Inside the Billion-Dollar Dream

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W four WN Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsement for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN Radio. Its employees are affiliates. Any questions or common should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio. This is Beyond Confidence with your host d W. Park. Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional, and financial goals? Well? Coming up on voparks Beyond Confidence, you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers who have stepped into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and are living the life they want. You will learn how relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.

0:52 Moving your career business forward does not have to happen at the expense of your personal or family life or vice versa. Learn more at wd WW Dots Divpork dot com and you can connect with dvants contact Dants divpark dot com. This is beyond confidence and now here's your host div Park. Good morning listeners, It's Tuesday morning, and I'm so thrilled to be here with you, and you'll know that. So one of the things, one of the stories that I want to share with you is that one of my readers from Expert to Influencer had reached out to me and she is writing a blog and she invited me to be her guest, and she was hesitant if I would even participate.

1:37 I'm like, why not? Just because I'm an author doesn't mean I'm any different. I've you know, I brush my teeth just like any other person. So it's just so beautiful connecting with y'all. And what I want to share is that do reach out to us, because quite a few or you reach out to us, and that's what helps us shape our programs like who to bring, who not to bring. And similarly, if you have bought my book, reach out. I love to connect with my readers and get your thoughts and feedback because as I continue writing my books, I can serve you. Because the whole idea is to serve and impact your lives. So thank you if you've purchased a books for those If you have not, I invite you to buy our books because I can tell you that they will change your lives.

2:32 And also we help entrepreneurs from kyba dot org. So keep the kindness going and let's bring in our guests. Welcome. Butch Hi Devia, how are you doing good? How are you so good to have you? Yeah, I'm really glad and honored to be here. Thank you. Oh, absolutely, you have such an impressive journey. So we usually start out the moment in your youth or childhood that left the postive mark on you. Do you recollony? Well, I guess my experiences with my with my parents were really important. I think that's that's the key to my values and my being who I am. And they really gave me the push and the drive and the ambition.

3:23 They always encouraged me to keep going and to reach for the stars, as they say, and that drove me all through my voyage and my journey in the United States and other countries. Mmmm. Yeah, It's it's amazing how much parents have that role that they play, because you know, the child is looking up to their parents and. Just so phenomenal. So tell me, like, you know, how did you decide to come to the US. Well, I first came over in nineteen seventy seven, time ago, and I first came as a student, and I literally fell in love with the country. I really did. I was coming from Manila, and that's part of the story in the book. And I was coming from a very cloistered lifestyle as a Catholic student. And I was a student in Catholic school for about sixteen years. And I say it was like, you know, jumping from a convent to Hollywood, and it was just like a breath of fresh air. So I was amazed by the people, by Americans in general, and by the country.

4:44 It is a beautiful country, definitely got to. Say that really is. And North Carolina is great too. Oh yeah, I. Mean I'll tell you, like, you know, having lived between you or California and North Carolina, I do. I am Harshalton. The other two states are not beautiful. Right, I've been in Durham, North Carolina. Beautiful. So when you came here, I know your life has been impacted by Ronald Lewis. So tell a little bit about that. And tell us about your journey as to when you came in as a student in how your life progressed.

5:30 Well. I finished at the University of Florida. I got a scholarship there and I was also a graduate assistant. I taught public relations and I was the first honors graduate of their master's program, So that kind of gave me a push, and I moved from Gainesville, Florida, to for Chicago, then San Francisco, but my target was always New York because my field as public relations, and New York is where it was at back then. So even though sort of up on the break of bankruptcy and it was pretty dirty and dangerous at the time, but it was still the center for media and public relations, and I wound up getting my big break there. When I first met Reginald Lewis, I was moving from PR firm to PR firm, and I got a phone call one day from somebody I'd never heard of, I did never meet, And it's this woman who spoke to me on the phone and said, I got your name from a Wallseat Journal reporter and my husband has a PR problem.

