EDDIE OSUCH - Designing Dinner

Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have very very very special guest Eddie oh Such from Neo and Associate's architectural firm. Yes, yes, did I say it right? That was close enough. This is a special tree for me because Eddie and I are I would say friends slash acquaintances. More on the acquaintance aside. Eddie and I worked together previously, and everyone from probably do get questions

Oh we had it fully rendered for you. We had it fully We had a full three D presentation of it for you.

It was like I paid for it. It was real professional. There was teams involved, and I can't thank you enough. So the table that a lot of people don't get to take full advantage of that we cook on every day was designed by Eddie, who again designs some really beautiful buildings so easily could have hung up. And so we always pay tribute to Eddie on every episode with

Oh well, thank you very much. I'm not sure where to look.

But okay, now that you are officially in the eating while broke kitchen, I gotta ask, what will you be having me eat today?

Well, today we're gonna be having mabo tofu. And this is a dish when my wife and I when we didn't have much, We didn't have anything really, and we had to find a way to get by. And it was a difficult time. We didn't have Like I said, we didn't have much. We didn't we couldn't go out, we couldn't enjoy, you know, just the normal day to day life. So we needed to find something to sustain us.

So wow, and even though you haven't started cooking yet, this room literally smells good.

Oh good. I can only screw it up so much.

Yeah, so this looks like a lot of moving parts for you, said, Moba tofu mob my bow, sofu. Okay, So what are the ingredients for this dish?

Well, the the the bass ingredients. I'm going to go across the table here, we've cut up some tofu. That's the bass underneath, and we have ground pork that we had as well. And beyond that, it's a bunch of spices. I mean there's the the shallats, the ginger, and the garlic. I mean that these are all my pieces for that.

There's more more things.

I have the green shallot well, and the green onions. I have green onions, green onions, garlic, ginger, shallats, And this is my mix of all those things to throw in with the.

Be okay okay, And then what are all these other sauces and stuff?

So yeah, that's the all the stuff that you would cut up and put together. And then on this side is we have our chicken broth and actually there's a pre mix here for you for everyone at home. And then we have some sea salt, some some white pepper corn starch, and then we come down with you know, the normal oil, oyster sauce uh uh soy sauce, and then sesame oil.

And what's the clear the clear bottle.

The clear bottle. Oh, that's the rice wine.

Sorry, rice wine. Yes, okay, this I absolutely hate tofu, but I feel like this is gonna be the best tofu we've ever had, and I would have said it would have been the best vegan dish. But I am saved by the grace of ground port today. Right, Yes, oh you have ground port, so go ahead start cooking. Okay, let's hope the stove is plugged in. Yes, let's see.

Okay, which one did you have? Okay?

Did it light? Did you see a little light?

Go on? Oh yeah, I got it perfect.

All right. We have no insurance here. It's usually pretty fake, so try not to burn yourself on our stove. Okay, But take me back to what was going on between you and your wife and this. I'm guessing this was a daily meal.

Uh yeah, Well, when I completed college, I had nothing. It was ninety four and there was the economy was horrible. There was nothing for architects, and my wife just kept sending out resumes hoping.

Now, were you guys married in college or no?

I we got married after.

Okay, So she like, she was like, oh, you broke but you got a plan, so I'm gonna help you. Yeah yeah, and she took one for the team and married you anywhere.

Oh yeah, I was definitely the diamond and the rough. I'm adding some oil here just to get get this going for the dish. And yeah, she really took the leap of faith on me. H, really leap of faith I had. I had nothing. I had two you know that didn't have the pot to pee in.

Okay, that's beautiful. I like that. And you guys are still together? Oh how many years later is this now?

Oh oh, this is a tough question since.

Oh see, this is where he's gonna mess up the interview. We say, how long have you been married to your wife?

I how long have I been married?

Oh my god, I'm gonna call your kids of twenty nine? Twenty nine years? Okay there, yeah, don't worry. We're gonna try to edit this episode so you don't get in the doghouse.

I put in like twenty eight and twenty seven or thirty one or thirty, and then you can cut in which one works.

Oh my god, no, twenty nine years shoutowtns to twenty nine years of marriage started from the bottom, now we hear. Okay, so you leave college. Your wife is submitting resumes so you can get a job. Yeah wow, and now you own your own firm. This is amazing. Okay, So what happened you got a job? Did she did she actually get help you get one?

Yes, she did. She actually I had to go off for a trip back to my family, and she decided while I was gone that she actually sent out one hundred and one hundred and twenty resumes. And this is back when you actually had to type them all up, all individual I only got.

Oh you mean she wasn't like making copies. No, oh my gosh, she wasn't just like editing the names in the first sentence. No, oh my gosh, this is you know what I low Keithaw only like people in the hood kind of did this, Like why can't men do resumes? But now you are proving that it's just a male. Maybe a lot of males don't do resumes. Resumes.

Yeah, So the next week is we're gonna throw this in. No, she she sent them all out, and I finally I got like three interviews out of it. So in here is my garlic.

You canna touch it. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna freak out.

Okay, just be careful with the pork.

