CV Hustle
A Podcast created to educate, inform & inspire entrepreneurship here in our Coachella Valley.
We will be talking to some of the best & brightest entrepreneurs in the Coachella Valley about how they started their journey in entrepreneurship.
CV Hustle
Ep #27-Behind the Barricade: Life as an Elite Security Professional
From the streets of Indio to the Grammy Awards and beyond, David Villarreal has crafted an extraordinary career in elite security services. As founder of Libertas Protection Group, David has protected some of music's biggest stars while building a business that stands apart in the competitive security industry.
Growing up in the Coachella Valley and serving in the military gave David a foundation of discipline and resourcefulness, but it was his tenacity and bold decision-making that propelled him forward. After working security at the Coachella Music Festival in 2008, David steadily built connections in the entertainment world, eventually becoming a trusted protector for major touring artists and high-profile events.
What makes David's approach unique is his emphasis on preparation and prevention. Behind every successful event is months of planning - developing Emergency Action Plans, coordinating security teams, and anticipating potential threats. "If somebody physically touches my client, I look at it as a failure on my behalf," David explains, highlighting the proactive mindset that has earned him his reputation.
Libertas Protection Group doesn't compete on price but on quality, employing primarily veterans and former law enforcement officers with real-world experience. This approach creates not just a security team but a community where younger professionals can learn from seasoned experts. David's entrepreneurial journey exemplifies the freedom that comes from building something meaningful on your own terms.
Whether you're interested in the security industry, entrepreneurship, or simply interested in hearing an inspirational local success story, David's journey shows what's possible with determination and vision. As he puts it: "Be humble, bust your ass, and never let anyone tell you that you can't."
Welcome back everyone. I'm Robert Mraz.
Speaker 2:And I'm Fina Mraz.
Speaker 1:And this is CV Hustle, the podcast dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship here in the Coachella Valley, and we try to bring you nothing but the best entrepreneurs here in the Coachella Valley. Today's episode is going to be no exception, because today's special guest is a guy I go way back with, but he's now top of the food chain in the security world Mr David Villarreal from the Brutas Protection Group. Thanks for coming in, my man.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, good, good to be home.
Speaker 2:I know I mean we've been trying to book this guy forever, Been chasing this guy forever, but he's been on tour with some of the biggest stars for the last six months, but you know, he came home, so we grabbed him and brought him into the studio. So thanks came home, so we grabbed him and brought him into the studio.
Speaker 1:So thanks for coming in, man. How do you guys know each?
Speaker 3:other I forgot. Oh, we go way back. You want to tell a?
Speaker 1:story.
Speaker 3:I mean, I want the real version, so you tell me that's true, so we were actually bobby and I were in the same kindergarten class, yet what? Yeah? So if I remember right, it was like me, you and Ryan. Yeah, we used to hang out together all the time?
Speaker 1:No way, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:And then, growing up, we played football together, played sports together. You played. Indio yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:My freshman year I didn't play because I wanted to be a bad boy instead of a football player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's okay. It's time to do it.
Speaker 1:We all live and learn as long as you get out of that.
Speaker 2:So Bobby's mom and dad sent me a little video of a kindergarten class and Bobby was wanted to be a doctor. Are you in that? Are you in that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't remember David being all these little kids.
Speaker 2:I mean you were in the class, but I don't recall you on the video.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, kids, I mean you were in the class, but I don't recall you on the video.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, we were in kindergarten together and then, like I said, we just kind of like always went to school together. Yeah, and we were always played sports together and shit. And then you know, and shit, sorry, yeah, and then your father-in-law coached us on our eighth grade years. That's right, coach, randy. That's right. Even when he was pissed, he was smiling.
Speaker 2:Were you a little Raider.
Speaker 3:No 49ers oh 49ers, that's right. Indio 49ers. Bobby had a number 75. Did I? No, why? Who had 75? No, what did you have? I was 45. Okay, what does 75 mean? Well, it's because at the time I was a big Howie and then I think I ended up getting 99 and I stuck with like 99 from that point on. Yeah, I think that looks better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Anyway, but you know 75 is kind of blocky, yeah Well, you know it was crazy as I ran into how we long at a um with Superbowl and like I get in the elevator cause I'm like going to get do something, I get in it, it's packed, you know, it's big guys and another nfl players. I kind of get the doors like right here so I kind of got to tuck in behind the door so I can get back. And I look back and I'm like how you doing howie, howie, long bro. I was like oh my god, yeah, it was pretty cool moment.
Speaker 1:That's a trip man, yeah all right.
Speaker 2:So I have a question so you, so you grew up in the, in the valley india, and then, and then, what like what. Where did what ended up happening? Where so you? So you grew up in the, in the Valley Indio, and then, and then, what Like what. Where did what ended up happening? Where did you? Where'd you go?
Speaker 3:So I grew up here in. I grew up in Indio, Me and Bobby, literally you know.
Speaker 1:West side Indio. Right yeah on West Indio.
Speaker 2:Let me take it back real quick. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3:How in the hell do? Okay, so my first wife. Oh okay, virginia.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, rick was always when I met Rick he was crashing on Ben and Debbie's couch always yep, he was always couch surfing and that's how I met Rick and so, when you know, he was always there and basically, like you know, he was always in and out. Then he joined the army, that's right. And then when I joined the army, he was recruiting at the time and so, like I stopped on my way out, we stopped in texas and then we stopped. I stopped there and then I went to north carolina and then on my way back, he was still in, he was just wrapping up recruiting duty, and I stopped to see him again and then fast forward like we've always just stayed in touch.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And now, with the company you know, he's retired from the army and you know he's got, you know all the other things that he does too, and he came. A lot of the guys that come out to work with us don't even need to work Right. A lot of them come out because they're retired law enforcement officers, retired military guys who you know, you're used to that, you know camaraderie, working in teams and so on and so forth. So some guys they just miss it and come out to work just for that.
Speaker 2:Like Rick, I bring him out, because I mean, you know, he's always a good time.
Speaker 3:He is just loud and fun and everything. And I use him as a breaker, like to break people, because he just keeps everybody entertained the whole day and just he's. His smile and his laugh is infectious. You know what I mean. So it keeps the guys having fun as well too.
Speaker 2:And he'll sing you a song. And he'll sing you a song.
Speaker 1:Back to West Indio. So I mean I, you know we grew up together but I don't really know, like your whole story on how you became, like you know who you are into, who you are today in terms of like from professionally. So take me back, take me back to so you know, I know you. You, we graduated high school, what, what was the path at that point? What did you foresee at that point for yourself?
Speaker 3:So I was a young dad, I was a teenage father. I had my son when we were seniors in high school and then I waited till my son turned a year old and then I joined the army. Just I wanted to get a, you know, a start on life. My dad did it and I didn't really want to go to college, I want to go to work. And then I was working at a grocery store at the time and I didn't see myself. I mean, I could do it, could have done it, but I didn't see myself like 20, 30 years.
