Michael Burlace is the developer of Seizmic Engineering’s sister company, S-Mark, which specializes in the inspection portion of material handling projects, including pallet racks, mezzanines, conveyors, and automation initiatives. As an 18-year-old entrepreneur, he is the third generation of the Seizmic family business, specializing in innovation in the logistics and supply chain industry. Michael's entrepreneurial ventures span real estate, cryptocurrency, and social media automation.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:50] Michael Burlace's unique approach to entrepreneurship
[4:59] How to prepare for leadership roles
[7:56] The importance of maintaining individualized relationships with customers and co-workers
[10:36] S-Mark’s special inspection process and its role in material handling projects
[13:44] Michael’s journey into Seizmic's inspection division
[19:10] Promising sectors for future investment opportunities
[27:36] How meditation can positively impact your entrepreneurial journey
[34:25] The link between business and spirituality
[42:19] Michael shares his involvement in cryptocurrency
In this episode…
The next generation of logistics professionals is leading the charge toward a sustainable and innovative future. What does this shift look like, and how can up-and-coming leaders prepare?
As a young innovator reshaping the landscape of warehousing, logistics, and supply chain management, 18-year-old Michael Burlace has carved a niche in the industry by optimizing storage solutions. He credits his rising success to the personalized relationships he’s cultivated with partners and customers and a resilient mindset that has allowed him to embrace challenges as growth opportunities. Michael also advocates for holistic leadership that combines authoritative decision-making with personal development. Additionally, remaining informed of industry trends and developments is crucial when adopting new strategies.
In this episode of The Tao of Pizza Podcast, Mark Hiddleson welcomes Michael Burlace of Seizmic’s S-Mark to talk about being technically and business savvy in the evolving logistics landscape. Michael also explores the importance of being agile in a bullish market, the nuances of cryptocurrency, and why being spiritually attuned can strengthen leadership and business decisions.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Specialized Storage Solutions, Inc. contact phone: 707-732-3892
Mark Hiddleson's email: markhiddleson@aol.com
Michael Burlace’s email: michael@seizmicinc.com | michael@s-mark.com
Quotable Moments:
"I always wanted to be the authoritative voice rather than listen to the authoritative voice."
"The relationship that you maintain with the people you work with is really important. It's doing business together."
"Being the sole driving force of what keeps what you're doing going is where I've been focusing on putting myself."
"Every word you speak is a spell... every word you speak casts a magic spell."
"People are going to need you for different reasons. That's a great point."
Action Steps:
Cultivate strong, individualized relationships in business: Personalized connections with customers and partners can lead to long-standing collaborations and mutual success.
Embrace a holistic leadership role: This step involves combining authoritative decisiveness with the openness to personal development practices like meditation.
Stay informed and adaptable in your investment strategies, especially in burgeoning sectors like AI and cybersecurity: Michael's active involvement in market research exemplifies how staying current can optimize investment outcomes.
Incorporate spirituality into business practices to enhance decision-making and leadership.: Michael's discussion on the role of spirituality in his work underlines its potency in achieving entrepreneurial success.
Approach life and business challenges as opportunities for growth: Michael's positive mindset and resilience serve as inspiration to adopt a problem-solving attitude.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions Inc.
Listen...
I have been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades. I know I don’t look that old, but it's true.
We provide industry-leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide.
So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs Rack, Shelving, Carts, Conveyors, or Mezzanines, we help with....design engineering, installations, inspections, and repairs to help clients optimize their logistics operations.
Sometimes people don’t even realize that we can actually help with permit acquisition services.
We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation.
To learn more, visit specialracks.com or give us a call at (707) 732-3892. One of the best ways to learn more about our products and services is to follow us on Instagram. And there’s a link on our website to do that.
I will even give you my personal email address for podcast listeners, so email me at markhiddleson@aol.com if you’re ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level.
Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:01
Welcome to The Tao of Pizza where we feature top logistics leaders, entrepreneurs and supply chain innovators and share their inspiring stories with a holistic twist.
Mark Hiddleson 0:17
Mark Hiddleson here, host of the Tao of Pizza Podcast where I talk with top industry innovators in the warehousing, logistics and supply chain business with a holistic twist. Before introducing today's guest, this episode is brought to you by Specialized Storage Solutions. Hey look, I've been in the logistics and storage industry for several decades and always surprised. It has been that long. I'm still excited to work with our outstanding clients, vendors and strategic partners. We provide industry leading warehouse storage solutions nationwide. So basically, if you have a warehouse that needs rack, shelving, carts, conveyors, or mezzanines, we help with the design engineering, installation, inspection, and repairs to help our clients optimize their logistics operations. Has funny Michael, sometimes people don't even realize we can actually help with permit acquisition services. We take a holistic look at your entire business supply chain ecosystem to develop the resources for continually improving your operation. So learn more visit specialracks.com Give us a call at 707-732-3892. We're also giving out my personal email to podcast listeners. It's Markhiddleson@aol.com. So get in touch if you're ready to take your warehouse storage and retrieval systems to the next level. I got one. I got to give some shout outs before I introduce Michael. I gotta give a big thank you to Sal Fateen Nancy Fateen Sarah Fateen and Danny Medina. They are all part of the dynamic Seizmic leadership team. Seizmic specializes in engineering, structural steel fabrication, permanent acquisition and testing for all types of material handling projects. Now Michael Burlace is joining us today. He's an 18 year old entrepreneur currently developing Seizmac's new sister company S Mark which specializes in the inspection portion and material handling projects such as pallet rack, mezzanines, conveyors, and a full range of automation projects. He's also involved in a number of other business endeavors such as real estate, crypto, social media automation, and a lot of other things. I can't wait to spend a few minutes with this entrepreneurial young man. Michael, welcome to the Tao of Pizza.