Okay, yeah, yeah, I got gloves for that for you. All right, So you're you're saw tanging the garlic in the in the different vegetables for seasoning, like the onions and all that.

Yeah.

Okay, So so she sends out the resumes while you're out of town.

Yeah, and then I came back and I had I had three interviews and out of one hundred and one hundred she'll correct me later, it's like one hundred and thirty resumes that she sent out. We got three people responded, and out of those, I got one job offered.

Wow. Wow, So it was tough for architects for real.

Yeah, it was really bad. Okay, So I think I'm supposed to add now, I'm supposed.

To go ahead, and I just want to just share with you guys a little behind the scenes. This just a testament to his wife and his family. Two of your children showed up here. Your wife had labeled this, this is how how, this is the type of woman you guys want. Right here, she was like, look, I'm gonna make sure you don't feed Coleen a terrible meal. So she like added all these post its so you don't mess it up. I love it all right, So

Now okay, okay, here's a napkin, thank you, and uh yeah, so I get the job, and uh, it still wasn't paying that much. I was still barely getting by, but you know, it was enough for us to get out and get into a small apartment. And and then she she always had the better job at the beginning.

Okay, okay, so she was so she had a job while she was doing the resumes or was it was she she got a job right after you got a job.

No, actually she had she already had a job.

Okay, your wife is looking like a superhero right now. Yeah, you'd go home and some flowers for her today. Okay, okay, so you get the job. What's the experience looking like? How did you like working this job?

Oh? It was the very first one. It was the best part actually was coming home to my wife. And then uh but it worked, and uh it was still wasn't getting paid that much. I was still we were still this struggling you know, you know, you know in the relationship, you know, when you're starting out, you don't really have anything, and things like for what was it for one year?

He was one of those wooden ones.

You're struggling yeah, just a little too hard. Jesus, you want to you could pull that out and just yeah, maybe we need to take.

Yeah, because we're only cooking for two, So go on, just.

Let me break I'm almost okay, I just sive it, coordinate myself here, ah, there we go. She left that in the refrigerator last night. But okay, so we were for for romantic gifts. I still remember one year, instead of for for Valentine's Day, we bought each other major appliances. It's like, I really love you. Here's a refrigerator. And because we couldn't go out and eat anywhere, we had to, you know, we had to stay at home. And it's just so everything had to eventually come out of the fridge.

Do you now, Do you cook at home now more regularly since those times?

Oh yeah, we eat at home almost two thirds of the time, even more. Okay, we actually really enjoy eating at home. The quality is better. We trust it, we know what we're getting. Yeah, watch, we just kill myself on this.

Yeah, I see, I see it. Kids behind the camera like like.

Laughing, hyster.

Do you have that fire? Ups? Is that high?

Is it about?

You have it really high too?

I just moved it higher.

Yeah. Okay, okay, So you guys are going through this face you have the day job, like, let's inch closer to Neo and associates.

Well, actually, there's one last story. Can I get in that We we were at a point before I got to Neo. We you had said bring in those emotional point. It's like, I remember we we were still struggling and we barely had anything. We thought, oh this runaway to have a lunch or something at Santa Barbara, right, And I remember to this day we wanted to take money out to pay for dinner and I couldn't take it out because we only had eighteen dollars in our time.

Oh wow.

Yeah. And at that time, at that moment, that was the magical moment where we kind of looked at each other and it was said, we are never going to be in this situation ever again. We're not going to run from everything and imagine everything will be fine. We're going to face our fears and build for the future. Wow.

Yeah, so it was from that moment.

Yeah, that was the pivotal moment.

So wait, did you, like, did you look into bankcount before you pull up to the restaurant? You pulled up to the restaurant and realized this is really reality?

Like right before we got to the restaurant, there was like an ATM there. I was like, oh, pull out some cash and pay, and yeah, I was just I can't take any money out. There's no money there. So that was hard.

And then how did that make you feel? I hate to do this, but how did it make you feel as a man?

At that moment, I felt like I was working for nothing. I was just spinning my wheels. Here's I couldn't have a family. I you know, I couldn't even pay for dinner, which is actually when I first met my wife, she actually paid for my dinner.

But oh wow, yeah, oh okay, yeah she liked you, she loved you, yes, okay, okay.

But yeah, I remember though, when we were there and on our drive back, we had a lot of time to think from from Santa Barbara like this is horrible. You know, this is not where we want to be, and we got to take better care of you. You know each other in our future. So yeah, it was yeah, that kind of And as a guy, you know, trying to provide and you have a job, you think you have it all together and you don't. You know, you get reminded that you don't have anything.

So now that you guys have a game plan on, like, look, we're no longer going to live this fantasy that things are just going to turn out great. What was that next step after that?

Uh? We I look, I found this guy that was dealing and uh it seems it didn't it doesn't matter right now, but he would show you how to get a house, like no money down, that kind of thing, and and I I was really trying to figure out how to get a house, you know, how do you get a house?

Like I'm broke, but let's let's go and super the stars.

Okay, So no, we came back and it was just like, honey, we you know, well, actually she gave me the ultimatum. She said, I said I want a family, and she said we don't have a house. And I'm like, okay, well, well she's given me the path forward here, that's for sure.

