Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today I'm very excited we have a very special guest we've met years ago. This is Abraham Jenkins, also known as AJ. So we will not be referring to you as Abraham throughout the episode.
Whatever you want to call.
Me Abraham AJ. Sorry, see I'm already messing up. AJ is the CEO of Launchpad Software. Yes, thank you, and can you give our guests a little insight of what launch Pad Software is.
Yeah, so I run a technology company. We're a software company that helps government agencies, nonprofit agencies improve the lives of people in the community. We work with a lot of large cities and states. Los Angeles here in LA is one of our customers and they use our software to help deliver job training services, employment services, homeless services, veteran services. So we're just trying to think of a smarter, more innovative way to get services to people in the community.
And as an entrepreneur, technology was the first and best way. But yeah, the technical term is where a SAS company enterprise SaaS. For those business folks out there who are in the technology space, that's what we do. Anybody, if you're unemployed, or if you've got a single mom out there that maybe is housing and secure, or you have a young guy we call them opportunity youth that's dropped
out of high school and needs some direction. There are a lot of programs out there that these individuals can get access to, and there's a lot of money that's being invested in these communities, and so what we try to do is use technology to make it easier for these individuals to get these services, whether it's through a mobile app, whether it's helping the nonprofits track all of
those individuals. We our software is tracking probably in the tunes of several million individuals across the country internationally because we have customers in the UK and Bermuda. But essentially it's like you are falling on hard times. There is a social safety net out there, that's social safety nets at risk right now unfortunately, but there are billions of dollars being invested to help you, and we want to use technology to make it easier for people to get access to those services.
Yes, but Launchpad, your actual client is like a nonprofit or a government agency, right, so what services do you provide for that agency.
Yeah, So primarily we sell to government agencies, so state and local municipalities. I mentioned the city of Los Angeles. In fact, we have over three hundred government and nonprofit agencies across thirty five state that use our software and they A lot of this stuff is maybe more of the technical and bold. But you think of companies like Oracle. Oracle is the data base behind the Internet and now the database behind AI. You think of Amazon Aws as
the cloud that runs all of your apps. Anytime you're getting these services from the community, there's a there's a cloud behind is a system behind it, and we're one of those systems.
A cloud software applications. So you house all the data exactly okay, perfect, So you're like the encyclopedia behind a company, like the stuff that we don't want to see or be a part of, but you're the organization structure behind it exactly in the cloud technic technically speaking, it's.
We're one hundred percent in the cloud. Yes, we're one hundred percent in the cloud. We've always been in the cloud. We were one of the first and that's why we were really successful. When I started the company Gosh eleven twelve years ago, we were one of the first to bring truly cloud SaaS software to government agencies. Now we're bringing AI into it, right, And think of it this way.
When you go to the bank and you're want to know how much money is in your account or what investments you want to get, there's software that runs all of that.
Right.
There's a great book out there called Software Eating the World. Right, So we're doing the same thing, but we're trying to do it to have a social good. Right. If you can have software that can help people with investments, get a mortgage, buy a house, get healthcare, we want to use the same strategy and technology to help people get job training, get if they're housing and secure, get into a house, get connected with grants, get job training or education. We're doing all of.
That, but you guys catered to the companies, not the end user, right, Yes, so I would just for listeners, if you're in a housing deficit, you don't go on launch Pad software to find housing. There are agencies that support that are in business with you, and they're using your services, not actual individuals on the street.
Well, actually, yeah, the individuals on the street are using our software. They just don't know it. So they're logging in, for example, like Detroit at work, the City of Detroit. They're logging in that website. All of that's powered by our company. Okay, yeah, so they're using it, and sometimes we have a little thing down there. But we are not trying to be the brand to the consumer. We want to help empower all of these agencies that are really it's their job to do the work. We want
to empower them. So San Francisco's a job's portal. We log into the City of San Francisco's jobs portal, which is free. I don't want to say a competitor to Zip recruiter. It's an alternative. You log into SF jobs portal. That's launch Pad. Wow.
That okay, now I have a better understanding, don't You're like what? I just want everyone to understand fully like what they're what Launchpad software really is, especially because, like you said, you're not branding yourself to the naked eye, so we really wouldn't know. But before we get into all that, I go ahead. I can feel and sense that oil is hot. But what are you going to have me eating today?
Yes, so my understanding this is eating while broke yes, thank god, I'm no longer broke, but I can remember the days when I was starting, and so it is. I saw a lot of people having fancy meals on your show.
There's a handful of them.
Yeah. Yeah, we're not gonna I'm not trying to impress anybody with the food today because when but I think people will definitely relate. We're gonna be doing chicken tiketos today and we're gonna be cooking them, heating them up. You know, it's not so much about the prep of the food. I also want to highlight the condiments, what's easy to grab, what's easy, and also maybe what's not necessarily convenient, but what you had in your pantry, what
you could afford. So we got chicken tiketos these do you want me to say where they came from? Are? Probably not?
That's fine, yea.
