Charles Lew 7:47
So that’s been an enormous honor an incredible, incredible opportunity for me, I moved to Los Angeles, for law school with nothing and, you know, the city has been incredible. It’s provided, you know, every opportunity for me that the harder you work, the luckier you get. I think it’s it couldn’t, there couldn’t be a place where that statement is more true than Los Angeles. It’s a city of dreamers. It’s city where nothing is impossible. It’s a city that if you have an idea and want to work hard enough for it, and you refuse to say no. And as Arnold Schwarzenegger says, you break the rules, not the laws, there’s really nothing that can’t be gained in this city or garnered or accomplished or achieved. So being asked to be a small business commissioner was, again this incredible honor, because it let me meet with small businesses and, and address concerns and consternation that the small businesses have and engage in discourse with small businesses and help them try to avoid the pitfalls that certainly tripped myself and many of my associates and peers and other small business owners up. So it’s been it’s been something that I’ve welcomed. It’s been something that obviously during COVID became much more involved and a much bigger time commitment. And to be quite frank, much more stressful because you were fielding calls and concerns from individuals that were quite literally watching every penny every asset, every investment that they had dissolve before their eyes and trying to mitigate those concerns and assuage some of those fears was, was impossible for all of us. But, you know, we did the best that we could as these commissioners and the city and the county and the state. Obviously there was a lot of criticism of how everything was handled, which I think you know, some of it was probably fair, and some of it was probably correct, but again, I always say with COVID The interesting thing about it was there’s there’s quite simply no playbook, you know, if there’s a natural disaster, we’ve got everything in place to address it. If there’s an earthquake, you know exactly what we need to do now based on the severity of the response obviously may be inadequate just because there’s no way to plan or prepare for disasters have a certain level, but there is a playbook for how things would go COVID was was simply a disaster. And it was a disaster, that there was no playbook there was no comments guide for it, there was nothing to sit and say, Okay, this is how these this should be undertaken. This is what the city should do distance, the county’s role. This is the relationship between the city and the county, this is what the state should come in the federal government should mandate this, but they shouldn’t leave this to the state. So what we saw was, was really a very polarized country, and, and quite chaotic. Discourse amongst everybody, and total discord. So again, the Small Business Commission is let me face a lot of these things were involved in a lot of these things, understand, walk through what was, you know, I think will be considered a future one of the most difficult times that the city and the county, the state and country has faced and, and help as much as I possibly could, which I hope for some small businesses, there was some mitigation of harm on account of what myself and others did.
Chad Franzen 11:37
What I know you’ve been a board member for Mental Health America Los Angeles, tell me a little bit about what you do for them and why that’s important to you.
Charles Lew 11:47
Absolutely. So Mental Health America Los Angeles is one of the oldest and most venerable mental health organizations in the world, it’s run by a group of individuals who are truly exemplary human beings. And it’s something that again, a huge honor for me to be a part of, became very, very involved in mental health, from from quite a young age, on account of, or the concerns of mental health and the the addressing of mental health and the destruction of the stigmas attached to mental health and the acceptance that this is something that we all struggle with. And something that we all need to be extremely, extremely conscious of, which we’re not, we’re all very, very good at physical health. And we’re, and measuring it and quantifying it and taking our body fat, and our heart rate, going and taking our blood pressure at CBS, but we’re very, we’re very inefficient at measuring our mental health and quantifying our mental health and understanding our mental health and taking the moments and the time out to to reflect on how you feel, and all the buzzwords that we’ve all heard hundreds of times, you know, are you okay? Asking yourself, are you okay, taking a moment out of your day stopping and breathing, all of these things that sound very practical, and in theory are very easy, we just are, we are not extremely efficient at effectuating them which, which we definitely need to be better at for myself. Unfortunately, I lost some very, very close family members at a young age. And I’ve unfortunately continued to lose very, very close family members and very close friends and business partners to, to suicide. And it’s been something that, you know, it’s it’s been a real struggle for me to face and to understand and to, to really grasp and get my arms around and know and then try to see the signs of people when they’re struggling and try to be sympathetic and empathetic and try to put myself into a position of more understanding rather than, you know, this, this kind of robotic and analytical approach to everything. You know, I think the pandemic again, was something that was really not