Okay, well here it is. Finally, I'm super excited about this because you're somebody who means a lot to me. You inspire me in many, many ways. So got you to come to the South side today and get to wrap with you a little bit like we do in our Starbucks time. So everyone, this is a very special human. And before we get started on that
I wanna ask you, and I didn't prepare you for this, but what today, so it's early in the morning, but what today so far has made you smile or inspired you at this short part of your day? Seeing you, of course, Rob.
Listen, you, first of all, thank you for having me today. It's an honor to be here. I love what you're doing here at your place down here in the South side, as you say. You and I have known each other for a very long time. We've developed a great friendship. We've spent, as you mentioned, hours upon hours at Starbucks kinda sharing ideas, building our friendship, being vulnerable with each other. So I'm very, very grateful for you. I just wanna say that I think you're an amazing human being as well, and I love our relationship. So yeah, seeing you always makes me smile.
The hug when we see each other is always a great way to start the day. 1000%, yeah, I couldn't agree more. That's what got me motivated and got me on this.
Because normally I'm not a super morning person, but today I was like inspired and lit up to get here quick and to be a part of this. Because every time I leave, that's the thing about great people. And we have had this conversation before too. When I'm around somebody who's like that, like yourself, when I leave, there's like this, I'm not the same. I'm different and in a good way, in a positive way. So that happens with me every time I'm with you. So I always appreciate that.
And I wanted an opportunity for other people to get to hear a slice of you and what it is that, you do in your life that has that serial optimist in you, that serial way that you just continually have just a positive outlook on things. I appreciate that, thank you. Hi, good morning. So this is a leave-in part. This is part of being in the salon and being in the back of the house. If you could see the rest of this room, you wouldn't believe that this is the setting here, right? It's a great setting, but we'll set.
Your setup was good over there on Vanderbilt, right? Yeah, Vanderbilt with the podcast studio is. It's a really nice facility there. But no, I think this is terrific what you did, so yeah. Oh, he makes it look a lot better.
(Laughing) You got it, you good? All right, you're next. You ready to do it again? Did you see yourself on there? It got released, you saw the whole thing? All right, good job. Yeah.
So that people could get to have the elevator pitch of who you are, who, tell me about you, or tell them about you, I know about you. Sure, a lot about me. Again, we've shared a lot. Yeah, so I'm Stefan Contorno, born and raised in New York. I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Staten Island, New York, and moved down to Southwest Florida in 2008 with my wife and two children. And I'm in the financial services industry, so I provide financial advice in the wealth management business. Contorno, Italian, paisan, right? A little bit Italian, yes. When I go to Italy, when I was in Italy last year, every time I went to a restaurant, you'd see my name on the menu.
I don't know if you know what it means, but basically Contorno's like a side, like the side dish, or like the sides. So you'll always see Contorno or Contorni on the menus. But yeah. Really? Yeah, a little bit Italian. Any family in Italy that, of? Not that I know of, I'm sure there is. My entire family is originally from Italy. So mainly Sicily, and a little bit of Sardinia as well. But I'm almost 100% Sicilian. Sicilian, wow, awesome. Okay, and New York, Northeast.
Northeast, yeah, again, born in Brooklyn. Grandparents lived on a street with all of my other relatives. I think you could relate to that in Philly. And yeah, so grew up like that, just a great environment to grow up in, spent a lot of times with my grandparents growing up. And again, grew up in Staten Island, New York, and came down here in 08, been down in Southwest Florida for 16 years now. What, how'd you make that move? Do you have other family here? Were you the first one to leave the area? It's a great question. So growing up in the Northeast at that time, it wasn't typical to just leave, right?
If you just went from New York to New Jersey, that was considered a big deal to your family, right? Across the river, right? Exactly, that's a big deal. So going to Florida was a big deal. And then my mom at the time was a semi snowbird. And I mean semi like twice, two weeks a year. She had a little place, a condo in Naples, that she'd go spend some time there. So I would come down a few times and I was kind of dreamt about what it would be like to live in the warm weather. At that time for me, it was Southern California, is really where I wanted to be.
But I came down to Florida several times, obviously the same time zone as New York, and it became appealing, where one day just kind of said to myself, you know what, life's too short. I can either wait until I retire one day
And listen, you know what, hopefully I'm still around at that time, hopefully I have all my faculties and I'm okay to do that, or I could do it now, and just live now. So I was already in practice in my business at that time, but made a very quick decision in early 2008. It was actually February of 08. I think we all remember 08 as the great recession time period, right? So I told my wife at the time, I said, you know what, listen, let's put our house for sale. It's February, 08. If it doesn't sell by the end of the year, it's just not meant to be. I'm a really big meant to be type of person. 14 days later, a house is sold, and we had to come down to find a place to live.
Wow. 14 days of that crazy time period. 14 days in that crazy time period. Yeah, it was just when things started getting soft in the economy. So it didn't bottom out quite yet, but it was at that point where people were getting concerned about it. So yeah, and came down here and never looked back, love living down in Florida. Yeah. What was the adjustment like for the family when you did it? I think the adjustment was pretty good. The kids were six and three at the time. So a daughter was gonna start first grade down here. So it was actually a really like perfect time for the kids.
Business-wise, it was an adjustment because I didn't have a single client in the state of Florida. All my clients were in the Northeast.