Speaker 3:So during the army, with the intent that I'm gonna get a tech type job so that when I get out you know technology right, because at the time this is you're talking about late 90s when you know information technology is just just taking off, yeah, we were in school when, like you know, I remember, when the kinto was first built, we were like the the newest technology in the whole desert and we had to but we still had to like sign up just to go get on the internet in the library, you know, dial up with the tone and all that you know entirely different world Right.
Speaker 3:So fast forward. I got out of the military and, um, you know, was didn't really didn't really find an interest in the information technology. I didn't really, didn't really. It wasn't really something that appealed to me. I was like I don't know, I don't like numbers and stuff like that. So I ended up kind of just going into construction. Let's go work for a drilling company, a water well drilling company, out here in Coachella. The money was we were doing a lot of prevailing wage jobs. So if you know anything, about prevailing wage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the money's really good.
Speaker 2:That's all he does is he has a lot of prevailing wage jobs. Clients, yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly so, yeah, and then when it's not, it's not Right. You know A little robust, right? Yeah, exactly so. We did a lot of stuff like that because we did a lot of wealth for public entities which my dad worked for okay my dad retired from them after like almost like close to 30 years, um.
Speaker 3:So my thing was I was like I'm gonna get do just my dad, get out of the service, work a couple jobs, then I'll end up at CBWD, which I eventually did. And then, um, I picked up a co-worker in a body slam in the middle of the street. I'm not proud of it ultimately, you know, but it led you to where you are today, where I am today but I picked up a co-worker in a body slam in the middle of the street.
Speaker 3:I'm not proud of it Ultimately, you know, but it led you to where you are today. It led me to where I am today, but, you know, long story short is, you know, now I could laugh about it, but it was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, because not only did I have to like explain to my wife at the time that, hey, this house that we're trying to get, we're not gonna be able to get, because I just got fired from probably what could be one of the best jobs I'll ever get, at which I thought at the time who?
Speaker 2:who was it a friend?
Speaker 3:yeah, oh no, it was a co-worker, oh it was a co-worker. Okay, okay, so it happened at work on the job site got it um fast forward. I was young, you know. Stupid, yeah, and aren't we all? I kind of like backed myself into a corner because while I was there at cbwd I got my um worship driver's license right, but after that I kind of had a little bit, a little bit of a spiral and I got a dy so which made my cdl yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 2:So there was a one thing that got me.
Speaker 3:So I I went back to the first job, drilling wells. I went back there and I got fired Well, not fired, basically got demoted, because they were just like there's nothing you can do. So when I got demoted, I got into a confrontation with my team leader and they left me up at the shop in Hammond. They left me up at the shop in Hamm, me, and I had to get a ride back. You know, basically I got fired, um, so I forced myself into a position where I had to fend for myself, right, right. So, again, all that stuff being said, that you know happened over 20 something years ago. Um, I was young, I was wild and immature. I realized that, like, nobody's going to hire you, dude, so you got to figure something out. So I tried a bunch of different. You know um ideas. People that know me, they like know, I like tried. You know selling t-shirts. You know custom shirts, you name it. I've done it Right, um.
Speaker 3:But then I got um, um, my brother-in-law hit me up, says his buddy had the contract for the? Um, the security for the campgrounds there at coachella. This is uh, oh, wait. And I was like, well, yeah, 10 bucks an hour, 12 hour days, 30 days of work. So I'm like, okay, cool, 120 times 30. You know, do the math. Sorry, went out and did it and then um was still doing construction at the time. So I would go do that at night because I would work over nights. During the day I'd go do handyman stuff or whatever and then, like fast forward, two years later I was one of the security directors for the festival. There's a lot of other steps that happened in between that, but you know, just kind of keep the story short.
Speaker 3:Um and then we got an hour well, depending on what you want to talk about. Excuse me, then, moving forward from there, just from you know the exposure being at the festival and billing being the person who's always dealing with the incoming bodyguards, who's dealing with the people who need the information. I was the one who was basically um on the ground gathering this information and when people were coming in to do walkthroughs they'd come talk to me, so it kind of got me plugged into networks.
Speaker 2:Wait, how many bodyguards are coming in?
Speaker 3:For the festival? Yeah Well, depending on how many artists you have, and then some people have more than one.
Speaker 2:I was going to say does every single person have a bodyguard?
Speaker 3:No, not at all.
Speaker 2:Some people have more than one. Okay, all right. And then so like when they come in, does, does everybody? Do the artists have like their own little spot?
Speaker 3:I guess they do right, depending on where they're performing at. Yeah, they have their own little, they have an artist compound and then they have their own, uh, individual trailers. So that's why sometimes, if you go back there, um, you'll see, you know, security guys standing in front of the trailers, they're not just regular security guys, you see in the uniforms, nine times out of ten, usually wearing black or something like that right, and they're private security for the artists, correct.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you kind of coachella was kind of your door into that world, I mean, because you're ex-military so you kind of already had a background in and some of that stuff right.
Speaker 3:But you but coachella's festival kind of was your, yeah, I mean the military stuff looks great on the resume and you know, obviously you know there's a couple of things that it shows. It's like you know you could take a kid off the street, teach them, train them how to do anything Right, but it doesn't. It doesn't really a lot of it doesn't really correlate to what I do because, again, I was working telecommunications while I was in the military. Now you know, totally.
Speaker 1:Now you know totally different, but again, the discipline you know, you know knowing how to, you know take care of yourself while you're living out of a bag.
Speaker 1:You know things like that. Yeah, I mean, there is some correlation there, right? Yeah, so Coachella Fest 2008 to 2010,. You're kind of working your way up through the security thing. And then, how did so? When did it become evident that you kind of, hey, I can do this for myself? And then, how did so? When did it become evident that you kind of hey, I can do this for myself, I don't really need to work for somebody else? Like, did that kind of?
Speaker 3:happen organically, or does that something that you?
Speaker 1:just wanted to do always.
Speaker 3:No, it kind of came organically because of the way the industry kind of works is. A lot of guys are independent contractors, right. So, especially up in LA, I was a small fish in a huge ass pond going up there in L to LA, but I had a guy who that kind of out here, brought me into it. Sorry, putting me on the forefront of all these different events, again making me the point person for people that are coming in. Everybody's got to get come to me through, get gather information. So not only am I making those contacts but I'm also learning a lot about the job on both both sides. So, again, those contacts, but I'm also learning a lot about the job on both both sides. So, again, the festival's fed into or got me started. But, um, I've been doing and running events and consulting and managing events in the la area for I mean since 2010.
Speaker 3:yeah so I mean so almost until 15 years now, yeah 15, 16 years now, and then um that, because of the festival background, kind of fed into the consulting management I do for festivals as well. So there's multiple things that I do personally and then there's things that the company does as a whole what do you mean?
Speaker 2:consulting like what? So it's another like just branch off your business yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So essentially like let's say for example consulting is.