Yeah, yeah, I need a little bit.

This is actually starting to cook. Now, this is good.

Yeah, this is a good thing.

You need just a little pinch of salt, okay, and then a little bit of white pepper. Number one.

I've never seen white pepper before. Is there a reason why white pepper is used instead of black?

It has a totally different flavor?

Really, can I see it? Oh gosh, white peppers should not be slept on. It's like it almost says like garlic pepper, salt, garlic powder and salt almost mixed together.

Yeah, it does. That's a good it's.

It's by far. I'm gonna start looking at white pepper definitely in the future. So okay, shout outs to white pepper. All right, so you you're on mission. I want a family, She says, that's okay, we just need to not have them in a tent, got it?

Yes, all right. Yeah.

So you start going on the hunt for homes and you bump into someone that says you can get a house.

You can, you know, here's all these different ways to find this. And then I ended up finding a duplex okay, yeah, and I still live in it today.

Okay.

Yeah. Uh so I was like, well, I can't afford it to pay for it. I need someone else to help you.

Watch out you Mike right there. Oh okay, it's okay, Okay, so you can't. So you got a duplex, you got an investment property and this was in California. Yeah, shout outs to you. Okay, yeah, so you get the duplex with no money down or.

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of we we we big borrowed and steal Okay, well, uh, you know, we uh asked some relatives. They helped us out. There's different financing available. We you know, scrounged what little savings we had, and we had enough enough to get in and then you know, fortunately the the rents on the place were due like right away, and then we also got an additional loan for some you know, fixing it up and stuff a little bit.

Oh you guys didn't move into it right away.

We did, We actually lived. And that comes to the next I guess down down the tough spot is I remember when we were still now we had a house, but we still had nothing. We literally sat on boxes that was it, and we've you know, then again that's what that's where we found out that the refrigerator is the most important room of the house. And yeah, we would literally sit on box as well. The place was getting you know, while we were trying to fix the place up. It was. It was bad.

Yeah, but you did have a tenant.

Yeah, we had a tenant for the other unit, but the one we were in was fairly you know. Okay, So I think the next thing I'm supposed to do is, let me see I need a little bit, a little bit of wine in this number one.

I love, I love, I love, I love the level of commitment. So so you guys are in the house. You're still work in a day job, now you are? You like, all right, day one, let's pop out some babies. So you guys got She's like, well you got to make sure that you know the sinks work and everything is functioning in the house. Yes, okay. And then now was the architects and you like looking at it like, oh my god, this is the best project I've ever given myself.

No, I was just like, oh, this is just barely sustaining me, and I need to We're adding some more oyster sauce to still a little bit. She warned me about this. It's really pretty thick. A little bit more. Then there we go. Okay, So no, we ended up waiting. Overall, from the time we were married until kids was a little over five years.

Okay, okay, okay, So those five years you guys were grinding.

Just yeah, it was. Yeah. Those those are tough. Yeah, especially you see, you know, for friends and family around you succeeding, You're just like, oh, is it ever going to change for us?

Yeah?

And uh, you know, then we had the kids, and then uh the next time when we didn't have anything, my my wife got laid off when we had when we had our first child. So yeah, we were back to struggle. Yeah, back to Okay, so I think I'm just about cooked here. So the next thing I gotta do is this bowl after we get it all ready here.

So after your first child, she is is at this point, is she gonna stay a stay at home parent.

Yeah. We decided at that point we're gonna, you know, bootstrap ourselves and struggle through it and make it happen. And uh yeah we we. The first thing that happened was, oh, you know, no more coffee out, no more. Yeah, the coffee was a killer, right, and then uh, no more eating out? Is this all at home? And a lot of focus on the you know, on my my daughter and then eventually my son because I guess we got used to it. Well that and my daughter requested a brother,

But then the pressure is really on you then.

Right oh yeah, and then yeah I was yeah, that wasn't good for my health.

So so but you're still working that day job. Oh yeah, as a as an architect.

As an architect, I was moving up through the ranks. I was, you know, joining different places, you know, getting paid a little bit more each time, you know, and just keep but I had now I had to support everybody off of my lesser income. So yeah, that was that was tough too. And then the best part was I mean then the next one. See there's always something. Life never just gives you the easy way out all the way through. Okay, So now I'm going to go

All right, guys, Just to help Eddie out a little bit. I was, you know, his kids were in the They were terrified that I was gonna eat, Like I don't think they had much faith in Eddie. So we called Eddie's son Logan, to come save the day because he was like, Dad, you missed up. You gotta do it this way in that way. So we're gonna let the architect be an architect, and we're gonna let chef Logan feed us today. Thank you for saving us both. Yea, yeah,

Well? Actually we yeah, for those next few years when they were growing up, it was she was taking them everywhere and taking care of them, and I was doing very long hours, and I was working at places that I think didn't really appreciate me, and I was actually kind of missing out on home life, life and stuff like that. And actually the next big stage actually happened in two thousand and eight. When I got laid off. And now my wife says, Okay, I'll go out and

And how old are the kids at the time when you become an entrepreneur stay at home dad. Now he sounds and looks like a chef. Okay, chef, chef, all right, I got this, Yeah he got it. Look how confident he's moving right now, chef.

