Episode 20 | Life, Love & Happiness | Liga 10th Anniversary

Okay, Riverside. This is my cold open. Most people think they're behind in life. The truth is they're just early in their own story. This episode is about Most people think they're behind in life. The truth is they're just early in their own story. This episode isn't about business. It's about slowing down, choosing peace, and realizing you don't have to rush what's meant to last. Welcome to the Sticks and Stones podcast. [clears throat] Yo yo yo yo yo. And we are back for another episode of the Sticks and Stones podcast. I am your host, Angelo Mitlo. It is episode 20. It's a milestone. We made it. And what am I smoking today? The Liga Pravata 10th anniversary cigar or the Liga Pravata 10 as they call it by Drew Estates. This is a This is a great brand. It's a great cigar brand. I even like the flavored infused stuff that these guys make, which is very rare for me. I don't do flavored cigars. I don't do infused cigars, but um they everything they do is good. The Flying Pig, the the Dirty Rat, the League of Nine, the T-52, even the Underground. A lot of the shorties are fantastic. Great company. Love these guys. And what am I drinking today? Well, for the 20th episode, I figured I'd celebrate a little a little celebratory drink. This happens to be one of my favorite drinks. This is my go-to martini. This is the shenan James Bond Vesper martini. How do I make my Vesa martinis? Well, I'm glad you asked that question. I do equal parts vodka. And this vodka is a really, really good Russian vodka. We're going to light it up. really good Russian vodka that I got at Total Wine. I actually don't know the name. It's like all in Russian. Phenomenal. Phenomenal vodka. I put it up there with Grey Goose, which is like one of my top favorites. What a smoke, guys. What a smoke. So, equal parts vodka, gin. I'm using botnist in this. And let Blanc. And then I put a little squeeze of lemon in there. Obviously, twist of lemon. So, to all my followers, all my subscribers, cheers to you. Many, many more. We will do something really exciting on the hundth episode. Maybe we'll go somewhere, take a road trip, something. I didn't I didn't plan on being here, guys. I didn't plan on being here, but I'm glad I stayed. You know, this this is a tough job doing having a 9 to5 or, you know, as I like to say, a n a nine to job and doing social media and doing the podcast. I mean, it's a lot of production time. It's a lot of resources. Kind of spreads you thin. So, I didn't think that I was going to hit episode 20 because sometimes it's it's pretty dark and dismal, you know? You don't think that uh you've got time to do something and you're like you're looking at your schedule and it's just like impossible. But showing up matters. Showing up matters because if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything. I stood for this podcast. I stand for this podcast. So, showing up matters. And it's been a while since since we've recorded an episode. We've been busy at work. There's a lot of things in the works. We we have launched multiple websites and there's multiple websites coming. We've got a lot of lot of cool stuff. A lot of cool stuff's coming. So, we've been very hard at work. But if you give up on stuff and you don't show up, you know, think back. Where would you be if you just gave up on everything? Right? And a lot of people feel like they're behind in life. I get it. I get it. But in feeling behind, if someone was sitting across from me right now, they'd probably say, "What do I do? I feel like I'm a failure. I feel like I should be so much further in whatever my relationship, my career. What do I do? Feeling behind." Maybe you feel like everybody's ahead of me. My friends that I went to college with or went to school with or whatever, so much further ahead of me. they've got kids and you know they got great careers and whatever, whatever. And I'll say this, you are meant to be exactly where you are. And there's a reason that you are where you are. Maybe it's meant for you to stop and smell the roses. Maybe it's meant you are where you are to learn a lesson, learn a life lesson. I don't know what the reason is, but you are where you are for a reason. And you have to just keep showing up. And you keep showing up because every day is different. something new might pop up tomorrow that makes your life better and gets you closer to where you want to be. The thing is that everybody wants to be somewhere different than they are right now. Right? I go through it all the time and I'm always looking at things of like I want to be there faster. Why do I have to go through all of this? Why do I have to do things that I don't want to do? I mean, it's life. I mean, I don't have I don't have all the answers, but it's it's life. This is stuff that you have to go through, but eventually you'll get to where you want to be if you continue showing up. If you continue doing what you have to do and being a better person, learning something, you know, learn a new skill, learn, you know, something. And eventually, you'll wake up one day in the house you always dreamed of, in the clothes you've always wanted, with