Speaker 3:I have um. I just finished a, a festival out in the hamptons right two weeks ago. Part of the consulting is, in particular, particular that festival. I was brought in to oversee the two existing security companies that they had as their providers for the festival right, and then so not only overseeing them but overseeing the plan that they, that they, had as their providers for the festival right, and then so not only overseeing them but overseeing the plan that they, that they, developed, um being the liaison between the security companies in the festival itself, and then after, after the fact, or after the, uh, the festival itself, I go through the entire bill and then, basically, you know figure out where, you know where to charge. Yeah, if there was 10 guards, you know they're charging for 10 guards for 10 hours where they're 10 guards in 10 hours in these particular areas, so on and so or were they out there partying?
Speaker 3:right, exactly, so that's really yeah, yeah okay, so, um, but I am the overall and then I have managers that go out and basically they oversee areas, so they report back to me.
Speaker 2:it so when you say, when we go over the plan, like, what is the plan? Is it like? Hey, is it like a footprint of the, of the festival itself?
Speaker 3:So what we do we're part of the consulting as well is what we create as a EAP right Emergency Action Plan. So in the Emergency Action Plan you got maps, you got CAD drawings, you got emergency contact information, what to do if this, what to do if that, so on and so forth. You know, it's basically it's the answers to everything that could go wrong. Everything that could go wrong. We provide the answers to.
Speaker 2:Well, who's doing that, who's doing what, who's doing the?
Speaker 3:CAD and the. So the CADs are usually provided by, let's say, the festival right. So we don't do any of that stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because they have plans yeah we request it so that we're able to look over it and figure out okay, let's just say the stage is 60 feet wide and let's just say I put one guard every 10 feet. So now I know, okay, without even having the setup, I already know okay, without even having the setup, I already know, okay, I'm going to need six guards there, Right, and you know, that's kind of the way it works. So that's what we use the cats for, and then, additionally, it's to be able to drop emergency evacuation plans.
Speaker 2:So, like the festival you just did, how long does it take you to plan?
Speaker 3:Well, that one in particular. They brought me in late um, but usually I mean it could be anywhere from six to four months damn of there's. You know, because you're dealing with permitting, you're dealing with, you know well, this is what they want to do. And now you know the city are saying, no, you can't do that, you got to do this and you got to move to this location. So there's a lot of other things that go on into the politics of all that kind of stuff I don't really deal with, but that's.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm including it on all the meetings because you know, you got to know the obstacles.
Speaker 2:They're going to be coming up later yeah, that's what I figured, like it's, it's. You got to do some planning, so when you said this one was a rush, do you charge a rush fee?
Speaker 3:I mean, we do no I just chose not to my business, basically right same here. Basically, I just chose not to take on parts that they wanted me to take on.
Speaker 3:I just I don't have. If I feel I can't do it to the best of my ability, I will say no, I can't do it, I'm not going to take it on and then fail. Right, it's better for me just to say no, I can't do it. So there's another festival we were brought up for, or we just got contracted for, to run the stage, backstage barricade and then overall incident command, and then plus canines. They brought us like they literally brought us in two weeks ago, and the festival was on the 18th or, excuse me, the 19th and 20th of July. That is super late. So they wanted me to oversee the entire festival.
Speaker 3:I said no because I don't have enough time to prepare to do it properly right so we're only going to stick to particular areas that we know we're fully prepared to take care of.
Speaker 2:The hell, do you need canines for well?
Speaker 3:no, I mean because you have to think about what's going on drugs.
Speaker 2:Well, no, they're not sniffing out drugs not drugs at all.
Speaker 3:Think about what's going on in the world right now domestic terrorism, terrorism in general oh, okay, yeah, moms, yes, okay okay, got it those kinds of threats.
Speaker 1:So speaking of that, like in your emergency plan, what do you guys look? I mean, we all remember woodstock 99 was like a big riot and so are you guys like preparing for like worst case scenarios where there's like a riot in the crowd and people are just going crazy?
Speaker 3:We discuss all those things and there's in the case of this incident, and this is how it flows, and then also you have your incident flow chart, right when you're, like you're talking about, okay, well, who do we inform first? If it's a fire, they obviously call the fire department. If you know it's somebody got punched in the face, we're going to call, you know, police. Now the person was punched in the face so that now there's an injury, so we have to call fire as well. Like you know those kinds of things, who do you call? And these the EAP usually gets submitted to, like the city or whoever the permitting jurisdiction.
Speaker 3:Jurisdiction is we submit that to them. They will approve it. More of it has to do with liability.
Speaker 1:That's true. I mean, everything's about liability For these guys, for these big corporations. It's just all about covering their ass right. That's exactly why.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have another question. So you said you're in the Hamptons.
Speaker 3:Do you take your own guys, or they've got guys and you've got to work with their guys. So usually I'll bring my own team right, but just managers. Not because, let's say, for that festival there was 100, it was staffing. Call 125 guards. Yeah, I don't have 125 guards in new york, right, but I bring my management teams. The reason why I bring my management team is because I trust them and I know what their work is, that I don't have to go around to every single place and count okay, there's 10 here and there's 20 here, because 125 guards.
Speaker 3:How am I going to do that all day counting guards? Then I can't concentrate on actually overseeing everything where I'm just sitting there counting guards, where I bring my managers in. Let's say, I have a manager who oversees the front, the front entrance. I have a manager oversees the barricade and the stage itself, and then we have guys who oversee artist protection and let's just say, in particular, we have certain VIP areas that are brought to you by this I don't know town, nightclub, somebody who will watch over those areas. Then the guards, they staff that, usually security companies. They have their own supervisors, but they're there to make sure that they do the job, because just because they're coming out to do a festival. These festivals don't happen every single day. We're not talking about major. This was in the happen, so it's not like this festival is happening every single day.
Speaker 1:In LA. Right, you got, guys, you got festivals.
Speaker 3:You got guys doing this every single day. They're doing three, four, five different events every single week right out there. It's a little bit different. So we got to bring in people who have experience to kind of like basically you're, you're coaching, they're training right, right on the spot training the guys on the yes some guys may know, but you're, you're a lot of.
Speaker 2:It is just like coaching these guys how to do the job for the next 48 hours I was thinking about what the hell I was going to ask you and I had some funny, funny stuff. One of the questions was what if you get there, you like they give you these guys right, you're overseeing these 120 guys, or whatever. What if, like, 50 of them are like 75 years old Right, no offense to old people, but seasoned?
Speaker 3:There you go. Yeah, seasoned. So let's say in that there's really not much you can do. But when we ask, when we make requests, we can't say don't give us old people. We ask for able-bodied personnel based on the location, so like, let's say, like, in particular, the barricade, we want bigger people.
