Navigating Connections and Careers with a Veteran's Vision
Feb 03, 2024Season 3Episode 4
Shireen Botha/Tanya Scotece ft Carlos Vazquez
In this episode of Friends from Wild Places, Carlos, alongside Professor Tanya Scotece and myself, Shireen Botha, delve into the core of professional growth: the art of establishing profound connections and the crucial role of savvy bookkeeping in understanding financial standing. His journey from the military to marketing brilliance is nothing short of inspiring, proving that discipline and a flair for technology can fuel personal and professional triumphs.
Have you ever considered how military precision can revamp the world of sales and marketing automation? Carlos shares how the skills he honed as a Staff Sergeant seamlessly transitioned into his civilian career, illustrating the unexpected advantages that come with being adept in both fields. We also dissect the frustration that comes from a lack of automation, a sentiment familiar to many in our tech-centric lives, and explore Carlos's adage on marrying military discipline with the power of technological advances to simplify daily tasks.
In this episode of Friends from Wild Places, Carlos, alongside Professor Tanya Scotece and myself, Shireen Botha, delve into the core of professional growth: the art of establishing profound connections and the crucial role of savvy bookkeeping in understanding financial standing. His journey from the military to marketing brilliance is nothing short of inspiring, proving that discipline and a flair for technology can fuel personal and professional triumphs.
Have you ever considered how military precision can revamp the world of sales and marketing automation? Carlos shares how the skills he honed as a Staff Sergeant seamlessly transitioned into his civilian career, illustrating the unexpected advantages that come with being adept in both fields. We also dissect the frustration that comes from a lack of automation, a sentiment familiar to many in our tech-centric lives, and explore Carlos's adage on marrying military discipline with the power of technological advances to simplify daily tasks.
Tales from the Wild, stories from the Heart A journey into the mind and soul of fired-up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion. As we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.
Shireen Botha:
Well, welcome, welcome, welcome, Shireen here. I'm your virtual boutique, bookkeeper and quickbooks advisor. Small business owners are tired. They are overwhelmed. Some are even trying to do their books by themselves. I know right, well, so many of them have neglected their books or they don't have a full understanding of where their business stands financially. I know. Well, no more. I have a solution to rescue them from their turmoil and to find that piece that they're looking for. If you want to know more, go check me out at www. shireensbookkeeping. com and allow me to keep your books clean so you don't have to. Shireen's Bookkeeping Services your bookkeeper for the future. Welcome back, listeners. You are listening to Friends from Wild Places, with myself, Shireen Both a, and my most beautiful co-host, professor Tanya Scotece. What news from Miami?
Tanya Scotece:
Well, happy, happy day everyone, Happy to the listeners and well, you know, always trying to motivate people, inspire people. So I spent a lot of time, you know, kind of self-care in that area to get the inspiration to inspire others. So I already meditated twice today and hopefully I'll get a third one in a little bit later. So I'm so happy to be here with you, Shireen, and this morning we have a great, great, great podcast awaiting with Mr Carlos Vazquez.
Carlos Vazquez:
You said great, so I wasn't sure if I was a me or not.
Tanya Scotece:
That's you, Carlos, that's you. I want you to introduce your friend too.
Carlos Vazquez:
Okay, so welcome. All right, my name is Carlos Vazquez. However, I'm in her world. It's Phoebe. She's my boss, I'm just her staff member. I clean up after her. Her name is Phoebe Phoebe.
Shireen Botha:
Welcome.
Carlos Vazquez:
And she's not going to. You know, in fact, she might do something she shouldn't on camera.
Shireen Botha:
I can't wait to introduce you, carlos, to the listeners. So Carlos Vazquez is a dynamic force behind Miami Marketer. More than just a digital marketing expert, carlos is a marine combat veteran who applies the same discipline and strategic thinking to help service providers skyrocket their businesses from six to seven figures and beyond. At Miami Marketer, they're redefining digital marketing with innovative automation and growth strategies tailored specifically for high ticket professionals. Let's introduce and welcome Carlos Vazquez, welcome.
Carlos Vazquez:
What a great intro. I wonder where you got it from. Oh man, yeah. So yeah, hi, I'm happy to be here, excited, I've heard, I've actually watched several episodes of. At first I thought it was called friends in high place. I was like man, what's the name of it? But then I remember it's in wild places. I'm like, okay, I think that's I'm a good fit for that, for sure, because I'm not in the high places yet, but happy to be here, happy to hang out, and you guys see me at least once a week. So now you guys get to hang out with me for a little bit and I get to kind of just share my thoughts and insights.
