So he paid like 20 or 30,000, and in like a month or two, he sells that guy and he makes $20,000 profit. So I was shocked. And when you have nothing, $20,000, it was a fortune. So I'm like, wow. So then he, when I told him, like, why don't we do this as a business? Like, can we do it? And he's like, yeah, but do you have money? Because I don't have any money. So. So I told him, I don't have any money, but I have friends that I can call. And then it's when I called my friend Gerard again, I'm like, hey, Gerard, you know, like, you brought me to Miami, sold the company I have, you know, like, why don't we buy. And John told me, like, I have this Lamborghini Kunda that I can buy for like, probably 200,000 and maybe you can sell it for like 280 to 80. So Gerard, I told Gerard, like, hey, send me 200K. I trust John. I believe in John. He just bought this car for like 20 or 30,000 and he made 20,000 in profit. So Gerard sends me, the money was a 70, 30 split, 70 for him. And, man, John sold that car and we made $90,000 to Gerard in like a couple of months. So when I called Gerard and he's like, you know, why, like, don't send me the money back. Just keep the principal and the. And the profits and keep doing it. So in 2014, we did like nine deals where Gerard was making 70%, we were making 30%. Sweet deal for exactly. No, amazing. Yeah, but. But you know what? Like, he brought me here as well, you know, so that was another way to, you know, like, he gave me an opportunity. And this is how life works. And we're going to talk about this later, but, you know, like, he gave me an opportunity. He lost money in his deal. You know, at the end of the day, he didn't get all his money back, but now he was starting to get some money back, you know, so when you have an opportunity, when you help people, you know, like, then it comes back. So. And you will see as we talk like, Gerard got all his money back for a lot of profit. But he created an opportunity for me, right? So. And that's how, you know, we started doing these little deals where John was making 15%, I was making my 15%. We were not taking a salary from Lulavi for the car rental agency, but we were surviving with this 5,000 here, 2,000 there.

So at this point, you're still renting the cars. You're also now buying and flipping cars, and the dealership, or the rental business is still going?

Yes, okay. Yes, it's still going. It's going like it's a disaster.

Okay?

So Brazil disappears, You know, like, everybody starts shutting down. All my competitors in Miami, they shut down. We're like, we're a stronger company in Miami. And then they come back, but this time they don't own their cars. They don't have insurance on the cars. Like, let's say that you. You have good credit, so you buy a Ferrari, and I tell you, like, hey, let me rent your Ferrari for like, 10 days a month. And you know, like, you're going to own it for free. You're going to make money. So they start using other people's cars, and they're putting in the market. But now, instead of renting a Ferrari for 3,000 a day, they're renting it for $1,000 a day. So how can I compete with that? It's impossible. So we kept going down and down and down. It was bad. But in that time, in 2014, for our Basel, we put together a crazy, crazy party. Like an event. We used to have a beautiful showroom. It was an art gallery with the cars. So we put together an event. It was Lulavi and pinin Farina presenting Mr. Brainwash. And Mr. Brainwash painted live Maserati that we had. So it was crazy. We had more than a thousand people in the showroom that day. And the following day, this guy shorts, flip flops, come in the showroom. There was paint everywhere. And this guy comes in, you know, screaming, like, why is this? This is sick. Like, who's this guy? And he comes, gives me this crazy hack. Somebody that you've never, like, somebody in the street, and gives you this crazy hat. And I was like this. And he's like, hey, you have an accent. Where are you from? I'm like, I'm from Spain. So he starts talking to us, and he gives us his business card. I'll show it to you. I have it always. Very quickly, he gives us his business card. Look at this. And it Was so Alan Lazowski from last panicking, lazy parking. And I didn't know what this parking company was.

And it looks like it is a parking ticket. It's an actual legit parking ticket.

Yes. With his name and his telephone number, then.

Yeah, Very cool.

Yeah. Marketing. So. So he gives me this, and that night I googled him, and I realized that he's the owner of the largest parking company in the United States with 15,000 employees and 2 billion revenue.

Wow.

So that guy starts calling us every couple of days. 10, 11pm Alan calling, you spend.

Like, let me ask you, what was it about that event and him walking in, like, what was it that he saw that had him come back?

