Transcript of Episode 77 with Nativo Gonzalez

Episode 77-  Rich Helppie and Nativo Gonzalez

Welcome to the Common Bridge. The fiercely nonpartisan discussion that seeks policy solutions to issues of the day. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology health and finance space. He and his wife, Leslie, are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors with a primary focus on medically and educationally under-served children.

Rich Helppie:

Welcome to the Common Bridge. Well, at last the election’s behind us, I hope it’s behind us, and we can move off of some of the more intense political discussion. And Thanksgiving in just a couple of days makes me think about what a great country this has been and is today. And hopefully will be in the future. And I don’t want to ever rely on my perspective. So today we have a guest from the central coast of California, a man with a very interesting background. He also hosts a very successful podcast called Paid the Co$t. And we’ll be talking about that. So welcome from Scotts Valley, California, near Santa Cruz, Nativo Gonzalez. Nativo, welcome.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Rich, how you doing man? Pleasure to be on. I really appreciate it.

Rich Helppie:

I’m so happy that you are willing to put some time in today. Nativo you’re from the central coast and, I’m going to ask you the first question you ask all of your guests on Paid the Co$t. Where are you from?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Rich, I was born in Mountain View, although we didn’t stay there long. And Mountain View is in Silicon Valley, smack dab in the middle. We moved, actually to Scotts Valley, when I was about three months old and then on down to Santa Cruz after that. So I’ve been in Santa Cruz. I grew up in Santa Cruz.

Rich Helppie:

Where exactly is the central coast-the cities, the towns, the landmarks, the Redwood forest. Help people zero in on where the central coast is.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Absolutely. So the central coast lies just South of the Bay area. So we are about 35 minutes from San Jose, California, and about an hour and a half south of San Francisco.

Rich Helppie:

Nativo, I understand that in addition to doing the podcast, you’re a very proud dad, you and your son, Junior, very close relationship. What are some of the things that the two of you have been up to?

Nativo Gonzalez:

You know, since COVID hit, Junior’s been home a lot. So he’s doing a Google classroom. So in the mornings, I’m an extremely early riser. I get up at about 3:00 AM and I give myself a couple hours to wake up, watch the news, have a cup of coffee. And then I wake Junior up about 5:00 AM. And then we’re in the garage doing some workouts about 5:30. So right now, because of the pandemic, we’re together a lot. And we just focus on being a family, being happy, taking care of each other, being mindful of what we’re digesting. There’s a lot of TV going on right now just because there’s not a lot of movement outside of the home. My wife is actually pregnant right now. So we’re being as cautious as possible. I mean, we go out every now and then, but we try to just keep it in the house. So our bond with our family has just gotten closer and closer with the pandemic. And then we got our little addition on the way. So I believe the new little guy is going to be the glue that really solidifies our little family.

Rich Helppie:

Well that’s wonderful, and how old is Junior today?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Junior is 13 and will be 14 in February.

Rich Helppie:

That is terrific. So, Nativo, I was attracted to your podcast because of the messaging and what I like to call hyper-local reporting. You’ve developed a terrific following and I don’t live anywhere near the central coast, but it’s fascinating, the stories. And you’ve got a great technique there. You have a personal history of owning and starting businesses before you were doing podcasting. Could you tell our audience a little bit about the businesses you were in and maybe what are some of your take-aways from those experiences?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Absolutely. So the first business I opened was a car audio shop. I was a car audio installer for years before I even opened the shop. And I worked for an electronic corporation that’s well known. I was blessed enough that the store that I worked at allowed me to run the install bay without really any interference. For the most part, I would come to the managers with solutions, not problems. And I worked there for about five years and I really built up the clientele there. And one day one of the managers comes back, with all these metrics and numbers and reviews, and all this stuff that you’re judged on when you work at those types of places. And I was pretty prevalent in the company. And I decided when I got that information, that it was time for me to split off and do my own thing.

