Building a Business That Serves You with Salim Omar

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work At Home Rockstar podcast. Today, I am talking to the owner of Straight Talk CPAs, and what he does is he helps people to develop their financial systems. Very, very important. Very excited to be rocking out today with Salim Omar. Hey, Salim, you r- are you ready to rock?

Salim Omar: I am

Tim Melanson: awesome. We always start off on a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be inspired by

Salim Omar: A story of success. Uh, a story of success has to be a turnaround story. Um, and there are many examples of people that start a business and they’re challenged in, in ways beyond their imagination, and they find a way to turn it ar- around. Some of them do, in one way or an- or another. There have been many success stories of businesses that were on the brink of bankruptcy, uh, businesses that we hear that are everyday household [00:01:00] names, Amazon comes to mind, and there are so many that, Nike, that were really challenged and, and then something happens where they make that shift.

And so I don’t have one story, Tim. Uh, there are so many stories, and being an entrepreneur myself for 30 years, I see the need to find those– I’m looking for those stories as well, because sometimes, you know, h- owning a business has peaks and valleys, and when you’re sometimes in a valley or things didn’t go as well as you expected them, it’s good to hear such a story and say, "Wow, okay, great.

I know why I’m doing this," and, and you, you continue on

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm. Well, it’s funny that you say that because, uh, the next question that I always ask is the bad note. It’s the story of failure, right? The thing that doesn’t go as planned. And it is really interesting that when I ask these, these questions, it really is quite often that both of those stories are tied together, [00:02:00] where the, the bad note, you know, often leads to the good note, right?

Or, you know, vice versa, right? Maybe you start off really, really strong and then, you know, boom, you get hit by something. So like, uh, what about on your journey? I mean, 30 years. I mean, there must’ve been some ups and downs during that time. I’m wondering, can you share with me something that didn’t go as planned, and how you recovered from that?

Salim Omar: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, lots of downs, to be, to be honest with you. Lots of mistakes, lots of, man, you try something and it doesn’t work out as well as you expected because of limited knowledge or what have you. And, you know, I, I’d heard an interview many, many years ago by Ni- Nido Qubein, uh, and he was being interviewed and he said, "What is this one skill that you have that, that has made you what you are today?"

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Salim Omar: And Nido was an entrepreneur, an immigrant to this country, and [00:03:00] he said, "Resilience. It’s my ability, it’s Nido Qubein’s ability to get up every time that he gets hit, brush off his suit or whatever he’s wearing, and to move on." And that’s what’s needed in business, is things are not gonna go your way or our way, uh, all the time, and so more failures than successes, but we have to learn from the failures.

If we look at them not as failures, and we look at them as lessons, then we become stronger. Every lesson turn helps us to become stronger, becomes more, more aware, more knowledgeable, more humble, to then approach it in a better way, and that’s what business is, is. Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb, 1,000 failures led to his invention, and that’s what an entre- you know, a [00:04:00] business is.

Even a business that is successful today, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be successful three years from now if we get into, uh, not having this mindset of innovation, of growing, of listening, of asking questions and that, so that that business continues to develop. And, you know, being in business for 30 years, you think, "Wow, Salim, you’ve kind of got it and now you can rest," and there is no resting.

We have to continue that process, and you’ve got to develop the team that is thinking like that

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, that’s, uh, that’s so important. And I think that one of the mistakes I, I know for me that, that I made in mindset shifting, I guess, when I first started with being self-employed is that, you know, I think when we sort of go to school and they start to teach you about, oh, you know, you’re gonna get a job, and then you’re gonna get a raise every, [00:05:00] you know, year or two years, and it’s, you know, your income is just gonna go up and up and up and up, and, uh, w- uh, well, I found out that, especially in the last 20 years, that that’s not even really true anymore, right?

But, uh, you know, it still is something that we sort of learned. But especially when you’re self-employed, like you said, I mean, you, y- you know, just because you’re successful today, I mean, you, you gotta keep doing the things that are making you successful today ’cause it’s not guaranteed that your income is gonna keep going up or that your revenue is gonna keep going up.

Things happen and it c- it could drop right down, and then what? Like, how do you recover from, from that? And how do you even forecast that, right?