This is going to get done. Okay.

And is also he's aspiring or did you just complete college for becoming an architect? I am still in college in my junior year okay, and he's he's going to school for architectural too. So the shout outs to the family growing Yes, okay, so now you're stay at home entrepreneur. Yes, And how old are the kiddies at the time.

But my daughter was nine and my son was five?

Okay, So this is like manageable entrepreneur stay at home that like these kids are like kind of self sufficient a little bit. Yeah, okay, so now the pressure is on, like yeah, so now you start to believe in yourself. You take the reins and what's the next milestone?

Well, right at that point, I took my last exams finally to become you know, a licensed you know, registered are architect, So you know you have to go through this last you know, set of qualifications. And then I start trying to feed the business, you know, and get new clients and get new projects. And we landed our biggest commission. It's over on Ventura. It's a giant medical office, and the ball starts rolling and it was really exciting.

Now talk about the entrepreneurship. So you're out going so to land this first big deal, this is your first big fish. How many phone calls, how many networking? How much pleading did you have to do to get this first big big And this is the clients coming on as their first right yeah, and they know it. So you had to do some real big I believe in myself pants, right, Yes.

It was really you know, I like to believe in myself pants. Yeah. I had to go in thing thinking we were the best solution for this client and we were the best option and they had they also had to take that leap of faith in us too, But uh, it was it was a lot of self belief. We really had to go out there and say, you know, we can do this, you know we can take care of you, we can do this project for you.

So how did it feel going from architects? From what I would imagine the architect is more of an introvert, right, They're not. They're not in there teaching you sales selling skills. Right, So now you're picking up the phone, you're cold calling, right? And now have you watched other salespeople do do these pitches before?

I know? Actually I didn't. I'm still trying to learn today. Wow. But yeah, I didn't really have like a direct person that I saw as as you know, architectural sales or anything like that. I just kind of started reaching out to the networks and putting feelers out there or wherever I could, and a lot of playing it by year.

Yeah. I like highlighting that because I think that there's an assumption with entrepreneurship that, uh, you know, if you're an architect, that's the only hat you're gonna wear in your business. But it's it's not right because you're an entrepreneur and an architect. You own Neo and Associates. You're the founder and creator of this company, and it's been around for how many years now?

I've had it for Uh I'm at eleven years with Neo.

Wow, eleven years. Shout outs to you. And now can you say with confidence you believe in yourself? Oh yeah, yeah, now you're like my works. Look at that portfolio. Go to Neo and Associates website. Beautiful work, by the way, Oh thank you. I My dream I always tell Eddie is like one day I'm gonna have enough money to call him and be like, yo, come build me something beautiful. I want like an all glass house, perfect, super modern, super sleek, super sexy. And I know you can do

People say, Well, people look at the site and they like certain things that they've seen, and they they say, yeah, go down that path, Yeah, go that way.

Are they ever allowed to see a design and say that exact thing that allowed. I don't know what the rules are an architectural design like that.

Every time it becomes a unique because every site is unique, every location, so everything has to change a little bit so it can go in that spirit or inspiration and that's, you know, really the route we go.

So as an architect, for all of us that don't know, like myself, when I think architect, I think you like I think as a child, you were like sitting there with chopstick schooling them together, or you were like the best lego builder of all time and everyone was like, dang, he could build some really awesome buildings. But I'd imagine it's a lot more complicated. Where did the initial bug to become an architect come from?

Uh? Yeah, you know, growing up, I liked going to the you know, to Disneyland and u Fcot Center and Walt Disney World, and I just loved the you know, the architecture of the parks, and I wanted to originally to be an imagineer. I wanted to go and design rides and stuff like that for Disney.

I didn't even know that was a what's that called the imagining?

An imagineer I.

Didn't even know that was a I don't even know why. Did you see there's a carnival building being built in the parking lot. That's when you were like, like, hey, I could build a cool ride.

Yeah, that's why I was originally.

That's called an imagineer for that's okay, Okay, I didn't even for social reason. I didn't even know that was a career. But yeah, they have to come from somewhere, right.

Oh yeah, and I mean Disney has a whole in house team and stuff like that.

Okay, so you were really inspired by Disney World.

Yeah, okay, yeah, I was just like, oh, I really want to do that, and that's why I wanted to go to architecture school and I really and then when I got there, uh, I love I found out that, you know, I love putting stuff to you know, there's the usual love doing legos as a kid, loved building all the time and all those things. But I think for me, it was a little more unique with imagine what's going on? Logan? Is it me? Are you laughing at me? Go a little too much that you got to do that.

Let Logan be the chef, Let him be the chef. Eddykay, Okay, we're gonna stay out of it. We're going to stand Logan's. We're going to stay at a Logan's kitchen. So at what point do you go from imagineer to architect, Like, when do you make the decision that you're not going to be imagineer.

Uh? Actually I worked for a little bit at Disney, and it's it's a long road between imagining something and getting it built. So I guess at the time I was just really impatient. I wanted a lot more control over the final product.

So as imagineaire, you literally have to imagine it and then kind of build it, and then it's got to not kill people.