I have no idea. Literally, I have no idea. And I was shocked. Like, you know, when he was calling me, my. My wife or girlfriend at the time is like, why is this guy calling you? I'm like, I don't know. You know, like, you have a guy that has 15,000 employees, that his company is doing 2 billion in revenue, and it's calling me, somebody that has no money that is about to fly back to Spain, you know, like, I don't know. But. So we start talking business. And more than business, it was like another way to do business. You know, I told you I was pushing my employees, I was pushing my vendors, I was pushing everybody. And he was telling me that there's another way to do business. You know, when. When you help people from your heart, unconditionally, everything comes 10 times back, and it's all about the people. It's about, you know, doing good for creating value for your clients, for your vendors, for your employees. And he starts putting all these ideas in my head, and I'm like, yeah, that. That looks nice, but I don't think it's possible to do it in business. But. But he was approved. He was doing this. So, you know, we started. He keeps calling and calling and calling. So that was. We met him in December, so let's say, like in. Back in September of 2014, you know, at that point, we were, like, done. Like, I didn't have a dollar. John had punked his watch. We were doing these deals with my friend gerard, but that 50% was not enough. You know, Miami is expensive to pay for my. I think. So I was. I was thinking about going back to Spain. I'm like, hey. And I even told John a couple of times, I think I'm going to have to go back to Spain or I need to find a job here. But by my business situation, it Was like, not perfect. So, so, so John, one night he comes and like he sends me a picture of a bill of sale sign for an $800,000 car. We were buying like 50 to $100,000 car. I like, what is this? John? Like, and he's like, no, like, we're gonna buy this car for 800,000 and we're gonna sell it for $1.1 million. I'm like, John, brother, like, the contract says that we need to put a $50,000 non refundable deposit and we don't have a dollar. Like, like you just find your watch. I have 150 in my bank account. I need to call my dad to go back to Spain. Like, he's like, no, bro, you can raise the money. I'm like, john, I don't even know what this car is. It was a Lamborghini. Miura had never seen Lamborghini. Mira. So. So imagine that this is how everything happens in life. And we're going to talk about more this, more spiritual part later in the conversation, I guess. But you know, like that day, okay, and I had to do a presentation like a couple of months ago. So I was looking at all the pictures. So that was September 2, 2014. So that day, that same day that John signs a contract, that same day that I'm about to call my dad to go back to Spain because I don't, I don't know how to pay maybe next, my next rent. So Alan called six. I was in the office by myself. Like I was crying. I remember, you know, thinking about my immigration status, like the job, this, that it was a disaster. So. And Alan called 6pm hey guys, I'm in Miami. Alan was the president of the American Partner Association. Like we had a congress here at the Fontainebleau Hotel. We just finished. Do you guys want to go for dinner? So I'm like, okay. So I called John. He, Allen is in Miami. Let's meet him at Mandolin. So we meet with Alan and he starts asking us about the car rental agency. And we tell him that it was a disaster. There was a company from California wanted to buy us out, to buy us. And they decided not to move forward with the deal. So we were going to shut down the business. And she's like, what about the old cars that you buy and sell? And John is like, we're going to kill it. We're going to be rich like that. John lives in another reality, you know, like he kills a living in this world, he lives in another world. So he's like, well, we're going to be rich. We're going to buy a car for 100,000. We're going to sell it for 1.1. I'm like, Alan, don't even listen to him. We need $50,000 to put the deposit and we have a dollar, so it's not going to happen. So Alan looked at us like, you guys are crazy. And I told Alan, yes, Johnny's crazy. No, it's like, no, you're as crazy as John because you followed him. I'm like, so, so Alan, he does the. He grabs his check, he starts writing something, and I didn't know what he was writing. And he looks at us as like, guys, I believe in you. He gives me. You're the money guy, right? He tells me, he gives me a check and he's like, here, look at it, $50,000. Like tomorrow you're going to go to the bank, you're going to put a $50,000 deposit. You're going to go raise the 750 in the next couple of weeks and Johnny's going to scale it for 1.1. I'm like, Alan, no. I mean, I, I was giving the check back. I'm like, no, you're going to lose your money. This is a non refundable $50,000 and I cannot raise 750,000 in a couple of weeks for a car that I don't even know what it is. It's impossible. And he looked at me, but like that, I believe in you. You're going to put a deposit, you're going to go to a bank, and then John is going to. You're going to raise the money and John is going to sell it for 1.1. You can imagine in the restaurant, John and I were crying, crying. And I raised the money and then John sold that car for $1,240,000. That was September. In December 2015, we were launching officially for our Basel. A year after meeting, Alan curated investment, our current company.

