Hey everyone and welcome back to another Backroom's Entity Explained video. I'm Broogly and in this video I bring you three more entities from the Backroom's lore. Hope you enjoy it and let's get into it shall we? Also this is the first time I'm announcing this but I will be doing a 500,000 subscriber live stream here on the Broogly channel. The second I hit 500k I will be wearing the full Backroom's outfit when it happens. I'll be dripped out in that and I'll be going live on the Broogly channel for everybody to join in. We can hang out for a few hours and we'll celebrate. We'll play some Apurephobia, some games, it'll be a fun time. So stay tuned for that. Turn your notice on if you want to be a part of it. Anyways let's get into the video shall we? So first up for this video is Entity 987 aka The God on level 532. And this entity is deeply ingrained into the Backroom's history and lore because it seems to be very similar to a god that exists in ancient texts that have been found in the Backrooms. I'll leave the full article linked below, go check it out if you want to see how it is so ingrained because it's crazy and you should check it out. But to keep it simple I'll go over the basics here. Backroom's Entity 987 is classified as an IETS rating of 5B which means it's extremely dangerous to humans and highly intelligent. Now the actual creature itself is a humanoid type entity that was actually found locked inside of a small room on level 532. In this small room is a prison cell. Its skin is dark gray and it looks really old and worn. It only wears a ripped up robe from head to toe and its face is really smooth with no facial features except for one blue eye in the middle. It doesn't even have a mouth but somehow it can talk and it doesn't just speak English it can speak most human languages. The entity seems to not be able to escape the cell it's locked in except it can and I'll explain in a second. But everyone should avoid this cell at all costs because every time somebody goes there something bad happens. Now there is an entity log between someone and the entity on this page and that someone is a mag officer named David Armstrong and David Armstrong was supposed to go to this entity approach it and ask a few questions about making a deal so Meg could see how this entity would respond to bribes and questioning. Now Armstrong went into the room alone right in front of the prison cell and other people waited outside of the room to see what would happen. After Armstrong introduces himself to the entity even though the entity already knew his name he asks the entity if he can grant Armstrong eternal life.  The entity says that he can and the doctor wants to do a handshake to seal the deal so he sticks his hand through the prison door and the entity grabs to shake his hand back except this electrocutes the doctor and makes his body fall to the floor then the entity's body slumps back into the cell but the doctor gets up and turns around and looks at the entity in the cell and says quote have fun with your immortality David and then walks up the stairs leaving the mind and the soul of the doctor trapped in the body of the entity in the cell nice so uh yeah I guess the entity is free now in the body of Dr. Armstrong or maybe he could have already moved to another body who knows. Next up for the video is entity 45 or the Chupa Vedas this entity has an IETS rating of 3B plus which means that they're pretty smart and they're really dangerous these creatures were originally thought to be legends or ghost stories or made up because of how they look but we're pretty sure they're real they take the form of ghostly humanoids that are sitting around a campfire bonfire type thing except that isn't actually what they look like that's just what they show themselves as and they do this in order to lure prey to them and if you're smart you might notice that some things seem off about this scene the fire that they're supposedly sitting around doesn't actually give out any heat instead it actually seems to take warmth away from anybody who goes near it and that will make you weaker that these entities normally appear near places that people don't really go to and entities don't really go to that way they kind of seem more out the middle of nowhere and for this reason it was originally thought that they weren't even real now these creatures are even more powerful than making a fake fire though they can also transform themselves to look like normal people and even talk like them too when a real wanderer comes to this fire and is lured in to sit down with them they'll sit down and they'll be under the illusion that they're getting warmer and relaxing and they're talking with these random people since the troupevitas can show themselves as real humans a wanderer would just think they're talking to random strangers when in reality the fire they're sitting at is taking their warmth and their life force and the entities sitting around are not friendly they try to convince you to stay there longer and longer by telling stories and saying oh don't go but they make you stay even longer to take your life force some people have been able to escape the trap in the middle of it but if they do they seem to have big chunks of their memories missing or even parts of their identity missing too like you can't even remember half your stuff at that point a long time ago these creatures could barely mimic human speech and people always avoided them but it seems like over time they've gotten more and more smart and even more bold and luring people over which is kind of creepy that they're evolving now lastly for the video is an entity called the key master now i did talk very shortly about this one last year but a lot more has been discovered and here's what we have the key master or entity x is a powerful mystical creature that lives in the hub level as a sort of overseer he's known for his ability to manifest keys specifically level keys to people in the back rooms and then help those people out of levels that they're stuck in now the key master has pretty much been seen everywhere at some point in every level but is never in one place for long enough to get too much information it kind of just appears and then leaves the physical entity is a tall male humanoid with long dark hair and when i say tall i mean literally six feet ten inches tall at least and he's got his famous black cloak that covers every part of his body except the upper part of his face and there's also a ghostly black smoke that hovers at his lower half on the side of his cloak he has a huge key ring of old fancy looking keys and these are the level keys that he produces the entity is pretty quiet and soft spoken and kind of avoids really talking and when he does talk he kind of seems to be confused or tired but he definitely knows what he's doing the creature is neutral towards all wanderers and even neutral towards entities but he will leave if he's provoked almost like he knows nothing can hurt him he's not scared of anything by all accounts he actually can't be destroyed and even if he is destroyed he'll come back later just like normal and the key master's most obvious ability is to manifest these level keys in his hand like they just materialize out of nowhere it's not known where they come from if he's got some secret storage locker full of keys or if he's literally making keys and there are a few theories about that which i'll get into now the first one is the wanderer theory which just says that he used to be a wanderer that somehow became the key master simple as that the next theory is the cloak theory which says that there's more than one key master and they all get their abilities to do what they do travel between levels and manifest keys from the cloaks they wear and every time a cloak is found a new key master is made interesting the next theory is the experiment theory which is just like the name says it says that the entity was made from some sort of experiment by a greater backroom's power maybe an entity maybe a creator of some kind who knows the last theory is the deity theory which says that the key master is some sort of force of nature and is tied to the very backrooms itself since he can seemingly go through every level with ease none of the theories are proven but let me know which one you think it is now there's actually some really deep lore about the key master like tin foil hat type lore specifically his involvement in the ancient civilizations that apparently lived here in the backrooms long time ago and i'm going to get into that lore now now in the ancient times of the backrooms the key master was actually a deity named the gatekeeper who was worshiped by a civilization of the earliest people that actually got to the backrooms called the lost and this the lost civilization worshiped the gatekeeper who was part of a larger group of gods who apparently created the backrooms in the lost religion and they were all quote unquote siblings other members of these gods were the game master blanche the red knight and many more now supposedly after a long time of oppressing and mistreating things that these gods were doing the humans eventually revolted against the gods and the gatekeeper or key master was actually poisoned by one of his own worshipers and this is where key comes in now key is one of 24 eternal forces that was responsible for the creation of everything keep in mind this is all in the religion of the lost colony in the backrooms so it could be crazy or it could be real this key was disappointed in the failure of its avatar but it decided to use this opportunity to innovate and move forward so it took the remains of the gatekeeper which was just poisoned and infused his essence into its cloak and this cloak then became a symbolic part of it that would latch on to the most compatible host that it could find and when the cloak got to a person the person would then gain some of the gatekeeper's powers and personality but also it would erase their own identity this new being is called the key master and over the years many people wore the cloak and held the title of key master and when they did that they were completely immortal however the cloak always ends up rejecting its own host at a certain point deeming them unworthy and incompatible and when this happened the host would then be terminated and the cloak would pass on to the next worthy person it's thought that the current person wearing the cloak has been key master since 2014 and he's currently in the process of uncovering the past of the gatekeeper being now there are so much more lore about the key master the gatekeeper the lost the key all the stuff check the links below literally go check out it's actually insane all right that was it for the video thank you so much for watching if you did enjoy this entity video leave a like let me know if you want more there's always more entities to go over you all love the entity videos and i thank you for that now as i said at the beginning i'm going to be doing a 500 000 subscriber live stream here on brookly the second i hit 500 000 subscribers and in that live stream i'll be wearing my backroom's outfit all that kind of stuff i'll be talking to you guys will be just be relaxing celebrating the milestone i'll be thanking you all and we'll just be going over some awesome stuff some memories we'll be looking at everything guys it'll be fun if you want to do that if you want to turn into that just make sure you turn your post notice on i'll announce that when it happens if you don't have them on but you should turn them on thank you for everything make sure to go check out to ugly i live stream several times a week and upload all the time over there it's a great time we're going crazy with stuff over there i'm going to be doing a halloween live stream especially on there we're going to be playing up here phobia and some other horror games like friday the 13th it's gonna be great just go to tougalith you want that kind of stuff all the youtube stuff is going amazing thank you all so much for your support i love and appreciate every one of you and i will see you in the next video


