David Cunic: Investor Relations & Cannabis Industry Pioneer!

In this episode, Nikolay and Yuliya (Julia) are joined by David Cunic, serial entrepreneur and founder of UCS Advisors. From David's background as a successful physical therapist, to now consulting for companies in the investor relations space and advising entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry and beyond - David has such a wealth of experience to share with us, and we hope you have as much fun as we did hearing his story!

Tune in to hear David discuss what he does, how he got to where he is now, and what he's learned - as well as the various challenges and setbacks he has overcome along the way! 


We hope you enjoy!
And as always, DM or email us at info@nyglobalgroup.com if you have a story to share!

To learn more about David:

Email:  david@ucsadvisor.com

Webpage:  https://ucsadvisor.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-cunic/

To learn more about Nikolay & Yuliya:

Webpage: http://nyglobalgroup.com/

Instagram (Nikolay): @Nikolay.NYC

Instagram (Yuliya): @Julia.Afanasyev

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC44hOfGdvTB15Aa_xaW5t0w

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

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This is Success & Setbacks in NYC podcast, with your hosts, Julia and Nikolay, coming to you from New York City with some of the most amazing life stories of how various people turn their challenges around! Tune in to get inspired, learn more, or simply enjoy. Hello, everyone. We have a very, very, very exciting guest today with us! His name is Dr. David Cunic. You pronounce it correctly. Yes, you did. So, Dr. David, he is a medical professional. He also tends to be a serial entrepreneur. And I feel like this is a very unexpected route that we haven't had on our podcast yet. And I feel like this may become the most popular podcast. So let's see. Without further ado, David, please take it away. Well, I appreciate that. Nikolay. Julia, thank you for having me here today. And by the way, nice view today, even though it's all rainy and overcast, but um, so a quick nutshell to all your listeners. I'm a medical professional by trade, but I'm really a serial entrepreneur. I've been very blessed. I started 13 companies for the past 18 years. I've sold seven of my companies. Back in 2010 at the tender age of about 30-31. I did my own s one it did my company public. But that wasn't enough sighs I think my company public in the marijuana, cannabis, weed, whatever slang term want to use industry. So it's actually one of the first 500 publicly traded companies in cannabis here in the United States. But little do people realize I also own back in the day, the number one rated physical therapy facility in North Jersey for eight years, have the contract for the New York Red Bulls, which is a Major League Soccer. Yep. I'm actually a very big football fan of football proper, as we call it, for all your listeners out there for American football. But ironically, I also do a lot of work with the New York Jets in New York Jets physicians as well, too. So I really want several hats were either people only as Dr. Day but the physical therapist who was take care of NBA players, NHL players, NFL players in Olympics. And then there's Dr. David, who wears the potluck jacket at marijuana companies all around the country, and has done a bunch of different things in the industry. So. So before I kind of go on from there, get you guys back to the floor and see what questions you have. But that's a little background about myself in a nutshell. No, that's, that's great. I feel like it's pretty unique, for sure. But out of all the companies that you had, and numerous of them that you have sold, were they all from the same sphere? Or were they from different industries? So great question and awesome, different spheres, and the company that currently have right now with UCS advisors and investor relations, and we're pretty much investor relations and networking experts. And we're here now and we're talking about real estate. Now we help a lot individuals. We work with about 600 people, both domestically and internationally. And we find them deals to look in to, to, to maybe get involved in invest in income advisory board in but to circling back to your question, the companies I've sold have been physical therapy centers, personal training centers, ply studios, a merchant services company, which I'm very frank about it, we literally paid X amount of dollars for it. We had it for less than nine months, and someone made an offer, we made a literally a 90% return, why not? So why not? We're like, okay, like, exactly, to a newsletter company, to a couple cannabis companies. So to really have that diversification is really unique in difference. And Julia, you kind of asked me, So what does it do though? Like I'm dying? And I understand that I understand the physical therapy part. Yes. Well, usually the big joke I get is, well, if I can't heal if my hands and I can get you high as a kite. But, um, but realistically, I'm an investor relations and networking expert. We pretty much do three main things. One, as I just said we were provided to individuals and we find them deal flow. Not a lot of people qualified to go to a a hedge fund or a venture capitalist. And there's a lot of great deals out there being involved in for less than even 100 grand, but where do you find those deals? Okay, so we really kind of help connect those people and find those people. Okay, the second thing we do is have you ever seen Shark Tank? No, of course. Okay. So, I have been an investor judge on many imitation shows like Shark Tank, but what we do is before You're going to Shark Tank. Those people that presenting tend to hire someone like myself. When you spend all this money if your lawyer, right, get your business plan your website. But now who actually teaches you how to present to investors, who teaches you how to give your, your whole speech, your whole pitch that might take a half hour down to five minutes? Who your teaches you actually how to fight with