https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTN6XYGT?ref=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&social_share=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&starsLeft=1
Have you ever wondered what it takes to bounce back from the brink, reinvent oneself, and grasp success in various arenas of life? Well, buckle up as Charlie Ervin, a powerhouse entrepreneur, school board member, and now an award-winning author, shares his riveting story. He takes us from a historical African-American community to conquering the real estate market, and beyond, teaching us the value of resilience, strategic planning, and community involvement. Charlie's deep roots in Palm Springs' Section 14 set the stage for a narrative that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.
Crafting a business that stands the test of time isn't for the faint-hearted, and Charlie knows this all too well. He candidly recounts the evolution from a corporate banking job to launching KO Notary and Taxes, navigating the initial hurdles of entrepreneurship with grit and ingenuity. Not only did he build a flourishing business, but he also took his commitment to service to new heights through coaching and eventually, school board membership. Charlie's insights into the trials and triumphs of community service, especially in the educational domain, underscore the profound impact of dedicated civic engagement.
In a creative twist, Charlie takes us through his extraordinary leap from business and community service to the literary world. His late-night musings blossomed into a children's book that champions equity, diversity, equality, and inclusion—a testament to the potential that lies in our dreams. The journey to publication wasn't smooth sailing, but armed with perseverance and a belief in his message, Charlie navigated the challenges of self-publishing, all while upholding his commitments as a school board member. His story is a powerful reminder that with passion, tenacity, and a bit of late-night inspiration, we can all turn our aspirations into reality.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTN6XYGT?ref=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&social_share=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_8KK4PE1WWY3JA85PF7ET&starsLeft=1
Have you ever wondered what it takes to bounce back from the brink, reinvent oneself, and grasp success in various arenas of life? Well, buckle up as Charlie Ervin, a powerhouse entrepreneur, school board member, and now an award-winning author, shares his riveting story. He takes us from a historical African-American community to conquering the real estate market, and beyond, teaching us the value of resilience, strategic planning, and community involvement. Charlie's deep roots in Palm Springs' Section 14 set the stage for a narrative that's as enlightening as it is inspiring.
Crafting a business that stands the test of time isn't for the faint-hearted, and Charlie knows this all too well. He candidly recounts the evolution from a corporate banking job to launching KO Notary and Taxes, navigating the initial hurdles of entrepreneurship with grit and ingenuity. Not only did he build a flourishing business, but he also took his commitment to service to new heights through coaching and eventually, school board membership. Charlie's insights into the trials and triumphs of community service, especially in the educational domain, underscore the profound impact of dedicated civic engagement.
In a creative twist, Charlie takes us through his extraordinary leap from business and community service to the literary world. His late-night musings blossomed into a children's book that champions equity, diversity, equality, and inclusion—a testament to the potential that lies in our dreams. The journey to publication wasn't smooth sailing, but armed with perseverance and a belief in his message, Charlie navigated the challenges of self-publishing, all while upholding his commitments as a school board member. His story is a powerful reminder that with passion, tenacity, and a bit of late-night inspiration, we can all turn our aspirations into reality.
Welcome to CV Hustle, the podcast created to educate inform and inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
Speaker 2:Welcome everybody, I'm Robert Mraz and this is Fina Mraz.
Speaker 2:And thank you for joining in to CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to educating, inspiring and informing local entrepreneurs here in the Coachella Valley. Thank you for joining in to CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to educating, inspiring and informing local entrepreneurs here in the Coachella Valley. And, like you know, we're always trying to get the most illustrious guest possible, and today we've got a real great one. He's not only an entrepreneur, also a school board member, and now he's an award-winning author, so you know, a true renaissance man. Our guest today is Mr Charlie Irvin. Thanks for coming on, in, man.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me, bro, I appreciate it so good to see you, charlie, I'm so excited you're here and thank you for making time to come and hang out with us. Thank you, thank you, guys, for having me. Yeah, we've been wanting to get you on.
Speaker 2:We've been wanting to get you on for a long time, man. You're doing some big things for the community, so we wanted to kind of bring you in. You're the epitome of what CV Hustle is all about, man. So thanks for joining us today. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it so we want to start.
Speaker 2:You know, at the beginning, man. You know where'd you grow up, what part of Coachella Valley.
Speaker 1:Are you from man? Palm Springs and I lived in one of the predominantly oldest African-American communities in Palm Springs, so born in Palm Springs and lived in the Desert Highland Gateway Estates. Father, our grandfather, was a former Section 14 survivor, so, my grandfather, we lived on the reservations at first, my grandfather. As the situation happened, as everyone knows, in Palm Springs we had to move and had to relocate, and so that's how we ended up in northern Palm Springs.
Speaker 2:Wow, so you're like your family's like, oh gee, section 14. I don't know if anybody in the news has followed that story, but it's a pretty interesting story about the origins of the African-American community here in the Coachella Valley and definitely look it up. It's in the news everywhere right now. So you take it way back, man. So you're like. You're like OG, og.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I moved here from Texas, grandfather moved from Texas, moved here to Palm Springs. We've been here our entire life, so I think that was around the 60s yeah, wow, okay.
Speaker 2:So you've been here a long time, so you know you're. Where did you go to high school? Where did you get your education?
Speaker 1:you know when you're in your formative years, you go to a local high school here yes, I went to uh palm springs high school um graduated same year. You did in 97.
Speaker 3:Yes, 97 all day. I have a whole bunch of cousins in palm springs yeah yeah. So go indians, go Indians, huh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, yeah, I went to Palm Springs High School Interesting. I started college just like everyone else, you know, had a great idea, had these wonderful ideas of what I was going to do, talked to my counselor. I wanted to do psychology, so I talked to my counselor and talked to my teacher, found out how much money they were making. I was already in real estate, so I was making money and I decided that school wasn't an option for me because I was already making what I wanted to be in my career, which was I wanted to be like a psychologist. And so at that particular time, the psychologist made about $50,000 a year.
Speaker 3:And at 19, 20 years old I was making money. So you have your real estate license as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I let my real estate license expire because, you know, I ended up going back into the mortgage side.
Speaker 3:But you, but you at least got your real estate, like OK, so that's what started. And then you were like OK, I'm making so much money doing real estate, then I'll just stick with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in the 2000s and things like that, you know, it was like we had those pickup payment loans and all those different type of loans so you could be in a transaction and make $20,000, $30,000 in one transaction.
Speaker 2:Jesus, this is pre-2008. Yeah, before the crash, you were making your money before that crash, yeah.
Speaker 1:so you put everyone in those 80-20 loans. They put no money down Stated income?
