Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Milton Zuniga. I am a mortgage advisor, loan officer with Alcova Mortgage and I serve anyone and everyone trying to buy or refinance their home. Yeah, so I mean pretty much everywhere.

Speaker 2: 0:46

So yeah, awesome. Now take me back. What kind of drew you to the world of real estate? Give me like a quick overview of your journey from the start.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Yeah, yeah, no sure. So I mean, I've kind of had you know a few odd jobs here and there. You know, at a high school I was you know kind of mechanic, and then I kind of got into fitness, then I got into the medical field for a little bit and then I kind of got to a, to a crossroads where it's like, okay, either I was going to go back to school to, you know, try to be like a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant or something, um started looking at that, the cost of that, the time for that. And then, uh, a really good friend of mine actually, um, sam Mangrio he was with Avery Hess at the time Uh, they just got bought out by, uh, corcoran McInerney, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and then, um, I was like you know, he's like, well, have you ever thought about, you know, maybe doing like real estate? And I was like you know, that's not a bad idea. Maybe, you know, I saw he's making good money and so, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:45

So then I signed up for the classes and I thought I was going to be a real estate agent and my cousin's wife, who is a processor for a mortgage company actually that I first started off with, she's like I know you're good with numbers, you're good with people. There's a guy here that reminds me of you. She's like have you ever considered being a loan officer? I was like I have no idea what that is. And she was like I mean, I think you'd be good for it. So then I went, I met the guy, I met the team and got my license and yeah, then I just I don't know kind of fell into it. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:20

That's so cool.

Speaker 1: 2:22

It's all right. It's okay. It's kind of boring. You know I was like. You know, how do I make more money without having to dedicate? Like you know, I got very, very lucky, very fortunate. It just ended up syncing up with, I think, my personality, how I am, so it's been good.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Yeah, I mean thanks to those connections, it sounds like. And that's why it's so important to kind of be a people person and connect with everyone you meet, because you never know, kind of, how those connections will pay it forward. So that's super cool. What would you say is the most rewarding part of helping someone buy a home who didn't think it was possible?

Speaker 1: 3:00

That's a great question, isabella. Yeah, that is a great question. So I mean, you know, nowadays it's a little tough and what I mean by that is you know you get. You know, out of 10 clients that I get, there's like maybe three of them that are really grateful for all the work that you're doing. A lot of clients and it just comes with the industry. I think they become more savvy, there's more information out there and it's almost not a sense of entitlement.

Speaker 1: 3:30

But you get some clients that maybe make the business a little tougher to work in but not to make a golf reference, because I I'm terrible at it and it's super cheesy. But you know it's like that one client. You know that one time you hit a really good ball, it's like, I guess, me to go back to the course or whatever. But you know you get that one client that forever grateful for the opportunity that you've been able to present to them and and for their families. And I deal a lot with people in the Latin community and the African-American community, so seeing the benefits of home ownership within those communities for me is huge. I've seen how much it's benefited my life and to be able to, I guess, essentially pay it forward. It's great. It's great, it's awesome to see.

Speaker 2: 4:17

Yeah, I love that pay it forward sentiment. That's one of my favorite things with really any line of work is when people are able to pay it forward, because that's helped me in my life. It's helped, you know, all of us. So, yeah, it's beautiful. How does your problem solving mindset set your mortgage process apart from others in the industry?

Speaker 1: 4:38

I think I like the challenge of problems. When I first started off, a lot of realtors and I think most loan officers when they start off in this industry realtors they're not going to pay you any mind, they're not okay. Well, let's see what this kid can do. So usually what they do is they'll give you really tough files. I know I have a client that is going to be really challenging to work with. I've never worked with Milton before. He's been calling me every two weeks or whatever the case. Let's see what he can do right.

