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Join NABR in partnership with Corp! Magazine for our CEO & Executive Thought Leadership Series, where Jennifer Kluge sits down with C-Suite Leaders to get their insight and expertise.
NABR is a service organization igniting greatness in companies and their people.
00;00;00;10 - 00;00;27;05
Jennifer
All right. Hello, everyone. I'm super excited about today's guests joining us out of Atlanta. Our guest today is Enrique Alvarez. He is co-founder and managing director of Vector Global Logistics. And oh, boy. Anytime you hear logistics now, a whole new world has opened up to us since the pandemic. Vector Global Logistics has the mission of changing the world.
00;00;27;08 - 00;00;42;25
Jennifer
Which I can't wait to hear more about that. Enrique. And I know Vector Global Logistics has been a multi-year winner of the best and brightest companies to work are not only at a national level, but locally in Atlanta as well. Welcome, Enrique.
00;00;42;27 - 00;00;50;15
Enrique
Hey, Jennifer, thank you so much for having me here. I'm excited about this conversation, and I'm very humbled to be part of your show.
00;00;50;17 - 00;01;08;19
Jennifer
Well, you know, let's let's get right into it. Give us the magnitude of what you do, what you what your company does. You hear logistics, logistic, you hear supply chain. You're a global company. Tell us what a typical week looks like and what you do out in the world.
00;01;08;21 - 00;01;32;06
Enrique
Yeah. So what our company really does is coordinate freight, international shipping for a lot of our clients. And we are international, as I mentioned, because we have presence around the world. So we not only have 150 agents around the world, we have our own offices in the US, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia, Vietnam, China. And I'm really happy to announce here at your show that we're opening Peru office this year.
00;01;32;06 - 00;01;53;01
Enrique
So it's it's very exciting. Now, what that means is we have contracts with major suppliers, steamship lines in particular, and then we turn around and try to coordinate freight for clients, making sure that we move their containers from point A to point B, and we do it in A in a very unique way, given our results based mentality.
00;01;53;01 - 00;01;57;10
Enrique
And of course, as you mentioned earlier, our passion to give back.
00;01;57;12 - 00;02;09;22
Jennifer
Well, let's talk about that a little bit more. It's it's everything that I know about your organization is about giving back, giving back, making the world better. How exactly do you do that?
00;02;09;25 - 00;02;35;24
Enrique
Yeah. So we actually have different levers to do that. But the first one and the one that's kind of more directly connected to what we do is we're for every container we ship, depending on the office that you're talking about, we're donating different things. In the U.S., for example, for every container we move, we donate 50 meals to children in Kenya through an organization called Serve in Mexico, we donate to children with cancer and their families through clinica.
00;02;35;24 - 00;02;57;04
Enrique
And in Chile, we're actually helping children with special needs. And in Vietnam, which is one of our newest office, as we just recently settled on one of the courses. And of course, I've let my team and the regional office take care of selecting the cost that they're going to be supporting. So it's all about trying to give back, doing the right things and knowing.
00;02;57;04 - 00;03;09;14
Enrique
And this is something that I know for sure that the more you give, the more you get. And that's kind of how we've been successfully growing and sustainably growing. And it's really something that define us and our company.
00;03;09;16 - 00;03;31;22
Jennifer
Yeah, it does it, it it makes it fun to that you're doing something to help the, the world. I'm sure your employees are. It's one of the reasons why they want to work there. I'm. You know, that's a no brainer. Tell us a little bit more. I noticed that you do some some efforts in Ukraine. What tells you.
00;03;31;24 - 00;03;50;29
Enrique
Yeah, yeah. And then. Yes, of course. And it's not only the Ukraine and we've heard to give you an example. And I would invite people to go to our website and maybe download the impact report for last year, because we have worked last year along with 34 different organizations, all of them incredible, and they're doing amazing job around work around the world.
00;03;50;29 - 00;04;11;26
Enrique
Now, the efforts in the Ukraine happened when the war started and the idea was to we have agents around the world. In Ukraine, we had a couple of agents, good friends, and just looking at the atrocity that they were going through, we just had, we're compelled to do something. It's not something we have. It's not something new to us.
