From Learning Disabilities to AI Leadership: Jeremy Jakubowicz’s Unconventional Career Journey | Ep034

Episode Summary
Jeremy Jakubowicz’s path to becoming president of multiple AI companies is far from conventional. After struggling with learning disabilities throughout his education, Jeremy carved out a unique career trajectory through film, education, casino promotions, and tech software before landing in his current role. His story demonstrates how challenges can become stepping stones and how following the “natural path” can lead to unexpected success.

In This Episode
Jeremy shares how his reading and writing disabilities shaped his approach to career development, emphasizing experiential learning and relationship building. From working as a pizza delivery driver to teaching film production, from MC’ing casino events to transitioning into software sales, Jeremy’s journey showcases the power of turning every experience into an opportunity.

His decision to move to Las Vegas for $20,000 less than a competing offer exemplifies his philosophy of betting on long-term vision over immediate gain. Jeremy breaks down how he recognized cultural mismatches in his career transitions and eventually found his home at VizExplorer for seven years before moving into AI.

Key Takeaways
– Alternative Learning Paths: How Jeremy compensated for reading/writing challenges by becoming hands-on and experiential
– Network as Currency: Building genuine relationships opened doors across industries
– The Expiration Date Philosophy: Knowing when to pivot based on growth opportunity, cultural fit, or new challenges
– Value-Add Mindset: Continuously bringing past experiences to enhance current roles
– Cultural Fit > Money: Learning to evaluate opportunities beyond compensation
– Natural Path Theory: Why forcing opportunities often leads to resistance

Notable Quotes
“Don’t overthink things. No matter if it doesn’t work out, you’ll gain valuable takeaways from that experience regardless of its failure or success.”
“Everything in life has an expiration date. The thing you need to figure out for yourself is when is that expiration date?”
“I always found my path through relationships and building friendships that help open those doors.”

Jeremy’s Career Timeline
Educational Foundation: Struggled with learning disabilities; found alternative learning methods
First Steps: Pizza delivery, film school graduate
Teaching Years: Film production teacher with side videography business
Casino Industry: MC, promotions coordinator, progression to management
The Vegas Gamble: Took pay cut for better opportunity in Las Vegas
Tech Transition: Software sales for casino player tracking systems
VizExplorer Era: Customer success role that lasted 7.5 years
AI Leadership: Current role as president of multiple AI companies

Connect With Jeremy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-jj-jakubowicz-9848a431/

Listen & Subscribe
Available on all major podcast platforms. Subscribe to Career Downloads for weekly conversations with professionals who’ve navigated unique career paths.

Episode Length: 1 hour 4 minutes
Release Date: May 6, 2025

Manuel: Welcome everyone, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads, where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest, to really learn how they navigated their career over time, with the intention to really help uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. So for today’s episode, I have with me Jeremy Jakubowicz. We connected, we had a couple conversations and he shared a little bit with me about his journey, you know, the different triumphs and struggles that he’s dealt with. And I thought that was really interesting. So decided to ask him to come on and share his story with everybody. So with that, I’ll go ahead and let Jeremy introduce himself. So welcome Jeremy.

Jeremy: Yes, good morning, thank you for having me.

Manuel: I appreciate you coming on and being willing to kind of share your experiences. And, you know, we talked about them, so I don’t want to reveal too much, but if you just go ahead and kind of give us a synopsis of, you know, kind of what you’re currently doing, you know, and just a little quick summary of, you know, your career over time.

Jeremy: Yeah, no, absolutely. Like I said, thanks so much again for having me on the show. So currently right now I’m the president of a handful of small AI driven companies. Started this about six months ago. And yeah, it’s, I’ll never look back, frankly. So yeah, it’s been fantastic. You know, it’s been a, it’s been an interesting journey to get to the point where I have gotten myself today, starting off as just through grade school, if you will, you know, and getting to a point where I find success and, you know, being able to in my career and obviously raising my family.

Manuel: So kind of want to get started. If you give me an idea of, you know, just want to explain to us where you grew up and kind of what eventually, you know, I know we’ve mentioned it before, but you got into technology a little bit later on in life, but just kind of what, you know, what your early aspirations were.

Jeremy: Yeah. You know, I think if you get to know me a little bit more, again, raised in, you know, pretty standard middle-class family down in South Florida, in an up and coming area down there back in the early 80s, excuse me, late 80s and early 90s. And you know, at that point, it was just a, again, a nice clean, safe, you know, family-friendly area to grow up. As I was growing up through grade school, I found some challenges along the way. I was, it was an understanding that I had some reading and writing disabilities as a child diagnosed with these understanding of that, you know, it’s going to be a little tough along the way. And it was, it definitely was, you know, I found myself trying to overcompensate in different ways. And that’s, and I set the stage, you know, with saying those different things, because I think it’s important to anybody’s journey and anybody’s, you know, life as they continue to go through their trials and tribulations of, you know, of career and life that you need to understand yourself. You need to understand, you know, what you, who you are first. And then of course, you know, for everybody, that’s watching this, of course, understanding for me, my journey and the struggles that I had. So point is, is that growing up, again, I struggled with some reading and writing disabilities and, you know, and I would have some help along the way, you know, if it wasn’t tutors or if it was guidance counselors or different mentors along the way that I found to be able to help me in my life, I found myself overcompensating in different ways. So if I struggled in reading and writing, I, you can tell probably that, you know, maybe it’s my personality and different things like that, that I was able to latch onto. I was voted class clown in high school. And so I found myself trying to be more outgoing and funny and things like that to overcompensate for my, the inefficiencies on the reading and writing side of my life. So although struggling through actual grade school, I try to use my personality to overcome those different types of challenges. So with that, you know, I always found myself doing other things besides learning through reading or books or, you know, or traditional styles of education and being more hands-on with different things. So if it’s building skate ramps as a kid or taking apart my toys, you know, and then putting them back together, I found myself doing those types of things was the type of, you know, person and personality that I had that I was gonna learn in other ways, learning by doing, learning by experiencing, learning by failure. And to set the stage, that’s really the different things that I find myself doing in order to get myself and propel myself where I am today.

