Italian Roots and Genealogy
From Triggiano to St. Paul an Italian American Success Story
Every family has a story stitched into the fabric of America's diverse tapestry, but few recount it with the warmth and wisdom of Rock LaManna. As Rock takes us back to his childhood home in St. Paul, Minnesota, we're invited to the dinner table of an 11-child family, where faith and hard work aren't just values—they're the ingredients to a life well-lived. His tales of an Italian-Polish household reveal a microcosm of the immigrant experience, punctuated by his mother's entrepreneurial flair and his father's journey from newspaper seller to a successful businessman. The legacy of Rock's parents is a beacon for anyone seeking to marry tradition with innovation.
Transitioning from familial anecdotes to entrepreneurial insights, Rock shares the contours of his own business voyage. From the inception of his second company, he narrates the challenges that come with self-funding and the cultural ethos inherited from his father, Carlos. His emotional pilgrimage to Italy and an audience with the Pope marks a turning point, unveiling the true wealth of life beyond business success. It's an intimate look at the crossroads where personal values intersect with professional endeavors, offering a roadmap for entrepreneurs navigating their own paths.
Finally, our conversation ventures into the lessons Rock imparts through LaManna Consulting Group and his book, "They Named You Right." It's here that entrepreneurs can unearth 'Rocks Diamonds,' his Ten Commandments for business success, blending spiritual and strategic guidance. His planned journey to Japan, respect for Japanese craftsmanship, and the significance of having the right team underscore the importance of precision and intention in business and life. Connect with Rock to access a treasury of experience that promises to guide, inspire, and transform your entrepreneurial journey.
www.lamannacounsultinggroup.com
"They Named You Right"
Online tee shirts, hoodies and more for Italians
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Every family has a story stitched into the fabric of America's diverse tapestry, but few recount it with the warmth and wisdom of Rock LaManna. As Rock takes us back to his childhood home in St. Paul, Minnesota, we're invited to the dinner table of an 11-child family, where faith and hard work aren't just values—they're the ingredients to a life well-lived. His tales of an Italian-Polish household reveal a microcosm of the immigrant experience, punctuated by his mother's entrepreneurial flair and his father's journey from newspaper seller to a successful businessman. The legacy of Rock's parents is a beacon for anyone seeking to marry tradition with innovation.
Transitioning from familial anecdotes to entrepreneurial insights, Rock shares the contours of his own business voyage. From the inception of his second company, he narrates the challenges that come with self-funding and the cultural ethos inherited from his father, Carlos. His emotional pilgrimage to Italy and an audience with the Pope marks a turning point, unveiling the true wealth of life beyond business success. It's an intimate look at the crossroads where personal values intersect with professional endeavors, offering a roadmap for entrepreneurs navigating their own paths.
Finally, our conversation ventures into the lessons Rock imparts through LaManna Consulting Group and his book, "They Named You Right." It's here that entrepreneurs can unearth 'Rocks Diamonds,' his Ten Commandments for business success, blending spiritual and strategic guidance. His planned journey to Japan, respect for Japanese craftsmanship, and the significance of having the right team underscore the importance of precision and intention in business and life. Connect with Rock to access a treasury of experience that promises to guide, inspire, and transform your entrepreneurial journey.
www.lamannacounsultinggroup.com
"They Named You Right"
Online tee shirts, hoodies and more for Italians
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
It's Bob Sorrentino, from Italian Roots and Genealogy, and you can find this on YouTube, facebook and our blog. And also check out our great sponsors, your Dolce Vita, italy Voting and Abiettivo Casa. And today I think we're going to have a really, really fun interview with Rock Lamana, the founder, president and CEO of Lamana Consulting and also the author of a great book. I really, really enjoyed it. They named you right, so welcome, rock. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the invite, bob Truly appreciate it my pleasure, it's really my pleasure.
Speaker 1:So I want to talk about the book, but before we do that, let's talk a little bit about your family roots, where they're from, in Italy, and where they settled in America, where you grew up.
Speaker 2:All right, let's start with. I'm one of 11 children. I'm number five and my parents met as late teenagers in Chicago and I was born. I think it's number two through 11, we're born in St Paul, Minnesota. So I was raised in St Paul and also my 10 brothers and sisters there's eight boys and three girls at this point were all alive, including my father, at 98 years old, and life is good. I can't complain. I had a great childhood.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Yes, I could only imagine 11 brothers and sisters. What was that like? What?
