Ep 2: Systems First, Chaos Never — The Shift

with Marco Pizano · The Shift, a podcast by Headquarters

Why durable cannabis operations come from disciplined systems, not heroics. Filip and Marco get in on what separates teams that scale from teams that stall.

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Auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.

0:00 Welcome to The Shift, a place where cannabis secrets stop being secrets. A place where we talk real and no BS. Today's guest is one of those people you don't fully understand until you see what he's actually running behind the scenes. The man um behind the largest team at HQ, 30 people to be exact, one structure, one brain, and somehow it works clean. currently leading the staffing department. But before that, he was running service delivery at Proper AI, which tells you everything you need to know about how he thinks systems first, chaos never. If you ever wondered what it takes to actually manage scale, not to talk about it, not pretend it, but run it, track it, and optimize it, this is the guy. Also, quick disclaimer, last name sounds Italian, but don't get confused. It is a trap. Welcome to The Shift, Marco Pizano.

1:05 What's up, bro? Thanks for the introduction. Love it.

1:10 Quite a little love, Nate. I

1:13 I wanted it to be uh you know to be a little bit fun um but also to sort of bring up all of the things that you do and sort of give you a boost as much as I can because obviously you're you're running an excellent job and yeah

1:25 everyone knows that. So um

1:29 perfect. All right. I'm glad to hear. So okay before we go into anything and uh I sent you a message about this as well. I sent everyone a message about this. was a crazy thing, but we got the reclassification of cannabis to schedule three, which is amazing. So, congratulations to you. Congratulations to me and everyone else in this industry.

1:49 Oh, yeah. That is a huge step. I mean, uh great opportunity for um increased margins. I mean it's not again like we all know we're not where we want to go but uh in terms there's a lot of benefits for uh for investing and increasing like deducting some stuff for tax payroll rent etc. So there's some things that they need to apply here and there and but uh a great benefit, a great step. I would say that pretty much for me is that's the big thing. It's a step forward.

2:25 I want to I want to hear a little bit about you and I want to know who is Marco Pizano? What what what is Marco Pizano?

2:34 Okay. What is Marco Pizano? Who is Marco Pizano? a freaking crazy dude that once upon a time thought about being an accountant. I don't know why. I mean, you can see it like out of hair already.

2:49 Uh once upon a time I thought about being an accountant and um and pretty much what I found it was uh there there is so much more of the normal being accountant. So, Marco Pizano became a sigb of trying to learn different things. um where uh I spent some time in at Deloitte. So I got to see different industries and uh and I got like that taste of h this is nice. This is not just uh account debits and credits and numbers and it's it's more it's about decision. It's about strategy. It's about business. It's about advice to the right people. It's about it's about getting to know the whole operation of uh and the whole cycle of company. So, who is Marco Pizano?

3:38 Sorry to pick you up. What What did What did pull you into wanting to know more? What do you remember? What was that first thing that from accounting you? So, you you said you were in accounting. You're like all of a sudden your interest started growing and going outside of that like what was do you remember what was that thing that sort of attracted you to go further?

3:56 Yeah, 100%. Uh I was auditing Nissan.

4:02 Okay. Right. I was audited. I I was like I don't know like 23 24 years old and then just to go through that massive production lines and like different stuff and then we got to the inventory at the end of the year and so I but going through production lines I was like hm this is interesting. I would like uh to be an engineer and know how this freaking machine works. And then when I was audited, I found out that I actually had to go and understand the process, not just the number. So then I walk through production lines and stuff.

4:42 So I I tried to ask questions as one of our core values, curiosity.

4:49 I was asking everyone I got like so many people like, "Shut the I mean dude, do your job." I'm like, "No, I want to know." So that's the thing. I've I got to see like pretty young huge massive stuff for production that I'm like and how does it work like how this p how do we get this piece the raw material and then how does it converts to something else and where where do you get it and like what are the incoterms on on like how do you manage to like uh the cost the sales the distribution the the everything and because at the end of the my if my brain and I had good uh mates and managers and partners and Deloitte that at the end of the day I always wanted to think about a whole business and not just a piece of it. So once you think about a whole thing if you see accountant is accounting is boring for like 99.99% of the people but when you look at a financial statement and you say like this is these numbers when you start reading it as transactions numbers but then uh do we get profit loss whatever expenses what are we spending on but then you think and you connect the whole transactions and then you start like the business the cycle why are we here what every company what is the final goal for each company