Speaker 1: 5:05

So I think that one of the more attractive pieces for me was, especially in the beginning and again being half Latino, you know being able to speak Spanish fluently a lot of these realtors were giving me clients that may have been a little more challenging to work with. So going through the problem-solving issues for whatever particular program or guidelines for me was attractive. I like being able to solve problems. I like being able to solve problems. I like numbers and really it makes it a little more exciting to go through the day-to-day when it's a new challenge that's coming up. I think if it was the same every day mundane I probably would have left a long time ago.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Yeah, absolutely, I'm the same way, so I get it. It definitely sets you apart, I feel. What advice do you often give first-time homebuyers that surprises them the most?

Speaker 1: 6:03

Don't buy a house. That's a hot take. Always tell them don't buy a house, don't do it. And I say it in a I think more in a playful way of like if you're not ready, then don't feel pressured to do it. If you have the capacity, if you have the finances to do it 100 percent, absolutely you should, especially in this area. I can't really here in the greater metropolitan area DC, maryland, virginia. I can't speak too much on other parts of the country, but I mean here where we live. It's. I think it's a great investment. Real estate is always thriving here. I mean here in Loudoun County alone, I think, if I'm not mistaken, it's literally the most expensive county in America. Yeah, and then, and then I mean and then the other two within the top five are within a 10 mile radius of here. So I mean it's, it's a good investment.

Speaker 2: 6:57

Absolutely. How do you make the mortgage process less intimidating for clients from underserved communities?

Speaker 1: 7:06

I like to assume that the way I approach underserved communities is, you know, through classes, right?

Speaker 1: 7:14

You know like I'll do seminars, first time homebuyer seminars.

Speaker 1: 7:17

I usually do them pretty frequently, you know, once a month or once every couple months, and again, just depending on you know which real estate agent or you know, even if it's not with anyone else but myself, I'll also try to do some on my own, and it's just a matter of educating those folks and individuals that I think don't understand the process.

Speaker 1: 7:42

It's a complicated process, right, but one way that I try to make it more simple is giving them the resources to find out more information. Hey, like hey, there are grants available, there's down payment assistance programs, there's, you know, really cool things with the county here that I just did. You know, within the last couple months there's a lot of sponsors that will donate extra money to lowering your interest rate or, again, down payment assistance or grants and any of that stuff, and I think just putting that information in front of those people that wouldn't have otherwise makes it a little bit more attainable of a goal or a dream of theirs. We're like, oh okay, well, I didn't know that existed, because who else is going to tell them?

Speaker 2: 8:22

And it gives them a pathway to achieving that goal, and I think I mean. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like a lot of realtors may be a little bit more transactional and don't take that time to really put forward a pathway.

Speaker 1: 8:35

Yeah, I mean yes and no, and what I mean by that is, you know, I think the majority of realtors yes, absolutely I think it is transactional. You know, I mean you got a lot of realtors that you know jumped into the business in the last you know five, six years and just trying to, you know, print money and then, as you know, kind of COVID subsided and we kind of started to get back into a normal market. A lot of those realtors that just got in to make money are kind of now fading out. And so the realtors who are better at their jobs you know I'm very fortunate, very lucky to work with some really good, you know, industry professionals. I've been doing this for years, they've been doing this for years and they're not just transactional.

Speaker 1: 9:14

But those realtors, the ones that actually do take the time to, hey, you know like, even if it's something that they might not know or they might not be familiar with, they'll still put them, you know, with myself right, or with, you know, a loan officer, that they can hold their hand through the process and say, hey, you know like, we have to work on X, y, z to get you to this point, and having that patience, you know, obviously helps a lot. And when you have a realtor that understands that process, yeah, but I mean to your effect. I think most realtors are like yeah, cool, you know, I'm just going to sell my cousin's house and make a quick, you know, 10,000 bucks, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:46

Well, I'm sure that you found that hopefully, the or I would hope at least that the people that have your approach are more successful. Yeah, at least that the people that have your approach are more successful.

Speaker 1: 9:54

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, no, absolutely, you can see it right. I mean, like these realtors that have been doing this for 20 years, you know they, obviously they're doing something right, exactly, yeah, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:02

Cool. What's one success story that gives you goosebumps? If you have one.

