The Future Belongs to the Entrepreneur – with Ziad K. Abdelnour – [Ep. 277]

Linda J. Hansen:  Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host of the Prosperity 101® Podcast, where we seek to unleash the power of employers to reclaim and preserve America by Connecting Boardroom to Breakroom® and policy to paycheck. Employers educating employees about public policy issues that affect their jobs can lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement, and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. 

We help people understand the foundations of true prosperity, the policies of prosperity, and how to protect prosperity by Becoming Informed, Involved, and Impactful®. To access our podcast library and resources, or to sign our Employers Unleashed™ Pledge, visit Prosperity101.com.

Thank you so much for joining with us. It is a pleasure to have you in the audience today. And I do have a very special guest. But before I introduce him, I'd like to just invite everybody to go to the website, prosperity101.com, look at the Take the Pledge tab at the top, and look at our new Employers Unleashed™ pledge. Would you like to be an Unleashed Employer™ to speak your mind and speak truth about what really matters in our nation? 

This is our three-point pledge. I believe our rights come from God and are protected by our Constitution. I believe the Judeo-Christian values and constitutional principles that made America great should be promoted and protected. I pledge my efforts to reclaim and preserve America by educating others in my workplace about the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. I will do this by sharing nonpartisan information to increase civic and economic awareness regarding the principles of freedom and the connection between policy and paychecks. 

If you are in the audience today and you align with those statements, please go to our website, take the pledge, and be part of a growing movement of employers who are willing to speak up in the workplace and speak truth about how policy matters to paychecks. I invite you also to join with us in a new series of monthly webinars where we tackle a mountain of culture, which you can learn about on the website, and how business can impact, positively impact, different areas of our culture. Don't think you can't make a difference, because you can. So I hope you'll go to prosperity101.com and explore that. 

And now, as we get into the episode, I would like to introduce to you my guest. Today I am interviewing Ziad K. Abdelnour. Ziad is President and CEO of Blackhawk Partners. I'll let him tell you more about that, but I first met Ziad back when I was Deputy Chief of Staff for Herman Cain's presidential campaign, and Ziad and I worked together to help Mr. Cain deliver a foreword for Ziad's book, Economic Warfare. These principles are quite interesting even now, even though this book was written years ago. 

I appreciate what you wrote, Ziad. You said, Linda, thanks a million for making this happen with Herman. My very best. Ziad Abdelnour. And, you have a history as a financier. You have been living in New York City for over 35 years. You're an immigrant, and I'm just so grateful for your insight and how you can bring this to the podcast. You are a repeat guest, and I welcome you again. Thank you, Ziad.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: My pleasure. I'm really happy to be here, Linda.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, thank you. And it's been a little bit of a struggle to get you scheduled again, but we're so glad that you're here now. First, before we get into more questions, I'd like you to share with the audience a little bit about who you are, what is Blackhawk Partners, what's your history, and how did you end up being in New York City doing what you do?

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Well, you know, I hail from Lebanon. I came to the States back in 1982. That's a long time ago. I came in here looking for opportunities, and because there was a civil war in Lebanon that started in 1975. So I thought, you know, Europe was too boring. South America was not really the kind of place I can thrive.

So I flew to England, I decided to come to the United States. And what better place than New York City? And New York City in the 80s is not like New York City today, unfortunately. It was, the sky was the limit. Reagan was in power. Bull market started in ‘82.

Look at the timing. I mean, I came in when the bull market started. The Dow Jones was at 800 then, look today where it is. So New York was the place to be. Now that's one. Number two, what do I do in New York? I mean, New York is the financial capital of the world. I come from a family of financiers, my uncle, my father, all in my family. My sons now and my brothers and sisters, they're all in finance.

It's in the family. So it was natural for me to be in finance, not in anything else. So I went and got my MBA master's degree from the Wharton School of Finance, Wharton School of Business back in ‘82.

Then I started my career in New York in ‘84. I worked for the most aggressive, smartest investment bank on Wall Street. I always liked people who shake the status quo. I'm a rebel. I'm a maverick. I'm very controversial.

Otherwise, I get bored. I get bored with politically correct people, people who want to keep the status quo, people who don't want to do anything. I decided to go on my own with a bunch of very smart, aggressive guys and build our own family office investment bank.

