CJ McCollum Episode Transcript

 CJ: [00:00:01] You have to have a unrealistic belief of yourself. [00:00:05][3.9]

Monte: [00:00:05] Welcome to Live Rich, Have Fun, Save the World, a podcast focused on reimagining how we define success, cohosted by myself, Monte Barnard and CEO of Expensify, David Barron. In this episode, we sit down with the starting shooting guard of the Portland Trailblazers, CJ McCollum, to discuss how perseverance on the court led him to his philanthropic efforts with the Portland Boys and Girls Club, his burgeoning wine business and defying expectations from a small town [00:00:32][26.4]

CJ: [00:00:34] I'm set up nicely for the zoom calls this last year. [00:00:37][3.0]

db: [00:00:38] Yeah, I think it's been funny looking at, I think it was like Obama's background was like basically his desk just like super shitty. And this is like really like an Oprah, like this really awful looking office is like now I think everyone's like up their game when it comes to like, OK, I need to make sure that looks that looks cool. [00:00:54][16.1]

Monte: [00:00:54] I like that. I like that where it's like I'm not really focused on the fashion of it. I'm focused on getting shit done, you know, and like I don't care what my office looks like, I got to just sit here and work. My name is Monty. This is David. Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. How's your day going so far? [00:01:08][13.8]

CJ: [00:01:09] Is going well. And I appreciate you guys having me on. [00:01:11][2.2]

Monte: [00:01:12] Yeah, totally. We want to talk about a number of different topics today. Obviously, shine a light on you, what you're doing now, what you've done in the past and what you're looking to do in the upcoming months and years. We want to talk to you, to you a bit about your your wine dabbling in the industry as a connoisseur, as a fellow fan of wine. I know David is also quite the. Oh, there it is. [00:01:33][21.5]

db: [00:01:34] Nice. Magnum is going to stay. Right. You're going to get ready [00:01:36][2.0]

Monte: [00:01:37] for our listeners out there. C.J. has a bottle about twice the size of him. You just lift it up. [00:01:41][3.6]

db: [00:01:42] So well, you said you have your own wine label. Where's your region? Where's it produced? [00:01:45][3.2]

CJ: [00:01:46] So I partnered up with Adlerstein. Oh, it's not too far from here, depending on what part of bourbon you live in. It's it's a great location. And we basically, you know, we get our relationship in 2016, I believe, figuring out ways we can work together in twenty seventeen. I own the property and kind of walked around and sat down with him to kind of figure out what type of collaborative effort to put together. And fast forward to, you know, twenty, twenty one. And we've already put twenty eighteen Pinot Noir from being part of the vineyard. I'm trying not to get too far ahead because we've been doing so much lately. It's not like eighteen. We have we have a lot of stuff in the works as well that we're excited about. But it's been, it's been great and I've been able to learn a lot. And living in Oregon, besides, obviously playing for the Portland Trailblazers, gave me an opportunity to learn about the wine industry in general in the gold mines that are out here that I wasn't aware of before I got here. [00:02:46][59.5]

db: [00:02:46] Oh, yeah. I mean, it's a real treasure out here. What sort of wine regions around the world are you kind of emulating this particular style you're going for? [00:02:53][6.8]

CJ: [00:02:53] Yeah, just based on some of my experiences, having started drinking wine about eight years ago, call it eight, nine years ago into my college career, I was I was fortunate enough to to be here and to taste. The first one I ever had was Walter Scott. It was volcanic soil, Brian Creek. So the want to actually put out ironically, one of them, one of the places we picked was from Brian Creek is volcanic soil, three different parts of the vineyard. And I just kind of based on like those those moments, you know, kind of kind of going back to eight, nine years ago when I first tasted organ wine, I wanted to kind of replicate that something small, something with fruit forward, something that was relatable to people who were into wine and people who would just be experiencing it for the first time. I think that was more so to go. And I have a lot of family who prefer other drinks, sugary drinks, beer. So I wanted it to be like their gateway drink to the wine. I mean, something that smells something that's not to to fruit forward, but gives you a well, a well balanced understanding of wine that you can drink with wine that you can eat with something and you can drink wine. So I think if you haven't had the wine we have in our nineteen, we'll be releasing in the fall. I believe great things happened in September because that's when I was born. So my Tinos will release in September going forward until until further notice. [00:04:18][84.8]

