Special Guest – Sam Marzula Jr. & Sam Marzula Sr.

Count money, man.

Money that grits is fine.

I told him, I'm a beast.

But what's up gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

I'm an area here.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

What's up gang?

Welcome to another episode of the grind cast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

And we have a special guest, multiple guest appearance

in the house in Sam and Sam.

We have Sam, senior and Sam.

We have big Sam and little Sam and Sam and Simon over here.

So we got the three S's.

So I asked for the first time to have

a parent of a young man.

You know I hate to say a kid, you're not a kid anymore.

But a young adult that's working with us

who's had a lot of success in Sam, I had the opportunity

to meet his father recently.

And just love this mindset and personality.

And I thought he'd be able to add some value to us here

on the podcast.

And he accepted.

So I appreciate having you on there, big Sam.

No.

Good to be here, man.

Thanks for the invite.

So let me let's start out with how I met little Sam.

OK?

It's better than big Richard, little Richard.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

We got big Sam and little Sam.

So I met young Sam.

I was at a coffee shop and I was at here in Canvivere.

Is it Canvivere?

Canvive.

How do they?

Canvive.

Canvive.

So I've just been pronouncing it Canvivere

wrong for two years.

Everybody just lets me get away with it.

So canvive.

And I'm usually, and I can remember exactly what I was doing

at this point.

I was getting this thing finalized for my wife Natalie.

I was making this calendar that I kept track for a year.

And I was going to give it to her on Thanksgiving

of every single day of the year.

One thing that I appreciate it about her,

because I think in the midst of the grind of business

or relationships, especially when you're always focused

on fixing problems, you tend to look at only the problems.

And I read in a book that somebody did this.

And I say, you know what?

I'm going to focus only on the positive that I see in Natalie.

Only the things that she's that maybe would,

I would overlook and not find appreciation on.

And so I started to jot those down

and I was finalizing that in Canvive.

And I was explaining Katie to Katie how to put it on a thing.

And Sam had his laptop out.

And I remember seeing him sitting there.

And he just comes up to me.

And he asked me, what is it that you do?

And I said, well, sit down.

And I explained a little bit of it.

And I think you were going to slippery rock at the time.

Yeah, it was in school at that time.

Yeah, so he was in school.

And I said, at the end of talking to him, I'm thinking,

this kid is super intelligent, good personality.

Got some guts to get up and talk to me.

And so I said, why don't you come up

and maybe get an intern ship with us?

And so I set you up with Brodie Evansson.

And you talked about doing the internship, came in.

And a couple of weeks later, you end up in my office.

And he says, you know what?

I think I'm going to do the whole thing here.

And so I'm thinking, OK, it's getting real.

Now I'm thinking, big Sam's going to want to kill him.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I'm thinking, oh, big Sam ain't going to like me.

I didn't know it was going to move like this.

Because I didn't know that you were such.

And I don't want to use this in a bad term.

But I use this in business sometimes.

I didn't know you were such a killer.

To me, he's like a silent assassin.

He looks like he's just going to be working on computers.

And he's real kind of smart.

But he's more than just a smart kid.

I mean, he is not only well put together,

but he's also got it inside internally

that it's hard for you to view.

So I'm looking at him as this kid.

He's going to college.

I'm assuming he's probably not in something

that he would want to do sales.

He's young, he's smart.

And I just never expected that to be what you would end up

doing that fast over time.

And so tell me what was going through your mind

at the time before we start to introduce everybody to your dad.

Yeah.

So I mean, at the time when we met, I mean, I was going to school.

At that time, I didn't.

I mean, I really didn't know what I wanted to do.

I was just, how old were you?

I was 21 at that.

Or no, 20.

I was 20 at that time.

OK.

20.

Yeah, I had no clue what I really wanted to do.

I didn't know.

Yeah, two weeks earlier, we had got him an apartment.

He hadn't even moved into it.

Paid the security deposit, paid the first months rent.

Everything.

We were about to move in.

About to move in.

Yeah.