And that's what we did. And I've been now at this for, what, 20 plus years. And it's been great because at the end of the day, it's all about freedom. It's not about working for this. It's not having a career. It's having freedom. Making money for me is about freedom. It's nothing else. Because when you make enough money, you can tell your boss to take a hike.

You can tell anybody to take a hike because you're making money. Money basically is the ultimate step to freedom. And I was always looking for freedom. I came from a country that had a civil war, and I was looking for freedom. Not necessarily for fame and fortune, but more for freedom. And by doing that, you know exactly where you're going.

And by the same token, you achieve fame and fortune. But you have to be able to chart your own course in life. If not, somebody is going to control your life. You have to control the narrative. You have to choose very carefully the people you work with. I don't work with… people ask, oh, what institution you work with?

I don't work with institution. I work with people. I will never work with a George Soros. I will never work with a liberal. I will never work with these ideas. I don't care how much money they have. I want to work with people who espouse the same values I have. I'm a capitalist. I am not shy of saying it.

I'm a maverick. And when people ask me, what business you're in, you're in too many things, real estate, et cetera, corporate acquisitions, I'm only in one business. I'm in the wealth creation business. How do you create wealth out of thin air? Whether you're buying, selling, trading, investing, divesting, how do you create this? For your own, for your family, for your partners, for your shareholders, for everybody around you. This is what defines my character. 

You know, there's a quote of Machiavelli, Niccolo Machiavelli, the prince, who used to say all the time, one of the most rewarding and challenging things you will ever accomplish in life is changing the order of things. Very few people dare changing the order of things. And those who do, they acquire fame, fortune, they inspire people, they make a difference. Because at the end of the day, what is success? Success is not how much money you have accumulated, how much power you have, none of the above.

Success is empowering people, is inspiring people, is changing their lives. And you can't imagine the number of times I'm walking on the street, people come and tell me, I used to know… I don't know the guy. So yeah, I read your book, I saw your video, I attended your event, I did this, I did that.

You know, the satisfaction I get with that, this is success. You know, when people recognize this and recognize that you've changed their lives, this is what matters. And all those really who become billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, these are people who changed, who empowered people.

If you didn't have the smartphone, if you didn't have this and that, you would have never been a billionaire or Jeff Bezos. They changed people's lives. They empowered and inspired people and created many millionaires and billionaires. So this is really… this is how you have to think about it. Not what job I'm gonna have, no. Team up with the people who think like this, like-minded, and where you can change the order of things.

Linda J. Hansen: I love that, being a maverick and changing the order of things. And I love it that you said that you won't team up with people that don't really have your world view. 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: No.

Linda J. Hansen: You mentioned many names. And in our current culture and society, of course, we just had DAVOS, the World Economic Forum happened.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Disaster.

Linda J. Hansen: Disaster.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: I don't know what they're talking about. They still live in, you know, with this- 

Linda J. Hansen: La La Land. 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: La La Land completely.

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: It was a total failure. And I think Trump and his team taught them a lesson this time, which I really enjoyed a lot.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes. Yes. And so that's one thing I've appreciated about you because so many people, and I don't even know all the details, but as I've talked to you over the years, I've seen your commitment to support capitalism, your commitment to support empowering individuals.

And you have always written about respect and honesty and integrity. You've talked, I'm quoting you here. You've said, relationships are the real currency and trust is the foundation. You've said, risk is an art, not a formula. You know, it's very interesting that the way you frame that, I really appreciate it. And you mentioned it in this interview too, you said, control the narrative or someone else will. 

You know, as we watch what's happening in our nation and around the world, we have so often lost the control of the narrative. And that's what I try to do is to help employers educate employees and help the workplace to be a place where people can be empowered to understand how to protect their own freedom, how to protect their prosperity, which I define not as money, but as human flourishing and freedom.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Absolutely.

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah, and without that education, that basic education, they have no idea. So they end up being pawns in a game and riding in streets and they're pawns in a bigger game. And it's just so heartbreaking.

So I appreciate you just even with all of your success in your history, being able to stand firm and say, no, we need to protect and preserve America. We need to protect and preserve capitalism. And with that being said, I mean, you live in New York and New York City has just voted in a mayor that is promoting socialist Marxist ideologies. And there's so much happening economically and culturally in New York City right now. Can you address that a little?