00;04;11;26 - 00;04;35;14
Enrique
We have a relief team that helps with natural disasters and some other issues and challenges in the world, like this one. So what we're doing is two things. One is coordinating and scheduling a monthly meeting so that people that are related to the Ukraine or that want to help their Ukraine or want to just somewhat contribute to the relief efforts in the region, can participate.
00;04;35;14 - 00;04;56;24
Enrique
So we're just matchmaking. We just opened the the forum. We coordinate this monthly calls and again invite everyone to join us for the next one. And we're basically trying to help connect people, because there's a lot of people out there that are very, very interested in helping each other. So there's a lot of good people out there. And then the other thing is we're donating for to do it.
00;04;56;27 - 00;05;09;12
Jennifer
You can do it. You have all the equipment. You can take resources where it's a need. What a what a wonderful thing to do. And you didn't have to do it right.
00;05;09;15 - 00;05;23;16
Enrique
I think I think we did have to do it. I mean, it's part of the part of the culture we have, and it's part of the promise that we've made to ourselves and to the world. And so actually, I don't think there was an option here. We definitely had to do it.
00;05;23;18 - 00;06;02;09
Jennifer
Well said, well said. Thank you. Let's shift gears a little bit in regard, you know, supply chain. That's all we've been hearing about. That's all you you see in the newspapers and what have you. You are what we would consider now a leading indicator of what's going on in the world. And tell us a little bit about where the supply chain is now, what your impression is now, and what advice would you give to other leaders right now as it relates to predicting supply chain impacts on business operations?
00;06;02;12 - 00;06;34;15
Enrique
Right. So, well, the first part is a supply chain really embodies everything that we use on a daily basis. Right from the microphone that I'm using to the phone to the computer, the book, the clothes that we're wearing. It's it's it's very, very broad and very complex. And it's also very global. And everything's interconnected. So when you're talking about supply chain, some of the issues that we face where when it came to freight in particular, and ocean and air shipping, ocean in particular, and it was it was really bad.
00;06;34;15 - 00;06;51;27
Enrique
No one really was expecting it. There was really no way for us or software or AI to predict what happened during the pandemic. And so it was a very humbling experience, first and foremost for everyone out there, because we all felt that we had this under control. We all felt that we knew how much inventory we needed to have.
00;06;51;27 - 00;07;20;15
Enrique
We all knew kind of our our main trade lanes were suppliers where were manufacturing was happening. And all of a sudden coronavirus basically just took that out very quickly and left us finding ourselves in a position that I don't think we have ever seen before. So first and foremost, when it comes to forecasting things like that, I think now we're much better prepared to do what might come in the future because of two things.
00;07;20;15 - 00;07;52;23
Enrique
One, we were probably getting a little too overconfident, and now we know that we don't know as much as we think we know, and we now actually need to factor in that kind of portion and variability of things into the equation. And the second part is we have an oral chi. And so I've actually looked into their supply chains and they're trying to change them or adjust them to make them a little more robust by maybe near shoring some of their manufacturing, by maybe investing in developing new and more reliable suppliers.
00;07;52;23 - 00;08;18;10
Enrique
But maybe changing the way the packaging is designed with the product is sourced. And so I think the supply chains are still fragile in general. We are from like a price standpoint, better off than during the pandemic. We're actually back to pre-pandemic rates when it came comes to ocean shipping from Asia, which is a really good thing. Yeah, definitely good news.
00;08;18;12 - 00;08;47;12
Enrique
I think companies have the right amount of inventory. Some of them are actually overstocked during the pandemic, but now they have the product here and they're ready to sell it. And so what's left is really just taking the time to readjust the supply chain, readjusted processes, learn from this experience and really keep growing, keep growing more integrated as a client, supplier, manufacturer team.
00;08;47;14 - 00;08;58;25
Jennifer
So it sounds like it's still fragile, which means a lot for for those listening today. You'll let us know when that changes though. Enrique. We'll get the word out.
