Get to Know Partnership & Profit Strategist Roberto Candelaria

that has been our conversation . If you haven't heard of him , he's a partnership strategist , a master certified business coach .

He started his own business off of a $832 social security disability check and $104 a month in food stamps , which I can relate to , the second half , coming from a family who grew I grew up on food stamps , but I've never had a disability check , nor have I started my business in such a way .

That sounds like you understand what it is to bootstrap a business . How would you introduce yourself , roberto ?

I am the son of a migrant worker , I love Disney , I love dogs , I love champagne , but most of all , I love helping people , especially people of color , be able to build businesses they love while also creating a life that they love , and being able to do that through partnerships .

I think that so many business owners just want to do it alone , starting with like literally nothing , that there's just such an opportunity that when we come together to be like , hey , how do we get here , and everybody has a different here , but we can run our own race with other people and everybody have their different start line , everybody have their different

finish line and still like feel good about what we're doing and not have to be alone . And so I mean that's what I love is helping people with partnerships , collaborations and just really feeling that sense of belonging where they're at .

And I was thinking if I could start over again , I would probably do a similar business , because I remembered back to college and I would throw a bunch of parties .

People would come to those parties , lots of people knew me and I was always the person who well , maybe there are other people too , but I would always introduce people Like , oh , you're from South Campus , you're from North Campus , you're from here , you're from there , and we would have fun .

Like I always prided myself in saying like I threw parties in a dorm that would attract people . Like away from , like the Greek system parties . Yeah , like I mean , you can't drink in a dorm , you know . So like for somebody to like forsake a Friday night of drinking and come to this dorm party , and like we would pack the place out .

And so , anyway , I always was introducing people . And then I wait , I looked at your website . I'm like wait what , he has a business .

That was that was Disney , just in case y'all didn't figure out . That's a whole nother conversation for a whole nother day .

I basically told them Michael Eisner was the CEO , People were making a bunch of changes and I really believe in Disney's core values , what they stand for , who they are , and I was like y'all do realize that y'all are turning this into George Orwell's 1984 and Uncle Walt would not be happy with this .

And for some reason they just said that I probably't , probably wasn't the best fit for the company and they let me go .

My dad was in the United States Air Force , my grandfather in the Army Air Corps , my aunt worked for the Social Security Administration , and so my family has this like long history of government service and I was the first one that was like and I was the first one that was like , yeah , I ain't doing that . So I didn't finish high school , I got a GED .

I got a GED because I was offered a vocal performance scholarship to college . Got to college , did like two , two and a half weeks of college because again my mouth went and told the vice president of student life like wait , there's this class called music theory .

They're trying to teach me the theory of these notes that y'all gave me a scholarship to come here to recruit for like , is this what ? college is gonna be like . And he was like yeah , and I was like I'm out , so I say that , no , I'm out , so I say that , no , high school .

I didn't finish high school , got a GED couple weeks of college and got a job through a relationship . A friend got me a job at Dell and was working at Dell probably 2003 , 2004, . Maybe it was Dell Financial Services .

There was just some causes that I believed in and I was just like oh well , I'll go raise money for them . Again didn't know that it was a skill set . It was just like it needed to be done . They have a mission , they're moving forward . They need money to make that mission happen .

Let's go try to find some of the money , and I think that , as a person of color , sometimes that just happens . It's just like , oh my God , I need to fix this , I need to fix this , I need to fix this . I have to be the one , and I've eventually learned that I don't have to be the answer for everyone , which y'all that's so healing , just so you know .

But I had another job was doing strategic partnerships for a publication company in 20 cities across the nation and I got sick and ended up under anesthesia about 11 times in 18 months , which makes it hard to keep a job , y'all , just so you know . Like , if we go back , this is 2009, . 2009 to 2011 .

Virtual and remote working was not really a thing , friends .

I know how to bake , I know how to cook and I know how to raise money . And so I baked cookies , I baked cupcakes Like this is what I was doing to like , kind of like , make rent . And then a friend , danielle Sampy she was one of the first ones that was just like you know , do you know that you could help nonprofits do this ?

And I was like do what she's like , well , do you know that you could help nonprofits do this ? And I was like do what she's like well , get money for their events . I was like people get paid for this . Like in my head , I was like wait , you can get paid to do something I love . This is amazing , but I hadn't known that before , right .

And so I started doing that and working with different non-profits , and then that was the business . Initially , fast forward to 2011 , I started teaching people how to do it and you know , it was just so amazing because , like my , my first business goal was never let's make 100k , let's make 150k .