and welcome to morning prayer. We just wanna take a minute and just give thanks for what the Lord did this past weekend here at Radiant Church, but also just across the nation that there was just a lot of people attending a lot of Easter services. And I know there were salvations. I know there were just people returning back to the Lord. And we just wanna give thanks. So let's just do that for just a minute, Lord. We just thank you. Go ahead, you can applaud. We can just shout. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for moving. Thank you for saving. Thank you for drawing with cords of loving kindness. Those back to you. Thank you for restoring families and marriages. Thank you, God, for fanning the flames of faith and hope again in the hearts of people. Lord, we don't take it lightly. We just wanna turn around this morning to be those two lepers and just say, Jesus, thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for answered prayer. We love you, Lord. So we're just gonna begin this morning. I'm gonna read a passage and we're gonna go into a time of worship. And then we're gonna begin our intercession, standing in the gap again, just with that tenacity of spirit that Jesus possesses for his own, for the prodigals in our families and in our spheres of influence and those that we love across the city. We wanna pray that they come home as well, that there's salvation and turning as well for the prodigals. And so I'm just gonna begin by reading in Isaiah chapter 49, if you have your Bibles. Isaiah chapter 49, beginning in verse 21, the Lord poses the question, can the pray be taken from the mighty man or the captive of a tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away and the pray of the tyrant will be rescued for I will contend with the one who contends with you and I will save your sons. And so Lord, we thank you for these promises as we enter into your courts this morning with thanksgiving and with praise, that you are the rescuer, that you are the deliverer, that you're a good dad, that you are the Lord of hosts, the almighty God who may wages war on our behalf and we thank you that every promise is yes and amen in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord Jesus, outstanding among 10,000, we exalt you this morning. There's no one like you. We give you all of our hearts this morning, all of our worship, all of our praise, all of our trust. We're gonna shift now, staying in a posture of worship but we're gonna go into a time of intercession for the prodigals, our loved ones, across this city, across this land. And I just wanna encourage us, this can sometimes be a tender topic that we wanna shrink back from our hearts are bruised with the delayed answers for those we love. But as one who is contended for a wayward child for many years and seen them come home, I just wanna say it's worth it. It's worth investing our hearts and partnering with the Lord in this. And there is a word specifically over this house, Radiant Church, that we would be a place that would see and call prodigals home. And so that's not a passive response. We just don't say, okay, the Lord's gonna do it. But we need to stand up, stand in the place of prayer and tug on the hem of heaven for that reality. The Lord said to Jeremiah, he said, I'm the God of all flesh. Is there anything too difficult for me? And so we're gonna go back to that passage in Isaiah, those two verses. The Lord poses the question, can the pray be taken from the mighty man or the captive of a tyrant be rescued? Surely, thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away. And the pray of the tyrant will be rescued for I will contend with the one who contends with you and I will save your sons. And so Lord, we thank you that there is no one like you.   I thank you, Lord, that every promise you have made concerning our sons and our daughters, concerning our loved ones. God, I thank you that your promises are yes and amen.  There is no trajectory of heart that is too far gone beyond your reach. There is no mind too darkened and hardened demonically God. I thank you that the sway of this world has not taken them beyond your reach. And so Lord, we stand in a place of faith today because of who you are, because of your promises. And we lean in and we just say, Lord, would you release your spirit to our loved ones even now? Would you break in with revelation like light suddenly awakening them to their senses? God, would you walk into every pig trough represented in our families and across this city and reveal yourself as truth? Release revelation, release a spirit of awakening and a returning to senses right now in Jesus' name. Start crying against us, our inheritance and our children, the promises to families, God. We're asking Holy Spirit, release a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. We're asking for sudden leads to take place today, God. Just you and Holy Spirit breaking into siblings, breaking into parents, breaking into children, breaking into altering of encounter, change. You've done it over and over and over again. You've walked into dreams, you've given visions. Now, Lord, give sudden leads of encounter, we ask, in Jesus' name, a bit of revelation, a spirit of conviction. Even now, Lord, that holy agitation, let it begin to rise in them, Lord, that they find no pleasure in the things of this world. Masking Lord, to bring that Holy Spirit, disruption and interruption, nested ties their hearts in the past that gave them the counterfeit pleasures. Lord, I'm asking that they would not satisfy from this day forth, that you would break in, Lord, and cause there to be just a stirring and an agitation until they turn. Spirit, go forth, go forth in power, go forth in jealous love. Turn them around, raise on Jesus, fine tune their spiritual hearing. Voice, Lord, again, we're asking Holy Spirit, break in with encounter, personal, experiential, heart encounter with Jesus, we ask, in your name. I'm gonna keep interceding. I wanna pray for those who said yes to the gospel yesterday at Radiant Church and all over the city of Kalamazoo. Just, we're thanking God today and praising God for these decisions. Just feel burdened to pray out of Ephesians 3, Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus, that they would be rooted and grounded in love. I'm thankful for the salvation experience, but that moment isn't being rooted and grounded. That there needs to be formation that happens in their life. That book that we give them, the 10 Steps Stored Christ, the Bible we give them, they gotta pick it up and read it. They gotta make a commitment to come to church. They have to make a commitment to follow through on that. So I wanna pray out of Ephesians 3. I wanna encourage you. If there was a face that kinda was highlighted at church, I know for me, I stand at the keyboard so I can kinda see out into the room. But if there was a person you prayed with or a face that was highlighted, maybe someone you brought to church that responded, put the picture of them in your mind. Let's pray for them specifically in a prayer out of Ephesians 3, verse 14 through 20. For this reason I bow my knee before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all of the saints what is the breadth and length, the height and depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. First of all, we join in with the celebration in heaven, Lord, with the angels and the saints who celebrate when one soul responds and says yes to the kingdom of God. And so, Lord, we ask that according to your riches of glory, Lord, for those new believers that you may strengthen them with power through your spirit in their inner being that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. God, I asked for this Tuesday morning, two days after them making this decision, but would you strengthen them with power that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith? Lord, I just ask for encouragement, Lord, as the enemy as he always does when the seed is sown and it lands in good soil, he tries to choke it out with trials and troubles and the cares of this life. Lord, with doubts and with difficulties, Lord, when the enemy comes to choke it out, Lord, we ask for strength that they may remain, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith. Lord, I ask, Lord, that they would remember the experience of letting Christ sit on the throne and that you would root them and crown them in love. Lord, we just ask for a rootedness and a groundedness for every new believer who said yes at Easter. God, I ask the roots would go deep, Lord, that there would be a pole, they would grab that Bible off the shelf, Lord. They would turn on the prayer meeting, Lord. They would make the commitment to come to church. Lord, they would feel a pole to be discipled, Lord. They would ask those they know in the faith to disciple them, Lord. They would join a group, whatever that step is, Lord, toward being rooted, Lord. We ask for formation to be worked on the inside, Lord. We thank you for the moment of salvation, but, Lord, we contend for fully mature believers. Lord, we contend, Lord, that everyone that has said yes, Lord, that they would continue steadfast, they would not swerve from the faith, Lord, but they would work through formation, Lord, the foundations of the faith. Lord, we ask for prayer to come out of their mouth, Lord, we ask for worship to come out of their heart, Lord. We just, we even ask for those difficult decisions and repentance and all of those things, Lord, this week, Lord, would you root them and ground them in your love, Lord? They would remember, Lord, they're not joining a religion, but they are being joined to the Father. They are being joined to the bride of Christ. They're being joined to the maker of heaven, whose kingdom is here on earth and is yet to come, Lord. I ask that you would root them and ground them in the love of the Father that is for them, Lord, that you would dispel all shame and guilt and condemnation and doubt with the love of the Father. So, Lord, we ask, Lord, would you root them and ground them in your love? I want to just break up into smaller groups of maybe two to four and just pray for the next five, six minutes. Each person in the group pray out just 30 seconds to a minute. Let's just continue to just pray for those who have just said yes to the gospel, just asking for the Lord to break in, the worship team will still just kind of play and sing over, but for everyone else, kind of turn around, find people around you and let's begin to pray, let's offer them to you. Lift them before you, Lord, these are your sons and daughters. We thank you for trusting them to us, to your church, Lord, and we ask that we root them and ground them in your love. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen, let's continue to just be in prayer for those, prodigals in our life that we're contending for as well as praying for the new believers, especially if you're connected to somebody who you know made a decision. Make sure, send a follow-up text today, set up a coffee appointment for discipleship. Now is the time for formation. So amazing, thanks for interceding and praying with us today. We'll be back in person at noon at 6.30 and tomorrow at 8 a.m. Have a great day.