the job that you've always dreamed of. It will happen. But it doesn't just happen overnight. It's not given to you in on a silver platter. You know, have to to work on stuff. You have to be diligent, but eventually it will happen. I mean, look, we're I started this podcast with no real intentions, no rhyme or reason. I just knew that I like business. I like talking business. I like talking through transactions. I like being given a problem and coming up with a solution. And I love cigars. And I absolutely love cigars. I smoke the damn things every day. So, that was my intention and that was my plan, but didn't I didn't plan that this would get this far. And I I know to some people 20 episodes doesn't sound like a lot. It sounds like I'm giving myself a a golf clap or a participation trophy, but I mean, think about it. I do a lot of different things on a daily basis. I have multiple uh businesses that I run. I've, you know, do the commercial real estate thing and then all of the social media that comes with that, like each one, each one of the companies takes a bit of social media and digital marketing and things like that. So, we're doing that for all of those. I help out a bunch of different people. I'm on a board for a different company, an outside company. And on top of all that, to do a podcast that's, you know, about an hour each episode, it's a lot. It's a lot. So, I I didn't think that I would make it this far, but you got to stick with stuff. You know, you can't just push it off to the wayside. You got to stick with it if it's worth it to you. So, cigars are my happy place. And there's just so much about cigars. It's the appreciation of cigars. I mean, if you think about it, it's it's definitely a a premium product. It's definitely a quality product. You know, this cigar is probably over $21. Um, I guess I don't remember what I paid for this, but it I'm sure it's it's it's like 20 21 $22, something like that. So, it's definitely a premium product. It's a handmade product. By the time you get this in your hand from your cigar vendor, from your cigar shop, you know, your local shop or wherever, online, hundreds, if not thousands of people have touched this cigar. From the people that till the ground to the companies that cultivate the seeds to the people that plant the seeds to the people that water the fields and make sure that you know they've got enough sun and they're protected and that you know that all of the farming process and that's just the farming part. Then you've got the harvesters. Then you've got the people that you know put them in the fermentation barns and stuff like that. And then so by the time you get these things to a product to where you know you could put them on the pilon the the big like it's basically a gigantic pallet of tobacco. You get this over to the roll you know the rolling rooms where everybody's rolling these damn things by hand. You know you got people hundreds of people on the floor thousands of people on the floor rolling these cigars. Then you've got the marketing team. Then you've got the sales team. Then you've got the people who make the boxes. is the people who make the labels. I mean, there's so many people that have a part in producing these things that it's just that sense of appreciation of a good handmade quality item. And, you know, there's a ritualistic thing about this, too. you know, the way you cut your cigar and the way you light your cigar and the way you, you know, you grab, you grab a drink with your cigar, whether that be an alcoholic beverage, whether that be coffee, whether that be a soft drink. It's definitely ritualistic on how people do this, but more often than not, you're lighting up a cigar to slow down. You know, you've you've had a tough day, you've had a tough week, you've had a tough month, you know, whatever it may be, you're celebrating something. you know, you're taking that time. You're taking that moment to kick back and enjoy yourself. And not to mention, they help you mellow out. It It's a natural product. It's It's got a high level of um nicotine, that's for sure. And it helps you mellow out. It makes you feel in a day and age, in an era where everything is moving at lightning speed and you've got email that that travels the speed of light and you've got music and movies that are streamed right to your phone or right to your computer and everything is like instantaneous. It's like inst instant gratification. the fact that you go someplace depending on, you know, the weather. You're sitting in a in a comfy spot, you've got a nice drink, you're looking at probably some scenery or something, and you're going to take 40 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes, an hour and a half, depending on, you know, how big your cigar is and how fast you're smoking it. You're just taking time out and you're soaking in life. You know, you're you're taking a moment to be grateful for everything you have. You're taking a moment to appreciate everything that you have and you know, the things that you don't have. There's a lot of people out there that have it really, really bad, way worse than us. You know, I'm just appreciative of, you know, that I could