Yeah, got it? Yeah. Oh, and there's always this, you know, they work at the story could you.

Imagine imagineer that builds right, and the people are like stuck.

You're like, no, you didn't figure it all out. You forgot about safety. Now I did it for a little bit, and uh, I wanted to take the reins more. You had said take the reins, And I found that I'm happiest when when I'm calling the shots. You know, even with a client that has specific needs and stuff, they're still coming to me for you know my inspira and uh my you know design skill.

So but with the Imagineaire, did do you not? Is that just the nature of that that industry that you don't get to call the shots. Is it like the the what is it like the Disney parks or the six flags that say this is what we're looking for?

Yeah, it's uh, there's a lot more hierarchy, there's a

That was awesome. Yeah, okay. So going back to you as an architects slash entrepreneur, you're on this path. You have this successful first client. Do this client start snowballing in or is it still a struggle?

Oh, it's still a struggle. It's not something that people instantly look for always. You know, it pops up somewhere and they go, you know, oh, I think I'll look for an architect today. You really have to be in the certain circles. And I'm always trying to be in the right room, in the right place, and you never know where that is. So yeah, it's still grind.

Now, do architects mainly get most of their business from commercial or is it from resident Is it a good balance between residential and commercial?

With NEO, we're a good balance. We love our you know, commercial clients because they're repeat clients, and but we also love the er that the individual clients bring, I mean yeah, and their attachment to their dream home.

Okay, so I look at the I would say rendering slash for me pictures and I love them. So if you're a client and you have a land, is the first person to go to the architect traditionally and then the builders or like can you paint that picture for us that don't know, like when do you contact the architect and what the architect actually does?

Actually it's sometimes even before you get the land. It's good to reach out to an architect. Because they'll tell you what you can put on it, and you don't want to buy a piece of land and then find out, Oh, I, you know, I can only put a you know, a fifteen hundred square foot mini house on it. You want to be able to have an idea beforehand. Oh I can put my twenty five hundred, you know, or I can put a you know, a shop or a retail store. You know.

And when an architect looks at land, what are you looking for to determine that.

We do our due diligence. We see how what the code is, what the zoning is, what the maximum height, and you know the size of the constraints. This is what we're looking for. Yeah.

Wow, So you're not looking for like plumbing on the ground or anything. I'm literally like, I want to know because there's people out there that are like, I want to buy a piece of land. No, it's good to know that you contact the architect first, because you know, you would not know.

Yeah, you wouldn't know. And then actually you mentioned plumbing. When I have clients that have something that's more remote, that's one of the first things I asked said, do you have utilities? Do you have water, do you have drainage for sewage? Do you have power? And then and then after that we can start to have a conversation of okay, what are we going to put on it?

So would you say it's easier or best for a client to buy land or buy a built like maybe like terrible house on some land.

Both have Well, the good thing about the terrible house is you do have the utilities. The utilities are there. You know that, there's all the hookups, you know. Unfortunately, usually the terrible house is still more money than the land. So but the terrible house has a lot going for it. So I like that a lot going with the terrible house. But also I've had clients with the blank land, and the blank land works really well as well. I mean, so I it.

Does it balance itself in costs though, Like if you buy land and has no plumbing.

It does kind of balance out a little bit.

Yes, yeah, okay, because the other houses costs more. But you still got to kanda.

Yeah, okay, you got to get all them.

Now we're in California, and California I think just passed some regulations where people could sell their yards. Is that correct? Yeah, you're gonna know right, you would know?

Okay, yeah, yeah, right, Now it's it all. It kind of all started with the whole adu laws. I mean, you know, allowing people to do ad us, which are basically another house on your lot. Right, so this is to say you built an extra house on your back lot. Well, a new law just came into fact that said, okay, now you built a house and your back lot, you can section off that land and sell it separately.

Oh but now can they? But they can't just say I have a huge backyard, I just want to sell half of it without the house.

Uh No, you can do it without the house as well. You can. Yeah, that's another that's a different law. That's a like an SB nine law where you can do a lot split.

A lot split. Now have you have you worked on a lot split before?

We haven't worked on one yet. We've had a couple where we started, and then some kind of complication came through. Some of these laws are kind of new and the cities are still figuring it out.

Okay, okay. And then what's the difference between an adu and a jdu.

At adu is a full accessory dwelling. A jdu is cut out of your existing house.

Okay, so if you have like an extra room and you want to throw a back door on it type.

Of yeah, exactly, you throw a back door and you throw a little kitchenette. You're good.

And then what's up, chef Logan? Yeah, you're done, beat us. Well, you can feed your dad first. This looks good. It smells good. Shout outs to Logan, Thank you, Logan. I'm pretty sure Jared you can join in. They made enough to feed the whole family here, and do you know what out of I just want to say something else that's really special about this episode. Usually on the show, we get the ingredients and we try to guess to

Remember at the very end you're supposed to sprinkle some of this on the very top.

It looks it looks great. We eat hot dogs on this show. Okay, peanut butter and jelly. Okay, this is a gourmet dish at this point. So the a d u and the j du. The jdu is attached. Now do people typically call architects for j dus?