Manuel: And that’s pretty interesting, the fact that, you know, you decided to find other ways to learn, right? Because a lot of times, and I’m sure, even with it being a struggle, did you feel that you put in an extra effort on your own to try and kind of surpass that? Or was it really other people kind of helping push you, right, because again, both ways are good. I know sometimes we need just that kind of that motivation, you know, you mentioned you had tutors and people that are like, “No, hey, you can do this.” But then was there also some of that self-determination to say, “Oh, I’m gonna do this.” It may not be the way that you expect me to, but I’m gonna overcome this.

Jeremy: Yeah, I think that’s a, I think you nailed it right there. Definitely the latter on this one. I was determined to find a different path than the traditional one that maybe, you know, I grew up believing that you needed to take, right? I know these days with kids, you know, it’s not so traditional in the way that you need to learn and understand things to be successful in this world. But I do believe in the early, you know, in the 90s and things like that, that was still kind of the, you know, the understanding of how you, you know, you get a job and, you know, how you become, you know, a functioning person in society, right? So with that being said, yes, I definitely had some help along the way that was pushing me in certain ways and motivating in others. I, as I mentioned to you, it’s, there’s not a lot of people that actually know that I even have, I struggled, you know, with, you know, those different areas of, you know, in my education and still to that, you know, today, you know, that’s something that kind of sticks with me. But I’ve always, I was able to find those other paths of relationship building and path of, you know, learning by doing and things of that nature that was able to continue to help grow to and mold to my career and different things than I have in life today.

Manuel: You know, you’re kind of going through, you move on past grade school and I’m assuming, you know, past high school and what is it that you decided that you wanted to do early on, right? Like you said, okay, I’m struggling, I’m finding all these different areas. What is it that calls your attention and said, hey, I think I’m gonna try and pursue this?

Jeremy: Yeah, in all honesty, you know, leaving high school, you know, as I mentioned too, and entrenched myself in the areas that were publicly known, if you will, and I’m seeing pep rallies and, you know, being part of student council and things like that. So, you know, perceived to be, you know, everything in a leadership perspective, if you will, or in the limelight, if you will. So I wanted to kind of follow a similar path in that a lot of people, you know, were taking and go to traditional type of college and things like that. And I went to a school up in Connecticut for about six months. And a lot of different fun things happen along the way to basically say, you probably need to leave. So lasted about one semester up in Connecticut and then kind of had a moment there to, a moment to kind of rethink what the path may be. And ultimately coming into some opportunities, you know, and I decided I didn’t wanna do that. That’s not who I am. That’s the different things that I know that I can be for myself or anything like that. I’ll give you the story here. When I got out of college and that didn’t work out after the six months, I started delivering pizzas, you know, kind of when I was doing a high school. And then at that point right there, I had an opportunity to become a manager of the pizza shop and I had to make a decision. I’m like, do I wanna be a manager of a pizza restaurant or am I set out for other things or better things, whatever that is. So I decided to actually go to decline that opportunity and go back to school. And I went to a film school in Orlando, Florida called Full State University. Within doing so, it was focused of course, film production and then ultimately getting my entertainment business degree there as well. So along that path and this phase, if you will, of the journey to get to a career, I once again found out that I was met with challenges like anything else in life. And there was a lot of passionate people that went to the school that wanted to be directors and this and that and they lived and breathed script writing and set design and film production, finding out that that’s not necessarily who I wanted to be, which kind of took me a step down on that path to ultimately graduate and actually becoming a team productions and film teacher as well. So at that point right there, naturally having nights and weekends and summers, started doing some other film production on the side. And in 2008, when the recession hit, I was ultimately laid off from the teaching job and decided to take the film production full time and open up my own little company doing weddings, bar mitzvahs, camp videos, you name it, I would film it that type of thing.

Manuel: And I have a question.

Jeremy: Please, by all means, please jump in, I’m sorry.

Manuel: No, no, you’re fine. So during that time, you mentioned early on, you kind of compensated with the class clown trying to be more outgoing. Is that something, especially around that time, with the teaching, even going to college, they brought you up to kind of be a manager, I’m assuming that a lot of what you encounter early on, like having to put in that extra effort, put in the work, but then also, did that help with your communication? Because it sounds like, especially to be an entrepreneur or to put yourself out there, did you find it easier to go through and do that? Even teaching, because a lot of times, that can seem daunting to people and say, I have to stand up in front of people, I have to be the person that knows it all, right? And I’m just curious, before we kind of go too far, the other way is,

Jeremy: Yeah

Manuel: as that teacher, what gave you the confidence or what made you say, hey, I wanna do this and I think I can?

Jeremy: On the teaching perspective?

Manuel: On the teaching perspective and just kind of being able to, again, that’s public speaking, believe it or not, right? I mean, because you’re teaching other people, so what gave you the confidence or what made you do that? Was it the early?