Salim Omar: Yeah. Yeah. And there’s lots of stories with that. Uh, Blockbuster, I don’t know, I was watching a movie, Jurassic Park, I think I was on a flight from Boston the other day, and maybe Jurassic Park was there and I watched it, and they were showing this Jurassic, the, the, the dinosaur going into a Blockbuster thing or something.

I was like, "Oh my goodness, that was a thing of the past," a Blockbuster. And [00:06:00] we used to go there, and there were so many people there, and this is, right, a business that did not, was not able to kind of innovate with, with time

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, I think it’s a business that didn’t… Uh, yeah, you’re right. They didn’t innovate. They didn’t see the writing on the wall. They sort of like laughed it off as, as, "Oh, yeah. Right. No,

Salim Omar: Mm-hmm.

Tim Melanson: we’re so big right now that nothing’s gonna, nothing’s gonna take us off this pedestal," right? But, I mean, the whole world changed.

Like, it is insane when you think back to, I mean, w- we were just, my wife and I were just talking about that. Y- you know, it used to be a thing where you go to a bookstore or to a movie store and you sit there and you go through stuff. I mean, y- do you do that anymore? Like, no. You, you go online,

Salim Omar: Yeah. On your phone and see what’s available digitally. Yeah, it’s crazy

Tim Melanson: It, yeah, the world has changed, and, uh, I think that you’re right that, uh, you know, having the ability to not only see what’s coming, but, [00:07:00] uh, probably more importantly, being able to shift when it happens is super important ’cause you might not even see it coming. I mean, some of these changes that happen, you know, can be policy changes at a government level even that

Salim Omar: are out of your control, right? Correct.

Tim Melanson: and you gotta figure things out as it’s happening, right?

Salim Omar: Yeah, yeah, yeah

Tim Melanson: so how do you, how do you work on that sort of resilience? Is that something that you’re born with, or is that something that you can work on?

Salim Omar: Um, I, maybe there is some, some that comes through genetically, possibly. Uh, for me, it was, you know, growing up in a, in a… My dad was an entrepreneur. I was born and raised in Kenya, and so he started a business and, and I saw him working, and I saw him figuring, trying to figure things out. And back then, there was no internet or there was little of anything like that information-wise, so you would ask questions, and that’s a skill that I [00:08:00] learned from him, is asking questions and being curious and letting other people talk and, and just really learning from that person’s experience.

And I kind of translated it into reading a ton of books growing up and, and in, in a few hours, I’ve got somebody who’s got 20, 30, 40, 50 years of experience who’s poured his heart and soul or her heart and soul into a book, and I can now read that and, and, and learn from that. So I think, yeah, resilience comes from just, uh, there’s a sen- there’s, there’s a, there’s some part of, uh, humility, uh, in, in that is like, "Man, I’m gonna learn from it."

You know, the problem is outside me, not taking it personally. And, uh, and kind of just, you know, it’s, it’s a muscle. The more you do it, the better you, you get at it. Like many of these personal development skills are, you know, the more you do it, the better, the better you have, [00:09:00] you, you get at it.

Tim Melanson: Yep.

Salim Omar: yeah

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I think, I think that that’s the thing. It is, it is a muscle, and the more you do it… So, I mean, maybe if, if I were thinking about, you know, even in music, I mean, how do you get good at an instrument? Well, you have to be really bad at it a lot, right? You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta sort of just get up there and just try and try and try and fail.

And, you know, I think that, I think that what, what sometimes might happen too is that, you know, if you don’t, if you don’t try something, if you don’t try these little things, well then what ends up happening is probably something big will happen to you, right? And those are much harder to recover from than putting yourself in situations where you can just try a little thing.

You know, just try a little something on the side and see how it works out rather than, you know, quitting everything that you’re doing and starting a brand new business. You know, a lot of the stories that I hear from people, sure, you know, you know, burning the bridge and [00:10:00] going out and doing your own thing is one way to go about it.

But also, you could just try a little business on the side. You could just try, you know, something while you’re working and while you’ve got that, that income. ‘Cause, you know, if it doesn’t work out, well, at least, you know, you’re learning from that, right?

Salim Omar: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But, you know, and, and you gotta feel– you gotta be wired for being in business. There is so- there, you know, you’ve, you’ve gotta enjoy what you do, uh, and maybe it is which business one sel- one chooses to, to be in. Uh, you’ve just… You know, some people are wired to be in corporate, you know.