Speaker 2:Did we do one of those? I hope we didn't I don't remember, but I felt bad.
Speaker 1:Anybody who was in the business at that particular time, that was a thing. The 80-20 loan. So you know, put five people in a household. Unfortunately, I put five people in one house. And you know, as you know, stated income. So if the interest rates, if they had a certain amount of money or whatever, you can boost the interest rates up higher. So that's how we got points on the front end as a loan officer and boost the interest rates up higher.
Speaker 2:so that's how we got points on the front end as a loan officer and then your points on the back end. So you know the wild west those days.
Speaker 1:Four or five percent on one transaction then also doing the real estate side. So you know it was really. It was a lot of money being thrown around.
Speaker 2:So zero regulation back then. Right, it was just all you know everybody come and make some quick money, quick buck right.
Speaker 1:yeah, my school that I wanted to go to was USC, so it was a bunch of us at COD who wanted to go to USC. My three friends that I had all of them went to COD and I was supposed to I mean to USC and I was supposed to go with them but started making money.
Speaker 2:Too much money, man. Too much money getting comfortable right, and I've still never been the same, ever getting comfortable right. Hey, but it all works out, right, it all works out. So this is all pre-2008. Obviously the crash comes. How does that? How does that affect your business at that point, man, when the crash 2008 come, because we're, you know, you're relatively young man at that- point right, we're still in their 20s, almost at that point, right.
Speaker 1:So my broker. The thing that my broker told me, the number one thing he always told me. He said char Charlie, make sure that you save your money. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, oh, it's cars, it's whatever I get to get my hands on.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm just buying whatever I can, cause I mean you're young and young and dumb man and you know, go and show them one or two houses and do the loan and I'm making twenty, thirty thousand. I'm like, oh, this is never going to end. So I'm just spending money like crazy and boom, literally in 2008,. One day I have four loans in the pipeline. For the day of when they, when they started to do that, where they counseled, where they stopped the loans, the day of the interest rates and everything, you weren't able to get finance. I had appraisers out for the houses, everything, and just stopped literally that day.
Speaker 1:So that is a real huge pivot. So my experience that I had, I knew how to do all of the back-end stuff as well, so entered Wells Fargo so I went in and try. I had to go get in the back office because I couldn't do anything as a real estate agent and it was really really, really dark at that particular time. You know you couldn't do anything, you couldn't sell any houses, nobody could. So I went into the back office and started as a processor, worked my way up to become a loan officer and an underwriter, and so I got over there at Wells Fargo, and that was the beginning of everything.
Speaker 1:You know Wells Fargo. I got rid of doing all of the real estate stuff, got into a real comfy job and corporate office. So I was in. I used to drive from here to Palm Springs, to San Bernardino every day. Wow, yeah, every day, every day. And so when driving there it was so crazy though, too, because I had a son and so at that particular time I couldn't take him to school or anything, because as soon as I left in the morning, I was an hour and a half on the road. Then I do an hour and a half going back, then two hours of overtime because we had so much work, because you know, at that particular time everyone was losing their houses, so we were doing mediation and all kind of stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So overtime was crazy. So by the time I leave and come back, you know I wasn't present.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. You missed a lot. How long did you do that for?
Speaker 1:About. I wasn't present.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Missed a lot. How long did?
Speaker 1:you do that for About six years. Oh wow, that's a big chunk, yeah, a lot of time, a lot of time, a lot of time, and Wells Fargo was really interesting also. That's another thing.
Speaker 2:The corporate ladder. You were climbing there for a minute.
Speaker 3:I love Wells Fargo and I hate Wells Fargo. I mean because we've got, we do a lot of business with them, but they wouldn't give us a loan for something. I'm like what the heck? And then we were like yes, super conservative bank, and hold on, I'm going to tell you a secret right now.
Speaker 1:So as a loan officer, they decided Wells Fargo. I'm sorry. They decided sometimes that if they wanted to push the loans we would push them. If they decided they wanted to hold them, we would hold them. So sometimes we weren't really even, we didn't have work.
Speaker 1:So we would just be in there playing around watching videos, doing different things. So it wasn't anything that you did or anything. Your loan wasn't difficult or anything. It's just, at certain times Wells Fargo decided that they want to push loans, and sometimes they didn't want to push Wow, so just all timing.
Speaker 2:Look at the draw.
Speaker 3:basically yeah, wow, get your loan officer on a good day, pep and his step and big cup of coffee. Let's work.
Speaker 1:We had a closed loan. So they would come in literally like once a week. And they would come in and say all right, today we've got to clear out this pipeline, Wow. And you had to run through all of that stuff and we would get yelled at also if we didn't meet our numbers. So we were really number driven as well. So sometimes when we were really pushing, we were pushing, and then, when we weren't pushing, we were really like we were told not to do anything.
Speaker 1:When, when you were doing that were you, did you get any commission? Uh, no, so we, um, we're all salaried, so we would you know, we would work there and then if we met our numbers, we would get paid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get bonus for the numbers.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, that's why.
Speaker 2:why salary work overtime, all damn day yeah, get that 20 percent, so we're at wells fargo. So this from 2008 to what? 14? Around that time you said six years, right? So when does the entrepreneurial bug kind of bite you and say, hey, man, I'm sick of this corporate shuffle. You know, I'm ready to kind of take a chance on and do my own thing. When? How does that kind of occur? Because I mean you, you're living a pretty cush life doing the loan. You're saying it's not hard work, making good money. Well, how does, how does how does that go from? You know I'm comfortable to let's be uncomfortable and start something new. You know well um.
Speaker 1:My son had told me that I was never home. So, um, you know, I was always committed to the job and so I was never home. I was never able to pick them up from school, never take them to school. So what I did was I decided to take everything that I got from there and then come home and start my own business. Wow, so you're doing double. Yeah, so they sent me to school to do taxes because I had to be able to read documentations from people's.
Speaker 2:So that's where the tax comes in Smart, use their money to go to school.
Speaker 1:So the notary kicked in as well. So I had to notarize documents. So they sent to school for notary as well.
Speaker 2:So I got my notary license there.
Speaker 1:So everything I got was there at Wells Fargo and then, you know, they decided that they were going to move the office and they kind of made the decision for me, kind of a little bit. So they decided they were going to move their office to Irvine and I was like I can't keep. And then, shortly after being in Irvine they decided to move to Arizona.
Speaker 1:So I was like I just can't keep up with this business. So you know I had to make a decision and you know the decision was to come home and bring everything. It was really really difficult to make that jump because you know where your money's coming from forever and I got comfortable before I had the grind and the hustle part in me.