My first business goal was not let's make 100K , let's make 150K . My first business goal was not let's make a million dollars . My first business goal was let's pay rent on time .

And I think that if more business owners would allow themselves that freedom of not putting the pressure of the coaching industry , the pressure of the online business space that you need to have a three comma that or a 12 comma this or a 1500 funnel , that that it's just like yo , like why are you doing this in the first place ?

And for me , it was like I wish there was a bigger purpose that I could share with y'all . I started my business to pay my rent on time , y'all , and I think sometimes we just need to be honest about that . Like I started it so I could eat .

And I don't think people are willing to like just be that clear with themselves when they're starting . Like we have to have the mission of a Disney , like y'all , disney has been around a hundred years . Like it's evolved and built over 100 years . Like it wasn't .

Like we're going to be a whatever billion trillion dollar company Like , the mission statement at its core of the Walt Disney Company is just three words Make people happy . Mine was pay rent on time .

Ghana would be west africa , not that you would question where ghana is , but I've had I've actually had people fight me on well start arguments that I was wrong and because they confused ghana with guyana .

So , at any rate , he was an immigrant to the States in the 70s and , like many folks that immigrate to the US , it's like at that point in time , doctors were at the top of the food chain in their own tax bracket and making lots of money , and he wanted me to be a doctor , and then , when I didn't want to do that , he wanted me to go into the military

, and when I didn't want to do that , it pretty much was like my life was over as far as he was concerned . Dad , if you're listening to this , I know you really want good stuff for me , and so then I took a different route , and so I can identify with you being the first to start a business .

I was just like listen , I'm gonna go find a company , I'm going to work there for 20 years , get the gold watch and be done . I didn't know much about entrepreneurship . I know there's no gold watch , anything anymore . So again , I'm dating myself , y'all .

Like you know , back then you and I wouldn't be sitting here like this , like I don't even think Zoom was around . I think we were trying to struggle with Skype at the time .

That's when I got serious about building a business and I remember going to my parents and talking to them about it because you know , also perspective and this is so fun for the show , like the art of online business . This is just like it's . It's kind of nostalgic in a way .

Okay , like , so , like back then and you'll remember this like this is when people are deciding , like , will it be wordpress or will it be drupal ? Will it be jumla ?

you're right , I mean , we know who won yeah , like two names until I haven't thought of them , until you just said that , but it wasn't like you and I like back then , it wasn't like in 2009 , I could just go to Kajabicom or Teachable and set up an account . They weren't there , y'all .

And so it was like okay , well , like maybe let's build a WordPress website . And I went and I looked and I found a WordPress designer . It was going to be like 10 grand and like that's what it costs back then . So y'all , literally a site that you could buy now for like $1,500 . It's like 10 grand .

But I just wanted to pause to paint a little more context , like , in case we forgot like your mom loans you five thousand dollars , yeah , in the throes of the financial recession , right , like so it was 2009 our lives were still falling apart .

You know , oh yeah , like we're still rescuing banks , like people are losing jobs by the droves , and she came up off of five thousand dollars to help you .

So we found this designer , signed all the agreements , paid them their money and then , all of a sudden , it was just like , oh well , this website will be done this day , and then this day , then this day , and the next thing , you know y'all , a year later , I didn't have a website . I was still getting clients , just not from this website .

Like , oh my God , like my mom loaned me this money and like there was this pressure again , and I think part of it was because she was my mom . I think the other part is , as a person of color . It was just like , oh my gosh , like they , just like they , the proverbial , they , the , the ethos . They are just waiting for me to fail . So I can't fail .

And so we went and made the money , took care of things , still didn't have a website and I met a man by the name of tom antion and tom antion's og internet marketer been in the online space since 1996 .

Oh , okay , he just says it like it is became commercially debt-free shortly after I want to say it was back by 98 or 99 , he'd made his first million online .

Wow , he was a friend , amazing , mentor , and I really thought the whole online thing was a fad , and so the fact that we're even here having this conversation is also just hilarious to me , because Tom was like well , internet marketing and email marketing and I'm like people aren't going to be buying courses online .

I didn't even have a course yet , by the way . People will never buy this online . People will never do that and I I don't . I mean , tom really doesn't like that . I tell this story , but I tell the story because I hope that it encourages somebody else to reach out .

