ExitStrategy.World Webcast 8: Francisco Gonzalez

Hello all, it's taken a full month but we finally put together the ESW Webcast 8 transcript with our friendly acquaintance Francisco Gonzalez, the founder of Fearless Journeys and an Executive Director at the Economic Club of Miami.

Francisco is a Roman Catholic South Florida native and Cuban American. He presented an interesting perspective on the recent economic development of Florida, legal and illegal migration, as well as Americans opening their eyes to new perspectives through mobile device-free retreats and travel to Cuba and other Latin American countries.

-- James Smith

Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, ExitStrategy.World

August 2, 2024

James Smith: All right, ladies and gentlemen, today [June 28, 2024] is the eighth ExitStrategy.World webcast, and we are delighted to have Francisco Gonzalez as our guest today, coming in from South Florida. He is the founder of Fearless Journeys DOT org, which is an organization that helps people, especially executives, reach their peak potential through travel and fellowship with other people, like-minded people. And he joins us, like I said, from South Florida. He's a Florida native, and he has a lot of things to say today about many of our favorite topics here at ESW. So we're going to explore those. How are you doing today, Francisco?

Francisco Gonzalez: I'm doing great. How are you doing? Thanks for having me on.

18 Years--How Long ‘James Smith’ and Francisco Gonzalez Have Known Each Other

James Smith: Yeah, it's excellent having Francisco on. Francisco is an old acquaintance of ours. We probably last saw him face-to-face some point in the Pacific Northwest, say around 2007, early 2007, late 2006 [in Seattle and Portland].

Francisco Gonzalez: Doesn't seem that long ago.

James Smith Yeah, it's been a bit. “It's been a [minute] eh Mav?” like [Tom Cruise] said [when jumping into the cockpit of a 1970s vintage Iranian F14 Tomcat jet to steal it] in Top Gun 2.

Francisco Gonzalez: The U.S. national debt was somewhere around $7 or $8 trillion the last time I saw you in person [in the late George W. Bush Administration].

The Latin American Renaissance and Inspiration for Fearless Journeys in Guatemala

James Smith: Yeah, that makes us feel old now. This is probably quadrupled, more than quadrupled since then. Yeah, it's excellent having you on the show today because I think that we have an interesting alignment that probably we couldn't have imagined back when we were younger men in 2007. That is helping people Journey to Latin America, explore Latin America and maybe even relocate to Latin America or retire there. This has been a real passion of ours that we found a little bit later in close to mid-career, close to midlife. But it's something that is really popping as they say right now, you know as the kids say, it's very much on the tip of a lot of people's tongues [on the American Right]. Particularly since Tucker Carlson went down to El Salvador and interviewed their President Nayib Bukele, this topic of a Latin American Renaissance that a lot of people--not just those on the Right-of-center spectrum--are rediscovering our [USA] neighbors to the south. And I think overall, that's a very positive trend for the entire Americas.

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, you might have mentioned it, but a few years ago, I spent an entire year living and working and teaching in Guatemala. I was actually based in Guatemala City, but I got to know the country very well. I spent a lot of time in Antigua, at Lake Atitlán, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. I got to visit Tikal and a lot of other places. But Guatemala is just one example right there in the heart of Central America. And there's a lot of poverty and there's a lot of problems that a lot of people think of. When you think of Guatemala, probably some of the first images that come to your mind are all the migrants that are leaving and that are showing up at the U.S. Southern Border, right? But on the flip side of that, there's a lot of positive things going on in Guatemala. And it's, I mean, take Guatemala City as one example. It's the largest city in Central America. You know, if you don't include Mexico, just Central America, Guatemala down to Panama, Guatemala City is the largest city.

It's a very modern city, a lot of modern shopping malls. I mean, it reminds me of the 1980s, when people actually would still go to the shopping malls you know? Amazon.com hasn't permeated down there [in Central America] quite as much. But you've got you know just about everything [you see in shopping centers here]. I take Ubers around [which are] super cheap uh for us [Americans spending dollars] know. Especially coming down from the U.S. and anyway Guatemalans are some of the most hospitable people in the world. So I really just enjoyed my time there. And it really opened up for me uh, you know, the idea of like, wow, this is a very livable place. It's a two-and-a-half-hour flight from where I'm at in South Florida. You know, if you're in Houston, it's about the same and not too much further from most of the rest of the U.S. So, it's just a great place. And, you know, like you said, right next door is El Salvador.

I spent ah…I spent a one weekend there in 2022, right on the beach actually—it was at Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, a beautiful place. And I can't talk too much more about El Salvador. Probably you might have more knowledge about that other than just observing from the outside what's going on. But I have visited Panama and some other places [in Central America]. So there's a lot of opportunities in Central America, especially right now. And I think hopefully we'll continue; those economies will continue to improve and places will continue to get safer like in El Salvador. But I found Guatemala to be very safe and never had any problems there at all.

James Smith: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because it [Atitlan] is one of the most beautiful lakes in the Americas by far. And it's really a real gem. And I've seen some videos from it on Telegram travel channels and stuff. And I've even posted a few on our extra strategy dot world Telegram channel, which is probably been posting a little bit less actively lately. But it's really something like that. I would say, you know, if the X is a little bit more politically hard edge, as people would notice, the ESW Telegram channel is a little bit more holistic, you know, a little bit more of the hippie side of our explorer side of our persona.

But it's certainly something that...you know, I wanted to talk to you about today is this whole topic of a Latin American Renaissance and what it means to [different] people. And it means different things to different people. We're not trying to say that it's a one size fits all thing, certainly, because some people go to Latin America for the vibrancy. They want, you know, more street life. They like the street food, they like [the nightlife]. The idea of open spaces that are inhabited by people at all hours…

On Quiet, Boring Washington D.C. Contrasted with Vibrant Miami

James Smith: I'll tell you, I was recently Cisco in Washington, D.C., in our nation's capital. I traveled there on some business, had to take care of a consular matter for someone. And, you know, I got to tell you that the streets were empty. It was a Friday night, you know, early summer. The weather was fine. Nice and, you know, warm outside, not particularly hot or cold. And other than a few homeless people around the White House and, you know, the usual Capitol Police security presence, I really didn't see a lot of people out and about in our nation's capital. It kind of made me sad. It was sort of mixed feelings. You know, all these beautiful buildings, beautiful boulevards. And our nation's capital is a beautiful place. It was designed that way. But yet I didn't feel like there was a lot of street presence of just young people having a great time that you see in a lot of other places, say, in downtown Chicago or downtown Miami. Fort Lauderdale, South Beach, even well beyond [Brickell].

I know you're much more familiar with the South Florida geography than I am, but I felt like something was missing and [the most recent trip in June 2024] it left me with sort of a very mixed feeling about our nation’s Capital.

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, I think to be fair to DC, I think where most people work in DC, they don't live.

James Smith: Exactly.

Francisco Gonzalez: Now, maybe Capitol Hill a little bit. Right. There's some neighborhoods back there and some other places. But downtown D.C., I agree with you. I have found downtown D.C., that whole area, even like not too far from the White House, everything. It's sometimes it's just totally empty unless there's like, you know, a sports game going on downtown or something like that.

James Smith: Yeah. You know, people tend to go out to Arlington and Alexandria and things like that.

Francisco Gonzalez: And I think this is maybe one of the challenges of a lot of American cities, you know, during our lifetime as well.

James Smith: Yeah.

Francisco Gonzalez: Where people more live in the suburbs and they don't live in the cities. Now, there's a few exceptions to that. And you named a couple [starting with] Miami. I think Miami and Nashville are maybe the two exceptions I've seen in the last few years.

James Smith: Right.

Francisco Gonzalez: Where like the downtowns are. There's so much construction. There's so many people moving there. There's not enough space for the people that want to be there. And it's so vibrant. Even Miami is so much safer now than any time in my lifetime.

James Smith: Like downtown Brickell…

Francisco Gonzalez: Wynwood 20 years ago, the area of Wynwood. I don't even think it was called Wynwood then. And it's like a very arts-y district now. It's very trendy. A lot of top restaurants. People are out [at night enjoying themselves] like crazy in Wynwood. I mean, afternoon, evening, nighttime. You would never 20 years ago want to even drive through Wynwood. You thought, you know, where Wynwood is today. You would think you might get shot just driving through there [in the late 1980s or early1990s]. So Miami has just really improved dramatically [in the last 20 years]. And I think that's...[inaudible]

The Advantages of Being a Florida Man

There's a lot of reasons, obviously the Florida economy. We have no state income tax. We have much lower taxes overall [than other states]. We also have [hardworking] people [and beautiful women coming to South Florida] from all over the world. And also our governments, both local and state [with Governor Ron DeSantis], are not afraid to enforce the rule of law. We have very strong law enforcement [at the local, county sheriffs and state levels]. We have a lot of respect for the police. Unlike places like New York and Chicago and Seattle and Portland where they're de-funding the police, our local and state governments have said, “Hey, we're going to have a lot of law [and order]. And it makes the place safer and then it makes the economy better. And that's kind of what Nayib Bukele has done in El Salvador, right? You know, I mean, if you want to be safe.