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Yeah, I mean, look, the New York I came to, back in the early eighties, is very different than the New York of today. Then the sky was the limit. You could dream about anything. You could do whatever you can do. Today is the age of diminished expectations. You shouldn't think like this. Who the hell do you think you are to think like this? How do you dare do that? That's the thing.

So, when they tell me this, I double down and push them off even more because they expect a different reaction that you're gonna back off. You cannot back off. You have to be relentless in pushing the narrative you want. The problem really is the younger generation, the Gen Z. And these are the people who elected this mayor. A lot of people have been indoctrinated.

Linda J. Hansen: Absolutely.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Colleges, universities, school. Some of them are small enough to get out of it. Some of them are still their head in the sand, buried in the sand.

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: And they can't do anything about it.

Linda J. Hansen: That's why I am absolutely so passionate about encouraging employers to talk to their employees because we have teenagers, 20 year olds, 30 year olds, 40 year olds, many 50 year olds sometimes in the workplace that really do not understand the concepts that you're talking about or what it really means to have the freedom to have their own opportunity to flourish. And so if the employers don't do it, I mean, obviously our public education systems haven't done it. Our universities have not done it. If the employers do not give a basic understanding, then there's almost like no way to turn it around. We have to-

Ziad K. Abdelnour: They will not educate them. They will not educate them. They want robots. They don't want people who think. They want people who execute like a factory. Even those graduates from the best Ivy League colleges in America, you know, they don't dare and think anything because all they want is a job, is a paycheck. Just do this and shut up. That's what I'm paying you to do. You have to do this.

Linda J. Hansen: There's a section of employers out there and I hope I'm talking to some of them who understand that they have an opportunity and a responsibility in their workplace. I think a lot of the small businesses especially have an opportunity and I've seen it where- 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Small business is different. Small business, I'm not talking about the small business. I'm talking about the Fortune 500, the corporate America.

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: I'm not talking about the small. The small business is different. They're more entrepreneurial.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Some of them start up, some of them, it's a different mindset. And this is why they are entrepreneurs. And this is why they are small business. Because these entrepreneurs cannot work for these large corporations and cannot take orders. They just cannot take orders.

They abhor that. So that's a distinction really, Linda, between small business and the rest. But in general, the people in power, government or corporate America, they don't want to educate you.

They want you to stay thinking like this, taking orders, working like forever, from nine to five to nine to nine and taking orders. They don't want this. Listen, nobody, let's be realistic here. Nobody will give you power. Nobody will give you power. You have to grab it by force.

Nobody will ever give you power. Nobody will ever relinquish power, will relinquish education, et cetera. Maybe I'm a bit bitter, but I've been through a lot and I've seen it. I have to grab it by force. That's it. And if you don't have this attitude, you're not going to go anywhere.

You're going to stay there, nice guy, polite, politically correct, abiding by the system, not wanting to rock the boat. I don't want to rock the boat. I want to break the damn boat and build a new one. That's my character. Oh, you rocked the boat. So what? I rocked the boat. So what? Did you get offended? Show me if you got offended.

Linda J. Hansen: Build your own boat. 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Yeah.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, and this is one of the things, I work with a lot of small businesses and they're actually the largest employer in the nation.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: They're the backbone of the nation.

Linda J. Hansen: They're the backbone of the nation. And so if we look at these businesses taking time to have relationships and building relationships and educating employees, the power of that could be enormous for our nation.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: The future is with the entrepreneurs.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes, it is.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: The future is with the capitalist entrepreneurs, the troublemaker, the rebels, the misfits.

Linda J. Hansen: Yeah.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: That's it.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes, I do. And that reminds me, in one of your LinkedIn posts, you were talking about the exodus of businesses from New York City and how that's affecting the economy there. Can you talk about that a little bit? You know, the socialist policies versus capitalists. I mean, we're having a mass exodus.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Look, it's not a question of feeling. The numbers speak for themselves. Thousands of people are moving to Miami, Texas, all over the other places.

Linda J. Hansen: Anywhere but there.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: It's not just New York. It's all the blue states. The blue states have no future. They're moving. Look, capital is coward. Capital is coward. When you impose these things, capital will flee. They don't need you. They don't need to take orders from you. They don't need to hire this guy or that guy. They can do whatever they want. Freedom again.

