Leo Gonzalez: Barista to Sneaker Designer, New York to Perth

This transcript was generated automatically and lightly edited for readability. It may contain minor errors.

Leo Gonzalez: I received my flight and I'm like, I'm going. I thought it was going to change my life, but things back then didn't work out. Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow, tomorrow. And tomorrow never came. And all the designs were like samples there, you know. So one day I just decided to say, I'm leaving. I'm like, nah, you know, like, I went through hell in a way that helped missing my kids, because I love being a father. I had never had in this industry a feeling of quitting.

Paul Cohalan: No quitting, no quitting.

Leo Gonzalez: I just never had, you know, I just do it. It's my passion.

Paul Cohalan: Got Leo on here from Life of Viral. Shoe designer, creator, founder. And we haven't known each other that long and I always love that. Then I get to pull all the bits out of you. And we've had a really good laugh since knowing each other and I actually.

Leo Gonzalez: We have. Yeah, true.

Paul Cohalan: It's good. We haven't known each other long. We. I think we always run into each other, but, you know, that whole.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, having a drink or.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, best. And not long ago, I bought a few pairs of his shoes off a few months ago. These being one. They're wicked.

Leo Gonzalez: He got them all. You got them all.

Paul Cohalan: You got them all.

Leo Gonzalez: You got them all.

Paul Cohalan: I was about to say, I got them all. So these are all my set. And. And actually a mate, Sean, he. He bought the set as well yesterday for meeting Leo the other night.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But I. I think silently, these are the journey ones. It was. It was a bit of a collab journey. The red sign. No, it's a really cool Leo. It's a beautiful guy, really kind and he's got a wicked story and I only know a little bit of it, so can't wait to get into it. The shoes. Let's start. What do we do? Like, what. When did this start, man? Like when oldest.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, it was in the time of the pandemic. What? Yeah, everything started well the label. You know what I mean, when it comes to the label. Life of Viral. But I've been doing shoes back in New York 30 years.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I used to have another label called Labyrinth Footwear.

Paul Cohalan: Labyrinth.

Leo Gonzalez: Labyrinth, like.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, Labyrinth. Oh, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So the name came of. Based on my journey, you know. I'll tell you a little bit of my personal life. I was born in Dominican Republic, Caribbean. Speak Spanish. I learned learning Portuguese too. I love languages. And then I grew up in New York City. So in New York I met a friend of mine named Luis Matos. And back then he used to work for Timberland. So what I did was one day playing basketball, I saw his book. Man, I had never. You know, because wear things and sometimes nobody thinks that this has to be a creator to make that happen, you know, so we get the shoes. Same thing with cars. People love cars, you know, but there's a team behind it that, you know, that they design.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So I remember playing basketball and Luis told me, don't open that book. He had a black book. We call a black book. The one that is to draw and stuff. And I was so intrigued. Cause I was always like, don't push the red button.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I want to open it.

Leo Gonzalez: So I was waiting for him to go and drink water after the game. I was like, I need to see what he got there. Cause I've been drawing, like anatomy. I love drawing body. Besides shoes, I was drawing, always drawing comic book and.

Paul Cohalan: Is that right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. For fun. Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Real creator and artistic. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, self thought, you know, so.

Paul Cohalan: So just quickly on that. And you'll get me here and there. I'll butt in. But what age did you start drawing at? But obviously, probably since you can't remember, but.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, I'll be honest, I do remember.

Paul Cohalan: Well, can you just touch on that?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I was nine years old the first.

Paul Cohalan: Time that you clicked.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I was in Dominican Republic, and my friend named Osbaldo, he used to draw cowboys and horses. And I was like, man, he can draw the hat. So cool.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So I started drawing at that age. I remember there was nothing based on shoes. It was just whatever. I can grab a pen and just make something, you know, I would've just started drawing. But then once I moved to New York and seeing like Nike back then used to have commercials, like billboards that they were like, drawing. That's how they were doing the marketing of a sneaker back then in the 90s. And I look at them, I was like, wow, that looks cool.

Paul Cohalan: That was the epitome of what.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I was like, wow, that looks so cool how they do that with markers. I didn't know nothing about Photoshop. I didn't know nothing about it.

Paul Cohalan: Yes, yes.

Leo Gonzalez: Cause I was just drawing freehand drawing, you know. And then, you know, I started just drawing more and more. I got into drawing more anatomy. Like I was saying bodies, you know, and going back to Louis, when I saw his book. Yeah, it changed my life.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. That was it.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, brother. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So we used it on the basketball court.

Leo Gonzalez: Did you say so were on the basketball court?

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: He went to drink water. I ran to his book.

Paul Cohalan: How old were you there?

Leo Gonzalez: I was like, man, I believe I was like, maybe 18 or 17 when I was like. When I got into full on with the shoes and I thought he didn't. I never. It never crossed my mind that he worked for Timbaland. Nothing. Cause he never talked about it. And when I. I opened the book, all I saw was, like, boots done so beautiful with markers that.

Paul Cohalan: And that just resonated with you.

Leo Gonzalez: I was like, how do you do this, man? You know, like, they look so good. Like, you know. And he was like. He didn't even. Wouldn't have time to explain because he thought I was just joking about it. That, you know, I'm not gonna waste my time.

Paul Cohalan: But you had this feeling in your life.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I knew. I knew it.

Paul Cohalan: Y.

Leo Gonzalez: So I bothered that guy so much. No, no. You have no idea. Yeah, to a point. That his girlfriend back then was so angry at me, she hated me because I used to just go at his house.

Paul Cohalan: He stole his book. Yeah. I didn't.

Leo Gonzalez: Man. Man, his girlfriend was so angry because she was like, oh, he called you so much, you know, he don't leave you alone, you know? And I just wanted to learn because I just. I just knew I wanted to learn. I need to learn how to do this. And I got to a point that I was working at Starbucks, and I remember telling my mom, I want to start working and save money. I want to save money, start working, and I want to be a designer.

Paul Cohalan: So you're making coffees?

Leo Gonzalez: I was. Yeah. I was a barista.

Paul Cohalan: So just. Just what? We're there.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Oh, there we go. Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: We're talking about coffee. Starbucks. Yeah, don't worry about Scott. Yeah, yeah. Black Edition. All right.

Leo Gonzalez: Really good drink. Really good drink.

Paul Cohalan: I just got a box of it for the first time. I'm actually going to bring it on the podcast from now on. There's that. There's a couple of other things I'm going to. But thanks, Sam. And he actually sent a message this morning.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, Sam, what's up, man? You know, my favorite also is the black one, man. Like, I finish it so fast.

Paul Cohalan: And also I actually got found out a bit about this. I haven't met Sam proper yet. Yeah, probably in his cafe a while ago. But Bryce, which Black Edition sponsors him racing with the League collection, et cetera. So, Sam, you're on here soon, man. We sent a couple of messages. Yeah. Said you got it as well. He's your recommendation.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: All right, let's Keep going. Know about Starbucks. Anyway, Black edition.

Leo Gonzalez: So. So when I was working at Starbucks, I was a barista. And I remember just saying to my mom, and she just supported me, like, my mom is my everything, and my.

Paul Cohalan: Brother is amazing, man.

Leo Gonzalez: And my bro and my brother, like, my mom's. I tell her I want to learn how to fly. She'll give me wings. My mom never doubted me.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: She's my. She's my.

Paul Cohalan: She's it.

Leo Gonzalez: She's my life. She's my life. My mom is my everything.

Paul Cohalan: And so could I just. Where's mom now?

Leo Gonzalez: They all in New York City. My whole family's in New York.

Paul Cohalan: All still there.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. They all in New York City. She been here twice.

Paul Cohalan: Has she? Oh, that is so cool. So cool. Shout out to Mom.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, my mom is. Yeah, she's the queen.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: But I remember. Remember this? I don't know nothing about no school. I'm teaching myself how to use Photoshop. I end up buying the computer. Back then was a G5. When the G5, the big one, metal one, I thought, oh, the coolest ever, you know?

Paul Cohalan: So just to clarify, how old are you now, Leo?

Leo Gonzalez: I was. Oh, right now?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, right now.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, I'm 48.

Paul Cohalan: You're 48?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Cool. Just so I'm putting in perspective. Yeah, so. And when you know, you're young, you're nine, you've done the drawing. How old were you when you moved to New York?

Leo Gonzalez: I moved to New York when I was 11.

Paul Cohalan: So two years after. So, yeah, in the Republic. And then two years later, 11, went to New York and then played basketball. Yeah, Created. Done your own thing.

Leo Gonzalez: I was a basketball player. Like, you have no idea. I was dunking. I still, like, my vertical was really. I was full on playing basketball. But my passion was drawing.

Paul Cohalan: Creating and drawing.

Leo Gonzalez: And I remember going to school and all the teacher used to say the same thing. They were like, I think you should go to visual art school. I was like, man, it's too expensive, man. Pratt is really expensive. All this school in New York, like, school, visual art, like, you have to be rich to go to this school. And then I was like, you know what? I'll get my way there. And let's see if my friend teach me. Louis. So he gave me the basic. So he gave me. The first thing he did was showing me the shape. How to draw the shape of a shoes. And then he started saying, is this.

Paul Cohalan: After you stole his book and opened it? Yeah, yeah. Just. And annoyed his girlfriend.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, and his girlfriend yeah. So I stopped chasing him. Cause I was like, look, I'm gonna show you that I'm gonna put my best to learn. I'm not gonna waste your time. I stopped texting him everything. I got the computer, right. I was living with my mom, and I was breaking my eyeball every night, going to bed at 4, 3 in the morning. I didn't know what was copy and paste. So I used to draw a lot.

Paul Cohalan: Control C, control V. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I didn't know nothing. I was like. So you imagine me drawing a shoe sideway instead of flipping it? I was drawing it again and again. So this is why I tell people, like, you learn things in a way that it might make you become a better designer.

Paul Cohalan: Yes. So just, just on that, right? So the journey. And. And I haven't told you too much, right? You're like, I'll just. Come on. So. Roadblocks, risk and resilience. Right? Now, this is. These are the bits that I. I register as. You're talking, like, your resilience now as of today. Yeah. And the risks you took, right? Like, you're like, I'm going to give up everything and go all night. Eyeballs. And you're like, something you don't know and like. But. But it's probably what's made you. Unbelievable.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, that's.

Paul Cohalan: That's that having the eye to copy it in the opposite. Like, they're the 1 percenters. 1 Percenters.

Leo Gonzalez: So that got me. And I would say this, you know, like when I started, like, getting more into it, and then I found out. Oh, Leo, what are you doing? I remember bringing Luis to my house and I showed him all the drawing. He's like, you don't need to draw it so many times. You could just do this. Copy and paste.

Paul Cohalan: Did you just fall over?

Leo Gonzalez: My eyes went like, what? I went to bed at 5 making this. It's like, oh, my God, you should have called me. I'm like, I cannot be calling you.

Paul Cohalan: He would have had so much respect for you, though. He would have gone, no, he did.

Leo Gonzalez: But I'm gonna tell you how crazy this thing. How this thing turned. Cause then he ended up working for me.

Paul Cohalan: No way.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, bro, I'm gonna tell you how crazy.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, I wanna hear it. Let's go.

Leo Gonzalez: I'll tell you how crazy. I was just telling him, look, I did this, that. And he saw I was so into it, so he said, like, come over. I probably can get you a job, but they won't pay you. So I was like, sure, man. You know, like, why not? I was living with my mom. I said, yeah, I'll do that. So I started just doing freelancing, like, you know, doing drawings, showing to him, and then he would go and show it to people. Contact that he knows to see if they like the drawings, see if they can just fit me in with a job. No. No job. I was like, damn. You know, like, all right, I'm gonna just keep going and go.

Paul Cohalan: Keep getting the nose.

Leo Gonzalez: I have never had in this industry. A feeling of quitting.

Paul Cohalan: It's unreal.

Leo Gonzalez: It's crazy. That's why I know. I know. I know where I'm going with this. I know where I'm going with this. And it's gonna be global. But I never had the feeling of saying, that's it is enough.

Paul Cohalan: I've tried.

Leo Gonzalez: I try. I give him a. I never had that.

Paul Cohalan: You're like, dig your. He was gonna go again.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. No. No way. No way. I never had that feeling in my life.

Paul Cohalan: No quitting.

Leo Gonzalez: No quitting. I just. I just never had. You know, I just. I just do it, and I just enjoy it, and it's my passion.

Paul Cohalan: Can I just. Can I just say on that? Right? And this is, like. This is a huge nugget. I believe talking to you is unreal. Right. Like, and I've had that feeling with things as well. But it's like, as long as I've known you, and we talk prices of shoes and stuff and.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But it's never been about the money. You want to design this thing. The passion. Even when you're doing your content now, you're like, I'm doing this. And it's never money. It's never value. It's design. It's creativity. And it means something, man.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, like, I always say this to people. When you do what you love.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: If you really love it, money become not even in your mind. Knowing you as a. Like, Tim will tell you know, like, he runs everything.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, shout out to my business partner, Tim.

Paul Cohalan: He's a legend. I've spoken with you.

Leo Gonzalez: Without Tim. Tim is. Is. Is a big believer. You know, like, knowing me, like, the journey that we have together, without team, it wouldn't be impossible. It's. It wouldn't.

Paul Cohalan: I spoke to Tim the other day.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Without this guy. Tim rang me because I bought all the shoes. And he's like, man, can I drop them off? Can I drop them off? And we both didn't get each other anyway. The warehouse to live in. I'm like, tim I shouldn't tell you this. I could have two sets, but they're already dropped off. But all he done is speak so highly of this man. The belief he's got in there. And it's amazing to have one person. Obviously got a lot of people, but yeah. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Teams are having. Having a partner, like team man. Like you know, one thing. And I'm going to say in this interview, I love this man so much because you know, when. When you have someone that come to. To your dream and to join yourself, join with you, and he don't have a doubt. And that he wanted to learn. He bought an ipod. He don't draw, but he bought an iPad to learn how to change color and do those little details.

Paul Cohalan: One percent I saw.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, man. I was like, you know, this is not only about being buddy business partner, investing or whatever. Is more than that. It took me to appreciate him more. Like to another level.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, because I always want someone that I can just be like, hey, check this out. What do you think about this? You know, like. And we do things like that. That. So we. A really good click, man. Yeah, really great.

Paul Cohalan: That is so cool to hear. That is so cool to hear.

Leo Gonzalez: So, yeah. Here runs over.

Paul Cohalan: And when. When something fills your cup or you got the passion, like, so even this. I know I've only just started this, right. And it's. And it's always led to that. But everyone's like, how do you monetize it? I'm like, that hasn't even come into my mind. Because doing this and meeting new people and being a socialite forever and it's just flipped all that relationship and people skills on its head. Like talking to you now like, I fills my cup and we haven't even got there yet. Anyway, it's so good.

Leo Gonzalez: So going. Going back to, you know, I couldn't get jobs at the beginning. Then I ended up working for a company called Detney Footwear. Sean and Shane, these two twins. Now they. One of them. I just found out that Sean, I think he's director of Adidas.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, is he?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. And I sent them a request. Cause we just disconnect. They used to have this label and they were like popping back then, you know. And I was working with them for about a year. Then I started doing. There was a company called Vita. Vita was a company that used to hire a lot of designers. And any celebrity will come and say, look, I'm looking for this type of idea if you guys can come up with this design. So we as a team would have come up with designs and we didn't know where the design were going.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, wow.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. So you would make a design and maybe you go to any label and see your design and they probably. They just. They just buy from the company.

Paul Cohalan: Yes, because they like it and it aligns with their value, you know, whatever. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So I was doing that for a bit and then I just got good at it and I said, no, I want to have my own brand one day. I don't. I hate working for people. You know, everything changed and I gave a lot to Perth, man. Like, when I came to Perth, I pushed myself, even though I was so far away from family.

Paul Cohalan: So when. Just. Just go back a step just to keep the timeline going. So you're 18, you stole the book, you've done all. Went and worked for him, tried things out and then you went and worked for the other company. Giving, Giving creation. How old were you then when you were doing the, you know, doing creativity but giving it away, like to another company.

Leo Gonzalez: So bad with that age.

Paul Cohalan: And you're still in New York.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I was still in New York.

Paul Cohalan: Y.

Leo Gonzalez: That was on 57th Street.