James Smith: Let's expand on the Miami point because you are, I believe, a senior executive for the Economic Club of Miami. Tell us about how did you get invited to do that role, and what have you found that you've enjoyed most about it?

Francisco Gonzalez Joining the Team at the Economic Club of Miami

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, so it's also interesting with the Economic Club of Miami, it was only founded about three years ago. The four board members who founded it, I've actually known three of them for about a decade, each of them independently of one another. And one of them, my friend John Hartley…John had actually worked at Goldman Sachs in New York. He's originally from Toronto. He was educated in the US. He's now finishing a PhD at Stanford in economics. But at one point he was in finance there at Goldman Sachs in New York. And while he was there, he was a part of the Economic Club of New York. And the Economic Club in New York has been around for like 100 years, and they've even got a piece of property, a building. They have events all the time, really high-profile conversations that they've been hosting.

So John's parents who are from Canada, they've had a house in Miami Beach for over a decade. And during the pandemic, like a lot of people, John was coming down to Florida a lot more. And he basically worked mostly from Miami, at his parents’ house during the time that he would have been quarantined in many other states. And so in Miami, there had been this huge trend of people coming right from the early days of the pandemic [in 2020] because people in Silicon Valley and New York, they were really shut down. And even though there were some economic [COVID] shutdowns in Florida as well, it wasn't as stringent as [in other places] we all know. So we were called the free state of Florida [during the Pandemic].

And so John started seeing all these people from all these places while he was in Miami. And he asked a question--why doesn't Miami have an Economic Club like New York does? Those would be great places for these people to congregate and meet each other at. And so him and a few of our other board members, people who are now our board members, they got together and that's what they put together. And we, you know, we had been around a little over a year. They just were four voluntary board members doing this, this great work of organizing some events and putting some, some speakers together. And, you know, right around the time of the, you know, about a year or two into the Pandemic, one of the top CEOs in the world, Ken Griffin, decided he wanted to move Citadel’s global headquarters from Chicago to well, he wanted to move them from Chicago. The mayor of Miami pounced on that, Francis Suarez, and approached Ken Griffin and gave him some great ideas of what they could do if they moved Citadel to Miami. And so he moved it down there.

And in 2022, the Economic Club of Miami invited Ken Griffin to be in a conversation with Mayor Suarez. And that was a really great event that they held in November 2022. And that was really the, I say, the signature event that put the Economic Club of Miami on the map. We were the first organization to host Ken Griffin personally, for a public event since he moved Citadel from Chicago to Miami. And Ken is, I think, one of the top 40 wealthiest men in the world to this day. So a lot of people wanted to be there, and it put us on the map. And I happened to go to that event as an attendee. I had no idea how long the Economic Club of Miami had been around. I didn't even know these four people founded it that I knew. I just kind of came to the event because I saw it advertised so much.

Francisco Gonzalez On Being Raised in South Florida

Francisco Gonzalez: And, you know, I had been spending a lot of time in Guatemala the previous year, when I was starting Fearless Journeys and teaching down there. And I was back in South Florida, and I walked into the event and they saw me and they said, hey, are you back in South Florida? I said, yeah. They said, we could use your help because we're growing all of a sudden. And we would really, you know, they knew my background working for a few different public policy think tanks and fundraising. And they thought, hey, this would be a good match for me to do this in a part time capacity, which was all they could afford. And that's kind of a young club. And then also that was really the only time I could afford as well, considering I'm also running and leading Fearless Journeys. So it was a really perfect match. And I was born and raised in Miami and live in South Florida and primarily lived in South Florida most of my life. I mean, I've I've lived in a few other places—Orlando, Tallahassee, Maryland, Delaware. But it's--you know I was back in South Florida it was a great place to be in, a good match. And kind of interesting because if you go back 46 years you know when I was born in Miami and uh, Miami is a completely different place today than it was in 1978. And my parents actually moved from Miami to Broward County in 1981, when I was three years old. And that was when Broward was just getting started.

In fact, I have to give a shout out to the Florida Panthers for winning their first NHL championship this week. But...where the Florida Panthers now play, that’s five minutes from the house I grew up in my entire life, like a five-minute drive.

James Smith That's excellent. I want to stick to geographic proximity here because you've got an excellent Florida man thread [of conversation] going. Thank you for summarizing the Economic Club of Miami, how you got involved so well with that. I wanted to say you took another journey recently to Cuba, about 90 miles [from Miami] and talk about that. Because I know your family is of Cuban origin, if I'm not mistaken, is that correct?

How Cisco Came to the Country of His Paternal Heritage, Cuba

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, my dad is from Cuba. He left Cuba when he was seven years old. His parents, my grandparents left in 1960, very early, only about a year and a half after Castro had taken over. Um, so they, my grandparents, they never made it back. They've now since passed away. My, my dad has not been back. Um, I think one of my uncles, my dad's brother had been there on a short cruise stop a few years back, when the cruises were going just for like a day. But I'm really the first person [from my family] that's gone back [and spent significant time in Cuba]. I mean, I'd never been there before. The first person [from my family] that's gone. And I really went. I had actually some friends who are mentioned in my book. Actually, they've been on my podcast, The Currys. They're a band. They're a musical band that splits time between Florida and Virginia. And they paired up with this woman named Joni Ellis, who runs a nonprofit called Optics for the Tropics. And literally she's in the ornithology community--she's a bird watcher and 20 years ago she went for her first ornithology conference to Cuba and really started falling in love with it and making friends. And so she's been running group trips back there ever since--and she's also a fan and friends of The Currys this music band. And uh they just got together and talked and said, “Hey we should do a trip together to Cuba!”

Well, about six months before their trip, they posted about it, marketing it on Facebook and everything. And I said, “Why are The Currys going to Cuba?” That was my first question. I know one of them is half-Cuban like me. But other than that, why are they doing a trip to Cuba? And then the second thing I looked at was the date. And it was my birthday in January that the date of the trip was starting. And I said, “My gosh, I've been wanting to go to Cuba. I love The Currys. I'm good friends with them as well. And they're going to Cuba on my birthday. I think the signs say I got to go.”

So that's what really... gave me the initiative to go. But we spent a week there. We were in Havana, we were in Matanzas, and we were also at Playa Larga in the Bay of Pigs area.

So look, first of all, it was just amazing for me to be there. And I'm going to just tell you, I took Southwest Airlines from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a 45-minute flight to Cuba. The difference between South Florida and the United States and Cuba cannot be bigger. And yet the geographic distance is a 45-minute flight. It's just crazy. The people in Cuba are living in absolute poverty. It is, they've, they don't even…they don't have anything. They have very few resources. If you show up to the Port of Havana and you stick within about a five-block radius, you're gonna see what the Cuban government wants you to see. You know, you're gonna see some nice restaurants and things like that.

On the Best Cuban Food in the World Still Being in South Florida

But to be honest, even the nice restaurants--I mean I grew up in Miami, I live in South Florida. I eat great Cuban food all the time. The restaurants in Cuba don't even compare to Miami. I mean, one of my old bosses used to tell people that Florida has the best Cuban food in the free world. And that was a nice little kind of joke, right? Because you might say, well, we don't have the best Cuban food, just the best Cuban food in the free world. And I was like, I came back from Cuba and I said, nope, Miami has the best Cuban food in the world--because they just don't have the resources [to produce the best ingredients]. They don't have that kind of farm[s for gourmet foods].

I mean, we went to some farms, we visited some great people that are doing some amazing things. People who really believe that they're going to be part of the future of Cuba, not from a political perspective, but just from helping their community, building an entrepreneur mindset and all these sorts of things. And that is super-inspiring to see people in a place like that, that their entire life they grew up under a communist country with no resources. And they still believe that they can make it. And they don't want to leave, even though every single person I met in Cuba whether they were somebody that uh you know our tour organizer knew, or just some stranger we met on the street --every single person had at least one family member that lived outside of Cuba and mostly in the United States.

Cubans Are Warm and Welcoming to Americans

The Cuban people are very friendly to us--they're actually very one of the most surprising things to me was how joyous they are. How just full of life they are. They're…they just have a great spirit and to think how much resources we have in the United States and we have so many unhappy people. And to see they have almost nothing and yet they seem to be very happy--and I know that's…that sounds weird to say. But you have to go and experience it for yourself, to actually see it. And I don't think it was like a front they were putting up, because in the same sentences they would also tell you about their struggles. They would tell you how challenging life is, how they have nothing. But they have each other and they have their friendships and they're out in the streets, things like this. The streets are very safe in Cuba.