And then from there, I actually married into an Indian family and their business pretty much is hospitality. So me and my wife decided to give that a go. And I owned a motel for a few years. You know my takeaway from the car audio was to be in tune with the people that are coming in and be sensitive to their budgets. I actually started my car audio shop, which was called Mass Audio, right after we were coming of the recession. And I knew that people’s way of looking at money had changed significantly. And the value of the dollar, it really turned into something different than just having a dollar in your pocket. People wanted to spend their money in places where they felt they were getting the most value out of that dollar, and a service, and being treated a certain way. And I really catered to that. And because it was just me at the car audio shop, I had intimate relationships with the people that would walk through the doors. And being in Santa Cruz, it’s, Santa Cruz is a small community, but it’s big enough where you don’t necessarily know everybody, but it’s also small enough where you do know everybody. When you have a small business in a town like this, you rely on word of mouth. And it’s the old saying, somebody that has a bad experience will tell 10 people and somebody that has a good enough experience will tell two. So treating my customers all the same was really important to me. A side little story is that I actually had, and I don’t want to mention any names, but I had one of the players from the San Francisco 49ers call me one time. And he tried to use his status to get into the shop when he wanted to. And I had-I was booked-I had appointments and I had to turn him down because I didn’t want to treat him differently than I treated anybody else. The golden rule. From the motel. That was a little…[crosstalk]

Rich Helppie:

Then a motel-now you’re not dealing with local customers.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Exactly, exactly. But I will say something about the motel, as traumatic of an experience as it was for me, I developed my speech. I developed my every day talking with people and I actually got to learn more about Santa Cruz by owning and operating the motel. Because, not only are you selling rooms, but you’re a concierge, and I’m from Santa Cruz and people would ask me questions about my home a lot. So I got to know more details about my home, which was really cool. And it really applied to the podcast.

Rich Helppie:

How long have you been doing the podcast and how often do you publish?

Nativo Gonzalez:

So I started the podcast-well, I dropped my first episode, July 4th of this year. Initially I started dropping episodes once a week, but now I’ve been so blessed with how many people I have to interview that I’m dropping two episodes a week. So I drop Wednesdays at midnight and Saturdays at midnight.

Rich Helppie:

That is terrific success and great momentum. And you’re making a difference in the community. And I think some bonding. And that’s what I wanted to talk about today. It’s a slice of America from a front-line view. What excites me about your podcast is that you’re listening to and learning from people that are creating the future of the region and of the country. And I’m hopeful that the listeners to the Common Bridge will be encouraged by this and get some education, maybe some policy ideas who knows. Nativo, tell us what’s Paid the Co$t all about?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Paid the Co$t highlights the central coast of California, which I’m extremely passionate about. It’s my home, I grew up here and it’s a very unique area. We have so many different kinds of people here. There’s a lot of diversity here. You could go surfing one hour and the next hour we’ll be hiking in the Redwood forest. And it was just really important to me because I have this love for my home that I highlighted and I want to share it with the world. And I want to share the people with the world. There’s some really amazing people here that I just think it’s really important to get their message out, to get their thinking out to the world. Because it’s, like I said, being from a unique place like this, we think a little bit differently. We really focus in on health and exercise here.

And I think Santa Cruz is a very diverse community that, when one of us is down we really come together. And I think a great example of that is the fires that we had over the summer. A lot of different businesses came together and made shirts to sell. I had a gentleman on my podcast named Rob Sanders, and he owns a food truck called Saucy’s Food Truck. And I was blessed enough that I got to connect a couple people that were on the podcast. And Rob actually took his food truck up here to the Santa Cruz mountains and fed firefighter, after firefighter, after firefighter, for days straight. And that’s the power of this community. And that’s how we come together and take care of each other.