Paul Cohalan: And Sean. Sean's a guy that went to Adidas, Sean. Yeah. Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And Vita Vida.

Leo Gonzalez: You said Vita. Yeah, Vita was the company on 57th Street. I remember, used to just use all the designers and sell the.

Paul Cohalan: So what would you have been like maybe 23, 24? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then. And then how long were you there for?

Leo Gonzalez: I was there for almost a year and.

Paul Cohalan: A year and four months, something like that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So if you're roughly 24, 25. When did you come to Perth?

Leo Gonzalez: I came on 2010. I came here.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, 2010, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So I got like, what, 15 years?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: 2010.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. We're in 2016. Yeah, yeah, 16 years.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. What a journey.

Paul Cohalan: See, I only come to Perth in 04, only from over east, obviously not international, but yeah, so that's 16. 20, Yeah. Okay, cool. So you've been here 16. Yeah, 16 years, yeah. And so you would have been. If you're 16, 48, you would have been 32.

Leo Gonzalez: 31. 31, I think.

Paul Cohalan: 31.

Leo Gonzalez: I think I was 31, yeah. Cool, man.

Paul Cohalan: 31, Yeah. Now he's clicking, he's like, oh, it's.

Leo Gonzalez: Time flies, man, you know?

Paul Cohalan: So, yeah, so, yeah, coming to Perth, you're saying, and you're so much into it.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I was so much into it.

Paul Cohalan: Huge jump, man. Like leaving your mom and your family and.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, but, you know, I Come from a family background that they know me. Leo always, he's just high, you know, If I used to work construction, I always had the job that paid the most. Like, I always like to shoot high, you know. Never, never. Because I never like to work for people. I just never did since I was little, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Hence why you're here. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And my mom knows it and she knew, like this is a place that Leo probably doesn't find himself here. He just want to explore so that, you know, she allowed me to do.

Paul Cohalan: Whatever I wanted, you know.

Leo Gonzalez: And I remember I met the mom of my kids, you know, back in New York. She was from Perth.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So I came to visit her. So that's how I end up in Perth.

Paul Cohalan: How many kids you got?

Leo Gonzalez: I got two. I got a lake which is 15.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And I'll tell 11.

Paul Cohalan: Where. Where are they now?

Leo Gonzalez: In school? They're here.

Paul Cohalan: They're both here? Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: They were born here.

Paul Cohalan: And the mom's here?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, the mom is here. We get along. We amicable.

Paul Cohalan: I was about to ask. Yeah, Is it. How's that?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah. You have to get along with the mom. Because I just want the happiness for my kids. That's right. The moment to be happy. Yeah, that's. That's like. I don't. I don't trash talk about.

Paul Cohalan: She's a woman, she's a great woman.

Leo Gonzalez: It just didn't work out, you know,.

Paul Cohalan: I got exactly the same, you know, we don't really talk.

Leo Gonzalez: It's good to be friend, like, you know, amicable to certain point, you know, like we get along, talking about the kids and stuff like that. We. There's no hate, there's nothing. No.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. That's so good, man. And then the mummy, your kid, Right. Like mine are 11 and 13. My daughter just turned 13 two weeks ago. You know, we don't talk really. Yeah. But is she a beautiful woman? Yep. Is she a beautiful mum? Yep. Am I lucky to have her? The mum and my kids?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Unbelievable. That full stop. Does not matter about me and her. Oh, no.

Leo Gonzalez: It's no more about you.

Paul Cohalan: Any resentment, any. No, it's like she's an amazing. She's a beautiful woman. Croatian and all that. And I. I love that you said that as well, man. Because if you don't, there's a couple of things that go on.

Leo Gonzalez: It tells a lot about a person if you don't.

Paul Cohalan: I was sitting with four or five bunch of guys the other day, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And they're like, how's your. How'd your divorce go, like? Because I separated, what, two and a half years ago and I said exactly the same. And they're like. Because most guys don't, right? But also some other guys are in.

Leo Gonzalez: Bad situations sometimes thinking end up really bad. But you know, when there's kids involved, like. Like, I don't know, man. Like.

Paul Cohalan: But even when these things that you went tit for tat, I argued over, it's only surface shit, really. Like, are they still a good person? And are you a good person? Yes. Did you see eye to eye? No. Did it not work? Is it part of your chapters and your book? Yes, it is.

Leo Gonzalez: Yes.

Paul Cohalan: And you got kids to them?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man.

Paul Cohalan: You know, like, take you out of it. Are they a good person? Yes. That's it.

Leo Gonzalez: That's what comes. That's what counts. That's what counts. Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So. So come to Perth. You come to visit?

Leo Gonzalez: I come to visit.

Paul Cohalan: And you didn't go anywhere?

Leo Gonzalez: No, I fell in love with. Well, I was with the mom of the kids, but also I fell in love with Perth. You know, like, Perth is beautiful. Like in America, we do not know. We just believe that Perth is red kangaroo. The sun is burnt like crazy and. And that's it. We don't know nothing about Perth. So when I came here, I used to tell my family, you guys need to come and visit the beach. The weather, this, the winter is like our spring in New York, you know, it's not. So I fell in love with Perth. I know how good I have till now. I got people saying, what are you doing here?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, this is a shit. I'm like, you love it. It's such a beautiful place.

Leo Gonzalez: I won't ever leave Perth. Like, to me, Perth is, you know, and having my company here, I love it. I'm proud of it. Yeah, I'm proud of it because it's small and knowing where we going with the shoes. We from Perth, man. And yeah, I love it.

Paul Cohalan: And you know what? We. We should be very, like, even though I'm not originally from Perth, but from Australia, we should be very lucky that people are coming and doing that. Like. And like, Perth's a beautiful place, man. Like even just east, west, how many people over the last 20, 30 years have gone. I'm just going to Perth for a week or two, mate. They still.

Leo Gonzalez: We got Bali around the corner.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, Bali around the corner. Weekend away, you know. So tell me when you come back, were you with your kid's mom for a while?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, were together eight years and a Half. And then. No, it was eight years and then a year on and off. First year we have my son Alec. And the second one came after, you know, and one of those breakup. On and off.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know.

Paul Cohalan: But what'd you do for work back then?

Leo Gonzalez: I was working back then for her company. Cause they own a bakery.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, nice.

Leo Gonzalez: So a fact. A big. A factory here. And I was just working like doing packaging also like, you know, you just.

Paul Cohalan: Got here and you.

Leo Gonzalez: Cause you know, I remember back then you couldn't do you have to a working visa, you know, like you have to do all that. You know, they didn't sponsor, you know, so the whole process. So while I was doing that, I was still designing. I brought my computer then I was like, I need my computer here, you know, so.

Paul Cohalan: So you brought it with you? Have you still got it?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, the G is in the storage. I got the G5.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, it's part of the story.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And it's funny, man. Like, you know, I was just working late in designing. Every time. Every time. Then I had the label called Labyrinth Footwear.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So that was here.

Leo Gonzalez: It was here.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah. Okay.

Leo Gonzalez: And I got to sell my shoes in Keysol. Is it key? Is it in Fremantle? It was a store called Keyso or. Yeah, I believe it was Keyso.

Paul Cohalan: I'm not sure, man.

Leo Gonzalez: And yeah, it was a store back then. And he was the first one having my sneakers.

Paul Cohalan: And then imagine that feeling.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it was. It was great.

Paul Cohalan: And.

Leo Gonzalez: But they were high top only, you know, so high top is not a big thing here. So then. Because all I know is designing. I didn't know about marketing. I didn't know about 3PL. I had to like run and drive there and drive the shoes. If he run out of shoes. If someone order shoes, it was a different game. And then.

Paul Cohalan: But that's the learning.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it was the learning. You know, it was great. But I couldn't do it myself, you know. So slowly, that company, I let it like die out. And I said I'm going to start with a better like a strategy next time and see what the market need, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I came with a mentality also thinking that, you know, like New York style right away, you know, high top sneakers.

Paul Cohalan: But the market is different, you know.

Leo Gonzalez: Then, you know, it happened that with time, while I was designing, Mayweather contacted me and this is where I came. I became part of the tmt. Which is the money team.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah, the money team. I didn't know that yeah, man.

Leo Gonzalez: So I was living with Floyd from Perth. His assistant, rest in peace, she passed away.

Paul Cohalan: She.

Leo Gonzalez: She contacted me through Skype.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I thought it was a joke. Who say, oh, the champ wants to meet you.

Paul Cohalan: Where was the relationship? Where. Where did.

Leo Gonzalez: How I connect with her? Cause his good friend named Mark, he was friend with me. I forgot which on Facebook, I think it was. And then I sent him a pair and I believe that either Floyd asked him what brand is it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Where they come from.

Leo Gonzalez: And then, oh, this dude, you know, he's Dominican. He live in Australia. Oh, really?

Paul Cohalan: What brand was that?

Leo Gonzalez: Labyrinth.

Paul Cohalan: Labyrinth. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So one thing. This is why I never have regret in life.

Paul Cohalan: Everything happens. Universe, man.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, not universe.

Paul Cohalan: God.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I'm a believer of God. Yeah. You know, and I remember saying. I remember saying to myself, like, oh, this is Mayweather. Cool, let's see what's gonna happen. And the first thing he says to me on the phone was like, my sister gonna get you a flight. You're gonna come here and stay with me. I want you to make my sneaker line.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: I was like, sure. So I'm telling my. My ex back then, she's like, no way, no way.

Paul Cohalan: You're making these up.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, no way. Then I received my flight and I'm like, I'm going. I thought it was gonna change my life and everything, you know, like. But things back then didn't work out. Not cause of me. I'm a real g. Like, you know, it didn't work out cause of cause other situation. The project did not advance. It was more like designing. Designing. And nothing was getting made, so I was missing my kids. So I was there for a year and seven months were. Yeah, yeah. Calling FaceTime one time and went back again.

Paul Cohalan: So I was one time in the. In that whole time.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, that would have.

Leo Gonzalez: That would have. No, I was. I was not in a good situation because my song leaving message, you coming for my birthday and all these. It was really hard, you know, it.

Paul Cohalan: Would have played with you mentally as well.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it was no good. No good. And I was a B. I feel like I was more. A little bit more like damn brainwashed because, you know, someone telling you sometime, hey, tomorrow we're going to go to China. We're going to make this. Yeah, yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow. And tomorrow never came. And all the designs were like samples there, you know. So one day I just decided to say, I'm. I'm leaving.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Fair.

Paul Cohalan: Cool. Look after yourself. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And I came back To Australia. A lot of people didn't believe it because, you know, people. What they see. The Internet is funny because, you know, people see things and they get their mind twisted, like, thinking that everything is flower, you know, there's no mud nowhere in the world. There's no rain. But I'm like, no, man, there's thunderstorms.

Paul Cohalan: Out there to give the shine.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. I'm like, nah. You know, like, I went through hell in a way that helped missing my kids. Because I love being a father, you know, I love my kids.

Paul Cohalan: It's one of the biggest things, me following you now. I follow all this.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I love. And I. This is where I started texting you with your boy all the. All the time.

Leo Gonzalez: I bother them a lot.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I tease them.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I treat them like. I tell people this. I say, look, the minute that you start treating your kids like they're your body, they become your body.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I don't use. I don't need a tie to go to school, to their meetings. I mean.

Paul Cohalan: So we're gonna keep moving with the story, right? But last night we had a chat and we've been chatting a bit. I love this man's stories. But there's. There's the clothing line, as you can see, that's not out yet. And we've got Grumpy Smurf.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And there's a story, and it's about his boy. Right. So we'll come back to it. But I just. I remember everything.

Leo Gonzalez: Right, good that you brought that up.

Paul Cohalan: So you come back to Australia.

Leo Gonzalez: So, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: 17 Months later, just made a decision. That's cool. But once again, just going back to what you said before, right? And this is what this is all about, right? Your resilience from that, not seeing your kids, seeing them once made that decision. You looked after you. But I bet you still don't regret it, though. Maybe not being here for a birthday or two.

Leo Gonzalez: But no, I can tell. I don't believe in regret.

Paul Cohalan: This is.

Leo Gonzalez: I want to explain this to people.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I don't believe in regret because regret is a lesson learning.

Paul Cohalan: It's not regret. It's like.

Leo Gonzalez: It's not regret. It's not regret.

Paul Cohalan: How good.

Leo Gonzalez: And I'm gonna jump of go for it because I enjoy, like, my journey, you know? Like, I do enjoy it, you know? And I say, even believing in God so much.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: He knows when you're not ready for something.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: He know when you're not ready.

Paul Cohalan: So just to be clear, I'm not too religious. Right. But I had to become Catholic to get married and all that kind of stuff. Right. But I always say universe because I'm just like. That's just my belief. Right. But I respect that so much. But the same feeling and belief, it's the same thing. Look, it happens. It is amazing what the world does. And the moment you go it done it. Do you know what my slogan is going to be? You're going to love this. What if it happened for you, not to you? That is it.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: It gives me chills. That gives me chills. What if it happened for you, not to you? And it's to do with the same combo and belief. Right. Sorry. Keep going. I love it.

Leo Gonzalez: So, you know, the thing is, you hear a lot of people saying, oh, what a miracle.

Paul Cohalan: Have you heard that before? Yeah, Yeah. I don't take much notice of that anymore.

Leo Gonzalez: Okay. When I hear people saying that, I believe that 80% of the people that say that they're not true believer. That there is a power.

Paul Cohalan: Something. Yeah. A belief.

Leo Gonzalez: You know why? Because miracle is a way to run away from believing in something sometimes.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. You've thought about this.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah. And you don't think about it at the moment, but, you know, like, there's been plenty of cases that, you know, like, only. Only God can do things.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. It's amazing. What.

Leo Gonzalez: You need to use that. No, it was. It must be the powerful. There's something.

Paul Cohalan: There's something.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Not miracle.

Paul Cohalan: I agree.

Leo Gonzalez: Miracle is luck.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. I could not agree more. Like, you're right. Like, and I'm probably more like it the last year or two being divorced and you go through your journey of, you know, learning and, you know, I've gone from psychedelics to the universe to. I'm glad this happened.

Leo Gonzalez: Yes.

Paul Cohalan: Because I do, you know, when something really hard, like yesterday I had a really hard day and I was talking to a friend and I'm like, it's okay to work out. Like, I was maxed. But I'm like, the harder it is today, the better tomorrow is going to be. Like, today's a flip. Honestly, I think about it all the time and I'm like, it's crazy when you get through that. The harder it is. Yeah. The better the outcome.

Leo Gonzalez: It's crazy. And, you know, and I think also that God will prepare you to be ready. When is the time, you know?

Paul Cohalan: What was that saying? I wasn't you. I was talking last night, just, sorry to buddy, but, like, I, like, I follow this so much and it's like, don't. Don't be angry or disappointed in the time it took.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: For you to wait to be where you are. You needed the time to get where you are or something. Right. Like, it's like, it can only happen when it's. It happens when it's meant to happen. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: When you want.

Paul Cohalan: You can't fast forward. It should have happened three years ago.

Leo Gonzalez: Because just even. Even, you know, like I tell you this, even we. My mom. Because my mom always put that on us. Like she always say to us, if someone don't want you around, it means you're not supposed to hear something. It's not for you.

Paul Cohalan: That's it.

Leo Gonzalez: I remember when I was. Because I grow. I grow really quick. I was the young kid that always wanted to hang out with the elders.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Sometime I wanted to go to a club with them and they invite me, but then they don't let me in. So I come back home dressed my mom, be like, everything okay now? They didn't let me in. And I'd be angry, you know, and she'll be like, have you ever been inside? I'd be like, nah. So what are you angry? What are you missing?

Paul Cohalan: What are you missing? Unbelievable.

Leo Gonzalez: What are you missing? That means you're not supposed to. Your time will come. Everything will come and go when it's meant to.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I was rushing to one. A car. I was rushing to the. No, no. He gave me the chance and the opportunity when I needed it. And I know it sounds hard for people because some people say, like to say. And I know that we going from design, but I want you to know about, you know, it's because I'm a big believer, you know, I don't believe in images like, you know, like, because, you know, I do believe Jesus, God and all this going on religion. But I don't need to go to church to pray. I don't go to church. Yeah, I can pray in the Torah. I can pray anywhere.