6:34 You have to talk to him and don't worry because someday he's going to be a big account of yours. I half believed there. I didn't, you know, I just got this call out of the blue. But I wound up calling him back and that was that turned out to be Lloyda Lewis, the wife of Reginald Lewis. At the time, he was still unknown, but today in the African American community in particular, he's a folk he because if that phone call started a journey that I still look back on with some amazement, and I think that's important for people to know that. I think most people are going to get a chance, or maybe several chances, and you just have to be ready for them. You have to be ready for that break. And this is something I tell my son works out in Hollywood, but I mean, you have to be prepared and ready so when your break comes, you can jump at it and you can be ready for it.

7:32 That's such a powerful lesson that so because so many times what happens is people say, oh, you know, I'm not getting the opportunity. But having that mindset that you're. Ready mentally, and that mindset is so important. So tell me, that's a very important lesson that you're sharing. How can people prepare themselves? Well, I think the important thing is I think education is really important. There is no going around it. So I think that school matters, getting a good education, working hard matters. I've worked with five CEOs and they've taught me different lessons. Persistence is one, working hard is another.

8:16 I've been with CEOs where we had meetings at two in the morning and then have to show up for work again at nine and the next day. But really working hard is important, and I think I think a faith in God. I think that one of the CEOs taught me that that that was important, especially for the downtimes, because we all have them, and you can't be negative about life. And then you've got to be able to reach into something in yourself that you believe in, and so having some faith in God is going to get you through the tough times. These are all great lessons and my apologies, I think so mispronounced Reginald's name, and so tell us a little bit about the gentleman and your journey with him.

9:04 Well, I first met him back then. His problem was that he had just sold a company called McCall pattern company, made a lot of money and a new York Times story had come out, which sort of he felt demean him. It talked about the new owners, and it disparaged a little bit of the work he had done over the last five years. I believe with McCall pattern, in which he transformed the company. He bought it and transformed it, made it profitable. It was a home pattern sewing company in Kansas, and he was His phone call to me through his wife was because he wanted I was a pr person, and I came up with a strategy that you know. He had called the New York Times reporter who wrote the original story, at six am in the morning and yelled at him. He found his number in the phone phone book, which is something you could do back then. Everybody was listed in the telephone directory, no matter who you were, and so he found his number, he yelled at him, and now he was trying to figure out what to do. And I happened to know the New York Times reporter, so I told him, don't worry, Rich, I'll work it out. So we get a meeting with him and potentially a second story, and I got to know as much as I could about his what he did when the call pattern, I called the reporter. I calmed him down, and I arranged for a second meeting, and then I arranged to meet Ridge and the lobby of the New York Times. And that was the only time I realized he was black. I had talked to

10:35 him on the phone several times, and I'd never met him until he walked in through those revolving doors at the New York Times. And that's the only time I realized he was African American, which is great. I mean, there weren't too many black businessmen back then in nineteen eighty seven. And we went up and we talked to the reporter. I managed to do a pretty good job. Fourties later, we came out with a great story which made him a minor celebrity on Wall Street and brought him to the attention of somebody in Los Angeles, a guy by the name of Michael Milken, who was the godfather of all these big leveraged buyouts that people were doing back in the eighties and nineties.

11:21 Wow, So what a journey. And what you said is that to me, You know, I come from. Biochemistry, and the way our molecules work, the way our systems work, we all are more similar. Than different. We have so much more in commonalities that I mean, of course, and having a difference is what makes the humanity so beautiful. I mean, of course there are dark side to it, but. Think about it, you know. Actually it was a wonderful question. One of our kids had asked, like, hmmm, why are people different? And I took him to the garden, like you know, took the kids to the garden and I said, like, look at so at that time, I was into gardening and we had a lot of different colored flowers and they said, I said, does any.

12:17 Flower look different than the others? They said yeah, I said, but is any flower better or more beautiful than others? They're like, oh, they're different, but beautiful in their own way. So that's how I see people. And to me, it's just fascinating. Our differences bring us more closer together than that. So I agree, yeah, I think where our journeys are different, yes, we may look different, but in their essence, people are the same all over. I've traveled all over the world and people have the same thing. They won't They're just like us. They want their kids to succeed, they get them a good education, they want to move into a decent place to live, take care of their parents. I mean, we have similar dreams and hopes and it's just a summer.

