Veteran Entrepreneurs

Joey Mac Dizon, a USMC veteran and entrepreneur talks to us about the what it's like to be a veteran entrepreneur and how he got started with his business The Mobile Cigar Lounge.

In this episode, we talk about the transition from military life to civilian life and the journey to becoming an entrepreneur. We talk about how military experience helps entrepreneurs, the benefits of having a mentor, and the realities of starting a business.

Links & Resources:

• The Mobile Cigar Lounge
• The Mobile Cigar Lounge on Facebook
• The Mobile Cigar Lounge on Instagram
• The Mobile Cigar Lounge on LinkedIn

Transcript

Scott DeLuzio: 00:03 Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast, where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I'd like to ask a favor if you haven't done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. If you've already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience. And while you're there, click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes. As soon as they come out. If you don't use Apple podcasts, you can visit DriveOnPodcasts.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email list. I'm your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let's get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:44 Hey everyone. Today, my guest is Joey Mac Dizon. Joey is a Marine Corps Veteran and the CEO of the Mobile Cigar Lounge out of New Jersey. He's here today to share his story of transitioning from the military to civilian life and how he ended up in the role of an entrepreneur. So, Joey, welcome to the show. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, how you got here?
Joey Mac Dizon: 01:10 Well, first off, thank you, Scott, for having me really appreciate that. A little bit about me, New Jersey, born and raised, joined the Marine Corps three days after I graduated high school. At that time, I wanted to go to college at the same time. So, I got accepted to Norwich University up in Vermont where I got my bachelor's, but during my four years of college I was deployed to Norway, Mongolia, and Iraq in 2008-2009. So, by the time I graduated college and ended my military career, it all happened at the same time. So, after than in 2011, I started doing a couple things. I started working with other Veterans and then started finding out about entrepreneurship. I got a whole sense of this. I'm learning more and more about it, which ultimately, eight years in is when I started opening my own business. So, there was time in between. There was a lot of learning. I had a lot of great mentors. I got a lot of people that helped me out. So, it's kind of a little bit of my journey.
Scott DeLuzio: 02:15 That's interesting. I didn't know that you went to Norwich university. My brother went to Norwich University. He was probably a few years before you. You said you graduated in ‘08. Oh no, no.
Joey MacDizon: 2011.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay. It was a few years before that he was,
Joey MacDizon: What's your brother's name?
Scott DeLuzio: Steven DeLuzio is his name.
Scott DeLuzio: 02:43 It might be familiar. It might not be familiar. I don't know. He was killed in Afghanistan, so I know they did some stuff up at Norwich to honor and remember him, all that kind of stuff. So, there may be, I don't know, I haven't been there in years, so I don't really know what is going on up there.
Joe Mac Dizon: What a small world, huh?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, he was killed in 2010. And so that would have been around the time that you were there probably as well.
Joe Mac Dizon: So, when did he graduate?
Scott DeLuzio: He actually, he ended up transferring out of Norwich after let's say after first deployment to Iraq, which was in 2006. He transferred to the University of Hartford.
Scott DeLuzio: 03:33 So, he was only there for like one and a half years. He went there and he ended up joining the Vermont National Guard up there while he was a student at Norwich. That's where he got on his first deployment to Iraq while he was there.
Joe Mac Dizon: Was he an officer when you went to Iraq?
Scott DeLuzio: No, he was enlisted. I think he was a, E3 when he went to Iraq and then he was an E4 by the time he got back and then he left Norwich, came back to Connecticut where we lived at the time and finish out his degree there. He stayed in the Vermont National Guard the entire time. So, for his drill weekends, everything, he would drive up to Vermont every weekend once a month, every time they had drill or whatever.
Scott DeLuzio: 04:31 So, he very much stayed close to that Vermont community and the Vermont military community and knew quite a few people who went to Norwich. So, I'm sure there's some people that you and I both know in common that we may not even have realized at this point. So, kind of went off on a tangent, but you know, it's funny.
Joey Mac Dizon: He went out with my cousin, so he probably deployed with my cousin in ’06.
