From Homeless at 20 to CEO: Jose Muñoz's Promise That Changed 20,000 Lives

[0:01]  [music] Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart of Podcast with our next guest. Actually, when I spoke to him, I was very in awe of just um some of the things he he shared with me. One of the things was that he was 20, he was homeless, he was a young father, but made a promise that it ends with him, not with his daughter. Jose, do you remember that day?

[0:35]  Oh, man. I remember clear as day.

[0:38]  Yeah. Yeah, man. Take us back there, man. When you think about who you are today and who you were at that moment,

[0:46]  what is that one word that you can just kind of put all that in? Like, and I and I give you an example, right? People always ask me about my life and my life experience. How do I feel? My word was grateful. I feel like without the things that I've encountered in my life, I'm not sitting across from you here, Jose. What is that one word, if you can wrap that up in just one word?

[1:03]  You know, it's a word I use often and that's hope. You know, espansa, you know, the fact that, you know, like I it's just being able to dream and dream big. And while I'm grateful for everything uh and everything that I've had in life and all the experiences and opportunities I've had, I'm also grateful for the the difficulties I've had in life, but what's always kept me moving forward is hope. The hope of a brighter day. And I think it's hope. I, you know, like Kasanort and the work that I do, we we talk about hope all the time. And I always say that hope is a verb. You know, it's a verb. It's something we put into action.

[1:33]  Tell us, tell us the organization. You just mentioned it. What are you doing at the organization nowadays? What does what some of the programs look like? Services. What does that look like for you guys?

[1:41]  Yeah, so Laasa Norte, it's an organization in Chicago that serves youth and families experiencing homelessness. We serve over 20,000 people across the city of Chicago with programs like, you know, we have we operate three shelters, one on the south side of Chicago, two on the north side of Chicago, all serving youth 18 to 24. One of them is a pregnant and parenting program. We also do transitional housing, supportive housing. Um we in our main building of our main building and our main hub, we have a food pantry that we operate with a partner called Nourishing Hope and we have a health clinic that's operated by an organization here in Chicago called Howard Brown. Um, and then, uh, you know, as needs arise, you know, we're always looking and collaborating with other nonprofits and organizations to make sure that the communities that we serve are being served profitably.

[2:26]  You've been nonprofit your whole life. Like, where does that all come from?

[2:30]  Yeah. I mean, I've worked in nonprofit pretty much my entire life, but I've always worked with nonprofits, but I've worked uh I did some time in this uh in government. I I worked for the city of Chicago as a deputy commissioner of public health. It's a period of time whether I was the chief marketing officer in the governor's office for the state of Illinois. I did a very short corporate stint, but the majority of the work that I've done has been in the nonprofit sector and it's always everything I've done has always been done with the intention of making an impact to community.

[2:56]  Um, and all that's really driven by my personal life and my personal story and you know how I grew up.

[3:01]  I was going to ask um you know we all do the work- because there's a why behind it. you you were actually fortunate to even receive some of the resources which is why you have this deep um just passion for what it is that you do. What was the life looking like for you Jose before you're sitting at the table doing what you're doing today? I mean phenomenal right but there's always a story usually behind every successful person your success what does that story look like? Yeah, you know, I I look at at my story. My story really starts predates all of me, you know, and it really starts with my mom and my mom making a decision that she's she was going to come to the US to create a better life for the children that she already have. At that time, she already had eight children. Uh she brought five of them with with her and she was really looking at to create a better life for herself and the children uh that she had. She gets to the US, leaves an office job in Mexico. um was doing okay but not great but you know she left there and comes here and finds out that the US wasn't everything she expected it to be that it wasn't going to be as easy as she thought it was going to be uh facing discrimination issues with immigration uh became difficult for her and all the work that she could really find was factory work and and she had never worked in a factory in her life didn't you know but that's what she started doing when she came to the US and for most of my life that's what she did about a few months after she gets here she uh she meets my father. They get together. He's from a pueblo in Mexico, a small little town in Guanauatoto, Mexico. Very different people. They don't have any The only thing they have in common is me. Uh [laughter] so I I joke that I was a love child of the 70s. They got together, they made me. They weren't together, but they were very but my father was very involved with me and and my mom at an early age. And then, you know, at that time there started being some immigration crackdowns in the US. My dad ended up getting deported. Um, he's gone for a while and that leaves my mom with not only the children that she already had, but me as well now. And she has to figure out how to fend for herselves. My mom worked two jobs most of her life. She went from one shift to the next shift, always factory work, always working very very diff very hard, but that always had a hard time making ends meet. And so because of that, we faced an incredible amount of instability um dealing with everything from evictions uh to uh having to double up and living with other people and friends and family to literal homelessness. I mean, there were periods of time we were sleeping out of our car. Um and and so was it was a tough time and that was pretty much how I grew up. That was my entire life.

