#55 How I Built A Business While Paralyzed After A Massive Stroke | Khurram Bukhari

Another doctor came and goes, hey, KB, can you move your right hand? And nothing. Move your right foot, your leg. This I couldn't, easily done. But none of this side was working. I'm laughing now, but inside of me, I'm thinking like, this is it? And I prayed. Again, I'm very spiritual. I connected with higher power. I closed my eyes. I said, God, this is it. This is it. But if you give me one more chance to go out there and to be the best version of myself and to inspire people to do the same for them. I promise you, I will not let you down. I had made up my mind that time that this is it. I will do the best I can. The rest I give, I give it to the higher power. Imagine having direct access to someone who's navigated life's toughest terrains and come out stronger. Someone who's been there, done that, and can guide you with empathy, experience, and honesty. This isn't just advice. It's a lifeline, a strategy session, a chance to learn from my journey so you can accelerate yours. Without the ability to be self-aware and introspective, the ability for you to get to where you want to go is nearly impossible. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the David Gutman Podcast. I have a really, really interesting and unique guest here today, Karam Bukhari, also aka KB. That's right. Great. So CEO and founder of Noor Med Spa. You also have Stroke of Success Podcast, obviously, which you've had me on. Thank you. Thank you. And obviously, hence the name, A Stroke Survivor Yourself. How many years ago was that? Eight years. Eight years ago. And father of two daughters. So your journey is, you know, and again, we have, you know, you know, a little bit about my background with my, you know, mine was a cancer scare. Well, I want to get to that, but let's let, maybe let's go back in the Wayback Machine just a little bit. I know, I think you were raised by a single mother, single mother, right? So maybe talk a little bit about that and maybe how that shaped you. Cause I also think her passing also had a big impact as well. So maybe talk me through that a little bit. Sure. Well, David, first and foremost, thank you for having me on. This friendship has taken off a great start. Like I mentioned, I found you fine looking at someone else on YouTube, and we connected, and so a great opportunity to meet you in person and be here with you in your audience. I'm born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. A mom and dad from Pakistan, immigrants. They had me in Ocean Parkway. There's a famous, infamous hospital called Konya and Afo in Brooklyn. by the BQE, Belk Parkway. Mom and dad were super poor, didn't work out. Dad decided to walk on me, age five or six. And, you know, you have a similar story with your divorce and your daughter. But I was not blessed as your daughter was and is to have a father like you. My dad, he didn't turn around. He just walked out. He had his reason, I'm sure. But, you know, there's a way to handle it. And I used to hear from my dad maybe once a year after that. So my mom, single mom, immigrant, poor. I remember we had a one-bedroom apartment size of probably this section over here. One bathroom, one bedroom. And food stamps, welfare. New York is good for that stuff, I guess. And she called her mom and grandmother to move in to what that was raised me. And her father said, we have four people in one-bedroom apartment. And it was tough, man. 80s in Brooklyn, New York. Crime was the highest. Gambino family, John Gotti, all the infamous mobsters were active. And the one positive attribute I can draw from that experience was a lot of love from the community and a lot of love from my grandparents and my mom. And that was probably a saving grace why we survived. She had no family in local. She had family in Miami at that time. So, but we were able to survive many years in Brooklyn due to our friends and due to our friends that became our family. Now your grandparents, were they also struggling financially as well? Yeah. You know, from Pakistan, you come in, you have some money there, but you couldn't transfer here. So yeah, they had no money. Yeah. So how did that translate? So, you know, obviously a, a very, very, very much of a scarcity mentality. How could you not growing up, how did that translate and potentially affect you? Maybe both in the negative and in the positive as you moved into adulthood. All negative, buddy. All negative for the longest time. I mean, fast forward, you know, I was told that money is going to be hard to come by, that you have to be your skin color in America to get money, not Pakistani, not with our names. You know, I remember when my mom was 40, she was 37 years old when she came home one morning from the hospital and told me, hey, I have cancer. And five years later, six years later, she passed away. And, you know. How old were you when your mom was diagnosed? I was 17. Okay. And I was 22. She was 45, 46 when she passed away. I'm 43 right now. I was almost her age, if you put it in perspective. You know, even that situation was always negative and negative with no hope. The reason why she didn't survive, and of course, higher power is calling, she was so fearful that she felt a lump but she ignored it thinking that if she ignored it it would be no big deal it would go away and she ignored it for a year and a half and if she had not ignored it for that year and a half she would have been here and she did what she did she did the best she can to raise me no qualms with her I love her to death you know but mentality was very weak David like okay 15 year old KB what was he planning to do? I always knew I wanted to do business creativity was my thing I had a passion for filmmaking creative business communication was my thing but there was no solid plan there was no father to add