CEO Of The CEO Confidant: Angel Ribo AKA The Confidant Boss – S3E06 (#102)

S3E06 Angel Ribo.mp3 – powered by Happy Scribe

Boss Uncaged is a weekly podcast that releases the origin stories of business owners and entrepreneurs as they become uncaged trailblazers. In each episode, our host, S.A Grant and guests construct narrative accounts of their collective business journeys and growth strategies, learn key success habits and how to stay motivated through failure, all while developing a Boss Uncaged mindset. Break out of your cage and welcome our host, S.A Grant.

Welcome back to Boss Uncaged podcast. Today’s show, we have an interesting guest. I’m going to deem him the confidant boss, and he’s going to be able to tell you why very soon.

Thank you.

Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to our guest today, sir?

Thank you. Thank you very much. So, as you very well said, I’m Angel Ribo with my brand is the CEO confident and basically, I’m originally from Spain. What I do for a living, I have very two distinct parts of my life. One is my for profit business, which is that Grant just mentioned and what we do is we help both corporate CEOs and established entrepreneurs to bridge the gap globally for expansion and exposure as a way to accelerate the growth of their businesses. And we can do that basically, because for the last 20 plus years, I’ve helped more than 1500 CEOs in 33 different countries. I’ve lived, excuse me, in probably like seven or eight countries. And I’ve already lost site of that and I speak five languages. And the other side of my life is basically my life purpose, which is helping the privileged kids in Latin America become entrepreneurs using their local resources. And I do that through our nonprofit is called Wisdom for Kids. I am the president and co founder of Wisdom for Kids. That’s who Angel Ribo is S.A.

Nice. So let’s just talk about the confident Boss. That’s a very intriguing and interesting brand and name. What is the meaning behind that and how did you come up with that naming convention?

Yes. So when we start, at some point, we start our entrepreneurial journey, right? We decide maybe to leave what we were doing before and become our own bosses. So I did that in 2016. And when I was thinking about, okay, what am I going to do? There were many different choices ahead in front of me. I can do this, I can do that, I can do that. And I decided to basically start counting my blessings. I started to count what I had done in my professional life. And I had worked for several, both oil and gas companies and high tech, mainly high tech. Most of my professional career in the 90s started with high tech companies. And I realized that I had helped so many companies and so many CEOs. And every single time I would engage with my clients, every single time I would help them grow their businesses, and I would always do it in a way in which we would engage consistently the C level executives of those companies. And that’s why I started actually to count the companies that had helped, and I started to count the CEOs and the C levels I had helped and when I reached 1500, I said, okay, I’m going to stop here. And I think it would make sense that I’ve had so many private conversations, confidential conversations with so many CEOs in so many different countries, more than 30 countries. I said, I think it would make sense to actually call myself the CEO confident. And that’s why I chose my brand, because of what is behind. In my experience, when you really have done so many things that you don’t count them. Like you don’t really take like you stop and you take stock of what you have really done. That’s what I did in 2016, and that’s why I came up with this brand.

Nice. So with that being kind of like what you’re saying is that you had access to thousands, right? And you stopped counting around 1000, but you had all these intriguing, detailed conversations behind the scenes that no one else really had access to, and that’s why you came up with that branding. So let’s go into a little bit more about you. If you could define yourself in three to five words, what three to five words would you choose?

An unstoppable divine force that connects the unconnected.

Nice. So going back into your business, right? I’m an executive. I come to you, right? And I see your branding and I’m seeing, okay, he’s telling me right away he’s going to be able to take information that I’m going to give him and he’s not going to disclose this to anyone. But like, what’s the next step? Like, what system do you have in place? Like, what is your service exactly?

Yes, thank you. So I provide several services, but I would like to say that the most important one is someone already has and again, it can be an accomplished entrepreneur whose friends and partners have told that person, hey, you should take this global, you should take this global, you should take this global. Right. And that copy entrepreneur already knows that their product or their service can really do so much good in the world, probably in other cultures and other geographies. That would be like, one of my main audiences. The other audience is typically like a sea level, a CEO that really wants to take their business global. They have tried to do things in the past, but with everything that’s going on in the world, having local connections, it has become much more important. And I was always on the road. I had developed all those relationships with local partners, clients, friends. So the starting conversation is always the same thing. Okay. So they tell me, we would like to grow or accelerate the growth of our business, and we would like to do it taking it global to specific areas. The first thing we start talking about, okay, so which of your products and services you think could serve another audience and then which market would you like to take that to and then we start the conversation. Would it be a good fit or not according to my experience, according to what I have done personally in the past, according to the local partners I have already on that particular geography. Then we go to a conversation which we discuss basically, are you ready to do that? Because you have to be willing, not saying able because everything can be done right. The willing. Are you really willing to customize your product and service and do everything it takes to customize the product and service to make it viable in that particular geography? And the third is, do you have the resources to do it? Do you have already the resources in place, the cash flow, the cash flow to invest in this initiative that will allow you to be investing in those global efforts for at least one year? Those are basically the main three questions essay because one thing is I want to do something, but then, okay, so let’s make sure that we understand each other and we are on the same page as you can imagine, besides expanding to that particular place. And I’m talking about developing business, finding new clients, finding distributors, finding resellers, finding partnerships in that particular geography or maybe I want to visit those specific accounts. I would like to have literally appointments with the C Level executives of those companies. That’s something that we provide also. Something that we also do because we are very strong, our presence. I always talk about us because I mean, we have a decent size team already in the company. And what we do, we have developed a very strong audience on LinkedIn right now, over 280 connections. Most of them are C level executives of midsized and large corporations. So we are able to start conversations with those executives. So what we provide and other of the services that we provide is what is called influencer marketing. But we do it in a specific way, which is a business to business influencer marketing or business to consumer influencer marketing. Okay. Which means that we have already developed those relationships with our audience. We use those relationships to promote, to give exposure and visibility to our clients products and services. Does it make sense S.A?