So chicken tiketos gonna we're gonna cook these. And then we've got obviously olive oil. I like to cook with olive oil, and I do a lot of cooking at home. But my kids will never eat this stuff. I'll give them chicken tiktos. They want salmon, they want yeah, and then we've got mayonnaise, so this is our sauce mayonnaise. And then we got we're in California, we got to have the top of to so we got top of t O.
So it was just three ingredients. Yes, now I did notice that you weren't making them fresh, so I take it back in the day. They were frozen.
Also, they were frozen also, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was trying to understand who, when you're hustling and when we're trying to build a business, who has time to sit and cook. I gotta cook and I gotta go, got to keep going. And I remember we we specifically made these. I was living in a we had a three bedroom house. There was five guys. This is down in Orange County, the OC, and I was I just got out of I got my first sales job, and all of the guys that were living with me, my
brother was there. My brother shout out to Jeremy. He's a college university profession now PhD in math. We we were all just trying to hustle, so it was like, hey, what can we buy. It's cheap. We bought the big box at Taketo's, and all five guys would eat. We'd take the taketos, throw them out, cook them, eat them up. I literally we all sit down like a family meal.
We'd have the mayonnaise and the hot sauce, okay, and we'd have I won't tell you what we're drinking, but you know this is what we ate.
Okay. So I get started, Go ahead and get started, because lunchtime in.
Real time, guys, it's real time. That is right. Lunch today, that is right. And one of the things I love you. First of all, I'm originally from Oregon, Portland, Oregon, but I really grew up in southern California. I love Mexican food. I love Mexican food. My team will tell you. It's like I've always wanted tacos or tiketos.
I like flouters. I was excited because originally I thought you got to do flous and I was like, oh, I love them.
Oh no, I'm sorry, sorry, I.
Was going to learn how to make them today. I'm sorry, disappoint Yeah, that'll be for another day.
Another day. I think you got to have another spin off of eating while not eating.
I know everyone wants to do the luxury, the luxury, you know, I should do it because I'd probably lobs during crab all the good food.
Yeah yeah, so I'm probably putting too many in here.
No, that's good, and I'll turn the heat out, Yes for sure. I know you already started talking about this, about you and your four other buddies living in this house. You said that this was when you got one of your first sales jobs. So I take you and your buddies weren't working on Launchpad. No, it was Launchpad even a concept at that point.
It wasn't. No, I started my first company. So this is my third company that I've had and sold my first one. Second company was more of consulting. I didn't start. I started that in two thousand and six. So this is and I'm dating myself, but we're going back to the nineties here. We were fresh out of high school. Dropped out of high school. We'll get into that later. Actually I didn't drop out. They kicked me out. I'll
make that distinction. But no, it was I was working a So the backstory was in high school, I was a troublemaker. Hands down. My son's here. I gotta be careful what I say.
No, say it all.
I gotta say it all. Yeah, so I did not have a good high school experience. I was. I grew up in a single parent household, my mom my dad, unfortunately, and both my parents have passed. My mom actually passed away back in July. Yeah, you said people might cry on this episode. That will get me going. But grew up in a single mom household. My mom raised five kids on her own. She was disabled. She had a brain aneurysm, and it was undiagnosed until nineteen ninety five.
Oh wow, she moved, We moved from.
What are the side effects of a brain asroom? How she was undiagnosed for so long.
Yeah. Probably the most famous person who had a brain aneurysm that we could remember recently as doctor dre If anybody remembers, he was rushed to the hospital a few years ago basically was having intense pain or I don't know the symptoms that he was experiencing, but she was.
But your mom was experiencing symptoms like pain and all that pain while she was raising the five kids. Yes, wow, Yes, And then your father, just a lightly touch on did he passed when you guys were young or something?
No, my dad passed in twenty ten and my dad was an ex football player, played for and my uncle both played for Arizona State. They were they're both in the Hall of Fame bart and John Jenkins, and my dad then went both of them got drafted to the NFL early early days. So I'd sell this is this was leather helmet days. I'm the youngest. I'm actually I have a blended family. I'm a mixed race for both
mixed race. Yeah, yeah, I got a blended family. And he so he was drafted Chicago Bears and played a couple of years and wanted to get into urban planning. So he got his degree from Arizona State and eventually found his way up to Oregon and met my mom and all that. But yeah, he was around, but he wasn't in my life type of thing.
Okay, So he was around your mom was, I guess you got they were separated from early.
On or my parents never married. They I remember probably my dad was in the house till I was about five years old. And my dad was a wonderful person and just an amazing, beautiful person. I think I got a lot of my definitely got my entrepreneurial bug from him. Okay,
and because he started different ventures and different things. And also from both my parents, I got the passion for help in the community because my mom, when she was healthy actually in the sixties, marched with Seesar chabez Andelos witha in the farm workers movement. But yeah, my parents never married. We were grew up in Portland. In fact, when I was born, and I was born with a disability as well, it's nothing that was, but I was born with what I won't get too much into it,
but it was resolved at birth. But I was in the hospital for six months and then when I got out of the hospital, my mom and the family we didn't have a place to live, so we lived in a woman's shelter up in northeast Portland for many years or not many years, but we lived there for several months.
Okay, And I take this as before your dad was in the NFL.