Speaker 1: 10:08

A success story, like with a client. Yes, with a client oh man dude.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Or with yourself. I mean With myself. It's up to you.

Speaker 1: 10:15

I made it. I made it. Call my mom Tell her I made it All right, we'll call her up, Just kidding, Don't do that, she's really inappropriate.

Speaker 1: 10:25

So, success story, most recent one I actually had a client her and her husband, he had served in the Army. I client, her and her husband, he had served in the army. I started working with them. I want to say about a year ago and you know they had some issues with their credit that they were working on stuff that just trying to save money for down payment clothing costs, all this other stuff and they ended up, you know, following you know the steps that I had put in place for them to get to a better credit score to, you know, open up a separate account and even if it's only $50 each, you know someone's contributing money to this account, right, hey, you know I'm going to second guess me buying, you know, this cup of Starbucks. You know, and I know it sounds super small, but these small little three, four, $5, yeah, little investments that you make, you know, daily, oh, I'm going to go, you know, get a sandwich, whatever the case might be, you know not to say that. You know you're so broke that you can't, you know, afford a cup of coffee, but just being mindful of it, right, you know, if I'm, if I'm dropping, you know, five days a week, you know, $5 a cup of coffee. That's $25 a week, that's $100 a month. I could throw that in account and make coffee at home and now I have, you know, 1200 bucks at the end of the year. If I have a partner, I have $2,400 at the end of that year, you know, and that's just a simple example.

Speaker 1: 11:44

But so these guys went through the process, you know, put them with. You know, I have a really strong credit improvement specialist that I use for my own self, with my own financial stuff and with my family and friends and with clients and customers. But he put them in this hey, you got to pay this, this and this first. These are the steps to do it. They followed that. I mean, like I said, it took them the better know, the better part of a year to to finish it. But literally two and a half months ago, re-pulled their credit. There was qualifying score.

Speaker 1: 12:21

Now, Um, they had saved up, you know, a little bit of money, nothing crazy, but enough to get them in the door. Uh, because he was a VA member, we were able to do 0% down for the purchase Virginia housing, which is a down payment assistance program gave them 2% for down payment and or closing costs. So in this case they use it for their closing costs and the sellers covered a majority of the difference of those closing costs. So the guy got into excuse me the guy, the husband and wife got into this house, a four hundred thousand dollar house for like seven hundred and ninety one dollars or something. Yeah, so I mean, they paid for their home inspection, which I think was like 600 bucks or something or 500 bucks. But you know, outside of that, you know, with the closing costs and that were left over, it was like 700, I think I put it on my instagram, you know, but it was 790, some bucks, it was less than $800.

Speaker 1: 13:15

That they got into this house and and yeah, and I mean they're forever grateful already gave me a referral, not even yesterday or two days ago, for another family member of theirs. It's kind of going through the same process and and, yeah, you know, it's those moments, like you know, like you had mentioned earlier, you know what kind of what's, what's the motivation behind? You know, I guess me wanting to continue to do this are those stories. You know, those people that like didn't think they could ever do it. And now they're in their home. They're, you know, I think I'm going to go to their house in a couple weeks for a barbecue. So, yeah, no, it's going to be good, it's going to be fun. Yeah, no, those are great stories for sure.

Speaker 2: 13:47

I loved hearing that story. Thank you for sharing Kind of shifting gears more towards like leadership and culture. What does strong leadership look like in the mortgage world and how do you lead your team at Alcova?

Speaker 1: 14:02

That's a tough question. I'm lazy man, I'm not going to lie, I'm really lazy. No, I think, totally kidding. I'm a big proponent of leading by example and I've been very fortunate to have family members in my life, or I mean, honestly, my two best friends, you know, like just good examples of hard work pays off, right. And I can't remember, you know, forgive me, I can't remember. I think it's Theodore Roosevelt had mentioned. He was like, you know, the harder you work, the luckier you get, and it's one of those things for me where I strongly believe that Anything that I've ever done I mean whether it's, you know, turning wrenches, oil changes, you know selling memberships at like, bali Total Fitness, like 20 years ago, or something you know, I mean whatever it is that I was, I mean I could have been wiping floors, you know, I could have been cleaning bathrooms, and I was always trying to be the best at that.