I'm not saying to reach out to Tom , let's be clear about that but I'm saying reach out to people for help when you need it . Tom had this mentorship program that was super expensive and , because of the whole website thing , I knew I didn't have the money at the time .

And , just being as direct as he is , what Tom told me was if a website developer knew how to build sites that really made money , would they be making yours ?

And and again , that just stopped because it really got my brain thinking like , yeah , if they really knew how to make sites that make money , why wouldn't they just be making money for themselves with their own sites ? And so I told Tom like okay , that's great , but I don't have this .

And so we had a program , was like how to make a WordPress website for like less than 20 bucks or something like that 25 bucks . It was like a $120 program . But again I didn't have money . So I asked him hey , is there any way ? Now y'all think about this Like $1,727 , something like that . It's like like , can I do a for pay on this ?

Wow , I had my site up within a week that I'd been waiting over a year for , for somebody that we paid over 10 grand for , that never got a site . I built a site in less than a week and it was the start for me of understanding that I was so much more capable than I thought .

Because , again , I was just like well , you didn't finish high school , you don't know how to learn , you have this reading disability . Like you won't be able to like comprehend what you read , and I'd had all these stories about my upbringing and my learning disabilities and my educational status of why I couldn't be a successful you know whatever .

And like that course taught me like , oh , I can build a website . And it was really the side . I say that because I learned how to build a website . I think that today , so many people like want to live this soft life , which is great , but sometimes you got to do hard shit to get to the soft life I don't have to cuss .

okay . So this episode now will have , because my daughter , she , she now recognizes the ease on music . And then there's a lot of ease on the music that my wife and I listen to , not that like we're listening to super bad music , but like you know . So we're quick context , we're in Mexico .

I think I told you that , right , yeah , okay , so we're in Mexico , so my daughter's in second grade and she's listening to lots of reggaeton music , you know .

But now she's like starting to comprehend like the lyrics and starting to ask us , and not that she's listening to it in our house , but at school , you know like kids are coming and singing , and so we're like , well , she's listening to it in our house , but at school , you know like kids are coming and singing and so we're like , well , she's getting to be

older , we probably should kind of censor the music that we're listening to a little bit . You know , because , like , we listen to like lots of electronic , like edm music , you know , like avicii and , and we we don't swear tons , we don't really swear at all , but like you know , if there's swear words and songs , like it's okay , you know .

But then when your daughter starts saying them , you're like , oh , it's yeah . So she notices all the albums with the e and I think that the tipping point for us was when she came . She came home and I forget what word my wife was saying , but my daughter it was like something with a p .

But my daughter looks at my wife and says like , oh , are you saying perrear , which is like the word for like grinding , like kind of like grinding at the club , like , and it's a thing here in Mexico . I guess you would get it , you probably get it Like , but the listener might not get it .

And so , like , our daughter says this to us and then she starts like shaking your butt in our living room and I'm like no , no not , not my two year old girl , you know she was doing a nesher at the Superbowl . It's Mexico which doesn't mean anything like about the culture .

It just means that , like , reggaeton is a thing here , you know , and we , we used to live , for context , in china , where in china , like , because they censor the internet and everything , and the culture for that matter as far as western culture coming in . It's like kids there in school are just very , very , very , very , very , very sheltered .

And I , you know , I would be okay if my daughter only knew about Hello Kitty at like age 17 . I digress so remember me ?

Because then I hear the music that we were listening to in 99 and 2000 now and I'm like , oh well , that wasn't much better now that we hear the words .

It was better come on it hear the words no , no , the music was better , but I mean no no , for real , the music was way better like 90s r b , 90s hip-hop , 90s dance was like way better than what we have today , minus beyonce y'all minus beyonce right all right . Pay respect for respect the words of it .

Right , because , like I hear what she said , she's like well , y'all used to sing to da-da-da-da-da and da-da-da-da-da , and she's like and mommy , when this beat starts , and then she starts dun-dun-dun-dun , and she's like y'all were singing that , what's the difference ? So she's 15 .

She's at the age where she can like talk back about it now and I'm just like , okay , we get a point .

So when we were having the conversation before we hit record which was all the really good stuff too you had mentioned that you got a scholarship to a college , a vocal scholarship . And I was going to ask you , what part did you sing Tenor Alto ?

thing , y'all again . So , funny enough , like in high school , I literally sang bass too , okay , but it's like I had a vocal coach to train me to get my voice that low , because and y'all listen I don't even know how this is going to come out , so just just take it .