Speaker 3:Yeah for sure, actually, who can actually pull somebody over the barricade if they had to, yeah, right. So I will say we need able-bodied people who can lift x amount of weight. You know, I will be specific on what we're looking for, not male or female, but just specifics on those kind of things, because I can't next, you know, you, you show, well, you just said so, you just said six guards, well, able-bodied guards. Now, if I say, okay, well, this is just a door that goes to the back kitchen and here we can have a generic guard, right, yeah, just, I just need a body there, okay, so, um, but a lot of times I don't really dictate a lot of the staffing, um, unless it's particular areas that are sensitive, like like a VIP area or artist entrance or artist compound things like that, or stage Other things. It's like I don't care about the guy, I don't mean that in a bad way, but I don't care who you staff. On the port-a-potties, right, the entrance, port-a-potties, you know what I mean. A lot of that stuff is just, again, liability.
Speaker 3:We got to have a certain amount of guards for a certain amount of people that are there at the festival or show or whatever.
Speaker 2:It is Insurance man I have another dumb question, so stop me now.
Speaker 1:Go ahead, you're on a roll.
Speaker 2:Okay. So say you're here in the Coachella Valley or you're close, and you see a big dude, do you go? Hey, here's my card I could use you.
Speaker 3:Believe it or not, I give my number out to a lot of guys, see, and while I'm on tour I get a lot of guys' numbers.
Speaker 1:But what it is is again.
Speaker 3:I recruit guys when I'm at the gym.
Speaker 1:It's a good training ground. Right, You've got to be a little bit looked apart, man.
Speaker 3:There's a certain aesthetic that I want to be able training ground, right, I mean, you've got to be a little bit. It is because also, too like You've got to look the part man. There's a certain aesthetic that I want to be able to have. Right, there's a certain aesthetic that I want for my company. Right, I like to think I'm in pretty good shape for being a 46-year-old man, so I want those, that team that's around me, to have the same aesthetic. Otherwise then we all don't look alike, right, you know, standard that, yeah, it's a team, it's a standard. There we charge top dollar. I tell people, don't come to us for the best price. I'm telling you right now, yeah, you go down the street yeah we don't offer you the best prices.
Speaker 3:what we offer is the best service. We offer you and top level people who have been through conflicts and confrontations in real life and are battle tested, battle proven. What does that mean? Meaning that they've been through some shit?
Speaker 2:Ooh, a lot of the guys, the guys, okay, not the artists, okay, okay.
Speaker 3:So what I'm talking about is the people that were provided. So then, got it, got it. You're offering them somebody who's experienced that if something did really go south in a bad way, this person's not gonna be like, they're not gonna be running, I'm just a big guy and like, oh shit, I don't know what to do. No, these guys have been through a lot of more combat veterans got it. Or former law enforcement officers who literally are out there fighting every single day. So you know, those are the kind of people that we like to bring to the table. So just because, yeah, you're a big guy doesn't mean that I want to hire you. It means you have a certain aesthetic. I'm able to be able to use you for certain things, but as far as, like, for the personal protection, that stuff takes years of training, years of knowledge and a lot of instinct.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I mean we'll come back to that veterans piece, but I think you guys are doing a real good job with that, so okay, so we got to about 2010. You're out in LA. No-transcript kind of highlighted some of the work you were doing out in la with with some of those, uh, celebrities. So at that point, were you just contracting or were you on your?
Speaker 3:own. Yeah, so at that point I started a consulting company already by that point, which was, uh, the vc group. Um, but it was just me, and whenever I would need additionals then I would you know, bring in other guys right, yeah, temporary and then, but again, like the way everybody is that that does this.
Speaker 3:Most guys are freelancers. So you know, I got five different guys who all have their own company. Right, we go, we do an event now. You got an event coming on later. Hey, like, I need like two more guys. What are you doing later? Oh shit, well, I ain't doing nothing, right? All right, cool, come on. And that's the way it kind of developed, right. So with that, doing all kinds of different events, basically I ended up, um, the guy who brought me into the business at the time. He was, he was touring back and forth, right, but doing events and going on a lot of what I do right now and he got a basketball player as a client and basically the basketball player hired him full time. And so, because he hired him full time, I was kind of popping back and forth with Ziggy Marley at the time, wow, and which you know. If you know any website group, we would be all starstruck Within our group. We're going to be all starstruck Within our little friend clique. We're going to be all starstruck.
Speaker 3:Reggae reggae.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was us growing up Reggae realty man yeah exactly so, going like 2011,.
Speaker 3:I started doing shows, right, but like being as like a number two, and then eventually I ended up becoming a number one on that because this guy got hired by a basketball player full-time, and so by 2012 I was all I was doing was touring, and by I would say, oh yeah, by 2012, pretty much that's all I I did. I wasn't doing anything in between that Like cause I was just staying so busy.
Speaker 1:You're just doing private security for celebrities.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, primarily in the music industry, just traveling and touring.
Speaker 2:Okay. So when you say you're on tour, are you, are they paying for, like, where are you sleeping? A bus or a hotel and who's paying for that, or is that all like in part of your contract?
Speaker 3:so they, they take care of all my lodging, take care of all my travels some nights we're sleeping on tour bus. Some nights we're sleeping on hotels. Some nights we're sleeping in hotel lobbies, yeah it all depends, and or sometimes you just catch the sleep where you can? You know what I mean. Like um, you know I've had nights where you know, the party don't stop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I was like that's what I was thinking do you, you know, are you contracted for so many hours, like, or how does that work?
Speaker 1:is it per?
Speaker 2:job right. So state of california is.
Speaker 3:You know, it's weird, right? So, like, technically, we're supposed to pay by the hour, right, we can't pay day rates. But also, too, in my line of work, you know, I'm supposed to get breaks over time, right, and document all this stuff, right, not to say that I don't stay in california, but uh, it's. How do you, how do I tell bobby's guarding you and bobby's like, hey, sorry, but I gotta take my 15, right, I gotta go to the bathroom.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, he's gotta take his 15. And I'll be back in 15 minutes. What do you tell him?
Speaker 2:Can I go with you?
Speaker 1:You tell him no, I forget we're asking Fina.
Speaker 2:Can I go with?
Speaker 3:you no, but I'm saying we don't have the luxury that we can do that, or Bobby's like hey, I got to get my 30 minutes in, you know what I mean, like I get to take my lunch.
Speaker 3:It's not, it's not feasible in this line of work. So, you know, you got to work around a lot of things like that, yeah, but, um, a lot of the way that we work is you know, you're, you're on from one date to another date. So basically, the way we bill is door to door the day I leave my house. If I left my house today at 11.59 pm, I'm charging for today. If I return tomorrow or not tomorrow, the following day at 12.01, I'm charging for that day as well. Nice, so it's from the day I leave to the day I return home. Um, again, it balances out, because there's some days where I'm working I haven't slept in two days, oh you know. And then there's other days where I'm in a city three, four days and I haven't done nothing. I mean I'll go out and go to the gym and stuff like that, but I mean meaning, like, the actual work itself yeah, so you, so you can't predict what the principal is going to do.
Speaker 3:Some days they want to just sit in their room. Other days it's like you know we're going to Disneyland and we're going to call a paparazzi and let them know we're going to Disneyland. You know what I mean? That's a busy day, so that's a busy day, right?
Speaker 2:so it all kind of bounces out oh my god that is so nuts, definitely a different industry so then you really don't ever know your schedule for like the year right, you could be freaking everywhere ish, I get blocked like you'll say I'm just, I'm closed.
Speaker 3:Well, because, I try to request these things from, you know, my tour managers or whatever, or you know that I work for the different artists, work for a lot of stuff comes out. You know they'll be like, oh yeah, so-and-so's going on tour from this day to this day. So I know that's a time frame, but sometimes I gotta leave earlier because of rehearsals or, you know, promo stuff like that. Um, but for the most part, yeah, I don't really like this year in particular. I knew I knew I was going to be gone pretty much till April and then we were waiting for them to announce the Grand National Tour. And once they announced the Grand National Tour, I was like, okay, cool, now I'm on the Grand National Tour. I literally rolled from one tour into the next what's the Grand National Tour?
Speaker 3:the Kendrick Lamar and SZA Tour.
Speaker 2:I love him.
Speaker 1:I was telling Bobby. You're doing the big stuff, man. That's one of the biggest stuff of the year Grand National.
Speaker 2:Duh his car.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that guy, you know he's a Pulitzer Prize winner. Yeah, I'm probably saying it's Pulitzer Prize, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 3:But he's very talented. Broke the record for like um highest gross grossing. Uh tour tour like yeah I'd imagine over jay-z and beyonce on the run too no way yeah, which is pretty big. That's, those are pretty big numbers, yeah. So like when they announced the tour, I knew I wanted wanted to be on it, I knew it, but like it's all the same team of guys that I work with.
Speaker 2:So so then you're a Lamar fan, not a Drake fan.
Speaker 3:Can't do. Lamar pays the bills in my house.
Speaker 2:My son. He's just like the Drake fan, and then him, him and Bobby are always going at it about who's better Jordan, Michael Jordan. Okay, now I'm skipping.
Speaker 1:LeB, bobby are always going at it about who's better Jordan, michael Jordan. Okay, now I'm skipping, but you're going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my head my son's like no, Brian Bobby's fighting teenagers man Teenage. Oh, my son is a little rebel.
Speaker 1:He don't like to listen, he just likes to go against dad. That's what it is, so 2000. Okay, consulting, that's when you're starting to like do the the private security, you're starting to get in the celebrity world.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, so what? So? I know that was like that was. You were doing that up until recently. Right, like yeah, so I was doing that up until uh, basically till I mean I still have the company but, um, working under that company, just kind of limiting the services that I was offering because I was in a licensed security company so I wasn't offering like guard service, so on and so forth.
Speaker 3:I was a consultant he's outsourcing, so yeah, so if I needed other consultants, I would bring them in all in the same umbrella. We'd go out and do the work right, whereas now, you know, a licensed security company, um 2020 we're in 25, so 2022 I want to say, um, well, during covid I, there was a you know everybody's home's home, you know, doing whatever. That's true, everybody's trying to kind of, you know, reach out to different people. There was a guy who kind of reached out to me you know had just recently got on the Marine Corps and you know, just left Palm Springs Police Department and he's looking for community you know what I mean. And we all were, I think we were like kind of friends on a veterans forum or something like that and so he reached out to me.
Speaker 3:You know, heard about some of the stuff that I was doing, whatever reached out and I was like, yeah, sure, you know, let's talk. You know. So we're talking, we're chopping it up or whatnot, and I have a client I was doing some work for in Palm Springs. I had a client I was doing some work for in Palm Springs. I had a couple of issues or whatever. So I was like you know who's that guy that I talked to, that you know he was Palm Springs PD.
Speaker 3:Let me see if he ever, you know, had any run-ins with her. So you know, I hit him up, you know whatever, and which turns out, you know, fast forward, now he's my business partner, but but yeah, so he just he took an interest in what I did and him, coming from that, that side, the private, the private side, dealing with you know, like, you know the government entities and you know CEOs and stuff like that, I I'm like I want to learn more about that because it's like, you know, the basketball player who wants to be a rapper and the rapper wants to be the basketball player. It's the same thing. And he was very interested in what I was doing and, um, you know, so we started kind of talking, hanging out here and there, and um one year, during coachella, when, uh, coachella came back up, I got a call for a couple different things and I was on tour. So I was just like, hey, well, let's do this you say you can handle this.
Speaker 3:So this is what I got and he brought in a bunch of his buddies um, you know, again, all you know, ex ex-Marines, retired Marines, and these guys kicked ass, nice, and we just kind of started talking about, like you know, what can we do here? You know we have common ground. I like the way these guys work. They're my style. You know, they have the aesthetic of the team that I want to build, because I want to kind of bring a little bit of a change to the industry, because a lot of it is specifically on the entertainment side. Are big guys, right, big guys. I'm only five foot eight. A lot of these other guys were like normal size guys, five foot eight, five ten. But what?
Speaker 2:are you in spirit? That's what matters. Eight feet tall baby, that's right See, see you too.
Speaker 1:huh, are you in spirit? That's what matters ap.
Speaker 3:Tall babies, that's right see. See you too, oh, I know seven, seven on yager when I drink it probably won't.
Speaker 3:Let me have that anymore no, you're banned from yager permanently um, so yeah, so I, you know, we, uh, we decided like you know, hey, you're interested in this, I'm interested in this, and I've always wanted to kind of like you know, hey, you're interested in this, I'm interested in this, and I've always wanted to kind of like, you know, formalize everything. And you know he was really smart. And when I asked him, like, why do you want to team up with me? Because a bunch of people wanted to team up with me. Right, it's happened before. But I'm like okay, but what do you bring to the table?
Speaker 3:It's more like people were trying to, like, you know, use your name right, use my name right, and I hate saying it like that on connections yeah, yeah, I hate saying it like that, but that's a lot of what it was. You see right through it. And his thing was I want you to spend more time with your family. That was first his first response, which was kind of like, okay, that's a different response than what I was expecting to hear. Right, oh, because I want us to blow up and make all this money, blah, blah, you know which? I mean? Yeah, everybody wants to. You know, be rich or whatever the deal is. But that wasn't his first answer. So I was like, okay, well, my ears are open.
Speaker 3:So we started talking about things and then you know, fast forward, uh, 20, where are we in 25 now? So 2023. We formalized the company, fully licensed, so on and so forth. And then things started taking off. We're like, yeah, we can just operate out of our, you know, my office at home and your office at home. We don't really need an office. He had a buddy of his gave us a conference room to operate out of, because the state requires us to have certain things on file licenses posted.