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, really?
Joey MacDizon: We lost a couple of guys from Norwich. I'm getting chills, just thinking about it. Because I'm quickly looking at, I believe that he was in the same unit. I'll text my cousin afterwards. He probably knew your brother. That's really, that's interesting. And this is such a small world because you and I got connected just kind of by chance and, and you're in Arizona and I'm in Jersey and then there's really no way that we would have thought that any of this would have made any kind of connection.
Scott DeLuzio: 05:35 So that's interesting to me and it's kind of a small world, but that's not really what we're here to talk about. We kind of went down that path. So, we let the cat out of the bag already by saying that you ended up being an entrepreneur and a little bit about how you got there. Was that always the goal after getting out of the military, becoming an entrepreneur or did you have other jobs first in between that? How did that go for you and what did that journey look like?
Joey Mac Dizon: 06:05 Yeah, so it's funny because where I grew up in Bellville in New Jersey, you know, most of my friends and family, I could count how many on my fingers, how many people were like business owners, everyone was like blue collar. They work for other people, they worked, they had jobs and stuff. So, I never really learned about entrepreneurship. It was only until after I graduated, my roommate, his father owns a company in Westchester, Westchester County does a lot of beautiful houses and I've known his family, him and his son and I used to play rugby together. We were like good friends during college. And he was speaking to me about entrepreneurship because I know he did very well. Like I stayed at their house and he was telling me about entrepreneurship.
Joey Mac Dizon: 07:03 And I remember him looking at me, he's like, this is the way to go. And I was like, interesting. You know, a little bit about Norwich. I graduated with a history degree. So, I never really knew about business. And it was when I was like 22, 23 years old when I started learning about entrepreneurship. Then I got into finances and a good friend of mine, Carlos, he took me under his wing and really taught me about business. And then he wasn't military, but he was just teaching me about business, about, customer service, marketing, working on your people skills. And then I started meeting other military entrepreneurs and they started teaching me and I started learning. So, it gradually kept going, but I didn't know about entrepreneurship until 23 after I got out of the military after college, like I didn't know anyone that really owned a business at that time.
Scott DeLuzio: 08:01 So, that's interesting how you can go down that path without really having any background in it and just sort of taking a leap of faith, having a handful of people that you knew maybe that maybe gave you a little bit of guidance, but that you just sort of took a leap of faith. So, that's interesting there. A lot of people have great ideas or at least they like to think that they have great ideas and that they think that they would make a great business out of these great ideas that they have. I think as you and I and other business owners probably know this, they're more than just ideas. Right. So, what was the process like for you to go from, “Hey, I have this great idea or I have this idea for a business” There's a lot involved in this.
Scott DeLuzio: What was that process like?
Joey Mac Dizon: I learned a lot, I played a lot of sports growing up, being part of a team was a big thing and becoming part of a team, you get to find out about wins and losses and the hard work that goes behind it. So, when I learned about that, when I was younger, I started finding out, you work hard, you play hard you win, you lose, when you lose, you work harder. So, in business, I took that same mentality where you got to work hard, you got to do the work. You know, there's very few businesses, I don't even know if there's any business that just didn't have any work behind it. There had to be some sort of a foundation of work going on.
Joey Mac Dizon: 09:52 So, when I started going at it, I had to ask myself, let's first, am I going to really do this? Because you know, when you do business, you must be true to yourself. Are you doing this for extra money? Do you think you're doing this to build into a franchise? So, when I be true to myself, I'm like, you know what, when I came up with this idea, I was like, I want to build it into a brand. I want to put hard work into it. And so that's why I talk about what I learned from the military and what I learned earlier from playing sports. But there's a lot of hard work that goes behind it, especially as being a business owner. And a lot of it, especially as a Veteran, there's so many resources out there for Veterans to start their own businesses.