Linda J. Hansen: Freedom.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: They control capital. This is what socialists never understood. They never understood that. And the trend is going to continue in New York. We still have another six years. God forbid what's going to happen in six years.

Linda J. Hansen: New York will be unrecognizable.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Yeah. And  still didn't learn the same story every time. We adopt socialism. It doesn't work. So look, it's not going to change. It's a fact. It's natural. The numbers speak for themselves. Look at how many hedge funds moved to Miami. Established their headquarters in West Palm Beach, in Palm Beach, in Miami, all over the place. Thousands, thousands of them.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes. And you have brought up a good point that capital can move. But unfortunately then the people that are left that don't have that type of capital or that access to capital, they become pawns, as I mentioned earlier, pawns in a very heartbreaking game.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Look, at the end of the day, you have to stop relying, oh, I'm going to get a job. I'm going to apply for a job. Forget about this job. Forget about this job thing. And even the government, they judge everything by how many jobs you've created. That's wrong. That's wrong mindset. The key should be how much wealth has been created. You have to move from a job, a mindset of job creation to wealth creation.

Did I create an environment that's conducive to wealth creation? That's the key. It's not job. Job is slavery, is robots. It's like 200 years ago at the plantation. The slaves of the plantation 200 years ago, it's like having a job today. It's the same thing. Get it out of your system. Start fighting for it, especially if you're young and smart and aggressive. Get educated. Talk to the right people. Rebel, rebel, wake up.

Linda J. Hansen: Become an entrepreneur.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Yes, it's really- Absolutely, forget about this job thing. Oh, I'm happy I'm having my job. So what, and when? And then what?

Linda J. Hansen: Well, and this is one of the things I really appreciate that's kind of coming up out of the woke years and things is that we're seeing an emphasis on trades. I mean, not everybody is going to be a financier. Not everybody's going to be doing hedge funds, but there are people who have to fix the heat, the HVAC systems or the plumbing or do all the welding or the farming.

It's amazing. And you can see what's happening, people. And they can own their own business. They can grow their own wealth. They can help other families flourish. I mean, it's so exciting. And that training and keeping it going for future generations, it's really exciting. And people are realizing that there's more than- 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Absolutely, you have to control your narrative. You have to control your life. You have to control your life. Look, it's very simple. Everybody has to be, in whatever industry, not just finance, a self-sustaining cashflow machine. You have to rely on yourself.

Stop counting on the government. Stop counting on your parents. Stop counting on this. You have to rely on yourself. You have to find different streams of income, not one, two, three, five, eight, 10, and rely on yourself. I keep saying it all the time.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes. I like that, self-sustaining. Say that again, self-sustaining-

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Self-sustaining cashflow machine.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: A well-oiled, self-sustaining cashflow machine.

Linda J. Hansen: That is great.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: This is the secret. This is how you acquire freedom. This is how you can tell your boss to take a hike. This is how you can have time to spend with your family, with your loved ones. This is how you have time to make a difference. That's it.

All the rest is pure slavery, slavery. You're slaving, you know, and postponing the inevitable by years. At the end of the day, what? You're 65 years old or whatever it is. You have no money. You have nothing. You have no pension, and you're still a slave to the government. And then what? That's it. You're done.

Linda J. Hansen: You have a quote about freedom that I want to read here before we close. It says, freedom is the state of being able to act, speak, or think without constraint, hindrance, or coercion, encompassing personal autonomy, liberation from oppression, and the right to self-governance. It is a fundamental human concept relating to choices, self-determination, and living without undue limitations, whether political, societal, or personal.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Spot on. I keep saying this all the time. 

Linda J. Hansen: Well, it's your quote. It's your quote. 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, I keep saying that all the time. That's fun. I totally encourage this. When people tell me, young people, what's the best advice you can give me?

Best advice is wake up. Take control of your life. Start finding different streams of thinking where you can make money. Real money, whatever it is. There is no menial job. Everything is good as long as you are happy, you're free, and you can make enough money to sustain yourself.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: You don't have to be in finance. They tell me Bitcoin. Bitcoin is good. Everything is good. You have this opportunity to make money everywhere. And all those people, those young people who complain, oh, you can't make money, or now all the money has been made.