Rich Helppie:

And my sense in listening to the podcast is that the people in your region are optimistic about the future and feel like they want to make a difference. Am I hearing that right?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Absolutely, for the most part, like I said, it’s a small enough town to where most of us grew up with each other, and we’ve gone to school with each other from elementary to high school, some to college, and some of us have started businesses. And that’s the really cool thing is that I can go outside my door and more than likely, one of the places that I’m going to spend my money at is somebody I know-a neighbor, somebody I grew up, with possibly a family member. We’re a really tight knit community and we really take care of each other. We in California, we’re on this tier system with COVID and unfortunately the central coast has gone back into the purple tier, which the highest level of tier you can be in, and our restaurants are in-some-they’re in a predicament right now. And I had this gentleman on named Demani Thomas who’s the owner of Oswald Restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz. He unfortunately had to put up a Go-Fund-Me for his restaurant because we’ve moved back to this tier and he was trying to raise $10,000. Well, Rich in one day he got $25,000 and that’s who Santa Cruz is. That’s who we are on the central coast. We love each other and we take care of each other.

Rich Helppie:

That is terrific. Why did you pick the name Paid the Co$t? And from people looking up the podcast “cost” is C-O and then a $-T with Nativo Gonzalez. And again, I hope everybody from the Common Bridge will listen in, but what made you pick that name?

Nativo Gonzalez:

I had gone through a couple of names and my original name for the podcast-I wanted to call it “Ocean Views”, and I looked it up and there was a couple of podcasts that already had that. So what I actually did to come up with a name for my podcast is, I put my headphones in and I listened to different music and I was waiting for some tagline or something to pop out at me, and I was listening to Snoop Dog and he said “you have to pay the cost to be the boss”. So it’s kind of like a street term that we’ve used growing up. If you really want to accomplish something, you have to pay the cost and Paid the Co$t was the name I stuck with because it was original and I saw nobody else with it. So that’s how it came to be.

Rich Helppie:

Well that explains the number of business owners, entertainers, and now people seeking local political office, on your show. They’re willing to pay the cost to get to what their goals are. Tell us a little bit about the people that you brought on, and are there commonalities that you’ve discovered amongst all these folks or, what would you say the differences might be?

Nativo Gonzalez:

The commonalities I’m starting to find is the drive that all these people have. It’s a non-stop, I’m going to go until I get to where I want to be mentality. And that’s the commonality that I’m coming to find with all these people. One gentleman that was on named Manu Koenig, he actually just won District 1 supervisor for Santa Cruz County in the last elections. And something he said in the podcast that we did together was, in order to get to a place that you’ve never been you have to do things you’ve never done. And I feel like that was a great tagline. And I think that that is the commonality that I’m finding with everybody that’s coming on the show, is the passion and the drive to get to places that they’re passionate about and they really want to be, and it’s not always a monetary thing. I just interviewed a gentleman this morning that runs a nonprofit in town. And he was very direct and he said, look, you don’t get into this kind of work because you’re going to get rich. That’s not what a nonprofit is about. You do it because you want to help your community. And those are the commonalities that I’m finding with everybody, is there’s a passion to take care of the community in whatever shape or form that may be, whether it’s through art, whether it’s through music, whether it’s through wanting to be on a committee or be a district supervisor, or what have you. It’s that drive to not want to stop.

Rich Helppie:

I love that way you’re describing it because that drive that well, we might’ve in an earlier age called it rugged individualism, leadership, team building, sounds very American to me and gives me great confidence looking into the future. Are there any differences that you see amongst your guests? Like, these guys think this way and those guys thought that way. Are there any differences that leap out?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Yes and no. I’ve had so many people on.

Rich Helppie:

Maybe some of your favorites, and maybe working what you’ve learned from your guests.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Sure. Well, my fastly growing favorite people are surfers and artists, and it’s really funny that this is what’s becoming my favorite guests to have on, because I can’t draw, I can’t paint. My art is my voice. So I guess I have that in common with them is I’m creating something to give out to the world. And I, even though I grew up on the central coast, I cannot stand water. I don’t-my first thought on a hot summer day isn’t let’s pack up the kids and go to the beach. So I think the reason I’m drawn to them is it’s something that I can’t do. Those are fast becoming my favorite people to have on.