a catalyst for mental health and the, you know, the deleterious impacts and effects that social media is having on our mental health, which I think is it’s a room for a whole other conversation. But I think the pandemic was a real accelerant as, and it forced us to look at this and say, this is not a problem. This is really an existential crisis. And I know that sounds like a, you know, people could say, that’s a little hyperbolic, it’s, you know, it’s not really existentially threatening To the human race, but I think I think it is, I think, because, you know, you, if you look at some of the things that are occurring today, and the last week and year and last couple years, you see things that, unfortunately become almost commonplace. Now that we hear about it, we say, oh, that’s horrific, that’s terrible. And we move on with our lives. And, you know, some of these situations and scenarios are there, they’re not something that we should move on from, there’s something that needs to be addressed. And there’s something that we need to find the causes and the root causes. The reasons that we are mentally, globally in a place that is fundamentally not healthy. It’s we’re not collectively in a good place, I believe. And I believe there’s so many contributing factors to this and as much, much smarter people than they are trying to figure out and discern and distill what this all means and how to approach it and how to solve it or, or address or remedy or mitigate the effects of it. I don’t have an answer for any of it. I know that I can contribute with Mental Health America Los Angeles and some of the other courses and practicums and efforts that I’m involved with, there’s one called giving back generation that I just did an interview with, and it was with a lady named Raquel Stevens who is an absolute saint. And it was an incredible opportunity for me to talk about it, again, Mental Health America Los Angeles, just this, this organization that I’m not deserving to be on the board of, but I’m very appreciative of it. And it’s something I’m passionate about, I think something that we are collectively as a human race, not not as a country, but as a global community need to be really need to be cognizant of because it’s quite terrifying. I think the ramifications and repercussions of our continued misunderstanding of mental health.
Chad Franzen 17:09
Yeah, thank you so much for your efforts with that your service for that. It’s clearly something that, you know, all of us need to be more aware of more cognizant of, along with all those things that you’re involved with. You’re also the owner and operator of a number of bars and restaurants, including a new membership based Whiskey Bar at the Westin Bonaventure. Can you tell me a little bit more about that endeavor?
Charles Lew 17:30
Yeah, absolutely. That was, it’s called The Firm. The idea was to create a MacAllan centric, the Macallan centric bar, a bar that offer you know, the the greatest offering of whiskey, scotch whiskey, and a really casual but upscale environment in a private membership setting, but not an exclusive private membership setting. I know that sounds somewhat contradictory, but it’s really an inclusive setting as in the private membership is we’re open to everybody we just want you know, we want to welcome people in. So we want people to come and, and participate and be a part of this club and tell us what kind of whiskey they like and tell us how they like what kind of music they like and really gather some information so we can make this this private setting. Really, really inclusive and join the community together under this we’ve got a second location and sister location that we’re looking at opening in the next couple of weeks in Santa Monica. And this is again, this very, very loose private membership will garner you access to both locations. So we’re really excited about it, you know, scotch whisky businesses. It’s an incredible business something that I’ve been involved in interested in since I would say very small child. And something that we’re seeing incredible growth and over the last couple of years, and I think you’re only going to see more growth in it as the demand grows and the rarity of it continues to be enforced. And obviously the production is limited and once there’s a 20-year-old whiskey you can’t necessarily make him out there 20-year-old whiskey until the next year, and if you have a 19-year-old whiskey, so there’s there’s a rarity and they there’s an inherent limit finite amount of of this product, which I think makes it even more exciting and even more exhilarating to be a part of it. So The Firm is just that it’s kind of gave it the name of The Firm is a little bit of a job for our lawyer friends. So they can say at nine o’clock at night I’m going to differ and their significant other would say Wow, you really are are one of the hardest working ladies I’ve ever met or when the hardest working gentleman I’ve ever met I go to The Firm and you know, just dinner, we’ll be waiting for you or, or we’ll be waiting for your Thanks for working so hard. So it’s kind of just a little fun. And, and also something for the legal community. I really wanted to build something that, you know, service the legal community, again, to touch back on mental health. The legal community is a very interesting community. From my perspective, it’s a 1.2 million plus strong in the United States. I think it’s a very underserved market, when I say underserved, I mean that the community is a very fractured community. You know, there’s not, there’s not a lot of cooperation amongst lawyers, there’s not a lot of thought