Crafting Connections, Lives, and Diamonds: The Art of Jewelry Concierge with Michelle Zack

Their last names did not end in a vowel. Everyone, Delvecchio Sci, Deora, ALAH, every one of them was all, they were just this mob of Italians. And then one or two, very Jewish guy. A couple Jewish guys. That's what that was. The other, no, that was my high school. And my mom too. My mom went to a, a high school in Cleveland Heights, which is like right down the street from Murray Hill.

From Little Italy and Cleveland. And everybody was either Jewish or Italian. Yeah, yeah. That was it. Yeah. And they all cohabitated together. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it was like the Jews wanted to be Italian. A hundred percent. There's so many, there's so much crossover to the town. Exactly. Some Jewish guilt and Italian guilt loves.

That's true. And then the Italians always wanted to have the Jews by their side and like, helping 'em out. Get 'em out of trouble, like talk things out. Yeah. Yeah. It was just, and then they wanted to be part of the clan and they wanted to come over and eat and like, I don't know, we just grew up in like such a great era of our lives.

How old are you? 60. Just turned 60 this year. Okay. You're only 10 years older than me. Yeah. Yeah. So look, you didn't look your age. I thought he was like 52, 55 at the top end. Oh God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. That's our Italian gene. That's right. It's a good olive oil. Yeah. You look 21, 23. He's, he's, he's an old soul.

You're a tech guy though. He's an old soul. He's a, he's a good old soul. Love it. Love that. He's love it. He is a real good old soul. He's got a me I just know how to like, do my work. Yeah. Get, get into a phone and ask me to do 75 other things. It's not happening. Yeah. On. I'm the ignorant. I need tech guys like this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, absolutely. Even for this. So that's what's kind of cool about this too. 'cause we, I get to, we get to just talk and he does all the behind the scenes work and makes us look good and, documents. So we have what, 22 now? 21? This'll be 20, 23 or 20. Oh, okay. Four. We started in October last year.

So Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we've really been churning it out over the past. It's like two or three months, like one a week basically. It's just, there's just nothing that does this. And for me, I get to know another human on another level that it's a conversation you wouldn't ordinarily have, or if you did, it would be at a bar and you wouldn't remember it because you were drinking maybe.

Or it wouldn't go to the level that it does. But I like it because it really, for the people that I get to talk to, it takes a snapshot of who you are in the world, but also, I get to know you on another level that I wouldn't get to know a human being on another. 'cause life's fast,? First of all, it's short, but it's also things are moving so fast that we don't stop to really, seize the moment.

Yeah. And, and acknowledge the great things like the Italian heritage, which I'm so proud of. And I so love and I so appreciate. And when I see somebody who's carrying on the tradition of we're doing meatballs, like people, people don't know what that is. A lot of people don't know what that is, or they Oh yeah.

My great grandmother used to do it. Which is true. But to see it being carried down as a tradition is so cool. I love that. Absolutely.,? Absolutely. And where you're from, is a very similar, there was that migration of the Italians that moved to that area. 'cause when my parents, same thing in West Philly, there was this, little concentration of the Italians in their neighborhood there, in these tiny, tiny little row homes that were so little.

We lived in a motor home that was bigger than this little row home, a, a thing that was on wheels. It was bigger than their, their tiny, my grandmother's kitchen was so little. Same with mine. I don't know how she cooked what she cooked out of that little thing. We don't either. It was so tiny. Well, had you've ever gotten to Italy?

Yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have. The kitchens are the size of that stove. I mean, sorry, the size of your washing. I mean, they're like this big. Yeah. And they managed to do it all. Incredible stuff outta those little kitchens. Yeah. It was incredible. Very little, right? Yeah. It was very little. Right. It's insane.

We had to grow their own stuff and my grandmother's little basal garden in the back where she had tomatoes that she get in the summertime, we do the same thing. Yeah. To this day, my mom and dad, they have their own little garden. They have their peppers. Peppers, tomatoes, peppers. The peppers. That's great.

Basil plant that's like this big. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Sit there and smell the basil. Oh, there's nothing like it. Oh my gosh. In the world, there's nothing like that. Yeah. Fresh basil. It's the best. That's how my mother used to get us in the house. 'cause you'd leave in on the weekends especially she'd throw us outta the house in the morning.

Can you go wherever you want to go? And then we were playing football or doing whatever outside of the house. And then we'd smell, my mother made that sauce. She would lift the lid off the gravy and you, the aroma of the garlic and the basil would float outside. And we knew the meatballs were coming 'cause we'd run in and snag a meatball That was fried.

That's what I did. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I did. Yeah. My mom would scream at me, she'd be like, you're not, it's not ready yet. Yeah. Right. Don't put your hand in the pot. Right. That's right. Right. I don't care. Right. My mom get upset. Dip the bread, the dip the bread. Oh my gosh. Am I wrong? Dunk it right in there.

And the fresh bread. Oh my gosh. That was so amazing. Yeah. Just the loaf from the store. Yeah. The simple white Italian loaf of bread. Yeah. Just dip it right in. A hundred percent. I'll be doing that on Saturday. I love that. I so miss that. Yeah. Pretty much get it once a year now from, it's the best. Aunt Jeanie, we call her Aunt Jeanie.

She's not really her aunt, but we have a lot of people like that in our life that are, are ants. I don't love it. Aunt Jeanie. So we are, we are actually. So what are we gonna do? How are we doing? This is, we're going, we're, we're in. So it's, it's, it's happening in this moment. So it's, I love it. It's being recorded.

Welcome back to the Spotlight on Good People. And today's gonna be super interesting. this is gonna be fun and I'll tell you more about it because we've already had this amazing conversation with my new Italian friend, referred by Jr.

My other new Italian friend. So this is Italian month, here it is. With the month of Paisan. Yeah. 'cause Brian was on last week and he's, he's Jewish, was raised Jewish, but I think he's got a little Italian in his blood too. Brian Rowland from who was the, miraculously has recovered from his accident.

So, he's an amazing human. He's doing Oh my gosh. Doing so well. He's, God bless him. I know. No, for real. Yeah. Yeah. That's was God bless him. To see him, to talk to him, to see how he's doing. I was in tears. I was like, God bless you. I'm so grateful. I know he's still got issues and I feel bad. He's got, nerve damage and he's gonna have ongoing issues, but he's got a great spirit about him for all he's been through just an incredible human Yeah.

That's like what true adversity is too. Yeah. A hundred percent. To get the drive to keep propelling forward. Right, right. He could wallow in his, misery. Oh yeah. But he's, he's not doing that at all. No. He's just like taking advantage of it to really thank God. Turn into an inspiration super guy.

That's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Well, my mom just got diagnosed with cancer. Mm. just went through her six weeks of a heavy chemo radiation Oh man. At 72. Oh man. And, it was, it's a rare cancer, it's vulva cancer, which I didn't even know anything about. When I found out about it was almost in like this shock of, this is my mom.

Right. Yeah. But now she's finding out her progress and she's just like, listen, I'm just gonna keep going forward. I'm just going to keep moving. Like I, nothing has really gotten her down. Even when she was at her sickest, when I was back, I took leave from Naples and went back there for six weeks to be with her.

Hmm. And, that's awesome you did that. Oh, that's really awesome. You did. That's the best medicine. The best medicine is the love. Is love. That's it. That's awesome. Be there for my father and, help out as much as I can.,. my sister too, she lives down here as well. Mm. So it's just kind like we just piggyback off of each other and just try to be there for as much as we can for her through her process,?

Yeah. This is like a journey. We didn't want her to go on at all. No, no. It sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Sucks., my family's been very supportive of it and my boyfriend's been very supportive of it. So it's been, it's been, it's been easier to have that. But that's where we are talking about like, when it comes to family, that's everything.

Yeah. So I'm just like, mom, no matter what, we're gonna get you through this and you're just gonna keep driving and driving and driving. That's awesome. So how's she tolerating the chemo? Well, it just ended, well it's going on six weeks of ending or seven weeks of ending now. So she went for her first CAD scan.

So we're waiting for the results of that to come in, which will hopefully will happen in the next like day or two. so she's on pins and needles a little bit, but oh my gosh. She had the highest dose of chemotherapy that there is out there to have every Monday followed by five days in a row of radiation.

Ah. Both at the same time. Uhhuh, but she's getting hit hard. Yeah. Uhhuh. And she did not waver. She just every day got up, tried to keep going forward. I have another week. We were like another day mom. Another day done another day done. And I mean, it was just like our whole family just came together, but that's what we were raised as.

Yeah. That's beautiful. So, yeah. We came from that family dynamic, like when my grandmother passed away at 89, it'll be one year in September. We were there for her all the way till the end, as soon as we found out. 'cause she had Alzheimer's. So as soon as we found out that her switch in her head went off and it was like, I don't wanna no longer eat.

But that's one of the problems with that disease is once it clicks. Your head just goes into a, I don't want to eat anymore shutoff mode. Mm. So to watch somebody literally go the strongest woman in our lives, by the way My grandmother's a saint in my eyes. Yeah. Period. Yeah. was just a very subservient woman her whole life was raised from Italy Yeah.

From Sicily. Yeah., to take care of your man. Yeah. So she never worked in life. Grandma, my grandmother, she worked her ass off at home. Yeah. That's what I mean. Right, right. Raising three daughters. Yeah. Yeah. While my grandfather went out and worked, cooked, cleaned. Yep. Took care of the man. Yeah.

My grandmother never drove either. She never, never her drive. My grandmother didn't start to drive until her forties. Really? She didn't even have the one car, which most people back then had one car. Right. That's right. Yeah. The station wagon. Yeah. Correct. And, yeah, she, she didn't even know, didn't even wanna like learn how to drive.

Yeah. Right. It was the same. Yeah. It was just dinner on the table at five o'clock. Yeah. My grandfather got home for, he was a teamster. Mm. So he worked in the unions. Yeah. He got home at three o'clock in the afternoon, Uhhuh five o'clock dinner on the table. Uhhuh. It was just that way of life for my mom.

And, her sisters like, yeah. But the one thing we did have was like my great grandparents were alive. Both of them too. I had them both until I was my 19 and 20 years old. Mm. My great-grandmother passed away a year after my great-grandfather did. My great-grandfather was 92. Good gene. Wow. Tough cookies, man.

I don't even know. No kidding. That generation. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I just think contributed to like what they ate. Yeah. It was all simple ingredients back then. Yeah. It's like olive oil. Yeah. Tomato. And they eat pasta and do well it wasn't like a bad thing. No, it wasn't evil to eat pasta. No. And a lot of garlic.

Yeah. A lot of garlic. Yeah., my grandmother gonna emanate. You gotta feel it coming outta your skin and smell it. Seriously. My grandmother, her answer, I kid you not ask my mom, ask anybody in my family, I kid you not. You eat some garlic, eat some garlic, your flu will go away. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was, it worked for everything.

Yeah. 'cause it was in everything, everything we ate it had garlic in it, made expansion wine. Wine had dinner. Wine was just always out on the table. Oh, yeah. Didn't matter how old I was. Didn't matter. You had your wine, coffee, it was like coffee and like you said, the Scots and E everything, just everything was put out on the table for all of us to,.

Yeah. It's just amazing. It's the way it was, the whole, it's the way, life was around. And I think a lot of businesses get got created out of that hospitality of the Italian way. I know. That's how my parents had it too. It did. You know that's their way It did. My grandfather came over to this country with a skill.

Okay. He came here with zero in his pocket. He lived under park benches in New York City. Yeah. Under Park benches. Oh, I believe it. There was so many of them. Yeah. They were just a little boy. Yeah. Yeah. Not like a 25-year-old man. Yeah. Like a little boy. And he was born in 1903. Wow. My great grandfather.

And when he came here, he came here with his other one brother, and he let nine kids in the family, they were the only two to come over here from to the United States. Everyone else is back in Italy. So our name in Italy is Zda. Z-I-N-D-A-T-O is all over. And my grandmother's Verdi, V-E-R-D-I. Oh, wow.

Wow. So Verdi actually. Yeah. And my grandfather was like, I wanted to come here for a better life. He came, came he, your grandfather had nine brother. My great eight. My great-grandfather. Great-grandfather. Had nine children though. Wow. No, not nine children. No. He came from nine. He came from nine. Came from nine.

And him and my uncle, his, his other brother. Brother that came here, they came here and he went to Texas from New York. Yeah. And my grandfather, my great-grandfather came to Cleveland from New York. Okay. Okay. And then that was kind of like how the families merged and Yeah. My great, my mom's parents. I'm sorry.

My grandmother's parents and my grandfather's parents, my both sets came over to Cleveland and that's where my grandmother and my grandfather had met through mutual families, Uhhuh, that all kind of said Frank and Mary need to be together, semi arranged, semi uhhuh, semi arranged family thing. But now he's the one who said it's a good thing you were, she was good looking.

Right. Oh, if I show you a picture my grandmother was, I mean, Elizabeth Taylor like beautiful. Yeah. Like beautiful and always looked that way. You never saw her any other way. Right. She was always put together. Always Did she always put together? Always put together. Yeah. Same with my grandfather though.

Yeah., back then they wore suit and ties for everything. Every picture I have of my grand, I know he's always in a suit. He's in a collared shirt. He's always looking. He's shoveling snow in a, in a tie in Philadelphia. He's got Exactly. I'm not kidding you. They, they, they, they just had so much respect for travel and getting on planes back then was a luxury and it was like a thing to do.

Yeah. Nowadays we get on there with running pants sweats, fans like, oh, I, it looks like people, most people roll out of bed when they get on airplanes. Exactly. Ever since COVID especially, it's like, oh God, not wearing anything. Yeah. Oh boy. That was like when I first kind of decided to move down here was during COVID, like permanently.

Mm. Because in Cleveland everything was like on lockdown. My clients that had places down here from here to Fort Myers, obviously on the other coast, Fort Lauderdale, like some of my athletes and stuff that have all places in Miami and Fort Lauderdale We're all starting to call me for jewelry. I'm like, we couldn't do anything in Cleveland.

Yeah. But getting to how I started in that, my, I was always an entrepreneur. I never wanted to go to college like. I never knew what the word entrepreneur was when I was, it wasn't a word. Right. Was just like, right. It wasn't, now it's like a thing. But yeah, it was just like, I'm gonna do whatever. I'm gonna work hard and figure out a way to pay the bills and do what I like.

That's right. My biggest advocate to anybody, like has always been for me. I started at 17, turning 18 in the jewelry business. A guy that I went to high school with was like, Hey, this Robert and Gabriel Jewelers is, hiring, whatever. Robert, the son was like, I wanna have you come in and interview with my dad, Bruce, who owned the jewelry store.

So, to make a long story short, I go in there knowing nothing about jewelry, other than I love fashion, I love like interior decorating. I knew that I was gonna do something that had to do with not sitting in an office all day. But, a jewelry store, it's just like a salon. New people come in all the time.

So you're talking to people, you're, you're hearing happy things, you're hearing sad things. You're just trying to make their life better. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So for me, and I got hired, Bruce goes, he's your age Bruce. Like, he goes, you're a gor. He's second generation in the business.

His father owned it for 45 years prior to that. And then his dad passed away and then he took over the family business. Right? So I'm walking in, going, I like jewelry, I'll wear, I'll drape me in diamonds, please. But, I don't know much about it. I just wanna like, make people happy. 'cause I know that when I put a new piece on me, it makes me happy.

He goes, you're, you're in sold. Like, I literally did an interview. I just, like, I'm talking to you right now. I didn't interview. He didn't, he asked me the basic questions like, you would, you fill out your application, whatever. But like I just said, I wanna make people happy. Mm. And I wanna learn whatever it is.

And if it's not for me and I can't make you money or whatever, I'll do whatever. I'll, I'll Windex counters, I'll dust jewelry. I'll vacuum, I'll empty garb. And that's how I started. Mm. I started doing things like everybody else does. Yeah. And then he was like, shadow me and listen to me talk to my clients.

Because clearly when somebody's walking in to spend 20,000, $10,000, you have to know what you're talking about. So I would listen to him. He taught me the business, literally grassroots. Hmm. Not by sitting in a classroom. Yeah. So I never wanted to go to college. It wasn't for me. Yeah. Plus I was an athlete in high school and I was so happy to get C As and Ds to pass just to be able Yeah.

To just, compete. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I wasn't like super, super, super smart. Yeah. Like in that way. Right. But communicating with people and my mom always said like, you care about people, so you're gonna do something that has to do with the service industry of some kind. Yeah. And I just was blessed at a young age to just kind of have a desire of some way to go into Yeah.

And get to this level that I got to all organically. I did at grassroots, one referral at a time. But Bruce, I owe it all to him. And then I went and I got my gemology degree and he goes, you wanna be a Gemologist? You gotta go get your Gemology degree GIA. So I'm a GIA, graduated Gemologist. And, came back and worked for him like when I was going through my classes.

And then, yeah, I kind of got my first wholesale job at 22 years old. Well now all my friends are graduating college. And now they all wanna get engaged. So now they're calling me like, Hey, Michelle's in the business. Like, see what she could do for us on a ring. And then at 22 years old, I built a small empire and then those people referred other people and then I got doctors, and then doctors got to, certain doctors, like orthopedic surgeons that now, like one of them works for the Browns, he's their main orthopedic.

He's the one on the sidelines. So Dan, he like called me up one day and he was like, Hey, I just got referred to you by a doctor from University hospital and he was a Cleveland Clinic doctor. And he goes, N now I'm gonna send you all of my patients. Like, and, NBA players, whenever I do a knee or an ankle surgery, if anybody's looking for jewelry, I'm sending them your way.

Just 'cause I took care of 'em so well. So for me, in the younger years of my business, it never mattered to me who it was. I don't care if you were spending 20 bucks with me, 50 bucks with me buying a sterling silver bracelet or a piece of jewelry back then, or you were doing it in the thousands.

I just wanted to make you happy. So to leave Bruce, after eight years of working for him was hard because now I had an opportunity to take my jewelry business to the next level and be able to be in the diamond broking in the wholesale side of it, which is a grind. It's not as fun as you think, like when you have jewelry store owners calling you for diamonds.

'cause it's just a commodity that they're passing by each other. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And, it's not fun because it, it's just like you calling up to get, hairspray. Right? It's like, I love your product. You sold on me on it. How many cases can I get? Yeah. This is where I'm gonna start to push. You're not dealing with the end result of the happy person with the, with the shiny sparkling diamond.

That's right. So you're, it, that's all it is. Like you call, like a jewelry store will call me and say, Hey listen, I need three diamonds outta your inventory, X, Y, Z. Take a look at them for me. If you feel there's something else that I wanna show my clients. So now I'm the eyes. Behind them, making them look good.

Yeah. They don't, I don't even know their customer. Yeah. But I'm doing the shopping for them. Blinded. Yeah. So they're relying on me to come through for them. And then they call me and they go, Hey, stock number N 37 that round. Brilliant. Cut one carat, I sold it invoiced me. I'll have the money in your account in 15 to 30 days.

Mm. Great. So it, but you don't get to hear the happiness behind it. Sure. So I struggled with working in the wholesale side of it. I mean, there were many days where I would leave the office 'cause I was in an office with this guy, mark Biser, who really started me out in the wholesale. And I give in Cleveland and he is a big shot in Cleveland.

He gave me that chance. And then he said, you don't understand something when you start to get your private business going. Your private referrals that stay low keyed, you have to stay under the ground like you have to just kinda, all the jewelry stores know they're selling a private business. You'd be stupid not to know that.

Right. Mm. However, it's just kind of frowned upon you. Like your big jewelry stores out there. You don't want them to know that you're underselling them and you're cutting them out. 'cause Yeah, their profit margins are huge. And, so long story short, he goes, when you get your private business going, you're gonna crush it.

That's when you have become your own and you don't need anyone else. And your sky's the limit. So I incorporated myself, I did my LLC, I had my gemology degree, so I started doing appraisal work for people. Next thing, it, I have people calling me up going, Hey, can you get me a diamond on the side?