db: [00:04:19] That's great. Are you going to do any chardonnays? I think the everyone knows about the piano and Oregon's, but I think the Oregon chardonnays are just incredible. [00:04:26][7.1]

CJ: [00:04:27] Yeah. And it's funny you asked me that a lot of people have asked about white wines and things of that nature. And full disclosure, when I first started drinking wine, it was red only and then I could do bubbly. So those are my two of my comfort zones. So, you know, the first thing that I was introduced to, the first thing I was most comfortable with. So we started with that. But I've actually been tasting around Chardonnays and Roses and all those things to really learn about it first before I put it out, because I want to really be comfortable with it. I want to be able to explain to my parents why they should drink it. I want to be able to kind of, you know, go through that process of. With these types of foods, I like it with this, so my my wife and I have actually been drinking a lot more white lately and it was a lot of seafood. Sometimes we we do with steaks and things of that nature. Just because I believe you can drink, you know, any type of wine or any type of food is just more so getting comfortable and figuring out like what that balance is. But needless to say, some things are in the works. So things are good here. [00:05:25][57.9]

db: [00:05:25] So maybe kind of going back a bit. So now you're like a wine magnate, but you didn't start out that way. And so you're from Ohio, is that right? Yeah. Kanhaiya, that's cool. So I'm from Michigan. Oh, my family's from Ohio as well, but I've never been to Canton. What's that town like [00:05:38][12.7]

CJ: [00:05:40] Not missing out on much, but I will say, which I as a Buckeye, you know, I didn't go to the Ohio State, but I got a lot of love for my Buckeyes and have hair and someone from Michigan understand the dominance we've had over them for years. Oh, now I know. But getting Canton is a is a very, very small place, about seventy to seventy five thousand people, blue, blue collar, hard working and, you know, basically the staple of the Midwest in terms of having steel mills. My my dad worked in a steel mill for over 30 years. My mom was an insurance agent and had her own book of business as a tax under for 16 years. So I grew up in a working class home. Sports was more of an outlet. It was an escape. It was a way to kind of, you know, stay away from the distractions that kind of come with, you know, living in the inner city. But it's a very small place. We've got the Football Hall of Fame. So I was exposed to football right away. Not a lot of women out there. More and more beer drinkers know tailgating, Cleveland Browns games, things of that nature. But I'm thankful I grew up in a small place like that. You have a better understanding of how to kind of work for, you know, what you want when you grow up in that when that working class environment where it's blue collar. Growing up, our parents used to always tell us, you know, you need to either get really good grades or be good in sports because we can't afford to pay for your college. So that was our mentality. Get good grades, be good at sports, and then an understanding that scholarships were an opportunity or a possibility for us. We just really worked. Brother and I, we worked every day and got up early, got to the gym, you know, focused on trade and creating space, created shots, ball handling. And then we also folks in the classroom because we knew, like, you know, you always need a backup plan. And thankfully, I was able to get a scholarship to Lehigh University. It's funny, I didn't start varsity until my junior year. My first career start, I scored fifty four points and broke the school record. And I was I was five 11. At that point, I felt very tall. Needless to say, I end up growing. I end up playing for play for LeBron James, 18, King James. I grew up fifteen minutes from where he grew up. And so I got to beat him pretty early on in life. And I just see that it's possible to make it where we come from. Eric Snow was also another guy who, you know, put on kids camps. And I kind of looked up to him and his ability to lead people to get back to the community. Keith McCloud, another guy, grew up in our area, wouldn't want to be drafted in the NBA. And my teammate, my high school teammate Kosta Kouvelis, has played the NBA for over ten years, was the first round pick out of Ohio State and also my high school teammate. So I was around a lot of players who played, a lot of players who did the right things in the community, worked, worked hard and did things the right way and tried to emulate their success. [00:08:28][168.2]