investors properly, and to actually figure out what's maybe wrong with your pitch. So you can use what we call the positive power of negative preparation. Who teaches you that you're not the business coach? It's not your lawyer. It's not your accountant. It's people like us. And that's what we do. We really go in, we help people take their idea or their pitch deck and be able to get to a point where people want to invest in it and get presented. We joke around a lot. Have you ever heard of LinkedIn? Yeah, okay, we're not on LinkedIn. Right? We joke around if you need less than$2.5 million, you can raise that on LinkedIn, if you know what you're doing. And if you even do it properly, raising money for yourself or for your company, it's not very difficult. And we've really mainly mainly focus in the cannabis industry, and in also the healthcare industry. Why health care? Well, my background, and a lot of medical professionals aren't very business savvy, but I know how to talk shop. I work a lot in medical people. Yeah. On the flip side, in the cannabis industry, about 56% of businesses owning cannabis are owned by first time business owners. Oh, has a very, very large number. What percentage 56 Wow, that's huge. Wow. But they don't know what they're doing. And then people say, Well, I can't raise money from my friends and family. How many of them fail? That's the question. 97% within five years? Wow. It's very, very hot. And it's kind of I mean, a lot of businesses fail. Like, if same thing. You look at real estate agents, what I think like two out of 10 Renew within first two years, that's already dropped out of 80%. Within first two years alone. I actually didn't know that. What's interesting with real estate. It's really been in the last year, especially here in New York, New Jersey area. We've actually had a lot more real estate investors reach out to us looking for other deals for them to get involved. Yeah, it's versifying, for sure. Well, it also too. It's nice to have you meet someone that's that's been in the cannabis industry for over a decade know. myself. I've been part of several state boards for cannabis, New Jersey, Nevada, Maine. And when during COVID people said oh my god, cannabis is here to stay and hate to say this, but during any pandemic or recession what as well, drugs and alcohol, yes. And people really started to see, wow, this is really here to stay for cannabis. And people just don't really realize how there's so much more opportunity just other than just owning real estate in it, or just by touching the plant a lot of ancillary services. But those are kind of the two aspects of what we do in the very last thing we do is being a former CEO of a publicly traded company, we also tend to work a lot at leadership's The one thing I laugh about is a lot of consultants, they're just a consultant, which means that they don't have real life experience in that industry. While an advisor, as per the Oxford Dictionary means you have real life experience. It's not too often you can talk to someone in a leadership role and say, hey, my company's going under, what do you do to save your company? Or, Hey, I'm dealing with backlash from my shareholders, how do you deal with that? It's, so it's very nice to be able to relate. So we do a lot of one to one coaching as well, too. And that's kind of what we do in a nutshell. That's pretty cool. What I'm just curious, like, cool, what's the size of the company that will hire you usually? And how will your fee be structured? Because I'm sure if somebody is looking to raise funds, especially in the early stages, like have some friends who are doing that, I don't know how much money they can afford to spend outside of their direct business. So how would your compensation work? Are you looking for equity down the line or So great question. He said a big smile on my face right now for all the listeners. I really really wish we had a video right now cuz I this is this is not a setup question because Nicolette has no idea what this answer is. And but this is where I love it. So as a serial entrepreneur, I know that every dollar counts. And as you start coming, you know that every dollar counts. So why should someone ask for equity right away? Because you don't know me? I don't know you. It's you know what, that's selfish, in my opinion, ask for equity right off the bat. On top of that, too, why would you pay an advisor consultant 10 or 15 $20,000 a month for something you may not like, right? Also, Let's call a spade a spade. The way I work might not be the best fit for you and maybe the way you work might not be the best fit for me. We still need to learn about one another right? Sure. So what we do is this, we actually charge 10 hour prepay service for $235 an hour, the hours are good for up to six months. any unused hours at the end of six months, we give you a refund. You don't like what we're doing and we're not the right fit after kababs Great, we'll give you a refund $2,300 is not going to make or break me. And to be quite frank, it shouldn't make or break you either. But now it's a nice starting point for us to get to know one another. And let's say you're working on your pitch. And it's like, hey, Nikolai, like you got to do these three things like Alright, Dr. David, I'm gonna need about three weeks. Well, now you know, you're not wasting your money, right? Let's circle back in three weeks and go over it. Yep, versus other consultants that charge a monthly fee a minimum of three months? No, we don't do that. i We know that every dollar counts, then when it comes to raising the capital, people realize a lot of type of money out there's peer to peer lending. We have a bunch of companies that qualify for up to$300,000 of unsecured debts, literally within a week to two weeks time. Alright, and then we tell them point blank, hey, if you need quick, 100 grand, that might be an opportunity for you. There's peer to peer lending, there's just a lot of opportunities. It's also structuring the deal that you might need. Because it's taken us a further nickel eyes that a lot of times people say well, I need a million