13:10 Are doing better or the luckier than others? And I think people who live and work in the United States were born there are the luckiest people in the world. Oh. Absolutely. So you mentioned that you never worked with five CEOs, So tell us a little bit more about that portion of your life. Well, the first CEO I worked with was Reginald Lewis because soon after I met, two months after I met, and he wound up borrowing. He made a one billion dollar bid and that's one billion with a B for a company called Beatrice International to sixty four companies in thirty one countries. And what he did was the it was big and he took it over. Its headquarters were in Paris. Our other headquarters was in New York. So within a space a few few months we were we moved into the top building in Manhattan overlooking Central Park.

14:05 And then the I would spent most of my time in Europe. We got our own private plane. I flew on the Conquered a bunch of times from New York to Paris. So that what he taught me was was the value of persistence. He had this slogan that he repeated in many of the speeches that he gave when he became more famous, and that was to keep going no matter what. And it was his life story was like that that he kept getting knocked down. He bought a mansion in the Hampton's after I met him, and the wound up it was, it was burned down in the middle of the night. And then he we tried to take that company public beat TLC Beaters International, and we failed. We failed, but he never let it stop him because he kept going. And I think I think he had a lot to prove to himself and around him that I think he felt that people of color are just as good as everybody else, and so that was important to him to succeed. So he kept going no matter what. So that's one lesson I learned from him.

15:13 From his widow, who took over Lloyd to Lewis after he died at fifty from brain cancer, I learned the to have faith and faith in God. That's where what I learned from her, because she feels she's a very different leader from her husband, very nurturing. Her husband was sort of a screamer and very demanding, like a quarterback on a football team. And she was more of a nurturer. And she every time I went to her office, I felt good about myself, better about my life. So she was different faith in God. Then the current CEO I worked with is a guy by nath manny Panginina and he's out in Asia and he's he's he worked. He's a workaholic. I mean he works seven days a week, works all hours of the day and night. And so I I guess I learned from him the value which had always seen it before, at value of fart work there were, you know. And then I worked with a CEO of a financial startup in New York who quit Goldman Sachs, George Butcher started his own company. So I learned that, you know, I mean, you can, you can leave everything behind you. He was a managing director at Goldman Sachs, but he left all behind to follow his his vision and start this company in municipal bonds. The last CEO I worked with was was was religious brother in law Jeene Fyoga, who took over in between Louda and him as CEO, and he from him, I learned the joy of being in business, being in charge, because

16:44 he brought a joy to it which had been missing in our lives before. And that's amazing that you have worked with the different personalities, different people, but at the same time you can have a bus who can be a tyrants. I'm not saying any one of these were, But have you worked with anybody who was like that? Oh? Yeah, a bunch, especially in New York. I mean several of the people there, I mean se of my boss is there in the PR firms. I mean there's one in particular, and I name him. Name him in the book I Tell the Stories, Curtis Hokster, And he was ran a small PR agency. It's one of my first jobs in New York City. And you know he was he was He was tough. I mean he was yelling all the time. And he he wouldn't pay for our drinking water. He told us to get water from the from the faucet. She can drink it in New York.

17:39 And so he wasn't getting any Secretaries were complaining about it, and every day like a battle. Every day was like a battle with him. But he he taught me to write and write quickly, right precisely because he was against such a yeller, and every time I came in the morning, he was yelling at somebody, and I was lucky if it wasn't me. M So, a lot of. A lot of my clients and a lot of our audience do face that because what happens is so many times people leave their jobs. And I think so the stats are like almost seventy to eighty percent of people leave their jobs because of a toxic boss or a tyrant boss. And sometimes the odds are not in their favor that they can just leave. Sometimes the market can be tough, like just now, the market is tough. You know, it's not that easy to find a job. So what advice would you give to our audience, Like, you know, how could So they're two scenarios. One, if the odds are not in the favor, like they're not able to move out, what could they do?