00;08;58;27 - 00;09;24;22
Enrique
It's the good. The good news. Absolutely. And are we delighted to come back? But I mean, the good news is that it is definitely stabilizing. And I think it just going to be industry by industry now because for some of the some industries are were hit harder than others. You have some shortages still like the microchips and some other products out there that are still trying to catch up with the huge demand that they now have.
00;09;24;25 - 00;09;28;13
Enrique
But but in general, it is recuperating quickly.
00;09;28;15 - 00;09;49;09
Jennifer
Thank you, thank you. Well, let's dive a little bit more into that. So usually when I'm in a room full of leaders and we start, you know, you start venting about the past three years and what you've overcome and, and whatnot. And people start saying, oh my gosh, I had to do this and I had to do that.
00;09;49;11 - 00;10;03;20
Jennifer
Share, share. For the purposes of everyone listening, some of the challenges that you had to do, what's your pandemic story, your, your war story, so to speak, and what did you learn from it?
00;10;03;23 - 00;10;15;09
Enrique
Well, from a cultural standpoint, our company is based on what we call results only environment, and it's based on a book called Why Work Sucks. And I strongly recommend to you and your listeners.
00;10;15;12 - 00;10;16;04
Jennifer
Why is.
00;10;16;04 - 00;10;36;02
Enrique
That? Why would source yes, I need and please do. And it's a good book. And so it basically says that you take the time and space component out of the equation, and you're measuring performance by results and results only. And I'm trying to explain all this to you. So to tell you that when the pandemic hit we were already working remotely.
00;10;36;02 - 00;10;53;28
Enrique
We don't believe the 9 to 5 mentality wouldn't have. Like, we don't believe in work life balance either. So we were very well positioned as vector to tackle this, as other companies were still trying to figure out how to work remotely. We've been doing it since we started the company, so we were a little bit ahead when it came to that.
00;10;54;05 - 00;11;14;18
Enrique
Now, I know that that was a big, big challenge for many, right? So it's not something that we faced. So it's not kind of a good answer to your question. And I'll go to you what we did really struggle with. But in general, I think that was the main, the main concern and main challenge for most, like how do we figure out this remote work scenario?
00;11;14;18 - 00;11;42;06
Enrique
Because we got to continue providing services to our clients, especially in logistics. But people cannot come to the office. We might not have laptops. How do we coordinate? So this is something that I would mention out there. And a lot of people went through that. For us, it was really the sheer amount of volume that was needed because at some point you went from like shipping regular products to all the PPE products, the masks, the gloves, all that and that was taking a lot of space.
00;11;42;08 - 00;12;09;28
Enrique
So it was really dealing and partnering with our agents around the world. And I think some of the things that we struggle with was time. We just didn't have enough time where we were working many, many hours a week and burned out. Right. So our team was tired and we're working many hours a day trying to get bookings, which are reservations to to vessel so we could ship the products on time for our clients.
00;12;10;05 - 00;12;44;23
Enrique
So time was one we worked really hard, but the things that we learned is we have a really good partners around the world, very good agents. And for me personally, it was really something that validated the culture and validated why we do things, because we all stepped up and everyone functioned the way that it should have. They should have, and we had I think now that we're going through it and we have a much more stronger team kind of forged in those months of constant challenges.
00;12;44;23 - 00;13;04;16
Enrique
So it was that was what I learned the most. You need to have strong partnerships. You need to have a strong, solid foundation reflected at the, I guess, culture of the company has to be strong to to survive and then to go through things like this. And the third thing is you have to be flexible, nimble and learn.
00;13;04;16 - 00;13;16;29
Enrique
I mean, we're constantly learning and doing things in many different ways that we've never done before. So you have to be flexible. So those I would say those three things I learned and I think we all kind of learned through the pandemic.
00;13;17;02 - 00;13;39;13
Jennifer
So I can't help but see what looks like the ocean behind you. And you describe that people are nimble. Well, isn't that what Blue Ocean Strategy is about? I've talked about blue ocean strategy about and before, and what we talk about is you need a crisis in order to discover what you're really capable of. And that's what we all just went through.