Speaker 1:Then I got corporate and so it was comfortable, like you know what I mean. So I had to go back to the grind, but I know how to do that. So that's something that I've always done my whole entire life. So the grind is something that I've kind of lived in and it's, you know, it's passed down from generation to generation. My grandfather also owned his business, as well as both my uncles, you know they own businesses. So it's in our genes to not be comfortable. So, um, just came home, uh, opened an office.
Speaker 3:The hardest part about business is the first year right, we talked about that because there's so many firsts yeah right and it's just like, oh my gosh, and you're learning along the way and you know, and you're getting hit with all kinds of new things. Like we always talk about the nice tax bill we got hit with yeah, things like that.
Speaker 2:First year was like what in the hell we're used to getting a refund what?
Speaker 1:but see that's. That means, you guys are doing good, though I mean, you think right, you think right yeah, so that's the doublehead.
Speaker 1:So you guys are doing good but, like for me, it was a struggle. So the the hustle part was building the name being consistent, being available. It was the hard grind work. And so that was the hard part for me was to. I knew once because reading thousands of different books about business, if you make it past that first year or two then you have a successful business. So I just knew that I had to make sure that I made it past that point and before then I tried little businesses and failed.
Speaker 2:So you know, um but those failures taught you along the way, right? I mean, when you, when you finally got something that hit, it was like, okay, I know what not to do now right, but.
Speaker 1:But the funny thing is, I started a cleaning service and so uh you started a cleaning service.
Speaker 2:We're getting all the stories today.
Speaker 1:I started the cleaning service first, and what happened was I spent a whole bunch of money for advertising and so, right when I started to to crack, I ran out of money. So all of the money I spent, all of the stuff that I spent, if it didn't come quick, I was like, ok, credit cards are maxed out, everything is getting to the point to where I got to fold it and go back to work, and so I just that was a lesson that I learned. I learned that the first year I have to have all of my expenses, all of my money, my bills, my mortgage, everything all together, and then be able to have that amount of money to be able to float me over for the whole year.
Speaker 1:And that's what I learned from that first one. But I was so mad too, I finally had got into where I wanted to be. I was spending money in magazines, doing billboards, all kind of stuff, and then I finally got there and I ran out of money and back to the drawing board, basically back to scratch go back to work for a little bit build up some money. Then I build up some money and go back out and do it again.
Speaker 3:So I don't think cleaning was for you, that's no, it wasn't.
Speaker 1:I say no, there's something else better, yeah it wasn't, but I just you know, I mean I it because you know my mom used to do it as well, and so I seen like they get paid oh yeah, it's not cheap, man, they make money. Yeah, that's not like a plate job. We're talking like $40, $50 an hour. Yeah, absolutely, and that's on the Lord, and so I'm it going, and you know it's nothing, I went over there and did it with my mom.
Speaker 3:And we're making up beds and putting sheets in the washroom, dryer, mopping and sweeping. I was like I know how to do this. Yeah right, you're training me all my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I went and I got it going, but just the hard part of the consistency and being able to float yeah everything through, so.
Speaker 3:I had to fold that up. So when you okay, so Wells Fargo is over, you come back and then you start what business? The bookkeeping and the what is it?
Speaker 2:Taxes. Right, it's tax and notary business.
Speaker 3:And what's the name of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, the name of the business is KO Notary and.
Speaker 3:LiveScan KO.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right and KO, that's right and KO stands for knockout and the backstory from that is my son. I gave my son the option to choose a name, since it was his idea for me to stop working, nice. So, it was either going to be D&D, which is going to be Daddy and Devin Aww, or either it was going to be KO, and so he went with knockout. He liked the way it looked.
Speaker 3:And so that's how he ended up with Knockout. And then did you immediately like rent that little spot. So you and Bobby were neighbors.
Speaker 2:That's how me and Charlie got close, but yeah, he had been around a lot longer than we have he's been. You've been around since. So give us the backstory on KO KO, notary and Lasquez.
Speaker 1:So that was you know, we did, we do fingerprints there at the office, we do taxes as well, and, um, that was, you know, um, we did, we do fingerprints there at the office, um, we do taxes as well, and then we do notary. So, um, I took that there and then, you know, just went with the taxes, cause that was the majority of my business was taxes. You have to be good at what you do and you have to know all of the tax laws and all of the good stuff. So, um, that was some of the stuff that I enjoy, because I'm, like you know, like from the mortgage standpoint.
Speaker 1:In the real estate, everything is a journey, so it's it's like a constant, like up and down, and I love that about the real estate and the mortgage. So I found that in the taxes. So it was a chase to find out how I can save you some money or how I can be able to do this. So all of that came into place at that particular time and so that's how the taxes got started, and so I'm pretty good with numbers and stuff like that. So I did very well with that and started that business and I've been there probably since. I say I'm coming up on nine, 10 years. Yeah, I was going to say 10 years at least. Man, you've been there for at least 10 years, so you.
Speaker 2:Your cleaning business basically led you to the successful business right yeah. And then, but then, but it kind of resets you to get to pivot real quick. And then let's go try this. I've got the training, I've got the background. Good with numbers.
Speaker 1:It's a natural fit. And then boom, you just found your little niche and took off from there. Man, I mean, because you've been doing, you've been tax season, I mean you're a busy dude, man, right. And then I got some other taxpayers in Arizona as well.
Speaker 2:So now you've got a team right.
Speaker 1:You've got a couple of people going, I've got three people in Arizona and then me there in Palm Springs, and so this year was really great. I'm so happy to finally be done and actually be able to breathe right, because literally people think that it starts in like um january. No, heck, no, like I go, I start. People start calling me in like like november, asking I'm like oh, like the text they haven't even released the forms yet.
Speaker 1:Guys, come on we can't hold on like I don't have no answers. I don't know what the new tax laws are anything they just you know they're just ready, so call start in november, december I'm like um prepping everything to get everybody going and from december on is go yeah and I'm literally waking up with the laptop, going to sleep with with the laptop.
Speaker 3:It's a green light, yeah, okay. So let me take it back real quick, because you mentioned you put all your money into marketing when you started the cleaning business and all that and you said, okay, I'm not going to do that again. So how did you get KO going? Who were some of your first clients? How did you get those clients?
Speaker 2:Did you spend all your money on marketing again?
Speaker 1:No, social media is wonderful. Yeah, it's free too. Social media is wonderful. So what I did was okay, I started the business there on social media, and then what I did was I had the business pay. Oh, I might should not be telling the secret, because this is my little secret oh, you don't know yeah so social media was really good. So, um, you'll be surprised at the people who entrust in you once you that's awesome, that's great.