db: [00:08:30] So speaking of working hard, like to what degree do you attribute your success to just putting in the hours versus like, you know, kind of natural get like there's that whole concept from Malcolm Gladwell, like, you know, it takes 10000 hours to become an expert in anything and how many hours you put into it. [00:08:43][13.8]

CJ: [00:08:44] I mean, I've definitely got over 10000 hours at this point for sure. And I love our Malcolm Gladwell books, by the way. But I think it's a combination of things, man. I'm a firm believer in our lord and savior Jesus Christ, first and foremost. So I think God has definitely played a part in giving me some God given talent and, you know, kind of allowing me to to go right when I could have went left a lot of different times. I think that that has definitely played a role. But I also think you have to work for anything you want to like people a lot of times just wait on things to kind of happen. You have to make it happen. You have to be aggressive and you have to. You have to have a unrealistic belief of yourself. I think that's that's really, really important for this, because a lot of people will discourage you. They'll tell you things aren't possible. They'll give you the statistics on why it can't work, why it won't work. Your own family members will probably tell you that you're wasting your time, but you have to really believe in yourself and dedicate yourself to things and work hard and work smart. I understand that some of the things you want to accomplish in life are definitely hard. So you may need to have a backup plan, but you can really focus your energy like what we did. We focused our energy on it and we always used to say basketball is my plan and my plan B, I'm going to use basketball to get my education know. I'm going to use basketball to meet people. I'm going to use that work ethic to kind of take my life and my game to the next level. And I think we outworked everybody and I still outwork a lot of people to this day because I think that's the only way to truly be successful and to be comfortable and to not worry. When you're prepared and you work hard, you don't really worry about things. You just kind of show up for work because you already know that you've done all you need to do. [00:10:22][98.1]

db: [00:10:22] I like that idea. I think the the importance of putting in the time can't be overstated. Like, I am one thing internally we do is we track our hours just with this idea being that, you know, you're always going to make more money and make more time and sometimes the real scarce resource that you need to track carefully. And so I think that I think about thirty three thousand hours into Expensify so far, but I think people recognize things like you just got to show up and then I like how you put it. Also, if you've done the preparation, then showing up is easy because it's like you've got the benefit of all the hard work that went before you showed up as well. [00:10:55][32.9]

Monte: [00:10:56] If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready right? [00:10:57][1.7]

CJ: [00:11:01] it's really important. Like my dad, I talked to my parents every other day, so I called my dad. I'm on my way to every day. And my dad always asked me, like, if you're ready to make that call professional, would you be like, I've been doing this since I was four years old and now I get paid to do this. So it's like I know what I need to do to get ready for the games. I just show up like people were like, what do you mean? It's like I work so hard every day, like all day long. I eat right. I sleep right. I see my feet, I get my extra reps in. I do everything I can to that. I just have to show up. I'm sure you feel the same way with with what you're doing now. Thirty two thousand hours and you're like, I really know what I'm doing. [00:11:39][38.2]

Monte: [00:11:40] He's pretty good. He's pretty good. Trust me, [00:11:41][1.8]

db: [00:11:42] if you need to know something about expense reports in a foreign jurisdiction, I'm your guy. So I'm going into OK, so throughout Lihi degree in journalism and I'd be curious. So like at what point did you like do you ever struggle like imposter's dilema or like kind of obviously you had talent, you knew in college that it's like, you know, seems like a foregone conclusion. We're going to go. But did you have any doubts? [00:12:04][22.1]