6:20 money

6:22 so what's the in what's the out why the the the question of why these numbers are moving like this how can we improve these numbers so we can grow we can sell more we can move more etc etc so that's the thing

6:39 that's I answer your Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely did. But um that is also interesting because what you just said right there was sort of a culmination of all the things that HQ sort of looks at as its pillars such as as you said like curiosity, interest, wanting to learn more, wanting to understand more, um development and so on and so on. So it you know

7:04 Yeah. Yeah. Definitely because I mean at the end of the day like if efficiency is a money saver which is what the reason literally why we're here

7:12 that's that totally makes sense but so so and and this is now interesting so if uh do I understand correctly was your last uh work experience prior at HQ you were working at or uh was it at Deloitte or were you working at Proper AI which one

7:27 Proper AI

7:28 yeah Proper AI it's a company from San Francisco that manages like share services and automations for uh property managers, construction companies across the US and I think Canada uh nowadays.

7:42 That's awesome. So, how long were you there though?

7:45 I was there for over three years. Uh started as a manager, then senior manager, then VP of delivery.

7:52 Awesome. And and so uh how did you get into all of this, Raid? How did that happen

8:01 into into share services or

8:05 into cannabis specifically? Cannabis and

8:07 cannabis. Oh, that's a funny story. I don't know. I don't know if you know this

8:12 uh many people will know now. So David

8:15 reached out to me a few years ago through LinkedIn and like yeah,

8:21 hey what's up? Hey, we're building a team etc. I'm like thank you sir. Uh I mean I was like thank you thank you. Right now I was in the road of building a lot of uh structure leadership at um when I was senior manager and VP at Proper. So that was a time that I had a big challenge there. A mission I do believe I do believe a lot in missions uh uh in terms of what what you do in a company. So I'm like, "Thank you, sir. I appreciate, but for now, I'm doing something important here." So I I'm not going to move.

9:02 Then uh I decided to part ways from um from Proper many reasons. It's a great company. I still uh message with the CEO. It's like awesome, dude. Great company. But it um for a certain per period of time we uh I I decided like uh I need to move from there. Uh I did some freelance after and then boom I saw an opportunity in HQ through LinkedIn and I applied and my dear David is like hm interesting now you are interested.

9:42 Okay shoot that gives him more leverage now. I mean, back then when when you said no and then now you're looking for a job, if I was David, I'd be like, "Okay, this gives me leverage because I wanted this guy, he didn't want it." And now that he needs it, I'm going to be like, "hm, what can I do?"

9:57 Well, think think about David at that moment. I'm like, hm. But but I I mean I'm grateful he he gave me the opportunity and I and I say I I have given uh I have proved myself here and I I given uh to the company growth and stability and so so a few things but I I'm really grateful with David for the opportunity and he made the right call.

10:24 Um,

10:25 absolutely, absolutely. I remember.

10:29 Yeah. I remember when you joined the call, I was uh honestly quite impressed with you. And when he told me um myself,

10:38 thank you. Appreciate it. So, when he told me uh what he wanted you uh for in HQ, I was like, "Okay, that makes complete sense." um which which is now a great segue for me to ask you the next round which is what is Marco doing at HQ and this is very important for you uh to answer is because um both internally and generally with the clients that we're working with there there can occasionally be a lot of confusion about what is the difference between the services that we're providing and with staffing was all like a lot of times there's like this very big mysterious question like what is one versus the other is it the same is it different what's going on.

11:17 So, who better to ask than you, the guy who's literally running the entire thing? So,

11:22 can you tell us a little bit more about staffing in general and how it differs from services?

11:27 Oh, yeah, for sure. So, um what am I doing here? I'm doing a combination of uh managing people and client services. Uh there's a few combination recruiting as well supporting and uh and what am I doing with staffing and what is a staffing? So staffing is the support for any type of role or like any oper operational role most of it uh you can you can support in many in everything uh doing staffing what's the difference with services I will give you the example of clients what the clients prefer one client will say like you know what I just need someone whoever to process thousand invoices per That's it for accounts payable for example I need just one person to like whatever or if you do it automatically whatever I need this invoices process so this person this client just cares about the process and the volume doesn't care about whoever does it so that services because we have a backend team uh with Alex that provides that service and I mean this is just one example but services is like huge the staffing It's the client wanted wanting a person uh that to be part of their team. Uh one person a specific person to reach out to for an specific invoice. I want you John Smith to process those thousand of invoices. But if I have any question with any of those thousand invoices, I want to reach out to you, not reach out a point of contact for services, etc., etc. So many clients prefer to have that person kind of like in-house but it's not in-house. It's a staff uh from contractor from our side but it's kind of like part of their team. Uh so this person also is trained and developed by the client and the client feels that confidence that is part of the team. So actually what success looks like for staffing is the client loving as part of their family our staff which has happened actually even in your case dude. So I remember some clients that no I don't want him to leave etc etc and they wanted you so bad. So that's the thing that's a staff. A staff is having that person kind of like in-house but uh you don't the client doesn't have to absorb any social security or hiring etc. We do all the things we do all the fit the right fit and that's the magic also. It's not just filling roles or a process. It's to uh to find the right fit according to the process, according to the culture uh HQ culture and according to client culture and client needs. That's like a different combination of elements which make us different.