18:47 Let's look at that scenario first. Sure, first of all, I listened to your podcast on toxic bosses. By the way, I thought that was one of my favorites. But the okay, I think if you're stuck in that situation, and I've I have been stuck in that situation. I mean you have to learn to live with it and to adjust. I mean, there are ways to deal with a toxic boss, but it's going to take a lot out of you. Because if you keep getting told every morning that you're allows you so and so, you're getting cursed out every day, it takes a toll on your self confidence. And I think it's really important to hold on to that. That you your self respect, your self confidence, you can't lose that. And so you if you have resources, you can draw on a loving wife, a family, you're co workers, I mean, you're all fellow sufferers under this toxic boss, and so you can really band together. And that's the way you build friendships. It's like being in a war together. Really, when you're with you've got that kind of a boss, you build a cameradity I've found. So you have to stick it out and keep your eyes open. But the paycheck is important. I know for people you know you can't afford to quit, but if you can try and save some money and keep your eyes open and then one day you just announce it on LinkedIn or something that you're free, that you're open to possibilities, and that

20:17 you're open to change and you're open for new jobs, and that might be the second best day of your life is when you decide you're ready to quit, and the best day will be when you quite another job. Yeah, it's it's a tough situation. And one thing. Two things that definitely stood out for me, like you said that, you know, make building alliances because others are going through that, and then that support can be very very important. And then having that confidence that it's it's the boss, it's not true because here and you know, there can be different situations. So for example, it can be like, you know, one of my clients had this like, oh, I gotta leave, and then when we took a look at what was going on, just kind of looking at objective perspective, we found out that actually it.

21:15 Was not the boss, it was her. So it's important to kind of evaluate the situation. Also, is the boss the same with everyone or is it just that they're with you, because sometimes we are not able to see things when we are very close to it, so very very important to do that as well. And then of course if your boss is like that, So two things, right, maintaining your confidence and building those alliances. Now outside of building alliances, like when you have a toxic boss, what can you share with people? Because to me, relationships are so important. Tell us a little bit about building relationships and having those alliances.

21:58 Well, give you I think the most important thing in the world world is to have someone to talk to, because you need to be able to pour out your troubles at the end of the day and and and just unload. And but that person or persons they're also giving I mean, you're giving your burden kind of to them, you know what I mean when you start telling them about work and they're telling them about your troubles. I got yelled that day. I want to quit. But you need somebody to talk to. I mean, it could be a your rabbi, your your girlfriend, your dog. I mean, but you have you need someone to bond with and to be with your co workers. And if you have that, if you can pour out your troubles. It's access a uh as a safety valve for your frustrations at work.

22:50 So that's really important because then you can refresh yourself. Then the next morning you're you're a little stronger because you've been able to talk about your problems and you've got to find that person or group of persons. You can join a club. I think that's important. Join a religious group. I mean being part of something that's bigger than you. I think that's that's also important. Maybe some service oriented work after your job. So there are a number of ways, but yeah, I mean the key thing is being able to talk to somebody about your problems. And I think that'll get you through the day, They'll get you through the week, and eventually they'll get you through that difficult job.

23:34 M hm. And you mentioned like kind of going back to the story that time when you kind of came over here, so it is different culture and you, as you mentioned, you know in those early days of going through the public relations and initial public offerings, So what were your desires back then, and what choices did you make that if you were to look back upon, you would see it. You know, I would not have made that choice. Well, the biggest I have a lot of regrets, I mean, like anybody, but perhaps my biggest regret is maybe I should have paid more attention to to my then wife.

24:18 I think that which I think that was important. She'd been great for me, but now we're friends. But I was very focused on my career, very focused on my job. I was like that way since I was in high school. I got married late because I wanted to be self sufficient, I have a career before I I wound up with somebody permanent and proposed, and for a while it was a great marriage and it worked out really great. But I do think that, you know, after all that, the I probably should have spent more time with her. I was just so focused on work and traveling all around. But I also think that, you know, DIVI, I still believe in I still believe in in in that, and I think it's so important to everyone to have somebody that you care for or that who cares for you.