Shireen Botha:
Right and we're so glad to have you. And for the listeners, tanya, myself and Carlos, we're all part of the same networking group called Miami Partners, based in Miami, dave, florida, so we know each other quite well and we see each other on a weekly basis, and sometimes more often than that, so we're so excited to get into this today. So should I kick us off with our quote?
Carlos Vazquez:
Well, I mean, you know what, before you go into that, I'm thankful for the whole networking organization because it turns out that Tanya is not that far from my house Like we are almost like neighbors so and I felt silly because you know it's a virtual chapter and I'm like, okay, you know what, we're just trying to connect from different places. She's like right there, like like a few blocks. So Thank God for for BNI, thank God for networking, and I just feel networking and building relationships with a big deal. And show me, I don't think I would have ever known you if it wasn't for the fact that we were in the same networking. So I love that, the fact that we're able to kind of just come together regardless of where we are, and that's what makes our chapter special. I'm not trying to plug the chapter, but hey, you know what I really do feel that a chapter is. It's great.
Shireen Botha:
Yeah, and I'm so.
Tanya Scotece:
For your service to our country. It's just an amazing History that you've shared. It's just truly amazing. So maybe we can hear a little bit more about that in today's podcast sure.
Carlos Vazquez:
Well, thank you, thank you for saying that. And I I would have stayed in if it wasn't for the circumstances, but I know I want to Marine, always a Marine. So I'm very happy to tell everyone. Whenever someone says, oh, he's an expert, I'm like, well, wait a minute, I'm a Marine once, a Marine always, I mean. So I always tell people that I love the Marine Corps Out of all the services. It was gonna be Navy because I wanted to be a Navy SEAL.
Carlos Vazquez:
I don't know why I thought I thought it was easy. After being in the military I realized it was nothing like what I thought. And then the Marine Corps was actually the next Artists thing. That was challenging thing and you might be surprised but I was a class clown in high school so a lot of people laughed at the idea that I could actually make it in the Marine Corps. They said that was gonna be. I wasn't gonna make it. I might as well just quit. Now ring the bell, because you know in J I Jane is a ring a bell when you, when you want to quit, we can see you ringing the bell real soon. So it turns out that I, I made it. I ended up leaving as a staff sergeant and it was one of the best experiences ever. As a matter of fact, it's that experience I was a Marine Corps recruiter that I was able to really understand Sales and marketing.
Carlos Vazquez:
But with a product that you can't touch, see, feel, it's just, it's an intangible product. So how do you sell For your commitment to someone? So I learned all the sales techniques and, and because of that I learned everything I never want to do again. And now I apply it to marketing automation and sales. So that's kind of like how it all kind of ties in together. Plus, I'm a geek as well. So I guess throughout the episode we're gonna learn more about that amazing.
Shireen Botha:
I love that and I second what Tonya said. Yeah, I mean thank you so much. I'm not even freaking. You is a, I'm getting you emotional, but thank you.
Carlos Vazquez:
I love your hat, by the way. It's, it's you, you got. You got dressed up for this podcast. I thought it was just. I just came in a Black sleeve shirt and you both of you you guys didn't give me the memo. What's going on here?
Shireen Botha:
I would have put on a blazer. Well, no wait, I seriously have to keep up with Tonya. I mean, tonya comes to every one of our meetings and every one of our podcast looking so good hair makeup done on this. I mean, she looks always beautiful, so I gotta keep up.
Carlos Vazquez:
Well, next time I, next time I do this, I'm gonna have a blazer. I got out my game. I'm sorry about that. I'll make sure to my game next time.
Shireen Botha:
We just glad to have you and yeah. So thank you so much, you are appreciate.
Carlos Vazquez:
Marines, Marines. Baby, you know what army stands for right.
Shireen Botha:
No, please go.
Carlos Vazquez:
Are my ain't ready to be a Marine yet? Oh, I don't make the rules.
Tanya Scotece:
Okay, competition with the different branches of service.
Shireen Botha:
Right, and, excuse me, I get a little bit of yeah, let go, because I am South African so I'm yet to learn about all that. You know the different departments, so I'll give you, I'll give you a pass. No, it's OK.