to your audience for them to take away something Patrick by David, you familiar? he made an amazing video about a year ago I was sending you a link how important of a father figure, a role of a father is in a household, even a divorced household like yours, the tonality as co-parenting. The reason why so many people right now in the year 225 are in jail, for my generation, the kids were born in 80, they didn't have a father. So lack of a father, a mom who didn't believe in herself, her husband left her, she started binge eating in depression. She had no future. And here you have a six-year-old son watching this all happen, the subconscious, conscious mind, our buddy David Lamb would break this down. William Lamb would break it down. It was so weak. Moved to Miami, Florida. My uncle, her brother, I love him to death. My godfather, he's my father figure. Uncle Mo, if you're watching this, shout out to you. He took me in and his wife took us in in South Florida and helped me to get back on track. His wife was big for me to go to school. But at the same time, I'm working, going to school. My mom's sick. Every time she's sick, I'm taking care of her. And she lost her battle year 2020, 2004. So I know you said you maybe only interacted with your dad once a year or something like that. Did you ever have a conversation with him and ask him why? Yeah. What did he say, if you don't mind me asking? No, please, please. All questions are welcome. You know, the answer changed as the time went. My dad right now is probably, you know, probably in the 60s. late 60s you know the answer I get now is a better answer like I did wrong I should have reacted a little differently and I should have done things differently not with my mom because we're different people divorce happened that's not I get it I get it but the way you parent as a co-parent that's up to you that's how you know but you know early on I was like oh you know your mom never let me see you or excuses but now I get the truth that look I did wrong and forgive me you know so yes for forgiveness Have you been able to find that forgiveness? Yes. Yeah. Yes. You can forgive, not forget, though. Of course. Yeah, I forget the, I think it was Aristotle who said something like, poison only harms the vessel that holds it, not the object over which it's poured, or it's probably more eloquent than that. But yeah, I definitely have found that myself that I, again, I always, like we had talked about when I was on your podcast, that if you can get your head right with the fact that anyone born to their DNA and circumstances would behave the way they did, then you can feel empathy. Because again, I think it really genuinely sucks to travel through life with regret wishing you'd done things differently. And then you can only help but feel fortunate for not being that way. Yeah. The point you made in my podcast, now I didn't agree with you. then but now it resonated you're right i mean he's a narcissist his upbringing was very different and explains a lot why he did what he did and how he did it yeah and your point really hit hard now didn't before i spent 20 minutes we did the podcast but you know but the bathroom breaking back here like now that you brought this up yeah good point well so as if that wasn't enough hardship yeah okay yeah you had to have a stroke at the age of how old were you i was 35 35 so what led up to the fact that someone so young would have a stroke? Yeah, so, you know, my wife is not very comfortable me sharing this true story, and I am, it's my story, and I'm going to share it because I'm here to, like yourself, I'm here to impact people's lives. I want to, if I can share, if I can save one person's life, you know, I can sleep at night. Due to this upbringing, divorce household, lack of money, poor mentality, moving to Miami. You live in Miami, 22, 23-year-old kid in Miami, beautiful girls all over. Drug scene was pretty big. I started to numb myself with substances. And you know, when my mom passed, right before she passed, I used to lay next to her and she was dying. She had a bottle right next to her of Percocets and painkillers and opiates. This is when opiates was about to blow up. I said, Mom, what is this? She's like, oh, this is my pain. And I'm like, oh, I have some pain, not some back pain. I started throwing them in there. And, you know, what became a weekly thing became a biweekly thing. What became a daily thing. And I started a strong dependence on opiates very early on. And lucky for me, the angel of my life, my wife, girlfriend back then came to my life. And she truly was the one who took me out of that and helped me out of that. But what I learned, David, is that I got two degrees after that, undergrad in political science, MBA in business, living in South Florida, rubbing shoulders with orthopedic surgeon, you name it, we're living it. But if you don't heal the mind, the soul, the past is going to keep following you. And I never truly attended to those feelings and emotions. And I was able, I was, again, using dependency on substances. The doctors were never able to clarify it or confirm that that was the situation. But, you know, being married to a physician and having the medical history knowledge I have now, just being married to her, I would say that maybe that was a big part of that. Interesting. Yeah. Well, so how did you meet your wife? It was funny. My mom had passed away and I was in just one day on a sofa like this, you know, connecting to my higher power. I'm like, God, this is really painful. I lost my mom. Only child, only mom. And I would really need someone to help me through the pain. And one week later I met my wife at a college party About a month later at a college function And how old were you at the time I was 22 She was about 17 18 Okay And so basically she was with you through your entire period of addiction Yes. For