Man such a beautiful day another day another life, huh? Yo, who is it? Hey come in, bro Bro, dude, what's up? No way, how is it? They booed him off the stage. What I mean. He is kind of horrible Dude, he started crying and everything right had to leave you so awkward bro. No way There's a clip on YouTube. Oh, really? All right. All right Look up a Squidward concert or something like that, okay? Yeah, bro, that's the one go play it play it Yeah, bro, I was like right behind that guy over there. Oh, right behind them. You got some good seats. Yeah What I was the first one out bro, I was the first one out no way yeah, man, but then I should I really see what happened Thank you Bro, are you sure that wasn't you dude that was Wait, do you're getting a phone call? It's a sinister is that Squidward bro, what are you doing man? Oh dude is that? Whoa Squidward I'm coming to clap those chains Oh Dude, I can't believe it bro. Oh my what did we just see dude? Oh Dude go go move my we're getting chase right this is part of the safest room in this place, all right So let's go man. Open it up open it up. Oh Man, dude, Squidward Squidward, bro. What you okay? Are you good bro? So kids you got booed man like some people are just not good at instruments. It's all right Like you don't feel sad about it, bro. Yeah, bro. I ain't going in there, bro. All right. Here you go I'm going I'm trying to talk to my sweater. I'm gonna I'm gonna just grab you okay, so we


Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is a man of great character who's the president of finance factors. He is Rob Nelson, and today we are going beyond financial services. Hey, Rob, welcome to the show. Hey, Rusty, thanks for having me on this morning. Rob, it was so great to meet you in person some months ago, and you guys are doing some amazing things, and I wanna first start if you can share a bit about your background growing up. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm actually not from Hawaii originally. I grew up in Connecticut, New Haven area, and I consider it one of the pizza capitals of the world, so we have really amazing pizza there if you've ever been through New Haven. I highly recommend you check it out. Yeah, so I grew up in Connecticut, ended up going to college at Boston College throughout my young adult life. I was active in sports, soccer and lacrosse were my main sports. I was captain in high school of both teams, and really just enjoyed having that be a part of my life and kind of a formative experience for me and to my business life now. Yes, I ended up moving to Boston, went to Boston College, and then worked in Boston and financial services at Bank of America. And that's actually how I came across Jen, Jen Lau, who's my wife. And I didn't know at the time, but eventually, fate would kind of bring us out west, then we moved to California, had our son there in San Francisco, worked in technology for about six years, and then decided we really wanted to build family and build our careers here in Hawaii and so we were fortunate enough to move back to Hawaii, well, for Jen to move back to Hawaii in March of 2020 of all times. No, that's great to hear that, Robin. And before you became president of finance factors, what positions did you hold with financial, finance factors? Yeah, so finance factors, I joined in March of 2020 and I spent about a year as a senior EVP. And basically it was, I'll call it more or less a tryout. I interviewed with our board of directors and independent shareholders and I had a graduate degree and kind of met the requirements to be a good fit for being becoming president. But I was new to Hawaii and new to the company. So I spent about a year in a leadership role working with our former president, Steve Tariah, and really helping him drive a company strategy. So it was really a great way for me to understand the operations and try to start setting a trajectory for the future in the company and really just kind of prove myself as a leader. And Rob, you mentioned a little bit earlier about your wife, Jen. Now, I wanna ask you about your families.  And I wanna know about, I met Jen as well. What's the biggest thing you admire about your wife, Jen?  So let me start off by saying that. I think one of the things that I really admire about her is her ability, I'll call it team building skills and her ability just to attract different people from different backgrounds and bring them together. So the way I first met Jen, I was working at Banco America in the Boston office and there's probably about a couple of thousand employees in that office. It was a big office. Jen joined the company a couple of years after I joined and she formed a company softball team. And so she organized it. She was the captain of the team. A friend of mine suggested that I email her and try to get on the teams. I hadn't met her yet and I did that and she probably told me that the roster was already full and there was no spots for me. But I stayed at it, reached out to a few of my friends and they kind of convinced her to let me on the team. And I think the joke is I've been trying now ever since but I think just throughout our dating life and married life, she is just so good at just bringing different people around us. I'm not as extroverted as she is. And she just always seems to bring just amazing people in our lives. So we actually, throughout our 20s and early 30s we were actively playing soccer in different places where we lived. And she would always be organizing our teams, finding new players and just all that. So I really just admire that about her. Yeah, and she has such a fantastic personality and you guys make a fantastic team together, Rob. And I wanna ask you, finance factors has been in existence for over 70 years now. And why has finance factors been so successful for so long? Yeah, that's right, Rusty. This year is actually our 70th anniversary which is an amazing milestone. And I hope we can do some in-person celebrating and recognition of that milestone. If safety will allow us to do that. But I really think just clarity of purpose is one of the keys of success for us. So when finance factors was founded in 1952, 70 years ago really it was founded by six Chinese-American families including Jen's grandfather, Danny B. T. Lau was one of the founders. And they found the company with the purpose of providing personal loans for Hawaii's working families who at that time there were not credit cards weren't really a thing. And traditional lenders really weren't serving the working families of Hawaii. So finance factors was founded for that purpose and really our early products were personal loans for working families to buy pots and pans or to buy a refrigerator, just smaller kind of things to run out of effective households and kind of live the American dream. Now we've kind of over the years we've pivoted away from personal loans. It really today we're a real estate lender. So we make home loans as well as investor loans to help people acquire real estate in Hawaii and most importantly help families own their home. Yeah, Rob it's so impressive how finance factors started and what is your vision to enhance finance factors for the next 70 years? Yeah, I'll kind of tie it in with your books. So we had clarity of purpose and we still have that and I believe that still applies today as ever. It's a very challenging place to own a home. So like the purpose is very clear. We have great people. So we have that, the people and the purpose we need to continue to evolve our process. Yes, there's the lending sphere is very dynamic. There's a lot of big traditional players in the space that are local to Hawaii as well as national players. There's a lot of non-traditional players that are coming in the market. You see ads for big kind of national digital lending platforms. You saw that in the Super Bowl last year and all that. So there's just a lot of competition out there and really so from a process standpoint we need to continue to evolve, to incorporate technology from a customer facing experience, where if a first time home buyer wants to just use our mortgage app on their phone, the finance factors mortgage app and they don't really want to interact with a loan officer in person or over the phone, we can accommodate that. Or if they want more of a kind of blended experience where they want some in-person guidance but some digital, we can accommodate that. So we need to continue to kind of evolve our use of technology in our process, both on the customer facing side, as well as our ability to be as efficient as possible in processing loans, more on the backend side of things. Because if you're a borrower or if you're a realtor referring one of your clients, being able to close the loan on time and get that person into a home is so critical and we need to continue to leverage technology for us to do that as efficiently as possible. So that's a really big focus for us. Yeah, and technology is moving so quickly. So you're so right about how critical it is to really refine the process. And Rob, you mentioned that the big focus is residential home loans now. What other financial services do you guys offer? Yeah, so we also specialize in investment in real estate. So we'll do investor loans. Really, I would say our niche is for smaller real estate investors, maybe your second property or you're building a portfolio from two to 10 properties. So we have a lot of residential investor solutions that we offer and we also have a commercial real estate lending business as well, which can support larger apartment building projects and things like that. Yeah, and Rob, the CEO of Finance Factors, Russell Lau, is a tremendous leader and you work so closely with him. What leadership qualities do you admire about Russell? Yeah, he really is a great leader and he's also the father of my wife. So it's good that we set good boundaries between work and personal life. But what I really admire about his leadership is he's, he always has a coach mentality. He's always coaching in a good way. Not in an overbearing way, but when you need that coach to give you advice or tell you what it is you need to hear to kind of improve or kind of get motivated, he's just always ready and in that role. He's just so good at that. He coached Jen in youth sports growing up and I just see it, he's just a coach in everything, both business and personal life and he really pushes us to just continue to get better. Yeah, I felt so great to have met Russell and to really talk with him and I get that that I can see the coach in him. He has a passion for coaching and Rob, how would you describe your leadership style? Yeah, I think I like to lead from the front. Definitely I have a lot of awareness. I focus on being aware of self-awareness and awareness of myself, but also very in tune with my team and what's going on in their lives, personal, professional and otherwise that can impact us in achieving our goals. So I think that's really