and concern amongst lawyers for their fellow lawyers. And I think it’s a very, it’s a very unbanked profession. You know, if you do a very good job, if you’re very efficient as a lawyer, the client says, Well, of course, you did a good job, you’re my lawyer, I’m paying you $500 an hour, I’m paying you $900 an hour paying you $200, whatever, whatever the hourly happens to be. So there’s not really any thanks for an efficient or proficient job being done. But if the job is, is mediocre, or God forbid, the job is less than perfect or, or even substandard. There’s there’s huge ramifications as a lawyer so and this is why you see these these quite quite scary statistics as to depression amongst lawyers and suicide rates amongst lawyers. And also statistic that I thought was very, very interesting was the depression level of entry-level law students, as opposed to graduating law students. And you see this this quite terrifying and Mark and incline, as the student goes on, to completing their law school education, which I think is, which I think really indicates that this changing, evolving profession that used to guarantee not rich riches or wealth necessarily, but certainly comfort, and I think it’s complete uncertainty now. So this all kind of went into saying, let’s, let’s make a place where legal professionals can come and obviously, again, everybody’s welcome. But legal professionals can come and these ladies can come and have a place to have a lovely scotch or a glass of wine and talk about their day and talk about their work and talk about their family. And dads can come in and talk about the sports, their family, their work, you know, whiskies whatever, just again, a very great inclusive place for legal professionals and their friends to gather and come here.
Chad Franzen 22:49
Great, great, very nice, Hey, how is maybe a place like that, or even the bar or nightlife industry kind of adapting and surviving in times where there seems to be a lot of change?
Charles Lew 23:02
Think it’s, it’s interesting, it’s dynamic, you know, we’re all we’re all moving and trying to remain as malleable as possible. Because we’re, you know, even just last week, there was a news article or news dropped, it said that indoor mask mandates may return. So it’s this. It’s this real uncertainty. And again, this goes back to something we spoke about 15 minutes ago, there’s just no no roadmap, you know, so we’re sitting saying, well do masks work, don’t masks work. Does vaccination work? Does it not work? And again, I don’t want to even touch on the politics of this or, or where I, where I happen to fall? Because I believe that that’s irrelevant for the purpose of this conversation, you know, purpose into this conversation as we are just through time of uncertainty. And as much as everybody will say, Well, this is a science, this is a science or someone on the other side, say no, here’s the science and, and, and I think maybe 10 years from now, or 20 years from now we’ll be able to look back on this and say, well, there was a science, and maybe it all falls somewhere in the middle or maybe someone you know, it’s proven unequivocally right pression I don’t really know. But for right now, we’re just dealing with uncertainty. So they you see in it with clients, we’re seeing that as we set restaurants, and people understand the value of patios now and outdoor space. And not to say the patios and outdoor space weren’t coveted before or are seen as a valuable asset, but they weren’t seen as a mandatory life-giving asset. Now if you don’t have a patio or if the space doesn’t have a patio, the majority of my clients would just move on to next space. So you’re seeing that really influence and mandate some of these leases which is altering and impacting the landlords because now the landlords are being asked, well, there’s no patio. I want to blow the front façade back 15 feet, and I want you to pay for it the landlord’s looking at, you know, myself and my tenants and my clients and Sam, that’s your estimating per quarter million dollars of expenses. So you can build a patio and open up front façade and a building that’s aesthetically beautiful right now and why am I doing this? And the client said, Well, you’re doing it because we need open air, we need a patio space, and who knows what’s going to come back. And two weeks ago, we were told that lunch box is coming. So so there’s restaurant is again, very, very difficult business. I mean, and I truly believe it’s actually quite easy to quantify the varying levels of difficulty and why it’s complex and why there’s, again, so many moving parts, disparate amount of moving parts for the same amount of gross revenue to other businesses. So you’re just seeing anxiety, you’re seeing uncertainty, you’re seeing people being very conscious of their leases. So they’re asking for measures to include pandemics and epidemics and COVID, and coronaviruses. And, and all of these other outs, if you will, from leases and termination clauses and things called good guide clauses where the tenant saying that I’ll take the space, but I’m not signing a personal guarantee, I’ll give you a good guy clause, which means when I when I make the determination that I can’t operate or function in this restaurant space, you’re not going to have to kick me out, I’m not going to sit there and freeload in the in the location and hang out and not pay rent, I’m going to broom, sweep the location, walk up hand the keys to you and walk out the door. So we’re seeing a lot of quite interesting evolution of the practice and the restaurant operations on account of the impact of COVID. And the pandemic.