So I had to come down here, kind of like those people when they moved to California with just a little suitcase, starting a new life. That's what it felt like because I didn't know anyone down here. And I had to build friendships, build the business in general, make contacts, meet as many people as I could, and really do it as quickly as I could, to be honest with you. Yeah, that was a big risk, I think. It's funny, everyone says that to me. Now I'm not naturally a risk taker. I'm one of those people, I don't like to gamble. There's certain things I just don't like to do. I'm not a risk taker. When I look back, that was absolutely a big risk.
But I think you and I have spoken about this. I process risk differently, I think. I tend to make decisions fairly quickly. So I don't wait too long, not that analysis by paralysis type of thing. I make decisions relatively quickly, but I think they're really long and hard during that period of time. And I always try to figure out what can go wrong. I mean, that's the number one thing I always wanna focus on. We know what could go right, what could go wrong? And I kind of mentally was prepared for that. And what could go wrong was that, I'd have to build my business again and make new contacts, which I was doing regardless. So I guess it really wasn't much of a negative.
So you're looking back, it was a little bit of a gamble, but one that's paid off. Yeah, so you trusted yourself to, you're gonna make it happen. You're gonna make it work. You just-, maybe that goes to your optimism thing. And listen, I'll be the first, I'm not always optimistic. I wish I were. But you know what, you have to have, I think when it comes to optimism, confidence comes along with that, right? So if you have confidence in yourself, then you could be a little bit more optimistic, vice versa, if you don't have confidence, it's easy to be pessimistic. So it's about believing in yourself sometimes and things could go wrong.
The way I process things back to what I said before is that if things go wrong, how could I fix them? All right, so I'm also a big believer in that. So if everything doesn't go perfect, I moved down here in 08, it's not a good move. We don't like it. You know what, we could always go back. So there's always something you could do to try to fix the situation. So I'm a pretty big believer in that. What do you do to, or what habits or practices do you have in place to keep that, to keep your mindset in place? And, we've had discussions about this in many, and what do you do that keeps you in the right mind? Yeah, that's a great question. So again, not easy to do.
I mean, many of us wake up certain days just not feeling good, right? Just not optimistic, maybe a little down, maybe doubtful, grumpy, whatever it may be. So we all go through that. So I try to put myself in positions where I can feel a little bit better, a little bit more optimistic. One way is just by listening to certain podcasts. We've talked about this, where certain people on YouTube that could kind of get you going a little bit. People that you resonate with, that give you a little bit of that spark. One thing that I've used over the last year, year and a half, and I think you've done it as well, is kind of that, what we call that bliss list, right?
Remember when we spoke about that? So coming up with a list of things that make you feel good. And the way I look at that is there's happiness and then there's bliss. Happiness in my mind is really outside things, external things that make us feel good, right? You buy a new car, you buy a home, you go on vacation. Those are external things that make us feel happy. Bliss is kind of an internal thing. And it's hard to deal with, especially this day with so many people suffering from depression and anxiety. It's not an easy thing. So I've created this bliss list, which I learned from hearing people talk about online. And I believe you did the same thing.
I don't think we shared too much of it, but really it's a list of what are the things that you can do that make you feel blissful, make you feel really good and happy and energized. And everybody's list is different. For some people, maybe it's just spending time on the beach, by the water, just gives them that calmness and makes them feel good. For some it's singing in the car on the way home from work, right? You start belting out some tunes. I don't know about you, but I always sound a lot better when I sing by myself in the car. I'm actually not that bad, but things like that. So things like that get you feeling good about yourself.
So I have a list of things that I said, I literally sat down and said, "What makes me feel really good? What puts me in that state of mind?" And I made this list and I look at it regularly and I tweak it regularly as well, because sometimes what worked two months ago doesn't work now, or maybe there's something new in my life that I want to introduce. So I constantly go back to that and I try my best to put myself in those situations to make myself feel as blissful as possible. Now on the flip side, I also have a non-blissful list, right? What are things that take away from bliss? Okay, and I didn't originate this.
This was all created by other people, but I find it very useful. For me, I look at what are the things in my life that don't make me feel good, right? Maybe it's what people don't make me feel good. You hate to say that, but sometimes we all know some people in our lives that maybe when we're around them, we don't leave feeling so great. You and I say we both leave after our meetings feeling good. That's positive energy, that's an important thing, but there can be certain people that don't make you feel that way. Maybe, listen, whenever this airs, we have an election coming up. For some of us, talking about politics doesn't make us feel good, right?
Doesn't matter what side you're on. It's just not a great conversation. So I try to eliminate as much of that as possible. So anything that does not create that bliss, I eliminate. And I could be watching the news, it could be lots of different things, right? But I eliminate that and they focus on the things that make me feel good.
This is what I love about having conversations with you because all these sparks go off in my head about, oh yeah, these practices and these things that bliss lists is one of those things that I absolutely loved when I was able to, and I haven't had it as a practice and it reinvigorates that inside me to go back to that list again and freshen it up, but also get present to what does give me bliss versus just happiness, because they're very different. They're not the same thing. Exactly right. There are certain things that you get happiness from. And listen, as we get older, maybe we don't get the same thrill from those things anymore, right? So yeah, I agree with you.