Yes, and you still need to have it would help. It definitely helps out to have. The thing is, the homeowner can do a lot of these things, but the city it makes, they make it pretty difficult for client to get it through.

Switch's around there.

Present, it looks good.

I love he wished they would have put very little tofu on this, but we're gonna see it. So is this it's really the texture of tofu. Growing up, my mom would have there was two ingredients and my mom would cook that we just knew was the kiss of death as children, and it was okra and tofu, okra and tofu. And so anytime, like you know, parents, they eat the you know, you eat the foo foo in

Oh I love O.

I've even tried it fried. I just can't get past the sliminess.

Well, we chose a more stiff, you know type.

Of it looks good. We're only tasting it, Logan.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Shout out to Logan for coming through.

Yay.

Do you want to make yourself well, oh, we don't have place, but afterwards, Logan, we'll you know, thank you. Okay, let's try this beautiful dish. Shout out to your son, chef Logan. I saw you trying to question him and put him under pressure.

Oh he was just talking about how the sauce got saucy.

You know, so is Logan. Do you know if Logan's gonna join the firm, you don't have to recruit him.

I have to recruit him. I have to convince.

Okay, all right, I have a little bit of tofo on here, guys, some pork. Here we go. Yeah, I'm messing with the tofo Wait, let me let me give it a try.

It's the texture.

Let me tell you, though, this dish is really good. Really good dish. I would have it. I'm just trying to see if I would have it again with the tofo.

Covers it up a lot.

I'm not gonna lie. I think I would do it with the tofo. Yeah, Logan did a Really, I'm not giving you no, I can't do it. Logan came in Save the Day. I saw him come in here. He was like, Dad, you god this, you gotta do this first. I said, yeah, this is so good, I gotta take another bike.

It is.

It is good. And look at that on the end. Ah, I'm not gonna front like Tofu's still little. The texture is weird, but it works with this dish because you have the balance of the pork and this dish is really good.

Oh great, I.

Will give this dish a ten.

Good job.

So being broke eating this ain't that bad. This is like restaurant style.

Yeah, I'm very fortunate that my wife happened to be a chef.

So she wasn't really a chef.

No, she wasn't really, she's just home taught.

Yeah, this is this is honestly really delicious.

Yeah and all. But uh yeah, but if you look the ingredients aren't really expensive, then you know the pork is, you know, three ninety nine.

I think, if anything, it looked like you guys did a lot of flavoring, and the flavoring is amazing. This dish is really good. I can't wait to take this dish home. How much like you can eat it. I'm gonna take some of this. We don't eat this for dinner, you know. Sometimes me and my daughter we eat while broke. There's a couple of dishes on this show that I go home and pretend like I came up with them

Yeah, Well, starting from the beginning, we really listened to the client what they're looking for. That's the you know, that's the first thing we do is listen, uh, and we realize what what the end goal is. We are firm. We work back and forth with the client and honing that vision to the final you know what do I say presentation or you know what everybody agrees upon that we're going to do, and then we take that to

But we take contractors to do that part. As an architect, you can handle.

All that money. No, we handle all of that. We get it. We get the building all the way to that magical moment ready to issue. Uh So we we go back and forth, we get approvals from all these different apartments and then finally it's ready to issue, at which point the contractor can pull the permit and you know, they can start construction.

Wow. Yeah, so when you gave us this table, it was cool because we literally just took what you gave instead.

Yeah, yes, it was.

It was pretty awesome. I'm like, oh, okay, that's different. Yeah, you just I mean, I hate to use the table as an example, but remember we don't we don't know, we don't know. Okay.

Now, even with the table, what we did is we built the whole thing in three D. We showed you and you actually came back with some comments. I can recall it. It needs to be more eating well broke, it needs to be more of the logo. Can you bring in, you know, some more items. And then when we were doing it, division came to do all the you know, all the all the forks.

Yeah sorts, which by the way, we're like hand put on, and we had to like all the little bottoms of the forks. And I have pictures of people in my garage adding each fork because I had got the table and I was like, you're missing the forks.

Yeah, you can't have the forks. It's not a it's not an eating table without the forks.

So it did an incredible job. Yeah, and you're right. I did go a little back and forth for someone that wasn't paying. Were you guys like oh my.

Gosh, no, you know when you when you came to me with this whole idea for this show, Colleine. I. I was just like, this is a great opportunity for Neil to be a part of this.

Oh you're serious, yes, Oh, I just remember you being really nice, like, okay, No, it was.

A great opportunity and you had this clear vision of where you wanted it to go, and it was easy to believe in you. So thank you. Uh, and it was something exciting for us. It's like, oh, we get something that people will see and enjoy.

And the best part of this story is I mean, it sounds great that you believed in me, but at the time it was just an idea. This is before I got my deal with the Black Effect and got distribution like national distribution. So if you would have built the table and it would have been stuck in my garage, would you been mad or disappointed? I'm genuinely curious. Would you have been like, ah, never again? Will I believe

I was never an option?

Oh okay, good, because why I saw that?

To be honest, you're trying to leave me down the path of something I never thought. It was never something that occurred to me. I always knew it would go somewhere.