Carlos Vazquez:
I wouldn't be a Marine if I didn't teach, that's just. You know about that. So in fact, if I didn't say it, my Marine buddies would say are you even a real Marine? Because you didn't correct anyone when they made the mistake. I'm like OK, you know what that's like? An unwritten rule.
Shireen Botha:
Right, I like that. No, I respect that. So the quote of the day is don't stay frustrated, automated, and listen. I couldn't find the person who quoted that. I always try and do my homework before the podcast and for some unknown reason, I just couldn't find it. So who's the person that came up with this quote?
Carlos Vazquez:
OK. Well, the reason why you haven't found it is because, like I said, I'm not in high places yet, but soon, hopefully, I will be in high places and everyone will see that quote. I made that quote. Don't stay frustrated Automated. And the reason why is because there now, with so much technology, ai and obviously marketing and sales automation, even at home with the Alexa and with Google, there are so many things now that we can automate.
Carlos Vazquez:
And when you actually calculate the time, you do little tasks, it all adds up. And then if you let's say, if you put anything off all those little tasks, oh you know what, that's not important, I'm not going to prioritize that. Eventually they all kind of just add up, add up, and then now you're frustrated to the point where like, oh my God, I got to get all this done, but I have all these other priorities that are more important, but now I'm just in this, like this whole of lack of productivity. So you get frustrated. And that's where I always say you know what? Automate the things that are repeatable, that are obvious process, and then from there you know you won't be frustrated because you know the important things. They're not important until they all add up. And that's why I dubbed the don't stay frustrated. Automated, because you can automate just about anything, mostly anything but now with AI, it's a whole different level.
Tanya Scotece:
I see some promo items in your future. Say again oh, I see some promo items in your future with your quote. T-shirts red shirts some merch, yeah, yeah.
Carlos Vazquez:
Shout out to Jessica Assigns. She's the promo person in our chapter. So all right, Jessica. You know what? Yeah, Referral coming up.
Tanya Scotece:
It's the first hat. Ok, just saying.
Carlos Vazquez:
All right, it's only, it's only right.
Shireen Botha:
And listen as you heard it here first. So if you hear that quote anywhere else, you know it was from Carlos Vasquez. That is the founder of that quote. So you heard it here first. I've got so much to say when we go into automation and all that tech side of things, but before we do I just wanted to have a little bit of an introduction discussion. It's you know this this episode is going to be released in the month of love, the month of February 2024. So because of that, I just wanted to chat a little bit about the five love languages. I'm not sure if both of you have heard about the five love languages or if you know anything about it. No, ok.
Carlos Vazquez:
No, I don't, I'm, I'm a book.
Shireen Botha:
Well, ok, so I'm not saying yes and Carlos is saying no, ok. So let me just give you a little bit of an introduction, just a rough thing, so we can chat a few minutes about it. So the five love languages are five different ways of expressing and receiving love, the five different ways being words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch. So, for example, what is my love language? Well, that's pretty easy. That would definitely be the quality time. So, for me, if you take the time and you know and I'm going to add on to that If you also know the favorite things that I like doing and then choose to do that with me and spend time with me, that is loving me. Well, that's 100% loving me. In my language, personally, what about you, tanya, since you you actually know a little bit about this?
Tanya Scotece:
Yeah, so I actually have used it actually in the classroom. So, carlos, just to give you a little bit more in depth on it, so there's a book on it, there's an online assessment and we all have all five components, right, there's all different things that we all like to do, but it's kind of like they'll say, like your top two or your top three or your top one, which one is that and what really helps as far as whether it's, you know, interpersonal, like friendship or partner or whatever capacity is. For example, let's say, someone is about quality time and you happen to think it's gifts, so you're buying them gifts, thinking that that's making them happy, when in fact, they would rather just spend time with you and the gifts don't really mean anything. Okay, so I use that definitely in previous careers, I use it in the classroom. So, to answer your question, sherene, so the top two for me, I would definitely say one is a physical touch and second would be acts of service. Those are my top two.
Shireen Botha:
Nice, what about?
Carlos Vazquez:
yourself, carlos. So I actually did know this when you said out of like, I recognize this. My memory sucks, so you know what, now that you said it. Okay, yeah, I remember. And you know what, tony, I actually I'm going to say more is you, I don't know.
Carlos Vazquez:
There's something about touch that, especially by the, by someone you actually love, that really you feel it, not just on the superficial level, but actually feeling the inside. It can be just basic things like, you know, just a kiss on, you know on the cheek when you're sleeping. I feel it more when my wife caresses my arm. I love that when she crosses the back of my head. Sure, you know, I've had girlfriends in the past. That's been a head, but it's not the same one. It's someone you actually love.