25:10 And it can be a dog, it can be anybody, but I think you need that keep going. And I've felt the loss of it one big regret, but I have others I talk. To, So what I'm hearing is that it's important to kind of like not be just focused on work, like definitely you know hard work is important, but also bringing your personal life and family and then focus on that relationship. So we are coming back to the relationships that looking around and building that capacity because as you mentioned earlier, be ready for that opportunity said the same token, be ready for not to let go of the opportunity.

25:59 That you have in hand, right. And I also think that at the end of my book, I do say ordinary people, after working with all these CEOs and and and all that I feel that ordinary people who have a regular job and make a decent living and a decent wage and can go home at the end of the day, kick their feet up, have a beer and watch a baseball game or something, I think they're far happier than the people sometimes that I've met in the in the corporate world who have who might seem to have everything, but I found that there they can be very isolated, isolated people. And you know, so I do.

26:44 One ceo his happiest time of the day was when he went home and he turned up the air conditioned real high and they pulled the blanket over him, and for him, that was the best part of a day. You can have all the money in the world, but I'm treat places with you. Yeah, And you talked about like, you know, even having a dog, like you know, pets are so wonderful. They love you unconditionally. And as a matter fact, to one of my clients, she said that, like, you know, after a long day, she's in the c suite and she said, I love my kids, but Divia, like you know, at night, like when I'm so exhausted, I.

27:32 Just love to snug out to my dog on the couch, zen out. And watch some TV. So yeah, it's it's yeah, life is what we kind of make of it. And coming back to the professional site, especially with you, like you know, being in PR, you have clients, right and as you mentioned, you had very high powered clients. How would you say you approach them? Like, you know, there are sometimes things that we have to tell our clients that we don't want to tell them, and that's there are things they don't. Want to hear. How did you approach those situations? You know, that's a great point to view because I think it's a very important thing to know. And that's one thing that some of my PR bosses taught me is that you at the end of the day, you have to be able to tell your client the truth.

28:24 And as one of them said to me, don't commit suicide. I mean, don't tell them. Don't tell them when they're in a bad mood or in the worst part of their day. Or something and just come out and blurt it. But pick your moments, and at the end of the day, you've got to be able to give people your best advice. And maybe you're wrong, but I think you'll feel better about yourself and most of the time you're going to be right. So I think that was something I have. That's something I've tried to keep. But it's not always easy because if somebody's always yelling at you or cursing, and you know, and they don't like being told no, and I know a bunch of CEOs and leaders who were like that. The tendency in the corporate office is to be a yes man or yes woman and to agree because it's just an easier life for you. And I know people have gotten fired for doing that, so you're sort of taking a risk. But I think it's important.

29:24 That's what I was taught and what I learned in the PR businesses, that you've got to be able to tell your client the truth because otherwise you're useless to them. That's such a powerful point. And also it's so important for your own self validation and for your own personal core values because it's important to maintain that respect for yourself because you know as inn pr like as a because as I'm a coach, you know, for we're out there that we can support our clients, we can make them. Like in my line of work, it's more about transformation, and your line of work is like how can you show them in the best of light.

30:09 So it's important to tell them the truth. And you mentioned that. It's very difficult and it's important to have those difficult conversations. So in your experience, what were like, you know, a couple of things that you implemented that made those difficult conversations go a little bit smoother. Well, I think having a track record of success successes gives you the credibility where you can stand up in a room and speak the truth. When you've proven to the company or to your boss or to your colleagues that you're you're good at your job, you've done it well in the past. That gives you a certain amount of space where you can be honest with them because then they're prepared to take it. But if you come out of the blue, you don't have a tracker, Kurt, you start telling them all sorts of things then that they're not going to listen. To you as much. You'll get one one chance and then you're out. So building that credibility is important first. Once you have that, then then you can then you've earned your spot at the table and you can speak your mind as much I mean as much as you as much as you can, or as much as you feel that you need to.