Speaker 3:So, you know? Yeah, you see, you understand how that works. But we have to have a physical office. It can't be a peel box, it can't be at the house. It literally I was like I have to have a desk. I could rent a desk from Bobby right and then a cubicle, and that was suffice.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But, and you know we're like dang well, things are getting, you know, moving bigger, moving faster. I like to work in a work environment and so did he. Then you know we're like shit, well, maybe we should open an office. So we decided to open an office and then, after opening the office, more possibly, you know, our brains start working on what are the other possibilities we do so, kind of speaking on that, fast forward to next year, we're going to be opening the training center. So, in addition to the security company, we're also going to be offering training. So you know, uh, everything from basic guard card training to how to get your firearm license, and then, um, in addition to that, teaching a lot of the stuff, what it takes to actually be an on the road. You know health and nutrition, you know mental fitness and you know a lot of just in the job in particular so how many are you packing at all, at all things?
Speaker 2:or is there some that they're like hey man, this is just.
Speaker 3:This is a festival in the hampton, like so, so let's say um a lot of times when it comes to caring because of the traveling that we're doing, it's too much for to go through security, security, you know clear everything and you're going from state to state to state to state and plus every state has their own different laws, yeah so that's a lot of different things, right?
Speaker 3:so if I need somebody armed and we're, let's just say we're, we're in wisconsin. Yeah, I will contact one of my contacts in wisconsin, right, because I've been doing this for a lot of years, so I've traveled all over the all over the states.
Speaker 3:Again going back to me getting guys numbers yeah it's like but right, but it's like, okay, this guy did a really good job at this. You know concert we were at and he was armed. Hey, dude, let's get numbers. Next time I'm in town I need an armed guy. I'll reach out to you. And the reason why we reach out to local because they have all the licensing that is required in that local area, so we don't really carry so much. And especially, too, because a lot of we're doing arenas and stadiums which are NFL, nhl, nba arenas, their rules over they supersede everything, so we cannot carry in there at all. Period Only uniform law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Just these.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just these.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just you know the uniform law enforcement obviously carry in those places.
Speaker 3:So that's why we don't really, in particular on the entertainment side, don't really carry. Now on the other side, on the other side we're dealing with business executives, so on and so forth. A lot of these guys do carry, but they carry concealed, so you'll never see it. So, and then again, you know, the travel is a little bit different. When you're talking about, you know, big executives, you're not talking about going through TSA. Yeah you're talking about going through FBOs and going, you know what's an FBO? Dude, I'm rich.
Speaker 2:Basically like a private, private airport.
Speaker 3:So, instead of you going right like, let's say, in thermal okay, there's, I think, like three different FBOs that are there. Right, so Bobby's flying his jet in. Right, he's going to go to flying into signature FBO. Okay, basically, that's like his parking spot, right? That's where we would go to go pick him up. Got it Right Now. They still have to go. They have TSA agents that are stationed there, really Right, but they're only relaxed Right.
Speaker 1:They're all relaxed right.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, it's just you're not like you know, you're not going through Picking up your shoes.
Speaker 2:They're 75 years old, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know it's just you're not having to go through all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, so it's a lot simpler, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, learn something every day, fina.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:So Libertas, back to Libertas. You kind of laid out the whole strategy, man. I think that's like it's pretty cool to see like you go from consulting to now like to where you're at now. You're like a full on. You're full on one shop stop for for security and private security, man. I mean like if you get this training center up and running like the way I know, the way you want it to, I mean you guys are going to have, you guys are going to have all kinds of growth potential there.
Speaker 3:Right, so the idea as well is to not only for people that are already, you know, in the industry, but to bring in new people into the industry. Right, because, just from, like a lot of people don't know, like two of the biggest female pop stars I'm not going to name a name run through our company. Their protection is provided by our company. Three different agents that work within those are are all Coachella Valley natives, oh sweet. So I take, I take a lot of pride in being able to put people from here out there to work, getting our name on the map.
Speaker 3:So part of also what we're doing too is like not just doing guard, car training and all that other stuff, but also to mentoring young men. Right, I've had a lot of people that we've grown up with. Hey, my son, you know, needs the first job and you know, and all like I can't even tell you how many people like I've given their kid, you know, a job, even if it's just working for Coachella for a month, and they make it, made money or whatever. Like our thing is be able to surround these young men with older men who are most of them are retired from the military or law enforcement and most of them are looked at as leaders in the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right To be able to connect these young men and surround them with other men who have a positive influence on the community and will be there when some of these young men don't have that. So that's part of also to what we are trying to build as well.
Speaker 1:All right, you guys are doing a real good job, I mean for veterans, especially man. I know you guys have a lot of veterans that you guys work with and hire and I mean you guys are a big time, big time help to the community, because a lot of veterans fresh out of the fresh out of the military there there's no roadmap for that.
Speaker 3:I mean cause you guys you're veterans, so you know that, you know you can kind of simply you guys are kind of on the same page with that, yeah, so that a lot of it kind of goes back to, like I said, they're, you know, these guys are getting out and still looking for a sense of community. Um, when you're going back home, like I know, like when I moved back here, my community was like my homeboys that I used to party with before I left.
Speaker 3:So I was like okay I just came right back to it right right back to it, but if you could find a place where you can, you know, be around like-minded individuals and be able to share things that you your buddy that you grew up with may not be able to understand but this other guy, this other guy that you know he served, whether it be alongside you or in another unit or whatever. But they can identify even some of these other guys who are old. We got guys that are you know working for us in their sixties.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean and I look up to those guys as well, because I think that they got something to offer. May not be able to be the physical presence that they made, that they once were, but they offer wise yeah exactly, and a lot of those guys know how to deal with conflict a lot better because they're older, older, wiser.
Speaker 3:That's it. So, um, to be able to take that, intermingle it with some of these younger guys. That's really what we're trying to do here, and then also, too, is like to be able to show that we got talent out here. You know for sure, absolutely we got talent that's why we're doing this podcast, right?
Speaker 2:for that very reason, david.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad we're trying to get the light glad you said that shine on our, our top people too, because we're not la, we're not, we're not san diego, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of people that do a lot of good work out here too, that we're trying to get out there and get out to the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that again. That's that's big to us is be able again. Jeremy grew up right here in la quinta. I grew up right here in indio, so you know we're hometown kids.
Speaker 3:A lot of people know about what I've done in between the years and some people don't. All right, you know. And also too like we don't advertise for what we do. And the reason why we don't advertise for what we do is because we are a different type of service. All right, we don't provide mall guards and and I mean everybody's needed yeah, but it's just not a service that we provide, because we in particular, can you imagine you spend 20 years in the military and then I put you at a mall?
Speaker 3:Right, it's just, it's no disrespect, but it's just also too like these guys are looking for a level of challenge. Still, you know what I mean. These guys are looking for a level of challenge still you know what I mean. So to be able to do a lot more on the consulting and offer, you know, insight on things that other people just don't understand or see. Yeah, you know those. Those are the reason why I bring in these older guys with talent and, from a business perspective, it's good to specialize, it's good it's good to niche down and be yeah, be, the top in that niche.