Speaker 2:was it like? Well, the family my mother was a first generation Polish, 100% Polish, my father, 100% Italian, first generation and at that point in Chicago that was a mixed marriage that was not approved. My mother was the youngest of five, my father was number two of five, and so we were raised basically on faith, the faith and the loyalty and the dedication to my mother and my father, because they were poor. Both my parents were poor and they were raised soon after the depression. They were born in 26, my father and my mother in 1927. And we were raised with a work ethic. It was about faith, it was about family and Catholic schools all the way through. And of the eight boys, it was kind of crazy, but everybody had their own interests Guardinning, whatever education and so on. So when you've got that mix, the mix, and then you've got three sisters, that really run the show. That was the point, because my mother was a homemaker but she was very strong and, having a body of a Polish person and having 11 children, she felt guilty to tell the local priest that she couldn't have any more children. That's how crazy it was, because they would have had number 12. 12 was not born. So life was good. I mean, we had neighborhoods in South St Paul, minnesota. St Paul Minnesota, it was called Little Italy. At one time we moved from Little Italy in 1958, 59, moved to South St Paul and then that's when all the kids the rest of the children were born, and that would be four or five were born. So we just kept on seeing kids coming. It was normal. For us it was crazy.
Speaker 2:And my father was a hard worker. He had three jobs, he was a printer, we could go on and on, but we didn't see my father that often because he was always working and discipline was a big deal. Discipline was a big deal but when I look back and understand my parents, it was always about the family and the faith and God, of course. And another big one was food. Food was a big deal Because that's where, when you talk about breaking bread, that's what it was.
Speaker 2:And, to be honest, we went through shifts in food, because you can't just feed 11 kids with, you know, a one seeding. So I'll give you a short understanding of how our dinners went during the weekday, not on Sundays. Weekday Weekday was the first shift, would be the intellectuals, the second shift was their athletes and the third shift was my father and nobody wanted to sit with my father Because we knew we had tasks and you better do the tasks. And my mother would pick at the stove all the way through until my father came. And when my father came, which was six, seven o'clock at night, and then you know that was after the first shift, then there was a second and a third shift at the business, so we won't get into that right now and my mother would sit down and have her pastry and coffee, because by then she'd already eaten, you know.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. So now that she cooked Italian.
Speaker 2:Polish both? Yeah, that's a great question, because even though my mother was 100% Polish, spoke Polish, wrote Polish, read Polish and so on. Her parents were in Chicago, we were in Minnesota, okay, so there was that separation. So my mother was taught by my father's side, because they were all the Lamontas were in St Paul by them, all of them. They all followed my great uncle, tony, okay, and that's how we ended up in St Paul, because he was an entrepreneur. He had the local barbershop, he had the local billiards, he had the local saloon, he had the local. He cashed the checks whatever those are called cash exchange Because he was the railroad Chicago Milwaukee.
Speaker 2:He was the superintendent of the railroads that were being set along Little Italy. So we saw silo was going up, we saw railroads, we saw hard working guys and my mother would make Italian roast beef sandwiches and I would run down there at four or five years old selling them for a dollar, these homemade sandwiches for the workers. It was awesome. So my mother was an entrepreneur herself, okay, so life was good. So all our traditions were Italian, all of them. But we still respected the family. Okay, the dubials. My mother's side of the, the maiden name is Dubio and, as you could imagine, being half Polish, there were a lot of Polish jokes back in the day. Okay, as soon as Paul John the second came in, no more Polish jokes, and my mother was still proud of that. You know, finally a Polish.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can only imagine I could. I could bet and that's so funny about how you see it and and and shifts. You know my mom's family there were nine in her family and they were, they were really, really very poor. You know, they would get an orange at Christmas. That's how poor they were. But they had a little game that they would play where if you, if you left your fork I don't know if it was turned up or turned down, but if you left your fork in a certain way the other kids could steal your meat out of your dish. That's how poor they were. And so now Sunday. I guess Sunday was the big Italian meal with everybody together. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and then my parents could come over, my father's parents and then his side. They were all there. And then my mother had a sister in Minneapolis. She would come over with her husband and then we'd have a mix. But understand, st Paul and Minneapolis are completely different, different demographics. Okay, minneapolis is more upbeat, financial districts and so on. St Paul, blue collar, hardworking people. You know what I mean. And so for us to travel to Minneapolis was a big deal Like, oh my God, we're going to Duluth, you know what I mean. It was a huge distance.