Speaker 1: 14:57

Whatever you know, whatever the person was that I needed to be, you know, hey, this person does it the best. I would try to emulate that and I think that for for me, for my personality and specifically this industry, I think I've been very fortunate in that regard to to want to show up every day to want to make sure that I am doing the best that I can, because it's you know it is a big process, it's an expensive purchase. I mean it's, it's a big part of your life. If you're able to do it, you know it's it's, it's huge, but it's also life changing right. So, wanting to be the person to show up and create those life changing moments for people, I think that you need to. You know, take some accountability, some responsibility and and you know, can't be, can't be too lazy. So, um, yeah, but uh, but yeah no, I mean, I, I, I try to you know, try to keep my mind sharp, you know.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Try to try to stay active. Try to stay, you know, physically in good shape. Try to, you know, eat well, I guess, and but you know all that, all that kind of comes to. You know how you should be leading and be leading by example.

Speaker 2: 15:54

Exactly, yeah. And all those things like you know, eating healthy and taking care of yourself those all contribute to how you perform in your day to day. So I think it absolutely.

Speaker 1: 16:04

I'm not a weirdo, though I'm not like that guy that wakes up at like four 30 in the morning. You know like, yeah, like cold plunge, putting my face in a bowl of ice. You know, not that guy. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:12

No, no, no. So you keep it realistic? No, I keep it realistic?

Speaker 1: 16:16

Yeah, absolutely. I got two dogs, two cats, like nah man, like these guys are, like you know, we're all sleeping, man, we're all hanging out, you know.

Speaker 2: 16:26

But you know we got to show up. We show up. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 16:28

How would you know, I don't know, maybe they just trust you, they just do. I, honestly, I literally just had this moment when I was coming back from the beach yesterday. No-transcript, north Carolina, check it out. So good, I trust your rec. So it's really good Little barbecue spot on the side of the road as you're going to outer banks. So, whatever we go, we get something to eat. And then I walk with my nephew to the dollar store. We're driving back right and we'd been driving for a while and I'm exhausted. I was like I'm just going to get an energy drink, right, my little nephew comes along with me. We walk into the Dollar General and go get the drink. We get to the cash register and you know this girl.

Speaker 1: 17:20

She's 18 years old, right, local, you know, been there obviously forever type status, and you know I'm just like. I'm like, oh, like you know, just you know, say thank, you, say please, you know, to my, to my nephew, and and the lady just like starts opening up. She's just like I love to see when people are like teaching manners to their kids. I never got those manners as a kid. All of a sudden she just starts opening up her entire like trauma life story over a monster energy drink and a large Kit Kat bar for my nephew and I was like, ok, sure, but just that moment is the most recent one.

Speaker 1: 17:49

But I mean, I don't know, with anything Like I'll be walking in the store and somebody will randomly like find like they feel comfortable with asking this random stranger versus the next one. So I mean I don't know how do I build trust? I think I try to. I think I do a good job at building confidence in people. Building confidence in people and obviously, aside from those stories where, like they're strangers, I think I try to encourage confidence because it can be a scary process and, you know, reminding people that they are capable of so many things and so much more than what they think is important. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:26

I love that. I love that you're I don't know, you're personable and you're able to get to know people on a human level. You are this professional and this you know really successful realtor, but you also you're able to just be Close, almost realtor, loan officer, but close enough.

Speaker 1: 18:43

You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 18:43

Oh, but thank you, state um but you're able to really connect with people as a human being. It's not like you, you don't see. I could tell by talking to you that you don't see yourself as like above them in any way, so I would hope so.