Or yeah, because I'm the youngest of okay, Yeah, so my dad he was in the NFL in like the early seventies, Okay, because I'm the youngest of eleven and so yeah, my dad had.
Eleven eleven kids and then five of them with your mom.
No, two of them were with my mom. My mom had three other kids with other marriages.
Yeah, okay, okay, so blended, definitely blended family. Okay, Okay, you were saying blended, I thought you meant a biracial that too. That's what I was thinking about. Okay. So now we have a gist of your upbringing. You say, now in high school you are a little bit of a challenge. Can you can do? You know where that challenging side of you came from?
Yeah, one hundred percent. So I'm the stereotypical grew up with ADHD kid, you know what I mean. I was like getting I got kicked out of I got expelled or kicked out of every school, kindergarten. They gave me my own desk or office in kindergarten, like when all the kids were playing on the jungle gym and stuff. I had a cubicle in the kitchen at kindergarten.
And then did they know you had ADHD at the time. No, you discovered that later.
This was the eighties. It was just he was the bad kid, he was the troublemaker and so yeah, yeah, and then in second grade they that school kicked me out and I had to go to what was called a farm school, and this is out in Oregon Portland, and so it was a little more rural, rural. And I went to a farm school for a year and it was like we had cows and it was in a farmhouse and these were all the quote unquote bad kids.
And went there for about a year and then I went back to the school that I was at, and then the family at that part started breaking apart. My dad left I was six or seven. He was in and out of the house, like permanently left, and my mom at that point decided we were living pretty hand in mouth. At that point, we were living in my grandfather's house. But it was like an old house that was like literally was needed to be condemned. It was
like they're going to tear this house down. So my mom was trying to figure out, like what to do. I know, she got a little bit of mone from the selling of that house because her and her siblings had owned the property and so they sold it. Got a little bit of money from that, and with that we lived on that for about a year. We moved to an apartment in Lake Oswego, Oregon. If anybody my Oregon folks out there, and I remember going to that apartment.
We had no furniture. We had one TV in the corner, and my brother and I slept on mats on the floor. We couldn't afford furniture. Yeah, and so yeah, that it was for us. It was adventurous.
Your mom positioned it as we're going through a new adventure. She didn't highlight that you guys were struggling.
We always struggled. There was no frame of reference of not struggling. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like, oh, this was just my mom's Hey, this is what we're doing. We're going to move through this apartment. And what she was doing actually, which was amazing, I'm gonna grab my water down here, which was I think, which was a blessing and really what I think my mom for my mom was a scrappy Scottish woman. She was like that
time she actually worked as a computer engineer. She was one of the first software engineers for this company called Tectronics, and they literally told her they didn't hire women, and she just pushed and pushed her way into this job. Paul, while she had this brain aneurysm that was undiagnosed. Mom found a way, you know what I mean, I really see it as like the beginning of this California dream for us because my mom was dealing with and I
mentioned earlier off camera. My mom passed away in July, and she was eighty four years old, and I think the story of her life was her bringing us out of Oregon. Nothing wrong with Oregon. I love Orgon, it's my roots. But she brought us to California, and this California dream just became a reality. We were I know she was going through depression while she was up there taking care of us. My oldest brother was out of the house. He was like sixteen at the time or
something on his own. My two sisters, who are half sisters, their father was abusive, and so she left that and tried to get the girls, but lost the girls and was not able to get them my older sisters, so they became alienated from my mom. And my older brother, Tristan, who's an amazing guy, said to my mom, and he said this at the funeral. He said, he calls her Gene. He said, Gene, you've got to take care of these other boys, these two boys that you have, me and
my brother Jeremy. And so she applied to schools all throughout the United States to study get her master's degree and a PhD. One because she's an academic. She loved to teach. And then two she knew that it would be a livelihood that she would be able to take care of us because she would get school loans and yeah, and we wouldn't be on the streets anymore. So she applied to three universities, or she got accepted to three
Texas University of Texas, Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine. Okay, And my uncle, her brother at the time, had a business. He was also in technology space. He had a software company that he started in Irvine, and he said, you need to come to Irvine. You need to come down here to Irvine. Shout out to Irvine, the IVC, Yeah, the Tech Post.
I have a cousin that went to that school.
Yeah, you see, I shout out. And it was just amazing because I remember one day we packed everything up in the back of a nineteen seventy six Volvo and did one of those small little U haul trailers. Yeah, and we're She's like, all right, we're leaving. And she
didn't tell my dad, she didn't tell anybody. She just packed everything up, me and my brother, Like they said, the older the other kids are out of the house, and we just drove down from Oregon, down the five, down the one on one, all these little scenic routes. I just remember driving through these little towns and stuff. And I remember one time my mom saying, she's just she's the guys, I spent all the money we have on this. She's we're gonna make it. Wow, We're gonna make it.
Did you guys end up going to live with your uncle at that point?
I never lived with my uncle. Oh, okay, No, I never I lived while my mom was stuff ready. Yeah, No, she took us with her.
No, she took you guys. But it's Irvine. But you said your uncle had a company out there.
Oh no, no, I didn't go because he had a company out there in the eighties and then he sold it his share and then moved to San Diego.
Okay, but she came closer this way.