Speaker 2:And then, once you start with them, they usually just stick with the same right, because ours it's like reoccurring right, like once you get somebody, they're happy. They're happy with what you did last year. They're just going to come back because you already got the information. You just need the updated information. Yes, so it's like almost builds on itself every year, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, and so it really helps to be good at what you do, and so you know a lot of my work really was studying, so I had to study everything and try to get as much as I can, because at the end of the day people people just care about how much money you're going to be able to save them how much money you can get them.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And as legal as possible. I want to make sure to say that it's always important to be legal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to Okay, so CPA do you work with CPAs? Oh right, because we've got a CPA and it's like oh my gosh, and I'll tell you what I love about her. I pay her throughout the year. That's the best thing, because then I don't get hit with this big bill on top of my tax bill. It's just a slow leak that I don't feel as much, so that's kind of good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and see once again, whenever you're saying, saying that, that means that you're doing well. So if you, if you're, if you're doing that, then that means your business is doing great. Sometimes people's businesses are not doing so great. So, um, I do it, you know, yearly, quarterly, sometimes, as needed, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:you just hey, I'll do it, and here's the price. Right, basically. But you're, you're, you're just constantly building, though, right? I mean, it's like you're stacking, stacking every year. It's just getting bigger and bigger. Hence the need to hire people, right? Yes, yes, and that's awesome man.
Speaker 1:And see, and that's the problem too, Like I was talking to you before about that, it's tough to find somebody who will represent your business the same way you will. Oh, absolutely. And so we always talk about how hard it is to find somebody and trust them with your keys in your office and passwords yeah, and make sure that they're doing the job and not just sitting there watching TV or playing around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I got to work on being able to release a little bit more, because that's my problem. I'm like I work so hard to build up an identity and I can't have you ruining my business.
Speaker 3:What is it? Higher fat.
Speaker 2:Higher, slow fire fast.
Speaker 3:It's true. That's why you have a probationary period. You know what it's just not working out. You know like.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's got to go.
Speaker 2:But we mean, you've had conversations about this because it's hard man.
Speaker 1:It's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard to find somebody.
Speaker 1:It's hard.
Speaker 2:How did you? Find somebody and I was in the same boat as you because I'm dealing with people's financial information all day too, so it was hard to like find that correct person to kind of, but you have to do it. You know why you got to do it it's because you can't grow without doing it.
Speaker 1:I know, and on top of that, it puts years on your body too, because it's so.
Speaker 2:Stressful man.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's so stressful so I'm like I got to do it Every year. I say they told me to do Indeed. So I started with Indeed and then I run an ad and I get them in there and I'm like eh, not feeling it, nope, not feeling it.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 3:though you have been so lucky. I've been very lucky Dude. I was like what the heck he's been so lucky.
Speaker 2:They're better than me at everything. Now, man, like it's gone to the days when I was next to you and we only had one person. You know, it's like now I got a staff of six. I've seen that it's like you know, everybody has their own role and department. And you know, I've been really lucky knock on wood. My staff is amazing. Man, they're amazing. Oh, what are you going to tell him? I don't even know what you're going to say.
Speaker 3:No, but when he interviews, he pre-calls them yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, we do a pre. Yeah, we pre-call, so that's the first interview. Okay, so the process is which? They don't know it though. So the process is we call them, then we give four just standard questions.
Speaker 1:If they can't answer those, and they're automatically don't answer to that, then we bring them in for a physical interview.
Speaker 2:Once they do okay on the physical interview, the real interview is we have a test because we deal with numbers and common sense. Yeah, we have, we created a test. It's not hard. But it's just like if you have common sense, you'll, you'll do excellent, but if you can't, if you can't do this test, then you know, to the back of the line, you know you're not, you're probably not going to be, because we're detail or advanced. So we do have a process and we do have a process in place and it's been very successful, but right now we're just trying to use technology to grow.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to hire people, no, more man.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to keep our team small, them, them well-paid and them happy, and then we just build on with technology, cause, you know, you bring one person in cause. We went through this a little while back where we brought the wrong person in and they kind of shook the office, just one person, because they were. They were just kind of a little bit, you know, a little bit too much drama so and that can ruin your whole, that can ruin your whole gig right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah it really is true, especially in a smaller office. So that would be my advice.
Speaker 1:And sometimes you'll get some of those people that come in as well that want to be you yeah.
Speaker 2:They want to be the vice president in their second week on the job Tell everybody else how to do everything else Like wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Hold on You're just supposed to be working. You're not supposed to be telling everybody what to do but yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3:Isn't that? That's a great idea.
Speaker 2:And I think a great idea and I think it's really helped him like streamline the, the. You know, the last couple girls have been great. Yeah, well, we've been, we've been lucky too. We've just, we've got some good people we've got, and you know, if you. Another thing is, we try, and I tell our gm too, who helps me hire these days is like we're hiring people first character like if you can sense, like and it's hard to tell, you know, with the little interaction you have, but you can tell as they get into the spot about their character, if they're always late and they always got an excuse so how long do you allow?
Speaker 2:there's a 90-day probation period for every, every position.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because then you can just let them go without any like hr issues or anything like that.
Speaker 2:But if you, if you notice it right away, you just want to fire quickly, just get, just move on, just thank them for their time. It's not going to work out. And move on, because that's that's going to be your best. If you keep them too long, it's like you know you're playing with fire my luck has been independent contractors, yeah, you can do that too.
Speaker 2:It's just you gotta, you gotta watch, that you know. As as it get bigger, though, you know so you can. You can get away with it when you're small, but as you get bigger, you to kind of come talk to me and I'll give you some. Yeah, I'll hit you to some game on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need to know some of those secrets. So KO's taking off now, so we're doing well with that Entrepreneurship. You know you found your vibe and what you're going to be doing for the next 20 years, but then so that's not the only thing you do, though, and so I know me and you had always talked about like community service and you kind of trying to give back to your community. So where does the school board? You know, when I heard when you told me you were on the, you know, going for the school board, I was like wow, that's amazing. But I didn't even know you were thinking like that. So kind of give us a story how that all went down.
Speaker 1:So the school board kind of was a little different because I was actually doing the planning commission for the city of palm spring.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you were already kind of in, yeah, yeah, in that arena, all of that came from my father, like my grandfather and all of those.
Speaker 1:You know that, that story that I told you about the section 14.