Speaker 1: 18:59

I hope that you know I am above of some people, though. No, I know. Yeah, like the people in my house, I'll tell you that right now. You know my parents are looking at this under my house. My rules, rules.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Just kidding. Yeah, I'm so sorry, loan officer.

Speaker 1: 19:13

Oh no, no, you're good. I feel like you know you probably get a lot of real estate agents that come and do this. You know, not a lot of loan officers do this.

Speaker 2: 19:18

Yeah, well, it's cool that you're doing it. I guess I don't know it seems weird.

Speaker 1: 19:22

I'm like, oh, you're great at this, all right, sure.

Speaker 2: 19:27

Kind of back to like team branch things.

Speaker 1: 19:37

What makes the team culture at your branch specifically special and how do you keep it thriving? So that's an issue that I had struggled with within the last year, right so the last company I was with, I was with them for about six and a half years or so and then, you know, the culture there started to fade and just go in a different direction, like really really bad, like poorly so, and I'm grateful for, you know, being able to come to Alcova Mortgage and just the culture there, how they operate. I mean I literally could call the owner and I guarantee you he would pick up right now. I literally could call the owner and I guarantee you he would pick up right now. I mean, like it's just one of those things where the owners are laid back, they're chill, they want to see you succeed. They're not trying to gouge you on like pennies here and there If you have an idea, if you're trying to do something.

Speaker 1: 20:27

A perfect example. A perfect example this you know, I was down in Roanoke a week and a half ago or so, ran into one of the owners and we're doing I do a really big turkey drive for my. I was going to ask you about that, okay, well, we can get into that later. Yeah, so, but one of the things that you know culture-wise right is we get before that I'm doing a backpack drive this fall. And so the owner was like, yeah, man, he's like just let us know. He's like we love doing that stuff. You know like please don't keep us out of the loop. Like you know, make sure you let us know so that we can send backpacks, whatever it is that you need, and just those little things where you know the backing of the company or just those individuals support your decisions and you know choices or questions that you have right there you're trying to figure out. And that for me I think the culture, it was the bigger attractive piece here with why I'm here at Alcova now.

Speaker 2: 21:14

Okay, yeah, I'm glad you found a place that is so like, that shares your energy and shares your commitment to purpose.

Speaker 1: 21:23

I'm lucky man, I'm real lucky.

Speaker 2: 21:25

Sounds like it Kind of circling back to like the turkey drive. Tell us a little bit more about that and what it means to you.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Yeah, sure, so I do a turkey drive in my old neighborhood, right, it's here in Falls Church, kingsley Commons. I grew up just behind there. It was a stereotypical Latino household. It got like 37 people in a five-bedroom house. I said that to a friend of mine. He was like I was saying it with just to kind of like paint the picture, like hey, you know it wasn't 37 people I mean, but it was, but it really it really was. I think it was like 14 people at one point in like in a five bedroom house. It was like multiple families living in this house. And you know, I said that to a buddy of mine recently and he was like, hey, man, he's like it's not a big deal, he's like it's always a warm seat in the bathroom. You know, growing up behind this neighborhood, you know I had a bunch of friends, you know, in that neighborhood, right, so, like you know, we went to the same schools and all that stuff. And so, uh, uh, you know Kingsley Common, it's, you know underserved community, you know it's it's, you know, lower income households.

Speaker 1: 22:39

And you know I remember the the first year. I know it doesn't look like it because I made it, because I'm just kidding, but but no, it's, it's. There's a lot of money in this industry and, and I think it's it's so easy to just give a little bit of it back. And so one of the first years, literally the first year that, that I made like some like, like ridiculous money, I mean like and by ridiculous I mean, you know I had been making like 30, 40 grand a year or something like that, and like this year I think I maybe made like 75 or something or 80, which is a big jump, right, that's literally doubling your income that you're used to for Thanksgiving. And it was just super unprepared, nothing like structured or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 23:23