be in big trouble. I could be in jail. I could be dead. I could, you know, there's a lot of things that you don't have. And be thankful for that. be thankful that you're not in a worse position than what you are right now. Sharing this moment, just sharing this moment with you guys and giving you my perspective on things is is one of the the highlights of of my days when I get to when I get to do this. Um, so it's a cigars are a happy place for me because it's not just what I'm doing. It's a sensory experience. It's taste, it's smell, it's touch. You know, you're meeting other people. I love going to cigar lounges. I love going to cigar bars and cigar shops and meeting people of the same like mind. We all like cigars primarily. You know, I would hope that you're in a cigar lounge or cigar bar because you like cigars, but bunch of like-minded people and you're in there and you're chopping it up with everyone and you're telling stories and you're laughing or, you know, you're joking or, you know, you're you're sympathizing with somebody and you maybe sharing with somebody, maybe you're networking, I don't know. But there's just a a sense of and one of my guests on the podcast, one of our earlier guests um called it the brotherhood of the leaf. And it really is, it really is the brotherhood of the leaf. And these are people that when they know you're a cigar smoker, I get texts, you know, on a weekly basis from different people sending me pictures of the cigars that they're smoking, sending me, you know, a cigar and a drink or themselves with their significant other at a, you know, beach or whatever smoking. It's just like it is a brotherhood. It's a brotherhood because we are all in this together. We're all in it for the same thing. We're all in it because we like the product. We're in this because it's something that we enjoy and I really really do enjoy cigars and every type of cigar really. But then there's some some people that, you know, they're kind of like, I don't know what I want. Another another person might say, I don't know what I want. You know, and this is confusion. It's normal, right? It's normal to not have everything put together. It's normal to not have all your [ __ ] your, you know, your ducks in a row, your eggs in a basket, whatever it may be. But just know that you're not going to not know what you want forever. Some people just lack direction. You know, some people are just kind of in a transitional period of their life. You know, they're just getting out of college or they're just exiting high school or, you know, finishing school, whatever. or they're going from an entry-level job to looking for something, you know, more managerial or or more authoritative, you know, whatever it may be. But there's a lot of people out there that say, "I don't know what I want." You know, they're maybe they feel like they're they're roaming aimlessly. It's understandable. It's understandable. I'm going to be honest. When COVID hit in 2020, I was at the height of my game at that time. I was a military contractor. So, I basically bid on military contracts for all sorts of different products and services and I I landed a contract with a really big company. These guys were a tier one integrator is is how they're deemed by the military. And I did a lot of stuff for them. And it cost me and my family's life savings to win this contract. And we got this contract in 2018, late 2018, beginning of 2019, work through 2019. You know, we were like, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We we won a 5-year master service contract that not many people in the world had or could get. And you know, we were very fortunate and we were very thankful and we get this contract and then COVID happens and COVID happens and the military and a lot of these tier one integrators cancelled 75% of their contracts and subcontracts and whatnot. And it was kind of like a trickle down effect or a domino effect. And our contract got cancelled. It was like I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I want to do. You know, at that point, I had been doing sort of the same stuff all my career, most of my life. And I was like, [ __ ] man. What What do I do now? You know, like I'm lost. I went from I I went from like up here to like way down here. And I don't know if I want to keep up that level of hustle. I mean, I was literally in an airplane every single week. I put hundreds of thousands of miles in the air. I had almost 600,000 points with Marriott, which Marriott erased all my points because I didn't stay in a hotel room all pandemic. I'm like, what the [ __ ] Whatever. I digress. That's, you know, big big mistake, Marriott. I was like, I don't know what I want, man. Like, do I want to be in this hustle day in and day out? Do I want to be flying thousands and thousands of miles each week barely knowing what city I'm in? You know, that kind of stuff. And I felt like I didn't have any direction. I felt like like what am I going to do? And I had been in real estate. I had my license since 2008. Really started doing it because I was in a demolition company and I figured I could get my license and I would do the real estate on the facilities