Jeremy: Yeah, no, no, good question. Yeah, to take a couple steps back, I think there are people in my life, and I’m sure others as well, that you latch onto along the way, right? If it’s a tutor, if it’s a parent or whomever that may be, that helps guide you in whatever direction that may be that best suits you. So I had a few individuals in my early life that I found helped me, so therefore, kind of extend the olive branch, if you will, to wanna also teach as well. I always enjoyed teaching young children and things like that. I actually worked in the summertime through high school at a summer camp and some additional context to the teaching. The summer camp is actually the same campus as the school. So when I was in high school working at the camp, I naturally was able to kind of find a home on that campus that I’ve been around for so long in a teaching capacity. So that was kind of how the natural fit into going from high school, excuse me, from college into teaching was because of that original connection through the summer camp that I’ve been working at in my earlier years in high school. So working with children.

Manuel: Got it, so it was prior experience. So it wasn’t just one day you decided, well, I’m just gonna teach. There was prior experience that kind of said, hey, I could kind of do this.

Jeremy: Absolutely, right? Mentoring younger kids and having fun with them. They, through summer camp was an easy path for me to start teaching. And then of course utilizing the skills that I learned from college in film school, it was a very natural fit for myself to get involved there. So there were people that were working at the camp were also teachers at the school as well. One of my mentors at the time, someone I looked up to, he was one of the directors at the camp. So I always look for outside of the household, guidance in life. And he struggled also with different things such as reading and writing and dyslexia. And he found a way through summer camp to be himself. And I was able to kind of latch on to him and use him as a mentor, if you will, through my earlier career.

Manuel: You mentioned you got laid off. So now you decide to kind of pursue full time and go into this production. So kind of what transpired from there?

Jeremy: I keep saying it was natural. There’s a lot of things that I found in my path in my life that just fit, right? I didn’t push against the grain when it came to a lot of different things. And every time I did potentially push the other direction and not go with the natural path, I found resistance. And those resistance comes in many different ways. In failure, in just signs in life that they’re like, this is not the journey that I’m supposed to be taking. And I personally have found in my life that the natural path seems to be the right path. So I didn’t wanna fight it. Don’t swim upstream without a paddle in certain situations. And I love to talk more about finding those opportunities and making sure that you are finding the guiding light, if you will, of what your career journey actually should be.

Manuel: That’s interesting. And I’m very curious to kind of dig a little bit deeper into that because I’ll tell you that there are moments where I’ve had that where like you said, you’re going against the grain, you’re beating yourself. And I, at times, will become very hard-headed and determined and say, I’m gonna make this happen instead of kind of saying, well, maybe this isn’t for me. So I’m curious how you kind of established that and kind of what is the thought process behind that as opposed to, again, because my only experience is for the most part, like sometimes after the fact, I’ll go, oh, it was easier. I should have just, this is the way I should have done it. I should have continued and really dug in deeper into this and put my effort there instead of, like you said, swimming uphill or, you know, banging through a wall. Like, hey, why don’t you just walk around and use this door instead?

Jeremy: Of course.

Manuel: In the opposite direction.

Jeremy: Yeah, listen, I mean, life gets in the way sometimes, you know, and it’s very, very difficult to be able to see the natural path just because of many different reasons that, you know, that that’s happening. So if you’re able to just simply take a step back, have some time for yourself to kind of think about what’s really happening, I think the signs are there sometimes. You just need to make sure that you’re looking for them.

Manuel: Or just be open to receiving them. And be open to receiving.

Jeremy: That’s a, yes, it’s a much better way to put it.

Manuel: Well, I’ll let you continue.

Jeremy: Yeah, no, so for sure. So working, you know, again, and I’ll keep referring back to this, but I always found that your network, your path, my path, excuse me, was through relationships, building relationships, friendships that help, you know, open those doors is the number one thing that I would say that helped me in my life, in my career to be able to get me where I am today, right? You need to be just open and friendly and willing to have the conversation and also be vulnerable at times when things are not so wonderful. And, you know, I believe those different factors help, you know, continue the path forward here for myself. So at that point right there, being that I was in the, doing side gigs for weddings and bar mitzvahs and things like that, South Florida is known for a lot of weddings, a lot of bar mitzvahs, you know, down there in South Florida. So I had a lot of friends that were DJs in the entertainment industry from that perspective. So it was a natural fit for myself to pair up with some folks that I knew in that industry, ultimately renting out a space within their building that did weddings, bar mitzvahs, DJs, photography, decor, things like that for these different types of events. And then I was able to kind of start establishing a clientele base and a partnership through that company. It was at that point that we were fine. And again, I was actually doing relatively well in this space. I was growing, I was one man band for a long time, doing all the editing and filming and being on site, but then ultimately being able to start hiring, you know, independent contractors. And I was essentially growing a business at that point. It was, once again, a very natural opportunity that just came across my plate that this entertainment company also did some work with a local casino, doing some MCs, to have some MCs come in and hype up, you know, different events or do some promotions and things like that. And there was something called the Silver Star Slots Tournament, right? 55 and over individuals that came on buses to this casino and everybody got a little $5 in free play and everybody was able to participate for free in the slot tournament. And this company was hired to bring in MCs to make this, you know, the event exciting, right? Hype it up, get people excited, get on the microphone and obviously have music and things like that. The guy called out sick that would normally do it. And the guy that oversaw it said to me, “Hey, I need someone to go out there just to do it, whatever, I’ll pay you a couple hundred bucks, just go out there. I need somebody.” I’m like, “Shh, what the heck?” Money morning, right? I’m not doing much from a film production perspective at that point. Anyways, so I decided to go. And it was a very natural fit for me. You know, as I was mentioning to high school, I was doing the MC at the pep rallies. I was always kind of in front of individuals. I left this part out again. I used to be the front man in a band in my early days, right? So I’ve always been okay with being on stage and being in front of people and essentially being an entertainer. So I started doing that and I started doing it on the side that they enjoyed having me. And then I went back on the next Monday and so forth and so on. And then there was some other opportunities to continue with them. So I did that for a while, while still doing the videography stuff, just to supplemental income. There was an opportunity eventually in 2009, 2010, that they offered me a full-time job to come in as their special events and promotions coordinator. And so I decided to do it, but still keeping the film stuff alive on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays or whatever, and I’ll go ahead and edit on the weekends or my time off. So I went ahead and started working now for the casino as a promotions manager, but it was really centered around entertainment. It wasn’t so much the nuts and bolts of understanding casinos as being an entertainer. So another mentor in my life has since passed, but his name was Gary Friedman. And Gary Friedman was an entertainer for years in casinos in Atlantic City. And he was the promotions manager at the property, at the casino. And he’s just a full-blown entertainer. Let’s have a good time. How do we give people the show? How do we give people an experience they wanna continue to come back for? And which within doing so in the gaming industry, we kind of the the pro-motainment terminology I would like to call it, was born. So we were doing fun, exciting game show as type experiences so that when people got their name called to come on down, if you will, they were playing in an event. They’re playing at different things. We’re giving people entertainment value outside of just, hey, congratulations, you won the car. So at that point, I really embraced myself and became more of an entertainer than a casino operator to say the least. So I did that for about three and a half years, four years, and then ultimately having an opportunity to go to another property in South Florida.