[5:35]  Wow.

[5:35]  Um you know, I often share that by the time I was 20, I was on a path where I was either going to end up dead or in jail. It was just it was just not um you know and that's all I saw around me and what really changed when you talked a little bit about this earlier was the minute my daughter was born when you know I became a dad I saw my daughter I looked at her for the very first time and I realized that you know I was like there is no way that I was going to let this little girl live the life that I lived

[6:04]  it was going to change that it was it ends there and I didn't know what I was going to do but I was going to change her life and it meant meaning meant changing my life too And uh I remember writing her a letter telling her that we I was going to change the world for her. And I was talking about her world. I wasn't really talking about the whole world as a whole. But I meant her world and I made that decision. And uh every day since then I've been working towards that dream of creating a better world for her, for me, for the world around us.

[6:31]  So not only have you been working, man, you've been doing it. You've been doing it for years, you know, and and and while you may feel that there's still much more work, I mean, you've already breaking the cycle, right? like you're you're present, you're you're there, you've given up um what the past life looked like and you've created a new life for yourself, new chapters, your story. I love that. But I really want to go back to what are you learning from your mom? I I feel like we we go through life and everything is the lesson for us, right? We can sit here and dwell on the negative or we can take what we have in front of us and say, "How do I do better? How what did I what did I learn from here?" And I can imagine there's a lot of things you're learning from your mom at this point. You were talked about the multiple jobs, the multiple kids today. what when you can kind of look back at that moment, what are you taking from that?

[7:14]  Oh, yeah. I mean, my my mom has taught me some valuable lessons. Uh, and I'll be honest, it was a period of time where I was angry and upset at her at an early age because I just, you know, was unhappy about the way we were living. And I blamed her for a lot. But looking back, as I got older, I started realizing how much love my mom was always willing to give, how hard she worked, that no matter what happened, she never gave up. you know that you keep pushing forward and you keep working, you keep doing the right thing. And it doesn't matter if the world around you doesn't see it or doesn't believe in you, you got to believe in yourself. And it's funny because my mom when I was a kid would always tell me that I was smart. She would always tell me that I was doing really well. I grew up believing that I was a smart kid who, you know, who who got good grades and and as I got older, I remember one day I look back and I pulled my report cards out and I started seeing I was like, man, I was failing. if I was [laughter] taking classes, I was going to there. But to my mom, I was a genius. I was smart. And I grew up with that positive mindset, you know, and uh you know, she always had this idea and you know, I talked about hope. My mom's never given up hope ever, ever, no matter what she's doing. You know, she hasn't been able to achieve everything she's she's done. I think, you know, up until she was 70, she was still trying to go back to school to learn how to use computers and learn how to learn English. She, you know, she met my father in an ESL class and to, you know, as a grown woman, she still doesn't speak English very well, but she never stops trying. She was always trying to learn. And so, so a lot of lessons for my mom and uh and I use those every single day. I also know what it's like to to struggle. You know, I I see my mom struggle and I, you know, I I remember this as I I'm working with families and we're working with folks in community and even our staff. I I I see the struggle of a single mom. um and how hard they work and how important they are in a child's life. Um and and so I I I bring that with me all the time. I I remember that as we're providing support services at Laasanort to remind folks that, you know, there there are a lot of hardworking, strong moms out there that are leaders. Um and we need to be able to support them.

[9:18]  Hey, real quick. Have you enjoying the podcast? We first want to say thank you and we also just want to give you a little insight of what we're up to at Francis. Some they'll even realize that we're working with organizations to help them use AI to create that real human communication experiences where that's actually supporting your your families, those patients or the entire community. We're actually creating tech that connects. Check it out. Francis.ai. I'm going to go back and I'm kind of put it into words that you mentioned. We got to go back to that moment your daughter is born. Um, did she give you hope? Is that is that what you got out of that?