Chad Franzen 27:00
You’re the owner and the operator and the creator of a number of restaurants. Why is it important to you with all you have going on to remain so kind of close to the restaurant industry?
Charles Lew 27:11
Yeah, I have no idea. I have no idea what I’m doing half the time with that. So I think it’s one of the things that once you’re in the business, you only get into business, I believe, or let me restate that you should only get into business if you truly love the business. Because if you’re getting in because you think you’re going to make a fortune and you’re going to be swimming in money and fame and fortune, you’re going to be horribly. It is. It is not it’s not what you see on TV, it is not what you read about, you know, we hear all of these incredible success stories. Again, those are those are very, very much the exception. So for myself, I love the business. I love the idea of meeting people. I love the idea of hosting people. I love the idea of asking people to come to our restaurant with our brewery come to our scotch bar. I think the camaraderie that can be built there the community that can be built there. It’s very, very hard to quantify from a dollar perspective of value. And I think it’s unquantifiable. I think being able to host a potential business person at your restaurant or, or a restaurant that you’re involved in is extremely meaningful. It’s the next best thing to happen to a person over to your house and cooking dinner for them and opening a bottle of wine and letting them band around your house and look at your, your personal photographs I think the restaurant is, is the next best thing. And actually, in some ways, I think it’s even better because it lets the person come in and order the food that they want and order the wine that they want and have a night out that’s not necessarily sitting in someone else’s house and, you know, seeing people and being part of this experience and socializing. So it’s, there’s, there’s really again, I believe an unquantifiable benefit to owning and opening and owning and operating restaurants. At least for myself, there has been and I think that’s the lower door is your love walked in I said a couple years ago, one of the greatest sites ever saw and one of my favorite memories is I remember watching two people walk in at Stout Burger in Hollywood. And I remember sitting down and I spoke with them. And I said hey, I’ve been here before you know kind of helped me with the venue and they said we’ve never been here before certain such great things about it. That’s wonderful. If you have any questions, let me know and they said well, what would you suggest and I said well, if there’s nothing on this style burger that that appalls you or you’re scared of or you just specifically do not have a penchant for an order that style burger. It’s our namesake burger. I think it’s one of the best burgers that’s ever been created. And and I promise that you will like it as long as there’s nothing out there that you are again, concerned about So I just ordered style burgers. And I remember standing behind the bar and watching the individual take the first bite of it. And he took a bite to eat. And it was his response that I’ll never forget. He didn’t say, oh my gosh, this is amazing what and if he did, I couldn’t see it because I was 40 feet away behind the bar. But it was just this, look at this just look of pleasure and happiness. And he just nodded at his friend. And his friend nodded back. And then they took another bite. And then he shook his head, and put the burger down and just nodded. And it was just this, you know, 15 second interaction between two people with literally not a verbal word uttered not a, a verbal, not a singular word on Earth. And it just was everything was everything you needed to notice, say, that person just had an experience today, on account of something that we’ve collectively created that is entirely memorable for them and entirely enjoyable. So things like that little moments like that, that I look back and think this is why we do it.