So it's that internal thing. But I know you've worked on that list and like I said, keep refining it because it really does help. Yeah, it's something that you have to, it's just like going to the gym. You have to consciously put a practice in for, I know that I do, because I don't ordinarily go to that. And ordinarily, normally, the default is what's wrong, what's not working, what I don't like, what I should have gone the other way to get here this morning. I took Livingston and the car told me to go Pine Ridge, took Goodlett, I took Livingston, traffic's all backed up. It's gonna take me longer.
I should have, should have, like whatever, all the conversations in my head, the doubts and everything, versus using that time to reflect on my bliss. Like I had time in the car, I could actually reflect on a bliss list, like use that, like I was supposed to go that way, like just gets my mind in a different place. So that was a big one that I really, I remember that day vividly when you sent me the blip, when we started having that conversation about that, because I could also see who and what didn't bring me bliss. And that was a real breakthrough for me to look at, oh, oh, I don't have to tolerate that. I don't have to live like that.
I don't have to put myself in that situation. I can change my circumstances and not be around that person as much, or limit my time around, even if it's a loved one, I don't have to expose myself to that. Cause I don't feel good when I'm done there. Like there's always something there that just doesn't work between this person and me. Yeah, and that happens. Listen, I encounter people that our conversations all of a sudden turn very negative, and then I could even join in on that. And they say, well, where am I really going with this? And so it's a good exercise to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, really, that was perfect for me to get president of that.
And that's a big one that I wanna highlight in this whole, out of this whole conversation for other people, because the other thing that I wanna use this for, we had a company meeting recently and we called it Elevate 2025, the ROP summit. And it was really an opportunity for us to step away from everything. And we could have done a training on some new techniques
Developing customer service at another level.
But instead we used it to do a retreat from life, from all the everyday-ness in life. And we have a lot of moms, we have a lot of people who have very busy lives, and it was a chance for them to just separate themselves from serving others, because that's what we do in our business, we're serving others, and it was just for them to work on themselves. And to write our epitaph and to say, what is our life really for? And what do we wanna have happen for us in the next year? So we kind of laid out some plans personally, not as a business, just personally, like if you could be living your best life and having the best year of your life, what would your year look like?
So we mapped out for ourselves what actions or goals or commitments do we wanna make for the year and are working on holding each other accountable for the year so that by the end of the year or throughout the year, we have the best year ever, in all ways, spiritually, emotionally, financially, just in every way possible. So using these conversations that we have here the same way that I wanna bring to our team and our family and our community, the bliss list is one of those things that is so great and it's so beneficial for people just to like
It's like when I have to clear my head every day, I know going to the gym for me is it. That's on your bliss list, right? It is, yeah, exactly, that is. And that also helps me see my bliss list in a better way too, because it clears out the noise in my head. Like it's rid of everything and then I'm just in a new place where I can accept life the way that it is and not always be trying to change it, just like be okay with what is. And having that as a practice is something that...
I will say what you mentioned about what you're doing, what you're your employees, I think is terrific. And that's one of the things I love about you, Rob, is that you are so dedicated towards the people that you work with, right, that help you.
I mean, how many employees do you have right now, roughly? 55. 55. And any idea what the average, I guess, tenure is of those, I think, the number, that's why I asked. Yeah, it's at 15, it's 10 years in. See, most people don't even know that. So the average is 15 years. And that's a testament to what you're doing. And those type of events and summits and things like that, I think are absolutely terrific. Yeah, well, if their lives are great, and this is what we're saying at the retreat, like if they're having a great life and their life is great
Everything else will fall into place. Like here, whatever we need to do, whatever goals and commitments we have will be great. And then they're gonna love being around each other because they're gonna be up to good things and not just wallowing in the way life is and defaulting to, oh no, what about the debate? And oh no, this country's gonna go to hell, to hell and we're all doomed and all the rest of that. It doesn't matter who becomes president. Or what happens outside of us, we will make it work.
We will still have the best year ever, regardless of whatever happens out there and whatever the world says in the gloom and doom of life, because every day you wake up to it. And I know, like you said, a practice of not watching the news and being obsessed with what the feed is on my phone. In fact, that day we did a digital detox, we put the phones away and we weren't-- It's not easy to do. Even on the break, I know. We've discussed that as well, you and I, very difficult. And it was a big deal even that day to go on a break and not run to the phones.
Like it was actually a practice that we talked about, like, all right, you're gonna have to work on being with people over this break. Like be with the people. What a concept, yeah.
(Laughing) Yeah, because it's just natural to just go down and in every moment have that, like break. And every time I get a moment, this morning I got put into Tesla jail because the new update on Tesla is for the full self-driving.
The camera now can detect if there's something in your hand. So that's how it determines whether you're, paying attention or not. So it used to be just if you were touching the wheel and lately it's gonna be kind of-- Right, every so often you had to touch the wheel. Now you don't have to touch the wheel at all as long as you're looking forward or you don't have anything in your hand. So it'll tell you, hey, you got something in your hand, you better put it down. One, two, three, it gives you so many warnings before in this morning, I got to the warning where it says, you're in Tesla jail now. You're done for the ride. Put that phone down.