Now, I remember you telling me this story before and it is so captivating that I remember every detail of it. There's something that Al wrote on that check because he said, al, you're going to lose this money and I won't be able to pay you back.

Yes. So Alan told me, like, did you read the check? And I told him, yes, 50,000 is not reading better. So when I look at the check in the memo, it said, pay it forward. Solan told me, I don't want you guys to pay me back. I want you guys to pay it forward. When you have the opportunity to help someone, you do it. So I want you guys to help your clients, your employees, your vendors, and anybody you can. So. And that was the biggest lesson, you know, that Alan, that Alan gave us. And a month later, we were starting this company together with Alan, you know, and, and you know, everything changed. You know, we started, we started the company with a new way of thinking.

Right.

Thanks to the check. You know, Alan had been mentoring us for a year, but that was the turning point. And then we were starting to curate it with a new mentality.

We're brought up learning to run a company from a place of fear and intimidation and almost like an iron fist, you know, scaring people into listening to you. Operating from a place of fear rather than a place of love and compassion and embodying true leadership. And it seems that that is the mindset of Al that was then passed on to you and John. And that is sort of the essence or the, the soul of curated and how you then built your company.

Yes. So I'll tell you something really quick about Alan. So I was always shocked, like how, how this Guy built a 2 billion dollar company like in Spain. I never met somebody that had $2 billion. So, so I, I remember asking, I asked him so many times the same question, like, Alan, how did you build this? Because I, I wanted to get a different answer every time. And I always got the same answer. And Alan always says, like, Alan was a valet parker. He started parking cars. His dad and mom and holocaust survivors came to the United States with nothing. So Alan didn't even finish his studies. He left during a summer. He started parking cars. And he's like, I'm not going back to university. I'm starting my own company. And he started parking cars. I was a valet parker. So he went from parking cars to owning the largest parking company in the United States. And I asked him, how did you do that? And he always says the same thing. When you help people from your heart, unconditionally, without expecting anything, exchange, everything comes into it. So just forget about money. Focus on helping people. And money is going to come later.

Yeah. And, and I just want to, you know, dive into this a little bit deeper because, you know, one of the things I tried to help entrepreneurs understand is many of us entrepreneurs, and including yourself and John at that time, we're operating from a place of fear, scarcity, lack, stress.

Yes.

We're in fight or flight. So we are in those lower vibrations. And wealth, health, love, abundance are all in the higher frequencies. But if we're down here and what we want is up here, you know, it's that big disconnect. And that's why you and John were grinding and hustling and doing all your things, flipping, flipping. But you're still stuck in those lower vibrational emotions. And what Alan demonstrated was when you are tuned into the frequency of gratitude and abundance and sounds like he's a man filled with joy and laughter, you are resonating at the frequency of millions and billions. And for all entrepreneurs listening out there or watching this, if you want to make millions, you have to ask yourself, am I embodying the frequency of millions? Am I having fun? Am I laughing? Am I contributing? Am I doing the things that bring me joy? Because when we're stuck in fight or flight, in that scarcity mindset, we're not having fun. You know, we wake up every day and we're so stressed that we are actually pushing abundance away. Right? And what Alan so powerfully demonstrated is, here's a check for 50k, I don't want it back. I believe in you. And from there, you were able to embody this not just mindset, but this energy of paying it forward, of gratitude, of abundance. Because when you pay it forward and you write a check like that, you're telling God, telling the universe, hey, I am abundant and I know there's billions out there for me. So I'm going to give this guy a check for 50k to help him get started, because I know that I have access to as much money as I possibly want, and that's where people get stuck. Well, if I give this 50k, that's 50k less for me. What if you give that 50k and 250 shows up? Because what happened when you guys created this company together off of that 50k? I think it worked out pretty good. For Alan, would you say?

Incredible. Like the value of the company today.

Imagine what is the value that. I mean, because you guys, I think the number you dropped was like you did like 23 million or something.