Joey Mac Dizon: 10:47 So when I started my own business, I didn't go in blindly. I took the mentality like I was back like an E1 or I was just a rook, private, just didn't know anything. And I think as a Marine, or even a Veteran, it's hard to put their ego in their back pocket. Because we do four, six years, 10 years, 20 years, and you come back to civilian life, what is this? You know? So, I put my ego in my back pocket and I was like, there's a lot of people out there that know what they're talking about. So, it's like joining a new unit and getting the guidance from your senior enlisted from your enlisted that have been around. I took that mentality and that's how I believe that our business is successful is because we took that E1 mentality. Let's learn from these guys and gals who've been around who've been successful and learn from them because that's how I did it in the military. That's how I did it when I was playing sports. You know, that's what people sometimes forget.
Scott DeLuzio: 11:59 Yeah, it is. It's good to be humble in a way thinking that you don't have all the answers. You're not going to hit the ground running and be this overnight success because overnight successes, I don't know anyone who has actually been an overnight success where they went to bed one night and then the next morning they woke up and boom, now they're a millionaire and life is great. And they're in music videos with the money and the cars and everything else like that; that doesn't happen. Like that's nobody like that, that doesn't, that doesn't happen at all. But it appears that way to some people. And some people might see somebody who, yesterday, I didn't know who this person was, and then today, now all of a sudden, I know this person they are this big, successful, whatever business owner, entertainer, whatever it is. They get a little bit of jealousy and they maybe think, well, if that person could do it, I can do it. Well, that person had long nights of working, waiting and struggling and, being rejected and having all the same struggles that anyone else goes through. It's just, they made it work, and they persevered and they kept going and they made it all work.
Joey Mac Dizon: 13:17 I agree with you, man. 100% agree with you. Where you're going with this, I was just having a conversation with someone yesterday. It's funny, when you talk to business owner to business owner, or you talk to someone in your field that there's a grind behind it. And we were just chatting because I was talking to this company and they're an entertainment company here in New Jersey. A young guy just started his first year doing great. Fantastic. And I was telling him about our first year, we've got tons of events, but at some events we weren't making much probably you just broke even, or you did it just to get your way out there, but you're grinding those hours. And it's funny that you say that I literally just had that conversation yesterday, that people don't see what goes behind the scenes.
Joey Mac Dizon: 14:07 They sometimes see and it happens everywhere. You see it in sports, you see it in movies, it just happens, but you gotta respect the grind. And you're exactly right. But you know what, there's a community behind the curtain that we look at each other and we're like, yeah, man, that was running the trenches right now. So, it's good to have that discussion. I just wanted to say that because it was just funny that you were just talking about that.
Scott DeLuzio: 14:39 And so earlier you had mentioned that there are some resources available to Veterans who are looking to start a business. I know this is not necessarily related to the military through any official organization, but I know our family, we started an organization to help Veteran business owners who are looking, like yourself and other people who are looking to start a business, to go through the whole process and flush out their ideas and things like that. We started that just as kind of a thing to help some people out; it's zero cost. If we can help somebody out, we will see what goes on there, but there's other resources that are available through the military. And I'm sure you know, you mentioned some of them that you took advantage of, but what are some of those organizations or resources or tools that are available to Veterans that you were able to use to help start your busines and hit the ground running?
Joey Mac Dizon: 15:52 Great, great question, Scott. And I love it because I believe this time, especially, when we're going through this whole pandemic, this is a great time to access those resources. I mean, to become an entrepreneur today, I think is the easiest thing now than it was 20 years ago, especially as a Veteran, the amount of resources. And like you were saying, you help a Veteran business to help start with startup costs. I think this is a great time. So, for me in my journey, check with your local colleges. Here, I took a course called VMV Veteran monitoring ventures, and it was a 10-week course. And man, it was like a master's course. I got assigned mentors and developed a business plan, marketing plan, financial plan.
Joey Mac Dizon: 16:48 I'm sure there are plenty of colleges out there. I'm currently in a business program with Rutgers university for entrepreneurs called UPI. That’s just in New Jersey alone. You got nonprofits like bunker labs. We have one in New York city and Philly, and then we started one in New Jersey. Bronc labs is a great group. They do some incubation for businesses that are looking to start up. Not only those organizations that help, but some of the networking organizations, like I belonged in New Jersey Veterans chamber of commerce. I belong to the greater Philly, Philadelphia Veteran network and that's when you get to network with other Veteran entrepreneurs. So, while going through your journey, if Veterans are listening, there's a huge community out there. You've got social media, reach out to people.