critical and it's been I think an added challenge for me, not being from Hawaii, being new to the company and having happened to have moved in March of 2020, two days before the shutdown and really kind of coming into the company in a way where I can't get in a room with all my team and read the room and understand how they're perceiving me and how they're feeling about the different conversations that we're having. So that's an added challenge that I still live with now with our latest variant, unfortunately, but it's been so critical as a leader just to be hyper aware with any kind of input you can get, whether it's through a Zoom call like this or that one time you've happened to meet someone in the hallway, could they happen to be in the office or over email even, so I think having that awareness is something that I'm very focused on. I think lastly, I'm just very data-driven, I would say. I went to grad school at MIT Sloan, which is a pretty data-driven place and I try to lead by data. It doesn't necessarily have to be quantitative data, there can be other inputs as well, but I think that's critical to have as much data as possible to make an informed decision as a leader. Yeah, and I think you're a perfect fit because you're a great leader to really move finance factors in the right direction, I mean, to continue to move them in the right direction. And Rob, tell me a bit about your charity annual golf tournament. Yeah, so the finance factor is charity golf tournament, the tournament that we've been doing every year in some form for probably over 20 years. We missed, I guess, the 2020 year, but this past fall we were able to put the tournament back on and this is a great opportunity for us to interact with customers and other referral partners and support partners in the community. And I think most importantly, we're able to raise funds towards charitable causes and we were successful in that this past year, which is great. And so we made a great donation into the Department of Education for various local schools to support hands-on learning and sustainability and conservation. Yeah, you guys have been really helping the community through all those various charitable donations. I mean, I saw that you guys have, like you said, the DOE and Laulima, and why is that so important to you? For me personally, I just enjoy giving back and I've lived a very privileged good life and I think it's so critical that we pay it forward. From a company standpoint, we kind of talked about our purpose and our focus on helping Hawaii's families. And that's a core into the culture of who we are as a company. A lot of our shareholders today are descendants of the original founding six families and the community impact side of our business is one of the most important things to them, more so over financial return and other things. Rob, I totally agree with you on that. I mean, that's really what it's all about is to really give back and help the community at where you work. And you guys, I also noticed that you guys also do some volunteer cleanups at the beach and Chinatown as well. Yeah, so we did a clean up last year at the Waimanalo beach. And that was an amazing experience. That's me and Jen masked up there. Unfortunately, in that experience, you're kind of humbled by all the plastics that you find in the sand. But it's important to experience that and see the responsibility that we have to be good stewards for the future of our planet. And then we did a big cleanup in Chinatown as well. You see some of our employees with Mayor Rick there. Yeah, and again, it's giving back to the community. And I think as a leader, I just enjoy it anyways. I like to get out of the office whenever I can. But as a leader, it's such a great opportunity to have your employees kind of rally in person and to accomplish something together. So I think it's a great thing for our employees as well. And we're doing good in the process. So that's a win-win. I'll take that any day. I'm sure your employees love to get out of the office as well. And Rob, I feel so grateful that you read my books and then you liked the books and you're mentioning about the four Ps earlier. What are some other principles that stood out to you in the books? Yeah, I was just kind of thinking about I was reading beyond the game when my daughter was born, Ashley, so when she was born, it'll be five months tomorrow. And so I think I was kind of emailing with you while I was in the hospital, where I had some extra time on my hands, just kind of hanging out in the hospital with our daughters. I just kind of read the book when I could. I'll just say, I love how the books are just straightforward, direct and super practical. I don't think I've read a business book or a personal growth book that's set in kind of the high school level, which I think is just so relatable. For me, I'm more of a high school athlete. I played club level in college, but I wasn't a D1 athlete or it wasn't a professional athlete. I didn't climb the 14 great peaks of the world. But a lot of us, we played sports in high school or we performed in band or things like that. And it just makes it more relatable, I think. So I really appreciated that about the books. Definitely the culture of excellence, I think, and just how the importance of the small things as a leader and as a teammate, the way you conduct yourself, your attitude, your mentality, it's just so critical because it has that kind of multiplier effect.  And as I thought, I saw that carry throughout the books and made me more aware of that in my approach to my day. I've really appreciated you giving me a couple of copies. And I keep the books with me handy. No, I love that, Rob. And you know, you're so right. It's all about that culture of excellence. And you guys have a culture of excellence with your employees. And I know some of your coworkers as well. And they absolutely love working with finance factors. I mean, they absolutely love it. Now, I also wanna ask you, Rob, about what are your thoughts about taking calculated risks? Yeah, I think my wife's probably laughing at me right now because she always makes fun of me because I'm more risk-averse in some ways than her. But I think taking risk is critical. I mean, we're a lender, so we're in the business of taking risk in some way. And for me, it's really, you know, what I see a lot from a career standpoint is taking advantage of opportunity. If an opportunity, if a door opens for you, for a promotion or maybe a lateral noob, even if it's scary or you're not 100% rule-ready, if you are aspiring to be a leader, you have to take those opportunities and take a risk and grow into the role. So I think from a professional growth standpoint, taking risks in that way is critical. You know, I have my CFA and I have some background in investing. I think it's important to kind of compartmentalize risks where you can and kind of like, you know, of course you wanna have like a stable base and you don't wanna like mess with that, but, you know, in business, you do need to take, you don't wanna put all your eggs into like a risky decision or investment, but you do need to set aside some kind of compartment to take risks and to explore either new business models, new products, you name it, but you just have to kind of continually be exploring and learning from that.  So that's something kind of core to how I try to lead. Yeah, no, I like those insights, Rob. And I wanna ask you, I saw that Joy Barua is the new president and COO of Finance Insurance and can you tell me about finance insurance and how it's connected to finance factors? Sure, yeah. So finance insurance is another affiliate of the finance factors family of companies. So finance insurance is an independent insurance agency that's been serving Hawaii for over 50 years now and we offer both personal lines as well as commercial alliance insurance. And so Joy, we're very excited and kind of fortunate to have him join as the new president of the finance insurance operation. And, you know, I think a great thing about having an independent insurance agency is that we offer, you know, I think it's over 70 different carriers of insurance. So we have, you know, we're not captive to one particular carrier. So we offer the best option for our particular clients' needs. And that's something that we take a lot of pride in. Now, and I think Joy is such a great choice to be the leader of finance insurance as well. And Rob, what are some of the challenges you're faced with in your business at the moment? Yeah, I think continuing to build succession and continuity, you know, it's, you read about in the trade press here locally as well as nationally that it's, this is difficult to the staff up and have all the employees that you want on the bus at any given time. So I think that's been a tremendous challenge I think for all business organizations. And, you know, every day I kind of just going about my day encountering the impacts of having kind of labor shortages. Yes, I think that's a big challenge.   And we take that so seriously. But it demands a lot of your time and attention to kind of navigate that. So I think those are no big challenges that we're seeing right now. And you're doing a great job, you know, adjusting and adapting to those challenges. And I want to ask you, Rob, what's a very valuable lesson that you learned in life so far? Yeah, so you might have saw it in the picture of like my side of the family, but my older brother is in a wheelchair. So he's both physically and mentally disabled. So I've learned from him just to, you know, life's not always fair, but you gotta make the most of what you're given and you can live a good life that way. So he's always been an inspiration to me. He's four years older than I am. So he's my big brother. And yeah, when you go around, you can etiquette with him. He's kind of like a celebrity. Like he's way more popular than I am. Like, you know, we'll go, we'll take him out to dinner somewhere and people will come up to him and he wears a variety of jobs. So like they see him through his jobs and things like that. And those come up and say, hi, Brian. And he's, you know, he just does so well despite his, you know, his disability. So that's something I've just kind of learned growing up with him is that life's not fair, but you have to make the most of the opportunities you're given and you'll live a good life. Rob, thank you for sharing those insights on the show today. I mean, you are doing such a great job for finance factors and the future is definitely bright. And I wanna thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Thank you so much, Russi. And thank you so much for all your leadership guidance through your books and through meeting with you. Thanks, Rob. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. For more information, please visit rusticamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Rob and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. What's up?