14:42 Yeah. and and and so that is perfect what you said there because uh pretty much like let's say staffing the way staffing functions is like you would want to have a workforce that we're going to find for you. We would find a perfect match but we would also run all of the sort of um boring slash could be expensive stuff on the background so you don't have to worry about that stuff. We're literally going to get you a perfect person that's going to match whatever you need. They're going to be following your processes.

15:15 They're going to be doing whatever you might uh require from them for that particular position, but without the the, you know, the HR stuff, the um uh compensation stuff. All of that stuff is going to be handled by us. You're literally going to get a person and you're going to be having that person do whatever uh needs to be done in that position, right?

15:34 Yeah. But like I'm all like data driven, so let me give you a few numbers. many of the uh many of the businesses uh and even more startups or businesses the the percentage of administrative cost sometimes is up to 26%. So dude, how are you going to grow and operate something business if your oper uh operation like operation and expense is that huge 26% for like accounting administrative stuff? It's like it's not it's not a scalable model. So that's a solution. Hey, don't worry. You you don't have to pay that much. you can pay uh up to 30 50 70% less depending on the the seniority of the role but even you can get even one or one person that it's more experience because at the end of the day it's like lower cost but more experience you know.

16:40 Yeah. So that's that's and and also so think that's thinking about money and uh to be more scalable for the business

16:50 but also you think

16:52 okay how do I scale my business if I don't have time

16:57 so that's the most important part

16:59 at the end of the day you need strategy you need to think you don't like if you're running a business and you're every day or you are it's not your business but you're management of that business and you are like in a daily I need to finish this and I need to finish that. where when are you going to think about strategy grow uh efficiencies etc to be scalable so you need that time that's also a relief from our side that's where we come in and reduce your cost automate your some process improve your process build so that it like doesn't exist in many places and also guess what I give you your time back think about how we improve how to improve, how to grow, how to make more money.

17:47 That's the thing. Time is money.

17:51 That Yeah, that that really does make sense. I mean, it is a cost-saving thing. Um, you get what you want and uh you also get on top of it your your support, Marco Pizano's support as well of like, oh, we're having issues with this. How can we resolve that? which now gets me to ask my other question regarding staffing and the differences between staffing and services. So, typically like if we're if we're talking services, you know, generally speaking, let's say we have a client, they're going to come in, they're going to be like, you know what, we need someone to do AR. We have zero processes. We have nothing. We don't have any tools. You build everything out. You create everything and and we're going to just, you know, have you do all of it, right?

18:35 So, with staffing, it's a little bit different, right? you would go in and you would provide to people most of the time they would have their already defined processes right or how does that work?

18:44 Uh no

18:47 no but or or the process is in place but really broken or wrong. And and let me say you this this is super important and this is part of every time I interview someone I tell them this

19:03 the most dangerous phrase in any language is we always done it this way.

19:09 That's the most dangerous phrase everywhere. Why? Because okay you could have a process you can have a broken process you can have no process at all. where we come up is we need to either create a process or improve the process or even question the process that is in place. And I gladly say that and and this is like really awesome. uh we have people that have improved in so many ways and so many processes uh across like many clients and could be something like really really small and really I I I must say like sounds stupid but it's like so like so much impact and I give you one example quick example think about a process that uh step of accounts payable that used to take 70 hours per month because you need to confirm. Okay. Uh I have to pay this invoice. But do we receive the goods or not? Uh we need to confirm. So that's with another team. So let's go and let's that but the other team there was a third party that in enters the invoice. So clock is running and but you need to verify.

20:24 Do you follow me?

20:26 Yeah.

20:26 Simple simple process. Okay. So the back and forth of verifying that it it used to take 70 hours per month. So one of our uh awesome girls just said like hey why don't we tell the third party that is like inputting the invoices wait for one week and we will reduce over 50% 60% of the uh of the reconciliation back and forth. It sounds it sounds like pretty simple and like so the manager of the client was like okay let's try boom 70 hours saved in one month.