Joey Mac Dizon: 17:40 When I started my own business, I reached out to other Veteran business owners for help that were not in the industry that I was in, because business is pretty much the same thing. You need a product, you need some marketing, you need to have some revenue, you got to have some financials in place. It's kind of like the same basis, but then when you start asking people questions, how do you calculate sales and revenue and all that stuff you ask? So, those are a lot of the resources that we've used. And there was a VA Veteran chamber of commerce, I believe in New York that the shark tank, Damon, John, it was like his free business course that if you're a Veteran, you can apply and then you get his course that was worth like $1,500 or something like that.
Joey Mac Dizon: 18:32 You get it for free, bro. I clicked on that. I got it. And I did it right away. Yeah. You know, and something we like to say is every book about success is right. And no one's reading it. So, when we talk about resources and knowledge, we have a powerful thing, your cell phone, YouTube. Google, I Google things all the time. And just because it's kind of taking that mentality that you are just relearning things. And no one came in as an expert in their field, they had to grind it. They must research it and figure it out. So if someone's listening and they're like, Hey, I want to start a business through the X, Y, and Z, man, first of all, you could contact someone who's doing your same business across the country, which I did contact someone who's in your local community. Who's a Veteran business owner connect with Veterans, there's colleges all over the place. They probably have Veteran, entrepreneur classes for free, or for like ridiculously cheap and affordable, but you're taking like a master's level class.
Scott DeLuzio: 19:44 And then knowing the value you get out of that is so huge. Yeah.
Joey Mac Dizon: 19:48 So huge. And you know, when you do that, and then you go back to what we were talking about is kind of like being true to yourself. Like, am I going to do it just to make part time, money, full time money? Am I doing it to hopefully retire from it, be true to yourself? Because the amount of work that you put into your business is exactly the amount of money that will be coming back to you. It's kind of like that circle. I don't think you can put one hour in for X amount. There are people that do that, but they put a lot of hours in to get that one, our input for a lot of money.
Scott DeLuzio: 20:21 Yeah. So those are the people who, to use the analogy of the guy who's spinning plates on a pole, like at a circus or something like that. They put a lot of time getting all those plates spinning, and now it's just maintenance that they're doing. And so it looks like, Oh, I personally work for an hour a day or a couple hours a day here and there, well, that person, at that point, they had a lot of systems put in place that they took a lot of time and energy to get those things up and running. And now they’re maintaining it and they're checking in on it and making sure everything's still running smoothly there, they're given a little extra spin to a couple of plates here and there and making sure that everything's still on track.
Scott DeLuzio: 21:00 That's not realistic to think that you're going to start a business today and then be able to work on it an hour a day for the next six months and be a millionaire at the end of that time. Like, it's just not going to happen. You mentioned you had a mentor through these different programs that you were involved in. What advice or guidance did they provide that saved you a lot of headaches, stuff that you might have gone down the wrong path, in terms of setting up your business. They were able to kind of guide you in the right way.
Joey Mac Dizon: 21:36 You know what man, so Jason's father, the guy who I worked for, I call him Mr. Heizer, Marty. What he taught me was the beginning seeds of entrepreneurship, a good friend of mine, Carlos Salazar, he taught me about hustling and being able to work hard, play hard, like the skills that I've learned in the military and sports and put it into your business. I learned from a fellow Marine, Mike Rios talking about you take care of your people and their people take care of you. And that's where I learned. For us in my business, I pay my guys well. And the reason for that is what Mike Rios taught me was if you pay your guys well, they will do a great job, which means a client is going to be happy, which means you're happy, everyone's eating, everyone's doing good.