However you do is , what I knew is that , like all the like , the biggest competition was in 10 or one , 10 or two . There was a little bit of competition , more competition in baritone .

What I knew is , especially in high school , that if I could work with a coach to get my voice like into that range of base one , base two so thank you , mr George Hogan , I appreciate you Like then I would be able to compete in a different class while also completely stretching myself .

So ever since my freshman June , freshman sophomore , junior senior year , it was like it was district choir , region choir I had vocal coaches that were just like you're singing here , naturally , but your voice can do this , let's push it . And so that's how is because I was able to sing those lower parts . I probably .

Well , I still can in a way , so like if I have .

It's known within my friend's circle and my client's circle that if I drink a couple Manhattans and we do karaoke , gotcha that Jennifer Holiday comes out For real my karaoke songs and I'm telling you , but I have them , take it down a key , a step , and then I sing it in the octave lower , but that's all the singing I do now .

It's a convention hotel . So like one night we went and it was like this big accountant convention . So all the accountants were there when their white shirts and their blue ties doing karaoke , and it was like this is the best and it's just music just has such a way to bring people together , like even when it's got words like grind and perriar .

Oh man , man .

You know my 12-year home , you know I completely lost my train of thought . Yeah , I have no idea where I was going with that .

Get to know you and for the longest I couldn't figure out , like why is it that you have like work friends or what is it about the social like life that happens at work ? And it's just , it's all the non-work stuff , the stuff that quote unquote , waste time because , no , we're not working 100% of those 40 hour weeks , as if 40 hour weeks even exists .

It's usually more right . And so I was like we're going to start this Monday episode and it's a bit of a risk because this is the Art of Online Business podcast , but my vision for the episode , like the one that you're on right now , is just kind of like that movie . Have you seen Air Michael Jordan about the ?

It's actually about how his mom brokered the deal with Nike and took Nike from , put Nike on the map , so to speak , because I think before that , according to her , adidas and whatever other Reebok was like eating Nike's lunch and Nike just wasn't a thing , and I guess the agent maybe it was .

I think DiCaprio plays him working for Nike who was trying to go and sign Jordan .

So that's it and I'm like well , mondays needs to be a bit like that , where we're connecting me and you , and the backdrop is that we're both online business owners and so it can go into business , but really it's like two people relating and connecting and that is what I've missed so much being stuck away from home , but then in a culture that I mean , I'm a

foreign language guy , I love to learn foreign language , I love to communicate , but like I didn't speak Spanish when I got , well , I did , but little , so it's like a brand new culture .

Nothing was comfortable , like nothing was , was nothing was normal for me , as in day-to-day life , like everything was a brand new routine , you know , and so I just missed connecting with real life people being stuck on the opposite end of a screen .

So that's Mondays , and so , yes , the conversation is sprawling , but Mondays'll have sprawling conversation because that's real life you know .

Like I will call judith and just be like my friend and so y'all , like , every now and then , like any human , I've got drama in my life and so , yes , yes , like it's not perfect , but like the one of the spanish words for for gossip , or that slang we use for dramas , is cheese meth , and and so I I I always call judith and I'm like judith .

It's time for my judith cheese man coaching . I need to tell you all , my cheese man , that I need you to coach me and , like we develop these relationships but , like I said , I don't think that they're in the forefront

enough . Not necessarily all the conversations behind the scenes , but people showing like we do just have real conversations , we do have these other relationships . So , like I talked to Judith , I text my friend Liz all the time .

My attorney and I know this is going to sound weird to some people , but my attorney is one of my best friends and I literally talked to her like five or six days out of the week and my husband's like oh , you're talking to Shahar again .

Humans , we met at an event in 2015 , 2016 , and just stayed connected and we were friends before she was ever my client and I was ever her client and now we're each other's clients and I think that what I love about the premise of you sharing this is people . I think it just lets people see it's okay just to be a person .

We kind of consider it one and we talk about how so many marketers are like the niche , the niche , the niche , the niche , the niche , that it's almost become like , okay , who are we painting a target on ?

Versus the question we ask when we work with our clients , when we're helping them build their business or build on communities , it's like who do you want to create belonging for and what does belonging look like for them ? And so I think it's just a completely again , it's not that niche is bad For us .

We start with belonging Like who do you want belonging for ? What does belonging look like ? And so , like these Monday episodes from what you're sounding like , like just what we're doing right now , like this is just letting I know y'all , I know y'all are going to get something from this . Maybe it's not to do an episode like this , I don't know .