But no, it was, you know, I was kind of at the time

I was going to school just for like a business degree,

just because you know, it kind of just follow along with everyone

getting a business degree and be all right, kind of stuff like that.

But when I met you and we had that conversation, I knew it was a life change in conversation.

Like I just, I had a feeling that it was going to, like, something big was going to come

from it.

And I remember that day, like it was yesterday, because I went home and he was in his office

and I told him.

And, you know, yeah, I remember that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember him coming home, not to break your stride here, Sam.

But he comes home and told me, he had met you.

And you know, I asked him, you know, what made you go up to Simon and you might not know

this.

I forget what car you pulled in to the coffee shop.

He was driving at the Bentley.

Yeah.

The Bentley.

So Sam sitting there, he sees this young guy pulling an Bentley over there working on

his computer.

Now I know my son.

He's going to go up and check this out, right?

So I was sitting there and you know, I tend to play the devil's advocate.

Of course.

Yeah.

As a dad.

As a parent.

You know, he tells me meets the sky and he wants to do this internship.

But you know, Sam, Sam's like a good pool player.

You know, he's not focusing on the first shot.

I know he's setting me up.

He's looking at three shots down the road.

Right?

Because I know something's coming.

Right?

He tells me he's going to meet with this guy possibly do, you know, an internship like

you had mentioned.

So I'm like, well, who is the guy?

You know, what's going on?

I, you know, and he tells me what more.

So then he comes up meets with you.

And then I, I go into, you know, action and get a, I get a PhD on Simon area.

Oh, not.

I searched.

Okay.

I mean, Natalie's mom did.

Yeah.

I searched it out and so he starts his internship.

And then he can tell from there when he came once you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, prior, like after we met, like it, it felt like very quickly I started to get like

a direction in my life, you know, like going to school, I wasn't happy.

I wasn't.

I just didn't know where I was going.

You're going through the motions.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

What was it that jumped out, you know, that you, at you, you think there was like,

right, I think this is something I want to commit to.

I think I mean, there was a lot, I mean, seeing everything because I've noticed the best

things in my life that have come into my life have appeared after I've taken risks.

You know, come on.

That I've taken those.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, I took a risk, you know, coming up.

John Maxwell says, you know, those, you know, that John Maxwell is one of my favorite authors

of all time, leadership expert, number one, leadership author and speaker in the world.

And he always says in order to get something, for everything you gain, you got to give up,

you got to give up something.

Right.

And so though, so I remember then you started to, we would have these mentorship sessions

into the beginning.

You would come and you said, hey, can I get some of your time?

I'll bring you questions and, you know, all of that stuff.

And you show up with questions.

Yeah.

You would record those.

Yeah.

You know, questions.

So I'm thinking, I better do the right thing.

I'm sure he's going to go back and his dad's going to listen further increases PhD here.

And so we would add you, but you would bring such great questions.

And in those questions in our conversations, I start to learn more about your dad, you know,

because I start thinking like, why, how were you able to pull that off?

How did you pull that sail off to your parents to allow you to come in and just say, this

is what I'm going to do.

And I'm not going to slip and roll it.

You know, any more, I'm going to do this.

And you started to tell me about your dad.

Right.

And then it started to make a little bit more sense of some of this stuff.

So big Sam, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background from the steel mill industry

and kind of how you came into to what you came into.

Yeah.

So I was born and raised up north, north of here in Newcastle.

My parents are hardworking both.

You're born in Newcastle?

Born in Newcastle.

Wow.

Oh, yeah.

My dad, my goddaughter that lives with me now, my, she's from Newcastle.

Yeah.

She's been with me for a few years.

I got some roots in Newcastle.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

My dad's one of seven.

My mom's one of 11.

So lots of aunts and uncles.

Oh.

And big family.

Yeah.

Dad born during the depression.

He's going to turn 89 this year.

My mom was born in 36.

So we were always, you know, instilled with a very stout worth that work ethic.

I mean, you know, it was almost by default because, you know, if you wanted something, you

know, you had to work for it.