It's all crap. The money, there's never been a better opportunity to make money than in today's age. With the internet, with the asset classes, with the technology, with this. You only need a computer. You only need a few good contacts. You only need to do your research.

Go and find, do your research. Find a role model. I tell them, who are your three top role models? Go and find them. In whatever industry. And go and talk to them. And tell them, listen, I want to work with you. Even if it's for free, at the beginning. They will like you. They will respect you. They will give you an opportunity. Everybody likes to give people a break. Go there. Go there, talk to them. Show them the passion.

Not, oh, I applied for this job. You don't apply for a job. I'm going to work for Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. It doesn't mean nothing. You apply, you want to work with people, not with institutions. You have to have the personal contact, the personal relationship.

Linda J. Hansen: You brought up a good point that we can work for others or we can work for ourselves, and it's a change in that mindset. And no matter how we choose to earn money, how we choose to create that cashflow machine.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: How do you like your cashflow machine?

Linda J. Hansen: Yes. You know, how we do that. But, you know, there are times in our life where we do it by working with, or for, someone else and they pay us.

Well really we're working for ourselves. We're working for ourselves so that we can grow, we can expand, we can learn, and we can hopefully continue to increase our cashflow and our opportunity for freedom. I always say money is a great tool, but a horrible master.

And so, I think in our culture, we've looked at money as being a master, instead of a tool. And it is a wonderful tool for freedom. And that is why the people who do not want us to have freedom want so much control of that money, why there's so much corruption in everything.

And, that capital control is such an important part. And, but also so many people think that the government is just, they just have the money and they can pay for things. And I address this all the time- 

Ziad K. Abdelnour: The government doesn't have any money, it's our money. It's our money.

Linda J. Hansen: It's our money. We have to create that capital. We have to create that money through healthy businesses, through healthy entrepreneurship, through wealth creation.

And none of it comes to the government, except through those of us who work to create that. And so this is such a lie that is being fed to our nation, to nations of the world. So I really appreciate your voice that says, capitalism matters, socialism is not the way to go.

You've seen it, in your own history, your own experiences, but you can be a voice for reason and empowerment for those for the future. So before we close, do you have any closing thoughts and what would you tell employers if they wanted to help employees understand these facts?

Ziad K. Abdelnour: The problem with employers, a lot of the employers, not all of them, as I always, when I talk about in general, there's always exceptions, but in general, they like to feel the sense of control. They clip people's wings. They do not empower them.

They don't want them to be, tell me about a boss who has smaller people than him. Few, but very few. They're very insecure. They seek control all the time and they don't want to educate anyone, especially in big corporate America. There's a lot of incompetent people, but they rose to power because of the politics. They're good at politics. They're good at… I don't want to say the word, but you know what I mean.

Look, you have to be able to navigate to understand psychology. A lot of people are very insensitive to that. You have to be able to size people very quickly within the first five minutes.

If you can't do that, you still need a lot of people skills. Finance is all about, not money, it's all about psychology. For example, I like to deal with people who listen, who are humble, and who get things done.

A lot of talk, they don't get anything done, they play politics, and they like to listen to themselves talk. Huge ego. This is why my second book, Linda, is called Startup Saboteurs. It's out on Amazon, other than Economic Warfare. It says how ego, incompetence, and small thinking prevent wealth creation. Most of the deals fail because of the ego of the entrepreneur, small thinking, and incompetence.

The same thing with what we're seeing. This is a trait with every single employer, a lot of employers, a lot of entrepreneurs. They don't listen, they follow trends, they don't do their research, they don't verify anything, and they stick to the same people all over.

They don't push it, and they don't follow up. I go to meetings, it's supposed to be a meet and greet. They have stacked all these cards, they gave their cards to everybody, and they never follow up. What's the purpose of exchanging cards if you don't follow up? This is hard work. This is not- and today, unfortunately, we're trained to think everything is easy.

You make a call, you send me a deal, okay, I'll do a deal or not. If you don't do the deal, they never talk to you again. It doesn't work like this. It doesn't work like this. I come from the old school. You have to follow up, you have to listen, because if you're listening well, you can close the deal from the first time, because you listened to him. You didn't talk at him. The arrogance of some people is obscene. 