that I was doing demolition on. And it worked for a little while and then, you know, the toxic debt bubble thing happened and that was boy. So I said, you know, roaming aimlessly for a while, not knowing what I was going to do. I mean, [ __ ] man. We were we were dressing up like Breaking Bad in TEX suits and stuff just to go to the grocery store. I don't know if you guys remember that, but I mean, it was some scary [ __ ] Those were some scary times. You know, I was doing that for a while and I said, "Hey, you know what? What if I go full steam into commercial real estate again? And you know the the the thought kept ruminating and it kept was in a spin cycle for a while like how could this work and you know what do I do and you know what kind of money could I make and you know all that kind of thing and after after a minute I just I went for it you know I went for it and I didn't look back and now you know I've got all sorts of clients I've I've helped so many people over these years and I was there I was the I don't know what I want guy. I was there. So, I understand. Like, I get it. It's It's not easy. It's not a comfortable place to be in by far. I totally get that. And no one really wants to be in that position. No one wants to be that person where you don't know what you want. You don't know where you want to be. You just know that it ain't here and it ain't now. Which, you know, it sucks. It really does. And I get it. But as long as you're true to yourself and as long as you can have an honest conversation with yourself and kind of talk things through with yourself and your and your trusted your trusted people, your your peeps, your adviserss, your friends, whoever that might be, your husband, wife, whatever. I believe you can make it through anything. And like I said, like I said earlier, if you just stick with it, you'll get there. Life, love, and selfrespect. That's what I want this podcast to be because it's it's all about life. I mean, life life is is what we're here for, right? Life is experiencing thing and seeing things and feeling things and meeting people and falling in love with something or someone. And you know, self-respect, I think, is one thing that a lot of people, especially today, and in this era, in this day and age that we're in, I think a lot of people have lost their self-respect. Honestly, if more people had have respect for themselves, I don't think that people would be doing half the things that they're doing on the internet and god knows where else. And don't get me wrong, I get it. We're all human. We all do stuff. We all make dumb decisions and we all make stupid moves and whatever, but life is is all about experiencing stuff, right? And love is part of that. Like I've said it multiple times, I love cigars, but it's not just the cigar. It's not just the thing that I'm smoking, it's the experience, right? And most of the time it's about the people that I'm with, right? There's times when, thank God, I still have my parents, but so many times I light up a cigar with my dad. Lit I've lit up with my mom and my dad. My mom smokes every once in a great while, cousins, you know, best friends, really really good business partners, complete strangers that become friends, right? That's that's a big part of this. It's a big part of this lifestyle is you meet people that you probably would have never met any other way and then find out, oh [ __ ] we have a lot in common. like, "Oh man, this guy is really cool. This this chick is really really cool." And I would have never known that if we had not broken bread, per se, you know, if we hadn't lit up together. I would have not known that. But I will tell you this, guys, like, choose peace because you could have everything that you want in this life. Talking about life, love, and self-respect. You could have everything that you want in life. You could have all the money in the world. You know, you can have all of King Midas's gold, but if you don't have peace, it's a miserable life. Like, it's so miserable going home or going wherever to your job and you have no peace and it's like everything aggravates you and you feel like everybody's out to get you and everything is an argument and a fight. That's why I think, and this this is a big one for me, too, boundaries. This is why I think boundaries are essential. I think boundaries are a way it's not a it's not a quick route but it's a route to your peace to your loving yourself to your happiness you know and I definitely feel that God is one of the only ways that you can get there through you know the Holy Spirit through through the power of God and his word and everything else but boundaries Ries sometimes, you know, your job will take advantage of you every step of the way, however they can because you allow them to. But, and don't get me wrong, to be honest, I have always been self-employed or a 1099 employee. So, you know, independent contractor, so I have never really had a clock in clockout salary position. So I don't have a lot of, you know, subject matter to go by, but I would know a lot of people and I have a lot of friends that are in salary positions, managorial positions, you know, hourly positions and