And so I, you know, did the jobs up there, worked multiple jobs, didn't do all that great

in high school.

I mean, I did okay.

But once I started working, I said, you know, this, you know, and I really enjoy listening

to well-read people, educated people.

You know, that's, that's a, that's a great route to take.

Okay.

Yeah.

I didn't think that was, you know, I just wanted to make some money and, you know, no college,

no, well, coming out of high school, no college out of high school.

What I did was I basically, somebody's a mind driving down.

They needed a ride to Pittsburgh to look at a technical school for electronics.

I said, yeah, I'll give you a ride.

So the guy said to me after this, hey, do you want to take the test?

I said, yeah, I'll take the test.

And I passed it.

He said, you want to go here, electronics institute.

I looked at those guys and I said, hey, can I live with you guys?

They said, sure, you know, so I started electronics institute.

Got a degree in electronics, you know, graduated from there.

Got a job fixing computers for 10 years.

Then I had a guy, I didn't know it then, but it was kind of my foray into mentors, mentorship.

You know, this guy took a liking to me, became, at the time I didn't realize it, it was

a mentor.

And you know, nine years into fixing computers, he came to me and basically said, hey,

we need you on the sales side doing some things.

I was very nervous, like Sam said, it's a risk.

I took the risk.

And as they said, it's all history after that.

I got into sales, never looked back.

Actually, I was going to night school with a local school here called Point Park for

an electrical engineering technology degree.

And once I got into sales, I had about 20 some credits left, but I just never went back

because sales was my thing.

Okay.

So you got into sales.

Yeah.

And ended up doing well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I started, probably I haven't even heard of this company, Wang, Wang Corporation.

That was way back when.

Then I got a shot to go to EMC, which was pretty good company.

And once I got there, just never looked back.

You know, some of the not having the education I had to, you know, I would get up 30 minutes

early, you know, 30 minutes a day I'd read in the industry, do all the things that some

of the other guys didn't have to do.

But, you know, it was kind of my schematic success.

Yeah.

I remember when in our mentorship sessions, you know, little Sam would tell me about, you

know, some of the success, you know, where he got some of his ambition, you know, from you.

He's seen you put up some big numbers.

He's seen you start to make some, some big money, some sizeable income.

So he started to get a low ambition from that and also see what's possible.

So my mind automatically went to man, you know, I can't really can't wait to meet him

because not only has he had some success, I knew a little bit about your background now

at this point.

But to give your son the blessing, yeah, after having, you have success, you know, a lot

of people, you know, some people that come here that do well oftentimes, they have this

rough background and, you know, didn't come from a lot.

So they got that grit, they got that hunger.

But it's always intriguing to me and this is a rarity, but, you know, it's intriguing to

me to get somebody that came from a more fluent background.

You know, dad had some success, two good parents went to NA, come here and you're getting

the blessing.

Right.

Right.

But then you also got it that drive and hunger.

So I'm like, this is weird.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

There's something, something to this thing.

And so, you know, I would like to start picking your brain on, you know, what habits or

tips you have for other people to be successful because I know you've had a lot of success in

your life.

Oh, yeah.

And like I said, I always tell Sam, I'm not the burning bush here.

It's cafeteria style with me.

You know, I'm going to tell you some things and you pick and choose what works for you.

But one point I wanted to make when he did come to me, okay, and ultimately said, he came

to me and said, look, I'm going to do this internship.

I said, all right, I said, but a better not affect your studies, right?

You know, we're paying for you to go to school up there.

So that did a study.

So that lasted a couple of weeks or so.

And then he comes to me and says, you know, I got a shot here to become an agent, you

know, and I really, you know, he just, when he talked about the environment here, you

know, he's just faced his lit up.

I saw the passion.

I saw that he had met people here that, you know, could show him a path to where he wanted

to go without college, you know.

And here again, I'm not poo pooing on college, you know.

So he came to me and said, I'm going to do this.

And I said, and I fought a little.

I said, well, I don't know.

And he said, well, I'm going to do the agent thing,

and I'm going to stay in school.

