[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Caving in to Crushing it, the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: Gentlemen, welcome to Men's Supporting Men Collaboration Tribe. And I think this is going to be a great, great show today. And, you know, without further ado, I will let Joe introduce himself, and after he does, I'll start out with the first question. So, Joe, welcome, my friend. Please let the audience know as much as you want us to know about you.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Sure. What's up, everyone? I'm Joe Rivera. Companies with Joe Rivera. I am a Transformation resilience coach and keynote speaker. I empower business owners and entrepreneurs from hitting a wall of exhaustion, lacking direction, by creating a simple roadmap to achieve ultimate fulfillment. Reforge their lives so they can build their dream life.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: Powerful stuff, man.
Absolutely. So I'm sure that there's a story that led you to where you are now, unless you woke up, you know, when you were born and went right. Wanted to go right into this. I am sure you have a compelling story to tell. Would you care to share some of it with us? What brought you where you are now?
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, you hit it on the money. God made me like this.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Now. Yes. Listen. I went from Park Avenue to Park Bench. I was emotionally, financially, and spiritually bankrupt. I lost everything. I even almost lost my life, my dream job in the financial industry as a stockbroker. When I was 25 years old, I thought I was on top of the world, man.
You know, I was traveling the world.
I had the world. I thought I had the world by the power in the palm of my hands, you know? But I ended up losing everything. And I was emotionally, financially, and spiritually bankrupt, like I said. And I was working one night at the. At the office and someone approached me and they said to me, hey, Joe, you think you're a top producer now? Take this little round pill and you're gonna produce even more. I was already smoking weed, drinking, having some kind of mood altering substance in my body every single day for the past 10 years at this point.
So I said, talk it. Why not? And that's when I got introduced to opiates. And that's when my battle with substance abuse really took off to the next level. My life went dark and became completely unmanageable. I was risking my life every single day.
I opened those twice, man. The last time, it took six cans of Narcan to bring Me back to life. Six fucking cans of Narcan.
That same night, I'm like, I'm laying in the hospital bed. I remember waking up. I pulled the EKG electrodes off my body. I left the hospital against medical advice.
When I got outside, I'm shivering because the opiates are gone from my system, right? I'm shivering, looking like a fucking crackhead, like Pookie from New Jack City. I'm sure most of us see New Jack City, all right? And the first thing I do is I go call the dealer to go get high again.
I mean, talk about feeling powerless over drugs and alcohol and. And then came a weekend that changed my life. You know, that's what made me hit my rock bottom, you know, And I attended an event with my sister.
And at that event, something clicked, man. You know, and I looked at my sister, she looked at me, and we both started crying. She knew exactly what I was gonna say. And then the words came out. The words her and my family were waiting to hear for years.
I said, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm a shell of my true self. I was tired of writing my obituary. I wanted to begin creating a legacy, you know, and. And that's when I decided to. To get clean and sober and, you know, alone. I was born and raised Catholic, but along the way, I completely lost my way. You know, I didn't even know what a relationship with God was. I thought it was just saying our Father Hail Mary and asking for forgiveness and, and, and after being spiritually bankrupt, I was able to build not only back my. My a seven figure business again and start another multi million dollar business, but I was able to really build wealth financially, emotionally and spiritually where today my relationship with God is. You know, he's my father, my best friend, my mother, my brother, my uncle, my every. And when I put that spirituality first, I mean, everything else just follows in pursuit. And, you know, building this, building the, the business, it wasn't. It wasn't fulfilling enough. That wasn't what I. That wasn't who I was. It wasn't what my purpose was. God kept pushing at me and nudging at me and telling me that my journey wasn't complete, that I had a bigger purpose in life. And that's when I decided to build my reforge academy platform and my coaching business. And wow. I mean, God is good. I mean, God's amazing because he was so on point because there's no drug, no alcohol will ever give me that euphoric feeling. That I get when I'm able to empower someone to transform their life.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: Joe, this is very compelling and there's a lot to unpack here. I, I think it's probably safe to say that God was around probably your whole life. So if you can reach back as far as you can remember, you mentioned that you had already been doing some kind of drug for 10 years. And so that's probably around 14, 15 years old. If you can reach back to those early years and let us know where you were emotionally and role models, mentors, that allowed you to steer away from God and more into the other area.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: I think that it was, you know, I started experimenting with drugs at an early age, you know, from high school. I did my first line of cocaine at 16, 17 years old, man.