Michael Burlace 2:33
Thank you, Mark.
Mark Hiddleson 2:36
It's good. Good to have you. I might have to because this is being recorded on the cloud, which on AMOLED X, I told you that and I might have to call you on the phone to get a tutorial on how to look up where this thing is stored on the cloud.
Michael Burlace 2:50
Yeah. But great to have you on. Thank you. So so.
Mark Hiddleson 2:57
So I wanted to ask you because you're introducing the other people I've interviewed. Nancy and Sal, Danny and Sarah. They're all other parts of the Seizmic team. And you are the third, third generation. Right? The Seizmic yes out. Yeah. So congratulations. But a little bit about 18 is young. I mean, I think I was 20 years old. When I started my first business. It was an Amway business. I don't know who that is. But I think I heard about it. You've heard about it. So how did you get started in it? What made you decide to want to be an entrepreneur at such a young age?
Michael Burlace 3:40
Well, I mean, it was all Jay. And I'll just start with me Not really. Fitting in school, I kind of always wanted to do my own thing. I always wanted to be the authority, the authoritative voice rather than listen to the authoritative voice. And I kind of saw that in my mom, and INCEL when they were running the company watching them running the company since I was born. So it kind of felt like it was in my genetics to be the authoritative figure in a business and be running things. So that's kind of one less kind of where I've been focusing on putting myself; it's being the sole driving force of what keeps what you're doing going. Nice.
Mark Hiddleson 4:32
So there he noticed I'm the same way. excited to have you there. Did you? Were you shocked at some of them? There's a lot of stress and other things that go with them. And there's some upsides actually, right? Yeah, that's me. So share a little bit about the stress of what that's like. And so what is what are some of the things you do to kind of prepare yourself for that kind of leadership
Michael Burlace 4:59
role? Well, obviously the factor of comparison comes into mind. I don't want to be comparing myself to those who came before me. I kind of want to use what I've learned throughout the years and try to create my own new form of leadership, my own form of running a business.
Mark Hiddleson 5:23
Awesome, awesome. And your Nancy, your mom, she's been one of my heroes in this business for a long time. It's funny I've been doing it. I think it was oh five she started the permit Acquisition Division. We started using it the year I was born. It was the year you were born. It's awesome. And so she is always in it. This is kind of, you know, they'll say men dominate business in the material handling, it's kind of even more than regular business. It's just, you know, forklift, conveyor, mezzanine dealers, kiddos, just a lot of men. And I think your mom's in a nice job of creating her own niche, because then she learned from Sal. And so you're lucky to learn from that and create your own stuff? What are some of the things? Well, first of all, share some things here, like your mom's amazing woman. I've learned a lot over the years on everything from not just business, but you know, friendship, relationships, fitness, you know, moms really into. So what are some of the things you've learned from your mom? And then transition into? And what are some of the things you're kind of doing your way?
Michael Burlace 6:32
So one of the biggest things that I've learned from her is the relationship that you maintain with the people you work with, whether it be customers or co workers, Seizmic has customers that they've been working with for over 30 for almost 30 years, over 20 years. So it's a really, it's really important to maintain those relationships and do whatever you can to do business together.
Mark Hiddleson 6:58
Yeah, relationships is one of the in there Godfrey said, I'm overwhelmed with the amount of, you've probably you've met me all the times we've met, we've met a few times. It's usually in a social setting. And it's really not business at all. It's just
Michael Burlace 7:21
your handshakes. And yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 7:25
yeah, we don't talk about this one of the most awesome things about it's a business. We're all in the same business. When we get together. We hardly ever talk about business. Right? So what are some things you've learned about relationships? And what are the things you do to keep things going? Because I think about good relationships, or things don't always go as planned, especially in this business? So what are some things you've learned to develop relationships? Well,
Michael Burlace 7:56
Of course, the number one thing is to treat everyone like an individual. I feel like I've seen even though I haven't seen that much. I've seen enough to where I can know that people treat their customers too broad. They kind of bunch them together in one group, and you have to target them individually. You want to be someone that your customer, customer can be like, oh, yeah, I got an inspection guy over at Seizmic when you call them up? Oh, yeah, I got a permit guy over here. Like you kind of want to be that guy in people's minds when they're doing their own business stuff.