Just it’s, you know, being in business, you’ve been in business for almost 20 years, so you kn- you know that it’s, you know, you’re– there are times when you’re alone. It’s, it’s lonely on the being on the top. I have a team of 25, but it get, it can get lonely uh, being on the top, uh, as the, as a solo, as the, as the entrepreneur, as the CEO[00:11:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Uh, and so let’s talk a little about that, about the band. So, you know, who are the, the people that you have around you in your business that make, you know, that make it all work?

Salim Omar: Yeah, so it’s really, um, people– our team, they handle the day-to-day stuff. Uh, you know, my firm, we work with businesses. We put their financial s- infrastructure in place, and we help them run it. So we put their accounting system in place, and then we create reliable, accurate financial reports. We are meeting with them on a regular basis, going over these reports, um, helping them really get to their dreams using finances, using good numbers, good data to drive the business forward.

And of course, for businesses in the US, we’re helping them from a tax reduction standpoint as, as well. Uh, I, as a CEO, don’t [00:12:00] enjoy the day-to-day, uh, accounting and taxes, and I’m kind of glad that I don’t because it enables me to do the work that I need to do as the CEO, which is to really take the business to where I want it to go, to, to help to get to its vision.

Yeah. And so, uh, we have different, you know, roles in my firm: accountants, tax preparers, tax reviewers, tax planners, CFOs, and, uh, and so forth, and then managers that oversee that– those departments. And my interaction is with my managers, but we have team meetings as well, and so forth. So even though I work at home, I feel like there are times, there are a coup- you know, times when I am with, uh, with my family, which is my, my team on a Zoom call, and that makes it enjoyable to hear everybody’s perspectives on different things and activities and so forth.

Tim Melanson: Well, it’s [00:13:00] interesting that you say that. I, uh, I, I mean, I like numbers. I like accounting. I like, uh, you know, in my, my, uh, main business, I’m, you know, I do programming and building websites. I like doing that too. And I agree with you that I think that’s a bit of a problem for me because when it comes to delegating and s- and subcontracting, getting other people to do stuff, I, I really resist that because I like doing it, right?

So it’s one of those things where… But you’re right that, you know, it is a bit of a, of a superpower in a way to be able to be the type of person that is really okay with just letting all that stuff go because then you can start to put people in the positions that they should be in rather than, you know, it is very difficult.

It’s not difficult. It’s, uh, it, it’s not as productive, I don’t think, to be switching from task to task to task, you know, rather than just focusing on one thing that you do really, really well, right?

Salim Omar: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 100%, yeah, yeah. If you’re trying to do so many things, you know, things are [00:14:00] gonna drop and, you know, the client, the customer, they may not get the best from, from us, uh, as opposed to putting somebody who can just do that. But it all depends on the business owner’s vision. I mean, some people, they wanna grow something bigger than themselves.

Some people are fine with having a solo practice. And I don’t say yes to either one. It’s like, what’s right for you as the entrepreneur, you know?

Tim Melanson: Yep. Yeah, because, uh, a- and that’s a really good point because, you know, I’ve had so many people on this podcast, and some people are, you know, h- have these huge teams, you know? And they’ve got may- maybe these huge remote teams that they’re working with, and they’re at the top of it all, and, you know, their business is, you know, making whatever it’s making.

But then there’s a lot of solopreneurs as well. And I think there’s one thing, and, I mean, where you’re into the accounting, um, I think it’s, it’s interesting to talk about because I think that there’s a, [00:15:00] a… You know, we’ve got kids that are, you know, in their, you know, 19, 20, you know, 23, and, and they’re just kinda starting their journey.

And, you know, when we’re trying to talk to them about making a lot of money and being a millionaire and all that stuff, I think a lot of the, I think a lot of the mindset around that is, "Well, I need to go get this big job that’s paying, you know, $300,000 a year." They’re, they’re thinking about this, this huge, huge, huge, like, windfall of, of money.

But the more I, I, I’ve learned, and, you know, what I’ve learned in, in, you know, if I could do it all over again, it’s not necessarily about that. You mean, you can actually have a pretty modest income. It’s about how much of that you save. And compounding interest is a, is a huge superpower, right? And so I’m wondering, uh, like, w- do you have…

I, I mean, I, I know that there’s a lot of resistance about talking about money. It’s, it’s just s- such a thing that’s ingrained in our society, where we don’t necessarily [00:16:00] reach out for financial help, and we end up getting into trouble. But I’m wondering, is that a thing? Like, you know, does it really matter how much money you’re making, or does it more ma- more or less matter about how much you’re saving?