Paul Cohalan: Anywhere.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I don't have a rule. God will listen to me wherever I need him.

Paul Cohalan: And you know when, you know, when we go through hard times and I learned this probably from myself and I'm not. I'm not too religious, right. Like even growing up. But at one point we all. When you end up in a rut or you end up somewhere, we all pray. We all sit there in ourself. And you know what? Honestly, and even yesterday, and I don't share this much, is I end up. It might not Be God for me. And I always say, universe, things happen for a reason.

Leo Gonzalez: How about you? Sorry to interrupt you. How about you made me for me to explain you and tell you some of my story? And I bet you're going to. You going to believe more in. Because.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, because.

Leo Gonzalez: Because. Because I'll be honest, everything happened for a reason.

Paul Cohalan: It does. And what I. What I do, though, is like. But I will go back to, say, my grandmother or my grandfather and I'll be like. And like, I'll have a really bad day or week or, you know, part of life, like when I split.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I'll be like. To my pop, I'll be like, give me a hand, Will. Yeah, yeah. Like, but it's all. It's all similar. We do it in our own way. Like, you know, what we believe is one thing, but. Yeah, it's amazing, man. I love chatting to you about this. Yeah, it's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: It's amazing, like the way, you know, you can. You can call a universe, you know, the energy that you put out there. Because people. Yeah, because people don't like to put image because we don't know the image. You know, I'm not going to get into who's black, he was, why he was. No, no, that's unnecessary. There's some power and your perception is energy.

Paul Cohalan: We all see it in our own world as well.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I always say this, you know, like, going back to the shoes with Mayweather, you know, like, I come back to Perth, you know, I got all these people, like talking about it. You know, it came out in the Internet, in Google, Dominican sign with Mayweather, blah, blah. And, you know, I started getting more popular, you know, in the industry.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And then I ended up designing. While I was here, I ended up designing for the best rapper from Dominican Republic. His name is Lápiz Conciente. Great, dude. We did a run, a pretty good run collection. And it was funny because I did a sketch and I'd send it to him on a dm. He said to me, brother, I love it. I'm going to do something for you. I had 400 followers. Listen how this thing blow my. My Instagram. He got a. I think he got like 4 million something followers. He said to me, I'm going to pose issues. If my followers reach you to 15,000, we're gonna make a deal.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, wow, brother.

Leo Gonzalez: My phone blew up that night. I got 24,000 followers now.

Paul Cohalan: How good?

Leo Gonzalez: But my phone, it was so crazy that I used to think, how about these Celebrities when they got like hundred millions of followers and they get message. Like, I couldn't even dial. It was. I couldn't even use my phone. I had to let it just. All the followers come in. I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't use the phone because if I go to hit call, I would have tap a firewall.

Paul Cohalan: What was happening in here? Like, I. I just.

Leo Gonzalez: I just didn't know what to do. I was like, man, I'm gonna end up making these shoes then for this guy. So I started calling the factory. You know, the connection that we have. And I was like, look to prepare. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I think we got something good coming. You know, Like, I got this client,.

Paul Cohalan: What's his face, man?

Leo Gonzalez: He reached 18,000. I was like, wow. In two days, I couldn't believe it. And then, you know, it took off. Like, you know, I made the shoes. Oil is a label. He did pretty good. We did a run, and then he started doing more. His closing and stuff. And then I got busy with Life of Viral.

Paul Cohalan: Yep. So when did you just timeline again? When did you do the shoes for him, the rapper?

Leo Gonzalez: That was before the pandemic.

Paul Cohalan: So 2019. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: 18, 19.

Paul Cohalan: Yep, yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And then.

Paul Cohalan: And then Pandemic. What were you doing then? Like, what. What were you doing daily?

Leo Gonzalez: Like, I'd say, I never like to work for people. I'm a great barber.

Paul Cohalan: I can cut hair.

Leo Gonzalez: I can cut hair pretty good. So I used to have a barbershop called New York Barbershop here in Perth.

Paul Cohalan: Whereabouts was that?

Leo Gonzalez: I was the only guy who has a barbershop inside of a pub.

Paul Cohalan: No way. Which pub?

Leo Gonzalez: Victoria Park.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, in Big Park.

Leo Gonzalez: Victoria Park, Yeah. So I was the only one. I came up with the idea saying, how about if I get a barbershop and I cut hair inside of a pup? Everybody was, oh, no. Cause it's scissors and people drinking. You're not gonna get it. You're not gonna get.

Paul Cohalan: You're like, tell me no. Oh, yeah. I got hits to nose.

Leo Gonzalez: Calm down, man. Let me just go and find out. As soon as I tell the guy, listen, hey, the toilet is like more than 10ft away. The kitchen is away. There's no hair going in. Boom. Fine.

Paul Cohalan: Cause they're the things, right? They're the risk, you know? So, like, talk about roadblocks. Risk and resilience, right? Like, there's. There's nothing that. When you. When you get. I'm actually a bit like this. I'm not as creative as you, but yes. It's like when I'm like, we got to go outside the box. Right. Do it different. Someone goes, no, I'm like. I'm like. And go back to why. Right? Go back to when you were drawing.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I don't. I don't. I don't. I normally don't listen. And it's not to be arrogant or anything. You know what it is? It's because you believe 100% of the people that tell you don't do it, they're not doing nothing for themselves, not even correct.

Paul Cohalan: And that's okay.

Leo Gonzalez: And it's okay. You know?

Paul Cohalan: But me, I won't listen.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. And some people, I always say, you're going to have people that their brain wire is they. They always going to want to work for someone, and they have it with comfort.

Paul Cohalan: Safety net.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, Safety net.

Paul Cohalan: It's okay.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no. Me. Me.

Paul Cohalan: Risk.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Boom.

Leo Gonzalez: But, yeah, we. We take the risk. But then they call people like us unstable.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because until you're not. Give it all. We give it all.

Paul Cohalan: Until you're not.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, exactly. We give it all. And, you know, we. Super is the age.

Paul Cohalan: You know, like, superpower. I talked about it last episode. I'm like, I don't. I don't label the adhd. Right. I'm like, superpower.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, to me. Yeah. Like that my brain don't stop thinking. Well, that's a gift, you know, Like, I'm always thinking about design. I'm always looking in the club, like, what people are wearing on the shoes. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, I get a lot of inspiration by woman legs. The legs. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm always. Every time I get my inspiration for a lot of shoes, I always look at woman legs and I picture what would look good on her. And, you know, if she wear this, that, you know, so that's how it is, you know, like, yeah, I got a lot of ideas, like, based on legs. It's funny, man. Some people get inspired by buildings. Some people get inspired by go.

Paul Cohalan: The leg.

Leo Gonzalez: Me, because I used to draw muscles before. Like, you know, I was like.

Paul Cohalan: You said that. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I was more into anatomy, you know, So I always look at the ankles.

Paul Cohalan: Well, it actually makes sense, to be honest. Like, but once again, you go over the stepping stones. Yeah, that all makes sense.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. It's weird, you know, so it does.

Paul Cohalan: Make sense because before you've done the shoes and before you done that, I.

Leo Gonzalez: Was into body shape.

Paul Cohalan: And so then you're like. Instead of buildings, like legs and women's Legs, like. And then look. Look where we are. Like.

Leo Gonzalez: And then, you know, this come up and the connection with the factory that we have. I got over 8 years connection with these people and everyone, when they see the shoes they think is made in Italy. And I tell people it's not a place. I can give you the factory contact. But you're not going to make exactly what I'm making.

Paul Cohalan: Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: Because people think that it's not the car that you're driving is the driver. You know what I mean? Like, the car look great. Let's say this. You look great, but it's who's doing it, you know, Like, I used to think, like, oh, yeah, you know, people want to know the contact, you know, where you're making your shoes so they can make. And then they go ahead and make shoes that look.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So then they like, oh, you show you the same factory. I'm like, man, it's not the factory. You know, you have to know what you're doing because, you know, like, I tell people, measurement from here to here, 1 point, 1.1 millimeter. Like, you know, like all these. I do everything from scratch. Because I live in China for six months, I learned how to make the shoes.

Paul Cohalan: So when. When did the. When did you get the brand and go, I'm going to make the first set of shoes? Oh, that was right, like 20, 21.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. Right when pandemic started.

Paul Cohalan: 21, Was it or 20.

Leo Gonzalez: 20.

Paul Cohalan: 20. Yeah, yeah. It was fair. Bottom 15th or whatever. Yeah. Because I think or. February 10th, I was in Singapore and we're coming back through and I hadn't really hit Australia yet. Singapore's all masked up.

Leo Gonzalez: So I started making the samples and this is when Tim came to my life.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, so he was there from the beginning, Basically.

Leo Gonzalez: Tim was from Zero.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Okay.

Leo Gonzalez: Yes. The story with team.

Paul Cohalan: I had the feeling it was after for some reason.

Leo Gonzalez: No brother.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Wow. No, no brother.

Paul Cohalan: All right, talk to me about this.

Leo Gonzalez: The story with team is funny. This is we're going back to God. So you'll see that everything that surrounds me for a reason is my gut. Yeah. I was living in a room with a roommate after breaking up, you know, I moved out of the house and with my ex partner, I had the barbershop.

Paul Cohalan: The mom.

Leo Gonzalez: The mom of my kids.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And I was having a barbershop then after. Right. Big quarter. The building where I live was getting built. One day, I recall myself and I wish I had the phone. Cause I got a new phone. And I lost the other one. But I have the video. I swear on my mother, I swear on my kids, I have the video. I look at the building and I say, you know what? Let me record this. And I said, I'm gonna live there one day. I'm gonna own an apartment in that building. It looks so beautiful. I can't wait till it'd be done, you know, brother. I became friends with Bob, the owner of the developer, west side Auto. Oh, he owns that building?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Oh, okay. The building, west side Auto. Yeah, yeah. Cause they got the big warehouse and all that. Yeah, they actually changed the game when they opened up for selling the cars. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So the crazy thing is, I apply. Tim work with his company and business partner as a, you know, they. They developer.

Paul Cohalan: He is. That's right. When I was talking to him the other day, he told me, because I asked what, he doesn't know the developer.

Leo Gonzalez: And they do the rent and all that in the projects, you know. So he got me the apartment, you know, I got the apartment. And, you know, he was busy, you know, he just know that, you know, there was one apartment available, you know. Cause I wanted to move in quick, you know. So I ended up getting the apartment of Bob, the first one that was done. So I was the first guy moving in the building where. Yeah, the building was empty.

Paul Cohalan: You're like, I'm going to get one of these, and you're the first one to go in.

Leo Gonzalez: And that happened after like three years. That happened after three years. And my barbershop was right around the corner. One day I'm working. Yeah, one day I'm working at home doing my design and painting in the wall. All my designs and, you know, I got the ideas, everything, you know, and then I told team about it. Then team came and was like, okay, let's do it. You know, I was like, yeah, let's do it. You know, and everything started from there. From zero.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: From zero. And it's crazy how things work, man. You know?

Paul Cohalan: Like, what was your first pair?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, it's a home. The first pair was more like a skater shoe.

Paul Cohalan: Have you got sets still or not?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I do have it. Yeah. I was. I want to say I was gonna wear them, but then, you know, I just want to be part of the collection.

Paul Cohalan: So just. Just quickly then what we'll do what I try and do on the podcast. And this is, I think, what's going to help. I think I might have told you last night, consistency is the cake, as you know. Better check in Six months later. But I want to take this stuff somewhere else. So maybe we go to your warehouse. Yeah. And we do a check in.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And we've got to talk about the original.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. You know, like, I did. The other sneaker that I was doing was the. It was more like a vans style.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, to be suitable, like for the market here for.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So not high top. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Pretty quite unique, you know. Clear bottom, too.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah. Clear bottom is wicked.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah, man. Because, you know, now I can play like we are the first one printing money like this.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: No one. No one has done that. So we. The first label doing this.

Paul Cohalan: This is so cool, this.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. So that's why these are really limited, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. But so just. So that's obviously the lead collection. You got the relationship and all that there.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: What. How many of them were made? Because you normally make 400, don't you? Yeah, those.

Leo Gonzalez: We went lower. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: No, you were lower on the way.

Leo Gonzalez: I think there was 200. There's only like a few left.

Paul Cohalan: That was the first set I bought.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah, man. We saw 100 pair. 100 Pair. I think in. In one. In two days when went to sneakerland. Oh, sneaker line. We went to sneaker land and.

Paul Cohalan: Wow, where was that?

Leo Gonzalez: That was right in the rca in the. In the arena.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, I was in the arena. Was it? Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Pretty. Because my friend Jamal runs the.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, of course.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, you got sneaker line.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. So what. What. How'd that come about? Was it just a quick convo like with Lawrence or what? You know how. Or was it someone else?

Leo Gonzalez: I love the Countach. Like the car is based on the Lamborghini.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. I remember reading about it the first time.

Leo Gonzalez: So this. This, you know, because I was like, man, you know what I want to make like the story about it is it has the same red inside, like the leather. Yeah. So the. The inside is the same color of the interior.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Okay. So the countage is. Is the white and red interior.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And because of how pricey it is, I came up with the idea of putting the money.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So the car. The car is quite. Pricing is. You don't see many.

Paul Cohalan: No way.

Leo Gonzalez: So being from America, I decided to do one shoes with a $100 bill. Us.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And the other one Australian. So that's why I put that.

Paul Cohalan: That's really cool.

Leo Gonzalez: The two notes. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And you know what? I never clicked to that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Until you told me this one. You're like, hey, there's us in Australian.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. That's why I, I did both. And viral. It grows in the dark.

Paul Cohalan: So you know that either. Yeah, I, I, I, it was the first pair I bought actually, and I wore them a fair bit and I scratched them up and I was trying to look for them and I ended up buying the last two pairs as a size 8. Two days ago after I caught up with you.

Leo Gonzalez: 6. We, we only have now 6 and I think 2. 11. Like we don't have that. It's gonna be done.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So we don't repeat like we have.

Paul Cohalan: You said that. That's good.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You know, we have, we can change the color, but who those colors. That's it. This is limited. You're not gonna have them again.

Paul Cohalan: So tell me about these. What, what's with the red and the red?

Leo Gonzalez: I'm a, I'm a Bull fan. I live in New York City.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: But I'm a Bull fan. So I always like the color red, you know, and I always wanted to have like a sneaker that you can wear with your shorts. Feel really casual, you know, because the whole idea of these, these designs were like, I want to wear the shoes with anything. I can even wear my shoes with a suit if I want. Yes, you know you can.

Paul Cohalan: Any of them.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. With your khaki.

Paul Cohalan: Well, I put the black jeans, I normally wear black jeans and I'm like, today I'm wearing these because it's red and I'll wear the red shirt. I'll wear a black one. And you know, but I, I put these on. I thought I'll change it up just. And mate, you can wear them. These. I've, I've wore these three, four times.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But I'm really bad with shoes. Like, I'm rough. So I'm like, I, I don't want to obviously scratch them up, but these are wicked. And I don't usually wear loud shoes, like, you know, bright. Yeah. Love them. Absolutely love them.

Leo Gonzalez: Nah, I'm glad you do.

Paul Cohalan: Everyone comments too.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I'm glad. And you know, like, one thing that I really take advantage is like, I like designing in the soul. If you notice all my shoes, everything is like, that one has glitter.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, like I take opportunity to make a design everywhere. Like, you know, like making them like if you lift up that one in the corner, you see like the bottom. See the two color tone. Like I like, Yeah, I like to play with colors. You know, I just, why not designing? So I Love that shoe in a lot of.

Paul Cohalan: Which ones was I wearing when I caught up? The one behind you? Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: This one.

Paul Cohalan: The one. I reckon you could wear that with a suit with it. Yeah, that's the one you got on. I love that.

Leo Gonzalez: I have done that. I have done that formula one. I have this.

Paul Cohalan: I'm gonna. I haven't, but I'm gonna. Yeah, so. So talk to me. Talk to me about the black ones, because I bought these.

Leo Gonzalez: I bought them collaboration with the. With Yokohara. It was a collaboration with it.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, they were. That's why I bought them.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You're not gonna have them again. Yeah. None of them. Like, you know, these colors. Yeah. They ain't coming out pretty good in New York.