I went with my mom and my sister and we just started going to all the different grocery stores and I had a pickup truck and I just started picking up a bunch of turkeys. You know I was just a bunch of turkeys and then we posted up in Kingsley Commons there's a little park there and you know I just had my mom and my sister go and knock on the doors and say, hey, if you guys want some free birds, you know they're handing them out down the street Just go up and pick one. So you know, I only had. I think I only was able to buy, like I don't know, like 40 birds or 50 birds or something like that, it was like 40 or 50 turkeys. And then I mean they went so fast. I mean I kid you not, it was like less than like 10 minutes. It, I kid you not, it was like less than like 10 minutes. You know, it was like 10 or 15 minutes. So, as I see these like people coming up, like I mean it was like just, I mean it looked like something out of the Walking Dead. I mean there's just hundreds of people, I mean no, but it was, it was a bunch of people walking up.

Speaker 1: 24:15

So that, you know, I gave my mom my, my debit card at the time, or whatever credit card or whatever. We can get like a thousand bucks worth of it Again, like it's whatever. And so, you know, went to the grocery store real quick, right across the street, something that was local that they could walk to, right, not, you know, not going to get them. You know $20 gift certificate to the Whole Foods, you know a mile and a half down the street, you know, so they can get. You know, like one bottle of water, you know, maybe what's? Grocery store air one, you know, I mean, like, you know it's not, that's not that type of situation. You know this is uh, you know we're gonna go to safeway, you know we're gonna, you know so.

Speaker 1: 24:48

But um, you know, she went, she got the gift cards, came back and you know there's still a line of people and, excuse me, and and I think the the bigger concerning piece, there was quite a few things. One, I saw some people there that were in line that you know I'd, I'd gone to school with these guys, like you know, 15 years ago or 18 years ago or something like that. It's like, damn, like you're still, you're still living here, man, like you're not getting out of the rat race. You know like it's, and it's tough to see, it's tough to see, uh. Two, you see, you see I mean it's middle of winter, right, northern virginia, thanksgiving, I mean it's, it's freezing outside and there's, you know, women waiting in line with, like, their babies and their hands, and some of these babies don't even have socks on and it's, you know it's just like what's? What is the thought process here? Like what's, you know how, like, how challenging is this? And so you know you're there and you're. You know you feel good because you're handing out these turkeys. And then you know now I'm like, okay, running out of that, now I'm handing out gift cards to the grocery store and it was just motivation for doing that again the following year.

Speaker 1: 25:46

And then the following year was more structured. We got more people involved. The year after that I met this journalist from Univision and she hooked me up with a couple other sponsors to help out. I met a really great guy. This guy, fito. He owns Inca Social and a couple other restaurants, but kind of similar, I don't know, similar personality, similar wanting to give back to the community. So I've been doing it with him for like the last, I don't know, like four years now and I mean it went from, you know, like those 40 or 50 birds to like, I think, maybe like 150 the next year to like 300. This past year I think we handed out over 650 meal packages.

Speaker 1: 26:32

So not just, not just the birds and I say birds cause we do now, we do turkeys and we do chickens as well. So, like you know, the Latino community maybe they don't want to do a turkey would rather just, rather just get a fat chicken. So now we do both. But it's meal packages, it's got like you know, beans and corn and you know stuffing. It's great, man. Honestly, it's like, yeah, it is, it's pretty cool, it's rewarding. But also it's like it just kind of reminds you, you know like and it's not just Thanksgiving, right, Like you know, which we're going to do back to school backpacks. We do a toy drive. Last year was the first year that we did it, or our second year, I should say that we did it with this other lady, and I think this year we're going to try to same thing, just kind of expand on that.

Speaker 1: 27:12

But, yeah, always trying to find a way to give back to the community. Like I mentioned earlier, just lead by example. You certainly do Try to man Try to, you know, lead by example, right? So I think you certainly do try to man, try to got to right. So it's like you know, I think if, if someone from my school or someone from my neighborhood sees me doing it, it's like, okay, well, you know, well, then maybe I can do it. And now, and now it's been great, you know, as soon as I start posting, hey, we're doing the Turkey drive this year again, I'll get a. It's great, I don't mean to take so much time on it, but it's, it's awesome, man, it's great, it's great, it's great, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a good thing, you know.