Joey Mac Dizon: 22:36 And, that was very important. And then I've met a lot of phenomenal entrepreneurs over the years. There's a Marine business, barbecue over here in New Jersey, Dan from Red, White and Q fellow Marines. And something about his business; he always gives back every time, we give back every month; we just started this year, every month, we're giving back 5% of our gross sales, as of right now, things are slow, but we're still giving back because what Dan did was he was giving back to a lot of the hospitals, the VA hospitals. So, I learned every time I meet a business owner and I get to have a quality conversation, I'm into cigars.
Joey Mac Dizon: 23:25 So when I sit down with someone and we have a couple of scotches or whatever, we're really getting to the conversation, very intimate. And I asked them “Hey, I'll sit down with you. You've been in business for X amount of years. What's something you would tell yourself that a lot that you know now that when you started your business?” and I've learned so much from that question from choosing the right partners to marketing. I'm putting a lot of energy where it needs to be, not where it's supposed to be. And that really grew ingrained into me and having the number of friends, especially my partners and a good friend, I keep my stuff in a good circle of people where we're just constantly feeding into each other.
Joey Mac Dizon: 24:20 And I think that's very important too. I'm sorry. That was maybe a long answer, but I believe that's very important for a lot of people it's just, ask questions, man. You just got to. And when you ask those questions, it saves you the headaches. It saves you the amount of time and money. I mean, listen, I always say you only got three things in life, your time, your resources, and your money, right? So, it's like, well, you guys put it into the right buckets. Being able to talk to those people, helped me out a long way.
Scott DeLuzio: 24:59 Right? So, you mentioned that you have several partners in your business. One of the things I like to tell other people who are maybe considering starting up a business or becoming partners with somebody else is that the partnership relationship has to be more than a one plus one equals two type of relationship. But the sum of the parts must be greater that way. So, it's more of a one plus one equals three or five or 10 or something like that. So that you can play off each other's strengths; fill in the gaps where someone else might be weak. And that type of thing, what was it that you look for in your partners to help grow your business? And with that in mind to make that partnership stronger than any one of the individuals could have been on their own.
Joey Mac Dizon: 25:57 Going back to asking a business owner, well, what he would have done he literally told me, I wish I would've known my partners better, and very successful Navy seal guy. And you’re exactly right. People think when you bring in a partner; I have two partners; I've known them since 2006. So, we've been good friends. We know each other, we tend to parent each other, but we have strengths and weaknesses. And so, when we look for partners, people are like, “Oh, I wish I had thought about different types of partners, there's investment partners. There are those angel partners, investors that just put money in, you got to think to yourself, what kind of partner do you want? Do you want a partner that is just going to give you money?
Joey Mac Dizon: 26:52 You do the grind and they give you the equity, to do what you need to do. Do you need a working partner who's 50/50, but then you must communicate? I was very lucky that I knew my partners for a long time. And one partner, Miley, what he does with his full-time job, he works with clients. What does he do with the mobile cigars? He works with our clients. He is our client relationship manager, my other partner who owns a business that does a lot of marketing, guess who does our marketing and branding. He does. And so, it's great because what I do is, I oversee it and I make sure that we build gaps and then we make goals for each other. So, we're all growing together. So, when you're looking for partners, you must ask yourself, what kind of partners are you looking for? And then from there you can decide who you're going to go with. But from a fellow Navy seal that said, I wish I got to know my partners better because in the end things happen. It can happen. So, I was very fortunate that I chose the right partners.
Scott DeLuzio: 28:12 Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice to pass along too, because I I've seen some businesses where it was a great business, both of the partners in the business or all of the partners in the business in some cases are all great on their own. It's just, they didn't,
Scott DeLuzio: 28:36 They didn't have that good synergy together. You know, like you've known these people for well over a decade. And so, you knew going into it what your relationship was like and what your communication style was like and all that. So, you had a good idea that whether these people were going to be good people to partner with. And just because you're friends, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be good business partners, and sometimes it's just the opposite. If you're friends, you might be terrible business partners.