dollars, but we break it down and it's like, well, you don't really need a million dollars, you need to do 50,000, next 60 days. And then within six months, you need another 500 grand. Okay, let's let's, let's re do your your pitch. And let's redo your executive summary to reflect that. And by the way, if you actually do this the right way. And we go through what we call your spheres of influence. And there's about 12 different spheres of influence, you have at least 30 people that will look at your information for you just like that. So to circle back, once again, we charge 235 prepaid 10 hours, if you want to talk to us for an hour or two, we charge 325. We make it very cost efficient. And my competitors hate the fact I offer a refund. My Refund is me for a year. And then people would take advantage of that almost. So my accounted for this year reluctantly, maybe make it down to six months, but he's like, listen, most people using the 10 hours in less than six months. But it's a way once again, for us to get to know one another if you still want to work together. Of course. Yeah. Makes sense. Actually, I want to take a pause and go back a little bit because my questions pop up randomly at times. So tell us a little bit more. So you went to medical school as some right? That's how you so I so I have a I have a a Bachelor's and Master's in two doctorates. Okay, well, thank you I am, I actually ironically, got my license to practice physical therapy a couple weeks before I turned 21. So I could have a leak. I couldn't drink legally, but I could see and I could do it with my hands. Go figure that one out. But um, so the the journey was ever since I was about 1516 years old, I want to become a physical therapist. I want to open my own physical therapy clinics, if I didn't have it open by the age of 30. As guy to fill it all together, do something else. Okay. And my goal says about 1516 was to be retired by the time I was 35. Well, that was back then maybe now it's more so financial freedoms like that. But I got my bachelor's Master's, start practicing as a therapist, and then had a company pay for my first doctorate. Then I became business partners in the age of 24. Someone and literally met someone for two hours at a restaurant and wrote them a check for 20 grand, everything you do wrong on how to like do business, someone I did wrong. And then I found that my business partner is talking crap behind my back and this and that. So then I'm starting a company at 26. And my first physical therapy clinic was 160 square foot room, which is it's real estate people you know, it's very small. Studio and that's hard to beat. But I was very blessed. It's six expansions and three and a half years. Then my small facility was 3500 Square feets what stayed with us in New Jersey, New Jersey, and in the Morris County area and then built other businesses from there. And then literally in 2009 2010, I was approached by a company, an online company asked me if I wanted to help build out their health and wellness sector, their website for people and for their pets, okay, because about 60% of Americans have a dog or cats. And the average person back then spends almost $10,000 a year on the dog or cat. Well, that number grew over the pandemic. Yeah, I have it. Okay. That means it's a huge number. So we were producing articles on health and wellness all way back in 2010 100 articles every day and we're covering the benefits of medical marijuana, covering the benefits of CBD for dogs as well too. And then from there, over a few cannabis testing lab facilities in Vegas, Denver Portland, Oregon. And then from there, that vaporizer company did a distribution company. And long story short, I always tell people, when you take your company public, you no longer run your company your board directors does. And I'm a great example of, as I tell people, they see what happened to Steve Jobs, part one, I inherited board members that didn't wants, they lost being chairman of my board, I inherited investors who I didn't want. And I lost five at my last six major board votes, but you're the CEO. So what does that mean? You progress smiley face, and you defend everyone's decision, even though and it got to a point, I'm talking about investors, it took me 63 private investors to raise my first $14 million. About 55, my 63 investors pretty much are like, Hey, you kind of getting screwed over we've made great money. If you go out on your own, we'll come follow you. And then you say survivors was was was born? And will be five years old. This June. Well, so thank you. Thank you. So is this coming? Number 13. So as I joke around 12 or 13 companies, I've always had investors for as the only one I actually have not had investor for this. So definitely a little bit different. I will say that. What's the long term vision with it? With this one specifically? And are you holding any other companies still or equities and other companies? So um, great question. I personally am invested in I want to say my shy person invests in six other private deals. Okay, that I guess that's the shark fin simulation, right? So actually just conferences, meeting people, some clients who start off as a 10 hour clients, and then as your idea, and they kept on formula like, hey, you know, what I actually want to buy in and I don't ask for equity for free, I'm actually very proud to say that, I want to say pretty much 95% Of all the deals I'm invested in, it's my own mind Scott into it, not, hey, give me equity off the bat like us in the beginning. Because I tell a lot people you should have to give away at the very beginning. Like you really shouldn't. Or if you do work out a contract, where you can buy it back with a set period of time at a set price. And if that person and this for all the listeners for gentle piece of advice. Someone says no, I don't want you to have the right to buy back the equity. Run away from that person. That means they're being selfish. You know what the fact is, you're giving them a great offer. And and people literally will hire us just to think outside the box for deals. But to go back and answer