Speaker 2:And so Sundays were basically my mother would iron our clothes. Of course we're always clean. That was my mother's whole thing, was the pride of the cleanliness of the kids, and it was all hand-me-down stuff. My mother was the original bag later for the Goodwill. Seriously, my father was the only one in the army, little sisters in the poor. Everything was a hand-me-down.
Speaker 2:Okay, because by the time I was number five and I always wanted the best, my mother would say, oh, you rocked your own, 20 at the best, but I had to work for the best. So I always knew I was always working. I mean, we were working. At nine years old, you know, my dad had a plant, we'd go there to work. We'd paper boys, the convenience stores, we would do anything you know what I mean To make a buck. And I would say, oh, my father, because that's what my father did when he was a kid. Okay, and I would say, oh, my father, because that's what my father did when he was a kid.
Speaker 2:Cleanliness, all piled in the car and we were fighting over who's going to get the seat in the window and all that. You know, typical, one station wagon. After a while my brother's are driving, they'd have a car. We all meet and I go to Mass and after Mass, go home. Big dinner, always some type of pasta lasagna, special events, huge, and people just be bringing in after a while.
Speaker 2:You know, dating girls they would be coming in and you know they were overwhelmed by the people because our house wasn't that big, it was just kept people in and out, in and out, and then after that, during football, you watch football, take a nap, play cards, a lot of cards downstairs and we gambled at a very young age. Okay, because that was really one of their expertise was playing cards. My grandfather and my father in Chicago, okay, so gambling was a big deal. So that was a Sunday. And then the women sweep the floor, do the dishes no dishwasher, no dishwasher. And we would just talk and play around, fight sometimes, but the boys always had to do the pots and the pots are always huge right downstairs. I mean, my brother would actually fight over who's going to clean them. Okay, I'm talking about Fiskus. You know it was crazy. You know you're doing it.
Speaker 2:No, you're doing it, you know, and after a while I realized, hey, these guys are bigger than me, you know. I mean. So that was a typical Sunday, you know, and then sleep, and then we'd have our events and then I played sports. So usually on the Sunday there was some type of a game or something like that, and family wouldn't attend. He wouldn't come. I don't, I think my father. I played high school, a youth school, college. I think my dad's been in two games in my whole life, you know, I mean because he was busy working. You know my mother couldn't come, she didn't drive. My mother never drove, never had a driver's license.
Speaker 1:So now you. There's one story in the beginning of the book that I had never heard this before. That I found fascinating, and I guess it was your grandfather. When he came, he had a new suit and you said you know, wrap it up and tie it with string and they would send the suit back for somebody else. Yes, I had never heard that before.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic and that was basically told to me more than once. And and that's one of the reasons why I wrote the book is what motivated me was we got to put these stories. They got to carry on, you know, and my dad is still alive, my mother passed away and that's what really motivated me in 1994. I said you know what I got to do this? You know there's so many stories, so the story of the wrapping of the suit and so on, they would just keep passing it on, the Lamanas would keep passing it on, then the cousins, and if you're, if you're larger than five foot five, you're not going to fit those suits. So everybody was, you know, way less than six foot, you know. I mean five nine was. You know that was big back in those days.
Speaker 1:No, no, I know I'm. I'm in my father's family. I know I'm not the tallest. I'm not the tallest boy because my, my aunt's husband was, was tall. He was a big man. He was probably about six foot from. He was from Capri. But, yeah, my father's family is small. My aunts were like, you know, four or 11, five foot, something like that, you know. And, yeah, like I said, I had never, I had never heard that. You know sending things back and and so what you know, when I first saw your name rock, I thought for sure, rock. Oh, but that's what your name is, rock, right?
Speaker 2:So why?
Speaker 1:don't you give us a little insight into that?
Speaker 2:Well, my father's father, my grandfather, then Genzo, but when he came to Ellis Island he didn't understand, he couldn't read, he couldn't write. They announced it to the entry, take the intake, and they just put it down with Jimmy. So that's where he went by, james, and he had a brother, an older brother, named Rockwell, and in our family, the first, the first five, are named after all Italian relatives. So we got James, constance, my grandparents, my father's parents, then Anthony was my dad's mentor and favorite uncle, anthony. And then there's Peter, the first born, my dad's brother, and Piatro is a relative in Italy, in the bar Richard John, where you Okay, that's where we're from and Rockwell. So my story is they didn't want to name me Rockwell and it was March.