I recommended coming to Irvine. He was, so they had a conversation. She came down. In fact, this earlier in the summer, if I recall, she came down to San Diego, and I went and stayed with my dad for a summer, which was an amazing It was like that's where I really started to connect with my pops.
Okay, but technology seems to be running fluid in your family.
I think technology does. I come from a family of builders though my construction My dad was an urban planner development over him. When I did have time with him, we would drive around. At least I didn't go and I would drive around. He would drive me around in his pickup truck and we'd drive around MLK Boulevard and all and he'd have these houses that he's designing or building and stuff. And we had success with some things. He never had breakout, Yeah, multi million dollar business, but
he got houses built. And what I got from my dad, Colleen, was he never tried to just do it for a profit. He built houses. He wanted to train people. In fact, I remember he would take me and he would go and get homeless guys and teach them the construction trade nice and put them on the job nice.
I like that. Yeah, So let's skip ahead. So you getting your first sales job. We skipped high school. High school, you were labeled, I'm guessing a problem child.
So I not just a problem child. In high school. I got arrested four times in one year in high school, Okay, and it was And I'm just saying this because I'll say the message that I want to do and people I really want to speak to are those young kids who are feel like they're on the wrong path. I really want them to understand that sometimes there's a turning point in your life. And so I got arrested four times, and I got arrested on school. That was the it
for me. It was my junior year. Got into a fight, was running with I would say I was running with the right crowd for sure. These are guys that I still hang out with today. But because we were black and brown, we were in a community that didn't look we didn't look like that Irvine. They and I got into a fight and the teacher tried to break it up, and the teacher claimed I punched him, and I don't recall doing that, but I'm just going to say I didn't do the right thing. Yeah, And so we left,
all of us just scattered. I came back to the school and the principal pulled me into the office and said, hey, we just want you to wait. We want to find out what's going on? They didn't. They called my mom, but they didn't let my mom see me. And I waited till the end of school to get out, right until the bell rang. The bell rang, police officers walked in, handcuffed me, purp walked me in front of the entire school, my girlfriend at the time, my friends, they were just shocked.
And I got arrested. That was like my fourth arrest, I don't remember. And they I had like a literally like a hearing at the school. It was a I don't know what you call it, like a court case, and they said you're expelled from high school. And I was sixteen years old, and I'm like, what the heck? Like, I didn't want to leave high school. Yeah, I was a terrible student. I didn't study. I was d's and f's,
but I didn't want to leave. Yeah, So I got expelled and they, fortunately my mom at the time and some other guidance people, I got put into a school with the gang members and the pregnant students, and there was a teacher there. Her name was Marcy, and she was like, AJ, you're different, you don't need to be here, and she mentored me and literally from then on I got straight a's.
Wow.
Straight a's. I never had as in my life.
Wow.
And come to find out, and we talked about the ADHD thing. I was evaluated when I was in first grade, and they said, yeah, he's got behavioral issues, he's got all this. I was two grades I tested in first grade, two grades ahead in math and language. But all along everybody told me I was a bad kid.
Yeah, and you started to really believe that.
You believe it, you become it. You're trying to survive how people.
Are receiving you.
Yeah, the teachers are treating you that sort of thing. So I started getting straight a's and I'm like, I was doing all my own. I'm like, this is easy. Yeah, and fortune I did so well that year I went to the other high school in Irvine and I reapplied and they gave me a shot. They said, well, it was Irvine High School. I'm gonna put people on blast year University high School and Irvine expelled me, guys, but Irvine High School said, hey, we're going to give you
a shot. And that was an amazing year for me because not only then I got straight a's in high school like a normal high school. I had two jobs. I worked a job in the morning and buildings. I went to school, and then I worked a job in the evening, and I bought a car, and I was the first one in all of my crew, literally because my mom said, hey, we were on welfare all this time, and she's I don't want you guys on welfare when this summer I was seventeen. She said, you guys have
to move out. So I was seventeen when I graduated high school. I graduated when I was seventeen.
She didn't watch a welfare but she kicked you all out.
Yeah, She's like, you got to go make your own way. Okay, So my my brother came to me, and he's because he had graduated a year earlier. He is a year older. I told you, I like stuff overcook So I'm going to turn this down, probably turn it off.
Yeah.
Yeah, I had a job. I just bought my first car h school and paid cash and had a couple other little businesses I was doing. And I graduated high school. I had an apartment my first we had four guys in there. Yeah, but I had my own apartment. I had two jobs, I had a car, Like I was doing, I was doing. Never looked back.
All right, So that the lady that mentored you are do you still have a decent relationship with her.
I don't know where she's at, but she was.
A pivotal yeah, point in your life. I'm sure your mom was just beyond relieve that someone cracked.
The code exactly. Yes, she said, something clicked because I got arrested the year before, I got arrested in Santa Ana. I got arrested in Irvine twice. I got arrested. I told you what on college campus or on my high school campus. I don't like to say this, but I was. I was at a I threw a party out in Orange County, and I was always in the scene and a
lot of music. Loved hip hop, and unfortunately, one of the guys that came there, we had a bunch of gangsters that came and one of the guys got killed at my party.