I'm not even gonna put it in self-driving anymore, you're done, you're penalized for the day., it's actually a great feature though, I like that. It is, I mean-- I didn't know there was Tesla jail, I think that's what I call it, I like that. I haven't put in Tesla jail because I was not-- Elon might wanna use that one. Yeah, right? Yeah, I have to send out a tweet to him, I was put in Tesla jail. And it's for the benefit of the technology itself, I mean, I get what's there and why it's important. Sure. I'm just glad to do it.
And it also was reminding me to be present to where I am and not be trying to be ahead of, wherever else I'm going, but being present and being, because we've had this conversation too, the digital detox and-- It's hard to do, I'm still not good at it. I mean, I have to admit, I try, I have tried every type of internal mechanism and reminder and everything I can, every safeguard to try to get better, it's not an easy thing to do. But being present in the moment is always a challenge, not an easy thing.
I saw on a podcast recently, Simon Sinek, he was talking about when you, and I didn't try it because I saw this right before I went on a little weekend and I had an excursion with my wife
That you give your phone to your spouse when you're on vacation, so that if anybody needs to take pictures, you take a picture with each other's phone. But you don't have that temptation to when you go to the bathroom or wherever else, you start picking up the phone and doing whatever you do. I don't think anybody listening or watching ever uses the phone in the bathroom, I will say.
(Both Laughing) But I know what you're saying, yes.
I thought that practice was, and I was tempted to try it on the last trip around, and I didn't end up doing it, but I was better than I have been on, in terms of checking in. But it usually only takes one text to take you away from the moment. Sure it does. One text and all of a sudden you're not where you are. We went to South Beach while you were in over there, so we didn't look you up.
And we had a beautiful spot on the beach and it was, we're having a great time and you get that one text and then all of a sudden, I wasn't in South Beach anymore. Right, right. From the moment, just completely taken away from-- Yeah, it's a tough thing, it takes away. Again, I fall for that all the time, but it's something we just have to keep working on, I guess.
You're a gym guy too, so you, what's your, or a physical fitness guy too, so what's your routine with-- Yeah, I love physical fitness. So for me, that goes back to the bliss thing. I mean, I do not feel right if I don't work out. So if I go a day without any kind of physical activity to some degree, I just don't feel, I don't feel good. I mean, actually, there's something about it. I know they talk about the endorphins and all that, but I actually don't feel right when I do that. So I'm big into traditional weight training. So I probably lift weights, I guess, five days a week.
I like to do a boxing class every so often, so that's something I do to try to break things up, try to play tennis once or twice a week.
I do the treadmill a little bit. Never was a big cardio person. Recently, I've just started trying to do a little bit of cardio, just based on goals and things I'm doing. But to me, physical fitness is really important. And it's fun, right? It's a challenge. We have a goal of what we want, whether it's a certain weight, whether we wanna add muscle, whether we wanna lose body fat, whatever that goal is. The gym really allows us to work on that because no matter how successful you are, no matter how much money you have, very, very wealthy people cannot get a great physique overnight, everybody needs to work on it.
And I think that's what makes it fun is it's just a simple challenge. I'm also really big on the eating part, right? I think that's important. And you and I, again, have discussed that about really making sure we're eating the right amount of our macronutrients, right? Our protein, carbs, and fat. Those are things that are very important to me based on goals as well. But yeah, physical fitness is something I really enjoy doing. Now, how do you, being Italian, being raised Italian
How do you find the discipline for that, the eating part? Not an easy thing to do. Now, if I were still, if my grandparents were still around I was still around them, I think it would be extremely difficult, but it's discipline. I mean, it's just getting used to doing certain things. I mean, like people think of Italians and we think of carbs and pizza. I'm careful with what I eat. I think I've told, I mean, I probably eat more carbs than most of the people
But I use it for energy, right? So it depends on what you're eating, I think, depends. So things like pasta and pizza, moderation for me. I mean, I'd love to tell you, I eat it every day. I did growing up, every day growing up, my mom made pasta every single day. It was a different type of pasta, but every day she kind of recycled, whether it was just just mani nada sauce or peas or whatever it may be, it was always, always different. So the temptation is always there, but I think the longer you get used to the routine of eating a certain way, I think it becomes easier. I am very routine driven. I mean, for me, every 15 minutes of my day is planned out ahead of time.
I mean, I get that crazy when it comes to that. And some people may say he's a little overboard. It works for me, but same thing with my eating. I eat the same amount of times every day, usually about seven times a day. I eat almost the same time of day as well. My meals are pretty similar each day. I try to vary them a little bit, but yeah, it's not an easy thing to do, but I try my best. Now, what about when you travel? Yeah, very difficult. So I just came back from a trip, as
With some family and we went overseas and it's, listen, you want to enjoy life, so it's not easy. So I ate what I wanted to eat. And that's why you work out. I also worked out while I was away. Because again, I liked to do that. So that was part of what I did. So I would go to the gym while I was on vacation. You don't have to, there are times I haven't done that, but I just felt like I wanted to do that. So it's not easy, but again, moderation. But I pretty much ate what I wanted when I was away. So you give yourself permission to enjoy. You have to enjoy it. Yeah, this is life is too short. I do these things because I like to do them. I don't want to suffer.
That's different. I mean, there's too many, you go to other countries or just all the beautiful places in the US. I mean, there's a lot of different cultures out there and a lot of different types of foods to embrace and enjoy. And I love food. I mean, I literally love going out to dinner. If you said, what are your hobbies? That's one of them is actually just going out to dinner, trying a new restaurant, eating great food. I love that. I'm not a huge drinker. I do, I'll have a little wine or a martini or something, but I'm usually one or two and that's about it. So it just doesn't do it for me personally.
The love of food, I think that's a real Italian thing because I am the same way. I mean, just our whole upbringing, everything was around food. They say that Italians, most people eat to live, but Italians live to eat. Absolutely. And it's just all about food. Every holiday was food and all day it was food.
Finding a great restaurant is a really big deal. And enjoying what the creations are of that restaurant. In different ways, we talk about food and we talk about restaurants in South Beach that I have to get to. A lot of good ones there. Yeah. My outlook on food and restaurants, by the way, has changed as well because there was a time where I was eating food, just a lot of it. You go to a restaurant, we comment on how great they are with being generous with the portions. We like that. They give us lots of food. Now I'm kind of not like that. Now I've been enjoying going to restaurants that maybe the portions are a little bit less, but it's more creative.
It's just something more interesting and different. I kind of enjoy that now at this stage. So I don't need all the quantity, but that quality is really, really enjoyable. Yeah. Yeah, that's something I noticed recently the last couple of times Michelle and I have been out is that we would order an appetizer that looked really small and it was small, but it allowed us to get more of them and taste more of what was on the menu too, rather than, we commented on this because the last restaurant we went to, that's all we did was order appetizers, but we ordered quite a few of them anyway.
But we didn't leave feeling regretful like, oh, I should have worn my other pants because I can't even get out of here with these pants. I just felt like, okay about it.
And we're able to sample some of the more fun things on the menu that I wanted to try anyway, because I always like to try the things that are on the outer edges of things, the things that are a little bit different, the octopus and the things that just aren't-- It's a popular thing right now, octopus. It's on every menu of every restaurant you go to, but yeah, you're exactly right. So yeah, you don't always need that. Again, I think things have changed a little bit. It used to always be about those big meals. And I think now it's just about the quality, the experience, all that. That's what I enjoy. Experience, yeah. What about the traditional Italian sauce
Your mom's past. Yes. Where, has that been passed down anywhere? Are there other relatives or people in your family that have able to recreate the Italians, what we call the gravy, but-- Well, I thought you were gonna go there because I know you're fulfilling. So it's like Genos and Pat's, right? So sauce or gravy. So I grew up with sauce. I'm not saying anyone who says gravy is wrong, right?
But that was just what we said in our house. So yeah, I mean, my grandmother was a great cook. I mean, growing up in Brooklyn, I would literally spend the day playing basketball. She lived right down the street from a park and I would go and like old school Italian Brooklyn, she would scream across from her backyard, calling me when it was time for dinner. And I'd go there and it was a feast. It was just tremendous food. I mean, I even remember Rob, during the day, I'd be hungry and my grandmother would say, "You want me to just make you some chicken cutlets?" or something. Something that for us now is like a project, right? She'd just make them. Oh my God.
It's like making a sandwich. Exactly.
Chicken cuts are really big deal. They are, but of course she fried them. Nobody, we didn't think of things like, what are we frying and not frying back then? We just ate it that way. Of course, yeah. And she made big pasta dishes and I mean, those are all great memories. And same with my mom, same thing. So she's passed that on. So we know the recipes, we're able to do that. We cook a little bit at home, but like I said, we also like to go out. I like to try different restaurants. I almost like, I track where I eat. So I know where I try to keep track of the places I want to go to. So that I could kind of check them off as I try them and just experience different things.
But yeah, those were good times. What's on the hot list right now for restaurants for you? What's one that- That's a good question. I've been enjoying a lot of restaurants as, in Miami Beach. So that's kind of been a big thing. There are a lot of new restaurants down here in Naples though that I know, so I went not too long ago to the Warren. You've been there? No.
Warren, that's in the like design district. I'll tell you what, it was a great experience. It felt a lot like a little bit of a Miami vibe to me. Obviously Fifth Avenue has some great places and some newer places. It's really changed a lot, I think over the years as well. So I'm always open to different places. So I don't have anything particular, but I'm always looking for it to have some fun. Must place to go to in South Beach.
Wow, that's a good one. (Sighs) You stomped me on this one. I would say, so I like Jaya, which is at the Satay. It's kind of like it's an Asian Indian fusion type of place. I would say that's really at the top of my list, but there are just so many great places that I enjoy. Gecko is another one that I enjoy more in the Miami city part as well. So lots of great restaurants. Across the Causeway. Right across the Causeway. I'd be going right over there. Gecko is owned by the same person who owns Komodo and a lot of other restaurants. Poppy Steak, which is another one. It's all the same owner. And they've just done a great job.
Dave Grutman is actually the owner of there and just runs it. He actually owns Liv as well, the nightclub in the fountain blue. So yeah, I mean, there are a lot of great places to go to. Okay, well, we'll keep everyone updated on what your latest is. Yeah, I'll be happy to, sure.
So you also were a big part of educating Southwest Florida for a long time on Wink TV. And you have a segment or had a segment on there, which may be coming back when they put their new studio in. And what did that involved and what did you do? And what was that about? Cause you were big in teaching people, I think what was happening. And it was, I always liked it because it could
It gave me a perspective. It helped me understand what was going on in the world in a way, cause you explained it in layman's terms to me. Thank you. So I always try to explain layman's terms the best I can, because I always tell people I could use a lot of jargon and try to impress you, but I don't know what that accomplishes, right? So I was like to tone things down. So I guess it was about 10 years ago when I became the financial correspondent for Wink News. And that was great. I mean, that's obviously a very big local network down here. And so I started really just reporting on certain issues.
So they would call me up and say, listen, something happened in the financial world. Would you be willing to come down and speak about it? Just periodically. And that turned into one day them approaching me that they have a concept that they want to have a weekly show, a live show called Money Monday. And it would be myself and one of the anchors. And I would speak about various topics. So I did that for probably seven or eight years, every Monday live in the morning. And that was a lot of fun. And I'll share something with you that I don't tell a lot of people, but when I first started just doing the periodic type of interviews, I mean, it was recorded.
And if you're a little nervous or whatever, right? You're okay. They cut it out. But when they approached me for Money Monday, I mean, right away I said, yes. I think you say yes to everything, right? But when I mentioned it was live, I mean, it was a little bit intimidating. I said, well, do I really want to do live? Like live is a big deal when, people, however number of people watching you, every move. And so, but I said, you know what? I'll just figure it out. Because that's kind of what I do with things. And I said, fine, I'll do it. And I enjoyed doing that. So with the hurricane, the one from two years ago, the studio actually got flooded.
So because of that, they actually stopped all of the shows that they had. Now, Wink is moving to a new facility. There are discussions. We'll see what happens about maybe starting Money Monday over again. But regardless, it was actually a lot of fun to do. I love education.
I've taught classes at Florida Gulf Coast University on topics in my field as well. I just enjoy doing that. I like educating people on their finances, on what they could do to make their lives better, and do the things that they want to accomplish when they retire and just throughout their lives in general. Yeah, you had shared with me a little bit about, without going into the business side of it, but just your philosophy about the whole picture of somebody, not just a slice. You talked to me about
When I was asking you for some advice or some input, and you shared with me your view, or I guess philosophy on, we're looking at your life as a whole, not just one little segment of it in terms of well-being, but wealth, financial well-being, I guess maybe. Well, absolutely. You mentioned, you started out with the word confidence, right? That was a big thing here, optimism. How do you feel that way when it comes to your finances?
What I try to do is I focus on the whole picture, rather than just a little sleeve, because we all have different dreams and goals of what we want to achieve in our lives, through our lives, even when we're starting out young, getting married, having a wedding, it's not a cheap thing, right? Having a wedding, having children, certainly you and I both know not cheap, right? So you need money for these type of things, but down the road, when we start getting older, we start thinking about retirement, and what does that look like? Some people, retirement is just sitting on the beach and having a corona and watching the sunset, right?
For others, it's maybe volunteering through retirement. That's become a really big thing, something, a charity that's near and dear to your heart. And then for others, continuing to work or consult part-time. So whatever it looks like, I look at the whole picture and try to determine where do people want to go? What do they want to achieve from a financial point of view? And then we essentially work backwards. How do we make that happen? How do we make the tweaks today so that long-term, hopefully they can have the confidence to be able to do the things that are important to them? And for some people, it's a little bit of a challenge, to be honest with you.
And it's about hopefully we get it early enough where we can make those changes. And for others, it's just some slight tweaks and filling in some gaps to allow those things to happen as well. But that's what I enjoy the most about what I do is helping people just feel confident and optimistic about their future finances. Yeah.
When we were having that conversation, I remember vividly just you
It was more about the other person, it was more about me than it was about what you had for me. It was always about me. And that's something that was unique to me in talking to somebody who's in your field because it was more about what I wanted than what you wanted. And that left me feeling very free and open to communicate anything with you rather than being on guard about, oh, is that really the right thing? Is that, should I do, should I not? And you just had a real gentle way of allowing me to express myself and what my needs were and what my future was for.
So that's something that I know has to attribute to your success because you genuinely care about what that other person wants in their life. Thank you for saying that, I appreciate that. Yeah, that was always cool to me. Every time I hear it in my head, every time I look at one of your posts, either on LinkedIn or Facebook
The song by ZZ Top, "Sharp Dressed Man."
(Laughing) It plays in my head every time I see it. And I don't play it on the post. I know, not at all, but it's automatically your life background music for me because you've got a style in a way that is awesome. I admire it. Thank you. You're always on point and always with that. So where does that come from? How do you stay on your game like that?
That's a great question I've never received before, Rob. Thank you for saying that, by the way. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think it's important to be authentic, right? We need to be ourselves. We don't have to dress like everybody else. We don't always have to act like everybody else. So for me, I mentioned fitness is important, but fashion is also important. I like it. A lot of guys don't like to go shopping. Do you like to go shopping? Not usually. My wife, I'm blessed to have a wife who loves it and she's really great at knowing what I need. Okay, okay. So, and that's probably a lot of guys would have that. Me, I like it. I like actually shopping for clothes.
I like style. I like to follow it. I like to see how people dress and what resonates with me. And some things do, right? And some things don't. We all have our look. If I go to a store and I, my eyes will automatically gravitate towards something that is just kind of my style and I'll see that. And that's kind of how I do it. But no, I think it's, listen, I think it's important to feel comfortable however you dress. For some people, it could be a t-shirt and sneakers and that's their thing and they wear it really well. And others could be suits and tuxedos, but it's just, for me, it's just something I'm passionate about.
And where are places that you shop or wherever your go-to stores come at? There are a lot of stores I go to. So I would say nowhere in particular.
Since COVID, I probably wear more workout clothes these days than suits and especially ties these days. But yeah, I mean, lots of different stores. I mean, I like Saks and I like to go to Manhattan. Since I'm from there, I'll go there a couple times a year. That's generally where I'll go to certain stores, especially smaller stores, to kind of find things that interest me that I already know the look, I already know my size. They know my size and it makes it much easier to do that. But yeah, I like trying. Same thing with, when I go to Miami, I like to dress a different way than maybe I'll dress here because it's a little more edgy and I can do that.
So whatever I'm feeling. Yeah, Zach, you have to cut in "Sharp Dressed Man" and do a little segment of this when we see him because that's his intro. That's his walk-up song. That is great.
(Laughing) It's funny. Really? No, no joke. Michelle even comments on it when she sees.
Well, thank you. Yeah, no.
So we have these words that
They're areas of Philadelphia that are very weird. And we are doing a segment that we have our guests say these words or attempt to anyway. Okay, oh boy. All right.
I don't know where we're gonna go here. It's not gonna say forget about it. (Laughing) It's good. All right, here's word number one.
Oh boy.
Concha Hogan.
Was that close? Pretty good, yeah. Yeah, that's a lot closer than most. (Laughing) Well, maybe we'll just stop there then. (Laughing)
All right, let's go here. This one here. Now you gotta bring out the hard ones.
Manayuk. Manayuk.
Was that close? Manayuk. Manayuk, okay. What is Manayuk? It's an area. It's an area of Philadelphia. All right, so these are all areas. Yep. Okay, so I've never, obviously I've never heard any of them.
I mean, I'll pronounce it like it sounds, but Bala Sinwood.
Okay, good. Bala Kinwood. Bala Kinwood, okay, okay. Oh, that's how they say it. I wouldn't know if they didn't tell me that. All right, here's the big one. All right.
Shulukin. You're killing me here.
Shulukin, I won't say it again. I'm not gonna embarrass myself three times. That's awesome, that's awesome. Because anybody who sees these words, they're just impossible to say. Hold it up for the camera so everyone can see what I just saw. How do you say that, Rob? Skooko. Oh, well, I was close. Which it doesn't look like that. (Laughing) I don't know how they get the pronunciations out of the way these words are spelled. Skooko. Skooko. I don't even know where you get Skooko from. I don't either. I don't know where they, I don't know the origin of these words, but that's a river that goes-- You could ask me 10 minutes later, I still wouldn't know what you say.
Yeah, it's a bizarre looking word. I mean, it looks like a scary word. Very interesting, I like that though. So, all right, so I'm gonna flip back to you, back to what I mentioned before. Genos or pats?
Neither. Neither, I knew you could say that. So, what would you say? Yeah, I mean, they're good to visit because of the nostalgia of it and the whole thing. But yeah, Jim's was one that I liked more than Genos or pats. The local Drexel Hill pizza, which was nobody knows or nobody talks about. That was always one of my favorites because it was the one I could walk to. Sure, sure. When I go back up north, I still go there. And then my cousin who is in Ridley or Morton, they always introduce me to the latest, greatest, what's hot when I go up there. And they have their go-to place for cheesesteaks, go-to place for pizza. So, I just go along with whatever they have.
But for me, it was Jim's and Drexel Hill pizza over the two that I would go to. Jim's was on Baltimore Pike, Jim's was also on South Street. There's probably other Jim's too, I think they. But they were up there, one of the known ones like Pats or Genos, but they weren't right across from each other, but they were the top ones that were like that. And they're commercialized too, I would imagine. Everybody knows those. I mean, I don't know any others other than those two. Yeah, very much so. I had gone back and, because they were open to, I think 24 hours and go back and get in late and go down there and you'd see people at two o'clock in the morning.
But I'd have to go to both, because I'd always compare either way. But they just weren't the best. Now down here, brand new that just opened up is Cheesesteaks.com, they actually bought that domain. Really? No one had that domain, they bought it. You said they had to pay a lot of money for that. Yeah, he did say that. I heard that he had to pay some money for that. And they're on the East Trail.
They only get so many rolls in a day. As soon as they sell out, they're done. Oh, one of those, those are good. Yeah, and they kill it. They put a lot of meat on the sandwich. In fact, we're gonna go there. We're gonna do a segment on there because we're gonna go there and-- That's a good one to do, yeah. Talk to them about it and get some video of the Cheesesteaks. Cause I got one a few weeks ago and we brought them some fellow Philly gifts, fellow Philadelphian gifts to say welcome and we're happy you're here. I like that.
And they do it right. The rolls are phenomenal. They get them shipped in, obviously. And the shaved meat, which is just chopped up just right and the cheese and they put a lot on there too. They don't skimp at all. No gristle. The meat was phenomenal. They just, they for South Florida do a really, really good job, one of the best that I've had. And I wish I could eat them all the time. I indulge every now and then. The moderation, as we said before. Yeah, yeah.
But we'll have to have a taste testing segment on here. We might do something collab with them at the salon where we have them come and bring a bunch of sandwiches in for the day. That's a great, so you should bring Joey Chestnuts in., Joey Chestnut, the Nathan's hot dog eating champion. Oh. You should bring him in and see how many he can eat in 10 minutes. That would be a fun segment to watch. That's a good idea. I think his record with the hot dogs is something, I mean, I'm gonna probably be, I think it's 77 in 10 minutes. 10 minutes. I might be off by a couple. Oh my gosh. But yeah, anyway, that's, I always tell my kids, so there's great athletes in the world.
There's Tom Brady, right? I mean, we all think of Tom Brady. We think of the Michael Jordans and whoever you think that the Aaron judges, for me, Joey Chestnut is probably one of the greatest athletes of all time. And I say that jokingly, but not a lot of people can do what that man does when it comes to consuming food. How you must feel after doing that. Oh my God, how you want one? On YouTube, he'll actually discuss how he feels. It takes him days to recover, like days. He doesn't vomit at all out. I think, well, you're not allowed to during a competition.
You actually, not to get to, people might be eating while they're watching this, but yeah, you're not allowed to do that, but you would think afterwards, I mean, I don't know why anyone would wanna put themselves through that, but-- Yeah, he was famous for it. He still is, he's still breaking records. He's a champ, yeah.
All right, favorite.
Comfort food.
Favorite comfort food.
Boy, that's a good one as well.
I mean, I would probably say pizza. I would say pizza would probably be my favorite comfort food. I don't do a lot of comfort food, but I would say probably pizza would come to mind. Last movie you saw.
Oh boy, I'm not a movie guy. So last movie, I don't even know. It's been that long. You watch movies, right? You're into movies, aren't you? It's just series or movies. That's our little escape, we'll do that. Instead of go to the movies, we'll watch something at home, Dateline Friday night, but then, Dateline or the latest series is The Americans. Is that the latest? Okay. Which is old, but yeah. I'm not a big TV person. I watch a little bit at night, but not a movie, never been a movie person. So I really couldn't tell you the last movie that I saw. Okay, how about this podcast, last podcast you listened to?
Last podcast list, it was Ed Meilette., I listened to him quite a bit. I would say that was the last one I listened to. And I will say movies, by the way, it wasn't the last one I saw, because it was a long time ago, but going back to the old Philly thing, Rocky was always a great movie. You talk about inspiration and, I mean, Rocky's great. And of course the Philadelphia thing, but yeah, I do listen to podcasts. I used to listen to a lot of different people, and I've narrowed that down, kind of like what we said about finding that blissfulness, whatever works for you. You don't need to listen, first of all, you need to only spend hours a day listening to podcasts.
I do it when I'm in a gym, so I try to make sure my time is well-spent. But yeah, I only listened to a couple of people at this point.
How about, I wanted to ask you about this, because I think he's coming to Fort Myers, Ed Meilette. He's coming with a group. He is coming to Life Search, which is in November. So it's next month, I'm going. Oh, you are? Yeah, I already have tickets. I wanted to ask you about that. It's so funny you say that, because the day I found out about it, I said to my wife, I said, "I should send this to Rob." It was so funny, and I didn't, and I apologize, but I thought of the same thing. No, it's been on my mind. So I did get the ticket. I forget when it is in November.
But yeah, it's gonna be great. You have Tim Tebow is gonna be there as well, and a lot of other. Patricia Heaton, I guess, who's from, everybody loves Raymond. So remember her? Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's there, and a few others that are really big names. I didn't personally know them, but I think it's gonna be a really good event. Yeah, that's at Hertz Arena? It's at Hertz Arena. Okay, all right, I'm gonna go. Yeah, that's gonna be good. It's an all-day event. I think it's from like 8.30 to 5.30 at night or something like that. But yeah, Ed Millett will be there, and I think that's gonna be a lot of fun. All right, I'm going. I'm gonna go.
Let's coordinate that then. Yeah, I literally, you were the first person I thought of. I will tell you that. Yeah, say it. Likewise, when I saw his name.
So people just got to witness what we just went through. Yeah, let's coordinate that. That would be great. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. And we still have to do dinner too. We gotta do the dinner thing together with the wives. Would love to do that. Yeah, that'd be great. I appreciate you coming all the way down here and making my day that much better. And I know you touched Zach and just you guys creating this day together. So he got a little piece of you and some of the staff in here got a little piece of you, which I always appreciate because you leave us all in a better place. So I'm honored and very grateful for you to have you in my life. Thank you.
Thank you again. Thanks for having me. Thank you for your friendship. Again, you and I think one of the things that we have that not everybody has is we could be vulnerable with each other.
We're emotional with each other. I think that makes a great friendship. And so I appreciate all that you've done here. The arrangement, Zach has been terrific. Awesome to deal with. So, and I love your facilities. I mean, every time I walk in, I mean, I always feel good because you could tell every attention to detail has been taken care of here. And that's a testament to you. So thank you for your friendship. Thanks for having me. I love you brother. Thanks. Love you as well. Thank you.