Carlos Vazquez:
So, yeah, touching is a big deal for me. That's actually my first thing. If your touch doesn't make me feel like special, then it's a red flag, right? So luckily for my wife and I, I love when she touches me. We'll leave it there. And then the second thing is acts of service. So I love it when you do things for me, when, when I don't expect it from you, it's just a magical thing. I mean, I don't mind asking for things, but now I don't want to be in a position where I expect you to do things, no matter what. However, there are certain things like oh my god, you actually listen to what I said. I wasn't actually talking to you, but you heard me and they actually bought that. Or I'm not gifts, but you actually did that, or whatever. That's special to me as well, so I would say those two are my my favorite or primary love communication techniques.
Tanya Scotece:
Nice. I think it helps in, like around holiday times because, knowing somebody's love language, it's like sometimes we are conditioned. I don't know about South Africa, sharid, but especially like in the United States, with you know, holidays and gifts, it's mostly tangible gifts. You buy someone something right, as opposed to maybe giving somebody a coupon, like oh, quality time, like let's go to the park, or, you know, let's just spend some time on the couch together, like there's different ways to give a gift, but our society definitely, I would say, is conditioned about you know, tangible items for gifts.
Carlos Vazquez:
Right, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, the touching and the service like I was just thinking about. The other day, my wife just I came home from the gym and she just cooked me this high protein meal. I did not ask her to do it, but the fact that she did it I would say wow, it's special.
Shireen Botha:
so yeah, no, I like that. And Even if you don't have a significant other why? For husband? You can do it in your friendships, in your business relationships. I've always known that. That's something I've picked up in early stages of my friendship with Tanya. She does enjoy words of affirmation, so I do try my best and just send in her encouraging words. So, yeah, it's applicable in any sort of relationship. So I love that. So yeah.
Shireen Botha:
I enjoy that little piece. So, if you are listening and you understand about love languages, why don't you think for a moment of your loved ones, friends, your work colleagues? What are those love languages that they need and maybe do something in their language?
Carlos Vazquez:
So good tip Right.
Shireen Botha:
Before we continue, I'm just going to jump in with a buzz sprout ad. So let's talk about podcasting, right, because Carlos is a podcast. We've got a podcast. Podcasting is very popular, so if you are looking to start one, listen to this. Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners and the team at Buzzsprout is passionate about helping you succeed. There are over 100,000 podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. When I started this podcast, I didn't know where to begin and was quite overwhelmed, but using Buzzsprout makes it super easy and straightforward To start your own podcast and get a $20 Amazon gift card. Follow the link in the show notes. This lets Buzzsprout know we sent you and it really does help support the show. Buzzsprout, let's create something great together. So, as we continue with this episode, I have a couple of questions for you, carlos. So before we get into it, I just want you to just tell the listeners a little bit about who you are and just the background, so we can relate a little bit to you.
Carlos Vazquez:
All right Long. Okay. Good thing we blocked out a good amount of time for this. I'm going to try to keep it as short as possible. So I've always been a computer geek, so there's two things.
Carlos Vazquez:
Entrepreneurship I got bit by the bug. I want to say 1992, all right, or even maybe a little bit before that. And the reason why I say that is because that's when Hurricane Andrew hit. I've always liked something around like organizing, coming together for a purpose and they kind of just servicing people, so basically that's. I didn't know at the time, but that was basically entrepreneurship and business. So it was a big problem and coming up with a solution to fix it. So why 1992 in Hurricane Andrew? Well, because I lived in Miami Beach at the time and all of our power went out when Hurricane Andrew hit. We got hit pretty hard. I mean not like home said, but we got hit pretty hard and all of our power went out. Everything was just done. So we were like two weeks or so without power and it was right before the school year.
