Sean Murray: That's true. So you were saying before that you grew
up on Long Island, we were talking about the Bellmore car
show. And you have seen also, I think, in some of your
experience, reporting on this space that there is a good
amount of b2b or even Small Business Finance, people who
work out on Long Island.
Adam Zaki: Oh, yeah, the sunrise Business Center, a ton of the
people that read our stuff work. Right there. I live five minutes
from there. So the industry I know that we're talking about is
it going to Miami, is it going to Manhattan is going to all
these different places, right? Right now, where's it focused
in, and it's focused on Long Island and downtown Manhattan,
but then we even I write stories about the industries going to
Miami. I think that at the end of the day, Long Island serves
the perfect place for these businesses to do business.
Because it has the bounce in New York City, you get to hire New
Yorkers, which is the reason why people do business here is
because the employees, the candidates that people to hire
are the best, the best colleges, okay, people who grow up here
and go to school here, or even grow up elsewhere and come to
college here and get jobs here. It's the best of the best ask
anybody I'm sure you know, the cream of the crop when you're
looking for employees are from this area. So if you're doing
business on the island, you have access to everybody who works
and lives in New York City. Okay, just a guy coming from the
island of Manhattan. There are people that reverse commute that
go out to the island, right. I also think you have the suburban
life, you can raise a family on the island, not many people want
to raise a family on 14th Street. And I totally understand
that I wouldn't want to either, Yeah, but you're just an hour
train ride away from the city if you want to do business here.
And then, of course, you got the bagels and the pizza, unreal
food out on island. Way better than anything you get in the
five boroughs. I know that that might catch a lot of flack. But
I think it's just a perfect balance. And that's why I love
it. I love the balance of being able to go home at night, hang
out in my backyard, it's quiet, I have a car, I can drive where
I want to go. versus, you know, the city or another place where
Miami, it's the same weather all year round. In the city. It's
very expensive. And life is much different. I enjoy the suburban
life. And I think that many of these people that work in sales,
want to have families and wives and kids. They want the suburban
life and they still want to have that New York hustle. Yeah, Long
Island's the place to be without a doubt.
Sean Murray: You know, I gotta say, I grew up on Long Island,
as you know, but I feel like my personal opinion is that Long
Island has a certain cultural background that makes it that
makes the people there really suited towards, like phone
sales. Yeah, like, yeah, like you said, it's a lot of New
Yorkers. Right? Yeah. And I just think a lot, you know, the
culture, the attitude, you know, like the hustle all that stuff.
It just goes so well hand in hand with doing, you know, phone
sales or any any type of sales. I know that when I first started
in the industry, even even in the early days, that you could
bump into people working in it anywhere, like on the Long
Island rail road, or you know, at just walking down the street.
And I think that it's only grown, like you said, like we're
all writing about how everyone's moving to Miami. Right, as we
all then take the Long Island river back to Yeah, you know,
100% back to our hometowns. Right. So there's definitely
there's definitely an element of truth to what you say. And I
don't think that there's going to be a mass exodus. You know,
maybe you can tell me you've heard differently of people who
operate in the business on Long Island. Forget about the city,
that the Long Island demographic, I don't think that
they are going to move to a place like Miami. I think that
Long Island is their home.
Adam Zaki: I mean, that's outside of the merchant cash
advance industry. That's every Long Islander never leaves.
Sean Murray: That's true. That's true. Yeah. They don't just say,
oh, you know, business seems to be picking up in, in South
Florida. Therefore. That's where we got to go. Sorry. Got to take
the kids out of school. You know, what I mean, we're moving
to South Florida now. Now everyone will everyone
eventually moves there when they retire, though? Not everyone.
But Florida is a very popular retirement spot. But yeah, I
don't think that when we talk about like this exodus, or
everyone's moving to Miami, I don't think we're really talking
about Long Islanders.
Adam Zaki: No, I mean, I have I will say that I have spoken to a
couple brokers out on the island who own brokerage firms that say
that they do plan on opening satellite offices in Miami that,
okay, they want to do business down there. But they don't want
to move business down there. And so that's where I think we're
going to that you can have the ability to have two opposites.