your question about the equity pieces, nope, our own capital and literally for this company. The my own personal goal by July 1 2024 is financial freedom. The goal for UCS advisors over the next five years is to really increase our, our seminars we offer, like an expat seminar we offer is March 19, in Boston. So we'll do more paid seminars, we want to really do a lot more public speaking, I personally do a lot more public speaking, my ultimate goal within the next five years is going to sound cheesy is I want at least 150 people in the audience. We're gonna come when we're gonna teach people, my mantra, which is always be willing to achieve your greatness. We all have greatness within us. He said to be willing to achieve it sounds like the Rolex advertisement, they think, right? Well, let's just call a spade a spade for a second in investor relations. What matter what industry, you're in only one out of every 300 deals get funded? I mean, you get a lot of nose. I mean, yeah, it is not. It's like people talk about it. When people come see me. Give a give a seminar lecture. I talk about PMA positive mental attitude. I make people stand up and put their hands in the air. And they go, Well, how do you do that? I go, because I just told you much negative statistics. And now you went from positive like, Oh, crap, man, I'm this is never gonna happen. Listen, you need that positivity. And as someone who's been shit on a lot, I mean, I've had horrible, horrible stories have happened against me. And just to keep fighting back. You know, you have to be tenacious yet. But the ultimate goal is for the next five years, when it's 150 people in the audience, come see me. I want an envelope on everyone's chair. Whether it's$100 bill in it and like everyone, thank you, here's a little something get back to you. Pay it for it. I love it. You know, that's because because that's what it's all it's all about paying it forward and in doing good business of other good people. We were talking before like, I'm very blessed. My my, my family's in Boston. But I'm, I'm the only one of one of four kids born and raised, you know, in the tri state area. Yeah. So as I joke around is I was raised the street smarts in New York, both the wholesome new values, my friends up north in New England like hey, you're really nice. But your little city here in the city if you're like, hey, you know you got let's see is but you actually really really nice guy around here. So the best of both worlds there. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well you mentioned something and I'll have to quote, you've been shit on a lot. Tell us what were the challenges what were the setbacks? I'm sure there were a lot Oh, so so far the listeners probably felt like, hey this guy's living the dream 13 companies No, no I, I have made money and I have lost money. And I'm very frank about it. So let's see it's 2022 so I will say as little as live in 2015 2016 and my car repossessed I was on food stamps when I had my puppy trade company so so I wrote down actually three things we talked about things to overcome, for every listeners that someone can relate to. The very first thing is I always tell people is trying to take care of your investors. When something happened one of my companies we were in very close almost five bankruptcy and we had six major debts all coming this and that and I was very fortunate to listen to some people that were in that position before and they said you can only have one or two options and they're both Hail Marys they're both you know, miracles. But if you really care about your shareholders and your investors you'll try it because then at the end the day in your heart if you know if you lose you lose but at least he gave it really you're all well too many people when it comes to other people's money the Minister is gonna start is give up. Oh, sorry, it's not my money, who cares? But no, it's not like that I take a medical approach towards business. And my goal is if I don't make you back your money or at least make money it eats me up because I'm a therapist I want I want to heal I want to help but long story short, something really bad isn't up to the company facing bankruptcy six debts and it works and I saved all our investors money and all investors that are making money. And that was more of you don't give you don't give up. And that was pretty much like sleeping for hours and nights if that for several months. The second biggest thing Rebecca's I always tell people to is that you really know who you who your tight circle is. Because unfortunately, social media and the way the press works, people read headlines, they don't actually don't read the articles, about five or six years ago, my name was including the headline, just guilty by association, not charged to this guilty by association. And that led people to talk to you, I don't want to visit with you. I don't want to like it took a long time and people realize wait, wait, okay, you know, you just read the headlines, you didn't really say anything. So it's amazing how many people were will literally just shun you. And those blacklist you just like that. And I always tell people to when it comes to your social media, and you're actually marketing yourself is you got more than one account if you want, like have that tight group of just your friends or contacts. Every November, I'm 30 days of thanks. And I think someone every single day in my life for every day in November. And I feel blessed that, hey, at least 30 people I can rely on if you call, like not everyone could do that. So you know build up. And the very last thing is if you really like your business, your idea, you're going to find out a way like when I was running my publicly traded company that the new investors we inherited didn't believe I'm paying a board members any money. So here I am running a multi million dollar company in cannabis and I'm getting paid $0.00 no health insurance, the investor decided to try to get more of a string long company not to pay the employees in my other testing labs. So it was literally here I am going on the news talking