Salim Omar: Yeah, for sure. It’s all about… It, it, it does matter a lot, and I know lots of people that are seven-figure incomes, and, uh, you know, they’re making a million bucks, two million bucks, and sometimes there’s not much left because their lifestyle is matching it. And we do live in a consumer society where, you know, uh, when we have money sitting in the bank account, there are definitely things that are sh- coming in our in our sphere, and it’s like, "Spend money here.

Go here. Do this." And, uh, that money can, can, can quickly go. So I think it, it is that. It’s how much are you saving, and it’s also really the journey, right? You gotta enjoy… [00:17:00] The journey’s gotta be fulfilling and, and sometimes there’s not much attention that’s paid to that or much thinking, much introspection that’s given to what’s right for me rather than what’s right for my neighbor or for my cousin or, and so forth.

So that introspection, I think really, really helps. Many, many years ago, I read a book, uh, Your Money or Your Life, uh, it was like 20 some, 20 some years ago, and it talked about that you can live a simple life and still have a fulfilling life, and it was a, a book that really changed my perspective on, on just that.

I didn’t even know that there was such a thing, ’cause I was certainly chasing the big dream without having really the introspection. It made me think and reflect, is this right for me? And it, it happened to be right for me. I do enjoy all that, but it- at least I took the [00:18:00] time to res- you know, to reflect and say, "All right.

Do I wanna live on this income and live a very simple life or do I wanna, do I wanna be something else?"

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, wow. That’s, uh… And, and I think that that intention of, like, building the life, I mean, that’s part of probably one of the missions that I have as well is, is to help people to design the life that they want, and then try to figure out how to make that work, rather than just sort of like, you know, y- you’re in your job, you’re doing your thing.

Because I think when you, when you… Well, just like what we talked about earlier about the, the, you know, the circumstances hitting you and things that are happening that you don’t have control over. If you’re always reacting to things, uh, and rather than actually planning something, then, then, uh, you know, things are just gonna keep on happening that make you react to it.

And, you know, like, w- when you, when you sort of go, "Okay, well, this is the lifestyle that I wanna live. Now, what kind [00:19:00] of job or what kind of income or what kind- what do I need to do to make that happen?" Is a lot more, uh, is a lot more, uh, intentional than, than just sort of like, you know, "I wanna do this thing.

Do I have the money for it? Well, I have the credit for it." Up it goes on the credit card, right? And I don’t know if a lot of people really do focus on that, and I think it’s probably what you were just saying. There’s so much competing for our money that it’s very difficult to say no to everything, right?

Salim Omar: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and as you were sharing that, what was coming to my mind is time autonomy.

Tim Melanson: Hmm.

Salim Omar: Yeah. Being in business, you have the ability, you may have the ability to be intentional, to structure it, to create it in such a way that you have time autonomy, and that’s a thing that is craved a lot.

You know, people in corporate America, they’re busy, they’re, you know, they, you know, between commuting and getting to work [00:20:00] and all that, um, there’s not much time left for yourself. And, and that can help in creating a business, in, in going the entrepreneurship route, but also being intentional about the type of business you’re gonna create and how you’re gonna structure it.

Are you gonna have team members or are you gonna do it yourself? So that can really, you know, knowing what is right for you can, as you said, you used the word intentional, Rianna, I love that word, because then you can create something that serves you. One of my first mentors was Michael Gerber, the, the E-Myth Revisited.

He wrote a phenomenal book back in the ’90s or so, and he said, "Create a business that serves you." Most times what happens is the business owner ends up creating a business that they serve the, they serve the business. So create one that you’re structuring it, you’re creating it in such a way that it, it enables [00:21:00] you.

It’s, it, it becomes what you want, want it to be

Tim Melanson: Mm. Yeah, yeah. And so how do we go about doing something like that then?

Salim Omar: How do we go about, um I think it’s expanding the vision of the business being something beyond yourself, that it can operate without the business owner having to do everything, without the business being dependent on the business owner. And that’s the, the, I think the business, that’s the greatest joy, I think, of being an entrepreneur, is creating a business that can run without, without the business owner.

