1082: Develop Connections, Contacts, Relationships, and Partnerships: Generational Wealth and Social Innovation with CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals Brian J. Esposito

Robert Plank 0:04 We're here at the marketer of the day of podcast with Brian J. Esposito, who is the CEO of Diamond Lake minerals Inc. Brian is a serial entrepreneur. He's a business leader who was ranked among the world's top 10 CEOs FOR 2020 2122 IN THE WORLD CEO rankings awards, and Brian has 20 plus years of experience building companies on a global scale across 25 Plus unique industries. And he's the founder of Esposito intellectual enterprises. And it lists consists of over 110 plus entities, his website is e, i e, dot rocks, and Brian is going to be giving us the secrets of his success, how to build an organization with a wealth of knowledge and experience, how to harness that passion and grow and everything else that we want to do. But sometimes it's easier said than done. So Ryan, glad to be speaking with you.

Brian J. Esposito 1:00 It's great to be here. Robert, thank you for the opportunity. Yeah. And thank

Robert Plank 1:03 you for showing up. So we introduce you a little bit but in your own words, what do you all about? What is your passion and your focus?

Brian J. Esposito 1:10 Yeah, great introduction, that's always humbling to hear what 23 plus years I've accomplished. So at the end of the day, I love to create value. I love creating Win Win Win opportunities for all parties involved. That's been my MO. since I can remember what I had to perfect during this journey is ensuring I pick the correct people to work with and lining with things like you know, humble, good empathy, great morals, values, and ethics. And and when you align with people in those types of characteristics and traits, there's so much great work that you can do because you're just you just want to do great work and the money and whatever upsides are just a byproduct of that. So that's where we are today. I love building and growing companies. I really love helping founders and startup founders succeed. Piggybacking a lot of the mistakes that I made that I can give them some guidance on, I can give them some awareness on what I know what may work, but what for sure, I know what won't work. And my life's career, as then, like you mentioned, has taken me to take over a CEO of diamond like minerals. It's a public company ticker symbols D LMI. And we've Bridgend, we're bridging the gap there with traditional stocks and financing with the future of digital securities, much like the things that you're seeing a lot around Bitcoin and Black Rock and Larry Fink, we've been in that space, or I've been in that space since the beginning, building these types of technologies inside of our companies and utilizing things like blockchain, to show what is the future of commerce, the future of transactions and transparency. Exciting.

Robert Plank 2:43 So to help us really understand Diamond Lake minerals, like what is the product if someone says, Okay, what's this company do? What's the solution that's presented. So

Brian J. Esposito 2:56 the company's been around since 1954, Salt Lake City based company out of Utah, when I took over in August of 2023, I came in with a brand new strategy and structure and vision of the company. So over the last six or so months, it has been getting our story out there, which we've gotten tremendous media support and coverage on. And it is showing what we believe is the future of stocks, and the future of public companies. What I've structured and going forward into building Diamond Lake minerals, if you any of your listeners, or if yourself remember what General Electric was back in the day. It was a parent company of many different industry agnostic subsidiaries that had within its umbrella. So we're replicating that much like I've done with my private holdings. So you have the parent diamond like minerals, stock or security and public entity. And then underneath that, you'll have all the industries that we've identified, we want to be in. A lot of them come with the support of some of the iconic advisors that have joined to support our vision and where I'm taking this company. And you have industries like TV, film, media and music of industries like products and consumer goods, hospitality, f&b gaming, we're going to be very heavy in commercial real estate and utilizing some of the blockchain technologies I've referenced in security tokens as a new way to bring liquidity into a massive industry that's dying for liquidity on all these illiquid assets that has paper maturing over the next few years, you're going to be seeing what I believe as a replica of what happened in 2007 and 2008. When you have this giant real estate bubble that starts to collapse, and commercial real estate starts to crumble because traditional access to capital dries up rates get too high. Rents are too high for businesses to succeed and stay. So what happens then is the local economy start to collapse in those towns and cities and therefore the global economy starts to collapse with security tokens and what we're bringing to the market is the ability for anybody around the world to be able to utilize a security token to buy into an asset like a building or a real estate development project or really any real world asset They never had a chance to buy into before. And that's the structure of the company that we're now we have created. We've got our story out there. And now going forward, we'll start announcing the businesses that we're going to be involved in.