Oh no, that's not good.
Yeah, that's not good. No. I watched. I was sixteen years old, and I watched this young guy. In fact, I was like talking to him before the party, and I watched this young guy get murdered. And my brother and I we tried to save them, and there was I'm not gonna say which gang or whatever of that, but there was a bunch of gangsters around and I pulled my brother and said, we're not like, we can't do anything. Yeah, And so I was in a lot of I would say the devil or whatever it was,
definitely had was trying to pull me back. So life is crazy. Yeah, life is crazy.
So after the high school you start pivoting your life in a positive direction, where does the entrepreneurship start to creep in because you're working jobs.
Yeah. I think I'm one of those that was born an entrepreneur because I had businesses, like official businesses where I register corporation. I didn't do till I was twenty three point four, but I had businesses all throughout height. I was that kid in school that was selling something to somebody.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I would say I was born an entrepreneur.
Okay.
Yeah.
And at this point, you're on your own, you're living with these guys, you have your first sales job. At what point does entrepreneur twenty three twenty four start taking over?
Yeah? It was so I worked at a job in high school. It's FedEx now, not the delivery part, but like the office part, and it used to be called Kinkos. And I got a job that summer that I was out of school, or that year that I was doing homeschool and applied and I went in there every day for like weeks actually his months. And another lady by the name of Marci. I don't know what it is with Marcy's our angels out there, but she's, man, you just keep coming in here. We can't get rid of you.
And I'm like, I'm just looking for a job. And so they created a job for me and I would be working on the copying machines, I clean up, I did all of these things. I saw. The guy who owned he Kinkos was owned by another guy in Santa Barbara and he sold it for over a billion dollars. But there was a friend. There was a group of Kinkos in Orange County that were privately owned by another group. Guy's name was Rolin and oh gosh, Rollin and Charlotte,
I think, not quite sure. They lived in Laguna Beach. Yes, Rollin would walk in and he was like this six foot nine tall, older white guy with a ponytail, and literally would have a stash of one hundred dollars bills his sert pocket. I'm like, who does that? And so I would meet Rolin. I'm like, I'm like asking questions and all that, and he just pull out one hundred
dollars bills to pay for stuff. And he had these two other guys that would come in and they were dressed in like nice shirts and ties, and I'm like, I want to be like these guys. And I would and I'd ask, we're all on, what do they do? And they're at sales? Oh, yeah, they're in sales. And I'm like, okay. And then my mom said to me one time, she said, hey, she goes, you need to go into sales because one day you'll be a CEO.
Okay.
And when I won't get into my mom's relationship, we were not we were close because she provided for us, we weren't. I think she had lost a lot in her life pustionally, and so we were not close emotionally. But the one thing she said to me, she's you need to go into sales because I think you could be you be an entrepreneur. Yeah, And that was the spark.
And looking at that statement, that's a very I think, very factual statement that if you are going to go into entrepreneurship, being able to sell is definitely like a number one skill.
You gotta sell something you got.
You got to be able to sell you all.
I've got to sell and sell yourself.
Okay, so you're in sales's okay, your first company? What is that first company?
Yeah? So that was launch Pad Career. There was a staffing company I started in two thousand and six, okay, and I had worked in. I got into staffing worked in so anybody who's familiar staffing, it's employment services. It's helping people find jobs, very related to what we do now. And I worked at this company since two thousand built myself up. Actually became the top sales rep in the country. They had an annual war and I had no idea. I got invited to this thing in Newport Beach and
it was out at the Higatt in Newport Beach. They surprised me. The CEO of the company called my name out. He's their top sales rep, Abraham Jenkins. I'm like what Yeah, I was blowing like like this is crazy. He did really well in sales, and I'm like, I want to start my own company. So I went to the owner of the company, or not the owner. Bob McDonald was
the owner of Remedy Staffing. He had passed away. Paul Mike Has took over as the chairman, and then Greg Palmer, who was a mentor of mine, was the president and COO, and I went I approached them and I'm like, hey, I want to own I want to buy a franchise. I'm like, I know you got franchises. I want to buy one. I went around and raised money to buy the franchise, tried to negotiate with a couple of locations, and the Las Vegas location was the one that became
like the best chance. I had everything ready to buy this franchise. I had the money lined up, I had the systems, I had where I was going to go, all of that, and then last minute the guy pulled out, he's I don't want to sell. Oh no, yeah, yeah.
That must have been devastating. So then my guess is that's when you were like, ah, now that I raised the money, might as well going business for myself exactly.
And my investor at the time was still it was also an investor in my software company. Let's just do our own thing.
Okay.
So I packed up everything, drove out to Las Vegas where we were going to open up, and like literally drove out to got an apartment, drove out, and then the next day I'm out there calling on businesses And.
Did you become that guy's competitor at that point? Oh yeah, did you put him out of business? No? Today I had to go for God, but you became his competitor. So okay, yeah, that's good. That's good enough. Are you going to feed me today?
I'm waiting for you to say feed us. Okay, So let me give me your plate, and I probably should taste it first to make sure.
That it's ready to go, but I'm pretty sure it's good.