Rich Helppie:

You’ve got a deepening audience and Pay the Co$t is becoming the go-to place in the region. There’s got to be an investment made. How are you funding all of this?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Well, I’ve been fortunate enough Rich, because I’ve owned my own businesses. I had a couple of bucks to put in and not only that, growing up in a certain area and still living in it, again, you know a lot of people and you have connections. So a lot of people have been coming out and like really putting some work in for me and helping me out. And my studio is actually built in my garage at my home. And I knew this kid that grew up with my younger cousin and he’s a carpenter and he can build anything. And he came over, looked the garage around and said, this is what I can do for you, and he built it.

Rich Helppie:

I love that, that so many great companies started in someone’s garage. I mean, Apple Computer, perhaps Ford Motor Company, or they started in the basement-Superior Consultant might be one that comes to my mind, that’s from my own history. And I love that that drive, you wanted to go someplace. And I really liked the way you described what your gift is, is finding yourself by knowing your voice is your art. As your show has become more and more popular. Have you experienced any critics or anybody trying to put a damper on what you’re doing?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Negative thing, I’ll say is, sometimes when you tell people about your ideas before you execute them, it’s not necessarily the best idea. I’ve found that if you really want to accomplish something, it’s best to move in silence. I’ve had some close people, and they didn’t mean anything by it. It was just something they just kind of spit out, and you kind of take it in because you have this connection with this person, or you’re close with them, you grew up with them, possibly a family member. And you’re giving these ideas out, your hopes and dreams, and then maybe something unknown to them. Or they’re not trying to be mean, they’re just trying to point something out, but you take it to heart and it can roll with you. I had something like that happen to me a few months ago. Some real slight was said to me, and I guarantee it wasn’t out of malice, but nonetheless, it was said, and it stuck with me. And I really had to evaluate where they were coming from, why I took it the way I took it and just kinda let it roll off my shoulders and just kind of go forward because this is my dream. And it’s okay if people don’t believe in it. And it’s always funny when you’re starting a business and you think that certain people are the ones that are going to come out and support you and listen to your podcast or come to your car audio shop and get a stereo-it’s usually not those people. It’s the people that come out that you least expect to support you. And especially with a podcast, currently, right now, I’m in about 30 countries, 309 cities, and what a blessing, I can’t tell people how thankful I am that they want to hear my story, or they want to hear people from the central coast, or they want to know about Santa Cruz, or maybe they have an idea that they want to execute. And somebody said something to them, and they’re kind of holding back from it. Maybe this podcast will give them that extra little push to go ahead and give it a try.

Rich Helppie:

I’m hopeful of that outcome. And also, I do think that is where you got this headed. And I relate a lot to what you’re talking about as a very, very young entrepreneur. I was laughed at, I was ridiculed. I had family and friends pointing out all the risks. I had friends telling my wife, well, enjoy it, but it’s not going to last, but I just kept focusing in on my customers. And that was one of the lessons I learned-I could never tell you a specific piece of business that we might win within a specific time, period. Always surprised me. And also when I got to the point of selling companies, I never sold a company to the buyer I thought I was going to sell it to-never. It just didn’t happen. But that’s, I think, that adventurous spirit that you’re driving, that you’ve got something ahead of you. You can see the objective, you know the risks are there, but like you said, you shrug them off because you know you can get there. The people on the outside don’t see that objective. They do see the risk. Of course there is the famous quote from Teddy Roosevelt about the man in the arena. And that’s always inspired me. So Nativo, this podcast has changed you, it sounds like. Tell me a little bit about that. What changes have you seen in yourself?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Well it’s something that I’ve actually thought for a long time, is that when you open your mind and heart up to another person, you’re opening yourself up to a whole other world. None of us see life the same way, none of us. And it’s extremely important to be able to listen to somebody else’s story, because everybody has a story, Rich, everybody has a story, and you’d be surprised just walking down the street, if you sat and talked to somebody, what they’ve gone through in their life. And I think that’s extremely important to me. Something growing up, that my mom always did for me, was she would tell me stories about my grandmother or my great-grandmother. And they always meant so much to me. I think it’s extremely important to know where you’re from so you can have an idea of where you’re going.