Paul Cohalan: I didn't even think about that. Yeah, man, they're really nice. Hey, and the new black ones you did, they glow in the dark on the bottom. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: This one? Yeah, they all go. The bottom. The full bottom glows in the dark of this one.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. The whole lot.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. The theory of this one was because I was thinking big baller, like, you know, you go to a club, everything is like, oh, like, you know, going.

Paul Cohalan: Back to what you're saying earlier.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. You know, like people like, you know, to bring their champagne, the light and all that. And also the music, dj, the dark, why not seeing them, you know, So I had an idea to have a shoes that, you know, they look good. And at nighttime, people can look down and be like, oh, they're glowing. You know, like to look flashy because, you know, it's only with the. With energy, like from the sun. Like, it gets.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, because it's glowing in the dark. Yeah, that's awesome, man. And you know the challenge, right? Like, I really don't want to wreck them or anything because I actually really love supporting, obviously, someone that's local.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But I really do believe in what you're doing, obviously, more now than ever. But I will wear them, but I just got to, like, be extra because. And I'll tell you, I'm going to give him a sales picture, like I'm telling you now. The ones there, I got white amani's, which, what, 280 bucks to fit whatever, you know, And I wore them for ages, but they're never that comfy. They're a bit thin. You can feel these are the quality now. When I bought them and wore them. Yeah, mate. Second to none. And you weren't just saying that, but that too.

Leo Gonzalez: Almost eight, nine months to make that comfort. And I'LL tell you why.

Paul Cohalan: Because what goes into that?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, man. The dense of the Eva is like the part. The black part is Eva. The bottom is rubber, you know, so this is like the material, like from the Crocs.

Paul Cohalan: Right.

Leo Gonzalez: And what happened is there's a dense that is like 60% dense. And I put. I believe it was like before.

Paul Cohalan: And you got to play with that and test it and wear it. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I didn't want. One thing I didn't about the shoes was that with time, I love them. The EVA wrinkle, I didn't want it to wrinkle that much.

Paul Cohalan: Is that right? What. Over time it does.

Leo Gonzalez: So what I did, I put the dents harder in the rubber because you could play with the dens of this. So we tested it, you know, so when you wear it, you know that and you step on. When you step that, it doesn't squeeze like the Adidas. Because Adidas use this material a lot in the boost.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So I was like, yeah, I don't want it to be super wrinkled.

Paul Cohalan: So you want it to be comfy, but you don't want it to wrinkle. You're like. You've got to weigh this balance up.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. And one thing about the silhouette of the shoes, when you look at it, right. I create this silhouette, meaning next time I need to show you how the shape of the shoes come up. Like, so it can look so beautiful. It's not. Cause it's mine.

Paul Cohalan: I just love it sound real.

Leo Gonzalez: And it is. The shape is.

Paul Cohalan: So you mean like if I was to put a light behind it on a wall, the shape it has.

Leo Gonzalez: The shape basically is. Is a something called a last. Like. Like last L, A S, T. Yep. So is what dictate the shape of the shoes. It look like a made out of like a. Like a cat. Like, it's like. It look like a plastic. Is a more plastic that is represent like this. Like your foot. You know what I mean?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And then you have to reshape it.

Paul Cohalan: Is that right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. With the machine, you have to reshape it.

Paul Cohalan: So you done that?

Leo Gonzalez: I've done that, yeah. So this is my last. So when anybody or your last. So that's what is mine.

Paul Cohalan: So does every shoe have the same or not?

Leo Gonzalez: No, no. So what people normally do is if somebody. I'm going to. I'm going to give you a little bit of.

Paul Cohalan: A little bit of insight.

Leo Gonzalez: Insight. If someone wants to copy me and they look and they like my silhouette, you need to buy my Shoes and create the last. For my shoes.

Paul Cohalan: Reverse engineer it. You'd have to.

Leo Gonzalez: You have to.

Paul Cohalan: So are you talking like that?

Leo Gonzalez: Like that silhouette that you see?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, like just that.

Leo Gonzalez: So I could do any job.

Paul Cohalan: So every shoe is different?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, like if you look at Skecher, every shoes is chunky, but like, they're different.

Paul Cohalan: But are all the viral shoes the same silhouette on these? Same last.

Leo Gonzalez: On the. No, on this model.

Paul Cohalan: The monster model. Now you're educating me. Now I get you. But another model will be a different last. But this last is because these are all monster, aren't they?

Leo Gonzalez: They're monster.

Paul Cohalan: Are these every single monster?

Leo Gonzalez: No, brother. We have more coming, man.

Paul Cohalan: Like, oh, so you got more coming. But at the moment. At the moment, there's not one set I haven't got, is there?

Leo Gonzalez: No, you have them all. You have them all.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, good. Yeah. Don't tell me this.

Leo Gonzalez: No. Team won't sell you those. Team. Team have a green. Oh, man. Team have one that is green, brown and white. I believe it is.

Paul Cohalan: Do you ever sell them?

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, he's not selling them because that. That was gonna make. The thing is, we have a big famous DJ and I made a sample for him, but then he decided that he liked more like athletic shoes.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And then we say, okay, fine, so.

Paul Cohalan: You have to change the last.

Leo Gonzalez: I can't.

Paul Cohalan: No, no. Can I get a job?

Leo Gonzalez: There we go.

Paul Cohalan: Can I get a job?

Leo Gonzalez: So that mean if I already make the design and it's done. And then you say, oh, I like the shape of the boost. I cannot do it. I need to then recreate another.

Paul Cohalan: So is that the first thing you do is the last foundation?

Leo Gonzalez: This is the quote in the industry, last come first. So you wanna.

Paul Cohalan: I'll never forget that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, no, yeah, you never. And it's such a beautiful sentence because saying last, which is mean last, but it's really the name of the material. You know, it's last come first. So every designer says that last come first. So to me, you can show me any shoes. And I say, okay, let me see the shape of that shoes. I know the last of it. Okay, let me try it. So the last is a silhouette.

Paul Cohalan: Last comes first. And it's the silhouette, which is hands down on every stall collection.

Leo Gonzalez: So, yeah, so I do. Let's say I do the size 9. All the samples first are size 9. Cause 9 is the more sellable. Like the size that sells the most.

Paul Cohalan: Is it nine? Yeah. See, I thought eight wasn't far off because every Time I go get shoes. 41'S eight.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah. No, because, you know, the factory always said, but to me, because of my connection, they make them 10. So I need to wear them. Before I used to be like, make me a size nine. And I cannot wear them because they just look.

Paul Cohalan: Do that because you know they're gonna. You know that's your highest sold. But you gotta do 10. So you're a 10.

Leo Gonzalez: I need to wear them.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. I thought it'd be. I didn't think mine the pop. Like size eight. Because I'm. I'm a smaller guy, but just that bit bigger. It makes sense. Size nine.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Size nine is.

Paul Cohalan: Is that 42?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. If you notice it even when you go to shoe store while they place in the shell is size nine.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: A lot of. Because it's the.

Paul Cohalan: The.

Leo Gonzalez: The most beautiful size.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: If you put a 12, you'll be like, oh, that should look ugly. You can say. But if you see it in the size nine, you'd be like, oh, it looks nice. Looks, proportion. Look. Look better like. Like this shoes. And I was be freaking out because were rushing the process. The leather, the red color was giving you ink in the socks. Cause we rushed these shoes. That one. Exactly.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, it was that one. Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, just this one. And people were saying, oh, look, is it real leather? It is real leather. Is that the wash? It was supposed to weigh certain time, but the sneaker line was coming out. So we rushed the factory.

Paul Cohalan: Because I got red on my socks yesterday. Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: And I was just.

Paul Cohalan: Funny you said that. I should have brought the socks.

Leo Gonzalez: I wanted to tell people like, oh, we're sorry. Cause we wanted to rush it to make it on time.

Paul Cohalan: Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: Because we have the car. We have the whole presentation.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, did you put the car and everything in there?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Because you got the footage on your contact.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: The contest.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. You know, it was amazing, you know, So I was like, man, you need to send me those shoes. They were like, leo, I'm gonna let you know the wash of the inside need to dry and all this.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: It might get sweat and walking. I say I take the risk. Don't worry. Explain my clientele like, because the rest are great quality. Everything is.

Paul Cohalan: So be it.

Leo Gonzalez: It's genuine, you know, so I'm like, I'll let them know. And so far, you know, like, yeah, man, I think that's.

Paul Cohalan: I think that's the least of our.

Leo Gonzalez: Wear black socks, you know, dark socks. You could fix the problem. You Know, but yeah, man, it's a piece of art that they're not coming out again, man. And I'm gonna miss this, so. Because I enjoy making this.

Paul Cohalan: And even the positioning of it, like the print of the note and like, that would have been, like, so you would have sat there for so long getting.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, you have to.

Paul Cohalan: People don't realize.

Leo Gonzalez: And this is the part that I tell. And I tell you another thing that you guys, I haven't seen.

Paul Cohalan: I love the four stitches crosses.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, you know, what does it mean of that?

Paul Cohalan: No, it's love.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh. So I'm explaining you another thing.

Paul Cohalan: I love this. Love it.

Leo Gonzalez: So Life of Viral.

Paul Cohalan: Yes. Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: The label of the clothing store, of the closing brand. I'm sorry, is L, O V live of Varo, but at the same time, love. Love. So that's where the 4X come from.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So that represent our label. Like, when you see the 4x or when you see L, O, V, you pronounce it like love, but it's live or viral.

Paul Cohalan: Yes.

Leo Gonzalez: And all that came up. You know, how funny is that how that came up? My brother told me, well, I'm gonna get a. When I'm gonna get some love. I didn't know what I'm like, I give you love every time I tell you I love you.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: He's like, nah, your shoes. I'm like, love. Yeah. Life of Viral. I'm like, boom. Oh, that's gonna be the closing.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So now, you know, we making the shirt. They're getting made.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Lov and his lov is the. Is the closing.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So love by Life of Viral.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, is it?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So how old you. How many siblings you got?

Leo Gonzalez: Got with seven brothers.

Paul Cohalan: Seven?

Leo Gonzalez: Hey, I got seven. Seven brothers.

Paul Cohalan: Mom and dad were born, three sisters, so. And they're all over in New York. Let's get a bit personal here. We talked a lot of shoes, and no doubt we'll come back to it. Yeah. Because I love the little learnings just before we get off it. I love.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like, there's so much meaning into it, and there probably is in most. Right.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But being a real niche boutique brand, not your Adidas or your, you know.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like, the love and the meaning that's gone into this is. Is unbelievable. You'd have so many stories over the time when you're creating them and.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it is. You know, and just wait, just quickly.

Paul Cohalan: Where do you do creating now? At home or have you got a spot? Have you?

Leo Gonzalez: I, I, I don't like you know, this is a problem like when you entrepreneur and your mind is the way it's like hours super age, you know, like. Yeah, I, I normally get inspired at three in the morning. So when you text me you say I reply you really quick. Like you could catch me at that time. Like I'm never being a full on morning person. I can adapt but I'm more of. I go to bed at 3, 4:30, sleep like power nap and then I can rest. I sleep in the day, you know, like it's not for some people, it's not good. But it worked for me.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, and there's no rule book. Yeah. That's where I get my inspiration a lot. And at that time and I guess it's.

Paul Cohalan: Cause it's because it pops up.

Leo Gonzalez: I feel like, oh man. I mean my land like it's just quiet and. Yeah, man. Even sometimes when I go out I bring a pen with me or if anything like, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah man.

Paul Cohalan: So, so let's go to family. Let's, let's, let's talk about your actual siblings and stuff like that. Talk to me a little bit about him. Give us a bit of insight if you can.

Leo Gonzalez: Have amazing brothers, bro.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. All brothers or your sister and sister. Yeah, one sister and the rest brothers.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, three sister, four brothers. Oh yeah. So I'm the third.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: So I got my brother.

Paul Cohalan: So there's eight of yous.

Leo Gonzalez: No, seven. Meaning, Meaning with me.

Paul Cohalan: With you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Leo Gonzalez: So is Larry, Alex, Ernest, Leo. Then I have Alana, Abril and Rosemary.

Paul Cohalan: I was going to say don't forget. She won't be happy.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. And Rosemary.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So what's the age of them like of years old?

Leo Gonzalez: Roughly, like roughly from it's one year to a year that we got each other.

Paul Cohalan: Oh yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So my youngest brother, he's 47, 48. Then the other one goes two years on and the other one goes three years and then the sister are the younger one.

Paul Cohalan: They're like they can't.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. 26, 20. You know those are from my father's side.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: But the four brothers are from mom and dad.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. And he's all equally as close.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh yeah, we close. My man. You know.

Paul Cohalan: That is so cool.

Leo Gonzalez: My family is amazing. Even my auntie, everybody's amazing, man. Like I miss them so much because I know they're like, oh, Leo hasn't come in a while, you know, because I'm pushing this and I See where we're going. But my family, I tell you, my elder brother, I would have told him, hey, can you buy me a Coke? He'll go and buy it. Like, like we have so much respect.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: We never have this.

Paul Cohalan: It's not a ego. We never do anything for each other.

Leo Gonzalez: No. We never had like this. Oh, some brother. They don't talk for years.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And they fight physically.

Paul Cohalan: You never had that?

Leo Gonzalez: No, no.

Paul Cohalan: How good is that? That is so good to hear.

Leo Gonzalez: I cannot, I cannot see myself without talking of the enemy.

Paul Cohalan: Do you know. You want to know the best thing about that? I. I see being a dad, he's like, you know, a lot of people, including myself. You work on stuff. So you don't. So it doesn't go down the generations. The. The love and the share and all that you have in the relationship.

Leo Gonzalez: I'm going to give you a surprise now. Sorry.

Paul Cohalan: It'll roll down. Yeah, go.

Leo Gonzalez: The factory just.

Paul Cohalan: I did that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, the factory. Let me see. They just sent some stuff all morning.

Paul Cohalan: Even before we started. He's like another orders in. Other orders.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, the orders are coming in, man. But the factory just sent me here.

Paul Cohalan: We go inside behind the scenes early.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, I think. Let me see. Oh not yet. Not yet. They're going to send it later.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. What was that? What were you going to show us?

Leo Gonzalez: I was going to show you a design that we have that I don't think you have seen it. Like, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. I'm gonna get this guy after the podcast. He's gonna show me some stuff. Oh, I wanna, I want inside info. So going back to your siblings, man, the roll down to your kids.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it's the same, man. You know, like, because we, you know, and I'm not saying that because I'm here. People that know my brothers and they know we well grounded, like you know, like we respect.

Paul Cohalan: Yep. And comfortable with yourself.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, Respect is a big thing. You know, like I have never used the F word to one of my brother.

Paul Cohalan: Wow. No, no, no.

Leo Gonzalez: It doesn't exist, man. Like, because we just. We just different, man, you know? What time is it right now? 9:48, Right?

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: That's what tanging America. It is taking America.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I'm going to show you something. Yeah. We hear life, right?

Paul Cohalan: Go for it. Love this.

Leo Gonzalez: I want to show you something. I can call, ring him up my mom at any time. Yeah, anytime.

Paul Cohalan: Doesn't matter.

Leo Gonzalez: It doesn't matter. I'm going to call.

Paul Cohalan: Let's talk to mom.

Leo Gonzalez: I'll talk to mom now, but I'll call my brother and let's see. Watch. This is Larry, right?

Paul Cohalan: Larry.

Leo Gonzalez: Nice, Larry is. We look alike.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: There we go. There we go.

Paul Cohalan: Larry, how are you, man? Yeah, very good. We're just talking about you guys and how much love there is and care and. And how much your brother misses you.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah, we miss him too, on this side, man.

Paul Cohalan: It's been a while. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. And you look alike, definitely. I'm not sure if it's like you.

Leo Gonzalez: I was just telling him, you know, like, the connection that we have. And I'm doing this. Cause we're in the podcast. Yeah, you tell him, you know, and this is just. I told him, I bet you my brother gonna pick up, you know, or my mom if I pick him.

Paul Cohalan: If I call him, you know, five seconds, boom.

Leo Gonzalez: By now, man, you know, just telling him the respect that we have, that we never had a fight, you know, and never call each other name the F word or anything, you know, and, you know, this day, you know, you don't have that. So I'm explaining him that we've been grown. Like, it's different, man.

Paul Cohalan: You know, so. So was it. Was he the one that said, you got to give me some love?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So, Larry, Larry.

Leo Gonzalez: Life of Viral. Yeah, I was telling him.

Paul Cohalan: So we're on here talking shoes and everything else, but I. I love going a bit personal. And he's like. And we're talking about the brand and the name, and he's like, my brother said, you got to give me some love. Hello. Like, you know, life, Viral. And it's. It's so funny how it all connects.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it's crazy, man. But anyway, I'll let you go, brother. I love you.

Paul Cohalan: I was just calling you know, love from Australia. Larry. Love from Australia. All right, See you, man. Easy, man. That is. We haven't done that yet in the podcast.

Leo Gonzalez: Family's family, man. Like my mom, it could be 1:00am right now.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And she always pick up.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, that's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: She always pick up because she run my time. My mom pray every day for me.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Every day.

Paul Cohalan: That's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, every day. My mom always. For me and my kids, she. Every day, every day. So all that helped me.

Paul Cohalan: So. So let me. Let me ask you this. The relationship between your kids and. And your mom must be like.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, like anything in Spanish, because. Because. Yeah, yeah, they learn in Spanish.

Paul Cohalan: And also, does your ex get along with your family?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: They. Yeah, they still without you and like.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, they still get along, you know.

Paul Cohalan: That's awesome. Yeah, that's really.

Leo Gonzalez: I still like, you know, like I eat like even my ex mom and family. Are my family here?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, they're all here.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, they all here.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, so you still get along?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, of course.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, how good.

Leo Gonzalez: And her father passed away and I cried that man like. And you know, I love that man.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I tell you one thing, you know, like if there was one man in this planet, I can say my kids probably love him even more than me.

Paul Cohalan: Wow. Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: So that means. Was everything.

Paul Cohalan: That means a lot. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: He was everything to me too, you know, so. Yeah, it means everything to me because you know, that man never say no. That man, you know, he'll pick up my kids. There was never a word. No. And he loved my kids so much.

Paul Cohalan: That's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: To a level that I know I'm like, damn, my kids are crazy with Baba, you know. So we call Baba because my kids are half Turkish.

Paul Cohalan: Yep, yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So, you know, so we. In my videos, when you see I'm joking, I say Baba. Baba is a Turkish way of saying.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. You know, so my ex's grandmother is Baba. Croatian. Yeah. Baba or Nona. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So you know, my kids, you know, there's no way even if she would end up super hating each other, let's say that family, I would never have nothing. They help me too much too. And also they always there for me. Like if, let's say they always. Oh, Leo, come over. We cook all Leo. They never exclude me just cause I broke up with the daughter.

Paul Cohalan: Wow. You understand, you know, that is so amazing. Especially for your kids.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. So you know, my kids, you know, is everything to them too, you know, like my kids are well respected man. You know, like everyone that meet my kids, you know, not because they mind, because I don't tolerate bs. If you don't behave, I'm going to whip you.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Like I come from a place that, you know, they will let me know by talking and it was enough, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So I don't tolerate not behaving, you know, don't run in the. Don't run what? You're not supposed to run.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: If you're in a restaurant, behave like you're in a restaurant. I know his kids. No, no. He's getting his whipped.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know what I mean?

Paul Cohalan: Like there's a line in the street.

Leo Gonzalez: There's a line. Yeah, yeah. I don't let him grow.

Paul Cohalan: Let him grow.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, my kids are really. You talk to my son Alec, which. He got a business with his cousin. They do Jackson socks. Oh, yeah, he got, he's into business.

Paul Cohalan: What's it called?

Leo Gonzalez: Jackson socks.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, it's called jocks and socks.

Leo Gonzalez: I'm gonna, I'm gonna probably.

Paul Cohalan: Hey, Jackson socks. Let's get him on.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I'm gonna get them on. So you could give a king and my son an interview and you definitely. Oh, my God.

Paul Cohalan: And how old are they?

Leo Gonzalez: 15.

Paul Cohalan: And get them on.

Leo Gonzalez: And I'll be honest with you, soon, the number that they're hitting is unreal.

Paul Cohalan: Don't say it.

Leo Gonzalez: Don't say it. I'm going to let them tell you.

Paul Cohalan: Let them tell me.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Do you know that I love that they're so young and they. I. I never had that. Well, that young.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I don't want them to work for people, man.

Paul Cohalan: Good.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I don't want my kids to work for anyone. And, you know, and he's sharp. Like, you know, he go to Trinity and. And I know he don't like it. He don't like school because I don't like to say this, but, you know, he has the same mentality. Why, like me?

Paul Cohalan: It's good that you understand it, though, and you support him like your mum did, like you told me before, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like. Cause you still gotta go to school, you still gotta do your thing.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, but you know, like with school, we all know the same path that people go, you know, Like, I think, like, once you learn how to, you know, like, respect.

Paul Cohalan: I learned something yesterday, right? I never heard this before. School's there to teach you how to learn. Not to learn. No, you don't learn at school. It teaches you how to learn. That's it. Because let's be honest, where did you learn so much? It was staying up till four in the morning, doing the job when I was a fitter. And like, you learn on the job or in business or taking risks.

Leo Gonzalez: The street. The street.

Paul Cohalan: The street, man.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, if you look at jc, all these people, businessmen, people skills, street smart. Like, if you don't know that, this is why we go back again to how I treat my kids. I talk to them in a way that I know if I'm not around, they're not gonna go cry to mama, oh, this guy called me the N word. Or this guy. Anna, make it happen. They know how to respond.

Paul Cohalan: Learn to control it.

Leo Gonzalez: They know how to respond back they know, you know, because society, you know, put you in spot. If you're not ready, you go crazy.

Paul Cohalan: Do you know what with this stuff, you know what I do now? And it's like anyone that even in the last year or two, I've had a couple of people that kind of me over a bit. Do you know, I end up feeling sorry for them instead. Now, instead you get angry for a little bit when things happen, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But it's like if you've got to do that, same with bullying or people calling you names. If they've got to do that, imagine where they come from in their home and what they got to go home to. I'm like, and even adults, if you've got to go do that to another human being, man, like, I feel sorry for you because I'm not like that. And I sleep every night and I love life.

Leo Gonzalez: And I tell you saying that, you know, growing up in New York, where I grew up in the ghetto. Like I come from 174. If you Google, we used to have the cowboys, they call them. And these people were rudely. They would chop you up. We, wow. Throw you in the park. Like, I come.

Paul Cohalan: Imagine where they come from.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, back in. In Dominican Republic, you know. And I come from an area that is well known as one of the dangerous area. Like, you know, like I'm telling you, like when the crack pandemic. I was there in New York in the 90s.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: You understand, like, you know, I was there. I arrived. When I arrived to New York, it was January. It was the coldest thing ever.

Paul Cohalan: Was it?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, of course. I come from the Caribbean.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I had no idea. No idea.

Paul Cohalan: And you're like, snap.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah. I was at the airport and I remember the door opened and hit me, brother. I started bleeding, brother. I started bleeding from my nose.

Paul Cohalan: Too cold.

Leo Gonzalez: And I didn't know to a point that they were laughing. My auntie, they were like, you okay? I'm like, what was that? It didn't register that was outside because it was sunny. So I thought, oh, it's sunny.

Paul Cohalan: That's what you walk out?

Leo Gonzalez: No, when the door opened from the. To get out from the airport, Yeah, I had my jacket on, but it hit me so bad that it froze my face.

Paul Cohalan: Your body's never hit something, Never hit that.

Leo Gonzalez: And then I smelled the bone in my, like the blood. I was like, what is this? Then they took me to McDonald's for.

Paul Cohalan: The first time ever, brother, you forgot about the nosebleeding?

Leo Gonzalez: No, no. It was the worst thing ever.

Paul Cohalan: Was it?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, of course. Because I come from a place where we make real burgers. We make chimichurris, we call it.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah, right.

Leo Gonzalez: So when my father tried to make me feel better, don't worry, I take it to McDonald's, you'll see. So I go there, I'm excited, but then I vomit.

Paul Cohalan: This is a crazy afternoon. Nosebank.

Leo Gonzalez: This is how crazy our body adapt to things. Because today I could eat McDonald's, right? It tastes like rubber the first time.

Paul Cohalan: It tastes so good food.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I'm eating Caribbean food every day. Things that are real homemade food, you know, you want a sandwich, Let go get a tomato.

Paul Cohalan: And we cut it and we make a sandwich.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. So when I saw McDonald's and my first bite, I started shooting. And my father was looking at me. I can see that, you know, like I didn't like it. So I put the thing back in the paper. I smell so horrible.

Paul Cohalan: So the body climatized not just to the weather, acclimatized to your food, to your, you know, like adjusts. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You have to adjust to all the fake stuff.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. And it just shows, doesn't it? Yeah. Let's be honest.

Leo Gonzalez: Then we adapt to it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. How often do you have McDonald's now? When do you sneak it in?

Leo Gonzalez: No, I sneak it in when I want top up my calories.

Paul Cohalan: But no.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, but I don't count.

Paul Cohalan: So let's go to back to some personal. I know you've been training hard lately. Talk to me about training. And I know training, gym, defense.

Leo Gonzalez: He keep you busy before? I was doing more like jiu jitsu back then, but I'm more like just training just to show my kids. Because my son, he's 15 and he's a top soccer player here.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: PG Playful, part of Italy.

Paul Cohalan: Italy. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And now he's gonna be playing 18s and I just want to show him that, you know, I could motivate him, you know, go to the gym with him, work out, look after myself.

Paul Cohalan: So he's a father and son future.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, man. And you know, and just teach, you know, because working out is really important, man. Really, really important, man. Like the little one is. He started working out too. But I always tell people, man, when you get that routine that your kids like to wake up and go to the gym is the best feeling ever.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I tell my kids, look, it's not only about image, it's about your health and how you feel like, you know, and it's really good, man. It's really good. I think, like, all parents should encourage their kids.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: To work out.

Paul Cohalan: Well, they followed by example, right? Yeah. You know, the role model piece. And it's what's going on about before, just. Just mindset, but then the physical side. Yeah, you can't beat that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: No, like, I never grow up with that inspiration and human, you know, until later in life. Always fit.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. In our time, I remember our parents would tell us, don't work out. You eat too young, you're gonna stay little.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because they don't know. They don't. They don't have any. They're not educated, you know, and they weren't taught exactly, you know, so. So you have to understand, like, you allow. A child can start working out since day 12. And that's something that, to me, I was like, what? Really? Yeah. They even grow faster, you know, like, there's a lot of like. Like tests on this. Like, 12 is a good age to start working out. Yeah, man, I wish.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I wish I knew that, you.

Leo Gonzalez: Know,.

Paul Cohalan: But, you know, we can't turn back time. But what we can do is make it. You make it happen now, right? It's amazing. So. So you're with. You're with your ex here in Australia for about eight years and then on and off. When. So when did you, like, part ways, like proper, even though you're still close with a family and all that stuff?

Leo Gonzalez: I move in 2018. 20 In.

Paul Cohalan: When do you move in the apartment?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, that's.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, that's when you said. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That were like more just breaking our bank.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. And then she moved in the apartment. She'd been in there a bit, so still, I've been there 26, seven years. Seven years, yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And so you got your dream apartment. Yeah. And then about 2020, you started to launch the brand.

Leo Gonzalez: And what was the first shoe meaning of the collection?

Paul Cohalan: The ones you talked about earlier? And then when did you start doing these?

Leo Gonzalez: Was it after, by the pandemic? We started doing this, like at the start or the almost mid pandemic.

Paul Cohalan: I was going to say a year in. Two years in. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So 2,000 samples.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. Okay. So just. Okay, so 20, 21. Roughly 22. When did these launch?

Leo Gonzalez: Wow. Tim is so good with his timing. I'm just so focused on the design insight. It's been like, what, like a year and a half?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. So it takes the time. Eh?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh yeah. Look, like when it comes to shoes, it's not like closing. Look, shoes is if you want to make 5,000 to 500,000 pair of shoes, let's say it'll take the same time to make three months.

Paul Cohalan: Because it's the creation piece.

Leo Gonzalez: It's like it's just a process. You cannot. Just because you're making, let's say 200 pair of shoes doesn't say. Don't mean that it's going to be done in three weeks. No, you're going to take two months and a half. That's how it is. Two months and a half. And if I'm making a million pair, it takes the same amount.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Because that's the production side.

Leo Gonzalez: The production side, they open the chain and you know, it's how it is.

Paul Cohalan: It's the creation bit. Right? Yeah. So last five years, roughly, like, talk to me. New women, new dating. Are you dating? Too busy with business?

Leo Gonzalez: Not really, man. Like, yeah, he's been tough, man. I recently just broke up.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, you did?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I recently just broke up.

Paul Cohalan: How long were you with this one for?

Leo Gonzalez: About a year and a half.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it was my fault.

Paul Cohalan: Your fault?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I cheated.

Paul Cohalan: I cheated. Wow. Boom.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Do you know, hang on a sec. That's. That's gives me chills. That's pretty amazing, being so vulnerable and accountable like that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: A lot of guys won't, man.

Leo Gonzalez: Goes back to your values because, you know, I just, you know, cheating me. Well, cheated, kissing, sleeping with is same thing.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: But I didn't slept with a woman and you know, the way it happened,.

Paul Cohalan: You know, and this is a local. Perth. She's in Perth.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, no. Oh, she's in Perth.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, she's in Perth.

Leo Gonzalez: She's in Perth. But she's now originating from here. I don't want to mention her name.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah, of course. But.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, but the way it happens, you know, I let myself down and I hurt someone that I really love, you know, and that was what bothers me. Cause I don't like hurting people. I really don't like hurting anyone, you know. And it was one of those nights that, you know, someone approached me and got close, started talking and just kiss and I follow. And then I feel the guilt right away.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Cause I remember, I swear, man, I can tell you this. I remember when it happens. And I stopped. I pretended that I was looking for my guy friend and I didn't want to continue, so I kept looking sideways Because I didn't want to. Yeah. And then when the person went away, I just text my partner and saying that I miss her because I feel guilty.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That's when I knew I was guilty. I felt guilty.

Paul Cohalan: She must have meant a lot to you, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like for you to go, like, instant.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And also your values and everything that we've just spoke about.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like just all that. And then, like, so she. She's a big party world.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Great with my kids, man. Because you know what it is? I'm really super protective with my kids. My kids haven't met, like, woman like that, you know, like, you know, she's special, you know, like, and. And the tree should have been better.

Paul Cohalan: But I just met.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You know, it's crazy because, you know, remember I haven't been in a commitment relationship for years.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So I didn't know how to treat a proper relationship. It just. It happens, you know? And I took things for granted. And by even doing that, I felt horrible. And they can believe it or not, I know how I felt. Because now I wouldn't even mention it here. I could have skipped him and say, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, whatever.

Leo Gonzalez: You know. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, but I'm in that process that, you know, like, I'm taking therapy.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And it feels great, you know, because I just want to better for whoever come in the future. I'm focusing my brand and stuff, you know?

Paul Cohalan: But you and. And big shift, right? Big kicking, basically.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And you. You. You grow and be such a better human.

Leo Gonzalez: Like I said. Like I said before.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Not regret. You know what I'm saying? Because I put it this way, man. If. If me doing that will make me a better person and my ex will keep me, and I've gave her my best.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That was a lesson that I learned.

Paul Cohalan: Huge lesson.

Leo Gonzalez: Right.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Now if I wouldn't get a chance, I'm gonna change for someone else in the future and I'm gonna give a better life. Better. You understand what I mean?

Paul Cohalan: So I resonate with it.

Leo Gonzalez: So to me.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I don't regret it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That I would do that again. No way. Yeah. But that's exactly. You know, and it's.

Paul Cohalan: And it's your development out of that. Right. Because, like I separated two and a half years ago. And like, when finally when you're together, you go tit for tat when you're arguing like it wasn't the same scenario, but you still as a man, I wasn't Mature enough. I didn't probably know how to create that safe space. Like, we argued too much in the end for whatever other reason. 16 Years.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Now, man, I've done so much work, and it's like, I. I tell everyone, I'm like, I'm gonna have the best relationship.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Whatever that is.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, when it comes. You know, like. Because I see and I get excited.

Paul Cohalan: About it because I'm like, I've grown so much as a man, and that's.

Leo Gonzalez: What I want to see. Like, you know, and you have, obviously. And, you know, when I look at myself, like, you know, even growing with this company, I already have opened my heart, my home, my kids to this person.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So to me. To me, I'm like, no, I don't want anyone else, you know, but this.

Paul Cohalan: One, you know, And I think if this person, which I don't know who it is, I think. I think there's a little bit in the heart there. So.

Leo Gonzalez: No, of course it's. It happened recently. You know, I was a really recent. Yeah, it's fresh. It's fresh, man. I'm talking about, like, not even almost three weeks.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, bro.

Paul Cohalan: Okay.

Leo Gonzalez: It's fresh. It's fresh.

Paul Cohalan: Watch this.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, it's fresh.

Paul Cohalan: And I. I didn't realize that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, no, no.

Paul Cohalan: Sorry to bring it up, but.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, it's all good. It's a good thing.

Paul Cohalan: We.

Leo Gonzalez: This is why we're here. To be real, you know, authentic man. You know, do you know what?

Paul Cohalan: Just on that. And it just shows. And me and a mate the other day, we sat with Leo for a little bit. And after. And even the next day, we're chatting about it, I said, I'm gonna hit Leo up. Come on here. And it's like, we just talked about how much of a kind person he is in the values. And we don't know you that well. Like, you know, we've chatted, but you can tell when you talk. And like, even today, just going from mum to the brothers to, you know, to three weeks ago, and you're sitting here putting your hand up. Oh, yeah, man, that's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: You know? You know one thing, man. You know, Vulnerability, accountability. When you're wrong, you cannot lie. Cause then you're lying to yourself, and then you're not. You're not gonna be happy.

Paul Cohalan: Firstly, yeah, don't even worry about everyone else.

Leo Gonzalez: Cause I come as a man, and I come and I say, look, I did this. I don't blame no one but me. I was There. And for that to happen, someone initiated, either her or me. She initiated. I don't need to lie about it. I'm being straightforward. How I felt. It was no good after. And what bothers the most is that only the. I believe the only bell that sounds is the other side. So I haven't been in contact because I've been blocked. Whatever, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And I understand how painful and angry she. That. That I hate it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I caused that.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Yeah. And you can't change it.

Leo Gonzalez: No. And you can. And you just want to better and show. But sometimes you don't have the opportunity to show, you know? But. Yeah, man, it just. Yeah, it sucks, man. It sucks when you hurt someone that you care.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: It's not like it was a bad relationship. The love was gone. And she did this, I did that. There's nothing, you know, it just. Yeah, it sucks.

Paul Cohalan: Look, once again, go back to God, universe. You know, things meant to be. It's really cool that you. I got a lot out of that, you know, being accountable. And I try to be all the time. And we know we're far from perfect, you know, we're always learning.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, you're always learning.

Paul Cohalan: We're human beings.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Which is our detriment a lot of the time. But it's also why we love life and enjoy it also and appreciate. And I think sometimes you don't realize what you got until it's gone. But thanks for sharing that. That's amazing. And I hope a lot of people get out of that. Guys struggle to do that a lot.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, they do. But, you know, like, man, you have to. Just. When there's someone that you do care.

Paul Cohalan: And it outweighs any pride or anything. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And it makes me feel like I feel more relieved because I don't. I don't lie of what happened, you know?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I don't. I don't. You know, I feel. I feel better. I'm saying the truth. If that makes me, for some people, like, oh, what an idiot. What are these? You know, that's their opinion. It's how I feel that matters.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So to me, you know, like, yeah, it happens. It can happen to anyone.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I didn't look for it. I'll tell you this. I didn't look for it because I was at the moment smoking my cigar. I was in Bali. I was smoking my cigar with a friend of mine. We were just talking. I even. I would talk to him before coming here.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And. And were just talking. Hey, man, we need to catch up one more time. You know, it's funny because, you know, it happened when I wasn't even looking. I was just having fun with this guy. And then you just up in the moment the person started looking and coming up to me, you know, and it just happened. But you know, good on her like, you know, whatever she said in her side, I know what happened. And yep, my friend was there too, so.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Real good. Well, hopefully, you know, maybe you get seen out of this or whatever. But obviously you're putting that energy off and as always. So the universe does funny things. So a little bit of time. Three weeks is not. Not long either. Yeah, like so.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it's tough, but yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And you're a great guy. I'm guessing hurt her feelings didn't just cut off. They just don't do that when it's amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: No, it's okay. No, you cannot lie like when you have a almost a year relationship.

Paul Cohalan: But it doesn't just cut off.

Leo Gonzalez: We both hurt. Of course we both hurt. And you know, sometimes, you know, I think like woman can. They can act better than us, you know, Way better.

Paul Cohalan: They're more mature, they're more intuitive. Intuitive.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man.

Paul Cohalan: And they, yeah, they can, yeah, they.

Leo Gonzalez: Can make us look like this and we're like. And they suffering just like us, you know, they are, you know, you're in pain, you know, there's no way you can delete.

Paul Cohalan: They're emotional creatures and they in.

Leo Gonzalez: In three weeks, you know, like, no,.

Paul Cohalan: You can't, you can't.

Leo Gonzalez: But yeah, it's tough, you know, I don't wish that to anyone. Far out.

Paul Cohalan: I think there's a few learnings out of that and a bit of a message. What. Talk to me about the cars, driving.

Leo Gonzalez: Cars and I'll talk a bit about it.

Paul Cohalan: But don't talk too much. Yeah, yeah, I understand.

Leo Gonzalez: Like I tell you something too about that regarding the cars, you know, and being doing the kind of job that I do.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Elaborate what you can on it, obviously. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Cool thing is going back to God again. And I know people are gonna be like, wow, this guy came to preach. But you know, it's. Cause based on my life of thing that happened, you know, also when. When I wanted it to work hard and to try to buy a car, you know, dream car. Cause it's a boy thing, you know. Cars.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah, I know I got bikes.

Leo Gonzalez: And cars, you know, put all the effort in my passion on my shoes. I'm In a position job wise that God put me there like so.

Paul Cohalan: The fever so fit.

Leo Gonzalez: The fever gonna be gone. That means, that means. Listen to me, I love this. Listen. How crazy. In New York, when I was working as a construction, I bought the AMG 2003.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: 2003AMG, Mercedes Benz S Class. That used to. What was it? It was used. But back then people thought, oh, he's in drug. That guy is too young. That was my passion to get one of those car. One day I told my mom when I was working construction. That was back then, it was wait, 20, 22. Wait, I'm really bad. Wait, 2003 is a model? Yeah, I think it was 2003. Yeah, 2003, I think it was. I remember saying like, oh man, one day I'm gonna get more cars and all this and that. And I never got to, to get those dream cars.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And then, you know, I'm in a position that, you know, we work, I get to drive anything, you know. And now the fever is done. So.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: So I'm in a spot that now like you get to make million, let's say. And you're not gonna chase cars no more.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. And your energy and focus and your energy goes to what you love. Teaching you a lesson.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it's just how things work. Like, you know, I'm pushing to be global and here we are like not thinking about, yeah, I'm gonna buy the first car. No, that's done. That's cause God put me in the spot here. You always dream to.

Paul Cohalan: What's your favorite car these days?

Leo Gonzalez: I love comfortable car. I'm American, man. And you know what it is? I'm not too into this.

Paul Cohalan: So. Not the sports region.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, man. Yeah. My big car. Even if they're not luxury. Like I'm a big fan of the roles.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because they're comfortable.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: They may buy, they may back, you know, like I like comfortable cars. You know, remember, like I might not look the age, but sometimes you feel.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: But yeah, I like comfortable cars. That's all. I just like comfy, you know. And yeah, it's my. One of my favorites.

Paul Cohalan: So. As well as driving. And I didn't really know this until there was a chick I met the other week.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And she actually told me you're the security side as well. Yeah. Obviously. That's why I asked you about combat sports earlier in training.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like the security.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Do you like to that you call it bodyguard? Security is different what do you call it?

Leo Gonzalez: It's more like. It's more.

Paul Cohalan: I think, like, you tell me. I'm just learning.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I think like your security. Security to me is when you have a set time.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And you go home.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And there's Portugal and. And there's things. They don't get to talk next to you. You just use an employee like that. I don't get treated like that. Yeah, yeah, of course. You know, I'm inside.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. You're part of.

Leo Gonzalez: And I'm 24 7.

Paul Cohalan: Part of the furniture.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yep, yep.

Leo Gonzalez: It's different. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: With that, obviously, and what you just said. 24 7, Obviously. And I'm really curious about this. No matter who. Who. Who it's with or what and why and when people do this, do you get a lot of time to yourself or is it like. Yeah, you do still? Yeah, but it's like. Because a lot of be pre. Pram. But then also there'd be ad hoc, and I could only imagine where it's at.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, I used to do it back in New York, too.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, you did? Hey.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I used to do it back in New York, and I used to.

Paul Cohalan: How long did you do it for over there?

Leo Gonzalez: Five years.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Well, so you love that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You know why? Because you're networking. Networking. And also you do get time. Because back then I used to bring my book. There was no iPad pro. I used to bring my book and draw. And then I used to teach the kids of my guy.

Paul Cohalan: How good is that?

Leo Gonzalez: How to draw? Because they see me drawing and they'd be like, oh, can I sit in the front? And you know, and I was working for big family in the state. Oh, yeah, man. And this kid, they were crazy with me. And I love kids, and I used to just tell them, hey, draw this, do this, do that. So my routine was full on there. In New York, it's different.

Paul Cohalan: Is it really?

Leo Gonzalez: This is safe here.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. Harder over there.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: There.

Leo Gonzalez: Cause people know, you know, it's different, man. You know, there I used to just go stay in class with the kids. They go to fence to train there. They go swimming. It was different. It's different. Different.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So when. How much travel do you do from here? Do you do a lot?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: You do?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah, we do a lot. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And what's the. So probably might be New York. What was the most. What's the most challenging place in that role in term of, like, country or where you go or travel or Hardest, like, because you're obviously getting on a plane, you're traveling. Like, it can't be all be fun with what you're doing, obviously. Or is it.

Leo Gonzalez: I can talk based on the. On the cab in New York.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Yep.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. The New York going to heaps different.

Leo Gonzalez: Going to Greece.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, going to Greece.

Leo Gonzalez: It was different.

Paul Cohalan: Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, it was different, you know, because we're talking about this family back in New York. They. They huge, man. They, like, up there, like, you know,.

Paul Cohalan: Was it just you or was there more?

Leo Gonzalez: No, four of us.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I was gonna say, it sounds like there would have been more.

Leo Gonzalez: It was four of us.

Paul Cohalan: How many kids are, like, having the family when they travel?

Leo Gonzalez: Two kids. Two kids. Six nannies.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, wow.

Leo Gonzalez: Two kids, six. 95 Drivers.

Paul Cohalan: How do you get into that?

Leo Gonzalez: It's crazy. I got into it because the street, like, I was always like, you know, I got a friend of mine that was a police officer and where I grew up, he said, man, you know, you should try to get this job. You know, I'm gonna retire and.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, maybe Succession plan. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: It's crazy because he was saying to me, instead of, this area is getting rough because, you know, I'm telling you, when the crack pandemic and all this stuff.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: I said, you know what, man? I don't want to do that job because, you know, that's like being a butler. I used to look at it that way. I didn't know then he's like, no, it's not like that. Just call me, you know. So one day I said, you know what? Let me go and see. So I met the kids, and, you know, they were cool with me. And then I said, okay, fine. So I started as driving. I started first driving, and then the family put me in the course how to do the escaping and all this stuff. Like, so then I started, like, learning. So I learned because of this guy that put me on.

Paul Cohalan: Yep. So it was early days for you, so. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I didn't know nothing about.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Wow. So. So. So just what you touched on then, like, how much is there to learn? Like, outside, what I'd know. Like, then see, you drive and just be a bodyguard, you know, like, you.

Leo Gonzalez: Just have to be ready for whatever.

Paul Cohalan: Your attention and your awareness must be, like, different to all of us, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, you have to be ready for whatever, you know, like any. Any. Anyone that. That does this kind of job is either your life or nothing, you know, but here it's safe. Like I said, like, yeah, but I'm ready for whatever yeah, yeah. That's not always on. There's no doubt about it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Always no doubt about it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: I go first before anyone. Like if. Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: If it come to any situation.

Leo Gonzalez: That's how it is.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. Wow.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I was going to say to you before, so the whole people skills thing, like over everything we've talked about, how many people do you keep in contact with and like from New York. Yeah, yeah. From the journey, from the shoes to the. What about, what about. Who was it? Louis. Louis.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, like, it's funny because Luis, when I came, when I.

Paul Cohalan: In the end, we didn't get there.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. When I end up doing, sorry, Labyrinth.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Then I called Luis and I said, I got my own company because Luis super talented, but he's not a leader.

Paul Cohalan: And not business minded.

Leo Gonzalez: This is where I tell you that some people are born to be leaders. Some people are born just to work, which is fine.

Paul Cohalan: And we need that to fight.

Leo Gonzalez: We need that to get, you know,.

Paul Cohalan: The world goes around like that.

Leo Gonzalez: So he had 19 year working with this company. I was like, brother, you the brain of the company. Like, you.

Paul Cohalan: What are you doing?

Leo Gonzalez: Why can't you just come? They don't risk, you know, again, they don't see vision further than in the comfort zone. Yeah, yeah, in the comfort zone. And then it's funny because then when I have the other Labyrinth footwear, I say, I might need you to work and do me some stuff and work with me. Yeah, yeah. But Leo, you know, how much you gonna pay me? You know, like, can you believe this? This is a man that inspired me. So then were just doing sketching and coming up with ideas, you know, and yeah, we was just working together and then he got busy. Now he's working with a brand called A Solo.

Paul Cohalan: A Solo. Where are they?

Leo Gonzalez: They're from State.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, State. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So now he's the big head whatever of that, but you know, again, he's just used to comfy. To work with people. People.

Paul Cohalan: Yep. So you would have inspired him a bit to shift out of there.

Leo Gonzalez: He was shocked. That damn. You've been doing all these, you know, like. He was shocked.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. I said, man, you would add so much catch up. You remember when I stole that book off the basketball court, man?

Leo Gonzalez: Thank you, man. You know what? It's 10:23. Let me see. He, I, I think Luis, Matt. So let me see if I still have the.

Paul Cohalan: That's so amazing, man.

Leo Gonzalez: That would be crazy.

Paul Cohalan: Actually, actually the shift the moment was do not open that Book. Yeah, that was the case.

Leo Gonzalez: But, yeah. And then it's crazy, you know, and then doing this with his shoes.

Paul Cohalan: And what about, like. So. And. And I. I know you probably won't want touch on it much. The way you spoke is the Mayweather thing. Is there any relationship there or, you know, the. The other bigger names? Like, what about. Is there any going back and doing maybe shoes for the rapper? Like, just.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, no, we. We trying to. Like, what we doing at the moment also is getting in touch with big DJs.

Paul Cohalan: Yep. JJ's. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. And also I have a lot of contact with good celebrities.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So we just, like, sourcing out, like, the best time because some of them have deals with people, so, you know this.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So there's all that contractual something.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Politics.

Leo Gonzalez: And, you know, some. Some people have the same vision of you, and this is when, you know you. Great.

Paul Cohalan: Because.

Leo Gonzalez: Because it happens a lot that I come with designs and then I see somebody else doing something similar.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: And it's not copying. It just happened. That, you know, just a similar vision just happened. And sometime, like, I have contact people that they have no deal with sneakers. And as soon as we start talking and pitching, like, whatever they think someone else already did that. They're bigger than us. And, you know, we just have to catch the right opportunities.

Paul Cohalan: Timing's everything as well. Right. Timing is a big piece. And it goes back to what me and you were saying. Whatever way we want to put it, timing's everything. But if it's meant to be, the timing will be okay. But you've got to also be willing to go. Timing's not right.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, put the. The greatest and the more wealthy people out there, they never made it at an early age. You know, if you look at the.

Paul Cohalan: KFC guy, KFC 65, come on. Boom.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, And I know some people will say, oh, yeah, if you're going to follow that, you're going to die being all. You know, that's the way you seeing it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: But the one who's doing it, he's enjoying it.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Enjoy the process, not the finish line.

Leo Gonzalez: He's enjoying it.

Paul Cohalan: If you look on some of my socials, I might have taken it off now, but. But there is no finish line.

Leo Gonzalez: No, man.

Paul Cohalan: Enjoy the journey.

Leo Gonzalez: Enjoy the journey.

Paul Cohalan: I used to always say, enjoy the journey. Just enjoy it before I even thought about this, and I thought about this three years ago. But it's enjoy the journey and the hustle and the, like, the bit that gets you there. If you don't enjoy that you're chasing money then so that you won't get through the hard days. Cause you've got to have passion. I always say this. Even young people. I'm gonna start a business. I'm like, do you know what you wanna love what you do? The reason is it's not the good days. It's not the high fives. We can all can do that, right? Yeah. I want a contract or want a client. It's the hard days. When you're laying on the floor at 3am in the morning. And I only done this last year as well. When you're laying there and then you can go all right. Over it. Now I'm not gonna. I'm gonna pull my head out of the sand. Let's go. Next day when you can do that. And it like that is the fire in the belly.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, When I see also celebrities, right. That they have sneaker company, let's say, or clothes. And yeah. The feeling, I tell you this. The feeling that I get. The feeling that I get. The feeling that I get. No one like us can get it. Like, you know, let's say I'm gonna use a random.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Let's say Puff Daddy.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: He got a label called Shang John in the past.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Okay.

Leo Gonzalez: You would have passed by him with his jacket. He wouldn't know that's his jacket. Cause he got people like me designing. I'm at the airport heading to Dubai. I see someone passing with my shoes.

Paul Cohalan: You're like, they're my shoes.

Leo Gonzalez: I know. Yeah, I know that.

Paul Cohalan: And I like them legs.

Leo Gonzalez: That's priceless.

Paul Cohalan: They're my shoes.

Leo Gonzalez: That's priceless. You understand that feeling that you get because you know, you did the creation, you got it out there and someone liked it and bought it. That feeling is priceless.

Paul Cohalan: When you design, you have a 0.1 mil between the sole and you got.

Leo Gonzalez: When you have celebrities that they like just to do this, say that because people get in it. The hype is messed up out there sometimes because they give the credit to the one that do not deserve it. Being a designer, I always say this to people. I know that AI exists, but it need us, you know? Yeah, but being a designer, you need to know how to draw. And I'm explaining you this and break it down. So some people are gonna hate it. But listen, being a designer, like, my favorite designer was Versace Johiyamamoto from Adida. YM3. McQueen. Alexander McQueen. McQueen is McQueen, I believe we'll Have.

Paul Cohalan: A look at that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, we'll look it up.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: But what I'm saying with is those. They draw. I remember when Versace got killed. Like, I bet you 90, 100% of the people don't even remember who killed Versace. It was Kunana. You understand what I mean? Yep. Like, when I hear these people don't. They don't know, you know, like, that man used to draw. That man used to like Oscar de la Renta from Dominican Republic. Only like the queens wear his stuff, you know, So I have so much respect for designer. And we live in an era that today everybody call themselves designer. And I'm like, no, but you don't know how to draw. Oh, no, that. You don't need this day. We live in that. No, no, you need to have that creativity that comes from you. You know, when Andrew Conana killed Versace, I remember Versace started selling even more and I'm like, how silly. Now it's a guy like me that designing it's not Versace no more. So the soul died. So to me, you have to. You know, being a creative director is how you should call these people these days, because they create and they direct me.

Paul Cohalan: Yes, but really deep down. And you wouldn't always get the credit. Look what you said about Vita earlier, you go create and then you go give it on, and they don't even know, but they like it. But that's another business model, right? It's not wrong or right.

Leo Gonzalez: If it works just because you're a celebrity and you have the right connection, good on you.

Paul Cohalan: It's about money and brand. It's a different. It's different. It's not the love, the care, the meaning, the creative.

Leo Gonzalez: Good on you. If you have the opportunity, good on you. But do not compare yourself to me.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I get you.

Leo Gonzalez: Let's have things straight. You know, you're creative director, meaning you create it and you direct. You say to me, it's like me telling you, hey, Paul, see that piece of leather?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Put it there and put that there.

Paul Cohalan: I love to look there.

Leo Gonzalez: Put it there. I like it like that. Let me see you come and take a picture. Oh, he's a genius. No, you're not a genius. No, you're not a genius. And it's not that I don't respect your job. It's the way you want to. To sell yourself that I don't like.

Paul Cohalan: Who. Who molded the last for that?

Leo Gonzalez: You understand what I mean?

Paul Cohalan: Who done the last?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You know, like, you need to know these Things, you know, and it goes a long way, you know, like me living in China, learning how to make the shoes in the factory, Getting high with a.

Paul Cohalan: With the glue.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I wanted to learn. You understand what I mean? Like, I'm there. Like, oh, man. You know, like, this glue is killing me. But I need to do this before nighttime.

Paul Cohalan: Do you know, the positive out of this, dude? Like, you know, we all follow socials and all that stuff. Like, I follow, you know, key marketing people in the world. And the world's changing. Right. So much tech. Yeah. And I'm. I love AI and all that as well. Right. For a place. But I also like the traditional piece. Now what they're saying in the future is we'll probably pay people to go for a walk with them. Right, Right. And Mother Nature. And libraries. Libraries are going nuts because people just need to shut off. And the more we do tech. Sit here all day. Yeah. The more we're gonna need the traditional. Like, that's what keeps coming to my head every time you speak. Cause there's not gonna be as many of you. No, it's going to get rarer.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, you.

Paul Cohalan: More value will come into this.

Leo Gonzalez: Yep. You know. You know, I. I always say, like, our kids gonna leave a generation where there's gonna be more rich and billionaires.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: In our era.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Well, there are years. Every year.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Every country, every year, man.

Leo Gonzalez: Look, when I look at my son and his cousin already at 50, already making that. That money.

Paul Cohalan: I can't wait to have him on. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. I'm like, listen. I tell you guys something. There's more cloth and all this thing coming out. Like, there's a lot of things that people just gonna sit at home and have money coming in. And it might sound like, oh, yeah, right. Yeah, right. No, you guys will see. It's gonna create more millionaires. But at the same time, like, look now, like, when you go to the supermarket, I still look for the cashier woman.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I don't like to just deal with technology.

Paul Cohalan: You're old school, right?

Leo Gonzalez: I don't like to deal just with technology. I can go and do the tapping and thing, but I like to talk sometime. Hey, how's your day going?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Like, we losing all that. Yeah, we're losing that. But at the same time, people always gonna want to go back.

Paul Cohalan: Always a touch of humanity. Go send someone a letter now, snail. Mao. How much will it mean to them?

Leo Gonzalez: Human touch. Human touch. It's like, I don't know if you've seen that movie called Equilibrium. You should look it up.

Paul Cohalan: I don't know. I'm gonna look it up.

Leo Gonzalez: Equilibrium is based on that Equilibrium is based on. Is the guy from American Psycho. He was Batman. What's his name?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I'm not good.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, there's a guy. Anyway, this guy, he live in the world that you not supposed to smile. You're not supposed to have emotion. So they try to burn everything. Like you know, all the art, everything. And you know, long story short, the movie is get rid of anything that was man made affect. And that can affect emotion.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: If it's gonna rain, it's gonna give you happiness is. I'm gonna just dark it out. Dark it out. I don't want you to see this. You cannot smile. You cannot like show love, you know. And when I say this, it's like we head into a way that people are getting more lonely and just re like the computer is taking over. Or if it's not the computer is a phone. If it's not that, you know, they feeling more comfortable by themselves because they. Now you could talk to GPT.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. What month are you. What month are you born?

Leo Gonzalez: April. I'm Aries. Yeah. April.

Paul Cohalan: Did we talk about this?

Leo Gonzalez: No.

Paul Cohalan: What date?

Leo Gonzalez: 26Th.

Paul Cohalan: 16Th.

Leo Gonzalez: No way.

Paul Cohalan: Hey, do you just talking about more natural stuff, which I'm fast, you know, fast paced. All the kind of stuff. Right. Tech love it, all that. But I also love. And especially last couple of years, but for about five, probably about eight years breath work, all that kind of stuff.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I. I've just always my nervous system obviously when you're like this goes up and down. Always been a bit of a roller coaster. But I love that stuff. Right.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And now I'm probably more consistent than ever trying to get in there. Do you like that stuff? Do you like the whole breath work, meditation, all that? Is it. Is it a thing you. This is just a left field question.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no, no. Yeah. You could ask me anything. Remember we open man. You know, like I never done that.

Paul Cohalan: But what about ice bath and any of that stuff?

Leo Gonzalez: I try. I try ice bath. I try to go to the beach in the morning and it feels amazing. You know, cold water, you know. But one thing with me, you know, is just. It's crazy because when it comes, let's say to training, I always go heavy. Right?

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: So I got this.

Paul Cohalan: Give it everything you got.

Leo Gonzalez: I got this theory that works for me.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That I don't eat green, by the way. I don't eat vegetables.

Paul Cohalan: Don't. Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no. I don't eat nothing. Nothing that is green.

Paul Cohalan: Do you know what?

Leo Gonzalez: I could eat tomato, but green give me no shoes.

Paul Cohalan: Is that a vomit?

Leo Gonzalez: I can vomit. Yeah, yeah. And people make fun of me. Oh, my friend, they all know this.

Paul Cohalan: And we're sitting in green chairs, so I should have covered them up for you, man.

Leo Gonzalez: No, no. Another thing that I'm going to tell you. I'm colorblind and you look at the shoes. I'm a designer.

Paul Cohalan: Guys. Did you just hear that?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. There's no limit, you know, you're amazing. There's no limit.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I got a story in buckets.

Paul Cohalan: The one roadblock.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: That would have built your resilience is being colorblind.

Leo Gonzalez: Promote. Oh, what is the name? I forgot the name. Mine is not black and white. Mine is like right now. I'll say. Can you like the red color? This? Yeah, I can see it with no problem. And being colorblind. Only men's no woman. And I say this because only men. Only men can be colorblind. Women can't. Yeah, yeah. So you cannot be electrician or pilot, you know, when you're colorblind because, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah. Do we have to about the obvious?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. But this color right here, I can see it. I can see it. But I got the glasses at home. The glasses, what they do, they enhance the color to be stronger. So when I put the glasses, they look dark, but they're not. I see just like you then. And it just give the color more richness. Like, you know, I can see it when I take them off. They look a little bit sapient, but I can still see that it's red.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: But there's few color. I got problem with orange, green, browns. When those colors are like around each other, it throw me off. Like the.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I found out I was colorblind here in person because back in New York, my mother used to say to me, you know, when you're gonna get dressed, you go shower and you put your clothes on the bed. I used to put this shirt and my jeans and I'd be like, hey, mom, I put my navy blue shirt and my thing, please don't sit on the bed to my brother. She's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, yeah, my navy blue. She's like, come in. Are you blind? And she would say that, but she don't know.

Paul Cohalan: So you didn't know for a long time?

Leo Gonzalez: No, I didn't know. I found out In Perth, because one day, it's crazy.

Paul Cohalan: No way.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, brother.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. You did not know he come to Perth.

Leo Gonzalez: But I even cry when I put the glasses because the glass. First time I see, like the way you see.

Paul Cohalan: And you were 31 when you come to Perth, brother. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And guess what I remember when I'm in New York, I'm like, mom, nah, that's my navy blue. She's like, look at it again. Look at again. My mom is, you know, she don't know nothing about, you know. I'm like, all right, mom, okay, whatever. And then I was thinking like, am I blind? What is it? You know? So when I came to prayer, I let that go. But then I remember designing. I used to messed up color. And I'm like, oh, man. Yeah. I was like telling the factory, no, you know, I gave you a color that it was navy blue and gray like the Yankees. I was making a sample and I was giving him a color that it was like burgundy, brother.

Paul Cohalan: So why you got told no a lot, you know, when you got going for.

Leo Gonzalez: Well, you know, who knows?

Paul Cohalan: This is why we do this. You go back over it. You're like, you never know.

Leo Gonzalez: And then I went to this place, I think I was. I was driving around and he says, colorblind test. And I went and I said, hey.

Paul Cohalan: And it clicked.

Leo Gonzalez: I want to do the test. Oh, can you see my vision? Fine. Everything's fine. Then they were like, oh, yeah, you have this, that. And they tell me the name. And I was like, wow. So how can I fix it? Oh, no, you cannot fix it. What you can do, there's some glasses that will make you look at the color, more richness. And you can have it closer. But once you take them off, you're back to normal.

Paul Cohalan: Do you wanna. You wanna hear something really funny?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: So where do you think I was yesterday afternoon? So my driver that drives me around cause I've got no license. He knows I love relationships and people's skills. Right? Yeah. And I like nice stuff and all that. Right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And he's like, I've gotta introduce you to these two Macedonian brothers. Yeah. So it's specs in Beaufort Street. Yeah, So I went yesterday. So four years ago, I went with my ex wife, get mine tested. She walked out with glasses. But now lately I've been like squinting the last couple of months. He goes, I'll take you there. And they got like. They're like really nice, cool, different, like Musanago or something. I bought and I Never heard them. Japan slash Italian, whatever. But once again, you go in there, have a little shot, like the people skills thing. But I. I end up having to buy a pair yesterday. These black and gold pairs really wear first. First time ever.

Leo Gonzalez: But you know what's crazy? The. The glasses that I have, they look like Ray Ban. They regular, like, you know, like normal, but they're special. They go, I think 500 something. You know, they just. Especially just for colorblind people. So if you put them on, you see normal.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Or you might see a little bit dark. But when I put them on, I see exactly.

Paul Cohalan: I didn't realize how much is to them, like, yeah, she was like, putting the thing over and she's like. Because I was blurry. Yeah. Like up close a little bit long distance. She goes, you'll get away with it. But there's all these options. I'm like, oh, yeah. I was in there for like two hours. Besides having a shot of rakia as well with the Matteo. But so just quickly, Yani and Marty and you guys are coming on here. We spoke about. Yeah. And we're talking cigars. I think they just joined Devlins as well. Nice.

Leo Gonzalez: I used to get my cigar at Devlin. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. I've been a member there about six years, actually. Yeah. So coincidentally, I've ordered them two weeks. I've got to have glasses now as well. Not for colorblind, but yeah. So colorblind. They can. They can help you.

Leo Gonzalez: There's one. There's one that is the worst. That is black and white. You don't see.

Paul Cohalan: That's. No. No color.

Leo Gonzalez: There's no color, man.

Paul Cohalan: There's so much to learn about you.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man. And, you know, and people always say that once they know, they like, so you top designer, but you colorblind. How fucked up is that? I'm like, no, he's not.

Paul Cohalan: This is the nugget out of this podcast, every podcast. And people are like, yeah, no, it's just. I've been on my journey, but there's always nuggets that there is so contradicting.

Leo Gonzalez: Like, this is navy blue to me. Right?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And I was like, Tim helped me. Like, hey, team, I want this color. What do you think about. He's like, you know, what color is that? I'm like, not. I think his name is blue, Right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So let's do it that color. You know, so, you know, there's some colors that I get throw up.

Paul Cohalan: Oh. So. And. And obviously, if you can designing.

Leo Gonzalez: I always talk to team yeah. When it comes to the colors.

Paul Cohalan: But. But what I was saying is if. If it's a color that you get, like the navy blue you're close with, you obviously use them also because you can see and visual and create. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I use one thing that I do a lot. I use, like, basketball team colorway theme to not mess it up.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Now with the factory, like, if I want red, I'd go, like, I know the red is the Chicago you see.

Paul Cohalan: You must love the Jordan. Sorry to buddy. And you must love the Jordan story at the movie. Like, you know, everybody before the movie, before.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I got to meet him once. I got to meet him once in the club back in New York. My God, man, that you must have.

Paul Cohalan: Been like, fucking, bro.

Leo Gonzalez: I grew up when he was his prime and it was a club, man. It was crazy because I was in that club. Cause, man, I used to do modeling, bro, too, like back in New York.

Paul Cohalan: Modeling?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man. Yeah, bro. They used to, like, pay us to go to the clubs and make the table look full, you know, whatever. Behind me. Because there was a lot of celebrity back then when we used to do it behind me. I remember a friend of mine saying, oh, MJ is in the back. So I'm thinking he's joking. I think he's saying, Michael Jackson.

Paul Cohalan: I'm thinking, oh, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So even that would have been right? So, yeah. So I'm like, mj.

Paul Cohalan: Nah.

Leo Gonzalez: I'm like, yeah, whatever. So I'm sitting down in the couch, and behind me there's a wall and there's like, bars there because it's second level. And Jordan is sitting right there and Derek Jeter, the baseball player is sitting with him. So I did not know. And then he said, like, oh, that smoke of a cigar is MJ smoking? He was smoking. So I look back, I froze, bro. I've never knew that human being can coast. Imagine we call him the snake in Spanish. Like, the way he move in the air, hand time.

Paul Cohalan: Like, is that right?

Leo Gonzalez: Jordan is like. They call him la culebra in Spanish. Like, this man is a dream idol of any human out there. Athletic, man, brother. And I went like this. Hey, champ. And I went like this. I remember with my face. And he went like that to me.

Paul Cohalan: I was like, you never forget that, brother.

Leo Gonzalez: I was like, that's Michael Jordan. I told, brother. I couldn't believe it. I was like, man, in the club, who would have thought that he was gonna be in here sitting down? But, you know, a lot of celebrities used to go out to that club. New York is. It's always been like that. You can bump in with a lot of people in the street.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: America is crazy. You know, it's. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. And, you know, something I resonate with something you told me earlier. His mom backed him.

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Like, his mom backed him. Like, I know, probably different to the movie. Right. I only know the movie style, but when she rang up, she negotiated the royalties and everything. It is big reason why he's where he is today and still making more money than he ever made.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And like. Like, that's cool. And it just goes. Not so much the money, but goes back to the value and the backing and the belief.

Leo Gonzalez: When you have a mom. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I'm telling you, man, like what you said at the start of the podcast, man. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Like, when you have a mom that. That, you know, give you wings, man. You know, and believe, man.

Paul Cohalan: You know, so. So talking about this. Let's. We've been going a couple hours now, which. Mate, I could talk for another couple hours with you, but let's touch on the clothing, man. Let's touch on the clothing is.

Leo Gonzalez: I'm so excited, man. You know why? Because I'm gonna be doing things so different and cool, man. Cause I loving art the way, you know, I'm a big fan of Salvador Dali, Picasso, and de la Vega. De La Vega is a Puerto Rican that live in New York, and he's a street artist, and he has so many great quotes. And I'm gonna start using a lot of these things.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And if you see, man, like, the art that we coming with, we just want to make, like, some of the clothing a little bit vintage with history of art. And also using iconic, like the movie, like, you can see, like this one, like, Back to the Future movie.

Paul Cohalan: That nostalgia connection. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That you'd be like, wow, man. You know, like, that's cool. You know, like, doing things like that. And also the hats. We make hats. Yeah. We had hats before, and we sold out.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, wow. So did it align with any of these, or was it just a different collection?

Leo Gonzalez: No, what happened is I wanted to be known as a sneaker designer, which I am.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. But, yeah, we doing clothes. There's no doubt about that.

Paul Cohalan: So you told me earlier on and yesterday, that shirt there that you got on the Back to the Future, which is wicked. Like, it brings back memories for everyone our age, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, there's something were now and people were looking and be like, oh, people were like, okay. You know, so it bring people Memories, you know, like, so we doing, like, you know, the production is going to be done in two weeks, like I said.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, that's what you're saying.

Leo Gonzalez: So. Yeah, man, we have.

Paul Cohalan: So when's. Where do you get them made?

Leo Gonzalez: Is it everything? We make them in China. Before we used to make the stuff in Portugal.

Paul Cohalan: Is that right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, man. But then we realize we get in the same leather.

Paul Cohalan: China's the best.

Leo Gonzalez: China time is.

Paul Cohalan: You know who taught me that? A guy. The. The guys here that own. What are the boots? Safety boots. Blue.

Leo Gonzalez: Blue. Blue steel.

Paul Cohalan: Blue stone.

Leo Gonzalez: Blue stone.

Paul Cohalan: Blue stone. Blue steel. Blue steel. So I know their son. Their son. And he taught me years ago, he told me, he goes, the difference was when they shifted and they went to China. But they owned the factories. Or maybe not own them, but I think maybe I probably don't own them, but it was their factory. Yeah. The difference from start to finish.

Leo Gonzalez: But. But look, you know what the thing is, the communication is so important.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. And having people there and if you.

Leo Gonzalez: Have the great communication with them, any. They can make you anything. The problem is in the world we live in, everybody that not know how China work, they love to give comment like, oh, they'll make it in China. It's cheap. No, it's not. I can make you cheap stuff, but I can.

Paul Cohalan: Of course you can.

Leo Gonzalez: I can get you watches that can cost four grand and three grand that you cannot tell a difference. Different.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: You just need to be well connected.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: Because, you know, like, I know labels.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That are famous that I'm not gonna mention, just in case. I know they make them in China.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: I know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And I know those label they left. And they left behind a lot of leather, so. Meaning that the leather that they were using to sell in the street, they were real of the wallet and the purse. And I knew, I'm like, that's real leather, bro.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That's not cheap. They laugh because they have an argument regarding black market and they left China. But yeah, man, you know, like, what I was saying is when you go to a factory to make shirt or shoes, you cannot go and tell them, give me the best price. And you know, and when they give you the best price, then you say, no, give me the best price a little bit cheaper. If you want. You ask him for cheap.

Paul Cohalan: They give me the best quality.

Leo Gonzalez: They're going to give you cheap.

Paul Cohalan: And then work it out.

Leo Gonzalez: If you. You want good quality, they'll get you good quality. You want real Crocs, you want real. This they'll get it. You can get anything.

Paul Cohalan: Depends how you approach, communicate.

Leo Gonzalez: It depends how you do it. But then you cannot come with a mentality. Oh, they were made in China and treated like. No, hold one second. Put these shoes with those shoes. And you see, my shoes will last because, you know, we about quality.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, some people might end up telling me, you know, oh, I think maybe you paying too much for those. That's China. Have you been to China? Do you know, like, a lot of.

Paul Cohalan: People like to say, did you love living in China? Was it good?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, I love China.

Paul Cohalan: I think, like, I've never been there.

Leo Gonzalez: I think when my kids grow and, you know, I wouldn't mind living there.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: I love China because everybody is their own boss.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: Everybody. Like, you meet someone today, they run like toothpick. They send it to Africa. Containers, hundreds of thousand of container. Another guy that I meet, the button for, whatever.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, like, there's specific niche.

Leo Gonzalez: There's people that do things. I met people that they do toilet paper. It's inspiring, man. Like, you know, when you hang out with people that they own, the own boss. I got friends, I tell them, hey, what do you do? Oh, yeah, you see the napkin that you put this way down? I got a factory. So we sent to Africa. I'm like, okay. And the other one does this and the other one, chapstick. We send this chapstick. We make it in this, and I love that China. Make everything.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. Hey, I want to go to something before we wrap up, Right. And I know you're a busy man. Now talk to me about. You've told me about that. Now talk to me about the Smurf and your boy. I love the Smurf story. And we said. We bring it up. I love it. Oh, man. Grumpy Smurf.

Leo Gonzalez: So we're making two at the moment, like this one, the Back to the Future and the Smurf, and then we have five more coming.

Paul Cohalan: Can we. Any insight on that or not?

Leo Gonzalez: Different? No, not yet. I can give you any insight yet. So we're going to make plenty because we're going to make clothes, you know, we're going to do everything, the whole thing, the pants, everything. We're going to make everything. The Smurf having the. Because my. My little boy, Altai, I love him so much. He's. He used to be really grumpy when he was little. He was three by four. He was sucking his thumb all the time, and he always frowned like this. And I used to Tease him. And the man be like, come on, leave him alone. You know? Cause I used to snap the finger out and he go back in, and he look at me bad, and he go back in, and I used to tease him saying, hey, listen, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you. I'm gonna put you on ebay to see who gonna buy you. Cause you're never gonna have friends. I don't like that. And he would look at me like this, like, really funny. And then when he started getting elder, I was like, how you gonna have friends in school when you so grumpy?

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, you remind me the Smurf. Like, you know, that was back then.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, I used to watch Smurf, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And Grunchy is such a. He don't. He never want nothing. He always grumpy, you know, I was like, you just remind me the Smurf, you know, like, you know, with this. And then, you know, when we coming out with the shirt, I was like,.

Paul Cohalan: Like, nostalgia, old school stuff.

Leo Gonzalez: You know what? Let me. Let me bring. Bring the Smurf. And I'm gonna choose Grum Cheek because of him.

Paul Cohalan: Imagine in 10, 20 years telling him this already.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, so. So he knows it now. He knows that I did based on that, you know.

Paul Cohalan: And this is your 15 year old turn, right?

Leo Gonzalez: This is the 11. Yeah, the 15 is. Is big. It's the 11th.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So now, you know, that's where the idea come from, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Wait, so when's that one come. Is that in two weeks as well? Yeah, I said these two. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So, yeah, so it's gonna be interesting. And. And then we got the rest coming.

Paul Cohalan: All similar, like, good ideas. Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: I know some people say, oh, be careful, you know, because of.

Paul Cohalan: Of the, you know, copyright or copyright.

Leo Gonzalez: I say, no, listen. People chase you when you start making a lot. A lot. And they. And you get the noise out there, but at the same time and copy, you know, I want to say that is. Is not. You tw. You have to tweak it. It.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: You know, it's like if I. If. If I use Mona Lisa and I put a. A Rolex wash, you know, that's it. You're okay to do that because you're not trying to make profit from there.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, I get you.

Leo Gonzalez: You know what I'm saying?

Paul Cohalan: So there's a lot of going down the rabbit hole.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, over the years. Yeah, these people give a lot of opinion, you know, yeah. Hey, what about me, man? It's totally different. Come down. I know.

Paul Cohalan: So. So three things and we'll wrap it up. And a little bit of combo. I love that story. The Smurf story. Next time, come for a catch up. Where do we do it? And I'll bring this stuff. Like in your world, if you have.

Leo Gonzalez: A guy that can come with a camera.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And I can take it to the 3 PL where we have the shoes.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. So you can see like kind of what happens in the effort.

Leo Gonzalez: No, I bring it to my apartment because I got some.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, mate, let's do that.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. And then from there we can just edit it and head to the warehouse, mate.

Paul Cohalan: Perfect. Yeah, yeah. I got a young guy, he's just. He launched yesterday. Keone, actually, he's. He's going to be doing a fair bit of this for me and that.

Leo Gonzalez: Like you have to pick a day like this. Look, now I'm gonna be busy, but. Yeah, yeah, it was. Good morning.

Paul Cohalan: Five, six months, right? And then November 23rd, we're actually doing an event down at Embassy and we're gonna take this and Jerry the oyster shuckey is gonna do that. So we're trying to do things the other way as well. The other thing is who to get on. I always ask compound network. Who do I get on? Like who. Who do you know or could help or intro to get on here?

Leo Gonzalez: Oh, man. Yeah. Used to get on. Honestly, a king. My son and his mate. Cousin.

Paul Cohalan: That'd be amazing.

Leo Gonzalez: The cousin? Yeah, because it's my. My ex sister son. So they cousin. They like brothers.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, they're cousins.

Leo Gonzalez: They like brothers.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, man, that'd be epic.

Leo Gonzalez: So that would be amazing if you have them here. You know why? Because young generation, young generation gonna see a 18 and a 15.

Paul Cohalan: I love it, mate. And to be honest, like, I get my kids tomorrow for these four nights.

Leo Gonzalez: You're not gonna believe. But you're not gonna believe you giving interview to a 50 18.

Paul Cohalan: Yep.

Leo Gonzalez: No, man.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, let's do it.

Leo Gonzalez: My song is sharp.

Paul Cohalan: That is so important.

Leo Gonzalez: And the 18 you think is like 20 plus. And my song you're gonna think is 18 plus. Because their mentality, they. They different. They switch on, mate.

Paul Cohalan: I would love that. That'd be amazing. Yeah, yeah. And. And the third thing is. And then we'll wrap it up is. What'd you get out of today?

Leo Gonzalez: It's amazing, man. Getting to know you on your spot, you know? Like, I know when we go out for a drink or grab something different, you know, talking like this, man, you do a great job, you know, and thank you. You make people feel comfy, really comfortable.

Paul Cohalan: Gives me chills. And do you know, I never realized that till after a couple of episodes. Just giving the safe space to open up.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. You know, people is easy, by the way you throw your question and you listening, you know, you're just not doing it, like, just to finish and, you know, you enjoy it.

Paul Cohalan: You know, to be honest, I care about this. Cause you gotta record it.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, yeah.

Paul Cohalan: But like, I just love doing this.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah, I can see you enjoy and that give people more enthusias to. To open up. More talking and have like three hours, even though you're gonna edit it one or two, you know.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah. And. And I'm amazed, like. Like what actually sits in my head. And I didn't realize this until after a few episodes. Like, you come here at 31, you're colorblind. We didn't get to that till about two hours. And we're like, what?

Leo Gonzalez: And.

Paul Cohalan: And just like. And a smile on your face and getting to the end and you saying that, like, I know I said this to the other day. People, they don't take time to go over, you know, the roadblocks of Risk and the journey in the book and the chapters. No, but at the end, everyone always says it, but they all say it in their own way, and it's really authentic. And that fills my cup.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: And, you know, no money, nothing will replace that thing.

Leo Gonzalez: Also, also, you know, a tree grows both way. Remember, the root goes down.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: And everybody just like to see the flowers and everything out, but the roots are breaking.

Paul Cohalan: I love that.

Leo Gonzalez: Rocks and going so deep. Because they have to be the same height, like, you know, like, to sustain the top.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So no one wants to get down there to see.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: That struggle, you know, like, it's crazy when you think about it.

Paul Cohalan: And like, I think the other piece. And I've seen your eyes and your face sometimes I'm good at, like, going from today to yesterday to 10 years ago. And then people go, yeah, that's probably related. Or not.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, I'm really bad with. Yeah, I'm really, you know, I'm really bad with timing. Remember?

Paul Cohalan: We all are. No, we all are.

Leo Gonzalez: Because I'm. I'm. Because. Yeah. Because all this technology, this is what they do. Everything is. You ask question and, you know, there's no more. I only know my phone number and my home number from New York by memory. I don't know nobody else by number.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, Like, I don't think anyone does. Like, let's be honest.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah.

Leo Gonzalez: So, like, to me, you need.

Paul Cohalan: You need an old. You need to do some clothes with the old dolphin.

Leo Gonzalez: Maybe I can come up with that. Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: Yeah, right?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah. So, you know, like, to me, you know, like, when it comes to time, sometimes I'm like, yeah, when did I broke up? It was this, like, I don't remember, man. I love it.

Paul Cohalan: How long you just. I keep looking. I've seen on your content. How long you had the viral tat for tattoo.

Leo Gonzalez: I did the viral tat.

Paul Cohalan: I like tattoos.

Leo Gonzalez: In the show in Sneakerland.

Paul Cohalan: Oh, did you?

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Paul Cohalan: I'm gonna have to go back and check this out. Yeah, Sneakerland.

Leo Gonzalez: I did it.

Paul Cohalan: When's Sneakerland coming again? When's or when's anything like that? Cause I'd love to bring my boy.

Leo Gonzalez: I'll keep you posted. I'll keep you posting and tag you.

Paul Cohalan: I'd love to bring my boy, but,.

Leo Gonzalez: Yeah, he would love it. Yeah. Know when I went there, I was like, as soon as were showing the shoes, there was a tat artist, and I was like, hey, is it okay if you do this tat? Oh, yeah, just give me a print. We went to the. Boom, boom. I believe I know where I'm going. You know, I just got this on, but yeah, people know, you know, you're gonna. I know where I'm going with this.

Paul Cohalan: And awesome, man.

Leo Gonzalez: I had that vision from day one, man. You know, like, yeah, man.

Paul Cohalan: Thanks for sharing everything personally as well. That was amazing. That's what makes this. We can talk like, oh, had boxes, you know, all the stuff and occupations and business people, for sure. But it's the personal bit that makes.

Leo Gonzalez: People get there for sure.

Paul Cohalan: So, yeah, authenticity, man, it's huge. Anything. I don't know, anything else you want.

Leo Gonzalez: To bring up, we can wait for the next one.