You know, friends of mine, like, I need a diamond tennis bracelet for an anniversary present. My friends told their parents, Hey, don't go to this jewelry store anymore. Call Michelle. She's a broker now. She's gonna save you thousands. Call her. And then all of a sudden it just went from zero to 60 and it exploded.

I'm not even kidding. It was almost like so overwhelming that I didn't know how to handle it, because now I'm like, oh my God, the quality control I'm gonna have is gonna be like gone. And all I wanted to do is make sure every single thing I put on somebody's wrist was good product. I took care of them on price.

And I just wanna hear the guy call me and say, I made you happy. Yeah., you made my wife so happy. She feels like a million bucks with that bracelet on her wrist. Yeah. I was able to get that for her. And you made it happen, because I couldn't get that from any store because you saved me so much money to be able to obtain that for her.

I was like, holy crap, this is like awesome. Yeah. And your business grew from happy people. Just the same, just like yours. Way you, he referred Jr. Referred us to you. 'cause he loves you and he knows you do great. You've done great for him in a lot of ways, more than just business. But so he, I love that. So it organically grew your business by making people happy.

You made 'em happy and you grew from that. It's just like yours. Like, like, I mean, I love when you connect with somebody and then that just who you connect with, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's the same thing with me. Like, like I'm getting to know you now and I walk, let me tell you something, I'm gonna pay you a big compliment right now.

Walking in here, you know how you said just about 25 minutes ago how this felt like home. And your mom always made it feel like you were walking into your home. I walk in here, everybody's smiling, everybody's friendly. It didn't feel sterile. Mm. It didn't feel cold. Yeah.

It's like, I wanna come here and hang out with you and drink coffee up at the front desk and get my hair done. Awesome. That's great. So I gotta pay you that compliment to you because that was my, and I've never been in here. Yeah. That's nice too. Never hear that's, I love to hear that. They'll love to hear that too.

'cause that's, it gets, it joking. It gets infectious when it's like that. I, I, for me, if I have enough of those kind of people around me and these people, I try to surround myself with people who have that good heart. They just want to serve others and love others, love on others. That it, when you put enough people like that together, it creates this vibe that's juicy and delicious and people wanna hang out and be a part of it.

And the older I get and the more experience I have in life, the more I realize that how important that is to surround myself with good souls. People who love to love others. That's right. And, be there for others. That's right. You surround yourself with good people and good things come. Yeah., when, when you take the toxic out of everything.

Yeah. Or somebody that's totally toxic. Yeah., you could try to help as much as you can, but it just starts to weigh on you and bring you down. Right. And if they don't want to be helped, no, there's nothing I can do. And I did that a lot of my life. Try to help those that did. They really didn't want help anyway.

That's Yeah. They just weren't it. So the better I get it, well those, that's how we all grow. Yeah. Yeah. We learn from it all. So I appreciate the feedback too, but you had that vibe the same way you walked in that way. So you have that infectious, upbeat vibe that is, lifts the spirit of the room Anyway, so that's cool.

I gotta tell you, I love to have fun. If you can't have fun in life with everything, we all have to go through our ups and downs no matter what. Yeah. You always have an up and a down. You always have a struggle or a stress. It's just always how you like persevere through it. Yeah. I can't tell you like our group of friends that we have here, like JR.

And my friend Shelly and Kevin, Dr. Kevin, that, my friend Michelle and Chad, like, we have such a good solid, like we all uplift each other. We're all there for each other. Yeah. It's just fun. Yeah. I love to have fun. Yeah. And. I don't know. I mean, there's just something about fun. Yeah. That Well, that's, that's great.

'cause you don't, I mean, in the, it goes so fast anyway, so to be all so upset and serious about, because life never goes away. Your mom has cancer, that was never in the playbook for your family. I mean, that's sucks and that sucks. But at the same time, you've turned it into, that time you went up there for six weeks, you spent time with your mom, you've been given, you've turned it into something.

That even though you got it, 'cause it sucks. It's there in your life. You can't just, like Brian didn't let his whole life be run by the fact that no, he had this accident that would send anybody down a tunnel of depression. Yeah. So like, tell me about that. Like what, what exactly like adjust of it, but like, what exactly happened with that?

Like, so he was in the elevator. He was on the elevator. This is the craziest thing about it. Oh my God. Yeah. The craziest thing is this, it gets even crazier because I was here, the day happened, this was the best day of his business. I know. He, during the first part of the day, right. They, they did an event for the community school for 400 plus people.

I know. So they, that was a big accomplishment. This, they take half their crew, they move it over to Ferrari for night. 'cause in this one day they're gonna do eight. Oh people. I was supposed to go to that event, another four. Oh. A lot of people were there. And part of it, I know it's the end of the night.

They're celebrating, he's, ready to high five with his team. They're breaking it down. He's on the elevator coming up or down, falls off into the elevator shaft. The elevator comes down on top of crushes him. Crushes him. I know. This is, he's at the highest of all highs. He's got a three week old baby.

I know. That's not devastating. Business is, the best it's ever been. Yeah. And this happens, like you could be on top of the world in one minute and then in the next minute fighting for your life. And you know what I find astonishing too is that you're in so impacted by his story.

Because you're talking about it right now. I got forever. I will be he Same with me, a hundred percent. Like hearing that, I was just blown away by this. His strength, his courage, his humanity, just his appreciation for life., the way he talks about life now is, is very different. He's a different person in a, in a cool way.

And what his message was, he, he would like to get this across to people so that they can have that experience without the tragedy. Right., without the devastation and tragedy and pain and suffering, but could get the, what he's gotten out of it to bring, to move forward in life. I couldn't agree with you more.

You know, like as I started to get more and more successful in my life, was I was the opposite. You know how some people wanna just like, they gotta make the next dollar, they gotta make more. You gotta make more. Yeah. Like who doesn't wanna make more, right? Yeah. Yeah. Who doesn't wanna be financially secure?

Right. I know, I do. Yeah, I do., my divorce that I had two and a half years ago, went final, well, two years ago when final July 6th was two years. But I was going through it for three years and I was with this man for 18 years of my life and it was a devastating thing with me, with him. He cheated and whatnot.

Okay. I chose to end the relationship at that point 'cause I just could never get back to trust again. Yeah. That's the end all to it. However, I chose instead of like my, I went through, I had to pay him out in the divorce and all that stuff, but I chose to instead of sit there and just go like what he took from me and how he handled the situation of the divorce.

'cause I was successful in more than him, I chose to go like this, you know what, I'm gonna go travel. My girlfriend called me last year, from Cleveland, her name's Julie, and she said, what are you doing this summer? I said, I really don't have much going on other than this thing looming over my head.

She goes, let's go to Portugal. We booked tickets two weeks later. We were on a plane in Portugal for six days. One of the best trips I've ever taken. Mm. She's a great pal to hang out with and do, things with. And, we came back and she goes, so where are we going next year? Like every year we're gonna take a European, whether it's like, I don't care where, let's pick a place.

You wanna go to London, let's go there.,? Whatever. And once I started getting out of that funk and starting to realize like we're, we're not getting any younger. Right. I am so blessed with my career and the way I've been able to make people happy and the way I've been able to service people and make money doing that.

Like, I get to make an absolute living. Yeah. By putting a piece of jewelry on their body and creating something out of like their memories. Like when somebody brings me a ring from their grandmother and says, I don't know what to do with this, but it's not my style, it's not my taste. Yeah. Can you redesign something for me using her diamonds or using her rubies, or whatever it might be.

Yeah. And I'm like, oh my gosh, let's make this, what's, what's your taste? Let's get to know you. And then I get to know them. Yeah. And then when it's finished and they're like, I never imagined that could look like this. Yeah. Like using those things. Yeah. And I'm like, great. So I got to make a great living off of that.

Yeah. That's cool. So now what am I gonna do? Right. Yeah. I didn't have children. I, we decided not to have kids. And my career of the grit I had to do to get to where I got was a lot of sacrifice, a lot of jewelry conventions, a lot of traveling, all that kind of stuff to get where I got, putting myself out there, going to sporting events, going to the backdrop parties that, kind of when I was younger, it was like, like Bruce told me when he first met me, he's like, you're pretty.

I'm gonna put a piece of jewelry. This is, I swear, he said to me after he hired me, you're beautiful, you're pretty, I'm gonna put a piece of jewelry on your neck and the guy's gonna look at it and buy it right off of your neck. Yeah. And back when you could say you're pretty Yeah. In the kitchen nowadays.

Oh my. I no better read that. Sexual harassment. Yeah. That stuff is crazy. Anywhere. That's just like, the whole sense of this world has gone literally levels I never even imagined it could go. Right. Tell me. No, tell me about it. Right. And I love living in Florida, by the way. Yeah. We get to express that. I say it, be it Right place on earth.

Yeah. Can't have it any better. A hundred percent. Yeah. but I get to like, do this and make a living at it. Quality of life. You have quality of life. You get to come in here and hang out with your customers. See them on a weekly, a biweekly, a monthly basis. See how their families are doing, how the kids are.

And we live in paradise. And we live in paradise. Paradise is the best place in the world. It's like we literally get to walk out these doors every day and feel like we're on vacation every day. Every day. Every day. How can you not be happy here? I can't. I, I best move I ever made for myself, but I always wanted to be here.

Like, growing up here and coming here in my teens and my twenties and Yeah. Spring breaks with my girlfriends coming down here when it was nothing. Yeah. When Fifth Avenue was like, to Patty Murphy's and Right. McCabe's and Right. Two bars. Yeah. Yeah. That's really Right. Right. Much going on. Right. The PAs was there right after nine.

It was time. N Yeah. Yeah. And then, like the one nightclub that we had was in, where, Zanzibar, remember Zanzibar? Oh my gosh. Yeah. At the registry? Yeah, at the registry. Zanzibar. Oh my gosh, I forgot that name. Yeah. Yes. Zanzibar, the pewter mug in North Naples. Yeah. The original on the water there with the alligators in the back.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, just like so many cool things from down here that I love,? Yeah. But, I live here. Well, I don't know how there are more. I mean, I'm grateful my father. Had enough of the cold northeast when he did in 1977 and got us outta there and brought us to Paradise. I'm, I'm glad to be from Philadelphia, but people who live in, in Cleveland, in, in Michigan and Detroit and Port Huron.

My wife's family's from Port Huron. Yeah. I grew up, I've gone up there in winter before and I could not believe it. Now I'm from Philly and we've had winters. Yep. But not like this winter. They're on Lake Hu Huron and it was so cold. I don't know how people could live there, but they were saying to me, cold, it's, it's nine.

It's not that bad. It's it's nine. It's nine. I'm like, it's nine though. Nine. I got no hair. I'm frozen. Yeah. No sun, gray, dark for days. Winter wind. Yes. Yes. It's a depression. It's like, I got how they lived. They asked me to go out to the garage and get a case of water. You gotta bundle up because the water, first of all, the water's all frozen in the garage.

Exactly. You gotta bundle up just to go to the garage. You're, you're freezing The minute you, the minute you wake up. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they, I don't know how they do it. Especially not seeing the sun for that long It this gray over, because you got the lake, Cleveland too, right?

We had Lake Erie. Yeah. Yeah. You had the, I mean, I know, 'cause I used to go to Atlantic City and go down to Philly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When it was like the ocean was froze over. It was like the weirdest thing because it's like you're looking at the ocean with sand and there's snow. It's like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crazy. Yeah. In Atlantic City, right? Yeah. 'cause they used to snow more there, but it never got as cold as it did in, in Michigan. Like, I don't ever remember being like that. Oh gosh. Well, because we're by Canada, like we're Yeah. Literally the, we're looking at Canada. Yeah. Looking at it. We're Lake Erie like across the way to Canada for you too?

Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah. Lake Erie. We're Cleveland, Ohio. We're right there. Yeah. It's the winters. It's depressing. And I, and, people sit there and say to me like, you live there during the summer. What is wrong with you? And I even said it to JR the other day. It's so funny, I'm gonna say this to you right now, but I was saying to JR the other day, I go, we walk outside the door right now and I still love being on the water and I love going on his boat and hanging out with him and everything.

I go, but you feel like you're in a crematory. You're I'm stepping into the crematory right now. You're, you're, I'm like, you're, there's something, there's something I actually enjoy. What I love for most people love, right? When you get off the plane, when you land of RSW in Fort Myers and you get off the plane, wherever you come from and you feel, the minute you walk into that jet way, you feel that humidity immediately it hits you.

I love that feeling. I'm home. I'm home. I don't mind, I'm like instant moisture to my skin. Exactly. Not as much oil and lotion on the body. Right. I go back to Cleveland, that moisturizer. Yeah. I don't care if it's 92 degrees in Cleveland. I go back there, my skin's dry. Yeah. I'm like, it's 92 degrees. Yeah. I should have like more like I should look 10 years younger.

I get back to Florida. I look 10 years younger when I'm here for just one week. Yeah. Like my skin's glowing. Yeah. Got the little bit of vitamin D on me to that humidity. I know much. You hate it. Yeah. I'd say it's just, it's a different, the, the, if you could discipline yourself and really live here and do it the right way.

I mean that like, everybody's in the bars and we do live in a very affluent area of Yeah. Florida. Very, yeah. it's so easy to get wrapped up into like, some, doing like, I don't know, I just love getting out of my office, or not my office here, but like, getting out of work.

Yeah. Which I do from my desk at home. Yeah. And just stepping out the door and being like, all right, what cocktail are we going to have today somewhere else? Or like, let's just go see, we're gonna hang out, go down to the beach and take a walk. Hey, JR taking out the boat. Yeah, let's go. We're going for sunset.

I gotta see this boat of his, he's got a hell of a boat. I, he's telling me about it. I gotta see this boat. I gotta get an invitation out on that boat. You gotta get on the boat with us. He'll invite you a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking for of that. And we have a great group that goes, I mean, he's got a good mix of people, and when I tell you it's just low key and fun and I mean, it's boats, it's insane.

Right. It's, it's a 40, what did you say? 40 feet quad? 42 foot? Yeah. Oh, wow. that's amazing. It's, yeah. I gotta get a trip on that's, it's, it's the like Ferrari of boat. Like his HCB is like the Ferrari of that H ccb. Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah. It's the, it's what it sounds like. I didn't see any pictures of that.

Over a million. Yeah. For the boat. It's sweet. I'm ready. I'm ready. It's the trip on his boat. It's boat. Make my future father-in-law. Go explode. Oh, you don't. I mean, it's, it's a treat to be able to go on that thing. Trust me. It's a blessing. But that's the thing down here too, it's just like the life of like being in the gulf and.

Just, I don't know. I love life. I love to travel. And like Jar will tell you, he'll be like, Hey, the Yankees are playing. 'cause, he's from New York originally, right? Yeah. He's a big New Yorker. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, big time. But he's like the Yankees are playing. He's like, we're getting a week together.

We're getting the group together. We're gonna go to New York for three days. We're gonna catch a couple Yankees. Oh, he was talking about that. Well, yeah. 'cause I have the connections. Oh, he was so happy about that. Have hookups for sports. Totally hooked him up. He was hook, excited up all the time. He excited about that.

Yeah. His father went up for a night too, didn't that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was telling me about that trip. Yeah. I think that was a life changing trip for him in a good time. It was. It was pretty awesome. And then, his dad got to go back to Yankee Stadium and see it and got to catch the game, which was a great game.

We got to watch. They won. I mean, it was like awesome. Yeah. Oh my God. What? Speaking of the devil. Hey, that's crazy Stripes Jr. That's crazy. Come in for a, oh my gosh, that's so funny. So good to see. We were just talking about wait up brother. He's gotta come on the boat. That's guy on the boat. Literally, we were just talking about the boat and the Yankee trip.

I was like, I gotta get an invite on the boat. Get your wife. Come on, come on down, hang out with all of us. Just come on down. Yeah, that sounds like a good time. Know. Oh my gosh. Have you got into what you do? Yeah, we're talking about it. We're touching base. Best time in sales ever. I hope so. I love it. I love what I do.

It's fun. This, this girl's the real deal. Yeah. She's the real deal. I now understand why you wanted me to meet her too, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She has another great paan here. Oh God. I just told him, I said we went to New York, so we got there. We literally, we just talking about your Yankee trip, we're talking about Oh yeah.

Did Dad and the whole, the trip, you and I, you told me about, well, we talked about that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man. I'm, I just wanna say, I'm starting to get like, feedback from our, our podcast a week ago. Like, people are like, Hey, what's going on with that thing? I go, yeah, it's out. I think it's out.

And then, yeah, we listened to it. I go, yeah, but it's three hours. He broke the record. I loved it. We went by in a minute. We couldn't stop talking for three hours. We could've gone for another. I know the air condition wasn't working the best. That was the only thing that sucks. And by the way, he can't stand heat.

No, I'm saying he's in it in all day. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. We cooked, like when they're always like, when we go out to dinner, let's sit outside. I'm like, I'm not sitting outside. I sit out. I'm outside all day long. Yeah. The last thing you want to do, I'm, I'm getting I sunburn all day long. Yeah. There's, but anyway, I just wanted to stop by just to check on her,?

Yeah. That's awesome. How great. I just think she's a, like anyone who wants to get some diamonds, I know I bought a gold, I mean a, diamond cross from her. It's mind blowing. Yeah. And I custom made. Yeah. And I, she had it custom made and Yeah. I went and priced it out at a jeweler after I got it from her.

Yeah. And it was actually double the price. Yeah. Double the price of what I got it for. I believe it. You just mentioned something too that made me think about it. A lot of people get these pieces from their parents or grandparents that have not up with the times they've fit that era, but, but they want to keep them.

It's a keepsake. But having that made into something that is, that's my special thing to do. That's cool. It's so creative and it's neat. Or like what he did as well, Hey, I wanna do this cross, but I wanna, I'm gonna put it in your hands to figure out how big to make it,?, what, what I need to do and how many diamonds were in it, and how many diamonds were in it.

And, and, he just kinda let me rip with it and just said like, I trust you to just make it beautiful. Yeah. And it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. It is the quality. Yeah, it really is. It's the unsurpassed. Yeah. We'll have to show some of that too. We'll put, we'll have Zach put, put some clips on.

Absolutely. A cool cat. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So smooth. And I mean, it's just, you get to take something that, maybe came from like a, a very memorable place in life, whether it was like from like the fifties and it was like, oh, this has been in our family for 50 years. That's what it is.

Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of pieces like that. Yeah. My wife has some pieces from her mother. A lovely creating Yeah. That, that, that she can't use and they just sit there. But she could, if she had 'em updated and it was, it's so special that it was either her mother's or her grandmother's, or my mother's or whoever they were.

And then you, she does her twist on it. Yeah. It's just amazing. Yeah. That's, that's special. Did you tell 'em that you do the work for Cleveland and Oh God, yeah. I mean, Miami Heat, Miami Heat players, Cleveland Browns players, one Indians player. I mean, I had way more Indians players back in the day, but now since the transition happened, can't come anymore right now.

That's, that's the problem. I know they're Indians to me through always, even when I'm with him, he's like, see if they're playing. See if the Indians are playing. Well, when you have to go to like the Google search and like say, when are the Cleveland Indians playing? It doesn't come up that way.

Right. So I'm like, when are the guardians playing? Like, it's so you have to say that word to say it itself, that it sucks so weird to me. I cannot get over that. Oh my gosh. It's horrible. Yeah. It's like, oh, we were just saying just call us Indians again, please. We had just said, her mentor, old boss had said to her, I want you to wear, you're beautiful.

I want you to wear this piece. And we were like, well, you, he could never say that. Now, he could never call her beautiful and say, I want you to wear this piece. Heck no. Should people get upset because they're calling you beautiful. Exactly. God forbid you should be beautiful and he should enhance your beauty and say, you look beautiful with this piece on.

'cause it would offend somebody who's not beautiful or whatever the hell they're bitching about these days. It drives me crazy. Couldn't agree with you more like to be able to be beautiful. I got in trouble one time. We did an ad on Facebook and it had a blonde, a Burnett. Some of the work we had done, and somebody wrote and said, why don't you have a black girl in there and a Chinese girl?