I'm start with you. I gotta do the condiments and all that stuff. We got to do the whole thing. I'm gonna stand up again.
Okay, you're going to stand up?
Okay, all right? All right? Yeah, put that there. Let me get your plate ready. So back to the food, chicken teketos. I'm excited about this because I would eat this today.
You go today.
So the mayonnaise, Okay, again, this is not fancy food. Anybody out there thinks if you're struggling, you're having fancy food here.
I'll try to do it on this plate too. This is your plate, I know, I'll just okay, so you got the mayo.
Got the mayo. Look, top of tier makes everything better. Top of TiO if you want to. If you want to sponsor me, we're playing down for that. Yeah. I'm loyal to brands. I am very loyal to brands, and I'm just gonna show you just as well. If you can't get Top of TiO, go get yourself some delferno from Del Taco. Ok Look, I got my.
Brain, brought all the ingredients I brought.
I brought all the ingredients. I asked for extra. If you are struggling, don't go out and buy Top of TiO. Go to Del Taco, get yourself a seventy nine cent or a dollar twenty nine taco and ask for extras.
Nowadays they charge for these extra sauces, do they? I think? So?
Okay, that's up here in LA in Orange County, we still give state away.
They sail charge and ask for extra anything.
Yes, okay, let me get this was your plate?
Okay, hair, let's switch and I put do.
You like spicy food? Because that delferno is a little bit.
I'm gonna try it. I'm just gonna mix it.
Yeah, you can mix it up. I'm gonna put delferno on mine.
I'm hungry and I'm excited to eat these. Even though I thought these were gonna be freshly made. It's fine.
I could have made him fresh you know what I could have gone. That would have taken longer us.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna go like this.
You're doing that the right way?
Is that how you do it? Really?
When you do it?
Okay?
Now this is health conscious.
Now you don't eat this every day?
Yeah? This is cheers, this is yeah. Oh man, the sauce. See, people don't know the man, I'm telling you. Wow, did you go home with the sauce we made? We invented this sauce. There's mayonnaise and hot sauce. Wow, it was really good.
I would eat this.
I missed this.
Would you make your son try it?
Of course? Yeah?
Yeah, he loves and I would love to see his reaction trying this. Eat this sauce though.
Oh yeah, my kid love spicy food. Okay yep.
AJ does not get a rating on the food because he did not cook it fresh. But as far as this sauce, guys, if you do not have salsa in sour cream at home, or if you just want to switch it up Mayo with the top of Teo and the Del Taco sauce, this is a definite win. I would have never thought to do this.
Yeah, and I have a point behind making it fresh. And I said this off cameras. I didn't have time to cook. Back in the day, we did not have time. It was school, it was job, it was business. It still is like that for me now, but I have I'm not going to both have people that cook for me now and kids that people watch the kids unless I'm wanting to do like a Friday nights. I like to cook. Friday nights. I like to cook. But we did not have time. Everybody was like in the house.
Nobody was sitting in the house, sitting around. Everybody was like, I gotta be here, I gotta be there, gotta go.
So your first company, the staffing company, the.
Launch Launch Pack Career Careers.
That company is around for how many years?
That was from two thousand and five. We incorporated in two thousand and five and exited the business in two thousand and seven.
Okay, so you sold the business.
Yes to our customers. So our customers we were having we would send people out on temporary assignments, and we basically got offers from the customers, our clients that said, hey, we want to buy out all your contracts, and so we had an opportunity to just sell out all of the people that were on assignment. And it's not quite
what we would consider an aqua hype. It was more of they just bought out all the contracts and we're like, yep, And the Great Recession was starting to happen too, so it was a it was a good timing for us because we knew it.
Yeah, recession, Yeah remember that.
Yeah.
So after that, you get this chunk of money. You're feeling yourself. I'm sure, chunk of money. Money, you're feeling yourself. You're in Vegas.
So at that time I opened three offices, so we had Las Vegas and we had two in Orange County.
Okay, okay, so you're out here, you sold this company. What's your next play? And I know you're not just sitting relaxing for the next year.
No, it was it was not a chunk of mons.
This was the Great Recession, and everybody, I think was just shocked at what's going on, and we were too, But at the time, I was also involved in politics at the time campaign and a lot of the government agencies because they knew I knew employment and how to help people with getting jobs and careers, a lot of them reached out to me because Orange County, Ana Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Francisco, all of these government agencies or city governments were trying to help people get employed because
it was just massive layoffs. And so I, through my network, started getting consulting engagements. So that's when I started a company called Workforce two point zero, which was to consult with these agencies to help them get people reemployed. Okay, yeah, So we ended up getting contracts in Orange County in Los Angeles too, and this is when I learned about workforce development and how they actually do help you with
job training and employment. And so I got these contracts, and one in particular we got with the County of Los Angeles to help people who are on welfare get reemployed. Set up an office in South LA. We would drive in South LA every day from Orange County and would help basically people would come in that are on welfare and we'd go find them a job. Okay, And I
did that for about a year and a half. We got a bunch of contracts and at that point, this is when I started the technology company because I had software in my staffing company. We ran the business with software. Yeah, and so I realized like I should be doing the same thing in this consulting engagement. Ok So we built software.