And I barely got through high school, like through the skin of my teeth, you know, And I didn't even graduate with my class down the aisle. I had to wait till September to get my diploma.
And college, same thing. Messed around in college, didn't, didn't take it serious. I think I went to like three classes in a semester and a half, you know, but when I, when I, when I was in college, I ended up at 19 years old. I was at Briarcliffe. And when I got to Briarcliffe, the parking lot was. Briarcliffe was in Bethpage at this time. I don't know if it's still there, but it was in Bethpage. And when I get there, the parking lot is filled with fancy cars. I mean, all high end cars. And I'm like, wow, what's going on here? These kids are selling drugs or their parents are buying them cars. How else are they affording it? So I go up to the security guard and I ask him and he says, why don't you go upstairs to the third floor? Have you ever been up there? I said, no. What's up? He said, go check it out. So I get upstairs, the elevated door opens and it's a bunch of guys walking around in ten thousand dollar suits, twenty thousand dollar watches on their wrist, beautiful women in each corner of the office as assistants. And I said, what the fuck is going on here, man? I got to get involved. And some guy comes up to me. I asked him, I said, what's the deal here? I mean, how can I get involved? He said, he said, we're a brokerage firm. And I said, really? I said, do I have to finish college to come on board? He's like, no, all you got to do is pass your Series 7. I said, sign me up and I went to go take my series seven. And little did I know that Wall street was drug street. So I think that the answer to that question in a nutshell is the fast life became my higher power and became, you know, my chase. You know, I don't think I've ever lost God in my life. I think of it like the footprint prayer. Like he was always there the whole time guided me. I mean, I wonder how many times I drove home and got home. I have no idea how overdose twice. I mean, technically I'm not supposed to be here. Every day I wake up, I defy the odds. That's a true blessing, you know, and I don't take advantage of that. I take that and that's what keeps me going.
That's why I know I have to give this gift back.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: Do you think that it was more of a curiosity for the fast paced life at that young an age like 14, 15, or was it potentially difficulty on the self confidence piece?
[00:09:32] Speaker A: No, I think it was just more of experimenting at the early age. When I was young, 14, 15, hanging out, smoking weed and drinking. It was just, I won't even, I won't even chalk it up to the wrong crowd, you know what I mean? I just chalk it up to. I just was curious about things and I got curious about the wrong shit. You know, I wasn't like, I didn't have a tough upbringing. My mother was amazing.
You know, she played my mother and my father. Losing my mom later on in life really made things go out of control. But that at 14, 15, I was, I was just really experimenting and curious.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Tell us about a little about your relationship with mom.
What I've learned from you is she was really your role model in life.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah, she was my best friend, man. She was my everything, you know, we did everything together, you know, like she was literally like. I mean, I lived in Suffolk County, Long Island. My mom lived in Nassau years after I moved out. And I would go see her almost every day, you know, definitely talk to her on the phone every day.
And you know, we had a really, really, really good relationship.
[00:10:50] Speaker C: What do you think the biggest life lesson you learned from mom?
[00:10:59] Speaker A: My mom would always tell me that I could do anything I want.
Anything I put my, anything I put my head, my mind on should say, you could do anything you want in this world. Anything you put your mind so you could accomplish it. And you know, when I was younger, I never really understood that. I always was like, ah, it's just, you know, it's just bullshit. Let's just talk. You know, that's just you being my mom or whatever it may be, trying to, you know, keep my confidence up. But, I mean, after this journey, I know exactly what she meant.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: Yep. Yeah.
Your mindset. I'm inspired by you, because you really can. Anytime that you put your mind to something, you've been able to overcome a lot.
If you were to speak to the young Joe right now, what would be the life lesson you would give to him?