Robert Plank 5:12 Exciting. And that seems to be the way that so much is going is the democratization and the saying, Well, we know that there's kind of these harsh realities of life, we know that there are these these cycles, like the real estate cycle. So how do we solve that problem? How do we make that better. And so you say that you're sort of like a GE sort of company with all these kinds of sub industries is there one of the sub companies that really like excites you that's really kind of, like up and coming are worth talking about? Well,

Brian J. Esposito 5:43 we, a lot of my private holdings are around advancements in technologies like wireless communication, wireless connectivity, so that I'm always excited about having these parallel networks that allow us to connect, communicate and locate one another, which is extremely important in the event that there's no cell coverage, you have a blackout, or you're in a second or third world country without the traditional infrastructure that we're used to as a first world country. So I've been very heavy in those initiatives and projects and technology. So that's very important to where we're building and where we're going. Also things like being able to finance and spin up water treatment plants in a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time, again, utilizing the unique financial structures and access to capital that we're going to be going out to the market with. So I do believe that having access to water is a basic human right. And it's it's a commodity that most people don't realize that it can and is very scarce. And I do believe it'll trade like oil in our lifetime, if we don't start to put things in place to help be able to always have access to clean, fresh drinking water, for all life, not just human beings, and we will ever be anything alive needs that. And then in music we do a lot in the music industry. Always love creating products and technologies and opportunities to help artists be able to create a career help them break out, help them really build the most amount of value for their IP. So again, if you look at some of the offerings and the technologies that we have, and that we're working with and utilizing, I believe we have a suite of tools and new ways for artists and content creators to really be able to monetize their IP correctly, and be able to go out to the world and even raise capital of creating new IP and creating new music and getting it distributed based on the utilization of blockchain and security token offerings for those artists. There's so

Robert Plank 7:36 many innovations, right? And so what drives your decision making, because you've created all these cool things, but you always need to say no to so much. And and a lot of what you've mentioned here is sort of philanthropic, right? You mentioned about these things like helping out these artists, you mentioned about the clean drinking water. So does that factor in just saying like saying, Well, how do I help the world? Or what can I kind of do that has a built in positive PR message like what's your thought process behind what opportunities to say no to versus saying yes to?

Brian J. Esposito 8:11 Well, we got to be very industry agnostic. So it's whatever will add value, if you're looking at just deal am I as a public company, my job is to always ensure that we're working on things that bring value to our shareholders in our future security token holder. So everything that we do has to spin off some positive effect for return or boosting our balance sheet or the really successful profitable margins. Even though there's initiatives there that may sound philanthropic, and we have partnerships with every train, for example, on helping with deforestation, all these business concept that I'm talking about, it's there's business models inside of that they're utilizing our technology, there's transaction fees, there's the ability to utilize our systems to be able to go out and do a security token offering and help build that business or help build that artists are helping go and finance and build that water treatment plant. So there's financial mechanisms in there that ensure that we have an earning capability into that and we have profitable earnings coming in, that we can then utilize that to continue to grow our company, acquire new companies, and share those returns and rewards with our shareholders. So everything has a we're not a non for profit. But I do believe in order to make a difference, you have to do good business, you have to create resources and access to resources to have an impact. And, you know, the end consumer or the end user, humanity as a whole, much more educated as to looking at ingredients into products, looking at what is the byproduct of certain processes that may do harm to a local region or our health concerns. There's so much access and information out there. So people are actually very vocal and they're very active into Who are these companies, what are they doing, what is their core belief, so it's always important that as a public company, the LMI and even all my private holdings that there's is always some sort of a positive impact in addition to just the business that we have to be involved in. And that's, you know, that's part of what we're creating. And that's really important to me as a leader that we do well with the reach the access and the resources that we have, and not just strictly focused on capitalism. I love it.