their jobs will take every inch that they give. It's only when they set boundaries that, you know, the job kind of backs off a little. It's like, oh yeah, you're not going to work seven days a week, you know, for for 15 weeks straight. Yeah, you're not, you know, your your job description says you work 9 to5, but we've had you working until 9:00 or 10:00 at night for 6 weeks in a row because we needed something. If you set boundaries, I think it's it's tough at first and like I said, I'm I'm still still doing I'm still doing it. I'm still learning how to set my own boundaries. But I think that once you get around to that and once you hone in on it and you know like, you know, these these are my boundaries. This is what I will do. This is what I won't do. I think your life is going to get a lot more peaceful. I think your outlook on everything is going to be so much different because you did set those boundaries. I think that everyone should live a life with balance and obviously have that, you know, that that work home, that work personal balance, but it's got to start somewhere. And I think, you know, peace and love should be the base of everything. It should be the center of everything. And then, you know, respecting yourself, like I said, if more people had more self-respect, I think we'd be in a completely different position. I mean, ask yourself this. Do you think that people if if you had a time machine, right? If Doc Brown showed up to your house today in the Delorean and said, "Come with me to 1955." Do you think that you would see 1/8? Do you think you'd see 5% of the things that are happening today as a as a normaly the things that are normal today if you got in a time machine and went back to 1955 do you think that you would see that in the streets do you think you would see that in normal everyday life in 1955 the answer is no you know the answer is no I think self-respect is one of the major things of why you'd see no you'd say no that I don't think we would see 5% % on those streets in 1955. What's happening today? Because I think self-respect is a huge one. I think pride, sense of pride is another one. You know, people back then, they had a sense of pride. Yeah, I'm I'm working for this company and I, you know, do whatever. I work for the Ford Motor Company. I don't care what my job says. My job says that I'm supposed to complete this whatever it is. I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm here to build this um F100, you know, because they didn't have the 150 yet. It was the 100 or the, you know, the Model T, the Model A, whatever. And I am going to continue working until I get my job done and then I'll go home because it's my sense of pride that we're putting out a great product here. And don't get me wrong, I think that there's a lot of companies that have taken advantage of employees for being that type of a person, being that team player. And I think there's a lot that goes around, you know, there's there's a merrygoround. There's there's a jiu-jitsu if you a cause and effect. For every move, there's a counter move. So for every action, there's an equal or greater reaction. Right? So, I think that there are companies out there that have taken advantage of employees. And this is what got us to the to the point where employees just want to take advantage of their employer. Like, I get that self-respect. That is a huge that's a huge proponent of a good and decent life, right? I mean, I've had people that have offered me positions and have offered me stuff that maybe monetarily would have put me in a better position, but out of my own self-respect, I'd say no. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to skirt around a law. I'm not going to break a law. I'm not going to bend, you know, this law, whatever, or this rule or this policy for stuff for whatever. Um, and I don't think that the world we live in, I think, is losing that quite a bit. So, you know, I would sit back and think think about like what do you want your what do you want your life to be? What do you want out of life? Right? And to me, I think it's it's live life with experiences, with people that you love, with things that you love, places that you love. Go and experience life. Eat, drink, be merry, respect yourself, have your boundaries, but enjoy life and enjoy the people around you because tomorrow is not promised to anyone. I would encourage everyone, do something that you like, find something that you like, and then do it with the people that you love the most. and you're going to find yourself a really really happy camper. My opinion, you know, that's that's my whole opinion. How many people today are tired, right? How many people can sit there and say, "Man, I'm just tired. I'm wasted. I'm like spent. I'm worn out. I can't do this anymore." I mean, it's happening more often than not. It's happening. It's in my opinion, I think it's like it's an epidemic on how many people are just worn out. They're they're tired. They're exhausted and think that a lot of people are there right now? A lot of people are there right now. And what is the only thing you can do when you're that exhausted? When you're that tired? It's