I think, I feel that’s the greatest achievement is, is to do that, and it requires having good people. It requires us putting the right systems in place and that, and it requires us [00:22:00] to give the control to our people. And I personally, this is what I enjoy. I enjoy empowering my team and putting this thing in place where the team members feel this is, this is their family.

They’re working with their heart and soul, and my job as the CEO is to make sure that we have the right tools, the right systems, the right processes. We’re making the right investments to continually making, making their lives better and easier and more enjoyable.

And in that process, our clients are happy.

Our team is happy, our clients are happy. It shows

Tim Melanson: Do you know, when you were talking about that, I started thinking about a- an issue that I, that I had, and maybe this is deep. But, um, when you create a, a business that doesn’t need any one person, I think that there’s a bit of a, like, people, uh, wanna feel needed, right? And if everybody is sort of [00:23:00] replaceable, right, I think that that is a bit of a conflict, right?

‘Cause, you know, you wanna make people feel like they are necessary, I guess, because they need purpose. But then also you’re trying to build a system that doesn’t really require anybody, so everybody’s replaceable. And th- that’s a, an interesting dilemma that you can be in, like, ’cause you have to make your people feel like they are very important, but also you have to build a business that technically they’re replaceable.

Otherwise they rely too much on any one person, including yourself

Salim Omar: Mm-hmm. Yeah, 100%. And as long as, I mean, you know, we’ve got expectations, the company has got expectations of the team member, the team member has expectations of the company, and we’re in continuous communication there to make sure that those expectations are aligned. And if they’re aligned, then the, the show continues on.

And if they’re misaligned, that means there’s something not right, and we need to talk about it. And if we [00:24:00] can’t fix it, then we gotta part ways, unfortunately

Tim Melanson: Which is very difficult.

Salim Omar: Very, very difficult.

Tim Melanson: Yeah

Salim Omar: But if it, it’s done with, uh, kindness, that’s our, our core- our number one core value is it’s gotta be done with kindness, with integrity. Uh, but it’s the best thing for the team member as well. It’s not the right fit. It’s the, you know. We enable that to happen, the transition to happen in the best way possible, and to help the team member find the right, the, the, the right place that fits with them

Tim Melanson: Well, yeah, it’s helpful if you can help them to see where that, that misalignment is because, you know, whatever it doesn’t work for you, for your business, it’s possible that whatever they’re looking for is somewhere else and they just might not actually be able to figure that out. They might not even know what that is.

But if you have some insight going, "Okay, well this is not working because it seems as [00:25:00] though you’re looking for this, and we’re looking for this. Maybe if you were, uh, in a different team or a different area, then you might be able to find that," right?

Salim Omar: Yeah, 100%.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Awesome. Wow, this is go- this is so interesting.

I’d like to keep talking, but it is time to move on. So let’s talk about your solo here. What’s exciting in your business right now?

Salim Omar: Uh, growth is exciting. Um, company is growing by leaps and bounds. So yeah, that’s exciting because, you know, it’s new clients, it’s making a difference, making an impact for clients that are signing up, and with that, our team has to grow as well. So yeah, all, all across it’s– I think the, the growth is exciting for me, I would say

Tim Melanson: So what kind of, like, client would be, you know, best suited for working with you?

Salim Omar: Uh, we’re becoming clearer and clearer what that is. Uh, it’s one to- [00:26:00] businesses that are $1 to $10 million in revenues a year.

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Salim Omar: Yeah. We work with s- smaller businesses that are not in the one million, but they’ve gotta be ambitious, and they would wanna– we want them to wanting the desire to get to that million-dollar mark.

But typically, that’s kind of the, the clients we are, we’re best suited for

Tim Melanson: is there like a type of sector or, you know, something that tends to be better?

Salim Omar: Yeah, service, lots of service professionals, but actually we have, you know, being in business for 30 years, we do have clients in various niches and our experiences and all across. It’s more kind of how, where they wanna go and how, if they wanna really get to places, if they’re in this $1 to $10 million and they con- wanna continue growing, then that’s right for us

Tim Melanson: Hmm. And what would be some of the issues that they might be having that you would be able to solve for them? Like, something that they would notice that, "Oh, I’m, I’m struggling with this. I need…" Right?