the most part. Was she aware that you were addicted or did you were able to hide it? I was able to hide it. Okay. For the whole time? Well, the first part was the opiate. She knew that we got done with. but second coming around was around, you know, 2014, 2015, 16 closes a stroke year. She had no clue. Because now she's a full-fledged doctor. She's working, trying to conceive a baby. We had our first baby. So she's very occupied doing a mom and a doctor role and a daughter role and a wife role. Right. That was April. Well, so, because you were in real estate, I think, at the time. No, so at that time, I was in a corporate job, startup, tech company, director of marketing. Okay. So how are you paying for your addiction, for your habit? Oh, man. I was just finding ways to use credit cards, getting creative, and it worked for a while until she found out the credit card bill. So that had to be a difficult conversation? It was very difficult. And that conversation happened before the stroke? Yes. Okay. But then you continued to use all the way. I got clean. I went to rehab for the early. I got clean. And I didn't stop all the way. But the thing that stopped it was Christmas morning, the stroke happening. Christmas morning. Wow. 2017. And now your wife's a doctor, so she basically was able to tell what was happening. So, you know, I'm Muslim by faith. You know, I'm spiritual. I believe in all faiths. But, you know, we split up Christmas as a custom. And she had a hospital shift to do. She had to go to the hospital that day. And you have one daughter? I had one daughter at that time. One on the way. She was nine months pregnant. Oh, my God. We had this beautiful townhouse we were very proud of. Luckily for me, she had called our babysitter that day to come help me in the morning with my baby. It was my day off, right, Christmas Day. And so she went to work early morning. And I went upstairs. before I went upstairs I turned to my babysitter she's Spanish didn't speak English I go Isa I'm going upstairs to take a little nap and she goes okay senor go ahead and David I get up there I fall on the floor boom my right side just gave in just gave in and I picked the phone like this my left side and I called her and I remember gibberish was coming out nothing but gibberish and she was like wait a minute like this is not making sense so she called my babysitter and Isa what happened And she goes, Senora came to the droop. He's on the floor. He's acting funny. And she's like, what's different, right? And she goes, it's serious. He's not normal. And she's okay. It's not good. She called 911. She had ambulance come to my house. They took me right away. And she left her hospital. South Florida people, it was called Memorial Hospital. And she left the hospital to come see me. And I remember as I'm pulling up to the hospital, I turned this way from the ambulance. I see her in scrubs, nine months pregnant, next to one of my best friends who he called to come from work. And they look at me like, I remember, David, I'm walking. I'm on the stretcher. They're putting me in. I hear the stroke alert, stroke alert. And I'm like, well, nothing makes sense to me, but it is, but it's not. And I remember this one story. I had to pee so bad, but I couldn't communicate that. So I pushed everyone over and walking through the hallways. I'm kicking each door down to look for a bathroom. They think I'm just acting crazy. And she goes, hey, hey, hey, come here, come here. You have to pee? I'm like, yes. She goes, okay, he has to pee. Give him a bin. Give him a bin. They gave me a bin. As I'm peeing, the nurse came behind me and gave me a shot. And that's all she wrote. From that point, Christmas Day to New Year's Eve, day or day or eve, I woke up with a ventilator in my mouth. my hands are tied because apparently I found out I was trying to take off the ventilator so my hands are tied and one of my closest friends sitting right next to me ortho surgeon good healthy muscular guy and I turned to him and I go for a while I couldn't speak and he goes I made a nod to him he goes hey KB you had a stroke Simon is okay the baby eyes is okay your second baby is okay but you had a stroke I think you should just relax a little bit you'll be here for a little bit. And David, remember hearing that, man. It was like, wow. Your life changes. 35 years old, like that. You're like, this is it. This is it. And God, what was worse is that the doctor came to see me. The doctor was a doctor, an actor, an actor from a TV show called Survivor. Okay. I don't know if you watch the show. A little bit. But he was a doctor. My brother-in-law was telling me he'd do everyone in the family. Hey, by the way, I'm his doctor. I'm from the show Survivor. Anyway, Dr. Ken, I think his name is Kenneth. Great guy. And he comes up to me. He goes, hey, Mr. Bakari, you had a stroke. You know, you'll be here for a little bit. And stay there. And he walks to the corner of the room with my wife sitting there with nine months pregnant, body coming out. And he goes to her. He goes, Sam, I don't know if he's going to be able to. Well, he survived it. We can see his eyes were open, but I don't think he's going to be able to function life normally. I can see her look on her face go down. And that's a conversation you should have, I think, outside of that room. Right? And David, when he said that, something inside of me woke up that was like, whoa, this is heavy. If I come out of this okay, I need to cut the shutout of my life. I need to sort out my life. and next best thing came up to me my speech therapist they removed the ventilator that itself is like to remove that like giving birth I'm breathing so hard and like okay relax Mr. Bakari can you say the word buttercup I kid you not if this table had a million dollars on this table and you said KB this is for you to say the word buttercup man David I