Speaker 2:I was born March 2nd, it was snowing and my mother went to the St Paul Church called Assumption, which is still there. It's over 100 years old. I still attend Assumption when I'm in St Paul and the priest was Polish and the priest, you know, is kind of hurrying it up. It's a baptism, march 28. I know my birth date and my baptism in March 28. And the story goes that my mother, my father, wasn't there and he was an attending. Word is. He was gambling, making money for the family, and the God parents were there, and so on. And what is the name of the baby? Rock John LaMonna. No, that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. Rock Cuxin was very popular back in the 50s Big time. And the priest said no, you're not going to. Well, yeah, I got my mother started crying and the priest said okay, let it go. Rock John LaMonna, that's what I need. And I do have a photo of Rockle that my grandmother gave me on a pin in the book. I still have it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great, that's wonderful, that's, that's really, that's really good. And you know earlier, when you mentioned about, you know the Italians and Marianne Italians. And you know my, my mom's family, everybody married Italian, except for my youngest uncle who married. She was Scottish, but by that time, I guess you know, he was the ninth, he was the baby. You know, probably nobody cared anymore by that time.
Speaker 2:It was a big deal. It was a big deal back in those days, and what's ironic is they lost the first five babies due to disease. And then so my uncle Pete, he married Polish, my dad married Polish, my auntie married Mexican, anti-Marian, anti-antianomaniac, we don't know his background, I think it was Slavic or something like that. And then Uncle Nick, same situation it was. We didn't realize it, we know it wasn't Italian and you know you go a little you go into it a little bit in the book.
Speaker 1:But basically you know your father worked his way up from just you know nothing really to having a big business. And I was shocked about the whole 3M thing because you know 3M is a huge company and you don't realize. You know the tentacles, how the tentacles reach out in these companies. You know Yep.
Speaker 2:Well, my father had a high school education and in those days it was more of a trade school, okay, technical school, and he wanted to be a printer Because when he was a kid he would be downtown peddling newspapers and he told the stories that he ran into Orson Wells, frank Sinatra, and he would sell the newspapers to these guys for pennies you know, dying nickel and my father always had pennies in his pocket and he would go home and give the money to my grandmother. That was it. So bottom line is he always was amazed by printing presses. So when he went to Wash I think it was Washburn, it's in the book I had to talk to him about the details and the facts, the school and, um, there was a printing letterpress technical courses. So one of his first jobs after the service or prior to serving in World War II boot camp, he was working as like an intern at a printing operation which was I think he said it was the Tribune or something like that, the Chicago Tribune. So he was impressed with that. So when he came back from the service, married my mother. I got to get out of here, get out of Chicago. I got to find something to better myself.
Speaker 2:He got a job after two years of not having a full-time job, just doing gigs in Little Litley for my uncle in a way, and he went to unemployment. By then he had two babies my brother, jim, and my sister went down to unemployment and they said Carlos my father's name is Carlos. There's three opportunities here. Number one MTC, the local bus you remember DeNiro in that movie, the Bronx, that's my dad, could have been my dad. Number two was US Postal Service, a mailman, and both jobs were reasonably paid, okay. The third one was a letter press pressman in a local Singapore company called Vomella Company. The gentleman's name was Jack Vomella, who was a check, and my dad got the job the lowest paid job there was okay of the three. So he never knew what was gonna happen. So every year that social worker would call my father and say you wanna go? There's better opportunities, the pay's better, and my dad's got kid after kid, 14, 15, two years at the most, children after child.
Speaker 2:And my dad just roughed it out and what he saw was hey, here's an opportunity for me. I love what I do, I like the people. I have chemistry with Mr Vomella. He was an entrepreneur and he stuck it out and that's what happened. So my father eventually bought into business through sweat equity and Mr Vomella had two other partners prior to or during this time. My father was just an employee, but my father had a check from each one of those guys because in the same building the processes were all different, so they each owned an equity position of each one and he just collaborated and merged it and then guess what happened A breakup of the three who got involved the wives, who's working more, who's drinking, who's not drinking, who's committed, who's making something happen.