about pressures it's talking about my company and a little people now I was working 6065 hours a week at a long term care facility and sub acute facility teaching stroke victims how to walk again, tie their shoes again get off a toilet again. You know, I joked around with an investor who was a close friend and he's like what are you doing right now I'm like actually just got done weapon a grown man's ass because you know what he crapped? His pants will walk in. He's like, what? And so I was busting my ass literally for almost two and a half years. Because even then, I was trying to make enough money to pay my own bills. But then I should make more money to put into the company to pay employees. Because my investors like now until I get a better deal. You know, don't worry, I'm good for it doesn't work that way. So, you know, I got a whole bunch of unique, interesting stories, but those are like the top three where I tell people one at the other day. Always fight for your investors. You know, you got to at least give it a whirl. Secondly, speaking is that you know what? Talk if you've read something in the headline, talk to the person directly find out exactly what's going on. And the last thing is to is if you really believe in your business, you're gonna go the extra mile and you're gonna work your ass off. So as much as people hear about the business This is and this and that. I mean, it's it was a struggle, like, you know, you don't tell people hey, you know, you know, I can't make the event up because my cargo repo don't tell people that's like, Oh, my car's in the shop. Yeah, sorry, I can't make it. So, but but looking back now, it's actually nice of you to share that it's not always, you know, sunshine and rainbows and that you have to go through some setbacks to potentially end up where you do end up and to learn the lessons. And I, I fully agree with you on that. It's my father. I mean, he was a hard ass on me. Very, very hard. But it's a blessing disguise, like, you know, and it makes you work hard and makes you appreciate it. People always ask me, and I talk a lot more now. But I was born with severe verbal apraxia, which is a speech impediment where you're born with a lack of muscular development in your mouth. So I used to only be able to hum words, and I went to a speech therapist, I was 23 years old. Wow. So when you hear me talk, if you notice, I'll use very simple words, with less than three syllables. When I get sad, I'll say dude. Yeah, so it's Yeah, I mean, I talk about more now, because I do a lot of public speaking. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's I also tell people to, to my niece and nephew, what's one of the biggest skill set that we lack here in America, we lack conversation, we lack communication, it takes more than two emails, or one to two text messages, pick up the phone and call. People literally hire us for hourly services just to talk to their investors and show us for them. Yeah, cuz they don't want to talk to them. They want to deal with more this. There's not very articulate. There's so much people like when we advertise Before, we used to advertise only, here's an option to call us. Here's an option to email us. We had to pivot like we're offering people like to text us to scan a QR code like to whatever the people feel more comfortable with. But more and more people I feel like especially younger generation, they're going more into English text. Oh, exactly. Now, what's really interesting is, when I go to this Canvas conference, especially 2021, they had a lot crypto talk as well, too. And they had this these these amazing speakers and basically just invested in a deal called weak row data, which is a blockchain for cannabis. And they actually have one of the one of the big wigs, one of the original big was of Android with Android involvement as well, too. That's an example by the way of a deal that was not shopped around, but we as new through people in the industry. And it's a deal that was literally on the market for less than two weeks. So unless like you like this is where it comes down to like the hedge fund people, the real estate people where people will be in contact with us. And that's why I was over 600 people now that, hey, this is what I'm looking forward to the opportunity to someone come across your plate, let us know. Because the really good deals don't get out to the regular people. They do. Same thing. Yeah, exactly. Like I just started something about like a blue chip art drop that like goes out to like the top 10 buyers in the world or something like that. And there's a deal that came out and I joked around with this, this hedge fund guy, he's like, Oh, how was the deal available? I'll go get 48 hours left. He's like, get Dude, seriously. I'm like, No, and he missed on the deal. And the deal going up and everyone made about 750 percents in about nine months. Wow. And he's like, so you want to tell it was like 48 hours? Exactly. So So what happened in 2015? Or 2016? You mentioned that like, I mean, you sold your practice in 2011. I'm sure you made great money. Oh, no. 2013 I sold it. 2013 Oh, no, if you don't have that stuff going sideways. Well tell us more. So Hurricane Sandy hurt me dramatically. The gouffre like Hurricane Irene. We made we got it, which happened a year before Hurricane Sandy insurance took care of stuff noggin the politics but Obama really changed the rules and regulations for federal funding. Okay, that affected us out here. Also to have statistically speaking, back then, by the time we get federal funding here in New York, New Jersey, from that prison administration, it was the longest time it ever took in almost 80 years to get money from the government for natural disaster. So I mean, we I like still to this day, people forget in Morris County, New Jersey, estimate 20 20% business have never reopened at Sandy. Like it's I had no idea. Yeah, people Yeah. Like I had three physical therapy clinics. And we had I'll never forget we were in a dead end road. A telephone pole down you call everyday the power back and was very honest. Like you're the only