Good day peoples. Good day Happy Wednesday. Happy hump day Today, we're gonna have a special episode Today, you know, we're gonna have the youngsters doing it today So this should be good What's up? I'm a white set What's going on Dean? What's up, man? What's up guys? Yeah, some people probably saying well, I thought we were gonna cancel the Wednesday night gigs The King B joined us What's up, King B? Who else where where you guys from? Let me know where you're from with city what industry? Fremundos in the building Yeah, we uh I'm Corle Mott's in the building. All right SJ Where you guys from what's your industry Uncle Arbery? Tell me where you're from Newark What's your industry? What industry you guys in? Julian Tampa Transportation Tuscaloosa Orlando roofing. Okay. I know who my man is CO Midas group trucking Okay Good stuff. Good stuff We have some uh Baltimore Skylin trying to figure this thing out Let me let me see how I okay baton Rouge. Okay baton Rouge. We got some people out there in baton Rouge I'm probably I'm probably just like Just destroying the name but That's the way I read it.  I had a good week this week Actually, we had a really good week doing a lot of stuff Keisha Phoenix Atona, I mean look I've been out here asking for money for you guys So I've been out here talking to people trying to get money for all of you out here So we can help you grow your businesses build businesses We you know, we're trying to raise capital to help put back into your hands so that you could be a real long term sustainable businesses So had a couple conversations about that Fat Joe always coming live when I'm on live We had some conversations about that this week Met with some procurement people that are really high up and some projects We just been doing really well My t-shirt it says God's got this it comes from Miami Vineyard Church, so just But yeah, we've been we've been putting in a lot of work today We want to have a conversation by the way, if you have any questions drop it in the chat. We'll we'll get to it We've got some, you know, I'm invited a couple people is gonna come talk two of our interns today They're gonna tell you their stories What you know what they've learned Demetrius just showed up and we're gonna let them kind of you know take the mic today and shine While you know more people come on board We'll let them share their stories. They've had some experiences Colin I was trying to figure out your name Colin eight zero studios. I would call it I was trying to figure out what was your name on IG so I can tag you on the new book by the way, this is the first proof of the new book just came and Colin I was trying to show you that I had you in the book here But I couldn't figure out what was your stuff There you go. Where you at Colin? Can you see your name on here? Tiffany There you go right there. Oh man, Colin. Yo, I was trying to tag you so alright, well look let's get started because an hour goes really fast and You know, I talk a lot. I'm the people I got coming on they talk a lot. So Who wants to start? Who wants to start?  Why don't you want meh? Why don't you start? Where is that? I said I'm on here What's up Mimi J? All right, man That's uh What's going on brother? How are you? Your hair looks fine. Don't worry about it I'm trying to fly today. Okay All right What's going on man? Nothing much, you know, just working working every day. No, no, that's what you got to do now By the way for those of you who don't know meh was one of our new interns out here He just started probably what a month ago. Yeah about a little bit more than a month. Yeah Yeah a month ago and he reached out to me meh. How old are you? I'm 22 22 He's 22. He's at Boston University. Mm-hmm. Yeah And he reached out to me said he had been watching my content videos and uh, he had won some contracts So I said look you got to come on and tell the people because Um, you know, there's a lot of self doubt out here and we want to encourage folks And then also, um, you know, we just want to I've got a quote here on the screen. It says the mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains The superior teacher demonstrates and the great teacher inspires. So today we want to do some inspiration Okay, because I think a lot of times As I say and as you know, uh, mehbs now answer the phones He's answering the email. So if you send an email to service at gov con giants dot com He's the one that actually answers the emails and is responding to you out there So he's the one that you're going to be interacting with Maria is now Doing more high level stuff. So she's not taking the emails and she's not taking the calls So this is what you're going to be speaking to but I just want you to know right that you're not You're not speaking to some regular guy. He's just not some random kid at Boston University So tell tell them man the extraordinary things that you've done and what you're working on So that the people can know exactly who they're talking to Like, you know, they probably like oh this guy. He's not Maria. You know, I want Maria on the phone No, I'm not I'm not I'm not pretty as Maria. So okay, there you go. See All right, that's me But you have your listen, but you have your own right. You've earned your own keep So tell us tell us now. How did you kind of get into the space? Yeah, so, um, I came in from east Africa I came to to to the u.s. For like school and my dad used to do a lot of government contracting Back in east Africa. So I was like, you know what?  I need to like see if I can make my own money and see how how that goes So I was like, all right, let me try to do something. I know how to do right So I was it's a bit different than east Africa. So I came in. I was like, I try and look online I was like, there's nowhere I can find anything about government contracting Like why can I find anything? So then one of my friends sent me a link for ptech And I was like, I spoke to them on the phone. I was like, this is what I do They're like, what industry are you in? What's your annual turnover? I was like, oh my god I was like, you know, I was like, I need a business plan I was like, it's already over man. Like I had an idea of how it works. I'll do my research and everything online I spent like about one month. I started my company about a year ago In august and I was like, I need like figure out how this this works, right? So I went to ptech and then they asked me like all these questions They were like, it's kind of like heartbreaking as well because I was they were like, they were like, oh you have You could don't you have to have you have to have past experience. You have to have it And I was like, I was like, no You're like my dreams are crushed. I'm done I'm throwing the towel But then I was like, so I went to my friends all the guys it's kind of crazy. That's what I'm trying to do Right? Who's with me? I was like, I went to school and they were like, you're like five of my friends are chilling Uh on the porch. So I was like, I was like, so who's it with me? Who's trying to do government contracting with me? And then I was like No, I was like, damn I was like, all right, that hurts but two of my friends asked me what's government contracting So I was like, I broke it down to them. I was like, let's watch a movie war dogs. I sat down We can do this but with other things I was like, don't think about like ammunition Let's think of some other other things and he's like, so what do you got in mind? I was like, I really don't know Like I was like, I have no idea. So you're like All right, let's see how we're gonna do this. So one of my friends gave me funding So I I knew him through school. I talked to him like we should like talk about business He's like an entrepreneur his his family owns hotels.  I'm like every like every like month is that will give him money, right? So he's like, I'm looking to invest this. I was like, I got your the best investment right now I got you and I got you. So he gave me he gave me $10,000 to start off my company with And I asked my friend who's an accountant now So all these guys work with me for free like I don't pay them Like they just like are in the idea, right? So that's a couple of the idea. So I was like, let's build something right now Like a baby sucker bird Yeah, but I feel like he was a bad guy kind of low key, but you know, I'm I was like, let's start looking at what we can do, right? So we started looking at budgets. We started looking at like state budgets Like who has like the biggest like budget So we started looking in new york and I was like, okay Let's start looking at some samples about some small municipalities within new york, right? Right. So like we looked at rockland county look at other other counties. I know you don't champion like, um State but this is like, you know, it's like starting tiny tiny I was like, let's look so I found this tiny tiny county in new york that had a contract for four pages Right. It was like a four page contract. It was so easy to read. I was like, that's not bad I was like and then there was like asking for clay targets clay shooting targets Like like little ones, right? So I was like, I don't know what to do about this But like let's start looking at online. So we started googling some stuff And then I found this guy who supplies clay targets in canada. So I was like, um, so I I did some research of how to find historic data to figure out what my competitors were bidding before the personal one before I found the freedom of information act That allows us to like have like, you know, free access to like the public procurement So I was like, all right, let's see how much this person like won this contract for last time It was like $8,000 and my supplier was was quoting me at uh at around It was 8,500. I was already already over that and I was like, I have my margin or anything. I was like, damn So I was asking my friends like, so what should we do? He's like, let's put in an offer at 10,000 10,000 flat and I was like, you know what doesn't hurt like we're not paying anything else, right? So when we filled out the the documents, he sent it out. Oh, that's my friend right there, anthony frascarelli That's it. That's the guy do with So we filled out together and we sent it out And then you know days went by like weeks, you know, we were like, you know, this is a proof of concept We'll see if it's actually like if we hit now, we'll start moving forward with it, right? So he's like I got an email. I turned over the next like a week after I sent the email, right from westchester county All right, I was like just woke up. I looked at my phone. I see purchase order and I was like I was like, no way bro. I opened this thing. I zoomed in. I like looked at the five times I was like, that's just my name. That's just my company name and that's the price we want. I lost my mind I woke up my neighbors. I ran down to my mom. I was like, we won the contract. My mom has no idea what I'm talking about And like I was like, this is the best day of my life, right? So, uh, it's crazy. So we finally did it We I called the the guy. I was like, yes, can you deliver to this place? I drove from here to westchester county for like a profit of a thousand dollars and my mom's like, why are you Driving all the way there for just a thousand dollars. Like people are looking at me like I was like, I'm telling them I can't go to party on the weekend. I have to go to westchester county to deliver my clay targets They're like, how much you're making? It's like a thousand dollars. Like, ah, that's not too much bro And I was like, it's about the relationship. You don't understand I'm not in a relationship with these people. They're giving me more contracts Right, so I got there. I started like unloading the clay targets myself by hand Because I didn't want anything to fall anything. I would there for two hours unloading Loading stuff and then they were like, thank you so much. And then so what happened is this is this I still have This is like what motivates me. So I keep this in my desk. This is the first thing I ever sold the government So I keep this all this think about this is a play targets, right? So this is like, uh, I think it was like 10,000 cases of these So this gives me motivation, right? So I started calling them afterwards, right asking them, um How did we do can we do anything better? Like, you know, how was our service? They're like you are the best you were the best, um Like clay target supplies we've ever had and we're going to give you contracts every two months For clay targets like the same month. I was like I was like you I'm the best you ever Right, you're like, wait, are you serious man? This is the first time I'm doing this man So he's like, but you know what man?  