CJ: [00:12:06] Oh, yeah, I almost quit basketball a couple of times. I like the breaking point comes. It hits everybody, there's the self-doubt, there's the maybe I should focus on my academics, you know, I mean, like those things all kind of crossed my mind as I'm training. I had I had a lot of success early. I was five foot two. I was playing junior varsity, averaged twenty points a game for three quarters, and then I would play varsity. My brother was a starting point guard, so I basically backed him up some games. I play some games I did my sophomore year. I was supposed to take the jump and they ended up they promised me I was going to star and then they ended up starting this other kid. Long story short, the kid's parents were on the booster club getting a lot of money, whatever. So he would start the games. Then I would come in like three minutes into the game. But it messed me up mentally because I felt like I was supposed to be a starter. I supposed to be this like I was supposed to really kind of solidify who I was in that program so I can get a scholarship and only five or six points per game. My sophomore year high school, I had no scholarship offers. I had like a, you know, a come to Jesus moment where it was like I prayed every day and I was like, if this is what I'm supposed to do, like, let me know. I sat on my brother. I was like, what do I have to do? To play well next season is what we need to get up by six o'clock every morning, he's already in college, you know, all-American and Division two in high school. So he has the blueprint on success and work. So I set my alarm and my alarm wasn't a regular alarm. It was me talking. So I recorded a voice memo saying, like all the things I want to accomplish this season, what I would accomplish. And it was like, you will average 20 points per game. You will get a scholarship, you will do this, you will do that. I will outwork everybody like that. It was just me like giving myself positive affirmations every morning at six o'clock with a out on the stairs. We would lift we'd get up a thousand shots a day. So I did that for the full summer. I grew to five eleven and before my first game I asked my brother, I said, how many points you think I'm average this year? And he was like, if you average twenty, you'll be all state. I say, Well, what if I average twenty five? He was like, You have some scholarships for the season's over. I said, I'm average twenty five. And he just laughed and he's like, I think you average twenty one to twenty three in that range depending on how aggressive you are. But he knew that was going to piss me off. I came over to the house for my first game and he was like ready. It's like, yeah, I'm ready. It's like all right. It's like you have to show me something. I said I must score fifty tonight. My career high is eighteen going into this game for the record. And I had thirty nine at halftime. Dempsey, I said I told you I was ready. I broke the record. That's how, that's how leading up to me breaking the school record happened. And it's funny because after that game Lehigh sent me a letter. The guy who ends up recruiting me was on like Ohio scouting, Ohio dotcom. It was just researching and seeing like a kid score fifty four. So he sent me a letter. I had never heard of the email. I get the letter. I'm like, Lihi, what does that research look it up. I'm like, oh it's a division one schools league, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever. Long story short, this day end up being the second school to offer me and I end up going to Lehigh because of their loyalty and what I felt like we could accomplish together. [00:15:23][197.1]

db: [00:15:24] That's amazing. So and actually and even if you finish your degree, even after it's clear that you're actually on the way to NBA. So why did you. That must have turned some heads. [00:15:32][8.4]

CJ: [00:15:33] Yeah, I it's funny. I never really like school. Obviously I tell people all the time I didn't understand the importance of school. I used it as a means to an end. Like I knew that that's how I was going to get a job one day. And that's kind of how I approached it. And then once I got to college, I started to like it. It was weird. I started studying and I got results. Things started going well for me. I made the dean's list. I started doing things the right way after failing miserably my first few weeks at school and the switch kind of went on. All right. This is this is serious. You're you having someone pay for your education on a Fulbright scholarship? I really take advantage of it. And I think that's what really kind of got me ready for for life. After basketball, I broke my foot my senior year. I declare for the draft after my third year. And I told my mom, I said, if I go pro, I'm not going to go back to school. And she was like, You sure? I said, I'm not going to be able to go back once I leave. So I have to stay and finish. And I ended up going back to school. And the day I broke my foot, I was thinking, man, I turned down all this money to come back to school, only to get injured, like a lot of things like this happen to me, you know what I mean? And luckily, I end up getting over. But it was the best decision I made by far to go back to school. I'm thankful for the injury. I'm thankful for everything, because I was able to get my degree and I was able to spend more time with my now wife. So it worked out for me. [00:16:55][81.2]

db: [00:16:55] Yeah. And and so as you're going into the draft, did you like how does that work? Do you actually is it a surprise or do you pretty much know what's going to happen ahead of time? [00:17:03][7.9]

CJ: [00:17:04] Damian, that reaching out to me when I got hurt and he had he had the same fracture as me and we became friends and he was telling me there is like you're on the draft boards. I go into the office all the time that you're going to be a lottery ticket. I'm like, what if I keep going through my rehab? And I was like, leading the country and scoring. So I broke my foot. But I'm like, I just got injured is like, you'll be OK. Like the type of injury you have ever work for the Blazers. I with Neil I said I would tear terrorist organization. They love me like they would compare you with game like you guys would be great backcourt. I'm like, all right. I got a chance that I might go to. Whoever drafted me drafts me like I'm prepared and everybody was nervous and stuff. And I'm just like, this is what we've been waiting for our whole life. I've been trying to make it to the NBA my whole life. I'm just going to enjoy this day. And if I got to go somewhere I've never been before, perfect. Yeah, sure enough, I get drafted to a place I had never been before. Besides the workout in show business. [00:17:59][55.7]

db: [00:18:00] Yeah, well, I mean, it's been quite a career since then as well. But in addition to that, it sounds like I'm impressed with how much you have going on the side. Like what there's like its press pass. There's remaking America and a wine label and other stuff. [00:18:12][11.5]

Monte: [00:18:12] And the Boys and Girls Club, so much so much killer philanthropy as well. [00:18:15][2.9]

db: [00:18:15] Absolutely. And so I, I, I imagine that's not the. Normal path for an NBA player, and I'd be curious, like what you know, what encouraged you to do all of this now versus Wade? [00:18:26][10.8]

CJ: [00:18:29] I've always just tried to be proactive. I think that's the biggest thing for me. I understand that took an unconventional path, going to a small school, being small, not having a lot of scholarship offers. Being hurt early on in my career gave me time to kind of really evaluate things, you know, like how I want my life to be, how do I want to give back strategically where I want to give back to and how it's very important for me to have healthy hobbies outside of basketball. I've always tried to have held the obvious from yoga. I think eating is a healthy hobby if you eat right. I love to eat healthy things. Exactly. So those are those are things I try to do well while being able to kind of impact the next generation. I think the Boys and Girls Club has always been a part of my life since I was a kid. My mom and my mom and dad used to take us there. We work out there. It was a safe space for us and I wanted to make sure I gave back and kind of provided them with different things that they may not have normally been exposed to. And I've been able to do that, being able to build in the dream centers. We had another one in the works, but covid kind of helped in some of those plans. But I look forward to kind of resuming those activities. Journalism, as I've told you before, is a passion of mine. I enjoy talking to I enjoy everything that goes into storytelling. And I think being able to give kids an outlet and really show them what journalism is like, all phases of it was important to me. And that's why I created CJ's press pass, giving giving kids an opportunity to receive mentorship. They were able to do certain things, cover games, local games and be paid for it, receive compensation, which is great in the journalism world because it's hard to make money at times. Yeah, he has a 14 year old. I've been able to create a create a situation where they're able to receive help on homework. They're able to receive free counseling and be able to kind of go through some of the things that you don't necessarily have, especially in inner city. And then in terms of the wide and this holiday event and just giving back, you know, my mom always told me, remember where you come from and what you come from. So we always go back to our hometown, the turkey giveaway to philanthropy, just giving to the community to provide meals and doing all those things is extremely important to us. And during covid having, you know, family I work in health care. My wife being a dentist, her dad, Dennis, her mom's a dietitian. I felt like it was important to get back. And that's what we've done from from day one to the front line workers to things that mean something to us. And the line is, I never would have thought I have a line, honestly, just because of where I come from. But I've been introduced me to it. And as I continued to pursue her and as I continue to kind of evolve as a man and I started to enjoy one one, I realized I don't get hangovers from it or or do. They said red wine was good for the heart. So it was just it was just something that I continue to want to learn more about. It was a challenge. It's like it's like basketball. There's so many there's so many parts to it. You have to work hard to learn more about it. And people that have passion about why can talk about it forever. And I can talk forever. So it was just like a match made in heaven when I would go to vineyards and they learn about it. So I'm really just excited about what I have going on in life, especially what I have going outside of basketball, because basketball is my life, at least part of me. But without what I leave kind of behind as a staple will be so much more than that. Yeah. [00:21:57][207.7]

db: [00:21:58] And so as an active journalist, you talk about like remaking America, like what went into the idea of starting that and how is that gone so far? [00:22:04][6.5]

CJ: [00:22:05] Yes, so as you know, I had the podcast pull up a podcast and. I've done it, I've done over 100 episodes, we took a break. We'll be starting back up next month. But I want to do something that wasn't sports centric. You know, I've always done things that are real sports. I've done interviews, storytelling. I've done mindfulness training, the importance of meditation and overall health and well-being. I've never focused on some of the issues that we have in America. And obviously with covid happening, with the season shutting down, we kind of wanted to figure out something that was more unique, more different, and kind of detached myself from sports for a little bit and kind of step into a new realm. And I had always done like audio podcast, but I was like, I've never really done anything video. And I was like, how do we kind of put something together that focuses on America? Focus on the issues that America brings together, people that can kind of collectively figure out ways we can impact change, you know, whether that's bringing on health care workers, bringing on politicians, bring on people who work in education to kind of figure out how we can fix certain issues. I think that's how it really came about. We genuinely care about this country. We genuinely care about the direction it is headed. As someone who's going to have kids one day, I want this world to be better for them than it was for me. And I think that's what remaking America is about, is about strategic ways to help uplift each other and help uplift our country. And I think we're headed in the right direction. And I'm really looking forward to be curating content. We've been figuring out our run of show, figuring out a potential guest, and I'm looking forward to seeing how we're able to put everything together. But the topics will include education, health care, criminal justice. And we'll focus on, you know, some of the historical events, as well as some recent events that have gone about from voting to to the health care system in general. And as a as a guy who believes in journalism and education reform in New Jersey, I'm really looking forward to learning more about education, how we can make it better. [00:23:59][113.8]

db: [00:24:00] Yeah, well, I mean, so I would be curious, what advice would you give to the Biden and Harris administration going forward for, like, how do we repair the damage of the last administration? [00:24:09][9.8]

CJ: [00:24:11] Now, that's a great point, and having spoke to two of Vice President Comilla, we were able to really focus on the root of some of the issues that we've seen grown up in the inner city. I think if you look at what we discussed, health care was huge. Understanding the importance of health care, especially during the pandemic, how to manage, how we can better position our elderly, how we can better position people who are more likely to be exposed based on what they do for a living. I think those are those are real issues right now. I think education, as Donovan Mitchell pointed out on the show, as a mother to third grade teacher, seeing some of the resources a lot of these schools have or lack thereof is extremely important. And one of the things I've done working with Smart, which is start making her later today, is focused on the process of kids from K to third grade, basically learning how to read up until third grade. And then after third grade, you learn how to process what you're reading. But a lot of times kids don't fully learn how to read and then they're lost and they just kind of left behind from third grade on. And that's why we have so many kids now, this day and age that don't know how to read properly prepared to go into the real world and are actually illiterate. So I think some of those things that we discussed are. More top topic for now and then there's more topics that are centered around how we can kind of help this world evolve. But I think for us, I don't know a lot about politics. I don't know a lot about the things that I need to improve. But I know what I've seen, you know, growing up and where I've come from. And I think for us, equality is huge. Voting rights is huge. Being able to to prevent people from from being taken advantage of with the voting systems, I think that's extremely important. You look at some of the areas in the south where there there have been polling stations as two polling stations for two million people, I guess doesn't make any sense. You know, the fact that people have to go to work the day the Election Day should be a national holiday. You have to go to work that like little things like that to make the world a better place and make it easier for us to express our our rights. I think those are things that we discussed. I mean, I could write a book about the things we need to improve on in America. I'm sure you could do. But I think for me, I would just focus on education. I focused on voting. I focused on health care. And criminal justice is a huge one because as we've seen, a lot of people are committing some of the similar crimes and not getting similar time. There's just a lot of systemic issues that storm system way, way back and those things that need to be changed because the world has evolved and the world has changed. Looking at recreational marijuana, all those things that are more acceptable to the public, I now, compared to what they were back in the day, Newark New Times call for calls for new rules. [00:27:02][170.8]

db: [00:27:03] What are your thoughts on the sort of level of control that social media has? [00:27:07][3.4]

CJ: [00:27:07] No, it's a great question and I think there has to be a balance, right? We have a. First Amendment right, freedom of speech, a right to express ourselves. But I think there has to be some type of control when it comes to the misinformation. I think that's extremely important that we kind of tighten up what's being spread, because as we've seen, the Internet is a wild place with a lot of wild minds and interesting takes on certain topics and issues. But when false information is spread, bad things can happen. I think that's that's what we've kind of learned over the years. I think it's one thing to control a message. It's another thing to kind of prevent the wrong things from being spread, especially when it when it can lead to, you know, kind of what we've seen happen lately in terms of some of the hatred and some of the the Capitol building, like all those type of things that have happened lately. I think it's it's a culmination of a lot of bad things being spread around. I think the misinformation thing is extremely important. I think to a certain extent that should be controlled. You shouldn't be allowed to just. Blatantly lie about things and be able to convince people that it's true, but if it's someone expressing their own thoughts and opinions, I think that's fine. But when you kind of cross that line of right or wrong, that's like me saying got on Twitter, like Terry Stotts has quit the team and people tweet me, tweet that. Right. And they're like, quit the Blazers. And then that just goes and it's ten thousand twenty thousand is misinformation. And it's just it's not practical. And I think that's that's abusing it. And I would feel like they should shut me down or someone says, I got traded, but I didn't get traded. And then they like Woj tweets traded. I don't like that's a problem, you know what I mean? Like, that can really kind of create like a bad narrative. It can kind of rough people the wrong way. So I think there's a way in which they should use their control to a certain extent. But it's it's a tough balance because like you like you point out, it's one thing to, like, remove someone's tweets and other than to say you can't talk. Yeah, yeah. That's that's tough. But it's also a part of signing up for someone else's platform. Like, I'll never read what's what's in the in the in the fine writing before I click that X to join the social media platform. But I imagine they they stipulate like dos and don'ts on what you can and can't do. So it'd be interesting to kind of see what actually what I'm actually agreeing to. That's probably what I can talk about the Bahamas. And then I get an email according to the Bahamas, the yeah. [00:29:39][151.6]

Monte: [00:29:39] The spooky next level terms of service that all that will sell you any and everything you want, you hit the nail on the head there. But those are the three variables that really kind of make that up right. Where you can't say slanderous or libelous things about your your teammates, about other people you work with, about anybody in the world. We have those protections. Secondly, you're right, it is a private company. They have a terms of service that whether we read the three thousand pages of fine print, you still say, yes, I agree to that. And lastly, David made a great point recently in one of our newsletters out to our users is that inciting, you know, violent behavior, inciting the actions that can hurt others. Someone is yelling fire in a crowded theater. You can kick them the hell out and arrest them, because that is, again, an act of violence. So it kind of straddles those three lines where we come out of this, where we get to it, who knows? I don't know the answer. I don't think any of us here know the answer, unfortunately. But long form discussions like this, hopefully we can get to the bottom of it, find a kernel of truth there. Want to touch on one last thing we like to talk about on the podcast. The name of the podcast is Live Rich. Have Fun, Save the World. Three very amorphous ideas. But at Expensify, internally, we measure our personal and professional success by whether we're having fun, whether we feel that we're living rich, and how we feel that we're contributing to saving the world. And we always like to ask our guests here those three concepts. What are those three things mean to you? Living rich, having fun and saving the world? [00:31:08][89.0]

CJ: [00:31:12] That's a great way to end. I'll start with Save the World. I think that we all have a responsibility. I mentioned it before to leave this world better than we found it and delivered it better for the future generations especially. We should all selfishly want our children to live in a better place. They should they should grow up better than we did. They should experience a lot of things that we weren't able to experience and we should be able to hopefully steer them into that in that right direction. So I think so in terms of saving the world, I'm trying to do my part and giving back to the community and figuring out ways to kind of impact. I recycle. I try to do certain little things that I know are going to help this world become a better place, even strategically figuring out who is going to partner with, from a wine standpoint, a partner with a vineyard that believes in sustainability. If we want practicing and doing things the right way to kind of protect our environment, protect the land that we're trying to trying to get grapes from. So I think saving the world is extremely important. Having fun is something that I've expressed to my family members, to my teammates, to my wife. I think it's important that we have fun and really enjoy life doing things that make you happy. As you said before, you can always make more money, but you can't create more time. So figuring out how to kind of balance, you know, doing certain things, do you enjoy your job? That's a that's an important part of life you need to be able to provide, but you also have to be able to do something that you're happy about, that you're excited about. Are you giving yourself time, you know, whether that's walking your dog, whether that's meditating, whether it's giving yourself an hour to just kind of be free, watch a TV show that makes you laugh. Doing those types of things I think is extremely important. And I've always tried to disinter my life around family love and fun. I think if you're doing those things, you're making the world a better place. You're making your overall quality of life better. And people will enjoy being around you because you're always usually positive when you're having fun in terms of living rich. I think living rich goes in line with with doing things the right way and having fun. When I say I live a rich life, I'm not talking about money. I'm just doing everything to the best of my ability. I try to be the best dog dad I can be. I try to be the best husband I could be, try to be the best teammate, best friend. I think people that generally know me know that I'm I'm a person who go above and beyond to do things the right way. I'll go above and beyond to to show you that I care if I care. And if I don't care, you'll know that I don't care. I think I'm extremely rich in those measures to where I'm blessed, I'm honest, I'm firm. And I think I'm from a positivity standpoint, I generally have great vibes. Even though I'm hurt right now, I'm upbeat. I mean, I'm in a good sense of my training and I found my peace. So I say living, which includes having fun, doing things the right way, treating people with respect and finding your peace. I think that's that's one of the things that I preach to my family is like, so you can have all the money in the world, you can have all the accessories in the world. But if you're not at peace with yourself, at peace with your journey, at peace with what you want to accomplish in life, you'll never truly live rich and never truly have fun and you'll never truly change the world. So that's my goal to kind of bring that together for you. [00:34:15][182.7]

Monte: [00:34:15] That's beautifully, beautifully stated. CJ, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. [00:34:19][4.2]

CJ: [00:34:19] Thank you, guys. You guys have a great one. [00:34:21][1.3]

Monte: [00:34:21] Thanks. Appreciate it. Take care, guys. Live Rich, have fun. Save the World is brought to you by Expensify, hosted by David Barrett and Marty Bernhard, engineered and produced by Monty Bernard. Theme song by D.J MC. Please rate review and subscribe to Limerick. Have fun. Save the World on Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you happen to be listening to Expensify dot com to sign up for a free trial and see just how easy it is to automate your entire pre accounting process. Expensify easy money. [00:34:21][0.0]

[2017.6]