[9:54]  Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I I I looked at her and I was like, I knew the world could be better in a better place. And the thing is, you know, I wish I could tell you that I I made a decision that instantly boom, everything started working perfectly and I made a change in my life and I started moving in a positive direction, but I didn't. You know, um, as hard as I worked in my early 20s trying to make changes in my life, um, not knowing how to do it, I was lost. And in a lot of time, in a lot of ways, I I started repeating the same cycle my mom was in. Not intentionally because I was very intentional about not wanting to do it, but it was happening. My my daughter's mother and I weren't together. We we lived in separate homes. So, my you know, I and while I was with my daughter a lot, she still needed a roof over her head. And there were periods of time where I had to make decisions on whether or not I was going to have a roof over my head or she was going to have a roof over my head. I always picked my daughter. I was made sure that her and her mom had rent paid and that they had, you know, a warm place and what, but sometimes that meant that I didn't have that.

[10:53]  Um, and so in my early 20s, I was working multiple jobs, very similar to my mom, still having a hard time keeping a roof over my head, dealing with instability, dealing with homelessness, and a few times dealing with quite literal homelessness again, sleeping out of my car. Um, and and I was going through that in my early 20s. And but even then I never lost hope because there were periods of time where you know it was a lot easier to go back to the lifestyle that I had before that. It was a lot easier to get in trouble and to stop hanging out with the wrong element. But I I I just kept my daughter in mind and I you know she provided that hope for me. Uh and I knew that I had keep working and that things would get better and and eventually they did. Um, but it wasn't until I had a stable household. And that's why housing to me is still believe that is the number one issue that we need to be focusing on because when you're stuck in that moment, uh, when you're homeless, you have no housing, the only thing you're thinking about is what's in front of you. You're thinking about your next meal. You're thinking about having a roof over [snorts] your head. You get and if you and if you stay for long periods of time that way, you get stuck in what I call survival mode where you're only thinking about the immediate survival. You're not thinking about the future. So we got, you know,

[12:02]  well then I go back to Jose to those grades, right? I I like you wasn't the smartest kid in the room on paper. I probably was the smartest kid in the room like what your mom said, right? On paper, I probably wasn't the smartest and I would get in trouble cuz I like to be a class clown, but it was also a place that I found uh it's kind of the escape from reality was school for me. So I I was always, you know, I had a lot of friends, I was wellknown, but I was always in trouble and barely graduated high school. But I don't think that it wasn't because again I wasn't smart. Just life was happening. You mentioned the lack of eating, the lack of a of a home, the you know the lack of just structure. So when you talk about school and grades, your mom knew you were smart. Do you think you just weren't performing because what life was happening? Cuz I think a lot of our young kids, they show up and no one knows they're homeless. No one knows what's going on at home. And it's not that these kids are and I think that's where the ed to me there was teachers in my life that seen me for who I I was and not for the moment I was going through.

[12:59]  Do you feel that was happening in your life as you were growing up as well?

[13:02]  Um absolutely. I mean for sure. I mean I still

[13:06]  when I look back at my childhood and how I grew up I really believe that there were so many things that were happening there that even even as hard as my mom tried and as much as she worked and even though I I was you know I still believe I was a pretty bright kid. I I just didn't get the grades in there. The systems weren't set up for us to succeed. You know, we were dealing with an an immigration a broken immigration system that, you know, allowed my mom, you know, people to steal her wages that uh that took advantage of her while um a system that was taking advantage of her and put her in a situation where as much as she worked, she just wasn't being able to make ends meet. You know, we were dealing with a a system that uh made it difficult for for young people like me to succeed. uh classrooms that weren't set up that schools that weren't well funded, communities that uh where the price of housing kept going up but the wages kept staying stagnant, you know. So, so we were dealing with a lot of systemic issues that I believe we're still dealing with in many cases across the country that that make it difficult for people uh like me, like you, like us to succeed. And that is that was a reality of what I was dealing with. At the same time, there were people that at different points in time in my life believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself and and you know and and provide and pushed me forward and and supported me in ways that got me to where I'm at today.

[14:28]  I uh amen to that, man. I I agree. That's why I'm here, too. There's people that believed in me. However, I feel like there was enough males and Latino males. That's why I was so super excited to have this conversation with you because you are representation not for just a male but a male of color and um I don't know that we've seen that growing up, right? I I grew up without a father figure completely. At least you had that in your life but even in our school, you know, our schools, we didn't see that. It was hard to have those conversations. It was hard to to know what that looked like because we didn't see it. But in February 2020, you became the CEO of Laasa Norte. Six weeks later, the world shut down. Um, and you went from serving 5,000 people a year to now 18,000. So, the past was the past. We're now in the future. You're leading an organization as a Latino male. Where does your mind set now?

