00:00That's a good question, because I think everybody would think in any conversation he's in, he's coming in looking for a debate because he was a master debater, as we all know, looking for someone to challenge him.
00:10This was a very different forum. Number one, he came in high on life that morning. He was extremely excited to be there.
00:18We talked in the green room for about 30 minutes prior to going out, and we talked about his recent trip to Korea that he just got back from that weekend.
00:25He was in Korea, and he was with Mikey McCoy, his chief staff, John McGovern, and then some security detail, and one of the social media guys as well.
00:34But they were all just talking about how fun their Korea trip was, and then we talked about sports, and we talked about traveling with family.
00:41It was just this wholesome, enjoyable conversation. It wasn't a conversation where we were thinking, like, what are we going to do, and how are we going to handle this, and what if we have hecklers in the audience?
00:49It wasn't anything. It was just very light and uplifting. The room started to empty out because we were ready to walk up to the stage, and Amanda, he turned to me, and he just said,
01:01Andrew, how can I help today? I just want to help. And I said, Charlie, like we talked about before, we are going up there to talk to a room full of entrepreneurs and CEOs.
01:11Let's just go tell them your story and my story, and let's inspire them so that they understand that what they're doing is worth it because it's hard to be an entrepreneur, and we learn from each other.
01:21Let's just go and inspire them, and he goes, oh, my gosh, this is my favorite topic. I can't wait.
01:25We gave each other like a bro hug or whatever, and then we walked upstairs together.
01:29So the feeling going into this was, let's just go have an entrepreneurial discussion, and let's tell them about our journey.
01:36We got up to the top of the stage. We were in the back of the stage, and we were talking about fear of speaking.
01:45He didn't have any fear of speaking. I don't have any fear of speaking, and we both laughed that maybe we're weird.
01:51He's like, no, I think everybody else is weird that they're afraid of speaking, and we both laughed.
01:54But it was just very, like the feeling there was just, it was so simple. It was like I had known him for years.
02:00It was so easy to talk to, and he was real with everyone, everybody that was helping backstage.
02:06He would introduce himself. He took some pictures with people. He was so, so kind, and then we walked out on the stage.
02:12I had questions prepared. I ad-libbed on several others because the conversation just kind of just went so easy,
02:18and then after the conversation, we walked off stage, and he looked at me, and he said, how did I do?
02:24And I'm like, how did you do? Charlie, you did amazing. What are you talking about? You talk all the time.
02:29He goes, well, I just wanted to do good, and I'm like, amazing, and so that was his frame of mind.
02:35I mean, if you think about that, it's like he was giving up his time. He cared about how people would have perceived the information.
02:41He wanted to help with the information he gave. We said, let's go out there, and let's not talk about politics.
02:47Let's make this apolitical, and he goes, no politics. I don't want to take a side.
02:51Let's just go out and talk about our entrepreneurial journey, and he agreed, and he was excited about that.
02:56When Brian, so his name is Brian Simowitz, he was in the audience, and so when Charlie was murdered, he didn't know.
03:02I had him come back to the backstage with me, and I told him that Charlie was shot.
03:11It was an awful moment for all of us because he reacted the same way that any of us would.
03:15One of our team leads, our president, Tyler, said, let me get you down to the hospital, took him, jumped in the car, and they drove down to the hospital.
03:25He got there, was able to be screened, and then let in as a family member.
03:28He was the only family member here in Utah.
03:30Nobody else was here despite some of the snippets out there that family was here or Eric was here.
03:35Nobody else was here, and we were texting with him in real time hearing how things were going,
03:41and they were trying to resuscitate and get him back, and he did have a pulse that was in the hospital, but just too much damage, so they couldn't get him back.
03:50But we not only spoke to Brian and Kelly, his wife, that's Charlie's cousin, but also parents, through this whole process,
04:00and was also invited by the family and was with them at the memorial right there, sitting with them in the front row.
04:06So, yes, I've been very close to them to see how this went down.
04:09I was just a recent friend of their family.
04:13It wasn't something that's a long-term friendship or something that I had been involved with anything he was doing.
04:17So, after I knew that we had it, I didn't see it for another couple days because we were editing it,
04:22and I was very busy fielding inbound inquiries to get it.