I'm like, 'cause I don't, we don't do black hair. I don't know how to do it. Why am I gonna put it in there? Why aren't you gonna advertise something, something that you can't do? Don't, don't call me discriminatory because I, if I could do her hair, I put her in there. That's just nuts to me. They're not gonna put me in a black barbershop ad.

It's, it's absolutely nuts to me. Hey, just remember, Jake from State Farm used to be white. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

I love it. I love it. I mean, it's, you gotta be careful nowadays. You do. It's a ridiculous, even with, hopefully it's coming back the other way. It's even with me though, with some of the athletes and stuff that I do. I'm not kidding you. And even like, he knows my friend Mark, who he met, and he does the ticket Guru.

Big. Yeah. I mean, he's big. He's big. I went to high school with him, so we've known each other since fifth grade. He's like another brother to me. Like, I adore the guy, but he also like, takes care of my friends. 'cause that's what I do. I like to put people together. And you're the queen at that. I, I love to like, we have the best times when like our friends mesh with each other.

Like, it just flows. Like he has his parties at his house, things just come together. But like, they don't even want me to say like certain things because they're like, well, this didn't go to this person, it went to this person. So you can't say that you know what I'm trying to say to you.

Like. You gotta be very careful. Oh yeah. As a business owner, you always have to be. Yes. Yeah. You gotta walk a fine line and Yeah. I know during c it was a very fine line. Oh yeah., I was insane about do we wear the mask? Don't wear the mask. This mask. And, him and I talked about, during CODI followed the Alfie Oaks lead.

Oh yeah. And I went, which was the best. I followed him. Love Alfie. Yeah. I ended up, doubling my business in 2021. You did? Yeah. So it really, it really took off for me. Yeah. 'cause I had the big sign, you don't need a mass to walk into this facility. Just the way Alfie did. Alfie did it. Yeah. I followed his lead.

So, and everybody was like, so like, yeah, that's awesome. He said You would have, like, I've heard you would have, here we go with one of our conversa. We talked so much the other day. I love this guy, guy. 95%. You'd have a hundred people come in and 95 people just praise you and think you're the best.

And there's those five people. Oh yeah. That just make your life miserable. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. They just try to make your life miserable. And I'm gonna tell you another thing too, to plug him as well, not to like plug him, but to like really speak volumes about him for who he is. Yeah. For who he is.

Yeah. Yeah. You walk into his body shop, you wanna just be with the people. You wanna just hang out with his crew that he has working for him. Yeah. They're so friendly. They're so kind. Yeah. They're so generous, gracious. They wanna help you. Everything's so clean, especially Oh, beyond his place, you can eat off his floors.

Yeah. Like, he is just one of the most pristine body shops. Period. Under story. Yeah. I've run Candle. I just, I said to my, it's like being at home. Like I walk into your place. What, what's her budget on candles a month? She said $350. I go, we're doing $350 a month in Just Candles. It's True Body Shop.

And I was like, you know what? I don't care if they walk through the door and they smell it and they think everything's beautiful. Hey. Half the job is sold. It's so true. Because like when you go into a place like his Right, or like you get a client. Same thing with you. Or like, I get somebody that maybe had a bad experience somewhere else.

They didn't do my hair right. Now I'm here to have you fix it. And then they come out. This looks great, by the way. Wow. Isn't look beautiful. Yeah. She has such pretty hair. Yeah. But the girl that did my blowout phenomenal. Like I just said, I need my roots done. I'm booking today. I want 'em done.

Like ASAP, beautiful hair, beautiful palette. But I told, I told him, I said I walked in here. That beautiful face too. He's such a sweetheart, isn't he? but I Darl walked in. When's Darryl coming? And we talked about when he's gonna interview Darl. Yeah. She show me. Yeah. I was just showing Darryl's stuff to him too.

Yeah. He's got Carmen coming up soon. Oh good. You're gonna love Carmen. I can't wait. I can't wait for that interview. Yeah. Oh, that's, I looking forward to that. He's like me with, he knows Dodgers, Dodgers, Cardinals, the twins. That's really cool. The 3 1 3 of the greatest of manager. He, he played for Larussa, Tory and Garden High.

I mean, you can't go, I mean, that alone is gonna Legend three for an hour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Total, total. He's, he's such a nervous wreck. I go, oh, is he really? It's so fun. Rob's gonna make you feel like, so you're just gonna be fine. This is turning into like the Paan, special here. Italian. We're having our own little Carmen Italian.

Italian, the other. Right. Just keep, that's what we gotta keep going here. Well, I love, I love everything too. Like it's, but when he found out that he actually knew you. And, you knew Joe and him. Yeah. yeah. Kids. The mo beside their house? No, the mo beside their parents. Oh, Joe Kelly. Yeah. Carmen's brother.

Oh, okay. Yeah. So they had the mound beside their parents' house is what it was. My son used to pitch on that mound with Jeff. Yeah. I'm anxious to hear that, that interview. That should be really good. I wanted to, to stop by and say hello. Thank you. Brian is off today. Brian Kinzie. He is. So I just wanted you gotta pop back over there.

I'll come over and see you. Good to see you, bro. I'll pop by and see you. Okay. I had a great time too. Hey, props to this man behind because, he's the man. Zach's the man. He, Zach is awesome. He also sent his girlfriend to me and I just fixed her car. Yeah. He was there. He was talking about that. Yes. So, yeah, he was psyched about that.

She was like, I don't know where to go. I'm like, guys, have a great day. Yeah, you're, you're good. A couple of your videos are blowing up on TikTok by the way. You just, you got this look that captures the camera so well. He's just so cool. And these, these cool couple of these videos have just like, blown up on there about your things you're talking about.

'cause we talked about some cool stuff. That magazine comes out, which is next week I'm gonna, do the podcast. The magazine. I'm gonna do a whole thing. I'm excited for you magazine. It's gonna be good. Good times, man. We gotta do it again. See you take care, man. Bye. Thank you. He's such a great guy. I mean, I'm so blessed to Yeah.

I'm so blessed to have known him and got real close with him. But like, the same thing when you walk into his body shop after you've just gone through something horrific. Like somebody rear ends you Yeah. Somebody broadside you or worse, like, it's even a worse accident than you could ever imagine. Yeah.

You walk into his place, you just feel instant calm. You feel like, like somebody's got your back. Yeah. Somebody's gonna like help you get through this. Yeah. And I mean, 'cause it is, it's not fun to go to a collision center. I mean, unless you're maybe getting your calipers repainted or you want tinted windows or something like that.

You know? Calipers, repainted. Look at this. You're a car girl too, huh? Oh, big time. I put my dad's a car guy. I grew up, my dad taught, my sister and I changed oil when we were probably about six. Yeah, I was watching my dad underneath a car nowadays with our cars like Range Rovers. I wouldn't know the first thing about 'em 'cause they're all digital in his own computer.

But I still could change a tire. Like, my dad grew up like racing with cars. Not, he's not a race car driver, but like, he grew up like, going to the track. He had tons of custom cars. My dad painted cars for a living. Oh, okay. He's a painter. Oh, cool. So he worked in a body shop too, so Yeah. You know that world.

Yeah. Yeah. My dad knows him too. Okay. My dad will pop into his body shop and be like, Hey, what's up? And he's like, Hey Joe, how you doing? What's going on with you man? And my dad's like, oh, I just wanna see what's going on in your garage., like, how, how many cars did you guys get in this week? Like, my dad's just, that's his thing.

Yeah. That's his thing,? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I grew up a car girl, like watching like Indie 500, watching Daytona 500 wa, like it's just, it is just in my blood to like watch sports. And my dad's a football guy, baseball guy. And I played softball and I was a gymnast and I ran track.

So I grew up like tomboyish. Yeah. So it's, do you have a brother? I have a sister. You have a, so you, she lives here. Your dad got his, his boy fixed through your tomboyish. Totally. Okay. Totally. It was like, my sister was a horseback rider. So it was like between my mom and my dad working their tails off.

We weren't in cheap sports, that's for sure. Gymnastics was not cheap 'cause I was in private gym. So, they both worked a lot. And we, if we weren't being babysat by my grandmother or grandpa, it was my Aunt Lisa babysitting us, or my cousin Tammy babysitting us. Like we always had family babysitting us.

Like we were always surrounded by family. Yeah. So, and it was, it was just a great, I have no regret. I grew up with a great childhood. Yeah. But now being where I am, I'm able to give back to my parents. Hmm. Because I've exceeded them, so I've been able to help them as much as I can too. Just, I just by wanting to Yeah.

Not 'cause I have to, right? Yeah. But just by wanting to, sure. Yeah. So my dad's retired and, he, he works part-time just to still do something and he can't ever sit. Yeah. So I'll probably be that same way 'cause I can never sit. Yeah. Right. But, retire doesn't mean what for him.

Retirement is not sitting in a rock chair. Oh God. He's never gonna be still right. No. He's like, no. And my dad is like a rockstar too. Like, my dad should have been a football player. I'm not kidding you. Like, my dad's 73 and he looks better than most 50 year olds. That's awesome. Like, people look at my father and like, your dad is not 73.

Yeah. That's awesome. But like you, I thought you were like my age. I thought you were like 50, 51, 52. Like you, God bless you. You have good genes. Yeah. Well thanks. That's that Italian then, whatever it is. I don't know. My wife, my wife's a lot younger than me too, so. Yeah, I was gonna say, tell me that story.

She's, I'm very lucky. So I was married, and I have two great adult children. God bless from that. And I, that was like my practice marriage, I guess. Yeah. And the best was yet to come in my life and I was never gonna get married again. I really thought, it's funny thing happened because my father's a very old school, tough Italian.

Oh yeah. And he was like, once I was divorced, he was like, you never get married again. You don't need to. You don't need that. Don't bother. And I had that mindset, I was just, I'm happy, I'm just fine. Everything's good. Life is fine the way it is. And, I was at the gym and I started having this conversation with this really pretty girl there.

And she would talk to me every time at the gym and I thought. Well, she's talking, she's just very friendly. Yeah. So she captivated you. 'cause she was like a sweetheart, right? She was totally so kind. I thought maybe she just feels sorry for me. I don't know. She's talking to me a lot. And she felt Sorry.

You're a good looking guy. She did not feel sorry for you. I can tell you that right now. Thank you. But I didn't know she was so beautiful. I thought that there's no way, like she's way outta my league, but I love talking to her. So we'd, we'd literally, we say we met at a bar. We met under the pull up bar at the gym.

So we would talk under this bar at the end of the workout, at the gym, and have these conversations for a long time. And I just was fascinated by her. She's brilliant. She's a doctor. She's so smart. She's so strong, so fit. She's gymnast. She's just a sharp dressed impeccably. So anyway, I never thought that I'd had a, a shot at her at all because I just, she's, she's gorgeous.

She's way outta my league. Well, we ended up hanging out and we went to this gym party one time and, I thought it was just, I think her friend had taken her to this gym party to set her up with somebody else. So I was talking to her and, and I tried to get her to do a shot and she was like, no, I'm not doing a shot.

I have to be at work in the mornings. It was a Friday night. She works at Arthrex as an, as a doctor. Oh, you're kidding me. She had a, I know so many people that work at rv. It's a great company. It's a great, that guy that owns it is ACEs special man. Yeah. He's done a lot of good for a lot of people. Heck yeah.

She was, she's very committed to her career and what she does. And she said, I can't do a shot. I gotta be there. And I thought, wow. I was trying to persuade her so hard into doing the shot. She wouldn't do it. I was like, she's really, she's really sticking to her guns. I've respected that. Yeah. And, was Yeah, you liked the boundary thing, thing yeah's a thing.

She was just like really standing up for what she believed in. I love that. That and she, we had a great time. And so anyway, we'd sort of hung out. I just thought we were friends. We'd gone out a couple times, but I just thought like, I'm in the friend zone, we're friends,? Yes. Like, I'm never gonna go beyond that.

Yes. And one night, one night we were at. burn. I love Burn. We were at Burn. We were in that, between bars there. And she grabs me. She pushes me against the wall, and she plants one on me. She gives me this incredible kiss, stop it. And I was like, I was so blown away. I was so th I mean, it was the best day in my life.

I was like, whoa, this is really happening. I, I can't believe this. She kissed me. So it was the beginning. I was just so thrilled by that. I was like, this is heavenly. 'cause I, this spark, I just never wanted to cross that completely. They were always there, but I just didn't know if she was into me. So anyway, I, from that night, it was sort, it sort of remained a little bit of a secret.

So her mother would come here and stay with her. And she said, my mother's very religious. you don't, we gotta be careful. We're just gonna keep it under the radar. So we were hanging out. So she's telling me about her mother. She's very religious now. I was raised Catholic. Yes. I knew I wasn't a good Catholic though.

I knew I didn't do it the right way. I didn't always go to confession. I had, I had gotten confirmed and done all that, but I hadn't, wasn't in church every Sunday. It's like a regular Catholic. Right. Exactly. It's like me, you, yes., show up for Christmas, Easter. Yeah, exactly. The holidays, you do the thing.

Right, right. Try to be as best of a person as you can. But that's what I was, and I knew that if I was gonna have a lot of prayers to say if I had gone to confession recently. So I stayed, so I was concerned about meeting her mother, and because she said she's very religious. And I think of religious, I think of somebody who's gonna wait Italian tell me what to too.

No, it's not. Not at all. Okay. So completely. Okay. not what I had in my mind. So when I finally met her mom, because I used to drop her off, about three or four now we're adults. I drop her off about three or four houses down from her house. 'cause she didn't want her mother. She said, my mother's a Snoopy dupe.

She'll be looking out the window. I don't want her see. Well, how old is she at this point? She's, she's 30, early thirties. Okay. Yeah. So, and she's living with her mother and she's like, I don't want my mother to see. I said, I gotta keep it secret. So finally I get a chance to meet her mother. And I was terrified 'cause I wanted her mother.

To like me, to love me because I loved her daughter. That's right. And when I met her, she was the kindest, most loving soul I have ever. When I hear the term religious, it wasn't that type of religious, she embodied what love is like. She was so accepting, so loving, so kind to me. God, I love that. Not that judgment way where I felt like I wasn't good enough for her daughter.

Oh my God., I wasn't doing it right. She just loved salt. The earth loved me for the way Yeah. Just loved me fully the way I was. Right. The way. There was nothing I needed to change for their family. Most incredible family, most incredible experience of my life. Just no judgment at all. Just love me.

Exactly What, but I'm divorced. I have kids. Exactly what you wanted, what you wanted to align with in your life. Completely. The second time around, I was so, it's like how I am. I was blown away. I was like, this, this doesn't even exist. And the way Michelle was with me, she was just so loving, such a good soul.

Well, my, well, her name father name's Michelle too. Yes, yes. Two Ls. Like two Ls. Yep. Two Ls. Yeah. Love it. So I, my dad was sick at the time. He was toward the end of his life. And he had some struggles and he was not well, but he said to me, I would meet him, we'd have espresso on his back deck. That was our thing to do.

Yep. And, he said, what's going on with you? I said, nothing, dad. He said, yes, something's, something's up with you. He knew, he always knew like, yeah, I got a friend. What do you mean you got a friend? He goes, something's different about you. I said, I'm hanging out with this girl. I like her. She's good. You really like her, don't you?

And so he's like you. He, he had always been telling me, you're not gonna get married. So he says, well, I wanna meet her. And he never wanted to. Even be involved in anything like that. But this is he, this is about three months before he died and he said, I wanna meet her. So I said, well, wow. My father smoked like a fiend uhhuh and the house smelled like cigarettes.

And she couldn't be around that 'cause she was allergic to it. I said, well dad, I'd love to have her over, but, you can't. He said, I'll, I'll clean the house up. I'll open everything up. So he has this night set up to meet Michelle for the first time three months before he dies. He cooks this incredible dinner.

He's got, he opens a whole house up, he has it fumigated. He's not smoking in the house. He sets everything up. It was like he was courting her. He's got old fifties and sixties music playing like music that he would play for my mother, back in the day. That's 'cause he saw something in you that probably felt like, I think so.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are hundred kidding percent. It was beautiful. You kidding? This is what I hear from my clients all the time. This is what I love. This is so beautiful. Just hearing how people connected. Yeah. So keep going. So we, he has this big beautiful dinner courts as if he was courting her on his back deck and he cooks this.

He was a great cook, a go gourmet cook, but in his own way, not, not totally Italian, but Italian influenced Sure. But he could make it that way. Sure. And he cooks this incredible meal. So the next day we had this beautiful night, and the next day he says. When are you gonna put a ring on her? See, that's where I comment.

Well, you didn't know me.

See, this is what I do. I bring people to happy places. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So it's just a bond. Getting his blessing. God bless man at that moment. And then right before he passed, having her meet him and, him blessing the rest of my life that way. 'cause he was always like, you never wanna do that. But he knew, oh my gosh, something changed in me.

He knew it was something special. So he got to really kind of get to know her. Yeah. And helped in the moments towards the end. Yes. And she was a, that's special man. Being a doctor. She was actually there for the, his last breath. She helped a lot with the end of his life. 'cause we got to be with him and, spend time with him as he went down and, it was a blessing that he got to die at home as my mother did too.

But to be with them and it's not, it sucks. Death sucks. But if you get to celebrate it with your family and be there with your family, with her, she got to say goodbye. And she was a part of the care for him at the end. It was a beautiful thing. So that's priceless. Yeah, it was special. That's truly magical.

Yeah. So, see somebody brought in if you believe in God, which I do. Yeah. Somebody. God made that occurrence happen. Hundred percent. Yeah. I believe in that. Yeah. I believe that when there is a belief and you do have that trust in him Yeah. That it will transfer over into him putting together who's supposed to be in your life's what happened.

Yep. And it came at the time where you needed somebody and you were developing that with her and you were falling in love with her. Yeah. And then got to meet your dad. Yeah. That's like killer. That's awesome, man. Yeah, it was beautiful. God bless. Was really nice. I was really lucky. And I So how long, when did you get engaged?

This was like right before he passed or, yeah. Right, right. Af right before he passed. Yeah. So we got engaged in 16. He died. No, 15. We got eng. Yeah. We got married in 17. 17. We were engaged not long after that. So he was a part of all that. So before she, 'cause I got, we got engaged right away, not long after that.

I love it. So like, happily ever after is what you're trying to tell me. Yeah, yeah. And, and a level of life that I never knew that's what I want existed. Like a level of peace and acceptance for who I am. Big time, which her family gave me. They gave me such acceptance for me as a soul. Like I wasn't tarnished, screwed up at the way I always thought I was.

The self-talk that you have in your head about how you're not good enough, you're not this enough, whatever, you're always, I'm always tortured in my own head. Well that's, that's funny you say that because that's the kind of, trials that I went through as well. Hmm. Where I took so long to heal from even wanting to get involved into anyone else.

Yeah. Like, I literally have been alone. Yeah. it's only been four months with the person I'm seeing now. The guy I'm seeing now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But before that it was like I just needed to heal. I needed to like. Reflect and I needed to kinda like get rid of the thought processes I had because Yeah.

He really did my ex make me feel worthless in a lot of ways That I didn't even really think I was because I was such a badass business woman. Tough. I can nego, all I do is negotiate. Yeah. Like, I'm brokering watches, I'm brokering diamonds, I'm buying diamonds back from people. It's a negotiation that I do on a daily, on a phone.

Yeah. And I, I feel like I'm pretty good at what I do. Sure. I would hope so after 32 years now. But, it's, it's, when it comes to your love life or your, like, personal life, it was like, I just, I just didn't, guys would wanna always ask me out down here or in Cleveland especially, like what I do.

So I had like, I hate to, I don't like to talk about, but, like a coach from like a basketball team. Specifically the cabs. And now he's the head coach for the Detroit Pistons. He's a very dear friend of mine and I do his wife's jewelry, JB Bricker staff, he's a big shot in the league.

And his dad was like a legend in the league as a coach and everything. but, oh yeah. Like, like just huge. But, he would be like, I gotta find somebody worthy of you. Like somebody that's gonna be like worthy of you. 'cause you are such a kind wholehearted, like all you ever want is for everybody to be happy.