[15:18]  You know, it's still, you know, going back to that day, you know, so I joined Laasanort. 6 weeks later, as you mentioned, the world starts shutting down all over the place. And what that means is that the, you know, places where young people were traditionally go to, schools were shut down, malls were shut down, trains, stations were limited, restaurants, people in this people they were dealing with housing insecurity or homeless had nowhere to go. Places where they usually get their meals or where they would have those positive role models are now gone. And and and I and I saw this crisis just unfolding. Uh that was in there. And we all saw it in there. But all that I kept thinking about were what's gonna happen to these young people and and there was a young man that I talked to because I at that time I was still doing tours of the our different sites to get to know people uh because I was new to the organization and a young man was telling me that one of the biggest things that he was afraid of was that we were going to shut down and he was going to have a bed or a place to sleep. And I made a commitment to him. I was like we're not closing. We're going to keep these doors open. They're not going to shut down. Then later on I made a public commitment to everyone saying it's like we're not closing our doors.

[16:20]  We're going to double down on our mission. And if there was ever a moment for us to be here, this is it. You know, we're going to keep our doors open. And we went through a lot. And then and part of the reason that we we grew so much. So it was in 11 months, we went from serving 5,000 people a year to over 11 thou uh 18,000 uh in those 11 months. And it was because of just the need that was out there. So when uh in the city of Chicago around that time, 112 food pantries shut down in the city of Chicago. We worked with our partners uh Nourishing Hope at the time to expand the hours, days of operations and and the food access that we were providing at our Humble Park location. And then working with other partners and folks in community, we started working with young people because that was the other thing. It was like young there were a lot of young people that now had idle hands and I was like we got to get them busy and started recruiting young people to do food distribution in different neighborhoods throughout the city of Chicago. We were doing pop-up food pantries, showing up for a couple hours, just parked up on a corner and g and distributing food to families that needed it. Started doing work like that. We we when shelters started shy shelters started decreasing the number of beds that they could have because they needed to socially distance. And if you know anything about shelters, most shelters are built with this idea. Let's try to get as many beds as possible in a space to help as many people as possible. Well, during a pandemic, that doesn't fly. you have to be able to create social distancing and and so many shelters started cutting down their number of beds. I was like, there's no way we can operate that way. So, I I jump on a call with the city. We're having conversations about what we can do. That time, the city of Chicago struck a deal with YMCA to um to use their spaces for shelter beds, but they didn't have one set up for youth. And I told the city, I was like, "Look, we need to open." It's like, "Well, we have no staffing." I was like, "Well, I'll move our entire team over." And we did. So we ended up uh doubling the the number of bed capacity that we had because we went to the YMC and started operating there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And we did that with everything everything from um getting information out about the pandemic to uh helping to distribute PPE equipment and later on helping people get vaccinated. You know that's that's how we ended up doing uh all that growth happen happening for us because we saw that there was a need and all that was driven by this whole idea of like I can't sit there and knowing the experiences that I had knowing what it's like to be homeless knowing what it's like to to be alone can't create a situation where we're we're not going to be there for every single person every young person that we we can support and we need to support as many more as possible even if it means expanding our programs and organization. Yeah, man. Sometimes we don't realize when we're going through life that life is preparing us for something bigger and the moment of your life and the pressure and the things you were going up against at one point in your life, you got faced, you know, again really fast, but you understood how to pivot because you lived that experience and now you were helping others live that uh live that experience. That's actually phenomenal, man. Like it ain't easy, right? You get in, I'm pretty sure you're excited like, "Oh my god, I'm a CEO." Bam, pandemic happens. You're like, "This is not what I was prepared for." But you've continued to lead now five years, man. Where are you guys now? 5 years later.