No, no, no, no. Way more than that. Okay, so. So the first years of the company, we. It was difficult, you know, like we. So banks didn't want to work with us, so we started raising money. Tara was one of the investors, my best friend. But then we had to bring on more people. So we ended up raising like $6 million. With that $6 million, we were making deals, but now it was a 50, 50 split, but from our 50% pay, rent, insurance, employees. So we're not making Money at the end of the year. But three years later, you know, I went with those financials to a bank, and I told the bank, listen, like, I'm giving 50% of everything that I make. If you give me a great facility at 5%, I. Okay, I would have paid $90,000 on interest instead of 590,000. So, you know, the banker did this. Like, I'll give you an opportunity. So they gave me 3 million. So I sent 3 million back to the investors. Then six months later, the banker saw how quick we were moving the money. It's like, you know what? I'll give you another three. So they gave me six million. Send all the money back to the investors. Now we were in business. Company made the first million dollars in ebitda, you know, that year. So in that moment, okay, I was in Bali, my brother's wedding, and John calls me, like, hey, this guy from California and just walked in the showroom, you know, and he wants to meet with you as soon as we come. As you come back. So I come back and we meet with this guy Jim. So we meet with him. And what I was telling you before, you know, I was with my sport jacket. John was with ripped jeans, a hat. And Jim look at us like, guys, do you. Can you work together? Do you respect each other? And we talk. I'm like, yeah, like, you know, like, that's. That's what we're talking. The one on one plus four. You know, this is. This is what it is, our partnership. He was in love. Like, I want to invest in you guys. So we talk him like, hey, it's the first time that we made money. We're going to be able to pay. Alan loaned some money to the business, and we're going to be able to pay Alan back. And we don't have any debt, so we don't. We don't need more partners. He's like, look me up. I think that you guys can dream bigger and I can help with you. I can help you with that. So we look him up, and it was Jim Gates, the former CEO of Sequoia Capital. He moved from California to Miami. He bought a house here in Miami. And he. This guy had been at the time, like, for seven years, the number one tech investor in the world in the Forbes Midas list. So we called out, it's like, hey, Allah, like, this billionaire wants to invest, you know, like, what do we do? And Alan was like, hey, like, these venture capitalists, you know, sometimes they look at the short term. We're not looking to sell anytime soon. So I'm sure we have something special between the three of us. So. But we push him a little bit. Like, yeah, like why, why don't we explore it? So Jim picked Alan up with his private jet in New York. They flew down to Miami. We had dinner, the four of us, and we realized how nice of a person Jim was. You know, Jim has done everything in life. You know, he was the lead investor for WhatsApp. He sold to to Facebook for 19 or 20 billion, I don't remember. So. And now, now what he wants to do in life, he just wants to help entrepreneurs, he wants to help people. So he's the same mentality that Alan has. Exactly the same one. So that night we signed a deal that and Jim became 25%. Wow. Partnering, curated. So now we have four partners, 25% each. So when Jim came in, he's like, guys, you have $6 million facility. You have to go for 15. And we're like, 15? Like that's. We don't need that much money because, like, ask for 15, bank is going to give you 12, probably. So we go to the banks and of course, having Alan and Jim behind, John and me, they gave us $50 million. So what happened is that we had $6 million. We couldn't buy cars above a million dollars. It was a limitation from that great facility. And now we had $15 million, we could buy anything we wanted. So the company goes from like doing like $18 million in revenue to $60 million in one year.

$60 million?

Yeah. Then, you know, I had the 15, but in a year we had our credit facility full. So I go to the bank, I'm like, guys, I need more money. I need 25. Alan and Jim are behind. So obviously the bank gives us money. Boom, 25 million. We go from 60 to 75. And this past year we did $113 million. And now I'm negotiating with the bank another credit facility for $35 million so we can keep growing the company. But it's been insane. Like the growth that we had in the last four years. Four years, it's been crazy. But the thing is, like, we went through so much, you know, it was so difficult. But when we started the company, we started with the right mentality, the right value, so we started attracting the right.

People and most importantly, the right energy.

The right energy, exactly.

Vibration.

Vibration in the company. Like last year, I asked everybody define curated in one word. 80% of the employees, they said family. You know, so we take care of everybody. So we all struggle together. The whole team struggled together. But when we started, when we had money and we were ready to go, you know, in 2021 is when the company exploded. Everybody started making money. Not only John Allen and me, you know, we started giving, like, crazy volumes, raises, raising salaries. Everybody was making below market. We didn't have money to pay more. But now, you know, everybody's making a lot of money, so everybody's happy. And it's about sharing and helping people grow. Beautiful. Yeah.

And how many staff do you have now?

24 people. 24 people.

And how big is your showroom?

So we have 35,000 square feet.

Wow.

That showroom. Restoration facility, Storage facility.

Okay, and how did you guys become the largest Lamborghini vintage Lamborghini dealership in the world?