For example, I see these young New York investment bankers going to the Middle East, where you have billions and trillions, and they want to raise capital for their deals. So they come in here, so impersonal, all charts and numbers, they think they're going to impress them through the PowerPoint, and this other guy is a nomad who lived thousands of years surviving, very, very, very shrewd, totally underestimated them, and it doesn't work like this. There's this American arrogance when dealing with other people that's obscene. You cannot do that.

Hubris brings you down, and this happens to a lot. You can't do that. You can't do that. You have to be very sensitive and read people very quickly. You have to be relentless, relentless. They're not relentless. If they fail at something, okay, they give it away. Let's move next. It doesn't work like this.

There's a lot of impatience, a lot of arrogance. There's a lot of things that are not taught in schools, in colleges. This stuff is not taught. They say, oh, you have to know the numbers. Look, at the end of the day, anybody can learn anything. Six months, you can learn anything. But the key is character. Do they have the character? That's the key.

A lot of people don't have character, and this is how I judge people. It's not how smart they are. There are a lot of super smart people. They have no character. They have no purpose. They just want to close a big deal and retire in the Bahamas at 40 years old or whatever. It doesn't work like this. They taught them this from the beginning. It doesn't work like this. It's hard work. It's dedication. It's commitment. It's relentlessness. It's sensitivity. It's knowing people.

It's being kind to people. The most powerful people, honestly, are usually very kind because they got it. They don't need to throw this arrogance. They don't. And it's never also… for example, people come in here because of the title of somebody, so they have this reverence that this guy is always right. He's not always right. I could talk for hours, but I think you get the gist of it.

Linda J. Hansen: I do. I do. I appreciate how you said that character is key. I have a large audience of faith-based entrepreneurs, people who really look at serving in their business as a calling from God, that it's a marketplace ministry. It is some, it's a way they serve their Lord by serving in business. And I tell people all the time that Jesus, when he spoke the most publicly, it was in the marketplace.

And we can serve people when we have that attitude that is of good character. We're humble, whether we are of high estate or not. I mean, we need to have a humble spirit and a character and show love for people where we treat people as we'd like to be treated.

Whether we are an employer or an employee or an entrepreneur that's starting a business, whatever it is, when we can treat people like that, that's where we begin to as you were talking about, not just upset the boat, but create a new boat. We can, we can break the old boats and create a new boat that we can sail. And that's what makes a difference.

And as we look at the crisis, crises, plural, in our nation and around the world, I mean, that's what makes the difference. It's character is king. It's caring for others the way we want to be treated. It's following a rule of law. It's using our constitution as a guide here in America, which is such a blessing that we have that here and the opportunity to flourish. And we just are so thankful to be here.

And you bring up a good point about how you chose to come to America because of the opportunity and what you do, what I do, what we try to do is make sure that opportunity is going to be there. You know, this is our 250th year of America that we're celebrating. We hope it'll be there for another 250 years and survive every, every attack.

So before we close, how can people reach you, Ziad?

Ziad K. Abdelnour: They can reach me, Blackhawk Partners. My email is Ziad@BlackhawkPartners.com. I think the best way is by email or even on social media. I'm on all platforms, LinkedIn, X, YouTube. I have my own channels and everything. So I have like 300,000 followers. A lot of people reach me through social media, also my personal email. But, I'm very accessible.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you for bringing your experience to the podcast. And I hope that our audience will follow up with you, at least to read your books, follow you on social media. And I thank you so much, Ziad.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Thank you so much, Linda. It was a pleasure talking to you as always. And we'll stay in touch.

Linda J. Hansen: Absolutely. And for my audience, I just want to encourage you again, go to Prosperity101.com. Look at that three-point pledge for employers unleashed and take the pledge.

Commit to doing one thing, saying one thing to bring truth to your workplace. And please join us in our monthly webinars that will be starting here in January. And just feel free to contact me at Prosperity101.com. So thank you again, Ziad. And thank you to all the audience. Thank you.

Ziad K. Abdelnour: Thank you for your time, Linda. Have a great evening.

Linda J. Hansen: You too. Thank you again for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101 podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please, subscribe, share, and give us a great review. Don’t forget to visit Prosperity101.com to sign our Employers Unleashed™ pledge, to access our entire podcast library, or to discover resources for use in your workplace. Let us know how we can serve you. Contact us today at Prosperity101.com.