You can have the ability to do business in two places. You
don't have to leave New York just because the laws are
changing in New York, You can have an office in Miami, do
business down there and still get what you can out of New
York. I think, despite disclosure laws or politics, the
benefits from being in the city if you're working in selling
money, it's the only place to do it. It's the only place to do
it. Until someone could tell me different. That's just how I
feel.
Sean Murray: Yeah, you know, I will say, you know, it's the
only place to do it. That being in a certain place, definitely
creates a certain motivation.
Adam Zaki: Yes.
Sean Murray: When I am not in the New York metro area, I feel
a lot less motivated. It's usually because I'm on like, I'm
on vacation or something, but it's when everyone around you is
kind of just like grinding, grinding it out, you know, with
huge aspirations and ambitions or pursuing their dreams. It's
very, very motivating, that it's hard to kind of pull back from
that type of like environment, right, because you're immersed
in it, where everyone's everyone's going for something.
And I've, you know, this kind of feeds into, like, you know, zoom
and working remote and all that stuff, I could never work from
home. And I could not just move into like the middle of nowhere
where you know, I can get a cheap big house, because I got
it, I gotta say, I would not be as motivated to do any of the
things that I do. And it helps also, to be around people who
are like minded in the like, in the field that you're in.
Because if we were just in a place where maybe there was
hustle and bustle, but no finance people, I probably
wouldn't be feeling it as much. If I couldn't go outside and
talk to someone who was in it, you know what I mean like,
there's that feeling of going outside and talking to someone.
And they're like, it did this many deals today, or closed this
much business today. And they're talking the lingo that you talk
and all that stuff. And then you go upstairs and you're like, you
know, you're like, you know, you're all pumped up to like,
you know, this is like this is you know, we're all in it, bla
bla bla bla bla. And if there was none of that around here, I
just wouldn't, I just would not be motivated, we would be a
different company.
Adam Zaki: Hey but you know, people people do get motivated
outside here because we see at Broker Fair people flying in for
the event. It's not only a roomful of New Yorkers. Now
there are people from outside of New York that come here. So I
don't know if I could do that. But there are surely people out
there that do not need the skyscrapers to get motivated.
But it does definitely help it does definitely help knowing
that there's 8 million people hustling right around you at any
given moment, right here. It just encourage you to work hard.
That's why I like coming here.
Sean Murray: Yeah. But you know, there there are certain parts of
the country though where it's, there's no surprise that there
hasn't really been like a growth of like, this type of industry,
right? Oh, yeah. Where you'll hear about like, one or two
people, and it just never takes off. Because kinda the, you
know, the community there just thinks like a different way. But
yeah, you're absolutely right. Of course, people fly from all
over the place. But we, at the same time, we find that they
come from other kind of like minded places, like Miami does
have a like a robust, like, finance community, believe it or
not, places in like Southern California, obviously, you know,
the New York metro area. And there are places in the Midwest
too like Kansas City that other people in New York may not be
thinking about. But is like a financial hub. You know, Kansas
City has been a big part of the country for a long time. Salt
Lake City, right. Places like that. And, yeah, there's kind of
continued to grow over time, even Las Vegas. Yeah, there's
that there's shops out in Las Vegas, right? There's a
different type of motivation there. But there's, there's so
much hustle and bustle. There's definitely motivation.
Adam Zaki: I think theres correlation between the cost of
living and the hustle and bustle. If you're paying a rent
or a mortgage on a house, that's seven $800,000 your going to be
way more motivated to go out and close deals. Yeah. And if your
mortgage is 1200 bucks a month and you're married with two
kids, yeah, you don't have to close as many deals to live. So
there's a hustle and bustle because you just have to to eat.
Sean Murray: Yeah, that's true. And if everyone if everyone
around you, you know, is living a better lifestyle than you got
to live that lifestyle, I gotta work harder. It's totally true.