Mark Hiddleson 8:32
Yeah, so people are gonna need you for different customers who will need you for different reasons. That's a great point. And with your purview, you're developing the inspection division, which, which I think is awesome. Do you know when they require that? So I'm one of the clients that has been doing business for over 25 years on the Seizmic? Do you remember when they started requiring the special inspections, it's all ready to be done. And it might
Michael Burlace 8:57
have been probably before my time, it was might have
Mark Hiddleson 9:01
been before you were born? I think it was, it was like, oh, five, probably, maybe Oh, two or three or four? It would be it'd be interesting to see. And then we needed a Deputy Inspector so we shared a little bit about two because this can be confusing and a lot of people that listen to the podcast, they are getting permits with those or if they want to, you know, they're getting permits. So what is starting from, you know, there's a special inspection agreement, a special inspection, special inspection, and then a personal inspection report. And a lot of times those three things and I tell somebody was like we need to do this special inspection like Well, we already did that. I'm like, No, that's the special inspection agreement now. And then we need his vessel inspection reports that now share what those three things are and how they integrate into, you
Michael Burlace 9:51
know, a material handling project, right? So every city is going to require an inspection whether it's installed at the install Listen, we got to see, depending on its anchors, or if it's rack documentation, we got to see, we got to first of all get registered in that jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction has their own requirements, but all of them will say it needs to be a third party, you can't, you can't have the same company inspect the same thing that they installed, which is why we created it as a separate entity. So we could kind of call ourselves a third party. Right? So yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 10:36
So is that true? Oh, that's a great point, because we always bill. So we'll include in all the special inspections, part of our service, because we're trying to permit but it was my understanding that the customer needs to pay you guys directly, like they don't pay us and then we pay you. We set up the agreement, the agreement is always between s mark, and the client. And we're just introducing you to them because it's required, because you're basically inspecting our work. Right. So it's a third party. So that's a great point. And so the special inspection agreement is kind of where you do all that. And that's what you turn in, when you submit right with your permits. And so the other thing is our jobs, I think all of them, it requires a periodic inspection. A lot of times we're dealing with companies that don't. So what does it mean by periodic, special inspection?
Michael Burlace 11:29
So periodic installation takes about four weeks, we would need to come out there periodically throughout the inspection. Typically, we see the beginning of the inspection a few times in the middle, and then we see the exact end, we watch them finish it, because we have to be there at the exact moment they finish. Otherwise, they could say they finished. But there's half these bolts that aren't put in that we don't know. We got to be there periodically throughout the inspection. Depends, it really depends on how long it would take. But it's usually about two or three times throughout.
Mark Hiddleson 12:10
Okay, so then that's the special inspection itself. And so it happens. So we've done it, what happens if a lot of the projects we do, even though it's a permitted project, every it takes us six months to get the permit. It only takes us three days to do the job. On a job like that, do you ever come in at the end? And do like a torque test? Or is there anything else you can do? If somebody missed out on that you didn't see him start finishing? And you know if it was a short project like that.
Michael Burlace 12:38
So if we do end up missing the end of the installation, yes, we always come in and we do a torque test on all the anchors, or not all the anchors, but throughout the warehouse to get a good spread. And yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 12:53
So if you had a warehouse, let's say was 1000 acres, that's kind of like a medium sized project for us, you know, like 250 uprights are 125, depending on whatever. If you had 1000 anchors in a project, how many would you actually go ahead and talk us
Michael Burlace 13:08
through the code requires that we test 10% And then based on that 10% Whether they fail or are compliant, if they fail, we test another 10% based on that. So it'd be 100 to like maybe 150 That actually gets tested.
Mark Hiddleson 13:26
Nice. Nice. So it's 10%. And then it's up to the inspectors discretion as far as how many Go ahead. And yeah, right. Cool. And so how long has it been since you started working on the division, the new division?
Michael Burlace 13:44
I've been, I think, since about early May. I've been I've been in here I've been working
Mark Hiddleson 13:52
in the start in early May, we'll put is in early May Did you decide you want to do the inspection or were you kind of working as a as a
Michael Burlace 14:01
At that point I had just come into the company I was in. I didn't really have my place yet. I was picking out different sectors of it and just trying it out, picking out another section trying it out. And then I eventually landed on inspections, which was perfect. Since this was an idea that they've been wanting to bring to fruition for a while. Yeah, in
Mark Hiddleson 14:26
Nancy was a pioneer in oh five starting the permit acquisition. It's interesting in this industry, things have changed. You know, when I got in 1997 I joined right out of kindergarten, right 1997 We got in this business. A lot of people didn't even get a permit or they didn't know you had to get a permit and racking. And then slowly slowly, I think what happened is cities started sending their inspectors on fire. What I find too is a lot of times it's the fire inspector who will come in because they do annual inspections And they'll find out the look and see the rack isn't anchored. And they've been trained at seminars to say can you see and it is dangerous. I mean, if you have a rack in your warehouse that is not anchored to the tournament. So most of the permits we did in the early 2000s, up to like 2010, where people got in trouble, because they didn't have the racks anchored. And it was always something, it was usually that they didn't have the racks anchored. But now almost every single job we do is a permit. And so with that trend, having the permit management, you know, and oh five doing that was the perfect timing. Nancy and Sara, they were ahead of their time. And I started to kind of do the same thing with my company . We basically have a separate division that all we do, and we use you guys, we do a lot of it by ourselves. It's a lot harder to get a permit than it is to install a rack job. Right. It is
Michael Burlace 15:54
I did permitting, I tried permitting for a few months, and it wasn't for me.