Chad Franzen 31:06
Yeah. Wow. That’s a great story. So that’s at Stout Burgers and Beers. You’re a co-creator of that. That brand has six Southern California locations, I believe. How did you kind of come up with that idea? What makes those burgers so great? And then I noticed on the website that they’re cooked medium rare. Tell me a little bit about all those things.
Charles Lew 31:25
Yeah, that’s that really was all my partner and the chef, Alex Kevin is phenomenal chef who actually I went to law school with, and he used to cook for everybody after, after hours and after going out and and that was a self taught chef, and then went to court on blue and, and really mastered the craft and created this, this menu that’s really stood the taste, test time where you know, we’re 12 years plus, which is a long time for a restaurant and an enormously long time and almost unheard of long time for gourmet burger restaurant. So I cannot take any credit for it at all. I had nothing to do with the creation of the menu except some of the names I said, Yeah, like, I don’t like it. You created it. And the idea was to create a burger restaurant that took two very, very common things, burgers and beer. And kind of the thought process was the, you know, the sum is greater than the parts argument that we would take these two very commonplace products. And we would combine them and curate them in such a way that these two mundane projects created this exceptionally gourmet experience for a very acceptable price point that was kind of conceptually Stout Burger. And, you know, it’s done very well, we’ve had, we’ve had ups and downs, we’ve closed units, but you’ve expanded and expansion didn’t work, we’ve had units that we thought were going to be fantastic and weren’t moving units that we didn’t think were going to be incredibly profitable and fantastic. That worked well. So it’s been a great learning experience a great brand, it’s still here. 12 years later, we’re working on some kind of 2.0 and 3.0 iterations, we just opened our first casual, fast, Stout Burger at the USC campus. University of Southern California campus outside of downtown Los Angeles, is doing phenomenally well. It’s very, very exciting to see, you know, a toned down version of this gourmet experience, certainly still a very, very high quality burger, and curated beer, but just not contemplating an individual coming in with an hour to sit down and walk through this entire process. But more someone who’s got 30 minutes, 35-40 minutes, and still wants to really experience this, quote, better burger paired with a beer, but doesn’t have quite the same amount of time where it’s a little more price point sensitive. So we’ve got this fast, casual version, which again, it’s been enormously successful so far. That’s great partners there. And we’ll definitely be looking to do more of those this fast, casual concept. And, you know, just watching the market trends at plant plant based growth is up until this year, I actually funnily enough, read an article this morning on the treadmill that the beyond companies and Oatly, which were two enormously successful, front, you know, forward thinking, moving plant based companies, and I think one was down 87% from its peak and other 80% respectively. So I think you’re seeing a shakeout in the plant-based market, which I think we all believe is inevitable. But what I do also believe is that it is a future and I don’t think it’s a future that people will stop eating. But I think you’ll continue to see attrition on the the meat eating population or at least the welcoming In plant based projects from individuals who were really opposed to it before, you know, you heard, sometimes I remember sitting at restaurants and you would hear people and they were, you know, they were kind of It sounds funny, but they almost had this visceral opposition to plant based products. And I’m certainly seeing that diminished. And I’m seeing a real openness because I think the products, plant based foods, hemp products, for example, and some of these other, just incredible, incredible plant based products are coming out where people are looking at them saying, This tastes good, it’s better for the environment, it’s it’s obviously much healthier for me. And again, you know, I will qualify that statement by saying some of the products that are out, you could make an argument are not healthcare, but I think there are some, there’s some products now and over the past couple years that have come out, that are extremely conscious, not only of the environment, but of being plant based, and also of being materially healthier for you than their, their animal based counterparts. So we’re trying to be conscious of all of that we’ve got three plant based burgers on our menu right now three actually plant based patties, so an unlimited number of plant based burgers. And so just some of the things we’re trying to really think through, we’re working on a NFT drop, that would allow for memberships in the community and as Stout would be a part of that drop that would allow for this community experiences Stout product, on a weekly basis as part of the benefits of being in this community. So again, just kind of looking at everything, looking at the markets, looking at where things are going, where the trends are going. Trying to be cognizant of minimum wage raises and cost of goods increases and supply chain shortages. Again, just a myriad of moving parts that you know, where we are looking at just like everybody else, saying, we don’t really know the answer to it, but we’re trying our hardest to help not only ourselves, but our clients and our associates. Navigate what is certainly uncertain waters, uncharted waters at this point. Sure.