Manuel: So at this point, you’ve done quite a range of different things.

Jeremy: Yep.

Manuel: What is it that gave you the confidence, the ability to take a chance? Because I mean, it sounds like through this, you mentioned relationships, building that network, but at the same time, there’s something in you that says, I’m gonna take this chance and I’m gonna do this thing because to this point, and again, it’s not a bad thing, but you’ve done a lot of different things. Most people might say, well, kind of stay within your comfort zone, right? Like, hey, I’m in entertainment, I’m behind the camera, you can just start doing film, and then you’re like, hey, now I’m gonna teach. Hey, now I’m gonna go back behind the camera and I’m going to film weddings, or hey, I’m gonna start MCing. So there’s a lot of different areas. I get it, you felt comfortable kind of being out there, but again, you’re changing roles, you’re changing positions. So there’s something that kind of said, hey, I can do this. I don’t know if it’s just your natural personality, if it struggles early on, or if it’s just mentorship. So I’m just curious for you, what kind of said, what made you say, I can do this, and I’m just gonna keep trying until, I find this next opportunity.

Jeremy: Yeah, I think everything in life has an expiration date, right? And the thing that you need to figure out for yourself is when is that expiration date? Is it was when something stops being fun, or you stop enjoying something, or you see that there’s another opportunity that seems maybe it’s more financially lucrative for you and it takes you to the next financial phase of your life. Or maybe it’s a cultural fit that, this is not working for me anymore and I’m not as happy as I used to be. Maybe I need to go ahead and take a leap of faith to the next chapter of my life. That is kind of the open mindset that I had, especially in my younger years, young single man, right? I was able to kind of just kind of roll with it a little bit and go with the flow. And as I talked about earlier, trying to be open-minded and find that natural opportunity along the way utilizing your skill sets. Now, again, you mentioned you have done a lot and even the little portion of the information I’ve given you so far. And I’m like, yeah, because you know what, that just makes you more valuable. And that helps you propel yourself to the next phase because even though that certain piece of experience that in the film, how does that relate to being in front of the camera or doing work casinos? Well, there’s always that little thing there that helps you, let me back up here for a second, right? The different experiences that you have, help within those other career paths, regardless of if it’s specific to that specific job or industry or job duty. I’ve always found myself reverting back to my past experiences to be able to help doing what I’m doing today. I’ll give an example, like at the casino, for instance, we were doing casino promotions. Promotions need, again, depending on what you’re doing, it could use TV productions and film equipment for different things, sound engineering, things like that. So I was able to not only be the fun guy and be able to help, but I was also able to come in and say, hey, I can help with the audio if I need to lav myself up for the promotion so other people that’s watching can hear, I have the knowledge base in order to not only physically help, but also help even coordinate and find the right people, the right production people to be able to help in those different areas if we’re hiring outside sources. So the point is, is that you always can refer back to your experiences that you have to help grow or support the different things that you’re doing today.

Manuel: And then, so from there, you’re taking all this, you’re kind of doing the promotion thing. It sounds like you’ve been doing this for a few years and I saw progression even within that casino industry. So is that something, again, just new opportunities are coming up. You’re hitting those expiration dates to say, hey, it’s time to go do something else. There’s another opportunity, kind of what transpires. And I guess at this point, are you starting to become more intentional with what you’re doing? Or are you still pretty much just, I’m gonna be open to whatever comes. And have you ever kind of said, well, I think I’m gonna head in this direction?

Jeremy: Yeah, I fell in love with the casino industry. To this day, I’m still involved in casino. I’ve always been infatuated with gambling and gaming and Las Vegas for that matter. So when I had an opportunity to start working with a casino, it was a very easy, natural fit for me because I just always loved gaming. I didn’t know much about it. I knew how to lose a lot of money and how to play blackjack and things like that. But I was intrigued and interested to learning the other side of the industry. Now I mentioned too, in my early stages of gaming, it was more about learning how to be an entertainer. And I love doing that. And I just loved being around the excitement and the energy. I used to say, in promotions, I go, I’m the only one at this property giving something away while everybody else is here to take it. And I guess it was my way of saying, I was the good guy on the side when people can look at it being a habit or whatever that is. So yes, I entrenched myself in the gaming industry and I had an opportunity to grow my career, become a manager at another property about 40 minutes from that particular location that I was at. And becoming a promotions manager, I was able to apply, of course, all the things I learned and be able to take that information from my mentor at the property and my boss at the time to that next property. But that was an eye opener for me when I actually started working at that property because slowly finding out that what we were doing at the former location, that was not the move. And so I didn’t know any better. So I kind of started learning the hard way about the understanding and the growth and the ROI and behind what we’re doing and how we’re driving in players to the property, not just being an entertainer. And so that’s when I started kind of dipping my toe in understanding more about the operational side of gaming. So I did that for about a year. And ultimately my wife was pregnant and we’ve always loved Las Vegas. And I had an opportunity to come work out here in Las Vegas for the Hard Rock. And so we went ahead and took that opportunity right before my daughter was born. And so I started working for Hard Rock as once again the special events and promotions manager out here in Las Vegas. So we made that move.