Mark Hiddleson 16:00
Yeah, well, so it's not for me either. I can do it. When I'm really good at and I think what separates our company from a lot of companies is number one, we anticipate the questions that are coming up, like we're never waiting till the end and they go, Oh, you need a special inspection agreement. Actually, that happens a lot, you'll get something back from plastic, it says you need it in that special inspection. I was like, well look at page three. Yes. Because we already turned it in. So that's kind of how and I mean, I can deal with it. But well, we're fast. You know, we're like I said, we know what's coming, or they want a letter from the fire, they want a letter from A F p e, for the sprinkler system because like a lot of racking doesn't have the Seizmic you guys do the engineering. But a lot of times what the city cares about is the sprinklers and the exits and fire. So you're in the inspections, it's a great opportunity, because it's kind of the same thing. It's a clunky part that we deal with big engineering companies that special inspection is kind of a tiny bit of what they do. They explained to me every time but with you. That's your core competency, you know, what has to be done. So that's going to be a huge advantage to you with your clients. And that's why we're going to be in a race to be the first clients. Because I think eventually you're gonna have too many clients, you're gonna have to start turning people away. The more the merrier. The more the merrier. So you like so what do you like about the I know what you don't like? Or you could share what you don't like about the permit processing? But say a little bit about that. But what do you like about the inspection, the inspection part?
Michael Burlace 17:46
Well, what I don't like about permitting is just how extensive you have to be with the research more of a go and get it done. You really have to be very detail oriented, if you're permitting, because it will bite you in the behind inspections, I really like it just because of the freedom with it. Right? Like I'm in control of the inspection. It in a sense, to where like, I can have the authority to say what they do. And I really just like the freedom of the travel that comes with it. I get to spend my time out of the office. So that works for me.
Mark Hiddleson 18:36
And you see something new every day to you and I. That's one of the things I love is it's never the same thing over and over time. What are some of the businesses that you've run into? That? Like for me a lot of things I ran into I didn't even know that was a business like I didn't know another party warehousing was so what are some of the things you've run into that as because you're also an entrepreneur, I'm gonna ask you a few questions about that what what are you investing in an entrepreneur work? So what are some of the business where you're like, wow, I didn't even know that was that was a business
Michael Burlace 19:10
Basically anything except for the base knowledge that I had coming into the React industry, there were a whole different whole, like a realm of sectors I didn't even know existed that have so much money in them, and so much opportunity. Like even the loading and unloading of the warehouse product. Like it's something we don't interact with, but it's something that's important. And people pay for it. So it's different things like that.
Mark Hiddleson 19:41
Yeah, so for me it was third party warehousing or just Oh, in the computer industry. It was like you think of a computer. They make it like it was just made computers in a factory but they're pulling. No, we've dealt with probably 20 or 30 companies that all had to deal with putting out one HP product or one you know it. Think of Intel? What are some of the businesses that you're most excited about that you think there's the most opportunity in like new projects?
Michael Burlace 20:12
That's a good question. I think anything involving technology, I think it's like the number one. Number one thing today anything, like you said, with computers, AI, robotics, all of that is like, the top of the market today. So I think anyone dealing with that is one step ahead.
Mark Hiddleson 20:37
Yeah, having technology in AI is something I've been studying, because I know, it's the clients that are adopted, it's not so much that we need it for our company, although we do. We're using chat GP TDs chat GPT you're not in school anymore. So it's
Michael Burlace 20:55
obviously used it before.
Mark Hiddleson 20:56
What so you know, I've used it to write you know, sped things up, if you're going to write a quick got turned myself in for easy chatting. Like stuff you write to put on your website, it's good, you know, to generate because it is the kind of information and it's a way you're saying it to people, you can just generate things quicker. And then you do have to go back and make sure it's accurate. I have caught mistakes I've used. One of my hobbies is doing research on like, personal development, and all the different theories of psychology, you know, developmental psychology, psychoanalysis, Freudian, Jung, and whatever. And I have, you know, there's stuff that I know. And I'll type it in and jet chat DBT. And it does, it does give you some jack of answers. But what's funny, is that happened, there was an author and they had messed up the name of the author. So I typed in, how do you report a mistake? And then in the next, the next time, I had to generate it, they went through figured out the mistake. And it fixed. Yeah, I just typed in, what do you do to report a mistake? And it was fixed. So it is it's pretty amazing. But we want to know enough about it so that our clients have the because the ones that really deal with that are going to be the ones who are doing more RAC projects, more integration projects. And so they'll be using that technology to drive the project were involved in. Right.
Michael Burlace 22:20
So is there anything else? What's that? It's very unrefined right now, but it's good. Once we get there, we'll go far.
Mark Hiddleson 22:32
Yeah, and a lot of companies, they just have to line up their data in the right way with the right departments linked up so that they can use AI in a good way. So it's, I'll stay in the rack business, acquisition and everything. So as you know, the other one I didn't give a shout out to because I haven't interviewed either. But there's one of my favorite people in the world that he'd been lucky to have as a mentor of Jeannie. Yeah, he needs Dean to be one of my best friends. And as a young person I'm a little embarrassed. I've told the story a few times, it was really important. When I was young, I was a little bit older than you. I really wanted to be like him because he was, you know, funny. In that time, Sal had been in the business about as long as I've been in the business now. He has not figured out a lot. Gotta meet this guy gotta meet this guy. And Ron, Mike, was good friends. Did you know Ron, and Ron was either yelling when Ron passed?