Chad Franzen 37:24
So you’ve got you got those, you’ve got stopped Burgers and Beers. And then you’ve also got Boomtown Brewery and the Morrison, can you tell me about those?
Charles Lew 37:32
Sure, yeah. Morrison was named after my mom. It’s Scottish pub, but extensive whiskey and scotch collection again. When we opened it, we opened it very, very scotch centric. We had a quite a few dishes on there that were very, very Scottish. And, in fact, the whole menu was leaning, like British pub menu with again, these very Scottish components. As we’ve, as we’ve kind of grown, we noticed that the market for that was not as robust as we hoped. So we had to kind of evolve the menu, which kind of goes back to maybe one of the minor themes of this, this chat that I appreciate having with you, is we’re you know, we’re constantly evolving and we’re constantly trying to be as malleable as possible. And, you know, we just saw that this, this quote, Scottish menu was great for all my fellow Scots and all my Scottish friends, but it kind of missed the mark for what was being considered pub food. So we had to evolve that into a much more public friendly, burger centric, comfort food location, but we have and it’s been extremely successful. I believe we’re one of the top 10 rated Yelp restaurants in the state and, you know, expanded the patios and expanded into a central location and it’s just a fun concept concept and it’s done very, very well. And of course, we’ve got the you know, this massive lion vamping outside just homage to Scotland and our community and it’s been fun, it’s been a great project and my mom loves to come and visit see the, the restaurant named after so that’s been fantastic. And Boomtown Brewery is really a labor of love. Boomtown Brewery, we opened years and years and years ago in the arts district, really in a location that everybody kind of attempted to convince us was not a good play. But we persisted and actually walked through all of the entitlements and permits and licenses there on a building that was not permitted as a brewery. So we really walked into what was a very complicated process willingly. In hindsight, you know, we may or may not have done that. But the end result, the benefits of it were incredible to have that location with those permits at the end of again, what was was a very laborious process, but we got there. And the brewery has enjoyed an immense amount of success and expanded and continues to expand. And it’s, I think, over 600 retail locations now in the state of California. And the demand is, it’s outpaced our ability to supply the product, which is always a wonderful product problem to have. And, again, it’s just a passion project. It’s something that I really can’t take much credit for — the team behind it is my partners are incredible, incredible individuals to Brewer, it’s amazing. The managing operator is amazing. Our managing and operating partner is amazing. And the community has been so supportive. So the Los Angeles community really embraced craft beer, which was interesting, because craft beer was never necessarily associated with Los Angeles. But over probably the past three, four or five years, maybe even a little longer. We’ve become quite a respected craft beer community. And, and part of that support and part of that innovation has possibly come from us. And maybe I’d like to thank and we’ve enjoyed the successes of it. So incredible product. And you know, we do fun things, we do these, these art exhibit drops. And we do these artists series cans where we pair up with local artists and local artists will come in and do murals and brewery and they’ll design cans, and they’re immensely successful and incredibly popular. And now we’re doing something very fun with NFT Goblintown NFT, which is a new NFT — a relatively new NFT project. It’s literally taken NFT world by storm. So we’re brewing a couple of Goblin lagers right now. And we’re utilizing the intellectual property from the NFT as the label and the art. And we’ll do these Goblin hazy IPAs, which is just fun and somewhat novel, it was certainly not the first people to do it. But it’s still kind of a fun novel space. So we’re trying to stay current and stay involved and, and merge these emerging technologies with old world craftsmanship, which is kind of like the craft beer business.
Chad Franzen 42:41
Very cool. Hey, I have one more question for you. But first, is there like a centralized? Maybe website that people can go to and find out about all the things you’re involved with your restaurants and your other things?
Charles Lew 42:52
Yeah, just CharlesLew.com. It’s probably the easiest CharlesLew.com. CharlesLew.com.