And I said, look, years ago I became a hybrid manager,

kind of like a player coach, and that don't work.

It's just difficult sometimes, at least in my industry

it didn't work.

Other industries it would work.

And so we sat down, we had a long talk.

And I told you so type of guy.

If we make a decision together, then I'm going to back you 110%.

So we made the decision.

And we went up there, we had to sublet that apartment,

you know, took a little bit of a bath on some dough up there.

Yeah, we did.

And so he started.

May God bless you for supporting him in that.

Like it's so important to have that support.

It's so rare, you know, to have your father or parents

speaking life into you and saying, you know, I don't know.

But I'm a back on this.

I got that from my mom, you know, young coming into this.

And I watched so many not get this.

You know what I mean?

Just the complete opposite.

Like there's no way, you know what I mean?

You're not having it.

Not in it.

It's sad because I've seen some people that really could have been

special, really could have changed their life.

And the longer I'm into this, you know, it's like, man,

it's good that God took the money off the table for me.

Now it's like, I mean, I like it.

But it ain't the thing.

I'm good.

You know, there.

So I could really just give a shit about the people, man.

And the more you do that, the more we keep exploding.

So when I see some of these people that I'm like, man, this kid,

really, I could have, we could have helped this one.

But his parents, you know, we're like, you know, no way you're

going to do this.

You know, it's like man to have that from you.

Well, I appreciate it.

Really says a lot.

Well, here again, you know, I, you know, I've had mentors.

I talked a couple of my mentors.

I got a guy that was born and raised in Youngstown, John

Ruffidio over there.

I like to pick guys.

I don't know if he'll hear this.

But he's 10 years older than me.

So he's kind of been through the path before me.

I ran it past 10.

No, Sammy Ruffidio.

He was an attorney.

Yeah.

You don't say me quick stop.

Yeah.

So, you know, and I like the point you made.

I mean, if you're going to let a guy, you're going to let your kid

do something.

And then you're going to take the posture of the eye told you so.

You're setting them up to fail, right?

You're, you're putting them out there with one arm tied behind his back.

So he needed to know as a team.

I support you, man.

You know, I'm going to, you know, if you want to come to me for some mentoring,

some cell stuff, I can help you.

But, you know, I've helped them.

You know, but this kid, you know, he kind of, he got it.

He got it.

But he got a lot of it from you.

He just made six figures this, this, this past year.

21 years old.

21 years old.

Before I did, you know what I mean?

That's how far ahead of the game you are, bro.

You know what I mean?

23 years old when it, when it first hit that I made, you know, six figures and you did

it at 21.

So whatever you see in me, if you think I'm ahead of the game, you just got to keep running

because you're already ahead of the, of the pace.

I didn't even have the maturity that you have, you know, right now at 21.

I didn't even have a suit that fit me, you know, at 21 years old, man.

So you're kudos to you and, and so proud of you and, and excited for you.

For, for your future and, and you've, man, you've done some special things already in

this agency.

Big Sam, what, what success tips can you give to the listener out there?

You know, business success habits that you've picked up over the years.

I know you mentioned something about 30 minutes early.

Yeah.

I mean, for me, I would study, you have to know your craft, right?

So I did a lot of different trainings.

I've done the Delcernagie, the Sandler Cell Zinstitute, Aclevis.

I think it's called Aclevis, some other ones.

You know, in here again, those, some of those were provided by my company.

Other ones I went out and did on my own.

So you know, being a salesperson, some people think that's easy, okay?

But you know, you get a good feeling when you've been sold to by a true professional, okay?

You're comfortable with your purchase and, what people forget, nothing happens in this

country till something's sold.

Go down.

No doubt.

And so the training you want to try to be as sharp as you can, you know, know your craft,

know the game.

You know, mentors, as I mentioned, you know, I've used mentors.

I became a mentor for my company.

They would give me some of the new guys.

And then some of the stuff you can't teach, right?

It's the work ethic, the drive.

And you know, with Sam, it's more about the passion he enjoys helping people.