couldn't say it I couldn't say nothing I was just Nothing came out of my mouth. Another doctor came and goes, hey, KB, can you move your right hand? And nothing. Move your right foot, your leg. This I couldn't, easily done. But none of this side was working. I'm laughing now, but inside of me I'm thinking like, what the fuck? This is it? And I prayed. Again, I'm very spiritual. I connected with higher power. I closed my eyes. I said, God, this is it. This is it. But if you give me one more chance to go out there and to be the best version of myself and to inspire people to do the same for them, I promise you I will not let you down. And in the movie Batman, it was called Batman Rises, a dark ride that rises when Christian Bale, Bruce Wayne breaks his back in a cave. I'm watching that scene. I've always been a Batman fan. So the universe is talking to me, right? and I've always been a Batman fan from childhood and I'm watching I had nothing else to do I'm watching the movie and he's like me under this bed his back is broken and these people around him talking to him to you know to do something and he finally gets the courage and strength to get out of the cave and that scene that dialogue that music that chanting spoke to me in ways that I can't explain to you and I had made up my mind that time that this is it, I will do the best I can. The rest I give, I give it to the higher power. So you're 35 at this point? So up to this point, first 35 years of your life, it sounds like even by your own description, you wouldn't consider yourself a resilient person. No way. And so now you are 35 having gone through hell and back, right? You know, difficult childhood, poverty, your mom passing away, your own stroke, all of a sudden, now you've got resilience because you watched Batman? Like, that's kind of a crazy flip. Was there any other? Funny thing is, years leading up to it, I became very much involved self-development. So it's kind of interesting. One way, you're killing yourself by using substances, but you're into this Miami business world, like, hey, self-development, Tony Robbins. So I had a really good understanding of how to build a mindset and to get out of tough times. By the way, I would not say I was not resilient. I mean, look, I didn't touch a drug till 22 in Miami. So, you know, to 20 years we lived in Brooklyn, I was a good guy. I had good in school. I did well. I didn't play sport, but I was in decent shape. I provided for my mom and grandmother. But, you know, resilience in a sense where like, you know, sportsmanship, and you're going to fall down, you're going to have to figure out a way. I didn't have that part. Leading up to a stroke, by the way, it wasn't fully stroke happened. No, no, it was the beginning chapter. Wait a minute. There's more to life. You're here for a reason. The chapter of self-development really started after the stroke. you know. So, um, I gotta believe the, the journey in your relationship too. Like most relationships don't survive that level of, you know, challenge. Let's just say it that way. Um, you know, how, how is that? And again, I would imagine from your wife's point of view, you know, this, this is, this is like nirvana. That's why I'm laughing here. But go ahead. Yeah. No, it was like, it must be nirvana now compared to, you know, what, how it was before. So like all, you know, all credit to her, you know, she sounds like she stayed with you, you know, through an awful lot of stuff. How does, how does she view that journey? And maybe how do you view that journey? Look, man, I always said it. I'll talk to one of my, I have a coach I talk to once in a while, you know, I got really emotional. Again, a business is business. And I showed you what we do for, we're living right now. We have a med spot clinic. We're building something from the ground up, self-finance, right? It's tough. And we have a vision and we're working together. And sometimes I look at her, I'm like, man, like, I wish maybe she, I know, like, I, I think she could have done better. You know, my coach is like, no, no, no, listen, you're feeling that way right now, but you're feeling like vulnerable. Your business goes up and down. You feel vulnerable, but she didn't want anything better. She wants you to become a blessing of yourself. and you need to work on that. To answer your question, going back to your question, yes, my wife would tell you that there's a new KB, a different KB now, but she has paid her dues and it's hard for her not to come up in arguments and in disagreements that pass over-minded often. She would look, she's a doctor. Her parents were together in our Pakistani household. She's also Pakistani, born in Miami. like she on paper she could have married a guy who went to medical school or law school or business school she married someone who was a high school dropout who was want to be an entrepreneur had a faith in Miami and finding himself he saw something well you know for me to answer your question oh man at the time the stroke happened after rehab don't have to just walk again talk again moved in with her parents. She was traumatized to go back to our townhouse. Second baby's on the way. And my job lets me go. This guy was my friend, the mentor, owner of the company. And he's one of my closest friends now. But at that time, when he let me go, I went to see him. Hey, Alex, I'm back to work. He goes, buddy, let's go for a walk. He knew the situation before the stroke. He goes, listen, man, you got a lot of things going on. I just a company My blood sweat and tears I can have I need you to be get some help get help get some up and running and we talk later but right now I don have a job for you And Dave I cursed him out I'm like, you're the worst friend. You're the first boss that can do this for me. Victim, victim, victim. And he turns around to me, and goes, listen, you can curse me out what you want, but one day you're going to thank me. The world hasn't seen the true KB. Your potential is endless. go heal yourself get some healing, get some therapy, recover there'll be jobs, businesses all there waiting for you and the best advice he gave me and I went back home, I fell to the floor crying in front of my wife my in-laws, I'm 35 I have no job, every time I went for a job interview I bombed, my speech was horrible my confidence, my mindset was on the floor and to look at that I have pictures I look at eight years ago now to then we opened a business man we have a second office we're opening we have amazing year we have good year summer was kind of slow that's a season seasons come and go you know that but overall we raved two beautiful girls we have real estate portfolio we built together we have a podcast that in eight years seven years we have come a long way I say we return with me you know so the you're 35 you lose your job and I hope you don't mind me asking this because I really genuinely part of why I think your story is so interesting is it's kind of hard for someone to see what you were able to come back from and then feel bad for their situation because like yours is harder than 99.9999% of people and look what you've been able to turn around it's amazing I think that will help other people be like hey maybe don't be like poor me like it could be a hell of a lot worse I'm trying to imagine what that must have been like coming home to your you know nine month pregnant wife your in-laws which I'm sure are not thrilled with you to say the least right this is their precious daughter that's you know they probably feel like maybe they feel could have done better they told her and they eventually gave me told you they told me, they told her before marrying me and the, you know, God bless my mother-in-law, father-in-law, they're watching this. They're out of my house watching my kids right now. Uh, I, I love their death, man, because they did, they did not. I told my mother-in-law that recently. I go, mom, you did not need, if I was in your position, I would not give my daughter to this guy. Right. Right. We're Pakistani, man. We're born in America. We're Pakistani. We're very much about engineering. Our nose is up in the sky, finance, uh, engineering. My wife's Afghan. So, yeah, So you talk. I didn't know that part. Okay, interesting. But they gave me a chance. They accepted me in the family. The stroke happened. And let me tell you something. Not once did they ever remind me. I'm going to get emotional. They ever remind me that I was a mistake. Yeah. That's nice that they gave you that grace. Yeah. So now you're, like you said, I'm trying to imagine. you know, how low your self-esteem has to be. You're out there trying to interview for a job. Your speech, like, is probably not normal at this point, right? What was the first job you got in? How did you manage it? No job, buddy. That's why entrepreneurship came in. My wife sitting across me, she goes, babe, you did real estate in the past. You're a people's person. The doctor told me 10% of your brain is damaged. I don't even know you'll be able to actually be able to carry the job you had before. Sales is easy. You know what I mean? Speaking, you're selling a product. And she goes, listen, the fact that you're able to walk and go to the bathroom and take care of the kids with me, in her mind, she said that she told me recently, she's like, I thought I'm going to have to work the rest of my life and be the doctor at the hospital. You'll be home with the kids, with my mom and dad. The fact that I was able to, David, take a shower by myself, brush my teeth, wash the emails, do stuff, be like, babe, just go for your real estate license. And that was the best move, the best situation. I got into real estate, passed my exam. law of attraction manifestation i manifested my first home listing my neighbor my in-laws neighbor i knock on the door it's a guy that had a stroke i'm your neighbor suddenly i had a stroke i'm recovering i can sell your home for cheaper than anyone else come inside talk to us i used that stroke story my friends make fun of me all the time hey man enough of the stroke story but hey man it got me on a podcast here um i use that story so much not to do a feel story for me but show them the resilience I had, the grit I had. So if that's the grit I had in that part of my life, I'll sell your home, I'll find you the home. And David, before you know it, sold multiple homes. My broker was in Orlando. He called me and said, hey, I have a team here for you to come take over. 30, 40 agents, why don't you move here with your wife? Wife had a great opportunity to move to Orlando also. He had a great hospital. So we packed our stuff, took my kids, went to Orlando and became team leader. and becoming a team leader was so monumental in my entrepreneur's journey. But now I can sit back and look at scaling. For me, by an agent, I was making XYZ. I had to sell X amount of homes. Now, as a team leader, you're almost like a mini owner because you have these 30, 40 agents. You see the P&L. Yeah, they're paying for the leads and stuff, the brokerage. But now I get to override every time every agent sells something. Dude, my income went 4X overnight. I'm like, wait a minute. This is how businesses work. And my wife also sitting right next to me, she was like done with the hospital stuff. She's like, yeah, this is, I think, how it works. They're like, we both now together, like, what else can we do? Money started rolling in. We started having savings. I mean, this is around COVID time. So it's 2017 to COVID, three, four years. In three, four years, man, I'm really proud of her and myself to be able to bounce back where we came through and find careers and find a way to live and survive and raise our daughters. So, all right. So you've got like this amazing comeback story. Money's rolling in. And so now you're like, life's too easy. Let me leave the career, the new career I've started and start a med spa. Walk me through that logic because not necessarily the one that, you know, the average person would say, you know what? Let me make my life a little more difficult. You said it, my friend. We always, as a couple, want to do business together. We always did. Number one. Number two, we're sitting down after having our second baby in my in-laws' house. In-laws were nice enough to give their master bedroom. And the master bedroom had a couch like this. She's sitting here. I'm sitting right here. And we're like, man, I'm like, Saima, I'm really out of shape. And she's like, yeah, how about me? and we're talking about how wouldn't it be great to go to a medical spa, a wellness clinic where we can be ourselves, be a family and come and not feel like we're out of place or not feel like we don't belong. Like in most gyms you go to, 99% of people don't go to a gym because they feel intimidated, right? But we're like, what if we can come up with a clinic that would do that, offer a family environment? and that was 2017, 2018. That idea brewed in the back, in the back. And my mother-in-law, my wife's mom, was always saying, you both need to do a business together. You have marketing, branding. You're from New York. Quick, you know, quick mindset. My daughter is a medical doctor. Like, you're dumb. Why are you working in a hospital? Both of you do something together. And fast forward 2022, my 40th birthday party is about to happen in Miami. So we're about to leave Orlando. And in two weeks, my 40 was about to happen. My wife was like, listen, meet me at the medical spa. You should get some talks. So we go to the medical spa. We sit there. And my wife's about to come inside. And the nurse who was doing my talks goes, I know your wife from the hospital. I'm like, really? Okay. She goes, yeah, I left the hospital world because this is so much better. Not easy, but you control your destiny. And my wife walks in. And they go, oh, I know you. I know you. And they're like, I'm getting talks. They're both talking. And she goes, guys, I tell you what, you guys should open a medical spa. And I looked at her, I'm like, Desi, in a world that is dog-eat-dog, you're telling us to open a medical spa to be a competition? He goes, listen, I believe in abundance mindset. There's enough out there for everyone. You guys will be good at it. And David, that was a confirmation for us to say, you know what, this is a calling for us. Interesting. You know, it's funny. there's two kinds of relationships that I see tend to work well together. Either a relationship like yours where they're in business together or a relationship like mine. My second wife, she's quite a bit younger than me and she was working and was doing pretty well. It wasn't changing our lifestyle. She was stressed all the time. And I was like, I would rather you just be a force multiplier for me. You're not happy doing what you're doing. so you know and she's what am i going to tell people i'm like tell me you're retired who doesn't want to be retired at 30 right so it's like either where the the wife is a force multiplier for the husband or they work together um i'm curious you know maybe among your friends and so forth what do you see in really because i feel like when when the husband and wife are working in completely different careers completely different industries different bosses whatever might be that can often create, you know, conflict where there otherwise wouldn't be. Yeah. I mean, you see how we work together overall? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, she would say that it's tough. I would say it's one of the best things. One of the best things, the couple here before I interviewed before you, John and Nina, same thing. I've always been good at leadership. I'm a good communicator. I'd say, call myself a good communicator. I am a branding guy. I'm a social media guy. I'm a marketing guy. she is an amazing physician, amazing type A personality. If you're not a type A doctor or a provider for wellness or aesthetics, you're in trouble. You could be, you know, different personality for different occupations. She's amazing at what she does, and she'll say that I'm good at what I do. And that's how we were able to take a med spa, a medical spa, I won the spot from the ground up and bring in selling figures because we complement each other really well. We do fight. We do have arguments. She's a very strong personality. Look, I was not really a high achiever, David. I had all the potential to be. I wish I had a father, a male figure, to push me and say, hey, son, don't do that, do that. I would have been. However, she was always laser-focused. Now I am. Now we're both ninja. Now she looks at me and is like, we're in Paris last weekend, London for an anniversary trip with our kids. I was working the entire time. She's like, wow. Like eight years ago, when I first met you 20 years ago, you were not this guy. But now, you know, to answer your question, we compliment each other quite a bit. You know, the other thing I've noticed too, it's funny, I say this to my wife all the time, and I think she partially likes hearing it and partially annoys her, is I always tell her, like, your looks are the easiest part of you to replace. I'm curious you know I think that in healthy relationships and I would argue that she would say to me that you know my wealth is the easiest part of me to replace I'm curious how you guys think about your relationship now that it's in a much better place you guys are obviously in business together and maybe the kind of example that you know you try to set for your daughters and what they should look for in a relationship? I come from a divorced family, as you know. My wife's mom and dad are together, but they also come from previous divorce families. Me and my wife discovered very early, not early on, later on, later on, even though we were in love and we are still in love 20 years together, that we have come from toxic backgrounds and And we have a lot going against us. And we came together and with the grace of a higher power we have these two beautiful daughters that are looking at us And we really need to do a lot of self a lot of therapy keep doing it Keep working on ourselves because we have these two kids we brought into the world. Our marriage has not been easy, but that's a promise we have to ourselves and our kids. I'd have a good father a role model for a good husband my uncle who took me in Uncle Mo, Mohammed one of my favorite person in the world, I see how he talks to his wife I see how he fathers his kids my father-in-law, God bless him amazing father patience, sits with them and you know, I think that having those two type of men in my life really helped so how much of your journey and maybe you and your wife's journey because your daughters are what, seven and eight? Seven, eight. Yeah. Are they even aware of or, and if they're not, is that something that you'll share with them when they're older? They have a little bit of a backstory of daddy had a sickness and he had a problem with medicine, bad medicine. And number two, they have a full, they're fully aware of the stroke story. They're fully aware that dad had a broken family. Their grandmother lost her life to cancer. And that stuff, I want them to know and to share with them. I always share the full story after getting a little bit older. I mean, I'm the same. When my daughter was growing up, she would get the age-appropriate version of, you know, I still remember my daughter was eight or nine years old. Because, again, she didn't remember me and her mom together because she was only one when we split. And she'd be like, Dad, she's like, I don't know if I've ever met two people more poorly suited for each other than you and Mom. So I think it's important that, you know, kids eventually get the full story. They get it. You give them the age-appropriate version, and they pick up on a lot more than you realize. Your story, your three-year-old daughter talks innocent to you, right? Yeah. Three years old. Think about that, my friend. Yeah, more than once. Yeah. She would tell you that a good portion of the reason she's on this planet is to keep me humble, and she takes that job very seriously. Oh, wow. I'd love to meet her one day. I'd love to get her perspective. She will love you, Shadrish. So I'm curious about your, you know, as you think about not having had a present father, how, because I'll tell you from my own experience, because my ex-wife tried to undermine my relationship with my daughter so fiercely, it forced me to try to do things as a father so that, because again, I did little things. Like every year for the holidays, I would create a calendar of my daughter where like, so like my dad's born in February. So the picture in February would be my daughter and my dad. My mom was born in November. So for the month of November, it'd be a picture of my mom and my daughter. And, you know, I would do that for every month. And not just my side of the family, my ex-wife's side of the family too. And then I would send calendars to everyone. So every place my daughter went, there'd be a Tyler calendar. My daughter's name is Tyler. There'd be a Tyler calendar. and every year like people say hey when am I getting my Tyler calendar and I think I did it for like nine years or something like that till my daughter basically banned me from doing it she said dad stop at the Tyler calendar um but it forced me to do things like that because I just I wanted to be able to demonstrate to my daughter that she was always important to me that I was always there for her um I'm curious how not having a present father has affected how maybe conscious and intentional you are in your being a father? Yeah, that's a great question. And David, my wife, if you will meet her one day and you have to ask her, hey, Simon, what was the one thing about KB that drew you to him? I had no money at that time. I have no career going for me, but she will say to you that she knew deep inside that I would be a good father. That's one thing she would draw into. Her dad was great to her. I do still carry some negative attributes of my father. And I go to therapy. I go on and off, but I really am very conscious now in my 40s that I feel like everyone needs therapy throughout their life, some part of their life. And I have some anger issues like my dad did one time. I still deal with it. So I work really hard, super hard to be the best father to them. I'll give an example. Every morning I dropped my house to school. We start with a prayer. Then we talk about our affirmations. I am wonderful. I am enough. I'm motivated. I'm smart. And then we do our gratitude list. And that's the other thing for us. Mindset, self-development for them starts now. And every day I remind them that you are loved by your mom and dad. And you are enough. And you are incredible. Life will not always be easy. You have to put homework to it. but you are more than enough because I wish someone did that to me. So to answer your question, I am very consciously aware of my skill set as a father. That's wonderful. So here you have a problem with your speech. So you're like, I know, I'll start doing podcasting, right? People laugh at that. Yeah, so maybe walk me through because I think even before your Stroke of Success podcast, I think you had another podcast before that, right? We had a channel. We did reviews, but that didn't go anywhere. My brother-in-law. One fine day, my wife and I are sitting down on our couch like this, watching TV about four years ago, three years ago. And I