Michael Burlace 23:31
I don't remember him in my mind. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 23:34
so he was one of my mentors. He was like an old Chicago guy. He liked to use a lot of four letter words in his training. But I had in me sounds kind of from a business perspective. And now I'm embarrassed because it sounds like one of my best friends, you know, and it wasn't it wasn't about business at the time, I was kind of, you know, opportunistic, or whatever. It's like, why would I have this business network? That's awesome. And we met at the Jazz Festival. In Catalina Ron introduced me to Sal Ng, and it was just immediately kind of, you know, fall in love. And the players like these are gonna be my adopted parents, or at least aunt and uncle. I want to. I want these people in my life. Yeah, so you've been lucky to have those kinds of mentors and people in your life. But let's go into a little bit more personal stuff. Like do you have a morning ritual that you do or anything like daily routine or training?
Michael Burlace 24:32
Oh, yeah. I'm all into that. i What do you do? I got a whole routine. I mean, I wake up pretty early, like five or six most days like when I can. What I've been doing recently, I've been just, as soon as I wake up, I run outside, like when it's most crisp and freezing. And I just start jumping open for as long as I can. I just grew up in the morning. It's good for your cardiovascular health, all that. And I just don't have the greatest stamina. So that's my main focus. And, you know, I'll just make my breakfast, clean up the house, do some, of course, I check, I check the news every around 6am Because I'm into the stock market. Also, I gotta see what's going on. And then from there, I'll just pop into the office. I don't work full time. I work around 9: 30 to 3: 30, which works better for me anyways. I don't like sitting in the office in front of a screen. Not long. It's just not my style of work. And I feel like I'm more efficient doing other things. So, yeah, after work, I just hit the gym every single day. I think that's very important also, for physical and mental health. I think everybody should work out at least two hours a week. At minimum, but yeah, big guts.
Mark Hiddleson 26:06
It's funny. I I didn't. Well, I guess when I was your age, I wanted big muscles. But in my 30s I don't want big muscles. I don't want to get hurt. And like, yeah, it's not strength training. For me. It started out as physical obviously, he's a big knucklehead. But you're right. It's mental and I find now if I don't, if I miss, if I miss a couple of days in the gym, I can really tell just because I'm a little I'm a little bit more crapped out like, I'm usually you know, like, stuff happens. And I'm usually still in a bad mood. And like, even if I lose my stuff, it's for like, a half a second. But I get into a few days where maybe how to work down and then when I don't work out, then I start eating crap, you know, something that I wouldn't normally stuff my face with. I'm tired. I'm desperate. When I'm training, it's kind of like you said, like being in control is something that gives you something that develops on yourself. You do notice the way you feel, the way you talk to people, the way you react to situations and danger. Yeah, so I'm glad that you figured that out at a young age. And I think it's especially important if you're leading other people and like you're an entrepreneur. Yeah, it's great that you're putting in this. It's not to get it's not so you'll look great in the bikini. But, uh, it's for the mental health, so that's cool. We'll share any meditation or visualization margin. Course. Yeah. So my big
Michael Burlace 27:36
time meditator awesome. I spent a lot of basically my entire teenage years researching, like, any spiritual, religious type of sector of information, and I tried to digest as much as I could and take my own practices out of it. I don't really. I meditate every day, for as long as I can, as long as necessary. I feel like my methods with meditation are different from others. But that's just because I have a different outlook on it, I see it as a knot somewhere that you like, you don't meditate, because you're trying to fix something, you just meditate to be, like, be like, where you are, you kind of it's kind of not trying to fix stuff is trying to like, be okay with it, trying to realize for what it is. So that's why I tried to apply those meditations, even when I'm not physically meditating. And it's been going pretty good so far.
Mark Hiddleson 28:47
That's awesome. Michael, that is one of the best. So I've been studying this since five years before you were born. And even before that, really because as an athlete, you know, even 10 years before that, I used visualization like a mental game plan. And those were more purpose focused, though, like you said, like trying to get to a more relaxed state or visualize myself. But you're right, as I've learned, so what are some of the like, do you have like, there's so many Meditation means, like, what it meant 20 years ago, it's not what it means today. Right? It means something totally different. But being able to be with what is which is it's kind of saying what is that another way of saying instead of Tai Chi Moving to kind of be with what is because I think a lot of time even me, I'm an experienced meditator, I kind of lose track with what is like the what is I've made it something completely different in my head. But then when I slow it down, and the more you do that, like for me, it just becomes a reflex. I do it without feeling like I'm not. Yeah, very rarely do I go at least in my five minutes of meditation, either
Michael Burlace 29:57
I just kind of happen
Mark Hiddleson 30:01
Yeah, and I do have my five minutes and I have time in the morning and there's specific things that I do. But are there some specific forms? That you've learned that you'd share more about whether it was transcendental meditation or box breathing? Or do you have any forms that you like, or you'd like to share more about? Um
Michael Burlace 30:24
Well, I've tried some shamanic breathing practices, like Dragon's Breath, all that stuff. I haven't really, I haven't really done that. Much like the breathing techniques. That's not, I've more in like the mental aspect of it. So I've done stuff like I've astral projection before. That was cool. I'm big into that. I spent a lot of time researching and stuff around that. And you know, all that all that type of stuff. I love it all.
Mark Hiddleson 30:59
So have you ever been to a retreat, like a two day retreat or a three day retreat or class?