04:26And I finally was able to sit down and watch our conversation, because I was in it.
04:32Just like you and I were talking here, Amanda, you can't remember really what people would perceive on our conversation, because we're in it right now.
04:38So, I was in that interview, and I can't really remember how I felt about it.
04:43But, yeah, with the events of him being assassinated, and then you're watching this, you're like,
04:47how amazing is that, that the last couple of statements that he made, and I didn't know if I was going to ask it or not,
04:54but it just came to me, like, ask him about his favorite quote he lives by.
04:58And it just came to me, I'm like, what's a favorite quote you live by?
05:01And for those to be, this too shall pass, I think he's just telling the world, listen, great times come, and they also go.
05:11And when bad times are here, too, they will also pass.
05:14And this right now is a really tough time for all of us to figure it out.
05:18You know, there's a lot of people that are angry, and there's people that are happy, and whatever.
05:21At the end of the day, this time will pass, and then the next season will come.
05:26And I just thought, what an incredible statement to have.
05:28And then, of course, he wears his religion on his sleeve.
05:30And so, you know, him quoting Roman 8.28, I thought was extremely interesting, in that I also am a, I go to church,
05:39I believe in Jesus Christ, too.
05:40And I was sitting in church that Sunday, Amanda, and in the manual that we have that's printed a year ago,
05:47like, that we use for Sunday school as adults.
05:51The first scripture in that, that said, let's reference for this topic we're talking about, was Romans 8.20.
05:58And I'm like, of the tens of thousands of verses in scriptures, in that Sunday, it hit me like a pound of bricks that,
06:07I don't know why this is happening to me, or why we talked about that, but it was Romans 8.28 that we all were supposed to read in class.
06:13And I'm like, how is that?
06:14So, what are the odds of that?
06:18And so, for me, I don't, I don't know why it happened, I don't know why you picked those, but I got to be honest,
06:23him leaving this world, on those two quotes, we should listen to those and think about what that means to us individually.
06:30And I just think that one of the things he said in the interview, too, that I think was pretty special,
06:34because we can all learn from it, too, is enjoy every day, because the journey is what this is about.
06:41It's not about how much money we both have, or the accolades, or the fame, or the glory.
06:45Enjoy the day.
06:46And when he said that, too, and knowing that he had been assassinated, he was really enjoying that day.
06:51He just was.
06:52So, I just think we should all do that, too.
06:54Let's not beat ourselves up too much.
06:56Let's enjoy what we're doing, good or bad, and learn from it, but enjoy the day.
06:58You know, that was part of his business, right?
07:01These events at the college campuses were part of his business.
07:06It was not the only business he was involved in.
07:07He had a for-profit, he did real estate investments, he did investments in funds.
07:10I mean, he invested in a lot of stuff, and had his peers into a lot, but I remember him taking his phone out,
07:16and he said, look at the campus, and his team that had set up for him was sending him pictures of the crowds.
07:24And so, he was showing me the crowds.
07:25And I was like, wow.
07:28And he goes, yeah, it's really filling in.
07:29And I'm like, what do you expect there today as far as people?
07:32And he goes, anywhere from 3 to 3,400.
07:34I'm like, wow, that's a lot.
07:36And he goes, yeah, it's just grown and grown.
07:38I said, have you ever done one here in Utah before?
07:40And he goes, yeah, I did one years back at Utah Valley University.
07:44I said, how did it go?
07:45And he goes, well, the audience wasn't that big.
07:48And it was fairly hostile for me.
07:51And I just said, oh, I'm sorry.
07:52I didn't know that people felt that way about you here.
07:55And he said, well, you know, everywhere I go, I have people that are hostile.
07:58But, you know, it doesn't hold me back.
08:01I want to go talk to them.
08:02And so he said, you know, this one, I'm hoping that there will be people there that there would be more people there that are my friends.
08:07And I just said, I think that you'll probably have more people there that support you just because there's a bigger audience.
08:12So he seemed to brush it off.
08:14He was excited that his team had it set up and that it was filling in.
08:18And then we went out on stage.
08:19So, yeah, he did talk about it.
08:21He showed me pictures of the event.
08:22He was excited about going down and meeting people at UVU.
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