Maybe right late That's what the last person did the last person did that they broke it They broke so many of their targets and they still build them for it And they were like, no, we don't want to do this So that relationship that you champion so much is the key like it's huge, right? And you even sold it for a higher price and they were used to paying Yeah And they were just happy with the service that I provided to like get it to them. So I was like, you know, that's amazing So that happened and then um, it was crazy. So then Anthony and me were sitting down. We're like, okay, this is cool. This is actually working. Let's do something else Then I went to staples like the same thing this agency asked for for labels for like labels to stick on to things So I was just the staples and I was like, you know what let's let's try it out Why not? I bought it from staples. I sent in the the offer and accepted it I was like, I went to staples I was like, what is happening? This is it was crazy. So I started winning those contracts, right? And then me and me and Anthony were trying to figure out who we can look for for some advice for some mentoring and how to take this to the next deal, right? So we sat there We were like the researching online and Anthony called me like Meant I found the guy I was like, who do you find like I found the guy on youtube this guy on youtube is doing He's telling he's telling people exactly what you're telling people and I was like, no way I was like really who is it? He's like Eric coffee.  So I started looking up your videos I went to Anthony's house. We sat there for like hours Pull put your videos on the big screen montage Eric coffee, Eric coffee Our jaws on the floor. We're like this guy is saying because I was telling people Right, you know, we could do this business, but no one was listening to no one's taking me seriously, right? And and the p-tech was saying that people use government contracting as a Additional source of revenue for their main business they have and I was trying to do a business solely on government Right, so I was like, this is there's no there's no shot that I'm gonna make this And then and then you came along and you were like saying this and we were just like Mind blown we're like, this is so sick And then we started doing it and linked up with you I messaged you and uh Last been good now. Let me ask you something because this part. All right, and I'm very proud of your story I love your story. It's great And and by the way one of the things that I told mails me first came in is hey, look, I'm very proud of you But that's not what I teach Yeah, he's a building part, but not the local contracts, but I'm very happy because he did practice Uh, he you know, he he got an understanding of how contracts work He proved he proved to people that you didn't need past performance He proved right that the guy who's the first and one of the things that I say all the time The government does not get the best people they get the people who actually go to them So that's why there's so much room and opportunity for all of us who want to be better contractors Who want to actually give good service to charge even a higher price because They're not getting the best people. They're just getting the people who respond And oftentimes that's people who are accustomed to in government contracts They take it for granted. Like you said, they give them broken targets and they still charge them And so those people really Um, I found myself meps personally when I started working for nana kid They were kicking a guy off the base because they kept giving them chances He wouldn't listen They were so used to being the man on campus and getting all the work and all the money that they're like Ah, you can't find anybody else and I'm the only one and we showed up came along Kicked them off and they brought us on to give us a four million dollar contract Now, um The funny thing is now you met me, right? Like how long ago was it that you met me like real like we I mean not net But like we dm then we start talking about working together. Yeah, that was over the summer. I think goes in july Okay, july now now You went to a meeting with me. Oh, yeah So let's let's talk about the meeting and and what went down because not many people get a chance to go to meetings with me And by the way, wait, wait, hold on before you say that if you did not watch monday's video We talked about mentors and we and one thing that meps fringes said is he's a relationship builder And we talked about giving right giving giving giving he reached out to me Right, but now I wasn't the first person reached out to you also reached out to some other people Yeah, okay Who else did you reach out to we talked about it today? I reached out to the guy who was who actually was the war dog like the actual the dude who actually Is the guy that the movie's based on uh-huh and I I messaged him. I was like and my first I think my first line was I think this is gonna this is probably a long shot but Do you think you could give me some like advice? I have a lot of these questions I'm trying to get into government contracting, but I'm not trying to do ammunition And I'm trying to do something else Could you show me how you started right and he wrote me like two two words saying what questions and then just I poured it on from there So one of the things that I think that that's a great illustration Uh is the fact that you were not afraid to reach out to people Yeah, no, right. I think a lot of us we So many of us have watched the movie war dogs I don't know how many of us actually thought to reach out to the guy who was the movie was based off of Yeah, but you did And then also you watched my videos and then you reached out to me Yeah, because I feel like it doesn't hurt right all you see is like seen And then not reply you left on red you get ghosted. It's like all right. You move on then, right? Yeah, so now you reached out to me. We thought is okay, man. I'm we're gonna this guy's smart I like him is energetic. We're gonna bring him on now and then It so happens that I'm working up in boston area and in that area. I've got a meaning coming up Tell tell us the story.  This is great. No, I'm joking. But like It's like always like around so I was like I got takes opportunities. I reached out to you I wanted to get to like, you know get to know you like get to see you like and like 3d But after this, yeah, and then I had no idea that I was going to a meeting So I I thought it's like, uh, hey, what's up?  I was like, I don't know what to do, man But it was a really eye-opening experience And it got me excited because like to be part of a community like this like of life-minded people And like it's not just people talking about but giving advice but actually showing practically that this is what we're doing Right and it like gave me excited because you guys were talking about Such big things, you know, like you like talking about such big things like in the in the in the m's You know, I'm dealing with the thousands here. You guys are like in the hundreds over there. I was like, oh my god I was like, I'm the right place, but I didn't say anything. I was so nervous Uh, one of your friends was like clowning me all the time. He's like, you don't talk to your ventriloquist or something Because I'm used to talking to my friends about this because like that's a level of Like You guys are like miles ahead and says it just makes me want to push myself even more Your boy said he's the only one ever put up with you talking about government contracts. Oh, yeah I talked his ear off like Like with the phone we're like we're at a night out. We're at the club Me and him would like have like little little conversation like I'm like, let's come here with the music's quiet I'm thinking about this that's skin my mind right now, you know Yeah, but it's because I use a nugget that you said like you said like for example reach out to the contracting Uh person that you already know and ask what else can I do? What else can I provide? And I did that I called them and they were like, yeah, you supply us the clay targets Can you supply us a shotgun ammo to shoot the clay targets as well? And I was like, and they were like, this is the price we wanted that and we will give you We'll like we'll give you the like whole contract for a year And I was like, I wish I had the guy to do Wow Yeah, yeah, yeah, no Yeah, no, let me tell you that's a good story and and by the way that first meeting that we're at with uh that mebs sat in We were with uh one of our tribal partners that we had just brought into town And he has a hundred million bonding and so we mebs was in on the meeting with uh a tribal partner Two companies that did 28 million dollars each and we were with a former chief of contracting for gsa Who had a limited warrant and had written contracts to the hundreds of millions of dollars And that was his first meeting that he sat in with us at a big round table That he couldn't fit in the room because it was like 10 people in the room And he had to sit off in the corner in the back and just be quiet, so But it was exciting it was exciting No, but this is definitely uh Like I was I was like shocked that I found someone on youtube who does exactly what i'm telling my friends Let's do and you said it and I was like It's meant to be right and then and then you know and again And then you were able to actually come in and see what we did like a real life That's like, uh, you know just behind the screen or behind youtube So you actually able to come in and see us putting paper to pen and plan to stretch it out And then now obviously with us working together, uh, you get to hear the conversation about the things that we're working on moving forward Yeah, no, it's it's it's crazy. It's been a it's an insane journey, you know No, we're just getting started, but we just get started. In fact, um, today we connected um One of our students who won the contract in africa, you know what i'm talking about uh, we just connected her with, uh, another Potential client of ours that uh does base management contracts to go after something Um over in africa for base facilities management. So we're gonna we're gonna get to tazania So don't worry. We're gonna get there. We we are going to get there. We're already in africa We're gonna do a base management contract in africa. So tazania where it's next africa's the move man We're gonna we'll get there. We'll get we'll take you there. We'll take you back. Hey met. Listen. Thank you for coming on, man No, thank you for having me and thank you for all the great advice. I appreciate it And no thanks listening this man is like talking facts. I'm not No, listen, and by the way again when you call that number seven eight six four seven seven zero four seven seven that's who you'll be speaking to when you send an email Service at gulfconjines.com. He's the one that's going to be responding to your emails now. So again, uh, we're propping him up He's going to be the next baby goat Yeah, i'm trying i'm trying. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, sir Be good All right. How was that? That was a good first start. No today's session. We're dealing with the youngins We are bringing the youngins on because I know as we get older Right.  You know, can I try this? I'm not really sure And and again, we question ourselves. We doubt ourselves. That's why again the power of the youth 22 years old Right the power of the youth man these get they're courageous like when we so people always are talking about Um, that generation, right like oh that generation is lazy They don't want to do anything and this and that Well, that's what we're showing you today that we're going to go against the the myths and we're going to show you about people Who are actually not lazy and we're going to show you that generation that the millennial generation that really They want to get up and they want to make stuff happen and they're we're here with us Working with us supporting the movement supporting what we're doing Um, we are bringing the next generation of government contractors usher in a man Brandon, what are you at? Thank you By the way, he said like my shirt Collin says fearless.  