31:27 You're absolutely right, and it's you have to. And it may be tough, like especially if you're starting out, you may be thinking like, oh, if I'm not pleasing my client, you know, then how can. I build that reputation? But one thing that I've learned and even in my profession, that people will not like it in the moment when you tell them. And there are ways like where you can prep your client or prep anybody that you're talking with that listen, you know, it's important that we have a conversation. Like when you set the expectations, usually people are ready, so the reaction is not that knee jerk. But at the same time, even if they're ready, the reaction can still be knee jerk, but they start having respect for you that you looked out for them. So definitely, I really love that point. Now going back to the time when you were involved in the IPO. Tell Us tell our audience a little bit more about the leveraged buyouts, like what are they and how they kind of went down during the time of two thousand and eight recession and they're making their way back.

32:42 Well, back then, you could borrow a lot of money and take over companies, I mean huge corporations like at the time RGR and Ebisco, TWA Airlines, you name it. Beatri's Foods once used to be a multi billion dollar business, but they were getting taken over by people who had nobody ever heard of because they were able to borrow a great deal of money as long as they had a plan and they had the guts, the courage to execute on it and had done smaller deals in the past, and they moved up to bigger deals and then the money became unimaginable. They were borrowing billions of dollars to buy bigger and bigger corporations. And what they did was they would take over a company, then they would use the assets of that company to pay down the debt.

33:32 They would sell off the assets and sell off the companies that they had bought to pay down their debt, and they'd be left to the core of the company that they had bought and that would give them the income to do very well, so. Basically getting out the company. Yeah, well yeah, because they were going after these big conglomerates at the time in the eighties and nineties, companies were just buying businesses right and left, and they were often related to each other. Preachers Foods started off as a food company I think in Nebraska, but by the time it got taken over and leverage buyout, they had Samsonite luggage, they had orbal red and Backer popcorn, they had Tropicana orange juice, and then they had these sixty four companies around the rest of the world outside of the United States. So they were in completely unrelated businesses and the it didn't take a genius to look at and say, you know what, these companies might be more valuable as a standalone business and putting them all together.

34:36 So that's that's really what happened. And a lot of these companies were not doing as well as they should have, so everybody kept talking about shareholder value. Shareholder value, so that's what we kept hearing. And are they making a comeback again? Now? I think they are. I keep I think because people read about it, they look back to those days, and my book might to kindle interest in it. They went through a period when they were not popular, but frankly, I think you can make a lot of money. I don't want to recommend this as of course, but they are these high yield, high yield bonds. These these companies that are not that well known, that have a risk of default, but you can buy their bonds at a discount and sell them later on down the line for a large gain, and that was a whole value. I know several of my friends from those days who really invested in these so called high yield bonds because they're they're higher risk, but the reward is potentially quite big.

35:46 And if you look at these companies, they're not bad. I mean, they're not as well known as the companies that you see every day or you know, they're not Apple or Facebook or something, but they're they're doing well in their core business, whether it's furniture making furniture North Carolina, whether it's it's uh, you know, selling hamburgers, and it's not it's not with Donald's or Wendy's. But they're doing a good job. And you know, there's flood Rockers, which is bought by somebody I had met. So I think this might be making a comeback. But you know, it takes a lot of courage to. Do it absolutely. And so as your Johnny has moved through it, what are you doing currently and what's next for you?

36:33 Well, I'm going to be selling this book. I'm going to be through out promoting it over the next six months or so to a year. But I know I did transform. I did make up. At the last chapter of my book. It's called the Loss and Redemption, and because at the end, you know, my wife left and the so I lost that, but I stry to hear that, Yeah, it was a long marriage and great wild but I'm okay now and moved on. But the redemption part was important because my boss, my CEO back then, threw me a lifeline and he made me head of the company Foundation.