Michael Burlace 31:06
I've been to a one day retreat with a friend who practices shamanism. He's Uh, he's very cool. He's not, he's not my age. He's like, older, he's like, 40 something, but he's cool. I feel like when I feel his energy, it feels like someone my age. And I like people who seem youthful, throughout their entire life. But yeah, man like spiritualism has always been a big part for me. I found that way before I found an entrepreneur, being an entrepreneur. I feel like it's a bit that they're not two separate realms at all. Like to be an entrepreneur, you have to be spiritual, in some sense, believe in manifesting in some sense. And I think that's the most important thing. Yeah, yeah, that
Mark Hiddleson 32:05
is so awesome. And that's one of the reasons this podcast is called the Dow pizza and I never five, my daughter went to Oregon State. So a lot of people from Oregon State, we listen to the podcast and they go, man, it's so my daughter I listened to see five episodes is insane. One thing about pizza. Because it's kind of a Taoism, it's a spiritual philosophy. But it's something that I act kind of like you, I tried to have a lot of different things. But I got my master's degree. So it was like almost, you know, every three months, I was going to another retreat, learning a different technique in a different way. And then 20 years later, when I started this podcast, and I was kind of doing some more research, and with a lot of my practices, the way you know, going with the flow of nature, the concept of yin and yang, and that everything is just one thing, and you're right. It's not like well, I have my spiritual life over here. And that's what I do on Sunday. And then Monday through Friday, I'm still on racks. On the weekends, I played pickleball. It's not like it's all integrated. And so that's one of the reasons I call this like, wow, I've been practicing 1000 for 20 years, and I didn't even know that's what it's called, notes in harmony with nature, you know, a peace with yourself, stillness, you know, creating stillness and things like that. So that's dynamite. You said some things about meditation, and I don't think you see it a lot. The other thing about me I think you're kind of this way to a lot of people like well, what does the research say? Or what's the data or what's the thing for me? I just started trying this stuff out right? And you gotta just do it and see what happens after a week, what's after two weeks, what's after it and then I was just like, wow, this is different and you meet people. I've been to the shaman I'm in the retreats with Shawn. My wife bought me a surprise retreat there. It was like a three day retreat with a shaman and I was like, who do you surprise with? Like so what else about spirituality because I want to ask you about your investment to seem almost kind of crappy asking you about investments. Now you are. Yeah,
Michael Burlace 34:24
I love it, because it feels like it feels like I don't want to get prideful, but it feels like I am ahead of everyone else. I started at the same starting line, but at least a little bit. But what like, what the spiritualism thing. I think one of the greatest misconceptions people have with manifestation is they think it's just a thought you have and then a result that comes with it. It's not, it's more like, you kind of live as though you're already there. And then one day you look around and it is See like, right. So like, if I want to walk around, like I have a million bucks in my bank, I gotta walk around like, I got a million bucks in my bank, even if I don't. And then eventually, like, without even trying or noticing, it'll be there. Master Yoda from Star Wars. He said, There is no trying, there's only doing so, that's kind of what I live by.
Mark Hiddleson 35:22
Yeah. And I like to say you have to put the action in the law of attraction, right? Because manifesting is not just gonna act. You have to put the action in the Law of Attraction right? attraction has action is part of that last five letters, six letters of that. I didn't say I could count either. I just say. I love that. Michael, you're you are you are? Here, you got a head start. You had a great outlook on one
Michael Burlace 35:51
more things with that though. Spiritualism and entrepreneurship. A lot of what a lot of people don't realize also is that every word you speak is a spell. Right? Every word you speak casts a magic spell. And it shows you the universe will take what you say very literally. So you can't say I'm broke right now. I have no opportunities right now you can just say it just hasn't happened yet. It's in progress. Something along those lines you got to keep yourself in, in a state of always having never like saying that you don't have something.
Mark Hiddleson 36:30
Yeah, stated in the present, like I'm accessing. I'm learning to access wealth, or I've learned to generate wealth. You don't have to necessarily be wealthy to know how to generate wealth. It takes years and years and years to generate wealth yet to start. Yeah. And the things you say so words are spelled because words cast spells. That's a great kind of riddle. An idea. I mean, I'm always practicing. I learned this at a young age, we're probably your age 1820 Something was that. When I was in my 20s, problems became challenges. I was thinking about this the other day, and then in my 30s, challenges became opportunities. Alright, so now in our company, when something gets screwed up, and everything is messed up, and it's on fire, it's like, Okay, we have an opportunity.