What's up? How you doing good? Okay, so for all of you out there, um that don't know brandon Was his ig and a coffee no cream Nah, I didn't use that Brennan Brennan got Brennan got Nah, two different things good. So actually, um, so Brandon listen tell us I know probably a few months ago. Um He started getting interested and excited about contracts and things like that. Um Is it but it's been a few months It's been since start covet. Yeah, but yeah, that is my actually our new website the back mile. Yeah, I call it It's been since just started covet Yeah, okay. So now you actually helped us out Uh during covet and you're helping us get registered with states and cities Tell us about like a little bit about that experience and what that was like um Well, I mean I was so I wasn't charged to basically get in the company register. Okay with every state well all the states and um a lot of municipalities so I just it's it's a it's very different each website is different So it's not like, you know, you can just go there and it's one central website for all the states or one central website for all municipalities or any of the big cities It's all different. It's all a different setup. Um, some of them require you to pay money register Some of them have a crazy website. Some of them you have to do like an actual write-up But you have to actually like like edit a pdf and like send it to them and stuff like that. So Yeah, um, and then I had to you know, I had to basically reach out um and contact um companies about PPE so It was my first experience really dealing with anything that I do with states Um, so, you know, it's interesting because again, I know a lot of people You know, they talk about state contracts state contracting, but When you know, like you said when you did the registration, they were not all the same No, and when you did the bidding they weren't all the same. No Was there anything to say? A a couple of them, but like very far between like everything's basically different. Okay. All right So we had different websites different bid sites different registrations everything everything. Okay. All right. All right So now let's fast forward Um to and that kind of story I want to talk about because you know, we only have 30 minutes uh Lately and by the way, brand is is new. He just started working with us at the same time mebs. We decided to bring on three interns Brent is new and you have free throw frank. Uh, yes, we are related. If you have a guest by now That's baby coffee. So that is he's actually my son. So yes, we are related. Um so but That doesn't change anything by the way frank that doesn't change anything because Brandon comes from a different background than I do Um, he grew up and he could you know, he could tell you basically what he you know, what he did basically drop school or everything like that Yeah, I was um, I did acting. I wasn't that's being all that stuff. So right I said I did mostly Yeah, so he has no knowledge or experience of government contractors other than hanging out with my friends Uh that we are all government contractors, but he was a little kid back then So he had no idea where the money came from He didn't ask you the questions like any other kid does. So it's only recently Uh when covid hit that really he decided to come and start working with us Is that fair? Yeah, okay. And so again, he's really just been in the background helping with editing the videos Helping with uh changing the thumbnails and things like that Okay, so now what happened? What changed? Um, so I was basically I was listening to all the calls because Um, you know, we started getting I basically started getting on all the calls every single call All the lives and stuff and I seen people different different stories about people and stuff like that um And you know, everybody was winning contracts and you know, it was good very inspiring And then we had we had went on a boat Like last week and uh, we were in the boat and we were chilling And we were looking at the build, you know, we were looking at the buildings and you look at the houses and You know, it's a couple houses 12 million a couple of houses of 3 million And you just kept talking about you like That's within, you know, you're basically saying these things are within reach. They're not super far They're not um, right, you know, they're not a mystical thing So it was like, okay And and that sat with me and then I thought I thought about the boat club fee in my head I kept remembering the boat club fee so I kept thinking about that So then I was I was editing literally the weekend right like really the weekday right after Monday or Tuesday I was editing the videos Um, and then I stumbled upon Maria's video getting her first consulting client And then when I was looking at the video Um, and I you know, I'm interested in video more like from a perspective of like, you know Times stamping and basically the stuff that I do behind the scenes, but then I just heard her say It just wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be And then I don't know why that like when she said I was like hold on a second Let me let me live with what Maria say like let me let me actually listen to what Maria said So I literally played back the video I just Paul, you know, like Maria said, okay.  I forgot the Then But I just did basically all the testimony it did Um, I already knew how to do the do market research Mostly because you know, I'm on the course. So I've seen the course of And by the way, if everybody in the course, um, don't expect to finish I was 80 finished a couple weeks ago and I'm 65 percent. I don't know how I don't know where it came from But I'm further than I was before so Don't expect to finish so fast. But anyway, um, I did that Um, and then I did some market research I went found the opportunity Um, basically look for some companies that could fit the opportunity Um, then I looked to see if they done any if they did any work the past year or two Um, and I was sure I was really looking for people who done like less than five projects You know people who are actually You know need help obviously.  Like, you know, like and I'm just by the way, I mean for everybody I don't necessarily know what to say.  I knew you I knew you need to help with government contracts because of the information and I just said I can do it.  It sounded pretty good to me The spill. I mean, that's just that was acting to be Okay, go ahead and act for the people. Tell the people your spill. Go ahead and act Okay, so this my spill was Hello, um, I well first of all, I said, hello, you know, my name is Brandon coffee I represent um, I think I'll see and then I said, um So I was doing market research and I just saw that, you know, um because of how many I was talking to recently Got the ad certification. So I said, I just saw that you recently got your ad of certifications. That's correct. Yes Okay. Well, um in in my market research, I'll also see that you haven't had a lot of contracts in the past year or two So, um And then, you know, and I'll say is this correct, you know, I always ask me is this correct, you know All the information I'm searching of and when they once they confirm all that's correct Then I say, well, you know, my name is Brandon coffee. I'm a government consultant. Um, my only job is to help Um companies get government contracts. Um, so and this is what I'm here for So I'm here to take your ad certification Um and use it to your best of ability. So you're not wasting your ad certification for nine years straight And then, you know, not getting any contracts.  So I'm just like, okay. Hold up. If you're doing, you know, one person said a hundred calls. I said, okay A hundred calls. So let me go back. Let me look somebody else In it back to three calls, you know, like it didn't take more than three calls Okay, I found some and found another opportunity three calls I found um the only plastic manufacturing company in new jersey Um and I reached out to them um and Yeah, right now we're we're trying to get some signed. So They but you reached out to them and you you but I mean again You educated them and on some of your research.  Yes. So I reached out to them. Um I reached out to them. I called them and then I sent them an email um these The the president of the company sent the email over to somebody else and they they set up a call me Learned the next day. So The next day by the way, I did I did I had to wait wait He said the president of the company sent your email to somebody else and they said we'll call with you Okay, I just want I want people to know that it's how old are you by the way 23, okay a 23 year old call A plastics manufacturing company the only one in new jersey and the president of the company sent over his email to somebody else Okay, the only 880 certified the only any certifiable. Okay Yes, so Then he she she sent to somebody else. He said can we set up a call? I set up a call with him I did I really did mark a research because you know, I didn't know about them being the number one I mean the only a certified all that stuff But when we got in the call, I didn't talk about none of that Like that none of the numbers and stuff that I looked up about, you know And soul source awards, you know, like none of that any I didn't talk about none of that. All I said was listen Basically go back to what meb said This is a relationship game. Um, I told him, you know, first I got in the phone. I said, listen, I'm not selling you anything It's not solicitation It's the thing I know to do with that. Okay. I'm presenting to you an opportunity to just Expand your company in the government arena. You guys have three contracts last year. That's great Very small contracts, but we can make that way bigger. We can get way more contracts Like it's not it's not a problem because you have it, you know, you have very big selling points I said the number one selling point you have is you're the you're the only a day certified Plastic manufacturer in the whole state. I said you can easily I said, that's an easy selling point I said, that's one and then I kept going. I was like and you have it, you know, you the The next cause that you have Um We basically the nacho that they have the last the last three nights that they had I really forgot what your next go Was going back. I don't even know what that's what they had All right, you know what it was important. That's right. Yeah, I knew at the time, but there's um There was one company Who got sole source every single every single contract that you know, like they had It was them and they got all the source and they got all the source source, right? So I was telling I was like, listen, they got sole sourced out 12 million dollars last year I said and they're not even in your state. So I said You I said we can get some of that We can get we can get some of that pot and I said you guys do and I looked at the revenue I said you guys do one million in revenue. I said we could turn it up three We could very easily and it's not it's not gonna be hard. I said it's not gonna be a uh, you know Overnight process, but you allow me to do market research. You allow me to take her coming to the next level We can go to the next level like I don't see why we can't Now something else that we talked about before was you had reached out to some other companies that how already We're in that same field also that graduate Yeah, yeah, yeah So yeah, I reached out to a couple companies who actually graduated from a day. Um in the same Plastic manufacturing next code, right? Um, and I haven't I haven't spoken to him on the phone yet Um, I spoke to I think I spoke to one dude And he told me a couple of things but it I didn't like speak to like really anybody like significant on the phone Yet. Um, but yeah Once I once I can I already have the list already have I'm waiting for them to sign an agreement and I'll reach out to them As soon as they sign that agreement. I'm calling everybody on my list. So all right. So now the second guy What happens next we have about the second guy or the second company How do we get you said you signed an agreement you just skip the step. I just get I'm skipping.  He said it sounds great Um, he asked me what's the next steps. I said, well, the next step is for us. So, you know, I'll send over the agreement Um, by the way, I still didn't this is me not no, I still didn't know nothing Like I'm just talking like I didn't know he's gonna say next steps I finished my spill and then he's like he's like no, you know, that's that's that's that's very important I need to know these things and he was like, so what's the next steps? I was like, oh Well, the next steps is and then I was looking I was literally looking at the of course And I'm like, I'm looking at like, well, I have to send over the consulting agreement And once I send over the consulting agreement, um, we you know, we could definitely get started And he's like, okay. Yeah, send it right over. So then, you know, I was already happy.  So, um, we went over Went over the consulting agreement learning sunday Um, and then by the way sunday I don't think you guys heard this. I want to repeat this sunday, right? Because you guys I know everybody's tjf sunday We are going over a consulting agreement so he can send it to this person for them to review Yeah, okay, just wonder we did we did record the video. I lost it on my computer, but we did record it So for everyone that will go to your course Demetrius and niki and collin and kuchar all of you guys Yes, this will go into your course.  