37:14 And what it did is at first I thought it was a chore, you know, it was a pain in the neck. But I realized I could make it about helping people. I knew security guards, drivers, waiters, and I instituted a micro finance program for them because I realized that many of them are always in debt. And then I was at the helm of this foundation when a huge storm killed ten thousand people in a place in the central Philippines, and my foundation achieved a bigger profile. It became a national foundation. And that's a lot of people.

37:54 It's a lot of people. And I saw I went, I flew in there four days after the typhoon, and there were dead bodies all over, covered over galvanized sheets. I mean, it's one of the sites I'll never forget. So I've been through several of those tragedies. But the fulfillment I get at the end of the day by helping people, that's something that you cannot buy, and that to be paid for this kind of work. I told a friend the other day, I pay somebody to be able to do this kind of work where I can help people and and and change their lives for the better. Organization is startups. We take equity and startups we invest in them. And so they're very unrelated fields, very unrelated teams disasters on one hand and then startups on the other.

38:46 But I enjoy doing both. Yeah, no, congratulations. It's a good way to. Have that career where you're impacting and There's nothing more powerful than that, the joy and the fulfillment that brings. Because you're part of somebody's life. You're helping somebody achieve their dreams, You're helping them through their difficult, challenging times. So how can people connect with you? Where can they find your book? And what's the title? If you want to share your. Book, I'll thanks for giving me this moment. It's called from Manila to Wall Street and it has a subtype subtitle an Immigrants Journey with America's first Black Tycoon. So there's two stories. One is my story, but the biggest story is Reginald Lewis. So it was like the Great gats to me, and I'm Nick Carraway telling his story.

39:45 So it's available on Amazon and hope to get the book out there starting in May. Should be out there soon. It's out on Kindle now and it'll be available for pre orders very soon. So I'm I'm going to start pushing on it. I'll be going around the country. I'll be visiting North Carolina. I hope in Durham in particular, because there's a group there called Black Wall Street hooked up with a few years ago. They invited and paid for me to speak there, so I hope to visit them again and I enjoyed my time in the state. Yeah. No, that sounds very promising. So I'm sure the book is going to be amazing and thank you. Yeah, and you know their audience, like you've heard, which's journey and it's filled with nuggets of wisdom and insights and I'm sure you all will get a lot of value from it. So definitely to go and get it.

40:47 Thank you for that plug God Davia. Absolutely, And if people want to connect with you, what's the best way to connect with you? My email is This email is actually on my website, Okay, Wismiley dot com. If you just google I L y. First name is Butch B t H. Don't ask me how I got that name, but that's a You can just google it and the website will pop up and I've got an email there where you can shoot you an email. All fantastic. Any last words you'd like to share with the listeners.

41:27 Well, first of all, I honor you your journey because you're an example for everyone else. You come to the United States and your journey has been spectacular, and you've got a great platform and to your listeners. I think the key lesson for me is what Reginald Lewis taught me, is that to keep going no matter what, and no matter what there is in your life now and may be terrible. You may have a tough boss and it's a dead end job or something, but things are going to turn around and there Oharrison, tomorrow is another day, and I think you at the end of the day, you've got to take stop stock, get some rest, and then get up next morning. I think you feel better about yourself and keep going no matter what.

42:19 Absolutely well, thank you for joining us, but we enjoyed your conversation, and thank thank you for your time, and thank you, my dear audience, because without you, the show would not be possible. You are the life and blood of this show. Do reach out to us, let us know how can we serve you and how can we support you in living the life that you deserve. And thank you one for making this show technically possible. So be well and take care until next time. Thank you for being part of Beyond Confidence. With your host d V Park, we hope you have learned more about how to start living the life you want. Each week on Beyond Confidence, you hear stories of real people who have experienced growth by overcoming their fears and building meaningful relationships. During Beyond Confidence, Dvpark shares what happened to her when she stepped out of her comfort zone to work directly with people across the globe. She not only coaches people how to form hard connections, but also transform relationships to mutually beneficial partnerships as they strive to live the life they want. If you are ready to live the life you want and leverage your strengths, learn more at www dot dwpark dot com and you can connect with vat contact at dvpark dot com. We look forward to you joining us next week