But for us , right , like we have found so much belonging , so much common connection , that if we hadn't had a conversation like this , we would have never found , and I think that that's what . Like there's not enough of this humanity in business . Again , it's all about what is the funnel , what is that , what is this ?

And , yeah , funnels are important , conversions are important , money is important you can't pay the rent without money and there's so much more to business than than just the transaction . Like it really is about the relationships that we create in the space and sometimes , even if that relationship's like not perfect for that moment , following up , staying in touch .

Like you know , some of the best relationships I have in the space were people that I didn't meet right away , and my good friend , april Franks . We had a lady by the name of Jen try to connect us for almost a year and a half before April , and I finally met , and now , since 2017 , we're like best friends .

We travel together , we vacation together , we've launched products together , we've supported each other's our live events but , for whatever reason , it took a year and a half for us to connect , but then , when we did , she's like man , this is my homie , like and , and we're just good , and so I love that you're doing this monday . It's fun .

I don't get to have enough conversations like this that at least recorded , I should say where you just never know what's going to come out of your mouth , you never know where it's going to go , and it just allows people to see themselves in something and find it .

And what you had said made me think about when I was working in Rick's business , the former host of this podcast the thing I loved the most well , one that he attracted like cool people to podcast , the thing I love the most well one that he attracted like cool people to him .

But what I love the most was the in-person retreats that he had and , in general , those coupled with just working inside of like his mastermind as a coach . It's like this really the vehicle is sales , is marketing , is funnels , is webinars , but like it's a very we're in a very unique spot where we're serving people's passions .

Yeah , that's its business , but we're serving their passion and helping them help other people through their passion . And without that there's so many I mean it's it's all .

Most businesses are worthy cause , but there's so many businesses where the owner was just blessed with this perspective or this creative thing or the skill set and they help other people learn that thing and it changes lives .

I remember just always thinking when I was first exposed to the online coaching world and online business world , how cool is it that we get to help people change other folks' lives ? And , yeah , the cliche ripple effect . But it really is that .

And when I look at a business like yours and you're right there too , helping people meet others , helping people learn how to strategically grow their business through relationships .

I you know I spend a lot of time at Disney and it's very intentional , but I had clients out there , so every now and then I do these days where they're like work play days , so we like go spend four or five hours working on their business in the morning and then we go to Disney world in the afternoon . It's the best .

It's the best y'all borrow that maybe it's not disney , but I share that for you to see like you can create offers that you love and your clients love and like that's the point of your business . But we were doing this and , like one of my clients , we were there , we were in the line , we were walking around .

She was asking me and one of the things that came up is she was just like you know , why is it that that you're willing to do this ? when other people aren't and I was like , well , twofold number one , I said the selfish answer is like think about it , I get paid to do something I love go to Disney .

Number two I get to see Disney through your eyes and to be with two women , one of them who's a retired colonel in the United States Air Force served our country to see her face when I was able to make some magic with some friends that we have there and watch her meet Mickey Mouse for the first time and just turn into that little girl Like that's my

business , because my real business it won't see on a website . It's what guides me is we want to teach , train and inspire people to re-believe in themselves and dream again how we do that , how we inspire people to re-believe in themselves and dream again .

I remember I have a client who I told you I want to have a conversation , you have a conversation with . One day . When I asked her , I was like what's one of your big business goals ? And I remember her being a little stuck at first .

I said it doesn't have to be money and she said I want to make enough money so my daughter can have her own bedroom yeah , you know what like that's gonna get you to build your business , and so like I'd even say it's like , find that goal for you that's maybe it requires money to make happen , but like you're not hitting a money goal , you're hitting this

goal for your life , like that . That's why we do this like all of us , I think . Like I don't think anybody gets in business to say , let me make all this money and never be able to do anything no , yeah , you're right .

It's a pop-up on the website , but to the point that you don't need a website . Y'all , I've been redoing my website for like five years and it still ain't done . My products still ain't on my website , but it shows like the last blog was written in like 2020 or 2021 . The podcast gets updated every week , but I don't do much there .

Like , I do most of my work , most of our connection , literally through Instagram DMs and usually people reaching out to me and through conversations where , like Judith was like hey , y'all should connect and other friends just connect , and so reach out to me , happy to tell y'all should connect and other friends just connect and so reach out to me Happy to tell

you what we're doing , and one of these days we'll finish all the sales pages and I hope that maybe that little bit of imperfection gives you a little bit of freedom too .