Thank you, Thank you so much. So going back to being I love real estate, I love it. I don't know why I'm not a real estate agent because I'm one of those creepers that love to like, oh there's an open house. I know, my ass is broken. Can't afford one point two million dollar houses in West Hills. But let's walk and imagine what life would be like here. Do or like in my neighborhood, we have all these lots that are like two acre lots in North Hills.

Yeah, with the uh, when you subdivide a lot like that, with however you decide to go through, you do have to have some front access. There has to be some kind of easement in order to get the you know, your car in and out, and so that is part of it. So essentially you end up looking it looks like a little flag. Yeah, you always have the flagpole that goes out to the street.

That always happens, so like on our on the properties that we have. And I was telling my girlfriend because I've been trying to convince my friends, and you got a yard, you want to sell it to me? They'd be like, girl, we thought about it. I'm like, what's holding you back? You know the white people they use credit. Black people be like, we got to save up all this money. I'm like, white people don't save up all that. They use a balance of credit.

Oh yeah, it's always credit.

Yeah, it's other people's money. I was telling that, and then she was like, well, I don't know about my credit. I said, girl, don't worry. I got like a nine hundred. I'll bless you with some of my credit. Say, you know, I love financial literacy because I've learned all the tricks, and I like talk to my homies exactly like this. Oh, I'm like, I'm like, what's holding back your credit? I burned through, maxed out my credit cards. Don't worry. I

Oh yeah, I just I.

Signed them on to my I add them just so you guys know. A real cool cheat hack to building your credit. I'm not talking about. If you are a person that does not pay your credit card bills or your bills, you know, there's nothing I can do to help you there. But if say, you know you've maxed out your credit cards, that does affect your debt to

Oh yeah, now I briefly remember, yeah, yeah, he came to me. He wasn't really going forward, and we started looking at the property and started seeing there was possibilities to add more units or to you know, adu JD you know, just add a lot of income to the property. So but I guess he hadn't moved forward on it.

So okay, But but that is the proper protocol. When you go the first person is the architect, not the contractor.

Now, the contractor they know what they can build. They say, oh yeah, And you know if you come to him and say, how am I going to improve this? Well, I need you know, the next thing they're going to see is I need to see a set of plans.

Oh okay, okay, okay.

And then even when with us, if we get it to a certain level, the next thing they say, oh, we need to see the structural plans. You know, they want to be at a certain point where they can start to bid and put something together.

Okay, But as an architect, you handle all the permits, so they're literally it's almost like grown up ikea because the plans you hand them is just bulletproof. Correct. Has a contractor ever called you and said, y'all and you better answer this question like you a pr rep for NEO and association, y y your daughter back. They're like, oh god, let's see. But now, has any contractor ever called you and said, this plan just quite for whatever reason isn't working. Has that ever happened?

Uh, Well, there's always conditions in the field that happen. And when we do get that call, we do respond to it and we'll make a modification and make sure, you know, we'll give them a new drawing of what will work. And that's part of actually having the architect on board, because a lot of these people that I run into, they think that not hiring an architect to

And what happens when you red tag.

Was that they they start experience. They start getting heavy fines and the building department, you know, will insist that whatever part it does not meet it, it has to be demolished or removed. So I've had clients go all the way down that road and it's it's very difficult.

Okay, And now do you at Neil and Associates do you guys study what the new rulings are that come out, And do you guys also partner with like maybe lenders, because I've seen realtors do that. They'll like be buddies with lenders and they'll know like different loans and stuff. Do you guys do that or do you guys just primarily just focus on the permitting and net or do you guys stay up to date on what the rules are?

Well, we do stay up to date on what the rules are as far as codes and as far as like every few years, we have a new building code that we have to abide by, So we abide, you know, we follow that, we use that. And then as the next part where you say about the lenders, I mean that's a new avenue for us. We've never really teamed up with lenders before. It's usually it seems like a lot of the time what happens is a client needs drawings first, and then they go to the lender.

Oh, oh they don't. Oh I didn't know that. I thought you buy the land, like say I buy someone's yard, want someone going to do it? Someone's gonna do it, So I buy the land, I pick you up. I'm like, yo, DDI I did it. First of all. My second question is going to be like, I like this picture on your website, how much do you tell me, like, how much with the contractor's fees the building's probably gonna cost me? Or do you say, well, this is how much the renderings are gonna cost you.

Well, I'll tell you how much of the design is to put together drawings to submit and get through the process. I'll tell you that. I can give you a range of construction prices, but they really the last few years have been really tumultuous on everybody.

Yeah, because construct before COVID, you could get your floors done for a couple dollars a square foot. After COVID, I think before COVID or during COVID, my floors were like in the beginning of COVID, I think they were like five grand to get them redone.

Wow.

Now they like ten twelve grand. I'm like, oh, yeah, well, I guess we're gonna have to deal with these ugly as floors.

Yeah, everything went up significantly.

Yeah in construction right, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean as far as there's some pliers finding the workforce to do it. I mean they've they've been hitting on all sides. So when they come back with their pricing on projects, I'm just shaking my head. You know a lot of times it's like, wow, that got really expensive.