So by the way, you know, another thing is this funny that brandon and I say when brandon called me and the guy said Yes, he was screaming on the phone and he couldn't even hope have his breath Yeah Very true I was like what what are you saying boy? He said, ah, ah the guy the guy He said yes That's how he was reacting really. He was not this calm. He was like screaming at on the phone I didn't even know what he was trying to say to me. He was just like screaming. He was so excited Yes, um, I'm missing very big parts of the story. That's a big part of the story I'm very calm right now because I'm chilling But he was screaming he could not scream he could not even get the words out of his mouth I I didn't know what the hell he was saying. I'm like brandon. What what who do you got? What did you get like did you win the lottery or something? And so All right, so now you did a consulting agreement. All right. We did that sunday. You sent it over monday Okay, what happened So he sent it over. Um, I sent it over monday and when I sent it over, um He sent back a email basically saying um that He couldn't um that the the attorney Didn't didn't advise them to allow me to use the email address right so there's a way we can get around that But he said he was happy with everything else. Yeah, he said no he said he's excited. So he was happy. So again This is this is a very this is a very good point for people out there and his consulting agreement It says you get 25 percent of profit, right? Right. Okay. So the guy's attorney reviewed the agreement was happy with all the terms Except that they did not want to get brandon a company email address. Am I correct? Okay, correct. Correct Yeah, so they're ready for everything else. They just didn't want to give me a company email address um And then we talked it over we found some kind of discuss the different ways. Yeah, right. Yeah So, yeah, we we had a conversation. Um, actually yesterday Maybe yesterday. Um, and he was um, basically, uh, mr. Coffey was just saying that It's imperative that we get the company email. Um, and it's imperative because when you represent yourself to the government agencies Your your whole Spill is be transparent and say exactly what's going on and I'm trying to represent a company and I can't send Like I just can't send an email from my company's email address talking about I'm representing somebody else company like it is not it isn't it's not it's gonna look fishy. Um And mr.  And that's a perfect example of A flag for the government where they're like, they'll be like, you know, what's going on So what happens is what he's trying to say again, and I've had this happen to us recently They want to make sure it's not a shell company or someone pretending to be a small business Uh, there's some examples of that. Um, I forgot the name of the company pierce Can you put the name of the company in there that does it now? I think it's a aws or something like that. Um, but there's some examples of companies that literally They pretend to be small business, right to get those contracts and and so we want to be very Cognizant of that and leery and we just want to be in the same page and make that's the reason why for the email address So we are sending email from the company as if we work for the company And then that way it's all in up and up and it's like no Where the small business itself and not some consultant guy Representing company because I I could be a consultant that actually comes from a large organization. They don't the government doesn't know Yeah, so that's that's the first option And the second option is um, basically we can partner up So if he doesn't want me to use their email Um, then we can partner up and I can represent the company from you know That our company evan golf and then you know, yeah They'll basically subcontract under us. Yeah All right, so that's it So I told brandon that if he decides not to do that we can do a joint capability statement With their company and then I'll let brandy's evan cough because I have past performance And then that way, uh, when he does a joint capability Now when he's talked to the government, he's still he's still being transparent Uh, instead of him being a consultant to them, uh, we'll be a team and partner to that company So there's there's more than one way to skin a cat and I told brand now Personally, I think uh, the other strikes that we propose is better because then brandon is getting his, you know, he's Again, I don't even know these people. I don't know. They're another name of comes. I know nothing I only know what he tells me about after the fact But I like the first way because then brandon deals with them Himself and then he gets his own experiences that he can learn from so Um to answer your question. No, you don't need a joint a jb to do a joint capabilities statement. So you don't All right Anything else No, that's that's about it. That's literally as that's all the way up to date as as of yesterday I sent the email yesterday So we have different options and we could talk about it and I'm waiting for you my response back. Okay. All right All right. Thank you, sir. Let me finish up. We got about 12 minutes. I'm gonna talk to the people Be good So, how was that? I told y'all we're gonna bring the kids out I told you 22 23 Now I'm wondering. Okay. What's your excuse? What y'all gonna say next? I'm wondering. I'm listen. I'm taking away people excuses I'm taking away their excuses I look Going back to the quote the mediocre teacher tells the good teacher explains the superior teacher demonstrates The great teacher inspires So I've already told you I've already explained it to you. I'm already demonstrating to you and now I'm expiring you So I don't want to hear I can't do it. I don't have the skills these boys they like don't Okay, college no college degree no degree They don't even have all the right words. They don't like they're they're just they're no different than any one of us out here and Again, one thing that I learned is that that applies to all of us like You know when we and tim ferris says this right and tim ferris book. He says the same thing which is We're all afraid guys All of us are afraid. We are all afraid. I promise you The person on the other end is afraid the business owner is afraid The the executive is afraid. We are all afraid We're all people we're all humans no one is completely like confident and and and like they're positive but these things are gonna work Have you ever followed elan must in space x and seeing the interviews when he goes elan What do you think is going to happen to that rocket ship? He says Um, I don't know. I hope I hope you know it does what's supposed to do But he doesn't know that with certainty No one has absolute certainty with uh any or everything that they do so we just Remember that in your head that we are all operating out of some fear, right? Some of our fears are stronger than other fears. Some are more prevalent than others, but Um, I just I just want to continue to encourage you continue to Be able to show you demonstrate you give you other examples and literally These two, I mean we have a 7 a.m. Calls every wednesday. We're on a 7 a.m. Call and honestly They didn't think what they did was a big accomplishment Right and I'm being transparent here Both of them did not feel as what they did were as accomplishment And and that's because they're comparing yourselves to me and I told them that's the wrong way To do it that we should not be comparing ourselves to someone else because For what they've done and what they're doing is huge, right? And I mean a lot of people out here Are looking at what they did and said wow they you haven't even done that part and so Um, I said no ma'ams. You've done something, right? I mean regardless of the fact that he it was $1,500 But then it turned into something bigger because he listened he understood that He understood the power of the relationships in him stood the power of delivering excellence going over and above He didn't have to physically drive there somebody was or can I drop ship my products? Yes, of course you could drop ship your products, but what happens when they break? How do you ensure quality? He ensured quality by being there and taking it there physically He and one things that branded did not mention to you was that branding did market research and he learned about Industries and places where there was limited competition limited opportunity And and you are not doing that you guys are sending me an email asking me to tell you Where is there a market at where you you don't have there's no competition? You're sending me emails asking me eric. Hey, man. Tell me what's the industry to get into where it's a lot easier You have to do that research for yourself and find that out That's your job to do because I can't like give a perfect example brandon came to me And he said that did you know that in vermont? There's no 8a construction companies and the whole state None And the entire state of vermont. There's no 8a construction companies. I did not know that He didn't research and found that out. What was he looking for? I have no idea I can't answer that question But you meb said on here right that he went out and researched right he found a small City Right a small city in new york. So always go new york new york. Well new york right florida big states He found a small municipality in new york With a customer that had a need that he fulfilled How many times did I tell everyone? Find someone that has a need Solve that problem.  We're not selling anything. I keep telling people this we're not selling them Listen, I didn't I'm not taking my book that I just wrote and going to the government saying hey buy my book They're like we don't need a book But you know what we need we need book printing services. Can you do book printing services? Yeah, I can do the print services So it's up to you to determine right Where is your next opportunity going to come from? What does it look like? From who who's going to give it to you? again, we are Taking 20-something-year-olds with very little experience no experience come from various walks of life one africa acting and People are responding to them and giving them a chance and giving an opportunity So why is it that? They can't give you an opportunity. Why would they not want to give you up to? Yes, let's go live brother You know, let's go live um Why can't the people give you an opportunity? by the way Hold on, okay Set send me a request to go live How long do I think covet cleaning country will last? I think covet cleaning country will last um two years Maybe three They're gonna still last even after covet because I mean even once we get mass and treatment and stuff They're still going to be they're going to say we need to clean up to keep all the the lingering effects and everything away from it So I think the covet contracts are going to go on for at least through 2021 into 2022 But again, I'm not a fortune teller, right? I mean when the covet contracts, uh Expire you move on to the next thing, right? So again, if you've got uh the equipment to do covet cleaning I'm sure that that equipment you can probably uh change it and move it to a different area Hold on. Let's go live. My man said it rust By the way, I have five minutes left Uh, so what we'll do we'll probably jump back on When after the nine o'clock hits give me a couple minutes I'm going to save this video and then we'll jump back on and we'll do probably another 20 or 30 minutes All right, so I it's because at 9 9 p.m.  So just I'll if they cut me off at nine on the dot I'll save the video and I'll come right back on about 901 902 And then we'll spend another 20 30 minutes and we'll just answer everyone's questions I know you just you just some people just post questions in here I would love to get to them, but I had to get the the young guys on today to tell you those stories. So Say it where you at man So just if you can hold off your questions till after nine That way we can get to them. We're waiting on said to try to log on get his camera Working out. I literally have like four minutes. I tell you what since said's not on let me do this Let me go ahead.  I'm going to end live. We'll turn back around I'll jump back on after I save this video and then we'll do another 30 minutes and then said hopefully you get your stuff together by then


This study proposes a new method for creating a volcanic ash-resistant coating for aircraft engine components. The coating is based on a biomimetic structure inspired by the lotus leaf, which has been shown to repel water droplets. This structure is then applied to a ceramic material and used to create a volcanic ash-resistant coating. The coating is able to resist the melting of volcanic ash, which could otherwise cause damage to the engine. This article was authored by Chen Guo, Wenjie Song, Lei Guo, and others.