00;13;39;13 - 00;14;05;05
Jennifer
A blue ocean strategy was forced upon us, and we had to be flexible and nimble. But you're right, a culture, if the culture is not there and the foundation is not there, that's when it crumbles, right? So let's talk about your culture. You said you're your most remote workforce. What do you do to engage your team and tell us some of the things that are cool about working with you and for you, Enrique.
00;14;05;08 - 00;14;28;10
Enrique
Yeah. And so just to quick note there, it's basically taking the time and space out of the equation. Doesn't mean that we are a remote work environment. It means that people can do whatever they need to do as long as they're hitting certain targets. Right. So people still come to the office if they want to. People still attend meetings if they want or they if they want to, or they actually think they're useful for what they need to do.
00;14;28;10 - 00;14;51;24
Enrique
So so it's a it's very flexible. And at the end it's really just putting the pressure back on people to perform. So for us it's a lot easier to manage individuals and teams because we know whether things are happening or not because we're just focusing on that and leaving everything else out. So so that's that's really what our culture is all about.
00;14;51;24 - 00;15;15;06
Enrique
Now we just happened to be in logistics. But what we're really binds us together is the purpose that we have behind our culture. So we have the mentality results only. And then we also have this purpose driven organization that's really trying to leverage logistics. And we have coined the phrase logistics with purpose to use what we do, use logistics, and then try to really change the world with that.
00;15;15;06 - 00;15;41;09
Enrique
And so if you combine the results mentality with the purpose driven organization, then it becomes a very vibrant and dynamic and fun culture to be a part of. And I mean, I'm totally biased, but I love kind of waking up every day. And as you said, it's it's so much different and so much better to try to do what we do, thinking that you're just not moving a container from this origin to this destination.
00;15;41;09 - 00;16;01;20
Enrique
You're providing hope, you're sending books, you're sending medicines, you're saving lives, you're helping the Ukraine. So it's it's a little bit more fulfilling. And I feel like that's what everyone in our team feels. And I feel like I'm just really grateful and thankful that my team wants to keep working with me, because I just enjoy being here.
00;16;01;23 - 00;16;29;27
Jennifer
It seems like that's your secret sauce. That's your formula is having a strong mission and purpose and sticking to it, allowing freedom of your team members to do their thing that they think is best for them, and getting results being very results focused and you make it seem so simple. The people, people go to school for years to learn that or they read a 100 books to you make.
00;16;29;27 - 00;16;41;11
Jennifer
It sounds so simple. Let's talk about the journey to get there. Do you have any regrets in your leadership journey or lessons learned?
00;16;41;13 - 00;17;05;04
Enrique
Yeah, well, I have many, right? And I have personally made all the mistakes in the book and then some. Right. So we and we are okay. I'm okay making mistakes. We actually encourage people to make mistakes if it takes because I feel like make two things. One, I feel like right now our culture and the way the world is working, we see mistakes as a bad thing.
00;17;05;04 - 00;17;23;15
Enrique
And I think it's hard to grow a successful company if everyone's terrified of making a mistake, because then to rely on the process or they ask too many questions or they're not want to take action. And and for us is like, listen, mistakes are going to happen. Now, what really makes the difference is how are you're going to handle those mistakes?
00;17;23;15 - 00;17;44;03
Enrique
What are you going to learn from them? How are you going to approach your clients and acknowledge the fact that you made a mistake? And I think that's what makes us very unique and very different from other companies. So one of the regrets I have, though, and it's something that I have learned the hard way as well, after making tons of other mistakes, is not letting people go earlier, right?
00;17;44;03 - 00;18;08;02
Enrique
I mean, this nice quote unquote vibrant, dynamic culture we have sometimes, and I'll speak for myself, I just hate firing people. It's just hard. I don't want to do it. It just against what I really think. And but it but I have learned that if you don't let people go that are not right for the company or the culture or the results, you're really just hurting the whole organization a lot more.
00;18;08;02 - 00;18;28;23
Enrique
So I think if there was one piece of advice for other entrepreneurs or even people out there, I would just say, once, you know that someone's just not right for the company or the culture, you got to have that conversation, let them go. And of course, it's not personal. I'm not saying that this is the best way of doing things.