So that's all on John. You know, like John said, he used to be a Lamborghini mechanic. He used to. He's one of the most talented mechanics that are still alive today. And John grew up around all these cars. So John can tell you, like, if there is a Lamborghini K over there, he's going to tell you, oh, that bolt is wrong. That wing is wrong. This thing is wrong. He has so much knowledge. So what we did. And this is like John's strength and talent. He's an amazing marketing person. He's a visionary. He has a vision, and he was always obsessed with product and customer service. And those were the biggest fights that John and I had. Okay. Because like, he was telling me, oh, we're gonna buy this car for a hundred thousand. We're gonna sell it for 120. And I'm the finance guy. Oh, fantastic. 20 gross margin. But then the guy starts like, oh, we need to fix this. Oh, that was wrong. This is wrong. So, boom, boom, boom. We start like, we spent 20k. I'm like, John, we're not making any money. And sometimes we're even losing money. I'm like, john, we're losing like two, $3,000. So this one, bro, trust me, trust me. He. He was always, trust me, like, no, trust me, no, we need to make money, you know, so over time, okay, he was right. 100% right. Because that client left happy. And that client became our fan. He bought like 20, 30 cars, and he brought his friends, you know, so. And that happened not with one client, with many clients. So this is how, you know, one of the.

I was thinking long game.

Exactly.

Thinking, yeah, the big picture and the.

Quality, you know, because, like, for him, these cars are not cars. It's like, it's a treasure. It's more than a car.

Right.

So he needs to make sure that they're perfect.

Yes.

So it. That's his obsession with perfection. Yeah. So that's. And then on the other side, okay, John is like, he's an amazing speaker. If you go to our YouTube channel, you will see, like, just like today, he's a celebrity. We go to car shows. Like, he cannot walk 10ft without three people taking self with him. Very cool. You know, and. And he has so much knowledge. So we started this YouTube channel. We started, like, putting this out. You know, like, people saw that he's an honest guy. You know, in the car world, there's, like, there's not a lot of honest people, unfortunately. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. So they saw this guy that has a lot of knowledge. He's a good guy. He. He's humble. He. So they, like, people fall in love with him and they just want to buy cars from him. So that's what happened, you know, and over time, so we started working so much on Lamborghini. So we became the number one client of vintage Lamborghini parts in the world. So Lamborghini called us. You know, we went to Lamborghini, we met with the president, we met with everybody. And Lamborghini has like a thing called Apollo Storico. There is a certification for vintage Lamborghinis. So the brand new Lamborghini dealerships, normally they didn't want to work on these cars. You know, it can take like, the car can be in a leaf for like two months before you find out what's wrong. You find the part. If the part doesn't exist, you have to build a part. So they didn't want to work on these cars. So we're experts on this. Lamborghini calls us and it's like, hey, guys, why do you want. So if you want a Lamborghini Polo certification, you have to send a car to Italy. And they asked, like, do you want to become a Lamborghini por historic facility in the United States? So last year we signed this deal. So today we're helping Lamborghini certify vintage Lamborghinis. Amazing. Yeah.

Wow. Wow. It's quite the honor.

Yeah, right?

Yeah. It is crazy from where you were from buying that first Lamborghini, not even knowing what it was, to now becoming an official Lamborghini partner. Partner. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I love your story for so many reasons, and it really is that the, the, the prime example of what happens when you have passion and you have faith and you're willing to just take chances. Yeah, right. And the other thing about your story I love is, you know, the diversity of your partnership and how you've been able to learn from each partner skills and qualities that have allowed you to grow as an individual, that have also supported your personal development journey. Because I remember when you reached out to me because I was following your dealership, you started following me. You started to learn about my journey and my path of becoming an entrepreneur. And what you've learned from Al, from John, from your partner, from Sequoia, John as well, Jim. Right. So Jim, John and Alan, each one of them has taught you things that have now played a part in who you've become. You know, so when you reflect on the different lessons and teachings that let's say Alan has passed on to you or John or Jim, what would you say some of the most powerful lessons or perspectives they've shared with you that has helped you to become the man entrepreneur, the husband, the father that you are today.