rest, right? Rest without guilt. You And just know this, resting is not quitting. You're not quitting. It's maintenance. Right? You can't run a car for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. that car is going to break, right? Everything's everything's going to fall apart. Everything is going to fall off the car. You know, it's uh the legendary iconic race that happens in I think in in France every year, Le Man or Italy or wherever Europe somewhere. Let me look it up. The 24-hour lemon race. It is in France. So, that's a 24-hour race that is conducted in France once a year. teams of people. You need a whole pit crew. You need a couple of drivers. I think three. It's three shifts. But that car is going 24 hours straight. Every time the driver comes in to rest or for a pit stop, they're changing tires. They're refueling the car. I mean, only the best of the best cars are out there doing it, right? Mercedes is there. Ferrari's there. The GT, the Ford GT. I mean, there's the whole Ford versus Ferrari movie. If you haven't seen that movie, you check it out. It's amazing. But only the best of the best cars are in that race. Like you're not seeing a Toyota Corolla. No, nothing wrong with Toyota Corollas, but you're not seeing a Toyota Corolla in the Le Man race. So, it's only the best of the best vehicles that can make it 24 hours straight. And that cuz those cars are going over 200 miles an hour down the Mulsan Straight and, you know, different parts of the course. You can't go on forever with no rest. You need rest. Your body needs rest. Your mind needs rest. Like you can't continue going straight without taking a break. You're not quitting. It's maintenance. Everybody needs that maintenance period. You can't drive your car for hundreds of thousands of miles without getting the oil changed, without getting the tires rotated. Like that's how we maintain ourselves is through rest. But I get it. I get it. I get tired all the time. You know, I I find myself exhausted more often than not, you know. I am I am getting older these days. I'm no spring chicken. You know, I'm not 18 anymore. I do find myself getting tired quicker. You know, I was uh I told a friend this recently. I said, I go to the gym and I've been doing the gym thing for quite a while. And I used to I used to work out and I used to thousands of pounds in a workout, you know, an hour workout, hour and a half, whatever. And I was younger. Yeah. I'd be sore for a day and then the next day I'd be ready to rock and roll and I'd be at the gym doing it all over again. And now I find that I mean like I worked out this morning and I did legs and I got two and a half maybe three exercises in and I was like I am just not feeling you know I hit I hit the gym at the wrong hour. I was later than normal. Usually I like to hit the gym really early in the morning but I was just like you know what I I just I can't I can't do it right now. You know go back tomorrow do cardio in the morning or run for an hour or whatever. But I used to be able to do this 7 days a week and it would not phase me. And now it takes me weeks and weeks to recover. Like I got it band issues right now from running and stuff and it's just like it's not going away. And it used to go away. It used to be sore and then go away and then my body get used to it and I'd you know be like a rubber band. and I would, you know, continue going and continue training and and now it's just like [ __ ] like when when is my body going to get used to this? And it doesn't seem like it's going to. Honestly, it doesn't really seem like it's going to because the body is not I got to be honest, guys. This this cigar it it is great. Don't get me wrong. It's phenomenal. This is the second time I've re litten it. I've relit it. I am talking a lot and it's kind of tough to puff on a cigar and talk at the same time. Could be that. But we all need rest. And you know, I I hope some of you chime in on this. You know, some of my older people, you know, 40s and above, do you still find it easy to work out? Do you get to the gym and work out and then you're fine the next day or just a little sore and then your body recovers and you're good and you can go? Because my goal is to get to the gym five, six days a week. And I do, but man, I feel like I'm I'm walking with a limp and not the not like in a in a cool way, but like I'm walking with a limp and I can't move like I used to. And it just it sucks. Like getting old sucks. Getting wiser and the knowledge is cool, but getting old with your body really sucks. But, you know, it's a part of life. It just it really is. But we got to look to the future, right? So, we have to look to what's next and expectations for our lives and expectations for this year. And, you know, I'm looking back on episode 20 and like I said multiple times, I didn't think that I would be here. I didn't think that I would like podcasting as much as I do. It really is in some way therapeutic. It's a way it's a it's a channel to it's a it's an artistic channel that I can, you know, get some get some thoughts off of my mind and kind of use use the the audience as a sounding board. And I'd love to have more people on because I do love