Rich Helppie:

If you’re not uncomfortable, tell the audience of the Common Bridge a little bit about your mom and your dad and your early childhood experience. You had some extreme street life experience?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Yeah, yeah, to say the least, sure. My father grew up in LA. He was the first born from his brothers to be born in California. So I’m only a second generation American. And growing up in South central LA, you’re going to run into some problems. My oldest uncle, he was the fighter, he was the looker, the guy that got all the girls, and he and my father were pretty close. Unfortunately my father took on some of the negatives of what my uncle was doing. My father was a heroin addict at a very early age. And unfortunately started going to-I don’t know if anybody knows about LA County jail, but LA County jail is almost like being in a penitentiary. It’s a pretty heavy jail that they got down there. And unfortunately my father started being incarcerated at a young age and went through it for a long time. Unfortunately, my father, he wasn’t very prevalent in my life for very long. Him and I had a relationship, I want to say I was about 14 or 15, maybe, but earlier than that, I stopped wanting to go see him. And unfortunately, when you’re incarcerated for that long, your mind gets a little fluctuated on the wrong things. And so, unfortunately, having a relationship with my father is almost toxic. And I had to cut that relationship because of that. My mother, she had a problem with alcohol for awhile, but she kicked it when I was pretty young. So fortunately I didn’t have to deal with that, but I grew up, I would say, with a single mom that, for lack of a better term, I always say she’s a beast.

Rich Helppie:

A beast in a good way, I think.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Is there any other kind of beast? And what I mean by that is that my mom is a warrior. She made sure that I had shoes on my feet, clothes on my back, food on the table, and a roof over my head. And that may have changed from time to time, the way that looked, but she was always there. She loved me the best way she could. And she did what she could to make me who I am today, and I’m very thankful for that. We didn’t have a car when I was growing up, and my mom would ride her bike to work and she would take a taxi up to do her laundry and she would take a taxi to get groceries and go back to the laundry mat, fold all the clothes up and bring everything home, you know? So that’s the influence that I grew up with. And I think that was more valuable than anything monetary. I think having that type of work ethic ingrained into my DNA, into who I am today, has given me the drive and…

Rich Helppie:

You had quite a mix in the DNA. And did any of the substance issues, or incarceration, or any of those things come your way along with this warrior and never quit mentality?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Unfortunately, living a street life, you can be a very young age and get intertwined with a lot older people that are doing things that a younger person isn’t doing, and be influenced by that, because-in my case-I was looking for somebody to be my dad. My mom is a Caucasian woman from the Midwest and she’s got an interracial mixed child. And I look Mexican, I don’t look white. I don’t know if I explained that, my father is a Chicano, which means an American with Mexican roots. And I think unfortunately for her, it was hard. She doesn’t know anything about the street life in the capacity that I was running it-13 years old, we started smoking pot and then kind of moved up to drinking. And then you start mixing around with-you’re 15 and running around with 21 year olds. Cocaine came out every now and then, then it kind of moved up to-before crystal meth was around there was a substance called crank, which was same thing pretty much. But I experienced that a young age and you’d be drinking with “homeboys” and it gets to a certain time, and substances come out because you want to keep partying. I didn’t necessarily get hooked on anything at that time. But what I did was I moved down to Las Vegas, Nevada-following a girl, same old tale. And unfortunately, because I didn’t have any family down there, and I didn’t really have that thing in the back of the head like, Oh, well, if my mom finds out or whatever, I kind of let loose. And I got intertwined with a gentleman that I worked with, and I got really addicted to crystal meth. And I was strung out for about about five years. That was a real rough patch in my life, man.