[19:26]  Five years later, we we've we maintained uh all that growth and grew then even a little more. Now we're serving over 24,000 people across the city of Chicago. Um, we've expanded our shelter. We're about to We've already expanded our shelter operations to run 24/7, but we're opening up a new shelter. Uh, what'll be a firstofits-kind larges scale non- congregate shelter for youth because, uh, we learned in the pandemic that, you know, people needed to have their own space. So, one of the interesting things that happened is that, and it was happening all over the country where a lot of cities ended up uh, renting out hotel rooms and using those to house people that were experiencing homelessness. What we learned uh in Chicago and other people across the country learned the same thing is that when you have someone in in a stable place in a home uh even if in a hotel room not only do you are you improve their health outcomes and reduce their uh the likelihood that they're going to spread COVID but their mental health outcomes increase and because they're in a dedicated space it's easier to case manage them and get them into permanent housing. it's easier to provide them support services and once they're in housing they're more successful. And so we knew that that's a model that works and we need to keep it going post pandemic. So that's why we're building a new shelter that's going to be when it's all said and done it'll be 43 units of individual rooms for youth where they can come in and shelter in place. We're building a on the ground floor building a a training center where we're going to be able to support them with workforce and education programming, mental health services, and other health services that going to be provided for the residents.

[20:53]  Yeah. So that that's our big ne our next big project and what we're working on right now.

[20:57]  I love this is becoming for somebody else on what you wish you had is really what you're doing. Um I asked you man what's the difference between leading from passion and also leading from lived history because I think there's also a difference there. Can you kind of explain that?

[21:10]  Yeah. I mean there's a couple things. I mean one is there's the passion that goes into the work and then there's these ideas that I've had growing up and things that I you know like my own personal experience that I like to bring into the work every day. But at the end of the day, that's not enough to run an organization. I mean, you really, you know, there's a lot of great nonprofits out there and leaders that create new things. And nonprofits don't fail because of lack of passion. People come in and want, you know, come in with a lot of heart. They fail because they're not sustainable or able to create the processes to run like an organization and build the supports that they need and motivate people to get to the mission. So, we still have to make sure that we're being good stewards not only of the funding that we're getting as an organization, but that we're also creating programs that are sustainable for the long term. It does us no good to to create a a program that only lasts for a few weeks. And if the need is still out there a few years from now, that it doesn't exist. So, anything that we've done, we've always done it with intention and to make sure that we're we're building the right processes and good good uh what some people might call good business practices that you need to bring into the work that you're doing. Okay. All right. Listen, I had a moment the other day and I want to ask you, how do you deal with this? Right. So, sometimes it's hard being both the survivor survivor and the leader. And so, the other day I was talking to a woman and she was um she worked for woman shelters, right? Um homeless shelters. So, she was just kind of explaining what was going on and how she got into it and 29 years she served and what got her into it. And she was just mentioning how one day she was an investor. She was on her one of her properties um like uh you know apartment complexes and she seen a homeless woman um showering in a fountain and that changed her life forever. And when she tried to help this woman she realized there was a lack of resources and this was almost 30 years ago.

[22:57]  So she gave her life to now create you know woman shelters and and travels the country and now has a network around them. And as she's telling me that man I'm getting emotional because my mom is homeless to this day. um she's an addict and it really hit me and I had to call my mom that adopted me and cuz I know she's experienced and I was like man like because I do this work the work that we do sometimes it just strikes chords it strikes chords and I get emotional so how do you stay honest with both rows man when you're in situations that really hit home but you're still also trying to be that leader

[23:32]  yeah I I wish I could tell you there was a a magic thing that just you know turns it on and off but it it isn't and sometimes is just we we all go through those moments. I mean, there's days, you know, like I share my story and I share the struggles that I've gone, you know, depending on who I'm talking to, I go even deeper about some of the things that I've experienced. And um but there are also moments where I just I don't have the mindset to share. And and I've learned over the years that it's okay that like, you know what, there's sometimes where I'm feeling a little bit more emotional, things are a little heavier, and I got and I got to I got to, you know, live with that and deal with that. And you know, so you know, a lot of times when I'm having conversations with young people or I'm asking them about their story, sometimes they feel like never pressure anybody to share anything that they don't feel like pressuring. And when they do share something that all a sudden becomes heavy, we got we, you know, it's okay. You got to let them know that it's okay. Okay. So, as a leader, I would tell you that it it is 100% okay to have those moments where you feel emotional and you you're and you carry that trauma with you and you know, we we need to address that trauma. We need to work with but it is totally okay to have that that heavy moment where you got to pull back and say, "Hey, you know, right now I got to sit this with a little bit because that's what makes you human." And it and bringing in that humanity into your work is important.