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Invest your money into yourself and your business and stay away from the drugs and alcohol. You know, I mean, drugs and alcohol almost cost me my life and also cost me probably tens of millions of dollars, you know, that I could have made over that time frame. And, you know, because most of us, you know, a lot of people struggle with vices, you know, that create character defects. Mine was drugs and alcohol. Someone else could be gambling, sex shopping, overeating. I mean, there's multiple devices that we struggle with that could that create those character defects, that life becomes unmanageable, that you lack direction. And, you know, clarity is so, so important towards success. You know, having clarity on your targets, having clarity just. Just on. On, on, on having a clear vision of what you want. And when you start putting vices in there, it fogs that clarity. It makes it unclear of what that vision is going to look like.
And I lived that foggy life for so many years. Yeah, I made a lot of money. But money doesn't fulfill you, you know, that. It's not completely fulfilled. It's not. It doesn't make everything. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, it makes life easier. You get to do a lot of things, but you. You got to have fulfillment all around, you know, emotionally, physically, spiritually, you know, and so I think that that would be the advice because. And it's tough, Drew, because, you know, people ask me that and I damn, would I change my past?
I don't think I would, because it's what makes me who I am, you know, it's what gives me this gift to be able to give it back. So, you know, God. God doesn't give us anything that we can't handle. So maybe my calling was to overcome drugs and alcohol so that I could be. See how strong I am and see how resilient I am and see, you know, the path that I took to be able to overcome that adversity and. And put things on a bigger spectrum and take it to the next level. You know, if I didn't struggle with drugs and alcohol, maybe I wouldn't have had that. I don't know.
[00:14:28] Speaker C: You know, that's a great point. Great point, Joe, because, you know, I often talk about trying to eliminate regret from our lives because regret can give us nothing but negative things, especially depression. And if we can forgive ourselves for whatever past transgressions we did, then regret's gone and you can start living your life in the moment with gratitude. And it seems like you have done that. I've heard you talk about gratitude tremendously.
In addition to God.
What are you grateful for right now that you've been able to give to other people, not necessarily clients, but your inspirational talk when you're speaking publicly.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Grateful for my experience, to be able to give that back.
I'm grateful for my core values and really being able to uncover those core values and know how important family is, how important relationships are, how important integrity is, how important communication is.
You know, gratitude, yeah, plays a huge part in my life, man. I wake up every day and. And I have a moment of gratitude. And it started off as a minute to three minutes. And now today, there's days where it's 45 minutes to an hour long, you know, through my prayer meditation, because I got so much to be thankful for, you know, and to be able to. To share those experiences, you know, a morning routine, perfect example, right? I'm grateful for having that morning routine and being able to create a vision, you know, and also have an action plan in place, you know, I'm grateful for all of that, you know, But I put God first because without God, none of this exists for me. And, you know, some people, I call it God, some people call it the universe. Some call it the infinite intelligence. Some people call it, you know, whatever it is they want. Have a higher power as the tree outside. Whatever it is, man.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Just make sure that you have something that you know is greater than yourself that is going to help you create that path.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Well, I do want to talk about God. And when that defining moment when your sister brought you to that. I don't know if we call it an intervention, but that. That experience that changed you. Can you fill us in a little more?
As if we're there and as if you're there again. What do you think it was? Was it something somebody said or the feeling or looking at your sister, knowing how much she cared? What was it, do you think, that put you on this path and changed the trajectory of your life?
[00:17:19] Speaker A: I get asked this question a few times, and it sucks that the answer is what it is. But I was so fucked up at that time, you know, like, I don't remember the exact coincidence of what it was that gave me that aha moment. I believe it was a speaker on stage, because I do know that it was after the event. We're on our way home and were having conversations about the event. And I then at that point, I looked at her and she saw, like, the water in my eyes. She saw tears getting ready to develop. And then she started crying. And, you know, we're both looking like, you know, we're both crying on the fucking train ride home from Jersey, you know, and that's when I said it, you know, and that's when those words came out. That Aaron family, my family, they were waiting to hear for that for over a decade, man.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: Yeah. At that paradigm, you had a paradigm shift at that point. And in reading about paradigms, I mean, to have a mindset shift like that, you have to be willing and able. You got to be both. And I'm sure there were times in your life you were willing and not able and vice versa. Like when you pulled the electrodes, you know, everything off your body in a hospital, you, you weren't willing. And this case, when your sister brought you there, you were willing and able to make a change. You opened yourself up to, to be able to do that. And a lot of times we have to be able to open to receive, you know, and you were there. Last question. I'll have. And I'll open it up to the, the guys in the audience. Tell us a little about one of your biggest successes for your clients in your Reforge Academy.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: One of my biggest successes just came recently.