Speaker 2:So they broke it up and Mr Vomella left those two other guys. They all started up in the same building and they all started up in the same building and they left those two other guys. They all started up their own businesses. My dad, my dad had to go make a decision because they all three of them wanted my dad to go with them and his choice was Mr Vomella, jack Vomella, and they became the best team because my dad was the worker, jack was a sales marketing guy and he brought back the orders and my dad would kick ass, and it was a Christmas sales in Taz.
Speaker 2:Today, when you go into K-Bar or Staples or whatever, you see these little, a lot of them don't have flock or glitter, but back then, glitter, flock. My dad would come home drenched with these materials, his fabrics. My mother would go nuts because he didn't shower right away you see what I mean Before he had dinner. That's how we would see my father, always in the T-shirt. He would roll up his hat in a newspaper. You know what I mean. He had this habit of doing that. He had a cigar in his mouth, but he never smoked it, he chewed it. My dad's about at that time, 5'11", 1.75" and in shape because he had three floors, the buildings were three. He wouldn't take the elevator, he'd run up the stairs and I'd gotten a habit of taking three steps, two steps at a time, and that's just kept you in shape. You know what I mean. And so my dad, eventually Mr Vomela, said and it's all in the book. As you know, karlo, this is going to be tough. I'll bring in the building, I'll bring in the hard assets, you do the work in exchange for 20%, but you're going to pay me for the 20% when you get it. So this is in split equity it was. You paid him back at 20%.
Speaker 2:Then in 1959, 3am knocked on the door. We got an idea and my dad knew how to execute that idea and that went on for 40 years. Innovation 3am was about six miles away from our home base of St Paul. We didn't even have a sign in the front because my dad didn't want anybody to know our trade secrets. 3am would come down. There was no non-disclosure, there was none of that stuff. They would come down. Talk to my father, karlo, trust him. They supplied all the sales, they supplied all the raw materials. We supplied the brains and Jack would take these guys out fishing, hunting, entertaining and my dad's doing the work because he knew how beneficial it was. And so that went on for almost 40 years. Then it went on about how my father ended up acquiring the other 80% and that was a sweet deal too by Mr Vomela, and Mr Vomela basically became like a father to my dad. He trusted him. They had chemistry, they had integrity, and that's what 3am taught us Ethics, integrity. Those are the things that you can't teach people, you know.
Speaker 1:And well, and I think the great thing about the book because you know this, this doesn't happen anymore, I don't think, or very rarely happens is that it was more than the business that was, it was a family. Everybody was treated as an equal and you know your father was smart in a sense that, and that's what you know. I worked in the banking business for 40-something years and I always try to. You know like you can't treat everybody the same, but you have to treat them fair and you know I think we're losing that in these big corporations. But I think it was great that you know the holidays there was the turkey, there was the ham, there was the chocolates, that kind of stuff, and I don't think in today's environment people realize that's. The key to success is keeping your employees happy, you know.
Speaker 2:Well what it taught me? Because I was surrounded by my father. I reported to my father, 21 years old. Okay, I went and don't forget, my four brothers and sisters all went through the business before I came through. But he saw something in me and what he saw in me was I wanted it. I wanted to be a businessman Because I couldn't be an athlete. I didn't have the five-star abilities and the skills, but one thing I had was drive. I had ambition. I knew what I wanted, you know, and my father taught me about, like you were saying, treating people right. His words were always the people come first, always, always. We had a pension. We had a pension back in the 70s and we were making a ton of money, okay, and three of them knew it because eventually they ended up doing what we were doing. You know, he saw that in the book or he read that in the book. But the bottom line was, I think, what I really carried on to the next generation and I've had seven businesses since 1975. I've started up seven different businesses. I bought, sold, grew, spun off. All that All based on my father's knowledge of integrity doing the right thing. That's the bottom line. Just do the right thing. Don't lie to him.
Speaker 2:I see it all the time. I see it all the time and that's when I withdraw from deals because uh-oh, I see trouble. I see trouble and I got the Chicago instincts. You know what I mean, and a lot of it has to do with your culture, your heritage. I mean seriously. You got to look back in the past of people who have brought up and a lot of my clients. I'll go back through the childhood and say listen, did you ever play sports? Nah, I didn't play sports. See, that told me they weren't team players. You see what I mean? I didn't have the skill set and my father used to tease my buddies that are all my dad's age and say you know, rock really wasn't that good of a player, but he was a hell of a coach. You know why it was a team player.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and I think it goes even deeper than that. I think it goes back, you know and I interviewed somebody who kind of focuses on this it's even, I think, ingrained in our DNA. Some of this, just like our eye color and our hair color and, you know, getting bald and all of that kind of stuff. I think there's something you know. There's a gene out there someplace that you got from your father that maybe your brother's and sister's didn't get, you know.