Manuel: Again, if you’re open to talking about it. So when you say opportunities come around, again, there’s a network because again, I understand it’s gaming, but it sounds like it’s East Coast, Florida area versus Las Vegas. I mean, that’s different. Now, again, I have my experiences of also working in gaming. Within Vegas, yes, like those opportunities, those connections seem to come easier and more natural. Going somewhere else, and some of these smaller properties. Because again, I did work for some of the ones where you’re working on riverboat casinos, you’re working in these different areas. I’m curious how you came about that. Is it just, hey, I saw an opening in your position? An opportunity means any number of things.

Jeremy: Sure, I left that wide open in honesty. I actually was actually, I would actually let go from that property. So I was let go from the property and at that point, a week later, I found out my wife was pregnant. So we’re kind of in a bit of hot water of just what are we gonna do and what’s the next move and stuff like that. So, and again, and of course being without work at any point, and this is probably the first time I was really able to outwork for a little while. Was trying to figure out what’s gonna happen, right? Because life is changing now. You’re not just worrying about yourself or worrying about your spouse. Now you’re bringing a child into this world. And although I’ve up until this point, as I mentioned, to you. I’ve kinda been young, wild, and free in my mind of just let’s go ahead and just onto the next and take maybe a little more risk because I was worrying about myself, and not necessarily about a potential family. But once again, again, I took a step back and like anybody who started applying and just try to put yourself out there to individuals, I went ahead and had an opportunity by looking for Las Vegas here at the Hard Rock. And there was another opportunity that they were really pursuing me for up in Pendleton, Oregon, right? Town of 1600 people, right? So not the biggest place. So I went on that interview, but I knew that I really wanted to be in Las Vegas because my sister-in-law’s here, I love gaming. I’ve always been on many bachelor parties here and just love Las Vegas, right? I always had an infatuation with it. And so I wanted to be there. So I had an opportunity for the Hard Rock, but they weren’t necessarily willing to fly me out, right? So what I wound up doing was that I took the interview in Oregon, in order to get to Oregon from South Florida, I think it’s important to note here, is that you actually have to take three flights to get there. So there was a leg that took me to Denver. And instead of getting in the Denver connection to back to South Florida, I actually bought a ticket from Denver to Las Vegas, right? And I went straight to Las Vegas. I guess you can call it my own dime here, all right? And I went there and again, I used my personality to propel myself through the opportunity. They saw that I was obviously very interested in willing to do this. There was no moving package to come out there. And it was about a $15,000 to $20,000 difference in salary than the offer that I actually had in Oregon. So let’s be clear. So Oregon, $15,000 more on salary and a moving package up to $10,000 to come out there. But I knew that my life and the things that I wanted to do in my life, I couldn’t live in a town of 1,600 people. I knew that if I was gonna make a move, this is what I was gonna do. So I decided to just once again, move on my own dime, as well as take a lesser salary to ultimately be in a place where I know that I was gonna be happy, my wife’s gonna be happy, and then a place where I wanted to raise a family.

Manuel: And I appreciate you kind of being open and sharing that experience because there’s a lot of great information in that. So the fact that you were resourceful, I’m gonna call it resourceful and understand like, “Okay, hey, I have two offers here. I have to do it on my own dime.” Luckily, you have those multiple legs and understanding that at this point, you’re betting on yourself. You’re saying, “Hey, I’m gonna come out of pocket and I’m gonna go and do this because I think that there’s a good opportunity that I will land this role.” And then really understanding, and I think a lot of times we kind of, there’s moments, especially early on in my career where you’re younger, there’s no responsibilities, you chase the dollar a little bit.

Jeremy: Sure.

Manuel: And here, starting a family, I would have thought that it had to have been a difficult decision, right? To kind of turn down, you’re thinking not only of yourself, you’re thinking of a family and say, “Hey, there’s an extra $10,000. Maybe I can use this as a stepping stone to then eventually go to Vegas.” I’m not saying that you were abandoning it, but maybe just, “Hey, I’m gonna take the longer route.” But you decided not to do that. So what was it within you that said, “Hey, I know you touched on it like, hey, it’s Vegas. You saw probably the bigger opportunity. And did you think to yourself, it’s $10,000 now, but I’ll be able to surpass that over time?”