Speaker 1:All of that comes from the work and seeing them be strong and courageous and always seeing them push forward and fighting for things. So a lot of that came from that. And so what I always said was, if I ever was able to make it out of the situation of what I was in, that I would do something to help somebody else because there were people along the way to help me. And so first I started with just caring about sports. So I was a football coach, so I went out there and I'm out there running around with the youth kids, my son out there in the football team, and I'm just, you know, learning to like kids and just enjoying everything about being with the kids and watching them grow.
Speaker 1:So I started to think that I was not really helping them, because I watched some of the kids go to high school and then they get back into situations and they get into drugs to get into, you know, different situations in the back of the neighborhood, and so I was like I got to do something else different. And so I was like I got to make sure that some of these kids are being able to go to college. And so I started getting more involved into school stuff and aspects of trying to figure out what was going on in our district. And so what I would do is I would go to school board meetings for, like you know, like every other week, and so I go to the school board meetings, sit in there and look and I'm like do you just go into school board meetings just to see what they're discussing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, before.
Speaker 1:Wow man, that's yeah before. Wow man, that's pretty admirable man, but the cool thing about it is that you will go to a school board meeting and it will be 15 people in there and 14 of the 15 people will actually be school board uh, school employees like principals, administrators, and so what I said was like palm springs, for example, was dealing with a $500 million budget. Well, as a parent, you don't care about how they're spending $500 million or what your kid is learning at school, and so, you know, I figured I had the time, since I'm, you know, on my business, so I have time to be able to do this. So I started going there. I was sitting in there and listen. I'm like, wow, they're, you know they're working on things like these are the books that are coming in our school, these are the, the different type of programs, these are, you know, I'm just watching and just just paying attention and just being a student but it's all in-house, yes, so you're like there's no there's no outside influence, it's all.
Speaker 3:It's all teachers and principals and making me start going to our school, I our school.
Speaker 2:I know, right, I'm like geez, I better go start paying attention.
Speaker 1:So what they do is they'll run the meeting and then the meeting will go and it'll be like some important stuff on there and they'll go from A to Z and then one vote and I'm like, oh, they just voted on everything that happens the books, the pens, the laptops, we're using the technology. Everything was just in one vote and I was like, wow, like people don't understand how important are the decisions that are made, and we are a part of the public. We are the ones that put these people into positions. We are the ones that tell them it's okay to spend this money but, no one ever attends or shows up to school board meetings.
Speaker 1:And so I was just like, OK, forget it, I'm just going to keep going. And so after I started going in a while I started seeing that there were certain issues. So I start bringing up issues. I say, hey, you know, I noticed that there's no minority. You know, we don't have a certain amount of minority representation.
Speaker 1:Right, we have 70 percent of our school district is Hispanic, let alone 20% of our classified and certified staff are Hispanic and we have 11% white in our district students and we have 60% of our certified and classified staff are white and I was like this discrepancy is kind of a little weird. I start going to the board.
Speaker 1:And then once I start going into the wildpancy is kind of a little weird. Like so I start going to you know the boy, and then, once I start going into the wild, I feel comfortable to get up and speak, sure. So I go up there and I say, hey, you know, I looked at the studies and looked at these numbers that you guys are presenting. Why are we not hiring people of color? And, furthermore, why do we not have women? And so I just kept going and kept talking to them and kept telling them everything. And then after a while they just said you know, hey, man, you know you're doing like a lot of the work, you know you're like a busybody, so why don't you just decide? Think about running for school board.
Speaker 3:I was like nah.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do that, like I don't want the responsibility. So I just left it alone and then I just kept on going about my business because my mindset was how can I make a change if I'm part of the, the the group that's?
Speaker 1:yeah so that was my battle of trying to figure out how I was going to get on to the school board. Was that do I want to continue to keep making a change and bringing up things that that are important, that matter, or do I want to come and just be comfortable and be part of the school board? So I didn't want to become part of the school board because I wanted to continue to fight for people who couldn't speak for themselves.
Speaker 3:But you were still coming in as a parent. Yes, right, so like if, even if you're part of the school board once you're, like you know, be coming in as part of as a parent and kind of going taking it from that perspective, coming in as part of as a parent and kind of going taking it from that perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you would think so. That's really that's. I would say it. Once you become a part of something, you kind of start to act like something.
Speaker 3:Start morphing into it. Yeah, start turning into that.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, you start saying well, no, the school district is doing everything they're supposed to be doing and you guys are wrong.
Speaker 2:And it's so, you know, you start to become part of what you do. So it's a million, yes, a million. Well, you also see the other side too, right, because if you're on the other side, you see how it actually how the how the sausage is actually made is not what we think, just from a parent's perspective, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, a lot of a lot and they have a lot like a lot of people don't understand that a school board is really like a business.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And so when you get in there, you say, oh, we're worried about the kids. Yeah, we're worried about the kids, but also we have to figure out how to run the district and the district has to stay afloat.
Speaker 1:We have to make sure to manage our budget Right. We have to make sure our numbers are where they're supposed to be. Our budget right. We have to make sure our numbers are where they're supposed to be. So sometimes we have to make tough decisions about tough things, because it's it's the district has to keep going. Sometimes those decisions have to be made like, for example, cuts have to be done because it's just you can't. If you're losing funding from, uh, the state that you normally get, then okay, where do we make up this money? Right, it doesn't just grow on trees, as they say.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like there's a hole in the budget and we got to cut something out.
Speaker 3:I mean just from us to having our boys like in private school.
Speaker 2:In the beginning we were supplying all kinds of everything you know and donating to the school.
Speaker 3:When they started going to public school, we didn't have to pay for lunch.
Speaker 2:We didn't have to pay for all of these things.
Speaker 3:So, like I asked all the teachers, like, if there's anything you need, let me know, Because I know a lot of them are out of pocket.
Speaker 1:And with those private schools and things like that they fundraise. So as you know, you know they're going to knock on your door hey, we need a little extra money.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You got to kick in and those are a lot of those fundings that the state don't give those private schools, so the public schools get those funding and so once the state says no more of the funding, then now we got to go back and have a discussion or we need to review or slim down something that we have a little too much of, and that's the difficult part don't?
Speaker 3:doesn't? The schools get money because your kids go to school and that's why, like, attendance is so that's why attendance is the first thing they do every day yeah. So like I wonder, like how? Much of that is is funding for the school.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a large portion of it, because you know no butts in the seat.
Speaker 2:No, they don't exactly they don't need. They don't need it if they don't have no kids at school. They don't need funding, right yeah?