Speaker 2:Let's not get into that. I won a long time ago.
Speaker 1:If there's winners and losers, I would say I'm the winner, oh you look at it like I think there's something inherent in that, you know, oh yeah, oh, no doubt about it because there's 11 of us and I would say there's only two that are really entrepreneurial OK, and they're both boys OK.
Speaker 2:And I look at myself. I don't look like my father at all. I'm my mother and I'm proud of that. I was proud to be a Paul. You know what I mean Because my mom was a hard worker man and, by the way, my mother was very gregarious, she was the salesperson. My dad is very low key, very few words, and later on we realized, holy dad married, right, man, you know what I mean. Yeah, there's not many bushes, and what we learned was grandmother, grandma, and in Polish it was what we heard. But later on we heard it was closer to more than Russian, because back in those days Poland was way up towards Russia and it was probably a Russian saying. You know what I mean. It's just there's different ways of going about it. But the bottom line was my parents. I quote my dad every day. I quote my uncle Frank every day, who's a very similar Italian out of Chicago.
Speaker 2:Tough the streets. See, I'm formally educated, but I got a lot of experience and I got the streets too. You see what I mean. So I got a great. I got great intuition about when to keep going. Plus, as I age, I realized I don't need this. Or you know what? This is a great opportunity for someone else, you know, and I'm going to help the youngsters and that's why I'm so proud of my kids, because I actually installed a lot of my discipline and views of my father. And there's no hanky-panky with my father. It's always business, always business, always business, you know. So I learned a lot, I learned a lot and I'm proud of my life.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's a perfect segue into, you know, towards the end of the book, where you kind of had an epiphany and I liked the way you said it was. You know everybody was telling you, hey, you need to take a vacation. But it was kind of like, all right, we need to get rid of this guy for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, I was all about, you know, micromanagement and all this other stuff, because it was all me. This is the second company you call it Dance Converting Technologies, and it was Hoth, because when I sold Vomella, you were a banker. I had no friends and my father said that to me. He goes, you know, rick, go see who your friends are. Without the brick and mortar, remember, you don't need a banker. Where's your assets? It was all cash.
Speaker 2:I was turned down so many times with my strategic plan, my pitch. I ended up doing 100% my own self-funding, just like the book. I realized, listen, who's going to bet on me? I got to bet on you, you see. And who came first? In my company? I instilled the same culture that I had with my father into the new company and it got to the point, bob, that it got so big, to the point where I'm like I'm going to kill myself with a heart attack. You know what I mean? I had I was at work a holocaust. I was at work, a holocaust, and you know it was out of control. I was out of control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's when you made the first trip to Italy, right, and you came back and changed, right.
Speaker 2:I realized that's it. I'm going to sell the business, I'm going to sell the business, and it took me 90 days or less to sell the business. I had three targets. I went to all three and the company that bought my business over lunch because that's when I can do this with the right people right A handshake and I cut the deal. I stuck to it. It was growing at the same time, so it was like perfect timing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and but was it? Was it the trip to Italy and, and you know, going back to the, to the hometown and such? Or was it the meeting with the Pope? What do you think moved you that way?
Speaker 2:Well, there is a combination, because going there to Italy, as I mentioned in the book, I did everything first class we were. We were accustomed to, our family was accustomed to. God comes first, foundations come first, charities come first, the people come first. See, that's what I got, and my mother and father. What I really learned from my mother is my parents when they were rolling up 11 kids. I asked my mother Mom, why do you have 11 kids? Because she originally wanted to be a nun. Okay, she wanted to be a nun. There were a lot of deep faith on their side on the Polish side and the Italian side and my mother convinced my father that, listen, we don't know how we're going to get through this. So we got to make a covenant with God and my dad is living that to this day. Which means the foundations of Carlo and Virginia Lamana, their assets, which are millions, are going to their children's and their grandkids.
Speaker 2:The kids forget about it. You know why. We should have known. We should have been motivated. You're fine.