21:03 Wow that's that's a lot

21:05 and that's a small thing. Another example uh and you know this girl Laa Control

21:12 uh she became a team lead but becoming a team lead comes with challenges because you have a lot of responsibility but also you have also hands on deck you know so she was like like not enough time I'm doing a lot of overtime like this is so this girl that is it's not like engineer finance it just like hey let's let's ask ChatGPT, let's use Replit boom she just made an automation for cash application that is awesome and you will see it pretty soon because this this is going to be uh applying for another clients as well

21:52 why because she's like

21:55 I cannot hold this anymore like there's too much volume too much I need to automate something and and you know we have team that develops engineers and so HQ and [ __ ] Ah, let me try it. Let me do boom, boom, boom. There you go. She just herself.

22:12 I love that.

22:13 Yeah. So, so anyway, the answer is uh staff or the comment is staff is not just about filling a role. Staff is finding the right person that could give you a big impact, not just doing one task, improving the process, automating. Uh there's a lot of automation, small automations, huge automation that could be done. You can do an automation with Excel.

22:41 Uh you can you can build something with an appcript in a Google sheet and and save you 10 hours per week.

22:48 So it's and you you just need to ask ChatGPT and then like perhaps use Replit or some thous tons of other tools. So we need those type of person there that can take a look at your process and say hey we can do it better or um this is wrong we need to it's not like we can do it it's like we cannot continue doing this because it's wrong because of our financial standard because of the time that is spent because of whatever again not it's the the dangerous phrase.

23:28 Uh, we always done it that way. This way is the most dangerous phrase in any dimension.

23:34 Yeah, that's that's exactly what I wanted to ask you because, you know, going back to that phrase, when you say something like that, you're literally limiting innovation at any point in in future, right?

23:46 Because you're you're putting a a you know, full stop to to whatever conversation. And now my my question to that would be and I'm assuming you probably came across some of these uh while working here but have you had situations where you're like you know what guys this is something that is a bad process it has to improve it has to be changed. It has to be altered. We need to create a fully new one. And you hear on the other side you hear no we're not doing it. How do you cope with that?

24:17 How do you handle that? And how do you manage to pull it off on your um on your goal which is ultimately to improve everything?

24:25 Patience and I would say patience is not my last name but you need to develop

24:30 patience is patience in cannabis. Are you sure?

24:34 I mean honestly dude again look at my head but no it has happened. Um so what how to do it and accomplish is patience step by step. There will be um resistance. Uh there will be people that actually get mad. There will people that also could be afraid of losing their job.

25:01 Uh and there could be nasty nasty comments as well. So you need to be patient and you need to be consistent and you need to be resilient on the idea.

25:11 There is this a little bit of a paranoia when it comes to the industry about change generally speaking especially if we're talking tech. Why is that?

25:22 Well, I can tell you like a list of different stuff and and at the end it's a combination. So one of them is some management is not actually uh in the cannabis culture. It's just

25:40 manager uh it's just an engineer. It's just a most of them are but I have found in many clients that they're not into the cannabis culture. So that's one. The other part could be uh the the uh the actually the part of no this is the system that I has always worked for me and I don't want anything different. So that's like this has worked for me and I don't want nothing different. That that is the other part but I would say gladly uh not that many cases like that. uh many of the cases and and I appreciate I am really grateful for that many of the clients that I support are people super open for automations for improvements but most of them that's that's the beauty so far of my job I love my clients but uh

26:37 no no seriously because they they are open for suggestions and they are like some of them are really challenging like hey but it's like super micro detail and I love it. But let's go. Let's do it.

26:52 That's awesome. And one of the other things which is again very important and and this is a little bit of internal information but every single person that is your report like they really like work. They love you. They they really trust you and they feel safe with you which is not something you can say for a lot of managers because a lot of managers are just managing. they're not leading, they're not being supportive.

27:18 And I think that this is one of the strengths that you have which sort of defers you from the rest of the bunch. Um, which I'm

27:29 really happy to hear. Why why that?

27:32 No, no, no, no, no, no. Because I I one thing and and this is something that I always tell everybody. Uh, I'm not the boss, you know. I'm a I'm a teammate. That's that's the first rule. And you know it like we have worked a lot together.

27:47 We are teammates.

