Making Tamales and Making Moves: Leslie Alvarez on Resilience

Brad Minus: [00:00:00] And welcome back to another episode of life changing challengers. Again, I'm your host, Brad minus, and you are not going to believe who I have on the podcast today. I have Leslie Alvarez. Now, Leslie is huge in the community management space, but we're really not going to go into that. What she has done is gone through adversity over and over and over again, and has always climbed out and done it in such amazing ways and, and Oh God, I can't wait to talk to you about it.

It's like she's, you want to talk about unorthodox ways is what we talk about here on the, on the, in the show, you know, people coming out of adversity and unorthodox ways and Leslie is the epitome of it. Um, she always found her way to a way to succeed and you're going to hear about it today. So consider yourself very lucky and without further ado, Leslie, how are you today?

Leslie Alvarez: I am awesome, Brad. Thanks for having me with you today. I'm so grateful to be here. 

Brad Minus: Oh, I, I am, I'm grateful. I am so grateful that you're here. Cause you have a, an [00:01:00] immense amount of messages and stuff that, and, and information that you could bring to the audience and add value. Leslie.

First question, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and maybe the compliment of your family, where you grew up and what was it like to be Leslie as a kid? 

Leslie Alvarez: Well, you know, I was, um, raised, my parents divorced when I was five and I was raised, um, in inner city Houston, you know, the part of town where it's a little, um, ethnic, the, the Hispanic.

side of town, my family, my great grandparents came from Mexico in 1902. And, um, but yet I was kind of mixed. So my mom had married a Caucasian. My last name was McDuffie and I was growing up in what I like to call the Mexican hood. Uh, I didn't speak Spanish. I looked hispanic, um, but I just kind of didn't fit in, um, my parents divorced.

My dad moved back to Georgia. I lived mostly with my grandmother and, um, yeah, it was just kind of one of those. I was a little bit of a bookworm, um, not an athletic person by any means, more likely I would fall and skin my knee than I [00:02:00] was to, to do anything athletic. Um, you know, just, it was just, it was just kind of a little.

 A little different, you know, um, I didn't, I didn't ever really feel like I completely fit in. I was also raised really religiously. Um, and so that made a huge difference because I wasn't allowed to associate with certain people that were not part of my church. So that really made me separate from other people and kind of be by myself a lot.

Brad Minus: So, all right. So you have siblings, right? 

Leslie Alvarez: I do, but they, I was actually 10 when the first one was born. 

Brad Minus: Oh, okay. So never got really close to them. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. They're significantly younger. My one sister now at our current ages of 46 and 36, we're getting close. Oh, but even at 36 and 26, we were still fighting, like she couldn't understand where I was coming from at that point, you know, we still didn't have anything in common, but now we actually think very much alike and have a lot in common.

Brad Minus: Oh, amazing. You know what I got to ask, though, you said, because you spend a lot of time with your grandmother, right? So as somebody that was half. You know, of the Latin and some Irish in there. Did you call her Abuela or did you call her Grandma? 

Leslie Alvarez: Well, she was [00:03:00] Caucasian. So my grandfather, who was Mexican, married her.

And she was Caucasian, so she was French, German, and English. Um, I called her Nanny. 

Brad Minus: Danny. Oh, and that's different. Okay. 

Leslie Alvarez: Cool. Yeah. Now my Mexican grandfather, I called Papa, 

Brad Minus: Papa, Nana and Papa. Wow. Okay. I love it. I just love that the different dynamics and what people call their families. I think, I think it's, I think it's an interesting, you know, it's, it's not, everybody does something different, you know, um, you know, Meemaw and Papa and Nana and Papa and, you know, grandma and grandpa.

For me, it was grandma and Papa. You know, that's how it was for me. So anyway, so you, um, now you had some interesting ideas growing up. You somehow came upon this, this ability to. To be more independent. How did that come about? 

Leslie Alvarez: You know, if you ask my mother and my grandmothers, they will tell you that I was just always an independent child.

I really feel like I [00:04:00] was forced into early independence. My kids, my parents divorced when I was five, there were already some things going on there earlier in life. And so I feel like I really was forced to be more independent. Um, so I started, um, you know, we were very low income. We were not even middle class.

And so when I wanted to start, you know, I wanted my first bike, I wanted a 10 speed red bike out of the Sears magazine. Right. So I sold oatmeal cookies. Um, homemade oatmeal cookies to all my school teachers and my mom's friends at her job, um, to save up the money to buy this. It was a 99 bike. And then with sales tax and shipping or whatever, it was going to be like 108.

And so I sold these cookies, these dozens of cookies for 4 a dozen. Um, till I saved up my 108 to be able to buy my red, you know, 10 speed bike. 

Brad Minus: That's amazing. I mean, no one does that. You know what I mean? I listen, I. I, you and I are peers, um, as far as age goes a little bit older, but you know what I mean?

And I had an entrepreneur father and he wouldn't let me do anything like that, but I kind [00:05:00] of think that I would have been better off now if he would have like, let me do that. Like he was all about education and he's like, no, no, no, no, no. You have, your job is to be a kid and for you to, you know, grow up.

It's my job to make sure that you're provided for. So old school, right? Um, and if I wanted something, it was either put on Santa. Or, you know what I mean? Um, yeah, coming from coming from, you know, a Jewish family. I had to put on Santa's list. Um, so yeah, so I but I think it was amazing to something that you learn because you even went on and did even a little bit more of that later on, which we're going to get into.

Um, so we're so about high school. Um, you had an interesting thing. Yeah. 

Leslie Alvarez: So again, I was raised super religious. I was raised as one of Jehovah's witnesses, just to put it out there. And so I actually, um, I don't talk about it very much in my book. Um, but, um, I actually quit public school after eighth grade because I didn't want to be part of that book.

Yeah. Environment because of, you know, the bad influences of, you know, the, the world is what it's called. And, and so I, I wanted to [00:06:00] devote my life to Christ and Jehovah and become what they call a full time minister. And to be able to do that, I needed more time in my life so I could spend more time or more freedom in my days so that I could spend more time out in the field service, out knocking on doors.

So I quit public school at the end of eighth grade and actually did homeschool for high school. And. Knocked out homes, knocked out high school in like a year and a half to two years. I finished when I was 15. Um, and just, and then I was done and I started working after that. I mean, I got a full time job working in a law office and, and the rest is history from there.

Brad Minus: Wait a second at 15. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Okay. All right. There's a couple of details you and then put in the book. All right. So this is good. Hey, by the way, I just wanted to let you all know that we that I'm going to be giving you this title later, but I'm not giving you the title right now in the episode because there's a big portion of it that she's going to talk about, um, that has to do with the title.