[24:47]  Yeah. Yeah. I didn't expect them, man. I just got on a quick call that morning with someone I did not know and that happened and I you know me I'm always a jokester so I'm like oh my god I don't know if it's my time of the month that I'm just getting so emotional right now she just starts laughing but you know it it it is and there's so many of us out there right there's people that are listening to this Jose I'm going to go through some of those same situations um so that's really what I wanted to call it out because people just think that it's not normal and it is we all go through it just because someone sees us as CEOs as leaders as fathers we still have these things in our minds that we have to battle every single day because the past does it's not just living in the past right like it does live there but it's still also in our minds and that's one of the biggest things man um even when you mentioned your mom like I had to learn as well as you become a father to give her so much grace because as a young child we we we don't understand and now we're fathers and now we're parents and now we're leaders we completely understand you know more than ever so you know giving grace even to my biological mother giving giving grace, understanding that it's not a her thing, right? There's some there's a that mental disease that had really been a taken over her life, but she still has purpose. I still have hope. You mentioned hope earlier. So, for those that are listening, man, life I always like to say life be life.

[26:04]  Today, life may not look as good for you, but that doesn't mean that tomorrow, right, you just have to have hope. That doesn't mean tomorrow won't be a better day. You have to find these resources. Did you grow up in Chicago, by the way, Jose?

[26:17]  I did. Born and raised my entire life in the city of Chicago. Grew up on the south side in a neighborhood we call the back of the yards, which is a very hardworking uh neighborhood in the city.

[26:27]  So, how does that feel, man, that you you're home doing this work, man? A lot of people would say you have to leave your your your your home to be successful, but you've been successful in the same place that you grew up. What does that feel like?

[26:41]  I mean, it it's it feels good because it it's home and I recognize some of the the changes and Mhm.

[26:48]  the neighborhoods that were going in. But it's also feels really good to be able to see so many positive things. You know, again, I try to keep a positive mindset and I'm always thinking about hope and putting hope into action. And when I see people, you know, in our community, people that grew up in the same neighborhoods that I did, um, doing big things and doing great things, it's a big motivator. You know, I see the positive that's in there. Um, and so I I I love being in the city of Chicago. I still tell people it's the greatest city in the world. It is. you have everything you need here. Uh but it doesn't mean that we can't make it better and continue to invest in young people and communities and be able to support them. And it so I love the opport the fact that I have the opportunity and by the grace of God I've been given the opportunity to be here to be able to continue to support community and family.

[27:34]  We we as leaders t um are taught to, you know, pour into others but not taught how to pour into ourselves. How are you pouring into yourself?

[27:43]  Oh man, that's a that's a that's a tough one. How do you pour into yourself? You know, I I think you do have to do it. I mean, you have to make sure that you're, you know, you probably heard this analogy often, right? You know, if you're on an airplane and you know, there's an emergency, they always put on your mask first before you help someone else. And and it's important because you got to be there to be able to support them. Um, and I mentioned earlier about my daughter and growing up and, you know, how there was periods of time where I, you know, was so focused on helping her that I wasn't doing anything for myself. And I realized that the long the long in the long run, not investing in myself, not not making sure that I not only was housed, but that I was educating myself, that I was learning, that was going to make it difficult for me to be a good father for her. Um, and if I really wanted her to succeed, I needed to do well. And I see that even now as leaders we need to make sure that we are um physically, mentally and emotionally fit to be able to lead so that we can take care of the people that are around us. Um so I I do a lot of things. One, I make sure that I balance enough time with family. I love being with my kids and and my wife and you know, so I make sure that I I I carve off enough time to be able to do that. And I have some times that are just uninterrupted and then and it's family time. I also make sure that um I'm always learning uh that I'm always trying to uh continue to get be educated and learn and learn about things that are outside my comfort zone. I'm right now I'm actually working on my MBA. So um it's so I'm working on that I'm going to Kellogg Northwestern University uh to get to get that MBA and it's I'm really proud of the fact that I have given myself time to be able to take time away from that work to be able to do that. Sometimes it means that saying no to other things. So, it means cutting back on family work and to be able to do that. But I know it's important because over the long run, um, I know that it's if I want to make continue to make an impact, I got to keep learning and educating myself.

[29:40]  I love it. You got to learn every single day. So, I ask you because you said every day you're learning. What did you learn yesterday?

[29:45]  What did I learn yesterday? [laughter] Oh, man. You know what? I I it's funny because yesterday it was uh I was watching a football game with my brother and and my and we were both so emotionally charged and invested in that game the week before that. You know, we're Chicago Bears fans. They lost last week. Last week they they beat Philly and I got a family member who's a big Philly fan and we were calling him and joking around and and messing with them just giving him a hard time because they lost in there.