27:48 I'm not this superior. I have different responsibility and I need to and I to be and I am I'm hold accountable for many things. But the first rule is like the wins are yours. The trouble are mine. So

28:04 like I need I need you. I'm I have your back. Please dude have mine. And the way that you have my back is doing a great job. That's one thing. The other part is I'm old, dude. I mean, well, not that old, but I can say

28:20 No, I'm not that old, but um but but I had I have had so many hard situations in my uh professional life that my like the lessons that I learned it was what are you doing, dude? Uh you're spending 8 hours, 10 hours per day working. That's your life, you know, and I need to enjoy my time. And how am I freaking going to enjoy my time if I don't get along with people? So, I don't I'm not a believer of the uh we are here just for work and like I don't make friends at work and I'm like I I mean I don't know.

29:01 I I cannot say that it's right or wrong. I can say that it doesn't fit with me. Why? Because I still have a lot of friends from previous companies. A lot.

29:14 I mean, I still call them. I still hang out with them. I still travel with them. Why? Because you spend your life at work. That's the real thing. So, why the heck do I have to be a robot? No. And the other part is um whoever I'm I'm the is part of the team. I am usually and you know me that like I'm I don't go around and I'm I'm pretty straightforward dude. So, but now I I I care about building community. I care about like the people I'm and and I guess also it's part of my education, you know, like I was educated that way.

29:55 How hard it is to build a community and to lead a team that is fully remote. Because what people might not know about HQ is that we're a fully remote company. Like we don't have, you know, obligatory office hours or something like that. Like we literally everyone works remotely. Occasionally we meet each other if you know we're traveling and stuff like that, if we're having events in the industry, whatever. But we're a fully remote company. And like for someone that like is looking from from the side, especially like after COVID where everyone tried to see if remote work is going to work, all of a sudden everyone's returning back to this like sort of either hybrid model or like office model and we're like we're just fully remote and it's I'm going to say it's working for us, but how hard it is for us to get to the part where we say it is working for us.

30:50 where um I can tell you what works for me. Um I don't know like it if it is the right way of doing it or not but

30:59 what it works for me starts and we has I I think we have spoken about this before starts with uh the face of recruiting. Why do you care when you are uh hiring somebody? because I can find a candidate that is like a super genius but doesn't have that cultural fit, doesn't have that attitude. We have that vibe, you know,

31:26 we we have that vibe. So, we need

31:29 it's not like I want someone exactly like me. No, never. I mean, I don't want copies,

31:35 but I do want a cultural fit. I I rather to have someone hungry with good attitude that have a super genius. Why? Because I can work with the the person I can train. I can support and I can learn from that person. Uh with a super genius that it's like uh the the the last coke in the stadium. It's thank you sir but we are a team here you know.

32:02 So, so the first thing how do we manage and how we build community from the beginning from uh from the day that I called you and hey nice to meet you we're HQ who are you

32:15 that's the first thing second thing when when you enter you need uh I I like to like uh set up the tone in terms of the community in terms of we are team support how are you etc. It's like a constant communication that last year I did a bit uh it was challenging for me but um it's constant communication a lot of communication uh setting the metrics clear the the more like the more clearly you are you will not give give everybody step one two three of the whole process or everything that they're going to do because we need to be flexible and everything changes from one day to another. That's the real stuff. But we need to be real about it, you know. We need to set up the tone of we this might this is this is what you're gonna do today. Something might change tomorrow.

33:11 But we need to be like we need to say it straight and but we always need to care about uh timeliness uh responsiveness and accuracy metrics data etc. So it's from day one and constantly. I'm one person that uh has a lot of communication. I don't micromanage. I'm not a believer of micromanagement at all. I think that actually uh makes things going slower and perhaps like no I'm not a micromanager but I do care about knowing almost everything in terms of operation visual what is happening what what is everybody doing how everybody's doing um I have a contact with the clients what are you doing I want to know about how the client is I'm not going to know everything But I need to know uh some of and like communication, communication, communication.

34:14 One quick thing when I was in automotive industry, I spoke with a worldwide CEO of one of them. And it was funny because I was just having a smoke and then this guy CEO comes alone to this area where we were smoking when I was smoking. I'm like the CEO why can I why do I ask him you know because it was the this big thing in Japan

34:38 I'm like what has been like so many years as CEO what has been your biggest challenge and it goes pretty straight like communication that's the biggest challenge everywhere communication so that took into my head and it's like okay it's not about just improving and it's not about just efficiency it's It's communication how you build communication, how you communicate effectively, how etc. So, and sometimes you need to be repetitive in terms together. Yeah, I send a message a message and that's it. Dude, give a call, dude. Slack, dude. No, I sent the email like two days ago. So, what your goal is to like have an interaction, a communication, so look for it. You know, stupid thing, but for me, communication is one big deal.