Speaker 1:so we have to have the funding. That's funding is how the district runs. So we have different type of uh title. We got different type of titles of different type of funding and grants that the state give. Um, you know, there's certain ones that are even like with students who have disabilities and things like that. There is a certain amount um with us as a district in palm springs. Um, I believe we're over um 70 percent or no, no, sorry, over 90 percent of our students are at or below um standard for income.
Speaker 3:So that many, yeah, you would never think that, huh oh, I think we're at 92 percent wow I mean, so I I do volunteer work with fine food bank and they there's so many people that are food insecure, you just don't know. It's crazy and it's sad, it's like. So I'm glad that you're in there doing that and yeah, so.
Speaker 1:So a lot of the funding comes from that. So once, um, we have a school that's considered, uh, classified as as socially economically challenged, that's when the state comes in and gives us some money. So that's how we were able to get money that way as well.
Speaker 2:And then people would never believe it. But 20% of our students are considered homeless 20%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's one in five, yeah, and homeless could be living with a brother or sister.
Speaker 1:In a car or in a car, yeah, wherever that they have, they don't actually have a physical.
Speaker 2:That is amazing, yeah. Wherever that they have, they don't actually have a physical. That is amazing yeah.
Speaker 1:That is amazing, but yeah so 20 percent man, 20 percent homeless.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. You would never think that.
Speaker 1:And then also there's another stat that's kind of jaw-breaking and kind of surprising to see as well is that over 70 percent of in california, from k to three, cannot read what 70 I believe it 70 are either at or below level 70 in california.
Speaker 3:Oh my god they have all kinds of reading programs or people huh right, older, older, like, well, not older. Any volunteer goes out and like helps the kids read in school and things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Read With Me is.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's the one.
Speaker 1:So they volunteer, so Read With Me. They take books and they go and volunteer and they have volunteers and they give out the books to the school district to help the kids improve what they're reading.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. That's an amazing stat, I think.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and math is not too far behind.
Speaker 3:I can't even do math but surprisingly Well, you went to Coachella. Yeah, I got street smart.
Speaker 2:That's like averages.
Speaker 1:That covers a whole lot it does. But another thing 65% of students through K three cannot do math. So they're either at or below standard for math in California as well. So we got 65% of our kids who cannot do math. We got 70% of our students who cannot read.
Speaker 2:So you're telling us our public school system is struggling right now? Oh yes, all over the world. I mean like in California.
Speaker 1:Yes, all over Californiaifornia. In terms of the stats, I mean yeah, so you know they can't and that's why you're there, right yeah I mean.
Speaker 2:So how? So? Go back to your story. How did you so? You're, you know you're. You're a parent, you're going to meetings, you don't want there hey, come on, join us and you're just like, nah, I'm good, how I'm good, when does that switch go off? I'm like, okay, I'm going to go and throw my hat in the street. It's a lot man. It's a lot of work, man.
Speaker 1:I know it is the gentleman that was running our district. He came to me and he said hey, charlie, I think that you would do a wonderful job and I think you should take into consideration running for school board. And I was like, yeah, okay. And then he called me again and he kept calling me, kept bugging me. I'm like, bro, like are you really going to? Just, I mean like are you going to leave me alone, or what. And he's like no, I really think that you should do it. And if you do it, you know I won't run, wow.
Speaker 2:Unopposed.
Speaker 1:Persistence. And so I was like okay, um, okay, whatever, yeah, okay, I'll, just I'll put my head in there. I mean I'll.
Speaker 2:I'll do it. I didn't think I was going to win. You have to run for. You had to run for an election right, you were like you had to put your politician shoes on and go out there and shake hands and kiss babies and all that right so I thought that he was gonna play and he was gonna lie.
Speaker 1:So I'm like I'm not gonna win, so I'm just gonna go do it and he's gonna eventually stay in there and get in the race. But he never did. So he, he never did. And he told me you know, charlie, I just think that you can do the job much better than what I can, and I've seen you work and you've been, you, you know, been doing it so far, so I think that you can handle it. And I was like okay, and so.
Speaker 1:I ran and he didn't run, and so I ended up winning on the post.
Speaker 2:What year was this? Uh, two years ago. So two years 2002, 2022. Yes, wow, so you've been on the school for two years now Yep, yep, coming up on two years. Wow. So what's that experience been like, personally for you, I know you're trying to do God's work out there, but sometimes-.
Speaker 1:It's a lot. It's a lot, it's a lot, it's fast, and just I mean when you're dealing with, like I said, with a half a billion dollar budget budget.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it's packets coming through, big old, hopefully the person doing it. You have to read all those packets. Can I get?
Speaker 1:the cliff notes.
Speaker 2:Yes, but see that's where ai should kick in somehow on something like that, because absolutely that's we're really going through all these papers and reading all this stuff summarize this proposal for me. I know right, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but yeah, I have to read all that stuff and be ready. Um, they get it to us maybe like a week in advance, so we run through it 72, you know I think 72 hours or something like that. So we have to run through everything, look through everything and then we kind of just we can't talk to each other or anything like that. That is the most difficult part that I've seen so far.
Speaker 2:In it like uh, you have like a gag order on huh. Like you can't talk to other members. Well, you can't with the board, like it's.
Speaker 1:It's a conflict of interest and it has to be in a public setting so you cannot do.
Speaker 2:That's tough, though, because I sit on non-profit boards and so does she, and we have to talk all the time about yeah, no, we can't, constantly. It's not at that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So basically, if we talk to one person, that's it. We can't talk to three people, because then it would be like having a meeting for the meeting, right. So we could talk to maybe one person and, like you know, kind of run our idea, but for the most part everything is alone. So you don't know what's going to happen when you go into the meeting. You don't know what anybody else thinking, you don't know anything. So just go in there, sit down with your notes and then you just kind of just say whatever you saw in your mind, and then you know you might get lucky. And somebody you know, someone, will say yeah, charlie, I agree with that, you know.
Speaker 2:And then you, but you don't know, though, no, until that moment so and and that's that's the battle.
Speaker 1:It's really. It's really lonely, like you would never think it was that lonely, like working in a district is as a school board member, it's really lonely. It's like an individual kind of a thing like you would think, like siphoned off from the world, yes, and you can't really talk about anything. So if something confidential comes through, I can't talk to. You, can't talk to your wife no.
Speaker 2:your kid no. I can't talk to you. You can't talk to your wife no. You can't talk to your kids no.
Speaker 1:I can't talk to nobody.
Speaker 2:That's hard man.
Speaker 1:Jeez, I have to sit there and wait.
Speaker 2:That's an FBI guy. Yeah, you can get national security secrets over there, man. Well, you know, I mean it's a big budget.
Speaker 1:It's a big budget man, you know, lose my position. I signed an oath. I had to stand in front of everyone, put my hand up and say that I agree that I was under the perjury. You know I would not, so I had to do all of that stuff. So when they tell you that you can't talk like you could actually literally get fined and go to jail.
Speaker 2:Oh, man, I commend you. Man, I commend you. I don't think I could do it. You're a better man than me, man, and the pay the pay is not great at all. You're talking to a ex high school football coach a penny on the dollar.
Speaker 3:For my time, I approve a higher budget.
Speaker 2:I approve a raise for myself.
Speaker 1:You can't do any of that stuff it's just basically like volunteering, and the fact of the matter is making a change and you know I had like the artist who illustrated this book. She was a school board member. And so how the book came into play. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, let's get into the book, because I mean, true renaissance man here doesn't sit still. I mean, between running a business and being on the board. How did Charlie Irvin, the author, come to be? I mean, I didn't even know you were writing books, man. I mean this is.
Speaker 3:He came home. He's all did you know? Charlie wrote a book.
Speaker 2:I was like man this guy don't ever sleep, so go into the story of how this book came to be. I mean, it's a pretty cool project after I did some research on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting that you say that, because the sleeping part you don't sleep.
Speaker 2:I don't sleep that good, that's a life man, the entrepreneur man. So what happened is?
Speaker 1:I didn't used to sleep, so what I would do is like, at two or three o'clock in the morning, I just wake up and I'm like dang, I cannot go back to sleep. So I just sit up and like for an hour or two and I'm just fighting to trying to go to sleep. So what I started doing is I took my phone out and I just started writing.
Speaker 2:Really, so your insomniac led to a book, like journaling, yeah, and so what I did was I jotted down and all my great.
Speaker 1:But to be honest with you, my whole entire life that's been my. That's how everything has manifested for me, like in the middle of the night. I'm weird like that.
Speaker 2:I'll wake up in the middle. Best ideas come to the sleep man.
Speaker 3:No that happens to me all the time. I'm designing stuff and I'm like, oh, I can do this, you know, or what have you? So it's great.
Speaker 1:So that was a crazy thing. So before I used to always fight it, I used to be like I got to go to sleep and so I figured out that I need to use it to my benefit. So before I used to try to hold on to it. But when I went back to sleep and remember to go do it during the daytime, so the phone thing started to be a thing, and so what I would do is I would just take the phone and just go at it and just start writing like some of the business ideas, all the stuff like that. That's what it was, and then so the book came.
Speaker 2:And what's the name of the book by the?
Speaker 1:way, the name of the book is called.
Speaker 2:Equity Diversity. We'll show it on camera here for people on YouTube Check it out, and then we'll also be putting it in, dropping it in a link so you guys can check it out on the episode notes.
Speaker 1:But go ahead. So it's called. It's called Equity, diversity, equality and Inclusion for Kids. It's as simple as one, two, three, and so the concept of the book is to take those big, difficult words that a lot of adults and people are using and the children don't understand, and so I took them and put them in a simple term and also used them as a definition.
Speaker 1:so that's where the idea of the book came from okay um, I have had this in my phone for probably about maybe six years really just in a note in your phone, just a note, it was just a note like so I right now currently I have probably about seven books in my wow that I already done. That's awesome, man.
Speaker 2:I didn't know you were the authoring type man. I just it just.
Speaker 1:You don't just talk, you know, you don't even think.
Speaker 2:I got a football story too yeah, I got a football book coming out.
Speaker 1:I got, I got a football story, so we'll co-sign on that football story about johnny no, the story about that one is my son is is skinny, so my little son is skinny. So the story is going to be a little skinny kid trying to convince his father and his mom that he can play tackle football.
Speaker 2:Ah, that's awesome, man, that's awesome. So you have it in your phone. That's a big leap to actually. Hey, I want to publish this thing and get it out to the world. I mean, that's a big leap, that's a scary part of it right. To actually put it out there. How did that come about?
Speaker 1:So there again the school board comes into play. So the illustrator, her name is Mariah Young she happened to be a student school board member for the district and so she was there and we really didn't talk much. And so the last day that she was there as a school board member, she came up to me and she told me how important I was in her life. And I'm like holy crap, Like I never knew, Wow.
Speaker 1:And she was telling me, you know, like, how amazing I was and you know how, you know that she learned from me and that I just don't know how important it is to see someone who looks like her on the stage. And I was like wow, I had no idea. So me and her, you know, end up talking for a little bit and you know she goes on. So she's at graduation and you know she graduates and she tells me me, you know I'm an artist and I'm like what? Do you know how long I've been sitting on a bunch of words on?
Speaker 2:paper.
Speaker 1:I can't find a it's like the universe aligned right that's just how god works.
Speaker 1:He works in mysterious ways. So I'm sitting here, I've been trying to get this, this image of what's in my head, on paper, and so, um, you know, she goes on. I'm like, okay, I give her a car, you know what I mean. She goes away. Um, you know, I, you know, I never thought that, you know, I was gonna hear anything back, because it's thousands of people to tell me that they, they can draw and no one ever, you know doesn't follow through.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I was like yeah, okay, whatever. And then one day, like like almost a year later, she calls and says Mr Irvin, do you know, remember who I am? Like no, I don't. And so she started telling me and she was like you know, are you still interested in having someone to do the book? And I was like yeah, like forever since about six years, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so she was like okay, um, you know, I would like to give it a shot. So I give her the first like three pages because I want to see if she can do it. So, like here's three pages, see what you can do, see what you come up with. And she got started and like, literally, she was thinking exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking the photos, the images, the mixed nationalities, the different disabilities, everything that I wanted to capture, the glow. She did the cover everything. Wow, she exactly got everything that I was thinking. So she is really the person who actually made my dreams come true, because if not, they would have just been inside of the book.
Speaker 3:They're just still sitting there. Yeah, that's awesome man.
Speaker 1:And so I was able to give her a scholarship because she was going to COD, so for her I was looking for someone to be illustrator and I was going to pay someone to do it. So I was able to pay her with a scholarship and give her a scholarship.
Speaker 2:Wow, win-win. What a story, man, win-win, what a story.
Speaker 1:Isn't that funny, how stuff just kind of works out like that it was so hard, like I was just sitting there and I was like I'm never going to ever have a book, like it's just going to be something that I say I always wanted to do and never be able to do it.
Speaker 3:That's awesome, man, but what? And you can just keep on going.
Speaker 1:And the hard part about this. Okay. So after she gets with illustrating, and we get illustrating together which took like a couple of months because you know you have to find the perfect thing and the perfect match so after she gets the illustration, the real work starts to happen. So now I have to figure out how to get this script and this book to the masses. Yeah, get it published, right, yes, so I go and I try to go to all of these companies no, no, no, no, no. So all of these no's come about. So I have to go into deep research study about how I can figure out how to start a production company. You know, I have to go do everything, oh my gosh. So I went. I have to go do everything, oh my gosh. So I went from the ground up once again.
Speaker 3:So you have your own production company. So, you produce this yourself. Oh my God, that's awesome. There is no no's there.
Speaker 1:Yes, right, right. So then that way I'm able to be able to get it done, because all of the big major companies, they would tell you no, because they have a list of a million books that they possibly can come out with.
Speaker 2:So they're not really interested in a local you know story giving you a chance at that right so, so I was like okay, being the creator that I am, I'm gonna create this whole platform. Wow, I'm gonna have to talk to you because I'm gonna write my book and yeah, produce it for me, yeah absolutely. It's already in the works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm telling you it's the greatest feeling to be able to see your work or your imagination come to fruition Absolutely, and know that it's going to live on past you. That's true. So once you pass on, your book is still going to be here for kids and anybody else to be able to read your work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so you know where do you, where do you, can you find your book?
Speaker 1:I'm on Thank God. I'm on Amazon. Ok, I'm on Barnes and Noble. I'm on Target, I mean Walmart. I'm in the local bookstores.
Speaker 3:Awesome, and so are you. Are you on the school boards library?
Speaker 1:I can't. No Conflict of interest.
Speaker 2:Oh, we're not we're not a conflict of interest. So we're, going to throw all his links into the show notes. So everybody, I advise everybody to go support, support our local author and Renaissance man, mr Charlie Irvin here. I love it, mr Charlie Irvin here. We're running up against time, charlie, so there's a couple of questions that we always like to ask our entrepreneurs. Shoot it. I think you already know what's coming. So some of the best business advice you've ever gotten.
Speaker 1:The best business advice I've ever got. Okay, so when I was in real estate, my uncle so I, my uncle was in business first and so my uncle told me. He said hey, charlie, look, when I started real estate I had a Honda Accord. Okay, my uncle said you are going to be Honda Accord, you're going to meet those type of people. If you don't get this, if you don't get something, A better car.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was like, but I own a house already. You know what I mean. I'm looking at buying another house. I'm like I got. I like you know, I got a wealth of knowledge. He says, son, they're never going to find out who you are, they're never going to know who you are because the first thing they do is see what you look like. And I'll be dang. I went and got a stupid Mercedes.
Speaker 3:And those same people that I tried to talk to before were oh yeah, you know what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're great, I couldn't even talk to them at first, but as soon as I got that dumb car, like instantly I started to become like the go-to person to talk to about real estate. It was really crazy, wow.
Speaker 3:That was a good piece of advice.
Speaker 2:You were in sales at that point, right. That was a good piece of advice at that point, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, and man and I was, and I was like, why can't I sell like a 600 000? He was like boy, you pulling up in a honda accord like that doesn't say success. I was like dang, like I gotta really do that. And he was like, yeah, you gotta learn how to, how to look like you, something, yeah. So then I went and got all those clown suits and all that stuff and you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It was a write-off too and it worked it did and it worked, it did. So that's a magic tip that I would say to anybody who's out there watching. Yeah, look the part right yes, you gotta look like you are selling what you sell it look the part there.
Speaker 3:You never get a second chance to make a first impression that's right, that's right. I've heard that a million times, but it's true, that's true.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you're giving us the good advice. Now what about the worst advice you've ever gotten? I know you got some bad advice about business. We all have.
Speaker 3:Don't cheat the IRS.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that's some bad advice too.
Speaker 2:Don't take them on.
Speaker 1:They will win.
Speaker 2:They some bad advice too Don't take them on. They will win. You will never beat the IRS.
Speaker 1:They're like the casino they're always going to win you will never, ever ever beat the IRS, and they're going to find you. And when they find you, they're going to take it to you.
Speaker 3:It's regardless, my worst advice?
Speaker 1:I don't know, because I'm really strong, I kind of go into a shell. I really don't listen to much and follow anybody else. So you know, like when anyone started to tell me, like, what it takes, I knew that that don't sound right. There's no way.
Speaker 3:No ring of truth there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not. That's not really. I'm not going to be able to take no shortcuts and be able to do nothing. Really, I'm not gonna be able to take no shortcuts and be able to to do nothing. You have to take the long way. There's no shortcuts, there's no get with, uh, get rich quick schemes, nothing like that's a funny thing.
Speaker 1:One of the things I tried to when I was younger is all of those ponzi schemes, all of those little pyramid things, yeah all those different, those different things I thought I was going to be able to do, and so, oh yeah, I got this wine that I'm selling and it's this, and it never worked, never worked. None of that stuff ever worked and it took a whole lot of time trying to sell something that was never going to sell, and so that was. That was one of the bad advice I had. Don't take any shortcuts and don't listen to anybody telling you that that business and success is quick. It's never quick. It's never just a magic potion.
Speaker 2:It's hard work, right, absolutely no substitute for our work, man. Yeah, no, our work is very important. Well, I want to thank you for coming in. Where can our uh listeners and people watching here find you and your work? And, you know, where can they reach out to you if they've got questions for you. What's the best place to kind of reach you?
Speaker 1:The best place to reach me is we have social media accounts, on Instagram as well as Facebook, and it's Irvin Holland Publications, so you can find like the books there. You can find we have websites. Just type in irvin and holland publication or just type in charlie irvin and you'll see like all kind of different things about me uh, anywhere from school district stuff to the book to coaching, everything. I didn't even get to talk about the championships oh yeah, wait till your podcast comes out.
Speaker 2:Season two Season two we're going to do the football episode, part two.
Speaker 1:We didn't get to talk about how our youth football used to kill everybody out here in the desert.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 1:So now we're having a little tough time. Indio, you guys are coming up with these programs. We're trying, man.
Speaker 2:We're trying now with the desert league, yeah, but we're cheating because we're getting everybody from everywhere, but that's what you got to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what you got to do. So you know. Thanks for coming in. Man you truly are. You know what CV Hustle is all about man Totally and all of your community service. Man, I thank you. You're doing God's work out there.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening. Yeah, thanks for listening. If you found some value in today's conversation, go ahead and like and subscribe and we'll see you next time.