Keep saying we, I'm sorry, why are you keep saying that we? Are you referencing the company? Are you referencing a partner the team?
I have partners. Whenever you're doing something, you're doing it with we you're doing it with.
I just wanted to clarify, I thought, But I was like, just make sure.
Yeah, I've got partners. Ian Connell is our CFN. He's an investor and owner, and then Melissa as well as my business partner, and so they but I also had employee. I had a guy named Charles at the time, and then Alyssa. When I say we, it's it's your team, it's a team. It's a team, especially when I'm talking about the things that we're doing. Right, I started a company, sure, but we're building this thing.
Yeah.
So we set up an office in South LA and basically we built the software. And this is when I'll talk about companies we worked with. We ended up building the software on Salesforce, and we as we started getting more and more traction with these consulting engagements and using this software and showing, like the City of Long Beach, City of LA, how we were helping all these people get employed.
Yeah.
They were like, we love what you're doing with the program, but we love the software even more.
Yeah. And at the time, you guys were using Salesforce.
Right, Yeah, and we are still on Salesforce.
Okay, because I was gonna say Salesforce is hey, miss, Like, I've worked with Salesforce within organizations and it does the trick, but then sometimes it doesn't do the trick. It can be a little funky.
Yeah, So we use them. Same as people build software on Amazon Oracle, or if they're building on Google Cloud, or if they're building it on Microsoft. We decided to build it on Salesforce. And its actually was really successful because at the time they were just getting into the government space and so we were able to ride that wave a little bit and exactly what you talked about, Calleen is that they weren't building it for these specific program That's what we did, Okay, So we designed it
and we built our own IP on top of it. Specifically, IP is intellectual property for anybody out there, own your software, own your.
So I didn't know. So you built on top of Salesforce? Is that what you're saying.
I only get too technical. There's contracts and all of that stuff that's related to it. I'm not that could go down another path, but the short answer is it's our software, it's our IP. And people do the same thing when they build on Google Cloud or Amazon. They're just the infrastructure, but we're sitting on top of that.
Wow. Yeah, I love the tech industry for that though. I feel like it's very much like open source built that's not as much hater raid as I'd say other industries.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm just going to tell everybody this, especially we're here in LA and the media technology is taking over everything.
Oh yeah it is and it has been for a while.
And don't sleep on AI. Yeah, don't sleep on AI.
I don't think anyone's sleeping on it now. People are like hooked to it.
Yeah, they're hooked to it as a consumer. Yeah, but thirty five percent of white collar jobs are going to be taken over by AI, the restaurant industry media. I was just we're driving up here and listening to listen to Big Boy and they were playing songs that were one hundred percent AI created.
Yeah.
Yeah, the game has changed.
The game has changed. Now, how do you feel about the plumbing and electrical and the AC and all these other careers that are going to be booming. Do you think that the demand and the costs for these jobs are going to be a lot more because it's going to be one of the few industries that are like you can't I doubt AI can replace it.
Yeah. Yeah, I think there's two things. Yeah, people are flooding into the trades. People are flooding into trades. One, you don't have to get a four year degree, and you can make six figures and above in the trades. And I've got a guy who's an exterminator comes to my house every quarter and I'm sure he's probably pulling in above six figures, you know what I mean? So you know, do what you love first. Yeah, but just understand, if you're just looking for a job somewhere pushing paper.
You're going to be unemployed. Not in five years, You're going to be unemployed this year or next year. It's coming fast. I know people, and I'm not trying to scare people, but I wanted to talk about this is under in under a year. In under a year. I know folks who work for Taco Bell and who are developing the AI drive through, and they're piloting it right.
But even though okay, they can do the AI drive through, but who can actually prepare the food?
The machines are going to prepare the food? You think so hundred percent you didn't need me to cook this thing. By the way, the machine will cook this thing eventually, one hundred percent. There are restaurants now that are one hundred percent automated in terms of making the burger one yes and Sam Francisco. I don't know the name of it, but there you know, I was.
About to ask you. People are going to out be out there right now, Google.
Automated under they're going to be making the food the restaurant into We're not talking about fine dining, we're talking about entry. And so I came from a conference up in Monterey and we were talking about this is that the entry level job is being eliminated. I talked about the entry level job that I got into, the entry level job we all had one. That job is being eliminated.
I believe that. So I tell my friends, like marketing, I have a marketing sales background. Marketing and sales, we're done, let's go become a nurser. Do this because we out we got about six months left.
I don't think so on marketing and sales because you can use the AI tools to do. If you can use the AI tools in your career, you'll be able to ride the way.
But I will say this though, companies and organizations like remember your photoshop and now we have Canva with shout outs to Canva genius lady. Now companies are like, we can have our intern creator now. So that's why I say, like marketing, like some of those things are definitely going to be if you're a company, just shove it on your intern.
You can't be a graphic designer, you can't be In fact, we just updated our website, launched a new website, and I had one guy do it. Yeah, we had contractors, but it was we used AI to create images, write content. We did so much, so it's the world is crazy.