Carlos Vazquez:
Back in the day we used to pay outside. That was our internet, that was our entertainment, so I would play outside or whatever. I lived literally like five minutes walking distance from the beach, maybe 10 minutes or so, and all these coconuts fell, all these coconuts. And there was a shopping cart there and I said you know what, let me just load up the shopping cart with a bunch of coconuts. I started pushing the coconuts back to my house. I'm thinking I don't know what I'm gonna do with these, but I'm gonna take these home with me. And one lady saw me pushing his and I was like yeah, oyeriño. And then spent, hey, kid. And I was like hey, cuánto solos coco? How much are the coconuts? And I was like me just thinking cinco pesos, five dollars. And she went inside. I didn't think anything of it. I thought, okay, that's interesting. She came out and she says te doe veinte y dame cinco, I'll give you 20, and you give me five. And I'm thinking, oh wow, I just came out with a promotion and I just gave her five coconuts. Then I'm like I just found them on the freaking beach and I guess she was helping me out or whatever. And sure enough, I just started selling coconuts on my way back. I sold most of them on the way back home and eventually I sold all the coconuts. And that right there I realized, oh my God, there's no power, there's nothing. And coconuts, they have water, and they have food in it and it's whatever. It's an easy thing that you can consume. And that was it. That was really okay. I wanna keep doing this, so that's it. That was my entrepreneurship bug and I always wanna come up with different ideas.
Carlos Vazquez:
Also, I came back eventually, right, and I had a Tandy 1000 computer. So my dad, he was a very big computer in tech and this is Windows 3.0 era, whatever, and I saw that and I was intrigued. But I wanted to play games, that's what it was. So he actually got me a computer, a Tandy 1000. That's no alarming existence that had like this green monitor and I'm making this on hand gesture, I know you don't see it, but the reason why I do this is because if you were to grab your nail and rub it on the monitor, it's like it's sounding like a little zipper effect. So that's how old school I had. It was like a green monitor with these lines and I learned how to deal with DOS and how to start a game and how to do little silly things Like run the commands and make the text go crazy. It was a bunch of cool stuff. To me this was fascinating and eventually my dad saw that intrigue and interest. He wanted to kind of just keep it going. So he got me another computer with a that was a little bit faster, that can do a lot more, and that's it. It just kept on going from there.
Carlos Vazquez:
Windows 95 came out. So I became like a very big self-educated computer geek. I he had all these books, I would read them, I would apply them, and it went from there. If you fast forward to 1997, microsoft front page 97 came out. So now I learned how to create websites on my own by playing with it, copying code, pasting it in front page and just seeing how it all works. And then I learned how to create websites. And then I got involved with a bunch of other computer geeks and we were sharing different things. We were sharing tips and tricks and we were in this. We called it IRC at the time Internet Relay Chat. That was our, our chat place. And then AOL became even more popular and then I started going in there.
Carlos Vazquez:
And then with all that I wanted to join the Marine Corps as a computer guy, because I'm thinking you know what I'll be in the Marines, in a toughest service and I'll be a computer guy. All right, I'll be a tough geek. That's that was the idea, and nobody thought I could do it and Whatever. Well, we'll get to that bridge in a second now.
Carlos Vazquez:
I went to the recruiting station and there's a test that you have to take. It's called the as bad, the aptitude, so whatever, some basically entrance exam to join the military, and there's a score you have to get for different types of jobs. I wanted to be a computer guy, so I took the test and I've never been a good test taker. All right, and I got a 38. We're talking about a score from zero to a hundred. To be a computer person, you basically have to have like a 50 or 60 or an above. I got a 38. All right, listen, they had algebra on there. They had, they had all these things that that you know, I didn't care, but I just took the test and I passed it. Enough, with enough score to pass it and and he has, I've had it and I needed it and I couldn't get past 38. The minimum score to join the Marines is 30. I got 38. Okay.
Carlos Vazquez:
So the recruiter say okay, you want to be a computer guy, carlos, let's not enlist you yet. Let's wait 30 days for you to retake the test, so that way you can try to be a computer geek. All right, cool. So I waited 30 days. I studied, money, study, whatever. I just figured you know what. I'll take it more serious next time.
Carlos Vazquez:
I don't know why I thought this and sure enough I went ahead. I took the test and my vocabulary was good, but it was in fact great. And then I gave it the booklet, back to the proctor and the proctor says, all right, all right, you Can do as you passed. And I was like, all right, great. Oh, is this a? This is the second time you took it. I was like, yeah, I took it a second time. Oh, okay, what did you get last time? I said, oh, I got a 38. He goes oh Well, these are consistent and could? That word didn't really resonate in my head. I'm thinking what the hell does he mean? So I look at my score. Sure enough, I still got a 38. So I didn't get to join the Marines as a computer guy. I ended up joining as an ammunition technician, something completely unrelated to what I am today. However, the principles and the fundamentals from ammunition technician.
Tanya Scotece:
tune in next week for that two from friends from wild places.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to friends from wild places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.