You know, the money's nice, but you know, you see a lot of very wealthy folks that continue

to do what they're doing.

That's because they love it.

Right?

Okay.

Yep.

You know, my type of sales, and I told Sam, you know, early on, I wish I would have gotten

into this type of sales more of a nudy type based business.

I carved mine out of granite every year, you know.

We got the residuals.

Right.

You already residged.

Right.

Right.

And the way every deal he does is another step to summiting on Everest.

You know what I mean?

He doesn't have to rebuild it every year.

And once that starts growing, you know, then, you know, gives you a lot of options.

How have you seen him grow, you know, over, how long you've been here now?

Going on, we're coming up on year and a half.

Yeah.

And how have you seen him evolve or grow in the last 18 months?

Well, what I'd start with is, you know, I had to understand the environment here.

And once I got an understanding, and I know I had just recently met you.

But like I said, I've watched videos.

I talked to people and I became very comfortable with this environment.

Okay.

You guys really, I mean, the first time I met you was just recently in a gym face to face.

And the first thing I said is thanks for taking care of my kid.

You know, you know, you and still in these young guys.

You know, not just, it's not your typical like sales.

You got to hit this number.

It's more becoming a well-rounded human being.

It's growing.

You know, I love the fact he goes to church every Sunday, man.

That's just, you know, so, yeah.

But I started to see in him, you know, he became a student of the game.

I mean, when he started studying for the exam,

I mean, he knuckled down and he studied, passed it on the first, first, first go round.

I also did not pass mine on the first go round.

He got me again.

So then, you know, you have a good program set up here.

So, you know, you know, you know what works and what doesn't work.

And I know that took time to develop.

Okay.

So he got the script.

And that script, if I had to hear it, no, if I had to hear it one more time,

brother, I mean, he just, he just memorized that thing.

And I understood why I did it, you know, because you got to have that baseline.

That base.

And then when you get into a meeting, once you have a good base, you can go a lot of different

directions.

Right.

Yeah.

So when I started talking to him, I started, he wanted me to start tracking some of his

deals.

I put a spreadsheet together and we started talking about it.

But it wasn't long that I even told my wife and a good friend of mine, Chris Long, who's

the sales guy.

And I said, man, when I talked to him, he sounds like a sales guy now.

He sounds like he's really understanding the sales, what it takes, the mechanics of a

sales call, how to go out and prospect, how to cold call and understand.

Probably one of the top things is, you know, you got to, you got to put a lot in, you

know, you got to do the work.

You got to put the work in.

You got to put the work in.

No way around.

There's no way around it.

You got to put the work in.

And I used to, I told him some of the things that I had done in my early career.

I had a hundred, hundred type territory.

And you know, this was before emailing everything.

I used to do my sales calls during the day and drive around at night in a, you know, whatever

city I was in.

And back then I had a micro cassette recorder and I'd talk, you know, different places.

I'd go into a office park and read all the names and then send that tape to the admin

person.

She'd research and get them the numbers.

Wow.

I mean, you had to do that.

You got to do the work because as you know, the, that's that edge.

Yeah.

How many people do you think we're doing that extra, right?

And that company.

And I had another mentor that used to say, hey, get lost in your territory every soft

and you'll find some other things.

Now, now you have the, the internet and all that type of, right.

All that type of stuff.

But I really started to see him grow.

Not only as a, as a, it sells person and this particular organization that you, you've

done an incredible job putting together, it really is got a support system.

I mean, Brody, yourself, these guys, Tristan, you know, they, they back these guys and

they understand it.

And you understand, you know, when someone might have a little call or luck dance or they're

getting a little stressed out, you see that, you know, here again, managing to a guy's

strengths.

The last thing you want to do is, you know, break a guy.

Right.

Right.

So, you know, that's a lot of people, you know, the people character of the person,

right?

You know, the best that we can because they, you know, not all the time, not everybody

successful.

But we, we do have a lot of people that come in and have a lot of success relatively

fast.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

And so it's, you know, it's normal to see, you know, like that's not, you know, someone

comes in and they make a hundred grand at 21 years old.