Jeremy: Ignorance is bliss sometimes. And sometimes you just take a leap of faith, somewhat blindly. Now, I think there were definitely contributing factors in the reason why I decided to take the job at the Hard Rock and move to Las Vegas. My wife, the baby, I have some supporting family here. The home that I lived in at the time, I bought out a short sale out of the recession, so I was doing okay. So if I made the move, I know I can do these different things. So my point is that there is contributing factors of taking a couple steps back in certain ways in order to ultimately do what you believe is the right thing. Here I am 11 years into living in Las Vegas now, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love living here. I think we made the right decision ultimately to take that risk. But I think decision-making in life and careers specifically is where are you today? How are you feeling now? And what are the other factors in life that are you taking consideration to either move on or do or act or take a risk at those particular phases in your life? Now I said ignorance is bliss because here I am, I’m still somewhat young in the industry, worked at two properties over a couple years, going to Las Vegas. This is the mecca. This is where you wanna be. And yes and no. Finding out though from a financial perspective, it’s actually one of the worst that you can be to grow your career in that way. I found out that being that it’s obviously a very saturated market. You’re not gonna make the type of money that you might wanna make, or it might be stuck in certain positions or whatever it is. So I found out that again, like I turned down the $20,000 to be in Oregon, because everybody wants to be in Las Vegas. So raising a family at that point, I knew that I needed to make another move. And I was at Hard Rock for about almost two years. At that point, it was a point of our lives where I felt that move, that I was actually, I was getting bored, if you will, of the same old, same old. I knew that what I was doing, the type of promotions that I was running, the type of events I was doing, and it was working and it was fine, but I was actually more interested at this phase of my career to find out what other people were actually doing. And my thought there was not, let me move on to the vendor side of the world so that I interact with other types of casinos so I can learn more about what they’re doing, and then maybe come back into operations one day. So, and this is the time where I would say that I kind of made more of the tech move. So I started working for a company that did software solutions for player tracking systems, and ultimately they had a solution that allowed for disparate sources of tracking systems to be able to link all those up in a universal way using a universal ID. So that was kind of their shtick, which was great at the time, which made all the sense in the world. So I decided to start working for them. Again, it was the motivation at that point was to find out what others were doing in the industry. And I believe the tech world, I just, again, the adoption of different technology what came very, very natural to myself as well. I was always still to this day, the guy that my parents called to help fix the printer, right? (chuckles) Those are the types of things I was always referring to in my early years of just being hands-on and playing around with different things. Technology was something that I always adopted. Even when it came to the whole reading and writing thing as well, I was an early adopter on different pieces of software that would be able to support and help me through my, to write my essays and things like that, right? So early stages of speak to text or type, right? I was starting to utilize those in order to write essays and be able to get my thoughts on paper easily. So I always found myself to be that early adopter of different pieces of software technology. And I was always intrigued being that again, was always an editor in the film world. So I was like, I just understand that world of it. Doesn’t necessarily want to be hands-on with it, but I was always so have that good understanding behind it. So that was some of the different contributing factors for me to make a decision on to move to the vendor side of the world and working for the software company.

Manuel: And what was that transition like going now? And I’m sure that having the experience of being able to talk to people and build those relationships because on the vendor side, that’s a big part of it, right? Is, hey, how do I establish trust with this customer or with this company, with these people and kind of go through? So did you find it a very easy natural progression or change to just go onto that side? Like obviously you’re still having to learn the software, you learn the technology, but did it seem to you, again, you mentioned the word naturally, was it just a natural fit to go in?

Jeremy: No, actually it wasn’t. I would think in this particular opportunity, I think I went against the grain a little bit. I think I went ahead and just did it for, I would say, again, I think it was more of a financial chase at that point, right? I wanted to, I told you, I wanted, I wanted, I was interested in being able to learn more about other, what other people are doing, but it was also more of a financial move that I knew that I need to move forward. And I think in the context I was mentioning earlier, not realizing that, let me back up here for a second. I think it’s important information to mention that, as I mentioned to you that Las Vegas financially, if you’re gonna stay in operation, it’s somewhat difficult to grow your career and make money because obviously it’s a very saturated market. Within doing so, learning like the Pendleton, Oregon, as I mentioned to you, they’re willing to pay more in these remote or destination areas or local properties and regional properties around the country because it’s hard to find good talent. But I also realized at that moment as well, that I’ve seen a lot of operators kind of take this journey of bouncing from property to property, right? And it’s a very common thing if you look at a lot of, a lot of operators, you know, resumes, you will see that they are a year here, a year here, another two years here, whatever, and they’re just bouncing around the country. But I knew I wanted to put roots down for the family. And I didn’t wanna be that operator to chase title money, if you will, in that career in the operations world. So I thought that moving to the vendor side of the world, you are able to actually stay grounded and also propel your career financially by going on that side of the fence.

Manuel: And that does make a lot of sense, you know, especially, you know, it is a little bit more lucrative, you know, to kind of be on that side. What did you, once you kind of move into that role, you know, like obviously, hey, there’s more money, but what did you kind of see in that role? Did you think, okay, hey, there’s more money, but maybe it’s not worth the wait, because there have been times where maybe it’s not the right choice, or maybe you’re like, hey, it is, it’s just a lot more work. They pay more because they require more. So kind of what did you think once you got in there and how did you, because I think around this time, if I remember correctly, you stayed with this company quite a while?

Jeremy: No, so yeah, this was kind of a bridge to be frank with you. It didn’t work out. It did not, it didn’t pan out to the way that I was hoping and it worked for. And this is where I think, from a career perspective that I think I fumbled and started, I went for the money, opposed to the culture, to what fits my values and beliefs and how I want to work within any sort of company or any sort of the walls of companies. Basically, we bumped heads in the culture and the way that they operate and just the place just wasn’t for me. And even though I didn’t necessarily think it at the time, again, when you look back on it, you’re like, you know what, I’m glad that I was pushed out, opposed to sticking around in a place that you know is not really right for you, but you just continue going through the motions because well, that’s just the easy path sometimes.

Manuel: It’s comfortable, you’re used to it, you’re making decent money.