Joey Mac Dizon: 29:03 Yeah. And you're exactly right. I was just talking to a good buddy of mine. He does beautiful work, Veteran Wood over here in New Jersey; well, I won't name names or whatever, but we had an instance where partnerships, best friends, weren’t seeing eye to eye. Just because you’re friends, does it mean you go grow a business together? Even amongst us three, it's sometimes hard for us to not goof around and BS with each other. But we have these weekly meetings and we have a set agenda for ourselves and we just knock it out because we understand that the business was our mission first, people always, as they say in the military, we have to restrain ourselves because we've known each other. And we know each other's hot buttons, which is great, but we know each other's hot buttons. What I'm happy with is we understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. And that's what you need to do. And especially if you're leading a team, just like anything else, know your people and put them first and making sure that you do your mission in your business.
Scott DeLuzio: 30:26 Absolutely. And sometimes, if you do have a friend who, let's say you're starting a business and you have a friend who's great at marketing, maybe they have a job doing marketing someplace else. And they're just a Rockstar at it and everything like that. But you're not sure if you're going to sync too well in terms of being a partner. If it's okay to hire them as an employee, not necessarily as a partner, like a business partner where they own half the business, you own the other half or whatever the percentages work out to be, because that gets messy. If things start going sideways and start heading South, trying to get that person out of the business so you can move on there, it gets messy and it's not really a great situation.
Scott DeLuzio: 31:14 So, hiring them as an employee to see how it goes, keep them on for six months, something like that. See how it goes and if it works out and you think that would be a good partner, then yeah. If that makes sense, then bring them on. But you don't necessarily have to keep them as a partner. You can keep them as an employee and I think that might be better off for the relationship at least short term. So, you don't end up fighting like an old, married couple
Joey Mac Dizon: 31:46 And you hear the stories, you could see them, you can hear the stories of people that exactly that or both partners, bad blood, totally bad blood. And now who owns a company, I'm doing all this social media, I'm taking all the social media with me. You are partners. So, going back to the wide world of the Navy Seal that Tommy, I wish I got to know my partners more so they're your partners.
Scott DeLuzio: 32:17 And I think you brought up a good point, I think maybe even inadvertently, but the point of, one person might be in charge of social media, or one person might be in charge of this account someplace, or whatever. It's dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket, because you never know, even with somebody that you've known for years and years and years, Their motivations can change. They might have something else going on and they may end up taking whatever it is, their social media accounts, maybe it's the finances, the bank account, something like that. If they're the only signer on the bank account, they can wipe it dry, and so you must keep all that stuff in mind, too. So, I guess moral of the story is running a business is not for the faint of heart.
Joey Mac Dizon: 33:11 Well, people think it's just like anything else. They might think they see all the fame, the glory and the prestige and everything around it. But behind the curtains, if you see some raging hustlers out there, that's why I love being in this space and get to meet other business entrepreneurs, Veteran entrepreneurs, yet you're able to talk with them and you're in the trenches and you're, “okay, well, what can we do? Or what have you been doing? What can I do better? How can I help you? How can you help me?” Stuff like that.
Scott DeLuzio: 33:46 Yeah, exactly. Your military experience, you had your sports you know, growing up, you played in sports and your military experience, all of that has helped you in your business, learning about teamwork and all that kind of stuff. Is there anything else from that you took away from your military experience that has helped you in your business that has helped to grow it or to lean on other people and things like that.
Joey Mac Dizon: 34:17 You know what I always say, the military is like a fast track four-year college about leadership and people skills. Something about the military is you get to see different leaders all the time. You get a new CEO, you get new squad leader, platoon leader, platoon commander, and you get to see all types of leaders walking in and out of a room. And you get to either (A) I hate this guy or gal, and I would never even follow this person to McDonald's or (B) listen, if he tells me to go through that door, or if he tells me, take that bridge, take that house, I'm in. And I was very fortunate to meet people like that. Now with leadership comes people skills and having those types of people skills, especially in business, I believe is very important.