Right.

You know, Steve in his second year makes 400,000.

You know what I mean?

Look at that.

My only, my fear and my focus is on, man, some, because somebody did it for me.

Right.

You know, somebody, somebody did it for me.

They developed, helped to develop my character.

I, you know, I bumped into Jim Sarace and Marcus Smith when I first started.

And that's where the whole spirit thing, you know, came into play and they started to

help me grow myself spiritually.

And as the first time I really read a book from front to back and, and I look back on

it.

And there's no way I would have been able to handle the outward success in the money

and the cars and the, you know, all that stuff at 25.

If I did not have the character being built behind the scenes, you know, because they say,

sometimes your talent can take you to a place that your character can't keep you.

Oh, I like that.

You know what I mean?

It's, it's, I just want to make sure that our people aren't, their talent isn't getting

them to a place that their character, that foundation can't keep them.

And you have that character so much to the point where you've already been promoted.

And in your leadership, you know, currently right now, what's your experience been so

far in leadership?

Would you like about it?

Yeah.

And why do you think you're doing well?

It's, I mean, it's, it, it was interesting going from, you know, just a, solely a sales

position where that was my only focus.

You know, my focus all of 2019 was, you know, on, on helping others and, and my success.

You know, I was writing my own book.

Now it's, you know, I'm helping multiple people, you know, write their own book and supporting

them.

Yeah.

So, you know, it was an, it was an interesting transition.

And it took me a couple of weeks to kind of be like, okay, like, you know, it's not, I

don't go to focus on me, my sales, it's time to focus on other people and their sales.

And just, I mean, just developing them.

Um, you know, I think it's one of the biggest things that I've seen so far in the

being a leadership position because, you know, I, I hear, you know, Tristan talk out,

you know, all the time about, hey, you know, like developing yourself, everything like

that.

What the coolest thing that I've seen so far is the time that I've spent developing, developing

my leaders, like John, Rob, um, you know, all these guys is when they pour into someone

else and they develop someone else.

And then I see that person grow, you know, because that's really because I can pour into

other people.

But how I know if it's working is if the people that they're developing, you know, because

that shows me that I'm developing leaders, not just developing people, I'm developing leaders

to develop other people.

Come on.

You know, so that's, that's probably been the coolest thing that I've seen.

John's young.

Yeah.

And he's having a lot of success.

Yeah.

He's 18, Rob's 19.

Crazy.

I've never met, you know, like, what's cool, you know, how, why don't you give some tips

from a place that I can't even give them for you know, how would someone go even in

out in this industry or outside this industry, how, how would you give some advice to someone

18 to 21 years old on, you know, how do you move up the ladder fast in a company?

What success things have you learned that got you to where you are?

But you know, your dad talking about, you know, if I had to hear that script one more

time, these are the things that people don't see.

They see the, you know, they want to do what you do, but they don't want to do what you

did.

You know what I mean?

That type of stuff, you know, what things can you extract?

Yeah, give to that.

I think for a young person, like someone who's 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, I think at that

age, you kind of got to have, like, you got to kind of have it already, you know, set up

when you initially come in here, like, you got to be like, if you're that young, I feel

like you got to have some maturity, you know, you got to have some level of maturity.

Well, even understand it, grasp the concept, you know, and then from there, I mean, if someone

like these guys, John and Rob, you know, they already came here with, like, they were already

developed when they came here, you know, we're just, we're just polishing it up, you know,

as we go.

Well, one thing, not to interrupt you, Sam, but one thing I saw is, and witness was, there's

a roadmap to success here.

So at 18 or 19, at least for me, you don't really know what you want to do.

Right.

Okay.

You're going in a lot of different directions, and there's people pushing you in different

directions, you know, the conventional ways you get out of high school and you go to

college, you know, but I think what what young people see here, there's, there's a true

roadmap.

There's a direction.

That's, that's what I was going to bring up is, you know, once someone, like, point,

once someone, you know, comes in here and you see that they, they have the maturity level

and everything like that, I mean, it's simple.