Jeremy: But again, but the point is I wasn’t happy, right? And they weren’t happy with me. And I think in any failure in your career or life, I talk about how college didn’t work out, which then led me to this or how this particular career or opportunity that I’m talking about right now didn’t work out. Again, you still are able to take those failures and apply that to your next opportunity. Because if it’s, hey, I never want to work for that type of company anymore, or, hey, that culture doesn’t fit with me, so then you take those values now to your next opportunity to make sure that when you are looking, not only are they interviewing you, but you’re interviewing them to make sure that that is the right fit for me and my family. And that is exactly what I was able to find when I went on to my next opportunity. And that’s the one that you’re mentioning that I’ve been with for quite a long time, which is about seven and a half years.

Manuel: You bring up a good point, right? Because the more experiences that you have, because you may not know it at the time, right? You may not know that that’s not a culture fit, or you may not know that this is not the right type of position. The only way to know that is you have to have multiple experiences. Again, call them failures, call them push-out, whatever it is, I’ve been there, and I’ve been in a situation where, again, I thought I was happy, and I’ve kind of, at the last minute, ended up quitting the day of. But a lot of that, my wife was able to see a lot of that. She could tell, she’s like, hey, having that sounding board, and I don’t know if you had that, but my wife has been that for me. Or just having somebody to go through and say, hey, you know what, you seem pretty miserable. You seem unhappy. What’s going on? Because a lot of times, I didn’t recognize it, so I’m just curious, did you recognize it in yourself and say, hey, you know what, I’m not happy, even prior to that, or was it just, hey, looking back now, I realize, crap, I was unhappy.

Jeremy: It’s a very good question. When you’re in the process of learning a new industry, or learning a new, the process of learning a new industry, you think that this is just what it is, and you’re like, okay, well, I need to make sure I entrench myself into it to ensure that I’m giving everything I can, but also still continuously being yourself. And then I don’t think in that particular opportunity, I had enough runway to say that I was truly unhappy with it. I would think I was just trying to find my way within the walls of a vendor operation, small company, to be able to say, okay, is this just how it is? And let me make sure that I’ve, I entrenched myself in it, and I’m doing all those different things before I can really give an evaluation on, is this gonna work for me or not? But I guess that ultimately not working out at the end. And in hindsight, of course, I was happy that I was let go, because obviously it helped me to get to my next path. But again, there is lessons learned from that. There’s so many lessons learned from that, even in my next opportunity. So once I accepted, and we can talk more about this, but then to the point there is once I actually, once I was actually in the walls of this new company that I stuck around with for a while, there were others, again, a very similar space of casino software, data analytic software, as well as CRM tools and things of that nature. There were other former operators that come onto the other side. That’s a very common thing, right? I’ve sat in your seat before, I can help you learn the software and I help you in your day to day. So a lot of former operators that I worked with, and this was their first opportunity to work for a vendor. And they were not happy at times, from the time, and I remember saying that, I’m like, this is actually a dream compared to what I was doing before because of how the day to day operations work. Maybe it was more established, and it’s not a knock on the other company at all. Like I said, it’s about culture and how you operate and how you fit and what values that you take along with you in your career journey. So when I was with VizExplorer and they were seeing some challenges and not used to this, again, remember, most of these are former operators in large organizations, at the properties and large HRs and the whole process. You’re a small vendor company in this space that there’s gonna be gaps and holes in day to day process and operations, some more than others. So my point to this conversation is that, I remember some of these individuals having problems. I said, is that based on my previous experience, I go, this is actually pretty good, and we’re doing pretty well here. So just like anything, just continue to put your head down and make yourself valuable, and you can probably find and help fill all those gaps that you’re finding because we are small, right? And we need help. And as long as the people that we’re reporting to are open and willing to help grow, I’m sure they’re absolutely willing for you to step in and take on some of the day to day operations. And that’s exactly what happened with a lot of us within the walls of that particular organization. We were able to help put our stamp on there and mold and grow. And for me, I found within that company that I was able to build strong relationships with either my direct reports or colleagues of mine, that you found the cultural fit that made sense for me to stick around as long as I did.

Manuel: It does make sense, right? A lot of times it’s just different experiences, right? Like you’re both in the same place, it’s the same culture, but you had luckily a prior experience that made you say, hey, this is actually really good compared to, there’s other places, right? Sometimes it’s, hey, in this case, the grass is greener on the other side because I’ve seen both, you’ve had those two experiences.

Jeremy: Yep.

Manuel: So you’re able to kind of go through and it sounds like you identified gaps. Is that something that you did there in that role? It’s just, hey, instead of complaining and saying, well, hey, there’s a problem here, there’s a problem there, did you work to kind of address those? And is that kind of the value you found there?

Jeremy: I always found my path with VizExplorer to be one of opportunity. When I saw that there was inefficiencies or gaps, I think, and this was supported by people I worked with, but the opportunity to be able to do something about it. And every time something was not right, use that as an opportunity to either help fix it or put your stamp on it yourself. But again, like any other organization, there were people that didn’t necessarily believing in the path and the things that we’re doing and how things are going and they would leave and which once again, would open up new opportunities to fill roles and step in. I think a huge part of that, again, was the culture that was established by colleagues that I was working with and that we were in it together. And I think that was also a very big factor into my longevity of that property, was that I believe in the people that I worked with and they believed in me and we became an extension of family or in a sense of friendship that we were able to continue to grow together, all of us, frankly, and that’s what kind of helped me stick around in that particular opportunity.

Manuel: And then from there, you’ve grown, you’re able to kind of move up, now it sounds like you’re starting to kind of get your footing, your understanding, like you’re enjoying the people that you’re working with. So what ultimately kind of transpires from there and makes you decide, hey, I’m gonna continue to grow here, I’m gonna go somewhere else.