Yeah, it does, definitely. So what I envision, I’m time traveling back in and I’m hearing you speaking right now, but what I envision is you as a kid in Europe with a suit and tie and a briefcase. How did you become like an executive? I mean, when did that journey really start for you?

Oh S.A I have to thank you and I also have to put my hand on my face because when I was a kid, to be honest, I was so shy, I was so shy. Probably the first time I did something like public was when I was in I think it was 8th grade. No, it was later 9th grade, when I helped the French teacher to organize a trip to France. That was the first time ever I was kind of on the stage helping a teacher to create basically to schedule a trip to go to France. And we spent the entire French class student who went to French for a couple of weeks. That was the first time. Then I was extremely shy. Very shy. I remember organizing when I was in high school. In 12th, we would raise money, we will fundraise for organizing a trip in the summer, right? And we actually partnered up. We were a male only school, so we’ve actually partnered up with a female only school so that we would attract our respective audiences, friends and classmates from our respective schools. And we would organize on an alcohol. Obviously alcohol wasn’t allowed because we were still underage, but we will organize every single Friday night an event on an evening club, not a nightclub or an evening club. I remember still to this day that in the whole year I did not have the courage to ask anybody to dance with me. That’s how shy I was. I mean, I was really, really shy. Then I went to college. And it was then when I started kind of bloom and I started actually it was my first year, I was proposed to be a member of an international student organization. That what they do is they exchange scholarships so you can go you get scholarships in Spain and then exchange those scholarships in an international meeting with scholarships from other countries. And eventually your college students, a few of them, the ones that are members of the club, they are able to travel for the summer or for a semester abroad. So that was when I really started to be kind of some sort of leader of an organization. And it started to help consistently my college mates so that they could go abroad and spend some time having experience in companies and universities in many other countries, literally around the world. That was really when I started. But that was probably the first time I was an entrepreneur. Although when I was a kid and I really like computer science, when I was in high school, I would help my father’s business with programming and that’s why I ended up studying computer engineering. So my first job ever, I was actually helping my dad in his business writing code for an inventory of one of his fish farms. So that was exactly what I was doing.

Crazy.

So this is who I was when I was in high school, college, and then in the decided that after a kind of a traumatic divorce in Barcelona, I decided to start my international experience and I relocated. The first time I was relocating for a long period of time or forever, from Spain to the UK. And I have not lived in Spain since then.

Wow. So, I mean, you kind of given us some insight to kind of like hurdles. I mean, as a kid you were shy and fast forward, you broke out of that shell and now you’re more in front of camera. You’re more of a social light per se. Right, exactly. On the business side of things, what hurdles did you have to overcome to get to where you are currently?

Well, number one, I briefly mentioned it before, which is when you leave corporate America, where you have had so many support systems and you start your own journey, you’re completely confused. You really don’t know what to do with your life. And I’m not exaggerating. Literally, you have so many different things that you can do that in reality you don’t have anything to do. Right. Because if I take this, what are the pros and cons? If I do this, what are the pros and cons? And you spend a lot of time doing that. I wish I wish I had just taken one route and go with it because that would have taken me to a place where I would have been able to course correct. Much, much faster. That’s number one. Number two, I kind of felt like I’m just leaving a world behind and I have to confront my life moving forward. That was a big mistake because I had developed so many good relationships with so many people that I literally stopped talking to. When you have this mental trap that you think like, this is not part of your life anymore. It’s not true. I could have had the advice, maybe clients, maybe even some support for me or maybe even some feedback for my products and services at that time and I didn’t do it. Number three, I think that also collaboration. We are not taught to collaborate. When we are in corporate America, honestly, it’s very difficult to establish win win partnerships. And I think that we are always thinking about competition, competition, competition, competition. How can we beat the competition? Right? How can we beat the competition? And I think that in reality, in the world and the future, is teaching this as a big lesson. I think that we have to learn how to collaborate. I wish I had openly started collaborating or looking for people that could have might have complimentary, offers, value propositions to the market, so I could have like, partner up with them and do it the right way. Because very often, and you probably have received that you very often receive emails, even messages on LinkedIn saying, I would like to collaborate with you to see if we can collaborate. Right.