You stretch yourself too thin, you sell yourself too short because you just are trying to like, make everybody else pleased. But then I'm like, I'm not dating that guy. Oh, you're beautiful. Yeah. You say that to 75 other girls a day, beat it. Like, I just didn't ever want to open up and I was afraid.

Sure. Because I just didn't think I was really good enough for anyone else. I get it. Yeah. After. I understand. Yeah. You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then you meet somebody that is like so unbelievably pure and special. Yeah. And you're, you're getting your cup filled and you're almost feeling like it's too good to be true.

A hundred percent. Yeah. So did you go through that? Of course. 'cause I, that's why I was, I didn't believe when she kissed me, I was like, what are you doing? Every day I pinch myself. I wake up because she's so good to me. Gorgeous. She's beautiful inside and out, like her soul, she's just so caring, so loving.

It's like I'll do anything for her, like anything. 'cause she just has given me a life I never imagined. She always said in said that too. I always said like, in my next chapter, which is now Yeah. I wanna be with someone that is like family oriented, that loves their mother, that wants to be around my family.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we're a loud Italian fa I mean, you sit at our table, it's like, who can't get the word in? Yeah. That's how it goes. I mean, he's listening to me on the phone talk back in Cleveland and I'm on speaker phone and my aunt's in the background and my cousin Rob's in the background. It's like, wait, wait, what did you just say?

And I got Heidi talking 10 conversations. I got Robert talking. I'm like, he's like, man, he's like, everybody's talking. I'm like, when you getting back home, stop by. We need to see you. We need Michelle time. Like, it's crazy. And I always wanted somebody that wanted to embody that. Yeah. And my past relationship was the opposite.

Yeah. I'm not kidding you. Yeah. Like I would go to his house for family dinners and you could hear a pin drop when you're sitting at the table. Yeah. And it wasn't 'cause everybody had food in their mouth. Right. It literally was like, what's, I don't even know how to perform and I gotta talk. Yeah. Like, how are you guys all just not talking to each talking about each other?

Like it was just very cold. Yeah. And I don't, I don't wanna be with somebody like that. I wanna be with somebody that I can like travel with that likes to go to concerts, wants to come to sporting events with me. Yeah. Get to share in the things I get the perks for. Yeah. So like, I get to share 'em with like all my friends, I'm like, Hey Jr.

I got floor seats. At the Miami Heat Game. I was like on the floor. Yeah. Like $2,000 a seat ticket for free. You wanna come? Yeah. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. How did you get those? I'm like the player personnel, the one that like runs the entire drafting position for the Miami Heat is my client. I did his wife's engagement ring or like, I'll get a call from David Stern.

David Stern, the commissioner that passed away. Yeah. His grandson runs the Pelicans. David's my client. I do his daughter-in-law's jeweler., David's daughter-in-law like David's mom and his son. Like I, so I got the family, right. David will call me, he will be like, Hey, Cavs are playing us. Come on in.

I got you all, we're four seasons done. This. I wanna like bring somebody to share that with. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm, I'm kind of ready for that new chapter in my life to share it with. But then I'm calling Jar, I'm like, let's get the group together. We got rooms at the Four Seasons.

I can get up to two. Yeah. And let's all, let's all, or whoever else wants to come that wants to pay extra. I don't care if they stay at the Four Seasons or not, but I get these perks and I get to sit like Courtside. Yeah. And then I get to like talk to my players for a minute and, high five 'em and be like, Hey, I'm here for you.

Need another Cuban link. Call me.,? But like, yeah. That's your business. Yeah. It's my business. It's fun. Yeah. I love what I do. Yeah. I love what I do. Yeah. And it's not about the money anymore for me, it's about just making people happy. Sure. And putting people like you together that like, you wanted to probably buy her the most special ring.

A hundred percent. Yeah. You were like, I gotta get this perfect ring for her. I don't care if it was 5,000 or 50,000, the number doesn't matter. It's like I just wanna get That's way It was the perfect ring. Yeah, it totally was. Yeah. That's the joy I get to hear with my stories. That's why I'm always interested in other people and how they met and connected.

Yeah. Because like, I want that. I want that Hallmark movie. I want that happily ever after. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I do. 'cause I poured so much into my other bottomless pit that., it devastated me. Yeah. And, it's not the way I thought my life was gonna journey out to be, but now I'm in this gonna be 50 and we're hitting that new side of life, 60, 50.

Like we're all on that side of life now. Yeah. Like fifties, halfway. But now, but now, well, it sounds like it, right? Yeah. Like three quarters of the week. Yeah. No, I know, I know. We get 4,000 weeks and I got like 600 weeks left. So you think about that, you're gonna have way more than that. What are you thinking Also?

But do you on 80 now, but, I, on average, the average guy in the United States is 73 years old. Have fun. Yeah. No, no. Live every minute. That's it. I couldn't agree more, but I wanted to say something about that because I think the pa the whatever happened in my relationships from your past Yeah.

From my past, gave me the appreciation that I have for the relationship that I'm in now. So true., it really, now I really, I so appreciate every single thing about every way she is. That it really set me up to have a greater second half than the first half or whatever I wanna call it.

You're calling 'em halfs or quarters or whatever they are. You are not kidding. You are not kidding.,? because, because I think it's like we just get it now. Yeah. It's like you just get it. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It, it's true. It's like you thought you got it in your forties. You thought you were doing the right things, or, breaking up with certain people or you get your heart broken or whatever it might be.

Yeah. And then like, now I'm like, no, this is what I will not settle for. Right. The boundaries, when you used to hear those words, like, I didn't hear boundaries until I was going through therapy. Didn't know what it was. Right. Oh, I mean, like, as I did do that to grow and develop and I was working with a life coach who was a therapist.

We all need That's good for all of still working with a life coach, by the way. Yeah, same girl. Because it kind of tweaks you and it kind of recenters you. And it kind of makes me go, like, I feel like I'm outta control right now, but I'm getting a grip now. Yeah. And, I'll call her and she'll just kind of like hone me back in.

Yeah. And I'm like, I needed that, Marisa. Thank you. Yeah. But, what I wanted to say was like, now with that and working through that, she's like, you gotta put up boundaries. I'm like, what the hell does that mean? Mm. What does boundaries mean? I'm not understanding this. Right. And she's like, it's like what?

You literally will not accept anymore that you bent the rules on constantly to sacrifice Yeah. Your own happiness and your own health and wellbeing. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You literally allowed people to walk on you. That's all. Yeah. That's, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. And it was always for the greater of like seeing them smile, but it didn't fill your cup.

Yeah. And I'm like, I guess I never really looked at it that way. Yeah. Maybe just because of the way we were all raised of like, I was raised by a grandmother that all she ever did was self-serve people serve, serve that serve. Yes. The right. Yep. That's what the role serve them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It was like, she was the last to sit down at that table and we were like, she's washing the dishes the whole way. And the first to get out to wash. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, hand wash the plates. I'm like, grandma, like, nuna, like, you like let us Like wash the dishes. Oh, no, no. I got a system.

Start to eat the moan., like, oh my gosh. Okay. We're all throwing our hands in the air. Like this is, we're drying the dishes, like putting them away. She never had a dishwasher till the day she died. Yeah, right, right. They did it all by hand. Yeah. All by hand. Yeah. It wasn't room 89 years, 70 years in the same house.

Yeah. All by hand. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. There, there were no boundaries then. And then No boundaries. Boundaries. They just let, they just did whatever. Wherever anybody was pushing towards 'em. They just backed up and figured out a way around it. That's it. And just did what they could.

But, you watch that growing up, right? So that kind of like subconsciously just becomes part of, of your life. Sure. So you wanna kind of almost following those steps of like, it looks like that's what was modeled for you. That's that was it. Yeah. That was the way it was. So it's like, even if I didn't wanna do something that my ex-husband did wanna do, and it was like, maybe I really needed to do this, my shit always went on the back burner.

Yeah. And then his stuff came in and it was more important. Yeah. And then I kind of like sat there like, how am I, like, and it was never with business, business, I was like full force. That, that was like, but in your personal, a boundary. No one was gonna stop me from working to make at a young age. But in business it works though to serve others that way.

Yes. It makes you more successful. I mean that, that way you're serving another human. People love that. That's why they go to you. Like, you're serving me. I'm feeling very served. That's what you do. It makes you successful. So it excels in that area. It's great for that. Agreed at home for your peace and your own sanity.

It doesn't and we don't realize it. We don't realize it, don't know that it's happening. We don't realize it. We sold our soul and we've given up and Correct. We're, we have no, we're all, it's all about them and not about us. Right. So I was like always a constant problem fixer. Yeah. I was always trying to put the bandaid on.

Without even like, sometimes even knowing what the heck I was putting a bandaid on for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like apologizing for something. I don't know. I don't know. I'm like, well, what did I do here? Right. Okay. Tell me and make me understand what I did here. Please. Yeah. Like, so when, when you grow up with that kind of like, thing, right?

Yeah. And like then I see my mom and dad who are true partners. Yeah. That like my dad would always be there for my, like right now my dad is just like, I don't care. I want your mother. Well, Hmm. I don't wanna be without her. Hmm. So we're gonna like get through this and she's gonna do whatever it takes. To get well.

Mm. And then my mom saying one morbid thing, she said that, I don't like to be negative over, but she goes to me, well, we'll either be celebrating when I get the news or we'll be planning my funeral. I was like, well, we're we're. And my dad's like, we're, we're Kathy. We're not going there. Mm. Yeah. That's not what we're gonna be talking about today.

Like yeah. Like, and then I sit there in a meltdown and like start crying, but that's where I want somebody else to be there by my side to pick me up and say, I got you. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I want in my next chapter. You deserve that because I didn't have that. Yeah. You deserve it. I was the one saying, I got you.

And it was always like, well you are successful. You're the one traveling for work. You're doing this wrong. You're the one that's gotta go outta town to a jewelry convent. Like thats like, what's wrong with that? Right. That's part of your self expression is who you are. It's right. It's your makeup and making it wrong.

18 years ago, I was grinding it out to get to 18 years now, 20 years later where I feel like I'm retired, but I'm not. I'm very blessed. But I have what I always wanted, which was what one of my jewelry store owners told me. He said, quality of life, Michelle, you wanna build quality of life. You're not sitting behind an office desk anymore, grinding it out in four walls with no windows, and then get to go home at five o'clock.

You get to be on the beach brokering a diamond and making thousands of dollars. Yeah. Or hundreds of dollars, whatever the number might be. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, that's quality of life. Being able to go and spend time with your grandmother before she died, I stayed back in Cleveland for six months to watch, to be with her in her last six months of her life.

Yeah. Not her last six weeks. Yeah. Or last six days. Six months. Precious time. And that's where I get that, because of the way I structured my life to be. Yeah. And I still got to make people happy. And I was still in my city. Yeah. Where I built my baby anyway. Yeah. So, like, and Cleveland is like my baby people, a lot of people, everybody knows me there.

Yeah. Here a lot of people know me too. But there, it's my baby. Yeah. So I like, he get on the phone, his name's Todd. He goes, aren't you so blessed and lucky to be able to be there with your grandmother at the end of her life with your family? I never regret that. Ever. I mean, what story? Oh, I got the, yeah. I got so much peace.

Yeah. From being, I have no regrets. Yeah. I miss her. I wish she was still here. If, if Alzheimer's didn't take her mind, she'd still be here. 'cause physically she was healthy. Yeah. But to be able to have her in my life, my entire life and grow up with her. 'cause my mom was young when she had me. She was 21.

Right. She got pregnant with me at 20, had me at 21. Same. Same. Yep. Yep. They're children. They're kids. Yeah. They were kids. Right. God, if I had kids back then, I know. Right. And we grew up faster. Right. Because of the way we grew up. Like we were kicked out of the house going like, what are you doing inside?

Right. Get outta here. Outside and like, play in the street. Street. Leave me alone. Come back when the moon's up. Yeah. Right. We were told to go play in the street. Please go play in the street. Right. Come back with like scratches on your body. Jump from the tree already.

Yeah. Exactly. Get outta here. Go play. Hide. Hide and go seek. And we don't know what neighbor's house you're at. 'cause there's no such thing as cell phones and Right. Those were the good old days, man. Yeah. Yeah. Riding bikes and just walking everywhere. And it was funny because my ex-husband. My ex niece, right.

My ex-husband's sister's daughter. Yeah. Who's now 17. I watched her be born right when Lily was seven years old. We were sitting at my mother-in-law's house, my ex mother-in-law's house. And she looked over at me and she goes, aunt Shell, because she called me Shell. Mm. She goes, aunt shell. She said, can you do me a favor and explain to me what that thing in that picture is?

It was like a phone on the wall, the rotary. Mm. I love that. I go, yeah, we had, we had rotary phones back when I was a kid. I was born in 75, like, and then she goes, what, what did that do? How did you guys talk? And I said, we talked. And then she goes, how did, to go to a party? Like how did you communicate?

Like, nowadays they talk, they, these kids nowadays, like even some of my younger generation, like my doctors and stuff that I have that call me for something, they don't call me, they text me. Sure. Or they'll, let's just do this via email. Yeah. I'm like, no, I gotta hear your voice. Yeah. I gotta hear the passion.

Yeah. I wanna know like where you met this girl that you wanna buy her her first birthday gift and you've been dating for a year and you're both residents and how you got referred to me, which doctor told you to come to me and Yeah. Yeah. You came highly recommended. Whatever. I wanna hear like how you met her.

Like we can make this special that way. Yeah. An email doesn't do anything for me. No, you miss all that. You don't get all the, you don't get the tone, you don't get the personality. It can be misinterpreted. Yeah. It's, it's not the human behind. So they'll sit there and they'll go, oh no, I'm talking to him right now.

And I'm like, Lily, you're texting right now and you're, and by the way, you're seven years old. Yeah. And you're doing more at seven. Like, we were outside like looking at the clouds saying, oh my God, there's a dinosaur. Like at seven years old, these kids are like, oh no, I'll get into your phone. I'll tell you this and that.

Now, well you wanna switch your ringtone here, this. And I'm like, oh my God. Yeah. But she like had no idea how we all communicated. And like I look back at that and I'm like, that is such a big product of like why I was who I was growing up. Because I love to talk to people. Yeah. Yeah. I love getting like you and why you're doing this platform.

Yeah. Is to talk to people. Yeah. Yeah. I would not trade that for the world. Yeah. It actually would not trade it for the world. It's, it's a missing now because it's, I, our minds never have a moment of wr they're always being stimulated by something. There's never boredom. Like literally you go in line somewhere and it's automatic for me, if I gotta wait, I pick it up.

I just do it. I, it is a, it's a, it's, it's a natural thing to do, but your mind is never off. It's always like, so when you have those moments where we had moments, like if you were on an airplane years ago and you didn't have a magazine or a book, you had to be bored. No kidding. You had to be bored. You had to sit there for two and a half more hours and you got done with the Delta magazine and then you got nothing else.

And that's it. You gotta sit and either talk to somebody or be bored. That's right. Doesn't exist now. There's no moment. Like that doesn't exist now. Everybody's got their headphones in and their phones open and they're like, leave me alone. I just wanna get through this flight. Yeah. And get where I'm going.

And like, I don't really wanna get to know who my neighbor is. No, you don't. And you just, in your world, I'm not saying you wanna talk to everybody. 'cause some people you sit next to and maybe you wanna tune out for an hour of the flight or whatever. Yeah. But I always, and I'll tell you this about me, I always say hello to the people on each side of me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, Hey, let's just get, get there and like, are you guys going with family? Are you visiting somebody in Florida or wherever? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna see my grandmother. I'm gonna see my uncle. I'm going to see my sister and the kids, whatever. Yeah, that's wonderful.

Enjoy your trip. Like, and that's it. Yeah. And that, like, I just, I don't know. I don't wanna sit there just like, okay, like this thing crash. It's awkward. You're closer than me. I kind of wanna know, you wanna pull the thing from me? My wife and I were on a flight coming back from the west coast and I, she always, she loves the end seat, so I get the middle.

I hate the middle, but I'll do it. 'cause she, she travels more than I do. So you have the end. I'll have the middle inside. You're a good guy. And the, inside on the, he gives the wife, oh no, she, she's too good to me. So inside on the, that's beautiful. On the window seat. This young mom comes in, she's got a little one, one and a half, maybe 2-year-old.

She gets in the seat and she's trying to get situated. And all she does, she goes like this, she takes her kid and she goes like this. She doesn't say anything to me. She just hands me her child. So I take the kid, little boy, oh my gosh. And we're hanging out. I'm just, she's getting situated and I'm waiting for her to say, give my kid back.

She, the whole flight, she never asked for the kid back. So he and I just hung out for the whole flight, like my little buddy. And we never even really talked to her and I, we didn't say much, but he and I were just like chilling with each other. First time that ever happened to me, I thought, this is a little weird, but it was okay.

Like, we bonded me and the little guy bonded. I thought she was gonna let me keep 'em and tell me to keep the little guy. Aw, that's so cute. Well, how old are your kids now? I mean, your 60, so like 30 son just turned 31. And my goddaughter. Oh my gosh. You don't look like you could have a 31-year-old. No way. I got beautiful kids.

Yeah. Had 'em younger, but not that young. Yeah. I got grandkids. Yeah. I got two grandkid. Yeah. God bless you, man. Kids, that's, that's wonderful. Kids. That was one thing I didn't do for my mom that, she's like, I'm an Italian mother and I don't have grandchildren now. My sister, she has three step boys.

Yeah. That she chose that path for herself. Yeah. Just 'cause of the circumstances. When she met her husband was later in life too, so she just said, I'm not having kids this late. Yeah. Like, I'm happy I met my man. I love his children. Yeah. I wanna be a stepmom to them. Yeah. So I'm kind of almost in that shoe now where my guy, my boyfriend has two kids, so.

Oh good. Yeah, yeah. We're doing, we're doing, I'm blessed. IVF we're trying to have a baby. Well. she's Congratulations. Yeah. We have a embryo that's being implanted in October, so, oh my gosh. Yeah. I love kids. I love kids. And so I'm excited. You're excited for this? Very much so. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And God bless her.

So say she's, so, she's how old now? She's 40. Okay. She's so her, she's, her egg production is not up there, so that's why we have to Correct. Get it in now. Correct. What happen now? So we, yeah, the embryo, see things happen for a reason on ice. It's somewhere in the state of Florida, which is being shipped back over here.

He, we think it's a little Mike, my father-in-law's name. 'cause he got, well, we don't know. We didn't have the, but you can have the, you can have everything checked now, but of course you can. We were in the middle of an IVF cycle when my father-in-law passed and, in February. And you can't stop the cycle 'cause you already paid for it.

So the day after we took him off life support, we had to go to Miami to harvest the follicles for her to get the eggs. And Wow. Of those, there weren't a lot. There was only three. And a lot of times women will get, 20 or 30 when they're taking all these drugs or 15, 20, she had three. And so we didn't think there was a good chance that the embryo, the, egg would get fertilized.

'cause the odds are low. but it made it past the first stage, then the second stage. And then it got, you get it tested to see if it has any abnormalities and it graded as an A. So we just think that's the miracle one. 'cause we've done it three or four times more than that. So we think that's a little mic maybe.

Okay, good. We have a little mic coming into the world. Hopefully. Yeah. Let's just keep that positive. Yeah. And let's keep you going on this journey. Yeah. This is killer to hear. Yeah, it's exciting. See, this is what I love about business too, and like friendships and how you develop them and get to know more people down here.

'cause I wanna send a million people to the salon starting today. Ah, I'm dead serious. Like. Period. End of story number one. You're so kind and gracious and to do something like this, to get to know people, I mean, it's just, to me, it's a magical thing. Right? And it's also like that, like with you, like I, my color is, look at this gray coming through right now.

It's like nice and thick. Thank God for that. Thank We wouldn't have a business, God, for me. We need that. We need great, it's a good thing people, thank God for people like you. No, it's good to make me look like I'm still 35.

Because, I, it's, you wanna connect with someone and here I don't really have a connection with anyone. Oh, at all. Okay. In Cleveland, I do, my cousin does my hair in Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But down here, I don't like, she just cut my hair, so, and, did my last color on it, which you could see how many weeks that is now.