Salim Omar: Yeah, yeah, [00:27:00] yeah, definitely. Yeah, it’s really, I feel, challenging to run a business without good numbers, good data, and this is something that we are becoming, you know, we have become very good at, is making sure that we’ve got good financials, we’ve got good cap- uh, key performance indicators, a financial dashboard, and, and then we’re looking at these numbers and really paying attention to them, and then making decisions on how these numbers are working.

So if the business wants to get to $10 million and they’re doing $5 million, yeah, we’ve got kind of the trajectory of how they need to go year by year, and then we are tracking it and seeing where are they off, where do they need to adjust their pricing, do they need to make some, uh, you know, adjustments in their expenses.

We’re having these conversations on a quarterly basis. And, um, you know, you mentioned Dave Ramsey, [00:28:00] and I don’t know if you wanna kind of talk about that, but, you know, before the show, and you said you, you, you made that observation, and I made the same observations. People calling in, and these are business owners that are, that are having some problems

And, and, and sometimes the data is not there. Many times they don’t have the right financial data, and they’re just kind of winging it. They’re just using their gut feeling, and that can be dangerous. And this is kind of where my company comes in, is to put that in place, is to help the business owner with this con-con-conversations on a regular basis, not until year-end.

We’re having it throughout the year. We’re helping them plan for the following year

Tim Melanson: Wow. And, you know, that makes sense ’cause I, I think that, I think that a solopreneur, like some- like a small business or whatever, they can do pretty much all, everything for a while. But then once the business sort of hits a certain, like, point, then it gets to the point where you, okay, I need to [00:29:00] ha- I need some help.

And I think that what you’re in is probably that next step where now they’ve got some help, they’ve probably got a, a team. You know, they’re building their business up, you know, past a million dollars, and now they’re at the point where, okay, maybe there’s some limitations within the knowledge and the, and the team in s- you know, that they’re building that they need to kind of reach out to that next level and go, "Okay, I need somebody who’s actually done this already," right?

They’ve made it to the 10 million point, and now I, I ne- I need to know what they know. And you, y- you know, working with somebody external to your company, you know, you probably have some best practices that you’ve learned from other companies that you can sort of share with them, right?

Salim Omar: 100%, yeah, yeah. Sometimes, you know, when we’re in the, in the forest, we can’t, yeah, see the difference between the trees and the forest, and this happens a lot with business owners. So, you know, having this external person, a coach, a mentor, [00:30:00] whatever you call them, a CFO, a CPA firm, that can play that role, I mean, I think that’s imperative, yeah.

I- all through my career in my business, it’s been something that I’ve been very open to in having this external people and really respecting it because I can’t see what I can’t see. I’ve got blind spots, and if somebody outsider who’s got good intentions, they’re sincere, they’re good at what they do, they come with honesty, if they can have this good conversation with me and really say, "Salim, I think you’re really missing this here," like, I value that a lot

Tim Melanson: So what’s the process of getting started with you? How, how do people find out more?

Salim Omar: Sure. So the, my firm is, uh, the website is straighttalkcpas.com. Straight talk, two words, CPAs, certifiedpublicaccountants.com. And so there’s information about what we do and our team and all [00:31:00] that there. And there’s a Schedule a Strategy Session button right on the website, a floating button. You’re a web developer, so you know what I mean.

And, um, yeah, somebody can book a call with one of my teammates

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Right on. Okay, so I have one more question before we, uh, end here, and this one might be the hardest one. Who is your favorite rock star or

Salim Omar: You. You’re a musician. Today I meet T- Tim, and Tim’s my favorite rock star. But, uh, growing up in, uh, going to college in, uh, in, in the US, University of Texas was my, where I did my bachelor’s. Yeah, it was bands in the… I started my college back in, uh, 1985, so it was U- U2 and that kind of stuff that, uh, I used to listen to

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. So, and did you go to the concerts too?

Salim Omar: Uh, I did a couple, just a couple.

Tim Melanson: [00:32:00] That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s quite a, an experience, right? To, to go to a concert and be immersed in the whole thing, right?

Salim Omar: Oh, yeah, yeah. Crazy. I think I got high from all the weed that was being going around in the room.

Tim Melanson: Oh, those were the days.

Salim Omar: There was, yeah, 100%.

Tim Melanson: Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me to- today, Salim. This has been a lot of fun

Salim Omar: Thanks, man. Thanks for having me

Tim Melanson: Awesome. And to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information, and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast