The multi-million dollar business built by a butler | Ep 18 - Gift-Lux Company

[0:00]  all right guys welcome back to another episode of the heart and hustle podcast on this podcast we talk about the heart and the hustle of what it takes to be able to build a business for yourself and I'm really excited to have my guest Dennis with me today because you and I were connected via a mutual Connection in Sean yes and he reached out to me and said hey man you have to meet this guy because he's doing something so awesome not only from a business perspective but also from a service perspective as well and so I would love for you to kind of take the floor and introduce yourself and let kind of dive into what your background is like tell me about where you grew up and the kind of places where you came from uh so where I grew up originally from Mexico moved here when I was just a baby was raised in Los Angeles South Central 83rd in San Pedro to be exact I went to Mida mon

[0:48]  Elementary School I ended up moving here when I was 12 years old I went to Von too Middle School over off of like pekos and carrye and a lot of people I tell this to a lot of people I was a very first student at Desert Pines High School my dad was very big on uh getting to work early getting to where you need to be early so school starts at 7:00 a.m. he dropped me off at 5:30 wow I was part of the first five first fouryear class so the very first year they opened uh I was right there the very first day and I was waiting for the janitor to come in to open the doors so hey that's something that I'm always going to have on everybody you know so he's showing up early getting the work done ready to work I love that I guess so even in ninth grade you know but uh yeah and then I ended up going to uh unov I studied uh secondary education I wanted

[1:37]  to be a teacher I really liked history of World War II honestly I was just dived into the Hitler and what he did and that whole the US America's greatest Generation kind of you know getting together to do whatever it is they needed to do to beat the Axis power you know but uh I thought that was so interesting so I just kind of dove into unov and I studied that then I realized man his teachers will make a lot of money like respectfully you know and that's that's its own issue it really is you know but after that I I met my current my now wife and um we kind of just moved in together not quickly it took a while we did it but we ended up moving in together and I needed to uh find a job I worked at Pizza had my senior year in high school then I went

[2:25]  to uh the Stardust of all places which is now Resorts World so I was able to work there for like a year and then I met Don Rickles I don't know if you know who Don Rickles is like an old school comedian like 60s 70s you know so he's cool and then um just so much history you know I think of Resorts World and I don't see Resorts World I see the Stardust you know and then um I was lucky enough to get a job at uh the Bellagio so there was when I was really introduced to like service hospitality what is true service so I became a bus person there and I kind of went around from there I went to the Wi and opened The Palazo and I got offered a job at the Arya and I started there as a bus person room service and I got offered a

[3:14]  job for assistant Butler and uh I took it they offered it to me because I worked hard but I didn't know much so I took it and I felt so dumb because I didn't know service like I should have for a butler but it was an assistant Butler so I made it a mission to learn I got on some books I went to the library I rented out a whole bunch I went on Amazon I bought books I took courses on YouTube I did what I needed to do sure enough I became a butler later on then I became a lead Butler and uh yeah I kind of just I grew on from that you know so uh hospitality is very beautiful once you do it correctly you know once you have a synchronized service it's very very beautiful and

[4:01]  it's it's an awe really once you really see how it is you know like uh being service without you being service without saying anything it's just automatically you know looking at what it is that you're using your ink runs out go get another one without you saying anything your glass is halfway let's go get you another glass without you saying anything you know that's just like uh it's really really good service so that's what I really focus on making sure I made an impression you know and I always was a type of person to to stay busy so I always needed to stay busy my mind needed to stay sharp I always needed to do something when I was a lead Butler I gave 120% I'll come home exhausted I'll watch baseball basketball football and I'll go to sleep and that's

[4:48]  really all I did I put all my energy into that you know Co comes around Co comes around and I'm already a elite Butler I'm fur load for 3 months mhm I'm the type of person that needs to do something I need to be active you know so how can I show my services to Las Vegas me how can I somebody that's been a Butler been in Hospitality what can I provide the city of Las Vegas you know so so one thing that we did was gift baskets that was an amenity for a villa so I said oh so I started doing my research and I started calling people and I said hey so this basket who's the distributor hey this who's the distri contributor for that hey how can I get this hey what can I get that the chef at Arya said what are you trying to do and

[5:36]  I said I have this idea I want to create a gift basket company but have it delivered in white gloves and he's like what he's like yeah a gift basket delivery company but everything's delivered in a suit and white gloves as a standard that way I get to show Las Vegas like true Hospitality he's like oh damn Dennis that's great so he con contacted me with all the people that I needed to Ure enough 3 months later I'm in the city of North Las Vegas at the time getting my business license for my company man and ever since then we've just been doing this it's hard yeah I can imagine I mean the one thing that I want to kind of revert back to was you said something very subtly there which was you were going out to the library and you were consuming as much knowledge

[6:24]  as possible to be a better version of your service being able to learn more things to be able to be the best version of you know the assistant Butler or the lead Butler inside the organization where did that that TCT of consuming information to become better um you know I I I guess call me old school really but that's what I would do my brother went to the military when I was like 12 years old and my other brother worked so I was kind of by myself uh when we first moved here when I was 12 years old that first summer I had no friends and I had nobody to go with so what did I do I rode my bike to the north Las Vegas Library yeah and honestly that's where I spend my summer I would go and I'll get books and I'll

[7:10]  take them home and every week I'll go so I guess that was just in me I guess that was just my tactic I would go to the library and I have an $8 fee there now by the way oh wow you know but yeah I guess just old school my wife still takes my kids to the library so yeah we're we're big on the library I think that's amazing because one of the things I know about entrepreneurship in general is nothing against the education system but they never really teach you the skill sets that you need to be a successful entrepreneur and there's so much available resources out here information education on YouTube in the library there are so many books out there and so when I always talk to different people who are in the process of building a business or trying to better themselves they often say I don't have anybody to

[7:57]  learn from right or I'm not in the right environment to learn from the people who I want to learn from but I always think about the access to information that is out there at the library the free resources and you're living proof that you can actually kind of hone those skills by going out and consuming knowledge and building a skill set to be able to Be Your Own Boss and your own entrepreneur I think that's so cool yeah that wasn't the goal at that time the goal is to not feel stupid you know the goal was these Butlers talk about the five first growths of wine you know and the different grapes and you know what's a champagne and you what's a chateau so that's what they're talking about I I didn't know what any of that was you know so I went and I got a book called Wine Just Wine and it's the biggest book you're ever going to see you know so I said oh and I would go to the dining table and I'm already like 24 23 or

[8:46]  something like that and I'm going to the dining table and I'm just reading my book you know because honestly I I need to get better and it a year later I was able to be comfortable with myself with what I knew and I already knew enough and I kind of just kept it going and kept them building and kept them building so yeah man it's there resources are there you just have to really look for it YouTube YouTube was great I would go on YouTube and look at uh different ways to serve like there's a different ways to serve a Chinese dinner as opposed to an American or a western dinner you know there's different ways for Indian people how do you serve them there's different ways to greet you know the Indian people don't like their shake their handshaking they like a bow you know so is just different etiquet all around the world we had to learn all of them wow so the one thing

[9:35]  that I really love about Hospitality in general is everything that you've talked about today is creating that value without having to actually put any type of like interaction on it and like being able to create an environment of support and I would say just service in general I think is so interesting and that was something that I never really experienced the intricacies of hospitality when I didn't live here in Los Vegas but the fact that we are literally one of the most hospitable places where people come to be served and come to have just an amazing experience is something that I didn't really kind of focus on before I moved here and so the fact that you found yourself in that space I think is just so cool but now that you've been able to weaponize it into a business is something completely different than that absolutely that's its own that's its own animal uh like I told you hospitality is

[10:23]  very unique and if you go to like Mario Carbone you know and they have the table sat they the table French serving they come and they bring you the Caesar salad and they do it that's all an art really that's Hospitality at its finest so you have to really like take a look back see it and kind of just enjoy it because it's beautiful really you know as far as weaponizing it that wasn't my goal honestly I was just trying to be a better version of me the whole time you know that was never my goal I'm glad that I was able to use it you know I was glad cuz I think every everybody has a skill set you know you just have to know what it is and really use it and I think people kind of live their lives without knowing what use they have you know but I think everybody can have a skill and

[11:12]  really put it to good use yeah so one thing I want to talk about is the pandemic right so took it the World by storm right before we hopped on today we were talking about Kobe Bryant and kind of my indicator of when things were going to start going bad is when Kobe passed away right yeah but the one thing I think is really interesting is there were two choices that we could make during the pandemic right everything shuts down either people are going to start sitting home and they're going to start wasting their time by just sitting on Netflix they're going to start just like hanging around some people got into bad habits what was your experience like did you recognize an opportunity for yourself to kind of go all in on yourself because the hospitality space in itself had kind of shut down or what was that kind of like realization aha moment that was like I have a real opportunity to start my own business now what was that like uh um so you know

[12:01]  I've always been the type that needs to be busy so I I would run on my treadmill in my garage so I would constantly run three miles just you know 27 minutes every day so I would just try and stay busy and uh I was at home one day and I said let me I can't do this I was just I was honestly I was depressed I was like no I can't I can't be home it was great being with my wife and kids honestly honestly it was really good you know but I'm the type that I just I need to stay active my mind needs to stay active so I said okay what what can I do you know so then I thought about it I'm like oh we did gift baskets you know that was that was cool you know so then like I told you I started putting everything together and I started looking at prices and I started seeing what makes sense for me you know like what can we sell then I

[12:48]  started looking at Realtors and I saw oh Realtors use gift baskets you know so now people are like hey Dennis that's so smart you work with Realtors that was the goal from the very beginning like that was my plan going into this was going into business with Realtors you know and it's worked because the value that we add to Realtors is so high it really is people remember the gift luux basket they remember the realtor because it's an experience like they never had you know they get the basket it's delivered in a sunum white gloves it's something they've never had before and then they call their realtor right and say hey that was the coolest nicest gift we've ever gotten you know what does the realtor do says Hey tennis good job we got another one in two days I said okay

[13:37]  you know and it kind of just kept on steamrolling you know then another realtor so say hey who who was that you I like oh that's that's gifl company they do oh really hey uh what are your prices hey what can we do hey how do you do it you know and they kind of just honestly started steamrolling that way but for us that was the goal from the very beginning it just made sense wow the one thing that I've been paying a lot of attention to and I think we might have talked about this while we were having coffee together when we first met there's a guy out there named Alex rosi who talks about when there's two different versions to be able to grow a company one is by promotion so being out in the streets and marketing and telling people about what you're doing but the more powerful way to grow your business is By Word of Mouth referral and the only way that you can pull that off is by having a value proposition that is so

[14:25]  valuable and or the experience of the delivery of that value proposition position is so good that other people are willing to tell their friends about it and I love how you have kind of focused in on the value that you're creating it's obviously so impressive that you have a multiplicative compounding vehicle inside your business because it's like once somebody experience it somebody else is going to want it as well did you tactfully kind of think about that or was just like naturally that's just kind of how it flowed for you naturally that's kind of how it FLW honestly naturally thankfully right that's kind of how it FLW uh I I wasn't expecting I wasn't wasn't expecting that at the end I was just I was going to do it as a hobby I was going to say oh I could do that and then I could do this and then you know I didn't think it was going to take off like it did you know it was meant to just kind of be a hobby and kind of keep me busy and I watched a lot of sports so

[15:14]  it's going to be a way for me to not watch sports I watched a lot of sports ridiculous I would I'm a walking Sports encyclopedia it's not good it's not good but you know now I said okay like I figured I can still do Aran I feel I can still you know do gift luxs you know and I didn't think it was going to take off like it really did yeah and now I mean it's like a full-time thing you guys are growing the team you guys are doing more and more deliveries month over month which is absolutely amazing um so one of the things I know a lot of people also struggle with is kind of taking that big leap from the security of a job and starting their own Venture as an entrepreneur so let's talk a little bit about the mindset that kind of came along with that big leap for yourself when when you're at home you're running three miles a day you're always somebody

[16:01]  who has to stay busy you got this idea based on your experience in your job of what value you can bring from a gift basket perspective but were there any early kind of moments of fear that you had to overcome in taking the leap to start your own business what was that like oh oh so scary man I think uh most people don't start a business because they're scared you know scared to fail or scared to be seen or scared to promote themselves it's it's hard you know getting a phone and posting a video and then showing it on social media and people are going to judge you criticize you you know that's a reason why people are like I don't want to do that you know but it's hard kind of just saying oh well I think I have a good product and I think I trust myself you know to like really I think I can show value to

[16:49]  the community cuz for me when I also did it I think about and this might get dark you know but we're all going to live and we're all going to die you know so you got to built something you know that's the way you canot really get remembered is building something so I want to get remembered yeah yeah I think we all want to be remembered for something but like you said that sense of hesitancy to like put ourselves in a vulnerable position is incredibly scary 100 so my question is is from a support perspective right I know that you have a big family I know that you've got kids what was the kind of conversations you were having with your partner about wanting to start your own business or they as supportive as you envision them being or did you have to have some tough conversations about like hey it's time for me to bet on myself you know that's um it's a special topic because my wife

[17:40]  is very supportive thankfully you know she she's always had my back and uh I don't think I had her her back I don't think I had her back as much as I should have you know but I can say the same she's always been there been my rock you know so that's amazing I mean and sometimes it come it takes going through experiences where maybe we don't show the support for our partner like we should you know what I mean but the fact that you can sit here today and say hey I have that self-awareness to recognize that I should have been more supportive only means that you're going to be more supportive in the future try to try for sure yeah exactly yeah be more cautious you know I that type of person that I'm not perfect so I always try to see my faults and then get better at it you know we we're all humans so I know that I'm going to make mistakes so how can I

[18:28]  not make it so big and how can I stop it from happening you know but that we're going to make mistakes oh man it might not be my intention and I never have a ill intention you know but yeah mistakes do happen you know but it's all about recovery you know we've made mistakes with deliveries we've made mistake with deliveries you know and it's all about how we recover you know we've delivered uh baskets they might tell us hey drop it off in this office and our reception is is like oh we'll take it and our delivery Ambassador was like okay yeah and I'm like well what are you doing they didn't tell you to do that they told you to deliver it there you know so how are we going to recover from that you know so honestly being owning the situation saying hey you know what I'm sorry that's our fault you know we're

[19:15]  going to give you the next basket for free and we're not even going to charge you for this one and it is what it is you just take that L because you messed up you know so you have to do right always do right there's a lot of people that you know don't have the ability to take that sense of ownership for things that we're in control of especially in business today I think it's very easy for people to kind of point fingers and be like oh well it was their fault or the person at the front desk said they'll take the basket so how do you as a leader of your team kind of reemphasize best practice Andor teach people in those moments where we mess up how they can do better next time like where did you develop that sense of coaching I guess you would say as the leader of your organization well it all starts and ends with me me right so at the end of the day if the company makes a mistake it's my fault it's not anybody

[20:04]  else's fault if the basket got delivered to the wrong person it's it's me you know they're not going to and they don't care at the end of the day the clients aren't going to care and they shouldn't care you know but we have to make it right to make sure that we do right by them you know but it all starts and it ends with me I as much as business owners CEOs you know they have big Egos and they never want to take the blame you know but at the end of the day whose fault is it really that sense of accountability is something that you know I really try and lean into because it takes the power away from every situation when we're willing to kind of put everything on our chest and say hey this that was my fault I'm the leader of this organization the buck stops with me and that's something that I wish more people would start deploying in this world because it's very easy like I said

[20:51]  to cast blame and to give our power away to other people oh it is absolutely yeah yeah it is you know that that that's something that I can't I can't even be mad at my team honestly I can't if something happens I'm going to be mad at myself I can't be mad at my cordinator I can't be mad at anybody it's going to be me that has to be mad at myself you know and it's me that apologizes and says hey it's my fault I own it I'm sorry it won't happen again you know but it's me that does it yeah yeah so one thing that I'm very interested in is kind of the tactics of growing your business so when it's just you how do you start accumulating clients or leads who can be your customers what did that look like for you in the early stages so what that looked like for me is so we open we got

[21:39]  our licenses like November 2020 MH so we got our license November 2020 and our website went up and running and awesome the gifl look.net it's good we're up we're in business and we have no deliveries you know there's a a friend of mine that helped me um he's like hey actually there's a friend in Prim America that is pretty big and uh I think that he would use your services and I said oh okay cool so his office was in town square and it was a complimentary basket obviously so I went over and I said hi you have a gift flx delivery and I was nervous and I didn't know what to say or do you know it's the first delivery ever yeah you know so it ended up being that they loved it and they're like what is this you know they

[22:28]  from the very first basket you know and I was like oh that that's a cool reception I wake up the next day and I have a a email for an order and I'm like oh I got an order yeah you know and I'm like what what so I look at the phone and the name and it was a person that I delivered to yesterday the very first recipient so they went on the website and they placed an order and I'm like oh what you know so that was our very first like like order the very next day you know and then um it kind of just they used us several times after that and then kind of it spread out really quick but then it wasn't big enough to get Realtors so what did we do for realtors you know cuz that was the goal to begin

[23:15]  with so we needed to create baskets that accommodated their clients right so for their baskets they needed something that was going to be like a new home so they needed like a new home basket my mentality was okay let's give them something that they are going to keep you go to Sam's Club you go to Costco there's going to be a basket and it's going to be full of snacks it's going to throw everything else away it's going to be like oh cool and it's going to go in the trash I didn't want that I wanted something that they're going to keep in the house that's going to remember they're going to remember the realtor they're going to remember gift lugs you know the basket that we use are wood based baskets because they're not going to throw it away they're going to put their coffee in it they're going to put their keys in it they're they're going to it's going to be somewhere in their house house they don't throw the basket away so now you have my name gift Lux in your house you know the the home a new

[24:05]  home basket has a cutting board and it has glasses and it has a succulent and a candle so it's going to have something that you're always going to keep in your house so my mentality is let's keep it to where they're always going to keep something there you know so I kind of pitched that to Realtors and they're like oh that that makes sense because whenever they use that cutting board they're going to know that I gave them that cutting board yeah you another realtor you know so they're like oh oh okay and you delivering the soon white gloves you know so then I started looking at Instagram stories and I said okay who has a closing you know and then I reached out to this guy called Alberto the mustache realtor and I said hey you have a closing do you have a gift and he's like no I don't have a gift and I'm like bro I let me get you one it's on me he's like what really he's like yeah

[24:53]  yeah on on me I I got it I got it let me just let me get the address and I'll tell him too yeah and then we took our videographer and he saw the whole delivery and that was the very first time that a realtor really like saw it took a chance on it he promoted it and then with simply Vegas we kind of just took off with simply Vegas brokerage we kind of yeah right after that we got a lot of their uh clients dude I mean there's so much to digest in what you just said because like the intuition to do research and to have that natural knack to say I don't want to just give snacks way like so many people would right but you're saying I want a item that is going to stay in the house that people are going to continue to see every single day absolutely where did this natural sense of being able to pick the right product for the right Market

[25:41]  come from because I that's a skill that maybe you don't recognize but like so many people don't take the the time to think about the value proposition that they're delivering to that Target demographic so like how did you naturally just kind of like come across that was it something you just naturally thought of or like what was that like I naturally came up with it wow it just naturally made sense it just made sense there's going to be their snack basket that's the intention it's a snack basket a new home basket his intention is to make sure that it stays home to me just always made sense and everything if you look at our website besides a snack basket it's for you to keep something in every basket that's the intention of gix yeah I mean even when you pulled up to the house today right you gave me one of the baskets and even like my experience cuz I know what you do but like

[26:28]  experiencing you delivering the basket in hand especially you breaking down the box as well and talking about what's inside the Box what type of stuff is here The Cutting Board all of that kind of stuff is so valuable from a presentation perspective so naturally my mind goes to the place of hospitality and the services of being a butler but you've now rolled those into the business model as well and like that's a huge part of the value proposition you know I have people that reached out for that there's uh people's birthdays mom's birthday especially mom's is hey it's my mom's birthday I need a basket okay what does your mom like she wants a cutting board she wants Don Julio or she want I said oh okay they want the delivery they want the whole breakdown of the basket you know that is that's a big point for

[27:16]  us that is what they're looking for and afterwards the mom's like Oh my gosh that was that was great it's that experience that you create boom boom boom yeah yeah man it's just it's so interesting to me that that you know naturally you have such a knack for being an entrepreneur and being able to create value in all of your interactions and that's something that I feel like a lot of people struggle with especially when they start as a new entrepreneur it's very difficult for them to be able to figure out like what am I going to be able to deliver and I feel like a lot of people cut Corners I was listening to a podcast today by uh Alex shoi and he was talking about the difference between trying to build a sustainable business and trying to build a short-term business is how much effort you put into the the value proposition and so naturally as I'm kind of thinking about that episode today it's like you've hit on all of the key pillars of

[28:04]  presentation the experience the value proposition the Target demographic that you're going after and it makes so much sense of why you guys are having so much success because you've hit on all those key pillars I mean like I'm not sure if it was just like something that you stumbled into but it's like this takes years of work and experience for people to be able to kind of hone down this type of value proposition like I just want to kind of commend you for that because it seems seem like it's happened so naturally for you honestly I wasn't even thinking about it it kind of did just happen you know it just made sense to me it just made sense like the whole basket targeting Realtors it just made sense they said oh Dennis that's smart it just makes sense you know I wasn't I wasn't trying I wasn't trying for it it just I wanted my name on the baskets I want to make sure that the Realtors felt like oh man it's it's value for them they're always they are always going to

[28:52]  see The Cutting Board they are always going to see the succulent there it's going to always be it's it's always going to they're going to referral him hey I have a referral that was cool let's get you another deal yeah you know and that's just kind of the way it goes and let me tell you we're starting phase two okay so phase two is going to be completely different so we I started this in hopes of like getting business with real estate agents and loan officers and to be honest with you we kind of we kind of got that market so we got that market that's not going to go nowhere we have a team that's handling that already every day you know so that's that's done we're going to always focus on it you know but now how can we build and how can we grow what can we do you know and that's what phase two is yeah so now it's going to be the general public so now we're going to focus on

[29:40]  products that the general public can uh really use you know so now it's going to be a true test for us because we're testing ourselves for the all of Las Vegas not just Realtors loan officers and we also have a phase three coming up uh next year but everything in progress yeah so how do you keep the mindset so it's like naturally when people start to become successful right I think we have a natural ability to kind of take our foot off the gas because it's like okay the business is growing we're doing a great job but how do you kind of keep a mentality of patience and being able to make sure you're making real good strategic moves to be able to not only grow the business but make sure that you don't drop on the value proposition that you guys have been able to kind of hang your hat on so far so the value is our

[30:28]  bread and butter you know that's that's our bread and butter so we need to add more value you know how are we going to add more value you know so we we're we're we're a successful company but we're not worldwide M you know so the ceiling's always higher you know so yeah we we have so much to reach we have so much bigger goals to reach you know it's just it's not going to end anytime soon we have a lot it's going to be a worldwide brand yeah so what does the process of scaling look like for you like what type of like decisions what type of like strategic moves are you trying to pull off right now to make sure you're in a good position trial and error okay trial and error a lot of trial and error so uh we want to create an the product that we're creating next

[31:14]  it it takes time and it's just a trial and error basis and also right now we're in the process of uh sampling it so right now we're sampling it as soon as we perfect it we're going to just Market that you know and you're going to see Billboards and you're going to see us in magazines and you might even see us on TV honestly but that is what's going to make us the next phase two is really going to really test us as a company and it's going to test me as well MH so you as the leader of the organization what type of strategic hires are you kind of putting around yourself because you can't do everything no right you've got the vision for the company so like what is the hiring process look like for you what type of team members are you trying to personality okay personality more than anything I need need someone that's uh genuine genuine genuine is number one you have to be genuine you have to care

[32:02]  you have to uh have my vision so if I bring you on the team you have to understand where the company is the potential of the company and uh really like how big can it scale and I think it can scale pretty big once we figure out the whole system you know as far as scaling it as big as I want it's going to be insane but for us it's going to be making sure that the person that fit yeah yeah because at the end of the day you know I hear especially in the spaces that I'm in people often ask the question are you a B2B business or are you a b Toc so business to Consumer business and I always say we're a People to People business absolutely being able to emphasize that is so important and like I love hearing you say that like personality is the thing that I'm looking for in the team members that I

[32:48]  bring on yeah that's the number one it has to make sense it has to be the right person with the right smile with the right uh genuine care it has to be just the right person not anybody can put on a suit and a white glove and just just deliver a basket we're not looking for no no offense Amazon drivers you know we're not looking for that we're not looking for that at all we need uh good interactions all the time MH so what does it look like when you have a team member who's not performing well I was just listening to um a Gary ve conversation before you came over to the house and he was saying one of the biggest things that people have trouble with when they're building and scaling a business is the process of hiring so his emphasis is hire quick but fire faster absolutely and promote even faster than that so when you've got team members who

[33:36]  are really rock stars bring them up in your organization put them in positions to win because they are the people who are going to really push your organization forward so what does it look like for you when you're having to deal with a team member who comes on but they're not performing well what is your kind of mindset and approaching like you're just not a good fit you got to let them go quick you do got to let them go quick you know like I told yeah it's a vision for me uh personality is number one and I said Vision I think it was number three you know but if I bring you on board you got to understand where we are as a company you know and you have to really see the vision of where the company is going to be and trust me you know that we're going to get there yeah so what are what is your approach to having the conversations when you're articulating the vision of what your company's going to be because I know a

[34:22]  lot of people have great ideas and one of the biggest things is being able to communicate those ideas really effectively to the team members so they get byy in so how are you approaching some of those conversations with your team members especially early stage I'm very passionate I'm very passionate when I speak to my team I'm very passionate and I think it shows so when I do speak to them they kind of honestly they just nod and they all get the notebooks and they start writing you know because they kind of know as soon as I walk in I could walk into this room and I'll be thinking about something I'll be like okay guys so what I'm thinking is and they're like oh oh they they just kind of already know you know that's just the type of individual that I am I I I walk and I speak and as I'm speaking you know even my wife she already knows like oh let me start writing notes you know because that's just how I am you know

[35:10]  but I I when I speak the team needs to trust me you know I I don't have any intention I want to take care of my team very well it's not easy and any job is not easy but the goal that we have is not easy you know but they they have to trust me I'm very genuine when uh I want to take care of them and I I do want to take care of them financially and we're going to grow and you know what everybody on my team is going to grow yeah and that's the goal you know we're going to open franchises in every city here in the US you know so hey guess what I have a delivery Ambassador here maybe he wants to go to New York or maybe he wants to go to San Diego maybe wants to go to uh Miami it it could it could vary you know we'll send him out there to open gift luck

[35:57]  you know trust them enough you know and that's it really but they see how big it can scale and trust me they're all on board yeah I mean the one thing I think about is like your problems with scalability are really kind of eliminated because of the value proposition that you guys have you know I love the fact of when you're willing to get into a new organization or into a new market right you're willing to give away your product for free and often entrepreneurs have a really tough time with that because they like I work so hard I need to be paid for these things and one of the best ways that you can deliver value is by giving away your value proposition for free and if it's good enough people are going to talk about it and so is that kind of what your model looks like when you think about expanding into different places like hey let's just do more of what we've already done here and we know that it's got a track record for Success

[36:44]  absolutely absolutely we can go to any City do that I know that we can go to any City you know what it has to make sense from a a city standpoint like Houston that's too big a city you can't do as many deliveries in Houston as you do here because it's a lot of traffic or Atlanta for example cities with really bad traffic you're just not going to get your values worth from a delivery Ambassador one delivery Ambassador can do 20 deliveries here in Atlanta they might do eight Houston they might do seven it really varies you know so it really the city that they go to we go to has to make sense San Diego is not that big yeah you know San Diego is a really good Market why because there's a lot of high-end homes there we take our business there I see us being Seattle same thing you know so it's just the

[37:32]  cities do matter man you're sitting on like a rocket ship in my opinion you know what I mean it's cuz like you guys have such a good value proposition you guys have really boiled down the fundamentals of the business which are amazing are there any type of mentors that you've had in your career that have kind of been able to give you some of the insights by giving you the cheat codes if you will that have helped you kind of avoid some potholes or some you know landmines along this journey of growth you know there there's there's people that I listen to one of them being our first recipient for GIF looks uh Miguel Guzman the wealthy one on Instagram you know um he coached me a lot on it really he did I I got into this entrepreneur Journey you know and I didn't know anything about it I did not know anything I delivered a

[38:20]  basket and I posted it on Instagram and I don't know how to sell myself I don't know how to sell the company I don't know how to be consistent I didn't know how to do it I didn't know so then I just kind of saw his videos and he's like oh you got to do it every day you got to show up every day you got to put the work in every day so I said oh okay I mean the least am my my mentality is the least I could do is make sure that I work every day that's the least I could do I'm not watching sports now that's I was watching a lot you know I said so let me let me put my energy into this you know and uh it's hard honestly being a startup entrepreneur it's hard because I wouldn't get any business in the very beginning you know I I wouldn't uh get any recognition people were already going to who they were going to for

[39:09]  baskets it wasn't until I started giving the baskets away that people are like wait a minute and then people saw the value you know but yeah it was hard it was a whole month there in July I didn't have one delivery you know but it still showed up every single day with that be a piece of golden knowledge that you would give to the audience as an example of these people who are looking to start their own thing and if you could boil it down into a simple piece of I would say information or a tip for them is that you have to show up every single day there's no recipe you know besides hard work MH yeah you have to show up every day like it's not going to build itself you Kobe what would Kobe do he would show up every day multiple times a day and put in the work yeah and look how h

[39:56]  how successful he became you know so there is no recipe besides hard work yeah wow it's absolutely amazing to kind of hear about your journey because when you have a good product Market fit and you deliver value that exceeds everybody else cuz naturally who are your competitors um the closest one I would say is edible arrangement for the time being and I think that that's a really good assessment because that's naturally where my mind goes to but know what the biggest issue I have with those guys did they drop it off in the front they drop it off and run exactly and it's like oh where did this come from and then sometimes the fruit isn't great there's no presentation I don't understand what I'm really getting so they're leaving so many gaps in that delivery process notice I said for the time being yeah yeah I believe it man seriously man it's

[40:45]  crazy because I know that we're going to look back on these times in a couple years and really kind of just like laugh about this stuff you know what I mean because like you have such a powerful business vehicle underneath you and especially as you start to continuously grow your team tactfully and you make sure you're bringing on the right people and you don't lose that sense of value that you're able to articulate so much you guys are going to be in a completely different atmosphere because like I don't know anybody who does the thing that you do no no honestly I'm confident um I met with a real estate agent last week and he said no a loan officer he said hey well if I can go to you know New York he said if I can go to New York and you know uh uh get a real estate agent there and do business with them and flly back and I can you know do potentially business

[41:33]  with million homes you know if I can like find someone like GI flux over there you know what I said I said oh good good luck you know because there is nobody like me and I know that you know nobody has dedicated their time to hospitality and said oh let me go ahead and focus on this no one's going to do that you're going to have Edible Arrangements 1800 flowers that's that's who that really is you're going to have people who go to like TJ Maxx or HomeGoods and kind of build their baskets and you know kudos to them you know but it's it's not on the same scale and I know it's not on the same scale respectfully you know I meet with agents now you know that are successful and I tell them hey I can add value to your business and they say well how can you add value and I say well this is what we

[42:22]  do and then they say okay well when can you start yeah exactly honestly it's not even a hey I'm looking forward to your business it's it's not we don't have those conversations anymore you know and I was like hey I really think that you know you really need us I think you need us right and then they said what you know because it's it's it's how I feel and it's the truth there's a cookie company in town called baked cookies okay have you heard of them I've heard of them yeah okay they haven't opened yet they open up in two months you know they reached out and they wanted their cookies in our basket wow yeah 2 months prior to opening yeah yeah so guess what got cookies on the way we got got cookies on the way right it just makes sense it's a good I met with them awesome people Chad you know great

[43:09]  people it has to make sense we don't go into business with everybody to go into business with anybody it can be Donald Trump it has to make sense for me it has to make sense for him it has to be genuine on their end and it has to be genuine on my end you know so I said oh okay I saw the tried the cookies I said oh those those are really good man I love it it comes in a nice casing I said perfect you know so we discuss pricing we discuss everything I said okay this is something that I feel comfortable with they went as far as saying hey uh for the stickers we can put your name on the cookies yes you know and I said no I don't want that wow because that's your brand touche I mean I guess there's like some things that when you think about brand protection right you don't want

[43:57]  somebody's poor made cookie to be representing your brand that way or what is your mindset behind kind of saying my mindset is he worked for it it's going to be his company you know and all I'm doing is putting his cookies in my basket there's no reason for me to put gift looks on a cookie that I'm only delivering you yeah so he did The Blood The Sweat The Tears gave him the credit yeah all I'm doing is cooperating with him by partnering with him and putting them in my basket that's that's all I'm doing you know at the end of the day he has his business and I have my business you know and we're here to help each other out that's it man I mean there's just so many like golden gems that you continue to drop here the fact that you are doing collaborations right with other value ad customers and partners who can create a better experience for

[44:45]  your end customer is absolutely brilliant I just think that there are so many things that other people could learn from your business tactics when it comes to creating a value proposition because often I think that we think collaboration means more value right but often there are certain levels of collaboration that don't bring value like you talked about with the cookies as an example how do you kind of strategically go through the decision-making process of who would make a good partner for you and who wouldn't they have to be genuine I have to meet with them they're they're their product has to make sense on my basket you know and I have to meet with them I don't do business with anybody that I don't know and I have to make sure that I have a good feel and then I bring a team member along with me you know and

[45:33]  my team memb is always with a notebook always with a notebook and they're always taking notes you know but it has to make sense they have to be genuine it has to add value this is an amazing cookie it really really is and uh I was very happy when they reached out to me and I saw it and I tasted it when I tasted it I said oh home run absolutely now GIF luux customers are going to be getting their cookies moving forward now I'm helping him Market you know and gifx customers get a really good product yeah yeah I mean like you're just taking all the value from all the different customers or all your different partners excuse me and then laying that in front of your customer as well the thing that I keep picking up intuitively is your emphasis on the customer rather than the business you know a lot of people in

[46:22]  today's world love to get publicity around the things that they do right as the organization themselves but you kind of have reverse engineered and you've really focused on the end user experience the customer and the things that they experience in receiving your basket that's always been something that you've done naturally or did that come from your hospitality experience as well I I guess come from my Hospitality experience you know it just it's about them at the end of the day it's not about me you know they're the ones getting the baskets and you know who else is happy my my repeat customers that actually order baskets to recipients and then they see the product that's going there as soon as they saw that we're collaborating with big cookies they said yes because they know that their clients are going to start getting those yeah so now they see that and they're said oh yes that's perfect

[47:10]  so now they're excited about the products that are inside you know so it's a winwin win for me yeah and I love the win-win mentality because at the end of the day true collaboration is all about creating victories for everybody right I heard Gary vaynerchuk as well talk about he's left a lot of money on the table in some of his Partnerships and some of the deals that he's done with other influential business people he's always like I'm willing to take 49 to give somebody else 51 because if we're really hitting home runs like the way that I believe we could then 49% of this is enough for me and it seems like you kind of have that same mentality yeah I do it's it's not about at the end of the day it's not about me you know it's about making sure that the product is good making sure that the um we hit the nil on the head with the delivery making sure that they have a really good

[47:58]  experience because gift luux is an experience MH yeah man that's absolutely amazing I just think that you're uh you've just reversed engineer the process of delivering value through your business in such an efficient manner that I really can't think of any type of obstacles for growth like what are some of the things that you think about or like keep you up at night time as an example that you have to solve in the future for this business to get as big as you want it to um we're not there we're not there yet we're not where we need to be you know it's a really good business and it's a really good product but we're not there yet you know and until we get there I won't be happy you know so I'm going to continue to not be happy until we get there I'm going to always do right by it and always make sure

[48:46]  that I don't cheat it don't cheat the business don't cheat myself you know but I won't be happy until I know that we've reached where I know we can reach so until we get there I'm always going to have the same mentality it's a good successful business but guess what I'm not happy and it can be so much more it can be a lot more and also I'm always looking for challenges I like feeling uncomfortable because uh challenges make me feel uncomfortable everybody stays in the same spot and everybody wakes up goes to work comes home eats dinner watches TV goes to sleep you know that's just kind the routine you know and then I I did that I did that for a long time I was very complacent you know I I realized that I need to feel

[49:36]  uncomfortable to get better right now we're in a good spot and we're comfortable which is why we started phase two phase two is going to just it's going to really really test us you know so I'm excited for it and I'm I'm excited to tell you what phase two is once the camera's off yeah exactly so my thing my question for you is that sense of comfortability right is really dangerous because of exactly what you just kind of identified is we need challenges to keep putting pushing us forward so can you describe to the audience what your place of complacency was and did you have a light bulb turn on that was like Hey I just need to start pushing myself what was that motivation where that come from I I've never done anything for myself really like from a business

[50:25]  perspective and I've never done anything for me my wife has tried to do some things here and there but I I never did anything for me you know so when I really started doing this I said no this has to be all me you know so I said I need to make sure I don't cheat it and I need to make sure I do everything right and I need to make sure I do right by it so I always try to not cheat it you know um what is that feeling of cheating yourself because I've been thinking about this a lot recently I have moments where I will talk to myself in a way of saying it's okay to take time off it's okay to not push it it's okay to not do the work it's okay to not show up every

[51:11]  single day and the older and older I get I realize that those conversations and when I don't keep those small promises to myself they start infiltrating my mindset and when I let those infiltrate my mindset it's like an avalanche right it starts off with a couple pieces of snow that are going down the hill and then they start Gathering other momentum behind them and so what is kind of you know that process of not feeling like you can't be complacent with yourself if that makes sense guilt I feel guilt you know if I cheat something I feel guilt and no no one's going to know or you know if I don't wake up and go to work you know it's okay but I know you know so I try to not do it you know and and I feel cheap I feel like oh man I I I should have done it why didn't I do it

[51:59]  it's like when you don't want to go to the gym you know like a I don't want to go to the gym today you know but then you don't go you know and then you look back and you're like man I just should have gone why I wasted a day I just should have gone you know that's a day that you're not going to get back that you just decide to do nothing you know so I don't like that feeling I don't mind it for me personally like if it's something for me but when it has to do with the business I I cannot do that yeah I I I always have to show up and your business this is something I always like to talk about as well our businesses are reflections of ourselves right if we are lazy our businesses are going to be lazy if we're disorganized our businesses are going to be disorganized and I think really and I'm not trying to attach because I don't the older I get I often kind of work to