And you know, like, there's something that Alan always says that, he always says it's all about the people, you know, and you're, you're as good as the people that you are working with. Right. So it's about the people, you know, it's about taking care of everybody. And it's having this paid for mentality is like when you have the opportunity to help someone, you do it. And, and once you focus your energy, you know, on doing these, on helping people and making sure that the client is going to receive the best car possible. Yeah. You know, and the client is going to be happy. Like, our purpose in curated is not making money. We have a higher purpose that it's, it's, it says like curated, where dreams, drive and passion and history are preserved for generations. So that's what we want to do. Like you had a poster of the Lamborghini Kunde. We want to fulfill that dream that you had when you were a kid. So we're fulfilling dreams and then we want to preserve, okay, this passion and this knowledge. We wouldn't want this to get lost for future generations. So that's why we're doing all these documentation. We call ourselves historians, so that's what we do, you know, like, I mean, when you do that and you forget about the money part. Yeah, we have our KPIs and we need to meet them. And. But when you forget about that for a second and you focus on fulfilling people's dreams, you know, and then while you do this. You need to make sure that your employees are happy. And they. They. You know, like, that's something that I do a lot. Okay. I coach my employees. I need to make sure that they are happy in their personal. In their professional life. I have an obsession. My obsession is to see growth, whether it's business growth or personal growth in people, and I love that. I feel. It feels so good. Yeah. And that's one of the things that I remember that when I. When I met Alan, at the beginning, I don't remember what it was, but he made me a big favor. Called him, like, 10 times, 10 different days to thank him. He. Okay. Every day he was giving me the same answer, like, jordan, please stop thanking me. I'm the one that should be thanking you for giving the opportunity, giving me the opportunity to help you, and you don't realize how good it feels. So at that time, I was somebody that when I was helping somebody, I was expecting something in exchange.

Right.

And that person was never meeting my expectations. Oh, I did this for. You know, and my wife used to. Like. Like, I remember some conversation with my wife. Oh, like this friend. I did all of this for him. And look at. You know, I. I was always frustrated. And then, you know, Alan starts talking about this. And today I. I realize about Alan's words, because today I'm not doing anything, expecting anything to change. You know, I'm doing something because I want to help you, because I want a gift.

Yes.

And I did. And I forget about this. And. But it's gonna come back. But I'm not even expecting for this to come back.

Yeah. And. And the beauty of when we are able to give is we are able to experience the gratitude and the joy of seeing someone fulfill their dreams because of what you're able to provide them with. Like, when Alan wrote you that check for 50k, it gave him more joy to give it to you than it was for you to receive it, because he knew that. That 50k, he's in a position to do that because of the abundance he's created in his life. So he's grateful that he can hand that over to you. And he's. He's shifting the energy to you. The gratitude from all of his years of hard work. And I think this is, you know, a big paradigm shift many people, especially entrepreneurs, can choose to have that will make a big difference for them, is choosing to believe that we are abundant and that when we give and we give with love and we give with no expectation, the universe will give us back tenfold but we have to first take that step and choose that. And there's a book, I'm trying to remember the name right now, but it's all about being a giver and it's escaping me now, but I'll try to remember and put it in the show notes. But the whole book is about being able to give back and just share. And I know many, you know, religions Talk about giving 10% back of your earnings because again, it's just contributing to others, but then also just showing God. Like, look, I believe, I trust and I'm going to give away knowing that there's more coming.

And a lot of times it's not even about giving money, you know, and, and I wish, I wish Jordy my, myself I could talk to myself 10 years ago, you know, because like a lot of times he's like, oh yeah, this guy has money. Like, I don't know. He has got money. It's easy for him to do. No, you know, like when it was so a month ago, I was Alan, they put together this annual reunion, okay, in last parking. So they had 300 managers of the like 15, 000 employees was having lunch in a big table. And there's this woman, they, they call her like tea money. So he was the first person that worked in finance with Alan. And she was telling me that at 20 something years ago, almost 30 years ago, they, they were a small company, they did have a lot of money. And there was people, there were people coming to Alan's office every day looking for checks. And this woman went to. Alan is like, alan, you need to stop doing this. You need to stop giving checks to people. People are taking advantage of you. And it looks like Alan looked at this woman and told her like, Tina, I will never, ever, ever stop helping people and giving money to people. I don't care if I go broke.

Wow.

So whether you want it, accept it or not, you know, this is who I am. So Alan, at that time, he didn't have money. You know, he, he was not a wealthy person and he was doing this, you know, and I did at that. And apart from that, what Alan gave me, it was not even money, you know, like he gave me his time. Yes. He spent hours and hours on the phone and meetings and these and that because, like, he never invested a lot of money. We raised the money from, he helped me. He taught me how to raise money from individuals. He taught me how to go to banks and get a great facility, but he never gave me a lot of money. He just Something to start.