It's probably like five, I think since I was last in Cleveland. And I had it touched up with her and like, so it's nice to know that, because JR had mentioned that to me too as well. Yeah. Like, you're gonna love this guy Sp spoke so highly of you, and he's like, you're so nice. He's so like, this is how we all are.

Like we all wanna just like grow and, and get to know people. And that's how it is in my business too. Like when I get to meet somebody like you now I get to hear how your journey is gonna go with having another child. Yeah. 'cause it's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah. And that's awesome for her.

Yeah. It's, it's exciting. It's awesome for her's. Such a big deal. 'cause we especially, you never, we never expected her father. 'cause her father, the way you described your dad was. Vital, healthy fit. I mean, he looked, he didn't look a day over 45. He looked so good. He was so physically biked 30 miles a day, just the last person on earth you'd ever think was gonna die.

Suddenly the way he found that's the problem. He had a brain bleed and it just was so sudden. So he had an aneurysm. Yeah, like a stroke. Yeah. And it just bled out. My happened when he woke up in the middle of the night. Oh my God. And he him on the floor two days later. Oh my God, he's still alive. I dunno how, oh my God.

We don't even know how he was still alive. But his brain had shifted. He had a, a midline shift, which when the brain shifts off the stem, it's, yes, you're done. He was, you're done. There's no say, there's no recoil. There's no coiling it or anything. No, it was nothing to do. His heart was still, we don't know how he was still, we never expect because he didn't go brain dead yet.

Probably. He was, he, he had a strong heart. That's what it was. That's what it is. And even when we took him off life support, we took him off the ventilator, his heart beat for another 40 minutes on its own. It was still pumping. He'd, it was such a strong heart, such an incredible man. You just never, you'd never ever know.

And I think towards the end of his, we didn't know it was the last week, but this last week of his life, it was almost as if he somehow knew, because we had dinner with him on Sunday night. We had this beautiful dinner, with my wife. And he and my wife had this presentation to do the next day, and she practiced it on him.

And he was so proud., he did. He was beaming like a great father. And he, he had gone to the car show that day. He had been to, he had been out on a boat. He had, oh my god. Seen a hockey game the night before. Then he had dinner with his other daughter the next night, Monday night. And his sister-in-law, they had this big, beautiful dinner.

And then that was the last night, the love of his life. From Cleveland. Oh my God was gonna move here. She had just retired. She was gonna move here to be with him. Oh my gosh. So had this great future set up. Whoa. He was, he was all, it was right before Valentine's Day, he was gonna take her to Key West and they were gonna have a great time.

So it was like he went out on top. He was so fit, he was so vital. He looked so good. He felt so good. And I think he, he was a big believer in God. He just, he just knew God had all the answers and God was away. And the way he treated other humans was if he was an apprentice of Jesus. Literally. He was a, he gave, he didn't preach.

He preached in a way that as if he was, serving you in that way, not like you should be this way. He just, he did it like in Jesus' teachings, the way, ways to do it. Just the way he lifted others up. He was always there for people, always there. Pure guy. Yeah. Time., he, he's in his memory and in his hands now.

Yeah, yeah. No, he's, he's right where he taking day he's taking care of Yep. He's taking care of, taking time up. The hard thing about that is not having them with us selfishly anymore. Just, just miss him. I know. Yeah, man. It's, that's the, that's the, that's the double-edged sword that we're all faced with, right?

Yeah. It's, to me it's just, it's, it's pretty deep when you go there, right? Yeah. Yeah. See that's why I love to do the things I love to do. That's why I love to like, be able to share what I get to do and the perks of my business and the people I get to come across and meet and develop friendships and relationships with.

I love to share that stuff with people. Yeah. So like, if I could call, my friend Chad and Michelle that have never been to an NBA game in their life and give them floor seats where the basket is right there and they're sitting next to the TNT cameras and they feel like they're celebrities themselves.

Yeah. They're like, how did you do this? These are like, for this game, like $800 articulate. Like, we could never do that. Yeah. And they would never do that for themselves. They wouldn't do it. Right, right, right. And I'm like, able to go, here you go. Let's all go. We're gonna have a blast. Yeah. They're like, holy Co.

Like, Michelle, like, what do we owe you for? I'm like, you're my friend. I get to do something special for you. So that's just like what it's all about, right? Because you just never know. Well, it's a bucket list experience. When he was in J, it's Jr. Was sharing with me the trip. His trip, just what it meant for him to be with his friends like that.

To be at the Yankee. To be the Yankee game, to be with the people that he loves. And that, yeah, in that, I mean, it was a, it was a bucket list item,? Like literally something so special for him. You said? I wanted to get my dad there and sit down at a Yankees game special with my father. Really?

Because his father hasn't been back to Yankee Stadium, I think, since the old one was torn down. Wow. Yeah. And the new one was built. So when, when he called me, he goes, Michelle, we gotta get this together. We, not only did we get it together, we literally sat first base line right. Between home plate's and first base, and we were like row four from the field.

That's awesome. And I was able to pull that off for everyone. Yeah. He was pumped. He was like, was like, I don't know how you do this. I'm like, it's all my connections. I have a ton of connections. Yeah. It's just how it works in my industry. So if I could do something for somebody, I'm pulling it off and doing it.

We went to the Stanley Cup Finals Jr. RE. He went, I saw it on his Facebook. I saw pictures of it. Yeah. Yeah. Went to, yeah, he went to the Stanley Cup finals game. Oh my God. It was so fun. Yeah. To be, and I've never been to a Stanley Cup final, but to be able to go over on the other coast and watch it happen, and then they win it this year.

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, we were at game four. Awesome. So it was like that pivotal, they lost that game and then they came back and won. They finished it off six, right? Or seven. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to go to a Stanley Cup finals and be there in Florida and just drive over for the game, and we sat right corner, like we were row eight from the ice.

We were corner seats. They were like $1,500 ticket seats. I saw the seats. I, there's pictures on his Facebook. I saw it insane. They were great seats. I saw that. Insane. I have chills. Still think I almost like don't believe I was there. I looked at JR the next day and I was like, can you believe that we all went to this?

That was awesome. He's like, yeah. It was just so freaking cool. It was like amazing. Yeah. I'm like, yeah. So like, I don't know. Enjoying life is like a critical thing for me. It's like fulfilling by making people happy. Yeah. And being able to do something for somebody to make them feel special. I think that's just like why I chose the business I'm in.

Because like for example, the other day my customer Don from Cleveland moved to Cincinnati. Right. Calls me up on the phone. No. Doesn't call me. I ship her, her jewelry. I made her up from a mother's ring of hers that her mother passed away. So they were dibbing up all the jewelry in the family and she ended up getting this cluster white gold cluster ring.

Diamonds are all mishmash in size, really hard to work with. Right? Mm. She looks over at me and she goes, what can you do with this? Because I'm never gonna wear this ring. It's gonna sit in my box. My kids don't want it either. I'm gonna scrap it out and just give me whatever scrap value is for the gold.

Tell me what,. Yeah. Gimme for the diamonds. Yeah. Yeah. Which was probably maybe only like three or 400 bucks, to be brutally honest with you. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I go, do you really need Dawn? Do you really need the three, 400 bucks that bad? Yeah. No. I go, why don't we make you up a straight line like diamond, not tennis bracelet, but like, it's called a station bracelet where the diamonds get bezel set in these little tubes, right?

And then you do a yellow gold bracelet. And then in between the chain we weld. I have my jewelers, 'cause I have jewelers here. I have casting shop here. I have CAD designers here. And then in Cleveland, Ohio as well. I have a whole facility that I use. Right. So I go, well weld, I'll have my jeweler mic weld in between every inch, let's just say.

Or every half inch a diamond. Then you could wear it as like a diamond bracelet and then we could make one for your daughters. With some of the leftover diamonds, we could each make them a diamond pendant using the diamonds. And just put a little diamond in a white gold bezel and wear it. And, now the girls can layer their necklaces and do this kind of stuff.

And then. She goes, I would've never thought of doing any of this with this stuff. And then I go, and then we can make a diamond. 'cause there was a bunch of them, but we can make a diamond matching necklace for you and do a bracelet and a necklace with them. And now you could wear this as an every single day piece to the beach with jeans or a cocktail dress, and you'll never have to take them off of your neck or your wrist unless you want to switch up stuff.

Mm. She's like, okay, I'm in. Call me with a quote. So I just ship her the stuff right now. She's getting it, not seeing it other than me snapping a picture of it in the jewelry boxes at my desk. And then saying, here you go, coming to you FedEx, here's your tracking number. Let me know when you get the product.

She sends me a text message and she goes, I opened the boxes. Perfect. Absolutely stunning. Michelle. Once again, you crushed it for me. Now I can wear my mom's stuff and be proud to wear it. And you just put a special place where hers is around my neck. Right? Yeah. So now I'm reading this message, she wrote me and I'm like, oh hell no.

I'm not taking this text message and sending her back another text message, what we were talking about. I get on the phone and I call her. I go, she answers, she goes, oh my God, Michelle, I'm so happy. I'm like, did your kids get the necklaces yet that I made for them? She's like, just gave 'em to 'em not too long ago.

Yes. They have 'em, they're sitting here in the house. Yeah. We just were waiting for the package to come in. Yeah. 'cause you have to sign for it. Right. She goes, I cannot, I go, that's why I am calling you right now. 'cause that's what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear your voice. I wanted to hear that I made you happy and that I, that everything came out perfect.

Yeah. Like, you like the ni the length of everything. They like their, if they're 16, 18, they like the way they fit them. They like the style of the chain I picked. 'cause she put it all in my hands Yeah. To do this for her. Yeah. Yeah. And then she's like, I thank you for calling me because. Thanks for picking up the phone and calling me.

I go, when, come on, I, you're my, you're my customer, but forget about being my customer. I just wanted to hear your expression and just know how happy you were. So when I end any sale, all my guys that get in rings from me. This is what I do. I go, I want three things from you. When they come to pick up the ring and I'm delivering it to them, I'm like, I want three things from you.

I want a phone call or a picture on my phone saying, she said yes, that the ring fit her. Because if we have to make any sizing adjustments, we'll do that After she's going around selling you, it's too big on her finger. But I'll put some like, a ring guard or some twine underneath it or a bandaid to just keep it where it's, 'cause you know how it is when a woman gets, I mean, I know I'll do that hopefully if I ever get married again someday, or I don't, whatever, I'll commit to somebody and wear a ring, but

You wanna go like this, everybody, we're, we're engaged where, we're committed to each other, whatever. And I go, so make sure you tell me if the ring needs any adjustments. 'cause there's no charge for me to do that for you. And then I'm like, and I want to see, I wanna know how happy I made her.

Mm. Like, I wanna know that I made the ring exactly the way that she wanted it. Yeah. Or it's what you thought she wanted. And they're like, you really wanna know all that. Yeah. Like, you're not just selling us a ring and then saying Bye congratulations. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck to you. I can't wait to see you in a year for the wedding bands.

Yeah, yeah. No, I want that. Yeah. And that's what I get. Mm. And that's priceless to me. I get the text message with the, oh my God, here it is on her finger. She said, yes, Michelle. She loves it. It's beautiful. Yeah. And then I'll call them and I'm like, congratulations. Anything you need at all, you call me. You want the ring cleaned and polished, no charge.

Bring it into me. I'll get the diamonds checked every year. That's the way I give back to my customers on the wholesale level. Because all these big jewelry stores, yes. They may say they do all that and they, and they do. I mean, you're paying for it on the back end. Yeah. Okay. 'cause the cost that they implement into that ring for that stuff.

Right? And then they're like, oh, no charge. I'll steam your ring. I'll clean it every year. Bring it in. We'll check the diamonds and make sure it's nice and tight and all the other little stones around it. Whatever. Yeah. Easy for me, that's my advertisement. When they have a beautiful ring on their finger that I actually created for them, or they picked out and whatever, and I get to make that ring look like the day they got it every single year again, it's like, wow, that ring is beautiful.

Who made it for you? Yeah. So that's the way I advertise. Yeah. Is I want my customers to come to me for everything. You need a repair job. You broke a chain. Give it to me. I'll get it fixed for you. The jewelry stores will charge you a hundred bucks. I'm charging you 55 or 40. Like I don't need that extra. I want to make people happy and then they could come back to me for everything.

'cause I'm full service. It's very personal. It's a very personal experience's. Such a personal thing. Experience. Yeah. Yeah. And the whole process Yes. Is personal. You reminded me of the process of me going through that with Michelle and, yeah. The whole, whoever you used it was, it was a big deal.

So she wanted to, she wanted to, she had a look. She wanted and she wanted to design. Design it. Design it. Yeah. The whole process was extremely, it was personal. It was, but I could, the intimate level that you get with people is unique. I think it's more so than a storefront. I think there's more to it.

Yeah. And I, it's a very memorable experience, not just the. Will you marry me? But the process leading up to that, and then after that, there's a lot that goes into it. Big time. And the emotional experience from my heart. Yes, I remember vividly. And I know for anybody going through it's, it's a big deal and it's something you're gonna remember for the rest of your life.

So you being a partner with them is kind of cool. 'cause it's, it is so special. Yeah. This guys get ready. My whole thing is, oh yeah, I talk about that. Okay. Because my whole thing is I would love to, love to, my whole thing is too, like, I get to like, go to people's houses, right? Like, like, like some of my, some of my athletes that I get to do some things for, I get to go to their houses and like meet with them.

'cause a lot of them don't wanna go into a store and have like, some do some want the ego of like being Ed and, who you are. Let's bring out the champagne. Champagne and blah, blah, blah, blah., I'll, I'll, I have the same thing if you want it, but it's like, I wanna like hang out with you. Like, a lot of my clients are like, Hey, we're throwing a cookout next week.

Wanted you to stop by, come on over. I got some people here that I want to introduce you to, that I want to tell about you and what you did for my wife and how you made her exactly what she wanted and you saved us so much fricking money. It's, let's go. And I'm like, sure, I'll pop over for a beer or cocktail or whatever.

I mean, it happens to me all the time. Hey, we're taking the boat out. And I'm a member of a yacht club in Cleveland that I just became a member of. And like, hey, we're taking the boat out, hop on the boat, Michelle., we're having a drink at the bar and the next thing I know and I'm on this 60 foot yacht, this $3 million boat with.

People that I like just a meeting because of one person that I took care of that was like, this girl's quality, this is who you wanna buy jewelry from. She's low key under the radar. Like she knows everybody. Like, she just wants to make you happy. She wants to just, and that, so like for me, it's like being a jeweler's concierge versus being a jewelry store.

Yeah. It's different. So I get to like, then all of a sudden I'm getting phone calls like, Hey, by the way, she we're pregnant. Like you. Like, Hey, we're pregnant. That's what's triggering me to say this right now. Yeah. Yeah. I'm having a baby. Our first baby. I gotta get her a push present. Michelle, tell me what we need.

Of course, the birthday's in March, I don't even know what the birthstone is for March, but like, let's make her up a necklace or something. I wanna have her like for the baby. And I'm like, I got you., and it's guys that they don't wanna think half the time, like they got enough on their plate with working and then they got, right.

With me, they just want me to like, take care of it. Once they get to know me and they know that I've got their back and they know, Hey, listen, you made my wife so happy with the first five purchases. I don't think six is gonna fail. Yeah.,? Yeah. And then I get to like, do it again, and then I get to see the second kid born, and then I'm being invited to a, a christening or a birthday party or, 'cause I want, I wanna be friends with my customers.

? Yeah. I mean, I want, I want, I give a shit. Like I actually care. Yeah. Like I, if, if you don't have that. So that's where I am a little different. I'm not saying that the big stores or the high-end family owned stores in any town, I don't care where it's at. I do do business with them.

I broker diamonds to them. So of course, when they're calling me it's, for something for their stores, in Pennsylvania or Michigan or whatever, Cincinnati, Columbus,. But, I, I get to have that personal. Difference of being on my side of the fence. Yeah. Makes it unique.

Yes. It's very different. So I always tell people, you're not coming into the flash. I'm not sitting here with $1 million of, merchandise in this case that like, if it's not sold, I'm holding the nut on that product. Yeah., I don't have those stresses. I will build you exactly what you want.

You bring me exactly what you're looking for. It's no different than you somebody coming in and saying, I want Kim Kardashian's haircut right now. I want my hair to look like this from this picture. Yeah. And you say, we'll create that for you., now you might have this shape of a face different from this shape of a face.

So the angle may not lay with the style or texture of your hair, but you are giving that knowledge to somebody to make them look their best. That's what I do. Some guy will come to me and say, I got five grand, I've got three grand and I can't, for three grand get what I think I can get her from a jewelry store.

All I'm looking for is somebody to just gimme the biggest and the best for my money. And then I come in. And my profit margins are here, they're not here. So I'm able to deliver that special. Well, tell me about the world of ne 'cause manufactured diamonds whole Oh yeah. The lab grown, lab grown big.

What what of, what of big jewelry stores don't wanna sell lot of that world. Yeah. So it was probably closer to maybe seven or eight years ago now when the product really started to like explode to a level of, we knew the industry went from hundreds of millions to literally billions and billions and billions.

And a lot of people at that time when COVID hit 2020. They kind of like started to take over a little bit more. The advertising was more pushed. People were at home watching TV more. Starting to see the, like commercials, like lab grown, lab grown. And then de Beers had to like start to like put out a different commercial.

Okay. To say natural is real. Like real is rare. That was their whole stick. Like real is rare because they started to see that with, for the money difference of a lab, which by the way is real. I was freaked out because being a gemologist and growing up in the business with like the MOIs and night journey that happened for a five minutes in the nineties.

I started in 1993. So 1992 going into 1993 is when I started in the industry. And then there was a period in like 19 97, 19 98, 90 that this moise night thing said like they were real. 'cause they were testing real on a diamond tester, but they were not real. They, they're still a syn. They're not synthetic, but they're not anything.

Now the lab grown diamonds, they're actually able to clone a lab grown diamond. So here's the situation with that. You have a glass of water. You take that water outside in minus 32 degrees, right? So below freezing or freezing, and it is able to freeze in that cup, but it takes time, right? For that glass to freeze.

But you go to your ice maker and you put that cup underneath your ice maker and you got instant ice when it melts, it's still water. So if you take that cup of ice that was from the freezer, that was frozen in an expedited chamber. And you take the natural water that had to take four hours to completely freeze over versus 30 seconds and it melts.

And now you got two glasses, same glasses sitting outside by each other. You tell me which one is the one that came from the freezer. Or the one that was naturally frozen outside. Still water. Yeah. Right. Okay. Or like in vitro or anything else. It's still a baby. Yeah. How it was done, maybe it wasn't natural.

Right. But it's still a baby. Yeah. You can't tell me when your son is born. Identical to that. By the way. It's scary to say this to you that when your son is born all of a sudden it's not. Well, it was, it's not a real, it's a human. Yeah. So lab diamonds are real. They were just expedited in a chamber. We call 'em like microwaved in, in the wholesale side.

Okay. Like they were nuked really quick. Yeah. Okay. but they're making 'em at such a fast rate right now. They were able to expedite the process of them, which has brought them down in price. So you're still getting a real diamond. Yeah. Certified laser inscribe from GIA. All the cert companies now laser inscribe them and certified them.

GIA eight I-G-I-E-G-L, all of them. And, you're saving a ton of money. So a natural, let's just say, I don't know, let's just say a two carat, a natural, two carat round. Brilliant. Cut diamond in today's market is probably around 12 to 17,000, just depending on the quality of the stone. The cut, the, all the specs in the lab market.

It's like 5,000 bucks. Wow. Wow. Third of the price, Uhhuh. Wow. Or less. Or less or less. I'm just giving like rough numbers. Yeah. So could you, so looking at two side by side. Can't tell. Can't tell. And I'm a gemologist. Yeah. I mean there's things you can see in like a straight line tennis bracelet that we're all starting to catch now of like.

