Episodes - Page 13 of 27

Hugo Garicia

March 11, 2024 No Comments

Hugo Garicia was born in LA and grew up in the city of El Monte where he attended school from Cogswell Elementary, Kranz Middle School, El Monte Highschool, and later graduated from East LA College. While in high school and into college Hugo held a variety of different jobs all around the SGV – El Monte, West Covina, Rosemead, City of Industry, Monterey Park, Pasadena. He began his career in fitness in 2010 working for a big box gym in the personal training department in the city of Monterey Park and has now been a self-employed Fitness Trainer since 2013 in the city of Pasadena.

Ryan Lopez

March 4, 2024 No Comments

Ryan Lopez was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He created Lord Empanada as a necessity after losing his job due during the Pandemic in 2020. Ryan started Lord Empanada out as a popup in August of 2020, prepping the Empanadas out of his parent’s kitchen and frying them in a portable fryer on the weekends outside of local breweries. He was fortunate to quickly gain a positive following and was able to open a brick & mortar on October 21, 2021. He and his team have been blessed with good business and fortune ever since February 2023, when Yelp named Lord Empanada #61 on their Top 100 Places to Eat in the Country. Ryan feels he owes all and any future success he has to his parents, friends, family, community and his TEAM. They continue to support other local small businesses and those who helped guide Ryan when he was first starting out by selling their products in our storefront and also promote their brands on our growing social media platforms. Without the help of his community, there would be no Lord Empanada, and Ryan is forever grateful.

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

February 26, 2024 No Comments

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo was born and raised in San Gabriel to Mexican immigrant parents. She is author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications 2016) and Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press 2023). She considers herself an experiential, witness poet and place, including the SGV, is a regular theme in her work. A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, National Parks Arts Foundation in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Poetry Foundation. Her poem “Battlegrounds” was featured at Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, On Being’s Poetry Unbound, and the anthology, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W.W. Norton). She is the director of Women Who Submit and teaches poetry and creative writing with Antioch University, MFA and UCLA Extension. Inspired by her Chicana identity, she works to cultivate love and comfort in chaotic times.

Edward Rodarte

February 19, 2024 No Comments

Edward Rodarte’s journey from the streets of Compton to becoming a prominent figure in both politics and corporate America is a testament to the power of resilience, transformation, and a relentless pursuit of a better life. One of the most challenging chapters of Edward’s life involved being a cold hearted narcissist who had a detrimental impact on his family. The mental and emotional toll was immense, He understood that he needed to heal not only for himself but for the sake of his loved ones.

Diego Anguiano

February 13, 2024 No Comments

Diego Anguiano grew up in South El Monte with his parents and brothers. Despite being surrounded by gangs and experimenting with drugs, Diego was able pull through the hard times and graduate High School. After graduating he created a meme page for and about El Monte on Facebook. El Monte Memes took off and soon he a had hundreds and then thousands of followers on the page. After seeing multiple copies of his page and content appear on Instagram Diego decided to take it into his own hands and made an official El Monte Memes account on Instagram, currently at 50k+ followers. Besides keeping both accounts active Diego also works for other social media accounts, including one for PACKS SGV in El Monte.

Andrew Lee

February 6, 2024 No Comments

Andrew Lee was born and raised in Monterey Park. At the age of 6 he started playing golf. He became a pro golfer in 2010 and taught golf for over 15 years. In the past few years Andrew has retired from golf to pursue Zindrew, his chili oil business that he began as a surprise for his wife.

Eric Tjahyadi

January 30, 2024 No Comments

Eric Tjahyadi is a serial entrepreneur and a proud native of San Gabriel Valley. When he’s not staying active, traveling, or binge watching favorite shows, he enjoys mentoring and giving back. Eric spends most of his waking hours building a new startup division at Sony Music Entertainment and running a few passion projects – Bone Kettle (a family operated polished casual restaurant in Old Town Pasadena) and Supa Coffee (a coffee/tea cafe mix with socially conscious and locally sourced goods store in West Los Angeles). He loves connecting with like minded peers, problem solving, investing in interesting projects and aspires to make a difference in his local community.

Lucy Liu

January 22, 2024 No Comments

Lucy Liu is a master life coach helping women up-level in business and life to confidently live an epic life! She is an unshakable optimist, wife, mom, entrepreneur, empowerment workshop facilitator, motivational speaker, best selling author and podcast host of The Lucy Liu Show. Entrepreneurs & high achievers hire her to see clarity and take quantum leaps FAST. Because most of them are overthinking, scattered and self-doubting. She’s best at helping you get unstuck, make faster decisions and fulfill higher potential. Bottom line: not only make more money and impact, but have more fun and live an EPIC life by design.

Kelly Grandmaison

January 16, 2024 No Comments

Kelly Grandmaison, wants to thank you for being a part of her second shot at life. At 26 years old, she was diagnosed with CRPS (Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome). CRPS is a debilitating illness that typically comes with a 50/50 diagnosis, years of back and forth diagnosis, and several medical treatments that cannot cure it, but can attempt to help mitigate pain.

Jason Kim

January 9, 2024 No Comments

Jason Kim has cultivated relationships with owners, buyers, and developers in the SO CAL market place as well as with tenants and is able to match these groups and their needs for mutual benefit. He suggests, “I like to let my actions and strategic advice speak for themselves and to focus on execution and deploying my team to generate solutions and innovations that add value to the client.” Prior to taking the helm at FCE Jason was a Director at Coldwell Banker Wilshire Properties. Prior to joining CB Wilshire, Jason was a financial analyst at CB Richard Ellis Capital Markets and was responsible for analyzing and helping to close over 3⁄4 of a billion dollars throughout SO CAL. Jason received his undergraduate degree in Finance, Real Estate, and Law.

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