[52:47]  create that separation between myself from a value perspective and my business so it's like some days when the business isn't doing well I don't like to tear myself down if that makes sense and so one of the things that I often try to focus on is the value that we create in our own lives is really kind of reflective in our business because it definitely is a reflection of who we are in general absolutely yeah and that's something that's super important to me and I think about that a lot these days absolutely at 100% you know your the your your work ethic shows you your work ethic shows I I wake up at 5:00 a.m. and I go to sleep at 1 A.M am you know and I I don't sleep much you know and I'm always working because we have a mission you know and I tell my wife hey um uh just bear with me you know it's

[53:36]  not always going to be like it's been a couple years actually it's not always going to be like this you know we're going to it's going to I'm going to get time and I'm doing this to get more time you know and I just I I keep on working on it you know so I we went on vacation not too long ago and I think I told you this that she was like hey um are you going to come on vacation with us and I said well what do you mean she's like well because you're just not home and I need to buy the tickets you know to the theme parks and I don't know if like you're going to come with us and if you're busy I don't want to like like you know take you from it and you know I have to catch myself and say oh man yeah of course I'm going to go you know like how can I not go on vacation yeah please yeah get the tickets for us you know but I do have to slow down and kind of real

[54:25]  realiz what it is that you have and kind of enjoy it you know cuz I have a beautiful family I I don't enjoy them as much as I should or as much as I want to right you know but yeah I guess that's the cons of Entrepreneurship right you want money and you want time you know but in order to get to get time you need money you know so it's just yeah until we get to where we need to be and we have infinite time and money then we're going to fully be Jeff Bessel status I guess you know but until then we have to work until we get to our goal yeah there's a a guy I follow on YouTube his name is Ed mlet and a couple years ago 2020 2021 I was living in Hawaii and I stumbled across his content for the first time okay and

[55:12]  I would go to the gym at 5: I'd be there at like 5:30 and I would watch his YouTube videos in the morning and he would always talk about someone has to make the decision to be that guy in your family lineage who is willing to put in the work to put your family ahead and that's something that's always stuck with me and now when I think about my responsibility in my family lineage is like I want to be that guy who's willing to put in the work and is willing to sacrifice to put everybody else who comes behind me who might not know exactly who I am but I put them in a position to live a different life do you kind of feel that responsibility as well I I do I do my brother I'm the youngest I have a sister uh oldest I have uh two older brothers one of them lives in

[55:59]  Mexico the other one lives here and uh yeah they're all looking my parents they're all kind of just looking at what we're doing you know and they tell me I don't know how you do that like I don't know how I don't know how it is that you do everything that you do they see my day and they're like man I honestly my respects to you because it's 3: in the morning and they text me and I'm I'm still doing baskets yeah sometimes you know and they're like bro bro you're still awake it was Terence Crawford versus Errol Spence it was Friday night and it was 3:00 a.m. and he's like hey are you going to have the fight tomorrow at the how they were going to come over yeah and I said yeah bro I am I'm going to have the fight for sure and he's like you're still awake and I sent him a picture of us still finishing the

[56:46]  baskets and he's like man you know uh respects like seriously but that's what it takes to change how it was my dad was a dishwasher at the MGM and uh honestly man it was poor upbringings I didn't have much money um I played baseball and uh my brother had to buy me my supplies you know and I still have it I still have my baseball glove I gave it to my son now which is cool but my parents didn't give me much they didn't have much to give me I'm not mad or anything but they just didn't have much now uh is changed my kids have a lot more than what I had that's the goal right to

[57:32]  always get better hopefully they do the same for their kids you know hopefully they can my thing now is appreciating it if they can appreciate what they have because they have it really good you know but do they know that they have it good probably not probably not you know so I don't want them being brats neither yeah you know so like teaching them values and teaching them you know what to and what not to do so what do I do I started bringing my oldest around my daughter started her senior year today you know so what did I do I just started bringing her around and I started there's an entrepreneur event there's a networking event come on Angie let's go you know so I kind of just take her with me to show her how it is so that she can

[58:20]  kind of see and the whole goal was for her to see how hard I work you know and in that Journey she looked back and says Dad that's so cool yeah and it makes it all worth it you know I mean I remember you telling me that story when we met up for coffee the first time and I thought it was so amazing how you're giving your daughter a glimpse into what it takes to be successful you know my dad always used to drag me around to different places and he would be like hey you need to meet these people and do this kind of stuff so the one thing I want to ask you is what is your emphasis on networking and if you have an emphasis on it why is it so important networking is very important you know honestly you you go to this event and you don't know anybody

[59:07]  honestly you don't know now it's changed a little bit so I went to this event and I remember I went to narp National Hispanic realtors association and um I was looked down on because I was a gift basket company and everybody was like oh I'm a real I'm a big reer yeah exactly so they all have that you know the at it was just that atmosphere and I just felt so uncomfortable and so out of place you know and I I I left like upset a little bit but no one's the situation I didn't say anything to anybody I I'm driving home this my friend now Chris Tores sent me a message on Instagram and said hey bro I saw you

[59:57]  at the NP event and I was like oh that's cool how come he didn't say hi he's like I wasn't sure if it was you or not so we would just message every so often yeah and now now we're we're boys you know now we go golfing together we grab breakfast lunch dinner together now we kind of just hang out you know but if it wasn't for networking that way now we now we have a friendship you know and now I'm close with everybody in his brokerage so it's it's pretty important man now we go to events and people know who GI Lu and now that everything has changed yeah everything has changed if people don't know about us they're like oh what's wrong with you you don't know who gifl is in the real estate and uh loan officer side now now it's just completely changed yeah so that goes

[1:00:45]  back to putting in the work if it was a networking event I was there if I got invited to a magazine or whatever event I I promise you I I was going to be there you know I needed to show face and I was there with my white gloves and I was always smiling you know you have to show face and I feel like that's uh a great example of putting yourself in scary situations because I know when you go into environments where you might not feel comfortable or feel 100% in your skin then it's easy and it's kind of scary to be like oh I got to put myself in this spot and I'm not sure what people are going to think about me but I think some of the biggest opportunities in life come from putting ourselves in those scary places absolutely you never know who you're going to meet you never know who you're GNA run into you just don't know you know honestly so I try to be the same always I always try to be me

[1:01:35]  just just be myself be happy and comfortable with me and it took me a long time to understand that you know I I think that's a lot of people's battle understanding themselves and what they can and can't do and judging worryed about people judging you once I feel comfortable with that bro this guy was the limit really you know I go to events now and I I don't it doesn't matter yeah yeah it completely changed and you're the thing I love about your you know approach to networking is like you're delivering value to others right I mean one of the things I heard recently about the importance of networking was talking about the emphasis of delivering value to as many people as you possibly can right instead of taking from others right so some times people will often a great example I heard a story the other