Speaker 2:You always worry about your kids, right? You always worry about your kids. Like me, I've got three kids. I worry about them. Guess what? They're all established, they're all professionals, they're all.
Speaker 2:That next level of what life is about is getting bigger, better and faster. Might not be the answer, and that's when I realized that I was underestimating the good in me. When I went to Italy Because I didn't need this, my father, he said, rock, you need this like you need a hole in the head, you know. But I just got that drive and competitive to be the best, whatever it was, because I was in a way, an underdog. I always looked at myself as the underdog, from high school, from grade school, all the way up. And then when I went to Italy, it was like you know what I could die over here or whatever it is. But that break to see the Pope came out of nowhere. That was not planned. And so Mimo, as you know, our personal friend and guide who brought around Sam usual Papa Bush, he was very involved with being a personal guide to royalty.
Speaker 2:Well, we got into. How did the Le Manas get in there? See what I'm saying? Yeah. So once I realized that you know what Money doesn't matter, I'm going crazy and I got good people running the business. So my whole thing is now is about vision and my vision. I got to have the right team to execute, because you could have the best vision in the world, but if you can't execute, it's over. You see what I mean? Yeah, so it was a multiple of things.
Speaker 2:As you know, I saw my, my grandfather's home. I went to his church I would tell my cousins and I just saw the way Italy was and I'm like, wow, this is unbelievable. And I wear Italian clothes, I eat Italian food. You know what I mean, but nothing's like Italy.
Speaker 1:You know no, no.
Speaker 2:And I got the best education by doing the right thing, by picking the right people and having the right, let's just say, influential mentors in my life that realize that you know what. It's not about wealth, it's not about this, it's not about that. You know what I mean. And so that's kind of when I realized, you know what? I don't need advanced conversion anymore, I don't need this. My kids were all out of college at that time and so I thought, oh, I did my job. What's next? I've done this, I've done that, and that's the one. And that's when I made that move. And you know what's ironic that company that just bought me out just sold. That family business, just sold to private equity last year. I am so proud of the companies that I sold grew after 30 years, after 40 years, why I had the vision and the executing, because that's what that next step is. You know, as a banker, you could be a visionary and so on, but if you don't get the right people to grow, it it's over. You see, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and you know, at the end of my book you could bank on it I have the what I call the 60 second MBA. I have 10 points. You have rocks, diamonds. So you know, for people in their late 20s, early 30s, if you were going to give them three pieces of advice out of those diamonds, what would you tell them?
Speaker 2:Just so you're aware, I had a fantastic writer, ghost writer that put this together. Okay, I had the right team and you're going to laugh at this. It wasn't set up this way. The ghost writers are telling him His wife's the tone, so she would read and critic, criticize it, right, and everything we did was they can relate and I would cry after what he wrote. Okay, and laugh and so on.
Speaker 2:So rocks, diamonds came out of the 10 commandments. We were raised on the 10 commandments, my mother would. The guilt, we all asked her the guilt, all that stuff was the 10 commandments. We went to confession, we went to this. We did that. You know all the sacraments. All our kids are baptized per se and everything has changed now, as you know. But the 10 commandments are rocks, diamonds. I couldn't give you three because they're all part of it. Okay, here's a good one.
Speaker 2:Always have a backdoor plan. Always realize strategically, there's always a consequence. Whatever decision you make, there's a consequence. A lot of people don't realize that and it's okay not to make a decision. It's okay to make a decision, good or bad. But guess what, the day after the day it's over, you move on.
Speaker 2:Okay, here's another one that my father just brought up to me recently the bottom line you want to die happy. Now, what the hell does that mean? It means the way my mom died and I'll give you an understanding of what my dad, my mom, how she passed away. No diseases. My first body gave up. My mother and father were in an independent living not assisted living, independent living in Minnesota. A two-two, two bedrooms, two baths. The nurses came in and said parallel it's time to say goodbye to Virginia. My sisters were there, everybody's crying. My dad came in. We have photos of this. My dad kissed my mother goodbye, see in heaven, and she was happy to go. It was time and that's another word that my dad uses, especially now. I might as well give you this one here for the top three or a few of them. Don't be afraid to say I got this even when you don't, because you could be crazy. Man, you don't know what's going on. You don't know if you're going to wake up the next day. You know what.