Chad Franzen 43:00
Great. Hey, yeah, last question for you. You know, you’re very busy. You’re an attorney, you’ve got all these restaurants, you’re involved as the LA City, small business Commissioner, you’re an advocate for mental health. What are some daily rituals that you find most important, like, what’s what’s kind of a typical day for you?
Charles Lew 43:18
The job, the gym is very important. I tried to, I tried to get into the gym every morning, around six or 6:30, it happens about 80% of the time. It’s just something I’ve done my whole life. And it really allows me to kind of function and, you know, 30-45 minutes of quiet time that I’m not bombarded with emails, or texts, or calls or questions or comments or concerns. So that’s something that I’ve been incredibly, incredibly involved with. Just it’s always been a part of my life. And it’s, it’s been a huge benefits. Something I recommend all of my friends and the other young lawyers that I speak with is just just get into some kind of exercise regimen, whatever that happens to be and stick with it. It’s just create a habit and stick with it. It’ll really behoove you and it will continue to benefit you, I believe for your whole life. I tried to read a lot I used to be like really just an avid reader. I’ve not as much time now as I used to sit down with material books, I do a lot of articles. And very, very, very interested in notes because I spend so much time driving so it’s always good to have that hour, hour and a half, two hours to sit and read or listen to the book being read to me. I am very active in the community. And I encourage that so whether it’s the city of Los Angeles or even my local neighborhood, tried to stay active in quite a few different philanthropic endeavors. We have an adoption charity that I’m very involved with over a few homeless Skid Row charities where we get together cumulatively, as a group, Project Paperbag, adopt together sick to give and try to do some things and try to work on giving back. I think it’s very important. A lot of times people say, I don’t have time for charity, I’m too busy with work. And, and I certainly understand that sentiment. And I think, you know, there’s an argument you can make to say that I’m just too busy. One of the things I always tell people is some of the most valuable relationships I’ve ever had or built or developed. Specifically, if a pecuniary nature of a financial nature were the provenance of them, the origin of them was at a charitable event or at a philanthropic event or in the course of completing some kind of philanthropic activity. So I think it’s, I think it’s one of those things where you and I don’t I don’t want to say that, you know, the karma or one of these situations, but I think anytime you put like-minded individuals in a place with the idea that they’re going to do something altruistic, there’s a very good chance that lots of things can spawned from that. So I’ve always tried to remain very active and philanthropic endeavors. So, you know, just entrepreneurs and mentoring, I always said, when people say what, you know, what do you wish you could have had earlier? What would have helped you? Or, you know, what, what, what did you not have, and I always think I didn’t really ever have a mentor, which, you know, I think it worked out fine. But I always think that I could have advanced or progressed, much, much faster. Had there been someone looking at what I was doing and saying, Good idea, bad idea. I don’t know I don’t have any concept, try it. For me, it was a lot of trial and error, it was a lot of falling down, it was a lot of the old rocky saying, It’s not how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit, keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. So for me, it was kind of trial and error get punched in the mouth and get back up. And I don’t think that’s the best way to do anything. I think it creates probably for good podcast interview or a good story, but but not not efficient at all. So I think mentoring people is very important. And not just young people, you know, I have clients and friends who are enormously successful and businesses that they’ve had for a long time. And now they want to expand into other businesses. And you know, some of these individuals, ladies, gentlemen are 60-65-70 years old. So you know, I don’t think mentoring has to be someone necessarily younger than you, your mentee, I think it could be just an individual that is following a path that you may have tried before. And some of your life experiences may be valuable to them. And again, help them avoid some of these pitfalls that trip up small business owners and entrepreneurs and empresarios as they engage or undertake or endeavor to start these businesses. So a couple of things that I think would be very valuable for anybody.
Chad Franzen 48:09
Yeah, absolutely. Hey, Charles has been great to talk to you. I really appreciate your time and your thoughts and your insights. Thank you so much.
Charles Lew 48:16
Thanks, man. I really appreciate your time. Have a great day.
Chad Franzen 48:19
You too, thank you. So long, everybody.
Outro 48:21
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