Michael Burlace 37:21
Yeah, always jump into the positive side. In
Mark Hiddleson 37:26
because it's a human mind is kind of weird you focus on you'll see what you're, you're focused on. Like, if you're focused on the solution, you're gonna find solutions. If you focus on the problem, you're gonna find more problems, right? It's right. Yeah. So how good is that? Oh, the other thing that I've done some other research recently is that before we had the worldwide web, and everything was connected, everything. Business was the way that ideas got transferred. So I watched the special on Marco Polo, I was like Marco Polo, because my name is Mark eight-figure. Well, Marco Polo can go around the world, I could go around the world. But he went on, it was supposed to take nine years, but they went from like Venice, to the middle of China, I don't even know where but there was this guy named Kubelik. Calm. And he really liked Marco Polo and Marco Polo had been educated like a Venetian Italian, he knew about Catholicism and everything. And to like Colin was like Taoism and everything, whatever. They hadn't China and Confucianism. And so that's how cultures compared notes. And cool a column was like, bring me 70 priests from Catholicism, and Marco Polo took all those ideas back. But it took him nine years, I think it took him like 23 years, something to get from point A to point B, and back. But business has an impact. I think that's an important thing. I'm really spiritual about my business, like, Am I making the best contribution that I can with the skills that I have to make a contribution to make things better than they are now? Right? Right. So let's talk a little bit about how we're getting a little bit short on time. But let's talk a little bit about investments. What makes you passionate about investing? I think that's my younger kids, my kids are 2023 and 29. And they're like you they want to be in investment world so so what
Michael Burlace 39:34
I mean so there's a few things number one, it makes me feel like I'm I'm actively doing something even if my investments don't go well, that makes me feel better that I was actively doing something with with what I would my income instead of letting it sit and rot in a bank not getting interest or anything and I don't I don't view days linearly, I view each day as its own individual thing, entity I don't I forget about yesterday, I forget about tomorrow. And I think there's a lot of opportunity. Every day there's millionaires made every day, no matter where it's, no matter where it happens, or how you describe it, there's money flying all over the place, if you could just grab some of them, you're good. But there was one thing I learned that is just like, my favorite thing. I love learning the stock market and everything about it. Do
Mark Hiddleson 40:42
do you have any mentors? Who is teaching them? Or is it something you're kind of doing on your own? Your own homework, your own research?
Michael Burlace 40:50
Not personal mentors, more like online personalities that have dedicated their channel to teaching about that stuff?
Mark Hiddleson 41:00
And so you're investing your time, that's what you're doing with 330? That was when you were talking about working from nine to 330. When you own your own business? You're working at two o'clock in the morning, you were in the middle of the night? Not?
Michael Burlace 41:10
Nine to 330 is really one of my offices, I'm working every hour. Yeah.
Mark Hiddleson 41:16
So you're doing research? Are there any sectors or real estate? I guess the crypto question is kind of a separate question. But are there any particular sectors or anything that you're interested in?
Michael Burlace 41:30
Yeah, everything, everything is related, whether it be crypto stocks or real estate, they're all connected in some sense. Right now, I'm really interested in cybersecurity. I think that's one of the top things right now. So I'm really into cybersecurity stocks. Ai, also, cybersecurity and AI are probably the top two. So who's
Mark Hiddleson 41:55
the leader? Who's gonna get the most advantage of AI? wide adoption of AI? In your opinion? What is small right now? Video?
Michael Burlace 42:03
Yeah, I was about to say, I don't know if you've seen that NVIDIA kind of took over the market, it's almost there, their entire value, 2 trillion, it's almost surpassed the entire value of the Canadian government.
Mark Hiddleson 42:19
So the video is still a leader, it's still a good investment, even though like six months ago, people saying in the video is not a good investment because they've already maxed out, but I think they're up 30% Since then, or so. Yeah,
Michael Burlace 42:30
it could. It could be a good investment. And I'm not sure if you saw a few days ago, Bitcoin passed silver as the eighth largest currency in the world. Wow.
Mark Hiddleson 42:44
Are there any other crypto? So they're kind of the gold standard of crypto? Are there any other companies that look like Aetherium? Or, or I don't even know what they are? There's a theory I'm still a bit such but to me, they were one of the other? Yeah,
Michael Burlace 42:56
cerium is very good. But people are starting to like Aetherium, less and less, because of the fees that come with it, right? People don't want to pay 150 Aetherium or 150 bucks to transfer their coin into another coin. Right. So a lot. Another thing that's kind of becoming very prevalent is privacy transactions. A lot of people want private coins, so that they can have private transactions where it's not public to the whole internet. So that's another thing I've been looking into.
Mark Hiddleson 43:28
Because of blockchain technology, one of the things that makes Bitcoin possible is that all these things are transparent. That's how they're verified. And they're verified through multiple. So that's a great, great point. And anything else about the investing piece for us the last couple personal questions? Um,
Michael Burlace 43:50
honestly, you really just got to stay on top of it, like you're not going to patients is the number one killer of opportunity. Right? Like you, being impatient will kill your opportunities. You just gotta be patient. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 44:07
yeah, I've been in my life. I've done the thing that I chose, like I was studying investing in my late 20s. And I kind of got out of it, I just did the investment forget scenario. So you know, just been putting a percentage away every so often, and letting it out up over 2530 years, and putting in mutual funds of like different kinds of stuff. But it was kind of cool to think like what would have happened if I had invested $10,000 in Apple 20 years ago? Right? And it's not like we have it. So that's great. And you've said a lot of great things about investing. The other thing you said is that you have to start out, you have to start out by saving the money, not spending that money in the first place, which is a great ad, right. I
Michael Burlace 44:52
I know if I put it in my crypto portfolio, I'm not going to take it out. If it's in my checking, it's going to spend it
Mark Hiddleson 44:59
So you can just share what's in your crypto portfolio. Let's see what happens. Right? So Bitcoin in theory, I'm like, what? Who should we be looking at?
Michael Burlace 45:08
I don't I don't have any of those big ones. I don't have the capital for that. Okay, I feel like my returns are more, I have a better chance of returns using high leverage, as it positions on low cap. Low market cap coins. So right now I'm in a lot of AI projects. I can list a few out for you. Have you heard of an avalanche? A ba X? Aava? I
Mark Hiddleson 45:37
have not. I have not. I'm a total
Michael Burlace 45:41
no one's up. 12% today? Yeah, just a few. We're in the bull market right now. So things are everything. Everything's falling.