go, babe, I really want to do a podcast. I'm always inspired by people's stories. And it's to pay it forward. But David, when a stroke happened, and I'm at home, in a lot of home, and I'm looking for a job, I really turned to self-develop. And when I say self-development, part of the David, all these gurus, online people we see, the real ones, actually, their stories inspired me and how did I get connected to them was social media and podcasts so I said you know what why not pay it forward and she said yeah babe go for it stop talking stop thinking about it execute I called my her brother my brother too Billy I need a name perfect let's talk about it we're talking about it he goes buddy stroke success stroke to success he goes no stroke of success and shout out to my brother-in-law, Billy. Love you. He's clever. It's very clever. His name they named for my podcast and that's how it came about. I started with my laptop camera. Horrible quality. If I showed you my first episode, you'd probably laugh. My wife used to watch me say, I want to barf. This is horrible. David, from there, I just like, you know what? I found ways to attract better guests. Before I was calling my ex-employers. Hey, you want to do my podcast? Now, entrepreneurs like yourself, in two years, knock on wood, grace of a higher power, I was able to get some amazing guests. Now I have over 80 guests. I worked through two different studios in Florida, Miami, and in Orlando, and now one here in Arizona. So who is the most well-known guest you've had on your podcast so far? Alex Morton. He's a speaker, entrepreneur, young kid, 34 million followers. And then Annie Elliott. It's very controversial. And Sean Whalen, who lives right in Utah. He has a brand called Lions Not Sheep. Very nice. So tell me a little bit about NorSpa and kind of like where it is now, where you guys are planning on taking it. So a newer med spa in wellness was just open for 80% aesthetics and 20% wellness. My wife was the face of the company. I'm kind of a mistake looking back there, but it's okay. We're growing from that. It was very pink, and she was the face of the company. She's beautiful. She's a doctor. Put her out there. People come in. And they did. We did. We did really well. We have one location right now currently open, Lake Dona, Florida, across the airport. and we started to realize that as much as aesthetics is in demand, it's a billion-dollar business, that wellness is a trillion-dollar business. And she goes to me, babe, your story. My wife doesn't want to be on the podcast. I speak on stages. She doesn't want none of that. She goes, why don't we start implementing more wellness and use your story as an inspiration? Because wellness was a big thing that brought me back. I was 45 pounds overweight. So if I show you before and after, you would not recognize me. Being an entrepreneur like yourself, our brain is processing so much information at all times. Energy levels got depleted. So I'm very blessed to have a physician wife who was able to plug me into wellness with IV, hydration, vitamins, IV shots, NAD+. All these tools that wellness provides was something that turned my life around. I'm a CEO of a company. So why not share that message with the world? So now I do keynotes around the world. I did one recently in Houston. I opened up for Mario Lopez, the actor. 500 people. And I came off the stage. I had met three women with tears. Like, KB, where's your wellness studio around here? Your clinic? I'm like, oh, it's in Orlando. And it hit me like right there. Like, hey, maybe I should, with her, share our story and make this aesthetics and wellness. Not only do you look good from the outside, but the outside doesn't do anything good for you unless the inside is good enough. So imagine, you know, it's 25 years from now. You're still around now. And someone was speaking with your daughters. What would you want your daughters to say about you? He was a flawed man who always tried to be better. He came from flawed situations, flawed background. but our dad never gave up. Our dad was always a fighter. When you think about, you know, where you want to be professionally in, say, the next five, eight, ten years, is it all about the North Spa or are you guys going to make another pivot at some point? I have an idea that I'm going to share with the individual tonight for dinner. I am a big believer on mindset. and I do want to exit the new wellness industry but I feel right now we're doing the aesthetics we're doing the wellness but there's a mindset product of it and that's something I have a great idea it's a whole vision I want to plug into it and you know inshallah we will put it that's my vision in that direction but to answer your question I want to write a book I want to get paid to speak on stages right now I get very small fee paid for my time and my story to share and to inspire i want to become a produce a movie and content i want to produce content about comeback stories and people who came back from crap and people who've gone through crap in life shit through life made it and with that being said circus success media company i want to i want to monetize it to the fully full level i want to masterminds and have speakers like yourself come in, William come in, John come in to speak on stages. So there's a lot, a lot. Well, KB, I have to tell you, your story is so inspiring. I love the, talking about the road less traveled, really the road less traveled. Where can people find you and where can people find about the stuff you're up to? Thank you, David. You can find me on Instagram, KB Rockstar CEO. You can find me on YouTube. My channel is called Stroke of Success Podcast. On YouTube, we're on Spotify. We'll be on iHeart Media and Apple Music pretty soon. And that's the best way to find me. KB, thanks for your time. Thank you, David. Thank you for having me. yeah