Speaker 2: 27:48

So, yeah, I'll look forward to seeing the Instagram posts.

Speaker 1: 27:51

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 27:52

Absolutely All right Kind of one of my shaped your perspective on life and work. I was curious about that.

Speaker 1: 28:02

So yeah, I mean I've been. You know I've been lucky, right. My father's from Costa Rica, my mother's from Czech Republic. I've been to both countries. I frequent Costa Rica more just because it's close by. I can speak the language you know, more familiar with it. We still have a lot of family there. Almost all of my mom's family is still in Czech Republic trying to plan a trip, hopefully this fall. Fall it'll be my second time that I've been back in I don't know like 20 years or something. So a lot of my cousins are older. They got kids and families of their own. But I want to be able to go out there and see that.

Speaker 1: 28:36

But my mom, she worked for United Airlines for a little bit. So when she did, we were able to, you know, kind of like travel a little bit more and like check out some other places. And you know, being from such a, I mean like both cultures are so wildly different, right? So my mom's parents were here, so we'd go and we'd visit my mom's parents on the weekends. You know they lived over here in Silver Spring, maryland.

Speaker 1: 28:57

You know my dad's family, they all live with us in that house of 16, 17 people, right? So, like I mean you know my grandma, my mom, excuse me, my father's mom. You know some of his brothers, nephews. I mean we all live in the house, so I got a little bit more exposed to that side of the family. But, culturally, being able to travel and check out spots and other places, I think it just makes you a little bit more sympathetic. Or, you know, I don't know if that's the right word to use, but just being able to identify other people's cultures you know religions, whatever it is that they do, and not be so easily offended.

Speaker 2: 29:32

Yeah, you can relate to everyone and you can understand kind of the different walks of life that different people have been down.

Speaker 1: 29:41

And I've been like that like all my life. It's really fun and I think it's because, yeah, just very open. You know, I remember I think you know you might find this in the archives but I went to Lake Braddock High School here in Burke for the first two years and then I ended up graduating from Fall Church High School. But the first two years that I was at Lake Braddock High School they have an international night and I hosted the international night for Lake Braddock and like I mean you had people from, you know, from Central South America, people from the Middle East, people from Asia and like, and they were, they were all doing, you know whether it was a dance or a fashion show or whatever it was that they were, you know showcasing, you know from their country and it was just I don't know it was super easy to to do it. You know showcasing, you know from their country and it was just I don't know it was super easy to to do it.

Speaker 1: 30:25

You know, I mean I was silly. I may have been a little racist at the time but you know, like all with good intention, but you know it was just it was fun to like bounce around and all these cultures and say I just, I was always like that. In high school, it was always, you know, never really had like a core group. I was always kind of like a floater, if you will. You know, and I always bounce around to you know different groups, different ethnicities, and it's just, you know, it was that guy.

Speaker 2: 30:46

Well, in my humble opinion, I think the best people are like that Cause I'm one of those as well.

Speaker 1: 30:51

Yeah, yeah, that's makes sense, makes sense.

Speaker 2: 30:54

Is there anything I didn't touch on um that you want to share?

Speaker 1: 31:00

No, I mean nothing, really. I mean no, that was great, that was awesome. No, I mean I feel like I was yapping, you know the whole time, but that's what a podcast is for, for yeah, I guess, and it was all interesting all I guess I don't know. I hope we'll see.

Speaker 2: 31:13

Yeah, well, thank you, milton, for coming in and making the time to talk.

Speaker 1: 31:16

Thanks, for having me podcast.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Um, it's been such a great conversation, as I said, and I know our audience is going to love listening to this one. Um, but, yeah, thanks.

Speaker 1: 31:25

Thank you so much. I look forward to uh to seeing it for sure Should be fun.