Mark Hiddleson 45:54
What do you like about that? One that separated? Because a lot of them, you know, or I don't know how he led like, what do you like about? Say it again? What is an avalanche?
Michael Burlace 46:03
Yeah, avalanche? I don't know. It's just, I don't know. I've been watching a bunch of crypto stuff. I've been watching crypto since like 2020. So the ones that I picked out back then I've kind of kept an eye on. And I don't know, they're just kind of fixated in my mind as stable products. Yeah.
Mark Hiddleson 46:28
Well, what are some of the other ones besides the avalanche?
Michael Burlace 46:31
Oh, um, well, there's countless coins on here. It really depends on the project. What projects are constantly changing. And there's constantly new demand in the market. So right now it's a lot of AI. So I got that AI, sushi swap. There's so many coins, we really just got to do so. What do you find? What
Mark Hiddleson 47:00
do you mean by project? And how does it integrate with AI? So many projects, each.
Michael Burlace 47:13
Each, each crypto coin, it's not. Each crypto represents its own project. So it's some group of people saying, Hey, this is what we're doing. This coin basically represents the value of what we're doing. So let's look at internet computers. The Internet computer is a basic idea to create a new kind of decentralized internet and global computing system with independent data systems all over the world are joining together to create an alternative, an alternative to iCloud services. Right? So this one would probably save your problem internet computer. It's down right now. But it's all time high is $630. And right now it's only at about 13. So I would call that a good investment.
Mark Hiddleson 48:05
Because you know, as the potential is so but you're looking to hold on to this for a while, right? Are you doing trading? Where do you see, well, something's up 30% I'm gonna get out of the get into something else. Are you looking for more long term buy and hold?
Michael Burlace 48:16
Well, with my capital right now, my main focus is to kind of catch what's happening at that moment. Long term. I could make money, but I'm going to miss out on all the little places in between. So I feel like that's what I'm focusing on right now. So you're more active. Yeah. But anything basically anything you choose right now, unless you are really bad at choosing it'll go up within the next year because the whole the whole market is going up.
Mark Hiddleson 48:49
Like you said it's the bull times little fears it goes up. Yeah. So what are some of the hobbies he did? We're kind of towards the end, I kind of want to get a little bit like we know about Michael, the investor, the entrepreneur, the spiritualist What do you do for what are your hobbies besides a Shawn retrievers dominance, which I love my
Michael Burlace 49:18
hobbies or I literally just go to the gym, and I think about how I'm going to be in a foreign country next year. So you love to travel? I love traveling.
Mark Hiddleson 49:32
You're a world traveler. Yeah.
Michael Burlace 49:37
I just hate being landlocked. I don't like the fact that I can say I can't go here because I don't have enough or I don't have enough time. Like freedom is the number one important thing to
Mark Hiddleson 49:52
Nice. So working out and travel a man after My heart Zuni and like surfing or snowboarding or
Michael Burlace 49:59
I wish I never learned how to surf. And I think I just live too far from the mountains. So I go snowboarding or anything like that. I was a skater up until I was around 15. But I just stopped getting better. So I stopped doing it. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 50:20
skating is one of those things. I have one of those electric scooters that you ride on, like the county can run. I bought one. I'm like, Man, this is so fun. But like, Man, if I ever crash, I'm probably gonna die.
Michael Burlace 50:30
It's gonna hurt bad like it. It's no joke. Those things are scary. Yeah,
Mark Hiddleson 50:36
It's dangerous. Like I remember like being I don't know, there was some age that I got where I started worrying about getting hurt. Yeah, there was I think it was 15. But 18 or something like that. 17. I'm like, wait a minute.
Michael Burlace 50:52
There's a good, like, 10 year span in your youth where you could just get her and bounce up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So
Mark Hiddleson 51:00
Now I'm in my 50s. And it gets, even though I'm mentally I'm manifesting healthy, live and fast recovery and good sleep. Manifesting 100% of the time. Michael, this has been awesome. I'm so glad we connected. What's the best place if somebody hears this and they want to use you guys for special inspections or anything else. Is the best way to stay in touch with you or reach out for services?
Michael Burlace 51:30
Well, you can reach out to me directly. My email is Michael@seizmicinc.com or Michael@smark.com. Or you could go to Seizmic website and find the contact information through there for anything related. Any other sectors of Seizmic.
Mark Hiddleson 51:51
Okay. Awesome. We'll do that. And we're obviously we're gonna start using it as soon as I heard that you were getting in the business. I'm not gonna say who Brand X Okay, we just found somebody out of the Yellow Pages. I still say yellow pages. I didn't go to yellow basil. But we Google, you know, but start using you guys. I'm going to recommend I have other dealer friends like hey, you know, Seizmic student Michaels running the show. But thanks for taking time out. I know you're busy. And thank you
Michael Burlace 52:19
for having me on.
Mark Hiddleson 52:20
Yeah, this has just been awesome. Cool. I'll see you. I'll see you around. I'll see you in June.
Michael Burlace 52:27
Yeah, see ya. I'm out. All right. Thank you. Take care.
Outro 52:32
Thanks for listening to the Tao of Pizza Podcast. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
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