company that's complained on that road. We'll get to we get to we need at least 9% of the occupants on the road to complain before we even consider we have too much other work to do. Yeah, I mean, it was I mean, my might when I went facility that we didn't get power back for seven weeks, like people don't realize so anyway, that made our valuation of the company go down. Then on top of that to the people that we sold the company to decide to renege on half the payment to us. So we spent two years in legal record. Yep. And then when they actually when the court got settled, they kind of pulled a fast one. And we end up getting nothing. Pretty much with Jean fees out. Yeah. So I mean, we do we make some money. Yes. With the way the Affordable Health Care Act was going to work, we made sure we had to solve by the 25th by by the end of 2013. No matter what, to see how many friends of mine in the industry went out of business or sold for less than 10 cents on the dollar. A few years later. Listen, I made some money. I took that money. I reinvested it all bills and reinvest into other companies. I mean, and my cannabis company, I'm very Frank Wells too early to the table. I mean, I lost seven figures. I'm very frank about it. Like we were so early. I mean, I was do get involved in cannabis in several states and from 2010 to 2016. I mean, we were very early to the market. Because when you mentioned kind of the rock bottom was in 2016. Yeah. So what happened was that in a nutshell, we went about 300% over budget for a few of our facilities. We did a few deals with investors, which I did not want. Last board vote, just plain and simple. And it just, they had our closets. And it was one of these things where I had so many friends, family investors who believed in me not to come and believed in me because people forget when you're investing, especially these private equity deals. It's it's either you know, someone or you know, someone very close the deal. Yeah, the business is good, but like you're really investing in the person or the manager team. And I people that invested in me, and just I couldn't I stayed on as long as I could, you know, and it was really when it got to the point where I mean, that's all my investors I'll never forget. I used to I still drink giant Walker black. And I have a client in the West Coast who would send me a bottle of Johnnie Walker black called happy juice. And he would slip in $200 bills in there. So I could buy groceries put gas in my car. Oh, yeah. Like it's you know, you have people like the local dive bar across the street to like Dr. David, we haven't seen you and I'm six foot 32235 pounds by took six years of dance lessons. I know how to dance. I like to dance. Like the local divers shoots like a wooden senior. I'm like, I have no money to go out. And do like what I'm like, yeah, like, like a $5 in my pocket. Don't like, okay, great. Give us $2 and drink 100 hours on us tonight. Like, just come on out and just enjoy. Like, you really got to see who was really there for you. And you don't you know, you appreciate that. And also too, we have a good heart, and you have in your in your genuine. The one thing about taking the company public, you got to realize how many very equivalently how many assholes are out there? How many jerks how we go to just enough for themselves? And I really try not to do business with a set of people. Makes sense. So despite what happened, what happened through this business back in 2013 16. You didn't get discouraged. Obviously, you realize you were early in the game. I mean, you're still in it now that the times have changed. What would you say? Looking back at all of your business spectrum, not just cannabis, not just physical therapy, out of everything, what would you say? You consider your biggest achievement. I have to I have to them very, very proud of Okay. In 2010, my physical therapy clinics, it took us nine months to apply for this award. And it was such a pain in the butt to do it. But we want it and we won the Alfred Sloan Business Excellence Business Excellence Award for workplace flexibility, meaning pretty much my small business was voted on the top 10% of small businesses to work for in America. I gave all my employees the ability for profit sharing quarterly bonuses, unlimited paid vacation time, which people just couldn't understand that concept. But I'm like it's actually a very easy concept if you like where you work, I wanted more. So winning that award to see and at that time I mean heck hours Yes. 30 years old. So be a 30 year old business owner running several physical therapy clinics and Tim went on board like that. Like hey, like it's so many human resource people like you can't do this. You can't I'm like why nots? And and my second proudest is I've hired over 300 people, and I've done over in those people. Me personally hiring them. When I interview people always ask what their goals are. What's your one year goal? Three year five year goal? Do you want to be a business owner one day, but I'm very proud that 11 of my former employees all in own companies. So that's like that's like, those are the two things I'm most proud of like, taking a human resource idea, and it works. And to see just former employees of yours, when you interviewed with them to like, my goal was, you know, my own business or who this and that within, and you see them help them achieve that. That's, that's cool. I definitely like that. For sure. That's a very, I would say you should be proud of that those two achievements. I'm sure you have more, but thanks for sharing with you. And there was it's when it comes to chill. It's never about me. It's it's what have you done for other people? Like to see like, someone else's idea and dream and vision come true? Yeah. So who would be your ideal clients that are moving forward with all the experience that you have with your? Will they call it the fun? Like, how are they? So so no, so So we're advisors? Yeah. All right. Technically speaking, we're investor relations experts. So pretty much our ideal client really is twofold. The first off, if you are someone