[30:11]  Yeah. And then yesterday he called us. And so yesterday I learned the humility of what it [laughter] ended up having a losing team because he, you know, I was waiting for his call. He never called her, which I'm so glad he did. I was like, you know what? We need to be more humble like him. He could have rubbed it.

[30:26]  Right. Right.

[30:27]  I love it. I love that you you were able to find something. There's always something in everything, even in your losses, even in those failures to um

[30:36]  to learn from. You just have to figure that out. And I think so it's not I'm you know so many times some something happens and we dwell in the moment which is completely fine but you have to then realize what did I learn from there. Um kind of going back to just us and our childhood. I I think I told you did I tell you I was a wrestling fan the last time I spoke to you?

[30:56]  I love WWE.

[30:57]  No I did not know that. No.

[30:58]  Okay. Okay. So I'm a big WWE nerd. Okay. Like I built a whole brand called Know Your Wrestling around this. Um, and really I started it because when I was young, wrestling was my escape from reality. So, as I got older and I got in a relationship, I still picked up wrestling. So, I started, you know, uh, but what was happening is as you get older, you fall asleep, right? When you're laying on the couch, right? Yeah. Falling asleep. I was like, "Wait a minute. I could be building a community, making money while watching wrestling." Because I've seen somebody else do it. So, whatever. I went live out of my garage and two years later this year um so a couple of months ago I get a call to interview the Hardy Boys. Are you familiar with the Hardy Boys?

[31:34]  I do.

[31:35]  Legends, right? So I'm like there's no damn way. Like you know it was a goal of mine.

[31:40]  Yeah.

[31:40]  But I was just putting in the work. I was just showing up. So I I went interview the Hardy Boys. I get a call on Sunday to be there on T be there for Wednesday. I show up Tuesday night. No hotel booked, nothing. I just knew I had to get there, right? I'll figure for the rest when I got there. So I got there, I interview the Hardies and and I've also bought a lot of new equipment that I've never used to do a mobile podcast. So I'm excited, get home, I go and download everything into the computer. Audio never got recorded. So I had separate mics that with a separate like, you know, to create the audio. So luckily I did get some some audio from the camera, but it wasn't the quality of, you know, that I knew. So I was I was beat I beat myself up, man. I I literally felt like a failure. I felt like, oh my god, how could this happen? And mind you, my first time ever doing this. It was a hearty boy. So, but then I almost I woke up the next day with like like a this knot in my chest. I wanted to cancel all my meetings that morning cuz that's just how hurt it was. And I had to, you know, we got sometime talks to ourselves. I said, "Yo, you got to get up." I prayed on and my wife prayed on. It's okay. Whatever. The first conversation I had with was someone that's in the um in the space of adoption, right? And that's just my story. And at that moment, I had to remember that I didn't fail.

[32:56]  Statistically, someone like myself where where half a million kids are in foster care that I was able to interview the Hardies like a young kid, this was a vision. So, did I really fail? Right? There was a story to tell in that moment. Like, people see success, people see failure, but they don't really understand what the lesson was. And the lesson was to keep going. Like, look how much work you put in and look where you're at today. And same for you, Jose. A lot of the times we're so easy to say beat ourselves up. So those that are watching today may be one of those days for you is how do you take the good and see the good in it. It's so easy to always look at the bad. Do you agree Jose?

[33:33]  Yeah, I love that. No, I I 100% agree. I mean I think you know we we learn from our failures and you know we got to grow from them. Some of the largest corporations that you could think of are built on failures. you know this idea in the startup world you got to fail fast you know because you learn from those fails and fail fast fail often going in and you build you keep building and iterating from those failures um and oftentimes I think you're right I mean I think we we beat ourselves up for for making mistakes um and we forget exact like what you brought up it's that we are we we sometime we you know some people may not we people think we shouldn't be here and we are here and we've gotten this far we just got to keep Building off of that, I want to pick up on something you said because I I I do this often. You know, you mentioned this idea of like, uh, I was just going to do it. I'll figure it out when I get there. Um, and in a lot of ways, you know, I I've built my career on that. I, you know, there's so many spaces and places that jobs that I've had, ideas that I've created, programs that we started where I had no clue going in how I was going to do it. You know, I'm doing it for the first time. And I said the same thing. I'll figure it out when I get there. Uh but then the flip side of that is you got to be com if you're going to do that you got to be comfortable with the fact that you're going to make mistakes you're going to fail and it's the idea is to take those mistakes and learn from them. So you shouldn't lose that entrepreneurial spirit. Anybody who's out there listening, you know, you should 100% keep doing things. You're not going to know everything's not going to be perfect. You're not going to know how, you know, this an answer to something before you go into it, but you'll never learn it if you don't get in there. So go ahead, keep doing it. Learn when you get there. And then be okay with get comfortable with failure and build from there.