Just follow the, the roadmap, you know, yeah.

I just, I just did what you told me to do or I just, you know, so that's one thing

that people can pull is just being coachable.

Yeah.

Being a student.

Absolutely.

And if I look back on it, there's people that show up for mentorship meetings and it's

like, all right, feed me.

And then there's people that show.

up to mentorship meetings and they're prepared. Right. And you always came prepared. You always

came as like pen and hand notes already had questions. Right. Can I record this? Like there was like

okay. Yeah. I started to get a feeling of all right. I don't mind spending this time because I know

whatever I'm giving out he's absorbed. Right. And I could and I could see that at some point you

were going to give it to somebody else. Exactly. So that's time well spent. Yeah. You know what I mean?

So that sticks out to me. Your dad spoke to the behind the scenes study habits that you had

practicing your craft. Right. You know I'm talking about the coachability and the preparation.

Right. And I think you've also come in. You know you young folks are you know obsessed with

getting better in the business. Right. I watch a lot of young people and they're like,

well I'm young so I'm just going to party. You know what I mean? So 19, 2021 they're just you know

everything but focused. Right. You know if they make a thousand dollars. I mean we've had them.

Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. They make a thousand dollars in a week. It's like the biggest

thing. We'll see you in three weeks. Yeah. You know what I mean? They coming back for two or three

weeks. You know what I mean? You guys have that okay but yeah not what's next. Right. We made that

we're going to but we got to keep going to work and we got to stay focused and it's not all party.

Yeah. You know and where does that come come from that mind frame? Because I think that's where young

people struggle. Yeah. I think it's again I think it's surrounding yourself with those like mind

it exactly. Yeah. It's aligning yourself with with other individuals who have that same mindset. You know

the group you know the the people that I'm surrounded with are really I mean this entire you know

agency. It's it's cool because it's we're all young and you would think you know I mean most young

people they do want to go out and party and do all that stuff but you know we're we're telling each

other to go to the gym read audio books you know go to church. It's like it if you're just if

you're just around you know these guys you're just going to net like it's easy if you just if you

got the maturity level just surround yourself with with that that group of people in your life will

change. Yeah and I always told them that you have to sacrifice you know you have to you have to

put some things off you got to sacrifice it's all depends when you want to do it you don't want

to sacrifice when you're 60 okay do it when you're young the price gets more expensive the older

that you get the give the give off the trade off right sacrifice becomes even more. Yeah I like that

sacrifice on the back of the arm yeah I like that yeah yeah yeah so I you know I remember when

when we started to warm up in our mentorship sessions you know finally I had enough guts to say

you know because it's almost like I don't want to ask the question because I don't want to hear

the answer you know and so I'm like so so what's your dad think yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and he's

like he supports me yeah you know I'm like he does yeah what's wrong with him you know what's

a matter with him right tell me tell me something got to be wrong with him so he starts oh no he

you know he went to high school and didn't have a formal college education he came out had a lot of

success he was in business was in sales and so I started to understand and grasp why you know you

supported because I was like what yeah he does and then I and then I told you and so we're going

to get a chance to do it now I told him I said you know one of the things that that is is intriguing to

me that I try to gain wisdom on and I try to keep a teachable spirit you know no matter what is I

know what it takes to take a kid and develop them from poverty to how to handle it and move up you

know that way because I come from that what I don't have any experience in is raising children in a

nice area and you know my kids are gonna go to my daughter goes to Montessori school we're driving

nice cars and they got private this and tutoring and you know stable environment and you know