Joey Mac Dizon: 35:12 We were very fortunate that we do a lot of weddings and people love us, and they love our team because when we bring people on board to the mobile cigar lounge, they're wholehearted people, they're all vets, which is great. It's that same mentality, mission first is to get the job done, but people always. We need to make sure that the people are good to go. And so, when we translate that to weddings, private parties, birthday parties, we're at the utopia part, where people are drinking, people are having fun. They're having a good time. So, that's where we value a lot of what we do is because of the military of learning those people's skills and learning leadership. And going back to the hard work, those are all great fundamentals, but something that I really took out was the many leaders that I met. And a lot of the people I've met. And I always like to say, especially leaving the Marine Corps, you can say it for yourself, living in the military. “I don't miss the circus, but I miss the clown.”
Joey Mac Dizon: 36:27 So, it was a fellow Marine told me that and I said, you are right. That's how I view it. And that's what I took away from it.
Scott DeLuzio: 36:40 Absolutely. Is there anything else that you wish you knew before you got started with your business or even before joining the military, just general advice for anyone who might be in your shoes, where you were 10 or so years ago, whatever this time period was; anyone else who was in your shoes, what would you give them any other kind of advice?
Joey Mac Dizon: 37:08 I would say (1) put your ego in your back pocket. We don't just remember humble yourself. You don't know everything. There are people that have done phenomenal things, and you’ll find out that they love to give back and maybe want to help you out. So, being humble, it really does help. You got to do the research and have the knowledge we talked about all throughout this thing. We've talked about people I've met that you don't know that have a wealth of knowledge that you never got to pick their brains and something that I've learned as well. I know might be a little bit harsh, but no one really cares. When I say that, there are people that care, but you must do the work, they can show you the door and this is being a real.
Joey Mac Dizon: 38:02 They can show you the door, but you're the person that must walk through it. So, at the end of the day, they're not paying your bills. They're not paying for your business. No one cares. You must do the work. Listen, are there people that could help you? Certainly. At the end of the day, you must do the work. So, once you have that in your head that you're not coming out there looking for a handout, it's a hand up. I think that's such a great phrase because there's people, resources, knowledge, organizations out there that want to help you out and do a help up instead of a handout. I would say those three things, put your ego in your back pocket, do your research, think of yourself as an E1, as a private and ask your fellow senior enlisted and know that no one cares. You got to do the work. Someone might have had a great idea. No work behind it. Zero return on it.
Scott DeLuzio: 39:18 I think that's good advice to give. So we're coming up on our time here, why don't you tell us a little bit about where to find your business, anyone who's in the New Jersey area who might be interested in your services once when things start opening back up, which who knows when that's going to be.
Joey Mac Dizon: 39:45 If you're in the New Jersey area, please hit me up. When this is over, we love grabbing smokes. So, the name of my business is The Mobile Cigar Lounge. We're 100% Veteran owned and operated. I do have a storefront that's coming up. Unfortunately, it's been on hold. It's called Bellawoods Cigars. It's located in New Jersey. For The Mobile Cigar Lounge, we love creating these experiences, entering them to unforgettable memories over a cigar. So, if you could find us on Facebook and Instagram at The Mobile Cigar Lounge; we're on YouTube and LinkedIn, The Mobile Cigar Lounge, TedTalk The Mobile Cigar Lounge. Visit our website www.themobilecigarlounge.com My email is [email protected]. Please hit me up. We do a lot of events. We do weddings, parties, anything where there's a celebration, especially if you're military, you understand the cigar and there is a lot of things behind them. People remember things, and I love finding those things out. You can hit me up at The Mobile Cigar Lounge.
Scott DeLuzio: 40:58 And we'll put links to all of that in the show notes for you. And so that'll be there for anyone who catches this episode later and wants to follow up with you and find out more about what you're up to. So, thank you again for joining us and sharing your story to entrepreneurship, going from military life to becoming an entrepreneur. And thanks for joining us.
Joey Mac Dizon: 41:21 Thank you, brother. Thank you again for the opportunity; I really appreciate you doing what you're doing.
Scott DeLuzio: 41:29 Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website, DriveOnPodcast.com. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at DriveOnPodcast.