And so you see all of these really different things. But the one thing that maybe surprised me the most--because obviously I know Cuba is a communist country. They've had a lot of authoritarianism, to say the least, over the years. Anytime there's protests, there's a lot of crackdowns by the government. But I was kind of shocked at how many Cubans just spoke so freely to me, openly on the street about their opinions. And these were not narratives that the government would like to hear. And I thought, well, this is interesting. Right?

James Smith: You know, I... I've been thinking about that too. You know, I, I did not grow up, uh, with the Cuban heritage, but I kind of grew up as a Cold War kid, a late 1980s Cold War kid. You know, I remember when I was about five or six years old, B-52 bombers, uh, flying over the shopping mall where my parents would take, uh, us for Sunday afternoon lunch after church. And it was, uh, It was really something that kind of made an impression on me.

There's a song by the band. I forget what their names are. It's a Cuban American country music band whose name will come back to me [The Mavericks, led by singer Raul Malo]. But they had a song called “From Hell to Paradise”. And the guy wrote the lyrics, “This 90-mile trip has taken 30 years to make / They tried to keep forever what was never theirs to take.” And he said, “I cursed and scratched the devil's hand as he stood in front of me / One last drag from his big cigar and he finally set me free!” I’ll remember the band name shortly, but I… those lyrics always stuck with me. I used to listen to those guys [while driving around Austin, Texas] and it's just amazing how like you said, it's such a close geographic proximity. And it's such an intimate neighbor too, because the Cuban people, I know [young Fidel] Castro was in the New York Yankees farm system when he was a teenager [in the late 1940s], if I'm not mistaken.

Francisco Gonzalez: There's some debate about that.

On the Failure of the U.S. Embargo and Entrepreneurial Cubans Leaving

James Smith: Yeah, it's a rumor, but I mean, it's just, just to the degree to which our two countries have been so closely intertwined and yet politics has, has driven us so far apart that those 90 miles might as well be, you know, 900 miles or 9,000 miles for some people. And, you know, I was in high school when the Elián Gonzalez thing, the whole saga happened [in the late Clinton Administration]. And I don't want to get into it, but it's just like, the rights and wrongs of that particular [tragic] situation. But it's just that, which was very tragic for the family. But it really, you know, you ask yourself, how long can things go on like this? How long before things really, truly begin to open up? Because it seems like you're fighting [against] geography and you're fighting with, you know, with capitalism [finding a way]. I mean, it just makes too much sense that you have this beautiful island so close to the United States that people would like to visit.

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah.

James Smith: It seems still kind of far away and expensive or just a hassle for Americans to go there, even though maybe it isn't. I mean, I don't know. I haven't been. So, I can't say, does everybody have to fly to Mexico City or another, you know, Latin American city [to get to Havana]?

Francisco Gonzalez: It's very easy now. Yeah, you can go. And I'd be happy to help people learn how to get there. But here's the thing. This happened multiple times in Cuba. We would have people who would [come up to us]. We were walking out of a restaurant where we had just ate or somewhere. And people would say proactively, “We love Americans. The only problem that there exists are between our governments.” But between the people, we love the people. And of course they do because...frickin’ half of Cuba is in America, you know, I mean, their heritage. And so they know that and by the way, everybody I met in Cuba has a smartphone. They're all on the Internet. They know what they're missing [in terms of prosperity 90 miles away in Miami].

And by the way, the government is not stopping them from leaving. They can go. There's no more stopping people from leaving Cuba. And by the way, did you know in the last two years, a half a million people have left Cuba in the last two years alone?

Mostly that's due to the fact that Cuba has a very friendly relationship with Nicaragua. And Nicaragua two years ago opened up some kind of visa for Cubans. Now there's a lot, it's a business. There's a lot of people making money on that because they're coming into Nicaragua and they're getting them on the migration path to the border of Mexico. But there's also a lot of Cubans coming legally and credit to at least to the Biden administration for [doing] something [right] here. They actually did have a really good immigration policy for Cubans, Venezuelans, and I think Nicaraguans that are allowing a lot more people from those countries in legally. And by the way, though, when you do that, you're going to have more people line up for it.

So I met some young Cubans in Havana, for example, who told me they're in line they're on the legal list to leave and as soon as they get the opportunity they're here. And so they…one of the other things a lot of young people that I met told me they said, “All the young people like anybody in their like 20s and 30s--almost all of them they want to leave.” And why? I tell you why--it's because they're all on these smartphones, they're all on the Internet. And if you look around and you see the life you have in Cuba and then you look on your phone and, on the Internet, and you see the great life that [other Cuban] people are having outside [of your country], of course you're going to want to leave.

Now my view has was totally impacted by this trip, I was already kind of moving in the direction of thinking, “I'm not sure we should have an embargo against Cuba anymore.” Now I think it's…I think [the US Embargo against Cuba] is totally antiquated. And it's not doing any good [for the Cuban people]. And by the way I've had other Cuban-Americans get mad at me for going to Havana, because they think I'm funding the regime. And first, not because we paid people directly. And that's what our friend Joni set up. We stayed at private apartments that are very much like Airbnbs where you pay the person [who owns the home] directly. We went to people's homes. We also brought…I brought an entire suitcase of clothes just to donate. So we we did a lot of good. Like in that sense is a little bit of money filtering into the government? Sure. I'm sure it is. We can't stop the government from getting something right? But even the $85 visa that I paid for you know that’s going to go right to the Cuban government, right?

Francisco Gonzalez: But here's the thing--if you really believe in capitalism and free markets and free trade…and by the way, a lot of conservatives don't [believe in those things] anymore. So, you know, that's another thing. But if you really believe in it, then that's going to be the path [encouraging tourism and trade] to basically opening up Cuba. And I really believe that.

I know some people, so I had so I say--I had a few Cuban Americans including a few people on X/Twitter who don't really know me necessarily, but maybe they follow me, they got mad at me for going, “Oh you're just funding the [socialist Cuban] government” and I said, “You know what? Let me just tell you something. Our governments [the USA and Cuba] have had 65 years of trying to figure this out. That's an entire lifetime from somebody being born to the time they retire in the United States! Yes and we haven't figured it out, so guess what? It's time for the people to have cultural exchanges and figure it out.

Believing in Entrepreneurship and People to People Connections to Change Cuba

Because let me tell you, we had those exchanges and that's what's going to change Cuba…because don't you want somebody who wrote a book like this, right [holds up a copy of his book]? My book about an entrepreneur mindset to walk into Cuba and talk to people, um about building an entrepreneur mindset um and also you know, the flip side happens as well. You know we get to learn and also, I got to see…you know I took a classic car ride across Havana, and I went to my dad's old neighborhood, which is about 30 minutes outside the center of Havana. I just made a YouTube video about this [experience] as well for my Fearless Journeys YouTube channel.

And as we were driving, I could see all of these homes that look like mansions. I could see all these buildings that were just dilapidated. Even the mansions weren't necessarily dilapidated, but they just looked like nobody has put a [fresh coat of] paint on them in 65 years. And I just had this vision of, my gosh, this place was definitely once a gem. This looks like if this would have been kept up, this could be Buenos Aires, Argentina. You know, this could be Paris. This could be I mean; this is a real [gem], you could just see the infrastructure that was there [in the 1950s]. Maybe little pieces of it are still there. If somebody came in and put some investment in it and the people there are, you know, it's a mix, right?

Francisco Gonzalez: You have a mix of people who are hardworking. And you have a mix of people who have been born and raised in a communist system, and they are super lazy. And that’s what other Cubans will tell you. There are a lot of Cubans today that are super lazy because there was no incentive to work. And then there are others who have just simply given up hope because their entire life has been hopeless [after working hard for years]. So you have kind of those three kinds of people in Cuba. Unfortunately, the entrepreneurial kind of people who are really hardworking, after a while, they tend to just leave, right? That's what entrepreneurs do. They go find other opportunities. Maybe some people would come back to Cuba and invest in it and live there and things like that.

But I think it would be helpful. There's no reason that we should allow a place to be allied with Russia or... or Nicaragua or [Maduro’s socialist government in] Venezuela that's 90 miles from Florida, we should be friends with them. So, let's find a way. And here's my hope. My hope is that Raul Castro is on his last days. He's basically not governing Cuba. There's a new president of Cuba now for the last few years. I kind of feel like when the last Castro brother dies, maybe there will be this aura that would be like lifted for them to kind of move forward in a new direction. Unfortunately, there's still a lot of indoctrination going on in the schools there about socialism and things like that. And they're very tied in with helping Venezuela and things like that. So there's got to be, you know, but we got to somehow be persuasive that they should move in our direction and not in the Venezuelan-Russian [aligned] direction.

On Comparisons Between Cuba and Havana’s Socialist Ally Venezuela

James Smith: Yeah, I mean, I think that certainly Venezuela, I've had, you may have seen on our X channel, we've had Andres Villarroel of Venezuela Insider on. We also had Ernesto Contreras, who is a Venezuelan-born entrepreneur now based in Mexico City [on the ESW program]. So the tragedy of Venezuela [socialism failure and hyperinflation amid debatable US sanctions] is one that we've discussed on this show a bit, in just our eight webcasts that we've had, eight podcasts [since April 15, 2024].

And I remember talking to Andres and telling him, look, when Americans think of Venezuela, they think of just the number of people they're starting to see [selling candy/soft drinks or begging] on the streets and all over the United States, not just in the places you would expect which are closer to the Caribbean or Mexico. I mean, there's Venezuelans begging on the streets of Chicago selling [chocolate bars and Gatorade], you know, you see them at intersections selling candies, even in the suburbs of Washington D.C. I saw a few [Venezuelan migrants] just a few days ago. And so it's just crazy to see the contrast between what you the poverty and the people begging on the streets here who come from Venezuela versus, you know, certain areas of Caracas, where you see these beautiful [Instagram model] women going around, fancy cars, late model things [boats on the Caribbean resort piers], new condos, some new construction starting there…since they sort of hit rock bottom a few years ago in terms of the hyperinflation.

James Smith: So it's really A Tale of Two Cities [like the Charles Dickens novel]. And I think Mexico is sort of in a similar boat, in terms of there's less illegal migration from Mexico [of actual Mexican migrants] now than there was before, maybe because the peak of the demographic wave has passed [for Mexico]. Yet Americans still maybe can't wrap their head around the fact that some Mexicans probably do live better than they do. And I mean, it's a study in contrasts. I was mentioning that to your friend Doug Pestana of Legalmente.ai. [Francisco Gonzalez’s friend Doug Pestana and I] we were talking about this question of for some people--are they going to be able to keep their American dream alive by making it an Americas Dream as I like to say?

Has the American Dream Become the Americas Dream of Leaving for LatAm for Many Middle Aged Gringos, Especially Single or Divorced Men?

James Smith: The American Dream may become the Americas Dream [of moving to Mexico or El Salvador and or meeting and marrying a Latina] for quite a few people who--especially in midlife, they've had financial setbacks during the pandemic, maybe a business failed, maybe they've been through a divorce like one of our upcoming guests that we're going to have on the show talking about his life in El Salvador. And I mean It's really, we're living in a great transition period and I couldn't help but say, I don't want to get too political here. I know you want to stay nonpartisan [when discussing the Economic Club of Miami or other related topics], but I couldn't help but read some of your comments about the [first 2024 presidential] debate last night.

And we had two geriatric men [Joe Biden who has since dropped out of the race to retire after January 2025 and Donald Trump] going at it on a stage. And you think about the image of America, you know…people used to during the last Cold War [when POTUS was ‘Leader of the Free World’], especially I've noticed some distinction because this is where, you know, I kind of I don't want to get on a soapbox. But I have some problems with people who just assume that it's still 1985 or 1995, especially in the GOP [with the Reagan worship omitting Reagan’s second term when he negotiated with the Soviets and we had the Iran Contra scandal], but also on the Democratic side where they have this idea of [the Clinton years continuing into perpetuity].

On the Need for Both Democrats and Republicans to Rethink and Look at the Rest of the World Honestly, with Healthy Realism

James Smith: They [Boomers and many of the oldest Xers born in the early 1970s] have this idea that the world has changed very little since they were young, and they don't really recognize that America needs more honey and less gall. We need to be [more] attractive [to the rest of the world’s go-getters and entrepreneurs rather than just trying to sanction adversaries because we have the biggest financial markets denial hammer, everything becomes a nail -JS], as you were talking about a minute ago, to go over the heads of the rulers to the Cuban people, go over the heads of the socialists, whoever, are in power [in Havana and Caracas], and they're not really [hardcore Che Guevera radicals]...I mean, they're more champagne socialists at this point anyway, kind of like the people in...Pelosi's people in San Francisco.

I mean, you're talking about...” winning hearts and minds” as they used to say during the Vietnam War era [about helping the South Vietnamese and Laotian villagers]. And, and I don't, I don't see a lot of people doing that. I just see a lot of people on X, you know, flexing, “Oh, we're number one. We're so awesome. We're so, uh, you know, strong and everybody else [in China and especially Russia] is still weak and, you know, uh, and backward. And they don't see that, you know, our president is not really in command of his facilities fully and painfully [stated this before Biden announced his resignation from re-election]. So at times it's…

And so what is [to be done]…how do you get people to I mean, I think the best way by far, Doug said this as well, is just to take people there and see it with their own eyes. Don't see it through the media. Don't even see it through social media, even though social media can be a little bit more honest than mainstream media. It still has its own problems and biases [with algorithmic manipulation and AI deep fakes being used to spread fake news across platforms]. So I think the best solution is for people to go see it for themselves. And that's where your enterprise of Fearless Journeys comes in.

Travel Changes Lives and Opens New Mental and Entrepreneurial Horizons

Francisco Gonzalez: Absolutely I mean look first of all I'm just I'm a huge advocate for travel as one of the best educations you can give yourself. So no matter where you live, like go somewhere else like maybe it's within the United States? Just go to another part of the United States [like the Pacific Northwest, the Deep South, or Appalachia] right and you'll just be very well-educated. And you'll kind of come to understand you know people are…there are different people, but there's a lot of similarities as well.

But when you start to travel to other countries and more and more places that you get to go, first of all, I've done three group trips to Guatemala. And I will tell you, more than 50 people have come to Guatemala through either one of my trips or maybe some friends that came to visit while I was living there. And other than, I think, two of those people, none of them had ever been to Guatemala before.

And I'm going to tell you, all of them had basically said, “If it wasn't for you, posting videos and blog posts for Fearless Journeys, I wouldn't have come to Guatemala.” I was the reason they came. They saw some of my posts. They saw some of my writings [in the Fearless Journeys e-newsletter]. They saw I was offering some trips. And they said, I'm going to take a chance and go down there with Francisco for a week. And usually by day two or three, I just start seeing their whole mindset change. Some of them will literally voice it out loud.

We take people to a great coffee farm about an hour outside Guatemala City. Wonderful family. I had the father who started the farm on my podcast. His name is Beto Reyes. It was somewhere around episode 108 or somewhere around there on the Agents of Innovation podcast. And he literally, this man grew up in poverty in Guatemala. He grew up with no shoes on his feet. His mother just passed away in the last couple of months. And to her dying day, she didn't know any [English]. Not only did she not know any English, she didn't know how to read [in Spanish]. But she taught him a lot of other things about how to love people, how to have compassion, all these things.

The Guatemalan Coffee Farm that Grows the San Patricio de la Mon Brew

Francisco Gonzalez: So he learned a lot of things. He learned a lot of hard work ethic. And he just started getting him and a couple of his brothers, they started just buying a little tiny piece of land and they just grew some things on it. A little bit more, a little bit more. Today they have something like 250 acres of land, maybe more. And it's on the side of a mountain in this city called Palencia. He's had the coffee farm for 25 years. The coffee is called San Patricio de la Mon. And it is now ranked the 14th best coffee in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence. And you know, there's hundreds and hundreds of coffee brands in Guatemala.

Um, the family is amazing. Very strong values. They have five kids. I got to know, I got to be friends with the middle son, Saul, and he's the one that first invited me to the farm before I even did a tour there. And I said, “Oh my gosh, I would love to bring people here.” But they don't do tours. They just opened it up for Fearless Journeys to come on a, on all three of our group trips there. And we're going to be doing another one, by the way, with The Currys who I was with in Cuba, we're going to be doing a trip to Guatemala with them in January. So I just put their, one of their pages up or at least a page about them. Uh, yeah, about the Reyes family. They are an amazing family. My friend Dan Vineberg, who has an amazing YouTube channel called The New Travel, he came on my first group trip. And he did a video about some of our different aspects of our trip. And the video he did about the visit to the farm, I mean, it almost made me cry. Actually it made me cry. And the reason is, is he didn't just focus on the visit to the coffee farm, which is just the one thing I wanted to highlight. Like, hey, like most people have never been on a coffee farm because it only grows in a specific region of the country.

Francisco Gonzalez: The one thing that stood out to Dan and I think to most of my travelers was the family, how welcoming they were, how hospitable they were. When you meet this family, the mother cooks us lunch. We don't just do a tour of the farm. We sit there and we have lunch with the family. The father, I should mention, about 12 years ago, became mayor of the town. And he's been mayor ever since. He's gotten elected like three or four times. And he's just an amazing guy. Again, that's the one who I got to interview on the podcast. And anyway, just great people.