[1:02:21]  day where this lady was in line at like a Cookie Shop and she was talking to her son and she was like you have to get to know the owner of the Cookie Shop you have to get to know these types of people in life because you never know what they can do for you but somebody who was talking on this podcast said she had the wrong perspective because she needed to be the person who other people needed to know and so when I think about you going to these networking events you're the person that everybody needs to know because you're willing to deliver value to everybody there and in reciprocation you get more business from that does that does that make sense that makes absolute sense so one thing that we do is is we connect the community together really so we're gift flex and we're gift basket theivery company and how do we connect the community together everybody reaches out to us we are

[1:03:07]  connected with everybody you know so everybody needs something from me if I th if I if I show up to an event or people are throwing an event they say hey Dennis can you come to this event and can you bring so and so and can you tell this person and I say oh yeah sure I I could do that no problem and then I call this person said hey there's going to be this event are you able to make it oh if you're telling me yes I'll be there you know what I'm saying I'm like oh thank you I appreciate you thank you so much you know and and they show up so people just I guess it it shows right like you put in the work and you're genuine people look after you MH what are some of your let's kind of break this down for other people if what are some of your networking tips when you go into a room and you don't know anybody

[1:03:55]  how do you introduce yourself to people how do you kind of get to know everybody in that space so you know and I go back to this narra event what I did was I uh I I let my anner butler take over I crack a conversation with him you know I look at a suit or I look at the Hat you know I say oh that's a cool hat where you get it done at what does the logo mean you know enough to just get comfortable with the person you know once the person drops their guard a little bit you know then I we just kind of start conversing and it just grows into a conversation to be honest with you at that point I'm not even trying to pitch GI luck or nothing I'm just trying to have a conversation one so I don't feel awkward you know so hey what's

[1:04:43]  going on that's a cool hat that's dope where you get it done at oh okay question I know I just met you how much did that cost do you have more you know and you kind of just honestly it just flows yeah it just flows and at the end they say oh what do you do oh so I run gift lugs for high gift basket oh really and it just naturally happens yeah I mean that's very powerful it is I've I've gone to uh TJ Maxx with my wife and um my wife likes to shop so I said hey I'm going to just sit outside and I had a bench so I'm sitting outside and there was a homeless guy there you know so I talked to homeless guy for like 45 minutes homeless guy was there when we walked in my wife walked out you know um

[1:05:33]  she saw the both of us just talking you know at the end I gave him a few bucks and then I laughed and she's like do you really just stay there talking to a homeless guy for 45 minutes and I'm like yeah his name's Todd by the way that was his name you know and he's from um Notre Dame uh what's it called an Arbor Michigan is from an arbor you know and he like lost his money here and he's trying to get back home so she's like what you know that's just the kind of conversations I have with people and it just it it shows really like you're in the elevator with you know somebody in the Villas you have to make conversation so you have to like create it and it just kind of comes yeah I mean it's just so powerful because some of the best

[1:06:21]  relationships that I've had in business have always been just open conversations where I get to know somebody for who they are without trying to pitch them right and it's like when you take an interest in genuine interest in somebody else it's interesting to see kind of where that stuff goes to absolutely you know people really try to sell their business or their product and you go somewhere oh this is what I do you and and you can't you can't be like that that's my advice don't don't be like that just be genuine be yourself uh take a step back see what it is see what the conversation is see where it takes you sometimes you don't need to say anything about it you know you don't always need to sell it if you if they ask you then you kind of tell them but don't push it I have friends that are real tur and they're friends and I've

[1:07:08]  never said hey do you want to get a basket I've never told them that because they know what I do and if they want to when they'll reach out I don't need to sell anything it sells itself wow there's just so many golden nuggets that you've laid down here today um I want to say thank you so much for the service that you're bringing to Las Vegas and eventually is going to be worldwide so I can't wait to kind of look back at this episode and be like remember when we sat down you know what I mean and we talked about this kind of stuff um there's been a question that is burning in my mind ever since we left drinking coffee together the first time you showed me a picture of you and Barack Obama correct how did you meet Barack and what was that like Barack is a very cool guy very genuine person person

[1:07:57]  um honestly he's one of the coolest people I've met you know um I met him because I was a lead Butler at Arya and he had business here at the time and uh I I believe Harry Reid had passed away m not too long ago so I I believe he came to speak at his uh ceremony or his uh service and uh that's that's when I met Obama you know and that was my second time with Obama really yeah what got me in tears that was that when he came back um he saw me and he said Dennis you know so yeah I was to me I was like what the presid he remembered you yes yeah he looked at me he's like Dennis and he

[1:08:44]  shook my hand and then I was like no way yeah that was pretty cool but he was a genuine person man honestly a very very cool guy I'm glad that I was able to meet with him yeah I mean it's just like it's naturally kind of easy for me to make the Assumption of of course Barack Obama liked you because like you're one of the most personable people that I've come across here in Las Vegas in a long time to be very transparent with you and it's so easy to kind of talk to you about anything you know me and you sat down for like what was like almost hour and a half two hours the first time didn't feel like it at all we talked about so much stuff life mental health in general and all the challenges that we've gone through you know um wow man you are just like on a rocket ship but it's not because you've developed a new app right or you've created a new way to create an

[1:09:32]  agency or something like all or you're Drop Shipping or doing stuff with technology like you're genuinely delivering a valuable service to the people who you interact with on a daily basis and that's why your business naturally grows in compounds and I just want to say you know thank you so much for coming on the show because I cannot wait to see where this thing takes off for you a man I can't wait let's see let's do this podcast again in a couple couple years and let's see where we're at I'm down with that well I just want to say guys I hope you guys have learned so much from Dennis um a couple things that have been super important to me today are when you focus on the customer first you deliver value that is above and beyond everybody else in the marketplace Edible Arrangement I'm talking to you guys you guys will naturally find yourself in a position to be able to win so Dennis why don't you tell everybody kind of how they can get in contact with you how they can learn more about your business as well why

[1:10:20]  don't you kind of take a couple seconds to point a little bit of shine on you know your Direction in your business so gift looks we're a high-end gift basket delivery company everything is delivered in a suit and white gloves they're always with me as a standard um you can reach us at the gift luux company or the the gif. net for our website GIF luux company and Instagram and Tik Tok so oh thank you man I'm super excited to kind of see where the future goes and thanks for sitting down with me I really appreciate it thank you man absolutely guys it's been another episode of hard and hustle podcast thanks once again for Dennis for tuning in with us and more importantly keep on heart and keep on hustling all right see you guys