[35:15]  And be okay with closing the doors and walking away.

[35:17]  Yeah.

[35:18]  More than anything, right? Like

[35:20]  I had to learn that whether I was in a corporate world, whether I was

[35:24]  23 years old when I had a cafe in downtown Orlando,

[35:27]  you know, and I remember having to close the doors feeling like, oh my that was my first like moment where I felt like I really failed, right? However, I was working a daytime job six in the morning to 4 and then going to my cafe from 5:00 to 2 in the morning. And I was doing that for about a year. So did I really fail? Like I I was being successful. What I should have done at the moment is I should have walked away from my corporate job and stayed with the business, right? But there was lessons that I had to learn. But I remember not wanting to close the door and asking my um mentor like should I get an angel investor? Like I don't want to I don't want my friends to seem like I failed, you know? I don't want to feel like a failure. And he's like, there's people twice your age for asking themselves, I wish or could I open up a business and you did it. And that's that's from that moment on I always remembered just take what you take those lessons, right? Take the L, not the losses, the lessons so that you can implement them again. So I had to walk away. I had to walk away from, you know, uh uh sometimes family because then I ended up doing a business with with a brother-in-law. I had had to understand to walk away. um the a-ine industry two years ago. I walked away from I I my wife's a stay home mom and have been for the last five years. We some only income and I walked away from that. The hardest thing ever, Jose. But now I make double of what? Yeah. You know, was it hard? Absolutely. I sat there for a whole year trying to figure out what the hell is next

[36:48]  until literally the last couple dollars, man.

[36:51]  You know, and then and then God really shows up. I it's it's one of those things, man. You got to show up. you hope, right? Like that word hope. Like I love that you continue to mention that throughout this conversation because it is true. A lot of us all we need is just hope. Um Jose, man, where can people find more of you, man? As we start to wrap this up, we could have a conversation that lasts the whole day. Where can people find more of what's happening with your organization? And are you on LinkedIn so people can tag in, you know, tag?

[37:16]  Yeah, for sure. People uh I'm I'm always work we're willing to talk to folks and get connected on LinkedIn. Just reach out to me u through LinkedIn. Jose Munoz uh in Chicago. And then um I also if they want to learn more about Lacasa Norte, best place to go is to go to our website, lacasanorte.org. Uh you can learn about all our different programs, the work that we're doing. Uh uh you can also connect with us on Facebook or Instagram uh as Lacasa Norte.

[37:45]  Love it, man. I ask you a blind question that we ask everyone a little different, but this is getting you out of your comfort zone, per se.

[37:51]  Sure. If you could sit down with the 20-year-old you, homeless and unsure what tomorrow holds, what would you actually uh promise him today?

[38:02]  Oh, 100% promise him that it gets better. You know, to you know, you just got to keep hope alive, keep dreaming, keep dreaming big. Don't give up on those ideas. Keep moving forward. Um, and you're going to face you're going to face struggle, but you're going to overcome that struggle and you're going to learn from it. So, keep, you know, just keep hope alive. Um, and if I could tell myself because I learned it later in life is that again going back to that idea that I mentioned early on, hope hope is a verb. You know, you can have big dreams, but you got to put you got to put work behind them.

[38:33]  And uh, yeah.

[38:34]  Well, Jose, man, it's definitely been a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time and being able to have this conversation with us. And just, you know, may you continue to be blessed in the work that you're doing. Um, five years as a CEO. I can imagine there's so much more on the horizon for you and what you've been able to do with this organization already that that you'll be able to do times 10, you know, in the next 5 years. Um, so we appreciate if you guys are still watching, make sure you guys do like, subscribe, and comment. That's the only way we continue to have these conversations. My name is Ephrain. This has been Jose. We'll catch you guys in the next one. Lers.

[39:03]  Okay.