00;18;28;23 - 00;18;40;21
Enrique
I'm not saying that we're better than others will. Oh, I'm saying as well, you can be successful in certain companies, in certain cultures and certain ways of working. And for some, this might not be it.
00;18;40;23 - 00;18;47;04
Jennifer
Yeah, very well said. And was the phrase hire slow, fire fast?
00;18;47;06 - 00;18;49;04
Enrique
Yes. Absolutely.
00;18;49;07 - 00;19;10;24
Jennifer
It it's hard. And I think that's the, the side of being a leader that is the hardest is the managing the people, making sure that they're cared for. And when they don't work, no matter how much you like them or want the success, if it's not working, at the end of the day, you're sitting in the seat that has to make that judgment call.
00;19;10;27 - 00;19;30;09
Jennifer
And I don't know about you, but I take that home that that sits with me for hours and days and weeks. And is this the right thing? And what's the impact on them in their life? And I think that's what makes a good leader, right? Is you is you to weigh on that quite a bit. It's hard. It's hard.
00;19;30;12 - 00;19;54;00
Enrique
No mean I agree. But then you're really like, no, I totally agree with you. Right? You're absolutely right. It's a personal decision. You sometimes have to make that it's, you know, it's not going to make the other person happy. But that's in the short term, right? I think as if you continue doing it and you practice it and you are professional, respectful and again, stress out the fact that it's not like personal.
00;19;54;01 - 00;20;13;18
Enrique
It's not that the other person's not worth it. It's not that the other person's not smart. It's not that the other person is not working hard. It's just not they're not a good fit to the company right now. So if you make it clear and I think if you practice it a lot and then you'll do get better and I can proudly say that I actually have fired people that are still my friends.
00;20;13;18 - 00;20;37;04
Enrique
And we go out and have beers, and I had to make the hard decision and honestly, talking to them and talking to them, it's better for them to, in the long term because they find a company that they can thrive in. And so, so yes, I, I totally agree with you. It's one of those things that you just have to go through and get better at always being humble and putting yourself in that other person's shoes, for sure.
00;20;37;09 - 00;21;00;19
Jennifer
So let's talk about diversity. I see that you're certified as a minority supplier. Congratulations. I know that's a lot of hard work to get that certification each year. How does diversity weigh into everything that you do and and what do you think your responsibility is as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion?
00;21;00;21 - 00;21;22;09
Enrique
Well, it's a big part of what we do, and it's a big part of our competitive advantage. Having teams around the world and having people from different backgrounds is key to successfully and efficiently resolving challenges, period. Right. So if if you really want to come up with elegant solutions to problems you might be having, you need a diverse team to resolve it.
00;21;22;09 - 00;21;45;13
Enrique
It can be just one person who can be just one way of thinking. It has to be people that have different backgrounds that come and see the problem and look at it from different angles and, and that's when that's when you can really succeed. So for us, diversity is not something that we have quotas for. It's not something that we keep to close track up.
00;21;45;13 - 00;22;14;02
Enrique
We're basically just hiring the best people that come to our through our staffing efforts. And and that's it. That's there's there's no bias. There's the culture. As I mentioned before, it's based on results. So they don't have to be here. They don't have to be anywhere at the end of the day, as far as you you get your job done and you do what you're supposed to do and you reach your marks, then you can really be anywhere, be everywhere and do whatever you want.
00;22;14;03 - 00;22;17;06
Enrique
So. So yeah, that's that's key for sure.
00;22;17;09 - 00;22;44;25
Jennifer
Well, I think it's important for young people to see leaders like yourself being successful in leading. I think that's really important. So what advice would you give to a young person? Maybe they're recently graduated or they want to be an entrepreneur. They want to be a leader on their team or what have you. And they they look like you and they've had your background.
00;22;44;25 - 00;22;47;21
Jennifer
What advice would you give that?
00;22;47;23 - 00;23;07;24
Enrique
Well, I would say that leadership is very glorified this days. So everyone wants to be a leader. But that's not effective, right? I mean, no one can be always a leader. And I don't consider myself like the leader of this team or this company. It's I'm just another team player. And I'm again happy that my team actually sees me as such.
00;23;07;24 - 00;23;24;20
Enrique
And we actually have a really good team together. And I think we're strong because of that. So what I would tell the younger people is, if you really want to be a leader, you don't have to be too stressed about being a leader. I don't think that true leaders actually want to be leaders. They're just do what they need to do when they need to do it.
00;23;24;20 - 00;23;55;14
Enrique
And I think other people that see that example consider them leaders. But but I think if you're considering yourself a leader, I think you're probably not there yet. So let's say if you're just graduating, I think money's important. Don't get me wrong. Right. So we all have tons of expenses and we all have to live. But I would seek out good mentors, leadership examples, good opportunities to learn, to grow, to do things in certain areas that you're particularly interested in.
00;23;55;14 - 00;24;13;29
Enrique
And again, it's not that you're doing everything that you're passionate about because I feel like there's a little bit of a cliche out there about just do what you're passionate about. Like, yes, maybe on average, right on the aggregate, you do have to be passionate about what you do. But there's tons of days that suck. There's no there.
00;24;14;07 - 00;24;33;29
Enrique
There's no easy way of doing it right. It's just work. And at the end of the day, sometimes it's not fun, sometimes it takes a lot of time, sometimes it's painful and you have to get used to that. So if you're young, just roll your sleeves, get used to the punches, don't complain too much. Try to always learn.
00;24;34;04 - 00;24;55;21
Enrique
Try to always work for people that you admire or that use them. What they can learn from. And something that I 100% convinced. And this is something that everyone at Victor is convinced, is that if you do the right things for the right reasons, and you worked incredibly hard, the money will come. So money is not something that we're seeking.
00;24;55;27 - 00;25;14;12
Enrique
We all know that we do the right things for our clients, for our suppliers. We're good people. We believe in long term relationships. The money will come and it has gone right. So we're a successful company, but not because we're seeking to maximize profits. It's because we're seeking to maximize the value and the profits come.
00;25;14;15 - 00;25;39;09
Jennifer
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. I think when you read about leadership or hear about CEO or what have you, there's this glamor that goes with it that's really not accurate. And what one of the things that well, I have lots of thoughts on this, but you know, it's sometimes overrated, right. As you said, there's a lot of parts of the job that suck.
00;25;39;11 - 00;25;58;16
Jennifer
It and you said it very well. You just I think getting the experience of doing things that you don't want to do when when you don't want to do well is what makes a leader is being able to handle those kind of things, the the hard stuff and diving in without the emotion or the ego. Well, salary.
00;25;58;16 - 00;26;18;17
Enrique
Okay, well and one more thing, Jennifer, to your point, I think, I think you also have to be brave enough to follow others like good leaders I'm sure follow others too. So you you yeah, you have someone that has a good idea. You have to be willing to follow them as well, right. And full, hard heartedly. And I think that's important for people to learn.
00;26;18;17 - 00;26;31;15
Enrique
And they don't have to be young. I know we talked about younger people that are trying to get into the workforce, but honestly, it doesn't matter if you're like 18 or 68, right? I mean, if you see someone doing something cool, why not following them?
00;26;31;18 - 00;26;55;13
Jennifer
Right? Very well said. So in continuing this theme of being a human less so about being the title or the leader or the one in charge, let's help me demystify that. Let's talk about you as a human. I am a human. What do you do? What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
00;26;55;15 - 00;27;18;24
Enrique
First thing I do when I wake up in the morning, and I it's really. Well, after turning the alarm off, I wish I could, I sometimes I beat the alarm, which is frustrating because I wish I could sleep a little bit more, but I actually have gone to the habit of before getting into the shower. So you go to the bathroom, do whatever you need to do, and then before I get to the shower, I do a couple of pushups or whatever and then shower.
00;27;18;25 - 00;27;36;23
Enrique
And so that's that's the first thing. First thing I do is just get ready so I can take my kids to school. So I would consider the first things once I drop my kids off of school and then I get to the office, that's kind of like when my day really start. The other part is just very automatic and very process oriented.
00;27;36;23 - 00;27;53;10
Enrique
I guess I could probably even do it a little bit of sleep these days, but when I get to the office, I try to look read a little bit like 1 or 2 pages. I, one of my new Year's resolutions is to read a little bit more, which I haven't done in a while. So come to the office.
00;27;53;10 - 00;28;20;27
Enrique
I literally read 1 or 2 pages. I can read a lot more than that because my brain's already racing with things, and then think about the goal for the week. Think about some of the things that are going to push the needle, and then try to avoid emails. That's what I would say is sometimes really hard, but I, I feel like some emails are just I'm just a pain.
00;28;21;00 - 00;28;28;19
Jennifer
Yeah. Yes indeed. Yes indeed. All right. Let's see. How do you manage stress?
00;28;28;19 - 00;28;31;24
Enrique
I don't know how long. One second. I know what's going on.
00;28;31;27 - 00;28;35;07
Jennifer
That's okay. You're in back. You're okay? Yeah.
00;28;35;09 - 00;29;00;14
Enrique
So how do I manage stress? I love soccer, and I like sports, so I usually just resort to going for a run or doing some exercise. So things the best way now? Yeah. I don't think that stress is a negative thing though. I feel like stress is, natural response to do things that are maybe challenging, but for me it's not necessarily negative.
00;29;00;14 - 00;29;20;27
Enrique
So I kind of sometimes embrace those challenges. I feel the little stress or the rush and, and I think it helps me kind of start doing what I need to do. So I guess I just don't. I'm not afraid of stress. I guess the first thing that I do to manage stress, and then the second thing is probably exercise.
00;29;20;29 - 00;29;30;22
Jennifer
That's great. That's great. So when you do eat and you're not exercising, what are some of your favorite meals? Or go to places for food?
00;29;30;25 - 00;29;47;25
Enrique
Well, food. I'm not I'm not a foodie, so I'm not like big into food I love I love meat, which I probably shouldn't eat that often. But I like I like a good steak and a beer. Good ice cream is also one of my favorite foods as well.
00;29;47;25 - 00;29;51;12
Jennifer
Scream. That's a mutual passion. What's your favorite ice cream?
00;29;51;15 - 00;29;59;29
Enrique
I have many, but I guess chocolate, pistachio and a strawberry. It depends. But like the the ice creams, the ice cream is good.
00;30;00;06 - 00;30;08;04
Jennifer
I got to celebrate the small stuff in life, right? Whoever invented ice cream, we pay homage to them for sure.
00;30;08;06 - 00;30;10;04
Enrique
Hands down. And pizza.
00;30;10;06 - 00;30;24;14
Jennifer
All right, well, let's let's end on something a little bit more serious. What advice or what do you feel is the definition of happiness? How do you define happiness?
00;30;24;16 - 00;30;34;24
Enrique
Well, happiness. And this is something that I tell my kids very often. So it's actually kind of a somewhat easy question for me. Happiness for me is being thankful for what you have.
00;30;34;26 - 00;30;44;14
Jennifer
Gratitude is the key. I would agree with that. Very well said, Enrique. I've had a pleasure talking. I'm a big fan now.
00;30;44;17 - 00;31;11;03
Enrique
Oh, well, I'm I'm a big fan of U2. We should definitely talk again. This has been a lot of fun, so thank you. Thank you so much for bringing me. I would I would like you've got to use Jennifer and thanks for what you do because I really think that what you do is very important as well. I think that highlighting interesting individuals, not that I'm saying that I am, but like some of your other guests, it's important because that's really inspiring for for people like me.
00;31;11;03 - 00;31;20;20
Enrique
So I actually do listen to the interviews of like this one and get inspired by it and actually gives me that extra energy to keep going. So thank you.
00;31;20;22 - 00;31;25;21
Jennifer
Well, you're equally inspiring. It was wonderful having you keep shining bright, Enrique.