Robert Plank 10:19 So you have that positive impact as part of the soup as part of the equation. And you mentioned there a little bit about your leadership. So like, what's led you to being here? Like you mentioned that this company has been around since the 50s. But now you're kind of taking on so much and appearing on podcasts and having to solve all sorts of problems. So how did this opportunity present itself to you

Brian J. Esposito 10:44 with my private holdings, Esposito intellectual enterprises, I'm always being presented with public vehicles, there's different levels of a public vehicle, there's New York Stock Exchange's, NASDAQ, there's over the counter, there's pink sheets, there's all these different levels, much like if you look at sports, there's a professional or semi professional, there's minor leagues, there's College, there's high school. So it's similar type of hierarchy when it comes to public entities. So every time I get presented one to see, do I want to bring any of my companies in here, any of the companies that I work with in into that public vehicle, they're always a mess, they're riddled with billions and billions of shares, there's all kinds of control issues, there's all kinds of maybe debt or there's just it's just a lot of unknowns, and it's not usually worth getting involved. Then I get presented with this one, I meet the Principal, Michael Reynolds who kept us alive over the last seven years. My kind of guy is an older gentleman knows how to build businesses, he took some substantial companies public during his tenure as a broker dealer investment banking network at a Beverly Hills, no dig on his record. So always did the right thing always operated within the guidelines of rules and regulations. And when we spoke and talked about my business philosophies, and how I believe a public company should be run, align very well with his. And it's, to me, it's timeless business philosophies. But a lot of companies don't operate like that anymore. They just talk about unrealistic valuations, they try to go out and raise money on unsustainable earnings or unsustainable forecast of earnings. And that's, to me, that's what causes volatility. And that's what causes corrections when something is priced so high. At some point, the markets like this company is not worth that. Therefore, they start to sell, and therefore their stock starts to plummet. And if that happens across many different industries, you have a giant correction in the markets. But you don't have that if you have companies that are consistently earning, you have companies that have a very strong balance sheet with a really strong loyal shareholder base. And then the shareholder base gets rewarded with a portion of the earnings that come in and you create a Berkshire Hathaway class, a stock situation where you have generational wealth created, you have people that will only sell that share because somebody else is willing to pay them a lot of money for it. Or you have somebody that never wants to sell that share. And they want to pass it down from Kid to Kid to Kid, because they're constantly getting dividends and their juice from that security. That's what I'm building. And whether it takes me a year or takes me the next 20 years, this is what I want to build here. This is my life's work here. And I want to bring back to the markets this really new, amazing, unique vehicle, which I think all public companies will replicate traditional finance and building stocks utilizing that security as is with a blend of now the future of digital securities and security tokens which we've created that hybrid approach.

Robert Plank 13:40 Exciting. And you always think about the art and the science factors that go into what you want. And what you don't want, right? Like are the numbers good are their financials good. But then also, you use your imagination and your dreams, you think about the future you think about the people and what their values are. And it's cool to just hear about your thought process a little bit here. And so as far as you personally and like, what motivates you and what you've achieved? Do you have anything to share about your own personal development or like goal setting or time management? Like what do you think makes you work really well as a person who has focused who's accomplished these things? Like what do you have that is really unique that not everyone else has?

Brian J. Esposito 14:27 I like that I have the ability to be self aware where I can look inward and be man enough to know that I was wrong in a situation that was right in a situation what do I need to work on in the situation? A lot of people need business coaches to kind of shake them and have them see that or mentors or psychiatrist, whatever works for you. Everybody's different. So no judgement but for me, I have this daily constant check in with myself if I'm acting in accordance to the level that I Want to act in it and at the level of integrity that I want to consistently have when other people want to work with me or deal with me or do business with me, they have to have trust, you have to have vulnerability, you have to have a connection with anybody, whether it's a customer, it's an investor, it's speaking with you and talking about my story, there has to be some sort of a connection there where it's genuine. And that feels, right. So I'm grateful that I've always had those capabilities, I'm even more grateful that life has handed me all kinds of hell that I'd have I've had to deal with and go through and overcome, and not become jaded or bitter or angry. So I'm very pleased with me being able to overcome those, even though there were moments that were quick where I could have felt those emotions, I shook it off as fast as I could, and I just kept moving forward. So for me, it's being self aware, being consistent, and trying my best every new day to wake up a little bit smarter and wiser than the day before. And if you continuously continue to do that, I think you start to evolve, I think you start to really see life a lot more clear. So to understand what's important, what's not important. And, and you really have to sometimes make very difficult decisions and cut toxic people out of your life. And sometimes it could be somebody very close to you, it could be a best friend, a family member, it could be a work colleague for ever, it could be a business partner, but if you have any angst in your day, or nervousness, or if you're unsettled, and it's, it's not like an internal thing, it's actually being triggered from other people, you have to identify that and you have to cut that out like a cancer and maybe it's a timeout for a little bit. And maybe you can rectify the situation, the relationship. But I've, unfortunately, I've been around long enough where toxic people or toxic people, and the day that you can wake up and shake them out of your life, you can really start to live a really happy, healthy, mentally healthy life. And when you're at that level, you know, the world is your oyster, you can do anything, it's, it's all the time wasted and energy wasted on dealing with nonsense or stresses or drama, I guess is the best word that's not there's no really net gain. It's just it's just there to cause chaos and confusion and distraction, and what you're supposed to be doing with your life. And that's creating some purpose and some self worth and doesn't have to be money, it just has to be went through the day. And you've actually created some sort of value, some sort of net benefit for yourself. And unfortunately, you can't do that if you're constantly dealing with outside situations that are negative.

Robert Plank 17:38 That is deep and powerful. And it seems like there's a lot to figure out a lot of nuance to that sort of thing, this self awareness idea, and identifying the toxic people that maybe you've been tolerating that are wasting your time and then needing to make these sorts of hard decisions that in the in the long run helped you out. But in the short run might be awkward or might be painful, and just doing these things that have to be done. There's a lot to think about there. And so you mentioned a little bit in there about some kind of past failures. So do you have a quick story for us? Because failures are always fun to talk about, right? Because you can look back and laugh but is there a quick past failure story that you feel like sharing with us?

Brian J. Esposito 18:21 Oh, there's there's a lot of them. The most dramatic one which I like to reference for multiple reasons is on 2016 I was in a drunk driver hit me head on a car collision in Nashville, and I shouldn't have have walked away from that experience. It was it was it was a bad accident. At that time I had about 30 or so companies in my holdings working everyday like a dog like normal but I was no physical harm thankfully but it was I was dealing with a lot of post concussion issues and and I was ripped away from my daily routine. And when I was ripped away from my daily routine as a businessman with all these responsibilities and and leverage that was out there my world started to fall apart. And ultimately through after a year of that and trying to get back to normal mental state where I can do two plus two quickly it took me a while to even do that. So this is the type of delays I was dealing with and my brain is my my best tool I can remember everything I remember who I met at an airport 10 years ago and if I meet somebody today I remember to connect them and build value. That's that's what I do. But when I couldn't do that, and I was completely exposed and leverage with all my businesses, that's what I've always done just keep things moving and just keep keep pushing forward and building. I couldn't do that. And then the people I had around me were not the right people. It's not on them that was on me for putting them there. So I had no real support system around me if I was I was the engine. I was the engine I was the steering wheel I was the tires. I was the door I was the seat I was everything in the car. So it was disappointing to not have any support. It was disappointing that one Things started to fall apart people that I helped tremendously, brands and companies that I helped tremendously all turn their back on me and there was no help to be found. I sat there and very, very awkward moment because I built one on my mind and really many amazing empire. I thought I had a great machine. And I thought I had wonderful people around me. I didn't. So a couple of things happen. I had to completely re strategize. What's my value proposition to the world? How do I come back from this, I didn't file for bankruptcy, I was extensively in debt as someone I'm going to pay everything back, why would I file I'm just going to, it's going to figure it out. Well, it takes me a day, or it takes me the rest of my life, I'm gonna clean this up. And so what ultimately happened, I learned that most of my career, I didn't properly value myself. And because of that, I didn't really have the right model. I didn't have not really I did not have the right model in the business that I was building in this ecosystem that was building it was it wasn't right. So you fast forward to today. And some of the things we talked about is where I'm at, I'm so grateful that that woman hit me because first and foremost, she could have killed somebody. So I'm glad she hit me and she didn't wreck a family or, or, or hurt somebody else. And I needed my entire world to completely collapse and fall apart. So I could rebuild. I couldn't piecemeal and fix how it was, it could have stayed like that. And maybe would have been a nice thing forever. But it wasn't the right model. I was a slave to that world. I wasn't properly valuing me, first and foremost. So again, it all depends how you can react to some of life's hardest moments, some people get very angry and bitter and jaded. And I get it. I mean, I but I knew I was again, self aware enough. If I did that, there was no way in hell, I'd come back. So I couldn't have those demons to on top of financial responsibilities and getting debt cleared up and rebuilding, I couldn't deal with hate in the world at the same time. Plus, if I turned into that person, I knew nobody would want to work with me, it's part of me doing what I do is being a light for things and being a great energy around things and people wanting to work with me. So if I close that off, then I would just I'd be living in the street somewhere. So it wasn't a quick story. But it was the most most darkest part of my life, that was a complete failure based on 1516 years of my life of building something that wasn't right. And then the having a completely destroyed, and then having to figure out how to rebuild it back.

Robert Plank 22:42 Sometimes we do the shake up like that, to for things to get bad or to even reveal themselves how they are. It's it sucks to be stuck in kind of that Middle Land, where it could be better, but you don't know how. And sometimes like you say you need to just tear it down and build it back up and then be the best person or be a better person every day. So that way you can step up and show up for the people that need you that you need to lead. And then who can help you change the world. And so as we're getting nearer to the end of our conversation here, Brian, is there a hidden question? That I'm not asking you? Is there something that you just you wish Robert plank would ask you? And can we pretend I asked you that and then you can answer it. For me.

Brian J. Esposito 23:24 That's a great, great way to make me interview myself. I love it. Yeah. i This is a recent epiphany, I guess if you were to ask me, you know, what would you what great advice would you give an entrepreneur? So if you want to ask me that, or if you want me to ask myself that I used to ask,

Robert Plank 23:46 what great advice would you give an entrepreneur? That's

Brian J. Esposito 23:49 a damn fine question you just threw at me. So I'm trying to perfect the way I worded it because every time I answer, it's a little bit different. But it's the inner circle concept we all have an inner circle that we were born into, we grew into there was initially your family and then school classmates. And then maybe if you played a sport, or if you in the play, like you just build this inner circle of people as your as your life progresses. If you're an entrepreneur, there's a really good chance that most of those people, including your family, and loved ones, and then your future spouse, there's a good chance they didn't grow up in an entrepreneurial household is a good chance, they'll understand how we're wired, which is sometimes it's a psychotic wiring, because we just want to go out and build. So when you have the mindset that we have as entrepreneurs, you need to find a way to create two inner circles. And it's very easy to do now because you can create your professional inner circle of people that you meet on your journey that it's strictly work and career in the industry that you want to be into and using things like LinkedIn, you can find great advisors that you want to work with or people you just connect with through social media platforms as an entrepreneur We've, we all go through moments where we think a deal is gonna get done, we thought we got a deal done, we thought we had a transaction, we thought we got a new customer, we thought we thought we thought we thought we thought you can't share any of that, while it's in motion with your first inner circle. Because if they're not an entrepreneur mindset, which again, 99% of them aren't, they're not going to understand that, that deals not done yet, they're not going to stand there might be a delay, or maybe somebody was lying to the usual processes of being an entrepreneur, it's never just a simple as a&b, it's just there's a lot of, there's a lot of maneuvering behind everything. You can only share with that person or circle even if you choose to do so close transactions, something that actually close wiring the bank deals done, sign a contract, new customer, because if you don't, and you share it something too soon, they're going to be asking you about it. And then you're gonna start feeling anxiety and frustration. And then you're like, Oh my God, my whole day I felt this at work, then you're going to not even want to go home or you're not going to want to deal with that person or so you're going to feel like a failure. So it's got to be a really strong wall first inner circle, keep it light, keep it with, you know what your similarities are, why you love those people keep it just fun and stress free. If you want to share things, share close deals. If you're trying to share business stuff to share with your second inner circle of people that you create that understand it's not going to be easy, people that you can be completely vulnerable with the same guy, that deal fell apart at those in the closed. But because you didn't share with that first inner circle, you don't have this extra level of embarrassment or sexual level of stress or anxiety. So I'm still working on articulating that correctly but create two inner circles, family friends loved ones in one bucket, professional people and other and know what content to share with each one.