doing these podcasts with guests. But I mean, you know, if you can't slow down here, where can you slow down? And that's what this is all about. this and this is all about slowing down and enjoying life and enjoying what you know the time that you have and you know you're you're fortunate enough to be able to do this. I'm fortunate enough to be able to do the things that I do I get to do and I'm fortunate enough to have seen the things and experience the things that I have and have known the people that I've that I've known and been able to share the memories that I've shared. And don't get me wrong, like I've had great memories. I've had I've been in cigar lounges in sw in Switzerland and England and Switzerland I think Germany maybe I mean like a lot of places around the world Caribbean and stuff like that but some of the greatest you know hangouts some of the greatest smoking times I've had was like in my dad's garage with his next door neighbor or his neighbor across the street and just you know chopping it up and laughing and joking and talking about current events and certain things and whatever. It was no fancy cigar lounge. There was no fancy bar. It was, you know, it was my dad's garage, right? So, it's like those are memories that I'll always have. Don't get me wrong, going to fancy places, going to nice places, going to foreign places is great. I love getting out to lounges whenever I can. We are going to try to get to the cigar show this year. It's in New Orleans, so that's like that's a looking forward. There's a lot of things that are going to be happening in the Sticks and Stones world. There's a lot of things that's going to be happening in the Angelo Mitlo brand world. We're gonna be doing up big. We're gonna be doing it up big. We're gonna There's a lot of stuff happening. There's a lot of things coming. Lots more cigars to smoke. You know, I smoke these things on a daily. And this is a great cigar, guys. It really is. If anyone knows me, this is like this is like a 50 ring gauge. This is like a very different Vollola than I'm used to smoking. I usually smoke a minimum of a 60 ring gauge cigar just because of the draw um and the experience that you have with them, but this is a phenomenal smoke. It really is. I mean, anything with the Drew Estates band on it. Anything League of Pravata, I mean, it's just it's phenomenal. They did a good job on the um on the band, too. Very I like the art. I like the art on the band. Very cool. The old world lion on there. Lion's one of my favorite animals. I was also born in late July, so I'm a Leo. So, there's a lot of reasons to look back. There's a lot of reasons to look forward. And on this episode, I want to challenge you to do both. Go into your memories, right? And and think about some of your your happy moments, your happy places. Where's your happy place? Think about some of the things that may may have been pivotal in your life. And now think about what is to come. Think about what your plans, your aspirations, your hopes, your dreams. because we're not here just to exist, right? Like there's some people there there's people in our generation and our era that have created things, you know, like Elon Musk, he created PayPal and or had a major part in creating PayPal and SpaceX and Tesla automobiles and you know the Boring Company and all these different things. We've saw we saw unbelievable advancements in our time just with one person with one guy that created all these different companies and then you know Meta and Google and all of these different things that we have at our fingertips right now you know Apple computer Apple computer at one time was like a laughing stock and now they create questionably arguably I know people that don't agree maybe one of the best wireless devices ever the Well, that thing didn't exist. It changed the world. It didn't exist until 20 2007. We got to see all this stuff. We got to witness all this stuff. I would say dream big. Like, dream really big. If your dreams don't scare you, your dreams are not big enough because at the end of the day, if you get any, it's kind of like that old adage, you know, shoot for the moon and if you hit a star, great. Like, at least at least you got up there. So, if you have a dream that's so big, but you get close, I think that's a win, right? It's a It's like a win-win. You have to You can't forget your past, but you also can't drive down the road looking at your rearview mirror the entire way, right? You'll have an accident. Appreciate your past. You know, remember the good memories, but don't live in your past. You have to to look forward and you have to set some goals. Setting goals is major for anybody, right? You have to I would say I have done this most of my life. Was gunslinging cowboy. Nothing planned out, nothing thought out, nothing planned. And it's not a great way to go. I mean, look, don't get me wrong. I've been blessed. I've I've been lucky. I've been lucky and blessed to hit on some stuff that it was just like, "Holy [ __ ] did that really happen?" I've been there. But sometimes we got to plan things out. Sometimes we really got to plan things out. So I would say don't forget your past. You