Speaker 2:I mean, and if you just do the right thing, you're not going to worry about it. My dad's 98. He still questions me every Thursday when I take him off for a break. He says why does God want me here? I said, dad, that's your purpose. That's your purpose to keep the family united, to do what you have to do. You're not done. Well, I want to be with my wife. I said, dad, dad will come, but this is God's plan.
Speaker 2:But being not sick, no dementia, having your intellect, having your mind, having your physical skill set. And he still got willpower. I can't believe it. He is still going like this. He treats the like I'm 12. You know he's like hey, right, right, you know what I mean, but it's OK. We play cribbage every Sunday. He's always trying to squeeze another pointer to you know what I mean, dad? No, 52, 54, and a run is 12. No, that's not the way. That's a 20. No, it's not that, it's a 16. And then I got to go AI, then I got to go Google, and then he'll do it. He's got an iPhone. He knows how to use an iPhone. Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. No walker, no walker Still driving, not with me.
Speaker 2:So what do you call it? Cane Don't even know how to say it. You got another cane, liz, alone here in Florida, three months out of here, goes back to Minnesota, showers himself, does everything himself and he likes cologne. I said, dad, don't worry, you look good, you smell good, but it's OK.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's fantastic. This is what I'm saying. That's so great.
Speaker 2:How can I not say my life is great? I mean come on.
Speaker 1:Well, like you said, there's a purpose. I'm a firm believer, especially with all this genealogy stuff and everything. Nothing happens by accident. People find their relatives in the weirdest places, in the weirdest ways, to get inspired by different ways, and I don't know what to call it. But there's something else out there driving things, I think, especially when it comes to that.
Speaker 2:Just so you're aware, I've been to Italy, I believe, five times now. Ok, every time I go, and I'm going to be honest with you. We were brought up, our family was out in the south. Yeah, ok, we get it, we get it. But I'll tell you, when I launched the book, I went to Milan, up to the Romanites and so on. Unbelievably beautiful. I mean Italy, all of Italy is like all different areas, environment and so on. It's just so beautiful. The people are awesome. I can't say enough about Italy, but I've hit every part of my bucket list until this year. I'm going to April. I'm going to Japan, first time.
Speaker 2:And what influenced me about Japan was Oppenheimer, the movie. It brought back my mind in the 80s with 3M and the automotive industry, and the Japanese would come through our plant and I was so respectful and so on, and I said you know what they're all about technology? They're about precision and talk about innovation and in my world, which is signage and graphics and printing, it's like, wow, I got to check this out. So what's next? I don't know. God's got the plan, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it becomes clear when it becomes clear, I suppose. So, before we go, where can people find the book and where can they find LaMonna Consulting?
Speaker 2:OK, we've got a few. Just look under Rock LaMonna, r-o-c-k, l-a, m-a-n-n-a, or just put Rock LaMonna and Google me and you'll see multiple basically prioritized and put everything under one brand, which is my name. In the meantime, the company is called LaMonna Consulting Group. And what do I do there? I basically work with private equity and entrepreneurs and I do matchmaking and a lot of it is therapeutic. It's like I'm a priest, rabbi and a therapist all wrapped up in the one. Ok, you know, as a banker, that's true. The book has its own website. It's called. They Named you Right and you know how I got that name right. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:But let's say let's make people buy the book. Yeah, that's why you said we're not going to give it up.
Speaker 2:The book is actually named something different at first and I said, no, this is it. Because the more you get into the book, the more you realize it evolves and evolves and that's how the Ten Commandments, or Rocks Diamonds, came out, you see, and it's really going well. So Rock LaMonna, the Named you Right, is another website and LinkedIn big rocklamonnacom. I'm on YouTube and I got a lot of shorts on there and I got some podcasts and so on, like yours, hopefully here soon, and that's it.
Speaker 1:Super, super Well, that's great. I really appreciate you taking the time. It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel honored and you know how we got together through Dan Demet right.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And Dan, and not only that, he supplied a lot of the photos and the facts and the dates and all that. So he was huge on this. So it's actually going really well. It's really set up for entrepreneurs and people that are looking for to really understand how tough it is to be an entrepreneur and how much you suffer to get and maybe it's not worth doing it. You see what I mean. I try to convince people. Hey, listen, this is what you need to do, you know, and it's a tough thing to do because a lot of people suffer. A lot of my family members suffer because of my drives, you know, but I got to the end zone.
Speaker 1:So that's it, and now that's the important thing.