It's going a trick question though. I have a love hate relationship with social media, But now that everything is automated and everything's AI related, I'm my hope is that social media disbands eventually because all you're going to see is populated content AI content from AI photos to AI video to and did Drake really say this? Did Biggie really say this? Because they have all these voices and stuff.
Now this platform that used to be like organic is now going to be we all know it's a consistency numbers game. Eventually, I would imagine that it would fade to black. What are your thought that.
The world is still about attention and getting It's how do you get people's attention? I do think and I'm gonna believe it like you, I think the in person is going to be much more valuable. I think in person events, in person media concerts, people are gonna want the real thing. I think it's unfortunate a lot of people are stuck in the consumer mindset, just stuck to their phones and doom scrolling. So those folks, if they we're going to have a separation between the haves and
the have not. So that's gonna get worse. It's gonna get exacerbated, and the consumer class is going to They're going to lose their jobs. Government is probably gonna have some form of ongoing welfare what they call it, but it's basically based based universal basic income UBI. So you're gonna have a lot of folks that are just going to be consumers, and the ones who are going to be able to be in the middle class and hopefully in the upper class are going to have to be
creators and use these technologies, use these tools. Yeah, it's it's getting scary out there. I don't let my kids on social media. I don't let them on I just talked.
To a girl before you came in who influencer, and she said that her thirteen year old has all these issues and a lot of the challenges are coming from just exposure to social media. I'm like, WHOA. But I also think YouTube kids is not becoming safe either, because I'm seeing my daughter who's four say words like kill or something. I'm like, oh wow, I'm like, where has anyone ever used that word? Like the little words where You're like, where do you even find that word or
how do you use that word? And so I was like, it's got to be. And this young lady was saying earlier that it doesn't matter how many restrictions you put. Still stuff is sliding through.
You just can't put them. You can't let them have the devices. And I'm older than you, but I grew up we had no devices.
No we didn't.
Yeah, we didn't have We're going back and you talk to parents that their kids go to school up in Silicon Valley, the Bear, they're on paper and pen they're doing every like the private schools of these kids, of the kids of the techies. Yeah, they're offline, Yeah, because they understand that they have to be able to build those foundational like.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. Yeah, And I will say this, so back what they what you were saying about the techies. I had my daughter in private school Montssori. This year was the first year I'm putting her in public and my gosh, you can actually see the difference immediately, just in the regiments, the teachings. The bar is so much lower. And it's like, on one hand, you're saving money, but you look at the difference and you're like, oh my gosh, is it even worth it? Like, in my
personal opinion, definitely not. You do what you gotta do in that moment. But I see it, and I'm like, so that's that's what I was paying for. Okay, see it's different. But yeah, just the second second what you were saying. But thank you so much for taking time out of here crazy schedule to come all the way down here. You had a nice drive.
Uh it's la So no, we didn't. No, yeah, we came a long way, but we did that for you. Congratulations on your podcast. I really remember seeing you five years ago or something, and you've built something truly amazing. And so I'm a big fan and I'm a supporter, So thank you for inviting me.
I appreciate you joining season five.
Yeah five, you can't wait season ten And yeah, I don't know if.
We're going to go all the way to season ten. There's only so many executives. But I will say this, I am working on a book and I've been taking I've been spending the last couple months with the help of a it's definitely cut it down transcribing all the interviews. And I was telling my little brother the other day, Well, all of you guys collectively have in common when it
comes to what the secret ingredient is to growth. Out of one hundred and fifty interviews, I would think that what's the foundation to growth?
I guess that's how I think it's perseverance or persistence.
I was thinking perseverance. I've had people come up to me like, oh, the book definitely, faith is the number one consistent thing. And I told my brother the answer to this and then he was like, ohh and I've told other people because I thought it was very interesting. The number one foundation to growth is honesty, truth, radical
truth with self. And I was like, but then if you think about it, in order for you to grow, even with you being labeled as a bad kid or what have you, right, at some points you sit down right and you have this raw.
Radical truth, self awareness.
Self awareness like no lying, no buffer, with just you. That is actually the foundation. And then obviously the other things that you're listing are definitely relevant. But I just thought it was very unique that the gospel was.
That's a spiritual conversation and I know you're at time, but it's there's a bigger you out there and there's a bigger you in there if you can have that self awareness and you can really self actualization, and that's a journey we're all on. I'm a person of faith. That's my journey now, is like this. We all have a bigger dream and a bigger vision, and if you ask yourself why you're not achieving it, then the answers
start to come to you. And I'm a personal face, so I pray every day over myself, but over my family that will have those breakthroughs.
Do you think in your journey though, there was those moments of radical truth with self.
When I got expelled from high school was a big radical truth. And I think over the past few years, with my family and all of that, I've had another one.
Okay, yeah, yeah, so I love it all right, cool, Thank you guys for tuning in. You guys can I guess you will be going on different random sites and you will not even know you are using launch Pad software. But it does exist. And the companies that you guys cater to are more mission based, aligned with your mission.
They're all aligned with our mission.
Yeah, they're all aligned with it helping the community.
Yeah, I just go out there if you're needing help, if you're unemployed or whatever. There's resources out there for you, and you can always connect with me online and I can help connect you.
All right, guys, thanks, peace out, all right,