who as I say that the average middle class American, or that person has some extra capital, if you're looking for something, a unique opportunity, whether it's public or private, that's really more so in the cannabis industry, or healthcare industry. That's a great referral for us. Because there's a lot of great deals out there that people just don't realize. And we've had more and more people contact us saying, Hey, I don't want to invest a million dollars into something. But I'd love to invest 100 grand into something here or, you know, 50 grand over there, do you have anything good or unique? You know, because they want to hedge their bets. And you know, do you mean 800%, eight to 10 times, multiple, three, four years, that's great. And then second thing is really people that are in the process of trying to raise capital, if you have not raised the capital you need within six months, nine times out of 10, you're doing something wrong. We come in, we're very cost effective. Set, it's 2300 bucks for 10 hours. And you know, you know, let's say after an hour, you hate us free, we'll say we'll give you back the other nine hours. But at the end of day, when it comes to actually presenting the material, talk to someone on the phone, how to actually find investors to actually how to get the right feedback. Those are great referrals for us. And that's pretty much industry agnostic. When you say for us, and we, is there more partners, or is there more employees behind you as well? Sure. So I always say we are us, because I'm not a one man team. There's no way to do everything by myself. But my team, are people who do not like being out front. They don't like doing interviews. Um, yeah, pretty much. But the other thing is to know, I have seven people that that helped me out. And what I do for these people is they have some great opportunities also elsewhere where you know, what they're not needed on a full time basis. I only have really one full time employee that assists me on things. And that's for a different aspect of our company, and that we have a lot of part time people that make sense. So you kind of well, thanks for sharing. I mean, I think as far as your ideal clients, currently, I think we have both groups in among our listeners and among our sphere, to people who are open to that who can, of course will share your information they can reach out, and people who are who own businesses who want to raise capital, they should keep your information as well. As far as the future when in 2000, to 2022, where do you see yourself in 2032 Besides getting speech to 150 people? So the first answer is gonna sound morbid, to be healthy and to be alive. Just my family, we tend to die by the age of 65. But yeah, in general, as someone who's had three reconstructive knee surgeries, reconstructive hand surgery, I just wanted the healthy, active, I want to be able to surf still, I want to be able to walk, which sounds cheesy, but I tell people all the time, you know, when you can't walk and you spend some of your high school in a wheelchair, like just when you appreciate walk and a lot more than you realize, um, and really, in terms of business wise and 22,032. To really um, I'm going to give a short take analogy, just because I've worked with Daymond John's Shark Tank guy, he actually went to the same high school as me, but I'm older than him. But to be able to be active in a bunch of small businesses, and have that advisor role to help them achieve their dreams. I'm like I said, when we started this interview, I said, hey, when I was 1516 My goal is to a physical therapist, know my Open Beta 30. My business mentor, and still stays one of my best friends. I achieved everyone achieve the industry by the time I was 32 I'm lucky I am blessed. I have achieved my career dreams. I joke around like, Hey, I'm not married, I don't have kids. But if I ever get married, and my wife wants to do her own business, I will do everything my power to support because I've lived my career dream. Everything else now is just icing on the cake. And that's kind of where I see myself in 2032. That's amazing. i That's very sweet and very nice. And I'm sure health wise will be there when you're very young. weight by 65. Yeah, I did see No, I am 42. Now. So Oh, you look, you look amazing. I moisturize. Moisturize? Well, thanks for sharing your, you know, vision of where you want to be in 10 years from now. Looking back now, and having shared what you shared about the setbacks you had and the difficult times that you went through, clearly you didn't give up. You just kept you got up, you dusted yourself off, and you kept going. How can others do it? How? What advice would you give to other people who may be going through the same thing in different industries in different businesses? What would be that one or three pieces of advice that you could give them to not give up? So the very first thing is I tell people this with meditation, journaling, whatever I draw, I've been journaling since I was a teenager. I've been journaling since Yeah. Before it became Yes, exactly. Because at the end of the day, and I'm the youngest of four kids, and there's a 13 and a half year difference between me and the oldest. And maybe it's my fault. My two older sisters being like, Hey, I know they kept diaries, like, Hey, you go through something, just just write it out. And just the way the human body works and research shows is literally reading on an actual piece of paper and a pen. You noticed it helps release it. The second the second thing I tell people is this also is that you need to listen to yours, one mouth, use them proportionately. But when you listen, listen to someone who's been through it, what you're going through. I see way too many people that get bad advice. And I'm not saying it's for your parents, or your friends or your loved ones, just have they been in your shoes before have they? Have they been through that struggle? Or have they been a business owner, like, I was taught by my business mentor back in my early 20s. It's okay, take advice. But just remember who's giving you the advice. And when you actually break down the word advice, you're adding a vise and actual advice, you gotta be careful who you're taking it from, oh, don't even get me started on that. I feel like there's so much bad advice, especially on social media. There is. There's somebody who's never experienced it, but they feel like they can coach and teach. And they're just given that advice. And they're doing like, I don't know, rental success. They're renting a car showing this and that it's like, drives me crazy. Like I really get annoyed with. Exactly, exactly I mean a it drives me nuts and, and a few of my friends like and you know, they bust my chops, but I want buddy cause like the five by three model which is this is always did I think was that big of a deal. But when you go through really, really rough time, and you're struggling and listen, have you ever gone through depression unimaginable or like unofficially diagnosed maybe, you know cuz that but there are days where I didn't want to go to bed. I mean, there are days where I'm like, Man, I wake up it was this is this is gonna be phone calls of creditors and people just mad and angry at me. But something I do is every week, I set myself five mini goals for the week. This mini goals like just to keep things in perspective. And every day, I say three things I'm grateful for. And every time three opportunities. I'm a big whiteboard guy, I have like four whiteboards in my apartment. There's a whiteboard, right on my kitchen island. Every day, literally, within the first time I wake up, I've written on the whiteboard, three things I'm grateful for today. I thought Hayden Hayden was one thing I was waiting for today. Because I'm grateful for this podcast, y'all didn't have to do this day in tears. One of the things that I'm grateful for today. I'm thankful to be on your whiteboard today. But small, like and write down three opportunities. And one thing, which should be really, really long time to learn as an entrepreneur is that every single day, we're surrounded by opportunities, we just don't realize it. When those three opportunities, you know, and write them down like and that's a big thing. I tell people, you know, great raise $5 million. But if you can't do that, just every day, write down three things you're grateful for, and three opportunities, no matter how crappy your days going. It just puts things in perspective. Yeah. And it can be big or small. I agree with you actually, I think quite often in regards to like small things that you can be grateful for that we're walking, we're talking because again, like there are people who don't have that opportunity, and they would give up a lot just to have that opportunity. And even if you're about to our time, but you know, I don't want Like during COVID, like people like hey, would you during COVID I'm like, I was busy trying to help you just doing everything I could. But what's the one thing we also like to get started to get mail? So I literally wrote out about 120. And change I think was 128 cards, everyone the back of each card, the letter of positivity. And what I've learned is read like, hey, you know, hopefully your family's safe. I know what, what's going on in the world right now. I saw this poem, Scott poem of hope. And instead of texting it to you, I want to actually give it to you in a letter of positivity. I literally printed out the smaller poem, cut it out, and hand wrote literally 120 cards, and people are like, lie. I'm like, You know what, you may not need my help right now. But we all go through different things. So you never know how you also help someone else as well, too. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I mean, this is a really, in a very inspiring story. And your journey is just amazing. And I wish you the best of luck going forward. Thanks for sharing your advice. I mean, just to sum it up for anyone who may be going through some tough times, or through some setbacks, David's secret is to journal to write down your approach to write down opportunities and practice gratitude every day. And to find someone to talk to someone who has gone or maybe is going through the same thing that you are someone who has experienced in it and ask them questions and learn from them learn from other people's mistakes, rather than making your own. So these are some lessons for myself as well to learn. So thank you for sharing that. And I'll teach you a little secret. If you're really looking for someone to kind of help you out and talk to in kind of them a few times. It here's a little trick. offer them a breakfast meal, or like lunch or something. You will be amazed. Oh, you're a mess. We won't do that. But you'd be amazed how many times people want to talk to me like, hey, I'll come to your town. And we'll do lunch on me. And I'm like, great. But we joke around our industry. Yeah. Investor Relations, the word free. only gets you so far. Yeah, no, I agree. And I was listening to a podcast, those guys, they do a lot of stuff in real estate. It's called Bigger, bigger pockets. And one of the things they mentioned, like people are saying, like, Hey, can I like, take you out for a coffee and people are like for a coffee. So you like value in my time only for like, three, four or $5 for that half an hour. But on the contrary, when people approach you and say like, Hey, let me take you out. I know, you know a lot more than I do. I'll pay for your lunch, and I'll give you 500 bucks. Most people will say, Don't give me money. Yeah, but you can take me for a lunch and we'll have a discussion. So I feel like just valuing people's time is awesome as well. But this was great. Thanks so much. And for anybody who is listening, we'll put David's information in the description. And at the same time, if you're looking to raise funds, or if you're maybe looking to invest some stuff, David is a great resource to reach out and chat. And as you see, he was very vocal in the podcast and we loved it. And I'm sure he'll give you a good advice as well. Thank you for coming by. Thank you for having me today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, guys.