So when when you see real estate, I love I love talking about real estate. So this is this is great. I get to ask all the questions when you see real estate for sale and you see like it'll be like a piece of land. I mean, this land looks terrible. You know in California, it'd be like here's the side of a mountain. And then they'll have like in the in the picture, they'll have renderings and they'll be like this is this. I don't know if they're saying this

Yeah, I've seen those.

Uh tell us the scoop is for gazes? What is it?

Yeah, it's it's not h if you see that out there, make sure. Sometimes the rendering comes with drawings. Any place can produce a pretty picture, so to speak, but to actually have drawings that have a permit ready to issue that has value. That means that someone has gone into the building department. They figured it all out. They have all the structure, they have this sixty seventy pages worth of drawings and it's all been approved by the city.

But do you think it's a little bit of a red flag because if you got that, if I saw someone that got that far, I'm like, well, why didn't you build it yourself?

Right?

Is that?

Yeah? That is? You know, they got to that point where a lot of places like to take it up to entitlements where it's ready to go, and then they're like, Okay, I don't want to commit to the whole finding several million dollars or whatever to build it. They don't want to do that. They just want to sell and get out.

Okay, Oh so that there is a lane for that, yeah, okay, all right? Is there anything that I could have asked you that a lot of people don't know about the architectural business or the nature of the beast of real estate on the residential front.

On the residential front, I mean, I think you hit a lot of it about what we do. But I like to think of our firm, and I say our because there's more than me.

Now Neo and Associates ink ink. But by the way, when we first were doing a test run, I was like Eddie, oh, sus with Neo and he didn't correct me at all. It's Neo and Associates, inc. All right.

Yeah, But we pride ourselves and being the stewards and taking people through the process and making sure that they get to that I like to say champagne moment of the ready to issue. They're ready to start construction. And we really pride ourselves on that. And that's what I mean. People don't know that. They just think architects that we all have rimmed glasses and turtlenecks.

And the and the magnifying glasses something.

Yeah, we're over a drawing board, but actually we're much more involved in that, and we're reaching out to the city, we're reaching out to the community, and we're way more integrated than Hollywood like to you know, portray us.

Yes, And then does it work like how a lawyer works, where you guys just say here's a retainer fee, or is it like this, someone comes to you and say, here's the land. Come look, take picture and this is the picture on your website that I want to go in. And then you you tell them like, oh, it's gonna cost I have no idea. I'm guessing architects charge. My assumption is architects charge a lot of money. And that could be kind of ignorant too, right, Yeah.

It the architect, Okay, the architect. Does we do cost money? You know, you're talking a band of professionals that went to school and I've really embraced it. So it does cost money, but even more way more money is not hiring an architect.

Yeah. I was going to say, it's probably more savings in hiring an architect than not hiring.

Yes, yes, it's one.

Hundred worth it. It's probably it's you're going to see the savings at the back end.

Yeah, and even sometimes during and through because now you have a consultant. You have somebody on board that's been through the process and can advise you what to expect next. So there is a big value there. And when you said before, like you know, it really depends on different projects. You know, if you come to me and say Eddie, I need to need to you here, I can usually get within a ballpark number with you pretty quick, you know, whereas I have a piece of blank land, I'm like,

Now, has anyone ever asked you to random question? Has anyone ever asked you to design like a backyard? Do architects do that? Like you ever see those backyards where it's like like almost like like hotel standard do you guys? Have you guys ever gotten that? Or is that the right thing architects do too?

No, I think it's great to hire an architect to do that. Actually, if you go to the website and under the home park the residential and go to one called California ADU and on there, you'll see it's a backyard. We did the pool, we did the giant surrounding deck, and then it all attaches to the adu, so it's this grand vision. So yeah, it it does help to have an architect to put all that together.

Oh with the backyard, yeah.

And just do the whole thing. Wow. Actually, that particular client, he was talking to someone during COVID and he was on FaceTime and his brother said, dude, you're supposed to be on lockdown. You can't go anywhere. And he's like, what resort are you at? And he's like, I'm in my backyard. Wow.

Yeah, I believe it. I've seen your work. I believe anything that you guys design is absolutely fabulous.

Thank you.

Even the commercial buildings. You you know, you would be surprised, you know, because you think about dental offices or what you know, these commercial buildings, but even a commercial building. Your commercial buildings look great. Oh, thank you on the outside and the inside, yes, outside and inside. All right, Well, thank you so much for feeding me on another episode of Eating Wild. Bro Guys, if you have any questions on real estate architectural please feel free to reach out

Yes, yes, should I just say the ww Yeah, and you can.

Tell us where to follow you and keep up with you on Instagram and all your socials. Oh, thank you, ell and say it into that cam camera.

Yes, sir, you can find You can find me and my team at www. Neo Dash Inc. It's n e O Dash I n C dot com. And you can also find us on Instagram at Neo Inc. Ne EO I n C. And I'm on LinkedIn under Edward Oh such and all those should be linking together.

Yes, and this dish is amazing. We will contact the super mom to get the actual recipe and maybe we could post it at the end of the video.

Fantastic.

Thank you guys, peace out. Thanks for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.