Jeremy: There was a lot that went down at the time in the seven and a half years that I was with this company. And as I mentioned to the people, direct people that I was working with was, I would say mainly one of the reasons why I stuck around. And then again, just looking big picture and seeing that there’s continuous opportunity for growth within these walls. So I was very happy for a very, very long time working with them, regardless of all of the different areas of the business that have been changing or not necessarily working out one way or the other, I was able to find the path still within those walls. And I think it’s relevant to mention that being that we were such a small company, relatively speaking, I was able to apply again, all of the different things in my journey from teaching in the early years to applying that to software training. That was one of the big things that I was doing at this property, excuse me, at this company. I was a, again, I was a trainer and in the customer success world to make sure that product adoption was as high as it could be. So I was able to use my previous background to help in this particular job. And that goes with the film stuff as well. We were small and at different times of this company, I was actually able to edit videos for training videos and things like that. So I was always able to kind of, if you will reach into the toolbox and pull out some previous experience in my journey to be able to help add value, continuous value to this organization, which helped, kept myself moving forward and growing in a rate that made sense for me.

Manuel: And I see that kind of throughout here. You’ve mentioned it a couple of times and I don’t know if on purpose or not, but you’re continuously adding value. And I think each role you go into, you kind of, you seem to have that mindset of how can I add value? What can I do, not only to improve myself, but improve the organization, the role, the roles around me, and it’s not just being, not just being centered around you, right? And I think that that’s something that I’ve also seen, people that I’ve seen that have been successful that have continued to go through is they almost have that, for lack of a better term, that service to others, right? Like helping others, providing value, giving more of yourself to others. And it almost has the exact opposite effect, right? You think, hey, I’m gonna help you, I’m gonna help make that better, but it ends up coming back, almost back to you and helping uplift you, intended or not.

Jeremy: Yeah, I think, full circle for sure. I looked at people in my life that helped me and I’ve always wanted to pass that on, I guess, and make sure that I can be a leader within an organization or just people in general to help them in their path and their career, if it’s in the day-to-day that I’m doing at the job, or if it’s larger in different, larger capacities in life, those are, that is something that I’ve always had in mind when I have interactions and relationships with people.

Manuel: Covered quite a bit and I believe you’ve now moved on. You’re not currently at VizExplorer, right?

Jeremy: That’s correct.

Manuel: So what are you currently doing now? And what do you expect to grow and learn from this role?

Jeremy: I think context is always important. The company that I was with for seven and a half years, VizExplorer, was going through merger acquisition as of late and in a very similar space that the company is currently in. This company was basically joining forces, essentially, is what they were doing. But at that point, again, I’m now interviewing for a job with them as well as I’m interviewing them. So does this make sense for me and my family? And is this the culture that I wanna be a part of? And ultimately, the decision was, no, this is not where I wanna be. They’re not able to meet my goals that I have for myself. So I was able to, once again, utilize just my historical relationships and experiences that I’ve had through the industry. And again, network is very, very important and able to link up with a gentleman that I’m with right now that owns, again, a small handful of AI companies and it just made sense. And of course, the technology behind what we’re doing, utilizing large language models, is universal across many different opportunities in different industries. So as part of my joining forces with them is, how do we come up with different ways to utilize this technology to solve pain points? And that’s something that I’ve been doing for years. So as VP of Customer Success at VizExplorer, it’s listening to customers, understanding their pain points, helping drive product forward. Those are the different things that I was interacting with on a daily basis. So I understand customer pain points. I understand need utilization and use case to apply. And this opportunity came about, I was like, this aligns exactly with my personal goals and the place that I wanna be moving forward. So to help mold and shape and be able to use my vision to be able to come up with different ways to solve pain points for end users in various different industries, but gaming as well, is something that I could not pass up that opportunity.

Manuel: We’ve covered a lot. You’ve shared a lot of valuable information, a lot of what I find is a very fascinating journey, right? And just the mindset that you have throughout this entire process, looking at a positive. One thing that I really like is the term of, everything has an expiration date, right? And it could be for any number of reasons. It’s not just like, hey, I’m bored, it’s time to leave. I just kind of want to give you the opportunity and you’ve shared a lot of good information, a lot of your experiences, the challenges that you’ve faced, how you kind of overcame those, a lot of how you’ve taken that information and eventually turned that into a success it’s molded you into who you are and it’s all part of your journey. So I just want to say if there’s anything that you kind of, anything I didn’t ask you or anything you want to touch on that maybe we didn’t cover.

Jeremy: Yeah, I don’t think that there’s anything specific that we didn’t touch on, but I would probably have to summarize everything and put a bow on our conversation here. Everybody’s journey is going to be different. If you’re struggling to figure out what the right path is or what you’re trying to do, I always try to just like I mentioned, take the natural path as much as you can. Don’t overthink things because no matter, even if it doesn’t necessarily work out for you, you’re going to have very valuable takeaways from that experience regardless of its failure or success. So it’s okay to take a leap of faith. It’s okay to be naive to certain things because whatever it is you’re doing, you will learn and you will grow. And as long as you’re putting yourself out there, I think it’s the most important thing that you can do.

Manuel: I appreciate that. And it’s a good way to kind of summarize the conversation. And again, I thank you for reaching out and sharing your story and your experiences. I personally found a lot of value so I can imagine that others will as well. And again, if in the future you move on to other endeavors and there’s more stuff that you kind of want to touch on or a lot of times we reflect back and you’re like, “Oh, you know what? I could have thought of these other stories.” I’ve enjoyed the conversation and would definitely have you back at any time.

Jeremy: Thank you. Appreciate you.

Manuel: And with that, everyone, I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. Continue to plug in and download the knowledge and let me know what you are or aren’t enjoying in these types of conversations, additional questions that maybe you might be interested in, roles, guests, things of that nature. So thank you everyone and until next time.