I had a client who, because of this whole debacle that's going on around the world and the constant change that we're seeing, you know, they, they ended up going from making $5 million a year, and they ended up making less than a million dollars a year in about a year and a half's time frame. So that drastic change in their life really broke them spiritually, emotionally.
They, they, they couldn't find ways to, to love themselves and love the people around them.
So they had to learn to love themselves again and learn to be able to build themselves back up from scratch, you know, and be able to go. So we went through that, my three pillar system, which is perseverance, growth and spirituality. And, you know, now that this year they're back on target to make it over $3 million, so.
And more importantly, they gain clarity on building a relationship with a higher Power. And they feel that now they're living in their purpose. Because that's what the whole spirituality concept is. It's not about religion. It's about spirituality and being able to live in your purpose and find what that purpose is, you know?
[00:20:39] Speaker C: Right. It's very inspiring, Joe. Absolutely. Before I go to the audience for questions, Joe, is there anything else in closing you'd like the audience to know?
[00:20:50] Speaker A: I mean, ask away. I'm here to answer whatever questions and, you know, close it out.
[00:20:57] Speaker C: Gentlemen, any questions? Comments for Joe?
[00:21:04] Speaker D: Joe, first of all, I commend you.
It's a tough road to come back from, and yeah, you can label it whatever you want, but it sounds to me like you found something to send to you, to anchor you and to keep you on the. On the path. So good for you, man. We will have to talk one day because I'm an old Wall Streeter and I got a feeling that we.
We traveled through some of the same decades together, probably.
Well, I don't mind saying, I mean, the industry was a whole lot different in the 80s and the 90s than it is today.
Yeah, it's. Thank God. But good for you. And you're on LinkedIn, correct?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Yes, I am. I like the.
[00:22:00] Speaker D: I'd like to connect with you and, you know, keep an eye on your posts and stuff and share them because every one of us has got a story.
Yeah, it doesn't matter who's is bigger or worse to everyone. It's. It's pretty rough. So good for you, man. Congrats.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:22:24] Speaker C: Anybody else like to mention something?
[00:22:28] Speaker E: Yeah. I just want to say thank you for sharing that story, for your candor.
Thank God you're still with us.
That's a beautiful thing, man, because I know you're spreading a lot of light and positivity and love into people's lives.
You don't come back from something like that without a purpose. And I know God definitely has a plan for you. So it's awesome to meet you and thank you again for sharing.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Thanks, man. I appreciate that.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: So, Joe, if people want to reach you and learn more about the reforged Academy, tell us how we can reach you.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, listen, you could go to reforgeacademy.com first off, there's a schedule. A call breaks down the Academy. You know who it's for? What? It's not for what it consists of.
You can find me on Instagram. Also, wjoevara.
I'm on LinkedIn with Joe Rivera and my emails. Joeithjoerevera.com.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Wonderful. Joe, I recommend you highly. A, you're a good. You're a wonderful human being. B, you offer something very important to the community.
See, you're unique, man. You totally stand apart from your competition. So I thank you for being here. Absolutely.
Gentlemen, it's your turn. You each get. I'll give you 45 seconds to tell the audience who you are. And I'd like you tell them what you, you know, your company, what you do for a living, and really what you feel your purpose on this earth is, what makes you get out of business bed every morning. And we'll start with Scott and then go.
[00:24:16] Speaker F: Hey, Drew, before we. If you don't mind. Before we do that, I just wanted to ask Jill real quick who should reach out. Do you have, like, a certain.
Certain type of folks that. That you. That you're working with at Reforge and everything?
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Yeah, so I deal with entrepreneurs, business owners. I deal with people in the financial industry, people in real estate. Usually ages 35 to 60 is usually the sweet spot of the age, that of the type of avatar.
Yeah, I mean, that's. That's kind of the gist of it.
People that people think things they would struggle with is, you know, lack of direction, overcoming adversity.
Life may become unmanageable if dealing with. With exhaustion.
[00:25:21] Speaker F: Gotcha.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Someone that's just looking to really reforge their life and kind of build their dream life.
[00:25:30] Speaker C: Thanks, Joe. Good question, Jason.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Thanks, Jay.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: So, Scott, who you are, what you do, and your purpose in life.
[00:25:37] Speaker D: My friend Scott Lask. I'm the founder and chief investment officer of the Wealth Management Group. We're a private, independent financial advisor. And my mission is to basically take away the overwhelm of all the information, the anxiety, the worry, the complexity of how do you put together a plan, what stages of the plan you know, there are, and how do you lock it down? Okay. So that you don't have to worry about running out of money. That's the real deal. And one of the things we love to tease people with is, you know, there are three things Wall street really doesn't want you to know. And when you find those three things out, it's a game changer.
But I really think my purpose, besides running a financial practice that, you know, at the risk, Joe, of sounding, you know, a little cocky. Yeah, we're losing money this year. Who isn't?
But nowhere near the averages. And that's because I had a financial blow up 30 years ago that taught me much more about risk than anyone on Wall Street. Ever did so.
And my purpose is to keep doing what I'm doing, get my book out, continue to write books in this space, help people have fun, be a motivational speaker, try to find younger people to mentor and stay in kick ass shape so that I see I have a contract.
So I think in my head it expires when I'm 100, but I have an option to renew for five years.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: Love that. Yeah, one of the. And I love that you said you mentioned those different domains of your life, Scott, because the purpose of the Men Supporting Men Collaboration tribe, we're here to really help men learn how to self care. And there's really six domains of life that sometimes men struggle with. We got the spiritual, emotional, cognitive, physical, business and financial.
And you know, the goal here is to help all of us improve in whatever one of those six or all of them by assembling men like you guys here. So Scott, thanks for mentioning that. There's so many aspects of our lives, we gotta improve all of them. That's what makes us a complete human being.
I'm gonna go to Jason, tell us a little about yourself, your company, what you do and your purpose in life. My friend.
[00:28:14] Speaker F: Jason Croft Media Leads is my company. Got a couple shows, Strategy in Action and Concentric help experienced coaches and consultants create a video podcast of their own that's very sales focused and has clients coming to them.
And purpose in life, I would say is connection, as vague as that may sound. It, it's very purposeful. It's connecting with others, it's connecting people together and then connecting businesses to their ideal clients seems to be a common theme and something that lights me up.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: That's wonderful, Jason. Thank you, sir. Fred, a little about you, your company and what helps you. What's your purpose in life, my friend?
[00:29:00] Speaker G: Sorry I was late, I was stuck in traffic. Joe, great story.
My name is Fred Costa. I'm CEO of NSC Information Technology Group here in Houston, Texas. We're a 22 year old MSP Cyber Security company that focuses on manufacturing, construction, legal, medical and financial and oil and gas services throughout the United States.
My purpose is my family.
That's, that's what I wake up for every day.
Than the excitement of being able to get up and, and go to my own business and focus on helping clients understand, you know, that they're vulnerable and we need to be able to protect them in this, in cyberspace. But number one is family.
[00:30:01] Speaker C: Thank you so much. Fred Fenton, you, your business and your purpose, my friend.
[00:30:08] Speaker E: Yeah, first of all, purpose. That's Just like really deep.
I was like, what on earth am I going to say about that? I'm going to start with what I think is my purpose, actually, Drew. I think that my purpose is shining a light on others so that they can see how amazing they truly are.
Because they don't always know and, and the world doesn't always know and the through line and most of the things I've done in my life has been about shining a light on other people. And I do that currently through Olive Branch Digital, which is my web design company. And one of the common refrains that I hear from my clients is, wow, Fenton, you made me a website that looks like me, this feels like me. And I think we take the time to really get to understand people and their challenges and who they. They are, and then express that through design. I'm also a podcaster. I have a mental health podcast through the lens of two black men. And I also have a business podcast called Schools Over Now. What? And I'm a music producer, so a lot of creative and expressive stuff going on.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: What's the name of your mental health. The podcast about mental health.
[00:31:20] Speaker E: Thank you, Drew. I knew you wouldn't let me forget that. It's called, it's called Products of Circumstance, and you can find us exclusively on YouTube every Monday.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: Beautiful. That's awesome. And I've watched this in episodes of you and Ken. You guys are wonderful. Jason Croft, tell us a little about the two podcasts. You have two shows and then we'll go to Scott.
[00:31:41] Speaker F: Strategy in action is interviewing coaches and consultants about that industry and helping an audience of coaches and consultants do better.
Always fun. We don't just get on there and, you know, do the typical tell me your life story necessarily. We, we try to dig into a single topic through each episode, which always leads us to the guest's life story and digging into all that because that's the, the fun, interesting stuff. We kind of wrap it around that, that topic. And then concentric is a show I do with an amazing coach, mentor, friend, Gary Day Rodriguez, who's been coaching for, you know, 30 plus years. And it's kind of a selfish show where I get to jump on there and talk to him for an hour or so.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: So wonderful, wonderful.
[00:32:34] Speaker D: Scott Fenton, the podcast that you're doing is, is there a specific theme message you're trying to get out, like on a global level, or is there a more laser focused type of audience you're looking to reach with the podcast?
[00:32:59] Speaker E: So for Products of Circumstance, which is our mental health and wellness podcast. We specifically discuss mental health and mindset matters, and it's through the lens of black men. I would say that it's speaking to all people, if you will, but the lens is through black men. We're both fathers, we're both married. We've both, you know, had similar journeys of developing a framework for navigating our emotions and things like that. And so we just share a lot of stories. It's super funny. We have an amazing time.
[00:33:36] Speaker C: Yeah. I can say something.
[00:33:37] Speaker D: No, no, no. I. I asked because, you know, with all the noise that's out there that they're putting on all of us.
Okay.
Hearing something like that piques my interest because I'm always open to seeing something through someone else's eyes. Okay.
Because they may. And in most times. Do you know, something appears that I go, didn't know that.
[00:34:12] Speaker E: Right.
[00:34:13] Speaker D: Didn't know that. You know, and so. Yeah, interesting.
[00:34:18] Speaker C: I'll.
[00:34:18] Speaker D: I'll look for it.
[00:34:19] Speaker C: It's definitely worth.
[00:34:21] Speaker D: And yes, that is Led Zeppelin behind me. And I. I saw them four times. We'll do a one on one one day. Some great stuff.
[00:34:29] Speaker E: So the bottom. So the bottom drums.
[00:34:31] Speaker D: Yep. He was.
Was something to behold.
[00:34:37] Speaker E: Indeed.
[00:34:38] Speaker D: Honestly, the best live act I've ever seen. And I. I saw them all. I. I'm not trying to crowd the space here, but I'm talking Jeff Hotel, Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath, you know, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, you know, name it. We sword. Okay. But I never saw a live act like Led Zeppelin. And yes, I know, I'm biased, I am biased, but that's why I studied Jimmy Page.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: That's all right. Someday we're gonna have you up here with a guitar and you know the song I'm gonna ask you to play.
[00:35:11] Speaker D: Well, I'm still working on it.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: I asked him to. I asked him to master Jump by Van Halen. So he's working on it.
[00:35:18] Speaker D: I got half the lead down.
[00:35:19] Speaker C: All right. I can't wait. Joe, I know you're doing some podcasting. Something's happening for you. Didn't you say something about 10 episode 10 something? You just told me something.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So I'm on podcast every Wednesday.
There's like two more episodes left.
Podcast. I'm gonna be on December 29th.
I'll get you guys the information at the. At the next meeting we have.
[00:35:51] Speaker C: Okay, sounds good. Sounds good. Fred, Anything you're working on that you want us to know above and beyond the it stuff?
[00:36:01] Speaker G: Over the last year, I've. I've really have been working and Struggling with moving from IT outsourcing to managed services.
And I'll explain what managed services is. Before we used to bill our clients with a block of time hours so they'd sign 40, 60, 80, 120 and when it got down to a certain number of hours they would automatically renew or service level agreements where they're a year contract.
And now everything's moved over to charging each individual per user cost. So what we've done is we've decided to no matter. And our focus is 25 to about 5,000 employees. So charging a client a base amount which is 150 an hour and then putting the Microsoft stack on top of that and really getting technical with the stack and who the provider is. So we've decided to go with a company called PAX8 and they're the company that will be purchasing all the Microsoft products from. That way it could all be in a portal and we can track everything besides that. That's just been one of my biggest struggles this year.
What I've tried to do and talking to other business people is really focus and define who your target market is is really, you know, having a structure every quarter. So you know, this quarter was the medical side of my practice because we, our focus again was medical, legal, manufacturing and all that. But next quarter is going to be strictly manufacturing and construction. I think that's where I can give most of my referral partners a lot of bank and, and send a lot more referrals to my referral partners because there's so much going on in manufacturing and construction.
So that's what our focus is on. And you know, family's always good.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:38:18] Speaker F: What, what makes you, what makes you shift sectors like that rather than staying all in on, on one?
[00:38:24] Speaker G: Well, you know, that's the way the market's going and, and for technology is per user cost per month. I mean, I mean, sorry.
[00:38:34] Speaker F: I mean in, I mean in the sectors you're going after.
[00:38:37] Speaker G: Oh so I usually. And you have to be real specific with, with your networking partners and people that you know to let them know what you're focused on. Because if you tell everybody, oh I, I service everyone, you know, just kind of leaves it open. They don't really think about anything. But when you're really targeted like that, that's where a lot of referrals come into play. And so every quarter I'm just going to focus on two of the six that I really am focused on. So next quarter will be manufacturing and construction.
The reason I'm doing that next Quarter is because a lot more of my software referral partners can get involved in the manufacturing side because they have so much software on the back end.
[00:39:33] Speaker F: Gotcha. So it's not. It's not. I'm abandoning those industries. These are just going to be the ones we're focusing on, having conversations about while existing clients, all that stuff's happening too.
[00:39:45] Speaker G: When you're really specific like that and you do it for a long enough time during the year, you. I feel like you get a lot more referrals that way.
[00:39:56] Speaker D: Fred, I have a question, if you're done. Jason, I'm sorry, I didn't. Okay.
I'm not, you know, as technically savvy as most people. What exactly do you mean by the Microsoft stack?
[00:40:10] Speaker G: So Microsoft has. Is. Dominates the business community when it comes to all the operating systems. So Microsoft Windows, Office 365, Dynamics, all of that. And it sits. And that's what they call a stack. And so everything that sits on top of your Windows is a stack. So the antivirus, all of that. And so being able to provide the security stack, the disaster recovery stack, the email stack, and all of that is called the stack. And so it's just the services that you provide within that user cost per month. That's what it is.
[00:40:53] Speaker D: And kudos to the Houston Astros.
It was an exciting world.
[00:40:58] Speaker G: Huge baseball fan. But, you know, one of my networking partners, you know, Lane, he's a big Phillies fan, and it's just. I'm gonna. I'm not gonna say anything, but I'm gonna send him a hat and I'm gonna send him a T shirt says Houston Astros on it, just to, you know, know, give him a little dick.
[00:41:14] Speaker C: Hey.
[00:41:14] Speaker D: Hey, listen, you know, it's always exciting when your city has the championship team. You know it.
[00:41:21] Speaker F: Houston needed something.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:23] Speaker G: Yeah, I'm a. I'm a Yankee.
[00:41:25] Speaker D: They made it.
[00:41:26] Speaker C: A Yankees fan in Texas, Mike.
[00:41:28] Speaker G: No, I mean, I was. I was born in New York, so.
[00:41:31] Speaker D: Yeah, you know what, though? At least I like. Like Jason said, they. They made it, like, exciting.
[00:41:38] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:41:38] Speaker G: It was a good series. It was a really good.
[00:41:40] Speaker D: It was. It was like, oh, shit, Houston's getting wiped. And then all of a sudden, it's like they just. They lack of a better saying. My son's friend said they just turned Philly into their bitch.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.
[00:41:56] Speaker D: You know, there's no other way to put it.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: If the Phillies would have won, I would have been miserable, man. I'm a die hard Met fan.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: Hey, Joe. Next year's our year. We Say that a lot.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: Don't we say we say it everybody.
[00:42:13] Speaker D: I remember in 86 how exciting it was. And I was working in Hoboken and living in the Bronx. So I'd come across the path the Hudson river and I'd walk from Penn Station down to Madison Avenue to catch the bus. And they had like all the big electronic stores, like people but hundreds which stopped in front of these stores watching the game. You didn't really have cell phones. So like we're all going to the phone with Bug. I'm going to be late because you didn't want to miss anything. You know, it was just, wow, heart attack baseball.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Good times, good times.
[00:42:49] Speaker C: So I'm going to wrap this up a little about, about me and what we're doing here at our tribe. I'm Drew Duraney, chief resilience officer with Profit Compassion.
You know my, my why, my purpose. I finally found it after 53 years and just turned 54. And it's really to help men really provide self care.
And it all starts with being comfortable asking for help or asking for support in a concentrated period of time. Back in 2018 I went through divorce, job loss, my son had some mental health issues and my father unexpectedly passed away. And with all that I manned up, I sucked it up without emotion. I just plowed through it and not really in the most healthy and empowering way. So what I'm doing and what we're doing with profit compassion, specifically the men supporting men collaboration tribe is really saying to all men, we all need to improve somewhere. You know, and we're purposely looking at six components of our lives. None of us is perfect. So at any given point in our life we need to improve the spiritual health of ourselves, physical health, the emotional health, the cognitive health, business health and financial health. So if our tribe doesn't attract any type of men then I'm not doing a good job explaining what we're about. We need self care. Men need to start taking care of themselves because we can't take care of others if we don't take care of ourselves.
Upcoming events for our tribe. On November 17, Frank Scarbo is going to be speaking in our open house. And our open house is open for anybody. And the way to get into our open house is you just go to profitcompassion.com and just it's a one click registration for the open house. That's free. Frank's going to talk about the importance of routines, daily routines and he'll specifically talk about his own and how he, how he came about it and then the oh thanks Fenton. Good. Fenton put stuff in the chat that you guys can utilize. Our next Mastermind I moved it from Thanksgiving day to Tuesday, November 22nd. Our speaker is Celine Snip. She's a contract attorney out in the Netherlands and the reason I moved it from 3pm to 10am is because it'd be quite late for her to do later on. But she also does a license for contract law in New York. That's why it'll be good for us. But she's absolutely fantastic. And then our next lunch and learn is December 1st. None other than Jason Croft is going to tell us how to be a podcaster extraordinaire.
So stay tuned for all of that. If you do want to become a member, we offer a 30 day trial membership where you go to profitcompassion.com join and you get 30 days for free where you get to attend an open house, a mastermind, a lunch and learn, and an interview like this before your credit card is hit. I want to provide as much value as possible so you have an informed Decision.
I got two podcasts out. One is dad Will Know. It's with my son, 20 year old Matthew, who's got autism and he wanted to do a podcast with his father. And the second one is From Caving in to Crushing It. Episode one was Jason Croft. Episode two will be Joe Rivera. And last but not least, in mid January I'm releasing my book, how do youo like youe Eggs? Getting Back to your Real Self. And it's about me overcoming being a people pleaser. Fixer syndrome, imposter syndrome, not being able to reframe rejection and not being able to be emotionally vulnerable. We all need to tackle our demons. So in a nutshell, we're here to help guys, and I thank you all for being here. You guys are good human beings and let's start taking care of ourselves.
[00:46:52] Speaker D: All right fellas, have a great weekend. I got a hop, I got a 4 o'clock.
[00:46:56] Speaker C: Absolutely. Go to it guys. Go save the world.
[00:46:59] Speaker D: Take care.
[00:47:00] Speaker F: All right, thanks gents. Awesome job, Joe.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it. If you find yourself immersed in adversity and would like to find support from other men in times of struggle, please become a member of my Men's Supporting Men Collaboration Tribe by emailing
[email protected] expressing your interest and I'll get in touch with you.
[00:47:33] Speaker C: Speak to you soon.