Rich Helppie:

How’d you get out of it?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Rich, I was staying with my friend’s girlfriend, and I was renting a room from her. This is pretty graphic-is it okay if I? So I’m sitting in my room and I’m tweaked out, which means that I’ve done a ton of meth and I’m gone. And I’m laying on the bed with a sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun and a couple other handguns next to me. And the only way I can describe this is God told me it was time to stop. And I can almost literally remember hearing that voice in my head. And what I did was I picked up my phone and I called my biological father. And I said, I’m sick. And that’s exactly what I said to him. And he knew exactly I was talking about. And he said, okay, I’m going to call you back. And I said, okay. And about 20 minutes later, he called me back and he had reached out to one of my mom’s sisters. And she told him to tell me to go to her. So I called a friend. I jumped in her car and she drove me about four hours from where we were at. And literally I jumped out of her car, closed the door, and I walked into my aunt’s house and I slept for three days straight. And my aunt nursed me back to health and took care of me and comforted me-let me collect myself, getting a little emotional.

Rich Helppie:

So am I, that’s an awesome story. The epiphany, the stepping away, and you have some disciplines that you follow every day. As you said earlier, you’re up at 3:30, listening to the news, coffee, workout, focusing on your son, and now making this incredible contribution to your community. And my own philosophy on this, Nativo, for what it’s worth, is that we learn from our successes and we learn from our mistakes and sometimes the perspective and the humility and the humbleness that comes from making the wrong choice really adds to our humanness. And the way you are knitting your community together, by helping people find their commonality may not have been possible had you not walked the path that you walked.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Oh, I absolutely agree 110%. Rich, I spent a little time hurting myself, and I spent a lot of time hurting people around me. And I think this is my way of mending that bridge. And it’s extremely important to me that I make sure that my community is solid. I’m 39 years old now, and my outlook on life is completely changed, and I want to give back and I want to help. And even if it’s just one person or, and I know that’s cliche, but it’s the honest to God truth. Something that I was blessed with was I went to an alternative high school. Regular high school was extremely hard for me. It’s very sink or swim, and I wasn’t compatible with it. And one of the teachers that I had at that alternative high school is now a teacher at the juvenile hall in Santa Cruz County. And she reached out to me and, of course this was pre COVID, and asked if I would come to the juvenile hall and talk to the kids and share my story and just be there. And I was so happy to get that call. And I was there the next week, I think. And I went up there a couple more times and then COVID hit. So unfortunately we had to put the brakes on that, but you’re right. I’ve pointed that out with a couple of my guests is, in order to be in these positions it’s almost like the angel-Jesus story, right? There’s a time in the Bible where Jesus is a kid, and then all of a sudden, he’s an adult. What happened to them?

Rich Helppie:

Look at your personal story. You build a life, you’re building a brand, serving your community, raising sons, you’re connecting with the movers and the shakers of the central coast, you’re mentoring people. These are subjects all very near and dear to me. In fact, the Common Bridge was established to build on our commonality and not our division. Nativo, from your perspective, should the people of your generation feel hopeful about the future or feel despair? I mean, think about the things that we get thrown at us incessantly by the news reporting system, and why/what politicians say about us and such, should we be feeling hope or despair?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Hope, 100%. Something that one of my buddies told me is that his mom said to him one time, every generation thinks that it’s the worst generation and it’s a meltdown. And I can dig that. What about the civil rights movement? What about the Renaissance? What about the pandemic that happened before the Renaissance? You know what I mean? And there’s so many things to be hopeful for. Human beings are amazing creatures, and all we’re doing is progressing every single day. Now, I also feel that you can’t necessarily clump society together. There’s going to be people that you just can’t convince that the sky is not falling and there’s going to be people that think they can climb Mount Everest whenever they want to. I personally, especially being a father, my only outlook is to hope the best for the future for my sons, and my contribution to the future is my sons. And that’s why I put so much time and love and effort into Junior. And soon to my son Amari, because that’s the value, is these human beings that I’m going to put out into this American society. And then it’s going to be up to them to pass the baton and do what they need to do. So I’m extremely hopeful. I think the media wants to-and corporations-they live on our unhappiness, they live on our fears. To take that away and to hold ourselves up and to know that we have value and we all have something to contribute to society, all of us. It’s just up to that individual to make that sacrifice and to give that time and to give their heart-it’s extremely important. And I’m extremely hopeful.