Speaker 1:Because, yeah, exactly, man, and and if you're the top in that niche, who's the top person in when they need that niche gonna call you, know, and they're calling you. That's that's great for business, man, that's only that's all. I think you spread yourself too thin. You're not really great at anything at that point. Right, exactly. So you want to be great at one thing exactly creating a niche.
Speaker 3:You know I have one guy, uh, a businessman that I did some work for, like straight told me he's like you know, you don't want to be the best in the room, you want to be the only one in the room. Bam, there you go. So it's like, at that point it doesn't matter if you're good or bad. Yeah, exactly as long as you're creating something that nobody else can offer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's great advice.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you this Do you, do you have to sign NDAs?
Speaker 3:Yes, all the time.
Speaker 2:And so say, like you work for the same people over and over.
Speaker 3:Like every year.
Speaker 2:So you have to sign a new NDA every year. Got it, got it OK.
Speaker 3:So we sign them as a company, and then individual agents have to sign with us as well.
Speaker 2:OK, so so speaking of NDAs you got any crazy stories?
Speaker 3:That what I was gonna say. Come on not naming names. No, most of my crazy stories all came from like bouncer days, yeah, and like where were you bouncing at zelda's no?
Speaker 3:no, I didn't bounce in any clubs out here that's where we started our love story that's where fina fell in love, uh no, I actually I never, um, I never bounced at any clubs out here. I was a door guy, uh, at um, I don't know, it was called dinks back in the day. I was a door guy there for a little bit, but I didn't never bounced out here. I was on, uh, doing a lot more of the bouncy work.
Speaker 2:They're drunk right, so they're probably that's probably the that's starting up, right? Yeah?
Speaker 3:it's, it's, it's that. It's like you know in your bouncer. You go to work every night knowing you're going to get in a fight.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? That's just what it is.
Speaker 3:And, if you know, you knew me when I was younger.
Speaker 1:I mean you'd like that back in the day. You're all right with that. David was good with that back in the day. Never kind of shied.
Speaker 3:But you know. Now that you know, you know, obviously, like I said, I tell people, if you do your job right at this level, crazy stuff does not happen around you, because what we create, what are like rings of safety, yeah.
Speaker 3:Let's say, the inner ring being me with the principal, the outer ring being, let's just say, the security guard that's out there on the gate, and then you create more and more rings.
Speaker 3:If you create these things and you plan these things out correctly, you won't ever have any craziness apps that comes around you. If somebody physically touches my client, I look at it as a failure on my behalf, because I didn't plan properly to keep everything I could. Now, sometimes it's going to happen, right, but you should be able to plan things out, and that's the thing about what we do, in particular on the bodyguarding side, is that a lot of people don't see there's a lot more, a lot of planning organizing phone calls, emails, zoom calls, more emails, text messages, whatsapp. You got a million different things that are going on just to get somebody from a hundred feet dropped at the top of a carpet to the end of the carpet. You would not even imagine how much actually, wow, right, some of it unnecessary. I'm not going to lie, but it's not. It's, but it's also to the reason why there are so many different conversations is because one little slip up Everything's on camera.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the reason why there are so many different conversations is because one little slip up, everything's on camera. Yeah, when that slip up, be you know little physical slip, and the person falls because we didn't talk about this person's going to. You know this last grabbies, Right? Let's just say, for instance, the young lady that I was working with had a long train and they wanted me to carry the train, which was totally fine, and the reason why was because she had her male companion which was on her side.
Speaker 3:So she was she was well protected. Plus also to the red carpet team is our company as well.
Speaker 3:So, we were in a good place, but like there's a million different things that you know could hinder things, so let's just say bad, something bad happens, we got to run out. Am I going to trust this little 19, 20 year old, uh, production assistant to hold this or just like, oh crap, she drops it. Now we're going and running, catches on something and we can't escape, or am I going to hold it there, you go, and if I have to cut it and then we got to, you know, bug out. It's those kind of things that people are like oh, you're just holding the dress, yeah, but you don't understand how much planning went into this and why I am the one holding it and not somebody else, why.
Speaker 1:There's this, like I think there's any profession that's done at the high level, like there's just so much that goes into it that you don't see behind the scenes, man. And I think your preparation is why you don't have the crazy story for us.
Speaker 2:Can you make one up you?
Speaker 1:have to go back to his bouncer days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, or days. So you just mentioned was it the Emmys? Grammys, Grammys. So they're sitting down. Where are you so? You're like I can't tell you no no, no.
Speaker 3:If you watch the Grammys, if you watch some of these award ceremonies and if you just let's just say you got, I don't know what they have now, you could pause it.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And if you just take a shot of, let's say, a crowd, I could pick out and be like he's scared. That's good.
Speaker 1:Are you guys seat fillers too?
Speaker 3:We look like seat fillers sometimes. So sometimes you'll see like there there's a video out there of um I had an artist performing at and she was performing in the middle of the crowd. She only felt comfortable with me taking her hand so she could walk up these stairs. She wanted me near, so she's walking down the aisle, walking down the aisle singing. You know everybody's surrounding her, or whatever. Then she comes down to the pit area where I'm standing and they're like telling me act, natural. So there I am, like this oh, I look stupid as hell, like so many people were texting and calling, like it was. It was embarrassing, but it's like you know that's a funny story, but again it's yeah it's a funny story.
Speaker 3:Nobody got beat up. There's on my ego, um, but you know. Again, it's trying to blend in. I don't very. I don't blend in very well, I'll be honest with you. But also, too, that's why I work in entertainment, because sometimes they don't want you to blend in very well, I'll be honest with you. But also, too, that's why I work in entertainment, because sometimes they don't want you to blend in. You are used to attract some kind of attention. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:You definitely have to have the look right. You got to have the posture.
Speaker 2:How'd you come up with your business name? Oh, all right, and what does that mean?
Speaker 3:Okay. So the way we came up with the business name like between Jeremy and I we kind of like sat there and we were like, okay, we don't want to call it like J and D security or D and J security you know, basic, you know.
Speaker 3:Um, but basically you know the, the. The name of the company is Libertas protection group, obviously, protection for what we do, um and uh group. The reason why we went with the group is because of the fact that we work with different companies throughout, not only throughout the country, but throughout the the world, right? Um? So it's a group of uh different, you know, companies that we work with and libertize. Basically the root word for libertize is free, or the uh. The root language is um Latin right. So libertas means freedom, so freedom being based off of our. One thing that we have in common, both Jeremy and I, and is that we are both veterans, um, jeremy having served in the United States Marine Corps, myself in the U S army, and again we met through a veterans forum.
Speaker 2:Just makes sense.
Speaker 3:The majority of the guys that we bring into work are veterans. So you know the freedom kind of equivocates with you know, you know the, the, the type of people that we bring on, bring in and also to like, honestly, the freedom to be able to make the decisions and do the things that we feel are the best things to be doing. Got it.