Robert Plank 26:52 That's a great concept, the two inner circle so that way you have the sounding board but they also don't conflict. Great advice. And what's the next step here if someone is listening and they're amazed and wowed at what you share with us both personally professionally, they want to know more about your company's what you have going on. What's next? What is the logical next step call to action today?

Brian J. Esposito 27:14 Well, I love when people reach out to me so definitely find me on socials Brian J Esposito LinkedIn X, Instagram, Tik Tok, I don't use Facebook. And I love using LinkedIn, we share all of our stories and experiences there. And the corporate websites EIA dot Roc Ks, that's the primary family holding company. And then Diamond Lake minerals is the public company, the LMI. And that's Diamond Lake minerals.com. Again, I'm always accessible with love when people reach out to me if they want to hear about what we're involved in, if they have any questions, if they want to get involved in some of the things that we're doing. It's always humbling to get inbound messages and I respect people's time that send me something so I respect in in reverse, and I always respond back to everybody. Wonderful.

Robert Plank 28:01 And I love that dedication that work ethic I read some quote this morning, that was something of like, consistency is the rarest aspect of humans can it's so easy for the randomness to creep in or say we don't feel like it. But that's really cool of you to be responsive on social media. And it works both ways, right? Because we you get clarity on your own ideas. But if someone listened to you on this podcast today, find you they go to your their preferred social platform of choice except for Facebook, of course, because you're not there. But say, their LinkedIn person, they can just go and find you and friend you and follow you. And that's their kind of first step opting in to find out what you're all about. And if they're listening to this podcast, they like your personality, they like your ideas. And then that's the first step to them, like, you know, just discovering more about you and sending that message. So it's a great thing that pays a lot of benefits. And it goes both ways, right? Because then someone can just be drawn more and more into your world, which is Diamond Lake minerals.com and EiE dot R O C k s, and we've been speaking with Brian J Esposito when as we wrap up, wind down our conversation here Brian, do you have any final sound bite because you know how this podcasting thing works? Right? We can chop up the little videos and it's always good to end on like one last quote or lesson so does anything pop out in your mind as far as like one final thing? Two hours one final statement? Yeah,

Brian J. Esposito 29:25 one of my favorites. Anybody can be an overnight success. If you wake up the next day a little smarter, wiser and stronger than you were the day before.

Robert Plank 29:35 Very nice. Brian J Esposito Diamond Lake minerals, Inc. That's DLM i e, i e dot rocks. Very wonderful speaking with you, Brian, you too, Robert.

Brian J. Esposito 29:44 Thanks for the time.

Robert Plank 29:48 This is Robert plank from de FY podcast.com forward Slash Free. Me and my team are super excited to jump into your podcast whether it already exists whether it's brand new Whether it's just in the idea stage set up a call and contact us today claim your free gift at deify podcast.com/free and we will see you there