So she's got a great book out. It's, it's, it's readable. It's, it's kind of short, but it is yeah. Packed packed with lessons and hopefully we're she's going to touch on those tonight today. So all right So you started in the law office? 15 [00:07:00] you just all right. I'm a high school graduate. I'm gonna go work in an office 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah, so I got a job and I was like the lead partners assistant.

I was running payroll for all the 30 something year old people that were working in the office. Nobody liked me. I mean, it was just one of those things from the very early age that I was always kind of in an outsider position, whether it was because of the religion or whether it was because I was surrounded by people at the church.

With kids that had their families intact. And I was the one child of divorce that everybody kind of looked down on. Um, and then when I went to work, I was the young, you know, eager overachiever that the older people were like, how is she already in that job? I mean, it's just always been kind of my life is people kind of looking at me.

Like I was kind of, you know. Not quite fitting in with the group. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Crazy. And then, then you got married kind of young too, right? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. So I got married at 19. I left the church at 18, got married at 19 and then had my daughter four days after I turned 20.

Brad Minus: [00:08:00] And that's, uh, Adriana. 

Leslie Alvarez: Ariana. Yes. Ariana. 

Brad Minus: Okay. Cool. Um, that had to be, that'd take your life too for a, for a leap right there. Right. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, and, and I was already in property management at that point in my career, I had started in the business and, um, you know, we were married and I had my, my baby girl and she was sweetheart and I loved being with her, but I was a bit of a workaholic.

Um, the job that I was doing was for, you know, not a 40 hour a week, get home every day at five o'clock. It was. Um, with managing condo associations and HOA's, um, took a lot of my nights away from being with her and really being, you know, involved to my mom and, and the babysitters and such really helped me with both of my children because I ended up having my son a little, almost three years later and it's the same thing, you know, I don't really remember bathing my son, his first year of his life.

I don't really, I'm not proud to say that, but it's a fact. Because I had a daycare and a babysitter that, because I worked so much, they bathed him and when I would pick him up at nine and ten o'clock at night, he was already asleep and I would [00:09:00] carry him to the car and then I'd carry him up to his bed and then we'd wake up at six in the morning and I'd go do it all over again.

Brad Minus: Well, wait a second. If you had him staying at either at your Your your grand, your nanas or your mom's or, but where was, I mean, you were married, where was your husband? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah, so my husband made the decision in the middle of Tropical Storm Allison, back in 2001. Um, if you're familiar with that storm, it came through the Gulf and it hit Houston and then it traveled up to like San Antonio, but it.

Sat over Texas for like over a week and it just saturated us. So we had tons and tons of flooding. And so he was missing for a couple of days. I didn't know where he was. I thought that he could be dead in a bayou somewhere, you know, from, from being flooded, coming home from work or something and, um, come to find out he was with his.

love. So he came home one day and [00:10:00] brought me, uh, went to the kitchen, got grabbed a couple of black garbage bags, started throwing all his stuff in the garbage bag, says, I don't want to be with you anymore. I'm moving in with my, with my girlfriend and I was about five months pregnant with my son at the time.

Brad Minus: What? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. Yeah. 

Brad Minus: During the midst, the midst of a hurricane didn't come home. Oh, my God. Yeah. I got a lot of four little words. I'm thinking about right now. Yeah. And 

Leslie Alvarez: I actually even had just quit my job the month before because since I had worked so much with my daughter, I knew that having my son was going to be my 2nd and only.

Other child, I wasn't going to have any more kids after that. So I really wanted to enjoy the pregnancy and enjoy his childhood. So I had quit my job to stay home. So I had no income. I had no way to earn any income at that point because I couldn't go back to a job now that I'm five months pregnant and get, get a job.

Nobody's going to hire me now. Right? 

Brad Minus: Right. Yeah. So what did you end up doing? 

Leslie Alvarez: So my mother in law pulled me aside and she, she didn't speak any English. She was a very poor, um, you know, immigrant. They had come to the [00:11:00] U S and I think probably 76 or something. And then my, my ex husband was born in 78. And, um, she pulled me aside, had my little sister in law who was only, I think she was like maybe 12 or 13 at the time translate for me.

And she says, look, I don't like what my son has done to you, but you know, I, I want to help you, but I can't because I don't have a lot to be able to help you with. So I can help you with what I can. And then. You can help yourself. So she gave me a hundred dollars and a grocery list and she sent me down to the store down to the little Latina to buy all of the supplies and I came back and she taught me how to make Mexican tamales.

And so you got tamales and especially down in Houston or down in Texas, any city, any border area, any border state knows this. Um, you can, they are a hot tamales are a hot, hot, I can't speak hot commodity. And, um, you know, you can sell them out of the back of your trunk on the side of the road with a [00:12:00] cardboard box.

That says tamales, you know, I mean, they really are a hot commodity back then. They would go for probably like 5 a dozen or something. Um, now I can sell them for more like 15 to 20 a dozen. You know, inflation is great sometimes, but they are a lot of work and that's why they're such a hot commodity. So you sell them by the dozen.

Um, it's a big family tradition, especially around the holidays. to get around with your grandmothers and stuff to make them. But since my grandmother was not Mexican and my grandfather, um, he was not, his parents had already long past. Um, I didn't have that Mexican connection growing up, even though I grew up in the neighborhood.

Like I love tamales and I would love to go over to my friend's house and eat their grandmother's tamales. But I didn't have a grandmother that made tamales and taught me how to make tamales. So my mother in law did and I went and I sold the tamales and she said, now take the money and go back to the store and buy more supplies and do it again.

And so I made tamales. I stood on my feet for many, many hours and made a lot of tamales [00:13:00] and was able to pay some bills. And over the course of my Raising of my children. I really, um, I turned to that constantly, you know, my kids played, um, you know, travel teams, they played school teams, they were, you know, in the band.

I had flutes to buy. I had trombones to buy. I had, you know, Washington DC, fifth grade trips to pay for you, name it extra expenses for the kids and, um, the child support and my income just never was enough. So I was able to supplement anytime I needed money, Christmas, if I lost my job and I had some time, you know, in between whatever I needed, anytime I needed it by breaking out that tamale pot.

So my mother in law really provided me a great life skill that I was able to really capitalize on all those years that gave me the ability to really, you know, take care of her grandkids, uh, you know, well. 

Brad Minus: That's amazing, and it's the true testament to, you know, uh, give a man a fish, he'll be, he'll eat for a day and be starving tomorrow, teach a man to fish, or a woman in this case, and they'll, um, they'll be set for a lifetime, um, and you had a good teacher.

And you seem to be able to, to go [00:14:00] in and, and, and take care of things by making tamales. Okay, now, and just, just for everybody's sake, that's absolutely not there. The title of her book is called, When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Tamales. And now you know why. So, anyway, we're gonna, uh, we, I don't wanna go any further on, uh, um, I don't want to talk about the book till later.

So, but anyway, just so everybody knows, that's why we held off on the title. Um, so you, um, so you had your son and your, your son was born on a, on a very momentous day. There was a lot going on that day. 

Leslie Alvarez: He was born on nine 11, 2001. Yes. Wow. His entire life. Anytime they asked for the date of birth, the person who's writing it down always stops and looks at us and is like, really?

We're like, yes. He was born at 6 p. m. that evening. So, you know, when they ask you where you were, um, and everybody remembers where they were. I was in the living room of my house paint pacing the floor because I felt like I was in labor. But my doctor kept telling me all weekend that it was probably false labor because it was a little early.

Um, and I was watching the news and watching everything happening. And so I was on the phone with my friends talking to them about what was [00:15:00] happening. And I just kept saying, I think I'm in labor. I think I'm in labor. And they're like, well, what are you going to do? I'm like, well, I'm going to the doctor at three o'clock.

So I guess I'll get checked, you know? So I got to the doctor at three o'clock and she took one look at me and she was like, well, I was in a contraction and I was on the, on the, um, scale of the doctor's like. Has we been having any contractions? Like, yeah. They're like, how often? I'm like, well, I'm having one right now.

And they're like, you wouldn't be able to stand on the scale if you were having a real contraction. So the doctor checked me and the doctor's like, yeah, you got to get to the hospital now. And so he was born like three hours later. 

Brad Minus: Wow. Yeah. Just by just. And I'm not trying to get personal or anything, but how long was your labor with your, with your daughter?

Leslie Alvarez: Oh my gosh, I was so miserable. I wanted to be not pregnant so badly that the moment I had my first contraction, I made the doctor put me in the hospital and start inducing. Um, and so it was like, I mean, I was just throwing a hissy fit. I was like, I was huge. I had gained so much weight. So much weight. I was so miserable.

I wanted to not be pregnant anymore. And so I was there for like 20 hours with a very slow induction because I was trying to go [00:16:00] without pain meds. And the moment I finally gave in and I said, give me an epidural, or I said, give me a shot of Demerol and they came in with an epidural and said, and I was, and I, my mom was going to send them back.

Like, she's like, no, she didn't want the epidural. I was like, I'll take it. I'll take it. I don't care. So they give me the epidural. She was born like 30 minutes later, as soon as my body relaxed. I was fine, but I was so tense that I was locked up and it would nothing would happen. And so once I relaxed from that epidural, she was.

Brad Minus: That's interesting that you were tensed up for your, for your daughter and was 20 hours and yet, and you not only had the ability to the, you not only had the internal that you were giving birth to your son, but you also had nine 11 going on and yet this was three hours and you were done. That's, that's an incredible learning lesson of your, I guess, if that's what you just knew that you needed.

You know, I 

Leslie Alvarez: never thought of it like that, but as you're, as we're telling the story, story and comparing the two situations side by side, it actually is a little more telling about the children's [00:17:00] personalities. Like my daughter is a little more uptight. She's a rule follower. She's daughter eyes cross her T's.

My son is a lot more go with the flow, relax, chill. He only speaks when he has something that's really worth saying. Like he just takes his time, does what he wants. to do. So like, it's kind of telling that though, that their personalities are a little, um, aligned with the, um, labor experience. 

Brad Minus: That is super interesting.

Wow. I would never thought of that. 

Leslie Alvarez: I've never thought of that before. 

Brad Minus: I would love to see a case study on that. You know what I mean? Wouldn't it be, I'd love to get just a, just a hundred, uh, a hundred mothers in a, in a fricking room where that had at least two kids and have them talk about their different labor experiences and figure out if they're in matching personality.

That would be, that would be super, super interesting. Um, so you, uh, so the, your first, your first marriage he left now was your, so your son was from a different marriage. 

Leslie Alvarez: No, my son was from the [00:18:00] first husband. That's who I was. Oh, your 

Brad Minus: son was still from the first. Oh, yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're, so your kids are both from, I only 

Leslie Alvarez: have one baby daddy.

Brad Minus: Yeah. Okay. Good, good, good, good. I, I think it was, um, I think it was messing up on some of the dates. That's not a problem. It's good. That's good. Okay. Because I just, I know that you got married again. 

Leslie Alvarez: I did get married again. Yes. 

Brad Minus: A little bit later. So, um, so, all right, wait a second. So now you've got two kids and are you still, now, are you, are you working at this point?

Leslie Alvarez: So I went back to work, went back to what I knew. It was easy for me to get a position back again and back in property management. So I've been working back in community management ever since. So I was, it was only a little six month hiatus there that I wasn't working until he was born. So I went back to work a month after he was born.

Brad Minus: Oh, fantastic. Okay. So at this point, you had, you had regular income and you just, you supplemented when you needed to write certain things, which I think is fantastic. It's kind of like, you know, today you didn't have it back then. We didn't have it back then. Um, is, you know, like now it's like, all right, download the uber thing and get in the car and you want to take some, you want to meet some extra cash.

You can just go lift and I mean, 

Leslie Alvarez: the internet was Still kind of new. Even I mean, email, everything was kind of new at that point. I mean, we didn't have Craigslist to sell stuff. We didn't have any of that stuff. You know, there was no Poshmark to sell your clothes on. None of that existed. 

Brad Minus: Poshmark. Oh my God.

I can't eat. I, [00:19:00] I, no one's ever mentioned that. That's amazing. I love it. So, uh, so, okay. So now you're living on your own, you have a job. Two kids are taking care of it now. Are you still taking both kids now to, to, uh, to Nana's and moms and daycare? I 

Leslie Alvarez: ended up getting a daycare. Yeah. They got a daycare.

That's where I had a babysitter who, who kept them very late for me when I worked late. And so that's kind of the year or so. That's when I don't really remember bathing my son, uh, because I was working so much, but, uh, yeah, I, I, I was back out on my own and doing what I needed to do for them. And then, uh, my son.

When he was about two, um, heading, my daughter was close to five is when we moved to Atlanta. So I moved around the country a little bit, mostly for job opportunities. Uh, so not really to cities, um, where I had any family or any network. Um, but I moved to Atlanta. That was my first move when they were little because I thought that I had a network there as a backup plan.

I wasn't super close to my dad's [00:20:00] family, but they were there. And so I thought if something happened, I'd have them to fall back on. Uh, I saw them like twice in two years. They, they didn't have anything really to, to, to, to do with me. Um, so I, uh, it, it really didn't make a difference that they were in the same city or not, but that's why, that's why I picked Atlanta.

So, 

Brad Minus: yeah, you were looking for her to have a secondary support system, which you know, you're all looking for now that it makes it, it makes a good story to say that what, uh, were you still involved with your baby daddy for lack of a better term? 

Leslie Alvarez: No. Oh, no. We had been divorced. I mean, we were divorced and he was already living with somebody else and the whole nine yards, 

Brad Minus: right.

But with the kids though. 

Leslie Alvarez: Oh, well, sure. Yeah. He had his, I mean, the kids, he had his visitation and he paid his child support and such, but yeah. So the kids still saw their father there. They have a relationship with their father. 

Brad Minus: Right. Right. And he was living in Houston. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes. He was still, he stayed back in Houston.

Brad Minus: All right. Awesome. Um, cause there's been, you know, yeah. Like I said, I read the book, so I know that there is a couple of situations that popped up that I think that you, you were instrumental in getting through and it shows a mental tenacity, an emotional tenacity that a lot of [00:21:00] people don't have nowadays.

And were you in Atlanta when? The first incident happened. 

Leslie Alvarez: So I don't remember if there was a first incident that happened. I don't remember if I actually put this one in the book or not. I wouldn't ask you if I didn't know about 

Brad Minus: it. 

Leslie Alvarez: Well, but I, there was another, there's a bunch anyway. So there's, I, you know, I don't know if I put everything in there.

I picked and chose. I was in Dallas at the car accident. 

Brad Minus: So it was 

Leslie Alvarez: about four at that time. Um, so I had moved to Dallas from Atlanta at that point in time. And so that's when, um, they went to visit their father and their stepmother. Um, they had, my, my ex had had a new child with his new wife, um, a baby, a little boy.

And, um, so they spent the summer, a month in the summer with their father. And the day before They were supposed to come home. I was in a meeting on a Friday and, um, the stepmother's phone was calling me and I kept ignoring the call because I was thinking she was just trying to coordinate, like pick up the next day.

Cause we usually drive and meet halfway between Dallas and Houston. I ignored the call a bunch of times. And finally I answered the phone call because a different [00:22:00] Houston phone number called me. I stepped out of the meeting and was standing in my office lobby when I answered the call, and it was the Harris County Sheriff's office calling me to make sure that I had been informed of the car accident.

So, um, it was, you know, the. They, the stepmother had been sideswiped and zigzagged her car across the beltway, which is about five lanes wide, wide in, um, rush hour traffic. So she was very fortunate that they did not get hit by any other vehicles and all the other vehicles avoided them, but they did hit the guardrails multiple times going back and forth after they were hit.

Um, and so my son was on the side of impact. Um, but that was the first. That was, it's not the first scenario, but it's the first scenario that brought me to my knees was when I was standing in my grandmother's house and I knew I needed to know that my, that my husband was leaving me and I was pregnant.

This is the second time that I fell to the ground to my knees. Um, and I, you know, there's just been those moments where you find yourself, like it's, it brings you to your knees, like literally, and not [00:23:00] even figuratively. You just have no other, like your legs just give out on you. And I remember being on the floor and the sheriff.

You know, officer is telling me information and my apparently my daughter was on the other side. And so they sent her, her injuries were minimum. They sent her and the infant to one hospital and they sent the stepmother with my son to a different hospital. And, you know, now I've got four hours apart from us and I have sole custody.

And so I'm like trying to get on the phone with my mother and get somebody to get to the hospital to be with my kids while I drive there because I'm the one that makes medical decisions. Like. Just handling all of that and, and dealing with all that. So I was on the floor and they, they picked me up. The receptionist came running over and, and grabbed my boss out of the meeting and they picked me up and put a chair underneath me and, you know, kind of like, it's okay, it's okay, you know, breathe.

But in my head, I was already going through all of those. role play of, I've got to call my mom, I got to do this, I got to call this, I got to make sure they have my, my, my kid's insurance card. I've got to do that. I've got to get in the car. I've got to [00:24:00] drive there. I've got to, I mean, it was literally while I was on the floor, all of that was just going through my head of the million of things that I need to do.

Brad Minus: Oh man, I can't even imagine what you were feeling at that point. The, the amount of adrenaline and the, the. Not knowing, so what was the, I mean, what had to be like the most intense feeling you're feeling at that point when you, when you, you know, the most intense 

Leslie Alvarez: feeling was the fact that my kids were separated and that was what the, um, and the, the, um, the, the, the police officer said to me, she was the, it was a female officer and she said, ma'am, I didn't even know to call you like nobody when we called your ex husband and told him about the car accident, he didn't, yeah.

mention you. Um, and we didn't know to notify you. So I only found out to notify you because your daughter, when we were putting her in the other ambulance, she was crying because she was leaving her other brother and she didn't want to leave her [00:25:00] little brother. And that when she says, and they said, no, your mom's going to be okay.

And my daughter at that point was like, Six years old, maybe seven years old. And she says, no, that's not my mother. My mother is Leslie Alvarez and she works for, and she names off the community in Dallas, in McKinney, Texas. And you need to call my mom. That's how the police officer knew to call me. So the accident had already happened and like people were already in route places, but my ex hadn't even called me to tell me about it.

Um, and so the officer felt like there was a problem that was a disconnect in the relationship, which there was, we were constantly fighting the entire divorce. I, I don't speak ill of him and in favor of my children, but you know, he, he, he, we were fighting horribly all the time. And so he didn't ever notify me of the accident.

I only found out about it because the police officer looked for my number in the stepmother's phone because my daughter told her to do it. 

Brad Minus: Oh, wow. I gotta tell you, I, you know, you know, I was telling you when you [00:26:00] first talked about your ex, you know, there's a bunch of four letter words are popping up in my mind.

They're popping up again. Um, so I, yeah, I can't, I just, I can't even imagine it. That would drive me nuts. But I will say one thing for your daughter. Um, you know, in my day, my, uh, my parents, ran through me through the friggin gamut like I knew my name my address my parents names My phone number my dad's phone number since like five.

They made me repeat it over and over and over again They played games with me. They did all this stuff. Where does she work? What's your dad's work number? What you know back then? There was no cell phones what's your dad's work number what's your mom's work number blah blah blah and You know, occasionally I would imagine they probably didn't like that because I just call my mom at work just to say hi, you know, and she's like, she's like, Brad, I'm working right now.

Um, what did you need something? I'm like, no, I just wanted to say hi. [00:27:00] So they probably didn't like that. But, um, but that your, your daughter knew all that information and To get to your, to get to their stepmother's phone and get that's Primo. That was great. And then that's good parenting. Good. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. That's a solid, um, she's a good 

Leslie Alvarez: little fighter like that. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. And you know, 

Leslie Alvarez: but, 

Brad Minus: um, but yeah, I think it's just, just amazing. So, all right. So that happened while you were still in Dallas and then you moved, you moved to Atlanta, um, 

Leslie Alvarez: that was after Atlanta. So. Moved to Atlanta, moved to Dallas, then we moved back to Houston.

Brad Minus: And then you moved back to Houston, right? Because you wanted to, you wanted to be closer, right? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes. My daughter wanted to be closer to her father and wanted to spend more time with him. And so I found a job down in Houston and moved back down to Houston. 

Brad Minus: And at this point, you've got, you've got some experience, right?

I mean, you got law, you've got, you're in the law, uh, you got some law experience and then you got into community management. So finding a job wasn't, it was, did you find it difficult or was it, um, did you find that it was, um, it was pretty easy for you? So in my industry, 

Leslie Alvarez: yeah, in my [00:28:00] industry, it's very, you know, um, specific experience and designations.

So I actually, because I graduated high school at 15 college, wasn't an option. I didn't go to college. Um, but I did focus on my industry designations as a community manager. So I got like every designation that. The company would pay and every time I did it, it gave me another job opportunity for 10, 000 more, 15, 000 more.

And I just worked my way up that way through those industry specific designations. So then finding a job was really always pretty easy. It was kind of very rare, um, that I would walk into an interview and not walk out with the offer. I mean, I, it was. It was just kind of super easy for me in this industry that way to be able to grow because I had all the designations, all the experience, everything lined up for me.

Brad Minus: So, um, what about differences in salaries from one industry to another? Because then you went to Dallas, which I know is, is one market. And then you went to Atlanta, which I think is. More it's it's a higher [00:29:00] cost of living there, right? So you might have gotten, you know, a little bit more there. Then you might come back to Houston.

So you came back to the to that market. There were a big difference in in salary. All 

Leslie Alvarez: 3 of those cities are pretty relatively close in those same. Um, you know, at least at the time in, um. Cost of living, but each job move was strategically to make me more money. So I never moved and made less money. I always made more money and lived a little better.

So 

Brad Minus: even, even from Atlanta to Houston, 

Leslie Alvarez: from Houston to Atlanta, I gained about 10, 000 from Atlanta to Dallas. I gained about 20, 000. 

Brad Minus: Okay. 

Leslie Alvarez: Um, and then from Dallas down, down to Houston, I kind of net zero there, but Houston was definitely a lower, a little bit lower on the light on the, um, um, cost of living.

And then from there, I actually made another job change to another property. That was more money. 

Brad Minus: Okay. Well, that's, that's, I mean, that's fantastic. But did you still find that, you know, even though you had this. We have two kids, single parent, that you still sometimes had to break out the tamale recipe?

Leslie Alvarez: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:30:00] Christmas, all of that. You know, like I said, my kids wanted to play sports. So my son started football at the age of four. Um, then he got into basketball, you know, um, my, my daughter started playing volleyball in third grade. Um, she was doing club volleyball. Then once she hit middle school, she hit school ball as well.

Um, she played all the way through her senior year in high school. So you had club travel team fees, you know, that's four or 5, 000 a year. Easy. Plus the school fees and private lessons and you name it. So I absolutely continued to subsidize. Um, I think the last time I actually subsidized any money was probably about five years ago.

Now I just make tamales for fun. 

Brad Minus: Oh, well, that's good. Like for Christmas. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. That's, that's fantastic. Um, So I also imagine that, you know, you had some great life lessons. So, um, and imagining that you're, you're probably passing that on, aren't you? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. Yeah. We, we, we've done a lot, you know, so my son actually got very [00:31:00] entrepreneurial.

My daughter did too. She, she tried the oatmeal cookies at one point. Um, she sold to all of our neighbors and raised enough money to be able to pay for her, um, freshman. High school year, volleyball fees for high school, um, all her uniform fees and all of that. Um, but my son actually in third grade, he came to me and he said, mom, I need, would you please front me $50?

And I said, what do you want $50 for? And he goes, well, at Costco they sell these fundraiser packages of chocolate and candy, and you'll get a hundred pieces for $50. And then I can sell 'em for a dollar a piece and double my money. So, okay, so we went and we bought him the fundraiser package. He doubled his money.

He went back, he bought two boxes and then he sold those and then he paid me back. And he did that, you know, at school selling, selling candy to all of his friends at school. Um, then from that he, um, went on as an adult, opened his first LLC at the age of 18 and started flipping tennis shoes. So this was at the start of the, at the peak of the pandemic and such.

So he was running, you know, [00:32:00] hundreds of pairs of tennis shoes through my house. Um, I'd come home and there'd be all these boxes of Nikes that had just dropped that had been delivered and he was reshipping them, you know, cause they'd been pre sold, um, and he was just like the next day I'd come home and they'd all be gone, you know, 

Brad Minus:  Sneakerhead.

Wow. 

Leslie Alvarez: So he's got the entrepreneurial spirit for sure. And the hustle, you know, he definitely has the hustle. He wants to make it happen. 

Brad Minus: And I think that's, and that's an appropriate word that you use in the book a lot is hustle. And I think that is appropriate nowadays. Now, the other thing is, is that what I noticed is you are an old school parent.

You are not this new school mealy mouth, excuse my language. Um, I want to be friends with my kids. type of parent. Yeah. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Um, did you find out? I am their 

Leslie Alvarez: friend now. It does work really well. Well, now they're grown. It did work really well for that. So now they're my friend. So it's awesome. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. Believe me.

Uh, yeah. My dad is my best friend and he's been that way since I've been grown. But when I was, when I was being, when I was growing up, he was to be feared. Um. Well, and especially, well, he was feared more often because I was bad more often. Um, but yeah, you know what I mean? But, you know, he was great, you know, he was my dad and I loved him.

But when I was bad, when I was in the, in the dirt, you know, it wasn't fun, you [00:33:00] know, but you 

Leslie Alvarez: know, like you, you mentioned your dad earlier and you mentioned about how he didn't really want you to work and make money. Um, ironically, I was kind of like that with my kids as well. I let them make a little money here and there when they wanted to, but I didn't force them to.

I paid for their cars. I paid for their car insurance. I paid for everything. And that's why I would still break out the tamale pot. Right? So they knew I was struggling to make it happen, but they knew I was making it happen because I wanted to give that to them. Um, I gave each of them. A, you know, reasonably newer car had a car payment on it.

And then at the end, when they were ready to buy on their own, in their own name, I signed the D the title over, they took that, that was their down payment and I gifted it to them, you know? So, you know, they each were, were given something to be set up so that they didn't have to maybe struggle quite as hard.

Brad Minus: Exactly. And I think that's the way. As parents that we want to move that right. We always want our kids to do better than we did the other. My dad always, he, he grew up [00:34:00] well, he, when he grew up, he was on. milk trucks when, when he was young, you know, a milk trucks and, you know, and he, uh, we had a paper route together at one point, um, for a summer, uh, for a summer when I was at home and we split the money.

Um, and then, but when I was in school and I said, Hey, I'd like to get a job. Because all the other kids were getting a jobs. That was why because I was stupid And he was he was like no no no no your job is to be a kid So you had the same thing, but he didn't mind these little things. You know just like you You know they came to you, and she said oh well.

I want to get this stuff for volleyball on my own And then you showed her, you taught her how to fish. 

Leslie Alvarez: I, I just, I, you know, like you said, I wanted them to be a kid. Well, I also wanted them to experience the things that I didn't get to experience. Um, and so I didn't get to do sports again. Remember what I said, my life was different.

I didn't go to high school. I didn't do extracurricular activities. I didn't get all that experience and I felt like I was missing out on things. So I really wanted them [00:35:00] to be able to experience. That and enjoy being a child. Enjoy that. Have those memories, have the homecoming, have the prom, have all that.

Brad Minus: Excellent. Um, so, and then you got married again. 

Leslie Alvarez: I did. Yes. So I got married. Um, I was. 31, 32 when we got married. Um, and you know, it was a blended family. He had custody of his youngest son and then I had my two. So it was my daughter, my stepson, and then my son, they were stair stepped and they were literally one year apart in school.

Um, and. So we had them for a little while. And then unfortunately, you know, blended families are tough. Um, and we ended up divorced, but we've been divorced now for 10 years. And, um, we've actually been very good friends after the divorce. And his son is still very close to me and to my kids. They, we all talk regularly.

He's come to visit me when I go to Houston. Sometimes he'll pick me up from the airport and we'll go to lunch and we'll talk about girls or we'll do whatever. So it's, it's really [00:36:00] cool. 

Brad Minus: Oh, well, that's good. So did, so during that time, did the three kids get. Were they, were they close? 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes, they, um, loved, you know, the boys.

We forced them together. It was bunk beds in a room together. You know, whether you like it or not, this is your brother. Um, so they were forced to get close. They played video games together. They played football together. I mean, they, you know, they, yeah. 

Brad Minus: All right. Well, great. So that, so as far as the kids were worked out, and unfortunately it just, it just didn't work out for you and your.

We had different 

Leslie Alvarez: parenting styles. That was the fundamental issue. 

Brad Minus: And that's, that's exactly what I wanted you to go into leading your head right down, come on. All right. So that's what I wanted to talk to you about is, um, is why that happened. And obviously you were, you just, you led right into it. So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Leslie Alvarez: You know, the easiest way to say it is, you know, he had. Two older children who at the time they were in their 20s and they really only came over to visit him for the Christmas check or the birthday check and it was because he was so super military strict on them when they were growing up and. Like you said, I'm an old school mom.

I'm pretty strict. I'm pretty [00:37:00] tight on my kids, but I do believe in certain rooms for flexibility as they were growing older. And so as they were turning into teenagers, um, there were certain things I wanted for my daughter, certain things that my daughter and I had been discussing throughout her life.

Before I had even met this man, um, that was the plan for when she turned 16, when she turned 17, things like that. And he just kind of wanted to derail all of that. And I was not comfortable with that because I, I said to him, you know, my kids, I want my kids to want to come home and be with me. I want my kids to come back and, and, and want to spend time with me.

And your kids really didn't want to even spend time with you. So you're, you're running your kids away by being overly strict. And I'm trying to be more of a middle of the ground and, you know, and, and we just couldn't agree on that because it was his house. He was the man his way or the highway. And after as many years and many struggles that I had put into my kids, the relationship that I had with them, I just couldn't put them second in that situation and, [00:38:00] and let all the hard work that I had done in building a strong, strong, solid relationship with them go to waste because it was gonna go downhill if I, if I stayed.

So I chose to go ahead and get a divorce. 

Brad Minus: Wow. I mean, that's a, that's, that had to be, that had to be almost tougher. I would think, you know, it was, yeah, 

Leslie Alvarez: it was. Yeah. Because you got somebody that cheats on you. That's easy to be able to be mad, angry and walk away from, right? This wasn't a, a cheating situation.

This was, I just don't fundamentally agree with how you're doing this. And we're going to keep fighting about this because these are my children. Even our therapist was like, yeah. Why are you letting this man tell you what to do with your children? You've had these kids for 10 plus years without him and you've got a solid relationship with them.

Why would you let him ruin your relationship with your children? And I, I, I, I just, I had to wake up and say that, that this isn't going to work. So, 

Brad Minus: yeah, you are one of the strongest people that I have ever met emotionally. Cause like that has [00:39:00] got to be just the toughest thing, you know, like I said, like you said, you know.

It's easy. You know, some of us have that. There are no three strikes when it comes to cheating. You're like, you cheat. You're done. I'm out. You know, that's it. And it makes it super easy, right? They did something totally wrong where this is literally just a fundamental parenting style. You know, uh, a little bit of a, you know, a disagreement and you ended up having to dissolve your relationship because of that.

So, yeah, I 

Leslie Alvarez: actually even told him at 1 point. I was like, if you can just let me do this for the next 3 to 4 years, they will be out of the house and we will have nothing to fight about anymore. Like, everything will be fine. Just give us like 4 to 5 years. And he just couldn't do it. 

Brad Minus: So I'm so sorry that you had to go.

You got to go through that. But, um. So you had talked about the fact that, you know, yet you started work at 15 and you got all these great certifications and everything else, but something was missing, I think, and you ended up 

Leslie Alvarez: having a college degree. So at 32, I did try to go back [00:40:00] to school. I did some community college, uh, paid my way along the way.

But then when the kids got into high school with high school sports, club sports, all of that, obviously the money was going towards them more. And that had to be the focus. And so I stopped, I was, you know, junior, I was in a, I was finishing my sophomore year when I stopped. Um, taking classes and then, um, when I took my daughter for a parent wine and cheese event at her new private college that she had gotten accepted to with like a 64, 000 a year, you know, tuition, you know, thing.

It was a huge, huge, really, really high, really nice college, really great opportunity for her. Um, I was talking to one of the deans. And he said something about, oh, you don't have a degree. I was like, yeah, she's a first time, you know, college, um, you know, student truly. I mean, like I've gone to school a little bit, but I haven't graduated.

So it doesn't really quite count. Um, and so he says, oh, well, you should go back to school. And I said, no, I really can't afford it. I mean, with the aid that we're getting for her and such, it's really already stretching my resources. Way too [00:41:00] thin and we're going to have to take some loans out. And he says, um, well, you know, the college financial aid system, the more people that go to school from the same household, the more age you get.

And I was like, really? He's like, yes, they adjust your gross income based on the additional people. Especially if you're the, you know, the parent that's going back to school. I was like. I have to look this up. So I looked it up. Sure enough, I went back to school. I carried 18 credit hours at a full time, including summer while working full time.

Um, I started my junior semester, my first junior semester, the same day that my daughter started her freshman year. 

Brad Minus: Wow. 

Leslie Alvarez: I call it a two for one special because it ended up being about the same amount of money that I had to pay or that we took loans out for. But this time we both ended up graduating with a degree.

Brad Minus: That's amazing. I, I mean, I can't even imagine what your, what your, what your daughter was [00:42:00] thinking because your daughter didn't have to work when he was, she was in college, right? 

Leslie Alvarez: No. And she told me, she's like, well, I guess I don't have any excuse not to be successful if I'm only doing 15 hours and you're doing 18 and working full time.

Brad Minus: Well, and your son's still at home. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes. Yes. He was still at home at the time. 

Brad Minus: So, you gotta take care of the son. And you gotta, and you gotta, now, of course he's what, like 16 or 17 at this point? Yeah. He is kind of self sufficient. He can do his own stuff. A little. Yeah. Yeah, a little. I mean, still 16, 17, and a boy with no front, with not a closed frontal lobe.

You know, we still have those issues. Yeah, exactly. Um, right? But, here you are. 18 credit hours, full time job. And one of those, and then not a job that's really nine to five all the time. Right. Sometimes you've got to go out during the night to the, to the, to the emergencies. 

Leslie Alvarez: You have all kinds of crazy stuff that happens.

You've got board meetings that happen at night. You just, yeah, you've got lots of stuff happening 

Brad Minus: and you're a single parent with a household. Oh, my God. That's like, that's amazing. Just, just, just the thought of it. But you had such drive, you know, to, to, to get it done. Um, that is, that's amazing. Those, those are the biggest, those are the [00:43:00] biggest life lessons right there.

So, so, so when, anytime that you needed. Through, you know, while you were raising your kids anytime you needed something extra the tamales came out. Yeah you taught that you taught that lesson to your kids and here you're you're you're 18 year old is is Being a sneakerhead and and yeah and selling and reselling sneakers, which is huge right now.

Um, and, and so you taught them that. So I guess, I guess the only thing that I can ask you is to somebody out there that finds themselves as a single mom. And they're struggling. What would be your advice to them as their first couple of steps that they can do to start becoming more independent and kind of off of doing what they can to stay off government subsidy?

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. So in my book, I actually talk about a philosophy of living in the gap. You're living in the gap when you don't, you make too much money [00:44:00] to qualify for government assistance, but you don't make enough money to fully pay for it. Your actual household expenses, right? That's the gap. And it's a problem because a lot of parents, single parents, especially, I talk about one example of one in my book, um, that, uh, they will decide to take a step back from their career and go on to government assistance because it's just easier.

Then trying to, you know, Rob Peter to pay Paul consistently, I struggled. I mean, there were weeks and months where it was pay the car payment or pay the daycare. I get two months, two weeks behind on the daycare so that I could pay the car payment. Then I'd pay the daycare. Then I'd get behind on the car payment.

And, and you just kind of had to do what you could do until I had the time to break out the tamale pot. Cause you know, like you didn't have time working full time. I couldn't break out the tamale pot every week. I had to like wait till like Thanksgiving week or something. And then I could catch up on my bills.

by, by doing tamales and selling them and then catching up on, on all my bills. Um, I spent, I have a ring that I bought myself [00:45:00] for mother's day in 2008. And I've probably pawned that ring at least a dozen or more times, you know, to be able to pay the bill. And then I got to go back and get the ring. And, you know, I've bought that ring over and over and over again.

And, um, you know, my kids know the story and, and I know the story and I talk about that all the time, but that's, that's the thing is. Don't you look for a way to subsidize somehow. Um, you know, I did, I did Tupperware. I did pampered chef. I did anything I could to make a few extra bucks to help me to be able to rob Peter to pay Paul during that gap during those gap years.

And those gap years sometimes lasted longer than I would have liked them to have lasted, you know, but, um. There were good years, you know, before 2008 crashes and stuff. And then 2006 and seven were doing really well. I was on a, on a good, on a good trajectory till 2008 hit. Um, but you know, stepping back and just throwing your hands up and allowing government assistance to take over was just never an option for me.

It was never a goal of mine. It was never what I [00:46:00] thought would be, would set the right example for my kids or put them in the right mindset for their own personal growth. And I just. Constantly had to think about the example that I needed to set for them. And that was, you know, I have to hustle and I've got to show them that that's what matters.

You know, you can get there if you want to. 

Brad Minus: And I think that's, that's probably the biggest lesson is you can get there if you want to. You've got to, and, and I do this in endurance sports all the time is like figuring out where your limits are being realistic about them, but also knowing that you can go, you, you can.

You can overtake those limits. Um, we can do it in sports. You can do it. in business and you can do it in life. Um, it's just allowing yourself, giving you permission to go, Hey, you know what, this is going to be hard. I'm going to have to sacrifice, but I have to dig in and I got to do it. Um, if this is to benefit your, yourself to benefit your kids, to benefit your family, to benefit your, you know, maybe you're taking care of, you know, uh, of an elderly parent and there's some extra bills you got [00:47:00] to take care of.

Well, Leslie uses tamales. But there's Uber and Lyft where literally all you got to do is download the app. And get in the car and ride, you know what I mean? And I mean, I 

Leslie Alvarez: cleaned houses at one point, you know, you can, you can, you can find so many different ways. I used to find, um, free items that people would list on like Craigslist for free.

And I'd pick them up and gather them and have a garage sale sometimes and sell them. I mean, again, there's a million different ways you can come up with, with extra money when you need it. Um, you know, if you are creative enough and you. motivated, you know, because you've just got to get out there and do it.

Brad Minus: Exactly, exactly. And it's, and it's like, Oh, I heard a great quote. Um, I heard a great quote, the pathway to what's most real. Is through the hardest things that you can do. So what's real is, you know, we have bills to pay. We've got, they've got our normal life. And then there's the things that we want on top of that.

So the [00:48:00] hardest things that we can do will show what you're truly made of. And again, that's my biggest message to people. I use fitness and I use, I use examples of people that have, you know, have done things they never thought possible. You know, people that never ran a day in their life and are running a hundred mile races, right?

Uh, people never swam a day in their life and doing Ironman triathlons. That's, that's that thing. And then there's people like Leslie who thinks outside the box and goes, Hey, I need to get, I can need to get my kids some knee pads. I need to get them enrolled in football. I don't have it. Make some tamales.

So that's the big I guess that's your biggest lesson is the title of your book Yep, when life gives you lemons make tamales If life gets sour get spicy How I can yeah, it is absolutely amazing and [00:49:00] again I Leslie I'm a big fan boy. I got one last question or was one little story I'd like for you to tell us.

And so Leslie also has her own business now. She has opened up a, uh, I guess it's, would you call it a consulting? Would you call it? It's, it's 

Leslie Alvarez: management. I do full service management and consulting both. So 

Brad Minus: community management and consulting, it's called Community Ace. So tell us about how you started that, when you started it and how it's going.

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. So six years ago I started consulting, um, as a side again, as another side hustle. Um, and, um, then about a year and a half ago, I decided my son and I actually talked about it and we decided to go ahead and turn it into a full service management company. So we launched it in July. We've got about 14 clients now, which is.

Brad Minus: Um, 

Leslie Alvarez: amazing for being launched for, you know, barely a half a year. Um, I've got more contracts pending, um, 30 or more bids in the pipeline. So it's awesome. We're growing. We've got our, we've got our first full time employee already other than ourselves. Um, it's just awesome. So we're doing great with that and really looking forward to growing that.

Brad Minus: Wow. [00:50:00] So this is a project with your son. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yes, yes, he definitely, he's helped to support and provides me additional assistance, manpower hours, as he calls it, family indentured servitude. 

Brad Minus: I love that. I love that. But, you know, I work, I work, uh, my day job is, I'm in IT, I do IT project program management, that type of thing.

Um, yeah. And we always, it's kind of like, but we always talk about when the boss says, all right, we're going to happy hour. Okay, great. Mandatory fun. 

Leslie Alvarez: Yeah. 

Brad Minus: Okay. Let's go, you know, black 

Leslie Alvarez: Friday this year for Thanksgiving. I told my daughter, I was like, okay, so Friday is going to be family work day. We're all going to sit at the dining room table where there are laptops and we're going to work on different things that we need to get done.

Brad Minus: Awesome. Awesome. Did you, did your, did your daughter graduate? 

Leslie Alvarez: Oh, she's been graduated. Yes. She has her MBA actually now as well. So she, she finished in five years with her MBA, did a dual program and she works in procurement. 

Brad Minus: Nice. Nice. I haven't. You tell her the congratulations. I know it's been four years, but I have my MBA.

She just ran her first half. 

Leslie Alvarez: You'll appreciate this. She just ran her first half marathon this morning. 

Brad Minus: What? This morning? 

Leslie Alvarez: This morning. 

Brad Minus: Yes. Oh my God. That's [00:51:00] fantastic. You tell her that if she wants to get faster, if she wants to get better, you give me a call. I'll coach her. Okay. No problem. Oh my God.

That's fantastic. Yes. Oh my God. That's a, that's amazing. Um, yeah. Yeah, see the parallels, see what I'm saying, Leslie, this is what I'm talking about. All right, but Leslie, hey listen, I really appreciate you being on the show. I think you have, you have given a undetermined amount of, of, of lessons and, and an experience that we need.

You know, again, is that the reason why I do this is to give people nuggets of information that they can use. To, you know, increase their potential and get to that, the life that they so want. And most of the people that listen are people that are sitting on the fence. You know, where do I go? I've got a dead end job or I'm not happy in my job.

I want to do something different. And every single episode gives is little bit more information. If you take in one nugget from this and you make it forward and you've been successful, then we have done our job. So Leslie. Thank you so much. If you are watching this on YouTube, if you can go ahead and hit that like that [00:52:00] subscribe and that notification bell so you always know when another episode is dropping.

I really appreciate that. If you're on Apple or Spotify and you'd like to give us a review, please do that. And you know what? And I've said it before. I'll say it again. I don't even care if it's a bad review. I'm so cool with feedback. I, because I just want to make this the best podcast that I could possibly make it.

I want to be the best and I, we want to give you everything and make sure it's a value. So let us know and we'll, it'll help us to evolve this podcast again, Leslie, I'm a huge fan. I love what you do and I love what you stand for. I give you, you know, all my blessings and all the success in the world on your new venture with Community Ace.

Um, and, you know, and I wish you all the best that you could possibly have. And, and, well, alright, it's that time of year. Happy Holidays and, um, and, uh, I really, I hope to be speaking with you again sometime soon because there's a couple of things that we can go through. Oh, wait. One last thing. Um, so, uh, when life gives you lemons, make tamales, that's her, that's her book that will be, um, specifically linked in the, uh, in the show notes along with her, um, along with her website.

Um, lesliealvarez. com and I'll throw in community ace for all those people out there that are looking for [00:53:00] management, um, or management advice. If you are a part of a gated community or a part of a hud or something, and maybe you're part of the, you needed, you're on the board and like a little bit of advice, contact leslie and then leslie has one more little surprise for us.

Leslie Alvarez: Yes. So I have another book coming out at the end of February. It'll be on amazon. com and it will be called Hot Mess Express. Ditch the drama, conquer life's curve balls and reclaim your life after loss. 

Brad Minus: Perfect. Oh, love that hot mess express. So look out for hot mess express. Um, and when this episode drops is probably only going to be a couple more weeks and that will drop.

So that's awesome. It's good. It's a perfect timing. So again, thank you Leslie for everything you do. Thank you all for listening, watching and enjoying the show and we will see you in the next one.