Speaker 2:That's a great name, then I approve.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of thought put into that.
Speaker 3:No, there really wasn't If you met his partner.
Speaker 1:You would see that guy's kind of very, he's very thoughtful and methodical the way he thinks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's that's one thing I'm a little bit more of, you know. But also, to like, my boldness is what got me to where I am. So there's also that factor for sure, because that boldness has really pushed the company forward. And not to say that my business partner wouldn't do these things, but I do a lot of things just off the cuff. Um, surprise yourself, hey, it works. You got home safe. Basically, I'm a hero, um, but you know where the way our thinking process works is like. There's times where he's having, you know, like he's frustrated, like man, like all right, copy that, tag it, I'll deal with them, you deal with this, right, that's true, there's certain things he has more patience for and certain things I have more patience for.
Speaker 3:And we, we tag team on a lot of things, right, um, you know, our official titles are, you know, I'm the CEO, he's a CFO, but we don't really go by that. We are co-founders, right, because I, you know, when you have a corporation, obviously you got to have, you know, officers and everybody's got to have a stupid title or whatever. But for me titles are limitations. So I don't like to be like, oh yeah, I'm the ceo and that's all I do. I do all kinds of things. I clean the office too. I'm also the janitor, nice, um, and the same thing with him. So we just kind of stick with, you know, the whole co-founder because we are 50 50 partners on all of this.
Speaker 2:All right. One other thing I'm going to bring up real quick. We will kick our guys out downstairs the warehouse. If you want a training facility, it it's yours. You heard that.
Speaker 3:It's on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Will you hire dummies that you can tackle Like football dummies?
Speaker 1:I have all kinds of gear in there. Man, they're training man.
Speaker 3:I hire quite a few dummies.
Speaker 1:Well, we're kind of running up against time here, but we always like to ask our entrepreneurs you know somebody that's young, maybe want thinking to get into your game. You know what would you? What advice would you give a young buck Maybe thinking I want to be the next David Villarreal and get into that?
Speaker 3:get into that world, find a better hero, I mean but you are on the top of the food chain.
Speaker 3:I would say this Don't let anybody tell you you can't. I mean they're going to come against you. Everybody's come against me. People have felt their own ways about my success I really am. If you do really know who I am as a person, I'm one of the most humble people you like. I will go out there and I'll stand a post with my guards. I will stay up at night with my guards. I will tell my guard go home, it's Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3:It's you know my family can tell you how many times I've missed you know things or whatever. Or I won't go home until my guys are going. Right, be humble, bust your ass and don't ever don't like again. Don't ever let anybody tell you can't be bold. Be bold in everything that you do. People. The people who are bold are the people who excel in this world. And today it's too easy to be great. I know you guys probably all heard this, like all over the place, but it is too easy to be great because a lot of the people today do not want to work hard. They want success, but they don't want to work hard. Amen. And that's the reason why you have so many failed businesses. You have so many people who are depressed because they're. Whatever didn't take off. Okay, you can manifest everything you want, right. But what is the actual plan behind that manifestation? I can sit here and talk. I'm manifesting being a millionaire manifest, okay.
Speaker 2:But what do the work, yeah?
Speaker 3:What type of action am I taking, and am I actually taking action towards that goal, right, um, I would say, you know, again, work hard, and if this is something that you want to pursue, it's not easy, especially, um, if you're not from a region where these things happen. So, like I tell guys all the time, you guys will be in the middle of somewhere in Texas and be like how do I get into a business? Well, you're in the wrong city LA, new York, las Vegas, miami, houston. You want to get into entertainment? Those are going to be your big cities If you want to be working, because that's where all the big events are happening that's true atlanta is one of the cities as well, but in particular, like, the military background definitely helps, but it doesn't it.
Speaker 3:I also know guys who have zero military background. But educate yourself. Talk to other guys who are actually doing what you want to do and get the real get a mentor get a mentor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, however you want to look at that, you know, call them however you want, but I'm a firm believer in that. I had a mentor I learned good things and bad things from. Even now that I'm 46 years old and I've been in the business for almost 20 years, I still have people that I talk to. Right, I don't go and ask all my friends for advice. That's bad.
Speaker 3:You take somebody that you know has failed and failed again and is now successful. Because one person you fail multiple times. You guys probably know as business owners, you're going to fail a shitload of times. Oh yeah, it's going to be hard times. Part of it, man. That's part of it. Part of the journey, right? But every single time you get up, right, oh yeah, you have to. And again back to the freedom. I never want to work for anybody.
Speaker 2:That's right, I have the freedom.
Speaker 3:Now I'm a grandfather, I can spend time with my kids. Just the other day, on a Tuesday, I had a barbecue from my family with my mom, my dad, my daughter, my granddaughter, my ex-wife, her husband, my wife like everybody's there in the house, the only one that wasn't there was my son, who was at work. But on a Tuesday, yeah, it's great, because I worked hard to be able to get to where we can do these things how we want and when we want Exactly you know, I love it Put in the work to have the freedom, man.
Speaker 1:That's what entrepreneurship is all about. You're going to work 120 hours, but you're going to have the freedom to decide what you do with your free time.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And that's the beauty of this. I'm super proud of my homie from kindergarten.
Speaker 1:Man yeah same here Because you were top of the food chain in that world and I mean, I've seen you come up from a little kid, you know to, to who you are today, man. So you know. And then we I think we need more of that as a community. Our community needs to kind of support you know, us, us guys out here kind of, you know, grinding it out, man, and I'm super proud to have you as a homie and I appreciate you coming into them and you have a great story and I'm glad you shared it with the world. Man.
Speaker 2:All right, man Well if you guys find them.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. So where do we if we got to look you up and we want to get some security services, or maybe we want to start training with you, or maybe ask you for a job, what's the best place to find you?
Speaker 3:The best place to find us will be on Instagram. That's pretty much the only like social media presence that we really have. We do have a website, but it's just a splash page again, because there's a little bit of there we have. There's a lot of secrecy involved in what we do, right, so it's like you know. You know we don't advertise, so we don't advertise on a Web site. We're not telling who we work with, why you know and what we do exactly right, we're not for everybody. This is not a beginner's place to start. I tell people all the time when I bring them up to you know, work things with me. Like you're the big leagues, I expect you to hit a home run every single time and it's like, yeah, yes, because that's what's expected of us, because they're paying us good money, they're paying us big money.
Speaker 1:I'm paying you good money, hit a home run all right, nice, there's definitely a standard, yeah, so instagram good place to hit them up um libertas.
Speaker 3:Underscore protection. L L-I-B-E-R-T-A-S underscore protection.
Speaker 1:There's the place to kind of reach out if you guys got some questions. This guy's the man man, he's top of the food chain. Thanks for coming in, my man. I appreciate it. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:Good to see you, so if you guys found some value today in our conversation.
Speaker 1:You know the routine like subscribe and follow and we'll see you next time on CB Hustle.