I'm just intrigued by the the people that I meet like yourself that come from a good background

in in a in a good situation how the hell as a parent that you still managed to develop a child that

is humble um teachable hard working work ethic like yeah he got a work ethic equal or better

than some of the people that come in the door that that are talented in they struggled in life

you know it's you see people that struggle in life they got that grip you know about them

you have that right but didn't have the that type of a of an of an environment so it just blows

my mind and then you don't have that spoiled brat not coachable you know I know it all spirit

you know but you come from a good situation went to a good school had a good dad you know all that

and so those are things that you've got to take a little bit of credit for that doesn't happen

on accident what advice would you be able to give to me you know if you do have in your

developing you know children and raising some children how can I make sure that my kids end up

like that well great question first of all all right so first of all I can't take 100% of the

credit right my wife Cindy you met Cindy yeah you met Cindy uh you know you got a good partner in

life you know when it comes a wife so I hit the lottery you know what I mean great partner uh you

know we had similar backgrounds so you know when I was off doing all that stuff she was she was

home taking care of the kids you know Sam sister Alyssa the older she's the oldest so if you got a good

partner in life that that really helps support support now I grew up and I had good obviously I have

good parents okay two good sisters but you know if I think about your question a little bit comes

into luck the person itself you know Sam Sam you just don't you know when a child's born it's a

blank canvas and you can help to you know mold but he kind of had some of the natural things you know

where some guys can you know very good in athletics you know Sam kind of at an early age understood

things all right now there's this thought process that you know if you come from where you're not

struggling then you should make your kids you know struggle to learn but I don't I don't subscribe to

that let me tell you why all right you got a you got to kind of educate and mentor your children

for the environment that's in front of them okay at a young age maybe like 14 or 15 um you know

Sam took an interest in you know just the finances and whatnot so every time I had a meeting with

my broker my insurance agent the bank I scheduled him after school and took him okay you only

they only know they only know which teach them right at a young age so you know you have to like

I said train for the environment so if the environment's gonna be like you said you know at some

time at some day in their life they're they're gonna have money so you got to train towards that okay

it doesn't mean because you were fortunate enough that your parents that you were raised in that

environment that you don't want to go backwards and put your kid through what you had to go through

oh god no no you don't you don't want to do that I don't know how I survived right but they need to

be prepared for what you have presented them later in life so if I had to give you advice and like I

said I'm I'm no expert on it you know these kids didn't come with an owner's manual you know you

don't you know I just we had a we have a very close relationship have a close relationship with my

daughter Sam and I you know even though I knew you know in commission based cells we took I took

three weeks off him and I went around the country together he was really into photography at the time

so we did some trips you know he saw me on the phone in the morning and whatnot conference calls

and whatnot um but you know here again support man there's no better feeling than when you're out

on that limb and you know that net's there man yeah you know and and you want you want your

you want your kid to go out there and try some things you know and get out there because as you know

that that expands their comfort circle mold yeah and he came to me said look I want a backpack

for a week where I make my own food through Arizona at a young age he did that then he came to me

and said I want to work for the first project where it you know 18 years old traveled around the

country for a year traveled around the country given speeches at colleges and high schools so

you know and I had told my wife Cindy I said you know when I can't prevent him from doing this

stuff but I'm gonna like when he went out west I said look before you go that there's a dude here

in Pittsburgh that runs a survival first aid wilderness first aid I'm gonna prep you because

that's kind of what my dad did I remember at a young age we used to give firecrackers right

and my dad would say I do not want you to touch these firecrackers okay any look at me says you

understand I go yeah he said all right go get him because I'm gonna teach you a safety around

these firecrackers because I know in my head you're gonna touch him behind my back yeah so I'm

gonna prepare you right so that you don't blow your blow your hand off right you know Simon

you know it's just I don't have the answer support and understanding that you understanding your

kids future environment and you want to you want to almost mentor towards that yeah I don't know

that makes sense it makes it makes a lot of sense okay and so I you know I just want to thank you

guys for for for being you thank you for your spirit thank you for taking time out

Sam and Sam thanks for having us come up and rock the podcast and help people and I'm so

proud of you thank you Sam as I know I'm sure your your father is as well man I'm just so

proud of you and things that you've accomplished and I know you'll continue to accomplish and I got

you back thank you as as I'm sure big Sam does as well and so we appreciate having you on thanks

again Sam and Sam thanks for joining us on another episode of the grind cast get ready it's a new day