But I remember on, I think it was on our third group trip, one of our travelers, at the conclusion of the lunch on the coffee farm, he just says out loud, “Wow, more people need to get out of their homes and travel [the world]. You could just tell his mind was just blown. He's like, “This is not what I expected from Guatemala.” When you expect Guatemala, you think it's going to be poor people who want to leave. It's dangerous, all these things. These were some of the most hospitable, friendly people you've ever met. And the work ethic and the values they have, it was amazing. So people's minds change when they travel and they see, oh my God, this is not what is presented to me on CNN. This is not, you know, no disrespect, but just the media, they focus on things that are going to entertain and keep your eyes glued on them, because they have money to make. They’ve got advertisers that are all based on ratings. And the number one thing that actually drives attention is actually the other half of this word behind me [points to the back board with his brand which says Fearless Journeys]. Fear, right? So I say, I like to take people on Fearless Journeys. The Fearless Journeys name really came from the idea of if somebody is on an entrepreneurial journey, maybe they're thinking of doing something entrepreneurial. They have a lot of anxiety. They have a lot of fear. They're not really sure what steps to take.

On Fearless Journeys as a Travel-Forged Community for Like-Minded Entrepreneurs

Francisco Gonzalez: So we wanted to provide a community where they could have some guidance, some education, some knowledge about the steps to take for maybe working a sort of corporate nine to five job and maybe venturing out one day to being an entrepreneur. Now, one thing I learned along the way is being an entrepreneur is not for everybody and it's very difficult and it's very mentally challenging. So it's not for everything, everybody. So I said, hey, what we really got to do first is before we encourage people to take a leap, we need to help them build a mindset, a mindset that's going to really give them the entrepreneur mindset. And even if you never go out and start your own company, that mindset can help you in anything you do, can make you better at your own job. It can make you a more valuable employee. all these things.

But one of the things that I found with a lot of entrepreneurs; it seems to be a pattern. A lot of people I've interviewed on my podcast and a lot of people I've met, people that are featured in my book, they all bring up a travel story. Maybe they are lifelong travelers or maybe it was some simple, single travel experience they had that really gave them a different perspective about something. So I think that's the number one thing. Travel gives you a different perspective. And so what you're saying too is, To your point, I love the United States of America. I'm as patriotic as anybody. I wear red, white, and blue more than anybody, everything like that. And I really believe so strongly in the U.S. Constitution and the founding principles. But the one thing I also have learned is, “Hey, by the way, we're not the only thing happening [on this beautiful planet of ours]. A lot of other places where people are living great lives, and they have a lot of great history and traditions and all these sorts of things. And we can appreciate that as well. And we can appreciate no place is perfect. The United States isn't perfect. We might be one of the best places, but any place you pick around El Salvador is not perfect. That's for sure. Guatemala is not perfect. All these places. Cuba is certainly not perfect, but there are aspects that you can appreciate from all of these places.

Francisco Gonzalez: And I think it's good for people to get out and travel. And maybe they can see like, I do know people who have considered or even moved to other countries, even if it's for a year or it's for the rest of their life, because they were just like, we just found life was better there. The rest of our life is going to be better here [in this new place]. So I have a couple that I had on the podcast. probably around episode 120 or somewhere around there. And I got to know them. I'm really good friends with them. You know, for people who follow me, I love cigars and there's a great cigar shop in Antigua, Guatemala called Antigua Cigars.

On the Couples Who Decide to Stay in Latin America for Life and Retire There

Francisco Gonzalez: And the couple there, they're an older retired couple named Uwe and Lynn. And they're from Canada. Well, he's originally from Germany, but when he was like around, you know, around 30 years old or something, he moved to Canada. And now he's in his, I think he just celebrated his 75th birthday the other day. And, you know, she's about a decade or so younger than him. And they met in Canada. And I think it was about 18, maybe 20 years ago. Just put their website up as well.

James Smith: [Excuse me] Cisco, this is a new feature. I didn't want to drive the audience to distraction [by changing sub-headlines on the screen below where Francisco is talking].

Francisco Gonzalez: They're going to love me because they call me their international ambassador because I take their cigars and smoke them all over the world and send them pictures. But the great thing, about 20 years ago, they moved. They were both in the manufacturing industry. And they moved to El Salvador for like one and a half years. They had like a contract where they were doing, you know, some manufacturing down there. Well, they're from Canada. And like, it's nice to visit some warmer weather.

But for them, El Salvador was really hot compared to compared to Canada. And so they started asking people where could they go, you know, maybe travel to nearby and get a little break from the heat. And they were pointed in the direction of Antigua, Guatemala, because Antigua, it's a 5,000 feet [1,500 meters] elevation city. Guatemala City is as well. That area between Guatemala City, Antigua, and Lake Atila, it's called the Eternal Spring. It's like [measured in] Fahrenheit, it's like in the 60s and 70s year round. I mean, it could get a little colder at night in some parts of the year, a little warmer, not very much. It's like walking to natural air conditioning all the time.

So they fell in love with Antigua for many reasons, including the weather. And after the year and a half contract was up in El Salvador, and by the way, this was in El Salvador way before Bukele, right? We're talking 20 years ago, probably a lot more dangerous.

James Smith: Yeah. Even before the gangs were in completely out of control, it was still, there were a lot of problems even at that time. Yeah. Late nineties, early 2000s.

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, so they were right there in the early 2000s. Anyway, afterwards, they decided to move to Antigua. They've been there now for something like 18 to 20 years in Antigua. I think they're coming up on celebrating their 20th anniversary since opening the... So this was sort of a... kind of a retirement job for them, but they also are very passionate about cigars and they really couldn't find a good cigar shop or a good cigar lounge in Antigua. So they just opened their own and it's just a little place and you can go visit. It's open most days except Sunday, I think.

So if you're ever there and if you tell them that you heard from Francisco, let me tell you, you will be...you'll be right in the door there. I've sent so many people their way and they love it, but they're really wonderful people. And you could also listen to that episode [from 2023]. They've got a million stories, but it's one of those things where even for people like them.

On the Advantages of Much More Affordable Health Care in LatAm

Francisco Gonzalez: And I just did a podcast, by the way, with Vance from MyLatinLife.com. And we talked about this, but some people don't realize the amazing health care treatment you can get in a lot of Latin American cities and countries, at a lot lower cost, a lot more personal [attention including house calls and doctors who call you via WhatsApp to follow up]. And for people who are actually experiencing end-of-life hospice care, it's your buck goes so much further and you're going to get way more attention.

A really good friend of mine in Antigua, she's lived there since the 1970s. She's an American. Her parents actually moved to Antigua in the early 2000s because her mother had Alzheimer’s. And her father thought Antigua was a really nice environment, beautiful, great weather year-round. And they could [afford to] hire [Guatemalan home health aide] personal care for the mother. And the mother passed away. You know, it's probably been like 15 years or so. And then in the last five, you know, her father has now passed away about two years ago. But in the last few years of his life, he was in really poor health as well, and he had [live in nurse] 24/7 care at the house. And for something like that, I'm sure it was costly, but it would have been ten times more the cost if it was back in their home state of Massachusetts. So they just found that actually end of life care in Central America, in Guatemala, particularly for them, has been a lot better.

On the Alarming Growth of the U.S. National Debt—America in Decline

Francisco Gonzalez: And I know firsthand from Uwe and Lynn, as they're aging and they have different things going on, that they've had great access to great healthcare in Guatemala as well. So, I think it's just kind of interesting. You don't necessarily think of these things [at your current age]. We kind of think, oh, the U.S. is great in everything. Not necessarily. I mean, I think overall across the board, we are, but as Doug actually said, I listened to your podcast with Doug, and I think there's a lot of concerns that he expressed [about the U.S. being in decline]. And I would express that we are in a country right now that we have witnessed a lot of decline. We've witnessed a lot of great innovations in the United States, and we are still the number one leader, I think, in most of the innovations that come out of the world [in many areas of technology]. But we have a lot of problems. I mean, I just talked to you [a few moments ago] about when you and I met.

The last time we saw each other, in early 2007, the U.S. national debt was somewhere around $7 or $8 trillion. And here we are, 2024, and it's something like $33 trillion. That's insane.

James Smith: The most alarming thing, Cisco, is that we're adding almost a trillion dollars every four months, roughly, to the national debt. So in other words, we're running basically a $3 trillion deficit. And people say, well, that's not a big deal because we can just print the world's reserve currency. We can print more monopoly money.

Well, we're like the banker in [the game of] Monopoly, I should say. I'm not saying the dollar is monopoly money. No, it's not. I'm not one of those people. I'm not even really a gold bug. I mean, I've been around a lot of gold bugs, but for us at ESW, gold is a vehicle. Bitcoin is a vehicle. You know, it's not something to make an idol of. It's something to get you from point A to point B in life where you want to go, including internationally moving assets outside of the banking system, through either Bitcoin or through gold vaulting, which our partners Royal Amparo in the DMCC in Dubai specialize in.

James Smith: So, I mean, look, every I think I think almost every country has pros and cons. And I am also very patriotic. I grew up around the military. I grew up in a U.S. military family. You know, father was an Air Force colonel. Grandfather [Colonel Smith] was an Air Force colonel on the maternal side. He was in SAC, actually based at MacDill Air Force Base during the Cuban Missile Crisis…at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. We're talking about October 1962 here. So I mean for me, I love who we were I love our Constitution, I love our Bill of Rights. I love what we stood for uh you know when we won World War II, when when our nation was at its height [of power and influence] if historians are looking back on the USA. And I hope that there is a chance there is a hope for a Renaissance, because this is what I tell people when they say, well, you know, what about this and that?

The Tucker Carlson Question: Why Can’t We Have Nice Things Like Safe Streets for San Francisco--if El Salvador Can Do It?

James Smith: And I say, look, what it's going to take is seeing so-called Third World countries or poor countries doing certain things with a fraction of our resources. achieving things like Tucker Carlson says, if they can do this in El Salvador, why can't we do this [crack down on crime] to clean up San Francisco? Why can't we clean up, you know, at least reduce the number of young black men shooting each other and killing each other on the streets of Chicago or New Orleans or Memphis [Tennessee], wherever it is? And I think that, you know, it's a very powerful testimony [what President Nayib Bukele and his team have accomplished]. I almost use a Biblical word here deliberately. It's a kind of testimony to what we've become [indecisive and decadent here in many cities of the US]. And, you know, it's very important.

There's a verse you may be familiar with, because I know you're a devout Catholic, [1st Corinthians 1:26-28] that God has used the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, those who are wise in their own eyes. And I think about that verse quite often, as well as the one from the Sermon on the Mount. You know, [Matthew 5:5] the meek shall inherit the earth--and “the meek” does not mean weakness. Meekness is power under control, as a lot of pastors have have explained in the exegesis of the Greek word.

James Smith: So, it means somebody who's strong but is willing to humble themselves. That's who is going to inherit the earth, is the person who uses their strength for the good of their family and for the good of their community and for other people. That's who's going to inherit the world because the future belongs to those who show up. And, you know, as you as a Catholic are aware, I don't know if you're married or single, what God has called you to…but, you know, we've got demographic problems in this world. And Elon Musk talks about it, that are not the demographic problems that people told us about the Seventies of, you know, the whole earth is going to be an overcrowded dump and we're all going to eat Soylent Green, but that people aren't having enough children. And that's also a part of it that, you know, to a certain degree, the United States is becoming a more Latin American society.

James Smith: And I think a lot of people, particularly on the “Hard Right”, have focused on the negative aspects of that. Well, you know, you import the Third World, you become the Third World, but they haven't focused perhaps enough on the positive aspects of the Latin culture and what we can learn from it. Particularly that. Yeah. Don't forget to don't forget to have kids. Don't you know who shows up?

Is the Present and Future of the USA Latin American? And Sky-High U.S. Housing Costs

Francisco Gonzalez: I think you're right and I said that a lot about, I think if anything, the Latin American immigrants to the US are going to save the US. One, from the population standpoint you just mentioned. I think maybe the cultural values too. If we can actually encourage Latin Americans to not give up their cultural values when they come to the US, and I mean by that, their strong faith, most of them are devout Christians and most of those are Catholic. Also their large families, you know, are larger than most US families and they have their hard work ethic.

My gosh, by the way, one of the great things about living in South Florida and especially being in Miami so much with running the Economic Club of Miami, there's, I meet people from everywhere, all over the world every day. I mean, I grew up taking this for granted living in South Florida. I didn't, I didn't realize, you know, probably in most parts of the U S you don't wake up and walk down the street and have the opportunity to meet somebody from literally any country in the world on any given day. I think that was just something that's been part of my life for, you know, I can remember. But even now, you know, as much as I talk to people about building the entrepreneur mindset and that we cannot give up on the American Dream, there are many days I look at what's going on around the world and in our country, and I get very uh you know frustrated as well. And I know the cost of living has gone up for a lot of Americans especially young Americans, when you look at the affordability of home prices and things like that versus what you're actually making [in wages]. It's a lot higher priced to buy a home uh compared to your salary both have gone up in 30 to 40 years’ time, but the percentage of [your salary] what a home costs wasn't this high ever before.

On Meeting a Young Very Hard Working Venezuelan Refugee Immigrant

Francisco Gonzalez: So there's a lot of challenges to making it and to living the American Dream. And I see that and I'm very well aware of that and to be honest with you sometimes like I said it kind of demoralizes you a bit and then you have moments like I had in Miami about two months ago, where I'm coming out of a very nice restaurant. We actually had two speakers from one of our events do a do a private dinner with some of our [Economic Club of Miami] members and it was like 10:30 at night and I'm getting my car. I have to pay for my car in the garage and there's this young kid I learned later he's 24 years old and uh he's the one I'm paying [to be let out of the parking garage]. And I just said to him, “Hey how's your night going?” “Oh good”. And then I said, “Where are you from?” And to be honest with you I thought he might be like a college student at the University of Miami or something like that. And maybe he's from up north in the Northeastern part of the U.S. I really didn't hear an accent or anything. It was a really short conversation at the beginning.

Francisco Gonzalez: And he goes, “Oh I’m from Venezuela.” Of course, everybody's from Venezuela. They've repopulated the earth with Venezuelans in the last 20 years, but especially Miami. But anyway, I said, “Oh, wow.” I said, “Man, your English is so good. I said, how long have you been here?” [And he says] “Two years.” Two years. “You've been here two years.” And I could start to hear a little bit of an accent as we started going deeper into conversation, but still a very good accent. And then I said, “Well, how do you spend your week?” I didn't know if he was in school or something. And he said, “Oh, I work this job in the evenings and I usually get off about midnight or one in the morning, depending on how long it goes. Then I drive back to Hialeah,” which is kind of one of the more know lower middle class areas I would say maybe even uh working class areas of Miami, you know it's been been like that for a long time a lot of mostly Hispanic immigrants. And I…he said, yeah so we're basically in Brickell for the restaurant so you know he's in he's working at our parking garage in Brickell one of the nicest areas you want to be on the globe in some ways. And he's going back to Hialeah, one of the not-as-nice areas in Miami-Dade County. And no disrespect to Hialeah.

James Smith: I think I called it Bricktown by mistake [earlier in the podcast]. Oh, [it’s] Brickell.

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, Brickell. So then he says, oh, “Yeah, then I go home and I sleep for about five hours [until 6 am]. And then I wake up in the morning and I do Door Dash. I said, wow. And then he's like, well, and then when I'm done with Door Dash, after a few hours of that in the morning, I then run a parking garage online from my computer. I do it at home. He manages something with a parking garage in Boca Raton, which is like an hour [away from where we were].

James Smith: There are a lot of companies like LAZ that do allow people to work from home.

Francisco Gonzalez: So that's his third job, right? So he's got the parking garage at night. He's got the Door Dash in the morning. And then mostly during the day, he's on his computer running some parking management. I said, “Wow.” And then he's like, “Oh, I'm not finished.” In his additional hours, he has a friend that has an auto detailing company and he auto details cars in the additional hours of his day. I said, “Wow.” I said, “How many days a week do you do that?” “Seven days a week.” I was, I mean, I'm sitting here, like I thought I had a long day, you know, I'm getting my car at 10:30 at night to go home and I'm, I'm kind of tired. And I just looked at it and I said, man, that's a lot of work. And you know what? He didn't know anything about me or my background or anything. He literally just met me. And he goes, yeah, he puts on a big smile on and he goes, “Yeah, but I live in a free country.” He goes, “We have freedom of speech here and I have the ability to work and I have the opportunity to have four jobs.” And I was just blown away by this statement.

And then he says, two years ago, I left Venezuela. And the reason I left was I had showed up to a protest. And all of a sudden there were these [Venezuelan] government people taking pictures of me and my friends. And I got really scared. I knew what happened when people got caught at protests, they end up in jail, some end up dead, you know, all these sorts of things. So he said, “I had long hair at the time, and I shaved my head” and I looked at him because he kind of had long hair when I was looking at him and I said, “Oh is your hair this long” he goes, “It was longer than this”. I said oh man and then he's like, so he goes, “And then I moved from my parents’ house to my grandmother's house for a couple days, and then I got real nervous and I moved to my friend's house for a couple days” then he goes, “Then I got super nervous that something was still going to happen and I got on a plane and I came to the United States and that was two years ago”. And he has since helped bring his parents over, and that's who he's living with in Hialeah.

On Meeting Other Hardworking Immigrants and Hearing Their Stories

But man, when you hear that story, and he was doing college in Venezuela. I didn't get the rest of the story about whether he finished college or was trying to here. He's working extremely hard. He's putting away money. He's very happy. He sees the opportunity. He sees the contrast with where he was in Venezuela. And by the way, I hear story after story. I'm going to have a young man on my podcast in the next couple of weeks here, who just finished a two-year degree at Miami Dade College. And he's from Italy. And I was sitting down. I met him. He came to an Economic Club of Miami event. And I talked to him.

He took a gap year between leaving high school in Italy and coming to the US. And he worked for a year in Miami at some restaurants through his uncle, who owns some restaurants. And so he had the opportunity to live with his uncle, he took advantage of that opportunity. But he worked like 70 hours a week for a year, saved money, put himself through college for the next two years. Now he's going to go to Cornell to finish his you know four years [degree]. And uh you know he told me he just recently went back to Italy and uh the mindset of the young people there versus the mindset that he sees In the U.S., he sees a much stronger entrepreneurial mindset here.

So, it's super interesting what we can all see when we leave places and go somewhere else. Maybe it's an immigrant coming to the U.S. from Europe or from Latin America that sees something better here. Maybe it's a person who's grown up in the U.S. that sees a better opportunity for themselves in Medellín, Colombia, like one of my podcast guests, James Nuveen [creator of Freedom Files]. So I think you just see a lot of differences.

Promoting the Upcoming FearlessJourneys.org Trips to Guatemala and Peru

Francisco Gonzalez: Doug [Pestana] has spent a lot of time in Thailand, right? Even though he has a home base in Florida. I think people, it's a really cool thing to be able to uproot yourself at least for a little bit and go somewhere and see that there could be different opportunities. And that kind of travel helps open up your eyes. So look, if some of your guests want to have their eyes opened up for just a week, they can come to Guatemala with me in January. We're going to go to Peru in November. So all this is on the Fearless Journeys website, FearlessJourneys.org. Um, and we're going to go to more places. I just came back from a personal trip to Morocco for the first time, my first time in Africa. And I'm definitely going to do a group trip there in the future. That was such a cool country, very low, low expenses. First time to a Muslim-dominated country, 99% of the people there practice Islam.

And, um, they were just really, I mean, they reminded me a lot of the Guatemalan people and how hospitable they were and open. And let me tell you that opened up my mind even more like, man, there could actually be like a cool Muslim country.

Like I grew up, you know, in college, 9-11 happened, right? So we had a lot of, you know, a lot of [confusing] times. We were the generation that was very impacted by 9-11.

Why James Smith of ExitStrategy.World Invited Michael Yon on the ESW Program

James Smith: You know, I can tell you Michael Yon, who I had on the show, the reason I had him on the show was because he and I connected in December 2005.

I sent him an email when he was doing his, he was blogging from Iraq to, where he was deployed with a unit called Deuce 4, which became one of the most decorated units of the Iraq War during the peak of the [mid-2000s] insurgency. They were getting attacked, snipers, you know, firefight ambushes, IEDs, the whole nine yards. And I got in touch with Michael Yon because a friend, a college friend of mine at my university had also deployed with a striker unit, a different striker unit than Deuce 4. So out of, based out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. So it was,

Francisco Gonzalez: Wait, so Michael's the guy down in the the Darien Gap?

James Smith: He spent a lot of time in the Darien Gap yes, that's the main reason I had him on. But we ended up having a very lengthy two-hour discussion that covered a lot of other topics especially Japan where he is living right now.

Francisco Gonzalez: Well, I follow him on on X, mostly because somebody who I know in Guatemala I think knows him or met him or something and told me, “Man, this guy, he has a really interesting perspective. You should follow him.” So I'm sure, you know, that's going to be, I'm going to have to listen to that conversation with you and him [ESW Webcast 6 with Michael Yon] to learn more because I've mostly just seen a lot of stuff on his X account. And to be quite honest with you, like I have people that know him and they've met him and they vouch for him. But I look at his X account. I'm like, yeah. You're like, “Whoa, this is crazy.” Well, I hope this isn't true.

James Smith: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of things that I think Michael has seen probably some of the crazier aspects of this world we live in more so than other people, not only as a combat reporter, not just as a war correspondent who sits in a hotel in the region somewhere and files [news stories] from miles and miles away from where the fighting is taking place, but somebody who's actually heard the sound of gunfire and advanced toward it to cover it. And an IED explosion, Michael has seen the aftermath of an IED that killed American servicemen in a [Stryker vehicle]. So I would say that for him, it's not a matter of do I agree with [Michael Yon] on everything. It's a matter of, did he have a valuable perspective that people needed to hear? And that's why I bring people on this show.

On ESW’s App in Development and Offer for Residency in the Republic of Georgia—How ESW is Growing Organically Through Referrals But Will Soon Be Expanding its Marketing

And I generally focus more on the Latino and Latin American entrepreneurs, because I see that as our growing market [for ESW fintech and offshoring services]. In fact, we are. uh trying to shake up the offshoring and uh internationalization industry that is offshoring assets and internationalizing people's lives industry. We're creating an ESW App this fall uh it should be ready by we hope after Labor Day sometime. We've got a dev team we're putting out the tenders now with uh international dev teams [in Eastern Europe]. And we are probably going to add an offer in the Republic of Georgia. That's another place I'd recommend you visit if you haven't already been there, to Tbilisi. It's a really amazing place. I've heard very good things, excellent food, the second country in the world, the second kingdom to Christianize, to adopt Christianity after Armenia, which is also a place on my list, the whole Caucasus region.

And so we are in a process where, even though it seems like it's sort of growing organically like a plant, our business and the number of people that are getting referred to us. And it's all been referrals thus far. We haven't really done any email mass marketing of that type. It's all been just basically through our affiliates and through people we know already sending us prospects, sending us people who want to work with us.

And I can tell you that the strategy is really the on ramps and the off ramps of Bitcoin. It's the on ramps and on ramps, on ramps and off ramps of gold vaulting in particular places where we vault, which are Singapore, Hong Kong and the Geneva Free Trade Zone, Switzerland and Panama. You know, Panama is kind of, I think, been slightly overlooked. And Michael is shining a spotlight on a big problem that Panama has. and whether or not the infrastructure getting built there, where they finally will close the Pan American Highway, which has been a discussion, something that's been talked about for 40 or 50 years since the Seventies, finally extending that highway to Colombia. Right? How that is impacted by this massive migration wave and which NGOs or NGOs?

What Michael Yon Saw in the Darien Gap with the G-NGOs and Elements in Washington D.C. Welcoming the Influx of Humanity for Their Own Purposes

Michael [Yon] says very plainly, if you don't like illegal immigration, well, your problem is with Washington. It's not with the Mexican government or the Guatemalan government or any of these [Latin American] governments. They're just along the highway. They're just along the [vast migration] route. And most people that are now coming across the border illegally. almost or at least almost the majority are OTMs. They're other than Mexican. They're not Mexican nationals.

So we have a real problem. There is a need for people in this country. There is a need for people who are willing to work hard, like your young Venezuelan man. You gave an example of a few minutes ago. We definitely need people. I mean, don't get me wrong, but we need them to come legally. So we know who they are. We need them vetted. Right? This is really we don't need other countries solving their crime problems by sending emptying their jails and doing a Mariel Boatlift 2.0 where you know from what I've understood a lot of the Venezuelan criminal underground the hardcore gangsters have been told you know, don't come back or we'll kill you. So you know here's your free ticket to Houston.

Francisco Gonzalez on the Illegal Migration Wave at the Southern U.S. Border

Francisco Gonzalez: Well look, yeah when I say you know, when I'm talking about immigrants, I'm very pro-immigration. But obviously what's going on at the U.S. Southern Border is just insane. We just don't even know who's coming in. And they're just in numbers that are just mind-boggling. So that's got to get under control and by the way when we send the signal to the rest of the world uh that the Southern Border is closed or it's airtight, then we're going to be under much more control well guess what? Those migrants won't be coming, because they don't want to take a frickin’ three thousand mile-long journey or a thousand mile-long journey to come to a door that's closed. Right? If the doors close, it's the people aren't going to get in line to come. So, they're going to find more legal paths [to get here].

And I also do think one of the biggest problems in our immigration system is it is so inefficient, and it is so bureaucratic. And so people find that they could get here illegally faster than they could come legally. And the other sad thing--and this is a reality. I don't know. Look, there's a lot of we can go into deep wormholes with these things, but I would say that there's a constant consistency I find.

On Fixing the Broken U.S. Visa Issuance System Using Biometrics and Blockchain Technology

Francisco Gonzalez: In many countries, whether it's Argentina, Guatemala, Morocco where I was just recently--where people wish they could come to the United States just to visit, but they can't because we don't give them visas. And so it's really sad to think that I have a U.S. passport that I can go all over the world pretty easily. And yet these people that live in these other countries, they can't even…they can't even visit us, because even if they have a family member here, I mean, just for a visit, I think our government is afraid that they're going to overstay. And maybe they're afraid of other things [like terrorism or criminals coming in], too. I don't know what it is, but I think the bottom line is it's a lot of it is very bureaucratic.

So I think if we're going to make it more efficient and streamline a lot more., then I feel like we with all the technology we have these days, like it should be possible to do that, right?

James Smith: Yeah, we have blockchain technology now, which should at least theoretically allow us to make not only biometric data more smoothly functioning, in terms of knowing who people are [with fingerprinting and passport photos] but also just in terms of helping people make the necessary paperwork and complete the documents in a more timely manner, where they don't necessarily have to pay an immigration lawyer thousands of dollars to help them do it. I think that that would be very helpful as well.

Upcoming Economic Club of Miami Events to Plug--Comments by Francisco Gonzalez

James Smith: Now, Cisco, we have about five minutes left. I know we've gone into overdrive because we got off to a little bit later start [this afternoon]. I had to reprogram or re-reboot the Rumble account to get us streaming there. What were your final thoughts?

First of all, if people are in the South Florida area, could you tell us what kind of upcoming events you have with the Economic Club of Miami, who your speakers are on tap for later this summer or this fall?

Francisco Gonzalez: Yeah, so we tend to do a little lighter in the summer because so many people are away. They're traveling. It's hot and all these sorts of things. People are on vacation. So we kind of get going back more in the fall, but we're going to have a great lineup in the fall [2024]. We're working on some speakers. I can't announce too many yet, but we did just confirm Peter Thiel for October 28, 2024. And also Joe Lonsdale for December 12, 2024, who also at one point worked with Peter. We confirmed they're both totally separate from one another, but both are in the venture capital investment technology space.

Peter, I think, is going to have a really interesting topic on religion, culture, AI, tech, all these sorts of things. And so we're going to have a fireside chat that... um he'll be involved with us so it's going to be really great. And one of his places he makes home now is actually Miami, so it's great, it’s going to be great to have that as well. So we've got some other things coming that uh we're still in the process of confirming, but the one big thing and I was going to mention especially people who are really interested in Latin America…this past February we held our first ever Miami Economic Forum. And that is a full day finance and investment conference with a big focus on emerging markets and with a particular focus on Latin America. So we had somebody from a Panamanian bank there. Uh, we have, um, people from, from all different finance and investment angles. Um, and so we're going to have, you know, people from various parts of Latin America that sit on some of the panels there. I mean, we had over 40 speakers at this event, at this one conference, one day, one stage between panelists, between, uh, fireside chats, keynote.

We had Anthony Scaramucci give a, give a lunch keynote, very entertaining [takes on the Trump Administration]. But this coming year, the Miami Economic Forum is going to be on February 7, 2025. Really interesting timing considering we'll have a new presidential administration probably a couple of weeks in [either Trump or Harris]. But the bigger thing is Miami is the place where the U.S. and Latin America do business. It's been like that for a while [decades even, especially since the 1970s and Eighties]. We believe this conference that we have now established, an annual conference, is solidifying Miami as that place.

So we want to make this the place. I’m very passionate about Latin America and seeing Latin America improve for its own sake, but also the secondary thing that comes out of that is there will be no illegal migrants coming to the border when the economies of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, maybe Colombia, are doing much better. Because like you said, we no longer really have Mexican immigrants. We're having very few, in fact more Americans are immigrating to Mexico now I think coming the other way Mexicans are coming to the uh to the United States.

Upcoming FearlessJourneys.org Group Trips to Latin America

James Smith: Yeah and I wanted to also close with uh fearlessjourneys.org I put that up on the sub-headlines ticker. I don't know, you probably I don't know if you can see while you're doing the show but…

Francisco Gonzalez: Yes, I can [see those headlines] yeah.

James Smith: Great okay so thank you yeah I want to close with also your upcoming fearless journeys to I believe Peru is the next one Yeah, we're going to go to Peru November 8th through the 16th. And we'll be in Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu. And my trips, by the way, the other thing I should say, first of all, we bring you to fun places, great landmarks like Machu Picchu, right? We're going to do great tours. We're partnering with a great local tour company down there called Cusco Native. They've got some of the best English-speaking tour guides. They're going to show us.

But we also meet with local entrepreneurs, right? And so and innovators and some of the innovators in our community, like James Nuveen, who is based in Medellín, and many people follow him on X. He's a young American that moved down there. He's in his mid-20s. He's doing great. He's thriving. He's going to come on our trip and he's going to travel with us and talk to our travelers about how to secure location independence like he did, you know, and things like that in Medellín.

It could be wherever you are, wherever you want. But at the same time, we're going to travel together. When people travel together, they form greater bonds. We also meet with local entrepreneurs as well. We're going to have some great culinary experiences, particularly in Lima and Cusco. So that's great. And again, in Guatemala, we're going to be there. I think it's January 18th to the 25th, 2025, or something like that. And we're going to go to Guatemala City, Antigua, and Lake Atitlán [in the coming months]. We're going to be with one of my favorite bands, The Currys. I mentioned them. They've been on my podcast. I've been to Cuba with them. They're in my book.

But also we're going to meet with so many different innovators in Guatemala that I've established great relationships with over the years, including going to that coffee farm again that I mentioned [previously in this podcast]. So people really have a great time and a great experience with those trips. I also do some other fun experiences. In a few weeks, we're going to be going to my friend Alexander McCobin’s family farm in Dushore, Pennsylvania. It's a 50-acre estate and having a 72-hour fearless journeys retreat where we actually...turn our phones off and put them in a box for 72 hours to see if we can actually live a life and have a nice three days away from our devices, while we have some great conversations, do some great hiking.

There's a house there with amenities, but we also are going to all camp out and do some challenges that get us out of our comfort zone because we really believe in helping people to stretch themselves uh from their everyday lives. And get out of their comfort zone, so we have all that on the website fearlessjourneys.org just go to the travel section on the website. We also have a book club I do every two months we choose a new book every two months and actually I should highlight this uh Doug Pestana so what we do is we bring on either an innovator or sometimes the author so we actually just read this book right here I happen to have it Riches in Progress by Claudio Sorrentino.

Claudio has been on my podcast. He's an innovator in the featured innovator in the Fearless Journeys community. He is the CEO and founder of Body Details [cosmetic procedure clinics in Boca Raton, Florida]. And he wrote this really great book about what it's like to be an entrepreneur. He's still in the process. He's 20 years in, but all the ups and downs and challenges. And then we bring him on a live session with our members. And if you come on one of our trips, you automatically become a member as well, and you get access to these live coaching sessions and online book clubs. So we just finished Claudio's book. That was our book for the months of May and June.

So during the months of July and August, we're going to be reading Ryan Holiday's book, Stillness is the Key. You know, Ryan Holiday has a lot of great books and newsletters, The Daily Stoic, The Obstacle is the Way.

Douglas [Pestana], when he was coming on my trip to Argentina, I always ask people a little survey. What's your favorite book? How many places you've been in the world? All these sorts of things. And he listed Stillness is the Key as his [Doug’s] favorite book. And I had been wanting to read that. So that actually... was kind of the motivator for me to go ahead and pick up that book and read it. And I said, you know what? This book would be great for Fearless Journey.

So I actually asked Doug. I said, hey, I don't think I can get Ryan Holiday on the session, but I'd love to get you. So Doug and I are going to lead a live session at the end of August to discuss that book, Stillness is the Key. So if anybody would like to come on as well, you can learn about all this at fearlessjourneys.org and the book club is all in the learn section. And you can see who some of our other featured innovators are in the innovate section on the website as well.

All right. Well folks, don't forget to check out Francisco's book, The American Dream is a Terrible Thing to Waste. It's available on your Kindle or in printed copy form at Amazon. You can purchase it there. And yeah, check out fearlessjourneys.org if you want, not only whether you're in Pennsylvania or you're in Florida, but even nationwide, or you are an American who is interested in retirement in Latin America and you want to check out South America and what Guatemala has to offer, especially there in the land of eternal spring with some [Central American] altitude, please reach out to our friend Francisco Gonzalez, www.fearlessjourneys.org.

James Smith: All right. Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. We loved having you on the show and you've probably been the easiest, smoothest guest we've had on this program. You really know your podcasting [speaking styles].

Francisco Gonzalez: Well, I'll have to brag to Doug [Pestana] about that. And he was raving about you as well. And we both enjoy following what you're doing [with ExitStrategy.World]. You provide so much great content, especially online. And so just thanks for all you're doing and all your enthusiasm for everything Fearless Journeys is doing as well, but everything to help introduce people to the possibility of maybe living and working abroad somewhere else and knowing that you're not limited just by your own [USA or Canadian] borders that you grew up in. And so you're really showing people how there's a lot of different opportunities for them wherever they want to be in the world. And thanks for listening.

Doug will be really happy you just listed his website as well.

James Smith: Yeah, for sure. I wanted to give him a plug, too. So. All right. Well, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon there in South Florida, Francisco. And we'll have to have you back on in several months from now. Maybe we'll have a show with [Francisco and] Doug [back on together]. I was thinking that'd be fun.

Francisco Gonzalez: Well, I'm going to go enjoy South Florida, especially this very strong air conditioning we put on this time of year. So thanks so much.

James Smith: All right. Goodbye now.