And that's a beautiful message for people to hear because we don't have to be wealthy and have millions in the bank to give back. It could just be. If you're an entrepreneur and you've been in the game 20 years and some young man in his early 20s wants to take you for coffee because he needs a little bit of advice or she needs some guidance, that 15 minutes can be the.

Yes.

The turning point, the catalyst for that person to feel confident enough to take that step. Right.

100%.

Yeah.

So.

I want to end this with you just telling me a little bit about this because this is amazing. This is the first. This advanced reader copy draft of Pay It Forward, a collection of wisdom and antidotes and things that you have received from your mentor. Yeah, I'd love to just hear a little bit about it.

That period of like, seven, eight years, the first seven years of Alan, you know, like, every time that I was spoken with him over the phone, like, he was giving me, like a. A lesson that he was shocking to me. It was not shocking. It was common sense. Not in the business world, but in the business world, I'm like, you cannot do this. Like, it's not going to work. People are going to take advantage of you. Like, you know, all these things. So. But I started writing it down in my notes in my phone. And after the seven years, I had so much content that I'm like, one day I was flying to Bali to visit my brother. I'm like, let me put these in a Word file. So I sent it to a Word file and I spent those, like, I don't know, 20 something hours of the trip just like typing and cleaning it.

Right.

So for the next, like, year, I kept, like, improving it. So last year, it was Alan's birthday. We were in Germany. He came with us for a business opportunity we had in Germany, and it was his birthday. I'm like, you know what? It would be nice to print those papers and give it to him as a gift, but it was not going to be a book. It was just like, I don't know, a gift and maybe something I can share with my employees so we can make more strong our culture within curated. So I gave it to him. It was beautiful. He was crying. It was amazing. So last year I went to the Conscious Capitalism event. Okay. This is an organization that it's all about, you know, like, doing good in business. It was founded by John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods. So I was there. Alan is one of the board Members and his business partner asked me how he met Alan. So I told him the paid forward story. And a couple of weeks later he calls me and he's like, jordy, like in Last Sparking, every year we have an annual reunion and we're looking for a theme. Last year was creating opportunities for people. The year before was never ever give up. So we're looking for a theme and you inspire me. And I told your story to the whole management team and we decided that page four is going to be the theme for last parking 2020, 24. I was shocked. But then he, he tells me, like, I would love for you to come to our convention to tell your story and I want you to bring your book. I'm like, what book? You know, I, I have some papers that he gave it to Alan with like some lessons that I learned from him. So, you know, Michael, this guy, he forced me to actually like put it in a book format. So I did this draft, you know, and then I went to the event and I went to look for stories, last stories. So this is half book now. I'm working on like, you know, like creating all these, putting all these stories within the book and hopefully like in the next six months is going to be ready. But basically it's 12 lessons I learned from Alan that it should be common sense, you know, but it's not, unfortunately, in the business world. Right. So it's all about paying it forward and elevating humanity through business and unconditional love. You know, it's. For me, paid forward is unconditional love. And when you bring unconditional love within business, like crazy things happen. Like, look at my story, you know, from being broke and I have a company is doing more than $100 million in planner.

Amazing. Such an inspiring story. And I look forward to digging into this book because even though I haven't met Alan yet, I have a great deal of respect for him for, you know, how he supported you and John is just. And who is what he stands for because obviously you, you're an embodiment of his, of his mentor shift. Right. So thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being so generous and open with all the things you've been through. And yeah, I just want to tell you I appreciate you and the mission that you're on and I look forward to coming to see curated sometime very soon because I just got to experience the, the incredible business that you've created and would love to meet John as well. And you know, for anybody who wants to learn more about curated. You can check out the link down below. If you're in the market for a vintage Lamborghini or one of the many other cars, you know, hit up Jordy or John. And yeah, brother, just want to thank you for your time and for, you know, reaching out and sharing your journey. And I know this is just the beginning for you and there's once this book gets published, I'm sure, no doubt it'll become a New York Times bestseller. And yeah, I'm proud of you, brother.

So thank you. Thank you. I still need to work a little bit. You're going to help me. Maybe like putting myself out. You know, I'm still shy.

Well, great for your first podcast, you know, you did amazing and you know, thank you for being here and sharing your journey.

Thank you so much, brother. Thank you.

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