Yeah.

How many of those conversations ever go anywhere?

Like, none.

Exactly. So I think that we have not been taught really how to collaborate, how to put in place those checks and balances, how to put in place those boundaries to make that relationship really work. I don’t remember any collaboration conversation in which you say, okay, so right now we’re going to commit each other to generate three leads in the upcoming 30 days for each other. That’s our commitment. That never happens. That never happens. And again, why that doesn’t happen? Maybe because of fear, maybe because of mistress. You know, again, I think that even in the school and that comes from the school, to be honest. I think it really comes from when we are in school. We’re not taught to collaborate, really. I think that the system doesn’t put in place enough initiatives or activities so that we really learn on how to define a way in which we can work mutually beneficially between us.

Very interesting. Very interesting philosophy and train of thought. And to your point, I mean, I think that’s, like, one of the downfalls of LinkedIn. Like, LinkedIn is powerful in the sense that you have access to all your clientele that you’re ever looking for. But doing the blanket marketing by sending out the same exact messaging to everyone without articulating what that system is like, how do I really work with this person versus just saying, hey, do you want to work together? To your point, it becomes annoying, and then all those messages kind of just go into the graveyard, and they get forgotten very easily. So going into my next question, I mean, obviously, like, you have systems in place, right? You understand business to a level to where not only on a national scale, but an international scale. So with that, how is your business structure? Is it an LLC? S Corp? A C corp.

It’s an LLC. It’s an LLC. Yeah.

Is there a particular reason why you chose that particular principle versus any of the other two?

Just because it was the easiest way, the most straightforward. And when you don’t know what you don’t know, you just go ahead and you take the advice from people that have been there before. And that’s why I decided to basically go down that path. In reality, it’s afterwards when you reach a certain revenue level, when this becomes more of a discussion with the proper CPA, I use what’s the name to create my company? LegalZoom. LegalZoom is the name of the company. You go online. I mean, I don’t have any affiliation with them. And just mentioning it because it’s literally in a few hours, you can get your business up and running, and it’s later up down the road when you have those conversations. And to be honest, I always try to leave these conversations to the people that know more about me. And that’s another mistake I made, which is asking for help when I started my own journey. Do you ask for help fast enough, soon enough, so that you don’t have to do the heavy lifting yourself? And remember, money comes and goes. Money comes and goes. But time, no, time goes by, time goes by, time goes by. And I think that’s also another lesson I learned the hard way is that had they received the support from now obviously, I know a lot, but did I get any sales support? Did they get the necessary marketing support, legal support, accounting support that I needed at that time so that I could really shorten my ramp up period? I did not. And that was a big mistake. And also another thing that we don’t know as entrepreneurs is how to pick the right contractors, how to pick the right partners, how to pick the people that are really the right contractors, the right people that are going to provide you with the services that you need to ramp up. Again I think that little by little or trial and error, trial and error, we learned on that journey of being entrepreneurs and eventually being the small business owners.

Interesting. So as the perception goes right so much into this particular episode, they may be hearing you speak and say, okay, this guy has the machismo that I’m looking for. He has the insights, he has the bravado. But in the perception, you’re kind of overnight, successive. But in reality, how long did it take you on your journey to get to where you are currently?

Oh, my God, I’m talking about the 90s. Had i not started. And let me tell you, from a sales perspective, I was more marketing PR guy from a natural standpoint. When I was in college, I didn’t like computer engineering, but I got a degree and then I took an MBA. But I remember the first really big immersion to the sales world was when I took a position in the UK as an inside salesperson. I was making hundreds, hundreds of sales calls, cold calls, every single week, no matter what. That was, you know, that was the first really big change in my life in which I realized that even not speaking the language of every single European country I was calling to, I was still being able to generate first level of trust with my number one. Number two, you realize also that being who you are authentically is much more important than the script that you use as an inside salesperson. Right? So I started this really in the then I was generating leads for my field reps, for the sales reps that were in the field, going face to face to see all those companies. And then I started to be invited to the kickoff meetings, sales kickoff meetings in those territories, and the rest is history. It was then when I was given the responsibility over specific accounts. Then I started to increase my geographical outreach. And then I started not only to sell to those strategic accounts and talking about Fortune 500 companies, 20 to 25, every single quarter, different ones. And then I started to develop distribution channels, which means finding companies out there that would like to go to the market with our products and services. So I had to actually help them go from wherever they were, support them so that they could actually go and serve my clients or our clients with our products and services. So I started to actually consistently coach and consult for those companies that were our business partners. They were our value added resellers or our distributors or technology partners. So then it was not only me using my sales and skills, but also it was me being a consultant to make sure that I was able to help those companies grow. And actually, I have many different success stories, but one of the most amazing ones was a company that helped only in two years. And I have almost three years to go from two employees to 40 plus employees. So that’s the power of not only being able to generate business and to sell, but to create or to lead a group of people to believe in you, believe in your products and services and grow and grow in a way that they can consistently themselves, generate their own systems and create value for their clients. That’s why eventually I provide the services that I provide because I was really working on many different fronts of helping companies grow and generate business and generate revenue and become profitable and generate cash flow.

Definitely interesting. So if you could travel back right on this, you’re talking about 30 plus years of time frame, what’s one thing that you would want to do differently if you could do it all over again?

Take more risks. I would have taken more risks. Definitely more risks. I mean, I really stretched things. I remember in the early 2000s when I was with my.. I married again. And I remember that they spent so much time gone from home and my wife told me one day, I thought that you were seeing someone else and you were going to go back home one day and you would tell me, this is over. So I know that I have spent a lot of time with the people that needed me the most from my business partners. I mean, so it’s not a matter of time. It’s how many more risks I would have taken, how many more avenues I would have opened for myself and for my business partners. So we could have explored more possibilities. That’s it really, regardless of how glamorous my life might look like, like so many countries and so many companies and so many CEOs. I mean, I was exhausted and I was burned down. You name it as anybody else, right? But I would have taken more risks and opened more possibilities for myself and for my business partners.

So I mean, with that more risk taking, I mean, that’s something that some people could actually grow into, they could learn or they’re born with that. And I’m guessing here, right? I mean, in your history, do you remember anyone while you were growing up being more so, an entrepreneur that influenced you? Like, was it a parent, an uncle, a sibling?

That’s a great question. Yes, it was definitely my father. My father. I was always very close to my father. When I told you that I was in high school and I was helping him with decoding the inventory of the inventory of a system to control the inventory of one of his fish farms, I think that definitely he was, for me, like, the paradigm, right? That was the example, because he was always, like, having those ideas. He was always creating something new. He was always partnering up with someone new. And I think that he was definitely, for me, the example. I would always go even when I was a kid, I mean, when I was six, seven, eight years old, every single weekend, when he allowed me to, I would go with him to his workplace to see the manufacturing plans where he was working, all those kinds of things. I was always around him all the time, all the time. During the summer, I was a good student, so I didn’t have to study over the summer and those three months of holiday, which is the case in Spain, I would go every single day. He would go to maybe to one of those fish farms or to one of those distant plans that he would be overlooking. As the CEO of a group of companies, I would always go with him. I always wanted to listen to his conversations. I always wanted to be with him all the time, all the time, all the time. I definitely think that he really made a big, massive impact in my life. And still today, he has extraordinary business connections, and we discuss business very often.

Nice. I think nothing that you alluded to was just kind of like juggling, like, your marriage life, butchered your business life. So in today’s world right now, how are you juggling your work life balance with your family life?

It’s different because obviously we spend more time at home. I used to travel more before. Right now. It’s may. It’s already may. Oh, my God. 2021. You’re in the middle of 2021 almost. And obviously what has happened in the world for the last, let’s say 14 to 16 months, everybody knows that. So I stopped traveling both for my nonprofit to Latin America and for my own business. I used to travel a lot, so which means that I am more at home. Also my kids, where I still have two of my three kids here at home, and they have spent much more time at home, and obviously the same thing with my wife. So we have had to establish more boundaries so that we respect each other’s spaces. Also some possibilities that have opened is that, for instance, I think my kids are much closer to me now because I don’t travel so much right now. It’s not the case because it’s a school time right now. But, for instance, one of my kids, he likes to build computers. And I convinced him to put his working area in my office. So actually, he listens to all my conversations. He’s listened to many, literally dozens of podcast interviews. And I love that because I want him to learn from what I’m saying and from the questions that Podcast hosts are asking me. I think that he’s learning a lot from me since he has been at home more often. He went back to face to face school in September last year. August last year. That’s been good. Again. I see the world in terms of opportunities all the time. Say. So I think that the kids need more and more inspiration from their parents, and that’s not always the case.

Yeah. Definitely right. I’m definitely a big believer of that. I mean, I’ve been dragging my son around with me since he was four years old to conferences, meetings, telecommuting and everything else under the sun.

Great Job. Absolutely. Totally. As you know, if you go to the schools of the world right now, unfortunately, it’s not always the case. And you can talk to teachers. And the teachers know exactly whose kids parents are involved in their kids education and who are not. They know that very well. And unfortunately, we are the exception. You and I are the exception S.A.

Interesting. So, I mean, this is getting a little bit more into, like “You”, and it seems like you’re very structured. At least you’ve grown into being very structured. What does your morning habits your morning rituals look like?

Well, first thing, I wake up pretty early, between six and seven. The number one habit I have and it’s been in place for five or six years already. Is having a very cold shower. Regardless of what I am in the world, regardless of the season. I never put the I never mix any hot water with the water I’m showering. And I think that sets me up for something. Obviously I’ve been in category in the middle of the winter with -30 celsius outside or 20 something outside So the water was cold. And it’s painful, actually. When the water is cold, it’s painful, but that’s the first thing. The second thing is, for the last four years, every single morning, we have something which is called an intention experiment. We are nine of us. But it’s called the power of aid group. So it’s people from different places in the US. Plus Mexico. We meet every single morning to meditate in order to achieve a specific intention. Okay? So every week we have a different intention, and that gives us a very safe space to talk. About what every week, every one of us chooses at this particular intention for the week. So we intend for something to happen, we intend to help someone, we intend to heal someone or to help someone in their healing process. And I think that’s extremely important because then it kind of my mind is calm, calm down. And also I focus on doing good. And I think that’s really important at the beginning of the day that you start the day feeling that you have already done good in the world. Then something else I do, I always carry a productivity planner and a journal and I write down things throughout the day. You might have heard that there was actually a bell going off a couple of times throughout the conversation and I apologize for that. The reason why is that? That’s the case is because every 14 minutes, in case I am distracted, this bell reminds me of going back and focusing my attention. So basically every 15 minutes I asked myself, when I’m mindful of that bill, I ask myself what do I want my attention to be right now? And the fourth thing I use, and many people use this is a technique to be extremely focused. It’s called the Pomodoro technique. So in chunks of 25 minutes, I try to focus on a specific activity for 25 minutes. Then I take a five minute break, then I go back to 25 minutes. But still we sometimes get distracted, right? So that’s why I always go back to that question what do I want my attention to be right now? And those are basically the practices that help me be productive throughout the day and be focused on what I want to accomplish.

So i mean not only is a mouthful, but it seems like to my point as early you’re very structured, right? You’re jumping into a cold shower. Then you’re doing these cycles of awareness to say, hey, 15 minutes, wake me up, even though you may be awake but you want to refocus. And then you’re also doing the other method that says every 25 minutes you’re in a realignment. So with these different structures and different strategies, I would think that they have dawn from essentially either being at reading books, audio books or conferences to a certain extent over the past few years. So my next question is a three part question. What books have you read on your journey to get you to where you are? What books are you reading right now? And are you an author of any books?

and the book is about a series of scrolls that are found in the ancient scrolls that are found in the Amazonian forest of Peru. It’s a great fiction story, but it has a very strong message. When I read that book that talks about energy, basically I realized that everything who we are and what we see around us, everything is energy. Everything is energy. And when I was reading the book, you know when you’re reading something and you say, yes, it’s like, I’ve never read this before, I never read this before, but it so resonates with me at a different level. It’s not even on a physical level. And that book actually made me rethink everything I was doing in my life. And actually, that was the book that when I was reading it, it made me go from Europe to Latin America to leave. So that was really powerful. And the book I’m reading right now is called “The Levels of Energy”. Levels of energy. It’s interesting because I read a lot. So this book is by Frederick Dodson. And the reason why I’m reading this book is because I believe that, as I said before, everything is energy in our lives. And if we are able to see the behaviors, the organizations and the individuals in terms of energy, we are going to understand a lot of things and why things happen, and also how we can help those organizations and those individuals to actually thrive in their lives, how to go to higher levels of energy. It’s funny how fear and guilt and all these other things that are unfortunately dominating our lives, very often they are very low levels of energy. It’s amazing how actually, just being aware of where your energy is, you are already able to understand and start thinking about how you can help these people and these organizations.

Nice. Very nice. Very interesting as well, too. So, I mean, obviously on this journey, right, you’ve been on this journey for a long period of time, and obviously there’s always an end result or a legacy of something that you want to leave behind. Right? So where do you see yourself 20 years from now?

Wow. 20 years from now, I will be 20 years younger. That’s number one. Number two, I will be impacting the lives of millions every single day because I’m busy working on my exposure. So that’s going to happen. I will have helped thousands of CEOs and millions of kids in Latin America, and I will be continuously on stage, and I will be continuously sharing my message and making sure that they help people be aware of how their energy can be uplifted and how they can empower their awareness. That’s what I will be doing in 20 years.

Nice. Very nice. So, I mean, obviously you have to have a lot of systems in place. You have many tentacles to your services that you’re delivering to executive or to sea level. Right. What software are you using that you would not be able to do what you’re doing without?

Definitely Zapier. Z-A-P-I-E-R. Because zapier is a core. It’s a brain. It’s a system that is able to analyze triggers from many other softwares and redistribute those triggers, create actions around those triggers. That’s why, because I have connected email systems. I have online marketing systems, I have social media, I have CRMs, I have spreadsheets, I have all those systems in place automation tools that help me all work together. Thanks to Zapier. I could not do that without Zapier. I could have told you email, but email is very simple. The real brain and the real hard stuff of what I do with my clients and with my own business is definitely sapphire, as you probably have heard of it or know what it is.

Yeah, definitely. I’m a big app guy. I’m a big lifetime deal guy. So every single time, like part of my morning ritual, when I wake up, I usually kind of check threads to see if any new tools or software that come out. So definitely, I love Zapier as well. So I think they talk about your journey to help kids. You’re saying that you’re going to Latin countries and what are you exactly doing with the youth of those particular nations?

Yeah, let me tell you. So basically what we do is we connect with communities. We have different kinds of communities, like suburban communities, rural or indigenous communities. We categorize them because the level of poverty is different. Being the highest indigenous communities. Then we connect, we contact those communities and we talk to the community leaders. We tell them what we want to do, which is basically gather the kids. Okay? We work with kids from six years old, seven years old, up to 1213 14. And we basically asked them, hey, we would like to do that. The first question they ask us all the time is, how much is it? And then we tell them, well, it’s for free. And then they say, really? Yes, they don’t believe it’s for free. Then we tell them the reason why we don’t want to do that is because we believe that giving those kids the entrepreneurship skills that they need, I think that they could change their lives and they could change also their communities. So then we set up a specific agenda, we set up a specific time frame. And then volunteers, local volunteers and myself, we go to that place and then we deliver a workshop, which is the stepping point for the entrepreneurship journey for those kids. And that is a workshop. Again, very high level of energy. Don’t expect whiteboarding or blackboarding at all. It’s a place where we make sure that we connect with the kids at a very high level so they are fully engaged with us. It’s a workshop that lasts 2 hours. And basically we sing, we dance, we play, there’s quizzes, there’s a lot of interaction, there’s a lot of questions. There’s exercising, there’s dancing, there’s singing and lots of many different things. And there’s also meditating. We use Neuro Linguistic Programming to make sure that we have an impact. We make an impact because essay, there’s something very clear, which is our obsession has been since the very beginning. How do we make our worship to stick with the kids, right? And considering that we really don’t know what the reality is, we don’t know if they’re living in poverty, I’m sure that life is not as easy as we think our lives are, right? But we know for sure that most of them, I mean, we’re talking about 81 million kids in Latin America living in poverty. 22 million of them. 22 million of them have no drinking water. So we know that lots of things might be happening in their life. So that’s why we try, we connect with them at an energy level and we work a lot on self esteem. We work a lot on telling them, whatever you’re going to do with your life is good. Whatever you have around you can be your means to change the community and to change the world. Remember that something is specifically very important for us is the last part of our tagline. We see it with helping the privileged kids, latin America become entrepreneurs using their local resources. That’s very important. We go to a lot of communities where there’s no coverage, no cell phone coverage, right? No data, no Internet, nothing. So we know that our intervention at that point is going to be the only intervention that these kids will have in probably in months, right? So that’s why we try to make sure that those sessions stick and that’s why we deal with neuronguistic programming and affirmations and meditation and making sure that they feel safe in that space. I remember one day and that’s an anecdote, obviously we do that because we like it and because we think it’s our life purpose. But when we go to community, sometimes not everybody is open and ready to embrace what we’re going to do. So I remember one story in which we went to Place, and it was an indigenous community and the parents were not sure that these people coming from other places, why are they going to teach our kids? We don’t know them, right? And they showed up in the workshop with their machetes because it was an indigenous community. So what? They used to work with their machetes, so it was pretty intimidating. But after only like 30 minutes, they said, oh my God, absolutely, our kids are safe there and we’re going to just go back home or get back to work and we will let them do what they really want to do. And again, we make sure that we impact positively their self-esteem while we are with them. And they remember us when we go back to those communities and they see us on the streets, or they see us in the places where we originally met, they say, hey, how are you, senor senor Kevin Airline good to see you again. They don’t know what they don’t know. But we know for sure that we want to change our lives while we are with them. With them. And that can only be done not with something that they have to memorize, but something that they incorporate from an experiential perspective. They have an experience for us, with us. They have an experience that they have never had in their lives, that’s for sure.

So I would think that you’re living up to the spelling of your first name in the viewpoint of these children, right. You’re essentially coming in, you’re souping in as an angel and you’re helping them to grow and prosperous their communities, which was definitely a hell of a thing. So in that you’re talking about a 501C3, and that’s just dedicated to 501C3 are essentially established to bring income in through different means and methods. Right? So how do you have that set up right now? Because you’re telling the communities that it’s free of charge, but this has to be funded by something. So what do your fundraisers look like to help that nonprofit grow?

Yeah, so we organize fundraisers because, well, first of all, obviously throughout time we developed a series of frequent owners, right? People that are continuously trusting in what we do because we have a lot of information available for them to see what we do every single day, right? So that’s number one. We organize fundraisers very often. So we go online and with direct mail, electronic mail or with social media, we use those resources in order to generate income. So we raise funds through that. And with what’s happening right now in the world, something that we are doing, we are starting to do is to knock at the doors of those large corporations that they have sponsorship programs. There’s many companies that have matching funds, so there’s plenty of our donors that they really help us. And so let’s say they put down $100 and the company gives us $200. Excuse me. So those are really very nice ways to raise, to raise funds. And also one of the main sources of income is from the different three co founders. We are three cofounders and we consistently use our time and effort and our money. The cash flow that you generate with our respective businesses, we use it also for wisdom, for kids and we obviously keep the cost extremely, extremely low. So when we go to those communities, we stay at very cheap accommodation. Whenever possible. We go to share family and friends, locations, places. We go to very cheap places to eat and drink. And also something else that we do is we connect with authors here in the US. And some of them have actually given us literally hundreds of their books for kids to donate them to the kids in Latin America, literally. And also the school district here in Dallas, one of the teachers, one of the schools, actually, she asked the parents to provide her with books that we were going to take to Latin America. So we have an agreement with an airline, a Mexican airline, and we were able to take all those books to Latin America. We are able to take all those books to Latin America through them. So as you’re hearing, there’s a lot of people willing to help and willing to support our activities. And obviously, books are a very important part of what we do because there’s no chance that those kids in Latin America going to get books in English. Never, ever.

So let’s go into words of wisdom. And this is kind of like more so a journey question, right? So I want you to pose this question more towards a sea level executive with the opportunity to pull in on their philanthropic side of things, right? Like, how could they give back a little bit more so you’re talking to an executive and you’re saying, hey, this is the insight. This is my words of wisdom on how you can create larger opportunities to give back?

The first one, actually, I’m going to get very wrong, very personal. The first thing I’m going to tell them, because I have these conversations all the time, is, do you think that maybe your kids, your grandkids or your kids of your friends, would they benefit from going to Latin America and seeing what’s going on right now? So that’s the first thing because I think that, again, our kids here in the US. They are a little bit spoiled and they don’t really know what’s going on in the world. And I think that exposing them to the reality of Latin America and to the poverty that’s happening there is extremely important and how they can easily contribute to do that. So that’s the number one thing. Are you as a father or as a mother doing enough to make your kids aware of what’s going on in the world and other places in the world? That’s number one thing. Number two is obviously, I’m sure that at some point you have been in Mexico, you have been in maybe Costa Rica or in other places, Latin America, and you might have been in those resorts, or you might have had the opportunity to go outside those resorts and see the reality of what the population is going through or even right now, you have maybe some Latino population that is already working for you. You have some Latino employees excuse me, which is also the case. Maybe some leaders and business leaders today, they have been doing missionary work in other countries in Central or South America maybe. So if you fall under any of those categories, I would encourage you to contact us and I would encourage you to. Let’s have a conversation about how your company, how your family, you know, can really support our initiatives in Latin America for those kids that live in poverty, most of them without cutting water. But you could easily help us change that. I mean, I’m talking that to start changing the world, the life, excuse me, of a kid in Latin America. It’s really under $20 right now that were cost. So it’s really low.

Nice. So, I mean, putting that offer out there, right? How can people get in contact with you? What’s your social media, your website, profile information?

Yes. The easiest way, as you will see, if you go and look for my angel Ribo, my last name is four letters, R-I-B as in boy o. If you Google me, you will see I’m very active on social media. So if you go to social media outlets, you will see me. I’m going to give you my direct email address. I answer either my team or myself. We answer all the emails that we get. It’s very simple. The email address is angel@angelribo.com and either if you’re interested in our foundation wisdom for Kids or in our brand business Consulting, which is the CEO confidant, both on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, you will see them there.

Nice, great. So let’s go into some bonus questions. Let’s just have a little bit more fun, right?

Okay.

If you could be a superhero, who would it be and why?

If I could be a superhero, who I would be?

Outside of yourself, I mean, obviously your name is angel. You named after a superhero in itself. But outside of being a literal superhero, who would you be?

Very often there’s an archangel that has been around me all the time, and it’s Archangel Michael. The city close to Barcelona where I was born, the pattern of that city is actually St. Michael. I have actually continuously have a St. Michael close to me in my office right now is here next to me. So I would say Archangel Saint Michael. For what? The archangel stands for, number one, because I believe in angels, really. And I’m not talking about myself, but real angels. I think that we have real angels around us, and everybody has a guardian angel, honestly. And I think that’s why Archangel Saint Michael always carries a sword. And it’s not that I am a violent guy, but I think that I use my energy and my passion, and I consider that the other day someone said very generously, my infectious passion. So I think that my infectious passion is my sword. It’s the Archangels Michael sword, which I carry all the time with me to change the lives of the people around me, either in my business world or when I am in Latin America doing some nonprofit work.

Wow, definitely. So another question. Outside of your kids and your family, what is your greatest achievement to date?

Outside my kids and my family, it’s definitely having been able to succeed on my entrepreneurial work journey. So being able to increase my outreach, being able to increase my exposure, being able to make the others shine, that’s very important for me. As I said before, many times, I consider myself to be the connector of the unconnected. I think that one of the reasons why I’m in this world is to be the conduit of everybody else’s. Greatness. Really? So I love to see the others shine through me and helping them to shine.

Nice. Very nice. Okay, so the last bonus question I have for you, right. If you could spend 24 hours with anyone, dead or alive, uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be and why?

Tony Robbins. It would be Tony Robbins because he’s been the coach, and he is the coach of the most powerful people in this planet. He execs. He understands a lot of people. For the last 14, 16,18 months, right, has been wondering what’s going on in the world. What’s going on in the world? I think that Tony Robbins is one of the few people out there who’s extremely valued, who is very respected, very smart, and who really has had the opportunity to contact and to be in touch with the most powerful people on the planet. And I think that spending 24 hours in 10 hours with him would change my life forever.

I could definitely see that. I mean, I could have tested I’ve been to maybe three or four Tony Robbins events in my lifetime, and every time I walk into a Tony Robbins event, you kind of see, like, the naysayers, the ones that are kind of like, he’s not going to make me do anything. Meanwhile, they probably spend a couple of $1,000. They sit up front, and then before the day is out, literally, they’re up high fiving massaging and hugging everyone, their complete DNA changes before they leave that event. So I signed a waiver on that one. Tony Robbins is definitely a good individual to spend 24 hours with.

Absolutely and i would love to do that. Let’s put it in my bucket list.

Well, you’re on the road to get that done, for sure. Definitely. So, going into closing, every time I interview someone on this conversational journey that we embraced so far, you may have some questions that you may want to ask me. So I’m giving the microphone to you, and the floor is yours. Any questions you would like to ask me?

Well, thank you. Yes. I’m going to ask you what keeps you up at night S.A?

What keeps me up at night? Literally is it’s kind of like a two part thing, and it’s kind of the reason why I created my podcast. On one hand, I kind of feel that entrepreneurs are dying unless, like, pandemics happen and people are getting fired, and then they have these opportunities to jump into that space because being an entrepreneur is sexy right now. But if we go back to 90s and 80s being an entrepreneur wasn’t sexy and just like the stock market did, these waves and these cycles of when things are in and when things are out. But if you look at history, entrepreneurs have been the founding fathers of everything that we have in existence. So kind of making sure that that stays in the forefront, right? And I think that’s something that I want to live on, on the other hand, is the kids, my kids personally. It’s kind of like being influenced by their parents and being in the environment of the world to understand that entrepreneurs are the systems and the bread and butter to everything that we have. I kind of had that fear that I’m not doing enough or we collectively, as entrepreneurs are not doing enough to influence our kids and influence the next generation.

Awesome. I couldn’t agree more with you. I think that we have to make sure that this generation, of our kids generation, they have to thrive and we have to change things. We have to change what? I wish they were exposed to a much better environment compared to the environment that we lived. I think that’s extremely important. Well, I mean, that’s obviously the reason why we launched Wisdom for Kids. We believe that we have to really do something for the kids today. So thank you for your answer.

Definitely appreciate that. I definitely want to thank you for being on the show. I’m calling you the guardian angel. I already know I give you The Confidant Boss, but it just kind of just goes to who you are in your brand and what you’re doing to help these kids in these third world countries. I definitely appreciate that. So again, thanks for being on the show today.

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. And obviously thank you, everybody who’s been listening or watching us today.

Great, S.A Grant, over and out.

Thanks for tuning into another episode of Boss Uncaged. I hope you got some helpful insight and clarity to the diverse approach on your journey to becoming an uncaged trailblazer. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review and share the podcast. If this podcast has helped you or you have any additional questions, reach out and let me know. Email me at ask@sagrant.com or drop me your thoughts via call or text at 762233boss. That’s 762-233-2677. I would love to hear from you. Remember, to become a boss Uncaged, you have to release your inner beast. Signing off.

Listeners of Boss Uncaged are invited to download a free copy of our host S.A Grant’s Insightful ebook, Become an Uncaged Trailblazer. Learn how to release your primal success 15 minutes a day. Download now at www.bossuncaged.com/freebook.