35:33 But that's very well said. You want interaction. You don't want a one-way street. It doesn't make any sense.

35:39 Pick up the phone.

35:41 Pick up the phone. Yeah. Now, Marco, you've worked, and as far as I know, you've worked with manufacturers, you worked with brands, you're working with distributors, retailers. You're the person that's sort of everywhere a little bit, right? You might be the right person to ask about what what can we expect next in the industry. Do you catch a vibe when communicating with all of these guys?

36:12 You know what has been confusing? But yeah, I can I can answer my perspective

36:19 uh from what I've seen in the clients and what I have uh seen. So you see a lot of things in the news, the changes, schedule 3. Um, so there's there's a lot of investments coming up. There's a lot of big names coming up. Uh, companies from Canada that are growing in the US as well. Um, but it's there's a lot of challenge uh in terms of cash.

36:46 So what do I see? I see an industry growing this year. uh better than last year. Last year was kind of like an inflection point or like tough uh I don't know uh it was weird but this year I see a bit of growth but also a challenge of uh how are you going to manage your cash? Cash it's always been the king. So so times up. So whoever manage better the cash and it's not about to hold the cash it's about interact with the cash you need to move the cash you need to pay but you need to receive you need to do the whole transaction to make this uh whole cycle alive so whoever manages better their cash um I think is is going to be tough

37:43 and and whoever doesn't

37:46 uh will most likely disappear.

37:50 That's that's that's a very good point. Do you think now based on what you said, do you think that maybe a lot of businesses might now given that there is this very big opportunity? Do you feel like some businesses might be having issues ex or sca scaling let's say because they were not prepared or do you think that the better sort of or more often more frequent situation might be that these businesses have been waiting for this for so long that they've been preparing for it and that now they're going to be scaling fullon without any errors. What do you think is the more likely one?

38:32 Uh

38:33 let me put it this way. What I have seen is that many people is like um or many businessmen try to hold into I I've done it this way some cases.

38:49 Okay. Okay. Okay. I see where you go.

38:52 Yeah. So at the end of the day uh like yeah I don't care about this and I don't care. Let me let me put it this way as well. Finance is boring. accounting is boring when you start reading the financial statement and see like hey these transactions did and there and there. So you need you need people to read and not just thinking about uh a like a margin of profit. You think you need to think about how can I reduce my cost? How can I improve efficiency in opics? How can I sell more? How can I make a distribution more efficient? Uh how like you need those type of questions and you need to know where uh your transactions move and where uh according to the market according to the numbers of the market as well. So you need a combination of things. So short answer is you need you need to educate yourself in terms of uh the information and the transaction you do in order to make better decisions moving forward and how are you going to do it? Um

40:08 let loose man people just need to let loose and they have to be less paranoid and I think less stubborn and less ego driven. It's a lot now

40:18 less It is. That's pretty much it. Like just let go of the ego, let go of stubbornness, and

40:26 feel free to listen a little bit more. And when you start listening, you're going to you're going to sort of differentiate the actual noise from a melody and you'll be able to understand which one is what and where you focus your attention to.

40:44 Yeah.

40:46 Awesome. Look, I this was a very interesting conversation and I loved it. Uh and uh I feel like we we're just at the the beginning of a bunch of other things that we can go through because

40:59 um

41:00 you're an extremely interesting person, but I obviously this not the last time. We're going to be talking a lot more in the future.

41:07 Funny because I

41:09 Funny I had a podcast for several years.

41:12 Oh, really? About what?

41:14 Oh, about everything. But most of it about uh music, cinema, and some politics like but fun stuff, you know.

41:23 Love that. That's Oh, perfect.

41:27 So, you're you're kind of this is your ter territory. You're not

41:32 as I I I did some actually commercials for I work for a radio station as well. So,

41:39 awesome. That's great. Did not know that. So, see how interesting you are, man. We're definitely going to have more of these conversations in the future, but I appreciate your time today. really. I do think that um whoever jumps in to watch this one, they're definitely going to learn a lot more about uh a bunch of things uh that you do right now and that um HQ is doing with you as well, but they might also learn a couple of things about industry and about um these different types of individuals and companies that um there are in the states and you know some some other countries as well. So, thank you so very much. Appreciate you once again. Have a great rest of the day and we will chat soon. Marco