Rich Helppie:

That view gives me hope for the future of our country, for California, for the central coast, and for communities around the world. It’s up to us as individuals to shape the future and shape it through the generations to come. Nativo, is there any advice beyond that, that you might give to someone like me? I’m an aging baby boomer, or maybe late thirties, 40 something like yourself, or perhaps a teen or a 20 something. If you said, look, here’s a philosophy, that’ll get you through life, what might you say? And would it be different-what you might tell me as an older person versus a teenager?

Nativo Gonzalez:

A boomer, I would probably say, don’t forget where you came from. I think the older I get, the less I remember the feelings and the dreams and the hopes that I had when I was younger. And it’s easy to look down on somebody when you have all these life experiences, but a younger person hasn’t gone through those yet. And it’s always better to be a propeller than an anchor. So I would say to a boomer, don’t forget where you came from. I would say to a late thirties, early forties, it’s time to be part of your community. And it’s time to be somebody that stands for something. And to somebody that’s younger and just coming up, don’t beat yourself up and use your mistakes as learning experiences. And as long as you can keep that mindset-and that’s what it’s about, Rich, mindset. As long as you can keep your mind focused and know that you don’t have control. Another thing that I’ve learned with the podcast is I don’t have control. I got to go with the flow and worrying isn’t going to help anything. So a younger person-go with the flow and don’t beat yourself up. It’s easy to let that voice overcome and take control of your mindset and your everyday thinking and get into those lulls. Beating yourself up isn’t going to help you, keep going, keep pushing and there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Rich Helppie:

I like that. Let me ask you this, what’s better or easier-being the guest or the host of the podcast?

Nativo Gonzalez:

I don’t know. I had an interview this morning, I’m calm, cool, and collected up until the day of the interview-and that’s being on the hosting side. And today I had this gentlemen on that I’ve known for 25 years. And for some reason I was just super nervous since I woke up. And then I’ve been nervous about coming on your podcast all day. I did my first guest interview a couple of weeks ago. And all I could think about on my way over there was, what am I going to say? Is that going to be the right thing? Is this going to be a right thing? And then I did the interview and I was like, should I have said that? Should I have said this? What did I miss? So I think I’d rather be in control. I do like sharing a piece of myself. I do like putting that out into the universe because I’m alive. I made it. One of my cousins told me a few months ago, that really resonated with me, he said, Nativo, I never expected to make it this far and I don’t always know if I’m doing the right thing. That was powerful. And it really made me think.

Rich Helppie:

It’s a surprise every day. I mean, I’m still-how many days that I’ve been there. And I understand about people that really want to do a good job get nervous. There are world-class performers that suffered stage fright, Van Morrison being one of them. There’s a fellow named Brendan Shanahan, that has a 600 goal score in the National Hockey League, Hall of Fame, now an executive of the NHL, and his teammates said, yeah, he threw up before every game because he was nervous. Okay, like, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it kind of speaks to the people that are really concerned about doing a great job. And I can tell you from my own personal experience, every time as I was walking into the building to meet with a client, I was nervous. I had prepared, but I’m thinking, Oh, there’s going to be a thing that comes up that I’m not going to be ready for. That really drives you to get ready.

Nativo Gonzalez:

100%.

Rich Helppie:

And so, Nativo, I’m really encouraged by this, because this sounds to me like your view, America is still the land of opportunity. And it seems to me that if a person makes good choices, they have a chance to succeed.

Nativo Gonzalez:

I think there’s circumstances that are involved as well. As long as somebody has that light inside of them, the passion, the will, the knowing that you’re going to have to sacrifice some things. You might come home late for dinner one night, maybe two nights, maybe every night, from work. If you’re just starting a business. It’s been my experience that a business doesn’t really take off, and this is probably common knowledge, it’s not necessarily, I wrote the book or anything, but it takes a significant amount of time for a business to start thriving. You’re not hoping that the telephone rings. I was blessed enough to experience that with the car audio shop. I would try to drum up business and do this and do that, and why isn’t this working? And a few years later, all of a sudden the phone’s ringing non-stop and people are walking up and my Yelp-I was a five-star general on Yelp, even though I couldn’t stand the platform. It’s all about sacrifice and it’s all about knowing that there’s going to be a brighter day when you get to that spot, but don’t stop. Something that I learned early when I played Pop Warner football, a running back, when they have the ball, the coach was telling the running back on my team, keep those legs moving. Even if you’re going down, you keep those legs moving because you might come out of it. It’s a real important thing to live by-keep those feet moving. You never know what’s coming. You might think you’re going to get knocked down, you might think you’re going to get knocked out of bounds, but you might not. So you got to be prepared.

Rich Helppie:

Quitting always ends your chances. It’s a hundred percent guarantee of you quit, if you stop, you lose. A hundred percent guarantee. You may not win if you keep going on, or it may not succeed, but for sure if you stop. I really appreciate what you said about what it takes to get a business launched, I’ve launched a few of them. And if your the person doing that, you understand the terror of there’s a payroll coming up and you’ve got to collect some money, or bill some money, or do something because people are counting on you. My own son has turned into a great entrepreneur and businessman in his own right. And he jokes with me-he’ll take a call, during a dinner, or doing something, he looks at me and he says, well, he says, there’s no time off when you’re the boss. And I said, gee, tell me about that. Sorry, kind of our inside joke that he witnessed a lot of that going on. And there is a sacrifice to get there.

Nativo Gonzalez:

You know, Rich, heavy is the crown.

Rich Helppie:

Amen. But it’s what we do. Nativo, this has been a great conversation. Is there anything that we didn’t cover today that perhaps we should have touched on?

Nativo Gonzalez:

Not necessarily, I just want to thank you so much for inviting me on. I feel like this is a very intellectual podcast and I was a little flabbergasted and definitely flattered to be invited on. So I greatly appreciate it. I want to shout out Brian, because I was actually blessed to get an invite, to check out the documentary that Brian made, and shout out to you, Mr. Helppie. I’m happy to know you, sir. And what you’ve done for your own community is astounding and amazing. And I hope people of Wayne really appreciate you.

Rich Helppie:

Well, I appreciate you saying that. Yes, it’s the Champions of Wayne documentary. And Brian did a great job with that in bringing that project home. And Nativo, you and I share that. It’s a drive to make this world a better place to bring information and perspective. And I just hope that your life continues to go well. I hope that the arrival of your new son will be a blessing in every way. And I hope that all of the people on the central coast will support Paid the Co$t. And for those of you, even if you’re not on the central coast, you’re not in California, you’re not even in the United States of America, keep focused on creating a better future. We can do that if we come together and we recognize our commonality.

Nativo Gonzalez:

Amen brother!

Rich Helppie:

This has been Rich Helppie with our guest Nativo Gonzalez of Paid the Co$t podcast. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. So long.

You have been listening to Richard. Helppie’s Common Bridge podcast. Recording and post-production provided by Stunt Three Multimedia. All rights are reserved by Richard Helppie. For more information, visit RichardHelppie.com.