The shape of the stones are all identical and measured exactly the same. So perfect. We're like a natural. Correct. So perfect. We're like a natural world, you might have one that's like 2.1 millimeters and one that's 2.2 millimeters. Gotcha., tables are off and all of that kind of thing, but you really have to look close to see something like that.

Oh. But nobody can tell I'm a geologist. If you had, if your wife had a three carat on her finger, I'm not gonna think that it's a lab. I'm gonna be like, wow, that's a beautiful diamond. Yeah. It doesn't even matter anymore. Yeah. It's really what fits your bill, what you're comfortable buying. All I want from when a customer walks in my door is two things that you walk out assured and comfortable and confident in knowing what you purchased from me and, what you purchased from me.

Yeah. Those are the two things. Yeah. If I do that, I've done my job for the day and I've made somebody very happy. That's it. And if I did that, hopefully down the road you might tell one or two other people about me and maybe they'll call. Yeah. Like it's all referral for me. Like everything I do is just under the ground referral.

I don't need to advertise. I don't it's just what I do is just, it's an oil machine at this point. Yeah. So you've evolved right in business with that. So these old school companies, how are they adapting to this? Or are they not? Are they fighting? Well, a lot of them are not selling them.

I'm not gonna mention any stores that I know of, but I do know of that literally if you walk into and say, Hey, I wanna buy a four click, four karat oval lab grown diamond today for my girlfriend or my wife or whatever, I want an anniversary. They're gonna be like, sorry, we're just not dealing in those.

We're only dealing in the natural. Mm. Be because what's happening is naturals have come down so significantly to tie to, tighten that gap. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And you, it's, it's like anything, right? Like if all of a sudden in the salon next door to you opens up and they're just as equal as you and now they're doing a haircut for $30 cheaper than you and Nick.

And now you're getting cr, you're seeing people, you're gonna kind of wanna go, okay, maybe we need to level off a little bit here. Like, really evaluate what's going on. Or no, I don't need to do that. I'm not gonna sacrifice that because the quality of the people that I have working for me, I know are gonna deliver better than what they're gonna get over there.

Do you see what I'm saying? So that's what some of these stores are shifting to. Some of these stores are saying like, I don't need to bend to those rules 'cause I am who I am and I've got the people that only wanna buy this stay in that market. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And they stay in that market and they stay tough.

It's like the COVID thing with the face mask. I'm not, I'm not conforming to you telling me that I gotta put, make all my customers walk in with a face mask. No way. No way. I didn't do it. Yeah. I didn't do it with my people. I was like, Hey, if you don't wanna come and see me, that's on you. I'm not getting vaccinated.

I'm not, not that I always put that out, but I didn't. But I'm just saying like, that's not, I'm not complying or conforming when, when I don't have to. So that, or then you've got some of the smaller mom and pop stores that have been like a family owned business and whatever, and they're like, well if we don't get in on this bandwagon, we're gonna start losing thousands of dollars.

Yeah. Because our clientele is, just starting out in that market. So I always say it's really what's comfortable for you to, I'll sell it. I sell it. I sell them a lot actually, and I broker a lot of them. But I want my people that sit down with me to know, this is what it is, this is what it will always be worth.

So know what you're purchasing and what you're spending today, this is what you'll never get back out of it because there's no trade-in values to them. There's upgrades, you can upgrade it, but Okay. As far as saying like, I wanna sell it, nobody's buying 'em back, so, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's just the way it is.

Yeah. However, if somebody does want a big, nice reel, even though it was. Done ex expedited versus being under the earth for hundreds and thousands of years. Yeah. I'm, I think it's a great idea because then you could put your money into other assets, other things that are worth money. Yeah, sure. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. Like they're value. The kids come to me, like young kids, like, I don't wanna call you a kid, you're a man, but at my age you could be my kid. So, I look at it like this, if you wanna buy a home and let's say you have X amount of dollars on a home here. Right? And then they come to me and they go, man, I really could drop 10 grand on a ring, but I really wanna put some money into like this home that I'm gonna have.

I want the property, I want the investment. I kinda almost look as like a mom where I say, I agree. I would spend three to 4,000 and get her the same carrot weight, better quality in a gorgeous white gold or yellow gold setting. 'cause gold right now is through the roof. It's like this bracelet, this real tennis bracelet is actually the gold's worth more than the diamonds right now.

Because gold's trying to get over 3,300 an ounce. Wow. But, yeah, and it's only going up. It's not gonna really go down. But what I wanna say to that is, I would rather see you take that remaining 7,000 and put it in your kitchen or put it in windows in your house, or I don't know, anything.

Right? Yeah, sure, sure. It makes sense. Yeah. Anything that's gonna make you value Yeah. The ring's not gonna value you. Yeah. It's a generational thing that will be passed down like maybe someday. Like she'll give it to your future daughter-in-law. Yeah. Yeah.,? When he gets, like it's an heirloom piece to pass down.

But as far as like, and everybody says, well buy GIA, and then, let's say you buy a ring for a hundred thousand or 50,000 or 20,000, or when you go to sell that rings to somebody like me who's a wholesaler, you're only getting it at what I'm gonna pay for it off a rapaport, which is like the report of diamonds.

That is the standard of what price per car costs, like. So I'm gonna maybe offer you, let's just say like two or three grand and you're gonna go, wait a minute, I bought this ring for like, well, yeah, you paid the inflation on it, you paid for somebody's profit margin, you're not getting all that profit margin back.

Well, no, the ring appraised through the insurance company for the insurance company at like three grand more than I paid for it. True. Because if you had to go and get that ring replaced, buy another retail jewelry store, Uhhuh. Okay. They have to get their money out of it, Uhhuh. So yes, that's what the replacement value would be as if you had to go rebuy it somewhere else.

That doesn't mean you're getting that amount from anybody. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Oh wow. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Yeah. So I do say to people that are on a budget or whatever, put your money into something that's worth it, and then give her this beautiful ring and then down the road if you wanna really upgrade her or buy her that one carat natural diamond, because it means so much to you.

You can always go and do that at any dime.,? Yeah. it's just kind of how I've always been. I like to advise. I like to, because it's, I just want people to like, feel good about what they're buying. Yeah. So if I could give you that pro and con, and I'm not saying I'm the only one that does that.

Plenty of jewelry stores out there in the world that are ethical, we'll all do the same thing. Yeah. You should, you should want somebody that's a little confused or stressed to like, have that ease of like what they're purchasing. Yeah. So his age group, even somebody in their thirties that got divorced or whatever, that's rebuying again.

It's like, Hey, listen, I went through that mess my first time around. She made out, she got the $15,000 ring. This time, it's for love. She doesn't care what's on her finger. She just wants me to get engaged to her. We just wanna be married. Yeah. And then I'm like, great. I'm like, I'll show you a lab and I'll show you a natural and you decide for yourself and I'll tell you what the lab is worth and I'll tell you what the natural is worth.

And I'll tell you that when you do buy the lab, it's yours forever. Unless you wanna upgrade it with me. We could go and do a trade-in, whatever, but buying it back you're getting zero. Yeah. It makes so much sense. It really, it does. I mean, it's a no brainer. It seems like, 'cause, there used to be what, what, what do they call cubics or cz, right?

Yeah. CZs. Those are like 10 bucks. Yeah. Right. Right. I mean, when will say like, well I don't care if it's a cz. I'm like, no, you're really going to, she's really gonna care if it's a cz. Yeah. That's another world. Like, she's gonna be so pissed off at you. Right. That like, I don't even wanna be the one to sell it because then she's gonna be so pissed off at me.

No, thank you. Juice is not worth the squeeze in that situation at all. Yeah. At all. Yeah. The Claire's look correct. Yeah. Yeah. That, but that was the only alternative. It was, there was no alternative, there was nothing else. And they're just hard plastic and they scratch and they look like garbage after about six months to a year wearing.

Yeah. So like, no, I'm out on that one. Yeah. But the labs have just blew my mind away where I never wanted anything to do with them. And once my cutters in Chicago and New York told me, Michelle, you better get on this bandwagon. If you don't get on the lab grown diamond bandwagon, you are missing out on a giant chunk of our future.

You know, a giant chunk. Yeah. By the way, I know everybody says like, oh, it's because you're saving the earth. And then you get the tree huggers. They're like, oh, you're saving the planet by not fracking and going That's all bs. Because actually the gases in the chambers that they do use are way more toxic because it would be what natural gases are from the Earth, earth doing in the, okay.

Yeah. But, but don't buy it because you're thinking, you're like environmentally saving the planet because that's not the case at all. Yeah. Buy it because you wanna save some money for yourself. You want the big look, you want to please your girlfriend, and you wanna put some extra money in your pocket for things that would probably really matter.

Yeah. And that's just the way I kinda like roll the dice with that one to my clients. Yeah. And they're just like, you know what? When in the end they're just so confident in what they bought because you just like laid it out. They're not there to know what the heck you're talking about. You're there to know what they're talking about.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just like you, if I tell you, thin my hair out and you say, honey, I can't go too thin on your hair. You're the expert, not me., all my heart, I, I just, I go like this, Hey, I trust you. Yeah. Well I love that you, I love that. I love that you, I love that you also, it doesn't always compute.

'cause the cynicism in any human would be like, why would you sell the one that's half a third of the price? That's not. Yeah. In your best interest. No, that's weird. Why would you do that? Oh no. People say that all the time too. Like, huh? Like you're telling me to not spend seven with you. You're telling me to spend three instead of seven.

Yeah. Like where's the, where's the gift in that for you? And it's like, Hey, listen, you spend the money on the seven, you're only making me more money. Great, thank you very much. But I'm just giving you the option of what your choices are so that you don't someday go like this. If she would've just told me to spend the three instead of the seven, I would've probably been happier.

Yeah. Market's going now. Yeah. Yeah. Choice. Like there's always that side to everything, right? Sure, sure. Always that side to everything. Yeah. It was like my best friend in Cleveland, one of my, like a big sister to me, their family owns Montrose Auto Group. I mean, they're the billionaires, like true billionaires family.

Like they own mega me mega car dealerships. Okay. I trust me to go buy my cars from her. I lease my cars from her. So when I go to the dealership and I'm like, okay, I had the Jaguar last time, now I want the Range Rover., I switch out whatever brand I choose to get whatever. I'll, I'll look at her and I'll be like, okay, why should I take this valara?

'cause I have the Range Rover Valara, right? And she goes, 'cause when your ass hits that seat every single day and you get in that car to drive it, you're gonna call me and you're gonna say, God, I love you. 'cause, she knows I could afford it, right? So I'm like, are you, is that your sales pitch to me?

She's like, go ahead, take it for a drive, Michelle. You're gonna fricking love this car.,? It's when the new Valara came out. Now I have my third. Don't say my wife's gonna listen to this. 'cause that's the car she talks about all the time. I have it. It's the best. That's talked. Get Michelle, buy the car, lease the car.

It's my favorite. It's, it's the perfect size car. They ride on air. I don't, my lease is up in 10 months. I'm already ordering my new one. Right. But when she said that to me, like she's telling me to go with the one, by the way, the other one that I wanted, because you know how incentives on cars are all different.

The APRs are all different. So even though one might be like 10 grand less than the other one, the way the interest rate works on that one, even with perfect credit, like it could be like 1400 a month, and this one's 1200 a month. But she's like, save the 200 bucks a month and get the one for the 1200 a month, right?

And I'm like, all right. I got in it. And she's like, trust me, you're gonna love this one way more than that Jaguar. Because even though the Jaguar's redesigned, I just know how you like to drive. This is just for these next three years until your new lease comes up, this is the one for you.

And it has nothing to do with the money. Yeah. It just has to do with what she And she knows me. Yeah. So she knows what I'm gonna let, and I now I'm like, oh, I'm ordering another valara. I'm not even gonna go get another Jag. 'cause I usually drive like the F-Pace Jaguar, which is their SUV. Hmm. And then, or, or that or like, I've had 'em all.

I mean IBMW, Volvo. Lexus, yeah. I've had 'em all. But just something about this valara and the look of it and it's just so beautiful. What color? Then I had JR ca paint the calibers yellow on it. Oh, he did? Huh? He painted by caliber. He goes, what color are we doing? Because he did my last Jaguar and they were red.

And then he is like, what color are we doing these? I'm like, you know what I, it's white with black top and black interior and it's got the black rims. Oh, the winds are killer on this car. Sharp. That's a really good look. Yeah. Gorgeous. Yeah, it's gorgeous. I don't even wanna give it up. I have 10 months left on my lease and she's like, we need to start, like, figuring out if you wanna go black, black, black for your next one, or you wanna go white black again.

And I'm like, I'm just loving the white black again. But like, she's like, we'll start talking about it in like three or four months. I'm like, I don't even wanna give this one up. And Jr's brother. Does all my oil changes for it Uhhuh, because I, it's just, taking it to range and JG is just ridiculous what they charge over there.

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's stupid. Yeah. I go to like JR for everything. Mm. Like, have tires, rotation, you name it. Go to him. Yeah. Like, I don't even have to think about it with him, but that's how I wanted to be with my customers. When they sit in my office or I'm at their house showing diamonds, hell, I'll sell a diamond at Starbucks coffee.

I'm, I'm walking in and they're like, you got like $30,000 sitting here in diamonds. My clients, I'm like, okay, I am insured for them. Okay. Like, what? Okay, what like, pick out a diamond you like, and they're just like, oh my God, you just, this, these guys get so nervous. 'cause you know how it is. Like it's nerve wracking.

It's, it's exciting. It's like you're You're starting this whole new chapter, right? Yeah. And I'm like, they sit there and they go, I really thought I was gonna be stressed out with this process and I thought you were gonna make this so hard on me. I almost feel like I should be asking you questions, but I don't have any for you.

And that's what I want. I wanna make sure that you are secure in what you purchased, what you purchased. And I try to make it as easy and simple for you as I could possibly make it. And only get to do that by communicating. Kathy is your mom's name. Yeah. How would Kathy describe you? How would mommy describe you?

You're the oldest and youngest I'll, I'm the oldest and I'll tell you exactly the first thing she says to anybody is, this was the kid I never had to worry about getting through life. She was always gonna figure it out. Michelle was the one that always was reliant on herself and she always knew the pathway to take to struggle through, to get through to what she wanted.

I never have to worry about her when I leave this earth. I always know she'll be okay. But she also wants me to find somebody that's equal to it too. Yeah, right. Of course. She's like, of course she's like the first one. not so much. Of course the next like, yeah, she wasn't thrilled my marriage that I, she just said, you, your ex.

I just, I never, I never really trusted him and I never really thought that he was your counterpart. 'cause I just didn't think that you would, he would be there for you in your time of need someday. Like your father's there for me and I'm there for your father. Yeah. See I was the one that always said, I'll hold this hand till the day he dies and make sure he has the best care.

But she never thought that if something tragic or bad were to happen to me Yeah. That he would be there for my best wellbeing. Yeah. And that was this disturbing thing for my parents who of course they want the best for that girl. Oh listen. I mean, my mom and dad met like on a, a, a notebook story. Like literally a Hallmark movie.

Okay. They walked into a bar. My father was in the military, he was in the Navy. He was on the USS aircraft carrier. So he was stationed in California. So he was on the ship where Top Gun was. He was on the flight deck. So he used to work with the top gun pilots and all that stuff. And he came home from the military, was sitting in a bar, saw my mom.

She was in the bar that same night. Both weren't supposed to be there that night. Seriously. And then all of a sudden, here comes my mom walking across the bar and my dad goes, whoa, who's that one? And my mom went up to the bar. They talked, they said they talked till two in the morning till like the bar closed down.

They could, they couldn't get enough hours in of each other. My dad tells to this day, 'cause they just had their 50th wedding anniversary last year, so this is 51 years. That's amazing. Married 52 years together, right? My dad said, I went home to my mother and I said, I met the girl last night that I'm gonna marry.

Six months later, a ring was on my mom's finger. Mm. Six months later they were saying I do. And then like months later I was born. Mm. I mean, not months later, but Yeah. Yeah. Like she got pregnant probably on my, the, I don't wanna know that part. I want, but my dad said that he always had his best interest for my mother.

Like he goes, I had my fun. I was on the military, I was in the, I was on leave., he is at the end of the Vietnam War, he is in California. He's a young guy. Right. Like my dad said I had my fun When I met your mother and she was so pure. Like you were talking about how you met yours and Michelle was so pure and salt to the earth.

Same with my mom. My mom is like old school Italian, but yet more ma, very like with it and hip and Yeah. Drinks martinis and is outgoing like me and loves to travel. And she's just, he said, your mother had possessions of qualities and I knew I wanted to settle down and I knew I wanted to have a family and my dad's not a cheater.

And he goes, I never looked back. I met your mother and that's who I wanted to be with. Plus he fell in love with my grandparents. He said like, if I had better in-laws, I couldn't ask for better in-laws in my life. Right. Yeah. There's something special about that. Yeah. That's cool. We were all just devastated when, and same with my dad's parents too.

They were very wonderful grandparents. So like I was blessed on both sides. Yeah. But, I think that's what my mom would say. And if I had to say about my mom, tough cookie, like talk about boundaries. She's like, if your father ever did anything wrong to me, his clothes would be on the front yard.

I'd be picking him up and out the door. Like, like, but they have that respect. Yep. And I think that's what like I always wanted in my next relationship is like. How, what my mom and dad acquired and just had, I guess from the beginning. Because that was a true love story. Yeah. I mean, sure. I met the woman I'm gonna marry.

Mm. And my mom was like, oh, okay. I mean, she was in love with him. She's like, oh, of course I thought your father was gorgeous and everything, but like my dad knew. And then six months later, my mom was like, he was in a jewelry store picking up a ring for 300 bucks. She still has that ring to this day.

That's awesome. Like, we've upgraded her, of course. But she still has the original ring. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And then I just, I think like, I think my dad would say the same thing. My sister and I are two total opposite people. My sister's more of a reliant, more of like a, I want the man to take the lead and I'm good.

Because Scott's the provider. And she, she might've worked here and there and dabbled, but like, and she's smart. She's super smart, but she wanted that guy to like, just take care of her. She didn't care what he made. Whatever she, that doesn't matter to her. She'd have married a mechanic if he was good to her.

But I'm just saying she just wanted that type of where me, I was more like, I don't care if I marry a trillionaire or I marry a guy that makes a hundred grand a year. The number didn't matter to me. I was always gonna do what I was always gonna do. And no one was gonna stop me from that.

So I, that's, that's why mom knew that you'd, you'd be okay no matter what happened. No matter what. She goes, I don't care what Michelle does in her life. I don't care what journey she takes. I don't care if she stops working in the jewelry field, which I never will die of this. I'll do this God willing, till I'm 80, God willing till I'm 80, healthy, 80.

But. And look good. 80. Yeah. Is that right? I better be like Raquel Welsh. I always say that I wanna be Sophia Loren. Yeah. Or like Raquel. I want God bless. They never looked old. God. And even when never, they never looked old. I mean, look at Sophia Loren right now. Yeah. She's like 90 something. I mean, still looked amazing.

I think 91. I mean, yeah. It still looks amazing. God, it's incredible. Those jeans that look that, that Italian that like Yeah.,? Yeah. I, or, or even like, even, all of them, all of those women back then, they just had such a beauty to them. It's just like crazy. But, I'll keep up with myself, but like, I just, I just know that no matter what I went through in my divorce and that journey that took me there, 'cause it was a lot of hell I went through to like, where I am right now.

I just, I just knew I was gonna be okay. And I hope they think that still, 'cause my mom's going through a lot right now, and I just, I'm going back to see them as a matter of fact, next week after for Labor Day Weekend. Great. Oh, good. Good. Yeah. That's awesome. You'll have to send her some love from us.

I appreciate that. I haven't met, but I feel like I have so a lot of love. Oh, I appreciate that. She's, she's no different than probably how we were all raised with our moms and family and Yeah. Special. She's just a mom,? Yeah. I go home and I'm in the house. Right. I'm staying there. Right. And it's like three days go by, I walk upstairs into the bedroom.

My bedroom that I still have at the home. Right? Yeah. And there's clothes folded on the bed. I go, mom, you got like chemo and everyth, you're, I'm washing clothes for you. I had to do something. I can't just sit in bed all day and cry and sulk. Yeah. I gotta, I gotta get up. Mm. And I'm like, okay, then get up and then.

She does it and she still washes my clothes and I'm gonna be 50. Like, come on, she can't stop. She can't do it any way. Hey, there's leftover towels. My girls' rigatoni or there's lasagna. I'm like, you made lasagna. And you're like, puking your brains out two days ago in the toilet. And I'm trying to help you.

Yeah. It's just, she just, she just has that, she just has that. She's a mom. She She's a mom. Yeah. She's a good mom. Yeah. I'm lucky. Yeah. I can tell. Yeah. I'm beyond lucky. She did a good job on you. Yeah. Oh, you did too. And look at what you did. You carried your dad's legacy, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you love what you do.

I'm grateful for my Wait. So you cut hair? I do not, no. I'm at beauty school Dropout. Actually. I really did. I was gonna ask about this. So wait, what do you do then? Now I'm talking about me all this time. So I'm the operations of the, of the business. My father and I, ended up in business together. I went my own way out of high school and, went to school for computers, actually computer when computers, before computers were computers that they are now.

That's awesome. And was working at the Space Center and, Oh, in that area. I was working for ITT Defense Communications. We had a division there that was around Space Center. Okay. You're smart. Well, I don't dunno. I dunno. So I was, I was, I wish I knew you about two and a half years ago to defense my cell phone from being iCloud tracked and everything.

That was just, well, it was a little different then. I know, but I, but it was, I got laid off when the space shuttle blew up in 86. I got laid off. Oh my God. I'll never forget that. I was in sixth grade when that happened. Yeah. Was watching it on tv. Was watching it right there in front of us. It was at, looked out our window at the, where we were.

That was mind bending. That was another time in our world. Yeah. You always remember where you were in that moment. I do. And I remember seeing it. Something's wrong. That's not right. We were watching it on tv. We were actually watching it, this trail go and that, when that happened, that. Life changed in the space center area.

'cause they laid off a lot of people and our contract ran out with the company we were with. So I was unemployed and my dad said, please come into the business. You gotta try this out. I said, dad, I don't want anything to do with it. I don't how to cut hair. I'm not creative like you. I never wanted to do it.

I didn't have hair. So I, to get him off my back, I said, all right, I will come back and, and try it out just to get him to leave me alone. 'cause I wasn't doing anything Anyway. So I went to, came back assisted as a shampoo person. So I was shampooing hair. And at the time, he didn't pay, he didn't believe in paying people that were shampoo.

He said, you're here to learn. You're gonna learn. You're here to learn. So you're gonna have to just earn tips. I'm not paying you. You're, you're gonna have to earn your keep. I'm like, I'm your son and it's your business. I don't care. You're, you're assisting like anybody else. You're like, Hey. So what he said.

So, there's a lot of Italian jokes about that too, just to let you power. Right. It's just, I'm gonna pay you for what? Right. Okay. You wanna sweep? Sweep. Right. You're my kid. Right. Sweep. That's why I had you supposed to sweep. I had you to sweep. Yeah, exactly. Go on. You want a dog? There's a dog down the street.

Go put that one. That's your dog. It's your dog can go to visit it every day. No, I'm just kidding. Go on. So, he, oh God, I have so many, every, so many stories about him like that. Were like that. Yeah. So anyway, I went to hair, I was in hair school and I was, expected to be somebody special because my dad had an incredible talent, an incredible reputation in town as being a great air cutter.

So, I'm his son. I should be that way. I should be great. And I was the biggest dork in the class. It was so bad. I was so, so, so, so bad. Like, couldn't hold the, we were doing perm rods at the time 'cause perms were big. And I couldn't get the third pink perm rod in and everybody else was finished in the class.

And I was still trying to wrap that thing. It was, it was just, it was. It was really bad. The teacher was very kind to me 'cause she felt sorry for me. I think that I was there. So anyway, I lasted about two or three months there and I continued, then I dropped out 'cause I knew I couldn't do it. And I stayed in the business and did whatever the business needed to have done, which was, I was shampooing hair and I used to shampoo for tips.

That was it. I had to get really, really good to make tips. You had to work, you had to serve people. You had to really, do the right thing, make them really happy. And I'll never forget, we had, they put me with a wom, a stylist we had named Mary Jane. And Mary Jane did all the old school women who were still getting roller sets.

Oh my gosh. She had, so you're going way back. She had oldest clients. Like she had really, like there was only, there wasn't that many left, right. That were still getting that. Yes. Because my father never wanted, he was like, we don't want to do roller sets. We wanna be known for doing cutting edge work. But this one woman, she still had a lot of clients were like that.

In fact, one of her clients was, Mrs. Proctor who was from the Proctor and Gamble family. Gamble family. The most gorgeous woman. She was so beautiful. She had big beau, beautiful blue eyes and this white hair that she would wear in this huge bouffant de that she'd wear up. That's, and every week she, we she'd come in, she'd only get her hair washed once a week when she got to set.

And I'd have to comb it out and spend so much time on her at the shampoo bowl. She was the sweetest woman ever. And at the end of the service, she'd walk over to me, she'd get a quarter and she'd hand me a quarter, she, here ya di she was from Massachusetts, here ya di she'd gimme the 25 cents as if she were giving a hundred dollars, to get a quarter.

I mean, it wasn't that long ago. The quarter still didn't mean much, but it was like, to her it meant the world. I'm like, you're Proctor Gamble. Proctor and Gamble. Gimme a quarter. Yeah. Whatever it was, I was still grateful. 'cause she was so nice to me to get a five was the thing, if you got a $5 Oh great.

I was living large. Oh yeah. but Mrs. Proctor in her 24 cents quarter, which, was a lot to her in her mind. And, I had to work with those guests and these guests that were still getting these. So anyway, I learned the business through the back of the house and things that he needed to do. So I got to do the things that he couldn't, he got to focus on what he loved.

He loved to cut hair. He was a good businessman, but he was an eighth grade dropout of school. But he was smart in math. He knew his ways and he was a very good businessman, but he was also had the artistic side. So he got to do what he loved, which was more of cutting. And then I worked on the business end of it, from the backside of the house.

And we complimented each other. My mother worked in the business, my sister worked in the business. So we were all, we'd have our family meetings over dinner, which is what it was. I love, love that. We just have our conversations together. So, and, that's a tough thing. I'm gonna bring that up too, by the way, because I didn't have that dynamic with like a family business.

Yeah. But it is a very tough thing. Oh, very much so. To be a son of a man who you're even wrapped up in whatever part you ended up like going into, right. Like doing it or like, the computer systems or like whatever you went to, right? Yeah. And then having to like have your father son relationship still, but yet you still work for dad.

Yeah. It's, or like even it's just a family business. It's a different, yeah, it's a different dynamic because that's a whole different dynamic. You got the dad dynamic, the father, son, and then you got the business side and it's, yeah. 'cause I'm trying to please dad's dad. Yes. Like, but then I just want my dad, but then my dad's my boss.

And then Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I gotta figure out how to help him with new things or like kind of tell him different things and then, yeah. Right. I wanted to, right. Exactly. Like I wanted to, to evolve in the business. He had a, he had an old school way of like, there's cash in the drawer.

You take half out, you take out. I'm like, that's right dad, you can't do business like that anymore. We gotta, we gotta evolve, we gotta change, we gotta have, well, I never forget when I was talking to him about health insurance. This was long before Obamacare and all that, but Right. The, the not many business hair salons had benefits.

They were just like, you get your half, here's my half. Have a good day. We're done. That's it. Right. And when I wanted to talk, I was talking to him about. people need health insurance. At the time, that was an issue. Like they needed affordable health insurance and I wanted to offer a plan to this TE staff.

And, he was just like, what the help for? What do they need that for? Let them go get that on their own. But that it's the, it's helps them, gives them peace of mind. it's one thing the industry doesn't offer. They're gonna need it. And, had to, having to convince him of that. And then when I brought up 401k, 'cause usually a stylist would work their whole career and not have anything to show.

'cause there was no retirement plan or anything like that. So this, in their early nineties, it was like a retirement plan, like a 401k plan was a big deal in the hair salon business. But he was like, what the hell you need that for? That's her problem. But he was old school.

It wasn't that he didn't care about people, he just believed in what he believed in and kind of implementing things that made us different because I was working more on the side of, I know we have these amazing artists and if they're happy here and they love their life, they'll get to create beautiful work without worry and fear and how they're gonna pay the bills and are they gonna have retirement and do they have health insurance and what's summer gonna be like in Naples?

And they got to live with some peace so that they could be creative artists. Exactly. And express themselves the way they love. Exactly. And that was different, that was a, a different mindset. So we got to compliment each other. 'cause he always, he was pushed back. We would go back and forth and he was such a tremendous artist and teaching and developing artistry and the art, the craft of haircut.

'cause he was such a precision haircutter is what he loved. That's awesome. To work. We work together. Way met him. Yeah. He's a special guy. He was like a true old school Italian who told it like it was, I, in this day and age, I think about, he would, he wanted to do a photo shoot and he would saying, get me five beautiful women.

Beautiful., I want 'em to be beautiful and sexy and, 'cause that's what people wanna look like. You would say. They wanna look beautiful. They wanna look sexy. We don't wanna put somebody who's not beautiful and sexy 'cause they're not gonna come in and say, I wanna look like her. They don't wanna look like her.

That's right. They wanna look like the beautiful and sexy girl they would. That's right. Like the jewelry with you. I want to put a piece of jewelry on you 'cause you're beautiful and people wanna look like you and emulate that. That's right. It's not gonna put true. That's the way it is. That's reality.

It's true. It's not politically correct now, but it's a reality. It's like, it's why people have their hair done. It's why they buy nice jewelry. That's right. They wanna look and feel pretty. They wanna look and feel sexy nails. Sexy nails done. They of, yeah. I mean we all want crimped and pampered and That's right.

Feel pretty And there's nothing wrong with that. Nope. Don't have to apologize for that. Like, Nope, nope. That's what life is. Nope. I agree with you. That's what I love about it. I mean, like, it's, it's truly just like a wonderful thing. Like it really is just a wonderful thing to be able to like, make that happen and have that service to make that happen too.

Yeah.,? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I just do my best to everybody to just educate them enough to pick the best decision for them. And I let 'em, I put it in their hands. I let them decide. I'm just there to like, help them make the best educated Yeah. Thing for them. Yeah. For me, it's like I said, it's not about the money.

I want you to just know that like, if you did this, you're not going, well maybe if she would've told me that I would've went with this. It's even in the metals too. It's like, you could go platinum or you could go white gold. Well, I'm gonna tell you what Platinum does and how it performs and it's a pain in the ass metal to work with.

It's an expensive metal to work with. It's a difficult metal for jewelers to work with, but that's why it costs more. It's like it's a pure metal. Then you got white gold. Well, you can rhodium plate it every single year and it'll freshen it up and make it look bright white again without having a slight yellowish shoe to it.

But it's more affordable and it's easier to work with, right? So you pick like, do you want. The purity and the hypoallergenic and the three times more expensive, but yet it dolls down and it wears down faster. And you have to keep up with the upkeep. Some women don't like that. It kind of looks like an industrial metal.

Yeah. 'cause it technically is. Yeah. And then you have the white gold side of it. That's an easier, more manageable metal. Three times less expensive to use. But again, you want a ring, you want a mounting that like, and the platinum is, let's just say 800. And in the white gold it's 400. It's, or 1200 and 400 or whatever you pick.

I'll give you your options to pick from. Yeah. And then they're like, whoa. Oh my gosh, you just said that. And that actually, you know what, no, I don't want it to look like that. I want it to look like this. So thanks for letting me know. Yeah. Educating people, teaching 'em that. Yeah. That's it. The money is the insignificant thing about it.

It's what you are comfortable purchasing on your own and I'm just there to give you the tools to do it. Yeah. Well my dad always said do, if you do what you love and you take care of people, the money will come. So always,. Always. And when I give advice to people, I wanna ask what your thing is with that too.

'cause our age group, we always get like younger people that come to us. Like, especially like your, I'm sure in when your kids were like in their twenties while your, your son is how old? 30. Just turned 31. 31. And your daughter 33. 33. Yeah. So like when they were in their twenties. I know that all my friends kids now that are going off to college and stuff, they're always like, what could, what advice would you give to me?

Like, yeah. What, what would you give? And I always say to everybody, have grit, have determination. Don't ever let anyone tell you. No. Treat people with class and dignity. Not everybody deserves that, but Yeah. But, to the best of your ability and always go with something you love to do. 'cause you'll always make money doing it.

Yeah. Yeah. And it won't feel like a job. Yeah. I don't care what it is. If you wanna be a garbage man, go do that. You'll never know. Maybe you'll own your own cleaning business someday off of it. Yeah., if you want to work with computers, you never know. You could be, working for a major company and have your own company off of it.

You just, you never know what, whatever your life is gonna choose, but just never let anyone tell you No. That's the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur in today's world. Yeah.,? It is. And learn from people. Always learn from people. Never shut somebody out. Like if a 90-year-old wants to sit down with me and have a talk with me while I'm at the beach, oh, where are you from?

How did you get here? Oh, I've been here for 45 years, blah, blah, blah. I always wanna hear, because you just never know what you're gonna take from that. Yeah. Yeah. That's just the way I was raised though. Yeah. Yeah. But I love that. I love that. So that's like always where, where I like to give advice to people.

It's just like nobody's ever gonna tell me no. And when you do, it's just ammunition for me. Yeah. Fire fuels the soul, right? Yeah. Gives you that fire. Right? Yeah. It's like Dana White man, when Dana White sits there and says, I love when people hate me. I love when they try to take me down.

Because in today's world, there's so much weak that it's so much easier to grab. Yeah. Yeah. Because it is, people become more lazy. I don't wanna be that person. I wanna be peaceful content in my life. I wanna bring happiness to the people. I can bring it to that matter. And I just, I don't know, it's just so friendship and everything from that.

If your life is a movie, what would the opening soundtrack be? Ooh, that's a good question. If my wife was a movie, what would the opening soundtrack be?

Well, I am a romantic

There's a lot of movies to choose from on this question.

It's gotta be like an eighties movie, like the Breakfast Club, like, what's that song? Pretty in Pink? Were, pretty in pink. Oh my God. I can keep 16 candles. Yeah. Those, those, those, both those movies had great soundtracks. Great. Yeah. Because they like had their backs against the wall at some point. Yeah.

And then, they came through and they like, yeah, yeah, yeah., they're all sitting in detention on a Saturday. They all got to know each other. See, they all started to talk to each other. They all got to learn their like ups and their downs and their traumas. The jock, the burnout. Yeah. The pretty girl.

Yeah. At 'em. All right. Yeah. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah. I, I do, I think that would be kind of like a, an em, like a, a reflection of like, like what I like, 'cause, you, we all like, we all have our own personalities, but like, when you really do get to like, sit down next to someone and learn who they are in life Yeah.

You get a different point of view. Yeah. Just like that kid that just got, yeah. I hate to say kid, his first name again. Brian. Brian. Yeah. Yeah. When that happened. Yeah. I just remember it being on the news. Yeah. And I remember the next day that it happened. 'cause I have a friend down here that's in the catering company business too.

And she actually got millions of phone calls, not millions, but lots of phone calls, just like a lot of other people did in this community that do the same thing. Yeah. Because of what happened to him. Yeah. Now everybody was scrambling that had booking jobs lined up with him. Yeah, sure. Hey, can you handle this?

Can you handle this? Yeah. And it was just such a devastating thing for everybody to think, oh, mean God, this just like happened to this guy. And all these people are worried about what's gonna happen with their catering Yeah. event coming up. Sure. And it's like, wow. In one minute. This guy's like, he's lucky he's alive.

So much so. Yeah, it's incredible. Like, just to be alive. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty deep, huh? Yeah. So you never know. You never know. Just like me meeting you. Yeah. JR JR. Is just a cool cat, man. Yeah. Yeah, he is. We should get like a group thing girl. Like that would be fun. He's cool. So maybe like simple minds, don't you forget about me.

Could be your, don't you forget, that could be your About me. That could be your opening, yes. Soundtrack. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Do you have a hidden talent? or what's something somebody should know about you that they don't already know? that, as outgoing as I am, I do, like, I'm content being alone.

Hmm. I could sit in my house by myself. Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. I can go to the beach and just walk by myself in the middle of the night and watch the moon and just do a quick, like midnight walk, just right down fifth Avenue. Because I live right down the street from fifth. And, just, no, no headphones, no music.

Just literally put my feet in the sand and ground myself. And just look at the golf and do like a mile or two walk. And I do do that. I did it not too long ago where I was just like, one o'clock in the morning was like five months ago before I met the guy I am seeing. And, five o'clock in the morning, and I just got up outta bed and I just walked right down to the beach before, the sun was rising and so it was dark and then it was turning the light.

And I do that like all the time. Don't do that. I'll, I'll go at midnight. It's weird that to say that, but No, it's nice. It's peaceful. I'm sure. I'm sure. It's awesome. You and your wife should go do that, just like before you find out all this stuff. And Yeah. In October just be like, you know what? Just let's go down there for sunset and then just like walk while it's getting d dusk and the sun's already down.

Yeah. She, she needs more peaceful moments like that to do that. Yeah. I love this town because of that still. Yeah. Don't, I mean, enough mean we do have a great city we live in. I know. I know. I just don't do it enough. It's right there. I know. That's beautiful beach right there. Right at your feet. Yeah.

Yeah. Just go. Yeah, we're gonna do that. I have to, I have to make sure the next two months are very, the next month is very serene for her, so she's not in that go, go, go mode. 'cause her body has to be ready. Grounding is the best thing ever. Yeah. She's gotta put your flip flops on, throw 'em down right by the beach and just go take like a mile walk.

Just walk, take a coffee, take a glass of wine, whatever. Yeah. And just walk and just stare at what we have. Yeah. Like see the dolphins. And every time I see those dolphins I'm like, oh my God. It never gets old. It never a sunrise or a sunset. Never gets old. Yeah. And this in, in our paradise here where we live.

Yeah. And we take it for granted. I know people that I like talk to down here all the time, and I'm like, oh yeah. I was just at the beach the other day. They're like, I haven't seen the beach in five years. I'm like, you live on the most prestigious street. You're on Gulf Shore Boulevard. You live in a condo that you could walk across the street in three minutes and be at the Gulf of America.

And you mean to I love saying that. Yeah. That's awesome. I love saying that. That's awesome. And you mean to tell me that you haven't seen the beach in five years? Like, it's crazy, man. I moved down here because of this and now I don't even see it. You're right. And I'm like, it's like happens so much to so many people.

I don't, I don't take it for granted. Yeah. Never have. And I never will. I was just on the beach the other day. So what's your coffee order? Cappuccino. Love. Cappuccino. Okay. Okay. With almond milk. Almond milk. Okay. Yes. And I don't do any cream or sugar in it. Just, just, just the way, it's just cappuccino with almond milk.

Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Okay. Yeah. The old school way. Yeah. Yeah. what's your favorite drink? I'm straight espresso. What's your drink of choice? Espresso. And then when it comes to a cocktail, what is your favorite?, I, 'cause you're not a big drinker. No, I can, I can't anymore., I used to, I, I enjoyed it, but in the last, I don't know, 10 years or so, when I have a drink, I get so tired.

It makes me sleepy. Like it doesn't hit me the way it used to. No kidding. I sometimes I want to, I would love to enjoy like a kamus good red wine or Yes. Or a Manhattan that my grandfather used to make these used to make these great Manhattans. but it just doesn't, I don't know. I can't do it. It puts me right out.

Like if I'm at a social event and I wanna have a little, I wanna loosen up a little bit, take a couple sips and I'm ready for bed. It just, I can't do it anymore. I wish I could. I would. It's like I would've, yeah. For me getting to know you a little bit, I would've expected like more of like an espresso martini type of guy.

Yeah. I could do that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put the two of them together. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause I could drink an espresso at 10 o'clock at night and heck, some heck yeah. Either way, but for sure. So espressos be espressos. Kind of like the salute to my father. After my father passed in 2015, we all drank espressos growing up.

Heck yeah. We put espresso machines in all the salons. Yep. So that every time there's a, every time somebody's having a cappuccino or espresso, it's a salute to poppy. We have. That's funny you say that. Because back in Cleveland, there's a friend of mine that's name's Anthony de Benedictus and his family owns a salon and he's been a hairdresser for his father for as long as I can remember.

He's 55 years old now, Anthony. And that's what he did. He has an espresso machine and everybody that comes in there is like, I'll make you a cappuccino or espresso. Which one do you want? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Old school. It's part of the experience. Yeah. Old school. A hundred percent. Yeah. It's the way. So true.

Yes. More questions? Music, music, music. Oh, so what that genre. Okay. What, what? Music's playing music. I love reggae. I love, like the, like the beachy reggae music just puts you in the mood for it's chill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just chill centers, you Yeah. It's just that vibe. As soon as you hear it. Yeah. I get, yeah.

I am a huge fan of like, cold play. We just went to the concert in Miami. A group of us Jr. Was there too. Yeah. Yeah. You told him that was after too. The, thing too, that was after the, cheater. Yep. Was caught on camera, right? Yes. I'm, I'm a yes. Yeah. Oh, that was what, what an idiot. I know. What an idiot.

I'm kidding. Then it's funny because at the, our concert that we went to, 'cause it was right after that one. Yeah. Yeah. He was like, anybody in here speak now, speak now, and forever hold your peace. Like, he was like, it just like, let us know. but I love, like, I love like, like the era that I grew up in, like the Kurt Cobain and the cold play.

And, I even like a little bit of jazz. 'cause my dad grew up like listening to jazz too. Like he's, or the Doobie Brothers. Like, I'm into that music, like the seventies rock. Yeah. Grew up on that stuff. So like, I'm all over the board. Like, when I'm working out, I might listen to like, a little Def Leppard, like a little rocky, like, that kind of stuff.

Kenny Loggins, like, if I wanna chill out Michael McDonald. So I kinda like a lot of different genres of music. but my most favorite right now is probably reggae and Chilling. Like, it, it's something I really kind of embodied. Yeah. JI have a good sound system on the boat. Huh. His boat is sick.

Yeah. Okay. It's, it's not for the average. His sound system is amazing. It's smoking, right? Gosh, I, oh gosh. I can only imagine. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure. And I like techno too., like the new, what's it called? you know what I'm talking about? Tech, not techno, but like EDM? Yes, EDM, like e dm.

But, you can't listen to it so, so, so much because it's just like, but then like, I'm a romantic, so I like, like Lionel Richie and, like the old school stuff that we used to listen to. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like, I don't know, it's just, it's like, right now my playlist is all over the board.

Yeah. And the guy I am dating is like, here on, you have reggae, you have, you have, blues. This, you have, I'm like, well, it's, it is like whatever mood I'm feeling I'm in. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Yeah. No, I know. What's your favorite? What's your favorite? I'm all over the place like that too. Yeah. I, my orig origin, like, I even like some rap, so Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have a wide variety. Even, even, there's a little country sprinkled in there. Love country. Yeah. Just, I'm, I used to, DJ back in the day. Oh geez. Not, not like the current dj, no. Method wear, I'm mixing beats and things like that, but just with vinyl. Yeah, with vinyl. Yeah. The old school.

I love vinyl and vinyls. Yeah. I was all, I loved, originally like new wave alternative music was the, was my first love of like, the old school, new order. Yes. psychedelic first. Oh yes. Echo the bunny. Just like a lot of the old school. Newer the Yes. Like did you like nine inch Nails and stuff too?

Did, yeah. Yeah. Went to those concerts and the mosh pits, man. Did you I came home and my mom was like, who kicked your ass today? I am like, what do you mean? Like last night? Oh, you're getting elbowed. It's like everybody's jumping on you. My mom's like, was that a concert or did you go get paid to get beat up?

You don't wanna know Pink Floyd? I'm a Pink Floyd fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pink saw Pink Floyd back in Cleveland. Did you really know? Oh my God. That concert was epic. Well, I can only imagine. It was, it was one of the last ones at the old Cleveland Brown Stadium before it was torn down. So we're going back to 1990, seven, I think it was 1996 or seven.

All I know is like, you didn't even have to bring a joint to the place. You just breathed it suck. Just breathe all in there. That music was designed for that. It literally was. That's, you could hear it in a whole different way. It was when you, it was so cool though. It was so cool. Cool. Like over the moon and wall.

Yeah. The wall was like something that was the walls. Yeah. That was life altering. Yeah. I mean, and that's when like laser shows were just starting. Yeah. That's what they were known for. Yeah. For the laser shows. Like Yeah, it was epic. Yeah, it was epic. I can only imagine. That had to be so cool to see them, yeah.

Live. But let me ask you this. Traveling places in your life that you would love to go to that you've never been, that is like a bucket list of like a place to travel to like somewhere that you would maybe never go to, but you're like, man, that would be cool if I did.

I mean, I want to go, I've been to Italy and I want to go back to Italy 'cause I just love that. Yep. I just love my experience in Italy and I love the, I felt like I was at home. Yes. I couldn't speak the language, but I felt like I doesn't matter, communicated with everyone, doesn't matter. I felt like it was where I belonged, Uhhuh, wherever I was in Italy.

I love my experience there. So I'm, my wife and I are planning that. We're gonna go back there. I, to parts that I haven't been maybe or, but I, but I also love, it's hard for me to leave. I'm really loving where I live and I'm loving her house and I'm loving Naples so much. Good for you. For you, man. I don't know that I, you I used to wanna travel.

Yeah, very much so. I do, I like to get a, to go to the place where we're going to. Vegas this week. She used to work for work, so I'm gonna go there. That's fun. I like to play poker. Yeah. So, well, I'm a blackjack player, so Yeah. So love cards. Yeah, I love poker. I like playing. So we're, we do travel going back to Michigan again.

But ultimately, I love where we're at. I love being home. I love even staying home and watching Dateline on a Friday night. That's awesome, man. It's like our thing,? Why did they murder that person?,? You're so subtle then you're so secure in your relationship that, that's like the best part about it.

Yeah, we can do that and be comfortable with it. It's okay. We don't have to be out. We just, I love, or we could go out with friends or we could, we're, we were, we could do either, but I think, I love our home. She's made our home so beautiful and so perfect and so pristine. It's like a, a castle guys, man.

You know, I feel like I actually live here. I live in this paradise. I have this beautiful wife. I am surrounded by so many incredible people that I get to work with and be with and watch their families grow and watch their lives grow as human beings and as humanitarians on the planet. I get to have rich conversations like this with good people, that I'm very blessed and feel like, I could travel or not.

Either way. I would love it, so, well, we're gonna be friends now after this. Yeah, absolutely. And you gotta come on the boat. Oh, I'm so looking forward to that. You gotta, you don't even know, it's gotta be an experience with jr. It's, it's gotta be an experience. It's, it's, it's amazing and we have so much fun.

Like, the group is just so, just, just good people. Yeah. Bottom line. Yeah. That's all I could say. No drama, fun. Just good people. Just a lot of like laughs. Yeah. A lot of chill. Like a lot of embracing, like we saw a sea turtle the other day when we were on the boat. It was like so cool. Crazy cool. but the one place I would love, love to go to is like to see a safari.

Like, go to Australia or go to Africa, like, and just see like lions roaming the earth. Yeah. That would be pretty. I see that. Pretty awesome. To see the wildlife like that. I wanna see to kill each other or eat other things. That part I don't wanna see. 'cause I love animals. And when I put on animal planet of any kind and I see like a, something getting mauled, I'm like, no.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My mom's like, that's nature, Michelle. That's how the world works. And I'm like, no. Yeah. Like, like, but I would love to do that because I love, I'm an animal, animal, like animal lover. Yeah. My father was raised like all on animals. Like, he almost like animals better than people sometimes.

Like, you know how that can go, right? Yeah. Some of my wife is, yeah, our dog is like that. You have my wife. I have two dogs. Yeah, two little baby girls. a west Highland terrier. Lola. And she's 13. Lola. Oh, that's awesome. Lola. And then I have Sammy, which my ex-husband named her, but she's a king Cavalier spaniel Shihtzu mix.

So a c she this big. And, so Lola and Sammy all fire. What is it Was? It looks like, it's a king cavalier spaniel and a shihtzu. So they call it a cava. She, so does it have hair or fur? Is it shed, hair? No fur. It doesn't, doesn't shed? No, they both don't. Shed. Oh, cool. Like, Lola rarely sheds. I mean, a little bit of white or something, but like Yeah.

Rarely sheds. Yeah., and, so they are 13 and 11. I just, I still can't believe 13 and 11. Yeah. Our, our morie, our morkes 13. Oh, you have a Morkey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are cute. She runs our house. Yeah. She's the princess. Little white one. Yes. White or she's, yeah, she's got like a blonde. She's, she looks like she has highlights.

Okay. She's like blondish. She's just Got this hair that everybody wants. She's a terrier and a Maltese. Right? A mal new Yorkie. And a Yorkie. Yeah. Oh my God. How cute. And she just, yeah, she runs the house. She's, she's in charge. I, my father had, there's a picture of my dad on the back walking this lot.

I wanna see that. I bet he was a good look at match with the sch with the, his dog, which he had a schnauzer and he's lo That's what I saw, walking in the white. Yep. Yeah. And that was his baby. And, he would cook for Max was his dog, make these special meals for, and I thought, dad, what are you doing?, like you're cooking.

He cooked better for, max than he would for us. And, he loved that dog. They were inseparable. Well, now since Michelle and Boo Boo is our dog's name, boo Boo, I am doing the same now. And she likes organic chicken cooked in Kerrygold butter, and it's gotta be a certain temperature. She's so spoiled.

She's so spoiled. But she has my heart,. So How old is she? She's 13. Yeah. She's my Lola's age 13. Yeah. Can't believe it too. It goes by so quick. Yeah, it's hard to believe. I know. I mean, gosh, I hope she's, I mean, Westie tend to live to like 17, 18. I'm praying because she's healthy. That's what we're saying.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I take her to the dog park, I'm walking her. People are like, how old is she? Like five or six. I'm like, oh my God. I wish. Yeah. That's, that's just like, yeah, they got that spry spunk to them. Like Boo Boo was at the vet yesterday and she's the tech said she doesn't look a day over five.

That's right. Which made her feel so good. Good skin, good coat. Like, our dog's not like walking like, Ugh. Yeah, no they don't. I'm like, Nope, nope. Moola just gets after it, man. She sees a squirrel. She's like running right after the squirrel. It's crazy. I love it. I love it. It's it, but I didn't have kids, so like, dogs are my children.

She's your, she's your, she's your baby. She's my baby. They're both my baby girls, but, the only people that babysit them when I'm gone is my mother and father. Yeah. There's only few. That's it. I know. That goes, yeah. Everybody's like, oh, get a dog sitter down here and just go on vacation or whatever. And I'm like, Nope.

Yeah. Like if my mom and dad can't watch them. That's it. Grandma and grandpa get them. Yeah, it's the same. Those are my dad's grand dogs. So you still holding up? Okay. Camera's holding up. Okay, we're ready. I'm gonna give her some of the good, I'm gonna give her some of the deep gimme. So pull out, this is a question.

Okay. You're gonna, read it out loud and then answer whatever, choose. Oh, I love this stuff. This is so fun. It's very random. Okay. What was the first cell phone you ever had? Okay. First cell I cell phone I ever had was that big flip phone from Verizon. That was the plastic that had like, it had the little small plastic flap that came down.

Yeah. Yeah. I was 18. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Then the second one would be the razor. Oh, before the razor then? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I went to a Blackberry for five minutes. Right. And then went back to the razor and then went to the iPhone one. Yeah. That came out. Yeah. But yes, the first one was that big chunky plastic.

The antenna came up. It was so cool. Just like the retractable antenna and not the one with the rubber thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that had to be when I was like 15 or 14 before like, like remember how much the cell loan plans were back. Oh my gosh. Then it was like a dollar a minute. Right, right.

Yeah. You had to pay and then a dollar a minute text. So you had to pay by the text. Pay it by the text. So I would sit there and go like this. Okay. So if I talk to my friend for just 10 minutes, it's only $10. Somehow the bill came and it was like 350 bucks and I'm like, how did I talk three 50 bucks?

Whatcha talking about like, and back then, in the nineties, this 19 93, 19 94. Yeah. It was a big deal to have a cell phone. It was a big deal. Oh my God. It was like, what the heck is going on here? Yeah. Car payments weren't even three 50 bucks. Right. Okay. All right. What keeps you up at night? Oh, that's a good one.

Okay. I do tend to sleep like a rock. So what keeps me up at night would just be keeping up with my business and making sure that I keep everybody as happy as I can because it is a one man show for me. Like, I do have help, but it's me. Yeah. Like I'm keeping up with making sure the orders are filled and who has what.

So sometimes I'll sit there and just start processing things through my head like, oh my God, I didn't get that done today. I gotta get this appraisal type for this guy. Can my mom help me do this really quick?, I gotta get this ring delivered out by Wednesday. I better call Mike or Dan or Dan, my other jeweler and make sure that these jobs are done right.

Or whatever. Yeah. So, yeah, I, that stuff keeps me up at night. Gotcha. But everything else is pretty darn good. So, but you're just thinking about others like you do. That's your way, that's what you would do. That would be you. That's, yeah. I mean, right now my mom is a little stressful. I'm not gonna lie about that.

That's like obvious though,? That keeps me up a little bit. It's just making sure that this, that the cancer's gone. Yeah. And that she doesn't have to go forward with doing other procedures. I don't want that for her. Yeah. I want her to have the quality of life that Yeah. Really matters. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And they have a place down here. Oh, good. So they're getting down here. she said hopefully by the end of September, she's just gonna wanna get back down here and be here. Good, good. they haven't been here in two years at their place because of my grandparents passing away simultaneously.

Yeah. so she was like the true caretaker with my aunt. And then, obviously she got diagnosed with cancer. Like, it was like only seven or eight months later after my grandfather died. That was a few years. Geez. And it was just outta, I mean, I didn't even believe it. We were, we were out getting Mexican food.

This is true story. Well, they're all true story, but we were out getting Mexican food. I had already known that she was going in for a biopsy for this lump, right? And I didn't know when the results were coming back yet. So me, my aunt, and my cousin, the three of us with my mom we're like, ah, we're just gonna go this like Mexican place up the street in Cleveland.

And I'm chips and salsa and I'm eating. I'm drinking my margarita. My mom's not ordering a margarita. Which I thought was like strange because she would've, right? And I look over and my mom goes, I go, well, mom, I said, I got a good feeling about this. You're fine. There's no cancer. Like, you don't think about it.

Like, we all go in for something. We all think it's cancer, but it is not cancer, so don't worry about anything. And she goes, oh no, it's cancer. And I'm like, can you, can you get that salsa over there? And my aunt's sitting there with like, and my cousin's like sitting over there and she's at the same like speechless like jaw to the like, and I'm like, eating the chips.

Like I didn't even hear it. And then I go, did you just say you have cancer? And she's like, yeah, it came back positive. It's cancer. Oh, wow. And they gotta do a surgery. And I don't know what stage it'll be until after the procedure's done, which it's stage three plus one. Which is not good. I mean, it's not the worst, but it's not, and it's not good.

It's right before four. And I go, oh, all right, well then you know what? We're just gonna get you in for surgery and everything's gonna be fine. And my aunt was like. Are you like, are you there? Yeah. I just, it didn't, I didn't, it was like one day they're fine and the next day you're, you're now facing, you hear that word, that news?

Yeah. Procedure. It was a six hour procedure. It was lymph nodes removed. It was tumor removed. It was, it was, it was, it was legit. Like serious. Yeah. And then to find out it was stage three plus one and now she's got six weeks of aggressive chemo and aggressive radiation. Radiation burnt the crap out of her.

Mm. And then it's just like, she's just, in this emotional state. So yeah. This is what's keeping me up at night at this moment. Sure. Yeah. But in a normal, it's just making sure I keep my business going. 'cause I love what I do. It's not even a job. It's just like such a fun thing I get to do.

So hopefully I can make some people happy. Yeah. Keep more people happy. Yeah. The best is yet to come. Yeah. Yes. You're still going. Yeah. Yes. And I'm just gonna just keep going positive with my mom because I do believe in everything in life is energy. Yeah. Keep giving her that love. Yeah. Like you're doing.

And that's, nothing makes her happier than that. No love of her family. That's the best medicine. That's awesome. It is. That's why like when I'm down here, I seize the moments my friend. I really do. I seize the moments down here because I take the opportunities. Like if I get a game to go do, I'm going to a game.

If I got, whatever I anything like, JR let's go on the boat. I'm there. We're going on the boat., let's go to the Florida Keys and get on the boat. We're gonna get a group together and we're gonna get a hotel over there on the ocean and blah, blah, blah. Let's do it. When are we gonna go?

Let me just make sure I'm all safe. Planned it out. Like let's go, let's just do it. Like, I wanna live life. 'cause it does go by so quick. Yeah, no it does. I don't even care about going back. Yeah. Like I, we look at it as like we, I look at it this year of going like, God, 80 is only 30 years away. And look at how fast the first 50 went.

Yeah. In a minute. 50 in minute. In a minute. It flies. I know. It flies. Right? 60 50, right? Yeah. But then I think to myself, my mom was fine, and my mom is healthy. She's not overweight. She takes care of herself. Yeah. She eats right. She's not a smoker. She's not a big drinker. She never really had any, never did drugs her entire life.

I've never done drugs my entire life. Like I maybe smoke weed, but like, I've never done like drugs. Like, and then I sit there and I think to myself, God, like she did nothing. Pretty much wrong at all. At all. Yeah. And in one day, she's, the next day she's got stage three cancer. Isn't, she's crazy for her life, isn't that?

Yeah. You think hasn't happened? Yeah. It's insane. Or like, look at your father-in-law. Yeah. Yeah. You just, you just, you don know one day. Yeah. And then the next, it's like they're gone. Yeah. That's why it's just, I wanna like just keep the people good in my life, be good to them and just try to spread.

Just, just, I want peace and I want happiness. Yeah. And I do want somebody to share it with. Yeah. Well, this kind of goes in line with that, and you've probably already shared bits and pieces of this, but my final question is, what do you love about your life? I love life. I just love life. Like, I love, like, I love sitting outside in the backyard at night and just seeing the stars.

I love a good thunderstorm. I love meeting great new people. I love to talk to great new people. I love putting people together. I love connection. Like, I love, like, if I can help you in some way and put you with the best guy that I know that could help you with that, I wanna do that for you.

I want the arrangement made. I want. like, I want people in my life like that. So that's kind of life itself. I just love life. Like, I just, I love, I love what God created, quite frankly. Yeah. Beautiful. I think it's beautiful. Mm. I just wish we were here forever to enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah., well said.

Very beautiful. I ha Thank you. Thanks for, thank you. Are you kidding? This is awesome. No, I appreciate you., it's, it's, today, this is, it's the first time, that I've had a conversation with somebody that I didn't have a full bio on beforehand. Yeah. So, so I had no idea. It was, yeah. Like I had no idea where we were gonna end up or where it was gonna go.

I just was trusting that JR said, there's this great human you gotta meet, you gotta talk to her. And he was so Right. Thank you. Yeah. That's a lot. And by the way, like I said, I walked in here and it just felt so nice. It was just a great energy that you have in this place. Yeah. You have some really kind people.

Everybody smiled at me. It looks like people are talking and having fun. It didn't feel, some salons you walk into, I will be honest. Even in Cleveland, and it's like their noses are in the air. Yeah. And they're not as, like, it's just sterile feeling. Yeah, sure. No, it's that what you're talking about.

Like, how you doing? Yeah. Oh, that's great. What problems today? Yeah. How's mom? Eh., like, this just felt so calm. Yeah. And like, you guys have a lot of fun here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you make it fun too. So thank you. You're part of the fun. I love to do this.