know, reminisce on your past. Reminis on all the good times that you've had and look forward to better times. Look forward to how you can make what you was in your past even better in your future. I would say grab yourself a good bunch of plan out some trips with some people that you really really love and enjoy what life has in store for you, right? Because life is going to happen whether you want it to or not. Life is going to happen whether you plan for it or not. Having plans is great. It is. It's fantastic. But sometimes you got to live in the moment. So what what is the best solution for that is you know plan for the worst and expect the best, right? So you make your plans and then and then live life, live through it. You know make a plan, execute it. Dream dream big, right? If you've never been overseas, do it. Plan a trip. Go overseas. Lots of lots of good cigar places overseas. Enjoy what you enjoy, but it do it with others. Do it to make memories. Don't just do it to be doing it. You know, there there's sometimes where I just I pull over. I always have smokes on me. I pull over. I don't smoke in my car anymore. Smells horrible. Not to me, but everybody else doesn't want to get in my car. You know, sometimes you got to you have a short stick that you could just smoke and, you know, get your nicotine fix and move on. But I would say grab what you love, whatever it is that you love. If it's cigars, if it's something else, pipes, if it's, you know, whatever, grab what you love, grab the people that you love being around, and then make that experience happen. Do what you can to make it happen because life is going to move by, and it moves by fast. And maybe the people that you have around you today won't be there tomorrow. Tomorrow is promised to no one. So if you could have taken a trip or you could have done something, you could have put off something to sit with a person and smoke a cigar, have a drink or just shoot the [ __ ] whatever, and tomorrow that person's gone. You can't get that person back. You can't get that person back. But if you did, if you did take that time and you did, you know, shoot the [ __ ] with that person and whatever and have that moment, have that experience and that person leaves, you're always going to have that moment. You're always going to have that memory. You're going to have that experience and you're never going to forget it. You know, there's a big difference in that than living in regret. Living and saying, you know, that person was here and I did not take advantage of it. That person was here and I didn't see him or her enough. You don't want to be there, man. You really don't. You know what, guys? This was This was a great 20th episode. This was a great podcast in my opinion. I loved shooting it. This was a great stick. Um, enjoyed one of my favorite drinks. Enjoying it with you guys. I can't wait for 20 more, 40 more, 60 more, 100 more, thousand more episodes. Looking forward to having more people on, making plans to build a studio and bigger, better things happening. This is going to be a great year, 2026. We're in February now. Uh there's bigger and better things happening. More things are going to be happening. Keep an eye on us because a lot of things are going to be moving and shaking. New websites, you know, a whole bunch of a whole bunch of a lot of things. There's some groundbreaking stuff happening. Um I can't talk too much about it. We're still in, you know, talking to patent attorneys and trademarking stuff like that, uh copyrightiting, but there's a lot of stuff coming. There's a lot of stuff that's going to be happening. You know, meet and greets would be great. You know, that's one of the things that we want to do this year. Meet and greets, go out to, you know, hosting some stuff at some different lounges and bars and whatever. But we want to get out there. We want to get out there. We want to we want to mingle with you guys. We want to share, you know, the the the brotherhood of the leaf. We want to mix it up with you guys. We want to talk to you. We want to, you know, shoot the [ __ ] We want to have we want to make these memories. We want to make these memories with you guys. So, keep an eye, you know, keep keep listening, keep watching what we're doing because it's going to be evolving. It's there's new stuff's going to be happening. Big stuff's going to be happening. And we want you to be a part of it, right? I want you to be a part of the whole scene, the whole movement. A lot of stuff's happening. A lot of stuff is going to be pretty cool. We have some really cool ideas, you know. I hope that you guys get something out of this podcast. I hope that you get some insight. I hope I can help you guys in in anything and anything that we talk about on this thing. I hope you guys get something out of it. I hope you keep coming back. So, that is that that's it for tonight. I mean, that's it for this podcast. For episode 20, it's a big one for us. You know, I've said it multiple times, but it really really is. So, for the 20th episode of the Sticks and Stones podcast, we're out. So, you know, in everything that you do, stay blessed. And above all else, keep it rolling, baby.